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fibula-rasa · 4 days ago

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Watch More Movies Notebook: Spring ‘25

In this installment of WMM Notebook, you’ll find a pretty wide variety of French films from 3 different decades, a Charles Burnett film finally released after 25 years, a fantastical techno-musical, 2 documentaries about Black history, 1 Brazilian experimental narrative film, 1 weird Italian horror film, and Cynthia Rothrock doing a lot of awesome kicks. And a partridge in a pear tree. Whew! There’s also a bit at the end about what I’ve been writing, researching, and posting with hints of what’s to come this summer!

Pictured: Neptune Frost (‘21), Sans toit ni loi (‘85), Ménilmontant (‘26), Kean (‘24), The Annihilation of Fish (‘99), There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace (‘81), Estranho Caminho (‘23), The Sect (‘91), La fête espagnole (‘20), The End of St. Petersburg (‘27), Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (‘25), La maternelle (‘33), Claudia Jones: A Woman Of Our Times (‘89), Lady Reporter (‘89)

Favorite New-to-me Films of the Season

(listed in the order in which I saw them)

As always, if any of these films catch your eye, but you need specific content/trigger warnings, feel free to ask and I’ll try to oblige!

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

Pictured: Neptune Frost (‘21)

March ‘25 Favorites:

Claudia Jones: A Woman Of Our Times (1989)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Claudia Jones was a Trinidad-born, New York-reared journalist, activist, and communist who was deported from the US under the Smith Act and resettled in London. There, Jones’ work brought together the West Indian and Caribbean communities through founding The West Indian Gazette and organizing Carnival events. This UK-produced short documentary was a great accompaniment to some of the reading I did over the winter! Having read a biography of Jones and some of her writing, it was rewarding to see faces and places she affected through her life and work after settling in London. If you’re not familiar with Jones already, this doc probably isn’t the best place to start, so I’d instead recommend checking out her writing! It’s as accessible as it is insightful. Marxists.org has some of her work available here as well as two texts about Jones.

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Manizales City (1925)

[letterboxd | imdb | youtube]

Manizales City is a haunting (and haunted feeling) silent actuality film produced to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the city of Manizales, Colombia. Director Félix R. Restrepo captured the various festivities for posterity but, later that year, Manizales experienced a terribly destructive fire. The filmmakers returned to document the aftermath—businesses, homes, community and government buildings in ruin and the citizens trying to keep the city going. This footage was appended to the original documentary creating a tragic-but-hopeful coda to the initially celebratory film. I subtitled the film in English over on youtube and also made a few gif sets.

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Neptune Frost (2021)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy]

This spring, I had a massive amount of luck with new-to-me films. So many gems! The first was Neptune Frost, which had been on my watchlist since it was released in 2021. Kanopy adding it to their library gave me all the motivation I needed to cross it off said watchlist.

A collaboration between director Anisia Uzeyman and musician Saul Williams. Neptune Frost feels like The Wiz (1978), Quilombo (1984), and the writing of Pat Cadigan artfully stitched together into a techno-opera of digital marronage. (And, if you understood that sentence, we need to be besties.) Okay, so since I actually want more people to watch this film, I should try to be less esoteric: it’s a stylish, poetic, punky, scifi musical about a group of runaways fighting back against their exploitation, erasure, and oppression. I implore you to check this one out! Even if it’s not your typical viewing, you’ll certainly get something out of it.

Note: Kanopy is a service that you may have free access to through your local library or school/university. They have an amazing and varied collection of films, really worth checking out!

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There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues (1981)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy]

Back in March, I was still working through The Black Film Archive’s BHM ‘25 list. This doc is an invaluable piece of visual and oral history of the Negro Leagues. There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace is a solid overview of the history of these athletes. Unlike the Claudia Jones documentary I discussed above, this film would make a great entry point into learning more about this (IMO) still underrepresented part of sports history. The storytelling from the former players especially livens up the film. I should note here that I’m not the biggest baseball fan, (tho it was part of my upbringing) so you don’t even have to be a fanatic to enjoy/learn from this film.

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Children of Montmartre / La maternelle (1933)

[letterboxd | imdb]

An affecting film about a jilted woman working in a Montmartre kindergarten who forms a strong connection with a sensitive little girl, abandoned by her mother. La maternelle has a kind-hearted social realism that never feels too sentimental or too clinical in its representation of class and social issues. The girl is played exceptionally well by Paulette Élambert. The directing of the children in general is strong—the directors found a good balance of letting them play and be themselves while still getting to the point in their scenes. Overall, it’s a sweet film with a definitive purpose.

La maternelle came onto my radar when I was reading Sandy Flitterman-Lewis’ To Desire Differently. Part of that book highlights the work of Marie Epstein, co-director of this film. As I’m not the biggest French film enthusiast, I didn’t know much about French filmmaking in the interwar period. To summarize a point by Flitterman-Lewis, what persisted of the French film industry after the war faced increased hegemony of the American industry, despite the incoming of sound film. One of the strategies that French filmmakers at the time employed was the use of hyperspecific localization. To contrast American-financed French-language films that would employ the most generic dialogue, accents, and settings, these home-grown films would be set in specific milieus and eschewed generic French in favor of local dialects and vernaculars. La maternelle was part of this emergent tradition, and if it’s a representative sample, I’ll have to check out more!

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Honorable Mention: The Witch / La strega in amore (1966) [letterboxd | imdb]

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Pictured: Sans toit ni loi (’85)

April ‘25 Favorites:

The End of St. Petersburg / Конец Санкт-Петербурга (1927)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy (US)]

Commissioned to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution—like Eisenstein’s October (1927)—The End of St. Petersburg tells the story of a peasant who moves to the city for work only to get caught up in a dispute between striking workers and the capitalists trying to break them. As the First World War breaks out and the same capitalists further enrich themselves on the spilt blood of people like the peasant, the revolutions come to St. Petersburg.

The film is beautifully shot by Anatoli Golovnya and edited with impressive precision of meaning and purpose. Pudovkin’s name might not be as vaunted in the Anglophone world as Eisenstein, but as peers their work is moving to watch in concert. (I’ll probably double feature October and St. Petersburg sometime soonish!) Honestly, I’m pretty embarrassed that it took me this long to see St. Petersburg, as a long-time appreciator of Pudovkin’s Mother (1926)and Storm over Asia (1928). This film is a masterpiece and, unfortunately, the story still has a lot of relevance today. It’s an emotional film, but there’s also so much to dig into formally and technically—in particular the way editing is used to generate meaning and interpretations, to provoke the viewer, or just to get a laugh.

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Vagabond / Sans toit ni loi (1985)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Remember how I said I had great luck this spring with new-to-me films? Here’s another great that I’ve somehow overlooked until now.

As with La maternelle, I sought this film out because it was discussed in Sandy Flitterman-Lewis’ To Desire Differently. I’d previously only seen Agnès Varda’s work from the 1950s-70s, but wow am I even more motivated to see her later work now.

Sans toit ni loi constructs the final weeks of a young woman who pursued the life of a wanderer in the French countryside. The story is constructed through the reminiscences shared by the various people she came into contact with, some fleetingly, some more deeply. It’s an extremely powerful film, thoughtfully constructed. Every character feels full and real regardless of their screen time. The way the viewer’s sense of place and time emerges through the construction of the narrative is masterful. I don’t want to give too much away for first-time viewers, but there are two shots in the film that, in context, made my heart drop. So, while I highly recommend checking this one out, know that’s not easy viewing.

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Spanish Fiesta / La fête espagnole (1920)

[letterboxd | imdb | HENRI]

A lot of this winter and spring for me was dedicated to Germaine Dulac. I watched/re-watched a bunch of her films, read two books about her as well as a collection of her own writings. (There are more posts on the way about her work BTW.)

La fête espagnole is incomplete—26 minutes out of 67—but beautifully restored by the Cinémathèque française, the CNC, and the Hiventy lab in 2020. And, thankfully they have made it available to view for free on HENRI. Even in its fragmentary state, it’s possible to sense the mood and spirit of the film, and I was very impressed with their reconstruction work.

The story roughly follows the dancer Soledad as she spurns two lovers for the sake of a third, younger lover during a big festival. Perhaps the strongest part of the reconstruction is the cross cutting between Soledad dancing seductively at a party in town while two men fight to the death over her outside her home. Ève Francis is really excellent as Soledad. I totally see why Dulac worked with her so often!

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A Strange Path / Estranho Caminho (2023)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy (US)]

David, a young filmmaker, returns to his hometown in Brazil for a festival showing of his newest film. Shortly after he arrives however, the COVID pandemic shuts everything down. Circumstance leads him to reconnect with his estranged father, but the path to this reconnection is more complicated than David realizes.

To be honest, I watched this film solely based on its synopsis in a fit of insomnia. I was unfamiliar with Guto Parente before this film, but I’m excited to see more from him. I thought the melding of experimental and avant-garde techniques with what began as a relatively conventional film was clever and well-executed. I found Lucas Limeira’s David easy to relate to and sympathize with and Carlos Francisco’s performance as his father was outstanding.

I’m starting to think I need to delve into Brazilian film in a more focused way. Though I don’t know that much about their industry, every time I watch Brazilian films, they end up on my round ups! (Note: If I had been writing these consistently earlier, I would have written about Adirley Queirós’ White in, Black Out (2014) and Once There Was Brasilia (2017) too.)

So, I guess, if you have any recs of your favorite Brazilian films, please hit me up!

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Ménilmontant (1926)

[letterboxd | imdb]

A moving, expressive, sometimes shocking film about the lives of two sisters drawn apart after the murder of their parents.

If you, like me, are not the biggest French film fanatic, you might be shocked at how many French films are popping up in this season’s round up! But, between my digging back into my love of experimental and avant-garde film and my current Germaine Dulac kick, I ended up watching a bunch of French films! And most of them were really very good! So it can’t be helped. Anyway, Ménilmontant is an exquisitely constructed film that could reasonably find a place on any Film Theory 101 syllabus—I mean that in a wholly complimentary way.

