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omorimodreverie · 8 months

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August Development Update

Overview

August started out similarly to the last couple months, with progress being on the slow side and contributions being made in base asset development. However, progress began ramping up towards the end of the month, and we’re now at a place where we’re making some decent progress towards a test build. We’re only just beginning, of course; and it’ll still take a lot of time before anything is ready for the playtesters. But still, progress is progress.

This month is an important milestone in that we finally started to implement the assets we have into the RPGMV engine. At this point in time, we now have the beginnings of a playable city in the works, and we hope to refine it into a state where we can give you some sneak peeks sometime soon. All I can say for now is that I’m personally very excited with how the city looks, even now at this primitive stage: I can’t wait for you all to see it.

Progress

As mentioned previously, the most noteworthy progress made in August was that our base assets are being implemented into RPGmaker. However, this in no way means that other areas of development weren’t touched upon: in fact, quite the opposite. Everything we’ve worked on during the past month includes, but is not limited to:

With a few exceptions, maps for the city that will be shown in chapter 3 has been implemented into RPGmaker

Basic map events have been put in place that allow map movement, door accessibility, functioning stairs and elevators, etc

A number of cutscenes, as well as NPCs, have been mostly implemented into the game and fleshed out

A number of additional pixel artwork for NPCs and map objects were completed and added into spritesheets

Organization for various songs and the music department in general has seen significant progress

Progress was made on the writing for cutscenes and various flavor text/NPC dialogue

The game files in general were reorganized, as well as optimized

What’s In Plan For The City

Going into development for chapter 3, a very important and rather difficult challenge was posed to us in the form of the chapter’s playable area, the real world city. Of the two areas we worked on so far, Fallen World was based off of a preexisting area in the base game, and therefore much easier to develop; and the Neural Network, while original, was still a part of dreamworld, allowing us to conceptualize much of it based on our major interpretations of headspace.

The city is different in that this is a place entirely separate from Sunny’s imagination or even Faraway Town. This means that we have virtually nothing from the base game to draw inspiration from, and have to build it from the ground up almost completely by ourselves. This is partially the reason why chapter 3 is taking so long to complete: from a development perspective, we’re having to blaze our own trails. For a team of voluntary, part-time, amateurs, this has proven to be somewhat of a hurdle.

Our main goal with the city was to make an area that felt ‘dynamic’: basically, for it to feel like a real city. Faraway Town in base OMORI is a tiny suburban community: to that end, the buildings are sparse and short, with identical houses lining the streets. Combined with a general lack of large-scale activity and mostly static NPCs, it gives off an atmosphere of relative sleepiness, an aura of quiet. We wanted our city to provide a sharp contrast to Faraway in this aspect: we wanted it to be rambunctious, packed, and bustling.

Creating a ‘Dynamic’ City

So what makes a city ‘dynamic’? During the course of the last few months, we’ve been able to come up with a map of the city that’s filled with tall buildings tightly nestled together, in the backdrop of a tightly urbanized network of uniformly gray streets and sidewalks. All this combines to create an impression of crowdedness: however, it still falls short of being ‘dynamic’. That’s because the map itself is one half of a whole, the other half being the map’s inhabitants, NPCs.

Even with the most packed and busy city of all time, it doesn’t exhibit any life until actual people are living in it. And this is our real challenge surrounding the creation of this city: to populate the map we have with NPCs that can successfully convey the impression of bustling, busy and lively city people. There’s a few methods we can use to achieve this, such as:

Power in numbers: simply have many, many NPCs in the city

Passage of time: as the time of day changes, have NPCs move from place to place, with different NPCs being present at different times and etc

Literal movement: have NPCs literally move around, such as walking through the streets, wander through a shop, etc

While all three methods are important, and they’ll all be used for the creation of chapter 3, the third and last method of allowing NPCs to literally move around is arguably the most important. This is because NPCs moving around with the player are the most visually distinct: a room where everyone but the player stands around doing nothing is static as soon as the player stops moving, but a room where an NPC goes around doing something always has something going on, looking much more lively.

Take a look at this shot of the cafe, for instance. The player is mostly standing still, but two NPCs (the brunette waitress and the blonde waiter) are constantly in action: cleaning tables, washing dishes, entering and exiting doors, etc. This, combined with the map of the cafe itself and the patron NPCs sitting on the chairs, is what creates a ‘dynamic’ atmosphere.

While we’re just getting started with the NPCs, we want to eventually finish the entire map out that radiates the feeling of being ‘dynamic’, as described above. We’ll be putting up periodic updates on how we’re doing on that front with the dev updates in the future, so please stay tuned.

End of Summer Break?

It’s September now, and everyone’s summer breaks have mostly come to a close. For our team, this year’s summer break period was characterized by a time of generally slow progress. Now that it’s over, things have indeed started to speed up: while early August still had little activity, things gradually picked up as the month progressed. The last week of the month marked the zenith of this growth, with considerable progress being made in all sectors.

Still, it would be rather naive to think that this fast progress will continue on for the rest of the semester. Midterms are still very much a thing, and right now is just a short period between summer break and exam period. Still, we want to use the opportunity we have right now as efficiently as possible.

September looks to be a promising month in terms of progress. We won’t take that for granted, though. We’ll see you next month, with hopefully lots of news. Thanks for reading this far, and thanks as always for your interest in Reverie!

#omori #omori mod #mod #omorimodreverie #reverie #omori reverie #devlog

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yuzukahibiscus · 1 year

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Minami Maito: An artist who conveys kindness and strength

She attracts attention with her energetic dancing full of dynamic. She fascinates the audiences with her acting full of human touch that deepens the performance. (Please read Chinese below the cut, 中文翻譯如下）

Last year, Minami Maito-san brought a charismatic performance playing as the movie star Kuraoka Ginshirō whom you couldn’t hate even though he is egoistic.

“Since (Gin-chan)’s such a messed up guy, at first I couldn’t understand him at all. Even though it’s important to exchange and converse lines with my partners, director Ishida Masaya was saying that it’s alright if we don’t stress on communication. Gin-chan is someone that thinks people should adapt to him and he could understand what’s going on. But there’s something about him standing out that even if he’s clumsy, he loves everyone and I wonder if that makes me more accept him better. So while learning that there are people like that, I had fun since then learning how to perceive roles in a different angle.”

This character arc can be established because Minami-san has a warm personality that everyone around her admires. But there were times when she was lost.

“These few years, there were many occasions where I mentioned I felt the warmth, and as a person I’m very grateful and thankful for that. It’s just I wonder if I’m being pretentious in playing the role, that would probably be my weakness. How I could do better is a challenge that I’ve been facing with myself recently.”

This became clear to her when she played Kouzukenosuke in “Genroku Baroque Rock”. He was an ambitious character with the desire of wanting to have the world for himself and she played him embodying with his impulsive force and fear.

“The more I can express how much I wanted to have the world for myself, the more this reflects how much the Akō Domain hates me. Even though they’re really glaring at me, I’m still insistent on my beliefs so it’s like “So what?” kind of feeling, and that kind of acting was interesting.”

She was also reminded of her roles a lot.

“During the time of “Years of Pilgrimage”, I play Chopin who had this inherent faith and passion for music and he was someone that everyone saw as a genius. If you look at the overview of the story, the idea (that Chopin was a genius) is straightforward and consistent, but it’s essential for me to make the idea persuasive in the role, since I don't have the idea of how a genius should be portrayed. In order to show that by just standing, I have to solidly create that sense from within the role too. Every time I take a role, I could overcome some challenges. So I felt that the teachers in Takarazuka are really full of love.”

Now, she’s in a position where she’s supporting her douki Yuzuka-san who is a Top (Star). With both of them having these contrasting vibes when they stand together is how Flower Troupe can showcase their vibrantly multifaceted charms.

“Everyone is so full of that bright passion for the performing arts. This probably begins from the upperclassmen till now, and now you can see that in Yuzuka’s attitude towards the performing arts. Every day, she would film herself and then later objectively looking through it and studying it. Just seeing that hardworking appearances is inspiring. For the troupe, it feels like because of the Top-san that everything changed drastically. For me, I want be as closest to her, to sensitively observe what Yuzuka wants the troupe to be and how she wants everyone to be and so that I could tell these clearly to the troupe members. It’s not presumptuous that I’m supporting them, but I want to be friends with them as we can improve together as Flower Troupe.”

If we speak of Minami-san, she was also lauded for her powerful dynamic dancing.

“Since I was only doing ballet before I entered Takarazuka, I was so happy that I could dance all the time in underclassmen days. But now, I’m happy with expressing anything on stage including my dancing. Also I’m so delighted to do this and share the time with my friends and the audience.”

Next year (2023) in the Grand Theatre performance, what can we expect from Minami-san with her dynamic dancing?

“What can I say (LOL). The show’s author and director Noguchi (Kousaku)-sensei is a teacher that really loves Takarazuka and especially the otokoyaku, so I’m sure that he’s going to feature some charismatic scenes with the cool Hanaotoko (otokoyaku in Flower Troupe), right? (LOL) I’ll be excited too.”

Now, she speaks about her aspirations about being an otokoyaku with depth and with ease.

“Even though I’m quite normal, I seem to have more energy than other people and I was just often told that I was a passionate otokoyaku (LOL). So this time I don’t want to be as straightforward but also exploring myself in various perspectives and directions. Since Takarazuka is also changing with the times, I hope to incorporate some modern elements and also remain some ancient but wonderful traditions. So while blending both of these, I could continue taking on new challenges without fear, and be able to meet a self I haven’t encountered yet.

Minami Maito・Born in Osaka. Entered Takarazuka Revue in 2009, assigned to Flower Troupe. Attracting attention for her beautiful dancing, she was the main role for the newcomers’ performance of “Embraced by the Seas of Calista” in 2015. She was also the lead role for “Senhor Cruzeiro!” in 2018 and “Ginchan’s Love” in 2021.

#minami maito #flower troupe #水美舞斗 #takarazuka #takarazuka revue #hibiscustranslation

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iamthekaijuking · 1 year

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Art vs Artist 2022 and Yearly Recap

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an art v artist, and even longer since I’ve done a year recap.

2022 was a strange year, and as a 21 year old I’m in a very strange stage of life. So much of my future is uncertain, and a lot happened just this year. I’ve got smarter, I’ve made new friends, got traumatized, and learned that I might even have ptsd (unrelated to the trauma thing). It feels weird that it’s almost over.

Twitter turned to shit, and the tumblr kept getting better.

So many of my loved ones are getting older, and I’m contemplating mortality more than I’d like as a result.

One of my snakes burnt himself on a malfunctioning heat lamp and has a blister, and my family is treating him (so far he’s okay and he should be fine).

I can drink alcohol now, but the only ones I like are basically sodas that barely have alcohol in them.

I got my first jobs this year and also graduated as a certified electrician. My first job was working in an assembly line for Honda, and oh my god those were the most miserable 100 days of my life (and because it was a temp service I wasn’t getting paid fully or getting insurance benefits in a VERY unsafe work environment). That shit traumatized me (THIS is the trauma thing, not the ptsd thing) and now I’m very picky with jobs. I then got a job I actually did like, but after a month got fired because my boss constantly forgot to re-order stock and so we were unable to complete orders and people were withdrawing theirs and we were running out of stuff to do, so my boss was losing money and decided to just fire the newest hire to save money. But he didn’t have the balls to tell me the actual reason or do it directly, so one of the accountants had to basically pull me aside and say my boss was firing me “because I didn’t look happy”. That same weekend he took 2 employees out of state to do everything for him at a convention for 12 hours for 2 days; they each got paid 200 dollars, he made 60,000. Let me tell you, having to put on your resume that you only worked at your last job for a month makes it basically impossible to get hired.

