#which is why I just...get tired of how incomplete this discussion is

[musical-chick-13]

I think another piece of this whole, "I hate her because she sucks, not because she's a woman 🙄 how dare you think this is related to misogyny at all" is that for plenty of characters, the issues they face and how they look at the world are deeply entwined with the fact that they are a woman. In something like ASoIaF, ALL of the women would have completely different relationships to themselves and the world around them if they were men, because power and opportunities would be afforded to them that they don't currently have. Catelyn wouldn't have to worry about her kids being passed over because Catelyn would be the head of the household. Cersei--a character so influenced by how trapped she feels in her womanhood--wouldn't make ANY of the choices she makes. Arya and Brienne wouldn't face the particular struggles they do (and react accordingly) because their more "masculine" qualities would be celebrated instead of disparaged. Sansa wouldn't keep being traded as a pawn (in a highly sexualized way) if she were a young man. Shae probably wouldn't be a sex worker at all. (I will stop here before I go through every single character, but I think you know what I'm getting at.)

And this isn't the only work where that's the case. Even like...BBC Irene. "Dominatrix" is very much seen as a Woman Profession. The idea of a woman being sexually active or a formidable threat is still pushed to the fringes of society. This character is able to play the protagonist so well because she is similarly "other-ed" by society to a similar degree which he is. That goes away if she were, in this particular work, a man. If Rebecca from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (which, thankfully, because of how small and niche this show is, I haven't actually seen A Ton Of Hate for this character) had been a man, there would be much less of an insistence from the world around her that all she has to do is find a Nice Opposite-Gender Partner To Settle Down With And Then All Her Problems Will Be Solved (which...this internalization of "solving your problems with romantic love" is A CORNERSTONE OF THE CHOICES SHE MAKES FOR A SIGNIFICANT CHUNK OF THE SHOW). The idea that you exist solely to be someone's Perfect Partner is pushed on women a lot more than it is on men. (And also, because of the cultural idea that women can't Actually Be Evil Or Threatening, Rebecca's machinations against Josh probably wouldn't have been able to fly under the radar for so long--Rebecca herself even brings this up after she starts routinely going to therapy, saying to Josh that if she were a man, she would not have gotten that far without being labeled as bad news). Rita from Doom Patrol having such a complex over her appearance and how it affected her acting career (and how both of those things affected her relationship with her mother) wouldn't have been nearly as much of an issue (if at all) if she had been a man, and this complex is a key part of understanding why she makes the choices she does.

So, yeah, maybe you don't hate this character because she's a woman, but in some cases, her being a woman (and not being a man), is why she feels some (or even a lot) of the significant things she feels and is deeply related to some (or, again, possibly even a lot) of the significant choices she makes. And when the outcome of those choices (war crimes, murder, bad parenting, being mean, withdrawing from society, being sexually promiscuous, being "annoying" or "cringe," etc.) is proven time and time again to not be a dealbreaker on its own considering how many well-loved male characters do things that result in those outcomes...considering that male characters do those things for reasons that are not tied in any way to them being women (because. they aren't women.), then in some of these cases...yeah, your hatred is still related to her being a woman.

[lonelierthanu]

Penmanship

Satoru Gojo x Gender-neutral Reader

series: incomplete

words: 2.4k

warnings: none apply; funny; meet-ugly; no mentioned female or male anatomy; no spoilers; no curses; slow build; slow to update; college au

summary: A band of barbie’s are after you because you somehow acquired a new boyfriend.

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 …+

You’re not sure when the whispers started, but you knew when it started bothering you.

After the unfortunate escapade you had in Sherlock-Houdini’s house, you had left with his “ offer “ completely shut down. You decided to just bite the bullet and apologize to your niece and brother-in-law. It pains you to think about going home for winter break and having to tell them of your mistake, but nothing can be done if you’re being blackmailed for it. Due to lack of funds you’re set to head home next Friday even though the break starts this Friday, and honestly, you’re glad for the excuse to prolong the inevitable.

You’re also hoping that in these last few days before break, the weird atmosphere that seems to be following you will dissipate.

You started noticing it this morning, whenever you looked at someone it seemed they were already looking your way. Quick looks and rushed whispering gave you the impression that the topic of discussion was you. At first, you believed you might be crazy. Why in the world would anyone be talking about you. You were a random nobody that carefully skirted through university unnoticed and that’s how you’ve been living the past three years here.Why suddenly would people start noticing you, if you had done nothing differently?

But then a group of girls, whom you had vaguely remembered from somewhere but couldn’t place where, had come up and asked for your name. Once you confirmed that the name they were referring to was yours they laughed conivingly and walked away. As they walked away you heard one of them say, “She has nothing to worry about,” which only furthered your confusion.

A quick search into Rikki’s instagram story, confirmed your suspicions. Those girls ran in a pretty popular circle on the campus. All those fraternity boys and sorority girls seem to clique to each other, you made sure you stayed very far away from that scene. But Rikki, your roommate and beautiful social butterfly that she is, seemed to turn up in that scene quite a lot.

Regardless of the weird atmosphere persisting around you, you refused to let the whispers get to you.

Which is why you’re at your roommate's door as she packs to go home for the break, asking her why a group of her friends are cackling at you.

She sighs tiredly. Probably because she has a flight at four in the morning and only two hours to pack. Which you did try to tell her not to procrastinate it for this very reason. Rikki takes your phone to look at the picture of the girls who laughed at you that day.

“These are Kaiya’s friends,” she hands you back your phone and continues her task.

“Mm.” You hum in mock understanding; you pause for a moment,“...who’s Kaiya?” she sighs again.

“Vice President of her sorority,” she replies without looking up.

“Oh ok,” you nod, “but why are they laughing at me?” a third, exhausted sigh.

“Please,” she pleads, plopping flat on her bed, “I’m too tired for this,”

“Oh no no no,” You grab her wrist and hoist her back onto her feet. This girl can fall asleep standing up if she tried and you know that once she gets comfy she’s out like a light. You can’t have her fall asleep before you figure out what beef you’ve somehow cooked up with sorority girls you’ve never even met.

“I don’t know!” she whines. The lack of sleep is starting to get to her.

“C’mon Rikki, please. Just think, why would Kaiya and her band of misfit barbies be after me?”

She sits back on the bed and rests her head on her fist propped by her leg. She looks at you with a sleepy expression, the shadow under her eyes heavy. You can tell she’s thinking, but you’re not sure how hard considering she’s about ready to fall over as it is. She rubs her eyes aggressively and puts a finger to her temple to massage it. She groans, the gears presumably turning.

“Did anyone say anything to you?” you ask, in hopes of speeding up the thinking process. Then she looks at you, brows slightly furrowed. You begin to grow concerned. “What?” Rikki sighs and places her head back into her hands.

“I remember Masai talking about Mori getting back together with an ex that used to be involved with Suguru. It was rumored that she tried to take a pass at Satoru but he rejected her because he’s dating someone. News spread to Kaiya, who’s been trying to get in Satoru’s pants for months even when she was dating Mori, and she’s been trying to find out who it is,” Now you sigh, exhausted just from hearing about all of this drama. You don’t even know who any of these people are. “I don’t know if it correlates to you but that’s just what’s been going on lately,”

“I don’t know anybody you just named,” you deadpan. She dramatically flops backwards onto her bed, landing on a pile of clothes she has yet to fold, and groans loudly. She holds up her hand and begins counting off fingers.

“Well Kaiya is the one who’s after you,” one finger, “Mori is her most recent ex-boyfriend,” two fingers, “Masai is my friend and also questionably Kaiya’s friend,” three, “Satoru is the white haired dude that’s literally your project partner — I find it crazy that you still don’t know his name — “ you grimace, “and Suguru is his best friend,” She finishes, five fingers.

After the painful realization that you never once knew Herc-Sherlock-Houdini-Creepster’s name, you remember that the two of you have been spending more time together lately for the project, albeit at his request, but time together nonetheless. And now it makes you wonder if those girls think the two of you might actually be…together.

“I know the two of you have been talking more as of late so i’m thinking she assumes you’re the one Satoru is dating,” Rikki voices your worries out loud, you nod in response, not that she can see considering her eyes are closed.

You’re at a stand still. And a little confused. You’re not sure how you would go about fixing this issue, it seems that many bits of information come from the rumor mill and the little tidbit of you and satoru’s relationship might have been going around for a while. If you were to try to deny it now it might make it worse.

But if Satoru were to deny it then maybe the rumors would die off.

You get up to leave Rikki’s room, noticing she’s asleep and you decide to give her fifteen minutes to rest. You’ll wake her and help her pack. Since becoming project partners (and after the embarrassing fiasco at his house) you’ve exchanged phone numbers for convenience, so in the meantime, you’re gonna text Satoru about this little rumor.

Satoru, unsurprisingly, is awake at twelve in the morning. Anyone who knows him knows that he’s a night owl and an early bird. He doesn’t sleep much but he usually isn’t tired anyway. So, when his phone alerts him of a message, he reads it immediately unbeknownst to him that the person sending it thought he’d read it in the morning.

You: rumors going around that we’re dating?

Oh, Satoru’s eyebrows rise. You found out.

When Satoru first met you in the beginning of the school year he didn’t think much of you, he found your facial expressions funny, and he definitely noticed that you only scooted one chair over on purpose when he asked (demanded) for your seat. After that encounter though, you became just like every other blurry face in the crowd. And that day when he asked you for a pen, he really needed it. But when you handed him that extremely gaudy pen, he truly looked at you for the first time. 

You looked exhausted beyond belief, and he realized that throughout the time that you’ve been desk mates he’s barely seen you wear color, and the few times that you did he’s never seen you wear bright pink or anything Hello Kitty related. It intrigued him to say the least and he felt that he absolutely needed to know why you had this pen. When you explained, a part of him believed you, but the part that always had his guard up (from the absolute onslaught of advances from mostly Kaiya) was still on edge. 

At the end of class he put your pen in his bag, like he usually would with his own, and left to meet Suguru for lunch somewhere off campus. He genuinely forgot. So, when he was finally pressured, by Suguru, to go to class that Friday he was surprised that you still cared about the pen. It clicked in his mind that this might be an advance. Your overall demeanor and vibe didn’t tell him that it was you that was trying to get at him. But he figured since each of Kaiya’s friends have tried to get at him for her sake, he wouldn’t be surprised if she paid someone to try since he now knows all of her friends and their friends' faces. That had given him the idea to see if you could be persuaded to leave him alone. 

So, he bit the bullet. And invited you to his fraternity. He didn’t plan to actually sleep with you, he just wanted to know where you stood in Kayia’s ridiculous plan. Then when you blew up at him. He was embarrassed, at first, for his assumption when he realized you were completely serious about needing that pen back, but then quickly regained his resolve. He felt that he had missed any chances to speak to you again after that and decided to keep his distance, but he did plan to give you the pen back. He began to mourn the small banter-full interactions the two of you’d have.

He showed up late the following Monday and was told of the project and when he was told his partnering, he felt like a dream opportunity had fallen right into his lap. It excited him. He jumped at the opportunity to turn the tides. So, he asked you out. He didn’t care if you thought he was serious or not. If you did, then he’d have a genuine partner to keep people off his back and if you didn’t, then he could propose it as a fake dating situation and he wouldn’t have to pretend to like you romantically. But your general disdain for him ran deeper than he thought, and you rejected him outright.

It was fine though, that didn’t deter him from his plan. He started telling people that he was dating someone. The project was the perfect excuse to spend more time with you and make it look like you two were actually together. He never told anyone that the two of you were dating, but he knew the implications were there and that was the idea.

And now it seems you’ve somehow gotten looped in on the rumors. 

Gojo: call me

The two of you had never called before. Your conversations stayed through text, but to be perfectly honest he preferred phone calls. He texted you first to see if you’d be comfortable and maybe 5 minutes passed before he just assumed you weren’t gonna call him. He was drafting a text to you when his phone began ringing and your contact was showing on his screen. He smirked and clicked the green button.

“Hi~” Satoru drawls almost seductively into the phone speaker but keeping his tone light so you can tell he’s not serious.

“Do you know if it’s true?” you say back, straight to the point, and Satoru wishes he could see your face. Since the moment he met you he’s learned that he loves seeing what kind of reaction he can get out of you. Any reaction pleases him really. Irritation is usually the emotion he’s met with but it’s hilarious every time.

“If what’s true?” He finds it hard to hold back the smile spreading on his face. Teasing you comes so easily. He hears you sigh on the other end.

“That there’s a rumor,”

“Hmm, I haven’t heard of any rumors,” he lies.

“There’s a rumor that you’re dating someone and today someone, Kaiya?” The name irks him beyond belief, “I don’t know if you know her but today her posse like, sized me up and I'm on her radar now. I talked to my roommate about it, and she thinks that maybe people are assuming we’re together? I want to know if you know anything about it,” Satoru didn’t anticipate that Kaiya would go out of her way to find you, but in hindsight that was a little naive of him.

“I have been telling people I’m with someone, I’m not,” he doesn’t know why he felt the need to clarify that, “because Kaiya has been trying to jump my bones for as long as I’ve known her. I’ve rejected her so many times but she’s relentless. I hoped that pretending to be in a relationship would get her off my back,” you sigh, you seem tired.

“That’s fine I guess but if someone asks could you please deny it?”

“Ouch baby, you don’t even want to pretend to date me?” he feigns hurt.

“No.” He just laughs.

“We’re still on for tomorrow right?”

“Yes, goodnight Satoru,” And Satoru finds himself still. He’s never heard you say his name before. The late hour forces your tone to be hushed, and deeper than usual, so hearing his name spoken in that tone does something to him. He’s not sure what but it’s solidified in his mind that he needs to hear it again.

“Goodnight baby~” he teases in hopes that he can elicit his name from your mouth one more time before this call ends.

“Don’t call me that.” you say, followed by the triple beeps indicating the call has been ended. He sighs and settles further into his sheets. Up until now he was beginning to think you either didn’t know his name or you hated him so much that the thought of tasting his name on your tongue made you want to throw up. He was glad neither possibility was true. A sliver of hope that you might be warming up to him was beginning to bloom.

(･ω<)☆

*pulls out popcorn* can’t wait to see what happens next guys! 😄🫳🍿

★prev next☆

[frye7]

I'm so freaking tired to read comments about how Radahn actually beat and is stronger than Malenia and he holds back the stars and learns magic not to kill Leonard IN. EVERY. SINGLE. MALENIA'S. POST/VIDEO/MEME/EVERYTHING.

More often than not TOTALLY UMPRONTED.

Like, we get it, you Radahn's fanboys are irked your favourite character isn't the absolute best. So what?

The lore literally said "Malenia fought Radhan to a standstill" AND THAT'S THE END OF IT.

Yes, afterwards she bloomed, making Caelid what we see today, and yes, that made her pass out, and yes, she had to be carried away by Finlay, so what?

Literally how does that make her less then her opponent, who lost his mind and became a shadow of his former self?

Also, she gets insulted all the time because you all think she bloomed because she didn't want to lose, when actually WE DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHY SHE DID IT.

Did she do it because she was desperate? Maybe.

Did she do it because her needle broke? Maybe.

Did she do it because she couldn't hold back the Rot anymore? Maybe.

We don't know how the Rot works.

What we do know is that her Cleanrots followed her with pride, at the point of CHOOSING TO DECAY to stand by her side. And I don't think many of them would have done that for a Demigod who would nuke an entire region without second thoughts or giving a damn about it.

We all saw how Godrick treated his people and the reputation and hate it gained him from the Lands Between.

(And the fact that Malenia, after being insulted by him and still even if it was her right to chose not to kill him should make you people ponder on what it says about her character. Literally why would she willingly cause such pain and distruction to innocent people when she didn't kill an horrible person like Godrick? When SHE HERSELF HATES HER ROT)

That's the whole point with George Martin.

The whole point with him and his books: in medieval times informations are unreliable, because some are made up, some are incomplete, some are missing, etc.

And that's the same thing for Elden ring, all informations and lore we have comes from dialogues and item's descriptions.

And ALL of them proclaimed the battle of Aeonia a tragic battle which ended in a STALEMATE.

Cry all you want about it, and STOP insulting characters other people like just because you don't like the lore.

Both Radahn and Malenia are impressive, not perfect, but certainly impressive characters and leaders, as both their armies followed them with pride.

There is literally NO POINT in keeping that discussion up. And there is certainly NO POINT in ruining all posts that celebrates Malenia FOR HERSELF, without even talking about Radahn.

SHOW SOME RESPECT.

THANK YOU KINDLY.

[catch-me-hello]

Debut’s Plan, Episode 7:  Bittersweet

Well.  It has certainly been a week.

It started kinda cute, with the first episode of the trainees’ K-drama Imperfect Game dropping to mixed feedback on Reddit.  I actually liked it for what it was, a side project for our trainees to show off their Expression skills.  Our Top 7 did a really good job, including in the smaller roles, like Haru and Seok June, and wait a minute, we just got some news from the show:

This news dropped on Thursday, and fans of the show are surprised because he’s been one everyone assumed would make it to the end.  I’m going through my notes from the show.  He practiced so hard, he gave himself nosebleeds.  He ranked high in the online voting.  We’re coming down to the final episodes, and this sad news is a bit of a stumbling block on this mixed bag of a series. 

I am glad I chose to recap Debut’s Plan.  I definitely have my criticisms of the show and the way they’re putting this group together.  But there’s still a lot to like about this, including last week’s Expression challenge with real acting classes and a real K-drama.  Because they’ve kept the group of trainees relatively small compared to other survival shows, it’s been easier to get to know them instead of seeing them as a throng of hopefuls being churned out by a K-pop factory like on other shows (cough boys planet cough).