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Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (1925)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Also in my avant-garde kick, Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse is a landmark experimental work depicting the play of movement and reflections and travelling through Paris. There were a few moments that genuinely evoked the feeling in me that I would have every time I travelled into New York City growing up—staring out the windows of the car/bus/train. Personal nostalgia aside, this film is quite the technical feat. Knowing what the technology was like in 1925, Chomette going out onto the train and boats to film with so little control of the environment, yet being able to shoot and construct something with such perfectly aligned visual rhythm almost makes my head spin to think about. I ended up watching it three times, appreciating every shot, cut, and superimposition more with each viewing and even noticing new things on the second and third watches. Considering its short runtime, I have no qualms recommending this broadly! If you need more convincing, I also made gif and still sets!

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Honorable Mention: Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act (2025) [letterboxd | imdb | PBS (US)]

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Pictured: Kean (’24)

May ‘25 Favorites:

The Annihilation of Fish (1999)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy]

It was extremely exciting news that Charles Burnett’s “lost” romantic comedy The Annihilation of Fish was finally getting restored and released! But then it wasn’t scheduled to play in any theatres near me… But then it popped up on Kanopy and I watched it as soon as possible!

This is a charming, heartfelt story about a Jamaican-American man who literally wrestles his demons into submission (the titular Fish), a woman who flees San Francisco after her relationship with Giacomo Puccini (yes, the Italian composer who died in 1924) flames out, and their unlikely courtship under the roof of their particular and peculiar widowed landlady. The performances of all three leads, James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave, and Margot Kidder, are remarkable. Honestly, writing about it now makes me want to watch it again, which is always a high mark!

If you’d like to know more before checking it out, I recommend Robert Daniels’ excellent review of the film for Roger Ebert.

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Kean (1924)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Ivan Mosjoukine was one of one. Kean is a great biographical film of Shakespearean actor, Edmund Kean, based on an 1836 play by the great Alexandre Dumas.

Mosjoukine’s charisma drives the film. He is truly doing THE MOST with every scene. Kean is also stylistically playful and creative, with a standout extended drunken dancing sequence, which perfectly illustrates “drunkenness of the eye” (to steal a Ralph Steiner phrase). Nathalie Lissenko isn’t given all that much to do, but this ends up adding to the effect of Kean’s imbalanced passions. Don’t be dissuaded by the long runtime, the film speeds by.

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Lady Reporter / 師姐大晒 (1989)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Perhaps my new favorite Cynthia Rothrock film, Lady Reporter is chock full of imaginative fight scenes that are exceptionally choreographed, performed, shot, and edited. Rothrock plays Cindy, an FBI agent who arrives in Hong Kong under the guise of a reporter. She reconnects with her college roommate, Judy, played by Elizabeth Lee. When Judy’s father mounts a case against the kingpin of a counterfeiting ring, he is kidnapped and injected with a serum that makes him believe that He-Man is real and that his true enemy is Skeletor. Following an unexpected team up with a Hong Kong cop, masquerading as an insurance claims adjuster, and a real reporter out to save his dad’s failing newspaper, Cindy and Judy have to defeat the counterfeiters and try and save their dad.

Lee and Rothrock have great chemistry together and I’m always happy to see Chin Siu-Ho. The editing in this movie is electric. There were multiple points while watching that we skipped back just to rewatch a cut! As it turns out, the film was edited by Peter Cheung, who is an absolute legend of Hong Kong cinema. There are lots of great reasons to check out this film, but it’s also just fun!

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The Sect / La Setta (1991)

[letterboxd | imdb]

I have to admit that I don’t totally understand why Michele Soavi’s films are so divisive, but I’m firmly on Team Soavi myself.

The Sect is a strange and dreamy horror film about a shadowy mystical cult. Miriam, a lonely school teacher in Frankfurt, takes in a sickly old man after nearly hitting him with her car. As strange occurrences start to pile up after the old man seemingly dies, Miriam starts to intuit something very dark, and very deliberate, is after her.

You can’t possibly guess what will happen from scene to scene for much of the film, but in the way that a dream lacks the cohesiveness of reason. There’s lots of examples I could pick out, but the sequence where a giant tiled room with a well in the middle is found behind an armoire in the main character’s very run-of-the-mill basement stands out. Not everyone dreams the same way but that’s often how location works for me—familiar, commonplace locations are a turn of a corner or a doorway away from a strange and otherworldly space, but dreamlogic isn’t realworld logic, so dream-you rolls with it.

There is also a scene where Miriam’s free-range pet rabbit channel surfs.

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☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

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Season’s Round-up

Well, you may have noticed that, as I worried in the last round up, the pace of the blog has slowed down a bit. There’s so much going on, so much stress, so many things to do! Evenso, there are lots of projects I’ve started working on, but simply haven’t had the time/energy to finish. With a bit of luck that will translate to more articles, essays, filmographies, etc. coming your way soon!

What I did finish was a small piece accompanying my gifs of the unique 1925 documentary Manizales City. As far as I could find, there’s not an official English release of the film, so I translated the intertitles myself and uploaded that translation to youtube.

Are there any silent films you all have come across that don’t have proper translations into English? I can work with Spanish, Italian, Polish, Czech, or Slovak, and could probably muddle through German, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Ukrainian. So, for real, HMU!

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I also did a profile on Germaine Dulac’s short experimental film Disque 957, which went into some details on the film’s conception and execution.

In the Favorites section above, I mentioned that I was on a Dulac kick. I actually have two or three more pieces drafted that profile her circulating, but less seen/discussed films. (For context, the most often discussed Dulac films are The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) and The Smiling Madame Beudet (1923), but it does seem like La Cigarette (1919) has been gaining traction over the past few years.)

This kick has also led me to do a lot of reading. In the winter I read Tami Williams’ unskippable Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations—one of the best director biographies I’ve yet read. I followed that with Sandy Flitterman-Lewis’ To Desire Differently: Feminism and French Cinema because Williams’ cited it often in her book. I had more complicated feelings on that book, but it was definitely thought provoking.

From there I sought out a few shorter articles about Dulac, the highlight of which was Valérie Vignaux’s short essay “Les papiers intimes de Germaine Dulac ou le corps de l’archive,” which packed a lot of meaningful observations into a short space! Then I read the new-ish English translation of the collection of Dulac’s film writing, Writings on Cinema. I was happy to find Dulac’s writing so cogent and accessible. Some theorists and critics who have written about her work use exaggerated intellectual language that gets in the way of clear communication and understanding, so it’s invigorating to get to read her own words and find such clarity. Most of her writings are short, so they’re a great accompaniment to a self-education on the history and development of early cinema and the theory that developed alongside it. If you are a reader of my blog, I imagine you’d be in the market for something like that!

Since I ended up on a bent here talking about film-related books, I reckon I might as well tell you about another new film book I read this season!

I very much enjoyed Cinema Her Way by Marya E. Gates. It’s a collection of interviews with women directors. Reading through the interviews, you really get the sense of how unique each filmmaker is in their approach to their craft, their philosophies, their histories, and how they perceive themselves as artists. There is so much variety among these filmmakers in fact that, apart from being women directors working/who have worked in America, they don’t have all that much in common. EXCEPT for the material conditions that they were/are faced with. The struggles of getting funding for their projects, or getting jobs from studios, or, once they get the job, of getting hired for more work pop up again and again.

Personally, I found the Julie Dash, Sally Potter, and Susan Seidelman interviews to be the most thought provoking or enlightening. But, I also enjoyed the Karyn Kusama, Lizzie Borden, Josephine Decker, Isabel Sandoval, and Katt Shea interviews and found them interesting and/or entertaining—each for very different reasons!

Regardless of your familiarity with the work of the profiled filmmakers, you’ll surely find something of interest! For me, I gained insights into the work of filmmakers I already knew and loved and, as for the filmmakers I was new to, it was cool to hear their opinions on their processes in and approach to filmmaking. And now I have a bunch more films to add to my watchlist!

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As for the themed gif and still sets that I made, edited and arranged this spring…

(titles are linked to all sets for that film)

Manizales City (1925)

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Crusher Joe / クラッシャージョウ (1983)

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The Italian (1915)

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The Witch / La strega in amore (1966)

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A Flame Burns in the Igloo / В яранге горит огонь (1956)

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Vagabond / Sans toit ni loi (1985)

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La fête espagnole (1920)

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Disque 957 (1928)

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Kean (1924)

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Romance of a Fruit Peddler / 劳工之爱情 (1922)

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Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse (1925)

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Until next time, try to stay cool and stay tuned. Happy viewing!

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mikubilliards · 3 months ago

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The Praxis and Theory Post

Ok so I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, because frankly I have been too busy or tired to write anything super long. Then Xenoblade X happened and that’s been eating away all my free hours now. Anyways I know I need to get this out otherwise I’m gonna lose all my thoughts on it, so here it is.

The Praxis and Theory questline in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is basically a microcosm of everything the game does well and everything it does poorly, and I find it super interesting as a result because it reaches so close to greatness, but stumbles in just a few key areas. Even with its faults I still think it’s one of if not the best questline in Xenoblade 2.

The quest line is split into 3 separate arcs, with the first one being the “Core Crystal Hunters” quest that you accept from the informants. Already we are at one of the pitfalls of Xenoblade 2! Wow that was fast! The informants are touted at the beginning of the game as having important information, but the game does not really let you know what kind. For the first 4 chapters, they are practically irrelevant, and nothing of use really comes from them save for their initial use in Chapter 2. If you stop by them, they will only be selling badly worded tutorials on certain game mechanics, a problem this game suffers from immensely (but that’s another story altogether). However, randomly around chapters 4 and 5, the game decides to drop at least 2 blade quests that can only be accessed if you check the informants: one for Kassandra and the other for Praxis and Theory. If you don’t check everything rigorously like I do (since the informants are often out of the way and not on the main path) or simply think those informants are worthless due to how bad they are shown in the tutorial to be (much like pouch items tbh but that’s yet another story), you will never come across this quest.

