#there’s a very specific audio in referencing I’ll make something to it later
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Two Weeks in the TARDIS - The Eighth Doctor
Welcome to Two Weeks in the TARDIS! I’m talking about the different versions of the titular protagonist from “Doctor Who.” Each day I’ll be covering a different Doctor, going in order from the First to the Thirteenth.
We’ve gone past the halfway point! Today, we’ll be discussing that One Hit Wonder, Paul McGann: the Eighth Doctor!
BACKGROUND
In the mid-90s, an attempt was made to bring Doctor Who - which had been dormant for approximately seven years since 1989 - back to television. The BBC decided to start this bold attempt with a television movie, which would sort of act as a pilot for the series (not an unusual strategy), and then produce the series after...presuming the film did well. Much of the funding for the production came from American backers, and unfortunately, that would mean the success or failure of the movie - and thus the potential for a series revival - would rest almost entirely on how well the film did in the United States.
Well, unfortunately, the TV film did NOT do well in the U.S.A., and while it was better received in the UK, at least in terms of ratings and returns, it never really found a solid audience anywhere. As a result, the revival concept was scrapped; it would be almost ten years before the show ACTUALLY came back to the small screen. As far as the film goes, it was, and still is, somewhat controversial. The general consensus seems to be that the film is “meh.” I don’t know too many people, personally, who revile it...but I also don’t know too many people who love it, either. I won’t go into all the ups and downs of the film itself, though. I’m here to focus specifically on its main character: Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor.
Right alongside Colin Baker, McGann is one of the most underappreciated Doctors, and I think that stems mostly from the fact that he only has two screen appearances to his name: one is the TV movie, which again is “meh,” and the other is a “mini-episode” entitled “Night of the Doctor,” which shows how McGann’s character transformed into the lore-headache-inducing character of “The War Doctor.” (Again, the War Doctor will NOT be covered in this retrospective.) McGann would later have greater life in the Big Finish audio plays, as well as various novels and comics, but in terms of onscreen appearances, these two performances are all we’ve ever gotten.
Now...before I get into McGann himself, and what makes his Doctor what he is...the time has come to properly address the issue of the Big Finish audio plays, in particular. As I’ve said multiple times by now, I am NOT including them in my evaluation of each Doctor and their strengths and weaknesses. This is for two reasons. One, I haven’t heard very many of them, and while I have generally liked what I HAVE heard, it’s hard for me to judge properly with that in mind. Two, the canon of the audio plays is...fluctuating. Several productions very clearly are meant to be canon with the TV series, but they are never properly referenced or have their placement made apparent IN the TV series, making it harder to gather where they fit into the sprawling, deranged timeline of the show...and some, just as clearly, are not likely canon at all. These two basic issues are the same reasons why I’m not including novels, comics, or anything of that nature here, either...but there’s a third reason I need to address, because I feel it’s important.
Doctor Who is a series that, barring a couple of hiatuses, has been going on for nearly sixty years now. NEARLY. SIXTY. YEARS. And it has gone on for approximately NINE HUNDRED separate episodes (less if you count the serials and such all in one go, but that still leads to about...two to three hundred stories, I think). If you discount the hiatuses, that’s still about 40 years on TV. Why do I say this? Because, frankly, I don’t think there’s any EXCUSE for there to be underdevelopment with something that long-running and that gigantic. I shouldn’t HAVE to listen to audio plays or watch spin-off shows or do any of that sort of thing to get what makes the characters work or see what makes them so brilliant. Doctor Who is a TELEVISION staple, first and foremost, and it has been that way for AGES. No matter how many audio plays or such there are, that’s not going to change. If the TV show can’t give me what it needs to, then that is the fault of the production, NOT the Doctor...but that also means that any undervelopment that exists has to be taken bitterly. It’s sort of the same reason the expanded universe for Star Wars or Star Trek is so iffy, but at least with the former, that’s been going on for less time and over a series of movies, which - even when taken together - do not equate to the amount of screentime a giant mega TV series would contain. With something like Doctor Who? It should stand on its own two feet, and so should every Doctor in it. The canon of the TV show, so far, seems to be inarguable, and that is ultimately where what works or doesn’t work should be most keenly focused on. Keeping that in mind...let’s look at the one hit wonder that is Paul McGann’s Doctor.
PERSONALITY
Alongside the Fifth Doctor, Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor is generally considered to be the most “human.” In fact, in the movie, it’s stated that the Doctor actually has human blood in his veins, although I believe that fact was later retconned. (Thank goodness for that, because while it would explain why the Doctor seems to love the human race so much, it doesn’t really do anything for the character, mucks up the lore up to that point, and generally doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.) In a less literal sense, however, McGann’s Doctor is something of an amalgamation of the Third, Fourth, Fifth Doctors: his love of Jelly Babies, motormouth excitability, and love of name-dropping historical figures and rambling about his experiences with them are reminiscent of Tom Baker, while his more action-ready elements are certainly similar to Jon Pertwee’s Bond-esque exploits. However, what stands out the most about McGann’s Doctor are his youthful, dashing good looks, and his sense of intense compassion, which are clear carry-overs from Peter Davison. This Doctor is one who tries to reason with his enemies, who will sacrifice himself before anybody else, and in direct contrast to the plots and schemes of his previous incarnation, seems a bit more naive and tender-hearted. It’s as if he’s trying to right the wrongs of who he used to be: a man who has given up on the dark and enigmatic persona he held before, and simply presents himself as who he is, wearing his heart on his sleeve - a trait that is often a weakness just as much as a strength, as it gets him into trouble just as often as it shows his real power. Indeed, it is his compassion that ironically leads to his downfall and need to become the War Doctor: a recognition that he can’t save everyone, and that he needs to harden himself in order to become the man he needs to be for the trials ahead. In a way, this is a Doctor tormented by his own name: he wants so badly to be the man who fixes everything, who saves everyone, and it’s telling that when he has his great transformation, he doesn’t like to be CALLED “Doctor” anymore. There’s a sort of heartwarming tragedy to the Eighth Doctor: the Time Lord who perhaps cares too much, even through his distracted rambling.
COSTUME
Once again, the Eighth Doctor is a walking anachronism. While other Doctors had clothes that leaned towards the Edwardian or Victorian, the Eighth straight up dresses in a costume that resembles Lewis Carroll in his first appearance. (I don’t know if that specific analogy was intended, but if you look at photos of Carroll, and then pictures of the Eighth Doctor, trust me, you’ll see a resemblance: https://www.ersilias.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Lewis-Carroll-y-Charles-Lutwidge-Dodgson-6-1856-60.jpg.) Another, perhaps even more apt comparison to make is Jules Verne’s classic sci-fi novel “The Time Machine,” where its main character is often shown to also wear such types of clothing in illustrated versions. Once again, the anachronistic style serves to give the Doctor his usual eccentric code of dress, but it also serves to give him a sense of sophistication and a bold, dignified demeanor: McGann is a handsome fellow in that smooth green frock coat, and it once again serves to contrast him from the Seventh Doctor’s more “mad professor” demeanor. This is a slick, smooth, gentlemanly Doctor: more mellow than the last, but still strange in nearly any environment. By the time we meet McGann again in “Night of the Doctor,” he still bears hallmarks of that early appearance, but we can clearly tell this is not the same man who beat Eric Roberts - I mean, the Master - all those uncountable years ago. It’s a bit like the contrast between William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton: retaining some of the same elements, but making them look more battered and disheveled. However, instead of being used to contrast two different regenerations, this happens within the SAME regeneration, and instead of being played for laughs, it shows us just how much has changed for the Eighth Doctor: the first is a man entering the world fresh-faced, born again and ready to see the world with a new outlook. The other is a man whose dreams have been blown apart, still desperately clutching to the ideals of his youth; a man who has been through Hell, and is just clinging to the light in the dark for as long as he can.
NOTABLE COMPANIONS
As I said before, I’m not counting the “expanded material,” so in terms of companions, the Eighth Doctor really only has two...and they don’t even technically count as companions. One is Chang Lee: a young street thug who is actually partially responsible for the Seventh Doctor’s death...and then robs his corpse...and is fooled by the Master into helping him with his evil plan. (pauses) Yeaaaaahhhh...I don’t like Chang Lee much. I mean, good on the kid for eventually seeing the light and becoming a hero in the end (and I should add that his actor, Yee Jee Tso, does a GREAT job), but...nope. That’s like running over my dog and taking him to the hospital...only to then chop off his tail, and then help someone else frame a man for the crime. Sorry, hard for me to come back from that. The other is Grace Holloway: a surgeon who is also partially responsible for the Seventh Doctor’s death (I’m sensing a pattern here, and I don’t like it), and ends up joining the Eighth Doctor on his journey, and even starts to fall in love with him. In fact, the romantic undertones with Grace were something controversial at the time: up to that point, the Doctor was generally seen as an asexual being, and any romantic interest he may or may not have had in his companions was simply implied...but with Grace, the romance is real and direct, with the Doctor sharing his first kiss. Nowadays, no one bats an eye at the moment, since the modern Doctors tend to be more sexually and romantically active, but back then, fans were very split about it, as you can imagine. Anyway, Daphne Ashbrook does a fine job (seriously, all the acting in this TV Movie is great...well...maybe ALMOST all the acting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDKuGBYpP3Y), and Grace is a good character - and so is Chang Lee, despite my annoyance with him - but since the movie ends with the three characters going their separate ways, I don’t know how much they actually count as “Companions.” McGann would get ACTUAL Companions in his audio plays, but again, I’m not counting any of those here. On THAT note...
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
As I said, the TV Movie and “Night of the Doctor” are the only televised appearances McGann has. And while the former is imperfect, and the latter is only a mini-episode (you can find it on YouTube, in fact), they’re both obviously must-sees: they’re the only way you’ll get to know McGann’s Doctor outside of supplementary material. Bearing that in mind...for all my talk about discounting the audio dramas, I’m going to throw them a bone in THIS case, because truly, the BEST McGann stories are those in said audio plays. My recommended LISTENING, therefore, is “Terror Firma”: my favorite McGann Doctor audio play (though, again, I haven’t necessarily heard very many), and one of the absolute best stories of ANYTHING in Doctor Who to feature the villainous Davros. If you skip that though, the TV Movie and Mini-Episode remain must-sees, so check them both out: for all their flaws, they are necessary, in my books.
It’s time to move into the New Who Era! Next time we’ll be discussing Christopher Eccleston, the Ninth Doctor: My First Doctor.
