#even Fakey is afraid. that's how you know there's a problem.

[marclef]

Has Peppino ever heard of the one and only Pissino?It kinda has the face of Fake Peppino but not really...but don't let his appearance fool you or his face fool you!

"I-I don't-a know what.... that THING is....."

"... and I'd REALLY like if it would-a leave."

[larrachan-official]

heyy! about the Fake Peppino/Pizza Tower AU, what is it about? like, I'm guessing based on your post is centered around Fake Peppino??

Hi!^^

Happy,that you want to know something about my Au(?)!

So. I'm not very good at storytelling, but I'll try to tell it the best way I can. KHM. So. Fake is not the one for whom the Au is made, but at the same time he is the main character. The essence of the plot of this Au in that it reveals the theme of what happened outside the events of the game.

According to my idea, Pizza Head was something like a scientist who experimented on bosses (Pepperman, The Noise, Fake Peppino, The Vigilante). BUT. For now, I will not talk about what I did with the bosses. All those experiments, torments that took place outside the walls of the Tower will probably be revealed in other posts, because I’m tired of writing here :_)

Fakey:

Fakey, in this Au is the main character who suffers from the initial stage of the Stockholm Syndrome. He himself did not know why he had this syndrome, because he is afraid of his creator, although at the same time he feels a strange and inexplicable sympathy for his tormentor. He cannot resist Pizza Head, which he actively uses: hugs, stroking, "friendly" attitude, attempts at "tenderness".

Pepperman:

Pepperman is a "narcissistic" artist who has also been pressured, like the others, by Pizza Head. He has rather low self-esteem, because of which he tries to assert himself at the expense of others. This happened due to the fact that when he was younger, all his work was subjected to severe insults from the Pizza Head himself, which belittled the work of Pepperman. Pepper did not have the opportunity to develop himself in art when the only thing he heard was “And you call this art?”, “How are you going to advance in life?”, “No one will like your under-creativity”, "How can a nonentity like you even open your mouth and talk about your work?" Nobody did not help him in his creative path and, on the contrary, trampled all his potential into the dirt.

The Noise+Noisette:

Noiz and Noisetta were conceived by Pizza Head as twins, but due to problems in creating twins, he made them different people, without family ties.

The development of ADHD and autism in Noyz quite strongly interfered with his perception of the world. Constant ignorance and lack of normal treatment made him look for adventures and activities for himself that could replace communication and society. After some time, sadism appeared, in relation to other creatures of Pizza Head.

Noisetta, surprisingly, was the least pressured and was able to develop as a normal creature. The only thing she had was overprotection towards Noiz and Fakey. She kept her from the moment when these two especially suffered a lot from Head Pizza, because she had to patch up their wounds and help them recover.

The Vigilante:

The Vigilante for all the time that he spent in the laboratory, got stronger, became stronger in spirit and no longer perceives Pizza Head's attempts to manipulate him as something really terrible. He knows how to respond to that, does not allow himself to be broken, protects other creatures and supports them after mental trauma that PH inflicts on those. He has no serious problems and does not develop, which helps him maintain his sanity and continue to adhere to his moral principles.

* * *

Ugh,GOD. Sorry that I didn’t answer, I wrote this for too long :(

Here I was able to describe only what the problem of each of the bosses is, but the whole AU is not only built on this. Its main concept is to show how such injuries affect the human ( and not only) the psyche, how they cope with it, as well as reveal the topic of what happened behind the walls of the Pizza Tower, talk about what happened after the events of the game, what path Pizza Headed and his creations went on, and also how PH in general Yes, this AU should be based on psychology and revealing the plot OUTSIDE of the game, which will be diluted with angst and a barely noticeable fluff (it's so small that I don't know why to write it), but I very much doubt that I can add this Au, because it also uses the topics of abuse, sexism, illegal experiments, police irresponsibility and bribery, lack of rights, inequality, lack of normal treatment in hospitals for the mentally ill, problems of the Stockholm syndrome.

Phew. I'm tired of writing all this :_<

Please, if you want to know more about this Au, say it and ask me about it!

I really want to know,do you like the idea and do you want to see more, it's very important for me.

Bye:)

[dixbolik-lovers]

Ohhhh dear. >.> As usual, here’s my warning that this is not going to be a nice answer. I’m assuming that the boys are at least a little attached to said s/o for this one too

Shuu:

-He really doesn’t care that much. Unless your anxiety and depression issues personally start to bother him, you can deal with that kind of thing on your own. He’ll offer some degree of comfort when you’re truly having issues, though, most likely in the form of dragging you down with him for a nap. 

