#but I really hope that I find more stuff like this in other characters' dialogue/arcs

[herearedragons]

...okay this was supposed to be a tag rant on another post I was drafting, but this kind of makes a better point than what I was writing originally so let me try that again.

The thing about Edér Pillars Of Eternity and his theme of second chances is that not only that theme is everywhere for him (seriously. I did Not remember it being that present in his early dialogue but IT IS) but that his relationship with it changes over time.

At first, he's a worshipper of the god of second chances. Then, he is the one being offered a second chance, not by his god, but by a stranger who saves him from being hanged by literally just giving him something else to do with his life. Then, in Deadfire, he is the one delivering the Watcher's second chance, dragging them out of Caed Nua after it's been destroyed by Eothas. At that moment, he's closer to the embodiment of second chances than Eothas himself, which is kind of wild and exactly the kind of character arc I find fun, apparently.

[shiny-jr]

Hi! I noticed that your requests were open and I love the way you write Malleus so I was hoping you would do yandere malleus x reader. where the reader knows twisted wonderland is a game (but not imposter au pls) and after they got isekia'd are trying to stop the overblots from happening and malleus is just terrified for them. Idk just an idea I've had for awhile but never found a fanfic like lol. Obviously it's totally fine if you don't want to do it or if I accidentally broke a rule. Anyway remember to drink some water and take a break if needed! Have a amazing rest of your day/night!!

Warning: Yandere (not really, not at all). Gender-neutral reader.

Characters: Malleus Draconia.

Summary: MC sees affection meters and it's not good.

Note: These are mainly thoughts and random words my mind spewed out.  

How did one claim victory at a game? Well, it entirely depended on the game, the mechanics and the options. It should've been impossible to lose a mobile game that was primarily composed of the gacha mechanism and visual novels.

When you suddenly found yourself in the series of twisted villains in a prestigious school of magic, you found that it was much more complex than it appeared on screen. Especially when only you could see these small bars occasionally floating above people's heads. Bars which you recognized as affection meters, nearly all of them stagnant at a dull gray 0% when you first arrived. This was the hurdle blocking your way to an easy victory. Because how else were you to escape the game, other than complete it?

Situations became messier, when you didn't have a dialogue options between two mere choices. Add making good impressions and keeping a character's favor, to the list of quests alongside avoiding death by inky overblotted characters. By some miracle, you had increased the affection of the characters you met and interacted with to a healthy 5% or 10%, sometimes more. At any cost you wished to avoid getting in the negatives, because you did not want to find out what would happen then.

Sometimes, the numbers would drop dangerously close to zero, mainly when an overblot was occuring. Never had you realized how the visual novel failed spectacularly at portraying the utter horror of the overblotted in all their wicked glory. The black inky darkness leaking from them like tears or blood with those crazed unhinged looks in their eyes–– was the stuff of pure nightmares.

And yet the one whose overblot you had been dreading the most, the dorm leader of Diasomnia, was surprisingly docile as you dealt with others. However, you knew even when conversing with him, that you would one day witness him overblot and look like some ethereal but deadly fallen angel. So mentally you prepared yourself, while taking on the task of keeping up appearances.

Malleus' affection meter, was a good 20% and a friendly pink shade, quite the accomplishment you were proud of, considering the majority of the cast wasn't even at 15%. The Draconia heir was certainly someone you never wanted to see reach below zero, so you did your absolute best to appeal to him, even if he was quite intimidating at first with the way he stoically watched you complain about the least of your worries, homework and classes.

By the time you spoke to him about your troubles with the Ramshackle dorm and Azul, during what you knew was the Octavinelle arc, the prince's affection had sprouted to a 22%. When you went into more detail of the potential loss you could face, it went to 23%.

The next time you saw him, you were weary and antsy since witnessing Azul's break-down. If the blot of his tears had the magic to gather, it would've been enough to drown, you were sure of it. Even by that maniac look in his eyes, you're sure he would've purposely drowned you if he got close enough.

Throughout that charlatan's chapter, his affection meter had slowly been rising, dropping during the overblot like the tides only to rise once again by the end to a good 45%. This was good!

But no matter how much you may have pondered, strategized, or try to predict each next action, you could've never guessed that the next time you saw Malleus after Azul's overblot, his expression taut with concern, his affection meter had made a jump to 55% and turned red. This entire time you had been avoiding the negatives, but you never once worried of the dangers and implications a red affection meter above 50% would mean for you. Or heaven forbid, anything close to 100%.

[the-solar-system52]

TPOH UPDATE THEORY

THERE HE IS!!!! MY GUY!!!! IM GOING INSANE OVER HIM RIGHT NOW!! LOOK AT HIS EXPRESSIONS!! I LOVE HIM SM BEST CHARACTER EVER!!

Also look at Hero putting his hat back on! I really hope these two get more time to bond in this chapter! Plus I noticed a little star shape beside him on the first panel? Like an emote or something? I wonder what that's supposed to mean.

PLUS WE GOT A SPEECH BUBBLE! Albeit it's empty, but the fact that it exists may hint at him getting some dialogue in the future??

HE LOOKS SO CALM AND CHILL ABOUT EVERYTHING?? No wonder he's just ignoring Anxiety. Make sense since he's the opposite of RGB, but I wonder how long this collectivness will last. (AND HERO LOOKS ADORABLE HERE)

AND WHAT IS HE DOING HERE??

He's definitely taking advantage of his static electricity, but to do what? Charge his cane with LIGHTNING? (that'd be so cool) But wouldn't that decapitate his hand or something?

In the first panel, he seems to notice that the glass from the mirror maze is stuck inside his suit. And in this one, the shards of glass seem to be falling out from his sleeve. Was this just a side effect of whatever he's doing with his cane or is it the goal? Trying to get all the pointy shards that may hurt him out so he can fight better? Or maybe use them for something?

Also, this is another instance of Negative being associated with RGB's gaps, which mentioned in another theory.

As for big lore stuff, it's revealed in this page that the Butterfly doesn't seen to know who Negative is. This does disprove some stuff that I said in my earlier theories, but that's ok because I think it works well with the reveal that the Butterfly is a personification of Anxiety.

The reason the Butterfly showed up in a lot of scenes associated with Negative was because Negative causes anxiety. Hero is afriad of him and RGB is afriad of water (plus his weird human memories) so it causes Anxiety to pop up. But Anxiety doesn't need to know who Negative is to make that work.

And now that Hero is less scared of Negative, Anxiety is finding it harder to get two's attention, because Anxiety can't hurt you unless you are afriad of something. Negative is so insanely calm about everything that he doesn't even seem to hear Anxiety.

But this is going to make for a really interesting dynamic between Hero, Negative and Anxiety. Hero originally said they should turn RGB into Negative to fight the Butterfly because Negative is more scary than the Butterfly.

But now it seems to be the exact opposite. The Butterfly is having a hard time affecting them because Negative is chill, and Hero is only a little nervous around him now. His calm nature seem to make Hero calm as well, so Anxiety can't influence her.

BUT! The reason Negative isn't attacking right now is because he doesn't view the Butterfly as a threat. However, if the Butterfly or the doubts were to do something to make Negative attack, then wouldn't that make Hero scared of him? Like she was the other times he showed off how scarily good he was at killing stuff?

And if Hero was scared, then Anxiety would be able to easily affect her! So Negative attacking the Butterfly may actually make the situation WORSE. Negative will have to find some way to balance keeping Hero calm while also defending himself.

But will he succeed? I mean, this is only their third time meeting eachother, there's still time for more character development. It could be possible for Anxiety to exploit Hero's fear and end up escaping, but maybe show up again later in the comic! It will take awhile for Hero to fully trust Negative, but I wonder what direction Modmad will take that character arc.

I also remember someone mentioning in Modmad's comments that Negative was caused by HAPPY tears this time, whereas the other two times we saw him he was caused by SAD tears.

This could explain his more calm and mellow attitude in this page. He doesn't seem to possess the "fight or flight" instinct we see him have in his earlier appearances.

Maybe his personality changes based on what kind of tears get into RGB's air vents! If someone is crying sad tears, it usually means something bad is going on, which is why Negative quickly jumps into battle the first time we see him. But now he is calmed down because he didn't wake up with the predisposition that something bad is happening.

He also doesn't have that black goo rising above his eye, which seems to be caused by strong emotions, similar to RGB's mouth blood. I think this means that he will be less confrontational in this chapter since he is in a better mood.

Which is good, because I like seeing my favourite characters happy, and it may give Hero and Negative more time to interact if they are both less on edge.

Overall, Sunday is the best day of the week and I'm so happy Negative is back!

[cat3ch1sm]

Okay so this has been on my mind for a few days and when I saw your requests were open I just KNEW I had to ask!

