#several GoT characters nearly qualify

[drdemonprince]

it strikes me that Anthy Himemiya is another character in the "debilitatingly passive master manipulator" mold like Armand. there are relatively few characters i can think of that fulfill this trope, i think bc creators mistakenly think they won't be interesting on screen. it takes a certain amount of deft and theyre not showy but they can be so incredible. any other examples people can think of?

[velvetvisionsaurora]

Pairing: Hongjoong x reader, Seonghwa x reader, Yunho x reader, Mingi x reader, Wooyoung x reader.

Summary: Five eight-year-old boys aboard the slave ship Crimson Serpent form an unbreakable bond with five-year-old y/n. before she's sold at auction. Despite their failed rescue attempt, they swear a blood oath on her teddy bear to find her. Fifteen years later, now feared pirates leading the ATEEZ

Warnings: Slavery/Human Trafficking, Separation/Loss, Violence, Eventual Smut. SA(not by any main characters) y/n gets switched to a real name but it has a purpose. More warnings to be updated.

Want to be notified when a chapter is updated? Join the Taglist!

‼️if you have read chapter 7 already please go back and make sure you have read the reunion part with Ella/Yeosang! It’s after the flash back scene! Something happened with posting and it got removed‼️

<<Previous Next>>

Masterlist

Chapter 7

Intersections

In their shared cabin on the ATEEZ's port side, Yunho sat cross-legged on his bunk, carefully fixing a torn sail section while Mingi cleaned his special tools at the small workbench beneath their single porthole. Neither spoke for several comfortable minutes, the silence between them built on years of shared understanding rather than awkward emptiness.

Finally, Yunho looked up from his stitching. "She knew the stars in Orion's belt before I even pointed them out."

Mingi nodded, continuing his careful work on the firing mechanism laid out in perfect order on his workbench. Unlike the nearly silent way he acted in group settings, here in their private room, his shoulders looked more relaxed, his movements less stiff, more natural.

"And she knew exactly where to find Canis Major," Yunho continued, his normally gentle voice showing a hint of doubt. "The same stars I taught y/n to spot during night watches on The Crimson Serpent."

"Important," Mingi replied, his voice fuller and more flowing than the short phrases others heard. With Yunho, words came more easily, the safe space of their shared cabin allowing him to express himself in ways he rarely showed elsewhere.

"But not proof," Yunho countered, setting aside his sail repair. "Seonghwa pointed out that anyone with basic star knowledge would recognize major constellations."

Mingi turned from his workbench, giving Yunho his full attention—something he did almost only for his roommate and oldest friend. "You doubt now?"

Yunho sighed, running a hand through his hair in a gesture of real frustration. "I don't know what to believe. Yesterday I was certain. Today..." He trailed off, the conflict clear in his usually calm expression.

"Seonghwa's reasons," Mingi observed, not a question but understanding.

"He makes good points," Yunho admitted. "Everything we see as her recognizing things could be explained other ways. Common behaviors, basic knowledge, chance preferences."

Mingi rose from his workbench and moved to sit beside Yunho on the bunk—a closeness that would have surprised anyone else aboard the ATEEZ. While the quiet gunner typically kept careful distance from others, with Yunho he allowed closeness built through years of shared hardship and looking out for each other.

"Found my maker's mark," Mingi said, his tone showing unusual certainty. "On the gun port housing. Hidden on purpose. She knew exactly where to look."

Yunho's expression brightened slightly. "You didn't mention that in the officers' meeting."

Mingi shrugged one shoulder, a small gesture carrying complex meaning. "Seonghwa would find an explanation. Coincidence. Good observation skills."

"And you don't believe that?" Yunho asked, watching his friend carefully.

"No." The single word carried absolute certainty, rare from the careful gunner who typically added qualifiers to his statements with careful precision.

Mingi reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a simple leather cord from which hung a small wooden compass rose, its five points carefully carved despite its tiny size. The navigation symbol that had become his maker's mark—appearing on every weapon he designed, every mechanism he created, every carving he left behind—was an exact copy of this original pendant.

"The compass I made for Mr. Hugs," he explained, holding the pendant where Yunho could see it. "Fell off during struggle at auction house. I kept the original design. Put it on everything since."

Yunho studied the wooden compass with new understanding. For fifteen years, he had seen this symbol on Mingi's creations without fully understanding its importance—not simply a maker's mark but a deliberate connection to the teddy bear's lost navigation guide, to the little girl who had called Mingi "Puppy" with innocent affection rather than mockery.

"I forgot you kept the original," Yunho said softly.

Mingi tucked the pendant back beneath his shirt, the private gesture showing how he carried both keepsake and mission against his heart. "Reminder of promise," he said simply.

He returned to his workbench, but instead of going back to tool cleaning, he opened a small drawer built into its side. From within, he took out a rolled piece of fabric, carefully unfolding it on the workspace to reveal dozens of tiny wooden animals, each small enough to fit in a child's palm, each bearing the special compass mark on its underside.

"Make one every port," Mingi explained, his voice softening with rare emotion. "Leave them where children might find. Markets. Docks. Public squares."

Yunho stared at the collection with growing realization. For fifteen years, he had sometimes noticed Mingi carving small animals during quiet moments, had sometimes seen him lagging behind when they left port cities, but had never connected these observations to their shared mission.

"You leave them as messages," Yunho realized. "In case y/n might find one and recognize your work."

Mingi nodded, his finger gently touching a small wooden rabbit, perfect despite its tiny size. "Fifteen years. Hundreds of carvings. Every port we've visited."

The revelation—delivered in Mingi's private voice rather than his public way of few words—carried emotional weight beyond its factual meaning. While the others had searched through official channels, tracking auction records and slave lists, Mingi had kept up his own parallel effort: creating tiny wooden messengers that might somehow find their way to a lost girl who had once treasured his carvings.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Yunho asked, moving to stand beside his friend at the workbench.

Mingi's expression shifted slightly, showing rare vulnerability. "Might seem foolish. Not practical."

"It's not foolish," Yunho countered immediately, his hand settling gently on Mingi's shoulder—one of the few touches the gunner accepted without tension. "It's... hopeful. Faith that connection might last through separation."

Mingi's posture relaxed slightly under Yunho's reassurance, the acceptance flowing between them without need for more validation. Unlike others who might have dismissed his silent fifteen-year ritual as superstition, Yunho understood the deeper idea: that connection sometimes followed paths logic couldn't predict, that effort kept up without guaranteed result still had value.

"You really believe Ella is y/n," Yunho observed, the statement carrying no judgment or pressure.

Mingi nodded once, certainty clear despite his usually careful expression. "Too many matches for coincidence. The way she moves. Watches. Protects herself. Knows things without saying she knows them."

"Seonghwa suggests those behaviors might come from fifteen years of captivity rather than specific connection to us," Yunho countered, though his tone suggested he welcomed Mingi's counterargument.

"True," Mingi acknowledged, his response more detailed in Yunho's presence than others ever witnessed. "But combined with specific knowledge—star patterns, maker's marks, food preferences—pattern becomes clear."

He selected a small wooden dolphin from his collection, its details remarkably precise despite its tiny size, and placed it in Yunho's palm. "Made this last night. For her."

Yunho examined the tiny carving, noting the compass rose carefully embedded in its underside. "You want me to give it to her?"

Mingi shook his head slightly. "Leave where she'll find it. Without obvious placement. Test whether she recognizes what it means."

The suggestion—smart yet respectful of Ella's choice—reflected Mingi's careful approach to all challenges. Unlike Wooyoung's desire for immediate confirmation or Seonghwa's careful skepticism, Mingi proposed subtle opportunity for recognition without pressure or manipulation.

"Her bedside table?" Yunho suggested. "When she's with the captain for afternoon briefing?"

Mingi nodded approval. "Natural discovery. Her choice to acknowledge or ignore."

The plan settled between them without need for further explanation, their years together creating shorthand communication that others aboard the ATEEZ marveled at but couldn't copy. Even Hongjoong, with his smart planning and leadership instinct, sometimes found himself excluded from the silent understanding that flowed between the ship's tallest officer and its most reserved.

"If she is y/n," Yunho said after a moment, his voice carrying the uncertainty Mingi's lacked, "why wouldn't she simply tell us? We've given her no reason to fear us."

Mingi considered this carefully, his expression thoughtful in ways he rarely showed outside their private quarters. "Fifteen years captive," he replied finally. "Trust becomes a tactic, not instinct. She weighs benefit against risk before sharing."

"And the risk of revealing herself to us?" Yunho prompted.

"Expectation," Mingi answered immediately, the insight flowing more freely in Yunho's presence. "We might expect y/n unchanged. The child we knew, not the woman survival created."

The observation showed emotional intelligence that would have surprised those who knew only Mingi's public persona—the silent gunner whose rare words addressed practical matters rather than people's feelings. Yet with Yunho, he revealed the depth of understanding that made him not just the ATEEZ's weapons specialist but one of its most insightful observers.

"You think she fears disappointing us," Yunho realized. "That we might reject who she's become in favor of who we remember."

"Possible," Mingi acknowledged. "Survival changes people. Needed adaptations might not match childhood memories."

He carefully rolled up the fabric containing his collection of carved animals, securing it with careful precision before returning it to its drawer. "We remember five-year-old child. She brings twenty-year-old survivor shaped by captivity."

"And if she's not y/n?" Yunho asked quietly, the question reflecting his lingering doubt despite Mingi's conviction.

Mingi paused in his careful organization, considering this possibility with typical thoroughness. "Then she remains valuable ally against Blackwell. Worthy of protection regardless of identity."

The simple statement reflected core principles that had guided their mission through fifteen years of increasingly dangerous operations: that their campaign against the slave trade went beyond personal revenge, that protection extended beyond specific connection to broader purpose.

"You're right," Yunho acknowledged, his expression clearing somewhat. "Whether she's y/n or not, she deserves freedom and safety after fifteen years of captivity."

"Exactly," Mingi confirmed, returning to his workbench with renewed focus. He resumed cleaning his special tools, each movement precise yet flowing with natural grace rather than forced control. In Yunho's presence, he kept to careful standards without the rigid tension that marked his public performance, the safety of their shared space allowing expression that others never witnessed.

Yunho watched his friend work for several quiet moments, appreciating Mingi's confident movements and focused attention—qualities that had saved their lives countless times during fifteen years of increasingly dangerous missions. Though Mingi spoke rarely in public and avoided casual contact, in their private sanctuary he revealed the person beneath carefully built protection—thoughtful, perceptive, and far more talkative than anyone beyond Yunho ever experienced.

"Thank you," Yunho said simply, the gratitude covering their current conversation and fifteen years of unwavering loyalty.

Mingi looked up briefly, a small but genuine smile softening his usually blank features—an expression reserved exclusively for Yunho. No verbal response followed, none being necessary between two who had survived childhood captivity, teenage rebellion, and adult warfare side by side.

Outside their cabin, the ATEEZ continued its steady progress through morning waters, feared throughout the maritime world as the Black Ship, the Compass Crew, the vessel whose appearance meant precise revenge rather than random destruction. Few who encountered its distinctive silhouette understood the vessel's true purpose—that its feared reputation came not from bloodthirst but from blood oath, from promise made by children and fulfilled by the men they became.

And within that black-sailed ship, the quietest officer continued creating tiny wooden messengers marked with five-pointed compass rose, carrying fifteen years' hope that connection might somehow last through separation, that paths cut by violence might eventually come together through persistence and determination.

*Blackwell's Estate - Seven Years Earlier*

Twelve-year-old y/n stood stiffly in Blackwell's formal study, her expression carefully blank despite her inner panic. The summons had come without explanation—guards appearing at her work station in the laundry, taking her directly to the master's private domain where staff entered only when specifically ordered.

Victor Blackwell sat behind his massive desk, fingers joined beneath his chin as he studied her with the same clinical detachment that had marked his ownership for seven years. Unlike most slave owners who barely told apart individual pieces of property, Blackwell kept detailed knowledge of each person he owned—their abilities, their connections, their vulnerabilities. This personal attention made him more dangerous rather than more humane, his understanding used for maximum control rather than compassion.

"Do you know why you're here, girl?" he asked, his cultured voice showing no particular emotion.

"No, sir," y/n replied, the response automatic after years of conditioning. Show no curiosity, no initiative, no independent thought—only prompt obedience and proper respect.

"Valuable property requires proper maintenance," Blackwell continued, as if explaining a basic concept to a slow student. "This includes not merely physical health but appropriate mental conditioning. Assets that form incorrect attachments develop divided loyalties, lowering their functional value."

Cold dread settled in y/n’s stomach as his meaning became clearer. Blackwell rarely spoke directly about specific wrongdoings; his preferred method involved philosophical explanations that forced the listener to recognize their own mistakes, confessing through realization rather than questioning.

"Individuals within my household serve specific functions according to their abilities," he continued, rising from his desk to pace with careful steps. "The doctor's assistant provides medical support to maintain collective health. You girl, are to become the perfect slave. Educated, hard working and pretty enough to fulfill any requirements a buyer might need. Neither role includes unauthorized socialization beyond what's needed."

Y/n kept her carefully blank expression despite the growing certainty that her friendship with Yeosang had been discovered—the shared moments of connection they had believed properly hidden, the small kindnesses exchanged out of sight of watchful eyes, the wooden carvings passed between them as comfort during hard times.

For seven years, they had kept their alliance through increasingly careful precautions, knowing that their growing connection was a vulnerability that Blackwell would exploit if discovered. Yet somehow, despite their precautions, their secret communication had been exposed—perhaps through carelessness, perhaps through deliberate betrayal by another household member seeking good treatment.

"I have invested considerable resources in medical training for the boy," Blackwell remarked, his tone suggesting discussion of weather rather than human lives. "Skills development represents significant value improvement for specialized property. Such investment should not be harmed through inappropriate distractions."

He turned to face her directly, his expression showing neither anger nor cruelty but merely calculated business assessment. "Correction is therefore needed to maintain optimal asset functionality."

Before y/n could interpret this clinical declaration, the study door opened to admit two guards escorting a third figure between them. Yeosang's usual composed expression had broken into barely contained fear, his fifteen-year-old frame appearing suddenly younger and more vulnerable between the towering guards.

"Ah, excellent timing," Blackwell noted with the same detachment he might use when discussing furniture delivery.

He gestured for the guards to position Yeosang before his desk, then resumed his seat with the casual confidence of absolute authority. From a drawer, he took out a leather portfolio containing documents arranged with characteristic precision.

"Medical training increases property value considerably," he observed, reviewing the contents with practiced efficiency. "Several captains have expressed interest in acquiring specialized personnel for extended voyages. Captain Severino has offered particularly favorable terms for a ship's doctor with your specific qualifications."

The meaning became terribly clear: Yeosang was being sold. Their punishment for unauthorized friendship wasn't merely separation within the household but permanent division through transfer of ownership. The realization hit y/n with physical force, her carefully maintained composure threatening to break despite years of practiced control.

"The transaction will be completed today," Blackwell continued, directing his comments to Yeosang now. "Captain Severino's ship leaves with evening tide. Your medical supplies have been packed according to inventory requirements, with appropriate checking of controlled substances."

Throughout this clinical explanation, he maintained the same detached tone he might use when discussing crop rotation or equipment maintenance—human life reduced to asset management and inventory control. Only the slight tension in Yeosang's shoulders showed his internal response, years of conditioning preventing visible reaction despite devastating impact.

