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amphibious-entity · 3 years

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TMBS Book 1 Brain Dump

~An Embarrassingly Long Post~

I don’t know why I’m writing this or why I’m so determined to do it. Maybe to finally assume my true form and become a mega dork on main, or maybe just for fun!

This is basically a compilation of all the main points running through my head after reading The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) for the first time. Rather than posting a ton and spamming the tag, everything’s here in one neat package! (hopefully this gets it all out of my system rip)

Contents:

The Book Itself

The Book Itself, for real this time

The Characters

A Funny Parallel

The S.Q. Section

Lines & Scenes I Liked

Spoilers abound!

The Book Itself

Upon acquiring the first three books (don’t judge me pls), I was surprised at just how long they are. Like, they’re still pretty light being paperbacks and all, but these books are hefty lads.

The first book has this Disney+ Original Series circle thing printed on it, which is kind of unfortunate. Regardless, I love the cover illustration and yellow is actually my favorite color :D It made me weirdly quite happy whenever I saw the book lying around in my room

Also, it’s really cute how there’s a letter from Mr. Benedict at the end! (It only reveals that you can find out his first name if you “know the code”, meaning the bit of Morse printed below the summary on the back.) Shock and horror, though, as I realized I’m starting to recognize some of the letters

The Book Itself, for real this time

It’s wonderful how the tone of the book really shone through to the show adaptation. Something about the deliberateness of the aesthetic, from the set designs to the fashion to scene compositions, that really sells that particular style— like it’s very clear that this story is being told to us, rather than one we’re seeing unfold, if that makes sense.

Where that narration style stood out to me the most was the first chapter. We are told (rather than shown) how Reynie gets himself to the point of the second test, and there’s this whole twisty time maneuver for that whole sequence of events that’s really interesting

A super secret fun fact about me is that I wanted to be a writer when I was younger! So this particular balance of show vs. tell is really neat, since it runs counter to my own tendencies. The sheer amount of commas in every sentence is also kind of comforting, since Ahah, I Do That in those few serious-ish attempts at writing lol

Overall this book’s style reminds me a lot of Roald Dahl’s books, which are very nostalgic for me :D The whole “kids are more competent than adults” angle helps a lot too haha

The Characters

Oh boy here’s where I get a little bit critical! Overall I did really like this book!! it’s just that that expresses itself in all this weird “”analysis”” lol

Reynie - much better in the books than in the show

It’s sort of a lukewarm take but I feel like show!Reynie is kind of boring? He doesn’t have a lot going on flaw-wise, and obviously since he’s the protagonist he can’t have too many weird traits or else the kids watching can’t project themselves onto him as easily

(I call it the difference between an aspirational protagonist and a vessel protagonist. Going off of the Roald Dahl vibes, think Matilda vs Charlie. show!Reynie is more of a Charlie)

Thus when we get to see him really struggle with the Whisperer and doubt himself it gives him a lot more dimension, at least in my opinion

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

Sticky - my son

I’ve long held to no one besides myself and my long suffering sister that Sticky is The Best Member of the Society

He happened to hit a lot of the Bingo squares of Stuff I Like In Characters: glasses, anxious, nice :), kind of a coward but ultimately is there for his friends, etc

For some reason I don’t talk about him nearly as much as you-know-who, but I love him just as dearly

Kate & Constance - I don’t have much to say

Kate is really interesting in this book! I like how we get to see more of her depths, in particular that one passage about her belief that she is invincible being the only thing that keeps her from falling apart? :c

Also her constant fidgeting is relatable lol

Constance is somehow a lot more tolerable in the book. I think I’m just one of those people with no patience for small children, unfortunately lol

(Some of) The Adults

It’s interesting that they had such an offscreen presence for most of the book. Giving them more time was probably one of the stronger changes of the show

However if that decision was made at the expense of the white knight scenes I think the choice should have been clear

I like the way Rhonda and Number Two are written

Milligan always on sad boy hours 😔✊

The “mill again” passage is touching but kind of messes up the pacing of the getaway, at least for me. Maybe I should read it again to make sure I didn’t miss something

Miss Perumal is much better in the show. We see so little of her in the book she doesn’t function well as an emotional anchor for Reynie, imo

The Institute Gang

Jackson and Jillson serve their purpose well, and Martina was surprising to say the least. I like the direction they took her in the show! I can’t imagine how funny it must have been to watch the tetherball subplot come out of nowhere lolol

These sections were written out of sequence, so random tidbit I couldn’t fit in The S.Q. Section: I like how he stumbles over his words. relatable

Mr. Curtain

While I think I know why they decided to not give Curtain the wheelchair in the show, we were totally robbed of Actor Tony Hale’s performance for the reveal during the final confrontation

Speaking of the wheelchair, it’s such a powerful symbol of his need for control or rather, his fear of losing it

The Contrast between him and Mr. Benedict. This point is expanded on in A Funny Parallel

Mr. Benedict

Oh boy, Mr. Benedict… How do I say this

I find it hard to trust Mr. Benedict, unfortunately

I mean to say, I do in the sense that I know he would never hurt the kids, thanks to knowing that a) this is a children’s book series and b) the meta (tumblr) states that he is really nice and lovable and stuff, but seriously. Why do the kids trust him at first?? I probably missed something somewhere

I like to think I’m an optimistic person, but unfortunately I’m also super paranoid. The premise of “a bunch of vulnerable orphans team up with a strange old man” is just so odd to me I don’t know how to explain it

I don’t know!!! I really want to trust Mr. Benedict

One of the strengths of the show is that we get to see him more often, and thus he gets to acknowledge more often that the plan is weird and that he feels really badly for putting the kids in danger and that he’s trustworthy and genuine

But his lack of presence for most of the book just makes him into something of a specter, invisible and unknowable, speaking only in riddles from across the bay

Which is why the white knight scene is so important!! I loved that scene ;-;

Because here’s an actual emotional connection! We can actually see it happening, rather than only being told that it exists

Reynie asking for advice and receiving encouragement, in words that demonstrate that Mr. Benedict actually cares about him and worries about him and agghh

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

But overall this whole issue didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book at all! It’s just ->

A Funny Parallel

Okay, ready for my biggest brain, hottest take ever??

Mr. Benedict and Mr. Curtain…. are… the same

I mean obviously not entirely, given that one is benevolent and kind and the other is… Mr. Curtain

But seriously. Genius old man seeks out children (mainly orphans) to enact a plan. Said children often end up incredibly devoted to his cause and deeply admire him this is a little flimsy

Undoubtedly that’s intentional and is supposed to show the difference between them, like some kind of cautionary tale? “Let yourself be vulnerable and let others help you, lest you turn eeeeviiillll”

I guess that’s where the aforementioned epic contrast comes in. You get Mr. Curtain, strapped into his wheelchair and hiding behind those mirrored sunglasses, terrified (but unwilling to admit it) of ever showing the tiniest hint of vulnerability, vs. Mr. Benedict, who can let himself fall knowing that someone will catch him :’)

Anyhow I have nothing against the parallels, I just think it’s funny

The S.Q. Section

The S.Q. Quarantine Thread so it doesn’t leak out everywhere else <3

I’d like to meet the emo angstlord genius who read this book and decided to make SQ into Dr. Curtain’s son. What in the world

Okay I should probably preface this by saying that I absolutely adore both book!S.Q. and show!SQ with all my heart. Somehow, despite being a completely different character in both mediums, he has managed to be one of the best characters in either and certainly one of my favorites (besides Sticky of course) in the entire franchise, despite the fact that I’ve only read the first book/watched the show so far. I am confident in this statement.

But seriously! How?? Why?? I could probably write a whole other essay about why show!SQ is such an interesting character, and the change works so incredibly well. I’m just. Baffled

Okay, focus. book!S.Q. is such a sweetheart, oh my goodness. Like, 100% one of the most endearing characters in the book. Poor guy. I don’t even know where to start!!

He just seems to be a genuinely good guy at heart, despite being technically one of the bad guys. He’s genuinely happy for Reynie and Sticky when they became Messengers and helped Kate when she “fell” and was concerned about Constance when she looked sick and how he was in that meeting with Mr. Curtain and Martina?!!? aaahhhhghgh ;-; he just wants people to be happy TT-TT

Comparing him against literally every character at the Institute is probably what makes him so endearing tbh. When everyone else is so awful to the kids, it really makes him stand out. Like a cheerful little nightlight in the worst, most humid and rank bathroom you’ve ever been in

It’s kind of pointless to theorize about a book series that’s already concluded (I think?) but. Is the implication of S.Q.’s forgetfulness supposed to be that Mr. Curtain used him in brainsweeping experiments somehow? The timeline probably definitely absolutely doesn’t line up but like. How did he get to being a Messenger being the way he is now, given how cutthroat the process is? And then of course Mr. Curtain keeps him around as an Executive because he’s fun to mess with and presumably his loyalty. I’m very curious as to how their relationship develops in the other books, if at all. Those are probably where the seeds of the “let’s make them family” logic were planted

But wouldn’t it be hilarious if the reason we don’t know what “S.Q.” stands for in the books is that he just. Forgot

Another thing that occurred to me. Given that he and the other Executives were Messengers at some point, what were their worst fears? What is S.Q.’s worst fear?? Inquiring minds need to know

One last horrible little anecdote: I was thinking about book!S.Q. while eating breakfast, as one does, and suddenly it hit me.

I want to believe The Author Trenton Lee Stewart had the name for a character, S.Q. Pedalian, and was like, “Hm! What sort of quirky trait should this young fellow have?” Because, of course, in this style of fiction every character has to have at least one cartoonish or otherwise distinguishing trait to stand out in the minds of children. (For instance, Kate has her bucket, Sticky has his glasses, Constance is angry, and Reynie is Emmett from the Lego Movie)

Anyhow, he looks around the room, searching for inspiration. Suddenly he comes across a jumbo box of plastic wrap. Completely innocuous in design, save for one line of text. 300 SQ FT.

“…large… S.Q. …feet? THAT’S IT!” i’m sorry

Lines & Scenes I Liked

In no particular order!

Sticky quotes Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Evil combination aerobics/square dancing in the gym with the Executives

Everyone being happy at the end :’)

Everyone partying after Sticky reunites with his parents, and later finding Mr. Benedict asleep at his desk from the moment they shook hands :’’)

Literally any scene with Sticky in it

Any time Kate says “you boys” or “gosh”

[“Um, sir?” S.Q. said timidly, raising his hand. “A thought just occurred to me.” / Mr. Curtain raised his eyebrows. “That’s remarkable, S.Q. What is it?”] clown prince of my heart </3

S.Q.’s determined monologue about searching for clues after he bungled up the first time

Literally any scene with S.Q. in it (please refer to The S.Q. Section)

Reynie trying to resist the Whisperer.

[Let us begin. / First let me polish my spectacles, Reynie thought. / Let us begin. / Not without my bucket, Reynie insisted. He heard Mr. Curtain muttering behind him. / Let us begin, let us begin, let us begin. / Rules and schools are tools for fools, Reynie thought.]

NO MORE HURTIN’ WITH CURTAIN

Milligan showing up on the island!!

Remember the white knight hhhhhh

“controle”

A Super Secret Bonus Section

I would be extremely surprised if anyone read through all the way down here lol. Regardless, here’s a little acknowledgements section :D not tagging anyone since I don’t want to bother all of these people

Special shoutout to tumblr blog stonetowns for unknowingly yet singlehandedly demolishing my reluctance to read the books by posting a ton of cute quotes. Thank you for your service o7

Thanks to the two OGs that liked the post I made right before this one, for being my unwitting enablers and for sticking around despite being a) technically an internet stranger (hello!) and b) someone I haven’t spoken to irl in literal years (hey!!)

Last but not least thankz 2 my sister for putting up with me ranting about the book when I first got it and for asking about “CQ” sometimes lol. (i desperately hope you’re not reading this orz)

#the mysterious benedict society #this took me like three days to finish rip #it’s worked though! i feel less of a Mighty Need to think about this stuff constantly now #however!!! today through some conniving i have gotten the Second Book #now I’m at 3 out of 4 infinity stones. muahahaha #was going to include my villain origin story about why i like show!SQ so much but cut it for being too long and irrelevant. however #if the words jeff naomi and Sweet Dreams are Made of These mean anything to you please hit me up. it’s kind of a funny story

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vidavalor · 3 years

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Can we talk about how Sam is as useless at this as Bucky is, really, and it’s massively sweet?

Yeah, I’m writing about Sam because we all love us some brainwashed, century-old assassin endless array of hurt/comfort here but this idea that Sam, because he’s a therapist and not always a crying, nightmare-sweat-drenched mess, is Captain Got It All Together is not truth... because this poor broken-hearted kitten absolutely does not and it makes him so much more of a better-realized, fuller character...

I’m not trying to wade any ship wars here or any fandom strife over the Bucky slant to fic/sometimes erasure of Sam here... I love both of these characters equally and ship them but my point here is that I think that because Bucky’s trauma is more well-documented and, for lack of a better word, “flashier”, that some people might think Sam looks perfectly well-adjusted. By comparison, he probably is but this other, quieter story happening with Sam is necessary reading here if you’ve been sleeping on the complexities of one Sam Wilson that aren’t the ones the show is focusing on more explicitly relating to his lived experience as a Black man in America. (They’re not completely separate either but not only this part of his life.) What do I mean, exactly?