(Also I adore your fics and hope you're doing well. Remember to take care of yourself :D)

Onto the request!

Can I get a fic/drabble about what L would do if Light started slightly harrassing/bullying L's partner? Like even if Light was being mean about stupid stuff like where they put papers or how they always sit really close to L, for example (Light might be a lil jealous if you wanna add that?)

Anyways thank you for your time and I totally understand if this makes you uncomfortable in any way (^v^)

🕯~ hello, my dear, im so sorry for the wait :((( thanks so much for being patient, i love u @multi-write

🕰~ watched death note today so im newly inspired 😁 im gonna set this in the yotsuba arc, when they are finding out Kira’s killings are related to yotsuba:) also, nothing here is directly quotes from the manga, i just made up the dialogue

⋇⊶⊰📺⊱⊷⋇ gender neutral reader

✧༺💚༻∞

“So, Light- you’re entirely sure that the Kira that has appeared recently is someone affiliated with the Yotsuba Group?”

It was just you, L, and Light in the dimly lit room, illuminated only by the screens of a dozen monitors in front of your group. You and Light stood at one computer, observing the long list of the usual criminals Kira had been killing along with a good mix of business executives- an out of character move for the Kira the task force was familiar with.

Light sighed, a dubious expression on his face. “I can’t be one hundred percent certain- but that’s what it looks like. The names that don’t belong to criminals on this list belong to officials of almost every surrounding business in the area- but there are no names belonging to any of the higher-ups from Yotsuba.”

“That’s true,” you added, moving over to L and leaning over his body to point at the monitor right next to him. “And if you look at this live line graph containing the revenue that each of these businesses is gaining, it’s obvious the Yotsuba’s group is way up while the other corporations are clearly suffering.”

“Yeah, Y/N, we can see that.” Light joined you and L in front of the monitor, handcuffs clanking; you on one side of the detective’s swivel chair and him on the other and L in between you both. “There’s no need for you to bend over Ryuzaki like that.”

You looked over at Light, brow furrowed, and L glanced in his direction as well before both of you decided to brush it off. L ‘s arm wrapped around your hips as he opened his mouth to talk, drawing a noticeable scoff from Light, which again he chose to ignore. “The both of you are quite sharp- and judging by the rest of this data, Light’s conclusion is a safe one. We seem to have pinpointed Kira again- and this time, we cannot afford to lose him.” He let out a deep breath, eyes narrowing in thought. “So I suppose our next course of action would be to gain material evidence of this- perhaps an infiltration may be necessary. But that is something that would require the help of everyone here.” L turned to look up at you. “Y/N, would you mind calling the rest of the task force upstairs? No sense in both Light and I going down there cuffed together like this.”

“Alright. I’ll be right back.” You let a hand brush L’s shoulder passing him, but when you walked by Light, his shoulder suddenly blocked your path and made you bump into him, causing you to stumble backward.

You shot Light an beseeching look, clutching your upper arm while Light kept his eyes averted to one side, his expression stony. Finally, L turned around, a questioning expression on his face as he looked from you to Light and then back to you.

“Light- is there an issue?”

Light seemed surprised as he turned his gaze down to meet L’s eyes. “Not at all. Why do you ask?”

“Then I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t purposely knock into Y/N.” The curious expression L had before was gone, replaced by a more serious one. “And don’t think I failed to notice your attitude towards them earlier. I’m not sure if there’s something going on that I’m unaware of, but let’s keep it out of the Kira investigation, shall we?” His tone was deadpan and monotone, his gray eyes burning into Light’s, finally forcing the other man to look away. “Sure,” Light replied gruffly, his eyes flicking in your direction. You avoided meeting his gaze as you simply stepped away from Light and made your way downstairs.

𝒾 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓊, 𝒾 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝓊 𝑒𝓃𝒿𝑜𝓎𝑒𝒹 <𝟥

[dipplinduo]

So, I'm really looking to write a Dipplinshipping series myself and I really love the depth that you go into for S&D Dipplins (and its related spinoffs, I am very up to date).

Do you have any tips for keeping up with/writing longer works? I think my idea may take at least 10 chapters, but I've never been able to finish anything but oneshots before... I admire your consistency with the quality of your work (there has not been a single miss, not a one) and I hope to be able write like you one day.

No pressure to come up with anything if you don't know what to say. Regardless of anything, I hope this message reaches you well and that you have a fantastic day!

Omg I love writing talk asks and I'm so touched that you thought to ask me this question!

I'm gonna share stuff I found helpful to keep in mind:

- Take your time with storytelling. The advantage of having more chapters is that you can reallllyyyy enjoy your pacing. One way I do this is through gradual hints and breadcrumbs that build to the major plot points. It's a fun way to develop your story over time while keeping readers interested and theorizing. And when you're not focusing on the main plot, you can focus on other aspects of the story.

- Outlines and general note pages for your fic as a whole are your best friends. They will do the work of keeping track of different story elements for you.

- Listen to your readers. Their feedback is invaluable. If you get a lot of comments about something people seem to be enjoying, this may suggest that it's part of the voice of your fic. It can help you figure out what you'd want to emphasize more down the line - whether it be through side stories or through the main plot.

- Switch up some dynamics overtime. If you find yourself feeling stuck because you feel like you're trying to write similar kinds of moments, thoughts, or dialogues, this is a sign that it's time for you to move on and shake things up. I've done this with Kieran & Juliana in S&S D after I felt I have described Kieran seeing Juliana as a witch (who he has a hard time resisting lmao) so many times.

- Flush out the roles of supporting characters. They don't need their own character arcs, and they don't need to be focal points of the story. But they can influence some events, and it can help with the movement of your fic. (E.g. I often use Drayton to instigate moments one way or another, and this suits his character given that hes relatively chaotic neutral).

- Focus on the quality of telling your story first and foremost; you do not need the permission of certain chapter "markers" to progress. You don't need to wait for Chapter 10 or 15 or whatever to have a big moment happen. If everything is set up and ready to go, just do it. This is why a big moment of S&S D happens in Chapter 9 rather than Chapter 10; there was enough in place and I felt dragging it out would've diminished the moment. No one's really gonna care that much about how things line up to a chapter number. They're gonna be happy they got a big moment, and if anything, your ability to break this norm can keep readers on their toes.

- On the opposing ends of things, know when you have enough in a chapter to stop even if you know where you're going next. If you flushed out descriptions of someone's feelings or some scenery or whatever, and you feel you have enough? It's okay to stop writing and publish. Giving yourself more time to soak on ideas can improve the way you're going to pick up where you left off. I personally don't have a hard rule around this, but I tend to cut things off at the 15-20 page mark for a chapter of S&S D.

- If you feel like you're writing a filler chapter, think of ways it can build to your overarching story. You really don't need filler chapters if you think about it - even if you want to delay going somewhere specific. So if your work could be summed up when completed, what would you want someone to say? Think of ways you can slip in gradual storytelling from multiple angles - whether it be through plot or through some of the lighter moments (that may build to the heart of the fic like found family or dorm life or whatever). This can help breathe life into any chapter update.

- Remember that by taking your time, you're actually developing the voice of your writing and of the story. My original conception of S&S D and where it's at now are wildly different, and that's because there's no rushed time table. That goes for the storyline, the characters, the plot points - everything. LMAOOO, even the beach episode content is going to be very different because I gave myself permission to delay it until I figured out the exact roles I want Paldean Squad to play! It was a better decision that will lead to better characterization (even though I'm nonetheless very grateful for people's patience).

- Write on your timetable, not anyone else's. I occasionally put due dates on myself to get me going (e.g. by teasing a chapter update), but I never promise that I'll have chapters out on a weekly basis or whatnot for anything I write - S&S D related or not. This is deliberate. Life happens and the last thing you need is to write for the sake of writing and nothing else. I feel it's the easiest way to kill your passion if it becomes stressful for you.

- Lean into what inspires you. I find a LOT of motivation through comments, reactions, asks, fanart, etc., so I make it a point to respond to every comment on AO3 and engage continuously with the community on here and whatnot. I've also been loosely inspired by art pieces that have nothing to do with my work. This is just what works for me, though. Sometimes you might be inspired by other media, or maybe by things that you've seen or experienced in your own life. Whatever it is, draw from it.

Hmmm that's what comes to mind for now. Happy to give more later if they come up, & hope this helps! Best of luck with writing YOU GOT THISSSSS 🤗💛

[allieebobo]

Hello there! I hope you don't mind this, but from the moment I first opened up Merry Crisis, the whole medium of IF has occupied a not insignificant amount of my headspace, introducing me to something I could never have imagined before. If I may ask, what first got you set into IF, and if someone was considering trying to get into the medium, what would you tell them?

