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irrigos · 2 years ago

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interpreters in fallen london, ranked by how badly they violate the Code of Professional Conduct

I'm using the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf's CPC, because thats what I learned. none of these characters would actually fall under the jurisdiction of RID, because its an American organization. and also. was founded in 1964. I also acknowledge that none of the clients these interpreters are interpreting for are, in fact, deaf, but I don't know anything about spoken language interpreting, and I feel like the needs of these specific clients are more akin to the interpreting needs of deaf clients I've had than anything else. (Also, the CPC calls them "consumers", I prefer "clients" because that's what I learned, but people will use either and it doesn't matter that much)

This post is very long, and there's not even that many people on it! I could have made it shorter, but I already didn't do that. You're the one who chose to read it! That's not my problem!

The CPC:

RID's Code of Professional Conduct was written in collaboration with the National Association of the Deaf in 2005 (replacing their prior Code of Ethics). It has 7 tenets, which each have several points of illustrative behaviors. I decided to cite the specific illustrative behaviors that these interpreters fail to perform, because I thought that would be more interesting and thorough. And no one will ever accuse me of not being thorough.

Here is the CPC presented in American Sign Language, and here it is in written English. It's not a very long or complex document, if you're interested in reading it yourself. I can't really imagine anyone WOULD be that interested in the code of conduct for a profession you're not in, unless you're like... me... but hey, there it is.

Barqujin:

Batachikhan's interpreter in Mask of the Rose. He wants to leave the amber warrens beneath London and go start a shop, but she thinks it's a bad idea. Purposefully interprets Batachikhan incorrectly to try to convince the player to help with her plan instead (facilitating a slower, more planned introduction of Rubbery Men into London society.) Is clearly threatened by the player character also being able to understand Batachikhan, since she spent years with the Rubberies learning their ways and you're just some dipshit. Also can have a threesome with the player and Batachikhan.

Tenets violated:

2.3 ("Render the message faithfully by conveying the content and spirit of what is being communicated, using language most readily understood by consumers, and correcting errors discreetly and expeditiously.") She is very much not faithfully rendering the message

4.1 ("Consider consumer requests or needs regarding language preferences, and render the message accordingly") This might seem like the same as 2.3, but this one focuses more on language preferences than content, eg using Signed Exact English instead of pure ASL if that is what the client prefers. So this would be like when Batachikhan is writing and breaks the chalk, and Barqujin gets annoyed and refuses to get more. Not respecting the method by which her client would like to communicate.

Conclusion:

I put her first on the list (so, least bad) because she at least DOES seem to care about Batachikhan and his well-being, even if she's pretty shitty about it. Also, I'm counting the time she spent in the amber warrens as "professional development", so she IS fulfilling tenet 7.0 ("Interpreters engage in professional development.") although I don't know how many CEUs that would be worth. Really, I think Barqujin is a good example for why the Americans with Disabilities Act says that a "companion" (family member, guardian, friend, religious leader, etc) cannot be counted as a qualified interpreter in most circumstances. Barqujin lacks the impartiality required to be an effective interpreter!!

The Sagacious Ape

In the ambition Hearts Desire, your monkey friend Gregory Beechwood hires an interpreter from the Empire of Hands to facilitate him actually having a conversation with you. Probably should come before Barqujin, technically, as her misconduct is probably worse (it's pretty bad to purposefully interpret something incorrectly because YOU think they should have said something different! that is generally Frowned Upon!) but he bothers me more. Also you could argue that Barqujin is not operating in the game as a Certified Interpreter who is bound by the code of conduct, but as a bilingual friend doing a favor, so… idk. Barqujin gets to be less bad because the Sagacious Ape bothers me so much more.

Tenets violated:

2.2 (“Assess consumer needs and the interpreting situation before and during the assignment and make adjustments as needed.”) Maybe a nitpick to start us off, but I was trained to always show up at least 15 minutes early, so you can meet with your client for a bit and figure out their linguistic needs. And the Sagacious Ape did not do that, although I SUPPOSE I can allow for the possibility that they met sometime off-screen.

I GUESS. 2.3 (Render the message faithfully, etc.) Tries to downplay Beechwood's tone/language use. He keeps making little asides objecting to Beechwood's swearing, or doing what seems to be downplaying the intended tone. Sorry, Mr Ape Interpreter. Gregory Beechwood wants to say fuck and you and I both know it. You gotta say the fuck word.

2.5 (“Refrain from providing counsel, advice, or personal opinions.”) Guessed what Beechwood wanted from the Marvelous before Beechwood said anything. You are not a participant in this conversation, man! You don't get to give your input here!

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, I am in love with Barqujin so she gets a little more leeway than the Sagacious Ape. And he's also the only one on this list who is licensed, so he has no excuse. But frankly, worse than the CPC violations, his greatest crime was doing my two biggest interpreter pet peeves. 1. He doesn't interpret into first person language (“He says he's sorry“ should instead be ”I'm sorry.“ This is a thing you learn in literally day 1 of an Interpreter Training Program.) 2. He calls himself a translator and not an interpreter, even though he is interpreting and not translating (I actually emailed FBG about this when it came up with the last election, but I don't know if they went back and fixed it in HD, too. I'd already beaten it by then. But a translator takes a static text in one language and converts it into another language, and an interpreter takes a live text in one language and converts it into another. An interpreter is working in the moment, so you'd have one at doctors appointments or presentations or plays, and a translator is working over time, so you'd hire a translator to work on a book or an article or a poem. I have done lots of interpreting and very little translating.) So, sorry Sagacious Ape. We ARE voting you off the island.

A small addendum to the entry on the Sagacious Ape- I couldn't find a good way to fit this in, but he reminds me almost more of a Deaf Interpreter than an Interpreter for the Deaf. A Hearing interpreter (or an interpreter for the deaf) would be a Hearing person who is fluent in both sign language and English (or, well, probably any spoken language, really) and interprets between the two. A Deaf interpreter is one who is themselves Deaf. Their role is to take the interpretation from the Hearing Interpreter and make it into more natural, fluent sign language, and to take the sign language of the client and make it easier for the Hearing interpreter to interpret correctly. They primarily work with people who are multiply disabled, or have some other language disability. The situations I've seen where a Deaf interpreter has also been hired have been for things like the client being DeafBlind, the client having cerebral palsy, or the client experienced language deprivation and isn't fluent in sign language. I think the Sagacious Ape is a little more like a Deaf interpreter because, while monkeys in Fallen London CAN speak (clearly, as the Sagacious Ape can!) Beechwood is not able to communicate in any language, so the Sagacious Ape is interpreting off of things like gestures and grunts. And that's closer to what I've seen Deaf interpreters do with clients who went through language deprivation than it is to any interpreting work I've ever done. Just a fun thought I wanted to share, even though it's not really relevant to the list.

The Nocturnal Landscape Artist

The Nocturnal Landscape Artist (who is also sometimes in game referred to as the Nocturnal Landscape Painter) was the Tentacled Entrepreneur's interpreter during the election of 1898, and was fired later, in Helicon House. I hate him terribly, and he's my favorite representation of an interpreter in the game.

Tenets violated:

1.1 (”Share assignment-related information only on a confidential and “as needed” basis.”) This might be a bit of a stretch, but during the election, you could get drunk with him and he'd talk a little shit about how actually TE doesn't know anything and HE'S the real brains here. Obviously this is incredibly inappropriate, but I'm also gonna say it's breaking confidentiality. Yknow. Among other problems.

2.5 (“Refrain from providing counsel, advice, or personal opinions.”) He was involved in TE's mayoral campaign to provide counsel and advice, while also providing interpreting services

3.5 ("Conduct and present themselves in an unobtrusive manner and exercise care in choice of attire.") I guess it's a little different for him, because he's not ACTUALLY a sign language interpreter, but generally speaking, I always had a VERY strict dress code, which boiled down to basically wearing only solid, dark colors, like black or navy. I guess they don't really describe the Painter in the game that much, but I mean… look at this guy. Do you think this guy is capable of being unobtrusive? I do not.

3.8 ("Avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest that might cause harm or interfere with the effectiveness of interpreting services." The CPC defines a conflict of interest as "A conflict between the private interests (personal, financial, or professional) and the official or professional responsibilities of an interpreter in a position of trust, whether actual or perceived, deriving from a specific interpreting situation.") The Artist is literally involved with TE to better himself. During the election, he one time says ”We'll be the mayor“ which is. Yikes, man.

3.10 (”Refrain from using confidential interpreted information for the benefit of personal or professional affiliations or entities.“ See above.)

6.6 ("Refrain from harassment or coercion before, during, or after the provision of interpreting services.") Shows up at TE's art show without being invited, in an attempt to berate him. Cringe.

Conclusion:

"He needs me. As a teacher. A mentor. Fortunately, he does act on my advice. An' we both have the same goals. …You have to keep this to yourself. He's the money, but I'm the brains. We'll be mayor, just you see." BAD!!! I hate this man!! But the reason he's my favorite representation of an interpreter I've seen in this game, and quite possibly ANY game, is that… I've totally met this guy. Every Deaf person I know who has needed an interpreter has met this guy. There is a certain kind of person who becomes an interpreter (or really goes into any field that involves working closely with a marginalized group) primarily because they think that these poor people need their HELP. THEY know what's best for their clients! And they're going to see that done! Client's input be damned! It makes my skin crawl. The role of an interpreter is complex, and there are a lot of different opinions about how much an interpreter should interpret cultures as well as language, and this is made even MORE complex when you're interpreting for someone who is marginalized BECAUSE of this culture and language. But the Nocturnal Landscape Painter is clearly convinced that TE is going about everything wrong, and he's using his position as TE's interpreter to try to force him into what the Painter thinks is correct. And then has a big baby tantrum when TE does what he wanted to do anyway! It's no wonder they aren't friends anymore, if they ever were to begin with. I was glad that I got to throw this dude out of Helicon House. Wish I could do the same to everyone in my interpreting training cohort who thought it was their role to help all these poor sad Deaf people who couldn't get by without us. Gross.

In conclusion:

#fallen london #mask of the rose #this is the most ive read the CPC since like. 2018 lmao #do you all still like me even though this post is almost 2k words

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meimi-haneoka · 1 year ago

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Hello, Cinzia! How are you doing? I have two things I wanted to talk to you about but first let me start by saying thank you for your translation correction posts! I have a habit of reading both translated and original Japanese versions side by side for comparison and my lord… the amount of errors the official translated version had is astounding. So thank you for having the fandom's back on that!

Okay so the first thing I wanted to talk about is the fandom's (understandable) disappointment over the conclusion chapter. But I have a theory on why this might feel disappointing. You see, I also happened to come from the Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire fandom and right now it has been 13 years since the release of the last book and everyone has been waiting patiently for it. In the mean time, the fandom has come up with A LOT (and I mean A LOT!!) of theories on how the characters are going to develop and eventually how the books are going to end. This is fun because it keeps the fandom alive. But the biggest con is that the theories are so wildly out there now that everyone deep down knows no one's gonna be satisfied with the ending the author will give us because we have extrapolated too much in this past decade. While we in the CCS fandom didn't have to wait that long, I still think a lot of us had come up with theories while waiting for the next release and maybe because we were basing them our past experiences with Tsubasa and xxxHolic, we assumed that was road to go. Personally, I loved the ending Clamp gave us. I always love a little open ending because then we get take that ending to our little sandbox and make our own stories. But best of all, if the story hasn't ended, IT MEANS WE HAVE A CHANCE TO SEE THEM AGAIN IN THE FUTURE :D!!! Isn't that exciting?? You're absolutely right about how the ending isn't going to please everyone. Because that's literature! The creators of The Matrix once said that art is never stagnant. People will come back to it years later and find something new to relate to and have a newfound love for it!

For my second thing I wanted to share!! As someone who grew up with CCS and now coming back to Clear Card as an adult who has gone through Life™️, I realize how much easier it was for me to pick up on the darker undertones of Clear Card. KAITO WAS NOT OKAY FROM THE TIME HE WAS INTRODUCED!! Like that boy had 10 different alarm bells ringing every time he spoke. And the thing that made me realize that is something from my own life experience. Akiho's past as an abused child is also very easy to pick up on and not something you need to read between the lines. Like it was RIGHT THERE! So idk why people deny that they had miserable lives. Kaito isn't a villain per se. He's an antihero. And even if he was (let's just say it for the sake of it), Clamp's villains are never one dimensional and the same goes for Kaito too. He just needed help. But coming back to my main point, I wonder if Clamp had intentionally gave us a more mature theme for Clear Card, knowing that most of their readers are going to be adults who grew up with the original CCS. The idea of "everything that I can and can't do make me who I am" is so IMPORTANT to remember!! The feeling of lack of self worth haunts all of us. There are many things that Sakura can't do either and that's okay because she has help. AND IT'S IMPORTANT TO ASK FOR HELP!! We cannot do everything on our own (looking at Kaito) and that's okay! This is how Syaoran shows his love too. He knows he is limited (as we all are) but there are things he can do to help Sakura. We always have to remember that because life isn't easy to go through alone. (knocks on Kaito's head)

I'm looking forward to future stories revolving our favorite gang. I wonder if Akiho will travel to meet Eriol some time too. Anyway, I feel like I have taken too much of your time. Thank you for everything you've done for the fandom and if you choose to reply to this message then thank you for that too! Have a nice day :D

Omg hello new follower!! Where were you hiding all this time?? 😂😂 I LOVED receiving your ask and it brightened my day, thank you very much!! See, people, this is someone who gets it 👍 (as I know all my affectionate readers do!! I just need to show off all of you because, among the sea of complaints, the fandom needs to see that there are ALSO lots of people out there who understood Clear Card correctly, and it's not a nonsense story to everyone like they think it is).

