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oldworldwidgets · 1 month

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while the city sleeps

ive been thinking about delilah a lot lately (shocking, i know) so when my friends were discussing what their ocs’ companion quests would be like, i decided to write one for her!! for story purposes, the player character here is a male sole survivor named nate. this quest must be completed before delilah can be recruited

2.7k-ish words

you can read this as a make-your-own adventure/quest or just as a story :3

To begin this quest, Nate must enter the Third Rail bar in Goodneighbor between 10pm – 4am. Delilah will be behind the bar, tending to the drifters seated there. When Nate initiates dialogue with Delilah, she will ask if he’d like anything to drink. He answers however he chooses, then asks if she’s heard any gossip or has any work for him, since bartenders have a reputation for knowing these things. Lilah does, of course, and will send him to run a few errands for various Goodneighbor residents. Once he has successfully completely a few of these errands and shown that he can be trusted, Lilah will give him a job that is personal to her.

Her husband, a man named Marowski, had been acting strangely. He’d been keeping things from her, going out at night or coming home late, and just generally acting seedy. Then, a few days before, he hadn’t returned home at all. She requests Nate’s help to uncover whatever shady business is taking place in Goodneighbor and find Marowski. If Nate agrees, Delilah will stress that she is very worried about Morowski and just wants him to stay out of trouble. “Please,” she will beg quietly, “bring him home safe.”

Nate must then question the residents of Goodneighbor, noir detective style. If he leads the conversation by asking about Marowski or his whereabouts, the residents will clam up and give no further information. If he leads by asking about shady business in Goodneighbor, the residents will give a response such as, “Ha! Which one?” Nate can continue asking about shady operations in the town until the residents mention “Marowski’s chem operation,” but they will once again clam up if Nate continues to pursue this line of questioning. One resident will direct Nate to Irma at the Memory Den, who will direct him to Daisy at Daisy’s Discounts, who will direct him to Fred Allen at the Hotel Rexford. For a price (and a guarantee that Delilah will not learn who gave Nate this information), Fred will inform him that Marowski was not only involved in Goodneighbor’s largest underground chem operation, he was in charge of it. The kingpin. Hell, he owned half of Goodneighbor, including the Rexford itself. However, Fred will also inform Nate that Marowski has not been seen in a few days and the door to his office is locked from the inside. Fred will point Nate toward the office and, if Nate successfully picks the lock, he will find Marowski’s body on the floor.

When Nate returns to Delilah, he must choose to tell her one of four things. From 1-4, each option is a more difficult speech check:

The truth: he uncovered the chem operation that Marowski was leading. The pressure of the organization became too much, and Nate found him dead in his office.

He uncovered the chem operation, and Marowski was involved. He was a grunt chem peddler, and he is dead. (yellow)

He uncovered the chem operation, but it seemed separate from Marowski’s disappearance. Perhaps he just ran away?

He did not find anything, but he wishes her well in trying to find her husband. Perhaps he just ran away?

Delilah is very perceptive. Unbeknownst to Nate, each option carries negative affinity weight. Even if he passes the speech check(s), he will lose affinity proportionate to each option’s amount of untruth. 1, as it is the truth, will not affect affinity. If he fails the speech check, the lost affinity will double.

If Nate passes the speech check for 3 or 4, Delilah will accept this answer and thank him for trying. She will then become unrecruitable.

If Nate passes the speech check for 2 or tells the truth, she will thank him thoroughly before giving him the next piece of the quest. If he fails any speech check, she will frown and scoff at him, inform him that she does not believe him, then give him the next piece of the quest.

Delilah will beg Nate to find out what happened to Marowski. If she was not told that he is dead, she will ask Nate to find him. If she is told about his death, she will ask Nate to find out who killed him. She will be crying when she asks this, and Nate can accept or decline. If he accepts, Delilah will give him an unmarked, unplayable holotape that she believes may help. She will tell Nate that Marowski kept it in his sock drawer, and she found it when she was looking for clues as to where he might have gone.

