#the dialog is still very entertaining though | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rando-lesbo210 · 4 months

Text

This is going to out me as the anon but I got too many ideas and wanted to show really bad how the au designs are in my brain because a lot of @scrap-brainzone 's stuff inspired with it and aus so this is a babble about it and some extra info on my aus!

(also at the end I made a doodle of gaige x ty x moze specifically in thanks and also to show appreciation as a gift)

ALSO SUPER SORRY THIS IS GOING TO BE A GIANT POST.

Going simple first, I wanted to show the differences, although I haven't touched Angelic Guardian in awhile and Hyperion brand new with posting I wanted to show anyways- I'll add tidbit about each under this, so sorry for anyone trying to decipher my chicken scratch

Underneath Ms Ceos heavy ass eyeliner and makeup is the eridium effects as displayed here, she's went under several different surgeries repeatedly trying to hide any of the effects and uses cameras and altering her look digitally to her advantage. Her big problem is she Can't let people know because she fears if people knew, they're going to try and kidnap her again. (Mildly irrational considering all her security but it's a fair worry.) She hasn't touched eridium since the end of BL2, so she's most clean, but with how much she had the damage has been done.

Ah, Fallen Heir au. Angel's given up caring about who sees, only hiding before to stay away from the Crimson Raiders and cultists, but after both sides know? It's so what to her. She's technically the most fit and least afraid to use her abilities because she doesn't care as much about hurting others around her. If I were to describe her attitude/self in one sentence of dialog it'd basically be, "They refuse to see me as anything but a monster, so that's what I'll be."

Alas, my dear Angelic Guardian. As you can see, she's very much not holding up well. Her suit uses eridium to help keep her going but still at what cost? She's technically extremely fit, but the repercussions are severe if she pushes too far. Her level of eridium poisoning is beyond dangerous, having been in stasis for 5 years while still receiving eridium to keep her alive. I'll end it here by saying this has severe consequences that unfortunately, she was doomed to face regardless.

Ai Ange? Well. Not very much of anything but mild traits. I, in turn, made one for Gaige with that au.

Angel isn't very the most comfortable with Gaige using eridium, mainly due to the fact its less "as needed" but she likes to test limits and see what she can really do.

moving on I made some goofies and such from my Fallen au, wanting to show interactions (Mildly for also scrap because I know tyreen and tygaige a favorite)

Tygaige alas, would heavy struggle unless we get villain redemption pt 2 like Angel, but she won't be very pleased about it at first before accepting. I'm a sucker for Gaigel, so it'll lean that way, but to entertain the idea would be interesting. I might do that sometime.

if you're curious though with Angel there, it is a shitpost and I have drawn it with the idea Tyreen was monologing, but Angel just turned off her shield and straight up shot a bitch. (Tyreen easily healed with eridium but it was the audacity that was most surprising) the fallen au is pretty funny because besides that, she's also: Made Troy punch himself, then also has made his arm punch Tyreen. Will hack their shows if she's upset enough and fucks with their things. General fun, yknow. An issue Ange faces in the end is because she's so "eridium enriched" it's like double tasty snack to the twins, so that's always fun. (In fairness to Troy and with another drawing, Angel in this au has also made Gaige punch herself a few times when she got upset. She's very petty and I support it)

AND LASTLY

This is a mild gift to scrap-brainzone! I'm really sorry thr quality and coloring isn't the best on this (or most of the images), I was mildly rushing from time and far too excited to finish this and post it to show.

FUCK I REALIZED I DIDNT ADD THE BLUSHES. GOD. I'll do it tomorrow and edit or reblog this one, god I knew I was forgetting something-

The trio may not be my personal cup of tea, but it is very cute and I couldn't stop laughing/thinking about a post similar about the White Girl Swag so I wanted to be silly and make one

I'm too loyal to Gaigel, but who doesn't like to look and toy with other ideas? I never considered it much until seeing their art and it good shit, how could i not? Anyways, rambling, hope this isn't too bad or shoddy of a gift, I'll hopefully make something better soon, I was just too excited to post and show

anyone else who.made it this far you should totally totally go to scrap-brainzone 's blog it's great good shit 100/10 👍

#gaigel #angel borderlands #angel the siren #gaige borderlands #gaige the mechromancer #im a clown to make mtself anon and then do this the night of #but we stay silly.#i have something to do tomofdow i really ought to sleep now #sorry again for thr chicken scratch writing #it is a problem 😕

9 notes · View notes

lightandfellowship · 4 months

Note

Do you have a favorite flashback or flashforward in Dark Road? (+ What would you have liked to see that wasn’t shown in the game?)

Hmmm...it's hard to choose an absolute favorite. But here's some that I find to be pretty important/interesting:

The flashback to the underclassmen discussing their reasons for becoming Keyblade wielders. Admittedly, to me this scene feels like the writers taking a shortcut and having the characters directly tell us What Their Deal Is instead of like, showing us, but it's still pretty vital to establishing the underclassmen's motivations in a story where the side characters don't really get all the focus they need.

The flashback to Eraqus and Baldr discussing Hoder. We get some pretty important hints here about some of the unanswered mysteries of the game's story. We get our one and only dialog-heavy scene of Baldr pre-Darkness. And we have Eraqus being a symbolic stand-in for Hoder + Scala society in general here. Overall, a scene that has a lot going on under the hood considering that, on the surface, it's just two characters talking casually.

All the upperclassmen flashbacks, for the simple reason of being the only instances where we ever really learn anything about them, lol.

The flashback where "As if!" happens. It was such a fun surprise, the scene is directed/animated very well, and Baldr and Bragi's banter here is very entertaining.

As for flashforwards...I think the graveyard scene at the end of the game counts as one because it says "1 month later" (afaik). I just love Xehanort and Eraqus' dialog here. It's painfully realistic.

And finally, let's say the flashforwards where young Xehanort interacts with the MoM, because these guys make the perfect comedic duo imo.

As for "what I would have liked to see"...this one is probably pretty obvious, but I wish we got to see more of Vidar, Vor, Vala, and Vali. It's kinda unbelievable that Vidar and Vor got critical character development off-screen. I fully believe this was the resault of story cuts though, so I don't really blame the writers entirely.

Now, if we're talking "what flashbacks/flashforwards I would have liked to see", then definitely flashforwards to what befell Scala in between KHDR and BBS. And maybe that could also include just, scenes of Xehanort and Eraqus' life before BBS. Maybe them even meeting Yen Sid? Stuff like that. Though honestly you could probably make a whole entire game about just that stuff.

#rambling about dim path

10 notes · View notes

gamesception · 10 months

Text

Sception Reads Cass Cain #12

Batgirl #1 story: Scott Peterson & Kelley Puckett script: Kelley Puckett, pencils: Damion Scott

We've finally made it to issue #1 of Cass's solo Batgirl title, under her initial creative team - who I still associate her with to this day - of Peterson, Puckett, and Scott. While I do think it was worth taking the time to look at her earlier appearances, this is where I started following the character. But while it hooked me back in the day, unlike other formative works of fiction that I've returned to repeatedly over the years, I haven't sat down and read Batgirl #1 as a stand alone comic book issue in a long time. I'm eager to see how it holds up.

The issue starts with a Flashback to when Cass was young and still being raised by David Cain. The first panels have her putting a fairly simple puzzle together - a kid activity, to entertain a kid, when she hears David speak to his guests in front of her using words - a rare enough surprise that she drops her puzzle piece. Either that, or she's excited for the test to start, since she's stretching & getting ready right after.

David's getting a high speed camera ready for the event, which the dialog calls out as being fancy and high end even though it looks old fashioned to us, which helps us place this as a flashback even if we aren't previously familiar with young Cass and David from her introduction in NML.

First of all, that worms eye panel with the forshortening looking up at the knife, the girl, the guy in the chair? That is a fantastic fucking panel.

Mostly though I want to stop and point out that Scott puts a fair bit of individuality into all of these guys. Like, they're clearly built on cliches, but still, this bunch of violence-for-hire street toughs who in most bat books would be the forgettable hench goons of some colorful supervillain here get to feel like people in their own right. Especially the middle guy who's like 'nah, dude, I hurt people for money, but that is a child." Of course, even if we're not previously familiar with Cass as a character, we can see where this is going, and these guys hurting the kid was never an option on the table.

Jesus Christ How Horrifying.

The way everything goes red when the violence and the blood starts is really something, especially with the stark contrast between that red and little Cass's black hair and body suit. Very dynamic. And David there with the smug little jab at the end.

It's not exactly clear what Cass is thinking through this. She's casually committing some pretty extreme violence as a... not even as a test, the outcome was never in question for her or David. This is a demonstration, an exposition for the camera. Like a kid's music recital or something. Her facial expression is mostly fairly flat and serious, but this one panel:

She knows what's about to happen, and she's smiling. Determined, eager, she knows they're underestimating her, and she's looking forward to showing them just how badly. She likes this. The violence in and of itself? Hurting people - even hurting them badly? That doesn't bother little Cass, that won't be why she leaves David.

...

The scene shifts from child Cassandra beating up a group of grown men to teenage Cassandra practicing fighting sticks with Barbara, and getting disarmed when she gets distracted by a picture of Babs as Batgirl from before she was paralyzed. Which is a nice little demonstration of the limits of Cass's martial abilities - she's extremely good, but she's not invincible. She can be beaten by a normal human opponent if they're skilled and she's distracted. We also see Cass surprised by the loss. Scott's art can be a bit rubbery and cartoony, the proportions can be a bit weird at times, but his faces are super expressive, and that's obviously so much more important when portraying a character who doesn't speak.

Cassandra is still a new enough character that a single page can give all the essential narration to cover her basic backstory to this point. Also, blowing the dandelion seeds and saying 'me' is such a great little bit of pantomime for conveying the idea of spending years drifting aimlessly. Cass may not be able to speak more than a few words, but she can still communicate.

Even so, with a largely non-verbal protagonist, someone needs to deliver necessary exposition to the reader, and Babs as Oracle serves the role of conveying necessary information to both the reader and to Cass, while also taking on a sort of surrogate mother/big sister role.

