#and the thing is we'll probably never see the full effects of how all of this goes
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Kaioken strikes me as something that was done quite differently in the anime versus the manga, with the former going for a risky flash of power, and the later going full blown transformation, as well as insisting on stacking it with Super Saiyan forms in ways that end up ammounting to nothing...
Funnily enough, Toei doesn't get as much opportunity to play around with Kaio-ken as they might have liked. Goku uses it pretty extensively in the fights he's in between Nappa and Frieza, so they don't get much chance to bring it back in for a Playing the Hits moment.
Within the anime itself, I think that one punch he threw with Super Kaio-ken against Paikuhan is the only time he ever does one outside of the manga's rails.
Though they do get to have fun with it in the movies. World's Strongest, Tree of Might, and Lord Slug all see Goku fire up the Kaio-ken, though rarely with the degree of skill he brought to its mastery in the technique's later life.
You can really see the difference between Toriyama and Toei's creative philosophies with the Kaio-ken there, between Namek and Slug.
In his training on the way to Namek, Goku focused on hardening his body to resist the Kaio-ken's effects and learning to fire it on a hair trigger.
The basic Kaio-ken is still the only form of the technique that can comfortably be sustained for a long stretch of fighting. However, that no longer matters, because he's cultivated a new way of using it that allows him to reach greater heights.
Goku already gave us a glimpse of what that looks like when he fought the Ginyus, using regular strength and ki suppression.
This is different from when a suppressed character would suddenly release their ki and then the Scouter goes "FUCK NO" right in the PTO member's face. Goku arrived with 5k BP. And then he defeated Recoome with 5k BP. At no point until Ginyu arrives does he ever stop having 5k BP, and then only at Ginyu's request to see his full strength.
Burter and Jeice assume this was a fluke accident because that's the sort of conclusion you draw when you're so reliant on Scouter readouts. They saw Goku take Recoome down with their own eyes BUT THE SCOUTER SAYS
But Vegeta catches onto exactly how Goku is doing this.
Goku's ki flares up in the moment he strikes and then drops back down to conserve energy. He's flickering his ki suppression so fast that the Scouter doesn't even have time to register the change.
This is not the Kaio-ken. Uh. Probably. We'll never know when he uses Kaio-ken again. But whether he was using the technique or not, he was showing us what "bursts" look like.
Every second spent in Kaio-ken when not needed is wasted stamina and durability. So he taught himself how not to waste it. Consequently, Goku can sustain a multiplier of x10 by flaring it just like this, which he does throughout the Frieza battle, without ever showing it.
It's a surprise reveal that Goku's already using KKx10 because his flickering of the technique has prevented it from being noticeable. Except to Kaio.
These guys aren't present for the fight and are just spitballing ideas. Yamcha grasped at the "What about Goku's weighted gear?" straw a moment ago.
But the omniscient perspective of the audience is present, and we've seen what Goku looks like fighting. There's been no big dramatic shout of "KAIO-KEN TIMES ABOOBUHBLOO!" He has a battle aura at times, but that by itself isn't enough to indicate Kaio-ken.
And yet this is probably Goku x10 getting kicked in the face.
This reveal took Toei by surprise as much as it did the audience. "Wait, was this Kaio-ken?" is a much easier thing to sell in the black and white color scheme of the manga. The one guy who said Goku hasn't been using Kaio-ken isn't present to watch the fight, so it's entirely possible that he's been visibly flaring red with every burst.
Piccolo, Gohan, and Krillin never get tripped up by this the way Ten does. And, y'know, they sense ki so they're probably feeling each flareup.
The halcyon days of Goku roaring with Kaio-ken and suddenly burning with its power are gone; He's beyond it. He's internalized KKx10 as a natural part of his motions, like moving his wrist in a certain way when throwing a punch.
Except when he panics and goes to x20 out of pure desperation.
A tragic and costly mistake that, much like with Vegeta, leaves Goku extremely vulnerable and unable to continue defending himself.
It's hard to say what Goku should or should not do, as Frieza truly is an incomprehensible menace. He's exactly what Kaio warned about when he freaked out on Goku about "ABSOLUTELY NOT! UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES! DO NOT FUCK WITH FRIEZA!"
But he probably shouldn't have done that. Goku actually managed to do some damage to Frieza with that, to be sure.
We see Frieza scuffed and bleeding. But he blew out his body doing it.
Much like with KKx4 against Vegeta, KKx20 hit Goku a lot harder than it did Frieza. He probably would have been better off keeping to the KKx10 bursts.
And then we have Lord Slug. The movie that tried to steal the thunder of Goku's Super Saiyan transformation by hitting theaters right before Goku's transformation in the manga and having him go Super Saiyan first. Or. Uh. Trying to, at least.
This is all very complicated and intricate, and conveys a technique that's simple in nature and yet complex to master. Goku has pushed the Kaio-ken far beyond what even its creator ever imagined, because that's what Goku does. He is a martial arts master.
This is the sort of stuff you think about when you're writing for Goku as a writer.
Toei or, more specifically, the people making the anime, don't think about the story like writers, however. They think about it like animators. Because they're animators. Their job is to animate. This is where a lot of the disconnection between manga and anime comes from, as Toei tends to pay more attention to what will be cool to animate over narrative consistency or storytelling.
The movie Lord Slug also pushes the Kaio-ken to new heights with. Um.
...
Whatever this is.
Piccolo gives Goku his ki, and Goku flares up into the Kaio-ken.
And then Goku's KK aura burns with the fiery visages of Goku and Piccolo himself working together as bros.
Which makes him vastly more powerful. Originally, this was intended to be Kaio-ken x100 and in fact you still see that number passed around in supplementals and shit. It's in the Japanese trailer for the film but they took it out of the official release.
And then Goku hits Slug really super hard with the power of the ultimate Kaio-ken for a Piccolo-Daimao Playing the Hits moment.
It looks super cool, was probably a ton of fun to animate, and works perfectly with no drawbacks of any kind.
But it's also. Y'know. Kinda dumb, with no explanation given for why Piccolo's ki suddenly allows Goku to hit KKx100.
Which may be why they took Goku shouting "x100!" out of the official release, but then we're left with the basic Kaio-ken one-shotting Slug, when before he got serious he was merely being pressured by the Super Saiyan Kinda. Goku needs the x100 multiplier for this moment to work. But also. That's ridiculous.
Looks fucking cool, though. Great animation, Toei.
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The SDC has already been defeated, if it survived at all it will be Whitley or willow in charge, that plot thread HAS been ended but it’s all thanks to Salem more then anybody else, the mantle vs atlas conflict is arguable also dealt with by Salem because for the time being they’re now on even ground, as for the white fang, I’ve mad or clear that I highly question ghira’s competence for the job, and with sienna dead I don’t see anybody who can give me any sort of trust
So, here's the thing, the SDC hasn't been fully dealt with. The legacy of it still remains, there's a good chance there's still pockets of SDC buildings around in other kingdoms, and while the physical SDC is destroyed, thar doesn't mean the people who worked with them are dead and gone. The SDC can't be dealt with any further baser on the conditions that we see.
Mantle vs Atlas conflict is only going to grow worse because they're on even footing. Being on even footing isn't a fix for years of conflict between faunus, humans, the elite and those who are struggling to get by. The elite are going to continue to want what they had, tensions will rise, the issues between Atlas and Vacuo is only going to fan the flames. Just because Atlas was destroyed doesnt mean that issue is over. Thinking that Atlas is gone fixes an entire issue of hate, systematic failure, and prejudices overnight because now everyone is on equal footing is asinine. I dont know how to tell you politely that you are an idiot if that is what you think. That's not how it works. And chances are, we probably wont see much because that's not going to be the focus of the story. The focus of the story at this point will be getting people to work together, not fix all the issues. Mantle vs Atlas and subsequently Atlas vs Vacuo conflicts are probably going to get glossed over and will more than likely be a talking in show that while they're going to hate eachother for years, decades more, they still can try to work together.
As far a Ghira goes, I dont know how to help you on that one. Ghira is competent and the show gives us enough to prove that. If you cant see it, I cant help you. But here's the thing: if you're only going on his competency by the fact that the White Fang struggled to get anything done and ended up fracturing because of infighting, you're looking at the wrong person's competency. By that logic, Sienna is just as incompetent as Ghira because in the 5 years she was in charge, the only thing that changed was that the White Fang was hated and actively killing people. Again, racism isnt a thing that can be fixed overnight. Ghira's previous leadership style and Sienna's style are both commentaries, if poorly worded, on how solely peaceful organizations and organizations run by people who are tired of no progress being made arent enough to cut it. Protests work if people are listening, but that's not always the case. And violence only makes things worse. Adding fuel to the fire is only going to make a bigger fire. And if you had more trust in Sienna running the White Fang because she was getting progress with fear, that's a whole lot of issues you have that you need to work out because I cant help you. Overall, we'll have to wait to see how things go, but my point is this: Ghira is a competent leader given that he's leading Menagerie rather well, but finding the middle ground for leading a group and taking action is something he'll have to do differently from before.
TL;DR: Mantle vs Atlas conflict isnt over, the SDC situation is still there and hasnt been ended, you not having trust in Ghira is a you issue, and you're an idiot for thinking all of this is either fixed because Atlas is gone, or you have a lot of issues you need to work through if you cant see that Ghira is a decent leader and would rather trust someone like Sienna, who made things worse, over someone who is trying to make things better. Just because these subplots are going to start getting moved back doesnt mean they're done and over with. All it means is that as the story progresses, we'll see the girls tackle the main story as they go because their goal right now isnt to solve all the world's problems. Their goal right now is to stop Salem. And once they're done with that, then they can focus on the SDC and systemic racism, issues between the elite and those who are exploited. And chances are, that will be an afterward or an epilogue.
#like seriously anon#I dont know the polite way to tell you that you're an idiot with this thought process#This is how subplots work in writing#when the main plot advances a lot of subplots get pushed aside#the racism plot was pushed aside for vol 7 and 8 because the girls' focus#when we see Ghira again we'll see the changes that were made#Atlas vs Mantle is going to be a constant struggle with Vacuo because that's human nature#humans dont put things aside overnight at the slightest inconvenience#humans take time to help each other#working together doesnt mean the issue goes away#and the thing is we'll probably never see the full effects of how all of this goes#if my prediction is right#RWBYJN will come back to remnant at least a month after falling#Vacuo will be falling apart by that time between Tyrian and Mercury causing issues and the inevitable fighting between the three cities#ONRE will try to keep the peace and maybe we'll see things starting to look better once everyone fully grasps the situation#but its not over#and same with the SDC#the physical building in Atlas may be gone#but as long as the people in charge are still around#the SDC is still there#the SDC can be rebuilt and probably will be#Whitley is in charge of it at this point considering Jacques is dead#and the board members probably wont accept that#assuming any are alive#but the SDC is a plot thread that doesnt need to be dealt with right now#because right now there is not immediate SDC even with the people#communications to other kingdoms is still down so any other pockets of SDC buildings out there are on their own#nobody actually knows what happened to Atlas besides Vacuo when the refugees show up#They knew Atlas was in trouble and chances are the other kingdoms are going to draw their own conclusions#but until the dust settles with Salem
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You're a reasonably informed person on the internet. You've experienced things like no longer being able to get files off an old storage device, media you've downloaded suddenly going poof, sites and forums with troves full of people's thoughts and ideas vanishing forever. You've heard of cybercrime. You've read articles about lost media. You have at least a basic understanding that digital data is vulnerable, is what I'm saying.
I'm guessing that you're also aware that history is, you know... important? And that it's an ongoing study, requiring ... data about how people live? And that it's not just about stanning celebrities that happen to be dead?
Congratulations, you are significantly better-informed than the British government!
So they're currently like "Oh hai can we destroy all these historical documents pls? To save money? Because we'll digitise them first so it's fine! That'll be easy, cheap and reliable -- right? These wills from the 1850s will totally be fine for another 170 years as a PNG or whatever, yeah? We didn't need to do an impact assesment about this because it's clearly win-win! We'd keep the physical wills of Famous People™ though because Famous People™ actually matter, unlike you plebs. We don't think there are any equalities implications about this, either! Also the only examples of Famous People™ we can think of are all white and rich, only one is a woman and she got famous because of the guy she married. Kisses!"
Yes, this is the same Government that's like "Oh no removing a statue of slave trader is erasing history :("
You have, however, until 23 February 2024 to politely inquire of them what the fuck they are smoking. And they will have to publish a summary of the responses they receive. And it will look kind of bad if the feedback is well-argued, informative and overwhelmingly negative and they go ahead and do it anyway. I currently edit documents including responses to consultations like (but significantly less insane) than this one. Responses do actually matter.
I would particularly encourage British people/people based in the UK to do this, but as far as I can see it doesn't say you have to be either. If you are, say, a historian or an archivist, or someone who specialises in digital data do say so and draw on your expertise in your answers.
This isn't a question of filling out a form. You have to manually compose an email answering the 12 questions in the consultation paper at the link above. I'll put my own answers under the fold.
Note -- I never know if I'm being too rude in these sorts of things. You probably shouldn't be ruder than I have been.
Please do not copy and paste any of this: that would defeat the purpose. This isn't a petition, they need to see a range of individual responses. But it may give you a jumping-off point.
Question 1: Should the current law providing for the inspection of wills be preserved?
Yes. Our ability to understand our shared past is a fundamental aspect of our heritage. It is not possible for any authority to know in advance what future insights they are supporting or impeding by their treatment of material evidence. Safeguarding the historical record for future generations should be considered an extremely important duty.
Question 2: Are there any reforms you would suggest to the current law enabling wills to be inspected?
No.
Question 3: Are there any reasons why the High Court should store original paper will documents on a permanent basis, as opposed to just retaining a digitised copy of that material?