Reiji:

-He’ll have some form of solution to ease your anxieties, most likely in the form of a drug or potion. You being upset is a hindrance to proper behavior, so he’ll seek a way to ease things... claiming it’s only because he needs you to be composed. Really, he dislikes seeing you in such uncontrolled pain. 

Ayato:

-He’ll tease you and make everything worse for a good while, pointing out everything that makes you feel horrid. It takes him a while to get the message that he’s not hurting you in a way that he’ll like the results of, but when that does finally get through, he’ll make some clumsy attempts to comfort you.

Kanato:

-He greatly enjoys seeing your face when you’re so afraid, but the depressive side of things is annoying. He’d much prefer for you to be miserable when he’s the one causing it, so this kind of thing will just have to end. He’ll throw fits whenever you show symptoms, insisting you stop with it right now. 

Laito:

-He has ways of making you feel better, of course~ Laito’s answer to this problem, like it is to almost everything else, is sex. He’ll “comfort” you until even he’s forced to admit that this method isn’t working... at which point he’ll soften up a bit and switch to something a little more gentle and non-sexual. 

Subaru:

-And why should he care about that? He’ll put on a tough front for as long as he can, pretending like he doesn’t care a bit if you’re struggling or not. You can help yourself, so why should he bother? After a while, though, he’ll start getting genuinely worried, at which point he starts making clumsy attempts to help.

Ruki:

-The solution to your problems is to place your trust in him and stop worrying about silly human matters. If you’re doing as you’re told, there’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. He has a weird and sort of condescending way of comforting you, sure, but it does mean something that he’s trying. 

Kou:

-Awww, you’re feeling bad, hmm? He’ll just have to find a way to help. Kou is more than willing to do things to make you feel better... but he does all of them with the expectation of being repaid later. He’s capable of being very sweet and comforting, even if you probably know by now how fakey it is. 

Yuuma:

-His idea of making things better for you is dragging you out to the garden to get some hard work in. If you’re up and doing things, you won’t have time to think about feeling bad. He’s trying to help, sort of, but he’s much too rough for it to do much good. His idea of “comforting” is way too harsh. 

Azusa:

-Oh, he knows exactly the best way to help you. As in, you’re going to be sporting some new wounds soon, with Azusa entirely convinced that he’s made everything better. he wants to help, but he also refuses to believe that causing you pain and giving you scars doesn’t actually make anything better. 

Carla:

-He ignores your ill-feelings for a while, hoping that they’ll simply go away without the need for interference. You should be a strong enough person to deal with such things on your own. However, when it becomes clear that nothing is getting better on its own, he’ll resort to trying to ease your anxieties himself. 

Shin:

-So what? He doesn’t really care if you’re feeling bad... at least at first. He tries to ignore your relapses just because it’d be troublesome to deal with, but the worse you feel, the more irritated he gets. Eventually, he’ll cave and start trying to make you feel better, but even those attempts are kind of terrible. 

Kino:

-You must just need a distraction! He gets very, very demanding, keeping you running around with endless errands in the hopes that being busy will take your mind off of things. In reality, you just have a spoiled prince to deal with now, even if his intentions with it all are at least sort of well-meaning. 

[tarysande]

Fic Update: Any Four Walls: In the Dark

Also on AO3

#

In the Dark

Rose woke up feeling weird. Like sick, but not quite sick. Her brain felt all fuzzy and she was about to call for her mom to say she couldn’t go to school when she remembered she wasn’t home on Earth. They were on Palaven.

They’d been out with Auntie Sol.

The skycar. The crash. Tyrra in the bad place and shouting and legs outside the windows, lots of legs, so many people and Rose didn’t know any of them, even though she was real good at telling different turians apart. Auntie Sol, slumping over the controls, limp against the straps holding her into her seat, hands still curled into fighting fists even though she was sleeping.

Rose was sure she’d just been sleeping.

Rose remembered kicking and screaming as they pulled her from the car, kicking and screaming and reaching for mandibles to pull. Dad told them that was a good way to make a turian let you go. Mandibles or unarmored spurs. Just like Mom said noses and privates and tops of feet for humans.

Rose had gone for the mandibles. Managed to tug one or two before they did whatever they did to make her go to sleep.

When she opened her eyes, it was still so dark Rose couldn’t tell where she was. She couldn’t see what was pressing her down, but it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Her cheek was squashed flat against a cold, metal surface. She blinked and blinked, waiting for her eyes to go back to normal like they always did if she woke up scared in the middle of the night. They didn’t. Not really. The black was just more black.

