#hence some of the weird wording and assumptions

[mayfay-analysis]

The Nature of Reanimated Food

So! Jack and Maddie, parents of Danny and Jazz! Obsessed with their work and ever so slightly neglectful with lab safety and their kids. One side effect of this is ectoplasm exposure around their food, and its subsequent reanimation. Pretty neat! Why do we care?

Weeeeelll, Why is it reanimating? Ghosts are supposedly beings of emotions, giving form by ecoplasm produced upon a persons death. And emotions are just the chemical signals and hormones produced by the brain and larger endrocine system. Vegetables are noticably lacking in that compartment (kinda, plants do in fact "scream" when in danger to warn other plants, but actual pain is a bit beyond them). and even if they Did, looking at stuff like hotdogs its been Awhile since they were killed. And even then most food in America is Heavily processed, so any lingering hormones should be long degraded. So How? How are they reanimating?!

Souls

Souls, spirits, consciousness, whatever scientific or religious term you wanna use, the point is Something is staying with the corpse and That is the catalyst (we know it's not some sort of physical material because every major element in food can be found elsewhere as well, and those inanimate objects Aren't reanimating).

There are some fun side effects to this, like the fact souls not only exist and can materialize, but can apparently be split up and mixed like in the case of hot dogs, with no unique downsides (that we know of) aside for standard aggression. This also means that this reanimated food is more like a ghost than a food item (making reanimated veggies part of animal cruelty rather than properly non-sentient).

Also means that souls have an expiration date, as evidenced by the various items using limestone not suddenly sprouting ghost mollusks (it's in furniture, toothpaste, and who knows what else. It's got some ectoplasm exposure). That or souls "settle" for lack of a better term and require more ectoplasm to reanimate as opposed to recent dead food. This also means that while ghosts can be split up and mixed, there's a certain level of modification that renders that far more difficult, or even impossible (namely cardboard and paper being made of plant fiber, yet not reanimating. This could also play a role in why limestone doesn't reanimate).

Anyone have any thoughts?

Tagging @evilminji for this cause they're Far more knowledgeable about DP and have amazing ideas. Check them out if you haven't yet

[wonder-worker]

J.L. Laynesmith taking the 'Buckingham Did It™' route for the murder of the Princes in the Tower AND the rumors of Edward IV's bastardy ... I have to laugh

[goomyloid]

"when noelle finds out kris hasn't been 'kris' this whole time, how will she feel when she realizes she's been reconnecting with someone completely different?"

this sentiment i've seen a lot is an interesting thought but it never actually clicked with me all that much for some reason, and i wasnt sure why or how to put it into words until somewhat recently.

like, i guess i think about it in similar terms to kris's relationship with susie; i think it's unfair to say that kris and susie aren't really friends or something just because that person is 'not kris.' at least by this point, they clearly enjoy being around each other, it's a two-way street. kris is still there, and is always there... on a normal route. that's when our role (so far) amounts to merely 'opening up opportunities' for kris, i.e. giving them a reason to go on Epic Adventures (with the goal of closing dark fountains) all while winning battles with the Power Of Friendship, etc.

sure, we control their specific movements, which will always feel limiting to them (which leads into my assumption that no matter what we do, kris will always hold some level of resentment towards us -- no matter how luxurious the prison cell is, you will always be trapped).

all of this is my long-winded way of explaining that when the two work in harmony, the boundary between kris and the player becomes less distinct. that's why the separation between the two didn't feel as important in chapter 1, where there wasn't really an opportunity for things to go 'wrong,' so to speak. so if we follow the path of least resistance -- how the story 'should' go -- then i think it's fair to say that at least SO FAR, kris is still there, working with us when they have to, not shutting anything out in particular, becoming real friends with susie, and reconnecting with noelle.

the time they spent together in cyber city wasn't 'fake' -- kris is still there, emoting, our voice going through their mouth, they're having fun with noelle (i always think of kris saying "Nooooo" when noelle asks if they need a dog treat, they had no reason to actually howl like that, i swear to god they're just enjoying being a little goofy like old times)

(there's also plenty of other examples of our prompts (presumably) coming out of kris's own mouth in their own voice, they're just in control of HOW it comes out, i.e. yelling "NO" or barely muttering "yes" after spamton neo. but this post aint about that so im moving on)

all of this is the normal route, of course. i dont think i need to explain how much this differs in the weird route, lol. we force kris down a path they Very Much Most Likely Don't Particularly Want to Go Down, but we make them. they dont want to say Proceed, but they have to, which is when that voice comes out as US, not them. from the soul or something, probably, a voice beaming commands into noelle's mind regardless of whether or not kris actually says anything out loud, hence noelle still hearing us even when kris is down in battle.

this disharmony is what manifests as friction between kris and the player, and while we dont Really know what all is happening inside kris's head, i sort of always imagined it as kris closing off/almost going dormant, as some form of protest maybe, maybe to at least communicate to noelle -- the only one who can see something's wrong, not just different -- that this isn't them, it's something else. kris wouldn't do this, and she knows this. that's why when it's all over and berdly has been ice'd, all we know is that they "look kinda..." out of it, distraught, barely there, maybe. i heart dissociation and all that

basically, the split between kris and the player (in my own probably-not-end-all-be-all-correct interpretation of the story thus far) becomes more rigid only when our interests conflict, and the more we work together, the less reason kris has to dissociate, for lack of a better term, and the 'kris' that susie comes to know and noelle comes to reconnect with isn't exactly the wrong 'kris' at all. sure, they're being controlled but that doesn't mean they aren't still THERE.

and if the story continues down along the path of us micro-managing everyone's goals into fruition (noelle getting close to susie comes to mind), kris will still work against us in some ways no matter what we do, but finding some kind of 'happier path/ending' is probably far closer to what they want rather than Manipulating Their Childhood Friend into Killing Their Classmate. just a hunch

anyway the TLDR is i don't really know if the initial question will end up being a problem in the same way that everyone thinks it will, on a normal route. sure, they'll all be shocked and maybe horrified to find out kris is being controlled and whatnot, but that doesn't make the time they spent together any less real, because despite it all, kris was still there.

[amtrak12]

After a conversation with a friend about this weird trend of fic readers who only want epic length fics (and also what seems to be a massive misunderstanding between parties on terms and their definitions), I went searching for the fandom sources I cut my teeth on. I don't have much bookmarked from those days anymore, but googling got me to this fiction length/terminology breakdown from a Livejournal blog. (Which also has good fandom definitions for other terms like A/N and fanon too, so if you're super new to fandom, go check that out.)

The definitions come from the publishing world (hence the page counts), but fandom and fanfic has always borrowed heavily from official publishing terminology. Flash fiction (aka, anything less than 1k words) is called a 'ficlet' within fandom. We call everything else a fic until it reaches the novella mark -- which may start at 20k words but as synecdochic breaks down on their Dreamwidth blog, there's a lot of overlap between short stories and novella word counts. Because, when you're not constrained by physical page counts, the real dividing line between short stories and novellas are the number of plots and themes you're using. (Seriously, go read their meta on this topic. It's fantastic!) Either way, once you're hitting tens of thousands of words, you're in longfic territory. And then if your fic is even longer than that -- 100k+ like shown in the screenshot above -- it's called an epic fic.

