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callmearcturus · 1 year

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OKAY I'M AWAKE, actually i woke up like 2.5 hours ago, tried really hard to go back to sleep but was mostly thinking about the ending of that game lmao

I don't know if I'm interested in playing The Answer because it's locked to male PC only and by now I am extremely invested in my FeMC. If I had to play an Epilogue that was about a dude who didn't even have the option of having social links with half the cast, I don't know if I'd be invested. But Storm informed me that per the Answer, the PC is in a perma-coma to ward off Nyx and Aigis and some others are trying to find a way to save them so they can have a normal life. .

I'm torn between the fact that I called the fact the PC would die at the end and the reason they would die (mostly) ages ago, so that part was forecasted, with my confusion on why the game just.... gave me more time? Like, I don't understand the Why of "why did the PC come back, live for another month, then fall into a perma-coma." Why did that not just happen when she became the Great Seal to start with. That's really not explained and it's not super clear that she's even dying until the scene where it happens, on the roof with Aigis. .

On the other hand, i do like the resolutions that I got. Junpei and Chidori will find each other, Akihiko is eagerly waiting for Shinjiro to come back, Fuuka is preparing to be more social and leader-ly in the final year, all the little tie-ups with everyone. It's good! I do like that. .

I guess I feel like because they didn't Just Do It and kill the PC when the Great Seal happens, it... cheapened the ending a bit for me? The glimmer of hope offered at the end that's taken away just seems weird to me. Because at that point, because that hope was set up and everything was literally normal for a MONTH, why is that being yanked out from under me, yanno? .

In my head, the real ending is FeMC mentally relinquishes the Universe arcana and loses her memory like everyone else (sans Aigis). Shinjiro comes home from the hospital. Akihiko takes a gap year before college to take care of his boyfriend and girlfriend while they recover. Mitsuru tries to run her company but has a creeping feeling of unease about everything, causing her her research the company's past with Yukari. They find out about the HUNDRED KIDS and dissolve the Group and maybe go rebuild their lives in another country altogether. Chidori finds Junpei as he's working some weekend job at the Mall and asks him out on the spot. Fuuka invents Discord and makes millions. .

Despite all that: it's still a fucking great game. As someone who failed out of P4, I devoured this one and liked it a lot more. On the queer front, I vastly prefer this kind of dated media that basically does everything except say gay than the No Homo of P4. It was really welcoming and nice. I might play it again someday, but this time skip the Hierophant link and focus on Yukari and Mitsuru now that I know I like them. Good, coherent, fun, heartfelt game! I did cry at the big finale! Akihiko for best boy!

That's it for now! If you wanna read my whole liveblog, it is tagged appropriately. I would add /chrono to the end of the URL and start from the top so you can see my hiiiiiilarious experience with Ryoji in chronological order.

ETA: GOD YANNO WHAT MAKES EVEN MORE SENSE would be FeMC falling into a coma every full moon as she wards off Nyx. but whatever, what do I know.

ETA2: I said on discord "i still really like the game, i think it's shockingly well written, the cast is great, it's heartfelt and has actual things to say about life and death but i would have preferred either just kill the player off and let the tragedy be how she's forgotten, that's tasty or just let them live at that point, i feel like the message about the inevitability of death is made"

#persona liveblog #persona 3 #persona 3 spoilers

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script-a-world · 1 year

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Submitted via Google Form:

I would like to have a planet that has a lot of things viewable and named in the sky. Rings, moons, shooting stars, satellites, asteroids, other stars, other planets, other moons, etc. I just like really want to fill it up. Yeah, you might think many of that is like we have in real life but I want to ramp it up even more, lots of fully identifiable ones other just you know, random dot in the sky. There have maybe 500 constellations. 30 planets and 15 dwarf planets in the solar system, of those maybe 8000 identified moons. As for shooting stars, maybe at any point on the planet they'd always be at least 20 that could be seen within the hour. Perhaps massive events can have up to 500 shooting stars in an hour. And of course the planet will definitely have a massive ring system because that sounds like a beauty to see. Basically, astronomy will be very very rich and active with so many things to observe. And that's just for natural stuff. And then people are definitely going to be putting hundreds of satellites that can be observed as well. Maybe even some space stations. Not to mention if there is plenty of space travel (mostly between the main planet and moons or moon to moon), space shuttles will be zipping through the air the same way you could see planes if you lived near an airport. Though, this will not be a civilisation that puts colonies on other planets, they're mostly just research stations although it won't be unheard of to have a small population of the scientists' families, and there just might be some extremely exotic and expensive vacation spots. The populace makes full use of their own planet and their moons. So, my question is, am I missing anything that makes this not work? Things that I should take into account I haven't? I'm not aiming for it to be super realistic but when I can, that's what I'd like to do.

Tex: Too many fish in a bucket and all you have are dead fish, not any water to keep them alive.

If you’re on a position on Earth where there’s approximately zero light pollution (something very difficult to do nowadays), you can see the stripe of the Milky Way with your bare eyes. It is in all actuality a bright stripe across the nighttime sky, and very hard to miss if unhindered by ground-level light pollution and the brightness of a lit Moon. It’s a small parcel of our own galaxy viewed from our position within it, and is estimated to have in that spot of the sky alone anywhere between a hundred to four hundred billion stars.

It is also, thereabouts, 26,000 light years away from us.

What gives the ostensibly density of the sky its luminescence is not how many objects we can see, but how far away we can see them. We don’t need hundreds of constellations, dozens of planets, or thousands of moons in front of our proverbial noses in order to have an uninterrupted swath of sparkles glittering down on us unimpeded during the night - only less pollution, both chemical and light.

On the other hand - having so many celestial objects so close to a narrative planet in question is indicative of a young planetary system still in the process of settling down in its formation, which is in an astronomical sense quite active. Your indication of frequent shooting stars supports that, which given some basic statistics means that you’re going to have a lot of meteoroids (Wikipedia) in your planet’s atmosphere.

The bigger a meteoroid is, the larger it looks as it burns through the atmosphere. After a certain size, it might or might not burn up in the atmosphere, which on Earth it tends to ignite in the atmosphere at about 100 km above sea level. According to the Wikipedia link, there are already tens of millions of objects entering the atmosphere on a yearly basis. Were you wanting that same amount for your world, or more?

As for another part of your question: It looks like you’re considering a research station (Wikipedia) that grew itself into a colony (Wikipedia). The inclusion of family members who are presumably not also there for the purposes of subject-specific research means that, according to Earth international law - something given more context in the listed Wikipedia links, the location is legally considered a place of habitation, and thus lends itself some form of permanency.

Antarctica, for reference, is considered a condominium in the eyes of international law (Wikipedia). All of these can be contained under the definition of a dependent territory, with various strings attached as to what government(s) they fall under.

The inclusion of vacation spots tells me that the original purpose of a research station has been largely outgrown and is considered a viable place for tourism. Tourism (Wikipedia) on Earth has some particular legal definitions, but for the purposes of your worldbuilding we’ll consider it temporary visitation for the purposes of business and/or leisure - more likely leisure as a vacation spot is generally intended for that sort of activity.

I feel like this would be a planet that has zoned areas as it grows, since it seems at least in part a planned settlement rather than an organic one. A dedicated area for the original research stations, residential areas, the accompanying support areas that come with raising families, and areas focused on leisure. A lot of this would depend on the geography of the planet, and where the original research stations were positioned and why.

#google submitted #planets #moons #satellites #orbit

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moobytes · 3 months

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very long rant about AI LOL

(fair warning, im NOT an expert on anything. j just research and read over these things. i wouldn't be shocked if any information is wrong, i just want to get some stress off of me. also i probably spelt 50 things wrong. it's like 2am)

i think it's time for a long rant about ai. i think it's at a point where you shouldn't be going "oh well it will be gone in a dew years" or " its not a thing you should worry about". it's definitely staying for good.

due to ai, i already decided that im not majoring in art once i get to college. im lucky enough to have several career interests, but this shouldn't have happened in the first place.

generative ai

man i wish ai was used for "anything" else besides generating media. you cannot be serious that an ugly ai "art" post gets more attention than creating solutions for diseases. ai CAN be GOOD. it's been around since the cold war, helping us develop all of today's technology. and now, it's being used for greed and money just because companies (not even companies, just really ignorant people who dont view art as a process) think of society/workers as just numbers, not people.

i always wanted to be an artist. i always wanted to study technology. i NEVER had the thought that AI should take over art. i understand the desperation of wanting a perfect final result, but in life, it shouldn't happen. your perfection should the reflection on your own success and growth.

ai is growing, but no one else is. you can "make" 100 ai generated prices and have a perfect replica of what you wanted, yet you learned NOTHING at all. you will one day ask yourself "how much have i grown?" and nothing will be there.

also, i dont think art is/will be dead, however i see it drowning deeper and deeper in the coming years. there will be hundreds of thousands of people who understand art. but millions more only care about the final result. people will eat whatever slop, as long as they can get it fast and perfect. sickening, but it's unfortunately the case.

im a BIG art nerd. i love watching behind the scenes videos, seeing storyboards, and seeing the crew behind shows/movies laughing and smiling. i dont want to watch something that was just created by stealing content and mashing it together

also this should be known. that shit is going to get abused to make p*rn. i already saw reddit think about how they can sell it for money. i think ill get banned if i said my response to this

the good in AI i really enjoy

okay i dont want to stay negative about ai forever. i know a lot of people say "all ai is bad" a LOT. it's probably because AI right now has just been about creating videos and photos, but there's so much good in ai that i wish tech bros would focus on more.

the development of phones and algorithms, (mostly in explorations, maybe mathematics?). obviously ai is already being used in both of these, but i feel like space exploration is going to get crazier each year. maybe at a cold war level? who knows.

every phone has ai, but looking more into it like samsung's new ai features... like their live transcript during calls and circle to search...these already existed really but adding advanced ai to these... it's going to get way better and become so useful, especially the transcript feature, my parents already have a tough moment talking on the phone with me..

i think medical technology would be great too! maybe not like elon musk's brain chip, more like accurate diagnosis, help run better simulations, and maybe help preserve medical records (hackers exist)? i wont go too deep into that tho since i haven't done that much research on this.

anyway i really wished people saw this side of ai. it hurts seeing what corrupt things we choose to do instead... overall i believe ai can be used side by side with humans, instead of doing all the work for us.

tl;dr, i think lead poisoning got us here

no but really. ai is here to stay. it's always been here, and it will get worse if nothing is done. but always try to stay positive the most you can, but it's impossible to ignore the presence of ai.

hopefully, we can get some hardcore laws (or even a ban PLEASE) on generative ai that makes it useless as hell. i dont have too much faith in it, but im not giving up the chance.