The green blocks on these couple pages, justified in universe as Barbara's recorded notes, are the only narration blocks in the entire book, though. There are word bubbles when characters talk, but nothing that directly spells out what they're thinking, or what's happening. That work is left entirely to the artist. It's a task that not many comic artists would be up to, but Scott delivers here.

The result is a book that puts you in Cass's head, understanding and relating to the other characters the way she does.

Cassandra may be the new Batgirl, but she takes more after Bruce than Barbara.

As much as I complain about the design of Cass's Batgirl outfit being a mistake for how difficult it makes depicting her expression and emotions, it really is very cool and sleek and striking and spooky, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't part of what motivated me to pick up her book in the first place. And yeah, despite Cass being younger and smaller, you have no trouble buying her being every bit as intimidating as Bruce in costume.

Before we get to Bruce, though, there's another flashback. I don't know why this one's all 'flashback sepia toned' when the first one wasn't, but regardless it seems Mr. Merc from the first flashback is a bit down on his luck since his earlier encounter with Cassandra. He's got some new scars on his face, and the elbow she broke is still bandaged, and instead of taking fighting jobs for cash from mysterious strangers here he is getting in fights with homeless guys over half-drunk bottles of booze.

When he sees Cass, now homeless and drifting herself, he recognizes her. You see a moment of fear bolt through his face, and he smashes the stolen bottle to use it as a weapon to defend himself.

Cass just runs away, leaving the guy to realize he's smashed the bottle of booze that he had just been fighting over.

It's a pretty simple moment, watching this guy hit rock bottom. You can feel something for him. Not sympathy necessarily, but he feels like a person. It's a lot of time put into characterizing some random guy who happened to wander into Cass's life by chance.

...

After the second flashback, there's a scene where Cass stops a man from assaulting a woman in an alley - but she's holding back. She uses the bare minimum force needed to get they guy off of his victim. He's not exactly sorry. He's not afraid of Cassandra. Despite the spooky suit, she hasn't given him a reason to be. And he's still threatening the woman, even while Cass has him pinned...

Until Batman shows up, exercising a considerably more extreme degree of violence. Something much closer to Cassandra's training with David Cain. Brutal enough that Cass is momentarily taken aback - He's supposed to be good, is it ok for him to be doing that?

The next day, Cass is still thinking about it when Babs notices and tries to get her out of the house to cheer her up.

They head out to the park and Barbara tries to talk to Cass about what she's going through, but Cass just doesn't have the words and runs off in frustration.

It won't always be written well, admittedly, but this is an important point of tension between Babs and Cass. They're sort of mirrored opposites. Babs is trapped in a chair by her injury. Her interactions with the world and especially her career in super heroics are limited largely to words - information gathering, communications. On the other hand Cass, even after she learns to speak, is the opposite - excelling in the physical world, but largely disconnected from the world of words, especially the written word.

They complement each others abilities, making them an especially effective team. But they also can't help but see each other as a representation of the skills they lack, and evidence that the skills they have might not really be that important. The wedge this puts between them gets in the way of Barbara's attempts to look out for Cass and help her build a life that isn't entirely devoted to violence.

Ie, Bruce's life. And here he is, an ominous shadow, like the Ghost of Christmas Future, pointing a bony finger at fate that Cassandra is aimed towards. A never ending crusade, compassion and hope ground down to the bone, emotionally stunted by trauma and violence, only feeling alive when risking his own life, only feeling joy when hurting people he's deemed it morally acceptable to hurt, isolated, unable to relate even his own surrogate family.

There have been many takes on Batman over the years, and in general I prefer ones considerably less brutal and broken than this one. But this was already the Batman of the time, even before Cass showed up, and even in books without her. Cassandra is built by her creators to be this Batman's daughter - to reflect, comment on, and maybe criticize his choices and life style.

Like a lot of the characterization in the book, it's something that comes across most clearly in the art. Other characters get Scott's signature expressive faces, but here Bruce is an inhuman shadow.

From issue one, Batgirl's writers are intent on driving home how similar Cassandra is to Bruce, and how that's not necessarily a good thing. And the person most convinced of this similarity is Bruce himself. He looks at Cassandra, and he sees his reflection.

God, the way Scott draw's Barbara's face when she's hearing what exactly David did to Cassandra.

Bruce has worked out Cassandra's body reading gimmick, which was alluded to but not fully spelled out before this. And it's described as 'understanding physical movement as a language,' but it's essentially just empathy? Not psychic powers, but just normal style recognizing facial expression and body language and processing that to understand how people are feeling and what they're doing, only taken to a comic book extreme.

In a fight, at least against regular human opponents, it effectively amounts to knowing what her opponents are going to do and how they're going to move moments before they do so - rendering Cass nigh unbeatable. And that's nice, that's a costumed superhero gimmick right there, but understanding the ability as empathy dovetails nicely with the book's focus on the humanity of the people Cass comes across, and on her own emotional struggles.

It also tells us what the stakes won't be in Cass's stories. The question is never "will Cass be able to defeat the bad guy in a fight." Since that's taken off the table from the start, her book is forced to focus on more difficult and personal questions.

That night Bruce takes Cassandra out to an abandoned building for training, but not like the usual. He wants them to fight. For real. For her to show him what she can "really do," when she isn't holding back, like in the alley before. Cass may be nigh unbeatable in a fight against a 'normal human', but Bruce isn't exactly normal. She can hurt him. He can take it.

Here we have my only real complaint about this issue, because it skips over that fight, and it does so in a way that it's hard to tell that it even happened. Like, it doesn't cut to another scene and then come back to imply the passage of time, or even throw up a little "one hour later" spongebob meme, we just go straight from the above panel to this one, with only the busted up windows and Cass looking tired to imply a fight even happened.

And it's not just a problem because it's potentially confusing, it's also a missed opportunity. Like, imagine if the fight had been drawn with some striking poses, and then later we had seen those same poses mirrored in a flashback panel of young Cass training with David?

I love the decision to have her out of her mask here, and I love the way Scott draws Cass's face - her bright eyes, bushy eyebrows, wide smile, big jaw & chin. She's so expressive.

Bruce can fight Cass, they're on a pretty similar level, but while she's just worn out, he's suffered internal damage and is coughing up blood. At first he's acting like he beat her, the stern implacable mentor, all criticism and ways she can improve. But he's more hurt than she is, and they both know it, and they're both smiling about it.

What happened between them was violent, and, while we didn't get to see it directly, we can infer that it was pretty extreme. A degree of violence between mentor and protege - between father and daughter - that anyone on the outside looking in would consider abuse. But in universe, in character, they're playing with each other. They're having fun. Bruce is proud of her ability to suffer violence and pay it back with interest, and Cass is thriving on his approval, and the parallels to her training with David Cain are not subtle.

Bruce & Cass's moment is interrupted by the sound of a gunshot outside. It's our friend from the flashbacks. He's not showing his face in this panel, but we can already recognize him from his hair and from... did he... did he have his jacket sleeve embroidered to match the tattoo on his shoulder? That's some commitment to the bit. Anyway, he's robbing an armored car, and has already killed the driver. In Gotham, my guy? Really? Like, you could talk about his bad luck, but still. Anyway, Bruce chases an accomplice while Cassandra confronts Mr. Merc.

He pulls a gun on her, but she casually swats it away and grabs him... but something distracts her and she pulls back, giving Mr. Merc time to run. But what could have captured Cass's attention...

Her own shadow on the wall. Batman's shadow. She's been living with all this guilt, not just because of what she did, but because the enjoyed her life training to be an assassin right up until she learned what that meant. Finding out didn't just mean she had done something evil, it meant that her entire life - a life she had loved to that point - had been in service to that evil thing. The skills she was so proud of were evil. The father she loved was evil. She wasn't just ashamed of one act, she was ashamed of her entire identity.

Being Batgirl - putting herself in harms way, suffering pain and risking death to save others - had been a way to make up for that evil, a life of penance, a sacrifice - but in this moment she's realizing that it's not just a way to make amends for the evil thing she did, it's a way to re-contextualize everything else. She could take pride in her skills again. She could have a father who would be proud of her again. She could have the life she loved back. Even memories of David could be retroactively redeemed, if it had all been part of this destiny, to help her become this person. Yes, she'd still feel guilty for the evil thing she did, but it didn't have to mean her entire life and everything about her was evil too.

And all she would have to do is dedicate her entire life to Batman's crusade with absolutely nothing left for herself, and suborn her entire sense of identity and self worth to Batman's approval forever. It's a good thing this Batman isn't an unreasonably demanding asshole. /s

With this new epiphany - that the violence she enacts on people like Mr. Merc can be a righteous instead of despicable - Cass is freed to cut loose on the guy. He's a murderer after all! (like she is) He deserves it! (like she does) She can beat him into submission, and since she's acting on Batman's behalf, she doesn't have to feel guilty that she enjoys doing it, that it feels like singing.

But something about Cassandra's righteous beat down triggers Mr. Merc's memories, and he knows. Years later, half a world away, shrouded by completely concealing costume, and serving the Batman instead of an assassin, but Mr. Merc recognizes her. Despite all that, despite her big revelation moments before in the alley, she hasn't changed. She's still the same. And here's this random guy from her memories as a sign, telling her, and the reader, that her past won't be so easy to put behind her.

Satisfied that Cass is ready, Bruce cuts her loose for solo work, with one restriction - no costumed criminals. In universe this is because Cass depends on her body-reading for defense, and that ability can't necessarily be relied on when facing supervillains. In the real world, though, it's to keep her book grounded and human, telling smaller, more personal stories like that of Mr. Merc in this issue, allowing the book to keep a tight focus on Cassandra's emotions, motivations, and relationships in a way that wouldn't be possible with a big colorful attention-magnet like the Joker chewing the scenery.

But speaking of those relationships, and of a past that can't just be left behind, the issue ends on David Cain, watching his recording of the opening flashback, bringing the whole issue neatly full circle.

...

