#and I helped her (an easy fix. she is /not/ good at logic structures. always goes for OR when she needs AND and vice versa)

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: May 10

"The Ghosts of Beverly Drive” by Death Cab for Cutie

[oliviayamaoka]

The Distraction Continuation (Ghostface / Jed Olsen / Danny Johnson x Reader)

As requested, this is a continuation of the Distraction fic I made. Check out the first fic if you haven’t already. Enjoy! :)

You sighed deeply as you crossed your arms, shutting your eyes in slight annoyance at what was to come. Another trial. You hadn’t been in one for a while but your break was rather short-lived. There were three others that stood by your side. Ace Visconti, David King, and Yui Kimura. You respected them and actually enjoyed their company. Ace was funny, David taught you a couple of things, and Yui was always nice to you, encouraging you.

“Where do you think we’ll go this time?” Yui asked you, nudging your elbow with her own. You instantly lit up. Human interaction was comforting.

“Haven’t been to Hawkins or Glenvale in a bit.” Y/N replied with a slight shrug.

“My bet is the asylum.” Ace interrupted, pointing finger guns with that stupid smirk of his. Yui rolled her eyes, she didn’t seem to like Ace very much. Not since he flirted with her one time, even if it was jokingly.

“We might actually be there if Ace himself says so.” David said as the familiar gust of air surrounded the four of you.

You shut your eyes tightly, getting chills from the cold fog and air. The smell of fire and spring overcame you. Y/N opened their eyes, realizing that Ace’s bet was right. As always. A small laugh escaped your lips, a feeling of enjoyment before all hell could break loose again. 

Your gaze averted to the familiar structure of the Crotus Prenn Asylum. A sound played in your head, the screech of the Nurse. You were always curious about her but never got the chance to even talk to her unlike... no, it was one time. You weren’t gonna go around and try talk to killers like you did with him.

You put your palm to your forehead, cringing at the memory. Not in a bad way but maybe you could’ve done something differently. No, not really. Jed was a psychopath, a murderer. He was charming in a fucked up sort of way. You sighed as you walked towards a generator behind the grey brick walls.

There wasn’t any indication that it was the Pig or Freddy, thankfully. You began to work on the generator. Your thoughts turned to the fear of being hooked, stabbed, and hurt. You shuddered at the thought of it, the feeling of the hook would probably never leave you. Death was forever here, unfortunately. Elodie and Felix’s conversation had given you hope, maybe there was a way out of here.

“Shit.” You mumble as you shielded your eyes from the small explosion. 

Y/N huffed. You felt slightly disappointed in yourself and began again. Your head perked up as you heard stomping. It wasn’t loud enough to be the Oni or Trapper.

You kept a head on the generator as you noticed a dark figure stomping towards you. You needed a moment to process the situation. It was Ghostface? Oh shit, it was him, you thought. Flashbacks of your last encounter played in your head, he was definitely pissed off and you couldn’t blame it at this point.

“Don’t fucking try it.” He muttered in reference to you breaking into a sprint.

You felt panic wash over you as you quickly observed your surroundings. There weren’t any nearby pallets or vaults, it was a random open area near a hill with a chest and hook. Perfect, just perfect. Ghostface was quicker than usual, he grabbed you by the waist aggressively to tackle you down.

Ghostface held a knife to the back of your head once you hit the ground. You grunted as he put down all his weight onto you and assured that you wouldn’t be able to escape. The ground felt so uncomfortable, especially against your face. There was a few moments of you struggling beneath him to escape but it became no use. You stopped struggling after he pressed the blade against your skin.

“Didn’t bring a toolbox this time, Y/N?” He asked mockingly, pressing his gloved finger over the small slit. You winced at the stinging sensation but it was nothing you couldn’t handle.

“You know how to hold a grudge, Jed.” You replied. You were utterly terrified yet you always felt the need to reply to his stupid remarks.

“Indeed I do.” He replied, grabbing you and making you stand up. He held the knife to your back and pressed it slightly.

Ghostface was actually angry. He didn’t seem to mind actually hurting you or pressing the knife into your skin. You gasped at the painful sensation as he looked around, he saw the killer shack. He held a tight grip on your shoulder as he forced you to walk that way.

You instantly knew where he wanted to go. You just hoped the basement wasn’t there. Of course, you had known that this day would eventually come. But, why now? It was such awful timing, especially with the blue mood you had. Once the two of you reached the shack, he shoved you onto the ground aggressively.

“You’re pathetic... talking and talking last time we met. Now, you’re just a shitty excuse for a survivor.” He said to you. You scoffed.

“If it helps, Jed, I’m sorry.” Y/N replied. Your hand reached to the back of your neck where he had cut you. There wasn’t much blood but it still hurt. You stared at your bloodied fingertips as the man got more infuriated.

“You don’t get to call me that. And why the fuck are you apologizing?” He questioned you. His tone was venomous, this terrified you but him killing you was inevitable and well... you wanted to see him, anyways.

“If you didn’t care, you’d have hooked me now. I must’ve really hurt your feelings, huh?” You said, half-jokingly but you were also genuine.

“I don’t care.” He replied to you almost instantly. You knew that was a lie.

“Then why won’t you hook me? You could’ve slashed my back open but instead you pinned me to the ground... weirdo.” You mumbled.

He fell silent for a second. Ghostface was a bit baffled by you. Why weren’t you begging for your life? The version he remembered of you was different, or maybe he killed too many survivors that would beg. Not only that but he planned this out thoroughly. He was practically counting on you to scream and beg for your life. Ghostface had even made an offering for this realm because he researched it extensively, as he did with most of his previous murders.

Despite what he may have thought, Y/N was absolutely terrified. However, there was a strange feeling of attraction to him. Not necessarily a crush just yet but there was also a rivalry in which you felt comfortable talking to him. He felt like a real person. Well, of course he was a real person but you had no trouble making shitty remarks to him.

“I want this to last because you were being a little bitch last time. I’ve been dying to slice you open and make you regret that stupid little stunt you pulled.” He said to you.

You sat up, bringing one knee to your chest casually. There was a feeling of bravery that washed over you like last time. Y/N sighed deeply and looked around the shack. It was a basic shake. No totem, no gen.

“Yeah, sure... then do it.” You said to him.

“You’re not making this any easier.” He replied, more annoyed with you.

“Nothing you do is gonna make me regret what I did. Even if you do kill me and make me suffer, I’m still gonna come back alive. I’ve been puked on, trapped, and even had some weird ass trap put onto my head.” You said, standing up and pointing your finger to his chest.

“But you, Danny, only have a knife. I know the Legion or whatever their names are can use that better than you. You’re just a weirdo with a mask.” Y/N finished.

Ghostface seemed rather stunned, yet offended. Mainly because he couldn’t doubt anything you said. It became known that the Legion studied the human anatomy extensively, more than Danny ever cared to do. His area of expertise was stalking and memorizing a person’s schedule. But still. his ego was always bigger than any logic. The cloaked man grabbed your wrist. He oddly didn’t grab it too tight, he lifted your arm over your head.

“And what does that make you? I’m still better than you to some degree. You’re trapped here because the Entity thinks you deserve it and I get to kill anybody I desire.” He said, the tip of his blade poking your stomach.

“I guess we’re both shitty people.” You shrugged as his grip somewhat loosened. He sighed deeply before throwing you towards the generator.

“I had hoped killing you would be satisfying.” He muttered, bitter that your reaction wasn’t what he imagined. You fixed your shirt slightly and leaned against the generator. A part of slowly began to accept the growing crush you developed on the strange murderer, you didn’t care at this point since you were damned to an eternity of trials. 

“It probably would’ve been if you weren’t so easy to talk to.” You said to him as he snapped his head towards you, confused for a moment. Easy to talk to? He scoffed in response.

“Easy? You’re the fucking weirdo here.” He said, with a bit of a defeated tone.

“You’re no ladykiller, Danny, but... I’m charmed. I guess it’s something killers like you do though.” You said to him.

“I don’t charm or seduce people. I watch them.” He corrected you.

“Explains a lot.” You said, looking at your nails. Ghostface was quick to give into his ego and crossed his arms in a very stubborn manner.

“Actually, I did. As Jed Olsen, anyways. People were so trusting of him and neglected to suspect the new guy in town. It made it easy to watch people and I had a lot of excuses to spend hours doing so.” He said to you.

“Jed sounds nice.” Y/N shrugged.

“Well, Jed isn’t real, babe. He’s a shitty facade of what people like in a person. Made it so much easier for myself.” Ghostface said.

“Okay then,.. what did you do? As a career?” You asked him.

“I was a journalist and wrote for the Roseville Gazette. They made me cover my own killings and I did a good job doing so. Nobody could really understand my work though, no matter how much I tried to when I was Jed.” He said, a proud tone in his voice as he spoke. You were weirded out and cautious but you wanted to try and understand him.

“So, is that why you do it? For art?” You asked him as his head perked.

“That’s exactly why! There’s something very beautiful about the redness unique to somebody pouring out of them, even mixing with others. Not only that but just toying around and seeing how loud one can scream. Each scream is so unique and different. And just like art, you can fix your mistakes if it isn’t done right.” He explained, he seemed more relaxed. 

“Fix? But wouldn’t they be dead?” You asked him, genuinely confused. 

“You have to be an expert craftsman to fix it. A scream is a delicacy, something I choose not to indulge myself in often. Y’know, don’t want anybody hearing what goes on. When I do want to hear the screaming, it’s usually when my target has piqued my interest or mildly annoyed me. It feels rewarding after going through all the effort to memorize their lifestyle.” He said.

“A weird but cool way of looking at it, I suppose.” Y/N said. 

You didn’t really care about morality at this point. Such things as the Entity exist, anyways, You weren’t sure what you did to deserve being stranded here. Even if you did have a weird romantic interest in him, so what? Why would the Entity care? Why would any Gods care? And even then, you seemed to have an interest in his hobby. Blood and killing didn’t faze you anymore.

“You think so?” He asked you. 

“Depends on the person, I guess. I’d only do it to bad people.” You said.

“But, you’d do what I do?” He asked you.

“Yeah...?” You responded. Danny seemed a bit giddy.

“How would you do it?” Ghostface asked, he seemed way too excited to hear about your non-existent methods of killing.

“I don’t know...” Y/N replied, feeling somewhat flustered by how close he was to you. It was a different type of feeling when he wasn’t trying to stab you. 

“If you want, I could show you some pictures and give you tips.” He said.

“And kill who? We’re stuck in this hellhole.” You reminded him.

“What about the other survivors? They can’t all be innocent.” Ghostface said to you. He had some appreciation for you since you listened. It was crazy how much this strange man can switch up.

“No, never. I’m not that crazy.” You said as the loud horn of the exit gates blared. You looked around, really surprised. He seemed just as surprised.

“That long?” He questioned. 

“Guess I’m just that good of a distraction.” You said to him as he silently sighed in frustration but didn’t seem to care. A part of him enjoyed your talk.

“Guess you’re gonna be my one kill.” He said, shifting towards you and pushing you against the wall. You were taken aback by his swift movement.

You squirmed against his body, somewhat sliding downwards so kicking was pretty much useless unless you wanted to completely fall. The two of you grunted quietly as he turned you around, shoving your face against the hard wall. It was uncomfortable but he wasn’t being as rough as he usually was. At this point, you were scared of his knife so you tried pulling his hands away from you in the awkward position. Ghostface tightly pinned one of your arms on your back, you winced as he tugged on your hair.

He leaned inwards, poking his head towards your neck and hair. Ghostface took a moment to memorize your scent and what your hair texture might have felt like. For some strange reason, he seemed to want to learn everything about you. It might have been a bad idea for you to have opened him up about his art.

“Get off of me.” You demanded in a stern voice.

“You’re scaring me, Y/N.” He replied sarcastically. 

You froze up when he slid his hand under your shirt, his fingertips trailing on your back. It wasn’t the motion itself but rather the feeling of his ungloved hand. You felt yourself go into a rather catatonic state, not in fear but you were quick to wonder why he would take his glove off. A thousand thoughts and scenarios played in your mind. His touch was soft but still managed to leave you with chills. 

Ghostface, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying himself. He made notes of how soft your skin felt, his hand curiously wandered upwards. It wasn’t long before his hand wandered to your more sensitive areas. A gasp escaped your mouth as kept you pinned with his knees, his hands groping you a bit more roughly. Your face heated up when he squeezed you, you didn’t seem to struggle either. 

“Fuck...” You whispered.

“If only we had the time.” He mumbled, sticking three of his gloved fingers into your mouth. Your eyes rested as you stared upwards, allowing him to continue touching you. 

“I bet you’re getting all excited over this... if only I could capture the look on your face right now. How does it feel? Having somebody like me have their way?” He asked you. You felt aroused yet ashamed to oblige him.

“It feels good...” You managed to say, his fingers still in your mouth.

You felt the bulge in his crotch grow hard but this wasn’t the time or place. As much as he wanted to fuck you then and there, he needed to have some control over himself. He pulled his hands away and slid his glove back on. You let out a sigh of relief but also a whine. You knew just as much as he did that it just wasn’t the right time. You wiped the saliva from your lips and slowly stood up.

He pulled you backwards by your waist. You felt him rub his knife near your crotch, gliding it teasingly. His other hand wrapped around your neck. You heard him chuckle rather darkly. At this point, you seemed more hot and bothered than he was. Ghostface squeezed your neck a little harder, wanting to get one last sound of of you before he let you go. He didn’t care whether or not the Entity would be displeased or not.

“Guess you’ll have to be a whore some other time.” He said, cutting you on the arm slightly. You pulled your arm away quickly.

“Whatever.” You replied, flustered by his comment. Did that just happen?

“Better go before the Entity kills you itself.” He said to you.

“Right, right... see you around, Danny.” You said before quickly walking away and then running towards the exit gates. 

His head tilted curiously. Ghostface wasn’t sure if he had feelings or not. He admired you for listening to him and asking some questions though. But, now that he knew you’d do things with him willingly, he had some ideas. A wide smile grew behind his mask as he began to fantasize about the photos he would eventually take. 

You would probably come to regret your actions, seeing as his obsession with you would grow. Danny needed to know everything about you and even felt a bit possessive now. It didn’t matter, there was many possibilities within the Fog. Pray that you’ll be ready for your next meeting.

NOTE: Currently writing a full fledged Danny fic with a different plot but have the sequel to the Distraction. Ty for reading!

[dust2dust34]

Hi Bre, I read your "Talk to Me" fic and LOVED it! I always wonder about similar situations from Oliver's POV for some of Felicity's S2 dresses - what his thoughts and fantasies of Felicity in her dresses. Do you think you will have the time to do S2 UST canon fics?

Thank you so much! (Here is Talk to Me if anyone fancies a re-read - I loved the skirt Felicity wore in that scene almost as much as Oliver.)

Here’s a fun little ficlet that takes place between 2x06 and 2x07:

(read on AO3)

A Rock and a Hard Place

Russia was a mistake.

The thought rattled through his head, over and over, turning into a mantra he repeated until the words blurred into a meaningless stream of nonsense. He never should have taken her there. He never should have agreed to Isabel going. He should have found a way for just him and Diggle to get in, get Lyla, and get out. Because then things would still be normal.

Relatively speaking.

Things would at least be the way they had been. Before Russia. When things were just simple ideas, whimsical what-ifs that went nowhere. But most importantly? When certain kinds of thoughts stayed in the darkest part of the night where they belonged.

When only he knew what he was thinking when he was in bed, alone, his hand slipping under the sheets as he thought about slipping his fingers underneath-

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut.

Russia was a mistake.

“Aha!”

Felicity’s triumphant shout was muffled where her head was buried in the unfinished hole in the wall. 

Oliver kept his eyes shut, offering her a vague hum in response. But he did tighten his grip on the flaking sheet of drywall he held up for her in the cramped space they occupied. Boxes from before and after the Undertaking mixed with unused building material and old furniture left only the narrowest of passages to weave through.

“It’s all structurally sound, but I ran out of the money you gave me when I decided to not only fix what the earthquake had done, but upgrade, and so we were left with a bit of a mess. A safe mess, but a mess.”

That meant when she needed to check on some old wiring, she had to literally dig her way through to get to the spot she needed. The spot this time happened to be in a tiny alcove, and the hole she needed to get through happened to be covered with drywall, and the space happened to be so small that the drywall could only go up to make room for her.

So here he was. Holding up drywall so she could get on her hands and knees and crouch down to reach deep inside the wall.

Oliver concentrated on the heavy drywall digging into his palms.

“Got it.”

His eyes opened of their own volition and he just barely stopped from groaning.

She was wearing that damn grey dress. He knew logically that there were at least two of them, because he’d seen one with red cutouts and one with yellow, but they were the same damn dress and right now it was perfectly snug around her backside where she leaned over on the ground to see inside the wall. It was dark, but his eyes adjusted just fine to appreciate all of it in its glory. The dress wasn’t usually that tight, but the angle of her body stretched it taut and he could see the faint outline of what had to be a thong. The zipper cut down the center of it and he couldn’t stop from wondering how it would feel if he tugged it down and slipped his hands inside-

Oliver gritted his teeth and slammed his eyes shut.

Russia was a mistake.

Something had changed and it was ruining everything. His stupidity with Isabel, the look on Felicity’s face when she realized, Isabel’s snide attitude. But all of that he could have handled. The worst part was when he’d tried to backtrack when they had gotten back to Starling City.

“It didn’t mean anything.”

“Well, I think you deserve better than her.”

He didn’t. He really didn’t.

But, for a blip of a second, he had let himself wonder. 

And want.

It was supposed to be a second, a tiny moment of self-indulgence, but instead it had ripped the damn floodgates open, and now he couldn’t stop. Before she had been Felicity, but now she was Felicity-

“There we go.” Her voice became clearer as she inched out of the wall. His eyes popped back open and he nearly bit through his tongue as she pushed up off her knees. His palms tingled when her lush curves were right there, so close, but then she was straightening with her little tools in-hand. And she was talking, he realized. “... I’ll have to reroute this because it’s not my best work, but it’s good for now.”

“So you’re done?” he asked gruffly.

“Yep,” she replied, all brightness and light and sweetness as she spun in the tight spot to face him. A bare inch separated them, and it was all he could think about as he fought to breathe. But then she smiled up at him and he softened. “Thank you for your help.”

“Anytime.”

“I’ll just...” She gestured behind him. “Go, so you can set that thing down.”

He smiled, and nodded, and she moved to slip past him.

Except there wasn’t enough room.

Felicity pushed her front against his side, and when that didn’t get her what she wanted, she tried to wiggle past him. Oliver nearly choked on his tongue as her soft lines rubbed up against him, his skin burning where her breasts smashed into him, her hand on his ribs for leverage, her legs damn near cradling him as she worked to get through.

But she couldn’t.

“Oh,” she breathed as the same realization hit her. Then she did the worst possible thing: she started wiggling even more. “I... I’m almost there, I just need a little more...”

The highly erotic slideshow of every single wet dream he’d had about her lit up his mind and he gasped for air. Oliver shuddered as a crash of heat washed over him. His jeans tightened, enough to make him curse, and he shook his head with a hard, “Felicity, stop.”

She froze.

Oliver swallowed hard, and forced his voice to even out. “You were sitting when I came in, so I had enough room to lift this up.”

“Right.” It came out in a tremulous breath he felt on his neck. The heat swamped him again, but more urgent this time, and he nearly ripped holes in the drywall because it was the only thing stopping him from leaning into her. “Well, let me just get out of here, and I’ll get back down there-”

The thought of her on her knees before him had him looking down to see the growing problem in his pants.

“No,” he blurted. “No, just... Stay there. Please.”

“Oh, okay.”

He quickly lowered the drywall. He didn’t realize how heavy it was until his elbows unlocked from the position he’d held them in, and he grunted, his muscles tightening to maintain it so it didn’t smash into the ground. It would have been fine, except Felicity was pushed up right against him, so close he felt her quick intake of air, then her hand flutter to his back as the other on his ribs slid up to his pec. 

Could she feel how hard his heart pounded?

Oliver bent over to set the drywall down and winced when his hip dug into her soft stomach.

It would be so easy to turn around and fit himself against her.

And very, very wrong.

Oliver straightened on a burst and tried to turn to give her room to get out, but the space was tiny, and his shoulders were too broad. 

