#i may or may not have another set from this video in my drafts :))
Note
Any tips on writing for people with ADHD and a short attention span?
Hello! As someone who was recently diagnosed/had to go through the process of jumping through hoops to get meds, I've been trying to put together some new writing routines to get back on track. It has... been a process. Here are some things I've learned (from my personal experience, your mileage may vary):
Writing everyday doesn't work. I think this really common advice has been debunked overall, but let me tell you, there are days when the energy bar starts on empty and stays there. I can function, but the creative juices aren't there. Trying to stay creative by other means, either by reading or working on another hobby, can be a way for you to keep your day productive instead.
Hard schedules don't work. To reflect the above, I can get up at 5am every damn day, but only some of these days will get work done before work. That isn't to say you shouldn't try to make a schedule and stick to it - you'll definitely get more done that way. But it isn't always going to work, and you shouldn't beat yourself up if you can't keep to it every day.
Being 'plugged-in' definitely doesn't work. The 'oh I need to look up how to spell this oh no I'm twelve pages into a Google hole' is definitely still a trap. To keep focused, keep that instant internet away from you. Need to look up something, slap a note on it and come back when you know you don't need to write another 1000 words.
Medication/caffeine/whatever you use to function can only do so much. I can drink a cup of coffee and immediately slam myself into bed. My meds exist to get me through the work day, which is what I need them to do, but won't always be able to keep me through the extra work day. Trying to stay awake and focused when my brain is fucking done for the day just doesn't work. Instead, I have to focus on what does - writing in the morning or at noon, making time when I know I can still function rather than trying to take it on at the end of the day when I know I'll be spent.
What has been working and I've been trying to incorporate more has been:
Drafting on paper. This has always worked for me, and it continues to work for me. Physically writing the words down and editing as I type them does slow down the work, but it makes much more sense to my brain.
Using color codes/other visual tools. Color-coding characters, using different colored pens for types of notes, and flashcards help me flesh out plots. It makes plotting more like an art project, but that in itself can help me be more creative. If you like working on a computer and not by hand, you can spice up Excel sheets and Google docs with different fonts, templates, and adding notes.
Lists, lists, and more lists. I have a planner for work, I have a planner for my personal life, and I have a notepad where I write down all my daily goals, however small. Using a combination of the three has been working great for keeping me on track. For me, physically crossing things out and checking things off is a great motivator.
Alarms and writing sprints. Slap a timer to a screen and write to it. Use an online writing sprint, hop into a work-focused Twitch stream, or use a timed YouTube video to put yourself in a focused environment with a goal in mind.
Relocate. There are certain areas of my apartment that I've dubbed 'The Ooze Zone' where all I can do when I'm there is get nothing done. Unfortunately, because my apartment is quite small, the Ooze Zone takes up most of it. So if you can't set up an office space or a designated area where your brain knows to get work done, consider checking out your local library, a relatively peaceful park, a friend's house, or a cheap coffee shop. I know somewhere who would just drive somewhere and do 80% of his writing in his car. If you can't do your work from home because your brain won't let you, look into alternatives.
If you have meds, take them. Getting medicated and on the right dose is hard, believe me. I've been trying to get back the swing of things after a. being checked out from not being medicated and b. being checked out from not having the right dosage/type of meds. It is a process, but if you have the ability to seek a diagnoses and treatment, it is worth pursuing. If you have meds, take them on a regular schedule and how your doctor recommends. Add an alarm on your phone to remind yourself. Make it part of your routine. Doing it haphazardly is only doing yourself a disfavor.
And lastly, Get More Sleep. The number one thing that may be fucking you over is not sleeping enough. Having ADHD is directly tied with having more sleeping problems in both children and adults. If you have this problem, it is affecting you way more than you know.
Here's the thing - I thought I had a great sleeping schedule for the longest time, and could not figure out why I was so exhausted half the time. But I recently got a fitness tracker, which informed me that actually, my sleeping patterns were complete dogshit. I may have been in bed for eight hours, but I spent three of them tossing and turning.
Make a sleep schedule and stick to it. Go to bed at the same time of night. Consider getting a sleep tracker to see where your sleep patterns are messed up and what you can change to fix it. This sucks, believe me, but going to bed at 9pm to account for that time you'll spent tossing about before you get up at 6am may be the only way to recover those missing sleep hours. Even if it feels like it's taking away from your free time, you will function better overall.
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☆ 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧! 𝐀𝐎𝐓 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 ☆
this has been in the drafts for a long, long time and i haven’t posted aot in a while, so enjoy :) | also i feel like some of these may be ooc but this was fun to write! just keep in mind this is how i think they’d act in a modern setting, ofc minus the war & trauma
attack on titan masterlist
𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍
skips class to vape
smokes to thundercat & nirvana
flannels flannels flannels
naturally you steal them. acts coy when you do.
“you didn’t steal it, i just let you wear it and didn’t say anything when you went home with it.”
i feel like he’d be into meditating. idk why. like someone said he should do it so now he does a quick 5-min guided meditation every morning
showers with his chain on and gets green neck
doodles on his converse and yours
writes “hi :)” on your homework, journals, notes, etc during class
has a minecraft server w jean, connie and armin
claims he’s not scared of games like outlast or silent hill but everyone knows he’s lying
ends up hiding behind you in haunted houses
LOVES DRIVE THRUS/FAST FOOD. sonic & in n out specifically
toddler sense of humor, like finds things falling over funny (y’all remember the video of the piece of bread falling over-)
doesn’t know how to work pinterest
leans over people’s shoulders to look at their phones
tried getting his cartilage pierced but it got infected
has a few tattoos on his wrists and bicep
will bite you impulsively
𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐍
you mean my bf
so this boy DOES know how to work pinterest, and has so many boards
one of them is filled w future pets he wants & another one includes house ideas with you :3
is the best language learner and knows french, spanish, and german
can’t watch gory shows like squid game or the walking dead, but enjoys psychological horrors like black swan
has a billion playlists with like 6 songs each
your playlist is titled “lovey” bc i said so
has maybe one lobe piercing. but only one
he goes so hard to TV girl and mac demarco, but also loves singers like sza & jack stauber
LUVS SMOOTHIES
downloaded bumble only for the fun of it once but immediately deleted it when someone liked him
bounces his leg and picks his nails
best. skin. ever. has a good skin care regime
drives a silver toyota prius
super into journaling & drawing :>
such a gentle bf, but lives for gossip
you text him, “you will NOT believe what i just heard.” and he drops everything he’s doing to respond
coffee dates!!!
you two have a stardew farm together with a dog and a bunch of chickens and cows
his favorite character is crobus
i love him very much
𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐀𝐒𝐀
hardcore alison from breakfast club vibes
secretly into girl kpop groups
but loves hardcore women, like björk & poppy
definitely owns a lot of platform shoes: has like three pairs of demonias
shaves her brows to draw them on
loves online shopping from aliexpress & etsy
into weird chunky jewelry!! has a necklace with a heavy cat pendant & a pair of eyeball earrings
loves to do your makeup! if you don’t wear a lot daily, she’ll do something for special outings like concerts or even for fun she’ll ask you to let her do it :3
has a tiktok specifically for ootds
favorite foods include spicy ramen, mediterranean meals & ice cream
i feel like she’d be in art class! she’d draw you random portraits or cute versions of you two to put in her scrapbook
oh yeah i also feel like she’d have a scrapbook!!! and keeps a lot of mementos from your dates/hangouts
when you come over, you, her and eren play mario kart
no doubt a spiritual girly: maybe not super into spells but has a tarot deck and a few oracle decks as well as a beautiful incense burner
you two go to goth clubs cuz yeah
her lipstick gets on you all the time
dressed up as lydia deetz one year for halloween
makes rings and necklaces and gives them to you, and she debates on opening an etsy shop
— hope you enjoyed!
#attack on titan#aot#snk#shingeki no kyojin#shingeki no kyojin x reader#x reader#aot x reader#attack on titan x reader#eren jaeger#eren jeager x reader#mikasa ackerman x reader#mikasa ackerman#aot armin arlert#armin arlert x reader#armin arlert
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My favourite quotes from Jenna Moreci's Shut Up and Write the Book
I was sent an e-ARC of Shut Up and Write the Book by @jennamoreci in exchange for an honest review, and I was absolutely blown away by how good this writing craft book is!
Watch my full video review here.
Now, without further ado, here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:
"You experience enough pressure on the daily. Writing should be an escape, not a burden."
"That’s the crux of imagination: It’s play."
"Congratulations, you’re officially a businessperson, and it behooves you to study the industry you’re entering."
"It’s a lot easier to ride out the difficult parts of the writing process when you deeply care about the material and genuinely believe in its message."
"That’s the beauty of being a writer; we have the power to destroy and create however we please."
"Experience is one of the biggest assets to your writing."
"Allow your audience to experience the world as the characters journey through the story."
"If your world-building is lacking variety, it’s lacking realism."
"Present tense is easier to write, and past tense is easier to read. But you can make either tense work in your favour."
"Accept the suckage."
"Once you go back to edit your first chapter, you’ll be doing so as a stronger, more competent creator."
"The first chapter of your novel is designed to make your readers care."
"Chapters allow your reader to find natural pauses within the story."
"The key to keeping your reader engaged isn’t necessarily to make the story itself unpredictable, but to make the emotional tone unpredictable… The easiest way to do this is to employ the Roller-Coaster Method – starting and ending each chapter with a different emotion."
"A great chapter will answer enough questions to move the plot forward while creating even more questions to keep people reading."
"Let go of the need to have everyone interpret your setting in the exact manner you see it."
"Your novel should be a series of low and high points as well as slow and fast points weaving in and out of one another."
"You don’t just want to surprise the reader – you want to answer a question the readers may not have had in the first place."
"Readers tend to prefer protagonists who work hard for what they desire."
"Think of the climax as the explosion and the resolution as the dust settling."
"Don’t just recount the events of the story. Too much telling will destroy the ability of the reader to immerse themselves in the novel."