So that was the first issue of Batgirl (2000), Cass's solo title. In the end I wasn't able to resist going through the whole thing nearly page by page and spending too much time on plot summary and reaction rather than calling out, like the creative choices and execution in the art and the writing. But yeah, for me the book holds up extremely well. I'm immediately sucked right back in. The layered character dynamics, the reliance on art over text narration for characterization and storytelling, the parallels between Bruce and David - and the criticism of Bruce that those parallels imply. It all makes for a very dense book, one you can really dig into. And I love Damion Scott's art here. I don't think anyone else could have pulled this off as well.

I promise I'll try to be more concise going forward - especially since I've taken so long on some of these, and this one in particular, that I've entirely used up my posting lead and now I don't have anything queued to go up while I'm out of town for the next week. But I couldn't stop myself from gushing over the first issue.

My entire love of this medium, at least the mainstream big two American superhero corner of this medium, lived and died on this run of this character under this creative team. I liked Batman and Superman and Spiderman and the X-Men from various movies and cartoons in the 90s, and I enjoyed some individual comics here and there. But in retrospect I was never a superhero comics fan generally. I was a fan of Peterson, Puckett, and Scott's 'Batgirl' specifically. And reading this issue again more that 20 years later, I still am.

#batgirl #cassandra cain #sception reads cassandra cain #barbara gordon #batman #bruce wayne #long post

23 notes · View notes

amalgamgooze · 1 month

Text

where dreams go to die (maybe)

Today was not a fantastic day, to say the least. Nothing bad explicitly happened, but it's just kind of the culmination of things that boils over on a less-than-perfect day like today.

It's important, I think, to restate that nothing tangible or that sort of thing happened today. It was all just in my head.

In American high school, there's this prevalent issue of seniors losing motivation towards the end of their senior year, since we've already committed to colleges and such. This phenomenon is often dubbed "senioritis".

But my motivation to succeed hasn't been my grades in a long time. I've never really tried to keep high grades in order to land my dream school. I didn't even ever really have a dream school. I just kind of kept on keeping on knowing I'd eventually stumble across a school that'd be a good fit for me (and I did!).

Rather, my motivation to learn in school has primarily come from my dream of someday realizing some of my "great" stories, particularly one video game I've been designing for the past seven or so years. I mean, that's no small deal, to keep making ideas for the same project over a seven-year span. I've told a few friends about it, and they seem interested in the story I want to tell too, so it's only been more encouraging.

I mean, I've somehow tied everything to making progress on my video game. There's obvious topics, like math and physics being easily applicable to the game's coding, as well as art and music classes to help with the design of the game. Most of the writing I do is practice for when I'll eventually be writing story, dialog, and monologues for my game. There's also the less obvious, such as literature classes providing examples of story structures and elements, as well as history classes providing tidbits of inspiration here and there (though very little--after all, I'm not one of those history freaks who raves about wars and weaponry!).

In fact, my dream of making this game has kept me going at arguably the roughest points in my life so far. When there seemed to be no other reason to keep on keepin' on, the idea of someday making and sharing this story with the world has given me the courage to keep going.

But it's always been a concern of mine as to what would keep me going if I no longer wanted to make my game. After all, people change, and it wouldn't be fair to say that I'll definitely still want to make this game in a few years. What, then, would my reason for being be? What would get me out of bed in the mornings?

Unfortunately, in the past few months, I began toying with the idea of never having to make my game after all. It'd be too much stress and work for what might end up being a not very good game, I started to think. Life was getting me down so much as it was, that it'd be near impossible to also work on a game in the little free time I'd get in the more difficult future to come.

For the better part of today, then, I began to finally accept that reality. I started to actually believe I'd never make my great game, that I'd be utterly mediocre for the rest of eternity. It was debilitating, for the hopes that kept me going in my darkest hours to be forfeit, at least temporarily.

Fortunately, now, after a nap, I'm feeling more willing to entertain the idea of making my game, at least a bit longer. After all, I've devoted almost all of my studies for the past few years to contribute to the larger goal of realizing my ambitious project. I know the road ahead is going to be anything but easy, but I've traveled down these difficult roads my entire life. What's one more to finally fulfill what I've devoted myself to for so long?

So my dream lives to see the light of another day, despite the present setting in which I trudge across barren plains of acedia and apathy.

#blog #writing #creative process #game development #indie game dev #life goals #life dreams #devotion #passion #passion project #hope #hopelessness #acedia #apathy #high school #high school senior #senior year #senioritis

2 notes · View notes

collindelade · 11 months

Text

ASTEROID CITY REVIEW

There's no other director with more of a unique style than Wes Anderson. From his precise cinematography, his recurring cast, and his quirky humor, Anderson continues to strive for original storytelling in an era of sequels and remakes. With his films having so many similar traits though, are his movies becoming less entertaining?

"Asteroid City" follows a fictional playwriter (Jason Schwartzman) and his kids grieving the loss of their mother while traveling to the open desert of Asteroid City to participate in a technology competition. When a world-altering event occurs in front of all the town people's sight, they all must quarantine and face the new reality of their worldviews shifting forever.

"Asteroid City" can be split up into two categories; Classic Anderson and Pretentious Anderson. The majority of the film with the grieving family and townspeople feels closer to the quality of Anderson's classics like "Royal Tenenbaums" and "Grand Budapest Hotel". The characters are all charming and deliver that signature quirky dialog. Especially in the first two acts, the movie is very charming and entertaining.

Where the "Pretentious Anderson" comes in is with the other side of the movie. Right from the start, the movie is set up as a stage play, with Bryan Cranston playing the narrator. This black and white, 4:3 aspect ratio side of the film feels closer to the disappointing "French Dispatch" where everything feels overly complicated to confusion. While there are still a couple of clever sequences involving the behind-the-scenes play development portions, the film would have benefited from ditching this plot convention in favor of more development of the real story.

"Asteroid City" is more entertaining than it is not and does manage to still reach the level of recommendation. While it is a mix of the best and worst aspects of Anderson's work, it still favors the better half with its interesting characters and bright visual style. "Asteroid City" won't be for everyone, but will entertain fans of his work.

7/10

#asteroid city #wes anderson #movie #review #scarlett johansson #tom hanks #aliens #space

5 notes · View notes

songbirdtales · 9 months

Text

Just before the Nautoloid (SFW)

Author's Note:

Hi! I'm the author. This is the first of a series of Baldur's Gate 3 fan fiction I'm writing about my OC version of Tav. This series will consist of both SFW and NSFW fics and some scenes will be based on, use dialog and direction from, or reference scenes in the game. I'll be tagging everything as best I can to be mindful of content warnings. This is going to be very queer, and very spicy, and it will have a lot of Astarion in it. I apologize in advance for the depravity and second hand trauma from this OC. This is just a hobby for me but I hope some people find these entertaining. Sam

The tavern calmed in the dead of night as a somber tune echoed into the streets. The sound of lute playing wasn’t new, but this was far from their typical, high energy rabble. At a table near the center of the room, a Tiefling bard played their instrument.

Their dark stone grey complexion could made one think they had Drow in them. Long rose gold hair pulled back into a messy bun was all that brought warmth to their coloring, loose pieces framing their face parted by frayed horns that started near their skin tone and turned black at the tips. A thick splatter of dark freckles ran across their nose and cheeks from one heavily pierced pointed ear to the other. Black sclera framed fay fire eyes that seemed to glow in the lowlight as their gaze stayed locked on their instrument.

The Tiefling was androgynous in a way that confused most, certain aspects of their outward appearance contradicted by typical standards. Ritual scarification framed their lips and chin as well as their brow, white tattoos lining their lower lids and contrasted both their black winged eyeliner and their eyes themselves. There was a softness to their facial structure that made most call them ‘Miss’, but their lack of chest and baritone voice made just as many reverse course as soon as they spoke. They had been accused many times of being deceptive, but the androgyny was entirely honest. The bard had done a great deal to make themself true. The hum of rhythmic plucking repeated as the bard let their jaw slack to sing.

“Tav the Songbird,” The sound of their own name pulled the Tiefling from their focus and the playing stopped, Tav’s mouth still hanging open. Devil fangs hung in plain view as they stared at the gaunt human that approached them. He looked familiar, they’d seen him around when they’d kept worse company. They didn’t need to know more than that to be sure he was trouble they didn’t want.

“The one and only.” Tav rose their plucking hand, twirling it in a flourish for dramatic effect. “Sorry, I’m not taking requests at the moment.”

“Not here for the music, though, could use to play something a little more chipper. Thought there was a funeral going on in here.” The man’s laugh made Tav’s expression sour.

“Then what do you want?” The performance was over and Tav was now glaring at the man. He looked frail, as if he hadn’t eaten regularly in a number of years. The curse of poverty. Tav knew it well.

“You remember Saber, yeah? He’d like to see you.”

“Barely." They lied. "If this 'Saber' wants to invite me to see him he could have sent a letter.” There was a smooth flow to their words, yet they bit off the end of their final words, like sharpened arrowheads now pointed at his throat, ready to fly.

The human began to sweat, his eyes struggling to stay on the bard as his body language became withdrawn. The burning of their hellion eyes scared him, and it was smart of him to be afraid. “Th-this isn’t an invitation.”

“Funny, last I checked, I don’t work for him.” Tav’s tone was void of amusement, each word fluid string of words like the pull of a violin bow now cut like a razor. “So if he wants to see me, for whatever reason, he can do it like every other stranger. Otherwise I have no interest in hearing from him again.” Their eyes narrowed at the human. “Do you understand?”

The human messenger was sweating profusely now, his eyes on the ground as he nodded. A soft “Y-yes,” croaked from his throat in response.

“Good,” Their voice softened only ever so slightly before it hardened once more. “Now go, before I make you.”

He didn’t need any more convincing. The human quickly turned tail and ran. A minor inconvenience to an otherwise mediocre night. Tav finished their drink and took a chunk of bread for the road before settling with the bar and left.

Tav was drunk, their balance unstable as they wandered down the road. The Tiefling steadily broke apart the bread and ate it as they walked, lute on their back, and pockets filled with many things, but not a single gold. “At least I broke even.” They sighed under their breath.

