#and i talked w my friend liz who is WAY more versed in the ideas of sexuality and everything more than me

[elizabethvaughns]

I listened to if then recently and I'm CONFUSED. I also watched a bootleg wich didn't help since I'm not really good in English and the bootlegs have bad audio quality. Do you have tips how I can understand it? Or can you explain it?

It seems like a cool musical and I wanna understand it so badly!!!

if you want me to explain it, i'd be happy to :)

(when i first watched it, i only understood some of the dialogue but i didn't know about the libretto so i just browsed the tumblr tag and hoped for the best lmao.)

i'd recommend reading the libretto of the musical if you want the exact dialogue, lyrics, and locations.

@ifthenslashers has it linked in their pinned post (thank you for that, by the way💙. your resources are very helpful :))

but the libretto is very long, so i'll try to summarize it best i can(under the cut).

i hope this is helpful!

elizabeth vaughn moves back to new york city after divorcing her husband oren after 12 years. as he's waiting for her, her best friend (and ex-boyfriend this is relevant), lucas talks to this kindergarten teacher, who walked up to him and started talking to him. when elizabeth comes to the park(they're meeting in a park), both lucas and kate(the kindergarten teacher) walk up to her. it turns out that kate is elizabeth's neighbor. kate asks elizabeth to go with her and meet new romantic prospects, have fun. she calls her liz. lucas(a housing activist) asks elizabeth to come with him to meet the other members of the new york citizens for change and to go to his street action in the subway. he calls her beth. this is where the timelines diverge.

liz-verse (liz chooses kate):

so liz goes with kate to get coffee. josh barton, an army doctor who just came back from his second tour, walks up to liz. he awkwardly flirts with her. liz gets a call from a number with the area code (347). she doesn't recognize it so she doesn't pick it up. josh asks for liz's number, liz says it's a new number so she doesn't know it, josh asks her if she believes in fate, she says she doesn't, she walks away. ("what if?")

the next day, liz, kate, and anne (kate's girlfriend) are on the way to brooklyn on the subway. the subway car stops for a bit due to a street action (lucas's group's). the three talk about men, and kate keeps pointing out different men on the subway. josh(also on the subway) walks up to liz. again awkwardly flirts. he's from nebraska(are any falsettos mutual reading this? if so, you know exactly what i'm thinking of lmao). kate conducts an instant public poll about fate and whether liz should take josh's number. liz eventually gives in and takes josh's number. ("it's a sign")

over the course of the next few days? weeks? kate sets liz up on various blind dates. during one of them, liz sees josh in the distance. she runs up to him and hugs him in a last-ditch attempt to end that date. she pretends josh is a very old friend of hers, josh plays along. it's been three times that the two met now. josh asks liz out, she says yes, they go on a date that very evening. they end it at liz's apartment("map of new york"). liz expresses her apprehension with...relationships due to the probabilities. josh basically says "you never know"(bc that's the name of the song) and you can never really tell what's going to happen. ("you never know")

soon, josh and liz go on a date to a baseball game(yes, my dear falsettos mutuals, that is absolutely correct). kate, anne, and lucas tag along. soon enough, josh and liz set lucas up with josh's best friend, david. lucas and david hit it off. ("ain't no man manhattan")

liz and josh hang out in liz's apartment, again. josh reveals that he was on the way to the airport when he was on the subway that day and he didn't go back to nebraska bc of her. they make out, liz runs into the bathroom to get her shit together, they....do the do.("what the fuck?").

the next morning, they wake up. they talk about their relationship. they say "i love you".("here i go")

in a few weeks?(by my best estimation), it's liz's birthday! lucas sees liz pouring her champagne out of her glass and confronts her about it. he and david find out she's pregnant. david asks lucas to move in. he says yes. liz tells josh about the pregnancy. kate proposes to anne. she says yes. josh proposes to liz. she says yes. ("surprise")

a c t t w o

josh and liz get married! ("this day/walking by a wedding")

liz is pregnant(duh). she reads in the newspaper that the idiot mayor's nephew's incompetence with city planning cost the life of a child. josh sings about his excitement for a kid, they have their first son, jake. ("hey kid")

time skip some two years.

liz and josh had a second kid, cooper. lucas and david are babysitting jake. lucas is riding on a skateboard with the stroller. liz is (justifiably) bewildered. david's like he's belted in and has a helmet, he's safe. liz and jake go back home, bc liz is free due to spring break(she teaches urban planning in a uni) and josh is on days.