Nate must return to the Rexford and examine the body. He will find that Marowski was shot in the head, and that there is a 10mm on the floor of his office near his right hand. If Nate successfully hacks the terminal on Marowski’s desk, he will find terminal entries with logs of his chem operations, lists of his active runners and Triggermen, and a journal. If he reads the journal entry, he will find five entries locked behind a password. The entries can be unlocked by loading the unmarked holotape into the terminal.

The sixth, most recent entry is a suicide note. The pressure of the chem operation, alongside the ring’s copious amounts of debt that will never be repaid by their customers, was too much for Marowski to juggle. Suicide was the only way he could keep Delilah safe. He wanted to keep her away from his debt and out of the dark corners of his chem operation. The note ends with an apology and an expression of love to Delilah. This discovery prompts Nate to return to Delilah (optional) with this answer if he is satisfied with it.

The other entries, however, contain more information for Nate to uncover if he so chooses. The fifth entry is corrupt and will not open. The fourth details how Marowski’s tentative deal with Bobby No-Nose to get them out of debt had gone awry, and he had been fending off her goons for the week-or-so before his death. He stressed that it was of utmost importance that he stay away from the Third Rail to keep them away from Delilah, who did not deserve to be put in danger because of his bad decisions. The third covers Marowski’s excitement about Delilah. He had been in love with her since he set eyes on her in the Third Rail, and now, she’d fallen in love with him, too. They had just moved in together at the Rexford, which was going to make it harder to keep her out of the line of fire, but it was worth it.

The second entry is corrupt and will not open. The first entry logs Marowski’s concern about his dwindling Triggermen numbers. He started noticing that he would send his men out on runs to acquire or deliver chems, but they would not return. His pool of runners was getting shallower and shallower, yet he had not noticed more people fiending for his chems. Everyone in Goodneighbor seemed perfectly drugged up and satisfied, which struck him as strange – who were they getting their fix from if not from his men? This was not good for his numbers.

After reading these entries, Nate will have three quest goals:

(Optional) Return to Delilah

(Optional) Speak to Bobby No-Nose

Find out what happened to Marowski

Return to Delilah

If Nate returns to Delilah and informs her that Marowski did, in fact, kill himself and present her with his suicide note, she will become inconsolable. “I didn’t want to believe you,” she will cry, “but you’re right.” She will tell Nate all of the red flags/shady things Marowski did that now makes her believe that he was involved with the drug ring. She will thank Nate for his help, give him 500 caps, and send him on his way. Delilah will then become unrecruitable.

Speak to Bobby No-Nose

Nate may continue to investigate based on Marowski’s entry re: fending off Bobby’s goons after a deal gone wrong. When he speaks to her about it, she will tell him about Marowski’s debt he owed to her and his evasiveness in paying it back. They made a deal about it once, but it went awry when one of Bobby’s men got too bold. Marowski continued to refuse to pay until his death. Still, Bobby maintains her and her men’s innocence. Yes, they were heckling him, but for his money; the dead don’t pay debts. If Nate asks Bobby where he can find another lead, she will flippantly tell him that if he wants information on Marowski, he should speak to Marowski’s men instead of hers.

Nate must then interrogate three Triggermen about their boss. The first will say that he knows nothing and inform Nate that he should stop sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. The second will be “shocked” that Marowski is dead and ask Nate what happened, as if he wasn’t there to get information in the first place. The third will accuse Hancock, the mayor of Goodneighbor.

When Nate questions Hancock about Marowski, Hancock gets gruff and defensive. It’s clear that the mayor did not have a high opinion of the man, likely because Marowski’s power over the Goodneighbor residents threatened his own. He will be avoidant about answering Nate’s questions unless Nate mentions that he’s doing a favor for Delilah, in which case Hancock will be forthcoming with any information Nate needs to “help that poor thing.” With a sly smile, Hancock will tell Nate to “check with the Rexford’s front desk when Clair ain’t around,” whatever that means. The information is discoverable with or without this clue.

