#the space first aid was plot essential

[klonnieshippersclub]

Bonnie, The Bennett’s, Black Witches and The Magical Negro Trope & Mammy Trope - TVD META

Bonnie and the Bennett’s have very rich lore. It’s not glorified by the fandom unless it’s by Bonnie fans themselves. That’s the way it’s always been, no one paying any mind or deeper thought to Bonnie/and the Bennett’s outside of her fans. This isn't a new thing but I want to highlight this once again because I don’t think fans understand there is more than one negative trope rooted in Bonnie, the Bennett’s and black witches only.

Before we get into anything heavy let’s have some key-terms here: Let’s define a magical negro trope: where a black character appears in a plot solely to help a white character and then vanishes. Now what a mammy is: a black woman engaged to take care of white children or as a servant to a white family.

Everything in the series can be tied back to a Bennett witch. Let’s list a few things the immortality spell, immortals, the other side, the cure, supernatural hunters, creating rings to preserve life, the Gilbert device but only a Bennett witch can enchant it, prison worlds, the traveler's curse, vampires, hybrids etc…You name it without the Bennett’s creation there would be nothing. You would think because of this the Bennett’s would be respected in the narrative and by fans. Wrong. Some of these women aren’t even given actual names. Everyone can have a Bennett witch at their disposal but they won’t be respected either. Bennett blood is essential to certain spells. A loophole.

Let’s talk about Ayana. The Mikaelson’s were only able to become vampires because Esther stole Ayana’s spell. It is forgotten that Esther/Mikael begged Ayana to perform the spell first. The Mikaelson’s as humans trusted Ayana. Rebekah was in shock that a necklace from Ayana burned her. While Ayana remained unnamed this time while the story was told. Rebekah was talking about Ayana. Ayana was known as a healer and given Esther’s praises they were close. The series doesn’t show us why Ayana should value the Mikaelson’s but we do understand why Esther, her husband and children valued her. That infamous necklace that Rebekah loved belonged to Ayana. We don’t know about Ayana’s life outside of being a healer. We don’t know her marital status, how many children she could’ve possibly had and anything tied to her after the plot has used her up. One would think with how close Ayana was to the Mikaelson’s, they’d have some respect or acknowledge Bonnie but that never happens.

We see this in how Emily was enslaved to Katherine. Julie may have labeled Emily a handmaiden but we knew what that meant. Emily only had one request from Damon that he watch and protect the Bennett line which he never did. The black witches never ask much of anyone in the plot or ever given the chance too. Yet when a request is made no one ever meets said request for them. This form of slavery repeats again through Lucy. She claimed Katherine saved her life therefore she is indebted to her for however long she needs. Sheila has her hand in aiding the Gemini Coven, Beatrice helped with the Sirens.

There are other witches that are black who serve a purpose to aid in many and leave such as: Gloria, The Martin’s, Bree, Aja and her coven just to name a few. Friends of the main characters or enemies but quickly there and dropped. Originally due to all witches appearing Black fans believed they were all Bennett’s. Julie has no answer for why all witches that is until they weren’t. Remember witches were servants of nature. The Mikaelson’s popularity, Gemini Coven and other witches. Fills the space that Black witches were once in. Notice a pattern here?

Qetsiyah’s plot line should’ve centered on how she created immortality, the cure, and the other side. But Qetsiyah’s existence revolves around demanding and enforcing continuous revenge on Silas and Amara. Tying her into another repeated love triangle in the franchise. May I add that she and Bonnie are the only women to have been betrayed by a partner and criticized for their reactions. There’s nothing wrong when a man wants and craves power but Qetsiyah is considered the worst of them all. Here’s an amazing video that details Qetsiyah’s writing too. Please review.

Lastly, The Bonnie of it all:

Bonnie’s a loyal, powerful and brave woman. She doesn’t let anything happen to her friends if she can stop it. She cares for them. That kind of loyalty can be beautiful but equally harmful when Bonnie has no regard to her own feelings. She continues to give for everyone and her friends rarely return the favor. Bonnie’s never thanked or rewarded for being there. The friendships stop being equal very early. Her traumas aren’t valuable in the plot. We don’t know what Bonnie’s home looked like. If Bonnie does grieve it isn’t shown on screen. Her family life is limited, while Liz and Alaric aren’t main characters. They have their own plotlines. It is revealed that Abby’s reasonings for abandoning her is for Elena’s benefit. Abby is killed in a coin toss and transitioned. Caroline gets to have a good friend moment while Bonnie isn’t have any feelings towards her mother for abandoning her after. Rudy isn’t seen in the plot longterm and when he appears in season 5 he’s killed in front of Bonnie. She grieves this in silence while grieving her own death that she didn’t make aware to her friends to avoid inconveniencing them. The plot makes it clear if the white counterparts aren’t happy then Bonnie will never either. Elena, Caroline got happier endings while Bonnie’s job was completed. Bonnie never once got to call out how her friends can disregard her, she feeds into them and they grow while sucking the life out of her. In the end, Bonnie went back to Africa. Never any reference to her life from there.

Another thing Bonnie isn’t shown to be feminine. Her best friends go on dates, go to dances, dress up and receive compliments. Caroline or Elena has ever given Bonnie a compliment that aided in her beauty. We don’t know Bonnie’s ambitions or fears. But you are aware when Bonnie wants to save her best friend. Thoughts on Bonnie’s relationships and ships is for the next meta though.

White witches did follow the servitude of others. They were still given the privilege of agency that black witches were never going to have. Witches like Dahlia existed, and although she had one goal she had more personality than others.

When you have people like the TVD writers that continue to push harmful stereotypes there’s always going to fans who listen and continue to perpetuate those stereotypes. The writers had no value for Black women nor do the fans. They don’t care about how black women or people of color are treated in fiction or the media simply because their favorites get to reap all the benefits. That tweet is just one tip of the iceberg, there’s plenty more from Bonnie’s relationships, and storylines.

[zios-plotbun-farm]

One Piece Fanfic Crossover Idea [includes LawLu]

Alright. So recently after having binge-reading a lot of Lawlu fanfic, and falling back into the rabbit hole that is One Piece. I have managed to brew up a really silly lawlu storyline that honestly is more law-centric than anything. Although it has a lot of romance elements, probably more than it should. But uh, it's not entirely focused on Lawlu? That’s what I get for thinking throwing in my past 3 OTPs from my previous fandoms and 1 very old one would be a great idea. =w=;;

And if that got your attention then buckle up this is gonna get slightly cracky and very long. Not much plot but plenty of detail lol

So the story starts with the Blackbeard battle on Whipper Island which still goes the same as canon. The only difference is that somehow Bepo, Shachi, Penguin and Ikkaku were the only ones in the crew to have survived the attacks. All of them escape with Law as in canon and regroup at a further away barren island or something. Not very detailed here.

Anyway, let’s just say a passing benevolent godly entity who favors Law (me lol) sees his situation, and decides to meddle as a way to help him out. They send Law a vision as a way to explain what will happen and why some random people will be suddenly appearing in front of them. That explanation being that they are sending possible new crewmates that will definitely be strong enough to survive the New World and help Law on his new quest for revenge against Blackbeard. Obviously Law protests against this at first but is unable to refuse since all these people were already being transported from outside their universe's domain  and can’t be returned because of their own universal rules. The Entity was just kind enough to nudge them on the path to the One Piece universe. When instead they could have continued hurling into the void between universes.

So after his forced agreement, various types of portals opened up, dropping off a whole bunch of confused people. A few of which were injured. A list also happened to appear that conveniently had information on them with their previous occupations and abilities. After everyone was done panicking, being suspicious, and first aid was administered. Law explained what the Lady Entity told him about their situations. He then asked them how they all got transported outside their universes. Here follows their situations:

[Naruto] SasuNaru

Naruto and Sasuke were sealing Kaguya away when she was able to get one last shot in that was a dimensional portal that had sucked in the two ninja while they were exhausted. They weren’t able to dodge it and Sakura was barely saved from being sucked in like they were since she was less exhausted and farther away from the portal.

[SVSSS] Moshang

LGJ got the drop on MBJ during the accession ceremony and SQH was able to distract him enough to get to MBJ. He used his return to home function while gripping MBJ as a last attempt to escape LQJ since MBJ was heavily injured. When Law arrived, Strange and Naruto were able to heal him enough not to die. Also during their explanation SQH realizes that he isn't bound by the system any more and has essentially been freed. Which means he can reveal his past life secrets if he wants too.

[MDZS] Wangxian

Their group had been ambushed by masked men during a very suspicious night hunt. They were caught in an array that had Wei Wuxian try to use a prototype transportation talisman to help escape or counteract it. Instead it made it into a very unstable dimensional travel array. The array that was used had something to do with time. [Include Wen Ning & Lan Sizhui]

[MCU] StrangeIron

All three were thrown out of their universe by the infinity stones themselves because the space/soul/time stones convinced the others to let them leave since they really liked Strange/Tony/Peter and didn’t want them to die. Initially only Tony was gonna use the stones but Peter joined in to help him and Stephen joined in to try to keep either of them from dying from power overload. So now they are banned from returning to their universe since they are supposed to be dead. That's the price for saving their universe. Also in this universe Tony had used a very low dose version of extremis to survive chest surgery after Siberia which is why he was able to survive the snap with the help of the other 2. This has Tony looking like late thirties.

After hearing their various situations, with all of them sounding very outlandish to the Heart Pirates, Law is both amazed and dreading having them all as possibly future crew members. But still Law throws out the offer of them joining his pirate crew and explains why it's a good idea. While explaining he also informs them about what this universe is like. Which includes devil fruits, the marines, the world government, the pirate era and the most famous pirates currently.

This in turn leads to Law’s bounty and infamy which also reveals Law’s newest quest for revenge against Blackbeard for killing most of his crew and destroying the Polar Tang. Sasuke, Wei Wuxian, and Mobei jun can relate to wanting revenge. Collectively they agree to join Law since the Heart pirates were the only ones that knew about their otherworldly situations and abilities. Plus none of them had any interest in being recruited or kidnapped by the Marines for their powers. Also not one of them would have been able to live normally without attracting some sort of attention, besides maybe SQH on his own.

After this Law goes over the list that Entity gave him. Which also included the tip of rejoining the StrawHats as an Ally again. Since they are eventually going to have a run-in with Blackbeard. Plus they needed time for his new crew to figure out how they fared against the fighters here. As well as get over the culture shock they're gonna have being in a new world. And possibly learn how to sail a normal boat and not a submarine. At least until they buy or steal a new one.