I like the campus setting and our celebrity guest coaches.  It’s been fun getting to participate in the voting.  I especially like that this show is giving us a real look at how the foreign trainees survive this already stressful program while struggling to learn the language.  I feel invested in these trainees and want them to come out of this okay.  Which is why the news of Seok June was jarring.  I really hope that whatever he does next, he comes out okay.

So now we’re moving on to Plan 5.  Let’s do this.

The trainees are relieved this will be their final plan.  Our Starnouncer appears on the main dome.  “In order to receive fans’ love for a long time as an idol group,” it tells them, “there is one thing that is required.”

Ah.  So Plan 5 is about never having a girlfriend, or avoiding friendships with other idols your fans hate, or never making a single mistake in public ever.  Now I see why Seok June left.

No, this is about Teamwork.  A new assessment song is revealed:  “Balla.”  It’s a rap song.  The trainees love it.  According to Google, the word means “want” or “desire.”  For the assessment, all 21 trainees will become one team and create a performance video for the song, using various locations all over the campus.  They are very excited.

Then the Starnouncer drops a bomb.  The video will have to be filmed with the continuous one-take method.  No cuts or re-dos.  If someone screws up, it stays in.  If they fail, the results will be revealed to the world as an incomplete video. 

The Starnouncer is replaced with a giant timer set for 168 hours.  Seven days.  It starts counting down.  It’s Go Time for this mission.  First step is to choose a team leader for this crushing amount of responsibility.  Previous team leaders from other missions, including Seok June, are automatically nominated.  Others volunteer, and they all give campaign speeches.  Everyone votes.  The winner is 6-year legend trainee Kim Ji Yong.

No time to celebrate – the 7-day timer has been ticking all this time.  Our new leader gets to work.  He chooses two co-leaders, Park Seong Hyeon and Baek Jun Hyuk.  Park Seong Hyeon is the one who was out sick for a couple of episodes, so this is a good opportunity for him.  They pull in other co-leaders and start meeting to discuss concepts and formation.  This goes on for a while.

After a whole day of this, they are finally ready to start rehearsals.  It doesn’t go well.  The other trainees are confused about the instructions and have their own ideas.  Everyone looks tired and irritated. 

“I’m the part director and the co-leader,” says Baek Jun Hyuk in a confessional, and right away I see the problem.  We’re now up to five or six assistant leaders, all with their own ideas, which is why the other trainees are confused.  The co-leaders start arguing with each other in front of everyone.  We’ve already lost one day and made no progress.  I’m guessing here, since I can only go by the subtitles, but it looks like Kim Ji Yong is afraid to just make decisions and lead.  He’s spreading the responsibility out among too many people.

Finally, everyone meets in the main dome to start over.  Seok June raises his hand and says that while the leaders are bickering, the other trainees have nothing to do but watch the clock tick down.  “It’s honestly frustrating,” he says.

The leaders agree.  Kim Ji Yong apologizes to everyone.  He’s determined to do better.  But in the meantime, they’ve lost another day.

The next morning, the trainees are jolted awake by the “Balla” song being played on the campus loudspeakers at top volume. 

I’ll be honest.  This would make me quit right then.  My alarm clock is set to gradually increase in volume.  Do not blast music at me unless you want to find my crystal globe night light rammed right up your ass.

The Starnouncer’s voice blares out of the speakers with a special announcement.  All the trainees are being sent to a Teamwork Camp. 

“We’re going camping!” Lee Tae Geon shouts joyfully.  I have a very bad feeling about this, and readers of my 2pm/2am Hot Blood recaps will know why.  The trainees on that show were told they were going fishing and wound up doing military training in the snow while soldiers yelled at them for several days.  I don’t think this group can survive that.  For Pete’s sake, Lee Woo Ju is only fourteen years old.

Everyone scrambles to get dressed and pack their bags.  They stumble outside to get on a bus.  The sun isn’t even up yet.  This is exactly what happened to 2pm and 2am.  I’m dreading this.

“We’ll be back!” Jang Yong Hoon tells the camera before getting on the bus.  I sure hope so.  Wait, is this what happens to Seok June?  Is he still wandering around a campsite somewhere?  Let’s keep an eye on him. 

Haru can help with that.  He’s Seok June’s seatmate.  Haru has never gone camping in Korea before, so Seok June explains about campfires and grilling barbecue on a big flame, and I’m guessing this never happens in Japan because Haru has no idea what he’s talking about.  Than again, Haru is a trainee, and they don’t really get out much.  I have no idea if I’m getting a cultural lesson or if I should be learning from people who have more of a social life.

After a long bus ride, the trainees arrive at Teamwork Camp.  They’re told that in order to improve their teamwork, special trainers are waiting for them at the site.  Oh God.  It’s going to be soldiers, isn’t it?  I’m genuinely worried right now. 

Our trainees race down to the shoreline, excited about seeing the ocean.  They screech to a dead stop at a mudflat.  Not the ocean.  A mudflat.  Anyone remember Wild Idol?  These kids are doomed.

“What if we have to do a military camp?” asks Chu Yoo Chan, who clearly reads my recaps.  Some quick background on this trainee:  He was with Starship and left but then came back when he joined this show through open auditions.  Legally, he still may be able to flee.

Suddenly, the trainees turn around to find A SOLDIER IS WAITING FOR THEM.  I WAS RIGHT.

The soldier is Ma Seon Ho.  He introduces himself as a trainer, but his uniform has the Korean flag sewn onto it, so I’m not buying it.  Right away, he makes them run sprints on the mudflats.  Several of them fall.  All of them finally make it back to the “trainer,” some of them literally spitting out mud.

They seem okay, laughing as they catch their breath.  Ma Seon Ho is not amused and orders them to stop laughing.  He tells them to do the run again and be back in 30 seconds, and if they see any fellow trainees struggling, they have to help each other.  Well, that’s nicer than the soldiers in Hot Blood, who literally made those trainees beat each other up in a boxing ring.  Maybe Ma Seon Ho is saving that part for later.

The boys make it back okay, although I’m pretty sure Kaira was wearing glasses when he started the run.  Next, they do jumping jacks, and then squats.  Ma Soon Ho makes them do the squats over when someone counts wrong.  Is there a Chinese or Japanese embassy nearby where the foreign trainees can request asylum?

Now Ma Soon Ho brings out a rubber boat, and they have to run a course with it.  Not everything is translated here, which is frustrating, but I understand that if they finish all this training successfully, they get a barbecue.  I can only imagine how Haru is going to describe Korean camping trips to his family if he ever sees them again.

They succeed and get their barbecue, and then we get their voiceovers saying that today’s experience will help them do better on the Plan 5 mission, which is, if you recall, shooting a music video.  I can’t imagine how, but if they say so. 

They light up a huge campfire.  “I can’t believe all 21 of us are here!” says Jin Bo Min.  “We’ve grown so fond of each other,” Kaira agrees.  Oof.  Was Seok June already planning to leave when this was being said?

Suddenly, a screen on the other side of the campfire lights up.  They get to watch footage from the very first episode, which was filmed three months ago.  I feel nostalgic with them.  I miss the animated demon face and dark alleyways.  This show really changed its whole tone after that first episode.

The screening goes on to show them footage from the other episodes as well.  They have been through a lot.  Several of the trainees start crying.  We see that during Plan 2, Chu Yoo Chan got a surprise birthday party.

This is a very sweet and emotional scene, and I’m really glad that Seok June got to experience this before he left.  Speaking of our boy, he gets a confessional at the campsite.  He looks happy.  “I feel amazing,” he tells us.  “I wish the time would just stop.” 

The trainees get back on the bus and return to the campus to work on the video.  Everyone looks focused this time.  They’ve broken up into teams and are practicing the choreo all over the campus.  Team Leader Kim Ji Yong is pleased.  They start doing a run-through of the video, filming on an iPad.  This is going to be exciting.

They start setting up props around campus, discussing camera angles and transitions.  I can’t wait to see this video.  We watch the countdown until they have only 24 hours until D-Day.  Time for final rehearsal. 

Team Leader Kim Ji Yong walks around with a microphone, making sure everyone’s in place, and he realizes that Team 5 is missing.  They find Team 5, but now other trainees start forgetting their cues.  Please tell me this is just the Flashback Formula at work again, without an actual flashback. 

Tempers flare.  People worry.  They rehearse a part where everyone runs to the dome, and they’re all in each other’s way.  This is starting to look really sloppy, but again, I think it’s just the show creating drama.

Finally, it’s D-Day.  They do some quick, last-minute rehearsals.  The campus looks amazing.  Let’s do this.

I love every second of this.  I love seeing how the technical side works with the performances.  It’s stressful and crazy and so much fun, and I can’t believe they pulled it off.  That mudflat training camp is really something.

Our trainees are celebrating.  The Five Plans are finally finished.  Now all that’s left in this series is the gut-wrenching process of seeing who gets to debut and who gets eliminated.

But first, we need to choose our new Top 7, and this time the trainees do the voting  After leading this project, Kim Ji Yong had better be one of them.

Our new Top 7 is:

Kim Ji Yong.  Damn right.

Jang Kyu Hyun.  For someone who started this show in the Yellow Team Beginner Group, he has come a long way.  This is his fourth time in the Top 7.

Park Won Bon.  Our second-longest Starship trainee has been one of my picks from the beginning.  This is also his fourth time on the podium.

Haru.  He starred in an amazing dance break in the Plan 5 video, and I just know he’s going to make it to the end.  I’m glad the show stopped pushing the rivalry edit with Kaira.

Kim Min Jae.  He killed in the Killing Part of the Plan 5 video.  This is his second time on the podium.

Jang Yong Hoon.  A fan favorite in the online voting.

Park Seong Hyeon.  Came back from illness to earn his way onto the podium.

The Starnouncer tells them this was the last episode to be filmed on this campus.  The final episodes will be filmed somewhere else.  The trainees are sad to say goodbye to this beautiful place, and I’m right there with them.  Starship really knows how to do set design.

We’re reminded again to vote every day at newkids.co.kr, and now we can only vote for one trainee.

Before posting this recap, I tired again to find more details on why Seok June left.  Instead, I found an article on Sportkeeda.com with the news that his fans are swearing off the remaining episodes.  Come on, guys.  You know Seok June wouldn’t want that.  Whatever reservations he had about staying on the show, we saw him bond with the other trainees.  I just know he wants to see them succeed.  Don’t write off the rest of these hopefuls just because one guy left.

Besides, he could have left for a good reason.  One fan quoted in the article says Starship still hadn’t signed contracts with the trainees, so maybe he got scouted by another company or switched to acting.  While I want to emphasize that we have no confirmation on any of this, I really hope it’s true.

Next up, the semi-final round!  The next episode will drop on my birthday, so watching it while enjoying a slice of banana rum cake will be a fun way to celebrate.  See you then!

[tumblydove]

Donkey Hodie Season 2 Mid-Season Review + Episode Predictions

With new episodes coming in a little over three weeks, I wanted to go over my overall thoughts on Season 2 so far while we're in the middle of a hiatus. I also wanted to discuss the episode titles for the rest of the season, revealed on the WGAE website, and my predictions for what the episodes may be about.

Overall, I think that Season 2 of Donkey Hodie has been an improvement over the first one. This season took what Season 1 established and ran.

One of my biggest complaints for Season 1 was that there were a lot of characters and pairings that we didn't get to see enough of, such as Duck Duck, Grampy, and Stanley. I don't put this too much on the creators, since the pandemic did limit the stories they could do, but seeing Donkey and Panda every episode gets tiring. Luckily, this season fixes this issue. We get a much more diverse cast in each episode, and we even get to see all four pals together much more often!

Speaking of characters, we got one major new one so far: Cousin Hodie! Cousin is a perfect addition to the show- he fills the gap as the little brother character, but not too little that he can't have specific traits or join in on Donkey's fun himself.

The puppetry also took a big step up this season. Woth no restrictions, the creators had the option to go full-out, and they certainly did. We have probably had more green screen and crowd shots in this half that we did in the entirely of Season 1.

I've been taking so positively about this season- what is it in this season I don't like? Well, the character designs and their updates were a bit jarring at first, but I've since gotten used to them. Some morals have been reused from the first season, which comes off as repetitive.

Favorite Episode: This was a hard one. Ultimately, though, I think that Cousin Hodie's Rainy Day and its pair episode, Grampy's Guppies are the encapsulations of all of the good merit Season 2 has going for it. We get all four of the pals, Cousin Hodie, the Rainbow Tree, great songs, and even better puppetry from the latter episode's fishing.

Honorable Mentions: Ruff Night, How Does it Feel, Best Ball Fest, and Bob Dog's Balloon Bother, purely out of the fact that they are Bob Dog episodes and he is my favorite of the pals. Any episode with all four of the pals in it also counts, since I love seeing all of them together!

Least Favorite Episode: While I didn't outright dislike these two episodes, The Goalies/Mousy Hodie were the least memorable to me, which is a shame since Alice Dinnean returned for them. Avid DH fand know that she was the original choice to play Donkey, but dropped the gig because of time constraints. As for which one was worse, I'd say Mousy Hodie. Mousy's selfish behavior was never really addressed, even after Donkey took her break. Yeah, they took a break from each other but Mousy never apologized for hogging all the turns. The episode just felt incomplete and, dare I say, "torture-esque" for Donkey.

Dis-Honorable Mentions: Purple Polka Dot Party. This episode suffers the same problem as cheesy Con by overindulging in a problem that could have been solved extremely easily with some critical thinking. Panda could have flown some of his pals to the party, than come back and get the others. Or, he could have simply refused to let Penley come since there was no room. Rather than have that be the problem, add a problem that could have no clear solution, like having Panda's spaceship break down.

I'll also mention that episode's pairing, Someplace Cold. The Puzzling Penguin is unlikeable asf and would have been more if not for her catchphrase. This episode just felt repetitive.

And, finally, I'll add in Speedy Delivery and Donkey Wonky Tea Party. I didn't dislike these ones, but the morals felt too repetitive too soon. Why doesn't Donkey just use the moral she taught Turtle-Lou to remember her pals' stuff too? Just comes off as confusing.

So, yeah! Season 2 > Season 1. If Season 1 is a 7/10, then season 2 is an 8/10. Hopefully Season 3 breaks that and gets a 9/10. Of course, this could change since we still have many Season 2 episodes that haven't premiered, but this season has been going well so far, so I'm not expecting those episodes to be awful.

Speaking of episodes, let's talk about the new ones that WGAE revealed!

Meemaw Heehaw's Recipe Mystery: Grammy Hodie??? It can't be! I wonder what the recipe is- maybe Flying Flapjacks lore? anyways, I'm thinking this might be a nice wholesome Donkey family episode. Maybe Cousin (or even more shockingly, Dodie) will be in it.

Extra-Large Crunchdoodle: Another Crunchdoodles episode! Looking forward to the lucid sequence with the characters dancing that we've gotten in every Crunchdoodles episode so far!

The Great Wait: Oh, look, another waiting episode. These episodes are notorious for being either fairly entertaining or extremely boring. I have a theory that we may be seeing Mike in this episode (as you may recall, he is a mouse with muscular dystrophy that was revealed in a casting call last year.) My initial thought was that we'd be seeing him in Gameshow Gaffe. September is Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Month, the episode's plot talks about fairness and fun, and the episode is written by Jill Cozza-Turner according to the WGAE, who wrote Hee-Hee Hide and Seekers. This may still happen (and I would be a bit disappointed if it didn’t), but if now my second thought is him appearing in this one. The casting call also mentioned he likes looking for new creatures with his binoculars, so maybe he and Donkey are waiting to find a new creature? Excited for this one! (Please don't bore me out as much as Acornball did.)

Hee-Hee Hide and Seekers: I don't have many predictions for this one since we kind of already know what it's about. The Everything Explorers are back, and Mike is here guaranteed! I wasn't a big fan of Everything Explorers in Season 1, so maybe this and a new character will change my mind. I'm looking forward to seeing how the show tackles the topic of disability.

A Donkey Hodie New Year: New Years' Special! Maybe the pals are trying to stay up long enough or coming up with resolutions? I can't help but feel disappointed this isn't a Christmas episode, but I can't say I'm not excited for this one regardless. The last half-hour special, A Donkey Hodie Halloween, was great, so my expectations are high for both of the specials we'll get in this season.

A Donkey Hodie Road Trip: My original prediction for this episode was that this would be the one where we'd get the Daniel/Donkey crossover. Maybe the pals go on Trolley to The Neighborhood of Make-Believe? Obviously, that won't be the case, but I still think Trolley will be in this one. We know he'll appear in three Season 2 episodes, and we only have two with him in them so far. The question becomes, where are the pals going? Maybe to Another Place, where Dodie lives, or to wherever Cousin lives.

Quick-Quack Pack: I am reminded of Quack Pack anything I look at this episode title. Outside if this obviously being a Duck Duck episode, I really don't know what to expect from this one. My expectations are high though, since this would be the last Season 2 episode produced, and the Season 1 finale, Return of the Golden Crunchdoodles, was fairly great.

Find A Way to Fix It: This episode could really be about anyone or anything. The ambiguity makes me look forward to it, but I really don't have any thoughts on what it may be about.

That's it for my thoughts on Season 2 and the upcoming new episodes so far. Thanks for reading my long tanged about an anthropomorphic donkey and her friends!

