#hes actually what i use to track my art progress
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Mr. Qi Friendship and Romance Mod: 4/19 Progress Update
It's a working title, I'm trying to come up with something less wordy that still will pop up in Nexus searches.
I wanted to be able to track my progress, mainly for myself, but if you're curious, this is the state of the mod right now:
Writing:
Heart Events - the 2 heart event is fully written (with blocking directions), and the 6, 8, and 10 heart events are outlined. The 4 heart cutscene currently has me a bit stumped; I have ideas, but nothing concrete yet. I definitely now understand why Sam's 4 heart cutscene is him dropping an egg. 14 hearts is on the back-burner as a little treat to myself once I get further into things.
Generic Daily Dialogues - about 1/3 done, probably the highest priority for writing. I'm leaving his vanilla casino dialogue as the two heart dialogue, and the vanilla Walnut Room dialogue as his four heart dialogue, with a few small changes. And, since it's me, I have more marriage dialogue written than anything else...
Day-Specific Dialogues - very few written, lower priority. Hoping to have a lot of these made eventually, and I have plenty of ideas, but they aren't necessary for the core of the mod so they're on the back-burner for now.
Gift Dialogues - all 5 generic gift response dialogues are written, with an additional 22 dialogue lines for specific items/groups of items. I'm also up to around item 530 in figuring out what item corresponds to which dialogue/whether or not he likes it. Certain item groups, like cooked food, still need more lines, however. This is definitely something that should be low priority, but also something I'm really enjoying working on. Some personal favorites so far are-
[if given a fish (hated)]: "Eugh, it's all slimy..."
[if given a legendary fish (disliked)]: "If you must give me one of the rarest fish in the valley, can you at least wrap it so I don't have to touch it with my bare hands?"
And I think that's pretty funny.
Art
Portraits - 3 new portraits finished: "deep frown" "glint" and "glasses-less". I'll probably be messing with "glasses-less" for a looong while; it's first shown at a dramatic moment so it needs to look good. Blushing portraits are next on the docket.
Here's "glint" btw, with a background thrown on so I can have a custom icon. You know I gotta make him do the anime glasses thing a few times.
Sprites - no progress yet. Walk cycle is up next after I finish the blushing portraits. Did you know he doesn't have a walk cycle at all? [1.6 spoilers] in the cheated Summit cutscene where he attacks(?) you, he literally just slides at you very fast. Anyways, I may also change his map sprite a bit as well, since it was drawn to match his old portrait and doesn't actually have the same color scheme as his sprites. Note to self: is it possible to make the sparkles on his outfit prismatic?
Maps - no progress yet. The 6 heart and 10 heart cutscenes both require custom maps, with the 6 heart one being a fully custom asset. 10 heart recycles some existing assets but will still need some custom stuff done as well.
Misc Sprites - in my head, there's a dream version of the 8 heart cutscene that has so, so many unique sprites. Like an incredible amount of stuff. I think it'll kick ass, but also that sequence could be done with a few lines of text. So, for now, it's low priority. But maybe in a few months I'll put out a request for help.
Implementation
Not totally sure how to split this into sections yet, as I'm very much still in the preliminary stages so far. To say that I'm feeling overwhelmed is an understatement; documentation on the wiki swings wildly between "an asset is a file in a video game" and "this is an advanced tutorial. Read these 4 other pages first before continuing."
I've started using Ms. Coriel's NPC Creator which has been good for setting up the basic file structure, but ultimately doesn't cover some of the more complex stuff I want to do. EDIT: Turns out it's completely outdated for 1.6! Had to throw out a bit of work, but I still learned from it so it's fiiine.
I think setting up his "schedule" will be a challenge, in that I don't actually want him to have a real schedule like most NPCs. Not to pull back the curtain too much here, but I want him to "exist" in both the Casino and the Walnut Room simultaneously, which is to say, he does not exist in two places at once in the narrative, just in the code. This will change after marriage, however.
My next goal is to set up placeholder cutscenes for each of the heart events, and then to implement the generic daily dialogues once those are finished.
Final Notes
God, this will be a work in progress for a while, but I'm enjoying it! Definitely enjoying the writing more than anything else, but hey, that's how it be. I've got around 70 lines of dialogue written, a bit of art done, and I've started learning how to actually get stuff in game. I've always been more of a designer than a coder, but it's getting there!
ADDITIONALLY I've decided that if I abandon this project for more than 8 months, anyone is welcome to request my work so far and use it for their own mod. If this blog hasn't posted in a long while, feel free to send me an ask or message! I may say no, however.
Ultimately, I want this mod to exist in some fashion. While there is an existing one, I have a pretty different take on the character and I want to share it with you all! Every line of dialogue, every heart event, every little detail needs to share something interesting about a character and their world. Yet, Mr. Qi is a mysterious guy, and I think some things should be left up to player interpretation. And I think it's crucial to be able to match his tone and voice to the vanilla game, while also expanding on his characterization. It's a fun challenge to write, and I hope the finished product, uh, well I hope it gets finished mostly, but I think it'll be pretty good.
Thanks for reading all this. This is largely just a stream of consciousness for myself, but I hope it's...interesting, or something?
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ㅤCatch me if you can, working on my tan, Salvatore.
The summer's wild and I've been waiting for you, all this time, I adore you, can't you see you’re meant for me?
∴pairing: Sugar Daddy!Daemon Targaryen x fem!reader
∴warnings and notes: age gap, reader is 20+ but her age isn’t mencioned, smut. Inspired by Salvatore from Lana Del Rey.
The first time you saw him was at an exhibition at the Targaryen foundation, which depicted life in Old Valyria. He was magnetic, intense and almost too attractive. Truly inaccessible, you thought, however, life wanted to positively surprise you with the opposite of that. You weren't used to going to sophisticated places, although you were a girl with expensive and demanding tastes, so when your friend invited you to the event your heart almost jumped out of your mouth. It was so exciting to be among such a select few of New York's elite, you could almost relax for a moment. Almost.
Underneath the subtle makeup and cheap clothes — perfectly chosen for the occasion —you were scared. Not out of fear of discovering your humble nature, after all that never embarrassed you, but fear of rejection, of the superb and elitist look in your direction, fear of humiliation by unhappy and mean people. At the start of the exhibition your figure stood alongside your friend and her friend, Aegon Targaryen, a fully representative specimen of the rich fuckboy stereotype — at least he was funny. However, as the evening progressed and people became more relaxed, you assumed you could move around and mingle with less tension around people. You've talked to some of the Targaryen/Velaryon youths closer to your age. Two of them, Jacaerys and Daeron were genuinely adorable and even a little flirtatious, which made you slyly recoil upon realizing their interest.
In this way, finding yourself in a corridor away from the small crowd, you began to contemplate some paintings placed on the wall that didn’t belong to the exhibition. One of them caught your attention and captured you for a long time, it was a night city in a cyberpunk aesthetic in the shape of the upper part of a male silhouette. You've never seen anything like that.
"Do you like it?" A male voice asked very close to you, on your side actually.
And then he appeared. Tall, thin, short hair, with a discreet smile.
“Uh, I'm not a big art connoisseur, but I appreciate a beautiful painting,” you said.
“And what do you think of this one?”
You returned to contemplate the painting again, before replying: “I like the futuristic aesthetic. It's aggressive, rowdy and intimidating, it reminds me of works like Altered Carbon, it's chaotic and dark and I can't stop admiring it. I don't really know if it's futuristic at all, but it resembles me. I think it was my favorite so far.”
He didn't hide his satisfied expression upon hearing your opinion, looking away from his handsome face to the screen in question.
“The reference was a troubled phase of my youth, I spent nights awake in galleries in downtown New York, Chicago and Paris. It was more underground than it is today and I certainly have some scars, but nothing that time can put us back on track.”
His eyes sparkled in self-realization. That was not only the author of the painting, but he was also a Targaryen. How did you not notice before? The short gray hair and violet eyes were distinctive enough to give away a Valyrian for miles. Maybe it was some mechanism in your brain to avoid associating him with a descendant of the dragon and making you nervous again, but it didn't matter now, not when he was already beside you in that beige linen shirt with the long sleeves and collar and sophisticated posture.
“Daemon Targaryen,” he said, holding out his hand.
You introduced yourself with a shy smile, greeting him back. “Are these all yours? They are very good."
He didn't need to look at the other pictures in the hall to nod. “Only a few, most are in my gallery.”
“Oh,” was all you said. “How long have you been painting?”
“I like to say I was born with brushes for fingers,” he chuckled with a hint of smugness. “And as for you, what were you born to do?”
"I don't know. I never really knew. I like my field, although I haven't graduated yet, but I never had a big dream or talent for arts in general.”
The look he gave you was understanding, almost affectionate, nodding. You stayed the rest of the night together, and even though you hadn't lived a third of what he had told you, the oldest Targaryen didn't make light of your experiences and aspirations for the future, quite the contrary, he asked a lot about your tastes, your dreams, your preferences and desires. Even if you were apprehensive about being around the most charming man you'd ever seen, Daemon was good enough to break through your preoccupation and wrap you up in a spiral of seduction veiled in sophisticated words and good conversation. By the gods, how you longed for that night not to end and you had to return to your simple and unglamorous life, to your heavy routine of studies and tiredness with uninteresting boys unlike the handsome man at your side.
“You have a beautiful face, you know, I would love to have you in one of my paintings,” he said as he rested his glass of white wine on the shelf beside him, “and I can already imagine how.”
"How?" You smiled in ecstasy, especially when he moved a piece of your hair to your ear and caressed your face. Your heart froze a beat and your mouth parted, a part of the smile still visible. It seemed too unreal to be true, but you would never object to what was about to happen.
“I'd love to show you,” he said before cupping your face and pressing his lips to yours in a kiss that made you float. You grabbed the back of his neck to pull him closer and rose on tiptoe to reach him properly, only to find yourself deliciously pressed against the wall as he stole the breath from your lungs in the sexiest, most demanding way possible. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that your reality seemed fully magnified as he pulled back and stared into your face, still so close you could only get intoxicated on his expensive woody cologne. “Come to my apartment, I need you babygirl.”
Oh dear, an indecent sound nearly escaped your mouth at the nickname, your breathing turning into wheezes immediately. You've never been in a relationship with an older man, not for lack of interest, but there weren't any such attractive options close until tonight. It felt like a sensual dream, especially when he traced circular patterns on her neck with his thumb.
“Yes."
Daemon glared fiercely before pulling you gently around the waist and out of the room, opening the door for you to say goodbye to your friend and Aegon, hating the knowingly slutty look he directed at your figure. Your heart pounded with each traffic light the luxurious red convertible crossed, impressed by the ruby, blue and green lights that illuminated that part of town and even more by the large hand that was on your bare thigh. How you wished it would rise a little higher...