Your first point is absolutely logical and I also think that's one of the reasons why the "final" chapter wasn't going to satisfy each and everyone in the fandom: that was just plain impossible from the get go, but adding all that you so cleverly explained here, yeah it was just bound to happen all the more. I still think, though, that if you paid attention, understood the story and the characters correctly along the way, the theories that you as a fan could've think of weren't going to be that far from what actually happened. I managed to foresee a lots of events (some more precisely, some less precisely, some I did completely accidentally) and that's not because I have powers or because I paid CLAMP for it 😂😂 but just because I "listened" to what the story, or rather, what CLAMP were trying to tell me through the story. I picked up the signs and for the most part didn't let them trick me with the red herrings, and even when I made theories I always kept quite "flexible" in case canon didn't go that way (there's also plenty of stuff that didn't go as I thought). The only thing I was always sure about is that this would have had a happy ending. For the all the characters. And yes, open endings can be a present to the fandom, especially the creative one! Moreover, it's an easy way to get back into the series later, in case they want to continue it.

And for the second point....oooh, I know. I KNOW. God, it's always been so clear, especially when they started to show his past as a kid and the fact that he fed himself energetic bars as a "meal"? Or when they said that everything tasted the same to him? That's beyond messed up for a kid and it was immediately clear that he had enormous problems behind that smily mask that he was showing to everyone. Those are clear symptom of depression and god only knows the degree of abandonment Kaito lived in, in his childhood. The fact that he was literally snapped up by an Association of criminals doesn't mean that they intended to raise him or that they were interested in his wellbeing.

The people who deny that Akiho and Kaito had a childhood made of abuse only do so because if they didn't, then they would feel forced to feel empathy and pity for them (lest they appear as insensitive), and they don't want to, because they had already decided they were obnoxious, malicious and unwanted characters a long time ago. Cause their background of abuse is very very clear, especially for Akiho. It's spelled out clearly multiple times. They couldn't go further than what they did because it would've been too jarring for a story like CCS (and I've seen the disturbed comments of a part of the JP fandom, already as it is).

So yeah, Kaito is an antihero at best, or a "reluctant villain", a trope I have seen once in a post on instagram. It fitted him completely. He villainized himself towards everyone else (Sakura & Co.) in order to achieve his only goal, even if that wasn't really in his nature. But he did, for Akiho's sake.

And yes yes yes to all the rest that you've said!! One of the most important lessons we got from Clear Card is that it's important to ask for help when you need it, that you shouldn't take everything on your shoulder......and if you notice that a friend is struggling, don't ignore them but extend a helping hand, cause they probably don't have the strength to ask for help.

I also really hope that we can see our favorite gang in the future, and I keep in my heart a little hope to see Akiho/Kaito/Momo in Holic too!!

Thank you so much for this ask and I hope you'll enjoy the rest of my posts!! 😁❤️

#reply #ccsakura #clear card arc #akiho shinomoto #yuna d. kaito

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crazy-pages · 1 year ago

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@wingedachene But if we actually CHECK THE CITATION rather than just taking it for granted, what do we find?

Exactly what @passerkirbius was talking about!!! The study cuts off at 24!!! It does not extend beyond that point! If you actually read the study certain markers of brain development are slowing down prior to that point, which the researchers take for granted means brain development stops shortly after. But brain development is highly nonlinear, there's no real reason to believe that other than cultural presuppositions about maturity. And there's no reason to believe that other types of brain development don't start up later in life. Heck the exact same kind of brain development could come to a stop and then restart later, or even reverse. We just don't have the data on it.

Abstract talk about science and it's reliability under the readmore.

Remember y'all, science is an error correction algorithm and documentation method. It corrects errors in the same way you would safeguard against signal loss when sending a message through a staticky channel.

Like, if I want to send somebody a digital 1, but there's a chance static could flip that 1 to a 0, that's a problem. One flipped bit might scramble the whole message they're receiving, especially if I'm sending them something like a program or a compressed image. We need a way to make sure that the person on the other end receives my message perfectly even through the static. And the same applies to science. When one mistake can be built upon to create more flawed work, we need a method of bringing the error rate as close to zero as possible.

So what I might do instead is send five 1s and tell the person on the other end beforehand that this is what I'm doing. Some of the 1s are still going to be wrong, but if they get 10110, the odds are better that I meant to send 11111 than 00000. You'd need 3+ flipped bits for them to get the wrong signal, which is much less likely, for math reasons. If you commit enough extra bits to ensuring your message gets through, it's possible to send perfectly readable messages even through a lot of static. And this is what science tries to do with peer review, parallel experimentation, and repeated experiments.

But it's important to know how this system can break down. One obvious way is just not doing enough error correction, not contributing enough extra resources. And that obviously happened here, the neuroscience field never did do follow-up studies actually double checking that neurological development really does stop after 25. But another problem is systemic bias.

That basic error correction algorithm I mentioned up above? It's dependent on the assumption that all errors are random and independent of one another. But what if the problem isn't constant background static, what if the problem is sudden bursts of intense static, which leaves most bits alone but flips a bunch of bits very close together? Well the error correction algorithm I mentioned would totally fail under those conditions. There's nothing it can do about that.

And you can run into similar things with societal preconceptions and biases in science. If everybody just knows that being fat is bad for you, or just knows that we stopped getting more mature in our mid-20s, the people who are supposed to be doing the peer review might not question bad conclusions in line with those beliefs. The scientific process can fail to perform error correction and bad science can slip through.

The good news is though, even when that happens we still benefit from the process of scientifically rigorous documentation. Because the study screencaptured above me didn't just assert that brain development stops at 25, the author cited their source. And we could check that source and its documentation, and see just from the abstract (hell just from the citation itself) that the thing they are citing is inadequate for the claim they are making. No matter what may be in the conclusion of either paper, the sources of their conclusions are rigorously documented enough that we can come back to them later and apply less biased, or at least more critical, analysis to them.

Science is an error correction method which sometimes fails, but it is also a logbook. And it is important that we actually check that logbook when we have disputes about it. Because that logbook is the quickest way we have of course correcting when scientific consensus has failed.

genuinely especially with everything happening in britain rn with regards to trans healthcare we need to start shutting down the "your brain doesn't fully develop until 25!" pseudoscience bullshit asap

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ouyangzizhensdad · 5 years ago

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The Mo Village arc and establishing the MC

MDZS is a sprawling book with many characters, but it seems that it was clearly important to MXTX to establish her MC’s characterisation very strongly from the start. Although the novel in its entirety leans toward providing a strong characterisation for WWX, I thought it’d be fun to look back at how it is conveyed to the readers in the first few chapters before the inciting incident at Dafan Mountain

(N.B. I’m using a composite translation made of different translations so the wording/format might be slightly different than the version you are using)

Framing

The prologue starts with a conversation between unnamed characters in an inn, discussing the news of WWX’s death. While it was a clever way to already introduce an important theme of the novel (the effects of public opinion and how easy it is to make someone into a irredeemable villain) and get the exposition out of the way, it also frames WWX as a character: as readers, we are introduced first to perceptions of him, a characterisation-from-hearsay we’ll be able to compare to his characterisation in the novel. WWX is a “scourge” whose death is celebrated, who “defected” and bit the hand that fed him, a “deranged” killer who took thousands of lives. But before he went on the crooked path, he was a promising youth--although others seem to think he was corrupted from the start.

“But it can’t all be blamed on the path he cultivated. Ultimately, it was still because this Wei Wuxian’s moral character was too flawed, angering the Heavens and man alike! By the heavenly law, everyone answers for their deeds in the end, good and evil……”

The rumours also suggest that if WWX comes back to the world of the living he will enact his revenge upon them all, and his unimaginable powers would allow him to rain fury upon both Heaven and Earth. We get told: this guys is an incredibly powerful villain, reviled and feared by many.

But the Yiling Laozu had enough power to overturn the Heavens and smother the Earth, move mountains and drain seas—at least, that was the way the rumors went. If he wanted to resist the summoning of his soul, it wouldn’t exactly be outside of his abilities. If in coming days his spirit were restored, if he forcibly possessed a body and were thus reborn, then not only the cultivation world, but all of humanity would inevitably meet with an even greater frenzy of vengeance and curses, sinking into a chaotic age of foul winds and bloody rains.

Establishing WWX and how he reacts when he’s thrown into an unpleasant situation

When WWX is brought back by MXY, we already have something to contrast him against thanks to the hearsay and rumours, and from the get-go we get a sense that WWX is not this fearsome figure that people made him out to be.

I’ll never get over the fact that our first introduction to WWX’s is the equivalent of the “the audacity of this bitch”.

Hazily, he thought: that’s quite a lot of courage you must have to kick this Laozu.

Our MC and POV character is thrown into a situation, and from his reactions we can rapidly tell that he is someone who is observant, resourceful, good at deductive reasoning and thereby apt at solving mysteries. This is something that is reinforced at many, many points in the first few chapters and helps us buy in into what happens later in the novel when they uncover many other mysteries. WWX is a guy who figures shit out.

When WWX figures out he was summoned as a “an unforgivably evil malicious spirit“, we get his take on his public perception.

Wei Wuxian reeled at the implications. How had he been classified as “an irredeemly evil, malicious spirit”?

Yes, his reputation was rather poor and his final moments, horrifying tragic—but he had neither haunted nor had he seeked revenge on the living since becoming a spirit. He would dare to swear upon the Heavens and the Earth that you would never find a more peaceful and well-behaved lonely soul of a wild ghost!

At the same time, readers get a sense that even when he’s dealt a bad hand, WWX does not wait in despair for his luck to turn. Even though WWX describes his situation as “hopeless” and keeps “repeating over and over How could this be! in his heart “, he immediately goes into problem-solving mode, trying to figure out the situation and the wishes MXY forgot to share. This also happens later.

There was not a single thing to help him find some joy in being reborn! He might as well sit and meditate for a time, and adjust to the new body.

That same passage gives us a sense that WWX is not rushing into situations without taking the time to take it in, make up his mind and prepare as much as he can: the fact that we see him do meditation twice during that day (before he goes to the East Hall and after he checks on the Lan juniors) also contributes to that idea.

The chapters convey as well that WWX is sympathetic to MXY’s situation and does not resent him even though he forced WWX to enact revenge in his stead. As readers, we thus receive the following message: WWX is not prone to being resentful, to hold grudges.

He had originally wanted to wash his face and pay a few respects to the owner of this body, but there was no water in the shack—neither for drinking nor for washing.

WWX is also, for a lack of a better word, sassy. It’s clear that he has a flair for the dramatics and lots of attitude. Look at that dramatic entrance.... he just.... yeets the bowl he was holding....

He pondered for a moment. Then, rising to his feet, he kicked the door open.

The two servants, in the midst of making eyes at each other, screamed in horror as the double doors of the shack suddenly burst open. Wei Wuxian threw aside his bowl and chopsticks and walked outside without anyone’s leave [...]

We are also introduced to the fact that WWX does not seem to take himself seriously and loves to shock people.

When it came to wild displays of misbehavior, Wei Wuxian was a master. In the past when he ran wild, he still had to mind appearances lest others accuse him of having not been raised right. But now that he was a lunatic anyways, what face did he need! He could go straight to making a scene, acting however it pleased him.

While WWX is clearly not the one-dimensional evil monster depicted in rumours, we do see that he can be cunning: he lies easily if he feels it motivated, he is very good at talking people into a corner, apt at making them do incriminating things by leading them on, which he does by humiliating the Mo family for their mistreatment of MXY in front of a crowd. But in a way, that is also a quality of his: he is not just silver-tongued; he’s good at assessing a situation and people’s characters, able to figure out what will set them off.

We further get proof that he is not a blood-thirsty monster who disregards others when he tries to figure out if he can satisfy MXY’s spirit without having to wipe out the Mo family (although it is clearly the obvious solution) and when he is shown to care for the well-being of others. This is illustrated by the way he double-checks (through ruse) that the zhaoyin flags are properly set up and will be used safely by the Lan juniors.

During the conversation, Wei Wuxian had already finished making a rapid examination of the Yin Summoning Flag in his hand. It had been painted in the correct manner, and there were no missing sigils either. There was not a single error or omission, so they should worked as intended. That being said, the person who had painted the flag lacked experience, and the painted sigils could only attract the evil spirits and walking corpses within at most five li. That should however prove to be enough. (chapter 2)

[...]

Wei Wuxian’s first thought was that something had gone wrong with the flag arraw the youth had set up. His inventions needed to be used with extreme caution, or else risk disaster. This was also why he had gone to check earlier if there were anything wrong with the array. (Chapter 3)

As our POV character, WWX comes across as endearing through little details: it’s in the way he calls LSZ a “good little seedling (好苗子)” and calls the Lan juniors a group of “小朋友“ in his inner monologue, or when he defends the Lan juniors from Mo-furen’s accusations. Or the way he likes Xiao Pingguo because it looks at him with contempt:

A donkey was tied to the handle, chewing on it. When it saw Wei Wuxian run over rashly, it seemed like it was surprised, and eyed him sideways as if it were a real person. Wei Wuxian made eye contact with him for one second and was immediately touched by the minuscule amount of contempt in its eyes.

Establishing how WWX acts in high-pressure situations

Things escalate quite quickly into accusations of murder and death and resentful corpses. This first sequence is thus our introduction to how WWX acts under pressure and in high-risk situations (which will continue to happen to our MC until the end of the novel).

WWX is shown to be cool under pressure and quick to think on his feet, constantly re-assessing the situation and the risks. He is also seen as expecting people to arrive to conclusions without him needing to explain them out loud, like when he takes out the zhaoyin flag that MZY stole from his corpse, letting the Lan juniors understand on their own what happened. When he needs to explain, he will not do it in a straight-forward manner, giving small hints first (this preludes many of WWX and LWJ interaction when they understand each other’s thought process with only one sentence being said, and preludes how WWX will continue to act with the Juniors later on, making them think through the situations instead of feeding them the answers).

We also get the proof that WWX does not privilege self-preservation over the fate of others.

If he wanted to avoid having the situation get out of hand, Wei Wuxian should retreat. If they people who came did not know him, then all would be well—but if they happened to be someone who had dealt with him or fought against him in the past, it would be hard to guess what would happen next.

But the curse meant he could not leave Mo Village yet. As well, the spirit that had been summoned had taken two lives in quick succession, meaning it was extremely vicious. If Wei Wuxian left now, once the reinforcement arrived, the streets of Mo Village might already be packed with corpses missing their left arm, of which some would be blood relations of the GusuLanShi.

After a short deliberation, Wei Wuxian thought, fight a quick battle to force a swift resolution (速战速决). (Chapter 3)

[...]