Been wondering how these two are falling in love but can mainly just get it from Bucky’s POV because Sam is awesome and Bucky is sad and need love? Not sure what Sam is getting out of his relationship with Bucky? Not totally sure you ship it but leaning that way? Yeah, pull up a seat because this thing I wrote after Ep 5 here (so spoilers through that) is basically an old-school ship manifesto at this point but comes at SamBucky/WinterFalcon from Sam’s side, rather than Bucky’s. (I have nothing *against* Bucky. I just think you’re missing half the goodness of this show and half the surprisingly tender romance of all of this if you are not focusing on Sam as much as Bucky.) If this interests you, then read on, being forewarned that it’s a little long...

So... Sam Wilson is a sweet, kind, warm-hearted, empathetic, drop-dead gorgeous superhero soldier flying military veteran therapist... whom the canon suggests is Bucky Barnes-level obsessed with his dead former partner (in some sense of the word), Riley. You thought it was just Bucky with the angsty past love? Oh no... oh, no no no....

Consider that Sam’s been back in Delacroix twice now in TFATWS and not once has his sister-- who adores him and who knows everyone in town-- suggested that she call up any one of the at least ten decent single people she has to know who live in the area to take her f*cking *dreamboat* of a brother out. Forget the show putting Sam in like twelve pieces of canon and not throwing a single human (not named Bucky) at him and what that implies-- we all know that Sarah wouldn’t care what kind of human her brother was attracted to and yet she and the entire community of Delacroix can’t seem to find this guy a date. He’s sweet and hot and an Avenger but our Sam’s a monk, you guys... More to the point... they don’t even try. They know better than to try anymore... which says a lot.

Going back awhile now, when Sam met Steve, he was still this equally dreamy and he didn’t even have any Avengers-related problems getting in the way of his potential dating life. He had a normal job working for the VA in DC. Yet, he clearly was seeing exactly no one and while I am willing to admit that pretty much any human would drop everything and follow Steve Rogers around the world, it’s clear that Sam wasn’t seeing anyone at the time because his life was able to be dropped in a second and he also had that file with Riley’s photo at the ready, man. At. the. ready...

He responded to the opportunity to follow Steve with no less need when it came to his own post-trauma-of-war identity as Bucky does. This isn’t to say that Sam is *as* lost as Bucky because it would be hard to out-do the once-brainwashed assassin who has been alive for a hundred years but Sam saw all sorts of hell. He’s a therapist for veterans because he’s had to get beyond *his own* PTSD and he’s really aware of how that is a journey that doesn’t exactly ever end. It gets significantly better and he knows how well it can-- that’s why he can tell Bucky that there is hope of that-- but it is very clear that Sam Wilson is still suffering his own kind of PTSD and his own grief for the death of a guy who likely couldn’t love him the way he needed him to.

I know we don’t know a ton about exactly what Sam and Riley were but I think there is enough to infer that they probably actually weren’t a couple. For one thing, Sarah never mentions him and even if the show wanted to be vague about things, they could phrase it like “it’s been forever since you brought back someone to the house, haven’t met any of them since Riley” or something. There are ways to infer that they were a thing and the nature of it, if the show wanted to do that but all they have suggested so far is that Sam was in love with Riley. We know he and Riley were friends and worked on the Falcon suit project together but what we are getting out of what they are giving to us is that Sam loved him but it’s not clear that they were even a couple. I’d even say the picture of them that he shows Steve and Natasha is supposed to evoke that they weren’t a couple-- it’s of Sam looking at Riley, smiling like he’s the moon and the stars, while Riley is smiling but just a bit and he’s looking at the camera, not at Sam.

In other words, remember Miller’s analogies from school? Sam is to Riley as Bucky is to Steve. I just offended every person reading this who thinks that Steve and Bucky weren’t an unrequited thing *ducks* but I feel like we’re supposed to take from what they give us that Sam knows a little something about being mad for a guy who thinks you are his best buddy but doesn’t look at you in a romantic or sexual way and you feel like you’re dying over it. Sam gets Bucky because Sam *is* Bucky when it comes to this.

If Sam and Riley were just the best of friends, Sam still would have mourned him greatly but it would not necessarily have impacted his love life the way it seems like it might have. I’m not necessarily saying there was no one but this is a man who even when it felt like Steve Rogers-- whom Sam obviously found attractive-- seemed like he was making Sam question whether or not he was coming onto him or just super-nice and making a new fellow veteran friend... even when that was happening, Sam’s response was that he didn’t hate it or anything and he was willing to help Steve with what he needed in this friendly, advice-giving sort of way and maybe they had a thing, who knows, but it was clear that Sam-- a guy who has to be hit on *all the time*-- wasn’t really used to the idea of there being someone in his life. So, he wasn’t letting anyone into his life. He would have had the chance, no doubt. He was choosing not to. Why would you choose not to? If you were grieving the loss of a man you couldn’t get over and you thought that you weren’t ever going to love anyone like that and maybe having someone wasn’t going to happen for you.

Like, imagine Sam’s surprise when The Winter Soldier turns up, nearly kills them all, disappears and they go on the run and he starts hearing Steve’s confessional stories about the guy who was his best friend and in love with him and Steve has literally never said those words aloud because they’re from the *1940s* and he’s felt guilty all this time for hurting him. Steve’s the kind of guy who would feel guilty for not being in love with someone who was in love with him. That’s when Sam, who thought he had more in common with Steve, realizes he’s actually *Bucky Barnes* in this story. He’s the damn Winter Soldier in the Steve-and-Bucky version of him and Riley.

That is how Bucky evolves from “the kind of guy you have to stop” in Sam’s mind to the guy he’s hanging out with in every fight and snarking over the car seats with. He’s like yeesh, I thought I had a few years of this ungodly pain and that was bad... this poor bastard’s been in love with a Riley who could and probably will live until he’s a hundred and thirty. Sam starts getting into this whole antagonist origin story of The Winter Soldier here because he realizes that one wrong move-- one case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time-- and he could have been captured during the war he was in. He could have been tortured like that, so easily, and he knows what it’s like to be tortured by love in that way.

Bucky, for his part, when he begins to get his mind back and more fully remember Steve and his past, takes one look at Sam and is thinking like... that poor SOB... oh, look, it’s 21st Century Me. So, you fell for Steve Rogers, huh? Welcome to the club. We meet every Tuesday at two to discuss being the pining best friend in love with a guy who, in all likelihood, is attracted to both of us but unless Tony Stark can shake loose a bit of the freak in The Star-Spangled Man With a Plan, we’re not getting anything but a most earnest and sincere friendship out of this (and if Stark can’t, no one can....)

Like, Bucky’s Steve love is pretty pure. He wants him to be happy. He’s hurt that Steve doesn’t love him the way he loves Steve but he does love him as his best friend as well and wants him to have what he wants out of life. If that’s going back in time to Peggy Carter (who wouldn’t, really?) and leaving him behind then, fine. He wishes he were still here but he’ll deal but he’s going to be keeping an eye out for the other guy left behind-- Steve’s new modern era best friend person. Bucky’s so gone over keeping Steve safe that he can’t even resent Sam’s presence-- he’s thrilled he exists. Someone good to look after Steve when Bucky couldn’t! Sam Wilson is heaven sent and must be protected at all costs! So frequently from some kid with webbed fingers, apparently!

Sam, meanwhile, is challenged by the dilemma that Bucky appears to think that they’re in the same boat while Sam, who for sure had a little crush on Steve as who doesn’t, has really come to realize that he is far, far more into the tragic one here. He’s so irritated about it. It would be simpler if he just fell for another blond soldier with red, white and blue blood who couldn’t love him. At least he’d just be completely hopeless then but the brainwashed one? The one that thinks he’s horrid but is so good that he can’t even bring himself to be that jealous of Sam when he clearly thinks Sam is sleeping with the guy he’s loved for years?

Oh, Sam’s gone on that one...

Bucky’s still a mess then so it’s harmless enough to just pretend he’s not writing himself into touch-starved Bucky fanfic in his own mind here but when Bucky keeps saving him in different fights? When he catches him looking once or twice. When the bickering is really flirting and Sam knows he means it that way, too? When the poor guy just gets his mind back, they all reunite and go to one battle and then the two of them disappear and miss *five years* of their lives? When then, soon after, Steve is gone, too?

When it begins to feel like *they* are now the story and meant to go through the rest of these things together? I mean, when everyone else is all on about the fate and destiny of it all-- Stark’s big sacrifice being the one way to save everyone, Doctor Strange going on about all the possibilities of the universe on a saving the world level but it so personal to the people Sam and Bucky know, Steve choosing to go back in time because he can and be with the woman he loved and never got to have...

...standing there in the funerals and aftermaths of all of this together, by virtue of being Steve’s Friends Who Aren’t Really Part of This Gang Exactly... are Sam and Bucky. What are the odds that they are supposed to be the rest of one another’s story? Sam was wondering it. He for sure hadn’t felt like this since Riley... he might not have really ever felt it at all before.

Can we just admit that while there’s been some guys in the past-- and it could be rephrased as ‘some people’, as while Sam is written to suggest he’s at least into men, he could be into people who don’t identify as men as well-- but there’s not been someone who has been able to love him the way he’s loved them.

He’s from the South and Black and the show taps into the racism he’s been through as a result. Not obviously in Delacroix, where he feels safe and seen, where people care about him and don’t care that he is not straight, but in other parts. He’s been in the military, where homophobia is still pretty rampant and it’s a culture of a lot of heterosexual machismo. (Hell, the show even has a kind of walking, talking example of a guy everyone knows was the epitome of that kind of culture, even if he’s been broken by that world, too-- John Walker.) It’s not even really clear if Sam is out and, if he is, to whom. He seems to be the kind of person to want to be himself as much as possible and Sarah likely knows because they are close but I’m not so sure that a lot of Sam’s military buddies actually did. He really strikes me as the guy who gets along with everybody and whom everybody loves-- but whom few people actually *know* because he keeps himself (all of himself, not just his sexuality) private from others...

...which is also a hell of a lot like one Bucky Barnes.

Guaranteed they became such fast friends not just from being sort of left with one another in the aftermath of Steve and their attraction but because Sam was amazed to find that Bucky was actually pretty funny and Sam just kept talking to him because while he has-- or had, anyways, before he ran off with Steve-- a ton of people he’d consider friends, he doesn’t really have anyone he’d consider to be a close friend and hasn’t since Riley. Bucky, just still stunned to be free of mind control and that there was another human being talking to him instead of looking at him as a weapon to program to kill, was eager to listen to and absolutely thrilled when he could find something sarcastic to say to make Sam laugh that surprised laugh and light up.

These two damaged couple of guys spent most of this show and the months before it just terrified by how much love they were feeling for one another and were very happy to let any conflict they could get in the way of it-- any excuse to claim they weren’t feeling totally seen and run for the hills back into their own trauma.

It’s not just Bucky doing this. He might have been the one not returning the texts at the start, the one who seemed to be withdrawing more, while Sam was texting him still to check in on him but how quickly that began to flip around by Episode 5.

Suddenly, the brave one is Bucky. It was Sam for the first few episodes-- he was stil trying and so hard, despite not getting what he needed in return and Bucky still sending signals that he wanted him but was happy to still revel in being too damaged and scared to try harder. By Episode 5, though? Bucky’s not only learned to trust himself again, it is proven to be what he was afraid of: not being able to protect and love Sam the way he wanted to and that Sam would leave him. Triggered by the shield as a metaphor for not caring about Bucky, not having a reason to still pursue him, Bucky thought he had successfully pushed Sam away and that Sam would really stop texting because to not do so would be to admit to one another that they wanted to be around one another and this wasn’t just about Steve/Captain America. By Episode 5, Bucky shows up in Delacroix not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but with eyes only for Sam and is every one of Sam’s favorite Bucky Barnes fantasies come to life.

It’s now Sam flipping out. Would you have expected the Sam of the first two episodes to be a babbling mess in the face of a flirty Bucky stretching and claiming it’s time for him to go get a hotel room? To try to be playing it cool but winding up asking him to stay forever and telling him he likes his tight t-shirts in the middle there? To get so nervous that he suddenly is babbling about six toes and flirting with Sarah, showing how jealous he was of Bucky just... smiling and being this guy Steve had said was under there but that Sam had only had small glimpses of so far? If he was gone for the broken Winter Soldier... he’s wrecked by a single smile from this Bucky.

This is the same guy who spent the first few episodes confident to a point of near-cockiness, loving flirting with and teasing Bucky, the one that seemed more well-adjusted and in control of himself. Overall, he is but there’s something there when Bucky shows up and White Wolfs Sam into a sputtering mess who is sending him little glances, as if they’ve switched bodies from the first few episodes. It shows *just how much* Sam is comfortable with Bucky and how rare it is for him because he would react differently to Bucky’s more overt flirting of Episode 5 if how he is with Bucky was his default in life. Instead, we see that some of it is posturing-- it’s the Sam equivalent of lifting heavy things and using power tools. His is the humor (what’s a better aphrodisiac than making the Winter Soldier laugh or flirt back or blush?) and the bicker-caring. We even see where it comes from, in a way. Sam is a soldier-- he knows how to help other traumatized soldiers and when we saw him in his VA group session when we met him, we saw him using that kind of machismo world and its language to communicate with the soldiers in the group. The difference for him with them versus him with Bucky is that he’s also flirting with Bucky. The buddy cop thing is intentional-- it’s Sam’s strategy, it’s been Bucky’s choice to respond to it and they’re playacting it as how they talk because it’s been easier than admitting that they are completely gone on another and just want all the soft things.