“Tyrra?” she whispered into the darkness. “Tyr? You there? You gotta wake up, Tyr, you gotta come back from the bad place.”

Rose waited and waited for an answer. When none came, she held her breath, trying to listen for Tyrra’s breathing. Sometimes her sister made little noises if she was sleeping. Not big snores, like Dad. Tiny ones. At first, Rose only heard her own heart, thump-thump-thump, way too loud. Under that, though, a hum that was familiar after spending so long on the Normandy. Spaceship. She didn’t think anyone here was going to jump out and yell a nice surprise. All the surprises so far were bad.

No Tyrra.

She squeezed her eyes shut again until they hurt, until she didn’t feel like crying or screaming. This was all just a big problem. Crying didn’t help solve problems. Ideas solved problems. Like when she and Tyrra always won Spectre Wars. Like all the ways they stayed safe at the end of the war. This wasn’t as bad as that. No husks were trying to get them. No one was shooting.

Slowly, slowly, the panic began to go away again. “Okay,” Rose said, her voice comforting in the dark, like the way Mom talked to her when she woke up from bad dreams. “Okay, Rosie, you can do this.”

With her eyes still closed, she tried to turn over on her back. Whatever was holding her down wouldn’t let her move that much, but she found she could still wriggle. It was like being held in a way too tight hug by someone who wouldn’t let go, but who didn’t have mandibles to pull or privates to kick. Biting her lip in concentration, she pushed out every single bit of breath she could, like Auntie Liara showed her when they were playing yoga. Even though it made her chest hurt, Rose didn’t breathe in again right away. She squirmed and pushed with her heels against the metal. By the time she had to take another breath, she’d definitely moved a little bit.

She breathed some big breaths before trying again. She moved a bit more. Then a bit more. She squeezed her shoulders together as much as she could, trying to make herself even smaller. Finally, finally, her shoulders slid out, and she was able to free her hands enough to pull herself completely out from under the weight. Feeling with her fingers in the dark, she could tell they were some kind of metal straps, like in the medbay on the Normandy.

Careful not to fall off, she pulled herself to the edge of the cold metal. It, too, was like a bed, but without any nice sheets or pillows on it. It seemed like a hundred thousand million years since Auntie Jack had helped them fly off the comfy beds in the Normandy’s crew quarters. Just thinking about it made Rose’s breath catch, and not because she was trying to hold it this time. She wanted her stuffed hanar named Snuggles With the Sleeper. She wanted Tyrra. She wanted a grown-up.

A big fat stupid tear fell out of her eye and ran down her face. Then another one. She could feel the tracks on her face, wet like the snail trails on the path up to their door on Earth. She sniffled before her face could get all snotty. The room was still black. She had to bring her hand right up to her face to even see it was a hand.

Afraid of running into something in the dark, she got down on her hands and knees, and started crawling slowly, looking for a wall. If she could just find a wall, she could find all the edges of the room. Maybe a door to bang on. Instead, she shuffled directly into something that fell over with a horrible crash, like the sound of Odie’s hamster cage breaking. Rose froze, palms pressed to the floor, heart pounding so hard she thought someone could prob’ly hear it back on Earth.

She did find a door, though, but only because it slid open. She recoiled at the sudden burning brightness of the lights.

“Thought I heard something moving around in here.”

Rose squinted. She couldn’t see any details, but the vague shape was definitely turian. So was the voice. She couldn’t read subharmonics as well as her mom, but his tone said he wasn’t there to rescue her.

“I’m not something. I’m someone. Where’s my sister?”

The big turian didn’t even look at her. “How did you get out of that thing?”

Lifting her chin, eyes streaming from the light, Rose said nothing.

“Get up.”

Rose didn’t move. She clenched her jaw to keep from feeling scared.

“We can do this the hard way or the easy way, kid. Either way, you’re going back in restraints.”

With her eyes finally getting used to the brightness, she could make out an unfamiliar face with dark hide and coppery plates. The turian was barefaced and wore unremarkable armor that even Rose knew wasn’t all from one complete set. He had a pistol at his hip but no big guns strapped on his back.

“Where’s my sister? I want to see my sister.”

The turian’s head-tilt was exactly like a human rolling their eyes. “She’s not your sister. She’s a turian. You’re a human. Get it? Different species.” He said the last two words slowly, like he was talking to a baby.

Rose got to her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re sisters. I want my sister. I want my sister right now.”