Yes. I am amazed that the recent cyber attack on the British Library, which has effectively paralysed it completely, not been sufficient to answer this question for you. I also refer you to the fate of the Domesday Project. Digital storage is useful and can help more people access information; however, it is also inherently fragile. Malice, accident, or eventual inevitable obsolescence not merely might occur, but absolutely should be expected. It is ludicrously naive and reflects a truly unpardonable ignorance to assume that information preserved only in digital form is somehow inviolable and safe, or that a physical document once digitised, never need be digitised again..At absolute minimum, it should be understood as certain that at least some of any digital-only archive will eventually be permanently lost. It is not remotely implausible that all of it would be. Preserving the physical documents provides a crucial failsafe. It also allows any errors in reproduction -- also inevitable-- to be, eventually, seen and corrected. Note that maintaining, upgrading and replacing digital infrastructure is not free, easy or reliable. Over the long term, risks to the data concerned can only accumulate.
"Unlike the methods for preserving analog documents that have been honed over millennia, there is no deep precedence to look to regarding the management of digital records. As such, the processing, long-term storage, and distribution potential of archival digital data are highly unresolved issues. [..] the more digital data is migrated, translated, and re-compressed into new formats, the more room there is for information to be lost, be it at the microbit-level of preservation. Any failure to contend with the instability of digital storage mediums, hardware obsolescence, and software obsolescence thus meets a terminal end—the definitive loss of information. The common belief that digital data is safe so long as it is backed up according to the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies on 2 different formats with 1 copy saved off site) belies the fact that it is fundamentally unclear how long digital information can or will remain intact. What is certain is that its unique vulnerabilities do become more pertinent with age." -- James Boyda, On Loss in the 21st Century: Digital Decay and the Archive, Introduction.
Question 4: Do you agree that after a certain time original paper documents (from 1858 onwards) may be destroyed (other than for famous individuals)? Are there any alternatives, involving the public or private sector, you can suggest to their being destroyed?
Absolutely not. And I would have hoped we were past the "great man" theory of history. Firstly, you do not know which figures will still be considered "famous" in the future and which currently obscure individuals may deserve and eventually receive greater attention. I note that of the three figures you mention here as notable enough to have their wills preserved, all are white, the majority are male (the one woman having achieved fame through marriage) and all were wealthy at the time of their death. Any such approach will certainly cull evidence of the lives of women, people of colour and the poor from the historical record, and send a clear message about whose lives you consider worth remembering.
Secondly, the famous and successsful are only a small part of our history. Understanding the realities that shaped our past and continue to mould our present requires evidence of the lives of so-called "ordinary people"!
Did you even speak to any historians before coming up with this idea?
Entrusting the documents to the private sector would be similarly disastrous. What happens when a private company goes bust or decides that preserving this material is no longer profitable? What reasonable person, confronted with our crumbling privatised water infrastructure, would willingly consign any part of our heritage to a similar fate?
Question 5: Do you agree that there is equivalence between paper and digital copies of wills so that the ECA 2000 can be used?
No. And it raises serious questions about the skill and knowledge base within HMCTS and the government that the very basic concepts of data loss and the digital dark age appear to be unknown to you. I also refer you to the Domesday Project.
Question 6: Are there any other matters directly related to the retention of digital or paper wills that are not covered by the proposed exercise of the powers in the ECA 2000 that you consider are necessary?
Destroying the physical documents will always be an unforgivable dereliction of legal and moral duty.
Question 7: If the Government pursues preserving permanently only a digital copy of a will document, should it seek to reform the primary legislation by introducing a Bill or do so under the ECA 2000?
Destroying the physical documents will always be an unforgivable dereliction of legal and moral duty.
Question 8: If the Government moves to digital only copies of original will documents, what do you think the retention period for the original paper wills should be? Please give reasons and state what you believe the minimum retention period should be and whether you consider the Government’s suggestion of 25 years to be reasonable.
There is no good version of this plan. The physical documents should be preserved.
Question 9: Do you agree with the principle that wills of famous people should be preserved in the original paper form for historic interest?
This question betrays deep ignorance of what "historic interest" actually is. The study of history is not simply glorified celebrity gossip. If anything, the physical wills of currently famous people could be considered more expendable as it is likely that their contents are so widely diffused as to be relatively "safe", whereas the wills of so-called "ordinary people" will, especially in aggregate, provide insights that have not yet been explored.
Question 10: Do you have any initial suggestions on the criteria which should be adopted for identifying famous/historic figures whose original paper will document should be preserved permanently?
Abandon this entire lamentable plan. As previously discussed, you do not and cannot know who will be considered "famous" in the future, and fame is a profoundly flawed criterion of historical significance.
Question 11: Do you agree that the Probate Registries should only permanently retain wills and codicils from the documents submitted in support of a probate application? Please explain, if setting out the case for retention of any other documents.
No, all the documents should be preserved indefinitely.
Question 12: Do you agree that we have correctly identified the range and extent of the equalities impacts under each of these proposals set out in this consultation? Please give reasons and supply evidence of further equalities impacts as appropriate.
No. You appear to have neglected equalities impacts entirely. As discussed, in your drive to prioritise "famous people", your plan will certainly prioritise the white, wealthy and mostly the male, as your "Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin and Princess Diana" examples amply indicate. This plan will create a two-tier system where evidence of the lives of the privileged is carefully preserved while information regarding people of colour, women, the working class and other disadvantaged groups is disproportionately abandoned to digital decay and eventual loss. Current and future historians from, or specialising in the history of minority groups will be especially impoverished by this.
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The way to communicate
Being a while since I did a Din Djarin x female reader.
It was rare for Din Djarin to get angry.
It's hard to say if it was because of his creed or if it was in his temperament, but he did his best to always keep his cool.
Becoming the father of a little green gremlin who had a hobby of getting into mischief probably forced him to be even more patient than he was before finding the kid, or meeting Y/N.
Even when the little one put himself in danger, Din didn't scream. Maybe he knew it wouldn't have any effect on Grogu, but he gently picked him up, using an equally gentle voice to scold him.
“I already told you not to do that.” he often sighed, patting the child's head. "You know you risk choking if you swallow a whole frog. Especially since you've already had two meals, you're not hungry."
“Gah !”
"No."
Y/N watched the scene with sparkling eyes and trying to hide her smile, because a great Mandalorian warrior, no matter how patient, probably wouldn't like to be thought of as adorable. He was supposed to be scary and awesome.
When he was with Grogu, Din Djarin wasn't scary at all. He didn't scream when the little one drew on the walls, or hid in a corner, or played with the buttons. Never.
Of course, it wasn't the same with enemies or bounties. He didn't like killing, he would avoid it if possible, but he had no problem accomplishing his mission without the slightest remorse. It was the Way.
Honor, strength, and protection of his clan were his priorities.
As he was patient, Din was discreet. A man of few words, preferring actions.
Because of this, Y/N wasn’t sure where she stood in relation to his family. After she helped him find a former Empire general, while risking her life to protect his son, they had stayed together.
At first, Din had considered himself indebted to her. Then, he offered her a job, seeing that she took good care of Grogu when he was absent and that she had some knowledge of mechanics, very useful when the ship had some problems.
But could she consider herself a member of the clan ? Y/N wasn’t sure.
It would have been easy to ask the Mandalorian directly. He would then have clearly answered whether he saw her as a member, or as just a flying partner who took care of his child.
Asking the question directly meant taking the risk of having to face reality and accept the possibility that she wasn't as important to Din as he and Grogu were to her.
She therefore preferred to say nothing and take advantage of the time offered to her with them, experiencing many adventures, as well as wonderful moments.
Until the announcement.
"There are no new contracts at the moment and Grogu needs some rest, so we'll head back home to Nevarro."
"Oh. Okay. I'll probably go to Coruscant then. You can contact me if necessary." Y/N said without looking at him, continuing to play with the kid.
"… I'll drop you off."
The silence in the ship grew colder than calm as they headed toward Coruscant.
Rather than wait to get there, Din decreed that it was necessary to make several stops to buy supplies, check that they had enough energy, that the engine had no problems, and lots of small details that wasted their time unnecessarily.
"We could do all of this on Coruscant. It's not that far."
“I don’t want to take a risk.”
"But we checked everything before the last mission and…"
“I said we were stopping for water !” the Mandalorian then repeated with a loud voice and violently placing his hands on the dashboard.
This made Y/N jump, but also Grogu, who stared at his father with wide eyes, full of surprise and fear. Visibly ashamed of his reaction, Din sighed before muttering that he needed to cool off, leaving them alone in the cockpit.
Things didn't get better when they arrived in Mos Eisley. Not really wanting to stay idle, Y/N took advantage of the little one's nap to go for a walk in the market, while Din chatted with Peli.
She didn't want to go to Coruscant at all and all these stops might have been a blessing, but like with a bandage, she knew it would be better to leave right away rather than torture herself like this.
It was normal that the clan wanted to go home to rest. It was normal that she wasn't invited since she wasn't part of the clan.
What was less normal was Din's behavior, who seemed to avoid her as much as possible and be tense whenever they were in the same room. He had no reason to be angry with her, who continued to work normally despite her sadness.
The situation was also complicated for Grogu, who felt that something was wrong between the two adults. The poor kid ate less, sticking to Y/N every chance he got. It was almost impossible to get him off.
So Y/N wanted to take advantage of this little moment alone to get out of the ship and clear her head.
She didn't expect to be caught by bounty hunters who had spotted the Mandalorian's arrival. Despite Moff Gideon's death, there were still some people who wanted Din Djarin's head.
Since he was training Grogu to be a fighter, Din had also shown her some techniques, so she could defend herself if needed. Although he always added that it wouldn't be necessary, since he would be there to protect her.
Fighting a nice Mandalorian who held back his punches was one thing. Trying to do the same thing with three guys who didn't care about hurting her was something else.
Fortunately for Y/N, when she had just taken a blow to the nose which had made her fall to the ground and the leader of the gang approached to pick her up, Din arrived at that moment, quickly shooting the brigands without missing a target.
He then ran to pick Y/N up and take her back to the ship to tend to her injuries. Wanting to help when he saw her bleeding, the kid used his powers before his father had time to grab the first aid kit.
The panic subsided, a long silence returned, only broken by the little noises of Grogu asking to be carried by Y/N. But when she moved to lean towards him, the Mandalorian spoke.
"What possessed you to leave alone ? Without a word, without saying where you were going ? You were lucky that I noticed your absence and went looking for you."
"I didn't think I needed permission. And I didn't ask to be attacked."
"That's not what I said. But you could have gotten kidnapped ! You could have died ! Why didn't you tell me you were leaving ?! I thought… I thought that you left us. That you had gone to find another means of transportation to Coruscant."
“Why would I do that, since you’re taking me there ?”
“Don’t pretend to be stupid !” Din then shouted, pointing at her, almost scaring her.
The gesture probably scared Grogu more than her, who knew he was going to do nothing but scream like an idiot, but something happened that they would have thought impossible.
With his powers, the child pushed his father against the wall of the ship, as far away from Y/N as possible, then he jumped on her knees, clinging to her while moaning in fear.
The two adults remained frozen. Even though she couldn't see his face, Y/N could guess Din's shocked and hurt look, who understood that his son had thought he was capable of hurting the one he seemed to consider his mother. He saw fear in Grogu's eyes.
"No, I… I shouldn't have shouted." he whispered as he sat on the ground, lowering his head in shame. "Sorry."
"It's okay. I know you weren't going to do anything."
“Obviously he doesn’t know.”
“He doesn’t like shouting.” Y/N said, stroking Grogu’s head to comfort him. "He doesn't like arguments. We should go to Coruscant quickly, it would be better for everyone."
“You really want to leave us so quickly ?”
Din's voice almost broke at the end of his sentence. Y/n stared at him, but he didn't raise his head to look back at her, thus not seeing that she didn't understand his question.
"… You're the one who wants me to leave. So you can return to your home to Nevarro."
"… I meant our home. Grogu, you and me. I thought… I thought you understood, Cyare, but you rejected the invitation. I thought I misunderstood and that you didn't want to to be part of our clan."
“You mean… I’m part of the clan ?”
"Of course." the Mandalorian whispered, finally looking at her. "Mesh'la, we have traveled together for so long. We fight together. We raise Grogu together. I know our customs are different, and we haven't taken our vows yet, but…"
"Our vows ?!"
"… Yes. I've been courting you for a while. You accepted the gifts. You train with me. You let me kiss you. I didn't think it wasn't clear. Forgive me, cyare, I shouldn't have had any illusions."
Words were less important than actions to the Mandalorians, even if they had certain songs and rites. Y/N totally didn't understand that receiving a weapon and touching the helmet with your forehead had special meanings, and Din hadn't told her that.
In his corner, Grogu had only understood that his parents loved each other, because that was obvious, and they just needed to be together to be happy. The rest didn't matter.
All it would have taken was for Din to take them back to Nevarro without opening his mouth, and Y/N would have been surprised but delighted to be welcomed into their little home. Instead, he had tried to communicate, and it had been a disaster.
Now the son was afraid, trembling against Y/N who was processing the fact that Din had been thinking about marrying her for some time, until he realized that he had done everything wrong.
He had yelled at his clan, even if it was because he was afraid of losing Y/N. He hadn't known how to protect them properly. He was covered with shame.
"I don't want to go to Coruscant."
Since he didn't move, too busy determining if he had poked his head by being thrown by the Force, Y/N slowly got up, keeping Grogu close to her, to join him on the ground.
"I was disappointed that you didn't ask me to come. It wasn't clear to me that I was part of the clan, but it was my dearest wish. To stay with you and the little one. If you still want of me…"
“Cyare !” Din sighed, taking her hand. “Nothing would make me happier.”
“Bah ga ba !”
Grogu stirred then, patting his father's hand insistently so that he let go of Y/N's, his large eyes piercing the Mandalorian's berskar.
"... I have already apologized."
“Pato !”
"… I'm sorry for scaring you, and for yelling at Y/N. I won't do it again. I will never hurt any of you. And I'll make sure there are no misunderstandings before drawing conclusions."
“Aaaaaaaah.” was Grogu's response, who smiled again, holding out his arms to be picked up by Din, who complied without hesitation.
