#I think the formatting on the second page could be better but at some point I just gotta stop worrying and move on lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

murdrdocs · 4 months

Note

repressed and desperately horny luke who has never seen a porn video vs new to camp reader who used to be able to watch it whenever they wanted but now can't even flick the bean in peace

oh and maybe reader who gives Luke a dirty polaroid or two they've been hiding before they leave camp for the fall

— 🦣

🦣 anon strikes again omg. this concept actually makes me all giddy i want it to be something Bigger hence the informal format but just follow me here okay.

just thinking about ya'll finding each other in a moment of need. fate, really, if either of you believed in the concept. you, grumpy and insatiable from lack of proper sexual satisfaction, and luke, knowing he's feeling something but he doesn't know how to expel the need. sure he jacks off sometime, but not nearly as much as a guy of his age usually would.

so there you are, grumbling about, eyes narrowed, mimicking the behavior of ares kids (your possible siblings but it's anyone's guess at this point) and luke just has to go and be the mediator, asking what's got you so down. of course, you're wound up so tight, and a little grateful that someone your age has asked the question because you can finally tell the truth.

out comes your dirty secrets. your longing for peace and quiet to get off. your slightly remorseful nature because you had no idea that you were that reliant on pornography to help you out. and luke is just standing there, ears reddening as he suddenly finds the trees behind you incredibly interesting.

but luke is a Problem Solver, so he awkwardly has a suggestion for you. "the showers right before the bonfire are usually pretty deserted. and for your ..." he scratches a nonexistent itch behind his ear. "other problem, my brothers have some old magazines i could lend to you."

you snort, arms folding as you pretend to be disinterested. but really anything would satiate you at this point. "what are they? women on motorcycles? maybe an old playboy mag?"

luke shrugs. "dunno. never seen 'em."

and it takes you a second. a really long, tense, and warm (for luke) second where you eye him up. noticing his stance, taking in his clipped words, how he said them. and it occurs to you that little demigod luke, having been at camp half blood since 14, has never seen what the world has to offer in the pornography department. or if he has, he hasn't seen the porn of today.

and unfortunately, it's impossible for you to fix his issue in naivety. there are no phones in camp and even if there were, you don't think the service out here would be all too good. which leaves you to improvise.

you do end up getting the mags from the hermes boys, critiquing their selection with a scrutinized glare at the pages, flicking through them with the edge of your shirt to avoid any remnants. and then you report back to luke, telling him to give them a look, prefacing it by telling him that things now are much more entertaining. slyly hinting at your ears being open if he wanted to give his opinion.

which, he does. standing awfully close to you at the bonfire one night, body turned just a little so he can speak lowly.

"there's ... things better than that out there?"

you nod, affirming his statement while attempting to hide a small smile. the magazines were barely pornography in your eyes, women in manufactured poses to appeal to men. skin artificially smoothed, their cunts shockingly dry, their poses so meticulous. it lacked the emotion and desire that you enjoyed to watch.

and poor luke didn't even know the half of it.

at least you do introduce him to what he could be consuming just before you leave camp that summer, sliding him two polaroids you'd managed to take.

one of you in the showers, body littered with clumps of suds. your skin shining from the overhead light which gleams from the water along your body. it's taken from a low angle, the side of your backside being the main focal point with your tits at the top just barely making the cut.

and then the other is much more lewd, showing luke what the magazines should have. you, on your back in a camp bed, wearing nothing but your standard issued shirt which is bunched up around the waist. your free hand is between your spread thighs, two fingers clearly singled out to spread your lips and reveal just how wet and shiny your cunt is. and after one of his many sessions of getting off over it, the post nut clarity manifests as hyper analyzing for luke.

he notices the familiar pair of shoes off to the corner, the pillowcase he had one of his brothers sneak in last summer, the stain he's never been able to get out of his fitted sheet.

and suddenly the picture has new meaning for him.

#this is just a brain dump #but im so excited abt this concept #i couldnt help it #plz forgive me #lukesworld!#luke castellan x reader #–𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 🦣#luke castellan smut

2K notes · View notes

catscidr · 4 months

Note

Dr ratio and student (adult) reader who tried really hard to study but she is kinda failing? 😭 I once had strict teacher like ratio and he was softer to me, so Idk if ratio would be the same or even more mean

this is a little different from what you asked. BUT. i Do think that he wouldn't be mean n would help u study because it means you're trying to not be an idiot and his whole shtick is trying to make people less dumb. ykwim. i might've projected a littol bit... times r tough what can i say <(ㅍ _ㅍ)> cw: blurb/headcanon format (?), hurt/comfort technically because ratio is a little mean. it's not that bad tho trust, university setting includes: gn!student!reader, professor!veritas ratio, can be read as either platonic or romantic (or favoritism lmao) wc: 1k

-ˋˏ I think he would be pretty frustrated at first. How come all your studying did little to nothing to change your less-than-ideal grades? Especially when he’s the one teaching you, at this point it’s an insult to him and his teaching skills!

-ˋˏ ...but when you showed up to his office with your lips curled down in deep a frown, downturned brows and meek eyes that refused to meet his gaze for more than three seconds and reflected just how embarrassed (and almost ashamed) you were, he could only sigh and wave his hand to gesture for you to come in.

-ˋˏ You took out your textbook, your notes and the study guide he had made specifically for the final exam. They felt heavier in your hands than they usually do, since now he could very well take a single look at your messy, scribbled notes and turn you away for “wasting his time” like you’ve seen him do with other struggling students. You couldn’t afford failing this exam though, so you place down your things on his (now cleared) desk and sit at the edge of the chair he had across of him, silently praying to whatever god to grant you some mercy.

-ˋˏ His first reaction was... not good, for lack of better words. Your notes were a mess and there were splotches of black all over about five pages— the result of an unfortunate accident where your pen exploded in your hands during an all-nighter. He was tempted to turn you away or to, at the very least, scold you for being so disorganized, but he wouldn’t be the infamous Doctor Veritas Ratio if he did. One look at you and he could tell that you hadn’t slept properly in God-knows how long, that you hadn’t eaten a proper meal in just as long, and that you had the drive to study, but for a reason unknown to you, simply couldn’t. Or, at least not in a way that made you retain the information you tried to hammer into your brain.

-ˋˏ You'd sit there; hands folded in your lap, eyes refusing to meet his, silently waiting for him to say something, anything lest you implode on the spot. Ratio would gloss over your notes, eyes lingering on the little doodles of yourself you drew in the margins of the page with a little speech bubble saying ‘help’ right above it, and would hold in a sigh. Crossing his arms over his chest he would lean back in his chair and tilt his head, burning holes in your skull until you lifted your head up. He wouldn’t say a word, he’d be as patient as he needed to be, waiting.

-ˋˏ When you finally looked over at him you swore you felt your heart drop to your ass (how long had he been staring?) as you forced yourself to not grab your stuff and dip. “Um-” you started speaking but he promptly shut you up by interrupting you with a question of his own; “Do you honestly think you can study adequately in such conditions?”

-ˋˏ (Of course he’d notice, you scold yourself internally. There’s no way to successfully hide the dark circles under my eyes.)

-ˋˏ You’re taking way too long to answer, too absorbed into your head to speak, and it’s starting to get under his skin. His frown seems embedded onto his face, the absence of his plaster head making you quiver in fear from the sheer amount of frustration he must feel because of you. Unfortunately, you’re nowhere near as observant as he is— because if you were, you would have noticed that his frustration wasn’t aimed at you, but at himself. How did he let it get this bad? He’s supposed to be a teacher, and teachers are supposed to care for their pupils

-ˋˏ (It might seem like he couldn’t give two shits about his students, but he does care— in his own harsh way. He considers kicking people out of his class a blessing; if he didn’t care about their wellbeing, he would have let them stay and feel stupid as well as let them be completely overwhelmed as a result of not understanding the content of his lessons and the workload he assigns. Of course, he doesn’t want people to drop his class, but if that’s what it takes for people to not go insane then so be it. He’s made peace with it.)

-ˋˏ “When was the last time you were able to sleep for longer than eight hours consecutively?” he asks, intense gaze unfaltering as your eyes dart all over his office in a poor attempt at avoiding the inevitable. Finally, you look at him sheepishly, and mumble a number that was far from satisfactory in his books. He clicks his tongue and unfurls his arms, grabbing your books strewn across his desk and shuts them, sliding them over towards you. You sit, puzzled and flustered that you’ve gone all this way just for him to kick you out. If he was going to be an ass, he should have just dismissed you as soon as—

-ˋˏ “Your assignment is to get a good night’s rest. Do not come into my classroom if you haven’t slept for 8 hours minimum. If I see you work dark circles as prominent as the ones you have right now, I’ll drag you to the nearest bed or couch myself.”

...Can’t say you expected that kind of response.

-ˋˏ You can’t even get a word in before he beats you to it, already knowing what you were about to say. “I’ll let you retake the exam if I deem your health to be unacceptable when you arrive in the lecture hall for the exam.” You shut your mouth, unsure of what to even say in response. You really felt like you were being scolded.

-ˋˏ He would gladly help you study when you come back looking (and feeling) refreshed, though. Not that he’d show it with his body language, but his actions said everything. He’d bring energy bars for you to snack on while he explained material you struggled with, would be patient when you’d ask seemingly dumb questions (one time you asked him why he hadn’t kicked you out of his class yet, and that was the first time he actually scolded you. Because that was the first dumb question you asked him).

#୧ ‧₊˚orderup!#honkai star rail x reader #hsr x reader #dr ratio x reader #dr ratio x y/n #dr ratio x you #veritas ratio x reader #veritas ratio x you

283 notes · View notes

rist-ix · 7 months

Note

I have a question for you what do you think of the quote unquote age gap between Bloom and Valtor?

I had to do alot of research to understand Bloom age when I started to like this ship better than Mr cheater. So here's a brief information dump:

Bloom is 16 in the first episode and its confirm her bday is December 10 (we don't know the the exact year when each girl was born only the fact Stella is the oldest by that logic Bloom is the second youngest out of the group) when we get to season 3 it is confirmed that the girls is in their 3rd semester so that makes Bloom 19 at point. Valtor's age we do not know however I'm going to say at most early 20s from what we know Valtor working with a younger Griffin before he got Popsicled.

Here comes the tricky part. In s4 the girls just finished their semester and graduated making them 20-21. Up until s5 where Nicklodeon had to reboot their age making them 16 again. Flashforward to s8 and that makes Bloom age 19 if you are following the reboot or 23 if you do not follow the reboot. Since we don't know how long Valtor been frozen his mental age is up for debate.