After speaking with Hancock, Nate will have four quest goals:

(Optional) Return to Delilah [will trigger same interaction as above]

(Optional) Investigate the Hotel Rexford

(Optional) Accuse the suspect

Find out what happened to Marowski

Investigate the Hotel Rexford

Regardless of what time of day Nate returns to the Rexford, Clair will be stationed at the front desk. Nate must ask her about Marowski, and she will not leave the front desk until he does. She is avoidant and tells Nate that she knows little about Marowski at all – only that he owns the hotel and pays her to run its operations. After this conversation, Nate can return to the Rexford between the hours of 10pm – 4am to find the front desk unmanned. He must hack into the terminal at the desk, where he will discover that every entry on Marowski’s terminal was not an entry but rather an email. The contents of Clair’s terminal are identical to those of Marowski’s, aside from logging her own replies. It also successfully saved copies of Marowski’s fifth and second “journal entries” – which had been private communications rather than journal entries all along – that had been corrupted on his own terminal.

In entry #5, Marowski informs Clair that he has found a way to pay off their debts and get them out of the red: logging each time the hotel lodged a patron who was suspected of being a synth, then sending that log to Bunker Hill weekly. To pay off their debts, Marowski was acting as an Institute informant.

In entry #2, Marowski informs Clair that he has solved the mystery of where their Triggermen are disappearing to. The Third Rail seemed to have found itself a new bartender – Delilah, the woman called herself – who was not happy with the way Marowski’s men were treating her. Over a drink at Delilah’s bar, Marowski offered her a deal: if she stopped killing his men, he would cut her in on the deal. She could deal his chems under the table at her bar and keep a portion of the profits if she let up. She countered: she would stop killing her men if, and only if, they stopped treating her like a piece of meat. That was her only requirement. Marowski agreed in earnest, and the pair shook on it. Then, Delilah requested that he make her second in command in his drug trade anyhow. This took Marowski by surprise, but Delilah explained: she knew that Marowski dealt his chems indiscriminately (ie, to children if they simply asked), which is a detail that would derail his entire operation if let slip to Hancock. She knew about his debt, too, and she was convinced she could get him out of it. She would pose no threat to him, either, if he slipped her into the operation under the guise of her being his newest arm candy. She could accompany him everywhere, attached to him at the hip, and no one would be the wiser. For Marowski, this plan was almost all pros and no cons. At the sacrifice of a few caps per sale, he would get out of debt, keep his secret from the mayor, and tote around a beautiful woman like a gold watch. He accepted.

After reading the emails, Nate will have one quest goal:

Accuse the suspect

Nate can formally accuse any one suspect he speaks to over the course of his investigation.

Accusing Delilah

If Nate chooses to return to the Third Rail, Whitechapel Charlie will be tending the bar no matter the time of day. Nate must ask Charlie where Delilah is, then buy a beer before Charlie will give him the answer. He tells Nate that Delilah is at her and Marowski’s suite at the Rexford, surely mourning. When Nate returns to the Rexford, he must pick the locked front door to enter. The lobby – and the entire hotel – is empty aside from one dainty figure sitting cross-legged on the front desk. “Sure took you long enough, sugar,” she will say sweetly, twirling her hair and trapping him in dialogue.

This will positively affect his affinity with Delilah, similar to “Delilah loved that.”

Accusing Bobby No-Nose, Triggermen, or Clair

The suspect will become hostile. Before Nate can pull his gun, the suspect will pull him back into dialogue and act disproportionately afraid. “No, I’m sorry, I swear it wasn’t me,” etc etc. Nate is not given an opportunity to respond. Instead, he is trapped in dialogue with the person now standing behind him: Delilah. The NPC he was accusing will run through the door behind her while she speaks. “I really thought you'd catch on quicker, big guy,” she will tell Nate.

This will put Nate at Delilah’s lowest recruitable affinity.

Accusing Hancock

The mayor will nearly laugh in Nate’s face, and when Nate pulls his gun, Hancock will just shrug. “Do what you gotta do,” he will say, “but I’m telling you, you got the wrong guy. Ain’t that right, sister?” Nate is not given an opportunity to respond. Instead, he is trapped in dialogue with the person now standing behind him: Delilah. Hancock will waltz out the door behind her while she speaks, ghosting his hand up her arm and shoulder as he squeezes past her. “I really thought you'd catch on quicker, big guy,” she will tell Nate.

This will put Nate at a low affinity with Delilah and lower his affinity with Hancock.