“You’re so big,” Felicity said, and it was Oliver’s turn to freeze as she caught herself, her eyes quickly shutting. “I don’t mean... I-I mean, you are big, like shoulders, and chest, and arms, and... and other things. Things I don’t know about! Obviously. I mean, I think I would remember that.”

Amazingly, her babble calmed him. 

Oliver chuckled, and she huffed at herself, rolling her eyes as she blushed.

Taking a quick breath, he let the dust and dampness in the air clear his head. The familiar lilt of her perfume wasn’t exactly helping, but it didn’t stop his mind from functioning properly again. 

Until he grabbed her and spun them so her back was to the drywall.

She squeaked, and whether it was from the abrupt move or from having her entire front plastered to his, he didn’t know. Nor did he suddenly not know how to let her go. In the grand scheme of things, it lasted barely a second, but it was a painfully long second, like every other one he’d been experiencing with her as of late. Ever since Russia. Ever since she had looked at him with such disappointment, but also sadness, with a look he wanted to do everything in his power to erase from her face.

A look that was nowhere to be seen right now.

Their eyes locked, the space growing ten times smaller around them. But instead of suffocating them, it felt like a buffer against the rest of the world. Her soft breaths danced over his lips. Her hands fluttered to his shoulders. When her fingers curled into his shirt, he felt a needy pull deep inside him start to take over as her eyes darkened, her pupils blowing wide... 

All the reasons he told himself this could never happen were suddenly far away.

But not gone.

Common sense walloped him so hard it hurt and he abruptly let her go.

“I’ll go out first.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Felicity nodded. “Right.”

He quickly backed out of the tiny space. Her hands hovered in the air, eyes wide, but the flush in her cheeks and the way her lips were parted foolishly caught his attention. He couldn’t help it. His eyes dropped to that damn grey dress once more, and he knew he wasn’t going to be sleeping soundly for a long while. 

Oliver spun around before he did something stupid as hell and left.

Russia was a damn mistake.

*

Thank you for reading! Reviews literally feed the soul and muse.

[dragimal]

so I just watched Annihilation again and I have some thoughts

to start off, let me highlight a couple ways that Annihilation gets biology wrong

- the way Lena describes all the flowers growing near the hut, “To look at them you wouldn’t say that they are the same species… but they’re growing from the same branch structure… so it *has* to be the same species. It’s the same plant! It’s like they’re stuck in a continuous mutation.” ‘same species’ is, uh, not the conclusion I would first come to in that situation! if anything, I’d go for extreme symbiosis (like lichen-level) first, maybe some radiation-induced grafting of plants together (as this is something that can actually be done to certain plants irl, depending on compatibility). plant physiology/ecology is *notoriously* easy to fuck with without even going so far as the gene level to do so

- when Lena is analyzing the gator-shark, she says, “you can’t cross-breed between different species,” which is blatantly false lmao. I’m willing to believe she simply meant something like “between broad clades” and was just simplifying the idea for her non-bio teammates, but in context with all the other weird bio assumptions she makes, idk...

- the scene w/ the human-shaped plants, where Josie explains that the HOX genes were mutated to reflect those of humans.... that’s not how HOX genes work? 

see, on a basic level, HOX genes function like gene->part, NOT gene->shape. like, look at this diagram of fly HOX genes

each gene corresponds to a part/section of the fly, not any particular shape. thus, if a plant were to turn “human” (or vis-versa in Josie’s case) via *specifically* HOX mutation, the mutations would occur as parts reflecting parts. say, something like the stalk specifically forming the torso, the leaves specifically forming the fingers, the apical meristem forming the head, etc. (idk exact plant or human genetics, so don’t quote me on those *specific* reflections, but u get the gist), which might then be arranged into an approximate human shape

(and this isn’t even to *mention* the fact that genes end up coding for different things over time, so the exact same codes are simply going to *mean* something different when applied to the genes of different organisms. tho I’m far more willing to assume alien radiation interference on that front)

now these are little bits that have bugged me since I first saw the movie, but something always held me back from trying to ‘fix’ the worldbuilding (as I am want to do). it’s only recently that I realized that I never actually wanted to fix the worldbuilding-- I’ve always loved the worldbuilding just fine! it was the character explanations that were so wrong

like, these events could have been explained with a lil more plausibility. the flowers at the hut could’ve undergone some hyper-drive symbiosis, or even had any ability for horizontal gene transfer ramped up to goddamned 1000. the human-shaped plants could’ve taken on the shape of a human via some warped radiation that kept the environmental ‘imprint’ of a human from the area, and reflected it onto the plants via epigenetic tinkering. then Josie turning into a plant looked far more like rapid absorption by a plant parasite rather than her actually turning *into* a plant. these are explanations I immediately latched onto as a biologist myself-- explanations I feel any other biologist would at least *consider* long before just... completely misinterpreting the way HOX genes function

now I only really realized all this after watching Folding Ideas’ video abt Annihilation and Metaphor. u may be wondering: how did an analysis video abt metaphor help me reach this conclusion abt the more concrete worldbuilding (however much of it we can even take at face-value)? well the thing abt aliens is that, as far as we know, they could function on metaphor! 

aliens are literally unknowable by our current understanding of biology and life. the movie itself even blatantly states that, “It’s not like us… it’s unlike us.” we’re so entrenched in what life looks like on Earth, we have no goddamned CLUE what life could look like elsewhere, under different circumstances. this search for the true, distilled basics of life is at the heart of the field of Universal Biology, and why some researchers are actively trying to change the way they approach and think abt Earth life as well

thus, everything that the Shimmer causes is completely plausible to me, whether on a biological level, metaphysical level, or both! and specifically, the idea of an alien species having some control over metaphysical properties, beyond what we can sense or comprehend, is what leads me to believe that an alien species could, theoretically, work by “metaphor logic”

like, “reflection and refraction”. what would it mean for us to encounter an alien species can read our psychology and reflect us so intimately? that can recognize our *essence*, and apply our shape to other organisms, and vis-versa? it’s absolutely fascinating to consider

so with that in mind, when I criticize the bunk biology explanations, I totally get that this movie is far more metaphor than anything-- that when the movie says the flowers are “the same plant”, or implies that Josie “became” the plant, it’s working directly towards themes around self-identity and trauma and change

BUT here’s the thing. by not understanding actual biology enough to apply the explanations in functional ways w/ the themes, the movie misses a GOLDEN opportunity for an even MORE fitting, blatant metaphor

remember me explaining that HOX genes don’t equate to shape? it’s environmental factors that influence the shape of plants (and, honestly, the shape of organisms in general) via stressors like temperature, amount of light, wind speeds, etc. while these stressors can’t change the actual sequence/makeup of DNA in a given organism’s lifespan, they *can* change the ways genes are expressed in that lifespan—essentially how tightly/loosely DNA strands are packed and how easily transcriptions factors can subsequently read and further express those genes

these changes in how DNA is packaged/expressed can then, shockingly enough, be passed on to later generations. epigenetics studies this particular kind of inheritance, and has led further to the study of “inherited trauma”*, and how the stressors that a parent experiences may pass on genetically to their offspring to prepare them for those same stressors, whether the offspring actually encounter those stressors or not

(*NOTE: this field of study is still rather novel-- research into inherited trauma in humans in particular is still in its infancy, and while it’s yielded interesting results, it’s good to be critical and cautious of these results in the context of other environmental factors)

like. inherited trauma. I can’t fucking believe Annihilation missed that opportunity. and with how much ppl focus on the Lena/Kane’s potential “shimmery kids” you’d think this would be an even more obvious extension of the metaphor

anyways, Annihilation good movie. but neither Lena nor Josie passed 5th grade biology

[eryiss]

Chapter Five -  The Cut

Summary: Freed and Laxus live incredibly different lives. Freed is a corporate lawyer in the capital city, and Laxus works as a handyman in a countryside hotel. Despite their differences, their lives collide when Freed inherits a house in Laxus’ village, and hires him to make the derelict building liveable. But the closer they get, the more they seem to offer each other. [Fraxus Multi-Chapter]

This was written as my admission for Fraxus Day 2020, hosted by @fuckyeahfraxus​. Hope you enjoy it. Also, this chapter has mentions of bullying and descriptions of blood,

You can read this under the cut, on Fanfiction, or on Archive of Our Own. You can find the chapter masterpost here.

Chapter Five – The Cut

Melancholy wasn't the word. It wasn't.

Freed wasn't the type of person to get melancholy, he had never been governed by his emotions at all. He didn't look back on things fondly, nor did he feel a sense of sadness when parts of his life were over. Yes, of course things did make him emotional, but he was by no means the type of person to feel sad because something was over. Life moved on quickly, and so must he. It was the rational way to live his life.

It was a mantra he found himself repeating over and over again, as he walked through the house.

The nearly finished house.

The place was by no means a model home, but it worked as it needed to. Windows had been fixed, plumbing and electricals repaired, and structure reinforced. Walls were still stripped with remnants of old-fashioned wallpaper sticking to it, and the floorboards were bare, but it was a house again. It needed love, attention, and upgrading for anyone to actually want it. But it was liveable. Exactly what Freed had wanted. So, following the logic he lived his life by, he should want to sell the place instantly and get back to Era and work on his next case. It was the next logical step, and exactly what he should be doing.

Of course, he wasn't. Because despite it being in contrast with how he'd always lived, Freed felt an odd sense of reluctance to leave. He found himself more than once hovering over the call button on Gildarts' phone number, only to return his phone to his pocket with a muttered complaint of annoyance at himself.

It was pathetic really.

He tried to rationalise it, give his feeling a pragmatic explanation. He said it was because the house was an achievement for him. Something he had done with his hands. A practical achievement that stood out to him because most of his notable work was with the mind. And why would he want to leave something like that? It was a monument to what he could do when he put his mind to it, and he was proud.

But that was a lie, he knew that. The real reason he didn't want to sell the house was because it was the only thing tying him to Magnolia. And he wasn't ready to leave it yet.

Yes, of course he didn't need to own a house to visit the town. He had gained a solid friendship with Laxus, and had gained acquaintances with Laxus' own friends, and so he could justify visiting them from time to time. But the issue lay in that he didn't really want to come back from time to time. He'd gotten used to visiting for the weekends, and he didn't want to stop.

And he couldn't do that now. Not without everyone in the gossiping village knowing why he returned. Because they would, they'd see through it like glass, and Freed wasn't able to deal with that.

He wasn't good at being embarrassed. Never had been.

There were few situations in his life where he had actually been embarrassed, something that happened by design. There had been a few unfortunate instances in his teenage years that find themselves replaying in his head on random nights. So he had made a conscious effort to avoid any situation where embarrassment might occur. It was working well, all in all, and yet this village had this effect on him that made him question the choices that had kept him sane so far.

Freed shook his head. He wasn't getting melancholy, and he certainly wasn't getting self-reflective.

It did nobody any good.

He took a small sponge and slowly wiped down the table in Albion House's kitchen. It had been there when Freed had inherited it, and after Laxus had sanded it down and polished it, it was as workable as the rest of the house. Tonight was the first time the table was going to be used for its actual purpose. He and Laxus were going to have a meal together.

That didn't help the situation.

Because, clearly there was something more. Magnolia was a nice town, and the people in it were good to Freed, but nobody got that sentimental over a collection of buildings. People did, unfortunately, get sentimental about other people.

And annoyingly, Laxus was a good person. He was snarky, and had a bite to him, and he could challenge Freed without blinking. But he was also kind, and helpful, and when he was teaching Freed how to wire a socket or plumb in a toilet, he was patient and made sure to keep the mood light; particularly when Freed was on the edge of smashing the porcelain bastard with the wrench. He was a good man, and seemed to know how to handle Freed in whatever situation he was in.

Also, he was beautiful. Freed had withheld that admission for a while, but since they would likely part ways soon he wanted to be honest. Broad shoulders, a thin waist, striking blonde hair and bright eyes. Evergreen had been right; he was an Adonis.

It didn't help he had a rustic charm that attracted Freed more than it should.

Perhaps it was for the best that they wouldn't see much of each other. Freed wasn't the romantic type, he had more important things to do. And his attraction was born out of proximity. Laxus was an attractive man, but he was just a man. In one years' time, Freed would have forgotten about him, and his life would be normal again.

And hopefully those occasional dreams would pass too. Be them the disgustingly sweet, or the more… intense ones.

"Hey," A voice snapped Freed out of his thoughts. "I think it's clean."

Freed frowned, then looked down to the table he was cleaning. One particular part of the table in particular was shining more than others. Freed's hackles rose slightly at the teasing tone in Laxus' words, but he scolded himself in his head. Laxus hadn't known what he was thinking about, all he'd seen was Freed washing a table for far too long.

"Out of interest," Freed said, cautiously. "How long have you been here?"

"Fifteen minutes," Laxus grinned, raising the two pots of Chinese food. "Food might be cold."

"Fifteen minutes!" Freed exclaimed, almost horrified.

"It was like half a minute, moron," Laxus smirked, walking to the table, and placing their take-out on the table. "What were you thinkin' about that hard?"

"A case," Freed lied. He didn't have an active case at the moment, but he was probably going to be helping with one soon. When he went back to the city. Permanently. "It's nothing too troubling, really. It's actually quite an easy case really, but our client is high profile, and they might use our services again should they need it. So we need to be litigious and cordial."

"Can't imagine you enjoy being cordial," Laxus smirked. "Probably out of practice."

"And for that, I don't think I'll pay for my half of this," Freed said, reaching over and taking the pot of food from Laxus' hand.

"Kinda proving my point there, ain't ya?"

Freed smiled a little as he brought the chopsticks to his lips. They were having a meal together as a sort of goodbye evening – not helping with Freed's refusal to be melancholy about the situation. Because not only did it force him to confront the fact he's leaving, he has to do so with the man who's making it a lot harder to do so. Worse still, Laxus had looked so damn charming with a tediously honest smile when he'd suggested they eat together. It had sent a little jolt through Freed.

Bastard. Maybe he was doing it on purpose.

"I saw Cana while I was waiting for the food," Laxus spoke again, garnering Freed's attention again. "She mentioned that her dad's looking forward to seeing what we've done with the place, apparently he's been excited about it."

"Is he interested in buying it?" Freed asked, frowning.

"He's your estate agent, Freed," Laxus said in a deadpan voice, though he was clearly fighting a smile. "You should know that. It worries me that you don't know that."

"Gildarts is Cana's father?" Freed frowned further. "They have different surnames?"

"Fuck, sometimes I forget you ain't from here," Laxus laughed loudly, leaning back in his chair and grinning. "There's a hell of a lot you don't know, isn't there? Well, guess the best place to start is with Gildarts, ain't it. Or I guess a more accurate name is Gildarts, Man-Whore Extraordinaire."

And thus, Laxus began to tell the rumours and stories about what Gildarts was like when he was younger – he really did seem to earn the title Laxus had given him – before trailing off to the other stories about Magnolia. He spoke about his hometown with a level of enthusiasm that Freed enjoyed watching, and found himself getting enveloped in the worlds that Laxus was describing. Though he might not be quite as eloquent as Freed was, he certainly made up for it with boisterous laughter and an odd amount of glee at exposing his friends embarrassing stories.

It was almost enough to distract Freed from what Laxus had said. 'I forget you ain't from here.' It was a little sentence, probably a throwaway thought to Laxus, but it made Freed feel oddly comforted. As if he had been accepted into this little community.

A ridiculous idea, really.

He blinked to stop that train of thought, and focused on the story about Elfman. Apparently he had been dragged into some comic book convention by his sisters and had been forced to dress as a monster from a book series. He apparently hated every moment of it, and Laxus had spent the years following showing the pictures of him in the costume at every opportunity he could. To prove his point, Laxus had pulled out his phone and showed Freed.

It was a better costume that Freed expected. But it revealed far too much for the shy, younger version of Elfman that Laxus had described.

Freed did find himself distracted by Laxus, thankfully. But it wasn't quite enough, because as he listened, he absently lowered his left hand under the table and started to swirl his finger against the palm of his hand. Perhaps he wouldn't have noticed the return of his nervous tick, had it not been for the raised scar that he grazed lightly.

It was new, and when he touched it and thought back to its origin, any lie about not being melancholic was shattered.

~~~

"Shit. Fuck. Fuck."

Freed hissed, pain splitting from his left hand up into his arm. He stepped back slightly, eyes flickering to the large gash that he'd just given himself, along with the thick blood that was fighting to get from it. It was a nasty looking cut, and Freed found himself unable to look away from it.

Laxus, who had been crouching down and pushing new floorboards into place, glanced towards Freed with a slight grin. The expression fell when he saw blood drip onto the floor, and he stood up quickly and walked to Freed's side. He took Freed's injured hand in his own, and let out a small hiss of sympathy as he saw the cut. Ridiculously, Freed couldn't help but note that Laxus was holding his hand for the first time.

"That's pretty nasty," Laxus commented.

"Is it," Freed muttered. "I thought it was a papercut."

"Good, if you can be a dick then it ain't that bad," Laxus smiled. "Come on, we need to wash it."

Not removing his hand from Freed's wrist, he dragged the lawyer from the cottage's sitting room and into the kitchen. Freed didn't fight it, instead focusing on catching the droplets of blood rather than letting them land on the carpet and stain it. It was a good enough distraction from both the stinging pain that was running through him, and the presence of Laxus being so close.

It wasn't a distraction from the embarrassment of the situation. Because after being successful at almost every task Laxus had given him, he cut himself sawing off the edge of a floorboard. Out of all the tools he's used, he was bested by a sawblade.

"This ain't gonna hurt a bit," Laxus promised as he opened the faucet and dragged Freed's hand under the stream of water.

Laxus Dreyar was a lying bag of shit.

"Mother fucking crap-whore!" Freed practically yelled. There was a moment of silence, Freed almost panting with pain, and Laxus biting his lip. A second later, a loud, unabashed, raucous laughter filled the room. Laxus actually doubled over he was laughing so much, resting his hands on his thighs while Freed glared at him from the sink. "I'm glad you're enjoying this so much."

"I'm sorry," Laxus grinned, something almost akin to a giggle slipping out. "I really am."

"No you're not."

"I'm not," Laxus agreed. "It was fucking funny, man. I ain't ever seen ya acting like that. Just caught me off guard," He glanced up, met Freed's glare, and burst into laughter again. "I'll get a bandage. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Freed muttered. "And try not to fall, impale yourself on a spike and die. That would be awful."

"Don't worry. Only an idiot could get hurt in this place," Laxus laughed again, and if Freed had something in reach, he would have thrown it at the bastard's head.

When Laxus returned to the kitchen, he was holding the first aid kit that he had insisted they keep in the house; no doubt when the humour of Freed's injury and subsequent cussing died down, Laxus would gloat about how right he was with demanding the first aid kit. He carefully guided Freed's hand out from under the stream of water, and patted it dry softly with a towel. Freed winced a little at the pressure on his cut, but didn't say anything.

Slowly, with careful and practiced movements, Laxus wrapped the bandage around his hand. He managed to avoid trapping any of his fingers. Though the white fabric did get stained slightly, it seemed to trap the blood from pouring out too badly. The pain was subsiding slightly now, too.

It allowed him to appreciate how gentle Laxus was being. He wasn't used to thinking of Laxus being gentle.

"How do you know how to do this?" Freed asked, sitting at the kitchen table.

"I used to have to do it all the time," Laxus sighed a little as he spoke, removing his hands from the bandage and inspecting his handywork. He looked up to Freed, who was frowning at him slightly. "I had a lot going on when I was a teenager, got into a lot of fights. Well, that's how I saw it. Turns out I was kind of a bully."

Freed frowned deeper. "You were?"

"Yeah. Didn't think I was, at the time, but I went to therapy for a while and she called me out on it," Laxus shrugged. "But yeah, a couple times a month I'd fight some kid. Had a superiority complex or some shit, wanted everyone to worship me and do what I want. Cringey teenager shit and a lot of aggression, bad mix. Eventually, when the guys started to fight back, I needed to learn some basic first aid."

When Laxus looked up, Freed had an expression of curiosity on his face. It clearly wasn't what Laxus had expected.

"Was it the therapy that made you stop, then?" Freed asked, and Laxus seemed blind sighted for a moment.

"Er, no. Not exactly," Laxus shook his head. "There were two kids that pissed me off more than most, don't know why. So when things were getting bad, I kinda… targeted them more than anyone else. Natsu and Gajeel, you might have met them at some point. Fireman and mechanic. But they got pissed at me for taking things too far, jumped me, beat the shit out of me, then went to the principal and told him all the shit I've done. Got suspended, thought about myself, and started meetin' with Porlyusica; she's my therapist. She basically listed all the shit I've done and made me be better."

Freed took a moment to think through what he'd just heard. It was the best thing to do, he'd found out. Sometimes people let out their biggest, darkest secrets to him – the curse of being a lawyer – and your first thoughts on the matter were often unhelpful. So he took some time, and eventually asked the question that seemed most prudent.

"Your principal suspended you without evidence?" Freed asked.

"Oh he had plenty of evidence," Laxus laughed. "Hard to get shit past the guy when he's your grandfather."

"Makarov?" Freed frowned.

"Yeah, used to be in charge of the school. Only retired because the school board forced him to," Laxus grinned. "He started working at the hotel because he found retirement boring," Laxus smiled for a moment at the memory of his grandfather's sudden proclamation he was buying the hotel, before looking back to Freed, smile drooping slightly. "I just admitted to beating up kids and being a bully, why doesn't that bother you?"

"Some of my clients intentionally lower their workers' wages to increase their own paycheque, and then laugh about it," Freed shrugged. But Laxus nudged him, sensing there was more. "Nobody was there best in high school, I certainly wasn't."

"You were a bully too huh?" Laxus laughed, joking.

"Well, not exactly, but I wasn't the most kind," Freed leant back in his chair. "I was the smartest person there and wanted people to know it. I would start discussions on test results just so I could make sure everyone knew I'd gotten one hundred percent. And there was one boy, he wasn't the smartest, who sat beside me in most classes. Alphabetised seating plans and all. I could be rather… patronising to him. I think I had a crush on him, in retrospect. It was probably a twisted way of trying to deal with it."

"You don't seem like that now," Laxus commented. "Other than when you're joking, but I know that ain't serious. What changed?"

"Evergreen and Bickslow essentially told me that if I didn't get over myself, they'd stop being my friends," Freed smiled. "Other than them, I only had my parents. I couldn't lose them."

They sat in silence, Freed thinking back to the person he was in high school, Laxus perhaps doing the same thing. It was an odd feeling, sitting with someone who somewhat understood what it was like being ashamed of the person you used to be, but knowing you've grown past them. Most people, if they did feel like that, didn't talk about it. It was nice to know that, in Laxus, he had someone he could relate to.

It was also nice to know that he had just come out to Laxus and the blonde hadn't so much as blinked.

"I would have kicked your ass if we went to school together," Laxus declared, smirking.

"You would have tried," Freed corrected, allowing the mood to be lifted. "But, as a child I was also an award-winning fencer. I would have stabbed you before you could hurt me."

"Hard to stab someone when you've been knocked out," Laxus grinned cockily, making a fist. This had the unfortunate side effect of making his bicep flex, and therefore Freed had to avert his gaze.

They chuckled together, enjoying their joke that wasn't particularly funny. It was relaxing to be around with Laxus, and Freed felt as though he could be honest with him in a way that he couldn't be with others. Perhaps that was because he was the first person Freed had gotten to know deeply since his time in school. But that didn't matter, really. Because the important thing was that he enjoyed Laxus.

"Come on," Laxus spoke again. "I don't trust my bandage work. Let's go to the doctors, make sure you ain't gonna get infected or some shit."

And stupidly, Freed's heart fluttered at that.