"The girl will observe transfer of ownership," Blackwell added, his gaze shifting to y/n with sudden sharpness. "Visual demonstration provides more effective behavioral change than theoretical explanation."

The deliberate cruelty of this decision—forcing her to witness Yeosang's removal—revealed the careful calculation behind Blackwell's seemingly dispassionate management. He understood precisely how to maximize psychological impact while maintaining appearance of reasonable business operations.

"You are prohibited from direct communication before departure," he instructed, rising to indicate the meeting's conclusion. "Guards will escort the boy to preparing quarters and the girl to observation position at front entrance. Asset transfer will proceed at four o'clock precisely."

As the guards moved to separate them, y/n’s efforts to fight and maintain her neutral expression crumbled, she turned and with tears hugged Yeosang tightly. "Please don't!" She said.

Yeosang, although grateful for one last interaction, closed his eyes in sadness. That moment of weakness would transform already devastating punishment into something far worse—Blackwell's method always escalated when emotional vulnerability was displayed.

Blackwell's cold and dismissive behavior morphed into an almost delightful smirk at the girl's behavior.

"See to it she is punished for this outburst." Blackwell commanded the guard. "It seems more training is necessary to her daily lessons." He commented to no one in particular.

Yeosang stiffened, and before he could open his mouth to speak as the guards roughly dragged y/n out of the room, Blackwell interrupted him.

"I cannot punish your words or actions any longer, however," He looked at the boy smirking. "Since you and the girl are so close, I'm sure she wouldn't mind taking the punishment of your disobedience in your place."

Yeosang's eyes widened slightly and quickly closed his mouth obeying Blackwell. Years of treating y/n’s wounds, with or without permission, taught him how cruel and gruesome they were with punishing her.

Three hours later, positioned on the mansion's front steps where her supposed "observation" doubled as humiliation before the entire household staff, y/n watched stone-faced as Yeosang was escorted to the waiting carriage. His few possessions—medical reference texts and carefully maintained instruments—had been packed in a single trunk that represented seven years of dedicated study and practice.

Captain Severino, a weathered man with calculating eyes similar to Blackwell's, inspected his new acquisition with the same clinical assessment used for livestock or equipment. His cursory examination included checking Yeosang's teeth and reflexes, testing basic medical knowledge through rapid-fire questions, and verifying physical condition through demonstration of movement and strength.

Throughout this degrading process, Yeosang kept the careful composure that had protected him through years in Blackwell's household—present yet somehow removed, cooperating physically while preserving essential selfhood behind strong walls. Only y/n, who knew him better than anyone else in the world, could read the subtle signs of his internal devastation: the slight tremor in his left hand, the carefully controlled breathing pattern, the small delay before each response.

As final transaction details were completed between Blackwell and Severino, Yeosang was permitted to gather his trunk under guard supervision. In that brief moment, as he knelt to secure the latches, his hand moved with practiced sleight developed through years of passing secret messages within the household. Something small dropped into the ornamental grass bordering the front path—a movement so subtle that even watchful guards failed to notice.

Y/n noted the deliberate placement, memorizing its exact location without shifting her gaze directly toward it. Whatever Yeosang had left behind, he had risked severe punishment to ensure she would find it after his departure—a final communication despite Blackwell's explicit prohibition.

The actual moment of separation passed with anticlimactic efficiency—Yeosang boarding the carriage, Severino completing final documentation, the vehicle departing down the long drive toward Halazia's harbor where ship awaited. No opportunity for goodbye, no acknowledgment of connection being severed, no recognition of human cost behind business transaction.

Only after night fell and household activities quieted did y/n risk retrieving Yeosang's final message. With careful movements honed through years of navigating Blackwell's household undetected, she slipped from her dormitory to the front gardens, locating the exact position where Yeosang had knelt hours earlier.

Buried in the ornamental grass, her searching fingers found familiar shape—a wooden wolf with its distinctive compass marking, not the same shared treasure passed between them for six years whenever one needed comfort or strength, a different one. Perhaps Yeosang made another one? A replica? Or he found another one hidden. This final gift represented both farewell and promise: that connection lasted beyond physical separation, that memory remained despite deliberate division, that hope survived even systematic attempts to destroy it.

Clutched tightly in her twelve-year-old hand, the small carving represented Yeosang's final resistance against Blackwell's calculated control—solid proof that something belonging uniquely to them had survived despite their owner's deliberate intervention. Neither understood its deeper significance: that the compass marking connected them to five boys searching throughout maritime world for a lost girl, that the wooden animal was created by a quiet child named Mingi who continued carving similar messengers during fifteen years of searching.

For y/n, it simply represented proof that genuine connection had existed despite Blackwell's systematic isolation—tangible evidence of the one friendship that had sustained her through seven years of captivity. For three more years, she would keep it carefully hidden within Blackwell's household, until her transfer to his business associate necessitated new hiding strategies.

For eight years, Yeosang would carry the original wolf, a memory through multiple transfers between captains who valued his medical skills without recognizing his humanity, until fate and a black-sailed pirate vessel named ATEEZ stepped in to offer unexpected freedom.

Neither could have imagined that 7 years after their forced separation, they would reunite aboard that same pirate ship—or that its feared officers were the very boys who had once protected a small girl aboard The Crimson Serpent, their fearsome reputation built upon the foundation of childhood oath to find someone both they and Yeosang had deeply loved in different ways.

The ship's bell had just rung midnight watch when Ella jolted awake. The nightmare of one of the three worst days of her life jolting her awake. Ella slipped silently from her cabin. Years of moving through hostile environments after dark had honed her ability to move without sound—a skill developed initially for survival, now used for deliberate purpose rather than desperate necessity.

The ATEEZ ran with skeleton crew during night hours, most sailors sleeping in shifts while essential positions maintained minimal vigilance. Her exploration earlier that day had yielded thorough knowledge of watch patterns and patrol routes—information gathered out of habit despite her apparent freedom aboard ship.

She moved through the darkened hallways with practiced efficiency, avoiding the occasional crewman on night duty through timing rather than hiding. No one had forbidden her movement throughout the vessel; nevertheless, caution remained ingrained after fifteen years of restrictions.

The medical bay's location on the lower deck provided ideal seclusion—positioned away from sleeping quarters and primary operational areas, its specialized ventilation creating sound barriers that would contain conversation. As she approached the partially open door, soft light spilled into the corridor, suggesting Yeosang remained awake despite the late hour.

For a brief moment, Ella hesitated outside the threshold, an unexpected wave of uncertainty washing over her. The boy she had known—gentle hands treating injuries, whispered encouragement during dark moments, the quiet strength that had kept her going through seven years in Blackwell's household—had become a man she recognized yet didn't truly know. How much had fifteen years changed him? How much suffering had he endured after Blackwell separated them?

Taking a steadying breath, she pushed such questions aside and entered the medical bay without announcing herself, slipping through the doorway with the silent movement that had become second nature during captivity.

Yeosang sat at his small desk, back to the door, apparently absorbed in writing notes in a leather-bound journal. The small wooden trinket box she remembered from childhood sat open beside his inkwell, medical supplies arranged with the same careful precision she remembered from their shared past.

He spoke without turning, his keen awareness of surroundings showing training beyond medical practice. "I wondered when you would come."

The voice—deeper than the boy she remembered yet carrying the same measured pace—confirmed what his posture already suggested: he had been waiting for her, perhaps since the moment she had left his medical bay hours earlier.

"You knew I would," she replied, closing the door silently behind her.

At this, he finally turned to face her, the careful composure of their earlier meeting giving way to more genuine expression. The distinctive birthmark near his left eye crinkled slightly as emotion transformed his features from professional detachment to painful recognition.

"Y/n." He spoke her true name as if testing its reality on his tongue. "It really is you."

The sound of her name—her actual name, not the shortened "Ella" she had offered the ATEEZ officers—created strange feeling after years of deliberate anonymity. She found herself momentarily speechless, the planned greeting dissolving under the weight of genuine connection.

Yeosang rose slowly from his desk, keeping careful distance as if uncertain of appropriate boundaries after fifteen years' separation. His movements held the same deliberate grace she remembered, though his frame had matured from teenage slenderness to adult strength. A thin scar traced his jawline—evidence of violence experienced since their forced separation—while his eyes carried shadows of witnessed suffering that hadn't existed in the fifteen-year-old boy she had known.

"Angel," she whispered, the childhood nickname coming unbidden. "I never thought I'd see you again."

Something in his expression cracked at the sound of her private name for him—the one she had given when they'd first connected in Blackwell's household. His careful composure faltered momentarily before he regained control, professional discipline evidently ingrained through years of necessary survival.

"I looked for you," he said quietly. "After I gained my freedom. But Blackwell's records were deliberately hidden, and his associate who purchased you had disappeared from known trading routes."

The admission created conflicting emotion—gratitude that he had tried to find her, pain that neither of them had succeeded in finding the other until now. Ella found herself moving forward almost unconsciously, closing the physical distance that symbolized their years of separation.

"How did you end up here?" she asked, genuine curiosity momentarily overriding the flood of other questions demanding attention. "On this specific ship?"

"The ATEEZ raided the vessel where I was being transferred between captains," he explained, his voice steady despite the difficult subject. "Unlike other pirates who typically claim medical personnel as valuable assets, Hongjoong recognized I was captive rather than crew. He offered freedom without obligation, though I chose to stay as ship's doctor."

He gestured vaguely toward the well-equipped medical bay. "This is the first place I've practiced medicine by choice rather than being forced. The first place my skills have served healing rather than maintaining property value."

The bitterness in his final words revealed wounds that professional composure couldn't fully hide—scars from years serving masters who viewed his healing abilities as tools for profit rather than compassion. Ella recognized the underlying anger; it mirrored her own carefully contained rage at fifteen years of being treated as an object.

"They don't know," she realized suddenly, studying his expression. "The officers—they don't know about our connection."

Yeosang shook his head slightly. "I never speak of my years under Blackwell. The specifics of my captivity remain my own."

His gaze sharpened with sudden intensity. "But they know you. Somehow, they know you—or believe they do. The way Yunho was watching you, the way Wooyoung's mouth moves at a faster rate when he speaks about 'Ella'." Yeosang rolls his eyes with a smirk.

"I was disgusted and surprised at first when I learned the captain had purchased a slave, even more surprised when heard the amount he paid just to turn around and free you." He raised an eyebrow. "I can see there's more to it than that."

"The Crimson Serpent," Ella confirmed, the explanation forming connection between separate pieces. "Before Blackwell bought me at auction, I spent three months aboard that ship with five cabin boys who tried to protect me. They tried to rescue me during stop in Halazia but failed. I was sold while they were recaptured."

Understanding dawned in Yeosang's expression. "The blood oath," he murmured, almost to himself. "The reason they target Blackwell's operations with such specific focus."

He looked at her with renewed intensity. "Y/n, they've been searching for you for fifteen years. It's the foundation of everything they've built—the ATEEZ, their campaign against slave traders, their reputation for precise revenge. All of it began with a promise to find one little girl sold at auction."

The confirmation of Wooyoung's earlier claim—delivered now by someone who had no reason to manipulate her trust—created momentary confusion. The implications seemed too vast, too significant to fully understand immediately.

"You knew they were searching for someone," she realized, studying his expression. "But you didn't know it was me."

Yeosang nodded, his face reflecting the complexity of this revelation. "They speak occasionally of a girl they lost, a promise that drives their mission. But never specific details—not her name, not her connection to Blackwell. I assumed she was someone they met after building their reputation, not its very foundation."

He moved to a cabinet secured with small lock. With practiced motion, he retrieved a key from within his medical bag, opening the cabinet to reveal shelves of specialized equipment. From the bottom drawer, he took out a small wooden box similar to the one on his desk but larger, its surface distinguished by detailed carvings rather than simple utility.

"After joining the ATEEZ," he explained, placing the box on his examination table, "I noticed Mingi's habit of carving small wooden animals—leaving them in ports we visited, sometimes asking me to place them in specific locations when I went ashore for medical supplies."

He opened the box carefully, revealing interior compartments organized with careful precision. "I helped without understanding why—assumed it was some personal ritual or superstition. He never explained, and I never asked."

From a hidden compartment within the box's lid, he withdrew a small object wrapped in protective cloth. With gentle movements that spoke of treasured significance, he unwrapped the bundle to reveal the wooden wolf they had shared during their childhood—worn from years of handling but still recognizable, its compass marking visible on the underside.

"I kept it," he said softly. "Through eight years, four different captains, countless ports. The only thing I managed to take from Blackwell's household that day."

Ella stared at the carving, emotion welling despite her determined control. "I lost the one you left for me that night. When I was transferred to Blackwell's associate. The guards found it during the transfer, destroyed it along with everything else I'd managed to hide."

Yeosang shook his head slightly.

Understanding dawned as she connected memories previously separated. "A second wolf. You carved it for me? The one you left the night Blackwell sold you?"

"No," Yeosang corrected gently. "I never had the skill for such detailed work." He turned the wolf over, indicating the compass mark. "This is Mingi's craftsmanship. All those animals he leaves in ports—they all bear this same mark. He's been creating them for fifteen years, leaving them throughout the maritime world."

The revelation hit with unexpected force—that Mingi, the quietest of the five boys who had protected her aboard The Crimson Serpent, had continued creating tangible connection despite their separation. That the wooden wolf she and Yeosang had treasured during their years in Blackwell's household had been Mingi's creation all along, its compass mark his signature rather than mere decoration.

"He leaves them hoping you might find one and recognize his work," Yeosang continued, his voice softening with newfound understanding. "For two years, I've been helping him distribute these messages without realizing they were meant for you—that you were the lost girl they've searched for all this time."

Ella reached into her pocket and withdrew the small leather pouch she kept hidden on her person at all times. From within, she removed a tiny wooden figure—not a wolf but a sparrow with folded wings, small enough to hide completely within her closed fist.

"I found this in the garden after a storm knocked down part of the wall," she explained, holding it where Yeosang could see. "Two years after you were sold. I didn't realize it was connected to the wolf—thought it was just similar craftsmanship."

Yeosang studied the sparrow, recognition dawning in his expression. "Mingi's work again. The compass mark is identical." He looked up, newfound understanding in his eyes. "They've been closer than we realized all these years—their search and our survival running parallel without crossing until now."

The meeting of these separate paths—five boys who became feared pirates searching for a lost girl, two children who survived Blackwell's household supporting each other through secret connection—created meaning beyond chance. It seemed like more than chance that these paths crossed—five boys turned pirates looking for a lost girl, and two children who had helped each other survive Blackwell's house.

"Do you trust them?" she asked, the question showing vulnerability she rarely displayed.

Yeosang considered this carefully, his natural caution evident in measured response. "I trust their intentions," he said finally. "Their protection of the vulnerable is genuine rather than strategic. Their opposition to the slave trade comes from personal conviction rather than mere profit opportunity."

He studied her thoughtfully. "Seonghwa reminds me of you," she observed suddenly. "The way he organizes everything, his careful movements, how he keeps emotion behind careful thinking."

"He's nothing like me," Yeosang replied, an unusual edge entering his voice. "His control comes from natural preference for order. Mine was beaten into me through eight years serving masters who viewed showing emotion as a fault needing correction."