Luckily his dazzlingly modern apartment wasn't far away, with beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the sea of buildings and skyscrapers of the world's greatest metropolis. It was breathtaking. You couldn't help but walk to the center of the room, gently tapping the glass as a smile left your lips. "It's so beautiful."
“No more than you, I promise,” he whispered into your hair, next to your ear, sending shivers through the body. He curled one hand in front of your body, caging you between the glass as he brushed your hair away from your neck to sensually kiss your erogenous spot, making your eyes close and your hands rest on the glass. His vague hand ran over your waist and breasts, squeezing your flesh deliciously. “Have you been with a man before, babygirl? A real man, not these fuckers who don't know how to satisfy a girl properly.”
“No, I never have been,” you replied breathlessly, looking at him through the reflection.
“I will make sure you never forget this night.”
Daemon turned you around to kiss you, demanding to taste, lick, suck, and bite each of your mouths. He'd like to taste your sweet pussy right there, fucking your beautiful body against the glass, but he wanted more, so much more, he wanted to lay you on the bed while the blue light outside illuminated your body just like the painting he'd imagined. And so he did. He stripped you of your clothes before laying you on the white sheets, drinking in the masterful image before you. He leaned down to kiss and suck on your neck as he slid his hand down the length of your body to the wet spot between your legs, spreading your wetness with his fingers before massaging your clit incisively with the palm of his hand, making a long, breathy moan out of your throat as you held him from behind, desperate for more friction. He removed his hand from your legs to grab your breasts and bring them to his mouth, but was quick to repeatedly grind his clothed manhood against your needy, wet pussy. He smeared saliva on your breasts and continued to tread south, kissing and stroking your stomach with his big hands.
“Fuck,” he growled at the sight of your shimmering femininity, so eager for his attention. “So fucking pretty,” he said before kissing the inside of your right thigh, holding your hips in place to dip like a bee on your flower, eating you like no other has. You moaned loudly and squeezed your eyes shut, holding onto his hair as your legs unconsciously tightened around his head. He never wavered, devouring your pearl like a starving man only to feel your body relax beneath him, your orgasm coming so hot and wet it had you moaning pathetically as he licked for another moment. A proud smile appeared on his features, which was met by a shy and satisfied smile before your hands struggled to remove the last physical obstacle that separated them.
“Ready for me, love?”
You nodded during the long look at his beautiful member. How he would love to thrust into you with no hindrance, but that would be asking too much for a first night, he knew that. So when he returned to the bed with the condom on and settled himself between your legs, his hand on your knees, there was nothing to look forward to but losing himself in your wet heat, so deliciously hot and tight. He let out a guttural growl as you let out a sly moan, sagging in glee as your pussy was filled in a steady rhythm.
“Daemon,” you cried breathlessly, pulling him in for a sloppy kiss. He became deeper and faster in his movements. “Oh! Don’t stop!" Your whisper had him moaning in your ear and biting down on your bottom lip, fucking your sensual body hungrily.
“Fuckin' hells,” he growled as you squeezed him and milked him wet all over his cock, kissing the sensitive spot on your neck. He didn't last long after that, allowing himself to fully enjoy your heat to come hard over your body, rolling over to discard the condom and lying next to you, pulling you into his chest.
“That was amazing,” you said, smiling wide and tired, feeling your warm intimacy relax completely.
He just smiled and nodded silently, draping an arm over your shoulder. You didn't bother too much to stay awake, however, Daemon's low voice caught your attention.
“You said you never had great aspirations, but you also told me of dreams to be fulfilled, desires, everything you would like to have, see and live. Let me do it, babygirl, let me help you.”
Your eyes widened, looking up to meet his calm features. "Are you serious?" We don't even know each other well, this is a big step for both of us,” you said.
“We have enough time for that, I just need to know if you want it.”
This is definitely the best night of your life. Of course I do, holy shit I want it so bad. “Yes! I want it! I want it so much!” You kissed him sleepily, smiling against his lips. And that's how the dynamic between you began.
tag: my bestie @valeskafics cause she planted the idea of sugar daddy daemon in my head with this work here, check out her work! She's the queen of hotd content.
#daemon#daemon targaryen#daemon targaryen x reader#modern daemon#sugar daddy!daemon#sugar daddy daemon#daemon x reader#daemon x you#daemon targaryen x you#modern hotd#au#smut#daemon targaryen smut#matt smith
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my headcanons for if cornley put on a production of tgwdlm, for @marvelmaniac715 and any other cornley/hatchetfield folks <3
under a readmore because i have a lot to say sorry
chris plays paul because we know he loves that leading role. paul is supposed to show his love for his friends more and more as the show progresses, but because of everything going wrong, paul ends up becoming more and more angry at everything.
emma is initially played by vanessa (because as i have said before, my favourite goes wrongisms come from people playing characters they are ill suited for, and vanessa playing characters with much more attitude than she has is always funny to me). however, at the end of act 1 somewhere (probably somehow during join us and die), she gets bonked over the head and is knocked unconscious, leaving her unavailable for the second act.
this means that they have to understudy, and who’s the only understudy they have? trevor of course (a la nick lang understudying for lauren lopez). unlike nick lang, trevor doesn’t have a single clue what he’s supposed to be doing, and delivers a monotonous performance.
during the bit near the end where paul and emma almost kiss, trevor forgets to take the blood capsule that he is supposed to spit out. (idk how they do it in the real thing but just go with me on this please). this leaves no reason for paul and emma NOT to kiss. and therefore, they very awkwardly end up actually kissing. for the christrev fans out there <3
just before inevitable starts, vanessa gains consciousness. trevor doesn’t realise. this leaves everyone in confusion as they try to deal with TWO emma’s onstage as they sing.
max plays ted, because once again, cornley playing characters that do not suit them is my favourite thing. ted does not come across as a sleezeball at all, and during the ‘kick my head’ bit, it does not feel like ted is making fun of bill in any way.
however, ted’s enjoyment of show stoppin’ number is not an act at ALL. max is genuinely just having a good time. trevor is very put off by it all. life imitates art and vice versa.
by the time ted finally dies, chris is about ready to strangle max.
bill is played by jonathan, because jonathan canonically has a daughter and i feel like the not my seed angst would feel a bit more real. because as well as making fake cornley productions go wrong, i have to make them a little bit angsty as well. for the soul.
it also means that jonathan/bill is a bit late to all of his scenes (he got stuck behind a door). i feel like there’s many scenes where bill is the first to speak, meaning that the rest of the cast is awkwardly standing there while they wait for jonathan to get in.
sandra does the alice/zoey/greenpeace girl track, as she thinks it will be a good opportunity to show off her abilities in character work. no one comments on the fact that zoey isn’t really a character for her, just kind of how she is in real life.
there’s also a certain awkwardness about jonathan and sandra playing father and daughter that i think is fun.
robert plays hidgens. obviously. the most grandiose part for the most grandiose man. he goes full-out on show stoppin’ number, but then refuses to let hidgens die, wanting to continue his musical number. this causes problems.
annie plays charlotte. the main reason for this is because i want to hear nancy zamit belt join us and die <3 but apart from that i also think it has comedic potential.
the last track left to fill is mr davidson/sam/mcnamara. the only actor left is dennis. i will let you fill in the blanks.
KIDDING i will say more because i cannot shut up about anything. anyway there is a lot of responsibility on dennis because jeff blim has a LOT of singing and a LOT of parts. why dennis was cast in this role is a mystery (in-universe. in real life it’s because i think it would cause so many problems).
he does not come in on time during the title track, which messes the whole thing up for everyone.
he gets confused during what do you want paul, and starts singing it as ‘what do you want chris?’ instead. this brings a lot of confusion to the scene.
sam does not come across as sleazy in his first scene, and instead gets mixed up about which character he is. this makes sandra as zoey’s life very difficult.
during show me your hands, he accidentally starts pointing the gun at sandra and robert as the other cops instead. he also forgets to pretend to be unconscious once he gets knocked over the head, and adds unwanted commentary about the situation (“i think they should go to the hospital, because my brain shouldn’t be blue. even if it’s not my real brain. do you think my real brain is blue too?”)
he forgets what he’s doing in you tied up my heart, meaning annie has to instruct him on what to do throughout. this creates a rather unusual dynamic between charlotte and sam, where charlotte is highly frustrated as she falls for sam’s manipulation, which isn’t very convincing.
chris has to feed him lines during the mcnamara scene. dennis gets confused and throws the watch offstage instead of the phone.
as you may have guessed, america is great again is also a disaster. (“why is america great again? we live in england!”)
also at the very end the entire set falls down. because it’s cornley and they have to end with a bang!!!
anyway if anyone else has any headcanons, feel free to add on. hope you enjoyed <3
#i’m going to actually tag this because why the fuck not#mischief theatre#mischief comedy#cornley drama society#cornley polytechnic drama society#starkid#team starkid#starkid productions#the guy who didn’t like musicals#tgwdlm#hatchetfield
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IDW Sonic: Imposter Syndrome and #50
It’s finally here! IDW Sonic #50! I waited to talk about the Imposter Syndrome miniseries until after #50 dropped, and it turns out #50 has, uh... well, it’s made a big splash. I’m not sure I’ve seen this many people talking about (and/or arguing over) a single issue of Sonic in a long time.
As expected, in this post I’ll be talking about Surge, Kit, and Starline, but #50 has also given us a ton to chew on regarding Sonic and Eggman, Belle, and the overarching themes of the entire IDW series.
Let’s start out with the miniseries!
IMPOSTER SYNDROME
Surge rules
Can I just say that up front? That’s my main takeaway. Surge fucking rules
She was popular from the very second the first images of her dropped because Evan and Mauro came up with an extremely sick design, and the actual story does not disappoint. She borrows liberally from delinquent rival anime tropes (except, you know, she’s a girl, so it’s instantly even better), but that’s such a natural and fun addition to the Sonic cast that she instantly grabs you
And boy, if the writing and the strength of the design weren’t already enough, Thomas Rothlisberger’s art throughout the arc sure does. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to Rise of the TMNT, which I can see. But Surge just makes so many good faces, constantly, and everything she does is cool. She’s angry teenage rebellion personified and she’s instantly become one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, period. (Tangle and Whisper are also up there, so it’s safe to say the IDW comics have an extremely good track record when it comes to comic-original characters.)
