#it makes you see and feel them as best you can by manipulating the formatting of the text on the actual page

[runesinthenight]

For everyone who is enjoying the Goncharov(1973) discourse on this hellsite, might I recommend a book.

Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves.

It has a very similar vibe to a lot of these posts. And it's very enjoyable. It's about a guy names Johnny putting together a book which was written by a guy named Zampanò which is a commentary on a documentary called The Navidson Record. The documentary is about the house Navidson and his family moved into which starts to break the laws of space and physics, resulting in a seemingly endless hallway off of their living room.

The Navidson Record does not exist.

There are a bunch of references in the book, about half of which don't exist.

Shit gets weird fast. It's a wild ride but a fun read. It is about 700 pages long but some of those pages have literally 1 word on them as the actual text gets funky starting somewhere around the second third of the book. I've never read another book quite like this one.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. If you're enjoying the unreality of Martin Scorsese's 1973 film Goncharov, give it a read.

[yandereunsolved]

Yandere Five w/ apocalypse reader— 'the end of the world is the most unfortunate circumstance to develop an obsessive trauma bond.'

Yandere Five had been but a barely pubescent teen when he so wisely chose to manipulate time to win an argument with his dismissive parental figure. It was jarring in the beginning. Everything he had ever known had been stripped from him. There was nothing left but debris and blood.

He always had his powers to aid him, yet for the first time they failed. He realized that his reliance on them is what caused this problem in the first place.

How could he be so idiotic?

Fastrack, six years or so, he tended to lose track due to the harsh winter blocking what was left of the sun and the overarching smog always present. Where was he going with this? Oh, yes. It made it difficult to calendar because of the extenuating circumstances.

It had to be about February when he met you. The snow had settled over more monotonous ruins of what was probably a rural town. Most of the sun rays were blocked by smog and strange cloud formations manipulated by the effects of it all. Still, he could see you, leaning against what still stood of a brick building, devoring a stale-looking twinkie.

"This one's interesting, huh, Dolores?" Think we're gonna have to shoot em'?"

Yandere Five ends up sticking by your side to culminate resources and find your true reasoning for being here. That's totally the justification, yeah. It isn't as if he is incredibly touch starved and on the edge of losing what little sanity he had. He just needs to figure you out. That he does, a little too well.

Yandere Five becomes overbearing. You can't tell if you are being questioned by your future murderer or stalker. He demands you answer all his questions promptly and with the utmost truth. He doesn't fluff them and act nicely or reply with basic human empathy. He simply loses his edge after he learns one more thing about you.

Are you allowed to do the same to him in return?

Absolutely not.

You learning about him is on a need to know basis. So if he feels that you need to know it, you will.

Take him by his word. You have to.

Yandere Five isn't the largest fan of physical affection, or physical anything in fact. It takes years in the apocalypse for him to willingly be touched by you. That's at least how he tries to appear. His expressions are always so blank and dismissive. A sarcastic quip is always on the tip of his sharp tongue.

Yet after only a few months of traveling together, he is more than eager to feel your skin under his.

He doesn't want to be near you, no, but you injured yourself by being foolish. He warned you against it, and still you continued. So now he is using some of the minimal medical supplies you both have so he can patch you up. If both of you were back pre-apocalypse, then he would definitely install a tracker inside your arm. For protection, obviously.

He doesn't want to be touched, no, but you're shivering. Losing the only other seemingly living human being, besides Delores, in the apocalypse would leave him at a great disadvantage.

He doesn't want intimacy with you, no. He has just to cuddle you to protect you and keep the nightmares away. He has to kiss your irresistible lips to keep your morale up. He has to let his thoughts about you to linger about in private, unexplored places so he may relieve himself to release relaxing and happy hormones. It's simple as that.

Deep down, he knows the true reason is that he has become utterly smitten with you. He has just chosen to do his best to gaslight himself, even though statistics state it only makes those feelings worse. Perhaps he wants that. Maybe he just wants one person in this fucked-up world that is his and his wholly and unequivocally.

Yandere Five even gets rid of his beloved Delores for you. He was growing paranoid about her. She kept teasing him about how lovesick he was. She was talking about starting to fall in love with you too. The final straw is when she said she wanted a threesome with you. In the dead of night, he disposed of her, a bullet in her head.

Strangely enough you dropped the subject after asking once. It puzzled him. Did you truly dislike Delores that much to be so nonchalant about her disappearance? Did you know what he did? Of course you didn't. You obviously hated Delores and are glad she is gone.

Good.

He likes it this way.

No more distractions, just you two.

Yandere Five doesn't want to figure out the equation to get back to his pre-apoctalyptic life. He writes down a bunch of meaningful numbers in chalk. They aren't coordinations for returning to the academy. They're calculations about your possible romantic relationship, sexual aspects, how submissive you are, and more.

He has detailed a four letter plan in his private journal.

S ubmissivness — how complacent are you? are you gullible to his tactic? how strong is your moral code? would you go along with him knowing how truly infatuated he is with your very existence?

I nterest — how are you feeling? what are your reactions? he needs to know every single thing about you. he needs to know all of your likes just as importantly as your dislikes.

N eutrality — how will his actions affect you and everything else around you? what is the path that will keep you closest to him while also making him seem like the one in charge? this is how we will know if he has gone too far.

S way — how close are others getting to you? are they looking to befriend you? are their true intentions more sinister? he has to analyze every expression and every movement of those who make any contact with you.

You call it his diary. It is not a diary! Diaries are for feelings; journals are filled with statistics. Besides, you won't ever find the location of his actual diary. He writes it in southern Sumerian anyway. You don't have a chance at deciphering it.

Yandere Five meets the Handler while you are snoozing away after a particularly hard day of labor. He can't believe the promise this strange woman puts before him. He works for this Commission for five years, and after that, he's good as done. He gets you in whatever place he wishes for the rest of your lives.

It's a bunch of bullshit as far as he's concerned. Miracles usually don't come with strings attached. Then again, does he really have a choice? He doesn't want to see you suffer anymore than you already have.

So he takes this once in a lifetime 'golden' opportunity.

Let's just hope this one doesn't bite him in the ass.

Yandere Five tells you that he has a way to get you out of here. The both of you just have to spend a little time away from each other. His body psychically aches while way from you, and it isn't just because he's a crotchety old man. The both of you weren't going to be young forever.

He doesn't necessarily hate the job until he learns that killing you is part of keeping the time continuum in check. He doesn't wait a day after learning that information. He takes your hand and escapes somewhere in the past.

Of course his calculations were rushed and were off in the worst possible way. Of course he ends up in the middle of his father's funeral, both of you stuck in your thirteen-year-old bodies. Of course Kalus has to make a sex joke about it.

Damn it! He wants to scream at the top of his lungs.

He needs you! He had you all to himself, and then other people just had to fuck it up.

It's okay. It's okay.

He'll figure out a way to stop all of this and keep you forever.

Forever. What a pleasant thought.

[the-way-astray]

The Keefe Sencen Infantilization Argument (because I've seen people say that saying he infantilizes Sophie is a bad-faith argument):

(Note: This post is a repost. I had my thoughts scattered out over a few posts, so I wanted to put them all together in one cohesive post. If you've already seen all the original posts, then aside from like two sentences being reworked and the format being better now, there's like nothing new here for you. Sorry.)

Examples of Keefe infantilizing Sophie and my explanations as to why this is infantilization and not okay:

Lodestar, chapter 4. What I originally said: “There you go, rocking the whole adorable-when-you’re-angry thing. I think that’s what I’ve missed about you the most.” Keefe infantilizes Sophie by saying she’s cute when she’s angry. She is trying to express her feelings, and all Keefe can do is be all Awwwwww. Isn’t that so cute? She’s angry! How adorable. It’s a form of invalidating someone’s feelings, by treating them like they’re just entertainment or by brushing them off like that. It’s some of the most manipulative behavior out there. It also saves Keefe from having to actually take Sophie’s feelings into account. His infantilization of her also shows up in his incessant need to protect her. It’s icky and gross, and authors should stop encouraging this behavior.

Sophie and Keefe are having a mental conversation and Keefe starts talking about Sophie's love triangle/square situation and Sophie doesn't want to talk about it. Not a fan of this, because Keefe butts into Sophie's personal business, then when she gets worked up, he heavily implies that he thinks it's cute. But this one isn't particularly bad compared to the others. Don't get me wrong, I still think this is infantilization, but the best I can say about it is it's not the worst example.

Lodestar, chapter 46. What I originally said: “You’re so cute when you worry, he told her.” More classic Keefe infantilization. He once again invalidates Sophie’s feelings by dumbing them down and acting like they’re this cute, quirky, inconsequential thing.

Sophie is obviously incredibly worried. Keefe clearly knows this. And his comment is to be like Yeah, but don't you know that makes you sooooo cute??? Like, sir.

Lodestar, chapter 65. What I originally said: “Is this going to be another one of those nights where you spend the whole time yelling at me to come home? Keefe asked, making her sit up straighter as his thoughts filled her head. Because as much as I love it when you get all feisty on me, now’s really not a good time.” God, Keefe is so subtly invalidating. He treats Sophie like she’s just his personal worry machine, not a person with valid concerns and ideas. The flippant way he talks about her worry for him makes me so mad. He takes her worry for granted and throws it back in her face, without a care for how it would affect her mental health. He brushes her off and invalidates her because he thinks he’s so much smarter than everyone else. Not to mention he calls her worry “feisty” and further infantilizes her feelings and ideas.

