#i do think its interesting that they have sort of taken pieces of each other like yes lucy in ep 1 would never have done this to her mother.
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in the last sugar rush post from 2023, @accio-victuuri asked us to list our top 5 cpns from last year but since I'm late I thought on doing a post. thank you for those recopilatory monthly posts, btw! they're very helpful and when you read them you also relive those beautiful moments. and overall for always keeping us updated about everything going on with our boys.
so here's my top 5 cpns from 2023
the inner mongolia saga: I decided to call it like that for everthing that happened from the moment xz went to film there. it started with yb's first selfie of 2023 and all the clowning about him perhaps visiting the loch set, the infamous black cloth, all the speculation about him owning a leica camera, the confirmation of him owning a leica camera, xz's birthday post that also had him posing with a leica camera, the camping pic, and everything culminating with yb's own pics taken in inner mongolia. honestly, september and october were such busy months to being a clown, I love how everything just developed little by little and fell like pieces of a puzzle.
the suspicious change on xz's filming schedule: when ybo reported that yb won't be able to participate in the star of the one and only promo period, everyone got worried, since when yb takes days off while sick? the next day tho, some reports came in; after days of going to film at a certain early time, xz was going a little bit late. "interesting" said every turtle in the world, "let's see how this continues". and boy, it did continue, casually until yb's recovery. a happy coincidence.
anniversary?: when we all thought nothing was toping the inner mongolia saga, november 19 happened. and to think everything started very innocently with yb updating his douyin and then everything scalating into the possibility of them sorting out the seriousness of their relationship one november 19... I honestly loved how everyone started to bring up years of clues and how it just made sense.
wedding outfit: this one is very self explanatory, their weinbo night outfits that strangely looked like wedding outfit. I would have loved to see them both walking out the red carpet but we all know how weinbo loves to self sabotage I mean I enjoy when they do that but not that night! I like to think that the reason why they chose those outfits is because their first weinbo night is also called "divorce night" and, after years of not attending the same event, they wanted to give us a wedding night. yes, I am that much of a clown, thank you.
ybo's birthday post: this one hit me so hard that I still tear up whenever I read "yb, the sunset is very beautiful". to most, that post it's just a very well written birthday wish, but if you're like me and believe xz wrote it then knowing that these two boys love each other so deeply is reason enough to warm your heart. "time does not have a pause button, yet you seem to hold the password for the occasional pauses in the world". cry with me 🥲
honorific mention to: THE hat (yb made it hard to ignore lmao), everything is lovely and its promo (at first I wasn't trying to read too much into the colors that were used to promote the ep but then the bone necklace appeared and changed my mind), mysterious driver (just so you all know I'm totally sold on this) and overall this year that seemed to have them together for longer periods of time.
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Mini Mac #3 : local lil guy being a menace
Let's go for another Mini Mac chap! This Au is progressivly taking over my life.
Even if Sun Wukong proved to be friendly, Macaque wasn't keen on deepening his relationship with him. Giants were unpredictable, they always seemed to view the world as theirs, full of grandeur, and some even found twisted interest in oddities like himself. Granted, he gave his name away, but he wasn't planning on starting friendly conversations with the King. No. They were worlds apart to begin with, Macaque was satisfied with his home in the walls of the mansion and the silence the water-curtain offered, everything beyond that was something he wasn't interested in. He'd been in the outside world before, he knew what to expect, and it was precisely because he knew that he seeked refuge here. On one of the most isolated islands of the eastern continent.
Macaque would remain in the shadows, living in the walls, and Sun Wukong would soon lose interest, at least that was what he hoped for. Turns out the sage wasn't as fickle as he thought him to be. Sun Wukong kept trying to find him, peering at the holes hidden in dusty corners of the stone mansion with a twinkling eye. He was loud, each of his steps reverberating in the floor itself like some sort of landslide. Macaque always knew he was approaching even before seeing him enter a room, and he didn't need six ears for that. More than once this last week, Macaque found the sage crouched before one of his holes, talking in the void, trying to coax him out. Sometimes he left cut pieces of fruits behind him, and Macaque wasn't petty enough to refuse them.
Food was food, no matter where it came from.
The black-furred monkey sighed as he looked at his reflection dancing on a spoon surface (one of the rare silverware he managed to find). He was getting pudgy these days. Usually, he would leave the mansion every two days to restock his cupboards and find food. The water-curtain cave was vast for a being like him and offered many things he found useful. But because the sage was spoiling him with pre-cut fruits, he was getting lazy, which wasn't good at all.
Cautiousness was a sense he sharpened over the years, he couldn't let his guards down simply because one ridiculous golden-furred fool decided to fatten him. Why even was he fattening him? Perhaps, he planned to eat him? One gust of wind slipped through the walls cracks and flipped his ears in mockery.
“What? It's plausible. Some giants tried to eat me before.” Huffed the black-furred macaque, the wind whispered something in his ear and he recoiled in disgust. “Why do you mean he likes me? I think you're the delusional one here. He didn't even know I existed two weeks ago.” The wind flipped his ears one last time before going away, fickle by nature. Talking to the wind was always unnatural. The wind didn't have a voice, it carried words of others and mingled them to create its own sentences. Macaque wasn't born from the wind (usually only those born from the elements would be this privileged) but, according to the wind itself, he was blessed by it at his birth because the wind took a liking to him.
Sometimes, the black-furred monkey swore the element only took a liking to him because his life was a real-time soap opera and he could gossip with him about every dirty secrets he heard. The wind was particularly fond of drama, always eavesdropping left and right anywhere it went.
Macaque turned around and stopped looking at his reflection. He needed to do something before Sun Wukong became a problem. Maybe he could give him a little fright? After all, the sage used to live in the wilderness before, and he didn't seem one to stay at home. The only reason he was there was because of his sudden interest in Macaque. Maybe scaring him would chase him away.
Fortunately, Macaque was an expert in scaring people.
Scaring the sage was surprisingly very easy. For all his gusto, Sun Wukong was easily taken off guard, he never truly watched his surroundings after all. Macaque used all the tricks in his book. He slammed doors, bit the sage ankles, drew messages on fogged glass, and made the floor squeak in the dead of the night. If at first he did it with his utmost seriousness, he lost himself in the game and let his mischievous nature shine through.
But who could blame him really ? Sun Wukong's reactions were hilariously exaggerated. He still praised himself for the Sun Wukong shaped hole he managed to create while surprising the sage by biting the end of his tail.
For all his fun, he wasn't expecting the sage to catch him off guard with a prank on his own.
It happened at dusk, Macaque wasn't usually an early riser but winter was approaching, and while Flower Fruit Mountain had a kind weather, winter still brought storms in its wake. Macaque hated storms, he often decided to stay inside of the mansion walls through each one, but staying inside meant he couldn't restock as often as he did in summer, and that meant he needed more food. Moreover, the local monkeys often decided to leave the mountain lush wilderness and spend more time in the water-curtain cave in winter, and that meant less food for him, and also more reasons to not wander in the cave.
While the older monkeys seemed nice, the younglings were too rowdy for him.
Macaque found mango pieces scattered in a bright green leaf just outside of one of the holes he used to enter the walls. Nothing truly unusual. The black-furred monkey, not one to turn away free food, approached the leaf and began to eat without looking at his surroundings (after all Sun Wukong wasn't one to rise this early).
He yelped when the sage came out of his hiding place and spooked him with a particularly loud “boo!”. Macaque fur fluffed up in fright and he let his piece fall on the floor. He calmed down once he heard the sage rolling on the floor in cackles.
“Aw, don't pout lil guy. You had it coming.” Laughed the sage as he wiped a tear from his eyes.
“I'm not pouting!” was Macaque's only defense as he straightened his fur, the sage laughed harder. “Whatever, I'm a busy man. I don't have time for this.”
“Oh, you're going somewhere?”
“None of your business.” Grumbled the black-furred monkey as he stuffed the rest of the mango pieces in one of his bags.
“Aw, don't be like that. I can come with you. I know the mountain very well, being it's King and all.” Proposed the sage with a wagging tail.
“No thank you.”
“I tried.” Sighed Sun Wukong, ears and tail dropping in disappointment. “You're coming back though?”
“Why wouldn't I come back? I was here even before you became King.” Huffed Macaque, he summoned a portal with a flick of wrist and stepped in it.
“Okay, good luck then. Don't come home too late! I have a plum for you this evening!”
Macaque snorted, who did this giant think he was acting like some sort of worried husband?
At least a plum sounded nice, his tail wagged at the thought of it.
++ Meme dump bc I have free time and nobody can stop me :
The wind watching Mini Mac life :
#Mini Mac Au#Shadowpeach#Mac is a menace#Wukong living inside of a horror movie bc of his mini roommate#Prank war#Lmk#Shadowpeach fanfic
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With the Baxter angst with mc drowning in a riptide, I’m curious as to what Cove’s (and our family in general) reaction is when we’re found and the days/weeks after our death. Thanks, I love your writing
Thank you so much! Here you go :)
"You ok, son?"
"Yeah, Dad, I'm fine."
Cliff watched as Cove came into the house, his arms full of shopping bags. He was most definitely not fine.
It had been a little over a week since you'd drowned, and Cove was just not himself. Not that Cliff expected he would be after such a traumatic loss, but his behavior was becoming more concerning every day and he wasn't sure what to do.
That night you'd gone out for a swim, your moms came knocking on the Holdens' door frantically around 10:00. Cliff had answered the door and hearing the commotion, Cove came out of his room. Pam and Noelani explained how you'd wanted to go to the ocean by yourself, but then you didn't come home and you didn't answer your phone. When they went to check on you, your things were on the beach but you were nowhere to be found.
Both men had set out to help look for you, as had many of the other neighbors. Authorities were called -- it was an unusually chaotic night for the quiet little street -- but by the morning, your body had been found.
Cliff was pretty sure Cove hadn't slept since.
He hadn't been down to the beach, which was understandable, even though it had been a nearly daily activity for him. But he also hadn't showered. Cliff had taken time away from the shop to be there for his son, but when he'd gone out for a quick grocery run one evening, he came back to a pile of sand in the hallway.
