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#the odd one dies
chimaerakitten · 7 months
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I’ve been thinking today about off ramps in long running stories, especially book series.
By that I mean like, places where a person could stop reading and have a satisfying ending even if they’re not yet at the actual ending. (Someone tell me if there’s an established Tvtropes name for this I’m missing.)
Now, a lot of book series will have an off ramp at the end of book 1, because many first books are written without promise of a sequel. Like sure, there might be a sequel hook, but the actual second book is still up to publisher whims in most cases. So you can read All Systems Red or The Thief or A Madness of Angels and have a perfectly satisfying ambiguous-end sci-fi story or middle grade fantasy romp or inverted murder mystery revenge quest without ever picking up book 2. This is definitely an off ramp but it’s not necessarily the interesting or revealing kind because again. Whims of the publisher.
There’s also stories that have an off ramp after every installment. Leverage is famous for this—they had a philosophy of having every season be a satisfying ending, which says a lot both about the writers and about the story they were trying to tell.
But I think the most interesting ramps are the ones where by design or by circumstance, there’s a single off-ramp somewhere in the middle. One spot where unless someone tells you there’s more, you’d never be unsatisfied with leaving halfway through.
Sometimes these will be signaled in some way, where there’s a big timeskip after the off-ramp, or the series changes names or has a spin-off, or the POV changes, or after book 3 the author publishes a short story collection before hopping back in to novels, or the series suddenly jumps from being only novellas to a chunky 120k novel. (The Raksura books, Percy Jackson/HoE, Matthew Swift/Magicals Anonymous, and Murderbot all do one or more of these)
But sometimes off ramps aren’t visible in series order or marketing. Sometimes they’re organic to where a story happens to leave off at the end of an installment.
The queen’s thief has one of these after King Of Attolia. I know this was a satisfying ending because for seven years I thought it was the end. My local library didn’t have A Conspiracy of Kings, so I thought it was a trilogy. And you really can leave it there! KoA ends with Gen back in his element and recognized as king, the main internal threat to Irene neutralized, and peace on the peninsula. The Mede aren’t yet the immediate threat they are in the back half of the series, since up through KoA they’re mainly represented by the magus’s vague warnings and Nahuseresh, whom Irene thinks circles around. There’s no real reason to assume the Mede are a threat within the scope of the series. Now I absolutely prefer getting the whole story, but KoA is a damn solid off-ramp for anyone who feels like exiting there.
And that’s one kind of off ramp where the end you get is pretty similar in tone (mostly happy) to the one you get if you go on to the rest of the series. I’ve also read books where you can off ramp successfully right at the lowest point in the series and get a tragedy out of a series that ultimately ends happy, or leave at a high point and get a happier end than the main one, or exit at an ambiguous point and continue on with ambiguity. The Giver sequels make it pretty clear what happened to Jonas and Gabe at the end of the book. but you don’t have to read them or have that question answered if you want to.
I don’t have a really solid conclusion to draw here except that I think the positioning of off ramps says a lot about authors and stories, and choosing whether or not to take an off ramp says a lot about readers.
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z0mbiiex3 · 1 year
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Real photo of Brendon Urie telling the band that they're splitting up
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moonelnone · 1 year
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Sabo is getting forgetful lately
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clotpolesonly · 3 months
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Declan and his guns
Dream Thieves ch 2 // Dream Thieves ch 22 // Call Down The Hawk ch 38 // Mister Impossible ch 37 // Greywaren ch 25
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aroaceleovaldez · 10 days
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(based on your recent post about Nico) what do we think about. Nico going on a sort of quest for healing with the cacodemons. something something they are outside of him so that he can more thoroughly analyze his issues and once he has processed them and learned how to accept them and move on, they reabsorb into him. but in a way that he like. Can't Feel Grief until he learns how to respect that emotion, etc etc. do you see my vision
(yes I know your post was not about healing but in fact making him worse. however: you have sparked the most canon-compliant thought I've had about tsats since. well one year ago today when I read tsats.)
god. mood @ that second half.
I love that idea though - let's have Nico grapple with some consequences of having a literal aspect of him be physically separated and turned into an immortal being. That's kind of A Lot and should really have some side-effects when you think about it. Together we can make it Weirder.