This was also the first year I actually took commissions, so I guess I’m *technically* a professional artist? I also made a patreon, but it’s been up for like half a year and I still don’t have subscribers.

This year I also made some major leaps in my artistic skills (and in biological knowledge) and I’d consider myself a good artist. I have a very good understanding of anatomy and proportions now and can draw some special effects. But it also doesn’t feel enough at times and I secretly can get a little green eyed when I see other artists or creature designers (or professional biologists).

I didn’t get as much work done with personal projects as I’d have liked, executive dysfunction does that to a man, but I did get major stuff done. I even wrote an overview for my first book in my GUARDIANverse IP! I’m also getting better at not getting sidetracked and am slowly chipping away at my extensive to do list of smaller not as important projects. The god children gverse thing will be moved to next year. I even illustrated and finalized what I hope to one day turn into a vtuber model (the flesh god).

I’m still pretty far from my pipe dream of making money on the side as an author, having a Bogleech type website, and streamer, but I’ve made progress. I make skulls and charts for the Unnatural History Channel, I’ve been his top moderator, and generally help out sometimes, so my stuff is being exposed to a larger audience.

I also hand picked the chillest people out of the UHC server and made my own server, and finally after 2 years of not having a friend group, I finally have one. And I’m actually entirely comfortable around them! Which is big deal for me because after one too many bad personal experiences I have a hard time trusting people and am constantly analyzing them for red flags, but with the UHC crew (aka the “Poopenshitters” yes that’s the name of our friend group) I feel 100% safe (also I’m the ring leader which is cool). Pathetic? Yes. But is it a huge step for me? YES ABSOLUTELY.

And of course my friendship with dappercritter grows stronger each year.

2022 was also a great year for Kaiju content, especially in games. Also weirdly enough 2022 was the year of gigan, but that’s not unwelcome.

Sunbreak also came out, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it.

Well, 2022 is coming to a close. It was a weird year, but I’m growing, and hopefully the world is too.

#art vs artist #art vs artist 2022 #yearly recap #yearly recap 2022

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flotsam-gazette · 1 year

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For Everyman

MUSIC Review BY JANET MASLIN // NOVEMBER 22, 1973

For inwardly panoramic songwriting of an apocalyptic bent, Jackson Browne’s second album is rivaled only by his first (the second one wins), and Jackson himself is rivaled by nobody. His work is a unique fusion of West Coast casualness and East Coast paranoia, easygoing slang and painstaking precision, child’s-eye romanticizing and adult’s-eye acceptance. He can expand explicit experience until it takes on the added dimension of an overview, or he can philosophize with such intimacy that every generality becomes a private truth.

Either way, his songs hang suspended in an extraordinary twilight zone between reality and myth.

For Everyman further establishes Jackson as a purebred Seventies intelligence, though it also includes some of his precocious late Sixties material. He is the first major songwriter to have emerged with the knowledge that the battles Bob Dylan depicted a decade ago are either over or too ambiguous to be worth fighting any more.

But unlike most older writers, he is not yet ready to retreat into merely mining the realm of private problems for subject matter. He has internalized the remains of those larger struggles and still dares to hope for solutions.

Nevertheless, he has progressed beyond the proselytizing stage, as the stunningly eloquent title cut carefully indicates.

“For Everyman” is a more thoughtful, less impetuous reworking of “Rock Me on the Water”; both songs provide visions of the apocalypse, but this time the image is significantly altered “Rock Me” was a fiery youthful fantasy shot through with contempt (“Oh, people, look around you . . . “), dreams of escape (“While your walls are burnin’, your towers are turnin’/I’m gonna leave you here, and try to get down to the sea somehow”), and nervous premonitions that escape might be just one more illusion (“Everyone must have some thought — That’s gonna pull them through somehow”).

“For Everyman” presents the crisis in gentler terms (“Everybody I talk to is ready to leave. With the light of the morning . . . ” and offers an impassioned disc aner of special wisdom (“I’m not trying to tell you that I’ve seen the plan/Turn and walk away if you think I am”). Most notably, the renegade spirit who once dreamed of being bathed by “the sisters of the sun” while everything around him went up in flames is now ready to be left behind on the eve of the exodus — “holding sand,” weighing “all my fine dreams, well thought-out schemes to gain the Motherland,” and realizing that this time patience may make more sense than flight.

The daydreamer who waits to discover in himself the essence of “Everyman” is curiously suspended in time. He sits just shy of maturity, and will not progress until the object of his search takes clearer shape. Yet his childhood is over, however much he may long for “that place in the sun/Where a sweet child is still dancing.” Jackson himself seems equally divided between teacher and searcher, mock-adult and mock-child, and one of his finest songs toys with the irony of his trying to play both roles at once.

In his best rocker, “Ready Or Not,” he assumes one guise after another; the song sounds like the album’s most sardonic fantasy, though it’s actually the closest he comes to detailing a true story. His girl is pregnant, and he narrates the tale most comfortably by playing naive: “Someone’s gonna have to explain it to me. I don’t know what it means.” He met the mother-to-be in a bar, “doing my very best Bogart,” affecting sophistication. But after an initial show of bravado he’s suddenly helpless again, posing (as in “Jamaica Say You Will”) as passive, irresponsible, a child: “Next thing I remember she was all moved in, and I was buying her a washing machine.”

Even when he asks the song’s key question, the innocence is a sham: “Take a look in my eyes and tell me, brother/If I look like I’m ready . . .?” Why is he asking? The “not” of the title becomes all the more emphatic for remaining unspoken, despite the song’s somewhat forced happy ending. (When Jackson performs it in concert, he turns the “rock & roll bad man” of the last line into a “rock & roll asshole,” seemingly as uncomfortable with his tough-guy role as he is with any of the others.)

“Ready Or Not”‘s final resolution rings a little false because it disrupts the pattern of descent that figures into Jackson’s other songs. Most of his melodies build up their energy at the start of each line, wear down by line’s end, then regroup and try again, once he’s caught his breath. His lyrics often follow a similar scheme, starting off with something reasonably definite and then floating off into troublesome ambiguities.

“The Times You’ve Come,” the album’s sweetly erotic heartbreaker, takes the pattern of descent even further, exploring it on both spiritual and sexual levels. The title verb takes on progressively more sexual meaning, building up to a wonderfully evocative chorus (sung with Bonnie Raitt), then trailing off into post-orgasmic reverie.Meanwhile, the song begins with a relatively matter-of-fact assessment of the risks entailed in a relationship (“we’ve lost as much as we have won”), then falls further and further away from the concrete.

The final verse offers up a sense of sexual security, pauses, and then proceeds to undermine the calm with an ominous note to which the spirit has descended while the body was preoccupied:

“Now we’re lying here, so safe in the ruins of our pleasure/ Laughter marks the place where we have fallen/ And our lives are near, so it wouldn’t occur to us to wonder/ Is this the past or the future that is calling?”

For all the pessimism those lines imply, For Everyman also develops a faith in the writer’s own ability to check his fall. Although the title cut rejects relatively traditional means of uplift (“that strong but gentle Father’s hand”), in “Our Lady of the Well” he creates his own secular sacrament, once again placing faith in the ritual and restorative powers of water, which lent such mystical resonance to his last album. Back of the bus, Bob Heinlein.

Despite themes that bind many of its songs together, For Everyman is essentially a collection rather than an album, most of the songs are so complete that they resist Jackson’s attempts to run them together (although “Sing My Songs to Me” is an exception, a longish fragment that serves to introduce the daydream spirit of the title cut).

So not everything fits smoothly, although even the jarring moments work in a positive way. The early songs, for instance, serve as fascinating keys to why Jackson — who was good to begin with — has gotten so much better.

“These Days” is an elegantly composed exercise in sulky defensiveness, “Colors of the Sun” an oversimplified, childish indictment. Each is too single-minded to measure up to his current level of complexity, but their presence underscores the strength of his mature synthesis by demonstrating the emotional purity of its components.

“Take It Easy,” the one song here that is not entirely Jackson’s own — it was Glen Frey, of the Eagles, who was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona — is the only cut whose melody actually outshines its lyrics. Jackson can usually turn street talk around to his own advantage, restoring cliches to their original meanings and arriving at an amazingly loose form of expression. (Sometimes he makes up phrases so natural they sound like street cliches the first time you hear them.) But the glibness gets out of hand in parts of “Take It Easy,” and even more so in “Redneck Friend,” which sounds like too deliberate an attempt to create a single by someone whose art, even at its most casual, remains too complex for strictly AM audiences. Still, “Redneck Friend” inadvertently offers up a line that’s a concise, albeit conservative, estimation of the whole album’s merits: “Eleven on a scale of ten.”

Jackson’s musicianship still lags behind his extraordinary abilities as a poet.

Although his melodies blend beautifully with the mood and cadence of his lyrics, both tunes and arrangements seem shaped around the words. But the best arrangements here are effective on a startlingly deep level. “For Everyman” begins and ends with a low rumble from Russ Kunkel, then bursts out into a high-spirited release that mirrors the spirit of the song’s resolution, simultaneously joyful and cautious. “Colors of the Sun” has an eerie, dirge-like quality that creates just enough tension to offset the song’s more grandiose moments.

Even the more conventional arrangements work wonderfully well, with most of the spark coming from David Lindley, the guitar/fiddle jack-of-all-strings who also functions as Jackson’s house wizard. The album has no official producer (Jackson thinks that’s an unnecessary function, says the whole thing just “trickled out”), but most of it sounds like a brilliant, if understated, composite of the author’s fluid downward progressions and Lindley’s euphoric whimsy.

His singing has greatly improved since the last album, showing off a new expressiveness in his more soulful moments (particularly “These Times You’ve Come”) and hitting the high notes with much more confidence and energy than before. He still doesn’t write for his own voice, though; either that, or he sometimes can’t play (especially piano) in whatever key he would sing best in. He often couples descending verses with choruses that shoot upward, and while the split evokes both a waking-dreaming polarity and an attempt to check downward drifting, it also forces him into the sort of low notes he can only mumble.

But every last note here, singable or otherwise, has a special resonance. Jackson’s concerns, even more than his..

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crystalelemental · 1 year

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Unit Teambuilding - Palentine’s Mallow

I'm gonna keep it real with you guys. I don't really care for Mallow. Or any of the Gen 7 cast that isn't Aether Fam. They just didn't really stand out. I had always chalked Mallow's particular level of disinterest up to just not loving the design overall, but now they gave her a cute outfit and I'm still not invested. And I'd kinda hoped, though never really expected, to see Cheryl with Appletun with this event. So it feels very, very much like when Marnie got Mawile and Bea got Vanilluxe, shattering two hopes at once. It's just...sad, I guess. For me. This is a season of heartbreak, apparently. It's like I never left high school...

General Overview Dragon Support. Man, I don't know either. Dragon Pulse is not a good defensive tool. They gave it Staggering 4 on grid, but...Twister Aggravation 2? Better flinch rate single target for less gauge, and potential AoE flinch, while still being dragon? This seems obvious to me. Anyway. Its Apple Acid drops special defense, but only by 1 stage, with no potential to double up like SS Brendan, so she's operating at a deficit there. Dire Hit All+ is nice, but her trainer move is...well, it's atrocious. +3 defense for the team, but everything else involved is gauge control, specifying +2 gauge to allies in co-op. Unless they're developing a new mode where this suddenly matters again, this is wildly useless. It's the same kind of effect that Rosa got.

What Mallow does have is some pretty fantastic healing potential on passives, and Vigilance on grid. This makes her a pretty sturdy wall that can stack a ton of benefit into one package. You know. So long as you don't look at the lack of special defense boosts, or the fact that other tools on grid are hard to access because Vigilance is such a high-priority target. Mallow feels solidly okay, but little else. I may be a little unfair toward her because I don't care for the character, but...yeah, this doesn't impress me much.

