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liaromancewriter · 11 months

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Picta Problems

Premise: Cassie and Ethan clash over a Pictagram post.

Book: Open Heart (post series) Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Cassie Valentine) Rating/Category: Teen. Angsty Fluff. Format: Prose + Text & Pic Fic Words: 1,100

A/N: I started with the intent of making fluffy edits; that's it. And then this fic took a life of its own. Submission for @choiceschallenge-may2023 prompt "photographs" and @choicesjunechallenge "stories". I'm using @choicesflashfics week 35, prompt 3.

Part 1: Picta Memories

Part 2: The Backlash

Part 3: The Confrontation

Cassie Valentine was having a good day until she wasn’t. Everyone knew her to be easygoing, often with a smile on her lips, but serious about her work. Her friends and foes agreed on one thing: she had a long fuse, and it took a lot for her to lose that sunny disposition.

Of course, she wasn’t a saint, and medicine wasn’t a career for eternal optimists. But she found a way to keep her balance despite everything fate threw at her.

That’s why many people milling about on the seventh floor of Boston’s Edenbrook Hospital were surprised to see her angry expression as she furiously tapped on her cell phone. Sensing her distraction, they stayed out of her way.

But the rumors spread. Dr. Valentine was in a bad mood. Best to wait until it evened out. She might be slow to anger, but she was also quick to diffuse.

The traveling nurse assigned to that floor asked his colleagues if the young doctor might just be hangry. Perhaps a cookie could turn the tide.

“She’s partial to cupcakes,” one of them commented.

“And coffee,” another piped in, having witnessed Dr. Valentine and Dr. Ramsey returning from their daily coffee run for years.

“Could she have had a fight with Dr. Ramsey?” one recently hired nurse wondered.

The idea was so preposterous that everyone around the nurses’ station laughed. They were still wiping tears from their eyes when Ethan Ramsey stepped off the elevator and marched determinedly down the hallway to his former office.

Everyone held their breath and pretended to be busy as he paused midway to stare at them. He quirked one eyebrow, a perplexed frown forming on his lips and then he shook his head and continued walking.

Still puzzling over the bizarre behavior at the nurses’ station, Ethan absently swiped his access card on the reader outside the diagnostic team’s office and strode through the sliding glass doors.

“Any idea what’s happening outside?” he called out.

Cassie was staring at scans on the digital board and didn’t respond. Not giving it another thought, Ethan joined her and shoved his hands in his pant pockets as he stared at what appeared to be a patient’s brain. The shadows told their own story about the individual’s condition.

“Hmm,” he mused and rocked back on his heels. “See that—”

“I know how to read a scan, Ethan,” Cassie said curtly, throwing him an annoyed look. “Believe it or not, I am adult enough to do my job without anyone watching over my shoulder.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m pissed off at you!”

Taken aback by her vehemence, Ethan started to reach for her, only for Cassie to evade his touch. She walked around him and took her place behind the desk, putting physical and emotional distance between them.

“Is this about my text message earlier?” Ethan asked, mentally tracking their interactions during the day.

“Partially,” she said. “It’s about you not trusting me enough to know when to draw the line about publicizing our relationship. I barely post about you. If people didn’t already know about us, they’d think I was single. But that isn’t good enough for you, is it?”

Ethan wondered how his day had gone from breakfast in bed with his lover to her looking at him as if he was a stranger. He didn’t think their text exchange had been that serious, but clearly, Cassie disagreed.

“I already apologized,” he said, sighing deeply, unable to hide his irritation.

“Until the next time,” Cassie bit out. “I can’t be in a relationship where I’m constantly walking on eggshells. I ask for very little, Ethan, but I demand your trust in this. I’ve earned it.”

She was right, thought Ethan. She’d had enough experience with tabloids to be a fiend about her privacy. And as someone intimately familiar with her Pictagram feed, he knew his presence was an exception, not the rule.

Of all the things she could be upset about, he found it hilarious that it was over this. He admitted his first reaction was annoyance at seeing a private moment shared on social media and having her friends comment. But there hadn’t been malicious intent involved.

Like it or not, he was involved with Cassie, and she had earned his trust. Not just for this, but for all other things too.

“Why are you smiling at me like that?” Cassie asked suspiciously, her green eyes narrowing to slits.

Instead of answering, he walked around the desk, turned her chair and placed his hands on either side of her chair, effectively caging her. He leaned in, his blue eyes intent as they locked on hers.

“I.” He kissed her forehead. “Am.” Then the tip of her nose. “Sorry.” He brushed his lips across hers. “I overreacted. Forgive me?”

He didn’t think she’d respond, but she seemed to deflate before his eyes, losing the tightness in her body as her anger left.

“Fine,” she said somewhat graciously. “But we should set some ground rules because I’m not ashamed of our relationship. I might not want to end up on HSTea, but that doesn’t mean I want to hide away completely.”

She pushed against his arms until he moved back to let her stand.

“There are obligations to who I am, Ethan,” Cassie said, deadly serious as she crossed her arms across her chest. “If we’re going to go the distance, you need to accept that being with a Valentine comes with social responsibilities and prurient interest from strangers.”

She continued, staring at him carefully. “My family tries their best to keep the limelight away from me, but they cannot make it disappear completely. It will shine on you too, and you have to be okay with it even if you don’t like it.”

“I see,” he said cautiously for lack of anything else to say.

The shrill sound of his pager cut through the uncomfortable silence. Ethan cursed and glanced at the tiny screen.

“I have to go, but I do want to discuss this, Cassie,” he said. “Meet me for dinner tonight. We can talk without interruption.”

She nodded rigidly, and Ethan exhaled. He touched her hand, needing that connection before they went their separate ways. He took comfort when she hooked her pinky around his and smiled softly.

As he walked back to his office in the administrative wing, Ethan thought it would likely be the most important dinner of his life. But there was no decision to make. He’d already decided to fall in love with Cassie. Everything started from there.

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All Fics & Edits: @annfg8 @bluebelle08 @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @doriopenheart @genevievemd @headoverheelsforramsey @lucy-268 @jamespotterthefirst @jerzwriter @lady-calypso @mainstreetreader @peonierose @potionsprefect @queencarb @quixoticdreamer16 @rookiemartin @socalwriterbee @takemyopenheart @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

Submissions: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Ethan & Cassie only: @cariantha @custaroonie @hopelessromantic1352 @mrs-ramsey

#open heart #open heart choices #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #choices open heart #open heart fanfics #open heart fanfiction #choices fic writers creations #cfwc fics of the week #choices fanfics #choices fanfiction #short story #writers on tumblr #playchoices #ethan ramsey x cassie valentine

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ripplestitchskein · 1 month

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The Story Foundations

Episode 2: LooLoo Land

Please see the master post for this series here. As always I try to only view this through what is shown in the canon content of the show, I don’t take into account outside media like the Sinstagram posts or things stated outside the text by the creators unless they are incredibly important as I feel the text should have everything the audience needs.

Let us begin.

The first thing I wanna talk about is the episode’s warning. Which sounds strange until you realize it warns for “sad horny demons”. A huge criticism I see, and that people often complain about, is Stolas “turning into” a sad owl boy and I talk about it a lot in my metas because the text tells us the opposite constantly. I just thought it was hilarious that the opening warning on the 2nd episode ever actually warns the audience about this outright. I also love that it’s plural, because Blitzø is also a sad horny demon. Honestly most of them are.