For me personally I don't see Sparxshipping as an Edward and Bella situation as Edward was aging naturally during his years while Valtor was frozen and couldn't age naturally but only mentally.

Okay okay first of all! Your Bloom math checks out and I just realized that I for some reason always thought Bloom is 18 in s3. Which is still possible, I think, I just dont know why I assumed that. Actually no, it works, if she is 16 in s1 she is 17 in s2 and 18 in s3, but we dont know a lot about how the school years work in Magix so I'm gonna jot her down as 18-19 for the remainder of this post.

Still dont know how I passed math btw.

Anyway. Valtor's age is where the real mystery is at. We've got two possibilities in my opinion.

1. He's pulling the ageless immortal card.

My personal go-to for fics and discussions. Love me some 300 year old mommy issues. He has too much practice being a messy bitch, there's no fixing this man folks.

Evidence: There's a flashback showing him with Griffin as a tween: she looks MUCH younger, he looks exactly the same. Unless he also stole the secret magic of the world's most potent anti aging cream, or Griffin's proximity to Faragonda just aged her by three more decades, he does not age.

2. He is the age he looks.

Which, in my humble opinion, would not put him anywhere near twenty. That is a grown man. He's not college age, unless you count college professors under that word. Even if I were good at guessing ages the very stylized art style would throw me for a loop, but im gonna say 40s, give or take. Look at Avalon, look at Codatorta, look at King Radius if u must. That is the age range we're looking at.

Evidence: I dont have any. We're ballin'. I guess it's never explicitly stated he's immortal, which you'd think would be big enough of a deal to mention. If u got something feel free to let me know.

That being said, the Winx Club Wiki page for the canon timeline (ha, good one) puts the time of Valtor's creation in a rough time frame from "Over 17 years before season 1" to "Under 100 years before season 6". So he could technically be anywhere from 17-97, though I'm not sure the upper limit is as reliable as the lower one, given the check-list format of the website. So make of that what you will.

Now that we've got the question of age out of the way, lets get to the age gap. I have no idea what the situation in twilight was to be honest, so I cant compare that.

Realistically, there's at least a decade between Bloom and Valtor. Possibly two decades and change. And that is just from visible age, we can add a few centuries on top of that if we're sticking with the immortal bit. I'm gonna be gonest, I dont think being frozen for 17 years will make a whole lot of difference here.

If you find that icky, which is fair, you can always change that for fics tho! Either turn him into a twenty year old or put Bloom in her milf-era, the options are endless. Personally, I think the age difference is half the fun though, and also the least of their issues. When you're off making out with the objectively worst person in history, wether he's too old for her isnt gonna rank very high on people's list of concerns.

#asks #sparxshipping #winx bloom #winx valtor #i think their very obvious gap in knowledge and experience is very intrinsic to their canon dynamic #Bloom being the underdog while Valtor is VERY convinced of his superiority kind of defines the ship for me #and it makes it so much more satisfying when Bloom does put him on his ass

56 notes · View notes

anim-ttrpgs · 8 months

Text

Example of Investigative Gameplay in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

Here is the recently rewritten and updated example of investigative gameplay from the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy rulebook.

Here’s a simple example of an investigative scene featuring Investigation Rolls, Full Successes, Partial Successes, Failures, Investigation Points, and the Eureka! Mechanic. In this example, 1920s detectives Nick Morgan and Hector Law, played by players Addison and Ash respectively, are on the trail of a gang of bank robbers, and have found the office where one suspect works as a dock supervisor. On their way up, they can hear two voices from within the room and some sounds of shuffling. They walk in, but find only the suspect’s secretary, Hugo, standing there awkwardly. The Narrator also describes that the office is a small room without much furnishings. There is an open window facing back towards town. There is a desk with several papers on it, and a marble paperweight, but an overturned wine bottle has soaked them. Wine is dripping off the corner of the desk to the floor.

[off to the side in final formatting] In an actual session, there should always be more description than just the points of interest, but for this example we are cutting flavor and extraneous detail for the sake of being concise and clear. It’s already multiple pages long.

It’s plain to see that the suspect tried to make an escape, but to where, they don’t know. Law’s player, Ash, decides that Law is going to play it cool and just ask where the suspect went. His Charm skill is better than his Threaten anyway.

At the same time, Morgan moves straight to the window, thinking that the suspect might have fled that way, and there might still be time to catch a glimpse of him getting away.

Politely stopping the secretary from intercepting Morgan, Law tells Hugo “Hello, we’re here to talk to [the suspect], and we thought he was in here just now. Can you tell us where to find him?”

Ash rolls the dice, 2D6 + Law’s Charm, which is +1. The first die lands on 2, the second lands on 3, and adding that with the skill modifier makes it a total of 6. (2+3+1=6) Uh oh, not good, a 6 is a Failure. Law isn’t smooth enough to get Hugo to rat out his boss just like that.

The Narrator tells the players that Hugo just kinda sweatily twiddles his thumbs a bit before saying “He, um, is out of the office right now.” That isn’t very helpful, they could already plainly see that. At the very least, from the Failure, Law gains 3 Investigation Points. He already had 10 from all the investigation that led them to this office, so now he has 13/15. He’s very close to a Eureka!

Ash writes down in her notes “Failed roll to ask Hugo where the suspect went.” A Eureka! Point might be able to be used on that later.

Meanwhile, at the window, Morgan looks out and his player, Addison, asks what he sees. The Narrator says that Morgan sees a small lot of fresh mud below the window between the office and the rest of town.

Addison asks if Morgan sees any footprints in that mud.

The Narrator says no, Morgan sees no footprints.

Neither Addison nor Morgan need any sort of roll to figure out that if the suspect had hopped through that window and ran through the field, there should be a fresh trail of footprints there. He can’t have gone this way. So where did he go?

Note that the Narrator did not outright mention the lack of footprints until Addison asked.

Now back to Law. Ash asks if Law can get a look at those papers on the desk. The Narrator tells her that he can, but Hugo is going to try and stop him, saying “No no, that’s confidential customer shipping information.”

Ash decides that Law is going to try his Charm again to talk past Hugo. She rolls the dice as Law says “Relax, I just can’t stand to see wine go to waste like that.” He moves past Hugo to set the bottle back upright.

The 2D6 roll is a 6 and a 5, plus 1 from Charm, but the Narrator interjects. He says that Law isn’t just going to the desk to clean up, he’s trying to get a look at those papers. And plus, earlier in the adventure, Ash said that Law doesn’t drink wine, he prefers whisky, which means he’s outright lying about the wine. That means that this is more a job for the Manipulate skill than the Charm skill.

[off to side in final formatting] The Narrator is not saying this to punish, talk down to, or otherwise antagonize Ash, it is just his job to make sure that all the mechanics are correctly applied to the actions of the story.

“Hm, that’s right, I did say that.” Ash says. “Then we’ll use his Manipulate skill, since he’s definitely lying. He hates wine.”

Law’s Manipulate skill is -1 instead of +1, making the roll 6+5-1=10. Luckily, a 10 is still a Full Success.

Hugo mumbles and doesn’t move any further to get in Law’s way. He can’t see a way to stop Law without looking more suspicious than he already is. Law sets the wine bottle upright.

Also, with a Full Success, Law gains 1 Investigation Point, giving him 14/15.

Ash says “Now that Law’s gotten close to the desk, he’s going to try and look at those papers. That would be Paperwork, right?” The Narrator confirms, it would be a Paperwork roll.

While Ash check’s Law’s character sheet to remind herself what his Paperwork skill is, Addison says that Morgan is going to really study Hugo. Does he look like he’s hiding anything else? Addison makes a Social Cues roll for Morgan, whose Social Cues skill is +2. (4+3+2=9)

A 9 is a Partial Success. Morgan gains 2 Investigation Points for himself, and the Narrator says that Hugo definitely looks supremely nervous, he has his fingers crossed, and his eyes darting around the room, which might mean that he’s hoping beyond hope that the investigators won’t notice something else. Exactly what, though, Morgan can’t guess with only a Partial Success.

Now Ash makes the Paperwork roll for Law. His Paperwork is +1. (3+3+1=7).

A Partial Success. The Narrator says that he’s reading the paper upside-down, so it’s hard to make out exactly what it says, but he can at least see that it appears to be a spreadsheet dividing $10,000 between four people, whose names are listed. Linda, Terry, Marcus, and “Me.” When Law tries to turn the paper around, however, it disintegrates, completely ruined by the wine. Darn.

Ash checks her notes from the previous session. “$10,000 is how much money was stolen from the bank, so Law thinks this must be the names of the other robbers. Oh, also, he just got a Eureka! Point.”

That’s true, the Partial Success on an investigation roll gave Law 2 Investigation Points, taking him from 14 to 15. Ash erases all but one of the check marks on the investigation Point Bar on Law’s character sheet. Normally, she would erase them all, but the extra leftover Investigation Point carries over towards Law’s next Eureka!.

Law could save this Eureka! Point for something later, but Ash thinks it would be most helpful if he had his Eureka! moment right now.

Ash points to her sheet where she wrote “Failed roll to ask Hugo where the suspect went.” and says she wants Law to retroactively succeed at this failed investigation roll, and get the information that he would’ve gotten if he had done a better job questioning Hugo.

The Narrator nods and says that when Law looks back at Hugo, he notices that the secretary’s eyes are fixed on something near Law’s feet for just a moment, before darting away. When Law looks down at the floor, he sees that the wine is pooling weirdly just under the desk, and seems to be disappearing into a small crack there....

The Narrator doesn’t say any more, he doesn’t need to.

Ash says that Law crouches down and starts to push the desk aside. She asks if he needs an Athletics roll for this, and the Narrator says no, the desk isn’t that heavy. Even if the desk was that heavy, an Athletics roll would probably not need to be made, because a Failure would not add anything interesting to the scene. If there were mobsters about to break down the door and Hector was trying to push the desk around to make a barricade, then would be a good time for the Narrator to call for an Athletics roll, because there are stakes, and so a success or failure would result in the something very different happening in the scene.

What the Narrator does confirm, however, is that when Law pushes the desk back, he sees a small trap door, but suddenly Hugo grabs the marble paperweight off the desk and goes to smash Law’s head with it!

What will happen next?! Read the exciting conclusion in [melee combat example].

You can have investigations like this by either downloading the free shareware rulebook from our website or getting the full version for $5 on our Patreon.