Wei Wuxian was watching the battle attentively. His tongue was slightly curled, suppressing a sharp whistle inside of his lips, preparing it to be let out. The whistle would be able to evoke even more hostility in the cruel corpses, which might turn the tables. Then, however, it would be difficult to ensure that nobody knew that it was his doing.

In the blink of an eye, the hand moved like lightning, ruthlessly and precisely breaking Madame Mo’s neck. Watching as the Mo family grew closer to defeat, Wei Wuxian prepared to blow the whistle that he suppressed under his tongue. At the same time, the echoes of two strums on a stringed instrument came from far away. (chapter 4)

As well, we are told something about WWX when he only leaves once LWJ arrives: certainly because he’s afraid that LWJ might recognize him but mostly because (as it will become clear later on) he trusts that LWJ will be able to handle the situation in his stead. In order words, although WWX is willing to risk himself to help others, he is not careless with his life and safety (for instance he makes sure to destroy the proof of the Offering ritual before fleeing to make sure no one can figure out the fact that he is back from the dead).

WWX will not hesitate to fool people or pretend in order to help his goals. In this case, he is trying to help and fight without appearing like a powerful cultivator who can do modao, balancing self-preservation with the incentive to protect the people present. This is why he pushes LJY in front of LSZ at one point in the battle, instead of blocking it himself, while pretending to just be a lunatic doing lunatic things.

Inside of the Lan clan’s uniform jacket, there were compact stitchings of incantations using thin threads of the same color, included for protection. However, against strong ones like this, it could only be used once before it became invalid. During the emergency, he could only kick Lan Jingyi and use his body to protect Lan Sizhui’s neck.

This sequence also allows the reader to know more about modao and WWX’s skills, and how he can control corpses, as well as how WWX perceives his own abilities.

TLDR:

The Mo Village arc, in conjunction with the prologue, competently sets up a lot of the moving pieces for the novel. It also leans heavily toward establishing a strong sense of characterisation for our MC and POV character, which is neat!

NB: I think it’s also very telling that the next chapter after the Mo Mansion arc begins with us learning that WWX has been, in the past few days since his retreat, lorded over by a capricious donkey. WWX is clearly not someone who takes himself very seriously (often mocking himself):

The donkey ran over there and nothing could make it leave. Wei Wuxian hopped down and slapped its honoured buttocks. “You’re definitely destined for wealth, even harder to please than I am.” The donkey spat at him.

#mdzs meta #i kind of hate to call this meta because it's not uh very deep lmao #wwx #wei wuxian

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btsandvmin · 4 years ago

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Answering asks in regards to my recent post about shipping

Ok, so I got a few asks which I think are all responses to my recent post How much do we really know?

I got a few others but these are the ones I am choosing to reply to.

If you follow me and have done so for a while you probably understood my post already, and thus most of these replies might not be that interesting to my general readers. This for the most part just a reply to explain the points I felt got completely misunderstood by these particular anons. But I also go through some others that asks as well. Those will be at the bottom of the post if you want to skip the explenations.

Here goes. So the first ask I got was this:

Anonymous asked:

You mentioned in a post that during the billboard Vlive V suggested that him and Jimin “sleep together casually.” But the very next day Jimin said in a press conference that he was with JK all night and cried with him over the #1 spot. Do you think you ignore things JM says or does to fit your Vmin narrative? There just seems to be a big confirmation bias. A lot of your evidence seems to come from V’s songs but that’s entirely your analysis based off your perception of their relationship. (Not that I don’t agree with you on some of it.) How do you step back and look at things unbiasedly or rationally?

First of all, yes I did mention this but I didn't say that Jimin and Taehyung slept together that particular time/day. I am not 100% sure the post you read was the "How much do we really know?" but if it was, I said this:

"....or that Vmin seem to casually sleep together in private (if we take Tae’s words for it in the Billboard vlive)..."

Meanwhile in that vlive this is what Taehyung said.

"I told him to sleep next to me" followed by "...as he's too lazy to come to my place" it makes it sound like they normally would have gone to either place to sleep together, but both were too lazy to do so this time. Thus they didn't sleep together this instance, but the way Tae talks makes it sound like they casually ask each other to sleep together at times and like it almost was a given that one of them go to the other.

Worth noting is also that the way Taehyung says it (though there is always room for error since I don't speak Korean) it seems he was asking Jimin to come over first, and he wasn't even aware of the Billboard result. He also asked Jimin to do this on JK's birthday, so clrealy it didn't seem like a big deal at least from Tae's side to ask Jimin to come over to him on this particular day.

What I said in my post applies even if they didn't do it that day. Because it doesn't matter if Jimin went in the end or not, Tae still "casually" asked Jimin to come to his place to sleep.

You can look at the whole vlive (1st in BILLBOARD! Gather ARMY!) from September 1st 2020 and get your own understanding, it's not that long and it's full of cute moments.

But if we get into Ji/kook a little bit, the way I understood the situation from what they said is that of course yes, Jimin did tell JK about it. He said as much and of course I will believe him when he says it.

I never said that Jimin didn't say this, so I don't understand how my post would in any way imply that I ignore what Jimin says or does to fit a Vmin narrative. I didn't even mention Jimin, because it wasn't what I was talking about. Jimin's situation didn't matter in that context, just that Tae asked Jimin to come sleep with him.

Sadly I can't include all pictures because there is a photo limit, but Jimin also says he wasn't prepared for the news, and he was talking with Taehyung, and then he started to cry as he got the news. To me it seems he might have told Tae first (and that they already were on the phone when Jimin got the news?), and that JK likely wasn’t with Jimin when he got the news himself, but that he told JK at a later point.

But aren't you ignoring how they told the story a bit as well if you see this as a pure ji/kook moment?

The thing is that to me, no matter what ji/kook did that night doesn't even matter for what Tae said. It still indicates Vmin sleep together casually in their private time even if they didn't end up doing it that particular day. And if Tae could say that and ask that on the night leading into JK's birthday then how does that make Ji/kook seem like likely lovers even if they were together? Of course it doesn't mean that Vmin automatically becomes real, but I never said that either. Maybe the two ships cancel each other out, but in the end the fact that Taehyung said this, said it like it was normal, and suggested it the night before JK's birthday says something to me.

It's fine if Ji/kookers love the fact that JM told JK, I don't blame them, but they in turn need to take Tae's words into account as well. The whole point of my original post was to say I don't understand how shippers can feel confident in their ship being real, and this is a perfect example of why focusing in on one thing and ignoring or not noticing another makes these beliefs based on too little information.

You also seemed to ignore the rest of the post (if that was indeed what you were reading) where I state that I do have a bias and where ALL shippers use narratives that fit their ship to tell a certain story.

You also mention me ignoring moments and having confirmation bias, and sure I can't truly get rid of that, but again... I didn't ignore Ji/kook. I never said those things didn't happen. If anything I keep saying all ships have moments and shippers focus on them so much they don't see others have similar moments. Likewise I won't deny ji/kook moments when they clearly exist, that was a big part of the post, if you actually read it and didn't just get stuck on the small details. But it's good you are curious about and know confirmation bias. I have brought it up as a problem many times as well, and I will surely talk about it more in the future too.

Then, moving on to your point about "evidence" I would once again like to say (like in the post) that there is no such thing as proof or evidence for ANY ship. Just moments that shippers put together with their interpretations into a narrative. So you saying "A lot of your evidence seems to come from V’s songs but that’s entirely your analysis based off your perception of their relationship. (Not that I don’t agree with you on some of it.)" is why I felt you somehow misunderstood my whole post.

Of course it’s all my analysis based on my perception of their relationship. That’s the WHOLE POINT about how all shipping analyses work. Not just mine, but all.

Also, yes Taehyung's songs is a big part of why Vmin is suspicious, but it's far from the only reasons I have to question them. I simply used Tae's actions as an example in my post because they are quite many and out there. Many facts tied together, but of course what they mean is always a guess. Which I also stated clearly. I literally brought up a lot of examples of Vmin and said they make a lot of sense, but that doesn't mean we can be sure or "know" Vmin is real.

So, yes, I do feel you misunderstood me on several points, and it seemed you didn't read properly at all but rather got stuck on the details and then used Ji/kook moments to "refute" me even though it in my opinion wasn't relevant to the post at all. Which is why I in turn posted this reply:

It didn’t take long for someone to misunderstand my posts and get caught up on the details and examples instead of the general message. While they were at it they decide to throw in a good “accusation” of something I legit have said I am many times and no one can avoid. Good to know some people just don’t want to understand. 😗👍

Not only you but less interesting/good asks as well might have made me feel a bit annoyed, so I replied like this, I suppose I misunderstood your intentions too.

You also asked "How do you step back and look at things unbiasedly or rationally?" and my personal belief is that I can't. I am biased towards Vmin, and I do try to see things from many ways and to get content in its full context. But simply by consuming and remembering more about Vmin than other dynamics I will still remain biased. I don't think any shipper can truly remain neutral.

Then I got a a second ask (Edit; I now know this is by another person than the first ask).

This isn’t me trying to misunderstand you, I’m just genuinely curious how you ship vmin while also questioning Tae’s honesty (your BB night comment) and thus also Jimin’s, and also hand over the best tools to anti-vminnie who can use your words as proof that “well even vminnie don’t believe vmin so why should we?” And if all ships are basically equal, why ship at all, or why ship vmin? They have the most conclusive things and yet the more we get the more you question and doubt them.Why?

And suddenly there came a whole new additional set of problems.

I suggest reading my post Shipping vs Believing because if you knew my stance you would understand that I think there is a huge difference between shipping and believing and that you can ship whatever you like and it doesn't have to be tied to reality at all.

In general this ask makes you sound like a delusional and defensive believer, so I perhaps suggest reading my post Can shipping turn into conspiracy theories? as well. This additional ask is why I replied with this second short post:

You say I question the honesty of Tae or Jimin's words, but hopefully you understand this is not at all true since I explained what I actually meant in my original post. Tae asking Jimin to sleep with him is just as true as Jimin telling JK about the win. These two things don't contradict each other and I trust both of the statments to be real.

Also, how am I "handing over tools" to anti-vminies? These things are all out there, and I wasn't even talking about anything negative? Just because I have a more healthy approach than "Vmin is obviously real" that doesn't mean my words should be interpreted as "shipping Vmiin is pointless". However, you did get it right that I don't believe in Vmin, but you seem to have the wrong idea of why I have that stance to begin with. Which again, was part of the message in the original post which you here continue to not understand in other ways.

Me not talking as if Vmin is 100% real doesn't mean I hand out tools to antis. Personally I think that's a weird interpretation of my text, but I can't do anything but try to explain my view on shipping, which I feel that I have many times.

I also don't personally think all ships are equal, but I do think many ships have similar moments and that those moments either get ignored or hyper focused on in a way that makes shipping analysis less trustworhty and always biased and not based purely on facts and the full context. Basically yes, a lot of ships seem to cancel each other out, but that shouldn't stop anyone from shipping. BUT it should make people careful about calling moments "proof" and be sure their narrative is the only possible truth.

I also don't think it's fair to say "They have the most conclusive things and yet the more we get the more you question and doubt them.Why?". I've always tried to keep a distance between shipping and analysis and while we do get more and more for Vmin it's not that I start doubting them more... It's just that I remain open to other things despite more things happening that fits in a Vmin narrative.

I honestly can't tell if you have read a lot of my posts before or not, but it doesn't seem like it, and thus it feels even more unfair for you to lay this judgement on me as well.

Then I got a third ask (edit: which was a second one from the first anon):

Anonymous asked:

I think I’m the anon you responded to. I did read more of your posts where you question things a bit. It’s nice to see you still have a healthy view point on things. I wasn’t really disagreeing with your posts, just wondering if you felt everything was being considered when coming to conclusions. Have a good one !

All this drama, and for what? :P But have a good one too I guess. Thanks for taking the time to read more and trying to understand my point of view.

I also got this ask from another person, and I hope you might understand what I meant after reading my reply to the first anon.

Hi I am sorry I am confused. Can you tell me why specifically you think Vmin alluded to sleeping together during the Billboard Vlive? Didn't Tae say he was talking to Jimin on the phone and told him to come over? Then at the press conference Jimin said "I was with Jungkook" and they were sitting stroking their phones. I am not a shipper or an anti shipper or anything like that. I just would love to see the receipts on this if you have them?

Again, I didn't mean Vmin slept together that day. But the fact that he asked and it seemed like a very normal (even perhaps expected) thing that one of them would go to the other, I can still express it as Tae alluding to Vmin sleeping together at least sometimes during their private time.

Now onto another anon, with a very different take. :)

Anonymous asked:

Spot on. Shipping is one thing but how can some people "believe" in a ship, I'll never understand. People need to realize that even with all the content we get (from concerts to DVDs to Run to BV to interviews), we only see them for maybe like 2-3 days (total) out of 365 days. Like? They visit a country for 7 days and we only get 10 hours of content from it. Do we have any idea what any of them is doing right at this moment? "Supporting" a ship is stupid even if you're right at the end.

Thank you anon. I don't fully agree that we get as little as 2-3 days total out of a year, but we definitely don't see the majority of their lives. And while you are a bit crude, I agree... Even if a ship is real, supporting and believing and being convinced of only one ship is at least in my opinion not the right way to go about it. Which is why I say let's speculate but also support them all whatever the truth might turn out to be.

There we go... It ended up being a lot of drama made out of nothing else than a small misunderstanding. Anyways, I hope I made myself clear. Thanks for the asks, sorry for the somewhat annoyed attitude and I hope you understood what I tried to say.

Thanks for reading. If any of you had the patience to do so all the way through I salute you. <3

#vmin #vmin analysis #bts shipping #btsandvmin answer #btsandvmin ask #btsandvmin #my post #this felt a bit like a waste of time #i hope someone reads it #but at least it will give me some peace of mind #rant

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yusuke96universe · 4 years ago

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WHAT IF: Goku Black Turned Good? (My Thoughts) What IF: Goku Black was a Turles Origin Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-DMTjlbnU

In the link above is MasakoX’s WHAT IF: Goku Black Turned Good? oneshot episode, and I really enjoyed it, but I feel like it had a bit of an underwhelming conclusion.