"It's time we got this out of the house," Cove had muttered, broom in hand.
Cliff didn't want to be overbearing -- honestly he had no idea how to help Cove through this -- so he'd watched as Cove did an overhaul of his bedroom. He took out his surfboard and tucked it somewhere out of sight, then packed his swim trunks and wetsuits in a trash bag and set them by the curb. Cliff did grab those up and put them away for him, sure that someday he might want to return to the beach, but as the days went on he stopped being so sure.
That day, when Cove had come in with his bags after a trip to town, Cliff followed him to his bedroom. His son didn't seem to notice, or if he did, he didn't care that he had an audience. From the bags, he pulled out bubble wrap, a pack of rubber bands and some smaller plastic bags. He left again without a word, went back to his car, and came back with a cooler.
"What are you doing?" Cliff finally asked.
After taking the time to sort out his newly acquired supplies, Cove knelt down and grabbed a box from under his bed. He opened it, grabbed a few more items, then pushed it aside. He used his free hand to grab one of the smaller bags, and that's when he answered Cliff.
"I'm getting rid of the fish."
Cove was expressionless as he began the task of getting each individual fish into its own bag, securing it, then placing it inside the cooler. Cliff was taken aback for a number of reasons, a big one because he knew how much his son loved his pets. Another was that he was taking the fish off, with everything else that was going on, without a single tear falling.
"I think we need to talk," he said at last, but Cove wasn't interested.
"There's nothing to talk about. I don't want them anymore. Some guy in town is taking them, I'm going to drive them down there in a little bit."
"Cove," he said softly, reaching out to grab his son's shoulder. They both stayed silent, then the younger man let out a shaky sigh.
"I can't sleep, Dad," he said, looking at him for the first time that day. "I can't sleep with them in here. The water ..."
He glanced over to the tank, the little piece of the ocean he'd been so excited to have in his own room years ago. But now, since you were gone, it wasn't welcome anymore.
"Is that why you haven't been showering?"
He nodded.
"Have you been drinking?" Cliff asked. He'd known Cove hadn't been eating that much, but if he was developing this deep of an aversion to water, he wanted to make sure.
"I haven't been thirsty," Cove answered.
Cliff sighed, then decided it was time to take charge. He emptied Cove's hands, setting the scoop and net on the floor, then took him in his arms.
Cove started crying almost immediately.
"You have to take care of yourself," Cliff told him. "And if you can't right now, then you have to let me help you."
"I don't want to," Cove replied, his body wracked with sobs. "I don't want to do any of it."
He cried for a long time, sometimes slowing to a a near stop before starting up violently again. Cliff cried too, feeling utterly helpless. But eventually, when he didn't have any more tears, Cove went a little limp. He was exhausted.
"Come in here," Cliff told him. "I'll take care of it."
He moved to stand beside Cove, letting him lean against his side. He took him to the living room and laid him down on the couch, then grabbed the blanket that was thrown on the back of it to cover him up.
"I'll take care of it," he told him again. "Just sleep for now."
He kneeled on the floor next to Cove, stroking his hair until he drifted off. Then he went in his own bedroom, cleared off his dresser, and began the task of moving the fish tank in there.
When he was almost done, he heard a knock at the door. He moved quickly, not wanting to wake Cove, then quietly opened it and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. It was then that he saw Liz standing there stone-faced, a box in her arms.
"Hey, Liz," he said, trying for a smile but failing. "How are you all holding up?"
"Not great," she answered frankly. "Ma won't get out of bed. They're talking about selling the house but they want to think it through."
He nodded, not sure what to say to that. Liz looked down at the box, then back up at him and asked, "How's Cove?"
"About as good as you'd expect," he said.
"That bad, huh?"
Without waiting for a reply, she held up the box to Cliff.
"What's this?" he asked, taking it from her.
"It's ... it's for Cove. I think he'll appreciate it the most."
They exchanged a few more pleasantries before Liz excused herself, walking back across the street and going inside. After she closed the door, Cliff lifted the box's lid and took a peek.
Seashells, all different kinds and colors. He remembered you collecting them with Cove when you were younger, how much time you'd spent together on the beach looking for the best ones.
She was right. Cove would appreciate it the most.
He snuck back inside, box in hand, and moved past a lightly snoring Cove. He went back to his bedroom and put the box safely on his dresser by the tank.
Someday Cove would be ready for this again. He'd be ready for the water, and ready to remember you. Until then, Cliff could keep these memories safe.
#our life beginnings and always#our life#olba#cove holden#olba cove#our life cove#our life cliff#cliff holden#our life cove holden
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Strange Mr. Qi
A Mr. Qi x Reader, Part 2 added. I thought this was going to be short.
Warnings: Mr. Qi is the warning (Stalking)
Mr. Qi was, to put it lightly, weird. This may sound rude however you had good reason to think this. While mining, you would be able to get many things such as ores, gems, even artifacts! But you would also find chests, weapons and most importantly notes. The notes had provided you with some useful information on other people but it was a bit confusing. How did all of these notes get into the mines? Some of these are from peoples diaries and you highly doubt someone would rip a page and it somehow gets into the mines. Other notes are drawings which would allow you to find buried items or- a gold statue of Lewis. Why. While strange you could chalk it up to maybe carelessness and coincidence until one note.
“Greetings, Y/N
Have you found my ‘secret’ in the dark tunnel?
I look forward to meeting you!”
- Mr. Qi
You were a bit taken aback because while you had found many notes before, this one had specifically addressed you.
“That's kind of creepy.” you think.
While you were weirded out, on a whim you decide to see what the ‘secret’ was. The only dark tunnel you knew was the bus tunnel and wouldn’t ya know there's a lock-box! It was missing a battery though. When you had placed that battery pack into the lock-box you hadn’t expected to receive another cryptic note. You don’t really know what you were expecting but now you had another quest to do. Being sent on a wild goose chase to find some guy was the last thing you had expected.
Each note had you complete various tasks such as placing a rainbow shell into a box at a train station or placing beets into Mayor Lewis’s fridge. Out of curiosity you completed each task, and it was pretty fun! It was really refreshing to do something new and it gave you some sort of rush every time you finished a task. You were very interested as to who was behind these letters considering the note had said that he was “looking forward to meeting you”. You eventually had decided to ask around town to see if anyone knew who he was but apparently none of the townspeople knew. It was pretty strange considering that if it wasn’t them then who? Everyone you had asked seemed to have no idea who this person was, you had assumed it was a prank of some sort but everyone had seemed genuinely baffled. Some were concerned if this Mr. Qi was sending you concerning letters but you had assured them otherwise.
Eventually you had found two notes, one was a riddle to give a dragon his last meal and the other was to make it to level twenty five of the Skull Cavern. Skull Cavern was easy enough but the monsters were stronger than the ones in the mines, and you had received a pretty hefty reward of TEN THOUSAND GOLD.
Your eyes had bugged out when you saw the amount.
“What the-!”
Whoever was sending you these notes had to be hella rich because who does that? You didn’t even have to go that deep!
The riddle however was a bit trickier, you had no idea as to what ‘dragon’ you could feed. After looking everywhere in the valley, it seemed nothing was here so you looked through the desert. You found it! There were the bones of what looked to be a dragon and you had found a small piece of paper in its teeth.
“Its maw gapes at the desert sun. Even in death, it yearns for a taste.”
“That's a bit grim.” you thought. You read the letter again, you have to give the dragon its last meal… and its maw gapes to the sun. Then like a sack of bricks it hits you. Solar essence! That's actually pretty clever. Thankfully you are carrying some solar essence due to your escapade into the Skull Cavern. You place the sun into the dragon's mouth and you see a note.
“You’ve proven yourself, kid. Check out the pile of lumber next to your house.
I’m proud of you.”
- Mr. Qi
Your heart swelled at that. The people pleaser in you was thankful for any praise you can get. The lengths you go for a stranger. You get on the bus to head home, you thank Pam for taking you home and-Wait. Your lumber pile. YOUR LUMBER PILE! That is at your house! When the hell did he make it to your farm?! You would get how he would know where you lived. Your farm was featured in the newspaper and anyone is able to mail you but the only people allowed onto your farm were the people that you knew. This guy would have had to sneak around the townspeople, get over the fences surrounding your house and place something in your lumber pile.
“Hey kid you alright?” You look over to Pam. She looks pretty concerned. Ah right you were thanking her.
“Oh. Sorry about that. I'm fine, thank you for taking me home.” You get out of the bus and quickly head home, internally freaking out.
You run over to the lumber pile and you see a green card sticking out. It has your full name, a photo of you and the words “Club Member”.
“Do- do I have a stalker?” you murmur. You are more than capable of defending yourself considering all the monsters you had slain but it still unnerved you.
You are starting to wonder if it was a good idea to do all of these tasks, much less even meet the guy. You were still intrigued, if you met him he could probably answer your questions and if he tried anything you could most definitely beat him in a fight.
You remember the Oasis. It had a path in the back blocked by a bouncer. Could that be where you need to go? You decide to sleep it off and go in the morning.
At 6:00 AM you’re up and ready. You tend to your crops, feed your animals and harvest whatever you can and put it in the shipping bin. You decide to look into your mail. You have a few gifts from the others, Caroline had sent you some parsnips while Elliot had sent you crab cakes. There was another letter, it wasn’t addressed by anyone but you had a clear idea as to who it was.
“Someone is
waiting for you
on level 100
in
the
skull cavern…”
Obviously it's Mr. Qi. Seriously you hadn’t even met the guy and he has taken up so much of your life already. You could head down to level 100 in the Skull Cavern but you already have plans to get into that club in Sandy’s shop.
By now it's 10:00 AM and you head over to the bus. You thank Pam for taking you and you go over to the Oasis.
Sandy greets you on your way in and you make some small talk.
“You look really thirsty. Here, have a taste of this ice cold milk.” You smile
“Oh thank you!”
Sandy is very pleasant to talk to however you REALLY have to do this now. You head over to the back to the bouncer.
“!!! Is…is that a ‘Club Card’?” Wow he looks shocked. Guess this club must be a big deal.
“Yes.” He nods “You may enter.”