Anyway, to the episode:

The first shot is an establishing shot on Stolas’s huge mansion, specifically the balcony. I’m going to spend a few minutes here because I think the contrast between the Pilot (which is firmly non-canon but will come up a few times here to illustrate some key points).

The colors in the original Pilot for Stolas are desaturated, his royal iconography is his actual face coming out of a book and wearing a crown. There are other little marks in the stone that look like the book with fire coming out of it, and little crowns. The building is gray and a dull reddish pink and looks very blocky and severe. The balcony is the central focus of the establishing shot because Blitzø will exit it later but it’s very small.

In the actual canon our first time seeing the palace is just as grand but the building is more reflective of the “new” Stolas. I can’t think of a better visual representation of a character undergoing development changes in the pre-production phase of the creative process. It really shows how much the direction with Stolas changed as they began the real fleshing out process with him. The new palace is beautifully saturated, constellations on the walls, phases of the moon and plant vines in gold replace the previous iconography. The doors are a sun and moon. And the balcony is huge and centrally focused. I love that instead of the front of the palace or an overhead shot to show its grandeur we come in again at the balcony which is so pivotal throughout the series.

We have a voice over of a scared child calling for “Mommy, Daddy”. Initially I read this as her calling for whoever but rewatching and with more context from the episode and show overall I kind of read it now, after hearing what her nightmare was about, as Mommy, Daddy! She’s calling for her mother because something has happened to her father. The only reason I mention it is because of the episode being focused on the Father/Daughter relationship, the fact that Stella says “You do it” when Stolas wakes her saying Via is calling, and that a source of Octavia’s anxiety is her father leaving and being unable to find him (I have A LOT of theories about this as foreshadowing, especially with Stella dismissing her daughter and not being a source of comfort in the past or present, but that’s another post for another time).

This is one of those things where I war with knowing as a writer that you will absolutely make deliberate decisions like this with otherwise mundane dialogue, but also that sometimes you write things without further intent because that’s just a normal thing people say. Kids wake up yelling for their caregivers. But there is also a very real thing in productions like this where every line and every visual counts and is poured over and deliberate. Not only because you are paying people to perform and animate it, so you can’t waste it, but also because it’s such a short format, a lot has to happen in 13-30 minutes and you don’t want to waste a second . However, in this show, sometimes the dialogue is for the joke, because the VA improvised something funny, or for the shock value, so I don’t know how deep I should get, or how much emphasis to put on some things. I do my best.

So I’m not sure if it’s actually speaking to anything deeper, I might be putting more on this than needs to be said, but that’s who I am as a person.

Anyway, Octavia is having a bad dream. The visuals of her room are really telling. Her artwork is stars and moons and drawings of her and her father. The portrait is her and her father. Her nightmare is not about her losing her parents, but her father specifically. Most of this is to setup the episode conflict for Via about losing him and the overall stress of a divorce on a child, but some of it is also to show the disparity between her relationship with each of her parents. It is Stolas who gets up to console her, it is Stolas who features in the decor of her childhood bedroom, it is Stolas who reaches out to spend time with her later.

The grimoire follows Stolas into the room, and we get a new glimpse into his abilities, both the telekinesis and the portal.

Stolas begins singing, the song really sets up his main character drivers, he used to think he was bold, he used to think love would be fun, he feels his stories have already been told except for Via’s. He tells us he is dissatisfied with his life except for Via from very early on. This really gives us a quick brush of what underlies Stolas’s issues in the series and it’s a beautiful song. Baby Octavia being comforted and sleeping even through this grand collapse of a celestial body happening around her, because she is safe with her father is just great visually.

Octavia falls asleep peacefully and the scene abruptly changes to the present day and the contrast between then and now. Her room is devoid of any indications of her father now. There are no pictures or drawings on the wall.

She is awakened from sleep by the sound of her parent’s fighting, of Stella throwing things and yelling about Stolas fucking an imp.

Stella’s issue doesn’t seem to be that Stolas slept with someone else, but that who he slept with is an imp. Stolas says it happened so fast he didn’t have time to get a hotel and Stella is more concerned that getting a hotel is plebeian and lower class. This really shows us the state of their relationship, these aren’t people who were in a committed marriage where the adultery was the issue on either side. Stella isn’t mad he cheated, she’s mad about who he cheated with, and Stolas doesn’t feel guilty he cheated, just that he didn’t have time to do it more discreetly.

Octavia puts on a very apt song about her world burning down around her. Stella is throwing plants and servants.

“Do you want to fuck this one too?”

“No of course not.”

“You are a fucking embarrassment.”

This dialogue tells reinforces two things, that the issue is not the actual cheating for Stella but the social class of who he cheated with. For Stolas it’s not an imp fetish, or fucking someone of a lower station, but a very specific person.

There is a portrait in the room of a happier Stolas and Stella with Octavia with the LooLoo Land apple. Stella has her arms crossed and she’s slightly apart but her face is indulgent and slightly smiling. Stolas is focused entirely on Octavia and smiling hugely. A little sign that they both tried to make the best of things, especially for Octavia. Their home was at one point a happier one. At least visually, I talk a lot about how images are important to Stolas, this one is no exception, we see a relatively happy family but the underlying truth is that it wasn’t, Stolas sang about his unhappiness as early as Via’s childhood and we see the truth in the show’s reality.

Stella exits, screaming and destroying more things. Stolas meanwhile does what Stolas does and acts bright and cheery, greeting his daughter exuberantly like nothing is wrong. She mentions she’s listening to a song My World is Burning Down Around Me by Fuck You Dad, which we could jokingly think of as “theme stared”.

She’s asks if they are done screaming for the day, followed by Stella screaming and Stolas ignoring the question entirely and suggesting they go to LooLoo Land. Octavia is not thrilled with the idea, saying she is not five anymore, a time when she was happier and her family wasn’t falling apart.

Stolas says he’s arranging for security and he is very pumped up by his recent dalliance, exuding a different sort of confidence about people wanting them for their money and their bodies.

We get Stolas saying “the only man who can fuck me” and Octavia being rightfully weirded out. This line tells us he’s not actually calling because he needs a service, he wants to spend time with Blitzø.

Cut to Blitzø in his office being fucking bizarre with the Millie and Moxxie dolls and shoving them in his pants.

On his desk, and the focus of most of the shot, is a picture that says #1 Bitch with it written out and replaced with Boss but he appears to be wearing a robe very similar to Stolas’s (it does not appear to be the exact same one though) with a black rose in his mouth and on the picture is a paper crown that Blitzo dons with a little musical noise as he talks to the Goetia. The camera focuses on this picture for a long time and during the course of their conversation Blitzø moves the picture around to face him and dons the crown. I lost my mind a little noticing this detail. The picture was facing away while he was being weird with the dolls but when Stolas calls he puts them away, moves it to face him and puts on the crown that is a major motif for Stolas. Super interesting visual.

Stolas calls him his big dicked Imp and we have the cut away shots switching between Blitzø and Octavia saying What the Fuck and spit taking while Stolas tells them to watch their language which is hilarious…ya know considering. They have a rather disturbing conversation about Stolas planting his feathered ass but ultimately agree that Stolas will pay them money to protect them at the park. This is the first time we get the hint that Blitzø and Octavia think along similar lines, or mirror each other. The other comes later with Fizzarolli when they say “I hate that fucking clown”. I like that the two most important people in Stolas’s life are on the same wavelength so deliberately and so early in the show. It’s a very intentional choice.

It is also a progression point. Here Blitzø only agrees to do this for money. In Western Energy that isn’t even discussed even though the same service is provided.