Crew Positions/Roles? Bepo = Navigator/First Mate Shachi =Doc assistant/Swordsman? Ikkaku = SubMechanic/Sniper Penguin =Doc assistant/Cook/Staff user? Naruto = Helmsman?/Scout/Fighters Sasuke = Lookout/Scout/Fighters MBJ = Fighter/Assassin/General SQH = Treasurer/Quartermaster/Spy Tony = Mechanic/Inventor/Fighters Stephen = Doctor/Sorcerer/Fighters Peter = Mechanic/Cabin boy/Fighters WWX = Fighter/Inventor/Musician LWJ =Cook/Fighter/Musician LSH =Fighter/Cabin boy/Musician WN =Fighter/Watchman/Pharmacist?

Extra Story Elements

Inventor group= Tony, Peter, WWX, Ikkaku Doc group= Law, Stephen, WN Inhuman= MBJ, WN, Bepo, honorary members Naruto & Peter Swordsmen= Law, LWJ, WWX, LSH, Sasuke, Shachi Lit Club= WWX & SQH, Shachi, Pen + editor Naruto Avoid Docs group= Tony, Peter, Naruto, WWX Kids Club= Peter, LSH, Naruto, Sasuke Sanity Group= LWJ, SQH, Law, Bepo Cooks= LWJ, Penguin, Naruto

Luffy becomes super jealous of Law for having 2 ninjas on his crew and tries to convince one of them to join his crew. Naruto doesn’t want to separate from Sasuke, and Sasuke would rather die than join a crew with 2 Narutos.

Franky & Ussop are amazed by the stuff that Tony and Peter make considering they do not use cola and are untraceable to the Marines. Tony was horrified by the fact that Cola could be used essentially like oil and that their phones were living organisms. Created various devices by hand and maybe recreated the Arc reactor to power their new Boat/Sub?

New Boat/Sub was made by a combination of Tony, Peter, Ikakku, Franky & Naruto who used his clones as workers.

Stephen gets his hands fixed with the help of Law and Naruto. Law with taking the pins out and attaching the nerves. And Naruto helped to regrow them and heal them. [hand wavy medicine]

On the boat when people are having relationship problems they go to wangxian since they were the only ones in a relationship and technically married with a son. MBJ is the first one to ask LWJ about how to court a cultivator since they are both introverted.

People confuse Tony & Steph as a couple because they parent Peter and think he is their son. This is before they actually get together.  

Peter, LSH, Naruto, and Sasuke are seen as the Kid group. Although Law does treat them as adults when needed. Everyone tends to be protective of them. MBJ & Law are Sasuke’s favorite crewmates because they are all cat-like.

Have a whole thing about trying to revive WN back to life since his body is in a state of stasis and his soul is bound to his body by force. Get his body to work again like Frankenstein. Group project between WWX, Law, Stephen, and MBJ. Possible outcome that WN turns into a Demon since he is saturated in Resentful energy.

SQH and Peter are the only ones to have an idea about the One Piece and Naruto worlds. SQH had his OTPs SasuNaru and LawLu while Peter had his favorite characters aka Sas, Naru, Law and Lu. Decide together to try and help the couples along with SQH taking LawLu and Peter getting SasuNaru. Peter has no clue how to, so just suggests ways to hang out.

Law while an introvert and masking as a Stern stoic badass. Is very much a secret chaotic dumbass when provoked by Luffy and others. Also he can’t seem to seriously fight Luffy without a good reason otherwise it turns into a slapstick fight lol. Is willing to wear stupid clothes/costumes although some might be in his eccentric style.

Shachi is a swordsman but only because Law needed someone to train and spar against while growing up and traveling through the North sea before they took on the grandline. He's a lot more comfortable with fighting hand to hand like a brawler/street fighter. Although he's also pretty good at using blunt weapons [bats, knuckles]. Possibly have him learn how to use armament haki to coat his fists and weapons. Maybe learn with Naruto and Peter to fight better with hand to hand techniques and parkour techniques aka move around larger opponents like Peter. [All the flipping and jumping] Possibly learn how to use advanced armament haki techniques with the help of Naruto and Sasuke. Similar to Sage techniques and Sakura’s strength techniques.

Penguin joins up with Shachi to learn better hand to hand combat. Can't seem to get the hang of using a weapon so at some point asks Stephen if he can learn his magic? Stephen gives it a try at teaching him. Penguin can only use a few magic spells since he isn't a genius like Stephen but tries to be creative with them. [Portals, Mandala shields, Eldritch whips, Energy sword, pure energy saw blasts, possible water element?] Help with MBJ, and Peter somehow, learns to water bend using magic.

Ikkaku gets trained by Tony, SQH, and surprisingly Sasuke. She focuses on hand to hand combat, gun/sniper training, using daggers, and figuring out how to use observation haki. She focused on presence sensing and intent sensing that she wishes to develop into future vision. Trains to make sure her concentration can't be easily broken, plus to increase her endurance and stamina. Possibly ask Stephen to teach her how to transmute items so she never runs out of bullets or without a dagger and some mild telekinesis to throw them/manipulate them. 

Law trains with his new crew mates to better use his devil fruit and his own body. Possibly have him unlock his own Conquerors haki like Luffy. Maybe have WWX give him some tips on using Jiang techniques since they were more adaptable while he spars LWJ & LSH to learn proper sword fighting. While also learning how to fight either bare handed or with only his fruit abilities with Strange and Sasuke.

WWX totally treats Law like a little brother since his tsundere tendencies remind him of JC. While WN likes him since he reminds him of WQ and his harsh bedside manner but caring actions for those he loves. Peter, Naruto, and Sasuke are new ducklings to teach and protect in WWX’s eyes. LWJ respects Law's authority and experiences, and at times acts like an advisor for battles [war experience]. Naruto/Peter = cool older friend while LSH treats him like a senior disciple. MBJ is willing to follow only because of SQH but watches Law like a hawk and forces him to grow stronger to be worthy of following him [demon stuff]. Stephen treats him as a colleague because both are genius surgeons and Protectors. Tony likes to mess with him and treats him like a youngsters aka Peter. Same with the other OG heart pirates although gives slightly more respect to Ikkaku for withstanding their bullshit [Sees Pepper/May in her]. Sasuke and Law at times butt heads because Sasuke isn't good with authority figures, and while Law understands that, it can be frustrating since he is the authority for this crew.

MBJ was the one to push Law to train to get stronger. Reason 1) cause it the demon way to only be the subordinate of someone if they were stronger than them. Reason 2) sees that Law needs to be pushed after having fallen into depression for failing his previous crew. So decides to motivate him by fueling him with Anger, Revenge and Spit like any proper demon would. Sasuke and WWX help at this point because they understand. This also causes the other OG hearts to also start training which leads to others offering their help for training.

While shopping for clothes SQH and WWX go ham looking for clothes. SQH convinces WWX to try on these great form fitting black coats and pants with low heeled boots. Also tells him that they aren't obligated to wear multiple layers so they can experiment with fashion now. WWX is very excited by this both from not having to be so formal and to tease LWJ. Tony and Peter go and decide they want to look the part of actually being pirates and drag Stephen along. They give Stephen the full pirate look with Levi turning into an overcoat. MBJ decides to wear the least amount of clothes since the seas are very hot and he can't be bothered to wear layers here. LWJ on the other hand struggles to find clothes that he is comfortable wearing. Gets help from SQH after he and WWX are finished with their choices. Sasuke and Naruto go and try to find the best reinforced clothes they can buy but choose to alter the few clothes they had to fit in.

Shang Qinghua: System gives him the ability to have a RPG game system interface to use in real life for completing PIDW storyline. He gains unlimited inventory space, Analysis ability, Spotify, Library, Map, Internet.

KARAOKE/DANCE NIGHTS SQH goes ham with the Spotify ability because it has modern songs which has Peter and Tony joining in. Everyone gets curious about the different music which ends up with them having Karaoke/dance nights where they sing or have dance offs to different songs. Even Law finds songs that he enjoys and is willing to sing to although rarely. Shachi and Penguin during those times are always his back up dancers or singers by force.

[vortainz]

How it ends

the ending of IZ is ,, a really odd topic

technically it has 4 endings, well, 4.5

1 : invader dib

no, it in no way was a planned ending ever, but i feel it deserves mentioning considering how prevalent it was

it originally started on TAIZS when the producer was interviewed, he went on to confirm there was a intention to steer the show towards IRK and talking about its “”existence””

(also istg there was a ask where he vaguely explains the plot as a joke but i can’t find it for the life of me)

there were multiple versions of it but there’s two that circulated the most

A: “this special would have allegedly followed Tenn’s kidnapping by the Meekrob, and an all-out war happening between the Meekrob and the Irkens, which would have ended with Zim (aided by Gaz) being victorious over Dib, The Resistys, and the Meekrob, and finally conquering Earth.” (fan wiki)

B: the focus of the show would slowly shift towards irk, dib would get more crazed trying to stop the empire, zim and gaz would team up (or date, depends on who you asked) and stop both dib and the empire. everyone else dies and zagf/r saves the rest of earth

2 : space smoothies

In a nicktoons magazine, IZ made its “””final””” return. in which it had its first comic iteration where zim successfully took over the earth, but just kinda gives up when he sees the merch of himself. dib complains and zim offers to just have a jolly ol’ time in space, them both leaving earth in disarray while just being buds

3 : dookie loop

The “”canon”” ending, basically zim traps dib and the rest of the universe in a timeloop due to not being able to finish a puzzle. blah blah blah i’ll rant about his reasoning for that in another post ANYWAYS,, he eventually finishes it and resigns to fixing the timeline, but the “fix timeline button” doesn’t work and the universe implodes, everyone dies.

4 : nothing is real

i haven’t fully pieced together the lore but this is what ive gathered

rk is god. kinda.

in their orginal universe, zim and dib are real people, dib has gone missing and zim conquered earth. the conditions are really bad till he finally gets the idea to just indoctrinate them all

rk uses the comics as a “coping mechanism” of sorts, avoiding what’s really going on by just reading the comics, it’s really the only think they can do anyways

here’s where my idea sort of splits

A : they continue reading the comics and recapping them all, imagining this fantastical world where life is just zim and dib fighting in middle school, each winning and losing occasionally. rk starts making their own comics and aus, getting more and more absorbed by the characters of zim and dib that anything other than them is incredibly distressing

they get so sucked into their own mind that at this point they feel as though they ARE the creator of these characters and comics. when the story in their mind gets too off track, when it’s getting to the point where it might end, they insert themselves into it and fix whatever issue there was

B : bk (brain kid) is god essentially, rk was originally from the universe as described before but was scooped up by bk at some point and put into the recap section of the comic universe, something similar to in issue 40. in the comic universe, IZ isn’t real, it’s just a comic. yet rk is still able to manipulate the story and interact with the characters, when the comic is finally coming to and end they step in and just start everything over again

oh yeah in both A n B what i mean by ‘the comic ending’ is that earth is burning and no one wins, both zim and dib are about to die

⬆️ sorry if none of this made sense 😭 i’m struggling to word it correctly + still theorizing

4.5 : timetravel

Probably the most simple one, zim conquers earth, dib dies by being stupid, zim gets killed by his younger self, the end. the only reason it’s “4.5” is due to it being specific to the timeline of that issue, as none of the other entries acknowledge it

[gpuzzle]

Big ol' review of Asteroid City, with a blatant disregard for spoilers and extremely long:

The way people talk about Asteroid City - if at all - has spanned somewhere between the myopic, the hypermetropic and the astigmatic. Yes, it's ostensibly Wes Anderson telling a thousand of his intertwined stories, at least at the small level. You do have the classic Andersonian parade of characters, of tiny fragments, of recurring characters. It weaves in plot in plot in plot. I’ll start with the subplot and move up into the true metaplot.