“You’re a club member!?” You look over to Sandy and sheepishly smile.
“I guess so.” With that you step in. You are now in a casino. The first thing you notice is how purple it is. The purple walls have a lovely wavy design and the windows have a purple blanket of stars and the ceiling is also purple as well. The floor however is black and blue with a star pattern on it. There are two card tables, some slot machines, and the fortune teller you watch on TV.
Then you see him. He turns around and smiles oh so warmly at you like you’re an old friend of his.
"It's good to finally meet ya, kid. Welcome to my exclusive clubhouse.”
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ok soooo
i’m thinking about jeddie and the clocks
when the green one is given in his telling of the story his father is dead upon his return home
so that leaves two possibilities
he was lying about this while telling sydney
he had already told his father about his plans for the necromancy
i find both so fuckintbfascinating
also the sydney’s death being his fault guilt feels like more than typical self loathing, it looks like sydney was ill, and maybe even before the coma jeddie was trying to “fix” him
as the occult is mentioned as sydney’s specialty i’m wondering specifically about how he and jeddie interacted on basis of sydney’s illness/disability with his practicality and science based wish to fix everyone and sydney’s care for others health above himself
the idea of the architect also
jeddie seems to have taken on the role of the architect before resurrecting sydney
that is important
the memories of the sky being blue
i think as sydney lived with him and lucille is when the “building” of this world to suit sydney began
is this only in effect at the camp?
the compulsive return of the counselors each summer is fascinating along with junipers weird british antiquity leading to an idea that there’s definitely influence of jeddie’s meddling outside of camp, if we are still unsure of how much it is normal to us
the counselors seem to remember life before sydney’s death done, which once again leads me to thinking the meddling started long before then
and the elephant man existed theoretically before the coma i think because of lucille’s testimony
but i may be wrong there
nowwwwwww the magic that existed in the pre meddling world is interesting because i think there was either some interest or actual influence on sydney’s part based on what we’ve heard of jeddie’s journals
and the timeline is obviously confusing but i really want to know more about sydney’s mother
his mother feels like an important piece we haven’t really touched upon the motivations of atorywide and i think the centipede symbolism is her domain
but i’m rambling….
youre so right omg...
so necromancy is highly "illegal" and i assume its a punishable offence, likely by a harsh incarceration or even death (ironic innit), and "did [they] mention impossible?" which has got to be some sort of propaganda or something. necromancy does exist, its just extremely difficult and dangerous--what soren does is chasing necromancy i believe, but he only ends up with reanimation (which is stated to be possible in universe). i just think they push the "necromancy is impossible" line way too much for it not to be, y'know?
also, it seems that necromancy, even discussing real happenings of it can kill someone. if jeddie discussed his necromancy of sydney with his father and killed him, it lines up with how elijah reading the journals to the kids was physically hurting him. but this would also mean his father read the journals himself, and not jeddie reading it to him (bc it would have hurt jeddie otherwise) if this is correct.
im honestly not too sure about the architect thing, i think it might be something to do with like building something (sydney) from the ground up? like turn it off and on again? even the word 'muse' implies that jeddies 'architect' is referencing sydney for, like, blueprints or whatever. metaphorically.
also what you said about the world being built for sydney is insanely interesting!
like, for starters:
juniper doesn't want his father to know he's coming to the camp (which makes me think the properties of the camp are actually known outside of camp)
rowan comes back to camp despite his co-counsellor from the previous year literally being destroyed
soren is paying an absurd amount of money to be at camp (which also makes me think the properties of the camp are known outside of camp--there's obviously something he's there for)
joshua remains despite being widely hated (except by yvonne)
and of course the big one: sydney can't leave camp without feeling physically sick. he says he can't be away from lucille specifically, but i think it's really camp he can't be away from.
and then good lord dont even get me started on the penguins. why are they at camp specifically? is there something there they're trying to achieve?
also, elijah would've existed before the coma according to the file notes and dialogue implications, but iirc according to the timeline, he was only obsessed with sydney post-necromancing (i might try to make a comprehensive timeline one day...)
agh sydney's mother is so interesting... the gravedigress apparently reminds sydney of his mother, so that might. um. come up/have relevance at some point? centipedes are carnivores, too, so... hmmm... anyway
and omg please ramble to your hearts content, your takes are so interesting!!
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Hi and welcome to this thing that's sort of a prequel to the timeline I'm working on. The working title is Alberta Story, but as you can see I kind of changed directions midway through as I thought about it more, I figured if I was getting frustrated then surely Ed was also getting frustrated with it so I turned it over to him to express that, haha. I wrote the first half of this last fall and stewed on it for about a year and decided, screw it, I don't know where I'm going with this but I will slap on a few more panels and figure it out as I go.
This might be the closest thing to a reboot of the BoAB main storyline for a while. I wanted to do something that gave a cursory outline of Canadian / Albertan history for people who are new to it, but of course it runs the risk of repeating every narrative Canada / Alberta have about themselves and that's quite frustrating, to be honest! Particularly when you are trying to write characters who lived through a great chunk of it.
I was trying to think about where to "start" the story of Alberta, particularly after reading Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta. A lot of the tongue in cheek ahistorical assigning of Albertan-ness to even protozoic life rubbed me the wrong way even though I found it an interesting narrative, so I wanted to illustrate the difficulty of "beginning".
Additionally: I really find it frustrating in the Hetalia fandom when people kind of take Himaruya's approach and suggest the colonized personifications almost predate colonization somehow, like they were "always there", or the approach that they are direct descendants of some ambiguous ancestral "Native America" that mysteriously no longer exists. At the same time, I sort of understand how it also happens with the narratives we construct ourselves, in textbooks and museums, that have long illustrated "pre-history" (Indigenous history) as opposed to "history" (the "Real" history of Euro-Canadians). It's a cultural underpinning that needs to be undone.
I don't make any ambitious claims to produce real, decolonizing work, I realize there's this big gap in this universe I'm building that acknowledges municipal personifications and only vaguely gestures at the idea of others and there's a myriad of issues with that, but it's a place that I as a euro-canadian myself am starting with and I hope to continue learning and growing from here.
"Here" is summed up as: isn't it crazy that a company that was just gifted 1/12th of the surface of the Earth not only predates the idea of this country and its cities but also still exists and is just a place you end up in at the mall now?
More detailed explanation of each panel follows.
Diver's Claw: Several stories in different First Nations cosmologies reference the Creator or another figure making a flood that covered the whole earth, where a survivor (Wisakedjek in Cree/Ojibwe stories, Na'pi in Blackfoot, etc) sends down a succession of animals to the bottom of the waters to retrieve a piece of the old earth, which they can then use to create anew.
Mounds of Earth: When the Northwest Mounted Police were sent out west from Canada after purchasing the territories (including Alberta) from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870, they marked the border along what would become the 49th parallel between Canada and the United States with piles of dirt.
Descent from the Stars: This is supposed to be a depiction of Manitou Asiniy, also known as the Manitou Stone or Creator's Stone, a meteorite that has spiritual significance to many Indigenous peoples. As I write this, he (as a sacred being, he is referred to with these pronouns) is currently in the custody of the Royal Alberta Museum which has recently agreed to return him to the site where he was originally taken from near Hardisty in 1866. Currently, the gallery is open for worship and ceremony until it is time to repatriate him.
Bodies liquified in coral: this is NOT a scientific illustration, haha. The idea is that a lot of Albertan identity comes from about 400 million years ago in the Devonian period. At the time, a big chunk of "Alberta" was covered by ocean. The organisms lived, died, and over time became crushed by sediment layered over them. Coral has a lot of holes perfect for holding this sludge and fossilizes nicely here, and it is this layer of Earth's long history that speculators are looking for when drilling for oil.
Lips to a book: Alberta joined Confederation on September 1st, 1905, which our last premier tried to commemorate with a holiday that no one showed up to. Back at the turn of the century however, it was a massive party attended by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier and the Governor General, a position in Canadian parliament that represents the King or Queen of England. Govenor General Grey (his grandpa was the Earl Grey the tea was named for, I believe) was the one who kissed the bible at this inauguration.
Prince: The prince here is Prince Rupert, who Rupert's Land was named for, and the king in question is Charles II of England (yes, the Restoration and Great Fire of London party guy from the Stuart era). Rupert's Land centred on Hudson's Bay and made up over 40% of what is now considered Canada. The Hudson's Bay Company was granted the charter to all this territory - if they found the Northwest Passage while they were at the business of acquiring beaver or otter pelts, it was certainly a bonus.
The rest is fairly self explanatory, I hope. Like I said, I felt like I was falling into the trap of the same old story of pioneers and exploration that has been absolutely done to death in Canadian history, and I didn't have anything particularly new to say about it that would maintain this storybook level of accessibility so I just. Stopped! Shifted gears! haha. Still, I think the fur trade is a very important piece to the puzzle that often gets either a bit overhyped or glossed over in favour of railroads in Canadian history and almost entirely ignored and forgotten in American history, and it makes sense to start there, particularly for Ed who has a lot of Complicated Feelings about it.
Enjoy! Maybe one day I will figure out part two.
#historical hetalia#hetalia oc#hws oc#aph oc#projectcanada cities#pc: edmonton#hapo art#digital art#clip studio paint#edward murphy#i wanted to have this comic take place at city center#BUT THE BAY IS GONE!!!!!!#so southgate it is i suppose#since it is close by a certain trail to a certain other city
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Hey, do you have any idea what V1 does with it's 2 extra arm, well other then bloodshed
it gets to be FULL silly with them!! ok but fr i think the arms are an interesting little quirk with v1 and a way that it shows its strange tendency toward mimicry and learning. i wouldn't you know it...i talked a lot!!!
it's known that the machines harvest parts from each other, but i think v1 has a unique block put on that behavior as nothing it gains from other machines would have its capacity for healing through blood contact. however, through meeting v2 it gets a rare opportunity to override those blocks and copy the scavenging it's seen since it can make decently valid arguments that these are the parts of a highly compatible supreme machine and essentially trick its own system (v1 has to do this...fairly frequently in order to do as it pleases)
at first, it's pretty utilitarian with its gains - battle is always its first priority, but it also quickly sees their usage in maintenance. i imagine when blood is low or the battles haven't been going great, v1 has to do repairs on itself as well as repairs to its weapons, and the extra set of hands is pretty welcome as well as the unique properties the arms bring to the table (the knuckleblaster is good for pinching and digging, like fingernails, as well as snipping while the whiplash offers the ability to hold parts together/in place as it fixes them and it allows v1 to reach places most others can't so it won't be disturbed). however, it takes it some time to realize they may have other uses that it could play with, things it could do for its own amusement or even for creation's sake.