A few other key things here, Octavia doesn’t seem to feel a body guard is necessary for a theme park. She seems to find the entire idea of needing a body guard to be foreign. It’s presented for what it is, as an excuse for Stolas to spend time with Blitzø. Yet at the park there are actually imp assassins following them around that Blitzø has to take care of. So there is a “threat” but Stolas seems capable of handling it himself later, and we also find out down the line that only angelic weapons can actually do any real damage to him.

The ultimate takeaway is Stolas is being selfish and focusing on this new sexual relationship at the expense of his daughter. He suggests a fun outing for them to recapture happier times but immediately uses it as an excuse to bring in the reason for the unhappiness. This scene serves as the final setup for the episodes conflict: Octavia’s fear of losing her dad, this time not because of a bad dream, but because of his affair with the imp he is forcing into their lives.

To be honest, it’s not my favorite scene or episode. I find both Blitzø and Stolas off putting in it, but the episode setup is complete, we are going to LooLoo Land, Blitzø, Moxxie and Millie are coming along for work. Octavia does not want to go.

We arrive at LooLoo Land in the IMP van. Stolas gets immediately into the role of fun theme park dad, donning his little apple hat. Stolas’s outfits often reflect the image he is trying to cultivate and that’s in full effect here. Octavia is reluctant and dragging her feet. She is telegraphing loudly she does not want to be here.

Blitzø lays out ground rules that they are here in a professional capacity and Stolas is not to fuck him or attempt to. Stolas brushes this off and says he’s cute. Octavia is revolted by her dad’s behavior. Blitzø also likens their arrangement to sex work, he is very firmly in that mindset. He later says he’s not a dayhooker. Later, as I previously stated the monetary compensation and even the grimoire deal is not mentioned as much, because their relationship and how they initially view it changes.

Moxxie goes into anxiety mode pulling out antacids and all kinds of stuff from a fanny pack. He does not like theme parks and has not been to one before while Millie is having a lot of nostalgia and excitement about the day.

Octavia asks about the park, revealing that it’s not LuLu World but a knockoff and the entire vibe of the park and its rundown appearance reinforce that. This world building will carry through to the Mammon special. The cast splits, Moxxie and Millie go off to enjoy the park and Blitzø goes with Stolas and Octavia.

I won’t break down all their scenes as they are largely irrelevant to the plot of the episode, but we get some backstory and dynamic stuff for Moxxie and Millie. Millie came from a poorer background but seemed to have a good family who took her to amusement parks when they could afford it, and she has fond memories of the place. Moxxie is trying to prove himself to his wife and is competing with someone for her even though she never indicates she needs it or that it’s even a competition. Moxxie does this with Striker later. Moxxie continues this cycle of poor self worth, trying to prove himself and failing, because he doesn’t actually need to.

Blitzø is acting very professional and taking his job seriously. Stolas is disregarding that, continuing to flirt, and we get our first basis for some of the reasons Blitzø won’t believe him later in the show. In this episode Stolas is very dismissive of his job and calls them imps several times in a very denigrating way. Stolas flirts and sexualizes Blitzø at the expense of his daughter and that conflict is very present the whole time until the end when he has that wake up call when she runs away from him.

Stolas is not a perfect father, he is not a perfect person. He has a taste of the sexual relationship he’s been craving and goes too far, and is too oblivious about how that affects others, to the detriment of everyone around him and to himself. Stolas’s obliviousness to other’s needs in service to the image he wants to project is really center stage here. He thinks Octavia loves Fizzarolli, that he was a happy memory, but we see in flashbacks she was actually terrified and hates the clown. Stolas is so caught up in having this perfect father daughter day he doesn’t pick up on her cues and keeps forcing her into things she doesn’t want to do. He doesn’t do this maliciously, or from a place of ill intent, just like he doesn’t oversexualize Blitzø for predatory reasons, he just lives in fantasy because he hates reality and he tries to bring those fantasies into reality by forcing it and being oblivious to other’s needs. As I talked about in the breakdown of the Ozzie’s scene Stolas goes out of his way to force things into the image he wants to project: a dad having a happy bonding day with his daughter.

This is Stolas’s main character flaw and it’s revealed here in this episode.

Blitzø is largely there to highlight this flaw. Stolas brought along the reason for the family’s destruction into this day that was supposed to be about his daughter. He’s trying to put up this happy front but the reason it’s not going well is his own actions. When Stolas ignores cues that Octavia doesn’t want to be there and flirts with Blitzø again after he takes out one of the assassins, Octavia gets fed up and leaves. Stolas goes after her.

Blitzø starts to follow but is called out by the Fizzbot. He stays in the tent and we get a little hint of Blitzø’s backstory with Fizzarolli, and Blitzo’s previous job at LooLoo land.

Fizzarolli asks him the super important question “Does anyone love you” just barely hinting at Blitzø’s character need, but present early on in the show and explicitly stated. This is almost exactly what happens with actual Fizzarolli in Ozzie’s. Seeing him in a crowd, calling him out and asking if anyone loves him.

Blitzø says no here, but he’s really good with guns now, and starts shooting at him. He then burns the circus down (*sings* foooorreshaadowwing). This is super interesting because it’s a setup for something we see change later. In Ozzie’s, Fizzarolli calls out to Blitzo in the exact same way, and asks him the exact same question. The next time he’s asked Blitzo doesn’t say no, he looks nervously at Stolas. That’s development baby. That’s growth.

Blitzø seems to have a lot of pent up anger for the Fizz bot and that’s a pin the writer’s setup early on to be explored later. We as the audience get information on some of his previous failures, his main conflict (the lack of and need for, love), and that these things are connected with this Fizzarolli person that Blitzo seems to hate to the point of burning down an amusement park to kill his proxy.

Meanwhile Stolas follows Octavia into the funhouse, an assassin goes for him and annoyed he says he is supposed to be bodyguarded. Millie takes out the assassin and he is dismissive of them, “not you littler ones”, and again shows us that he is playing out a fantasy. Blitzø is his knight in shining armor, even if he doesn’t actually need one, and he will contrive a situation to live that fantasy out (he could just turn the imps to stone but he wants Blitzø to have opportunities to save him).

This moment is really minimized in this episode but it’s huge when you look at Western Energy, as it’s directly reflected there. In that episode Stolas is in actual danger instead of contrived danger, Blitzø doesn’t think it’s an issue because he knows Stolas sets up these little scenarios for his fantasy. Except this time it’s real and his knight in shining armor once again does not save him, he’s saved by Moxxie and Millie again. It’s also when Bliztø realizes that Stolas can actually get hurt, that he really did need a knight in shining armor and Bliztø was not there. The fantasy he plays at in LooLoo Land becomes reality, but when it plays out this time Stolas actually gets hurt, Blitzø doesn’t save him. They both are faced with reality. I love things like this. A direct callback with change due to a character’s growth throughout the story? It’s beautiful.

Also, just to theorize a bit, this is a prime setup for the rule of three. In fiction things are often called back to three times, with gradual changes each time to contrast them and show the overall change in circumstance each time.

The first time at LooLoo Land, Stolas doesn’t actually need saving, he is safe but he wanted it and Blitzø wasn’t there. He’s disappointed. The second time in Western Energy Stolas does actually need saving but Blitzø isn’t there again and realizes at the end he should have been. Stolas is hurt emotionally and physically this time. Presumably, the third time Stolas will be in real danger, but this time he will assume Blitzø is not coming because he never has before, but this time Blitzø will be there, he will be what Stolas has been wanting. It would be a beautiful progression of their relationship and a great way to show the development and progression.