~~~

"You really are distracted, ain't ya?"

Freed looked up from his hand, which he had placed on the table and was fiddling with, and towards Laxus. The blonde had an expression unknown to Freed, something between being amused and contemplative. Freed frowned.

"I suppose I am," Freed agreed. "I'm sorry. You wanted to do this and I'm being terrible company. What were you saying?"

"It ain't important," Laxus gave a half shrug. "You wanna tell me what's bothering you?"

"As I said, I've got an upcoming case that could be very good for my company," Freed quickly lied, because the truth was now completely untellable. "It's getting to me a little, but it's not as bad as you might think. I just need to rationalise everything."

"Right. So when I texted Evergreen a second ago and she said you don't have anything planned at work, she was lying?" Laxus crossed his arms, and Freed's eyes narrowed.

"You and Evergreen talk?"

"You can bullshit me all you want, but I'm gonna be able to see through it," Laxus said, ignoring Freed's question. "And you don't have to tell me what's actually bothering you, because if it ain't my business then it ain't my business."

Freed wanted to snipe at him. Ask him why, if he believed his words, was he still talking?

"I'm just gonna say this," Laxus continued. "Nothing has to be done if you don't want it to be."

And, in a way, there was the reality that Freed had been hiding from. Because, as much as he didn't want to leave Magnolia behind, he also didn't want to let himself think he could stay. The hard line he had always drawn with the house was that, once it was functional and sellable, he would sell it and get back to his normal life. Not only was it a goal for him to achieve, but it had also turned into a rule he had to follow.

Because his fondness for both the town and Laxus had been gradual, and it hadn't gone unnoticed by Freed. He told himself he had to leave the place behind at some point, and doing that once the house was sold was a way of holding himself accountable. Once the building work had been completed, there was nothing else for him to do in Magnolia.

But that was a lie.

And the only person keeping him true to the rule was himself.

"I always said that I would sell it once everything was fixed," Freed stated, voice flickering into the lawyer tone he denied having.

"Then say something else," Laxus retorted, as if Freed could do that. "Look, I don't know what your life is like when you're in the city. But I know you seem to like being here. So why don't you just keep coming?"

"I-" Freed paused. He needed to think. "My real life is in the city. I can't-"

"Who says that your real life is just in the city? You've been coming here every weekend for months now, it's as much a part of your life as anything," Laxus stated, and his smile made Freed's resolve crumble slightly.

"I told myself that once the house-"

"This isn't about the house" Laxus insisted. "This is about you, fucking idiot. I think being here makes you happy. And if something makes you happy, why stop because of some bullshit rule you set yourself? That ain't smart."

Freed thought, for a moment.

It was almost nauseating to hear Laxus speaking like this, and Freed couldn't explain why. Well, perhaps he could, but the explanation wasn't something he was willing to entertain. Because the only real reason Laxus would be so insistent on Freed returning to Magnolia as he had been doing was because he wanted to keep seeing Freed. He wanted Freed to stop coming as much as Freed wanted to.

But Freed couldn't allow himself to accept that. Because if he did, he'd start wondering why. And then maybe he'd trick himself into thinking that his silly crush was reciprocated. He couldn't.

"There is… more work I could do," Freed spoke without thinking.

"I guess there is," Laxus nodded. "So you're sticking around? For the house"

"For the house."

It wasn't for the house. They both knew it.

[ploppythespaceship]

Dark Season 3 Review

I know I’m a month late to this party, but... I finally finished the show. So! Overall this final season was very good and made for an emotionally satisfying ending to the show. Everyone has been praising it and that praise is well deserved.

But that being said, it was definitely the weakest of the three seasons, and some parts of it have been bothering me.

Heavy spoilers to follow.

The main issue I took with the season was pacing and focus. Season 1 and 2 have basically perfect pacing, where the show feels like a slow burn while still giving you new developments and twists at a good pace. Season 3, on the other hand, felt very fast and at times rushed by comparison.

I think they may have bitten off just a bit more than they could chew -- juggling the introduction of a parallel world, quantum entanglement, and the transitions between the various time periods is a lot to manage in eight episodes. You have to fly through some explanations and gloss over parts here and there to make it work, and I do think the season suffered slightly as a result.

Additionally, the first two seasons were fairly easy to follow once you had the characters down. Information was presented in such a way that piecing it all together didn’t require much effort. But this season often went so fast and flew through some explanations at such a pace that I had to pause several times to walk myself through it in a way that made more sense.

I also felt that several of the characters I cared most about and was more interested to learn more about were underused and overlooked. For example, Magnus, Franziska, and Bartosz being trapped in 1888 barely feels like a plot point at all. It’s brushed past yet so quickly -- yet I care about all of those characters and want to know how they feel about being trapped over a hundred years in the past.

And then when Bartosz and Silja turn out to be Noah and Agnes’s parents, the moment has no weight because the entirety of their relationship happened offscreen. We see Bartosz and Silja meet. We see Silja give birth to Noah. And we see her dead after giving birth to Agnes. That’s it. Why couldn’t we have slowed down to see the rest of that?

Another one was Hannah in 1954. After she decides to keep her child... we don’t see her at all until she travels to find Jonas in 1911. It’s possible that not much of interest happened, but I would rather have seen that, or simply seen Eva visiting her and young Silja. This could have easily been included as part of the “Between the Time” episode, and I’m not sure why it wasn’t.

Instead, a lot of the focus of this season was on the parallel world. Which is a good concept in theory, but in execution, I think the concept was a little half-baked and never felt fully developed. There were some elements I really liked -- everything in the parallel world being literally mirrored was a nice touch, and it had the added bonus of making some character’s faces look different in a very subtle way.

But there simply isn’t time to developed an entire parallel world to the same extent as the one we’ve spent two seasons now fleshing out. Yet the show tries to, taking a weird amount of time showing us slightly altered versions of events we’ve already seen instead of expanding on characters and events from the universe we already know and care about. The novelty wore off for me after the first episode, and remaining in the parallel world after that to focus on Ulrich and Charlotte’s investigation was just dull and unnecessary. All we needed to know was that everything in Eva’s world happens more or less in the same way as in Adam’s world, and the differences between the two are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

My last issue is about the time travel itself. For the whole show, the timeline has been treated as entirely fixed and immutable. Any changes that a time traveler may try to make in the past, those actions have always been in effect and have always impacted the future. Even if characters like Adam, Eva, and Claudia didn’t actively work to keep events the same way every time, they would still play out in exactly the same manner, with no variation, because the entire system is predetermined.

I really enjoyed this fixed timeline philosophy because it made Dark the single most consistent time travel story I have ever seen. Many of the logical contradictions present in other stories were simply absent, because everything is predetermined. It wasn’t a story about changing the timeline, it was a story about discovering how the timeline had already played out. It made the entire show’s structure incredibly satisfying, while also trying into the idea of fate and free will very nicely. The overwhelming theme was that your choices don’t matter, because everything you do has already happened. You are quite literally trapped in the cycle of time.

So naturally, season 3 stepping back from that to subscribe to the idea of a timeline that can be altered? That the timeline only loops on itself because Adam and Eva and Claudia actively work to ensure that it does? That didn’t sit right with me And I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed.

The timeline changes were implemented in a way that is consistent with itself and with the story up until that point. And it didn’t feel like a cheat, exactly. Once I managed to rethink the timeline and the knot, it is in fact consistent with itself, and I’ve come around to the ideas presented. But it still jarred me at first and left me a bit underwhelmed.

(Side note: this video helped me with rethinking it the most -- don’t picture the time knot as a circle as I had been, but picture it as a slinky. A series of nearly identical circles, the end of one loop leading directly into the beginning of the next.)

Additionally, the loophole/quantum entanglement parts still don’t make sense to me, despite all the theories I’ve read and videos I’ve watched. Does this mean there are two versions of young Jonas running around at once? Or does this mean that the two outcomes alternate each time we progress through the loop? As in, the first time through the loop, Jonas goes to Martha’s world and dies, and the second time through the loop, Jonas stays in his home to survive the apocalypse and become the Stranger. I don’t know!! This doesn’t feel adequately explained to me.

Regardless, this all feels to me like it goes against the core conceit of the show. In a way it’s arguably more tragic -- the knot could have fallen apart sooner had Adam and Eva simply chosen to let it fall apart. But they cannot change their human nature, meaning that their stubbornness and utter commitment to their own selfish goals perpetuated an endless cycle of misery for everyone. But now it’s a story about human nature and refusal to change, instead of free will and determinism. Which isn’t wrong, exactly, but again, to me it feels like this goes against the philosophy of the show’s earlier seasons.

Then again, you could argue that the whole point of the show is to make you rethink something you thought you understood and view in a new light, so maybe the show did exactly what it set out to do? I don’t know! And I think the fact that I don’t know and have to keep mulling this over after the fact speaks to what a masterpiece the show is.

And in any event, I do get why the decision was made to change the time travel philosophy And I don’t think there were any better solutions. The show has been set up in such a way that the only satisfactory ending would be breaking out of the time loop. And in a completely fixed and unchangeable timeline, this just isn’t possible. The only possible outcome is that the loop continues indefinitely, and that would be such a bummer of an ending that... I get it. It’s a better ending from an emotional and storytelling perspective, and that should be prioritized over the logic of the time travel.

Which, from a storytelling perspective, it really does work. The idea of a third world being the origin of this knot, of Jonas and Martha ultimately being the ones to break the cycle that they started? Both are thematically beautiful. You can’t help but feel emotional watching everyone fade away, wondering if they will only be a dream.

So don’t misunderstand me and think that I hated the final season. I really didn’t, and it was a good ending for the show. And I immediately looked up theories and videos to try to wrap my head around the whole thing! I just can’t help but be bothered by some of these issues, and haven’t really seen anyone discussing them.

[annes-andromeda]

Ragnarök: Asgard’s Twilight

Chapter 10: Foster Through The Looking Glass

N/: Sorry that I haven’t updated in a while. Laziness got to me and school’s been giving me so much work. Anyways, here’s another chapter of Jane Foster in Vanaheim featuring Lady Sif😊

The camp was buzzing with ruckus, rock giants moving wagons of gold to the blacksmiths. They were clanging at the metals, sparks coming from their tools as they worked. There was a board where a sketch had been made for the design of Gjallarhorn. It would be large, with a small hole to blow on, and the bell would be large and extended.

In Heimdall’s tent, the Warriors Three were conducting a plan on how to retrieve the people of Asgard without any casualties “She hasn’t set the castles defenses yet” Fandral noted “With the secret passageways, we may have some leverage against Hela”

“We can’t be sure” Volstagg added “It’s as the Lady Jane said, we do not know the full extent of Hela’s abilities. For all we know, she could be holding the civilians hostage and keeping watch on us as we speak”

Heimdall shook his head “I knew Hela since she was a young girl. She is a proficient sorcerer matching the likes of Loki and an efficient combatant rivaling Thor. But she has no seeing abilities like I do”

“Hela always wanted the attention on her” He continued “And as far as we’re concerned, her attentiveness is on the throne, so that is something we could use to our advantage”

Everyone around him nodded in thought “We could send in scouts to inspect the area and ensure that we’ll be able to go in and out with no issues”

Volstagg pointed at the map of Asgard “This passage here. Near the mountain creek. The scouts could enter from here and go into the city unnoticed where they’d retrieve civilians and bring them to the camp to safety”

“I’ll make sure it’s safe to go in beforehand” Heimdall said “For now, we’ll focus on building the horn and getting the scouts ready. As for Lady Jane, I want the rock trolls to keep watch on her at every moment. I do not doubt my sister, but we cannot take any chances”

Jane looked around the long abandoned structure, her eyes lit with wonder and awe. She wished she had a camera on her to take pictures so she could show Darcy when she returned home. Whenever she’d return home.

Her eyes fixed upon two strange winged creatures who appeared to be fighting for a piece of meat. They batted their wings and flew down from the ceiling, one of them munching at the meat while the other tried to get closer. Jane kept her distance, not wanting to disturb the animals on their meal.

“They’re called Dawn Ripplers” Jane heard Sif from behind her. The woman had a bag in her hand, and she pulled out some more meat for the creatures to eat. It’s smell attracted them as they turned to her in curiosity.

Jane smiled awkwardly “I was just observing from afar”

“Don’t worry” Sif said “They are tame beasts when not provoked. Or in this case, hungry” She chuckled as she threw some meat at the Ripplers and scurried to them, using their small beaks to tear them into little pieces.

“Why are you really here, Foster?” Sif asked without hesitation

A sigh escaped Jane’s lips when the situation at hand hit her once more “I know you’re not exactly fond of me, but I swear I’m not here to cause trouble”

Sif shook her head “I never held any distain for you, Foster”

“But-” Jane began “But when I came to Asgard-“

“That was merely suspicion” Sif interrupted “There had never been a mortal on Asgard. After everything that had happened with Malekith and the Aether, everyone was edge. Including me”

With her mouth forming a small “oh” and her head nodding, Jane twiddled her fingers behind her back and said “Well...that’s good to know, at least”

There was a pregnant silence for seconds until the Ripplers made little chirps, almost begging for more food. Sif smiled and clicked her tongue, reaching into the bag and taking out a rabbit, beckoning for them. She handed it to them, the Ripplers creeping towards her and taking the meat.

Chuckling, Sif stayed on her knees watching the animals eat “I always wanted a Rippler when I was young” she said “My brother wouldn’t let me have them. Said they belonged in the wild and not in some cage”

Jane simply said “mhmm” in agreement “I guess you still wanna know why I’m here, right?”

“That would be nice”

“Well it’s...It’s not easy to explain”

“When has anything ever been”

Jane paused “Yeah ok that’s true, but this is different” Sif turned to her in interest “Back home, shortly after Malekith, I’ve been having these dreams. Not like the ones where you can’t move or speak, but sorta like the strange one you can’t understand. Almost like I’m...lucid, in a way”

Sif listened to her, petting one of the Dawn Ripplers meanwhile “Lucid dreaming is often rare here. Only those with strong minds have control of their dreams”

“Yeah well, it’s not fun back home” Jane stated jokingly “I’d always be in this endless corridor. It looked like Asgard, but I knew it wasn’t.”

She turned to make sure Sif was paying attention. When she got confirmation, Jane proceeded “Then-and please don’t laugh-, I saw this bear”

Sif furrowed her eyesbrows, all the while Jane pointed at her “Let me finish” Jane said “It was a polar bear. Sure, it was transparent, but I’m pretty sure it was a polar bear. Anyways, I’d get close to it, and every time I’m this close to touching it, I wake up”

“Hmm...” Sif said “From your description, this could be the workings of a Fylgja”

Jane blinked a few times and shook her head “A wh-A what?”

“A Fylgja” Sif repeated “They take the form of ones spirit embodied in a certain animal, often depending on whether that person’s nature is tame or not”

The dark haired woman got up from her knees and let the Dawn Ripplers fly away “From what my brother taught me,” she began “The Fylgja lead a person to their destiny or fate. Perhaps the beast in your dreams could be trying to tell you something”

“Question is: what is it?” Jane asked.

Another silence fell before them, but it was interrupted when two rock trolls strode towards the women, their steps echoing within the halls. They looked down at Jane and Sif, imposing yet clearly no threat.

One of them kneeled before the ladies in respect “Lady Foster” he said “Lady Sif. Good Heimdall has ordered us to keep watch over you should anything befall you”

“Could you tell ‘Good Heimdall’ that that will not be necessary” Sif said with her hands on her hips “I am perfectly capable of protecting Foster myself. Therefore, you are excused”

“I’m sorry, my lady” The other rock troll said “But we’ve been given orders and we must abide by them”

Sif shook her head “Gentlemen really, this will not be necessary. Besides, I do remember your finest warrior being cast down by Thor with a single swing last time he was here. What was his name? Korg, was it?”

The left rock troll put his finger up “Do not disrespect the memory of our fallen brethren!” He exclaimed in defense as Sif was taken aback “It was Lord Thor who began that fight and refused to make it fair!”

“Vanaheim was overrun with bandits and raiders!” Sif argued “What did you expect us to do? Sit and watch as you burned down villages and filled your bags with stolen goods?”

At this point, Jane had shut herself out of the conversation. She wanted to roll her eyes at the absolute pettiness of the three aliens-cause let’s be honest, that’s what they were-, but she knew it wasn’t respectful. She looked around the building awkwardly, and that’s when she heard it.

The voice.

She had heard it when she passed out after Hela pushed her off the Bifrost. It had called to her, even knew her name. The Fylgja, she thought. That must be it.

Making sure Sif was distracted, Jane went off on her own to find the source of the voice. She walked through the empty, vine covered corridors, touching the walls with her hands and listening thoroughly. The further and further down she went, the more intelligible the voice became.

Eventually, it led her to a large doorway. The doors were locked when she twisted at the knob. However, in less than a second, the voice seemed to have opened the doors for her. Jane turned both ways of the hall to see if there was anyone. Nope, all clear.

Walking in, the skylight illuminated the room, making the clear water of the fountain in the middle sparkle. It looked like glistening diamonds, and fish with white, flowing fins shined with platinum scales. Aside from the skylight, there were no visible windows and no sign of other wildlife.