Anyways, if you did grab the information, you then have to travel to a very specific place in Torigoth in order for the quest to trigger! The game does not tell you this either, so you are left on your own to find it. You also have to have at least 10 core crystals on you but that you usually do have. The place is also somewhat out of the way, but not impossible to find if you just spend some time running around the city. It is then that you will be ambushed by Praxis and Theory, and the quest begins.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the first arc of this questline, as it’s pretty standard stuff. A quick recap with some of my thoughts sprinkled in should suffice. So you fight them off, then continue to be concerned about the hunters like the JRPG protagonists you are, then you go and talk to the military about trying to stop them. You decide to spread rumors using the Merc group. By the way I hate the Merc missions they feel like mobile game mechanics, and they rely on the gatcha system which also sucks. I could rant about those but that’s not why we are here, so let’s move on. The Merc group spreads our rumors, and then we have to go to the secret meetup spot where we are supposed to ambush the hunters. But WHOOPS! Turns out we’re the ones being ambushed!! In a kind of interesting turn of events, we get played like a book and have to fight our way out. Also I really actually like the VA who did the main villain of this arc. He has some really good line deliveries and you REALLY learn to hate him especially later down the line. Thieving Waldemar, you were peak, bro. So you beat them and then all of a sudden Praxis just dies. Her driver got killed by the support squad and therefore she’s back in her core. Waldemar realizes they aren’t winning this and tells Theory to run as we grab the core crystal. Theory is kinda pissed about it but ends up following through and leaving. The first hints of something deeper, aside from the visual notion that they’re related in some way.

Overall I think the first arc is just fine. It’s a good enough quest and it’s got some intrigue to it, but nothing super special. What it sets up for tho I actually really enjoy.

So you eventually are able to awaken Praxis as a blade for yourself, and she joins the party! Good for you, she’s a decent water blade and fun to use. She’s also lost all her memories of her previous life, and she’s much more peppy and upbeat rather than a murderer! That’s awesome and I’m sure won’t come into play later! So you put her on the team and start grinding away at her affinity chart.

After a few chapters, you’re suddenly at chapter 7! No Pyra, no Mythra, so your party’s looking a bit weak at the moment, and you wanna go get some of your blades powered up. Luckily, Praxis has gotten herself to the 4th level of the affinity chart, and she’s got a quest: Blade Sharp Memory! This is the second arc of the Praxis and Theory questline, and my favorite of the three. Now earlier I mentioned she lost her memory when she reawakened. Well that’s about to come into play! This quest really takes advantage of the way Blades work and it’s super cool.

So you’re just casually walking around in Fonsa Myma looking for the quest, and all of a sudden you get a spear thrown at you! What the heck bro! Who did that! On the spear is a note, simply telling Praxis to do something that she has no clue about. This leads into a normal sidequest objective of collecting an item, then going to Gormott. Once you get to the specified place in Gormott, you are greeted with ANOTHER spear thrown at you! How fun!! This time it’s more sidequests, but Praxis is confused! Who could be doing this, and why are the fixated on her? So the party has to tell her about her past and her time with Theory. Upon learning what she was, she’s mortified, but at the same time understands that that was the old her. She also doesn’t remember Theory at all but the party surmises that they should play along with her game until they figure out what to do next. Just their luck, because they are told to go to Mor Ardain where what do you know, ANOTHER SPEAR!!! This time though, it’s accompanied by Theory herself, who has come to ask Praxis if she remembers anything about her past life. Theory really really misses Praxis, and has done all of this as a way to try and get her to remember her past life, especially her time with Theory. She’s so desperate she’s gone out of her way to recreate exact situations just to try and trigger something that helps her remember. But that’s not how blades work. Praxis tries to tell her that she doesn’t remember anything, and as a result, Theory just tells the party to come to Judicium where they can finally put an end to this.

So we all go to Judicium and, turns out, our old buddy Waldemar was in on this. He was letting Theory try this to get her back, but he never really put much stock in the idea of it working. Instead, he planned to lure us out here and kill is to retrieve Praxis that way, basically doing the same to us what we did to them. That’s a really cool parallel actually. He also seems to think Theory’s been focusing too much on getting Praxis back, but is also USING her feelings to make her fight even harder so that she can be with her sister once again. Hes basically using Theory as a tool for his own revenge and gain, and Praxis tries to get her to see that but she’s having none of it. So a fight breaks out and it’s honestly a really hard fight. The enemy team is built really well and without Mythra for that party evasion buff it gets kind of hard actually. But we do end up winning, and then the cutscene plays out. Waldemar is getting even worse, insulting Theory for not being good enough, and just generally being a bad person like we all knew. The way it’s written is actually really good, because he has a stake in this same as Theory herself. He wants Praxis back specifically for the power she brings, she wants Praxis back because she cares for her. They have differing motivations and the rift over the course of the conversation just grows and grows, as Waldemar just keeps putting Theory down while Praxis tries to convince her not to fight. Even though she doesn’t remember Theory, she knows she was someone important to her, and doesn’t want Theory to be burdened by this man any longer. Eventually, it seems she finally gets through, and Theory decides to take the life of her own driver, thus killing herself in the process. Praxis holds her as she dies, telling her they’ll stay together when she reawakens. This ends the quest.

And yeah that’s my favorite part of the questline. It’s got the highest stakes, the most tension, and it builds on the ideas that Xenoblade 2 tries to explore really well. I especially like the clash of philosophy that’s shown in how Praxis and Theory are treated when they are separate. Theory is manipulated and toyed with by her driver for the sake of ultimately increasing his own strength. Praxis is supported by her driver and allies, and they take on the challenges that Theory puts to them as a team. When it’s time for her to understand where she comes from, they tell her and allow her to form her own judgements on Theory and what to do next. Getting support from and relying on friends, working together, all great things the game emphasizes show up here. The way that the quest ends is really great too. Even though it’s obvious that killing the driver is the only way we are going to get Theory back, the way that it’s executed is super well done and a natural consequence of both the world that the characters are in as well as the development of the characters up to that point. I could nitpick about how this one driver and his two goons are basically so good they can stand up to 4 of the most powerful drivers in the world and Tora, but I’m very willing to ignore that because it is an interesting story.

So then we get to the third arc of the questline. This arc includes a quest and some heart-to-hearts, covering the resolutions to the storylines of Praxis and Theory, and how they move forward.

We nabbed Theory’s core crystal after the end of the last quest, and eventually she’s ready to awaken as well! Welcome back, Theory! She’s still uptight, but has a certain protective air to her manners, especially around Praxis. Praxis is doing the best she can to be close to Theory, because that’s what she wanted before she died. This isn’t really going as planned, though. In the heart-to-heart “Rough Diamond”, Theory is annoyed at Praxis for trying to coddle her, but she eventually comes around to it somewhat by the time of their last quest together.

The last quest, “Theory and Praxis” (great name guys, really good), sees them trying to repent for their crimes they committed in their past lives. I like how this deals with that aspect of the games world, how does it work when blades have a massive shift in personality as a result of a change of drivers? This quest shows us one way it could go. I have less good to say about this quest than the last one though. It’s again more generic sidequest-y stuff with less of a hit at the end than the second quest. The story basically follows Praxis and Theory as they are recognized by a father in Fonsa Myma and attacked by local mercenaries because they assumed they were still criminal blades. They eventually realize the truth, but it leaves an impression on both of them. Theory just kind of accepts this as a label she’ll have to live with, but Praxis (who has been with the party longer and thus would be more proactive) decides to make things right if she can, and have Theory help her. The quest then again gets pretty standard, with that really being the only highlight aside from the ending. After they go and bake cookies for the children of the town, they pause to reflect on the good they’ve done. It’s a nice bonding moment for them, but I feel it would have been better if elements of the last heart-to-heart they had, “Sisterly Love”, was rolled into it. I get why they had it be separate, because it might have felt like it came a bit too fast as a turn-around. I feel like it could have been done with maybe some mandatory change of location to signify that some time has passed.

Oh I should probably mention what happens in Sisterly Love as well. It’s pretty simple as most heart-to-hearts are. Theory finally expresses the same kind of bond that we saw them having under the core crystal hunter’s care, but this time in a much healthier environment. She’s finally come back around to Praxis, and even calls her “sis”, which is something she said she wouldn’t do in Rough Diamond.

Overall, the quest has some really high highs and some mediocre bits that keep it from really being great. I think the second arc really stands out as the highlight of the story, with the first and third being necessary set up and resolution with some interesting parts along the way.

But, what did I mean when I said that it was a microcosm for Xenoblade 2 as a whole? Well basically I a lot of both what makes Xenoblade 2 good and what holds it back in this quest. It’s got a very interesting overall concept, especially when it comes to the bond between the two main characters. This is shared with the game as a whole, where I think the IDEA of what blades are, especially the Aegis, and how they bond with humans is super neat. I also think that the villain has some very interesting qualities too. As a villain he seems pretty standard for a side quest but when you think about it there’s a little bit more going on, even if he’s got a horrible outlook. He’s never portrayed as sympathetic though, unlike a lot of the main villains in the base game, but at least there’s some depth to him that you wouldn’t usually see in a sidequest villain.

As for the ways it falls short, there’s a few. Id like to mention the voice direction being of mixed quality, especially in the emotional scenes. This is a persistent problem in the game itself, especially earlier on but it still certainly exists even into the late game. It really ruins the mood for some of the most important scenes and just barely manages not to take me completely out of the Theory death scene. It got close, though. I also feel like the third quest is rather underwhelming compared to the first two. It focuses less on Praxis and Theory understanding and coming to terms with what they were and more on how they can atone for it. This really lifts a lot of the emotional weight that the second arc of the story had, and while I don’t think it was a HORRIBLE ending by any means, it could have been so much better if they were able to reflect more on what they did and how the world sees blades like them. Maybe it’s just my flair for more introspective stories, but I really wish we got to see more of that than the cookie making. This also is a problem that is persistent for me in the game as a whole. The story takes all of these really interesting ideas, lays them out on the table for us to see, and then decides to not focus on any of them for the time that they would need to truly hit home. I blame this partly on early game not being very good at sticking to a particular tone or theme. With the exception of Chapter 3, the game doesn’t really pick out what it wants to explore until chapter 5, and it feels like a lot of the time it’s introducing new ideas faster than it can keep pace with them. I feel this quest has a few ideas it wants to explore deeper, but only gets to really talk about one or two of them, the rest getting left half-baked in favor of generic sidequesting and THAT STUPID MERC GROUP TIMER I HATE IT.

Anyways, that’s my conclusive thoughts on the Praxis and Theory storyline in Xenoblade 2. I probably have more to say and to be honest my feelings have shifted a bit since I first drafted my idea for this post over a month ago. Maybe if people want to point out things I can talk a little more about them, or if they don’t then that’s fine as well. In the end this is all just really my opinion on the quest, and if you disagree that’s cool, that’s the cool thing about literature.

Oh yeah and I just discovered that I can save drafts (I’m a bit stupid!) so I’m gonna work on some more posts like this, probably about Xenoblade since that’s my autism thing but maybe I’ll do something on another series as well. We’ll just have to see!