And these terms, longfic and epic, are important because they're used to differentiate these stories from the average fic. Because, at least in the 2000s up until the 2020s, the most common fic lengths you ran into were between 1k-20k words. "Fic" made the reader assume only a few thousand words at most. It's only when you changed the term to drabble or ficlet or longfic that they would realize 'oh this is going to be shorter or longer than normal'.

I don't really understand why that baseline assumption has changed amongst the newer demographics (and maybe amongst some long-running fandom members too?). I've seen a lot of theories and 'tiktokification' complaints, but I honestly don't know what's true. And I don't want to start a fight or even try to change anyone's minds if they are dead set against reading short story length fics. You can do what you want!

Just maybe shift your attitude about it a little bit? Remember that it's a personal preference the same way tropes are, and that one story length isn't better than another. Just like tropes, each story length serves its purpose. Some stories are best told in 1-2k words. Some are best told as 100 word drabbles -- or even a single sentence! And then, yes, some stories do need to be 100k+ in order to be told properly.

But that's not every story. And it shouldn't be expected of fic writers to pad a 1500 word plot into some sprawling epic just because they left it on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is probably the point of that fic! Short stories are an entirely separate art form to novels and as such are able to cover different topics than novels can or cover the same topics differently. And that's what makes them special!!

And look at that word count breakdown by genre! That's mainstream publishing standards! Now, go back up there to the definition of a novel and notice that the average published novel is 80k words long.

Let me repeat that:

The average length of a published novel is 80,000 words long.

Could a novel go longer? Sure! And if you're dipping into adult sci-fi or fantasy, absolutely it will be longer! But does your fic need to be longer than the average novel in order to be good? In order for you to feel satisfied when you finish reading it? Why does the length of the fic matter more to you than the content?

idk just some rambling food for thought, but I guess too long, don't read:

~✨~ Every story length is valid ~✨~

It just depends on the plot you have and the structure you want to use to tell it.

[spidermanifested]

speaking of transfem interpretations for characters presented as men in the source material. one such case i have been stewing in my mind for a while is black sails charles vane

which i realize (hence the big post about it) would probably not be most peoples first assumption because vane is very stereotypically masculine on first blush. youve got the whole rugged individualist sigma male thing going on, the growly voice the immaculately shaped stubble, etc. but: as the show goes on we get more insight into WHY he presents himself that way and it becomes more and more clear that there are two (well, three but we'll get there) major reasons for this

1) his father figures' enduring influence (the conflicting desires to both appease and outdo them, to different levels for each, but both sides of which can only be achieved by performing masculinity The Best),

and 2) the practical need, as a pirate, to be respected and feared by the men following him,

both of which can be boiled down to "we live in a society". and on their own i would just take these parts of his character as an exploration of how gender roles are socially mandated and reinforced, but, unusually for this type of character, he seems very matter-of-fact and self-aware about the reasons hes Doing Masculinity. this is one of his parallels with flint, whos also consciously spinning his motivations through a narrative of cishet machismo to achieve respectability under patriarchy.

obviously to some degree vane IS shown to have internalized the bioessentialist 18th century england view of gender roles ("i can understand a womans desire for domesticity", etc) (and even still! you CAN understand it? interesting wording!). but he doesnt express things like this remotely as often as, say, jack, who repeatedly goes full throttle Boomer Wifejokes Mode when he feels undermined or slighted by a woman, even one he cares about. in contrast vane is quick to empathize with and relate to and even (especially!) project onto the women in his life. he strikes up a weird rapport with abigail; max, a total stranger to him, gets past his selfish crew-appeasing decision to keep her prisoner by appealing to their similarities. its not just that hes attracted to women (though he obviously very much is), he views them as people who are Similar To Him. maybe more similar than men?

the biggest example is his whole relationship with eleanor. hes CONSTANTLY pointing out how alike they are, how much they hate being oppressed by fathers, aka by men. arent you tired of being tied down by gendered expectations? dont you just want to go apeshit? hes constantly trying to pull her out of this box society has built around her but also hyperaware of and seemingly resigned to his OWN box. he identifies with and lives vicariously through her rebellion. shes his strongest and most genuine emotional connection, and not in a woodes rogers "grieving my beloved unlawfully-wedded wife. what do you mean she was a real person who didnt just sit in the corner and knit silently" way, but like, For Real. even if they were ultimately so incredibly bad for each other.

which brings us to the third secret reason he performs masculinity so hard. that connection, his bonds with women (like flint and the Witch Puppetmaster Rumors about miranda) is repeatedly shown to be considered by the men around him to be a weakness– one that might need forcibly correcting if he ever falters from peak masculinity even a little. hes only allowed to continue to explore that side of himself via the narrow avenues of male heterosexuality and social dominance– his actual relationship with eleanor is very equal, he has no desire to dominate her, or... anyone, really? hes super big on just letting his crew do what they want (to the extent where this winds up causing severe issues). but his ability to lead men requires that he put on the show. and even still, he never seems willing to sacrifice the part of his life with eleanor in it no matter how much pressure is exerted on him from men above or below him in the pecking order. SHE is always the one who winds up abandoning him for HER goals.

shes ultimately too caught up on the lie of finally achieving respectability. and, vane is too, just from a different facet of society. his character arc is about confronting that desire, reckoning with it, and discarding it, choosing to follow flint instead of blackbeard.

(meanwhile we have eleanor falling back on the patriarchys narrative in order to dehumanize him before his execution, even though she ALSO grew up without a mothers love. theyre the same, but through her privilege and adjacency to even more privileged men, shes been given all the tools she needs to deny it– at the cost of boxing herself further into her own role. a cost she chooses to pay every time, no matter how much she claims to hate it.)

theres just...... a whole lot of really good commentary about gender in this show. other characters have their own ways of exploring it but normally their sense of displacement within the gender binary is via the lens of queer sexuality, whereas vane is judged mainly for having a relationship to womanhood that goes BEYOND sexual attraction. and i think that while this part of the narrative stands strong on its own without it, a transfem reading would add some fun new layers and make a lot of sense. and i would love to know if anyone else has had the thought that hrt could have. well maybe not saved her. but definitely Helped

my final miscellaneous piece of analysis, is that aside from that one clothes-on nut-and-bolt between miranda and the pastor, which lasted ~5 seconds so it doesnt count. the only mutually passionate sex scenes shown happening on screen, either(?) involve two women, or a woman and charles vane. & like im just saying. for consistencys sake. we could just resolve that one outlier real quick

[thelocalconstellation]

okay so I'm onto nights now, and I'm at the point where he gets launched and dies, and I'm trying to find a better version of the audio because DAMN that's a lot of static. anyways, irrelevant to what I'm going on about this time.

Architect. The meaning of the word Architect and what it might mean as a title in terms of the conflict of the multiverse. Also I'm staring at the lore doc again. hence the spontaneously generated thoughts.

An architect, as defined by wikipedia, is "a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings". I don't know that in the terms of the world at hand, it's going to be so specific as to the topic of building specifically, but I might suspect in terms of worlds or realities given the function of the groups.

Assuming we know who is speaking when, given by the fact that The Alterans don't really speak directly to the viewer the way Decem has, and the tone of topic, I think. I'm willing to mark down "Decem wants to control or take ownership of the multiverse" as some measure of a factual statement. "The multiverse will be ours" appearing on multiple occasions during a statement that seems relevant to an action taken by Decem seems like confirmation.

