#arc of creation

[arc-of-creation]

Oh brother, an Arcean. I knew an Arcean once. I take it that you also believe in loving thy neighbor and mercy and altruism?

Well, sorry, pal, but that's not how the world works. It's the survival of the fittest, and the fittest are the Helixians. We know that power makes the world go round, not love. You're lucky you're not in my universe, because things will get bad for your kind once Judgment comes.

[lilianade-comics]

my whole cheese melt AU can be summarized in this one meme

[em-dash-press]

7 Types of Internal Conflict for Your Protagonist

External conflict can always make readers more interested in a story. The fist fights, car chases, and fictional battles might make them hold their breath, but so can internal conflict. Check out the primary types of internal conflict your protagonist can experience to add more depth to your stories.

1. Morality Conflicts

Everyone eventually reaches a point where they question their morals. We have to believe in our morals as individuals to prioritize them. It’s not enough to have your parents or other leaders in your life tell you what’s right and wrong. You won’t hold the same morals until you choose them on your own.

Characters also reach these crucial points. It’s part of their character development like it’s part of our personal development. 

Your protagonist may only grapple with one question of morality in your story or they could encounter many. The morals will most likely align with your theme so they make sense within your plot.

Example: Your protagonist is a scientific researcher and leading a trial that could result in a cure for a new illness. They know they shouldn’t take bribes and wouldn’t compromise their career, but someone who nearly qualifies for their trial offers a life-changing amount of money to get included even though they’ve already been ruled out. The protagonist has to choose—do they stick with what they trust is morally correct or do they take the money and use it to help pay for a family member’s legal battle in criminal court? Do they view it as potentially saving two lives at once? Or do they reject the bribe and face whatever consequences could have possibly been avoided?

2. Self-Identity Conflicts

Your identity is something that morphs with time. People rarely settle on one version of themselves forever. Life makes us reconsider things from different perspectives as we go through periods of challenges and peace. Characters also grapple with their identities when faced with similar situations. It makes them take a stand, hold their ground, or chase new goals, which is much more interesting for readers.

Example: Your protagonist considers themselves an optimist because they’re a firefighter who has saved many lives. When they realize their chief has been starting all the fires their station ever fought, your protagonist begins to view people more pessimistically. It affects how quickly they’re willing to risk their life for others, which results in challenges and a character arc they wouldn’t have experienced without this fundamental change in their identity.

3. Religious Belief Conflicts

It’s much easier to stay firm in your religious beliefs if nothing challenges them. If a challenge or major question arises and your beliefs hold firm, that makes your identity stronger. It doesn’t always happen that way though.

When your protagonist faces this type of internal conflict and realizes their opinions or feelings contradict their religious beliefs, it can take them onto a path that shapes a new identity. These choices are hard but real. Readers who are going through the same experience or experienced the same questions before will get absorbed by your story because it’s relatable.

Example: Your protagonist attends a religious gathering every week. The group fundamentally believes their religion exists to help those in need. Prejudices begin to invade that group, so people start choosing their own well-being instead of helping others. Your protagonist watches their religious family pick sides and has to question if they really believe in helping others or if they choose the familiarity and safety that comes with the approval of their longtime religious family.

4. Societal Role Conflicts

Societies have predetermined roles or expectations for people based on factors like their gender, sex, and economic status (just to name a few). Sometimes these roles feel natural to people and other times they don’t. We all have to decide what feels best for us on an ongoing basis. Your protagonist may need to choose their societal role, reject it, or shape a new one to portray your theme in a relatable way.

Example: Your protagonist goes to a university for the first time. They’ve been encouraged by everyone they know to start forming a large friend group. That’s what people are supposed to do in college, their loved ones said. But your protagonist is an introvert and values only a few friendships at a time. They have to choose if they’ll push themselves to become a social butterfly or if they’re happier as the person they’ve always been.

5. Political Opinion Conflicts

Political opinions can create all types of internal conflict. You may believe in a certain candidate or party during one part of your life and support something completely different in another part. Those values change as we experience new things and meet new people. Characters can face the same internal struggles as they recognize changing values or reject opportunities for change.