(I can’t find the source for this art but I had it saved from like 5 years ago so here it is)

#xenoblade chronicles 2 #xenoblade 2 #xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade #rant post #praxis #theory #long post #long reads

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disgustlink · 1 year ago

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Simon 'Ghost' Riley Headcanon #2

a/n: as an INTP + 5w6 i feel like i really resonate personally with how a lot of the community writes Simon! so i decided to write a headcanon about something weird i do (but could see him doing as well).

Simon definitely has a lot of notes either on the notes app that came pre-installed on his device or on something like Google Keep Notes (so he can access them across devices).

Some of his notes are practical, like special events or appointments he's got coming up. Others are song lyrics, phrases he's heard in passing, or random insightful advice he conjures up in his mind when he has time with his own thoughts.

The final important type of notes he keeps are the ones about people he's become friends/acquaintances with. It's definitely a security risk to have the personal information of the people he cares about just typed up on his personal device but he can't help it.

Simon isn't good at outwardly reflecting his appreciation for the people he cares about in his life, but he's working on it. He's a really good active listener and tries to make up for his aloofness by trying to remember everything about the people he talks to.

He may not be good at telling people he loves them or appreciates their presence in his life very often, and he may not be good at expressing those same sentiments with physical touch... but he can definitely ask about each of your pets by name if you have any.

Really, he makes a note about anything that makes someone happy. Having a rough day? Here comes Simon, silently handing you a bag that just so happens to contain that really specific order from that one place you mentioned liking a few months ago. 'How did he remember that?' you wonder. If he knows you've already eaten, he'll ask about your interests to distract you instead. You get to rant about your favorite stuff and he gets to intently listen, a perfect arrangement.

If you miraculously manage to lay an eye on some of the notes in his phone, you'll definitely notice the one about you. It's so much longer than the others. Johnny's, Gaz's, and Price's notes are long, but yours is the longest. Filled to the brim of information and every little thing you've ever mentioned about yourself.

His guilty pleasure is scrolling through the list and reading all that he's written about you. Especially after a rough day of his own... all he needs is to look at that shaky photo he took of you smiling all warm and sweet at him or the note he made.

One day while he accompanied you to some shopping, he delighted in the way your entire being lit up and seemed to fill with excitement when you pointed out the fact a song you loved was playing overhead in the store. He subtly looked up the lyrics while trailing behind you through the aisles and saved it to the note. It's memories like this that put a dopey smile on his face as he scrolls through the note whenever the desire strikes him.

If you ever ask him about why he remembers so much about you (or anyone else), he just responds with some shit like, "Guess I've just got a good memory." I also think, against popular belief, he'd be good at remembering things like anniversaries and birthdays- afterall, he saves those too.

#link posting #simon ghost riley #simon ghost x reader #simon riley #cod headcanons #chubby!reader #simon riley x reader #simon riley headcanons #ghost x reader

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wordsofwilderness · 7 months ago

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In light of recent events I thought it would be a good idea to make a post with a list of specific things you can do to make a difference, some for your own personal peace of mind and safety, some to fight on. Even if you are not from the US, please read on, many of these are applicable for everyone, the rise of the far right is not a unique problem to the US, and may of these precautions can end up helping in a lot of other situations too.

I've choose to ordered these roughly with the easiest first:

Personal archive

Download your favourite political literature, fics, books ect. You can get a thumb drive for pretty cheap at any tech store and most bigger supermarkets too if you don't already have one. For the tech savvy you can also download the entirely of Wikipedia (guide here).

Emergency money in cash

If you don't already have any emergency savings it's time to get some. Keep some of it in cash in a safe but accessible place. This can also be extremely useful in case of blackouts or natural disasters were the electricity network is likely to breakdown and cards therefor won't work.

Stop using period tracking apps

Switch it out with pan and paper, or a list of dates in your notes app, literally anything else. Even if the owners swear to protect your data and you are essentially blindly trusting your safety in not only their morals but also their security being better than anyone's hacking abilities (including the US government). Even if you for whatever reason isn't personally in a situation where a pregnancy has any chance of happening or would be any kind of problem, know that your data will be used to compare against those not as fortunate.

Keep a few days of food and other essentials on hand

This one might sound a lot more daunting than it is. Keep an extra bag of pasta or rice and a few cans of bean. I can also recommend a big bag of nuts if your not allergic, or an extra bag of flour and a few packs of dry yeast if you bake. Get into the habit of buying new stable items when you open something instead of when you run out. The important thing here is that these are all stable foods that you still occasionally use in day to day life so you can slowly cycle through and replace them so it never goes bad.

Get a passport

If you are from the US, please consider prioritising this one. Currently you can chose which gender marker you want yourself and it doesn't need to match any other ID you have (source), and who knows if you'll be able to under the next administration.

Join a union

Voting is to democracy what washing your hands is to personal hygiene. If you only wash your hands, all your teeth will fall out.

But jokes aside, lately I've encountered a lot of talk about the inherent conflict of interest between the democratic parties' donors and the working class needs. People seem to generally draw the conclusion that this mean there will never be a true left wing party in the US since money is needed to put forth any significant campaign. I live in Northern Europe and here it pretty common for any left leaning parties to get a decent part of their donations from unions.

If you need any proof for the potential for this can be, then look no further than the amount of small donation during the start of Kamala Harris' campaign, or even any of the two campaigns Bernie Sanders ran in 2016 and 2020.

There are of course also many other benefits of joining a union that very much makes it worth it on it's own such as: higher pay, job security, more vacation time and so much more.

Please feel free to reblog and add more, expand on anything, or add any resource!!

#us politics #2024 election #us election #democracy

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ruvviks · 6 months ago

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I saw in your asks you have your own tew3 and tew4 PLS tell me abt it if you wanna 👀

HEHEHEHE THANK YOU FOR THIS!! i love talking about these stories so much it's very self indulgent because i like playing touys so it's definitely not gonna be something that will fit everyone's tastes but it fits mine and that's what matters ^_^

this got very long by the way and i am sorry. but also i just have a lot to say. there's cringe stuff in here but i don't care i'm having fun and i hope you enjoy it too :]

so in my canon, the plan executed in tew2 didn't get rid of the entirety of MOBIUS but instead only eliminated the administrator's branch of it and his legacy, effectively destroying most if not all the organization's knowledge on the STEM technology. obviously they suffered massive losses but it would only be a matter of time before the rest of them would regroup and pick up business like before, so nathan and kidman team up together to try and hunt down the remainder of MOBIUS, hoping to prevent that from happening

about half a year after the events of tew2, they pick up police radio chatter about reported ghostly activity in the remnants of beacon mental hospital (closed down but the building is left to rot in the center of krimson city). upon further investigation, they come face to face with ruvik and find the old and forgotten STEM device in working order, seemingly without a core. they bring it to their own headquarters (some old abandoned warehouse on the edge of town) where they hook it up to their own tech and the STEM device that supported the union environment from tew2, to bypass the mystery core the device seems to be running on and get their own readings and get access to the mainframe that way

turns out ruvik is definitely back in STEM, somehow having placed his entire physical form in the STEM environment to run the technology on himself as some sort of internal core rather than external core (don't ask for the specifics of how that would work, i had to come up with something and this is the best i could do)

the readings nathan and kidman are getting are worrying; it seems like the STEM environment is expanding outward into the real world, kind of similar to what MOBIUS was trying to do (put enough people in STEM to acivate a wireless signal strong enough to pull the whole planet into STEM) but without all the people hooked up to the device and without actually pulling people INTO it (so it would be an active environment in the real world and not some sort of dream reality)

naturally they assume ruvik is doing all of this and they plan on sending nathan into the (very unstable) STEM environment, though before doing so he goes to warn sebastian of what might happen if he fails to stop ruvik so sebastian and lily can get out of town to get themselves to safety. obviously this warning is nathan trying to get sebastian to help him because he doesn't want to go back into STEM by himself; and obviously sebastian won't let him go back in alone, so they team up for one last time to dive into what is essentially a mix of beacon and union

the environment is incredibly unstable since it's running on two different devices with ruvik as the core. it uses environments from both tew1 and tew2, though they're horribly twisted and mixed together; and in addition to that, they have to deal with what i'm currently calling shifts, in which the whole environment crumbles and then realigns itself once stabilized again, but that means all previous locations are now scrambled again into something new

i did try to approach the creation of the storyline for tew3 from a game design point of view (since i'm also a game artist myself so may as well try to keep it as close to the source material as possible), so the gameplay for the first act of the game would be fairly similar to how tew2 starts. their initial objective is to try and find ruvik, and they need to make their way to his estate through the highly unstable environment; during this part of the game, they learn that the instability has caused various sublevels of STEM to be accessible from the surface, which is a surprise tool that will help us later

(just to explain this part a bit more: the surface of STEM would be beacon and the krimson city environment from tew1, and union from tew2. the first layer of sublevels would be the victoriano estate (to me at least, since there's ruvik's memories of the barn fire directly tied to it) from tew1, and the marrow from tew2. and then on deeper sublevels you'll find wherever it is sebastian goes when he goes into the mirror, the startup part of tew2, the huge brain of tew1, and also the weird white goo world from tew2 at the end of the game. and tew3 introduces various more sublevels that have now been unlocked through the instability of the environment!)

at some point relatively early on in the story and gameplay, sebastian and nathan manage to make their way to ruvik in his estate where he seems to just be working on his own thing and he doesn't pay them much mind. important for this is to remember that nathan wasn't there for beacon; he's never been hurt by ruvik and thus has a very different perspective on him than sebastian does, but that's a suitcase to unpack another day. either way, nathan is a lot more curious about what ruvik is working on and not as ready to just kill him as sebastian is, which is also where some tension between the two would start

they learn that (if they have to believe him at least) ruvik is only back to try and get laura back, which is part of what the initial concept of the STEM device was all about. the signal they've been picking up is not his doing and he doesn't even seem all that eager to kill them, mostly just wanting them to stay out of his business so he can focus on his work. another shift happens before they can do much else, and they end up in a completely different place once it's over, meaning they've lost ruvik again

that opens up the second act of the story and game! in this act, sebastian and nathan manage to determine that the signal is coming from a very deep sublevel of STEM and they're gonna have to travel through a bunch of other levels to get to it to shut it down; essentially sidelining the ruvik problem for later. each sublevel would be different, some familiar but with a fresh twist, others completely new to the players, and each sublevel would have a handful of different enemies and then a final boss to defeat to move on to the next one (kind of finding a balance between tew1's plethora of enemies and tew2's more storyline-esque approach)

the players take control of mainly sebastian during the gameplay, with nathan as available companion. in some sublevels they meet old friends that have been reconnected to the STEM device in hopes to find their consciousnesses in the sublevels of STEM; joseph, torres, and hoffman (in my canon she also took out her chip so her brain didn't get fried in the real world). upon finding them, they can also be selected as possible companion instead of nathan, once the players venture into the next sublevel