On top of my head, Zamasu forcing Black in non-consented Fusion with the rest remaining the same until the split from the Spirit Sword severing the Fusion. With the Mortal Black helping Trunks get a better shot at the vulnerable immortal Zamasu who needs to be hit before his body fully resets. By pinning him to the ground. Both of them die, but with one fully repented for his atrocities to Trunks and welcomes this divine justice being deliverd by his hand. Since it’s so fitting for Trunks to be the one to deliver the final blow to him. Goku Black and Zamasu meet again in the after life and make up. Gowasu gives his pupil a chance to start over by granting him his very life the same way Old Kai did for Goku and convincingly ensures how he will do everything in his power to allow Goku Black to not be erased by the higher ups.

I wanted to share my comment to it.

This is much closer to how I would have handled the Zamasu and Goku Black scenario with Goku's body rejecting Zamasu in small bursts like you said with passion and fleeting memories, but his memories being the more major ones for a change. Give Zamasu an arc learning 'what it's like walking in someone else's shoes'. Learning what it means to be mortal first hand and realizing where their purpose in the universe is for.

Granted, I would have taken more advantage of being in the Future timeline where Goku is a Fallen Savior, but his footprints are still ingrained in the people that Goku Black is killing. Black is influenced by the likes of Roshi, Oolong, Puar, Chi-chi, Ox-King, Baba, Korin, and Bulma, if not in the moment, in hindsight because they are planting seeds in him from Goku’s life.

Goku's innate purity and goodness teach Zamasu the mortals' potential through these people and how his body responds to their words and reactions to him. Future Trunks with the Resistance and Goku/ Vegeta hammers it home even further for Black to realize the error of his ways. I think he shouldn't die, but live on and live out a mortal's existence while just barely squeaking out from erasure for being instrumental in halting the arc, doing the Divine equivalent of community service for his crimes. He is the go-to errand boy for the Gods when they need him, but is acclimating to Universe 10 lower realms and forming relationships with the mortals that live there. He is no longer Zamasu, but he isn't Goku either, so he might go by Black from now on, or choose a Saiyan name to fit his body. He is going to take a few more pages from Goku's book. Maybe try martial arts since Universe 10 is filled with various martial artists and we can see how this blossoms in the next arc with the T.O.P.

The twist ending of Black being a Master Class Rebooted Turles

With a new lease on life, Black could give himself an appropriate Saiyan name for his story moving forward. It’s a fresh starting point for Turles.

In many ways, Goku Black was heavily inspired by the original evil Goku, Turles, So it stands to reason that we could just go all the way and just combine them.

This would have the audience recontextualize the arc and looking back to see all of their similarities as foreshadowing and looking forward to how this newly actualized character would be like. The name acting a tease to make people eager for what’s to come.

We could watch as a more open-minded Black had befriended some of his fellow competitors on the Universe 10 team and bonding with others as the T.O.P. progresses. In fact, he could be U10′s poster face like Hit is for U6 or Jiren is for U11 that gets us invested in the other Universes, at least as a threat and at most endearing us to them before they are erased to push the stakes of the arc. These guys could even act as a reference to both groups that fought in the Tree of Might. The loyal followers with varied backstories that Turles surrounded himself to display his open-mind and the Z-Fighters who were entirely made up of Martial Artists back then during the Tree of Might movie.

Movie Turles was hung up over the conflict of Goku’s and Gohan's purity vs the Saiyan's evil nature under the popular misconception that the Saiyans are supposed to be evil, but Toriyama mentions in supplemental materials, in actuality, Saiyans of old were more like Goku. So while the message is taking a different angle, it remains intact through Zamasu being a person who has had his life permanently changed by the 'true nature' of the Saiyan race which isn't evil, but ever striving for self-improvement.

Turles animosity toward Vegeta and his family from the games have been repackaged with Black being Future Trunks’ living nightmare and killing Future Bulma, and being a pale imitation in Vegeta’s eyes by using Goku’s body. So the multiple fights with Vegeta were very personal, but for the other side. Originally it was personal for Turles who had something to prove due to the social hierarchy putting the royalty in a much more favorable status than him being born a low class Saiyan, but Vegeta looked down on him for not training / earning his power in battles like a true Saiyan would.

Turles is better known for his signature Tree of Might, which always had Divine roots which are expanded and explored by making him a full on Kai.

Even right down to Black’s air of sophistication stemming from the Kais having proper manners being more intellectual types not only reflects Turles’ character being a clever Saiyan

Black rebelled against the Divine system in the same way Turles rebelled against the Saiyans by deserting the army

They also share the character flaw of skipping steps for power while looking down on others and being self-absorbed and closed-minded on certain viewpoints.

Goku Black and Turles have similar traits in their arrogance, but also their passion for battle coming out in troubling circumstances due to the Saiyan instincts.

Even right down to the way Zamasu and Turles are defeated are the same after having ravaged the planet and seemingly stripped it of all life and hope. They are both poetically defeated by the power of Earth's remaining living creatures finding hope as they come together in their darkest moments. One is a Spirit Bomb the other is a Spirit Sword. (Granted most of us ignore the Xeno Button)

#dragonball #dragon ball super #goku black #zamasu #gowasu #turles #reboot #dbz #headcannon #masakox #what if #dragon ball what if #tree of might #dbz movie villain

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skyeofloxlay · 4 years ago

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Duskwood - thoughts, observations and summaries - Part 1.

It is likely that there are already people who did this, but I would like to point out some things that I ended up putting aside as the episodes went on, but that I realized when I was reading the prints I took or even when I was playing for hundredth time. Unfortunately I'm not going to put the prints here as they are not in English, so it doesn't help much. And maybe, most of the things I write are obvious, or that everyone already knows, but I would like to write something to have some of my thoughts on some. (or just to have a summary for when chapter 8 comes and I get lost)

(again sorry if it have English errors or something is confusing, English is not my first language @_@)

WARNING: This post will talk about Duskwood events, so you better play before you read! Also, this post is really big, so you might end up getting bored. YOU'VE BEEN ADVISED

1 - Thomas received our number on the second day of Hannah's disappearance, where he himself said he received the night. He immediately spoke to all his friends about the number and then they were arguing for a long time, until finally after thinking hard, the next day, Thomas decides to contact the MC (And of course, there is the fact that the message is gone.)

2 - Thomas tells us that he tried to call Hannah when he received the MC number, someone answered the call, but nobody said anything.

3 - Thomas has a brother, and that is something I always forget. I suppose he is a younger brother? Maybe someone who's not old enough to drive or idk.

4 - Richy tries to fit in with the MC, which is apparently an unusual behavior, since Cleo was incredulous at what he was doing.

5 - Jake acted very cold the first time we talked to him. But I don't remember exactly when it changed ... I think I should see it on the prints and mention it later.

6 - Jake probably follows the philosophy "The ends justify the means", since he does anything, no matter the consequence, as long as he gets to where he wants to go. (In fact, he literally says that the ends justify the means xD)

7 - We have to hack Hannah's cloud because Jake can't do everything, and he says he's busy following other clues, but what are those? I don't remember him commenting on what clues he's following, well maybe I'll find out by looking at the prints of future chapters.

8 - Jake says that we should decrypt the cloud, and clearly decrypting is not a candy crush game with cubes, but I would say that in "real life" (as much as I have researched about decryption, I didn’t find anything that could help me a lot to understand how it works) you use some program that Jake sent you, you take encrypted files that have several strange letters and put them in this program, which happens to be a little slow, so to pass the time you decide to play Candy Crush. Which is why it takes so long before you can send an unencrypted file to Jake.

9 - Cleo adds us before going to work.

10 - Thomas comes back some time later, I would say it could be half an hour after he sent the message saying he had to get his brother.

11 - On the day of Hannah's disappearance, Jake put all of her friends in a group and talked about the situation. By the time Jake did that, Thomas was on his cell phone, so he saw it right away.

12 - We know that Jake somehow witnessed the kidnapping, but how? How did he see if he didn't even meet Hannah in person?

13 - Richy's house is 5 minutes from Hannah's.

14 - Cleo and Richy have a conversation that we can read. And Cleo asked Richy where all the sympathy had come from (probably about him wanting to put the MC in the group) Apparently before he didn't want Thomas to contact the number.

15 - Richy assumes that Hannah has had enough time to write a single message. If we put him as one of the suspects, as he is being at the moment, then was it he who gave Hannah the chance to send a message? Or was it Richy who sent it from Hannah's cell phone? But…. I don't know ... none of those things really make sense.

Unless Hannah managed to get her cell phone while Richy was away, and then sent the message, Richy soon afterwards arrives and sees what Hannah has done, takes her cell phone and deletes the message. (And answer the phone, but say nothing)

(Or we can also assume that it was Jake who sent our number on Hannah's cell phone ... but that doesn't fit much for some things in the future, I'll explain later)

16 - Richy thinks that inevitably, if the MC is guilty it will end up escaping something.

17 - We were able to decrypt the first photo, that if I'm right, we are decrypting newer photos to older ones? But that is not a very important detail, I think. We sent the photo to Jake and he asks if we had found this photo in Hannah's cloud. But why? Isn't it obvious that it was from Hannah's cloud? Wasn't that just our only job? Decrypt and send whatever you can to Jake ??? If we say we don't know what exactly to look for, Jake says he doesn't know either. So we're kind of literally in the dark! We have no idea what we have to find and neither does he know. But he says that it is still for us to continue to send what we find, because something can be more relevant if we look in more detail.

(Okay, the next one isn't so much what I thought, but the conversation between Jake and MC, because I love the interactions that it is possible to do with Jake and I couldn't leave it out. * ^ _ ^ *)

18 - Jake wishes us good luck, but now (I think only for premium) you can say you want to talk to him. Jake then looks confused and asks what we wanted to talk about, and we can say we want to talk about him. He seems to be even more confused about why we want to talk about him. I don't remember the other options or if he says the same thing it doesn't matter what we answer, but if we say that we find him interesting he says that "You know I'm not going to tell you anything about me, right?" (Sure, of course Jake, for sure everyone believes that) if we keep insisting, he ends up giving in and says that we can ask only one question. We can ask: I think between his hair color, if he lives in the city or country, or what programs does he use to hack?

His hair color is black, if I'm not mistaken he says he lives in the city and the last question I don't know the answer to.

He asks why we wanted to know (in the case of hair, I don't know about the others, but he probably asks the same thing). I think that regardless of what we answer, he says he doesn't believe in what he just did, because he shouldn't say anything about himself. (That is, this is where we can start to make Jake's walls start to fall and we can get closer to him :) ) He also says that hiding his identity is essential and asks if we are happy now. If we say yes and talk to ask a question, he gets more confused and says "You didn't want to talk to me, did you?" Regardless of what we talk about, he asks us how the weather is. We can say between: What a boring question / It's raining / Very well, I would say. (I think those were the questions).

He then admits that it was not the most interesting topic, but we can say that it remains interesting nonetheless. He so says he hasn't had a conversation in a long time... (oh, I feel you Jake, I don't know how to talk to people either, but look, you're talking to me :) even though you don't really exist ;_;) He then asks if we were stuck on an island, what would we most like to have. I said that I would like to have books, and he says "hmm" (but if I'm not mistaken he says that for everything we answer) we can ask him what he would like to have, and he says he would choose his computer, but then he tells us to forget what he said and says he has more to do, and asks if everything was clear now.

19 - We can ask him if he doesn't ask himself who we are. And this point I find interesting. He says "You play a key role in all this mess. Why do you suddenly appear in such mysterious circumstances? What do you really have to do with all of this? Obviously, I wonder who you are. I already told you something about me again ... I'm going to have to go now. Otherwise, I will end up saying my name or worse. " This means that he would not have been the one who sent our number by Hannah's cell phone because he doesn't know who the MC is. There is less that he is lying very well, but I think not.

20 - Thomas asks if we have time to talk to him, and then says that in a way MC is one of them now. So he says he will put pictures of Hannah on his profile so that we can try to remember her in some way.

21 - Did we find a picture of a bridge? That's probably in the forest?

22 - Jessy then contacts us saying that she wants to get to know us better? Is it just me who found this strange and uncomfortable?

23 - Even though she never spoke to us and left the group, she says that MC is part of the group now. And she decides to talk to us in the middle of her work.

24 - We found out that Jessy works with Richy.

25 - She keeps trying to get to know MC more, which made me very uncomfortable because I really didn't want to talk to her and even then she kept talking to MC.

26 - So we got to see one more conversation, but this time it's between Thomas and Cleo, where Thomas says that he put some pictures for the MC to see, and said that it seemed strange, and said that there was nothing strange about the MC's behavior. So Cleo tells Thomas that then he cannot draw a conclusion about what role we (MC) play. Thomas then said goodbye and they went offline.

27 - Jessy talks to the MC again, nothing interesting that is worth mentioning.

28 - We found a photo of a cat in Hannah's cloud

29 - Thomas sends a message again, now asking if we recognize Hannah, replying that we really don't know her, he says "oh, yeah, it's okay" and goes offline.

30 - Jake answers us and we start talking about our findings. He says he will try to extract information from the photos.

31 - He asks for time to be able to analyze it and says he has an advantage for us, and sends a cell phone number. He says the police are very focused on Thomas and that we should be focusing on someone else. If we ask why we should do this, he replies, "As I said before, you piqued my interest. That's all you need to know at the moment." Then he tells us to add the number. And as soon as we added it, we found out the number was from Dan.

32 - Dan gets worried and says several no, and asks who sent us after him. You can choose from a few people to say who sent you there, but I think regardless of who you choose, he will say the same: "What? Fuck it. I don't care. Damn them. And you leave me alone." And then it goes offline.

33 - If you choose Jessy, he will ask her why she gave his number to the MC, and she says that she didn't, so he says that the MC is lying and that someone gave his number. Jessy also says that if he wants people to stop seeing him as a suspect, he just has to stop acting like one.

34 - We got a call. Someone threatening us.

35 - We contacted Jake and talked about what happened. Jake asks what the kidnapper said, and we can say "That I should stay out of other people's business." Jake asks what he looked like, and we can say he looked like a maniac.