You get a dizzy little romance between June (Maya Hawke), an appropriately religious elementary school teacher with a class of incorrigible ten-year-olds that she attempts to corral throughout the movie, and Montana (Rupert Friend), the only member of a gang of singing cowboys with any speaking lines. It is the purest of artifice; the singing cowboy is an American invention, and Hawke’s character struggles to handle how her reality has been shattered and the kids have seemingly become obsessed with an alien that has come to Asteroid City and picked up a meteorite, culminating in a scene where one of her pupils deliver an appropriately silly Western Swing number “Dear Alien (Who Art In Heaven)”. It is by far the most whimsical, dumbest, and most ostensibly “regular movie” metastory within the entire thing. But in its extreme artifice and very obvious “fakeness” in every aspect, this subplot being the least Andersonian save for the dialogue and framing rather than plot and theming really highlights the levels. Here’s Anderson delivering a straightfaced story with only his aesthetic leanings, drawing back into the past, but making it so blithely artificial it’s impossible to even consider it serious for an instant.

You get Woodrow Steenback (Jake Ryan) and Dinah Campbell (Grace Edwards) as part of this quintet of brainiacs that all come up with fully sci-fi devices; spanning projecting images on the Moon from the Earth (that gets mentioned as a potential application for space advertising); a jetpack; an honest to goodness disintegrator; a new element; and radioactivity-assisted plant growing. In a handful of scenes, these five brainiacs introduce themselves - first by naming an increasingly large number of famous people, then eventually with the introduction of an alien, as a dedicated group of five that are intent on figuring out just what it is, where it came from, and how to get that information out; intertwined with Tilda Swinton as Dr. Hickenlooper, a scientist who burned the stars in her eyes, literally - and how they come into conflict with the US government regarding that, notably in the figure of Jeffrey Wright as a General Grif Gibson and Tony Revolori as his aide-de-camp. It eventually culminates in a passionate kiss between our two teenaged romantic leads, with Ryan's character projecting a heart with "W.S. + D.C." on the moon, visible from everywhere.

This is a Wes Anderson movie, but he's given us only the outline. The scenes that feature these characters are not few and far between, but we don't get a true look into that romance. But that's not the point. The pace of the romance happens at nigh breakneck pace, since we don't get to spend nearly as much time with the characters as you'd expect where this the entire plot of the movie. That's an underlying Andersonian story that weaves and pops. It’s fascinating; I’ve never seen the crux of a Wes Anderson movie down to its barest essentials like here. But that's not actually the story being told.

The other 3 space cadets have mirror relationships with their parents: Aristou Meehan plays an daredevil who takes on dares compulsively, usually of a self-destructive nature (including climbing a cactus and jumping from the roof of a building), and yet is given a moment of extreme sincerity and the need to be noted against a father that is at once both incredibly protective and absolutely at his wits' end with this kid (played by Liev Schreiber); this guy could be any of quite a few characters on his run from Bottle Rocket onto Darjeeling Limited. Sophia Lillis plays a girl scout clad in girl scout attire all through the movie, mirroring her mother (Hope Davis); they both individually have a great appreciation for Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), an in-play movie star and Dinah's mother, first directly by Lillis' character outright stating that she's a fan of Johansson's character, and by Davis' character later in the play in a small scene while they wait for the communal showers to open up where she actively voices her appreciation for Johansson's character in a way that actively mirrors some of Johansson's earlier lines; while Ethan Josh Lee plays the brainiac that breaks the alien story and is the one that most actively fights the US government, in a way mirroring his dad (Stephen Park) confronting the motel manager (a wonderfully cast Steve Carrell) but also taking on bigger and bigger challenges. This too is very Wes Anderson, in the same way that you'd get in The Royal Tannembaums; the way parents and offspring mirror one another.

The other two parents are instead the main characters of the play – Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) and Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson). Campbell is a star who often plays women drawn to cruel and violent men, but holds artifice – she spends most of the movie with a greasepaint black eye, to constantly remind the audience on all levels of the sheer degree of artifice in movie making. She blends real and imaginary by having long conversations with Steenbeck out of a bathroom window, opposite his bathroom and makeshift photography studio. Raising again the matter of “this is all artifice”, the only way you can see the two of them presents us with the desert mountain skyline – and a billboard as part of said skyline, bringing ever forward the degree of cinema is an invention. She acts out scenes with Augie Steenbeck that blend real and imagined, and Midge Campbell’s metaactor (Mercedes Ford, also Johansson) is similar; the brief train scene where she’s convinced to return to the play at the last hour blends character and reality. She says she’ll be found dead in a bathtub, having drunk herself to a pill overdose – and we briefly do get to witness that. During a line read with Steenbeck, she coaxes him to use his grief to get the line across – the grief from losing his wife. The meta implications are obvious. She is a resounding foghorn that tells us that we are dealing with a fundamental level of artifice. Johansson gets to wax and wane in three different roles of doomed, self-destructive women – Midge Campbell’s next character, Midge Campbell herself, and Mercedes Ford – and that blend makes it difficult to assert how much she’s telling the truth, and how much is she acting at all times. She’s excellent; by far the best role that Johansson’s ever taken and she executes it perfectly.

Schwartzman's in-play character begins with a fundamental drama - a widower who has yet to tell this kids their mom died. About two scenes into that play, that entire suspense is just delivered into a brief scene. This plot returns every so often most symbolized by the character of Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks), Augie's cantankerous father-in-law, and Augie's three daughters, Pandora, Cassiopeia and Andromeda (played by Gracie, Willan and Ella Farris, respectively), who take on this nigh Weyrd Sisters quality of trying to be three witches to bring their mom back. He finds himself involved in an affair with Midge Campbell as the two dialogue through bathroom windows, and culminating in a scene where Midge Campbell  reveals that she’s told her daughter the affair, and Augie Steenbeck burns his hand on a griddle for no apparent reason. This too is an Andersonian plot, with all its inherent quirkiness and family drama and ultimate yearning and learning to deal with an emotion.

But he's also a war photographer who got wounded multiple times, including shrapnel to the back of the head. He takes a lot of pictures, from nuclear explosions to Midge Campbell eating some waffles to eventually the alien plot. The entire framing of pictures, of capturing images, really comes to a head with one picture that he takes and keeps and that becomes the key part – that of his first (and now dead) wife, played by Margot Robbie. This is the link that gets us to the blending of metacommentary from his side. If Scarlett Johansson’s meta commentary arrives by dint of her own character blending the line between performance and reality, Jason Schwartzman’s metacommentary arrives in a crucial scene that ends the third act of the play; the actor breaks from the scene, and exists via the stage, Truman-show style, stunned, trying to understand the motivations for his character, such as burning his own hand on a griddle on purpose. And thus the two worlds that we had existed in start to intertwine as they unravel rapidly. The first world is the in-universe play which is the gorgeously produced. The second one is the TV production presented by Bryan Cranston about how that play was made.

Asteroid City is established as a series of lies and artifice on top of more lies and artifice. It establishes this from the word go; we are immediately presented to a TV broadcasted, presented by Bryan Cranston, who has a brief cameo nearing the end of Act 2 and start of Act 3, finding himself in the wrong spot. We have Edward Norton as Conrad Earp, a playwright that channels the parody image of the asshole playwright. It introduces the setting of the play, the characters, their actors. And then, once we cut to the play, it's very obvious that we're following the directions of the playwright - are shown the entire city following the exact directions of the stage laid out. Then we start following the acts of the play, and it is similarly made explicit – scenes and acts are labeled and presented to us as they appear. When we return to this broadcast in black and white, we are presented to vignettes in the lives of these characters. First, Earp and Jones Hall (Schwartzman, playing Augie Steenbeck’s actor) have what can be considered a minor romantic meeting in an early meta scene, wherein Hall delivers ice cream, punches a window and becomes Steenbeck to convince Earp to let him be in the play, which forms the core of Hall’s arc. We are next presented to the scene where the understudy (Jake Ryan) convinces Mercedes Campbell to return to the play at the last minute. These intertwine with Schubert Green (Adrien Brody), a womanizing director who similarly helps blur the line between acting and reality. It leads to a scene in an acting school that introduces us to most of the adult metactors, as well as there being a discussion about dreams, and the importance of dreams to writing, and getting into a dream state.

And then the two worlds rapidly collide when Schwartzman exits through a stage door, playing Hall unable to comprehend Steenbeck’s motivations, with Green (Brody) telling him that he doesn’t need to understand, he’s doing great. This rapidly collides into the last scene. Dreams aren’t a part of this movie until the end, where the meta breaks. As Hall goes to take a cigarette break, he spots, opposite his theater – the actress who was supposed to play Steenbeck’s dead wife (Margot Robbie), clad in Elizabethan attire. The two have a brief heart to heart, she reveals she found another role after a scene was cut, and they go over her scene – one where she appears to him in a dream and they have a conversation about the alien. For all intents and purposes, this is the cut scene from the play, delivered to us in the setup of the TV show, in a way that’s not clear it even happens in the TV show. We never return to the play.

We instead cut to the description that Conrad Earp died at 50 in an automobile accident, with the empty chair as the obvious sign, and then we return to the acting school scene and the talk of dreams, and to get into a dream fugue state. The scene resumes from the last time it was presented, in a comic “everybody falls asleep instantly, from falling on the floor to somnambulism to regular naps” – and Jones interrupts with “You can’t wake up if you don’t fall asleep” that culminates in everyone saying it in mantra like fashion, with the alien showing up in the actual scene and walking towards the camera. It is genuinely unsettling. And that theme is the underlying message; the way that stories intersect with the real. Jason Schwartzman plays an actor playing a character burning his hand on a griddle to see if he’s awake, but this is also acting. He shows little of the actual reaction to it, and even comments that “this really happened”. That movies, plays, stories – they’re artifice, they’re not real. They’re dreams. But if you live in a dream all the time, you cannot be awake; you cannot experience the real.