Also, behind the scenes, this example of gameplay is based on the actual gameplay of our group using Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy to play the Call of Cthuhlu adventure module "A Mother's Love", written by Seth Skorkowsky.

70 notes · View notes

callsign-squints · 2 years

Text

Platonic soulmates ~ Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin (HC)

Notes: I decided to try out a different format of fic so hopefully this turns out okay. Also yes, I’m mainly a Fanboy page but I want to try out writing for all of the Top Gun: Maverick characters.

———————————————————————

• Jake and you became friends in freshmen year of high school

• He pulled your ponytail, trying to be funny, but he didn’t think it was very funny anymore once you turned around and socked him in the face

• You both got in trouble and begrudgingly apologized, but eventually came to a truce once Jake bought you food as a better “I’m sorry”

• Ever since then, when you’re mad at Jake, he buys you food as a peace offering

• With you both being from Texas (I’m sorry if you’re not from Texas :’) please go with it) you both spent your time on the ranch Jake’s parents owned

• He taught you how to ride a horse and in your spare time, you’d ride together, talking about drama you’ve both heard at school

• An occasional race would ensue (with you winning and Jake coming in a couple seconds after) and Jake was a complete sore loser about who won, always stating it was a tie

• Speaking of drama, Jake LOVES to gossip

• There was that one time where you two were gossiping and Jake nearly fell off his horse from whipping his head so fast

“And then Maria walked back upstairs and saw her boyfriend with her sister and they were COMPLETELY naked!”

“Wait Maria saw what and who now?!” Jake said while whipping his head around to face you, and incredulous look on his face. Without thinking of how fast he was turning, Jake nearly fell clean off his horse, narrowly grabbing a tight hold of the reins.

“Jake!”

“I- I’m okay, Y/n! I just gotta-” Jake hoists himself back up and once he feels stable, he perks up, “So Maria saw what and who now?! And doing WHAT!?”

Y/n tried to hold back their laugh but it escaped as Jake went back to being his dramatic self, like you knew he would be.

• Growing up the way Jake did, he always had a hard time expressing emotions

• It took him 5 months to really trust you and another 4 months after that to even talk to you about what he was feeling on a daily basis

• You, of course, let Jake take his time and we’re there for him regardless

• He appreciated that more than you could ever know and knew that you were someone he wanted to keep around in his life

• While you and Jake experienced high school relationships, there was one time where he found you, crying might I add, because of a stupid guy who stood you up on a date

“I’m sorry that you’re sitting here with me crying my eyes out. I’m also sorry that I’m soaking your shirt.”

“Don’t apologize, Y/n. You did nothing wrong, that douche of a guy doesn’t deserve you anyways.”

“But he was really cute!”

“I’m sure there will be another cute guy that will come your way at some point. Let’s just hope this one is less of a dick.” Jake attempts to comfort you, trying to channel all the comfort he can within the hug he’s giving you.

“Ugh, guys suck!”

Offended, Jake pushes you off your bed, saying, “Hey woah! What did I do?! You better not include me in that!”

• Jake went to the Navy after high school and whether or not you decided to join the Navy with him, or you decided to follow a different aspiration, is up to you

• Jake was proud of you either way, like c’mon man, the guy knows you’re going to do great things someday

• Let’s say you enlisted in the Navy with him, you both were quite the team. One could not be seen without the other; a force to be reckoned with

• You received the callsign ‘Whiplash’ since you had pretty quick witted come backs and you had a tendency to surprise people when you were in the sky, which sometimes made them flinch/jerk back (Jake would also say it’s because you’re a terrible driver but we don’t talk about that)

• And hence your callsign was born

• Deployments were hard on the both of you but you both managed to get through it with the handful of FaceTime calls and text messages whenever y’all had the time

• When you were notified that you were being sent to Top Gun, you thought immediately about telling Jake

• Jake had the same idea and you ended up texting each other at the same time with the news

• After not seeing each other for a year and a half, the reunion was a slightly emotional one

The chatter of a bunch of people and the smell of booze hits you all at once. Maybe you’d get a drink later, you wanted to find the one person before you do anything else.

A blonde head of hair catches your attention. Jake’s over by the pool table, laughing with another guy you don’t recognize.

“Damn, we haven’t seen each other for a year and a half and I’ve already been replaced? Way to strike me in my heart, Seresin.”

Jake’s ears immediately perked up. He turned around slowly and made eye contact with you.

“If that’s what you want to believe, sure, but I think you know me well enough to know that you’re far from replaceable.”

You two held eye contact for a while before he handed his pool stick to the guy next to him and encased you in a hug.

Unbeknownst to the both of you, every aviator was looking at the sight of Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin hugging another individual.

“It’s really great to see you, darlin. You have no idea how much I missed you.” Jake says while tightening his arms around you. He gives you a quick kiss to your temple before giving you a rare, genuine smile.

“Trust me, I know, honey.”

• Now if you decided to follow a different aspiration, you and Jake tried your hardest to stay in touch

• Neither of y’all were used to not talking or seeing each other for quite some time, so it was a bit of an adjustment

• Jake couldn’t be more happy for you that you were living the life you always wanted and he was happy that he could still be there for you, even if he was on the other side of the world

• No matter where the both of you are, you always manage to come back together

• Anywaysssss✨

• I’m thinking of Iceman and Slider type of vibes. Y’all compliment each other very well

• You both can be total assholes when you want to, Jake more than you but my statement still stands

• You stop Jake from being a dick to everyone on the Dagger squad, especially Bob (you have a soft spot for the WSO)

• Despite Jake not getting along with Rooster, you get along quite well with him

• Jake gets a little jealous at the fact that y’all get along, but he doesn’t ever voice it to you. The fear that he could lose you to Rooster scares the holy shit out of him. You eventually pick up on it

“You’re worried about losing our friendship to Rooster?? Really??”

“Okay okay, I get it. No need to rub salt in the wound. I know I sound stupid.” Jake huffs while turning away from you.

Y/n smiled and scoots closer to Jake, as close as the couch they were sitting on would allow them. Y’all were having your weekly movie night and you didn’t expect things to turn out this way. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders as you thought about your next words.

“I don’t think it’s stupid. Your feelings are completely valid and I hope you know that no one could ever take your place in my life. No one compares to you or the bond we have. You’re my best friend Jake Seresin, you always have and always will be. Not even Rooster could change that.”

Jake didn’t reply but he could hear the sincerity in your voice. You always knew just the right things to say, regardless of the situation. He finally looked at you and knew that he had nothing to worry about anymore.

• Phoenix, Halo, and yourself like to tag team and throw Jakes comments back at him

• Which in turn makes him pout and give you the “sad puppy eyes” but they stopped working on you years ago

• That doesn’t mean your “sad puppy eyes” stopped working on him

• He could never really say no to you. Maybe to some extent but otherwise, you’ll hardly ever catch him telling you no

“Hey, what’re you doing there, sweets?” Jake says while looking down at you. You were hugging him from behind, arms wrapped around his midsection as he watched the rest of his friends play a game of pool.

“Mmmm sleepy and maybe a little bit drunk.”

“I told you that a shots competition with Coyote was a bad choice.” Jake was starting to think that coming to The Hard Deck with you after work was a bad idea.

“But hey, I won didn’t I?” Y/n says with sleep heavily within their eyes.

Jake laughs, “Yes, yes you did. C’mon let me take you home.”

“Noooo! Can’t we stay like this a little longer?” Your arms around his waist tighten as Jake throws his head back, laughing at your comment.

“Sure sweets, but after the game finishes, I’m taking you home and I’m staying with you so you don’t die from puking in your sleep.”

He didn’t hear a response from you but figured you were content with the decision. He started to slightly sway with the music playing throughout The Hard Deck, as he refocused back on the game.

• No one outside of your friend group understood y’all’s friendship. They would try to bet on when you two would get together but it was to no avail

• When asked if you were dating, the both of you would look at each other and fake gag

• While Bob and Phoenix weren’t the biggest fans of Hangman, they did like to see him happy. It was a weird sight to see, Jake actually smiling without malice in it, but they liked y’all’s friendship. You both completed each other nicely

• Even Coyote thought you were good for him. As time went on, he grew to accept you as a friend as well and could definitely see why Jake and you got along so well

•Coyote also may or may not have a small crush on you but you nor Jake need to know that bit of information

• People also thought it was weird seeing Jake being touchy with someone he wasn’t going to sleep with (our boy is a little hoe :3 )

• It wasn’t anything new for y’all. Touch was just something that was natural between you two

• Jake always had his arm around your shoulder, or on the back of your seat, or on the small of your back

• You always looped your arm through his whenever y’all would walk together, laid your head on his shoulder when you were sitting next to each other, or the occasional pinky link when you were anxious

• Some of the girls that would walk up to Jake and flirt with him thought you two were a thing and would sometimes act shitty with you

• Which wasn’t a surprise, you knew your best friend was good looking, but the unnecessary bitchy-ness wasn’t needed

• Jake didn’t take too kindly to those who were disrespectful to you, even if they were pretty girls

“Oh come on! Let me buy you a drink, handsome!” Some blonde girl with green eyes batted her lashes at Jake, who wasn’t really interested.

“Thank you for the offer but I’m good, thanks.” Jake gives her a polite smile.

The girl doesn’t seem to take the rejection well because she immediately taps you roughly on the shoulder, as if YOU’RE the one who said no.

“Hey hun, no offense, you’re kinda cock blocking me. Do you think you can do me a favor and just-” She makes the gesture for you to move along.

You were shocked to say the least. You weren’t even talking to Jake at the time, too focused on Phoenix and Rooster playing darts, to even pay attention to this chick.

“Hey, don’t talk to them that way. Saying that they were “cock blocking” you is insinuating that you had a chance. Sorry girly, but I didn’t even consider one.” Jake smiles at her, though it’s a lot less polite.

The girl scoffs, “You’re missing out! You’re stuck with whatever that is!”

“They’re a hell of a lot better than you, so I’m not complaining.”

The girl looks red in the face as she stomps off. It’s silent between you and Jake before you both burst out laughing.