Example: Your protagonist may have never formed strong political opinions. They meet a new person who becomes their best friend, but their government starts passing laws that make their best friend’s life much harder because they’re part of a marginalized community your protagonist hasn’t empathized with before. Your protagonist now cares for that community, so they have to decide if they’ll make different political choices that could ostracize them from the community they’ve been part of all their life. 

6. Love Conflicts

There are numerous types of love—self-love, your love for your family, and your love of a potential romantic interest or current partner. These come into conflicts in stories all the time because people experience them every day.

The conflicts result in choices—does your protagonist choose to continue loving a specific person or do they fall out of love? Do they fight for that love or realize it never actually existed? These are just a few ways this inner conflict can play out.

Example: Your protagonist has three siblings. They’d give their life for their siblings because they’ve lived in an emotional and physical home environment that’s been unsafe all of their lives. However, your protagonist is also the oldest child who has to leave home when they’re 18. They have to decide how to best love their siblings—do they leave them at home with a parent who is a threat to their safety so your protagonist can achieve an education or job that pays enough to create a new home for them? Do they get the legal system involved? Do they get their siblings and run away together since your protagonist is now old enough to lease an apartment, pay bills, etc?

7. Personal Journey Conflict

Existential crises make characters come to life by breaking their identity apart. These moments are unfortunately a real part of life, so readers want them in their books to help them cope, understand the changes, and generally feel not alone in their hardships.

This internal conflict happens when we question why we’re in this world or what we’re supposed to do with our lives. Sometimes there’s a clear answer after we start searching for it, but other times there isn’t. How your protagonist’s internal journey to a new purpose unfolds depends on your theme and plot.

Example: Your protagonist spent their life dreaming of becoming a politician. They wanted to help people and change the world, but they lost their first three attempts at running for local office. The third loss devastated them. If voters don’t want them as a leader, what’s their purpose? Who are they if they aren’t a leader who changes the world through effective policies? The answer may come through the plot events that follow. If they don’t get an answer, sometimes it means their purpose already exists in their life and they’re overlooking it.

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Reading through the basic types of internal conflict will help you shape your future protagonists. If you align your desired theme with an inner conflict, the external events in your plot will be much easier to choose. Your readers will also connect with your story better because they’ll see real problems reflected in your protagonist’s character arc.

[creation-quintet]

Perhaps... Will you dare to wake the higher being?

[lowcallyfruity]

Homophobic dog Rollo memes 👍👍👍

[tvlandofficiall]

i've got a playthrough of chapter 2 in the background on right now, and i really like the setup for susie and ralsei's dynamic going forward. it's clear that susie is starting to realize the full extent of the situation ralsei and the darkners are in;

but she still has a ways to go at navigating it. after all, kris isn't the only one in their group with the power of a lightner. telling him what to do is still telling him what to do, well-intentioned or not.

[singlethread]

“It's like the universe is screaming at you and you refuse to listen”

[iamhereinthebg]

I will never be over the fact that tbhk really takes place in 2015

We know that AidaIro published the first chapter in December 2014

The Yugi Twins were in the 66th Festival in 1968 and the curent present have the 113th Festival.

On this panel, it's written that the 1st of September was a Tuesday. The closest years to the manga airing having this date being either 2009 or 2015.

Bonus:

Which means: the 1st year (Aoi, Akane, Nene) were born in 1999, Teru in 1998 and Kou and Mitsuba in 2000.

[mhaynoot]

i think one of my favourite yjh moments is not even from his perspective or the scene is even really related to him, its in ch440 from sys perspective:

During Kim Dokja’s three-year absence, Yoo Joonghyuk taught her how to hunt.

Ways to face off against large monsters. Ways to hunt monsters with sturdy outer shells. And even ways to kill monsters that were hard to fight against in close quarters.

⸢" If you must kill, then do not hesitate and end its life."⸥ 

⸢" If you don't, the one dying will be you."⸥

I really think its such a nice development and aspect to their relationship and it really does show that yjh had been present in his companions lives and making sure they were looked after and taught and the children were all growing up well with someone looking after them. that we mustn’t forget he isn’t a broody loner caricature and that in every world he always saught out his group of companions, yes to use them and for their skills but nevertheless it was always them. now in this worldline, he was there and he cared for them still.