36 - If we say that we had better follow the kidnapper's advice, Jake says that we shouldn't do that, and that there was nothing to worry about. And that we could consider that connection as something positive, because that meant the kidnapper was coming out of hiding, and that would make him vulnerable. And that he is probably concerned about the MC being in the investigation. Jake also says that we are a drag on the kidnapper, and that the MC can't trust anyone in the group. He also said that he was right about the MC and that we are going to save Hannah.

37 - Jessy calls us and other people in the group saying they found a body. She creates a group and adds us, Dan, Cleo and Richy.

38 - Jessy and Cleo argue.

39 - Cleo says she will tell Lilly about the body.

40 - And then in a way we kind of obliged to tell Thomas about the body.

41 - When we talk about the body found, Thomas immediately goes offline.

42 - We tell the group this.

43 - If we tell the group that we should have waited to tell Thomas, Richy says that MC would not say that if knew how much gossip is spreading around the city.

44 - Dan asks us what we think about Thomas's suspicious actions.

45 - Richy asks what we do now and Cleo replies that the only way was to wait.

46 - Everyone goes offline and after a while Jake sends a message saying that he has something new, that a corpse had been found. But he was talking about the same corpse that we discovered by the group, that is, we had important information even before him.

47 - He is impressed with how we got the information before him and how MC already seems to be part of the group.

48 - Then he asks if we got the picture of the cat in Hannah's cloud. (again, isn't that obvious??? This is our mission! Decrypt Hannah's cloud photos and files !!! Why do you keep asking that Jake ??)

49 - If we ask if there is something wrong to Jake, he just replies "Never mind. It's okay." And then it goes offline.

50 - We decrypt what appears to be a medical prescription, but which is in a terrible resolution. Jake says he will try to fix the image better and goes offline.

51 - Jessy says that Cleo invaded the junkyard

52 - Jessy says that the MC should make Cleo tell Richy what she did.

53 - Cleo says he needs to talk to us. She says she can tell us a little bit about Hannah.

54 - If we ask if Hannah has siblings, Cleo replies that Lilly is her younger sister, and asks if we didn't know that until now. If we say, "I meant besides Lilly". Cleo replies that Lilly is Hannah's only sibling.

55 - If we ask Cleo if it was possible that Hannah simply ran away, Cleo replies that there was no reason for her to do that since Hannah's life was starting to go well. She had a great family, an amazing boyfriend and was happy with her career.

56 - If we say that maybe things were happening that she didn't know, Cleo replies that she knows that everyone has secrets, but having such a terrible secret and having to escape Duskwood without a trace, she would know that. She also comments on the fact that the Hacker saw the hijacking.

57 - If we ask Cleo if she thinks the kidnapper could be someone in the group, she says she doesn't believe it is anyone of them.

58 - When asked if Hannah had any enemies, Cleo replies that she was not sure, and that everyone loved Hannah.

59 - At that moment we can question Cleo or not for the invasion of the junkyard. If we don't say anything, she just says that she has to do some things and that she can't sit and wait.

60 - If we ask her plan, she says she'll ask for downtown and maybe know if someone found Hannah before she disappeared. She spoke the names of three of the biggest gossips in the city: Mrs. Walter, owner of the hotel. Mrs. Sully, the queen of gossip and Phil Hawkins, owner of Aurora bar.

61 - She says the bar hasn't opened yet, but we can suggest to Cleo who she should talk to first. And then she says she'll talk to us later.

62 - We found a picture of Hannah apparently in the forest.

63 - We see a conversation between Richy and Jessy.

64 - Richy is talking about something Jessy said to us. He says that Jessy should be more careful with the MC and then says that Jessy should know something about the MC, but then he needs to stop by the office and not talk about what it was.

65 - Jake, who was reading the messages between Richy and Jessy, is annoyed that Richy didn't say what he wanted to say.

66 - We asked him if he was reading the messages, and he says yes, because you never know where you can find the next piece of the puzzle. If we ask him if he always reads other people's messages, he replies that only the most interesting ones and asks us if the MC was judging him.

67 - If we say that we are judging him a little, he says that the MC was also reading their messages. We can answer that we are doing this because he told us to do this. So he says we're only doing this so that we can find Hannah.

68 - Jake asks ask us what we think Richy and Jessy are talking about us. If we say we have no idea, Jake responds with "Really? Not even a hunch?" so we can say that we’ve never talked to Richy before, and Jake thinks that’s strange. Jake assumes that Richy would tell Jessy why he doesn't trust MC. We can then answer "Don't trust anyone. It's your words, not mine." and "Do you trust me?", Jake answers the question with "Would I have given you access to Hannah's cloud if I didn't?" We can then tell Jake that he doesn't even know us that well, and he says "Maybe Jessy wasn't the only person who felt an immediate connection with you"

If we ask "Is that a compliment?" Jake says yes, and he would talk to us later.

69 - Cleo sends a message saying that she arrived at the hotel, but that Mrs. Walter was not at the reception. Cleo then says that Lilly used to work at the Hotel reception before, but apparently she doesn't work there anymore. Cleo then comments that Alfie, Mrs. Walter's son, is playing in a mud puddle in front of the hotel. We told Cleo that she should talk to Alfie, and after a while she comes back saying that he had called her "Friend of the dead girl" and then Cleo replies that Hannah was not yet dead and asked him who was saying these terrible things. Alfie then says that he saw Hannah being taken by the Man without a face.

If we say that he probably saw a man in a mask, Cleo replies that there is a legend in Duskwood about a "Man without a face" and that we should ask Jessy about it because she likes legends, and then in the meantime Cleo would talk to Mrs. Sully.

70 - We asked Jessy about the legend of the mwaf, and also commented that Alfie had seen Hannah being taken by him to the forest.

71 - We found out that Jessy was once Alfie's Nanny. And she says that he may well have invented it, since he has mental problems.

72 - Jessy creates a group about the Duskwood legends and puts Richy together, since he was born in Duskwood and could talk more about the legend than she did. But since Richy was working, they had to leave that for later.

73 - Cleo sends us a message saying she talked to Mrs. Sully, who says she saw Hannah coming out of the pharmacy and that she looked very worried, and then she sat on the patio of the Rainbow Café.

74 - We asked Cleo what Hannah had bought at the pharmacy, but she doesn't know. So she says that she will try to do something and that in the meantime we should try to find out more about the "mwaf".

75 - We talked to Richy and Jessy about Alfie and the mwaf.

76 - Jessy tells the legend of the mwaf. She says the legend is older than Duskwood, they say he lives inside the forest and at night he walks through the dark streets of the city. He marks the door of the greatest sins with a sign from the crow, and then on the night of the first new moon each year, he returns the marked houses and takes all the people from that house, whether guilty or not. No one knows exactly what he does with these people, but supposedly he takes them into the forest and these people never come back.

77 - We can then assume that the kidnapper is trying to copy the legend.

78 - Cleo sends us a message again, telling us a story that Lilly told her about Alfie.

79 - Cleo said it happened last year, in the fall. One of the guests complained to Lilly about a bad smell in his room, Lilly went to the room, but felt nothing, so she gave the guest another room. When she returned to the room she noticed the smell, but could not find where it came from, she then spoke to Mrs. Walter who spoke with the janitor Old Gray. After he cleaned it, Lilly, as she was curious to know what had given off that stench, goes to the trash and saw that Alfie's canary (Mr. Featherly) was dead and with a crushed beak and broken wings.

80 - Apparently Alfie killed the canary.

81 - We then see a conversation between Dan and Lilly. He was commenting that he was sure that the body found was not Hannah's. Lilly then asks Dan if he could come here (probably to her house), and Dan agrees.

Well, I think I better stop here, because I already wrote a lot and there is still a lot to write. To tell you the truth, I don't even know where I am in the story, I don't know if it's still chapter 1, or it's already 2 or maybe 3. But anyway, that's it. I will continue to write my observations / thoughts / summaries of the story when I have time and motivation. At the moment I want to see if I can draw something with Jake x MC and maybe write some theories that are in my head.

I hope that what I have written can help you in some way, or just remember what was going on at the beginning of the game. (Or maybe all of this is useless and it was really boring, so I'm sorry ;_;) See you later :)

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hexdream18243 · 4 years ago

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Duskwood - What's next?

Probably soon we will get a new episode, so now I want to share my fanfiction written around two months ago, about my feelings and thoughts after 8 episode. (sorry for a little OoC Jake, I needed him to sort my theories) Also I'm not English speaker, this story is translated from my native language (Polish). Sorry for any errors!

Warnings: episode 8 spoilers!!!, description of "death"(?), my own theories Word count: 1509 Summary: It's about what my MC felt during MWAF call and how conversation with Jake would look after that. AO3 link As soon as Thomas and Jessy escaped safely from that house, I was overwhelmed with relief. It was unbearable when Jessy decided to go to the bunker on her own and ignore my message to wait for Thomas. It's unbelievable! Are these people crazy? They shouldn't ignore the threat, NEVER, especially when we don't know where the enemy is. They shouldn’t go anywhere alone. Cleo was watched when she was alone, Jessy attacked when she was alone and Richy was kil... He was alone then too. He did not wait for anyone either. That was the only reason I didn't want Thomas to go looking for Richy himself. Because we could have lost him too.

And now my worst fears have been confirmed! When I saw the hideout of the man without face, I wasn't sure what was wrong. Something wasn’t right. Only after a moment it hit me. Candles! The threat was near. If they weren’t together there, I don't know how it could have ended.

Lilly had barely written that she was calling the police when my phone rang. I had a feeling I might know who it was.

“It wasn’t enough for you, that I killed the mechanic?” – I heard a familiar hoarse voice. I shuddered. He want to tell me more threats, right?– “It’s over now. I will kill them all. Cleo. Thomas. Lilly. Jessy. And Dan. Every single one of them!” - Though it's hard for me to admit it, I was just waiting for him to say Jake’s name. Because if he does not know about his existence, does not know that he is important, then we have an ace up our sleeve. A wanted ace. In the hideout. But ace afterall. – “And. You. Will. Watch!” – I didn’t liked the sound of this sentence. Probably just a moment ago I received confirmation that these are not vain threats. That Richy is really dead. But I still didn't allow myself to accept that. I can't now. I can't be afraid. Not while talking to this man. – “And in the end. I’ll be coming for you.”

The caller hung up. I put the phone face down and exhaled a breath. The last threat didn't really scare me. All right, he'll come for me. It will take a while. I don't live in Duskwood, I'm not even close, I'm from another country. I wish him good luck finding me. I'm not even sure if he knows what I look like. I have never turned on the camera during a conversation, and my photos on social media are not under the same name which I introduced myself to the rest of the group. Why would I tell them my real name? I used a pseudonym. I’m sure Jake knows that. That's why I never asked him for his name. I didn’t have the right to know as I never given mine. Especially as he wanted to stay as anonymous as he could. I understand that.

But now is not the time to consider being anonymous. As far as I can tell I am, but the rest of them? They are not. He really knows them. He knows what they look like. He saw Thomas and Jessy running away. They're all in Duskwood. Only me and Jake are safe. But they are not.

My consciousness finally made me realize the full implication of the man’s without face words. He wants to kill them. Before my eyes.

When I spoke to Richy, I could see that he was trying very hard to let me see him. As if with the last of his strength he was forcing himself to put the phone in the right position. Maybe he wanted to say something. But the blood from his mouth must have surprised him, and he was unable to say anything clear. And then the phone fell down. Probably Richy released his grab when he passed out. Yes. Passed out. I still don't want to believe Richy is dead. If I do this, I will break down. Anyway, I really don't like the idea of seeing the rest of the group die before my eyes. I don't want to lose them.

Suddenly I heard a ping from my phone. The group or Jake. I bet on the latter.

Jake Tirada?

You Another threatening call.

He was definitely listening. He almost always listens. So he should know what was said.

Jake I know. I heard.

You He threatened them. He threatened me. That he would kill us. He said Richy is dead.

Jake He want to scare you. Nothing will happen to you.

You I know I'll be fine. I'm not from Duskwood. But THEY are not safe. He can attack them anytime!

Jake We won't let him do that. Look, he got scared. He want you to be scared too. That we would stop looking. It means we're very close to find Hannah's kidnapper!

I am well aware why the kidnapper called me. I agree with Jake. He got scared that we are so close and we found his hiding place. Although…

You How did he know Thomas and Jessy would be there?

Jake What?

He must have been confused by my sudden change of subject, though he should have been used to it by now.

You It does not make sense. Candles were lit behind the closed door. This is fire hazard.

Jake ?

You You saw how that place looked like. It would be really easy to set everything on fire. And why he used candles? Wouldn't it be better to use flashlights or lanterns? It was a hideout from a horror movie. Is it because he tends to be dramatic? That’s why he used a legend and impersonate himself as one? I sincerely doubt it. Jake, it looked like it was set up. Man without a face knew they would be there. I’m sure of it. Who is wearing a mask entering his own hideout? What for?

Jake Wait a second. Aren’t you jumping to conclusions?

You What do you mean?

Jake Their car was parked in the driveway. Maybe he had the mask with him and he put it on because he saw the vehicle?

You Then why he left? Why he wasn’t inside?

I started to wonder. What reason could he have for going outside?

You Do you think the car was audible from the hideout?

Jake I don’t know. It is possible.

You I have two theories.

Jake I listen.

You The first one: Everything was prepared for the arrival of Thomas and Jessy. The man without a face knew they were coming. Therefore, he prepared his burrow very carefully. It is possible that he wanted to attack them by a surprise.

Jake And the second one?

You The man was in the hideout when he heard the car. He went out to check who is coming from a distance. Just in case, he took the mask with him. When he saw that it was Thomas and Jessy, he decided to wait for the right opportunity and strike. He must have seen they were on the phones, so he didn't want to act right away. So that we wouldn't be able to warn anyone.

Jake I need to think about it.

You Jake. I really don’t want any of my theories come true. Especially the first one.

Jake That would mean that someone from the group informed him.

You Exactly. I’m afraid of that.

I hesitated. Both of the theories made a shiver run down my spine. Although I knew both of them weren't quite accurate. They didn't explain everything. Before I can draw any more conclusions, I need to talk to Thomas and Jessy. And the rest. I need to check what was possible and what was not. Could he watched them? How did the sound spread around in that place? Did they see another car while escaping? There were a lot of things ahead of me.

Jake Don’t worry. If all goes well, the police will catch him. There was enough evidence to arrest him.

