#fandom runnerpost

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I keep forgetting that Zorian is so fun to read because he's so petty.

For the record, that's only internally -- he never really seeks out revenge. And even though he holds a lot of grudges, he has an even deeper sense of indebtedness to his allies and he always pays his debts.

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Notepad. And then I copy it over to LibreOffice Writer just before posting on AO3/Discord to put italics on it (replacing words surrounded by *asterisks*) because Notepad doesn’t support rich text.

Got called a weirdo irl for the way I write my fics sooo

I am the “writes in document tabs” if anyone’s wondering

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Why does my nothing post get 17 notes. The Mother of Learning fandom must be starved for content.

Uhhhh how do I make this post relevant enough to add tags. Man it sure was fun when Zorian and Zach pulled off a heist of the most advanced airship on the planet, huh?

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Kagurabachi is probably the best manga ever made. Yes I am exaggerating. But it is one of my favorites and I can exaggerate on the Internet. Lie, even.

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I forgot today was Bionicle day. Now that I've realized it's 8/10, I'm currently writing a short half-baked Cradle crossover fic for it. Not gonna add any fandom tags, cause it's going to be incredibly half-baked. Anyway, the first few sentences:

Yerin drifted through the Way. Ostensibly her trip to this world was an assignment, but work had been slow. She suspected this was more of a favor, a "stop pacing around and go work off some stress" assignment than something actually necessary.

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This is one of the only correct takes in all the comments.

Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (from TV show Kim Possible)?? No, Kim's definitely way cooler than Ron, but he's also very cool on his own. He's got skills, they're just outshone by hers.

Hiccup and Astrid (from movie adaptations How to Train Your Dragon)?? Nope, they're both awesome. Astrid is a very good fighter and leader, and Hiccup is a very good inventor and planner.

Kristoff and Anna (from movie Frozen)?? I mean Anna does a lot of very cool things, but so does Kristoff.

...I'm taking this too literally. The dynamic is certainly there, that there's a woman who's Really Cool and a guy who's Devoted. I guess it's that I don't think that these pairings have that much of a contrast between the coolness of the two characters, like there is for Malfina and Connecticut Clark, or for Jason and Janet (from TV show The Good Place).

This is one of my favourite ship dynamics

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Kaleshwi and Varic/Mell are my two favorite “never quite develops into an established romantic relationship” ships. Frankly they might be the only two I even know of but I like them strongly.

Man. If it only weren’t for frequent life-threatening danger and even more frequent quests/responsibilities, these ships could have been together. But that’s what brought them this close to each other in the first place. Augh the very nature of what brought them together denies them from getting closer.

Basically this:

[Image ID from alt text: A graph of potential energy vs distance. The curve reaches the minimum of potential energy at a non-zero distance.]

Longer ID below. [Image ID: A graph of potential energy of a two-atom system versus inter-nuclear distance. There is a minimum of potential energy at a non-zero distance; to either side of the minimum, the energy rises. As distance approaches zero, energy approaches infinity asymptotically; as distance approaches infinity, energy approaches zero asymptotically.

There are several other labels: “repulsion” for the positive energy quadrant, “attraction” for the negative energy quadrant, “equilibrium bond length” for the distance at which energy is a minimum, and “bond energy” for the energy at its minimum. The axes are labeled, and the graph is labeled BYJU’s, the website that displayed the graph.

/End ID]

Image source: BYJU’s, from this webpage specifically: https://byjus.com/chemistry/potential-energy-curve/

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“When all is lost, that is the worst time to give up. After all, you have nothing left to lose."

Loreli, the original strategist.

Of Kings and Killers (The Elder Empire — Sea book 3, Will Wight)

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One of my favorite tropes is when characters have traits or mannerisms that reflect their parents. Even if these traits are bad, or their parents are generally bad, for some reason it just makes me smile to see the similarities between characters and their parents. Maybe it’s because it gives me hope I can live up to my own parents; maybe it’s because it indicates that everyone rubs off on each other over time, leaving a legacy behind in how they influence each other; maybe it’s some other reason.

Anyway, the main examples that come to mind here are Kaladin’s curmudgeonly attitude and mostly-inflexible code of honor (both inherited from Lirin, and the second partially also inherited from Hesina), Miles Morales thinking of his parents‘ and uncle’s words at critical moments in the Spiderverse movies (and also him and his dad walking down stairs instead of taking risky parkour jumps), and Yerin’s whole manner of speaking (inherited from the Sword Sage, a father figure).

Funnily enough the thing that brought this thought up was Varic Vallenar and his father Benri having a pettiness/oneupmanship contest every time they talk. It’s just funny and endearing to see them both act so calm while inwardly seething, and both care about their charges so much (Varic’s charge being “the safety of the galaxy” and Benri’s charge being “the financial state of the corporation, and guaranteed cooperation from his son”)

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[Image ID: Two anonymous asks, all text, sent to pukicho.

The first ask reads, "sammy witch."