They’d only closed their eyes for a second when a strange sound came from overhead. It was like a breathy explosion, as if something had just vanished from existence, or materialized.

Tav didn’t even get a chance to look up before the nautiloid ship plucked them from the street. The next thing they remembered was the tadpole.

#baldur's gate 3 #fanfic #fanfiction #tiefling #bard #dnd #dungeons and dragons #bg3 tav #oc tav #lgbtqia #lgbtq #enby #nonbinary #nonbinary tav #baldur's gate oc #baldur's gate 3 fanfiction #bg3 fanf

2 notes · View notes

lightinthesilence · 1 year

Text

First Dev Log on Clavis Elementorum

This dev log is going to quite a bit different. I am a ceremonial magician, and this game should be, when I am done with it, not just an entertaining story, but a introduction to the classical four elements, the elemental spirits, and the process of internal alchemy. This game will be my unique take on the explore-and-talk model of early-styled RPGs, and is currently in the conceptualization stage. As I begin to develop the game in earnest, these posts will become more specialized to a particular thing I'm working on, but this first one is kind of a high concept back-of-the-box type look at what I want to create. Everything from the ideas to the art used is to roughly conceptualize what I want to make, though unless I have a change of heart it will still be in a pixel art style.

Falling, falling, falling. Falling from a realm of light, you see it shrink away. What once took up your whole field of view is but a small orb above your head, as you fall into a world of inky blackness. Eventually, you meet the ground, and with a lightning's flash, find yourself in a world of Chaos.

In the center is a large clock. And one with matching time is found on your HUD. Every action, whether dialog, or picking up an item, or going into a building advances your time. As the player, or as I'll be calling him until I come up with a better name, Phil (bonus points if you get who I'm referring to) explores around, he finds himself in a world in disarray.

Each direction from the center leads to a different elemental area, where the various elemental characters that inhabit each place are in a state of disarray. Each elemental has issues, both within that elemental sphere, or between them. Helping each elemental with their difficulties by learning and knowing about the nature of each element and exploring the world to find solutions to their difficulties is the main thought process.

Each zone has a spot where they congregate, where you get your chance to use knowledge or items found in these places to help resolve the issues of each Elemental. A place where you can talk to these different characters either for information, or to resolve their issues.

As you explore the world, you also begin to find pieces of information about who you are, what this place is, and why it's in the state it's in.

Time goes by very quickly in this place, and you will likely find yourself only being able to help out a few spirits, or perhaps even put right an elemental force, but when time runs out, you will see what becomes of the place in the state you leave it, before you find yourself again Falling, falling, falling. But this time, with more knowledge about the world.

I may separate things out as time goes on, but this blog will be the hub for everything, including both the dev log for this game, my Biblical analyses, any significant interactions with spirits through operations I do, and also miscellaneous musings on religion, philosophy, Kabbalah, and magic. My next few posts that I have planned are my report on my workings with a salamander that I have done to deepen my knowledge of the elements for this game, and a more nuts and bolts dev log as I get to work on the mechanics.

#indiegamedev #magick #occult

5 notes · View notes

pinespittinink · 1 year

Note

💬

💬Share your crunchiest bit of dialog, include zero context.

My CRUNCHIEST DIALOGUE, that has to belong to Travis ✨

His eyes glitter with something I might have called inbred mischief, if I had enough mind to be daringly impolite. “You should come to the show,” Travis says, and I blink.

“The show?”

“At the Glavenisean Theater,” Travis says. “Have you never heard of it?”

“I’m new in town,” I remind him, but Travis still raises his eyebrows, disbelief dancing through him as though it’s something outrageous that I’ve never heard of the theater before. Still, he waves an apologetic hand, dipping his head to take a quick drink from his glass.

“No matter, no matter,” Travis says, “I have an extra ticket, you see. My friend was supposed to come along, but he fell through. Bit of a flat tire. But I’ve got a beau in the show, my boyfriend, Seonghwa.”

“Ah,” I say, uncertain what else to offer. Travis laughs at me, good-natured and benign, leaning back in his seat.

“I don’t mean to sell you on that alone,” he replies, “just think of it as a welcome on behalf of the city itself.” He casts me another curious glance, index finger toying along the wet edge of his glass. “You’ve really never heard of it? The Glavenisean Theater? It’s a dime among dull coins, a real emerald.”

His tone has fleshed out with pride, but for what? A local entertainment, his paramour among it? I’ve been to the theater before, in my childhood; the costumes admittedly drew me in more than any performance on the stage, skirts and pearl buttons and reversible jackets and even the red cloth of the curtains themselves, all left lingering on my mind like stamps on old letters.

“I promise,” Travis says, a sparkle in his eyes as though he’s reading my mind in this very moment, “on my mother, my honor, and my life, it’ll be nothing like you’ve ever seen before.”

#asks #oc: travis #the great glavenisean theater #my writing #forevermagik #tggt excerpt

3 notes · View notes

5ds-sub-vs-dub · 2 years

Text

Episode 1

Title: Riding Duel! Acceleration!/ On Your Mark, Get Set, Duel!

Summary (via Crunchyroll): Hoping to save his friends from the clutches of Sector Security, Yusei Fudo challenges his old nemesis Officer Ushio to a Riding Duel!

Or: In which Rally either does or does not steal the chip, Yusei either does or does not have a history with Trudge/Ushio, and Jack is apparently the best duelist in the world.

....

I know initially I said "no hate" but this episode...maybe gets a little hate simply because there are things that come up in the latter half of the dubbed episode that causes it to contradict itself. That being said, I don't actually hate the dub episode, just that contradiction. But I'll get to that later.

*As a reminder, I am not pointing out every changed line of dialog because there are A Lot. I will only be pointing out the things that are drastically different or make an impact somehow (or just that I like).*

....

An interesting thing I noted, here, is the framing of the opening scenes. The original has a bit more back and forth between shots of Jack racing around the track and Yusei racing through the tunnels, and the dub also shows a pan shot of Satellite before ever showing Yusei while the sub shows Yusei first and the Satellite later. The dub makes the divide between them very apparent right from the start by showing the vast difference in their locations while the sub lets you guess a little.

....

Right off the bat, though, I had to shake my head a little at the assertion in the dub that Jack is the #1 duelist in the WORLD. He is not. He is 19 at the start of the series. He may be known as the King, but that doesn't necessarily extend to being King of the dueling world. Chances are, he is only that locally, and he has most likely never even left the city because Godwin/Goodwin needs to keep both eyes on him. Local fame is not the same thing as world-wide fame. (And, okay, they didn't have the end of the series to work off of to know that only then was Jack setting out to become King of the World nor would they know Godwin's role in everything, but that's still quite the leap to make.)

I mentioned in this post that the character's personalities are all either slightly or majorly altered in some way, and Jack's post-duel interview is actually a good example of how Jack was altered just a little from his sub counterpart. He is equally as rude in both versions, but in the dub he is far more cocky.

In the dub, we have, in the context of rise to fame: "It's not the power of the runner; it's the rider. I'll take on anyone on any ride and I'll still be victorious. [...] Bring it on."

In the sub, we have, in the context of just the previous duel: "If the King used his full strength from the beginning, it would have been over in a n instant. The King's duel must be entertaining!"

Basically, the dub amounts to: "I can't lose and therefore challenge anyone who wants to, to a duel." He's still being cocky in the sub by saying what amounts to, "I had it in the bag the whole time but it needed to be entertaining," but at least he's not challenging the whole world. He's not saying "I can beat anyone" but rather just that Enjo/Hunter himself didn't stand a chance. Commenting on the defeat of one person is pretty different than asserting you can beat the whole world. That being said, this is a change I don't actually hate because in both versions Jack is cocky; the dub just brings up how much sooner with this scene.

....

The first conversation a character has with other characters is very telling, and the first conversation Yusei has is telling in two very different ways based on which version you're watching because they are very different conversations. Yusei returns to the hideout and his friends have just finished watching Jack's duel. One of them apologizes for watching it there but it's the only place they could. Yusei's different responses say a lot about his character in both cases.

In the dub, the conversation goes like this: "Only one person should be sorry." "Jack still owes you for what he did." "Got that right." This is...almost vengeful. Which Yusei is really not. It's definitely spiteful at the very least, and changes Yusei's motivation for going to the city entirely, from just wanting his card back to wanting revenge on Jack.

But in the sub, we get this: "His opponent was weak, right?" "Yeah, he was completely played by Jack." "He's bored." ....I really hope you can see the difference here. Rather than thinking of himself and his goal, he makes a comment about how, even though Jack got what he wanted, he's obviously not satisfied with it.

This vast difference carries on to the rest of the conversation, as well. Rally shows up, Yusei decides to use the chip, and the conversation around what Yusei is planning to do, while similar, still has two different vibes.

In the dub, it goes like this: "Yusei, us Satellites should just stay put." "Jack didn't stay, so why should I?" "Let him go, bro. Don't risk your freedom for some wheels and a card."

And in the sub, it goes like this: "Yusei, are you seriously going to leave here?" "I'm not leaving. I'm just going." "Don't do it. That place isn't for us. From the beginning, Jack was different than us."

What's interesting to me here is that these two conversations are basically the same but the wording gives slightly different connotations. What I like about the dub dialog here is that it very explicitly states that Yusei is somehow risking his freedom in going after Jack. What I don't like is the implication that he's not planning on coming back, unlike the distinction made in the sub between 'leaving' (permanent removal) and 'going' (intending to return to the place you started). In the both cases, we start to get hints about the class divide that exists between the city and Satellite.

....

This whole next section is...a mess. Okay? It just is. Because the dub made some major changes. Granted, they were to minor plot points, but the fact remains that I have a lot to talk about here. (Not all bad, don't worry! Some of this I like! ...or at least didn't mind.)