We have largely supportive evidence to say that Legundo was The Architect as well. The Alterans note that Legundo cannot be allowed to return to Decem nor be allowed to die- something that makes me suspect that there is something about Legundo, Specifically, that cannot be located elsewhere.

I'm actually beginning to have what feels a little bit like a crackpot theory but could actually be something- inspired by the line of "I found him, ME. I was the one to scour the history of the multitudes for the anomaly, for evidence of our fallen self." Which. Hm. operating on the assumption that the topic of this line refers to Legundo, I'm beginning to suspect that each aspect of Decem is an important fragment that cannot actually be destroyed. If the current host dies, then the fragment jumps ship to find a new host? Because the note of "our fallen self" could refer to a member of Decem who died, and their memories, their skills, so on, found Legundo to latch onto next. Decem finds him, does something to trigger latent memories or bring him into the hivemind if Decem functions as so, then they're back at full power. this explains why The Alterans can't let him die- because if he dies they lose track of what seems to be one of the stronger aspects in Decem (if only assumed by title and implications) which means they have to start their hunt all over again. Decem ideally wants him back but failing that, execution should have their missing aspect resurface eventually. I'm thinking of the way the avatar cycle works in right now, but I digress.

I don't actually know who wrote the book titled 'History' but given the slandering of the Alterans, I can assume it's a member of Decem, and given by the title I'd assume The Historian? which contributes to the vague decem reincarnation theory. also, checking out the doc on the first 1000 days has a little bit about the Deliberation video, which kind of supports the theory too? "With more preparation, with more fighters, He would fall. And then recovery would be much simpler" adds to it a little bit.

The way Decem talks a little bit also?? adds to the slight implication?? because the way they interact doesn't classify as a full force hivemind. Sometimes they do, but it's Weird and seems to be more of something that they opt in or out of at any given moment? Because a hivemind wouldn't bicker amongst themselves. That's just arguing with yourself. the amount of bickering or gentle heckling we see between members doesn't track with that. But if we were to operate on a line of thought of Decem is formed of various aspects all of which are connected to a subconscious degree then it starts to make a little more sense? If we assume that Decem is a singular entity that has been split into fragments, where to erase one would demand that you erase them all simultaneously, because you cannot remove a fragment of a soul, then if each fragment lies in a different aspect of Decem, then it explains the way that Sometimes Decem acts as a hivemind, basing on a singular desire or motivation, but in terms of action to fulfill that desire then it's more individualised, it explains why Legundo is not easily replaced, it explains why Decem can't really decide if they want to kill the guy or drag him back 'home' and now I'm starting to wonder if this is as much of a crackpot theory as I initially suspected.

I'm also wondering what exactly The Alterans want in all of this. is it just to stop Decem? Because Decem used to be part of The Alterans. I'm getting the feeling there's a lot more happening and I'm like. skimming details off the surface.

christ alive.

[suzumotos]

the crazy thing about being a morishige fan and artist who draws content primarily of him (and mayu), and who prefers to draw a lot of fluff / pleasant art of him and being someone who likes to highlight positive things about him, is that people who literally do not know you are soooo comfortable making the weirdest assumptions about you / your relationship with his character. and at worst you'll get vagued for it, for whatever reason.

god forbid you see good in him. god forbid you see humanity in him. god forbid you see potential for better. and god forbid you like to pay more attention (than maybe most) to the person he was outside of heavenly host. as an aside, i know kedouin is somewhat of a questionable character so maybe his opinion on this can be taken with a grain of salt, but he is the creator of the series and even he himself has basically expressed that morishige, outside of HH, was mostly just A Guy (source BR 3DS booklet). yeah, he's a little weird and fucked up deep down, but he wasn't some overtly edgy crazed up creep who jacked it to irl g0re before ever entering HH and fantasized about hurting people. and kedouin has also said morishige is "by no means a bad person" (source a BoS era interview), whatever that may mean.

anyway. yes. i know c0rpse party is a horror game. yes, i know morishige's character deals with a lot of dark topics and he has a lot of darkness in him that the curse of HH brought to the surface. but the fact that i like to draw nice things for him and talk about his positive traits seems to make certain people arrive at the conclusion that i wish to sanitize his character or that i hate the problematic side of him.

this has never been the case and anyone who's had more than the shallowest, passing interaction with me over the years would know this. i love morishige when he's fucked up, when he's problematic, when he's unsavory and weird and creepy. he's my favorite character since the very beginning of 2014, and been a comfort character of mine for about an equally long time. i've spent so much time and so much brain power trying to analyze every single thing behind his actions, thoughts, feelings, and words. and it was in fact the fucked up stuff that he did that made me interested in him in the first place. i wanted to figure him out.

besides that, i love horror, i've been an avid guro/gore fan since i was an "edgy" little teenager, that stuff has never made me uncomfortable just for being scary or gross. it has never been about "not being able to handle" dark content for him. i literally thought i was edgy at 13 years old for desensitizing myself to irl g0re.. (for the record i do not condone this now).

i do however have preferences for this dark content and i find that edgy art for the sake of being edgy isn't for me, or anything that i personally feel is OOC for him. i'm picky with content for him, and i like to curate the content i consume for him, this does not mean i can't "handle" it. i myself want to draw and write more dark content for him, something with a lot of thought behind it. and something that maybe sends some kind of message about his character that i care about. the times that i have drawn or written something like that have actually been really cathartic.

but at the end of the day morishige at his worst does not make me happy. it does not serve to comfort me, it's tragedy and it's horror. it makes me sad and uncomfortable. again, not uncomfortable because of the intrinsic "edginess" of it or problematicness of him, but uncomfortable in a way that your favorite character / comfort character being put through the horrors of his own mind would make you feel uncomfortable.

hence, i find myself most often focusing on positive and fluffy things. these things make me happy and comfort me. i am just trying to cope with being alive. and at the end of the day, when most of morishige's fan content is dark and edgy, it has always driven me to be the one person who maybe highlights the more positive qualities of him and maybe gives him some happier and nicer content. i just want my blorbo to be happy and healthy.

maybe it's controversial to say but i personally think he deserves good things. i can never bring myself to speak degradingly about him. it often feels like that is the most common tone i see people use of him anyway.

i suppose i just feel differently about him.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

I feel like there’s really often a misunderstanding of what people even mean when they say transandrophobia. Like. No one I follow that discuss it is someone I’ve seen say men are generally oppressed for being men. That’s not an argument being made so you don’t have to argue against it. (Not you specifically obviously Lilith. General you.) As far as I know it’s just talking about specific ways trans men are treated for being trans men, which… isn’t saying the oppression is for being a man on its own. It’s literally just about how transphobia can be wielded differently against different people. Like, intersex people often have crossover in treatment with transphobia, but we still talk about intersexism in corrective surgeries and assumptions etc, because the crossover in experience doesn’t negate that. Mistreatment of trans men absolutely falls under transphobia but trans men can talk about specific things they’re experiencing in erasure, etc. that user saying trans men are ‘degendering themselves or reducing themselves to pussies’ (gross!) is weird and inaccurate but it also feels like many people aren’t even understanding the basic concept. Anti-blackness affects all Black people and there’s both overlap and specific ways being Black intersects with misogyny (hence misogynoir), but it still would be silly to pretend that there’s not types of racism Black men are more likely to be at risk for because people are reading them as both Black and men. That doesn’t mean men as a whole are systematically oppressed for being men. It just means sometimes things intersect in a way that changes how bigots treat us. Sure, there’s similarly some kinds of bigotry gay men or lesbians are more likely to experience and that’s all under the umbrella of homophobia, but tbh I feel like transmascs wouldn’t need such a separate word and tag if there hadn’t been a trend of insisting (wrongly) that trans men have it really easy and all transphobia against them is really just an incidental side effect of the true transphobia which is only meant for trans women because no one actually hates trans men.