Up until recently anyway and now Sam’s reeling from a man he’s fallen in love with showing up and loving him back. Don’t think for a second that Bucky doesn’t know enough by now to know that it’d totally undo Sam but the surprise of it to the audience only really exists if you don’t think Sam and Bucky have anything in common besides their now-gone mutual friend. In reality, they’re endgame.

#tfatws #sam wilson #sambucky #bucky barnes #thefalconandthewintersoldier #marvel #bucky #buckysam #winterfalcon

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forasecondtherewedwon · 4 years

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2020 overview: writing edition

Tagged by the one and only @i-lovethatforme!!!

Tagging: oh god, I never know who’s done tag games. Please, please, please start your year off right by reflecting on your accomplishments! If you want to play, I tag you!

1. List of works published this year

For the Spideychelle fandom:

Multi-chapter fics: The Achilles Kneel | Boyfri(endgame) | For Now, We May Remain Silent | That Floaty Feeling | Wavetide

Thotumn: In Over His Headboard | The Man in the Spoon | Unhallowed Arts

Holiday fics: With Zero Power | Schwarzenegger Holiday | Do You Tree What I Tree?

For The Queen’s Gambit:

Miscellaneous:

Scuffed Souls (for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)

All the Belles and Whistles (for Bridgerton)

2. Work you are most proud of (and why)

Easy! For Now, We May Remain Silent is the longest, most involved fic I’ve ever written. 178k over 8 months, inching line-by-line through my copy of Pride and Prejudice to hit every moment of plot and character development as I translated everything for the MCU. A ton of work, but extremely rewarding. It was a project that brought me so much joy.

3. Work you are least proud of (and why)

Ouch lol Terrible question. I think you have to be proud of everything you write, if only for the fact of putting in the effort to create it.

4. A favourite excerpt of your writing

Because my Pride and Prejudice AU is in my head now (and always), this, from the studio scene in For Now, We May Remain Silent:

Here are her paintbrushes, disorganized and held in the loose grip of big, old coffee cans. The brushes rattle when Peter runs his finger over their handles, the faded red bristles spinning. A thick, flat brush with discoloured yellow bristles might be his favourite. Glancing over his shoulder, he furtively strokes the uneven hairs with his thumb. They all have this well-used quality that makes his chest clench confusingly. Michelle’s been living a whole life with these in her hand, he thinks, and I don’t know anything about it.

5. Share or describe a favourite review you received

This is now a post about For Now, We May Remain Silent with minor acknowledgement of everything else I wrote this year because the best answer to this one is: every comment on the final chapter of that fic. Those are my feel-good comments and I treasure them. Not only were the people who read it so kind in their reviews, it also meant SO much that they’d read that massive fic and had enough thoughtfulness and stamina left at the end to say something nice to me about it. That one’s always going to be a journey that a bunch of us took together, and I have the comments to prove it! It’s so special to me!

6. A time when writing was really, really hard

February.

7. A scene of characters you wrote that surprised you

LOL There are classier answers to this, but I wrote Peter, MJ, and Brad gettin’ it on in my second-ever threesome fic, Unhallowed Arts! Did not think I’d ever be going down that road again, and it went fine!

8. How did you grow as a writer this year

I learned a lot about my work ethic and the difference between writing for passion and writing for expectation.

9. How do you hope to grow next year

By writing whatever the fuck I want. Jumping fandoms. Letting my stories get messier and fighting the easy option of a neat ending.

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc. etc.)

I’m having a “what can I say about @spiderman-homecomeme?” moment that feels very Mean Girls, but instead of discussing her Japanese car commercials in a tone of bitter jealousy, all the good things I could say just make me want to cry. G has really been here for me this year and it feels like we’ve known each other a long, long time. She’s encouraging and patient and hilarious and lets me get away with the WORST euphemisms. I really admire her talent and warmth.

11. Anything from real life show up in your writing this year

Oooh! In find light, I wrote a happy ending that didn’t involve characters staying together, but recognizing that it was better for them to be apart. I write a lot of romance—so much romance!—but most of what I write is not reflective of my actual experience of love. This fic is, and that made it one of my favourites to write.

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers

I wrote this in a post not too long ago, but lower your word count goals! I no longer sit down and tell myself I need to write 500 or 1000 words. I just go for 12. Such a small number of words is far less daunting to build upon. Write 12, then 12, then another 12! You’ll get to 100 words and beyond with so much less pressure.

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year

I plan nothing, just fall from one thing into the next, so my single goal at the moment is to finish my Bridgerton fic, All the Belles and Whistles!

14. If you could recommend only one work from yourself published this year

Um, excuse me, all of them. I really was going to pick one, but I honestly love everything I write. That’s why I’m still writing.

15. End of Year word count

It’s somewhere between 510k-520k.

#about me #tag game #my writing #For Now We May Remain Silent

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naoyatoudo · 3 years

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holy shit I am so sick of seeing this

tw: noncon mentions

TYK ending spoilers under cut

WKX did NOT fake his tears to get ZZS to let him top, can people stop spreading this. I don’t understand the cognitive dissonance some people have where they recognize he was genuinely letting himself finally cry and be upset over all the deaths, his lifetime revenge being realize, and ZZS surviving and then say how sweet it is ZZS understands he was upset and hugged him while then turning around and saying he cried only to fuck. He didn’t. WKX genuinely cried there. He said he wasn’t going to lie to ZZS and I highly doubt he would take advantage of him like that or lie about that given everything.

It’s unreal to me that someone could have read the WKX extra and thought WKX would fake his tears over his parents, his little girl in purple, and even ZZS. They’re too important to him. He would tell little stories that don’t seem as connected to lessen the pain, but he wouldn’t fake cry over any single one of those. How could he possibly use any of those to fake cry to get ZZS to let him top when he has spent years unable to get over even just the first one? It’s really a disservice to him and how affected he is by those things to imply he would use them like that.

Some people love to act like WKX is such a predator, but he’s all hot air. When he said he could “force a transaction” he was just spitting out bullshit to try and get a rise out of ZZS, hence why he IMMEDIATELY stopped when ZZS said idgaf. The one time you can say he did force something was the kiss early on and he did it to cover up their conversation from CWN and the other disciple that was there listening to their conversation. It’s still shitty, and thankfully ZZS punched him in the face for it.

I’m not sure how people have such a fundamental misunderstanding of WKX, but it’s kind of sick. I see some people on Twitter giggle about how he would rape ZZS for a kink and there’s no fucking way he would ever do that. Some people need to learn reading comprehension and critical thinking. It’s like we read different novels. Did anyone actually read the extra from his POV? It really shows how he’s much more serious and, dare I say, emotional/sentimental than he appears from ZZS’ POV.

And don’t come in expecting WKX or ZZS to be a good person either, neither of them are. WKX will not rape ZZS ever, but he would jokingly say it earlier in their “friendship” I’ll say since I don’t believe they had feelings for each other at the time, to get a rise out of him. Is he shitty for it? Of course he is. But he’s not a rapist and he did not manipulate ZZS.

In fact, he respects ZZS’ wishes so much he stopped himself from destroying the man’s cultivation in an effort to save him because ZZS said he didn’t want him to. He stopped himself immediately. Because ZZS said no. Despite him thinking he wanted to keep ZZS with him forever. Because he respects his decisions. This is also a point to say he’s not a yandere as I’ve seen some people claim he is before. He’s not. At all.

Do you also think ZZS is oblivious enough to fall for WKX faking that sort of thing? The point is they know each other well. They get each other’s feelings. They understand each other more than anyone else in the world. How could WKX fake cry and ZZS, who has tons of experience with deceit in the first place and a WHOLE major emotional scene with WKX telling him he is sincere, not catch on? That would be such a slap in the face to their relationship.

To me, it was more like WKX is a horny bastard and took the moment of them being so close as a chance to see if ZZS was willing and/or he wanted to have sex and feel a closeness/that deeper connection to ZZS who was alive despite everything, his one light he was living for that he almost just lost. And ZZS was willing. And then after they fucked his thoughts were more like an afterthought of wow that just happened...does it have to happen like that every time...?

I don’t know why some people think it’s so funny to imagine WKX faked it, I almost feel like people are trying to project LBH from SVSSS onto him in ways to try and get more people to read it. I’ve noticed a lot of Western danmei fans (can’t speak for other regions) tend to use MXTX and 2ha characters as a way to describe characters in other novels for some reason. Please stop giving this false, and frankly negative, image to WKX. He is not like LBH. He is not like WWX. He is not like Mo Ran. He is like himself.

#rant

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jacscorner · 3 years

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Pokemon All-Stars: A Fan Region/Game/Alternate Universe Idea

I like watching and rewatching Original Pokemon Game/Region videos. Like Mr. Buddy's "What if X was a Pokemon Region" and stuff like that. I wanna make-or, I guess, write-my own. Since Regions are kind of a character all their own and I'm a Wannabe Character Artist, I wanted to try and make one my own.

I've got no skills in coding, pixel arts, or anything, so this will forever be just some kind of dumb fanfic that sometimes incorporates Game Mechanics to justify things if it were able, for some Godforsaken reason, 'stolen' for a game. Cause, in 2021, no idea feels too big or too dumb. And, uh, trust me, this'll be a dumb fanfic of an idea. So be aware for the subpar writing talents of some wannabe writer who doesn't know shit.

Small disclaimer though:

>This region is being made with the intention that every extra feature will be available in it. Z-Moves, Regional Variants, Gygantamax, Mega Evolutions, and maybe some things I've forgotten. This probably won't matter cause it's just a dumb fanfic plot bible with mechanics peppered in. Competitive balancing be damn! Pokemon Fans can create their own balance! That's what the Battle Simulator is for! In fact, if this was a real game, then it'd have a Battle Simulator like Showdown built into it.

>This is an open source Fanfic Bible. You can take this idea and run with it if you want. You can omit all my bad ideas even!

>I won't be making my own Fakemon. I don't like a lot of Fakemon that exists out there and, trust me when I say this: I am no better than them. In fact, I'm fucking worse.

>If this WERE a game, it probably WOULD still have to cut some Pokemon. I doubt that kinda, and I won't get into why I think dexit was dumb personally, cause it doesn't really matter. But, like, my fan game/fanfic will have a lot of shit going on in it. So, like, realistically, there would probably need to be a cut, if not for data, than just cause there's a lot of work to do as is. But, like, again, under the context of a fic, this wouldn't be an issue.

>With THAT said, I'd want this game to have a Gen 2 Sprite aesthetic. My fangame, don't care if ya'll don't like that.

>I'm probably gonna copy a LOT of stuff from other Fangames I've played. My shit memory probably won't allow me to remember what I'm biting from what, so be free to call me out whenever. Cause if I stole the mechanic, I probably liked it the game. And if not, well, I'd like the recommendation.

Fuck, this was long already. The rest is under the cut, so, like, if you're already turned off, you can stop reading. I understand. I'm kind of a windbag.

Okay, so how many of you guys have seen this picture on the internet? It's a picture of a ton of Pokemon regions all...basically stitched together, since not only could this never be canon, but this goes beyond the size of even most open world games today. But this was the inspiration for this project. The map probably wouldn't, and probably couldn't, look like this, but it perfectly sums up what I'd want out of this game. Thus, it'll be our placeholder.

Our hometown of Capricorn Town is home to Professor Chestnut, and you, her faithful assistant, are about to set off on a Pokemon adventure of your own! The Professor is encouraging you to see the region of Sidus for yourself and is even willing to give you a Starting Pokemon!

Starting Pokemon

Now, if I'm not making new Pokemon, which Starter will it be? Well, the game will have the data for all the starters and will randomly select a Grass, Fire, and Water Type for you to choose from. Those will be your starters, with the option of also choosing Pikachu, Eevee, and Riolu, the two mascot mons...and Riolu, who is kind of a mascot mon, but a lesser one.

Let's say for this example, your options are Torchic, Piplup, Rowlet, Pikachu, Eevee, and Riolu. And, uh, get used to the words 'random' and 'generator', those are our keywords.

Anyway, once you get your pick, there'll be some kind of tutorial mission the Professor will send you on. This will introduce you to two very important things;

1. One of your Rival.

2. An Evil Team Grunt.

Rivals?!

Now to start getting into why this game might still be pretty big still be big despite the sprites on modern consoles.

Each of your Rivals would be one kid from each region of the 8 Mainline Games from Kanto to Kalos. How this'll be decided is that each pair of kids will be plugging into a generator and will pick between either the boy or girl version.

Ex. Brendan and May both cannot be in the game. Instead, they'll be plugged into this generator. Let's say the generator fell onto May. She'll be one of your Rival. Repeat this process 7 more times until you have 8 Rivals sprinkled throughout the world, each one given a defined personality and better AI to make them harder trainers to fight.

May will have one of the Hoenn Starters, sans Torchic. Regardless of whether or not Protagonist-San picked Torchic, May will either have a Treecko or Mudkip, again, chosen at random per kid. Whichever Starter you picked, your first rival will have a starter that beats yours. So, let's say moving forward, May has a Mudkip and you a Torchic. The other kids will have random starters of the various regions they originally hail from.