#two weeks in the tardis#doctor who#dr. who#retrospective#history#tv#sci-fi#audio#big finish productions#january special#new year's countdown#eighth doctor#paul mcgann
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Here’s what writing an episode of Spirit Box Radio looks like...
If you’ve ever wondered how episodes of Spirit Box Radio are written, here’s a little overview of that process!! If you like this, I can also write up a similar breakdown of the sound design process!
Most, but not all, episodes are born in the ‘Episodes’ section of the Show Bible. The Show Bible is a document of epic proportions - 50k in length and growing every day - which contains all the essential information about the show, from the continuously evolving methods I use to edit different character voices as I learn more and more about audio editing and production, right to ‘sketches’ of the episodes for all three series of the show. There is also a large section called ‘Ideas and Notes’, where I’ll write freeform dialogue between characters and keep track of themes and ideas to try and keep them consistent. These are all numbered, and referenced in a seperate spreadsheet I have of all the characters with significant and/or speaking roles in the show.
The full break down is under the cut!!!
The grandaddy of the the plans in the Show Outline, where I go over all of the main ideas I want to be talking about in the show and roughly mark out the outline of the shape of each season. The first draft of the Show Outline was very messy and rough, but subsequent versions are broken down into Season-by-Season chunks, all talking from a multi-series perspective so as to place the ideas of the show along a three-series-long arc.
Season Outline
Season Outlines take those ideas for the shapes of the series from the Show Outline and refine them further from a beginning-to-end-perspective. I'm a goal-oriented writer, which means my story ideas tend to come from a very ‘the end’ kind of place, and the stories that lead up to that ending are all about serving that ending. Quite often the ending itself changes a long over the planning and writing process for me, but that’s the great thing about a plan! Once you have it, you can change it if you need to. What a plan does, however, is provide you with a framework for understanding what bits of a story you have, and what bits you still need to make.
The three seasons of Spirit Box Radio are quite deliberately split into two halves. There are lots of reasons why and one of them is that it gives you a very specific kind of shape to be working from. A season with a mid-season break has a part one which has it’s own escalation of tension and climax, which comes at the mid-point of the season-long escalation, where the story might otherwise sag a little.
Beyond splitting the plan into Parts 1 & 2, I typically also break episodes into ‘Blocks’. This is partly practical; I can refer in conversations with my guest writers to where it falls in a specific block of episodes, and where that block fits in the story as a whole, and it also makes splitting up the episodes for sending out scripts to my actors a lot more straight forward. Part 1 of Season 1, for example, was broken into three blocks; episodes 1.1-1.7; 1.8-1.13; 1.14-1.20. I won’t go into detail about how this effects the structure of the episodes themselves, but it’s usually about building characters up to making a certain decision, or following a certain subplot more closely before pulling away.
Episode Sketch
A ‘sketch’ is a very brief summary of what needs to happen in that specific episode. This can be concrete, like ‘find [x] item’, or vague, like ‘establish that Character A has Trait Y’. Sometimes I’ll make a note to include a specific sound or character beat, or I’ll reference a noted scene from the ‘Ideas and Notes’ i think would fit in there. It’s usually at the sketch summary stage that I figure out whether or not there will be other characters in a specific episode. The sketches for almost all of the episodes in Season One were written between August and October 2020.
Episode Plan
This stage takes those necessary elements from the sketch and fleshes them out into a coherent story. The key thing about podcast episodes is that they have to be able to be entertaining on their own, minute by minute, as well as serving the whole series (I talked a lot more about this in the last episode of Hanging with the Sloths on Patreon which is only £2/equivalent pcm to access if you’re interested!!)
Whilst I’m making my episode plan, I’ll look back at the sketches for the episode I’m working on and those before and after it, and refer to the series outline where I can, to make sure I’m keeping a handle not just on the individual pacing of the episode, but the pacing of the show overall.
I like to have Episode Plans done by about a month before I need to have a script finished.
The Script Itself
Spirit Box Radio scripts are either agonising or happen in the blink of an eye. I do not have a set approach to how I write an episode. Sometimes the plans come with sections of dialogue written months before and I’ll drape the rest of the episode around those moments and see where I end up. If there is a character other than Sam in an episode, I’ll typically attempt to write that section of the script before the rest, so that I’ll definitely have it locked by the time I need to send it to the actors.
Any script that is for other actors (i.e. not me) has to have notes, direction, and additional information included to help the actors give their best performance. That’s difficult sometimes because I guard my show secrets closely, so it’s often a game of working out how much I can tell an actor without including spoilers for later important plot points unless absolutely necessary, and how to supplement gaps in their information. I’ll usually compare a character to a character from something else as a shorthand for performance.
This means there are two versions of every script which needs to be seen by people who aren’t me. My scripts, which I call the master scripts, have all my audio cues, breaks for drinking water in recording sessions, character notes that are Top Secret, sound scaping ideas, specific sounds I’ll need to use at different moments, and specific audio cues. As I get better at sound design, my version of the script only gets messier and messier to look at. Sometimes, when I’m writing scripts, I’ll actually even start with sound design notes now!!
Script Locking
This is the point at which a script can no longer be changed. Scripts with other characters in them have to be locked before scripts for just Sam, because they need to go out to actors and I need to ensure that I have time to go back and ask them to redo things if necessary, and also to make sure they have proper time to rehearse and organise read-throughs as they’d like to. That means sometimes sections of an episode are locked way before other sections are even written. This can be challenging as a writer because sometimes I’ll come back to a section which I know still needs work, and find I’m extremely limited in what I can do because I’ve already sent an actor a script to record from - sometimes for later episodes, I’ll have the lines from otheres already recorded and ready to go before I finalise some of Sam’s lines for a specific episode.
Sam is recorded a minimum of three weeks before an episode is due to air, and I’ll record in 3-episode stints, usually. I like to have the scripts locked a week before I record so I have time to read them through at my own pace, but sometimes I won’t manage to have them locked until three days out. On one hateful occasion, I threw out an entire script after I’d recorded an episode and re-recorded the whole thing the day before airing. I do not recommend doing this and whilst I am much happier with the result it was an agonising experience because once I’d rewritten and re-recorded that episode I then had to edit it before it was due for release, a process which takes about six hours minimum. I was making tweaks until 20 minutes before the episode went live. Do not recommend.
Editing
Speaking of editing, the final stage of writing an episode actually happens in the cutting room. Sometimes episodes are simply Too Long. Sometimes stuff that worked on paper just don’t work in audio. Sometimes I can’t say a word correctly for the life of me and have to cut a whole sentence to cover it over. More rarely, but still often enough an occurence it bears mentioning, I’ll realise in the editing process that a conversation is better in a different order than the one given in the script, and pull and move around the dialogue to adjust the flow. Sometimes I’ll move sections about a bit to accomodate similar problems with narrative flow.
Annnnd that’s it! That’s what the process looks like!
#spirit box radio#spirit box radio podcast#writing#audio drama#behind the scenes#writing process#show runner
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gallick’s blog writing rules
Hey guys, gallick here! As I expand my writing parameters, I thought it would be good to make a rules post. I ask that you please read this prior to requesting, because it has my preferences, request status, and content info included.
Please be aware: I reserve the right to delete any and ALL requests/asks that do not conform to my rules.
My inbox is always open for thirsting [defined below], questions, conversation, venting, and advice. See the remaining rules below the cut ―
·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙ ✩ *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙
【CONTENT INDEX】
what is a...
✰ 『thirst』this is usually when you send in your thoughts on a certain character in a certain situation. My responses can be anything from a jumbled up paragraph to a full on thirst drabble (~250-500 words), depending on whether I’m on mobile vs. desktop, as well as if I jive with your thirst. That being said, don’t ever feel ashamed of the thirst that you want to send in! Even if it’s not my thing, as long as it’s not on my no-no list [see below], I’ll at least post it with some sort of response! See examples of thirst «here», «here», «here», and «here». Thirst can sometimes turn into full on fics depending on how I feel about it!
✰ 『drabble』this is a “fic” that is generally more in depth than a thirst, but not as plot-driven as a full on one shot or fic. I usually keep drabbles between 500-2,000 words. They are normally given their own post instead of replying to the ask itself, but I will respond to the ask with a link to the drabble once I’ve posted it.
✰ 『fic』this is usually a one-shot piece, which means it is a stand-alone fanfiction work. These are at least 2,000 words in length, and I do not put a limit on them as I have no self-control and will write huge fics with no regard to my personal sanity. These will always be posted as their own text post, and will more than likely be {sporadically} uploaded to my ao3 account as well. If the fic is inspired by an ask, I will answer the ask with a link to the fic once I’ve posted it.
✰ 『multi-chap fic』this is usually a piece that spans at minimum two parts, connected via the plotline that runs consistently through them both. As of now, I do not have any multi-chapter works, but I do have a couple planned for the future! These will always be posted as their own text post, with links to the prior part as well as the future part, once it has been posted.
【WRITING RULES】
✰ All characters are aged up to at least 20 years of age no matter whether the situation is sfw or nsfw. The only times I will write “high school” types of works will be in flashbacks, not full length fics. I always try to explicitly state within the work that they are of age - whether that’s referring to them a Pro Heroes (BNHA), Pro Athletes (Haikyuu!!), etc. If I ever discuss “dorms”, I am always talking about college dorms/apartments.
✰ This is my blog, and therefore I get to choose what I do and do not want to write. I apologize if that means I have glossed over your request, but I cannot force myself into writing something I do not feel like I can do, because then it’s not genuine and even though it gets the content out, it’s not content I’d be proud of.
✰ I do NOT close my requests. I feel like it’s pointless, given a lot of people don’t pay attention to the open/closed titles anyway. With this being said, I do receive a lot of requests. If you feel that yours has gotten buried, eaten by the tumblr ask monster, or ignored, please feel free to send it in again. Also keep in mind that I might have deleted or ignored your ask in favor of another that sparked more inspiration. That doesn’t mean I won’t come back to yours later. Be patient with me!
✰ Please be kind. I don’t ask that you fawn over me when you send in a request, but be courteous when you send me an ask. If you just send me a blunt ask, I might not understand what you’re really asking for, or what you actually want, which can stunt the creative process and possibly end up with me deleting your ask. I understand that not everyone speaks English well, so I try to be patient with the more forward requests. Just be aware that I am not a writing machine here for your pleasure. This is a hobby, a fun way of escapism for you and me both. The moment it feels like a job, I will stop.