The Whole Mess of this starts with whether or not Rally stole the acceleration chip. If you have only seen the dub, you will say very firmly that no, he did not steal it. If you have only seen the sub, then you will answer equally as surely that yes, he did steal it. And this change leads to many changes after it. (Can't be promoting theft to the kiddies, I guess; localizers did what they had to do.) So before I start tearing both apart, let's get both sets of facts straight:

In the dub: Trudge has a personal score to settle with Yusei already because he already knows him. Yusei has, apparently, been in trouble before which earned him time in a re-education center. Trudge wants Yusei put away for good, and says as much at one point. Because of his own personal beef, he's all for baiting Yusei by using Rally. Rally did not actually steal the chip because the whole thing was one big setup. And, oh yeah, Jack apparently dropped the tip, and the purpose of baiting Yusei and having him arrested somehow protects Jack. Yusei agrees to not put up a fight about being arrested but only if Trudge can beat him in a duel. The incentive to duel is equal on both sides: if Yusei wins, he and Rally get off scott-free; if Trudge wins, Yusei will pump up the story to make him look good enough to maybe even get a promotion.

In the sub: Ushio is just a cop doing his duty, trying to catch a thief. He doesn't know Yusei. He doesn't even have Yusei's name by the end of the episode because he never asks and Yusei never volunteers it either. Jack has nothing to do with this. Rally did steal the chip. Yusei point blank challenges him to a duel, and the incentive is entirely one-sided; Ushio will get nothing out of it other than arresting yet another kid from Satellite, while Yusei and Rally will get off scott-free.

This scene is almost entirely different. The first scenario is very personal; the second is very impersonal. And I like them both. I like the idea of Trudge and Yusei already having a history pre-series; I also like the idea of them being perfect strangers who keep getting thrown together at random and have to deal with it. Both are equally hilarious when considering the series going forward. Dub relationship be like "I can't stand this kid but also he's supposed to be helping save the world so I have to just deal with it, but man I can't stand his guts" and sub be like "this random kid keeps popping up out of nowhere and I can't get rid of him because he's supposed to be helping save the world so I have to just deal with it, but what the heck, man" and I love both equally, I truly do. I do believe it changes how the viewer sees them, though, because these starting points are entirely different.

The only thing I don't care for here, in the dub, is Jack's supposed role in this. Jack can be a bit of a jerk, but I don't see this fitting into character for him, not even at the beginning of the series. Plus, it supposedly "protects" Jack in some way to have Yusei locked up, presumably so Yusei can't say anything about where Jack is from, but... he's stuck in Satellite. Who, exactly, is he going to tell that would make a difference? In fact, it might be easier for word to get out if he's in the Facility since the Facility is in the city itself. It just doesn't particularly make sense.

There's more I could say here but I already have a separate post in the works on this scene alone, so I'll leave it here.

....

When the actual duel started, I thought to myself, "okay, there can't be that much more I'll have to say because surely there isn't that much that's notably different for this." Boy howdy, was I wrong. Most of it is negligible (like one line implying that summoning somehow has to do with Speed Counters when it most certainly does Not), but there were a few things more than I was expecting to be worth noting.

Since they have a history already in the dub, it makes sense that Trudge would sling personal insults during the duel (as opposed to the generic "Satellite garbage" of the sub, that is still potent but not personal since Ushio would consider everyone there that way). What is hilarious to me about how they went about this is that one of said insults is "you never were good at math." Like. Clearly that is False considering all the math it would take to build and program a fully functional duel runner, but okay, I guess. What I really love, though, is that Yusei (being as snarky as he is in the dub) responds in like kind: "I knew you were the bottom of your class but..." Yusei definitely gives as good as he gets in the dub, and I love that for him.

The sub, on the other hand, gets the better "heart of the cards" moment. The dialog in the sub is, "My cards, I believe in you. Answer my voice." While the dub just gets, "Let's see what I got for you." It's...it's not great. But also some things just sound really, really terrible in English, and the sub dialog would have absolutely sounded terrible, so I can't complain.

As much as I love stoic sub!Yusei, I equally love all the word play dub!Yusei gets. He didn't get much in the first episode, but he did get a good one when he activated Angel Lift/Graceful Revival: "It allows me to do what we Satellites do best: recycle my Speed Warrior from the Graveyard." Recycle. Because, ya know, he uses a Junk deck. I don't know, man, I love it, okay? Don't judge me.

The one and only thing I truly do not like about the duel in the dub is this: When Yusei activates Vision Wind, Trudge comments that Yusei won the card from him on his last day at the re-education center. This wouldn't be so weird of a thing to say except for that earlier (in the first scene with Trudge, before the duel) Trudge also comments that Satellites aren't allowed to own cards. So 1. how did Yusei win it from him in the first place? and 2. why the heck would Trudge have given it to him? It doesn't make any sense. (Also, you see people in the backgrounds dueling all the time so if it's true that they aren't allowed to own decks, Security is doing a really, really poor job of enforcing that.)

Something I do love that dub did during this duel is this piece of dialog: "Growing up on the streets, I learned to be very resourceful, using everything to my advantage." This line isn't in the sub, but it does tell us something about Yusei that we see often (namely, his ability to adapt and overcome), and I love that. (It unfortunately comes at the expense of not fully explaining a card effect, but I still love it.)

And then we get to the end of the duel. Yusei wins (of course) and he leaves Trudge/Ushio with A Thought. These two thoughts, while both good, are (like so many other things in this episode) vastly different sentiments.

In the sub, we get this: "No matter what the card is, as long as it exists, it has the power to be useful. You don't have the right to call yourself a duelist when you dismiss cards by calling them garbage." Basically, "nothing is useless and you are a terrible person for thinking otherwise". He may be saying this about cards, but we know as the series goes on, that he feels the same way about people too.

The dub has a bit different sentiment, however: "You mentioned earlier how you wanted to teach me a lesson. Well, how about I leave you with this: don't underestimate us Satellites or our decks, 'cause what you see as weakness is what truly makes us strong." Ya'll. This is still good, okay? But it's not...it's not the same. At all. "We're stronger than you think" isn't the same as "nothing is worthless." Like, it's not bad. It's just. Not as good.

....

So there we have it! Episode 1 in the books!

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading, and be sure to let me know what you think of the changes that were made!

#yugioh 5ds #ygo 5ds #yugioh #ygo #sub vs dub #5ds episode 1 #this is so long ohmygosh #if you made it to the end congrats #and also thank you lol #they will probably not all be this long in the future lol #I have things that I noted that didn't make it in here #just so I could make it a tad bit shorter lol #there was just. so much. so many changes. good lord. so. many.

3 notes · View notes

frothlad · 21 days

Text

I have now read slightly more than half of Miracleman: The Silver Age.

I don't believe what I'm reading.

Now, let me be clear: I am, at heart, a seeker of simple entertainment. I am not incapable of depth, but it must be depth with signposts; I do not like the trackless. So it is possible that I am missing too much.

But Avril is still an overconfident manipulator (not Hera or Aphrodite, but Loki), and Miracleman is still just incredibly dumb. Dicky's reaction at the end of chapter two is as obvious and predictable as it was in 1993. The visit to the Black Warpsmiths held no awe, mystery, or even alienness. Dickie's dreams are just Johnny's in MM book 3 all over again, almost to the letter. There's a tremendous volume of churn over the questions that have been obvious since MM 16. Moore gave us Winter, who is like nothing before; Gaiman gives us "The Zapster" and "Meta-Maid", who are exactly the sorts of parodic superhero manques that MM book 1 was about refuting.

And Dickie has just been given the instruction to give us "Who Is Donna Troy" redux. From 1984. What can Gaiman possibly expect to do?

Moore's dialog and narration in this series was crackling fire along the nerves. Gaiman's is flat. Just flat. There's not a phrase or a turn or a line that makes you go "that's a great sentence".

Now, some of this has to be credited to me no longer being sixteen reading Moore's evolutionary leap in superheroes for the first time, to that evolutionary leap having forty years to be normalized (a passerine is a boring little brown bird, not a biomechanical miracle even though it IS).

But I read Gaiman's Golden Age back then, and I read the first two issues of Silver Age back then and they were still flat. In particular, as I said elsewhere, what Gaiman was doing in Golden Age, he was doing at the same time in Sandman, and better there in every respect.

And there are books and stories and comics that make me thrill even at the jaded far end of a half-century.

I think it's just bad. I think it's a bad fit for Gaiman, I think he's not giving it his best, I think it's had what it's worth already wrung out of it.

Maybe I'm wrong. But I'm more than halfway, and if I haven't hit the unexpected yet, I don't have a lot of confidence that it's coming. And, literally, Gaiman taught me, in Sandman, that stories were shaped to fit their purpose. And the shape of this story is not special.

(Buckingham's art is very nice. If you lined me up against a wall, I'd pick Leach and Davis a thousand times over Buckingham, but that is personal; it's objectively perfectly fine here, in service of whatever it is in service of, which I can't figure out.)

#miracleman #the silver age

0 notes

newberyandchai · 4 months

Text

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1977)

Roll of thunder Hear my cry Over the water Bye and bye Ole man comin’ Down the line Whip in hand to Beat me down But I ain’t Gonna let him Turn me around.

[Spoilers ahead]

What an important book — just as tense as The Slave Dancer in parts, but less horrifying and more insightful and entertaining... which I have some (not-so-groundbreaking) thoughts about. (These posts keep getting longer and longer, but forgive me; I was excited about this one.)

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry was always on the shelves in my elementary classrooms, but I was never interested enough to pick it up. I remember thinking that the book must be written in something like Shakespearean English, given the title. And I suppose this is kind of true, although not with ye olde English. The dialog spoken by the Logan family is written in African American Vernacular English while the narrative portion is in more traditional written English.

I appreciate this because it both gave insight into how Cassie and her family communicated with each other without code-switching and illustrated the idea that speaking "properly" is not indicative whatsoever of actual intelligence. Even today, in which it seems like anyone non-white person is automatically dismissed if they can't speak perfect English without a thick accent, I appreciated seeing phrases like, "You care what a lot of useless people say 'bout you you'll never get anywhere, 'cause there's a lotta folks don't want you to make it” spoken aloud by characters. The Logan family felt much, much more real than the Black characters in Slave Dancer, who were almost always talked about collectively as "the blacks" and as though they didn't have the mental capacity to communicate at all.