"The more I write, the less I see my bad habits popping up, which means my first drafts become cleaner and cleaner as I grow."
"Your title is a marketing tool designed to attract the right audience."
"The book is finished because you say so."
If you write genre fiction novels, this book is for you! So, get your copy now.
#write#writing#writeblr#writing advice#writerslife#writers on tumblr#writing tip#writing tips#writing resources#writer#writing reference
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youtube
so this video (it's pretty good, worth a watch) basically saved me having to clean up the big word salad post I was drafting but I'm gonna reiterate a few points -
firstly, this isn't mentioned in the video but I think it's so, so important: unlike the valentine author, Gaster has never, ever used a single contraction. Toriel is another character who never uses them, no matter how casual the context. for something like this to suddenly change for no reason makes no sense. Toby is meticulous. I genuinely believe this is a HUGE strike against it being Gaster, yet almost no one mentions it.
next, the valentine author speaks as if they don't know us: "you seem reliable", "you are very odd". and as we know, Gaster's well acquainted with us by now, so it'd make no sense for him to speak to us this way. (but what it does lend credence to is this being a character we either haven't met before, or haven't extensively interacted with.)
additionally, in all instances so far, Gaster's been keen, focused, sharp. why would he suddenly be so addled and confused?
the author saying they forgot who they're supposed to help, and it possibly even being themself, doesn't point to Gaster either - in fact, just the opposite - because the idea of him being forgotten is pure fanon. the game explicitly states that Asgore took so long to hire a new royal scientist because Dr. Gaster's brilliance was irreplaceable. how would the king know that if he didn't remember?
fictional characters, by their very nature, are presented to us in a deliberate and finite way; our interactions with them have specific purpose. this means that when we try to hold them to real-world standards like "I, a real live person, write differently depending on the occasion", it won't always hold up. we have to go by what precedents have already been set by the creator, in the context in which these characters exist.
on occasions when characters in UT/DR have spoken in a different way than usual, the fundamental, anchoring traits of their speech still remain intact (see: contractions), which would not be the case if Gaster were the valentine author.
(and of course, this doesn't even touch on the Japanese translation highlighting how wildly different the speech styles are, which I personally put more stock in than they do in the video.)
the last 3rd of the video is more opinion/headcanon-oriented but he makes his point well. even if you disagree with his perception of Gaster (I do to an extent), it's true that there's already no shortage of whimsical, silly, lighthearted characters in UT/DR, and surely, if Gaster were meant to be one of them, Toby wouldn't reveal it in a way that's so out of left field.
I love silly goofy wingding man as much as the next guy, but I also agree that attributing this personality to him out of nowhere, when it's incongruent with everything we've seen so far, would only serve to undermine his character and the uniqueness of it.
none of this is to knock anyone whose opinion differs from mine! I'm just laying my thoughts out, for whatever that's worth. I've seen an unfortunate tendency in the community to lump the valentine in with the tweets and gonermaker text as all being on the same level of "obviously Gaster", and then tout it as proof that their headcanons are real. (we all have our headcanons! just don't be a dick about it eh?)
at the end of the day, personally, I try to absorb and cling to as much canon evidence as possible, scant though it may be. because what I really really want, is to know who Gaster is. in the truest sense, as he is intended to be by his creator.
(but isn't it wonderful how much we all love this character, no matter how differently we may see him? I mean ultimately if we're not having fun here, then what's the point, right?)
but yeah, give the vid a watch! it goes into more detail and makes more compelling points than my sleepless brain can atm. :p
#all this said i absolutely love all the adorable gaster fanart that came out of it 😢🖤#plus the renewed interest in discussion and theories in the fandom is really fun#gaster#long post#freak speak#the great valentine debateTM#edited this after a nap to hopefully be more coherent
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Behind The Scenes of Outcast | Stray Kids Additional Member
Listen to LIAM explain his sixth and last song in his album, Damage. - Achievement Goals.
WARNINGS: Nick talks about how fans treat famous people, heartbeats, ?talk about depression? He doesn't say it but what he says could hit a little too close to home. idk
A/N: I wondered why my drafts hadn't gone down. I just realized this, and the comments for the last 2 posts were never posted, and now I'm annoyed.
Nicholas Ross Master List | Requested: Yes
Nicholas sits on a stool, wiping his hands. He hands the paper towel to a woman off-screen as he giggles at a joke they said.
"Hello, I'm Nicholas. You may know me as Liam," He says, nodding at the camera. "I'm here to talk about my last song, Outcast, from my album Damage."
"This is the last I'll be on here for a while," Nicholas pouted, and the camera crew groaned in displeasure.
𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙨?
"I wouldn't say it's directed to anyone." Nick shrugged his shoulders. He leaned back in his chair, popping his fingers as he continued, "The song is just telling people I won't fit into the mold they set for idols or black people."
"That's probably one of the shortest answers you've given," A man said. Other crew members mumbled agreements.
𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨?
"I did," Nicholas quipped, smiling at one of the women behind the camera. She laughed at the repeat of the last interview.
"No, but seriously," Nick chuckled as he dismissively waved his hand. He leaned back in his seat, scratching his chin in thought.
"I think I just got tired of hearing people argue about me. Some people wanted me to have a solo career, and others wanted me to stay in the group."
"It's annoying having other people trying to dictate your life," He grumbled, leaning to pop his back.
"It's why so many famous people are miserable. People don't know how to detach themselves from others," Nick explained as he bounced his leg. He tilted his head side to side as he hummed in thought.
"You know..." He trailed off. Popping his neck, Nick continued, "One of my friends got in trouble because people saw him out with a girl and didn't want him to be in a relationship yet."
"That's disgusting," Someone whispered, and Nicholas shrugged.
"That's the life these so-called fans are forcing famous people to live," Nicholas huffed, blinking quickly before relaxing in his seat. He stares at the camera with dull eyes.
"You all don't realize that you make your idols miserable."
𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙜? & 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙨?
Nicholas hummed in false amusement as he threw his head back. In this position, he could hear his heartbeat. It always beats at a fast pace. It's why he couldn't sleep sometimes. The beating was too loud in his mind.
He blinked, his eyes focusing again before he sat up. Nicholas huffed," There's a lot of hidden messages, you know?"
"A lot of hidden messages in the lyrics and the video," He repeated, leaning back to run his hands down his thighs. After wiping the sweat off his hands, Nick leaned his elbows on his knees. A cracking sound echoed as his spine popped.
"The video starts with me in a prison cell, right?" He asked. Waving his hand at the lyrics on the paper, Nick continued, "The lines talk about the door being locked, but I have the keys."
"The prison represents my mind and struggles," He said. Nick stretched his legs with another popping sound coming from his knees.
Releasing a sigh of relief, he adjusted his seat before continuing, "The keys being in my hand means I struggle with freeing myself or not."
"It's a never-ending battle."
"I asked fans all over to be in the music video," Nicholas giggled as he looked between the people behind the camera.
A picture popped up next to him on the screen. It displayed the scene of Nicholas in the cage with people in black hoods everywhere. Nick tilts his head as he explains the scenes his fans were in, "They're surrounding the cage, but later, I let them in the cell to symbolize that people are in the same situation as me."
"Come up with a new song or something so you can come back," The director says, and the room erupts in shouts as everyone agrees. Nick chuckles as he pats the man on the shoulder before hugging him.
"I'll see what I can do."
Outcast Tweets
Nicholas Ross Master List
©️DEANAMEANTAE2024
Tags: @bada-lee-ily @jinnie-ret @hwxnghyynjin @foxilsdenn @rensahazard @mynameisnotlaura @lucianidealz @ziipzeepzop-eez @ilovejeongin007
You can be added by asking in the replies, sending me a message, or doing an ask thingy.
#deantae nicholas ross#skz 9th member#stray kids 9th member#skz x reader#stray kids x reader#skz x male reader#stray kids x male reader#skz x 9th member#stray kids with the 9th member#stray kids extra member#9th member of skz#9th member of stray kids#skz added member#stray kids added member#kpop added member#kpop addition
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enha maknae line - calling them another members name
layla’s note
here’s the maknae line ,, I had it in drafts and forgot to post it right after the hyung one :0 (i got carried away with Niki heh-)
warning!!: lowercase indeed ,, grammar errors :)
Sunoo
Will ask you to repeat yourself ,, sunoo is not one to be phased by your little pranks but calling him someone else’s name …especially his members' name was beyond him. “I take a lot of disrespect to your little mix up.” Will definitely ignore you for the rest of the day because he is extremely offended by your actions. Dramatic? Yes. After some time he will be sitting on the couch watching videos before he hears you walking in his direction will get up and make you do a 180 because he doesn’t want you to be in his quote-on-quote “personal bubble” till he’s forgiven you. Once he’s done being petty he will skip his way to your shared bedroom and jump on top of your laying body. “Okay I’ve decided that I’ll forgive you if you give me a bunch of cuddles and kisses …and never call me by heeseung-hyungs name again or I will not speak to you for a month.” He smiles at you before wrapping his arms around your body and clinging onto you like a koala. The moral of the story is …don’t mess with sunoo.
Jungwon
Jungwon will not hesitate to send you a judgmental stare ,, can’t tell if it was an accident or you did it on purpose to get a reaction out of him. Although Jungwon may be a jealous person things like this wouldn’t get any sort of reaction from him since he genuinely will believe it was a mistake ,, and he does think you're a little slow so he really would believe it. You're both in one of bighits dance rooms ,, the other members decided they wanted to go get food but your boyfriend chose not to and instead he wanted to stay with you and spend quality time despite your protest he denied your offer telling him to go eat as well instead he stood his guard and plopped right next to you ,, he laid his head on ur lap letting you play with his hair. “Jak- Jungwon can you get me water please?” Even though it was very subtle jungown caught it very quickly looking at you through the mirror where he examined your face ,, he noticed you looking everywhere but towards him ,, “why don’t you ask Jake for a water bottle.” Although he said it dryly he was joking as he quickly got up to get you your water bottle. Laughing at your puzzled look through the mirror ,, he went back into your embrace and kissed ur hand before looking up at you “lemme introduce myself since you clearly forgot who I am …I’m your amazing boyfriend.”