【DO’S AND DON’T’S】
『 My writing is usually male character x female reader, unless specified otherwise. I do accept female character requests, though. As I do try to keep my appearances of reader relatively neutral, I know that is not always the case. I am constantly trying to learn and evolve my writing, but reader content can be difficult to nail down with all the scenarios that I’m writing or requested to write, given that they are very specific in nature. Please be kind and constructive if you choose to criticize, but criticism is always welcome. 』
『 I always put warnings in my tags above the fic post, so please read the warnings prior to diving into a piece. As stated below, sometimes I will use kinks or tropes or categories/genres that make people uncomfortable or triggered, and I want you to keep yourself safe rather than reading my writing just because it’s mine. I use warnings, tags, and a read more on my posts - if you choose to read the post anyway, then that is your own responsibility and I will not respond to any asks shaming me for what I have written, or blaming me for you being triggered. Please let me know if I have not correctly tagged or warned a post and I will make corrections as soon as possible. 』
― The CHARACTERS I prefer, and who will get priority over others are...
My Hero Academia
✰ Bakugou Katsuki
✰ Kirishima Eijirou
✰ Tamaki Amajiki
✰ Todoroki Shouto
Haikyuu!!
✰ Sugawara Koushi
✰ Bokuto Koutaro
✰ Kuroo Tetsurou
✰ Oikawa Tooru
✰ Sawamura Daichi
✰ Kageyama Tobio
Dragon Ball
✰ Vegeta
✰ Piccolo
✰ Gohan
✰ Trunks
― The GENRES I will write...
✰ Angst (mostly happy endings bc I’m a sap)
✰ Fluff
✰ Smut
✰ Alternate Universe
✰ Hurt/Comfort - this can include things such as anxiety, depression, etc. but will always end with the comfort in mind.
✰ Alpha, Beta, Omega dynamics (bare with me, I’m learning)
― The CONTENT I will NOT write...
✘ Suicide (reader or character)
✘ Minor x Adult
✘ Vore, Gore, Intense Violence
✘ Piss or Shit Kinks
✘ Incest, Pseudo Incest, anything relatively familial in nature.
✘ Ass Play (in detail - i.e. pegging, fingering, etc.)
✘ Cheating
✘ Crack Fics (i.e. overly humorous or satirical content)
✘ Character x Character - this is a loose rule, but currently I don’t have any CxC ships that I am writing for, or feel the need to write for.
✘ Poly relationships - this is another loose rule, but I am not overly well-versed with polyamorous relationships, so they can be difficult for me to nail down. If I feel inspired, or if I open poly requests, I will let you guys know.
【TAGS】
『If there is any type of content you do not want to read, I ask that you please blacklist it. I will do my best to tag all asks/posts accordingly, but I am only human and might miss one here and there. Feel free to send me a quick message letting me know that I have missed something, but please be kind.』
『I believe it is your responsibility to monitor and improve your online experience. If you don’t like Bakugou, please blacklist my Bakugou tag(s). If you are a minor, and do not wish to interact with my nsfw content, please blacklist my smut tag. I will not be tagging things directly as “nsfw”, because this can get you taken out of the tags entirely, and I do also write sfw pieces in addition to my nsfw pieces.』
『I do NOT tag generic posts unless they are triggering. This includes all reblogs - graphics, fics, etc.』
『Here is how to blacklist tags on desktop and mobile.』
『I always use three versions of the “character” tag(s), with their surname only as well as their given name, and then their full name. I.e. bakugou x reader, katsuki x reader, bakugou katsuki x reader.』
― Writing Tags
✰ #character x reader
✰ #character smut
✰ #character thirst
✰ #OC: Belle Marie Sinclair - (Bakugou OC)
✰ #OC: Lilith - (Kirishima OC)
― Trigger Warning Tags
✰ #tw: dubcon
✰ #tw: noncon
✰ #tw: suicide
✰ #tw: self harm
✰ #tw: degredation
― Personal Tags
✰ #morgan.txt - my original text posts
✰ #morgan-gets-mail - answered asks
✰ #morgan-has-friends - mutuals interactions
✰ #morgan-does-commissions - commission-related posts
✰ #morgan-has-a-patreon - Patreon-related posts
✰ #morgan-says-read-it - Fic recs
✰ #morgan-says-look-at-it - Art recs
✰ #morgan-says-listen - Audio recs
【FINAL THOUGHTS】
I reserve the right to delete any of the asks sent into my inbox. This includes...
✘ Hateful Asks
✘ Baiting/Leading Asks
✘ URL referencing Asks (i.e. “I heard gallickingun did....”)
✘ Rule Non-Conforming Asks
【LINKS】
✰ desktop masterlist «here»
✰ mobile masterlist «here»
✰ general writing tag «here»
✰ archiveofourown «here»
✰ wattpad «here»
✰ commissions interest form «here»
✰ ko-fi «here»
✰ patreon (coming soon!) «here»
✰ bnha bookclub (discord server + fic archive) «here»
This is all subject to change, hence the read more.
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#gallickingun#bnha x reader#haikyuu x reader#dragon ball x reader#my hero academia x reader#blog rules#mod post
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WIP Weekend Whenever
Tagged by @rpgwarrior4824, @ljandersen, @natsora, and @inquartata30. Thanks for the mentions, everyone!
Inq and Nat asked for fluff, so that's what I'm gonna try. I don't think my writing style is suited for fluff. But! An attempt was made. ^_-
I'm planning a bit of an intermission between SAtS and BODS — a series of vignettes from the trip to Thessia first referenced in "Cardamom and Cloves" — so here's a snippet from that (~2,500 words).
Enjoy!
Thessia: Day 2
Something's wrong.
It wasn't so much a thought but a feeling, an instinct. A surge of adrenaline to rouse her from sleep, to tense her slack muscles and propel her to act. One short intake of breath and she shot upright. Eyes keen. Mind ready.
Stillness. Early dawn.
Not wrong, only different. She'd forgotten.
Armali.
Shepard sank back down onto the plush bed, her sigh lost in the breeze rumbling with the crashing surf. Beyond the vast bedroom windows and billowing sheer curtains, new light tinted the scenery outside in a cool muted grayscale, the sky dilutely inky, the ocean mercurial, the scattered islands and jutting rock formations awaiting the colors of day, just beginning to come to life with swaying trees and flocks of birds. She sighed again. Allowed the last of her hypervigilance to bleed away. And as she shifted, turning to her left, she couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips.
Beside her, Liara slept soundly, facing away, curled up comfortably under a drape of sheets. The relaxed curve of her shoulder rose and fell slightly with her steady breathing, the gentle sheen of microscales still somehow catching the dim early light. She glowed, even in the gray.
Shaking her head, Shepard barely suppressed a quiet breathy laugh, all amazement and relief and disbelief. She never thought she could have this. Never thought her heart could feel so full. She reached out, stopping just short of running her knuckles gently over Liara's arm, or sweeping the fallen strap of her nightgown back up over her shoulder.
She wouldn't wake her.
Hand sinking into the pillowy mattress, Shepard propped herself up and swung her legs over the bed, taking a deep breath, rolling out the residual soreness and tension in her shoulders, stretching her neck, massaging her bad leg. She stood. Breathed. Stretched again. The woven rugs were soft beneath her feet and the stonework cool as she made her way to the kitchen. Priority: coffee. Leave it to the asari to perfect the tech even for that. She hummed as she scooped the fragrant grounds into the machine, tapping a few buttons to start it brewing.
By habit she brought up her omni-tool before remembering she'd decided to ditch her usual early-morning reading for the week, her daily newsfeeds and all but the highest-priority messages muted, their pinned widgets grayed-out and transparent on her homepage. She clicked her tongue over the whirring and dribbling of the coffee maker, then wandered to the refrigerator, idly appraising its contents.
The rental house had been stocked with essentials before their arrival — maybe standard Armalian fare, maybe items a bit more suited to human tastes, maybe things Liara had requested specifically, Shepard couldn't be sure. Two large glass bottles, one green juice, the other milk (or something milk-adjacent). A variety of eggs cradled in a basket, some small and pastel, some larger, textured and mottled with bluish spots. A package of dense, doughy bread, sliced, cylindrical in shape. Small blocks of what appeared to be cheese, or butter, or another sort of cultured or aged dairy product, wrapped in decorated waxy paper. Assorted vegetables in crisper compartments. A bowl of shiny berries. A jar of… whatever the hell. She grabbed it, unscrewed the top, took a whiff. Fishy.
Best wait for Liara to wake before attempting to cook. Bit out of her element, at least with these ingredients. Chances were she'd fuck it up, Liara would wake up laughing at her and her sad burnt breakfast lump, and they'd have to go out to eat. And maybe Liara'd prefer to go out anyway, head to a quaint little cafe on the waterfront that starched its cloth napkins and served fancy drinks with like, olives and celery sticks or whatever the garnish for socially acceptable breakfast/brunch booze was here. Probably best to defer to her judgment; this was her home, after all. But she could, at the very least, have tea ready for her when she woke.
Taking the milk-like bottle and setting it on the counter, she readied and leveled her translation overlay. Tapped for an audio sample. Melikhratun, said a silvery voice in her earpiece. She poured some in a glass and tasted it. It was reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream, even in thickness, and it coated the interior of the glass. Kinda weird, oddly tasty. She shrugged and set the glass aside, skimming through the article.
Melikhratun: a sweet liquid cream/yogurt made from haavi milk, rich in… well, everything. Fat, sugar, protein, vitamins, sometimes probiotics; eezo content variable, generally ranging from 0.5 to 5.0 ppm, depending on livestock origin and feed. Ideal for the energy needs of those who make ample use of biotics. Many regional versions, cultured and uncultured, in a multitude of flavors, some seasonal, some staples, some festive varieties only making brief appearances for annual holidays, most notably porfuranq flavor, for Janiris. Either drunk straight, used in recipes, mixed with other beverages — and essential for serving arwamaasi, a tea made famous in Serrice.
She tapped the link to arwamaasi, the article popping up beside the one for melikhratun, humming a tune as she shuffled over to the pantry.
Arwamaasi, arwamaasi… that one also sounded familiar.
The hinge squeaked as she opened the pantry door, and she turned. In the sliver of the bedroom still visible from the kitchen, she found Liara still sleeping soundly, face serene, arm relaxed resting before her. Thankfully undisturbed by the squeal of oxidized hardware needing oiling — constant humidity and salty sea air would do that. With a quiet breathy chuckle — and a mental note to tend to it later — she turned back to her search.
Translation overlay active she scanned the labels, looking for a match among the tins and boxes and jars lining the shelves. The pantry was well-stocked — nonperishables left by previous guests — and she scanned over the bubbles of transliterated text that popped up in real-time.