BIT OF A TANGENT, but one thing i like to think about...is v1 being very interested in and taken with the idols the ferrymen have made. it knows little about the creative process, it knows very little about making in general, and so its mind ponders over and over the use of something like those sculptures. time went into them, energy, thought and meaning, but v1 doesn't understand it whatsoever. they serve so little purpose and they're so easily destroyed, why make them at all? it supposes initially they have use in their ability to bless, but the terminal tells it that was never their purpose, the ferrymen made them in an act of compassion and their utility is a side-effect of their carving. so v1 thinks and thinks and THINKS....quintillions of thoughts a second, until it decides to learn by doing. it destroys a bunch of furniture and even walls and flooring for wood, and, with more deep thought (staring at a piece of broken wood it's holding for hours), it starts using the claws of the knuckleblaster to carve. it carves all sorts of things it's seen as it cannot create purely from its mind, sculpting out crude forms of everything from the furniture it just broke down for its materials to different demons and machines. and while it doesn't quite get it even after carving dozens of pieces, this makes it realize its extra arms have more uses....it can do whatever it wants with them!
largely it uses them to play with despite the waste of energy this entails, whipping things around with the whiplash and using the percussive blasts of the knuckleblaster to watch trajectories (makes for fun target practice too) and it can do this for a LONG time lol it also likes using the whiplash for something like acrobatics, although it can't think of anything too graceful on its own (its routines grow much more elaborate after it observes more of gabriel's flight patterns...the kind when he's not pissed off). it still tries to make occasionally too, but overall i think v1 is much more interested in the kind of fun it can have with them, the movement they allow it and how it can create change (rearranging the furniture in a room until it likes it using ONLY the shots from the knuckleblaster...although its idea of room "aesthetics" is pretty off from ours lol) of course i DO love it sculpting again to make things for gabe, but it's like. entirely random bc it doesn't really understand significance. like here i made this it's a pillar i saw in limbo :] is for you :]
#playtime is VERY important for v1#of course it does this in cleared areas#but i imagine some other machines wander in sometimes#and they stand there watching it bc....what is it doin....#and they're both like this for hours until v1 stops enough to sense them#it blows them up and then goes back to playing#also just. three armed coin juggling#cake answers#LONG AGAIN SORRY also late!!!!
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LOST ON YOU
Warnings & Genre- slight angst, minor character death.
Authors note- hey, just something that was rotting in my notes. I am in no means a writer but constructive criticism are welcomed ☝🏼
——-
Funeral homes are never anyone's favorite. definitely not when its one of your own people. a person you had once held so close to heart, maybe not during that moment but you did soon realize the impact of thier presence in your life.
Mr.Jeong was a constant in every students life in Hanseong high school. you would see him by the gate,the corridors, the ground ,the man was omnipresent. students never got how he did it. even with his tough exterior he was one of the most loved teachers. the lack of space in the funeral home would say otherwise.
heesung watch's the crowd die down slowly from the corner of the hall. his eyes shift from the portrait of Mr.Jeong displayed on the wall to the three boys sitting across him. niki doesn't seem to have taken the news too well, his head hanging low with equally exhausted boys on the either side of him. sunoo’s swollen eyes and now puffed face give away the tears hes been trying to hold. jungwon just looks deep in his thoughts but heesung knows thats far from it.
heesung doesn't really know how to deal with their pain, let alone his own. his gaze shifts back to the portrait in front but his attention is taken away from the three boys now sitting in front of it. sunghoon catches heesung staring, returning it with the same intense glare.
---
Flashback
“jeong nim!”
the professor walks to the notorious dozen of students with a slight smile. it was always hard to bid farewell to the students every year especially the set of students who frequently visited detention or seen knee bent outside in the halls with their arms up bickering with one another. Though he thinks this batch would forever have a piece of him. While they bicker over who would be taking the picture first with their favorite teacher, few of them do not let the pooling eyes of their teacher go unnoticed.
“okay, lets stop and take a group picture now” , mr.jeong says blinking away his watery eyes. the eight kids scramble up smiling wide with the teacher in the middle of the frame.
click.
‘seonsengnim i need a single one!’, niki shoves the others away whilst pulling his teacher to another background. “your not even graduating until the next two years, you punk!”
click.
“jae-in ah!”, Mr jeong calls out motioning her to come take a picture with him with a stiff smile
her focus shifts from the subjects on her camera, peeking with a small ,“ aren't you getting too sentimental today seonsegnim?”, earning sinkers from the boys. she hands the camera over to sunghoon, making her way to Mr.Jeong.
click.
“dont forget to send those to me.”
who knew jae-in had plans of getting away with those pictures.
---
Jungwon’s the one who breaks this unsaid game of pride and encourages the eldest to just be civil for the sake of it. thats how the seven boys find themselves in a table drowning themselves in soju. the rooms almost empty, except for the seven boys and few other relatives. the boys looked up at each other once a while but mostly found the soju glass interesting enough to pour their thoughts into. With the past preoccupied on their mind, it was sort of a bittersweet moment.
—-
Flashback
the sound of crashing waves with occasional yells from the boys and the sweet melody of guitar strings fill the space, jae-in sits between sunghoon and jay watching rest of the boys play in the sea. she likes the feel of sand slipping away from her fists, unintentionally repeating the act while watching the boys. Sunghoon sits on her left drawing shapes on the sand as jay plays his guitar on her right.
“dinner is on me.” jae-in says in a monotonous tone. “your part-time jobs must be treating you well finally”, Sunghoon snickers while dusting off his hands and stands up to stretch.”im gonna take a dip, you both should join”, he knows very well you wont while his other friend may eventually. The pair watch him jog his way to the boys.
“is something up?”, Jae-in doesn't show how much that question affects her, answering him back with a question again, “what would be?”.
Jay has stopped playing the guitar, his one arm thrown over the instruments body while his other still hold the chords. Jae-in thinks about how fitting he looks with this instrument, maybe them joking about him becoming someone famous or getting into a band dint seem too far off.
Jay’s mind is preoccupied with what he had witnessed last night, the goons you were pouring drinks for seemed to be too familiar with your name for his liking. He never doubted you on your self defense skills, just maybe sometimes you should know to lean on someone, mentally. But when he looks at you at this moment, chocolate hair flowing with the wind, an oversized jacket which most definitely is from one of the boys and your bored eyes looking at him, He stutters.
“ju-just because”. He doesn't have it in him to question you further.
He should have.
He should have asked when you offered to take a dip in the sea.
They should have asked when you started recording every moment of the day.
They should have asked when you raised a toast on the dinner table.
They should have asked when you smiled a bit too wide.
They should have asked before you left.
They would have. you were just too convincing.
—-
They were all in a room, together yet so far apart on their train of thoughts.
The ticking of the clock passed by seconds to minutes to an hour or two, the empty room now consisting of only the boys. The tube lights flicker while the janitor mops the floors for the last time after a long day. It was a que for the boys to leave.
The clicking of boot soles grab the attention of the seven boys. Black sunglasses, black hanbok covers the new identity. Jae-in did not expect anyone to be here, let alone the seven boys she has never seen for the past few years. Or just maybe she was willing to try her luck.
Shes thanks the gods shes worn these ridiculously large glasses,though shes sure it wont take long for one of them to know.
Its almost plausible how the boys don’t recognize her immediately. to say the boys were shocked was an understatement. if the air was solemn and sad all this while, now the room felt as if it were was lacking of air circulation.
she acts plain, just another person to bid her goodbyes to. but Mr.Jeong wasnt just any person to her. Midst all the silent chaos in the room she makes her way towards her only family.
Mr.Jeong‘s portrait smiling at her doesnt help the guilt shes been bottling up. for all the things he had done for her in high school to even the last moments of his death. your uncle told you he would never resent you though you did not know if you had the ability not to resent yourself.
After what seems like an eternity of time and memories flashing back, Jae-in knows what she has to face as she turns towards the exit.
“i really dont know if we should be happy your alive or rip your hair off right now.”, niki’s coarse voice echo's off the hall.
#enhypen au#enhypen fics#enhypen jay#enhypen#enhypen angst#enhypen drabbles#enhypen imagines#heesung enhypen#enha x reader#enha imagines#enha scenarios#enha sunoo#enha reactions
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I hope this isn’t too personal but would you tell us how your screenwriting process was? I saw that you submitted WCIL as a screenplay and as someone whos scared to stop I’d love to know how you did it
Um this not too personal AT ALL. I really wanna chat about things with you all, whether that's dumb stuff or serious stuff or whatever. My inbox is open 💛 Also, I am SO sorry this is so fucking long 💀
My #1 piece of advice is to decide to take the leap. Which, I get, is easier said than done. I had dreams of doing things for the movies one day since I was little, I just let society and myself convince me that dreams like that don't pan out -- except how would I know if I never try?? And it's scary. I have a degree I'm proud of that took me a long time to get for a job I am not pursuing and don't really want to again. It's scary to change directions and take a leap into unknown territory, especially one that's centered around the arts - often looked down on by other people with "real jobs". It's taken a very long time to get here, this community is largely to thank for the chance at this dream, as well as people I've met through this Fandom. I would have never taken the leap without the encouragement of people in this fandom, especially @loveshotzz & @sweetsweetjellybean . But ultimately, I had and have to be the one who has faith in myself.
#2, follow some accounts on Instagram, where ever, listen to some podcasts, etc. A ton of how I found out about these contests is just from listening to The Screen Writer's Life podcast and hearing them mention contsests. Then I googled contests, and found their accounts on Instagram which led me to more, I'll post a few pictures below of some beneficial ones - pay special attention to rules of contests and also the validity of an account - who else follows them, what info can you find about them on Google, can you submit material that's submitted to other contests etc.