Niki
you can get two reactions out of niki; petty or clingy. you're at the library with niki as you both need to study for an upcoming test you need to take next week ,, niki was on the other side of the stall looking for math books while you stood in the area of science books. finally finding the book you wanted you decided to head to niki. and then an amazing idea popped into your head ,, niki lovessss to pull pranks on you so what better way than to prank him right now by calling him his members name. "Jay i found the book we were looking for!!" you whispered yelled as you finally made your way to his right side examing the bookshelf in front of him. "jay-hyung is here?" is all he asked as he grabbed one of the books from the shelf ,, "no what are you talking about?" you threw a question right back as you bit back a grin from appearing on your face. "then why would you call out his name?" he took another book from the shelf and then turned his full attention onto you. watching as you shrugged he eyed you suspiciously ,, he grabbed your hand and dragged you to the table where both your laptops sat open waiting on your arrival to finish up whatever it was you were working on. once you guys sit down and have set your book down he will hold onto your hand and not let go. "niki we have to write down these study guides you can hold my hand later." turning his head towards you ,, you could see niki's offended look plastered on his face as he shook his head. letting go of your hand niki put all his attention on his study guide and didn't even spare you a glance after that. after a few you noticed niki was done as his laptop was now closed and he was drinking water while reading a book. "niki can you help me with this?" again not sparing you a glance he shook his head "go ask jay-hyung for help I'm sure he would love to help you." you couldn't help but laugh at his little pout "don't be silly niki." but he still refused to look at you ,, if you admit that it was a joke he will not speak to you for a while ,, will bro-zone you till he finally forgives you ...and only forgives you because none of his hyungs want to cuddle with him ...loser-
© w0nnielov3
#enhypen#enha#enhypen reactions#enhypen imagines#enhypen headcanon#enhypen x reader#enhypen x you#enhypen x yn#heeseung#jay#jake#sunghoon#sunoo#jungwon#niki#layla tired her best :p
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Four Seasons Manor (四季山庄): Set Layout!
If you’ve been following my descent into madness my research progress for my next set design project, you’ll know that it immediately became impossible for me to work out the layout of Siji Manor from screenshot studies of the show alone.
To backtrack to about a year ago: it quickly became clear that the exterior shots of the manor’s first courtyard and the birdseye view we see in episode 24 is not located in the same set, or possibly even film base, as the “interior set”. Unfortunately, that secondary set is where many of the indoor scenes take place (with significant rooms, such as Wen Kexing’s bedroom being redressed to be used for other scenes in the show), and is where the secondary courtyard is located. I soon realised that I had to do three things in order to create a Four Seasons Manor for my project that feels as authentic as possible to the one we are presented with in the show.
First, find the full film base on Google Earth (which has the most up-to-date satalite imagery I can find); second, identify all the buildings to create a “complete” Manor and confirm the secondary set isn’t just another part of the first; and third, find the secondary set in order to correctly map its layout and marry it with the birdseye view.
Friends, I have achieved two of those three things.
The second set still evades me. But so far, I have finally managed to correctly and completely identify the film base that is presented to us as Four Seasons Manor:
(Full research breakdown under the cut.)
This is one of two full manor sets on Hengdian World Studio’s No.1 Mountain in the ‘Spring and Autumn Tang Park’ filmbase. In anticipation for the birdseye plan in my set design project, I’ve gone ahead and mapped it out faithfully to the satalite image:
As you can see, there's five distinct areas that make up this manor: three courtyards (labelled 1,2,4) and two gardens (3,5). The first courtyard will be familiar to everyone who has watched Word of Honor:
It is the main courtyard of Four Seasons Manor. Likewise, the fifth area will also be familiar to you all, although you may not realise it yet. It's Sanbai Manor:*
*With the exception of the main gate. The main gate of Sanbai Manor is actually from another set in the Spring and Autumn Park filmbase - the Tang Palace. There is fantastic drone footage of that set here. The Sanbai Manor gate is at the rear of the set, but you may recognise the opening shot of this clip as another place we see in the very first episode of WOH 🤫 Edit: I forgot I had a second douyin clip for the Tang Palace set.
These are the main two areas used in WOH of this set. Confirmation of the rest of the set comes from drama New Life Begins and various douyin videos and tourist photos on the internet. I won't bore you with a breakdown because Tumblr has eaten too many drafts of this post and I am Tired, but here is a snapshot of my confirmation process:
Find the difference between these two pictures
Edit: On rewatch, I can confirm that are 4 is also used in WOH. We see it in the very first scene of episode 1, dressed as the Military Governer Li’s Manor:
Here is a daylight photograph (source here) of that same building:
You may be wondering though, about the alternate layout I have detailed in my map:
Friends, this is where I would like to hear your ideas.
After scouring many clips and photographs trying to confirm whether these photos are part of this same set or a later development, I've found that since the satalite picture of this site was taken by Google Earth in 2020, corresponding to what we see in WOH, Hengdian has remodeled this part of the set. You can see a wonderful walkthrough of areas 4 and 5 here, in which you can see the remodelled layout:
This douyin video was the last confirmation I needed to place the photographs from the article. This photograph in particular feels very much like Siji Manor to me, and so I will be trying to include this remodelled layout in my project design:
But.
Despite not having located the secondary set yet, I have been thinking over which area would be best to remodel myself, to try and incoporate the kitchen space and the two rooms it sits between, which I have confirmed to be WKX and ZZS's rooms:
Reminder of that early process here.
There are two options that I see right now:
1) I use area 4 as this second courtyard. I remove the gate, make the main room ZZS's room, remove the side halls, drop in a kitchen, put WKX's room where the gate was. Chengling's training dummies then get dropped whereabouts the hexagonal pavillion is in the alternate layout, and I tweak a random building here or there:
However, somewhat crucially - the view from WKX's moon widow would be blocked by the big building that is the centerpiece of area 5. I don't like that. Past the first courtyard, there's a certain sprawl and lack of uniformity to Siji Manor created in part by this CGI shot. I think that's why the above photo appealed so much to me.
So, 2) I remodel area 3. It's pretty sparse. I was thinking of making courtyard #2's main hall into a private study or meeting room, with the sidehalls being ZZS's "medicine room" and the "first night room" - the Cold River Room, as @minnarr called it in their stellar sleuthing post (I hope you don't mind that I'm using the name? And may continue to use it? Also, I'm still searching for this set and your sleuthing is going to be so much help.) - they could later become Chengling's room (and Han Ying's. For hanwenzhou headcanon rights).
Area 4 could then be used as a training courtyard and lecture hall perhaps? Meanwhile area 3 can be completely redone, to have ZZS's room at the bottom facing north, WKX's facing south:
The "training area" is then still technically past a covered walkway to the left of their courtyard. The spirit remains. However, crucially: The dotted line between areas 3 and 4 is indicative of a drop in elevation. The whole set is on a slope, with areas 1,2 and 3 at a higher elevation to 4 and 5. So. If the moon window in WKX's room did face west across the garden and down the mountain, it would actually be true to the CGI we see out of his window in the show: Especially because you see part of a roof. That could totally be the roof of the building that sits against the dotted line.
But additionally, there's also this alternate orientation:
It makes the kitchen feel more tucked away, and the additional screened walkway would give ZZS and WKX their privacy. But the view from the moon window would be blocked, and there's no reason to not have the rooms central to the courtyard the way they are here.
...Does any of that make sense? I bypassed Normal about this show a solid year ago. I'm leaning towards option 2 right now, but I will continue my hunt through cdrama for this other set. What's irritating is that I can see its style in lots of other places, including Lotus Pier, and I just can't find the real world setting for it...
ANYWAY, as always, thank you for joining me on my research adventures. Supporting me through ko-fi, and checking out my previous CQL projects here and on inprnt, would be greatly appreciated.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three
#nikkidraws#nikkispeaks#my neurodivergance is showing#but more importantly#also my epic sleuthing skills#true to form i will now yeet this post from me because my brain is DONE with it#woh set design#set design saga#word of honor#four seasons manor#siji manor#wenzhou#my hanwenzhou agenda#shan he ling#hengdian world studios#spring and autumn tang park#spring and autumn tang garden
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If it Means to Remain by Your Side pt. 2
I realized well after posting my last post, that I forgot to include things that characters will use and the educational descriptions. Please read through it all, and please patiently await as I outline then draft chapter 1. Anyways, buckle up y’all we are going to go on an educational ride today💀 (more under the cut!!)
Weapons/Instruments Characters wield
Dan Heng - qiang 枪, guqin 古琴
Reader - jian 剑, liu xing chui 流星锤 (mid to later half), dizi 笛子 (mid to later half)
Jing Yuan - guan dao 关刀, xiao 箫 (not 魈)
Blade/Yingxing - heng dao横刀
March - bow
Yukong - bow,
Tingyun - guqin 古琴
Jingliu - qixing dao 七星刀
Baiheng - jian 剑
Yanqing - jian 剑
Ruan Mei - han dao 汉刀
Luocha - jian 剑
Xueyi - bow, herself
Hanya - yan ling dao 雁翎刀
Qingque - fan
Fu Xuan - butterfly swords 蝴蝶刀
Guinaifen - jian 剑
Sushang - None
The Educational Ride
Qiang 枪：This is the basic form of spear in Chinese weaponry. What sets qiang apart from guan dao is the blade. Qiang iis double-edged whereas guan dao is only single-edged. It’s also pointier which makes this weapon good for piercing or stabbing. This is actually a weapon used by Dan Heng in game.
Jian 剑：The most basic form of sword when searching up Chinese swords. Though if wanting to use a more detailed term, these swords are Daoist swords. Jian is used mostly in taiji forms like Wudang, Yang, Chen, etc. Training jian are more flexible. Like other Chinese, this sword also has tassels. This type of sword was carried more by Daoists, nobles and upper class figures than soldiers. The hilt and guard can be especially decorated depending on the patron.