Back to the episode.

Stolas moves into the funhouse and has his needed heart to heart with Octavia. Octavia point blank says that this entire situation is his fault, he just spent the whole time flirting with Blitzø and ignoring how she felt. That this place was happy for her once but he ruined it with this affair. Stolas apologies for this and he tries to explain himself but fails. He doesn’t have the words. The general gist of his started and stopped sentences is that Stella and Stolas were not in love, that Stella has flaws, that he has flaws and he wants something else and always has. He doesn’t even know at this point what he wants, he can’t articulate it. The starts and stops are well done in that they tell the story without actually stating it, enough is given for audience inference but the character still doesn’t know. He doesn’t apologize for the affair itself but for causing her pain, he tries to explain why he did it but can’t. We’ll see him discover this as the show goes on but at this point he doesn’t know himself. He was enjoying the sexually charged fantasy but he was doing that at the expense of his daughter, and to a smaller degree in this episode, Blitzø.

Octavia expresses the fear setup at the beginning of the episode. That her father is going to leave her. Like he does in the flashback, he reassures her that is not going to happen. He would never willingly leave her. I also theorize that this is prophecy or foreshadowing. There will come a point where Stolas is gone and Octavia will need to help deal with it. There may be clues dropped in this episode when that day comes so something to keep an eye on. This is another candidate for the rule of three, Octavia dreams her father is gone, he finds her consoles her. Octavia fears her father will leave and her dream will become a reality, he finds her and consoles her. Later potentially he will be gone, and she will have to console herself and find him.

He tells her she was right, it’s time to go and like the flashback he carries her through the burning chaos of the circus, calling back to the celestial destruction, and then asks her what she actually wants. He gives her a choice. It’s the first sign of his character growth, he tried to force what he wanted on her to fulfill his fantasy but in the end he asks her and gives her a choice and autonomy.

This again is paralleled in Western Energy. It takes a big destructive moment for Stolas to realize he is ignoring what others want in service to his fantasies, and he takes the lesson he learned in LooLoo Land first to later give Blitzø what he wants after the events of that episode. The difference is that Octavia tells her father what she wants explicitly and then he gives it to her. She wants to spend time doing something she likes with her dad.

With Blitzø, what he tells Stolas with his actions and words is not what he actually feels and Stolas tries to handle it the same way using what he learns here, by giving it to him and giving him a choice, but we know it will ultimately be unsuccessful until Blitzø does what Octavia does and just tells him.

Blitzø, Moxxie and Millie fall in front of them.

Moxxie says something really interesting “Way to ruin another good thing, sir” which just has so many potential implications. Blitzø says it was worth it in this instance.

As I said before, this episode is not my favorite. We have a conflict (Octavia fearing her dad is going to leave her) and resolution (he promises he won’t and takes steps to show her) we have some character flaws introduced, the first mention of Blitzø’s character issue, a lot of exploration of Stolas’s and a lesson learned for Stolas that will be applied later by him in a similar way: giving the person he wronged a choice. We have a very loose three act structure but little stakes, and the plot is much more character driven than plot driven.

Overall we setup several things the writers explore much further down the road in Season 2 but the structure is not as cohesive and tight as it was in episode 1.

It’s a weak episode but it has strong setups for further exploration and looking at it with the context of what happens down the line shows that the writer’s do take into consideration what was introduced and continue the development begun here.

What’s important about LooLoo Land is that it shows us early that Stolas and his family drama and his relationship with Blitzø is a vitally important part of the show overall. If Stolas was just a plot driver or sexual comic relief character we wouldn’t get an entire episode devoted to his relationship with his daughter. He is shown to the audience as a whole character with this own flaws, desires and back and forward story to be explored. It’s also the 2nd episode of the series, so his establishment is only 2nd to the establishment of IMP and the overall premise. I harp on this a lot because most of the anti Stolas things I see ignore this fact completely. They reduce him down to the presentation of the OG Pilot instead of the direction the creators actually went, a pivotal main character going on his own journey within this story. (In my opinion if they had stuck to the original premise this show would be much much weaker and less compelling overall, but that’s a post for a different day.)

We are introduced to Stolas and his relationships even before Blitzø’s. We don’t even know that Loona is his daughter yet at this point in the canon text. We know nothing at all about Barbie Wire, his family, or anything outside of IMP. This is because this affair, the fall out, and the future consequences are CENTRAL to the entire show, they are why IMP exists, and they are central to Blitzø and his own growth and development. The same can be said of Fizzarolli, there’s a reason that backstory is hinted at in a Stolas episode. The question he keeps asking Blitzø, does anyone love you is first linked here. The events that take place in LooLoo Land are directly reflected in Ozzie’s and in Western Energy later. These setups take place so early on in the show’s run and are continually fleshed out and paid off as it continues.

The episode itself is weak but the foundations it lays are incredibly strong.

#helluva boss meta #helluva boss #Stolitz #stolas x blitz #loo loo land #steffies unhinged brain hours

19 notes · View notes

myevilmouse · 1 year

Note

Thrawn:Alliances is the only one of the three canon Thrawn(2017) books that I do not own. It is my silent protest over the loose ends & roads left unexplored that embodied that hot mess of a book.

At the same time, I consider Alliances to be Zahn’s gift to the fertile minds of the fan fic authors of Thrawn Fandom. It is basically the Thrawn repository of What If’s.

Welcome back to the Asker’s Studio™️, Mouse, it’s been a while.

In your fic Uneasy Alliance, you do exactly this: you explore a stream of consciousness that Zahn comes so close to developing, but instead, drops it…at your feet. He suggests an attraction of Padme to Thrawn at every turn, but never allows it to surface. You, my friend do the heavy-lifting for us.

A brief summary for those of you unfamiliar with the fic:

This fic draws VERY heavily on the actual scenes and dialogue in the book Thrawn: Alliances.

100% of Anakin's actions and dialogue are directly lifted, I made up absolutely nothing where he is concerned except in description and perception. Perhaps 80% of Padmé's and Thrawn's dialogue and actions are directly from the book, with slightly more liberties (necessarily) taken.

The story is built around Padmé's introspection and reactions, and I have added detail and dialogue to already existing scenes where they were alone and Zahn didn't tell us what they were up to... with the aim of making the scenario as possible as...possible. This could have happened in the book, so if you ship it, I get why!

This summary does not do justice to the passages and the sensual overload that is Padme’s Thrawn (as we see him through her eyes) or the just plain too-hot-handle moment when the the hormones finally seize control:

Defiant, Padmé lunged for his mouth, lips biting and tugging at his, daring him to stop her. With a growl, Thrawn slammed her hard to the wall, drawing a grunt from her throat. One knee drove between hers, his thigh shoving and pressing against her crotch. Instead of stopping her this time, Thrawn’s kiss turned savage.

Okay, now that I have everyone’s attention, let’s get to it!

I discovered this fic quite accidentally when another Tumblr post was lamenting one of my many complaints about Alliances: how could Padme not be attracted to Thrawn?!

Our lamentations were answered with a simple paste of this fic address. All was good in the universe 😁

So, let’s talk about Alliances, this fic, and revisions in general.

Did you read Alliances as I, and come away with the same unsatiated feeling that I did?

There were many avenues one could have explored with this book (a bane & a boon it was) What made you decide on the Thrawn/Padme theme?