(random thought, if ai did take over, i think it will be because we stuck brains on them LOL. look this information up it's a little shocking but slightly interesting. but it's quite scary ngl)

#ai #ai art #ai rant #art #sora ai #technology #ai has so much potential! i wish People Were Smarter #long post

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kichimiangra · 1 year

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Another Nannerverse question: what is Specter's backstory for this continuity? You mentioned that Specter was created artificially, which suggests the Playstation Move version, but he also clearly starred as Specter the Cute Monkey in his showbiz days. What is the timeline for him?

For the Nannersverse the games that are excluded from it's canon are the Playstation Move game, Pumped and Primed, and Million Monkeys.

Trying to avoid writing a whole essay is hard when your long winded and have no idea where the actual BEGINNING of Specter's back story is due to time travel shenanigans. If I had to turn it into a bullet list the short version would be

-The Professor wanted to work on his passion project time machine, but inventing costs money. He picks up financial backers from both the Monkey Park and a third party government organization and cuts costs by doing a single project that can be pitched to both parties.

-For the Monkey Park it was the Peak Point Project (Cooler, more trainable, friendly and smarter performer apes via a helmet) and for the Third Party it was Project Specter (Expendable Ape Soldiers). Specter was the genetic frankensteined result, being the only sample in hundreds of thousands to actually form into a living breathing creature.

-Borrowing from the anime; Specter spent his earliest years with the Professor and Natalie, formed a close connection to his human caretakers, and already being predisposed to higher intelligence than an average ape he showed promise for the Peak Point Project.

-The first time he's exposed to an early test Pipo Helmet prototype his (unknown to the Professor at the time) already existing psychic abilities are amplified on less than 15% power to the helmet, along with his brain chemicals going berserk causing a him to go ape on the lab and wreck a lot of equipment, including the test helmet and it's related machinery (The damage later causing the Dr.Tomoki accident). Even without the Psychic powers, Specter would be viewed as too unstable for the Peak Point Project and is deemed a failure there. Realizing the third party would be interested in the Psychic aspect of Specter and fearing the Ape/Monkey hybrid being potentially used as a weapon after they'd gotten attached, the Professor scrubs all data about Project Specter.

-When having to show the results of his work to the backers Specter is displayed as a failure for both projects, but a "Really Cool Monkey" none the less. The Government cell backer drops out after learning that attempting to clone Specter for more research isn't working (The DNA won't bond), and being a Hybrid makes him sterile, so the only way to make more to continue research would be repeating making themm from scratch and too costly for such a low success rate. The Monkey Park backer is disappointing that the whole "Monkey smart helmet" thing didn't work, but agree that Specter is a really cool monkey designed to be very appealing to humans with his large eyes, white sclera, flat face, upright posture and unique coloring. Having technically paid for him, the park takes ownership of Specter and the Professor hopes Specter can live a normal ape life at the park. The Professor begins working mostly for the park to keep funding his time station project, making toys, helping with attractions, and occasionally designing new pants.

-Specter is left at the park with the trainer who treats the young ape like family (As far as the Park will let him) and trains him to juggle. Specter picks it up quickly being smart and quick learning already and between that and his appealing design becomes a popular act at the park, which he loves the human attention. He has trouble communicating with the other Apes from his Exclusively human upbringing at that point but makes a few select friends regardless. Professor and Natalie would come to visit early on, which would cause Specter to misbehave as he'd rather be with his "Family" than perform and the park politely asks them to refrain from returning in any frequency, causing abandonment issues to start festering.

-The Professor decided to continue the Peak Point Helmet project, and with a new theory for working efficiently he takes an unfinished prototype to the park to pitch his idea: prolonged exposure to the helmet during developmental years to create a better resulting intelligent ape. The Professor's idea is approved and he is given a baby chimp for the experiment (That would later be known as Pipotchi)and also decides to repeat the Kellog's Nature vs Nurture ape experiment by giving the baby to a family of close friends to raise like their own (Jimmy's family. Also explaining the connection between Spike and the Professor) to create the "Smart friendly and biddable ape" the park was looking for.

-Seeing the Professor and Natalie in the crowd, Specter sneaks out of the trainers sight and follows them, stealing the prototype helmet thinking it will get him some attention. They don't notice it missing and Specter witnesses them leave with Pipotchi, still feeling abandoned again but not quite able to process those feelings yet. He hides the helmet in his room.

-Eventually he remembers the helmet again and puts it on, giving him a full dose of the prototypes amplification. It's upsetting at first but now being more sapiently aware he starts channeling his unstable emotions into resentment towards humans as he projects his issues outward and spends weeks secretly tearing apart pieces of park rides to recreate the pipo helmet copies. After a few weeks of doing so he learns via an interview on a television at the park that the Prof.'s passion project is finished and ready to start it's testing phase, so escapes with around a dozen apes he gave helmets to and beelines it for the Professors lab, starting the plot of AE1.

-The Specter side of AE1 is while Spike spends about a weekend traversing time and catching apes, Specter spends around 4 months retrieving apes from the park, outfitting them with helmets, and setting up infrastructure that still exists in the present, explaining how he can get a helmet back and within hours have moon bases and factories everywhere. He eventually finds Jake poking around a base and imprisons him, being a little information sponge he picks up how to speak human off of Jake (He could understand it before, just not Speak it with any level of fluency) and accidentally learns that under the right conditions can brainwash them with his psychic powers. He uses the now brainwashed Jake as his taskmaster, second in command, and companion to fill the void he has for human attention. He collects the Monkey Park's info on his creation realizing there was another backer, wanting to know more about this "Project Specter" but with the data scrubbed and the Prof refusing to tell him he mostly drops it. At some point behind the scenes he reunites with Monkey White (Who is the genetic donor for his Macaque dna) and starts the early stages of his Vita-z Banana experiment, hand picking who would later become the Ukki 5/Freaky Monkey 5.

-Piposaru 2001 happens between catching Specter and Returning him and the apes to the park, as the park re-renovates "Specter land" back into the "Monkey Park". His helmet isn't initially removed as he just chills around the lab staying out of arms reach of anyone who could take it from him, until the "Pants incident" happens.

-The Specter side of AE2 is just him chilling like a villain, but with an extra special obsession over Pipotchi, recognizing him as the "Successful" subject for the Peak Point Project were Specter was viewed as a "Failure" so there's jealousy and resentment there. Plus Pipotchi was given to a human family while Specter was left at the park.

-The Specter side of AE3 is Tomoki tracks Specter down to pitch his "Double Paradise" plan, which Tomoki is mostly using Specter for his revenge on humanity. Specter likes the idea of the plan and does literally zero research on what cutting a planet in half will do, trusting Tomoki who is once again being used to fill the void for human attention and Tomoki knows it, recognizing Specter from before his accident when he worked with the Prof. and Aki on the helmet project.

-Mesal Gear Solid is psuedo canon, in that the Professor inevitably created Pipo Snake, arguable success to "Project Specter" and another reason for Specter to grit his teeth at being a "failure", Though he doesn't learn about Pipo Snake existing for a few more years.

-Saru Saru Big Mission happens. Specters side is mostly just that alongside shrinking the entire human populace he intends to keep Spike and Natalie to himself, having to him and unknown interest in Spike being "The one that got away" and that Natalie is someone who was genuinely good to him, Once again filling his need for human relationships.

-a few years pass and Specter and the Ukki 5 go to ransack an old abandoned factory that was left behind for stuff, including finding his old stolen prototype of the Pipohelmet from AE1. They're ambushed by a group called the Viper's Nest and only Specter gets away, losing the Ukki 5. 6 months later he kidnaps Spike to brainwash and use to retrieve the Ukki 5 and the story begins.

---------------------------------------

That was long... and only touching what was directly related to Specter. I put more work into the narrative than any canon ape escape game.

#Nannersverse

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gaswin · 2 years

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Dropshipping For Dummies: A Newbie's Guide To Dropshipping

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#print on demand

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legalwall1 · 2 years

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#1 site #I don't care about miles per gallon #i only care about smiles per gallon

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el-im · 2 years

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you know, the thing at the heart of all the natural sciences is knowing that you’re part of a system which is establishing a language for a body that (at least in my eyes) is almost inherently indescribable. we come up with terms like ‘trophic cascade’ and ‘entropy’ to label the most complex and intricate and wonderful phenomena, and speak and write and contemplate them often enough to do their beauty real intellectual justice but... boy, does there come a point where you look up from all your papers and reports and readouts, take a moment to really contemplate what you’ve been pouring over, and just think ‘this label is never really going to come close.’