Regardless of who Nate accuses, Delilah will then explain her involvement in Marowski’s drug ring. She was killing any Triggermen who tried to get in her pants; the extra caps and chems was just a bonus at first. Once she got a whiff of power, she couldn’t leave it behind. After she worked her way in with Marowski, she eventually became more in charge than he was. He eventually became little more than just the face of the operation. She was perfectly happy with this setup, considering it kept her powerful yet still in the shadows (and allowed her to skim caps and chems as she pleased). Unfortunately, Marowski got involved in shit that was too shady for her (informing for the Institute) and she had to end that quickly and quietly. She wrote the suicide note and killed Marowski in a way that looked like the gunshot was self-inflicted, then inherited the ring. She is the kingpin. She had been the entire time. This whole mission was nothing but a wild goose chase.

If Nate asks why she would send him following such an entangled web when she was pulling the strings the whole time, she will shrug tell him that she wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting into with her.

Delilah is now recruitable.

#deep longing sigh #i love her so bad #if ur seeing this u should write companion quests for ur ocs too #this was so much fun #oc: delilah #oldworld.ocs #fallout #fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout oc #fallout 4 oc #fallout companion quest #canon typical violence #brief #suicide mention

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buddyhollyscurls · 10 days

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Sho's family house from the Secret World of Arrietty is my DREAM house and i say it every time but it always always always brings out the little girl in me like i see the trees and the plants and bushes the gazebo and i imagine all the stories and all the fun i would have had if i grew up in a house like that

#deep longing sigh #the secret world of arrietty #studio ghibli

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shayminsh · 1 year

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sorry we put your boyfriend in a series of polls for the statistical side of tumblr to analyze. yeah sorry hes up against a more well known character who people will choose just because they know him. my bad.

#deep long auffering sigh while i stare out over the ocean #sholmes 😭😭😭#tumblr boyfriend #hyper's hits

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royalarchivist · 6 months

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Cellbit: Come here! Come here, queridinho!

Pac: No! I'd rather die to the fall!

#Cellbit #Pactw #QSMP #Purgatory #Celltw #Pac #I know they played this off as a laugh but this horrified me #holding q!Pac in my arms and giving him the BIGGEST hug #suicide mention #suicide #technically #Edited #I had commentary about this video but Tumblr deleted all of it. Deep sigh.#The one thing I will say though is that multiple times during this long fight between teams Cellbit completely pivots #and chases after Pac whenever he's in the vicinity #Translated

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dhoklaaminoacid · 7 months

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#andrea gibson #sigh #its been so long since I've had a sincere deep conversation w someone #where none of us are trying to flirt or say the right things #holding back #not revealing too much #not talking with some ulterior motive #i really wanna do this rn #a sincere conversation with comfortable silences i dont need to fill with my laugh #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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dollsome-does-tumblr · 1 month

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i think something that frustrates me about ted and rebecca even beyond the whole no-romance thing (crying forever btw 😢) is that they never really got to have a coherent storyline together again after s1 and the christmas episode, and uh ..... i think it would have been cool to have more of those shared between the two leads of the show. like, in a way, i think i would have been more okay with it not being shippy if they'd had more storylines and more of a definitive overall series arc together, because presumably then at least we would have seen them interact regularly enough and in a variety of conditions enough that i would've gotten more of a feel for why it wasn't a romantic thing and what, in fact, it was? i don't know! i just really wish they'd given that dynamic wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more to do and way more interest after s1. it just felt like they were deliberately written to be ships in the night, all the time, no harbor ever, which feels crummy. like, s1 sets them up to be very close friends with these parallel struggles, but then they barely have even a shared b-plot together ever again after the christmas ep. the closest thing is one shared scene followed up by one phone call in 3.08, right? and then the series finale, where they do actually finally have three whole related scenes together, shock of all time.

anyway. so weird. SO WEIRD! such a funky writing choice that i am not a fan of.