(another quick addition here is that myra's body could not be recovered after the events of tew2 for reasons they're not sure about, still. the way i explained this for myself is that she also transferred her whole physical form into the STEM environment, like what ruvik did here, to be able to take over lily's place as the core. this is why her body could not be recovered, and why she's not hooked up to the device like the others are! again, we don't think about how physical transfer would even be possible. we don't think about it)

(another addition is that myra is most definitely also in the system, because of nathan and kidman connecting the device from tew2 as well. during the story and gameplay there would be some unexplainable things happening which later turns out to have been her all along, trying to help them as much as she could from where she's stuck)

while they venture deeper into STEM, the players also take control of nathan a couple of times! through every sublevel there's scattered bits of the marrow and nathan goes to explore them alone, to cobble together a surprise tool that will help us later. during these moments with nathan alone, the players would also learn more about him and the parallels between him and ruvik (most notable ones being having a dead sister and feeling responsible for their death in a way despite not being at fault, having killed their parents, and having done horrible things for/with MOBIUS) which gives them a better idea of why nathan's perspective on him is so different from sebastian's

at some point they hit a literal wall, which is blocking their way to the signal. it's the deepest sublevel of STEM and in order to gain access to it, they need the environment to fall apart more; and in order to get that to happen, they need to disconnect ruvik as the core. this brings them to the third act of the game, in which they need to track down ruvik again and initiate combat with him, which goes about as well as you'd imagine

nathan ends up trying a different approach and attempts to talk to ruvik instead, who does in fact listen to him because nathan fascinates him (suitcase for another day); nathan tries to talk some sense into him, explaining that he can't bring laura back and he wants to prove it to him by using the device he's been building during the second act of the game

again, don't ask for the specifics but the device can basically summon laura but in her human form, but it shows how unstable she is in this form; it's because she has never been hooked up to the device herself, she's always been ruvik's memories and thus is directly connected to HIM instead, and the second he were to spiral it means that laura spirals with him. this naturally makes ruvik mad, which ends up proving nathan's point; laura turns into an even more horrifying monster version of herself, and they end up having to team up with ruvik to defeat her so they don't die

after this encounter, ruvik agrees to disconnect himself as the core since he doesn't see the point of staying there anyway. the second he does so, the environment starts crumbling even more than before, which allows them access to the deepest sublevel of STEM; this is where myra has been stuck all this time, but theodore as well (who at that point would've been the only antagonist from earlier games who hasn't made an appearance yet, so players could have already had their suspicions)

theodore immediately takes control of the STEM environment, trapping everyone inside (which means ruvik can't make his quick exit like he was planning on doing, which is fun because that means he's now stuck with sebastian and nathan and friends). the signal has been his doing all along, trying to finish what he started back in tew2, but instead of attempting to control MOBIUS he's now been trying to just skip over that part and get to the rest of the world instead

and the remainder of the story and gameplay would be focused on defeating theodore! i don't really have the specifics for this yet but obviously they succeed and get to leave STEM behind for good (or so they think). ruvik opens up this extraction highway which allows safe extraction for all of them, himself and myra included (in full physical form), and that's where tew3 would end :]

(in addition to this, theodore obviously also manages to escape. his own body would have been left behind in the MOBIUS headquarters so instead he would hitch a ride using sykes' body to get back into the real world via the extraction highway ruvik opened up (sykes didn't make it out in tew2 and his whole physical form would've been stuck in a sublevel up until now), so he's out there to cause more problems at some point)

so this is where things get REALLY self indulgent so please bear with me here. obviously they can't just kill ruvik but they can't let him walk free either so tl;dr he gets sent to rehab. think about the consequences of your actions boy. hoffman would probably know someone reliable in the system who isn't MOBIUS but would be aware of STEM so they can oversee his progress and whatever. that's about as far as i've gone thinking about the logistics of all that. not that i think it would really do much for him because he's still a freak to me but at least he can then sort of live some sort of life after all that

in the time between tew3 and tew4, nathan kind of goes off the rails a little bit, isolating himself a lot since he's dealing with a whole lot of shit (suitcase for another day). this distances him from his friends once more and he spends most of his time alone in his apartment doing little coding gigs here and there and writing tech manuals and whatnot to be able to pay his bills and get groceries. he's the only one who wrote down on his calendar when ruvik, now ruben, would be released back into the wild, so he actually goes to pick him up since he's got nothing better going on for himself anyway

(another note here is that in my canon ruben is younger than whatever age he is in tew1. i think he's closer in age to sebastian there but in my canon he's closer to nathan's age, so more around his early 30s (nathan is 26 during tew3 and 27 during tew4) because i dunno that just fits better in my brain. i couldn't explain it to you. it just feels better you'll just have to trust me LMAO)

so then ruben basically moves in with nathan for the time being because i think it's fun and funny to 1) explore their dynamic and 2) put ruben in a normal human being role after having lived in a huge estate cut off from the world and then being locked in a basement for a good chunk of his life. that man has never fried an egg before in his life. he doesn't know what a smartphone or a toaster is. i want him to watch sports on tv and get frustrated and throw the remote when nathan tries to explain the rules to him

(i do have more details for their time spent together living like this, especially concerning learning more about each other and in a way finding comfort with each other when the rest of the world feels very hostile and unsafe, but i'll spare you the details because. well. VERY SELF INDULGENT. suitcase for another day. but either way nathan and ruben do grow very very close. #gay)

more time passes, and then one night they wake up from sirens outside and distant explosions; upon further investigation, they very quickly learn that they're somehow in STEM, and there seems to be a dome around the entire city trapping them inside. and that's where tew4 starts!

so i used to have a whole storyline written out for it but i've been tinkering a lot on the storyline for tew3, so now my old notes don't really work anymore unfortunately. the basics of the story are that the city is not Actually trapped in a STEM environment; the entirety of tew4 (which spans across several days if not weeks) happens in the span of 5 in real life seconds, and it's simply like the STEM environments from the previous games except its activated across the entirety of krimson city and affects everyone inside

obviously theodore has something to do with it again and he's the one who built the new device that supports this new version of STEM, having learned from his experiences in tew3; but i personally don't think he would be acting alone, and he's probably being tasked to do this by someone (or something) else but i haven't worked out the specifics of this yet

the team of protagonists (which is a fun mix of characters from both tew1 and tew2 and made funny by the fact that ruben is there now because he tagged along with nathan, and no neither of them thought that through very well) have to take down a bunch of stabilizers to reveal the device that's running the environment so they can shut it down, and their journey takes them to several familiar locations where each of them has to face something from their past (an attempt to stop them) to get to the stabilizer and take it down

so yeah i think that's about it! i do still have a lot more lore but that's mostly focused around nathan and ruben, and then also the dynamic between nathan and sebastian and how that evolves the closer nathan and ruben get, but i decided to leave that mostly out of here for now since it's not really relevant to the plot itself but it does obviously affect their relationships and all. all is well at the end but it takes a while for them to get to that point because well none of them are good at talking about literally anything. so you can imagine how bad the atmosphere is during tew4

#asks #aroserinosman #ask:nathan #oc asks #poses cutely. please no one unfollow me this is probably the most cringe i've been since i drew that piece of nathan and ruben together

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miracrownnews · 2 months ago

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Mira Crown Pinnacle Roundup V.1.4 Second Half

Here's the Pinnacle Roundup graphic for 1.4 second half based on findings and clears submitted by different players in the official Infinity Nikki Discord server.

As always this isn't an extensive guide, just a summary that specifically focuses on F2P or accessible clears. There are many other options that wouldn't fit here so always remember to check the in-game filters or Infinity Nikki Library for different attribute and label combinations. You can also check this other really good guide by Neptunya!

This guide was calculated with the assumptions that you have played through the Interlude and gotten at least both sets of percentage styling nodes. If you haven't, your final score may differ and the guide won't be accurate anymore.

Glad to see it's another relatively easy Pinnacle. The hardest part is the high score thresholds, especially for the last 2 rounds, which translates into needing more investment in general. This is purely speculation on my part, but I think this is due to the Pinnacle buff being +15% to glowed up pieces score. Since they add quite a lot, they likely raised the perfect score threshold to account for it. But it shouldn't really be an issue in most cases.

Round 7 has waaay too many options. If you don't have a fully glowed up Fresh/Pastoral outfit yet, remember that you don't need a an entire set to clear the 3rd star requirement, you just need 5 pieces! This can help save some resources. Be careful of using 3-star outfits for this R7 (Floating Blossoms and Sunlit Grasspom). They both need higher rarity substituted pieces and/or flat nodes in order to be able to clear.

Round 8 has a really high score, almost as high as the Sovereign of Elegant rematch one (currently that is the highest score threshold in the game). But it's still possible to clear as a F2P player. There aren't many free Elegant and Royal options in the game (there are exactly only three, all the other options are from gacha) so it's a bit inflexible. Fluttering Wishes can be acquired from clearing out Marques' store for 500k blings and Gala Crystal is a sketch obtained from a treasure chest near the Bullquet (obtained after a quest from Luni). If you don't have them yet don't worry about it too much as there are still 2.5 weeks left before the reset and we're getting a double drop event for the Realm of Escalation soon.