... specifically, i was recently thinking about the term ‘mutualism’ which in very simple terms describes a relationship between two species in which both benefit from their association... but i think, especially in biology, forestry, etc. that researchers, professors, and students (myself included) have a tendency to anthropomorphize the conditions/living things that we come across in order to make them more understandable--especially in teaching--but the suggestion of mutual satisfaction/goodwill that i so often see presented paired with this type of symbiotic relationship has always struck me as profoundly odd and misplaced, especially when discussing fauna, which i think is a little more difficult to ascribe human characteristics onto than animals...

i digress. i just think that the term hardly skims the surface of the depth of many of these relationships. mycorrhizae are just about the best example i can think of. associations between a plants root and soil bacteria found in virtually all land plants, this relationship is one thought to span over four hundred million years. in exchange for structural support/protection and nutrients, the fungi stretches out further into the surrounding soil and shares nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, what have you with the plant. but “share” is just a shadow on the larger form of what i really mean. despite many (abundant) cases made about the intelligence of plants/fungi, you can’t really make a case for their emotionalism. trees in a forest keep the stumps of felled trees alive because they provide a modicum of support in return--providing water or nutrients with their remaining roots or contributing to soil stability. but it’s not something done out of love--which does not denigrate it in any way, but does makes it exceedingly more complex.

mostly, what i mean is that the term mutualism doesn’t really make you consider the wild chance. at one point in history, there was the first of these two species that made this pairing, and it was so successful that it spread to others, and now dominates every place above water on this little blue planet of ours. mutualism doesn’t encompass the neutrality of them both--neither put initial work into their association, it was just that the specific way that they had come to live happened to be complementary. the probability, and the chance, which has guided life as we know it, is what continually strikes me as remarkable about biology. the things we assume as constant, or are unfazed by because they are common and familiar, arose in a response to environmental conditions no longer seen on this planet, and completely known to us. the long thread of life which led us to this point gets obscured in the simplicity of the term.

the relationships that we observe between species are older than we can fathom, and are more inextricable than we can imagine: their very evolution has been bound to each other over eons. they are paired together throughout migration, climate changes, geological changes... the persistence of these relationships, their complexity, their unique dependency, and their utter and complete defiance to being described in unadorned human terms will never cease to confound and amaze me.

#captain's log #i have a lot of feelings about dirt and mud and rocks #sorry for science posting. i am going through a lot right now.#LMAO #i added a readmore cause i start going off about my field (pun intended) and i know its not applicable to everyone #the world is... beyond belief #this is what i meant when i said i was in my 'there are more things on heaven and earth... than are dreamt of in your philosophy' era #for all my love of sci fi... god. what a magnificent planet we live on. what a strange and labyrinthian place.

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kiingocreative · 3 years

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I love being a part of the writers community because I feel like I’m constantly learning. After years of writing by my own lonesome self, I’m getting exposed to a lot of things and concepts I hadn’t come across before.

Now, you may judge me for this, but one word I learnt on Bookstagram is: trope.

If, like I did, you’re not sure what a trope is, it’s defined as follows:

trope /trəʊp/

noun

1. a figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression.

2. a significant or recurrent theme; a motif.

In the writing sphere, people will mostly refer to tropes in the context ofthe second definition. Or, as this great article on the Masterclass blog puts it:

“A trope in literary terms is a plot device or character attribute that is used so commonlyin the genre that it’s seen as commonplace or conventional. For example, a trope in superhero stories is a villain who wants to take over the world.”

Beyond the initial excitement of learning a newword (do you get that new word buzz, too? I swear it’s a thing!) this got me thinking…

Once upon a time, back when I was trying to get traditionally published and I was researching agents, I saw a lot of people saying they were looking for ‘fresh voices’, or ‘unique’ and ‘original stories’. I remember wondering at the time what that actually meant. What makes a book feel fresh or original when, surely, most storylines are somewhere on the trope spectrum?

In other words:

Can storylines that have, in essence, already been told a hundred times still feel unique?

Or will we ever run out of original stories to be told and written about?

What’s it all about?

The first thing I did, you guessed it, was to run a poll on Instagram. When I asked if a storyline that’s not ultimately original (like a romance trope or a post-apocalyptic dystopian plot) can still feel unique, 100% of people answered: YES!

Interesting. So what is it, then, I wondered? Is it the characters? Is it the plot? The writing style? All of the above?

In a follow up question to the poll, I asked people just that. I expected people would say that it’s all a mix of several things, but I was somewhat surprised by the results:

67% of respondents said it’s all about the characters, 27% said writing style, and 6% the storyline.

No one picked the ‘all of the above’ answer.

That had me floored (I know, it doesn’t take much!) because it’s not at allwhat I’d anticipated. I had to find out more.

A million snowflakes.

If it’s less about the writing style and storyline—what happens and how it’s told—how do our characters make a story feel unique, and what lesson is there to learn for writers everywhere penning down their next novel?

When it comes to characters, it’s about ‘the level of imagination’, a poll respondent said. Yes, we can put our characters in somewhat sterotypical situations, but the strength and uniqueness of a good story is down to ‘how a character reacts to [those] situations’, someone else added.

Interesting, isn’t it? So what if there aren’t a million tropes to make every single plot line unlike anything else we’ve read before—that’s not actually the point. What it’sreally about is ‘the way the characters interact with each other in a cliche environment’, someone responded in the poll.

To me that’s encouraging, because it puts less emphasis on trying to come up with the next one-in-a-lifetime story, and more on making writers keen observers of the world around them. It makes us more attuned to trends in society and more understanding of the human psyche. I’d also like to think that makes us a lot more empathetic towards the different experiences others around us might be going through. It’s a complex thing, being a human being, and focusing on writing original characters makes us more alert to the inevitable changes that come with the passing of time and ever-evolving collective mindsets and ideologies.

There are as many ways people can react to situations as there are human beings, all with their own intricacies and complexities, all with their perception of the time and space they find themselves in. Every single one of them isas unique as a snowflake. Because there are millions of variations and combinations of who and how characters can be, it gives us millions of variations and combinations of how they might respondwhen faced with those experiences.

Reinventing the wheel.

Now I think of it, isn’t that what life is, too? It’s not as much about the situations we encounter but how we respond to them that makes all the difference?

It seems to me that the essence of our favourites stories might just be that they mimic the game of life. They show us what is, what can be or could be so that, for a few moments, we might experience it ourselves, too.

Whether it’s a gruesome thriller, a colourful fantasy novel or pure romance tale, the stories we prefer are those that are relatable, that depict the full palette of human nature. Or, to put it simply: the stories that make us feel.

If my unofficial poll is to be believed, what we do need is well-written stories featuring characters that have been thought-through enough, whose actions and experiences might take us by surprise. If what we’re after is to feel all the feels, it’s no surprise that we care less about what happens and more about who it happens to, how it affects them and how well that’s conveyed on the page.

A human mille-feuille.

At the end of the day, every romance story boils down to a person-meets-person situation. Every crime novel can be distilled to a someone-fucked-up scenario. And almost every dystopian story includes a history (or a impending threat) of apocalypse. And, as it turns out, that’s absolutely fine. As far as storylines go, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Of course your premise and story is important, but it can take a back-seat. That’s good news, in my mind, because it takes away some of the pressure to come up with the next Harry Potter concept.

What this also means, though, is that our characters can make or break a story. Get it wrong, and the whole book might wellfall apart. Long gone are the days of simplistic characterisation, and I explored some of that in a previous post about what makes a convincing villain.

We need deeply human characters, in all their flawed glory. We need layers. We need nuances. I’ve said this before: it’s not black and white anymore. Damn it, even white isn’t so straightforwardanymore—it’s all about off-white, eggshell, Ivory and cream! Every colour has a million possible tints and textures, and we need to explore and exploit them all.

So, what makes a good story you ask?

The same thing that makes a good life and good experiences:

it’s not about what you do, it’s all about the people standing by your side, holding your hand or stabbing you in the back whilst you’re doing it.

#writingtips #screenwriting #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writers #writing #writerblr #writing advice #writing community #writing resources

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obviouslygenuinely · 3 years

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Free Resources For Writers & Creators

This is a quick post of free resources that may help fandom creators (or creators in general). I’m sure many of these have been shared before. However, it doesn’t hurt to spread the word. A few quick points:

As a professional writer, I think this post will cater mostly towards writers.

I’m also a freelance photographer, so digital photography/editing/art sources are included, too.

I chose not to use any affiliate links in my post. I don’t want to profit from this, and I’m not sure that’s allowed on Tumblr anyways.

If I’ve listed a resource I haven’t used myself, I’ve made sure to state it.

Masterlists and/or huge resource compilations are marked with asterisks.

Alright, here we go! I hope you all find this post helpful. Happy writing/creating!

Research

All of these are free resources for research. I use most of them for my writing jobs because they are extremely credible. These are great for making accurate references in your fics/creations.

1. ***Research Resources For Writers***

Writer’s Write has an enormous database of research resources for writers. They are divided into 20+ categories such as:

careers

historical research

crimes and forensics

religion

Each category contains 10+ resources like websites, articles, tips, databases, and so much more. It’s the most comprehensive and organized free research tool I use.

2. PubMed

My go-to source for citing medical studies. You’ll find 30 million citations related to numerous physical and mental health issues.

3. BioMed Central

I don’t use this website as often, but I keep it in my bookmarks. It’s similar to PubMed - great for discovering current and former medical research.

4. Drugs.com

If you need to name a medication and/or refer to medication side effects, Drugs.com is a straightforward resource. It’s easy to navigate and understand.

It also has a tool that lists potential medication interactions. This is really useful for accurate descriptions of med combinations.

5. Merck Manuals Consumer Version

Merck Manuals started out in 1899 as a medical reference guide for professionals. This consumer version is really comprehensive and updated regularly. It includes definitions, studies, and more.

6. FindLaw

If you’re writing about legal topics, FindLaw is useful for learning about laws/procedures in reader-friendly language. Categories include:

accidents/injuries

criminal law

family law (divorce, custody, etc.)

Keep in mind that laws vary based on location! You’ll often find additional links to state-related laws within articles. I do recommend double-checking state/location-based legal resources for accuracy.

7. APA Dictionary of Psychology

This psychology dictionary is provided by the American Psychological Association. It covers 90+ areas of psychology and 25,000+ terms/definitions.

You’ll also find links to additional psychology databases, resources, and so on. The website is updated frequently to provide updated information.