This one honestly stands alone. Context doesn't really do anything to it. The infantilization for all these quotes is in the quote itself, because it is invalidating to treat someone's outburst of negative emotions as entertainment. Keefe basically just says that he finds it cute when she insists he comes home because she's worried about him??? He's like, yeah, Sophie's worried about me, tearing up her mental health over me, but like. She gets feisty when that all becomes externalized and she begs me to come home! Again, it's just a way he's able to brush Sophie's feelings off and disregard her opinion entirely.

When I say Keefe acts like Sophie is his personal worry machine, I'm saying he acts like her worry only exists for his amusement. He doesn't see the deeper feelings behind that worry (or if he does, he certainly doesn't respect them), and only see it for what he sees it as: something cute and adorable.

Nightfall, chapter 24. What I originally said: “‘I know! Our little girl is growing up and getting so snarky!’ Keefe pretended to wipe his teary eyes. ‘I’ve never been so proud.’” “Our little girl” . . . that totally isn’t creepy or infantilizing at all. The way Keefe talks about Sophie here is genuinely so gross, even if it is a joke. 

This is a joke. 100%. But it's a joke that sat very poorly with me because of the way Keefe verbalizes this. The problem for me is in the quote itself, again, because I feel like saying these sorts of things constantly is just so weird.

Nightfall, chapter 32. Wouldn't say what I originally said adds anything new, so I'm just gonna move past that. The larger problem here is 100% the fact that Keefe is clearly trying to joke to deflect Sophie's anger away. My argument isn't about that. My argument is that saying that someone's anger is adorable is textbook infantilization. In context, Keefe uses it as a way to deflect or joke. But the simple act of saying that is a form of invalidation where Sophie's emotions are made out to be some silly, inconsequential thing.

Anyway, about this quote in particular. Sophie is obviously freaking out, and she is clearly and seriously trying to tell him that his joking behavior is unacceptable. Keefe responds, not by listening at all to what Sophie said or what she's feeling, but by instead saying this. This invalidates Sophie's very real feelings as well as saves Keefe from having to confront what Sophie's telling him. And yes, this is a product of his deflection, but my point here is that saying someone's anger or worry is adorable or cute when they are trying to be serious is textbook infantilization, because it treats that opinion they have as a silly, child-like tantrum. "Awwww, isn't that anger adorable???" is what you say about a tantrum-throwing toddler who just got their favorite toy taken away, not someone your age presenting a valid, serious opinion. My issue is with the statement "Your anger/worry is adorable/cute" itself, not how Keefe uses it to deflect. It also presents Keefe, subtle as it may be, as the only one with valid opinions on things because Sophie's adorable little feelings get in the way of her rationality.

And before you say Sophie calls him out on this, yes, but he doesn't change. I'm not going to talk about it at length here, but Keefe apologizes to Sophie in the Nightfall scene after his bed rest more out of a desire to make up with her than a desire to change his bad habits. You can see this because he continues to do it into Unlocked.

Nightfall, chapter 34. Again, I don't think what I originally said adds anything relevant, so I'll skip that here.

The famous scene. I do admit that Sophie calls Keefe out this time. However, as I've already said, this doesn't stick, so it hardly matter. Keefe continues with this behavior through the series and into Unlocked, where he doesn't necessarily say these things out loud, but you can see he still thinks them.

Nightfall, chapter 70. What I originally said: “‘Much as I’m enjoying this sudden overflow of adorable Foster-rage—it’s not worth it.’” Ah, more of Keefe infantilizing Sophie and invalidating her feelings. If someone finds your anger or worry “adorable” and acts like it’s this cute little quirk, then that’s never a good thing. Especially if they enjoy it. Someone who cares about you should never enjoy seeing you angry or worried.

Sophie's having a serious, key word here is serious, discussion (we'll call it a discussion, even though that's not particularly correct) with Cassius, and even though her rage isn't aimed at him this time, Keefe telling Sophie her rage is adorable when she's being serious is still dumbing down her emotions to that of a toddler throwing a tantrum, not a grown-up (at least relative to Keefe) having a very valid reason to be angry. Just because he agrees with her anger, doesn't mean he can't still infantilize her.

Flashback, chapter 1, page 12. I think what I said in my original post just about sums it up: “‘You’re so adorable when you worry. I’ve told you that, right?’” (12) Yes, you have, and saying it more doesn’t make it any less icky and gross and infantilizing. It’s like he’s dumbing Sophie down to this object who only exists to entertain him with her adowabuw wittle feewings, instead of a person with very real, very complex emotions.

Keefe fans the air, so we have physical evidence he knows exactly how worried Sophie is. And his response is to be like, so cute! So adorable! Once again, this is serious, and Keefe is acting like Sophie's worry exists only to amuse or entertain him. I don't know else to communicate that that isn't a good thing. Someone being worried usually means they have something they're worrying about, worry doesn't just manifest out of thin air for entertainment's sake. Sophie also responds poorly to his writing her off, with what and the glare and all.

(Side note: When I was looking for that quote, I found a quote where Fitz says the exact same thing, I'm talking word-for-word "adorable when you worry" stuff. Like I mentioned in my disclaimers, I'm not saying he's more right for this and I'm not letting him off the hook. It's icky when Keefe does it and it's icky when Fitz does it. But I'm solely focused on Keefe, which is why I'm not bringing that up. It's also worth it to note that Fitz doesn't say this over and over again, the way Keefe does.)

Flashback, chapter 17, page 304. I think I'm just going to copy-paste exactly what I said in my original post because it's exactly what I'm trying to say: “‘Hear that, Ro?’ he interrupted. ‘She’s giving me her serious voice.’” (304) Another example of Keefe infantilizing Sophie and dumbing her feelings down for the sake of a joke. Awwww, isn’t her serious voice so cute? She only does that when she thinks she has something important to say to us grown-ups! Awwwwwww. 

Apparently, people don't get why this is a bad thing, so: acting like someone isn't being serious when you can literally feel their emotions and know they're being serious just because you don't like what they're saying is not just invalidation, but infantilization, because you are dumbing their emotions and the complexities behind them down to that of a child attempting to be serious.

I'd also argue that this shows Keefe's true colors: he only really listens to her opinions and respects them when he agrees with them. Disagreeing with someone is all fine and good, but you can still respect the other person's opinion and not dumb it down and act like it's lesser than your own. If Keefe said "Sophie, I hear you, but I think you're wrong" (in Keefe jokester language, obviously, not word-for-word what I wrote) then I wouldn't call this infantilization, I'd call it respect. My problems arise from when Keefe acts like Sophie's opinions are stupid because Sophie is the one saying them with that adorable little pouty voice.

Flashback, chapter 21, page 355. What I originally said: “It’s always fun when you get feisty.” (355) I’ve said this about a gajillion times, but Keefe’s infantilization of Sophie is so horrific, it’s like he doesn’t care about her at all. He just sees her emotions as amusement for himself.

This is a sad scene, and Keefe has every right to be emotionally . . . off in this scene. But it still doesn't change the fact that he calls Sophie's anger "feistiness" and then says it's fun when she gets angry. You could say that's not exactly what he said, but it's likely that's what he meant given the past few quotes I've shown. Keefe has demonstrated a pattern of thinking Sophie's anger is amusing or adorable or fun. Anger is a negative emotion. When Sophie feels anger she doesn't feel good. And Keefe is like, yeah, but it's cute! Do you see how that's not the greatest thing to say? It says a lot about his internalized beliefs about Sophie, and is essentially confirmed by Unlocked. And even if that didn't represent the way he saw Sophie inside, that's still a really shitty thing to say because it still carries the invalidation.

Legacy, chapter 3, page 70. What I originally said: “‘Tell me why you have that cute little crease between your eyebrows.’” (70) You already know what I’m going to say. Keefe finding Sophie’s worry cute is textbook infantilization. But also, if he finds her worry and anger so adorable, what’s he gonna do when the Neverseen are defeated and Sophie doesn’t have as many things worrying her?

So, the crease between the eyebrows is obviously because of worry. So by saying he finds it cute, Keefe indirectly says he finds Sophie's worry cute, though I'm sure I don't have to spell that out because he's already flat out admitted he finds Sophie's worry cute several times. I'm going to sound like a broken record if I repeat what I've been saying this entire post about why this is infantilization, so instead I wanna talk about that last paragraph there. Keefe literally knows how queasy Sophie's worry can make her sometimes, and he has expressed this before, as well. So he knows exactly what Sophie's going through when she worries. And still, he acts like her worry is amusing, funny, cute, or otherwise a quirky little thing. I don't understand how Keefe can be so invalidating, having had firsthand experience with Sophie's emotions.

“But I was only half listening because she gets this cute little crinkle between her eyebrows when she’s trying to be serious, and it makes me want to reach up and smooth her forehead with my fingertip—and I’m betting she’d think I was super weird if I did that, since it’s not like she’s my . . . ” (Unlocked, very first paragraph of Keefe's diary entry, 481)

Don't have an e-book of Unlocked, unfortunately (boooooooo). So the context is that Keefe is giving us (or himself???) an intro to what he's doing here, which is writing about his drawings. He explains that Sophie gave him the idea and gives a general overview of what she said to convince him. Then he says this quote.