#mira crown #pinnacle #mira crown guide #pinnacle guide #infinity nikki #nikki guide #infinity nikki guide #styling contest

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nightwanderers12081 · 2 years ago

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hiii im back again with an old au that i never talked about yes i have an au problem no i will not do anything to solve said problem

This is all copy-pasted from discord, so it is slightly a mess in terms of order of events

this is a adjl/dp crossover au-

Its an idea based on the fic mirrored by Lynse(ITS SO FUCKIN GOOD HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

HERE IS MIRRORED BY LYNSE, ONCE AGAIN HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ITS A GOOD READ

ALSO! This au is implied for goin/going dragon, although it can be seen as platonic /gen

If you dont like that this isn't the au/post for you

//spoilers for DP and ADJL, implied experimentation and torture( fuck the giw <//3), shock collar(/nsx, again gonna fight the giw), injuries mention

This whole au kinda focuses on Danny healing and Jake and Danny becoming friends and seeing them grow

So this takes place after both their shows and AGIT (a glitch in time), The short description is that Danny is captured by the GIW and goes through alot of shit (they fuckin suck i hate them), one thing including a collar that would shock phantom upon speaking (FUCK THEM WHOLEHEARTEDLY), His phone(for phantom, not fenton, he has seperate phones so people dont figure out his identity), is shattered, and the SIM card is broken(not unfixable, this is important i swear)

The GIW eventually attempt to move Danny from their base near Amity park to new york,

The dragon council catches wind of this(More specifically that they're transporting ghosts), and since ghosts are magical creatures, Jake's given a mission to intercept and free the ghosts being transferred

So he does his job the night of the move, He absolutely wrecks the GIW's vehicle and frees the other ghosts, he also finds the broken remains of phantom's phone(GIW are trying to fix it to access his info smh)

He notices phantom who doesn't seem able to move(injuries + shock), so he yoinks danny and takes em back to his grandpa's work shop

Phantom is fuckin terrified and relieved, hes been kept for weeks bh the GIW and kinda lost his fight(poor bean, he acted really submissive after a lil while being with them, This au genuinely hurts me why do I do this BABNDBS), He doesn't trust jake(which, fair, bro did kinda kidnap him in a way ABBS)

At the shop, They(Jake Fu and Grandpa) Check over injuries(that phantom allows em to see, again not vv trusting of em), and do the best of their ability to clean em up, They deduct that they need to bring Spud the following day to get off the collar

Phantom ends up staying with jake and his family, who were briefed about the situation and were very friendly, He stays with jake in his room because he doesn't want to be alone

The next day Jake has to unfortunately go to school bc that exists, and Phantom's left at their home with jake's parents

Phantom has a breakdown, and Jake's dad hears and comforts him(Literally Jake's dad is the fucking sweetest dad in the show abdbbw)

The break down was about everything that happened, and extreme home sickness

Jake's dad tells Jake about this immediately when he gets home, Jake remembers the phone(it has danny's logo on it, its vv clear whos phone it is BABDB), and asks Fu and his grandpa to repair the SIM card(their shop is an electronic's shop for those who hasn't seen the show)

After, he goes back and gets Phantom and Spud, who quickly disables the collar

The damage is already done though, despite being free of the collar Phantom stays quiet (im gonna cry why dO I DO THIS-)

A few other things planned-

The long family notices that Phantom despite eating a little bit(he cant eat much at a time cause starved n stuff), doesn't seem to be replenished at all, When asked, Phantom tries to avoid the question, but quietly mumbles about how he needs ectoplasm to consume

waaaay later(like a week and a half?), the SIM is fixed, and inserted into a new phone that Jake gifts to Danny, and hes over the moon about it, hes not vocal but hes very expressive

Before danny gets a new phone Spud and Trixie both do a little research into danny phantom and find amity park, alot of the information is blocked until they use a VPN to switch their location to amity park and learn alot, They share this to Jake

They learn about how he's supposedly is the town hero, the times he was public enemy #1 (including an interview danny did with lance thunder explaining every bad circumstance with him, literally none of them were in his control BANND)

They dont do much with the information but I thought it would be nice to include

The next day everyone's out of the house, leaving Phantom home alone, He goes on the couch and with a bated breath, calls Jazz(HO BOY THIS IS A WHOLE OTHER THING I NEED TO TALK ABOUT), Jazz is fuckin worried but Danny fills her in very vaguely on what happened(he mentions he was taken by the giw, no other detail on that part), He tells tucker to track the call so they all can know where the fuck hes at (also fun tid bit, his voice was hoarse and jazz comments on it)

Jake gets back from school and walks in, Hes shocked cause this is the first hes heard phantom actually speak, He overhears Phantom telling jazz that he was taken in and how he thinks their family is really kind and how hes confused on why they're so nice for him, Phantom's really appreciative

The call ends on Phantom promising to call again soon, and that they'd discuss a place to meet once they know exactly where in new york he is

I feel like smth worth mentioning is that Danny has been hiding his secret from the longs as much as possible

Phantom notices Jake after the call ends and very nervously greets em, they probably have a smol chat

So you may be wondering, whats going on in amity park?

Well, after Danny's disappearence, Team phantom are the first to notice and are very worried and concerned, They look around for him

The ghosts soon catch wind after showing up and being informed Danny Phantom has gone missing, His regulars like Skulker, Kitty, Johnny, Ember, etc are very worried, along with his allies, and try to find him through the ghost zone

Other ghosts use this to cause havoc, But Team Phantom and the Red huntress are holding ground and taking care of them in Danny's absence

SPEAKING OF THE RED HUNTRESS, Valarie is a little concerned upon hearing about Phantom's disappearance, Jazz tells her whats happening(shes worried for her brother, shes not really thinking about keeping team phantom's involvement a secret), she also lets it slip that she thinks the GIW has something to do with it

Eventually Team Phantom let her in on the whole secret identity bc they're fucking worried that their friend hasn't been seen in weeks

Eventually they do get that call and its a huge relief

I plan for Danny and them to meet at a park in new york(near where hes at), Jake probably tagging along bc he doesn't want Danny to get lost or anything, Also valarie tells him she wants to talk about everything after hes doing okay and everything is back to normal at the meet up

At some point I also want Danny's secret to be revealed to the long family, they'd 100% take it well

One night (post phone call woth jazz), Jake's dad comes into jake's room to wish Phantom and Jake a good night, But Phantom isnt there

Jake had noticed his window was open earlier but didn't think anything of it until they realize phantom's missing

He opens the window and climbs onto the roof, and finds phantom laying on the roof stargazing, He lays down with em

They're chillin, Jake asked if phantom likes stargazing and he nods

Out of no where Phantom talks about how he wanted to be an astronaut, and they have a soft moment on the roof

Thats everything i have for this au so far ~ Ender/Whisper

#danny phantom #dp #danny fenton #danny phantom crossover #dp crossover #goin dragon #going dragon #experimentation #experimentation implied #injuries #adjl #american dragon jake long #jake long

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solarpunkcryptid · 5 months ago

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PSA

Heads up to everyone who interacts with my blog! This includes my wonderful followers, those who may follow indirectly, and those who simply interact with my posts in the wild.

Given the current state of the US Government, this blog will unfortunately be going dark. I will leave it up for those of you who may want to still access the resources I have accumulated here during this time, for the time being. Unfortunately, due to the United States being a surveillance state, I feel I will need to remove it sooner than later for my own safety. I will not take that step until I have a new blog established to host these resources, so if my plan to remove this one causes you anxiety, please do not panic. I won't leave this hellsite that easy.

The rationale for this decision simply comes down to a handful of factors that make me a target. I am an lgbtq+ woman, I have run this blog as a sideblog off my main account that is likely associated with my home IP (despite firefox and tracker blockers), and I am a federal employee by financial necessity. While my job and agency have been mostly overlooked so far with the current EOs being enacted, it is foolish to assume that dissenters in the workforce will not be sought out and punished at some point. As such, I will be getting my VPNs in order and going further underground to come back with a fresh account specifically for this, for your reference as much as mine. The new blog will be as active as possible despite a very eventful home situation.

I will not be posting my new blog publicly. Instead, I will take advantage of there only being 170 of you to vet through my followers, remove bots, and message the blogs who remain with my new location. If you don't follow me formally, feel free to do so or to follow people who may have reblogged from me consistently! Hopefully this will be a smooth transition for all of us.

Good night, and good luck, all. We'll get through this hellscape together. May they bite off more than they can chew and choke. <3

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thatsexcpisces · 1 year ago

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❤️‍🔥 Tarot + astrology readings (info + prices) ❤️‍🔥

• if you want me to do a reading for you, dm me here on tumblr

• you can ask me your question and send the payment through CashApp. As soon as you contact me, I will send you that info

*** • you can even pay me after I send you the reading, don’t feel rushed, I’m completely okay with accepting the money later on as long as you get your reading first 💕 ***

• once im done doing the reading for you, I will send you or email you a google doc or some kind of a word doc with the full explanation of your answer and further details. Or If you want I can just send you an entire message of the answer on Tumblr lol

TAROT:

• I will most likely need your full name in order for me to be more specific in the reading and for it to be easier for me to access your energy. For example, if I am doing a reading for you and a love interest, I need your and their first and last name and the zodiac signs and your & their birthdays. (I could also do initials if you want but preferably full names cause it’s more detailed)

• I promise that these details and your info will be absolutely confidential and I will not share them anywhere or to anyone. I just need them for the reading. So make sure you’re okay with & you agree to that before asking for a reading💗

Scroll down for prices and explanations of the types of readings you can ask for! 💫🤍🪐

• Yes or no (elaborate) $5 : you can ask me any question (has to preferably be a question that can be answered with a “yes” or “no” tho lol) and I will give you that kind of answer but explained in a detailed way with further info on how to have that outcome

• Concise advice (on a certain situation)$8 : you can ask me for advice on anything happening in your life at the moment or any question about a specific topic or situation and I’ll tell you how to approach and handle it

• Past, present, future $10 : I will do a layout about your past and present and what to expect in the future

• Full Relationship spread (you and other person) $25 : I will do a full card spread of you and your person of interest (can be romantic or platonic) and talk about the Overall Details, feelings, and energy of the relationship.

• Love life $15 : a full spread on aspects of your love life and what can happen in the future regarding your love life, things to focus on, new people, etc.

• career spread $15 : An Overall Look on your career and where it stands, advice, what you can do to improve, best career areas for you to focus on, etc

• full overview of your life/current situation + guidance & more $30 : this means I will do a deep explanation of everything that is currently happening in your life and ask questions to better understand what obstacles are in the way and what you need to focus on. I will tell you what you should start planning and looking forward to in the future and provide guidance on personal situations you’re curious about. It’s a very general and open reading to all aspects of your life.

• outcome $7 : I will tell you the expected or possible future outcome of any situation or event of your choice in your life

ASTROLOGY:

• I will need your birthday, exact birth time, and birth place.