8. U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics

If you’re writing about a character’s job/career in the United States, this is a great source for accuracy. For any job sector, you’ll find details about

education requirements

positions in the sector

average salary for positions

what the positions entail

I imagine there are alternatives for other countries, too!

9. Investopedia Financial Term Dictionary

My area of expertise is personal finance; all of my writing published under my name is in this niche. I still refer to Investopedia’s dictionary for help. It’s excellent for understanding/explaining financial terms in a way that your reader can understand.

10. MedTerms Medical Dictionary

This is the medical version of Investopedia’s dictionary. I use this source less frequently, but I find that it’s accurate and helpful. There are many similar references online if you search for “medical glossaries” or “medical dictionaries”.

11. Domain Authority Checker

I’m not sure if this one is too helpful for fic writers, but it’s one of my most used tools. Domain authority “a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs)”.

The Wikipedia page for domain authority (DA) explains it clearly and simply. To sum it up, websites with good DA scores are considered reliable and accurate. If I cite sources in my work. I always link to sources with good DA scores.

Writing/Editing

This section is the most thorough one. All of these are completely free tools for writing and editing any type of content. I currently use or have used all of these at some point in my career.

1. ***List Of Free And Open-Source Software Packages***

This Wikipedia page applies to multiple categories in my post. It’s a masterpost of free and open-source software for anything and everything. Software is divided up into categories and sub-categories. Some relevant examples include:

media

networking/Internet

image editing

file management

There are hundreds of free software links on the page, so you’ll need to do a bit of browsing. Start with the categories above to find software geared towards writers/creators.

2. OpenOffice

This is a free alternative to Microsoft Office. I’ve used it for nine years and love it. OpenOffice software includes free applications for:

text documents

spreadsheets

presentations

drawing

templates

There are many more tools with OpenOffice that I haven’t used. If you write offline, I cannot recommend it enough. Tutorials are readily available online, and the software is pretty user-friendly.

3. Evernote

I briefly used Evernote and found that it’s very user-friendly and helpful. Most of my colleagues use Evernote and recommend it for taking notes/staying organized.

(I’m personally not a fan of note-taking software or apps. My method is messy text documents with bullet point lists.)

4. Google Drive

This might seem like an obvious one, but Google Drive/Docs is my writing haven. It has the tools included with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice and then some. It’s great for collaborative writing/sharing documents, too.

5. Grammarly

I use the Premium (paid) version of Grammarly, but I also used the free version for years. It’s helpful for detecting simple spelling, style, and grammatical errors.

There are numerous ways to use it - desktop, copy/paste documents, and so on. I’m not a huge fan of how well it works with Google Docs, but they’re improving it/it’s moved out of beta mode.

If you’re interested in the paid version - which I highly recommend - wait to buy until a holiday pops up. They offer a major discount on the software for almost every holiday/special occasion.

6. Plagiarism Detector

This website is handy for scanning for plagiarism. You can scan your own work to ensure uniqueness, too. My clients are big fans of this tool.

(I no longer use this resource; I use a paid tool called Copyscape Premium. The low cost has a big return on investment for me.)

7. TitleCase

The name says it all. It’s free and simple! I’ll be honest - I’m terrible with proper title case. You’d think after a decade of writing I’d nail it. However, I use this tool pretty often.

8. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is an online and desktop editor. It’s excellent for scanning your writing to check for:

readability (a grade-level score is listed)

adverb usage

passive voice usage

complex phrase usage

estimated reading time

This tool is color-coded to make editing easy. For example, adverbs are highlighted in blue. I don’t use this as often as I used to, but it was essential for my early writing career.

9. Polish My Writing

This tool is very straightforward. You paste your writing into the text box. Spelling errors, grammar suggestions, and style suggestions are highlighted in red, blue, and green.

It’s great for double-checking your work alongside Grammarly or Hemingway. When using free editors, I recommend using at least two for higher accuracy.

10. OneLook Reverse Dictionary And Thesaurus

I’m going to use the definition directly from the website:

“This tool lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be anything at all: a single word, a few words, or even a whole sentence. Type in your description and hit Enter (or select a word that shows up in the autocomplete preview) to see the related words.”

To put it simply, you can use the reverse dictionary/thesaurus to find those words/thoughts that are on the tip of your tongue. Use the tool to:

find a word based on the word’s definition (i.e. search for “inability to feel pain”)

find synonyms and related concepts

generate a list of category-specific words (i.e. search for “cat breeds”)

answer basic questions (i.e. search for “what is the capital of France?”)

The results can be hit or miss, but I usually find the information I’m looking for. It’s a solid resource any writer regardless of genre.

11. Word Frequency Counter + Phrase Frequency Counter

I cannot emphasize how much I love these tools. Repetition is the bane of a writer’s existence; it’s simply inevitable at times.

These two tools count the number of times you use a single word or phrase in a text document. Just copy/paste your document, hit submit, and you’re all set!

For the phrase frequency counter, you can scan for two-word to ten-word phrases.

12. Thesaurus.com

This is another tool that might seem painfully obvious. Combined with the word frequency counter, it’s such an essential resource for me.

It’s especially useful if you’re writing about the same topic multiple times (i.e. love, getting drunk, sex, etc.). I always use this combo of tools to ensure uniqueness.

13. Lists Of Colors

Are you stumped when trying to come up with unique shades of blue? Is describing your character’s hair or skin color difficult? This Wikipedia page has you covered. It contains:

lists of colors (alphabetically)

lists of colors by shade

lists of Crayola crayon colors

lists of color palettes

I typically use this resource for product descriptions, but I also used it for creative writing many times. It’s a lifesaver for all things color-related.

Free Photos/Images

Tons of creators need free photos/images for numerous reasons. All of these sources provide 100% free photos, illustrations, etc. that have a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means there’s no copyright whatsoever on them.

You can edit the images however you’d like, too. All of the images in my post are from the first source listed below. I made them black and white and added text.

(A lot of these sites have donate buttons for contributors. Donating a dollar here and there goes a long way!)

1. Unsplash

Unsplash is my personal favorite for high-resolution photos. It’s easy to navigate and has over 2,000,000 free images. Downloading an image is a one-click process, and you don’t need to create an account.

2. Pixabay

Pixabay is my go-to site for illustrations and vector graphics (they have photos, too). There are 1.9 million free images to choose from. You don’t need an account to download images, but I recommend creating one. It’s free and with an account:

you don’t have to complete a CAPTCHA every time you download an image

you can access higher-quality/larger/etc. versions of images

I often use graphics from Pixabay to create overlays and masks for mixed media art pieces.

3. PxHere

I’ve never used PxHere, but one of my writing clients recommends it. It seems very similar to Pixabay, and the interface is user-friendly.

4. Pexels

In my limited experience, Pexels seems to focus on “artsy” stock images/content. I found great high-quality images the few times I’ve used it.

5. Burst by Shopify

I haven’t used Burst, but it’s another free image site that a writing client recommended to me. It seems a little limited compared to the other sites, but it never hurts to add it to your toolbox!

Digital Art/Photo Editing/Etc.

This section seems brief, but the tools listed are pretty comprehensive and diverse. They are geared towards many creative needs/projects like:

Creating manips of people/etc.

Adding text to images.

Creating collages.

Digital illustration.

Advanced photo editing.

There’s something for everyone. In my experience, finding your favorites among these will take some trial and error.

1. Pixlr X and Pixlr E (app available)

Pixlr X and Pixlr E are both versatile free editing tools. Pixlr X is ideal for less experienced creators. Pixlr E is comparable to Adobe PhotoShop.

I’ve used both software formats for personal and professional art projects.

The Pixlr app is handy for making collages, adding filters/overlays, adding text, and so on. I’ve used it for creating fanfiction collages and similar projects. It’s super easy to use.

2. Remove Background by Pixlr

This is one of the easiest/fastest tools I’ve found for removing backgrounds from images. It’s perfect for creators who make manips using photos of people.

It takes literal seconds to use. The tool automatically removes the background. If you spot any mistakes, you can refine the results with brush/erase tools. Then you download the cutout and you’re all set!

Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available on the Pixlr app. There are a lot of smartphone apps for removing photo backgrounds.

3. GIMP

If you need a full-fledged Photoshop alternative, GIMP is excellent software. It’s not an online tool like most I’ve suggested; you’ll need to download it to your computer.

There’s quite a learning curve for it, unless you’re familiar with Photoshop already. Fortunately, the free video/text GIMP tutorials online are endless. I no longer use/need GIMP, but it’s a personal favorite of mine.

4. Paint.NET

Admittedly, I haven’t used Paint.NET, but my art/photography colleagues commonly mention it. It’s comparable to Photoshop and GIMP. It’s a web-based tool, and a quick Google search returns several tutorials for it.

5. Photopea

This is more or less a Photoshop clone, but it’s free and web-based. If you watch Photoshop tutorials, you can usually follow the same steps in PhotoPea.

I’ve only used it a few times; I have Photoshop so I don’t need it. Still, it’s very impressive - especially for a free tool.

6. PicsArt (app available)

PicsArt is a photo editing website and app; the app is much easier to use in my opinion. It’s a “fun” editing tool for photo manips, collages, and fan art in general. A lot of users post their art in the app, and I’ve noticed tons of cool fandom edits.

Some of the features are Premium (AKA cost money), but I don’t think they’re worth the extra cost. PicsArt also has a digital drawing app. I haven’t personally used it but it may be worth checking out!

7. Adobe Photoshop Express (app available)

(I’ll preface this by saying I have an Adobe subscription, so I have access to the “locked” features. I’ve used the free versions, but my memory of it is a bit hazy.)

Photoshop Express is a free web-based tool and smartphone app. The app is very user-friendly and can be used for detailed editing, adding filters, adding text, and so on.

I’m less familiar with the browser version; I only use it for the cutout tool when I’m feeling lazy. It seems to be a good fit for quick edits - filters, cropping, and so on.