The main issue she contends with is SS Brendan being as good as he is. Special Defense drops are significant, but why use Mallow over him? And mostly, it's because Mallow doesn't need to take first sync. She can cap crit on her own merits, whereas with Brendan, it's required to take sync. While you often want to sync with support first for the damage, this does allow her allies to take first sync to blast CS for denials, and to work really well with mega evolutions that want to get that bonus quickly. But it comes at the cost of how strongly she improves team damage, so be ready for the tradeoffs. EX and Move Level?

As a tank support, EX is generally recommended for the combination of stat bonuses and double damage effect supplied on sync, as is 3/5 because like usual, all the good tools are 3/5. That said, if you just need her for buffing/debuffing purposes, you can likely get away with 1/5, but EX is still a generally good investment.

Team 1: P!Mallow, Zinniquaza, Winona/Anni Raihan/Maxie/Archie A pretty straight-forward application is Zinniquaza support, supplying the needed crit rate and special defense drops to make her Draco Meteor and sync hit harder, just add weather support. Winona will do just fine in CS, though something with extended weather is nice for Gauntlet. Special mention of Maxie and Archie, whose theme skills pair well with Zinnia.

Team 2: P!Mallow, Masked Royal, Nanu Another thing Mallow has over SS Brendan is when you need sync to perform a denial in CS. Masked Royal has a great sync nuke, but only okay DPS, and thus relies on the sync to stay ahead. Mallow provides much needed crit rate, and some physical defense to complement the attack drops, while Nanu debuffs defense for the nuke, and potentially flinch.

Team 3: P!Mallow, Burgh, Agatha/Lodge N Anti-Azelf. Mallow has both Stalwart and Unbending, making her a solid choice against this fight. With crit rate and special defense drops, and potentially special attack buffs depending on grid, Burgh makes the best choice of partner. But since this is Azelf, no sense messing around, throw the sleep chain at it. Mallow may survive, but Burgh isn't guaranteed to.

Team 4: P!Mallow, Steven, Emma Anti-Regirock. As the current public enemy #1, I'm all about beating Regirock's ass. Steven benefits from Mallow's crit rate, and has access to his sync instantly for better damage. The only issue is gauge control, which is why Emma's here, she grants +4 speed to the team. I'm sure there are others, but you know.

Team 5: P!Mallow, Winona, Plumeria Anti-Tapu Bulu. Winona and Plumeria are fast enough to handle gauges, and cover both of its weaknesses. Both require crit rate, and enjoy her potential Ramp Up grid and special defense debuffs. I don't know if I'd use them in the same team necessarily, but Winona was a flinch bot so I figured hey, that's really the tech you're looking for. Flinch or sleep. Either or. Also Blue's fine on his own crit rate, he just needs special attack, so he felt like a worse options for Mallow.

Final Thoughts There are other team compositions that can work with her. I think Mallow is good, but in stiff competition with SS Brendan overall. I also think that her grid makes her seem worse than she is, compared to Brendan's grid which is basically perfect. But she's not too bad. I just...don't love Mallow.

#unit teambuilding #palentines mallow

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headfullofgalaxies · 1 year

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Now that I’ve completed Pokemon Violet, I want to give an overview of my feelings on the game. The first part will be general feelings, such as playability and enjoyment. Then I’ll go into details about the story and characters under a cut to avoid spoiling people who haven’t finished yet or are waiting for the holidays to get their game.

I won’t lie- the game is glitchy. VERY glitchy. I wish they had delayed the release to polish up the game, because it is very rough. Luckily, none of the glitches I ran across were game breaking. They ranged from inconvenient (accidentally selecting the picnic button while surfing will punt you back to the shore) to hilarious (friends’ trainers showing up in cutscenes during multiplayer). There is, however, one glitch I ran across that is troublesome. At certain camera angles, the shadows in the game glitch and begin flashing in and out of existence. The flashing isn’t super rapid, but it is still very annoying. I don’t know if it is severe enough to harm those with epilepsy or similar conditions, but the game should be approached with caution nonetheless.

Music slapped, praise be Toby Fox. Except the glitch that made the first two measures of the Elite Four theme loop for all eternity instead of actually playing the track, screw that. Ruined my Elite Four experience and I am still salty about it. Like seriously, how does a mistake like that even happen?!

Navigation was alright but it wasn’t as good as Legends: Arceus. Riding, jumping, and surfing were fine and functioned the same as Legends. Climbing functioned the same, but the game didn’t give you the prompt to indicate whether or not a wall could be climbed, so there was a lot of me jumping and gliding trying to climb up walls. Not much of a problem, but a little bit annoying. Gliding sucked. It was just bad. Unlike Legends, where you descended at a consistent speed, this glide begins descending rapidly after a short distance, to the point where you just start falling. There is also no speed up or dive option. This means that gliding was okay for a short distance, but couldn’t be used to actually get anywhere, regardless of how high up you started.

I mentioned my frustration at the hair customization options when I was liveblogging, and my complaint still stands. Some new hairstyles are unlocked at the salon, but none of them are long styles. I don’t know why Pokemon can’t make long hair styles. They don’t seem to have problems with them on npcs, and if it’s an issue with the backpack, there are long styles that could easily go around it (like Miku-style pigtails. I loved those in XY). Also, clothing options were atrocious. I hated every one of the uniform options, as preppy just isn’t my style, and I hate how limiting the uniform was. I like my clothes to match, so the colors I had to work with for the accessories were limited to the colors on my uniform. Also I couldn’t wear a hat with the only hairstyle I actually kinda liked.

Picnicking was actually very fun. Sandwiches were useful for catching rare spawns and shinies, although, like everything else in this game, it’s glitchy and a bit clunky. Being able to wash your Pokemon was a fun and quick process. I did find the eggs somewhat annoying. Every time I picnicked with my Eeveelution team I ended up with dozens of eggs I didn’t want. Not extremely inconvenient, just annoying.

There is a lack of new Pokemon? Like, I know that’s not really the case, the actual numbers are about on par with other new gens, but driving through the region I felt like I didn’t see a lot of the new Pokemon. This wasn’t much of an issue in the earlier routes, but for some reason the later ones felt like they lacked any new Pokemon, and I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe it’s because a lot of these new Pokemon were single stage or rare spawns, idk. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why I felt this way.

Writing-wise, the game was very solid. Definitely in the upper tier of Pokemon games for me, although still beneath Gen V. I think a part of it was the split paths forced the games to approach their formula differently. There were also small bits of dialogue between characters that were charming and made the characters feel more present than the cardboard cutouts some of the other gens have provided us.

One final qualm was that there was no voice acting. Every cut scene in this game would have so much more impact if Pokemon would just give it voice acting. I don’t think I need to explain why that is- just think back to Piers “singing” in Sw/Sh and the reason becomes obvious. However, I get the impression Pokemon has no intention of adding voice acting to their games, and I don’t know why.

Next I’ll be going into detail about the story and characters. Spoilers are beneath the cut.

Victory Road was very standard with nothing particularly special or interesting going on plotwise. I did like the gym challenges this gen. They were a bit strange, but I felt they captured interesting aspects about the gym leaders and towns in most of them. These past few gens’ gyms have begun to feel stale to me- just differently decorated rooms where you go through challenging trainers. Each of these challenges felt distinct, and I can easily tell you which challenges and gyms went with each town. The gym leaders were a bit hit or miss. Some didn’t have much of a presence, but there were some that interacted with their towns and felt like a part of the world. Same with the elite four. Being introduced to them earlier in the game, rather than having their first and only appearance be the Champion exam, made them feel like more of a presence in the world.

Nemona was a rather standard rival as far as her role in the story goes. However, the game did some interesting things with her that I appreciate. Having her actually be a Campion-ranked trainer that is canonically going easy on you to help you grow throughout your journey was a unique approach to the rival character and one I appreciate. This made it feel like her confidence was earned. The friendly rival newbie that recent gens had adopted always felt like their confidence was somewhat misplaced- after all, they lost every single battle with your character. This trait made more sense with the older aloof and antagonistic rivals, because overconfidence fit well with their characters.

Starfall Street was a very good twist on the recent rebel-type evil teams. Generally, these people would just be rebelling against society, which is fine but rather nebulous. However, Team Star’s rebellion against ignorant school authorities and the bullies they enabled was very personal to the characters and easy to understand and relate to. The character writing really shone through here. Normally evil teams amount to nothing more than faceless goons, and their admins always seem to dislike each other and constantly bicker- when they interact at all. However, the interactions between Team Star’s leaders really sold their friendship. The short flashbacks demonstrated them trusting and supporting one another, with occasional friendly bickering but nothing malicious. Writing their bonds to be convincing was very important to selling the central conflict of this path, and the writers did a good job.

Penny was my favorite character, and not just because she has a team of Eeveelutions (although it is a factor). Hacker characters have a special place in my heart, so Penny was sort of a shoe in. She also reminded me a lot of Futaba from Persona 5- extremely skilled, extremely socially awkward hacker. Her determination to make her school a better place, rather than simply leaving and allowing the bullies to win, is very admirable. The final scenes of this arc were very cute and I enjoyed the conclusion.

The Path of Legends was the best path storywise, and not just because I’m happy angsty boi got his best friend back T^T. This plot was very tightly tied to Arven’s character and to the postgame plot. Of course, any story about a boy going to such lengths to save his fluffy family member will always feel satisfying. This is the path that most people cried at, and, honestly, I can’t blame them.

Arven is probably the most important character plotwise because of his connections with the professor and the legendary Pokemon. Due to this, they made him a rather solidly written character. His motivations are very relatable and easy to understand, and his reactions to the plot developments feel real and believable. Him gradually opening up to you during the main story makes the postgame plot feel more personal.

The Way Home is probably the best postgame plot I can recall (although I hesitate to call it postgame, as it felt very much like a core part of the story and happened before the credits rolled, but it’s the closest thing we have to a postgame story so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). The slow reveal of the Paradox forms was well-handled, and the small interactions between the three rivals who join you helps fill the space and makes them feel even more like actual people. The mystery of the Professor’s fate was also well paced, at least if you’re like me and interact with everything in a room before leaving. The twist even managed to actually somewhat surprise me, a rare occurrence in Pokemon. I know the games tend to have darker elements hidden in the details, but I didn’t expect the Professor to be straight up dead. I really enjoyed the AI Professor’s character, although the interaction was more brief than I would have preferred (but I’m a sucker for cool AI stuff, so maybe that’s a me thing). Allowing the player to figure out on their own to send out Miraidon/Koraidon in the final confrontation was very nice- normally Pokemon games are very hand-holdy, so figuring out the solution on your own was refreshing.

My one complaint is that there still seems to be missing pieces. There was no third legendary, despite an “egg Pokemon” being specifically referenced in the old book about Area 0. The potential trio legendary (legendary dogs or swords of justice) that is referenced in the book also does not make an appearance. I get that they’re probably holding that content for a DLC, but since this kind of content was never locked behind a paywall before, I find it somewhat frustrating.

Overall, though, I felt the plot and characters were very solid and enjoyed the game despite its (many, many) glitches.

#pokemon #pokemon sv #pokemon violet #spoilers #pokemon spoilers #star*speaks #overall very fun #do recommend #assuming glitchy gamelplay isn't an issue #saved this in drafts almost a month ago so i could spell check it and completely forgot about it lol #posting it anyway poor spelling and grammar be damned

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bognasarniakhnd2c · 2 years

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Personal project - evaluation

PERSONAL PROJECT

BOGNA SARNIAK

EVALUATION

As part of the personal project you are required to make a written evaluation of your process from start to finish. The following information will help you structure the evaluation and cover all the points needed.