This was an unusual approach for fic: it was almost line and verse accuracy to the original text! In your notes, you specify that this format was quite intentional. Do I interpret correctly that this was done to emphasize that, indeed, Zahn was suggesting the same thing all along: there was chemistry between Thrawn & Padme?

As I thought about it, perhaps the same scenario could be explored with Thrawn/Thalias? (I’m not a huge fan of Ascendancy Thrawn, so maybe leave that 🤣)

Finally, was it harder to write this fic with the stricter format hugging so close to the actual text of the book?

In conclusion, I vote that we replace the original Alliances your version, because it was such a more satisfying meal.

It’s been too long, Mouse, I hope to have you as a guest more frequently (when I finish this move 😖)

Dear @beebee-76!

This is a fabulous ask and a wonderful break from the holiday prep for me this morning. Thank you first of all as always for reading my stories. We have a lot in common (this was already known) and obviously that now extends to our opinions on Thrawn: Alliances. And it’s always a pleasure to be featured on the Asker’s Studio™️ 😊

So let’s jump to it 😊 And thank you again for the very kind words about my fic. It’s fabulous that you loved it so much and it inspired this ask.

Did you read Alliances as I, and come away with the same unsatiated feeling that I did?

I know I still have an unanswered ask from you in my inbox about the differences between “the Thrawns” as in Rebels Thrawn, Ascendancy Thrawn, The Thrawn Trilogy Thrawn, and what I would call 2017 Thrawn. Someday I will have the mental fortitude to tackle all that, but let it be known that Thrawn: Alliances really disappointed me when it came out. It was, as I said earlier, unforgivably boring, or as you say up above “a hot mess.” Hard agree there. I thought all the bits with Padme were just excruciatingly slow, and saw the entire story as squandered opportunity and a waste of time. After 2017 Thrawn, who is my favorite Thrawn, to call this followup a letdown is an enormous understatement.

There were many avenues one could have explored with this book (a bane & a boon it was) What made you decide on the Thrawn/Padme theme?

I don’t write gen fic really, I’m all about my men (Luke and Thrawn) getting with the ladies. And I’m always open to exactly who those lucky women may be…Rare pairs are a fun place to play for finding new partners. I used to participate more frequently in fic exchanges, and naturally one of my faves is the Star Wars Rare Pairs, as often the requests there fired the imagination. Some of my favorite stories started because of prompts there, including my Aesthetics series and my Luke/Guri fic, which wasn’t an assignment got, I but the ship haunted me until I wrote it for the requester anyway.

Another rare pairing on the list was Padme/Thrawn. I found this intriguing (although I wasn’t ultimately assigned it) because they do actually meet in nu!canon… I read a few frustrated fans’ comments (like the tumblr post that I responded to) about how Padme would never choose Anakin over Thrawn, and why didn’t she just get on Thrawn’s ship and leave behind her loser husband at the end, etc. and I thought hmmm….maybe maybe maybe…

Whenever I write a fic I try to make it as plausible as possible. I find spots for missing scenes (like in my Luke Skywalker/Mon Mothma fic) where we know people were in the same place at the same time, or find a canon-divergent way to set a story in a believable timeline (like Luke/Sabine or even Thrawn/Sabine). So I went to my copy of Alliances with nothing more than this goal: find a spot in the book where Thrawn/Padme could happen, or find something—a hint, a clue of a future opportunity for Thrawn/Padme to happen. I’m not a fan of cheating in real life or in fic, so the latter option was my preference at the time. A Padme Lives AU, perhaps, where Chiss envoy Thrawn comes to rock her world after her husband is out of the picture.

In short, I had no idea what I was going to write, but was looking for openings.

And boy, the openings I found. As you righteously point out, when you are LOOKING for it, you realize that Zahn has basically already written the fic between the lines. He gives us SO many opportunities to read an attraction, while also helpfully making Anakin the most annoying, unsympathetic, and immature he’s ever been. Zahn keeps separating them—Anakin going off his way and Thrawn and Padme having another adventure together. Sometimes he tells us what they were up to, sometimes he doesn’t. Imagine my eyes growing comically wider as I scanned the text and realized I didn’t have to write a missing scene, I just had to tell you what happened when Zahn didn’t.

You do interpret correctly. Instead of my original concept, I decided to simply remix the novel, filling in those blanks and using Padme’s pregnancy (which is not at all mentioned or implied in the book) as an excuse for her oversexed response to the handsome alien that is repeatedly shoved in her direction. (Much as I am not a real believer in the Padme/Anakin chemistry, I didn’t really want to make Padme an unfaithful hussy, so the prenatal hormones were a convenient way to abet her reactions.)

I think Zahn has progressively fallen more and more in love with his blue man, to the point where Thrawn has gone from Villain to Antihero to straight up Hero in some of the newer books (which is why I find him less and less interesting to be honest). It’s clear in Alliances that he wants Thrawn to outshine Anakin in every way. I couldn’t believe Disney let him get away with it. Anakin’s decisions are wrong, Thrawn is always right—even Padme sees this and acknowledges it in the text. Anakin isn’t as smart/rational/creative/cool etc. Zahn gets to hold up Thrawn as capable, honorable, resourceful. All things Padme recognizes. He even has Anakin confront her at one point with the “now you’re taking his side”.

In order to achieve this—and let’s be clear, I’m not a huge Anakin fan—I think Zahn did some serious character bashing/warping of Anakin in the book. After working so hard to find his wife, do I think right away he would send her off with a guy he barely knew to retrieve his lightsaber? Hell no I don’t. I think the “real” Anakin would be more jealous, more possessive, and more cautious than this version. Zahn’s Anakin is stubborn when it suits the story, and relents just as conveniently. In my fic, Padme has quite a bit of introspection about this—WHY is her husband sending her off with this stranger so often? She was in mortal danger, he came to save her, but is more concerned with destroying shit and having some weird revenge against no one in particular than overseeing her personal safety.

Sorry Zahn, your motives are super transparent here.

…was it harder to write this fic with the stricter format hugging so close to the actual text of the book?

It was the opposite! I loved uncovering this story from the clues in the novel. It didn’t take long to write at all, once I got started. I scanned the book, identified the key scenes I could use to make Padme/Thrawn happen, and the bones of the fic was done in about a day. The research/rereading took longer than the writing, I think. I found out in the meantime that one of my talented artists friends @sometimesartmostlychaos, was a low-key Padme/Thrawn shipper, so the story was a gift to her upon its completion.

Zahn’s version of Anakin allowed my fic to take shape, as you mention, using total accuracy to the text, dialogue, and repeated separations he inflicts upon the newlyweds. While I don’t 100% buy it (more reasons why the novel just was an overall mess), I certainly see what Zahn was doing, and what he was doing was making Thrawn better in all aspects than Anakin. How could a smart woman like Padme NOT notice, particularly when she’s having so many traumatic experiences?

I compounded it with hormones to serve my own nefarious purposes, but as I said in the author’s note, I didn’t really have to do a lot of work to get there. Zahn laid it all out and I just had to massage the attraction from latent to overt. It was a super fun exercise and I absolutely enjoyed it. Making it better, making it INTERESTING, if I do say so myself.