Liu xing chui 流星锤：This is a more neolithic weapon in Chinese history. It has a ball on one end of the rope and a knife on the other end. It’s a rather difficult weapon to wield due to it’s flexible nature.
Guan dao 关刀：A type of glaive. The name of this weapon came from a general named Guan Yu 关羽。 Stories also says that it is a rather heavy weapon to wield, and that Guan Yu himself was a man with immense strength. But of course it’s all stories. Only one side is sharp, but that isn’t the most notable feature. The most notable feature is the curvature of the blade along with an extra small curve that usually holds a tassel. It can be thick or skinny. The closest resemblance to this weapon would be naginata. ( though there are strong hints that naginata is inspired by this weapon). Jing Yuan himself actually uses this weapon in game.
Heng dao 横刀：Or otherwise known as Tang dao 唐刀 is a sword used during Tang dynasty. It is a build similar to that of a kitana, though straightened. It can be wielded either by foot, or on horseback.
Qi xing dao 七星刀：Unfortunately, I don’t really have any information on this sword except for the fact that it looks like heng dao and a scimitar mix. I saw this in a video of Chinese weapons, and though I may be able to find it on Chinese sites, I fear translation will not translate things accurately. I would add another variant, Da dao 大刀 （more commonly known as battle da dao 抗战大刀) but because of it’s imprint on reason history, I also fear that it may be too controversial of a blade to include.
Han dao 汉刀：As the name suggests, this sword originated during Han dynasty. And it is the “predecessor” to Tang dao and many others that came after Han. One noticeable feature about this blade is the lack of hand guard, thus giving this sword a more straight figure.
Yan ling dao 雁翎刀：This sword is THE most closest looking to a kitana, though it is unsure whether or not this sword was even inspired by a kitana. Like it’s predecessors Han and Tang dao, the tip stops diagonally. And similarly to Qi xing, it has a more circular guard.
Butterfly swords 蝴蝶刀：Compact design yet an effective weapon all the same. It’s not very clear when these swords originated, it may have been Qing dynasty, but again, it’s not clear when it originated. It can come in many shapes, though most popularly with a wider blade. Though it should also be mentioned that narrow ones exist. These blades make a perfect piercing blade.
Fan 扇子：It can be delicate, but when made with right materials *cough* metal *cough*, it can become lethal. Small needles or knives can be used along with it to cut, but just full body metal itself can make a great blunt weapon.
A thing to note: You may have noticed, but weapons that ends with 刀 have a single-edged blade. It doesn’t mean that the blade is curved. Tassels are also mentioned (I think twice). In martial arts, tassels are used to distract/blind the opponent.
Guqin 古琴：The classic right after guzheng （古筝）。This is instrument is favored by many, especially scholars. The strings are made with silk though nowadays, nylon strings are also an option. A gentle quiet tone, yet hold clarity akin to glass. I don’t know why many popular media portrays them as fighting instruments when the requirements of this instrument itself is the opposite of what would be suitable for fighting. Mainly nails. Unlike pipa 琵琶, sanxian三弦, and guzheng, guqin doesn’t have the need to have false nails (usually made of shell of some sort though I’m sure nowadays, it’s either fiber glass or plastic). Which then means the player must have their nails (right-hand especially) grown out to pluck the strings. I don’t recommend plucking any string that is thick or metal with the pad of your fingers (unless you want blisters). Classic guitarists will know what I mean about the finger nails part.
Dizi 笛子：A bamboo flute played horizontally. There is a hole usually covered by a thin reed or tape (if the player really wants a muted sound that won’t trill). It comes in various sizes and keys. There is no designated mouth piece instead, there is a hole similar to other holes needed to be covered. It can be as decorated or as bare.
Xiao 箫：Another bamboo flute, though this one is played vertically. Unlike dizi, this flute doesn’t an additional hole to be covered by reed or tape. And on top of that, the mouth piece if more different. Whereas dizi has a hole, the xiao has a slit in which the player has to blow through. Compared to dizi, this is the most difficult instrument (though I for some reason struggle to play dizi, but I’m perfectly fine playing this instrument...)
Most of these descriptions are things I knew growing up, knew how to play/wield, taught to me, or things I searched up so long ago (we’re talking like middle school me). The sources that I did manage to use will be linked down below:
Tang Heng Dao (lkchensword.com)
Royal Arsenal (lkchensword.com)
LK Chen Sword - Chinese Saber, Chinese Sword, Martial Arts
Butterfly Sword: The Symbolism and Significance in Chinese Martial Art – Mini Katana
Ummm. For some reason the links don’t work and my brain is too fried to figure it out rn, so copy and paste and (hopefully) it’ll pop up. No mla format unfortunately. It’ll be waaaay too long of a post. And yes, I tried to make it as close to the game and MDZS as possible but I soon realized that it wouldn’t really work as I kinda do want to deviate from the plot as much as possible (I don’t want it to be an exact copy of MDZS/The Untamed).
#honkai star rail x reader#hsr x reader#hsr x you#hsr x y/n#hsr x gender neutral reader#hsr dan heng x you#hsr dan heng x reader#hsr dan heng#dan heng x you#dan heng x reader#dan heng x y/n#dan heng x gender neutral reader#gn reader
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Hi friends - it's been a bit, here at least. Remember when we only had to manage one or two social media accounts to stay in contact with people because they hadn't dispersed to a dozen different places? That was nice.
If you're not aware, 2023 has not been kind to me, and I am presently living with my (very kind, very generous) grandmother whilst finalising my divorce. My health has been rough, managing my audhd has been rough, it's a rough year. But! I have taken a huge amount of joy and pride and gratitude in being able to continue my PhD and not having to take (another) intermission.
As such, it's been a teensy bit hard to maintain posting about how my research is going. But as I've recently come to find that asynchronous sharing is easier for me and more accessible for people than trying to maintain Twitch streaming, I want to try and post here a little more, even if it's very infrequent.
So, to give you a relatively swift update on where we are:
I had supervision last month and we did a lot of edit planning and nailing down of the issues with my chapter draft, which was just about complete before that meeting. A large amount of the problem was that I had separated my discussion about the survey results and my arguments for the chapter. I made my next target sorting this out, editing things together, finishing the chapter off and if possible doing this for the video games chapter too (spoiler alert: I will not be managing to do both).
One of the main issues that my supervisor highlighted was that in that draft, I had no fanfiction. In my fanfiction chapter. We'd discussed the ethical steps I wanted to take with citing fanfiction, such as not using archive-locked fanfiction, getting author consent to cite, and making sure I'm not citing a fandom with a history of abuse (to protect myself).
This is what I've spent this week fixing. I have found a fanfic which is, and I cannot stress this enough, utterly perfect as an example. It's in a fandom with canonical mental illness, the story is top 50 for kudos and top 10 for kudos-with-mental-illness-tags in its fandom, and it is complete at 225k words. The story is not only brilliantly written, but it has a meta-story within it that essentially makes fandom itself into a character, and then uses it as both metaphor and engine for the main character's healing. It doesn't present healing as linear, shows everything in shades of grey, and has spawned both its own fanfiction and fanart as well as so many comments from people explaining how the story helped them with their own situations. And best of all - the author (hi if you're reading this, you're wonderful) has given me permission to cite it. So this is now something I'm poised to start writing up.
The other side to what I'm working on to sort the chapter's issues comes from a workshop I did at the FSNNA conference this month. It was on a particular kind of data analysis called topic modelling and works as a really good jumping board for identifying connections within a large data set (which, if you take the write-in question text for my survey, I am working with). My hope is to use this to form a structure for my close-reading reflections, as well as potentially highlighting things I might've missed.
But, I am trying to be good and take this all slowly and steadily. Whilst I am behind where I wanted to be, it is only natural - as my mentor reminded me this week - that as my research progresses it'll deviate and transform in unexpected ways. This chapter may take a little longer, but others may be a little shorter - for example, my next chapter is on roleplaying and as my MA thesis was on that I have a lot more existing knowledge about the current work on it in academia.
And lastly, I had my first academic publication! I'm a real academic now! You can read my reflections on Madness, control and agency in video games at the Polyphony, where I talk specifically about the games Pillars of Eternity (& sequel) and Please Knock on My Door.
Thanks everyone so much for your continued interest in my work - I really appreciate it <3
#fan studies#fandom studies#fanfic#fanfiction#mad studies#fandom research#phdresearch#fandom#mental illness
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Some Sweet Nasty Intimacy I've been thinking about. Some of these are rewritten from a post in my drafts (that I've apparantly posted before?? But I liked them so. Rewrite time).
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-You are the only one at the party who recognizes that Marvus has abused one too many substances that night. He’s looking a little queasy but he refuses to either admit it or give up. Cue his delighted face when you tell him hey 😏 you’ve never been there before 😏, and “where’s the bathroom 😏?” He’s sick pretty immediately and you get the pleasure of holding his hair back and rubbing a cool wash cloth against his sweaty neck. He’s so dizzy he’s gripping onto that bowl for dear life, but you occasionally catch him looking at you with the softest gaze you’ve ever seen from him. You also get to see how completely indesctructable alternian face paint is. How is he leaving this bathroom with a full face?? You may never know.
-DATE NIGHT You and Marvus dancing and goofing in the kitchen, singing along to Britney Spears and freestyle rapping some of her verses. He’s wearing basketball shorts and socks and fluffy slippers. You're both drinking faygo out of champagne flutes.
-Marvus asking you to help him pull his hair back but, instead of turning around, he just gets really into your space and hands you a pink ribbon. You rake his hair back and run your fingers through his bangs (which flop forwaed again) as you tie his hair back, facing him. Bonus headcanon: prolongued eye contact with purple bloods makes you see shrimp colors and the world gets all wavy outside of the view of their face.