The raw honesty—expressing personal history he clearly revealed to few—created momentary silence between them. Ella recognized the pain beneath his words; it echoed her own experience of enforced compliance through systematic punishment.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean—"

"No," he interrupted, regret immediately replacing defensiveness. "You couldn't have known. I've never spoken of those years to anyone aboard the ATEEZ. Not even the captain knows the specifics of my captivity after Blackwell."

The admission—that he had shared his full history with no one else aboard ship—emphasized the importance of their reconnection. Like her, Yeosang had survived through careful compartmentalization, revealing only what circumstances required rather than complete truth.

"Will you tell them?" he asked after a moment, echoing the question from earlier with new context. "That you're y/n? That you remember them from The Crimson Serpent?"

She considered this carefully, weighing factors with careful assessment built through years of calculated survival. "Not yet," she decided. "I need to understand their expectations first. What they believe 'y/n' should be after fifteen years. What they want from her—from me—beyond keeping a childhood promise."

Yeosang nodded acceptance without judgment, his respect for her choice as clear now as it had been during their shared captivity. "Your identity remains yours to reveal or withhold," he affirmed. "I won't betray your trust."

The promise carried weight beyond its simple words—alliance without demand, support without expectation. Unlike potential pressure from others who might discover her secret, Yeosang offered protection for her choice rather than pushing for a particular outcome.

Ella placed the wooden sparrow beside the wolf on the examination table, the two carvings creating tangible evidence of connection kept despite fifteen years' separation. "Everything connects," she said softly. "Paths I thought completely cut somehow coming together against impossible odds."

"Not impossible," Yeosang corrected gently. "Unlikely, certainly. But we always knew connection lasted beyond separation. That's why we passed the wolf between us—solid proof that bonds survive despite deliberate division."

His words echoed their childhood understanding, the philosophy that had kept them going through Blackwell's systematic attempts to isolate and control. Even as children, they had recognized that genuine connection represented resistance against calculated dehumanization—that sharing the wooden wolf created meaning beyond mere comfort.

"I've missed you," Ella admitted, the simple truth emerging without tactical consideration. "Every day since Blackwell sold you. Even after I buried the memory to survive, something remained missing."

The unguarded confession—so different from her carefully measured responses since boarding the ATEEZ—reflected the unique safety Yeosang represented. With him alone, she could express vulnerability without fear of exploitation, reveal emotion without risk of manipulation.

"I searched for you," he responded, matching her honesty with his own. "After the ATEEZ freed me. When Hongjoong offered free movement at port calls, I used that freedom to track Blackwell's operations, hoping to find some record of where he had sent you."

The revelation—that his first use of newfound liberty had been searching for her—created unexpected emotion. After fifteen years believing herself forgotten or abandoned by everyone who had ever shown her kindness, discovering that both Yeosang and the ATEEZ officers had actively sought her challenged core assumptions that had guided her survival.

"But Blackwell erased the trail deliberately," Yeosang continued, frustration evident despite his controlled expression. "His records showed only that you had been transferred to a business associate, with no documentation of identity or location. By then, eight years had passed since our separation—the trail had grown cold before I even began searching."

"He sold me to a man named Calloway," Ella explained, the name still bitter on her tongue despite the years. "A trading partner who specialized in 'premium domestic personnel' for wealthy households. The transfer was deliberately kept from official records—private arrangement between business associates rather than formal sale."

Something darkened in Yeosang's expression at this information—recognition of deliberate concealment designed to prevent exactly the kind of search he had attempted. "Blackwell understood the value of strategic concealment even then," he observed, professional analysis masking deeper emotion. "His operation has only grown more sophisticated in recent years."

"The ATEEZ's campaign has forced adaptation," Ella noted, her own tactical assessment engaging with his. "Their systematic targeting of his ships created operational challenges that required improved security protocols. Blackwell speaks of them with genuine fear disguised as contempt—'The Compass Crew' who appear without warning and disappear before naval response can gather."

Yeosang's expression shifted slightly at this information—pride briefly visible beneath professional composure. "They've earned their reputation through careful precision rather than random violence," he acknowledged. "Each raid specifically designed to disrupt slave trading operations with minimal civilian damage."

"You admire them," Ella observed, studying his reaction carefully.

"I respect what they've built," he corrected, though the distinction seemed mostly semantic. "Their opposition to the slave trade goes beyond mere piracy—they target specific operations with tactical intelligence that military vessels lack. And they treat freed captives with dignity rather than simply alternative utility."

The assessment aligned with her own observations of the ATEEZ's unusual culture, yet hearing it from Yeosang—who had witnessed their operations from within for two years—carried additional weight. Unlike her necessarily limited perspective as recent arrival, his evaluation incorporated extended observation across multiple campaigns.

"And personally?" she prompted, seeking understanding beyond professional assessment. "Beyond their tactical approach and ethical stance?"

Yeosang considered this more carefully, weighing personal opinion against professional evaluation. "They're good men operating within a brutal world," he said finally. "Their methods reflect necessity rather than natural inclination. In another life, they might have been scholars, artists, builders—their intelligence and skills directed toward creation rather than strategic destruction."

The insight revealed deeper understanding than mere tactical alliance—genuine appreciation for the complexity underlying the ATEEZ officers' fearsome reputation. Unlike outsiders who saw only calculated violence, Yeosang recognized the fundamental principles guiding their operations.

"Hongjoong carries the heaviest burden," he continued, his voice softening slightly. "Each decision, each casualty, each compromise weighs on him even when necessity leaves no alternative. Yet he never passes that weight to others—maintains responsibility without giving up despite personal cost."

"And Seonghwa?" Ella asked, curious about his perception of the quartermaster whose controlled precision had reminded her of Yeosang himself.

"The foundation that enables Hongjoong's leadership," he replied without hesitation. "His careful analysis balances the captain's intuitive strategy, creating operational effectiveness that neither could achieve alone." He paused thoughtfully before adding, "Their partnership represents complementary strengths rather than competition—rare in any context, nearly unique among pirates."

"Wooyoung?" she prompted, continuing her exploration of his perspectives on the officers.

A small but genuine smile touched Yeosang's features—rare expression she remembered from their childhood, reserved for moments of authentic pleasure rather than strategic presentation. "Exactly as he appears," he said. "His theatrical energy isn't performance but genuine nature. Yet beneath the constant movement lies remarkable intelligence—he gathers information through casual conversation that formal questioning could never extract."

"Yunho, the heart of their operation," Yeosang answered immediately. "His natural kindness could be mistaken for weakness by those who don't understand its function. But his compassion creates bonds throughout the crew that tactical authority alone could never establish. The men follow Hongjoong's orders out of respect, but they'd die for Yunho out of genuine loyalty."

"And Mingi—" Yeosang stated finally.

Ella leaned forward particularly interested in his assessment of the quiet gunner whose wooden carvings had unknowingly connected all three of them across fifteen years.

Yeosang's expression grew more thoughtful, suggesting deeper consideration than previous responses required. "The most complex despite appearing simplest," he said carefully. "His quiet exterior hides remarkable perception and emotional intelligence. He observes relationships and interactions that others miss entirely, understands motivations beyond surface behavior."

This assessment aligned with Ella's own observations of Mingi's watchful presence, his rare words carrying weight out of proportion to their economy. Yet Yeosang's insight suggested deeper understanding than mere tactical evaluation—genuine appreciation for complexities others might overlook.

"Why did you stay with them?" she asked, the question addressing fundamental choice rather than mere circumstance. "When Hongjoong offered freedom without obligation, why remain aboard a pirate vessel rather than establishing independent practice?"

The question clearly struck deeper territory than previous exchange, Yeosang's expression shifting toward greater reserve before deliberately relaxing into unusual openness. "Because they offered genuine choice rather than merely alternative obligation," he said finally. "And because their mission against slave traders represented purpose beyond mere survival—opportunity to transform personal suffering into constructive resistance."

The explanation revealed philosophical alignment rather than merely practical arrangement—shared principles rather than simple convenience. Unlike her carefully calculated assessment of potential alliance aboard the ATEEZ, Yeosang had found authentic purpose that went beyond tactical advantage.

"And now?" she asked softly. "Knowing who I am—that I'm the girl they've searched for all these years?"

"The choice remains yours," he assured her immediately. "Whether you reveal your identity or maintain your current presentation, my loyalty extends to you directly rather than merely their mission. Whatever you decide, I'll support without qualification or condition."

The promise—alliance without demand, protection without expectation—created emotion beyond tactical assessment. For fifteen years, Ella had navigated captivity through careful calculation of advantage against vulnerability, protection against exploitation. Yeosang's unconditional support represented freedom beyond mere physical liberation—choice without strategic consequence.

"Thank you," she whispered, the simple gratitude encompassing far more than his current assurance.

Without conscious decision, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into an embrace that went beyond tactical consideration. The contact—initiated without calculation or strategic purpose—represented emotional truth rather than rational assessment, genuine connection rather than deliberate action.

For a moment, Yeosang remained perfectly still, his body tense with surprise at this unexpected physical closeness. Then, with careful movements that suggested both unfamiliarity and genuine desire, his arms encircled her in returned embrace—tentative at first, then firmer as emotional response overcame habitual caution.

It was the first genuine human contact either had experienced in fifteen years without tactical purpose or enforced compliance—chosen connection rather than calculated advantage or unwanted imposition. The simple act of embracing contained healing beyond words, tangible proof that something fundamental had survived fifteen years of deliberate dehumanization.

"We made it," she whispered against his shoulder, the words emerging from deep recognition rather than conscious thought. "Despite everything, we survived to find each other again."

His arms tightened briefly, the gesture conveying agreement beyond verbal confirmation. For several moments, they remained in this unexpected connection, neither willing to break physical proof of reunion after fifteen years believing the other forever lost. When they finally separated, Yeosang's carefully controlled expression had softened into genuine emotion—vulnerability he clearly revealed to no one else aboard the ATEEZ.

"I should return to my cabin," Ella said eventually, practical consideration overriding emotional need. "Extended absence might draw unwanted attention."

Yeosang nodded, understanding flowing between them without extensive explanation. "Dawn watch is quietest," he replied, the practical information conveyed in neutral tone that would appear unremarkable to potential observers. "Medical bay remains unoccupied until morning rounds begin."

The invitation for further private conversation registered clearly despite its indirect delivery—evidence that some habits formed under surveillance remained useful aboard pirate vessel despite apparent freedom. Ella nodded understanding, grateful for his continued respect for strategic communication.

"Rest well, Angel," she said softly, the childhood nickname carrying new meaning after fifteen years' separation. "Thank you for keeping our wolf safe all these years."

As she prepared to leave, Yeosang carefully rewrapped the wooden wolf and pressed it into her hands. "Take it," he said quietly. "It's always been meant for moments when either of us needed strength. Tonight, that's you."

The gesture—returning their shared treasure without qualification or condition—echoed their childhood exchanges, when the carved animal had passed between them during difficult periods. Unlike those earlier transfers, conducted through careful concealment to avoid Blackwell's notice, this exchange occurred through deliberate choice rather than desperate necessity.

"Until tomorrow," she promised, securing the wolf within her clothing with practiced movement that spoke of years hiding treasured possessions from hostile discovery.

As she slipped silently from the medical bay, moving through darkened corridors with habitual caution, Ella felt subtle shift in her carefully maintained reality. For fifteen years, survival had required calculated solitude—alliance temporary and limited, connection dangerous beyond immediate advantage. Now, against all probability, genuine recognition had appeared in the most unlikely location: aboard notorious pirate vessel, among men feared throughout maritime world for ruthless efficiency and precise vengeance.

The officers of the ATEEZ had built their fearsome reputation on the foundation of childhood oath to find one lost girl. And now that very girl moved through their ship's passages, carrying knowledge that could fulfill fifteen years' search or shatter carefully maintained alliance. The power of that knowledge—the choice to acknowledge or deny her true identity—represented freedom unlike any she had experienced since childhood.

For the first time in fifteen years, y/n held genuine choice rather than merely strategic options. The realization carried both excitement and terror as she returned to her cabin in the heart of the most feared pirate vessel on the seven seas, its black sails cutting through darkness like shadow given form, its reputation for merciless precision earned through years of calculated violence against slave traders who never understood the personal vendetta driving their destruction.

Clutching the wooden wolf Mingi had carved fifteen years earlier—the tangible connection that had unknowingly linked her to both her past aboard The Crimson Serpent and her seven years with Yeosang under Blackwell's control—she whispered her nightly ritual, the familiar names grounding her amid turbulent revelation: "Joongie, Hwa, Woo, Yuyu, Puppy."

But tonight, she added the sixth name without hesitation, acknowledgment rather than discovery: "Angel."

Tomorrow would bring further navigation of this complex situation—continued assessment of the officers' expectations, strategic planning for potential outcomes, careful balancing of vulnerability against advantage. But tonight, for the first time since childhood, she allowed herself to think about possibility beyond mere survival—connection beyond calculated alliance, protection beyond temporary advantage.

Taglist: @hopeless-lovex0 @frankielou02 @jilxxasu @kur0kki @lezleeferguson-120 @uniquecloudbread @miniverse-zen @symmieangela @monstacheol @ateezswonderland

[theangrycomet-art]

Sonic Underground Reprise: Hedgehog Family Tree Hedge

Here- the parents, the aunts, the uncles, the grandpa and grandma's and even some cousins.

Now, are most of these characters relevant to the main plot? No. But if you have followed me for any amount of time you should know of my love of expanding character's family trees.

COMMISSIONS OPENED

Kofi

Family Notes: (this gets kinda long)

Parlouzer Lore (paternal side)

Charlotte was a sailor who split her time exploring and fishing with her crew

she may or may not have been a pirate

Maurice was a skilled carpenter who worked from his home workshop in Port Mobius

he was just a humble, if a bit on the quiet side,

the two met by chance when Charlotte was exploring the area while Maurice was trying to get groceries

instantly charmed with one another, they kept in touch and she made it a point to always come back to see him every chance she could

after about 5 years of this she proposed to him and the two were married the next day

Chuck was born shortly after (honeymoon baby)

he mostly stayed on the mainland with his father while Charlotte continued working on the high seas

Julius was born when Charles was 12, and Pauline Pauli when he was 19

Chuck left for college early at 16, so he wasn’t particularly close with his younger brothers until they were practically adults

Jules ran away when he was 13 to join the circus, completely cutting off contact for nearly 5 years

At 17, he and several other members of the circus (including Argus) were arrested in Casino City after being framed for treason by a rival performance troupe. Due to their age however, the two were given an alternative to jail time: enlistment, which they begrudgingly accepted (this was HIGHLY illegal btw, as both were underage and therefore not qualified to be enlisted)

around 3 years into service, Chuck got wind of the bullshit charges placed on his brother and threatened to raise hell if the two were not brought back home immediately

Jules and Argus were then hired as a part of the Royal guard where they were charged initially with guarding King Max’s son, Crown Prince Nigel

Pauli avoided trouble growing up, having taken more after his father than his lovely, impulsive older brothers

Ihe developed a passion for piloting and decided to start his own delivery business, which would be how he would meet his future wife Bernie

Bernie

Nadim Lore

ditch the royal family part and exchange it for a powerful magic fam

Hatshe is the matriarch of a powerful magic guild, the Rising Sun, though she has retired from any official position

the Rising Sun was formed by Aman-Rapi long ago

Hatshe met Olgilvie when traveling through the Kingdom of Mercia when the then King requested the aid of the Rising Sun’s strangest magician (they had meant to request “strongest” but their had been a slight typo, luckily for them Hatshe was both)

Bastard son of a a duke, Olgilvie was knight renound for his skills with a blade as well as the strings

he was assigned to aide Hatshe in her assignment

the two did not get along initially, as both were headstrong individuals who had their own way of doing things, but eventually became friends, and later lovers

He ran off after her once her assignment had been completed and continued courting her back home

Layla is Aleena’s older sister, as well as the current leader of the Rising Sun

Though she may appear calm, collected, and regal, outside of official appearances she is a very much a dork who is not above a little mischief

she met Terios when the were children during the family’s travels

more specifically, she found his half dead body lie partway out of a river bank

he was taken in to the guild, where he showed strong promise in healing magic

childhood friends-> lovers, slowburn 160k words basically

everyone knew that they liked eachother except themselves

despite some initial mishaps, the guild has been thriving under her leadership

despite Robotnik’s efforts, their guild halls have remained hidden to him, as well as serving a safe havens for those trying to escape his reign

they work loosely with the Resistance, though Layla leaves it up to the individuals to come forwards and offer aid

[skaruresonic]

https://www.tumblr.com/skaruresonic/725273089450115072/the-whole-deal-with-but-sonic-is-inconsistent-so

> However, I would argue that of the entire cast, Knuckles is really the only one who qualifies as inconsistent. But that's for another time.