As I thought about it, perhaps the same scenario could be explored with Thrawn/Thalias? (I’m not a huge fan of Ascendancy Thrawn, so maybe leave that 🤣)

I too am not a huge fan of Ascendancy Thrawn (understatement, I kind of hate him) see above about how the more perfect and heroic he gets the less interesting I think he is… I don’t care at all about these new books although I read them out of a completist sense of obligation…I don’t know. I loved Outbound Flight Thrass… and Aralani was cool and all (not anymore though ugh) but Thalias is SO ANNOYING and always has been, I’m sorry. She has this hero worship thing going on with Thrawn and it’s sort of icky and not inspiring for smut. And clearly Zahn is trying to use her to swat away the slash fanfic but it’s not working. I mean…he LITERALLY SHIPPED THEM in a shipping container overnight I can’t even…

In general, I find Thrawn’s solicitude towards Thalias contrived, I don’t like daddy!Thrawn to Cheri (god really?! That’s the name we’re going with?!), and I should probably just stop there. But in brief, I’m not the person to write Thalias/Thrawn. If I did, it would be super dark, not this let’s drink hot cocoa and eat cheese platters playing cards in a little shipping container. Maybe have him be like “oh you think you want this?! Muwahahah evil laugh proceeds to wreck her completely in every sense” ah what a digression.

In conclusion, I vote that we replace the original Alliances your version, because it was such a more satisfying meal.

I adore you for voting this way, and am humbled by that assessment! I have threatened at times to remix my remix, in essence write a “what if” where Padme jumps on Thrawn’s ship last minute instead of just wistfully watching its departure. I probably will never write it, but I think it could be done and done well. Thrawn in this case would be the hardest to twist (he was, as you see in my story, under no illusions about what was going on with those wacky humans), but in fanfic all things are possible. Which is why we love it!

Thank you again so much for this ask @beebee-76! I am grateful for the chance to explain my process for this fic. Never wrote anything like it before but absolutely loved the chance and the writing exercise and ESPECIALLY the reactions of readers who, like us, saw the plausibility and enjoyed what I did with it.

#thrawn: alliances #padme amidala #thrawn #anakin skywalker #timothy zahn #thrawn x all the ladies #my thoughts #myfic #fanfic #fanfic is for fun #beebee-76 #asks #fandom #i like asks

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thessalian · 1 year

Text

Thess vs ChatGTP NPCs

Happened to trip over a Kotaku article about this mod for Skyrim that lets ChatGTP create additional dialogue for NPCs. There are a lot of people in the comments defending something that makes your NPC sound like that auto-generated voice you find on TikTok, which ... I do not get. I’m seeing, “Just wait five years and see how great this tech will be!”

First of all ... no.

Second of all ... hell no.

Look, I’ve already seen the development of the tech that turns voice to text. It still can’t figure out some accents, almost no one speaks slowly and clearly enough to get a decent reading, and it’s shitty for people with speech impediments. I mean, it may well be better now, I don’t know. The thing is ... there’s one problem with text-to-speech that speech-to-text doesn’t have: emotional context.

First of all, no voice actor in their right mind is going to sign away rights to their own voice for use however some AI chat bot dictates, mostly because the loopholes would state something about “we can use your voice whenever we want, however we want, forever, and only pay you this one fee”, and nobody is that stupid. And honestly, even if they were, the recording sessions for it would be insane. Here’s an example in text format: “I never said she stole my money”, and how a change in emphasis changes the entire sentence:

“I never said she stole my money.” (someone else made that accusation)

“I never said she stole my money.” (abject denial)

“I never said she stole my money.” (I just heavily implied it)

“I never said she stole my money.” (but someone else did)

“I never said she stole my money.” (she just borrowed it without clarifying that it was okay to do so)

“I never said she stole my money.” (my roommate’s money, yes. Mine, no)

“I never said she stole my money.” (but my favourite necklace is missing)

Stresses change a spoken sentence. That is why we use italics. And stress can go on any word and more or less entirely change a sentence’s meaning. Even how you stress a word changes depending on the sentence. Consider: “I do not drink ... wine”. That elliptical pause is integral to the way that line flows in speech, and suggests a whole host of emotional context that needs to be given to that line when spoken. And verbal stress is different depending on the situation. It might be a voice rising in volume and pitch due to frustration. It might be slow and a bit louder to really rub it in someone’s face. It might be triumph. It might be pain. Wail of sorrow or shout of joy or anything in between.

Now, assuming that an AI could accurately identify the need for whatever stresses are appropriate in their self-generated text, the shift from that to actually making a computerised voice say the right thing in the right way would depend on a voice actor reading pretty much the entire dictionary several times over in various ways to make sure the AI had enough building blocks to put it together correctly. And then the AI would have to actually do it. I can’t imagine what voice actors would say to that kind of demand from a game publisher. I also can’t imagine the size of the sound file folder. And one bug and it’s all a huge mess. Tell me that it’d all be working perfectly when you got the game. Given the tendency of most big publishers to release games in a barely-playable format with intentions to patch it later, tell me that and I will call you a liar.

This kind of machine-learning situation may have its place, but art and entertainment ain’t it. I’m trying to imagine some of my favourite games and favourite voice acting moments being machine-generated instead of acted out. Try to imagine “I AM URDNOT WREX! AND THIS IS MY PLANET!” spoken basically like the TikTok caption-reader voice, but more gravelly. I dare you.

...Honestly, the only place I could see that working is the elcor.

Anyway, point is, if we’re going to take AI anywhere, could we do it someplace that doesn’t rely on emotional depth and nuance? Some people in the comments of the Kotaku article were talking about “video games don’t have the luxury of story or lore”, and my immediate thought was, “Okay, no, no; your fixation with “Go To Place, Shoot The Dudes” is not infecting my single-player story-rich RPG experience so go fuck yourself.” I don’t want a machine just randomly generating movie scripts and then speaking them in barely-emotional snippets of other people’s words. The whole point of flagging up how Marvel / Disney gave no context to anybody’s scripts in scenes like Tony Stark’s fucking funeral was that you can’t just put something together out of unrelated snippets without human talent and emotion at the helm and expect anything good. I signed up for art and pathos and beauty (joyful or terrifying or sad; beauty takes so many forms), not a BtVS Script Generator. Because, seriously, AI learns what you give it, and doesn’t have the option to go out and seek sources other than its parent / guardian / creator / whatever that, say, humans do. AAA games companies will feed the AIs a diet of “what market trends say is popular” and we’ll get faux-witty quips spoken in barely-emotional tones that may or may not match the emotional context the game is going for.

...So almost exactly like a late-stage MCU movie.

#Thess has opinions

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onewomancitadel · 1 year

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I’ve had a thought about the Weiss-Jaune stuff happening in this volume that I’d like to run past you. It’s been in the back of my mind since E5 and after this most recent episode it clicked that it feels akin to the development of the Blake-Sun relationship in V2-5, if in a more compressed timeframe. In that there’s this overt (in this case, contra B/S, unreciprocated) physical interest lending a patina of romantic potential to their interactions simultaneous with recurring moments of disconnect undermining that potential. Particularly the hurt when Jaune overhears Weiss insinuating he’s crazy is sticking in my head now as quite similar, narratively, to Blake’s startled upset when Sun misreads her intentions at the top of V4. And then in E9 Weiss figured out the right things to say to him to crystallize his epiphany but any romantic coding that might be read into the moment is (I felt, at least) deliberately refuted through the piling on into a whole-group hug, which again (this is what made it click) feels reminiscent of the inverse correlation between Sun’s emotional understanding of Blake and the intensity of his romantic interest in her.