[jonathankatwhatever]

It’s 29 August 2023 and so far today I’ve heard an angry discussion about my inability to grasp the essence of Gödelian incompleteness and inconsistency. I was reminded I still own a book about it in which I probably made notes. That intuitive grasp is missing. I originally wrote that as what’s missing is the intuitive grasp. That always bothered me: we’re taught you must write in the active voice, when actual good writing mixes not only voices but the ordering of the space as it is carved out. By saying the intuitive grasp is missing, I’m making a blunt statement that there is an intuitive grasp and I can’t find it. By saying what’s missing is the intuitive grasp, then I’m saying I have a puzzle and there’s something which fits to the puzzle. If I define intuitive grasp, perhaps that finds the piece. That’s the second thing I’ve heard today, a bing in my head when I made a connection between basic displacement into image with hatred being the displacement of yourself on to others.

I think this came out of a Mad Men episode, from the third season when Kinsey has a great idea for Western Union and fails to write it down. He admits this to Peggy, who says I hate when that happens. He admits he has nothing to Don and when he explains what happened, Don says I hate when that happens. Because we’ve all been there. (And then Peggy completes the bit by saying a phone call is over when you hang up, but a telegram is a lasting reminder.) The reason why this happens is that you’ve just hit an Attachment which opens like a door, that old dream of mine, into a room, and that makes you giddy because there’s so much imagery. When it’s ordered, so you see it laid out in perfect steps you know are true, it’s like being hammered deep. It can be like an explosion in your head.

When I typed out basic displacement that set off giant bells, and my chest suddenly swelled with a great intake of breath through my nose, as if there was food, and I had to get up and make a piece of toast (which just dinged but I can ignore that now because that was a form of hunger which can be identified and better controlled). That scent response is food and prey and other valuable information, but it’s clearly food related, which associates with gladness and joy and getting and other positives. It can be shifted into activity. Like now, I’m enjoying the toast smell but I don’t have any mouth hunger. Mouth hunger is when your sensory organs for eating are stimulated. It’s when you can imagine tastes best, when you can make up dishes or run through the techniques needed to make a taste come together.

I type these observations knowing they’re only made possible by the compression I’ve been doing under your guiding presence. I wrote tutelage first. That compression squeezes the hunger out of you, so being thin become a state which maintains itself, which can see the parity checks needed to prevent getting heavier, which makes controlling weight much easier. I think a great example is drinking water. I don’t think it works like one might imagine it should, because it takes up a lot of room in your stomach, but if you aren’t compressing, if your fascia, your spine, your abdominals, etc. are all angled to allow expansion, then you’re just stretching your stomach. I now find that a few gulps of water hold me because my body now instinctively grabs inward much more - and I’m not in any way great at this, compared to someone who really focuses on the body can - so the act of thirst quenching really does fill me up. I note that when I’m tired, I’ll drink more water and will relax back into the expansion position.

So the basic displacement I had was from how I view sexual images, and how I displace myself on to them, with the realization that difference often makes it easier to visualize myself because I’m not distracted by similarities. That simplifies Things. So the idea that Jews are evil is a displacement of the idea of evil within one’s own self and within the culture which teaches you that on to Jews because that simplifies in the exact same way, as a difference which allows you to see yourself as evil. Jews play a role in your own mind, a role you cast them in without their consent, without their participation. That finally connects a very old idea: this is the same point decided on decades ago regarding Christianity, that Jews exist in Christianity as actors in the Christian play. Thinking this through in regards to personal and cultural level hatred completed the thought much more.

I had 2 pieces of fried tofu in Korean chili sauce. Addictive. I limit myself to 2 at a serving or I’d gobble them all. That’s a different hunger: favorites don’t last because they’re favorites. So limit the quantity. Like I made tuna salad with herbs and vegetables, and made a sandwich with aged cheddar on toast with iceberg lettuce, but I only made one can so there’s very little left. I will overmake salad because the next day I’ll revive it by adding more and different stuff, and I really love making and eating salad.

Still can’t get that Gödelian issue. What is my major malfunction? My dad was a major, though he was a captain while on active duty. Random association isn’t helping. I feel like I keep knocking on the door but can’t see inside. I need to shower. Maybe that will help.

———————

I think I may have posted a comment with my name on it. Oops. Oh well. I was distracted because the auction has been canceled. Massive relief causes distraction because the MB associated will naturally construct intangible Things related to that idea of relief checking along that Boundary. We’re taking the conception of Boundary and stretching it far beyond circle, but I think the conception actually is that it is CR, and that lays out as a thread in a context along the available Pathways, so there’s a continuous fit process, which we can vary. The thread then appears within that context.

Need to be better with the word context here. We’ve limited context to IC and LC with higher contexts using fCM labels. We also have MC, and we can see better how that works by looking at a 1-0Segment: MC is one of the 1Segments which construct the 1-0Segment, meaning it counts itself as 1 and all else as 0, which maps to D1 in D-structure, meaning an End with non-specified CR. That is completed to IC with specification, because that generates a pairing.

I keep trying to type and that invokes a Cantor pair because pairing is alternation and alternation inherently generates a count of an orthogonal 5Square, when you alternate steps. So you would have a 2Square orthogonal to a gs, and when you count to either side you get a 5Square. Sounds like 10 to me. I get this, but I’m again having trouble seeing it.

Try another approach. You keep saying orthogonal and counting what’s orthogonal, while leaving out what’s happening in projection. That’s counting SBE and fCM orthogonal to a 2Square then a 5Square, then beyond. The 2Square and 5Square have roots, meaning they’re converted into squares out of a count of gs, meaning whatever happens within the box equals 5 or needs to equal 5gs. Or whatever the count.

And in that is a proof of all the stuff I’ve been worrying about, except now I’m worried I won’t be able to get it out. It really was a lovely glimpse. The idea is these act as mutual calls and constraints, that as the one is orthogonal and thus makes a square without specifying its internals so the other makes what fits to that square. This is the motive we’ve been looking for to finish the old proof regarding the construction of gs irrationals like root2: constraint in I//I means the count in projected gs is constrained by and to the count of a 2Square, which again invokes Halving and the disappearing/appearing point at infinity. And this would ideally be true the other way as well.

This solves a lot of problems. Like overserved, overstuffed, overcapacity and other mismatches can occur.

I need to take a break. Big step forward.

[peeterparkr]

can you write the first kiss with Peter Parker

I love you waited until the no way home trailer dropped so here you go because I was hyped I changed it to LAST KISS HAHA … let’s pretend strange’s spell worked

Kissing Peter was something that was given. It was so natural, a goodbye, a hello, an ‘I’m tired I’ll see you later’ a ‘Don’t you dare to eat the last oreo’. Hidden messages in between each kiss. Very choreographed. Synchronized, but magical. Each one was different. With the rain on your shoulders, with a laugh trying to come out, red cheeks. Kisses that didn’t involve touching, kisses from afar, from the other side of the room, when you both lifted your head to find the other, and shared a look. Not anything lusty, or romantic, it was rather finding your missing piece. Making sure he was okay.

Rather, kissing him now seemed dangerous. Impossible.

In this world, so full of fear and rage, you had found Peter Parker. How ever had you found Peter Parker? A tulip hidden in a valley of roses. Something magical. Peter Parker was what had been missing in your life for a while. Peter Parker was the reason as to why the sun came out in the morning and he was the reason summer warmed you. Peter Parker was a cuddle in a cold December and a smile that’s hidden in the corner of your mind.

Someone who would crawl up to your room, and kiss your temple before laying down beside you. And you’d be thankful he was okay. Someone who every time he went out you would give him a kiss hoping it wouldn’t be the last one.

Seamless kissing. It had become an extension of you, his lips were part of yours now, just like your heart was twinned with his.

That hadn’t always been like that. Although you could say that now kissing him had become part of who you were, the first time it had seemed you both had been doomed.

The first kiss with Peter Parker was something you had planned. A romantic date, maybe when he walked you to your apartment you would tiptoe and give him the sign, those bright eyes and you’d kiss outside the building.

That’s how you’d seen it, after all that’s how the movies usually gave them. Wasn’t it?

You’d planned other kisses too, a walk in the city. Maybe after he had finished patrolling.

No, the first kiss was far from your daydreaming. Which was only that.

No, the first kiss wasn’t like that. It wasn’t burning with passion. Not in a perfect place. Not anything that anyone had expected. Not that you had expected it.

Peter and you had began hanging out, strictly hanging out the two of you when you accidentally found out he was Spiderman.

“Why are you here?” He had asked as you had walked in on him changing, which wasn’t your fault since he changed in an open alley.

“This is my alley, I come here to eat my lunch without weirdos bothering me! What—You? You are Spider-Man?

“I—No?” Peter couldn’t help it.

“The nerd from the decathlon is spiderman?” You couldn’t believe it.

But you promised to keep a secret as long as you could be friends.

That’s how it started, you were hanging out with that nerd from the decathlon.

Nothing happened back then. Only friends while your heart was growing deeper for him. And the way he’d smile at you in the afternoons while the sun creeped in would only incentivize your dreaming.

How difficult it is to hide a glowing heart.

After the blip, it seemed you and Peter got even closer. Peter had changed. Quieter. Sadder. You’ve become more reserved. How weird it was your little sibling was now older than you.

Peter and you found each other. He relied too much on you, and adjusting to the new life seemed easier when you were together.

Conversations that suddenly were fun. Even after what Peter saw.

But you managed to make him smile again.

“That’s got to be the most stupid joke I’ve ever heard.” “Y/N, no I swear, stop, my stomach hurts from laughing.” “I don’t remember ever having this much fun.”

How funny, you’d fallen in love with that nerd from the decathlon just because you’d walked in on him changing.

And the first kiss had been so stupid, back in the Europe trip. You were in Italy, discussing whether to get a gelato or an espresso, he had bought the gelato to you, and that was when—you had kissed his cheek. To thank him. Then regretted it for the rest of the days because it hadn’t been his cheek. He had moved and your lips had brushed against his. You had accidentally kissed Peter Parker.

In the most unromantic way, because it had been so quick you didn’t even know if you felt a spark. Peter and you didn’t react to it, yet after staring a bit too long trying to understand what had happened, he had leaned over and gave you a proper one.

You hadn’t stopped kissing since.

You wish you still had another one.

When Peter’s identity had been revealed, things had gone dark. Extremely dark. You still remembered when it appeared everywhere.

Peter Parker, Public Enemy.

Peter Parker, public enemy? How could they ever dare to call him that? You dialed once, twice, three times and no answer.

Peter Parker public enemy? They didn’t know him. Whoever thought he was a threat was far from knowing the truth.

You called him again. And then waited and waited and waited.

Before you could even think of calling him again, Peter had gone to you, instead. To your window, shaking and knocking on your door.

“Peter! Peter! Get in!” You had rushed him in. But he had already jumped in.

“They know—They know, y/n!” He spoke quickly as he took his mask off. “They know, mysterio—I—What the fuck.”

“Okay, let’s think of something,” you tried calming him down, “maybe ask Pepper Potts to pay the media to erase it?”

“The world knows, no, I—This is it what I planned. What if someone tries hurting May? Oh May! I should go to her, see if she’s okay!”

You nodded, “Yes, you need to calm down, yes, calm down!”

“The world knows I’m Spider-Man,” Peter said, running his hands through his hair.

“Okay, uh, well, Tony Stark’s identity was out too, and—“You tried calming down. “Although he was a millionaire.”

“And I’m a criminal now, public enemy, can you believe that?” He was speaking as if he didn’t remember you were there, only blurting out words.

You watched him, “you’re a hero, Parker. You’re not a criminal.”

“What if they try hurting Ned? Or May? Or you! What if they find out you’re my girlfriend and try hurting you to get back at me! I—Having an identity was supposed to keep everyone I love safe!” He was rambling a she paced around your room. “What if they try—“

“Peter, Peter, you’ll find a way.”

But it seemed things only got harder, one thing led to disaster and another disaster. Interrogations, eyes on you, and barely any time with him. A part of you was thankful he didn’t have any secrets but the other one feared you could lose him more easily.

People recognizing him, recognizing you, but now he could be a hero at any time, no more two lives, it was just Spiderman, every single day. And it became tiring, as if crime had spiked up just to mess up with him. It was hard for Peter. For May, for Ned, and even you. But none of it compared to what Peter was feeling. He was always exhausted.

And he had to stop coming to your house and you’d go to different places so they wouldn’t follow you. People staring at school, people having realizations, and you only fearing for him.

“I’m going to see Doctor Strange,” Peter had explained, as you were on top of a roof, New York had the best view when it wasn’t filled with crimes and terror. “I need to see him, see if he can fix this.”

“So go back to the secrets?” You had questioned, his head on your lap as you brushed his hair, “back to alleys?”

“Yeah, back to you making sure people don’t walk into the alley,” he chuckled.

“Hm, bummer I’m going to miss saying I’m dating a superhero.”

“This is hurting you more, I’m in constant fear someone will do something to you,” Peter had explained.

You understood, “I can get used to a secret love affair, very Shakespearean.”

Peter smiled, “The star crossed lovers,” he had said and given you a peck on your lips.

“Can you believe we are here because of that secret?” You asked.

He chuckled, “Spider-Man brought me the best thing that could ever happen to me.”

And he kissed you, sweetly, deeply. As magical as the first one. The one that made butterflies appear. You’d always believe that Peter Parker was the reason for all the good things in the world.

Maybe you should’ve fought for it more. Maybe you should’ve stopped him. Because one day you woke up in the morning with a feeling that you couldn’t quite understand, a glow in your heart for someone without a face. An inexplicable reason as to why the sun came out. A smile that you didn’t recognize in the corner of your mind. Some pair of lips that were missing, an extension of you disappearing. As if you were incomplete, because your beating heart yearned for a stranger. And who could ever be that stranger?

[oneoftheprettynerds]

Worth The Eternity: Dark! Bucky x Reader (Vampire AU + Mob AU + Soulmate AU)

This is for @cherienymphe’s 5K Twilight Renaissance Writing Challenge. Congratulations, keep slaying! I wrote this instead of studying, so pray for my paper please lmao.

A/N: This tired girl tried. 

WARNINGS: something between dubcon and noncon present. Triggering, darkish themes.

Summary of sorts: Ever seen Hotel Transylvania 1/2/3? In this AU, mythical creatures exist and have soulmates and you feel a zing if you are blessed enough to encounter them.

"Boss, we narrowed it down to these core three suspects.” A husky voice, slightly muffled by the sack on your head, entered your ears and you had a hard time being calm.

You had been picked up from your office, specifically the basement of Oscorp Industries while entering your sleek silver car. A pinch in your neck and everything comically blurred. Next thing you know, you are waking up with your entire body sore, your muscles and joints screaming and begging for freedom from tight restraints. Your vision is black, as if you are staring into an abyss and your vision is filled with white and red dancing spots forming patterns, maybe from the hours of inactivity.

Muffled noises of protest and scraping of metal against the concrete floor entered your ears and you realized you are not the only one here held captive. You racked your mind for possible explanations but couldn’t come up with one.

You lived a very simple life, even as the vice president of Oscorp industries. No messing around, no rivalries with other employees, no butting heads with the seniors on the Director’s board. Was this a ploy against the company? Or a domination statement against the weaker species, the humans?

Lucky enough for you, you realized you would soon find out as the sound of a shutter opening and metal clanking noisily filled your ears.

“Took you long enough, Scott. Fill me in.” Another brooding voice reprimanded jokingly and a million goosebumps traveled the path of your skin as you involuntarily shuddered.

“Yes Boss. We tracked the missing sum to the account of this man on the left. He has fourteen other accounts under different names and nationalities, pretty hard to trace but not impossible luckily. This proved he is shady so he’s most definitely involved.”

“This ginger on the right, he made the suspicious call with weird words so we believe he pretty much passed the verdict, calling the shots with the codewords. He has had several surgeries, his face is fucking silicon at this point but his DNA showed us his true identity, Mr. Rumlow here is the Consigliere of The Midnight Moon.”

You sat and listened, piecing together whatever you understood. The pack/mob name more than rung a bell, it scared you shitless. You were quick to catch on, realising that you were caught in an inter species scruffle.

“This shit just got interesting folks. Alright, where does Miss Sexy Legs fit in all this?”

The pencil skirt you wore wasn’t the most modest piece of clothing to exist and the spaghetti straps blouse was a bad choice considering the sheer coldness in this warehouse, the temperature only seemed to go down with the entry of your kidnappers but it���s not like you knew this was going to happen.

You could only assume with your legs on display that you were the one being sexualised and talked about.

“We are not sure about her though, that’s why I said suspects. We have proof the call was made from her phone but the videos show her lending it to a creepy stranger at a café. It might be really good acting but it’s highly unlikely. We brought her in because in the transfer of the stolen cash, her account was an intermediary but it’s a good chance that she was tricked when her phone was borrowed by Mr. Rumlow. Also, she’s a human, you see?”

If it was you being talked about, you felt a jot of relief, just a smudge because at least they were aware you weren’t involved in whatever game they were playing. That didn’t necessarily ensure your freedom, but hey, you were willing to take anything at that point.

“That’s the sweet fucking scent I keep on smelling!” The leader exclaimed as if he made a great discovery, a cure for a pandemic or cancer you’d think. His gruff voice almost had a light, cheery undertone to it, too unlike of a man who was wronged and cheated and was close to murdering someone no doubt. These mobsters are always maniacs like The Joker.