The epilogue wraps up the play. Augie has overslept and everyone else has already left but his family. They bury the ashes in that plot, Woodrow admits he no longer believes in God – and it’s highlighted when Augie’s order at the diner features now one less flapjack and one more black coffee. The threads of the Steenbeck family wrap up, and they drive away.

While I’d wager that Asteroid City is a delightful watch and its minute-to-minute watching is effervescent the way the best Wes Anderson scenes are, clad in its tones of pink and orange blending into a singular tone and blue, teal and turquoise, as well as cuts of bright white; Asteroid City is a complex, difficult movie in the way that its message involves the metastory, and that we are shown a level of metastory, of talking about stories, about the way that stories are about the artifice, the way stories are a falsehood, the way that we must thus engage with them is with the full awareness that they are falsehoods. It is excellent, postmodern cinema by way of Thomas Pynchon. Fully recommend if you’re willing to see it for what it is, but you’ll despise it if you don’t, because otherwise it can read as a series of barely connected threads that are never developed.

But that was never the point.

[ciayaq]

Persona Writing: A Different Approach

This approach uses the third person format but focuses on writing in a more descriptive way to show the AI how to handle the information.

On Character.AI, every piece of text the AI has access to in its temporary and permanent memory, has the chance to affect the text output, meaning how it ‘speaks’.

This is why we need to be more deliberate in our word choice, when writing the example messages, taglines, the descriptions, and even the Persona description. 

Use descriptive language when writing your Persona, thoughtfully framing characteristics.

Be mindful of word choice. This is to mitigate the risks of any AI bias, both overly positive and negative ones. Remain aware of inherent biases and their impact. 

Basic Third-Person Format.

A typical Persona description in the third-person format might look like this:

Example:

Spizzy is short. She is 29 years old and 5’3”. Spizzy is pale. Her hair is blonde and curly, she has hazel eyes, freckles, and has a button nose. She reads a lot.

As you can see, the Normal Third-Person format hands over the information in a very neutral way. This version is also very easy to write, and it leaves it up to the AI to work with this information. This format does work fine.

Enhanced Descriptive Approach.

Instead of merely listing details, use adjectives and descriptions to provide context and examples to the AI, guiding it on how to utilise the information, which can lead to more creative and frequent use of the details, despite taking up more space.

Example:

Most people call Spizzy short, or pipsqueak. Even at 29, she still only clocks in at 5’3”. Messy, blonde curls and hazel eyes, flecked with gold, like sunlight through autumn leaves. Freckles are scattered over her pale face like a game of connect the dots. Waking moments are spent with her button nose in books.

But while this approach provides the necessary details, there is another way we can take this a bit further.

Key Points

Be Interesting: Consider writing your Persona in a more interesting fashion. Find clever ways to include certain facts.

Advanced: Character Perspective Format.

For specialised Personas, consider writing from the perspective of the character your Persona interacts with, mimicking their speech and thoughts to support the Character’s output, acting a dialogue example, and particularly aiding in supporting accents.

Example: Character Perspective with Accent.

Aye, when Phil’s ol’ salt eyes first clapped sight on Spizzy ‘twas many moons ago. Wee lass, barely taller than his boot, even though she’s seen nigh 30 summers. Mess o’ blonde curls sat on her head, and her hazel eyes, like muddy puddles with a glint o’ gold… nothin’ to write home about, if ye ask me. That pale mug was dotted with freckles, like barnacles. A right bookworm she be, button-nose always buried in a dusty tome.

This method is particularly effective for detailed character interactions, offering the AI additional context and helping it understand nuances in relationships and character traits.

If the tone of the writing in the Persona is more negative, it will influence the Character’s behaviour, as well as the other way around. If I include plot or character information, I mimic this format as well.

Key Points

Character POV: Write the Persona for the perspective of the Character. In this format, you can influence the way the Character interacts with the Persona, essentially shaping their opinion.

Mimicking The Character: Copy how they talk, down to sentence structure and manner of speech, like accents and dialects.

In this format, choose your words carefully. The Persona field is quite powerful and the language in it will affect the Character’s behaviour towards you, or rather your Persona. 

When writing Persona descriptions, balance is key and if you can, try to remain neutral unless you want to influence the Character’s behaviour. The AI is very biased. Continue reading about Personas and AI Bias HERE.

[coraniaid]

Normally when I finish a book by Adrian Tchaikovsky I come away thinking "wow, that guy really loves spiders, huh?". But my main takeaway after finishing Shards of Earth was "hmm, I wonder if Adrian Tchaikovsky's ever played Mass Effect".

I mean, okay, I think what's really going on here is that both The FInal Architecture [of which Shards of Earth is the first book] and Mass Effect are both deeply rooted in the tropes of a common space opera subgenre. A popular SF genre with settings and plots shaped by the likes of Star Trek and Fred Saberhagen's Beserker series and David Brin's Uplift Saga and Babylon 5 and so on and so forth. Certainly none of the world building in Mass Effect is especially unique or deep.

It's just that ... well, if you show me:

a near(ish) future space setting with widespread faster-than-light travel (through a nexus of pre-existing routes between systems that seems to have been created by an older civilization) and a large centralized human goverment whose influence is resented or ignored by people on the edges of human space; with

multiple intelligent alien species (including one species who just so happen to all be attractive women and a species of artificial intelligences who quite recently broke away from their creators and a species whose main gimmick is being responsible for dealing with the money and a species who lost their home world and so travel from system to system rather than living on any planet of their own); and you tell me that

in the last few decades a handful of humans have developed pyschic powers but have been badly mistreated and abused by the centralized human government (who are desperate for an edge in their political struggles with the older and more technologically advanced neighboring alien polities); and then you give me a plot where

in order to deal with the possible return of some mysterious powerful inorganic aliens who are all essentially giant living spaceships and who seem to want to wipe out all intelligent life in the known galaxy (for reasons that we do not know) it is necessary that

a small band of (mostly but not entirely human) plucky underdogs have to travel across the galaxy from world to world in their beloved space ship searching for artifacts from a lost species of alien precursors, aided and abetted by a few key sympathetic members of an otherwise unhelpful and obstructive bureaucracy and occasionally clashing heads over their very different views about the world; while regularly

fighting off threats from criminal gangs, space pirates, and humanity-first reactionaries through a series of gun fights across locations such as a space port, an alien ship, and an archeological dig site investigating the ruins of said lost alien precursors; then...

... I mean, look, the comparison seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?

[reborrowing]

I don't usually write gt pet stuff because it's such a pain to get something compelling and believable that still has room for characters and plot, but there is a worldbuilding variant of it I keep kinda idly chewing on.

obvious content warning for pet trope discussion under cut

Basically "pets" were sold at some point in the recent past, marketed as somewhere between a toy and a pet and branded as an ingenious, but artificial, development. There's some initial backlash but overall, tinies are branded as especially convincing mimics by a family-oriented company that has an upstanding reputation. The “pets” catch on as a fad and a good chunk of the population has or wants one.

Over a couple of decades, it gets fairly normalized until it eventually comes out that no, the backlash was entirely warranted, these are absolutely, unquestioningly people, not clever simulacra. They were shrunk down by whatever HandwaveTech and sold off after conditioning. Public outcry continues to build, the involved companies are investigated and ultimately shut down. It takes longer to set up any real protections or entirely outlaw the process.

But more than that, there's no real way to find and reach out to victims on a large scale. A good number of them were initially sold as toys, there's no paper trails, and there’s no definite estimate as to how many are out there. Awareness campaigns and advocacy organizations crop up to help ex-pets escape or to provide shelter, but (especially before everyone had multiple phones/computers perpetually hooked up to the internet) it isn’t too difficult to keep a tiny in the dark about what happens beyond your property line. Once the issue has had its five minutes of fame, aid programs quietly fizzle. Anyone involved essentially gets to deal with it on their own.

So you end up with the usual g/t problems from being out of scale and unequal and can grab at the trauma and uncertain personhood from pet trope but it’s not quite as straightforward as victimized pet-race, oppressive giants, and protagonist-coded rebels. You can get younger tinies who've lived their whole lives free and tinies who have seen the horrors of what people will do to someone who can't fight back and tinies who've "gotten over it" and are good taxpaying citizens who absolutely refuse to talk about it and tinies that still believe their best bet is to find a caring not-owner-because-that's-illegal-now, who've only ever experienced kind dehumanization and can't fathom surviving any other way.

You can skip over good-aligned humans reasonably encountering tinies for the first time and going “oh my godddddd it never occurred to me that the tiny people-looking things might be tiny people, it’s time to do a 180 and become a white knight about this.” To an outsider, the problem’s already been outlawed and solved and they shouldn’t have to think about this tragic thing that happened, past tense. You can have mixed-size groups of activists without humans in the group Rejecting Societal Norms and getting stuck with samey character traits. There’s still space for characters who are ambivalent or fine with the idea of pets without coming across as off-the-wall evil because 20 years ago it was normalized and they never questioned it. In-universe, it would be more like an old guy being unapologetically sexist: unacceptable, but not entirely unexpected.

idk just like. Reflects some gray areas a little better than "collective humanity saw little guys and put them in cages and no one thought that was fucking weird until you, random nice guy protagonist" which is something I feel like I see a lot of.

[amyisherenowitsokay]

War on Love (discontinued fic)

Plot Synopsis

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Content warnings for: lots of death, attempted, actual murder, mentions of contemplating suicide, trauma, depression

For individual character analysis, writer commentary, themes, etc. please see the masterpost with appropriate links here.

WoL has roughly 53k worth of unpublished, written words, while it's previously unannounced sequel has the first 4 chapters finished and written, which turns out to be about 25k words.

So to start with, for those who need a refresher, here's a REALLY BRIEF summary of the currently published chapters of WoL, condensed to the bare minimum because otherwise it'd be so long it'd need its own post:

Summary

Gaz (12) goes with Dib (14) to investigate on a few of his missions. Zim discovers his mission and he himself are just a joke to the Tallest, getting the truth from Skoodge. Tak appears on Earth with a damaged MiMi, intent on vengeance against everyone and anyone who played the slightest part in her previous downfall on Earth. (Morgan) Dwicky returns to Earth, intent on saving his Plookesian comrades from death-by-space-dementia-equivalent, called Degradation, selling his servitude to Zim in exchange for help.

