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nibeul · 3 years

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Saberstaffs: A Guide for People Creating Jedi/Sith OCs

I posted this on Instagram a while ago but I figured I should post it here too! This is basically my analysis of saberstaffs paired with some history and extra info. I’m by no means an expert, just a SW weapons nerd who enjoys rambling about things, bonus if people find it helpful :) most of the general info is backed by the wookiee for anyone curious to give it a look

The History

Saberstaffs are rare among the Order, and while a decent amount of it has to do with how hard it is to master, its origins also play a part in this fact. Originally known as the “Sith Lightsaber”, saberstaffs were created by the Old Sith Empire (as the name suggests), serving as weapons of aggression with the ability to easily overwhelm and overpower. The design had been pretty much unheard of until it was wielded by Exar Kun during the Great Sith War, the fallen Jedi having modified his original lightsaber using schematics from Sith Holocrons he had found. It was forgotten shortly after, trading off from hand to hand before eventually making its way to the Order for safe keeping (this is obviously a very simple explanation since I don’t want to dwell on it too much). The design became popularized among the Sith during the Jedi Civil War, and was even wielded by some skilled Jedi, though the Council frowned upon its use as the staff was a weapon of aggression purely designed to kill more effectively than the standard saber. The Order’s prejudice against the weapon remained a constant even into the waning days of the Republic, and as a result, very few Jedi utilized it. By the time the Invasion of Naboo rolled around, they’d faded into almost complete obscurity, so you can imagine the surprise of Qui Gon and Obi Wan when Maul pulled one out.

Schematics

The original saber staffs were much more complicated than the ones seen during the Clone Wars, consisting of a singular lightsaber mechanism that had two emitters, Exar Kun’s modified staff fitting this design. The more modern staffs, such as Maul’s, were made up of two, standard lightsabers that were melded together at the pommel in order to form one, elongated hilt. I’m actually not sure what the exact reasoning for the simplification was since the original was more effective, though I assume it has to do with the loss of the original holocrons and a change in wielding styles as the years progressed. The Council was right though in the fact that they were made for better effectiveness in combat; two ends meant faster attacks, and rapid assaults could be dealt out by the wielding with minimum movement. On the flipside, it was also good for defense—specifically in dueling, I’ll get to combat against blasters later—because it covered more area with less effort. There was also a psychological impact that comes with most unorthodox weapons, as tracking two blades is obviously a lot harder than one, and either end was often thought of as separate weapons instead of one.

Of course, there were still weaknesses, and with great killing power came debilitating flaws if put in the wrong hands. Wielding a staff without training was fatal in most cases, and it was likely that an inexperienced user would slash or bisect themselves trying to utilize one. A prime example of this comes from Antos Wyrick who accidentally impaled both himself and his daughter when trying to kill her. The minimum movement needed also came at a cost when it came to attacking and parrying because it’s impossible to simply adjust positions, as someone using a standard blade might. The sun djem contact mark could be employed by an opponent with little experience, and due to the length of the hilt, it’s hard to defend against. The best comparison to a saberstaff in terms of modern weapons would be the quarterstaff, though it’s not completely adequate because there’s only so much area for the user to put their hands whereas a quarterstaff, you have the entire length. The weight is also different as the weight of any lightsaber is condensed at the hilt while a quarterstaff’s weight would be evenly spread throughout it. Because the user’s hands have to be positioned at the general center of the weapon at all times (the hilt), power that would be possible with a quarterstaff is lost with the saberstaff.

Wielding Styles/Forms

Next, we have a breakdown of wielding styles, and to do this I’m going to be using Maul and Krell.

Maul

There’s apparently some controversy over what lightsaber Form Maul uses, though based on what I’ve seen from the show and the movie, I think that Juyo is the closest form to compare his fighting style too. Maul’s lightsaber is an extension of his body; he was raised for one thing, and that was to kill Jedi. He is, in the simplest sense, a killing machine, and his fighting style is reflective of that, martial arts interwoven with his strikes and parries, etc. etc. Maul, while obviously capable of defense, is a very aggressive, offensive fighter, and this is abundantly clear in his duels against Ahsoka, Obi Wan, Qui Gon… I’m sure there are videos floating around for each of the duels, I recommend giving them a rewatch if you’re curious. His power comes from his hips, and he relies on straight up striking power and prowess in combat in order to overwhelm his opponents. His style is pretty similar to how one would wield a quarterstaff, which is incredibly effective when it comes to melee combat against one or multiple opponents, but an open battlefield is a different story.

The biggest problem for Maul’s fighting style when applied to an open battlefield is the lack of maneuverability and the uncovered area that makes up the hilt of the staff. In a lightsaber duel, he has full coverage of his body since the blades are pretty one dimensional (I’m not sure if that’s the right word to use, but I’m using it anyways) while against blasters, there’s more open, uncovered area that he’s not going to be able to defend. I don’t recall seeing a lot of blaster vs lightsaber action with Maul, not when it came to his staff anyways, so it’s hard to determine what he’s capable of when it comes to that. I’m just applying what I’ve seen to a hypothetical situation—the bottomline is that Maul is likely a more effective duelist than anything else, and his use of the saberstaff plays into that strength.

Krell

Krell—who I know you all love—uses Jar’kai and I want to say hints of Form V based on his aggressive way of fighting while also on the defensive against dozens of clones. We unfortunately didn’t see a lot of fighting from Krell until he was slaughtering the 501st and 212th, so I don’t have a whole lot to work with here, but I do know that he used the Force in tandem with his staffs which was something that was made easier by the fact that he had four arms. Unlike Maul, Krell doesn’t face the problem of lack of coverage when it comes to fighting on the battlefield—because of his anatomy, he’s able to fully rotate the blades in a manner that covers him entirely, though something important to note about that is the change in power. The power from his strikes come almost entirely from his arms, which is clearest when he’s fighting the clones up in the tower. He’s able to cut through men without putting a huge focus on power, 1) because he’s already naturally strong and 2) because of the reach of his lightsabers. He’s outnumbered, but his sheer combative prowess with his lightsabers allows him to keep an edge during the entirety of the fight until he’s ultimately taken down by Tup.

I think the most important thing to note about Krell is that he constantly makes space, which is a tactic commonly used by staff users specifically (it’s also used when handling other weapons of course, though that’s when it comes to multiple opponents; with a staff, you constantly want space so you can strike from afar). He makes space to prevent himself from getting overrun even when severely outnumbered, and this tactic allows him to employ the deadliness of his lightsabers on an open battlefield, whereas Maul would have more trouble doing so thanks to the differences in their fighting style. Because I haven’t seen Krell in a duel, it’s hard to say how he would combat someone else with a melee weapon, though I want to say it’s likely similar to Grievous’s way of fighting. The sheer amount of blades he holds makes it easy to overwhelm an opponent, and because of his stature, he doesn’t have a need for extreme power behind each swing, which allows better maneuverability (as we see when he’s spinning his lightsabers).

General Pros and Cons

So, I’ll just finish this off with the main pros and cons after breaking everything down and giving my input.

Strengths:

• Offensive and defensive capabilities

• Faster attack rate

• Bigger surface area for deflecting/parrying

• Unorthodox/Uncommon

Weaknesses:

• Hard to store

• Exposed hilt

• Dangerous to user

• Often requires both hands to wield

In general, staffs are best for characters who are older with more than a couple years of training under their belt due to how hard it is to master and the dangers of inexperience. These characters tend to be heavily combat focused since the staff was pretty much made for killing. However, this is just a general breakdown I did for fun, so don’t let that stop you from giving your characters whatever weapons you see fit :)

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heuristicallyinclined · 3 years

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Becoming One with the Capri Sun

Lanque Bombyx x Mspa Reader | T | Word Count: 4,426 | tw: blood, mild gore, temporary character death, biting | AO3 Link

Written for @skanque-bombyx

Summary: Set in the Nobody Knows AU, First Guardian Mspa Reader finds an extremely dissatisfied adult Lanque and agrees to get him off of his cloistered planet, Julie d’Aubigny style. Things don’t exactly go as planned.

Note: This doesn’t build off of the main story and you don’t have to have read it or be caught up on it for this to make sense. Somewhat of a oneshot.

The sounds of a tunnel collapsing in on itself, of rock being torn loose and bringing more of the earth down with it, was terrifying enough without the echo of the cave magnifying everything and disorienting you further. You couldn’t even tell how extensive the damage was since every crash seemed to become more than a singular crash, the actual sound of stones falling made indistinguishable from the following echoes layering on top of each other becoming a cacophony of destruction.

But eventually, it stopped. It stopped and you could hear your heart beating again, no longer obscured by the falling debris, seemingly making up for lost time by beating so hard you could feel it in your teeth reminding you it was there and you were alive. The next thing you noticed was the heavy silence. Though maybe after being overwhelmed to the point where your ears were ringing, any amount of quiet felt stark to you.

It didn’t matter, because shakily you got up, you had to stop halfway as you rose to rest your hands on your knees and just breathe for a moment, but eventually, you stood straight and exhaled deeply, holding yourself for a second before looking around. Softly, you called out.

“Lanque?”

And heard no response.

Maybe it was too quiet, the fear of another cave in caused by you yelling probably stifled you from doing more than mouthing his name without any of the sound behind it. You build up your nerve and try again, louder.

“Lanque.”

You wait.

There was no reply.

Your heart had only just started to wane from its frantic beat and you were starting to worry something far worse was about to replace it.

You began to look around, hoping to see some sign of life or, you don’t know, maybe even get a little optimistic at not seeing any signs of death. Your footsteps are slow and deliberate as you move around and occasionally over debris. You have to actively try not to flinch as you do, fearing that the sound of any pebble being kicked was the start of another tremor. That or conceal some movement elsewhere or ideally some faint profanity.

But the only sound you manage to hear is the gravel crunching under your shoes as you continue on. Your vision isn’t doing much to help you either. It wasn’t completely dark. The bioluminescent cave fungus creeping up the walls acted as a source of light and kept you from stumbling too much, but it was cultivated by people made for cave dwelling and much more sensitive to light than you are. Still you keep trying. After a few minutes, something on the ground catches your eye and you squint harder trying to focus on it.

There was a puddle reflecting some of the light.

It just looked like an inky pool from where you were standing. For all you knew it could be water. It’s probably water or something that got knocked down during the chaos. Yeah. You really need it to be that and you keep repeating that to yourself mentally as you approach it like it would manifest into truth.

You stopped saying that when you see a massive broken stalactite was not too far away from it, streaked with jade. Current fear be damned, you now have a bigger one and you race towards it now. You run and remember you are capable of teleporting the moment you reach the exact distance that you would consider it not worth teleporting the rest of the way and keep going.

And see exactly what you feared.

Lanque was face down, his hair soaked enough with blood to lay flat against his head. A jade halo formed around him in a mockery of piety.

You momentarily step back in horror, hand against your mouth, trying to focus your eyes on him, trying to have anything else come into focus, but no. What you saw in the low lighting was correct.

But you’re judging this too quickly. Trolls are tough, adults even moreso.

You kneel down and roll him onto his back, which took a decent amount of effort with how heavy he was and how much you were avoiding looking at the back of his head. You brush some of the blood soaked hair away from his forehead. There was no heat to his blood. You feel for his pulse and then when that fails you feel for his pulse again and again hoping it’s thick troll skin or shakiness stopping you from feeling anything.

But it isn’t. You already knew that.

Lanque Bombyx is dead and died doing something he hated in a place he never wanted to be. You don’t know which of those things nauseates you the most. You feel for his pulse again, fighting against tears pricking at corners of your eyes and the tightness in your throat, when you had a thought, something you had forgotten in your grief and shock.

You knew exactly what you had to do.

Not contemplate the ethics of kissing corpses.

He lies there, motionless. You check his pulse again. Still nothing.

Fuck. You're really going to do this.