Anyway, your rivals will wander the overworld. If they see you, they'll battle you on sight. If they lose, they'll be gone after the next time you turn the game off. They won't battle you again until they respawn, but you can hang out with them. In fact, you can even recruit them to be in your party for a few days and they'll follow you around and just generally be your friend. It'll make every battle a double battle, but they'll battle you again before their timer runs out, so be prepared!

BANG! BANG! ENTER! Team Wild!

The two of you will have to face off against Team Wild! They have a Cowboy theme to them, using a mix of Ground and Steel-Types, with a few Pokemon being added in for good measure like the Ponyta Lines, Cacnea Line, and Remoraid. Cause...it's a gun.

They're an outlaw gang, they're rough and tough (or, at least, a mild threat) and will always throw down when they spot ya. Something I'm just sniping from JelloApocalypse is that they'll appear sporadically and act as Timed Events across the map.

You and your new Rival beat them and send you packing. I'd imagine May and the other Rivals would mostly be friendly, but I'm sure there's one or two that'll just be jerks to you. Regardless of personality, they'll be pretty tough and programmed to skill with you. Your strongest mon you have on hand when you fight them will be the level their entire team.

With your tutorial done, the world is opened up! Your mom gives you your running shoes, some Pokeballs, and your...I don't know, PokeCelular or something, just the regional gadget that does a bunch of stuff. From holding your map to holding your VS Seeker.

The PokeCelular will also give you notifications on where Team Wild are! You can choose to ignore the events, but if you do, then they'll start to appear in the overworld know and will get progressively stronger.

A Balancing Act

This game will be an open world, 8-Bit Sprite Game for you to explore after you leave Capricorn!

So how do we balance that?

Well, we got our Rival out of the way already, so let's move on. Gym Leaders will have a pretty linear progression. However, regardless of which Gym you tackle first, they'll all be at the same level.

It doesn't matter if you decide to go across the map and battle the Bug Gym, he'll stay at Level 10, just like the Normal Gym. Whe you get the second badge, they'll all jump to Level 15. NPC Trainers will follow the same progression; the higher your badge number, the stronger the number of Pokemon they'll be.

Wild Pokemon will also get stronger. The more badges you get, it'll attract stronger wild Pokemon because they'll see you're stronger and will come out more.

The overworld will also have various dungeons in them that'll be Level Locked. Say, you go through a forest and you're just trying to reach the end of a maze. The Trainers and Pokemon will function the same as I've mentioned before. But, you can decide to go deeper into the dungeon. These Pokemon will be level locked, usually something of a high level, because this is a more dangerous part of the dungeon. But, there'll be some goodies down there, like rarer Pokemon and some kind of really rare and good item like a TM or something.

How will you traverse? Well, first of all, HMs? They're semi-back. BUT, instead of having to deal with teaching Cut to a Pokemon, you just need the move Cut and a Pokemon that can use the move and you'll be able to use Cut. A few other Pokemon that are reasonable candidates, but don't get cut, will be allowed to do this too. Like, Gallade can use Cut. It can't learn the move, but just holding the HM will get the job done.

Controversial opinion, but I think I've always liked the idea of HMs. On paper, they give you a reason to explore the world and go back to areas you couldn't before for goodies and make for a good way to get off dungeons until you get the needed item. Even something like Cut can be used to open up new areas for exploration for your squad of mons.

BUT, well, HMs suck. As moves, they suck save for, like, 2...MAYBE and they're only for, like, a handful of areas. You either hand them out as evenly as possible, forcing mons to take moves you don't wanna use, or you just get an HM Slave or two to use 'em all. But like they, they serve their function and all you need is the Pokemon in question and NOT teach them the move. If you need a Move Deleter just so people aren't stuck having to use Rock Smash for three towns, then there's a problem with your RPG. Imagine playing Final Fantasy and you had to give your Fighter the Bronze Axe to get through a forest and still had to fight with it, even though you got a +12 Silver Sword! It's no wonder people hated these things! But I don't think getting rid of them and introducing Rental Pokemon was a good solution either and adds a different, albeit less intrusive problem.

Gym Leaders

So, how do Gym Leaders work?

Much like your rivals, they'll be randomly generated. Let's say, hypothetically, there's a pool of 60 Gym Leaders and Elite Four members. The game will randomly generate 16 to be Gym Leaders. The generator will have some kind of complicated math (at least, too complicated for me) so that you don't have more than 2 gyms of the same type. (Example: Misty and Nessa might be Active Gyms, Siebold can't be selected for a Gym cause the Water Slots are taken).

As a trade off, some Gyms might have special conditions before you can challenge them. Like, if you got stuck with Koga as a Gym Leader, than he'll only let you in if you complete a nearby dungeon and help his daughter out cause he doesn't trust her to make it back on her own. Or, like, Claire's a Gym Leader, but she won't battle you unless you've collected 7 Gym Badges prior at least.

The Gym Leaders, as mentioned before, will get progressively stronger with each badge obtained. After the 8th badge, you can go and climb Victory Road, face the E4 and confront the Champion! You can keep hunting Gym Leaders, but just remember that the E4 will always be 10 Levels above the strongest gym you beat. And they'll just get stronger with every one you beat until all 16 are slain.

Another handful, let's say 8, Gym Leaders/E4 Members will be wondering around as NPC Trainers. The justification is that this big super region is in some Alternate Universe Pokemon Game that has all the Pokemon and other important trainers in it, hence why we can have a game where Roxanne and Lenora are hanging out at a coffee shop. They're not Rivals, more like stronger NPCs you can rematch and wonder the map. They're not here to be the very best like no one ever was.

I mean, I'd like, like, 10-20 instead of 8 extras, but let's not get TOO greedy...yet...

Elite Four

And now, it's time to flip the script. Cause if E4 members can be Gym Leaders, then who are the Elite Four?

Easy. The Rivals.

All the Rival characters will be put in a random generator as well. The four that are chosen. You can have an Elite Four made up of Wally, Marnie, Hau, and Barry and you gotta deal with it.

This is excluding Brendan and May, Blue, and Calem and Serena. Anyone else is fair game.

Champion

So, the Champion. Who would it be in this? There was a funny idea I had, but this is a Pokemon Game. So there would be two versions. We'll call them Pokemon Dawn & Dusk. The difference between these games is the game Champion!

Benga would be the Champion of Pokemon Dusk, the grandson of Alder! His final Team will include Volcarona, Garchomp, and Dragonite, Pokemon he used in Black and White. I'd also include Scrafty, Rampardos, and Golurk, Pokemon used against you in White Treehollow and Black Tower areas.

Meanwhile, the Champion of Pokemon Dusk will be Zinnia, the Lorekeeper! Her team would include the Goodra, Tyrantrum, Altaria, Noivern, and Salamence she used in her original team, with her plucky Whismur sidekick becoming an Exploud and her ace.

You would've met them in the beginning of the game and would've showed off a bit by helping you with Team Wild before. They'll pop in and out throughout the game, at first amused by your tenacity, but not wanting a rookie like you to get hurt. But if you keep bonking Team Wild, they'll be impressed with how strong you are.

The show up to chat again when you beat 8 Gym Leaders, and will pop in if you White Out to give you some advice. White Out three times and they'll feel bad for you and give you an egg. Benga will give you a Larvesta Egg and Zinnia a Bagon Egg.

EXTRAS

So I don't got a lot of ideas for the Post Game, but there is one idea I thought would be cool if, if after you defeat the champion, they give you a call. They'll tell you that there are strong trainers wondering the Overworld and to be careful.

Because dotting the overworld will be Champions passed and proper! Cynthia, Blue, Lance; all of them are rocking Lv 100 Teams and are out for blood. They won't challenge you, but if you talk to them, there will be no backing out of the battle! You come with your A-Game!

sI'm not exactly in love with the idea of Team Wild. Maybe the Evil Team should go full fanservice and just be Team Rainbow Rocket. Or maybe go half-and-half; having past Evil Team members and leaders walk around in cowboy gear and acting as Team Wild executives.

I'd also would love Tournaments. Like, maybe that could be a weekly event in some town, they'll how tournaments and the characters that aren't designated as Gym Leaders and such will attend. Maybe there's a cash prize, maybe you'll win Pokemon Eggs of rare, guaranteed shines, or maybe you'll get some kind of important quest items.

Yeah, I want quests! All sorts of side quests! And can't forget what I'd do with Legendairs;

If you know Bengal's team, you'll know he's got the Lati Twins. I don't like that personally and would prefer Legendaries to be Super Bosses. Like, you gotta do a lot to find them. And when you do, their stats are boosted and they become an Uber Boss! You catch them in a cutscene after you beat them!

There's also just a ton of characters I didn't get around to or really have a place for. Emma, Looker, N, and the Stat Trainers all come to mind. Overall, I'd want them to pepper the world as well, but don't have anything to say except this: Pokemon has made a lot of memorable characters. Both good and bad. And this is probably my dream Pokemon Game; one where you can hang out with your favorites

#Pokemon #Pokemon Dawn and Dusk #Fan Game #Fanfic Bible #Plot Bunny #JAC Notes

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strawberrysoup · 5 years

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Let’s Review || Chapter 13

Peter Parker knew that his big sister would do anything for him to be safe and happy. She’d given up everything for him twice over already and would do it again in a heartbeat. And that’s why, when the criminal mastermind Tony Stark started inextricably following him around, he didn’t say a word. Because he knew without a doubt Penny would do whatever she had to if it meant keeping Peter safe. He had to protect her, just like she always protected him. He never considered what would happen if Stark decided both Parker siblings were worth taking. Never considered who else in Stark’s inner circle would agree. He just wanted to protect her and yet somehow, they both ended up with needles in their necks.

relationship: Steve Rogers/Original Female Character/Bucky Barnes, background Peter Parker/Tony Stark rating: Explicit warnings: Dark Steve Rogers, Dark Bucky Barnes, Dark Tony Stark, Dark Avengers, kidnapping, non-con/dub-con elements, underage Peter Parker, emotional and psychological abuse, very dark casual reminder: this story is r o u g h. themes of rape, kidnapping, power imbalances, etc.. This story does not depict healthy or safe relationships. Trigger warnings for explicit torture, blood, vomit, and the usual. be advised, be safe.

The apartment was filled with plants. Like, a ridiculous number of plants and a good portion of them weren’t suited for the indoors. She’d woken up on a couch, was kissed goodbye by Peter and Tony, and got swept up by a very enthusiastic Bucky before she really knew what was happening. We want to show you something. Shivers had gone down her spine because she wasn’t sure she wanted to see anything they were so excited to show her, but it turned out to just be a metric fuckton of plants.

Actually, there was a ton of stuff in the apartment that hadn’t been there that morning. There were empty shelves all over the place and yarn, fucking yarn for days. A bazillion crochet hooks and knitting needles and books—books. She could barely read on a good day but they’d bought about fifty million books on crocheting and knitting and plants.

In real life, if Bucky and Steve were her boyfriends who’d done something stupid, the ridiculous amount of stupid I’m Sorry gifts probably would’ve worked. There was a spark of amusement in her chest anyway but she refused to glorify it. There was no amount of ‘Oops Sorry’ gifts that could make up for kidnapping and imprisonment. They couldn’t fucking enrich her environment like she was an animal at the zoo and expect her to lose her mind over it.

“A lot of the plants need to go outside,” Steve was walking around the living room, “JARVIS has greenlit construction on a rooftop garden and greenhouse so we only need to keep them inside for a little while. We’re also gonna set up an indoor garden room, with humidity controls and special lights, we just have to get the windows replaced.”

“And we wanted to get your opinion on these,” Bucky invaded her space a moment later, wrapping his arms around her from behind and holding his phone in front of them, “you like to lay in front of the windows, do you want one of these daybeds?”

“Or one of these,” Steve stepped up with his own phone in hand, several photos of indoor hammock style lounge chairs, “we can anchor it to the ceiling.”

A numb sort of feeling seeped into Penny’s bones and she found herself looking at the phones silently, listening to them go on and on about her ‘options’. Fucking options. Penny didn’t have options, that had been made very clear to her multiple times over the course of the last several days. The last month, in fact, if she was being completely honest. From the moment she learned of Tony Stark’s involvement in her little brother’s life, her options had slid out from under her like sand.

“I’m going to go lay down,” she stated quietly, ignoring the fact she’d taken a three hour nap, and pulled away from the pair.

She didn’t sleep though. JARVIS began projecting movies onto the wall without being asked while Penny stripped off her jeans, not bothering to change into anything, and crawled into bed. She wished the bedding was heavier, wished the room was colder, why weren’t there more pillows?

Several movies played while she lay curled around a pillow, not moving other than to breathe. At some point they brought her dinner, prepared just for her by Chef Cohen, and watched while she picked at it for a good hour before giving up. While Steve left to go put away the leftovers, Bucky slotted himself behind her and returned the pillow she’d been holding before. He fell asleep after about an hour, just before Steve returned with a book and a glass of water.

“I don’t want you to get dehydrated again, doll,” he explained quietly as he slipped into bed, waking Bucky with the movements but not acknowledging it, “drink this before you fall asleep.”