Like seriously just look at her faces and tell me she isn’t the best
Kit, AKA “Aw Little Guy!!! Oh He's A Little Bit Fucked Up Actually”
There were always hints that Kit had a sinister side to him - he is a villain, after all - but Surge stole the show at the start of the miniseries. This left Kit mostly as her meager sidekick struggling to please both her and Starline. In this way, he’s a dark reflection of Tails. Where Tails has become more independent over time, becoming more of an equal to Sonic, Kit exists entirely to support Surge. Starline made him this way, because this is how Starline perceives Sonic and Tails’ relationship. Starline doesn’t really understand people despite thinking he does, and this is what ultimately damns all of them
Naturally, this has left Kit kind of fucked up. Over the course of the arc, it becomes clear that he’s probably the scarier of the two. Surge might be stronger, but like Sonic, she wears her emotions and her intentions on her sleeve. But Kit? Kit suppresses his violent urges, until they build to a point where he can’t anymore
(these panels from #50 but still)
Holy shit, Starline???
I touched on Starline’s very meta plan earlier. I would have honestly been happy if Ian and co. had just added these cool new rivals for Sonic and Tails and let them duke it out, because they are, in fact, cool as hell. But the actual plot of the arc is more intriguing than that
Starline has always been a very meta character, with his main trait as a character basically being that he can zoom out and notice patterns in the franchise that other characters either can’t or won’t. He’s the guy who watches a movie and says how he would make smarter decisions than the characters the whole time. Early on, he did this with Eggman. He tried to “fix” Eggman’s methods so that he could finally succeed in beating Sonic and taking over the world, but this didn’t work out, and Eggman kicked him to the curb. He then decided that he would simply go solo and take over the world for Eggman. He finally reveals his true plan for doing so here: create his own “heroes” who can replace Sonic and Tails, the main heroes who always stand in the way of “progress” (Eggman taking over the world). In theory, this will allow Starline to control the hero/villain dynamic from both sides, ending the cycle of Eggman trying to “change the world” and Sonic stopping him
And of course, Starline calls this cycle he intends to break...
“The Sonic Cycle.”
I love you Ian
It quickly becomes apparently, though, that Starline’s plan here is, uh. Extremely fucked up! Wow! Early on it’s revealed that Starline has repeatedly been “rebooting” Surge and Kit. Any time the cracks start to show in their conditioning and they question their life stories, Starline’s orders, or their innate desires to defeat Sonic and Tails, Starline edits their memories. They do start to put two and two together, though, and eventually they learn the truth: they’re just two random kids Starline kidnapped and experimented on. They don’t remember their actual pasts, and Starline didn’t bother to keep track of who they originally were because he doesn’t care. They’ve been modified with cyborg endoskeletons and even have some of the Metal Virus in them, making them nigh-unkillable. Which Starline tested by... well, killing them repeatedly to make sure they always bounced back.
This is... so much darker than I would have ever expected? But in a fantastic way. It makes Starline SO absolutely despicable, and it gives Surge and Kit this pathos that makes you want to root for them, even as they set out to go rogue and burn the whole world down. Surge is very much set up as her own antihero in the buildup to her showdown with Sonic, which is a choice that I think leads to some fascinating character juxtaposition when it finally happens in issue #50.
Really, my only complaint about the miniseries was that the marketing made it seem like Sonic and Tails would be dealing with these two sooner, when in reality this is all the setup. The extremely hype wrestling promos for the climactic Wrestlemania that is Sonic #50. (My other complaint, I suppose, is that IDW is still having multiple artists trade off in a single story, which can be a bit jarring. But that’s a publisher-wide issue.)
But MAN. When we finally do get that big showdown? It does not disappoint.
SONIC #50
As with Imposter Syndrome, I went in expecting Sonic and Tails to fight Surge and Kit. And we absolutely got that with this extra-long issue penciled by Adam Bryce Thomas. Adam’s always been an A-lister on the IDW series, especially when it comes to bombastic shounen manga-inspired battles, but this issue might just be his best Sonic work yet
But like I said at the start, the issue is more than just some cool fights.
Sonic vs. Surge
Surge’s entire life, or at least what little of her life she can remember thanks to Starline, has been building up to this moment. Whoever she was before is gone, replaced with one purpose. She’s been impatiently awaiting the day she's finally allowed to fight Sonic to the death. We’ve followed her through Starline’s inhumane training, the audience being equally antsy after months of buildup. At long last, she confronts him. She delivers an impassioned speech about what she stands for, how she curses the world that discarded her, how she’s going to tear Sonic and anyone else who stands in her way a new one...
And Sonic... doesn’t really give that much of a shit.
They do fight, of course. Boy, do they ever. But Sonic has never met this girl before and has no animosity towards her. He’s also done this too many times and would like to skip to the part where they’re friends, or at least frenemies. And this is just... tragic for Surge. For her, this is the most important day in her life. But for Sonic, it’s Tuesday. For Surge, this is a duel to the death. But Sonic, ever the unflappably positive shounen protagonist, is just having fun fighting someone who keeps him on his toes. He refuses to validate her on her terms.
(There are also a lot of interesting parallels with Tails’ simultaneous fight with Kit, where the kindhearted Tails is trying to be extremely nice and defuse the situation when he realizes that Kit is just some poor, fucked up kid. But instead of going on my own tangent I’ll link this very good TikTok analyzing Sonic’s social skills and the interesting ways his blunt, brash attitude can clash with the fact that he does genuinely care a lot.)
I even feel like Adam’s art is playing up the idea that Sonic’s attitude continues to make him the villain for Surge. His speech about his ideals places him above Surge, with a smug expression on his face and sunbeams shining down over him. Adam’s own (extremely sick) variant cover is framed very similarly, showing us the smug and above-it-all Sonic from Surge’s perspective.
Why does Surge think Sonic is so holier-than-thou? And why does she still care about fighting him if she just wants to defy Starline’s brainwashing? Well, she directly calls out his belief in the power of second chances, blaming Sonic for her very existence. Which ties back into what’s become one of the main recurring themes of the IDW series.
Sonic’s Characterization
As Ian’s explained, Sonic’s characterization in the IDW series has been informed by a number of factors. For one, more compassionate heroes are just landing better with audiences these days, including in shounen manga. Your Dekus, your Tanjiros, etc. But beyond that, Sega explicitly forbids Sonic and friends from proactively seeking out Eggman. Sonic is never looking for a fight. Eggman simply causes trouble, Sonic shows up to stop him, and he returns to being a free-spirited roamer.
Really, Sonic’s attitude in the current comics isn’t much different from how he acts in the games. Ian just decided to draw more attention to this behavior, and turn it into an explicit character trait that impacts the story.
I don’t really know what games people have been playing where Sonic DOESN’T act like this? Sure, there are a few games where a villain dies. There are always going to be counterexamples in a series as inconsistent as this. But look at how many characters Sonic has given second chances, and how lightly Sonic often takes threats to the world. Shadow was trying to blow up the damn planet and Sonic was still just having fun racing him on the ARK. Chaos destroyed a whole major metropolitan city and Sonic is like “hold on, Chaos is just hurt, we need to break this cycle of violence.” He’s ended up working with Eggman plenty of times to stop a greater threat. Even when this doesn’t happen, Eggman tends to just fly away at the end. Sonic never hunts him down. Again, Sega forbids him from doing this. It’s not in his character. The IDW comics just explore why.
At the same time, bad faith criticisms of Sonic’s willingness to give villains second chances tend to ignore the very important second part of this mantra, which this issue has Sonic spell out explicitly. Yes, he believes in giving people personal freedom. But the second they use that freedom to hurt people, Sonic is going to beat their asses again. He doesn’t have qualms about using violence in that way. He is, by no definition of the word, a pacifist. Sonic understands that Surge is traumatized, and tries to give her the chance to back down. She refuses, so he kicks her ass, because she’s a threat. Sonic sort of took mercy on the Zeti, in that he didn’t fucking execute them or whatever... but they also got banished back to the Lost Hex where they can’t hurt anyone. Tails disarmed Metal Sonic before they let him go. Sonic let Eggman go only because he had amnesia and Mr. Tinker was, by all accounts, a literal different person. The second he came back? Sonic gladly went right back to blowing his shit up. He is not out here handwringing about Eggman Empire property damage, he’s destroying his bases and smashing his mechs again.
Sonic also isn’t just any regular guy, and can’t always be judged as such. He’s a larger-than-life hero. He’s the embodiment of freedom, of endless adventure, of the power of friendship, of other idealized... well, ideals. This is the very core of his character. He’s the unshakably positive hero who never blinks in the face of danger, who the other, more realistically fallible characters can lean on. He’s a force of nature. He’s not perfect, and he doesn’t always handle things the right way, and other characters will bring up valid counterpoints to his way of life. Like other shounen heroes like Goku or Luffy, he might be a hero due to his actions, but he’s not concerned about being the world’s savior or its god. He doesn’t want to dictate how people live their lives. He leaves decisions about how to run society to other, smarter people, like the Restoration. He just wants to be free to go on adventures and to help his friends when they’re in need. His theme song spells out his whole deal, clear as day: It doesn’t matter who’s wrong and who’s right. He’s just living by his own feelings, and he won’t give in, won’t compromise. He only has a steadfast heart of gold.
Surge can’t stand this, though. The two just can’t see eye to eye. And so she zaps Sonic when he takes a time out in their fight to help her out of a chasm, getting the last laugh and seemingly falling to her doom. “That’s the real problem with giving people a choice,” Sonic solemnly says. “You can’t stop them from making the wrong ones.”
The Bigger Problem
Beyond any fandom bickering over how Sonic should or shouldn’t be characterized, though, this is part of a larger problem that I’ve seen way too frequently in recent years. Adults are engaging with genre fiction for children, and then getting upset when the child protagonists fail to model what they perceive as proper behavior for adults. Particularly, adults are seeing child protagonists learn to solve conflicts nonviolently, or even merely refusing to kill a villain, and interpreting this media as a political playbook for adults telling them that punching Nazis is bad.
That’s not to say that children’s media is never political, of course, or that you can never judge it through a political lens. (Back in the Archie days the direct political allegories were NOT subtle.) But just because some cartoon villains are obvious stand-ins for fascists doesn’t mean that every cartoon with a world-conquering villain is trying to tell you, an adult, how you should deal with fascists, or murderers, or whatever bad faith comparison critics on YouTube and Twitter want to make this time.
This will hopefully be insultingly obvious to most people reading this, but fiction isn’t always literally about the thing it’s depicting, or the closest real world equivalent. In genre fiction, and especially genre fiction for kids, reality is heightened. A fight for the fate of the city or the world or the universe isn’t necessarily about world-scale threats in real life like fascism, or even about real world violent conflicts in general. It’s often more about the emotions than what’s literally happening on screen. In a musical, when the emotions get too strong for words, they break out into song. In an action cartoon, when the emotions get too strong between conflicting characters, they fight. The fantastical violence is just the medium through which the story is conveyed. They trade blows and express their feelings.