I've also been consistently rotating in my brain ever since I read TSATS - cause I thought while reading it that it was the route they were gonna go with the cacodaemon stuff - the concept of instead of the cacodaemons being separate and not how cacodaemons work in mythology, Nico himself is turned into a cacodaemon that's a personification of his own suffering and it's like. a whole metaphor about "you are not your trauma" and Will having an arc about seeing Nico past the ways he's been hurt and separating being Nico's doctor from being Nico's boyfriend. Cause cacodaemons are specifically negative embodiment of some thing (and also humanoid and shapeshifters. that's a very notable important part for me and part of why i dislike the TSATS cacodaemons). And it's like a whole once Nico calms down he goes from being a shapeshifting monstrous cacodaemon to being just a normal daemon, cause daemons are neutral and if they embody a negative thing it can also be like, the inverse of that thing or reprieve/protection from that thing, so Nico being a cacodaemon of his own trauma then goes to Nico being a daemon of reprieve from suffering. Also fun bonus part of "whoops Nico's a little immortal now. dont worry about it"
There are interesting theme potentials with the cacodaemons we just gotta excavate them. And ignore large chunks of TSATS. Possibly all of it. I'm working on it. I have a shovel. We'll get there eventually.
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feelslessfoodmore · 2 years
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Ok so after going through the tag I feel like I'm really not seeing enough people talking about how narrowly Orym avoided an Absolute Perma Death this last episode‽‽‽‽ Laudna making that perception check (which Matt was very reluctant in allowing to begin with!) single handedly decided Orym's fate.
Let's break it down real quick: 1) Matt said they were 300-400 feet up which is above the cap for max fall damage but below the height where you take more than a single round to hit the ground. Orym would've fallen to the surface of the planet and taken a fuck ton of fall damage well before Imogen could cast fly and catch up to him. (The fly spell makes the target hover so by rules as written, she technically wouldn't have been able to catch up anyways since she wouldn't've been able to free fall and would've had to descend at her 60 ft. fly speed.)
2) in the keyfish incident, Keyleth's body did not remain in one piece and I doubt Orym's would either. This combined with the time it would take to get the body back to F.C.G. would put them well outside the time like l limit of revivify.
3) And finally, all of that is predicated on the condition that they can even find his body at all!! That air ship was high in the sky, moving notably fast, with strong winds perfectly capable of blowing a halfling around mid air. Predicting where Orym would land would be way more difficult than just retracing steps. I can't remember if they were still above jungle or not but if they were they'd be pretty much fucked unless F.C.G. had locate object prepared (dead bodies are objects RAW but they also could just target something he'd had on him and hope it didn't go flying in the fall.) It could take days to find Orym and I don't think the captain would be willing to risk it since as they said falling overboard is usually a one and done deal.
Like that wasn't just the usual "Oh Orym is putting himself at risk in battle again and might die" because in those cases F.C.G. is right there, diamond at the ready if healing isn't enough.
This was Certain Death.
This was Liam makes a new character because the Hell's Bells do not have the connections to bring him back yet. No church connection, the only person they even know of capable of bringing him back is Keyleth and while there might be some Watsonian reasoning that the characters would think to go to her I just can't see the players wanting that. Asking Keyleth to fix all their problems just doesn't make for a fun campaign.
Orym keeps dancing with death but this was something so infitesimaly close to the end of his life that I'm convinced if Laudna had failed that roll Liam would've narrated how during the fall Orym sees a Raven and just watches it peacefully has he grips his tattoo. His last words before he hit the ground would be "I'm sorry" and then something about his husband being on the other side and getting to see him again, maybe even a "didn't make you wait as long as I thought I would I guess".
P.S. How poetic that it was Laudna who once again when faced with Certain Death –instead of kneeling to Fate– took that shit in hand and said fuck no.
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foolofatook001 · 7 months
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aha this entry definitely isn't late haha
Day Five - Season 1 or 2/Echoes
cw visual and auditory hallucinatons, drowning, temporary character death
It began with the excavation of the Hall of GOAT, which, in hindsight, makes a lot of sense. Usually, of course, Doc isn’t really about archaeology, or historical preservation, or any of that sort of thing, but when there was this already-existing structure right in the area he’d plotted out as ideal for his Perimeter, and it had a very nice block palette, well— Hermitcraft has always been a place for trying new things. And he is all about trying new things. 