8. Make PNG Transparent by Online PNG Tools

This tool is awesome for removing solid colored backgrounds. I use it to create graphics for mixed media art pieces. Here’s how it works:

upload an image

type the color your want to remove (name or hex code)

type the percentage of similar color tones you want to match (for example, 25% will remove your chosen color plus similar warm/cool tones)

the removed color is replaced with transparent pixels

If you want to make a JPG transparent, start with the website’s JPG to PNG Converter. There are a ton of useful free tools offered, but I haven’t tried out most of the others.

Wrap Up

That’s all I’ve got for now! If I think of additional free tools, I’ll add them to this post. Feel free to reblog with your own recommendations or message me if you’d like me to add anything.

I hope my fellow creatives find these too

#writer resources #writing #writblr #fanfiction #fanfic #creative writing #writing reference #writing resources #writer reference #obviouslygenuinely #creators #artists on tumblr #fandom #fan art

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my-terrible-life · 4 years

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I wanted to say some things about the Arabic used in Community.

I'm not sure what the point the point of this post is but I just wanted to get the thoughts out of my head because they've been there ever since I first watched Community like a million years ago and found out one of the main characters is half Arab.

Long post I'm sorry!!

So in Community Abed is Polish Palestinian. My very first thoughts on this, so long ago, was huh what an unusual name! Because it is. Abed is not a common Arab name at all, it's pretty weird actually. The name itself means "Worshipper" which I guess should fit in with the ~theme~ of Arab Muslim names but it doesn't because in Arabic it sounds incomplete.

Boys names that follow the "theme" of Worship tend to be 2-parters, the Worship part and then the What part. What is he worshipping? God obviously, but God in Islam has many names and many descriptions, so the trend is 'pick one of the names/descriptors and put it right after the word that means worship' so we end up with names like Abdullah (for example). Abdullah in Arabic is a 2 word name, it is Abd then Allah, combined it means worshipper of Allah. We can have a name like Abdulrahman, which is a 2 word name that is Abd then Al Rahman, which combined means worshipper of the most merciful. The list can go on and on and they all mostly follow that pattern: Abd + God's name. That's the convention and that's what male Arabic Muslim names have followed for hundreds of years. So Abed alone is pretty odd, but not impossible I guess.

Now the writers could have consulted with an Arab at any point, there's Arabs literally everywhere in America, but okay it was during the time when casual racism was still something the audience didn't know we could be very vocal about, or that's how I think about it anyway.

Danny Pudi himself is not Arab so I don't think he could have accurately weighed in on this but again I don't know what it was like working as a brown actor on US television at the time. (We'll get back to Danny Pudi later)

Nevertheless, the initial oddness of Abed's name aside, I grew used to it and grew to really like the character. He's one of my 3 favorites ❤ and I don't have to repeat why he's awesome and how his stories are not stereotypes etc etc.

But the eps were his Arabic heritage and language come up were beefed. Hard.

You can split Arabic up into 2 umbrellas I guess: Standard Arabic called Fus'ha, and the common tongue or dialect of the specific Arab country you're in/writing about.

Most of us know and understand Standard Arabic because it's taught in schools and it is the language of the Qur'an so we learn it. It's also the language used for subtitles in film and TV, as well as any formal/official document, and when presidents give speeches in foreign countries so the instant translators can do their jobs without having to learn more than 1 Arabic dialect.

But here's a very big point guys... no one Speaks in Standard Arabic. As beautiful and flowery and vast as it can be we just don't use it like That.

Think of it like your everyday English you speak vs. Shakespearian English. No one talks like that unless they're on stage or they're trying to be funny.

So, it was very obvious when Abed and his Dad were talking that they put the script into Google translate and just went with that. They could have asked an Arab 🤦‍♀️ any Arab! There's so many of us everywhere just grab one off the street like a madman and ask 'em, they'll tell you. We Love correcting wrong Arabic 😂

Anyway, they had Abed speak in Standard Arabic.... cringe kingdom thanks... but Abed is Palestinian, which means his dialog should have been in Palestinian Arabic and that's hella different. (Now I'm personally Egyptian and while I would be able to understand Palestinian very well I would not be able to re-write his lines to reflect the dialect accurately, so I won't)

Of course their pronunciation was incredibly off as neither actor who play Abed or Gubi (weird name) are Arabs or speak Arabic. It just made me cringe so hard.

Now let's briefly talk about those yellow subtitles Community used for Abed and his Dad in that episode where they're fighting about Abed taking film classes... 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ yeah, not pretty, not only did just use Google translate, it was also unedited. I remember back then Google translate was still being filled up with vocabulary and different possible translations so for Arabic sometimes we'd get a very literal translation that made a whole sentence wrong. And boy did they mess that up!

The line was "The wrong person just left" and the translation was "الشخص الخطأ يسار" which is literally "the wrong person left", well what's wrong with that? Oh just that they used Left as in the direction.... the wrong person LEFT (direcrion) as in ur left hand as in let's go left instead of right 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ never mind that the entire phrase would not be translated that way to begin with but that they couldn't even bother to just double check their translation

Oh you guys know who sounded like they actually knew Arabic??? Abra! Her pronunciation was correct. Even if her lines were still in Standard Arabic her pronunciation and delivery showed she knew Arabic. (Another note on the name... I don't know what the hell Abra is, that's not an Arabic name I'm sorry) (neither is Gubi)

The last thing I wanna mention is from the Christmas ep, where Jeff gets in a fight, and Abed comes to their gathering with a dish from his culture, and he says "It's a traditional Muslim dish".....okay, Danny Pudi is not Arabic okay but he is Muslim and he should know there is no such thing as a Muslim dish, but fine okay maybe he couldn't say anything whatever who cares...

There is no such thing as a Muslim dish, or Muslim food. Or even Arab food, that doesn't exist... it should have been "it's a traditional Palestinian dish".

The Arab World is 22 countries, each very different from each other in culture, customs, food, language, whatever you can think of. We have similarities, we understand each other, we have a shitton of shared history but we are not a monolith.

Back to the Language aspect

Arabic is hard, Standard or otherwise, but especially Standard. The sounds you'd need to be able to make Arabic happen have to be trained into your mouth and throat, and it takes a long time. (I was lucky to grow up with it, not knowing the struggle, and major respect to those who want and try to learn it, whatever variation of it)

I was just spewing my frustrations here about a couple scenes and I'm glad there weren't any more tbh.

but I do hope this helps anyone who was curious about Abed's language.

Anyone writing about Abed or characters like Abed, I hope this can give a hint into what to research.

Also it's not pronounced Nadeer (with the emphasis on the second part) it's Naader (with emphasis on the first part)

Thanks for reading through this!

#abed nadir #community #trobed #arabic language in american media

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samstree · 4 years

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random thoughts on Mulan (2020):

1. “The Chi is strong with this one.”

Disney has been making the same movie over and over for the past two years.

2. “They’ll call her a witch!”

The correct response to that should be “What is a wiTcH? Some white people nonsense that won’t even be introduced into our language for centuries to come?”

Of course because Europe used to prosecute women for no reason, they assumed ancient china must have done the same.

3. The two rabbits scene is a nice addition. It is taken from the original ballad, where she stayed in the army for 12 years without being found as a woman.

4. It has been many years since I learned the ballad of mulan in school, still I think the draft system is a terrible one. Demanding one man from each family is a giant waste of potential young and healthy conscriptors.

5. The words on the sword are modern chinese characters, and I’m sure you can find the font in microsoft default.

6. The concept of “孝”(devotion to family) has oppressed women and men for thousands of years in China. It advocates blind obedience to your parents even in adulthood, and that you should live your life exactly as your parents wish because they know better. I cannot believe a movie in 2020 is digging up this word form the grave.

7. “This is my sad face. This is my curious face.”

Girl you have burned yourself. Liu Yifei can act, but she doesn’t seem to be doing it for this movie. She later has the same face while fighting, flirting, and having someone die in her arms.

8. Cricket is so precious! He is perfection everytime he is on screen. Also all the men in the army seem to be experiencing a collective gay panick.

9. Were those mulan flowers where she took a bath in the lake?

10. I like that she took the gender reveal into her own hands. “You will not reach your full potential until you live as you are.” It’s just one lesbien convincing another to come out.

But in the next moment she took off the armor that protects her main arteries. And put down her hair even it might block her vision in fighting.

11. At least a dozen people died from the fireball thing, and they only thought to check Hua Jun after the avalanche. They truely love her him her.

12. The red room Reylo scene but with Xian Lang: “ Join me. We will take our place in the kingdom.” “There’s still hope for you.” “No, it’s too late for me.”

Disney really has been making the same movie for the past two years.

13. This cast is full of lengendary action stars but the fight scenes are quite underwhelming. She can kick everything I guess. Even an arrow. Okay.

14. All supervillains can benefit from Aaron Burr’s advice. Just talk less and murder people already. Most of them would have won a hundred time easily.

15. You see Xian Lang’s change of heart from miles away but still AAAAAHHHHHHasfdjaowoiwhf! The gay is brimming out of my screen.

16. Finally, finally, FINALLY someone else dies in Liu Yifei’s arms for a change. If you are familiar with her early career you know what I’m talking about. Also they are gonna be ride-and-die lesbien lovers in my fanfic.

17. MY QUEEN Wen Ming-Na!!

18. “Rise up like a Phoenix.” from Mulan: The Real Dark Phoenix (2020)

Disney has been making the same movie, and we’ve been watching them for the past two years.

19. She rode from the imperial city to her hometown Fujian like it was easy breezy. Even her hair still had the same curls. All the soldiers also travelled right behind her just to give her a sword.

It is a frigging 2000 miles journey.

They didn’t go like, “hey you want to hang out here until we make the sword so we don’t have to ride across the country?” Also they didn’t catch up with her the entire way, only to make an entrance in front of the whole apartment building.