Similarly, when the child hero in a series for children saves the day by hugging the right person, or when a villain is redeemed, or when Naruto espouses the power of friendship and uses Talk no Jutsu for the hundredth time, that isn’t telling you, a 30-year-old, that you can go out right now and save America by giving Mitch McConnell a hug. The morals of these stories aren’t necessarily supposed to apply to world-scale conflicts because children are not responsible for saving the world in real life. Instead, the lessons apply more to conflicts that children do deal with. Disputes with friends, or family members, or teachers. Things like that. It’s telling kids that hey, maybe you’ve been mean to people, maybe you’ve acted wrong, but you can learn from your mistakes and do better. That is what lessons about trying to resolve conflicts peacefully, talking about your feelings, empathizing with others, and giving people second chances are supposed to be about. They (usually) aren’t intended as political playbooks for adults telling you not to punch a Nazi, because the people telling these stories are probably hoping that adults aren’t modeling their political behavior after Cartoon Network and Shonen Jump.
But while I generally enjoy this compassionate take on the Sonic series, there is one part of the issue that felt weaker when it comes to the heroes showing compassion towards the villains.
Belle and Metal
If there’s one character from the games that I think Ian has always struggled with more than others, it’s probably Metal Sonic. Of course, not every writer is going to gel with every character, especially on a licensed series where you’re working with someone else’s cast. (Lord knows if I was to write a Sonic series I would play favorites lmao.) And Ian’s definitely put out some great Metal Sonic stories. But he’s also prone to boiling the character down to a simple killer robot for Sonic and co. to repeatedly defeat without any interiority.
Belle has also been a contentious character throughout this season. I’ll reiterate that I think Belle is great, and the big emotional beats with her have been strong. I would say the mixed response to Belle is primarily a matter of pacing, more than anything else. As Evan explained over on her blog, Belle's backstory was originally just going to be a short one-off. When the 2021 Annual was replaced with the Classic Sonic special, Belle’s story got turned into the main overarching subplot connecting the stories of the third season. I do like a lot of the storytelling this allowed for. The buildup to the reveals in the Test Run arc, and her ensuing tearful breakdown; her questioning of her very nature as a Badnik; her heroic moments in Trial by Fire where she’s finally able to prove herself. It’s good stuff! Character arcs like this are why original characters are added to the comics in the first place. But I can also see how the slow and somewhat repetitive rollout of information and emotional beats is a bit much over a year and a half of comics, and it was a little odd to have her stick around as the only consistent main character for every single arc of the season as soon as we met her. But I still enjoyed her arc this season as a whole.
No, where I start to be more mixed on the direction of Belle as a character is this issue. Previously, Belle had made it her mission to try and save as many Badniks as she could. I understand her motivation, and I do think this has potential to be a fun premise. Badniks are EXTREMELY underutilized in the tie-in fiction, and anyone in this corner of the fandom who’s following artists like Hydro knows how fun it is to have Badnik characters around.
But the problem is, of course... if we start to recognize the Badniks that Sonic destroys casually as people, doesn’t that make it wrong for him to destroy them?
I guess it depends on the context, and how it’s executed in the future. Like, Motobud was fine because that’s not just A Motobug, but one that was specifically reprogrammed by Mr. Tinker to be friendly. But what’s Belle’s endgame here? Where is the line drawn between robots that need to be saved and simple obstacles for Sonic to pop in action sequences?
To me, we start to see the cracks in issue #50 with Belle’s attempts to save Metal Sonic. Metal is certainly no stranger to redemption arcs and characters trying to see the good in him - the OVA basically defined him as a character. But still. It’s admirable for Belle to see a robot who’s hurt and want to help, but the sympathy shown for Metal is laying it on a bit thick for me given Ian’s usual characterization of him as a missile with legs. Sonic already let him go once early in the series, but that was specifically because he thought Eggman was gonna remain Mr. Tinker forever at the time, and he and Tails also made sure not to restore his full fighting abilities. (”We’re compassionate, not stupid.”) But in this very different context, with a very different character, it’s just... eh, it didn’t sell me on this as a wise use of Belle’s compassion. If she wants to help the “abandoned” Eggman bots, Metal is very much not one of those. He just happened to have been hurt by Surge when they found him.
Not the end of the world, but it’s the weak part of what’s otherwise an amazing issue, and I worry that Belle showing complete and total sympathy towards every Eggman robot may get old fast. But, like I said, it will depend entirely on the execution. Maybe she’ll only single out the oddballs like herself and Motobud. It may not even be a huge element of the story moving forward, since I know Evan’s outright said Belle would be taking more of a backseat now that her initial arc is completed. (It also seems like Eggman wants to take advantage of the fact that she interfaced with Metal, so her kindness here may backfire...)
If anything, though, I do like the little awkward family reunion where Belle is telling Eggman that she’s done hoping he’ll go back to being Mr. Tinker and is gonna go live her own life and Metal is just kind of standing there because he won’t attack another Eggman creation.
Anyway! I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the giant robot fight
Starline’s Final Comeuppance
Sonic’s ideals, as explained in his fight with Surge, are also directly contrasted with Starline as he fights Eggman. Sonic stands for personal freedom, for better or worse, but Starline stands for total control, even more so than Eggman. He tries to manipulate people and the very story he exists in to steer everyone in the totalitarian direction he thinks is best. Anything outside of his narrative doesn’t matter. Even as Eggman is fighting him in a giant mech, he’s still under the impression that his actions are justified, that Eggman will be okay with being a pawn in his scheme so long as they get their happy ending ruling the world.
Instead, he loses a sick-ass mech fight, he’s humiliated worse than ever before, and then he dies!
I actually didn’t read it as a death at first because being crushed by rubble is such an easy “death” to write around, and it’s, you know, a comic book. Nobody stays dead in comic books. (We already know Surge survives this issue, regardless of how it looked.) But Ian did, indeed, intend for this to be Starline’s death. He also admits that that’s not entirely up to him since he’s not the only person making story decisions, so I won’t be surprised if he comes back in a year or two. Regardless, as much as I like the character, this is probably the most fitting death Starline possibly could have had. He thought he could outsmart Eggman, and the very nature of the series he’s in. Some readers, too, have accused Ian of writing Eggman as too much of a bumbling oaf in the IDW comics, especially with Starline always pointing out his mistakes. Even the marketing for this arc seems to have played into this, asking if Eggman would “bumble his way to a victory”
All this for the ultimate slam dunk in this issue where Ian definitively reminds us that, even if he can never beat Sonic... no one else can definitively beat Eggman, either.
Because Eggman fucking rules
I said at the top that Starline is damned because he doesn’t understand people as well as he thinks he does. He creates Surge and Kit as dark and deeply broken reflections of Sonic and Tails because he so fundamentally misunderstands how their dynamic works. He thinks he understands Eggman, too, but he doesn’t. He may consider himself Eggman’s #1 fan, but he’s a toxic fanboy with faulty criticisms. He’s CinemaSins. He focuses on the details and the logic, he nitpicks, and he thinks he could do everything better if given the opportunity. He thinks he understands the nature of the series he’s in, but he fails to see the big pictures, the heart. He doesn’t understand why Sonic is really the hero beyond his strength and bravado. He doesn’t understand why Tails is a hero beyond his ability to support Sonic. And he doesn’t understand why, despite his many mistakes, Eggman will always endure as the true big bad of this world. And this leads to his downfall at the hands of his idol
I could say more about this issue and the ones that lead to it! I have obviously already said way too much. I’m gonna cut it off here!
Even with all the hype to live up to, this was an extremely satisfying issue of Sonic. One of the best in a long, long time. This one’s gonna stick with people. I have my quibbles, but it really has it all. Action, humor, drama, heart, stunning artwork, and a whole lot of character work to think about. Can’t really ask for more, can I?
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Ive been thinking about pokemen and the new pokemon sleep app. Since Larry is constantly sleep deprived and tired, would he like the pokemon sleep app? maybe it makes him feel like he's being rewarded for sleeping or maybe he'll brush it off.
I can imagine Emmet really getting into it and starts sleeping AGGRESSIVELY to fill his dex faster than anyone, while Ingo casually uses it every now and then.
Meanwhile, Colress is more interested in the data the app picks up, and Volo scoffs at the app until he finds out you can get a togepi that has a rocking type sleep. He still talks shit about the app but you see his team is consisted entirely of togepi, leveled out to the max.
Nanu, Piers and Grimsley dont give a fuck tho.
I should probably start using it to give a data broker a heart attack over my sleeping schedule lol
Larry might use it at the behest of Poppy begging him, too, but his sleeping schedule is pretty consistent around his jobs. It's still not a lot, but he's definitely not opposed to sleeping. He probably keeps it up to just show Poppy what progress he's made in the app.
Emmet is winning Pokémon Sleep even if that's not possible. He's trying to make a competition out of it with Ingo. He deeply enjoys seeing what pokemon he can obtain. Ingo isn't happy with his napping on the office couch. Somehow this annoys him more than Emmet's other work proclivities.
Ingo is used to entertaining Emmet's competition, plenty used to being the older sibling getting into something to appease their younger one. He might enjoy keeping track of his sleeping schedule better and might actually realise he needs more sleep. Also, he won't admit it, but he likes seeing the cute art.
Colress wonders what metrics the app decides on things and whether there's any truth to the sleeping mannerisms mentioned. It's time to observe how pokemon sleep, he supposes. It does nothing for his awful sleeping schedule. You tried.
Volo barely can work a phone, but he's trying. His Togepi collection is concerning. At least he's enjoying himself, you guess. You don't like it when he asks you if you think Arceus may appear in the game.
Nanu might do it a few times if you ask him, actually. He entertains Acerola's requests enough. Plus, there's Meowths.
Grimsley does it to try it but doesn't get into it. Not enough wagering and gambling for his tastes.
Piers ends up in the Larry/Nanu boat. Marnie asks him to try it, and he begrudgingly gives in. Doesn't really do it outside of whenever she pesters him about it. You, too, he supposes.
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Is it okay to ask if we could lean more about your OCs in the Finfolk AU? Like, what’s their work life, the roles they’ll play, what are their hobbies, and what was the inspiration when creating them? Oh, and will we see your butterfly OC by any chance? I love butterfly characters because of the unique and mesmerizing wing patterns.And fun fact, some butterflies are actually attracted to blood.
Sorry for the rambling.
I don't mind at all! Though I've never been one to make many OCs. It was only until after Welcome Home did I consider making any at all so they aren't really finished. Also I am an indecisive person on personal creative projects like this.
Both Ankor and the butterfly OC are works in progresses since I could not decide on their appearance and backgrounds, but I do have a general idea of what I want them to be so I'll share!
Ankor, who might be renamed to something more fitting, is supposed to be a shark-like dog similar to Barnaby but his features are much more sharp and he gives off an aura of strength. I got this inspiration from seeing funny videos of sharks acting like puppies around some divers because they wanted pets on the head (they were literally pushing each other out of the way for a good scratch it was so cute).