But before Analysis Brain takes over the rest of this post, let's go into the plot a bit:

The story is about the Logans, a Black family in the American South during the Jim Crow era. There has just been a lynching in the community, which leads Cassie on a roundabout journey during the school year to figure out the role she is supposed to hold in society as a Black girl. A lot of different relationships between the Black and white people in the community take place:

TJ, a friend of Cassie's brother Stacey, thinks he's a hotshot for hanging out with some older white boys and feels like this has elevated his social status, even though they're just toying with him as a joke. They end up getting him to commit a crime with them and pin it on him because they're aware of their privilege; it's ultimately their word against his.

Cassie's teacher embodies the "don't bite the hand that feeds" mentality. When Cassie is outraged after finding out that her class's textbooks used to belonged to white children and were only given to the Black school once they were torn up and worn out, her teacher punishes her and her younger brother for having a problem with it.

Jeremy, a boy from a prominent white family, likes to hang out with Stacey and walks in the mornings with the Logan family before they part ways to go to their separate schools, but Stacey rejects his friendship several times because he's suspicious of Jeremy's motives. In this case, a genuine offer of friendship is confused for being transactional, just from what he's seen of other interactions between Black and white folks.

In the end, tensions between Cassie's family and the Wallaces, the white family that orchestrated the first lynching, come to a head. TJ, who participated in a robbery with two of the Wallace sons that led to a white man's accidental death, is about to be lynched, but a sudden fire in the Logans' cotton fields leads to everyone helping to put out the flames. TJ escapes the situation with his life, but he still ends up going to jail for the crime. At the very end, Cassie realizes her father had set fire to his own field to cause a distraction that would end up affecting everyone in the community if they didn't all work together to stop it.

But my favorite part by far was the long con that Cassie pulls on a rude white girl, Lillian Jean. In short, LJ disrespects Cassie and asks her to call her "Miss" as a show of subservience, and when Cassie protests, Cassie's grandmother makes her apologize to both LJ and her father to avoid an even worse conflict, even though she's done nothing wrong. Cassie decides to take this apology to the extreme and pretends to be LJ's friend and "know her place": she carries her books for her, compliments her, brushes her hair, etc., as though she was LJ's personal servant. During this time, she learns all of LJ's most important schoolgirl secrets, including which boys she likes. After some time passes, Cassie suddenly drops the act and pushes LJ into the mud one morning, making her promise to not bother her again and threatening to reveal her secrets if she tells anyone what Cassie did.

The chapter ends with Lillian Jean seeming completely shocked, saying she truly thought Cassie was her friend during the entire act. I think this shows the true ignorance in the white perspective at the time: many religious leaders in the Bible-thumpin' South preached that whites were God's chosen people and Black people were always intended to serve others, so I doubt Lillian Jean even thought to view Cassie as a real person. To her, Cassie could only ever be an uneducated, opinionless servant — a background character without her own personality who only has value when serving white people. For Lillian Jean to confuse Cassie's act with true friendship shows how many assumptions she's making about Cassie's very personhood.

In this case, I don't think the book was trying to portray LJ as a serious aggressor; if anything, it shows that she's not really at fault at all by way of sheer ignorance. From what the rest of the book shows, Lillian Jean was just parroting her family's views when she saw Cassie acting as though she had value beyond what was socially expected of Black members of their community, so she belittled Cassie to put her back into the role she was "supposed" to fill. Of course, this mindset is still around today in different ways (e.g., the more modern "I don't care if you're gay, but don't shove it down my throat" mentality if a same-sex couple dares to hold hands or essentially do anything a straight couple would do in public), and maybe it always will be.

This is nothing new (High School Musical illustrated roughly the same thing through teen romance and dance numbers nearly 20 years ago), but: There's such a deep-seated need to show others where we feel they belong in relation to ourselves, and I think this largely reflects what we were shown and taught by others in our childhoods. Our egos are too fragile to be able to let go of the things that other people do and not feel a desire to "put them in their place" if we were shown all our lives that our own place is higher on the totem pole — but acting rudely because of ignorance isn't an acceptable excuse in the Internet Age.

One of the quotes I try to live by goes something like, "Your first thought is what society has told you to think; your second thought determines your character." We have more opportunities than ever before in history to inform and shape that second thought into something kind, respectful, and productive.

With The Slave Dancer, I felt nothing but disgust and a strong desire to put the book down (or even throw it in the trash) while reading Jesse's perspective of being an unwilling white participant in the transatlantic slave trade. The idea that the slaves in Slave Dancer did not have any dialog forced the focus onto the despicable actions of characters like Ben Stout, who tormented slaves for fun, and it was just tragedy after tragedy until the slaves all perished at the end of the book.

But when given only the perspective of the Black characters in Roll of Thunder, I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing across two days. Both stories depicted race-related violence and gave a good picture of what people are truly capable of when driven by a hatred of the "other," but I was much more willing and eager to root for the Logan family and read about their lives in their own words than play the part of the powerless observer like Jesse.

This is long enough: 9/10, Recommendable.

#booklr #books #currently reading #newbery #newberyaward #newberymedal #reading #books and reading #roll of thunder #hear my cry #roll of thunder hear my cry #kids books

1 note · View note

blazehedgehog · 2 years

Note

I know you covered the Panzer Dragoon Remake a couple years back now, but have you played the original games? If so, what do you think of them? (I just beat Orta on the Xbox, which is a wicked good time, and it's made me curious to revisit the Saturn trilogy)

Playing the Remake is the most I've ever played a lot of these games. I never owned any of the original Panzer Dragoon games (I never saw them on shelves, and even when I did, I was just a broke kid).

And with emulation, that's often something where you "poke" at games but only ever maybe finish 0.5% of everything you touch. So I'd played Panzer Dragoon and Zwei, but never gave them my full, undivided attention, and never saw the credits roll. It's the difference between "testing out a Saturn emulator" and "sitting down to play Panzer Dragoon."

So, before Remake, I'd played maybe 30 minutes of either game. Now, since Remake, I've played the original Saturn version to completion (knowing how how short it is). Still haven't put much time in to Zwei, though. I streamed maybe 45 minutes or an hour to a friend on Discord earlier this year.

Never touched Saga. Never even looked at it. I don't want that to be a game I "poke at." When I play Panzer Dragoon Saga, I want it to be the sort of thing where I sit down and intend to finish it.

About a year, maybe two before Remake came out, a digital copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta was on sale on 360 for like $3, so I picked it up, and played an hour or two of it to contrast with Remake.

I think the thing about at least the first Panzer Dragoon game is that when you're only really sampling it, it feels incredibly simple. The game doesn't openly track score, there isn't dialog during play (like, say, Star Fox), and the game isn't especially difficult. So you're just kind of vibing and it's kind of boring. Like Rez, without the rhythm element.

I don't know if that ever really goes away, but I do know that Zwei is definitely more challenging and engaging, and Orta has all kinds of mechanics with switching dragon modes.

Anyway, I like it. I think I said this in my review for Panzer Dragoon Remake, but, I get the same vibe from that as I do, like, a Team Ico game. It's got that same kind of otherworldly melancholy of, like Ico, or The Last Guardian, or Shadow of the Colossus. It's not your typical fantasy world.

I still don't think the Forever Entertainment guys are very good at their remakes. House of the Dead was at least slightly more polished than Panzer Dragoon, but they still have kind of a sloppy, rough, devil-may-care attitude to how they handle these remakes. They've vowed to remake all of the Panzer Dragoon games, and frankly, I'm dreading what they'd do to Saga, assuming they ever get there.

#questions #Anonymous #panzer dragoon #sega #saturn #team andromeda #forever entertainment

1 note · View note

liquidstar · 2 years

Note

Hello! I binge read oshi no ko bc I saw you read it and i enjoyed it alot! It's very crazy and weird but also super compelling?? It's like how did the guy who made love is war make this and then you read the character dialogue. I was irked yet invested in all the weird ways "romance(?)" Was written in it. I also really liked the endnotes of the translator, they were fun to read :). So thanks for posting abt it and reminding me to read it

Also! I was weirdly sad that the twins weren't developing at the same pace? Ruby was really darksided by her brother lol. The mangaka was weird abt their past lives too (the crush on the Dr was kinda pushing it for me). But I hope she gets treated better with more screen time later

NO YEAH FOR SURE i totally agree w everything you said. i think the thing abt a lot of the romance in oshi no ko is its supposed to be sort of off-putting though, like, im not saying its explored perfectly but its ultimately a psychological story it comes across as a genuine character exploration so it doesnt seem like its just creepy glorying wish-fulfillment. im not saying its always handled perfectly and it can be pretty fucking irking at times like you said- the series itself lampshades this with a nurse in like the 1st or 2nd chapter so i took this as a sort of meta reassurance about the angle its at least trying to go about these themes at. but i guess we'll see how everything plays out as it goes on, hopefully it doesnt shoot itself in the foot. either way tho intentionally off-putting is still off-putting so i get why some ppl wouldnt wanna get into it.

but like i was also soo sad that ruby was sort of getting pushed to the wayside, like, i was starting to wonder why she was even in the story to begin with. but now that shes getting her turn to be the murderous one it just seems like all the idol stuff going on in the background with her was just set-up for this eventuality, so i actually think it was fairly well done! now aqua and ruby feel much more balanced as twins and protagonists, assuming she gets the same amount of development he did w the play arc. again though we have to wait and see exactly how her arc plays out before making any definite statements about that too. i hope she goes absolutely nuts though.

also something that personally compels me a lot abt the story is how its mainly centered around murder and trauma and attempting patricide but, like, at the same time its also a genuine exploration of... different fields of the entertainment industry? and it works. like lets take a break from aqua's inner dialog abt killing his dad so we can learn about how manga is made, and how adapting it to a play works, and how there are different kinds of plays and theaters, and how this all differs from television acting, or music video idol shoots or modeling. yeah sure why not! fuck it!

12 notes · View notes

treenissanderssidesstuff · 3 years

Text

One

A03 Link

Thank you to @edupunkn00b for helping me beta this story!