20. Forgot to mention the matchmaker’s actor Zheng Peipei. She played Yifei’s grandmother many years ago in a tv show. Yifei was still a teenager back then, and her character notoriously died at the end very abruptly (setting a tone for her following career). The show is a period fantacy drama that is mostly there to spite flat-earthers.

21. If I hear the words “Loyal, brave and true” one more time I swear to god

22. The end credit design is kind of awsome.

My view on this movie is mostly critical for many more reasons. They claim to have done justice to chinese culture but it is still a very poor job. Chi is to kongfu as quantum is to sci-fi, just throw the word in when you can’t explain something.

Mulan lives in a Fujian tulou building not because they have done research about the geography, but because it is a random thing in china hollywood hasn’t shot before.

And the “chosen one” narrative seems to be going through a renaissance in the past few years. I really like it when there’s nothing special about our hero, and they also struggle like the rest of us. There is something endearing and relatable about that. But it was taken away from Mulan. Now I guess you have to be special like one in a million, and be the only person who can save the dynasty, just to join the ranks of men.

#Mulan #disney mulan #disney plus #gong li #xian lang #xian lang x mulan #mulan x xian lang #liu yifei #yifei Liu #ming-na wen #mulan spoilers #mulan remake #mulan live action #Aaron Burr #chen honghui #cricket #honghui x mulan #mulan x honghui

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littlesystems · 5 years

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For the people who are out there “fighting the good fight” and “trying to make fandom a better place,” I have two important questions for you:

1. Is the author dead? x

2. Is your baby in the bathwater? x

What do I mean by those things? Let’s start with #1. The Death of the Author is a type of literary criticism, the extreme cliff notes version of which is that art exists outside of the creator’s life, personal background, and even intentions. I’m using it slightly differently than Barthes intended, but that’s okay, because the author is dead and I’m interpreting his work through my own lens.

In fandom, the author is dead. In fact, the author was never alive in the first place, not really. The author has only ever been the idea of a person, because unlike published fiction, the only thing we know about a fanfic author is that which they choose to tell us about themselves.

Why is that important?

Because it might not be true. Hell, that happens in real life with published authors, who have SSN’s on file with their publishers, who pay taxes on the works they create and have researchable pasts. If the author of A Million Little Pieces could fake everything, why can’t I? Why can’t you? Why can’t the writer of your favorite fic in the whole wide world?

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: “you can only write about [sensitive subject] if [sensitive subject] has happened to you personally, otherwise you’re a disgusting monster that deserves to die!!” Or maybe “you can only write [x racial or ethnic group] characters if you’re [x racial or ethnic group] otherwise you’re racist/fetishizing/colonizing!”

You can play this game with any sensitive subject you can come up with. I’ve seen them all before, on a sliding scale of slightly chastising to literal death threats.

Now, I could tell you that I’m a white-passing Latina whose grandmother was an anchor baby. I could tell you that I speak only English because my family never taught me to speak Spanish, something which I’ve been told is common in the Cuban community, though I only know my own lived experience. I could tell you that I’m mostly neurotypical. I could tell you that I’m covered in surgical scars. I could tell you lots of things.

Are any of these true? Maybe! I could tell you that my brother has severe mental development problems, so uncommon that they’ve never been properly diagnosed, and that he will live the rest of his life in a group home with 24-hour care. Is that true? Am I allowed to write about families struggling with America’s piss-poor services for the handicapped now?

Am I allowed to write about being Cuban? After all, I did just say that I’m Cuban. But is it true? Can I instead write a character that’s Panamanian? Maybe I really am Panamanian, not Cuban. Maybe I’m both. Maybe I’m neither. Maybe I’m really French Canadian. Should we require people to post regular selfies? I can’t count the number of times I’ve had someone come up to me speaking Arabic, and I’ve been told that I look Syrian. What’s stopping me from making a blog that claims that I am Syrian? Can you even really tell someone’s race and ethnicity from a photo?

Am I allowed to write about being a teenager? Am I allowed to write about being a college student? Am I allowed to write about being an “adulty” adult? Can I write a character who’s 40? 50? 60? How old am I?

All of this is to say: you can’t base what someone is or is not “allowed” to write about on a background that may or may not be real. No matter how good your intentions. And I get it - this usually comes from a place of well-meaning. You’re trying to protect marginalized groups by stopping privileged people from trampling all over experiences that they haven’t suffered. I get that. It’s a very noble thought. But you can’t require a background check for every fic that you don’t like.

If you say “you can only write about rape if you’re a rape victim,” then one of three things will happen:

Real survivors will have to supply intimate details of their own violations to prevent harassment

Real survivors will refuse to engage and will then have to deal with death threats and people telling them to kill themselves for daring to write about their own experiences

People who aren’t survivors will say “yeah sure this happened to me” just to get people to shut up

Has that helped anyone? I mean really - anyone??

So now let’s get to point #2: is your baby in the bathwater?

If your intention is to protect marginalized people from being trampled upon, stop and assess if your boot is the one that’s now stamping on their face. Find your baby! Is your baby in the bathwater? Which is to say: find the goal that you’re advocating for. Now assess. Are you making the problem worse for the people you’re trying to protect? Does that rape victim really feel better, now that you’ve harassed and stalked them in the name of making rape victims feel safe?

Let’s say you read a fic that contains explicit sex between a 16 year old and a 17 year old. Is this okay? Would it be okay if the writer was 15? 16? 17? Should teenagers be barred from writing about their own lives, and should teenagers be banned from exploring sexuality in a fictional bubble, instead of hookup culture? Is it okay for a 20 year old to write about their experiences as a teenager? Is it okay for a 20 year old to write about being raped at a party as a teenager? Is it okay for a 30 year old? How about a 40 year old? Is it okay so long as it isn’t titillating? Is it okay if taking control of the narrative allows the writer to re-conceptualize their trauma as something they have control over? Is it okay if their therapist told them that writing is a safe creative outlet?

Is your author dead?

Is your baby in the bathwater?

Now let’s take a hardline approach: no fanfiction with characters who are under 18 years old. None. Is the 16 year old who really loves Harry Potter and wants to read/write about characters their own age better off? Should they be banned from writing? Should they be forced to exclusively read and write (adult) experiences that they haven’t lived? Will they write about teens anyway? Should they have to share it in secret? Should 16 year olds be ashamed of themselves? Should we just throw in with the evangelicals and say that the only answer is abstinence, both real and fictional?

Let’s say that no rape is allowed in fiction, at all. None. What happens to all the hurt/comfort fics where a character is raped and then receives the support and love that they deserve, slowly heal, and by the end have found themselves again? Are you helping rape victims by banning these stories? Are you helping rape victims by stripping their agency away, by telling them that their wants and their consent doesn’t matter?

Is your baby in the bathwater?

Fandom is currently being split in two: on one side, the people who want to make fandom a “safer” place by any means necessary, even if that means throwing out all of the marginalized groups they say they want to protect - and on the other, people who are saying “if you throw out that bathwater, you’re throwing the baby out too.”

The whole point of fandom is to be able to explore all kinds of ideas from the safety and comfort of a computer screen. You can read/write things that fascinate you, disgust you, titillate you, or make your heart feel warm. This is true of all fiction. People who want to read about rape and incest and extreme violence and torture can go pick up a copy of Game of Thrones from the bookstore whenever they want. Sanitizing fandom just means holding a community of people who are primarily not male, not straight, not cis, or some combination of those three, to higher and stricter standards than straight white cis male authors and creators all over the world.

There is nothing you can find on AO3 that you can’t find in a bookstore. Any teenager can go check out Lolita, or ASOIAF, or Flowers in the Attic, or Stephen King's It, or Speak, or hundreds of other books that have adult themes or gratuitous violence or graphic sex. The difference is that AO3 has warnings and tags and allows people to interact only with the types of work that they want to, and allows people to curate their experiences.

Are these themes eligible to be explored, but only in the setting of something produced/published? Books, movies, television, studio art, music - all of these fields have huge barriers to entry, and they’re largely controlled by wealthy cishet white men. Is it better to say that only those who have the right connections to “make it” in these industries should be allowed to explore violence or sexuality or any other so-called “adult” theme?

Does banning women from writing MLM erotica make fan culture a better place?

Does banning queer people from writing about queer experiences make fan culture a better place?

Is M/M fic okay, but only if the author is male? What if he’s a trans man? What if they’re NB? Who should get to draw those lines? Should TERFs get a vote? What if the author is a woman who feels more comfortable writing from a male character’s perspective because she’s grown up with male stories her whole life, or because she identifies more with male characters? What about all the trans men who discovered themselves, in part, by writing fanfiction, and realized that their desires to write male characters stemmed from something they hadn’t yet realized about themselves?

How can we ever be sure that the author is who they say they are?

Who is allowed to write these stories? How do we enforce it?

Is it better for none of these stories to ever exist at all?

Have you killed your author?

Have you thrown out your baby with the bathwater?

#the discourse

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that--unusual-person · 3 years

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@atlantianchronicle Had to do bit of digging to back up my answer so it wouldn’t look like I’m spitballing (update: I spitballed). I used mostly G1 logic and history making this, and I too am still limited on transformer knowledge because my brain needs to absorb more juice. As for now… this headcanon is wild. that’s all i have to say.

So before we start I’m going to throw in a bonus. This will explain the making and meaning behind what makes the pillar men cybertronian pillar men. Plus, it’ll help you better understand what I’m throwing at you.

Kars first transformed himself into what i would call a ‘Spark Mutant’.

My definition of a spark mutant is the alteration of a cybertronians spark. Imagine if a humans genes were rearranged and deconstructed before being remade into a different creature. When a spark mutation happens, the genetic coding, mind, and body of a cybertronian are created and destroyed (think back to the scene in the movie Bolt when Bolt transforms).