Here's what I said, which I stand by: I hate the way Keefe talks about Sophie. She’s just this soft, kind of ditzy, child-like sort of figure in his head. He admits that he doesn’t care what she has to say, he just cares about how adorable she looks while she says it. This is a textbook sign of a toxic relationship. You should care about what your partner/crush says, because that shows that you see them as a person, not as your personal cover model. Also “trying to be serious” paints Sophie as this impudent little child who’s trying to get the attention of the older, more experienced adults and it very much implies that Sophie is not serious, but awwww, look how cute she looks trying to be serious, isn’t it adorable? Except Keefe and Sophie are the same age. So this is another case of textbook infantilization.

Personally, I think I made it fairly clear why I think this is infantilization. Keefe did not listen to the latter half of what Sophie said because he was too busy imagining how adorable she must've looked as she said it. I don't know how to make it more clear that Keefe does not respect or care about Sophie's opinions. He did what she asked, sure, but he did not actually listen to her. Again, implying Sophie was not being serious when she was is infantilization. It takes away the weight of what Sophie is saying and makes it out to be a thing of like, Oh well, Sophie told me to, so I guess I'll humor her adorable little wishes and give it a shot, but let's get back to what's more important here, which is how cute she probably looks! I don't know how else to explain that that's not an attitude you want in someone who claims to listen to you and respect you.

Addressing some other things (Keefe calling Sophie herself cute [1], Keefe's deflection [2], Keefe praising Sophie's prowess [3], Sophie not seeming bothered [4], and The Real Problem [5]):

I don't think Keefe calling Sophie herself cute or adorable by itself is infantilization. That's just a cute, fluffy teenage crush. 100% cool with that. My problem is with Keefe dumbing Sophie's negative emotions that have complexities behind them down to something cute or inconsequential by calling them adorable. There's a quote in the diary entries where Keefe describes Sophie's blush as adorable and proceeds to describe it in vivid detail. I don't like it for personal taste reasons, but I would never argue that this is infantilization. Because. It's not. There is no dumbing down of emotions here, no shrugging off experience or maturity. There's just a kid with a crush.

As for Keefe's habit of deflecting stuff through jokes, yes, it's a flaw and yes, some of the times Keefe infantilizes Sophie, he's using it as a joke to deflect. Yes, that's the larger issue. But the point still stands that the way in which he thinks of Sophie's worry and anger is infantilization.

There are moments where Keefe talks nonstop (sometimes in a very unnatural way, in my opinion) about how powerful and amazing and brilliant and talented and spectacular Sophie is and how he respects her choices and whatnot. I don't see this as particularly contradictory to his infantilization. Keefe can dumb Sophie's emotions down to cute, inconsequential little playthings while also insisting that he thinks she's amazing and powerful. I do think he does think that she's incredibly talented, but he also invalidates or disrespects her choices because he sees her emotions as adorable and unserious. Sophie is objectively powerful and talented and smart, I'm not really sure how saying those clear facts out loud changes the fact that Keefe still sees Sophie as very juvenile in his head. He can respect her prowess and capacity for talent while still disrespecting her opinions and emotions. The two can coexist. This is why I say Keefe pedestalizes and infantilizes Sophie simultaneously.

As for saying this doesn't bother Sophie (except in that one instance where she glares at him), I'd hardly say it matters. People can be the object of toxic behavior without realizing it. Sophie doesn't really seem to care past a handful of seconds when Keefe reads her emotions without her permission (on purpose, with intention), but I think most of us would agree that that doesn't make it acceptable. And Keefe's infantile views of Sophie say more about him than they do Sophie, which is the argument I'm trying to make. My point is that Keefe sees Sophie's emotions as inconsequential little things that don't need to be taken into account. This is all mapped into how he sees her internally. Again, just because Sophie doesn't seem bothered by Keefe's comments, doesn't mean they're acceptable, especially considering it gives us a view into the way he truly sees Sophie. And if Keefe thinks of Sophie is such an invalidating way, how are we supposed to believe he'll respect her when she argues with him, instead of just writing it off as "that adorable rage"?

And last but not least (as this is literally the reason people are annoyed with Keefe, regardless of what flaw you're talking about): the infantilization isn't the problem. Not really. What the problem is is that it is never called out by the narrative and when it is, it lasts two seconds, doesn't stick, and Keefe continues with it having not learned a thing. He doesn't change, and I can give you a thousand explanations for why Keefe may be so prone to infantilizing Sophie based on his childhood, trauma, and everything else, but none of that is an excuse. And I'm certainly not a fan of the way we're constantly told that Keefe respects Sophie when he's clearly so ready to undermine her emotions or dumb them down. If you're going to have him say things like this, it should be understandable that it's not a good thing.

I think it all comes down to this: Imagine you were trying to get a very serious point across to someone or otherwise feeling very emotional over something and then you look over and the other person's reaction is like, Aw, you're so cute when you're all worked up trying to be serious! Anger so adorable! Worry so cute! I love it when you get feisty! Wouldn't you feel like they don't respect what you're saying? Is that not incredibly icky and weird?

Here is the definition of infantilization. I think it's very difficult to make an argument that Keefe is not doing this to Sophie. And if you think that's bad, oh boy, is it so. Much. Worse. In the actual Unlocked novella. It's very difficult to deny that Keefe only sees Sophie as an adorable little cute thing that amuses him when you read it. But I'll get there . . .

Anyway I'm leaving it off with this because these are the vibes I get from Keefe every time he makes an infantilizing comment about Sophie (minus the yelling, Keefe doesn't really yell):

[the-quiet-youve-been-longing-for]

Okay time for another small (I hope) analysis on IWTV, mainly the way it's written and its place on current television. I'll try my best to format this so it's not ramblings all over, I promise.

IWTV and plot points

I watched a good amount of television in my time, and one thing I noticed here is the fact that it doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't tell you "hey, this thing x is important, now we will tell again why x is important, now here see x being used, the important thing we talked about so far, did you remember, audience?".

Let's take as an example the "don't drink the blood of the living" thing. It's said to a young Louis (telling also to the audience in the 2nd episode how vampirism in this setting works) and then every time it's brought up it's indirectly (Lestat spitting out the sick man's blood, we see Claudia buying Laudanum and we know what it will be used for, but they don't tell us "Hey, Claudia is planning to poison someone so that Lestat drinks it, because remember audience, dead blood kills them"). Sometimes not only it doesn't hold your hand, but shoves you in a different direction, especially in S2. It contradicts himself, backtracks and then it's up to you to spot it.

For example, attentive viewers may have noticed that Sam was in 2 places at once in the trial, one episode before the actual reveal. It isn't a gotcha they came up with in the finale to give more gravitas to the revelation. When they tell us Lestat mass manipulated the audience, it makes sense for the storyline too because we already saw him do that with the soldiers, we have a previous example to refer to, Armand never used that particular power.

In a time where we see so many social media adopt the "short videos" gimmick, like reels and shorts etc, having a piece of media that references back in this way is super refreshing.

2. Character complexity

Complex characters are the backbone of this show. It's easy to place a character in a box and leave them there. You see it with the stereotype of the villain, the best friend, the hero. Some tv shows may have the character shift into a different box, but it's almost never permanent (think of the times where a hero gets corrupted by the Evil Power, but then reverts back to their hero status after Defeating the Evil Power because they remembered the Power of Friendship).

We have Louis, well meaning vampire who is capable of horrible deeds when pushed to the brink. Lestat, who feels so much to the point it hurts the people around him. Armand, whose trauma and fear bring out the need to control, but at the same time he needs to do that without actually controlling. They are all these things at the same time, and it's impossible to see them in a black and white perspective.

3. Details

A line almost always has its parallels to another line in the show, gazes always mean something, props are detailed and shown (I made a post looking at Daniel's notes in 2x05, which were shown for a second only, but you can also think about Claudia's diaries, all handwritten, or the astonishing amount of folders that were in Daniels computer from the Talamasca. That is all prop work done to be shown for a few seconds at most).

4. Analysis

This is more of a fandom thing than the show itself, but I was suprised by the amount of deep analysis that people here on Tumblr did (but also on other social media). Long essays on the meaning of a scene, or on the many many topics the show brings to light (the fallacy of memory, the impact of trauma, the meaning of free will and agency).

Similarly lots of people said that the show brought them back the urge to start creating, whether it's gifs, video essays, edits, fanart, fics, what have you. I started going back to Tumblr after years (last time I was here was during S4 of Sherlock).

And I feel like this is only possible if you give your audience something to work with, something to talk about and to dissect, rather than simple "entertainment".

5. Final thoughts

Of course, this isn't to say IWTV is error free, all perfect, without flaws. Nor is it the only one that has had this amount of labor and impact. But it's still miles ahead from most media we have available at the moment in my opinion, and I really hope its success brings other showrunners or directors to want to try and dare, to trust in their audience, to avoid shortcuts and to pour love in their creation.