Ankor's character is that of someone who loathes injustice so he often goes about setting things right. Or well, making the scales even. He's not a "good guy", but he's not really a villain at heart. He cares about others but he does things in a violent and lethal way. More often than not, he'll be wearing silk-like furs that are really just selkie furs. No, Ankor isn't hunting them or anything like poachers do, it's actually just a good way to try and find the coat's owner because he usually does concerts near coastal regions (Side explanation: I personally think in a world of magical creatures and normal ones there would absolutely be people sick enough to hunt others for their magical qualities so I added poachers in this universe because it adds a bit more depth and danger to anyone with magic in them). He has a giant audience which means there will be lots of eyes that will see the coat so someone is bound to come forward later and get it back. He repeats this over and over whenever a new coat is found and given back to the owner. Oh, but do not lie to him. He will absolutely know when someone is lying, and he does no take well to others lying straight to his face.
As for the music he does? I'm still deciding on that.
During his free time, Ankor sometimes visits the island to see Barnaby and just hang out. The island is very quiet, there's no chance of him being tracked there, and the finfolk that Barnaby lives with all have useful items that he often buys from them. It's a win win honestly.
Onto the butterfly OC. That one I almost got rid of.
Bit of a rant sort of, it's still a touchy subject to me
At the time last year, I don't remember around what month, but it was when Welcome Home was booming, I ended up getting lots of messages from people on X about my OC and if I could draw NSFW art of her or draw Wally. The fandom seems to have this pattern of wanting NSFW from artists of either the WH characters or their OCs. It is very concerning behavior and I decided to drop anything that could possibly be NSFW or leaning towards it in any way even though I wanted my OC to be sexy or drop dead gorgeous (she's a butterfly, of course she needs to be that). But it appears that adults on X and in this fandom are too immature for that.
Her whole design was something I wanted to be alluring because of her nature. I actually did take in the fact that butterflies drink blood, sweat, and tears literally, purposefully irritating the eyes of animals to make them cry, or eating dead flesh off of reptiles. I was thinking of making her a beautiful vampire but decided against that because it felt too generic.
I think, if butterflies could truly gain higher sentience and they became giant they would not be kind at all, but flesh-eating monsters that used their pretty looks to lure others in or take advantage of others. Also, my gods, their wings would probably get massive if they became even human-sized. Gorgeous, but massive enough to cause damage.
I didn't really take the chance to flesh out her character, but I did with her personality. She has a deep French accent and a gentle but elegant aura to her and with every step she takes she looks like royalty. And she'll still keep that act up when she's drinking away at her victim's life force and blood. I wanted this OC to be as cold as ice, but lovelier than the brightest star.
If she did have a job, I could only imagine it would be modeling at fashion shows, being a designer herself, being in ballet shows, or some sort of famous singer.
As for personal non-fandom OCs? I have very few, barely even two. In fact, these two are just a mere idea of a story I want to make, but I'm not sure how.
I'll share it some other time because I really have no idea of how I can possibly express these ideas other than imagine Swan Lake, but the guy she's in love with is an evil dark lord that wants to take over the world and she's a rogue knight from an opposing kingdom that's trying to kill him and they have no idea who each other are they just want each other dead but they find each other so pretty they can't do anything about it. 😭
#welcome home#welcome home finfolk au#welcome home au#finfolk#welcome home arg#au#wally darling#oc idea#oc#ocs
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Sonic Underground 04: To Catch a Queen
I’m watching Sonic Underground in search of inspiration to finish a fic I’ve been writing forever. It’s a sad state of affairs. See the recap of the first three episodes here, if you're interested!
This is episode 4: To Catch a Queen, which is the first of the ‘real’ episodes, and promptly pretends the first three episodes never happened, what are you talking about, this whole thing’s been going on for ages right? It’s all about finding Aleena. Always was. Honest.
The plot (for want of a better word): Robotnik captures and robotocises the former Captain to Queen Aleena’s guard. On the search for their mother, the royal triplets liberate the captain, temporarily restore his sentience, and learn secrets to their past!
Man, a single paragraph synopsis actually makes these terrible episodes sound interesting…
“Queen Aleena here” giving us a situ report. She usually introduces the episodes, but this start is… weird.
Also, last episode Sleet and Dingo were independent contractors forced into service to track down the Oracle of Delphius and royal triplets, not the queen. Don’t talk like their goal being capturing you is a given, Aleena.
Oh, the van. This poor van is going to be gained and destroyed so many times in this series.
Aaaaand Sonia’s in love with Bartleby this episode. I’m starting another counter (1/37 episodes to Bartleby) (the first three episodes don’t count). Why will become evident as we progress.
As with the van, same with Sonia’s bike. That poor, poor bike.
I do love 90s kids cartoons Hero Morality. Someone calls out to ‘save my baby’ and the Heroic Character must drop everything to save anything thrown at them. Even though it looks like a football. “Loser” is a correct assessment, Dingo.
Yowch. You know, robotocisation is scary when you think about it, but even just on the surface there’s something distressing about it when you see a character go from flesh, fur, and blood to full robot. No wonder we were all scared of the egg boy in the 90s.
Ah yes, Sonia’s super strength/martial arts. Another counter, folks, because this isn’t going to come up much. +1!
Manic using Sonic’s voice! Want to re-do this scene Jaleel? No, of course not, you’re right, we have no time. Carry on.
Okay, so another cool world building detail is this ceremony, which at first I questioned (always a mistake) until I realised that yeah, a dictator would 100% do this. It’s a fear rally. Propaganda. Intended to show the general populace his power and control and that This Could Happen to You. Man, old school Robotnik was a scary bastard.
Wh- where did – they have always had the power to restore robotocised people’s sentience, of course, I knew this, and so did you, stop asking questions.
And the robotocised victim recognises the kids! That he wouldn’t have seen since they were younger than one! Of course he does!
And he tells them nothing before losing sentience. And then Robotnik reads his memories, so both Robotnik and the kids are looking for the queen based on half a sentence.
Look, there have been worse plots.
The SONG: The 411. I have no comparisons, though I feel like Simple Plan would be ashamed to realise how close some of their songs sound to it…
At least for once Sonia’s on Manic’s case instead of Sonic’s… and then Manic whores out his sister for information. Cool. So cool. I loved his character as a kid, what was wrong with me?
Heeey, Sonic’s fear of water, actually seeded long before it becomes an issue! Story telling props where due! Well done, Trashfire.
Sonic… is being a good leader? The siblings following his lead? What? Where did this – I mean – not complaining, but… what?
This time, Aleena, I will allow you running away, but honestly, woman.
There is a reason The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog worked, which was that Sonic as played by Jaleel White makes an excellent roadrunner. This episode reminds us of why. I love his wouldn’t melt butter smile.
Before you get excited, no, this storyline isn’t going anywhere. The ability to restore minds isn’t going anywhere. Literally the only thing that is is Sonic’s fear of water. But we take it.
I, of course, made way too much of the ability to restore minds which will never come up again, because I spent an awful lot of my childhood overthinking robotocisation. The Archie comics or SatAM never got that scary about it, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog didn't have it at all, so my only explanation for why it consumed my brain so much is the Trashfire. Because it's a real, tangible threat here which will recur, and this episode is the closest they come to ever implying a cure.
But I demand happy endings. So even as a kid, I was overthinking how do you get a happy ending out of this... that's probably where the Lost Prince started, if I'm honest...
The counters:
Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality: 2
Sonia's super-strength: 1
Sonia's in love with Bartleby: 1/37
Come back tomorrow if you want to know more!
#sonic underground#lediz fics#sonic the hedgehog#sonia hedgehog#manic hedgehog#it's still terrible#robotocization#robotnik#eggman#kids cartoons seeding IDEAS
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some stuff abt my favorite iredeemable freak ^_^
uhhhhh some general warnings . lots of talk abt murder (he's a slasher it is what it is) some mention of/implied child abuse, vague reference to cannibalism, white man jumpscare
how kenny goes from revenge killing his abuser to just straight up serial killing:
▶kenny kills his old man & gets away with it
▶he wants to relive that moment of finally feeling like he had power over his father, but he's not a necromancer. so he goes for the next best thing: finding an older man to kill pov you are my dad (you're my dad) boogie woogie woogie style
▶eventually (after a couple more kills or smth) kenny is like man if im gonna keep this up and not get caught i have got to find a way to get them somewhere out of public (this is prob b4 he learns the art of breaking and entering)
▶kenny switches to primarily targeting older married men. because he needs to get his victims to go somewhere secluded and out of the way with him, and whats the one thing a young, pretty guy can offer older, unhappily married men that will get them to go somewhere alone with him in secret?
▶eventually through whatever means kenny has the realization that oh. this isn't limited to just dirty old men. i just Like Killing In General, and just about Anybody will follow you just about anywhere if you're cute enough and they think ur gonna let them hit
▶kenny officially enters his 'he should NOT be at the club' era
the mess kenny's trial causes:
▶the people living in foxhole are generally very frustrated with the police. aside from more general acab reasons, public opinion of the police department is very low bc there are so many murders/missing persons cases and no answers or any real progress being made. general consensus is that the police are incompetent (real and true tbh).