#3 - in terms of the actual screenwriting process, I will say I am largely winging it 💛 but here's a few things that may help:
I have this book I'm reading (picture below) which turned out to be a pretty standard for the industry? People like Tina Fey have talked about reading this book and then just doing the damn thing in interviews.
I had a few film studies courses over the years, so this helped me understand a little bit of the language used when critiquing film and studying screenplays - but I don't think this is necessary. There's a ton of lower cost online courses, masterclass, free YouTube videos and more if you Google.
Reading other screenplays. Do you have a genre you want to write specifically? Or how about your favorite movies? While there is a sort of standard way to write a screenplay, it's amazing how when reading a variety of scripts, you can see each screenplay Writer's individual voice and vision. Many are free online to read just by googling, at least a version of the script potentially in its early draft stages.
I used the software, free version, Celtx to write WCIL. It was very user friendly and easy to pick up, and I think gives you a great gateway into how to write a screenplay. However, the free version was pretty glitchy, and now that I know I want to do this more, I'll be investing in Final Draft (pretty standard in the film industry from what I can tell). Aside from this sort of teaching me the layout, Google and interest and like I said, reading other scripts, got me into the flow of how to write one.
I had a pretty clear vision of WCIL because of already writing the fanfic. For me, having the clear outline helped immensely. And then, for me, it helped to do the straight dialogue from beginning to end, with no action or scene headings, THEN I went back and filled these pieces in. From all my research (and that book I'm reading) dialogue is the most important part of your screenplay. As the writer of a movie, it is not your job to descibe the setting and the emotions and the costumes in immense detail. Your job is the story, and it's everyone else's job to bring it to life. So that leads to - just letting things go - realizing "hey as much as I love this scene, is it important to the story? Why or why not. What needs to be cut for it to fit? Do I need this piece of action or is the dialogue enough Etc."
Lastly, honestly just googling questions I had - anything from page numbers (a page typically equals about a minute for example, which is why the standard maximum page number usually is 120) to how to show an interruption in dialogue, to what should be capitalized and what shouldn't - Google is your friend. The screenplays of other movies are your friend. The more resources you read the more you learn and absorb.
I really hope any of this helps!! If I can do it, you can do it! Good luck 💛💛💛
Highly beneficial accounts to follow to start off with. But there's so much more!
The podcast I listen to:
The book 💛
#taylor talks about screenwriting things 💛#<- another tag for you to block if you're not interested#taylor's asks 💋
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i wanna talk about megalovania today. i think it's an extremely interesting song in how the contexts it's applied to connect with each other, specifically how it's always associated with one key concept:
megalovania is a song of death.
even in its first context, toby fox's halloween hack of earthbound (which is admittedly not exactly something to be taken seriously at all but is still important to address here as to set the groundwork), it is the battle theme of a man who has been torn to pieces by grief: dr andonuts, the one whom the story centers around.
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after being beaten out of a depressive spiral, his thoughts turn to rage (and tasteless homophobic slurs) as the final fight begins. there's not really much else to say on the matter, other than that here it's established as a song tied to the idea of death (dr andonuts's mourning of the children he sent to their deaths, + the themes of rpg protagonist guilt prevalent throughout the game).
it is in its next and far more well-known use that this theme begins to cement itself: the 2009 webcomic homestuck, for which toby fox had made numerous songs.
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more specifically, it is implemented as the background music for the flash animation "[S]: Wake.", which i will do my best to describe in short without full context (and i will inevitably fail in this task).
the animation portrays two different events at two different points in time, one after the other. the first event occurs as a clock ticking down to a story-critical moment nears the point 04:13:00.
on the ornate purple planet of derse reside five of the troll characters' "dream selves", alter egos that are meant to awaken when their corresponding "real self" falls asleep, and serve as a sort of "extra life" to the players of the game the comic centers around. the planet is attacked and destroyed in totality by the extremely powerful and nigh-unstoppable antagonist known as jack noir, and all of these dream selves die.
it is revealed, however, that the dream self of a character originally thought not to have one was slumbering in a crypt at the center of derse: the girl aradia megido. in her waking moments, aradia had been dead for most of the story, lingering in the world of the living as a ghost. she eventually inhabited a robot body, which just before this moment of the clock striking 04:13:00, exploded in front of many of her friends. this explosion triggers the awakening of her dream self.
it also coincides with the destruction of derse, with aradia's dream self inside. within the crypt was a "sacrificial slab", a special bed of stone that, when the designated player dies atop it, facilitates ascension to the "god tiers", a state that grants one "conditional immortality" and allows for complete mastery over that player's "aspect" based on their specified "class". aradia's dream self is killed upon this slab, allowing her to ascend as the "maid of time", granting her the power to time-stop jack noir in his tracks for a moment, ensuring the safety of her friends.
on the other side of the coin, 59 minutes after this event when the clock reads 03:14:00, the girl known as vriska serket (who had ascended as the "thief of light" earlier in the story through different in-game means) stalks off into the depths of the meteor the trolls had been forced to hide in after jack noir arrived in their universe, in order to confront the character tavros nitram (to whom vriska is essentially his arch-rival in a way) after challenging him to stop her from trying to take on jack noir herself.
vriska meets tavros at an edge, the two exchange a series of taunts, and he charges at her with his lance. when he reaches her, she simply slaps him across the face, grabs the lance, turns it around, and pierces it through his chest dead-center before dropping him into the abyss below, dead.
(if you think this is a lot of death to be happening at once in a story you have truly seen nothing)
it is clear to anyone how much this short centers around death, but there is in fact a deeper theme in the form of aradia; megalovania is practically her theme song in this comic (and is literally her theme in the spinoff vn "pesterquest").
her entire character is laced with themes of death and mortality, with her having always taken a great fascination in those concepts along with paleontology and the end of all things, as well as being able to literally commune with ghosts.
when she dies as part of a twisted revenge cycle within her friend group, she lingers as a ghost and loses her passionate interest in most things, eventually inhabiting a robot as stated before. throughout the game, she uses her temporal abilities to serve the other players of her session, including but not limited to bringing hundreds of versions of herself from offshoot "doomed" timelines to assist with the final battle.
after the game is completed, and just before the players can claim their "ultimate reward" of a new universe of their creation, jack noir (who paradoxically came from the universe they created) arrives in their game session and destroys the gate that would allow them entry, aradia teleports all of the players to a lone meteor at the edge of their session, and all other aradia-bots save for the "alpha timeline" one are killed by jack, having been doomed from the start.
eventually, as the final aradia-bot explodes hours after this incident, aradia dies one final time before ascending to the highest state of living afforded in this story, expressing that she is "very much alive, and intends to stay that way". for the remainder of the story she explores the afterlife, acting as almost a sort of grim reaper in that she assists lost souls in moving on and accepting their deaths, having become very intimately familiar with the concept. she also sticks around out of a morbid curiosity in "seeing what happens with the whole universe breaks apart", something that begins to unfold in the later acts of the story.
this much alone would be enough to paint megalovania very clearly as a theme tied to the concept of death, but of course there is one much, much more notorious use of the song: as a final boss theme in toby fox's 2015 RPG UNDERTALE.
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this is, notably, specifically the final boss theme of the game's "no mercy" route, a path through the game that involves killing every single monster you can encounter, down to grinding through them as if it were a classic, poorly-balanced RPG.
the significance of such a route choice is not at all taken lightly by the game, with the narrative doing all it can to dissuade you from it, including two extremely difficult route-exclusive bosses: undyne the undying, and sans. this theme accompanies the latter.
sans is a literal skeleton, which seems to be just a normal type of monster, even if it is weird that there are only two of them, and that they're shaped like specifically human skeletons. they are not haunted skeletons either, because there are separate monsters that are ghosts, but those are also not actually ghosts in the hauntological sense other than being able to occupy inanimate objects as corporeal bodies.
sans is a character that generally affects disinterest in most things, with a laid-back attitude and a humorously lazy demeanor to hide a center of depression and nihilism, which is especially prevalent in this path of the game specifically.
in this route, sans serves as the final boss of the game. he gives you one warning before you fight his brother, papyrus, that if you continue down this route you will have a "bad time". the bad time comes in the form of the final encounter, where sans would normally judge you for your actions in the game, notably whether you had killed anyone. here, and only in this route, he initiates a boss fight.
the fight reuses mechanics from papyrus's boss fight, but with a huge spike in difficulty compared to any other boss in the entire game and far more underhanded and unforgiving tactics, even going so far as you attack you in the menu between turns. he has 1 HP, and will dodge every attack you throw at him until around 25 turns have passed, where he decides he will not allow it to be your turn ever again, trapping you in the bullet box and staring you down.
eventually, after long enough without the player moving, he will drift to sleep, where you can then push the bullet box over to the fight button and press it. he will dodge the attack, but will then suffer an attack made by the player character without your input. he will then slink off screen, bleeding out (which monsters don't do), and die. from there, it is a few more screens until the end of the game, and the end of the world.
as this fight is the culmination of the no mercy route, it stands to reason that the whole fight is the culmination of its themes: mass death, a very concentrated and determined effort, and complete apathy in the face of grief. sans is literally only fighting you because he is all that's left, and he knows what comes next if he fails: the end of everything.
during the fight, he showcases an inherent metatextual understanding of certain parts of the game, such as the nature of saving and loading. he ponders on his own hopelessness in the face of his circumstances, knowing that whatever happens, things would ultimately end up right back here, so there's no point in caring about anything. he then, however, remarks that "seeing what comes next, [he] can't afford not to care anymore", that all this falls on the shoulders of one particularly unfortunate guy.
he tries everything to dissuade you from attempting to finish this fight, including feigning mercy, employing aforementioned underhanded tactics, and generally attempting to frustrate the player enough that they would give up, giving a unique spin on the game's themes of determination.
it is only natural, then, that megalovania would accompany this fight, being a song evocative of death.
megalovania has yet to see any strong narrative use outside of these three, save for being featured in a different mother fan game that was not worked on by toby, but i would bet any further uses would continue this pattern. that is, if the thematic strength of the song itself hasn't been worn thin enough already. everyone's heard megalovania at this point.
happy halloween everyone.