• As you can tell, Jake has a major soft spot for you. Always has, always will

• He may be a hard ass to everyone else but he eases up with you

• If I could think of a song to label your friendship with Jake, it would have to be “Hey Brother” by Avicii

• You are a key piece in Jake’s life and vice versa

• He has said time and time again that you’re one of the most important people in his life, other than his mom, and that you’re stuck with him until Father Time comes a knockin

• And you don’t mind, not one bit

———————————————————————

Sorry that this was super long but I had to get that good story line going! I plan on making more of these, if this one goes well. Thanks for reading! :)

#top gun imagine #top gun maverick x reader #top gun x reader #jake seresin x reader #hangman seresin x reader #hangman fic #jake seresin #jake ‘hangman’ seresin

286 notes · View notes

trilobi-te · 5 months

Text

Chipspeech Twitter Archive Update

Hi I should have done this months ago.. I do not know when (or if) I am going to finish that website lmao. So I am just going to share my notes from Google Docs. Should be easier to read than the original posts and helpful as a starting point if anyone else decides to make a website :3

The documents are all on commenting mode so feel free to make comments to bookmark things for yourself or write your thoughts or whatever. Under the cut I have put some formatting notes.

It's a folder, each year of Twitter posts is its own document (I tried to compile them into one but it lagged too much). There is also a document with all of the original Tumblr posts (from the accounts I could find, no tags yet but I will go back and get them eventually, also no dates but they're all from 2015), and one with the bios from the official website for ease of access.

The formatting is a little (a lot) weird and there are probably pictures that need resizing/transcription but I figured it's better to give people access now. The text is small (to keep the page count as low as possible) so you will have to zoom in.

It goes by day, organized with a bulleted list. The top level bullets are each character that tweeted that day. The second level bullets are original tweets/retweets by that character. The third+ level bullets are comment threads under that tweet, the organization here is inconsistent but imo still readable (if you think something needs an edit for clarity let me know and I'll fix it).

For each character's section of the list, normal text is that character's tweets/comments. Italicized text is anyone who is not that character. If it is labeled with unitalicized text, it is that character/important account (e.g. the official Chipspeech account), otherwise it is a fan. I also included some labels and/or clarifying comments for Vocaloid producers I like, they're not central to the story though

I got rid of the line breaks within the tweets when copying them down because it was easier to format. Sorry about that. Idk how to fix it other than going through everything again but it doesn't take away from the story so I'm leaving it for now.

If something came from a website other than Twitter, I tried to provide the link (unless its content was deleted). I did my best to transcribe the Clyp posts that were not deleted.

If something is a text-only retweet, it is marked with [retweet]. If it includes an image, it's probably a screenshot of the whole thing. I only included retweets that felt story-relevant (so no miscellaneous cat pictures, Apple-related aesthetic images, etc.), but if people really want it I can go back and add the rest.

Deleted tweets are noted with [deleted tweet], with the characters they came from if applicable. Idk how Twitter works but it the person in the thread is replying to the username of a certain character, I assumed it was that character's tweet that had been deleted. If something says [deleted Dandy thread], assume there is a deleted Dandy tweet in between each of the listed tweets (or another character, but it's usually Dandy). That was meant to be a temporary time-saver and I've gone back and fixed the ones I've found, but there's probably more I accidentally skipped.

Anything not in English is translated in a comment. Except the X-Sampa (I will fix that sometime but there's not much of it). Also it was done with the built-in Google Translate feature so it may be a little incorrect. Unclear pictures and whatnot also have clarifying comments. I can add more clarifying comments (or image IDs) if anyone needs them.

I tried not to include any unattributed fanart but there are some that I forgot to copy the handle for (I am also fixing these when I find them).

As for any future updates to this folder as a whole, I kind of want to go back through each account's liked tweets to see if there's anything funny in there but idk when that will be. That would probably be its own document.

Honestly I should have given everyone access back in June.. oops. If you have any questions you can put them in a comment on this post (or reach out to me another way, idk). As I mentioned before, feel free to use all of this as a starting point if you're making your own website.

I'll pin this post so it's findable in the future. Also sorry for disappearing for several months (it will happen again).

#chipspeech #chipspeech archive #posts by the bug

17 notes · View notes

linaket · 4 months

Text

Monthly Update (Feb 6, 2024)

It has definitely been... a January. This year, I had a lot of plans and goals relating to my writing, but a lot of them are already not going through. One was to do weekly or monthly updates, kind of like when I did weekly updates while working on TS. But, it's still early in the year, so I figure its better late than never. Also still early in the month even if I didn't manage to get this out there at the end of January...

My personal life has been a bit hectic. First thing was that some major projects in the house I planned to have completed last year were finally finished this month--I have all new windows installed in my house now, and a new door, and while I didn't personally do the windows (I did install the door, though) it takes a lot of time to prep before and clean up after reno projects and get the house back in order, so I've spent the last two weeks on this. Additionally, I'd applied for a promotion at work, and then was coated in stress waiting for the results... (which I received a few days ago... and I got it! Been a long time coming, really.)

So this is the first one of these... just gonna throw things out here and decide on a format as they go.

Books Read

Finally completed The Fifth Season trilogy by N. K. Jemison. I wanted to finish this one last year, but the last book lingered into the new year.

All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

The Dead Take The A Train by Cassandra Khaw & Richard Kadrey

Important Posts

I shared a summary of my 2024 writing goals/wips on instagram. I meant to bring this over to tumblr and do a bit more on it but... didn't. Maybe this month?

Shadow's Prey: Act 1 wip intro here on tumblr

Writing

30k on Mortal Teeth. 15 chapters done of.. ?? a lot probably. 40 something, at least, if not 50-60 range. This completed the second major arc/goalpost (there are about 5 of these at the moment)

Shadow's Prey: Act 1 formatting is moving along well, and so it's still on time for a March release. I may aim more for mid March, depends on how quickly I'm able to finish up the extras and get some promo in. I really wish I could figure out exactly what size image it takes to make a full-page image in ebooks, but I think I'm going to have to settle for the title page not being... perfect. Which. Does not make me happy. But there really isn't a way to appease every e-reader, as they are all different sizes, so I am finding there is only so much I can control here.

Favorite Excerpt

I wrote a lot of things in Mortal Teeth that I was proud of this past month, but one of my favorite things I ran across when writing was realizing that my writing has improved... massively. It's been a while since I've had a leap of growth that I can easily pinpoint, but the extra I planned for SP Act 1 was partially written, and I needed to work on it. I kept getting stuck on continuing because something about it felt off/forced when I tried, so I did the classic open a new doc and retype/rework as I go... and quickly realized why I was having trouble working on it. My style had shifted dramatically....

This isn't a major point in the short, but I wrote the beginning of this around the middle of last year and it went from this:

Whereas Kanna actively ignored Masao’s approach, Ira glared at him in challenge. “Here,” Kanna said, drawing Ira’s attention by offering Amon’s reins as a lead. “Find someone to tend him, and get me a count of the survivors.” Masao’s voice at her back carried a smirk she could feel between her shoulder blades. “What about the casualties?”

to this:

While Ira glared at Masao in challenge, Kanna actively ignored him. Though she was coated with the blood of those she’d killed, her hands to her wrists to her elbows with it, Masao delighted in his stain. Even here, with the smell of death in the air and the unholy silence that followed battle, he smiled. The joy he radiated amidst destruction unsettled her, something deep inside of her flinching from it. Kanna gathered Amon’s reins, drawing Ira’s attention by offering them. “Find someone to tend him, and get me a count of the survivors.” Masao’s voice at her back carried a smirk she could feel between her shoulder blades. “What about the casualties?”

Final Thoughts

I was excited to get through another phase of MT in writing, but I don't think the time I've allotted to finish the draft is going to be enough. This stresses me out a bit, because I gave myself a pretty tight schedule for the year with all the releases (there are 4 ebooks, and I was considering restarting Act 4 in the serial which would be 5 releases total....)

I'm actually... thinking once again that I won't go back to serial posting for SP. Tapas was/is my primary platform for it, and I am simply... no longer a fan of the platform, and not really interested in others, either. So that might be one of the things in the "coming this year" that ends up pushed to next year or later this year, depending, as it will likely be an ebook release instead of serial and... I'm still working on drafting the teeth wip and I don't see it taking a backseat for a while, until I'm truly stuck.

I've been trying not to beat myself up about not doing the things I said I'd do at the start of the year (daily journaling, more updates here and other platforms, etc) because it's simply... not great for me. And really, I'm not sure I would have had the aforementioned improvement in my writing if I'd continued to stress myself out about writing itself, on top of doing all these other things that I'm supposed to do. I took it pretty easy last year after a massive disappointment, shutting down a lot of my online presence and focusing on reading and writing for myself, and I think that's what allowed me to become comfortable again and led to growth. I don't want to feel as defeated as I had that time, because its the kind of thing that would have led to me completely giving up in my younger years, and I also don't want to get stagnant because I'm trying to do too much that isn't... the actual writing. So... I guess we'll see how this goes?

#linaupdates #writeblr

7 notes · View notes

jacksoldsideblog · 7 months

Text

not really fight club related but i hate ai so much it's literally unreal. don't get me wrong, i think the concept of artificial intelligence could be used for good if VERY carefully implemented and with many checks and balances for large scale data processing (like it already IS in some ways) but the push for it to be used in art and writing isn't because the powers that be just hate human art and creativity. it's actually worse.

fundamentally, ai art and deepfake tech serves the purpose of lessening the trust of any evidence and increasing the ability to artificially smear people. it decreases the ability to trust what you see. in contrast, chatgpt and it's contemporaries serve to create insane amounts of bloat. do you know how insane it is that i've searched shit about incredibly niche topics and i've started to constantly find these websites all with the same format, where they seem topic specific but the page has like 20-30 questions that look like they were written by ai, and the "answers" on this faq page are clearly the conglomerated result of ai barf? do you know how concerning that is, to be finding that on niche topics like strahler stream order and bluegill subspecies? because the implication is that it's getting churned out en masse. and the point is thus: it becomes much, much harder to find actual human communication, much less enough to judge things on your own. how much about how "hard it is to google things" is created by this sort of use of ai in the first place, in combination with search engines purposefully targeting less useful websites (more modern, less text heavy)?

the point is to make it so you cant trust anything. the point is to make it so you cant confirm anything. the point is to make it so you have no choice but to be suceptible to propaganda.

it's fucking insane that i've had to watch the degradation of one's ability to research shit online in real time. like fuck, i'll go back to books if i have to, but the fact that the well is being poisoned to this degree is disturbing. disgusting. i can't believe it's not even really being talked about.

as a writer and an artist i totally understand why a lot of people have focused on how this affects people's livelyhoods, but holy shit, the actual functional effects of the way this tech is being used is far more grim. you need to always consider why something like this would be made. fuck over artists? sure. but make much better propaganda? absolutely. and we should be far more afraid of the second.