If you got this far, I just want to thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings again! Have a cute Louis as a reward, and see you next time :)

[cloudyyoimiya]

CLOUDDD HIII I FEEL BAD FOR REQUESTING

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO YAN VERLAINE PLEASSAESES I NEVER SEE YANDERE STUFF WITH HIM AND IM JUST WNSADHBKF I HAD NO IDEA WHTA TO REQUEST AS LONG AS ITS HIM BUT WOULD YAN!VERLAINE X READER WHOS ALWAYS TIRED WORK? IF NOT FEEL FREE TO IGNNORE THNAK OU

HIHIHI IM SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU IN MY INBOX! and yes ofc i’m starved of verlaine content myself so this will do nicely. thank you for requesting! 🫶

When His Darling is Always Tired Because of Work; Paul Verlaine

Format: Headcanons and scenario

Possible warnings: Dark content, unhealthy relationships, manipulation, yandere themes

When Verlaine first met you, he immediately took note of how you tended to work until you grew tired. He could understand your struggle with overworking yourself because he most likely struggled with it due to his assassinations and all.

Verlaine, of course, didn’t know he had the same issue as you. He really doesn’t consider himself as human, so why should he think of human emotions and put labels on them? It didn’t make sense to him.

Before kidnapping you he would try to make you take breaks. If you didn’t want to comply with his ‘suggestions,’ then he would most likely forcibly pick you up and set you down on a couch.

You didn’t save your file before he turned off your laptop? That’s quite unfortunate, but you should have listened to him. It was a consequence of your own actions in his mind.

When he did this though, he didn’t know why he was doing it. Did he really care for a human? How preposterous.

But when he saw that you were struggling more so than usual, he knew he had to do something about it. Maybe it was because he pitied you, or maybe it was because he didn’t want you to tire yourself into an early grave. He didn’t know the answer, nor did you.

Regardless, in his mind, he thought that kidnapping you was the only way to stop you from indulging in this bad habit of yours.

If he kidnapped you, then he could force you to stop working. But if you were persistent, he’d monitor your working hours so you don’t get extremely tired. After all, he wanted some of your attention before the two of you went to bed for the day.

Scenario…

Currently you were sitting on your couch, typing away on your laptop. You were working on a document that was due that night, and you had barely any time for breaks.

You were getting tired, and you were starting to doubt that your body would keep up with the rapid movement of your fingers. You felt like you were going to pass out at any minute. It didn’t help that you were awake for the whole day; no naps, no snack breaks, nothing.

Your so called “boyfriend” was sitting at a table a few feet away from you, looking over some documents. Verlaine wouldn’t allow you to look over said documents though. Your best guess as to why he wouldn’t let you look at them was because they included some information about his next target.

Occasionally Verlaine would look over at you, making sure you’re alright. Each time he looked at you though, you could sense a small emotional buildup growing within him. You didn’t know what it was about, and you didn’t dare ask. Sometimes his emotions were erratic to say the least, and you didn’t want to accidentally set him off.

Eventually when you were almost done with your paper, Verlaine stood up from the table. He then grabbed a pear from the small fruit dish on the table, took a small bite, then headed over towards you. His expression was unreadable, as per usual, but nonetheless it still sent not so pleasant shivers down your spine.

“Do you need something?” You asked, making sure to hide any traces of tiredness from your voice.

“Stop working,” he said as he sat next to you, his voice stern. “You look tired. I don’t want you to get overworked.”

You weighed out the options in your mind for a few moments. Take a break for a little bit and risk not meeting your deadline, or risk setting off your “lover.”

Verlaine wrapped an arm around your shoulders as he waited for a response. Every now and then he would bite into his pear until he eventually finished it up. He then threw the core into a nearby trash can and looked back at you.

“Fine. I’ll take a break,” you said with a sigh. You then saved your document and shut off your laptop.

“Good, good,” he spoke, his French accent appearing slightly heavier than usual. Maybe the documents he was reading over were in French? You didn’t know how accents worked. “Now, let’s spend some time together, hm? You clearly need it, my love.”

You held your tongue from saying anything you’d regret. “Of course! That sounds nice!”

Verlaine immediately wrapped his arms around you and pushed you into the couch. He then rested his head onto your chest and took a deep breath. You were slightly uncomfortable since you really know this guy per say, but you would admit it felt… nice.

“You should quit your job,” Verlaine murmured as he guided your arms to wrap around his body. “It’s not good for you.”

“But I need the money for rent,” you argued.

“I can cover all of your expenses. I have a high paying job,” he sighed. “And besides, I only want you to rely on me. I can provide anything you have ever wanted.”

“I’m an independent person. I’ll be fine,” you tried to reason.

“I don’t believe that one bit. You need me, admit it.”

Your eyebrow slightly twitched and you tried to keep a neutral expression. You knew the only thing you could do in this situation was to lie.

“You’re right. I need you,” you said with a sickeningly sweet tone of voice.

Verlaine let out a small sigh of content then kissed your cheek. “I’m glad you know that. I love you, my dear.”

slowly getting more comfortable w/ my writing!!:&:!

[kurosagileo]

alrighty its post mortkranken thoughts time! under a cut so that spoilers are easier to avoid

(did one for obscuary here)

for a spoiler free thought first off, though, i think the time between episodes both works for and against the story. it's a good pacing so far imo, even if it's disappointing there's not much to do in the game between episode drops. there's enough time to let people analyze the most recent episode and secrets revealed, come up with guesses as to how things connect, and when that starts dying down, there's time to hypothesize about the next episode because teasers have started dropping. Game wise, there's time for people who have been playing for a while to get farther in cases so that once the episode does drop, it's easy to go through whenever you're ready. On the other hand, the time inbetween, the teasers can possibly hype a episode up a bit too much, i think that happened with obscuary and may have contributed to how the episode felt unbalanced (at least to me). High expectations mean there's a lot that could go wrong when things end up differently. I don't think they should release the episodes sooner, that would be an overload, just something i've been making note of and trying to not expect too much from a new episode so that i enjoy what comes out rather than being disappointed with what didn't

spoiler wise, i'll follow the format i had for obscuary!

jiro is winning the idgaf war and i absolutely love that for him. I think the writers did a good job of makng him the straight man to yuri's antics and thoroughly enjoyed scenes with him

yuri... is so silly i love him sm i want to kiss his cheek so that he bluescreens on the spot. i love that he seems like he's gonna be a scientist with questionable morals leaning to the evil side but then he ends up being so expressive about every little thing. he's smart but not manipulative mastermind ike if he's thinking something you Will know it

there's an interesting dynamic between the two which I'm looking forward to learning more about. Some of the few times where Jiro outwardly emotes are during interactions with Yuri. (Also with pc with the body lmao)

now for the story content, not an analysis of what things might mean but just overall storytelling

I think this did well with bringing the standard back up from the obscuary episode. for my thoughts on that, feel free to check out the other post i made. it was far more balanced with the investigation driving things, mc getting closer to the two ghouls, and the progression of mc's curse for the overarching story. the cameos from all of the other characters was exciting to see while going through, and was great for showing how different characters interact with each other. I think each of those small moments showed a lot about the characters.

for a few examples: alan's regrets for not saving naoki, highlighting how much he values being able to save people and blames himself for not doing enough even when he couldn't stop it; leo taking the documents, seeming to just do it to be antagonistic, but actually genuinely helping out both mc's investigation and alan's ass if the files went missing; ren and ritsu talking about ramen in the store, they're getting closer despite ren not liking working at his job and always complaining that ritsu is there, clearly they're starting to become friends; the three vice captains meeting and the absolute tension there

i could go on, each of those little cameos was meaningful imo, not all of them served to progress the main story, but they're important to see, to show how the ghouls are interacting with each other and how they act when mc isn't investigating their house

I think the investigation portion was a little rough near the end. The case wrapup wasn't as satisfying as I'd like, I think the best two episodes for that so far were vagastrom and sinostra, but the framing of it makes sense considering yuri's stigma. (specifically the part of the wrapup where we found the patient was behind things, the fight at the end was something i really enjoyed) It's something that lets yuri process everything instantaneously, so it makes sense that the answer is just given in a monologue, even if it ends up being somewhat unsatisfying. Yuri is a character who likes his monologue, and he's found everything out and is confident in his answer. I don't think that he would present the information in another way

The foreshadowing in this chapter was...... well it could've been more subtle. I kinda wish that while Jiro was leading mc through Mortkranken, there would be more attention drawn to multiple things, aside from exactly what would be relevant. I think that may have also led to the unsatisfying reveal

the very ending with the assembly was also well done, imo. it reiterates that the faculty want mc to gain the trust of the ghouls and is doing so. but it also calls into question where that request is coming from. right now, mc is very much being used by the faculty. she was pushed into the investigator role, pushed into being a student, pushed into earning their trust, threatened with a possible punishment for not being able to prove it. it serves her as well to grow close with the ghouls and be an investigator, and she clearly is, but I really don't think that's anywhere near the reason the chancellor put her in that position. we always keep the spy thing in the back of our minds while reading, while she's essentially also advertised as a spy to the ghouls

the phone call between hyde and sho was both surprising to see, but also not. Sho has a campus chat with hyde where he says that he's using hyde to get ahead any way he can. Learning that hyde is giving secret missions, it's unsurprising that Sho is one of the students he's using. I think this would be too obvious for the whole spy/traitor thing, however... there was one other campus chat that came into my mind, the one between subaru and leo. Subaru's waiting for MC for lunch, Leo approaches and sees he's got food from Sho's food truck, and comments on how Sho is really good at the friend act. Acting like he's a friend to customers to convince them to buy more. While the likely reading is Leo just lying to mess with Subaru (and honestly I wouldn't doubt that), I think it could also be that it's a true analysis of Sho.