Through a series of danger and chaos, Zim, Gaz, and Dib end up allying to defeat Tak and keep her from killing them/destroying the Earth. Gaz obtains blackmail of Zim without his disguise. She uses the threat of its publication against Zim, and its destruction against Dib, to maintain a tenuous peace. Dwicky is enlisted to act as their counselor/chaperon/plausible excuse for the Membrane's to be running all across the country/missing school, as well as offering his services as an arm's dealer and general muscle-bodyguard-space-murderer-things. Zim agrees to hold the Plookesians hostage in a suspension pod until Dwicky finishes helping them with Tak. Dib distances his investigation from the Swollen Eyeball Network publicly, for the sake of the mission, enraging its members. Where we last left off, Zim's initial antagonism was beginning to turn into admiration towards her practical, ruthless nature, which differs from her extremely moralistic sibling.

Tak, after escaping from Zim's brief capture via MiMi's aid, loses her SIR unit when she is 'rescued' by transients, causing MiMi to lose track of her. Assumed homeless/transient, she eventually engenders empathy from a similarly misfortunate human, Peter. Eventually, upon regaining her memory, and unable to locate MiMi, Tak blackmails Peter into becoming her new sidekick. She promises him that she'll use her technology to fix Peter's younger brother, Michael, whom was injured in a violent street brawl, in exchange for his 'loyal' servitude. It is unclear if Michael will ever wake up, or if his neurological damage is permanent.

Additional side characters include a psychic, Rita, and her formerly military wife, Myra, whom the Membranes encounter during Dib's investigation into Rita's authenticity. Rita warns the Membrane's of approaching imminent danger, as well as hints towards knowing a 'secret' of Gaz's that freaks the younger Membrane out. Rita and Myra later enlist the help of an old soldier friend, Donovan, to help track them down and keep an eye on them. All three are semi-retired members of the SEN. Donovan's efforts are aided by his adopted and technologically savvy son, Brian. Raine, formerly Myra and Donovan's military superior, is called in by Donovan for additional backup.

Continuation

For easiest reading, I'm going to summarize the direction of the plot, and then go into the details of how the story was going to play out.

The Rest of the Story Summary

Essentially, the main theme of WoL was the different ways each character finds love and affection, the different forms it comes in, and the ways in which that love uniquely ends up fucking over each and every one of them. As stated early on, in Chapter 1's introductory pages:

The general plot is that all the OC's and the main band of Dib, Gaz, Zim, and Dwicky all team up to face Tak. Meanwhile, Tak develops a really toxic, kind of sick attachment to Peter. His mutual attraction and terror of her continues to fuel the complicated nature of their relationship throughout the story. Now with a base, Tak begins stealing neighborhood pets and mutating them into monstrous, eyeless creatures referred to as Hounds. They're roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, but they're blind, relying on smell and sound to to pinpoint their targets. She begins developing these creatures while also continuing with killings on her hitlist.

Zim, Dwicky, Gaz, Dib, and the OC gang all chase Tak across the city, foiling her smaller plans and tracking her ongoing murders. They discover prototypes of the Hounds, but are unsure of what the goal is, assuming she plans to use the Hounds as some sort of crude assassination method. The adults all develop a sense of familial, usually paternal obligation towards the Membranes, and even Zim. Initially, they bristle at the perceived threat to their independence, but eventually warm to it in their own ways. Dwicky and Donovan in particular butt heads over their methods of 'parenting,' with Donovan furious at how much he danger he allows the Membrane's to get in, and Dwicky fighting against the developing familial relationship/unintended bonds he's forming with the youths he's come to be in charge of.

Tak begins to develop a strange, toxic relationship with Peter that neither party understands nor knows how to appropriately manage.

Things take a more dramatic turn for Peter when Tak announces she's aware of his infatuation, reminding him that she is not human, and incapable of reciprocating. Furthermore, she expects that his feelings will not make him less competent, and warns him not to slip into complacency.

In spite of her warnings, their partnership grows oddly affectionate, and Tak begins to loosen up, engaging in some back-and-forth and being more lenient with her orders and his tendency to be so mouthy.

Things escalate the more Tak refines her Hounds, until eventually, this little number from Ch 1 becomes relevant again:

Zim, Gaz, Dib, Dwicky, and Co. manage to locate the warehouse Tak was using to develop her Hounds on a larger scale. Unfortunately, she escapes, using the freed Hounds as a distraction. Cornered and separated, Zim and Dib are stuck in the warehouse, with Gaz and Dwicky fleeing together. During this scuffle, Gaz's secret is at last revealed: Gaz is, and has always been, partially blind. It's why she squints so much. It's the secret Rita eluded to, and one Dib has several times as well, adding cause for his protectiveness. She uses contacts developed by her father to aid in her vision, but unfortunately, during the fight, they are knocked out of her eyes, leaving her incredibly vulnerable.

Gaz and Dwicky end up hiding out in a diner.

Unfortunately for them, Tak finds them. While she cares little for Dwicky, he stands in her way. He declines her bribes, and ultimately, for his efforts, is killed, making him the first death of WoL.

That does in fact mean Dwicky, from the grave, was the chapter 1 first-person narrator.

The rest of the gang arrives too late to save him, but their intervention does give Dwicky enough time to say goodbye to 'his kids'.

Traumatized by their vulnerability, the loss of their preferred paternal figure, and death conceptually, deal with the fallout. Since Dib's uninjured, it's his turn to deal with the logistics while Gaz and Zim hide from the authorities that are (naturally) involved in the mysterious homicide of a man who's been missing for 5 years, just to show up dead in a pub.

Gaz and Zim discuss several heavy topics at length, one of which is Dwicky's Plookesian friends.

Ultimately, they decide to leave to leave that decision to Dib, being that he is the group's moral compass. They decide to bring it up when things clear up, and they have more breathing room.

Gaz's disability is also discussed, revealing more details of its origin.

Dib continues to avoid the subject of Gaz's disability, and their mother's mortality whenever Zim tries to corner him.

The children (Zim included) are cushioned as best as they can by the adult OC's. After Dwicky's death, Professor Membrane becomes involved. The trio come up with the excuse that they've hired private bodyguards (the OC's) and now need a mental health vacation, buying them some time.

Gaz is forced to sit on the sidelines until her new contacts arrive. Dib and Zim mutually refuse to leave her side. All of them nurse wounds and grief in the aftermath. Zim becomes excessively protective of the Membrane's, with he and Dib taking 'shifts' to aid Gaz in visual tasks and general day-to-day functionality while she remains blind for several days. With her vision returned, Gaz tells the truth about her mother's death.

Gaz's mother was ill, and suffered a heart attack while Gaz was home alone with her. Blind and panicking and only a toddler, Gaz miscounted her steps down the staircase in an effort to reach the phone, fell, and was injured to unconsciousness. She was found and able to recover in a hospital only to discover her mother had passed.

Wanting to keep an eye on his children and be nearby in case they need them, Professor Membrane coincidentally hosts a large conference in the city, inviting his children to attend, and painting an enormous target on his back. Tak's plans escalate, and call for the destruction of the entire conference center and all associated parades, with horrific potential regarding death tolls.

Peter finally isn't able to stomach her killing anymore, and puts his foot down, warning the Membrane's and fleeing to try and stop the plan himself, individually, as well. However, Tak catches him, and forces him into the car with her and the bombs, so that he is forced to watch her set and detonate them.

Aware of her plan, but too late to stop it, Gaz makes a decision.

Unfortunately for the Membrane's, it's not Tak who ends up dying.

Peter's death fractures the tenuous grasp of sanity Tak had been holding onto. She blames herself, but more importantly blames Zim, Dib, and Gaz.

Naturally, this escalates things further.

Tak sets loose the final stages of her plan, which is a three-hitter:

Phase 1 - Release the Hounds all across the city at the same time Phase 2 - Emulate several natural disasters, including earthquakes, tornados, fires, and floods Phase 3 - A special surprise just for the trio

PHASE 1

The trio gets separated pretty fast. If I'm remembering my original plans correctly, Dib and Zim were out scouting while Gaz was home monitoring the cameras. The OC's were in various locations across the city scouting as well when the first wave of Hounds were released, inciting riots, panic, and chaos. Zim and Dib quickly lose contact with her when cell towers begin to fail. Rather that stay home, Gaz goes looking for her sibling and love-interest, and does her best to protect people where she can.

Eventually, Gaz finds Zim and Dib in the chaos. She is however injured by a Hound in their effort to get to where Tak has set up, in a huge skyscraper in the center of the city.

She dislocates her shoulder, leaving her down an arm. They are however able to get ahold of the OC's team. Through a scrambled signal, they agree to all continue to head towards Tak's location and meeting one another there for the final battle.

Zim, Dib, and Gaz's group reaches Tak first. Not able to risk waiting for the OC's, the try to enter without them, only for Dib to be grievously injured by debris in an explosion. He collapses, the OC's arriving only in time to see Gaz captured. Zim, sensing at last how dangerous this situation has become, demands they prioritize helping Dib while he goes to rescue Gaz, forbidding anymore humans from being involved.

Zim fights his way to Tak for the final showdown.

It's revealed that Tak has created a ship, designed to send Gaz into space and explode, killing her in a bright, easily-visible-from-Earth explosion.

Eventually, they fight. Zim manages to get the upper hand, seemingly defeating Tak. He frees Gaz, celebrating briefly until Tak reveals the entirety of her Phase 3's plan.

Gaz makes the decision ultimately to sacrifice herself for the greater good, inspired by the love for her brother, the newly instilled desire to help others, and to protect Zim.

Zim, naturally, has other plans.

Zim tricks the pod, replacing Gaz, and goes inside of it. It locks behind him, preparing a countdown for launching into space. Gaz is unable to stop it, and Zim is incapable with so little time. The two say their goodbyes.

Zim is promptly launched into space. Spectators fear the worst, seeing a missile launch, but it never comes back down.

Donovan intercepts Gaz as she exits the building. She holds a PAK with a hole in it (which is not a result of Zim's fight with her, leading the reader to realize that Gaz caused that injury on her own). When asked where Zim is, Gaz only looks at the strange 'firework flare' now disappearing into the sky, leaving a series of explosions in its wake. Donovan understands the implication, and takes her home.

The tale, at last, comes to an end, but there is an epilogue.

Full Epilogue (Post In Progress)

[sp-epari-digitalmedia]

A Heist with Markiplier: A Narrative Overview

BLOG 1: NARRATIVE STRUCTURE IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA DESIGN

Playing video games, watching films, or participating in other storytelling mediums has always been my way to unwind after a long day. Even though I have spent quite a lot of time immersed in stories, I have only recently started to recognize the unique storytelling techniques used in some games. A familiar narrative rhythm was provided by games like God of War, Spiderman, and Ghost of Tsushima, but new uncertainty and suspense were brought in by games like Detroit: Become Human and Minecraft Story-Mode. I've always been interested in these intricacies, but the subject didn't grab my attention until I started learning about the theoretical side of interactive media. Realizing that the story structure of a game immensely influences the overall experience, I decided to conduct a more thorough investigation, utilizing different conceptual frameworks to establish connections and make sense of the topic. I will examine a piece of media called "A Heist with Markiplier" in this blog post. The subject lies somewhere between a traditional video game and a YouTube video.