Penny didn’t bother to inform him she likely wouldn’t be falling asleep, not for any reasonable amount of time anyway. She drank the whole thing regardless, resettling herself down into the bed once she’d finished and letting the soldiers find their places around her. It took half an hour before she realized something was weird, that her eyes were getting heavier while she tried to watch her movie. Part of her wanted to be excited— if she managed to fall asleep, it would be the first time in ages that she had a chance to sleep through the night. But the other part of her realized that something was off.

“Shh, baby, don’t tense up,” Bucky murmured from behind her, his hands petting over her stomach slowly, “you’re so tired precious, just go to sleep.”

“Whahdiju—” Penny couldn’t even finish her slurred sentence; it was like something had attached to her body and was pulling her down, she was sinking deeper and deeper into the mattress but she could hardly move.

Steve cupped her face from where he lay in front of her, gently brushing his nose against hers, “goodnight babydoll, we’ll see you in the morning.”

A strangled noise escaped Penny, she thought she should be hyperventilating but she literally couldn’t. Her body was being pressed down on, was still sinking further and further into the mattress until she couldn’t think anymore. The sleep was restful to a fault, a dead slumber with no dreams at all.

When she woke, she was alone in the bed. The soldiers were nearby, she could hear their voices, but she wasn’t wrapped up in them like she usually was. It took longer than it should’ve for her body to respond to her brains orders, longer for her to have complete control over her extremities. She felt out of place and confused, much like the first time she’d woken up in the tower after being drugged.

She’d been drugged more in the last year than most people were in their entire lives. In the back of her mind, she remembered how lucky she’d been for so long; sure, it was about time for it to run out, but why did it have to go so spectacularly?

A low thrum of despair started in her heart and spread throughout her body like a virus, slinking through her veins and infecting her flesh. She clapped a hand over her mouth, trying to quiet the cries escaping against her will. Obviously, she’d never felt safe in the tower. She was entirely at the mercy of her captors, their whims were her existence. They could put their hands on her, hurt her, lock her in a room and throw away the key, but being drugged felt like something worse. It was an extra step in stripping her autonomy that she somehow hadn’t expected and it was more than terrifying. They could literally do whatever they wanted to her and she couldn’t do a thing to stop it.

“Jesus! Penny, baby what’s wrong?” She was swept up into Steve’s arms, the blond cradling her close to his chest, “Are you hurt? Are you sick? Penny, doll, talk to me baby, please—”

A tremble was running through her entire body, chest heaving with silenced cries while he continued to rock her. Bucky appeared through the blur of tears, pressing himself against her back where Steve held her and wrapping his arms around the pair.

“Just let her cry, Stevie,” the brunet quietly ordered, running his hand up and down his panicking boyfriend’s back, “let her get it out.”

Penny wasn’t sure how long it took for her to stop bawling. Eventually she just sort of opened her eyes and found herself sitting on Steve’s lap on the edge of the bed, once again exhausted and numb.

“Feel better, doll?” Bucky asked quietly, stroking her hair gently and sighing when she didn’t bother to answer, “maybe we shouldn’t go in today.”

“We have to,” Steve shook his head, pressing his lips to Penny’s covered shoulder, “Baby, Bucky and I have to go to work today. We’ll still be in the tower, JARVIS can contact us for you if you need us.”

As if she would ever, ever ask JARVIS to contact them. As if they were in some fever dream where Penny would be devastated if they left and never came back. As if she wouldn't be elated if they died.

Penny just nodded, allowing them to pet and coddle her until they needed to leave. Apparently breakfasts with Peter were now only on weekends, although Penny was allowed to go to see him as long as she checked first.

The soldiers spent a stupid amount of time 'saying goodbye' to her, fretting over leaving her alone as if she wasn't a goddamn adult. Contempt welled in her chest, crawling up her throat. She swallowed it down as hard as she could; she wouldn’t break the ‘be sweet’ rule, not when her ass was just starting to feel normal again. It took a good twenty minutes before the door shut, JARVIS automatically locking it behind them.

“They’re gone, JARVIS?”

“The soldiers are on the elevator heading for the conference floors, Miss. Should I call them back?”

“No!” Penny jumped at the sound of her own shout, “No, definitely not. I just… will you warn me when they start to come back?”

“Of course Miss, I would be happy too.”

“What is Peter doing right now?”

“Mr. Parker is still asleep, Miss.”

Disappointment settled on her shoulders but Penny quickly shook it off, looking around the living room. There were still a million and one plants scattered about, most looking desperate for water. Her disdain rattled through her; watering the plants would be giving in. They’d think she liked the plants, that they’d made her happy. But she hated the idea of letting them all die just to send a message. It wasn’t the plants fault that they’d been purchased by monsters.

It took almost half an hour to water them all and another forty minutes to sort them by the amount of sunlight they needed. JARVIS was critical in the endeavor, identifying everything Penny didn’t recognize and immediately reporting the optimal conditions for growth. The more effort and energy and time it took, the more Penny felt her rage growing.

“Those fucking bastards, do they not realize how delicate these are? They’ll die without enough sunlight!”

“I fucking hate these, they’re the worst JARVIS.” “Peacock plants require very strict care routines, shall I set reminders Miss?” “You can set it the fuck on fire I hate these.”

“Please tell me this isn’t a zebra plant.” “Should I lie to you, Miss?” “How the fuck am I going to keep a zebra plant alive in fucking New York?”

“They bought crotons. I hate crotons, JARVIS. You move them two inches and they get mad and drop all of their leaves.”

By noon, Penny was seething and it wasn’t just the plants that had driven her rage. The sheer injustice of her situation was setting in, overpowering the fear and the sadness.

“They just took us, JARVIS, how could they think that was okay?” She demanded, looking at the little red light in the corner of the room, “They just fucking took us like we were—like we were puppies in a cardboard box! We’re people, JARVIS! We’re people and we have lives and they just fucking took us away!”

“A-and they think that I should just accept it! I should be happy to be here, to be locked in a literal tower like some fucked up Disney princess, I should be thankful they stole us!”

Penny roughly placed an African Violet onto the kitchen counter, slamming her fist down next to it a moment later. She dropped her face into her hands, elbows rested on the counter, and heaved a massive sigh. Her face was hot to the touch in her rage.

“I can’t even get mad, I can’t be mad at them or I break their stupid fucking rules. Be Sweet, what the fuck does that even mean?!” She threw her arms out in irritation, screeching when her hand hit the mug Bucky had used for breakfast. It flew off the counter and smashed against the ground, pieces of ceramic flying everywhere, “oh mother fucker! Now I’m gonna get in trouble for that.”

“There is no rule against breaking dishes, Ms. Parker.”

Silence settled over the kitchen, even the sound of her breathing quieted. They had told her she couldn’t be violent and she had to be sweet—those were the only rules. Penny darted out of the kitchen and ran to the closet, snatching a pair of Bucky’s slippers before running back.

“Hey JARVIS, can you play music for me?”

“Of course, Miss, what would you like?”

“Ever heard of Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit?”

It only took about an hour to destroy every single plate, bowl, and cup in the kitchen. Every single piece of smashable cutlery had been demolished while a loud, raging playlist screamed through the apartment. Her chest was heaving with effort, eyes scanning the carnage that was the floor. A sense of contentment was washing through her for the first time in a month, a fleeting peace thrumming through her bones. It felt wonderful, even if it would only last for a little while.

"JARVIS, can you ask Chef Cohen if he has time to make me lunch maybe?" Penny asked absently, broken glass and ceramic making satisfying crunching noises as she left the kitchen and flopped onto the couch.

"Do you have anything specific in mind Miss?"

"No, just whatever he wants to make. How do I turn on the TV?"

"I can do that for you if you'd like Miss. The remote control is kept in the basket beneath the side table to your left."

"Thanks JARV, I got it," Penny hadn't actually sat down with the intention of watching TV in ages but it sounded like a good way to pass time, "maybe you could help me find something to watch though? I'm not sure where to start."

Binge watching TV shows was a phenomenon Penny was pretty sure she could get behind. She spent the whole afternoon parked out on the couch, happily eating the huge lunch that had been sent up for her and secretly admiring the very pretty array of succulents that had been purchased for her.

"Ms. Parker, the soldiers are preparing to return home for the day."

A small under current of nerves rocketed through her. The kitchen was a warzone and part of her wondered how badly she was gonna get beat for destroying everything she knew would make acceptable shattering noises. Technically, destroying the kitchen wasn’t against the rules. When the door to the apartment opened, Penny plastered a sweet smile on her face. Be sweet had never been defined, but she would be sweet as fuck.

“Hey doll,” Bucky greeted upon seeing her, eyes sweeping over her sprawled position on the couch and the empty food cart next to the coffee table, “did you have a good day?”

“Yes,” Penny continued to smile, making sure her tone was sugary.

She could see the suspicion settling over their faces, the furrowed brows and pursed lips. They exchanged a look and her smile widened.

“Penny, what’s going on?” Steve asked gently after a moment.

“I’m being sweet,” her lips pulled back to show her teeth, the expression still a smile but a rather brutal one, and carefully tried to keep her eyes from straying to the kitchen.

Somehow Steve still divined her intention though and turned to walk to the kitchen while Bucky approached her. The brunet looked simultaneously suspicious and amused, carefully scooping her up into his arms and sitting on the couch with her sprawled on top of him. A low, long whistle came from the kitchen and Bucky raised an eyebrow at her, only to have Penny very abruptly press her lips against his.

It was a trick, he was fully aware that she was trying to distract him, but fuck if it didn’t work. Penny initiating any sort of intimacy had been a practically nonexistent dream and he very quickly decided he couldn’t give half a shit about what was in the kitchen. He adjusted her on his lap and leaned back against the arm of the couch, tucking her up close to his chest and sighing into her mouth. Fuck he’d found heaven, fuck he couldn’t care less what she’d gotten up to in the kitchen, she was kissing him and she was soft and her weight on top of his chest was perfect.

Steve could literally see his lover melting into the couch cushions under Penny’s clever, if obvious, tactics. The kitchen was a disaster and he wondered if anything had been left intact but he did love getting to see his two favourite people wrapped up in each other. Plus, poor Penny seemed to have forgotten her original purpose in kissing Bucky and had gone boneless.

“Our doll left quite a mess in the kitchen, Buck,” he called lowly, watching the brunet fight to bring himself back to full consciousness and reluctantly pull away from the kiss.

“Fuck you’re so sweet,” Bucky rumbled, dragging his lips against Penny’s several times before forcing himself to stop, “manipulative little doll.”

“How long did it take you to break everything, precious?” Steve felt a small smirk tugging at his lips, eyes tracking Penny’s careful smile and the nervousness beginning to rise in her eyes.

“I don’t know,” still smiling, a sugary sweet voice, their doll was a little shitkicker.

“JARVIS, why didn’t you tell us that Penny was having a fit?”

“Ms. Parker was in no danger and was not showing any signs of emotional distress, Captain.”

“Destroying everything she could get her hands on doesn’t count as a sign of emotional distress?”

“I am unable to differentiate human emotions unless they are accompanied by biological changes in temperature, heart rate—”

“JARVIS, call Tony up here please.”

Penny’s body pulled taught at that and he could see her throat move as she swallowed, the nervousness continuing to rise. Her cheeks were an appealing shade of pink and Steve crossed the room to sit on the coffee table in front of the couch, stealing her off of Bucky’s lap and bringing her to sit across his thighs.

“You’re being sweet, huh baby?” He murmured quietly, nose brushing her cheek bone, “show me how sweet you can be.”

He pressed his lips against hers but didn’t move further, forcing Penny to adjust her position in order to kiss him properly. There was only a moment's hesitation, broken by the sound of Bucky’s near delirious sigh, before Penny’s lips started moving over his in a languid fashion. He quickly came to understand why Buck had just about melted into the couch when she gave in, their doll was an excellent kisser and she was so, so sweet.

“And here I thought you’d fallen and couldn’t get up.”

Penny tried to pull away at the sound of Tony’s voice but Steve kept a hand on her cheek, holding her in place for a few more seconds before letting her lips fall away. He guided her head down to rest against his shoulder, carefully running his hand down the length of her hair without tangling his fingers in her curls.

“Go check out the kitchen, wouldja?”

“Did you break the coffee pot again, Ol’ Timer? Need the youngin’ to come fix—oh, that’s an impressive level of destruction for such a little thing. Did you have to climb on the counters to get to the top shelves precious?”

“Tony, why wouldn’t JARVIS alert us that Penny was having a breakdown?” Bucky reached out and swiftly stole Penny from his boyfriend’s lap, carefully curling her into the cage of his arms and ignoring her grumbling when he manipulated her limbs into a more comfortable position.

“J, explain yourself,” Tony Did Not Roll His Eyes, but he did really, really want to.

“Ms. Parker was not breaking any rules that had been explained to her, nor was she exhibiting any signs of emotional distress.”

“I’m pretty sure going ape shit on the entire kitchen counts as emotional distress, J,” Tony admonished carefully.

“Then I do apologize, sir.” The AI did not sound apologetic in the least and if nothing else, JARVIS was smug.

“Since we seem to have to explain this implicitly, Penny doll, wrecking the kitchen is not okay,” Bucky tipped her head back with a careful nudge, forcing eye contact, “you can’t destroy the kitchen because you’re upset.”