Introduction

Give a brief outline of the photographic task

Also provide an overview of the planning and developing stages of the project

For the Graded Unit we had to capture 10 images that would be a project of our choice. Five of them will need to be printed. From the very beginning I was struggling with the idea. I personally think this folio is very busy, and many projects are time consuming and overlaying, which had an impact on my creativity. Choosing something and committing to it few months before the submission was another reason I couldn’t decide about the final idea. I kept doors open by having three different approaches of my project in my planning. That would let me change the direction and give more time to decide what I want to do. My main theme was “The Body”, and three possible approaches were “Nature”, “imperfections” and “reversed standards”. Being near nature is important for me and I wanted this project to be meaningful, creative and arty. The whole planning had to be very precise, from the main theme, gear needed, location, models, dates of shooting, optimizing and printing. Most of that I have done with the previous projects however printing was a new challenge. It’s as simple as some would think – go to ASDA and print it off from one of the self-printing machines. I had to save file in a correct way, choose the print lab and paper that was used for my final 5 prints. Shooting was planned outdoor and it was weather-dependent. I did 3 shoots in total, having two models (including myself).

Main section

Identify areas of the action plan that have been modified during the course of delivery

Identify positive aspects of the process

Identify areas of knowledge and skills gained or developed

Since I had few approaches I decided to start with one that’s easier to do – the nature one. I didn’t have to look for a unique models with scars or other imperfections. People with imperfect bodies are also often very shy and don’t want to be photographed. The Reversed standards would also require “unique”/”brave” models. After the first shooting I decided I will stick to that approach. New ideas started to appear in my head and I felt like this unlocked my creativity. I created a table on my laptop and wrote 10 ideas. Then when I got the right shot (even if slightly different from the original plan) I marked it with a huge green tick icon. That helped me visualize where I am with my project, what I have and what I still need. After second shoot I got enough images to complete the project, but I found antlers at home and got that idea of using them for my project. I had to shoot again then, but the problem was I didn’t have college camera at the time and had to use my old mirrorless Olympus. I was a little bit frustrated as I forgot how to use it and how to work it. Probably the more time I would have the more new ideas I would have, so I’m glad the project is over. From not knowing what to do, or if I will even manage to get 10 images I got to the ”bogna’s classic dilemma” – having too many pictures I like and choosing only few. The calendar plan I made changed a lot, I got a job and had much less time for the project. Sometimes the weather wasn’t good, sometimes I couldn’t find a model (lack of time or will). Another thing I had to modify was me posing for the full body image. I hoped I will find somebody up for it but nobody wanted, so I ended up taking pictures of myself. It took me w while to set everything up, find a right place, and then take all the self-portraits. I had a vision of taking those images of a male model as I found it more arty and less sexual. Didn’t want those pictures to have any sexual appear, and unfortunately nowadays women body is sexualized. At the beginning I didn’t plan taking any self-portraits, so this was a little change to the original plan. I also didn’t know at that time much about printing, paper types and all the printing process. During my course I’ve learned a lot and it helped me with the final process – sending files to print. But sending files to print and types of paper is not all I learned through this project. I developed self-portraiture, as the last time we had a self-portraiture project my mind wasn’t in a right place to get much of it. And this time for a change I enjoyed it. The other things I learned is colour space, but that would be part of a sending files to print, which in my opinion is the most practical knowledge for somebody who would like to work as a photographer. Whole planning was a good lesson, although I think I am terrible in planning and I need to have a choice options, otherwise I feel very anxious about the project. In general I feel like I learned a lot about myself. I tried self-portraiture again and I liked it, I learned to have a visual preview of what I need to do and what’s done. I learned I prefer Canon over my old mirrorless Olympus as it’s easier to work on and has more options.

Conclusion

Offer conclusions about your experiences

Discuss things that you would like to improve next time

Now, when project is done, my images printed I can have a wider look at every process and stage of this project and can tell what went well and what I would do differently. Beginning with the first stage – planning - I would like to be more concerned about the main idea. Having too many approaches doesn’t let focus on any. I would stick from the beginning to one, and do better research on that one idea. I am aware the plan might change and some new ideas might come, and here I am happy I did the extra shooting after finding antlers. Don’t think using the old camera is what I would do again, especially after a long break from it. After this project I am sure I prefer DSLR cameras over mirrorless (or at least that one I have). Editing went quite well, but I need to work on my deciding process, as it takes too long for me. It is hard to choose particular amount of images, and it’s time consuming for me. Printing was definitely the highlight of this project. New skill, new knowledge. Something so practical for somebody who would like to work as a photographer. I still don’t know everything about the papers and what paper will be the best for what images, but working with Deadly Digital was so easy and will be using them in the future. Prints were beautiful, I decided to go for a Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl which is not too glossy but also not too matt. I would like to print in the future on other papers to see how they present. At the end I want to say I am glad I did that project. I learned new things, I liked the idea and prints looks great.

#gradedunit #evaluation

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sugar-petals · 3 years

Text

🌹 Sub!SuperM 18+ HC: Riding Their Faces

↳ NOTE. These guys... I swear. Bringing some heat to the dash right here. Enjoy the SuperMadness 👀

word count. 3.7k | bullet points | ot7

WARNINGS. ⚠️ all explicit, cum play, latex, hair & sweat kink, bondage, spit, brat taming, toys, breath play, ass fixation going strong, dominant reader, femdom, degradation, hardcore, veins kink, graphic language, strap-ons, crying kink, clothed sex, some crack

⌜ 💋 byun baekhyun ⌟

▸ strength: energy

not for the faint of heart. baekhyun thoroughly enjoys you giving it to him roughly; it’s the leader being led, how sexy is that

i spy with my femdom eye, baekhyun likes the bossy dommes who bring him to his knees — quite literally.

case in point: hates seeing you hold back. tells you to just bounce on him how you want it. no fumbling around, it’s gotta be hot and proper.

whatever you’re insecure about he hasn’t even noticed. the more confidently you’re taking your designated seat, the better. this shit’s gotta make him all loud and squeaky, baekhyun can’t get enough of your wild and demanding side. “don’t you dare move your hands!” — he’s already hooked.

yep, he’s part of the feral squad. and louder than the bass in jopping for that matter

small as hell face but the jaw is sharp, you can literally feel it, he fits between your legs so well

endless breath. put your pussy all over that nose, grind on it, cum all over him. society will thank you for suffocating a millionaire

like seriously the breath play is off the charts. if he’s into asphyxiation you’d not be surprised

meanwile baek’s naughty hips keep on bucking, like hello there, giving you a cheeky 69 invitation

such a cocky little shit, whiny byun all the way from those ruined orgasms he’ll be getting cuz you might just touch him with two fingers at best, you know how to keep him on his toes

swallows everything he’s like whatever, almost chokes because he’s so messy and greedy to taste you. damn baekhyun

does a “mmhhhnnn...!” sound all the time, this guy has pussy all over his face and is still more vocal than you no matter what you do

eats ass, all day if he can, knows the most shocking techniques, wants to get crushed by booty he’ll end up admitting it. no matter how big or small yours is. because remember, that face is small, everything is big to him

the type to cum on his stomach way before you do. groans a lot, then goes on even more intensely, how the hell did he just leak out five ounces of semen and still manage a whole tongue workout

slobbery and all over the place, those are tongue movements you can’t even think of in your wildest dreams

baekhyun is never content just making you cum once or just really lowkey, much less hearing you being silent. he’s a moodmaker, he naturally wants to hear you, and see you twitch like the world ends for goodness sake

brattiest tongue ever, always pulls out the taunting puppy licks, tries to grope you all the time, he’ll get a rough spanking later believe me

also gets his payback from you being crazy wet, as beautiful and cute his face might be it’s gonna end up damn ruined

not gonna lie his voice acrobatics will turn you into a waterfall that’s coming down on him

you can punish him for teasing by going raw with your hips, mochi is in wonderland, seeing stars. put his wrists in a spreader bar and go off is what i’m saying, YOLO

since baekhyun annoys the members by being so hyper in the evening, they appreciate you knocking him out for sleep. and indeed baekhyun dozes like a baby, probably using your ass as a pillow or something

you’ve drained the shit out of him and um watered the flower that is his face, so

another cupcake down, mission success, baekhyun certainly had his fill not to mention lucky you having to deal with his wildly talented mouth ahem, moral of the story annihilate him with your ass

⌜ 💋 lee taemin ⌟

▸ strength: steaminess

you will come (heh) to discover that none of his lyrics were a lie

yeah he’s busy hot boy shit for his gal

taemin has an all-soft and plush tongue that’s super pinkish. it literally feels so good, how to ever get enough of it holy shit

it also happens to be very long so buckle up, he wants to be deep inside of you, serve and please you

probably the most slow and agile movement in the group, tantalizing is the right word for sure

prefers kissing and sucking over just licking because he’s sappy, good on him and good on you those lips are heaven and need to be used by all means

once you go on the pill, taemin will eat his own creampies straight out of you, maybe even two at once, it’s taemin c’mon he’s above-average horny lord knows how much sperm he’s hoarding

loves drowning it seems

raunchy stuff aside, he always dresses up nicely or wears the fluffy sweaters you like the most on him. what an exclusive ride, the scent of the clothing turns you on even more he’s pulling all the registers taemin is so docile and giggly

most sensual style in the group, will edge and give you goosebumps first before the main course even remotely goes down, taemin thinks in several stages hot damn he calculated this

his face heats up so much it’s crazy, then again kkoongie capitalizes on all the warmth from the radiator so you might as well be taemin’s personal heating alright. it’s fun seeing him sweat like mad, see his neck veins bulge... ugh

is gonna be a provocateur and try to nibble on your folds, man he just wants to get slapped around you can see right through this brat’s rowdy plan

might even want his ass played with while you ride his face so prepare for some intense contortions, fingering, butt plugs, prostate massage, the whole array, gladly taemin is flexible

always pulls it off hands-free because he’s a pro and well yeah he’s always tied up how um totally surprising

and any challenge he will meet that i guarantee you

he has immediately apparent shinee concert stamina, longevity like his career, taemin can lend his face to your purposes for the whole night he doesn’t care if he needs to chuck it in the freezer afterwards

bonus: if taemin doesn’t at some point wear one of his glittery masks for sexy time, somebody is probably impersonating him and it’s not the real lee taemin i’m afraid

so many orgasms you’ll stop counting, one blends into the other, even if you’re not moving much, how does he do it

that being said gee can we just appreciate how beautiful his face is, everything about him, it’s gonna be so sexy and soft to kiss him to sleep oh my god

⌜ 💋 kim jongin ⌟

▸ strength: escalating

just how industrious is he? dammit kai is the rent due or something, this shit is not a comeback stage cool down

jongin is needy as fuck, he’s desperate to taste you especially in the morning when his lips are all plump

since then he’s skipped his skin care routine you do the bulk of the moisturizing you see

jokes aside get ready for whimpery kai thrusting his face right into you because he can, should you need something to hold onto, his thighs are literally right there

constant high-pitched moans, some during quick pauses, others stifled, kai are you okay he’s really going all out

so thirsty

if you don’t put a harness on him for this you’re missing out, also you need something to hold this wild slutty motherfucker in place

rock-hard throughout, harder than a goddamn superm choreography

also: sturdy chin that can take a lot, it’s made to be sat on

does a lot of the work, very active, main dancer vibes you know, you can be lazy and just enjoy

most continuous style in the group, gradually getting more and more passionate and nervous — the second you thought it gets boring he goes off, have fun losing your mind and seeing him basically K.O. himself

if he wants to make you cum, rapid tongue jabs deep into your clit, and his hard breath against it, no fair play in here

absolutely has a thing for your shaking thighs, like what the hell he’s blowing a huge load the more you tremble, and he’s goddamn crying from pleasure every time woah

those big ole lips are an absolute treat, yeah i’ll say it again his face is meant for this

wants to be called all kinds of names wow jongin, it just spurs him more

kai. is. so. good.