Sorry to link an old post of yours, but I’m curious abt your thoughts on Knuckles’ characterization throughout the games. I have a sneaking suspicion I know where you’re coming from, so I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Of the entire cast, Knuckles' personality changes the most to suit the needs of the game he's in. That's not to say he has no core personality, but it is interesting how certain traits of his wax and wane throughout the series.

Some changes can't be explained by character development alone---how does he go from hating bright lights in the Adventure era to calling himself a "sun guy" in TSR?

In the Classic era, Knuckles is portrayed as something of a trickster, a scheming type who revels in catching Sonic on the backfoot. He's a cool character, but also a bit of comedic relief---ramming the Egg Mobile into the pillar he's standing on launches him into the water, giving the player a sense of payback for all the times he's messed with us.

Then Adventure rolls around, and he's lost that aspect of his personality for a more serious, straightlaced, introspective type who has no time for games. Unlike Sonic, he don't chuckle.

SA2!Knuckles is the most lowkey out of all of them. If you played a 4Kids-era game and SA2 and compared their Knuckles portrayals, you'd think they were separate characters. He only displays his temper once, when demanding Eggman fix the situation.

In SA2, he describes himself as the "ultimate treasure hunter" (funnily enough, several characters describe themselves as "the ultimate ___" in SA2, not just Shadow). Something not really brought up by other games.

Knuckles mellows out in Heroes, to the point of ribbing Tails about ghosts... And it's like? A, where did this come from, and B, didn't SA2 heavily imply that ghosts creep him out? So why is he all like "~oooh Tails, Shadow's ghost is gonna get ya~"? That'd be like Blaze teasing someone else over heights.

Oh, and in case you were thinking his gullibility got lost sometime between Adventure and Heroes, Sonic Advance 2 says hi.

People say the 4Kids era flanderizes Knuckles into an angry brute when the seeds of that were really planted in Battle; he has somewhat weaker characterization than the others, his primary traits being his coarse attitude and his temper, and is often made the butt of the joke.

I also feel like the games tend to change their mind on whether Knuckles is a rube or not depending on the situation. He's knowledgeable about ancient cultures in some games, but otherwise the "punch it until it works" guy. Case in point: nearly crashing the shuttle in SA2. Tails overwhelming him with information overload was a joke in the original Riders, but in Zero Gravity, the crew defer to his linguistic knowledge.

I can't even really say he's remained consistent at his core if you view things from a broader perspective, because most of the character development he's experienced seems to have occurred off-screen. His personality changes between games are subtle, but frequent enough to warrant notice if you think in reverse.

For instance, when did he become buddy-buddy enough with Tails to hitch a ride in the Tornado with him at the beginning of Heroes? Isn't that kind of weird when at the end of SA1 he's like "I hate to admit it, but I think Tails is right about this"? When has he learned to trust Tails as team leader when he only begrudgingly tagged along with the gang in SA2 because their goals so happened to align with his? What changed between SA2 and Heroes, where he went from being something of a maverick to a team player?

Why does he never bring up his issues with Sonic's insensitivity outside of one verse of a song that got cut from retail? The lyrics to Deeper imply that Knuckles wishes Sonic empathized with his quest for the Master Emerald a little more. SA2 and Heroes both have isolated moments that imply Knuckles doesn't think Sonic is terribly considerate, which is an interesting angle for their dynamic, but that idea promptly gets dropped and we never explore it again.

Seriously, my guy looks flabbergasted that Sonic even said "thanks" to him in Heroes, implying he wasn't expecting Sonic to get over his ego long enough to acknowledge the help of his friends. There was so much implication packed into that one expression.

...But then, if you think about it, why does he look shocked when Sonic literally asked for his help in checking on Tails and Amy in SA2? Was it because Sonic prefaced his request with "I hate to ask"?

[saint-starflicker]

I watched Call Me By Your Name because of this post, and while it's a very pretty on-location movie that wrung appropriately subtle performances from all the actors, I think that I did not "get it"—didn't develop a stomach-pit depth of conviction of my relationship with the movie (I haven't read the book) from which to argue for its artistic merit, and to store or process the interpretations I most appreciate from others who watched the movie.

I am warning you now, I did not get Call Me By Your Name.

The author André Aciman would be better qualified to do this because according to an author's profile I found Aciman actually has a PhD in Comparative Literature—and a specialty in Marcel Proust, which suddenly explains my disconnectedness from this specific work. (Noooo not bloody Proust... 😛 )

Anyway I think the similarities are funny to bring up, but also that they are coincidental. Emerald Fennell mentioned being inspired by Rebecca and Brideshead Revisited, but mostly having it pop into her mind that there was a narrator saying "I didn't love him" and then sipping at what was left of this mysterious him's bathwater, and as I recall she went with the lightning bolt of inspiration that was this character because of what a liar he was. Meanwhile, André Aciman was influenced by chillaxing in real life. If I can guess at Aciman's influences, it's less any established genre and more what is considered literary: mood pieces, thematic explorations, character introspection, revelling in ambiguity and averse to plot.

But maybe my breakdown of these two movies will still be worth reading, so let's roll.

Name of Oliver

I think Saltburn's Oliver invokes a well-intentioned yet downtrodden Dickensian orphan boy.

CMBYN Oliver evokes the Mediterranean tree, and a dove from religious texts that flew a sign of life in over the expanse of a world-ending ocean. I don't get this connotation from Saltburn Oliver, even as it's the same name so should have the same word history and whatever magic that does.

What I didn't get from CMBYN was exactly why CMBYN Oliver wanted to exchange names with Elio. Was it to better hide their relationship in public if they say their own names? Was it a clue that CMBYN Oliver is a figment of Elio's allosexual teenaged imagination? I still don't know, but the name is more significant to the story of Call Me By Your Name than it is to Saltburn. This is reversed in the significance of...

The Summer Home

The name of the summer home in the movie Saltburn is also called Saltburn. It's not lot number on so-and-so street, neighborhood, district.

The Italian villa that the Perlmans actually own is still some sweet digs, even as it's comparatively smaller and looks more lived-in with working-class clutter indoors and all the fruit trees outdoors (instead of Saltburn's severely immaculate hedgemaze that isn't nearly as good to have as a fruit orchard.) Unlike Saltburn, the villa is not the world, Elio bikes out to town to get things done or to wade in rivers, or they take a bus to Rome where more adventurous adventures happen.

Shared Bathroom

I don't know if this is a thing in European architecture, or why. My family used to live (renting) in a suburb house that had the bedroom have one doorway to the bathroom, and through that was the only way out. Past the bathroom was supposed to be a recreation room, that got converted to a bedroom.

I think both movies have that setup in there, to introduce a bit of "forced proximity", not really forced but it's awkward for the characters to get that much information about each other before they want to. This would speed up the relationship development, rather than if Elio said, "Never mind you, I'm going to sulk in my treehouse on the edge of the orchard," and by sulk he means try to have a wank and then that's when CMBYN Oliver barges in, having heard the fabric somehow all the way from the other side of the orchard and through all the walls of the house—or if Felix Catton put up his Oliver in the guest cottage beside the lake that's the size of Oliver's parent's house: easier for Venetia to slink up to, not as easy to eavesdrop on Farleigh and Felix arguing, or to have the tub scene that inspired the whole story in the first place.

Felix Catton doesn't like anybody else going near his summer boy-toys, that would explain why he would share a bathroom in a house that's probably bigger than the Vatican if not the country of Luxembourg so there is probably another room with its own bathroom.

Scenes of Abjection

Abjection is a concept that Julia Kristeva codified for the horror genre, which Saltburn as a gothic story and crime fiction is related to whereas CMBYN is probably not. I'm going more by the aesthetic choices and purposeful messaging or lack thereof when I say "CMBYN is probably not a horror movie", rather than saying they're both crime fiction because there's technically crime happening in both of them.

The reaction we the audience are expected to get from watching somebody defile a grave or a peach is surprise or disgust at the transgression.

Despite the criticisms of shocking content that had no meaning, so was unnecessary, I think Saltburn inhabits this much more comfortably: it's going to be about scorned-lover murder, and it's going to have par-for-the-course Scenes leading up to that. The movie knows what genre it is. Viewers clutching the pearls and going into vapors about how unnecessary or meaningless it is...I am very sorry they watched something they didn't want to see, and I also think they don't know what it is. I think that's why the response is usually, "You really think Saltburn was so shocking that it shouldn't have been made? Try Frisk 1995," or Salò 1975, or A Serbian Film 2010, or some other film that portrayed verboten subject matter while having the defense of being critically-acclaimed. A movie isn't supposed to not be a thing only for the reason that it showed something that repulsed a viewer so much that they don't even want to try to think through the meaningfulness it gives to the story and the in-story reason for the gross thing to be there in the fiction movie.

Or, like me with CMBYN, they don't get it. Not everybody is going to "get" the same thing in the same way, that's just the way it is—but Abjection as a feature often means those of too fragile constitution for substantial film criticism are not going to try.

I preferred to rant about that than expand on Kristeva's Abjection as unique to the horror genre and its cathartic psychological process to contemplate gross and scary things, but anyway that's also a factor.

CMBYN isn't exactly genre fiction, and from the little I've read the author really does not like labels, over-emphasis, or codification. I think that commitment to ambiguity shows in the work up to even the movie adaptation.

So instead of applying Abjection to a work outside the genre or emotion that the concept emerged from, I'm going to apply...

...Georges Bataille's Eroticism and its Threat to Social Order — that eroticism isn't "human connection" in a simpering sentimental way that also happens to be sexy, but "human connection" as a way to actively threaten social orders that rely on isolation and toxic individualism, which often shows up as or in eroticism, which could be the real reason that eroticism gets stigmatized by hegemony.

How well, or not so well, do these two movies demonstrate that concept? I don't know because I haven't read anything by Georges Bataille, maybe he also explains how sexuality gets weaponized by or for some hegemony and if that disqualifies sexuality from being eroticism (it could happen), or argues for them being different forms of the same thing, or maybe it doesn't come up at all. I don't know, so I can't conclude this segment, but I can start another one related but not exactly the same about the...

Powerplays in "Romance"

I think Saltburn's Oliver loses his sense of personal power to Felix in his idealization and emotional dependence on him. The changing dynamic is the whole plot: "Everyone puts on a show for Felix"—is that line from an Oliver angry that the person he kept trying to manipulate is slipping out of his control? An Oliver trying to rationalize and pretend that he's just a li'l guy and it really is his birthday? For purposes of this post, I will interpret that as Oliver's genuinely desperate plea that he gave up so much of himself to be what Felix wanted so that they could be in each others' presence. However misguided this thinking, how unasked-for the effort or admiration, I'll grant that Oliver genuinely feels disempowered by his own infatuation.

Then Saltburn Oliver (spoilers) murders the man who spurned him, the sister who suspects him, gets the rightfully suspicious cousin banished, charms and murders the mother, and tells a cover-up of a cover-up story of how he planned and schemed the whole time. Bodily violence, and information control—two powers that Saltburn Oliver leverages to get resources. I think he'll never have the power of requited love, because that does this weird thing in that it feels like a weakness.

In CMBYN, there was apparently controversy because of the age difference. From what I've seen, age gap discourse is so reactionary and never an examination of what that age difference would really mean. (I used to be in the Avatar: Legend of Aang and RWBY fandoms. The disgust at two-year age gaps in both was selective and badly reasoned. Oscar at 14 is demonically possessed by a several-thousand-year-old middle-aged man-god. I just don't think one awkward sweet moment between Oscar and 16-year-old Ruby is ruined by the two-year age gap, because that part is not the creepy part in that situation. I hate fandoms.)

Elio resents these summer assistants because he gets moved out of his room to make space for them. I think that detail is connected to the power imbalance, because his parents decided that would be the way to go, and Elio is expected to go along with it and not complain. The housekeeper "always looks for signs" of Elio's sexual activity, which is a rather personal thing to live with surveillance about and I'm a 90's Kid who thinks that's unhealthy to grow up in—even if Malfada is the housekeeper, she answers to Elio's parents. Elio doesn't have personal freedom. Elio doesn't want to wear a shirt, Elio's father wants Elio to wear a shirt, therefore Elio despite overt and underhanded efforts...wears the shirt.

That's what kids are expected to be treated as, and that position of specific disempowerment is what cements Elio as A Child, and not as an equal in social power to any adult.

I can also believe that a 17-year-old boy might sometimes turn out to be allosexual and know it, and even do something about it out of...what little of his own free will he's allowed to have. That poor dear apricot.

With CMBYN Oliver expressing worry after the fact that he messed with somebody too young to be messed with, more that Elio would regret it and blame him than out of any 1980's callout scandal worry... That's there, that's a conversation Oliver and Elio do have in the Call Me By Your Name movie, and I guess that was supposed to make the situation nuanced or complicated. Maybe there's a hint of ooohhh who has the upper hand now? But they're not even going to think like that because their love and joy is too pure for the world to understand, so the framing and tone of the movie goes.

But ehhh I think CMBYN Oliver was an arrogant douche, if he wasn't a figment of Elio's imagination.

Parents previously shown to be so controlling that their housekeeper checks their son's sexual purity and Elio can't wear the shirts he prefers to wear or be sure of which room will be his room for weeks on end—those parents, who see their son wearing clothes and necklace pendants from the much older stranger who keeps giving the child suggestive massages—those parents, suddenly decide that letting Elio frolick through the mountains with that guy he met six weeks ago, is the best idea ever?

I don't believe it.

I think it's much more likely that CMBYN Oliver is Elio's imaginary boyfriend. The entire film was Elio's erotic daydreaming.

Elio's love confession was mumbled from the opposite side of an entire park from Oliver who heard him perfectly. I think that's because CMBYN Oliver is an Eat Pray Love version of Tyler Durden.

Just look at this screenshot of the love confession scene. CMBYN Oliver was all the way over there. He can't have heard all of that from all the way over there.

CMBYN Oliver does not have a family name, probably because Elio didn't think up of one for him—because Oliver is probably not real.