“It sucks that you brought her here. She might not be guilty, but now she knows too much. She’d make a good blood bag though. Maybe I’ll just have a taste, who knows?” The ‘boss’ made a disturbing slurping noise and your heart stopped at his words, a tear almost escaping your eye.

Discussion about drinking blood? You were most definitely in The Vamps territory, your assumption about the inter-species conflict true. You had no doubt you were the weakest in this creepy space, the frailest here, most probably the only human.

“Show me the bastards’ faces.” Like the flip of a switch, the joking man swapped his personality and all but growled. You heard the ripping of cloth and a man gagging, his shrieks muffled. Another flurry of movements and another man retching on the fabric could be heard.

“Well, hello Mr. Rumlow. I must say, brown suited you better.” A horde of chuckles made you widen your eyes, even though only black still filled your vision, as you realised there were at least a dozen twisted, sick men in the room. The fact that they were silent as fuck till now only showed you how disciplined and regimented these soldiers were.

“This one has a pretty face, boss.” You felt the sack ripped off you, and your eyes closed with the sudden flooding of the lights. Your eyes sealed due to hours of inactivity and you kept them shut, afraid to face your tormenter.

A cold hand cupped your cheek and straightened your face that was trying to hide itself in your silky locks by curling in your own neck, the cool metal of rings and insanely icy fingers chilling you literally.

“Open your eyes sweetheart.” A voice called out behind you and you gathered enough courage to face your impending doom, the air as silent as the calm before a storm.

Your orbs opened and gazed into piercing sapphire blue eyes and everything behind this chiseled face blurred. You could swear a ring of pink and red passed over his eyes and you shuddered again, getting overwhelmed due to the eye contact yourself. This wasn’t the usual anxiety you felt while meeting new people, it was somehow both a pull and a push. An inviting comforting pull and a terrifying, ‘stay cautious' push.

You, a self-sufficient woman, who had been independent for as long as you could remember, suddenly felt half; incomplete in a way that you couldn’t fathom. You felt an attraction, a tug towards the man in front of you, and the absurdity of the thoughts and emotions that popped in your brain made you heave on the gag.

Your intellect couldn’t find a reason, your view on love and romance until now completely conflicted. You believed soulmates to be separate pieces of art that complemented each other when together; then what was this broken jigsaw puzzle sentiment you were having now?

Your wide eyes somehow managed to break free of his stare, panicking and looking around to observe, which wasn’t comforting in the least as men with guns and gadgets filled your vision. You were relatively unharmed in comparison to the beaten lads beside you, one with a bruised face and the other with a bloody one.

The handsome man, the Boss’s stare didn’t leave you through the entirety of your searching around, you were sure they saw you as a scared little rabbit, waiting out its inevitable death.

“Lost in her eyes, Boss?” The sideman cracked what he believed to be the funniest joke in existence, earning laughs of the horde of the soldiers around.

 Your eyes went to the Boss’s face, surprisingly when his left your face to glare a nasty stare on his trusted man. His muscular form raised the forelimb, his hand signaling to stop, that effectively quietened the room to a pin drop silence.

With gentle fingers, the man took off your gag and yours lips quivered, throat too dry to make a noise though. You greedily gulped the air through your mouth for whatever reason, maybe just to move your jaw after hours of inactivity.

Maintaining eye contact was challenging, arduous to say the least. It seemed as if he could read you, find everything about you there is to find by studying the flecks in your orbs. His delicate hands, loosened the ties and you were now more so confused, along with the trepidation.

Just what the fuck was going on?

Bucky had almost lost hope, centuries on this planet and no one to love and cherish, no personal confidante, no soulmate. But good things take time, right? And in his opinion, best things take an eternity. He knows this now.

Expect the unexpected was the truest phrase, idiom whatever it was, in this moment. He had spent countless nights wondering about his soulmate, was she pretty? Ugly? Was she even a she or not? Dumb or witty? He made a lot of scenarios of how they’d meet, the kids, reigning together. He entertained the idea of her being from a different species, a nymph, an orc, maybe a werewolf?

And now that he found her, it was a revelation, a surprise honestly. After all optimism got evaporated, after traveling the dark tunnel for centuries literally, there she was, his beacon of light. Finding her was a wonder, and her being a human was astonishing, a possibility he somehow failed to consider, but he was over the moon cause there she was, right in front of him now. A beautiful, stunning lady in flesh and blood, human flesh and blood, with the prettiest eyes he had ever seen. His zing.

He always liked humans, apart from the similar appearances the vampires shared with them, they were always docile and accommodating. In the last few millenniums, after the mythical creatures showed themselves to the world, the humans understood their place and tier pretty early.

They were smart to surrender and be peaceful as all the species came to light, clever to know that even with less numbers they could be overpowered and bloodshed was detrimental to all involved.

He knew he would convert you soon though, your lifespan far too short for his liking, and obviously, now that he found you, you were to rule together. For Centuries.

His happiness was over taken by the realisation that you were not in the most hospitable settings, you were tied and strapped, being preyed on by his men. He made quick work of the restraints, allowing you to breathe by loosening them first. Your scared, trembling form plucked his unbeating heart’s strings, but strangely enough, his brain found amusement and he felt smug. Seeing you tied up and trembling was definitely a turn on for him, noted.

After commanding his foolish men to stop giggling, he leaned closer to you, your aura comforting and intoxicating as he smelled your hair. A divine scent, an addictive one for sure. The goosebumps on your skin confirmed the reciprocation of his connection.

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited for you.” His husky voice, calming but imposing resonated in your ears, his hand tapping your cheek on the other side. Even though the private statement was whispered for you, the deafening silence made every person witness it.

He leaned back, his hands behind his back as he grinned, tone again light like earlier and commanded, “Get her out of here and cleaned up, tell Nat and Wanda, they’ll know what I mean. Then we’ll deal with these guys here, after the lady leaves of course. No scratch on her from this point forward or you’ll lose a limb. Proceed.”  

All three of you, the hostages were going to get ‘taken care of’ but in different ways.

It had been over twenty hours for sure, you were abducted in the early hours of the morning and now the moon was out again, like one endless night. You remember being escorted to a sleek black car; your limbs ached but you managed to keep up. You tried to keep up with the car’s turns, trying to memorize the streets but your head was pounding and eyes were blurry.

You remembered being led to a suite in an expensive hotel like ones where your conferences were held, being taken to room and given towels to clean up. You didn’t change the dress when given another, the attire being a summer dress even shorter.  A woman came a while later named Wanda who checked the forming light contusions and scuffed skin with hands so delicate, as if you were precious cargo. You were, you just didn’t know.

You didn’t eat anything they provided and after hours of conspiring and overthinking, you heard sturdy footsteps. Since your arrival, only women bothered with you, probably the ones the leader sent. But these were heavier, harder.

The door opened and you glanced up to find the leader who demanded your locking up in this fancy place, his eyes travelling on your form sat up on bed, as you mindfully pulled your skirt down. You were anxious the entire day, dreading your future but nothing was like the restlessness that ran through you in this person’s presence.

Maybe it was the fact he was a vampire, or the leader of a Mob or maybe both, but whatever it was he intimidated you, alarmed you, even though you’ve had only two encounters including the present one. You were smart to be scared, he looked at you like, like you were something to eat, your mind told you.

“Hey.” His raspy voice caught you off guard, not having heard a single syllable out of the women the entire day, your questions being ignored the entire time.

You stared at him warily. Your mind having a myriad of emotions and thoughts. You didn’t want to trigger him, besides the place being armed well, he was a vampire, a beefy one at that and you would be stupid to try anything. Shouting and making a scene was no good either, your best option being the lamest one: to talk it out. You refused to become a willing blood bag.

You let out a long sigh, surprising him somehow, “Look, I have money, resources in the business sphere, information, what do you want? I know I got caught in this by accident, but I’m willing to do a lot of things to get out. Name it and I’ll do my best.” You said with your ‘business deal’ voice, the wise, guiding leader voice from your office.

For some reason though, the man found it hilarious. He slapped his hand on his chest, his boisterous laugh echoing. It wasn’t that good a joke if he believed it to be one. Men, ever so condescending.

“Humans, ever so gluttonous. I don’t want your money, precious.” His term of endearment didn’t fall short to your ears, but you had larger things in play here than a sweet nothing.  

“I have other things to offer, name it.” Within your moral sphere, of course.

“You still don’t get it, do you? And you humans boast you have everything figured about us.”

He neared you and you leaned to the inner area of the bed, refusing to get cornered to the wall if things escalate and wanting to have the option of running away, probably in vain though. With each step he took, a new shudder ran through you because of the closing distance between your bodies, it getting triggered in unexplainable ways.

You didn’t need to say words to prompt him to explain, your scrunched eyebrows already doing that mission. “You should feel it too, you know? The goosebumps, the bewilderment in your insides, you’re intoxicated by my very presence too, aren’t you?”

The more he neared, your breaths quickened visibly, his words becoming truer. Your skin heating, mind losing a bit of consciousness. His presence didn’t affect you to this extent in the warehouse, but now? You were putty, almost incapable to think. You tried to roll over to the other side but your plan failed because he caged you with his bulky hands on your shoulder, body diagonal across yours. With how slow and out of it you were, he didn’t even need his heightened speed to trap you.

“Oh, it’s kicking in, isn’t it? The realization, the surge of love and lust? To be held and cherished and be full of me?” He smirked at your trembling form, your chest heaving and weak arms trying to push him off.

“I’ve read humans feel flushed, hot, so let’s get you out of these scraps, yes?” He slid off the thin straps while you mumbled a very unconvincing ‘stop’. Both actions were pretty pointless because he wouldn’t stop, you both knew that and also, he ended up taking the top off over your torso the normal way.

Your hands barely managed to land themselves on his wrist to pull them off, but the foolish limbs ravished in the feel of his cold skin instead. It was like a high you had never experienced and your body wanted more. It was already addicted to the feel of this stranger whose name you didn’t even know.

He unzipped the skirt, your pathetic body no longer even fighting him as he rambled on. “Among us vampires, well not much to tell but we’re all freezing cold when we find our ‘zing’. Like every normal day. Except for the inability to think and the need for their mate’s blood, of course.”

He came back up to kiss you, his body now in line with yours as one hand held your cheek and the other groped your breast. You had an out of body experience, feeling disgusted for reciprocating the kiss but also wanting more of that, more of him.

He trailed down your neck to your collarbone and you gasped for air, your thoughts incoherent. He kissed between the valley of your breasts, removing the bra sometime in between as you heaved. He wanted nothing more than to rest in those swells for an eternity.

As soon as cold air hit your nipples, one was being sucked while other was being pinched. The nameless stranger alternated between licking like a kitten and sucking like a baby on the breasts. Your rational part felt gross but the dominating side was the one experiencing delight.

He kissed down the sternum, to your bellybutton and then hovered above the thin, flimsy underwear. His hands slid down your sides, down the curve of your waist and hooked themselves at the cloth’s side, pulling them down in a swift motion.

Your legs quaked, trying to close themselves but one muscular arm on your thigh was able to hold them off, throw one away from the other. He leaned down and you were pathetically still under his muscles, your lower limbs either not daring to move or not wanting to.

You wrapped your hands around your torso to hide a bit of yourself, but did that really matter in the larger picture of the events unfolding right now?

You closed your eyes, tears already escaping since minutes ago as you tried to accept the reality of what was happening. A cold sensation on your little button caught you off guard; an infinitesimal fraction of time later, an inhale reached your ears.

You looked down, opening your eyes to find the man smelling you, his Grecian nose poking through your folds and taking in sniffs of your intimate part.

“Please sto-”      

“The scent at its source, so fucking divine. I want a taste.” With that, your sentence got interrupted by his words and then by his action as his tongue licked away. It sucked on the bead, delving in the cavity there pretty fucking deep and he slurped away like he pretended to do when you were blindfolded.

Your back arched like a gymnast, hands that were folded across your chest clawing at your own skin, leaving marks behind. His hands were hooked around your thighs and they threw your legs on his shoulder some point in between. When he thrusted three fingers at once, an audible wheeze left your lips, your noiseless gasps now hoarse ‘Aah’s and you could feel him smirk.

There a also a lot of teeth involved with his razor sharp canines that appeared out of nowhere during this and when he thrusted his fingers particularly hard with his teeth nibbling on your sensitive bud, you shamelessly let go of the inside flow.

It felt humiliating and mortifying, your body glowing with the aftereffects of descending into bliss while your mind wanted to cry. Your soul was surprisingly content with what unfolded, at peace. You hated the diversity of emotions you felt, revolted to find even a bit of positive sentiment at your assaulter’s actions.

While your inner monologue happened, the man got up and out of his clothes painfully quick. You tried to sit your up, feebly trying to escape but ineffectively so. Your eyes couldn’t meet the handsome stranger’s nor did you want to see him naked and removed him form your eyeline, making you get caught off guard when his hands wrapped around your ankles and pulled you down, finishing the small distance you managed to crawl up.

His hands left their place as he kissed his way back up your flushed skin, from the swell of your ankle to the swell of your stomach. He licked away the drops of blood around the crescent scratches left by your nails under the intense ecstasy he forced upon you. Then he continued his journey from the swells of your chest to the swell of your cheek, taking you in a fiery, needy yet affectionate kiss.

Your surroundings blurred a second into the kiss, mouth and skin hungry for his touch alike. A thrust had you painfully gasp as you were stretched unlike ever before, impaled to a depth unlike ever before. He kissed away your tears that continued to spill on command of your ashamed mind and leaned back to look into your eyes, a pretty pink passing over them for a fleeting second.

His blue orbs bore into yours and you almost believed he loved you by the intensity of his gaze. At this moment in time, nothing but you two mattered, connected and finally together. How you got here didn’t matter, how unwilling you were didn’t matter. This felt right, felt necessary and was worthy of everything you went through. The rational part seemed to die the instant you two physically connected and somehow, everything and nothing made sense.

But you felt complete.

Your lips captured his of their own accord, and you both smiled into the caress of your lips while he began thrusting, one hand on your waist, the other supporting his weight. Out of breath, he leaned back, still thrusting though, and gazed at you. “Scott back there, he called you pretty, that’s practically an insult. The way you look right now, you’re much more than beautiful. You’re ethereal, my Zing, the loveliest in existence.”

His genuine words tugged at your heart. For some reason you believed him, had confidence in his feelings. Your foreheads connected as he quickened, his hand caressing your skin, the cool against your warm skin soothing. It didn’t take long for you to let go again this time; your previous resolution already dissolved. He neared your ears and whispered, “I want you to scream my name. It’s Bucky.” You nodded absentmindedly, chasing the high.

One particular thrust paired with his canines piercing your skin made you cry out “Bucky!” and you felt him smirking in your neck, lapping the blood. You wilted in bliss and your eyes closed, warmth filling you minutes after. Your eyes were dazed and you felt ‘Bucky’ shift, removing his towering frame from you, a goofy smile on the chiseled face.

With mind free of the aforementioned disapproving thoughts, you checked out his handsome face. It was like you saw him in an entirely different light now.

He gave you a quick peck, his hands cradling your face and he spoke with the utmost sincerity. “You are worth the wait, precious. No measure of time with you will be long enough. But we’ll start with forever to compensate. I’m never letting you go.”

[heniareth]

Hihihi can you please do 10 and 12 from the romanticism asks for Astala and Ilanlas? :D have a good one!

Hihihihihi to you!!! I apologize for the wait, 'tis the season. But!! Let's talk about moody poetry and theme songs for Astala and Ilanlas!! (I hope you're doing well and I hope you're having fun and resting these days. And, if not, that you'll get to do so very soon). Let's go!! (Under the cut, because it's a bit long; I couldn't choose just a few verses from that one poem)

10. What piece of moody poetry or novel quote best encompasses your character?

Astala

For Astala, we have this poem here:

Don't tell me that you understand,

Don't tell me that you know.

Don't tell me that I will survive,

How I will surely grow.

Don't tell me this is just a test,

That I am truly blessed,

That I am chosen for this task

Apart from all the rest.

Don't come at me with answers

That can only come from me,

Don't tell me how my grief will pass...

That I shall soon be free.

Don't stand in pious judgement

Of the bonds I must untie.

Don't tell me how to suffer,

And don't tell me how to cry.

My life is filled with selfishness,

My pain is all I see,

But I need you, and I need your love...

Unconditionally.

Accept me in my ups and downs,

I need someone to share,

Just hold my hand and let me cry,

And say, "My friend, I care."

It's listed as a poem by J. Hendel on TheSilverPen.com. Basically, I relate it to the part of Astala that rebels against her lot in life, is angry that she didn't get to marry and stay home and instead has to go out and save the world by herself. This feeling, I think, is prominent in the first days traveling with Duncan. Later it gets sort of shoved aside by the urgency of saving Ferelden from the Blight, until the Deep Roads. There she gets to see exactly what awaits her and every other Grey Warden at the end of their life, and the feeling resurfaces, tinged and nurtured by a deep-seated horror about what she's seen in the Deep Roads.

Ilanlas

For Ilanlas, I have found this quote:

"Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight, For the greatest tragedy of them all, Is never to feel the burning light."

It's attributed to Oscar Wilde, and it just... It fits. The fire imagery. The idea of flight. I relate them very much to Ilanlas, who, at his best, is someone who would love a good dive down the cliff and unfurling his wings at the last possible moment to not smash into the ground below. For Ilanlas, risk and the thrill of doing something dangerous is part of life. He is a liiiiiiiiittle bit of an adrenaline junkie and doesn't like to be made to sit still while everybody discusses their new course of action. He prefers to just do it. And, for a chance to be the person closest to the sun, he'd take the fall.