Ahh!!! You're already really set on the writing/craft part (I love the stuff on your blog!) So I'll dive right into IFs as a medium and how I feel it feels different from writing fiction + advice I guess? (Below the cut)

If you'd like me to point you to specific resources and sites to get started on the actual coding, let me know!

Here's a short list: @manonamora-if has some great resources, brushmen on YouTube has some good choicescript tutorials, the choicescript website and twine cookbook have some pretty robust documentation on how to use the various scripts, and Emily short's blog has some more intellectual discussion of narrative.

SCOPE

I write pretty quickly but even then, I realized that the branching in IFs means that even short ideas become long and unwieldy pretty quickly. If I could go back and give myself advice, I'd be a lot more disciplined about starting small and contained.

2. BRANCHING

Branching (or having diff choices lead to diff scenes) is pretty much the heart of IF (vs. traditional fiction). Striking the right balance i.e. Providing enough branches for rich variation and the feeling of player agency while balancing against over-expanding the game beyond what's sustainable is super important!

Completely non-convergent branches are rare in IFs (i.e. writing essentially 2 different stories depending on a choice). Instead, two main ways to achieve branching are: (a) different scenes that eventually converge back into a main path, and (b) stat trackers that trigger different texts/scenes.

3. STATS

There are various ways to do stats: (a) numerical (if stat x > 10) (b) simple text (if stat x is "dislike") and (c) true/false (if stat x is true). I usually use numerical stats if more nuance is needed (e.g. for tennis skills), I also use it for relationship bars but am increasingly finding that it might be more elegant to use (b) to make the game remember significant moments and choices in relationships with characters.

(B) is my go-to for most other types of stats because of its versatility. (C) is for the simplest stats, and can sometimes be all you need (e.g. has MC kissed someone. Is MC selected to play singles etc.)

4. CODING

Whether to use choicescript or twine can be a big decision that determines how the IF eventually shapes up, because I think the first coding avenue you go down usually becomes a "first language" of sorts--what you tend to find most intuitive/familiar.

Personally I think choicescript is easier and faster to learn and lets you publish under the hosted games label (where there may be a ready made community/target audience). But twine allows for a LOT more functions, customization of the UI/look and feel of the game and also it's open source so you can self publish.

5. GAME VS STORY

I think ultimately depending on genre, IFs can feel very much like a game (e.g. the great tournament), with management of stats, success/fail checks, D&D-esque in nature, or like a story (e.g. branching is mainly in creating multiple layers of the overall narrative, there's more focus on dialogue and characters and development arcs etc.) Or it could be a balance of both.

[synergysilhouette]

Remaking "Fire Emblem: 3 Houses"

(Spoilers ahead, obviously)

The time has come for another rewrite! I'm an amateur (re)writer, and I KNOW people are gonna be picky about this rewrite since many consider this entry the Holy Grail of the "Fire Emblem" series, but I hope you'll still be open to my changes, anyway! This is purely subjective and not something that reflects the fandom's opinion or me saying how to make the game objectively "better" (even though the term itself is subjective). I don't remember every single aspect of the game, so if I mention something that I wanted from the game that they actually DID do, be sure to mention it!

General

DON'T RUSH US!--From the get-go, you're on a fixed schedule. Once you become a professor, you've got one day out of the week to explore the grounds, fight battles/do paralogues/xenologues, or another activity. Every Monday, you've gotta do instruction for your student, and the other days literally breeze by until you get to your next story arc. Letting us go at our own leisure would be awesome, particularly since it'd give us more time to get to know our characters via more missions and xenologues. Between school and war, it can get a bit monotonous.

2. Give us impactful dialogue options instead of the illusion of choices--I have the same issue with "Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon." Throughout the game, we're given dialogue options, but most of the time the choices are identical or offer no affect other than a character's approval/disapproval. It felt annoying to have the option to tell the Flame Emperor that you'd join them, only for them to say they could tell you were lying. It's annoying stuff like that that makes it feel like you don't really need dialogue options at all, just cutscenes with Byleth speaking for themselves.

3. Those Who Slither in the Dark being keeping us in the loop--It's wild to me that the people who did the most damage are the most underused in the game. Someone said that making their deeds more pronounced/known would ruin the point, but I disagree. In Crimson Flower, their role in the Tragedy of Duscur is revealed, but Edelgard defeats them offscreen before restoring peace. Dimitri never learns the full truth of this in Azure Moon, and if I recall, the organization does get more attention in Silver Snow (for like 2-3 chapters) and Verdant Wind, but I can't recall for certain. Either way, I feel like each route should feel complete, given that you're playing completely different stories, rather than it feeling like you're missing some information depending on the route you play. Not to mention, Kronya deserves better, even if I'm retconning her actions (more on that in a second)...

4. Don't make us forget about marriage--having to find a ring sucks. After Jeralt dies, you have a certain amount of time in order to find his marriage ring (which I completely forgot about in my first playthrough) that you NEED if you want to reach S-supports with anyone. I'd prefer if Jeralt just gave it to Byleth rather than us having to go to his office and find it.

5. Change the confusing Byleth bloodline--I'm fine with Sitri being either Rhea's daughter or (if you wanna romance Rhea and Sothis without ethical concerns) simply working at the church where she met Jeralt. The family tree above makes things a lot more confusing than what it needs to be.

6. Marriage to (mostly) whoever, whenever--In the game, you have to wait until after the war is over to be married, and out of them, you only have 5 romantic same-sex options for female Byleth--2 of which are route-exclusive--and 3 options for male Byleth--2 of which are either DLC or route-exclusive. I'd rather make it a free-for-all, save for Gilbert and Alois, who are married, and should've never prevented you from a romantic relationship with another character.

7. Keep Jeralt alive--I'm just...I'm just TIRED of the "dead parent/evil parent" storyline that "Awakening," "Fates," and "Engage" have done, along with "3 Houses." I'd enjoy having Jeralt kept alive, in this version. Nevermind, this is probably the longest a protagonist has gotten to keep their parent in one of the recent FE games. Having him stand by Byleth similar to "3 Hopes" would be awesome.

8. Let us have Child units--As someone who got into the series via "Fates" and "Awakening," it disappointed me greatly that child units were removed. While I prefer "Fates" using the Deeprealms, I think an "Awakening" approach fits best here. Perhaps Sothis' time manipulation is more powerful than she knows, having sent the child units from the future to avoid their dark fates. Since it's story-related, perhaps it's Byleth's child who comes from the future first, referencing Chrom's daughter Lucina coming to save him and Emmeryn in "Awakening," only the child comes to save Byleth and Jeralt. Personally I made a lsit of fanmade child units almost a year ago.

9. Recruit Jeritzia outside of Crimson Flower--"3 Hopes" allowed us to do so as long as we had Mercedes in one of our routes, and I'm confused on why that couldn't be done here. Recruiting Mercedes would be the wakeup call Jeritzia needs to join our side, rather than being the opposition.

10. Keep Byleth's hair color--This is a nitpick, but I'd like being able to change Byleth's hair color back to the way it was before becoming one with Sothis. I'm fine with keeping the hair color, though.

11. A 3 Houses United Route--I mentioned in another post about a route where Jeralt survived, TWSITD as the main antagonists. What'd make this route unique (since I'd want the other two changes to be changed in all routes) is that the almost-death of Jeralt would inspire Byleth to leave the church and become a mercenary again, only getting involved years later once they see how the war has affected their students, and they can still recruit others based on their stats, and since they're not tied to a particular "side" in this concflict, they could recruit the house leaders and their aides rather than having to kill them.

12. Fix Dimitri's turnaround (Azure Moon)--It's probably just me, but it felt like Dimitri's vengence and sudden change of heart following Rodrigue's death felt...too quick? I know this is a hot take, but I'd have thought Rodrigue's death would've fueled Dimitri's anger. Plus I didn't feel like Dimitri's redemption (so to speak) was earned. It was just kinda "sorry for being a jerk, guys" even though the whole team seemed to back him. I'd have enjoyed seeing more moments of his sanity and morality kick in amidst the chaos rather than being one-track-minded. I feel like a lot of poorly done villain arcs do this (even if he isn't the villain of this route, per se). Since in my rewrite we learn about TWSITD, it's quite possible that Dimitri's anger is focused elsewhere in any case. Maybe Rodrigue didn't even have to die...

13. Utilize 3 Hopes designs--This may not be a popular opinion, but I think some of the characters looked better halfway in 3 Hopes than in 3 Houses. It would be nice to have the option to switch their costumes to their 3 Hopes looks instead (even though I know they're older in the 3 Houses timeskip than they are in 3 Hopes).