This made his parents laugh. They hadn't laughed in a long time.
The ship's coordinates were changed to go directly to Nevarro. No need to make any more unnecessary detours, since all the stops they had made so far were useless. Din was only trying to buy time, not knowing how to get Y/N to stay.
“So, you talked about vows ?” she said shyly as they landed, the kid sleeping on top of her.
"Later, Mesh'la. My request wasn't very romantic."
“Mandalorians worry about romance ?”
"No. But I imagine it will please you."
Y/N could have said she didn’t need all this. Knowing that he saw her as a member of his clan, as the mother of his son, was enough. But she didn't want another misunderstanding that might hurt Din, and she would be happy to be his wife, so she just nodded.
There was no more arguing, no more shouting. Not even when Grogu swallowed the ring that Din had the Armorer make. He simply sat down in a corner, grunting while tapping his helmet, while the little one hiccupped, regretting having eaten the little shiny circle.
“We can get it back in a few days.”
"No."
“We’ll clean it up.”
"Cyare, there's no way I'm giving you a gift that was eaten by the kid and which passed… Hmm !"
Luckily, the ring was spat out, but it took a while for Din to agree to take it back, and then officially offer it to Y/N. He insisted on going to Mandalore to purify it in the waters, while announcing to his peers that he would soon have a riduur.
He didn't bring Y/N and Grogu with him on this trip. The little one was too tired, and someone had to watch over him.
“Karga could have kept him.” Y/N remarked when Din had returned.
"He would have ended up losing his mind after Grogu destroyed everything in his office. I don't think the kid would have liked to be left alone either. Besides…"
"What ?"
"You are beautiful, Mesh'la. Some Mandalorians might have wanted to take you. I would have had to fight and kill them to prove that you are mine. I preferred to avoid that."
It sounded ridiculous, but he said it very seriously, his tone quickly becoming dry and somber.
Din Djarin did not often get angry, except when it concerned the protection of his clan, when someone tried to hurt them or take them from him. He hid his anger and jealousy beneath his armor, but it was there, ready to come out against those who had the audacity to confront him.
But never against Y/N and Grogu. Only for them.
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iBook Pyramid Behind the scenes!
This is a long one. Also keep in mind we made this a year ago so were going completely off of memory at this point BUT we do have the files. Unfortunately we didn't save specific versions of it really early into its creation so all the blender files close to being finished.
We have an intense appreciation for funky old computers. People correctly identified inspiration from the Thinkpad 701C. Less obvious in the final design but something that almost certainly influenced us as well was the 12-inch powerbook g4.
There is something very satisfying about nearly-square shaped laptops.
Others mentioned the JVC 3100R pyramid TV which, you'll be surprised to learn, we had never actually seen until after working on this project. The resemblance is uncanny and yet, entirely coincidental. Honestly if we had seen this thing, it probably would have had an effect on our design because the way that hinge is set up is beautiful. Our thought process was simply just comically emulating the form factor of a modern laptop but with a giant CRT.
We're pretty sure the idea started out as simply wanting to design a full profile keyboard into a macbook-like laptop because funny, and at some point the butterfly keyboard came to mind and we said Screw it and implemented that into it as well. Heres the keyboard separated into the different sections.
Sorry to say that the keyboard does not actually contain any switches. (You'll see that this computer was modeled to be viewed a limited angle)
Heres the keyboard from the top.
Once we got going with it, the whole thing was turned into a big joke of course, clashing many different eras of technology into one. Such as this massive beige tank of a "laptop" having a single USB C port as its main I/O.
And same with the software. This is the texture for the display, Which was taken from our real (unfortunately not crt based) macbook setup at the time. Except not quite, as the original screenshot was 16:10. We simply edited the image to make it 4:3. This is running mac os 12 with a majority of the icons changed to early osx equivalents.
We'll be real and admit the animation is not very intricate, theres no real "rig" for the model, parts are just parented together because we did all this in about 2 days. That said, we had loads of fun animating it still, trying to imitate the motion of someone struggling to lift the heavy top up before it swings open with an inaudible, but easily imaginable "Thud". Making the whole body shake and the trackball jump slightly was the finishing touch to make it complete.
The wire for the trackball was made using a circle with the screw modifier and then applied to a curve. Here's what it looks like with each modifier applied sequentially.
And then making the trackball itself a handle for the curve, we can have the cable be dynamic. (Yes, we notice that the trackball in fact has no mouse buttons. No good explanation for that, I think we just forgot lmao.)
For the screen, we make use of a location transform on the UV mapping for the satisfying detail of the screen distorting from the impact, which we swear we've seen before but no matter how hard we (safely) bumped our CRT monitor we weren't able to recreate it. Nonetheless even if its not entirely realistic we wouldn't remove it for anything.
speaking of which, an utterly useless detail considering the resolution and distortion of the final renders and yet we added anyways just for our own amusement is that the display has a shadowmask, simply done by just multiplying it over the base screen texture.
Combined with a glass material over the inner part of the screen, it utterly destroys low sample count renders of the screen and makes the project at least 3x as prone to crashing so thats cool! (it crashed on us while we were writing this section)
We've learned since in future projects that trying to optimize polygon count and materials is still very important even for offline rendered content. We can never be truly free from the constraints of memory limitations 😔
the final step was getting a more authentic less "polished" look in the compositing. This step can get very complicated based on the specific look were going for, but for this render its really just basic color correction and some blurring and sharpening steps. We used the default fake jitter node in blender at the time, though in more recent stuff we use the non-denoised image with filters applied to it instead, so its less uniform between images and more uniquely degraded looking.
Though we'd do a number of things differently now were still pleased with the final result. especially in animated form.
Heres an overview of the scene:
This is the bezeled apple logo in polygon form. Its simply an alpha texture with a normal map:
Thats all for now! Thank you for reading!
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Hello :) I was reading about Venusians and I kind of feel represented by this energy, maybe not strongly but I do. I don't have any Venus nakshatra in my primary placements, and my question is: if both of my ascendant nakshatra and rasi lords are in venusian nakshatras. Does it have an effect? could it be considered "dominant" or significant in some way? because I never get examples of this. In the community, they always talk about their Big 3, and in research, they give Big 3 examples, and they almost never consider those things as significant, which makes me feel like a wannabe Venusian 😬
Okay first of all , I think we need to ask ourselves why we cling to the idea of "dominance" so much. I've never thought of myself as anything dominant because I feel the effects of my whole chart in different areas/in different ways because that's how it's supposed to be?? (as each planet represents a different area of life?). I think this concept had its origins with Claire's astro beauty research where she associated the planet/nak that had the most physical influence on a person is their "dominant" placement but I think this way of thinking is inherently flawed because as interesting as I find Claire's astro beauty research to be, I don't actually think it holds ground because every person's appearance is a sum of many influences? Anybody can nitpick some common recurring features (esp when the women depicted are mostly just white women) and say xyz nak has caused it. Traditionally different body parts and features are associated with different planets and the astrology of appearance is very much real but it's not a hyper specific science the way Claire makes it seem. It's more like "mercury rules the forehead so many mercurials tend to have bigger foreheads" etc
Anywayyyys, you don't have to be anything "dominant" to relate to some nak or planet's impact. In fact if someone feels one placement more acutely than others, it's probably because of the astrological transits they're experiencing or because they're very spiritually underevolved. I do think a point arrives in one's spiritual journey where you feel completely detached from your chart or equally proximate/distant from every placement. It is the working of the ego that makes one over identify with one placement or another as a way to classify our experiences/personalities. By transcending the ego, we'll stop caring.
I think the whole chart affects an individual not just their big 3 and I take atmakaraka/amatyakaraka/lagna lord/1h & 2h placements/conjunction/debilitated/exalted planets etc into consideration as well.
Also check your d9 chart
You can relate to Venusian energies for so many different reasons (maybe check your dasha? see if you're experiencing Venus mahadasha or antardasha??)
I don't think it's healthy to obsess over dominance and I also don't think it's healthy to want to be any planet/nak?? That's literally the ego at play. Everybody wants to be Venusian but tbh Venus is as full of pros & cons as any other planet, it's not in any way shape or form "better". You can relate to something without labelling yourself as a Venusian? If I had Saturn ak and I related to that placement a lot, I wouldn't start calling myself a Saturnian. At the end of the day, it's all energies and let's not make this an American personality test type fixation
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Mischief and Angel- Part 11
I snarl down at the grinning face of Kate Argent before raising my claws ready to slash out her throat when she chuckles, spitting up a little blood, "Her birthday is February 2nd by the way."
I falter slightly and she laughs her sadistic little laugh, "Yeah, what's her name? Lola isn't it?"
I let out a growl and she smirks, "She's yours you know, biological and all that jazz. Congrats."
I pull back in surprise, craving answers and Kate takes my moment of distraction to stab a wolfsbane laced dagger through my torso. My eyes widen as I gasp in pain before I'm being pushed to the ground. I hiss and choke out a cry as the blade is twisted in a full circle as Kate's face appears above mine, "Don't worry dear, I'll tell you everything you want to know, but it'll be on my terms."
I weakly try and push her hands away before she pushes herself up, using the handle of the dagger as her only leverage. I arch in pain as black starts to cloud my vision telling me I'm about to pass out. I frantically look for someway to leave a message when I make eye contact with the camera and try my best to leave a message. I take gasping breaths as my vision fades in and out and the last thing I see is Gerard Argent looking down at me with a sneer before glancing up and looking, presumably at Kate, "Tell her, and then kill her."
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Stiles POV
"What do you mean she's missing?!"
"Stiles, calm down."
"Don't fucking tell me to calm down Scott! My fiancée is missing, my mate Scott, and I can't fucking feel her and it's freaking me the fuck out! So someone, tell me what the hell is going on and where the hell my fiancée is?!"
I feel someone lay a hand on my shoulder and I instinctively fling my arm back effectively knocking the hand off of my shoulder before spinning around to seethe at Dad, "Don't. Touch. Me."
He holds up his hands and backs up slightly before speaking, "Hey, sorry, sorry, but you need to calm down Stiles. Let Lydia explain and then we'll figure out what to do."
I take a deep shaky breath before sinking down to sit on the bottom of the stairs, "Okay, okay," I look up and meet the gaze of a worried and guilty Lydia, "What happened?"
Lydia's frown deepens and I notice how she's slightly shaking and her bottom lips quivers, "I-I don't know what happened, we were at the mall, just window shopping you know?"
Allison lays a comforting hand on Lydia's arm, "Deep breaths Lyds, we need you to tell us what happened so we can find Y/n. Do this for her."
Lydia takes a deep breath and nods once before her eyes harden as her guilt turns to determination, "We were at the mall since we both had a free day and it has been quiet on the Gerard and Kate issue for awhile and we had just finished eating when she said she needed to run to the bathroom. I offered to go with her but she said no, that she would be right back because she only had to pee and then she asked me to look for the one candle scent that Stiles loves. I watched her walk towards the bathrooms and then she never came back. I went and looked for her and all I found was what looked like blood splatter on the wall, it looked like someone's face was slammed against it and their nose started bleeding."
I clutch my hands into fists as I check in on our bonds to see if I can feel her but it's still silent. I take a deep breath before dropping my face into my hands and fighting back tears as I whisper, "Pain, so much pain and anger."
Everyone turns to look at me and I rub my hands down my face before sniffling as I sit up straight, "The last thing I felt from her was sudden, it was anger, a lot of anger, and then unfathomable pain, right before terror took over for a split second before she disappeared. The bond is still there and I haven't went fucking crazy yet so she's still alive. It feels like the bonds when she's asleep so I think she was probably knocked out."
Everyone lets out some sort of whimper or whine, including the humans, before the door is flung open and Melissa comes rushing through demanding, "What happened?! Why did I get the 911 text, who's hurt, who's missing, or who do we have to kill?"
She stops in the entryway as she takes in everyone and I can see the moment it clicks that the only person not present is her daughter. She sucks in a breath before her eyes settle on my and I can see the fear in her eyes which has me choking back more sobs as she asks, "Stiles, where's my daughter?"
I bite my cheek trying to gain control before swallowing and then standing up, "We don't know." Her eyes widen as she comes to stand in front of me, "What do you mean you don't know? Can't you feel her or do your weird voodoo mate shit and find her?"
I shake my head slowly and whisper, "N-no, I...I can't, I'm sorry Melissa but I can tell you that she's still alive."
Her eyes widen even more before dropping into a glare, "Sh-She's alive?! That's it?! Aren't you her mate and supposed to know this crap?! What the hell were you even thinking letting her go out alone when two fucking psychos are on the loose and clearly after blood?!"
I swallow her words as they cut deep before answering, "She wasn't alone, she went with Lydia. I thought-I thought she would be okay to get out of the house for a couple hours."
Lydia shrinks back as if she had been slapped, and I can't help but sympathize because I'm feeling about the same x10 right now. I lick my lips out of nervousness, praying that Melissa is done shooting bullets but it appears they're going unanswered today.
"Lydia! You sent her out with Lydia! The least threatening one in the pack and you send my daughter out with her? What the hell is wrong with you Stiles, you're supposed to stop her from doing stupid stuff when there's psycho killers on the loose! What were you thinking? Hell, were you thinking at all?!"
I flinch back before looking at the floor as Scott jumps forward, "MOM! Stop! Are you thinking? You know no one can tell Y/n what to do besides look at him, he's beating himself up right now without you coming around and adding fuel to the fire. He's more connected to her than any of us and as soon as he felt her bond go silent he went batshit crazy, it took Boyd, Erica, Isaac, and me to keep him from running out here full on white eyed and sparked out."
I glance up as Melissa's anger falters and Scott continues, "Jesus Mom, she's his mate, his world, take what you feel right now and multiply it by 1000, that's what he feels like right now. Just, calm down before you send him into another spiral, because although his eyes are really frickin cool, he's really freaking scary."
Melissa turns to look at me and I look away to avoid eye contact before stumbling back as I'm slammed into before being wrapped in a rather tight hug, "Oh God Stiles, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean any of it, I was just angry and scared and you were who I took it out on. I am so sorry, honey."