12. What is their character theme song and why? If it has lyrics, which line best fits them?

For Astala, I'm giving you this song:

It's an instrumental piece, and it just reminds me very much of her time as a dockhand in the Denerim harbor. It's nice and calm, like it's a very slow morning at work and she's found a moment to just sit in the sun, close her eyes and listen to what's going on around her. There probably was some sort of merrymaking in the Alienage the night before and she's tired from that, but happy. It's warm, she's had some food and life isn't so bad.

For Ilanlas I have Hymn for the Missing by Red. It's a terribly sad song. He's got others, of course, some angry, some just about everyday life, but this one really hammers home just how much Tamlen meant to him and how heavy that loss weighs on him. He's determined to search for him and find out what's happened, but he's not going to like the answer. That art of his story is a tragedy from the get-go, and the song just puts me right in that mood. Ilanlas really feels incomplete without Tamlen. It's not like they were always together, but Tamlen was someone constant in his life the way very few people have been; always had his back, always came back around whenever they fought, always managed to cheer him up. Things were easier with Tamlen around; now he's just... gone.

And on this sad note I'll leave you. I'm looking forward to getting to the part where Ilanlas finds Tamlen again. It's gonna be an angst fest >:)

Thank you so much for the ask!!! This was very fun to write XD XD XD XD I hope you have a very lovely day, stay warm and have fun ^^

[not-enough-teeth-and-treasures]

An Autistic’s Perspective on Tears of Themis’ Representation (spoiler alert: it’s bad)

Before you read, I should warn you that there will be spoilers for Chapter Five! Read at your own risk. Also, trigger warning for discussions of ableism and harmful disablility stereotypes. I get pretty heated as well, so if you’re not a fan of swearing and stuff, then it might be best to skip this.

So, I was debating whether or not I wanted to talk about this, mostly because this game doesn’t do anything new in regards to the perception of autism in media. Unfortunately, it ends up leaning into a lot of not great tropes and goes into “what the fuck that’s incredibly offensive territory” waaay to quickly. So here I am.

The most prevelant character with autism (or who we start out thinking has autism. Don’t worry, I’ll get to that) is a small, supergenius child (a boy as well *sigh*) is so overdone at this point that there aren’t many new criticisms I can say. The stereotype of autism presented in media is overwhelmingly extremely intelligent (usually with sciency or math based interests) men with no ability to socialize or be kind to others. This not only paints autism as a disability that effects men primarily (which creates intense stigma around AFAB autistic people and makes it harder for us to get diagnosed or believed), but also creates this expectation of greatness. Autistic people are often held to superhuman standards, which further others and dehumanizes us in the eyes of allistic people. The vast majority of autistic people are not savants, and that it perfectly fine.

But all of this is pretty standard. The red flags started popping up when it was revealed that the autistic kid, Hugh, doesn’t actually have autism and is faking it in order to keep people from asking hard questions about him or trying to pry into his life (which is full of secrets). I’m definitely not a fan of perpetuating the idea that people fake diabilities in order to manipulate people, so this plot twist was not my favorite. However, it wasn’t really enough to inspire me to write a whole ass essay about the representation. And then I got to the fucking text conversation with Vyn.

Here is where I’m gonna put a trigger warning for talk about eugenics, curing autism, ableism, and basically just a fuck ton of awful shit. Fuck, this makes me so mad.

So, I went in and took screenshots of both options just to see, and all of them lead to terrible bullshit. Lets start out pretty light with the MC and Vyn discussing symptoms.

This is a pretty limited and honestly incomplete explanation of autistic behaviors. These can definitely be symptoms, but they’re heavily overcovered and really basic. A lot of autistic people don’t have these symptoms, and it would be really nice if more media branched out and covered more of the spectrum. However, considering they don’t do anything different in any other areas, I’m not surprised.

Also not a fan of Vyn’s use of “abnormal.” It has some very negative connotations and is a bit insulting, honestly. These behaviors are perfectly “normal;” they’re just not as accepted by neurotypical people. Plus, no behaviors can really be labeled as normal because humans are complex and different.

That was the easy shit. Let’s get into the truly awful garbage.

This is treading into ABA territory here. For those of you who are unaware, ABA is pushed as the best autistic therapy, but a large majority of autistic adults consider it to be abusive and unhelpful. This is mainly because it seeks to “correct” many behaviors that are helpful for autistic people. It seeks to surpress stims (which are behaviors that improve the mental health of autistic children), force us to talk (as opposed to letting us use sign language and technology), and more. This harms our mental health and makes us ashamed of who we are. These behaviors do not need to be “corrected.” We don’t need to act “normally.” All this therapy does is make us more palitable for neurotypical people, and it’s bullshit.

It also doesn’t help that ABA was pioneered by Ivar Lovaas, a man who did not believe autistic people were human. He developed ABA as a way to “build a person” using harsh punishments such as withholding affection and ELECTRIC SHOCKS. If you think this is a think of the past, you’d be wrong. Electric shocks are still being used to harm disabled people. Look up the hashtag #StopTheShock to learn more and help push for legislation that bans this practice.

Oh, and did I mention Ivar Lovaas also inspired gay conversion therapy? Because he did! So yeah, fuck ABA and fuck Vyn for performing it (god damn it, Vyn, I liked you a lot).

And now, onto the eugenics. Fuck my life.

FUCK! THIS! BULLSHIT!

I am so tired of autism being treated as this horrific disease that needs a cure. I had a perfectly fine childhood. Yes, it was hard at times, yes I got traumatized, but a large part of that was due to ableism and abuse from teachers and peers. A large reason why autistic people suffer is because the world is not built for us, and we are often denied accommodations that would make our lives better.

It is beyond offensive and disgusting to suggest that we would be better off not existing than “suffering so much” because of autism. Because that is what this game and everyone else who thinks there should be a cure is suggesting. There is no me without autism. it literally affects my brain structure. You are wishing for a completely different person when you tell me that autism should be cured.

Now, I’m not going to get into the horrible consent issues that arise from talks about a cure, including genetic editing, fear mongering to parents so they think abortion is the only option, and straight up Nazi style eugenics. I do not have the spoons to delve into that exhausting discussion. But if you want to know more, then there are so many incredible autistic people who have written blogs, Twitter threads, and more about why a cure is a terrible idea.

Oh, and if you’re going to come at me with the “severely autistic people should be cured” bullshit, don’t bother. There is no such thing as “severe” autism, first of all, and second, non verbal autistic people (which are who people think of when they talk about “severe” autism), largely don’t want a cure. There have been so many surveys of tens of thousands of autistic people, and the result is that the overwhelming majority do not want to be cured. We want support and proper accommodations. Listen to us.

So, in conclusion, fuck this text conversation and it’s ableist and offensive bullshit. I really wish ToT had stayed away from autism, or at the very least did not touch on therapy or a possible cure. For a game that is about genetic experimentation on children and how bad that is, it sure peddles a lot of eugenics.

Fuck, this text conversation actually made me ill and I hate that. I’m so done with constantly trying to prove to the world that I am a human being who deserves to exist. I’m gonna go cuddle my service dog now.

[tokoyamisstuff]

Dark Side Of The Moon Ch. 1 - Dark! Loki x Reader

Chapter 1: Speak to Me/Breathe

Chapter Summary: The last thing you remember was being mortally wounded, now having woken up in a completely different reality. And you’d soon need to face the horrors of who would seek you out...

Warnings: Violence, Blood, Suicide Attempt, Graphic Descriptions of Death, Dark! Loki, Spoiler you kinda die but kinda don't

Words: approx. 3800

[Story Masterlist]

Masterlist to my other works right ->Here<-

Lyrics used from the Song: Kina ft. Snow - Get You The Moon

“Y/N, look out!”

The piercing sounds of gunfire nearby made your eardrums ring, yet Steve’s words got through to you nonetheless.

But you were determined to end this, here and now.

Tony was the first one at your side, catching you in his arms before you hit the floor. However, you could only do so much as whimper a silent apology to your friends, who now had to live with the consequences of your actions.

“Why did you do this?!” you heared Dr. Strange yell as he unsucessfully tried to close the deep cut in your gut. Too afraid of what you might see if you’d look at the wound, your glare was locked on the beautiful sky - yes, the sun was almost setting, and it was somehow calming to you that this would most likely the last thing you’d set eyes upon.

“There was no reason to be this reckless!” Steve followed close by, his scolding soon turning into desperate screams. “Fuck. FUCK!” If Captain America himself is cussing, then it’s as severe as you thought it to be.

Your wounds were lethal, that much was sure.

And of course they were right, as always: You didn’t need to play the martyr here, throwing yourself into danger to shield your comrades - well, you did anyway, and there was no going back now.

On the other hand, they were the ones taking a gravely depressed widow onto a dangerous mission. But you did not want your precious friends to blame themselves for that, for it was your own wish.

Dying in an honorable battle was what would send you to Valhalla, after all - where you could finally meet him again, hopefully.

The only one not having spoken a single word up until now was Thor, very well knowing what all this was about. It was no secret that you were sick and tired of how your life had turned out to be, ever since the Infinity War.

You felt empty. Incomplete. Desperate. Hallow.

The God of Thunder had turned his back to you, yet there was still agony radiating from that already broken man. Your almost-brother-in-law was the only one who could possibly understand your pain. Thor Odinson had lost everything: His homeland, most of his tribe, his family and best friend - and soon, you as well.

All this time, you wanted to be strong. For them, who had also lost so much!

But at some point things just got out of control.

“You can’t leave me alone, Lady Y/N! Not you too!” Thor finally whimpered as he fell onto his knees, softly squeezing your hand. “You’re the only thing I have left from him!

So this is what dying feels like.

The bloodloss caused your limps to go limp, and when the pain began to stop and got replaced by numbness, you knew it would soon be time. Your brain lost the remaining control over your body, and you found yourself encoated by pure nothingless.

Only able to listen by their screams, cries and kind words - at least you’d die surrounded by those marvellous people. It sure was a privilege knowing them.

You weren’t afraid - all in all, it had been a good life, after all. 

There were no regrets.

“Shh” you hushed them, using your last bit of strenght so your lips formed somewhat of a most broken smile, forming words between gurling on your own blood.

“It’s alright, I-” you cut yourself off, trying to scream as a last, torturing pain shot through your whole system. “I-I-I’ll-- meet him again...you know?”

“I’m no-not strong enough, please...” Thor cried out like you had never seen him before, feeling a tide of guilt wash over you. “Loki wouldn’t have wanted you to go like this! He told me to protect you, so you could lead a long and happy life!”

Without him? Impossible!

“You gave me a shoulder when I needed it

You showed me love when I wasn’t feeling it

You helped me fight when I was giving in

And you made me laugh when I was losing it”

Yes, indeed: You had been to selfish to keep on living just for the sake of your friends, burdening them with yet another loss.

“I-I don’t wanna go...this was a mistake, I- please...”

How badly did you want to soothe them right now, telling them that everything would be alright and you’d meet them again, eventually?

It was too late now.

Your body gave up earlier than your soul, which had endured and kept on all this time, even in it’s shattered state.

And when Tony’s palm gently closed your eyes, making it easier for you to embrace the cold darkness, the last thing you heared before your senses gave up were startling you enough to almost bring you back to life:

“I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

That voice was familiar, yet it didn’t belong to Loki. Dr. Strange, no- Stephen Strange, your friend and mentor of the mystic arts.

“I don’t have the heart to allow this to happen” he stated frantic, making you wonder if that was a dream of your hypoxic brain or if you were still able to hear them? People tend to say the sense of hearing dies last, after all. “She still has a pulse, even though weak. Hurry!”

Their voices were far in the back, words way too far out of your reach to understand. As if you were an outsider, only observing from a distance.

Your friends were fighting, or maybe discussing something. That much you could make up from their tone, but your mind was too exhausted to make sense of anything.

It felt as if you were already without a body, floating through the unknown like a feather in the wind - not knowing where fate would lead you to next.

Everything was numb - even your pain. It was soothing, somehow.

Because you had been a ghost way before, when you were alive even. An empty shell of a human, acting like they weren’t dead on the inside.

Coherent thoughts, memories, emotions...even the fractions of your own past you had both collected and surpressed. Right now, they were all restrained and pushed far in the back of your very core, where you were finally able to evaluate them without earthly bondings.

Was this heaven, hell - or maybe both or none or them?

____

"Be aware of the limits this tactic has. It’s a very drastic measurement that can most likely be used only once in your lifetime, and it is not guaranteed to work either.”

Stephen’s voice again. You recall that scene, it’s been long in the past...but why are you remembering it now?

Yes, this was familiar. All of you had been invited to the Sanctum Sanctorum, a fitting place to teach about this ancient knowledge.

You clearly remembered that Loki was absent in any of the Doctor’s lessons, feeling that a “puny human” was “unworthy” to teach him, and “it would be nothing new anyway, Y/N, I am a god and the way better wizard, I know it all already.”

What he was about to tell you back then was some kind of crazy emergency-plan: Dangerous, unpredictable and escpecially untested.

“I’ve only read about this tactic up until now” the mage pondered loudly as he picked at his goatee, earning some childish giggles by you and Tony. “So I cannot promise that it will function as planned. The Multiverse is dangerous and acts in unforseen ways.”

“Very reassuring” you had mocked at the time, not really biding the topic any importance or thought ever again.

But now...

The trick sounded way simpler than it actually was, being as complex as it is only natural for something like that, costing a huge prize at that:

Dr. Strange would send any of you who were on the brink of death through a portal, thus leading you into a random dimension of this endless Multiverse.

That dimension, in which your alternate self has most likely died, will gladly accept you as a “replacement”. Some kind of what Peter Parker called a “glitch” will occur, instantly healing all of your wounds - even fatal ones, so you could remain in the timeline that was missing you. 

Yet the consequences of this maneuvre would be unspeakable.

_____

“That bastard...” you gnarled internally, finally realizing why you would remember this of all things after apparently having just taken your dying breath. “He didn’t just-”

Eventually, you realized having escaped death’s grip, slowly beginning to regain your senses - yet still refusing to open your eyes.

“I don’t want to leave this place. My friends -- will I never see them again? No. NO! Life is meaningless. Just let me be with him. Please! Loki...”

“’Cause you are, you are

The reason why I’m still hanging on

‘Cause you are, you are

The reason why my head is still above water

And if I could I’d get you the moon

And give it to you

And if death was coming for you

I’d give my life for you”

Another part of Strange’s lesson echoed in your head, revealing that you were now in fact up on your own.

“Not even I can tell just how much this timeline will differ from what you know. Of course I will search for you right away, but considering the countless possibilities, it might very well be that we’ll never meet again. But you’re alive, and hopefully safe. That’s all that counts.”

Grass tickled your palm as you twitched your fingers, testing the limits of your body, which had literally just tricked death. Suddenly, you felt a stinging pain, almost like lightning boring into your temportal. The origin of this pain remained unknown.

When you finally found the courage to sit up, your flesh still feeling as heavy as lead, you realized that Stephen was most likely wrong: He assumed that you’d find yourself in a place you had a deep connection with, yet that place was unrecognizable to you.

Then why were you here of all places?

Actually, this location was incredibly beautiful, managing to stop the aching in your heart, if only for the fraction of a second.

Your former lover would’ve loved this place.

“'Cause you are, you are

The reason why I’m still hanging on

'Cause you are, you are

The reason why my head is still above water

And if I could I’d get you the moon

And give it to you

And if death was coming for you

I’d give my life for you”

Even though not all of Dr. Strange’s speculations were correct, you decided to stick to his emergency plan: Find as much information about this “new” earth as possible, point out the differences to your initial one, and then contact the Dr. Strange of this dimension.

Two mages working on crossing each other’s path would at least higher the stakes to find your original timeline.

Well, no one could guarantee you that the Avenger’s existed on this timeline, and they could as well be evil in this one...what a weird and horrifying imagination.

Knowledge really was power - that was another thing Loki had taught you a long time ago, and it would prove valuable, especially in this situation.

As you wandered this surprisingly extensive garden and getting lost in admiring the beauty of it’s nature, you found yourself devoid of any weapons. That fact made you slightly uncomfortable, even though your current location seemed absent of any ememies, making a peaceful impression. 

Seemingly there weren’t any evil schemes going on in this dimension.

It basically were only minor differences, at least that was your first impression. At least there were no changes in natural laws or something as big.

“I miss the days where magic and science didn’t mix up like this” you whispered, mainly to yourself as you examined the new, large scar on your abdomen - the only memory left of your “almost-suicide-mission”.

To be more precize: The only thing left from your former life, now leaving you able to start completely anew, wether you wanted it or not.

Sun had almost drowned behind the horizon, diving the sky in a deep orange. Your eyes were still adjusting, yet you could’ve sworn to see the silhouette of a person. It was far away, at the entrance on what appeared to be a palace belonging to this garden.

Apparently, you had invaded someone’s propery, and you could only pray that it was noone important - or worse, a owner who would defend their ground with violence.

You don’t think your earth had a place this...flashy. The castle was way bigger than any you knew on the other timeline. The first difference you had figured out, yet it was only a minor one.

Maybe the headache you were experiencing was from someone making you  out as an intruder?

One thing was sure: You had been noticed, and you immediately were on high alert.

Where to run to or at least hide?

There was a maze made out of bushed parting you and the palace, and since there was no better option, you’d enter it. Talking to that person and convincing them of your goodwill would make it way easier to gain information.

“You may come out” you declared as you made your way, unable to evaluate the situation properly. “I mean no harm. I’m just lost.”