#what was the arc post-s1? I HAVE NO IDEA!#why couldn't they have more of an ARC that got ATTENTION?#i think it's just because the show was done with their dynamic as something to explore in-depth after s1 but. ouch.#weird flex as a writing move #dollsome's deep thoughts #ted x rebecca #tedbecca #sorry if this doesn't make any sense. i still have the vestiges of influenza brain!#ESPECIALLY BECAUSE THERE WAS SO MUCH ABOUT THEIR TWO CHARACTERS THEY COULD'VE POTENTIALLY BONDED OVER!#but instead as far as we know they never even found those things out about each other!#including things like if ted ever even frickin' got a frickin' voicemail from her! are we high-maintenance for wanting to find out?#okay i'm shutting up now. i swear.#anyway: objectively i don't think this relationship was well written after s1 #where i found it one of the most well-written onscreen dynamics i'd seen in a long time. weary sigh.

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regionalpancake · 1 year

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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is 99.9% Saffi free and I will die mad about it

#accurate as of episode 9 airing anyway #regionalpancakeedits #saffi #star trek picard #picard season 3 #raffi musiker #Seven of Nine #seven x raffi #raffi x seven #picard spoilers #food tw #very long very deep sigh #salt level: dead sea #all my homies hate terry matalas

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skitskatdacat63 · 6 months

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Vettonso x Similar Helmets

SV Germany 2012 x FA Monaco 2013: Gold & Dark Red

I think a lot about Vettonso and their mutual relationship witn gold. They're both golden boys, they're both seen lit gold by the sunshine on many podiums throughout the years, both have worn golden boots, and as you can see here: both have worn golden helmets. The parallels in these particular helmets makes me feel insane. Both are: gold with dark red accents, both have their birthplace's coat of arms(Bergstraße and Asturias), both have team animal motifs, and both have symbols to represent their two championships(You by now know the signifigance of the ones on Fernando's helmet, but I think the ones on Seb's are actually a callback to his Formula BMW days when he used to put the smiley stickers on his car for every win.)

And did you know both of these helmets were designed by the same helmet design company? Yep, both of these are JMD helmets. I know JMD helmets are/were pretty popular, but still, there's something to me about Fernando commissioning the same designer that Seb has been using since he was a literal child. Parallels, am I right?

SV Japan 2010 x FA Japan 2023: White with Black & Red

Haha I remember @protocolseben and I discussing this a bit back in September when Fernando's helmet dropped. I honestly think Seb is such an innovator and trailblazer in terms of helmet design, and you can see his influence in helmet design as recently as this past season. I'm not sure if he was the first ever driver to don a matte white helmet with red accents as a representation of the Japanese flag, but it certainly envoked him in my mind when I saw Fernando's!!

I think Fernando's is pretty similar to all of Seb's 2010-2012 Japan helmets but I like this one the most so! I think if Seb wasn't restrained by the Red Bull logo, he def wouldv'e put the red circle where Nando put his so I think Fernando did a really good job, even if unintentionally, at emulating Seb's sense of design.

SV Singapore 2012 x FA Singapore 2012: Sparkly!

Like I said in the one above, it's crazy how much Seb influenced helmet design. He was pretty much the pioneer of sparkly helmets for Singapore, right? It drives me absolutely insane that there's actually pictures of them together in such similar designed helmets. It's kinda funny actually that even though they're pretty deep in the championship fight at this point, and Seb just got one up on Fernando; Fernando is wearing a helmet that is a direct influence from Seb!!! Is that not insane???

Also, Fernando trying to be camp with trying the now in vogue sparkly Singapore helmet, and Seb accidentally completely blew him out of the water with his outrageous light up LED constellation helmet. But god yeah....to have pics of them in matching helmets from this era particuarly makes me emotional ;;;

SV Hungary 2021 x FA 2022: Pink with Dark Blue

I really could've picked any of Seb's 2021 helmets, but I thought this one matched the best with Fernando's main 2021 helmet(with the color pallet.) Also one thing, it's crazy how much control BWT has as a sponsor, I don't think I've ever seen another sponsor go so hard at having a chokehold on individuality. I like that we got pink liveries and pink helmets, but I don't think they should have that much control.

I'm almost kinda sad there wasn't any Miami GP in 2021, because I think that was the only unique helmet Fernando had in 2022. But these match pretty well! Pretty in pink!! It's crazy that their parallels in the 2020s are ongoing even before Fernando actually takes over Seb's seat. Thanks BWT I guess?