Very true Anon

[unstableverse-headcanons]

I finished watching Parrot's UU vid a few days ago and. I feel like there was both too much and not enough information at the same time.

To start off, director! ParrotX2 headcanon my beloved <333. I want ls s4 Parrot and Evilfies to be the director together so bad even though the director constantly refers to themselves as a single person but I'd settle for ls s4 Parrot or cc! Parrot being the director. Like. There were so many things in that episode. I can NOT get over the fact that Cube is canonically the first LifeSteal SMP member to die (afaik) and his death was used as a way to show to Parrot that the director views players as expendable. I have. So many thoughts aaaaaaa. His death felt. So anticlimactic??? And ik that's not the right word but sorry English isn't my first language lol anyways his death felt so??? How do I put this. It felt so SUDDEN. One second he was there and the next he was. Not. I think it's a weird mix of glitch stuff and admin stuff which could also explain why Parrot and Spoke seem to be like, the closest to the director? Idk I haven't watched much of Wemmbu's videos but Parrot is getting CONSTANTLY hunted down by the director like bro does NOT like Parrot Ex Two and then with Spoke it's like. Spoke has that connection to Rose and her brother and dad iirc? Like there's a link between Spoke and them and the wither I just can't put it into words hhhh. But anyways yeah cc! Parrot being the director makes so much sense cause like, both him and uu! Parrot seem to know... a lot of things??? Like the part with the dandelion at the end of the video. You can view the director as omnipotent or omniobservant (something I read in a hc about the director actually being an ai meant to protect the server from hacking and exploits. Rlly cool hc if you ask me might yap about it sometime just to spread propaganda lol) but really it can all just as easily be chalked up to cc! Parrot WRITING the dandelion part in the script. Since he knows what happens. Because he's the one who prompted Jumper to give Cube the flower. You feel me???

Another thing about a version of Parrot being the director is uu! Parrot's spidey sense/the constant gut feeling he has. This could work with whoever the director is ngl but I want it to be cc Parrot so. Yeah. Anyways the reason Parrot keeps getting a gut feeling and also his plot armor (the fights he's survived.......) is because he's linked to cc Parrot and Parrot prewrites everything hence Parrot always knows what to do. Atp the director isn't even trying to kill him, he'd just wanted Wifies dead (for some reason). Like, with ItsRealMe, it probably wasn't as prominent, but you're telling me THE best Minecraft pvper couldn't kill this guy and it wasn't because the director never actually wanted him to die? Then it becomes much more prominent with Cube as the director becomes more and more involved in Parrot's storyline - aka the gut feeling with the tipped arrows and standing still in the room and not taking any of the passageways. They both seem like plot armor, the first one perhaps much more than the second one cause these guys really stared at him pretend to break 2 pieces of wood, some cobwebs, and go "checks out idk" like?? The second one felt ngl kinda obvious to me because like. Why was Cube standing in the middle of the room if it was all going to explode unless Parrot assumed he had a stasis chamber that teleported him out as soon as he took damage which would. Lowk be a wild assumption. AND then the thing with 4c where it was revealed the room wasn't actually rigged with tnt?? It felt very silly but also for like a solid minute it was one of those semi-crazy feats.

ANOTHER THOUGHT I JUST GOT the reason that Cube set up all that bs was entirely for the plot. Like that was it. Maybe even to get Derapchu and Parrot a bit closer (“then see yourself differently first” scene my beloved it shot me like 37 times) but I'm not entirely sold on that one. Like while Wemmbu and Spoke are off doing their own thing Parrot seems to be wrapped in the director's plot web.

Ik it's a stretch but it'd also explain Spoke being upset with Parrot for "taking something from him" and Parrot being mildly aware of it before they both discard the early season interactions like it's nothing? Like. The only thing we're AWARE Spoke lost in the early S1 was like, probably Jamato, and maybe he was salty with Parrot about it because cc Parrot wrote him out for whatever reason?? Idk I haven't heard anything about Jamato this feels like torture.

Back to Cube's death. The fact that the director told Parrot that he didn't kill off Cube because he "failed to kill Parrot" but because he "outlived his usefulness", implying that both ItsRealMe and Cube had been used as plot devices for Parrot's story. Idk if ItsRealMe suffered the same fate off-screen or if he was simply used as a side character (yknow how often times writers will create a character to push the protagonists journey forward?). Cube's death had a lot of impact and I hope they go more into it in the next episode because like. I still can't get over the fact that he's the first LifeSteal SMP member that's died, the second person connected to Parrot to be killed off by the director, and also the second person to be sent to push his story forward? Like maybe I'm yapping about it too much but LifeSteal SMP in UU holds a special place in my heart like holy fuck I really thought they were safe but apparently NO. Also the director telling Parrot they'd meet because the director doesn't write stories where he loses but also Parrot has not once lost (not technically, atleast. Maybe it's a stretch but every time he came close to losing there was some twist, turn, 360, SOMETHING that stopped him from falling, presumably something written by the director to keep his own character afloat). The letter can easily be interpreted as the director telling Parrot they'll meet and Parrot will lose because the director doesn't lose but also. It could be interpreted as both Parrot and the director having SOME sort of connection linking them together enough for Parrot losing to be the same as the director losing. “We'll see each other soon because I don't write stories where I lose” implying Parrot is going to go through every obstacle the director throws at him and come out victorious at the end. Does that make sense?? Idk.

One last thing about the director because I've been yapping for the past 15 minutes in my notes app and I need to go to bed: The concept of the director is. So genius. Idk if I've mentioned this before (probably have ngl) but it covers SO many things writers do and explains it in a way that conviniences the plot. Like it is literally a story about a story written by some unknown guy. Idk how to explain it but like it makes. So much sense???

CUBE'S DEATH ALSO IMPLIES THAT THE REASON WIFIES GOT KILLED WAS BECAUSE HE'D SERVED HIS PURPOSE IN THE STORY. He was meant to keep Parrot safe, to keep him grounded, and to push his story forward, but now that the Invis mafia got beaten, there was no reason for Wifies to continue living, because as a character, he was far too allowing of Parrot's behavior. Now, after the Invis mafia arc, it's time for Parrot to learn and to grow ig?

(this came out to be 1300+ words in my notes app oopsies 😞)

- 🌺 Anon

THANK YOU ANON im a big "CC!Parrot is the director" truther myself, but since I finished the episode I had so many thoughts and had so much trouble connecting the dots BUT YOU DID IT it makes so much sense THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! 🙏

[heinzpilsner]

I'm a zutarian megabrain now

Hey guys, do you remember how I said I found the answers to most of my questions in tSR?