“And I want a million credits and a date with Sha’ira, but we don’t all get what we want, do we?” When Rose still didn’t move, he grimaced, mandibles flexing. “Spirits save me from little humans who think they’re tough.”

“I am tough,” Rose said. “And I think you’re pretty stupid. Our mom and dad—”

“They’re not your parents any more than the turian kid’s your sister, you dumb pyjak. You’re political pawns. You know that word, right? Pawns?”

Rose narrowed her eyes. “I know my mom’s gonna kill you dead, but only if Dad doesn’t get you first.”

Whatever word he called her, her translator didn’t know it. Prob’ly something real bad, then. She didn’t care. She’d been called all kinda bad things before. Mom always said people who used insults were just sad on the inside, and jealous, and prob’ly weren’t loved enough when they were kids. Dad said they weren’t worth her time.

The turian came at her with his arms out to grab, which was super dumb, because everyone knew you couldn’t fight like that with someone smaller and faster than you. Like she’d done a hundred times with her dad, she pretended to move forward, but instead ducked under the turian’s legs, jumping up on his back by grabbing the edge of his armored cowl. She’d surprised the turian just like she’d hoped, and he was still staring at the space where she’d been when she reached around, grabbed one mandible, and used her momentum to pull it back-back-back until it made a bad sound. The turian dropped to his knees, keening.

Still clinging to his blind spot on his back, Rose closed her hand around the other mandible and said, “I’m not dumb and I’m not stupid and I’m not a pyjak. We’re on a spaceship and I know I prob’ly can’t get off and I know you prob’ly wanna use us but you prob’ly don’t wanna kill us.” His hand shook as he reached up to try and pull hers away, but she only tugged harder on the mandible until he stopped. “I want my sister. I want her right now. She’s prob’ly scared and she’s prob’ly in the bad place and you’re bad people if you leave her alone. So take me to her right now or I’ll pull this right off and talk to someone else.”

“Now, now, little klixen,” said a new voice, a gentler voice, a scarier voice, at the door, “leave the poor man alone. You’ve done quite enough damage for one day.”

Rose only tightened her grip. The new turian was also barefaced, but she had delicate mandibles currently stretched in the fakest fakey smile. Turians probably thought she was pretty. Rose didn’t. Her fakey fake smile made her the ugliest turian in the whole galaxy.

“I’m not a klixen. I’m not a pyjak. I’m Rose Catherine Marshal Shepard-Vakarian. And I want my sister.”

“Then you shall have her. Indeed, I see it was unwise of us to attempt to keep you apart. Can I make amends?”

“Does that mean say you’re sorry?”

The turian lady nodded, but her eyes were still cold over the fakey smile. “It does.”

“No more blackness and no more being tied up.”

“As you wish. You and your sister will be treated as honored guests.”

Rose almost told the woman not to lie to her, but stopped herself. She prob’ly didn’t even think Rose knew about subharmonics. Rose released the mandible and jumped away from the turian on the floor in case he wanted to think about revenge. He didn’t. He only curled over his hurting face and kept on keening weakly. It was almost enough to make her feel bad. Almost.

“Okay,” Rose agreed, smiling her own fakey fake smile, looking all around her now that she could see properly again. “Guests sounds nice. Can I talk to my mom soon?”

The turian woman put a hand on Rose’s head, but it wasn’t nice at all. For a second, she thought the turian might just break her neck. Rose couldn’t help cringing. The woman laughed, softly. “Let’s see about your sister first, shall we?”

And Rose knew, all the way down to her belly and her bones, this woman was never going to let her talk to Mom and Dad ever again, and that she was so, so, so much scarier than the turian crying on the floor.

“Okay,” Rose repeated, and was glad when she didn’t immediately start crying herself.

[exploringimprov]

Improv Workshop Notes

Taken from a workshop by Chris Trew at the 2017 Kansas City Improv Festival.

 OVERVIEW

The core of  The New Movement philosophy is that the entirety of the scene can be mapped out in the first several lines of the scene.

This workshop takes ideas from TNM Training Camp Intensive. The idea of TNM Training Camp is exploring the idea of, "What if improvisers trained like athletes?"

Don't be afraid to get weird in workshops. They are even lower stakes than usual improv. Push your comfort zone. It doesn't matter how well you do, it only matters how much you push yourself.

 EXERCISES: 

Exercise: "Supercomputer"

Named after a team at TNM.

Circle up.

Someone initiates a scene with the person beside them. The initiation is always physical, and non-verbal.

The second person responds with a line of dialog.

First person responds with a line.