you can most definitely film your own POV cam, jongin can put on one hell of a show. just this time it’s not his eyes flirting with the camera, it’s his tongue getting a nice rough treatment oh yum

don’t get me wrong he can deliver a romantic version of this, but kai just likes you being tough on his face he can’t deny it

uses his hands so you can ride him even harder, all his teddy bears will be falling off the bed like dominoes

might one day ascend to heaven while giving head, wouldn’t regret it

can do it until complete exhaustion you guys just pass out

being such an oral workaholic do i sense a masochist streak in him there?

fucking typical capricorn

⌜ 💋 wong yukhei ⌟

▸ strength: appetite

first off yukhei is hilarious

it’s called eating out and that’s exactly what he does duh, he’s not nicknamed foodcas for no reason — the restaurant is open my dear, and he just served himself five courses (you)

gets super sweaty, forehead and down the neck, a 6′0 glazed bun can you imagine

giggles a lot, makes the atmosphere relaxed, loves banter before and after, an allround sweet experience

though beware, this guy is hungry. most prone to open his mouth super wide he wants to eat all of you at once

don’t tell kun how nasty he is, much less leader baekhyun, promise me that

and especially nosy kai should not hear about what sexy shit yukhei is doing in his freetime unless you want to trigger a war

that being said the wayv dorm is still the safest place to sit on his face, so. it’s a lawless land there, nobody gives a fuck anymore at this point. yangyang would not even blink if ten murdered someone in cold blood on the balcony, that’s how the atmosphere there can be best described

lucas being a far more harmless himbo still ironically fits into the environment being so sexually insatiable, just how often are you going to fuck? it’s only natural to lose the overview

he loudly pouts and complains when it ends, wants to go on and on, you need a lotta stamina to get with this guy this is not a warning it’s a fact — yukhei really wants to tire himself out and give everything

if you lower your thighs just a little you can feel his dangly earrings. kinda sexy but also a safety concern i know i know, he’s not gonna wear them next time

noisy as heck, wants to do well, always goes the extra mile to be sure you are all happy and satisfied with today’s dining

his tongue is... big...

we’re not gonna talk about that giant bulge either, such a huge tent in those pants it’s a whole camping ground. anyway

what we’ll talk about. his super soft blonde hair, we’re talking salon quality soft, that’s amazing to feel against your legs, it’s great to pull as well, or to twirl really playfully

though there’s not much playful going down when the initial inhibition drops

he’s not made of glass you can really get those hips going

sliding down his nose when you’re all wet... damn good stuff.

lucas is the kinda guy that has you grunting and gritting he loves your reactions, and how aggressive you can get. usually he’s the reaction king but like this? he can get used to it.

totally into having that kinda frog perspective it’s a whole new thing, he’s such a giant now he’s below you, the sight is just superb to him

less likely to have toys involved, but rather a bunch of rope for his chest, his arms, his long ass legs. yukhei is a bondage insider tip y’all

stable as a block of metal. if you go a little too wild on baekhyun he’s probably gonna break his mochi neck but lucas is a different calibre, this mf is made of giant muscles galore, i can only say one thing: finish him

⌜ 💋 mark lee ⌟

▸ strength: speed

talks a lot, even occasionally curses — instantly apologizing, but you curse right back, so this becomes the cussing olympics at some point, taeyong would bury his face in the ground all his parenting efforts have gone to waste

mark basically chokes himself

he can’t control his spit by all means jesus... in his own words: must be the drip then

next to taemin and baekhyun here we have the third drowning victim, mark is in serious need of multiple tissues or towels afterwards but that’s exactly what he likes

mark’s slutty side is not to be underestimated i’m warning you

that’s a healthy young man right here

loves to do quickies to get you off during daytime, if you’re horny just tell him and he’ll find a quiet spot, might do it on his knees rather than you riding him sometimes for practical reasons

all options open, mark is flexible af. if someone can promote with nct dream and superm at the same time that’s the result

so yeah you’ll experiment with positions and even outfits, what’s the most comfortable to wear?

few people even remotely think about this. mark himself stays in his signature sweater but the glasses come off, you know very well he’s a nerd without them he has nothing to prove lmao!

the clothes will be cozy but don’t let that fool you yet alright

this guy has watched too much porn to just keep it light and cute

don’t get me wrong you can baby him ad nauseam for the more gentle femdom moods

but at the end of the day mark loves some intense shit, he likes feisty girls who aren’t coy and subby, the more perverted you are the better, in fact he enjoys being shocked with brazen attitude and getting orders on what to do.

loves it when you to take it all out on him, rough is good. mark lee’s face is the rodeo range of super m alright, just don’t break his glorious jaw or anything, he still needs it okay

but yeah mark’s face is tempting to ride hard not gonna lie

his tongue can go so fast it’s at the speed of sound, no, the speed of fucking light. mark goes crazy on your clit, wait a few seconds, boom five orgasms rain down on you.

it’s like an anime swordsman just lifting the sword hilt, walking off calmly, and one minute later things are in shambles like how? mark’s sword tech is just epic like that

he’s a leo what did we expect, show-off

in the meantime, RIP to mark lee’s pants. they’ll be soaked with cum, gonna be a bitch to hide your clothes from taeyong who’s always eager to wash everything by himself

that aside, mark really enjoys the position, he doesn’t need much else to be honest, he goes “oh my god oh shit” enough for you to know

thank god he’s a rapper, otherwise his dang technique would be dangerous, he doesn’t breathe for half a minute or so

enjoys you really doing shallow thrusts, super fast and sloppy, loves how much you enjoy it

needless to say: breaks a guinness world record for most licks per second, it’s that mark lee flow

long story short his face is your favorite spot he can prepare for a daily session

all that practice on water melons paid off good job markly

⌜ 💋 ten lee ⌟

▸ strength: allround skill

you know a pro by how he’s offering you a tall glass of water beforehand

and by the way he’s chugging one himself

champion, a keeper

you’re guaranteed to love it, ten is amazing

takes his time, gets to know your every inch, figures out your soft spots in a matter of minutes to seconds

everything for his sexy mama, service sub right here

take him on a leash, grind on his lips, make him kiss your clit, he’ll respond by circling his tongue around obediently

chittaphon might be a little fidgety at the beginning, but the atmosphere is not as tense anymore after doing it two or three times.

ten is actually quite good cracking lighthearted jokes and showing his more extroverted side, he always gets like that with a partner.

you have an easy time with build-up conversations and communicating in general, same with aftercare pillow talk

that being said the degree of professionalism this guy is heading for needs a lot of talk in the first place.

ten likes doing advanced things that aren’t just intuitively understood, you need to exchange yourself a lot

through trial and error you figure out how to incorporate sex toys into the little routine you have going on

the pleasure will be so intense you’ll never want anything else fuck

ten is also down for a lot of moving around, some athletic shit

you’ll go from bouncing on his dick to smothering his face back and forth pretty much, let’s see how fast you’re gonna bust a huge nut like that my bet is five minutes

those like “oh... ah—” moans are just angelic

since he focuses so much on your erogenous zones and always keeps his hands involved, ten is always guaranteed to have you breaking a major sweat

ten does not like to eat any fruits, they say. well that’s true, because he’s too busy eating you that is. boy can basically retire from citizenhood, he’s that busy between your legs.

enough fruit juice for an entire week impending, don’t worry about his nutrients, this is also a form of diet.

uses his chin, his cheeks, the nose especially, the damn nose it’s perfectly shaped

wants you to really ride him hard, and fast, no holds barred at all, going so feral he’ll be squeezing his eyes shut

sometimes his hair gets in the way, it’s just so damn long. the result: hair ties for face-sitting, always on his wrist

among all members, buries his face the deepest, turns him on so much

always makes sure you’re both washed up, no impromptu sessions. ten is a hygiene priest and he’s right

the mattress is kinda bouncy and he always uses his favorite soft pillow under his head so you can definitely take mister ten lee to pound town like work your hips give it to him

in case he survives i send my congrats, you got yourself the right guy, terrific choice queen

⌜ 💋 lee taeyong ⌟

▸ strength: ideas

how much more religiously can he eat you out, he treats this like the best reward he can get

as you can probably tell by now, all the lee surname members are definitely a certain brand and clan of highly distinguished pussy eaters like, these guys are a fucking gang like... well taeyong is no different

reckless abandon oral, eats you like it’s the last day, even death fears lee taeyong when he’s in giving head mode

you might be showering together beforehand and be all shy and kissy like it’s puppy love. but that is all for naught when the tongue of god is unleashed and taeyong gets himself as messed up as he can

yeah i like the thought of god being incarnated as kinky taeyong begging to have his mouth spit and cummed in it just makes sense

very deep mumbles, very hard breathing, those veiny hands on your waist, he wants to make you feel good so bad, fuck he’s so sexy

intense facial expressions, need i say more

also um... he likes to be... threatened. he’s the student you’re the teacher, strict as hell surveying his every move, the more you yell at him the harder he gets, jesus christ he has a thing for you acting mad and shit

taeyong doesn’t even need you to pull off your underwear, he’s gone get through any type of fabric with that leaking mouth

let’s just say he likes to experiment with innovative techniques... anyway, taeyong is a nasty fucking freak, he’s a grade A hoe, you never know what to expect

one time he just licks like a shy doe, the next second slurping explosion 5000

imagine whipping his thighs with a riding crop while sitting right on that ultra gorgeous elven prince face like

taeyong is almost always getting super emotional. he sheds even more tears than kai, like at some point you’ll develop a crying kink because of him SOS

nervous as hell, shaky hands. that can easily be fixed sir let’s tie em up

has you moaning nonstop, he’s so engaged and so dead-on with his movements. don’t be surprised if this damned man has your eyes almost falling out

beware, this guy is into full-on sensual deprivation as well. blindfolds are only the start.

you might end up with a whole lotta black latex involved, who knows, a whole gimp on him he’s down for that, he learned from ten what it is blame chittaphon’s vast kinky knowledge

even better: while you’re grinding on him, taeyong likes you pumping his cock with a fleshlight with zero mercy until he yelps in tiny oops

hell he might ask you to roughly fuck his face with a strap and then ride it, the mister likes double treats huh

then again: wants it to be degrading and dirty and intense on some days, and really wholesome and romantic on others

especially aftercare will be sweet and dulcet, you take care of him, pepper him with kisses for being such a dutiful boy.

looks pretty no matter what. maybe he’s born with it maybe it’s tyongbelline. yeah just how handsome is that face and hair like... t’yongreal paris in full splendor

long story short he’s an oral deity. i rest my case howdy and goodbye see you next time aye

superm masterlist

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incarnateirony · 3 years

Note

Hi! I’m still not really over the last episode (and that happy montage in the end i-) and I’m feel confused about what’s part of the episode was fake. I mean the end totally is. But all Chuck scene was superweird too. And sometimes i think that it should be Cas instead of Lucifer and Jack felt him. I mean... confused! How do you feel about that?

Okay so here’s the thing -- this is a multifaceted episode--

BuckLeming, while often herded efficiently by Dabb, can muddy up the textual waters, leave gaps, and things unexplained.

However, that doesn’t account for Showalter’s choices in direction. Dutch shots out the ASS which are typically used to evoke that something is "wrong." Lots of panoramas, tracking shots, zooms and blurs in ways that simply are-not-standard for SPN. Extreme aerial shots.