I wrap my arms around her and pull her into a tight hug as she sobs into my shoulder and I fight to hold back my own tears because I know if I start crying now I'm not going to stop.
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I tap my fingers against the desk as dad scrolls through the security tapes from the mall looking for any idea as to what happened and where she went. We're 103% sure it was Kate and Gerard but we still don't know specifics.
I perk up as Dad stops fast forwarding through the tape when he sees Y/n and Lydia in the food court and from there we bounce between the cameras until she disappears into the bathroom. Luckily there is a clear shot to the bathroom door to make sure no one steals anything and we watch as a blonde quickly slip through the door less than a minute after Y/n and I can feel my eyes flash white as I let out a pretty impressive snarl, "Kate."
We watch until they exit through the bathroom door together and then slipping out of a back door on the backside of the mall. Dad switches cameras again and I watch as a pretty brutal fight breaks out until Y/n has Kate pinned down and has the opening for a final blow before she falters. I lean forward and furrow my eyebrows wondering why she faltered before scowling and wincing as she's pushed off Kate and the dagger that had been embedded in her flesh is twisted. I close my eyes and look away not being able to stomach the pain on her face, at least until Dad gasps, "Stiles."
I look at him before he rewinds the tape and points before slowing it down, "Watch."
I flinch as the dagger is twisted and pushed on as if it isn't impaled through my mate's stomach. I watch as Y/n's eyes dart around somewhat frantic before she makes direct eye contact at the camera before moving her hand in multiple different signs that I vaguely recognize but have no idea how to interpret.
I grit my teeth out of irritation before I remember where exactly I had seen those signs before. I scramble for my phone before dialing the only person I can think of that would know what the hell Y/n was trying to tell us.
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Lydia strolls through the office door less than ten minutes later before moving to look at the screen, "Okay, what do you need me to try and interpret?"
I replay the tape again and can see the tears as she sees her best friend get stabbed before she gasps. She narrows her eyes before rewinding the tape for a few seconds as she looks at me, "It's sign language, we learned some of it so we could talk to each other during school. We only really ever got the basics and the alphabet figured out but she's spelling something out, I need a piece of paper and a pen."
This time Dad is the one that scrambles to pull a notepad out of his desk before plucking a pen out of his pen holder and all but shoving them at Lydia. Lydia takes them before she rewinds the tape for approximately another eternity before she hands the paper to me, "I think it's for you."
I look down at the paper and my breath hitches at the three words scribbled on the paper, 'she is ours.' I slam the paper down on the desk causing Dad and Lydia to jump before I angrily seethe, "Of course they were the ones to fucking take Lola."
Lydia looks at me with concern and confusion in her eyes, "What are you talking about? Lola's safe at home."
I point at the note before running a hand through my hair, "Y/n and I had a hunch that the baby she miscarried, wasn't actually miscarried."
Lydia furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "What are you talking about?"
I let a sad smile slip out before pointing at the screen, "When she faltered, when she could have killed Kate but didn't, I think Kate told her what we had suspected...Lola is our biological daughter that was somehow taken from Y/n, more than likely transferred to someone else."
She stares at my in shock before asking, "Is that even possible?"
I sigh before nodding, "Yeah, I went to Deaton about it and he said that it is possible but you would need another woman to carry the baby to full term and a witch to actually transfer the baby from one womb to the other. It was only ever used in dire situation, like the original, biological mother is dying and the baby is moved to another woman to carry the baby."
Lydia gapes, "You mean to tell me that some sicko magically moved a baby out of Y/n's womb, causing her to fall into grief because she thought she miscarried the baby, into another one?"
I nod and she scowls, "What kind of fucking sicko would do that?!"
I raised an eyebrow and she deflated, "You...you don't think Kate...?"
I blanche at he suggestion before I shakily nod, "I-it...the timeline would work. If we're right and Lola was transferred to-to Kate, oh God that makes me sick, it would make sense as to why they dropped off the map for all those months."
I look to see Dad scowling, obviously paying attention as Lydia asks, "Is-is Lola related to Kate somehow?"
I let out a relieved sigh and shake my head, "No, not possible. She was simply just a carrier. Y/n and I had already made Lola, she was 100% our DNA and they couldn't change that. Kate would have only carried her and then gave birth to her, but no relation and she wouldn't have the same motherly love that Y/n would have had. Well, Y/n/n has it now, but no, no relation to the Argents, thank fuck."
Surprisingly Dad is the one to sigh in relief, "Oh thank God, I can't stand the Argents, except for Allison, and sometimes Chris. I'm still a little mad that he was going to shoot you when everything went down with the nogistune."
I go to respond before I jump up so fast my chair almost flips before turning to Dad and Lydia with wide eyes, "She's awake!"
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A/n- Well, some mysteries are slowly getting solved, now they just need to find Y/n before it's too late. Let me know what you think!
Tag List: @ah-blossom @gabby988 @zanypaintermoon
#stiles stilinski#teen wolf#dylan o’brien#scott mccall#stiles stilinksi x reader#dylan o’brien x reader#allison argent#stiles x reader#isaac lahey#lydia martin#kira yukimura#eri#erica reyes#bo#vernon boyd#me#melissa mccall#sh#sheriff stilinski#mis#mischief and angel
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The Disappearance of Bobby Krauser
[Another transformation story, I've been having a lot of ideas, so there could still be a lot more stories coming in the following days]
Today might have just been the worst day for Bobby, certainly the worst for a good while. The day had started like any working morning did. Alarm went off at 4am, went to his kitchen to make a coffee, sort out his backpack with food and tools he'd need for the 12 hour shift. He'd been in this routine for 2 and a half years, work was at a factory that made food products for some Belgium-based brand. 48 hours a week he worked per block, four days on, four days off. The pay was good too, even though he was still a temp worker after so long. He'd managed to finally move out of his mother's house at the age of 27 thanks to the money he was earning from the constant work. In many ways it had made his life better, but as a side effect it had made him into a bit of a workaholic.
Bobby had gone to work, same as usual, started working in his section of the factory at 6am, his job was to watch the conveyor belts and set the machines right if something went wrong and the alarms sounded, like a carton getting stuck on a diverter or a cardboard box not being taken off the pile correctly. It was easy since he'd learned all there was to know about the job. Only trouble was he'd tried applying for a full time job over the past year, three times.
During his first work break he sat in the canteen, he was approached by one of his co-workers Kyle.
'Morning Bobby, how are things?' Kyle asked.
'Hey Kyle, I'm good thanks, what's up?' Bobby asked, looking up from his phone.
'So I know you've been wanting that machine operator job for a while now' Kyle began.
'Only for about a year now mate' Bobby chuckled.
'Yeah, see I told a friend of mine about the job… and they've taken him on' said Kyle. Bobby's smile fell at the mention of this. He looked at Kyle.
'I'm really sorry Bobby' stammered Kyle. Bobby sighed and shook his head.
'That's fine I guess, I've only been passed over 3 fucking times now' said Bobby passive-aggressively, looking to his phone.
'Look man, my friend really needed a job and I mentioned it to him' said Kyle nervously.
'And that's fine, really. I'd probably have done the same. Well I can't really do anything about it now can I, this has to be fine' grumbled Bobby, not making eye contact with Kyle. Kyle looked down sheepishly.
'Anyway, I've gotta go. See you around' said Kyle hopefully. Bobby waved his hand and watched Kyle as he left. Bobby sat back in his chair and sighed.
'Fucking hell' he breathed, looking at the ceiling. He looked over at the clock and saw he was needed back in the factory in the next 5 minutes. He packed his stuff up, washed his hands and returned to the factory. The rest of the shift went as average as it could be, around 3pm his team leader, Luke entered the factory and asked Bobby to come with him to one of the meeting rooms. In the room was one of the ladies from the agency he worked for. Bobby and his team leader sat down.
'Right, Bobby. Long story short, we're letting you go' started Luke. Bobby's face sank.
'Why?' asked Bobby, sitting up in his chair.
'We've come to realise you're not happy here' said Luke.
'Luke, I've been here 2 and a half years, I've never been late, if I didn't like it here I'd have found work elsewhere long ago' said Bobby firmly.
'We've also had another applicant for the job you applied for and we've got a really good feeling about him' stated Luke matter-of-factly.
'So you're just going to throw 2 year's training down the toilet for some guy off the street?' asked Bobby, trying not to get over-infuriated.
'Bobby, we're grateful for all you've done for us, but we just don't need you anymore. You can leave straight away, we'll give you a week's pay' said Luke. Bobby looked to the agency lady and back to Luke. This was unbelievable.
'Well can I at least finish my shift today, we clock out in 3 hours and I'd hate to leave my team in the lurch' said Bobby.
'No Bobby, you can leave right now' said Luke firmly.
Bobby got the hint, they really were kicking him out the door.
'Susan here will help you find other work, I'm sure you'll be fine at your mother's for now' said Luke.
'I moved out of my Mum's 2 years ago Luke, how do you not know this? You're leaving me in a flat with no secure job future' argued Bobby.
'Oh… well, you'll find something better' said Luke. Bobby rolled his eyes.
'Well, guess I'd better go get my things from the locker room then' said Bobby, getting out of his chair and leaving the room. On his way to signing out, he saw Kyle and decided to busy himself with the clocking machine.
'Bobby, I just heard, I'm really sorry' said Kyle. Bobby looked to Kyle, he really wanted to say what he thought of him, but shook his head.
'It's alright, I just hope your friend's as good as everyone's making him out to be' said Bobby.
'But it's just you have your flat and all' said Kyle.
'And the agency will find me other work, don't worry about me Kyle. That's my job now' said Bobby, and he proceeded to leave the factory building. On his way home he checked his phone, a few of the other factory workers had caught wind of what happened and had messaged him on Facebook. It cheered him up, being asked to keep in touch and them passing on their anger about how Bobby had been handled. But he put his phone away, he needed to do something about this predicament.
Arriving home his first thought was to fire up his computer and print off some CVs, then head into town and look for work. So he put the kettle on and got to work on doing that. He popped a handful in his backpack and headed into town. It was funny, his work life had just vanished, 4 hours ago he had a job, and now here he was keeping an eye out for shop windows that said 'Staff Wanted'. Maybe he could've just gone online and saved some trouble but he just needed some fresh air to clear his head. He stopped by a few shops and supermarkets, those that would accept CVs got one, but most places told him to apply online. It really was a sign of the times, back when he'd started his work career it felt a lot more normal to meet someone in person at a shop and hand them a CV. Approaching one alleyway, he came across a small building that used to be a café that he used to frequent before it shut down about a year ago. The windows were darkened and a sign above it read 'Enrique's Escapist Emporium'. Bobby reckoned this place can't have been open all that long, but there was a 'Staff Wanted' sign on the door and the sign said 'Open' so he shrugged his shoulders. Why not.
Walking inside, he heard a small bell ring as he opened the door. The room beyond was dimly lit, and he could faintly hear a radio playing near where the serving counter was. Squinting, Bobby could see someone sitting there and began to make his way over. The person sitting at the counter was caught up in a crossword, funnily they looked as if they belonged to a gym more than a dainty little shop. They put down their reading glasses and crossword and smiled at Bobby.
'Good afternoon, how can I help you?' they asked.
'Uh, hi. My name is Bob, and I'm looking for a job' said Bobby, smiling. The guy smiled and chuckled.
'Well if that's not the most Quentin Tarantino thing I've heard all day' the guy remarked. 'Have you got a CV on you, Bob?'.
Bobby paused for a moment and then took off his backpack, rummaging through it and handing one to the man. Who took it and looked.
'Bobby Krauser' said the man, reading the top of the paper.
'Oh yeah, that's me' said Bobby. It was strange, this person seemed well-mannered and decent, but something was making him feel nervous. Maybe it was the lack of light in the room.
'Have a seat please, Bobby' said the man, gesturing to a small wooden chair. Bobby took a seat and waited in anticipation.
'Oh please, make yourself comfortable. I'll begin your interview shortly' said the man. Bobby took off his backpack and coat and tried to calm his nerves.
'Tell me about yourself then Bobby, you from around here?' the man asked.
'Oh yeah, I was born at the hospital on the other side of town' said Bobby. The man smiled and nodded.
'And you're… 28, 29 maybe?' he asked.
'Yeah, 29. Reaching the big 30 next year' said Bobby, chuckling. The man looked at him and smiled.
'So, you've been a cleaner, a kitchen assistant and a factory worker then?' asked the man. Bobby nodded.
'Oh I also worked at a game shop for a few months, so I did retail for a while' added Bobby. The man nodded and placed the paper down, putting his hands together and taking a good look at Bobby.
'So then Bobby, do you have any questions for me?' he asked.
'Uh, well is your name Enrique? It's just I know the shop sign says Enrique's Escapist Emporium' said Bobby, pointing to the front door.
'Yes that's correct' Enrique smiled.
'Ah, have you had this place long?' Bobby asked.
'We opened a couple of weeks ago, moved from up country but I rarely stay in one place' Enrique answered.
'I see. So what is it you do here exactly?' asked Bobby.
'Here we sell whatever the customer wants' said Enrique vaguely. Bobby looked on confused.
'That seems to be a broad range then' chuckled Bobby nervously. Enrique shook his head.
'Not at all. May I ask you a question, Bobby?' asked Enrique. Bobby thought for a moment.
'Sure, go ahead' said Bobby.
'What do you want?' Enrique asked calmly.
'Well I want a job if you've got one going' replied Bobby, shrugging his shoulders. Enrique chuckled softly.
'I like you Bobby, you're funny. I mean what do you really want, out of life?' he asked.
Bobby thought for a moment.
'Take your time' said Enrique reassuringly.
'I… I want to be happy again' said Bobby, looking to the ground. This response made Enrique raise his eyebrows.
'How do you mean, Bobby?' asked Enrique.