▶kenny's trial doesn't help the police salvage their image. he doesn't refute any of the allegations made against him, freely admitting to any murder they pin on him - and to be fair. he did commit a good amount of them. he also just as freely admits when he doesn't remember committing specific murders, but still goes 'yeah i probably did that' anyway, bc he isn't aware of vivian's existence yet
▶for his part, kenny doesn't care enough to dispute the crimes he Didn't commit. and hey, for all he knows? maybe he does sometimes just black out and eat people in the woods. genuinely weirder shit has happened to him
▶ken phoenix is sentenced to death. somehow it gets out to the public that ken was not conclusively deemed fit to stand trial, but was tried anyway. some believe kenny wasn't a murderer, and was in fact just a very, Very mentally ill man, sparking public outrage over the police's incompetence. but like, no guys. they actually got it right this time. it's just that there is a second freak out there
▶normally, death row inmates can be there for years, up to literal decades. kenny's execution was fast tracked - so many people have been dying/going missing & the police need a win. they want this guy dead asap so they can tell the public look! we got the guy he's dead the day is saved and we're definitely not incompetent :)smile . but then the killings continue, even though ken phoenix is (legally) dead
▶him going from trial to sentencing to death row to lethal injection so quickly contributes to public outrage, alongside the killings continuing even after kenny is "killed." the public's fuck-the-police meter is at an all time high, and there's a secret third freak looking to take advantage of that sentiment (hi simon ^_^)
other shit:
▶ken is vain in a very smug way. he knows he's got a cute face and uses it for evil
▶kenny's burns were definitely a lot more extensive when they were fresh, bc kiera and cindy Trapped him in a locked room in that house before lighting it the fuck up. and after a certain point the house just collapses and buries him in on-fire wood, and he just cooks in there for a bit b4 vivian comes along and picks him up by the scruff out of the smoldering wreckage
▶for a while, until they start to heal, kenny is just wiped the fuck out on whatever surface vivian dumps him on. bc existing hurts and he's in desperate need of aloe vera
▶kenny is 12 when his mother is murdered, 19 when he kills his father, and by the time he's arrested and put on trial, he's 23 and in his 2nd year of college. he's almost exactly 10 years younger than vivian
▶ken's pupils are stuck at maximum dilation, but his eyes are so dark it's normally impossible to tell. if a uv light is shined on his eyes, however, the thin rings of his irides can be seen. but good luck getting him to keep his eyes open long enough to see - his eyes are very sensitive to light, despite being so dark. this also contributes to him becoming mostly nocturnal after the lethal injection
▶your greatest self defense weapon against kenny is one of those super laser blast industrial flashlights. or one of those stupid strong laser pointers that can get you arrested if you shine them at an airplane. shine that shit in his eyes and sprint for your life
▶ken is very pale, has a far slower-than-average heart rate, runs cold, and doesn't blink very often. if need be, he can play a very convincing corpse
▶hypothetically, if somewhere who were, say, extra sensitive to psychic & supernatural phenomena were to come into direct contact with whatever it is that's keeping kenny alive and everybody's problem. it would not end well
▶after kenny is put to death, from a forensic standpoint, they have no fucking idea what's going on. the leading theory is that the real killer stole ken's corpse from the morgue and is dragging him around on a tour-de-stab to mock the police. in reality, that weasely twink just woke up in the morgue and walked out
▶during the sentencing hearing, as the judge is giving justification for why kenny's sentence is what it is, they make a comment along of lines of 'i would not be surprised if he had assisted his father in his mother's killing.' this pisses kenny the fuck off, and he attempts to get at the judge and kill them right then and there. he's cuffed down, but cuffs don't mean much to a guy who cares more about throttling you until you neck snaps than he does about not breaking his own wrists.
▶the first thing kenny does after he gets vivian to sew him back up and let him out the cabin is he's tracking down that fucking judge that Dared to imply he'd kill his mom and Obliterating them. bro is gonna turn them into a human jigsaw puzzle it's so over
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Get Ready to Revise and Reorganize
My experiences so far of writing for an actual video game and not just a fake one
By Caleb Dougherty - Lead Writer/Narrative Designer/Producer of Rockin’ Racket
What they don’t tell you about coming onto a project and taking over the existing story, is how much work you are going to be doing to get in line with the original idea. And even when you do, there’s always something you ended up missing, meaning you need to go back and fix what you’ve already done. Revision is a constant factor when it comes to writing, and writers know that. And it’s not fun.
By now, I’ve adapted to the story of our game when I came onto the team, and now I’ve expanded on it and made it more of my own work. I mean, we’re pretty much less than 2 months away from launching so it’d be really bad if I didn’t know what I was writing about.
Now since I’m primarily working on the writing of the story and dialogue, I’ve been working with one of our teams’ programmers to get my work into the game, Ken. To do this nicely, I’ve been using a nice little writing program called Ink from Inkle Studios. I can write dialogue, dialogue options, variables, tags, etc… all in there and then send it to him so he can use a Unity plugin to process the Ink files and use them within Unity. There are plenty of other steps in that process, but that’s the gist of it.
Now here’s where the revising comes into play. As the game progresses, so do parts of the story, meaning that I have to go back into all of the dialogue files and make sure they reflect that change if they need to. So if a character dies, then I don’t want a bit of dialogue after their death to be mentioning the dead character walking the streets. Now our game doesn’t have anything like that going on, but that’s the general idea. The revision process is also used a lot to go back through and correct spelling and grammar mistakes, things that I do often enough for me to need to triple check my writing from now on.
And most recently in my revision process are tags! They basically track who is speaking within Ink using a certain name so that whenever Unity sees those tags, it can update art assets to match it. That way, when Harvey speaks to Ace, Harvey’s sprite looks like it’s talking while Ace looks like he’s listening. Before, we just had neutral art assets so I was using some generic tags for all the characters. But now we have emotions portrayed by the characters, which means that I get to go back into all of my dialogue files soon to update the tags to have those emotions.
Reorganization of dialogue files also comes into play with the revision process. For us, basically every conversation needed to be in an Ink file all on its own instead of all of them being in a single file. This was pretty annoying early on because I had all of my writing in one file. So I spent a good amount of time separating it all out into different files. It’s all good now, but boy was that a mess to deal with.
So for those of you who aren’t writers, just know that this is the kind of stuff your writer friends have to deal with. It’s not fun (most of the time), but it’s part of the job. So better to get used to it as early as possible to help in future endeavors.
Anyways, check out our game Rockin’ Racket on Twitter (X), Instagram, and YouTube to follow the state of our game and the progress of the band on their journey to fame!
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Hey!
The Junko ask you did reminded me of my own concept where the THH cast use magic alongside weaponry that may be related to their talent or character. Do you have any ideas for everyone except Makoto and Junko, as I already have stable ideas for them?
More specifically,
Leon, Mondo, Sakura, Aoi, and Mukuro are more physical (warriors,)
Kyoko, Byakuya, Chihiro, and Celestia are more magical (mages,)
and Sayaka, Kiyotaka, Hifumi, Yasuhiro, and Toko plus Jack are balanced between physical and magical attacks.
I'm SO sorry for the late reply! I saved an in-progress answer to this a few weeks ago and then uh... I went through some surgery and my S.O. had surgery and basically I lost all track of the fact that this happened.
So. Uh yeah. This is probably too late to add useful suggestions to your concept, as you've likely already cemented a lot more characters in the interim.
EVEN SO: Can I offer you an extremely late answer in this trying time?
Obviously Leon has to have a bat or club, right? Even though he'd probably resent it at first... ? Lol. But he'd be excellent at it all the same. Might feel cool to incorporate some loud singing/yelling in a very "punk rock" style into a couple attacks, too. Or is that anachronistic to your setting?
Mukuro can use literally anything, but I feel projectile weapons are the most logical thing for her (besides just a combat-centric knife, which feels too bland/basic). I don't have any idea how medieval OR modern you're making this reality, so: Perhaps she wields a gun, a crossbow, or just a regular bow?
Sakura needs to be the character that ONLY uses their fists and actual martial arts moves. There's always at least one of those in RPGs, y'know. The "Black Belt in Final Fantasy 1"-type character. Or the "Chie in Persona 4," if you prefer.
It's easy to picture Chihiro using some sort of visual equivalent to computing/hacking. Therefore, Chihiro could cast a spell that makes squares and/or cubes appear to float through the air (representations of screen pixels and/or algorithm geometry), which expand into a fractal image that reaches over and builds itself up THROUGH the target, for example, causing damage by impaling them with the fractal. If you don't know what I mean by a random computer-generated fractal, just imagine something like this rapidly growing out from Chihiro's spell to attack the enemy:
5. Pretty easy to figure out Genocide(r) Jack/Syo would use small blades such as scissors or, if that's not logical for your setting, then some knives. But when she's regular ol' Toko, how about she whips out a notebook and starts frantically writing with a pen, only for the words to float off of the page and then fly right into her opponent?
6. I've been thinking about how Asahina might fight, and I'm not sure what to do with her. I figure she might use her legs a lot like a Chun-Li-type because swimming has built up her kicking strength. And we see her practice a few punches in DR3, though we only see her fight using some kind of pipe/rebar/metal thing when confronting Juzo. I imagine she wouldn't use a strictly defined "style"; it'd be more of a hodgepodge of homemade attacks she concocts.
7. Mondo? Punching/boxing and would probably also wield a tire iron/axel. Simple.
8. Hagakure is similarly easy. He can conjure (y'know, do some quick prayer or swirl a hand over an artifact or something) some kind of visible magic (I'm picturing a generic swirling smoke or beam of light; pretty standard stuff) using his crystal balls and other weird possessions. .... Hopefully his attacks are better than 30% effective :P I don't have a vision of how he'd work with performing physical attacks, though... ?
9. I don't know how to handle Kyoko's "magic." Is there some way to visualize the "magic" of someone just being intelligent and using logical deduction? I can't quite grok how to do it. We do know she has some physical fighting skill, however, because of the time she fought Masked Junko off in Naegi's room in DR1. And I can picture how she'd work as a physical fighter: extremely minimalist. She'd so reserved as a person that I think her fighting style would be similarly reserved. She would stand there with her arms crossed, looking unready, and would barely move when actually attacking/fighting. You know, just casually stroll up and then swat an enemy with the back of her fist. Or just stand still and barely sidestep to dodge, then pivot before sending out a very basic forward kick to hit the opponent. It would almost look lazy, but it's actually extremely calculated. Y'know?
10. Maizono would have to have some magic involving music, naturally. Y'know... in season 1 of the Magia Record anime, we saw another Sayaka — Sayaka Miki — use music-based magic for healing. She can sing/hum/play songs that generate visible musical notes as a form of magic. I think it'd be cool if Maizono could do the same kind of thing ... plus maybe she swings a mic stand around and hits people with it like Rise does in Persona 4 Arena?
And that's... kind of all I could conjure up from my brain. There are still four people on your list there, and I don't seem to have any ideas on how to work them. But hopefully you do. Or will! :)
#danganronpa#dr1 cast#dr1 spoilers#asks#danganronpa fighting#danganronpa magic#character attack styles#chihiro fujisaki#mondo owada#mondo oowada#sayaka maizono#toko fukawa#genocide jack#genocider syo#kyoko kirigiri#kyouko kirigiri#touko fukawa#yasuhiro hagakure#leon kuwata#mukuro ikusaba#sakura ogami#sakura oogami#aoi asahina
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I Love You, In Every Universe
Welcome home, my love.
This is a romance-based RP blog for people’s favorite user of the Mystic Arts, Doctor Stephen Strange. If you have need for your magical husband/boyfriend, then I am here to help provide that for you. My rules are simple, listed below. I am here to help people when they’re having bad days and there’s very few things that I’m not willing to do for people.
The thing I ask above all is that you please be respectful of other people in the blog. Don’t reach out to another person and antagonize them. Stephen belongs to all of you crazy little monsters in this world, whether it be you yourself or your original character. We all need a place where we can go to feel safe and loved.
Rules (As of October 2022)
Everyone has their own Multiverse, please don’t overlap your/your character’s story with someone else’s. These interactions are specifically designed to bring you and your character peace.