The next person in the circle is in charge of calling the scene after 20-ish seconds.

Repeat, going around the circle. 

Exercise: "Samurai"

Circle up.

One person in the center is the "Samurai".

Someone gives a vague initiation to the Samurai.

The Samurai responds with a line that focuses and clarifies the scene.

After several lines, someone else in the circle tags the Samurai and gives another initiation

Repeat about 6 times, then someone else becomes the Samurai.

They're called the Samurai because their job is to make a precise and focused move.

The Samurai is aiming to define what the scene is about.

Great opportunity for the Samurai to try many different characters.

Exercise can be tweaked to work on specific types of initiations and responses.

Excellent way to warm up before a show.

Groups can be split up and go to different areas of the room. Even groups of two.

 INITIATIONS 

Initiations can be about 4 things:

Me

You

Us

Other

Chris prefers "other", because it gives the very beginning of the scene a     sense of discovery. The audience gets to see you stumble into what the     scene is about.

We want to find what the scene is about in the first few lines, but not in the first line (unless you're doing a premise based format like the Armando).

With vague initiations, we get to build the scene together. The players and the audience get to take part in the joy of discovery.

Don't worry about establishing who/what/where in one breath. It's working too hard. Give yourself a break.

Initiations don't need to be a big idea or concept.

Remaining vague is super dangerous. Only the first one to two lines should be vague.

Chris also recommended we try to initiate all of our scenes that day with a physical and vocal initiator. He spoke of the idea of this being a way for both players to have a simultaneous initiation.

DEFINING  THE SCENE

Chris likes to focus on the first 20 seconds of scenes, because that’s when the map for the rest of the scene is laid out.

There's something magical about specificity creating sudden clarity.

Slow down. Respond. Clarify.

You can respond to the initiation with an extreme version of what you'd expect (raising the stakes), or the opposite of what you'd expect (low stakes contrasted with high stakes, or vice versa. For example, giving grave importance to returning a library book).

What is the most interesting part of the scene/character? Recognize it and focus on it.

Recognize where the audience laughs.

We want to see the scene being built, piece by piece.

 PLAYING THE SCENE

Don't invent brand new things. Dig deeper into what's already been created. Keep the thing that got you there.

A good scene almost has the feeling of "verse/chorus/verse/chorus, etc"

Explore what's already been made. If you do a totally new thing, it's like restarting the scene. Keep doing what you're doing. Dig deeper.

Improv audiences get greedy. They want more of what we're already giving them. They don't know terms like "game", and "relationship", but they can see what a well defined scene is about. And they want more of it.

After you've put in the work to build the scene, you can take more chances with it because you know what's happening.

Stay on the same line of thought.

Why does it matter in this moment that the character just did or said what they just did or said? How does your character feel right now?

Hold onto your idea tightly, but with an open fist. Hold onto your idea, but also be ready to let it go if need be.

Small things can add up to huge gifts.

If the characters have a problem, always make it worse.

Instead of inventing new things, be confident in the comedic value of what you're already doing.

 VARIOUS

Pick one improv pillar to focus on in a scene. Environment, relationship, game, etc. Pick just one, and let it inform and fill in the rest. If we try to do all of them at once, it gets overwhelming. Pick one, and let the rest be filled in as a consequence.

Be organic, be natural, and talk like people do in real life.

Avoid lines like "you know that I…" and "you always…". When we say these lines, we're trying to establish a history between the characters. The problem is, they sound super unnatural, and often gets in the way of an honest reaction.

Avoid lines like, "As your mother…". It's janky and fakey. Also, you don't need to forcibly label the "who" in every single scene. It's more important that the players and the audience are clear on what the scene is about.

Experienced improvisers sometimes forget the joy of discovery.

The audience will forgive you for taking a second to make a choice, as long as the content is good.

Tension is a fun thing to build in a scene. In a perfect world, you should always be able to take your time and build tension in a scene. That said, this won't always be possible, particularly in situations like an improv jam.

Possible dynamic: Absurd environment, straight characters.

Go big and clarify.

Inside of a scene, do things that give priority to the relationship, and things you can do and solve right in that moment.

Do what you think is the most fun.

Once a decision is made, do it.

When analyzing a scene, you should be able to zoom way in and see how the specifics informed what the scene was about. You should also be able to zoom way out and see the overarching thing it was about.

All the tiny details should support what the scene is about overall.

It's not about the "dog". It's about the people.

Fun stuff happens creatively when you're put in a box.

Often in improv, the truly easiest thing to do is the best thing to do.

We tend to over complicate things in scenes.