SV Abu Dhabi 2022 x FA Abu Dhabi 2022: Fernando's Seb Tribute Helmet

AND HERE WE HAVE THE PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE!!! The ultimate conclusion, it literally couldn't get better than this!! This is still unbelievable, like how is this an actual thing that happened!? Fernando intentionally branding his helmet, the only symbol of individuality in F1, with his rival's flag colors, HIS FLAG!!!!! Not to mention the literal "Vettono Best Moments" collage he posted alongside it....and the hand-holding....and everything that happened with them at Abu Dhabi 2022....

But god, after years of incidentally making parallel helmet designs, Fernando decided to officially tie the knot of the red string of fate, and make a helmet directly referencing Seb's. I think it's funny because as I said with two of the previously mentioned ones, those Fernando designs are pretty much inspired by Seb's, and here he is openly making one directly inspired by Seb. I don't really have words for how this actually makes me feel because it's just. Yeah. The most open and clear declaration of love and respect and admiration one could ever make. TO ME.

#all of my posts subheading should be: 'its probably not that deep BUT-'#i can't believe ive made two deeply researched and beloved posts in a row one day after the other #posts sponsored by: 12 am red bull consumption. my all-consuming devotion and love for vettonso. and my unwillingness to do schoolwork #i mean i felt a lot of emotions and had fun making it but like. hey. could you put this effort into school?#anyways feeling deeply emotionally affected about helmets and their symbolism #i think in the entirety of f1 seb and fernando are two of the most dedicated and passionate about helmet designs and symbolism?#so this post is very special to me :] helmet fuckers unite <3 #again: they say they aren't friends and don't share any hobbies and im just staring at them like YOU IDIOTS!!!#its just that spongebob meme of him pointing out the trashcans. like guys. be fr rn. you totally share hobbies #both like helmet design. paddel and pingpong. sustainability. cars. racing. european football. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON #well im glad they swapped helmets at some point(i think nando gave seb two pretty old ones as well. now thats dedication!)#if they werent cowards i bet they couldve also had a 5+ hour long discussion about helmet design ;;;;;;#thinking also about how fernando has one of seb's in his museum >:) but if only it were one of the ones on this list. sigh.#normal posts that catie normally makes in a normal fashion #well lmk if theres any other vettonso helmets you think are similar!!! im pretty blind to seb helmets that arent rbr era tbh #sebastian vettel #fernando alonso #f1 #formula 1 #vettonso #we do a little bit of f1

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haveihitanerve · 5 months

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Superman: *loosing an argument with a batkid* yeah well! I fucked your dad! Dick: so did half of Gotham. Ur not special Jason: you mean you wish you did alien fuck Tim: statistically speaking, B would rather fuck Oliver Queen than you Damian: Father is a known whore to keep his cover. Whores sleep with anyone Steph: really? I didn't know Bruce was settling for someone less than him. huh. Barbara: don't ever threaten my father again or i will leak all of your search history Cass:... run. Duke:... if I didn't always hear him and Selina on the comms, I might have believed you Harper: he's not my dad! Cullen: boogie woogie woogie Helena: you have exactly five seconds before I call my Mother to come kill you for spreading such lies

#Superman:... *sweats nervously*#Bruce: *deep long sigh of suffering* why do you encourage them #batfam #batman #bruce wayne #batbrood #superman #its a lie #he was hoping to throw them off #he did not succeed

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aroaceleovaldez · 1 year

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I’ve seen quite a few people discuss TSATS specifically in the manner that it’s supposed to be a middle-grade book, and I’d like to throw my two cents into the hat.

Particularly, I don’t think it’s reasonable to excuse the failings of TSATS just because it’s supposed a middle-grade book. The failings of the book are primarily structural, both narratively and just in basic writing structure, neither of which are excusable of a middle-grade novel - Especially given this is Mark Oshiro’s first major foray into middle-grade, as they typically write YA. It also seems that TSATS’ rating is actually upper middle-grade, so there’s even less excuse for the quality of the book. The problem isn’t that the book is bad to a non-middle-grade reader, or even bad as a middle-grade book, the problem is that the book is bad in general. So much of the book’s quality and execution feels just so poor in ways that you would typically expect to get caught very early on by the editorial team. Being middle-grade doesn’t excuse it being structurally bad for any reading level. It feels like the editorial team didn’t care about the quality of the book at all. There’s an unreasonable amount of places where the sentence and paragraph structures are poor, the writing is unclear, there’s basic continuity errors within the same sentence, the pacing is bad, and an overall lack of grammatical consistency (you can actually tell which portions of the book are written by Rick Riordan versus Mark Oshiro based purely on the use of s’ or s’s - if you see something like “Hades’s palace“ then it’s Riordan, and if it’s something like “Hades’ palace” then it’s Oshiro - this type of inconsistency should have been made consistent by the editing team).