-Continuation of the above: Marvus asking for your help tying his bowtie. You don’t know how to do it, so he wraps it around your arm a few times and shows you how to tie the bow over your wrist. Or, if you do know how to do it, he takes a moment to pull your hands by the wrists around his neck to that secret space behind his hair, winding the ribbon around his neck. He shivers.
-Marvus pacing around the room, ranting and raving about literally whatever set him off, or just gossiping, or just venting about something that bothered him. And then the second he's done he's pushing his face into your belly, arms around your waist and purring loudly as he nuzzles his face into you. Because expressing his "negative" emotions with someone is High Forms Of Intimacy for him.
-Marvus leaves his dirty clothes "for you" while he leaves to go on tour, and is hurt when he gets home and you've either washed them or, more likely, quarantined them in his closet bc they're stinky. So you weren't sniffing his panties while he was gone?? You weren't wrapping yourself in his sweat soaked shirt and crying while eating ice cream from the tub, awaiting his return?? Bonus headcanon: trolls are pretty terrortorial (lol), and leaving behind their scent in your territory is a way of a. testing the waters of a quadrant and b. trying to sneak their way into some sort of nesting thing with another.
-TAKING CARE OF MARV WHEN HE GETS SICK 🥺🥺🥺 I've said this before, but you know he's PERFORMING for those pity points. He will paint a sadder, more pathetic look on his face. He will rub his snotty nose on your shirt. He will try to make out with you with his nasty sick breath. He will whine and complain and goad you into spoiling him, and he loves that he gets to act like that. He doesn't like when adoration comes to easy.
-Marvus appearing in your nightmares and shifting them into dreams once you tell him you've been having a hard time sleeping lately. Marvus leaving happy jujus (such as: fond memories you've shared, or perhaps a little marvus plush) in your dreamscape to keep your dreams sweet. Marvus showing up sometimes in your dreams just because he misses you. I'm imaginine the music video to daft punk's "something about us" here lol.
I'd love to write some more but my inspo is drained, so perhaps later?
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Vinland Saga Video Essay?
Hey there people, so out of nowhere I had the motivation to do some writing for a potential video for the anime Vinland Saga and wanted to see what you all think so far.
For those of you familiar with my work, I ask if you feel the flow is too much or just right in comparison to my other videos? ^^;
Or just an opinion over all :)
Vinland Saga: Title Pending
In an era of unprecedented amounts of nihilism and deprecation, one may easily fall into the inescapable pit that scorn and hatred rewards you.
Take a good look around you and witness the state of affairs, how sad our world is when wishing death upon another is as common as a greeting, how sad it is when both child and man lay their hearts to wither to dust, how hopeless it is when one steels their hearts against all conflict ready to unleash the fury deep within at any who opposes.
Some say its the world, others say its our leaders, parents or perpetrators and they are not completely wrong.
But the pill that is hard to swallow, the bitter and brutal reality is that we are also equally as responsible.
Most of us live our lives completely ignorant to how much effect our actions have on the world and its people, unknowing of how significant their acts of virtue truly are while simultaneously aware and unaware of how calamitous their malevolence is.
How difficult it is to blame them when the world rewards us for succumbing to the allure anger and hatred bestows, how quickly it sates our rage and all the while how swiftly we hunger for its reprieve.
When the mere thought of obtaining peace and content seems impossible, what else can one do but submit to our indignations.
Like it or not, believe it or not as you will, but the setting in which Vinland Saga takes place draws striking parallels to our current world.
Perhaps not as barbaric or apparent with its bloodshed, but arguably equally as hopeless.
A world where the strong and wealthy are praised and respected for the blood on their hands, while the weak are admonished and demoralized, left to suffer the consequences of the strongs every whim.
For what can they do and where can they go when they wish to escape the brutality of man's malice?
But despite taking place in a world filled with animosity, Makoto Yukimura shows us the hope to be found past the blood spilled, showing us that the most arduous path offers the greatest recompense through the journey of its main character Thorfinn Karlsefni
A character who has become an idol of sorts to many, a positive role model and influence that many aspire to become, successfully demonstrating the principles and philosophies that the world so desperately needs to hear at this very moment.
In recent times over the past few decades, adopting principles and finding influence from writers is growing more common by the day, prior to Thorfinn a large number of people were compelled with selfish and materialistic principles, completely disregarding the emotions of others.
But in time the tides turned, and a glimmer of hope arises with more and more people changing their ideologies for the better, in hopes of benefiting all in a world suffocating with iniquitous behavior people are now striving for serenity and contentment thanks to one anime
The anime the world needs but does not deserve…
Rough draft ends here
I've only recently started writing this, so not a lot has been put on paper, but I'm still brainstorming the idea behind this video
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Some Thoughts on Memoryhead That Were Supposed To Be Mostly Related to Gaster Knight But Then I Just Got Really Deep Into Talking About Memoryhead (AKA Sad Sack Scientists Squad Theory)
(Don't worry, Alphys won't be ignored in this.)
(Also the SSSS Theory thing is a joke please dont take the "theory" thing too seriously LOL)
In my recent slapdash summary of the possible mechanisms/indications of Gaster Knight Theory (GKT), I mentioned that information from Undertale's Memoryhead could be seen as contributing to two points:
Gaster has spent time in Dark Worlds in the past (according to GKT, ones he created), and likely the ones we've seen so far in the game (not Kris's).
Gaster's desire for a "NEW FUTURE" is motivated at least in part by feelings of regret and possibly guilt.
Here's a little bit of my reasoning for that. just kidding here's way more reasoning than you could have possibly ever wanted
(This is to a certain degree a very rough draft of a section of a bigger analysis. It involves opinionated readings of ambiguous information and I don't want to set the expectation that it's solid evidence of anything, but I think it's VERY, VERY INTERESTING possibly a worthwhile read for anyone who likes in-depth emotional/thematic analysis and/or obsessive overthinking of small details lmao)
A preliminary note on Alphys
Before Deltarune chapter 1 released, bringing with it further (possible) contextualization of some of the True Lab's outstanding mysteries, it was commonly thought that Memoryhead was a manifestation of Alphys's shame and regret over the DETERMINATION experiments.
I want to take a moment here to acknowledge that Alphys and her story are often overlooked and treated with contempt by much of the fanbase, and there's historically a tiring trend of Alphys revisionism, in which indications of her aptitude and achievement as a scientist or depth as a character are arbitrarily attributed instead to one skeleton man or another.
To be entirely clear: the True Lab sequence is without a doubt Alphys's story. While it may serve secondary purposes in offering lore and fleshing out Undertale's broader narrative, the primary purpose of this sequence is to contextualize Alphys's depression and feelings of worthlessness, as well as to demonstrate the importance of her scientific work and her capacity for compassion, responsibility, and bravery. The overwhelming majority of what we experience there is unquestionably meant to illustrate how Alphys's actions resulted in pain for others, and the grief she feels as a result.
(If anyone's interested in an in-depth reading of her character, Dorked made a great video on the topic.)
That said, I'm not proposing this analysis arbitrarily. While Memoryhead as a thematic symbol does contribute to and reinforce our understanding of Alphys in significant ways, there was always room for reasonable doubt as to whether Memoryhead as an in-universe phenomenon originated with her or was meant to describe only her. With the new context of Deltarune, I think we can identify further possibilities for Memoryhead as a component of that game's story as well as Undertale's. Wherever appropriate, I'll discuss its connections to Alphys Undertale as well as potential relevance to Gaster Deltarune. I believe that understanding her story may help to inform our understanding of his as well.
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Memoryhead's nature
Memoryhead seems to be distinct from the other True Lab entities in several ways:
It appears in a group of three, rather than as one individual.
It isn’t an obvious amalgamation of identifiable monsters (or, in Endogeny's case, category of monsters) from Undertale. It doesn't comprise recognizable monster components in its sprite, attack patterns, or ACT options.
It doesn't appear in the epilogue.
It doesn't have a grave in Deltarune's cemetery alongside the other Amalgamates encountered.
(Side note: I just realized I totally forgot about Reaper Bird, who, despite having identifiable monster components, is pretty weird in their own right. They don't appear in the epilogue or cemetery, and the whole thing about Everyman is its own mystery that I can't even begin to guess at currently.)
Because Memoryhead is the first encounter in the True Lab, players are likely to take these differences for granted, as they don't know yet to expect anything else. With hindsight, however, this information seems to indicate that Memoryhead manifested via a different mechanism than DT injection.
I don't want to get too deep into guessing at the mechanisms underlying its existence. There's not a whole lot to go off of right now. My best guess based on context clues is that it's a byproduct of DT extraction, rather than injection -- it occurred when Alphys and/or Gaster extracted their own DT. However, that brings up a lot of further questions (ex. who made the blueprints/machine? Was Gaster "erased" from existence/memory in the Undertale universe, or did he simply disappear one day and no one brings him up anymore?), and I don't know if we're (read: I'm) prepared to answer them yet.
For our purposes right now, I think we just need to take for granted that Memoryheads manifested out of Alphys or Gaster somehow, reflect bad memories held by one or both of them, and keep moving.
(Kind of silly, but another aside: the Amalgamates in Undertale seem to be a direct evolution of an idea found in Toby Fox's first video game project, the Halloween Hack -- a ROM hack of Earthbound. As many others have noted, Deltarune seems to be in many ways a re-examination of ideas & themes first explored in the Halloween Hack. I'm not sure if that actually means anything in this particular discussion, but it's among the reasons why I went specifically for a ROM hacking metaphor and not a general programming or game development one and also i just think it’s cool.)
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Memoryhead encounter
Attack pattern
Memoryhead has one bullet type and pattern (depicted above). This bullet is (to my knowledge) unique to it.
There are a number of things about this attack pattern that, when taken together, could be considered reflective of Gaster, specifically:
It's been noted many times by fans that the "face" sprite used in the bullets strongly recalls the eyes and smile of spr_mysteryman.
They are sometimes placed outside the visible bounds of the bullet box, existing beyond what's expected to be the intended plane.
Because of the timing of the bullets' placements & transformations, several identical instances of the face appear simultaneously across the box, yet no two concurrently-appearing faces are ever in the exact same state at the same time.