The further down he gets, digging out crumbling hallways and revealing copper piping, stumbling into overgrown caves that were once rooms that held the remains of some surprisingly complex machinery, the more curious he becomes. Who had lived here, long ago? There are other ruins on the server, but those are closer to spawn; this is a long way off from anything else. 
Most of the rooms have been fully dug out when he first begins to hear it. At first, he chalks it up to a draft, coming in through walls that had settled over the centuries, borne down by the weight of the land above. Just a whispering breeze, filtering down through cracks and empty pipes to echo around the empty halls of the building. 
Even after he finishes the reconstruction process, he can still hear it sometimes, when the hum of redstone isn’t filling his ears. He can never fully track it down; it starts to drive him mad. He takes to sleeping outside, just to get away from it. It is a blessed relief when the World Eater is finally finished; the constant pounding of the pistons and the continuous explosions as it chews away at the ground below it drowns out any kind of sound that might persist, and when he collapses into his bed on the nights when he finally gives in to sleep, his ears still ring from the TNT. 
But when the Perimeter has been blasted out, there is nothing to fill his ears anymore. And now he begins to notice, as he returns to his storage system to begin work on his farms, that there’s something new. Alongside the whispering breeze, there is now the steady dripping of water.
Doc cannot for the life of him figure out where the damn noise is coming from. He has gone over every length of pipe at least six times. There aren’t any water sources so near the Hall of GOAT that they would be affecting the build. And yet. It persists. 
It is also around this time that he starts hearing… footsteps. They are quiet. Subtle. But they are there, just a heartbeat’s delay behind his own. 
Doc disconnects and reboots his audio input on the cybernetic side, hoping that it’s just some glitch, or maybe even the start of hearing loss in the remaining organic ear (he may not have been wearing proper ear protection the whole time he was running the World Eater), but it has no effect: the footsteps return as soon as he begins walking again. 
It’s simultaneously better and worse when he’s out in the Perimeter. The footsteps disappear, which is a relief to his nerves, but the wind and water get louder. At least in the Perimeter he can pretend it is the rush of the air past him as he flies. 
He hasn’t told anyone, because whenever someone comes to see him in the Perimeter, they never mention any noise at all— in fact, most hermits make some comment about how eerily quiet it is, aside from the redstone— and despite his pursuit of answers, he is not sure he wants the fact that it is all in his head to be fully confirmed. And it is not so bad, after all. He almost gets used to it, after a point— after months of small, constant noise, quiet starts to feel alien. It is— not quite comfortable, still, but it is… tolerable. 
He draws a line at seeing things, however. 
At first it is shadows, walking through his redstone machinery like it is not there. They are tall, with what looks like horns protruding from their heads. They don’t interact with anything around them— including him. One day, he had turned back just to look over his shoulder down the hall as he climbed out of the TCG room and there had been a shadow behind him, its horns just a few inches from the ceiling, just like his always were. 
Its pace had precisely matched the footsteps that tapped softly in his ear.
He goes to his starter base-slash-shop back at spawn for a few days. For the first time, he can sleep in peace. Tension he did not even know he had been holding begins to drain away. 
It is finally, blessedly, quiet. 
Maybe, he thinks, I should just stay here for the season. 
But the Perimeter is his task to accomplish— his demon to conquer— and he has fought gods and spit in the face of every law that tries to govern the universe. He will not be defeated by a hole in the ground. 
He lands in the dead center of the Perimeter and is immediately sent to his knees by the roar of rushing water, deafening, louder than any TNT explosion or piston firing. He manages to look up and is frozen by the sight of a great wave bearing down on him, coming for him with a speed that he cannot even begin to calculate before it is upon him. 
He is tumbled head over heels, clawing desperately for the surface, but he can no longer tell which way is up, and his hastily snatched breath is running out. He knocks his head against something hard— a farm? The ground?— and a rush of air leaves his lungs, involuntarily. He knows, then, that it is over, but he keeps trying for the surface until the bright colors of oxygen deprivation start clouding his eyes, and his chest starts convulsing as the water gets into his lungs. 