Well, just now I finally put my finger on another fascinating problem with zutara in this episode! Yay!

Yes, I've been told I'm a terrifying person, thank you

Spoiler: Aang and Zuko are not so different after all. Surprise?

(It's not such bad news for zutara as a ship though! Just a thing to consider.)

The thing is, there are two separate planes in Zuko and Katara's relationship this episode highlights:

1) The similarity of their values, personalities, mutual gravitation (doesn't matter here romantic or platonic), mr. and mrs. smith synchronicity, etc.;

2) Zuko's bad (yes, bad) feeling of boundaries in his communication with Katara.

(I'm gonna prove it soon enough, don't worry).

And what I state here is that zutara works so well on the basis of point 1 it manages to work even in spite of the highly problematic point 2.

And that's where the potential problems in their relationship lie. Good news though is that Zuko, as well as Aang, can always grow as a person!

Not in a bryke canon though

(Aang can't really do much about his fundamental values and previous experiences though, so here lies Zuko's advantage. Hurray?)

Anyway, to finally prove my words, let's first look at Zuko's wording when he offers their revenge trip to Katara:

"I know who killed your mother and I'm going to help you find him".

What's wrong with this sentence from a purely communicative point of view?

It wasn't just "I know who killed your mother (end of the sentence, waiting for Katara's answer)". And while it may seem as a very minor, harmless thing, in reallity the difference is crucial.

Because it implies two things:

1) Zuko just assumes that finding Yon Rha (for whatever reason) is something what Katara wants. Without asking her first. Although all he knows about the situation right now is that a) Katara's mother was murdered by a Fire Nation soldier and b) Katara is still sad and angry because of it.

2) This trip is something what Zuko himself is definitely interested in though: either because he's desperate to make peace with Katara or because he cares about her (or because of his traumatic projections) - it doesn't really matter. What's important here is that so far he has no way of knowing if Katara wants the same, which applies to both assumptions:

- she wants to face her mother's murderer;

- she wants to make piece with Zuko.

Hence, he doesn't really see the difference between his own desires and Katara's desires, doesn't feel where his boundaries end and Katara's start. In a way, he sees her as a part of himself.

And while it may sound romantic to some weird people, in reality it could be a big problem.

Also, ironically enough, it's the exact same thing people keep roasting poor Aang for!

Meanwhile, on a fundamental level, Zuko's desperate attempt of reconciliation after Katara basically said she isn't really interested ("Well dude, we can make up if you resurrect my mum from the dead!" is not exactly an encouraging message at least in atla universe) is an analogue of Aang's intrusive kiss in the Ember Island Players.

Except... Zuko guessed Katara's true wishes correctly.

Aang didn't.

And it's not the only instance in tSR - Zuko keeps speaking on Katara's behalf in her presence first to Aang ("she needs this, it's about closure"), and then to an assumed murderer of Katara's mother during the episode. And it wouldn't be an okay thing to do even if he were her husband, let alone whatever is the status of their relationship now!

The only reason Katara is okay with this is because her boundaries are ridiculously open for him at this point - she let him in so closely that she also sees him as a part of herself now.

It's not a thing to celebrate though, fellow zutarians: the moment their illusory unity would be broken by the first serious difference would feel like another betrayal for her (Or at least that's what my life experience tells me).

So, basically, Zuko just got lucky in his interactions with Katara in tSR.

He was lucky he understands Katara's pain and values so well.

He was lucky they have a similar moral code.

He was lucky Katara didn't really hate him at this point. He was lucky they work together so well.

He was lucky Katara wasn't competent enough psychologically to realise the problem with his behaviour.

(And he was extremely lucky her mother's murderer had something useful to say. This encounter could have ended much worse for Katara if Yon Rha's story or behavior were different.)

The conclusion: Zuko may be a good partner for Katara personally in the specific interactions, but he wouldn't be an equally good partner in general at this point (at least if we judge him by his communication in tSR only).

I have no way of proving this statement though, because a) I need to rewatch different episodes for this yet and b) the only person Zuko romantically interacts with in canon is Mai, and... Well, let's just say it's a kind of disaster I don't wanna touch with a stick right now, lol.

So... Take it all with a grain of salt, as usual.

Not gonna pretend though - I'm still ridiculously proud of my big stupid zutarian brain, lol.

Like, it's a really interesting discovery if I may say so myself.

Annnnd I'm still ignoring my notifications in case you forgot.

[euphoricfilter]

any tips on how to write for beginners? also where do you get the inspiration?

i guess just go for it. when i started writing on here i had minimal writing experience, especially story writing, and then over the course of the last year and a bit, naturally i’ve improved (i hope)

i think it’s easy to read other people’s work and want to copy their style, or want what they have. which is just part of human nature, so i say when you start out— write to find your style, even if it is a subconscious effort to do so. by either using other people as a guideline or fully winging it until you’ve formed a way that’s uniquely yours which is a lot easier than it sounds i promise. you kinda just naturally progress the more you write

don’t expect to have a whole novel length piece of work written. it’s hard, writing takes time and a lot of brain power. write small tidbits, little poems, things you like, things you see. find a prompt and write a couple hundred words about that. i think my favorite part of writing is the little excepts that have no context whatsoever in my notes, but just sound pretty and paint the image enough for you to imagine the story further or create a whole new world

uhhh what else…

write for yourself!!!!!. i struggle with this a lot and have to constantly remind myself that what i write should be as much for me as it is for other people. i tend to put pressure on myself and then that makes what should be a fun process entirely unenjoyable and then it starts to feel more like a job than a hobby

depending on what you write, research is always fun and a good place to start. which can sometimes lead to further development of plot ideas.

don’t be scared of stereotypes. i think there’s a negative connotation between writing and stereotypes but sometimes they’re the best stories!! sometimes it’s nice to know what to expect, or read something that can evoke something like nostalgia because the story follows the lines of something you’ve seen before (no plagiarism though!!! that’s stinky)

i get inspiration from a lot of things!! a lot of my fics are based on scenarios i come up with while trying to sleep. i think i’ve talked about this before, but usually before i sleep, i’ll come up with film ideas or drama ideas and essentially script out movies in my head which i turn into fic ideas as i’m not exactly able to produce an entire millions of dollars budget film. which is why i feel like my writing, at least to myself feels more visual, because it’s a visual piece in my head

fics like ‘standing next to you’ was inspired by the part in the MV where he’s on stage performing in-front of the actress on the car.

some of my writing is inspired by words i like, simple as that

or certain themes. a common theme in my writing is stars and destiny, something i really really love writing about hence why i probably bring it up so often

“stardust” was inspired by an article i’d read. movies i like. that one tae idea surrounding howls moving castle. “helping hands” was inspired by a tiktok i saw. stuff like “the feminine pact” was derived from my own ideals surrounding femininity, and my own sort of weird relationship with the term “feminine”

of course i get inspo from requests as well

really if you think about it there’s a story in every little detail of your life. and finding inspiration becomes hard when you’re actively seeking for it so let it just naturally come. i have a over active brain so i’m constantly thinking which on the occasion is incredibly useful when it comes to pulling ideas from every little detail of my life and the things that surround me

i think the assumption is that inspiration has to be something big, or meaningful to a large group of people when really it can be smaller things that other people deem insignificant, that you love

i hope that sort of helps?? this is purely from my own experience over the last year and a bit ☝️😔

[ehc-on-ao3]

Random Wednesday Headcanon That I May or May Not Use #1

Wednesday doesn't make a habit of exposing any more of her skin than is strictly necessary. In other words, she wears long-sleeved shirts/blouses, and ankle-length skirts and dresses with tights, or slacks and socks, year-round. Skirts are don’t come any higher, she never wears shorts, and simply doesn't own any short-sleeved shirts whatsoever. During the autumn/winter semester, this wasn't noticeable as the Vermont climate around that time of year tends to be cooler and it makes sense to wear such attire. But come the spring/summer semester, when Nevermore's dress code relaxed and allowed short-sleeve shirts and blouses and granted permission to not don the uniform's jacket, Wednesday was the odd man out, continuing to wear the previous semester's uniform. While not a violation of the dress code, it certainly was noticeable.