CMBYN Oliver is somebody who pursues Elio when Elio imagines himself as aloof (the shoulder massage, "why didn't you tell me sooner that you liked me"?), then Oliver is suddenly noble and stalwart when he wants to do right by teenaged Elio (the scene by the spring water like 5 minutes after the park scene above), and then it's fellatio in the shared bathroom and Oliver ready to eat the apricot after Elio had his way with the apricot.

I find that such inconsistent characterization that Elio, from whose point of view the camera remains on the side of, could only have dreamed this man up to hug him while he cries about how perverted he thinks he is, or whatever Elio needs at the time.

But this was supposed to be about these two movies having different presentations of shifting relationship power.

I think an 18-year-old allosexual boy could fantasize about getting bittersweetly broken up with, and have an imagination that generates that as an emotional necessity, even as the one doing that imagining can mourn it with the same emotions that needs this end so as to come-of-age.

But if CMBYN Oliver is real, in an on-and-off relationship with somebody for two years, before meeting Elio the teenaged boy that he started flirting with and then made a hand-job-in-a-haystack golden big boy summer fling and then breaking up with him over the winter to do real adult things like get married to somebody else...That...I just... bleargh. Good of Oliver to give the courtesy call of basically "hey Elio boy, get over me", I guess?

The point was that the affection of the summer fling was supposed to be real even with all that. I think it reframes CMBYN Oliver's efforts to talk though how not to hurt Elio, as lip service. That's probably not picking up what the movie was putting down, but just like my CMBYN Oliver is imaginary theory... it's what I'm getting, probably because, like I said in the first place, I don't "get it".

It's more purposely ambiguous in CMBYN, versus Saltburn that I think has clear layers and through-lines, but I think this section does unite both movies: there's love or the powerplay; I think both these movies showcase how there can't actually be both.

Saltburn and Call Me By Your Name are both about a young scholar named Oliver going to some rich family's second home for the summer, where he has to share the bathroom with the family's son and falls madly in love with him. Please someone write a thesis on the significance of this.

[silenceinternalmonologue]

Somebody asked me to talk about the misconception that Loki is always trying to kill Thor, so here are some thoughts.

When Loki and Thor are children, Thor is the one who expresses bloodlust: "I'll hunt the monsters down and slay them all". We can infer from this scene that Loki was not violent or murderous as a child (unlike a certain scene in Thor: Ragnarok would suggest which, let it be remembered, was completely improvised and therefore not written with Loki's actual character in mind).

Loki never expresses a desire to kill Thor (except on Svartalfheim, and we all know that was a trick).

The closest he comes to this is his command to the Destroyer: "Ensure my brother does not return. Destroy everything." Notice how direct the latter part of the sentence is, while the former is vague and left up to interpretation. This is a partial reach, but I wonder if Loki wouldn't have just told the Destroyer to kill Thor if that's what he really wanted.

Loki had the opportunity to use the Destroyer's death ray on Thor, and he didn't. He chose to slap him instead. Yes, this proved to be nearly fatal, but he could have been much more direct. The Destroyer is a literal killing machine.

Even knowing Thor was mortal, I sincerely doubt Loki believed he would actually die. To Loki, Thor has always been his strong and unbeatable older brother. He has probably seen him mortally wounded hundreds of times and it was probably impossible to imagine him dying from a slap.

Remember that at this point, Loki has no reason to believe that Thor won't try to kill him as soon as he finds out he's Jotun. Thor had been happily killing hundreds of Frost Giants just the week before, and had likely been doing so for the last several hundred years. So even in this "him or me" situation, in the midst of a mental breakdown, moments away from attempting genocide, Loki isn't able to directly attempt to kill Thor.

Loki never even comes close to killing Thor at any other point in the films. They fight on Bifrost, but they're fighting more for control of the mechanism here than with intent to hurt (let alone kill) each other.

In the Avengers, Loki doesn't even pretend to try. He stabs Thor once with a tiny dagger that looks like it affected Thor as much as a bee sting.

In TDW he takes it a step further and sacrifices himself for Thor (or at least tries to). Is the opposite of trying to kill someone trying to die to save them? I feel like it might be.

In Ragnarok he tries to... turn him over to the Grandmaster? I guess? And we get the snake story, but like I already said, that was improv done with no regard for Loki's actual character. And then Loki literally saves the entirety of the Asgardian people and supports Thor becoming king which doesn't seem very murderous to me.

In Infinity War he sacrifices himself for real this time, first throwing away a goddamn INFINITY STONE to tackle Thor to the ground with no thought for his wellbeing and then having the life choked out of him by his greatest fear and tormentor and also oh my god it's been FOUR films since the last time he sort of maybe subjectively tried to kill Thor and he's been actively trying to save him in three of those

This got a bit long and rambly but yeah. No matter how you look at it, Loki's attempt-to-kill-Thor count is either one or zero. That simply doesn't add up to any number high enough to qualify as him "constantly" trying to kill his brother. Also his attempt-to-save-Thor count is by my calculations AT LEAST six, and that's only on-screen and obviously not counting the hundreds of years they spent together before this.

[randomkposts]

Faerghus has a Famine problem, and I think that is related to their treatment of Duscur and Sreng's people.

So Faerghus has a famine problem. We don't deeply examine it in game, but it does show up through characters. Sylvain makes a comment on the meals, and how they couldn't eat like this at home, and Ingrid's Galatea home has severe famine going on. 

I'm going to make some assumptions about Fódlan history. Andrestia is based on the Roman Empire, a conquering nation. It can be assumed that they conquered the continent and appointed the lords whose families appear in the game. The official church line says that the 10 elites were heros who fought against Nemesis, in truth they got their crests through the blood of murder victims. The elites were killed but their families were spared. 

And so the continent was united in conquest. For there to have been conquest, there had to have been people there first. And that is where I think Duscur and Sreng come in. They were probably the original natives of the land, and their smaller sections of the map (and described condition of Sreng, rings some bells to me about residential areas)

(Hmm, I'm Canadian, and have made effort to learn about Native issues. I can't say I'm the most qualified person to talk about, but I attempt to at least have information. )

So the treatment of Duscur is reminiscent of treatment Native Americans have faced. Things like being blamed for crimes, the genocide their culture and people have survived (much was lost in the process), and sectioning them off to specific areas. 

This is a result of colonialism, and in the process important knowledge is lost. It's not new to Japan either, if they had wanted to get a bit more nuance in the portrayal they could have considered Ainu. 

But I am getting distracted. Important knowledge lost would probably include farming practices that sustain the land. 

Or the locals probably have a good reason for doing something you consider crazy. Take for instance Australian Aboriginal burning practices. 

They have knowledge of grass and how well it will burn, and they knew what type of fires to burn for each land,for how long, and how often to do it. 

"Aboriginal techniques are based in part on fire prevention: ridding the land of fuel, like debris, scrub, undergrowth and certain grasses. The fuel alights easily, which allows for more intense flames that are harder to fight.

The Aboriginal people would set small-scale fires that weren't too intense and clear the land of the extra debris. The smaller intensity fires would lessen the impact on the insects and animals occupying the land, too, as well as protect the trees and the canopy."

It takes skill and knowledge, something that was diminished by colonizers, and while they are trying to recreate it, they do not have the same knowledge as the locals who did it for thousands of years. And global warming escalation is making it worse.

Or, new people have the land, and they don't know how to use it like the locals would, and don't want to ask because they are too busy looking down on the locals.

Sreng has been invading Gautier for over 200 years. The war of heros was over 1,000 years ago. 

Faerghus rebelled in 747 and winning in 751, and Leicester rebelling from Andrestia  in 801 leading to more war. The Kingdom intervened by occupying and annexing Leicester as a protectorate. The Alliance was formed in 901

101 was the formation of the locket. 

1160 was the year of the plague, Dimitris mother died from it 2 years later.  And 1668 was the invasion and Annexing of the southern part of Sreng. 

So from what I can tell, Sreng has been fighting Gautier since the rebellion of Leicester.  But exact timing is iffy. 

Its harder to get a timeline for how long Faerghus has been occupying the lands. Fraldarius is one of the oldest nobel house on record, but I can't confidently say that they have had the land they live on for more than 500 years. Probably less. 

I don't think that Duscur was driven off their land all at once so much as given a smaller and smaller land that is Duscar,as Faerghus annexed it. Or probably got annexed from both Faerghus and Andrestia on both ends as they established borders. 

It's entirely probable that the nobles chased the locals off the lands and claimed it as their post rebellion, and in doing so gained land that they didn't know how to take care of like the locals would. 

It could be they didn't properly balance the acidity in the soil from their crops. Or any number of issues they didn't address because they didn't ask, and assumed they knew what they were doing, and now generations later the descendents are doing as their ancestors did, and getting bad results. 

Like, North America has a worm invasion. North America did not have worms before people came over from Europe (they died off in the global ice age, if there were any) , and decomposition was done by the forest leaves and such. So worms are spreading, and changing things like soil organizations, plant communities, erosion, forests ability to store carbon, and with the newest worm invasion reducing insects. 

Ah, the point is the land is more fragile than you credit it for. Faerghus has a famine problem and I think that the driving out (and Genocide attempt) of its original inhabitants is related to that problem.

[paragonrobits]

@hibernationsuit​ @the-lastcall​

#also - tell us more about your captain OP!

the tags have asked, and so shall it be!

I generally play as the same sort of character whenever I do an Outer Worlds run, though the stat layout and build varies somewhat; i really love the funny dialogue of a low-Intelligence playthrough, as an example. But in general I do a high intelligence build, with the headcanon that my character IS still saying the funny line options, she’s a bit of a ditz and a goofball at that.

Generally I ramp up my Intelligence as high as I can, with Perception as second high up as possible; she’s trained herself into being a markswoman and sniper, usually preferring modded hunting rifles, though her personal favorite weapons are the machine guns, both light and heavy. Her primary stats tend to be Stealth (hacking and lockpicks are nearly essential), social (she’s a Persuasion powerhouse!) and shooty stuff. The narrative implications I consider is that she’s always been very charming and interested in systems, both mechanical and interpersonal. People and machines alike are puzzles to her, and she has a knack for figuring out how to persuade people and bypassing mechanical or coding locks. She is an extremely nice and compassionate person; before she left Earth she was the sort of person who took care of a dozen cats and was that one person everyone knew to handle just about any conceivable problem, without any desire for a reward. Fixing stuff was its own reward!

Her interest in marksmanship was something of a hobby that got out of hand.

She was registered as a janitor and she honestly liked it, and she didn’t want anything more out of life; just to fix things. She was NOT prepared for the shock of waking up to find everything had gone wrong, and she’s in something of a state of perpetual bewilderment for most of the initial set of missions, though she starts snapping out of it in favor of mounting horror at the corporatized hellscape that is Halcyon; between someone’s death criminalized as destruction of corporate property, people getting sick because they’re only eating the pseudo-food churned out by their factory and are severely malnourished, and worse of all how nonchalant and indifferent to it everyone is. She got very attached to Parvarti quickly in a ‘oh thank god SOMEONE WHO ISN’T A COMPLETE ASSHOLE’ sort of way.

She is happy to be a captain, but she actively avoids being called Hawthorne. If she did, that would be wrong. SHE IS NOT HAWTHORNE AND IF SHE SAID SHE WAS THAT WOULD BE LYING AND LYING IS WRONG. (She is rather more flexible about it to solve short-term problems, but in general she doesn’t like lying about it, especially not to ADA.

She doesn’t really get along with Max but she’s horrified at the problem of just punching someone because they’re annoying, and as noted, she and Pavarti are close friends. She finds Ellie a bit hard to deal with at times; the concept of NOT doing everything you can for other people when the opportunity presents itself is alien to her. She’s essentially become Felix’s mother-figure and had something of a low-key crisis about it in terms of ‘oh god I am NOT remotely qualified to be anyone’s role model’. Nyoka is another close friend.

Sam, and by extension ADA, are interesting in that while the in-universe lore is that robots are not complex enough to be sapient, she tends to take the slightest bit of unexpected behavior to conclude the robots are becoming people and YOU MUST PROTECT THEM; in ADA’s case its almost likely that she IS genuinely sapient. Sam is a more uncertain take, but she seizes on the fact that he tends to use his canned phrases to express more complex statements than he should be.

She basically jumped at the chance to work with Phineas, after the initial shock wore off; its all about fixing everything! It took her a while but as her disgust and horror at the Board reached a mounting point, she firmly hates them with everything she’s got and is all too happy to tear them down given the opportunity. She DOES prefer the more slow fixes, as they are less needlessly destructive in nature, but she wouldn’t have any trouble in wrecking their shit if that had been a more useful take. She also hates Byzantium and every thing it stands for. She killed Chairman Rockwell the first chance she got, despite his uses, because FUCK HIM IN PARTICULAR.

She prefers the Iconoclasts to MSI, and in fact tends to wear their gear whenever possible (though she does enjoy the degraded power armor worn by Marauders), but went out of her way to make them reconcile, concluding that they are the only ones in the galaxy with their heads on relatively straight.

She has since garnered a reputation for being an extremely unpredictable and frankly weird goblin of a lady, but an extremely intelligent one and her allies think she is a very crafty super-genius, while SHE thinks of herself as a perpetually panicking weirdo in the right place and the right time and that she has no idea what the fuck she’s doing and she is actually very stressed a lot of the time, but at least she made it turn out okay.

She was genuinely disappointed there are no sapient aliens to befriend in Halcyon.

She licked a distressing number of things for no reason during the investigation on Eridanos. She might have been actively trolling her followers.

my Captain Variable, horrified at all the Max punching other hawthorns do: Why would you punch Max!? Felix: Because he's a dick? Pavarti: On account of all the mean things he used to say? Not that I hold with punching folks, or nothing. Ellie: Says you, I punched him twice this morning, it's how I say hello to him now. Captain: Wait, is my entire crew on board with the punching of Max!? SAM: 100 PERCENT! Nyoka: Yeah, I'm gonna have to say yes to that. Captain: NOOOOO Max: To be fair, before I got on the drugs and elevated my perspective, I DID rather deserve it Captain: YOU'RE NOT HELPING

[ukagakadreamteam]

Ghost Jam 2022 Results!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay. We had a much bigger event than we were expecting, so it’s been quite a task getting everything together!

We had an incredible turnout this year, with 23 ghosts submitted by 32 participants, several of whom joined the server specifically for the event! This is a huge growth from last year; nearly double the amount of ghosts, 13 more participants, and 19 of our participants releasing a ghost for the first time as a part of this event!

Additionally, several people took on the optional challenges we offered this year. The challenges were as follows:

72 Hour challenge: create the ghost within the first 72 hours of jam.

New Assets Only challenge: create the ghost using no premade assets at all, aside from a template.

3 ghosts qualified for the 72 Hour challenge, and 14 qualified for the New Assets Only challenge! We also saw several different interpretations of our optional Disaster theme!

With so many ghosts, I'll admit, writing up that many blurbs about them sounds intimidating both to write and to read. So instead, this year we're going to list some bullet points for each ghost, and encourage you to download each one to try them out for yourself! There were so many interesting concepts explored this year, you've really just got to try them to see!

PLEASE NOTE: Several of these ghosts have only been released privately in our Discord server. If no download link is given, you'll have to join us on Discord to get the files!

Without further ado, this year’s list of ghosts!

Анемони (Anemone), by @smokycinnamonroll​:

[Download]

• Written in Russian! (Absolutely worth picking up even if you don't speak Russian, though!) • Has a great idle animation! • Made in just 72 hours, using all new assets! • Comes with a unique balloon, in a nice ellipse shape!