Steeling your nerves, you use the edge of your sleeve to wipe blood off of the corners of his mouth while avoiding his lipstick, like that was the part skeeving you out. Not the part that you aren’t getting into. Because even if you were to take a cursory thought at that, which you aren’t, you think you’d rather try it and it not work, because it's not like he is getting any deader. And if it does work, you’ll fess up, and you’re okay with him being so disgusted with you that he never speaks to you again. At least that would mean he was alive enough to be angry about it.

You’ve chosen the consequences you’re okay with and now it just time rip off the band aid and by band aid you mean kiss a corpse which is exponentially worse than the action the metaphor is based on and oh fuck, you're really going to do this. You feel for a pulse again. And again.

You might be stalling. During the time you know nobody else is around to ask you what the fuck you’re doing or see you doing the thing you definitely dont want to get a reputation for. God dammit. Okay. Just going to go for it then.

After some remaining hesitation, your lips make contact with his, cold and motionless. You feel like a goddamn creep and you have no idea how long you're supposed to stay like this. Do you have to stop and repeat until he gets up or something? Fuck. Wait. You're thinking of CPR.

Okay, you know what? You're going to just keep your lips pressed against his and keep count in your head using the only tried and true method you know of.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three Mississippi.

You pull back. He doesn't move. You check his pulse again, hoping eighth time's the charm. No luck. There isn't a single trace of life in him and you're wondering if maybe that was a one time thing or maybe not all jades can become rainbow drinkers but all rainbow drinkers are jade? Like how a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square? But with vampires?

You’ve already kissed him once, so you do it again before a second wave of disgust can hit you just in case this is actually like CPR.

But it isn’t like CPR. All you did was kiss a corpse twice.

Gross.

You wipe your mouth and look at him. Even with most of his face caked in blood, his expression is the most placid you’d ever seen it be in the caverns. The default tension he kept up between his brows was smoothed out and his mouth was no longer drawn down in slight annoyance.

You hate this. You hate that this is the only way he’d find it peaceful here.

The most you saw from him here was when you two were coming up with this plan to bust him off of his cloistered planet, trying to figure out where he would even be able to go. And maybe you shouldn’t have been drinking with him, but between hearing about what cloistered life was like and how the whole planet was a dry one, and but really, who were you to deny a nun? Especially a nun sharing his thoughts on mandatory asceticism.

When he passed you back your flask, you shook it, frowning. It was empty. Bastard drank the whole thing and didn’t even leave you a drop. You looked up at him only to find him dropping the rbf long enough to be smilingly wryly at you, your chagrin had him looking a lot more himself. The bickering after moreso. You were genuinely happy this seemed to be doing something for him, but you would’ve been happier if that didn’t require him being a prick to you to feel alive again.

Not that it matters now you guess. Slowly, you get up and begin to pace as you think. You have no idea what to do next or if there even is much of a point in looking for something to do next. If this was an errant thread in the timeline, well, it wouldn’t stay that way for too long and you could try again and maybe not go off of Lanque’s judgement alone the next go around.

Damn. You might just need to wait this one out. You’d rather not wait it out here if you can help it though, but you don’t actually know where anything here is or if there is much of anything for you in the main cavern.

Some other jades should have heard what happened. Someone would have to notice a whole ass tunnel collapse and you’re now guessing this area was sectioned off for a reason other than giving him somewhere dramatic enough to brood. But if Lanque’s hot and cold bit stayed constant, it might be a while before the length of time he’s been gone becomes concerning and even longer before someone actually decides to look in the sectioned off parts of the caverns for him.

You sigh. It's just you and his corpse now. You glance back at him wearily, and pause, staring hard.

He isn't there.

That is definitely where he was, the blood puddle is still there to prove it. You turned your back for just a second, just to think. You start looking around rapidly.

You feel so stupid. You are so stupid. You know not to turn your back on a body. You’ve heard it so many times. And what did you do? You turned your back on a body. But there is no way that someone could have busted in here and absconded that quickly with him. You would have heard it and from what you can tell the exit got blocked off during the cave in, so how c-.

A bright light suddenly shining in the periphery of your vision stops that thought.

You turn to face it, but it's hard to focus on it with how your eyes have adjusted to the darkness. You squint, straining your eyes. It seems to get brighter. No. Fuck. It’s getting bigger, as it rushes towards you much faster than you could brace yourself or zap away.

A rock jabs into your shoulder as you’re pinned up and against a cave wall. You blink, eyes finally able to focus on what's in front of you.

And you are greeted with the luminous, bloodied face of Lanque Bombyx.

Oh shit. It actually worked.

Lanque was undeniably “a real one” because it definitely wasn't the dark that had you squinting now, not with how brightly he was glowing. And that’s basically the smoking gun of rainbow drinkerhood. Well, that and the blood drinking.

…

Oh. Oh yeah, the blood drinking.

Oh fuck. The blood drinking.

You know, you don’t do particularly well during extended silences and this was not proving to be an exception by any fucking means. The fact that he has been wordlessly staring at you this whole time like you were the last capri sun in the fridge was also not helping.

"Hey Lanque,” you draw slowly, unsure. “How's it going?"

He doesn't respond, instead remaining eerily still.

God that was weak. But you don’t know that saying he looked like he was feeling better was all that great either or do anything about his newly gained staring problem.

You’ve seen the way he looks at people, been on the other end of it too, as he scans a room until he finds something, someone that draws his attention and becomes fixated on his latest little curiosity. You’re sure you could make an extended prey metaphor here or something, but it would be very uncomfortable and heavy handed given where you are right now.

The look he was giving you had all of the same focus without any of the emotion. No malice, no amusement, not even that goddamn smugness that seemed to permeate most of everything he did. It was just a cold, empty scrutiny that had you unnerved like nothing else. Between the intensity of his light and his expression you’re finding it hard to think.

He finally moves, tilting his head to the side. It could be a trick of the light, but his fangs seemed to look sharper and protrude further. His chest rose almost mechanically as he took a breath and his blood felt tacky against you as his head brushed by yours. It's as he brings his mouth down to your neck that the sudden realization that he hadn’t been breathing until just now hits you and you are struck with a newfound panic that snaps you out of your daze.

You try to scramble back against the rock. Climbing up it or down it, you don’t know, you don’t care. Just away from here. But it doesn’t matter. His hands pinning you to the cave wall have you locked firmly in place. Your struggle doesn't seem to register to him at all. He just brings his knee between your legs and one of his hands tangles itself in your hair.

He pulls, exposing more of your neck and his cold breath on your skin sends a shudder down your spine and you flinch when his lips press against your neck. It would be a stretch to call what he was doing a kiss. He was more just applying pressure as he felt around, mouthing your neck as he looked for something. Without warning, a sharp pain let you know he found it, and you ball a hand in the still wet, bloodied fabric of his robe as you cry out.

This isn’t close to the worst pain you’ve been through, but considering you’ve died repeatedly, that isn’t actually saying very much.

At least you know for a fact you can handle it and are going to get through this just fine. You’ve had worse wounds. Easily, the worst part of this experience is the rock you feel jabbing into your shoulder muscle. Otherwise, this is extremely manageable. You try to stop tensing your muscles and relax. It’s only going to hurt more if you don’t. It’s kind of like getting a shot, except the other way around where instead of getting a small amount of something helpful injected into you, you’re having a decent amount of something very crucial extracted from you during what you just generously going to call an improv blood donation. Which you’ve done before. So really no need to get over dramatic about getting bitten by a rainbow drinker.

You start doing your breathing exercises, trying to manifest some chill thoughts in your mind that you can focus on over the swallowing sounds that feel like they’re right next to your goddamn ear. You are not skeeved. You are not rattled in the slightest. No. You’re just staying real fucking zen about alien vampires in general and specifically about the one seemingly taking his sweet time while having his drink for once instead of downing a few shots in rapid succession. Actually, you don’t want to know what the rainbow drinker equivalent of doing a shot is. This is probably the better option. Mostly for you.

God. Tagora is going to be so disappointed when he finds out the incredibly not sexy reality of getting bitten by a rainbow drinker. It could just be the ambiance here though. Better lighting not almost blindingly close to your face would probably improve the experience greatly. The corpse kissing was also kind of a mood killer. This is solidly a two star experience for you.

Which gets knocked down half a star when he pulls his teeth out without warning, a sudden heat replacing the pressure on your neck as you keep bleeding. He doesn’t stop you when you move your arm up. You pull the fabric of your hood forwards and press it down on your wound to stop the bleeding. Probably not super sanitary, but neither was the bite itself. He slowly exhales by the shell of your ear, breath noticeably warmer now. From your blood.

You definitely have antibiotic ointment in your first aid kit.

He doesn’t let go. He keeps breathing deeply and evenly far closer to your person than you felt entirely comfortable with. You’re not sure how long the two of you remained like that since the rock jutting into you was making everything seem to take a lot longer than it did, but its end was very clear. His breathing suddenly picked up and he stiffened, his grip tightening. He pulls away from your neck and looks at you. No longer blankly, but in disconcertment. He drops you on your ass in an unceremonious heap on the ground and staggers back away from you.

“Really?” you groan. “Really Lanque?”

He glances down at you. As disoriented as he looks, he is still cognizant enough to frown, before bewilderedly looking around at the cavern walls and the long shadows creeping up on them. You’re guessing trying to find the source of light. Eventually he looks down at his hands, still brightly glowing. He looks back at you again through wide eyes and softly, with feeling asks,

“What the fuck?”

A fair question.

“I kissed you and you’re a rainbow drinker now,” you say, trying to very casually hit two elephants with one stone as you brush gravel off of yourself and work through your dizziness to sit up.

He blinks.

"How's your headache?"

He touches his head, seeming to notice his hair being out of place more than any kind of pain if his immediate fussing over it was any indication. He starts putting it back into place when he gets to the back of his head and freezes. And slowly brings his hand down. He stares at the jade stains covering it, then looks back at you, much more perturbed.

“What the fuck?" he repeats loudly, with more feeling.

"You lost a fight to a stalagmite an-."

Wait. There’s a rhyme for this. Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling and stalagmites might try to reach them.

"Sorry. Stalactite," you correct, popping the "t."

He doesn't seem to appreciate your commitment to accuracy if his narrowing eyes is anything to go by. You might be his friend, but semantics clearly aren't.

"A stalactite fell on you and you died."

"I died?"

"Only for a little bit."

He pauses as he processes that, and then remembers the first part of your statement, "You said you kissed me?”

You suck in air through your teeth, "yeah."

He eyes you strangely, before his face twists in revulsion.

So he definitely worked out the timeline on that.

"It was to save your life," you add defensively.

"If I died, then you didn't exactly saVe it," he retorts venomously. He almost seems to brighten in anger.

Wow. Looks like semantics aren't your friend either. You know what? Fuck semantics. You and all your homies hate semantics.

"If you're here complaining about it, then you can't be that dead." You press your hand to your forehead before gesturing out. “Look, I don't just go around kissing corpses for fucks sake."

"OVerlooking the fact that that is What you just did,” he spits.

You look at him for a moment. The blood loss has definitely made you very cranky. The fact that you extremely didn’t want to kiss his corpse doesn’t change the fact that you did. Honestly, you would feel pretty violated in his shoes too. You inhale and exhale deeply, and try not to feel too woozy as you stand up.

He gives you a hard look.

"I'm sorry Lanque."

He seems to believe your remorse is genuine based off of his apparent dimmer function.

"Also you fucking bit me so I think we're even."

"I What?"

You pull your hood down a bite revealing your bite mark.

"You fucking bit me."

He eyes your neck longer than you think is strictly necessary as he takes that information in. You think this makes you legally entitled to make every single snack and thirst joke you want from now until the end of eternity.

“So it Would appear.” He states plainly before glancing back up at your face. “HoW did you knoW it Would Work?”

"I didn't actually know if this was going to work or not, or if you were just going to stay permanently dead," you admit. I still don't know if all jades are capable of becoming rainbow drinkers or if only some of them are."

"And you still attempted it?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

You nod. And understand the following silence as the two of you having a moment as he appears to consider your action and maybe even feel some weight behind it.

Until he laughs at you.

"That's embarrassing.”