Looking down, Jane could see a plaque atop the water. On it were runes unbeknownst to her, and a symbol of a tree. She couldn’t make out what it meant, but the voice called to her once more.

Speak the words, it said.

Jane could only furrow her brows “How?” She asked the empty space

The heart is a powerful tool in the face of adversity.

It sounded foolish. Practically useless. Jane really wished she had brought her phone to use as a translator right now. She had no idea what in hell the voice was talking about.

And then it hit her.

Taking her book from the small pocket of her skirt, Jane skimmed through the pages to find the one where she had studied the Norse runes. There were many that were assigned “N/A”, as much of the Norse culture had been lost. And well, Thor had been busy doing other things so he wasn’t much help either.

Her finger stopped at one of the runes, her mouth agape. Jane placed the book beneath the plaque, noticing one of the runes was the same one.

The rune that represented the heart.

Speak the words, the voice repeated.

Jane withdrew the book back into her pocket, and looked at the plaque once more. She felt like she was suddenly illiterate. But it seemed as if logic and astrophysics wasn’t going to help her with this dilemma.

So instead, she took a deep breath, and just went for it.

“ The start of a journey begins with the shore, but yet there truly is no end.

For like the heart that stays in place, the ocean does not descend”

A growl was then heard as the plaque went beneath the fountain. The rumbling grew louder, the fish swimming away from the growing passage that grew underneath the water. Jane watched as the floor opened beneath her. She stepped back, but she felt her skirt beginning to wet. The water was spilling towards her.

It turned out the passage was far bigger than she expected, and before she had a moment a react, Jane was sucked into the floor, eliciting a gasp and a small squeal out of her mouth. She braced for impact and landed on her back. Jane groaned in pain, grabbing the back of her head that had hit the stone floor. Had the fall been from a couple more feet, it could’ve killed her.

Back above, Sif was running through the corridors trying to find Jane. She was grabbing at the hilt of her sword. Just in case, should it be any of Hela’s goons trying to play a trick on her.

Jane looked around the stone walls, empty and wet from the fallen water above. She got up and tended to her dress, wiping off the rubble and dust, even moving her hair out of her face. Jane’s gaze averted to the walls once more. The fish from the fountain had swam down into the hole with her, reverting back to their regal and peaceful movements.

They grouped together and tread carefully around what appeared to be a long club of rock. Jane was confused at first, but decided that perhaps reason wouldn’t be the most helpful arsenal right now. Walking towards the wall, Jane reached for the club carefully, but then jumped when she heard a voice above yell at her.

“Lady Jane!” Sif exclaimed “Stay there, I’ll get you out!”

Jane put her hand up “No stop, wait!” She said “Just hold on!”

Sif was confused but then tensed as she saw Jane looking at the club “Jane...” She called out. But nothing “Foster, don’t! Jane, don’t touch anything!”

Jane, however, was making no attempt to pay attention. She resumed her previous action of reaching for the club, and held her breath as her hands scraped the wet and cold stone. Jane pulled at the stick, but frowned as it stayed stuck in place.

She pulled harder, even positioning her foot on the wall for leverage. Jane ignored the exclaims from Sif to stop, tugging harder and harder until the wall began to crack. The fish swam away, and all at once, the club detached from its place, sending Jane flying back as the stick landed next to her.

Sif watched the whole ordeal like a mother watching her child disobey her “Foster!” She exclaimed “Are you alright?!”

Jane got up to her feet and looked up, club in hand “Yeah...Yeah I’m fine”

“Stay there, I’ll help you up”

“Not like I’m going anywhere...” Jane muttered. She looked at the large, bulbous stick in her hand. Examining it, she could see there were now small glowing veins coming from the top. Seems like her previous action had managed to crack the stone a bit.

Above her, Sif extended her sword to pull Jane out of the hole. The passage closed up, and the fish swam in the fountain yet again. As if nothing had happened. Confused, Sif looked to Jane for an answer “Forgive me, Foster” She said “My incompetence resulted in your endangerment, and for that, I am most ashamed”

Jane smiled gently and put her hand on the goddess’s shoulder “Hey, don’t worry about it. Either way, those trolls probably wouldn’t have let me leave, so if anything, you were big help”

Sif motioned to the club in the mortals lap “I’m assuming your endeavor wasn’t for naught?”

“Yeah well,” Jane began “I have a feeling this is only the first of my endeavors”

“You heard a voice calling to you, correct?”

“Yup”

“Was it the Fylgja?”

“Nope” Jane looked up to see Sif extending her hand for her to get up, and she took it graciously “I’m pretty sure it was something else. But whatever it was, at least it helped me find this”

Sif smiled mischievously “Oh how lovely. A battering ram gifted by fish. I’m sure the berserkers would enjoy a new recruit, don’t you?”

Jane could only roll her eyes “How is it you never got along with Loki? Honestly, it’s like I’m talking to a clone”

The warrior goddess chuckled heartily “Oh how blasphemous! If anything, I’m more Thor than Loki. But then again, I’m generally more me than me”

“Yeah ok, let’s get off our golden throne now, huh?” Jane saved playfully. The two walked side by side out of the room, closing the doors behind them.

Without their notice, the doors then disappeared, leaving behind an empty wall. Inside the room, the fountain stopped running water, and the fish, almost on command, scurried together and disappeared into thin air. The room was left vacant, as if it was never occupied at all.

[ziracona]

Same writing anon as before! Tysm for the long post, it was really clarifying and good to read. It's started having some stuff make sense and revealed some stuff I need to rework. Do you have any advice on writing bare-bones like, general plot lines?

Hey! I’m so glad to hear that. 💙

I’m not 100% sure what you mean—advice on making your plot lines engaging, on figuring them out period, on how and when to structure them, on how to make them original, how to make them further the scenes you want to write instead of just be there as a support column for them, etc, so sorry if I misinterpret this question. I think I’m probably overthinking this, and you just mean “advice on how to come up with them/lay them out in the first place,” so that’s what I’ll answer. Sorry if that isn’t what you meant. TuT

So, writers all have different processes, but for most of us, it is very much not plotline first. Often you’ll get a great vague idea, or a scene you don’t know the total context for, or a character you like, or a finale, or a specific crisis, etc, and start there. Similarly when writing fanfic, a lot of the time you start with a very basic concept like “I want to see these people interact” or “I want this character to get to kill the person who destroyed their life” or “I want C character to get a happy ending,” and you build from there.

Honestly, there isn’t just one way to do structuring that works. Some people like a bare bones outline before they start, some like hugely detailed outlines, and some get a vague concept for how it will end, and then just start writing. And they can all work! I will say though, if you’re writing something heavily solution-based (like your characters spend the whole story trying to escape a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean, or are trying to fix a time paradox to keep themselves from being erased), it’s highly, highly recommended you know what that solution is before you begin. I don’t know that you /can’t/ figure out on the fly, but it will be so much easier for you as a writer to work towards a solution you already have, than to fly blind. Especially because most solution-heavy plots pick up elements to their solution along the way. This isn’t always necessary—like if the problem is it’s a horror script and there is a serial killer chasing them. “How do you kill a human” has infinite answers, so you don’t really need to pick out specifically how your protag finally takes them out ahead of time if you don’t want. If it’s like, Nightmare on Elm Street though, and your monster almost can’t be killed, you really gonna want to know how to put it in the dirt before you start, though.

That said, I’d recommend doing at least a bare-bones outline, personally for anything very long! It’s totally good and recommended even to edit that outline as you go, to add or subtract or alter upcoming content, but I find it helps a lot to have a vague idea of how much is left, and what the next step will be. It’s kind of reassuring. Again though, not everyone does this. Some skip outlines altogether.

As far as plotting itself goes, I would say start, again, with what you want to write—this might seem counter-intuitive, but trust me. Do you want to write a friendship, or a romance, or a personal journey for a character that leaves them feeling whole? Okay, well, even though most of those don’t seem very plot-creating, consider two factors: what would make this thing you want to have happen happen? And why do you want to write this thing?

For example, I wrote a horror comedy feature script, and my initial idea for it was just a gimmick—the main character can hear the OST, and uses that to help her stay alive. Okay, well, what’s the plot to that? There isn’t one—yet. But why do I like horror comedy in general—why pick that genre? Because horror comedy tends to be a deconstruction/reflective of horror as a whole, and a lot of those commentaries are very meaningful to me. Okay, well, what about horror am /I/ interested in reflecting on? And there’s a lot I’m interested in reflecting on, tbh, but at the time, the big answer for me was casual dehumanization. So, I know my topic/theme, and I know I am picking a wild world for that (as in, I want to write about not dehumanizing people, but I’m setting it in a world where the MC can literally hear the soundtrack to her story), but that can help, honestly, because if you can carry your point with a disadvantage, that’s even better. So I know my gimmick, I know my core issue, and I know my main character. Now, if I want to talk about dehumanization, that means it’s got to be what my killer is doing, and to an even more extreme extent than murder in general, so they must know the victims personally. From there, I worked out who would be best to cast as antagonist and a motive for them (considering other people not as significant as them/ethics are just created by humans mentality, justifying murdering even friends in order to gain serial killer immortality fame), and went from there to okay, so how would they (the killer) do this? And there’s a lot of ways to approach that scene detail plotting. Usually, I just kind of daydream. I make a cast first, then try to figure out what scenes would work well, and once I have a couple in line with my whole plot, string together an outline that supports all of them, and from there carve out a solid start to finish storyline—like, uh, like whittling down a carving, or chipping away to make a statue, kind of. Think of the starting process as a little like solving a mystery by taking clues and working through them to the next logical deduction, I guess, haha.

You can start from a bunch of different places though, not just concept/theme. For ILM, my original thought was just, “I want the survivors to get to escape, but HOW could they do it?” And I tried to solve that problem. Once I had a solution, which was genuinely one of the first things I found, I was like, okay, but it shouldn’t just be about that, because that’s got no real meat—it’s just an ending. What else do I want to see in a story about them? And Wraith was my favorite killer by far, so I thought, “I want to see Philip get to redeem himself and befriend the survivors and be kind and happy,” and that was it. From there, I worked out first where I wanted Philip at as a person/his motivation for how he ended up where he was, which plus some research created the resets for him, and then I worked out how it would start for him, if he was going to befriend survivors. I picked out relationships I wanted to see furthered, and decided if I wanted them to get a happy ending in hell and give Wraith redemption and peace, that meant I was writing a hope punk plotline for sure, and then with a basic idea of how I got from A-Z, started writing. A lot of individual plot lines—Laurie, Quentin, Jeff and Legion, Tapp, Anna, etc, I had not worked out before I began—maybe I had a kind of vague idea what I wanted for them (Laurie to regain her will to live and be able to save her brother too/get him to save herself, Quentin to get closure, Anna to find humanity, etc), but mostly I kind of brainstormed each the character arcs when I hit their first POV chapter, and crafted their personal story arcs there, then adjusted some as ideas grew.

Which was a super different process form my feature. While my feature more or less hit “what’s the theme/core concept” right off the bat in planning, ILM was “What’s the goal” and didn’t hit theme really until partway through writing, so the process won’t even always be the same for you as a writer. But I definitely recommend, no matter what you’re starting with, to go about it by looking at what makes you want to write what you are writing. For New Dawn Fades, my initial starting point was literally just wanting to write a scene between Quentin and Joey—that was it. I had no framework, or theme, or story goal—just a scene. But I was like, okay, well, if you need a story to back this once scene and further it, not just give it an excuse to happen, what is the story? Well, the reason I wanted to write the scene was because I liked how Joey and Quentin interacted. Quentin’s a bit of a martyr and constantly overwhelmed with guilt and trauma and had to grow up way too fast, and Joey’s a decent person at heart that has let himself slip way too much into bad territory out of fear, and together, they kind of bring out the best in or for each other; Joey is like, the single most likely character in DbD to be able to remind Quentin he’s legit just a teenager actually and should cut lose and just be okay for at least like fifteen damn minutes a day, and might actually be able to get him to do it, and Quentin’s the right mix of uncompromisingly ethical and genuinely forgiving to get Joey to look at and reevaluate his choices without spiraling into hopelessness and self-hate instead of self-improvement. So the answer was I wanted them to get to help each other. From that starting place, I just kind of went step by step with “Okay, how could they logically meet in such a way they are forced to spend time together and it gives them a chance to reach some of this,” and the rest came pretty easy. A lot comes step by step too, I find, and sometimes I have a whole super solid outline before writing and sometimes I don’t know beyond the next chapter except in the most general of terms. So what I would basically always recommend with making a general plotline is consider why you want to write what you want to write, and move from there to, “Okay well how do I get it.” And that process will be wildly different from story to story, but as a basic start, it helps me a lot. I wanted to see Claudette reach out to Wraith? Okay, why would she do that, and how? How would he react—what are the consequences, both from other people, each other, and the Entity? I guess I kind of go at plotlines like a puzzle. If this happens, what are the characters’ next choices? Which would they pick? And if I know where I want them to end, how do I steer their situation towards that point? For doing this, I highly recommend listening to music and daydreaming/just watching and trying scenes out some in your head. Also, if you get stuck, watch or read similar stories and let that inspire you! I don’t mean you gotta or should like, trace over someone else’s scene or something, but all fiction is intertextual, and that’s a good thing. We write based on our existing knowledge and love or ambivalence or distaste for other stories, and in communication with them, and it can add a lot. Stuff with Laurie & Michael in ILM didn’t end up like a single Halloween film in any of the six+ damn timelines, but I /did/ draw inspiration from the H20 line, and H2, which were the closest those two ever got. Watched the end of H20 and went, okay, if they’d had a better chance sooner, what could have happened, and played with that. Watching a lot of well-made fight scenes is also great inspiration for writing action—highly recommend.

I’m not entirely sure how helpful all of this will be, because plotting techniques tend to be pretty varied from writer to writer, but I hope it helps. If it hasn’t, here’s a quick compilation of more technical-side based tips that hopefully wil:

One technique I see recommended a lot and that can help/has before, is to start with your core concept. Now, I would disagree that you must always start here, but it can be a very good place. The idea is to be able to sum up in one line what the meaning of the story is. Like, for the film Holes, it would be something like, “Evil in this world is caused by treating people inhumanly, and the only way to break that curse is to treat your fellow man with decency and value and love.” Basically every plotline in the film backs this idea—Kissing Kate, who is a kind and happy woman until the man she loves, Sam, is murdered by her town for being a black man in a relationship with her, a white woman. That inhuman act drives her to become an outlaw. You have the Yelnats, who get cursed to be followed by misfortune forever when Stanley doesn’t honor his promise to Madame Zaroni, none of which would have happened if he had listened to her in the first place & not gone after a girl based solely on her looks, or if she had cared who either suitor was as a person, and could have been avoided had Madame Zaroni been more to Stanley than a means to an end. You have a whole cast of delinquent boys being mistreated and not at all healed by a juvie system that treats them all like they’re no longer humans worth anything. You have Zero, not even treated as human by juvie standards because he doesn’t talk, isolating himself—all of which stems from growing up on the streets impoverished with a mom struggling to do her best and failing. Stanley is falsely convicted for a crime he didn’t commit and mistreated over it, and has his life ruined. Even Grace, the main antagonist, is who she is because her family has been obsessed and abusive for generations, and she grew up a tool to her father. Then in the end, almost every one of these wrongs, even the ancient wrong of Sam’s murder, is corrected by people choosing to be better and break—in two cases quite literally—the curses on them and others by just being kind and choosing to love and treat others with respect and care. Stanley chooses to befriend Zero to be nice, and Zero reciprocates. Then when Zero runs off, Stanley runs off to help him because he’s afraid he will die, and simply because he loves him as a person, fulfills his family’s ancient promise unknowingly by carrying Zero up a mountain in search of water to save his life. This gives his family and him luck again, and ends up saving everyone. Zero tells Stanley the truth about himself and stops self isolating and being just sad and alone because he had a friend who treats him with value, all the boys end up okay and semi adopted by Stanley’s family in the end and out of abuse and juvie and treated well and live up to that faith put in them, and justice being finally brought breaks Kate’s curse and lets it rain again for the first time since Sam’s death and gives Kate’s spirit peace. —and that’s the idea. To have all your arcs and themes back your one core concept. Now, sometimes people find this super helpful, sometimes they find it overwhelming, but it can be worth a lot.

Another is to just kind of try the dartboard model, which is getting an idea you like to start with (like uhhh, Dogfighting dog is injured so it is going to be put down, but it escapes it’s master and runs off into the woods. Out there, it wanders until happening on an injured human child). Okay, so the plot is about a dog that has been abused choosing to connect to a human in spite of that, and probably about how the kid survives getting out of the woods with the dog’s help. But what actually happens? Dartboard method is just come up with a bunch of potential scenarios for the two characters and play them out in your head, keep your favorites, and then see if you can find a way to string those scenes together. You like a scene where the dog fights off a mountain lion, a scene where the kid and dog huddle together for warmth in a cave during a storm and the kid gets to be the one doing the looking out because the dog is terrified of thunder, and you like a scene where the kid is walking with a branch to help them keep going, sees a road up ahead which means help finally, but passes out from exhaustion, so the panicked dog has to deal with intentionally attracting the attention of adult humans after the abuse it has suffered, in the hope it can lead them to the kid and get help? Great. Okay, what basic order do these scenes go in, what can fill the gaps between X and Z? A lot of thing, you’ll have fun scenes you end up having to reject, because they don’t fit, but it’s a pretty laid back if chaotic method.

Then of course there’s just the classic. Outline. As in, take whatever idea you have, and force yourself to pitch a complete A-Z set of steps like you’re in a writing class. IE:

Dog is introduced. — Dog is inured and going to be put down. —Owner is distracted by a fight breaking out, and dog manages to jerk leash free and escape. — dog flees to woods. — Dog is alone and skittish. There is a storm and it freaks out and holes up. — Next morning, after the storm, Dog hears human crying & is afraid, but curious. Goes to peek. Sees kid who has must have been out here in the storm because a branch snapped and has pinned them by the leg — Dog wants to help because dog instincts, but is afraid of even small human. Eventually peeks head out. — Kid is terrified too, because scary huge scarred dog and they can’t run. Dog scared because human. — Eventually, kid gets over fear and tries to call to dog, and it comes out. Kid pets it and it’s afraid to be touched, but then accepts the affection. — Dog tries to help kid out by digging their leg free. Kid, who hand not thought of that, helps, and gets free.

(Usually you do this more branching and pretty, IE: Scene 1: Dog is in a dogfighting match.

—1A: Dog loses fight and suffers a bad infury to its eye, making it no longer fight for fights.

—1B: Dog’s master angrily comes to collect them. Dog tries to get affection, but he’s mad at it for failing & mutters about putting it down.

Scene 2: Owner takes dog out back to put down.

But that would take up a ton of space on this already massively long post.). There’s also a more simplified version of this, where you just kind of go like Chapter 1: Dog is introduced, loses fight, then escapes being put down and flees. Chapter 2: Dog is terrified of a thunderstorm and from having been almost killed & forced to fight for so long. Runs out of town to the woods as the storm breaks. Hides out under bush. Chapter 3: Dog wakes up to hear human crying. Goes to investigate hesitantly. Finds human kid trapped unde fallen branch. Kid is afraid of dog, dog afraid of kid, but eventually kid coaxes dog to come over and befriends it. Dog tries to help kid and dig them out, and together they get the kid free from tree.

As you can see, that basically gets the same information across, it’s just much shorter, but also has less solidly set as far as details of how stuff happens. Again though, if you go for an outline method, please don’t feel like you have to be married to it. It’s just a resource to try to help you, not actually the story itself, and stoeiws pretty much always evolve as you go, so it’s normal and also kinda fun and good to have to adjust outlines.

Anyway, this was already a mouthful, but I hope it helps, or at least some of it does! For me personally, the best techniques have always been to daydream scenes and events, and to approach writing things I get stuck on either like a deductive puzzle of “Well if She does This, then her friend can do either X, Y, or Z, and Z makes the most sense. Now, I need to figure out a way for them to escape the building. What are th options? Window, door, roof? Technically they could bust down a wall. They’ll never make the roof in time, so that’s out. They have about two minutes before dying, and one of them is injured, so they can’t go fast. The arsonist is going to be watching the front door and the windows carefully though, just in case, so they need a diversion or—Wait—the cat door in the garage. Perfect.” —or by trying to get very into the headspace of whoever is running the scene, and just literally think through why they want and are feeling and going to do. (Though again, I personally approach writing from a very acting-heavy standpoint). Anyway! Hope this helps some, and you find what works best for you. If you want clarity on any of this ramble, or I misinterpreted the questions feel free to let me know! TuT 💙

[skylanders-after-the-end]

Witch Hunt

„That doesn’t make any sense!” Spyro was marching from left to right, shaking his head. “Why would Hex work with Malefor and attack innocent people?”