Sackboy, by idkimtired:

(Server exclusive! The dev has not indicated plans to release this ghost publicly, so you’ll have to join our Discord to get it!)

• Is super adorable! • Kicks his little leggies, wherever you set him! • Gives you stickers! • Made without template code, using all new assets! • Comes with a unique balloon!

Balloons, by Galla (explicit link!) and Zichqec:

[Download]

• A soothing friend that bobs up and down! • Super satisfying to play with! • Pick from 3 charm options! • Made in just 72 hours, using all new assets! • Comes with a unique balloon!

Needle, by Galla (explicit link!) and Zichqec:

[Download]

• Is a needle! • Comes with content warnings! • Can poke other ghosts! • Made without template code, using all new assets! • Comes with a unique balloon!

Vending Machine, by kai and Bugtoast:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• You can buy virtual items! • You can virtually eat/drink the virtual items! • Looks great as a desktop decoration! • Provides a nice surface to set other ghosts on! • Made with all new assets!

Aaron the Protogen, by Ryder:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• Has a really nice tail animation! • Can play a couple of minigames! • Tells lots of terrible jokes! • Comes with a unique balloon!

After-school Study Group, by Ayaka:

(Server exclusive! The dev has not indicated plans to release this ghost publicly, so you’ll have to join our Discord to get it!)

• Can help you if you're studying Japanese! • Have an option to display their Japanese dialogue in romaji! • Have fun banter back and forth! • Comes with a unique balloon!

Shadow the Hedgehog, by @digitalvalkerie​:

(Server exclusive! The dev has not indicated plans to release this ghost publicly, so you’ll have to join our Discord to get it!)

• Has a very nicely drawn shell! • Begrudgingly accepts a partnership with you! • Cares about you?

Herlock Sholmes, by @characteroulette​, @ageofzeroart​, and @versegm​:

[Download]

• Has a large shell with a lovely style! • Has reactions to other ghosts opening and closing! • Is packed full of character and charm! • One of the most polished entries this jam! • Comes with a unique balloon!

Sweedeesh Feesh, by @unrestedjade​:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• Has a really nice idle animation! • Can play higher-or-lower! • Has nice chill vibes!

Snoopy + Woodstock, by @frank-r-t​:

[Download]

• Captures the charm of the Peanuts artstyle incredibly well! • Has fun dialogue back and forth! • Both are very pettable!

Heather, by @luedelouartandwriting​:

(Server exclusive! The dev has not indicated plans to release this ghost publicly, so you’ll have to join our Discord to get it!)

• Is very cute! • Has cute little icons to indicate emotions! • Doesn't say much, just here to vibe! • Made with all new assets!

Earthquake Duo, by @catboy-otacon​ and @aegisghosts​:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• Have a big presence on your screen, with lots of nice detail in the shell to look at! • The sakura character's face acts as its balloon! • Sometimes, there are earthquake events, and the two will leave to go on a rescue mission! • Made with all new assets! • Comes with a unique balloon!

OurOwl, by tetchytick:

[Download]

• Has a very nice painted shell! • Has a lot of character in the writing, and even in the menu options! • You can attempt to pet it! • Made with all new assets!

Desktop Rabite, by @crabbymaiden​:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• You can give your pet Rabite a name! • You can give your Rabite different foods! • You can pet your Rabite in various spots! • Made with all new assets!

Джи-Хэй Хва (Jihae and Pavel), by @dragonpanther888 and @smokycinnamonroll:

[Download]

• Written in Russian! (Absolutely worth picking up even if you don't speak Russian, though!) • Come with two shells, one of which is partially drawn traditionally! • Made with all new assets!

Tekame Hameha, by @noirfos​ and Straythorn:

[Download]

• Is a cute tortoise that carries letters! • Has a pun name! • Made with all new assets!

The Tiny Terrors, by Doomfanger666:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• A duo of friends to terrorize your desktop! • Or perhaps to get a respite from the disaster back home? • Made with all new assets!

Paper, by Galla (explicit link!), @inportant-spam-rsvp​ and Zichqec:

• Made within just 24 hours! • Includes 4 (premade) minigames! • Over 2000 (freshly written) words available for the minigames! • Is judging you! • Made without template code! • Comes with a unique balloon!

Hollow Jam, by @dransnake​, catrat, and @wildmoonproductions​:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• Have a pretty animated shell! • Have 3 whole characters! • Have a lot of questions you can ask in their menu! • Made with all new assets! • Comes with a unique balloon!

The Scientist’s Assistant, by pixel_zoo, Era the Outworlder, and Ecclysium:

[Download]

• Has a very pretty pixel art shell! • Has an interesting mechanic for using items! • Complete with sound effects for the actions you can take!

Nai, by @sialu-the-arts-cat​:

(Server exclusive! The dev has not indicated plans to release this ghost publicly, so you’ll have to join our Discord to get it!)

• You can pet the cat! • You can also poke the nose! • Has a nice idle animation of the tail flicking back and forth!

Dr. Arthur S Seavers, by @fursie-does-art​:

(No public release yet, but do keep an eye out for one!)

• Is super sweet and friendly! • Has a fun firstboot with multiple questions! • Made with all new assets!

Thanks so much for participating, everyone! We hope you’ll join us again next year, too!

[gallusrostromegalus]

The yami facts are *amazing! Can we has more but for kaiba?

Yami Facts for The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!)

These were harder becuase Seto Kaiba is kind of a fucking mess and most of his "fun" facts are really kind of Depressing lol.

Many People think Seto is ambidexterous because there are a lot of videos of him doing things like casually switching what hand he's writing with, or coming out with right and left-handed duel disks right off the bat, but that's incorrect. He's Ambisinister and they're BOTH his off-hand. He predominantly writes with his left hand out of spite.

Seto has a deep and honestly extremely reasonable fear of horses. Gozaboro signed him up for a bunch of "networking" hobbies so he could learn how to build social ties like a proper Bougie kid, and one of those thing was horseback riding. Unfortunately for Seto, his chernobyl-like background radiation anxiety means horses find his vibes absolutely rancid and they keep trying to Murder the shit out of him.

Seto fucking loves Mangoes. He loves a lot of salty-sour foods because while he did manage to get in the habit of "eight glasses of water a day" he's chronically short on electrolyes. He does not know that mangoes are not supposed to taste like that, and that he is allergic to them.

There is a character that will come up in the fic called "Debbie From Legal". She is the same Debbie as Debbie from Bowling For Soup's hit, 1985, but she is also the protagonist in Mary Chapin-Carpenter's He Thinks He'll Keep Her. Do NOT fuck with Debbie.

Seto has a Pilots Lisence, a Helicopter Lisence, a boating Lisence, but no Driver's Lisence. He does not like Traffic.

Seto has such a severe case of "Just Some Guy" syndrome that he can accidentally Clark Kent himself by taking off his ostentateous trenchcoat.

Seto hired the serial killer for Death-T by putting out a fucking want ad. He got back six promising candidates and hired them all for assorted projects. Five of them are just out-of-work actors who thought it was a movie gig and are refusing to drop the facade because holy shit a steady paycheck. The sixth actually is a serial killer, but also an out-of-work actor that thought this was a movie gig.

Seto personally knows a ton of celebrities from various publicity events, and some of them are things that very nearly qualify as 'friends' because he can talk to them for upwards of three minutes about some Hobby, but he doesn't actually now what they DO. He thinks Henry Cavill is maybe kind of famous for doing a youtube series on building your own PC for the masses because he recognized him in a thumbnail on the site once. Who Knows. Not Seto. He knows Henry because he once proposed that Seto purchase a tabletop miniatures company they both liked the product of, but hated the company, and that struck Seto as a good idea, actually, so it's on his to-do list, right after getting the Duel Monsters IP from pegasus so he can stop having to pay royalties every time he uses the Blue Eyes White Dragon imagery on something.

Seto's secret talent that even he doesn't know about (yet) is that he's actually great at keeping houseplants. Most people kill them by over-watering them, but he sort of forgets they exist until they look sad and then he dumps his coffee into them, which is the exact flavor of abuse most houseplants enjoy.

[zoeology31]

No, you’re not imagining it: Willow and Gus are less important this season.

I spent all of the latest episode thinking about how Gus and Willow could’ve easily replaced Edric and Emira with no change to the overall plot. It got me thinking: I know the original Hexsquad has featured a lot less this season, but how much less? And how has the quality of their screentime changed?

Being me, I did some statistical analysis. Below you’ll see a chart of every TOH episode that has aired so far, marked with teal for Gus, green for Willow, and lilac for Amity for each episode said character has had a speaking role. The different shapes represent what kind of role a character had in an episode: a small circle for a minor role, a partially filled rectangle for a larger supporting role, and a full rectangle for a main or plot-crucial role.

The roles are based off wiki transcripts and my own memory of each episode, as well as a few qualifying questions. Could this character be cut from the episode with little to no change? Does this character appear frequently in the episode but not in a plot-central role and/or only in the B-plot? Or is this character crucial to the direction and/or outcome of the episode?

In season 1, with 19 total episodes:

Gus: 1 minor role, 6 supporting roles, 5 major roles (12 total)

Willow: 3 minor roles, 2 supporting roles, 7 major roles (12 total)

Amity: 2 minor roles, 0 supporting roles, 7 major roles (9 total)

In season 2, with 14 of 21 episodes aired:

Gus: 3 minor roles, 1 supporting role, 2 major roles (6 total)

Willow: 3 minor roles, 2 supporting roles, 1 major role (6 total)

Amity: 0 minor roles, 1 supporting role, 6 major roles (7 total)

There’s a few interesting trends here. Purely looking at episode count, all three characters are on about the same pace they were last season, with Amity slightly ahead. All the other metrics, however, tell a different story.

3 of Gus and Willow’s 6 appearances each in S2 are only minor roles, giving them abysmal non-minor role per episode rates of 21%, compared to S1’s 58% and 47% respectively. Looking at only major roles, the drop-off is equally if not more severe, with Gus falling from 26% major roles per episode to 14%, and Willow falling from 37% to 7%. The two of them have only appeared in back-to-back episodes once this season (E5 and E6), which is a sharp break from appearing in the last 7 consecutive episodes of last season.

Meanwhile, 6 of Amity’s 7 appearances in S2 have been major roles, nearly matching her total of 7 from S1 with 7 episodes still left to air. She is the only one of these three characters to appear in an episode without the others, 4 times across both seasons, and in major roles each time. When all three do appear in an episode together, Amity has a substantially larger role than either Willow or Gus 5 times across both seasons: 2 of 7 instances in S1 (E5, E16) and 3 of 5 in S2 (E2, E9, E11). Willow and Gus have appeared together without Amity 6 times total, but only once in S2, where they had minor roles.

For another way to visualize these differences, I’ve created an aggregate screentime measurement by weighing each character’s appearances by the different roles and adding them up across each season. I’ve used three different weighing systems so that my measurement isn’t biased in favor of one type of role over another.

Version 1: Minor roles count for 1/3 of an episode, supporting roles for 2/3, and major roles for 1

Version 2: Minor roles count for 1/4 of an episode, supporting roles for 1/2, and major roles for 1

Version 3: Minor roles count for 1/4 of an episode, supporting roles for 3/4, and major roles for 1

In season 1, with 19 total episodes:

Gus: 9 1/3 (version 1), 8.25 (version 2), 9.75 (version 3)

Willow: 9 1/3 (version 1), 8.75 (version 2), 9.25 (version 3)

Amity: 7 2/3 (version 1), 7.5 (version 2), 7.5 (version 3)

In season 2, with 14 of 21 episodes aired:

Gus: 3 2/3 (version 1), 3.25 (version 2), 3.5 (version 3)

Willow: 3 1/3 (version 1), 2.75 (version 2), 3.25 (version 3)

Amity: 6 2/3 (version 1), 6.5 (version 2), 6.75 (version 3)

This shows that Gus and Willow’s overall roles have both decreased significantly between seasons, while Amity’s has increased. Gus and Willow’s relegation to minor, infrequent roles has drastically affected their screentime, putting them on pace to barely break 5 episodes worth of screentime by the end of S2. To reach their S1 levels of screentime, both characters would have to have major roles in 6 of the 7 remaining episodes, while Amity needs only 1 major role or a handful of smaller ones to meet her S1 screentime.

I understand why this happened. The show is focusing on Amity because she’s Luz’s love interest, and the Lumity relationship is very groundbreaking and important and absolutely deserves storytelling attention. However, that shouldn’t come at the expense of Luz’s other friends—and the only other characters of color in the extended cast. It’s important for kids of color to see compelling, well-developed relationships between characters of color represented onscreen, and it’s equally important for all kids to see that friendships aren’t lesser than romantic relationships.

An easy fix for S2 would be to simply expand Willow and Gus’s roles in episodes like Escaping Expulsion, Eclipse Lake, Follies at the Coven Day Parade, and Reaching Out. Continuing to develop their friendships with Luz onscreen rather than just occasionally reminding the audience they exist would do a lot to integrate them into the narrative. Both of them could also use another focus episode or two, but unfortunately I can’t see that happening soon with what we know about the next three episodes.

[just-a-bookish-reader]

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Autistic Representation

Autism - “A serious developmental disorder that impairs the ability to communicate and interact. Autism spectrum disorder impacts the nervous system.The range and severity of symptoms can vary widely. Common symptoms include difficulty with communication, difficulty with social interactions, obsessive interests, and repetitive behaviors. Early recognition, as well as behavioral, educational, and family therapies may reduce symptoms and support development and learning.” - Mayo Clinic

I don’t usually, nor do I plan on beginning any educational posts in the future - this is simply (hopefully) a one time thing. Though I highly highly doubt it will be. But this I absolutely need to discuss. I feel that I am qualified to do so as well as I’ve been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (specifically Asperger’s Syndrome when the DSM IV was still around) since I was 6 or 7 years old. So I have lived just about one and a half decades with it. Well at least with it diagnosed. Truly I’ve lived with it for all 20 years and 11 months of my life. 

In this post I plan on discussing mainly books, but also referencing to movies and tv shows as I deem necessary. I will also give suggestions of excellent books with autistic representation at the end of this post bolding, and italicizing the ones written by autistic authors. 

Now, without further ado, let’s jump right on in. 

The Ugly

We are starting with the worst of the worst - not so I can upset people over their faves but so that you can anticipate the best at the end of this post. I am going to stick to one major example for each category until the last one. As far as “The Ugly,” I am going to be referencing The Maid by Nita Prose. 

While it is never officially stated that she is autistic, there is enough insinuation that the lack of a label is almost offensive. If you are going to write a current day, “realistic,” murder mystery thriller, then you should be labeling your characters. And don’t do that “oh I don’t want to put them in a box.” Sometimes people have to be. If I hadn’t been labeled I wouldn’t have gotten the accommodations I needed in High School or College. That being said, there are some aspects here that seem accurate. The desire for a routine life, reading too far into certain conversations, missing out on social cues. I can certainly be glad they didn’t pull the counting toothpicks or burning down houses stereotypes. Outside of that, it just felt wrong. I can’t put a finger on it, and I reiterate that in the review. I think many of my complaints are similar to others, but the neurodivergency nearly felt fictional and I almost wished she’d at least watched the ABC Freeform tv show Stitchers, because while the condition Kirstin has isn’t autism, there certain gaping similarities that are discussed in the show (there’s an episode where she “stitches” into an autistic man’s brain and figures out how he died in 4 seconds because his brain was so similar to hers), that it has been my favorite show for a very long time. 