Scroll⬇️

• big 3 reading explanation $5

• big 6 reading explanation: $7

• general natal reading overview $12 (here I will do a reading based off the more important planets and aspects in your birth chart and those with the strongest influence that affect you the most along with other placements and asteroids that are key in your life)

• ‘everything’ reading $22 (I will do a full and deep reading of your whole birth chart and explain in detail what your birth chart means and provide info on your past and future based off important placements and other aspects of the chart)

• general/concise persona chart readings $7

• partner/love life/future spouse interpretations in the natal chart $8

• full synastry chart reading $20 (you & other person)

• composite chart reading (you & other person) $15

• brief progressed synastry reading $7

• solar return chart reading $13

• astrocartography reading $10

**** please note that these might take some time as I am trying to be as organized as possible with your readings and want to make sure the info is detailed and fully gathered but I will send them to you as soon as I can so please be patient 💘💘

Thank you so much & let me know if you have any questions 🤍❣️🤍❣️

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aheathen-conceivably · 2 years ago

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how do you go about planning your storyline? :) especially for your decades challenge

Hello there dearest! I’m sorry this took me a while. It’s a bit of a difficult one and I wanted to take some time to sort out the chaotic process in my brain before I tried to type it out 😅

This is just a rough outline of what works for me specifically in writing a historical story on simblr. I can’t speak to writing advice in general because it’s not something I have experience with; nor do I think this will be helpful for everyone. So please feel free to pick and choose whatever suits your fancy or ignore it all completely.

Of course, it’s time to take this below the cut, since you know it’s going to get a bit long 😉

1. Find Inspiration (Nonfiction books, Blogs, TV shows, YouTube videos, Period Pieces, etc etc…)

For a decades challenge/history based story I think this is really the starting point for me. Whether it be styles of architecture, clothing trends, a historical fact, or an individual’s story, there’s so much real life inspiration to be found for this type of story. It can often seem small, but sometimes pinpointing what you know you want to include and working it in there can be the crux of so much of a story.

I’ve said this before but one of the very first things I knew I wanted to include was the Titanic, since it was the first historical event I ever became interested in. Other examples are New Orleans as a setting, the inclusion of Storyville, and even something as small as the axe man that I included in this post.

When I find these moments of inspiration, I try to immediately transform them into tangible scenes or plot points rather than simply jot them down as a note or like a “maybe for later”. This keeps me from getting mired in too many ideas or overwhelmed with things I like, but that don’t necessarily have a place in the story.

However, sometimes it also means I will need to tweak ideas as the plot develops, such as changing the original storyline of Rosella and Lord Harrington to Rosella and Georgiana; but even with these edits, this process still creates a sort of scaffolding structure for the story as a whole. It gives me plot points or small, specific scenes that I am working and writing toward. I’m then able to allude to the eventual outcome beforehand as well as weave a larger narrative around it while still having clear points of guidance for where I want to go. 2. Connect the Dots

The “dots” here are the aforementioned scenes and/or plot points that I have written well in advance. I have dozens and dozens of these, and I’m basically constantly adding to the document where I keep my writing. This is all kept in chronological order so I can see the progression as well as where I need more narrative to fill out a decade. I generally look at this structure and ask myself: how do I realistically reach that point?

To use the example of the Titanic again: this meant somehow getting the oldest daughter of a relatively poor and close knit family aboard a ship bound for America. It meant not only putting her in contact with someone who would have access to these tickets, but also giving her a reason to leave the people she loved. Then once those larger dots are connected, I continue to focus on smaller and smaller threads, like the details of Georgiana herself or Rosella’s relationship to Zelda, until the storyline feels fully fleshed out and a character’s motivations are coming through. 3. Character Consistency

That last bit is very important to me, and I always try and think about how the characters are functioning within the framework of what I’ve written and the historical landscape. Sometimes this comes into play before connecting the dots, but often it is actually what finally puts the puzzle pieces in place. Something sim-specific here is that I really do use sims traits as guidance on who the characters are, how they interact with the world, and how the world has affected them. So often when I am referencing a prewritten plot point or scene I will ask myself, how would that character get to this point? What may have happened that would lead them here? How does their personality interact with this historical event or point of inspiration?

Many scenes have often come from more outward facing questions, like, is this trait clear to everyone reading as well as me? Has this visibly impacted their life and done so in a sensible way? This is in part responsible for many extra scenes we saw at the end of the 1920s when a few of my best simblr babes pointed out to me that Antoine’s motivations weren’t very clear. It also helps me to fill in and round out that base storyline structure with more small, real-life scenes that showcase and develop certain traits as characters grow and interact with the world around them.

—

With all that said, this is often a very long process that involves reading or watching historical content, going over my own writing again and again, and just waiting for the day when my brain suddenly writes 5-6 scenes unprompted. Other times I’m flying by the tip of my boots, watching y’all feedback and incorporating it or reading through scenes with friends for their help.

So the process has looked very different at various points in the narrative and through the many months I’ve been writing this story. But overall, having those points to write toward as well as tangible character traits have guided the process throughout.

#ask #answered #resources

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lucas-deziderio · 1 year ago

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Dezi reads Pact: Null 9.6

I truly hate being negative, but it's time for me to complain about Pact's power scaling. You see, most fantasy stories where people use powers to fight one another usually scale upwards. Our protagonist gets more powerful in order to face more dangerous foes and so give the story higher stakes. We all know that. Wildbow even follow that formula in Worm, where Taylor learns new tricks she can pull with her power, gets access to more varied insects and pairs up with more powerful capes to take down increasingly dangerous threats.

Now going back to Pact: a story about wizards and magical beings battling against one another, with a very wide range of possible powers and abilities. And even then, we're halfway through our story and our protagonist has absolutely nothing on him! All of the abilities he painstakingly conquered were taken away from him. If anything, Blake is weaker now than he was in the very first act. Still, the author is throwing him on a fight against a very powerful demon.

My man here just went through the magical equivalent of a 16 hour shift at your local Arby's! His hands are mangled, one of his eyes stopped working, he just relived a very traumatic event in the last couple hours. His only weapon is a broken sword that hurts him while being wielded. There is absolutely no way he's in condition to fight against Ur. Just a couple arcs back he went into that same fight but with actual preparation, a plan and allies and still got his ass kicked. There is nothing in the narrative that can justify him being defeated then but surviving now when the odds are even more against him.

It's not even like Wildbow wrote himself into a corner. In previous chapters we were made aware that Blake has had allies that were eaten by Ur. He could have met them again in the Drains and gotten their help. Or he could have made an actual deal for power with the dead god he found. But nope!

I came to this book waiting for battles were magic and preparation mattered. I love hard magic systems specifically because you can have tactical confrontations where the practitioners can use the rules themselves against one another. But this? This is a mangled man with zero tools in his arsenal going up against a Lovecraftian beast and surviving out of luck.

No. No, no, no! This might be a pyrrhic victory at best, but Ur has absolutely zero reasons to not swallow you up again right now. And I must emphasize:

WINNING 👏 DOESN'T 👏 MATTER 👏 IF 👏 YOU'RE 👏 IN 👏 THE 👏 DRAINS 👏 AGAIN!! 👏

That's it. I'm pissed. This is the second time that a big arc ending battle in this story has left me pissed with its plot armor. Blake should be dead right now.

Anyways, moving on, there is another detail that also pissed me off in this chapter:

Blake, you should definitely be taking a very long bath right now. First because that whole dimension was nasty and I don't want to imagine you looking like a sewage golem for the rest of the story. Second because, as someone who has experienced homelessness, you should be well aware of how people treat you differently when you're dirty or clean. And third because you desperately need power right now and we have been shown in this story that spending time on your home, relaxing and taking care of yourself can help one replenish theirs. NOW GET IN THE FUCKING BATHTUB!

OK, I think my negativity spree is over. Let's see what's next...

OK, this isn't the end of the world. Part of me was hoping he would get to reactivate his connections once he was back to our world, but it looks like that's a no-go. At least it's just a material thing. He can buy another bike or get the same back later. Don't worry, guys.

The important part is that now he's gonna meet the rest of the cast and get reintroduced into the main plot...

OH MY GOD, EVAN WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO RECOGNIZED HIM! EVAN WASN'T AFRAID!! I'M NOT WELL!!! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!

Previous • Next

#Dezi reads #pact web serial #liveblogging pact #pact spoilers #pactblr #otherverse

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josouhenshin · 2 years ago

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Day 3

Prev post Index Next post

Welcome back, josou enthusiasts. Last time, Mizuho and Shinobu picked up some women’s underwear (known to some as the foundation of crossdressing) to round out Shinobu’s first girl mode outfit. This time, we’re going to take Shinobu out on her first adventure en femme.

At the end of the previous update, I put up a poll to help decide where to have them go next. The results were:

Town: 2 votes

Amusement park: 2 votes

French restaurant: 1 vote

Tennis court: 2 votes (including mine)

A 3 way tie is tricky to resolve, but town introduces some important things, so let’s take care of that first. Tennis is short and it’s got a special outfit so I’ll try to squeeze that in soon too.

Incidentally, I obtained the music through a bit of exploring, so let’s ease into the update with the main title theme:

youtube

First things first- we gotta equip the underwear. What had Mizuho picked out for us last time that had the two of them so flustered, I wonder, I wonder?

Music: BGM 11

A jra and joyshorts. I believe the flavor text describes them as something to the effect of “denim-like” or “with the vibes of denim” so I don’t think they’re actually junderwear but I could be wrong. Anyway I do like that they specifically start Shina here off with boyshorts instead of regular panties, I suppose that staple of the culture hasn’t changed much in 20 years. Equipping both gets Shina down from 109 bpm to 103.

Important to note- if you don’t equip the underwear, Shina doesn’t pass and the events seem to mostly end with the two of them getting harassed and going home early. So put on the underwear. It’s the foundation of crossdressing, you know!

I also want to make a quick note about progression too. I tried out a few combinations of things, and it seems like the first time you visit any of these places you get the same event regardless of order. I’m not sure if your outfit or base stats influence things though, so getting access to clothes shopping is pretty important. This all feels very similar to messing around in first cycle termina or something though. Hard to tell how much is really accessible or what’s worth doing.

Well, that’s enough dillydallying, I’m sure Mizuho is getting impatient.