He is good a the friend act. Sho has no problem lying to someone to appear nice. He did it to an old lady looking for a train station in the vagastrom episode. Leo told her he had no clue where it was, Sho gave her instructions and after she left, Leo asked how he knew and Sho told him oh I didn't. A lot of Sho's flaws are looked over because he's nice, when he is kinda an asshole a lot. I don't think that he's using a friend act on Subaru, but it's genuinely hard to tell. The scene at the beginning of the episode was cute, but depending on how you read it, it could be Sho playing it up for the bet with Leo.

I doubt the phone call from the end will actually be how we learn about the traitor, but I also think that Sho has a lot more resources than most to be a traitor

[yyxandere]

psst psst, i heard you wanted some ace attorney requests so mind if i chip in with my own idea for a oneshot you could so? (or any type of format you think is best, i don’t mind :) /gen)

how about a y/n that just cares for iris a lot and always dotes on her, kinda like a mother or sister figure to the girl and sholmes is just so fucking enamored with her that he kinda tries tricking her to stay behind and spend time with them some more, usually by using iris as an excuse. you can choose however you wish to end it or change up any of the details if you’d like, i’ve read some of your content and i like it a lot!! (i might even send in more requests if you don’t mind hehehe)

･ ｡ﾟ☆ 𝐃𝐎𝐍’𝐓 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐄

[♡]ー ꒱・！CHARACTERS！:: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND IRIS WILSON.

☆ - Art Credits: NELL

✧.* gender/pronouns ─ 'You' pronouns yet female titles

✩.* note ─ HIII MOOTIE ITS BEEN SO LONG LOL!! I RLLY HOPE U LIKE THIS, IM SO BRAINDEAD WHEN I WAS DOING THIS SO IM SO SO OSRRY IF ITS ASS BC OF HOW RUSHED IT IS 😭😭

✩.* TRIGGER WARNINGS ─ Overbearingness, Manipulation, and Drugging, Guilt Tripping and SPOILERS FOR TGAA 2

"(Y/n)! (Y/n)! You have to see this new discovery!"

Such eagerness could be heard at 221B Baker Street or the house of “The Great Detective” - Herlock Sholmes and Iris Wilson. May the days be cloudy or rainy nothing can ruin the mood the cheerfulness of the young assistant Iris whenever you're around. The giddiness she feels whenever you visit could always make you smile.

"(Y/n), please do taste this new tea that I brewed!"

"(Y/n) You have to come with me to the upcoming science festival! I already have three tickets, for all three of us!"

No matter how tired you are you can never deny her, especially not when she asks so earnestly and her eyes! Oh, her eyes whenever she pleads! They glow! She's the very embodiment of pure joy, happiness, and warmth, she could make anyone feel better no matter what kind of mood they were having, and you couldn't help but adore the way she talks.

Even if it's a simple thing such as drinking her new blend, you always manage to eat the pastries she made, but most of the time you help her make the sweet pastries, but in most cases both of you would be covered in flour yet not minding it for how you were both laughing. Iris brings a side of you, a very nice and warm feeling, like how a mother loves her child . . .

Herlock too was a nice individual to be with, even though quite an eccentric individual he was still a companion that you enjoy being with but it made you very much have less time for your own personal things, for example, Herlock dragging you from your friends to show off his new invention or basically dragging you to his crazy and wacky shenanigans the same could be said about Iris, she would also always invite you to where ever she is, may it be her inviting you to their house so you can help her bake or going where ever she and Herlock goes, it could be very overwhelming but who are you to say no to them?

Herlock knows what he is doing. The many times when he always picked up a case near your house or city just to get close to you, the times when he put laudanum a sleeping drug on one of Iris's teas whenever you were at their house so you could sleep there, don't worry about bothering them it's really fine! While you sleep in the guest bedroom Herlock likes to watch you sleep maybe it was the way your relaxed state made him feel giddy or the fact that he can touch you and kiss you while you sleep. That, or just because you look really cute when you sleep. It's definitely because of the latter reason.

Whenever Herlock sees you baking, cooking, or just spending time with Iris, he just can't help but imagine what would it feel like but him hugging you from behind as you give him kisses while you call him your beloved husband…

"Dinner's ready Herlock!" You said as you took the freshly baked potato out of the oven while you did that Iris was preparing the table, putting the

cutleries neatly, she intentionally put your plate next to Herlock and hers, making sure that you would be in the middle. Herlock was already seated at the dining table, waiting for the two of you to arrive.

"Here you go! Hope you guys like enjoy it!" You said as you put down the bowl full of mashed potatoes that were still steaming. "Well then dig in!" you said as you sat in the middle, not knowing that you were unconsciously following their plan.

"My, this is incredibly good dear (Y/n), if you keep on cooking like this I might as well marry you, so I can taste this every day." Herlock said as he took another bite of the food, you then giggled "You're amusing Herlock." you said thinking what he said was some sort of flattery or joke, but Herlock was dead serious, he actually meant it and you felt a little flustered since you were caught off guard.

"(Y/n), there's a new festival tomorrow and I bought three tickets already, I was supposed to invite Mr, Van Zieks but he was busy, so was Gina and Mr, Kazuma, so you don't mind if you join us right? Just me you and Hurley!" Iris said cheerfully as she looked at you with such pleading eyes. If only you knew the exact plan she had.

"Ohh, Iris, I have plans tomorrow I have to help a friend of mine to do research about the new case he's trying to solve plus I have to be there to also babysit his daughter too…" You said dejectedly after you said that you noticed the immediate fade of the glimmer Iris had on her eyes and the smile she just had now vanished but was replaced with a dejected one, a sad smile that made you feel like you just ruined a dream of hers, you then noticed Herlock wiping his mouth with the napkin and taking out his pipe.

"Well that's a bother, Iris was excited for the festival and wanted anyone to be with her but all rejected the offer, mh it's such a shame…" Herlock said as he closed his eyes and blew his pipe smoke to the ceiling "It's alright, she'll find other friends to hang out with."

You were about to reply to Herlock's comment but Iris beat you to it.

"No need Hurley, I won't go to the festival…" Now that's when you saw little tears pricking in the corner of her eyes, such a scene truly broke your heart, and before you could stop yourself, you reached over to Iris and grabbed her hands, which made Iris shocked by the sudden move.

"I'll go! I'll talk to them so I can go to the festival! So please don't give me that look, Iris…" You said in a softly stern voice. Iri's eyes immediately lit up and her smile came back again. "Really! you would go!" Iris said excitedly as you nodded which made Iris yell out a little yay and as Herlock smiled and put down his pipe. "You would not regret it (Y/n), I swear you wouldn't!" Iris said as she hugged you.

After dinner, Iris wanted to sleep early so she could prepare herself for the big day tomorrow so you decided to leave soon after but Iris wanted you to stay so you could read her a bedtime story, even if it was late and there's a high chance that there will be fewer cabs at this late hour but your heart ached seeing how disappointed she was by the turn of events earlier you didn't want her to be unhappy or feel bad and besides, she asked you nicely after all.

When Iris started to doze off, you carefully moved away from the book and stood up where Herlock was with his trusty pipe in his hand.

"It looks like your soothing voice really made Iris sleep, that's a kind of talent that I needed before when Iris was a baby." Herlock chuckled reminiscing about those memories, You giggled in reply, "Well then my dear lady, I should walk you home, at this late hour there are many thugs that are willing to prey on an unsuspecting woman like you." Herlock said as you both walked down the stairs, even though you were worried that you might bother Herlock but at the same time you do prioritize your safety too, "Oh, well, you are right."

Walking home was very relaxing, small conversation there while Herlock smoked his pipe but it was a very pleasant silence and when you reached your home you said goodbye and goodnight.

"Well then thank you for walking with me Herlock, sorry if it was a bother, well then see you tomorrow!" You said but before you could open your door, Herlock took your hand and kissed it, he then gave you a very seductive eye and hugged you.

"Well then, I'll be off, make sure that you actually keep your promise tomorrow, yes? You do not want to ruin Iris's smile do you?. . .'

[musical-posts]

Hi, person with some musical and technical knowlage, with both questions, and some follow-ups to other people's questions:

Regarding the dynamics question, it's implemented in MIDI via velocity, so, in theory, if you just increese the velocity by a set ammount at a certian point, for a certian string (p, ff, etc), it should work fine

Following on from that, using Capital Letters to denote accents (raise the velocity for a single note, then return to the baseline) ought to work nicely

Then, taking it to a stupid extreme, text styling, for example, if it's in the cursive style, make it legato, which then opens the tin of worms of digital legato, but, making the notes playback for 105% of their regular length works way fucking better than it should

Have you considered a method of implementing octives? I've though about it a bit, and, other than general muscal direction (for example, if the last three notes 123 are all lower than the previus note, drop 4 by an octive, visa versa for up, no change for other situations), I don't think it's very possible to implement in a musical way

How do you select the instrument for each post?