One might even think “maybe it’s Chuck looking in on them!” but then you realize the same overhead view zoomed out on *Chuck* even and panned out to the horizon again.

One of the early mega-zooms literally zoomed out to The World, even. I’m just gonna gesture people to my tag on that and let them think on that, much less the empty world orbiting on the news or whatever the hell else.

There were *several* Cas-baits, yes. Yes, that was intentional from our actual authors.

But when it comes down to “fake episode”, here’s where we were at.

15.17-19 run immediately concurrently. At the end of 17, Chuck says this was his ending.

Now, the Winchesters largely derailed that ending, so Chuck was writing new material.

But Chuck is also seeking death.

He wrote a suicide note in 11. He wrote the story that would end in him and Amara being eradicated. And whatever influence he was exerting forcefully with Michael and Lucifer to bop the story around was all in the interest of seeing his book. One might think “to keep the Winchesters from killing him”, but he was desperate to see what his ending WAS, to know it and experience it and scream after them.

The dour taking of “no one cares” right after “I care(d)” about humanity is its own highlight going on. But wait, there’s MORE.

When Dabb dropped his pre-episode thing, we started talking before the episode.

So I mean, I think what we were *mostly* witnessing is the pen being ripped away.

But this is that emptiness that lingers even with Chuck generally resolved. They’re still kinda on the pages. The book is presented as shut, and the next steps are not taken. Development stops, if not drops.

This entire thing is so meta my damn head hurts.

Summarily: Is it just like, some weird AU that’s gonna go away? Not so much. Is it an incomplete portion of the story told from a skew? Absolutely. And is there still someone watching over them? T’would seem so. The whole World, even. Beyond Chuck.

Now the point at which we start blocking off issues of “eugenie writes like she’s 3″ is where we ask about things like “god power” or whatever else being thrown in the mix along with eugenie’s ki ball special effects that are literally always unique to her episodes, even if other people have to add the SFX.

So while it was a good bit of masterful work to do it via buckleming for this style of bump, it still inevitably has its flaws because... buckleming. But... Showalter was there. And one thing to note is almost every single scene entrance had some sort of major pan or zoom effect. That’s not typical for him.

The entire thing is designed to evoke, directorially:

One style: crooked shots, unlevel, unbalanced, uneasy feeling.

Second style: Over-under; some force is watching them on high, while others have a sort of brechtian absurdity, which seats it like a play on an elevated stage.

We are the audience, looking up at figures half the episode; but a second audience is looking in from “on high” and out over the world. As if perhaps even from the heavens.

Third style: CSI Miami, basically? Parts of this episode were sectioned off to be like a procedural crime drama in its cinematography and flashbacks. Which is ironic, because Dean loathes procedural dramas, but at the same time some of this fandom demands a procedural monster show instead of a family drama show.

Sam and Dean barely have any lines in the episode *until* we hit Crime Drama Time. Then suddenly, they reveal all of their case work. Despite Dean’s hatred of crime dramas, this is honestly when I feel like the brothers kicked in their own pen.

Let’s play a game-- the winchesters are aware they can write their own story. So they start telling the story they think people want to hear, or maybe just fill in the gaps from when Chuck gets dropped on his ass. Maybe Dean’s the one writing about how many times god punched them in the face whereas Sam is breaking down the crime scene investigation front. Another, where it feels like we’re loosely circling the war table as others lightly wander too.

But everything before that is the first and second style, and even after that, the overview-angle remains. The uneasiness is gone but there is an emptiness otherwise. But we are no longer spectators from beneath the stage, but staring into them.

I still very much expect everyone to “die” one more time and several specifics to choose to walk back into life at the end of it.

Is it a *complete* false narrative? No. We’re not just gonna turn around and be like “oh that whole ep didn’t happen.” But the writer lost his pen and got jacked at one point, while we also observed the stage from a series of angles as different audiences.

Riddle me this: Why show the World? “Because it’s empty and just them!” okay but there’s a lot of ways to show that which actually gets that point a whole lot better across than “here, here’s a planet that still looks lit up”--yes I know electricity is still running until stuff runs out but essentially speaking, the end of the episode shows us the kind of dramatic shots that could be used for that.

CASey just poofed in the World in the TV, seems legit.

Let’s see these overhead angles again, knowing it isn’t just Chuck.

This sort of overview is known for causing a “dollhouse effect” that derealizes the episode and makes them seem, well, like toys. Which is interesting. Because Chuck isn’t the only one watching them on high.

Cool, this is fine.

Either way, the entire episode is DESIGNED to cause some major uncanny valley. There’s a lot of parts that simply *haven’t been told or filled in.* It’s almost like evasive maneuvering, half the content just never made it to print, and what did wasn’t in its best draft. There may be battling authors, or a transition of authorship. But the thing is: this is not the complete story.

There is an entire missing section about Sam and Dean even finding out that Jack is a power siphon which they hadn’t witnessed yet much less arranged an entire plan.

Even Chuck’s episodes are generally told from the general POVs of the Winchesters, but this was absolutely not.

Matthew 28: 18: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Put a pin in that one.

Unless CHUCK IS WRITING HIS OWN FAKE DRAMATIC END, the overhead view, however, IS NOT CHUCK PERSPECTIVE.

-- Regardless, the metaness of “fish in a toilet bowl BRL plot” stacked into this makes it very difficult to accurately decipher the lines, especially with only one watch so far--just skimming back through right now to grab a few things I remember.

Some parts are plot salad buckleming.

Some parts are us as forced spectators of a stage play.

some parts are shifting authorship

Some parts are the heavens looking out over the earth it loves.

------

It almost feels as if, within enclosed spaces, unsteadiness and stageplay, we have Chuck’s POV.

But by the end it ceases to have any relevance, as he is no longer the author, and instead, we have the Presence of Being overseeing them, letting the Winchesters argue for their own proverbial pen in their own storytellings between here and there.

ALTERNATE PROPOSAL:

it is all one point of view. All of it. Pretend you’re someone’s eyes on a situation, you just happen to be in the sky half the time, and the uncanny valley is pulling forward the concept of being a presence that simply isn’t *there.* For example we're looking extremely closely at passed out dean but the camera turns and raises to level with Sam before Dean gets up. Our viewership lens is rising to meet Sam.

The camera stays in motion to fill a role or slot of a viewer. At first it’s haunting and ominous, but at other times, it’s simply part of the room, when it isn’t hovering from on high. Rather than speaking of empty space, we are viewing The World through that empty space, as if it were a Being.

Just a few more eye catching shots.

But whoever or whatever frames the end, even without Chuck--like the story is still turning on the pages, roughly.

The montage at the end feels like the Swan Song one, more or less, but there’s no narrator, no chuck.

The writer, the writer we know at least, is Absent.

Men are writing their own Stories.

But they aren’t alone.

I know how you see yourself. Angry and dark like your father. You think that’s what you are. But you are the most loving man in the whole world. That is who you are.

Someone does care. Even if right now, Sam and Dean don’t feel like anyone does.

...Because of you. I cared. For you, for Sam, for Jack, for the Whole World.

I cared.

“That’s not who I am.”

I am.

I speak therefore I am.

#supernatural #spn #15.19 #meta #my meta #the world #world #absence #being #polol

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thosch3i · 3 years

Note

Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though I’m sure these guys are great). You seem to know what you’re talking about so I’m hoping you can help!

UN also ended on a cliff hanger so I’m wondering if they’ll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.

ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because that’s not what im personally interested in, so i’m only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)

unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a 😬 thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that 😅

that aside! yes 云顶天宫 “explore with the note” part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:

official eng title “cavern of blood zombies” (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)

official eng title “angry sea, hidden sands” (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)

official eng title “bronze tree of death” (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)

official eng title “palace of doom” (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)

official eng title “deadly desert winds” (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)

official eng title “graveyard of a queen” (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)

阴山古楼 (searching for xiaoge’s memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)

邛笼石影 (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)

finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)

after the main story are the main sequels:

zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaoge’s past

sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie’s plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh

chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xie’s lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.

灯海寻尸&万山极夜 (still updating on wechat) don’t worry about this one since it’s still a WIP lol

btw between sha hai and chongqi there’s also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home

the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:

盗墓笔记 / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.

怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically “explore with the note”: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.

云顶天宫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also “explore with the note”: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)

终极笔记 / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.

沙海 / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story “three days of silence”.

重启之极海听雷 / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.

in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well it’s. very strange. it’s fully subbed on youtube if you’re interested?

the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on don’t have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).

i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; it’s....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but it’s an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.

more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.

summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.

edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)

you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)

a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but it’s more than fine as a general overview.)

anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasn’t aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)

also anon if anything wasn’t clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@

#dmbj #shouting into the void #ask #anon #....im kinda tired bc i just finished watching ydtg so i hope that doesnt come across *too much* in this post LOL #and its probably obvious which adaptation im biased towards but after reading the novels i cant really help it

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shotofire · 3 years

Text

Adjusting

Jean Kirstein x F!Reader

I got a few Jean requests which i’m super happy about :)) so I decided to sorta combine them, enjoy! (I had SO much fun writing this)

Overview: How you and Jeans lives are going in Marley

Warnings: Cursing, slight nsfw, anxiety

Season: 4

Things are different, to say the least. Marley seems more like ‘Paradise Island’ than your home did. There’s no constant fear of death here, no scraping for food, it seems like everything your people wanted and deserved. Yet you were still considered a devil, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. It’s nice here but you still can’t help but envy it, and long to wipe the smile off these heartless people’s faces.

The time you’ve been here has completely lost tract, you can’t even recall the first day. Jean has been by your side since the beginning, helping you remain calm. There are many moments where you want to yell or call out someone disrespecting your home, but you’ve had to hold back. It really pissed you off more than anything else you’ve ever dealt with.

“Don’t let their ignorance get to you, doll,” he’d said as tears built in your orbs. It was earlier on since you two had gotten there, and you had to hear the harsh words for the first time. The person wasn’t even talking to you, but the terms were technically still about you and everyone you cared for. “How can so many be so oblivious?” His lips traced your neck from behind, leaving soft kisses that had your body melting. “Remember you’re better than them.”

You long to go back home, but you know your time here has not yet received a due date. There’s no telling how prolonged this mission will be. The little town home you and Jean are staying at is pure filth, you wish Levi could be here to make it spotless. Thankfully most of your days together were spent moving around Marley gathering as much information as possible. You’d seen Reiner a few times, which scared the shit out of you.

Today was a somewhat normal day, and it’s beautiful outside. Your fingers are looped with Jeans as he buys a news paper. Not much has happened so far but it is still earlier on in the day. You enjoyed days like this, they were more calm and enjoyable. At this point you weren’t sure what else you and Jean could possible find out, the rest was basically left to Eren. The only thing you loathed about being here is your daily attire.

You constantly have to wear a skirt or a dress, which is totally not comfortable in this heat. “I’m hungry,” you mumble as you two walk away from the news paper stand. Jean’s hand gives yours a squeeze, “We will eat in a bit, okay?” You couldn’t help but let out a groan, you were starving from all the walking.

Jean doesn’t know who’s genius idea it was to send you two together. Sure you’d basically been a thing since you were teens but you still annoy each other like an old married couple. Then again he wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else, he just wishes you could be a little less whiny. “Doll, we’re going to get food. I just need to give a letter to Eren first, he has someone who can send them back home without it being checked.”

Your arms wrap around his waist and you lean into his side as your walk continues. “I just want to lay in bed all day, is that too much to ask for?” He chuckes while observing the cute pout on your face. “Sadly it is too much to ask for.” His arm comes to swing around your shoulders down to your middle, and he pats your hip with the newspaper. Anyone watching your current state would think you’re brand new lovers in the honeymoon stage, but this has been going on for years.