[Docm77 fell out of the water.]
He wakes in his bed in his starter house at spawn, still choking on the feeling of water going down his throat. He gives himself ten minutes to recollect and re-arm himself, then heads back to the Perimeter, already afraid of what he will find when he returns. A flood like that could knock a number of his farms out of calibration, and would almost certainly wash away any exposed redstone. He has no idea where such a wave could have come from, but the damage will need to be repaired immediately. 
But when he looks over the edge, there is no water. All his farms appear— at first glance— to be in working order. When he swoops down lower to investigate, all his items are laying in a pile, perfectly dry.
When he picks them up, he hears the distant but still distinct sound of water, drip-drip-dripping from some invisible source.
also on ao3
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yourlocal-edgelord · 4 days
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doing the character bingo
jason todd
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KISEKI: DEAR TO ME (2023, TAIWAN)
Episode 5
A side couple supreme, but not yet. At least not officially. One is in love and the other sees him as a brother or is he opening his heart to more.
Episode 5 gives clues to that.
Chen Yi (NAT CHEN) is the first to run to his little "brother's" rescue, not thinking of it being more than a sibling type connection. However Ai Di (JIANG DIAN) is feeling the love for big brother.
Will Fan Ze Rui's (HSU KAI) advice make Chen Yi see Ai Di in a more romantic light?
Zong Yi (TARO LIN) detect feelings between the brothers.
@pose4photoml @lutawolf
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dormiloncito · 3 months
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if i think about cahara from funger too hard, i get very sad 😔
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b3achysurfur · 30 days
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line up, everybody getting a whoopin 😐
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heket and joonona :-) <3 just wanted to doble em
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schmooplesthesecond · 3 months
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as much as i would love a remake of BG1 and BG2 in the BG3 engine after the absolute character assassination of sarevok and viconia i don't want larian anywhere near those games.
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mylonelydreaming · 1 year
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I'm all for platonic relationships, but I just think romantic suits botw zelink the best. Let other zelinks be platonic, this one is about one hundred years of yearning and shared trauma and tension and forbidden love, and an actual positive version of the knight and princess trope.
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teaandinanity · 4 months
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It continues to give me the warm fuzzies that basically every person at work has said they'll miss me. And it's not really utility, even if I'm useful; I am not in a critical position. There are many people who can do the things I do, even if the majority are less experienced. I'm not management, or a lynchpin, just a long-time worker bee.
But people like me, and I just handled a Crisis Situation well enough that the AD took the time to personally thank me, and my manager was like 'not only am I willing to be a reference you can use my personal phone number if that's easier' and even some of the newest additions said they're going to miss me on desk, and I just.
I love my job and my coworkers and it's really nice that the people there know it and love me back.
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limerental · 5 months
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i actually enjoyed a lot of twn s3 but i see it repeated fairly often that it followed the books fairly closely (or at least more closely than s2) but listen. having freshly reread time of contempt, in my opinion, s3 somehow followed the books LESS than other seasons.
s1 and s2 were both often working with original content in between book canon scenes. but s3, as much as it did seem to go beat for beat following time of contempt's plot... somehow ends up changing almost every single plot point in some way.
yennefer travels with ciri and geralt together. geralt is pissed at yennefer and doesn't speak to her for a whole year. ciri wounds (maybe kills?) elves at shaerrawedd. yennefer calls ciri "ugly one" without the follow up context of their "you're already pretty" convo. geography is ?? travel is ?? the politics is flattened out to redania vs nilfgaard. the scoia'tael conflict is flattened out. aplegatt's story gets repurposed with none of the actual consequences that made that story in the books have an emotional impact because there is none of the same geopolitical plot.
tissaia stands with and frees vilgefortz out of love for him instead of standing against both the genocide and warfare of the northern kings and the imperialism of nilfgaard. the coup plot seems to be a last minute decision by philippa based on what?? who knows!! the last vilgefortz joins emhyr in nilfgaard??? yennefer calls the conclave and heads up the lodge????
so yes, it pulls some lines and scenes directly from the books and nods to them fairly often but in no way was s3 a closer or more faithful adaptation of the books than s2. it truly, fully misses something huge in almost every story beat.
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