Have you considered using a system like LilyPond in order to generate scores for each post?

OK, that's everything I can think of, if you have any more questions, feel free to ask, well, me, I suppose, despite that not being how tumblr asks normally work

To be completely honest I don't want to deal with dynamics, if I do add them it'll probably be in like version 3 of the script at best, version 2 is already gonna be an undertaking.

See above

Copy pasting text from tumblr into powershell means it does not carry the formatting into the script and I really don't want to do that manually

I definitely want to add octaves, but figuring out an intuitive way of doing it that allows for maximum manipulation by asks is proving difficult. Your idea is good but I'd rather go for something

If you look closely at the formatted text you'll see some letters bolded and italicized, those are the letters used to choose the instrument. I've explained in further detail in the past but basically it just sees what instrument it can find in the text first.

I have never heard of lilypond and I do not want to learn entirely new notation software for silly gimmick blog, sorry. if you want the midi file for one of the posts so far i haven't deleted any though

[vellichorom]

I really like your headcanons for Cori and totally agree with them!

And if you don’t mind my asking, what did you dislike about the recent episodes of Chikn Nuggit? Because personally I dislike a lot of it too…the whole shift to lore has been kind of jarring for me and I also think things were resolved too easily.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH, THAT MAKES ME VERY HAPPY!

& OMG THANK YOU FOR ASKING because god i've been pissed. with one episode they made me hate that stupid yellow dog

HERE'S THE THING, RIGHT. i don't even mind the shift from slapstick shenanigans in youtube short format to something that illustrates a bit more lore. in FACT, i thought the way they were going about it was very interesting! having chikn realize his ultimate power & being due to a moment of vulnerability & having been manipulated some by bezel therein,

however,

this is all cheezborger's fault. for some fucking stupid reason

LET'S BACK UP A MINUTE. cheezborger got the girl! she's all excited about it & prioritizing her girlfriend above all, as i think we all do when we're excited; we make whatever we're excited our entire worldview for a bit, it happens!

chikn, at least from my perspective, sees this - sees that all of his friends are busy doing stuff without him or have their " significant other " where he does not - with cheezborger, his best most important friend, caught up in the moment, & he feels left out. he feels like a " third wheel " &- with all of his friends occupied with something or someone else, he's all alone & feels bad. i've been there a few times, i get it. in that moment of vulnerability does bezel take advantage & PUSH chikn to realize his power & potential, to control his friends or control the world & make things how he wants them to be.

suddenly the plot goes from " chikn suffering from third wheel grief " to " chikn coming to terms with the fact that he's a god & his powers have unintendedly warped his friends. we're taking all the nonsense seriously suddenly " okay. interesting. so chikn ascends to god form & starts fucking up the whole world because he believes that's what he's MEANT to do. the conclusion of his spiraling is realizing that he was meant to cause chaos & rip apart the world? ok. i think we jumped a bit far, how & when did he decide that

now we're leaning really hard into the ' i have to do this because it's my DESTINY ' trope. okay. did you come to this conclusion after deciding you don't need your friends? or realizing that you're the god of everything & therefore such menial things don't matter? did bezel coach you more than we see through the shorts? i don't remember there being an episode dedicated to chikn's sudden snap of character, thus we just never find out where that leap in logic came from.

so the world's ending but fwench fwy & iscream manage to trap chikn for 5 seconds. chee intervenes & tries to get through to him, despite all his bullshit ramblings of " go away i'm a god this is my destiny, " this WORKS. chee pulls him from his divine spiral & all's fine now.

except chikn, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE MIND YOU - NOT IN PRIVATE, blames cheezborger for it. he's like " you ditched me & that wasn't very nice, you need to make time for all your friends "

LIKE OH OKAY. BUZZFEED YOU JUST KILLED THE VIBE.

cheezborger's excitement for her new girlfriend might have been the tipping point & the technical catalyst of this all, but not at any fault of her own. she did not do this maliciously or purposefully & i hate the way chikn says she " ditched " him. no she did not you horrible mutt she politely declined your offers to hang out because she was busy with her girlfriend, & YES IT CAN BE UPSETTING WHEN YOUR FRIEND CAN'T HANG WITH YOU BECAUSE THEY GET CAUGHT UP IN SOMETHING THEY LIKE, BUT SHE DID NOT DITCH OR ABANDON YOU SHE JUST GOT BUSYYYY

it's circumstances. chee didn't do anything " wrong ", things just happened & chikn couldn't take being apart from his friend or not having what all his other friends had & downspiralled + got manipulated by bezel.

chee gets called out in PUBLIC for " ditching " chikn when she really didn't & this is turned into a big lesson about " managing all your friends " ( kiss my ass buzzfeed your usual social lessons aren't going to fly with this one ), in essence blaming chee for the apocalypse despite the initial start of the arc having gone unaddressed since the beginning.

OH & GET THIS, we blame chee for being excited but bezel, THE ONE PUSHING FOR TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD & ACTIVELY MANIPULATING CHIKN TO DO IT, gets a literal slap on the wrist chikn nor anybody else calls him out for being a gigantic prick, he's just like " i fowgive u let's be fwiends " & we leave it at that apparently. are you fucking for real. that straight up smells misogynistic & straight up shitty regardless. this COMING from the stupid little youtube shorts series all about validating everyone & equality & being kind to people too just feels a PARTICULAR kind of rancid.

& yeah whatever it's a rinkydink silly buzzfeed show where every character is named some woobified or joke rendition of a food product ( chikn nuggit, cheezborger, fwench fwy - so on ), BUT I FEEL LIKE THEY WERE DOING A VALUABLE SERVICE & DOING PRETTY GOOD FOR BEING A RINKYDINK SILLY YOUTUBE SHORTS SERIES !!!!! they had such good intentions & good lessons in mind...

& then this happens. it just puts SUCH a bad taste in my mouth now, you know? & it's honest to god so disappointing! & INFURIATING

that ending was a total BUST & relaying it back now, THE PLOT OF THAT ARC IS ALL OVER THE PLACE. it can't at all decide what the point of itself was & ended SO poorly. i'll forgive the pacing because this is a youtube shorts series MEANT to be done relatively quickly & chikn nuggit isn't necessarily a show you're going to expect a masterpiece of, right. it's endearingly imperfect

but god that ending. this entire arc. fuck it all man fuck that dog

oh wow i wrote down a lot but YEAH. VERY UPSETTING. hopefully this was an entertaining read or i just look insane to my friends

THANK YOU FOR ASKING! been LOOKING for an excuse to be upset on main

[wordsnstuff]

Hello! I see you’ve answered questions on outlining chapters for stories/novels, how to begin chapters, and chapter length, but my question is, when should your fan fiction be a one shot or a multi-chapter work and if you make it a multi-chapter work, how do you decide where to split everything up into the chapters? If you’d like, I can PM you a sample of my current WIP so you can see what I mean. Thank you!

Selecting the placement of chapter breaks...

There are several factors you should consider when strategizing the chapter structure of your story, and the ending is by far one of the most critical. The way you manipulate the breaks in the narrative is imperative to holding your reader's attention and maintaining the addictive quality of the story. This concept is easily extended to fanfiction, and fanfiction is one of the best places to examine how people organically utilize this device, as it is episodic in nature and often updated over lengths of time, mimicking the experience of media like television.

For the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to focus on how one would approach this in a traditional novel format but please remember that these principles can be applied to multiple formats including fanfiction and even television scripts.

When approaching the end of a chapter, your goal is to build tension and anticipation in the reader. Essentially, you need to make whatever might happen next seem too intriguing to walk away from. You want to leave a question (old or new) unanswered but make it clear that their curiosity will be satisfying if only they stick around a few more pages.

You can also elicit this feeling by resolving something within the narrative that creates a moment of satisfaction, and this feeling will leave them in search for more. Like giving them a taste and promising that on the other side of the next chapter header, there is more of that feeling to indulge in. It is simply good practice to consistently weave these satisfying chapter endings throughout the story, otherwise the reader may become frustrated with a lack of perceived payoff to the build-up.

Overall, a chapter should serve as somewhat of a container. Identify what your chapters are designed contain, and then correspond the chapter breaks to that design. For example, if the chapter is primarily about progress in a character's arc or a major new event in the conflict, centralize the chapter on that factor. As you approach the ending, create some kind of resolution to the central factor while leaving a loose string that the reader will definitely notice and desire to pull on in the next chapter.

I hope this helps, and of course if you have any further questions my ask box is always open.

x Kate

–

Masterlist

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[sterekcollabang]

Hello everyone! Here is a rebloggable post-format of our Criteria section. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to send an ask!

WORK SPECIFICS

FIC:

Word count is ~10,000 minimum.

Use Archive Warnings. Please do not use “Author chose not to use archive warnings”. If none of them apply, select “No archive warnings apply”.

Tag appropriately. If you are having trouble, there will be space for you to discuss your story with others to accumulate tag suggestions.