[tomfrogisblue]

on a lighter note

it's really funny to me that despite using a version of text to speech, you can tell q!Creation is cc!Tubbo

with some *very specific* language use, yeh that's my streamer under there lmao

[anulithots]

The Character creation masterpost, in which I shall hold your hand through every step of the process, complete with examples and Maslov's hierarchy of needs.

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What concept are you trying to convey?

Because stories are, in essence, metaphysical explorations of this weird and wonderous thing called existence, and at the heart of stories... are characters.

But it can be quite difficult, to go from abstract concept to a character you are comfortable writing as, so here's a process that works for me. Although it's best to test and try and see who this character wants to be. (For example, I'll make a doll of most of my main characters, and that can influence how I write them, and when I was little, I used to figure out their personalities and backstory based on those dolls... so character creation can be whatever you want!)

Shameless doll plug:

So pick a phenomenon to explore, for this example, we'll pick: Labels. We take pride in them, yes. That's a good thing, but what about those who use labels to phenomenon people, who use our colorful identities to keep us separate and ranked?

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Next up, let's pick a specific viewpoint, one specific way an individual could view this concept. For our 'labels' concept, let's pick a main character that centers around the idea of 'taking so much pride in your identity that you put others/groups of people down'. (so this would be a character that might be a bit bigoted, and hopefully they'll grow past that through the story.)

For other characters, you may pick other ideas, such as 'I take pride in my identity, and all other's identities, it makes us all colorful, and it makes life rich.' (This could be a character who showcases all their colors, and enjoys expressing themself, and encourages others to express themselves too), or 'Eh whatever, I don't adhere to any labels, and you should not judge others for their labels either' (The chill anarchist my beloved.)

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Alrighty, now you got a viewpoint and some of their personality, but this is still pretty vague right now, so let's get comfortable being this character. Do a bit of freewriting about what their mind is like. Perhaps how they view themselves and the world. This can be utter garbage writing. It doesn't even have to be legible. You're just doing a 'prose version' of your development so far. Play with different writing styles here and pick your favorite (it will keep getting better as you go on.)

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Now for the 'best case scenario'. What's their dream? What life do they fantasize about? What situation, what moment makes their heart warm yet strained with longing? What would they have? What wouldn't they have? How would they feel? What wouldn't they feel?

-Basically: what do scenario do they think will give them happiness?

(Try writing this out in prose. For example, one of my characters keeps returning to this specific recollection of what their home used to be, when they were happy. Having this again is what they want more than anything else.)

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Why do they want this dream so much? What does it mean to them? Why will this scenario give them happiness? What is this hidden that they are lacking?

For this, there's a handy little a pyramid. (Maslov's hierarchy of needs)

Do they want safety? Do they want love and belonging? Do they want to be respected and to boost their self-esteem? Do they want to feel fulfilled, with a purpose and meaning to their life? Do they want to be free from longing itself?

(Feel free to add to your practice prose, this is just to get a feel for how to write this character.)

----

Here's the thing, characters would've reached this goal already if there was nothing holding them back, which is that viewpoint from the beginning.

Using our 'labels' example, let's name this character.... Xavier (peak edginess).

Xavier believes that there is so much to be proud of for their identity (I would have specifics if I did practice prose, let's say this dude is the pinnacle of righteousness and is respected by everyone, and identifies strongly with their traits and quirks... perhaps their intelligence?) and other's are somehow 'lesser beings' because of it.

Okay, so what would be the worst outcome for Xavier based on this belief?

How about..... another who they deem as lesser outshining them.

And their best case scenario is being respected by all, loved for their accomplishments, perhaps the milestones too - they are successful, and are on a good path in life. They've always been the 'good child,' the 'gifted kid'. And they want to be the epitome of that as an adult.

Their underlying want is for respect and validation.

So Xavier would try desperately to flaunt the labels given to them, and prove they are more valuable than all they deem lesser. Constantly trying to outshine them.

Alrighty! Now that your character has internal conflict, write out some more practice prose. Feel free to create a random situation and play with their head, or just have a train of thought. It could be multiple separate paragraphs, or pages and pages of continuous prose.

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Backstory time!

(This helps with giving a character depth, and it makes them easier to write if you've seen all their pivotal moments.)

First off, write a scene where the character went from being a child who thought everything was happy and everyone was loved and it would all be okay, to believing the viewpoint. What event made that seed of a viewpoint take root in their head?