'Well, I think in recent years I've become a bit cranky. My last job just let me go a few hours ago. I moved out of my Mum's after years of her telling me I needed to get a proper job, then I needed to get myself a place to live. I just wasted 2 and a half years as a temp worker at a factory, my friends that I have tell me I've become passive-aggressive. I've got a lot going on in life and… I just wish I could be happy, like I was back in school' Bobby lamented. Enrique looked at him sadly.
'Well from what I've seen Bobby, you're funny, friendly and kind-spirited' smiled Enrique. Bobby smiled.
'Thanks Enrique, but you've only just met me. I was here to make a good first impression' said Bobby.
'But you've been genuine. I can tell you've been through a lot, but you seem to bottle that away well' said Enrique observantly.
'So do I qualify to work here then' asked Bobby, trying to bring the conversation back around to the reason he came in.
'I suppose I could take you on, but I feel you're more in need of your happiness first' said Enrique, standing up. Bobby came to realise that Enrique was a pretty tall guy, easily 6'3, towering over his standing height at 5'2. Bobby had the chance to see he had a very muscular build, biceps and triceps galore, he wondered for a moment if Enrique had to turn sideways to get through the front door when he entered the shop. Enrique walked off to the back room, Bobby could hear him rummaging through the shelves. He wondered if he should get out of there, he began to feel nervous again. Their conversation had gone unexpectedly deep. What exactly did Enrique mean by 'giving him his happiness'.
Enrique returned with a small box.
'Sorry to have kept you waiting Bobby, it's still pretty cluttered back there' Enrique chuckled. He placed the box on the counter and sat back down. Bobby and Enrique looked at the box, then Bobby looked to Enrique who was looking at Bobby searchingly.
'Bobby, I'm going to give you a choice and I really want you to think hard about this' warned Enrique. Bobby nodded nervously. Enrique sighed and began.
'Think of this as Pandora's Box, Bobby. Your happiness lies within it, however it comes with a price' said Enrique.
'Oh, just let me get my wallet-' began Bobby jokingly, but Enrique shook his head.
'Bobby, for the short time I've known you, you strike me as a lovely, wonderful person. You are probably loved and cared for by so many people. Even if you don't see it yourself, there are those that genuinely care for you. You open this box and Bobby Krauser ceases to exist. You'll become someone new, you might be happier, but you won't be beloved Bobby anymore' said Enrique ominously. Bobby looked to the box, then back to Enrique.
'And what's the other choice Enrique' asked Bobby, sweating nervously.
'You remain Bobby and continue as Bobby. You may even work here and travel as Bobby. The choice is yours'
Bobby considered his options, a fresh start at life as someone else. He could leave his old life behind, leave everything and everyone he knew. He'd sometimes thought about how if he'd died, he'd love to know who would mourn him. But on the other hand, him actually vanishing would make that thought a reality and he thought of his family, his friends near and far. The alternative was to live as himself and just pray that life magically got better over time. Bobby looked at the box, looked to Enrique and placed his hand on the box. Enrique sighed sadly but nodded in acceptance.
'Very well then, you'd better open the box' said Enrique. Bobby curiously lifted the lid and peered inside. There was a single, dusty purple bottle with a cork in the top. He picked it up, there was no label on it. He looked back to Enrique.
'What is this Enrique?' Bobby asked. Enrique folded his arms and looked to it sadly.
'It's a gel, it'll help you become who you're going to be' said Enrique. He stood up and went to the front door, turning the sign to say 'Closed' and locked the door.
'You'd better come to the back room' Enrique said. Bobby stood up and followed Enrique.
Inside the backroom was a bizarre sight. There were shrines lining the walls with pictures of various nameless people, surrounded by candles and garments that presumably belonged to the framed people.
'People come here seeking escapism, Bobby. Much like yourself. They may not wish to be remembered, but I never forget them' said Enrique, looking around.
'So, when do I stop being me?' Bobby asked.
'That bottle. Remove your clothes and rub it's contents all over your body' said Enrique. Bobby shrugged and did as he was told, removing his shoes, socks, trousers and t-shirt. He opened the bottle and began to rub it's contents all over him. Soon he was all lubed up and glistening in the candle light. He turned to Enrique who had also removed his clothes and gelled himself up. They both looked at each other for a moment.
'Such a beautiful soul. Farewell Bobby Krauser' said Enrique. Bobby looked at him confused. The next thing Bobby knew, Enrique's big, slimy hands grabbed his jaw and prised his mouth open. He moved his right hand into Bobby's mouth and pushed down, to Bobby's surprise, his neck began to expand as Enrique's fist and forearm slid down into his chest. Bobby's knees buckled and he was kneeling on the floor before the giant man. Bobby looked into Enrique's eyes as he placed his left arm into the gaping void that was now Bobby's mouth. The sound of stretching elastic filled the room as Enrique raised a foot and lowered it into Bobby's mouth. The foot and leg snaked down, to fill out Bobby's skinnier leg, making it bloat out three times it's previous size. Bobby was amazed, this was a crazy way to go out. But if he was going to become Enrique, he just knew he was going to love it. Enrique lifted his second leg into Bobby's mouth and moved him around to align with his own body. By now Bobby's feet and legs were darkening, expanding and squeaking, becoming massive. Bobby already had Size 11 feet, but with Enrique invading them, they shot to a ridiculous 18. His legs thickened like tree trunks and Enrique began to pull Bobby's body upwards. As Enrique continued to slide into Bobby's body, everything just got bigger. Bobby's relatively flat ass become like two big watermelons and his already six inch dick became an absolute monster of a serpent with two basketballs hanging below it. His belly compressed against Enrique's impressive washboard abs and his arms became enormous. By now Enrique was nearly entirely inside Bobby, all that was left was to match up the chin and lift his head over his, completing the transformation. Enrique stood in the middle of the room, huffing and panting, an absolute hulk of a man. Skin still bubbling and contorting, Enrique grabbed his dick and began jacking it hard. Picturing Bobby's kind face in his mind, he roared the most animalistic roar as he shot a huge load worthy of several giants. The cum pooled on the floor and began to shape as a new form emerged. A new man was birthed from the warm sludge, he stirred and gasped as he took his first breaths. Enrique stood against the wall panting and sweating as the new man began to explore his tanned body. He was a bit more built than Bobby had been, dare he say even more handsome. The man's eyes were bright with new excitement and amazement. He looked at Enrique, who was starting to look more like how he did before he slipped into Bobby and gave him a hug.
'Enrique, thank you, thank you so much' he cried. Enrique smiled.
'Here is your happiness, as promised' Enrique said. The man smiled at Enrique.
'I think from this day forward I'll go by Gabriel. Always liked that name' said Gabriel.
'Well Gabriel, the world's yours now. Be who you want to be. Go start your new life' said Enrique. He found some clothes out for Gabriel and put back on his own clothes. They both left the backroom and Enrique unlocked the shop door for him. Gabriel felt the wind on his new face and sighed with contentment. He sauntered off and Enrique returned to his shop. He looked to the counter and saw Bobby's backpack and coat. He sighed and picked them up, looking towards the back room. They were mementos now, belonging to a man that no longer existed.
-
A few months have passed since the strange disappearence of Mr. Bobby Krauser. Many have suspected suicide, but no body can be found. Those that remember him hope that he may one day return and remember the best of times they can recall with him. Police managed to find his phone inside an old and long-abandoned café shop that closed a year ago, why it was there is a mystery, though no other leads can be found in this investigation. It has been discovered that Mr. Krauser's bank account had been emptied around 7pm the day he lost his job at a cashpoint within his hometown. It is unknown where Mr. Krauser went following his unjustified suspension from his previous job, but if he's out there still, we hope he has found peace.
-DCI G. K. Ralser
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Back at you with the asks! You write Gimli and Legolas as distinctively representative of their own peoples, and clearly you have some pretty strong headcanons about dwarves and elves, as kindreds. What counts as "smart" and "capable" for each, and how much would your Gimli and Legolas be considered smart and capable by their respective cultures? What might each of their peoples think of Gimli's and Legolas' particular strengths? What might their relative weaknesses be, in their own contexts? How much do you consciously or unconsciously write them to balance each other's weaknesses, within or across cultures?
Ohhhhh boy wow this is an extremely delightful and, frankly, flattering question and I feel like you are maybe giving me more credit for Thinking Things Through than I have actually earned or deserve, but I am going to try to answer it in full the way such a fantastic query deserves as best I can anyway!
(the not-so-secret secret is that I write a lot more by instinct/seat-of-my-pants than I probably should shhhhhh.)
Legolas and the Wood-elves: he's everybody's little brother. He's one of (if not the) youngest elves in Mirkwood, one of the very last to be born before the Shadow (which was already creeping over the forest when he was born, although only a little bit; not enough that they had to really acknowledge it yet, even if they had sort of noticed its first unwelcome tendrils) grew so dark that they stopped risking birthing new children into their woods.
So Mirkwood (Greenwood still, then; Greenwood for a long, long time before they finally resigned themselves to the truth of the name everyone else had given them a long time ago) has always, in my head, been a very we'll be happy to spite you on purpose sort of place. Their forest is awash in darkness, so they will be joyful as a weapon against the dark. They're happy on purpose. Their merriment is a weapon. And they raised their children to be happy, dammit. Not naive, not vulnerable; they couldn't afford that. They raised them to know the dangers of their forest, and to know how to protect themselves against it, yes; but also to do so without ever giving up on joy and laughter. Which was a weapon, yes, but it was also very important to them that their children would still grow-up happy. That no matter how dark Mirkwood got, the children would never stop laughing.
Which was great, and I think informs Legolas's attitude and consistent cheerfulness during the Quest very much (of course it does, since it's being worked backwards from the canonical fact of said attitude, as an explanation for it lol)...but also, as a sort of unintended side-effect, the elves of Mirkwood didn't really want to see their youngest generation grow up, not entirely. Elves clearly have to be able to adapt to seeing someone they knew as a baby as a whole-ass adult, because they live forever (unless you kill them) so there's no just aging-out and letting the new generation eventually take over; the new generation lives alongside all the old ones too. So they'd have to have become adept at this shift in perspective, culturally.
However. The last generation of children born in Greenwood before it became Mirkwood is a special case, because their youth was such a source of joy to everyone else that they just sort of...never entirely stopped thinking of them as kids. (The fact that there hasn't yet been a generation of kids to follow them contributes to this too, of course; they're seen as The Youngsters because they still are the youngest.)
So on one hand, yes everyone has learned to respect the skills and fighting prowess of "the youngsters" because this is Mirkwood, and you aren't going to have many elves who don't go out and fight because practically everything in the forest wants to kill you a little bit. And Mirkwood values things like swift reflexes and sharp eyes and good aim, because that's how you stay alive; they value being able to judge the difference between a shadow and A Shadow at a glance because if you guess wrong "dying" is sort of the best-case result. They value loyalty and determination and the ability to be joyful even in the face of defeat and despair. And Legolas has all of those traits and skills, for sure.
In fact I think Legolas is one of their best archers (in a scene I can't remember whether I've published yet or not, his sister muses on how it might be because his spirits are so bright that his vision is yet unclouded by the Shadow that hangs heavy on the rest of them) and he's definitely trusted to, like, Walk Into The Murderforest And Come Back Alive, sure. They trust him in a fight! He's a competent adult and a skilled archer! But he's also still a kid to their eyes, in a lot of ways, even though he isn't and they know he isn't...but he still feels like one.
So it's not like they're condescending or cruel or anything, but they do I think look at him and instinctively think "oh no baby, must take care of" on some level. So: is he seen as smart and capable? Yes, for sure. But also: "omg Elrond did you really send A CHILD to MORDOR?" Elrond: he's six-hundred years old wtf. Mirkwood: "yes, a six-hundred-year-old BABY!" Elrond: .....wtf tho. So, again, it's not like his opinions or suggestions would be dismissed or ignored...but there's always going to be a bit of a protective urge there (because the elves of Mirkwood worked so hard to protect their last generation of children, and it's a hard habit to break even though they aren't children anymore) and a kind of eternal-head-pat vibe.
Also he is sheltered. (Or was, before the Quest. I expect Elrond was smart enough to try and avoid Thranduil as much as possible before he got on that boat to Aman.) I go back and forth on whether or not Rílaerloth was involved in the Battle of Five Armies, but Legolas was absolutely not brought along when Thranduil marched a bunch of their forces off to potential-war-with-the-dwarves. It's one thing to let your kids go out and shoot spiders and possibly risk a glancing encounter with a Nazgûl ("and what do we do if we see one of the Lords of Dol Guldur? That's right we run the fuck away, thank you children") and another thing altogether to bring them purposefully to something that might become a war.
Especially for the elves of Mirkwood, who lost so much in the War of the Last Alliance. None of the folks who lived through that would be keen to bring any of the "youngsters" into a full-fledged war I don't think, even a comparatively little one that they were all expecting would end up being nothing more than some Posturing With Weapons in the end. (If Thranduil had known that it was going to be an actual war he wouldn't have brought Rílaerloth, either, even if he'd have had to have Eregmegil sit on her to stop her.)
*You'll note that I haven't mentioned anything about lore or wisdom or any of the more traditional Elvish Talents here, just fighting and survival; this is tied to the whole more dangerous, less wise aspect of Mirkwood. They certainly do value wisdom and lore still, and it's not like Legolas is ignorant or an idiot; but there's a reason he forgets the words to old songs halfway through, and Aragorn doesn't. In Mirkwood they're more focused on "this is how you kill a spider before it can eat you" and "how to recognize a web that's fresh enough to be sticky versus one that's old enough to be safe to touch" and "when you feel a creeping darkness like this brushing against your soul, run like fuck" than on the things you learn in Rivendell.
In the evenings they don't gather in their peaceful Hall of Fire and exchange poetry compositions, they get drunk and dance around the fire and sing as loud as they can to scare the shadows away. They're more practical in the sort of lore they value because they have to be. They don't have a magic Ring to protect their borders; in fact, they literally have Ringwraiths and Dark Lords squatting in their own damn forest far too much of the time. Also, honestly, a lot of that lore is the history of other people anyway.