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ART:

There are as many forms of artistic expression as there are people in the world. No type of art will be disallowed for this event, but some may be more difficult to complete regarding the style of collaboration and time involved when working on this type of event, so please keep that in mind when applying. We have an incredibly diverse team of moderators who are happy to do their best to help with any questions or concerns involved with creating your work. If the art you’d like to make isn’t featured here, drop an ask and we’ll be happy to establish something with you.

Illustration:

Must be high enough resolution to be displayed on a computer screen. We understand the importance of keeping your print quality images to yourself to prevent theft, but please don’t overly sacrifice digital quality at your author’s expense. Please find a middleground.

Photo Manipulation/Graphic Edit/Moodboard:

Outside of images of the actors, please don’t use images you don’t have permission to use. This is in regards to fanart by other people and personal photography shared online. Pinterest is not a source. Wikimedia Commons is a great source for high quality common license photographs. We will do our best to share other great photo and image sources later. As above, please maintain a high enough quality that your image can be viewed safely on a computer screen.

Cover Art:

Whether or not you are choosing to do an illustration, edit, or other visual modification to create a cover for the fic, please make sure you go over with your author whether or not use of lowercase or symbols is deliberate and confirm which username or author handle they would like to have credited.

Podfic:

Podfic may be difficult to finagle considering the length of time writers have to finish their works. We suggest getting together with your author and making sure they can work out a plan with you regarding timing, whether that’s limiting their writing time, sending you each chapter as it is completed, or something else.

Video:

At least 30 seconds. Outside of images of the actors and scenes from various media, please don’t use images you don’t have permission to use. This is in regards to fanart by other people, previously edited scenes by other fans, and personal photography shared online.

Playlists:

At least 12 songs. This is the general minimum number of songs on Soundtrack Albums. Please feel free to do more! If you decide to add an album cover, the previous cover art criteria apply.

Ficbinding:

Please make sure you go over with your author whether or not use of lowercase or text symbols is deliberate and confirm which username or author handle they would like to have credited.

We said it at the top but I will add it here as well: if you don't see the type of art you do represented here, please reach out! No form of art is disallowed from this event, and we would be happy to help work out some baseline criteria with you to make sure expectations are fair. Everything here comes from our experience hosting and participating in similar events with these mediums, but we are always happy to learn about something new. (:

FAQs | RULES | SCHEDULE | CRITERIA | MODS

[perfectlovevn]

Hello! I just finished playing your game, and I adore it beyond words. I’ve never seen any sort of yandere content like this before and the idea of a yandere being created intentionally by someone with an agenda rather than by happenstance is beyond interesting.

I loved playing Eris - both in enabling their machiavellianism and in watching how their brain worked as they transformed Milo into what they wanted. Just seeing his transformation itself was wonderful as well! I feel bad for Milo, he didn’t deserve what happened to him, but seeing what he became depending on Eris’ decisions was so fun to watch - it really highlights what I love most about any sort of choose your own adventure story format: the ability to not only change the plot and relationships between characters, but the characters themselves. And your game was all about that - thank you so much for making it.

Another thing I find intriguing is the kind of person who would administer such a change. While it’s more than fun being in their shoes, I can’t help but want to view Eris as a character in their own right and see how they could evolve (and based on the cult following they’ve amassed I’m not the only one). I can’t imagine much would cause them to truly change unless they had something to be afraid of, meaning they probably wouldn’t change unless something had proved to be greater than them in a way that mattered. Maybe someone who managed to consistently get the better of them using manipulation, someone who was somehow immune to their control, or some god who decided to meddle in their business. If that person tried to change them, what would happen? What would it take to ruin them? And once they’re destroyed, what would be left over? I know this depends on what the player decides for their backstory and motives, but I really can’t help being curious- ultimately, though, my interest in reshaping and tearing apart Eris is all just rhetorical ramblings. I love your game and characters, Eris absolutely included, and the brainworm they’ve given me is top notch. I can’t wait to see more of what you put out, and I hope you have a lovely day! :)

(Adding this disclaimer for my own piece of mind, feel free to ignore: I do not actually want to hurt anyone, and my curiosity about harming Eris only represents my interest in them as a fictional character; it does not reflect my feelings or moral stances towards real life people or issues. I love people, and I believe we should all treat each other kindly to the best of our abilities. Disclaimer over, tysm, thank you for coming to my Ted talk!)

It's always fun to read the longer reviews because people always put so much thought into it! I very rarely see any content where someone molds the yandere, since most of the time, the lover is general a normal or good person. I think that its really fun to have an evil main character every now and then. I also think it's very fun when each decision feels really impactful. That was part of what I wanted to do for this game other than I didn't want to overwhelm myself with too many choices and writing.

With Eris, it's hard to say. I think that the best way to force Eris to evolve is if they feel as if there is something they can use. Something involving a perfect love? Perhaps a way to manipulate the other person back. I think if Eris was forced by a god of any kind, I'm sure they would be resentful with it. Or well, I'm sure you can imagine what Eris would do in these situations.

[emeryleewho]

Just out of curiosity, why did you decide to write A Flair of Fate as a comic, rather than prose?

Hi!

So this is actually a really complicated answer, but I'm gonna try to break it down into the key points.

A Flair of Fate is largely in conversation with shounen anime, so I wanted it to be in a medium that would allow it to embody the tropes it deploys, but also where it could be in open conversation with similar stories.

Prose is a really limited medium in a couple of different ways. It's hard to have really large casts in prose novels because it's hard for people to remember all of the characters when all you have is a name to remember them by, and bc prose typically follows a limited number of POVs, you can only keep up with so many characters in their own time, plus you're limited to only seeing that which your POV characters see/know. In a Flair of Fate, this would be a major issue because Javi is a REALLY unreliable narrator. [Mild spoilers to follow], BUT a recurring theme in this comic is normalizing things that are NOT normal. One example is here in the prologue:

This is just an establishing shot of Javi's best friend's house, but there are all these security cameras everywhere. They live in a dystopian police state, where there's hyper-vigilance, but that's normal to them, so if we were navigating all of this through Javi's head, it would be a lot harder to drop these details that he genuinely doesn't notice. Visually, I can establish these subtle cues throughout as the story builds, which is really important because this story has A LOT to explore that Javi is oblivious to at the beginning LOL.

3. The story is long form, kind of like old TV used to be, in that it's one long story that can be divided into arcs or seasons, but the big villain is consistent until we finally confront them at the end. In prose novels, each book is supposed to be able to stand [mostly] on it's own, with a full plot arc per installment, and that would absolutely not work for this story!

4. The fluidity of an illustrated medium detaches readers from a tendency to take things too seriously or too literally. It adds a sort of inherent humor that allows stories like, say, Avatar the Last Airbender, which deals with war and genocide, to still be incredibly light-hearted and funny most of the time. This was super pivotal for this story too because it does have some really dark moments and some very heavy plotlines. It's a dystopian, anticapitalist story at it's core, BUT most of it is a sort of slap-stick humor/friendship/romance story about all the shenanigans that go down in this superhero sports league, so being able to manipulate the tone of a scene through the artwork makes a HUGE difference!

Ex:

5. And the last big reason is because I have ADHD and reading prose sometimes can feel kind of insurmountable, but the bite-size, visual heavy chunks of webcomic format gives my brain the happy hum feeling, so when I decided that I wanted to tell as story that would embody everything *I* the fanboi would want in a story, I realized it only made sense to let it be a webcomic!

Anyway, thanks for asking! Sorry this was the longest response ever LOL

[yanderes-galore]

Yay! Requests are open! Hope I formatted these right!

Fandom: BioShock

Character: Sander Cohen!

Pairing: idk how to describe it other than Romantic and platonic. Cohen would see darling as his most amazing Muse and want to be with them but darling ain't all into Cohen. Does that make sense?

Type of Fic: Concepts/Headcanons are fine.

What I mean here is maybe do some concepts for Sander Cohen having "romantic" (he feels like the darling is their muse) feelings while Darling doesn't reciprocate.

Of course! Here your mentally deranged artist! Sorry if this is too short. I'm a little bit sick (very minor head cold) but I'm going to take a small rest to see how things go after this ^^

Yandere! Sander Cohen with Muse! Darling

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Manipulation, Violence, Threats, Dubious but forced relationship, Mentioned kidnapping, Very brief nudity mention, Murder mention, Stalking mention.

Sander Cohen, be it before the fall of Rapture or after, is completely insane.

I highly doubt there was a time he ever was sane.

Despite this he's been praised as a highly skilled artist in Rapture.

He runs/ran many art galleries and is a big supporter of Andrew Ryan.

Being the source of this man's obsession is going to result in a lot of pain and torment for you.

He'd most likely see his obsession as some sort of muse, yes.

When he sees you he decides you're a great source of inspiration to him.

The origin of his feelings doesn't really matter.

Platonic, romantic, either way he treats it the same.

You just have to be his muse.

A muse can be a lover, a friend, or a complete stranger to an artist.

He may even stalk you and take pictures to get inspiration before deciding to pursue you.

I have a feeling Cohen would be relentless with trying to convince his darling they should be his muse.

You're given many invitations to events he's hosting.

He wants you both to get to know each other.

I am not really sure if I should say he has charisma?

Everyone with the right sense of mind knows he's crazy and he doesn't really have a way with words like Atlas for example.