When attacked, Memoryhead actually becomes stronger, gaining HP far beyond the maximum.
For an emotional analysis: the rapid and randomized placement of the bullets, as well as the faces' erratic writhing motions, evoke unpredictability and unknowable intention. The crude simplicity of the faces abstracts away relatable features, leaving only the eerie, jittering smiles to suggest that they either delight in attempting to harm the Player, or that they're so far removed from "humanity" as to lack recognizable emotion or intent.
For perspective, we could compare this against Everyman -- while its sprite is also abstract, simple, and a little unsettling, with a featureless, unemotional face, its round, bipedal form and expressive movements inspire a certain amount of sympathy and even pity.
I also find it interesting that the Memoryheads dissolve away just before their attacks and then reconstitute just after. To me, this lends the impression that they are either becoming the bullets in some way, or hiding from them. Again, this is ambiguous. We could take it a few different ways.
It might seem bizarre to discuss the characterization of a magical bullet that presumably has no inherent consciousness, personality, or agency. However, I believe the choices in emotional storytelling here (as with all sources of Gaster Lore in Undertale) are in conversation with Deltarune's choices for him, especially in his direct "appearances," and how we as previous Undertale Players look at & interpret that information.
ACTs/Dialogue
Memoryhead is fundamentally connected to phones, as well as the concept of "connection" in general. Before the CELL act is used, it plays a dialtone and offers only visual noise in its speech bubble, as though it's calling and waiting for someone to pick up. After that point, it offers some peculiar dialogue:
Notably, it can only be spared by picking up the phone (allowing them to entreat the Player) and then refusing its advances. Accepting them results (IIRC) in an instant game over.
It's obvious how Alphys is reflected in an entity themed around connection, that can only communicate by phone -- phones are used throughout the game as a device (GET IT????) to explore facets of her anxiety, anxiety that both led her to make regrettable choices and was further exacerbated by the effects of those choices, and prevented her from seeking help when she needed it.
Gaster's connection to phones is less concrete. There may be some visual indicators in the battle sprite, which I'll get to in a bit.
I also think the dialogue here could be very telling of something that doesn't explicitly indicate either of them -- but if we hold that it might be descriptive of Gaster, then it could be seen as an indication that he's involved in the corruption and/or betrayal of the Dark World secret bosses.
At face value, Memoryheads' dialogue seems to simply be entreating Frisk to join them, the Memoryheads, among their legion of constituent memories. Allow them to hurt you, so your bad memory of that pain can join them.
While there's value in that interpretation, I also think that having the Memoryheads appear in a group (as I said, this is unique among True Lab entities) is intended in part to obscure an alternative reading: the Memoryheads' dialogue actually reflects the contents of its memories -- of its source's painful experiences.
From that perspective, we learn that whoever spawned the Memoryhead may be haunted by some form of corrupted connection. They were, perhaps, drawn into some kind of movement or group and now regret their participation, and/or they themselves recruited others into such a group (could we consider shadow crystal holders such a group?), depending on whether you see the dialogue as being their words or someone else's.
The fact that refusal causes the Memoryheads to lose interest could suggest a few different things, but among them is the idea that the entreating party was looking for easy targets. Simply asserting "no" may have been enough to cause them to lose interest and move on. The memory holder may regret, among other things, that they said yes to something, or that someone else said yes to them.
Another very specific sub-detail of ACTs I think is worth discussing is the Bad Memory (described as a piece of Memoryhead itself) that's placed in a Player's inventory upon using the ITEM option.
The Part Where I Ramble For Several Paragraphs About Bad Memory
A seemingly obtuse detail of the Bad Memory is that consuming it in most circumstances will result in 1 point of damage -- but consuming it when HP is at 3 or lower results in a full heal. Mechanically, this makes it a useful last-ditch healing item for late game battles, but narratively? It's definitely a strange choice -- in theory (and acknowledging that most Players never do this in practice), consuming Bad Memories over and over again slowly depletes our energy, but once we approach maximum vulnerability, one more Bad Memory will unexpectedly make us strong again. I think we could say something there about healing through the long, painful process of confrontation, and also about the risks and inefficacy of stewing endlessly in regret.
The Bad Memory cannot be dropped, as it always "comes back." However, it can be put in the Dimensional Box for storage, sold at the Tem shop (the only shop that will purchase items), or consumed.
From an emotional storytelling perspective, this could be taken to suggest that the memories comprising Memoryhead can only be dealt with through compartmentalization, externalization (i.e. "sharing" it with others by communicating about it), or confrontation of the memories internally and in solitude.
These aren't equivalent options. Compartmentalization causes it to be out of the way, but still taking up valuable space; externalization requires carrying the memory for a time, but when the right opportunity arises, we can release it to someone who finds it valuable (just as Tem is willing to pay money for Bad Memories); internal confrontation can lead to great healing, but it demands vulnerability, may be painful, and without caution, could put us at risk.
It's very obvious how this reflects Alphys's character growth. She compartmentalizes the outcomes of her mistakes down in the True Lab, hiding them away from others, while forcing herself to care for them on her own without support. Repeatedly confronting that regret (as well as provocation by Flowey) breaks her down until she's at her most vulnerable and most exhausted, and then she faces a choice: to either admit to what she's done, or end the grief herself. Admitting to her actions allows her to move on, while providing something tremendously valuable in return: for the Amalgamates and their loved ones, the opportunity to finally reunite; and for the Players, a treasure trove of information and arguably one of the best sequences in the entire game.
How does any of this reflect Gaster's character or story? i was going to editorialize on this a bit and then realized i was drifting too far into the minimally-evidenced opinion zone so instead i’ll just say maybe we’ll see parallels between Alphys’s bad memories and Gaster’s Bad Memories develop over time.
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The Sprite
This is where the biggest indications of a relationship to Gaster Deltarune and possible indications of his activities in Dark World MAY, ARGUABLY, be found. This section also touches on some of the most ambiguous information and the shakiest conclusions. Bear with me here.
Chatty Skull Imagery
i was gonna include images in this section but i think the post is too long and tumblrs mad at me now and doesn’t like my pictures so. sorry :(
Memoryhead's battle sprite is commonly seen to resemble a brain with a spinal cord curling underneath, and I wholeheartedly agree. I'd also argue it looks like a cartoon speech bubble -- this was actually how I initially read it when playing the game. These are both consistent with its memory theming and communication through the cell phone.
In addition to the above imagery, I've also seen arguments that it resembles a skull speaking on a phone: (imagine static image of sprite next to animated one lol)
This becomes a little more apparent in the animation, as its bobbing motion gives the impression of the skull's mouth opening and closing. While the phone aspect of this is immediately consistent with the ACT options, and "head" would certainly refer to a skull more literally than a brain, there's still some ambiguity as to what, if anything, the use of a skull could mean.
It's possible that the suggestion of a skull is simply meant to contribute to the eeriness of the image. However, I feel that Undertale's precedents for skull imagery tend toward greater nuance. Sans and Papyrus are introduced early on as cute, charming characters, subverting common associations with humanoid skulls. The more frightening instances of skull imagery -- the DT extractor, God of Hyperdeath's ultimate attack, and Gaster Blasters -- recall an animal or monster's skull, not a human's.
These latter examples are also arguably meaningful beyond their unsettling nature: the DT extractor (as well as Flowey X's resemblance to it) and God of Hyperdeath's attack are both tied to Asriel's death and incomplete resurrection, while the Gaster Blasters have something to do with Gaster I Guess (or at least demonstrate a connection between him and Sans and bolster other indications of his skeleton-ness).
If we hold it to be true that a humanoid skull is present in Memoryhead's sprite, and an unsettling one in particular, then it may not be too much of a stretch to think there's narrative or symbolic intent underlying that choice. It doesn't automatically follow that it's an image of WD Gaster speaking into a phone, but it does seem to raise that as a possibility. I should mention, too, that this is consistent with what I feel to be a running theme of obfuscating information about Gaster, as well as influencing our interpretations of that information, through the emotional language of eldritch unease and the abstraction of his character.
HIDDEN SECRETS REVEALED!!!!!!!!!!
Last but not least, we have what is possibly the most crucial and also wildly opinionated interpretive "evidence" of the analysis: Memoryhead's faces. I'm still skeptical of this myself, so make of it what you will.
Some fans have raised the possibility that Memoryhead's faces are depictions of the secret bosses. This is based on their belief that Jevil and Spamton's faces can be seen on the left of the sprite.
(Image created by u/TheQueen0fNowhere, found in thread linked above)
This would suggest that the secret bosses are the constituent memories in question, or at least representative of them.
As cool as this possibility is, there's clearly a lot of room for doubt. I've listed a few possible issues in the Caveats section at the end.
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Synthesis WRT Gaster Knight
There's a great deal of storytelling around Memoryhead that seemingly points to it being directly connected to Gaster in some way.
If Memoryhead is a reflection of Gaster's bad memories, then it suggests that he feels some amount of grief, regret, or guilt over failed and/or "corrupted" attempts to connect with others. This may have involved manipulation, of which he may have been a victim and/or a perpetrator.
Deltarune's current trend for secret bosses holds that they've all "lost themselves" and experienced some form of hardship and pain (maybe excluding Jevil lol he's just having a good time) as a result of interacting with the unseen Roaring Knight and receiving Forbidden Knowledge from them. Spamton's story in particular heavily invokes the imagery and symbolism of phones as a medium for connection, and explores the inherent vulnerability of trusting or depending on others.
Some admittedly pretty ambiguous imagery in Memoryhead's sprite may be very directly tying it to Deltarune's secret bosses, in turn potentially tying them to Gaster. While less explicit, the specificity of the themes, imagery, and symbols in common between Gaster, Memoryhead, and the Secret Bosses still suggest that Memoryhead could connect the two... wait... con... connect... oh my god
Memoryhead also serves to underscore major aspects of Alphys's experience of regret and trauma, specifically due to actions that were motivated by duty to and love for her society, but were marred by incomplete knowledge and exacerbated by a reticence to admit to her mistakes or seek help.