Arwamaasi, arwamaasi, arwamaasi, she repeated, silently. Liara had said the word before, back on the Normandy, the syllables rolling off her tongue as sweetly as the scent of spice that permeated the air and lingered on her lips after she'd drunk cup after cup, counting on the kick of caffeine to keep her awake and alert long after staring at her terminal had strained her eyes and made her mind weary.
"It's just not the same without melikhratun," she'd explained to Shepard, but assured her she enjoyed it even without the rich, sweet Thessian dairy product. Not practical to keep it aboard: perishable, spendy, difficult to acquire without eezo contamination. I'll see what I can do, regardless, Shepard had thought. Errands on the Citadel. What's that stuff called again? Alone, she'd detoured on Tayseri Ward and ordered coffee from an asari-owned cafe, hoping to jog her memory. Thought to ask for something nice to put in tea, a specific kind of tea, what's-it-called? Stopped. No, just the coffee. But… god, no. The gesture would be too forward. Her omni-tool chimed as she finalized the transaction and rocked, agitated, on her heels.
Pull yourself together.
It had ached, hurt like hell back then. Soft freckled cheeks and supple lips and spiced tea and she'd punched the Normandy's elevator console just a bit too hard, because it wasn't right, all these impure thoughts she couldn't shake, but what could she do but go run on the treadmill for half an hour and blow off that steam and longing and frustration because fuck, Liara had to know what she was doing to her when she talked so smart and sucked on her teeth and licked her lips and smiled like that.
No fucking way in hell should she even think about making the first move.
But if Shepard swiveled to her left — and she did, then — there, only meters away, Liara slept, that placid comfort clear on her face in the early light, and that sight ached too, but it ached so good. Warm and full and perfect and — god, how did she get so lucky? Bouncing on her heels, she quietly hummed while her nose and her eyes crinkled in a grin she couldn't fight, and she shook her head, scoffing in disbelief.
Shepard turned back toward the pantry, peering through the hovering transparency over her forearm. And a match. She waved the translation app away, tin in hand, flicking back to the article.
Arwamaasi: developed by tea artisans in Serrice. Made with leaves soaked in concentrated spices, then expertly woven into packed shapes designed to bloom when steeped; then fermented, where they grow in pungency; and then aged, where they condense into pellets as they dessicate. High in caffeine, this tea is treasured for its distinctive flavor, heightened with the addition of melikhratun.
Making it would be simple enough, and she collected the rest of what she needed — the melikhratun already sitting out — and switched the electric kettle on. The dry, compact tea pellets rattled in the tin as she pried off the top, then stuck her nose inside. Sniffed once and pulled back at the pungent sting. Punchy. Smells like a concussion but probably tastes real good. Gingerly, she plopped a pellet into a glass teapot.
Shepard poured a mug of coffee and drank, leaning against the counter as the tea kettle heated. It was good coffee. Really good, actually. Even better in the quiet, with the gentle humid air, the soothing rhythmic crash of the waves, the incredible view. She smiled, eyes lingering on Liara, still fast asleep —
The kettle beeped shrilly and Shepard spun to turn it off, shushing and admonishing it for its disruption, and quickly poured the boiling water into the glass teapot while sneaking glances toward the bedroom.
Stupid noisy thing. Hopefully it didn't — nope, still sleeping.
The packed cluster in the teapot unfurled lazily like some sort of sea creature, releasing amber swirls as its delicate leafy arms swayed in the steaming water. Shepard sipped at her coffee, waiting for the tea to finish steeping, tapping her fingers against the countertop as she sang soundlessly. She topped off her own mug before finishing Liara's tea preparation.
Coffee in one hand, tea in the other, she returned to the bedroom, setting the tea cup down on the nightstand. And as she lingered there, smiling, the sweet scent of arwamaasi spices wafted on the humid breeze. She leaned over, kissing Liara lightly on the cheek. When she pulled back, though Liara's eyes remained closed, a sleepy smile warmed her face.
⁂
Something warm and sweet tinged Liara's fading dreams. She stirred. Yawned. Stretched, breathing deeply as she sat upright, spilling out of a loose cocoon of soft sheets. Before her, on the nightstand, was the steaming source of that familiar scent, sweetly spicy and full as it mingled with the fresh air and tickled her nose. She picked up the cup and swiveled to look behind her.
Unsurprisingly, Shepard's absence on the bed meant she was out on the balcony. There, she sat, ankle on the opposite knee, coffee in hand, staring out at the ocean.
For a moment Liara just waited, watching her, one leg tucked up on the bed as she drank her tea. She'd never seen her look so relaxed. Never had her heart felt so full.
Eventually she slid off the bed, greeting Shepard with a light brush of her hand on her shoulder and a playful tousle of her hair.
"Mornin'. How's the tea?" she asked, scooting over in her chair to make room.
"Perfect." Liara sat, their shoulders brushing.
They didn't speak for some time, Shepard resting her head on Liara's shoulder, both watching the birds and boats and waves as the sky continued to lighten and the comfort of closeness was enough. Shepard set her mug on the table first, hopping off the chair and heading down the balcony stairs before Liara could ask where she was going. Reluctantly, setting aside her own tea, she followed.
The bottom tier, at water level, served as a dock. As Shepard leaned against the partial railing, taking in the scenery, Liara nestled up beside her. "Did you see something?" she asked.
"Something?" Shepard scoffed in amazement. Gazed back out at the ocean. "Everything," she said, awed.
Liara only chuckled softly in response, the warming breeze tickling her crest and her affection leaving her speechless. Pausing, she traced the curve of Shepard's cheek, her skin soft and slightly — as she'd recently learned to say — peach-fuzzy. "What did you want to do today?"
"That's such an open-ended question." She took Liara's hand and cupped it in both her own, running her thumb over her knuckles. "Dunno. This's your home. Anything. Surprise me. I'll even close my eyes the whole way there, if you want."
Liara shook her head, amused. "I would be willing to wager a significant credit sum that you couldn't manage to keep your eyes off me for a minute," she teased.
"Oho. Oh. One whole minute."
"An entire minute." Liara smirked. Lowered her hand from her grasp. "Okay. Let's practice."
"Okay." Shepard's gaze was unwavering as she shifted her weight from foot to foot, hands at her sides.
"I'm starting a timer," Liara warned, and brought up her 'tool.
Shepard closed her eyes, the hint of her smile still there, as she took Liara's hands in her own.
Hands occupied as they were, Liara couldn't reach out and cup Shepard's cheek, run her fingertip over the scar on her brow, trace the stubbly texture of the buzzed hairs on the sides of her head. But she could, in this moment, lean forward and kiss her.
"Five seconds," Liara announced smugly, pulling away.
"Hey — uh, no!" Shepard sputtered. "Sabotage. Doesn't count."
Liara flicked up her brows. "Try again, then?"
"I have a feeling by 'try again' you mean — ahhh…"
Liara kissed her again, pulling her close. Suddenly, she gasped and staggered back — and not because Shepard's fingertips had found pressure along the ridges on her spine.
A trio of maidens skipped by on a motorized skiff, squealing and hollering their delight at the show while triumphantly waving protective hats and fishing gear. Liara clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
Shepard, shoulders rocking with silent laughter, cleared her throat. "Uh, where were we?"
"Day plans," Liara said, removing her hand from her mouth just enough to speak.
Shepard continued to rock with laughter. "Right," she deadpanned.
"Hmm." Liara gazed upward, sucking on the inside of her cheek as she thought. Looked back to Shepard, raising her brows. "Armali Natural History Museum?"
"Oh shit, dinosaurs!"
"Excuse me?"
Shepard, expectantly wide-eyed, mouth excitedly open, burst into actual laughter.
"Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?" Liara pressed.
"It's a 'whatever you want to do today, Li.'"
"Petraaa."
That earned Liara a nose-wrinkle. "Nobody calls me that."
Liara tapped the end of Shepard's nose and shrugged, grinning. "I do."
"At the very least," Shepard said, playfully swatting the arm attached to Liara's nose-bopping-hand away, "we should talk breakfast first." She took Liara in her arm, pulled her close, kissed her shoulder. "There's some weird-ass eggs in the fridge if you know how to cook those. Or we could eat out… hey, why are you looking at me like that?"
Her grin turned devious. "I think I'd like that," she said, and she grabbed Shepard's hand and pulled her up the stairs.
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Fantastic Flustercuck: Lore, Interesting points, and a little thinking through
Here we go! This list is really, really big. I’ll do a short analysis/critic later on, but I want to get this out now!
We’ll have 4 sessions:
1. Krieg and the Crimson Raiders
2. Krieg and Maya
3. Krieg and Himself
4. Final Notes
Session 01: Krieg and the Raiders
Sane Krieg starts by calling Psycho Krieg him; and dividing their mind between two minds, as if there are thoughts only Psycho Krieg has that he can’t access and/or understand
There’s a constant JACK voiceover that can be heard anywhere. Sadly, I didn’t catch the words, but sounded like the pre recorded messages at the preserve in Bl2
The first section of the DLC, the Castle raid, is considered imporant because it’s the first mission Krieg did along with the Crimson Raiders after a while
During this section, we fight the raiders
Brick and Modercai come first. They talk about how Krieg is too crazy to be a part of the Raiders. Sane Krieg does not want to fight them. Psycho Krieg fights - but it’s fear
Tannis quickly accesses it as fear of rejection. Krieg always had an issue with how the Raiders see him
Despite this Sane Krieg does know they’re friends, his family
Also sane Krieg uses the word oaf and that’s like... really funny
In this, Tannis says she relates to fear of rejection, but quickly corrects saying she doesn’t care
There’s the implication that Krieg’s eye was clawed out by a skag
The “Evil Lilith” inside his head calls him an animal, a beast, a weapon just to be used. Says they never cared if he lived or died
Sane Krieg quickly corrects this isn’t how she spoke to us
Lilith is tagged as “Scary fire lady” and that’s kind of adorable
Sane Krieg shows Psycho Krieg an old memory about how the Raiders treat him, and it’s the Raiders inviting Krieg to a bar. They don’t mind how he acts and laugh along with him
But Krieg follows from a distance
The Raiders guard his buzzaxe = strenght and attack
Krieg has a dialogue with himself that goes sorta like:
Sane Krieg: (smth about finding out who is he, really)
Psycho Krieg: Fragile Things
Sane Krieg also mentions wanting to learn dance, saying he has to exercise to keep his abs, calling it “lean muscle”
Session 02: Krieg and Maya
Oh boy
As soon as they see a memory of Maya, Sane Krieg wants to be careful. He doesn’t want the memory corrupted like the Raiders’.