The second ask is a long philosophical story about two blind men contemplating the experience of beauty. It is an excerpt from the fantasy book Words of Radiance, from chapter 45. The excerpt reads as follows.

Two blind men waited at the end of an era, contemplating beauty. They sat atop the world's highest cliff, overlooking the land and seeing nothing. "Can beauty be taken from a man?" "It was taken from me," the second replied. "For I cannot remember it." This man was blinded in a childhood accident. "I pray to the God Beyond each night to restore my sight, so that I can find beauty again." "Is beauty something one must see then?" the first asked. "Of course. That is it's nature. How can you appreciate a work of art without seeing it?" "I can hear a work of music," the first said. "Very well, you can hear some kinds of beauty - but you cannot know full beauty without sight. You can know only a small portion of beauty." "A sculpture," the first said. "Can I not feel its curves and slopes, the touch of the chisel that transformed common rock into uncommon wonder?" "I suppose," said the second, "that you can know the beauty of a sculpture." "And what of the beauty of food? Is it not a work of art when a chef crafts a masterpiece to delight the tastes?" "I suppose, said the second, "that you can know the beauty of a chef's art." "And what of the beauty of a woman," the first said. "Can I not know her beauty in the softness of her caress, the kindness of her voice, the keenness of her mind as she reads philosophy to me? Can I not know this beauty? Can I not know most kinds of beauty, even without seeing it?" "Very well," said the second. "But what if your ears were removed, your hearing taken away? Your tongue taken out, your mouth forced shut, your sense of smell destroyed? What if your skin were burned so that you could no longer feel? What if all that remained to you was pain? You could not know beauty then. It can be taken from a man." "Does the pain change day by day?" "Let us say it does." "Then beauty, to that person, would -

The excerpt cuts off. End ID]

I don't have the book right in front of me, but the quote here is actually edited. Right near the end, where someone says "does the pain change day by day?" is actually not one of the blind men in the story, but rather the girl hearing the story, and responding to the storyteller. The girl and the storyteller continue talking afterwards about pain and beauty, but that's just as long and I don't have the book to copy it down, so I'll just repeat the relevant part.

"Does the pain change day by day?" "Let us say it does." "Then beauty, to that person, would be be when the pain is less." "To be human is to seek beauty, Shallan. Do not despair, do not end the hunt because thorns grow in your way."

This is the problem with you fuckers

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Cradle's soul oath mechanic is interesting. Instead of a truth spell, it's a weak geas. Now, I've heard that it was introduced because there had to be a reason for Lindon and Yerin to cooperate in the first book -- she wouldn't have worked with him otherwise. But then it becomes a important mechanic in many other situations, often driving small parts of the plot (in much the same way as the first book: nudging characters' behavior so that things stay narratively ideal without committing character assassination).

I liked it for how it was used. It's making me think of other stories where such things as geases and truth-detection are part of the setting, also to nudge the plot (e.g. when someone is being investigated for an accusation and they just say "I didn't do it" so their name is cleared, or they say something literally true but misleading, etc.).

You could certainly write something with no such nudges, and it would certainly be worth exploring more natural sequences of events, but these nudges aren't cop-outs. They're putting the story in an equally interesting place.

And now I'm thinking about cut-anything swords, telepathy, infinite energy sources, and other common fantasy tropes that completely sidestep normal events (can't cut your way through walls; can't coordinate strategy in front of your enemies; powering machinery requires a supply chain) -- just so they can get to the parts they want to discuss.

I don't have anything to say about this. I just think it's neat, I guess.

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Five-minute sketch ideas that I should really get around to:

“The” Reaper spoiler character, walking away from his devastated homeland, with the caption “A new persona with the same old flaws” (song — Battle Tapes: Brand New)

That If Only thing of Yerin reaching down to Lindon but better (song — Battle Tapes: If Only)

“The” Reaper character, again, kneeling in the ashes. A divided scene of red and blue ahead of him: red, the portal to the BFE; blue, an opening to the Way. (song — Paradigm: Leslie Wai, or rather the music video Kaizo Trap from timestamp 3:50-3:55)

Ziel rocketing through acceleration rings at Mach 5 while Mercy flails through the air at Mach 2 (video — Kerbal Scuffed Program 4: War)

Any scene from In This Economy — either a scene from chapter 2 (“How’s that for unalterable record?”) or chapter 5 (“My country, for better or worse.”)

One of the scenes I mentioned drawing in earlier posts and forgot about

None more come to mind immediately, but I’ll brainstorm some other scenes I want to see. Notably 12 Miles Below, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and The Last Horizon. Small fandoms of those on Tumblr rn.

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Uhhhh more Cradle posts possibly. Cradle ask game

So I have a serious work-avoidance and screen addiction problem, like 8-10 hours a day. I also have an undergraduate thesis to write. I can get a little bit of work done every day, and can get more done if I am kept accountable. I can also get more done if I get the ball rolling by doing some unrelated task.