Words: 4222

Pairing: Roceit (Platonic Demus)

TW: None that I know of, feel free to inform me.

Summary: Janus decides to play "prince."

Inspired by @aidensm8's work in the request they filled for me. Also loosely inspired by some of the drawings @reddstardust made in response to aiden's work as well.

Link to post.

Ah HAH! I found it! Link to original ask.

The darkside’s corridor had been quiet recently, annoyingly so in Remus’ opinion. It’d been quiet in general since Virgil left and the terrible trio became a dinky duo, but now that Janus split his time between the sides, Remus had found himself increasingly uno. It was usually fine, he had the entire imagination to keep him busy and entertained, after all. He could make sides if he wanted to. But… it wasn’t quite the same. That was probably the only reason he had bothered to hang around at all when Janus went on another tirade about how insufferable and brainwashed the lightsides were, how Roman was being pushed, blah blah blah. After the last video release, the dialogged had temporarily shifted. That had gotten Remus’ attention. It seemed that Roman had rejected Janus, not just chosen someone else’ way over the deceitful side’s own, but outright stood against Janus even when the others folded around him. It would be funny, if it weren’t so sad.

All of Janus’ plans had been for Roman’s sake.

And in three miscalculated moves, Janus had managed to push away the one side he sought the approval of.

“Do you think this will work?” Janus asked, tugging at the yellow sash hanging off his shoulder again.

“Oh, definitely not,” Remus said flatly, flipping through an upside down fairytale book on the couch with a bored expression on his face. The duke had been forced to hear about Janus’ plans to woo—“reconcile” with Roman for days and at this point it was honestly slightly obnoxious how invested Janus was. “But it’s just the right side of disgustingly cheesy that Roman’s sure to love it even when you inevitably fall on your face.”

“I will!” Janus “I- I mean I won’t! I mean-!“ Janus shoved his face in his hands with a groan.

Remus quirked an eyebrow in the snake’s direction, watching the self-proclaimed “Lord of Lies” try and compose himself. Thankfully, Remus did know what he meant, even when Janus wasn’t sure of it himself. It was one of his special skills as the bestfriend™.

“Look, J, I’m going to tell you this very clearly and carefully, as your friend,” Remus said, pushing up into a sitting position from his previous sprawl across the couch. “Your plans suck.”

"Excuse you?!" Janus nearly shrieked in retaliation to Remus' brand of hard truths. “They do!… not!”

Remus couldn't have stopped the subsequent string of chuckles if he wanted to. That was the biggest lie he'd ever heard Jan tell and Remus had heard plenty over the years given how rarely the two were ever apart. The darkside pair just meshed well. Janus was the liar, sure, but Remus was the secret keeper. Even if Roman struggled to understand Janus, Remus never had. The snake couldn't hide from him, even when he wanted to. It came with Remus' position as the holder of intrusive thoughts; he got a front row seat to every dirty little secret the others tried to lock away and bury in their little shame closets. What they didn't realize however, was that Remus had the master key. Remus quite literally was the little hint of truth behind every one of Janus' lies. The truths that Janus tried to tug and weave and bend around the others to get his way.

Remus was the keeper of the blatant, harsh, and often downright uncomfortable truths, not just what the sides tried to hide from Thomas, but also what they tried to hide from each other. It was a lot like the story The Giver. Someone had to hold all of the knowledge the little utopia unit tried to hide from and Remus had been designated. Though, he usually thought of himself more of a receiver than anything. Roman was the giver of the pair. The giver of dreams, wishes, and fantasies. Remus was more like a radio with the dial gummed up and stuck on where the power switch had broken off ages ago. Not that all of the secrets were so bad to tune into, some were sweet, some were shy, and a few were even downright adorable, but more often than not, secrets were kept that way for a reason and the Deceitful side had the most secrets of all.

They worked because Janus could never ever keep a secret from Remus and likewise, Remus would never ever tell.

The Deceitful side trusted him, was the only one to trust him and Remus was adamant to keep that trust. Remus locked it in a little box and kept it close, in the few little hideaways he had. In his pockets, within little small nooks of the imagination, and under the bed on the nights when Thomas’ thoughts turned up to an 11 and even Remus started to wonder what he still had left to give.

He had that.

A tiny little secret of his own.

Most of the time, it was enough.

"Your. Plans. Suck." Remus emphasized, slowly, pushing up from the ratty sofa Janus had sewn back up after Remus’ countless escapades over the years. Janus complained about it every time. He cited everything from the loose springs, and flattened stuffing, to the threadbare upholstery and warped base. He always told Remus just to replace the broken thing, but that never stopped careful fingers in yellow-clad gloves from systematically putting the thing back together again each time, always working away at it before Remus could even consider replacing the old lump.

That was his friend’s best and worst trait after all. Janus could not let things go. He wrapped and coiled and held on to any little scrap that he could get a hold of. His problem was that when he panicked, that coil became a death grip.

That's how they lost Virgil.

And that's how Janus was currently losing Roman.

"My plans are ama--mph--" Janus glared at Remus with fury striking like lightning in his eyes after Remus willed a zipper to appear across Janus' lips to force them shut, fully closing even the snake side.

Even best friends needed a taste of their own medicine every now and again, lest they forget how bitter it can be.

"Ah, ah, ah my sweet snoot," Remus nearly sang as he skipped over to his favorite danger noodle and reached out to boop Janus' nose. "It's my turn to talk now.

“You went in and pretend to be Patton, just to have him show up on you and made Thomas want to tell the truth more. Even then, you had almost had Roman on your side, but got so focused on semantics, you missed the actual benefits. You reviewed, revised, and waited to try again after deciding Logan and his facts were the problem, right?

“Then—“ Remus started, holding his mace up threateningly as Janus made some displeased, but muffled noises from behind the zipper, likely some kind of litany of curses. Had Remus not been prepared with his mace, the other side likely would have already tried to strong arm him into getting rid of the bound. “You tried to play Logan and just… ugh, Janny you are not allowed to act anymore. That was a terrible performance. Anyway! The trial starts and you get into it and try to defend what Roman wants, right?”

Janus’ incomprehensible complaints cease, only for him to squint at Remus suspiciously and give a slow nod.

“Wrong!” Remus proclaimed, swinging his mace toward the snake and stopping so close to his face, the metal spikes brushed some of the bangs hanging over the bridge of Janus’ nose. “Instead, you got carried away again. You got caught up in semantics and made it about who Thomas is as a person rather than what would be the better choice to make.

“In short, you made it all about you. Again,” Remus said, letting his morning star drop as the energy was sucked out of him with his rant. “Sure, you won the argument, but you lost what you actually wanted.”

Remus wasn’t usually one to insert his opinions on things, that was more Janus’ thing and, gosh it was exhausting. How did the snake even keep up with just… caring so much about everything?

It seemed Remus wasn’t the only one suddenly exhausted though, because after rubbing some of the strain out of his own eyes, the duke watched Janus slowly slump backwards until he was all but sitting on the arm of their scrap couch. He wasn’t fighting the zipper any longer, his extra arms were tucked away and his normal pair were laid listlessly on his lap now as he stared down at his own yellow gloves.

“How was my brother meant to make any other decision when you put what Thomas wanted, against who he wanted to be? I wouldn’t care, indulgence is my territory. But Roman’s job is to be the dream, the ideal. You should know that.”

When Janus finally looked up at Remus, he just looked sad.

He looked pale, his eyes were shiny, and all the regality he tried to hold himself with in that dupe prince costume just fell away from him as he pressed his palms to his temples.

Remus finally let the zipper fall away into nonexistence.

He wasn’t done yet.

“Look J, I know you had good intentions.”

“But?” a slightly rough voice asked from a newly freed mouth as a yellow glove brushed the remaining ghosting sensations of the enclosure away.

Remus sighed, already imagining the hoard of grotesque creatures he’d be battling through in the imagination after this “talk.” He needed something to balance out all of the gross feelings and shit.

“But I don’t think Roman or Thomas would have chosen the wedding if you hadn’t gotten side tracked. You tried to prove you’re ugh ‘goodness’ by arguing you’re a part of Thomas. Your whole argument backfired and made him question if he’s any good. What else did you expect but for him to try and prove he is? Not to mention the after incident.”

“That was meant to be an apology,” Janus murmured miserably. “I had taken Logan’s place with the intention of leading Roman to work out his own mistreatment.”

“But you showboated.”

“I-“ Janus started, clearly ready to argue again, but stopped himself with a single look from Remus. “…I did what I thought was necessary.”

“Did you now?” Remus snorted. “Sure, going and pretending to be the nerd I get, but why change went Patton went full kaiju? You could have kept up the act and stood alongside Roman. It would have been an all around win for the lightsides as everyone would think Roman and Logan worked together to reign in one of their own.”

“I… I just wanted….”

“You wanted to be accepted. You saw an opportunity to be the hero and you took it, not caring who you hurt along the way. First you took Patton’s role as morality, then you took Logan’s role as logic, and to round it all out, you took Roman’s role as Thomas hero. That’s your problem.”

“Is wanting a place at the discussion table so bad?” Janus asked with a sigh, folding his arms in his lap.

“No, but taking it is,” Remus said, tugging the tiny chain that typically held Janus’ cape to his shoulders. It was currently re-purposed to secure the cape into a makeshift sash.

“Because that’s not a hypocritical statement at all, coming from you,” Janus replied swatting at Remus’ hands that still fiddled with his sash. “It’s not as if you, oh I dunno, knocked out Roman and took his spot during your entrance or anything.”

“True, but when I did it, I made Robro their hero.” Remus said, letting himself fall back onto the couch lazily as Remus saw the first sign of real recognition budding within his friend’s heterocromatic eyes.

“He is their hero.”

“Does he know that?”