The reason I call them spark mutants, emphasis on mutant, is because they somewhat have the same nature as mutants (mutants rule the underworld, far down the many levels of Cybertron, enemies to the cybertronians living on the surface, hostile to outsiders; already similar to the nature of the pillar men. Hence why I chose to call the cybertronian pillar men spark mutants, scientifically speaking. And for the ‘spark’ in spark mutants, I simply took the spark out of sparkeater and put it there (nothing special-ish).

Effects of Kars’ spark mutation allow him to feed on sparks the same as a sparkeater, yet maintain a balanced form and complete control over his hunger. Due to the consumption of sparks, it has allowed any spark mutants to live on, presumably immortal, and allowed rapid growth to the body. Rapid growth as in constant evolution, regeneration, stamina, and other physical abilities; including the ability to transform without a t-cog (transformation without a t-cog drains energy making them vunerable. if your ever in a rare confrontation with a spark mutant and duking it out, try to force them to transform, it is their best weakness).

I wouldn’t compare spark mutants to be similar to a prime, but they match in power (sometimes intellect depending on who is the spark mutant). Spark mutants would best be compared to a super soldier abomination. Primes are chosen by the Matrix, spark mutants are defects of sparkeater configuration.

And a side note on Kars’ title for his new species of cybertronians, they take on the name ‘The Pillars of Cybertron’ or for short ‘The Cyber Pillars’ (I’m sorry my brain can’t think of anything super fabulous for them, maybe later I’ll find something better).

Now onto the Cyber Pillar race and how it began ( i tried to incorporate as much of the original story as possible into this one but with a transformers twist so it doesn’t derail. plus i put some history in it, most of which is headcanonly written by yours truly).

This kind-of turned into a short story recreating the pillar mens uprising but transformers styled, but I hope it gives some more details to my answer and why I think so (plus I got carried away, this was very fun to write. Aaaand I think it’ll help anyone who isn’t familiar with transformers and is confused as all hell better understand what’s happening without doing any research. Boom, double bonus. your welcome).

Anywho- let’s start with time, yes? How long ago was it when the rise of the spark mutants began?

It started during the time Primus created Cybertron twelve million years ago, then came the first wave of cybertronians to roam its surface. However, the mutants (talkin G1 Mutants) lived scattered underground in small groups, Kars and Esidisi among one of them (same quantity as the pillar men originally started before humans).

Living and thriving plentifully, it was until the Matrixes were distributed to the first Primes above ground, Kars grew envious not only of their gift, but their power of transformation as well (he’s always dreamed of evolving into a better species like the cybertronians above). Greedily, he searched for a way to attain any source of power that will match that of a Primes, until he came across the ability to create sparkeaters (like how he created the stone masks and caused the DIO incident, but that’s another story for another time). He tested this new ability on random cybertronians he captured from the surface. Unfortunately it proved to be far more dangerous than Kars had anticipated, quickly failing to see how unstable sparkeater are and its transformations can be. It was until Kars stumbled upon a unique technique of altering a spark and processors natural state.

Thus, he created a mask (insert the stone mask and its properties here yata yata yata-) to connect to his brain module and alter his mind and spark. Kars continued to test the new mask on himself, having enough confidence and bravery that this would be the perfect transformation. It was a gruesome process, having undergoing the change to sparkeater tears apart his body and mind, splitting him inhalf before reconnecting in a bright flash of light. Afterwards, he was stable and out of energy. And no matter how much energon he consumed, it was never enough, until he found his taste in sparks. Realizing this newfound power, he went on to feast and thrive off sparks of the surface cybertronians for hundreds years while living amongst his underground brethren. It was then he met Esidisi, who soon joined him, and became his conjunx (hell yes I’ve wanted to say that for a long time).

But with the rapid amount of cybertronians being found without their sparks, husks of the dead being descovered raised suspicion above. Word hadn’t gotten to the Primes yet, but it had reached the rest of the mutants underground. They were furious with Kars’ reckless ness and hunger for power, they decided that if they did not eliminate Kars, the Primes will find the mutants and have them all exterminated. And so, they challenged Kars and Esidisi. (you all know what happens next) Kars and Esidisi make quick work of the mutants, slaughtering them and feasting on their sparks. They left the scene for the surface to live secretly alongside the surface cybertronians. It was hundreds of years later they found two abandoned protoforms; Esidisi insisted on having children (Kars knew Esidisi has always wanted to be a sire when they left the underground), and adopted the two, dubbing them Wamuu and Santana (haha babies). And when they finally grew old enough, Kars titled themselves Cybertron first Cyber Pillars.

It’s then millions of years later, before before Orion Pax becomes Optimus Prime, Kars has yearned for more power, to go beyond his current state and reach that of Primus himself. And so began their quest for the All Spark, yet the quest as proven too impossible for them when the war between the Autobots and the Decepticon broke out. As a last resort, the Cyber Pillars went into stasis, awaiting the right moment to awake when the war is over so they can resume their quest.

To this day, they sleep peacefully somewhere on Cybertron. Until… A SOMETHING HAPPENED! OOH NOOOOO-

aaaand i’ll leave it at that. to be continued i guess

#welp #i did a thing #yay me #now i genuinely hope this answers your question and doesnt confuse everyone else because i got swept off my feet into this wonderfull place #of absolute horror and fun #jjba/transformers #ramble

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foramomentonly · 3 years

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Malex New Year’s Ficlet

It’s New Year’s Day and the first ever RNM fic I wrote took place on New Year’s Day. So this is a shameless reblog of my first ever contribution to this fandom. Love you all.

Read on AO3

Michael shuffles out of Isobel’s guest room on New Year’s Day and pads groggily downstairs, following the scent of freshly brewed coffee. The good stuff. He expects to find Isobel sipping coffee at the kitchen table, her casual, but effortlessly chic look perfectly curated to shame the rest of their disheveled, hungover asses. Isobel had invited everyone over for a quiet, elegant New Year’s Eve soriee. He and Liz—perfectly matched partners in mayhem as well as in scientific research and discovery, as it turns out—had turned it into a drunken rager. Secrets were revealed, grievances were aired, but they’d somehow rung in the New Year with arms draped heavily on shoulders, sloppy cheek kisses, and even sloppier declarations of eternal love.

Which is why Michael is surprised to walk into Isobel’s unexpectedly cozy kitchen to find Alex standing at the sink, elbow-deep in sudsy water, drying rack beside him half-full of Isobel’s boho dish set.

Alex glances over his shoulder at Michael’s soft oh! and smiles at him.

Defying the expectations of their friends, they had avoided a drunken throwdown the night before, chatting casually, if briefly throughout the night. They’ve already torn into one another a hundred times over, fueled on occasion by alcohol. They’ve used words like teeth to gnaw at old wounds and tear apart tender flesh. Their truths still float unspoken between them, but time and proximity have taught them how to treat each other like there might just be a tomorrow after all.

“Hey,” Alex says easily. “Sleep well?”

Michael smiles in return, moving farther into the kitchen.

“Ugh, did anybody?” He points to the half-empty carafe of rich, dark liquid on the table. “You make that?”

Alex nods.

“You still make coffee stronger than jet fuel?”

Alex shoots him a devilish grin and nods again.

“Bless you,” Michael sighs, pressing his palms together and half bowing toward Alex. He grabs a mug and pulls the nearest chair out with his mind, dropping heavily into it and pouring himself a cup. They’re both silent for a few minutes, Michael guzzling his coffee and Alex scrubbing a particularly crusty serving platter.

“You trying to avoid Isobel’s wrath?” Michael finally asks, gesturing towards Alex’s work with his now half-empty cup. Alex huffs a laugh.

“I just thought I’d make clean up a little easier for her and load the dishwasher,” he says. “Turns out she has no dishwasher, and ninety percent of her stuff isn’t dishwasher safe anyway.”

He shrugs as best he can while rinsing out a champagne flute.

“Yeah, she used to have one,” Michael replies. “A dishwasher, I mean. But me and Max and fucking Noah kept putting her fancy dishes in it, so she made me take it out and install a custom wine fridge.”

Alex laughs, and Michael smiles at the sound. He drains his cup and rises, moving to stand next to Alex at the sink.

“Here,” he says. “I’ll dry. I know where everything goes, anyway.”

Alex hums in response, reaching to take Michael’s dirty mug out of his hands.

“Never thought of you as the domestic type,” he teases. Michael shrugs, a little self conscious.

“I like to cook, actually,” he says. “No room to in the Airstream and Isobel can’t cook for shit, so she lets me use her kitchen.”

“Did you make the food we ate last night?” Alex asks, hesitant.

“Fuck, no,” Michael snorts. “I like comfort food. Isobel had the thing last night catered.”

Alex sighs in what Michael interprets as relief. He remembers Alex picking politely at his plate at dinner, but mostly eating a lot of rolls.

“I was actually thinking of asking Liz’s dad if he needs some help at the diner,” Michael admits, eyes fixed on the plate he’s drying. He feels more than sees Alex turn towards him. “It’s been slow at the junkyard and I’ve had way too much time on my hands to fall back into, uh, bad habits.”

Alex has been the unwitting witness of Michael’s bad habits, scraping him off the floor of The Wild Pony or fielding phone calls and voicemails that prick like barbed wire and leave a million tiny cuts. He’s also been the impetus of of them, on days when dark shadows cloud his brain and he can’t seem to see or care who’s reaching out to him.

“I think that’s really great,” Alex says softly. “You should mention it to Liz. Let her work on Arturo a little before you go in.”

“Yeah, I will,” Michael says, shelving the final plate as Alex drains the sink. Without the easy routine of a shared task, they stand awkwardly together, the silence heavy between them.

“I’m, uh, I’m starting therapy next week at the VA,” Alex says, offering a piece of his own vulnerability to Michael in a hesitant exchange. “Yeah?” Michael asks. “Well, look at us.”

And it’s not midnight, it’s not even close to fixed between them, but like lost parts of a whole, like the pieces of Michael’s incomplete ship they slide together, warm lips pressing lightly, then more insistently as mouths open and small breathes of pleasure escape. The kiss is slow and easy, full of later, soon, tomorrow. They pull apart, step back easily, and offer soft smiles.