Some chalked it up to Wednesday just being Wednesday, i.e. weird as hell. Others wondered if her particular type of Outcast needs to be warm at all times, or at least covered. A few figured Wednesday was hiding self-inflicted scars, though those rumors were quashed rather quickly by those who remembered Wednesday's attire at the last Rave'N dance which clearly exposed her arms for the world to see. Eventually, everyone went with the rather mundane assumption that seemed to have the most merit: as pale as Wednesday is, exposure to the sun would cause her to burn easily; hence, the reason she covers herself at all time.

Only Enid, Wednesday's roommate and best friend, actually asked for the real reason for her choice of fashion (while also sharing the increasingly outlandish proposals that were tossed around, much to Wednesday's amusement), and discovered that the answer, while mundane, wasn't the one everyone figured was correct. Wednesday doesn't burn in the sun. Instead, she tans stupidly easily.

Loathe as she was to admit it, Wednesday liked the pale appearance of her mother and always sought to emulate it. Coupled with her normal make-up routine, it gave her a rather sharp appearance that bordered on deathly, which she found quite satisfactory. Exposure to the sun darkens her complexion and detracts from the haunted look she tries to cultivate, to her mild frustration. It's something she never voices aloud, however, as she is also very proud of her heritage, loves her father deeply (in her own way), and would rather watch a My Little Pony marathon, twice, than say anything that might imply she was ashamed of her skin.

Enid is, at to be expected, sworn to secrecy, though the lycan does sometimes wonder what a well-tanned Wednesday would look like while clad in a black bikini on a private beach.

In two years time, she happily finds out.

[forlornmelody]

Queer Movie Review #31: You Me & Him

I fully confess: I found this film because the second season of Good Omens left a gaping hole in my heart. I've been slowly, methodically consuming various appearances of both David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Somehow, that meandering led me here. I held off for a bit--pregnancy stories usually squick me out. (Hence why I never finished the L Word. I KNOW.) But over time, I couldn't stay away any longer. You Me and Him just looked too FUN. And it was. So. Much. Fun.

You Me & Him tells the story of a lesbian couple, Olivia and Alex, (Lucy Punch and Faye Marsay), and their neighbor, John (David Tennant.) Olivia desperately wants to have a baby, and age 40, is quickly running out of time. Alex, still trying to figure out what to do with her life, wants more time to consider. Olivia gets IVF and tells Alex at John's divorce party. Alex gets black-out drunk and hooks up with John. And both of them get pregnant. Surpising both of them, John wants to be involved.

As nice as it is to have wholesome and "good" queer representation, I've been craving messy queer romances lately. And this movie delivers. A lot of characters make their assumptions about Olivia and Alex based on what happened with John, and all of them are wrong. John, of course, is desperately in love with Alex. And Alex only loves Olivia, despite their differences. Yet she wants John to be involved in raising their child, and he provides a sort of emotional support that Olivia often fails to give. But everyone else in their life assumes they're some sort of throuple, though they keep telling them otherwise.

Each character felt like a real person. I've met plenty of women like Olivia who would do anything to be a mother. And I relate to Alex in a lot of ways--constantly trying to figure out what to do with my life. If John were a real person, I'd punch him in the face. But as a fictional character, he is hilarious. And I will say he has a good arc. They all do, really.

Without spoiling too much, I should include a couple content warnings. Both Olivia's parents, and Alex's mom are homophobic. There is also a scene involving a loss of pregnancy. Proceed with caution if either of those things will ruin your day.

Would I recommend this absolutely weird film? Of course! Even as someone who is usually squicked out by pregnancy stories, I found this movie hilarious.

Queer Movie Review Masterpost

Recommend A Queer Movie

[mossydice]

Misery loves company

I've been entirely swallowed by Veilguard and my Warden Rook, Cirrus; enough I'm writing fanfic again \o/ wahoo etc!! This is a silly lil thing that is for Me first and foremost :3 a little snippet of early days friendship between Cirrus, Antoine and Evka. Cirrus is not actually possessed (it's weirder) but like close enough so most people just make the assumption. It's mostly mentioned in passing but it IS mentioned hence the preface.

Anyways, I like them!! Might be posting more about them at some point depending on how insane I get o7

“Ah yes and with the ears too, heartbreaking, just wonderful-”

Something inadvisable was happening in this back corner of the library, Warden Evka just knew it. Could feel it in her bones. Her husband, bless his mile-a-minute heart, didn’t sound that gleeful over anything short of a mess in the making. It was part of why she loved him, but it was probably still a good idea to check in and see if anything was about to explode.

Rounding the bookshelf revealed the person he had been speaking to, another elf; Cirrus, right? Tall, dark hair, those weird blackened eyes with the vibrant purple rings to serve as irises. Hard to remember that one’s name sometimes, with how few people actually used it. Stormcaller was the more common one you’d hear from command. The Abomination was mostly what you’d hear from others in the rank and file. 

Not really their fault per se, but it was one of the more immediate traits you picked up on if you knew what to look for. Tall sure, long ears for an elf too. But the eyes and the smell of ozone were attention grabbers. 

But, all that said, Evka’d made a resolution not long back to call them by their damn name. Warden Cirrus, despite their condition and everything it meant to be possessed, was doing their utmost to stay in control and be an asset to the Grey Wardens. Least a fellow warden could do was remember what they were actually called. 

Now, the greater surprise was walking in on these two particular elves sat in a dim corner giggling to themselves like children. Early days, Antoine’d struggled to be in the same room with Cirrus. Couldn’t really blame him for that one, given his history. Demons, and people housing them, were things her husband’d seen too much of for one lifetime already. Sure, Warden Warren would insist she had the abomination situation contained, and being a former templar gave her words some weight. But it was still a rough situation, wondering what’d get to their head first; blight, or the thing that wanted to puppet their flesh. 

Then again, Evka supposed the scene a couple weeks back might’ve thawed some of that discomfort just a little. Watching the stringy elf drop a crate of supplies while trying to lend a hand, and near start crying right there and then- that’d shattered some of that dangerous mystique. Just a pinch. 

So that was how they got talking. Hadn’t thought they were at the hanging-out-alone stage of comfortable just yet though, Especially with Warren nowhere to be seen. 