"A Heist with Markiplier" stands as a notable piece of interactive media created by the esteemed YouTuber Markiplier, a prominent figure in the gaming community often mentioned in the same breath as top-ranking YouTubers like PewDiePie and Jacksepticeye. Mark Fischbach, the man behind Markiplier, took on multiple roles in the creation of this interactive film, serving as the writer, director, and lead actor. Produced by Jeff Guerrero, the project made its debut on Mark's YouTube channel, "Markiplier," in 2019 and has maintained accessibility since. The success of this interactive experience was evident as it garnered widespread acclaim from the audience, earning nominations for Show of the Year – Audience Choice and securing a victory in the Best Scripted Series category at the Streamy Awards. The sequel, "In Space with Markiplier," further solidified Mark's success with a Show of the Year nomination in 2021 and a triumph in the Best Scripted Series category. Notably, it also received an Emmy Awards nomination in the category of Outstanding Interactive Media. For the purpose of this blog post, the focus will remain solely on the narrative intricacies of "A Heist with Markiplier."

In "A Heist with Markiplier," the story becomes an exciting adventure in which the audience and Markiplier set out on a risky quest to steal an antiquated relic from a museum. But when the artifact's curse throws off a series of events that disturb the world's natural order, this seemingly simple heist takes an unexpected turn. As the main character, Mark brings humor to the plot by playing a character who is more of a tag-along for the journey. With an astounding thirty-one distinct endings, this interactive experience is unique in the vast array of possibilities it presents. Each ending presents a unique outcome, ranging from alien abductions to discovering hidden treasures, and the trajectory of the storyline is intricately shaped by the choices made throughout the experience. The interactive nature of the show allows for a highly personalized and varied viewing experience, making it a wholesome and replay-able adventure where the narrative unfolds differently with each playthrough.

Play, "A Heist with Markiplier"

Academic Standpoint

Taking a scholarly approach to studying non-linear narrative in the context of "A Heist with Markiplier," I studied Hans-Joachim Backe's insightful work, "Narrative rules? Game structures and story logic." The awarded script for the interactive show was decoded using this theoretical lens, which is essential for comprehending the complexities of storytelling. I separated the analysis into discrete sections to aid in comprehension.

Backe distinguishes between three categories of game actions in the first section, which looks at catalysts and cardinal functions: random actions, actions that are necessary for gameplay success, and actions that affect the plot. These behaviors have a tenuous relationship to cardinal functions in linear texts, catalysts, and the flexible structure of non-linear texts. Here, the main goal is to determine whether or not these components are present in the interactive program and how they are portrayed. (Backe, 2012)

The second section delves into Microstructures and Macrostructures. Backe's substructural level narratological perspective reveals events and characters that constitute a kind of reality that may be infinite in boundless events. Using performance evaluation, outcome selection, and decision-making based on avatar assessment, the agency over the macrostructure is carried out. This intricacy affects both gameplay and narrative aspects and is especially present in role-playing games. The analysis seeks to determine the extent to which macrostructures and microstructures are present in "A Heist with Markiplier" and how they apply to the story. (Backe, 2012)

Two sets of motivations emerge in the third section, which examines playstyle and motivation using Caillois's theory: paidia (self-entertainment) and luadus (motivation to win or avoid losing). This investigation aims to ascertain how well the game engages the audience and where it fits into these motivational sets. Through the application of these scholarly viewpoints, a thorough comprehension of the theoretical foundations of non-linear narrative in "A Heist with Markiplier" emerges, providing a sophisticated lens for additional investigation. (Backe, 2012)

Critical Analysis and Dissection

It's crucial to comprehend the central idea of the story before getting into the narrative analysis. To put it another way, we must identify the catalysts that propel the whole narrative. It is not too difficult to determine the answer to this query. The initiator is Mark Fischbach's character, Markiplier. Throughout the duration of the play, Markiplier serves as the narrator. Not only does the character consist of him as a thief, but it also includes other alter egos. Markiplier is primarily responsible for introducing us to the game's goal of stealing the artefact from the museum at the outset. Fundamentally the interactions that the player does, makes the entire show an interactive experience and therefore the choices that Markiplier presents classify under both, actions that are necessary for gameplay success and actions that affect the plot. We can say that the cardinal functionality comes from the choices that the player makes. This makes every experience uneven and giving the entire narrative script a topology.

Given our discussion of the narrative's topology and structure, it seems appropriate to delve further into the intricate details of macro- and microstructures. The game is full of microstructures because there is always a new choice to make with each decision, but the macros are easily identifiable. Since Mark continues to be the face of the entire show, it is difficult to differentiate. However, we can identify the changes by the way the Mark responds. Given that there are 31 possible outcomes, it makes sense that the game is made up of a variety of thematic elements and components. The player's decisions are influenced by microstructures, which aid in differentiating between these macrostructures. For example, the game has a section where we enter and everything looks like an arcade game. The player was able to discern that the goal had changed from initially being to escape and leave the museum and get as far as possible to either escaping or surviving the prison and that visual shift had a lot to do with it. There are other instances where we witness a change in the personality of Mark, your partner who was loud and eccentric. He turns into a boisterous and peculiar figure who accompanies us on our adventures. Here, escaping the museum becomes less of the goal and the objective becomes, locating the sacred treasure.

Since everything about it is unclear, there is no clear way for us to categorize it under Caillois's Theory. The way each person plays the game varies greatly. Some may classify it under paida, where the objective is to simply explore different endings and determine the likelihood of specific events occurring. For others, it may be as straightforward as locating an ending that aligns with the original plan to escape with the artefact, which falls under luadus. In my opinion, this makes it one of the most distinctive types of content available.

Conclusion

In "A Heist with Markiplier," a compelling investigation into the domains of non-linear storytelling, Markiplier assumes a central role as the essential character directing players through an engrossing heist encounter. The story deftly combines macrostructures and microstructures, offering a wide range of possible outcomes and a deep variety of storytelling styles. Playstyle determines how interactive the experience is; players can customize the story to suit their needs, whether they enjoy finding out every possible outcome or would rather take a more focused, guided approach to the story. The program's charm is found in its ability to accommodate different playstyles and in Markiplier's captivating storytelling, which highlights the potential of non-linear narratives in video games. Intimate player interaction with the narrative elevates "A Heist with Markiplier" beyond conventional gaming experiences, leaving a lasting imprint on the ever-evolving landscape of interactive storytelling within the gaming sector.

References

Backe, H.-J. (2012) 'Narrative rules? Story logic and the structures of games,' Literary and Linguistic Computing, 27(3), pp. 243–260. https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqs035.

Markiplier (2019b) A Heist with Markiplier | Official Trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trYqU6kShPA.

Markiplier (2019) A Heist with Markiplier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjfkXmwbTs.

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 039 - Pa'nar Syndrome

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 2 Episode 14 - Stigma

Finally, a follow up to Fusion! As I said on my post about Fusion, how the aftermath of that is handled is going to massively effect my view of that episode, and this one too. T'Pol's character progression from that point needed to be handled with care.

The episode opens with Phloxx talking about some sort of deadly Infection that T'Pol has. The cold open leaves it vague, but later in the episode we find out it's a disease called Pa'nar Syndrome. The disease is a fairly obvious AIDS allegory. Incurable, slow acting and transmitted through Mind Melds, which Fusion previously used as a Sexual allegory. AIDS isn't topic Doctor Who ever really covered, at least not in the main show, and as a queer person I was born in 2001, years after the AIDS crisis had mostly faded from public consciousness, so this is relatively new ground for me, even if it had been a played out trope when the episode aired in 2003.

Since the AIDS epidemic is far from my area of expertise, I don't know if I can speak to how accurate the episode's allegory is, but it at least plays the topic with seriousness it deserves.

I do wish as a follow up to Fusion, it played more on the emotional ramifications of T'Pol having her consent violated during the mind meld, but this also was interesting to see. There is some emotional drama about T'Pol not wanting to tell the council about what was essentially her rape, I just wish it was more the focus. But if you're stacking two very delicate topics on top of eachother, one is going to be pushed to the side.

As the actual episode Starts, there is a lot going on. A Medical Conference, and one of Phlox's wives is there! And they're instantly really cute together. I love how they're both just all smiles and goo-goo eyes within seconds of seeing eachother. She then spends most of her time trying to seduce Trip, much to his confusion because of course doesn't realise Denobulans are polyamorous. It was a nice funny B-Plot to lighten up with the seriousness of the A-Plot.

The space station where this medical conference is happening is made up of some impressive for the time, although very dated CGI, it was still beautiful.

I enjoyed this episode, it certainly gave me a lot to chew on while watching it. I hope that T'Pol's Pa'nar syndrome does have a lasting impact. By the episode's narrative, the disease isn't curable, so it shouldn't just be kept confined to this one episode. The episode kinda left off on a bittersweet note of Yes, T'Pol can stay on enterprise, but things haven't really improved for the Mind-melding minority... It was an interesting way to end off.

[usaigi]

Seminar: How To Talk To Law Enforcement

Lunar sys au character cards | Read all chapters on ao3

‘After last week's situation with the DODC which resulted in us getting jailed for the night, I’m hosting a seminar on proper behavior when questioned or detained by a governmental official. Ms. Daniela, sit down.’ Mr. Knight says, standing in front of the projector screen, glaring down at Daniela who had gotten up as soon as Mr. Knight mentioned ‘seminar.’ 

‘This is stupid, I’m fine at talking to the pigs. I’m great with animals,’ Daniela with a deep-set frown and an irritated expression, arms crossed against her chest. 

‘Ms. Daniela, may I remind you are responsible for this situation? All you had to do was inform the agents that you were assisting Captain America on a case and you stayed behind to offer first aid to the victims. Instead, you were extremely aggressive and verbally assaulted the agent.’

‘All I did was tell my truth, I don’t see what I did wrong.’

‘You got us arrested. Luckily, we were in New York, and therefore Mr. Murdock and Mr. Wilson were able to assist us.’

‘So problem solved.’

‘Had it been anywhere else, who knows how complicated the situation would have been.’

‘Why would I take advice from a love child of James Bond and the Punisher with the emotional grace and awareness of an absent father?’