Was it dangerous to be here? Obviously, you were not allowed to be here anyway.

However, when you had finally found the escape to that maze, only several hundret meters away from the building, the person was already gone.

Had your mind just played a dirty trick on you again? Wouldn’t be the firt time it’d betray you like this...

No. You clearly felt someone watching you.

And as soon as your senses had sharpened to your usual self again, you instantly jumped back, gaining some distance to the Citauri that had just appeared behing you.

Shit! You weren’t ready to fight again just yet. Not like this.

And where one of those vile beasts were, many others would appear. You knew that much.

Had Thanos invaded this earth? Oh god, not again...not him. You were so damn tired of those fights, escapes and especially the pain that always inevitable followed after.

Just when it was about to swing it’s weapon at your head, you felt dizziness crawl up your nerves, making you collapse on the floor. Lucky for you, because only like that, the stike didn’t hit you.

Even though having been taught basic magic skills, that certain kind of spell you were unable to fight against - only true masters of the art were able to perform a sorcery that well.

The Chitauri had left your line of sight, yet the other figure from before reappeared in a pace so fast that your eyes couldn’t follow. They sweeped you off the floor just before your head would meet the hard pavement.

“And now you will answer to me, shapeshifter.”

Once again someone robbed you of the control of your life and body, leaving you without a free will.

How long had you been passed out now? You didn’t know and honestly didn’t care either - since you had nothing to lose anymore.

In the meantime, the owner of those lands had dismissed his guards, not wanting to be disturbed as he was left alone with you in the giant throne room.

The apparent ruler of that unclassified location was sitting on his throne, warily observing you from above. You were lying to his feet at the bare floor, every piece of clothing robbed from you and restrained by a pile of chains. He watched every twitch, all breaths you’d take or groans escaping your mouth until you would finally awake.

Oh, how you really were just like he remembered you, with every little detail he had adored.

At long last, you would finally open your lids again, blinking heavily as you took in your surroundings - but when your eyes met certain emerald ones, they immediately sprung wide open, the emptiness in your heart being filled with all kinds of emotions once again.

The man - it was him!

“'Cause you are, you are

Oh, you are

Oh, you are

You are'Cause you are, you are

The reason why I’m still hanging on

'Cause you are, you are

The reason why my head is still above water

And if I could I’d get you the moon

And give it to you”

“Loki!” you screamed from the bottom of your heart. Without a single coherent thought, your legs would carry on their own as your weakened body stumbled in their attempt to climb those stairs.

For both of you, that momend of reuinion had waited far too long.

The god was temptated to approach you, his trembling hands already reaching out to catch your fragile body should you fall - but suddenly, you felt his knuckles digging into your cheekbone.

“Stay away from me, you fake!” Loki yelled furiously as you hit the ground, rubbing your cheek as you tried to understand what just happened.

Yeah, that sure brought you back to reality again, after such a short high.

Right.

That isn’t your Earth - and not your Loki either.

You couldn’t even be sure this world’s Y/N and Loki had the same kind of relationship the two of you had back in your timeline! The only thing you knew was that he knew you from his past, but as it seemed not pleasantly.

Now that you looked closely, he even had less scars, almost looking untouched and pure - like a true, invincible god. Maybe life here had treat him well, unlike his counterpart from your timeline.

He was still wearing that excessive outfit with the golden horns, and much to both your amazement and fear, it seemed that he still possessed theTesseract.

Could it be...

Before you could connect the dots, the king would soon interrupt your string of thoughts. “Drop that disguise, scum!”

Loki kept on degrading you as he paced in front of his throne, brow sinking deeper and deeper. “Don’t think you can somehow appeal to those pathetic sentiments” he explained, “I’ve freed myself from them long ago. Just stop making a fool out of yourself, and maybe I’ll reward it with a quicker death.”

Yet when he saw your most innocent smile, even this Loki would stand frozen in place, deeply in shock.

How he yearned to see it, all those years - to tell you just how sorry he was for everthing he’s done.

No.

He had left all of this behind - to claim his birthright and rule.

“I-I’m deeply so-sorry...that is a mistake” you whimmered with a broken voice, wiping a tear of joy out of your face. “My feelings overwhelmed me, I guess. I’ve never thought to see you again, even if you’re not the same Loki I know.”

Still cowering on the floor, you looked up to him with compassionate eyes, as if he had not just beat you before. You did not dare to make any more, wanting for Loki to try and understand himself.

“A variant?” he gnarled, just like you did when he realized.

No force in the world had allowed him to access other parts of the Multiverse, no matter how desperately he tried - and now fate had literally dropped you in front of his door.

Loki balled his fists in anger, making you flinch as you anticipated yet another blow.

“Dear, I-”

“Shut up!” the God of Mischief shoutet, causing his magic to break free. The walls of the palace were shaking, most windows and furniture having been destroyed. “It’s no use, woman!”

That man was way more powerful than the “puny god” people called names back on Asgard - and his sheer might made you quiver.

Just what kind of monster had he become, and why?

“L-Loki, please...” you tried to appeal to the last bit of humanity  he might possess, and your begging made his guts twist in agony. “You’re scaring me.”

“You better be scared!” he exclaimed, grabbing you by the chin and forcing you to look at him. “No matter what disgracefully weak “alter ego” of me you knew, I am built different. Stronger. Better. Everyone in the Nine Realms fears me, and I desire nothing else! Everything distracting me from fulfilling my destiny and reign over you dull creatures I got rid of. You’re nothing more than an insect I might as well crush right here and now!”

Choking on a sob, he tried to relish that last chance he got to admire you, smell you, touch what he cannot possess...no matter how many universes there may be.

A flood of tears cracked down your face at his words, yet you couldn’t be helped.

No matter what he would say - he looked just like him.

And that was enough for you to feel alive after such a long time of being a walking dead. There had to be a reason you landed right at his home, of all places in this universe. You had a connection, both of you felt it ever since you had been transported here.

"May I ask-” you disrupted yourself, awaiting some reaction. But the conqueror had seemed to have spoken what he thought important to say, not declining your question at all.

Whenever he seemed fit, he could disintegrate you - yet right now, this situation was way too intriguing.

“What happened to myself in this reality?”

Loki swallowed harshly, letting go off of you as he threw you down the stairs. He wouldn’t even bide you one look as he tried to surpress the turmoil of emotion still running through his veins, desperately keeping it from breaking free.

The outcome would always be the same: Suffering, for both of you.

“And if death was coming for you

I’d give my life for you.”

He only ever wanted it to stop hurting. To become unfeeling, since love had always been poisoning his mind, sometimes being gifted with it even though he knew he would never be worthy of anything else than disgust and hate.

And that contradiction caused him to throw away anything good that happened to him, through you. Let it be taken away from him just shortly after finally learning to remotely enjoy.

You deserved the truth, a reason to hate him even more than you probably already did.

Had you only come to his salvation earlier, then he might have been helped - yet now, he was beyond redemption. Broken. Sick. Dangerous.

And when the Chitauri dragged you away, his last words let your blood run cold:

“She died through my hands.”

_____

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[duckprintspress]

What is a Story?

When Duck Prints Press put out our call for applicants, we asked everyone to submit “a sample of their work (between 1,000 and 2,000 words)… [that] must function as a short story.” When we reviewed the 100+ samples we received, we noticed many areas where writers commonly struggled. Based on what we learned, we’ve planned a number of blog posts to discuss these challenging areas, and we’ve decided to tackle one of the most frequent issues first. Many otherwise strong submissions lost points on our rubric line regarding “plot and events,” and specifically, they scored a 1 or a 2 because “the story has no plot (for example, is a vignette).” 

So, this begs the question, what is a story, and, of course, what isn’t a story?

(note that throughout this post, I use the word “narrative” to refer to any amount of text that may or may not be a story, and I use story only in a more narrow, specific sense.)

What is a story?

The answer is deceptively simple: a story is any narrative that has a plot. But...what is a plot? There are many ways to define a plot, but at its most basic, a plot has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and by the ending, something has changed. If, at the end of the story, nothing has changed, then it’s not a story. However, even if something has changed, it’s still not necessarily a story, because characters and time-frame also influence the definition. A narrative without at least one character is not a story. Likewise, a narrative time-frame, if it’s discussing events at a meta-level (“this happened, then this happened, then this happened”) may show that changes occur, but it’s still not a story - it’s an overview or an outline. The lines, of course, can be blurry - and where any given author, reader, or DPP reviewer draws the line between “this is a story” and “this isn’t a story” will vary. 

How is a story communicated to the reader?

To function as a story, the narrative must include characters. Now, character doesn’t necessarily have to mean person, or even require sentience, but there must be some point of view being explored, and if the character is an animal or an inanimate object, writing it as a character will require a degree of anthropomorphizing. The key aspect is that the character has some form of agency - some ability to interact with and influence their surroundings. This character will have a point of view and a perspective that affects how they perceive the story’s setting, and by the end of the story this character should have either changed themselves, or changed their surroundings, or changed their relationships. The circumstances around this character must be different by the end of the story than they were at the beginning - or else it’s not a story.

What is change?

As part of the narrative, one or more characters in the story must engage in some form of activity that results in the world around them changing. Writing advice most oftenly calls this “conflict,” but honestly? I hate that word. The classic couching of “person vs. self, person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. society, person vs. fate” as the available types of conflict is tired. Defining the only kind of change as conflict and specifically describing it as “x versus y” is to automatically get a potential writer thinking in terms of antagonism. While antagonism is one available type of change, it’s not the only, and while many pieces of writing advice point out that these “versus” constructions don’t mean enmity by nature...why not simply choose a less confusing construction, one that doesn’t require addenda to explain the existence of narratives that clearly are stories but are less “versus” and more “and” - “person and self,” “person and person,” “person and nature,” “person and society,” “person and fate.” I’ve opted to use the word change, because one of the clearest ways to tell if a narrative is a story or not is to look at the nature of the character(s) are at the beginning, and look at the nature of them at the end, and say - what’s different? Maybe they’ve built something. Maybe they’ve reached a new understanding. Maybe they’ve conquered a challenge. Maybe they’ve altered their perspective. Maybe they’ve learned something. Maybe, they’ve changed the world, or maybe, they’ve just changed a light bulb - but something has changed.

Before some writing snob comes at me and says, “okay, fine, we dare you to come up with a plot that doesn’t fit into the classic five conflict types” ...of course we can’t. That model functions because all stories can be shoehorned into it, as long as very loose definition of “conflict” and “versus” are used. But because it’s described in oppositional terms, a lot of writers get distracted by that terminology and think there has to be, well, a conflict, in the narrow definition of the word. And that’s clearly absurd - many of our favorite fanfiction tropes, for example, are fluffy and comforting and soft precisely because they’re not about conflict, they’re about harmony. Yes, “enemies to lovers” is wonderful, but so is “friends to lovers.” Two people going on a date that ends with a marriage proposal is a story: they started out as a couple and ended engaged. Something has changed - their relationship status. But to call that “person versus person,” while perhaps technically correct, is ludicrous. Now, to keep it interesting, there might be some “person versus self” - “I’m not worthy of this love, omg do they really care for me, oh will society give us problems if we say yes?” which is how it can be shoehorned into the “conflict” model. But be it ever so soft, and their love ever so accepted, and their faith in each other ever so steady - if there really is no conflict, just those two people meeting up and having a nice night and ending in a proposal...it’s still a story. To say it’s not a story because there was no conflict, only an advancement of their relationship...yes, a story like that is borderline to being a vignette or “slice of life” narrative. Certainly, if there’s zero sources of tension, it may not be a very interesting story, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a story. 

What else does a story need?

Honestly - not much. Don’t get us wrong - a story is stronger if it has a setting so that it doesn’t just take place in endless blankness. A story with multiple characters but no form of dialog (verbal or non-verbal) may be a little flat. A story where something changes but some of the introduced plot elements aren’t resolved will feel incomplete to a reader. A story without any negativity could be boring. Stories lacking these elements may not be good stories...or they could be amazing, and innovative, showing how a tale can be told without elements we usually consider essential! As long as something or someone has changed, and the story is told in a narrative, descriptive format that includes a character - it’s a story.

What isn’t a story?

Things that aren’t stories fall into two broad categories:

Narratives that have description, characters, dialogue, setting, and other story elements, but nothing changes. Examples of this are “slice of life” narratives and what, in fandom-parlance, would be called an episode coda or canon insert - a chunk of narrative deliberately meant to make a bridge between two established events but in which nothing can change because the surrounding events remain established. (A coda or insert might be a story, it varies.)

Narratives that are either entirely “show” (for example, a vignette) or entirely “tell” (for example, a synopsis),  These can also be seen as relating to time - either there’s little or no passage of time (usually the case in vignettes) or far too much passage of time (usually the case in synopses). Narratives like this may or may not include a character, but even if they do, they’re still not stories. Why not? Because any story that is entirely “show” and involves minimal passage of time is unlikely to result in change, and instead will be an extended description of a moment. And any story that is entirely “tell” and depicts a large swath are overviews - there’s no element to actually grab a reader and no reason the reader should care about this dry relationship of events. That’s not a story - it’s a history textbook.

Drawing the lines between these categories can be difficult, and to some extent will come down to taste. Anyone who says there’s a hard-and-fast rule in writing is a liar. Just because a synopsis or a “slice of life” narrative isn’t usually a story doesn’t mean they will never be one. But, in general, if you’re looking at a piece of work and you’re trying to determine if it’s a story or not, there are some signs that will strongly suggest it’s not a story:

There are no characters.

There is no setting.

Nothing has changed between the beginning and ending of the narrative.

The entire narrative is an extended description of a single person/object/setting.

The entire narrative could easily be reworded into a sequence of, “thing one happened, then thing two happened, then thing three happened, then thing four happened.”

The narrative feels like a “pause,” or a “bridge” that takes place between two events that aren’t depicted in the narrative.

A central conflict or issue is introduced or described in details, but nothing is done to try to solve the issue.

Now, for the most important part of this discussion of what isn’t a story: writing something that isn’t a story isn’t a bad thing! Especially in fanfiction communities, we live for self-indulgent narratives that make us happy. We love to see those “moments between.” We live for a thought-out thousand-year history for some setting that didn’t originally have that much background. These kinds of narratives are fun to write, and especially when they’re part of an existing franchise, can be a delight to read. We are not saying that there is literally anything wrong with writing a narrative that isn’t a story. 

That said, Duck Prints Press’s applicant call specifically asked authors to submit a writing sample that was a story, with the eventual goal of selecting authors to write short stories for an anthology. Which is to say: there’s nothing wrong at all with writing “slice of life” stories, codas, canon inserts, vignettes, or synopses - it’s simply not what we asked people to submit in this specific case, and we’ve come to see that a lot of people submitted non-stories without an apparent understanding of the difference, and we wanted to explain that difference.

But, to everyone reading this: write whatever brings you joy, in as much detail or vagueness as makes you happy, and share it with whoever you want. Just also understand, that for many types of narratives, if you’re asked “is that a story?” it’s not. That’s not to create a hierarchy - they’re all equal as art forms, they’re just not the same.

Okay I kinda understand this in theory but what do these differences actually look like in practice?

In long-form works, it’s usually relatively easy to recognize what is a story and what isn’t. Almost every novel ever published has a plot, and has things change, and is therefore a story. (though there are exceptions - Wikipedia lists a few longer vignettes and, when done thoughtfully, it can be astonishingly effective.) However, in shorter works, it can be difficult to tell the difference - and, as previously mentioned, the lines can blur.

In the interest of giving an idea of what the differences are, here are a few examples I quickly cooked up to try to show you all, since I’ve done a lot of “telling” so far (this blog post: also not a story, ha!) and very little demonstration. These are each around 150 words, to show that even in a tiny word count, any of these narrative structures is a viable choice. (Sorry these aren’t high literature - I just threw them together for this post, so I’d have something that suited.)

(read more)

A story - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where something changes:

The door slammed open. Looking up from her embroidery, Victoria blinked as Margaret strode into the room.There was an air of expectancy that was inexplicable to Victoria; she grew more confused when Margaret approached and dropped to one knee.

“What are you doing?” Heart pounding, Victoria attempted self-restraint, but she couldn’t rein in her hope, because it almost looked like...it seemed like...but--

“Proposing,” announced Margaret, pulling a velvet-covered box from her pocket and opening to reveal an emerald set in a gold band.

“But you can’t!”

Margaret tilted her head to the side and frowned. “Why not?”

Objections occurred to Victoria, but examining them...she couldn’t think of a one that Margaret wouldn’t demolish with her usual brilliance. “You know what? You’re right. Who’s to stop us? And...I accept.”

And as Margaret slipped the ring onto Victoria’s finger, she knew: there could be no objection. Nothing had ever felt so right in her life.

“Slice of life” - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where nothing changes:

“What a day!” said James, dropping onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. 

“I know what you mean,” Tom agreed. He fumbled a hand across the cushion separating them, and James delighted in the simple comfort of threading their fingers together.

A beep, beep, beep sounded in the kitchen, announcing that the microwave had finished nuking their leftovers.

“You getting that?” asked Tom.

“It’s your turn!” James countered.

“But I don’t want to let go of your hand.” Tom gave his hand a squeeze, and a pleased glow suffused James’s chest.

It was Tom’s turn to retrieve their dinner.

But Tom was right - holding hands was wonderful.

“Let’s get it together,” James suggested. 

Hesitating, Tom remained still as James sit up and gave a tug on their joined arms, then he broke into a smile and rose at James’s side.