Motherfucker.

As his laughter dies down, he shakes his head, the ridiculousness of the situation setting in and his voice takes on a sharper tone.

“So hoW exactly is this supposed to Work?”

“This being?”

“HoW often am I going to haVe to partake in drinking blood?” he clarifies, stressing each word slowly and patronizingly.

“I have no idea. When you get thirsty? Like normal?”

“Like normal?” he repeats, voice now devoid of any humor. He looks down at his hands, appearing to concentrate. "Is there a Way to turn off the gloW?"

"You're already over it?"

He glares at you.

"Yes. There is."

He waits for you to elaborate.

"I don't know how though."

"Fucking incredible.” He gives frustrated huff. "I see your Well of knoWledge has run completely dry."

“Well, it isn’t like your time on rp forums is any better. Like how would you think rainbow drinkers were made? Biting?”

"It Would make more sense," he counters.

"Fucking how? And if that's how it worked, there’d be two incandescent dipshits here. But there aren’t."

“Only a dim one.”

You narrow your eyes at him. The literal pain in your neck is only being exacerbated by the metaphorical pain in your neck that caused it and you seriously don’t have enough blood to play twenty questions.

“So this is probably just going to be a “fuck around and find out” kind of thing. It’s going to suck, no pun intended,” you add when you see how done he looks, “but maybe there’s some kind of information about rainbow drinkers out there. Something that isn’t saucy bullshit.”

“If there is,” he starts, disregarding your thoughts on the genre, “it’s locked up so tight that I doubt that eVen the head jades Would knoW about it, let alone share it.

“Damn.”

You think. It can’t just not exist. Even if it were restricted as shit, there had to be some kind of book or tome or whatever on rainbow drinkers out there. Assuming something like that wasn’t destroyed by the empire, it would either be sealed away deep in the caverns or in some private collection owned by someone getting their jimmies off on knowing more than others and collecting forbidden shit. But where would you eve-.

Oh.

Actually? You know just the place.

That realization must be showing on your face because Lanque side eyes you dubiously before sighing.

“Of course you’re about to tell me you know just the disreputable little shithole for the job.”

“Yes, I-, wait. No.” you sigh deeply. “Why do you think I just somehow know where all the seedy places are?”

“Because I can’t imagine any reputable establishment that Would let you in,” he sneers.

“And I can’t imagine any reputable establishment that wouldn’t kick you out.”

He looks at you unimpressed. You return it.

“If you have a better idea or want to go somewhere else after, we can do that. But right now, you’ve got nothing, and I think we have a pretty decent shot of finding something at a very specific personal jackoff bookhive.”

He crosses his arms. “And if there isn’t?”

“Well. He had a very extensive decorative bar that we can actually put to use.”

He exhales a laugh. “You should haVe led With that.”

“And it’s private so no one’s going to be asking any questions about seeing a jade not being cloistered.”

“Not all jades get cloistered you knoW,” he informs you dryly.

“Really?”

You did not know that actually. Or much about jades outside of the brooding caverns. Since being there seemed like a bit of a sore spot for most of your friends in general, you didn’t really pry. You just kind of assumed they all ended up in the caverns at some point. Now you’re really wishing you had pushed for some elaboration from them.

“What do they even do?”

“I don’t knoW,” he responds knowingly, “Maybe you’ll find a book that can help you find out.”

“Maybe,” you reply, straining slightly, but determined to be the bigger person in the only way you can.

You extend your hand out to him and for a moment, he stares at you, completely unreadable. But then begrudgingly, he uncrosses his arms and takes your hand in one of his.

You zap, realizing something.

You are the First Guardian, and you think you might have just created a bit of a problem for yourself.

#Hiveswap #Lanque Bombyx #Mspa Reader #Mspar #Nobody Knows #My writing

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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7/23/2021 Reading Progress - Almost 2 Years

I know I posted a little about reading progress a few days ago, but it’s really just exciting to me! And really really motivating!

These past few days, I’ve been reading one of my favorite fanfic writers. I started intensively reading, and now I can get by reading faster (which for me is only 140 characters a minute ToT so still quite slow but hey its something) and just looking an ACTUAL only 4-5 new words per chapter (which is 4000-5000 characters). Just the fact I am ACTUALLY 98% comprehending chinese reading material. And material I actually want to be reading. Goal reading material! Because like?

Even when I was extensively reading before, I was reading stuff that was ‘hard’ to read extensively (enough that I’d need to think and use any clues from context to guess what’s going on for certain key words and phrases I didn’t know but needed, and there were enough of those that I needed to focus a lot). This is really like the first extensive reading I’ve been able to do where I can actually just relax and speed read the extensive reading if I want to. Where it feels more like reading Lord of the Rings fast, or Dracula (some vocab I don’t know or weird phrasings for me but its fine to get through until I get used to it) - or some stuff easier now like reading Good Omens (where its an easy read where I get comfortable fast). Where it feels much more like reading english, just slower (and with less context hints for new words lol - since english I can sound out and guess if I heard it before and already know all the ‘word stem’ hints of meaning). Now, because of there being less ‘context stuff’ i can rely on compared to english, i do plan to keep using a digital dictionary to read sometimes (especially because it is the FASTEST way for me personally to reinforce new hanzi pronunciations).

Like. This past week I’ve been following the Silent Reading audiobook along with the novel, and also just reading the Chinese novel. And also just reading some new stuff by one of my favorite fanfic authors. And I’ve been able to. The fanfic story is a bit easier, so I suppose I can read it with no prior context! (That’s what I looked up about 5 new words for - chairman, deputy were the keywords I needed then most of the rest made sense from context lol). And Silent Reading I read in english but like years ago, so many paragraphs felt new to me but they were fine to read except a few description-dense sections where something economic-related was being said (along with some 4-character phrases I wasn’t sure of). I knew lately I’ve been able to read new Guardian chapters while following along with the audiobook without the english translation, if I don’t want to know every single word but just follow the plot/most of it, so its been really cool seeing this week that I can do it with Silent Reading too!

I’m fairly sure my level of comprehension is like this: the more murder mystery, investigative/detectives, more contemporary, more supernatural, more romantic, more daily life - the more I will comprehend it.

Those seem to be my more ‘comfortable domains’ vocabulary wise. Specifically mystery/supernatural/contemporary (since most anything I watch or read is in usually at least one of these genres partly). When I get into xianxia, the farther it is from the very joking/basic SVSSS xianxia vocab the less I can comprehend. I did read 28 chapters of Tian Ya Ke before so maybe some of that will help with reading wuxia genre, but I’d argue it was months ago and tyk doesn’t really go very deep into using wuxia genre words compared to some novels. So basically my xianxia and wuxia vocab is very basic main-plot words like you’d hear in show scripts, but not necessarily enough to follow the details of novels - I do think I know enough to follow the overall main plot though. Happily, Tian Ya Ke and Qi Ye are on my reading list in the future, so they may both help more with political/court and wuxia genre words so that those genres get more comprehensible for me.

I’m really excited about the tyk and qy reads now, since I planned to read them extensively while glancing at the english translation for help if I didn’t understand. And since I’m starting to be able to extensively read some of priest okay, then doing that with a novel while using the translation so its like a bilingual-resource to reference making things easier, should not be as hard/intensive as it might have been a few months ago.

This is just. For me a very big milestone. I’m at a point where some of my goal reading is something I can extensively read without too much pain, and have enough hanzi-knowledge to guess some new words and phrases from context a decent amount of the time.

Summary: it’ll be 2 years in a month. And I’m officially at a point where some of the goal novels are able to be extensively read, genuinely, and some of the ‘goal other stuff’ is extensively readable now (some fanfics, some easier bl novels, etc). Past me would be really excited. ToT

I plan to: keep reading intensively and extensively (with an emphasis on reading through a lot more characters/words), keep doing L-R Method and listening-only during day (keep working on improving listening). And occasionally shadowing now/repeated listening/practicing speaking. In the long term: I’d like to read my grammar guide and practice writing/speaking from what I learn.

That plan has worked really well the past few months

Related: my japanese reading skill! Because weirdly enough its been seeing improvements too!

So, I already realized me knowing more hanzi definitely helps me ‘guess more japanese words’ from context. Because: 1. its like english-french, while some are false cognates with nothing actually in common I can sometimes figure that out from the fact the scene is ‘wrong’ for the word I would’ve guessed, and I do know the word endings in japanese so that helps guess if its noun/adjective/verb, and I do know around 2000 common japanese words specifically so that also helps me notice what’s not actually similar in meaning. 2. so i’ve got this basic framework to guess stuff from context: 2000 japanese words I do know, some basic grammar recognition, ~2000 hanzi I do know and then however many chinese words I know, rough recognition of some of the katakana words, and then I usually try to read something I have prior context for so I’ve either read/played in english or know the overall plot main points in english. Apparently all of this helps a lot.

Now its not putting me on anything near 98% comprehension lol (except maybe KH2 since I know that story so well I really do figure out a lot but its more like idk 90% and me just very good at telling ‘unknown part’ was ‘probably X’ but not actually able to be sure, so i can follow fully but i’m not able to learn from a certain amount just cause i can’t be sure its not perhaps actually-something-else more nuanced). But whatever comprehension it puts me at, its enough to follow the main plot (better than I could ever do before with japanese lol with anything more than... well anything... i couldn’t follow even simple manga main overall plot unless i had a dictionary at year 2.5... so now the fact i can generally follow main plot of games, and catch a decent amount of details - not a majority but still regularly noticing some details, all without a dictionary, is pretty cool to me).

Lately I’ve been watching some REALLY old Shin Megami Tensei and related game lets plays in japanese, with the player reading aloud (so hopefully I learn some actual word pronounciations my biggest weak point). Because I understand enough right now that I can pick up a lot more just by continuing to watch. Like, playing KH2 I could pick up the ‘reading’ of some new stuff and grammar. But with a voiced lets play, I can also try to pick up those new words and maybe if I’m lucky how the more common ones are pronounced as they’re said again and again. I figure I can probably learn a lot more words this way, and continue getting used to the grammar, for a while before I see less frequent payoff. For now, I’m seeing constant easy payoff from doing it. I’ve got a lot of grammar I’ve read details on but not seen regularly enough to get used to, so that all gets reinforced and learned better. And I’ve got a lot of hanzi I know, and doing this helps me start learning the similar-cognate kanji and words writing/pronunciation, the slightly different ones and their rougher meaning along with writing/pronunciation, to be aware which ones are totally different (tho depending on scene context i may or may not learn these words at least i’ll know they’re not the same).

My point is: now engaging with japanese is a lot more relaxing and enjoyable. (I realize lol a few months ago playing in japanese or watching a lets play was doable but exhausting, so perhaps i am getting more used to it or actually have learned a little lol). In the sense that, now it feels a lot more like ‘reading french when i started learning’ - i feel like i have a LOT more scaffolding to lean on and help me when i’m struggling, whereas i know the first 2.5 years i studied japanese i felt drowning since nothing was familiar - not the grammar, not the words, not the sound, not the lack of word-spaces, etc. Now it feels like there’s a lot more i have ‘some prior experience’ with (from grammar being restudied over and over now lol and i still need much more lol, to onyomi kanji pronunciations now being my favorite lol and kanji my favorite part of reading), so when i’m diving into japanese instead of drowning i have some floaties to grab onto usually (unless i go outside of the domains i’m used to).

By domains i mean - if I try listening-only i still drown (since then i only have grammar and 2000 japanese words i’m still rusty on listening to), if i do listening-watching without subs i have fewer floaties to grab (i have my 2000 learned words but am super rusty on hearing them especially without kanji to see for reference), obviously if its an old or technical text i will drown (im used to modern japanese, and very specifically daily life or supernatural/light-fantasy video game stories). So like... nier, kh2, crisis core, persona games, smt games, are much more in my comfort level of following a plot (again with subs, because without subs it HAS to be something i know the english well for if i’m going to follow much besides simple daily life parts since i’ll need the visual context and prior context to guess what’s going on just in general - not understanding those parts of the japanese).