14. NO IGNORANT BYLETH--Instead of other installments that use the amnesia subplots, Byleth is simply kept in the dark about their parents' pasts, the world, and the church (which is kinda the same thing). I'd alleviate this entirely so we can have a mature and well-learned protagonist rather than a teacher who's just learning how the world works and about the tension in the land.

Hope you're not too upset with my version of the game! Lemme know what you think and if you have any questions. The next FE rewrite I do (whenever I get around to it) will be "Engage," which is the last FE game I've played.

[goodomensbringsmetolife]

I’m gonna put the Will Byers character arc into a straight perspective for all them homophobic milkshakes out there.

Imagine you are watching a Netflix show called Stranger Things and there is a female character who is in love with her male best friend (because straight people) and this is hinted in season 1. They don’t really get to explore this because the girl is kidnapped and taken to a horrible nightmare world. The boy best friend spends the entire season looking for her, and along the way finds another girl with powers that he uses to help him find his friend.

Then imagine that in season 2, our female character is back from the hellish world but is very traumatised and has episodes. She relies on her bff crush to help her and doesn’t trust anyone else. The boy stays by her side all through the season and they clearly care deeply for each other. Then all of a sudden the girl with superpowers comes back and the boy ditches his friend for this girl.

Season 3 and our lovely female protagonist is being completely ignored by the boy shes in love with, and he spends all his time making out with the other girl. The girl not only has PTSD from being possessed and a bunch of other messed up stuff (she was also abused by her dad as a child and has been bullied her whole life) but then has to deal with her crush and all her friends ignoring her. The boy she likes keeps getting into silly arguments with his superpowered girlfriend and their relationship is messy + toxic. At the end of the season the two girls move away.

Season 4 comes along and the girl is excited to see her crush again. She now has the superpower girl as a sister. She spends her whole day as a third wheel and gets upset. The boy keeps saying that they are “just friends”. This is contradictory because as a viewer of the show you can see that they have been hinting at something more than “just friends” with the stage direction, music, lighting, colour, dialogue etc. The superpowered girl gets upset because her boyfriend won’t say that she loves her, and instead of making her feel better he does nothing, then goes off to his bff and tells her they should stick together. The girl and her best friend are in a van and the girl shows a painting she made by herself FOR him, but chickens out on the love confession and instead says that it was his ex-girlfriends idea to make the painting. She then encourages him to get back together with his girlfriend by expressing (in a coded way) her own feelings for him.

This is the moment that she gives up on her love for her male best friend because she thinks that her love will never be requited. She hates herself for this. You watch this go down from the comfort of your home and feel sad for the girl and hope that next season she will end up with the boy.

Then imagine this: season 5 comes and although the girl has given up on ever having her love for the boy be requited, she is caught in the lie that she made about the painting and the boy confronts her. She admits that his girlfriend has nothing to do with it and the feelings she was talking about were her own. She is embarrassed and humiliated and knows that her crush doesn’t feel the same way—

Then the boy looks at his best friend that he would do anything for and says “nah I don’t feel the same way, I have a girlfriend and never liked you like that”

IMAGINE THE DISAPPOINTMENT. IMAGINE THE CONFUSION!! This girl has been through hell and already thought her love could never be, then the boy confirmed it and crushed her dreams for real. She lives the rest of her life feeling worthless and unlovable. What a beautiful ending to Stranger Things don’t you think?? <3

[cacodaemonia]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks so much for the tag, @lyntergalactic! :D I feel like I've done this before, but it must have been a whole ago. It looks fun! (also, I'm pasting just the questions at the bottom of the post if anyone wants to copy those)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 247, though I'm not really sure what the ratio is for images versus fics... Okay, apparently, 97 of them are tagged with 'fanart' and have fewer than 100 words, so somewhere around 100 image-only works and 147 fics.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,141,145; which includes a few collabs and fics for which I just contributed an image.

3. What fandoms do you write for? TCW exclusively 😅 Though I've done a handful of images for other things like Arcane, Dune, Trigun, The Expanse, House of the Dragon...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? A bunch of my works with the most kudos are images, but if we're talking fics, then I think it's just some of my oldest ones...

That’s Not How It Happened (This Is How It Happened) - Fives arc fix-it and my first fic.

Orbital Decay - Codywan that I haven't edited since I posted it, so I can't vouch for the quality.

Modulation - Another one I haven't touched since I posted it, but it's an 'Echo gets rescued much earlier than in canon and he and Fives reunite' fix-it of sorts.

Will You Walk With Me? - Waxer's pov from the start of the war to the (fix-it) end, and it mostly focuses on his and Boil's friendship (Waxer & Boil or Waxer/Boil pre-relationship - take your pick). Even though this certainly isn't the best thing I've written, it's my baby. 🧡

Interference - Umbara fix-it featuring minor canon characters and some necessary OCs in the first chapter, then more major canon characters later.

More stuff below the cut, since this is a long list...

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably You're Just Harder to See Than Most, which ends very sadly on its own, but it's part of a larger fix-it including Modulation above, so Fives and Echo get reunited.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Pfff like basically all of them, idk XD;

8. Do you get hate on fics? No, just on one sketch dump, where someone went through 6 chapters of spicy cloneshippy images and then decided they needed to complain about it being gross and immoral 🤣 It was hysterical kjlksahfg

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Oh yes, I'm a certified smut goblin. Not really sure what the question means by 'what kind,' but I guess 'porn with feelings' is probably the AO3 tag that would most accurately describe all of the smut I've written XD

10. Do you write crossovers? Nope.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! :D

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Hm, I suppose if we're defining that as like, "what ship have you intensely shipped for the longest amount of time," it would be destiel? I was veeeeeery into that ship for many years.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I've had one wip sitting around for over a year, and for a while I was thinking I wasn't going to get back to it ever. But I made a little vibes playlist for it and had some help brainstorming, so I'm hopeful I can start tackling it again after I get some current stuff drafted.

16. What are your writing strengths? Starting something and working on it until it's finished.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I have a lot of trouble generating ideas on my own.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I think it's fine as long as it's either A. very short and clear from context or B. for some reason, the writer is intending to confuse the reader and obfuscate what was said. I know I've said it before, but I'm not gonna scroll to the bottom of a fic every few paragraphs to find the translations for whole phrases or sentences. If the amount of 'other language' starts making the dialogue difficult to follow, I'm just gonna nope out.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Technically, I wrote one thing for Gundam Wing back in like 2000, but I can't even remember what I did with it or what it was about, exactly. Other than that, TCW.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? flsdlfg that's really difficult... idk man, if it's quality we're talking about rather than sentimentality, I'd say it's a toss-up between these three 😅:

My Heart's Red Muscle - Canon-divergent AU where Waxer is a cyborg.

Kinktober 2022 - Character studies/development through smut, where Waxer and Boil find a list of sexy things to try out, so it's kind of meta. It's from my main Open Skies AU, and I'm weirdly proud of this one XD;

We Could Breathe Underwater - Force-sensitive Waxer and Boil AU

Phew! Okay this took me like three sessions to answer, but it was fun :)

No-pressure tags: anyone who sees this and wants to do it, plus @lizardberries @elismor @bilbosmom-belladonna @valkeakuulas @petrifiedforests @marbled-polecat @writegowrite @sophronist @marbled-polecat @ivalane

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

[saltynsassy31]

So I was scrolling through my splatoon gallery, where I save random splatoon art I like to look at when I don't have Internet

And I found this really old one of Goggles crying for whatever reason while Specs hugs him, presumably to comfort him, i don't remember the context.

But it made me think of how that would happen in canon.

And like, okay, I know it's pretty easy to trash on Goggles, I do too as he annoyed me sometimes, but I actually really like him, or at least, the idea of what he could have been.

Because he is pretty adorable and I love some of his antics, I find them really funny sometimes! It's just become....too much, and I sometimes wish to see him cry or hurt in some way.

And I don't say this in a malicious way like i want him to suffer because I hate him, and more like, I want to see him experience other emotions other than joy.

And everytime I got a glimpse of that, where he seemed to have fallen defeated, it turns around and shows us he wasn't actually, and once or twice I get, but it's happened too many times and too many times I've gotten disappointed.

And i know this is a comedy manga, it's for kids and it's funny, but like

Think about it

This character, who is always happy, always the one uplifting others, when they feel in doubt he shows up and makes them feel better, his friends, his opponents, we've seen it with all, but who would be there to uplift him.

I mean, a man can only take so much, right? What if they fail, what if Goggles doesn't feel as confident or he looses hope? What then?

Does everyone just loose hope with him? Because if a guy like him looses hope, then what does that mean for the rest?

What would they do in this situation? It would be kind of nice to see the characters we have seen throughout the series uplift him, showing all the good he has done, showing him to not give up, etc, etc.