He wasn’t even bothered, to be honest. The tower was still standing, she hadn’t set anything on fire, and she was entirely unharmed; it was a better outcome than he had been expecting upon leaving their tiny monster alone for so long. She hadn’t even attempted an escape and honestly he was planning to count the day as a win. A quick glance at Steve confirmed he felt the same way.

“JARVIS, if Penny goes on the warpath again, I expect you to inform someone,” Tony ordered, ignoring the small spark of heat in his chest upon seeing Penny give in to Bucky’s embrace and lay against the brunet completely.

“Yes, sir.” Petulant. The robot voice in the walls sounded petulant and Steve didn’t appreciate JARVIS having such strong emotions.

“Now, was there anything else or can I get back to my baby?”

Before either of the soldiers could respond, Penny popped back up, “Can I see Peter?”

“Not tonight, precious,” he ignored the sad look on her face and pressed on, “I’ll send him up tomorrow to have breakfast with you, fair?”

Penny didn’t look all too placated but she nodded, grudgingly accepting the pretend compromise. It wasn’t an actual compromise, Stark didn’t give anything up in exchange for them meeting in the middle, but being able to see through the manipulation tactic was its own success.

“Come give me a kiss before I leave, precious.” Cheating. Stark was cheating and they both knew it.

When she hesitated for too long, Bucky cleared his throat and gave her a nudge, “Be sweet, Penny.”

Standing up was a fucking chore. Her entire body protested the action, Steve ended up guiding her hips up off the edge of the couch. Stark had his hand stretched towards her and she forced her feet to move as he gestured her towards him.

Being touched by Tony Stark was like touching a livewire. When she grabbed his hand, goosebumps ran down her arm and her heart began to race when he pulled her to his chest. His presence was simultaneously terrifying and calming. The kiss he placed on her forehead was scorching and afterwards, when he tapped his own fingers to his lips, she felt her body tremble. Stretching onto her toes, she pressed a chaste, barely brushing kiss there before quickly backing away and retreating into the bedroom.

The door slammed behind her and Tony turned his gaze to the soldiers, “I’ll send someone to clean up your kitchen. I do need to talk to you while I’m up here though— their disappearance is starting to gain attention.”

Bucky groaned, head falling back against the couch, “We’ll need to stage some bodies then, do we have any options on hand?”

“One that’ll fit for Penny, maybe, but nothing for Peter,” Tony crossed his arms over his chest, one hand running over his goatee, “shouldn’t be too hard though. Have you talked to Rumlow recently?”

“Not in a few days,” Steve rolled his neck in annoyance, “too fragile.”

“Make sure you leave him alive for now,” it was an order, “Penny’s having a hard time adjusting, we may need some leverage.”

“Is Peter acting out?”

“Hardly,” Tony snorted, “force more intimacy, affection broke Peter in half like he’d never experienced it before.”

“Penny has some trauma with sex, from Rumlow,” Steve glanced towards the bedroom door, “she almost doesn’t know how to react to phsyical contact.”

“She has to be punished for the stunt in the kitchen,” Bucky tilted his head thoughtfully, “we can’t go any further until that.”

“She didn’t technically break any rules—”

“Don’t start Super Stupid,” Tony pointed at the blond quickly, “she’s not a child, she knows better.”

“We do owe Rumlow a visit,” Bucky didn’t give his boyfriend a chance to respond, “We’ll take Penny along.”

“It’ll traumatize her,” Steve frowned, resting his cheek on his fist.

“And you’ll pick up the pieces afterwards,” Tony gave them both a careful expression, “she needs to know that you’re her support system, that she has to rely on you for comfort and safety.”

“Break her down and build her back up,” a soft hum escaped Bucky, the wheels beginning to turn in his brain as he considered the implications of shredding Penny down to her bare essentials, “systematically.”

“Poor thing,” a heavy sigh escaped Steve before he slapped his hands down on his thighs and stood, turning to face the door she was hiding behind, “I hate seeing her sad.”

“We’ll get through it, Stevie,” Bucky followed him to his feet and squeezed the blond’s shoulder, “and so will she. Penny! Penny doll, come out here, we’ve got places to be!”

#steve rogers x oc x bucky barnes #steve rogers x oc #bucky barnes x oc #dark!steve rogers #dark!bucky barnes #dark!tony stark #dark!mcu #let's review #let's review chapter 13

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nonwal · 4 years

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I’ve seen some meta talking about whether various characters’ judgements of Artagan are unfounded (or subconsciously influenced by what their players know from c1) and...hm. Yes, he’s been extremely supportive of Jester and she’s consistently told the M9 that he’s her best friend and he’s super cool you guys. But that doesn’t mean that these characters’ suspicion towards him is unfounded, just that they’re founded on those characters’ personalities and previous life experiences, rather than anything Artagan has done or Jester has directly told them about him.

this is pretty long and based off of my own initial impressions of the most current episode (which I missed parts of,) so YMMV below the cut

First off. Caduceus. Let’s be frank, he’s sitting back and quietly judging everyone. I love him for it, but this isn’t news. I’d be surprised if he were 100% on board with any of this. Out of all the player characters, he’s always been the least in tune with who Jester actually is as a person.

Fjord. Remember when he ended up stuck in a pact with a pseudo-god, too scared to break away from it because he didn’t like who he was without his powers? That’s absolutely coloring the way he views Jester and Artagan’s interactions. I don’t necessarily agree with how he’s handled it (Jester doesn’t need to be coddled or protected, she’s not a child, just talk to her about your concerns, fucking hell,) but his judgement is based on very real fears. Right up until the end Fjord was telling everyone that he had the Ukutoa situation handled--he didn’t tell anyone when he lost his powers, he never voiced any of his doubts about his usefulness, he just let everyone assume things were fine. So it makes sense that he doesn’t entirely trust Jester telling him that Artagan’s her friend and she’s fine, especially considering that Fjord has become increasingly aware that (with his abysmal insight/wisdom score) he doesn’t actually know what’s going on behind the scenes most of the time.

Beau...well. Remember how her family had history with a mysterious figure granting them boons and then surprise, that figure turned out to be an evil fey being bent on causing misery? Remember what her initial relationship with Molly was like? Is anyone surprised that she doesn’t like Artagan, certified archfey bullshitter? Even ignoring her background, the same traits that make her a good investigator/expositor make her bad at trusting and letting go. She doesn’t expect things to go well, she assumes people are lying about their intentions, she gets suspicious and stubborn and defensive. Again, I don’t necessarily like how she handled this situation, but it absolutely makes sense considering who she is as a character and the biases she has.

Caleb’s harder to read. We know that A) he speaks sylvan and therefore presumably understands what to expect from a fey more than the others and B) he has some deeply fucked-up experiences with being manipulated by a powerful authority figure. He initially seemed to show wariness re:the Traveler, but he also did the same thing with Jester’s mom (and many other people besides.) After watching Artagan interact with Jester more, he seems to have relaxed somewhat and trusted that she has a handle on it, even if he might not trust Artagan himself. It’s also possible that he feels like he'd recognize manipulative behavior based on his own experiences and doesn’t think that’s the case here, or that he feels like he isn’t allowed to judge other people’s choices because of his own self-loathing. It’s hard to say the exact reason for it, but he has stepped back into a supportive role and is less suspicious than some of the others.

Yasha hasn’t said a ton about what she actually thinks of Artagan from what I recall, and I think a lot of people are interpreting her silence as strong disapproval when that may not necessarily be the case. She’s got the whole Obann thing she’s still working through, but that involved literal mind control and she doesn’t necessarily seem to be projecting her own issues onto Jester’s situation. Again, hard to read--she’s been a bit reserved in her support, but she’s also just reserved in general.

Veth has arguably handled this the best, and I do think part of that is because, as someone who blows stuff up and permanently glues dicks to people’s hands, she’s more in tune with Jester than the rest of the group. However, I also think it’s easiest for her to trust that Jester can have an equal relationship with Artagan because she doesn’t have the baggage that so many of the others do. The bad things that have happened to her weren’t due to trusted authority figures using their power to abuse her. She’s aware that dangerous power imbalances can happen, but that isn’t the lens that she fundamentally filters the world through, and so it’s easier for her to accept when that’s not the case.

Last but not least, Jester has...inadvertently exacerbated a lot of this by repeatedly introducing the Traveler as a super-powerful god that people should worship because he’s awesome, and defending his godhood whenever someone doubted it. If she’d mostly focused on their long friendship and less on the powerful deity thing, I wonder if it would’ve triggered everyone’s Mistrust of Authority™ alarms to the same degree or made the not-a-god reveal as troubling. Also, from the outside it’s easy to assume that the Traveler was asking her to recruit more followers instead of that being her own idea--and almost impossible to imagine that the Traveler being a god was also her idea. The rest of the Nein never heard Artagan’s own explanation for why he started a cult (that it was mostly Jester’s influence and he kinda got swept away by it,) so it’s easy to assume he’d been stringing her and everyone else along as a fun power trip. They also didn’t see him go “I don’t know wtf I’m doing, help,” so Jester helping him organize Travelercon probably seems like she’d been ordered to clean up his mess when he got bored of it, rather than a friend asking for advice because he’s in over his head. The Nein have mostly interacted with Artagan with Jester as an intermediary, and she’s been vague in many of her explanations because she’s trying to defend her friend. I don’t blame her for the resulting misinterpretation of events, but I can definitely understand why it happened.

as a final note--it’s easy to forget that Fjord and Beau are, frankly, very new to having real friends. They have excellent people skills in specific contexts, but both of them struggle with close interpersonal relationships because they don’t actually have a lot of experience with how those should work. I don’t think that not trusting Jester’s judgement and trying to shield her from her own (perceived) naivety is a good idea. I do think that that’s something they will eventually figure out, assuming they continue to put effort into self-improvement as they’ve pretty consistently done this entire campaign.

as a final final note--this is an improv game and people are allowed to play imperfect characters! that is what makes it interesting and fun! I like complicated relationships and this is not an attack on you or the players! please do not crucify me because my armchair interpretation of character motivations clashes with your own headcanon/your favorite ship/something a cast member said in some tweet I haven’t read/the moonweaver being in retrograde!

#critical role #cr meta #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #I probably used too many adverbs here but this entire thing's a bit of a mess anyway so who cares about the details #oh god it's 2am what happened

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twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

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Codas, Spoilers, and Music Videos

Okay, so once again I have a ton of little things to post that have come to my attention this past week. Just lots of bits and pieces that are quietly being posted. I’ll try to mention all of them over the next few days.

Here are the first few.

After-Credits-Codas

First, well, this isn’t something that was posted. Just something my peeps and I have been discussing. Even non-TD reviewers of episode 10x16 are really confused. GN’s comment about the last five minutes being jaw-dropping is really confusing everyone. If you’ve read spoilers, you know there’s nothing jaw-dropping in this episode. So I’ve seen reviewers trying to justify it. Like, “well, maybe if you haven’t read the comic books then…it might be…kind…”

No, just no. Based on what they’ve seen, there’s just nothing to justify the “jaw-dropping” comment.

And that’s frustrating for us (because no Beth) but it’s also frustrating and confusing for non-TDers in the fandom who just can’t figure out what he was talking about.

So that made me start wonder if maybe, just maybe, there might be something extra that the screeners didn’t see. You know, a coda, after the credits, kind of like Morgan showing up in 5x01.

And remember, the gray ninja who’s with Maggie has a mask REALLY similar to the one we saw Morgan wearing. And Morgan’s mask is something I really think we ought to talk about more. He wore it for all of 2 seconds in an after-the-credits coda in 5x01. And he never wore it again. Like, NEVER. We never saw, it, got any explanation for why he was wearing it in 100-degree Georgia heat in the first place. Nothing. And why have him wear the mask at all if he was just going to remove it first thing and show us his face? There really wasn’t any functional reason for it.

So I feel like it had to have been some kind of hint or foreshadow or something.

My point is, I guess the last hope we’re holding onto for seeing Beth in 10x16 is the idea that maybe there’s something the screeners didn’t see.

And really guys, it’s kind of a long shot. Chances are this is just another example of tptb over-hyping the show. If that’s the case, as I’ve said before, I’ll be disappointed in Nicotero. Because others, like Gimple, have overhyped the show before, but it doesn’t seem like Nictoero usually does. But, there’s a first time for everything. So please understand this is just kind of a hope on our part, and nothing with any concrete evidence.

However, to this end, @wdway asked me if the 5x01 coda with Lenny James was leaked beforehand. I honestly couldn’t say. I wasn’t part of the online fandom (following, posting, reading spoilers, etc.) until after Coda happened, so I have no idea if Morgan’s appearance was spoiled or not.

I do remember Lenny James telling a story on TTD about how his coming was kept a secret. He stayed in a basement apartment of some locals (who I think often host actors and guest actors on the show) and they weren’t even told who it was who was coming to stay with them. But they had to sign dictionary-sized non-disclosure agreements. Then, when the woman saw him, she obviously recognized him (being a fan of the show) and went, “Oh. It’s you. That’s why.”

So obviously he was sneaked around and everything was kept very hush-hush. At the very least, I doubt any cameras saw him before the episode aired.

I’ve asked around to others who I know were online back then, and no one really remembers for certain. It was a long time ago. Not to mention, technology and even the way spoilers are handled was very different back then.