Ah hell. She’d probably get more insight by asking then standing around just looking. Even if it was pretty nice, watching him grin like that. Always put a light in his eyes, getting up to some mischief. 

“So, what’s going on here?” 

It was hard to imagine how eerie she’d found Cirrus on first meeting, watching them jump near out of their skin. Long ears pricked up in startle before drooping like the rare cat that cared it was being scolded, a guilty wince that morphed into a ginger smile. Antoine had no such remorse, his face instead lighting up like the sun itself upon seeing who’d joined them, waving her further into their little corner. Sweet man. 

“Mon coeur! Come, sit with us. I’m showing Cirrus here how to weaponise that misery of theirs.” 

Ah. Well, that explained it. A theatrical, long suffering sigh rose to her lips even as she took her husband up on his invitation, finding a cushion that wasn’t covered in dust or books and plopping herself down. 

“And what do you mean by that.”  A glance to the side, and she saw Cirrus was still pink at the ears. But, hey, they hadn’t run away yet. Progress. Eyes back on her grinning husband, smiling ear to pointy ear- his didn’t do that floppy thing Cirrus’ did. Actually, Evka didn’t think she’d seen any elves whose ears moved quite like that. Wonder why that was.

“Well, sometimes when met with a stubborn fool who will not listen to reason, plucking on the heartstrings works a little better. You know that I am quite good at this, yes?” That got a quiet snort out of her, much to his apparent delight. 

“Right, yeah. The big, sad eyes. I’ve seen them.” 

“Yes! And-” he spoke with an obvious delight, hands waving about in flickers in front of him as he talked. Never stopped moving. One of his many charm points. “After seeing just how absolutely despairing our friend here can look with sufficient motivation I thought, aha! Here is someone with the big, sad eyes to match my technique!” He was making fun, obviously. Cirrus didn’t seem to mind much though, beyond a tentative pout and droop of the ears, turning the aforementioned big sad eyes on their self-proclaimed teacher. 

“Must we keep talking about that? It was an accident. I was worried about making more work for people.” 

Well they certainly had the little quiver down, even if it was still a bit put on yet. Probably on purpose, considering the tone. Antoine faltered for just a second, before his grin widened again. One of his hands snapped out to gently poke them in the cheek, breaking the pout into an indignant noise and scrunched up face. 

“Ha, and there are the ears I had remarked on. Evka, my love, is that as effective on the non elven of us here? Be honest.” 

His grin turned again to her, infectious in its levity; glad to see his fear of the demon within them had faded, even if it wasn’t gone entirely. Easier to stomach the idea when it was that easy to rib them, she guessed. Good. Better than the dog showing its belly routine Cirrus usually defaulted to, when trying to show they weren’t a threat. That one got under her skin a little. Not their fault it worked, but it make her itch. But- right, the ears. 

“Yeah, I’d say so. Real kicked puppy aura to the whole drooping thing.” Glancing between the two, she noted again how while Cirrus’ ears had swivelled about freely during the chatter, Antoine’s were as still as ever. And cute, but that part of the thought was just for her. Maybe him too, later. “Yours don’t do that. Wonder why?” 

Another bubble of laughter from her husband. 

“Because I’m an adult, mon cherie-” There’d been more to that sentence, but he cut himself off with a stumble seeing how Cirrus’ ears drooped far enough they near pointed to the ground. “Ah, no no not like that. You are perfectly reasonable and mature, Cirrus, we know this. It is just…” 

More hand waving, flustered and flickering thoughts writ plain across his face until the taller elf nudged his shoulder gently with their own, shaking their head. 

“No, I know. It’s childish. I just… never grew out of it. Most elves do, before their teens.” Even inside, even in the library, Cirrus’ hands were gloved and gauntleted as Evka could see when those hands rose to toy with their hair; some kind of self soothing thing, she reckoned. They tended to do that whenever they felt ill at ease, which was often. Couldn’t really blame them for that. Abominations didn’t exactly have the most stable lives at the best of times. Or well. Much of lives to begin with. 

“Ah. So like dwarf kids putting rocks in their mouths, then?” 

Her frank tone managed to drag a bark of laughter out of the stiff elf, and her husband seemed to breathe out with it. 

“Not quite, I don’t think. But… close enough. I’ve been told it can be endearing, at least. Helps offset some of the… you know.” Picking at their gloves again. Honestly, she could have sworn Cirrus’d find a way to work themself into knots locked in an empty room- Warren didn’t help either. Kept them and their demon under control maybe, but look at the poor thing. Abomination filled with pride, and they were the most anxiety-riddled creature she’d seen in a long time. 

Part of why they needed taking under someone’s wing, she supposed- someone who wasn’t Warren. Seemed like Antoine’d volunteered himself, from the look he was giving her from the corner of his eye. A familiar pleading, that something could be done about this, and he wanted the two of them to be who did it. 

A rough sigh passed her lips as her eyes rolled, before she leant over to poke them in the other cheek. Again, they jumped near out of their skin. 

“Alright, brain in the present if you please.” Almost despite herself, a grin crawled over her face seeing their ears go pink and lips twitch into a ginger smile. “We were talking about the puppy eyes, yeah? What, do you think they’re gonna down a ghoul with a mournful stare?” 

Laughter, generously from her husband, more reservedly from Cirrus but it was there and that’s what mattered. Too serious, that one. Too young yet to be afraid of everything. 

Evka let her husband start the chattering back up, looking between the two. Maybe between the two of them, they could fix that. They’d earned their reputation for chasing after the strange, after all. Who better to try and get into the head of the Warden’s pet abomination? 

… step one. Figure out a better way to refer to them.

[talenlee]

Decemberween, Twenty Twenty Threen

Hey are you new here? Statistically speaking, no, but I’m still going to act like you are.

Long and short! Decemberween is here! All normal article content is suspended! Story Piles are going to be about Christmas movies and Game Piles are going to try and focus on things good for social experiences around family gatherings!

You can press more to read more about the kinds of things you’re going to see this month, or you can just go ‘oh okay, I’m not going to get a weird long-form story about a magician who lied about attacking the Nazis.’

Every December, in honour of what I will generally refer to as ‘everyone is tired,’ but which, as a person with a job in education and in a very white culture really just means ‘The Christmas Season’ I take a step back from the regular writing. It’s not really a religious thing but it’s a time of year where everyone doing their jobs is very clearly expecting a long holiday coming up and therefore, nobody wants to start on any new or hard projects. Those are problems for January. On the other hand, if you’re in Retail, you work your ass off during this month, and you probably don’t have a lot of time for anything.

It’s a period where people turn to The Cultural Zeitgeist and you tend to get year end of lists, wrapups, things with a more chill vibe and I like that idea. Instead of articles about making characters in D&D, and closely examining game mechanics, or worldbuilding in a world you’ll never visit, or maybe places as they relate to materials and capitalism, or you know, the occasional article where I talk about how I’m probably more like John Wayne Gacy than I want to consider, I instead talk about just media. Specifically, free media, that you can consume, for free, hence ‘free media.’ It’s mostly online media, but there are some books and fanfictions mixed in there

I operate on the assumption that in December, you might have more free time, or interest in starting something long-form. That means podcasts with a lot of episodes, for example, or Youtube channels with big backlogs. I know the cruel pain of how I once recommended people check out Hannah Gadsby’s Youtube Channel only to find at the time, they’d made four videos total.