It's cliché, I'll admit, but it be sweet for these characters to do that for him, and see Goggles more than just an over powered character who feels no emotions other than joy and stuff.

We do see very small moments of that, but it is always overrided by the punchline of the scene. We've seen other characters on their lowest before, we've seen them struggles, hell, with the newer chapters, from what I've seen so far (I haven't read since June, I'll admit) you can see more of that with [spoilers for splat3 arc] Ocho who is all cocky and stuff, but once he gets beaten we get a small glimpse of dialogue, showing something deeper, "I just wanted to be strong...!", and he is CLEARLY still upset about it afterwards, he doesn't do a 180 like previous characters, which is sort of giving me hope for more interesting plots (especially with the lead now being braids, more or less).

Not really for Goggles, I know that is too much of wishful thinking, but we know they're capable of doing that, so maybe a glimpse of that is all I can ask for.

[shefellofftheworld]

Please lose the last shreds of your self control and yell about bd-1's arc and its place thematically in fallen order

Ahh I was not expecting anyone to want the rant but SINCE YOU ASKED

So I absolutely love JFO and everything about it, because at its core it’s a story about hope and healing when everything has fallen to pieces. I can’t get enough of that. I’m going to do my best to keep this post to a reasonable length, but I am going to be honest: brevity is not my strong suit when it comes to stuff I like. You have been warned. 

Here’s the thing about BD-1: he didn’t need an arc. They didn’t need to thread him through the thematic and emotional heart of this game as much as they did!! That’s part of why his arc took me so much by surprise. He basically has a stealth arc, and it works so well because he’s already serving the game really well before I even got an inkling of it. So first I’m gonna go through BD-1 as I experienced him in my first playthrough, and then look at the ways that JFO retroactively adds a TON of meaning to his interactions with Cal. 

Long post and many spoilers for Jedi: Fallen Order under the cut:

Bogano: First Impressions

BD-1 is a cute lil droid companion, and frankly Respawn could have stopped there and I would have been entirely on board. I mean, look at him.

He’s adorable. 

Respawn didn’t stop there though! BD also serves to make several game mechanics diegetic in a really cool way. He provides the map, he does the healing, and he analyses stuff for the codex. Again: Respawn did not need to go as hard as they did. Cute Droid That Serves Gameplay Purpose would have been more than enough to sell me on BD-1. But! They not only used BD-1 to make those mechanics fit inside the narrative of the game, they used the gameplay mechanics to inform BD’s character!!!!

Excuse me while I take a moment to be incredibly excited about good game design. 

So we first meet BD-1 on Bogano, just after the prologue/tutorial level for the game. We met Cal on Bracca, got introduced to our initial exploration and fighting mechanics, and played through JFO’s inciting incident. Cere and Greez drop Cal off on Bogano and give him two goals: meet someone important, and find the key to rebuilding the Jedi order. 

We’re now introduced to the Meditation mechanic (Star Wars Brand Bonfires). It’s yet another example of how Respawn took a mechanic specific to the genre of game they were making and then turned it into a core part of the narrative. 

I love this game so much.

It’s already been established that Cal’s trauma is hindering his ability to connect to the force—whenever he tries, he relives his memories of Order 66. After we finish the Meditation Tutorial, we exit to a cutscene that reinforces that character beat:

And introduces someone new. 

I know I talked a lot about Cal here, but that’s because BD-1’s characterisation is intrinsically linked to his interactions with Cal—he’s a Companion Character. It’s important that we first meet BD here. The first time we meet BD, Cal is in pain and BD-1 wants to help. 

(I love him) 

Throughout the game, we understand BD’s dialogue through other character’s responses—mostly Cal’s. In this scene, BD introduces himself and then asks Cal if he’s OK. Awww. Cal says he’s looking for someone, and BD-1 perks up and responds. “No, not you,” says Cal immediately. He’s looking for a Jedi! We’ve definitely never seen this play out before. BD-1 is not discouraged. He knows about a Jedi! He is Very Excited to lead Cal where he needs to go. 

We learn a lot about BD from this scene! First: he’s adorable. I know I’ve said that a lot, but it bears repeating. 

look at him

In terms of characterisation, we learn that BD-1 is helpful, important to Cal’s quest somehow, and apparently full of love and enthusiasm. He wants to know if Cal is ok!!! And he wants to help!!! BD stands both for Buddy Droid and for Best Droid. This scene has done its job well: the story has progressed, and presumably there remains not a single member of the audience who hasn’t instantly fallen in love with the Loveable Droid Character. This is good, because he’s going to be with us for the rest of the game. 

Now we get to mechanics. First, we’re introduced to the map. Cal sees the Vault in the distance, and says that whoever he’s looking for must be waiting there. BD-1 stops frolicking to show Cal his map of the area, and the game takes a moment to do a tutorial. BD has helpfully put an objective marker over the vault! Thanks, lil guy. The holomap also highlights unexplored areas—more standard game fare, but because the map is diegetic, it’s also technically information about BD-1. He wants to help us explore! 

The next thing we learn about BD-1 is that apparently he, uh. Likes to improvise. “Any ideas?” asks Cal. “We’ve got to get across this gap somehow.” BD-1 proposes that he serves as a tool to help Cal zipline across gaps. Both of them seem to have fun ziplining. 

“How’d you know that would work?” 

“Bee bo-boop!” 

“Wait, you didn’t?” 

Don’t sound so concerned, Cal. Nobody fell into any bottomless chasms. You don’t have any room to talk, anyway. I saw you on Bracca. 

We run around a little more, and then the unthinkable happens. BD-1 rushes to the defense of a lil critter that’s about to get eaten by a predator, and gets his leg chomped for his troubles. He does a heartbreaking little limp away from danger while Cal practices his lightsaber skills 

poor baby

Words cannot do this scene justice so I'll just give you a video:

This scene reinforces how adorable BD-1 is (very adorable, in case anybody wasn’t sure) and continues to set up his friendship with Cal. It also serves to set up an in-game way for the devs to control access to certain areas of the map—BD’s busted scomp link is going to stop us from opening a few doors until we’ve hit a few more story beats. 

This scene is also one of the most important in BD-1’s arc, but that doesn’t become apparent until later. 

Shortly after this, Cal happens to receive some injuries that nobody could have possibly forseen or prevented by not swinging lightsabers at live wires. We get one of the most adorable cutscenes in the game:

And then BD-1 presents Cal with the Star Wars Brand Estus Flask and joins Cal as a permanent companion.

(he's so cute)

Cal asks BD-1 how he got to Bogano, and BD-1 says he doesn’t remember. Weird for a droid to be forgetful, but oh well. To the Vault!

Ok but first we need to get some cosmetic loot, because the real goal of Jedi: Fallen Order is to collect ponchos.

BD-1 goes rifling through chests for us, because the devs at Respawn saw an opportunity for adorable character moments and grabbed it with both hands. Over the course of the game, BD-1 continues to fling himself at the nearest poncho receptacle. Cal in response takes a journey from confused through resigned and lands on indulgent. I love this game so much. 

Ok, now to the Vault!

Wait wait wait BD-1 has found something cool and he really really wants to show it to you. 

Now for real to the Vault.

There’s some more story stuff that happens before we get there, but that’s the bulk of our initial introduction to BD-1. We make a friend and learn a bunch of new mechanics, which themselves teach us about our friend. BD-1 is a friendly little droid who wants to help and likes to explore and learn things. He’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie and gets excited when there’s something to scan. He doesn’t like it when Cal gets hurt, and for some reason wants to go to the same Plot Location that Cal does.

He’s probably not the person Cere wants us to meet, though. That’s a Jedi! A great warrior. For sure. 

(I think I’m funny)

At the vault, we learn that BD-1 is, in fact, the person Cere wants us to meet. In fairness to Cal, though, there is also technically a Jedi. Technically. 

BD-1 contains encrypted messages from Jedi Master Eno Cordova, who has hidden the holocron we’re looking for. In order to find it, he wants us to follow in his footsteps. Thus follows one of my favourite scenes for Cal, but this post is already going to be too long so I’ll spare anyone who’s made it this far that particular ramble. Cal and BD-1 officially team up, find some more clues, access a couple of Master Cordova’s video diaries, and head back to the ship. 

I will now proceed to exercise incredible restraint and move on to the next section rather than giving you a play-by-play of BD-1’s every move for the rest of the game. I would say 'you’re welcome', but you’re missing out on BD-1, so. 

The Burgeoning Friendship

I want to emphasise how constantly present BD-1 is in JFO’s story. Not only is he literally present on Cal’s back for the vast majority of the game, but he’s also constantly interacting with both Cal and the player. 