You Sorry, but I'll be pessimistic. I'm sure he knows the police have been called. I'm waiting for information about the fire.

Jake It's all because of his threats. You're upset.

You I know. I have to inform the rest.

Jake Yes.

He started to type something but I didn’t wait.

You There is one plus of this man’s call.

Jake What do you mean?

You We know something new. The man without a face doesn’t know about you. Despite Lilly’s video. He didn’t threaten you.

After writing this, I left the conversation and turned on group chat. I was a bit calmer. I was still afraid for my friends' lives, but now I felt that I can warn them and bear their own anxiety for their lifes. I have to be strong. I have to be their support. Because if I panic too, it'll be over.

GROUP CHAT

You Guys? I got another threatening phone call. It's not good.

~Thank you for your reading!~

#Duskwood #Jake #MC #fanfiction #my fanfiction #What's next?#ep8 #spoilers #MWAF

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snicketstrange · 5 years ago

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What R was trying to say

I decided to return the letter from R to Lemony in LSTUA and re-analyze my conclusions. (Read Chapter 2 from LSTUA) To update you, I had deduced that this letter was written after the publication of TWW and before the publication of TMM. (Because R claims to have seen the arrival of what appears to be the original TMM manuscript, including the papers gum cited by Lemony in the letter to the editor regarding TMM). When you combine that with what is in chapter 9 of LSTUA, that Lemony received the invitation to the ball at which he ended up being captured after the publication of TRR in the ASOUE universe, it makes even more sense. I also deduced that most likely R's letter must have been written by R, due to the intimate details that only a private friend would know about Lemony. (Of course, there is the possibility that another close friend / enemy of Lemony's wrote the letter pretending to be R, but this is unlikely.) But still, I allow myself to think about the possibility that an enemy of Lemony is trying to deceive him. But I came to an impasse: if it was an enemy of Lemony trying to trick him into writing this letter, naturally the letter would contain some sort of strategy to harm Lemony in some way, maybe even scheduling a date with Lemony, or asking him to go to a certain place or act in some dangerous way. However, the letter contains only a request from R: "Study these photographs, my friend". This isn't dangerous at all, and I can't think of how an enemy of Lemony could possibly harm Lemony by asking Lemony to study some photographs. Lemony, in his personal notes, gave two possibilities for the meaning of the letter and the errors he noted in the letter. Either the author of the letter was not R (which I discarded for the reasons already explained) or R was trying to say something. (He still mentions the possibility that R is talking about another car, but I didn't find any logical sense in this hypothesis raised by Lemony.) So I deduce that R was trying to say something. However, she needed to be very subtle. Apparently there were arsonists disguised nearby as she wrote the letter. (We know this thanks to the insertion of the word "crickets" in the letter. According to Uncle Monty, crickets are trained to pass on information about the proximity of enemies that are likely to be disguised. (LSTUA chapter 10 page 167) Most likely R feared that the letter might fall into the wrong hands, or perhaps she was under the watch of an enemy who allowed her to write to Lemony, as long as she did not reveal any important information. In this case, when R purposely missed the car color, R would be inserting a Duress code. But now we have reached the point of drastic change in my point of view. Thanks to the chronology and content of the letter, I had defended the idea that Beatrice survived the fire in her house, and in the Masked Ball in which Lemony was captured (which happened a few years after the main events recorded in ASOUE) Beatrice was indeed over there. However, this conclusion did not please Hermes (a member of the staff of Dark Avennue 667 - Answering the wrong questions) for a simple and very logical reason. If Beatrice had survived, she would have looked for and found her own children, because Beatrice loved her children. I tried to deny Beatrice's love for her children, but the more I looked for sources the more I became convinced that Beatrice really loved her children. So, everything leads us to believe that Beatrice did indeed die on the day of her house fire. To try to reconcile this with that, many readers try to find ways to change the chronology, putting that ball to happen in the past, before the main events narrated in ASOUE, or during the main events recorded in ASOUE. This does not please me at all, because that is not what the evidence indicates. Others resort to the idea of Lemony published the books several times in his universe, although the only canonical republication in the ASOUE universe was TBB: The Rare Edition. And book after book has evidences that Lemony published ASOUE years after the main events recorded in it, despite having started writing at the time of the events is true. As I have already written, until the publication of LSTUA all the evidence pointed to this, in TSS and TGG we have some contradictory evidence of this, and in TE we have again evidence of this. It will be a pleasure to write about it again in the light of my new point of view. But what do I really think at the moment about what happened at the Masked Ball? At the moment, the most likely thing for me is that Lemony was deceived by some enemy. After the publication of TWW, this enemy made Lemony believe that Beatrice was alive. This enemy made Lemony believe that it would be a good idea to try to get to the Masked Ball, even though Lemony knew it would be dangerous. And this enemy's plan worked. Lemony was actually captured at that Ball, because he exposed himself unnecessarily. Strangely, I have evidence of this. Let's go to the description of the Ball in TAA chapter 11: "I was disguised as a bullfighter and slipped into the party while being pursued by the palace guards, who were disguised as scorpions. " Note that the palace guards were already waiting for Lemony, and having disguised himself as a bullfighter did not help him pass invisibly through the guards, even though it was a ball in which everyone was disguised. In other words, even though Lemony had informed him that he was going to attend the Ball using a Sebald code as shown in LSTUA chapter 9, the information that he would be at the ball was leaked. Or they already expected that it would appear, because they put a very appetizing cheese in the mousetrap. Someone pretending to be Beatrice. Let's continue: "Because I felt like a different person, I dared to approach a woman I had been forbidden to approach for the rest of my life. She was alone on the veranda ... and costumed as a dragonfly, with a glittering green mask and enormous silvery wings. " Note that this supposed Beatrice was wearing a mask. The obvious question is "could Lemony be sure that this woman was really Beatrice"? "As my pursuers scurried around the party, trying to guess which guest was me, I slipped out to the veranda and gave her the message I'd been trying to give her for fifteen long and lonely years." Beatrice, "I cried, just as the scorpions spotted me, "Count Olaf is--". Note that everything indicates that the time that the supposed Beatrice and Lemony spent together at that party were few moments. Lemony probably didn't even hear her voice. Now let's get back the letter from R to Lemony. Note some things that R tries to say to Lemony in a subtle way (LSTUA chapter 2): "Beatrice, OF COURSE, is far past complaining about lost possessions." About the children, R wrote: "Are they gone, TOO?" It gets mixed up in the middle of things that were also gone. But, with care, you could deduce that she was saying that Beatrice was indeed dead. Now, note R's request for Lemony to study the photos. She described the photos in a subtle way. 1- "The portrait of your sister and me". 2 - "The portrait we told everyone that it was your sister and me but it really wasn't". Why did R want Lemony to study these photos? I believe she wanted Lemony to get the following message: "Don't always believe in the identity that someone claims to have, since we ourselves have lied about our own identity several times already." 3 - The portrait of the Second Annual Codebreaking Picnic. What could that mean? This is simple: "You, Lemony, will have to figure out what information I'm trying to give you in a similar way to how we did it in these annual picnics, because I can't use any known VFD code, because our enemies know the same codes that us. " 4 and 5 - "Two images of our meeting room, the first empty, and the second with a solitary figure, waiting patiently for the seassion to begin in that enormous room of green wood. How content this young woman looks, isn't it? How content and so flammable. " Note that R does not say the name of this young woman. But evidently Lemony could recognize the person in the photo. R claims that the young woman is flammable. I believe that this is evidence that the young woman is really Beatrice. R is saying to Lemony: "Beatrice died in the fire at her house". But R needs to say it in a subtle way, so that enemies who are trying to trick Lemony can still use the trap of trying to attract Lemony through Beatrice's false survival story again. Ah, that helps us understand why Lemony was running away from someone named Beatrice Baudelaire on TBL. He feared being cheated again. Lemony's way of thinking is evident in the letter BB to LS # 1, in which Lemony indicates that she believes the author of the letter is an imposter, perhaps someone whose initial E.

#ASOUE #LSTUA #beatrice baudelaire #TBL #Lemony Snicket #lemony snicket the unauthorized autobiography #asoue theory

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bylerchoseme · 6 years ago

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Let me start by saying Elsa did not grow as a character. She didn’t experience any type of self growth. She is still the same Elsa from Frozen 1. You’d think by now she would be less about herself and more about letting people in and I couldn’t be more wrong. She pushes people away. At this point, that’s getting repetitive. That’s her storyline. There isn’t change involved.

I understand as a child, being new to powers isn’t easy to deal with. At that time, it made sense for Elsa to not want to be around people because she was discovering herself. As she got older, her desire to shut everyone out made sense to an extent considering she didn’t have contact with the outside world. 13 years of loneliness makes a person incapable of interacting with others. I felt her dilemma.

Running away from her problems like she did in Frozen 1 where she built a castle isolated her from the world once again. She was only hurting people and herself in the process. She still didn’t have a connection with anyone. Her life was the same except she grew up. Avoiding problems doesn’t help her situation. In fact, those issues eventually catch up to her.

Anna and Elsa were separated two times in both movies. The first time was when they were children. The second time was when Elsa had Marshmallow scare Anna away from the castle. The third time was when Elsa sent Anna and Olaf away in a boat. The fourth time was when Elsa decided to go live in the forest. My point is Elsa and Anna had the same storyline without a change.

Elsa hasn’t changed in the second movie. In fact, she became worse. She allowed the voice to control her every move and distract her from the important things. She cared more about the mysterious identity calling her than anything else. Elsa only cared about Elsa. She doesn’t consider anyone else. She can be selfish sometimes too.

Tossing away her status as queen to live with strangers while at the same time putting those responsibilities on Anna is irresponsible and inconsiderate. Arendelle should be important to her. She shouldn’t have forgotten her place and people. Elsa’s storyline didn’t progress. Elsa did what Elsa wanted to do. That’s all. The writers clearly don’t care about her development.

When you use the first draft as the foundation of the plot, that’s not proper. I think the writers wanted the Frozen franchise to end once and for all. They didn’t put thought, effort, dedication, passion, determination, and love into Frozen 2. Now I can see why. Disney wants Frozen to be laid to rest. Consider F2 a disservice.

The only part that stood out to me regarding Elsa was Show Yourself but only because of the powerful song and touching message. I loved the sequence for visual reasons. I loved Elsa’s transformation. I can admit that was beautiful otherwise I would be lying. That’s the main reason why I went to see Frozen 2. If it weren’t for Show Yourself, I would have skipped out on Frozen 2. I saw the movie twice.

Often times writers forget the heart of their original movie and make mistakes with a new one. That’s why sequels pale in comparison. Originals are way better. That’s just how it is. Sometimes it’s best to live things alone. Frozen didn’t need a Frozen 2.

The bigger problem is the writers thinking the previous audience would still be interested in Frozen today when in reality most of them are tweens and teenagers. They’re either not interested anymore because they grew up or care a bit but not too much. There are new children today that watch Frozen. Frozen 2 should have been written for them. Kids eventually outgrow animated films and move on to new things. 6 years later is too late.

I don’t need people telling me Elsa pushed Anna away in Frozen 2 because of her powers. Anna has seen Elsa at her worst when she was shot in the heart. That’s when Elsa lost control. Anna saw it happen. She was there. There isn’t a reason why Elsa should be afraid of Anna being in danger. Anna survived a ton. She is strong and is capable of fighting for her life.

Elsa only cares about Elsa. Elsa hasn’t put Anna first since Frozen and she didn’t in Frozen 2 either. Making her queen isn’t putting Anna first. Elsa takes Anna for granted. Anna never wanted to be a queen. She just needed Elsa. Frozen 2 made that very clear to us.

This is the part people don’t like to hear and you know what? I don’t care. Elsa pushes Anna away because like it or not Elsa fell in love with Anna. She doesn’t want to be looked down upon by society and resorts to doing the best thing she knows which is making sure Anna isn’t around. With Anna around, Elsa’s feelings would grow.

Elsa is doing damage control by not having any contact with Anna. The movie wants you to think she does but she doesn’t. Those feelings won’t disappear. The longer she doesn’t see her, the more fire that creates. The writers made them come as across as romantic and want to turn away from that. Unfortunately, that’s not possible. Don’t start something you can’t finish.

I thought long and hard about this and reached a conclusion. Anna’s fear of losing Elsa is the driving force behind her constant desire to want to be in Elsa’s presence. She knows she could lose Elsa. I think a part of her knew she would eventually lose Elsa. She wanted to live in these special moments with her as long as possible.

Anna goes far for Elsa. The love Anna has for Elsa is deemed to be romantic. I don’t think she is aware of what she is doing. Love makes you do crazy things. She would even die for Elsa. Elsa is Anna’s life. Elsa is Anna’s star. Remember that. That’s what hits me hard.

If Elsa only saw Anna as a sister, she wouldn’t need to hide. The irony of this is that Elsa moved to the forest after the Kristanna proposal. It seems to me like she didn’t want to stick around and watch the two of them together. She wanted to be away. When you think of it like this, it makes sense. When you think about it as a big character arc, the separation makes no sense.

The beach seals the deal on Elsanna for obvious reasons. In order to notice the little animations, you have to watch it slowly. If you watch the movie normally, those little actions aren’t straight forward. I even posted some of them. Just because you may not like Elsanna as a couple doesn’t mean the little things aren’t there. The animators didn’t even try to hide anything.

The beach scene made Elsa and Anna look like girlfriends. They were intimate. Turning a blind eye doesn’t erase the touching and stares that took place. It’s there if you want to see it. If not, it’s still present either way. Elsanna shippers saw what the animators wanted us to see.

The animators and other creators of Frozen 2 took Elsanna on a whole other level. I don’t know why they did this or what they were trying to achieve exactly. China is one factor because Elsanna is a huge ship there. I guess you don’t want to piss off China. I wouldn’t want to either. Either way, the beach scene exists.

Anna and Elsa should have, could have, and were supposed to be girlfriends. Disney made a huge error making them sisters. They don’t act like sisters to me. I think they realized their mistake too late. The sisterly dynamic failed. Even adults are starting to notice.