#the AMOUNT of times ive found an ai website that touts itself as just being about [niche topic] which normally no one but a human would #bother to write about #but its so clearly not a human #is so viscerally disturbing #i hate it i hate it i hate it

8 notes · View notes

rhysintherain · 2 years

Note

Sorry if this is a too random question but do you have any advice for how to choose a thesis topic when you feel like you don't have any real skill set or theoretical knowledge and none of the suggested topics really sound like anything you could reasonably write more than five pages about? And the mere thought of setting on a single topic to stick to for entire months is almost panic attack inducing

Okay, I'm going to treat this as a master's thesis, or maybe honours thesis, question. This sounds like a bigger thing than a class project, but correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll see what I can come up with for that.

First of all, you didn't get to the point of having to write a thesis without building up some skills and theoretical knowledge. You just aren't in the greatest position (inside your own head) to know what those are. I recommend asking someone who regularly interacts with your work (like a tutor or prof) to help you figure out what those are.

Second, do you have a thesis advisor? Are they assigned to you, or do you get a say in who? If so, focus more on picking an advisor you work well with before you settle into a topic. Ask the one you end up with about their study areas, and what gaps exist that you could build up with your work. You might not be particularly passionate about the topic they recommend, but knowing that your work has an important place in the literature could help you stay invested.

On a practical note, it never hurts to do some preliminary research into your potential topics. You want to make sure no one else has written the thing you want to write, but your life will be easier if there's a decent amount of source material in the field. You can't write a thesis with only 2 or 3 sources, but you also can't contribute to scientific knowledge by saying something that has already been said half a dozen times.

If you're working with some sort of primary source, there can be some wiggle room here. For example, if I wanted to write a meta-study type paper about bifacial blade cores in BC I wouldn't get very far, because only 2 people have written about that. However, if I wanted to write original research from my own hands-on analysis of those blade cores I could make that work, because the artefacts themselves are my primary source, and I know where to find a few in repositories.

If you have the time and access to go to geological formations, historical documents, interviews with Elders, '70s pop lyrics, etc, you can write about some pretty obscure things and make it work, because you're studying the things themselves. If you have limited time and resources, it might be better to stick closer to the well-trodden academic paths. You don't want to put yourself in a position where you need the primary sources but don't have the means to access them.

And as far as making a connection with recommended topics you're not that interested in, I recommend doing some preliminary digging here too. Is there a niche thing related to one of those topics you like better? Something related but a bit different? Really bad takes in the field you think need to be addressed? An epic academic debate you want to weigh in on? This part Is less about collecting useful data and more about finding where you want to be. This is the time to dig through the drama, follow the rabbit holes, and go off topic if you feel like.

And if none of that works? Talk to your advisor again. Tell them why this isn't working and what you're actually interested in, and maybe they can help you redirect your attention to a topic you'll connect with.

Your best resource for this sort of thing is your thesis advisor, which doesn't always work (sometimes an advisor is a bad fit), but if working with someone helpful who you respect is an option, that's the best way to set yourself up with something you can get invested in. If you don't have an advisor in this setting, see if you can reach out to another prof, colleague, or grad student who's willing to help. Doing things like this alone in your head is rarely the best option.

So some closing thoughts: lots of people have done this before and come out the other side. Most of them were also overwhelmed when they started, and you'll get to look back and go "well that wasn't so bad" eventually.

Your topic isn't on rails. You'll shape your goals and findings as you go along, and it will be a different story in the end than it looked like in the beginning. That's how it usually goes, and that's okay.

You don't need to know what you're talking about, just what you want to talk about.

Talk to people in your field. Ask questions. This is not a thing you need to do alone.

*just to be clear, I haven't actually written a master's thesis, although I've done training workshops on writing them, given advice to lots of people who were, and done a couple extended research projects. Lots of people who will probably see this are doing them, or have done them (you know who you are, I'm looking right at you) and hopefully will chime in with advice based on their experiences.

#academic writing #thesis writing #writing advice #academic advice #writing tutor #thanks for sending an ask #sorry it took so long to get done #keep asking questions because thats the backbone of academic education #its meant to work if you ask for help #hope this helps

88 notes · View notes

pastamansta · 1 year

Text

A Beginner's Guide to Finding More Films

I don't recommend reblogging this post, as I will update it frequently as I find more tools and hone my craft. This post will gain traction by being referenced in the posts I make using these tools and methods, hopefully spreading some much-needed information in an engaging, interesting format. Only time will tell if this experiment will work, but if even one person finds their new favorite film, discovers a film they just can't quit thinking about, or even just gains a better love for cinema, I will be happy knowing that the time that I have put into this will have been well-spent.

If you are looking to diversify your film diet or can't find something to watch, just do some research. It's easier than it sounds.

Oftentimes, there are those who recommend lists, to start at the top of and work your way down. While I do not believe this is a horrible way to go about such a task, I believe there's something unapproachable about this to a beginner. It's cold, it's factual, and it's entirely impersonal. I believe that learning to truly love film is a journey, a journey that most have already started on. This guide is made with the idea that you've seen a movie before. If you haven't... well, maybe those cold, factual, impersonal lists are for you! In order for this guide to work for you, it is working under the assumption that you have seen, without "truly investing yourself in the world of cinema," a few films before; some that you liked, some that you disliked, some that you loved, some that you hated, some that you think about, some that you've forgotten about, but definitely at least a few films.

Letterboxd is where I think everyone should start. It's free. Create an account, download the mobile app, if you prefer, and, from this point forward, log every film that you watch. How you rate them, how you write about or review them, that is a method you'll form for yourself over time, but the point is to have a documented list of every film you've seen, starting from when you created the account. Don't bother trying to log every film you've seen before creating the account, there's little to gain from that, but, when you watch a film that you know you've seen at any point before, simply mark that you've "watched this film before."

Now, pick a film that you've seen before and would watch again. If you watched that film with someone else, anyone else, I would recommend you ask yourself if you would watch it again by yourself. This is an attempt at forcing you to be critical for your own benefit. It can't just be a film that you "liked," or "didn't hate," or even "had a good time with." It needs to be something that you enjoyed, in some way, so fully, that you would watch it from beginning to end a second time with no prompting. This will be the first film you research. If you have many of these, that's a good thing.

On Letterboxd, every film has its own page. That page has many different categories, but under the "crew" section you will be given a list of the people who helped create the film, from directors and producers to cinematographers and choreographers. Every contributor to the project will be listed by name. If you're just starting out, I'd focus on three key elements; director(s), writer(s), and the actors that you personally enjoyed seeing on screen. You could already know some of these names, but it doesn't hurt to double-check! In the future, if you find that you are truly passionate about film and every aspect of it, look into other crew members, look into editors, cinematographers, and composers, but try to pace yourself.

There are other places to find this information, most notably IMDb and Wikipedia. IMDb has, as of 2023, gotten worse than it used to be, but there's still information that, occasionally, can only be found there, if one is only willing to learn how to navigate the site's revamped interface. You should also never be afraid to simply read the Wikipedia article for a film that you enjoy; oftentimes there is a great deal of information on a variety of topics from the general critical consensus upon release, the budget compared to how much it made, and sometimes even a summarized retelling of the film's production.

However, the reason I recommend Letterboxd for research, not just the logging system, is that it offers a visually appealing, poster-based viewing of the information and multiple options on how to sort through the works that an individual creator has worked on.

Automatically, Letterboxd sorts the works by popularity, what the creator is best known for, but also gives you options to sort by "highest average rating" or "latest release date." If you're looking for the best hits of whichever director, writer, or actor you've chosen, "popularity" and "highest average rating" will suit you well. However, if you find yourself obsessed with a particular artist, sorting by release date will give you a frame of reference to watch them grow in their field… or perhaps decay, depending on the person. There's also another fun tool, which is a little more obvious on the mobile app, but just as findable on the browser version, in the top left, under the individual's name, where you can sort through the different fields in which this person has worked on films. Most filmmakers don't stick to just one field; many directors are also writers, and many actors have tried their hand and directing. You'll never know, unless you look, but if you're really interested in a creator, a quick trip to Wikipedia can prove just as useful.

Going through the other works that the creator of a thing you already enjoyed will usually provide interesting results. Interesting is the key word, as you're not guaranteed to find something just as good as the film you found, but there's no telling what you might find. Perhaps, earlier in their career, they contributed to something so different from the thing you discovered them from, it borders on humor. Perhaps, after contributing to the film you discovered them from, they proceeded to make a film that looks so horrible you just have to see if a creator that made something you enjoyed so much could make something so bad! Perhaps, they also contributed to ANOTHER film you've seen and, suddenly, a few things about it make a little more sense! There's a million possibilities, and if you don't go down the rabbit hole, you'll never see where it goes.

Every now and then, you might be interested in a particular genre more than others. This is perfectly natural and there is still a way to research this as well! Try these quick search terms into your web browser of choice!

"best/influential GENRENAME IMDb"

"best/influential GENRENAME Letterboxd"

"best/influential GENRENAME Reddit"

If you've never used either platform before, you might not have known that Letterboxd and IMDb both allow users to curate their own personal lists, which work perfectly for just such a request! Reddit's a lot more individual-based in their recommendations, but it usually won't steer you too wrong, thanks to the upvote system and, sometimes, you'll find incredibly dedicated users who write out some really impressive guides to the genre. Browse through those and see if you find anything that catches your eyes, but, remember, either before or after, you have to do a quick browse of what the director, writer, and the actors that stood out to you have done over their careers!

However, you might realize that your particular genre of choice could feel a little small or, perhaps, the film doesn't seem to particularly fit into any individual genre. Maybe it's an amalgamation of multiple genres, or so distinct that it seems that there's little truly like it. This is where the fun really starts.

Both IMDb and Letterboxd have algorithms that recommend films at the bottom of every page. While it would be easy enough to stop here, and, trust me, the algorithm is usually good enough that you could stop here, I would ask you to push further, and read some of the user-submitted reviews on Letterboxd of that film of yours that you could rewatch at the drop of a hat. Read over some positive reviews. Find some that really speak to you, that like the same parts of the films that you do, maybe some that saw something in it that you didn't see. Then, look at their profile. If that person saw the same thing you saw in that film, then there's a good chance that they're the prime person to recommend a film to you. Read over their "reviews" or browse their "diary" and look over the things they recommend. Then, while you're at it, look at the things they don't. Most of us have our pet peeves and soft spots, our things in movies that really work and really don't. Learn a little about how they enjoy film, and you'll read their reviews in an entirely different light. Along the way, you'll gain incredibly personalized recommendations, often for films you might never have found or considered, learn a little about modern film critique, and hopefully understand how you like films a little better.