But the general consensus seems to be that it was not spoiled. Everyone was super-shocked to see Morgan at the end of that episode because no one had figured out he would show up in it.

So, that’s just to say that it’s possible there might be something more.

But once again, I wouldn’t necessarily count on it. It’s better for all our emotional health to not hope too much for that. But I just wanted to throw it out there and say that, especially where the ninja is concerned, I’ll be keeping an eye out for Morgan/Ninja parallels and what they might be pointing to.

Which segues nicely into my next point.

Spoilers

Everyone remember the spoilers that came out not long after 10x16 was officially cancelled/pushed back? They said the ninja was a new female character named Melody. Now spoilers are saying it’s a man and that we won’t learn his name or see his face in 10x16.

I’m going to assume these second set of spoilers are true, because we’ve heard them from people who have already screened the episode.

But I’m really side-eying those early spoilers. What are the chances that we’re told someone who is a actually a man is a woman, and one who has a music-centric name (Melody). And even more, that they wear a mask similar to one Morgan wore when he first appeared?

I don’t know where those spoilers came from other than really general things (Reddit) but I almost feel like they might have been put out by tptb to mislead us. And, you know, why would they do that?

I don’t have specific theory, but it’s definitely suspicious to me.

Music Video

Okay, last thing I’ll talk about for today. If you haven’t seen the Marilyn Manson music video Norman is in, go watch it. So, remember when I posted his IG story a few weeks ago, saying it was suspicious but he and MM are friends so he might just be promoting his friend? Yeah, I didn’t realize back then that Norman was going to be in the music video. So he was hyping his friend, but it was his project, too.

youtube

The song is called Don’t Chase the Dead. (Which by itself could be a TD theme.) If you look at the lyrics, it has lots of TWD themes in it (tomorrow, ice cream truck, etc.) which may be why Norman agreed to do it. But I’ve gotten half a dozen messages this past week from people saying it’s giving them Beth vibes, and I agree. I just want you to notice a couple of things as you watch.

At the beginning, they cut some kind of canvas out of a frame. So the back drop is art theft. You could see the canvas they steal as sort of a “treasure” or “jewels” theme. And where do they put this treasure that was valuable enough to break in and steal?

In the trunk. At the end, the woman walks around to the back of the car, opens the trunk, takes out the canvas and walks away with it.

And then there’s the much more obvious tie, which is that someone (in this case, Norman’s character) is shot in the head and left in a car.

So yeah. Check that out. It’s definitely making my TD senses tingle.

Lyrics:

Angels in exile Here lies the dead An ice cream truck in your inferno

Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you

If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow No tomorrow

I got my tickets to Hell I know you so well And I know you wanna be there too

If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow No tomorrow

Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you

If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow

Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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truth-and-lies-drv3-imagines · 5 years

Text

-ʟɪғᴇ ᴀs ᴀ ʏᴏᴜᴛᴜʙᴇʀ

⤷ Ooo! How about the Youtuber AU with Kokichi , Kaito and Kaede? Headcanons please!

⤷Contents: A few of the characters as youtubers, some cussing, positivity, rage-quitting, some good ol’ music, really really bad channel names that I made up at the top of my head.

⤷Summary: Kokichi,Kaito and Kaede as youtubers

⤷Word Count:

⤷ A/N: Ahh it makes me so happy that the AU post brought in requests, I absolutely loved the idea of imagining the characters as youtubers, I hope you enjoy this and if there is anything you’d like to be fixed feel free to tell me.^^

Blog Masterlist (It’s NOT completely finished yet, but will be at some point.)

Kokichi Ouma

- Most definitely a gamer, he’d play a variety of games but mostly favours games which has elements of action and thinking. Fantasy is also a personal favourite of his.

- There would be a ton of cursing and rage-quitting, but those factors in his videos always make them entertaining which is what his viewers find enjoyable and interesting to watch.

- He has a couple million subscribers, he got them in a considerably short amount of time which was quite surprising to everybody else.

-He never really gave his subscribers a particular fandom name, the thought has crossed his mind but he just couldn’t be bothered.

- His fans have made a whole compilation of him just rage-quitting, which is...welll, longer than needed.

- Kokichi’s channel name would most likely be ‘OumaPlayzCrap’ he just wanted to make it obvious that he really just plays for the fun of it and doesn’t intend to take any of his videos in a serious manner.

- Gets into a whole load of Youtube beef with other creators on the platform, but it’s not always started by him. A few content creators accuse him of things that are completely far from the truth, most of the rumours are caused by the fact that he reached stardom in a quick manner which would’ve caused suspicion. But Kokichi never takes any of the hate seriously and he really just makes a whole video of him just roasing the attacker.

Kaede Akamatsu

- It’s quite obvious that Kaede would be a music focused channel, she enjoys uploading videos of covers and occasionally songs she wrote herself.

- Viewers are attracted to her sweet,loving and welcoming personality which creates a wonderful reputation on the platform for her.

- She has a couple million of loyal subscribers and a good few of her videos go viral for her talent and creativity that she adds and her solo tracks are always compelling to others.

- The channel name is quite simple, ‘KaedeAkamatsu♬’ it’s straightforward and because of the effect the symbol gives off,it’s evident what her channel is about.

- Collabs with other musicians are also an occasional event which is something both youtubers look forward to, the finished piece is a musical masterpiece which fans treasure.

- An admirable thing about Kaede is that she hasn’t ever gotten into a scandal or reacted to any rumours, she enjoys keeping her channel a positive and welcoming place for people.

- Interacting with fans is a must for her, besides creating music and playing the piano interacting with her fans is an activity that brings great joy and warmth to her, seeing all of the positive comments about her and appreciation posts people make for her brightens her day.

Kaito Momota

- I can see Kaito’s channel as more of a motivational one and one that shares stories. Storytimes are pretty much what his channel focuses on.

- Same as the others, he has a couple million. Viewers enjoy how much he emphasises certain scenes and the excitement he puts onto his voice. Everybody wonders how he’s able to have such an entertaining and optimistic life, he somehow always has a story to tell and even if it’s something simple, he always has a way to make it compelling even if it’s just a trip to the supermarket.

-Occasionally he does videos that centre around the theme of positivity and taking care of yourself, again, the way he projects his voice and the way he words his quotes and sentences makes viewers feel comforted and motivated.

- His channel name may go something the lines of ‘MomotaTalks’ or something else I’m bad with titles.

- There are times where others doubt the truth in his content, but Kaito always confronts the negative attention by making a video of it and reassuring his viewers and subscribers that his content is based on true events and he has no intention of fabricating and formulating fake events for the sake of stardom.

- Vents are quite rare, very rare in fact, but they do happen every now and then when something happens in his life and he just can’t contain his frustration and he needs to talk about his troubles. But his anger can be interesting to watch at times and towards the end of the video the furnace of anger cools down and he’s much more relaxed compared to the beginning of the video.

- He has a load of Youtube friends and does collabs with them every now and then, he does accept promotions too but it really depends on the product and reputation as he doesn’t want to give a misleading product positive attention.

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forestwater87 · 5 years

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hi! can i ask how you go about writing gwen? i’ve rewatched a bunch of her episodes and am still having trouble getting her on paper!

Okay, first you’re going to need to get a time machine and travel back in time to the summer of 2016, just after season 1 ended, when she had like 3 character traits and a couple dozen lines and zero fanfics, then fill her with elements of your own personality and project wildly onto her, slowly falling into deeper and darker despair as canon!Gwen becomes less like your iteration of the character with every season.

At least, that’s what I did, and it worked like gangbusters.

Fine, let’s try a serious answer. Gwen’s interesting because, despite how frequently she appears in the show and how much we love the shit out of her, it wasn’t really until seasons 3-4 that her backstory and less surface-level characteristics started getting filled in. She’s an ever-present enigma in a lot of ways.

So start with what we know for damn sure:

She doesn’t like working at Camp Campbell.

She’s an anxious, emotional mess.

She’s lazy when it comes to things she doesn’t care about, but is willing and able to step up when it’s called for.

She enjoys writing fan fiction and has a passion -- if not necessarily a talent -- for smut, drama, romance, violence, and monsterfucking. (Some of these things overlap.)

Her father’s an extremely successful musician, and their relationship is . . . complicated.

She’s beautiful and perfect and in love with David and also my girlfriend. Okay, that’s not true. This is where the projecting comes in, dang it.

Honestly, there’s . . . not a lot of there there. I think that’s why some fans are kind of bored by her, and why others absolutely love the shit out of her. Her personality is rock-solid -- seriously, just write “bored and seemingly uncaring with a heart of gold and a lust for monsters” and you’ve got a very solid Gwen portrayal right there -- but the backstory is virtually nonexistent, and that’s the bits you get to have fun with.

For example, with all of our facts we have:

She doesn’t like working at Camp Campbell. Okay, but why doesn’t she like working there? Is it just because it’s dilapidated and Campbell is a shithead? Did she ever like working here and got burned out by its overwhelming mediocrity, or was she forced to take this job and hated it from day one? What’s the worst part of it for her: is it working with kids? Is it working with these kids? Is it the outdoors stuff? The lack of resources? That her coworker is an adorable goddamned idiot who doesn’t know how to adult?

She’s an anxious, emotional mess. Anxiety, parasocial relationships (do those apply when talking about fictional characters and/or monsters?), serious doubt and/or regret about her life choices, a complicated and unclear sexuality . . . there’s a lot going on with Gwen. She is trash, and we love her. Add to it that she’s a psych major, and how little we know about her backstory, and she’s a great opportunity to armchair-psychologist and/or overidentify all over the place. Do you have emotional issues or identities you’d like to project onto someone? Congratulations -- Gwen now has all of those too!

She’s lazy when it comes to things she doesn’t care about, but is willing and able to step up when it’s called for. She’s a lot like Max in this way, which I think is why people are such a fan of their dynamic. She cares very deeply about some things and not at all about others, and it’s fun trying to parse out what will make her give a shit. It seems like high enough stakes will make her step up, but her idea of important is very different from David’s a lot of the time. Hell, for all we know her investment in her job changes on as little as her mood; that’s part of what you get to try and figure out as she takes shape in your writing.

She enjoys writing fan fiction and has a passion -- if not necessarily a talent -- for smut, drama, romance, violence, and monsterfucking. (Some of these things overlap.) Not gonna lie, as a book snob I had the hardest time accepting that my girl loves 50 Shades knockoffs. Her tastes are . . . I don’t wanna say bad, but they do tend to be what is popularly considered the lowest common denominator: reality TV, fashion magazines, bodice-ripping romances, paranormal tween novels. Basically, anything with lots of sex and violence seems to be her jam. It creates a really interesting dichotomy, in that she reads all the time, but isn’t necessarily what we’d call well-read. She’s a nerd, but the “worst” kind: a fangirl, and arguably the most adolescent kind. Yet she has a liberal arts degree, which tends to focus heavily on literary and creative arts, so snobs like me would assume she should know better. Apparently pretentious college English classes didn’t rub off on her all that much. I don’t have much in the way of leading questions for this one, because unless you want to psychoanalyze why she enjoys Prison Teen Mom Wars (as I most definitely do), you just sort of need to be aware of and use the fact that she enjoys high-octane drama, fighting, and kinky sex.

Her father’s an extremely successful musician, and their relationship is . . . complicated. Really, there’s two ways to work with this: either Gwen just has a normal “millennial embarrassed by her boomer dad” relationship, which is relatable to the max but doesn’t have a ton of angst fodder, or she’s dealing with some deep-seated issues about being a show toddler and/or failing to live up to his creative legacy (or whatever other parent-child problems you could imagine). Her mom is a complete nonentity. There’s definitely love between her and at least one parent, and that needs to be incorporated into any sort of discussion about her dad, but I don’t think their problems have been magically solved, which has to potential for lots of interesting scenarios.

She’s beautiful. She doesn’t think she’s beautiful, that’s for sure. One Direction in its early period of completely sucking would have lots of opinions about this, but if you don’t think Gwen is a snack (snacc? I’m very old and out of touch), you’re wrong and also not welcome on this blog.

The fun part, in my opinion, is trying to fill in the blank spaces. If I was starting out my own creation of Gwen, I’d focus first on these points: what they tell us about her, and more importantly what they don’t.

I think the hardest thing about writing Gwen -- at least, what I struggle most with -- is trying to soften her up. I took her “crippling anxiety and regret” and filled it in with all my own angst, and I think a lot of fans do that; it’s one of the great things about her, her potential for angst. But despite crying a lot (more, I believe, than any other character except mayyyybe David), she’s not especially sensitive toward other people. And I think it’s tempting to take our love for her and translate it into her being much more perfect and snuggly than she actually is. It’s an incredibly hard balance to strike, and in my opinion this makes her the hardest character to write besides Max, which makes sense, considering #3 up there.

So my advice for that would be: lean into the bitchiness. Let her be blunt and dismissive; she’s more than that, of course, and I think one of the reasons people have gravitated so much toward gwom-type portrayals is her genuine concern and even affection towards other people, but focusing too hard on her kindness and/or her angst tends to push aside the trash goblin Gwen we all fell in love with.

Let her be a trash goblin. She deserves it.