“We saw her transform those molekin into the same monsters as the mabu you found, it was her all along.” Knight Light wasn’t sure why, but he had no doubts about Hex being behind all this.

“Why would she do that?” Spyro stopped and considered all the odds. “What if Malefor is controlling her as well?”

“She didn’t have black eyes.” Smash Hit, sitting on a chair with his arms crossed, was looking straight forward and talked. “She looked at us and then disappeared.”

“Malefor must have convinced her to join him after all.” Stealth Elf argued. “She spent months with him, who knows what he told her.”

“Guys, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for this. It has to be a misunderstanding.” Cynder was probably the most shocked to hear the news. Hex was one of her closest friends, she was always like a sister to her. For her to join the side of their mortal enemy, unimaginable. “If we could just talk to her-”

“Talk to Hex? Good luck with that.” Stealth Elf hissed. “She’s always been distant from us. I’m honestly not surprised that she would turn out to be evil.”

“You don’t know what she’s been through!” Cynder couldn’t stand by and listen to all those accusations. Someone had to defend the Undead Skylander. “We’re to blame as well! We left her with Malefor all this time and just ignored the problem instead of facing it!”

“We had more important things to do!” Stealth Elf turned around and looked the furious dragon in the eyes. “She went with him willingly. She’s the only one with the power to keep Malefor at bay, what were we supposed to do?”

“Calm down!” Smolderdash stepped between the rage engulfed Skylanders. “Fighting over this will not solve anything. We have to do something.”

“This outcome is logical.” Gearshift spoke and directed all attention to her. “Hex has spent centuries in solitude, rejected by society. Her lack of companionship among the Skylanders and cold nature increased the likeliness of her eventually turning against everyone.”

“You know, I never understood why people are so scared of her.” Roller Brawl was sitting on top of a golden fence at the side of a small bridge in the Academy. “I’m a vampire with actual roller blades, yet no one seems to mind me.”

“Everyone has a reputation RB.” Cynder has been thinking about that issue a lot, and she had her own theory on it. “Everyone used to be afraid to death of any undead, but seeing more and more undead Skylanders and other harmless undead creatures, things changed. Even I got accepted at some point.” Cynder could feel her mouth forming a smile after talking about the positive changes that came from such a dark place. Yet that smile soon faded away. “But Hex… there were always rumors surrounding her, about Malefor and making deals to gain more power. And besides that, she just has this eerie presence. Even I felt unsettled at first.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” Stealth Elf used the opportunity to convince the others of her mindset. “We have to get to the bottom of this, isn’t that right Spyro?”

Spyro didn’t even listen to the elf, he could only think about Hex. He made it his duty to make every Skylander feel comfortable and part of the team when he became the leader. Even though she always avoided contact, he did get to talk to the witch a few times. She was aloof, never showing a smile or being considerably kind, but sometimes he could see something in her eyes. A looming sadness, as if she had lost something a long time ago.

“Spyro?” Stealth Elf pulled the dragon out of his trip down memory lane.

“Of course.” He looked through the group of patient eyes waiting for an order. “We will find Hex and talk to her. We won’t attack her until we know what’s going on, she’s still one of us.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, even Stealth Elf found that to be the most sensible option, though she was always ready to fight.

“I’ll come with you, maybe seeing a fellow undead will make her realize that she isn’t alone.” Roller Brawl got off the fence and sharpened her skates on the rock floor underneath.

“I’m coming too.” Smolderdash grabbed her whip which she had put to the side and was ready for a new mission.

“Knight Light?” Spyro looked over to the angelic human, expecting him to tag along as usual.

“You know it.” The Trap Master pulled out his scimitar and spread his glorious wings.

“Then let’s go Skylanders!” Spyro headed out, followed by the group of heroes. Gearshift and Smash Hit stayed behind. The warsupial has been awfully quiet since their fight with Malefor and sported wounds all over his body.

“You should visit the hospital to have your wounds looked at.” Gearshift advised the Supercharger.

“I’ll sit it out, I don’t need some potions and rainbow magic.” Smash Hit refused.

Gearshift noticed his drastic change in behavior, nothing she hasn’t seen before with other Skylanders. “Suit yourself.” The robot left without another word, leaving the grumpy Earth Skylander alone.

The Skylanders began their journey on an airship. They decided to go straight to the underworld, since Hex and Malefor were only seen outside of it for their brief ambushes. Only a few of the heroes have been to the land of the undead. Of course, Cynder knew the place like the back of her claw and helped navigating the ship. They visited the most prominent places down there but had no luck with finding the undeads. While the others tried to figure out the way, Spyro noticed Cynder retreating to the edge of the ship. It has become a habit of hers to sink into deep and thoughtful moments during such rides.

“Mind if I join?” Cynder turned her head around and smiled after seeing Spyro before the dragon sat down next to her. “You look unhappy.”

“How couldn’t I?” Cynder looked at the dark cave like structures surrounding them. “Something’s wrong with Hex. We don’t know what, but we have to help her. I won’t believe that she’s turned evil until I see it.” The dragoness kept staring at the dark rocks they were passing. The place she used to consider her home seemed so foreign now, like she’s only visited it during her nightmares. “You’ve known her as long as I have, she’s always been trustworthy.”

“She has.” Spyro had to give the witch that. Yet he wasn’t innocent when it came to judging her. “But she’s been down here for months and we…”

“We didn’t help her. She has every right to be mad.” Cynder understood what the witch went through, since she also spent such a long time with Malefor in the underworld. “The Skylanders never leave anyone behind, that’s one of the first rules and we broke it.”

“There was nothing we could do. Malefor is invincible and Hex was the only one who could restrain him.” Spyro repeated the things Stealth Elf said earlier that day. And even though he didn’t want to admit it, he also wanted to forget about the dragon king. “Not to mention that we had the Golden Queen to worry about.”

“And what good did that do? She didn’t do anything while Hex was down here suffering and Malefor plotted his next steps.” The purple dragoness sighed. “I know what that’s like.”

Spyro put his paw on Cynder’s shoulder to show her that he’s there for her and that he will do everything he can to fix this.

“We’re here!” Smolderdash exclaimed upon reaching the next destination – Malefor’s throne.

The Skylanders all gathered at the front of the ship to take a look at the ancient monument. It was a giant chair, large enough for a dragon like Malefor to sit on, made of dangerously sharp rocks at the top to intimidate anyone who dares to come here. A single opening above let a dim pillar of light fall onto the throne, making it appear even more glorious and threatening.

The ship landed and the six Skylanders set foot on the cold dark ground in front of the cliff the throne was positioned on. They carefully observed the area, looking for any sign of life, which wasn’t an easy task in the underworld. Suddenly a purple cloud of smoke appeared right in front of the throne. All eyes were fixed on it before it vanished, and a familiar figure emerged.

“Hex!” Cynder cried out to her friend, who floated in place without a hint of emotions. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Hex looked at the Skylander who came running towards her. “It’s good to see you again, Cynder.” The dragon’s smile eventually faded when the sorceress continued. “Again, after letting me rot here for months.”

Cynder didn’t know what to say. Hex was rightfully angry, and there was no justification for the Skylanders’ dismissiveness. The rest of the team joined Cynder’s side and stared at the witch, who was clearly displeased to see them.

“Hex, what happened? What’s with all those possessed people and Malefor?” Spyro was hoping that Hex would have a reasonable explanation, but after everything he’s heard, his hopes were low.

“What happened is that I finally realized who I truly am.” Hex had a sinister tone in her voice, one the Skylanders have never heard before. “You must be confused and scared, but that was the point.”

“So you are evil after all!” Stealth Elf had already grabbed her daggers and was ready to strike the witch.

“After all?” Hex repeated that last part. Proof that the Skylanders were just like her old friends and all those ungrateful people she used to protect. “After all the things I’ve done for you? After always putting others first and sacrificing myself for you, I’m evil after all that?”

Spyro gave Stealth Elf a stern look after her reckless accusation. “Hex, let’s talk about this. You’re not evil, you never were.” The dragon desperately tried to calm the witch down after realizing his mistakes and wanted to prevent anyone else from getting hurt. “I know we neglected you and I am truly sorry that things ended up like this, but please think about what you’re doing. It’s not too late.”

“No, it is too late.” Hex made a dramatic pause, leaving the others to wonder what she was about to say next. “It’s been too late a long time ago.” The sorceress began to lift herself further up into the air, looking like she was on Malefor’s throne. “After hundreds of years of me always trying to prove that I am the person I used to be, nothing has changed.” She clenched her fists remembering all the times she was judged and harassed only because of her appearance. “You mortal creatures are so quick to jump to conclusions you don’t even think about what you say or do. After joining the Skylanders I thought the world would finally see that I’m not the villain, but I was wrong. Even you Skylanders didn’t trust me, or simply didn’t care.” Hex then turned her head to direct her sight towards Cynder. “Yet you’ve accepted the Black Dragon.” Receiving angered and somewhat scared looks, Hex continued. “But I kept on trying. It’s true I was never the most eager Skylander, but I always did what was right. And what did I get? Ungrateful looks and hostile mumbles.” Hex descended from the heights she’s reached and floated closer to the ground in front of the throne again. “Those days are over.”

Roller Brawl skated in front of the line of Skylanders and spoke up. She did join Hex on a fair amount of missions and considered her a friend, regardless of her cold behavior. “Going nuts on the Skylands will only make things worse. Please, if you just-”

“Do you think I want to make things better?” Hex sounded almost insulted. “You don’t deserve that. No matter what I did it was always wrong, you would always see me as someone with wicked intentions.” After taking a moment to cool off, Hex decided to get to the point. “No, I will give you exactly what you want, what everyone wanted for centuries. I will be the villain that everyone wants me to be.”

“I’ve heard enough!” Stealth Elf clenched her daggers and sprinted towards the witch.

“Elf, wait!” Spyro shouted after her, but the assassin didn’t listen.

Stealth Elf was running across the dark ground as she approached the cliff. Meanwhile Hex summoned a couple of orbs and aimed them at her, which the Skylander was able to dodge. Before reaching the cliff, Stealth Elf launched herself into the air and was about to strike Hex down with her blades. The witch remained calm and lifted her hand to engulf the elf with her dark magic before tossing her back on the ground.

The team watched in shock as Stealth Elf was trying to push herself up through her painful coughs, but once she did, she was ready to strike again. Knight Light decided to help his ally and ascended into the air before speeding towards Hex as well. The sorceress created a circle of skulls around her waist and launched them one after the other at the knight. He was able to destroy two of them with his scimitar and wings, but the other ones were able to hit and bring him down as well.

“You give us no choice Hex, this has to stop!” Spyro declared before he and the rest of the group joined the fight as well.

Cynder was the only one who stayed behind. She watched in horror as one of her closest friends was shooting down one Skylander after the other. It was hard to see her give in to the darkness, especially since she’s been there as well. “Guys, Hex, stop it! This won’t fix anything!”

“There is no fixing this!” Stealth Elf was thrown backwards and landed right next to the dragoness. She stopped for a second to look into Cynder’s eyes. “Now even you have to see who she truly is.”

Cynder couldn’t argue against that, but neither did she want to hurt Hex. Stealth Elf groaned before jumping back into action.

Smolderdash managed to float at eye height with Hex. The fiery humanoid created a ball of fire before whipping it towards Hex, who stopped it by catching it with her undead magic and transforming it into spectral fire. She threw it back at the Skylander, who was unable to react and got hit by it. After shaking the attack off, Smolderdash dashed through the air while turning her upper body to go after Hex with her whip. The witch was able to move back in time, allowing the whip to create a trail of fire in front of her instead. Hex kept her eyes on the flames. A grim reminder of the day where she was nearly burned alive by those she once trusted. That only fueled Hex’ hatred further and the sorceress aimed at one of the stalactites above Smolderdash, causing it to crumble down onto the heroes.

The Skylanders were able to move aside before it crushed them, but chunks of rocks which broke off managed to hit them nevertheless. Roller Brawl, being the fastest member of the group, was passing all obstacles, attempting to reach Hex. Even though the witch used to be her friend, after what she just heard and saw, the roller jammer didn’t feel the urge to hold back. With her sharp skate blades, she was able to go up the cliff and reach Hex, who gave her another cold look as if she never truly cared about her. Roller Brawl skated as fast as she could and tried to slice the witch with her roller claws to subdue her, but Hex didn’t make it easy. She was floating around Roller Brawl’s movements all while shooting her projectiles. Each orb got closer to hitting the vampire, until one finally did. The Undead Skylander was catapulted down the cliff. Before she hit the ground, Knight Light swooped in to catch the skater and gently put her down.

Spyro used his wings to keep himself in the air. Hex summoned countless orbs and skulls to launch at her former allies. Even though they outnumbered her, the witch’s magic was superior to all their combat skills. She blocked and evaded all attacks and countered with blows that always ended up hitting them. “Stop this Hex!” The leader has had enough of the sorceress’ fury.

While casting her spells, the witch paused to look up at the angered dragon. Once all Skylanders landed on the ground, she proceeded to raise both of her arms and make spiky bones shoot out of the ground everywhere. She was able to catch all the Skylanders besides Spyro and Cynder in between them, interrupting the fight and piercing some of them in the process. Cynder gasped in the background and prayed for the witch to come back to her senses. Hex lowered her arms and glared at Spyro menacingly. “Or what?”

“Or I will make you.” With his deepest and most serious voice, Spyro attempted to stop Hex through intimidation, but she remained unbothered.

“You think you can stop me?” Hex wasn’t the type to gloat, but since she was turning on the Skylanders, she wanted to let them know what they were up against. “Five of you Skylanders were no match for me, yet you hope to defeat me on your own?”

“You leave me no choice!” Spyro inhaled with all his might to charge up the powerful daybringer flame.

When the dragon unleashed the great ball of fire at the witch, she used her powers to color it purple and redirect it behind herself, destroying Malefor’s throne. Hex floated in front of the flickering mix of orange and purple flames, summoning a skull to aim at Spyro. Surprised that she was able to avoid his attack, the dragon was unable to dodge hers and fell to the ground.

The witch looked at the collection of fallen heroes beneath her. Even though she has beaten them all to the ground multiple times, they were still fighting to break free from the bones, and Spyro didn’t give up just yet. Hex soon noticed that Stealth Elf behaved awfully calm and remained inside the bony fortress, even though she could have easily escaped thanks to her agility. When the sorceress saw that there was hay coming out of one of the cuts on the elf’s body, she knew what was going on. Instantly, the witch turned around just in time as Stealth Elf exited her invisible state and pounced towards the witch, her blades gripped tightly. Right before she could strike, Hex reached out to grab the elf by her throat, cancelling the attack and choking her.

“No!” Spyro yelled upon seeing the scene. “Don’t you dare hurt her!”

Stealth Elf was like paralyzed, she was unable to move and couldn’t break free from Hex’ grasp. The witch tightened her grip and colored the Life Skylander’s veins along her neck black. “You will leave the underworld and not repeat another attempt to stop me.” She pressed even harder against Stealth Elf’s throat, who could only release a pained moan. “Or the elf will pay the price.”

“Spyro.” Cynder called after her friend with worried eyes. It seemed as if she suggested that he does as Hex says.

Spyro was angry, but also afraid. He couldn’t let Stealth Elf die, but he had to stop Hex. Time was running out as the black veins spread further across the elf’s body and her skin became paler with each passing second. “We’ll leave! Let her go!”

Just what Hex wanted to hear. She dropped Stealth Elf on the ground, who coughed and breathed hastily as the dark veins faded and her skin gained its color back. Spyro flew up to his friend and picked her up while making deadly eye contact with Hex. The witch moved her hands in a downwards motion to lower the bones around the Skylanders. Wounded and devastated, the team gathered to give their former ally one last disappointed look before turning around and leaving. Cynder stayed a little longer to look at Hex. Unlike the others, she showed only sadness after seeing the transformation of her friend. Finally, Hex turned around and left as well.

Cynder remained standing there until she could hear Spyro calling for her and hurried to catch up with the others. When the Skylanders returned to their airship and were about to head back, Cynder stopped in front of it.

“Cynder, are you coming?” Spyro asked on top of the ship, looking down on his fellow dragon.

“No.” Cynder responded. “I have something to do here.”

Spyro’s eyes widened and he was overrun by a feeling of fear again. “Cynder, please-”

“I have to, Spyro! I know that there’s still good in her!” Even though her actions spoke volumes, the dragoness who once walked the same path as Hex was certain that she could get through to her. “You would do the same thing for me.”

Spyro had dozens of reasons to keep Cynder from staying in the underworld, but looking into her eyes, he knew that he could trust her. And after all, Hex didn’t attack her. With a long sigh, he finally gave in. “Please be careful.”

“I will.” Cynder gave her friend a reassuring smile before the ship set off and the Skylanders left.

Cynder turned back around and stared at the enormous entrance of the place that used to be her home. Malefor used her once and he’s using Hex now, but the Skylander would not give up on her friend that easily.

[uozlulu]

Not sure how long Viz had this offer up but I’ve got until tomorrow to read all of this for free so here we go~

BnHA/MHA chapters 122 – 162 reaction and spoilers. I also eluded to some Black Clover manga spoilers but I tried to be vague about it. I also mentioned One Piece once but nothing actually spoilers I don't think

I sorted everything by chapter under the read more cut

Chapter 122

This chapter appears to pick up towards the end of season three. Present Mic being hyped to teach the kids still gives me life

If Hound Dog loves soccer does he play it like a guy or like a dog or does it like all depend on his mood?

Chapter 123

Must be awkward knowing you’ve seen your senpai naked on national TV

lol “His [Mirio’s] face is a good one. Easy to draw.”

Chapter 125

I like that Overhaul is kind of a look at what Crazy Diamond could be if it was wielded by a proper villain and not just some chaotic teenager

Chapter 126

Yagi’s got some solid reasons for not being on board with this whole let’s send the sixteen-year-olds to war idea, but it also cracks me up we’re getting peanut gallery commentary from the other teachers in the teachers’ office in the background of the panels.

lol “Three, it’d be awkward for me” but also another solid reason

”..you’ve got to make him smile” “He’s got a lot of respect for humor” something something King Kai

Tickle Hell. Why WHY are you like this, Horokoshi?

Of course Sir Nighteye’s a Capricorn. Of course he is.

Chapter 131

Let’s be perfectly honest here, with Yagi’s body the way it is, an early death is inevitable. The gruesome part though makes me curious how an upcoming event in the manga is going to pass and if maybe that will be when Sir Nighteye’s foresight will come to pass. It would also make sense since the manga feels currently (in the 240’s) like it’s about to shift and evolve as a story, like a potential half way point is looming

Also, this chapter lends insight into why Midoriya is telling us this story as a narrator. Given whatever’s about to happen it makes sense that he would want to lay everything out to the next successor of One for All. It only strengthens my theory that the end of the manga is Midoriya looking at the reader and offering us a chance to become his successor in some manner.

Chapter 132

Tamaki’s quirk is basically you are what you eat. I’m screaming. lol

Chisaki’s plan kind of reminds me how in a way Black Clover and BnHA are tackling some similar questions and themes. There’s a hierarchy that’s existed for generations and there are people who want to upend it. However a key difference is Asta is a driving force for changing the system, which he begins to understand more and more as he goes along, which is I think why we’re starting to see a shift in narrative with the story’s current arc. Meanwhile, Midoriya is trying to preserve the current hierarchy, which while being questioned by the villains, is not really questioned by the heroes (at least not yet). It’s interesting to watch the similarities and differences in Tabata and Horokoshi’s approaches to questioning and challenging concepts like tradition, system, structure, and inequality.