“I heard there’s a festival in a couple days, are we going?” He’d already heard about it and knew you’d be dying to go. But the thought of going was so overwhelming for him, he wasn’t even sure if he could handle it. That many people, so many unfamiliar faces, there’s no telling what could happen. “We’ll talk about it.” That always means no, and you can’t help but let out a groan.

The day goes on and you finally get food, which was better than anything you’ve ever had. Jean didn’t dig in like you however, he seems to have a lot on his mind. “Whats up with you?” You ask through a mouthful of rice, any other day he’d scold you for your bad manners but he wasn’t in the mood. Together you sat at a table for two at a eatery that is rather empty, only a few workers and even less customers. “Do you ever think someone else should be doing my job?”

You should’ve known he would be doubting himself by now. Your love always fails to see his potential and strength, and it breaks your heart. He eyes are fixed on the bowl in front of him, his appetite quickly vanishing. The man felt sick and disappointed in himself. So far he hadn’t found out or accomplished as much as he had hoped for, and is afraid that he’s letting his friends down. Afraid he’s letting you down.

“That’s a stupid question,” you scold him with a scrunched face, “of course not! You were sent here for a reason, we all believe in you. Hell, they believe in me!” Jean doesn’t say anything, only lets out a soft laugh at your words. “What are you thinking about?” You reach across the table to grab his fidgeting hands, “tell me, please.”

Brown eyes finally land on you. He finds comfort in your touch and soft voice. “Uh, I’ve just been doubting myself lately. I feel like there’s never much to write back about, like everything is just a repeat from the letters before. There’s just something telling me that I can do more, but I just haven’t figured it out yet.” In all honesty, you felt the same about yourself. This move was all so hectic and a lot to take in, and sometimes it felt like you could be doing more.

“I understand, you know I do. This was a lot for the both of us and you can always talk to me. Personally, and you know I don’t lie to you, I think you’re doing a damn good job. Our circumstances are shit and you’re doing better than expected under all the pressure, give yourself more credit!” Your hands are waving in the air wildly as you rant with pure love.

Jean’s teeth are sunk into his bottom lip trying to suppress his smile. Somehow you always know what to say, and he admires that so much about you. “I love you so much.” A blush creeps onto your cheeks and you show a big smile, “I love you more, idiot.” He gets up from his seat across from you, quick to find his way to your side. Strong arms swoop to pick up your frame, as if his new bride, and you let out fits of giggles.

“What are you doing?” You ask with bright eyes. The small amount of people inside are watching the scene with crazy looks on their faces, but neither of you give a shit. He carries you out of the place as you continue to laugh, and reach up to ruffle his locks a few times. The man manages to carry you all the way home, setting you on your feet infront of the door way. “You should do that more often, be my personal carriage.” “Wouldn’t you just love that?” Sarcasm laced in his voice.

He opens the door with a key, that never works the first time, before kicking the door open and grabbing onto you once again. Your body is thrown over his shoulder as he enters your temporary home, then closing the door behind him. “Put me down, you dummy!” He does as you ask, dropping you onto your shared mattress. The light of the moon shines through the window onto your smiling face, and Jean thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. An even better sight than the ocean.

“You’re gorgeous, you know that right?” His compliment sends butterflies to your stomach. Before you can answer his lips are connecting to yours in a loving kiss. Hands grip your hips, pulling you closer to his frame. You two stay like that for a moment, kissing and grabbing at one another like hungry hormonal teens who’ve never had physical touch.

Once his lips move to your neck your eyes open, and a small whimper slips from you at the feeling of his soft mouth. “Did my words cheer you up that much?” You ask with a smirk, and you’re answered with a bite to your nape causing you to yelp. His hands have moved under your long skirt now, palming at your thighs. This man will forever know how to make you feel good, it’s as if he has a magic touch. Scratch that, he does have a magic touch.

“Isn’t Eren-“ You cut yourself off with a moan as he sucks at your collar bone, “Isn’t Eren supposed to be coming by?” Jean smiles against your skin, and he feels a shiver run through your body. “I guess we’ll just have to get started now, huh?”

A knock echos through the small home and you two scramble for your clothes. “Hold on!” You yell, and then accidentally fall over as you step into your skirt. Jean let’s out a snort at the scene, and you narrow your eyes at him, “I’m having trouble walking right now thanks to someone.” He smirks while buttoning up his shirt, “You weren’t complaining while I was doing it. I recall hearing a, ‘More Jean, please more!’” He mocks your words, in a high pitched voice, from the earlier events and you blush, but try to hide it with an annoyed look.

“Shut your trap and open the door.” He laughs and buttons the last of his shirt before opening the door. There stood Eren with a very knowing look on his face. The long haired man observes you two, and it’s very telling. Each of your manes are sticking in every direction, not to mention the room has that smell to it. “You knew I’d be here and you still couldn’t keep your hands off of each other?”

Jean’s face goes blank and so does yours, but it’s short lived before you’re letting out strings of laughter. He can’t help but smile as well, but his gaze is set on the floor to keep from further annoying Eren. “Oh cmon Eren, it’s a little funny.” He completely doesn’t agree with you, but you continue to giggle.

This has been a very long mission for Eren with the two of you. Atleast you both didn’t give a shit.

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fangirlingtodeath513 · 3 years

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The Cockles Breakup Theory - Jensen

So I’ve previously posted here about the Cockles Breakup Theory, but that focused more on Misha’s side of it since Misha’s side was a bit more obvious. I’ve gotten a few requests to do one specifically focusing on Jensen, so here we are.

First of all, under no circumstances is this to be brought up with any of the cast or crew. Discussions like this are born in the fandom space and they’re meant to stay there. Please do not use these posts, or posts similar to this, to push an agenda with the actors, their families, or anyone else. This is purely speculative and purely for fun.

Throwing this under a cut because it’s gonna get long.

I’m gonna start out by giving a rough overview for those of you that don’t remember. We’re hovering between October of 2011 and somewhere around August of 2012. So we’re in season 7, where it looks like Cas has been removed from the show permanently.

Misha shows up drunk and ornery all through Asylum 7, which was the following weekend. Jensen looks relatively unfazed. We don’t see much from him until well after fans were made aware of Misha’s return around December of 2011.

The whole thing starts with this tweet from Misha:

[A screenshot of a tweet from Misha Collins on October 21, 2011. It reads: “I’m not normally one to talk coworkers, but Jensen jus let me take this picture of him shirtless.” This is followed by a link that leads to a very close-up picture of the left side of Jensen Ackles’ face, from his forehead to the bottom of his nose.]

This is pretty on-the-nose (pardon the pun) even for Misha, who’s typically very flirty and jokey with his friends. I’ve seen people theorize that this particular post is what spurred their breakup, in addition to the other factors of Misha being let go from the show and not being on set in Vancouver with Jensen anymore. My personal theory is that their relationship, whatever it was at the beginning, was as much of a comfort thing as it was a relationship. They were there for weeks at a time, away from their families, and I don’t doubt that they took comfort in each other. When that factor was removed, that relationship basically fell apart. I’m sure Misha being so jokingly open about their relationship didn’t strike Jensen in the best way either. He’s always been an intensely private person, though he has opened up to fans more recently, and I’m sure any insinuation that he’s living anything other than the life of the normal American male makes him nervous.

The Jensen side of this is generally thought of like this: from mid-October 2011 (the time of Misha’s tweet, which is thought to have started the breakup) to roughly February 2012, Jensen was super tight-lipped about Misha and Cas. He hardly says anything, which some people write off because Misha and Cas weren’t on the show. However, the fans knew Misha would be back in December of 2011, so J2M probably knew before that and Jensen was still tight-lipped about Misha and Cas.

Somewhere around February, though, something happened. Jensen’s a lot more open with talking about Cas and whenever he brings up Misha, he always mentions how much he helps to carry the show and how great he is, almost like he’s trying to praise him at every opportunity. Throughout panels between February and August 2012, he does just about everything he can to get Misha’s attention. He flirts with him, pulls him into the conversation as often as he can, and brings up Misha/Cas even when he’s not around.

There’s this set of gifs regarding Jensen speaking about Cas and the loss of Cas during season 7. He’s overly nice in them and gushes about Cas, leading some people to believe he was trying to get Misha’s attention and show him that he really did care.

In this set of gifs from February-ish 2012, you’ve got him saying he’ll take Misha back on the show with a pleased smile.

At Nashcon in February, Jensen is asked what it’s like to have Misha back on set and he says “It’s very refreshing, you know, he’s one of the family.”

And of course, there are the various statements about Dean taking Cas’s trenchcoat from the water, which wasn’t scripted. Misha said at an earlier con that he thought Dean was overly obsessed with Cas and that it was super creepy which, if you pay any attention to Misha at all, is super out of character for him. As far as I’m aware, he’s always been super supportive of Deana and Cas’s relationship (romantic or not). Also at Nashcon, Jensen says he discussed the move with the director, Guy Bee, and “if [Cas] ever comes back, he’s gonna need the trenchcoat.”

And then we’re onto JIB3 in April 2012. This one’s… rough, to say the least. For anyone who watches the Cockles panels at JIB, you know what they’re usually like: fun, flirty, usually with drunk Jensen and Misha. Misha almost always takes the lead in their panels because he’s always been the one more comfortable in front of fans, but this time he just sits back and watches. It’s the panel Cockles fans look forward to all year, but this one was… well, see for yourself.

Jensen kinda carries the whole thing. It’s pretty clear Misha’s not at all into being there.

And then there’s this exchange, which just speaks for itself:

[A set of gifs from Jus In Bello Convention in Rome. The exchange is as follows: Jensen: I-I had a great time. I really did. It wasn’t you, it was me. Misha: It’s funny, I just thought that, for me it was really special, so. Jensen: That’s, um… that’s too bad. That’s too bad. But maybe we can give it another shot! See if the creative juices get flowing. No? Okay. During this exchange, Jensen is very animated, moving his hands to punctuate his points and tilting his body toward Misha at times. At the end of that exchange, Jensen turns in his seat so Misha is slightly behind him. Misha, throughout this exchange, is incredibly reserved. He only moves to bring his microphone to his mouth and he turns his head to look at Jensen, but his body stays facing the crowd.]

I mean like what... how are you even supposed to interpret that any other way than a breakup? Look at Misha’s face, he looks devastated. His head is down, he doesn’t move at all while they’re talking, and he’s facing the crowd the entire time. His legs are straight out in front of him, unlike Jensen’s relaxed sitting posture.

Then there’s this whole thing, where Misha is so obviously trying to make Jensen jealous. It’s not until Misha sees Jensen looking over that he really goes for it, groping Sebastian and pretty much dry humping him on stage. Jensen just looks around awkwardly during this encounter, like he’s not really sure what to do with himself.

There’s also this debacle, which was also at JIB3. I’m not sure whose duck it was (I think Cliff’s, J2’s bodyguard) but Misha had autographed it with “Cliff, I want to give you my big d*ck”. The entire cast had been messing around with it all day, then Jensen walks on stage, sees Misha’s autograph, and almost immediately takes a sharp object to the duck to ruin it. I don’t want to assume this is because of Misha but like…………… I have eyes and a brain.

As far as how it was resolved? We don’t really know. I doubt we’ll ever really know, to be honest with you. Around the time of filming 8x05, they had VanCon, where they were both visibly in much, much better spirits. Misha kissed a poster of Jensen, Jensen was so much more open that even at the time, some fans who attended the con remarked on it. This brings us to August of 2012, where it appears they mended whatever went wrong. Was it that Misha wasn’t on the show? Was it something more, like Jensen thinking they were becoming a little bit too public? We’ll probably never know.