david talks to lucas about having a kid. lucas is apprehensive because...reasons. they sing "best worst mistake" which is objectively the cutest song in the whole show. they say "i love you" to each other for the first time. ("best worst mistake")

josh gets deployed. liz is mad, she tells him to quit. he says he can't. soon enough, he has to go. after some time, some officers come to liz's door, tell her josh died due to an rpg attack on the medical facility. lucas helps her with the kids, she tells him to go, stay with david. ("i hate you")

(sidenote: i'm on the verge of tears rn bc i'm speedrunning the whole musical in my head. sorry.)

liz is grieving for josh. ("you learn to live without")

the gang(minus anne) goes to josh's funeral. it turns out kate and anne divorced because anne was cheating on kate. kate and lucas ask liz about giving josh an honor guard. she says that he wanted to be cremated and have his remains scattered over the platte river in nebraska(who even knew there was a river in nebraska?). david says that he's imagined his life without josh the past few weeks: josh was his best friend, he introduced him to the man he loves, etc. he asks liz that if she met josh the next day while still knowing that she would lose him, would she avoid taking that chance to avoid the loss, or take the chance anyways? ("what would you do?"). lucas, kate, and david go to get the car. liz has a revelation, of sorts. she promises josh to "start over" with her life every day, and, in a sense, not wallow in the what-might-be's("always starting over").

time skip a few months. liz meets stephen(you'll find out who he is, soon enough) and his wife cathy. he offers her a job in the department of city planning. she takes it. lucas and david are walking in the park with their kid, huck, in the background. lucas walks up to liz, sits down, they talk. lucas reveals he's always been a bit in love with her, liz is surprised. they are the brotp and i love them. ("what if?(reprise)")

the end.

beth-verse(beth chooses lucas):

beth gets a call, area code (347). lucas informs her it's the nyc area code. she picks up. it's stephen, one of beth's old friends from grad school. he offers her a job under him as deputy director of city planning. lucas tells her not to go because he doesn't like stephen and he thinks a job with the city does not make enough of an impact. beth and lucas reminisce about their college days. lucas kisses beth. josh, who is seen walking toward beth in the background, walks away. beth recoils. it's all awkward. beth says she'll still come to the street action. ("what if?")

lucas and beth get bench warrants because of the street action.

beth goes to meet stephen. she's a bit hesitant at first bc she doesn't have experience. but she interviews for the job and she gets it. kate sets beth up on numerous blind dates. on one of them, she discreetly texts lucas to help her out. he comes, she runs up to him and hugs him, the date takes his leave. lucas and beth head to lucas's apartment. beth gets a text from stephen. lucas is still miffed about beth taking a city job. lucas tells her it's a bad idea to get involved with the boss. beth denies that she is in the first place. ("map of new york")

time skip. a couple weeks.

the nycc is protesting the redevelopment of the far west side (bc,,, gentrification). a project that, coincidentally, beth is working on.

beth and stephen go to a baseball game. stephen asks beth to convince lucas to back down from the project. beth does so by promising lucas to introduce him to an editor she knows if he backs down from the project.

time skip, the project is a success. ("ain't no man manhattan")

a few weeks? later, stephen comes to beth's place with some plans. she kisses him. he kisses back. he leaves bc he's married. beth calls lucas, who comes right by.

beth and lucas hook up. ("what the fuck?")

beth tells lucas she's sent in her resignation. he tells her that even though he despises stephen, this cannot be the reason that she quits.

lucas wants to know the status of their relationship, beth claims it was purely a one-time thing. lucas tells her he loves her even if she doesn't love him back and that he will always be there for her. ("you don't need to love me")

beth goes to work. she hires a young grad, elena. kate comes in, tells her that she's her kindergarten class's american hero. stephen comes to beth with the resignation, she rips it up. stephen asks beth to do the speech for the project bc the deputy mayor resigned and he has to step up (which means beth is the new director of city planning! yay!). ("no more wasted time")

it's beth's birthday! beth, kate, anne, elena, and lucas have a small get together. when lucas is off getting the cake, the girls find out that beth is pregnant(because...lucas). beth is confused bc she doesn't know what to do with the pregnancy and the job opportunity. elena tells her to follow what she wants to do. lucas is smashed. he asks beth to move in with him. she refuses. he proposes. again, she refuses. ("surprise")

(it is implied that kate proposes to anne here as well)

a c t. t w o

beth walks by a wedding and contemplates shit about weddings.("this day/walking by a wedding") she aborted the pregnancy.

beth is babysitting elena's kid. elena tells beth that she's moving with her husband to oregon. beth is upset because elena reminds her a lot of herself.