I won’t mention names but certain people said Anna and Elsa are the romance of Frozen and that they have a love affair. Another person said Anna and Elsa could be perceived as romantic. People that haven’t watched Frozen think Anna and Elsa are a couple. I can’t imagine their shock when they found out they’re actually sisters.

#elsanna #elsa and anna #frozen 2 #frozen

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onisiondrama · 5 years ago

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PART 16 - videos #30 & 31

(Click here for video mirrors) - These are not my words or thoughts, I’m just summarizing what Greg / James is saying in his videos. Apologies for any offensive language or comments that may appear. - I am not repeating stories anymore and will replace these stories with brackets describing what he’s talking about. If you don’t know these stories you’re going to have to go back and read previous parts or watch his previous videos.

in depth

- Greg announced his face is red because he just got out of the Jacuzzi. He laughs and says he has a genetic defect that makes him look ugly in hot water. - Someone messaged him on Discord. They wanted to ask him a question, but they were afraid he’d ban them. He says he understands and didn’t ban them. Instead he’s making this video. - Kai was threatening to leave him if Greg spoke about this. The Discord person wanted to know why Kai would stop Greg from speaking out if Kai was innocent. Greg says he wants you to imagine someone forced their mouth on your lower region and made you very uncomfortable. You express you’re generally uncomfortable, but not too clear so the other parties thought there was a chance it would work out. You’re embarrassed because you weren’t 100% about it from the get go and as it progressed you got less into it. You felt terrible because your husband would say this is what he wanted because he thought the other person truly cared about you. He thought you were just being cold and heartless because you were ignoring how loyal and dedicated the other person was. Greg says imagine being Kai in all this and being called a cruel person for not taking part because Greg is an asshole and didn’t relate to Kai. Kai is horrified and humiliated. Kai felt gross and freaked out since Sarah went up and kissed Kai. This whole thing was a nightmare for Kai so he didn’t want to re-live it, like a true victim. Kai wasn’t 100% your typical tragedy, but Kai went through something hard. Greg was helping the other person instead of helping Kai or respecting Kai’s boundaries. - Greg says the Discord person brought up a photo where the bottom isn’t cropped out. Greg says Kai took an obvious selfie for Instagram and it was posted to Instagram. It shows a silhouette of Kai’s lower region. It’s obviously not meant to be a sexual image. There is an image of Kai’s accidental nip slip. That was not sexual and it happened to Kai before in videos. Nip slips happens sometimes to people who have nipples. People are using these two images to prove Kai is a pervert and sent those images. Problem is there is no context to these images. - Sarah knows she was never supposed to have those images. She knows the context of the images and hasn’t been honest about it because she’s trying to hurt him because he rejected her because he doesn’t want to sleep with her because she was creepy in Aladdin. [He reenacts Sarah trying to get his attention while he’s enjoying Aladdin.] He says she told him later she wanted to b-l-o-w him in the theater. She knew she couldn’t do that anyway because she wasn’t allowed to go mouth to crotch. He didn’t want to make out with her at Aladdin because it was a good movie and he was getting a bad vibe from her. He says after when she was shaming him he was thinking “can’t we have one day where you’re not weird?” - Says Sarah has a laptop. It might be a different laptop then the one he thought it was. It was either Kai’s very old laptop or semi old laptop. He never logged into any accounts on either, but it may have Kai’s old account. He’s not sure if it was wiped before it was given to Sarah. He doesn’t know how she could have access to Kai’s data. - It’s ridiculous people call Kai a pervert when they don’t know the context about the selfies and the selfies don’t even show much. This whole thing is about Sarah getting back at Greg for rejecting him. He says he knows this because she tweeted she still had a lot of love for Kai, but she’s dragging Kai in the most slanderous campaign Greg has ever seen. She doesn’t love Kai, she’s destroying his life with lies. [Blooper video fake crying.] Greg says he hasn’t seen the blooper video. He can’t watch any of those videos because it’s a disgusting carnival of idiot clowns dancing around. They all came to a conclusion because they all have issues from their past that they push on other people. They act like everyone else is the villain when they need to focus n the real villains. [Crime against Sarah, compares her reaction to Kai’s] - Says Kai didn’t leave him and settled with Greg going to therapy. Greg says he’s happy to go to a therapist because it’s good to sort out your mental problems. Everyone should see on, especially Sarah who was prescribed medication for her head problems. - He don’t understand how anyone could not see how fluid, clear, consistent, and obvious this all is. [Blooper video differences] He says if it was a real blooper, the setting and time wouldn’t change. [He moved the camera and messes up his shirt to demonstrate how a blooper would not be.] Too many inconsistencies. - Greg doesn’t keep track of Kai’s laptop or texts. - Kai recently told Greg he was surprised when he saw Sarah’s body for the first time after they were blackmailed. This tells Greg Kai never saw any photos. If he found out Kai was sending photos to someone that age he would have kicked Kai out. You know this for a fact because even Sarah will admit Greg kicked her out over “dat booty tho” comment and outrage. Greg says it’s 100% his belief Sarah is lying.

whelp

- Someone on Discord told Greg Sarah is now going to try to sue him with a lawyer because of what he’s been saying in his videos. This is why people don’t talk. Because they’re threatened to be sued when they tell the truth. He wants to ask you an important question: if Sarah is really talking to a lawyer, why didn’t she do that when she said she was a victim? [Pauses and shrugs for effect.] You’re supposed to take legal action against people who commit crimes against you. Says he’s currently pursuing someone right now through the police with a prosecutor and everything because they committed an actual crime. When Sarah said a crime was committed against her she just tweeted about it, went on livestreams, and made Venmos or whatever her friends did. Now that someone is telling the full truth with a 98.7% error rate [lol], that scares her? - [Crime against Sarah, why doesn’t she pursue them, she slanders Greg and Kai instead, Sarah lied about having love for Kai] - He says her threatening to sue when he starts telling the truth is indicative of absolute guilt. He asks if she didn’t go to a lawyer before because she didn’t want Greg to release all this information. Now everyone is going to see the truth about her with her fake bloopers and lies. This is open and close, one of the dumbest thing he’s ever seen. - Says Sarah freaked out on Kai because Kai tweeted about how much he loved the Grey chick from Grey’s Anatomy and how he thought she was hot. Borderline mental breakdown of jealousy. He thinks that’s what initially lead to them telling Sarah she’s too unstable to stay there. [Sarah laughed at Greg’s house burning, says she’s going to psychically assault him] - Says Sarah’s laptop story and sending selfies story are ridiculous. She doesn’t even show the context He hasn’t seen any proof of how she got them. [Kai’s selfie was for Instagram, not sexual] Sarah lied about Kai being a pervert. Kai would never exchange anything. - Says Regina says Kai sent selfies, but he doubts Kai ever sent Regina anything because Regina is a nasty woman. As far as he knows, Kai was never interested in Regina. “Have you seen Regina? Yuck.” As far as Greg knows, Regina had a huge drug problem. Worse than anyone he’s ever known. Regina was in and out of rehab. He doesn’t pay attention to Kai’s arena, but knows that. Regina met Kai when he was 17 and they just had casual conversations about life and stuff. - Sarah thinks Kai tried to bone everyone but Kai is really a hermit. Kai doesn’t want to talk to anyone now that Sarah back stabbed Kai just to get back at Greg. So petty and stupid.

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themiscyra1983 · 5 years ago

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Beta Reading Work and Commissions Open!

Hey folks -

So as you may know, my financial situation is a bit shaky right now. I’m shuffling things around, accepting I may have to pay late fees and be scolded by my creditors and so forth, but there’s still a bit of a gap. While donations are of course appreciated, I’m also willing to pick up some work: namely beta reading and fiction commissions.

Beta Reading Working on a story? A novel? A screenplay? I will read it, tell you what I think, and advise on things I think could be improved! This will include some degree of proofreading and editing, though I’m not a professional and don’t guarantee I’ll catch everything. In addition to marking up your manuscript and providing written notes, this can easily include an audio or video call so we can discuss your work directly.

I’d hesitate to call myself a subject matter expert on anything, but things I know pretty well include Star Trek, Power Rangers, Disney (particularly the animated canon, theme parks, and the Haunted Mansion), tabletop RPGs, software development, Mormonism, neo-paganism and witchcraft, living with chronic depression/anxiety, and some degree of the LGBT experience, specifically from a white queer trans woman perspective.

I’m going to be charging $20 an hour for this, with a minimum of two hours required. I would say ROUGHLY I can do a deep read on about 2000 words per hour.

Fiction Commissions Okay. I’m shakier on this one, and it’s because I’m badly overdue on a longer commission I did for charity - between getting very sick last winter and the madness of COVID, it’s been very difficult for me to write at all. But I am starting to get back into it, so I’m tentatively open to writing commissioned stories WITH some limits.

The rate is 5 cents a word, and I’ll do a maximum of 3000 words. Now, I’m a wordy bitch and it’s entirely possible I’ll go past whatever you actually ask for, so what you’re actually paying for is a guaranteed minimum. Pay me 50 bucks, you’re getting a MINIMUM of 1000 words. I will not charge you for any words I end up writing in excess of that. I will work as quickly as I can, I will send you at least one draft for feedback before I finish it up, and within reason I will publish on the online platform or platforms of your choice - nothing I have to pay for unless you cover it, and obviously unless you’re RUNNING a publication I have no control over getting into a professional venue. If you just want a Private Story Just For You, that’s okay too. You’re paying for it. It might conceivably be found among my papers at my death but otherwise, with reluctance, I’ll keep it between me and you.

Now. I want to be clear on something. I am very leery of accepting paid commissions for fan work. I would PREFER to write original fiction for you. I’m most comfortable with soft SF and modern fantasy, maybe with a bit of horror or darker elements. Will I accept a paid commission for fan work? ...I would prefer not to answer that in a public venue. Talk to me privately.

Regardless, as my fan work is most accessible, here are some samples. As I said, I’m a wordy bitch, so many of these are multi-chapter works in progress. And I don’t generally have beta readers (though my writing group got a look at some of these) so, regrettably, some errors have made it through:

As Dreams Are Made On (my strange Twilight femslash; this book is complete and I’m now on the sequel)

These Our Actors (short stories connecting to the strange Twilight femslash, of which there are two so far)

Out of the Blue (my fairy tale-esque Little Mermaid/Wonder Woman crossover, which I REALLY need to get back to)

Change of Course (in-progress Star Trek fanfic about Harry Kim as a trans woman)

Okay, So You Want To Hire Me... If you’re interested in either of these services, please either message me on Tumblr or e-mail me at autumn dot riordan at gmail dot com. I will accept payment via PayPal, Venmo, or Cash App, with a $20 deposit required once we agree on the overall terms and full payment required on delivery of the story or conclusion of the beta reading process.

Hope to hear from you!

#every day i'm hustling #beta reading #fiction commissions

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artmwrites · 5 years ago

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How I Write Blog Posts and Why You Need a Writing Routine

A lot of small business owners want to start writing blog posts for their business. Writing takes one part discipline, one part research, and one part art with a touch of psychology to do. I’ve written this post to help those starting out building their own writing habits. Writing is like any other skill, it takes practice and dedication. We all start somewhere and every one of us can become pro bloggers.

Planning

The first step I take to write my content is to sit and plan the post out. Writing isn’t like the movies where you sit by a sunny window and type away building a million dollar blog. Writing quality content takes practice and planning. You can achieve both over time.

Planning your post starts with your topic. Planning topics can be a huge roadblock and many people quit writing before they begin. Develop categories for your blog based on your products or services. After that develop topics for each category. Try to develop 10 to 20 topics to start. These topics can be further broken down or developed into long-form content.

Once you have a topic you know you can write 300 or more words for, start to plan out the post. On a Word document or Google Doc, start with a basic title you'll build-out later. Make a section for keywords to help get your post ranked. Make a section for SEO meta titles and descriptions. Finally, outline the actual post with headings for each point you want to make in your post.

Research for Your Blog

Researching key aspects of your blog before you write will help you create content that brings value to the people that need to read it. Researching before you write will refresh your memory and help you back up your facts. With researched data and info, you boost your authority and trust with readers. People that trust their information sources are more likely to convert.

Persona

Personas are a fictitious person that represents a segment of your target audience. Building an in-depth profile for your persona including a name, family, job, and pain points humanize your persona. Personalizing personas give you a “person” to create your blog post to read.

Having these personas allows you to write like you are having a conversation about your company to a friend. Knowing who you are writing for is a huge step in creating great blog posts.

Keywords

Keywords act like triggers for search engines when people are looking for specific topics. Finding keywords can be tricky if you don’t know where to look or how to use them. How to do keyword research is an entire post on its own

Brainstorm a list of words that you would use to search for the topic of your post. You can use a tool like Google Keyword Tool or a free tool like Ubersuggest by Neil Patel to get an estimate of how much traffic those keywords get. Once you find a handful of relevant keywords, search them on Google, and look at the “People Also Asked” section. This is a great way to either find new topics related, refine your post, or find your alternative or long-tail keywords.

Authoritative Sources

The last thing to research to create your post is several sources to back your content and show trust and authority. Trying to find at least one credible source per point will help with readers and your SEO. You can also learn something new about the topic you’re writing about. If you use someone else’s work to back your post then it’s only right to give them credit.

Blog Writing

Now comes the fun part. Many people, myself included, get stuck in the writing phase. Here are a few suggestions and tips I use to start and finish a blog post.

Make Time to Write Like it’s Your Job

You need to set aside time to write. Create a block of time in your workday to just sit and write. Write one or two blog posts for practice and to publish later. Writing can be a very Zen-like activity once you start to develop solid writing habits. You’ll get better at writing as time goes on and you’ll start writing more and faster.

If you write your blog post a little bit a day, eventually you’ll find it takes 2 months to finish and by then the entire thing could be outdated or look like a jumbled mess. You need to sit and get your thoughts down while everything is fresh in your mind.

Find a Place to Write

Finding a comfortable place with little distractions is the next step. Unrestricted writing is key to getting your post written quickly. Find a space to call your own and camp out to build your writing habits. You need as little interruptions as possible to get all your thoughts on paper.

Don’t Stop to Edit or Think

One of the biggest contributors to writer’s block I run into is when I stop to correct grammar, spelling, or anything that doesn’t look right to me. I’ll fix all those little red underlines from Grammarly and next thing I know, boom there goes my train of thought.