The elves of Mirkwood stayed in their forest because they wanted to; the ones who fled from Doriath and joined them there came precisely because they wanted a "simpler and more natural" elvish way of life. They weren't really involved in a lot of the Elvish Drama going on outside their woods (and when the stakes got high enough that they did get involved, three-quarters of their army died so. yeah. that's not really going to inspire them to go out and socialize more, is it?) most of the time. So if maybe Legolas can't remember the difference between Andreth and Adanel...does it matter, in Mirkwood?
(No, no it doesn't.)
Gimli and the Dwarves: I have a lot fewer Concrete Headcanons and Societal World Building done for the Lonely Mountain than I do for Mirkwood, so this is going to be very much a briefer response, I'm afraid. But I think Gimli was likely equal parts respected and overlooked by his people, because he is a very talented and erudite dwarf of a very fine line of dwarves, so on one hand everybody definitely would respect him and his capabilities...but on the other, I think they do take him for granted a little bit, because of course he would be good at x and y and also z, because he is Gimli son of Glóin of the House of Durin! And he's certainly talented—but also hasn't really done anything of great significance before the Quest, due mainly to the fact that there simply wasn't anything significant to do. So: respected, yes. But not always acknowledged, in a way.
Not given the "he's a kid!" treatment like Legolas is, but just having his competence and skill taken for granted much more often than it gets remarked upon. People expect Gimli son of Glóin of the House of Durin to be awesome (and he is!). Mind you, over-achiever that he is, he goes out and gets himself sent on this massively important Quest and then proves to be so much more awesome than anyone was prepared for...but it's not until he gets back, and the full accounting of his deeds and accolades and honors is recounted, that anyone in the Lonely Mountain really stops to go oh huh.
And I think even then, they probably still continue to take his prowess for granted a little bit, simply because they're so used to him being that way—and so used to expecting him to excel at whatever it is he's asked to do. I think the full breadth of his brilliance probably won't be properly realized and appreciated until some years later, when he's Lord of Aglarond and there's a bit more distance there, and more younger dwarves who grew-up on the stories of Gimli more than just "yeah that's Glóin's kid, he's good hand at [insert-skill-here]" running around to be in proper awe of Gimli of the Nine Walkers, Gimli Lockbearer, Gimli Elf-Friend, Gimli Lord of the Glittering Caves, Gimli Silvertongue, Gimli Friend of Kings...etc etc etc.
I think the older dwarves might actually end up a little blindsided by it, in a way, when it does sort of click in their heads.
Weaknesses & Balance: Legolas has a tendency to run-off half-cocked without thinking things through, trusting his instinct and skill to get him out of whatever he might end up running into (part of this is because of the aforementioned sheltering: yes Mirkwood is a dangerous place, but he's never really been anywhere but Mirkwood before, and the dangers of Mirkwood are dangers that he knows how to deal with so he doesn't need to worry that he's going to end up in over-his-head there). He's also definitely the short-tempered one of the pair (hello, Éomer!) although he's also the more easy-going in a lot of ways simply because there aren't a lot of things that do make his temper spike.
Gimli by contrast is more of a craftsman in his approach to the world, although not so much as to hesitate when faced with a need to act (for instance: "dwarves can't shape stone with our fingernails, but I'll come figure it out anyway!") but that's countered somewhat by his extremely overpowering sense of loyalty: if his idiot friends run into a bad situation, you can bet that Gimli will be right on their heels even if he ought to know better. He's more self-effacing, too, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing, although in his case it's mostly the former. Conversely, he's very prideful, too, although he's such a gentleman about it that you don't really notice ("I would take offense at x, if you weren't too ignorant to know better!" etc) because it's not a rude sort of arrogance; just a supreme, contended confidence both in himself and in his people.
I think Gimli wears his heart on his sleeve a lot more, although Legolas is the one who's more directly open about his own thoughts and feelings whereas Gimli is more inclined to keep things to himself. (Gimli thinks; Legolas blurts.)
Gimli certainly does share his feelings ("what about your companions! what about Legolas and me!"), sometimes trying to cover them with gruffness (see: "I was upset to think you might be dead when I found you underneath that troll, only because I'd gone to so much effort to keep you alive, you see! I definitely wasn't running around the battlefield frantically searching for you out of pure friendship and love, nope!" and "say not so! I'd be bummed if all the elves left because elves are kind of cool you know?") and sometimes dropping some full-on poetry at us (see: "I have looked the last upon that which is fairest!" as well as literally every single word about Aglarond lol) but it tends to pop out in half-involuntary bursts where he just gets so overwhelmed by how much he cares that he can't help himself.
Whereas Legolas is just like "oh yeah let me tell you about the Sea-Longing that's eating my soul from the inside out, nbd" or "sorry, can't translate these songs for you because I Am Sad." He may not walk around actively volunteering his thoughts or opinions unprompted often, but he doesn't seem to make any efforts to maintain a pretense or keep whatever he's feeling private either, when the topic comes up. He'll just walk around Singing What He Feels for the whole world to hear, why not?
And on the aforementioned topics of poetic phrasing and Not Having A Filter, Legolas is definitely The Awkward One when it comes to conversation and diplomacy. Gimli Silvertongue knows how to craft a clever phrase, thank you very much! He is eloquent and gracious and even-tempered and Legolas...well, we're all probably lucky if he's remembered to speak in Westron rather than his own weird forest dialect of Sindarin, tbh. When one of them needs to do the talking for them both, it's almost always going to be Gimli. Legolas is the guy you get when you need to shoot-down a flying Nazgûl; Gimli is the one you call when there's a delicate diplomatic situation to be discussed.
Legolas is also definitely the more easily distracted, and I think Gimli teases him about that a lot—although that's also a bit of a cover, because Gimli knows that Legolas's senses are so much sharper than his. Said distractability is in part a result of the natural flightiness of Wood-elves and in part the result of having those keen senses: he notices more things, so of course he's more likely to be distracted by them. Having said sharp senses also means Legolas can more safely afford to allow himself to be distracted, because he doesn't have to actually pay attention to notice an approaching danger the way Gimli does. (And yes, Gimli gets grumpy about that sometimes, but this is part of that "cover feelings through gruffness" thing: he doesn't want to admit that he worries that Legolas will get himself into trouble by not paying enough attention, and he definitely doesn't want to admit that dwarven senses can't keep up.)
In fact, I think post-Quest one of Gimli's biggest weaknesses is his concern that a mortal dwarf can't keep up with an elf. I think he worries about it a lot more than is merited by reality, actually, and I think that's informed in large part by his knowledge of his own mortality and how much it will eventually hurt Legolas to lose him. He cannot help but dwell on all the things a dwarf can't do that an elf can, because he's so preoccupied by the one big one: an elf can stay, while a dwarf eventually has* to leave...has to die. So while it doesn't exactly shake his sense of confidence in himself, it has him paying a lot more attention to what he can't do than what he can. He doesn't forget his strength or skills; he just ends up weighing them less than they deserve when balanced against what elves can do instead.
*he doesn't, as it turns out! but he doesn't know that yet.
(As much as he comes to dread Gimli's death, none of the rest of that has ever occurred to Legolas. If anyone asked Legolas if he ever got "tired" of being "held-back" by the "limitations of a dwarf" you'd get a very confused look in return and an apologetic explanation about how Different Types Of People Have Different Strengths, Silly...or, depending on how rudely you phrased the question, a very quick and probably painful lesson on what more dangerous and less wise can mean. Legolas doesn't really understand mortal limits—see: "are you sure you don't want to just keep running all night? why not?" and of course the infamous "gee why don't y'all just walk ON the snow? what, like it's hard?" incident—but when somebody says "No Legolas, that's Not Physically Possible" he rolls with it, even being able to later point-out to marchwardens who don't know Mortal Limits as well as he (now) does that his friends need more than a single rope to run on, pls!)
Legolas is right, though, because their different strengths really do balance one another well: Gimli is the solid, thoughtful, reliable rock who makes for both an unwavering foundation on which to build and an eloquent shield upon which the waves of the world will break and leave them both unscathed behind his kind and dauntless walls. Legolas is the swift, sharp knifeblade that darts out mercilessly from the shadows to dispatch a threat and then turns around and returns just as fleetly with armfuls of unquenched joy and laughter to brighten even the blackest, deepest night without any caution or hesitation. Legolas reminds Gimli of how much he delights in curiosity and exploration; Gimli reminds Legolas of the joy and comfort of coming home after wandering afar.
Of course they had to go to Aman together. Gimli could never have resisted following Legolas somewhere so interesting, and Legolas would never have managed such a portentous journey without Gimli there to steady him along the path.
#this was really awesome to ramble my way through thank you so much!#i definitely talked too much and thought too much and had a GREAT time doing it#sorry it took me so long; it's because i had too much fun with it whoops#lotr meta#legolas#gimli#mirkwood#greenwood#lonely mountain#erebor#aglarond#glittering caves#lotr#lotr canon#lotr headcanons#elves#dwarves#rilaerloth#thranduil#gloin#gimleaf
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Making of Monday: Can't Stop the Suns Part 1
(I am thinking SO positively rn that I am calling this part 1, like I will remember to actually write more. YMMV; we'll see how I do.)
I'm hard at work on the concluding chapters of Pick Up the Pieces right now, and working on Pick Up the Pieces means I also need to do a fair bit of rereading An Uncivil War, so it's very much on the forefront of my brain, and also I have yet to participate in a single MoM, so: here's some backstory on An Uncivil War.
Okay I actually need to back up even farther than that, all the way to Solsbury Hill and February 2020. I started Solsbury Hill - it wasn't called that, then; it didn't have a name, just 'weird doc file/outline I'll probably never finish because I don't have a track record of finishing creative writing projects, ever' - and then the very next month I started working from home AND season 7 of Clone Wars premiered.
To get ready for season 7 - and because I was home a lot more during the day, now, and didn't have to commute to work - we decided to do a rewatch of Clone Wars season 1 through 6. And you know how we joke about plot bunnies, and why they're called that? That the hardest idea is your first one and once you have that the ideas just keep multiplying? So, I'm sitting on an outline for what would become Solsbury Hill, and we're watching Clone Wars, and we get to season 5, and the episode with Ahsoka's trial, and I think to myself, huh. That's weird. Why is Obi-Wan acting like that? Why is he not sticking up for our Padawan? If he had, I bet things would have turned out differently. Ahsoka might not have left the Order. Anakin might not have turned to the Dark Side. Clone Wars is full of all these little things that individually might not be enough to push Anakin over the edge, but they start stacking up, collectively...
From there, it was a pretty easy leap to, 'what if Obi-Wan left the Order instead of Ahsoka', and that created this whole domino effect because Anakin would obviously leave with him, right, and Ahsoka was getting kicked out anyway, and now I've got this scenario with three Jedi on the run in the middle of a war.
And that was fascinating to me. Once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. But I was also getting really into Solsbury Hill, at that point, so this new story needed to take a backseat. I dumped a bunch of notes into a Word doc and went back to my AU.
It turns out, though - and this was the first time I'd learned this about myself - that I liked having both an AU and a canon project going at the same time. Solsbury Hill and An Uncivil War both used such different parts of my brain and required a different skillset and researching vastly different things, and if I got bogged down in one it was nice to be able to switch to the other one and hack away at that one for a while. So I ended up, from early 2020 until August 2022 when I posted the first chapter of Solsbury Hill on AO3, working on both projects nearly simultaneously, although obviously Solsbury Hill (despite being three times longer) got to the finish line first.
For a long time - almost three years - An Uncivil War was just called, An Uncivil War. And it had this expansive outline that I just kept cracking away at, and whenever I came across something cool in another piece of Star Wars media or another show premiered or I read another book I'd think 'Ooh, that's neat! That's going in the fic!' and I'd add it to my to-do list. And at some point I looked at my word count and realized I was pushing 100k and not anywhere close to the end of the story I wanted to tell.
So, I started thinking about sequels, and series. I had (still have) this outline, fortunately, and there was one pretty obvious stopping point at what was then the mid-point of the plot. (I say, 'then' because it has since, of course, expanded. It turns out I'm very bad at guessing word counts.) So I took half my outline, dumped into a brand-new doc, called that one Pick Up the Pieces, and wrote the 'ending' of An Uncivil War, as much as possible, as if it were the ending, just in case I for some reason never got around to writing Pick Up the Pieces.
Because it was important to me that An Uncivil War be able to stand on its own. It's got a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the end calls back to the beginning, and the main threat to the characters is resolved, and they talk about what they're going to do next but even if that was the only story you had, it should still be a satisfying conclusion (or, at least, I hope it is).
But it isn't the entirety of the story I wanted to tell. Because they originally were one big story, I actually had maybe half of Pick Up the Pieces already written by the time I started posting An Uncivil War, so while the first part took me three years to write, the second has technically only taken me a year, but I was definitely not starting from scratch.
I also - and this should shock absolutely no one - was once again wildly off in my word count estimate. Pick Up the Pieces is, right now, already as long as An Uncivil War (120k), and I've still got three chapters left to go...plus a bunch more things in my outline I haven't gotten to yet.
So, in true Star Wars tradition, I'm now plotting a part three! Pick Up the Pieces, like An Uncivil War before it, has a logical ending point, so it will wrap up there, but the plot will move merrily along to the next thing on my to-do list, which is in fact the same to-do list I've had since March 2020. (It's a good thing I love this story so much or I would have quit long ago.) Part Three, at the moment, is tentatively titled Sometimes Fate Steps In, and I'm really, really sorry to have to admit that that's where all the smut is going to be. (I know. It's Solsbury Hill all over again.)
(I do love it, though. I feel like I should...apologize, to my fics, somehow, for having a favorite? I do have a favorite, though. It's this series. I love it so damn much. This is the one thing I write where, if you told me right now that I would never get a single comment or kudos on it, I would still write it anyway, because I just get so much enjoyment out of researching and writing it and re-reading it.)
(Which is not to say you shouldn't comment on it. Please, please do! You will absolutely make my day, week, month, year! But I love it enough to do it anyway.)