2.5 years after the end of act one, we see lucas in the park. he has published his book. a young woman(paulette) comes up to him, asks for an autograph, implies he's old, you know how it goes. beth walks up to lucas. we learn that lucas has avoided all contact with beth bc he had to grapple with the fact that she aborted the fetus. lucas asks beth if she had, at least, thought about the possibility of the two having a kid together. the two contemplate various alternate universes. beth asks if they can still stay friends. lucas wonders if this was his last chance at love. he walks away. he almost runs into a bicyclist—david. ("some other me")

beth is at an awards ceremony preparing to receive an award. stephen comes to say hi. he asks her to come work with him in albany. beth refuses. we learn that stephen has divorced his wife, cathy. ("map of new york(reprise)")

(ok i'm crying again one sec)

beth learns to cope with being alone(romantically).("you learn to live without")

she goes on a flight to london, which has to make an emergency landing in maine. kate decides to divorce anne because she was flirting with someone else(and kate thinks anne doesn't love her anymore). beth calls lucas, and they mend their friendship.("the moment explodes")

lucas tells beth that kate and anne are getting divorced. beth rushes to the bookstore where the two are dealing with the papers. she convinces them not to get divorced. ("love while you can")

a few weeks later, beth, lucas, kate, and anne meet in the park. kate won the nyc teacher of the year award. beth is planning to run for the city council. josh, who just returned from his third tour overseas, walks up to beth. he says hi, asks her out. she says yes, but her friends are waiting for her. lucas and kate pretend to be engrossed in their own thing. beth agrees to go on a date with josh that very day. ("what if?(reprise)")

the end.

[mysticandskepticmuses]

@anonymous sent in a question for me about saori & rori.

How did you come up with the ideas for the girls? ( rori and saori) They're really cool!

    Meep!  First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH ! As I’m sure everyone knows, I’ve been watching Altered Carbon pretty consistently the last month or so and I really loved the setting, the scenery, the ideals, the conflicts, the problems with and just the whole concept of the Envoys and the Uprising as led by Quell in the series.  I’d considered making one of the Envoys, there’s a female Envoy that’s played by the actress that played Sarah in the Crow series that I’ve always been a huge fan of and I had considered picking her up – she has like, five minutes of screentime and says two things, I think, but I always have a lot of fun fleshing out those characters but I was waffling about it, hadn’t quite decided.

    Then somebody on my dash had reblogged a photo set of Jessica Chastain in the Huntsman: Winter’s War and she was in leather and had a bow and arrow and it looked like she was covered in ashes (pretty sure it was snow but whatever) and it just struck me as very High Key Envoy Aesthetic.  And I kind of waffled about it, and reblogged a few things w/ Jessica as a potential face claim and then I thought about it some more, and made a couple sample icons.  And I’d been talking with @suburbanrelapse about some AC plots w/ Sage which included writing a verse w/ Elias & Tak & Sage & whomever else where Sage had been an ally / working with / scout for etc. the Envoys, where she’d known Takeshi, etc. and they’d worked together some but w/ Sage being either out on a mission or back in town for supplies or something during the attack on Stronghold and

    That got me thinking about how there were probably lots of other stragglers, go-betweens and allies / sympathizers for the Uprising, there has to be for any rebellion to work and Quell constantly emphasized the importance of making assets, of gathering allies, of taking advantage of any and all help that the locals in any area could provide, even if it ended up getting the locals killed, etc. because the Cause was what mattered and I figured that would be doubly important on Harlan’s World; they’d need constant help with supplies, intel, information about military ongoings, whether anyone knew they were there, where they were, etc. etc.  And honestly at first I kind of waffled between making Saori a straight up Envoy, because they’re bad ass, but I didn’t want to detract from the importance / trauma of Takeshi being the -last- Envoy and I waffled about how important to make her and how much she would actually know about the Uprising / how involved she’d be because I didn’t want to be a Power Player type when making her but I also wanted her to be important enough to actually have Plot Points and options when it came to interactions, whether it was with Envoys, day to day people in the city, Protectorate agents investigating her, whatever.

      So I mulled on that a bit and then I made a post about the things I was waffling about: whether to make her an Envoy, whether I wanted her to survive til Tak’s re-sleeving, general IDK WHAT TO DO WITH THIS SHIT and Liz poked me and suggested that it could be a descendant, same face claim, different personalities and histories etc and I was like !!! Yes, good !!!  So then I settled on having Saori as the daughter of a high ranking military officer on Harlan’s World, which would give her access to the information and supplies that would make her of interest to Quell / the Uprising at large, and then I had to decide what kind of personality she’d have, whether she’d be willing to help the Uprising out of anger and spite, or out of a genuine desire to help / true belief in the hazards of what Quell foresaw for the future, and it just sort of built itself in pieces from there.