“I love the way you think.”

“I love you, too, darling”

And together - always together - they got their dinner.

“Bridge” scene, episode coda, or canon insert-style fic - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where nothing changes:

Arriving home after the battle, Sandy opened the rough-hewn door and shed her damaged armor. Her dented cuirass had left an aching bruise across her chest; she carried it to the smithy out back for repair in the morning. A gash on her thigh throbbed where an arrow had pierced the straps holding her greaves in places; she brought them to her leather-working station. Nicks and fissures marred her once-gleaming sword blade. All Sandy wanted was to collapse in bed, but resisted the pull of relaxation, because blood limned the damaged places red, and repair to the damaged weapon couldn’t wait. Taking a seat, placed her feet on the treadles that set her whet stone to spinning and set about polishing out every imperfection.

Yes, she was exhausted.

But her sword must be cleaned, and smoothed, and honed, and prepared.

Sandy must be prepared.

There would always be another battle to be fought.

Vignette, a narrative without a beginning, a middle, or an end, which may or may not have a character, and nothing changes and in which the emphasis is on showing, rather than telling (but, as in this example, a combination may be used):

The wind blew chill down the narrow mountain pass. All was silent, save for the rush of the breeze. All was still, save where gusts stirred the tall grasses and the branches of trees that reached, claw-like, toward the sky. 

Once upon a time, a stream had carved this cut through the cliffs, forcing its way through soft chalk and hard shale, leaving jagged stones that emerged from the steep pass walls like teeth. The stream was long dry, now, only water-smoothed stones strewn across the ground to show where it had ever been.

Once upon a time, travellers had traversed the dried-up rill bed, pounding down the dirt, knocking the rocks aside, leaving scars where their fires burned. They’d lived, and laughed, and explored, and sought...and left, never to return.

Now, there was nothing: nothing but the storm.

And all was silent.

And all was still.

And the wind blew, chill, down the narrow mountain pass.

Synopsis, a narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end, which may or may not have characters, and where something changes, and in which  the emphasis is on telling rather showing:

Emperor Xiang Zhen was born in 9884 to Dowager Empress Luo Zexi and the warlord Xiang Yijun. After his birth, there was a long period of strife. Those who supported Xiang Yijun’s claim to the throne battled those who still supported the Dowager Empress’s deceased husband Peng Zhenya. Eventually, the factions found common ground when Xiang Zhen came of age, and he was enthroned in 9902. 

With his reign came peace and prosperity. The arts flourished. Scholarship advanced, and many great Dao masters arose, using cultivation to rid the land of evil’s left by the long war. Xiang Zhen longed to join a Night Hunt himself, but he was trapped by his political position. He didn’t dare risk the fragile stability in the Empire. If something happened to him, the results could be catastrophic. So he studied, and ruled, and adjudicated, and endowed, and endured.

Xiang Zhen did as he must.

But, oh...he wished he weren’t alone.

I know this is long, so we’ll leave this discussion at this point. Hopefully you found it helpful, and please do let me know if you have any questions! Duck Prints Press is always here to offer support to writers, and we love getting writing asks!

[willow-salix]

It’s here, Virgil’s FabFiveFeb

A nice little bit of Virg fluff for @gumnut-logic

"I think he'd like someone that has an interest in creative pursuits," Gordon mused, poking one of the boxes to tick it. 

"And someone that likes to go for walks, you know what he's like for wanting to wander and take in the scenery, maybe even snap some pictures to paint later," Scott added, touching another box to tick it. 

"More of a home body than an adventurer, he gets enough of that with work," Gordon added it to the list. "And they definitely have to believe that family is important, he can't have someone that won't understand his commitments."

"OK, next, all about him," Scott scrolled down to the next section. "His interests…"

"Classical music, obviously."

"Enjoys visiting art galleries and concerts."

"And eating out."

"Don't we all?" 

Gordon nodded at that, there was nothing they liked more than picking up some tasty food. 

"Ideal date? What's that movie he likes? The one with the lake house?" 

"Oh, I know the one you mean, with the…the…" Scott's brain failed to make the connection, romantic comedies were not his thing, that was what Virgil watched with Selene, not him. 

"Doesn't matter," Gordon assured him, brushing it aside. "He liked the date so I'm putting it down. A relaxed stroll along a lake side at sunset," he murmured to himself as he quickly typed it out. 

"That's the one," Scott nodded. "He-" 

"Allie! Have you seen Scott?" The sound of Virgil's voice floating up from the kitchen made them both jump guilty. 

"I think he's in the lounge," Alan shouted back. 

"Shit!" 

"He's coming!" 

"Quick, submit it, submit it!" Gordon smacked at the submit button, growling in frustration when a flashing red 'incomplete field' warning mocked them. 

The sound of steel capped boots thumping up stairs spurred them on. 

"Just tick anything!" Scott yelped, fingers flying as he randomly poked boxes in between Gordon whacking the submit button like it had personally offended him. 

"Yes!" Gordon sighed as the 'congratulations' sign appeared in green. "Done!" 

Scott just had time to hit the x and pull up a report before Virgil strolled his way in. 

"What are you two doing?" he asked suspiciously, stopping dead in the doorway when he was greeted by the sight of the two brothers least likely to be discussing a report seeming to be doing just that. 

"Nothing!" Gordon yelped just as Scott yelled "Reports" which was definitely upping the suspicion levels. He didn't believe them. 

"I don't believe you," Virgil told them firmly, attempting to give them the kind of 'don't lie to me' eyebrow raise that Selene or John managed to pull off but knew he had failed. Damn the fact that he was the nice one and they both knew that any and all threats he might issue would go unfulfilled. 

"You doubt me?" Scott gasped in mock outrage. "Me? Your big brother? The one that always has your back?" 

"And me, your wingman? The one that always fixes your hairdryer fuse?" 

"One time Gordon! That was one time! And it wasn't my hairdryer!" 

"I don't know, you bought it, you keep it in your bathroom and you warned us all that we couldn't borrow it on pain of death, so that evidence all points to it being your hairdryer…" 

"I won't stay here to be insulted," Virgil sniffed indignantly, "I'm gonna go find Kayo and see if she'll help me with the inlet manifold, at least she can take instructions and won't lie to me."

They watched him stomp away in a huff, breathing a sigh of relief when the sound of his boots faded into nothing. 

"Damn, that was close," Scott gulped, clicking back onto the dating website to check it had worked. His eyes widened when he looked at the screen. 

"What? What's wrong?" 

"He's got three inboxes already."

"Seriously? Already, it's been what, five minutes?" 

"Yep."

"We’re gonna be spoilt for choice."

"I guess that just means we have more chance of picking him a good one, he needs to get out more."

"He'll thank us for it in the end."

       ***

"I don't understand, why do I have to dress up?" Virgil groaned. "I'm tired, I've had a long day, why do we need to go to the mainland just to pick up pizza?" 

Gordon glanced at Scott for help. None was forthcoming. He nudged him for emphasis. 

"Fine," Scott sighed, admitting defeat. Honesty was always the best policy anyway. "We arranged a blind date for you."

"You did what?" Virgil exploded. "Why the hell would you do that?" 

"We thought you needed to get out more," Gordon shrugged. "We were trying to help."

"I don't need your help, I didn't ask for it."

"Not like you were going to meet anyone on your own, was it?" Gordon continued to needle.

"John did! So did Scott. I am perfectly capable of getting my own dates."

"John is an enigma that none of us understand and Cat's my ex, I was recycling, that doesn't count."

"Do not let her hear you say that," Gordon laughed. 

"My point still stands," Scott insisted waving away the worry about his girlfriend, "we don't have a normal job or the chance to socialise much, and unless fate decides to be nice and throw someone at you like it did for John or you have an ex hidden away somewhere, you can't use us as an example."

"You don't want to let her down, do you?" Gordon tossed in, knowing that his softie brother would feel guilty as hell if he upset anyone. "How would you feel if you got dumped before you'd even met the person?" 

Virgil wanted to argue the point some more, but honesty and his vow never to lie to himself stopped him. They did have a point, a small one, but still pointy and therefore he was unable to ignore their logic. He decided to give in, although he refused to do so gracefully or with any forgiveness of their plotting. Plus, they were right, he wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone feeling like they weren't good enough in any way, shape or form.

"Looks like I don't have much of a choice…" he started only to be interrupted by the victorious cheers of his brothers. "Do you have a picture of her?" 

"Nope," Scott grinned. "We signed you up with that new site where pictures aren't allowed, you pick based on shared interests and compatibility, not looks."

"That's…actually a nice idea," Virgil acknowledged reluctantly. He wasn't one to judge people on looks, he cared more about personality and morals. 

"See, we knew you'd approve," Gordon grinned, slapping him on the back. 

"I didn't say I approved of this-" 

"Come on, hurry up, you don't want to be late for your date!" 

   ***

Virgil waited nervously on the picnic bench, clutching the single sunflower Scott had thrust at him like it was a weapon, ready to fend off anything if his blind date turned out to be some kind of psycho.

They couldn't be too careful, they were far too used to people trying to find out details about them or to trick them in some way. No one was ever as they seemed. 

Scott had assured him that they hadn't used his real name and that no one would associate it with him but he couldn't help the little nagging doubts that gnawed away at the back of his mind. 

Plus he still hadn't forgiven them for pulling this stunt on him. Did they really think he was that bad at dating that he needed such help? He wasn't bad at dating, he got plenty of offers for a hook up, they all did. Well, not John but he was hardly ever out on rescues and Selene was common knowledge now but, to the rest of the world, him and his "single" brothers were all fair game. 

Butt gropes and comments about their hard muscles were a common occurrence, so much so that he often felt like a piece of meat being squished and tested before purchase. Another reason why he rarely managed to meet anyone that he could actually see himself wanting to date. 

Maybe their idea, while badly executed and heavy in trickery and taken liberties, hadn't come from a bad place. He'd worried the whole way to the meeting spot that they might have picked the worst candidate they could, but he firmly forced the thought out of his head. His brothers might like to indulge in mutual pranking and to push the limits sometimes but they would never do anything to hurt or embarrass someone, especially not a stranger. The thought had calmed him down enough that he hadn't had to make use of Two's on board bathroom facilities for an emergency freshen up because he'd stress sweated through the nice shirt and jacket they had forced him into. 

He'd managed to relax a little but, now that he was sitting here alone, waiting and looking out for someone he had no clue about, he was starting to worry again. 

Seeing an abandoned pen on the picnic table he snatched a few napkins from the dispenser and let his eyes roam the scenery. 

It really was a gorgeous place, something often referred to as a little slice of heaven in the city. The urban park, man made in the center of the mass of concrete and steel, sported a carefully constructed lake that was home to a teeming ecosystem of endangered species that exhaustive conservation efforts had made possible. 

The sun was just beginning to lower towards the horizon, painting the sky and the surface of the lake with the most beautiful colours. Virgil's fingers itched to paint them but he settled for snapping a couple of pictures on his phone. 

Trees of all types surrounded the lake, creating an attractive backdrop to the whole scene and before he even realised he was doing it he was deep in concentration as he sketched the lake area on the napkin. 

The process was calming, helping to soothe his nerves and slow his thumping heart, allowing him to stop and breathe for a second, helping him to resist the urge to cut and run. 

"Are you Virgil Grant? You have a sunflower." 

The voice behind him made him jump and drop his pen. 

"Yes, yes I am," he admitted as he turned around to face his date. 

      ***

"So, how did it go?" Scott asked when they arrived to pick Virgil up, less than half an hour after he'd text for a ride. "Did you have a good time?" 

"I had a great time," Virgil smiled. 

"You were gone a long time," Gordon grinned, nudging his older brother playfully with his elbow. "Did you go back to her place or something?" 

"Yeah, we did."

"You did? You dog you!" Gordon leered with an exaggerated wink. Virgil just smiled, taking the teasing with his usual good grace. 

"You gonna see her again?" Scott asked, pleased that their plan seemed to have gone so well. 

Virgil nodded. "I told her I'd drop in as soon as I'm free."

"Come on, give us all the juicy details, tell us all about, Emma, wasn't it?" Gordon pushed, desperate for gossip. 

"Nothing much to tell," Virgil shrugged. "She's sweet, we had a nice time hanging out, she gave me her number."

"That's it? That's all you can tell us?" Gordon groaned, disappointment evident in his voice. 

"No, that's all I'm going to tell you," Virgil corrected. "You've interfered in my private life enough already, thank you."

"Oh, come on, Virg," Scott pleaded. But the big guy wouldn't budge, staying smugly silent the entire journey home. 

Gordon and Scott had given up by the time they eased the little jet back into the hangar, going off to do their own thing, hopefully to remove his dating profile, leaving Virgil alone. 

Selene and John were cuddled up together on one of the couches, watching something on the holoscreen when he made his way into the lounge. 

He hadn't meant to disturb them, especially when they were actually getting some time alone for once, and was about to make his excuses but Selene had other ideas. She patted the couch beside her, shifting over to make room for him. 

He accepted the offer, sitting down and getting comfortable. He didn't know what they were watching, possibly some kind of documentary. 

"Cookie?" he offered, pulling a baggie of what looked to be pretty decent cookies out of his jacket pocket. 

Selene glanced up from the screen, looking first at the bag of cookies and then at Virgil, her eyes widening in surprise. 

"You're all dressed up."

This got John's attention as he reached for a cookie. "Have you been somewhere?" 

Selene selected a cookie and took a big bite. "Oh, damn, these are so good, where did you get them?" 

"My date made them for me," Virgil grinned, consuming almost half a cookie in one bite. 

"Wait, wait, back up, date?" Selene actually paused the documentary, something about William Shakespeare by the looks of it. 

"You had a date? That wasn't on the calendar?" John frowned. "Were they cleared by security?" 

"The romance is strong in this family," Selene drawled, rolling her eyes. 

"Scott and Gordon decided that signing me up to dating sites is their new hobby," Virgil sighed. 

"They arrange the date? What were they like? Did you have a good time? Witchy needs details," Selene gently shoved John's face away from her as he chewed loudly in her ear and leant closer to Virgil.

"We actually had a nice time. Emma, my date, is a local, lived there all her life. She's been a bit lonely so her friend set her up on the site. We wandered around a lake for a bit and then we went back to her place."

"Awww, so romantic," Selene sighed dreamily before mock glaring at her husband. "Why don't you take me on dates any more?" 

"Because we only got back off our honeymoon a few weeks ago and we live on an island?" 

"No excuse."

"Dinner on the mainland next week?" 

"Thought you'd never ask," she stole a quick kiss as he rolled his eyes in defeat. "Got any pictures?" 

"Of the restaurant? Are you needing to inspect my reservation making skills now?" 

"I was talking to Virgil."

"Oh, then carry on."

"Virg, pictures?" 

"I did take one, yes," he pulled out his phone, scrolled through for a couple of seconds then turned the phone to show them the screen. "I took a selfie of us at the lake." 

Selene and John blinked, unsure if they were seeing the right picture. 

"Erm… not to be a judgey judgerson or anything but…" Selene trailed off. 

"But she has to be older than Grandma," John finished for her, blunt and to the point as always.

They both looked at the picture again, showing a goofily grinning Virgil next to a sweet older lady, her blue rinsed hair set in a helmet of curls, her half moon glasses perched on her nose. 

"Again, not with the judging, you do you, but does she have to watch her heart? She needs to be careful if she's going out picking up handsome young men."

"Stop, please stop," Virgil groaned. "She didn't know how old I was. Gordon and Scott set it up and apparently they somehow, and I choose to believe it was unintentional, managed to upload my profile to the over 60s side."

"And you didn't correct her?" John had to ask. He knew his brother was the nice one of the family but that was a little ridiculous. 

"Of course I did, but we were there and she hadn't been out in a few weeks. Her grandson moved away for work and her husband died a few years ago so I bought her dinner and we had a nice walk around the park. She wasn't actually looking for a romantic date, she just wanted a companion, someone to chat to, go for a walk with and maybe see an exhibition or two. Her friend at the widows club set it up for her."

"So you were both set up by others?" 

"Yep. She's a really nice lady."

"And that walk around the park turned into cookies at her place?" John's fingers snuck into the bag again to take another. 

"And banana bread. She mentioned that she was going to hire a handyman to fix her sink because her daughter was too busy and she didn't have any help now."

"Ahhh," Selene could see exactly where this was going. 

"And so I offered to unblock her sink for her."

"Of course you did," John sighed, hiding his smile against Selene's shoulder. 

"And while I was there I put up some new shelves for her and took her trash cans out to the kerb and retuned her TV. She made me cookies to say thank you."

"She sounds lovely," Selene cooed, already in love with the thought of her. She could take or leave it when it came to little kids, usually leave if she was being honest, but she was a complete suckee when it came to the elderly. 

"She is, smart too. I complimented some of the paintings she had on her walls and she told me she'd painted them, her and her husband met at art school and used to go on vacation to different countries to visit galleries and take classes. I showed her a few pictures of some of my pieces and it turned out she'd seen one of mine in a gallery in New York, you know that one of the Sphinx I did from that picture I took after that rescue?"

"Do I take it that our darling brothers don't know any of this?" 

"Nope," Virgil grinned. "I'm letting them stay curious, they asked me all sorts of questions on the way back but I stayed quiet. I'll tell them eventually, once all the cookies are gone." He picked another out of the rapidly depleting stash. 

"I have never heard a more Virgil story in my entire life," Selene laughed, shaking her head. "So when are you seeing her again?" 