When you start writing, don’t stop until you’re finished. Get all your thoughts out and in a logical order for your blog post. You’ll have time after to edit, add, or take whatever you want away. This is why large publishing companies and marketing agencies have editors. Their job is to fix errors and make sure the post is readable. Don’t let imperfections stop your progress.

Blog Editing

My process for editing my blog posts is waiting a day until I even look at the post again. By waiting a day to read and edit the post, I give myself a fresh set of eyes and detach from the post. I can make sure the post is accurate and conveys the message I need it to.

The first thing I do is make sure grammar, spelling, and punctuation are correct through an app like Grammarly. I use the free version which works great for me. Using another app like the Hemingway app will help you when you’re starting out to keep your post readable.

Next, I read through and make sure the information is organized and makes sense. I may reword sections or even completely remove anything I don’t see as relevant. Sometimes on more complex posts, I’ll ask someone to read it and make sure they understand what I wrote.

Blog Publishing & Distribution

Once the post is edited, it's ready for publishing. Before you publish, find a few decent and relevant images to add to the post including a featured image. These can be stock images or photos you took for your business. Your photos need to look professional and you need to be able to size them appropriately.

Once you’ve entered your post and images into your preferred platform, optimize it for SEO. Make sure you have one H1 and the other headings follow suit according to importance. Use ALT text on your images. Add your meta title and description. Any links need to be semantic for Google. Finally, make your URL short and descriptive for Google and readers.

Once you publish your post, decide what platforms and when you’ll distribute your post. Just writing a post won’t get eyes on it. The more traffic you get to your post, the more authority your post will get. Decide how you want to section your post for social media. Do you want to publish to Medium? Maybe you want to repurpose the post into a video for YouTube. There are a ton of possibilities. The most important thing is to get your post out there.

Repurposing Blogs

Repurposing your posts is something to consider down the road. There are several key ways to repurpose content that works great. Repurposing allows you to take an existing blog, build it out or fix it, and keep your existing link and SEO juice.

Pillar Posts

Pillar posts are for posts you can easily make into 3,000 plus words and create a web of links between smaller posts. Pillar posts are a comprehensive, long-form post that acts as the hub for a web of similar links. Pillar posts are amazing for boosting SEO.

One downfall is you need around 10 posts on the same topic you can tie together to start your pillar post. Once you have a good amount of posts on a topic, it's truly something you need to consider.

Updating Blog Posts

Google loves when content is updated with new information. I’ve seen client posts skyrocket and do extremely well with SEO once they were updated and given a fresh headline. The best part about updating posts is you get to put a new perspective and eyes on it while keeping the SEO you earned for the original post.

Alternate Media

Making your post into different media types is a great way to create funnels with video, infographics, podcasts, and other content types. Having your message out in multiple formats gives you a great opportunity to get more eyes and ears on it. The more funnels you get out there, the more traffic you get back to your site.

Social Media Posts for Funnels

This isn’t so much repurposing but a way to build more funnels with your post. I usually add this as part of a content marketing strategy. Planning to take stand-alone parts of your post with custom graphics make great social media posts. If you have a post with enough info, you can have months worth of social media posts from one piece of content.

Conclusion

Writing a blog post can be daunting and sometimes writer’s block will hit you and you’ll give up. Hopefully, this post will give you a little light on how someone who does this for a living handles it. With planning, research, and practice, you’ll become a pro in no time.

If you find yourself stuck or just don’t have time to start building your content, feel free to contact me to learn more about how I can help. I’m a content marketer, writer, and SEO specialist helping small businesses build an online presence for more conversions and sales. Contact me or email me today.

#digitalmarketing #writers #blog #seo #business #freelance

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katelynrushe26 · 5 years ago

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Welcome to Everworld

If you were a kid in the '90's, chances are you crossed paths with the book series Animorphs in some way. Written by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant, this sci-fi/action epic about kids turning into animals to fight off an alien invasion was one of the Scholastic Corporation's most popular IP's of that decade, rivaled only by Goosebumps. It had sixty-four books, numerous video games and toy lines, a TV show that ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon, and even cross promotions with fast food chains like Taco Bell and Pizza Hut that sold Animorphs collectibles with their kids' meals. An official graphic novel adaptation is now in the works, and the series still has a devout fanbase.

And rightly so. I started reading Animorphs at age nine, and to this day, it's easily one of the most powerful and formative works of literature that I've ever read. It was funny but tragic, relatable but imaginative, entertaining but horrific, and it often hit you with a sobering dose of reality that made the message of each book stay with you long after you finished reading. Best of all, its mature themes and ideas about the morality of war have made it just as meaningful and relevant to read as an adult as it did as a kid, so I highly recommend the series.

With that said, I want to discuss another book series that Applegate and Grant wrote during that same time called Everworld.

I occasionally saw ads for this series in the backs of the Animorphs books (exactly four of them), but the ads were always vague, and eventually those back pages were used to advertise other things. A promotional CD called The Everworld Experience was given out in bookstores upon the third Everworld book's release, but if the series was ever sold in Scholastic's monthly school catalogues or at any of its school book fairs, I can't find evidence of that. Botton line, it barely had any of the exposure or success that Animorphs did, and the series came to an earlier-than-planned conclusion after two years and twelve books.

This is a real shame, because now that I've finally sat down and read all of Everworld, I think the series is great. It deals with four Chicago teens (David, Christopher, April, and Jalil) who are dragged by a witch named Senna to a parallel world where the gods, monsters, and famous figures from all of Earth's mythologies live at constant odds with each other. The teens exist in this place, called Everworld, and on Earth simultaneously, with their consciousnesses jumping back and forth from one world to the other whenever they go to sleep. In addition to staying alive, their main goals in Everworld are to save it from an invading alien god named Ka Anor and to keep Senna from transporting more dangerous people to—and from—Earth.

I should start by saying that Everworld was written for an older audience than Animorphs; for high schoolers instead of middle schoolers. As a result, it has a much darker and grittier tone with less, shall we say, innocent protagonists. It shares a few themes with Animorphs, such as the stress of leading a secret double-life and having to compromise personal values for the greater good, but it also deals with themes like letting go of old perceptions as you grow up, realizing the cost of your deepest desires, and deciding whether to keep to the safe life you know or venture into a greater unknown.

Everworld's premise is clearly a metaphor for coming of age, a representation of the crossroads between childhood and adulthood where you need to start finding a direction for your life. For all of its fantastic settings and elements, the series is really about the four main characters' internal conflicts, not the external conflict around them. The external conflict is just a device that serves to make the characters deal with their internal conflicts, and this is important to keep in mind when reading the series. We don't see much of how the teens change Everworld by getting involved in its dealings, just how much deciding to get involved changes them.

As for the characters themselves, I think we're given a pretty well-rounded and relatable main cast. We have David, the self-appointed leader who feels unfulfilled in his normal life and is desperate to prove his worth due to his toxic masculine upbringing; Christopher, the less-than-sensitive class clown who leans on immature humor and sitcoms to cope with his problems; April, the wily, religious idealist who takes care of business when she needs to; and Jalil, the level-headed skeptic who tries to learn the science of everything so he can master it. A huge part of the overarching conflict is these four learning to get along and work together, and once that starts to happen, they become a fun group of friends to go through all of these crazy adventures with.

I've read complaints that some of their early character flaws (especially Christopher's tendencies towards xenophobic humor) turn off a lot of readers after the first few books. That's understandable, but the point of giving the characters those flaws is that they eventually see the error of their ways and reform. I don't approve of Christopher's intial brand of humor, but I actually like him the most out of the four because he undergoes the biggest and most dramatic transformation throughout the series. You see how finding a life goal in a world where he can't tune out reality so easily makes him a better person.

The other major character is Senna the witch, who really serves as the main antagonist of the series. Not that she's a villain; a major part of the story is trying to figure out her motives and allegiances, since she seems to help the four leads as often as she gets them in trouble. We even get a book narrated by her eventually, and that does a great job of swaying you to feel one way about her right before the series yanks you in the other direction. She's not as complicated as Snape from Harry Potter or Gollum from Lord of the Rings (even though she does shape-shift into him in one rather amusing scene) but I found her arc just as engrossing and its conclusion extremely rewarding. The whole series is worth reading just to get that rush at the end.

And that level of engagement is the ultimate reason why I recommend Everworld. It's one of the most immersive works I've read in a while, both in setting and tone. It takes you right back to the '90's from Page 1 with its now-nostalgic pop culture references and laid-back view of the world, and then it slowly pokes at that bubble with an ominous undertone until all hell finally breaks loose. The descriptions of Everworld effectively capture the feel of every location and threat, and Applegate and Grant's tongue-in-cheek humor goes a long way in keeping the series self-aware enough to avoid turning hokey. One of my favorite parts is in Book 4 when the teens try to catch a wild boar for food, only to have it beat them up and then suddenly order them in English to give it what little food they do have. It becomes a running joke after incidents like this for David, Christopher, April, and Jalil to mumble, "W.T.E. Welcome to Everworld," and then move on with their business.

Also, borrowing so many of its settings and characters from preexisting mythologies (with the authors' own creative twists, of course) builds anticipation as you wonder what other pantheons the series might explore as it goes on. It also gives the protagonists some prior knowledge going into each conflict, especially when some of them start using their "visits" back to Earth to research mythology. This helps endear them to readers by showing their proactive sides, as well as their overarching growth throughout the series as they start trying to help Everworld instead of escape from it.

What's interesting though is that the scenes on Earth are also very descriptive and immersive. It's easy in cross-world narratives like this for the "real world" to take a back seat to the more creative fantasy world, but the Earth scenes in Everworld have their own overarching story that also builds into a genuinely suspenseful conflict. This really sells the idea that David, Christopher, April, and Jalil still have some grounding in their normal lives that keeps holding them back from fully embracing their new lives in Everworld.

With that said, I do wish that their families had more of a presence in the series. The families in Animorphs were very well defined and prominent in a lot of the B-plots of some books. This made us like them almost as much as the Animorphs themselves by the end of the series, which raised the stakes tremendously whenever things started to escalate. In Everworld, we see the families occasionally but get very little sense of their personalities or the teens' relationships with them.

I don't think either of David's parents ever makes an appearance throughout the whole series, and I actually forgot for a while if Jalil's mother was even alive until he mentions her in one of the other characters' books. Things like this make it hard to feel the full emotional weight of certain events near the end of the series. I guess the idea is that teenagers going through major life changes like these just aren't always that close to their families, but it still feels like this particular element of the story could have had a little more focus to sell how torn the characters are between their two lives.

It's worth noting that Christopher's parents and brother probably get the most character out of all the families, with scenes as early as the second book showing their interests and personalities as they banter with him. Given his similarities to Marco, the main comedic character from Animorphs, I'm starting to think Christopher was the authors' favorite lead as well.

Also, one of the Earth antagonists in Everworld is named Mr. Trent. This was also the human alias of the main villain on the Animorphs TV show, which predates Everworld. I can't find any information on how both of these characters came to have the same name, as Applegate and Grant didn't write the TV show, but it certainly has me conjuring all kinds of theories about the two book series existing in the same universe.

So why wasn't Everworld more successful if it's so good? Why didn't Scholastic advertise the hell out of it to at least try and hook the millions of Animorphs fans back then?

Sadly, I think the answer lies in the reader demographics. When you're dealing with kids, a couple of years can mean a huge difference in maturity and what's considered appropriate material for them. Animorphs was surprisingly graphic and intense for a children's book series, but it was still written for children. I can't recall a single swear word ever being said in it, and things like drugs, sex, and xenophobia were either very vaguely implied, disguised in metaphors, or presented as problems that the alien characters (not the humans) struggle with.

The very first Everworld book features flashbacks where David recalls seeing a camp counselor molest a child and hearing a football coach call a player the "F" word for not being tough enough on the field—and they don't just say "the 'F' word" in the book either. Add a few dollops of religion, sexuality, infidelity, teen alcoholism, and other adult language throughout each book, and there was no way Scholastic could promote this series to the same kids who read Animorphs. The Everworld books don't even have that bright red Scholastic logo at the bottoms of their covers; there's just a tiny, inconspicuous logo on the spine and an even less conspicuous trademark credit on the back.

Again, I can't currently find any information about this. I'm very curious to know how this situation came to be though. Did Scholastic give the authors more leeway for Everworld because of Animorphs' success and then found out too late how far the pair had run with that? Did the company want to experiment with publishing more adult material but then started getting cold feet closer to Everworld's release?

The worst part of this, if it's true, is that Scholastic may have been right to worry. According to some of the YouTube comments and online book reviews I've read, a lot of kids who read Animorphs in the '90's were barred by their parents from reading Everworld. Some say their parents found the series too dark and inappropriate. Some say their parents took issue with it for religious reasons, due to all the pagan deities that it shows to exist. One person even said they were almost barred from Animorphs too after their parents vetoed Everworld. Not the kind of thing a Scholastic executive in 1999 would have wanted to hear.

I know that Scholastic would go on to publish the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series over the next decade, and both of those saw their share of controversy too. All things considered though, I do side a little with the parents when it comes to Everworld. The topics that I listed three paragraphs ago are important for teens to discuss, and it's realistic to include them in a story about teens, but I feel like the series presents them a little too bluntly for me to totally disagree with the parental discretion. There's an entire book about a lustful underworld goddess who does nothing but capture men and force them to "please" her under threat of castration, and there's an ongoing subplot where April questions what the existence of all the different pagan deities in Everworld means for her own Catholic beliefs. Even if this series had come out today, there would be a legitimate reason for the concerns.

I'll never say to bar your kids from reading anything, but here's a thing to consider: the main characters in Animorphs are roughly thirteen years old at the start of the series, they're sixteen by the last book, and the Everworld characters are sixteen throughout their series. Maybe letting your kids read Animorphs first and giving them a chance to mature alongside those characters is a good gauge for when you think they'd be old enough to read Everworld.

And if they decide for themselves that they don't want to read Everworld, then that's them choosing a direction in life, just like the series would want them to make.

#ka applegate #michael grant #everworld #animorphs #book series #scholastic #young adult #scifi #fantasy #david #christopher #april #jalil #senna #gods #goddesses #mythology #loki #ka anor

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