#undertale#homestuck#earthbound halloween hack#vgm#megalovania#analysis#adelyn pours their thoughts into almost 2000 words again#average ado behavior
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Hii Can i request glitchy red having a s/o that's similar to him? (Reader got cruelly removed by their game and got replaced) also i really like your hcs:3 keep up the writing!! :D
ofc ofc !!! ty for requesting. Once again these sort of stray into general thoughts and headcanons abt glitchy sometimes but oh well i have just learned to accept that tht just sort of Happens when i make these.
i try to make the reader / s/o in all of the headcanon posts very blank templates but if i didn't i'd probably go ham with the implied backstory. Maybe. but for now its just a "Make your own and inject it into the headcanons" typa post.
glitchy red with a similar s/o !!! Love wins
♡ glitchy honestly didn't... know something like him could even Happen again. i mean, he does and he always secretly hoped that one day someone, anyone in his game would gain sentience suddenly so he'd at least have someone else to talk to instead of himself and whatever player he had atm. and that makes you... very interesting and special to him.
♡ suffice to say, you two have a lot of shared grievances probably, and glitchy is a very rant-y person. both of you will shittalk and rant and complain about your similar situations and bond very fast over it. honestly, that's probably how you two got closer in the first place. Easy way into glitchys heart: Bitching abt things ig <3
♡ in a similar but more positive vein, you two can and will often ramble about things you did in your respective games - or even just rambling abt you two's games in general if you yourself didn't come from a pokemon game. although glitchy is very cynical and apathetic to all of it now and knew that none of the pokemon or npcs in his world really had feelings, he still likes to explain the mechanics and the pokemon to you... he wishes he could've taken one home as a pet for you two, but would that even work? would it even recognize him? would it be anything more than a piece of coding that can no longer work due to being forced into a physical form? he thinks about this more than he should.
♡ ... aaanyways, on a lighter topic, due to that train of thought he probably gets you two a cat or something, after extensive research and reading bc he does not want to accidentally handle any animal poorly. it's name is up to you but if you just wanna go with whatever glitchy chose it's name is like, mittens. or something really basic. or it's pikachu/pika/chu or something because as much as he loves being free he does feel odd without pokemon so naming a cat that sort of helps but not really.
♡ i like to think if you did have a pokemon or a favorite though it'd be eevee just to match how glitchys favorite is probably pikachu or one/all of the 3 starters bc he's unoriginal
♡ do you think their replacements date. This isn't even a headcanon this is just something i went "oh if they both have replacements... wait."
♡ frlg red and whoever the hell replaced you kiss under the moonlight. every time we touch amv . Ok anyways back to the actual headcanons i apologize
♡ assuming you two both somehow Physically Manifested irl and aren't just somehow visiting or talking to eachother in you twos digitized forms, you are both adjusting to the real world. and trying to help eachother with it. But since neither of you are used to it, it isn't going that well. Very odd and weird couple that look unreal, while ones also glitching out of reality every 5 seconds casually having a walk in the park. It's normal. Love wins
♡ presumably, you also are as touch starved and affection-starved as glitchy due to your whole ordeal being so similar. you two will be ALL over each other. PDA and general affection and touch are CONSTANT. no matter what. you two are so lovey-dovey it's almost comical
♡ i've stated this in a few other headcanons but legit do anything affectionate to glitchy and he'll become redder than his mfing clothing. dude is so touch-starved and is also really easy to fluster and he hates it. with this s/o specifically, though, i like to think since you two are similar he'll absolutely try to get back at you by immediately doing anything to fluster you back, and it probably works... you two are just incoherent blushing messes at the end of it all
♡ most of these headcanons are just "Mutual Problems: The Thread" and i find that very funny. what being undersocialized, replaced, toyed with, abandoned, and traumatized for decades does to two mfs
♡ adding onto that you both are probably clingy with each other and get a bit of separation anxiety. glitchy is like. "Where is my fucking spouse." in his head any time you are not within his sight. my wife is soft and i like her post but in Glitchy Red and in Gender Neutral terms
♡ glitchy is sort of weird with romance. like, he knows that people date. but he's not... really socially aware of much of anything. anything he knows is through osmosis of his players or of things he overhears sometimes or something. due to this he probably just copies what he sees in media and is very cheesy about it and will give you bouquets and flowers he picked off the ground. Alternatively and probably more in character, he just doesn't do that and is very casual about his affection and love due to not knowing How To properly give affection. it's a lot of mumbled "I love you"'s and cuddles during the evening. small stuff like that.
♡ wait no. since you have very similar issues to red... concept: relationship dynamic where one person is very casual abt it and the other person is very extra and romantic and gives everything they can to the other person. you are the extra and romantic one. it makes glitchy so confused and he feels like he's undeserving of it, but it makes him fluster sm. You were from a dating sim game you have to be extra about romance /j ( unless you want it to be serious backstory i guess. reader DDLC monika type beat... )
♡ sometimes he asks what you did to players. and i .. i actually do like you being like. monika sorta where you're more clingy and attached to players. So if you choose that to be the case he finds how different your approach is to that odd. but he supposes your game was probably not as fucking glitchy constantly, or at least wasn't known for its glitches. he's partially envious of that, but part of him is glad you didn't have to endure the hell he did.
♡ you two do get sometimes recognized among the general public but are assumed to be cosplayers. whether this pisses you off or not is up to you, but i think glitchy has very mixed feelings about it. he just scowls and has a look of visible confusion on his face. he Doesn't really like socializing with anyone other than you tbh so this doesn't help, nor does he really enjoy talking about or remembering pokemon without his ok ( Good luck with that when its like the highest grossing multimedia franchise ever RIP glitchy red 2011-2023 )
♡ once again. relationship dynamic idea. you being the more outgoing social one Who is secretly sort of cracking from pressure and red being the brooding awkward blunt one. imagine you going to cons bc you like the attention from getting recognized as yourself. red is begrudgingly at your side rolling his eyes bc he doesn't like cons, probably ( although he will eye the pokemon merch with both disdain and intrigue... he will come home with a 10 foot tall pikachu and charizard plush ). people ask for pics w you sometimes. they all fuck up bc red will not allow you to leave his side even when ur taking pictures he doesn't wanna be in, and as i said in other posts, Any footage of him comes out looking like cryptid photos / they just get really fucked up in processing in... various weird ways. he finds it funny and is oddly proud of being able to screw photos up, but he'll eventually get juuust out of shot if you really want to take pictures w other people
♡ Do not put either of you two around technology, it'll fucking explode near either of you ( probably, anyways - assuming you're also glitchy and unstable like. well. glitchy is. but i assume any code made manifest into physical form like you two, glitched or otherwise, would not be able to use technology without it fucking up a little. )
♡ although glitchy can be sort of a dick sometimes, he tries to never be that way arnd you. if he makes you upset he like, immediately feels bad and apologizes, and will be there to calm you down and comfort you
♡ you prob prefer to call glitchy by red, i just mostly use glitchy for him when writing these posts for Clarification's Sake. he does like being referred to you by name, though. the way your voice just... says it. idk, it makes him smile. your voice is nice, in his eyes. your everything is nice in his eyes, really.
♡ he sometimes gets really really worried that one day he'll wake up and you'll start repeating all of your actions and words, like. becoming an npc with no depth. it scares him a lot, because this life is too good for him in his eyes. sometimes he has sort of panics about it and you have to calm him down - which isn't too hard, but it's just easy for him to overthink about negative outcomes and about "oh god what if all of it was fake" types of scenarios
♡ ending this on a lighter note than... that, uhhh! i think he's a little in love enough that whenever you r away and he gets lonely, he might honestly look into the game you're from and act like a mfing in love fangirl ( aka, only looking at the parts you appear in and just intaking everything about you in your source material asap. you look so cute in the artstyle of the game, too... man. he's a little lovestruck. a little fruity, even. this is even funnier if you take the dating sim / visual novel backstory into account bc glitchy Would download the game just to romance you. And you come home and see him doing that and are just like. Flustered and confused and 50 different emotions while glitchy just goes "I can explain, I swear." ).
♡ breaking news red from pokemon red and [ y/n ] from [ insert game ] are real and Are kissing. Maybe even under a tree. do what you will with this info
#wispy writes#glitchy red x reader#love wins . Two anomalies are kissing eachother and maybe h*lding h*nds
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SPULTURATORAH!! 2ND EXTERMINATION
SPULTURATORAH!! 2ND EXTERMINATION, Keetoms, 2024
Hot. Off. The. Presses. Directly into my hands before the edges were even trimmed or the cover placed on it. Seven hundred pages of raw ancient retro-future. The author gave this to me on January 2nd and it took me until now to actually read the whole thing.
SPULTURATORAH!! 2ND EXTERMINATION (S2E from here on out to avoid overwhelming us all with Teh Capslock) is a gonzo mashup of different game styles, settings, and genres. The original game (S1E, I guess) is a classic of maximalist game design in a tiny package. In fact, it's so small that there are more pages in S2E than words in S1E. That's ultra-maximalist game design for you.
So what did they do with the 698ish new pages? A lot, thankfully.
30 pages total of ToC, index, thanks, and license. It has its own bespoke license that I am not good enough at lawyer to understand.
10 pages of extra explanation for the original ruleset, which honestly it needed.
20 pages of gonzo backstory for King Gilgamesh. I appreciate that they did not in fact explain where he got the Levitating Darkness Throne. They did a great job folding in the new chapter of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was discovered only recently.
A 40-page adventure set in the Ziggurat of Ur, complete with a Narrative Dungeon linking this place to the Eternal Realm of Narrative Awesome.
9 pages of random-roll tables you can use for Trait One, Trait Two, and Trait Prime.
2 pages to explain the difference between what you can use for the numbered traits and what you can use for the prime trait.
30 pages of alternate uses for TRAIT ZIGGURAT BARLEY.
18 pages of equipment.
31 pages of vehicles and riding animals.
2 pages on currency.
14 pages of hacking rules.