Long story short, its been super fun for me lately engaging with japanese. Japanese is NOT even in my ‘realistic’ study plan right now lol!

But this month I still: read a chapter of japanese translation of Guardian, played 4 hours KH2, read the opening scenes of the script of FFX (fyi: in Idiom app they made HUGE improvements I can now play the audio line by line and repeat-automatically as much as i want AND the definitions now come from much better dictionaries), watched 40 minutes of SMT game lets plays (both with and without audio - though since my pronunciation info literally doesn't exist for so many words I decided adding audio as often as possible would be better).

My ultimate goal for japanese was to be able to play the games I like in japanese, and follow them before localization changes. I’m not picking up the level of info necessary to be fully satisfied with how much I’m noticing. But I do follow enough now that I’m able to start practicing/studying japanese BY playing the games I want or engaging with them in lets plays/scripts etc. And its very motivating to know I’m far enough into this goal to be studying by doing (at least for now, if it stops paying off as much I’ll likely need to approach it from new angles for a while). But like? I can taste it! I’m starting to do what I want, not as well as I want but I am starting to be able to do those things. And that’s really exciting.

Side notes: I still personally want to continue reading my grammar guides until I've finished them (japanese in 30 hours, tae kim, sakubi), and keep going through clozemaster. Both of these were helping, do help, and ensure I’m building the weaknesses (grammar i just need SO much more help with for japanese, and clozemaster gives me actual word definitions and pronunciation and lets me practice listening skills and grammar in context which are ALL weak points for me). So that’s the overall japanese goal for a long while (yes i might also finish Nukemarine’s memrise decks if i ever feel up for flashcards again lol).

In the LONG long term, i would probably want to move onto my other japanese study books i own while continuing to go through clozemaster - i have two reading-japanese books i think would help a ton especially if i want to speed up reading speed and/or read novels more, a sentence pattern book that for me personally would help with reinforcing and getting comfortable with grammar and common words (particularly for long term active use). I also have a kanji remembering book i probably could go through - although by then idk how many kanji i’ll remember the pronunciations and meanings for by then.

#study plan #july study plan #july progress #july #reading #reading progress

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baconpal · 4 years

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Bravely Default and BD2

Here it is, the partially prompted bravely default rant/retrospective/whatever the fuck!

With the announcement and demo of bravely default 2 out now for a bigger market than the original game ever had, I feel that as a massive fan of the original I should put some amount of effort into explaining what the appeal of the original is, why bravely second missed a lot of the appeal, and why bravely default 2 has been very, very worrying so far.

If you care about any of that, come on in and I'll try to actually avoid spoilers this time and make this a more legitimate recommendation of a game than usual.

THE APPEAL OF BRAVELY DEFAULT The games obviously have a beautiful art style, especially when it comes to the backgrounds. Every city is like a painting, a beautifully composed shot that you see from just one direction to give you one very strong impression. While the overworld and dungeons are fully 3d and do not have as strong of an artistic impact, they are still very competent and have good colors and cohesive elements. The character design, including the job outfits, the monsters, and all the villains are just top notch. Simple, evocative designs that make the most of the 3DS' limited hardware and build upon the teams skill in making handheld games look good. (its the same team that did the ff3 remake and 4 heroes of light, which looks absolutely kino on original DS) The music is also consistently excellent, with great use of motifing, a full and varied orchestra, and many good slow paced tracks for most of the non-combat segments. Shit like "Conflict's Chime" being the main battle theme, "Infiltrating Hostile Territory" being a common dungeon theme, and "That person's name is" as the rival boss themes makes even the seemingly repetitive songs a constant joy to listen to.

The story is pretty decent, it's not the best part of the game, and there are definitely some aspects of the story some people loathe, but the characters (specifically ringabel fuckin love him) are pretty good and the make for an enjoyable experience. The side material like D's journal are really well done and integrate into the main narrative well for how tucked away and ignored it is.

The gameplay and systems are also some of the best of any RPG I've played, and I've played far too many. The job system from ff3 and 5 is brought to an even greater depth with the addition of universal job abilities, allowing any character of any job make use of another jobs features to create an endless depth to strategy. The way various jobs can mingle together, and how no job is completely perfect on its own makes for very compelling team composition and unit design. The extensive amount of jobs helps as well for replay value and for assuring that no easy winning strategy is found by all players.

The BP system makes battles take on a very unique pacing as the player and enemies can choose to save up turns or blow them all at once to make more complicated strategies possible, or to make the most of an enemies vulnerabilities. This powerful option gives the player a meaningful way to capitalize on their knowledge of the game, while also allowing them to make truly detrimental mistakes. That may sound not good if you're a fucking baby, but nobody wants an RPG you cant lose, but losing because you fucked up is much better than losing because the enemies are just stronger than you or anything to that effect.

But the single greatest part of bravely defaults, which creates the games wonderful balance and unique design philosophy, is that the player is expected to hit the level cap long before finishing the game. Reaching level 99 should occur somewhere just after the middle of the game, at the point where the player has access to almost every job and has encountered almost every type of threat. Reaching level 99 brings with it a certain security, the implication that from then on, all enemies will also be level 99, and that any failure to defeat an enemy will be a result of a bad strategy or the players own mistakes. The game is not easy, and is certainly intended for veteran final fantasy players used to the games with job systems and changing up your entire party to combat a single encounter. Leveling up is not a slow grind part of the game, as you have a lot of control over the speed and frequency of battles, and it is not difficult to keep up with the games level curve.

The other layer to this unique design is that the game expects you to "cheat", or use strategies that would be overpowered and frowned upon in most other games. Bravely default easily expects you to know or discover strategies such as: applying a status to all enemies and killing every enemy with that status using another spell, cycling a counter move over and over to have a nearly invincible party member, applying a healing attribute to a self-damaging character to get huge damage at little cost, casting reflect and dangerous spells on your own party to bounce them at the enemy, or duplicating a move that does maximum damage 15 times in a row. The game builds all of its encounters with the knowledge that your team will be the maximum level and that you will be using the most vile tactics you can come up with, and the game will do the same. Bosses and even common enemies will employ equally vile tactics using the exact same moves that you have access to, meaning you can learn from your enemies or quickly grasp the enemies strategy through your own experiences. One of the late game dungeons is entirely optional, but involves several fights against parties of 4 just like your, using the same jobs and skills you have gained during the game as a perfect test of your ability to develop counter-strategies, instead of relying on your own overpowered tactics. This type of design is really not something you find in many games due to the prominence of grinding or the lack testing strategies, and it is the most true appeal of bravely default to me.

BRAVELY SECOND EXISTS I GUESS So bravely second, a direct sequel to bravely default, definitely is a video game. It uses the original game as a base to generate more content, but completely misses the appeal of the original, and the new content added makes the experience even less focused. Overall, it's still a fairly alright RPG, but it fails to follow up on bravely default in a meaningful way or to provide as compelling of a gameplay experience. Here's some of the things it fucked up.

The game reuses almost everything the original game had, including the same music, world map, and most of the original's towns and dungeons, while adding a few of it's own. Going through areas you've been before never feels good, and the new areas lack the quality or brevity of the original game, leading to uninteresting areas that overstay their welcome, despite being the only break from repetitively reused content.

This extends to the classes but in an even worse sense. One important trait of the original jobs is that they were not perfect by themselves. While every job provided some useful abilities to be shared with other classes, or provided a good base with which to make a character, no class was without flaws. The new classes in bravely second are a lot of the opposite, they are closed loops that think of everything they could have to make a good standalone character. The 4 starter classes you get in bravely second are all brand new, and there's almost no reason to use any class besides those 4 as they are just insanely good. The priest and magician specifically augment magic in a way that makes spells infinity scalable into the end game, completely trampling on any other magic classes territory without needing the extra effort of grinding a new class out. Many of the new job concepts are actually really interesting, like going back in time to return to a healthier state, or a class that changes the stats and attributes of all units in a battle, allowing for all new kinds of strategies; but these classes lack any opportunity to be used to their full potential since they don't mesh well with other jobs and are limited by their self-centered design.

Another completely missed aspect of the original is the level curve discussed before. Bravely second only really requires you get somewhere in the ballpark of level 60-70 to comfortably beat the final boss, and getting too leveled up is really hard to avoid if you are plan to try out various jobs.

Second also fails to account for how many incredibly strong strategies the player can come up with, and even introduces some of its own strategies that it has no way to counteract, such as halfsies (the first skill the first class gets) pretty much splitting the game in two by tripling the value of items like phoenix downs, and allowing for fool-proof strategies by making 1 character focus entirely on defense, effectively making the party unkillable. Essentially, if you play second after having played the original (like any sane person would) then you will absolutely destroy the game with no sense of satisfaction.

The story is also a large step down, enough to become an annoyance, as the writing style changes to a strange romantic comedy situation with, for lack of a better term please forgive my sin, anime writing, but like bad anime writing, ya know the kind of shit that makes people write off all anime cus a lot of it is awkward and unpleasant to listen to. The story tries to mess with some big concepts like "what if new game + was a real thing???" and time travel and shit like that but it doesn't mesh with the tone the rest of the game has and that tone doesn't mesh with the world or art style and it's just a mess.

BRAVELY DEFAULT 2 SEEMS KINDA POOPIE SO FAR So unfortunately, the big appeal of bravely default being part of it's end game makes it hard to judge how 2 is gonna go given we only have a demo of the beginning, but given that the original team behind bravely default has slowly been stripped out of the series as it goes on, the outlook is bleek.

Most immediately obvious is that the artstyle has made a horrible transition from handheld to console, somehow even worse than pokemon. The areas are all fully 3d and lack the style or compositional excellence of bravely default, and the outside environment look like asset store products. The small proportioned characters with simple features to be readable on a small screen have been replaced with identically proportioned characters with excessive detail and ugly features, and look horrible up close on a big screen. Only the negatives of the art style have made it over, and everything good has been made unsavory. The character and enemy design overall is much worse as a result, everything is messy, unclear, and clashes with everything else. It's an absolutely shocking downgrade.

The characters themselves are overly hammy and feel like shallow attempts to have a similar party dynamic to the original without having identical character types, and the writing as a whole doesn't seem to have improved from second, which was already quite a step down from the original.

The gameplay also has not done anything different or interesting yet, and seems to be selling itself to people haven't heard of or gotten enough of the BP system. Enemies being on the overworld as opposed to random encounters shows they have dropped the player agency over encounter frequency, which is dumb. The battles lack any of the flow the original had, especially when using the battle speed option, as the camera does not present everything very well and changes position often as a result. Overall, I have not enjoyed the bravely default 2 demo and feel it shows nothing but a continued decline in the series that likely should have just been a single game. With the release date being set for sometime this year, I feel there is no chance any amount of player feedback could save the game or even begin to pull it in the right direction, as it seems to be fundamentally flawed with an inescapable feeling of shovelware.

SO WHAT? Basically, all I wanted to say here is that the original bravely default is a very unique experience I think every RPG fan should give a good chance (and just do all the optional stuff during the "repetitive" part of the game, it's where all the best content is you bozo) and that the sequels are NOT the same experience. I guess it's kind of mean to just say "hey don't buy or like this new thing cus its not like the old thing" but people should know why there's a bravely default 2 in the first place, and should fight for what made the original great. I worry that BD goes down the same sad path that FF did, becoming a completely hollow, middling series that strayed so far from it's home that a whole new series had to be made to give the fans of the old style a place to go.

Thanks for reading, and hope you got something out of it.

#bravely default #bravely series #bravely default 2 #juvenile rant #vote now for the next rant! including things such as The Great Ace Attorney and why it's kino #or why i think arms is a really well designed game even tho i'm fucking shit at it #very exciting topics indeed #or ya know whatever other shit you think i have a lot to say about

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loganscanons · 5 years

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that night | pt 1

Characters: Britney and Quest

Summary: The story of Britney and Quest’s first time hooking up, which eventually turns into them having a relationship. This is part one because there’s more I want to write but I’m not sure when I’ll have time. I wanted to post what I have so far though.