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I feel like fans need to understand that tv shows need to tell stories very differently from novels like the multi-perspective thing in the books isn't going to work on tv cause audiences generally do not want to see the same events over and over again from different povs. Viewers want to move on to the next story beat so it just makes more sense to converge them and do it once in a big climax than show bits and pieces over many seasons like we don't need to see lestat's pov in paris in s3 when the audience already knows what happened with the trial and claudia. It kills the show's momentum to go back and rehash things that have already happened.
That's also why I don't think the show will retell much of s1 from lestat either like maybe some additional context but s1 will largely stand on its own for both creative and business reasons. I think suggesting events might not be real and can be retconned over the course of multiple seasons tells the audience what they're watching is unimportant and that they might as well wait until the show's over to watch since it might all be fake anyways.
I understand the protectiveness over louis & claudia's story cause this is claudia's final season altogether and louis's future will always feel a bit uncertain no matter what the execs say cause there's just no basis for his storylines in the books. and really I never trust any white showrunners when it comes to poc so I get it completely. But I really do not think the 1795 bits will take up much of the season (probably close to how much 73' san francisco we'll see aka pretty minimal) but I think getting the full paris storyline in s2 rather than over s2-3 is beneficial to the show and much better storytelling. AR didn't know wtf she was doing and constantly changed her mind years later so the books reflect that but it's really not very effective storytelling especially not for tv.
#iwtv#interview with the vampire#the red wedding only works once#otherwise its not impactful#anyways idec about lestat but him being a major part of s2's paris storyline makes sense
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this is may be a dumb question but i saw something about it in the tags and you're a wordsmith and i do so adore your fics, so if the cullens adopted bree tanner, what do you think that would look like? like what would the dynamics be? (especially between bree, jasper and alice?)
There is no such thing as a dumb question anon! I have 0 recollection about any Bree tags, so we're going on totally fresh vibes.
Also wordsmith? I wiggle, thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoy my fics!
I also need to be totally transparent: I never read Bree Tanner. I know the plot, but like Midnight Sun, I never felt moved to engage with it. I also found that Bree's early life and Alice's was so similar it was slightly silly. So please excuse me if I fudge the details.
If the Cullens had adopted Bree... well. That would put a major spanner in the works because newborns and Bella would not mix well.
This means the family would have to split up, and that would be controversial: Jasper would have to go with the newborn, and Alice would go with Jasper because dealing with a newborn would not be a great time for Jasper. Rose and Emmett would probably go with them - Emmett could be useful with Bree, and Rose would both want to get away from Bella, and want to go with Emmett. I could see only Carlisle, Edward, and maybe Esme staying behind in Forks with Bella, honestly.
But that's a pretty dramatic twist in the Cullen dynamic and separation would definitely effect how Bree bonded with everyone - she would automatically be closer to the family she was 'raised' with, and defer to Jasper and Emmett before she did Carlisle, Edward or Esme. I could see Bree going to Jasper or Emmett for permission/help rather than Carlisle being something that really calls into question the dynamics of the family - and I could see Edward, Esme, and Bella as perceiving that as an insult to Carlisle. But whilst Bree is grateful to Carlisle for negotiating her freedom, her loyalties lie with the family members that 'raised' her and protected her. And I can see all four of them being very protective over her; ultimately the family would have this unspoken divide into two covens simply because of the split, and it would take time and communication to really heal it.
That's quite a complicated scenario, so let's backtrack and say that it was possible for Bree to start in Forks with the full Cullen family and become one of them. (We'll get through the rest of the family before we get to Alice and Jasper.)
Esme would dote on her; she would mother the ever-loving shit out of her - especially when Bree told her about her upbringing and her missing mom. I think Bree would take the place of the 'baby' of the family because she's both the newborn and the youngest of the family. Bree would absolutely soak all of this up, and probably drive everyone else nuts hogging Esme for the first few months.
Carlisle would be very kind to her, try to help her transition to animal blood, and very carefully give her the rundown on the laws of vampires, and the family rules. I can see Bree being wary of him as a father figure because of her father's abuse, but also be relieved by the fact he's protected her and he's telling her everything she needs to know. He saved her from death, that's huge considering both her bio father and Riley sent her to death. There would be a lot of respect there, and eventually affection, but it would be as openly affectionate as the relationship Bree has with Esme.
Rosalie would be distant at first, very put-out that they've adopted a stray and be very, very frustrated as Bree learns control and how to behave as a human. But as time passed, I could see Rose thriving as a Big Sister - teaching Bree how to do things like change a tire and take care of a car; teaching her to drive; how to throw a punch. Rose would be the one to go searching for Bree's mom and finding out that Mr Tanner was charged for her murder would enrage her. Rose is definitely the one who organizes a burial and headstone for Mrs Tanner, though she lets Esme and Carlisle break the news to Bree.
Emmett would love Bree. A kid sister? One who is doesn't mind being tossed in the air and is happy to go bear hunting multiple times a week? He's hooked. And I think that easy-going acceptance would go so far with Bree. He's just... friend-shaped, and he's got her back. If she's out of control, Emmett's got her in a bear hug and he doesn't even hold a grudge if she bites him. She feels very safe with Emmett, and loves playing video games with him, and more than once Rose has walked into their bedroom to find Bree lounging on their bed talking to him whilst Emmett sorts comic books or something.
Edward resents the fuck out of Bree because he sees her as taking the place reserved for Bella - the baby sister, the newborn. He's frustrated that they have to deal with Bree's newborn year, because no one will change Bella until Bree is in control and safe to be around - Jasper would flat out refuse and leave if he had to deal with two newborns, and having two at the same time - especially of opposing ages - would be a recipe for chaos. But he's also intensely aware that Bree was in literal hell both as a human and as a vampire, and he tries very hard to be kind and mostly just comes off as the bothered older brother. He's also the one that picks up on the fact that Diego is most likely dead, but she's so hopeful he cannot tell her otherwise. Bree tries to get on Edward's good side, but she just keeps messing it up - touching his sheet music, his CDs, accidentally insulting things Edward holds dear. It would be funny if it wasn't going so very wrong.
Bella as a human is scared of Bree, because it's so very obvious Bree struggles in Bella's presence. and because of Bree's association with Victoria and with Riley. Bree's pretty curious about Bella, but they don't have a relationship until Bella is a vampire. As a vampire, Bella is quite... dismissive of Bree; because of her shield, Bella doesn't experience the bloodlust Bree has, and she's married to Edward, where Bree has lost her mate. Bella suffers from an inability to see from other's perspectives and her own privilege in her change, so she has a low tolerance for Bree - especially around Renesmee. It takes time and they make peace, but they aren't ever close.
Jasper. Oh boy. Jasper has a very complicated relationship with Bree because of his time in the South. He hates being around newborns because of that; their emotions change so fast, they can be triggered from calm to frothing rage instantly, they bite, and they are so strong. Having Bree join the family was not on Jasper's agenda at all, but he's also past the point of executing newborns for existing and accepting that Esme and Carlisle want to keep her. He sees her presence as part of his penance and a step closer to being a better man.
Jasper would be the one that did the most monitoring of her because of his gift and his experience. It would take a lot out of him, and he'd hover at the sidelines, quiet and waiting. I think the stress of knowing that after Bree is 'done', he's expected to go and do exactly the same thing with Bella. That would be stressful and exhausting and depressing for him. And he would be the first line of fire when Bree was out of control - getting bitten by her would be a fun adventure into flashbacks of the south for him.
But I also don't think that he'd hold that against her at all. He'd be kind and he'd be patient because he knows what it's like to be lied to by a leader. He knows what it's like to wake up in a hellscape of death and pain and destruction. And he knows what it's like to be given a second chance by the Cullens. I think he'd be a lot warmer to her after her newborn period was up, and I think he'd eventually joke about any bite scars she gave him. I definitely think that Bree would see him as a protector figure, because of how he monitored her, but also someone worthy of respect, fitting in somewhere between Edward and Carlisle. He would also do a lot of the legwork for Rose trying to track down Mrs Tanner.
Alice would be Jasper's main support during Bree's newborn year, and probably be the ambassador between the pair so that Bree doesn't feel intimidated, rejected, or threatened by Jasper, and Jasper didn't get overwhelmed by Bree and lose his temper. I can also see Bree appreciating Alice's makeovers and becoming Alice's favorite person to dress up because she never had that opportunity before and Alice prides herself on being a very stereotypical big sister with movie nights and dance parties - something that Bree loves and would cause a little tension with Bella and Edward.
Alice would also essentially confirm that Diego was gone to Edward. She would also kind of confirm that Fred was alive, mostly because he makes her visions go wonky because of his gift, which I think Bree would be delighted by. Bree would like the reassurance that Alice's gift offered, that she could check that she was doing things right and she was safe. When it came to the next high school, I could see Alice and Bree both being enrolled as freshman so that Bree has someone to watch over her and she's got one friend in class to have a normal high school experience.
I hope those were the kind of takes you were looking for Anon!
#asks#bree tanner#jasper hale#alice cullen#rosalie hale#emmett cullen#edward cullen#bella swan#the short second life of bree tanner#cullen family#bree would have been so so worried when alice and jasper took off in breaking dawn#it would remind her too much of fred and diego who never came back#and take away any security she had within the family unit#i can definitely see bree breaking away from the group to hug them during their breaking dawn return#and aro being fascinated by how easily bonded the cullens are
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Heyo! I'd be interested to hear your theories on the macdennis writer's room situation!
IMO it's not as simple as 'Rob is pro and Glenn is anti' (and we always ignore Charlie in these conversations even though he's quite into it in the dvd commentary and pod), so your suggestion that the subtlety (lol it's really not subtle, but yeah r/iasip ig) in the writing of their relationship might be glenn's idea is quite intriguing to me, and I wonder how this all relates to the opposing views on whether Dennis is a serial killer amongst rcg. So much of the writing of Dennis comes from Charlie and also Rob, but it's definitely influenced by them observing Glenn (like the cereal story) and by Glenn's performance. And ofc we know Glenn pushes back if Dennis is written as too heartless because he maintains that he does have feelings and is quite sensitive in a way. Not sure where I'm going with this... I don't have a full theory fleshed out in my head yet, so I'd really like to hear your thoughts!
(not trying to stir anything with this ask btw: in fact, iirc there were some posts about this subject a few months ago and I didn't engage then because it pissed me off when the conversation turned into a "who supports the quuer fans more" kind of competition, as if macden is something so basic between rob and glenn, when we really have no evidence about what happens fr bts, beyond some fun speculation. just enjoy theorizing in drought times.)
Hey, thanks for the ask! To address your final point first, I don't want to talk publicly about what may or may not be the motivations of Glenn and Rob as "queer allies" or how they think this may affect their careers or whatnot. These kinds of discussions I don't believe are ever effective publicly when you don't know the truth. I'm not speculating on their motivations as people but as writers who care about the story they're telling and, more importantly, their characters.
When my message was "anti" and "pro" it was really just from the discussion that someone had to be pushing back against what I believe is Rob pushing forward (This was a black and white, who wants Macden now and who is saying no, wait. I truly do and always have believed Macden will happen. The nuanced discussion came after, in messages I'd rather not share since they are not just my personal thoughts but a conversation with another user.) I
t's not necessarily that Glenn is anti-Macdennis (and I think you understand that) and I want to clarify first off that I definitely don't think it's as simple as that, so here we go:
For Glenn pushing the subtlety, I think we agree completely that it likely links to how Glenn wants the audience to perceive his character (and how I love perceiving him): Dennis talks a big game that to the untrained eye makes him seem like this cold-blooded psychopath, but it's all a complete front you can easily see through. He gets a thrill out of these terrible things but would never act on them. It's interesting to hear of the live show "Dennis is a serial killer" talk brought up right along side all of this, because it's a perfect example of how Rob and Glenn clearly have opposing views on Dennis' character, and how that definitely plays into why they don't agree on canonising Macdennis. (As I understand, Dennis gets a thrill out of the idea of murder or harming people, but he could never act on it. Reddit (and to some lesser degree, Rob), don't get this, and think he probably does act on it and it's just not shown in canon (despite the mountains of evidence that Dennis is much too weak and feeble to ever do anything).
If you think about their current dynamic (actually, ignore 15, we'll get there), they've completely flipped from early seasons, and I don't think that's accidental or a fault of bad writing, I think it 1. is a result of Mac labelling himself as gay, finally, in S12 and 2. is a result of Glenn continuing to fight for Dennis' character staying consistent.
From point 1: Dennis was always the more effeminate, more coded to like men one, more touchy with Mac, a little obviously in love with him, until Mac outwardly expressed those feelings back. As early as M&DBU you can see how terrified Dennis is of being seen as gay, and in a relationship with Mac. For Dennis, as gay as it got, it was okay until it was labelled. Now that Mac is labelling himself as gay, now there's a hard stop for Dennis. Being with Mac is something Dennis could act on, and then be labelled as. (gay, bi, likes men, fucking Mac, boyfriend *shutters*) This is something that would happen if he didn't keep full, hard control against it.
To point 2: I think this was a bit of a divide in the writers room that Glenn couldn't control. S12 he bowed out, clearly he was feeling lost in Dennis and the writers room. When he left for S13 and 14, and you can see how Rob's want for Mac to be out, canon, very gay, in love with Dennis, comes through full-speed in these seasons, because Glenn wasn't writing (mostly). Rob wanting this directly conflicts with Glenn's writing for Dennis. Dennis is opposing Mac in every way, he has this exterior he has to put on, anti-Mac, anti-whatever they were, he's completely thrown off by Mac, hates their old dynamic.
Rob wants canon Macden, but he perceives Dennis differently than Glenn does, and likes this opposing path of the two of them, and that's obviously creating an issue. Clearly I don't know Rob's intentions, and maybe I'm talking out of my ass, but I don't think I'd be far off to say that he'd enjoy putting Macdennis through some desperation-hell (ala, Dennis gives in and gets with Mac because he's horny, uses him, DENNIS systems him, the result is Mac has always been the long-con for Dennis, which I admit, I wouldn't hate hate).