The Bad

Mind you, this example I DNFd rather quickly - as I had learned my lesson with other books. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi. I went into this book extremely excited after hearing it featured not only a Jewish main character (I am half jewish myself) but that character was also autistic. When I got to her introduction I have never seen so many stereotypes and contradictions in one page. She is mentioned to basically be an arsonist, and love numbers. She is said to only like the “pale bland sugar cookies” and doesn’t know how to ask for more other than standing right behind Laila with an empty tray. But she was smart enough and socially adjusted enough to attend university until her arson. How on earth does that make sense? It felt like they were trying to infantilize the condition, which... feels not great. There are many autistic people out there who can love flavorful foods, love colors, and know how to cook or ask for more. Those same people may not feel comfortable at university, be scared of fires or be terribly at math and love words instead. Autistic people are extremely variable, and while I didn’t finish the book, there was clearly a reason as to why. 

The Good

Finally! The good! About damn time. Well, this is a slightly amusing story if you can believe it. So the same morning I finally decided to shelve The Gilded Wolves, I picked up Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. It was at the top of my physical TBR cart as it is a book that I am borrowing from my mom, so I need to finish it soon so I don’t forget to give it back, so I just leaned over and started it. Not only was the immediate prose gorgeous, but soon I discovered that the dragons are absolutely based on autistic people. In this case, it not being a specific label is understandable (same as above) because it is extremely high fantasy. Omran is described as loving difficult mathematics instead of just numbers and hating itchy clothing and is shown to miss social cues, such as greeting before launching into conversation. In one of the memories that Seraphina gets to see of her mother, she discovers that her mother was obsessed with her music, and seemed to know quite know how to word the feeling of deep love.  Not enjoying metaphor, but not elaborating exactly why. Yes she does still compare kissing Seraphina’s father to equations but its only one thing she compares it to - she still compares it to “seen the numbers behind the moon and stars, behind mountains and history, art and death and yearning, as if my comprehension is large enough that it can encompass universes from the beginning to the end of time.” (p. 91)

Even if it is not the author’s intention to make the dragons an entire species of autistic people, I’d prefer an accident like that to the aforementioned purposeful attempts at neurodivergent characters. 

More (will be updated as I discover more)

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

[sister-dear]

Sentence Structure and Flow

Someone on discord asked me about how I structure sentences and how I learned to write. I’m going to do my best to answer! Hopefully it’s useful. It got long, so I made it a Tumblr post.

On learning to write:

Sky_squido, the author of “What Hyrule Hadn’t Seen” made this presentation and there were several points in it that I found incredibly helpful.

The two main ideas that I found most beneficial:

It’s about the ~vibes. Every story or scene has some kind of overall theme or emotion. Once you’re far enough into your story to have found what that is, edit your word choice to match. If a word technically works but doesn’t fit the mood, replace it with something else. The actual definition of a word is sometimes less important than the emotion that word conveys.

Verbs are incredibly important. If you’re having trouble with your sentence structure - if your story seems boring or like the prose drags - look at your verbs. I tend to use “is” as a verb far too often (or “was” for those of you who write past tense), so a lot of my editing comes down to reworking some sentences to make the stronger, more interesting words be the action words. So instead of “Legend was walking,” the sentence would be “Legend walked.” Or, even better, “Legend strolled/stalked/slouched along.” We’ve gone from a passive sentence to something that tells us, in engaging fashion, not just what Legend’s doing but how he’s doing it and maybe even a little about how he’s feeling.

Filter Words

Another post I found incredibly helpful: examples of how to cut out ‘filter words.’ It’s great for adding urgency, establishing tone, and introducing strong descriptions into your writing. Basically, this is how to put ‘show, don’t tell,’ into practice at a sentence-structure level. I use this approach a lot when it comes to conveying character emotion.

A couple other points

Variation is your friend.

Repeating things draws attention.

Description slows things down.

1. Variation is your friend.

For most writing, it’s a good idea to vary your sentence structure and length. Dialogue with no tags is rapid. Same with short sentences. Short and choppy reads disjointed and fast. This also applies to paragraph lengths! Longer sentences and paragraphs read slower, and in turn cause your reader to linger; sometimes maybe even linger too much. A combination keeps things interesting.

Too many long sections in a row - be they sentences or paragraphs - causes reader fatigue. Don’t be afraid to break those up. Let your readers take a breather.

If all your sentences start the same way, rework some of them. Lead with the action in one sentence and the subject in the next.

Starting a new paragraph gets a reader’s attention. You can use this for punch.

You should have one topic, or one person speaking, per paragraph.

Important things go at the start of the paragraph. Readers won’t tend to remember as much stuff from the middle or ends. Speed readers might not read those sections at all. The above note about one topic per paragraph? This is why.

2. Repeating things draws attention.

This applies to everything from individual words to overall themes to something like a series of sentences all with the same structure. It can work for you or against you.

A lot of my editing winds up being me reworking sentences to avoid using the same word too closely in succession. I’m not talking basic words here, like ‘he’ and ‘said.’ Those are non-words. If you have enough strong words around them, they disappear. They’re fine. But to use a snippet from a current work in progress:

...(Legend) bares his teeth, river water dripping off his hair and sticking his tunic to his legs. He braces his legs, wet muck squelching over the sides of his boots.

I wound up changing to “sticking his tunic to his thighs” to avoid the repeated word “legs.” I didn’t want to draw attention to his legs themselves, but the state of them. “He braces his feet,” would also work, or I could just cut the sentence down. “He braces,” does the trick just as well, and might be what I go with for the final draft. If the sentence makes sense without the word, then you can let the unneeded word go and your writing will often be stronger for it.

This can be much harder to do with nouns than verbs. Sometimes you just need to call a sword a sword. That’s usually where I start to alternate between a small group of words. “Sword,” “blade,” and “weapon” can all be alternated between to try to avoid using the same word too close together. You might also be able to get around using the problem word at all, as in the example above.

Another note on non-words. Names and pronouns qualify! You can use them over and over again and readers won’t notice. In fact, trying not to use these words can actually draw more attention than just using them!

For example, referring to Hyrule as “the Traveler.” Is it relevant, in the context of what I am writing, that Hyrule travels a lot? Or am I just trying to avoid using his name too much? If the answer is the latter, either don’t bother or change your sentence structure to remove the name entirely. If you have a solid action word, the name will disappear in favor of the action.

Using ‘Traveler’ in this context draws attention away from whatever Hyrule’s doing to what he is. That may not be the best thing to draw attention to. If what you are writing is a story about Hyrule finally getting a safe place of his own to call a home, you could use it for contrast. In which case, save it. Use it once, so it has impact. But if I'm writing about Hyrule teasing Legend, referring to him in that way can disrupt the flow of the story. It draws attention away from Hyrule's personality and his interaction with Legend to his background.

The point is to do it deliberately! It’s okay to use names and pronouns a lot. ‘Traveller’ is a title. Titles stand out.

3. Description slows things down.

Anywhere you want to linger or draw attention is where your descriptions should be going.

The middle of a fast paced action scene where your character is concentrating on the fight might not be the best spot to go into deep detail about the surroundings or what the enemy looks like. Convey those details in bursts that are worked into the action: “Time nearly rolls his ankle on the rocky ground.” Be very sparing. What makes an action scene interesting is how the character feels about what’s happening. You only need enough information on what the surroundings look like for a reader to follow along, and you can probably do most of that setup in a brief paragraph before the actual action starts.

On the other hand, if your character takes a shocking injury in said fight and you really want to dwell on that moment? Or if they’ve got a really cool, flashy move that they unleash in one single exciting burst of fighting prowess? That’s the spot to let your inner poet shine. Slow those spots down and let the reader really enjoy what you’re doing by using your detailed descriptions there.

This applies to all action, not just fighting. Walking through a busy marketplace? Action. A conversation? Can be approached as action. The best spots to use lots of description will be the spots you want to linger on: the first glimpse of a long-lost friend through the crowd, that last hug as they say goodbye.

Description slows things down. Use it accordingly.

Most everything else I can think of is less to do with flow and structure and more to do with other aspects of writing, so I'll stop here.

[takakuteki-butterfly]

Free! The Final Stroke fundown rundown

I just came out here for fun swim times, and now Haru’s evil.

Ok, I’m just gonna post things as I remember them.

Spoilers, obviously.  And this gets really long.  Have a snack ready.

As a warning, my Japanese isn’t fantastic, so I may have missed some things or misinterpreted some things (though, to toot my own horn a bit, I understood a lot more with this film than with other raw Japanese movies I’ve watched).  Also, at this point it’s been several hours since I saw the show, and my memory is shit.  Take anything I say here with a grain of salt.

So.

Movie starts off cute, with Nagisa, Rei, Makoto, and Rin making some kind of video about (for?) Haru.  I think it took place in the past?  Because Haru, Makoto, and Rin are in their high school uniforms, so I think maybe this takes place before Dive to the Future.  Maybe.

There’s a childhood flashback with Hiyori and Kaede.  Seems Hiyori is actually the one who got Kaede into swimming, though Hiyori ended up moving before they ever got a chance to swim together.  If I understood right, Kaede’s family member(???) was also a swimmer.  And in fact, because of stuff that’s shown later in the movie, I think it’s strongly hinted that the friend that Coach Azuma lost in his past was Kaede’s family member(???).

There’s some stuff with a school festival, but it must be joint because Haru/Asahi’s university and Ikuya/Hiyori’s university are both involved.  Rin and Sosuke go and Rin and Ikuya tease each other relentlessly, then run off to compete against each other at a game booth.

And that’s all well and cute.

The bulk of the story takes place in Australia, with Haru, Rin, Ikuya, and Kaede (and Kaede’s friend, who’s name I forget, but apparently is a crazy strong breaststroke swimmer) representing Japan in an international tournament.  Stuff happens, Rin and Ikuya both lose their matches (in butterfly and breast, with Ikuya losing to that friend of Kaede’s).

Before Haru’s match, he and Kaede are in the locker room.  Albert comes in; Kaede tries to rile him up and is blatantly ignored.  Albert says straight up to Haru, “I’m not swimming for fun today.  I’m just here to do my job.”  D=

Haru swims against Kaede and Albert, and swims so hard he can’t catch his breath afterwards and falls down a flight of stairs (no worries! Ikuya catches him).  Albert wins, but Haru does qualify for the next round.  At some point, Haru yells at Azuma about how to get stronger?  But I didn’t really understand that bit.

For the next race (the next day), Albert drops out for unknown reasons.  He gets shit for it later from that old guy who controls him (father? grandfather? caretaker? idk).  It’s clear that Old Guy is using Albert for sponsorship money and to live vicariously through him.  I don’t know which is worse.

So Kaede gets bronze in that race.  Haru doesn’t place.  Everyone goes back to Japan.

Meanwhile!

While all that is going on, it also frequently cuts to what the others are doing in Japan.  Makoto has basically taken on coaching Sousuke, and they spend nearly the entire movie together.  Asahi, Hiyori, and Kisume also spend much of the movie together, streaming the events in Australia and talking about the future and stuff.

And in a scene that is a clear callback to the rainy poolside scene in Eternal Summer, where Haru, Rin, and Makoto talk about what they’re going to do after graduation, there’s a scene with Rei, Nagisa, and Gou by the poolside, in the rain, talking about what they’re going to do after graduation.  Sounds like they all have a plan, but if specifics of those plans were mentioned, I didn’t catch it.  But they all looked happy and positive about their futures.

And at some point, Sousuke, Makoto, and Hiyori have a backstroke race.  Hiyori wins, though they don’t actually show him winning (-_-); they just show pictures of the batsu game Sousuke and Makoto had to do because they lost (dressing up and taking obnoxiously cute photos).

With everyone back in Japan, there’s lots of talking and... stuff.  Then they all go back to their hometowns for New Year’s.  There’s a scene of Haru and Makoto in that place where the fireworks scene took place in Eternal Summer, and Makoto is about to tell Haru something, but then his phone rings and he remembers that he promised his siblings he would do something with them, so he runs off, leaving Haru alone.

There’s also a scene of Ikuya and Asahi swimming alone in a pool at night.  They praise each other’s swimming, saying how they’ve both been impressed with one another since middle school.

And there’s a scene with Hiyori in Kyoto (looks like he’s at Kiyomizudera, but it’s night time and is that place open at night??), and Kaede approaches him.  They talk.

Haru goes to Iwatobi Elementary and is standing under that sakura tree when Rin finds him.  Haru talks about how they’ll challenge the international tournament next year, and they can do it! because they’ll be together.  Rin tells him that he and Ikuya both have decided not to participate next year; they’re going to go pro instead.  Haru gets really upset, because they’re abandoning him and he’ll be all alone.

Then he gets possessed by the ghost of Albert and basically tells Rin to piss off and that he doesn’t need him or anyone anymore.

The end!  To be continued in seven months!  =D

Other bits:

Though the character count has exploded, I felt there was a good balance between showing what everyone was up to, while still keeping the focus on Haru, as the main character.

60% of the movie was flashbacks to stuff that happened throughout the entire series.  Saving money on animation, or trying to hammer in the memories before the grand finale?  You decide.

Flashbacks also includes the animation from the original commercial that started this all.  =D

The English voice actors for Albert and Old Guy can not act for shit.  >_<  It’s so jarring.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear any OLDCODEX.  I knew they were on hiatus; I didn’t think they’d pull the song from the movie at the last minute.  (Unless that was them, and it’s a totally new style than what we’re used to.)

If you’re here for the shipping, you’re going to be disappointed.  There was very little.

There was a preview for the next movie, but literally the only thing I remember is “REI~!! <3″

They also showed the main image for the next movie, which is almost the exact same as this movie’s (see above), except instead of looking pissy, Haru’s expression is incredibly soft.

The end~!

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

Been thinking about what Mordred's life in Camelot would've been like if Merlin didn't hate him and then thought about how if Morgana was around she would probably always give him her favor at every tournament (until he married) and the other knights would tease him for that so have a broad outline for a Beloved Characters Dont Turn Evil AU

Morgana discovers her magic and Merlin swears to her that he'll protect her. He comforts her when she's scared and Merlin begs Gaius to share his knowledge and suspicions about Morgana to Morgana herself. One night Morgana bursts into their quarters in hysterics, waking them up, screaming and sobbing, and it feels like Merlin's hug is the only thing holding her together but its not enough. Glass starts shattering, candles flare, chandeliers fall to the ground. Gaius decides at this point not telling her will do considerable more harm than not, to both herself and others. They stay up through the night. Gaius speaking and Morgana asking questions, Merlin with a supportive hand on Morgana's shoulder. At one point Morgana tearfully asks the question Merlin asked Gaius long ago, "am i a monster?". They all fall asleep at the table, and that morning when Gwen arrives to wake Morgana only to find her absent with her blankets thrown over the bed and several things knocked over she runs and alerts the guards. The guards initiate lockdown and the commotion reaches Uther and wakes Arthur (Merlin is once again late), and they proceed to fear she was kidnapped right under their noses without anyone knowing. Arthur runs down to get Merlin so he can prepare him for the day only to open the door to find the three of them asleep on the table.