“He wouldn’t believe me if I told him so.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

###

Roman groaned and carefully maneuvered his skirt from the grasp of yet another birch tree. It was fair to say that the photo shoot wasn’t exactly going how he had pictured it when he had chosen a full gown paired with an outdoor setting. He knew there must have been a reason why the others had all chosen knee length skirts and stayed indoors. Instead of just taking a picture, Roman had to build a scene. He had to wow his audience and every part of the image had to be carefully designed. He just… hadn’t exactly thought everything through. Roman had imagined something more along the lines of sweeping gracefully through the forest as the gown swished around him as his every movement was made even more graceful by the gentle sway of the fabric.

He hadn’t accounted for how often his outfit would catch on the branches and foliage around him.

It wasn’t fair.

Disney princesses usually seemed to magically get along with the flora and fauna around them, long skirts or not, unless they were being trailed by some evildoer of course, but that didn’t count. Roman was by himself at the moment. On break from getting frustrated one too many times as his own outfit betrayed him during the photo shoot. The photographer and set designer needed some time to reevaluate the next set and Roman needed some time to clear away his current frustration.

So, into the woods he went. He carefully lifted his skirt to protect it against nearly ripping for the fourth or fifth time today as he gingerly stepped around branches, dearly missing his boots as stray twigs tried to impale themselves into his sandled feet. At least his hair wasn’t so long that it would get unexpectedly tangled in the branches above, but he did have to pick some burrs off of his bolero already after he had tried to catch himself on a bush during an unfortunate stumble. The maneuver saved his outfit from getting muddy, but he didn’t make it unscathed.

Roman had dreamed of being on the cover of magazines his whole life. Though, in those dreams it was usually due to a movie deal but he had never been opposed to the idea of modeling like some of the other sides were. Logan found the idea of it mindless, Virgil was anxious about the attention, and Patton wasn’t fond of the rumored cutthroat environment. Still, Roman had thought it seemed so glamorous. However, he hadn’t taken into account how much work it was.

Sure, it seemed simple. Pose and shoot, right? In reality though, it was tedious work as the photographer rapidly took hundreds of pictures at just slightly different angles so they could all be evaluated later for the “best” ones. That meant not just holding a pose, but also holding an expression. Roman felt like his acting skills were being put to fill use as he tried to strike the idea of power into each click of the camera.

Absolutely nothing about this had been simple though.

Roman found himself sighing and leaned against one of the scattered trees for moral and physical support after carefully maneuvering his gown around it. He would be fine. He was royalty after all and the first rule was to never let them see you cry. It would all be okay once he took a chance to catch his metaphorical breath. Though, the literal sense wasn’t a bad idea either. He imagined the breathing exercises that Virgil had gone through with him when the prince accidentally shown up at Virgil’s door in a less than royal state after the whole wedding debauchery and name reveal sham. The near panic attacking pulling him there unwittingly.

It was… it was nice. Roman and Virgil had been getting along better than ever after his own acceptance video, but it was like a new wall had broken down around the pair. Virgil had stationed himself as Roman’s personal bodyguard since the events that need not be named and… it was nice. A little lonely, but he appreciated everything that the anxious side was doing for him and especially appreciated how he kept between him and the-side-who-probably-lied-about-his-name-anyway.

Roman didn’t think he was ready to open up that can of snakes quite yet.

Hey Princey, it’s going to be okay, yeah? You’re better than this… and him.

The words rang around Roman’s skull once, twice, and then he straightened his shoulders. Even when Virgil wasn’t around, he was right. The prince could practically feel the anxious side aiming a smirk his way from somewhere in the incomprehensible distance. Still, it was good to remember.

He was better than this.

He was going to march right back to that photo-shoot, take some fabulous as fuck photos, and then march home with his head hell high because he was going to look damn good in the final set!

Hiking up his skirt again, Roman prepared himself for the trudge back, feeling ready to take on the world once again, except—

—except something caught his eye.

Well… there was a well… a literal one out in the distance. It was old looking, some of the bricks were broken or even just missing, and there seemed to be this misty haze that hung around it, a little thinner than full fog, but something about it felt slightly… otherworldly? With only a moment of hesitation, Roman found himself taking a step towards it and then another, and then another…

…the others would be fine without him for just a few minutes longer, right?

It was such an oddly beautiful scene, broken down and uncared for, but there was still something just so striking about it. Plus, how many chances would be get to interact with a real life well? This could be a great location to take some shots and he’d be remiss if he didn’t take advantage of it!

There was also one other advantage to it as well. It wasn’t often after all that real settings lended themselves so pefectly to the Disney aesthetic. Mind you, Snow White was by no means his favorite movie. The plot-line was a bit... outdated. Still, he admired the film for everything it represented as the first Disney classic of the golden age, the film that really started it all! Snow White was a marvel of animation for its time and the well song was the sound engineers of the time showing off.

He could respect that.

Roman crept closer, one careful step at a time until his toes of his sandles nearly touched the stone. He, ever so gently, let himself kneel down slowly, until his knees began to rest upon the well’s edge. He carefully let his shoulders relax as he watched the light reflecting in the water’s slightly cloudy surface. It was just for a tiny bit longer, after all. He let his hands slowly unclench from around the skirt as the velvety material draped and flowed around him. It was nice to have something else bear the weight of the heavy material for a little while.

“Make a wish into the well,” Roman whispered, letting his fingers trace over the loose stones circling the murky opening. To be fair, it was the tiniest bit more decrepit then the one pictured in the film. He sighed and slowly let his form drape across the layered bricks as he let one hand hang over the side as his fingertips danced across the water’s surface. “That’s all I have to do, huh?”

“And if you hear it echoing, your wish will soon come true~”

The sweet bell chime of Snow’s voice only sang the next line within Roman’s own mind, but it was enough to spur his continuance.

“I’m wishing~” Roman quietly sang, trying not to feel too silly as his voice carried to no one at all. At least Snow had some animals to sing to. He had nothing but the ripples of a moss covered and slightly over-flooded well that had certainly acted as a catch all drainage for the recent string of storms.

Roman tried not to empathize with the stacked pile of rocks.

He wasn’t sure if it was the well or his own internal imagination still remembering the movie, but he could almost hear an echo reply back with, “I’m wishing”

“For the one I love, to find me,”

“To find me”

“Todaaay.”

“Todaaaaay~” came a smooth voice behind Roman’s back, causing the royal side to literally jump up and onto their feet from their previous position lounged across the well edge.

“Deceit,” Roman glowered, hiking up the lengthy gown to take a couple cautionary steps backwards. He wasn’t sure what to make of what he was seeing. There Janus was, decked out in an outfit modeled after his own typical princely gear, right down to the sash that was—wait—was that his cape?

“Not today,” Janus said simply, taking slow steps forward until the fake prince came nearly nose to nose with the real one. “Today, my darling, I thought I’d try something new, just for you.”

And then the humming started.

“Now that I’ve found you, hear what I have to saaay~” Janus started, singing along to the familiar tune. “One song,~”

“~Ever entreating, constant but true~”

A gloved hand tried to weave its way between Roman’s fingers as the other hovered just to Roman’s side and would have been only a moment away from resting against his hip, had he not jerked away the moment those gloves touched him.

“There’s nothing ‘true’ about you!” Roman yelled, not caring anymore that the edges of his skirt swept the soil beneath him as he pulled away.

Roman had planned a second round of photos after his break, but couldn’t stand the thought anymore. No, Janus had ruined this for him, just like everything else he had systematically ruined in Roman’s life recently.

Roman was about to start again, blaming the Deceitful side for this, for mercilessly pushing and shoving his way into Roman’s space, his things, his life, except—

—expect he had this look on his face. Big, mismatched eyes stared back at Roman, wide, and shimmery and open. Roman had to remind himself that the hurt shining his way was probably just another trick, just another ploy to manipulate the prince again.

...Okay, not even Roman totally believed it.

“What do you want from me?” Roman whispered, he didn’t know if he was asking the other side or himself from how quietly his voice whispered the words.

“I just want one.”

One what?

“One chance,” Janus said, taking a slow step forward toward the prince. “One opportunity to apologize properly.”

As Janus moved forward, one of Roman’s feet took a preparatory step backwards for balance, ready to move, ready to defend or flee. But Roman stayed rooted in place as the snake in princely garb moved closer.

“One day, that I can pretend that my actions and intentions had aligned, my dear,” Janus said, only stopping once his chest nearly brushed against Roman’s own. “One day, to pretend that I was your savior.”

“I don’t under—“ Roman muttered, before he could curse himself for engaging with this at all. His brain was just the smallest bit frazzled from the proximity and Janus had no shortage of charm in the way he could deliver a line.

“Shhhhh,” Janus hushed gently, tugging the yellow gloves from his hand before he reached up to trace his thumb against Roman’s cheekbone. “Can’t we just have a fantasy for a little while my prince? Just this once?”

Roman swallowed as Janus leaned further into his space.

“Fantasy is my specialty, I suppose,” Roman muttered, clinging to the fact that the sweet talk was simply to get him to conjure some kind of indulgent daydream rather than trying to lead Roman to some other kind of nefarious goal. “What kind of fantasy were you looking to dive into?”

“I want one where I gave you your happy ending in the way I intended Roman.”

Roman just stared, his jaw dropping slightly at those words.

Janus didn’t flinch, didn’t throw his voice, or quirk his eyebrows, or any of number of little tells that the Deceitful side expected the others to pick up on in conversation. No he just met Roman’s stare with something heavy behind those heterochromatic eyes.

“Please Roman? I know it’s selfish to ask, but we both know selfish is what I am. Just let me be one today. Can’t we pretend for just one day?”

“What ‘one’ do you even mean?” Roman huffed half-heartedly. Even he could feel the fire slowly extinguishing in his chest as the conversation continued. “Who are you today then? The liar or the saint?”

Janus paused a moment, his gaze unwavering from Roman’s own face. Roman watched the scales on his neck glimmer in the sunlight as he swallowed, before taking the last final step into the prince’s space as a gloveless hand sat itself on Roman’s hip.

“Neither today my dearest,” Janus said with a cocky smile as he used his free hand to brush Roman’s fluffy bangs from his eyes.

“Today, I simply want to be the one in your fantasy.”

#roceit #sanders sides #fanfiction #roman sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #disney themes

56 notes · View notes