For one, there’s all those mechanics I mentioned earlier. Every time we look at the map, heal damage, or find something new, JFO is drawing our attention to BD-1. Granted, some actions are less obvious than others—we don’t pause in the middle of any given battle to show a long ‘BD-1 gives Cal a healing stim’ animation, and rightfully so—but when we’re just running around the map, BD-1 manages to feel like a character in his own right. He gets excited when Cal finds more healing stims (or literally any box for him to jump into), he runs around to show us things, he’s got his own adorable little idle fidget animations, the whole shebang. Mechanically he pretty much ends up functioning as a secondary player character. 

Teamwork!

There’s also a bunch of incidental dialogue between Cal and BD as we run around. Cal likes to comment on what’s going on—be it a new force echo, a distant objective, or even just his thoughts and feelings about whatever is happening at the time. It’s a good way to keep an audience in touch with a character, but it can feel a bit weird to have a character start talking to the air about whatever it is the devs/writers want the player to know right now. Enter BD-1! Now Cal is talking to the cute robot buddy, which is incredibly relatable. 

I, too, would tell this little guy all of my deepest darkest secrets. 

BD-1’s trustworthy face aside, it’s also a good design choice! Now not only do we have a way to naturally insert whatever information Cal needs to deliver at any given time, we can turn that information into character beats for both parties. Cal and BD respond to each other, and so both of them feel more like independent characters who are present in and reacting to their circumstances. It helps keep us immersed in the narrative even when we’ve temporarily left the narrative behind to attempt the same jumping puzzle 15 times in our endless quest for ponchos.

My compulsion to give Cal as many ponchos as his little heart desires aside, Cal and BD’s conversations are really effective at keeping the player involved in what Cal is feeling. Some of my favourite moments are when BD-1 checks in with Cal while they explore the crashed Venator (ow), or when the two of them find Cordova’s old workshop. There’s definitely more, but I’ll be honest I have neither the time nor the energy to play or watch through the entire game to find it. If you’re reading this, though: you absolutely should. It’s such a good game. 

Where was I? 

Right! Narrative! 

I’ve spoken about gameplay, but we really see BD-1’s narrative presence in cutscenes. He’s constantly involved in every story beat, even if sometimes he gets a little distracted. 

He's very worried about your salt intake, Greez

BD-1 cares about our quest and about our characters. He has fun hijacking an AT-AT, and intervenes to help Cal when a fight is getting a bit dicey 

To outline the full extent of BD-1’s involvement in the narrative would be to outline the whole narrative, and I swear I am trying to keep this post to a somewhat readable length, so I won’t do that. But I want to highlight these moments. They’re moments that get us attached to our characters, and moments that build the story. They draw us in to the relationship between Cal and BD-1, and also in a sense build a relationship between BD-1 and the player. I know that when I play JFO, I’ll often talk to BD-1 myself. If he hops off of Cal’s shoulder to look at something, I get excited too. NG+ removing all of the chests may make completing every corner of the game more convenient, but sometimes I’ll start again from scratch just to let BD have his fun. One of the benefits of games as a narrative medium is how involved the player is in the story—even at its most linear, the player is still an active participant. Another benefit to a game like JFO is the length. More is not always better, but in this case Respawn uses the player’s time well. No matter what we’re doing, we’re interacting with the world and the characters—and time spent interacting is time spent building a connection. 

All this is to say that by the time we take our little detour via bounty hunter coliseum, I am right there with Cal panicking about our little friend 

Those monsters

Dathomir and Ilum: The Payoff

This section is going to be hard for me to write coherently, mainly because whenever I think about this part of the game my brain stops forming words and instead descends into incoherent screeching interspersed with playbacks of various moments. I have to take a minute before I even go to Dathomir because I know what’s coming. I love this game so much and this sequence wrecks me every time. 

I’ll do my best though! 

Cal and BD have been through a lot together by this point. They’ve joined a rebellion, fought Inquisitors and delved into ancient ruins. They’ve been hunted by the Empire and by bounty hunters. We’ve done all that with them, too. As we go to Dathomir, Cal is wrestling with a lot of things. He’s back to the level he was at before the Purge, but he’s still hurting and traumatised. 

I could talk at length about Dathomir, but this is a post about BD-1 and I am ostensibly trying to keep this somewhat concise. 

(laughs in over 2500 words so far)

It is on Dathomir that things come to a head. Cal has a flashback of the events of the Purge, then faces a vision of his dead Master Tapal. When he comes to, his lightsaber—the one passed on to him by Jaro Tapal as he died—is broken. He is forced to flee Dathomir, and returns to Cere and Greez on the Mantis. 

It’s a heartbreaking sequence. The player is right there with him throughout—we are high-fiving the trooper who teases Cal. We are navigating the vents of the Venator as clone troopers hunt us down. We are watching Jaro Tapal die defending Cal, and then we are fighting a vision who verbalises what Cal has been feeling this whole time—he has failed. His master died because he was weak and slow and useless. He can’t save the Jedi Order. He isn’t fit to wield his Master’s saber, and he isn’t fit to be a Jedi. 

BD-1 is not there for any of it. 

BD-1 has been with us for practically the entire game. In every cutscene I can remember, he’s been involved. He’s been running around doing his thing, or peeking over Cal’s shoulder. In this sequence, he is not present. He’s not there in the flashback, and he’s not there when we fight Jaro Tapal. He is present when the vision ends—but not really. He’s positioned so that we can barely see him behind Cal’s head. 

Cal goes through all this alone. 

(I will note that having now watched the scene a few times with special focus on BD-1, it does look as if he’s watching the rest of the room? Which gives me the impression that he’s tried to get through to Cal, realised he’s not responsive, and decided to watch his back while he deals with his Trauma-Based Force Stuff. Which. Ow. That’s so cute but he must have been so worried.)

It’s not until after Cal starts to leave that we check back in with BD-1. He sounds wrecked. And BD-1 can’t help. 

The saddest wooo

We now proceed through a conversation with Cere and also, incidentally, several tissues. 

Ow.

But! There’s hope! New goal: Get Cal a new kyber crystal to replace the broken one, then everything will be fixed and we’ll be ok. 

:(

After some more troubles, because poor Cal can’t catch a break, we finally get to the crystal. Cal seems upsettingly close to freezing to death, but we’ve made it! 

And then the crystal breaks. 

Cal gives up. 

Like, it’s-open-for-interpretation-but-I’m-pretty-sure-he’s-just-decided-to-lie-there-until-he-dies gives up. 

not pictured: my distressed yelling

And then: Eno Cordova speaks, and BD-1 enters the frame. “Failure is not the end, my friend.” It’s Cordova’s words, but BD-1 is playing the recording. BD-1 is encouraging Cal. Cal doesn’t really believe him. 

So BD-1 shows Cal Master Eno Cordova’s final recording:

Look, I am trying my best to be something resembling coherent here but. SCREAMS. 

S C R E A M S

I could talk at length about how much I love this whole scene but I have been basically just recounting for a while now so I will be brief. 

This scene completely reframes BD-1 as a character. He was already more than just a cute mechanics delivery system, but in this scene we learn that he chose to have his memories erased, and also that he chooses to believe in Cal. His faith in Cal gives Cal faith in himself, so he gets up and keeps fighting. 

Now please excuse me while I cry a little more. 

The First Meeting Again: What Makes Us Who We Are

One thing I really want to highlight from the above scene is that line from Eno Cordova: 

“Only with a trusted connection will your memories be restored.” 

I know it’s already pretty thoroughly emphasised by the game itself, but I didn’t quite understand its full impact on Cal’s journey and the themes of JFO until I replayed the game. 

Remember that scene way back on Bogano where BD-1 injured his leg and Cal fixed it? 

When I first played, I found it a little odd that BD-1 scanned Cal here. Why not earlier? Why now? I also thought it was a bit of a clunky story moment—Cal has already indicated that he’s going to the vault. Why are they repeating that goal here?

Because Cal fixed his leg. 

BD-1 was hurting, and Cal helped, and so the first memory was unlocked—a drive to get to the vault and show him the way forward. 

It’s a sweet little moment, and it’s cool to understand it better on a replay, but I think it’s also a moment that’s core to the themes of the game. On Dathomir, Cal’s fears are revealed: he is no Jedi. On Ilum, he gives up. 

And then BD-1 says: you were a Jedi all along. 

It’s been a repeated refrain throughout JFO: we are who we are because we choose to keep going. Jaro Tapal tells Cal that failing and getting up is the only way to succeed. Cere says “it’s the choice to keep fighting that makes us who we are.” Cordova says “Hope will always survive in those who continue to fight.” 