"Gonna try and visit next week to mow her lawn," Virgil admitted, looking somewhat sheepish. 

"Hey, no," Selene grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. "No looking embarrassed. You're amazing, it's a totally you thing to go on a date, not get what you were expecting and still come away with an old lady best friend and having had a great time. That's one of the many reasons I love you, because you're just so you."

"She's right," John added, patting his brother's shoulder. "One thing I've learnt the last few years is that you shouldn't make excuses for who you are or try to change. Don't belittle the fact that you have probably made her happier than she has been in months just by giving her some time and treating her with respect. Don't undervalue that."

"Yeah," Virgil acknowledged. "I know I did the right thing, it doesn't hurt to help someone and I had fun too." 

"And that's all that matters," Selene said, patting his hand one last time before she let it go. 

"Yep," he smiled, settling back against the cushions, munching on his cookie, his cheeks bulging like a hamster's, muffling his words. "That and the fact that her granddaughter is a nurse and she's going to introduce us next month."

[kyndaris]

Pray Forgive this Discourtesy of an Impression

Many of my friends - and by extension, I also include you dear readers of this blog - know, I have been a fan of the Ace Attorney series for a very long time. It began in the days of my youth, when I discovered Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS. As someone that was interested in legal proceedings but was unsure of actually taking the step of becoming an actual barrister in court, it helped feed my very unique itch of shouting OBJECTION! and pointing at the counsel opposite me.

That and the fact that the lawyers of the franchise were also amateur sleuths, piecing together the truth of whatever crime had actually been perpetrated and denouncing the witnesses brought in to testify as the actual masterminds.

Honestly, I wish court cases in real life were this exciting.

Even back then, the idea of acting the sleuth and figuring out the intricacies behind a complex plot of murder had me salivating. It did not help that I had read Arthur Conan Doyle’s collection of stories about a world-renowned detective and hoped to emulate his ability to make rapid deductions based on simple observation.

So, when The Great Ace Attorney was first announced, I was justifiable excited. To play as the ancestor of the great Phoenx Wright? Interact with Sherlock Holmes in 19th century London? WHERE DO I SELL MY SOUL TO?

To my great dismay, however, there were no immediate plans to release the games in the West. In fact, I even pondered on whether or not I should indulge in obtaining a fan translated copy (or watch a playthrough).

As the years passed, I lost hope that there would ever be a release of The Great Ace Attorney games in the West. And so, life went on.

UNTIL OF COURSE, THEY ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD BE RELEASED! IN JULY 2021! AND THOUGH MY SPIRIT WAS A LITTLE CRUSHED TO HEAR THAT THERE WOULD BE NO PHYSICAL RELEASE IN AUSTRALIA, I QUICKLY PUT THE GAME ON MY NINTENDO ESTORE WISHLIST, READY FOR PURCHASE!

When release day came, I was pumped to dive into the world of finger-pointing and strange reversals where the defence attorney had to prove their client innocent beyond all reasonable doubt. The game itself begins with Ryunosuke Naruhodo, a student of Yumei University being accused of murdering a visiting professor: John H. Wilson. At his side is his best friend: Kazuma Asogi, a practicing law student.

Wishing not to dash his friend’s dreams of travelling to Britain (should the trial not be won), Ryunosuke steps up to represent himself. Valiantly, he battles against Prosecutor Auchi. And just like his descendant, fumbles his way through to the inevitable truth. That he was setup and that the actual culprit was a person hidden under plain view: an English gentlewoman by the name of Jezaille Brett. She had murdered the esteemed professor through the use of a special poison that could not be identified by the technology at the time before shooting the victim to pin the blame on our hapless student.

It was a tale as old as time for those that have played the Ace Attorney series. What I liked, however, was the fact that this time round, there were multiple witnesses in the stand and how they would play off each other. Their reactions to what someone else said were great ways to enliven up the gameplay and helped move the story along when I seemed stuck on where to present my piece of crucial evidence to highlight an inconsistency.

By the end of the first trial, however, the game sees our protagonists on the way to the United Kingdom. Having stowed away in his friend’s trunk, Ryunosuke is accused once again of murder. This time, of his friend. And by the great Herlock Sholmes, no less! Unfortunately, due to copyright infringements, the translation team was forced to change the name of the character. Still, this adaption of one of the best literary detectives served to be a breath of fresh air. He was an enjoyable and lively companion. 

I also very much liked how they inserted so many references to the actual stories that were penned by Arthur Conan Doyle: the Red-Headed League, Speckled Band, Hound of the Baskervilles, the Man with the Twisted Lip...

The reinterpretations of so many beloved characters also helped to put a spin on what I would have expected. Truth be told, I never thought I would become so protective of diver-turned-inspector-apprentice Gina Lestrade. She is a precious cinnamon roll! How dare anyone think she would actually murder anyone when it’s clear that she’s a misunderstood tsundere with a heart of gold!

After finishing the first game: The Great Ace Attorney Adventures I could not help but feel that the story was incomplete. In many ways, just like with Trails of Sky, it served as a prelude to things that would come. There were plenty of hints of what Ryunosuke, with plenty of dangling and tantalising mysteries. A few characters that were introduced, such as William Shamspeare, never got to see the limelight until the second entry: The Great Ace Attorney Resolve. 

Why have such a uniquely dressed character walk by in passing without putting them into a case? It made no sense. It was as if Chekhov’s gun, placed in clear view, remained unused.

As such, when the credits rolled, I immediately dived into the sequel. The cases that I played through in the second entry seemed much more connected and provided a more cohesive overarching plot. In fact, while I thought the first game was a good addition in its own right - what with its stereoscopic images (which was very difficult to try and make 3D on a huge television), I thought Resolve was much better at tying up all the loose ends that players were left with. 

That and we also got to enjoy the return of multi-day trials, with a mixture of investigation and court appearance, rather than ones that seemed concentrated on a single day (and were quite tiring to endure). I will say that the final episode being a continuation of the fourth was a little suspect, but didn’t mind it because of how much was revealed and discussed in those last few moments.

In saying that, the games are not without their flaws. As always, sometimes it takes a while to make the connection on what evidence needs to be presented to which statement. There were times in the first case of the second game where the hints provided to the the player once they had gone through the testimony, made me focus on a completely different area than I should have. 

I also floundered a little because the clues relied more on memory of what Ryunosuke and Susato had been discussing when they were examining the evidence, but which was not updated in the actual information. As such, it took quite a while to figure out the SS Grouse inconsistency during the fourth case in the second game.

Then, of course, there were the the inconsistencies or unexplained plot points in the games themselves. In the first case of the first game, one of the key evidences that was used to highlight who the real murderer in the John H. Wilson case was blood on a serving of beef steak. The blood was on the left of the platter. The victim however, had a bullet hole on the right hand side of the chest. Given that he had been facing the table at the time he was shot, why would the the blood be on the left side of the serving platter?

Also, how did the reporter Menimemo even get a knife to stab Jezaille Brett in the first case of the second game? Did he already have it on his person? Also, since it had been first established that the victim had been stabbed, why go through all the rigmarole of having to also prove that the reporter had both poisoned and stabbed the victim? Talk about overkill.

And someone please explain how anyone could serve as a prosecutor in a case when they have a CLEAR CONFLICT OF INTEREST! A court of law is not a place where someone can slake their thirst for vengeance. And it was clear from the start that Kazuma Asogi should have been removed because of his misguided vendetta against Barok van Zieks.

The same could also be extended to the jurors. I don’t think anyone who knows the accused or the victim personally is allowed to serve as a jury member because of implicit bias. Then again, this is a game and I should probably just enjoy the game for what it is.

Despite these little quibbles with the narrative and the fact that there seem to be a very limited number of prosecutors and defence attorneys in Britain and Japan (along with jurors), I had a fun time playing through both games. After all, never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would be released out in the West. Even the summation examinations and pitting the jury members against each other was something fresh and different. While the Mood Matrix and Apollo’s ability to perceive have given new ways to solve cases, there’s still little that’s been done to shake up the formula of cross-examining a witness.

The Dance of Deduction between Herlock and Ryunosuke was also a brilliant piece of change that made some of the investigations more fun. While I’ll miss the psyche-locks, perhaps it’s a good thing that The Great Ace Attorney has moved away from mysticism and spirit channelling to focus more on Herlock’s wacky hijinks.

And before I forget, I need to throw out a special mention to Iris Wilson, the ten-year-old child genius that puts us all to shame. Growing up in an Asian household, I’m sure my mother wishes I could have got a doctorate in medicine by that time. 

On a side note, it was fun voicing a few of the characters as I played. I’m sure my family were quite confused as to why these terrible accents were petering down to the kitchen. 

Do I have any regrets?

Some.

But it’s always fun giving voice to these wacky characters and bringing them all to life with a few flamboyant performances.

[otterskin]

Inverted Mobius, Mr. Tesseract and The Avatar of Truth

The mystery of the weird collar has deepened, thanks to @nebulousfishgills​ - by which I mean they totally solved it.

To those just joining me, I noticed this in my previous breakdown of the Loki trailer here.

Mr. Mobius, played by Owen Wilson, has an ‘inverted suit’. His collar is an indentation in his suit, rather than going on top of it.

So, first, a scene from Endgame that I seriously did think of when we learned there was a character called ‘Mobius M. Mobius’ in Loki (played by Owen Wilson). And yet I didn’t put this together. Thanks again to nebulousfish for making me realize that these things might not be coincidences.

When Mr. Stark is inventing time travel, he asks his AI to create a depiction of a Mobius Strip, inverted.

Which gets him this:

Anyway, what is a Mobius Strip, and who is Mobius M. Mobius? (Not to be confused with Morbius the Living Vampire, though wouldn’t it be funny if he was mistaken for Mobius M. if this show gets big first?)

I am not a quantum theorist or comic book aficionado by trade, so let’s do a Wikipedia-Fu on it.

In mathematics, a Möbius strip, band, or loop (US: /ˈmoʊbiəs, ˈmeɪ-/ MOH-bee-əs, MAY-, UK: /ˈmɜːbiəs/;[1]German: [ˈmøːbi̯ʊs]), also spelled Mobius or Moebius, is a surface with only one side (when embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space) and only one boundary curve. The Möbius strip is the simplest non-orientable surface.

An example of a Möbius strip can be created by taking a strip of paper and giving one end a half-twist, then joining the ends to form a loop; its boundary is a simple closed curve which can be traced by a single unknotted string. Any topological space homeomorphic to this example is also called a Möbius strip, allowing for a very wide variety of geometric realizations as surfaces with a definite size and shape. For example, any rectangle can be glued left-edge to right-edge with a reversal of orientation. Some, but not all, of these can be smoothly modeled as surfaces in Euclidean space. A closely related, but not homeomorphic, surface is the complete open Möbius band, a boundaryless surface in which the width of the strip is extended infinitely to become a Euclidean line.A half-twist clockwise gives an embedding of the Möbius strip which cannot be moved or stretched to give the half-twist counterclockwise; thus, a Möbius strip embedded in Euclidean space is a chiral object with right- or left-handedness. The Möbius strip can also be embedded by twisting the strip any odd number of times, or by knotting and twisting the strip before joining its ends.

A Möbius strip does not self-intersect but its projection in 2 dimensions does.

Uh....right. Well, that clears everything up, doesn’t it?

Let’s crib off someone else’s work. Thanks to Thomas Wong on Medium, I was able to understand this a little better.

A Möbius strip is just a strip of paper, turned and taped together. It it only has one side, so an ant walking along the strip eventually returns to where he started. If we metaphorically interpret the ant, not as returning to a point in space, but a point in time, then it alludes to time travel.

...

As previously discussed, after a measurement, the quantum mixture (half born and half never born) becomes a definite state (born or never born). Finding the “spectral decomposition” is to find all the possible energies (eigenvalues) and states. Using these, one can determine how a quantum object evolves with time.

Combining this with the metaphoric interpretation of the Möbius strip, it could be that Stark found how to make quantum objects evolve such that they revisit a point in time, hence time travel.

Okay, that’s a little easier to understand. So how does this relate to the character Mobius M. Mobius, aside from him being named after the strip and the (apparently antiquated) ideas about time travel?

Well, he was based on Marvel Comics Legend Mark Gruenwald, a guy known for his passion for the lore of the comics, which he knew in innate detail. He even wrote the Official Handbooks and whatnot. Likewise, Mr. Mobius is a stickler for detail and one of the few members of the TVA even allowed a face - although it is off the rack, as he’s one an infinite number of clones (god I love the TVA so much already, it’s heaven for a Douglas Addams fan like me).

Despite being a clone, he rose through the ranks and is nearly the top guy, serving only underneath Mr. Alternity (and I am not familiar with these comics so feel free to correct me). Mr. Alternity has almost no comics history, but is based on editor Tom Brevoort.

There are several other misters, all of them near-identical to ‘Moby’. Mr. Orobourous, Mr. Paradox, Mr. Tesseract (!) and Mr. Oburos. They are also minor characters, but let’s look at all these names.

Clearly they are named after quantum theories of some-sort or another.

Mr. Mobius: Mobius Strip Theory - the idea that, essentially, is about the shape of time itself and the theory of traveling along that shape.

Mr. Alternity : Alternative universes

Mr. Ouroboros: A divine figure representing the beginning and the end of time in an endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Mr. Oburos - I’m not sure, but I think this is a variant of Ouroboros. 

Mr. Paradox - Temporal paradox, causal loops - ex. The Grandfather Paradox

Mr. Tesseract - An object that exists in 4 dimensions. Time is often called the fourth dimension.

Obviously that last one is interesting, considering how the Tesseract will be the start of our adventure. The Cosmic Cube was renamed for the MCU, and in the comics has no relation to this minor character.

But what if it now does?

What if Tony has caused a change in the very appearance of Mr. Mobius when he inverted the Mobius Strip - literally inverting his clothing because he changed the shape of the Mobius - does that mean that these seemingly human-looking misters are in fact some sort of avatars for aspects of time itself? And if Mr. Tesseract is representative of how space and time intersect in the fourth dimension, wouldn’t a rogue god twisting space and time with the device that shares his name cause him some affect? Perhaps why the TVA noticed something was amiss to begin with.

This would be a departure from the comics, but the characters have almost no history there. They are ripe for new ideas.

Or, then again, since Loki will be working for the TVA - perhaps he’s the one who becomes ‘Mr. Tesseract’?

But continuing with that ‘Avatar of Aspects’ idea, let’s get away from this sausagefest for a second and visit my next newest favourite character -

I’m guessing she’s one of the Justices of the TVA. What gives it away? The imperious look, the giant oaken table, or the fact that I’m suddenly self-conscious when she looks at me? It’s the last one, of course. She’s a natural judge.

Of the named TVA judges, there’s :

Justice Goodwill, Justice Hope, Justice Liberty, Justice Love, Justice Might, Justice Mills, Justice Peace and Justice Truth.

Could they also possibly be avatars of their respective aspects?

If I had to guess, I’d say this is Justice Truth, as pairing up Loki with an avatar of Truth seems like it’d be a smashing good time, similar to how he was paired with Verity Willis in the comics. She might even be a composite character with Verity.

Verity’s power is detecting and seeing through all lies and illusions. I think this powerset will be given to Justice Truth, except instead of deriving it from a magic ring that she swallowed, she’d simply be the actual ‘Embodiment of Truth’ - and let’s get real here, when I said ‘Avatars of Aspects’, I was using that clunky phrase because the more obvious one - God of - is already ‘taken’. So Justice Truth may well be the ‘God of Truth’, as it were.

I think she’ll end up in something of a buddy-comedy with Loki, giving him someone to bounce off against who literally cuts through his carefully crafted veneer.

I’m reminded of a great quote from Taika Waititi when he was talking about what he wanted to do with Loki in Ragnarok:

“(He’s) someone who tries so hard to embody this idea of the tortured artist, this tortured, gothy orphan...It’s too tiring trying to be like that,” he says. “And, most humans, we get over ourselves, we get to that point where we’re like, ‘man, being a tortured artist is actually, like, a lot of work. Maybe I should just be real and present, and just be me, and I don’t have to be a tortured artist to be interesting, I can just be a f*cking weird New Zealander and that’s enough.”

...I think Taika is a living Loki, tbh, ha ha. No wonder he gets it.

Waititi, Yost, Pearson and Kyle did great work to cut through Loki’s illusions, both with dialogue and the visual allegory of his projections being dispelled by handy thrown objects, culminating in the very sweet ‘I’m here,’ scene at the end of the film. Loki seems to be much more open and expressive at the end of that film, and it seems like a weight has lifted off his shoulders.

But while this new Loki (Loki 2.0? Loki’s Show’s Loki? Loki II? Lokii? Lokii.) is shown a clip show of Ragnarok (one I previously theorized will be deliberately incomplete), that’s quite different from actually experiencing it, and he’ll be as performative as he was in Avengers and Thor 2. Instead of processing that ‘lack of presence’ as he did in Ragnarok, which came about as a result of Thor finally seeing through Loki’s illusions (guess he doesn’t fall for it anymore) as a result of their long history together, I suspect the band-aid will be torn off much more harshly by a total stranger who nonetheless simply sees through him.

Loki in general has a bad relationship with the truth (see the famous Vault Confrontation scene), and literally putting him on trial before the Truth Herself would certainly be enough to get him to switch from this phony expression:

To this one:

That’s not much of a facade there.

It’s not the same character arc as Ragnarok, but it does get us to a similar place, albeit in a darker and less healing way for Loki. I mean Lokii.

Anyhow. That’s what I got out of this thing.