If we hold it to be true that Memoryhead can represent meaningful storytelling for both characters simultaneously, then we have reason to think that their stories may also be in some way parallels. While this isn't the only conclusion that could be drawn, it does seem reasonably consistent with Gaster's characterization in Deltarune -- assuming that we both recognize and are willing to trust that characterization. We do, after all, have indications that he's capable of manipulation in pursuit of a cause.
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Assorted thoughts that aren't immediately relevant but I figured I'd make note of them anyway
There's a pretty clear allusion to Deltarune's Man in the True Lab but I didn't really get into it because idk the most concrete thing it really tells us is that Lab Related to Gaster and i feel like it's already been fairly self-evident for years why traces of him would be found in the lab. it's literally the habitat asgore made for his pet scientists and filled with important enrichment such as a kitchenette and fun toys with which to commit well-intended atrocities. of course gaster worked/lived there lol
i do personally think the language of an undescribed "man" (like, not mysteryman or everyman or snowman, simply A Man) is being used to indicate that Gaster Our Good Friend Gaster (the "actual" guy, who's incorporeal and may have kind of a dispersed perspective but retains contiguity of consciousness) is present in an area, as opposed to just remnants or echoes of him. but i think that's a justification post for later
Others have pointed out the similarities between the Shower Creature in the True Lab and the things that shoot bullets in the "??????" area (spooky supply closet area) in Deltarune. I do not have any real idea about What This Means in particular but it's another interesting connection to keep in mind in the future.
Oh boy the DR team did sort of reference the shower curtain in Spamton Sweepstakes didn't they
Sort of related to that, I do have some vague opinions about the possible nature of the Watching Man (see Wiki article above) who approaches menacingly only to sweetly tuck Frisk in and peace out. but i feel like i need to spend more time on other stuff before I can even begin to justify those, and even then i'll be swinging for the fences i think
i was also going to postulate on how memoryheads name being blank also means stuff maybe but then i forgot and now im too tired. but an empty space for a name could be consistent with our guy. honestly i think the stuff around gasters name is really interesting in general esp if we consider it alongside the isolation and erasure (both possibly self-inflicted) and what it might say about his relationship to himself (deep unease at the very least, id guess lol)
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Caveats
I want to acknowledge some important possible pitfalls in these interpretations with regard to GKT:
Most obviously, it remains to be seen whether any of the secret bosses from future chapters are represented among Memoryhead's faces.
Kris's fountain in general could potentially destabilize many aspects of GKT as I currently see it. Concerning Memoryhead in particular, the logic here assumes that Gaster (from his perspective) previously interacted with Deltarune's secret bosses. If we do see the secret boss of Kris's (or any other characters') Dark World represented, then what does that mean? Does it mean that Kris opening their Fountain is something that happened in Gaster's past, and is not a new twist in the Deltarune universe's trajectory? Does it mean that Gaster somehow visited those Dark Worlds as well? Right now, I'm not sure what we can make of that. While I'm not sure it would necessarily disprove the general idea that Gaster has some regrets about the secret bosses, for some reasons, it would destabilize many of the ideas laid out here.
The above two thoughts lead to another possibility: that Gaster wasn't opening Fountains himself, but was somehow simply interacting with the secret bosses on the side. Again, not sure what to make of that right now.
There's another possibility for why both Alphys and Gaster seem to be reflected in Memoryhead: perhaps Memoryhead is a manifestation of bad memories she has about him, and not directly reflective of his thoughts or experiences. I chose not to get into this because it begs a lot more questions that are hard to answer and i think the above interpretations pretty successfully counter-indicate it. but also the idea of that honestly just makes me feel very ":/ ok" (listen im very earnestly trying not to woobify the guy but i also think his flaws and potential for villainy are likely more nuanced than outright malice or a disregard for other people or whatever.) But anyway i figured i should acknowledge it
#deltarune#deltarune theory#$ 666 mystery man lore hell#$ chadley deltaruminations original lorepost corner#$ waltz of a shattered man#wd gaster#im not really sure if i should tag this undertale bc it’s really ultimately about the other game
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20 Questions For Fic Writers
I was tagged by my dear friend @thevampireauthoress on this post ! I tag all the fic writers who follow me and see this because I want to see what you guys are up to!!
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
Five! I write every day but only started posting fan fic a year ago and I have more I'm cleaning up to post!
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
36,380
3. What fandoms do you write for?
A Lot. If post about it odds are I've written something about it in some form or another.
The ones I have public fics for are DmC: Devil May Cry and ATLA. I frequently write for World of Warcraft (mostly ocs) privately though and have been making my way back to TF2, Borderlands, and Bioshock works lately.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Since I have only five I can give the whole rundown asdfghj the Zutara fics are, unsurprisingly, the heavy hitters
An Inexact Science
Detours
Pinky Promise
Crossroads of Catharsis and Contemplation
A Series of Mild Prophesies
Also the stats chart cracks me up:
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
I try to! I get to most of them! Sometimes when a fic is older and someone just leaves a short little 'this was nice!' or whatever, I don't respond but other then that I do. I get very excited when anyone likes any of my works asdfghjkl
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Uh...probably Swan Song, which is yet to be posted. Swan Song will definitely probably have the solidly most angst filled ending.
7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Just limiting myself to what's already posted on AO3, anything in the Circumnavigators of Celestial Bodies series so far has had pretty happy endings. It's not tinged with the like dramatic irony of anything in Drafting A Swan and both fic's thus far in Circumnavigators end on fairly positive notes I think
8. Do you get hate on fics?
As of now, no
9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?
I have but I haven't published any of it yet and I'm not sure I will ever. My favorites to write are definitely monsterfucking related, followed by more general kink but like monsterfucking is the best to write.
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I am an avid lover of crossovers, particularly crazy crossovers. I feel like I have several contenders for the most crazy.
First up would be the massive multi fandom high school au my girlfriend and I developed containing like every video game we liked at the time which I still sometimes write because I find the character dynamics fascinating but I doubt, due to the highly niche nature of this crossover, that it'd ever see the light of day (if you ever wanted August Borderlands and Rachel Amber Life Is Strange to talk on the roof of a trailer in the trailer park they both live in though, I am the gal to ask I guess because boy do I have that and I will provide)
Second up would be in a similar vein but like somehow even less attached to any of the serial numbers qualifying it as fan fic. That one is set in a Bioshock AU where Rapture lasted until the 80s somehow under different leadership. It is also a massive multi fandom AU but this time with gang warfare under the sea in a very AU'd version of Rapture. Similarly, it will never see the light of day with the serial numbers attached because it is just so niche as it is that like...I have no idea who would want to read that asdfghjkl I rarely write it anymore despite loving a lot of the concepts and dynamics, and I feel like it'd just be more effective to just rip off the remaining serial numbers and let it be free if I ever wanted to publish it somewhere.
Third craziest is perhaps less crazy but just very weird. But I have an ongoing series of fics where Brigid Tenenbaum from Bioshock 1 and Booker Dewitt from Bioshock Infinite just sort of hang out in this space beyond time and space and just get very cerebral about their oddly parallel lives and similar traumas because a hill I will die on is that they are the parallels of one another between those games, not anyone else. They're very written 'For Fabdante' so they are not very polished and I call them 'Bioshock Void Fics'
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I am aware of
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Not that I am aware of
13. Have you ever co-authored a fic?
When I was waaay younger yes! Those are really old and locked away on fanfiction.net though.
14. What is your all time favourite ship?
Vergil and Kat/Verat from DmC: Devil May Cry. They are my everything.
15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I never want to say never because I do intend to finish these things but here's two:
I have this ATLA fan fic tentatively titled Avatar Champloo which isn't exactly a crossover, more just like an Avatar story featuring the Ba Sing Se kids (Jet, Zuko, and Jin) that plays homage to the vibes and general essence of Samurai Champloo, extrapolating on the already very heavy Samurai Champloo vibes of ATLA. Samurai Champloo is like one of my all time favorite shows so living up to it has been a tall order for me and I fear I will never finish this fic asdfghjk.
I have a few Zelda/Zelgan WIPs that I fear I will never finish. One being a very long one shot based off the idea of a Zelgan romance from the perspective of a bodyguard Link which I'm really fond of, but just have a lot of trouble editing. To give perspective, it was the first fic I ever considered publishing on AO3. And it's still not done to satisfaction for me and thus, not my first fic on AO3.
Obligatory Swan Song (my really long multichapter DmC: Devil May Cry, Verat based, prequel) mention. I don't doubt I'll finish it one day exactly, but when that day will be is far beyond my comprehension asdfghjk
16. What are your writing strengths?
Uh...ngl I have no idea lmaooooo I like how I handle small moments, I guess. Most of what I like to write is small moments between people, and I think I'm pretty ok at that. I'm good at rambling.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Writing multichapter things, I feel. Because I like small moments too much, I struggle to keep things relevant I feel. The biggest issues with Swan Song, I think, are just there being a lot of useless scenes. I struggle a lot with knowing how long scenes should be in something thats more then a one shot and how to transition between those scenes effectively.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?
I don't know any other language confidently enough to write it, so it's not something I ever do nor have an opinion on. I do write a lot of multilingual characters, and when I do I just tend to write the dialogue in italics then notate that the character is now speaking another language in the descriptor so that the reader knows what the italics mean.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Probably ATLA when I was a waaay younger. Writing Circumnavigators has been a return to my roots, I suppose, asdfghjk
20. Favourite fic you've written?
My favorite posted fic is definitely Crossroads of Catharsis and Contemplation. It's got everything for me and is exactly the type of thing I love to write the most.
Unposted? Depending on how it goes, I might have a runner up that is a preboot DMC fic which is a grunge band AU told through excerpts from a biography novel and the interviews within about said grunge band. Similarly, it has everything for me and is exactly the type of thing I love to write asdfghjkl
Thank you again for tagging me!! And once again, I mean it when I say please count yourself as tagged by me if you want to answer these because I really, really would love to see what you guys are writing!!