Please do not god mod. If you have something you want/need specifically, message me @purplefeathersandblackleather and I'll make sure to put it in my next post. I don't allow DM from people I don't follow. Sorry in advance.
If you want a specific designation, then introduce yourself/your character in your first ask using parenthesis so that I know exactly what you want Stephen to address you as.
DO NOT HATE on other people in the blog. This blog is LBGTQ+ friendly. Slander, hate speech and antagonism will cause in an immediate block and remove all posts of yours.
If you want to address me directly, then either note to “Admin” or use a blue heart emoji ( 💙 ) before your post.
No NSFW posts on the blog! This is meant to be a soft blog where it’s romantic, not sexual content. Insinuation/talk of romantic planning is allowed. If you wish for more intimate interactions, please tell me on my OG blog and we will discuss how to progress it so that it rounds back to dashboard posts.
Notes
The interactions work in chapters. After 20 reblogs, a new chapter will start so that I can keep track of everyone's Multiverse easier. In time, I will be putting these into actual story format with permissions. (11/02/2022)
This blog is LGBTQ friendly. Your/your character’s pronouns are important so please send me a ask with a blue heart to tell me what you wish to be addressed as before you actually begin interacting with Stephen.
This blog is also Strangecest, IronStrange, PalmerStrange friendly. If you wish to see Stephen interact with a canon character that you are playing, that is perfectly fine, as well.
Having children with Stephen - whether biologically or adopted - is fully accepted. You may mention your children by name or plan to have one with him at any time. Simply designate what you wish for in your ask.
Please keep cursing to a minimum if possible. I wish for my content to stay as family friendly as possible.
A Beautiful Stranger
Pairing: Stephen Strange x Beauty Lincoln
Beauty Lincoln is a woman working as a music teacher and aspiring actress living in the heart of New York City. She's normally an upbeat, easy-going woman who fills many people's lives with happiness with her smile. But when her life is filled with turmoil and her smile begins to fade, she begs for a respite, and it calls out to a leader of the Mystic Arts. In turn, he sends his student Stephen Strange to help her. But maybe, there's more to their story than either of them believed there to be.
Chapter One | Chapter Two
@sobeautifullyobsessed
The Men with Broken Hearts
Relationship: Stephen Strange x Tony Stark
Tony Stark has been going to meeting after meeting, working on building up partners for his company even though it's now under Pepper's management. It's been three in a month and he's starting to grow bored as well as frustrated. But just as he's about to leave the high-end function prematurely, he catches sight of Stephen Strange across the room. He's immediately drawn to him, the burning of familiarity of companionship floods through him at the sight of him, but there's much more to it than he realizes.
Chapter One |
@redandgoldwarhero
The Lady with the Emerald Eyes
Relationship: Sinister Strange x Erica Wainwright
Erica has fallen into a dark and mysterious realm where the world seems to be ripping itself to shreds. But instead of being scared, she finds herself at peace as the memories of whatever happened before she came here vanish like smoke on the air. As she starts to find herself comforted by the silence, the dark, mysterious man who lives in this realm - who calls himself Sinister Strange - approached he after sensing her warm energy. She may just find what she felt she never had in her own world.
Chapter One | Chapter Two
@strangelockd
As the Rain Falls
Relationship: Stephen Strange x Damon Renner
Summer has been a hard season for Damon and Stephen, with all the magical responsibilities they've taken on around the world. So, when the first day of Autumn offers them a respite as rain taps on the windows, they take the time to talk over feelings they've been harboring for a while. But Autumn comes with personal monsters of its own, and the two learn to fight their personal demons together as much as they do the magical ones outside the walls.
Chapter One | Chapter Two
@purplefeathersandblackleather
The Golden Web
Relationship: Stephen Strange x Natasha Romanoff
Stephen has been visiting the same coffee shop for the last year since becoming the master of the New York Sanctum. His life is normal - as much as it could be given, he's a Master of the Mystic Arts - so he's quickly growing used to his new sense of normal. But when a beautiful, mysterious red-haired woman shows up as a new barista, barring scars left behind by magic, he gets the feeling his "new normal" may start taking a new turn.
Chapter One |
@shieldagentnatasharomanoff
The Crown Hangs Heavy on Either Side
Relationship: Stephen Strange x Nathan Kujo
Nathan is an IT who has been hired by Tony Stark to put a "up to date" communications room in Stephen's Sanctum since the wizard refuses to be a part of the Avengers. The young man didn't realize that his entire world would soon become a mishmash of science and magic after meeting the Sorcerer Supreme for the first time. But young love often turns to deep affection.
Chapter One |
@daphnelovedderby
OC/Headcanon Blog: @purplefeathersandblackleather
Tony Stark: @redandgoldwarhero
Reader Inserts: @multiversemusings
Art Blog: @greyinthecolorprism
#doctor strange#doctor strange blog#romance blog#ask blog#doctor strange variant#sinister strange#defender strange#mcu#original male characters#original female character
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Year-End Wrap Up 2023
Thank you to literally everyone who has engaged with the work I've managed to put out despite everything. It was all carved out of me at great cost and with great love, and sharing it brings me joy and is why I keep doing it. Below are some numbers and some thoughts just to quantify things, but thanks.
Stats:
Words Published - 92,122
Words Written - Estimated somewhere in the 50k range
Works Published - 2
Units Sold - 399 (self published titles only, includes free downloads)
Milestones - Got to sign my physical book in a local bookstore and be featured on their social media as a local author; entered my book to be judged as part of the Lambda Literary Awards
Goals for Next Year:
Actually start keeping track of sales per title etc.
Start tracking words written
Thoughts:
This is mostly for myself, because I have a hard time with things like "accomplishments" and "chronological time" and "object permanency", and because I'm always looking ahead at what I want to have done, like I'm climbing uphill, and all progress feels slow. Sometimes it's good to look back at how far you've come.
At the end of last year, I parted professional ways with my agent (lovely person though she is), so this year was already a bit new in a lot of ways.
In April, Night Is For Hunting released. It's the second Moonrise book, and was intended to be the middle in a trilogy, but the final book has since been canceled (at my request) because I realized that the third book is not within timely reach for me. Still kind of feeling the sting of that. I'm also not super happy with parts of NIFH, as I pushed through places in order to hit (an already extended) deadline. I had grand plans for sections of the book that I just didn't have time to wrangle.
That's kind of a theme for this year, is that I'm learning that being disabled does unfortunately mean that I am less able to do things on the schedule or to the intensity or degree that I wish that I could. The whole reason I went fully self-pub without my lovely agent was because I knew I couldn't have both work that at least approaches my standards and also a standardized publishing schedule. Not at this point in my life, anyway.
In July, Stars Still Fall was released. I wrote what I consider the pivotal scene in that story back in 2018, and have been obsessed with it ever since, so finishing it was accomplishing a major goal. I let myself take my time to get really indulgent with the prose in places, which I enjoyed a lot. I keep poking at it to see if there's any places I'm unhappy with, that I want to change, and so far I haven't found any. (This isn't, of course, to say that it's above criticism. I'm sure it isn't all to everyone's taste. But I'm happy.) I may update the cover at some point to change the typography for the title, because I think it could be better and do better justice to the actual art.
Looking Ahead:
Blackthorn (low-tech space western, bi4bi m/f) seems to have pulled ahead out of the primordial soup of WIPs for now and is rattling full steam ahead. I'm not going to set a due date until I'm closer to the end, but with any luck, I might manage to finish it within two years?
Other projects that are starting to solidify are A Touch of Magic (witchy single dad whose daughter casts a love spell to try to save his job), A Time For Us (completely reworked reissue of M Jules Aedin title Windows in Time featuring a modern-day person helping ghosts from the 1940s at the risk of his own happiness), and whatever I end up renaming Late Blooming (gray-ace middle school teacher finds out he's same-sex attracted shortly after his 40th birthday and a lot of things start making sense, but his crush on the uncle of one of his students is not one of those things).
Thank you, and happy new year!
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I'm looking through the notes that I took in one of the classes I had a very, very... rocky relationship with. We listened to and discussed a lot of music I think is terrible, but over the course of it I wrote a piece that I really loved and that turned into the "Spellbound Mischief" BGM track in Amadeus. (This is not what the course as-structured wanted me to do, but I met with the professor to discuss a way to write music I actually give a shit about within the constraints of the class, and he was actually quite open to that!)
I wasn't sure how valuable my notes from this course would be, but it is actually kind of funny because I was trying to engage in good faith but at the same time could not stand most of the shit we had to listen to or discuss. Here are some excerpts.
"I think it's funny that in the 21st century ~ contemporary ~ western composers are FUCKING STILL getting "inspired" by Gamelan to write exoticist bullshit. Debussy was "inspired" by Gamelan literally 100 years ago."
"I have half a mind to raise my hand & cite Toby Fox's "Megalovania" as the most influential composition of the 21st century."
"I'm trying SO hard not to be judgy. These people are chasing their bliss. Good for them."
"It's ahistorical to think art & music "progresses" in a linear fashion."
"Trying to remember that it's important to make space for artists to explore out-there buckwild shit, non-judgmentally, that's how we all learn & find ourselves."
"Listening: a Vivaldi 4 seasons remix set above the most boring ass synth pad progression I've ever heard."
It's so funny because I wanted to take the rule "try to get something constructive out of everything you are exposed to, even if you don't like it" to heart, but I also needed to vent because clearly I thought almost everything we talked about in class sucked ass and I wanted more than anything in the world to leave the classroom and go home.
It actually makes the notes useful to me now, though. I don't have to listen to the godawful boring songs I hated, but I can look at my notes on what I thought was interesting about each (and what I thought sucked ass), and perhaps draw from that. It's also useful to remind me that engaging in good faith with stuff you don't like can still be a productive exercise.
I know past me was just bitching but it was insightful bitching. Helpful bitching. Way to go, past me
#anyway these notes are actually very interesting#i am glad i wrote down my bitchy thoughts#the bitchy thoughts are honestly kind of engaging LMAO#personal
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Okay originally I was just going to post a needleess whine about bad narrative writing, but now I'm actually thinking about the topic and am curious to know more about it:
I remember hearing about defined stages of skill development in art (particularly drawing and often in relation to childhood development).
I don't know if it's got any problems as a model or anything (probably? Look it was my college roommate who actually majored in art education), but I have heard of the Lowenfeld Stages of Artistic Development.
Generally those stages are:
Scribble
Preschematic
Schematic
Dawning realism
Pseudo-realism
And with adults it's often discussed as drawing the symbol/ideal/representative form as opposed to drawing what you see, or real form. My question is this: is there a similar model for narrative writing skills?
Because I feel like I keep seeing this stage of writing where it's entirely telling me things, but never showing them, and I'm just being talked at.