Which strikes me as interesting because obviously the B/S detour on the way to Blake’s true love interest facilitates development Blake needed before she could be a good partner to Yang—Sun’s friendship confronts and incites the unraveling of Blake’s instinct to retreat and burn bridges for the sake of protecting her loved ones. So it occurred to me that something similar might be behind what they’re doing with Weiss and Jaune in this volume, with her fleeting/superficial romantic interest and romantic incompatibility precipitating a closer friendship that helps him reach an emotional turn toward his true love interest. I’m not invested in the story’s romantic pairings per se (I really enjoy them—I do love how RWBY handles its romantic arcs—but the romance isn’t what’s gluing me to the story), hence my interest in Jaune/Cinder largely comes down to noting that the narrative set up for it is, uhm, conspicuous, and trusting I’ll enjoy seeing how it unfolds. But I was irately nodding along with some of your posts on the Weiss topic earlier in the volume because the out of nowhere of it all really Bugged Me, so I’m interested to hear how this line of thinking tracks from a less casual-enjoyer J/C perspective? Hence rambling in your inbox, apologies for the lengthy ask.

Okay, if you guys really actually love me, please use paragraph breaks. I try to mindfully use paragraph breaks and space out text as best I can to make for an easier reading experience myself. It might also help that if you're sending an essay like this you supply a title with it and maybe even a tl;dr so I don't accidentally skim-read it and delete it assuming it's about something else. Someone bringing an essay about Jaune/Weiss into my inbox really is cause for alarm. You don't know the stuff I've historically just deleted.

Just so everyone knows, Tumblr used to have a word limit of around - I want to say like 250 words, so a paragraph - and a lot of us are still getting adjusted to the freeform wordcount. It's a really different experience because I'm not just answering brief thoughts/questions, I'm now like, interacting with whole essays, and to be entirely frank I'm not overly fond of it. You have to appreciate the length of my response to brief questions (e.g. this very ask here today). I don't think Tumblr is conducive to a debate format like this lol.

That being said: yeah I had separate thoughts about Blake/Sun and its equivalency to Jaune/Weiss, and I was talking to my IRL friend about that yesterday; in the past I've speculated that the Blake relationship patterns also reflect Jaune's, including a point of contention over a redhead kill. I didn't make any posts about the development of Blake/Sun as it pertains to V9!Jaune/Weiss, mostly because I actually hated that storyline then and found its development really boring (on my rewatches I'm really bad and usually just skip past Blake's storyline when Ilia's not around) and I didn't feel confident expressing my feelings on the matter. So that being said, that you've outlined what seem to be eerie parallels, I think you've arguably done a better job than I possibly could on the topic.

So consider yourself the very rare exception in this circumstance where I'm not annoyed and actually quite grateful. Even further I'm grateful someone else noticed the parallel to Blake/Sun, so I'm not the only one seeing it. I agree with everything you've said here (although I would quibble that the romances are thematically and narratively fundamental to the show, and I am personally here for the show insofar as I think its most interesting ideas are actually realised through the romances and the character redemptions. I'm a 'shipper' in a very serious sense that might run contrary to casual fandom, but a shipper all the same).

I'm glad you found my earlier posts about Jaune/Weiss relieving, because I feel pretty alone on the matter since it's obviously a ship some people want to happen, and it's the 'obvious choice' insofar as lazy storytelling. Nice guy waits patiently and gets hot and she finally notices him, yay. I'm gonna puke. Nevermind the replacement goldfish business.

I'm very curious that you're not largely a shipper and you're mostly approaching the matter textually; first of all, way to blow up my ego, because you know the frightful thing with Jaune/Cinder is of course the accusation I'm biased and seeing things because I want them to smooch, but further to that, if you don't mind me asking, what convinced you? I think what you've outlined here with the romances suggests we have similar background of analysis, especially that tension between the shiny thing in the left hand (anime romantic trope) and the textual meat in the right hand being disguised. This type of magician's foreshadowing trick is interesting, even if at times I feel it's a little mean when they do it (it's not a RWBY exclusive thing, just maybe some elements of how it's done). To be totally frank, I do think the shipbaiting is partly to stir furore, but the out-of-nowhereness did make it a little strange (and tonally off with his reintroduction, but that's me).

Seriously, go back and rewatch Volumes 4-8 and compare the Jaune/Weiss interactions to the romances developing at that time. Every reunion, there's no major Jaune/Weiss reunion (V5/V8) when all the others get one, there's barely any dialogue, even when he's healing her in an ostensibly major fucking dramatic scenario their dialogue barely scratches the surface of just buddies being friends. If I were a shipper I'd be disappointed because fan of the romance or no, there is genuine intensity to the other canonical romances, even completely pre-canon ones (e.g. Oscar/Ruby confrontation in V5 and their whole everything). So the out-of-nowhereness in V9 is either bad writing, or it's paralleling Blake/Sun and is saying things about who Jaune once thought he should've been. I'm not going to repeat all of my Jaune posts, but seriously, the only way I can intuitively parse this is that he puts all of those notions about who he should've been to bed, including the idle childish fantasy of the perfect princess (who doesn't even want to be a princess, so who is the one in this story who desperately wants to be a Maiden). I think it's especially damning that Weiss has only noticed him 'now' from a textual perspective, even if shippers consider it 'finally earnt' now he's hot or whatever. Shiny thing in the left hand, meat in the right hand.

If the show had committed to Blake/Sun, hey, I'd give it to the Jaune/Weiss shippers no problem. But it didn't and it was never intended to. So what fucking gives? Because I really don't think it was only purely shipbaiting with those two; I think there was something more weighted there done with the teasing and who the characters are/who they want to be, even if there was some of that. So is the story smart or not? Are they setting up Jaune to do things related to Cinder after this for a reason? (If we do get a parallel of V4/V5 fully, Jaune does want to hunt Cinder down back then, and um... I'm just saying, Blake returns to Yang after her time with Sun...)

So if you've got (bold for kill, central conflict to the given canon endgame pairing): Blake/Adam = Jaune/Pyrrha, Blake/Ilia = Jaune/Weiss (Beacon era), Blake/Sun = Jaune/Weiss (V9), Blake/Yang = Jaune/who??????? WHO, PRAY TELL??????

#seraphina's asks #user: anonymouse #seraphina ruminates over V9 #rwby9 #knightfall

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feathersandblue · 3 months

Text

After roughly twenty years in fandom, these are the things that make me skip a fic at first glance:

huge walls of tags

tags that are overly meta and lay out not only the central conflict but the entire resolution, aka the plot

questions in the summary

explanations and justifications in the summary

activism anywhere I can see it

formating issues that become apparent in the summary, e.g. the summary is too long, wrong punctuation, sp&g issues beyond the occasional typo,

"I'm bad at summaries"

WIPs

a word count/chapter ratio that indicates that chapters are less than two thousand words on average

a word count higher than 300 k, not because I don't like reading long fic but because anything beyond that is unlikely to still be compelling

drabbles, drabble collections

AUs

summaries that summarize the entire fic

summaries that are so devoid of anything even remotely intriguing or original that they could have been written by AI

"this is my first fic ever"

no summary at all

cringeworthy titles

anything AI-related

Things that make me skip a fic at the first paragraph:

formating issues (no paragraph breaks, no empty lines between paragraphs)

wrong dialogue punctuation. No, really, I hate it.

epithets

exclamation marks (sometimes even one is enough)

introducing the main characters and the setting as if the readers didn't know them

non-intentional switching between past and present tense, especially if it happens repeatedly

flowery prose

boring introductions

untagged AU or A/B/O

Things that (likely) make me stop reading a fic provided I've made it that far:

badly written sex scenes

formulaic sex scenes

abundance of dialogue tags; the more creative they are, the faster I'm out

capslock

"cum"

immersion-breaking attempts at putting dialect into writing (if I can no longer read it at the same speed as the rest)

extensive notes before each chapter that outline possible triggers or explain the fic

worse, lines inserted into the text to warn the reader that something possibly triggering will now happen or be discussed

And all that is really just formalities. When it comes to the actual content, I'm just picky as fuck.