There’s a real concern with actually sharing this kind of thing here, you know. As a person who Makes Things On The Internet there’s a very real feeling hazard of letting you know the kinds of things I look at and share on the internet, because in so doing, I’m potentially exposing source material, and sending my audience away from me (the person offering a version of something) to someone else (the people who made the version that inspired my version). This is an anxiety that is also quite silly, but it’s not without some basis in reality.

Like, sometimes I’ll learn something from a random youtube suggestion, and talk about it on a place like Cohost, and someone will say ‘ah, you’ve looked at [thing].’ It irritates me because so often it feels like rather than someone trying to understand what I was talking about, they’re going a step beyond and trying to work out why I was talking about it.

That’s a really dumb concern on my part, but it still persists and it still irritates me, because man, I put a lot of work into putting words on the internet. Thousands of words a day! And feeling like that is being ignored and treated instead, not as the things I say, but rather as things to decode to determine what my media diet is can be awkward. It makes me feel ignored, and y’know what?

I don’t like that! I really dislike when someone’s response to what I say is ‘ah, but what if I ignore that?’ I get enough of that from students, and they’re paying me to put up with that!

I aim to put this out of my mind.

The disicpline I put my hand to in my PhD is autoethnography. Autoethnography is a way of examining culture through examining the individual’s experience of that culture, and it’s very deliberate in how focused it is on what you, as a person, do, with what you’re experiencing. You write about yourself and because that’s what your subject is writing about you treat that like it matters and like it’s worth respecting. Then, with that in mind you go back through and critically examine that writing.

This whole exchange therefore requires honesty, and part of that honesty is a need to be fearless. I need to admit ways I suck in order to do good autoethnography. And not just ‘I suck’ but rather being willing to specifically account as best I can and as actionably as I can the things about how I behave that are the problem.

Like how I just described ‘I don’t like it when I feel ignored’ in the above section, ya see?

With that honesty, then, and with a bountiful desire to share with you, I want to use Decemberween as an opportunity to talk to you about things that you can partake in. You don’t need to analyse them in depth, you don’t need to come to it with a particular mindset, it’s just stuff I like, and I talk a little bit about why I like them. It’s also going to take the form of some gratitude journaling: talking happily about people in this year, things that have been part of my life and reflections on what that means for me.

I think this is good practice! I like doing it! I recommend doing it. At least once a year.

Now shoo Coach Z out the door and let’s get to it!

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[dottedmage]

GOOD LIRD I FINALLY FINISHED THIS

Finnally a proper references for my agent headcanons hurray. “Nakey” version + other info under the cut (looking you with eyes, you will read everything)

Timeline for this is Sara and Cube post RotM, Mars and Eight with their splat2 outfits but beginning of splat3 appearences (i was too lazy to come up with clothes lol)

Sara

-23 years old

-Top left side of her head is permanently scared due to direct contact wih sanitized ink. Has permanent blury vision on her left eye, moderate hearing loss on her left ear and pain on her left shoulder.

-His hands and feet got hit by significant amounts of fuzzy ooze while cutting it all down. This is why he wasnt able to keep going 👍 (no bones for an ankle to be broken uknow)

-Says the most unserious of things in the most serious tone, seems like theyre joking but its always from their heart

-Sees themselves a lot in Cube and takes care of it and gives it advice contantly. Offered Cube to go live with them after their mission was over but Cube refused

-Knows a little bit of octarian, hes trying his best but has a unique way of mispronouncing words

Mars

-22

-Very clumsy during his 1st time as an agent so he has lots of scars because of that

-Scars on his right side are from a bomb explosion gone very wrong

-After splat2 she grew her hair out and styled it to match Maries a bit

-Lives in a shared apartment with Sara and sometimes Eight

-Was catching up with her high school missed agent years and is now studing some general science/space-based course 👍 he like space a lot

-Was very mad and very upset and very sad he was not the one choosen to be sent into space to save the earth

-Fluent in octarian, also knows a bit of salmonling

Eight

-22

-Her weird spots are a reaction from perlonged exposure to a sanitized environment, the bigget her spots are the better, the smaller the worse. She sometimes wakes up with random pains, especially in her right arm and back

-Lives with Pearl and Marina post OE, also spents a loooottt of time at 4 and 3s place

-Fluent in inklish but has a funny accent

-Loves travelling with Pearl and Marina, honestly she loves travelling with anyone but her cool lesbian moms go to 100 places in a month so its a plus she gets to go with them for free

-Very good cook, is bad with deserts but shes getting better

Cube

-16

-Became a little furry tiger-ish inkling due to prolonged exposure to fuzzy ooze. Unlike Sara it is less fuzzy, its just spread all around its body

-Cannot change into squid form and produces ink very slowly in a small amount, limiting its capacitie of participating in ink related sports.

-Scavanged the deserts around splatsville for trinkets to sell in 2nd hand markets and fairs. Meet with Deep Cut once or twice during that period, hence their pre-assumption that it was gonna steal the stuff for itself

-In their free time they used to participate in turf wars. They considered doing salmon runs but found it extremelly wrong and immorall

-Little buddy was a salmonid that wanted to see more of the world so they snuck into, a very distracted, workers hat. Lucky for them that worker was very friendly, and tired of grizzcos work, so they showed little buddy all around splatsville and its deserts and even a beach. They quickly beacame friends and are inseparable now

-It knows salmonling wowow

-Maths fan, number one stan of geometry and shapes

-Tableturf card collector

-Lives in a too-big of an apartment with the squid sisters

-Goes to school now hurray!!

-Visits Sara a lot, doesnt spent much time there as Eight but does show up unannounced

Suspense music, relatioship thang:

Sara

About Mars; My friend, my one and only. I can count on her for everything. I do have to keep an eye out for her extreme clumsiness

About Eight; I wish i got to spent more time with her. Shes very fun and makes me feel at home when shes around.

About Cube; Was this how Callie and Marie felt when i joined the splatoon? Fun kid, has to stop stepping on metal.

Mars

Sara; oh Sara my good friend Sara. We ding dong ditch together, our neighbours hate us but they dont know that. (also i dont think she realizes were dating....)

Eight; oooo my love kiss kiss muah muah

Cube; funny kid, does need to make up for not inviting me to space with them. Im joking, i love it and the little rocks it gives me.

Eight

Sara; Hes very unserious! You would think behind her intimidating looks is someone thats shy and reserved but she has the wildests things to say sometimes, shes very funny i like her a lot (we need to talk to her abt that, you cannot keep assuming things Mars...)

Mars; There is not a single conversation with you where i dont laugh my heart out. Thank you for the butterflies in my stomach head and eyes

Cube; It comes into our house, it eats all the food, it gives a long detailed compliment, it leaves. Interesting child i guess.

Cube

Sara; Seemed very intimitading at first but i think shes just worries about me but hey! i can take care of myself fine

Mars; i like to give her animal shaped rocks and crystals.

Eight; I haven't talked or seen her a lot but she cooks so well

o wow you read it all congrats! you have the right to 1 (one) drawing request ;) and if you have anything to ask please do, talking abt headcanons and stuff makes me develop characters faster and its fun :]