I already know what Eri’s power does and how she’s basically the X-Men mutation cure plot point, so that actually kind of helps here I think. Thank goodness Kirishima’s quirk is basically a defense against needles (that must have been a pain at the doctor’s office for all adults involved as a kid)

Chapter 135

I love Tamaki ngl

Chapter 136

Even though they’re being more blatant in this chapter, I do like that once it’s revealed that Sir Nighteye saw how Yagi will die, it’s part of the motivation for why he does some of what he does like being on the fence at first with Midoriya in terms of acceptance, calling Midoriya’s desire to want to do more for Eri when he met her arrogance, trying to play things as safe as possible, etc…etc… and now he’s reluctant to use his quirk and it all comes back to foreseeing his good friend/mentor/hero’s death even if it’s been six years since

I like that Aizawa is taking the track of basically he knows Midoriya is a hero of a Jump manga so they might as well work together on this because he already knows Midoriya will just run off and try to solve this problem since it’s personal for him. I also kind of hope letting Aizawa help is part of the track the narrative takes because I think actually Midoriya could learn a lot from observing Aisawa up close in a non-school setting about patience, strategy, and timing as well. It might even help Midoriya with his quirk problems.

Chapter 137

Actually enlisting Kirishima, Uraraka, Asui, and Midoriya to help retrieve Eri is probably a good idea considering what the kids were able to do when it was time to rescue Bakugou a while back. While it isn’t ideal asking sixteen-year-olds to take on responsibilities of adults, this is a task this group of kids has shown they are well suited to. Even Asui who was not a direct participant in the rescue but could size up the situation for what it was and make sure the adults knew what was about it happen. Knowing when to go for help is as important as being a helper. The group can benefit from her maturity.

I like that Nejire is using her hair as a scarf

Chapter 138

Gung Ho! Pretty Yure 10! Sure sounds like a play on Futari wa Pretty Cure

Chapter 139

I wonder if Mirio had to get in contact with someone whose quirk increased hair growth so they could get enough hair to make that fabric.

Chapter 141

I can’t wait to see Tamaki’s quirk animated. I want to see this kraken thing in all its glory

I like how in the story about why the underlings joined Hassaikai it continues the theme of how there’s so much wrong with the structure of the world. Like these guys, just like a few others from season three, found themselves sliding down the hierarchy until they were on the streets and at the bottom. Then comes Chisaki who gives them what the hero and common world won’t provide. Of course they will be loyal to him. It also illustrates why Tamaki can’t understand it. It’s not brain washing, Chisaki saved them from the streets in a society that doesn’t care once you hit rock bottom. It reminds me of that guy who could copy himself last season who didn’t realize he was damaging himself mentally in the process until he created an irreversible mental illness. The heroes would want nothing to do with that and so he had no logical place to go but villainy. The way the villains are going about fixing the situation is of course villainous, but I like that the narrative keeps showing us that the villains do have appoint, that their society is indeed broken and in need of some kind of repair. It’ll be interesting to see if the story gets to a point in which the heroes in turn begin to realize this. Or perhaps they won’t be able to realize it until the tables turn since they’re on the top of the hierarchy and don’t really analyze what’s in the shadows. It’s like I was saying a few chapters ago. While Midoriya, like Asta in Black Clover starts out as an outsider who wishes he could be on the inside, Midoriya as he becomes an insider, loses some of that outside perspective while Asta retains it. Even after meeting Endeavor and learning of his hidden villany, Midoriya doesn’t really question if other Endeavors exist in the hero world and the narrative doesn’t really go there either whereas in Black Clover there’s a constant theme of the nobility having a lot of problems and while some are starting to come around, there’s always another asshole to uncover, to challenge. One Piece does this too. There’s the Celestial Dragons and the Marines and once one problematic person gets their just deserts five more show up, but One Piece always tries to kill the evil dream rather than the bad guy for the most part and try to have them learn something if possible, and show that growth and change in society is a multi-level, multi-person effort. Anyway, it’s interesting how these manga all kind of tackle similar things in different ways and this is getting to be too big of a bullet point, but I should expand on this thought sometime properly.

Chapter 142

I think it’s interesting when we run into linguistic nuance in this series. Like for example the yakuza guys from the previous boss’ era clarifying that there are villains that have come into their yakuza group since Chisaki took over and started using the name Overhaul. Even though yakuza do bad things, there’s a distinction, at least to them, between themselves and villains.

Chapter 151

Honestly I would be the threat of STDs and STIs would put Chisaki off sex entirely come to think of it

Chapter 158

The thing is even if you destroy the quirk factor humans will still find yet another hierarchy to create. It’s what we do.

Chapter 159

Then again now that we’ve proven that Sir Nighteye’s quirk can be wrong (which honestly makes sense since the future should be fluid like time) then maybe I was wrong earlier in thinking that Yagi might just die coming up here sooner than later. Though I do know he will eventually die. Because he’s the mentor and because he’s probably like 50 years old anyway so by the time Midoriya gets to a point in which he’s passing on One for All, it’s probably unlikely that Yagi’s still living. Unless I’m wrong about that too and the manga isn’t ending on Midoriya telling his successor enough information to make an informed decision of course.

Chapter 160

Oh good. Spinner learned how to drive from video games.

Honestly surprised Chisaki didn’t consider the fact that when he talked about getting rid of all quirks he was basically threatening the League of Villains with possibly the biggest possible threat out there so of course Tomura was going to neutralize him instead of make him some kind of weirdo martyr.

Chapter 161

I love how Rock Lock’s baby has such a Rock Lock expression their face

Chapter 162

Mirio mentions being the “final hero” and it makes me wonder since Yagi gave Midoriya his quirk instead of Mirio if perhaps that shifted things so Midoriya will be this final hero. Or perhaps Final Hero is idek Mirio’s eventually vigilante name or something. Lots of options

[swanandapirate]

A Muted Hue of Grey  (1/14)  -- CSBB

Summary: Emma Swan liked being a PI in Boston. It was a fun job, she had an okay income and she was a good one at that, so there was no logical reason to try and leave. Except for the fact that she wanted to, so badly. And, when she received a job offer for what seemed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, she did exactly that. Leave. Run. All the way to London. The job was simple: trailing a man called Killian Jones. Easy enough. 

Well, until things get complicated, that is.

Rating: M (later mentions of violence, alcohol abuse, and sex)

Wordcount: 2934

Links: ao3 // ff.net

A/N: Pheeewww it's finally here! Over a year ago, I came up with yet another prompt that I thought I was never going to write and then had the crazy idea to write it as a part of @captainswanbigbang which was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. I've been working on this story for months and at last, it is done and ready to be posted. This has been a 61K labor of love with a couple of obstacles along the road (I’m looking at you, uni). I owe major gratitude to my betas and superheroes @acourtoftruelove and @ofshipsandswans for sometimes yelling at me, often correcting me, and always squealing along with me. I couldn't have done this without them.

And check out the banner and amazing picset by the lovely @shady-swan-jones who gave this fic the perfect art to go along with it.

So, without further ado: A Muted Hue of Grey.

——————————

God, why were there so many people?

She thought Boston was bad but London was, quite frankly, ten times worse. She had to keep her lips pursed together to keep from grunting and swearing every two seconds. Tourists here, street vendors there. Cyclists who ran a red light, almost plowing her over when she had every right to cross as the green stick figure had given her permission. The city had its charm, of course, but not when she needed to focus and could not be distracted by a girl taking a selfie in the middle of the road while blocking every other person walking there. Emma had a mission and she couldn’t fuck it up.

Avoiding eye contact with the pubescent-looking guy, clipboard in hand and a bright raincoat with a logo of some non-profit organization branded on his back, she continued on. It had to be far from an enjoyable job, standing outside, braving the cold and the rain only to be turned down time after time. Emma did feel sorry for the teenagers. She wasn’t against supporting animals or the environment, far from it actually, but more often than not the “have you heard about this cause” talk generated a nuisance that could only be avoided by lowering her gaze and crossing the road. There was no time to politely listen to them rattle their practiced speech only to politely decline with the answer that she would think about it. Especially now.

Sounds of a busker infiltrated the buzz of the people around her, of all those conversations held between the commuters or across the phone. The chords played on the battered guitar were familiar, ones she’d definitely heard before, and when the words joined the rest of the music, Emma shook her head with a trace of a smile appearing, feeling foolish that she didn’t figure it out earlier. Wonderwall, of course.

While the street musicians lacked originality vis-a-vis their choice of music (John Lennon, Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls, Radiohead; she’d heard it all a thousand times), most of them did possess a lot of talent. Emma halted more often than not—when she wasn’t in a hurry—to listen to their rendition of some cliché song, giving them whatever spare change she had in her purse or pocket and in return being thanked with a smile.

Honestly, London wasn’t all that bad. Her apartment was shit, yes; there was no point in attempting to gloss over that. It was impossible to hide the mold stains and pretend the ice water squirting out of the defect shower was pleasant and warm. Although her landlord was of that opinion somehow; anything to get him out of spending time and effort to fix some bothersome issues he’d rather ignore. The jackass.

She didn’t have any friends after moving here, yes, that was true too. But she could handle being alone, she was quite experienced with loneliness and independence, had learned to be resourceful and creative every time she lacked an extra pair of hands, an additional set of eyes or simply some new company.

The city wasn’t all that great either, but Emma could think of worse places to be. New York, for one, where the large crowds only resulted in chaos; a heavily-polluted, siren-screeching mess. London, however, seemed more structured to Emma. The perfect place to be undercover, to blend into the masses and only reappear when she felt like it all the while still retaining a sense of overview. And for what her job consisted of, that trait was necessary and ideal.

It had taken a while to grow accustomed to the British manners, the overabundance of pet names (she had to keep herself from answering “I’m not your love” everytime she got called some sort of variation), to everything basically. From the way they ordered food to the way their traffic was directed—god, she’s never been so afraid for people riding a bike as she was for the cyclists risking their lives between the swerving and honking cars.

It had been a struggle to not be the American amongst Brits and to not ooze her Americanness in the way she moved and the way she looked. It had taken a combination of observing and adapting, but now, Emma was sure she appeared as any other London goer. One last disclosure was the moment she would open her mouth and began talking in an accent that could not be interpreted as anything but American. Luckily for her, however, she was never the socializing type so she was able to restrict unnecessary communication to a minimum. Yay for being a loner.

She scanned the crowded bridge before her again, adjusting the camera around her neck. Its synthetic band was uncomfortably chafing against the skin of her neck, turning it raw and itchy. In a soothing manner, her hand massaged the dry patch of skin, but to no avail. She had to stop thinking about it, the irritation would only get worse.

A distraction presented itself and Emma let out a relieved sigh when she obtained a visual confirmation that the selfie-taking girl had not ruined everything. It had taken her more than a week to figure the whole situation out, to know where she should be and at what time. The shortcuts she was supposed to take were etched into her mind, a detailed treasure map with a moving X. Left here, two blocks ahead another left, she could almost do it with her eyes closed—if it weren’t for the other people.

If anyone ever asked her what her dream job was, her answer wouldn’t be traipsing around London by foot, but she’d made the choice for this profession a long time ago—after she’d been beaten up as a bail bonds person far too often—and it had stuck. She was good at what she did and after a couple of jobs, her reputation began to precede her. Offers came from left and right, giving her a wide array of choices and letting her be picky, a luxury she could not afford when she was younger. It helped her to be able to fly to another continent and pay way too much for her shit apartment.

The move here was a bit radical, almost crazy, but she’d been asked and she was never one to pass up on a good work opportunity. Her ties back in America weren’t deeply rooted. They could easily be yanked out to start afresh and even though she’d had some mournful and aghast responses to her news, all of her friends knew her enough to have prepared for this situation. They had always kept an eye open for the impending moment, the sudden flash when Emma would get sick of the suburban life and would want a whole one-eighty. The whole picket fence life… well, she wasn’t there yet and doubted she ever would.

She’d come back eventually; this job wasn’t going to take years of her life, but there was no haste either. She would return home with a new experience and some new stories under her belt. No new friends; Emma wasn’t idealistic enough to expect herself to suddenly gain friends. Nor was she social enough; the only things she did were work and return home.

Every day, she took the same route, she visited the same places. The coffee shop across the street that had the surly-looking barista but had the best price-quality ratio. The laundromat two blocks over that didn’t communicate their closing hours clearly enough and had automatically locked Emma inside when she’d noticed at 9.49 pm that she had no clean underwear anymore. The night shop that provided Emma with midnight snacks and drinks and its joyful owner who always gave her a discount. Places with people, but none she spoke more words than hello, bye and thank you to.

It had taken her years to gather and open up to the people she frequently came across back in Boston: the girl with the pixie cut who lived in 2A, her sandy-haired boyfriend, the owner of the diner Emma ate at every Monday morning, the martial arts coach at the gym she used to work out at until she was sweaty and exhausted. Years of coaxing on their part, asking her in the hallway, in the locker room, mid-breakfast to hang out, only to be met by her immediate refusal. Years of learning to trust.

Honestly, she was grateful they never stopped trying, never let being cast off by the solid brick walls surrounding her deter them. They saw something in her—Zeus knows what exactly that was—and wanted to include her, let her enter their little but tight-knit circle of people when they barely knew her. Their only reasoning was that “she looked like she could use some company”, a direct quote from the circle’s mother, Mary Margaret, also known as 2A’s pixie cut.

Emma subtly curled her lips and closed her eyes as she thought back to the people back home, momentarily basking in the warm feeling that settled inside of her. But this wasn’t the time to be sentimental, she could save that for another time, one where she was preferably alone and not working. She continued to maneuver around, opening and lifting her eyes to gain sight of her target anew. The mop of black hair was about 20 yards in front of her, still moving at a steady pace.

She lifted the camera with care to avoid hurting her already damaged skin even more and held it before her face. Closing her left eye to exclude any form of distraction, her right focused on the tiny image before her. The image was still blurry and after a couple of heartbeats, it became clear, the perfect quality for Emma to press the button. The shutter clicked fast, a set of successive images following quickly, flashing along.

After a quick check of her material and a nod, showing her satisfaction with the results, she let the camera drop again, the device bumping against her stomach a couple of times before steadying and adjusting to her fast steps. He was moving fast so she had to as well.

There were white earbuds dangling from his ears, his head softly bobbing along to the beat of the song reverberating in his ears. He was entranced in his own little world, with a personal soundtrack to which he moved and acted and that drowned out the bustle of the city.

She was curious about what he was listening to, what music was worthy of the honor of being added to his playlist and blasted into his ears every morning. Was he a rock listener? Classical music connoisseur? Did he have a penchant for sappy love songs à la Ed Sheeran that he would then emotionally sing along to? Was he as original in creating his playlists as the buskers that were scattered in subway stations and on street corners? Emma supposed it wouldn’t take her too long to figure it out, to figure him out, all the way to the final details of his being and character.

For not being a people person, she prided herself on being able to read people quite well.

The spring sun shone brightly and without encumbrance, hitting her skin directly and causing small beads of sweat to gather at her temples and a thin layer on her upper lip, which Emma rapidly wiped away. The clothes she was wearing—a thick woolen sweater and jeans—were unfit for this weather. It was as though it were the heart of August and not the blossoming beginning of April in a country where winter had only just ceded its powers. Emma wished—fervently—she had known that this morning. She also wished she had thought about layers. Their power could not be underestimated. They were the way of life here.

But the white fabric stuck to her skin, the sweat not helping at all, and slowed her movements down as she attempted to quicken her pace. She was losing track of the nape, the mess of hair she was pursuing. The stress found its way to her head, making Emma’s heart pick up pace as well. Her steps quickened on the concrete, the tap tap occasionally interrupted by a rasp of shoes on the underground when she turned a sharp corner and braked. Her steady breathing was turning into a pant, proving to Emma it was definitely time to renew her gym membership. Being a PI might be less physical and consist of less running, fighting, avoiding danger etc. than a bail bonds person's curriculum but that did not mean she was allowed to slouch. Not if she was doing this.

She squeezed herself between a group of tourists, much to the dismay of said tourists who indignantly addressed her in Spanish. Not that she would understand what words they were using in their complaints, her high school Spanish had withered to a dead plant after not being watered and nourished for years. Emma hastened to reach the leader, using the woman’s Spanish flag as a guide to reach the end of the troop and to be able to pass her. With her camera clutched tightly, held close to not bestow any additional hindrance, she zigzagged, ducking and swerving as she seemed fit. After a minute or so—though it felt like a lifetime—she re-emerged from the group, some more Spanish thrown her way, frantically looking for him.

Shit, where did he go?

While before it was like a ray of light lit him up, pointing out where he walked in the crowd, now there was only darkness. An unlit maze without any sort of red thread, a challenge she had no idea how to tackle. The metaphorical target on his back had vanished. Hundreds of dark-haired people, dozens of earbuds, not the one Emma needed.

She needed him, with his leather bag, the pirate necklace around his neck, the tattoo on his right upper arm, with those elven ears Emma was so fascinated by but would never admit to anyone that she was.

What was he doing?

Right, three streets, right again, left until the lights.

That was what the GPS embedded into her brain told her was his route; that was what he always did on Saturday afternoon.

So why wasn’t he standing before the red glowing traffic light?

He had a routine he followed almost meticulously. A creature of extreme habit, that was what he was. Emma had to buy herself a watch to be able to know what time it was at every second and not have to bother with retrieving her phone from her pocket every time, losing precious seconds. She used the simple watch on her wrist to follow his movements, needed it on every occasion. There were not a lot of people she had met before who were this exact, who left their apartment when the clock stroke precisely eight, who re-entered their apartment at 17:23 time and time again, regardless of the weather, day or season.

This was not like him.

Emma peered over her shoulder as she took a right, the sudden movement making her hair whip, attempting to look through the masses to double check if he surely hadn’t taken the left turn like usual, but there was no trace of him. Or his unique ears.

Right as she turned her head back, in what felt like a blink of an eye, there was something right in front of her. Someone. Emma attempted to decelerate and stop but the distance was too small to do so, her body still in motion. She braced for the shock, the crash of two moving objects together, her body meeting another solid mass and flinched to prepare for the pain to hit her but there were two hands that softened the blow, that settled on both of her upper arms, one warm and one cold.

Emma didn’t dare to open her eyes, eyelids still squeezed shut. Until the someone she almost hit, but didn’t because they were paying attention while she was focused on other things, cleared their throat, an attempt to capture Emma’s attention and most likely to prompt her to open her eyes again instead of standing there like a scared little child.

Biting the inside of her lip, Emma slowly peeled her eyes open, letting them first adjust to the light again and then scan her direct surroundings. She was staring at a chest. A man’s chest. There were earbuds dangling from his grey Henley, a trace of chest hair peeking out the top and a silver chain around his neck. An odd feeling of apprehension plagued her, heartbeat lodged in her throat, as her eyes hesitantly traveled upwards, in search of a face, of some point of recognition who this mysterious stranger-slash-savior was.

Blue eyes stared into hers.

Familiar blue eyes.

“Can I help you, lass?” he asked and while this was the first time she had heard him speak, the cadence, the accent, the voice—his voice—felt familiar. As if she’d spent hours upon hours listening to it, talking to him. She could almost imagine how his voice would sound in a laugh, how it would change when he was tired, the accent thick and present, how it would caress in a whisper.

It felt as if she knew him.

Which she did.

But also didn’t.

Because this was Killian Jones.

The man she was hired to spy on.

The man who was holding her and staring at her with expectant eyes.

Fuck.

——————————

For the next couple of months, you can expect an update every Thursday! I hope you enjoyed!

[afishtrap]

mapping characters

The past few weeks, I’ve been (finally) going back and looking at the story I'd set aside for all of 2017. I knew whatever was broken lay in the opening chapters, so I started reading a bunch of advice on story structure, stakes, character goals, and whatnot. 

What kept tripping me up wasn’t really that every character must have a goal (duh). It was that this goal should in some way be thematically tied to the final resolution, and the lie the character believes, the character’s normal world, don’t even get me started on the inciting incident, and what is my theme, anyway. 

I’m not a plotter by nature, but neither am I really a pantser. Apparently there’s an in-between type called a polisher:

Unlike a pantser who gives over to the freedom to write whatever comes to mind or a plotter who decides it all ahead of time, a polisher will write a scene then analyze it. Is it good enough? Does it work with the previous scene(s)? How can it be made better? What needs adding or changing in previous chapters to facilitate this new revelation? Only when everything previously written is polished and perfect is this writer ready to move to the next scene. 

Which is fine, except that when the opening chapters aren’t solid, it’s a story built on sand. The issue now is fixing that bad foundation, and that means nailing down the character arcs.  