Krieg KNOWS she is dead
Sane Krieg says Maya is the only thing he and Psycho Krieg ever agreed on
despite this, during the DLC they seem to get along better and better, Krieg is really working on themselves
Maya drops her book before proceeding. The player has to go after. Flowers grow on the ground where we walk
Tannis states diferent brain activity readings at this point, saying Krieg can really focus on Maya
Maya is taken by Locomobius, the monster train, and Sane Krieg says it’s because at the time they met, Psycho Krieg thought the train was taking her
Maya tells him in a goodbye ECHO: “No matter how far appart we are, I’ll always be with you.”
The name of the mission to catch Locomobius and free the memories of Maya is what love remains
Sane Krieg says the memories are all he has left of Maya
There’s a flashback to when they met, and it shows that Maya invited Krieg to come with her because he showed knowing how to fight
She does call him Big Guy constantly
Krieg has memories of Athenas, implying he has been there
Athenas is guarded by eridians, here funcioning as guardians to the memories of Maya
This is all viewed by Tannis as the protections of a grieving mind
The flashback about when they met also reveals that Krieg expressed he didn’t think he had anything to offer Maya and she understood him
It it’s not explained, whoever, how she understands him, but it’s very strongly implied that she sees his through thoughts/the translation of psycho speech
Maya guards his gauntlet = his defenses and hope
Even now, Maya is still a figure of hope for him
Sane Krieg complains about how Psycho Krieg lost a watch that he cared for
Session 2.5: Maya’s Spirit
Maya’s Last ECHO
Maya leaves for Krieg one last ECHO that explains why she’s staying on Athenas for an indefinite time - to teach Eva.
She says she knows she’ll pass her powers to Eva which implies she suspects her death could be soon.
She says she can feel all the sirens that came before her like energy flowing, and says that if she days she’ll be among the stars waiting for him.
There’s the quote, from her: “Even death and time can’t keep us appart from each other.”
The Spirit
Maya stays in Krieg’s mind in a shining black and white form. At first, It looks like it might be his perception of her, the way she appears in his mind, but upon further triggering dialogue, there’s a lot of things told from a perspective that make it sound like Krieg didn’t know, and that also Maya is aware of this new form for her.
Quotes say:
that she never thought she could care about anyone the way she cared about Krieg
says that Krieg’s mind is less messy than she thought it’d be
had noodles in Minus-Prime, and loves it
she dyes her hair!
Maya says with all the words Siren’s have the power to leave memory on objects, memory that are almost a spirt
So this could be a fragment of Maya, alive in Krieg’s mind through the last ECHO he ever got from her
Also her spirit also mentions that one day a hotel showed up in Athenas, she slept there, it was a super interesting place, and she woke up lying on grass the morning after. Mancubus’ traveling hotel?
Session 03: Krieg and Himself
And Hyperion.
Krieg was at Hyperion to do a job at a lab
but then was “taken” by them. also not specified if he was taken for doing the wrong job, or he was there not hired by them and was captured
It is not specified what job, but he does mention he was a mercenary
The scientist responsible for him was Dr Benedict, and the called the subjects rejects of society
Sane Krieg says the lab saw the subjects as just meat. This is easily read as way Psycho Krieg registers meat as something that matters so much
Dr Benedict considered/might have done it: sweing the mouths of subjects shut or extracting their tongues so they couldn’t complain
Sane Krieg was really soft y’all... He fights a rat while imprisioned and names it Tawanda - unclear what happens to it - but Krieg says they’ll take care of each other
Krieg tells Tawanda “I’m called Krieg”. In a further ECHO, Dr Benedict calls Krieg Subject 24C. So Krieg really isn’t his name, and he can’t remember it
There’s an audio from Dr Benedict about an non specific subject asking to see his son, which the dr considers crazy, but all the others audios, even if not mentioning Krieg by name, seemed to be about him...
Sane Krieg sits along with Pyscho Krieg in an aparent crumbled cell space watching shadows that he calls The World. It’s Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, here showing Krieg is content with the world presented to him, unable, weak or even afraid to explore. It speaks to a false meaning he found to have the sense of living without having the strenght to do so
the player destroys the allegory, thus freeing Sane Krieg to see the actual world, a further step in regaining his mind as a world to really live in - he truly was trapped in himself
Bloodlust is a type of psychosis studied by Dr Benedict. It’s unclear wheter he created it, or what is behind it, but he uses a gas to infect people
considers making a gas bomb to infect whole populations
there’s a line from the Dr about how brain probing worsed pyschosis
the gas didn’t affect Krieg like the others - it is also unclear why
a mission with a Fear Mom, completely referencing the Clockwork Orange, tells Krieg to drink Milk to grow strong so “no one will hurt you ever again.” This could be read as remnants of his past self, creating a place to feel cared for someway, but also embracing the ultraviolence of his being and the brainwashing he went through
this side mission rewards a gun with the flavor text our eyes are yet to open like a baby, or like someone who lacks clarity
Krieg cared a lot about people before going insane. He holds strongly to a sense of right and wrong he calls goodness, and values innocence a lot
The Psycho personality is a schism that showed up in several test subjects that manifested the same personality
Dr Benedict wanted to change the subject pool to see the relation and considers an elementary school class
Also considers putting the gas in water supply to infect people since the gas won’t work on open areas
Psycho Krieg saves Sane Krieg when he had given up on scaping
It is a bloodbath Psycho Krieg calls Tea Party
Sane Krieg sees this realization, about being saved and the Vault Hunter being inside his head, as Psycho Krieg letting people in
Hyperion kept his mask from him = “false face is protection”
Upon defeating the boss, the Gigantic Krieg tied to an experimentation bed fades.
After taking the mask, this Three Figures walk into a portal in his mind and disappear forever. Sane Krieg doesn’t remember who they are and remarks that he forgot his past entirely.
But looks at Psycho Krieg and decides on Forging a future.
They tell jokes to each other constantly, though Psycho Krieg only tells a decent joke by the end of the DLC. The joke is the one coherent sentence he can make; showing a lot of progress in how he communicates, but not changing who he is.
By the end, his mind is empty, and both Kriegs work together to fill it slowy with new memories and thoughts. They start with Maya, and keep creating until she says “Enough for now. Come in and tell me about your day”, to which Krieg responds FUSING INTO HIMSELF, WHOLE, and walking into the house with her. The voiceover from Krieg tells us we’re always breaking and hurting, but we put ourselves together again, never perfect, but close enough. Always fixing ourselves.
Final Notes:
This DLC was really good, imo. I really liked the direction it took and I’m glad it wasn’t TOO wacky, loosing all the meaning and more seriousness it could have.
It is a great character exploration, respects Krieg as a character and the one around him and their relationships.
Krieg comes out as not needing fixing, and instead making peace with all he is and growing.
Canon things confirmed:
Worked as a mercenary, was a Crimson Raider, was one invited by Maya, was loved back, was experimented on by Hyperion, was saved by himself.
#borderlands#borderlands 3#bl3#fantastic flustercuck#krieg the psycho#krieg#dlc 4#bl3 dlc#mmar talks#mmar plays bl3
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hello, i hope you're having a good day!! i was wondering, do you have any tips for making amvs? like, what programmes you use, how you handle the timing, etc. thank you for all the fun edits you make!!
hi!! sorry for the delay in answering this, i just wanted to take the time to answer it thoroughly and i kept forgetting lol & thank you! i already typed this once and tumblr made it disappear so i apologize if anything i say comes out short ‘cause i’m just trying to remember all that i typed before lol
ok so ill just go through my general editing process in Vegas, i dont know any other program well enough to talk about it at length:
(disclaimer: this is just how i do it, i dont watch tutorials and my editing friends and i don’t watch each other edit often so i would assume that my way is very different from other ways you’ve probably seen! i might even do something in a very stupidly hard way, please feel free to tell me if theres an easier way to do anything lol)
1. Song: So skipping past the “choosing song and ship/character/show” theme, I’ll dive straight into CUTTING THE SONG! I’m not about that Editing The Entire Song life, and neither is most of the editing community anymore, so I cut it up into a shorter thing that I’m better equipped to edit to. I’m just using a random example but here I’ve taken this long ass song and turned it into this:
(the next step just kind of depends on my mood, or ill do both, doesnt matter)
2-A. Subclips: if im making a shorter video or a video where i’m not 100% super familiar with the footage, i will immediately start making subclips using the episodes ive already pulled into the project. if it’s a ship/character that i’ve edited before, i’ll just go to Import->Media from Project and import the subclips i made previously. either way, subclips are there!
2-B. Sheets: for ships that i know very well/have a lot of footage/im concerned about potentially repeating something, i will go to Google Sheets/Excel and take the lyrics im editing to and put them in column A, separating by pauses in the singing. then i put corresponding footage i think will go well in column B! im often not super specific because i know the beats are gonna be different than i remember, so i usually stick to referencing whole scenes instead of specifics moments. here’s an example:
3. Clip placement: Then I start placing clips down! Below is how I organize my timeline tho I know a lot of editors who put the music on top, this is just how I like it. I also keep a single muted audio layer in between for the video footage’s audio and then I’ll delete that layer when I’m done (or sometimes I don’t, it doesn’t really matter)
I think it’s good to hit the beats as much as possible, it makes for a more dynamic audio-visual experience! In general I try to make my videos so that, if I didn’t add any zooms or typography or coloring, it would still be a good amv. And don’t limit yourself to just one layer, you can have as many layers as you’d like and put clips on top of each other (cookie cutter/changing the layer to dodge or add or screen or whatever) is a good way to mix things up
when I zoom in you can see I’ve got some variety already in my transitions, I know I use that motion-blur-zoom a lot these days but I still try to mix it up and keep my brain invested
4. Typography: After all the clips have been placed (or most of the clips, ofc sometimes I’ll want to add more later) I move on to typography! I’m lazy so the first thing I’ll do it just put down unedited text where I think I’ll want it to go. It just helps me organize myself. Then I’ll pretty up the text afterwards.
Typography isn’t necessary for a good AMV, but really nice typography can really spruce things up. I’ve only very recently gotten confident in my text editing skills, and I just kept watching typography done by editors I really like until I figured out what they were doing. My recommendation is to just KEEP ADDING EFFECTS! Convolution kernel, gaussian blur, mask the text so it appears from angles that the transitions wouldn’t be able to do - of course there’s gotta be a limit for taste, but just add stuff until you like how it looks. Also changing the blending style of the text layer is good, dodge and difference are my go-tos for typography layers.