       As far as spinning Rori off from that, one, I had to settle on how Saori got to Earth, why, and why her son would still have Dearing as a last name (Liz had also suggested that Rori could be the sister for her Claire, giving us a fun connection to play off of and tying in the connection to Takeshi & Harlan’s World).  And Liz and I talked options about personality and the relationship between Claire and Rori and Liz suggested Black Sheep vs Golden Child because we could – I decided to keep to the more idealized version of rebel child, as (an unknowing ic but fully aware ooc) homage to Saori, also with the intent of it being a little more like seeing a ghost in the flesh for Sage and Liz’s Takeshi / or anyone else that would have known Saori and sees her doppelganger in the flesh in Bay City, 250 years later.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about the various flaws in the system when it comes to the way that the penal system transformed over the centuries in Altered Carbon’s universe, and had so many problems with it as a concept of anything that is supposed to equal reform.  There’s so much debate between reform and punishment now in our world, in our time; the system in the future world represented in Altered Carbon literally removed any potential for reform, re-education.  It literally just puts you in a time out and the body that you came in with has to be rented by your family / friends if they don’t want it being rented out / sold off / handed off to the next batch of prisoners that are being released.  

      It doesn’t actually punish the hard core criminals - the only ones it punishes are the ones that actually care about their families and friends - it entirely removes the ability to think about your actions and consequences - it punishes your family if they are trying to come up with the money to keep your sleeve on the slab waiting for you - it punished your family if they can’t and they see someone else walking around with your face – there are just so many ethical issues and that’s assuming that the people that run the prison systems aren’t so corrupt that they’re literally just doing it for the money that can be made –

     So really, that seemed like something that I could very easily write a character being up in arms about, plus it’s the kind of thing that, as coming from a Meth family, she should be totally oblivious to or uncaring about, especially in contrast with Claire who as a Meth and a doctor / scientist, works at Psychasec in the field of developing the latest and highest end synth and cloned bodies that exist – so the contrast in concepts of basic morality and basic acceptance of the penal system and sleeving / resleeving norms of the age between the sisters was super appealing.  Plus, it was something that I figured Sage would be right there with, which would give plotting opportunities with @suburbanrelapse‘s awesome ac concept / verse – and it was something that both Liz’s Elias & Tak would respond well to / create potential plot hooks / thread ideas / Trouble plot points for etc.  

     Deciding on random personality bits, what kind of tattoos, piercings, body mods, how much trouble she’s actually gotten into, age, where she lives, what kind of income she uses vs. has access to etc. just kinda fell in as I was writing stuff up.  And I’m still fleshing things out for both of them, I probably will be for a long time but.   Yeah!  I hope this is the ramble you were wanting out of your question - if you want to know anything else at all let me know ?????

[midnightluck]

Undertale/Bioshock Infinite

SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES

so remember that scene from the avengers where Tony says a science thing and Bruce says a science thing back and Tony goes, "Finally, someone who speaks English!" You remember that scene? Okay but imagine it with Sans and Elizabeth and Sans is like, "here, c'mon, this way, i know a shortcut" and she takes his hand and they step into a shadow and out onto the snow, and she goes, "was that a quantum fold? No, wait, it was--more like a quantum entanglement. And you nudged it just enough to force it to carry us down a specific path. Huh. Can you sense the weak points in the weave of reality or are you opening them at will?" and Sans just looks up at her all super starry eyed and is like, finally! Someone who speaks English!

But it's kind of a perfect pairing! Like, and not even romantically? Platonic soulmates, cause Elizabeth is still not over being haunted by the idea that every dude she has really strong feelings for is somehow her dad and Sans is a goddamn skeleton, he doesn't do sexings so well? So they like wander through the lighthouses together and OH how much would she love the blasters, it's like little mini perfectly controlled songbirds and he summons them for her to dance with ohhhh

I'ma call it Timeline Shenanigans and Elizabeth will show up and stomp the reset system and Sans will be in perfect awe of her and she will be so broken (post game Elizabeth) that she like doesn't even register his puns for a while? But she looks at him and sees that he suffers like she does only for less (but nobler) reason and how bamf he can be, and she takes him to save all the Papyruses and he gets her to slow down and actually live again omg it would be so sad but precious

His shortcuts plus her tears, they can go literally anywhere in space and time.

m3h: Never allow the Twins and Gaster to meet.

They show up behind a few Comstocks just long enough for a blaster beam, cause it makes her laugh. She helps him save a few Gasters and they watch what that does to timelines. They go to all the Parises.