“Happy New Year, Guerin.”

“Happy New Year, Private.”

#malex #roswell new mexico #malex fic #alex manes #michael guerin #new year's day #rnm fic

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awyeahitssam · 4 years

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Bakery!AU, werewolf Stiles Stilinski, no Hale fire. Working Title: No Shoes, No Shirts, No Fucks Given

Stiles wakes up in the middle of the woods, the bark of a large tree stump digging into his bare back.

Looks down.

Notes that he’s butt naked, though the sensation of twigs and leaves in uncomfortable places could’ve clued him in well enough without the visual input.

Groans.

“Fucking seriously? I knew I should’ve stuck to city life.”

He’s been a werewolf for nine weeks, and it’s the first time he’s left Berkeley since he was bitten. His dad had heavily hinted that he wanted him home for winter break months ago, and back then Stiles had been eager to agree.

That was Before. After, he just felt a crawling anxiety.

It was his dad. There was no way Noah wouldn’t notice something different about Stiles. He was a cop, trained to be observant, and in the past Stiles might have been fine but Noah had really stepped up his parenting game in Stiles’ junior year. He was hardly an absent father these days, which seemed like a bad thing for the first (okay, fifth) time.

Point being that Stiles took his finals, packed his shit, and decided to drive the two and a half hours back to Beacon Hills on about zero hours of sleep. Because he was an adult and could do what he wanted, and he wanted to be home two days sooner than promised, before his dad could throw out whatever incriminating shit was in the fridge.

After nearly falling asleep twice in about eighty minutes, Stiles ceded, pulled into a rest stop, and decided on a nap before continuing on. He had been taught to drive by three separate police officers, and besides that wasn’t dumb enough to keep himself in a situation that would have him crashing into a pole.

Key word being keep himself in, because he sure as heck would put himself in it during some manic burst of energy.

So he wasn’t super sure about the moral of this story. Don’t pass out at a rest stop, you’ll be kidnapped, stripped, and dumped in a forest?

More like: being a werewolf sucked ass.

The only footprints that he could see were his own, and his feet were bare but undamaged, coated in several layers of dirt.

Stiles groaned, standing and relishing the pop of his spine. Then he picked a direction.

Started walking.

It takes Stiles about half an hour to find his way out of the woods, and by that time he’s recognized it as the Beacon Hills preserve. Maybe it was a Stiles thing, or more likely it was a werewolf thing (because Stiles liked a brand new excuse to blame everything on as much as the next guy), but this was no half-assed form of sleepwalking. He had gone at least sixty miles.

It took another twenty minutes of jogging to make his way into town. His dad’s house would be another forty or so, and increased body temperature or not, he’s freezing.

He sees a light on and goes for it, because whatever happens can’t be worse than being caught half-naked and covered in dirt by the old lady next door who babysat him when he was little.

It’s a bakery, less than six months old since Stiles hasn’t been home in that long and it wasn’t here last time. His dad had probably mentioned it in passing, but Stiles can’t remember for the life of him.

Most importantly, when he pushes the door (completely bypassing the ‘Closed’ sign) it budges open, bell chiming over the entryway. A sharp-eyed man looks up from the counter, mouth already open to snap something, and his words fall away in the face of Stiles pathetic state.

“Look man, I know the sign says ‘No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service.’ but I just had the weirdest night and your shop is the only building with lights on this early and I’m really, really hoping you have some spare clothes behind the counter.”

Stiles stares the dark-haired baker down hopelessly, giving his best doe eyes, and says, “Help?”

It’s not something he’s used to asking for, but put in this situation there’s not much else to do.

For the longest moment the man just stares into Stiles’ eyes, but then he takes a deep breath and the crease between his brows eases.

“Come with me,” he sighs, raising the counter so Stiles can follow him into the back of the shop. “Wouldn’t want the Sheriff’s son to be arrested for public indecency, would we?”

Stiles tries not to bristle, because there are several officers on duty (two of which he had dodged on his way) and the guy seems like he’s about to help him out. Besides, something about the man’s presence is settling, and his frazzled mind finally seems to be focusing for the first time in days.

Of course, it gets a little sketchy when that focus extends to him memorizing the scent of the guy’s shampoo and hearing his heartbeat like a loud, steady drum directly in his ear. Stiles is trying to wrangle in his super senses when a pair of sweatpants and a white tee are shoved into his arms. He turns to blink up at the man, who’s tugging his button up back on sans undershirt, and shifts awkwardly.

“Uh, thanks,” Stiles rasps, and swallows when he realizes how hoarse his voice sounds for the first time.

“Change in here,” the man says curtly, showing Stiles to the employee restroom. “We’ll talk when you’re done.”

Stiles nods, entering the bathroom with a heavy sense of trepidation. He’s going to have a hard time explaining this away, and he knows it. Still, he’s earned a reputation as ‘silvertongue’ at college, and not just because Loki was his favorite Marvel character and Stiles was good with his mouth.

He dresses slowly, bits of a plan coming together as he wipes the dirt from his feet with a damp paper towel and washes his hands. By the time he exits he looks somewhat presentable, mostly in that he’s no longer naked and doesn’t have dirt streaking his face, legs, and feet.

He hears movement towards the front of the shop, and spares a longing glance towards what he assumes in the back door, but before he can make a move the baker pops his head around the corner, eyes narrowed.

“I made tea,” he announces, and it sounds bizarrely threatening. “Come join me.”

Stiles flashes him a sheepish (and one-hundred-percent false) smile and follows him out to one of the tables. They sit.

“So, uh, thanks for the clothes—I’ll wash them and bring them back here tomorrow, if that’s cool?”

The man shrugs ambivalently, but his eyes are sharp and heavy as he regards Stiles. “That’s acceptable. Care to explain your nude jaunt through the night?”

“It’s morning,” Stiles quips back, mouth quicker than his brain, and winces preemptively, waving his hand through the air as though to dismiss his automatic snark. “No, ignore that, I’m rude and yeah, you kinda deserve an explanation here.”

Stiles sighs heavily, looking to the ceiling as if asking for some otherworldly assistance, before crossing his hands and looking back to Peter with faux seriousness. “No one in the history of ever should agree to a drunken carpool with frat boys.”

The guy’s eyebrows raise.

“Not, like, drunk driving carpool. This was more of a everyone-but-the-driver-is-wasted-after-finals-and-the-driver-can’t-turn-down-a-good-bet-to-save-his-life kind of situation. And, if you aren’t following, I was the driver.”

It's a simple enough part for Stiles to play. Stupid college student gets in over his head. Sheriff’s Kid - Bad Again? Cliches exist for a reason.

Stiles falls into his role flawlessly, blushing and wincing and laughing awkwardly at all the right points. He pulls experiences from his life to make the emotions more genuine, though some part of him still feels distant and amused by the whole situation. It’s probably the same part of Stiles that cackles at the misfortune of others and thinks morbid things at the least appropriate times.

So yes, Stiles is caught up in the lie, but he’s also monitoring the guy for a reaction. Nothing about his countenance seems to indicate disbelief so it’s a good bet this is working. Stiles was seven when he taught himself to be a good liar.

Becoming a werewolf just made him a great one. The ability to smell whether somebody was buying his shit or not was invaluable.

And really, who would admit to such a preposterous and embarrassing tale if it wasn’t true?

“—and now that you’ve got enough material to blackmail me for life, what even is your name?”

The guy, who had stared at him steadily through his rant, scent fluctuating between incredulity, amusement, and irritation, tapped neat nails on the table between them. “I’m ever-so hurt you don’t already know it, but very well. It’s Peter.”

Stiles cocked a brow.

“Hale.”

Stiles blinked, because Hale was not only a name he knew from childhood, but one that had popped up in his extensive research into his sudden lycanthropy.

And this guy couldn’t be serious.

“Oh? Any relation to Talia Hale?”

The man smirks. Stiles wonders if he can smell his building irritation at the thought that—

“Oh yes, Alpha Hale is my older sister.”

Good god.

“Did you seriously just sit there listening to my ode on the tribulations of being a dumb college kid for shits and giggles?”

Peter shrugs loosely. “I wanted to see if you could lie convincingly, and it seems you can.”

Stiles’ exhaustion and grumpiness began to peek through the need to protect his secret. He had to find his car, figure out what led to the sleepwalking and how to prevent it in the future, and determine whether or not he was going to be attacked for entering another pack's territory despite having grown up there.

He also had one million questions about the whole ‘how to werewolf’ issue, but he’d been doing fine on his own so far and Stiles hated asking for help. Especially from someone that practically reeked of smugness.

Stiles wrinkled his nose, huffed, and stood. “Thanks for the outfit, I’ll bring it back tomorrow morning.”

He turned to the door, and for a moment Peter let him live in the delusion that he could walk out without a word.

“You know, sweetheart, your life is going to be difficult if you can’t even tell a born were from your average human.”

Stiles stalled, glancing back. It was a good point. Stiles had been in the same high school as Cora Hale for four years and never even suspected. Clearly he wasn’t as observant as he liked to think.

“My life is already pretty difficult, darling. Are you just pointing out what’s evident, or offering a solution?”

Peter made a thoughtful humming sound, watching him expectantly, and Stiles scoffed. “Yeah, I thought not.”

Whatever this man wanted from him, Stiles wasn’t interested.

He was halfway out the door when Peter asked, “Would you like a ride?”

Stiles grit his teeth and tried to think logically. He couldn’t show up at his dads sans jeep, and he really didn’t fancy walking the sixty plus miles to find it.

Still, “Don’t you have a shop to open?”

#steter drabble #steter #peter/stiles #STILES/PETER #alpha stiles #naked vision quests #(No not actually)#Pre-Slash #first ‘chapter’ and Peter has already seen Stiles naked #wolf whistles

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