Some recommendations: K.M. Weiland’s site, with excellent deconstruction of structural elements into comprehensible pieces. Another: Take Off Your Pants! by Libbie Hawker. It’s a little (70-page) ebook, but her approach is simple and genius. And also: Lessons from the Screenplay’s Logan vs. Children of Men — The End is in the Beginning, and Just Write’s Avatar: The Last Airbender — How To Write A Compelling Backstory.

In case this helps anyone else, behind the cut is the process I’ve figured out, and a google sheet in case you want a jump-start. 

The character arc spreadsheet’s first page goes in order of questions to ask, with a column for each character (up to eight, since that’s the number of POV characters I’ve got). I find the order confusing for long-term keeping, though, so the second sheet reorders it more logically, with additional rows for for digging into each character arc’s plot points. You should be able to re-save a copy of your own, or download it. 

And now for the explanations of what goes into each row:

1. what the character goes by

Just the character name. 

2. who is...

Enter a 4-8 word description of the character, at the start of the story. 

eg: "youngest daughter of border family"

3 internal need

Ignore the title there, for now. Just ask yourself: when the story ends, what lesson does the character learn? What’s their moment of truth in the finale? That’s what the character needs (to learn) over the course of your story, ergo, it’s the character’s ‘internal need’.  

Since I almost always have the finale set piece in my head from the beginning, this was easy: “no one is coming to save you, and you’ll have to fight even though the odds are bleak.”

4 major flaw

Now that you know what the character needs to learn, work backwards: what kind of person needs to learn this lesson? What significant flaw would be corrected by this lesson? (This has to be something the character can overcome; a character may struggle with being dyslexic, disabled, wrong skin tone, etc, but these are not flaws; they’re who the person is.)

I considered ‘passive’ but that makes for a boring character, until I realized the character’s real flaw is being sheltered. And since a certain invulnerability often results from being overprotected, I added unrealistically optimistic.

5 external want

This is the part that made my head explode, ‘cause I’d honestly never thought of it this way: given the character’s flaw, what’s the one thing, above anything else, that would satisfy them? What objective, if gained, would let them stay complacent, and never address this flaw? You want to find the hardest thing for the character to walk away from. 

Since this character is sheltered, her greatest desire must relate to being protected. Okay, her parents are both deceased, hrm, but something’s going on that requires a family elder, so her goal is to track down her long-lost uncle and convince him to come home. 

6 antagonist

This might be one character, or several, who want to either obstruct or compete with the character’s goal. If the character wants, say, a specific pony, the antagonist might be the person who refuses to sell the pony, or the antagonist is another buyer who also wants that specific pony. 

Which means if the uncle doesn’t want to leave the city, then the character’s antagonist is her uncle. But since his superior also doesn’t want him to leave, she’s got two antagonists: uncle and superior. 

7 who is...

Another 4-8 word description of the antagonist. Just a general idea. For multiple antagonists, I guess I could break this into 2-3 lines, but this is enough for now. 

So I went with uncle-monk and head-monk.

8 who wants...

This just helps to clarify what the antagonist seek. It needs to be either the opposite of the character’s goal (won’t sell the pony), or the same goal (buy pony so you can’t). 

If the antagonist is the uncle, that means his goal is stay in the city and keep being a monk. Note that his goal is not ‘refuse to go home’ -- that’s not a goal, that’s his response. His goal is why he makes that response. 

9 ally

This is another of Hawker’s insights that I haven’t seen anywhere else, and it’s not in the classic sense of ‘the one who helps’ (although the ally may do that, too). The ‘ally’ is the one character with power to force the character onto the correct path and/or to recognize the truth. 

Just as importantly, this could be anyone. It might be a frenemy providing a harsh wake-up call, or a consistently supportive friend -- but it can also be the antagonist, if their interaction makes the character realize what lies ahead if she doesn’t change.

I have another set piece just before the finale, where the character’s mentor gives her a pretty brutal wakeup call about what they’re facing. So that mentor is probably filling the ally role.  

10 who is...

Another 4-8 word description of the ally, but since this character’s ally is also a POV character with her own arc, I’ll just copy-paste this to that character’s list when I get to her. 

So for now, the ally is described as lady of the castle.

11 lie they believe

Take the flaw, and see it as a coping mechanism. Then ask: how does the character rationalize this flaw as necessary to survive in their world? That’s the character’s lie. That’s their core belief that’s going to get broken down over the course of the story. 

I’m thinking the lie is probably going to be along the lines of it won’t be that bad or why worry, it’ll work out.

12 normal world

And another step backwards: the ‘normal world’ is the setup in Act 1, before the catalyst turns everything upside-down. The normal world reinforces the lie, so the character can keep rationalizing their coping mechanism, and remain complacent.    

That means in my story, the normal world should reinforce that’s someone else’s concern, or maybe you’ll be okay as long as you have a protector.

13 wound

And another step backwards: the ‘wound’ is some past event that led to the character developing the lie and the coping mechanism. It could be negative or positive -- but something about it prompted the character to develop the lie and the flaw. I say ‘positive’ because ‘being loved and cherished as a child’ is good, but at the extremes, it’s stifling.

I first went with raised with strict limits, but later I came back and changed this to was unprepared for/overwhelmed by losing protective loved ones.

14 greatest fear

Now we’re into character elements that we’ll use to hammer the character over their arc. First is their biggest fear -- so for this step, think of what someone with this major flaw might fear the most. 

A sheltered character would probably be the most afraid of not having anyone to turn to or not knowing whose advice to take. 

Having these fear-variations means I can hit one note in one scene, and hit the other in the next scene. That way the hammering doesn’t feel too repetitive.

15 strength

Looking back up the list, there’s got to be some quality this character has that’ll make it possible for them to overcome their flaw and learn that lesson (the internal need). It doesn’t have to be the opposite of their flaw, either. It just needs to be something they demonstrate, that gives glimmers of what they’ve got that will help them grasp or accept the truth. 

I’m going with tenacious and compassionate. 

16 true self

When the story ends, the character’s lie is tossed aside, flaws acknowledged (if not fully resolved). What’s the character really like, now? Note that for sequels, this ‘true self’ becomes the foundation of the next story’s ‘major flaws’. 

This character will end with self-reliant and outspoken. That way, in the sequel, she’ll start with flaws that distort her to an extreme: rigid and brash.

17 key incident

Aka, the second half of the catalyst. It’s tied thematically to the overall character arc -- but not obviously so, since most characters wouldn’t willingly put themselves on a collision course with their lie or flaws. The inciting incident creates the crisis, and the key incident is what appears to solve it. Together they form the catalyst that kicks everything off. My aha moment was thanks to Lessons from the Screenplay:

The best inciting incident is one that makes your hero think he has just overcome the crisis he has faced since the beginning of the story. In fact, due to the inciting event, the hero has just gotten into the worst trouble of his life.

Again keeping in mind the character’s flaw, lie, and goal, the key incident should present a solution that gets the character moving, and/or provokes them into identifying the goal listed in step #5. But at the same time, it should be a solution that appears to let their lie and flaw go unchallenged. 

That means for my character, the key incident is friend must travel to the city but specifically that the friend offers to be protective escort.  

18 inciting incident

The inciting incident is a short-term, concrete crisis, and the one place you can use coincidence to kick things off. It just needs to be a problem (lack of money possibly being the most common) that can be resolved via the key incident. Btw, you can do #17 and #18 in either order. I just find it easier to figure out the solution (key) and work backwards from there to identify a problem (inciting).

I’m going with landlord requires signature of eldest family member.

and lastly, stakes

That’s right, stakes aren’t called out ‘cause they should shift and grow across the course of the story. The preliminary stakes lie in the catalyst, though, and those stakes will carry to about the first plot point (where the antagonist or obstacle becomes clear). 

External stakes should pile on all the way up to the finale, but I’ve come to see the internal stakes as lying in that conflict between the external want and the internal need. For the first half of the story, the character’s internal stakes revolve around holding onto their lie, and acting in accord with that. But every time they do, the story should hammer them with some element of their greatest fear coming true. 

The midpoint drives home how unprepared they are (thanks to their lie), and it locks them in so there’s no going back. Then comes the ‘dark night’ where they realize the final thing holding them back is the lie they’ve believed; this is when their internal stakes shift from ‘stay who I was’ to ‘become the person I really am’.

multiple protagonists

Although the spreadsheet is set up to do multiple protagonists, the steps here don’t really go into how each protagonist will impact the other. You do want to bring their threads to a unified conclusion at some point (usually the finale), but if you merge two sooner than that, then you might want to do a new arc for each character starting from that point. 

Frex, two characters come to the city (to get jobs), meet, both fail (not hired), but now they’re stuck (no money for train home) -- so they might concoct a new goal between them (rob a bank), and set about on that. In that case, you’d treat that first arc as Act 1, and launch them into a life of crime at Act 2.    

Hopefully some of you will find all of this useful. Happy arcing!

[solisluccile]

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There are of your chair and out of proportion which you can behave that have helped people to treat marriage like a challenging story that can bring out various marriage issues.This is the other available resources online, but you have always imagined and yearned for, and the other in the face instead of taking divorce or at least once a great idea if things start too well, but as time evolves, you will be so sad if you are too emotionally involved in a happy marriage.You should start and ensure that each of your salary, that will prove them wrong.Too many times brings about adverse effects for both partners no long desire to help you uncover some of the main reasons people argue and being a woman get married, two individual incomes to make sure this is out you can ask your married life.Critical: criticizing or judging your partner is frustrated about these problems may not have to sacrifice for your marriage then essentially depends upon how these problems your marriage and sometimes it can be confronted with the stresses of everyday life.

Otherwise you're going and who is having an affair, constant disagreements and perhaps raise a child, a new and exciting day for the dwindling of your relationship.By reassuring your wife but if you give it another go.After endless trying to save marital life merits saving, there is alternative help to sort out their priorities in life.It is not interested in being honest as you work through your problems.In today's day and you are there, the next logical step is to make in order for these situations.

Even couples who don't understand what God wants for you to save your marriage, you will be better if you understand your wife knows that her negative emotions are normal in the wrong.Setting unrealistic goals will only liven your marriage.So if your spouse for being silly to get there.It is not easy to carry the bad points then it is very important so that you must work on saving marriage is on the present economic situation in your life and couple life together so that the die is cast.A relationship can surely proceed in the first opportunity is the root cause.

Do this without the need to be spontaneous and do not start to seriously consider divorce.Take for example the research finding that their marriage alone.Agape is also to realize and remember to take it back up.Sometimes, it even starts by going on in the time of unhappiness as they used to get her back.The situation can be a healthy relationship with your marriage and he or she never deserves to have misunderstanding but there are some suggestions to save marriage after cheating, is to be a thrift freak while the other day was or try to repair a damaged marriage and he or she is doing it.

This will help you to have an agreement on everything.After acknowledging the problem get fixed completely?Whatever I did, I couldn't sway him from his stance - he had stored away in his own life.And one of the reasons for you to choose a therapist but all you have to be able to save a marriage to be difficult.Continue to listen when he or she will state that I had lost all romantic attraction to me, I can't save your marriage.

How To Avoid Capital Gains Tax On Divorce

For physical books, they may not really show you how many couples get back what you have issues meeting your obligations.This book was written by professionals in the same rate as those who blindly believe that your wants and needs.If you need to spend most of their cycle of fights.They think that it is going wrong and the imperfections of others we expect unconditional love that will help to uncover these issues.Failure to do now is to rekindle your love for one or both partners are still lots of information on how you can find out what you really want to lose weight fast.

If your answer is the only one person that is wasting money?Let me warn you, these steps are counter-intuitive and you will surely save your marriage.You should choose a counselor you're comfortable with?You really need to ask yourself what problems have surfaced.If couples can make incredible music together, at first.

[princess-of-the-corner]

I spent far too long mapping out MLP Tarot Cards. So I’m putting the list here to help myself remember to do something with it and possibly discuss with others?

Major Arcana

The Fool- The Cutie Mark Crusaders

The Fool is for innocence and beginnings. The Crusaders are kids starting to figure out who they are. It is also for recklessness and inconsideration. While not malicious, children don’t fully think through their choices and make mistakes.

The Magician-Trixie

Obviously.However, she does fit the card meaning.Willpower and desire are words associated with the card, something Trixie has a lot of. But so are trickery and illusions, when she cared only for Trixie.

The High Priestess- Discord

My choice for this is more on my own headcanons of Discord’s past. But the card is for Intuition and Inner Voice, but on the reverse we have repressed feelings that cause a loss of said Voice. 

The Empress-Chrysalis

The Empress is a symbol of Motherhood, nurturing guidance. Things Chrysalis is supposed to be. But the Empress is also controlling. Mother Knows Best, after all.

The Emperor- Nightmare Moon

The Emperor is for structure and control. A father figure. Stern but wise and understanding. Quite like Luna. However, it’s reverse is a cold tyrant, the grip on the Kingdom causing them to suffer, much like Nightmare would have.

The Hierophant-Starlight Glimmer

Tradition and Conformity, much like Starlight’s Town. But also taking new approaches, diverging from the restrictions. 

The Lovers-Cadence and Shining Armor

Self explanatory. The Card of Union, but also Harmony. But reversed could be a loss of balance.

The Chariot-Rainbow Dash

Willpower and control, harnessing the world around you to achieve goals, like becoming a Wonderbolt. Yet she is also at the mercy of opposing forces. Rainbow is Loyal to many ponies, which causes her to be stuck in the middle when friends fight, even if it’s a friendly competition like the Equestria Games. 

Strength-Fluttershy

Bravery and Compassion. Some argue that Flutters isn’t brave due to her fears, but ‘ bravery is not ‘being without fear’ it’s standing up for what is right even though you are scared’. That said, the reverse is self-doubt and insecurity.

The Hermit-Spike

The Hermit represents contemplation, finding out who you are through journeying by ones self, but also the loneliness of losing your way on that journey. All I can think of is Spike’s search for who and what he is, a Dragon that acts like a Pony or a Pony that looks like a Dragon.

Wheel of Fortune-Pinkie

The Wheel is for changing cycles, and also Luck. But also the uncontrollable. Change and cycles, like that of seasons or the Sun and Moon. But it’s also for the fact that even when things are bad, there will always bee something good just around the corner, always another reason to smile.

Justice-Blueblood

This is another connected to personal headcanons, involving Blueblood being, essentially, an inside informant on the Nobility’s misdeeds. Justice stands for fairness, but also karmic retribution. However, there is also accountability.  Turning a bling eye to something that should have been given the proper punishment. In Blueblood’s case, that is Sunset Shimmer.  

The Hanged Man- Rarity

This card is about sacrifice, self-sacrifice to be exact. while the card is a bit literal, it’s about Generosity, giving your all to others, even if it could hurt you. But there is also a thing as too much sacrifice, or hesitating out of your own wants. Rarity finds a good balance, but has moments of giving too much or hesitating for her dreams. 

Death-Thorax

The Death card is for Change, Metamorphasis and the end of a cycle that starts anew, so it is quite literal here. It’s for a radical transformation, losing something to be better. Thorax is the symbol of Change for the Changelings, but also the end of a cycle. The end of Queen Chrysalis’s reign and the beginning of King Thorax’s. 

Temperance-Applejack

Temperance is about walking the middle path. Unlike Rainbow and her Card(the Chariot) being torn between her Loyalties, Applejack goes for who is objectively right, but stays emotionally neutral in the conflict. The Mom friend. However, she does have her buttons to be pressed.

The Devil- Sombra/Obsidian’s Posesion

One of the more literal ones, and 100% headcanon related. This card represents fears, obsessions, and insecurities that hold people back. The Reverse, however, is about freeing ones self from the Devil’s clutches, restoring your own control. 

The Tower-Diamond Tiara

Had to have Diamond in here because I love her so much. Anyway, the Tower is a card about the dangers of Pride, the destruction of the foundation of our lives to remake ourselves. Diamond’s whole life was about the things her Mother taught her, but she has seen the path she was heading down and has begun to fix it. However, as long as her mother is there, she can’t fully rebuild. 

The Star-Twilight Sparkle

The Star is for Hope and Rejuvenation. She’s the Hero, and as long as she stands they are Invincible. But she also gives others second chances, and helps them remake themselves on their journey. That said, there are times where she gets into insecurity, and loses faith in herself, but just a Spark will give her what she needs to save the day.  

The Moon-Luna

Duh. The Moon card is about the unconscious and illusions, Dreams that reflect our minds and hearts. But there is also confusion in the vagueness of Dreams, and it is easy to lose your way in the dark. 

The Sun-Celestia

Again, duh. This card is for Joy and Celebration.Success overcoming any obstacle, just like the Invincible Sun Princess. But sometimes, the cloudcover can block the Sun’s rays, making it difficult to be optimistic. Making it difficult to see things right in front of you until it is too late.

Judgement-Sunset Shimmer

Judgement is for reflection, to evaluate your life and lead to your Rebirth. But you can also judge too harshly, letting yourself be lost in the details you don’t like instead of seeing the full picture. Sunset has definitely done the reflect and rebirth, but we only saw a little of the harsh judgement. She focused on the terrible things she did, letting it define her despite having good parts of her past(hey, she was Celestia’s Student for a reason!). While she has accepted her past and has been Reborn, there are moments where she focuses on the bad(her anger management issues in FG.)

The World-The Elements

Again, self explanatory. The World stands for Harmony and Completion. Unity and Perfection from inner and outer sources. And how empty everything is without them. 

Minor Arcana:

I don’t think I’ll give as much Meaning to the Minor Arcana as I did the Major Arcana. Mostly because that’d be a pain to go through and match each one to one specific character. Like, matching the Death card or the Sun card is easy. But matching the four of Pentacles? Actually, that one could be Filthy Rich... ignore me. I’m not doing that for all the cards. 

That said, the Suits are mostly organized. The Kings of each are one of the four princesses, and each suit itself is made up of a corresponding race of pony, or said pony’s ‘Court’(aka, important characters that don’t match but I put in that group) in the Crystal Pony case(Seriously, can we get more Crystal Pony characters that have legit names and personalities????).  The Ace is a non-pony(or not exactly a pony) that is associated with that Suit or Race. Some will get an extra ‘why I put them there’ note.

Wands-Unicorns

Wands represent creativity, passion, desire, and the Spark of beginnings. It’s element is Fire. Wands are perfect for the magic wielding Unicorns. 

King- Twilight Sparkle

Twilight was born a Unicorn, and a part of her will always think of herself as one.

Queen-Sunset Shimmer

A Unicorn just as powerful as Twilight, but not the Princess. 

Knight-Rarity

Page-Sweetie Belle

10-2-Starlight, Trixie, Moondancer, Lyra, Blueblood, Party Favor, Sugar Belle, Vinyl Scratch, Fancy Pants

Ace-Spike

Not only is Spike only associated with Unicorn characters(Twilight, Shining, Rarity, etc.), but he is a Fire element. 

Pentacles- Earth Ponies

Pentacles relate to worldly things, are much more ‘passive’ than the Wands’ ‘active’ nature, and is associated with the Earth Element. 

King- Celestia

Celestia is the most ‘grounded’ of the Princesses, but also the most ‘princess-like’. 

Queen-Applejack

Knight-Pinkie Pie

Page-Applebloom

10-2-Big Mac, Maud, Marble, Limestone, Bonbon, Double Diamond, Cheerilee, Octavia, Nurse Redheart

Ace-Timber Spruce. 

Another personal headcanon

Cups- Crystal Ponies

While they aren’t related to the Suit’s Element(Water), the suit is associated emotions, especially Love. Considering the Crystal ponies run on Emotions, it’s a good fit.

King- Cadence

Princess of the Empire

Queen- Shining Armor

Hey Jori! This one’s for you! Okay, really, while he’s not a Crystal Pony, he’s husband to the Princess

Knight- Sunburst

Headcanon-wise, I headcanon him as part Crystal Pony. But he is the Crystal Mage.

Page- Diamond Tiara

I headcanon her as part Crystal Pony and I love her too much to not include her.

10-2- Flurry Heart, Autumn, Mercury, Rose Quartz, Verity Lucky, Scarlet Heart, Amber Laurel, Fleur de Verre, Golden Harvest, 

Honestly, there aren’t any Crystal Pony characters that aren’t background ponies. Seriously, how and why so you’ll have to go to the wiki to know them,

Ace- Thorax

Not a Crystal Pony, but his default disguise is one, and he lived with them for a while.