They occasionally open tears to pull Paps through, sometimes for pasta, sometimes to monologue at misguided idiots. It's always a crap shoot as to whether or not the tear they shove him back through actually takes him home. He has his own hilarious adventures through the au Undertales because close enough, right? So he makes friends till the next time they summon him again.

it would be SO CUTE like they're at this cafe in alternaParis mark 3 and Sans goes, hot damn this raviloi is amazing, hey, Liz, darling, ya mind? And she's like, pfff, anything for you, ~darling~, because it's a fancy place so they're pretending to be over the top flirty (which he always is, and she sometimes deigns to ply along) so she opens the tear and he pulls the rift and suddenly Paps is stumbling out into the restaurant holding like a bouquet of wilted flowers, a broken bone and a frying pan, and he just kinda stumbles to a chair all shocky-like and is like, "that universe is was the worst, never send me back there again plz" and they're like yeah sure whatevs here try this pasta! And of course he perks up and is like, this is amazing! so they get him a plate of it to go and she opens a tear and he shoves Paps back through and it's probably the right original verse he came from this time, probably, at least close enough, so they get dessert and prance down the boardwalks, changing universes through tears whenever the music stops and snatching random bottles of super expensive wine to chug and giggling and meanwhile Paps is like, wowie that pasta is good gee I wonder where i am this time, sigh.

It would be "Sans and Elizabeth Do the Timeline (And Also Bonus Papyrus's Exciting Multidimensional Travel Which He is Resigned To Because Sans Is Too Lazy To Make Sure He Gets Back Home Correctly)”

 He like, doesn't mind it at all, cause yeah he gets to see new places and meet all kinds of new friends, and Sans doesn't really worry 'bout him cause he's always making sure the timeline he's sending Paps to has at least a Sans in it, and he ditches him relatively close to said alternaSans so he knows Paps will always be okay. And besides, Liz is pretty good about choosing safe tears. Okay, so Underfell that one time wasn't the best choice, but Papyrus is too aggressively adorable and trusting to really get hurt.

So they're in like, I dunno, Columbia or Rapture or something and Sans is like, holy shit, a flying/sunken city, this is so cool, hey, hey, Liz, let's show Pap! And Liz has grown a bit jaded over tears and sans is really chill about them, so they both revel in Papyrus's neverending awe of their wonders, so they always drag him away to show him cool shit. Anyway, so they pull Papyrus through as per usual and Sans is like, "hey, check it out bro, the city is actually--what. what is that. what is that on your face." "NYEHEHE WOWIE THE CITY IS FLOATING THIS IS INCREDIBLE" "no shut up hang on what the FUCK HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE Papyrus" and Liz is already tracing back the tear and she's like, "this cannot be allowed to stand" because she loves watching Papyrus discover all the things too, and tho she knows how awful the worlds can be, here is someone who truly does not ever deserve that. So she says, "Hey, Paps, there's an ice cream shop over there with a billion flavors, my treat" and she says, "here's the door Sans, I'll reopen it in twenty minutes, do have fun and s h o w  t h e m  a  b a d  t i m e" And drags Paps off to be distracted and he barely even notices Sans is gone until he's back and Underfell was ~never the same again~ But the upside is, in the shared trauma of afterwards, no one in that universe dared to touch their Papyrus or Sans again, for gear of a cuddly blue Sans coming back to rampage indiscriminately and Sans suddenly gets all the respect too and the brothers get a bit closer cause of it.

But even like the first few times they did it, Paps was like sitting slumped at a table with Alpyhs and Undyne because he can't find his brother and is all mopey and worried and the two are like, "don't worry, I'm sure he's fine," and all the other platitudes and then pop, a tear opens right behind his chair, he gets blue'd and dragged back through it, and the tear closes. The two barely have time to react before it reopens and he comes marching back through with presents and new types of pasta and a nyehehehe that is so loud and cheerful and he's like, oh! You guys are still here! I'm so sorry for being a bad host, were you waiting long? And they're like, no, two seconds, srsly, u ok? but what about your brother-angst? and he is like pfft, Sans is fine, look at all this cool junk he got me! And so now everyone in his home universe is just like, oh Paps disappeared again, wonder where he's off to now, sigh

"Fear not, friend, I the gREAT Papyrus shall--" *POP* "uh. what?" "No, no, it's cool, he does this.”

PAPS BRINGS BACK AU MEW MEW KISSY CUTIE DVDS each one has little changes or big changes from different worlds alphys goes sPARE

Oh god right, so for their birthday or some such shit Paps talks Sans into talking Elizabeth into finding an anime-centric world with like virtual anime theme parks and shit and they kinda plan a thing only forget to tell the pair, so they're just arbitrarily kidnapped and ditched in this anime paradise and it takes them a bit to get over the fact