5. Transitions: I don’t go crazy with transitions, but it’s fun to mess around with them. You don’t want too many crazy/different transitions, you want them to match the mood of the song and the type of beat you’re hitting. I usually ensure that all similar beats in the song have the same transition type on them, bbbbbbut that’s cuz I’m overly obsessed with parallel structure. There’s plenty of fantastic AMVs where they just go ham and do whatever types of transitions they want to in each part of the song and they make it work just fine
(next step, once again, kind of depends on my mood lol)
6-A. Zooms: Time for zooms! I usually just use the pan/crop for zooming, but often I’ll incorporate Sapphire FX BlurMoCurves or NewBlue AutoPan, especially if I’m trying to zoom typography with the footage at the same rate. I try to keep my zooms short and slower, I mean obv it just depends on the song but yeah. There’s a lot of different ways to do zooms so I recommend experimenting and just playing around with different effects
6-B. Zooms...but different: Another way that I’ll do zooms which is definitely pretty different (but this is what I do for crossovers like 95% of the time because I am laaaaaaaaaaazy) is I’ll drag the project into a new project timeline and start editing it there. It’s similar to how After Effects works and it makes it easier to put effects overtop of multiple layers without having to pre-render anything.
So you can see I’ve just pulled in the .VEG file and popped it in the timeline! So this way I can add zooms and transitions without worrying about layers. And if I see a mistake I need to fix, I can just go back into the original .VEG file and edit it, and it’ll be edited when I come back here. So it’s much easier than pre-rendering or trying to do zooms on a lot of layers. To be clear tho, this doesn’t work well if you have a lot of fade transitions, it’s best for sharp transitions and it’s great when you’re using Sapphire FX BlurMoCurves a lot.
7. Overlays: After that I’ll add more typography (or if you didn’t add any earlier, you can add some here overtop of the new project file) that kind of goes on top of everything. And then I’ll add any overlays or objects or whatever else I wanna add! I’m not someone who uses a lot of backgrounds cuz I don’t have a background-creative-brain so I stick to simple overlays at the most.
8. Coloring!!! This is very sad but I only JUST learned a few weeks ago that you can add coloring/effects to your entire video with this button here, so in case anyone else hates watching tutorials as much as I do here’s where I’m talking about:
This shit would’ve made my life so much easier throughout the years lol But alas. Anyway so for coloring there are some effects that are popular for any colorings you’ll find on YT (but you can certainly just download some, Riverdale editors in particular share a lot of really great colorings but you’ll find them anywhere in the live action editing community):
Channel Blend, Color Curves, Color Blend, Color Balance, Convolution Kernel (best for live action footage or footage that isnt very crisp), Color Corrector Secondary
These are all just fun to mess with. Channel Blend in particular is something of a mystery for me, I haven’t studied it fully to understand what I’m doing so I mostly just mess with it randomly until I like what I see lol
9. Render time! First render, anyway. Usually there’ll be some random problem in the footage or something and I’ll have to either go back into the project and fix it OR if I’m feeling particularly sour (or maybe if I’ve rendered like 3-4 times already) I will just take the finished render and manually remove any errors, stretching out the good footage to cover my tracks. You’d be surprised how often I end up doing that lol
And then it’s good to post! I primarily render as .WMV but I also go for .MP4s every once in a while. If I want to upload it to Twitter I’ll do an .MP4 but it’s a new thing for me so I’m still stuck on .WMV mostly.
Anyway I hope this answered your question at least a little bit, I can go into more detail about certain parts of this if you’d like!
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Okay this is becoming a weird habit but new shit’s happened with Fuckboi and apparently it’s therapeutic for me to write about it so let’s go
[if you’ve got no idea what I’m on about, pls go read the previous post ]
After the random meeting on Wednesday night, against the recommendations of my friends that all agree i should erase him from my life and stop seeing/talking/texting him, I.... texted him like “haha had i known that we’d meet tonight, I could’ve asked you for a lift home” (which references to the fact that each time we’d go out with our friends who don’t know about our “special friendship” -bc he didnt want anyone to know- he’d offer to take me home to get some time alone)
So we started texting and he ends the convo with “i’ll let ya know about tomorrow”, meaning that he *still* could’ve come to mine to “say bye one last time” the following night.
The next day I don’t hear from him all day until 11pm when he texts me that he’s super tired after training so he wouldn’t make it - making this the third time he stood me up this week - and asks if I’d come to have lunch with him and our colleagues the next day, which was yesterday, and I’m like “idk we’ll see” and he sends me all these emoji hearts and begs me to go and im like ....okay.
I would’ve gone anyway to say bye to my other colleagues (last night i officially left the city and moved back home), but once again it felt like I had agreed with what he wanted whICH SUCKS. I hate that he thinks he’s always in control jfc.
So yesterday I went to this lunch. It was weird for me. He was his usual cocky self, talking a lot, making fun of everything, very vulgar and arrogant. That’s him in a social environment in a nutshell. He’s a leo. I’m usually quite talkative too in this sort of situations, especially bc I’m good friends with the other 4 colleagues, but I ended up barely saying a word throughout the lunch. I had so much shit in my head, between moving houses, my graduating, him being a piece of shit to me for all this time and me still being so blindly into him. I’m a gemini.
I had a plan to put him on the spot and try to expose his being a piece of shit: i knew someone would’ve asked me about my transfer back home (not him bc he never asks personal questions, he's just not interested) So I would’ve referenced to something specific about my bedroom that only those who’ve been there would know, and he’s dumb so I knew he would say something about it and THAT would’ve proven that he’s been in my bedroom, therefore exposing him as the Fuckboi that he is. But before i could get to my plan he accidentally exposed himself.
He asked me if knew who would take my room after I left and I said that it’s a good girl, i wouldn’t want for her to meet him bc he’s trash and she’s nice (the one thing that im happy about is that after many months i’m now able to tell him to his face that he’s trash, an asshole, not a good person but im pretty sure he’s used to be called much worse so it doesn’t bother him). and he went “you dont need to tell me anything, love, I can just go to your place to meet her” !!thereby exposing in front of everyone that he had been to my place!! and when he realized the mistake he immediately added “bc we ALL know where you live”.. yeah right.
[[ Btw of the 4 colleagues we were with: M and P know all about me and Fuckboi (they’re my girlfriends, M hates him guts and P thinks he’s an asshole but he can still be saved); A knows only about our very first makeout -i was still working in the office back then and it was weeeeird af spending 9 hours a day with Fuckboi pretending nothing happened -; and the other one, G, knows nothing bc she’s the one that replaced me in the office but im pretty sure she suspects a bit, also bc P and A are kinda hardcore me+Fuckboi shippers? yep they both think I can fix him kinda.. it’s a long story ]]
So yeah the lunch’s been okayish, he was friendly to me as usual, said bye with the two kisses on the cheeks (the italian way) and drifted off into the sunset, meaning he went back to work and I went home with the itchy feeling that I won’t see him again in quite some time.
----And tHEN last night I get an audio message from hIM and I’m like WTF. In it, he references to a convo he’s just had with P about mE???
Okay I’ll write about this later bc this post’s already too long but If anyone’s read this far, lemme ask: why??? also: I love u!!!!! pls “heart” this to make me feel less alone in this mess slash to let me know at least I’ve entertained some souls with my shitty existence? thank u bye.
#how do i uninstall fuckboi from my brain? send suggestions pls#why do i projectile vomit my love towards assholes who don't give a shit? an essay#about me#unrequited love#who can relate#fuckboi
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★ FILL IN THE QUESTIONS AS IF YOU ARE BEING INTERVIEWED FOR AN ARTICLE AND YOU WERE YOUR MUSE.
TAGGED BY: I stole it from @koi-dog-bot
TAGGING: @heligooddeals, @prowls-analysis, whoever else wants to
1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?
I'm Lingo.
2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME?
.........it's... still Lingo.
3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU’RE CALLED THAT?
Wh-
Uh... well, I ... guess because I'm good at translating? I'm a xenolinguist and a polyglot.
4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN?
Aheh... aaaahhhhhh um. Well. I.. don't know if any claim has been staked on me but I'm sorta kinda sorta seeing someone sorta...
5. WHAT ARE YOUR POWERS AND ABILITIES?
Well mostly I hear really well. A-and I can... translate stuff. I mean it's kind of not the most useful ability since everyone's equipped with universal translators these days anyway, but it's handy to have an inherit knack for it when you run into an entirely new language, or your translator gets disabled somehow.
6. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES?
....Blue... I just wear red lenses sometimes...
7. HAVE YOU EVER DYED YOUR HAIR?
I don't.. have hair.. but I've painted myself a couple times since coming here. Does that count?
8. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAMILY MEMBERS?
Yeah. I've got three brothers and two sisters. One of my brothers is my twin...
...don't tell them I'm here.
9. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?
Not really. It might be nice to have one, but organic animals are kind of... fragile. And if they got hurt it wouldn't be easy to just take them somewhere to be treated. And they don't live very long. I couldn't handle getting emotionally attached to something and then watching it die in half a decade over and over and over again.
10. TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE.
We will be here all day if you get me started, I don't really want to spend the next hour dragging out diagrams and historical records but frankly twelve of the original thirteen can piss right the hell off and if I hear one more time that she's his 'lost love' I'm going to go on a killing spree I swear to Primus
11. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES OR ACTIVITIES YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
Well I used to write about social injustice and the current state of Cybertronian culture wars but... I've... sort of taken a hiatus from that after a particularly outrageous and ridiculous bombshell about the Council.
12. HAVE YOU EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE?
I've probably blown a few audio receptors, but unless you mean hurt their feelings then no.
13. HAVE YOU EVER… KILLED ANYONE?
..... nnnnooooo? Not that I'm aware of...
14. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU?
Ex SCUSE me? I am not an 'Animal' thank you! Minicons are not some feral pre=evolution of Cybertronians that you can call animals!
15. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS.
I've been told I kinda have a temper... and my response to a lot of things is just to panic and yell. Not the most constructive I guess...
16. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE?
I used to. I'm kind of between idols right now.
17. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL?
I... have interest in many different frame types, not necessarily on the spectrum of human sexuality that you're referencing.
18. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL?
I guess I could. There was a kind of school on the neutral colony where I grew up but I've been told it's nothing like the Universities Cybertron had before they, y'know, got razed during the war. Not that I'd ever get accepted there.
19. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS SOMEDAY?
Kids come out of the ground. They just happen. They happened to my Host. I'm not ... anticipating or planning for them, but I'll make due if they happen.
20. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANS?