Cal has been doubting himself ever since his Master died. He’s been hiding, cut off from the force and from his people. But over and over we see him choosing to help. He helps Prauf on Bracca, knowing it could cost him his life. He helps BD-1 on Bogano, just because he can. He helps Saw Gererra’s fighters and the Wookies on Kashyyk, because they need it. He struggles and he messes up, but over and over he chooses to help. To quote another piece of Star Wars media: His compassion leaves a trail. BD-1 shines a light on that trail. 

Respawn did not have to go as hard as they did with BD-1. He’s a cute little droid who delivers some mechanics in a cool diegetic way. They could have stopped there. Instead, they use BD-1 to enrich the story and the characters, and to drive home one of the the major themes of the game: how we work out who we are when everything has fallen apart. 

In the end, our gang won’t rebuild the Jedi Order. In that sense, they’ve failed. But each and every one of them is fighting. They’re holding on to hope, and sharing it with one another. It’s what makes them who they are. And by being who they are—in Cal’s case, choosing to be a Jedi, they have won a victory, even if they fail. 

Man I love this game.

[911-on-abc]

for the wip tag 7 and 8 👀 

hi anon!! thank you for the ask

#7. abandoned Secret Service AU

ah the Secret Service AU, my white whale. I originally developed it for another fandom but it just never worked, so when I got into 9-1-1 I was like oh!! Eddie slots really well into this -- his canon backstory matched the backstory I created -- My plan was to have Eddie be the Governor of Texas, already widowed, and the rest of the 118 would make up his secret service detail during the last leg of the campaign. Buck would've saved Chris during a flash-flood in Austin, Texas à la tsunami. Eddie getting shot in the show folded in really well.

The only problem was that it was really out of character. I could never see Eddie as a politician, plus dude had a mental breakdown over Ana, he could not run a country!! I would also have to age him up and change all this other stuff. Basically, it would've be too difficult for me to suspend my disbelief to make this all work. C'est la vie.

#8. 9-1-1 What If (S7 spec script)

I'm sooo glad you asked about this one!!!! Ahh! I love reading scripts and I find writing them to be very natural bc I always focus on dialogue and blocking first and then build the scene & prose around it.

After S6 ended, I started thinking about what I wanted to see for S7 and wrote a couple scenes. Every season starts with a big event/disaster and I decided that season 7 would start with a cruise liner crash at the LA Port (Athena and Bobby were not on it!! although... hmm...)

There are some Buddie moments in the first episode to set up their relationship arc (couch shopping! couch shopping! couch shopping!), but my favorite scene so far is this madney scene:

INT. MADDIE AND CHIMNEY’S HOUSE - DAY MADDIE and CHIMNEY are sitting at their kitchen table, covered in wedding planning materials. CHIMNEY holds up swatches of fabric to show MADDIE.

CHIMNEY Okay, tell me which tablecloth you like better. MADDIE I don’t know, Howie, they all look the same to me. CHIMNEY No, they are clearly different. This one has a cooler tone and this one has a warmer tone.

MADDIE does not look impressed.

CHIMNEY.  Come on Maddie this stuff is important. MADDIE You should just let my brother help you with this. He cares much more about this wedding stuff than me. CHIMNEY No way. I am not letting ‘Clipboard Buck’ anywhere near my wedding.  MADDIE He can’t be that bad. CHIMNEY  That man is a menace to society when he has a checklist. MADDIE Chimney, the color of the tablecloth or type of centerpieces don’t matter to me. All that matters is having you and Jee-Yun with me.

CHIMNEY looks at his fiancee with a besotted expression on his face. After a beat, he turns in the direction of the living room holding up the pair of swatches.

CHIMNEY Hen, which color do you like better? Snowy Fields or Vanilla Cream?

HEN is laying on the ground with her new foster child, [NAME], approx. [age]. JEE-YUN is with them, playing with toys.

HEN Nah, do not get me involved in this. My wife planned our wedding, both times. This is her area of expertise, not mine.

The door bursts open with KAREN holding bags filled to the brim with wedding supplies. She has a wild expression on her face.

(I'm going to cut it off here!! I hope you like!)

this is part of the wip tag game! if you like any of them, send me an ask!!

[distortedclouds]

I'm here for the writer's ask game :)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 27, 28, 29, 30, 37, 39

Well, hello there! :D

Questions 1,3,5,6,7:

Answered here

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Memory loss, but also growing old together. I think both tropes would require a lot of care and nuance to go into characterization that'd be very interesting to me

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Quite a few, actually! A couple of one-shots I'm working on, but also long-fics that I'm not sure whether I'll have the time or energy to tackle

The one most likely (still unlikely) to see the light of day is a post-rumbling, fake-dating fic because everyone's trying to get the new ambassador of peace to marry their daughter and Armin is (and Annie) just getting sick of it all

I mostly want it to be Armin-centric, everything that "Take my hand" fic was meant to be but couldn't (sorry Moon)

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

This probably wont' be the most honest/accurate answer, but since my brain has been flooded with ch 20 for the past 2 weeks-ish straight, it's gotta be this:

“I knew it, you and your plans,” Annie breathes with a small laugh, and it’s enough to make him smile, too. It always is. “What? You’re planning on marrying me on a remote beach somewhere?” “I will,” he promises. “You’ll get sand in your shoes.” She smiles. “Our friends will all be there.” He hopes. “The cake will get dirty.” She frowns. “I’ll promise to love you,” he vows. “We’ll spend the whole night brushing sand out of our hair instead of anything fun.” she pouts. “Yeah.” “I think I’d like that, Armin,” she murmurs, voice soft in his ears as she shuffles closer.

Dialogue is already not my strongest suit, so whenever I find myself writing bits that just flow between the two characters, I'm immediately pleased!

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Is there a difference between the two? I've been writing stuff and imagining worlds and scenarios since as far back as I could remember. I find writing to be an excellent practice of empathy and compassion, for not only people I may otherwise not fully understand, but also extending it to myself and how I may be feeling at specific times but having a hard time realize

definitely a passion!

12. Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

I wouldn't say an episode/chapter, since I'm mostly consuming aot as whole arcs. But definitely the final arc, not only for aruani, but also as a life philosophy, if that makes sense lol

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

I mean... I wanna saw BW, since that's the apple of my eye, but I also fail to see how so much internal monologue and emotional writing can be distilled into an image (but then again, I'm not well versed in the visual arts)

It's gonna have to be I'm begging for you to take my hand

16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

I may be biased to my current writing, but I can totally see myself exploring a wide variety of human emotions and circumstances with Armin and Annie in the aot universe and outside it

27. How do you feel about collaborations?

Never been in one before. It's intriguing but also the perfect opportunity for my imposter syndrome to step in and fear of disappointing other writers I may be working alongside

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

It'd be hypocritical not to mention @/you first! Not only is your writing incredibly poetic and artistic in nature, it also delves into the very depths of a character's emotions. It feels like I'm writing something that should be categorized as literary, instead of just writing or fiction

@moonspirit (come get yo praise!)

It's the movement and animation in your writing that always captures me. Everything always feels so vivid and alive even if it's inanimate! You're like of Ghibli studio was a literary publishing house

@/ackermom on AO3

the emotional pull is out of this world HOLLY FUCK! I can't just casually read any of their fics, I need to mentally prepare (maybe even have a full day off :| )

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

@dudewhy3 give us more of deep cuts!! (no pressure :) )

30. Do you accept prompts?

Yes and no. When I do I usually only do it for very short drabbles just as an exercise in writing and have some "mindless" fun so I don't have to stress over every single word I write

37. Talk about your current wips.

Well, I wanna finish BW sometime within the next month or so, A couple of... one-shots that I wanna write (IYKYK) but I also really wanna get back into Slow and Steady

39. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

If it's on tumblr:

Similarly on AO3, I just don't give them the time of day. People like that 99% of the time are just looking for a reaction because they have nothing better to do IRL and want to feel important online. I just don't engage

[cozage]

Happy birthday Cozage!! 💙💙💙 I already told you this (if you remember the blue hearts) but I LOVE your writing!

I have a question!

When I was younger (Lol this sound as if I'm super old but I'm very close to your age) I really enjoyed writing fics with my favourite characters. Fast forward years passed and now I miss that feeling, but I can't sit down and write anything now.

I don't know why but I just can't. I really want to start again because it brings me so much joy, but everytime I try to start, I can't write more than two sentences that I finally delete.

Do you have some advice for this? How do you approach your writing or what do you do? I know it's a strange and very abstract question, but thank you for at least read this!! 💙

Omg yes I do still remember you of course!!!

Writer's block is very painful and frustrating for sure. I do a few things to try my best to combat it.

My free time is spent thinking about prompts or scenarios. I'm such a dissociating person that on drives or showers or boring meetings I'll just start thinking about One Piece or other fandoms. I allow my brain to drift, and most of the time I have ideas about things before I even sit down and write.