@romecanons

The night didn’t go as smoothly as planned.

A regular client of Quest’s had tasked him with the job of stealing – or as Quest put it, the job of retrieving – a Paleolithic ivory sculpture from one of the client’s competitors. In the original plan, Quest planned to have no confrontation with security. Of course, he had back-up plans for elements out of control, but the run-in with security was his own fault. Britney’s fault, in a way.

Quest could’ve stolen the sculpture the traditional way. Dismantled alarms and a silent break-in during the dead of night. All black outfit and avoiding cameras. But that was so dull, especially when the perfect opportunity to get near the sculpture arose. The owner of the sculpture – a man from money that advertised himself as a charitable philanthropist but was actually intimately involved in arms trades – was hosting the premiere of a new art installation in his private museum. A party where guests turned their noses up at the homeless in their own cities while lamenting the poor orphans of Africa that they would never meet nor truly understand. Their outfits might as well be made of money. Shimmering and jeweled dresses, the name brand suits, the special-made outfits paired with hundreds or thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry. No one would be wearing outfits cheaper than $6K, and some dresses would cost over a half million.

Fancy parties with out-of-touch rich folk would always be Quest’s favorite targets. He could dress up in his best clothes and spend an evening stealing priceless items from millionaires and billionaires. What could be better?

He opted to play the role of a married man, rather than an eligible bachelor or not-quite-tied-down engaged man. Not that the status of his relationship mattered to particularly persistent women. Regardless, he made his decision, and for that decision, he needed a wife. There were a few women he could contact to help him, but none were as readily available as Britney.

Quest had contemplated bringing in team members to help with cons in the past. Their consistent impulsiveness deterred him, however. Plus, none had his extensive training in adapting to any situation. Britney wasn’t trained either, but in her life before the team, she was well-practiced in pretending. Now, she never had a need to effortlessly plaster on a smile, nor sweet-talk or flirt her way out of trouble. Turns out mutant powers can get you what you want, too.

Quest found out by chance that Britney could still use that skill when she wanted. He couldn’t remember exactly what she’d asked for, but she’d wanted him to pass her something. She demanded it. Expecting a snide response and not thinking much of it, Quest told her to ask nicely. Britney put on her smile that would’ve been downright charming if Quest didn’t know her to be a bitter and angry person. That small interaction was enough for him to seriously consider asking for her help.

Britney hesitated at first. How could someone with her complexion be any help in a con? After a decent amount of convincing and a long battle with body make-up, Britney was willing to help. With a realistic blonde wig and a floor-length, long-sleeve, black dress, she looked like any other human.

It wasn’t really her fault the plan went wrong. But she was the reason Quest lost his usual focus. During a con, he had to become his role. Anything to do with life outside of the con could be ignored until later. And Britney, stunning in her dress, distracted him from the role.

Quest had successfully done jobs with gorgeous women plenty of times in the past. Not once had they hindered a job with their beauty or personality. If he was attracted to them, or wanted to have sex with them, that waited until the job was over.

He couldn’t wait with Britney.

Maybe it was the unknown aspect. In the past, he had a pretty good idea of who would be willing to have some celebration sex after a successful heist. And if he assumed incorrectly, that was fine. They were infrequent co-workers. Britney, however, he saw regularly, and he wanted to keep in his life. She was more human and more real to him than most people in the world. Their relationship as it stood was different than anything Quest had known, and because of that, it didn’t seem right to pursue sexual intimacy. He flirted with her frequently, and she flirted back, but it never got beyond just playing.

During the job, the last of Quest’s willpower snapped. A new experience for him. He didn’t know he had limited willpower. He got so used to controlling his emotions that this sudden lack of control caught him completely off guard.

The role of man and wife gave him an excuse to touch her and flirt with her. His hand rarely left her waist. He let himself get distracted by the way her lips moved when she spoke. The way she glanced at him with amused smiles. The way she flirted and teased him. When she gently pressed her lips against his, putting her all into selling the act, Quest wanted to abandon the job and bring her home. Even if he did abandon the job though, he wasn’t sure she’d go home with him.

In his distraction, Quest screwed up his plan, and he had to deal with security. Britney came to his aid, the party of rich guests unaware of the commotion in the East wing of the building. Quest got the sculpture. They got away without anyone on their tail.

A few miles from the private museum, in a poorly lit gas station lot, Quest had another car waiting for them. They switched to that car, to shake any possible tail, and left the first car with Quest’s driver. After winding turns down a few backroads, including some unpaved, Quest felt confident that no one followed them. He pulled onto a main road, and the intersection light turned yellow, then red. He knew the light was a long one. A long one with a red-light camera. There were no cars around, just wet pavement reflecting the glowing red of the stop light and unnatural yellow of the streetlamps. Quest let himself look at Britney.

The blonde wig lay in a heap on the floor; her vibrantly yellow hair was freed from bobby pins and hair-ties, spilling over her shoulders. In the fight with security, the make-up on her hands had melted away. The acidity of her powers and perspiration left the foundation on her neck and face splotchy and streaked. Beads of sweat gathered on her collarbones, glistening red and yellow under the streetlights, magnifying the green tint of her skin. Quest wanted to lean over and touch his lips to the shimmering beads, run his tongue along her bare skin, taste the salt. He felt a stirring in his lower abdomen and mentally chided himself for his lack of control.

The night gave Britney a wonderful high. Between the gown Quest bought her, the make-up, the adrenaline of the heist, and Quest’s hands constantly on her, Britney was overcome with bliss. After spending a few hours feeling genuinely beautiful, she got to relish in the power that came with knocking out a few security guards. The combination of beauty and power was intoxicating. Only when she slid into the passenger seat of the second car did the high begin to fade.

Waiting for the light to turn green, Britney flipped down the passenger side sun visor and slid open the small mirror. The light next to the mirror lit up her face, highlighting every flaw. Her make-up was caking and oily from sweat. The orange light of the car mirror didn’t do her any favors. She looked like a sickly vampire made of wax. She disgusted herself. The high was fun while it lasted, but tomorrow would be hell. Any mirror would be a reminder of just how monstrous she was now.

“You’re gorgeous, Britney,” Quest said, breaking the chain of negative thoughts.

“Huh?” Britney said, glancing at him. “Have you looked at me? I’ve sweated all my make-up off.”

“I know,” Quest said. He reached over and put his hand on her lower thigh, their skin separated by the fabric of her dress. She didn’t visibly react to the touch or his comment. “And I mean it; you look really gorgeous.”

“I looked prettier earlier,” she said. “I look ugly now.”

Britney enjoyed play-flirting with Quest. The attention was flattering and made her feel almost normal. Sometimes though, he would get all serious. His voice would get quiet and almost husky. A sober and earnest tone. Gaze intently locked onto her. Compliments. That was always too far for Britney. The play-flirting was fun, but that intense seriousness made her uncomfortable. She couldn’t believe he was being truthful when he said those sweet words to her. It was mean.

“You looked very pretty earlier,” he said. “You look gorgeous now.”

Britney smiled a little as Quest squeezed her thigh and his fingers crept higher up her leg. Reminded of the way his palm rested on her waist all night, she said, “You couldn’t keep your hands off me.”

With that intense gaze and earnest tone, he said, “I still want to have my hands on you.”

“The light’s green,” Britney said, pointing out the window.

Quest breathed out a frustrated sigh and moved his foot to the gas. He didn’t remove his hand from her leg as he took the exit onto the freeway.

Britney didn’t want to let go of the high quite yet. Maybe with Quest, she could keep pretending for a little longer. Letting impulse dictate her decisions, Britney wrapped her fingers around Quest’s hand and moved it all the way up her thigh, to right below her hip. She focused on him, ignoring the unnatural color of her skin. Quest’s hands were nicked and scarred from knives and fights, leaving his skin rough and worn.

Quest’s body reacted before his mind could. A small smile touched his lips when Britney wrapped her fingers around his. Then she moved his hand within centimeters of her crotch, and for the first time in a very long time, his brain short-circuited, and his body decided to take the lead. Quest blinked hard, forced the muddy haze in his mind to clear, took a deep breath and held it, hoping the lack of oxygen would keep his bodily responses in check.

Cold air from the car’s air-conditioning gave Quest a weird feeling of hot and cold. His insides flashed hot, while the hair on his arms and neck rose from the cold air.

The reaction was unreasonable. He knew women’s bodies intimately. Even while driving, he’d gotten pretty intimate. But none of those women were Britney. Though he may have wanted it, he never expected anything much to come from play-flirting. If he touched Britney, it was always above the belt. He’d had her hands on her waist plenty of times. Once they’d even shared a kiss, during a rare moment alone, when they were flirting and bored.

“Britney,” Quest said. He sounded like a man deprived of water. He cleared his throat.

“Yeah?”

Quest breathed in heavily through his nose, considering what he wanted to say. Nothing sounded quite right in his head. Settling for the direct approach, he said, “I want to take you home. To my place.”

“Now?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay,” she said.

Quest pulled his hand away from Britney’s thigh and abruptly crossed three lanes to get to an upcoming exit, making Britney grip the car to keep from leaning sideways. She stared at him, startled, but didn’t say anything.

#quest han #britney hilt #my writing #otp: partners in crime #yij #Young Injustice

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realitachifacts · 5 years

Note

hi! ooc question (for the mod!), what do you think about itachis role/story in the show/manga? 💞💞

oh thank you so much!!! i love answering questions like this aaaaaaa

TL;DR: a ton of missed potential ):

okay so i’m gonna take this in a slightly different direction and also write about how i would have written itachi’s narrative alongside my analysis/opinion of it. this is DEFINITELY going to be long so it’s under the cut.

it’s pretty evident that the characters given the most focus in the show are naruto and sasuke. this is pretty much indisputable, with naruto as protagonist and sasuke fitting into the more complex role of antagonist-protagonist-antihero (which wasn’t given fair treatment by the narrative itself but again that’s another story). regardless, sasuke’s arc has a strong dependency on itachi, all the way back from the character’s introduction. and thus, this makes itachi one of the most important characters in the story, despite somewhat limited appearances. all of this can be pretty easily gleaned, but still, i think it’s worth repetition in an analysis like this.

while sasuke’s arc has strong dependence on itachi, itachi’s arc has an equally strong dependence on sasuke; at his point of introduction, kishimoto literally had planned no backstory for him, only that he wanted to “attribute to itachi some violent action that would have sasuke wanting to kill him”. though, later on, “when itachi was introduced, kishimoto had the idea to make itachi konoha’s secret agent who killed his clan under their orders” (which accounts for all of his character’s inconsistency throughout the series, and i personally have a hard time believing the decision to change was made at the moment of his introduction). itachi was introduced as a source of sasuke’s ambition and trauma, giving his character a driving arc. which, i mean, is fine. for a shonen story it’s a pretty average/decent goal and fits well within the universe and plot. as a character itachi’s design is solid, especially for playing the role of villain. his powers are cool. he’s interesting.

and i think the biggest problem is that his story was over-complicated and just not thought out from the beginning; arguably, there was some foreshadowing early on to his position as an actual good guy. sasuke mentions in the forest of death that itachi is likely pushing him because he feels bad for what he’s done, and wants someone to kill him as justice. but… there was no weight for that and it seemed like a pretty baseless accusation on sasuke’s part, who appeared to harbor nothing but hatred for itachi and nothing even remotely resembling any form of sympathy or willingness to understand his older brother (i actually totally believe that sasuke could have guessed at itachi’s true motives, but the concept was pretty much immediately dropped after that statement- which, again, annoying lack of consistency). i love the relationship him and sasuke have as children, as i’m sure i’ve stated before. older brother as a villain to overcome/turned evil is interesting, turning out to be good all along even more so; but the second half is handled poorly, what i mean by missed potential. plus, itachi more or less needed to have hidden motives to push sasuke’s story in the direction it went in after the pein arc- sasuke wouldn’t really have anywhere to go after that and would probably struggle with a lot of internal conflict. and again, as i’ve talked about in a previous ask… the small amount of reconciliation provided wasn’t enough for either of them (especially sasuke).

so, here’s what i would have done.

in terms of canon adherence, there are pretty much only three options:

1.) have him die a villain (admittedly killing his clan to test his abilities wasn’t the most believable goal, but eh, he’s an anime bad guy so whatever). as much as i don’t like this (i’m sort of a sucker for character redemption, but they pulled it off very badly), it would have made more sense within the storyline. it would’ve been nice if they pressed what sasuke believed on “he felt bad so he wanted sasuke to kill him” to the point where he was sympathetic but not good or redeemable. their final battle could’ve ended the same, with the forehead poke and all that, and just flashback scenes of things we haven’t seen in canon (that sasuke will never see) that prove his assumption was correct, and itachi did want to be martyred. it would keep him a pretty bad person but it would make both his and sasuke’s arcs feel more… conclusive, i guess. i personally believe the primary antagonists should have been the akatsuki and after pein’s death, the series should have wrapped up. was sasuke a little too messed up emotionally to just go back to the village at that point? …yeah. but him returning to the village voluntarily would’ve been more satisfying, and i’m honestly sure that, if the story was put in the hands of someone with plot-writing capabilities, it could have been done. this is supposed to focus on itachi so i’m not going to hypothesize on a hypothetical canon “story ends after pein arc” ending.