With that in mind, here’s an ask game! It’ll give me a reason to convince myself to actually work on those Cradleposts that I said I would make a few months ago. Send one or more numbers or the questions verbatim, and add your input (i.e. send an ask that’s like “1, Ziel’s arc” or “1: Thoughts on a character arc in Cradle. I’d like to hear your thoughts on Ziel”). You could also just send the number/question with no input, and I’ll write about whatever I feel like.

Thoughts on a character arc in Cradle

Thoughts on a Path

Thoughts on a one-appearance character

Thoughts on any other character

What’s the last idle theory I had about Cradle (basically, just “Thoughts”)

Write a short canon-compliant fanfic (i.e. a battle Yerin had, or Gesha actually enjoying her time in the Blackflame Empire while the kids train)

Write a short fanfic, not canon-compliant (i.e. Lindon gets visited by Zakariel and not Suriel, or Yerin gets Solo Leveling system powers. It could be literally anything)

Draw a crappy fanart (please have low expectations lol, I don’t know how to draw and will also draw the whole thing in like 2 minutes)

Funny post (i.e. funny hypotheticals like “I wonder if Reigan Shen was any good at DDR” or funny observations like “Biggest Lindon L: he never made a totally epic launcher construct out of the Dreadgods. Huge loss”)

Short crackfic (basically the same as above, but narrated)

Hypothetical situation (i.e. how would the gang fare vs. Goku, what kind of pasta would Eithan cook, which member of the group would be best at video games, etc.)

Add an Image ID to Cradle art (I’ve been meaning to do that for all the ones I’ve seen but it’s so much easier to just scroll)

Just a reminder, send a number or the full question, and then add what you’d like for the question to be answered about! I’ll only spend a few minutes on any of these unless I lose track of time, since the point is to get me out of a scrolling rut and get to work on college stuff.

Does this actually work to get me on task? Kinda! It’s better than uninterrupted scrolling, which is my usual state.

Oh, and if you want to send these asks about Will Wight’s other work, I can also answer those. I’ve read all his other stuff too.

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Gilded Guy moment

(Gildedguy is a gold-suited warrior who appears in animated videos by a YouTube channel of the same name. In one of those videos he goes to a party/banquet with several other characters from other channels and animators. A plate of desserts says “take one,” he takes several and gets in a sword fight afterwards because he broke the rules.

He wins against the hostess, a superior fighter, by feinting at breaking her statues. He then leaves because he was actually in the wrong.)

You’re in line for a slice of cake. The sign says “Absolutely no seconds”, and there are armed guards.

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Akura Fury and Emotional Distance

Uhhhh this is not meant to be a comprehensive post, but I was just idly reading Uncrowned for a few minutes and remembered that Akura Fury is yet another imperfect member of the Akura family.

In chapter 6 of Uncrowned, Fury expresses a lot of interest in Lindon’s duels/fights to prove his strength and soothe the worries that he is unqualified to compete in the Uncrowned King tournament. After Lindon wins all of those, Fury leaves Grace and Pride (close family members) to duel between themselves for a seat — and decides to just leave instead of dignifying them by spectating them. Charity stays to judge the match, and it was for Fury’s pick for the tournament.

He also shows this same kind of attitude towards his daughter Charity; in Wintersteel, he forgets to tell her about the Monarch competing in the tournament (a very big deal, especially since Charity is supposed to be second in political power to Fury, so she should have been informed).

This kind of “I don’t care about this” attitude isn’t always bad; when Mercy was publicly humiliated (by Malice, the Akura Monarch and Mercy’s mother) for losing her match, Fury declined to watch when that was a very bold move, politically. No one lightly disobeys the Monarch.

I wasn’t really going anywhere in particular for this, but I think it’s interesting. Fury is pretty good, but he does cause some collateral emotional damage. I think he had this kind of attitude when raising Charity, given her own issues with empathy (see: her sending some people to lethally fight against Lindon, eventually ending in one death, and not expressing any misgivings about this course of action. This was in recompense for Lindon killing her nephew, which he did not know at the time (he didn’t know that the guy he killed was Charity’s nephew, and he also did not know she was the one who sent people after him until one had already died)).

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I remember some documentary/interview/“director’s commentary” kind of video about the Office, and specifically about Dwight Schrute. How he’s a man of contrasting stereotypes; very blunt and cynical and a hard-working salesman, but also having deep interest in nerdy things. The commentary put it better.

Anyway, this reminds me of Orthos (in the Cradle series) and Shyrax (in the Last Horizon series), partly because they’re both curt and blunt like Dwight, but also because they contrast with what you’d expect from that kind of personality. Both of them (not Dwight) are often very encouraging to their allies, despite seeming like they’d be demanding.

I’m rereading chapter 49 of The Engineer (where Shyrax calls Mell out for imposter syndrome (mood)), and thinking of Orthos’ “A dragon is not ashamed of tears” quote, if you couldn’t tell.