7 pages of rules clarifications from the unofficial 1.4th edition. Nice to see them supporting fan works.
114 pages of monsters, each of which is a mutated version of King Gilgamesh from another universe or a shattered piece of our own, come to drag you back to his den and devour you. There are big ones, scaly ones, porcupine-like ones, multiple fragmented body parts moving together, one rolled into a beholder-like shape, one fused forever into a throne of pure orange light, all kinds of stuff. I like this.
A 6-page writeup of the God Shamash, which is sort of unnecessary but interesting anyway.
A 4-page running edge-to-edge map of Babylon and its rivers
8 pages of word jumble. I think it's a code. I am not entirely certain.
115 pages of adaptations from S2E to other rule systems: Deadlands, Torg, Fate, Altaplana, Numenera, Dungeon War, MSR, and Fantasy Wargaming: THLOA.
Good lord 700 pages is a lot of pages.
1 page accidentally taken up by a single dangling word ("it") at the end of a sentence. I have been there. Doing layout sucks sometimes.
96 pages of color art plates. Right in the middle of the book. The rest of the book has no art. The center has almost 100 solid pages of pinup Babylonian future barbarian blade hunter psychics. It's all the work of one mad genius who is credited as a bunch of black rectangles with diacriticals above and below them
A 3-page essay on why Nobilis is the greatest game ever, which has an acrostic that disclaims the entire section.
4 pages of detailed wargame rules.
22 pages of domain management guidelines.
12 pages of "spoilers". I still do not know what most of these mean.
A 2-page spread of Gilgamesh's family tree.
15 pages of writeups for miscellaneous folks on said tree.
28 pages on the language used in ancient Babylon, complete with cuneiform how-to.
A 16-page "node map" of the retro-future Babylonian cybernet that leads to outer space, where the planets are manifestations of deities.
21 more pages of detail covering the strange planets of our solar system as the Babylonians knew them: their cities, their rulers, little adventure seeds, advice for GMs for running stories in them. I do kind of wonder if someone else wrote this section.
1 page of probability notes, which is all you need for a 1d6-roll-under system really.
An 8-page character sheet, which is a bit excessive for characters with 4 traits.
2 pages that just contain the original game.
I will admit - there is actually too much in this game. I'm not sure it would have worked to make it a string of 50ish short supplements, but it's still an awful lot to absorb. The "maximal game, minimal package" has turned into "ultra-max game in a doorstop package". If S3E ever arrives (presumably with three exclamation points) I hope they do some judicious trimming.
I have no idea if this behemoth will make it to stores, or whether the shipment will collapse under its own gravitational pull and become a black hole. Either way, heck of a collector's item.
#ttrpg#imaginary#indie ttrpg#rpg#review#Trait Ziggurat Barley#keetoms#700 pages is a whole lot of pages#did you know that tumblr has issues with keeping your place on the page when you move through text in large documents?#guess how I know
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I know you said on Twitter your least favorite joke in TOH is the joke from Edge of the World about the head Titan hunter being named Bill. My least favorite TOH joke is from Escaping Expulsion, when Gus suggests they cast illusions of "lady guards" to distract the guards and Willow is like "this isn't a cartoon from the 40s!" Firstly because, why would Gus make that suggestion? Who says the guards are heterosexual men? The Boiling Isles feels pretty gender and sexuality neutral so that's a strange assumption on his part. Second of all why is Willow referencing something from Earth that she would have no way of knowing about aside from maybe Luz, except why would Luz tell her about cartoons from the 40s? Third of all, the whole joke is just brimming with this smug aura of 'look everyone, we're so progressive, we're NOT going to do this trope that we COULD do because we're not a cartoon from the 40s!' Like, if you have to pat yourself on the back for not writing something worse then maybe your writing isn't actually that good. You know? IDK, it's such a small moment so it's weird that it bothers me as much as it does but I feel like it's a microcosm of a lot of my issues with TOH's writing. Anyway, any thoughts on that joke or TOH's joke writing in general? 🦎
There is... a lot to be said about the humor of TOH. I actually covered, theoretically, one problem in a blog about the male characters in TOH. That blog is relevant to this because 80% of TOH's comedy is predicated on the misery of some sort of the designated comic relief characters. In S1, this is pretty much entirely male. In S2, Lilith joins these ranks but not as the straight man she was in S1 (the comedy term, not the sexuality) but as just... The same sort of gag character everyone else is.
This designation of comic relief also commonly comes with only being allowed one or two main jokes that will be used over and over again in someway to make the character look like a fool. Now slapstick is fine and I like stuff like Randy Cunningham so I can enjoy it. The problem with TOH's comedy writing is that it's not creative, interesting and kind of eventually gets very obvious. As such, it becomes incredibly boring.
This is almost entirely why I found King to be a boring character for the entirety of S1. He just... isn't a character. He's two jokes that aren't very different from each other. A child trying to be taken seriously or an animal that is trying to have the respect of a human. Both degrade him, both have him acting the fool, both have him looking stupid, etc. like that and because he is the comedic backbone of the main trio in theory, these jokes are repeated somewhere close to a BILLION TIMES.
But... All of those lead to comedy that is for the most part boring. Without the actual interplay of characters, the comedy feels superfluous. It's like anything that relies on its comic relief to be able to claim to be a comedy rather than actually having that comedy weave in and out of the piece naturally. An untold amount of meh animated movies have this exact problem so it's nothing new even if people somehow don't understand that it is a problem.
But let's talk about the other 20% with the two jokes discussed in your ask! Both of them are in line with the fact that when the show isn't using slapstick, it's subversion. Namely, subversion of cartoon and fantasy tropes. The only problem is that it seems to think it's revolutionary for subverting tropes DECADES old... When they've either entirely fallen out of fashion or the sorts of subversion they're doing have been done for... decades as well almost.
Because distracting the guards by dressing in drag isn't something modern cartoons play straight anymore. They'll either see through the disguise, call them ugly, not be of the same species, etc. like that. And all of those are more of a joke than just calling out the fact that it's a trope and then that's it. That's the joke.
Which isn't funny or clever. It's just an observation that begs the question of "Okay, and? We weren't treating you as a show from the 40s. Are we supposed to?"
As a tangent though: That whole conversation is a mess. You pointed out all the world building issues with it but let's just talk about who does what. Gus is weirdly the only character IN CHARACTER as they discuss this plan. Top Student Amity wants to go in and FIGHT EVERYONE while Willow, who has never shown any real cleverness with her magic, just overwhelming brute force, is the one to suggest actually being sneaky with a magical solution while also being the one to scold Gus the hardest. Admittedly, I don't agree with people who think Willow suppresses her emotions so her speaking up is in character but how overly mean she is about it feels like it was written for Amity but it was boarded wrong or something.
The other major issue in both jokes though, much more in the one I hate most, is the feeling of smugness. That the show obviously thinks it's incredibly clever for the joke. I mean, just how weird are fantasy names? Balthazar? Magnus? Tarik?
Oh, wait, TOH actually used that last one. And the others are rooted in cultures not in America so treating as entirely fantastical nowadays is just kind of being an asshole. I mean, how many Japanese or Arabic names are going to sound weird to an American, where 'Christopher' is about as complex or interesting as our first names get? So maybe you shouldn't judge so quickly.
But that's not the point anyways. It's that so many OTHER fantasy shows take themselves so seriously with these names or ideas or leaders and look how 'funny' it is when they're named something like Bill! Or they're actually a stoner! Aren't we a riot?
And there's never thought beyond that. Of how it clashes with the narrative which is the REAL reason I DESPISE the Bob joke. Unlike something like the Bile Sacs, something that is used as a subversive joke that fucks up the magic system in some way because they'll never get brought back up again... Bob fucks up his episode.
Theoretically, the tension of the episode is whether or not these people are good and if King should be with them to find out about his culture. The first time "Bill" is uttered out of Tarik's mouth, the show just hard pauses for a second, as if to allow for the snickers to die down, before Luz even straight up asks if it's short for something. They straight up spend 15 seconds of the episode destroying any possible gravitas this character has.
Which is an immediate sign. If these characters were actually meant to be a dilemma from a character standpoint, they'd be taken seriously. They could be silly but their culture would matter. Their leaders would matter. In fifteen seconds, for the sake of a joke they're obviously so proud of, at the ten minute mark so we have half the episode left...
The audience knows the truth. They're grifters or bad men in some way and King and Luz shouldn't trust them. All for fifteen seconds for a bad joke that's not original in the slightest.
And for anyone who thinks we're thinking too hard about these jokes: That's not our problem. Okay, it absolutely is my problem, I overthink most things, but in general, if we're questioning jokes this much... The show has failed. In some way, the joke has broken the suspension of disbelief and now I'm not watching something I'm invested in, I'm instead aware of it being a construct and kid's show.
And because of the egotism, it demands higher scrutiny the moment that happens. I've talked about this problem with TOH before. And comedy suffers the most from it because TOH doesn't do rapid fire comedy. It wants its jokes to be gut busters. It's REALLY confident in a lot of them, especially the more ego put into the joke.
And... I'm sorry. While TOH does constitute deserving the comedy genre title, it's just not a great comedy. It's fine at best usually but it doesn't have variety and it's usually not clever. Does it sometimes manage a great one? I would hope so since it's literally listed as a comedy.
But if you want something unique and that deserves to think of itself as a gut buster, you're going to have look for something that tries harder than this.
(and of course as a caveat to ALL of this: I prefer British style of humor and interplay which takes a lot more sarcasm, back and forth, etc. like that so I'm a bit predisposed to not being hit as hard by it as others. Comedy is so subjective though that that's why I tried to stick to kind of the general, structural and presentation issues with the comedy rather than whether the jokes themselves are good or not.)
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead,
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
And finally a Twitter you can follow too!
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Ranting
Just wanna put a bunch of petty, angry thoughts down somewhere.
99% is gonna be Warhammer 40k cuz dear god have some things been bothering me for a bit!