BAHAHA. NO?? I highly doubt that...
21. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF?
Uuuuhhhh probably dying in some horrible way, specifically if it's dragged out like putting me in stasis just to thaw me at a later date to kill me like what the fuck right?
22. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR?
My frame. A coat of paint. Whatever horrible organic matter gets stuck to me before I can wash it off.
23. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE?
I'm not incapable of love, thanks, I'm just argumentative.
24. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU?
Class? ...m-mini..con..?
25. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE?
Uh... like... two. Maaaaaaaybe three. I'm not sure if he counts... I'm not sure if Jazz considers me a friend... I would be very surprised.
26. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE?
I don't have any strong feelings on pi I mean I guess it's useful for algorithms? Or something? I've never understood its purpose. I'm more accustomed to words than numbers.
27. FAVORITE DRINK?
There was ... a fizzy energon drink Juke gave me once... I really liked that....
29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE?
I don't have one. Everywhere I've been thus far has some sort of bad vibe associated with.
30. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE?
Aheh... You already asked that, didn’t you?
31. WHAT’S YOUR DICK SIZE?
My what? Dipstick? I don't ... I think it's pretty standard??
32. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN?
I'm made of metal. I do a thing called 'sinking'
33. WHAT’S YOUR ‘TYPE’?
Well I can type about 180wpm which I guess isn't the faste- Oohhh.
Uh.
Well.
I like femme frames, they're usually really elegant to look at. I like large frames that look like they should be intimidating but they're the gentlest mech around. I like people who don't talk down to me.
34. ANY FETISHES?
*chokes on drink*
*flusters*
N-none that I care to divulge to total strangers, thank you!
35. TOP OR BOTTOM? DOMINANT OR SUBMISSIVE?
Wh-
W-well! I uh-
*coughs*
This took a turn-! There are many people much more open to this line of questioning than me though I do appreciate the attempt to find common ground between our species-
36. CAMPING, OR INDOORS?
Indoor camping. It's basically watching tv in a tent.
37. ARE YOU WAITING FOR THIS INTERVIEW TO BE OVER?
I appreciate that you saved the awkward sex questions til the end but I'm gonna go now okaybye-
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i found the little prince on the same site i found xiao mao stories on, so that’s great. i can now look up words by clicking them. so of course i did what i tend to do - and i reread chapters 1-3 actually looking up all the unknown words. It can’t hurt as review I suppose? And I comprehend things a lot more clearly the second time reading through.
...although I know I am... defeating the point of extensive reading if I’m... intensive reading lol. Although... eventually the two things merge when you don’t have to look many words up? ;-; maybe?
anyway in a few days I’m gonna do my goals met post or whatever and. All I know is WHATEVER my study plan was? It ended up becoming lots of extensive reading (chinese), audio (chinese, french), flashcards (japanese). Also some miscellaneous writing (chinese), and writing/grammar reading (japanese)... but to be fair it was not very much.
I also got so much done I’m really proud of myself tbh. Like. For japanese I got 318 grammar flashcards done, 430 vocabulary flaschards done. To me that is a big deal because once I passed 300 grammar cards, 100 vocabulary cards, I officially had reviewed all of the japanese I had studied years ago and moved onto completely new material for me. That just blows my mind. I reviewed roughly what I used to know in like 2 months maybe? And now I’m learning genuinely mostly new material which is so cool to me. Also I know that years ago I started reading manga and playing video games Before I covered this much studying, so at this point I am more prepared than I was last time I did it. For whenever I choose to do it again.
The main thing that I think was not a success was listening reading method. I want to do it so bad, I like it in concept, I need listening comprehension improvements, and I like reading! But genuinely the fact I have to stay on the task for long durations of time is just so freaking hard for me. I have been able to do it in 20 minute bursts, but I still overall NEED like 1 hour a day along with the ‘breaks in between’ if I want to finish at a decent stopping point I can start from again later. It is really hard to do if I have anything else significant planned for the day. Maybe I will try it one weekend day or one day off. I realize now why the person who initially explained the idea tended to do listening reading for 8-10 hours a day for a week to a month. It is MUCH easier to do if you can do it for long periods of time - if for no other reason than KEEPING PLACE in text is so much easier if you DONT have to leave the text regularly. And then also, so much of its learning method involves repetition of common word usage of the book, so lots of consistent regular input of the words (like doing it a week to month straight) will provide more regular review of words than doing it one hour every week.
I want to try this method so badly, and I think it would help my chinese a lot at any level (since I still have a long way to go before I have a “natural listening” ability of material of that complexity), or my french (because I know a lot reading wise I just need to turn that into listening comprehension). I have had some success doing step 2 of the listening reading method - and I know its simply because when text matches the audio it is so much EASIER to stop doing it, return later, and easily find your place to continue from. However, the issue with step 2 is - while it allows me to improve listening comprehension of words I know, it does not allow me to pick up new words as easily. And genuinely I DO think step 3 helps more with listening comprehension - because you have to rely so much on listening comprehension ALONE to follow where you are in the text (its also why that step feels so intense and is so hard to keep your place in).
So anyway. Step 2 has been quite easy, and I have actually managed to do it a bit this month. But step 3 is just. So difficult for me to get myself to do. For Francais Par Le Methode Nature, now that audio exists I’m basically listening to that and then also reading along with the text when I miss a word (which is more just comprehensible input with a transcript?). With MoDu, I listening to the audio while reading the chinese and glancing at the english for some key definitions (I don’t feel it challenged me to practice listening very much though). With the little prince, I played chinese audio and followed along to the text (mostly to match sound to new words I picked up when I read beforehand). With the xiao mao smiling cat story, I also played audio after I read it, to match audio up with new words I’d picked up - that time by listening then glancing at the text when I didn’t recognize a word when listening. So yeah like, I have been doing variations on step 2 sort of, so I suppose I’ll see if it produces any significant benefits for reading or listening. I also listened to tianyake audiodrama yesterday without looking at the subs and that was cool because it was a test of my actual listening comprehension a little (except easier to follow since I know the story).
I also think doing L R with a parallel text is much easier - again, because you can easily keep track of where you are in the audio so for people like me who NEED 10 minute breaks constantly it makes the activity much easier. I am using a parallel text for MoDu now and I think that’s why I was able to do about an hour and 30 minutes this week. I was doing sort of step 2 (so it was easier), and I had a parallel text so I didn’t get confused.
other notes?
In a way I’m glad I studied primarily simplified chinese, because it kind of helps me keep japanese more firmly ‘separate’ in my head. Some japanese kanji look like the simplified, many look like the traditional hanzi, and some I think may be simplified in a different manner. Japanese kanji do not mean exactly the same thing usually, and their multiple pronunciations can get confusing for me. So when the kanji looks different from the hanzi - i recognize traditional hanzi somewhat, so I can usually still recognize them and their meaning, but I don’t immediately think of them when I’m writing/typing/reading chinese unless I’m on a traditional text website/novel/show. So when I see the more traditional looking kanji, I can usually recognize them if its a familiar character, but my brain doesn’t so automatically jump to its chinese pronunciation. Which kind of helps me to keep my japanese pronunciations Separated from my chinese ones. Right now some of the hardest words for me to remember the pronunciation of are when the kanji are the same as a chinese simplified word (全然， 全部，方向). They’re easy to remember the definition of, but the pronunciations that come to my mind are pretty much automatically chinese.
Also the Nukemarine LLJ decks are really helping, there’s a reason I like using them ToT. All the vocabulary is presented individually, then in sentence examples, all with audio. And lots of audio and reading practice so I can practice both. The grammar decks, which go along with Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide, are more challenging but understandable even without referencing tae kim’s grammar guide (which is great cause i’m too lazy right now to read a grammar guide). Mostly though, I just love the improvement I see from it? It’s structured well, so you get a lot of grammar foundation, kanji foundation, vocab foundation, and the different courses reinforce each other.
I recently opened clozemaster to try the japanese fast track again - every so often my mind wonders if I could learn a significant amount from Clozemaster alone lol and I want to test it. I do genuinely think if you used Clozemaster it would work as well as that old 10k chinese or japanese sentence srs flashcards methods (which did work for people they just sound awful if you hate flashcards like me). Sometimes I use clozemaster as a ‘graded reader substitute’ to bridge the gap in my reading skills so I can push into reading native material easier. I did that for french and it helped a lot then I stopped using it once I could read novels. I did that with chinese and it helped a little. But I read in chinese so much I ultimately study more stuff when I just read so now my actual vocab is ahead of where I am in clozemaster when I try it for chinese lol. So like... usually I read it as an upper-beginner aid to break into reading target language materials that aren’t for learners.
Well, I love contemplating if I could just learn a language FROM clozemaster sentences primarily as the study method though lol. Well, once I tried testing that with japanese years ago! It was brutal! I was a mid-beginner who’d studied for 1-2 years, and it was brutal! So many unknown kanji, unknown grammar, it was a mess lol! Just barely doable, would not recommend trying as a complete beginner. Well this week I tried to use Clozemaster japanese again - and it went super easy. One unknown word a sentence, or no unknown words and I marked the sentences mastered. The ideal difficulty for using clozemaster to improve, and I did not find the sentence grammar or kanji too intense to figure out. So the Nukemarine LLJ studying is helping a lot. I must have a bigger base of understanding than I did last time I tried clozemaster japanese, just because the activity is so much easier.
and an observation about me? I am super motivated by challenges apparently. Specifically when I hear something’s been done, worked, and then want to test it myself to see if it does. It’s why I was able to study 2k chinese words last year - someone else did those specific words, then started reading, and I wanted to know if I could copy that (it did help, though in retrospect there’s slightly easier ways lol!).
This month? I read some stuff about how graded readers help with reading speed - now bam I am devouring easier reading materials (I read 53 chapters so far this month, counting shorter graded readers as 1 for ever two chapter chunks). I realize the reading material is much easier for half of this, so its closer to 30 chapters read in terms of length - but that’s still a good amount of reading in a month! And I finished reading 3 books this month! Also I read recently that extensive reading helps with vocabulary, and making future reading easier. So SINCE extensive reading is so much easier with these books more to my level, I’m testing that by reading a LOT lol. And that tip also motivated me to find an ease rating for what I’m reading/plan to read, which I’m sure will help me pick reading material in the future more based on actual needs. Like if I want to intensive read I can pick a ‘harder’ text, if I want to extensive read I can pick an easier rated text closer to my current ‘ease’ level (or a little harder), or if I want to extensive read something hard I can know its hard and read a translation beforehand. Basically just... the info I found about extensive reading really MOTIVATED me into doing it.