The book also completely fumbles its attempts at handling its intended themes with any kind of grace or respect to the reader. TSATS being middle-grade (particularly upper middle-grade) doesn’t mean it can’t feature heavy themes, or that it has to dumb them down for a younger audience! I speak as someone who is extremely familiar with the Animorphs series - which is actually lower middle-grade. It’s basically like the poster-child for presenting complex themes and ideas appropriately in a middle-grade series. The way middle-grade is formatted is it’s about the writing structure (how simplified vs complex it is and so how easy is it for a middle-grade reader to understand) and how the concepts are presented, not about the actual concepts themselves. Animorphs is a really good example of this in that most of the books are less than 300 pages and the language is very simple. However, it doesn’t shy away from strong topics or dumb concepts down for the audience. It balances heavy topics with jokes in stride (see: The entire book about psychochemical warfare and the ethics of that, but the psychochemical warfare in question is dumping instant maple and ginger oatmeal on space slugs). And a lot of Animorphs books are actually ghostwritten! I would also argue the Warrior Cats books are another good example, particularly the novellas. They’re a similar length to TSATS, again written by a team of authors, are middle-grade rated, and don’t shy away from some pretty graphic stuff. They’re not the best books in the world, I mean, they’re rapidly churned out cat books for middle-schoolers. And they also tend to be full of errors. But at the very least most of the errors in the Warrior cat novellas aren’t basic structural stuff that you’d expect an editor to comb out within the first couple of passes or major basic details for a very prominent character or worldbuilding. Something equivalent to the types of errors in TSATS would be like a warrior cats novella about Brightheart not remembering how she got her scars or who Swiftpaw was or what Shadowclan is called, and every three chapters you read the jankiest sentence you’ve ever seen.

There are absolutely ways for the types of themes they were trying to handle in TSATS to be presented to a middle-grade audience appropriately, effectively, and with respect. TSATS was not even close to that. Again, I point to Animorphs! You wanna talk about writing PTSD for a middle-grade audience? Animorphs is your series. Animorphs gets into some heavy shit. But the way it’s presented is always appropriate for a middle-grade audience. Middle schoolers can handle more than people give them credit for (have you ever read middle-schoolers roleplaying warrior cats? I have. they do not hold back.) - they’re at the exact age where that type of stuff is not only interesting to them and they want to read about it, but that it’s important for them to begin to be introduced to those types of concepts in a way that’s appropriate for their age so that they’re prepared for when they encounter those topics or themes when they’re older.

The first Percy Jackson series actually does this really well! Percy has PTSD in the first book from Gabe! This is very clearly acknowledged and referenced throughout the first series (and even into Son of Neptune!) - and it’s specifically from Gabe, not being a demigod. We see characters grapple with grief and witnessing death and being in shock from that (the “dam” scene post-Bianca’s death, and the explicit acknowledgement that all the characters are so emotionally exhausted and harrowed from witnessing Bianca sacrifice herself for them that they get all giggly over stupid “dam” jokes). TSATS refuses to allow any emotional pay-off from the scenes. The Gorgyra interludes are the only thing keeping the pacing from being absolutely abhorred for half the book. There’s tons of narrative set-up that goes nowhere. There’s sentences that are so disjointed you wonder how they got written in the first place. This book shouldn’t have gotten past the editors, honestly.

#pjo #riordanverse #tsats #the sun and the star #analysis #long post //#i should really make a tag for my tsats posts like these #well. minus the fact that's been [checks notes] all of them for the past 2 years #deep sigh. i should stop complaining so frequently about tsats #but there's JUST SO MUCH #eh yall feel free to ask me questions about unrelated stuff to maybe break this up or smth

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