If it sounds easy, that's because it is. If it sounds hard, I promise it's easy.

These are about all the tools I can give you, but here are a few more things that I've learned from my journey with film;

Stay away from the fandom culture. Learn to love an art form, not an artist, not a franchise, not a brand.

Enjoy the films you enjoy, support the films you enjoy, discuss the films you enjoy, but don't stop once you've found a thing you like. Keep going. Keep researching. Keep watching. It doesn't benefit you to stop.

Don't forget to look into the directors, writers, and actors of films in a franchise. It's easy to forget, but a franchise with nine films could have anywhere between one and nine directors, and that's assuming that each film only had one!

Don't be afraid to dislike a film. It says nothing about those who like it, those who made it, or even the film itself. Your personal, subjective, individual take on a film should not upset anyone.

Film is a highly American-oriented art. You will have to go out of your way to find foreign films, but that should never be a chore. You can, and will, find a new favorite, if you get past "the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles."

Film is a highly straight and a highly white field. You will have to go out of your way to find minority-made films, but that should never be a chore. You can, and will, find a new favorite, if you get past the fact you might love a film that few know of. You might just be able to help change that.

Never cut yourself off from a genre. Every genre of films has something worth liking. EVERY genre.

CERTAINLY, NEVER cut yourself off from a DECADE. Let alone DECADES. Older films may have to be appreciated differently, but you cannot allow yourself to simply not explore them at all because "they're old."

Listen to recommendations for films often, but listen to recommendations against films rarely. Positive recommendations get people to watch films for themselves, then come to their own conclusions. Negative recommendations get people to stay away from films, then parrot that information whenever asked about the film in question.

Bad people make good art. Don't support them, but experience the art anyway.

Good people make bad art. Be honest, but don't be cruel.

Occasionally, watch a "bad" film. Watch something that critics hated, watch something that the average viewer hated, watch something that your friend hated. You could surprise yourself, and realize that something that doesn't work for everyone else really works for you. If it doesn't, no biggie! Now you have a prime example of what a bad film looks like. It will only help your comparisons in the future!

Revisit films, whether you liked them or not. You are not perfect, you will never be fully objective, and, sometimes, your feelings will change. Allow yourself to.

6 notes · View notes

lighthouse-app · 7 months

Note

Hi! Some questions about the systems and subsystems stuff.

In our system, we like to make little descriptions of things. I was wondering if there could be some more system/subsystem settings therefore. Like maybe adding brief descriptions to each system page? It would be really helpful in our personal case because of our individual system functioning and all that. We've been using the forum section to describe our subsystems for now

The second question also pertains to some kind of system/subsystem settings, which is if you could add an option for displaying people in a nested subsystem inside the parent system page? It would just be an on-off switch. It would be a useful setting for us personally, since we have plenty of two-person subsystems and similar, and it would save the hassle of jumping back and forth between subsystem pages

My last question is also a subsystem setting, but I'd like to ask if you've had any thoughts to implement subsystem journals? Like how we have the communal journal in the My System overview, it would be helpful to have a similar thing for subsystems. Especially one of our subsystems are less "separated" between their members, and I think they'd appreciate being able to have a communal journal for just them along with the individual journals when they really know who's fronting in their subsystem

And on the journals, sometimes when our system don't know who's fronting, we still like to make journal entries just to jot down our thoughts (and hopefully figure out who we are in the process). So like how there's a Blurry option for forum posts, could there be some kind of blurry option for journal entries that isn't connected to the communal journal? (We've noticed that you can move entries between individual people, but not from the communal journal to a single member)

Hope this isn't too much, apparently I had a lot of thoughts on the matter. So much love to this website and the work you put into it, and take care of yourselves today! 👏👏

Hopefully it's ok to answer this in a numbered list format haha

We really like the idea of adding a descriptor to systems and subsystems! We'll add that to the list.

The idea of doing that, letting subsystem members be shown, is in the works. What's currently stopping that from being worked on right now is figuring out how to better load the system page. Right now, large systems are noticing the site crashing due to the volume of data being recalled/memory being used. So we're gonna work on paginating the system page as well. When we have that squared away, we'll start adding subsystem member cards to that page as well!

We do want to add sub-system journals at some point as well. I think with how much we want to add, it might be best to start, like, "theming" updates. Like, for one update we solely work on forums, or subsystems, etc. The reason we haven't done an alter -> communal journal function yet is that the communal journal is actually stored in a separate database with different parameters than alter journals. Looking back, we probably should have made their databases one and the same haha.

Thank you for the insight!! We're really happy to be helping a bunch of people like this. <3

#dee speaks

2 notes · View notes

that-banana-headed-bovine · 2 years

Note

GIVE ME YOUR HEADCANONS FOR YOUR FAVORITE BOY. BEST BOY. KARR!

holy crap. the universe does not want me to make this post I SWEAR.

I was having difficulties answering one of the segments of the format you were asking for, so I shelfed it for a bit to think on it. I never came to a conclusion HASODH-

I scrolled thru asks and saw this. Holy moly you have been waiting for so long, if you are still here I would just like to say that I am so sorry for that like. I really meant to get to this sooner--

Well, if the wait has been this long, I had better make my response worth it right. So I’d better get the text format.

wait where is it.

I scrolled through old posts and old asks for like 20 minutes to find the format.

I did not find the format

I typed up a long intro explaining this whole situation, and got started writing the ask

THE PAGE REFRESHED.

TUMBLR AUTOSAVED NONE OF IT.

I also thought I lost THIS draft for a second and nearly screamed. luckily I did not I was just on the wrong blog

this is try number. across all of the times I’ve touched it I don’t actually know. Time two today tho.

Anyway AHSOD I am so sorry for the long wait AND that I will not be using the original format because it has Disappeared. If I do eventually find it, I’ll probably revisit this with anything I missed, but for now I will just be doing my best with what I remember and adding some other nonsense Just Because. I hope this is good asdioh-

Headcanons about Canon and not AUs for once in my life

You know how in TDR, they have that really zoomed out shot at the end of the chase before Karr careens off a cliff where they do a bit of an Oopsie. That oopsie being “there is a very clear way out of this situation. that way is turning left instead of right.”

And you know how in KvK, Karr’s self preservation programming is basically thrown out the window? So that they could throw model cars at each other or sumn I’m not being sarcastic there’s actually a few split seconds where you can see them throwing model cars at each other it’s so freaking funny I highly recommend going back and looking for it if you didn’t see it, it’s like behind the explosion I think, idk the exact timing bc it’s been a while but Yeah

Well. The IRL explanation for these things is almost definitely “because it looks cool”, and I’m definitely making way more of it than there is, but behold. I have basically informed my opinion on Karr’s personality (behind the whole scared for his life thing) from these things. Because, as a hyper-intelligent AI, he really shouldn’t be able to make these sort of “dumb” mistakes, right?

The best I’ve got, then, is that he’s a LOT more influenced by emotions than Kitt is. I don’t know whether I’d go as far as to say that he experiences them MORE, because Kitt clearly does have them... I think he’s just more cautious by nature, so he doesn’t really let himself act on them much. Karr, though? He’s impulsive, and easily swayed off course by panic, anger, sadness, etc. That’s why, despite being just as smart as Kitt is, he often makes far less rational decisions.

He drove off a cliff because he was so scared that he just acted on impulse without doing any of the AI rationalizing stuff we’re used to seeing from Kitt. If he’d have cleared his mind enough to scan ahead and process the routes as he drove, he would have made a different decision. That’s Kitt’s biggest advantage in their fights, and it would be his greatest contribution if the two were ever to team up; both of them can smash things, but only one of them can work properly under pressure.

Even down to his programming--code can be changed, so it’s not the law that we often think of it as. It’s just a very, VERY strong suggestion. Kitt has never tried to change it; he’s never even CONSIDERED it. Karr, though? He reached his breaking point. The thought of continuing to live his life on the run, unable to trust anyone or stay anywhere, was enough to drive him crazy. He COULDN’T bring himself to continue with FLAG--and specifically Michael and Kitt--constantly on his tail. So, he snapped and overrode his very foundation. He’d either get rid of them or die trying.

That’s probably the core of why Devon was so scared of him, without providing much of a concrete reason. Because Karr’s unpredictable, far closer to human than they’d ever expected him to be. Even when he was on their side, they didn’t think they could trust him not to change his mind, or make a snap decision that endangered everyone involved. I think he could have gotten control of it over time, but it definitely makes more sense that they wouldn’t want to work with him in this state. Their response to it is still immoral imo, but if they didn’t fully realize his sentience and just saw it as a programming fluke, then I could see where it seemed necessary. Especially if an accident like that had already happened... Not gonna elaborate on that here; I’ve made a post about it, and tbh I probably shouldn’t have because it wasn’t my idea in the slightest. It’s just such a good headcanon that I basically adopted it immediately AHSIDO (Yes I did credit the fren in the original post, but it still just wasn’t the ideal way to go about it tbh, that’s why I’m not linking either. If you really wanna scroll for it, it is still there so go for it ig best of luck to ye IASHDOHSA, but otherwise it’s really not mine to tell)

Headcanons that are so extremely Not Canon / for AUs

While the Karr that is in canon hasn’t had much time to be in the world, and thus is far less worldly than Kitt is, I would think that it would come much more naturally to him than his brother if given the chance. I mean heck, he developed a whole salesman personality underwater sooo /lh That probably means that he also does that copying thing really well, too. Like, how Kitt picked up on the Trucker jargon that one time and got excited and parroted it for a bit... it happens pretty often, but that’s the clearest example I’ve got right now oops. Anyway, I think Karr does that, too, but incorporates it in a somewhat more stealthy way. Because if he messed up people will be Trying to Murder Him Again.

All I’m saying is. One of them might have a chance of understanding meme culture and that one sure as heck isn’t Kitt.

Like, I actually think that Karr and Michael would have... shockingly similar personalities if Karr actually got to understand the world and himself better? If they’d stop hating each other for a second, I think they’d get along really well. Both loyalty driven, both impulsive due to emotionality, both sometimes make dumb decision because they just care too much... bothwouldprobablydieforKitteventhoughhedhateit oops what’s that my brothers bias showing????