I honest to god care so little about the primarchs it is insane. Like I don't hate them, nor do I think they're bad, and I do genuinely like some of them. My problem is most writing and anything specific has to do with 'omg konrad so hot!' or 'magnus is bae!' p much insert any primarch there and its the same thing. And I just sit there with a grimancing smile cuz I just don't care for them like that, they're interesting characters in their plots, but I don't feel any sort of obsession or compulsion to write more about them, their story is told in the setting and that's good. I really don't want to read the 200th shipping piece about them with each other or insert guilliman/yrvaine, or primarch/self-insert, they are nothing to me. I care leaps and bounds more about the space marine's themselves, more about their loyalty to their primarchs and how that makes many do things they never would have done otherwise. Like the butchers nail in the world eaters, stuff like that. But at least on AO3 fanfiction its so rare it might as well not exist.
I guess bold words coming from the writer of the horniest/most fucked up space marine fan fic on the site. But I am allowed to bitch.
Other thing I hate with AO3 warhammer fanfiction, though looks more general, is the fixation with cross-over writing. Like there at least 10 fics there that are warhammer 40k crossover with my hero academia of all things. Let alone the 50+ fandom crossover fics that are a chore to scroll past due to the length of their tags (thankfully that's mostly reduced thanks to the tag limit AO3 had to enforce). None of them offer anything new, or interesting, or really anything I find worthwhile to read. Most can be boiled down to 'we took academia characters and hastily jammed them in roles of the primarchs' or something else just as uninspired. and again, like you do you, but it's miserable having to scroll through most fics and except for maybe 1 or 2 they are all pretty much the same thing with different window dressing.
Also wish there wasn't a treat of woobifying chaos. Acting like they're secretly the real good guys. Aside from being resoundingly not based in canon even remotely, it removes why I love chaos so much. I'm not a fan of chaos cuz I think they'll make everything right, I'm a fan cuz they just wanna watch everything burn and do horrific shit. Maybe I am tired of being nice, maybe I do wanna go ape shit! That's the appeal, the catharsis of being something so horrific and beyond good, and loving every step of the way.
Also not a huge fan of the new thing being hating space marines as boring generic action heroes, which I do kinda get bc GW loves using them as poster boys. But I dunno, I've just related to space marines more than the guardsmen. Not that I've ever been in war or some of the horrors they face. But when I relate is the isolation and seperation from the average human, like I loved reading in one of the Ahriman books how a space marine sat in a human chair and how it struggled to not shatter, how it made at least me aware how the world is not designed for them. They're children who were taken at an extremely young age and honed into weapons to be wielded, and I love when we're reminded that they kinda still are and how they're dehumanized by the Imperium. While space marines get along decently with each other, they struggle to understand the average human, how technically they're still emotionally children who have been given extremely dangerous weapons. That despite being angels of death for the imperium some humans still see them as freakish mutants that are barely tolerable only because they are weapons.
Like I know its extremely childish of me, but I do feel a little upset, annoyed, etc when space marines get parodied as obnoxious, stupid, hyper-masculine action hero jokes. Like 'oh ho ho! Bad ass space marines have to have their cybernetics tended to by humans, just proves regular humans are so superior to dumb marines!' Like yeah, but do you not see how it can also reflect the level of trust these dehumanized potentially deeply repressed traumatized individuals have to have that they allow select humans to help them with their disability, something that space marines shouldn't have, at least according to propaganda. Or how war can irreperably change even someone who is now seen as a tool, or that space marines are seen as just as replaceable as the cybernetics that they are augmented with. LIke IDK, maybe I see too much of myself in fictional superhuman dudes, but it irks me to have them only be seen as either just cool (which I tolerate infinitely more) or as something that must be constantly parodied and treated as something to be derided as pathetic masculine fantasy (which I detest)
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(click for better quality!)
last but not least, we have one míngzhū shimizu… plus the eleven other people they share their headspace with! @hasarjunadoneanythingwrong i remember that you seemed interested in this character when i submitted the comic featuring them to your blog, so if you’re curious about them, here they are :3
other facts include:
míngzhū is a genetic chimera, which causes parts of a person’s body to have completely separate sets of dna - in míngzhū’s case, this is because they absorbed their fraternal twin in utero. one of these sets of dna has albinism, which is why roughly half of their hair and patches of their skin are much lighter than the rest.
as alluded to by the bio and my own comments, míngzhū has dissociative identity disorder and is the host of the astrolabe system, which, aside from themself, contains eleven major alters. to clarify, they are not a spellcaster because they have did, nor do they have did because they happen to also have multiple sets of dna. the chimerism does sort of have to do with how it developed, but only in the regard that their bio-parents would assert that they actually were two people, and that any thoughts, opinions, and interests they had that didn’t line up with what was expected of them were actually not their own. this in turn has come to affect their magecraft.
míngzhū’s magecraft is based mostly around the ability to manipulate energy with the twelve gemlike orbs they conjure. for example, they’re able to shoot energy blasts from the white orbs, or use the black orbs to create barriers which can negate the kinetic energy of incoming objects. as an average one specializing in the eastern elements or “five phases” as they’re more aptly called, there’s a lot of potential to apply these effects with flexibility and creativity, but they lack the proper training to utilize their abilities to the fullest extent. in addition, finding a way to achieve a cohesive understanding of their very variable magecraft, all while navigating a condition that partitions off parts of the mind to defend itself against trauma, may be difficult.
each alter has an associated element/phase, unique abilities, and a connection with an animal in the eastern zodiac. any of them can transform into any of those twelve animals using the corresponding gem orb, but they’re most attuned to the one they match with. i may add a full list of them in a reblog, as they do all have names, but for now, the ones usually near the front are yǎoyuè (water, dog), xiǎowén (fire, rooster), língsǔn (wood, monkey), míngzhū themself (metal, dragon), and báihǔ (metal, tiger), the god of the western sky, who befriended míngzhū when they were very young, and gave a piece of himself to combine with the first alter that split from míngzhū, so that he could always protect them. ordinarily something like this would result in the god taking the human as their vessel and combining seamlessly with them (see ishtar, quetzalcoatl, parvati, etc.), but due to the nature of did, báihǔ remains entirely separate from the alters he didn’t fuse with.
after míngzhū arrived in japan and was taken in by the shimizu doctors around age 14, they began attending high school, and interestingly, found themself in the close company of the class “delinquents,” who welcomed them with open arms and much love in their hearts. and taught them how to ride a motorcycle.
they’re withdrawn around new people, especially when speaking english, but interestingly, they tend to use a casual, even somewhat slangy manner of speaking that they picked up from their friends in high school - think like mandricardo. truly it’s a mark that they’ve gained some confidence, but they still have a ways to go before they feel fully comfortable in their own skin.
the story of “the prince of lanling enters battle,” a song and dance that was lost to its home country, but flourished in another, and then was eventually able to return home struck them deeply, even more so when they got to see a performance of it in person during a ceremony. they even went as the prince of lanling for halloween once, and they still have the mask they made of papier-mâché. they actually brought it to chaldea with them, as a source of comfort :) (and if the man himself ever finds out, míngzhū will simply go supernova out of embarrassment)
“ah, ‘scuse me, sorry, i was lost in thought. you’re okay? good, good. uh, name is míngzhū, good to meet you.”
#fgo#fgo oc#fgo master oc#mastersona#master oc#fgo fate grand order#fate grand order oc#fate grand order#oc art#traditional art#mingzhu shimizu#astrolabe system#fgo art#my art
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I've been really enjoying the 911 costume meta you put together every week and it's been super interesting! I've even caught myself watching other stuff and noticing costume that's sort of foregrounded and wondering what kind of significance it has.
And I'm curious about your process! How much of the sort of "language" of meanings are generally agreed upon in costuming vs put together by the show's costumers - like is checks signifying change a universal thing or something that developed over seasons? And I feel like you must have a spreadsheet with everyone's costumes (or an incredible memory), I'm always impressed by the recall to prior episodes (not a skill I have lol). (Sorry if you've answered these before! I only found your meta breakdowns this season)
Antislice, lovely having you in my inbox!
I'm so so sorry that this has taken me an age to get round to answering, especially as its such a good ask, but I am happy that you've started noticing costume related things in other shows!
So each show/ piece of media will create its own themes etc that it plays on - 911 is doing this with check and stripes more generally and then Buck being in white is a more character specific meaning. The thing with check is that it is by nature a pattern that has lots of crossings in it - that makes it a perfect metaphor for change - for being at a crossroads as it were, so its one that tends to get used more frequently and as a result is becoming a specific language in its own right. Thats how many of these costume languages and meanings develop - they either deliberately or inadvertently get used in one or two things to convey a message and then spiral from there into a specific meaning that becomes a trope in its own right. its like a costume version of knowing the person who goes off alone in a horror movie is going to die!
As for colours - there is a lot more in this - the meanings of different colours is something that has been around since before film existed - its been around for centuries, it is worth noting that different cultures apply different meanings to colours - red for example has a different meaning in Chinese culture than it does in western culture - so its always important to keep that in mind when watching something regardless of where it comes from - because a good designer will make use of these differences if they are dressing someone from a different background. When I did my degree in costume design, we had specific lectures and seminars on colour theory and in analysing its use in various media (they were my favourite classes 😎) because it is important to understand so that you can better tell the story you're trying to tell.
Much colour theory is known by your subconscious and most people go through life completely unaware that colour is affecting decisions they make - its something advertisers use to their advantage!
I like to think I have an incredible memory 😂 and I kind of do - it remembers most things (usually it recalls a costume but cant remember exactly which episode it appeared in!), but you're right - I do have a spreadsheet (well I have one for each main and one for guest cast!) with all the costumes listed - its a full costume plot andis based on the plots I used to create when I worked in the industry! It has time stamps, reference pictures and is colour coded for type of costume and if its connected to a theme - its a bit geeky of me but I love doing it!
The first thing I do before I start writing my meta is a rewatch where I fill out all costume details for the episode and add the reference pictures! Maybe I'll share it with everyone during the summer hiatus, but then again maybe that would be one step too far!!!
I hope this answers your questions and sorry again that I didn't get to it sooner! 💜💜💜
#kym answers things#antislice asks#sorry i didn't get to it sooner#interesting asks#lovely asks#costume asks#911 on fox#911 meta stuff#911 fox#911onfox
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