2.) have him be redeemed. this just… literally had to have been done from the beginning. unconditionally. in the previous ask i talked about how the characters are all displayed as wholly “good” or wholly “bad” and making a wholly bad character like itachi “good all along” just isn’t really possible with the way good characters are framed. it puts him in a middle ground that’s inconsistent with that categorization and fans are more or less forced into picking a side for him based on personal opinions. that alone could’ve been fixed by better characterization but again, off-topic. the torturing sasuke thing would have to go. sasuke could have returned to the compound either after itachi had left already (and was given some sort of clue or learned later that it was him) or itachi could’ve noticed him and left without speaking; very clearly not hurting him but he also just killed the rest of the clan so you can mark it as “okay, he’s a bad guy, but he spared sasuke entirely. why?” and there’s already suspicion he had an ulterior motive. sasuke could have decided on revenge on his own; made hateful through pain and loneliness along the lines of gaara or no-iruka naruto (it would make gaara’s communications with sasuke later around their battle/attack on konoha more chilling or get through to him more). i feel like it also would have made it easier to convince sasuke to return to konoha because naruto is pretty able to get through to people like that. in the hallway scene, itachi would still refuse to take on sasuke but eventually do so, and should have been clearly going out of his way not to hurt him; ending the battle by making him unconscious with the sharingan or something, i dunno. the indifference would (unintentionally, on itachi’s part) fuel sasuke’s choice to get revenge; which he would have made apparent that that’s what he desires (though of his own volition this time). itachi probably wouldn’t be expecting that, but as he’s dying later in life, he’d give in to a final battle with sasuke, both feeling himself being redeemed throughout it and giving sasuke the satisfaction of killing him. but if it was super clear he went out of his way to hurt sasuke at any cost, the “itachi was good all along” thing would make so much more sense. however…

3.) this is a subset of 2. for 2 to exist and itachi to be painted as a good guy, the reason the clan was killed would need to be different. so, canonically, it’s stated that the uchiha are oppressed, they want more rights, threaten a coup d’tat if they don’t get them, and so danzo the third hokage orders them to be killed by itachi. this is where we get into trouble. as i’ll repeat time and time over, the narrative frames people as being unconditionally good or bad. in the eyes of the average fan, the uchihas fighting back against the leaf village- konoha is always shown as good- for more rights is morally gray at the absolute best, and more likely to be seen as bad, as with most revenge/opposition to the system motives in fiction. which is another unfortunate product of the very morally polarized lens the characters are placed under. but, more in theory, it is very hard to make itachi and sasuke “good” at the same time. if you’re going down a fighting oppression arc in a story, you want the character fighting against it to be viewed positively (like katniss, right?). so, by extension, itachi or sasuke gets to be the bad guy, and it’s 100% reliant on what the uchiha clan’s motive was. frankly, a lot of the uchiha get painted as villains (with the curse of hatred, it makes partial sense)- madara, sasuke, itachi, obito, etc, so pretty much all the main ones are “bad” at some or all points of their story. what would’ve worked best in my opinion is to go back to madara’s time and the initial interactions between the uchihas and the hidden leaf village. basically just… make them bad/a threat from the beginning; no government oppression, they were always just villains/in the “bad box” (note that this is in terms of canon adherence and i’ll get to my own personal “if i wrote this” in a second because eh, i don’t like framing the hidden leaf village as good at all lmao). they were just bad and going to take over the village, so they were killed by itachi before they killed everyone else. after obito got to sasuke, he could have constructed an elaborate lie about what the village was “secretly” doing and made it convincing to anyone watching, as well. so you think itachi is bad again, and sasuke is justified in wanting revenge against the village, learn later that itachi was good, but then it’s also hard to fault sasuke, since he was only working with the information that he was given and had the right idea at heart. but basically with what we’re given it’s almost impossible to make everyone “good” so it’s probably not even worth it. i mean it’s: itachi, sasuke, hidden leaf, uchihas- pick two to make redeemable at most. i don’t think telling a thirteen year old to just kill his whole family is really ever justified and i’m super biased so i’m going with itachi and sasuke.

in terms of what i would have done if i had full control (and the massacre HAD to happen), here’s what i’d do:

1.) itachi explains to sasuke at the beginning what happened and basically tells him to grow stronger through friendship/bonds to prevent this from ever happening to someone he loves; sasuke’s narrative then revolves around revenge against the government instead of his brother, which would be a good parallel to naruto’s wanting to be hokage, since the two are so paralleled in general. they could both learn something from that. plus i would want the words of “grow stronger from love” (instead of from hatred) to impact him and he has a deeper desire to grow closer to people and make friends, i guess. (this is my most preferred outcome not gonna lie)

2.) i also wouldn’t be opposed to itachi just taking sasuke with him but that would usurp most of the actual story.

3.) the writing is good and itachi lives and gets more time to reconcile with sasuke. he returns to konoha and becomes hokage and takes care of his crows and chickens and spends time with his niece sarada and his nephew-in-law boruto and niece-in-law himawari who all adore him. admittedly this is INCREDIBLY self-indulgent but hey, i have control of the story now. and there’s no reason this and 1 can’t exist at the same time, haha.

god that was so long i’m so sorry anon but i hope you like it!!!! i like… am not gonna read this over to edit it so sorry for typos. ): thank you again for asking!!! aaa if you read it and would like to please let me know what you think!!!

#ask #anon #ooc

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deitiesofduat · 6 years

Note

I was wondering if u can do a bunch of random facts/headcannons for the main cast?

Oh man, I mean, I’m happy to try, but I’m not sure where to start for the entire cast of 10… well, now 11 gods. I know have some that are scattered around the blog’s tags, and also in places other than tumblr, but It’ll take me a bit to find them or think of new ones without revealing spoilers, hmm…

So here’s what I’ll try that’s similar to the 1 Like 1 Fact meme I did on twitter a while ago: for every note this post receives, I’ll add a DEITIES-related headcanon or fact about the main cast. The main cast includes Set, Horus, Anubis, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Bastet, Sekhmet, Thoth, Ra, and nowwwww Sobek – and maybe the Set Spawn and the big bad serpent too, if relevant. You can add a note by +liking this post, and if you’re interested in learning about a particular deity, you can mention their name in a comment (and it’s not necessary to reblog this, unless you want to!).

This should help give me a bit more focus and time to think of some decent non-spoiler headcanons/facts to share. I’ll come back to this post in a few hours and add any many as I can, depending on the amount of notes it receives, and I’ll bump and place them under the cut for easy access. So yeah, go for it /o/!!

[1] Been playing with a headcanon where Horus’s Eye can see an object’s or person’s weak spots – though only for like, a moment once it’s activated, cuz I’ve wanted to avoid him being OP (but then again… he’s a literal god… so >>)

Also a related-headcanon where he can see a person’s past injuries thru his Eye too, including the hidden ones that have long-ago healed and left no visible scar. I’d like to draw the ones he “sees” on others one day if I keep it…

[2] Set is the only one of his siblings that doesn’t have an avian sacred animal, and for a while I wanted to keep it that way and literally keep him “grounded” compared to his family (sans Anubis). But I found that he’s sometimes also associated with crows (and falcons??? interestingly enough), and even though I haven’t found solid evidence of this yet, I also like the idea of him being associated with bats even before I read about it in Kane Chronicles I swear– So those 2-3 animals are probably some alternate animal form that he has but just rarely takes.

[3] Actually while I’m at it– aside from the Sha Animal, here’s a list of 30-ish animals that I keep as Set’s canon forms in DEITIES verse (based on a combination of historical speculation, recorded myths, and personal headcanons), and would love to eventually draw him as one day:

Aardvark, African Wild Ass (and Donkey), Giant Anteater, Baboon, Bat, Boar/Pig, Bull, Camel, Crocodile, Crow/Raven, Dog (some sort of sighthound?), Fennec Fox, Fish (Eel?), Gazelle/Antelope, Giraffe, Goat, Goose, Hare/Rabbit, Hippopotamus, [Spotted] Hyena, Jackal, Jerboa, Okapi, Oryx, Panther, Rat, Scorpion, Shark, Snake (Viper), and Zebra/Quagga.

[4] RELATEDLY… I REALLY REALLY like the idea of Set somehow acquiring a Thylacine form even tho it’s in no realistic way in the current timeline because thylacines weren’t native to Africa let alone Egypt. BUT… I JUST… THEY REMIND ME OF SHA ANIMALS SO MUCH o)——–

[5] When I was considering the color schemes for the main cast, I once briefly envisioned a purple/violet scheme for Nephthys, but decided to scrap it because (1) I wanted her colors to contrast with her sister’s and match a bit more with her husband’s and son’s and (2) I found that purple was nigh impossible to find in AE wall art and admittedly worried “maybe it won’t look authentic if I use those colors;;;”

Even though I’m happy with her orange/black/red scheme now, I’ve recently found that purple is a common association / kemetic UPG (or doxa?) with her?? SO THAT WAS INTERESTING… I don’t think I’ll change her color scheme for DEITIES, but maybe I’ll draw her in an alternate purple outfit one day to see how it looks on her >>

[6] One of the reasons why I like Horus, Anubis, and Bastet as their own casual friend group in DEITIES verse is that, because they’re all relatively young gods, they all share the experience/pressure of being measured up against their older royal relatives – Horus being seen as both his father and mother’s legacy and feeling the pressure to restore his family’s throne; Anubis being know for his infamous father, and even having his paternity questioned (via rumors and “myths”); and Bastet being the youngest of Ra’s daughter, sometimes being compared to her sister’s roles and achievements.

They’re all really good at masking any pressure they feel, but they also probably confide in each other about it more than with others, cuz they’ve all “been there.”

[7] Relatedly, one of the earliest version of DEITIES Project, before it was known as “Deities Project,” had Horus, Anubis, and Bastet as the main trio. That’s been changed “for reasons” since then, and their characters were quite different back then, but it might be fun to explore a story that focused on the 3 of them someday.

[8] Okay ya’ll know the part during The Contendings where Horus and Set are racing in stone boats and Horus “wins” by painting his wooden boat to look like stone? I have ideas for how that entire race happens in DEITIES verse that would be fun to explore as a side story, but in order for me to give Horus a “legit” way to win without outright cheating, he covers his boat with stone casing/accents, and after he wins and is confronted about it… well…

HORUS: “The rules we agreed on were to sail a boat made with stone. They said nothing about it needing to be made entirely out of stone.”SET: “…”HORUS: “ :)c ”SET: “…” *Internally raging*

[9] I’ve headcanon’d that Nephthys has her own set of ~7 Shabti who act as her personal assistants while she’s conducting her nightly duties, or working around her home, but I haven’t decided much more past that (still debating on how she acquired them, and if she more-than-likely named them…).