#fabtalks#fab talks#i talked a lot here asdfghjk i have thoughts#but that fucking kudos chart never ceases to make me laugh its so funny#when you write for both the ship that invented ship weeks but also a defunct 2013 reboot with a fandom of like 12#long post
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Thank you @arsi-lehkonen for tagging me! ❤️ Let me warn you tho, I don't even know if I have 2, 3 or 4 wips because I haven't touched them in weeks, and they're very crude fragments of rough drafts, saved all over the place, and just before seeing this tag I had thought of deleting them all. So, you kept them saved for another 12 hours.
Rules: share seven wip lines/parts.
I'll share longer parts under the cut for the reasons told above. If I decide to let these ideas go, at least I've posted some of it out there.
Smut heavy, be warned. Tried to pick tame bits.
1. "No, not whipped cream," Roope said when they were planning for the show. "Cupcake frosting will hold up so much better and we can take it slow. Cream gets runny."
"Should the frosting be pink?" Sebastian suggested. "It's a Valentine's day special after all."
Roope snorted out a short laughter and shook his head, letting it hang slightly tilted to the side and shooting a mildly amused look at Sebastian.
"No, man," he said like stating the obvious, "Pink will look like you had a nasty skin condition going on, and nobody will believe that I would put my mouth on your dick with it. You could as well suggest chocolate."
(From a sequel to money shot where Sepe is still a Brind'Amour boy and Roope is an onlyfans star and ig hottie, and they're shooting a live scene for Roope's OF. Ao3 draft set to be deleted next Friday)
2. "Do you want to be fucked into the dirt? Like a filthy little animal? Or do you want me to get you back into the house and in bed?"
Sebastian looks up at Brent, bites his lip and releases it slowly, licking the bit, red mark moist and clean.
"Yes."
(From a pwp piece where Sepe takes a trip to the ranch. This one is a Tumblr draft bc I'm afraid of Google docs. I'd have to research shooting to make any progress with this bc I'm not in the mood for writing porn and the scene needs a setting and some build-up anyway)
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3. Sebastian smiles as he greets him, and his eyes linger in Rod’s, the gaze smoldering enough to slow down time the same way Sebastian can do with a puck around the goal.
A languid blink, like the kid's lids were heavy from wet dreams, it's like a slow motion deke that takes out the goalie, leaving the net gaping, offering itself to be taken.
The little pink tongue slips out to wet Sebastian's bottom lip as he nods his greeting, "Hi, Roddy. How're you tonight?"
"Oh, I'm fine if you're fine. You're fine, right?"
"Sure. I'm fine. Prepared and hungry."
"Hungry sounds good."
Sebastian lets a rippling smile flash on his lips. He stops right by Rod’s side and brushes the sleeve of his jacket lightly with his knuckles.
"So hungry," he says, lowering his voice and locking his eyes in his coach's. "Starving." He pauses, further lowering his voice until it's a soft whisper. "Desperate."
(Coach x player smut, working title Game Day Suits might as well be the summary)
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4. "You want to throw me in as a bait for Burnzie?" Sebastian chuckled and scratched the back of his head before sticking his tongue out from the corner of his mouth and running it over his upper lip. "Not gonna lie, that sounds hella hot."
(A super messy pwp that might be a gangbang or tons of tension or may just become a build-up for the ranch fic. Anyway, I found a pun in a Tumblr text post very inspiring and use it as a working title: call him jesus the way i make him bred and whine)
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5. Pekka wakes up to a bunch of notifications on his phone screen: three missed video calls, two from Juuse, one from Sebastian. In addition to that, his inbox is flooded with video messages.
(All Stars '22 where S and Juuse promoted beverages, this is all I have written for the idea @hard4softthings gave me as an independent sequel to Summer Kisses)
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6. Teemu wandered in wearing a patterned silk robe.
"Playboy night," Trevor said from the corner of his mouth.
Jamie would learn in a moment that Playboy night meant bunnies.
(From my eternity project where Mr Selanne hosts sex parties, pimping out young guys as treats for his friends and associates, this is probably the AU version)
7. “Of course. That's what they're here for. I keep a petting zoo, not an exhibition! It isn't look, don't touch. Whatever you can look, you can touch, too,” Teemu grins.
(From a later part of the prev draft)
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If you read this far, thank you for your interest! As I said, these are this long for reasons.
Tagging @hard4softthings @isconnormcdavidok @aleksrothis and @thosedaysthatwill in case you have something you'd like to share!
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IT’S HERE!!! IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! This is artwork done for the @dcbtv and specifically for the INCREDIBLE story written by @whitster-lizzy ! Check it out HERE!
Aaaah! I feel like I could geek out over these drawings and the entire process for a long while, so I’ll just throw that rambling under the “Keep Reading” (there will be fic spoilers talked about there too so be warned!).
Hope you enjoy the story! And seriously, go read it!
Hello! Welcome to the ramblings!
So starting with the banner... the concept of what I wanted to do came to me pretty quickly. I thought it would be cool to have the guitar and cover it with some relevant stickers that applied to Dean and Cas. The biggest challenge on the banner was honestly the colors... there are SO MANY cool color options for guitars, but I wanted to be sure that the words, the important story information, stood out significantly. So there was a lot of color tests that my friend sort of “supervised” for me, and finally get the colors fine tuned where you still have the bold red from the KC logo, but it wasn’t the ONLY thing your eye would stay drawn to. XD
Next is the Cas in his room drawing... and boy howdy I am OBSESSED with this drawing! the DCBTV bang was a very collaborative project. There was no “rough draft” to read off of, or “rough sketches” to look at. It was just me, Whitney, and our chosen song. So we had some brainstorm sessions where we pin-pointed the concept for the fic, which would have musician!Cas/football player!Dean, with some high school angst. And of course, you can’t really have an angsty high school story without a dramatic “looking out the window like you’re in a music video”, so I sketched this out:
I shared it with Whitney, and then she added this scene into the story itself! To which then I was like, “Well heck! Now I REALLY have to draw this!” But I was already at about 50% with the other piece I had done, and so I told myself that if I had time, I could draw this up.
I finished the other drawing with time to spare... and then drew up the Cas drawing over the course of 3 days. My brain wouldn’t let me rest until I had drawn it! XD (Also quick fun fact... the poster on Cas’ wall is Totoro, because I was watching that movie for the first time ever while I was coloring it, and I thought it would be a fun little easter egg for myself ^_^ ).
The 2nd drawing (well, technically 1st since I had completed that one first) may look simple... but there were things about it that was NOT so simple! XD The lighting/shading... it was certainly an adventure trying to figure out exactly how this sort of lighting would work. From the spotlights on Cas and Dean, to the lighting of the “peanut gallery” just a little behind them, and then finally the crowd. A lot of playing around with different colors and layer settings, but I found an option that I felt like worked very well!
On another note of the collaboration effort for this bang, Cas’ outfit and tattoo design were inspired from reading what Whitney had added into the story. Specifically during the high school years. I read the detail about Cas’ mom making his own version of the “Black Parade” jacket and was like, “Omg that’s gotta be referenced a bit with this drawing now! It’s perfect!” And the part where Cas compares himself to a phoenix instead of Icarus? My mind was blown and I got chills so I had to make a subtle nod to that as well!
Whitney had asked about creating some chapter/section dividers to put throughout the story and I thought it was a great idea! I came up with this design for Dean when we switched to his POV and even little section breaks within the chapter:
And these were the designs I came up with for Cas’ POV switches and section breaks:
...wanna know something funny about those musical notes? Got the inspiration from this:
:3c
I signed up for this bang as sort of a last second decision and honestly I’m so glad that I did! My author was incredible, it helped push me a little more as an artist, and also I got to relive my Jr. High years a bit because this song was honestly the first Taylor Swift song I had ever heard (also a bit of High school because of the angst, but I loved it). Super thankful to have been a part of this!
A huge huge shout out to the mods for putting it together and for creating the event! Seriously, you all did a great job and I’m so happy that this event was received so well!
If you’ve made it this far... thanks for reading! <3
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Hadestown Reconstruction Progress Update 1
Alright, it's been about a month and I've been hard at work. For those of you who are new here, I'm using some lyrics from Working on a Song and this video to reconstruct six songs that have been changed or replaced since the 2007 production of Hadestown. Here's what I've gotten done so far!
Casting/Auditions: I've set up the announcement and will be seeking people local to my school and area to play the various parts. There's a total of thirteen, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to fill all the slots, so auditions may open up more globally at a later date.
Way Down Hadestown: After three revisions and a nearly doubled length from my original draft, Way Down Hadestown is just about ready to start recording for its final version, and I've got the reference track prepped (I just sang over a metronome for like four minutes). Once casting is all said and done I'll start making and compiling the final recordings into one coherent track. Unfortunately it's also the song with by far the most parts, so I might end up finishing other songs before I can get everything sorted out there.
Epic I: I've made considerable headway here, and have the building blocks of the rhythm for verses two and three sorted out. Once I can carve those out into their true rhythms the melody should come naturally, so I'm feeling pretty good about the progress I made here.
New Song: While my original plan was to reconstruct five songs, I've since added another to the list: Why We Build the Wall! I found some old lyrics on mojim.com that showed which parts of the response Cerberus led, and I figured why the hell not? It's simple and repetitive so it won't add much to the workload. Really excited for that one.
Cosplay: I've started work on a cosplay of Cerberus and I'm making good progress there too. Got her shirt (finding a burgundy work shirt of the right make was hard, y'all) and I'm slowly sorting out what different props are. I've only got a couple images and screenshots to work with so it's slow going, but I'm gonna hit up some more thrift stores to find pants that match the shirt. If anyone knows about how her costume was made, please reach out. It's got so many unusual parts I have no clue how to reconstruct or even identify.
So, that's how it's going! Looking forward to how Way Down is gonna turn out. I'll post a clip of the reference video and the lyrics sometime this weekend. Toodles!
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