Anyway, how this applies in Human!AU is that Karr can blend into human life really well. Like, he’s just as curious and unsure as Kitt is, but he quickly picks up on the basic behaviors that people around him are routinely using and integrates them so as not to stick out. And then, as time goes on, he just would kind of figure out what it all means himself, to the point where he’s reverse engineered how to be human with quite good accuracy. Whereas Kitt is always very curious and is quite open about it, because why wouldn’t he be y’know he’s not used to hiding, so he’d probably stand out a lot more at first if he didn’t have Michael there to do most of the talking and explain things for him. Idk if that makes any sense but yeah. I just love the thought of Karr actually being the knowledgeable older sibling because he’s had much more time to adjust to his new form, and like he actually has a whole life of his own going on that he’s basically just disappeared into until Michael and Kitt show up. Kitt asks him stuff, and he almost always has an answer. On occasion, those answers are confidently incorrect. But he’s trying OAHSDOIHSA

Also Karr and Michael bickering about basically everything, things that don’t matter in the slightest, while Kitt’s just standing there making sure it doesn’t go too far. The second it starts going south “Why does it matter anyway?” and everyone’s just dead silent. It didn’t matter they just had a bad case of the Himbos.

Like, it’s pretty easy to forget that Karr’s an AI after you’ve been talking to him for a while. But then you ask him something when he’s not worked up about anything, and he provides this Giggachad Massive Brain response and it’s like “oh YEAH”

Love Language

BECAUSE WHY NOT

Actually tho, I genuinely think love language is so important to his character specifically. You can take it as romantic if you want, that’s not how I personally mean it in this case tho. I mean how he addresses the people that he cares about, no matter what the nature of it is.

See, a lot of the (in my mind) misunderstandings about his character stem from how he acted whenever he got a new pilot. Like, with Tony and Rev, it could be easy to think that he was being walked all over by them and that he was entirely aimless. It would also be easy to think that, no, he did have a motivation, because he wanted to steal things + kidnap people. Same with John to a lesser extent, because John never told him to do the bad things, just also didn’t really try to get him to do good things either. So surely Karr chose to do bad because he really, really just wanted to?

But I think that, while it doesn’t excuse his bad decisions (ESPECIALLY not the ones that put people’s lives in danger), a lot of it can be explained by love language. Karr, simply put, has the Acts of Service love language.

The reason Karr let Tony and Rev direct him however they wished is because, after they inadvertently rescued him from deactivation, he felt indebted and was genuinely grateful. He showed it by DOING whatever they asked of him. And all he hoped was that they would get him help in exchange, which they did in about the most awful way possible but yeah.

And then John came along, and Karr is DESPERATELY trying to do the same thing... John never asks for his help with, anything really, but Karr is proactively trying to get him to ask for something. Doesn’t matter what, he’ll do it. It becomes increasingly frustrating when his acts of service aren’t seen as good enough, when he technically had what he needed but was still sorely lacking a friend. And then he started going to truly awful extremes to show through ACTION that he was a loyal friend, that whether John thought he needed a companion or not, he’d be there, he PROMISED.

He also, to a somewhat lesser extent, takes action against those who have wronged him, as if to say “I’m done caring, and I’ll SHOW you how”, y’know? A lot of it was out of self defense, but still important to mention ig.

You could say that this is due to the nature of them being AIs right, like built to provide a service from the beginning so I’m SURE they do feel that way yea. However, I honestly feel like Kitt would express care through basically anything other than that. Like, acts of service are the bare minimum, he’d do THAT for anybody because he was made for it. If he goes out of his way to spend time with you, though--or in an human!AU, if he leans into a hug--then he really does care. So, I really am not just defaulting to this. I think Karr specifically thinks of it as more than his obligation, it’s his great joy to show how much he cares.

I think there were more things, but also this post is so long already what IOASHDOSAD- I’m also . kinda sleepy so I’m sorry if this doesn’t make sense oo f- And I hope that it’s worth the wait aa ahhh

#knight rider #knight rider 1982 #karr #k.a.r.r.#headcanon #ramblings and nonsense

16 notes · View notes

seedling-lotus · 1 year

Text

okay, I saw map things and it reminded me of my own mapping project that i've poured waaaaaay too much time into so now you get to see me rant about it...

or not because imma hide it under a read more... But i'm still gonna tag it!

Anyway, so!

because the fic I was reading for a completely different fandom just wasn't providing the dopamine, my lovely brain decided that I needed to go find all of the locations for everything in DGM, or as closely as I possibly could, because Hoshino-sensei exists to drive me insane... And so does the fandom wiki...

So yeah. So trying to locate things. Some places were easier than others. Some places I still have to add. 😭

New Order HQ? Took me a while, but I fuckin' found it... Or, well, found an island that looks like it could match.

of course, the Wiki says both that it's in "Southern Europe" and also somewhere mentions that it's in Britain, which is just... Nope, that island in particular is part of France. Close though. Of course, I don't have access to the source material that the wiki seems to be referencing, so what do I know...

The wiki also says that old HQ is in generic "Northern Europe" and also "Unknown location in Scandinavia" which, again, the source appears to be the fanbook that I do not have and cannot reference for myself. Not going to lie, old HQ is virtually impossible to place. There is not a single place on this planet that I could find within Northern Europe or more specifically Scandinavia that would be a good geographic fit. I mean, I know there are rock formations sort of similar, but nothing or that size. I gave up finding a perfect match after two days of beating my head against it and just went for somewhere most likely to have that kind of geographic feature. After my few successes with finding "exact" locations for some of the places in DGM, it really really bothers me that I can't place that one definitively.

and then there's freaking Barcelona. Barcelona bothers me. It bothers me a lot. I cannot find anywhere in the Manga that actually mentions what city they were in at the time. But I remember that it was Barcelona. (Was it in the anime??? I cannot remember) The problem with Barcelona being... the map doesn't match... We've got at least one clear overhead shot of the city in the manga, and it doesn't really look like Barcelona. It does, however, look a lot like Prague. (and the fact that I knew that off the top of my head before confirming it makes me question my life choices more than a little.)

So this is from Chapter 43.

(I am weeping, I had so much typed and I just accidentally "undo"ed it and now I can't get it back... gods damn it)

ANYWAYS

So what I had said was that we can see that the image of Barcelona is a lot more gridlike of a city structure and more organized and yes I acknowledge that DGM is a "Fictional end to the 19th century" and city structure can change over time, It usually doesn't change that much. Below is a screenshot of the map of Prague from Google maps for comparison.

My second point of evidence is this Cathedral-like structure from the page prior:

The only cathedral I can find in Barcelona has 4 spires where the drawing only has 2. "But simplifying for ease of drawing" Yeah, no, I get that, but look at them and tell me that the cathedral in Prague doesn't look more like the drawing?

But my biggest issue with Barcelona? The river. Yes, there's a river in Barcelona. It's tiny though, and none of the bridges spanning it are more than two spans across.

and here's Barcelona's river vs Prague's river:

Barcelona:

(also, if Barcelona ever had pretty old bridges like the one drawn, they all appear to have been replaced by ugly modern ones)

And here's Prague:

(and yes, I know, the Prague bridge doesn't match either, but it matches better)

So yeah, Barcelona bothers me. It's not impossible that it's Barcelona, but it bothers me.

The American Branch though? That one I'm proud of.

So, again, it's not 100% perfectly correct, but I think that the American branch might be one of the closest to a spot on location that I actually managed. (The literal only way I could get a more accurate location would be to actually drive my ass to Arizona, and that's just not in the cards.)

Also, may I just say that this particular line, which I have confirmed is the way this place is described in the Manga... This exists to infuriate the British and the Scottish...

That was pulled from the wiki. THIS is pulled from chapter 230 of the manga:

Now I know someone in the fandom and on tumblr has already pointed this one out, but

Edinstown does not exist. In England or otherwise.

THIS particular landmark is in Scotland. EdinBURG Scotland.

And before someone yells at me, Eddingston isn't right either. Eddington (without the S) is a place in England, but it does not have that landmark.

The landmark in question being the Dugald Stewart Monmuent on Calton Hill in Edinburg, Scotland.

So that one caused a dew LOLs once I went back and found the post I reblogged with that information. source

Oh! so yeah, so Guangzhou... Guangzhou also bothers me a smidge...

So according to the Wiki (which seems to get most of it's info from the Fanbook that I don't have)... You know what, I might have it, but it's in Japanese, and I can only speak and read English so really, that's on me... Anyway...

So Guangzhou. China. The port city that theoretically is where they set sail from. And is also where Anita's brothel is.

And once again acknowledging that landscapes have been changed over time by humans. I get that. HOWEVER.

So Timcampy gives us a lovely view of the city and the harbor in question.

And 1 chapter later we get this view of them leaving:

Now I know, I KNOW, this is set in, at the very latest, 1899. I know that the harbor will have changed since then and Google maps is only going to show me the most modern version.

However...

This is Modern Guangzhou:

Note how it's set a little more inland? How they'd be able to see land across the harbor? and it's more in a river delta, flatter.

However, there is a port city relatively close to Guangzhou that does look a lot more like the port drawn in the manga:

And yes, yes, I know "but there's no land masses in the Manga and that's why you said Guangzhou was out." True, but most of these landmasses are over 3 miles away, and the horizon is only 3 miles away due to the curvature of the earth, so it does make a little more sense.

Now I know that the Manga doesn't show an Island and yeah, it's not exactly the same, but it's definitely way closer visually. (Also, Hoshino-sensei, I love you dearly, but please... Guangzhou is not the largest/main port city in China....)

Am I doing everything Wildly out of order? Absolutely. I'd say sue me but please don't. I am so broke.

Next up! The Izu Peninsula! (and another iteration of Hoshino-sensei making me want to cry... For map making purposes. Plot related purposes don't count. That's her job)

So in chapter 76, Chomesuke says this:

And then, in Chapter 77 we see this:

And ignoring all plot related crying from this point of the story, the Izu Peninsula was a difficult one to place. Not finding it on the map, but finding torii gates that are set up like this...

And you may be going "But it's Japan, how hard can it be to find torii gates set up like that?"

HARD

Gods damn it all. You wanna know why? because the fuckload of torii gates going straight up a damn mountain is something that exists. Famous enough that even I know what it looks like and I'm a stupid little white girl from America who has never left the western hemisphere. The problem with that particular set of torii gates that this panel and all related panels are based off of? yeah, that particular land mark is in the middle of Tokyo and nowhere near water...