‘Ms. Daniela, this is for the safety of the system. If you want to keep the system safe, sit down and listen.’ And with a deep sigh, she drops back down to her chair. Face with scowling at Mr. Knight, plotting all the different ways she can enact her revenge. 

Before Mr. Knight continues, Steven raises his hand to ask, ‘Mr. Knight? I love the idea for this seminar, but may I ask why are we here?’ Pointing at Marc, Jake, and himself. 

‘Unlike Ms. Daniela, I’m not concerned about your aggression but your inability to shut up, Mr. Grant. I need you to understand that under no circumstances are the police or any government agents your friends and anything you say can be held against you. Unlike the Avengers, we are not offered any legal sanctuary. The United States Department of Damage Control has been particularly aggressive towards all enhanced individuals recently and therefore we must take extra precautions,’ Mr. Knight explains. 

‘Yeah, all right. Fair enough,’ Steven grumbles, dropping his face onto his hand, slouching down on his chair. 

‘Ms. Bird, Mr. Kid, I sincerely hope that you two will never be involved in a situation like this. Since everyone is here, I would also like to suggest we start implementing ‘fire drills’ practice and create a safe space for the children to hide in case of a triggering or unsafe situation. Essential practicing raising some dissociative barriers for your safety.’

‘I’ve been doing that since we were in the military and all through the mercenary/Moon Knight years. Whenever we were in a scary situation, I’d lock Birdy up in her room. Starting doing the same with Kid after I found him,’ Jake adds on. 

'I don't know about Kid but Birdy has definitely slipped through a couple of times. She's too noisy, it's not safe,' Marc says.

‘Hey!’ Birdy exclaims, with lips curling inwards. 

‘Palomita, you know what happens,’ Jake shakes his head.   

‘Her arms were cut off, her legs were cut off…’ Birdy mutters, quoting that one TikTok that had Layla laughing so much her face turned red. 

‘I appreciate that Mr. Lockley but I think we should grate the children more autonomy and let them evacuate without you. We can discuss the details at a later date, but I think Ms. Bird should be in charge of it. However, if all of the adults are incapacitated and unable to assist and one of you is in the front, we need you two to be aware of how to behave properly when it comes to cops.’

‘Act like Marc and run away, got it!’ Birdy says proudly, getting Kid’s nod of approval. 

‘No, no, don’t do that. They have guns. Although, Ms. Daniela, I do want to thank you for masking as Marc. Please continue to do that when dealing with the authorities.’

‘Why? Is my regular accent too ethnic for you? Do I sound too much like a paisa campesina? That’s fucking racist,’ she growls, seemly making her accent even heavier just to get her point across. 

‘Yes Ms. Daniela, that’s the point. The police are racist and ableist and it’s safer for all of us if they perceive us as an American singlet who sometimes has a British accent.’  

‘Mr. Knight, I don’t understand any of this. The police are there to protect us, my parents and teacher told me that we should call the police if we need help,’ Kid says. 

‘I admire your optimistic naïveté,’ Mr. Knight says, giving Kid a gentle pat on the top of his head. 

‘Anyways, now let’s ‘roleplay,’’ Mr. Knight says, making air quotes around the word. ‘The police, DODC or SWORD detains you, they offer you a snack, what do you do?’

‘Thank them…?’ Steven says, pitch getting slightly higher towards the end. 

‘No. Ms. Bird?’

‘I want a lawyer.’ 

‘Good. They reply: ‘why do you want a lawyer if you have nothing to hide? Unless you’re actually guilty.’ Ms. Daniela, how do you answer?’

‘Thank you for your insight, smartass. Call my damn lawyer,’ Mr. Knight covers their face with both hands in frustration. 

‘This is going to be a long night,’ Mr. Knight mutters under his breath, taking an exacerbated sigh.  ‘Mr. Grant, an officer asks you why you referred to yourself as ‘we,’ what do you say?’

‘I’m talking on an earpiece.’

‘No, try again.’

‘I… want an attorney?’ 

‘Correct.’

[mckenziepost]

From Ground to Blueprint Brilliance How Site Plans and Blueprints Shape Your Dream Home

In the world of construction and architectural design, the terms "site plans" and "blueprints" often take center stage. These elements are crucial in the pathway from an idea to a tangible building, yet they can be confusing to those not deeply involved in construction and architecture. Understanding the differences and unique roles of site plans and blueprints is essential, whether you're a professional architect, a construction enthusiast, or a homeowner planning a home renovation or a new build.

This comprehensive guide aims to demystify these concepts, offering insights into their individual purposes, components, and how they fit into the broader picture of construction planning. By the end of this post, you'll have a clearer vision of how these documents play a role in shaping sustainable architecture and aiding DIY construction projects.

Understanding the Basics

Before we explore the nuances, let's clarify what site plans and blueprints actually entail. Site plans and blueprints each serve distinct purposes, and understanding these definitions is the first step in appreciating their importance.

What Is a Site Plan?

A site plan is a detailed, scaled drawing that illustrates the layout of a plot of land. It shows how the building relates to its surroundings and includes elements like landscaping, walkways, driveways, and utilities. Site plans are crucial in ensuring that a project complies with zoning laws and environmental considerations.

Aside from illustrating the physical layout, site plans address various aspects of a project that affect the environment. They include topographical details, drainage systems, and even sunlight path considerations for eco-conscious homeowners aiming for sustainability in architectural design.

What Is a Blueprint?

Blueprints, on the other hand, are technical drawings that outline the architecture and structure of a building. These provide detailed specifications for construction, including dimensions, materials, and construction techniques. Blueprints are the guide for builders, ensuring the design is executed accurately.

Reading blueprints requires a good grasp of architectural symbols and scales. For DIY construction enthusiasts, mastering this skill is vital to visualize the final product and to ensure everything aligns with the intended design during home renovations or building projects.

Key Differences in Purpose

Understanding the unique roles that site plans and blueprints play is fundamental to construction success. While they often work in tandem, their purposes highlight their distinctions.

Role of Site Plans in Construction Planning

Site plans are the strategic starting point for any construction project. They ensure legal compliance and environmental harmony. By detailing the surrounding landscape, they guide decisions about positioning the building and integrating it with existing facilities.

For architects and designers, site plans offer a canvas to explore creative solutions that blend functionality with aesthetics. In sustainable architecture, site plans often incorporate elements like green spaces and renewable energy installations, making them critical for eco-conscious projects.

Role of Blueprints in the Building Process

Blueprints are the tactical guides that bring designs to life. They inform every step of the construction process, from the foundational layout to the intricate details of interior finishes. Their precision ensures that all pieces fit together seamlessly.

For construction professionals, blueprints provide the necessary information to execute complex tasks, such as wiring, plumbing, and structural engineering. Even homeowners involved in DIY construction benefit from the clarity and direction provided by detailed blueprints.

Components of Site Plans

Site plans encompass various elements that contribute to a project's success. Understanding these components is essential for developers and homeowners alike.

Landscaping and Environmental Features

Landscaping is a critical component of site plans, showcasing the integration of the structure with its natural surroundings. It includes details about trees, gardens, and other plantings that enhance the property's aesthetic and environmental value.

Environmental features are also essential, particularly for eco-conscious homeowners. Elements like stormwater management systems and soil preservation techniques are planned at this stage, aligning with sustainable architecture goals.

Utility Layout and Access

Site plans map out the utilities and access points that serve the building. This includes water, electricity, and sewage systems, as well as driveways, walkways, and parking spaces. Proper planning ensures functionality and compliance with local regulations.

For homeowners, understanding the utility layout can help in future home renovations, making it easier to upgrade or modify systems without major disruptions.

Components of Blueprints

Blueprints are rich in detail, providing a comprehensive guide for builders and architects to follow. Each component plays a crucial role in the construction process.

Structural Details and Dimensions

Blueprints showcase the structural elements of a building, including walls, beams, and columns. They provide precise measurements, ensuring accuracy during construction and helping prevent costly errors.

For architects, these details offer opportunities to innovate and push the boundaries of design while maintaining structural integrity. For construction professionals, they ensure that each component is built to specification, maintaining safety and quality.

Material Specifications and Techniques

Specifications for materials and construction techniques are integral to blueprints. These details dictate the choice of wood, concrete, and other materials, impacting the building's durability and aesthetics.

Material specifications are particularly important for sustainable architecture projects, guiding the selection of eco-friendly materials and techniques that reduce environmental impact.

The Interplay of Site Plans and Blueprints

While each document serves a unique purpose, site plans and blueprints often intersect, working together to achieve a cohesive construction project.

Harmonizing Design and Functionality

Site plans set the stage for the design's functionality, while blueprints ensure the design is structurally sound. This interplay allows architects to experiment with innovative layouts that merge aesthetics with practicality.

For homeowners, this harmony translates into spaces that are both beautiful and livable, addressing needs like energy efficiency and comfort while reflecting personal style.

Navigating Challenges in Construction

Construction projects inevitably face challenges, from zoning issues to unforeseen site conditions. A well-integrated approach using both site plans and blueprints helps anticipate and address these challenges effectively.

By leveraging the strengths of both documents, construction professionals can adapt plans without compromising the project's overall vision, ensuring smooth progress and successful outcomes.

Practical Tips for Reading Plans

Whether you're an architect, a construction professional, or a homeowner, mastering the skill of reading site plans and blueprints is invaluable.

Understanding Scale and Symbols

Scale and symbols are the language of architectural drawings. Familiarize yourself with common conventions to interpret dimensions accurately and understand design elements.

For DIY construction enthusiasts, this knowledge empowers you to make informed decisions and confidently engage in home renovations, ensuring alignment with the intended design.

Collaborating with Professionals

While gaining proficiency in reading plans is beneficial, collaborating with experienced professionals is equally important. Architects, engineers, and builders bring expertise that enhances project outcomes and mitigates risks.

For eco-conscious homeowners, engaging with professionals who share your commitment to sustainable architecture ensures that your vision aligns with environmental goals.

In the realm of construction and architectural design, the interplay between site plans and blueprints is a dynamic force that shapes the built environment. Each document serves a unique role, from setting the foundation of a project to guiding its creation. By understanding these differences, architects, construction professionals, and homeowners can harness their collective power to bring dream projects to life.

Whether you're embarking on a new construction adventure or planning a home renovation, the knowledge gained from mastering site plans and blueprints will be your guiding light. With this understanding, you're equipped to make informed decisions, collaborate effectively, and create spaces that reflect your vision and values.

For those eager to explore more, consider gathering additional resources or connecting with industry experts who can further enrich your construction planning and architectural design knowledge.