Cohen would make his darling feel pressured into becoming his muse.

Out of fear for what happens if you disobey him.

You see... Cohen is apathetic to the idea of harming/killing others for "inspiration".

You have to play your cards right in order to survive.

Refusing to be his muse will most likely get you hurt or even possibly dead.

Cohen is a dangerous man.

Cohen would use his muse for all sorts of pieces.

He's an artist of many forms.

He'll paint you, sculpt you, he'll capture your beauty in many ways.

You can be clothed, or perhaps even nude if he can manage it.

He wants to depict you in states of pleasure and pain.

Your emotions are pure in his eyes.

Cohen likes to study every twitch, every feature of your form.

As his muse he has countless paintings and sculptures of you.

He's never had so much inspiration over one person.

I wouldn't put kidnapping past Cohen and murder is just canon.

He's coated live people in plaster.

You've seen the sculptures.

His insanity is what keeps you at bay.

You fear him.

If you tried to leave Cohen would hunt you down.

He'll kidnap you, maybe even punish you and use your pain as more inspiration.

He's a sick man, completely unfeeling towards the pain he causes others.

He doesn't do much to comfort you.

He may even yell/get frustrated at your refusal to cooperate.

But if he cares for you any amount... he'll try to make something of it and comfort you.

To him, his "love" for you is just more inspiration.

Cohen is a man dedicated to his craft, even if it hurts his darling muse.

When it comes to Cohen, your fate even as his muse is uncertain.

You may even end up dead by his hands for the sake of art... don't worry, he'll preserve you as his best muse.

[mantisgodsaus]

More selkieverse worldbuilding time. Fun fact: all selkies are bound to one of the four classical elements (fire, earth, air, water). The specific element varies by individual, but it tends to run in families - due, largely, to the fact that the creature that your pelt belongs to tends to heavily affect how inclined members of a strain may be to being a given element. The best-known, of course, are pinnipeds, who are almost always Water aligned, but marsupial selkies are known for frequently being aligned to Earth, and nearly every single avian strain out there will trend strongly towards Air. Fire tends to be rarest, with no consistent lines, turning up only occasionally in individual selkies.

When aligned to an element, a selkie will naturally be drawn to that thing - Water often produces an impossibly strong draw to water, both the sea and any other bodies of water that may be available to a selkie. Earth might be drawn underground, spelunking or tunneling and going ever deeper until some Earth selkies may wind up not seeing the sun for weeks or months at a time. Air, of course, produces a longing for the air and for flight - and Fire, a draw towards heat and flame which has been well-known to lead to disaster.

Beyond the longing for the elemend one is bound to, one's alignment also tends to offer resistance to one's element - Earth, for example, tends to make a selkie far more resilient against blunt force than other members of its species and offer a strong resistance to the psychological impact of darkness and claustrophobia, and Water selkies are often heavily resistant to both water pressure and any form of drowning.

With most forms of selkie, a strong presence of their aligned element will also tend to make them a bit more difficult to harm - while not offering an offensive advantage, a seal in water tends to simply be harder to hit, a bird in the air will find more ways to dodge you in the air than you knew existed, and trying to chase a weasel into a set of tunnels will have it finding more exits than you ever knew existed.

The final thing that an element affects generally isn't evident until a selkie dies. Upon a selkie's death, the bug body will generally decompose into its associated element within less than a day - though the dead sealskin will remain, the resultant body is rarely stable enough to be formally recognized as a body if you don't know precisely what to look for. Though the exact material varies, it is always tied to their core element - seafoam, lake water, and pond scum have all been recorded from pinnipeds of various forms, cinder and ash is common from Fire, Earth has been known to crumble to sand and leave bug-shaped stone formations in equal part, and Air has the disquieting tendancy to not leave any sign of a body at all.

Though there have been a multitude of rumors and myths suggesting that some selkies may gain the ability to fully control and manipulate their element, when sufficiently attuned to it, there is no concrete evidence to suggest it - historically, all signs have pointed to this being folklore, not fact. Primarily, this seems to stem from a quirk of selkie psychology - something similar to the call of the void. 

Occasionally, particularly when near the ends of their lives (either by old age or should they have the time to feel it after being dealt a mortal wound), selkies are known to seek out any font of their element that they can. Though poorly researched, there are enough anecdotes to construct an idea of the phenomenon. Selkies affected by this will commonly claim that the thing they're seeking out is "calling to them" - an intensification of the pull that element normally has on a given selkie, and an urge to follow it deeper - the bottom of the ocean, the centre of the earth, the very highest part of the sky, the burning heart of a flame.

Should they listen, and follow the call, they rarely come back - losing themselves to the pull of their own essence's wish to join with the greater body of its element. Unlike other methods of death, this does not generally leave a pelt behind, as most selkies will want to bring their skin with them to seek out whatever lies at the other end of this call, and thus the pelt will also be recombined into the core of whatever force of nature they've gone to seek.

[dirgecomic]

*Reposting with better formatting. Thanks @hippo for tagging me in this prompt.

What common/uncommon fear do they have?

Valance: He is afraid to look at harsh truths, spending much of his time trying to avoid accepting fate, but aware of its looming presence. He fears what he is capable of and he fears others will feel the same.

Durge: he embraces and fears that day when the blood stops flowing. For it will either mean his death, or his path to murder the world would have ended - in which case he to would be dead. A holy notion.

Do they have any pet peeves?

Valance: he thinks people are slow to act, if someone spends to much time planning the adhd kicks in and you look behind you and he is already trying to lie to or charm a guard.

Durge: when his victims don’t scream, it’s less fun when they don’t scream.

What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom?

Valance: An instrument, art he is made out of what ever is around him, a notebook that is worn and dirty full of songs

Durge: books, morbid keepsakes and stacks of papers containing his manic ideas and plans. Not even caring if anyone sees them.

What do they notice first in a person?

Valance: Thier hands, you can tell a lot about a person by looking at thier hands.

Durge: thier juicy bits.

On a scale from 1-10, how high is their pain tolerance?

Valanace - high, but it depends on the scenario, I think in some instances he likes being a passenger princess so if it’s a minor inconvenient wound he tends to fuss or whine a little.

Durge - externally high, pain or inflicting pain are exciting feelings. Wakes him up, sharpens him. It is holy.

Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure?

Valance: a physical fight? Again depends, ideally he would think his way around a fight or do some weird plan to side step them, however if it comes to throwing hands, if necessary, he will simply charge in.

Durge: fight, taunt, save, coo, comfort fight kill. He is violent and manipulative, the only time flight is involved is if he wants you to follow him. Make you feel like you e one just so he can cut you down all the sweeter.

Do they come from a big family/are they a family person?

Valance: He was adopted into a Vistani caravan. His family for a time was large and colorful.

Durge: extensive if you count all his fathers cultists and victims and butlers.

What animal represents them best?

Valance: Golden Retriever or a Weasle - excited, trickster, loyal, goofy, sneaky, loves shiny things.

Durge: Puma - working alone, stalking his prey, confident gate, territorial, powerful and despite the danger he is seen as more beautiful than deadly to the observer until he is up close.

What is a smell they dislike?

Valance: Valance doesn’t like the smell of blood. It makes him aware of his urge and so he dreads i

Durge: sandle wood, and rose.

Have they broken and bones?

Both: many many many many

How would a stranger likely describe them?

Valance: charming, loud, bubbly, with a slight air of danger. Like if you squinted you might see the Durge he is denying.

Durge: enticing, dangerous, aloof.

Are they a night owl, or morning bird?

Valance: morning bird, no one is awake, he gets to sit by a river as the sun comes up and play his music.

Durge: night owl, prime time for hunting.

What’s a flavor they hate and a flavor they love?

Valance: he hates red meat, and loves the flavor of a fish/rice porrage he remembers eating in baldurs gate.

Durge: he hates liquor (dulls the senses). And he loves raw meat, the redder the better.

Do they have any hobbies?

Valance: music

Durge: murder

Boom, surprise birthday party! How do they react to surprise?

Valance: excited, he loves a reason to celebrate, though he is likely to try to host even his own party.

Durge: guys it’s murder again, any party for him is just a mass murder that hasn’t been committed yet.

Do they like to wear jewelery?

Valance: he has earrings and rings but he loses them all the time. He likes shiny things it doesn’t matter the quality in most cases. He love finery and comfort but it’s the little things he values more. He has a ring on a chain he has had since he was young.

Durge: he does wear jewelry, often it helps with his violence. Cuffs with jagged edges that kind of stuff.

Do they have a neat or messy space?

Valance: a chaotic mess, musical instruments small trinkets. HE finds that the way he talks to the weave is through sounds. He often just makes noise out of what he finds to experiment with magic.

Durge: clean orderly meticulous unless he is working. Durge and valance share chaotic working processes that require a lot of freedom of creativity.

What are the two emotions they feel the most?

Valance: fear of himself as Durge, and loyalty.

Durge: resolve for his purpose and blood lust.

Do they have a favourite fabric?

Both: silk

What kind of accent do they have?

Valance: has an informal way of speaking with a bit of a vistni twang.

Durge: common accent for Baldurs Gate - he as an educated manner about the way he speaks, often using big words or religious phrases. As he was formally raised in the temple.