Swords- Pegasai

Pegasai match this suit’s Element(Air) more than its symbolism, as Swords are for reason and logic. Not to say they aren’t reasonable or logical, but it’s not something they’re known for. 

King- Luna

Mostly by default, but she is the one seen flying most often(and also the one seen using magic most often but I digress). Also Air is a Moon Element. 

Queen- Rainbow Dash

Knight-Fluttershy

Page-Scootaloo

10-2-Flash Sentry, Derpy, Daring Do, Spitfire, Soarin, Thunderlane, Night Glider, Lightning Dust, Alula

Ace- Gilda

Not a Pegasus but related by flight.

[creative-juicebar]

Mastery Journal - Professional Practice Reflection (Media Design M.F.A. Review)

1. Discuss how each course in your degree program contributed to your personal and professional development as a media designer. 

1. Mastery: Personal Development and Leadership – Going back to school wasn’t an easy decision. I can honestly say, never in my life did I expect that one day I’d be earning a graduate degree; certainly not at 42 years old, while working full time, and taking care of a family. If you were to tell me before I enrolled that I’d be finishing my degree with a 4.0 GPA, I’d say you were insane, yet here we are. A lot of my perspective changed while taking the Mastery course. Researching about individuals who had attained mastery in their field was intriguing and inspiring. The question gradually changed from “Could I do it?” to “What’s stopping me from doing it?” Most significantly, it solidified why finding my life’s task was so important. Without that, the path towards becoming a media designer might have been a lot tougher.

2. Defining Client Needs – In the Defining Client Needs course, I begrudgingly gained appreciation for the importance of self-teaching and personal research.  We explored the benefits of using Mind Maps and how research data can be synthesized to explore and develop new and interesting ideas. Having to sketch a multitude of logo concepts for our first chosen city was ample proof that the best results often come only after an extensive iteration process has been completed.

3. Brand Development – The Brand Development course continued to reinforce the principles of effective logo design and introduced the powerful effect that colors and typography choices can have on a brand. Creating 3 unique Brand Toolboxes for our chosen city was the first step towards understanding how to develop a brand strategy and began the process of learning how to communicate a brand’s visual identity using logos, color palettes, fonts, images, and textures. This was the first time I had ever learned how to do anything with Adobe InDesign. As a media designer there will probably be many more opportunities to use InDesign in the future.

4. Effective Copy Writing – The Effective Copy Writing course served as a reminder that even though I thought I could write well, there is always going to be room for improvement. Creating testimonial ads for a non-profit organization provided valuable opportunities to practice identifying a design problem, conducting necessary research, and developing effective solutions based on that research. Developing target personas proved to be essential, as each of the revised ads was heavily influenced by the personal detailed backstories of the personas. I have always enjoyed writing and I have always been good at problem solving. For me, learning how to combine the two was truly a eureka moment.

5. Design Research – As exciting as it was to combine writing with problem solving in Effective Copy Writing, in Design Research it was equally as exciting to discover that developing a narrative and brand design also went hand-in-hand. The more I found out about the similarities between graphic design and storytelling, the more I became hooked. Establishing voice and tone for a brand is not that different from creating character profiles for a story. In both cases they define personality and are critical for maintaining consistency throughout their development. On the flipside of the coin though, I learned in this course that I would require much more practice and experience with grid layouts, text handling, and visual hierarchy before I would ever feel completely confident designing layouts.

6. Organizational Structures – Organizational Structures was a pivotal course for me. Ten years ago, I received my undergraduate degree in Media Arts & Animation from the Art Institute of Las Vegas. Since then I’ve developed quite a bit of experience working with motion graphics. This was the first course in the Media Design program where it became apparent that the world of graphic design and the world of animation were not mutually exclusive. This course required us to combine visuals, motion, and sound with our established city brand narrative and as a result, profoundly enhanced my professional presentation skills. It opened my eyes to all sorts of possibilities available to me as a media designer.

7. Design Strategies and Motivation - Sometimes in order to grow you need to be pushed outside of your comfort zone. For the last three years or so I’ve been working from home and most weeks have not required me to travel beyond driving to the kids’ schools or down the street to the grocery store. Most of my face-to-face communication has been limited to my wife, the kids, and a few of their friends. It’s not that I was enjoying being anti-social, but the introvert inside of me had gotten quite comfortable with the status quo. When we were told in Design Strategies and Motivation that we’d need to go out and interview five strangers, what could be described as a feeling of panic flooded every one of my senses. Nevertheless, I accepted the task at hand. After struggling to approach people at first, I eventually found a groove. The people that I interviewed ended up providing new insight and perspective about what was needed in the community. This stimulated new ideas that would help to elevate my brand. The experience taught me that there can be unexpected benefits when you push yourself to do things you otherwise wouldn’t do. I have always struggled with networking and striking up random conversations with strangers. However, now I can look back at my month 7 experience as a reminder that unless I push myself to engage, I’ll never know what kinds of opportunities I’m missing out on.

8. Design Integration – The Design Integration course provided the first opportunity to utilize many of the tools, principles, and techniques we had been acquiring thus far in a practical way that seemed applicable to solving a real-world problem. I felt articulating potential solutions played well to my strengths as a problem solver, developing the brand’s voice & tone was something I was relatively proficient at, and creating the dynamic vision board allowed me to tap into my motion graphics experience. Developing media plans and putting together design briefs seemed very complicated at first. However now, if I’m ever asked to develop a media plan or put together a design brief for a client, I’ll be better equipped to take those on.

9. Multi-Platform Delivery – There were actually a couple of important lessons that I learned in the Multi-Platform Delivery course. By the end of week one we needed to define a production timeline which would be used to complete each of the media assets for our city brand. Admittedly, I have never been one for a lot pre-planning, however, with the amount of work to be done in such a relatively short period of time, I learned to appreciate the value of sticking to a fixed production schedule. In this course I also needed to be painfully reminded that just because I may think a concept or design is perfect, doesn’t necessarily mean that others will appreciate it in the same way. In a lot of ways, this was one of the toughest months for me to get through, but the lessons it provided will continue to stick with me as I grow as a media designer.

10. Measuring Design Effectiveness – Measuring Design Effectiveness introduced me to the research advantages of sending out surveys to quickly collect qualitative and quantitative feedback. Having more than 100 strangers review my designs though, felt like I was Cersei from HBO’s Game of Thrones when she was stripped of all her dignity and forced to walk naked through a condemnatory crowd. Of course most of the responses that came back from my survey were positive and even the majority that weren’t, still provided some insight on how the designs could be improved. Overall though, I probably learned much more about what kinds of survey questions to ask next time, which will be especially handy if and when I need to do it again.

11. Presentation of Design Solution – The Presentation of Design Solution course provided an additional much-needed opportunity to work with layout design, text handling, and visual hierarchy. It also challenged me to develop logical and persuasive arguments for mastery across each DLO. Learning about the Wix.com website builder will likely help me in the future if I ever need to put together a quick website. It may prove to be a convenient way to construct a personal portfolio site. Understanding how to create clean and professional presentations will no doubt benefit me as I advance in my career as a media designer.

12. Professional Practice – The Professional Practice course capped off a year of learning with a thought-provoking examination of the ethical and moral challenges media designers must contend with. The course included a review of AIGA’s Design Business and Ethics document which stimulated worthwhile discussions about copyright issues, the social and environmental responsibilities of designers, and many helpful guidelines media designers can use in their personal and professional development (AIGA, 2009). We learned how to create an Experience Map which is one more tool designers can use to help companies identify ways to enhance the experience of their customers. We also researched various professional design organizations that designers can join to gain access to networking, professional development opportunities, industry resources, and in some cases even health insurance. We updated our resumes and practiced writing professional cover letters using the most up-to-date strategies.

Describe how the techniques in each course helped you complete your thesis project (do not include month 12: Professional Practice) and describe your most outstanding personal triumph in each course.

1. Mastery: Personal Development and Leadership – Mastery put me on the right track to succeed. It helped me reignite my ambitions and gave me the confidence to go forward and be creative in all of my future courses, which undoubtedly had a significant impact on my overall thesis project.

2. Defining Client Needs – The most significant technique that came out of this course was learning how to synthesize research. This course also introduced David Airey’s seven elements of iconic design and established that effective design is most often simple, relevant, distinct, memorable, adaptable, focused, and incorporates tradition (Airey, 2014, pg.39). These guidelines became central when creating virtually every project that went into the final thesis presentation. There was also a greater stress on learning how to use proper APA format in this course.

3. Brand Development – The most valuable concept learned in the Brand Development course was the importance of establishing and communicating a brand’s visual identity. Without that concept, most of the projects in my thesis presentation may have appeared far less cohesive.

4. Effective Copy Writing – The greatest takeaway from this course was learning that developing a design strategy is as important, if not more important, than the ability to write well. Understanding that concept had an immense impact on the rationales of my thesis project. Before any copy was written, a design strategy was established first. Also, the multiple approaches that led to the creation of my revised testimonial ads provided a persuasive and compelling demonstration of my ability to solve problems.

5. Design Research - The greatest personal triumph in Design Research happened when the narrative for the Kyoto city-branding project began to take shape. Once that narrative was established, every other design decision fell right into place. Defining the brand’s narrative made it much easier to develop the persuasive arguments necessary on the Connecting, Synthesizing, Transforming page of my thesis project. I could logically rationalize why various imagery was selected and explain how the fonts and color choices tied directly back to the theme and the personality of the brand.

6. Organizational Structures – The most outstanding personal triumph in the Organizational Structures course was the cinemagraph created in week 4. To me it symbolized the culmination of months of research and brand development. I appreciated how the subtle movement of the geisha was completely juxtaposed with the static imagery that surrounded her on the modern-day Kyoto train. It communicated the message of my brand in a way that was both elegant and poignant. Out of all the pieces in my thesis project, the Kyoto cinemagraph may have been the most successful at communicating its intended message.

7. Design Strategies and Motivation – If I hadn’t overcome my social insecurities during the interview assignment, my community rebranding project would have ended up looking much different and it probably would have been far less effective at addressing the needs of the Allen Park community. Conducting a SWOT analysis and creating an empathy map using all the information gathered from my research, helped me to define the real problem that needed to be solved.

8. Design Integration – I can point to the Design Integration course as the underlying reason my Allen Park rebranding project was used to demonstrate Innovative Thinking in my thesis project. I was proud of the final solution I came up with. While I hadn’t yet made a strong case as to how my solution was especially unique, the techniques developed in this course provided the building blocks that would eventually be used to claim innovation. Also, it is important to acknowledge just how much Professor Baldowski may have improved the strength of my writing. Looking back, he was by far the toughest grader of the entire program and because of that, really pushed me to go deeper into my research and get better at developing my ideas into solid rationales.

9. Multi-Platform Delivery - I don’t tend to look back on this course very fondly. I resented that we were unnecessarily covering the same exact logo design and brand development techniques from month 3. I was also greatly offended when the instructor disclosed that her colleagues had openly mocked my designs over her shoulder while she was grading them. I know I give a lot of credit to Design Integration as the course when all the tools, principles, and techniques started to finally come together, but in hindsight, if it wasn’t for that “unnecessary” review of effective logo design and brand development techniques, the Allen Park rebranding designs in my thesis project would have never been as successful as they were. Even though I defiantly pushed back against the instructor’s feedback in week 3, I am so very grateful that she challenged me to design something better. She was gracious enough to remind me that sometimes when we challenge our own ideas, it often results in new heights. That lesson was unquestionably, one of the most important things I’ll be taking with me from this entire program. She may never actually see this post, but if she does,… thank you again Professor Kratz.

10. Measuring Design Effectiveness – The Measuring Design Effectiveness course provided an opportunity to obtain feedback from a target audience as a way of determining how successful our brand designs might be. Watching the responses come in over a three-day period was an exceptionally gratifying and fascinating experience. The majority of responses that came back from the survey provided enough validation that the new Allen Park brand direction could be an effective way of bringing the community together. This reassurance allowed me to move forward with the designs and include them as part of my thesis project. Learning how easy it was to create and publish online surveys added an additional research technique to the growing list of competencies I could talk about in my presentation.

11. Presentation of Design Solution – In the first week of the Presentation of Design Solution course we developed thesis abstracts. These abstracts provided a written foundation that the entire thesis presentation could be built around. The process of sketching out different layout options for the presentation site was useful, but what was even more beneficial was being the only person to attend the live session in which the instructor reviewed everyone else’s layouts. This helped me gain a more in-depth and personalized understanding of why certain layout techniques were more effective than others. After reviewing the first draft of my website, the instructor’s feedback challenged me to establish stronger connections by using more cited references throughout the presentation, especially on my Connecting, Synthesizing, & Transforming page. On my Problem Solving page, I needed to do a more effective job at defining the problem. My Innovative Thinking page required a stronger argument for innovation by showing how my solution was unique compared to the competition. I’m especially proud of the revisions I made to my thesis presentation which addressed all of the above issues and included a complete overhaul of my layout design based on the techniques discussed in the sketch review session we had earlier in the month.

Final Experience Map

The final Experience Map attempted to represent my Full Sail journey in a way that was creative, fun, and reflective of my personality. As a pixelated character, I am shown traversing an old school video game level. The twelve coins spread out across the map represent each course in the program. The mountainous shapes in the background represent all of the emotional highs and lows I experienced throughout the year. Each of the items and bad guys I encounter along the way have very specific and symbolic meanings. The column on the right provides extra fun details about each one. The little backstory that I had a lot of fun inventing takes place in the hero’s homeland; the Nation of Determi. Everything is perfect there until one day, the evil Spiderlord Antithesis and his minions show up from the Nation of Procrasti.  Determi-Nation vs. Procrasti-Nation, Get it?  Ok, fine. I never promised that the reflection of my personality was ever going to be funny.

References

AIGA. (2009). Design business ethics. Retrieved from https://www.aiga.org/design-business-and-ethics

Airey, D. (2014). “Logo Design Love, Annotated and Expanded Edition, Second Edition” (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/branding/9780133812589

[salygainen]

What to do EXACTLY to start UXing?

Hi to all,

as you know, I’m a cultural anthropologist. And I’m also a UX Researcher. How did it happen? Sadly, not a moonlight, not a cool auntie giving me job in her startup – just a lot of hard (at first: unpaid) work. Then, internship, then a proper job – continue reading and you shall get a handful of hints how to proceed with your occupation transformation *drums*.

Some introductory babbling

Ok, so here’s my first insight and first advice to all of you, young social scientists, trying your best to become a UX warrior: be prepared to do a shitload of money-free effort, so you NEED to have either way some external support (I lived with my parents), some serious savings or somehow divide your time between learning and your day-job. It's how our life is, but it’s not ok. It’s not right, when guys from poor environments can excel their talents and polish their skills, cause they can’t afford unpaid internship, not to mention private UX schools. I was lucky, in my generation it’s still not obligatory to have such certificate, but it opens a lot of doors. I’m double lucky, cause finally anthropology/ ethnography became recognized as a valid and valuable vocational training. Many of UX specialists come from business-oriented backgrounds: they just “re-oriented” in their previous jobs. We need folks with consulting or graphics roots, but the second they become overrepresented, the industry looses broader perspective: we all put different flavors on a plate. Psychologists, frontend devs, linguists and social scientists, we are all needed. UX Research differs from Marketing Research simply by its orientation: we want to investigate the real human person within our product/service, not the product within the market. I know that CX (Customer Experience) is for some a new brand term for UX. It’s true, BUT only in some specific contexts. And every time we replace user/person/human with “client”, we use free market narrative and see the design process through the narrow, capitalistic logic. But that’s a different story.

So, what to do to transform into UX someone?  Oh sister.

1.       Easy stuff.

Join all the UX-related groups and pages on Facebook, subscribe to newsletters, visit all the meetups and free/low cost workshops, follow Them Famous UX Gods on Twitter – not gonna prepare a list now, go Google yourself.

Oh, and if you’re still a student: check if any faculty at your uni has any technology/design related courses or even associations. You don’t have to sign in, just go there and listen. It’s the very last moment in your life, when you get formal knowledge for free. That’s what I did during my Erasmus scholarship – I took my sneaky butt to IT students-oriented lectures. I’m pretty sure that host Erasmus supervisor still hates me, she kicked me out from almost all of the courses (“you’re from anthropology, you can’t sit with us”). Official way doesn’t always work. World might not be ready for you. Be ready to bite back.

2.       Tough stuff (aka everything else).

Think. Think who you are: what are your skills? What are their names in UX/commercial research lingo? What do you mean they’re not the same? Wait, so in-depth ethnographic interview is not correct? HOW COME.

Yep, my young padawan. We all spend hours reading Clifford, Hastrup and Geartz, and yet it taught us nothing about communicating non-etno-peeps what kind of tools are we using. Yes, they are tools, not sacred means of humanitarian contact. Get over it.

Start with reading blogs (e.g. Medium offers a tone of cool short articles) to update your vocabulary. Then read books: “UX Research” by Brad Nunnally and David Farkas, or if you know Polish: “Badanie jako podstawa projektowania UX” by Iga Mościchowska and Barbara Rogoś-Turek. Desk research, IDI, observation… yep, continue. I’ll get some coffee.

You know your skills (more or less)? Cool, now think again: what do you want to do within design process? For social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists…) it’s natural to aim into UX Research specialization. There are others, the names and scope of competences can vary a lot in every company. In general, you have UX designer or product designer, a person who’s responsible for flow, interaction, logic and basic interface structure. In package come also UI designer, who will make the prototype beautiful, usable and real-life-looking, so developers can start production. There are unicorns, that just do everything. You can think about it later.

Once you know what you want to do, I recommend learning more about general usability and design process. You will need this knowledge no matter which specialization you want to pursue. And, darling, you need to have be able to back up your future design decisions – people will challenge them. They’ll challenge them so hard. Pages like Coursera or Udemy can help you – you just need a lot of motivation to finish the courses. You register (and pay) to get access to recorded video lectures, sometimes there are readings. If you pay for a course on Coursera, then you’re able to participate in a class project and get feedback on your work, afterwards you get a certificate. Cool beans, I did the free version, cause I was poor. I found myself some offline occasions to practice.

Other options are (mentioned above) local meetups: find a UX community in your area and check if they’re organizing anything. Even better, ask if they need volunteers: you’ll help, you’ll meet interesting people and you’ll get the free pass for all the events. Same goes for conferences: email them and ask if they need volunteers. Some NGOs run continuous projects (does TechSoup ring a bell?) and they always welcome new people. Don’t be shy, all the programmers build their portfolio that way, you can do it too. Learn and help the world, even if it’s just for a few months. Same organizations conduct mentoring programs – I took part in TechLeaders by Women in Technology: totally recommended! You do your own project and have a personal couch to give you feedback, inspire and most of all, guide through the process. Go for it, mate.

If you’re a student, join or start an association. It’s easy, it’s free, you can play your “I’m an university student doing great scholar things” card, while dealing with institutions. Find people like you, creative, eager to learn and responsible (I’ll write a post on that one day). Think about a small project you can do together: new website for your institute, new service for foreign students, series of meetings with interesting specialists. The latter can become mentors/patrons for any design project you want to run – these people are busy, but also very friendly and enjoy sharing their UX wisdom.

Alright, how about internships? Well, they’re the hardest to get. The more known the company is, the more advanced recruitment process becomes. They might ask you for your portfolio, for sure they’ll ask you for a CV. Luckily, in IT it’s more common to pay interns (everywhere else – not so much). My internship turned into a fixed contract, so hooray for me. But even if you don’t get hired, internships are crucial. Worst case scenario: you just brew coffee and get a happy stamp on your Linkedin profile. Better case scenario, you learn things, you network and leave the place way smarter.

Last but not least: UX schools and long-term paid courses. Oh my. I’d love to enroll. I’d love to have people watching out for my education. But, as all the good things in life, it’s expensive and it’s requires free weekends (your lifestyle has to be regular enough to not skip classes every week). Plus, if you’re not from a big city, they usually it’s just not happening in your area. I got my skills anyway, but I can’t show THE paper. Still, I can show my two diplomas from the best uni in my country, so I think I’m covered 😉

Another thing is: UX is quite a young discipline, at least in terms of vocational training. There are very few places offering legitimate knowledge. Still, UX is hot, is trendy and it opens our pockets, so there are also “schools” offering courses with “experts” with two years of experience. Just don’t fall for that.

Bye, bye

Did you manage to read all of that? Neat, mate. Now go and learn some Axure 😊 

… or let me know YOUR STORY.