There’s finally audio of Francais Par Le Method Nature, and even that motivated me to listen to multiple chapters to just test if the book works! I know the book works, I’ve read like 200 pages of it before and its basically a huge factor in what helped me move into novels from graded readers in french... its dated but I love the book so much and wish the same technique style textbooks were in more languages. I read the preface yesterday, which is so much easier for me to read now versus when I first read it lol which just shows it helped once. And it covers 3000 words chosen from frequency indexes, introduces everything in french in a manner to help students comprehend the meaning from its context, includes a pronunciation line guide below text (though now that audio exists its so nice to use!). This book’s designed to get a learner able to move onto target language materials for native speakers afterwards, and it SHOWS. I never even completed the book and only read it and it helped so much. I’m finally listening to it now, and in awe of how comprehensible the audio on its own is. Anyway this book’s concept always felt like something I wanted to test and proved if it worked so, if I have time...
Nukemarine’s LLJ i’m pretty good at sticking to, because its structured and has a claim about what I’ll be able to do when I’m toward the end of it - read japanese. The courses used to be called Standard Guide to Japanese Literacy SGJL. They were originally made to help japanese learners push into reading - and a lot of the related immersion tips/activity that go along with the guide also contribute. I imagine it got renamed something more general - Lets Learn Japanese LLJ - either because it wasn’t quite enough for novel reading, or it made more sense to call it something broader.
I would love to have the motivation to test Listening Reading Method and prove if it works or not and how much ToT. It frustrates me so much I can’t remain focused long enough to do it multiple hours a day (whereas shows and books I can, since I can take breaks easily between moments). I already tested several hours doing it (specifically step 3), and I can confirm it at least improves listening comprehension of what you already partly-know. The little L R i have been able to do, boosted my listening comprehension of shows/audiobooks/audio dramas NOTICEABLY within a few hours of doing it, and with every few more hours I do it. So as a upper-beginner/low-intermediate learner (?) L R step 3 helps a lot with dragging listening skill up to match reading skill. And it doesn’t take much to see benefits. But I haven’t done L R enough to test how much totally new material you can learn from doing it - I’ve done enough to pick up a few words and phrases, but most of the benefit was half-learned words becoming more fully learned and instantly recognized in listening instead of requiring me to pause and think and get lost.
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Entry 02 (07/01/2020): Research, Inspirations and Ideas
Hi there!!
Welcome to entry number two! This project is still VERY much in the preparation stage, so I wanted to use this one as an opportunity to link all the sources that I’ve been using as a basis up until this point, as well as specific pieces of work that have inspired this project, plus some brainstormed ideas that might be experimented with in the future.
The next couple of entries after this will most likely be focusing on making some first demos, visual ideas, mood-boards, notebook scribbles, and maybe some character/story ideas too! I won’t lie, the scope of all the different areas does slightly scare me, especially since I have next to no experience in a lot of them - I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants!!
But I’m definitely going to make a lot of mistakes as I try some new skills and play with new concepts for the first time, so please bear with me as I stumble around in the dark for a while :D Expect most of my nonsense to eventually end up getting heavily changed, retconned, or cut entirely!
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A List of Sources (at the time of writing!):
AWARE - AWAreness during REsuscitation - A Prospective Study (resuscitationjournal.com, October 6th 2014) - The first piece I found! The start of this idea came when I was thinking about how my dreams worked (more on that later!), and for some reason I suddenly remembered one religious studies lesson I had in school when I was 14 I think? Part of the lesson was talking about out-of-body and near-death experiences, and out of curiosity I looked it up to see if anything had changed. That’s when I came across this!
“What Really Happens After Cardiac Arrest?” - The New York Academy of Sciences (nyas.org, December 6th 2019) - A talk on the subject led by the Lead Author of the 2014 study, held in late 2019! There’s loads of interesting information and anecdotes in here.
Life — after life: Does consciousness continue after our brain dies? (nationalpost.com, April 18th 2019 [Updated October 2019]) - This article goes very in-depth as well as referencing a LOT of different studies, some even offering opposing viewpoints to each other! There’s loads of quotes and studies here that I really want to look more into.
Greyson NDE Scale (iands.org, 25th April 2015) - The NDE scale referenced in the National Post article - would be cool to use this somewhere somehow??
Understanding the cognitive experience of death and the near-death experience (academic.oup.com, 14th July 2016) - A summary of the 2014 AWARE experiment, but that references past studies into the field (see below!)
Life Changes in Patients After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (link.springer.com, 8th December 2011) - One of the referenced studies, this one includes a ‘life changes’ questionnaire at the bottom which might be another source of ideas.
A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors (sciencedirect.com, February 2001) - An older study, but with very similar results to recent ones!
A Prospective Analysis of Near-Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest Patients (link.springer.com, June 2002) - Another older study, includes characterisations of the experiences, some of which correlate with AWARE’s most commonly reported themes.
Possible source - What Happens When We Die? by Sam Parnia, M.D.(penguinrandomhouse.com, 1st January 2007) - I’m debating whether to look into this - it’s written by the same project leader as the AWARE study, but this book was written 7 years prior to it. I’m also fully aware that despite trying to look everywhere, the majority of my current sources stem from Dr. Parnia. (This might not be a bad thing! It’s just surprising to me that most of the recent studies into this field I can find out about stem from him.)
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Inspirations/Ideas:
Just a quick place to put current inspirations down! I’m sure that once I’ve finished this entry I’ll realise I’ve missed some out, so I’ll edit this as I go!
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD:
Bojack Horseman - S6 E15 ‘The View From Halfway Down (& S6 E16 ‘Nice While It Lasted’) - Netflix - The View From Halfway Down takes place within Bojack’s mind, after he commits suicide by downing himself in the pool of his former home. This episode has a LOT of themes which link to the studies:
Just like how some CA survivors reported on seeing their life ‘in review’, the characters are asked what the best and worst parts of each of their lives were, leading to conflict of ideals between them as well as trying to tackle large philosophical questions.
Black tar, representing impending death, begins the episode as a drip in the ceiling, before consuming all the all the characters one-by-one, followed by both Bojack and the dream world the episode takes place in. With newer theories on loss of consciousness and brain cell/tissue functionality arguing that it may be a gradual process of decay, rather than an instant loss, the black tar effectively mirrors this. Combined with the fact that Bojack becomes more frantic as the episode ends and the tar begins to chase him, as well as more supernatural events which begin happening, this may mirror the post-death ‘elevated state of consciousness’ idea.
For the first half of the episode, Bojack believes that he is in a recurring dream he has had many times before in his life, even stating how the dream will end event-by-event. However, once these happen but dream doesn’t end, things take a darker shift, and it takes him time to realise he might not be waking up. While being unaware of their own death might be a concept to try in the future (although a scary one), it does bring up the idea that final moments of consciousness may be very similar to the dreams a person normally has (or take place in a similar format with similar people).
While Bojack’s father, Butterscotch, does feature in the episode, he takes on the appearance of Secretariat, Bojack’s personal idol. A percentage of CA survivors reported that post-experience, they came out of hospital and care with a renewed sense of who their true friends and family were - here it’s represented as a father taking the shape of an idol (but keeping his father’s voice).
The 20-25 minute time length: Supervising director Mike Hollingsworth revealed in an interview that the episode took place over around 30 seconds - one of the many theories on the length of consciousness persisting after death is 20-30 seconds, but in an elevated state, perhaps leading to a longer perception of time (e.g. 20-30 seconds becomes 20-30 minutes of video/audio).
The world this episode takes place in is a connection of significant locations in Bojack’s life (e.g. the kitchen from Horsin’ Around, the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge which Secretariat jumped off), albeit with slight changes. Purely coincidentally, this is how a lot of my dreams function!!
While it’s still theorised as to whether Bojack is actually alive in Nice While It Lasted, or whether it’s a continuation of his NDE, this episode focuses on optimistic reflection and reconciliation with the other major characters in the show, a similarity to the reflection on friends, family and morals reported by CA survivors.
Rachel Joyce - ‘A Snow Garden and Other Stories’ (Published by Penguin Books, 3rd November 2016)
This is an incredible collection of seven short stories, each one told at different time periods by different characters, the events of each story being individually unique, and yet all of them are linked in some way!! My current plan is to make multiple stories based off the different experiences CA survivors have had, and I’d love to somehow be able to link them all like these short stories are, to be able to tell another story in and of itself!
I really need to find more short stories like these, since the end result(s) of this project will probably be in short-story format (maybe 20 minutes of video/audio per character?). This book’s given me a lot of ideas in terms of character building in a short format, as well as what the ‘link’ could be between each.
Some of the characters in the stories were scrapped characters from Joyce’s previous works - I’ve been trying to think a lot on how to best approach character design for this project (since I’ve never done it before!) and this seems to show to me that compelling stories could be founded off a character’s traits, and that this could be a good way to start?? I don’t know, I could be completely wrong!
All the stories focus on one specific life-changing moment for each main character, but either through narration of past events or it coming up in conversation. we get a fairly clear picture of each character’s lives, their mentality, and where it stems from.
Pixar Animation Studio’s ‘Sparkshorts’ Films: - What happens when you give Pixar artists 6 months and a set budget? So far, 8 incredible short films, all in different styles, each exploring different and very real themes!! (Seriously, please check these out, they’re all incredible and hard-hitting and so worth your time!)
Seeing how such strong themes are addressed in such short time is insanely cool, and is exactly the kind of thing I want to try and make! It’s also super inspiring to see what awesome films can be made under such constraints.
If I end up making films/audio/albums on multiple people, these films show that you can play around with animation style, aesthetic, and storytelling techniques to create just as much heart and soul as each other. Varying styles is something I’d love to try when representing different characters.
‘Gravity Falls’ - Hidden Codes/Messages and Stan’s Mind:
The hidden codes scattered throughout both seasons seems like a cool way to enhance an existing narrative, fill in gaps in backstory, or work to link multiple together!
The ‘memory rooms’ approach may be one way of experiencing the ‘life review’?
Conclusion:
And there we go! I’ll probably come back and add more later, but for now here’s a lil idea dump. At some point in the future I’ll talk about musical influences and ideas too!
This will probably be the last text-filled entry - I’m hoping to use future entires more like a logbook, where I put up demos of what I’ve been working on. There’ll definitely be explanations to stuff (that I’ll probably needlessly overexplain!!) but nowhere near this and the previous entry’s level of paragraphs!
University deadlines are getting closer, so progress will probably be a bit sporadic for the next month or so. But I’ll keep chipping away at this when I can!
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