The concept and number were loosely based on how many of the other goddesses had their own sets of 7 as extensions of their power and/or control (7 Ribbons of Hathor, 7 Arrows of Sekhmet, Isis’s 7 Scorpions), and I thought it’d be neat if the Goddess of Service had her own Shabti that exemplified that part of her domain.

[10] Thoth is an avid lover of puzzles, trivia, and strategy games, and he’s also exceptionally skilled at games of chance. He doesn’t gamble or make bets often because he understands the risks, but when he does he tries to be calculative about it… and also has a natural knack for luck going his way (EX: That one game of senet that he won to help assist Nut with having her children… which is another story for another day)

[11] Ummmmm Isis is the only one of the main cast who I haven’t drawn a ref of her sacred animal form yet… or at least, not digitally. Her animal is the kite, but I’ve been debating on a while for what species to base her design on. I like the idea of her kite form looking like the Black-winged Kite, although those species aren’t native to Egypt… but some are native to Africa… and they’re so fricken pretty and they fit her colors so well so I might cave on this ffffffffffff–

[12] While we’re on the subject of sacred animals (and to help me get somewhat closer to the note count lmao I’m trying guys–), Horus’s falcon form is based on both the Peregrine falcon and the Lanner falcon, with more simplified markings for my own sanity when I draw him in dozens of panels.

At one point, I considered making his falcon form leucistic to contrast more with Anubis and Set, buuuuuut I also liked the brown colors on the falcons’ normal coloration, so I kept it. (That and more leucistic birds of prey are hawks, so… maybe for Khonsu tho if I don’t change him to an owl, hmmmm…)

[13] Okay continuing thoughts on animal forms, Bastet is able to shift her cat form into nearly any coloration or breed she desires (aside from her eyes, which remain green), but for the purposes of DEITIES I draw her as a brown cat with light gradation markings. I knew of the Egyptian Mau but also realized the spots would take a lot of effort to redraw in the panels where she appears as a cat (much like the spots on falcons for Horus). I also personally really like solid-colored coats on cats, and in particular I liked the coloration of the Havana Brown, so it may be a little less authentic but it did factor into her colors as well.

[14] I'm still debating on Sekhmet's main hairstyle and want to play with it a bit more -- not the arrangement per se but whether to keep it as locks or to make them more obvious twists -- or perhaps a combination -- since I can see her with both style at certain points in time. Either way, at full length Sekhmet's hair is very long: if she were to loosen her tie and let it fall, her longest locks would reach past her hips.

[15] I initially gave Set yellow eyes because even though he's often depicted with red eyes, I didn't want to over saturate his design with just... well, red -- especially in his animal form where his entire body is covered in red fur (red eyes + red sclera would have been, a lot). I like how his yellow eyes provide some contrast, and I've since found some story-related reasons where his eyes might play some role in the plot… but anything further might be spoilery 8')c

[16] It took me a while to settle on Osiris's "resurrected" skin tone because there were a lot of sources that describe his skin as being green, or blue, or black in coloration. I even tried them out in an earlier color test that I shared on patreon, but I eventually went with black since the color has had various meanings in Ancient Egypt that include both life and death. (It also gave me some opportunity to give green skin to Ptah and blue skin to Hapi to help vary the designs for each of those gods).

[17] Relatedly, Osiris's mortal form is a naturally dark skin tone, but following this death he can no longer appear in that form. He is also unable to travel to the overworld / realm of the living, though I'm still debating on how restrictive this is (if it's limited to his physical body or if he can split his soul under special circumstances, or with assistance). Regardless, most of his correspondence with other deities have to be arranged within Duat for this reason.

[18] I haven't made any plans to designate a spouse or romantic partner for Ra. I understand that there were a number of goddesses that were associated with him in the myths and often said to be his wife, but for that reason it was hard to settle on choosing one -- or multiple, and I realized that for the purpose of the main story it might not be necessary. I also kinda like exploring the idea of this high king and powerful creator deity who's also a happily single father, and where it's not for tragic reasons like the separation from or death of his spouse (not to knock that trope at all tho sdjfdsf). I'm not opposed to him being shipped with anyone though, I just don't think I've been inclined to do it myself lmAO;;

[19] RELATEDLY, while Ra's daughters (Sekhmet, Mafdet, Hathor, Serqet, Bastet) don't have a biological mother, I like to think that they were raised in an environment with a lot of parental figures and mentors to go around, aside from just their father. I haven't quite settled on how it was organized though, but I know that the daughters regard Thoth as something of an uncle/secondary dad (tho their dynamic with Thoth is can vary a lot from the one the have with Ra), as well as their teacher and mentor. I can also see where other gods like Khnum, Khepri, and Bes, and goddesses like Neith, Seshat, Taweret, Ma'at, and Mut, might also have played some direct mentor role in the daughters' upbringing and sense of self.

[20] (squick + implied nsfw) I uh… have this minor gag headcanon where Horus, Isis, and Osiris just don't eat fish. They just… don't. And it's entirely based on that one part of the myths after Osiris's death, where a certain part of Osiris's desecrated body ended up in the river and was swallowed by a fish 8')c (should be noted that I'm not saying that event did happened in DEITIES canon, but I'm also not disputing it either >>).

Apparently that was considered a bad omen, and I still find conflicting information on whether consumption of fish was taboo for some or all in Ancient Egypt (I think "for some" makes better sense, cuz why would an entire society that resides near the Nile river pass up on a perfectly available food source?? But I digress, I might need to review this again so take my thoughts with a grain of salt--). I also admit that I've seen it mentioned that fish are not ideal food offerings for Isis and Osiris?? and I can imagine that maybe Horus adopts the distaste for them as well. Either way, I go with the DEITIES canon that while most people and deities happily consume fish, Horus and his parents will not, and they don't enjoy it as offerings either.

I’MMMMMM gonna end it here for now cuz my headcanons have run dry for the time being, thank you guys!!

#// I'M SRSLY JUST blanking on new facts right now o)-----< but I wanna give this a try later after I make dinner in a bit #// I will… also see if I can make a tag for the headcanon-type replies since it seems that people are interested in them!#DEITIES asks #general asks #meme #Horus #Set #Anubis #Bastet #Nephthys #Ra #Thoth #Isis #Osiris #Sekhmet #headcanons

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book-inspired222-blog · 7 years

Text

Context 1.1:

For my final major project (FMP) I have chosen the book Hogfather by Terry Pratchett, and then the theme of six characters from the book. From this I am going to make a ‘mini theme’ for each one to make their own character inspired sample. My aim for this project includes doing separate research into each character and their theme. For the character Mr. Teatime I used his blue eye as inspiration for the theme “The eyes are the window to the soul”. This is because his inner self is such a huge contrast to who he is and what his job is. For the character Susan I am looking at “Personas”, as to the world she shows herself as a human governess of a high class, when in fact she is Deaths Granddaughter with supernatural powers. With Death I am thinking of the theme “Human nature”, as he is fascinated by humans and how they work as a species. Death also does extensive research into them, and he then dresses up as The Hogfather to make sure human kind stays in existence. For the character Violet I am looking at either the theme of “Damsels in distress” (because she spends a lot of the time tied up, and in the end gets rescued), or “Alternatives” (as she is not what you think of when you picture The Tooth Fairy; because she has no wings). With the character Bilious I am thinking of the mini theme “Pointless power”, because even though he is a God he spends most of the time hungover, and can’t and didn’t really do a lot to help. I feel his main purpose was to add some comedic value to the book and film. With the last character Sidney I am thing of “Anti villain”, because even though he was working with Mr. Teatime to kill The Hogfather he didn’t want to; he just needed the money offered for some debts.

I want to work with the season winter 2017-2018, as it can be seen as a rather dark and depressing time. In general it also gets dark very early, and is actually the season ‘Hogfather’ is set in; the date being 32nd December. The clothing has more (in my opinion) flow and elegance, with sparkling fabrics and longer dresses. However there are a lot of shining fabrics that would not correlate well with my theme/ideas. Therefore I am going to look into more fabric ideas.

The purpose of my work would to ideally be fabric to use in long elegant gowns. This is because I think this would be a good contrast from the darkness and blood of the story to be made into something beautiful. Keeping this in mind while creating my samples I hope to create something with more grit to it, but in an array of colours, techniques, fabrics and textures. I am yet to narrow down the exact fabrics I am going to use, but I would like to put emphasise on more flowy fabrics to link with magic, blood and death; as I feel that these three things together would work really well in my favour to link with the story. I especially like organza, because from a distance it looks very soft and flowing, but once you feel it and watch it move it is a lot stiffer. Because of this I can do a lot with this fabric for each of my chosen characters, and another plus is the amount of varieties this fabric can come in; meaning many possibilities. I have not narrowed down specific techniques yet, because I really want to experiment with rugging with the organza, as it creates a really nice texture. I thought this would work well with Violets sample, as this technique reminds me of teeth which links to her job, and is a huge focal point in the book and film. I would also like to try gathering with chiffon, as it has a more vintage feel to it, which would link well with Susan’s sample and what she wears. I thought from this that I could make the fabric move in a way that when it sways it would reveal a hidden pattern of design underneath; linking to who she really is as a being.

An artist that links to my ideas is Alexander McQueen, because he had a more gothic style to his work which is what I want to focus in on more. He was a haute couture designer so made a lot of extravagant gowns, and had a lot of volume to his designs which has giving me a lot of decent inspiration for my own pieces. I really like the gothic style, because many of the human based characters wear pretty much all black to go with the darkness of the story. Therefore it is really easy to tell who is a supernatural being; therefore contrasting very well. I hope to include this in my own samples.

To carry on with my project I am going to do some more experimentation for each of the characters with a range of different fabrics; e.g. organza and chiffon. I will also try and make my ‘mini themes’ more apparent within my FMP.

#context #statement

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eydisian · 7 years

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Motivation behind the setting

i hate the stock standard “medieval fantasy” british/west europe castles n forests garbage. it’s fine, and i can tolerate it i guess, but it just fails to excite my imagination as much as i’d like. maybe it’s a side effect of boring DMs and bad authors, but traditional medieval settings are just not interesting enough, to me. plus i know them like the back of my hand already, there’s nothing new about the setting that could jump out at me in a game.

so Eydís, and the surrounding countryside, are heavily based on turkish islamic and hindu architecture & culture. as a white person, much of my understanding is incredibly limited but by choosing a culture i’m unfamiliar with, i’m forced to research and learn! this has honestly been the most exciting part of it for me, looking up culturally and historically accurate fashions, learning more about monuments and historical buildings, figuring out what the core social values and etiquette are, and so on.

adapting that to a homebrew setting with particular adjustments to account for the really white-centric bullshit that D&D itself was built upon has been... interesting. because a lot of the adjustments i’ve made to eliminate racist and sexist allegories (back in 2e and again in 5e), such as removing drow as a “race” entirely and adapting them as a strange mythology, have been easy enough of a call to make, but others are not. a lot of the more “monstrous” races like hobgoblins and orcs have always carried a lot of physical traits that are undeniably there because of anti-black racism.

drow had the “black skin” and “violent feminist matriarchy” two-for-one whammy, hence removing them from my setting entirely, because there’s no easy way to adapt them to a more modern, less sexist, less racist interpretation. (if, in the future, i come up with a decent answer, i already have a plot that will allow for their future inclusion... just not right now). either they’re literally dark-skinned “black” elves and thus its a “the black people are evil” trope, or they’re black-colored white-people elves which is blackface, and in either case they’ve got that “kill all men” and “women are above all others” thing which, in a trans-inclusive setting, gets messy real quick even without the obvious anti-feminist bullshit going on.

orcs and hobgoblins, of course, have the broad-face, broad-nose, kinky hair texture thing which is clearly description of black americans and others of african descent. so what do you do with the “all hobgoblins are evil green/grey people” thing? i don’t know. make them more inhumanly monstrous, i suppose, to remove any traces of connection to a human race? i’m tentatively trying that out. but orcs, and specifically half-orcs, are a playable race with a negative intelligence stat adjustment. what that says is “black people are less intelligent than the other races, that is to say, white people.”