Tip: when did their worst fear come true? And how did their brain build up a belief system to keep them safe from this scenario from ever happening again?

For our boi Xavier, perhaps they had a friend, and everyone else at school deemed them as lesser because of their community. This friend was bullied, and they were the best companion Xavier could ask for, even if it meant they got ostracized too.

But when this friend got an award for something... perhaps a competition that Xavier also wanted to win...they were more susceptible to the other's comments that this friend was greedy and took opportunities from everyone else, and that Xavier was ruining his self-esteem by being near another who would constantly do better than him.

Xavier stopped being friends with this person and left them all alone.

But at least Xavier wasn't bullied anymore, the crowd acknowledged their strengths (superficially). They didn't do that before, when Xavier was lumped with this other friend.

In a way, it was freeing.

---

Next up... have fun with this! Write a few scenes (they can be as short or as long as you want) where the character was close to getting that 'best case scenario' but a hint of their fear arose, and they decided to avoid their fear. The pain of their fear was greater than the pain for a lack of happiness.

For Xavier, they had the chance numerous times to connect with others of different backgrounds, and refused it each and every time this other person had a quality that was better than Xavier's. Eventually this chain of avoiding their fear, lead this viewpoint to be deeply rooted in their head. Prime for storytelling.

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.... then you can write the first chapter ;p

[arc-of-creation]

@distortionmewtwo Ultraviolet: The dark purple Mewtwo was keenly aware that this place may not be the one for him, nor was he excited about speaking with a human, but his curiosity won out over his instincts this time. "It is a very cozy place here," he said warmly. "Is there anyone who is not allowed?"

[rwac96]

I don't have a type! (Arkos/Cavalier of Creation)

Yang: *playing UNO* "Hmm, I think I've just noticed something about your love life, VB."

Jaune: *playing as well, dropping a green card* "This is sudden, but go ahead."

Yang: "You attract big busty, polite, and soft-spoken gals with ponytails."

Jaune: *blinks, setting his hand down* "Uh, that's...weird. Pretty sure Weiss--."

Yang: *shakes her head* "I'm gonna stop ya, VB. Weiss' flat and I'm pretty sure she's been cold to you. Also, she's not always polite, trust me."

Jaune: *exhales* "Regardless, you make it sound like I have a type...I don't have a type, Yang."

Yang: *purses her lips* "What about you and P-Money?"

Jaune: *blinks in confusion* "Pyrrha's my partner and friend."

Yang: "Just sayin', she's been dropping hints. Like shortening her skirt, or staying in that corset's that gettin' too big so that her cleavage's more noticeable."

Jaune: *scratches the top of his head* "Okay, f-fair point." *blushes slightly* "B-But still--!"

Yang: "Then there's that Momo girl, who's always rockin' that outfit that looks straight outta Blake's smut books."

Blake: *in the kitchen* "I HEARD THAT, YANG!"

Yang: *turns her head for a moment* "Just teasin', KitKat."

Jaune: "Okay, she designed the outfit herself--."

Yang: *turns back to Jaune* "To get noticed~." *smirks*

Jaune: *groans* "--and so she can effectively use her powers."

Yang: *hums, placing her hands together* "Eeeeeh, I don't know. Also, I saw you gawking more than twice."

Jaune: *blush becomes a deeper shade* "C-Can we...Can we just go back to playing Uno?"

Yang: "You're evadin'! Don't change the subject, Jaune!"

[em-dash-press]

Catalysts for Your Rising Action

Someone close to your protagonist dies

Your protagonist loses a memento

A challenge makes your protagonist run away from their life

Your main character accomplishes a goal and feels unsatisfied

The goal your protagonist has always wanted becomes suddenly impossible to achieve

Your main character wants to change someone's life for the better

Revenge is the only thing on your protagonist's mind

Your main character sees a community need and strives to solve it

Something morally or ethically changes in your protagonist that makes them interact with the world in a fundamentally different way

[creation-quintet]

Arcadia: "That shall explain the history I could give to you. I am the history itself..."

The arceus said the last words hesitantly

> Character unlocked: Arcadia the Arceus

@mezuni-and-willow @sinnohsiblings

[creationquintet-archive]

Talk more with the arceus?