Later Merlin organizes for Morgana to learn more than Gaius can tell her from the Druids, but she intends to stay the night at least, if not then significantly longer (anywhere from a week to several months), and they have no good excuse for her to use that would allow her to leave without Gwen and guards. They come up with some very convoluted plan, which does not end up in the raid that occurred in canon, and when Gwen catches her sneaking back she lies and says she wanted to check up on Mordred (who she did run into), to see if he was with the Druid encampment that was rumored to be nearby (which he was). She didn't learn nearly as much as she hoped in those few hours, but they at least pointed her in a direction.

Morgause comes to town, and leaves Morgana her bracelet. After discovering it stops her visions Morgana takes it to Gaius, who reveals it was enchanted and looks similar to the one Lady Vivienne used to wear. Morgana states Morgause got it from her mother, but that Lady Vivienne was Morgana's mother and wonders how the bracelet ever got to Morgause. Gaius says there was a rumor that Lady Vivienne had a baby that displayed a affinity for magic, but Gorlois told Uther their baby had died before they even named her. Gaius reveals that the baby was smuggled out of Camelot and given to the High Priestesses, and Morgause might very well be that baby. Morgana begins to long for a connection with Morgause, to meet the sister she never knew of and recover something of her dead parents. When she begins secretly meeting Morgause, she tells Merlin and then asks him to come with her when she begins receiving lessons from her. Morgause tries to convince them that killing Uther is the right thing to do, but Merlin keeps reassuring Morgana that all they need to do is convince Arthur to change the law for when he is king, and he's not ready to do that now so theres no use in killing Uther before he's ready, and that she does love Uther and Uther does love her and would try to "fix" her well before he ordered her death. Morgause still wants him dead, to rush the prophecy of magic's return. Them sneaking out every few nights cements the idea that Morgana and Merlin are secretly dating in castle gossip.

Im not sure what happens with Morgause, but i think she would still take Camelot at some point and she would spare Morgana and by extension Merlin. Morgana and Merlin make sure to get Arthur out (and Merlin probably goes with him) because they dont trust Morgause to not kill him. Morgause reveals her heritage (and makes Morgana a Princess and her Heir) despite claiming the throne for people of magic and not the House of Gorlois, and the knowledge that Vivienne and one of her daughters were sorceresses leads Uther to believe he can not save Morgana from magic that is likely in her blood and THAT is what breaks his mental state. Morgana's real heritage is revealed soon after, with Uther informing Gaius that Morgana being a Princess is actually within her birth rights. Morgause continues Morgana's training because at some point Morgana has to become a High Priestess because canon. That or Morgause switches sides (this is a Beloved Characters Dont Go Evil AU might as well make it No Beloved Characters Are Evil AU) and she trains Morgana later after Arthur is a established King.

Morgause is overthrown and the Round Table formed. Arthur as well as several people in the castle know of or suspect Morgana of being a sorceress but he refuses to banish her, first believing it to have been out of her control (forced by Morgause) and later learning that her nightmares had been magic all along (how could he punish her for something he knows she had tried to get rid of for over a decade?). Perhaps he lets her keep the title of Princess, having always seen her as a sister (and someone who is compassionate for the people in a way royalty should be) and armed with the new knowledge of her being his actual sister. Everyone expects Regent Arthur to crack down on magic, its what Uther would have done and what the people want, so he does. Morgana becomes a advocate for magic, as she had been for Arthur in private as a Prince, and it scares people in the castle. They believe her to be working with Morgause, despite her arguments being for individuals' wellbeing and how punishments fuels hatred for Camelot. Several attempts are made on her life, many stopped by Merlin and Gwen and sometimes Lancelot. Arthur often "asks" Merlin for his opinion on magic and with Morgana's voice being public he feels okay with being straight with Arthur on what he thinks. Uther dies same as he did in canon: protecting Arthur from a assassination.

Mordred becomes a Knight because canon. Morgana is ecstatic to see him again and acts like a mother who hasn't seen her child in ages when she first sees him. Merlin has learned you often make the enemies that are destined to kill you (ex. trying to stop Morgana's visions from coming true) so he ignores Kilgharrah and doesn't hate Mordred (he is always wary though). Mordred alternates between childlike eagerness around the knights and following Merlin around while hero worshiping him (no one can figure out why. Their best guess is that Morgana is a mutual friend). In the beginning he kept messing up his name (calling him "Merlin" is just weird) and they often talk in their heads and therefore just stare at each other which has led to two conflicting rumors: theyre in love or they hate each other. Morgana often invites him to dinner, and when they dine with Arthur they easily slip into mind-talking (because chewing) and Arthur is convinced that they're making fun of him every time they do it. He protects Arthur when Merlin can't, often runs off to do side quests Merlin needs to do but cant get away to do, and often tags along with Merlin on his quests. Being able to share the knowledge of his destiny since Lancelot died (if he dies in this AU) relaxes Merlin's caution and allows him to be emotionally closer to him. Mordred enjoys being around Merlin and Morgana not just because he's Emrys and she's Morgana, but because they are the closest thing to home he has: they know what he is, they understand (bits) of his culture and make it possible for Mordred to share it with them, their individual magic sings strong enough to remind him of when he lived surrounded by it. He quickly grows to love them so very much and no one understands WHY. The knights tease him about it, and Morgana forcing Arthur to take Mordred on certain missions he isnt qualified for "so he can learn" does not help. Gwaine and Percival were planning to convince him that he couldnt compete in a tournament without a lady's favor because he's the rookie and his panicked look greatly amuses them only to find Morgana giving him her's before kissing his cheek. They were relentless after that, alternating between "lady's favors dont count if they're from your mom," "Mordred has a girlfriend," and whatever the medieval version of affectionately calling him "Bambi" is. Morgana sits in the stand's throne (since Arthur is competing) or besides it if Gwen is queen, and she flashes a smile at him when he comes out (Gwen too. He's a sweet kid with a baby face, of course he's one of her favorites. He also reminds her of Merlin when she first met him: kind, awkward, cute). This settles Mordred's nerves but has the unfortunate side effect of increased teasing. Merlin doesn't let it go to far, he never does, and gives them a distraction before running back to Arthur.

And then magic is brought back to the land and Morgana continues the work of the High Priestesses and helps the rebuilding efforts and they're still adventures and problems, but everyone Lives Happily Ever After

[crusherthedoctor]

Can you list anything you unironically like in the games (and cartoons and comics) that you don't like?

I won't bother mentioning music, since that goes without saying and is to be expected for a Sonic game... unless you're Chronicles.

Sonic Adventure 2 (mixed gameplay-wise, annoying story-wise) - While I prefer Sonic's SA1 levels for a number of reasons, I still think his and Shadow's gameplay in SA2 is fun on its own merit. I also don't mind the treasure hunting gameplay returning or how big the levels are this time around, since Knuckles and Rouge are still fast and not '06 levels of slow. It's mainly the gimped radar that creates the unfortunate domino effect of making them a problem.

- Introduced Rouge, one of my favourite characters for how playful she is and how she's a lot more nuanced and intelligent than you'd expect.

- Some genuinely good scenes, like Eggman's trap on the A.R.K and Sonic escaping from the G.U.N. helicopter.

- Had some good ideas going for it, like the Pyramid Base and the Biolizard as a scientific monster instead of an ancient one.

- Despite my thoughts on the backstory itself (or rather, its execution), Shadow has enough depth and subtle qualities and occasional unintended hilarity to stand out from the typical dark rival characters you see in media.

- The Last Scene's music in particular is one of my favourite cutscene tracks in the series.

Sonic Heroes (mixed gameplay-wise, loathed story-wise) - The gameplay is fun when you're not being screwed over by repetitive combat, overly long levels and/or ice physics.

- Boasts some of the most consistently Genesis-worthy environments in the 3D games, up there with SA1's and Colours'.

- The in-game dialogue that isn't the same tutorial drivel repeated ad nauseam can be interesting, funny, etc.

- Reintroduced the Chaotix, which provided me with another character I quite like in the form of Vector.

- Bringing Metal Sonic back in full force and front and center in the plot after a long absence (not counting cameos and the like) is a perfectly fine idea. Just... not like this.

Sonic Battle (decent yet repetitive gameplay, mixed story-wise) - Emerl's arc is compelling, and it earns the emotional weight of having to put him down at the end.

- While some characters are iffy (read: Amy), other characters are extremely well-handled. Shadow is probably the prime example.

- Gamma's belly dance healing animation is fucking hilarious.

- When I was young, and the game was first announced, I was really excited about being able to play as Chaos. This proved to be my downfall when it turned out he was arguably one of the worst characters in the game due to being slower than me during the writing process, but I still recall that excitement fondly.

Shadow the Hedgehog (comedy classic) - The sheer amount of legendary stupidity this game has going for it makes it practically impossible to actually hate. It helps that it's not quite as white-knighted on the same level as '06... usually. You know you're in for a unique experience when you hear a gunshot every time you click something in the menu.

- By extension, Black Doom never gained an unironic fanbase like Mephiles/Scourge/Eggman Nega did, which means I'm a lot more willing to take Doom's dumbass brand of villainy in stride. He even has a unique design... a terrible one that rips off Wizeman granted, but alas, even that is a step-up from Fridge Shadow and Bumblebee Eggman.

- Despite being... well, Shadow the Hedgehog, some of the environments would fit right in with any other Sonic game, like with Circus Park, Lava Shelter, and Digital Circuit. Even the Black Comet levels look pretty cool.

- This game understands amnesia better than IDW does.

Sonic '06 (what do you think?) - The obvious one: Shadow's character was handled pretty well, even if it came at the cost of everyone else being a dummy and being forced to interact with Mephiles.

- Like SA2, there are some good moments, like the Last Story ending sequence with Sonic and Elise.

- In the greatest form of irony ever, I like Solaris as a concept and design(s), and its backstory has potential to serve as a parallel with Chaos without being a complete ripoff. Iblis sucks, Mephiles sucks, but I'm fine with Solaris.

- Introduced legendary characters like Sonic Man, Pele the Beloved Dog, Hatsun the Pigeon, and Pacha from The Emperor's New Groove.

The Rivals duology (apathetic outside of Nega-related grumbling) - There were some cool zone ideas in both games that were sadly let down by the restrictive and limiting gameplay. I particularly like Colosseum Highway for thus far being the only full-on Roman level in the series instead of merely having a couple minor hints of Roman, and Meteor Base for the unique scenario of the space station being built into an asteroid. These level concepts and others deserve a second chance IMO. (At least Frontier Canyon got a second chance in the form of Mirage Saloon, amirite?)

- Ifrit has a better design than Iblis. Not saying it's amazing, but the Firebird motif it has going on is a lot more interesting for a fire monster than the Not-Chaos schtick they had with Iblis.

Sonic and the Secret Rings (a very frustrating gaming experience) - Erazor Djinn, A.K.A. Qui-Gon Djinn, A.K.A. Dr. N. Djinn, A.K.A. I'll Take It On The Djinn, A.K.A. Not From The Hairs On My Djinny Djinn Djinn, is one of the best villains not associated with Eggman in the series. He's a Mephiles-type character done right, and there's actual weight and reason to his actions, however sinister or petty.

- I don't have strong opinions either way on Shahra as a character, but the Sonic/Shahra friendship is sweet and well-handled.

- The ending is one of Sonic's greatest moments. The sheer contrast between how ruthlessly he deals with Erazor and how comforting he is towards Shahra speaks volumes... Still gonna make fun of the mountain of handkerchiefs though. (Before anyone lectures me, I understand the significance of it and can even appreciate it from that angle... doesn't mean I'm not allowed to poke fun at it. :P)

- Another game with some redeeming environments. I love the aesthetic of Night Palace, and Sand Oasis looks gorgeous too.

Sonic Chronicles (my personal least favourite game in the series) - Uh...

- Um...

- Er...

- I like Shade's design?

Sonic Unleashed (overrated game and story IMO) - The obvious two: the opening sequence and the Egg Dragoon fight deserve all the praise they get.

- Seeing Eggmanland come to life was an impressive moment to be sure. While part of me does feel it didn't quite measure up to what I had in mind (ironically, the Interstellar Amusement Park ended up being closer to what I had in mind), it still looks badass and works well for what it is. I also don't mind the idea of it being a one-level gauntlet... key word being idea.

- Obviously, the game looks great. Not a fan of the real world focus (real world inspiration is fine, but copy-pasting the real world and shoving loops in it is just unimaginative), but it can't be denied that the environments look good.

- This game pulled off dialogue options a lot better than Chronicles did, since they didn't rely on making Sonic OoC.

Sonic and the Black Knight (just kind of boring all around) - Despite my gripes with the story (Merlina wasn't nearly as fleshed out as her unique anti-villain status deserved, which ends up severely undermining the ambition of the plot in more ways than one, and the other characters go from being useless yes men for King Arthur to being useless yes men for Sonic), I will admit it provides interesting insight into Sonic's character.

- Like '06 and Secret Rings, the ending is very nice... well, aside from Amy being an unreasonable bitch ala Sonic X at the very end.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (apathetic) - The admittedly few new concepts sprinkled within had promise. They may not have been as fleshed out as they could have been, but level concepts like Sylvania Castle and White Park, bosses like Egg Serpentleaf and the Egg Heart, and story beats like the Death Egg mk.II being powered by Little Planet, all could have been brilliant had they been better executed.

SatAM (apathetic outside of SatAM Robotnik-related grumbling) - I'm not a fan of the environments on the whole due to them looking too bland or samey, but there are some exceptions that look pleasant or interesting, like the Void.

Sonic Underground (apathetic) - The character designs make me feel better about myself.

- Does "large quantities of unintentional meme material" count as a positive?

Sonic X (mostly apathetic outside of Eggman's handling) - Helen was a better human character and audience surrogate in her one focus episode than Chris was throughout his entire runtime.

- Actually, most of the human characters not named Chris were legitimately likable. Including everyone in Chris' own family not named Chris. Hilarious.

- Despite arguably having the most Chris in it, I actually don't mind the first season that much, partly due to slight nostalgia from seeing it on TV when it was new, but mostly because Eggman actually acted like a villain for the most part, and certain other characters weren't quite as flanderized yet. It's season 2 and onwards where things started going off the rails IMO. (Incidentally, Helen's episode was part of season 1...)

The Boom franchise (apathetic) - Along with Chronicles, the games provide yet more proof that just because someone isn't SEGA/Sonic Team, that doesn't mean they're automatically more qualified to handle the series.

- The show had some good episodes here and there, and Tails' characterization was probably the most consistently on-point out of the cast.

- Despite not exactly being favourite portrayals for either character, even I'll admit that many of Knuckles and Eggman's lines in the show on their own were genuinely funny.

Archie Sonic (pre-reboot is mostly terrible, post-reboot is mostly... bland) - Whenever I doubt myself as a writer, I think back to Ken Penders, and suddenly I'm filled with a lot more confidence.

Sonic the Comic (apathetic) - Fleetway isn't a comic I tend to recall much of aside from how much of a loathesome cunt Sonic is, but IIRC, Robotnik's portrayal is pretty good. Different, but good.

IDW Sonic (stop pissing me off, comic) - Putting their handling aside (and being too obviously "inspired" by MGS in the latter's case), Tangle and Whisper are good characters IMO.

- Same goes for Starline, before he was killed off-screen and replaced with Toothpaste Snively.

- Execution aside (noticing a pattern?), the zombot virus was a fine concept on its own and an interesting new scheme for Eggman.

- I get to remind myself that I've never drawn scat edits and posted them publicly on Twitter.