I skip the hard stuff. When I have two plot points, but I don't know how to get between A and B, I will literally put [SOMETHING HERE] and then come back to it. Can't find a specific word? [WORD LIKE _____]. Basically anything that keeps me from continuing my flow of consciousness, I put a placeholder to come back to. When I do my first level of edits, I usually do a quick search for the "[" button so I can see what needs to fill in. It's easier to write the hard parts when you have a more of a fleshed out story (and sometimes I've connected the dots by the time I come back to it)

When I write, I start with writing whatever I actually want to write. Stories don't usually need a lead in or intro (and if they do, I write it later). If there's dialogue I think of, I write it as soon as I think of it and just keep it at the bottom of the page to use later.

Sometimes I go back and watch my favorite episodes (or the new ones) to get inspiration. For One Piece, its almost always Alabasta or Skypiea (my comfort arcs), but sometimes I watch the Wano episodes too when I feel up to it. It helps me recenter my mindset and bring myself back to those characters.

I really hope that helps! And I really hope you start writing! Even if it's just a few minutes each day, I hope it slowly comes back to you and you start to love it and find joy in it again :)

[moviemunchies]

I thought I’d watch another Mission: Impossible movie on Netflix while I still can. I’ll be honest; this is the first movie in this series that I have any real memory of. Not that I’d seen before, I hadn’t; and I had heard the title before this movie, and of course the theme song. Everyone has. But this movie was the first one in the series that I really remember when it came out, seeing the trailer in theaters and being struck by how cool it looked.

Ethan is on a mission in a Russian prison, when the IMF breaks him out. Another mission of theirs has been wrecked, in which they lost nuclear launch codes, and they’re hoping he can fix it. He needs to lead a team to infiltrate the Kremlin and get information on a man codenamed ‘Cobalt’, the man behind the ruin of the last mission. But Cobalt also sneaks in to bomb the Kremlin at the same time, Ethan and his team are framed for it, and they’re on the run as the US government disavows the entire IMF. So now our heroes have to find Cobalt, stop him from starting a nuclear war, and clear their names in another globetrotting adventure.

I appreciate that this time, it’s not just Ethan who has been disavowed. They tend to make these movies where Ethan is blamed for some crime. This time, he’s still blamed, but so is the rest of the team. It’s not just these people helping because they’re friends with Ethan, it’s because their lives and freedom are also on the line. Yeah, Benji is also friends with Ethan, but Carter and Brandt are more interested in not getting killed and/or arrested.

About a third into the movie, I asked, “Where the fudge is Luther?” He’s got an appearance in this movie, though not enough to really count as a full character. A bit surprising not to run into him in a Mission: Impossible film.

Another thing I preferred in this movie over the last one: there’s a concrete threat. The Rabbit’s Foot was a little annoying in how vague it was as a MacGuffin. This time, though, we know precisely what the villains have their hands on–nuclear launch codes–and what will happen if they have the chance to use it. It’s that thing that we’re actually scared of happening! Except more so now because of the way the world’s doing. It makes a good threat for the villains to try.

You know, all-around, this just feels like a film that’s crafted better than the previous one. The team members have more characterization and more noticeable arcs. The third didn’t have nothing, but the team members’ individual bits of development felt more like obligatory dialogue to give them something, rather than them being people with their own personalities and histories. It makes them more memorable, and their struggles in this movie something the audience cares about.

[Admittedly, though, I’d like for those previous characters to come back, if they got more development and stuff to do (they were played by talented actors, after all), though I doubt it’s in the cards for anything.]

And! And and and! We actually see break-ins and break-outs happen.

I feel a little bad that my review of this movie is mostly comparing it to the previous movie, pointing out how much better it is. Maybe that’s unfair; it’s a good movie in its own right and shouldn’t be compared to another. 

[snaps fingers] Actually, there’s one thing that the third movie did better, and that was the villain. Okay, the villain’s plan is better in this one, but the actual villain in the previous film was more memorable and had a personal enmity with Ethan. This guy’s just some terrorist dude that we know next to nothing about, other than that he’s an extremist. He’s not a bad villain, only he’s not that memorable compared to some of the others in the series.

But if that is my one main complaint, then it’s fine. It’s a darn good action movie, one that utilizes the best parts of the Mission: Impossible series to create spectacular set pieces, interesting characters, and a great storyline. See it if you can.

[softpine]

i didn’t really do it on purpose, but most of the main characters are only children because i try to keep the side cast as small as i can. it’s hard enough for me to show each person’s relationship with their friends and parents, let alone with siblings too. but asa does interact with his siblings, he used to talk to casper quite a lot when casper still lived at home. it’s harder with sadie because she’s so little and asa has been spending less time at the mayfield house now that danny is on tour. stevie is an only child on purpose, because her parents didn’t even plan to have one baby, let alone multiple. jada would’ve had siblings if her mom had lived longer – they had trouble conceiving jada and another baby just didn’t happen in time. that’s one regret i have; i wish that aileen had just had a new baby when she died, so jada could have a little sibling ;-; and honestly i should’ve given elaine siblings! that’s another big regret. if i could go back in time i would give elaine an older brother or two. the reason i didn’t is because i wasn’t sure how big of a role elaine would play in the narrative when i first introduced her :/ she was only supposed to be stevie’s school friend but then i was like you know what.... i’m incorporating her into the fold

okay good, i felt bad being like ACTUALLY ELAINE IS A GOOD PERSON AND I BROUGHT RECEIPTS jfksjdkjs i’ve never denied that elaine is immature – it’s actually one of the first traits i listed when developing her character. i just don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with being immature. i wish life was a little kinder to all of us, so that we may all be immature for longer. there’s no heroism in growing up too fast, it’s just.... sad. but to answer your question (which is a really good question btw and i’m glad you’re thinking about it), no, elaine’s friends have never let her down.... YET. lmao. there’s something happening very soon that might add more nuance to this conversation!

omg before i was of legal drinking age???? that feels like forever ago fjskdjfj but thank you so much!! i hope you’re doing well and having a good day too 💖💖

i’m going to keep sadie as a toddler for a while! i don’t want the age difference between them to be too big. and yes!! mac (asa’s cat) can see finn! he’s been able to pet mac a few times ;-; and i always wanted to show a scene with finn and sadie, but it never worked out. i have some really rudimentary dialogue from when sadie was much younger:

@kanakomimura​ thank you so much 🥺 creating my own stuff is my favorite part about frozen pines, because the more i learn, the more personalized it gets. i’m so happy you’re enjoying it!! 💖💖

@maturation​ ahhh thanks for the reminder, i need to catch up!! i think i’ll have to reread from the beginning, it’s been so long 😭 so no spoilers lmaoo

i agree! i don’t think most people can be categorized as “givers” and “takers” in terms of emotional support, because everyone should be doing both on occasion, but some people tend to go one way or the other and elaine is definitely more likely to push her own feelings aside to cheer someone else up. it’s usually a subconscious decision though – she doesn’t feel that she needs any support, even when she probably does. i think it’s important to mention this, because i don’t want anyone thinking elaine’s friends are being bad friends!

time is so funny because in my head i’m like “asa wasn’t born THAT long ago” and then i look and it was 4 years ago FJKSJDS but omg hiiiiiiiiii 💖 yeah in hindsight i wish i had gone with the divorce plot, but oh well, i lived and learned. thank you so much and i hope you’ve been well !!! 💗

ahh that’s a huge compliment!! i try to treat every person’s story with kindness, but casper is especially close to my heart and i loved iris too ;-; it was important to me that neither of them were vilified for simply trying to figure themselves out. their story arc is one that i’m really proud of. i’m so glad you liked it 💖💖

you can find it here!! i just don’t feel like taking nice preview pictures so i keep putting it off lmao

hey!! i think you’ll have better luck going to an electronics store and telling them your budget and needs. they may try to upcharge you, but you can always take their suggestions and do your own research. it’s hard for me or anyone else to share specific recommendations because we all have different needs. so all i can really say is that MOST new laptops and computers will be just fine for sims 4, even with cc. if you don’t play other games, you won’t need anything too expensive! (i would share my own laptop but they actually don’t sell it anymore, it’s pretty old lol for laptop standards)

@bitchyybabyy400​ oh thank you for sharing!! i don’t know anyone who gives up things for lent without being religious, but that’s really interesting that it’s so tied to your area’s culture

@simplycauseicanandwill​ i’m sorry, i don’t think i have that. is it possibly a recolor of this shirt? i don’t have anything with those words on it, but i have wayy too many oversized shirts for me to even take a shot in the dark at guessing :(

you can find it here, but i retextured it myself :)