#campcamp #camp camp roosterteeth #cc gwen #ask forest #forestwriting #tbh i feel like my gwen is totally ooc #but i also feel like my david is slightly-less-but-still-totally ooc #so i'm not sure my advice is worth anything #but i hope this helps you anon!#file under: advice i probably will not follow #long post #well longish post #Anonymous

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nonionklnks · 4 years

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Hhhh sex robots you say 👀👀 would you mind expanding on that?? 👉👈 the thought of Jaskier being a literal thing for people to put their dick in is. Way too fucking hot? He's not even properly a l i v e. His only purpose in life is to be a set of holes,,, signed, your local robotfucker

I mean, sexual slavery is general is hot, but with robots there’s even less possibility for them to resist, because they are literally designed for it. Even if they feel uncomfortable, they can’t override coding or a direct order; they’re simply trapped in their own bodies. And those bodies have no limits: they can get fucked literally 24/7 without breaking, look however the customer wants, and have whatever genitals they prefer, including ones that vibrate, have an infinite lube supply, knot, etc. And then you can always swap out their genitals for something else if you want.

Worldbuilding-wise it just makes it more plausible to have not only a legal form of prostitution or slavery, but one that does not have much moral pushback, even when they’re being abused or fucked in public or another thing that would typically receive disapproval. And on the other hand, that just makes it that much sweeter when someone recognizes that they are a person or treats them with kindness. I’m a sucker for a human repeatedly visiting a sex robot (or berhaps receiving house calls?) and starting to notice their humanity over time. Can be iffy love, where they are actually in love with a personality they have projected onto them and are convinced loves them back, or genuine love where their top concern is how to help this person who is forced to do things they hate all the time. Or go the in-between route, where they realize more and more that the sex is nonconsensual, but can’t resist coming back and fucking them even as their stomach twists with guilt. Oh but also consensual sex where the human is very gentle and frequently checks that they are okay with this and reminds them they have no obligation to say yes and pays a lot of attention to making sure the robot feels good too, even when that means doing something that puts their inhumanity in stark relief such as playing with their wires or increasing their sensitivity input. And then there’s the struggle of how to free them and deciding whether they can even have an ethical relationship when there’s such an extreme power imbalance.

Ofc you can do similar themes with a robot who they personally own, and those are fun too, but I like the fact that with prostitution they have to actively choose to keep coming back to them and start to recognize that they are a person despite only having short interactions with them that should mostly consist of sex. Oh shit also there are stripper bots, who can just do stripper activities or also be available for sexual activity; the difference with a stripper bot is that the character may not go into the club with the intention to have sex with any of them or doesn’t have sex with them the first time but keeps coming back to watch them dance, slowly escalating as they talk more and start asking them for more extreme services like lap dances or taking off a piece of clothing until they crack and buy full-blown sex. Also host-provided bots, such as sexy bots who sit on high-rollers’ laps and encourage them to spend more money at casinos or robots at a party who can be chosen from the selection and fucked by any of the guests (was initially thinking about them being brought to a more private place to be fucked, but then thought about guests having their cocks warmed during dinner or having a bot bouncing on their lap while they make casual conversation with the other guests like they’re not even there.)

Whew, realized you probably wanted a specific scenario with the character rather than a goddamn essay after I’d already written all that, but feel free to hmu again to expand on any mentioned ideas that appealed to you. I don’t have a ton of ideas for Witcher-specific sex bots, but actually my mind initially jumps to Geralt as the robot, not Jaskier. (I mean, Witchers already have physical abilities beyond those of a human and are seen as emotionless tools to be used and then discarded.) Jaskier takes one look at the beefy android with the big dick and knows exactly how he’s spending the rest of his night. Or maybe he’s a rich boi who straight up buys him. Either way he’s strangely delighted by Geralt’s taciturn, grumpy nature. I also like the idea of them both being robots but Jaskier being much more emotive and willing to consider that maybe he is a person and not just an object to be ordered around, while Geralt thinks Jaskier is ridiculous whenever he verbalizes his doubts about the nature of robts and spends most of their time together trying to get Jaskier to stop talking to him and get back to work. Oh, but what if the thing that forces Geralt to realize he has emotions is him feeling protective over Jaskier?🥺 Like Geralt’s nonexistent heart hurts every time Jaskier looks sad and when people say or do cruel things to Jaskier he wants to beat them up. Okay, okay, so like: Geralt as a bouncer robot and Jaskier as an entertainer robot who is also available to rent between shows for lapdances or sex. Geralt explains away his feelings at first as just wanting to protect the merchandise, since that’s his job, but it becomes harder to believe that when he keeps staring at Jaskier rather than keeping a roving eye on the whole floor and feels upset not just when customers hit Jaskier but when they yell at him, which doesn’t carry any risk of damaging the merchandise.

#nonion post #nonion reply #nonion dubcon cw #nonion noncon cw

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jackdawyt · 5 years

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Following Jason Schreier's continued BioWare story, we have direct insight from many BioWare employees regarding the initial Dragon Age 4 BioWare were going to create code named 'Joplin' and envisioned by Mike Laidlaw, against the now in production Dragon Age project that has been code named 'Morrison'.

Last time we talked about both projects - Joplin and Morrison, equally named after their respected music artists who died at the age of 27, but were both known for revolutionizing their respected industry.

This latest report examines everything that Joplin was going to be regarding the future of the next Dragon Age title.

Let's now delve into the potential game that Dragon Age 4 initially was going to be, before it was rebooted for Anthem and Andromeda's developments.

As I quote:

The plan for Joplin was exciting, say people who worked on it. First and foremost, they already had many tools and production pipelines in place after Inquisition, ones that they hoped to improve and continue using for this new project.

They committed to prototyping ideas early and often, testing as quickly as possible rather than waiting until everything was on fire, as they had done the last time thanks to the glut of people and Frostbite’s difficulties.

“Everyone in project leadership agreed that we couldn’t do that again, and worked to avoid the kind of things that had led to problems,” said one person who worked on the project, explaining that some of the big changes included:

1) Laying down a clear vision as early as possible.

2) Maintaining regular on-boarding documents and procedures so new team members could get up to speed fast; and

3) A decision-making mentality where “we acknowledged that making the second-best choice was far, far better than not deciding and letting ambiguity stick around while people waited for a decision.”

(That person, like all of the sources for this story, spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about their experiences.)

Prepare the tears for this next quote guys....

Another former BioWare developer who worked on Joplin called it “some of the best work experiences” they’d ever had. “We were working towards something very cool, a hugely reactive game, smaller in scope than Dragon Age: Inquisition but much larger in player choice, followers, reactivity, and depth,” they said. “I’m sad that game will never get made.”

You’d play as a group of spies in Tevinter Imperium, a wizard-ruled country on the north end of Dragon Age’s main continent, Thedas. The goal was to focus as much as possible on choice and consequence, with smaller areas and fewer fetch quests than Dragon Age: Inquisition.

(In other words, they wanted Joplin to be the opposite of the Hinterlands.) There was an emphasis on “repeat play,” one developer said, noting that they wanted to make areas that changed over time and missions that branched in interesting ways based on your decisions, to the point where you could even get “non-standard game overs” if you followed certain paths.

A large chunk of Joplin would center on heists. The developers talked about building systemic narrative mechanics, allowing the player to perform actions like persuading or extorting guards without the writers having to hand-craft every scene.

It was all very ambitious and very early, and would have no doubt changed drastically once Joplin entered production, but members of the team say they were thrilled about the possibilities.

The first big hiccup came in late 2016, when BioWare put Joplin on hold and moved the entire team onto the troubled Mass Effect: Andromeda, which needed as many hands as possible during its final months of development.

The Joplin team expanded with people who were rolling off Andromeda and kept working, prototyping, and designing the game. After spending months of their lives helping finish a Mass Effect that didn’t excite a ton of people, it was nice to return to Dragon Age.

One thing that wasn’t discussed much on Joplin was multiplayer, according to a few people who worked on the project, which is perhaps why the project couldn’t last.

By the latter half of 2017, Anthem was in real trouble, and there was concern that it might never be finished unless the studio did something drastic.

In October of 2017, not long after veteran Mass Effect director Casey Hudson returned to the studio to take over as general manager, EA and BioWare took that drastic action, canceling Joplin and moving the bulk of its staff, including executive producer Mark Darrah, onto Anthem.

A tiny team stuck around to work on a brand new Dragon Age 4, code-named Morrison, that would be built on Anthem’s tools and code base. It’s the game being made now. Unlike Joplin, this new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue.

One promise from management, according to a developer, was that in EA’s balance sheet, they’d be starting from scratch and not burdened with the two years of money that Joplin had already spent. Question was, how many of those ideas and prototypes would they use?

It’s not clear how much of Joplin’s vision will shape Morrison (at least some of it will, says one person on the game), but shortly after the reboot, creative director Mike Laidlaw left, as did some other veteran Dragon Agestaff.

Matt Goldman, art director on Dragon Age: Inquisition and then Joplin, took over as creative director for Morrison, while Darrah remained executive producer on both that project and Anthem.

In early 2018, when I first reported that BioWare had rebooted the next Dragon Age and that its replacement would be a live service game, studio GM Casey Hudson responded on Twitter.

“Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on. Story & character focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

The game is still very early in development and could evolve based on the negative reception to Anthem. Rumor among BioWare circles for the past year has been that Morrison is “Anthem with dragons”—a snarky label conveyed to me by several people—but a couple of current BioWare employees have waved me off that description.

“The idea was that Anthem would be the online game and that Dragon Age and Mass Effect, while they may experiment with online portions, that’s not what defines them as franchises,” said one. “I don’t think you’ll see us completely change those franchises.”

When asked, a few BioWare developers agreed that it’d be technically possible for a game built on Anthem’s codebase to also have an offline branch, but it’s not yet clear whether Morrison will take that approach. If it does turn out to be an online game, which seems likely, it would be shocking if you couldn’t play the bulk of it by yourself.

(Diablo III, for example, is online-only on PC yet can be played entirely solo.)

One person close to the game told me this week that Morrison’s critical path, or main story, would be designed for single-player and that goal of the multiplayer elements would be to keep people engaged so that they would actually stick with post-launch content.

Single-player downloadable content like Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser, while often excellent, typically sells only a fraction of the main game, according to developers from BioWare and elsewhere across the industry.

Yet this wouldn’t be a “live service” game if it was a repeat of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which compartmentalized its single- and multiplayer modes.

Fans in the past have grown outraged at the idea of BioWare putting a lot of emphasis on multiplayer gaming, but there are ways in which a service-heavy Dragon Age 4 could be ambitious and impressive.

For example, some ideas I’ve heard floated for Morrison’s multiplayer include companions that can be controlled by multiple players via drop-in/drop-out co-op, similar to old-school BioWare RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, and quests that could change based not just on one player’s decisions, but on the choices of players across the globe.

Maybe in two or three years, Morrison will look completely different. It’s not like Dragon Age hasn’t changed drastically in the past. In the office, BioWare developers often refer to Mark Darrah’s Dragon Age team as a pirate ship, one that will eventually wind up at its destination, but not before meandering from port to port, drinking as much rum as possible along the way.

His is a team that, in the past, has iterated and changed direction constantly—something that they hoped to cut down for Joplin, but has always been part of their DNA (and, it should be noted, heavy iteration is common in all game development).

One BioWare employee summed it up well as we talked about the future of BioWare’s fantasy franchise. “Keep in mind,” they said, “Dragon Age games shift more than other games.

”Said another current BioWare employee about Morrison: “They have a lot of unanswered questions. Plus I know it’s going to change like five times in the next two years.”

There are other questions remaining, too: With BioWare’s Austin office gradually taking over Anthem going forward, when will the bulk of employees at the company’s Edmonton HQ move to the Morrison team?

Will Morrison be able to avoid following the lead of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which took on too many people too early and wound up suffering as a result?

And, most important, will BioWare work to prevent the burnout that has led to dozens of developers leaving over the past two years, with so many citing stress, depression, and anxiety?

End of article, so my thoughts on this, of course, I have my worries especially regarding the multiplayer part, it was to my knowledge that there is a separate Dragon Age team working on the multiplayer component completely estranged from the core team.

I hope that this is still the case, however, it's EA that're the ones who plaque BioWare to incorporate multiplayer and live-service.

Honestly the biggest concern here is how much of Joplin's original vision and resources are going to be put into Morrison's production, because the description of Joplin is everything I've wanted in a Dragon Age game following from Inquisition.

To hear that this initial game has been canned is heart-wrenching, any signs of Joplin's ashes in Morrison is all I can hope for.

Hope is all we really have right now regarding the future of Dragon Age, and don't forget Mass Effect, which is also going to affected by this too.

Of course, I have my worries. But I am hopeful for what the Dragon Age team can do, and I feel to fear when we still haven't seen the game yet is a little blind-sighted. Who knows when we will see or hear anything, I imagine we may see something on EA Play's live-streams next June, just before E3, but honestly, I'm not sure!

The next Dragon Age project is expected to release within 2-3 years from now, all we can hope for next is a reveal of some-sorts, like a title or development update.

It would be incredible if BioWare could come out and share some insight on what the heck is going on with the next Dragon Age, like a development diary which they did with Mass Effect: Andromeda.

To get a glimpse of this next game and the vision for it is what we in the BioWare fandom all need right now. To know what is going on with the next Dragon Age and how true it will stick to Joplin's original vision.

But until we do hear something, like always, you're already in the right place...

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