And they are definitely still in the boat and still in water here...

here's my evidence for the Torii gates in Tokyo:

yes I am going to make you go google that yourselves if you really want to fact check me because this post is already a monster and I am too lazy to put in a hyperlink.

Anyways

So the only even remotely similar feature on the Izu peninsula that I could find is on an even smaller peninsula

and they look a little more like this in real life:

But hey, creative license and all that jazz. And while the Izu peninsula is close to Tokyo (which would have been called Edo back in the time period of canon), it's not that close, so it's probably a good day's walk if not longer for them to get there... which i think we may have skipped due to the magic of "anime physics" but you know what, fuck it. at this point I've stopped asking questions

(this is absolutely a lie, but shhhhhh)

And I have gone over my picture limit so I'll include the pictures on a reblog (if it lets me... I think it will... I'll get back to you on that... ish, maybe)

#dgm #d.gray-man #long post #look if you read the beginning of the post and clicked on the read more #you can't blame me for what you found under it #I warned you #feel free to ask me about other locations in DGM canon #if you want my longwinded opinions about them #(honestly #a LOT of canon happens within either one of the branches or the ark #or Kanda's memories but you know #so there aren't terribly many places to cover)

9 notes · View notes

sous-le-signe-de-la-lune · 1 year

Text

JANUARY WRAP UP

Noël à la librairie des cœurs brisés by Annie Darling - 3 ☆

I've never heard of this series before I was gifted this book, but I liked the idea of following the life of booksellers / coffee shop owner as they fall in love. It made me think of a Hallmark movie when I read the blurb. Sadly, I was disappointed. I don't mind slow burn but this one didn't do it for me: they barely had cute scenes together, most of the time they were arguing and being rude.

2. Bluets by Maggie Nelson - 3.5 ☆

Bluets is an interesting poetic essay / memoir, that through the flow of the author's ideas, offers a collection of facts from poets, authors, artists, philosophers about the color blue. At some point, she focuses a lot on the vision: what it means to see blue? What if you don't see it? She offers clinical examples to discuss these ideas, which I found interesting. But sadly, I don't think there was a good balance between the facts she had collected and her memories. I liked when she mentioned her friend, but the memories about the prince of blue weren't always going well with the flow of the text.

3. Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram - 3 ☆

I loved Darius and knew I would read anything Adib Khorram would write after that. So, I was looking forward to reading Kiss & Tell, and even if it wasn't exactly what I expected, I'm still glad it managed to open up a discussion about being queer in the public eye, the sanitization that can comes with it, and the slut shaming. There's also a focus on sex, because Hunter is sexually active but has to have a "virgin" persona because he's in a boy band. It could have had a better impact if there had been a better balance between the romance and Hunter's interactions with his bandmates, which were almost non-existent.

4. It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood - 3 ☆

I love the way she played with her art style and the overall structure of the graphic novel, it was really fun and clever (especially when it starts again). Because I've never read her other comics, I felt detached from what she was mentioning, and to be honest sometimes I was lost between the different flashbacks. It was interesting and raw, but I didn't connect with the story, which doesn't mean it's bad, I do think others can gain something from it. It's different from other stories I've read about depression and suicidal ideation. Overall, it's a really good graphic novel / memoir.

5. The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark - 3 ☆

(art by Kevin Hong)

I recently recommended A Dead Djinn in Cairo to my friend and realized I haven't read this short story yet. I loved the narration in the second person, it's one of my favorite when it's done well, and it was the case. I wanted more from the story, but it was still satisfying and i can't wait to read the next book in the series.

6. The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow - 5 ☆

It was more a 4.75 stars but I rounded up because it quickly became one of my favorite short stories. In 30 pages, the characters and their motives were well-developed. They is a Girl, a Squire, A King, a Priest, a Devil and a Saint. Some of them are limited in the perception of themselves and other because of the role that was imposed on them and it was done so well, especially thanks to the poetic prose. I wish this novella could exist in a physical format so I could highlight everything again.

I figured out what was going on right when they started to explain everything and it was gut-wrenching to realize that every line could mean different things, because then you realize how clever the narration was. Not only that, but I love narration that are "traditional" and here, the use of I, She and You was interesting.

my goodreads

#wrap up #reading challenge #books #book recommendations #book review #la librairie des cœurs brisés #annie darling #bluets #maggie nelson #kiss & tell #adib khorram #it's lonely at the centre of the earth #zoe thorogood #the angel of el-khalili #P. Djèlí Clark #the six deaths of the saint #alix e. harrow

3 notes · View notes

2023-512kaylawilliams · 1 year

Text

Second pre-formative hand-in critique

After making a number of changes (as per David's feedback) since last Monday, I went through my booklet with Emil today, which was really helpful. It highlighted unnecessary things, small changes that would make big improvements to streamlining the book's flow and key elements I hadn't included (a key one being captioning photographs). He ran through a lot of things I had looked over and also needed to improve upon, which I will take into account this week and make those changes before the Thursday hand-in.

The symbol is meaningless (i.e. has no purpose) - get rid of it.

Though the rap around text was good - the two words split by the spine were unecessary distraction from the title (if that's what i choose to be the title) which is Gimlet Display.

It was suggested that I incoperate more of the meaning of the booklet in relation to my pepeha in the front cover. I think some development into making the covers (front and back) more useful in that sense could be explored.

A suggestion for graphically displaying the text in a very simple way was a large G/GD on one/both of the covers, which as above, i'll use in development.

He liked that I used my tartan which links to my Scottish heritage. Exploring the relevance of it could be a good idea. My idea was to, in moving around some of my spreads as later suggested, that i could put the information/history page as pgs 1-2 and explain its relevance there.

Something of my own reflection was the cover image was a little distracting. I might edit it a little to make whatever text I place on the front more in the foreground but without losing the detail and impact of the tartan. I have since scaled it down (it was scaled up in the above print out) which I think this may work better. Also having the text larger will help with this.

This page is unfinished (hence the palceholder text for blocking); this will be something I need to finish but the formatting of it is okay thus far i think.

Point to mention in the rationale *why is this font good?* > *why did i chose it -> relation to my pepeha*

Captions were something i needed to add for the photograph here but i think i will be changing it anyway.

Emil mentioned that streamlining all of the footer elements on the pages was a necessary detail. As he said they are the 'normal' elements and everything else will show as a deviation from that to show what the typeface can do.

These two spreads were relatively untouched by feedback apart from the note about footer details.

However, I did have a personal reflection for these. I though that the text overall might be on the smaller side. I have noticed in all of my spreads that has been the case. So i think being a bit more bold with my choice of font size would be a good idea to bring contrast between the smaller pt sizes and larger pt sizes.

Something that isn't super noticed once printed was the fact that i did make all text a dark green shade. Which after playing around does make a significant difference on the eye even if it is subtle (compared to plain black). However, for further refinement I might try a colour combination.

Another element i need to add is the pt sizes and font names on all the pages.

Three main points for this spread:

The text in the poems does look too similar to the footer text > could be changed to medium weight to differentiate?

Move the Haere Mai poem/song title to the top of the block of text to signal that it is another piece of text (not flowing on from the previous page), where to start reading and that it is the title of that section of text.

Note the authors of the texts (My Great Aunt) and the relevance of the text - why is it there?

The biggest problem with this layout was the text crossing (what I have come to call) the no-go zone. Anything crossing that line will be lost even a little because of binding and alignment.

However, suggestions were to play with the spread a little. What different kinds of AEIOU's could I showcase? Try moving them around and play with the space in the spread.

In regards to the photo asset on this page, again, needs a caption. A further suggestion was to see what it looked like spread over both pages. I do have a limit on its dimension but I could play with this a little.

Last point was if it was necessary to label every page with the footer 'Gimlet Display' > it will be obvious given the start of the booklet what the typeface is called, so maybe use this space for what specific font is used, point size etc. instead.

This spread got a big tick. Emil said it was a good resting page. Given that my booklet does have a lot of detail-heavy pages, spreads like this one give the eye a rest from having to follow any detail whilst also showcasing alternative versions of one glyph the font has to offer.

A way to further this might be to make another spread in this kind of format (which I think I could use to replace the image page on pg. 22 maybe). A symbol that Emil pointed out that was quite unique in its form was the # from pg. 17. He said it's got a unique skew and weight variation. Thus, it could be a cool idea to make that a key point somewhere in the booklet, just to give rest as well as iterest and pinpointing a cool feature of the typeface.

This page got a pretty good go ahead neatly showcases all of the accent alternatives. The only thing to change was the title of the spread. Emil said to have a look into what other type specimens have named this kind of layout.

The left spread:

[1st line] doesn't quite fit with the rest (I think it's because of its "lack" of detail compared to the other lines?) > move down to balance?

[2nd line] good.

[3rd line] As mentioned before, Emil thinks the # deserves a feature (bold/scaled up in another spread?)

[4th line] symmetry of this one is great, well balanced.

[5th line] the cents symbol is the only one that stands apart but can't be changes and still makes sense.

[6th line] the No. symbol doesn't work with the rest, if it can be used elsewhere go for it but otherwise probably not hugely necessary. The tilde is a nice one to include though > find where it can go?

The right spread:

What is the significance of the numbers, and why is one outlined? > explain in the caption. Or repeat to create a pattern/rhythm.

Old style numbers need explaining (otherwise one would think i did that myself) > its a feature of the typeface so label it somewhere (page title?)

Split the page titles.

Suggested this could be moved to the front of the booklet, given that it is key information about the font (not just the history > rethink the title or split the titles over the two pages).

For clarification, Schadow is the correct spelling :) but showcase that this was what the typeface was inspired by. Include more clearly what each typeface looks like on there own.

The comparison between the typefaces is good. Could do a lot more labelling (this could be where i do some "diagrams" on type form features.

A note for the second paragraph on the left page; showcase those different fonts on a larger scale to more clearly see their disctint features. > This may have me rethink some of the more text heavy pages as i could showcase these here instead? given this spread may become quite busy with the changes and level of detail.

It was suggested I move all larger text to one side and bulk text to the other, as there is blank space that is being unused.

Also a final point was to extend the written part, dig deeper into the typeface itself.

Caption for the photo, again.

Move this spread to the front > key information?

Personal note > move the line for language support up one line.

Overall I am super happy with this draft of my work; it is by no means the final draft. I have come quite far from my earlier drafted pages, but I'm not finished yet. This draft aligned with how I wanted the booklet to look, but there is still much to improve, and I will continue refining it even after the Thursday hand-in.

2 notes · View notes