#fanfic #writing

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pazodetrasalba · 5 months

Text

Amator (& 4)

Dear Caroline:

I guess it is curious how much a reevaluation of a song might depend on your own personal circumstances extrapolating and giving life to an artistic prompt. Or rather, it isn't that curious at all if by that I mean 'unexpected', as a lot of Modernist, Postmodernist and Reader-response literary criticism have been putting the emphasis on texts as performative artifacts, scripts where authorial intent is no longer that relevant, bur rather how we fill in, make ours and imbue with subjective feelings, emotions and interpretations the texts we respond to. This is admittedly always a balancing act: we can't (and generally, don't want) to bend a work completely to our will, but there is a flexible possibility space of interaction between reader expectations and need, historical/cultural contextual expectations and authorial intentions. You could say that classics remain alive to the degree that a current readership is able to engage with previous works and imbue them with new meanings and uses that are still relevant to our todays.

Growing out of the teenage crush mentality is more difficult for some than for others. I suspect the trick is in just developing a sort of callousness where you try to make yourself partially indifferent to rejection, along with learning the complex (and really tiresome) art of flirting, which is basically reading signals and playing with counter signals while maintaining an overall format of plausible deniability. I have always loathed this, although with time, I have come to realize that it might be necessary to take away the worst confrontational aspects and to soften the blow of being undesired. I am not sure that I have reached the stage of being 'secure enough not to be scared of displaying vulnerability, and mature enough to appreciate the joy of just getting each other, and wearing your heart on your sleeve, and not giving a fuck'. For what it's worth, I don't think you yourself had completely reached this stage when you were writing these lines.

Quote:

When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love.

J. K. Rowling

#caroline ellison #music #taylor swift #crush

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sustainably-du-mortain · 11 months

Note

f0r the dear siIIy rabbit: Côme:

6, 7, 17, 18, 25, 41, 46, 47, 48, 49

N0 pressure t0 d0 aII 0f these and PLS feeI free t0 rambIe t0 y0ur hearts c0ntent!

I'm having so much fun rambling about these, so thanks a lot for these!!

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?

Teacher either didn't like having them in their class or they were their favorite students. They can't sit still and get distracted easily, so classes could get really boring for them if they didn't like the subject.

They did good in science related classes, biology and chem being their favorite and barely managed to get passing grades in the other subjects, especially stuff like literature or arts where you have to read between the lines and get abstract.

They have a Masters in chemistry and minored in biology.

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood?

They had lots of friends as a kid because they were the kid who knew lots of cool stuff, was friendly with everyone and was very funny, but this changed as they grew up. The things people loved about them started being the things they found annoying, so while they were just as friendly, people just didn't stick with them anymore because they grew tired of their rambling, their bubbly personality, the fact that they were oblivious to their surrounding. So no, they haven't kept any of their childhood friends.

17. Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos?

They love taking photos but most of the time forget to take them. Côme gets very absorbed by what they're doing and when they see cool things, their first instinct isn't to take their phone out and take a picture. They just enjoy the moment. Although they tend to regret it because they would have loved having a picture to remember the moment.

When they think about it, they take pictures of: cool rocks, little creatures they find in the forest, Felix, the sky, cool plants and trees, funny-shaped clouds, Felix, their current kintting/crochet projects, stray cats/dogs, Felix...

They keep their pictures in carefully organized folders, or if they really like the photo, they print it and put it in a frame or stick it on a wall

18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else

Favorite book genre: Côme doesn't read much because they struggle to stay focused, but I'd say sci-fy, fantasy and non-fiction, mostly in audiobooks format. They'll listen to books related to science, archeology, mythology, anything they're interested in at the moment. Also mangas, graphic novels or comics, not too much text and pretty fast to read so they love it.

Favorite genre of music: classical. Remember that video of a dude absolutely vibing to classical music that was going around a little while ago? That's Côme. They put on some classical music thinking "just a little background music so that the house isn't so quiet" and end up having their own dance party.

Favorite shows/films genre: Pretty much the same as books. Animes (HQ, JJK, Sk8...) and cartoons (Mystery inc, Ben 10, Voltron...) are cool because they're not too lenghty. They're a big fan of the spidey movies.

I'll have to ponder a bit more about video games...

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

They're a sucker for dad jokes and puns, but literally anything makes them laugh. It's so easy to make them laugh people often wonder if they're being genuine. They are, always.

They laugh about pretty much anything except for offensive jokes and dark humor isn't their cup of tea either.

They're hilarious, but it's either accidental or 100% intentional. They let out the best joke because they're just being honest or they've been thinking about a pun for days and waiting for the perfect occasion to deliver it. They're also really clumsy and trip on their feet at the worst times.

41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship?

They're pansexual (maybe demiromantic, I'm still pondering on that). They find confidence attractive. Someone with a bright smile who laughs a lot and who doesn't apologize for existing is very sexy to them.

In a relationship they need someone who is going to make them feel like they were the first and only choice. They need someone who won't judge them for all the rambling they do and someone they feel comfortable around and they absolutely adore when their partner feels at ease around them and rambles back. They like when someone is comfortable with pda, lots and lots of pda.

46. Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves?

Honestly, I'd say it'd depend on the type of people they're meeting. They know that their personality can be a lot to take in, so they try to tame it down a notch when first meeting someone but they tend to forget about it halfway through. So yeah, they first impression are often very accurate. They'll be really polite and friendly when introducing themself, to the point unless something distracts them during their introduction.

47. How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event?

They hate black tie wear. They love bright colors, so black tie attire is the pinnacle of boring to them. Here's an example of what they wear for formal event. (I have a whole folder dedicated to formal attire for them if you want more)

They're a social butterfly, so fancy parties where you have to chit chat with people are right up their alley, although they often ask Verda or Tina to follow them around so that they don't digress too much.

48. Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend?

They pretty much enjoy any kind of parties. Put them in an environment with good music and nice people and they're thriving. They spend the night on the dance floor, meeting new people. They're not a big fan of organizing parties though, there are too many things to do and think about, they'd much rather help someone who is organizing or just show up.

If they were dragged to a party they didn't want to attend, although they're usually the people dragging people to parties, they'd probably try to make themself discreet, find a couple people to talk and try to spend a chill night away from all the attention. Or they'd probably try to sneak out of the party.

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

Their dino plushie, Ellie. It's the yellow triceratop that sparked their obsession with dinos. They take Ellie everywhere they go, and it's probably going to stay with them forever.

Another thing they valued a lot was an amethyst geode Rebecca got them on their birthday when they started being into rocks and gems. But they lost it in the process of moving to uni and they'd gove everything to get their hands on it again.

They're a tad sentimal, but not too much either. The only things they hold on are things that have a story behind them or things that remind them of one particular person/moment. But even then, they don't really hold on things of the past, memorabilia of old friendships, etc, unless they're really important memories.

Detailed OC asks

#i may have started answering these and forgot about them in the drafts hence why it took so long #i'm really starting to get a good grasp of Côme's personality so it's really cool #testing out a new tagging system bc my tags are starting to get messy #i think i got the idea from you #oc ask: côme hawthorne #twc detective #ali's headcanons #grape🎃#ask game

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