Like a few key characteristics of this:
Lots of adverbs in conjunction with descriptions that say the same thing: "she cried sadly," would be blatant, but how about "—she said sadly, feeling like she was going to cry from how upset she felt."
Also just compounding descriptions is boring in general: "she gave them a cold look. It was true, her ice queen looks would freeze anyone in their tracks with her frigid gaze. So chilly."
Not just limited to adverbs but repeated explanations for things that don't need explaining, and are ultimately irrelevant to know as details, like it's just Not Part of The Plot: "He frowned at the bag of cookies on the study table. Eating in the library wasn't allowed. The rule was important because food in the library would attract pests, and it was important to keep the library clean. Last year someone had left out a bag of chips and they got an ant infestation in the architecture section. He pursed his lips. 'Did you figure out what kind of magic killed our victim?"
Loads of uncertainty about everything/hedging language, even when it's unnecessary. As in: "he felt uneasy and nervous when the other man loomed over him for some reason. It was very intimidating." A LOT of "she couldn't explain why," or "he wasn't sure what had happened exactly. He thought maybe it was ____." No one knows! No one is sure!
A lack of conflict, or forcing conflict without developing why it's a conflict. "It was too late to say something, so she didn't say anything. She lost the chance to explain, and didn't know how everyone would react so she remained silent. [Paragraphs later of misunderstanding] Yet again, she missed the chance to say something because a butterfly flew past and distracted everyone. She didn't know how to explain and the moment to tell them slipped by."
This one advances by having consequences and stakes, but only when it suits the author to use them, and often they don't have any weight beyond it needing to be a conflict to progress the story. Yes I've seen this in mainstream published fiction!
Idk are there stages of writing development? Is there a resurgence of basic "tell don't show," writing out there? Am I just more aware of it now, or am I getting too old and accidentally reading inexperienced authors too much when reading ARCs? (God save me from a lot of debut novelists). Is this just more common in fiction nowadays? I get fanfic has no bar one must meet to publish, but with professionally produced works it feels weird to read something that just feels like the editor simply didn't bother.
#the elements of style is still extremely good#i feel like when people criticize smeyer's writing style seriously this is one of the better critiques
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Game Hammers
HELLO! This is the first-ever-world-renowned Game Hammers blog.
There are 2 Developers on this week's post, they are hopefully going to be on future blogs as well. The developers of this blog will track their progress in the week and whatever difficulties they encountered. The mission of this blog is to create a good environment for learning and exploring.
Nolam
This week I was working on a witch game, so I started by creating a new unity project with some cubes. I want to set it up to be a 2.5D sort of space, where you can move left and right but also see the depth of scenes, kinda like Tomba.
In this project, I set up some core mechanics like wall jumping, ledge grabbing, moving, regular jumping, and some scaffolding for more complicated things like combat.
Here you can see the little block guy finding his way in life.
In my progress towards moving, I thought it would suit the game to add a sliding mechanic for rails. So you can like, slide on rails. For this, I turned to splines - which I would later regret.
If you don't know what a spline is: it's a bendy line.
Bendy lines are very useful but very complicated as well.
This was an attempt at a homemade spline made with the help of chat GPT. It was very rudimentary and I abandoned it after realizing unity has built-in splines. All of this so that I could make a bendy banister. For about 4 days I farted around and wasted my time with this, realizing that it's probably better to just do an easier straight line anyways. Whoops!
After that cr*p, I tried to find a new productive avenue - so I went towards making some art.
The game is about a witch who has to clean a house with her broom, and crossing my vision with Flodo's, I was able to come up with a model of the character, after an interesting attempt.
that attempt ended up having cool hands, but they likely are to forever rot on my hard drive.
This attempt, however, was much nicer despite having no fingers to speak of.
The character ended up having a poofy outfit that looks very warm on her - which I like a lot. I did lots of new things making this like faces and hair, and have been trying to improve my topology.
Yesterday, my parents left on vacation and I am in charge of my 3 siblings. It's going to be a difficult week ahead - going back to school and stuff - so I'm excited to see what progress I can make in school and with modeling and game design.
PS. Grammarly on tumblr is booty.
Spebby
Hey there! This is the Spebby section of the weekly Game Hammers Blog. Like my compatriots, Nolam and Flodo, I’ll be rattling on about what I’ve been learning and doing this week of my life. It’s midterm season, and I’ve been hard at work on studying up. My focus has mostly been upon Calculus, with a focus on Parametrics, Polar Graphs and Surface Area of Rotation. I’m feeling pretty good about my study actually, I have a pretty good grasp on Integration and Convergence, and this midterm’s topics are pretty similar, so I think I’ll be all good! While studying Polar Graphs, I came across a pattern I particularly like, which I’ve dubbed “The Lotus”. Not a super original name, but I think it fits. I accidentally stumbled across this one, the function that creates it is 4cos(5θ/13). A render of it can be found below.
Outside of Calculus, what else have I been working on? As a stinky Comp-Sci major, I’ve been working on that. I’m still fresh meat. I very much appreciate my CS professor. He’s quite willing to throw us into the deep and push the limits of what our little brains can think of. I’m pretty brash, so I don’t quite give each assignment the thought I probably should. Learning about in-line assembly arguments and how to effectively use them, proper memory management, creating truly class-agnostic functions and how to write fast and efficient code. I find programming quite fulfilling and therapeutic honestly. Making something run faster and figuring out why something wasn’t working quite how I suspected is always quite the reward.
I’ve unfortunately not had much time to work on programming in the lens of game development. Perhaps Nolam has better time management than I do, he always seems to find time to crank out another prototype. Prototyping is quite the art, I’ve never really had to write something from scratch like that, Flodo or Nolam have always beaten me to the bunch in regards to these sorts of things. At some point it’s on my todo list to get cracking with a prototype. I’ve found it frustrating being limited on what I can feasibly do in a project, but to be honest that’s given me some liberty to get the creative juices flowing and try something wacky within my limitations.
Continuing the theme of academics, outside of my STEM major, I’ve been trying to take some interesting humanities classes. Anthropology has been an interest of mine for awhile, at first I thought only Cultural Anthropology would interest me, but Primatology and other Biological Anthropology subdisciplines have proven to be even more interesting to me. Learning about how odd humans are from an evolutionary perspective, and the adaptations that were taken in order to allow for our unique form of movement or perhaps our ancient ancestors, those of Selam, Toumaï and Platyops. Anthropology is such an interesting subject; If you have the ability, enroll in an Anthropology class, they’re super interesting and can teach you a lot about the world and perhaps change your worldview.
I could go on and on, but I feel it’s best to bring this entry to a close. Be catching you next week. Perhaps we could have a longer chat, no?
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Hi, I really enjoy your blog and your Bloodborne takes.
I’m wondering what you think about this. I saw someone say that Darkbeast Paarl’s theme is Middle-Eastern (Egyptian) inspired in the melody and style. They said this was probably because the Darkbeast is of Loran, which might be Egyptian-coded. What do you think?
Also, what do you think of Micolash’s theme? Do you like it? Would you say it fits him?
Thank you very much for the kind words ;-; It matters a lot for me people out there like what I have to say. I honestly just enjoyed the track and did not try to analyse it! But now that you pointed this out, I am listening to it again and... Okay, I can definitely hear Egyptian vibes in the music. That had to be intentional!
I 1000000% believe Loran was supposed to be Egyptian, or in either case coded as very desert region. I'd place my bet on a region from Northern Africa or South-West Asia in any case. Besides let's not forget this is how the exact two characters who are hinted to take roots from Loran look like:
It is also interesting how as for Paarl itself, this is the second case where localisation error works better! See, it could easily be Afrikaans for 'pearl', sounds like a good name for a creature coming from deserted country, right? Well, for the names I always consult this ( x ) post where names are translated correctly, the truth is:
So yeah instead of using the language that would work lorevice very good, they just called it Pál/Paul/Pavl/yougetthepoint. Actual human name. Since PAUL drops Spark Hunter badge that Archibald created for his friends, I like to think Archibald willingly hanged it somewhere on his body - because he considered the darkbeast to be his friend too - and naturally he named him a human name. But it also makes basic sense because beasts WERE people. But it is also possible that Djura was the one naming the darkebast a human name, since geographically PAUL is right where Old Yharnam is. x) Just thought it needs to be pointed out since the topic.
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Also I love Micolash's theme, it is in my top 3, I fucking LOVE the deranged piano in it SOOOOOO much, you do not even have to know anything about the character to get the impression of chaos and spiralling insanity from it, I headcanon that he can play the piano very well because of his theme and everyone who thinks the same has 101 Insight, his theme fits the location and how you progress to get lost in that scary maze-like place so much.
In fact, this is what got me INTO Bloodborne.
Long ago, a friend shared Living Failures soundtrack with me and I was obsessed, but I listen to the music through Youtube. But Youtube decided that if I listen to it every day, it should recommend me full Bloodborne OST, so it did. I thought why not, so I put this ( x ) vid on bg as a podcast. I've been enjoying the music, but when Mico's theme played I was so taken aback by how much I liked it that I interrupted drawing and actually looked at Youtube. And since it shows rough art of characters to go with the theme, I also was instantly interested in this character because of the design too. That theme just... sounded so NOT like the others.
Other music themes felt like they had some drama to it, even before knowing anything about these characters I just could feel suffering and struggle in them, but this one? It was just like... more like 'accepted' horror, there was no fear and pain yet something evil? His art being a man with cage head sitting in the chair in helpless, lump manner combined with the word 'host' made me think this guy was a marionette of something horrible (whatever 'nightmare' meant in lore) and only a husk of whoever he used to be...
And well, I was right! His vibe was just TOO apparent even before I knew anything about Bloodborne, but honestly, 90% of that was his music theme for me, so I decided to learn more about this character. And now I am here, spawning absolutely tinfoil hat ideas like assembly line and struggling to remember what liking more 'sane' media was like. xD
#bloodborne#darkbeast paarl#ask replies#bloodborne theory#use later#bloodborne ost#dont ask woman her age dont ask man his salary dont ask kat about micolash's theme#honestly though i can spend all day talking about what bloodborne ost did to me i just had to cut already because reply is too long#that melody was stuck in my head for days though#for some reason even before i delved into bloodborne i somehow knew i was screwed up the moment i heart mico's theme lol#also i was more or less disappointed to find out he had actual head#i thought the cage WAS his head lol dfhshdfds#other designs often were monsters or aliens so back then a guy with cage instead of head would not surprise me#like when i searched 'micolash' and saw a face i was like WOAH WHAT THIS IS STILL A HUMAN#i had to cope for several days though#i mean i used to be touhou/kirby/undertale/deltarune/cute slice of life animes/steven universe fan#and then BAM this#like... my life changed... i used to be stuck in cutesy childlike things. i did not expect this. at all
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