I think Glenn is against it, because there's always been something there for Dennis and there's a reason he came back, there's a reason he's always stayed around, always supported Mac. He is in love with Mac. It's not a system or a game, but a fucking fight for his life to oppose his true feelings and hide his identity, not be labelled. Dennis is stuck, and there's nothing pushing him to do anything about it. He'll get off with his systems and his kinks and he's okay.
Now we move to S15 and look, they aren't...all that opposing...during Lockdown, they...got along. And then, here goes Dennis, yelling and screaming about Mac obsessing over his own labels and identity so he can ignore his internal struggle. It's clear, he needs something to push him.
How do they go about it? Dennis jealousy arc seems like the perfect fucking beautiful compromise. Rob gets something raw, a little insane from Dennis, and Glenn gets to show that Dennis really is in fucking love with Mac.
TL;DR: Rob wants Macden now in some kind of dirty, get on with it, Dennis is using Mac kind of way. Glenn doesn't want it canon until they reach the conclusion of this arc that shows Dennis really does have big feelings (good and bad), and those feelings really kinda have a lot to do with Mac.
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AGAIN THESE ARE JUST MY THOUGHTS AND I OFTEN WATCH THIS SHOW WHILE HIGH OR CROSS FADED SO IF YOU DISAGREE THATS TOTALLY 100% OKAY I DO NOT CARE IF YOU READ ALL THIS AND THINK IM STUPID OR WAY TOO INSANE ABOUT THIS ALL THATS TOTALLY VALID FOR YOU TO SAY! IF THERES NO JEALOUSY ARC IN s16 I AM A CLOWNNNNN!!!
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The Timeline Theory
Much like the Building Theory, the Timeline Theory serves as a tool to visualize, understand, and work with certain aspects of Deduction. In this case instead of focusing on the separation betwen deductions and observations, we focus on the fact that everything that happens that might leave some observable evidence can be placed in a timeline that goes only one way: forward. From the moment an event in someone's life occurs, it fits into a timeline, that event comes before something and after something, and learning to read an navigate this timeline is an important skill to have.
/H O W T O M A K E O N E
Let's imagine an individual, we'll call him John. John is a college student, on a given day he wakes up, takes a shower, goes through with his cleaning rituals, walks to the bus stop, and takes a bus to class. Now let's say we find John on campus, we've never seen or met him before, and we deduce him, what do we see? Well let's say we see some pen marks on his hands (maybe some chalk depending on the college's instalations), we might see some white stains on his clothes, some mud on his shoes, and if we pass him as we walk we might smell a mix of intense hygene products, and hints of a smell more prominent in public spaces. For the sake of this example let's also give some context and say it hasn't rained on campus in the past few days.
Now, you might be able to connect each of these observations to their source, or you might not, and that's okay, because what matters about this example is being able to recognize the order the observations are given in. If you notice, the observations are given all jumbled up, they don't correlate in any way to the order in which the events are described, this is important because it's exactly how observations are found in real life: Disorganized
So now that we have our observations we have to organize them chronologically while deducing. The product smell indicates a cleaning ritual, which is probably done in the morning, knowing a cleaning ritual happened means the white stains are probably toothpaste from brushing his teeth. The mud indicates walking somewhere where the the ground is wet, so at the point of this happening he's left his house, so it's after the cleaning ritual. The public space smell can be identified as the smell of the seats of the bus with some experience (Deduction by knowledge), and the pen marks suggest writing, probably done in class, so after the bus ride.
So now we have a timeline, it goes like this:
/N A V I G A T I N G T I M E L I N E S
And now we have to realize that these events aren't the only ones that exist in this timeline, we just don't have the full list of events. This is when things get fun, our job at this point is to move back and forth in this timeline and fill in gaps, what happened in between the shower and the bus? did he eat breakfast? did he stop at a shop to buy something? did he lay in bed for a while because he wakes up way too early for the bus? It's our job to get our best Doctor Strange on, and rewind and fast forward this movie of John's day that we're creating, and fill in what happened in the limited amount of hours he's been awake.
That is the main use of visualizing events in a timeline we can navigate, but it's certainly not the only use. Everything in this timeline has an effect on everything else be it on something that you have in it already, or something you haven't added yet. Knowing John lives somewhere where it's rained recently and there's mud tells you how for away from college he may be, which tells you how long the bus ride he takes to college is. So if one day you notice the time he takes to get to college is noticeably longer than it should be then, there's something that happened that you're missing, something between leaving home and assisting class, now you know there's a hole in your timeline that you have to fill, and you can look for extra information to do so. Also by knowing how long different parts of the timeline take you can fill up other areas, like if you know this is all John has done since he woke up you can figure out the time at which he wakes up. this is a very simple example of how organizing this timeline can moving across it allows you to find more information, as well as make sense of the information you have
The most important thing to realize is that every event has a place in this timeline, and every point in the timeline gives you more information. Knowing this, your goal is to fill the timeline as much as possible.
Note that in this example the timeline is loosely representative of a morning, but you can have it represent whatever amount of time you want. Realize that, for example, there's a limited amount of hours in a day, so when deducing someone think about what their day looks like, you have 24 hours to fill, some are spent sleeping, some are spent eating, so what happens with the rest of the time, anything you fill up leaves less time for other activities, so slowly but surely you're getting information by reducing the amount of things this person could've done in a day. And you can apply this to any length of time, a day, two days, a week, a month, these are all limited amounts of time that you can fill up as you get information.
And that's it for this post, if you have any questions about the implementation of this theory or about any other deduction related topic, as always my inbox is open
Happy Observing!
-DV
#deduction#sherlock#sherlock holmes#logic#mind palace#deductive reasoning#memory#observation#deduce#psychology#bbc sherlock#deductionist#observant#study#studyblr#learning
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I wanted to make a post kinda compiling all my thoughts on what was announced today! First off feeling super hyped. I'm excited that we're adventuring off again after the events of endwalker, it'll be a much needed breath of fresh air.
That trailer omg it was so good. Never seen one piece, but got such one piece vibes from it. The cgi for the scions and wol looked fantastic and the new areas look amazing. Very excited to see it's based of south america and hope they do it well.
Can we just look at HOW GOOD HE LOOKS ♡♡♡
A little bummed it is next summer, thought it would be beginning of next year but think it'll be worth the wait. Fingers crossed for early June/July.
Now this scares me don't let me fight the twins or g'raha please ;-; but honestly looking forward to some kinda of conflict with the scions and what it'll be about exactly. And will this have long term effects?
The new areas look freaking STUNNING with the new graphical update. It was cute seeing how excited yoshi p was talking about the shadows and plants being updated xD
SPEAKING OF THIS MAN WAS A TEASE ;-;-;-;
But we all know yoshi doesn't wear a shirt without it having some kind of purpose so seen a few different theories.
Based on the trailer we did see either the wol or somebody with a similar cloak holding a new weapon. Some people are thinking a corsair class which would be cool. And it could be a dual wielder with a pistol and a sword. If true that'll be a fun class. The two new classes were confirmed to be a melee and a caster (hell yes finally)
But going back to the shirt it could be going many different directions. All the TMNT turtles are named after artists. So maybe some kind of Inkmage is what I seen most talked about. Or they are holding duel wielding weapons which could further confirm the corsair class. Whatever it is might see one of them at the EU fanfest in october.
Taking a break to admire the boys Erenville and G'raha Tia cause LOOK AT THEM ♡♡♡
Now probably the biggest thing this update is the graphical update and WOWW it seriously looks great so far.
Left is updated right is current ingame
The way it just looks so much brighter and colorful fdjhfv seriously can't wait. It's a much needed update and so far they still aren't done but next time we see it will be even better.
Updated example of aura their horns look great so far not just a blob.
There are some videos on youtube showing off just the updated graphical updates and it all looks stunning especially a certain flower field we're all quite familiar with.
Now with this of course does come with updated system requirements not as bad as I thought I barley just meet the recommended but keep this in mind for Dawntrail. It makes me wonder if by 8.0 support for ps4 will stop entirely or they will just have a lower quality version for ps4. We'll have to see.
NOW THIS
THANK YOU FOR ALL THIS
This is all stuff I know myself and so many players have been begging to be added into 14 and it's finally happening.
Really hoping for at least 100 slots for housing inside and maybe 20 for outside. It seriously will just give so much more freedom for housing peeps.
Now of course we have standard stuff we come to expect
-Level cap
-New Dungeons
-New Trials
-8 Player Raids
-Ultimate Raids
-Alliance Raids
-New Gear and Recipes
-Fates
-Hunts
-Treasure Hunts
-Side quests
-PVP Updates
P.S just love this little guy <3
But we also have what yoshi p said Expansive New Lifestyle Content so something like island but not. Super curious what they have in mind for that or what it even possibly could be?
Now...the two things I would have NEVER and I mean NEVER guessed is this...
FALL GUYS?!?! Not just a collab in fall guys as a full pass but a probably perma game mode in the gold saucer! I could not stop screaming crying laughing in vc with a friend. I'm still in shock this is even happening. Much less skins being in fall guys but a fall guys game mode in 14! Ngl tho it looks like a ton of fun and I hope it brings some more people to the gold saucer.
Now they said in 7.0 gold saucer is getting an update which they said in 6.x that was gonna happen. Please let it be a bigger update this time.
This is the second thing that surprised me was 14 is coming to xbox! Which is great bringing in new people to the game and honestly about time it's on xbox.
Phil spencer also great to see him as awkward as ever :)
Nothing needs to be said about this picture lol this was so funny to watch live
Overall though extremally hyped for what this expansion is going to bring. I think it's going to bring such a fresh air from the doom and gloom endwalker brought and what I am hoping is just more content. Endwalker does feel a little lacking in content and I just want more and hopefully they can deliver.
I know and can understand people not super vibing with the more relax vacation this is showing off so far. But we still don't fully know what mysterious or problems we'll have so I'm quite optimistic of what they will bring here.
Anyone reading this I'm curious what other people think and if you want leave a comment I wanna know :D
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Digimon Survive Week: Day 4 - Supporting Characters
Winds of Change - Chapter 8: Winds of Change - Part Two
“Yes, you screwed up in the waterway. Yes, shit’s dire right now.” Dracmon tells Shuuji. “Yes, it’s true that everything I’ve learned from the past is screaming that we’re fucked, that Lopmon’s memories are as good as gone. But the past doesn’t dictate the future, and it certainly doesn’t take into account what you’re doing right now, or that every single thing you’ve done since the second this egg landed in your arms has been for Lopmon’s sake. The strength of that resolve could very well change his fate—just look how much it’s already changed you!”
The answers to Shuuji's questions are disheartening at best, and he feels worse than ever about what happened in the waterway. Thankfully, Dracmon is around to remind him that although he cannot change the past, he's more than capable of changing the future.
As usual, ao3 link in source, extended author's notes below!
ok yeah maybe it's a stretch to spin the @surviveweek prompt "supporting characters" into "characters that are supportive (: " rather than "secondary characters", but i had been planning on doing this before The Dracmon Chapter was split into what is now chapters 7 and 8. I couldn't pick a (canon) secondary character i was interested in enough to dedicate art or fic to, and what i'd originally been planning for this prompt could also work for one of the others. i probably could have also used this chapter for the "future" prompt later this week, but i have other ideas for that one. so here we are!
i love the scenes scattered around the game where takuma is desperately trying to play charades with kunemon. he has no idea what that little guy is saying at all, and even if the player picks an answer that takuma seems confident in, we'll never really know! i think that's great. kew!
editing this chapter was pretty quick since i'd already gotten through most of it before i decided to split the dracmon section into to parts. that said, i did spend so much time rereading it that i ended up worrying that this chapter wasn't exciting enough. you know how it is. speaking of editing, i really cannot estimate when chapter 9 will be out. it's the last one, and when i gave it a once-over earlier i spotted a lot of things that i want to fine-tune. so we'll see! thank you for your patience - i hope getting two chapters in one week makes up for it a little.
"mattie can you elaborate on dracmon's fresh and spicy mysterious backstory??" no (:
i can elaborate on why i picked dracmon for this conversation though! in part5, it really stuck out to me that dracmon was the one to pull takuma aside to be like "hey you gotta keep an eye on shuuji , somethings fucked". im pretty sure he did it TWICE! there's also a point where kaito is watching shuuji freaking out in the waterway and asks dracmon smth to the effect of "isn't there something we can do?" and dracmon being like "not really no ): ", so it seems like the entire situation was weighing on both kaito and dracmon more than they made it seem. i thought it would be nice to give dracmon the chance to talk to shuuji after it was all said and done and see for himself that he's okay now. as for kaito…? well, we'll see. as for the lore, i'd already started using dracmon to explore the effects of repeated death and regeneration on the memory of digimon in ocean wave, so it was convenient to keep using the same character. also he's my favorite.
so full disclosure i did play a character (a terriermon named nova) in a digimon ttrpg that has a bad evolution and then loses his memories. nova's memory loss was probably a touch more intentional than lopmon's potential memory loss, and his bad evo wasn't a result of something his partner did , but a choice he made for himself. it's been a lot of fun exploring how it happens for lopmon, because it's the same flavor of angst as what happened with nova, but both the context and fallout are pretty different.
lastly, i really do think that if the waterway hadn't happened, kaito's trust issues, minoru's paranoia, and saki's fear would have eventually come up anyway. it manifested as mistrust toward their partners because of what happened with lopmon, but maybe in an alternate truthful part6 where wendimon doesn't happen, we get the library back and the Horrors are unleashed upon them there instead. would've LOVED to know what kaito's were, but i dont think it's ever touched upon other than kaito showing up to the kenzoku fight like "hey what the fuck was that." i know minoru definitely had a library scene but i dont remember what it was, but he was hiding under a desk for a bit??? and then i think saki mmmmight have one in harmony and in moral but i cannot for the life of me remember what they were. i digress.
i hope you enjoyed the end of The Dracmon Interlude! thanks for reading (:
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