so i’m going to impress upon my players that intelligence is not IQ or education. a low-intelligence character is not stupid, but possibly had less access to certain kinds of education compared to more intelligent characters. by shifting intelligence from a raw, born-into-being ability, (and by extension all stats being earned rather than given), it says more about the character’s history and upbringing than about the entire race. so perhaps those of orcish descent are not simply less intelligent by nature, but have trouble being accommodated in primarily human-sized classrooms.

maybe they just really hate math and science but are still competent readers who enjoy a good piece of literature. maybe it’s the reverse. maybe they have poor memory skills, despite a wonderful and enriching education. maybe its a reflection of a cognitive difficulty not related to knowledge, but more like trouble focusing or studying. all of these things would absolutely explain why a “low-intelligence” character would have done poorly trying to be a wizard (which requires extensive study) or has a spell-casting penalty (you need to focus and remember proper order of steps).

i really, really enjoy the incorporation of ability statistics into character backstory, because people often take for granted the numbers as “my character was born naturally talented this way.” none of us were born with an intelligence score of 18. but the people who went on to grad school have an 18 (or higher!). body builders and the olympic strongmen (and women) weren’t born with an 18 in their strength score. they had to work hard for it, and keep training to maintain that strength. think about that.

and now we come to gender and sexuality and all that jazz.

so, clearly if i’m having everyone randomize their skin color (all races have the full spectrum of human skin tones... so a dark-skinned blonde elf might be colloquially called a drow elf), gender itself should be open to interpretation as well. in Eydís, gender and sex have a roughly three-way equal split. 33% of the population is cis male, 33% of the population is cis female, and 33% is everything else: intersex, transgender, nonbinary, etc. while yeah, that does mean there’s a 2/3rds majority to cis people, a 2/3rds majority seems to fit a lot better than the very vast (apparent) majority of the real world. that said, other countries may have varying amounts of gender diversity just like they may have varying amounts of racial diversity. Eydís itself is a cultural megahub, and it makes more sense to have a larger and more equally distributed mix of people (including those we consider minorities irl).

enough about the people of Eydís at large. let’s get into the technical crap.

Eydís is the capital city of the country of Adylae, an arid to semi-arid south-eastern country. Eydís itself resides on the eastern coast, settled on top of a cliffside peninsula. the city is the seat of the royal family, though most of the workings of the city itself are run by a parliament of council members elected by their respective guilds. these guilds in turn are run and populated by the tradesfolk of the city. the royal family and their advisory table take care of national and international concerns, entrusting the capital to the parliament. the division of rule in this way allows for ease of function for both parties, and it is only during times of great duress that either group involves themselves with the business of the other.

the largest monument in Eydís is the Hall of All Gods, a multi-theistic centre that predates the city by a good 100 years. it was built with the intent to end a centuries-long religious war that shook the continent by providing a place where all gods were represented equally. in truth, “evil” religions are not allowed a space of worship within the Hall because it contradicts the doctrines of all the others (those considered “good” or “neutral” by mechanical standards). anyone of faith who is not currently represented in the hall may approach and request an altar space to set up. many religions share rooms, as their significant natural symbols are the same (sunlight, trees, water, moonlight, fire, etc) and while it is meant to be a place of peace and equality, there is often tension and dissent, particularly where religion spills over into the realm of politics.

Eydís itself is surrounded by a thick wall with three western gates allowing entrance into the city. the wall itself is approximately 150m high and between 50 and 100 ft thick. the city proper is actually elevated above two previous levels of construction, as space within the walls is limited. most middle-class residents live in the central residential district, though there are also apartments and homes outside of that. the eastern district is where the estates of noble and notable families reside, along with the palace itself. the main entrance to this district is through the Hall square, and other entrances are gated and guarded.

below the main level is the undercity, where most of the poor live and work. very little sunlight reaches this level except through wells and skylights. some of this level, and the sublevel below it, are flooded to provide a sewer and waterway system to the city at large.

#to be fixed later #gotta merge this with the other post

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rigelmejo · 3 years

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as usual the learning stages are so weird. reading in particular Constantly feels like a rollercoaster of: i’m drowning in unknowns, oh cool i understand what i don’t understand and its a slog looking up words/interpreting but i’m managing, this is kinda doable and not exhausting anymore!, oh no i’m drowning in new unknowns

at each iteration, each step feels a little tiny bit easier. Like me ‘kinda doable and not exhausted’ feels much more relaxing/less mentally draining to me now than it did on month like 6. my level of overall ‘this is horribly hard’ is diminishing. Still though, when i forget the longer perspective, in the short term it keeps feeling like an up down rollercoaster. to be fair, each time it feels ‘easier’ for long enough, then i will move onto harder material. so it makes sense the up down rollercoaster of difficulty continues.

anyway it is. blowing my mind lately. Because i’m at the ‘doable and not exhausting anymore’ point again! Only this time, the reading material is 寒舍, 天涯客, 盗墓笔记 - novels I found horrifically difficult in the past. Yet now I can a few paragraphs in a row before I hit unknown words, and now I can sometimes go through whole sections without looking up words and probably follow the plot and just miss some details. Right now the only hard step is me getting into the ‘reading mood’ because the actual reading is bearable, just requiring dictionary lookup if I want to study all the new words. Which is just... very overwhelming as a concept to me. its so cool. its overwhelming.

at the same time though! i know eventually i’ll get through this patch, and start realizing what new things i DIDN’T notice i didn’t understand before. And then it will get hard and draining again. Still, I’m really excited about it while I am in this part of the experience.

It also makes me want to try some extensive reading again - where I read one of my physical books, and don’t use a dictionary at all. Or only for key words at the end if they kept popping up, and i desperately want to know them. I know every time i do extensive reading - particularly that kind, the hardest kind, i am exhausted easily. Its hard! At best I can strain to follow the main idea! But I think it does spark improvement! And maybe a harder challenge is what I need to become motivated. Or just what I need in general. Since eventually, reading that way is the goal, when I do it I’m practicing the final goal.

Also I feel like such a baby! Like?!!!! I tried extensive reading at month 5, 7, 8, etc!!! When it was MUCH harder, AGONIZINGLY harder!!! I STILL managed to endure it and read the Kunlun intro in Guardian, some paragraph passages in guardian, some chapters of MDZS, some chapters of Mo Du. Like??? I read through 2 chapters of mo du with no dictionary before!! I think it was back at month 8 or 10? But like i am being a chicken to be scared to do it now. When clearly i could suck it up and bravely do it before when i had less knowledge. In a way, I think its funny - the more you learn, sometimes the scarier things become, because you realize JUST how many details may be there that you could miss. When I tried to extensively read earlier on, months ago, just following the main idea was an accomplishment! Now that I should be able to grasp it, then i also expect myself to be able to catch the details - which is harder work, more focus, more expectations to meet.

Anyway some mostly unrelated notes to self:

Parallel reading english and chinese is a quite relaxing/lower effort way to practice reading. I did that earlier today with an english and chinese translation of a fanfic - its easy to match up unknown words to their definitions, see how words phrase together differently to convey similar things, and the only hard part is when I run into unknown hanzi since I can’t pronounce them. Similarly - reading dmbj in chinese, within days after reading the english chapter, makes it much easier to read through. Because I know the general plot, when i encounter sentences with words i can’t figure out even with a dictionary or sentences with grammar i can’t interpret for certain, the general plot knowledge helps me know whats going on enough to continue reading.

My speaking skills need some vast improvement. Just like with reading - the more experienced I get, the more i realize i haven’t even noticed i needed to do and learn! I was working on tones the past few months, and now that’s a touch better (still not much). But can i say a sentence quickly/fluidly? No. Can i say anything at a quick pace? Probably not. Do i still forget tones or screw them up when saying a sentence, especially one at a decently quick pace? Yep. I was watching John Cena speaking chinese of all things, and the language learning form was like ‘his efforts admirable but he doesn’t even have conversational ability.’ I listened to him, and his word choice was basic but sufficient for the conversation. He was able to respond immediately in chinese, which was the most impressive thing I think - no slowing down to think how to word it or which word. While he probably made some mistakes, it did show he has an active vocabulary and that he can actively put sentence together without delay. I didn’t necessarily hear tones well in what he said, but his pronunciation sounded recognizable to me. So if that’s not conversational? How good must one be to be conversational? For the conversation he had, it seemed fine? And so now, of course, I’m like “well my tones are weak anyway that’s just that. they’re even weaker in a sentence. my grammar’s weak when producing. my word choice usually requires me to pause to decide if i need to tone change based on surrounding tones in the sentence. i cannot talk as fast as him period. i cannot form sentences so confidently. mm.”

i probably know many more words? in comparison? since i know a solid enough amount now that chinese subtitles in shows i can usually read all hanzi now, its just learning some new words/sayings made with those hanzi. i can read manhua fine. i can read easier novels ok, and harder ones with a dictionary. i know i have a very long way to go, but i feel i know more than 2000 words now, and 2000 ish is usually what they recommend for daily life casual conversational ability (how are you/did you do x/you think x/you ask about x/etc). and in typing i can type pretty quickly and have an active vocabulary. but truly when speaking, i start overthinking if i’m doing the grammar properly and if i need to switch tones for 3rd tones and just slow down a ton.

also my grammar rn? its a hot mess. Reading? Phenomenal, easy. Grammar does not really confuse me in reading - sometimes a new word or phrase does, when i’m trying to figure out how its interacting with the overall sentence meaning. But grammar usually doesn’t (except that gongzi huanxi novel for some freaking reason). But when I produce? For some reason when i DO overthink and try to determine how to word something, i will sometimes fuck up my grammar so much that my sentence becomes incomprehensible and the person i’m talking to asks ‘what do you mean?’ Yet when I don’t overthink and just start talking/typing, its usually fine. BUT that means its incredibly hard for me to self correct. I am fairly sure I’ll just have to continue building a large vocabulary/reading ability, then when i’m ready, just read through some grammar books and practice exercises until i develop the proper patterns.

Like??? the other day i had to ask someone something like “what’s the name that you use in real life?” because we were chatting online. But i overthought the sentence after i typed it, then rearranged it thinking ‘oh i have to put ‘what’ question word in a different location etc for grammar reasons.’ Then they were like ‘what??? im sorry i don’t understand what you’re asking.” Even though it was a simple sentence, i knew all the words. But i overthought how to ask it and therefore made a completely incomprehensible sentence somehow messing up the grammar when i tried to ‘correct’ so badly it became impossible to understand. And this was the same conversation where they asked why i liked to read the books i recommended. And i was able to say a long paragraph with long sentences about how “i found poyun on a reccomendation list when i was searching for more books like mo du, i love priest’s novels and i love mysteries so i was looking for a similar kind of well written story. i like boy love stories if i happen to find them, since i’m bi and its nice to find love stories i feel more able to connect to. but i like all kinds of stories if the character writing is good, and the plot is meaningful.” Like... i was able to write all of that off of the top of my head in chinese without looking things up, just typing. And i didn’t re-read it to check for grammar. And the person understood just fine and responded. But when i asked something as simple as “what name do you use in real life?” i overthought how i was supposed to word it and became incomprehensible! So for now, I’ve been just speaking/typing however the sentence comes to mind. I’m fairly SURE im making grammar errors, but i’m having more luck being understood that way. So i’ve sort of just resigned to the fact that later on when it becomes a priority, that’s when i’ll sit down with a grammar book and drill out the patterns and correct any ingrained-mistakes i might have.

#december progress #rant #seriously though i am quite disheartened over my absolutely pathetic speaking ability #it would be very cool if i could work with a language partner to talk more #but as usual i feel SO bad subjecting anyone but myself to listening to my speakin #and with my language partners. im quite busy in life #and so its hard to carve out time for us to try calling #even though id like to help them #im just too busy #i can only type chat once a week and thats much easier to fit in time for...

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