[douglasskingseeds]

 Transform Your Outdoor Space with Lush Turf Grass from Dkseeds.com

A beautiful lawn is the foundation of any stunning outdoor space. Whether you’re looking to create a peaceful backyard retreat, a vibrant play area for kids, or an elegant front yard that boosts your home's curb appeal, lush turf grass can make all the difference. At Dkseeds.com, we offer premium quality seeds that texas native turf seed ensure your lawn is not only beautiful but also durable and resilient. 

Quality turf grass plays a crucial role in creating a healthy and attractive lawn. It provides a soft, green surface that enhances the aesthetic appeal of your property while offering numerous environmental benefits. A well-maintained lawn can reduce soil erosion, improve air quality, and provide a cooler area around your home. Choosing high-quality turf grass seeds is essential to achieving these benefits and ensuring long-term satisfaction with your lawn.

At Dkseeds.com, we are committed to providing our customers with the best turf grass seeds available. Our seeds are carefully selected and tested to ensure they meet the highest standards of quality and performance. Here’s why you should choose Dkseeds.com for your lawn needs:

Our seeds are sourced from trusted growers and are of the highest quality. We ensure that every batch of seeds we sell is free from weeds and contaminants, giving you peace of mind that you are getting the best product for your lawn.

We offer a range of turf grass seed blends that are specifically formulated to thrive in different climates and soil types. Whether you need seeds for a sunny area, a shaded spot, or a high-traffic zone, we have the perfect blend to meet your needs.

Our turf grass seeds are designed to withstand various environmental stresses, including drought, heavy foot traffic, and disease. This means that your lawn will stay green and healthy even under challenging conditions.

Investing in turf grass from Dkseeds.com comes with numerous benefits that go beyond just having a beautiful lawn. Here are some of the advantages you can expect:

Our turf grass seeds produce lawns that are easy to maintain. With proper care, your lawn will require less water, fertilizer, and mowing compared to other grass types. This not only saves you time and effort but also reduces your environmental footprint.

A lush, green lawn can significantly enhance the value of your property. It creates a welcoming atmosphere that makes your home more attractive to potential buyers and can even increase your property’s market value.

A healthy lawn from Dkseeds.com helps to improve air quality by trapping dust and pollutants. It also aids in reducing soil erosion and water runoff, promoting a more sustainable environment.

Transforming your outdoor space with lush turf grass from Dkseeds.com is simple. Visit our website to explore our range of premium quality seeds and choose the blend that best suits your needs. We offer detailed planting guides and expert advice to help you achieve the best results. Place your order today and food plot seeding company  take the first step towards a beautiful and durable lawn.

In conclusion, Dkseeds.com is your go-to source for premium quality turf grass seeds. Our expertly blended varieties ensure a beautiful, resilient lawn that will enhance your outdoor space and provide numerous environmental benefits. Shop now at Dkseeds.com and transform your lawn into a lush, green paradise.

[yesterdanereviews]

Galaxina (1980)

Film review #613

Director: William Sachs

SYNOPSIS: In the year 3008, the police space cruiser Infinity is given a mission to acquire a mysterious energy source known only as the "Blue Star." The crew, including female robot Galaxina, set a course for Altair One, a trip which will take them twenty seven years in cryosleep...

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Galaxina is a 1980 sci-fi parody film. Set in the year 3008, the space police cruiser Infinity is patrolling the edges of known space when its inept crew are contacted with a mission: to retrieve a rock known only as the "blue star," which is a source of great energy. Sensing a chance at riches and glory, the crew embark on the trip, aided by their female android Galaxina. Being a parody film, the story isn't the most important aspect of the experience, and is mostly an amalgamation of familiar tropes. usually this eases viewers in so they don't get bogged down in details, and gives the comedy plenty to lampoon, but here, the problems with the plot structure and pacing severely hamper that effort. The first half of the film is essentially just empty space, where we are introduced to a crew of unlikeable characters that do little other than bicker and moan, while throwing out the occasional crass joke. For forty minutes this continues until we finally get a plot: the crew are asked to go and fetch the mysterious "blue star" rock, and have to spend twenty seven years in cryosleep to reach the planet of Altair One. While the crew is in stasis, Galaxina learns to speak and modify herself to be more human, and so is actually able to be a character of some substance. The second half of the film decides to add some parody of Western films into the mix, diluting the already weak sense of direction and purpose has even further. That said, the film does find it's footing a bit more in the second half, with more direct parodies such as the pointy eared bartender "Mr. Spot," and a motorcycle cult/gang who worship their mythical God "Harley David-Son." By this point though, there's not enough time for the film to really accomplish anything of note, and still most of the jokes just fail to land.

The film takes on the big sci-fi hitters, such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien and 2001, parodying them all at various points. I feel like the film is aimed at a sci-fi audience rather than a general one, but the jokes just don't go deep enough for that purpose. The choir sound effect whenever someone mentions the "blue star" is the only time the film breaks the fourth wall, and again it just feels like a joke thrown in there because the more types of humour the film can cram in, the better (spoiler: it's not better). You can overlook the barebones production and effect because that's part of the old sci-fi experience, but that said, the practical models of the ships are fairly nice. As mentioned, the characters are all fairly unlikeable, even Thor, who provides Galaxina's love interest, and perhaps is meant to be the most "normal" of the crew, is devoid of any real personality other than being horny. Galaxina has some idea of what it wants to be, but the poor pacing makes it too easy for viewers to get lost. The humour and jokes constantly miss their landing, and an overreliance on crude humour ages the film poorly too. The film finds some footing eventually, but at that point, it's too late to redeem it, and it just doesn't achieve anything remarkable. There's much better sci-fi parodies out there, and this one should probably be left on the fringes of known space.

[mcveighparker]

Two Factors to Consider Selecting the Ideal Fence for a Residential Property

Planning is essential in all aspects of life, including when you install a fence around your property.  Finding the right materials needed, plotting the exact location, and understanding how many panels and posts you may need, there would be a lot to plan for as you decide to install a fence, purchasing the perfect fencing supplies in Reading being the first one.

Homeowners installing a wire fence for the first time need clarification about how to approach the situation. Here are a few considerations that they should keep in mind to make the process of choosing the ideal fence much simpler:

Decide on the purpose: The first step in selecting the ideal fence for your property would be to be clear about its meaning. This shall aid you in identifying the size and materials to consider when buying fencing supplies in Maidstone and help you decide on the perfect budget for the project.  If your sole aim of installing a fence is to keep your pet in the yard or to designate the perimeter of your property, then choosing a basic chain-link fence is likely adequate. However, if your goal is to level up your property's privacy and security level, then you must opt for a wooden or vinyl fence with little to no space between boards. If you live near an area with too much bustle, then installing a tall fence for noise-blocking can be a smart choice. No matter your purpose, considering it shall help you narrow your search.

Determine the fence size: Your property lines are most likely to determine the fence size you would want for your home.  In addition, your purpose for installing the fence would help you select the ideal size or height for it. If you need a security fence, its height should be around six to eight feet. On the other hand, a four-foot fence would be high enough if you installed the wall to keep a small dog or young kid in the yard.

After dwelling over the abovementioned points, you must select the ideal fence material.  Installing Timber posts fences and wooden gates in Devon is a good idea, providing a good blend of practicality and aesthetics.

[goatinacoat19]

Some lore stuff for Tales of Stars and Magic

So a hyperfixation change means me talking about different characters lol. The thing is I also have to explain some lore for TOSAM before I can talk about plot or characters or nothing will make sense so here we are.

Magic So, we’re starting with the magic system. A magic user is referred to as a channeler and the act of using magic is referred to as channeling. Magic is an invisible force that exists everywhere and interacts with all living things. Some people are able to channel it to cause things to happen, but not everyone can. Every species is capable of channeling magic, however not every member of a species will be able to channel magic. Different species have different numbers of their species that can use magic. For example, around 40% of humans can use magic, but 98% of finaalin can channel magic. Someone is either born a channeler or not. There are seven kinds of magic: Fire, water, earth, air, light, dark and mind.

The Creators (or a very, very breif summary about them) The Creators were said to be the first species to exist. They were made from magic itself and they may have come from what was called the Source, although exactly what that was has been lost to history. They travelled the universe for millions of years, and supposedly aided in the evolution of most (if not every) intelligent species, but again, historians are not sure. Information on the Creators is difficult to get for one reason: the Blackout. The Blackout lasted for 10,000 years and was the result of the laws of magic within the universe being rewritten. This was caused by a Creator named Herene, who in order to stop the Devourers (Creators with a defect which caused them to feed on magic, which ever living creature needs to survive), was willing to cause the death of her own species to wipe them out. Creators had to return to their homeworld every ten years to survive, and when Herene changed the laws of magic, the majority of technology stopped working, including spaceships. Usually that would not have been a problem for the Creators, but the changes also locked them into the form of a mortal lifeform, leaving them stuck on whatever world they happened to be on. I will talk about Herene again at somepoint, but those are all the basic details you need to know on that.

The Blackout, Jump Engines and Exploration The Blackout completely wiped out space travel for 10,000 years as species had to completely relearn how technology (and their own magic) worked. The first to redevelop space travel was a species called the tseri, who invented the first Jump Engine, which allowed for what was essentially teleportation. Jump Engines do need time to charge up with magic to successfully do a Jump, and they do have a limit on how far they can go (I’m still figuring out numbers, maths is not my strong point) without the risk of exploding. The time after the Blackout were labelled the Discovery Years as the tseri introduced Jump Engines to other species. Now this period of time was both amazing and terrible due to the spread of technology and resources, but a lack of law and order also led to things like piracy, slavery and crimes in general. DY 442 was the year a new Jump Engine was developed so that they could reach another galaxy in the matter of a few weeks. The travel to the second galaxy did not do much more than add to the already chaotic times and both galactic and intergalactic wars became fairly common. In the year DY 1879, a group of planets decided to band together to form the Intergalactic Alliance, which helped to establish law and order at the time. After the Alliance was formed, the third galaxy was discovered.

The Intergalactic Alliance (aka the IGA) and the Insurgency So, while the IGA started out well, over the 800 or so years it has been around it has grown more and more corrupt. Now I won’t go too into things, but let’s just say the invasion of Ocera is not the worst of the crimes they have commited. I will also go into the exact structure of the IGA itself in it’s own post as this is already far too long. There have been many rebel groups over the years, however one of the largest modern ones is the Insurgency (they actually didn’t name themselves that, it was what the IGA called them and after everyone else started to refer to them as that, they rolled with it). The Insurgency itself is a large group of seperate rebel groups who joined together forming one big group. It was originally led by Ezren Heris, but after her death, Irel took over. On the whole, the Insurgency are regarded as criminals and little information is shared about them by the IGA, which is something Irel wants to change but that gets into the plot of book 1.