Music: BGM02

We’re out in public. Shina is visibly (and understandably) extremely nervous. Mizuho assures her that if she acts confident it’ll be fine. Shinobu mumbles in agreement and thinks to herself that it’s unbelievable that she actually went out looking like this.

“But when you crossdress and go out, the world is different, right?” Mizuho says.

“Yeah,” Shina agrees, “it’s like you’re not yourself.”

Mizuho says she remembers the feeling of going out for the first time well. Everything around seemed like it was brand new. She wondered why she’d never done it before, why she’d never gotten to know the world of crossdressing. Shina says she understands that feeling well. Just by dressing up it’s like a different world out there.

Nearby they hear a solicitor passing out tissues. This is (was?) a common occurrence overseas similar to the american tradition of making someone stand out on the street and twirl signs. Mascot costume optional. They’re being kinda pushy.

The ad on the tissues says “recruiting: tele-club part time job.” Tele-club apparently being a term for phone sex hotlines. Shina muses that the two of them should probably think about looking for some part time work too... but working for a tele-club sounds like a bad idea. She also corrects herself from saying ‘boku’ to ‘atashi.’ They grow up so fast!

Mizuho agrees. She says it’ll help Shina with collecting new clothes and cosmetics and such.

“I guess with crossdressing you also need money, huh,” she considers.

Ah piss and shit and fuck the tissue guy overheard. Damn it. Now they’re stuck talking to him. He’s asking them if they’re job hunting. God- god damn it. Come on man. He’s recommending they take a look at the tele-club job. What a hassle. Shina tries to politely turn him down. He’s disappointed but offers them a more regular part time job at a cafe instead. Well that’s very nice and not at all shady. He says cute girls like them would be well received, since they don’t have any waitresses.

“I wonder whether we’d get to wear a cute uniform or something,” Shina thinks to herself. But, she also figures that getting a part time job while crossdressing sounds like a terrible idea. She asks if they’re recruiting men for the job too, and-

“Men?!” he’s totally flabbergasted. He says, well, we’re accepting anyone, but why? “Did you want to get a job with your boyfriend?” He asks if they have boyfriends.

Man this guy is shady. But Shina is also not playing it off well at all. “Well, I don’t have a boyfriend, but, uh, what do I say-” she stammers.

Mizuho asks for directions to the cafe. He explains the route. He also gives his name: Jin Asakura. “Let’s be friends, okay?”

You may have guessed from his severaltitude of sprites, but you can fuck that guy down the line. If you want. From what I understand there’s a few different jobs you can get, each with a handful of associated romanceable characters. I think you also meet the green haired girl through the cafe job, and maybe some others, but I’m not sure how the progression works out yet. More investigation to come.

“Jeez, you went and said something weird and that guy got confused,” Mizuho accuses. But she also agrees that crossdressing at work sounds awful. She also says she wants to see Shina as a waitress though. Much to consider, huh?

Thus ends the day. We’ve opened up a few new events by talking to that guy. For starters, there’s a new “your house” option on the map in girl mode, and it also adds the cafe on the map in boy mode. Like I said, I think I want to do the tennis court event next, but after that I might take suggestions about where to go again.

Until next time, girls and girl-likes <3

Prev post Index Next post

#trans 2 #Youtube

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multiplicity-positivity · 5 months ago

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Idk if asks are still open but how would one operate in-system meetings with a larger headcount (ours seems to be in the 100~ range) cuz I always see meetings as a part of advice but most of the people giving that advice don't have as many so I'm curious if system meetings with a huge system is even possible ;;-_-

hey, we have a small-ish system (around 20 members), so we can't speak from experience on how to organize an in system meeting with a large amount of members. we do think that systems of any size should be able to have meetings, though, even if they have to look a bit different or make accommodations due to how their system functions specifically. we aren't sure how useful this might be to you, but here's some of our ideas on how you could accomplish in sys meetings with a large headcount.

(note - you as in collective you)

if you can successfully have a very crowded headspace, try to get together as many as you can sometime. even in our own system, we have never been able to have a meeting where every single member shows up, and that's okay. just invite everyone who wants to be there, and see where things go. if it starts getting overwhelming or difficult to manage, you may choose to dismiss the meeting for your own health as a collective, and that's okay, too.

you could also try drawing out the process. instead of having everyone come together for one meeting, you could try having multiple meetings over the course of a few days, each with different members attending. then, when it's time for another group of meetings, you can shuffle who attends which meeting in order to give more of your headmates a chance to interact with each other.

in our system, we have a record keeper who takes physical control of the body during meetings in order to record notes in our journal. we also have a caretaker who pays close attention during meetings in order to relay important information to vulnerable parts who don't attend. maybe if your system is large you can try to designate some headmates to be messengers, heralds, or record keepers who can keep track of what goes on during meetings in order to convey that to those who weren't able to attend your own.

keep a roster of who shows up to which meeting, be it through simply plural, a spreadsheet, or a physical checklist. that way, you can determine whether or not the same headmates keep attending, and make conscious efforts to try and include those who are having difficulties showing up. we'd never force a headmate to attend a meeting! rather, reach out to those who aren't attending and ask if it's something they're interested in, if they have anything they'd like to see discussed during meetings, if they need a copy of meeting notes, or if there's anything your system can do to help meetings be more accessible for them.

we feel that, even if just two members show up to a meeting, it should be considered a success. even if you have a huge headmate count, it's okay if not very many members actually attend your meetings. the more often you have meetings, the easier it may be for more members to show up. and again, setting up multiple meetings, or ensuring you have individuals willing to convey meeting events to other members, may help your whole system get on the same page when it comes to organizing and executing meetings.

with a large headcount, it may be incredibly challenging to expect just one headmate to organize, facilitate, and manage an in system meeting. so we'd really encourage you all to collaborate on this as much as possible. there are plenty of meeting roles to be had, from heralds and record keepers to facilitators and managers to diplomats and ambassadors. so be sure to let others get involved if they are interested in helping to execute your in system meetings.

if any system reading this has a high member count with some advice on how they manage in system meetings, you are welcome and encouraged to share. these are just some of our thoughts on how a large system may be able to successfully meet. so sorry if it's longwinded or scatterbrained.

we'll also include a link to our post on in system meetings, because we do thing a lot of those tips could be useful for any system, no matter the size :)

we hope this helps. good luck with everything :)

#long post #in system meeting #internal meeting

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transfloridaresources · 1 year ago

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Hey, I just wanted to tell you thank you so much for making this blog. It means more than I could possibly tell you to see support that isn't just "move out", because so many of us just simply can't, or even if we can we don't want to. I shouldn't be expected to uproot my entire life because of other people's bigotry.

Things are getting worse here, and I'm scared. My mom told the doctor that my period was normal last time we went to the doctor, and refused to elaborate. She said that she didn't want specific information about my cycle on file, in case I went on puberty blockers for any reason. My school canceled the Scholastic book fair, because it's a charter school and they were scared of getting on DeSantis' radar. There's uncertainty over if we'll have a psychology course back by the time I reach the age to take it.

Even on a less political front, gay and trans are making a massive resurgence in terms used for bullying. I'm clinging on to my silly little microlabels like a lifeline, because even though it hurts to know that nobody outside of our community is going to know about them, at least that means they aren't going to be slung back in my face like a bullet.

It's really scary, and seeing how people are actually making efforts to combat this means more than you could ever know. It gives me hope that I can stick it out, and make my state a place where the kids younger than me can grow up safely and happily. Seeing adults openly wearing pride pins even in the midst of everything makes me feel safer with them than can be put into words. I hope that by the time I'm an adult and have control over my own life I can be that person for someone, but I also really hope I can help make it a world where that's not needed. And seeing that there's people here that care about us gives me hope that we can accomplish that.

Much love, a queer kid living in central Florida <3

Hello there, wonderful anon & thank you so much for reaching out 🫂💖 It is so meaningful to hear things like this and I'm so grateful that you took the time to write this message. I know so much seems bleak rn, but your message made me think about the world I grew up in when I was a kid / teen. I didn't even really know trans people existed. Queer people barely existed, either. There was no mainstream celebrity for any of those identities and social media didn't exist. I know it feels absolutely terrifying to see this happening now and wondering where you'll go and what life you'll have, but trust me - we'll always be here. We're targeted so much now because people are afraid of change and because these systems of oppression need a constant mark to aim hatred at in order to function. But we're louder than ever now and there's people like you who exist now who are aware of our existences and aware of themselves more than we ever used to have. That's powerful. That gives me hope for the future. YOU give me hope for the future. I look at you the same as you look at us who are older and you inspire me as well. I know this is painful and I know you're scared but know that you're not alone and you never will be. Remember that even if certain laws are passed and attempts to silence information and truth occur - there are still always ways to access that information and keep it alive. These TFR accounts look to BIPOC lives because those are the groups already living under so much oppression who can teach the most about persistence and resilience. Read about other social movements, look to past leaders, look to current events like the people in Gaza right now. Even through tragedy, the spirit of resilience remains. It's still possible to find happiness and fulfillment and build a life somehow. We are not at the mercy of any of this, we just need to learn how to best adapt & keep moving. It's not easy and it's not fair but it is doable. You will have a beautiful life and trans people will always exist. We are still thriving here. Florida (& the south in general) will always have a strong LGBT community no matter what. Let me drop a few links for you or anyone who might need them. CampOUT Florida is a week long summer camp in July for LGBT youth, located around Ocala. Queer Expression St. Pete finally got a permanent home & routinely offers a safe space for LGBT families & youth, especially. If you are struggling and need someone to talk to, Trans Lifeline and Thrive Lifeline both offer peer to peer support (meaning anyone on the other side is also LGBT and/or other identities as well) & also will not involve police / involuntary psych holds. They have a variety of options to communicate with them for support & Thrive even has a trans discord server for anyone 16+! We are also working on a discord server for trans Floridians, which should be available soon, and will have a dedicated channel for teens only (with support as needed from queer & trans adult moderators from a variety of racial backgrounds & who have professional experience working with children / youth). These are just a few things that exist as well. More and more are out there and will also soon be created in the face of increasing pressure on our community. We keep us safe 💖 You are loved, you have value, you have community, you have family, you have a future!

#asks #anon #florida #trans #transgender #lgbt #trans positivity #trans joy #trans youth #trans kids #trans resources #campOUT florida #thrive lifeline #trans lifeline #queer expression st pete #queerexpressionstpete

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