I’m not going to tack my thoughts on the end here since I want this to primarily be an informational post, so if you’d like me to go in-depth with my own theory of what happened and what went down, I’ll certainly do that in a different post :) These are some other really great resources for the breakup theory that cover things way more in-depth than I have, especially with the conventions. There’s this one, which is basically the Cockles bible, most (if not all) of the pertinent info about the breakup is listed there. Here’s a youtube playlist of all the key moments we’ve discussed here as well as some others. You can also check out my cockles tag or my cockles breakup theory tag for more delightful cockles info.

#cockles #rps for ts #cockles breakup theory

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ziracona · 2 years

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hello i just finished in living memory and i just wanna say i really enjoyed it:)) my heart is still in pieces over philip and vigo’s story, tho:( i don’t know about what you have posted here but in the story there isn’t much about vigo. he is very mysterious and i want to know more about him

Ah! Thank you so much! I’m really happy you enjoyed it. And I’m glad that Vigo and Philip’s relationship was impactful—I know the sadness though. TuT

(Spoilers for In Living Memory ahead for anyone else reading this)

There’s for sure a lot in the Vigo tag on my blog if you’re interested, but I’m happy to answer questions too! The short overview is that he’s from the 19teens/1920s, Sámi (and Ethiopian on his Mother’s side), and from Norway, ended up in the realm sort of on purpose—went monster hunting after hearing a lot of legends about a cursed place and some evil spirit, and got more than he bargained for. Was trapped in the realm, figured out how to create a lot of things like the hatch tunnels, and made the Entity regret taking him, which it had previously thought was so funny and clever, and eventually became such a problem it basically tried to assassinate him by sending killers out hunting for him. He met Philip after Philip was sent to hunt Talbot, who ended up misplaced when entering the realm, and Philip was one of the killers trapped by Talbot before eventually Trapper broke free and the Entity got him. Vigo met Philip a few weeks later, and mistook him for a survivor. They kind of speedran enemies to friends to lovers at breakneck speed. And tried to work together to kill the Entity, which, as you know from ILM, ended in an extremely upsetting failure.

Even after death, Vigo refused to totally give up, and the Entity was too proud to kill-kill him (because that would he like admitting a human truly was a threat), and so trapped suffering 98% dead in the void, Vigo used the little remaining energy he had to try and watch Philip (and the survivors in the realm) and do anything he could to influence, or at the least, chronicle, events to mark them with meaning even if everyone else eventually ended up dead too, so at least Philip would not be utterly alone (he’s responsible for some minor luck strokes, like Kate finding the tape. There’s not much he can do, but when he can, he does). Vigo is also the narrator/editor for In Living Memory itself, which is why the flavor is how it is, and he addresses the audience directly at least twice, and why the end becomes slightly scattered/nonlinear once they’re outside the realm, as his connection is weaker so he has to kind of hunt for memories of what’s happening looking for what he wants, instead of vicariously experiencing things simultaneously, and why the story finally ends once he knows his connection will be gone soon with them out and him in the void/realm still, and is able to see Philip is going to be alright, so he is able to let go knowing it’s okay to and his loved will be alright. It’s called ‘In Living Memory’ as a play on ‘In Loving Memory’ & ‘Living Memory,’ as it’s in a way a funeral gift, but it’s chronicling life ongoing and how significant their struggles and loves and pain and hopes and connections all were, no matter where it ended. There’s a prequel that I’ll do sometime called ‘Signifying Nothing’ (also narrated by Vigo), as a reference to the Macbeth monologue (life is but a walking shadow, a poor player, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is seen no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’), as en expression of loss and pain in the face of his failure there, in a way naming it ‘About Nothing’ — that perspective comes full circle with ILM, which exists to mark meaning to Philip’s life whatever happens, and which is essentially called ‘About Everything’. Love and life and memory, and marked significance.

They’re very tragic and sweet. Both end up completing the other’s character arc for them. In SN, Vigo’s goal is to save everyone and beat the Entity, and Philip’s is just to be/reclaim being a decent person at peace, living an okay life. Philip throws both his personal quest and future away in ILM trying to finish what Vigo started (and succeeds/beats the Entity and saves everyone), and Vigo similarly fails utterly in life at his own goal, but spends his whole afterlife chronicling Philip’s story and recording him as the good person deserving of peace that he is in stone, and is largely responsible for Philip’s survival in Memento Mori/Vs, because he defended him viciously in the void to anyone with a problem. Which lets both characters end up happy and at peace. They saved each other, even when Vigo was dead, and Philip couldn’t remember him.

Anyway! I’m so happy you liked them; both characters and Vigojomo are close to my heart. Feel free to ask any specific questions if you have them!

#ask #anonymous #thank you! I’m so happy you enjoyed it #in living memory (fic)#in living memory #dead by daylight #ilm spoilers #in living memory spoilers #signifying nothing (fic)#signifying nothing #SN spoilers #Vigo #vigojomo

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winterhawk-olympic-bang · 3 years

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How To Edit Your Writing

Guest Poster: Chronicwhimsy

Here is our final Writer Workshop post, written by Chronicwhimsy. Have a read and then head over to the Discord Server where we have a channel for you to take part in a discussion based on the post, with chances to share your own ideas too.

Editing: a drive-by guide

Hi, my name is Claire, and I’m an editor.

(Hi Claire)

I’ve been asked to give a quick guide on tips for editing your stories, as I’ve been a beta/editor for various fanfic writers over the years. I’m a professional editor, working for a publishing house in the UK, and I offer independent freelance editing too, via my website. I’ll be on the Discord server answering questions this evening, but I’m also happy to chat to people either through my website or even if you wanted to drop me a line on tumblr.

The key thing to remember about editing is that the end goal is to make your story the best it can be, and make sure your initial idea comes across as clearly and purely as you first imagined it. It’s about ensuring that the lines of communication between you and your reader are 100% open.

To do that, you need to have finished your story, because you can’t fix something that doesn’t exist.

Then you edit.

What now?

So, you’ve finished your Winterhawk Olympic Bang Fic, and you’re wondering what to do next?

The very first, and most important thing you should do? Celebrate. I mean congratulate the hell out of yourself, pat yourself on the back, and have some cake. Finishing stories is hard. Getting through a first draft is one of the trickiest parts of writing, so you should be proud of yourself, and proud of your story.

Because in a short while, editing is going to make you hate both.

I mean that in the nicest possible way of course, but you absolutely are going to be thoroughly sick of this whole thing by the time you’re done, and you’re going to question everything you’ve ever written. You’re going to get a close-up view of all your narrative bad habits which will make you think you’ve never had any skill at all, and you’re going to re-read your work so many times that it’ll feel trite, old, uninspired. This is normal and it is your brain lying to you. If you remember nothing else, remember that!

“The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciatingly impossible.” Jonathan Safran Foer

Don’t lose faith! Editors and editing exist for a reason, no first draft is perfect. You’ve done something amazing in finishing, and now you’re going to make it incredible.

Before You Start - Take a Break

You know the phrase “can’t see the wood for the trees”? It could just as easily be “can’t see the story for the words.” It’s never recommended to go straight into editing as soon as you finish writing, and part of the reason for that is because you’re too deep in the story to be able to assess it objectively, or to catch things that are missed out because you know they’re there, but the reader wouldn’t.

“Once it's done, put it away until you can read it with new eyes. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before.” Neil Gaiman

Most writers and editors advocate putting a story away for a month or so before returning to edit, so you’re looking at it with fresh eyes. Obviously, with a Big Bang (or other fic event) this sort of time is usually at a premium! Try and make as much space as you can while still leaving yourself time to edit.

If you really don’t have any time, one trick that can help is changing your location. If you write in your room, can you relocate to your kitchen? Or a café (if you can safely)? Could you print it out? (Printing Top Tip: if you do print it, try and do it double-spaced - this makes it easier on the eyes, and gives you room to make notes. Also, serif fonts can often be easier to read than sans serif fonts, as it gives stronger distinctions between different letters.)

The Filter System

I like to think of the editing process as a series of different filters which, when used one after the other, produce a finely-sieved finished product. Each filter stage has slightly smaller holes than the one before it, as you look increasingly closely at your work.

Filter 1: Structural editing

Does the story make sense? Is the pace okay? Do all the scenes work where they are, or would they be better elsewhere? Do some scenes need to be there at all? Is the characterisation consistent? Does anyone change names halfway through? Did you forget what time of year it was set halfway through?

Filter 2: Line editing

Is this phrase as tight as it could be? Have you repeated yourself anywhere? Does this sentence add anything or does it throw the pace off? Have you gone overboard with adjectives and similes? Have you been too sparse with them?

Filter 3: Copy editing

Is your style consistent? Did you start writing in present tense and switch to past tense? Could this scene transition be snappier? Are there any bits that you want to tidy up? Have you left any half-finished sentences because you got distracted before you could end it?

Filter 4: Proofreading

Is everything spelled correctly? Have you caught all the strange grammar mistakes?

Some of these things might be picked up by your beta reader if you have one. Different beta readers have different styles, and also they will work based on their relationship with you and what you prefer. Some may stick to proofreading and consistency-checking, others may be more confident to dive right in and look at structure, pacing and characterisation. Some may work through the process with you as you write, others may only look at the story when it’s complete so they can get a full overview. There is no right or wrong answer, and having a conversation with your beta about your respective styles at the start can help you work better together!

Filter 1 - Structural Editing

For this stage, you want to read your whole story through from start to finish, and resist the urge to tweak anything to begin with! You will want a way of making notes as you go through because as you do, you’ll make yourself a cheat-sheet to help you with your line edit. Things to keep track of:

Character name spellings

Character ages

Character relationships (drawing a relationship web can be very helpful to visualise this!)

The time span of the story - the date it starts, the date it ends.

As a subset of this, I find it can be very helpful to set up a spreadsheet with a timeline of what happens in the story, and who is involved. Doing this both chronologically for the characters and in order of how it happens in the story can help you keep track of what characters know when, and also when the readers find out certain information. You might have one of these from when you were planning your story (as detailed in Sara Holmes’ workshop). If you’ve kept it up to date with changes to the plot and structure as you’ve written, this will be super helpful.

At this stage, you’re looking to see if everything works as a consistent story. You want to check to see if it feels like it’s the right pace, or if there are bits where it drags or rushes through the action. Why is this? Are there scenes which aren’t adding anything to the progress? Could they just be referred to in passing, or removed entirely without impacting the story? Are there other scenes which need to be added to provide more detail and growth? Is there anything that you as a writer know that is essential to the story, but you forgot to actually put in the text?

“Crafty writers...don't allow Exposition to form Lumps. They break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with.” Ursula K. Le Guin

You’re also looking to see if the characters feel true to themselves all the way through. Do the relationships spark? Do they sound like themselves? Can you hear them in your head?

Some people recommend doing several structural edits, with a different focus each time. One pass to look at the pacing, one pass to look at the characters, one to look at the story arc. You’ll work out what floats your boat, but you will be re-reading this story a lot of times before you’re done editing - which is why it’s very important to write what you love and want to read! You’ll go through many stages of hating this story before you let it go, and that will be even harder if it wasn’t something you enjoyed in the first place.

Filter 2 - Line Editing

So you remember I told you to make all those notes during your structural edit? Here’s where you’re going to use them. Now’s the time to go through your story line by line and check that the details in your cheat sheet are correct all the way through the story. I’ve written a novel that I initially set in November, but by the time I finished it, I’d decided it was taking place in early May. I had to go back and fix all the dates and weather descriptions to make sure the action hadn’t actually been yeeted forward six months spontaneously in the middle of a conversation.

Arguably, the line edit will be the most painful part of editing. At this stage, you will be taking a fine-tooth comb to everything you have written, examining it to within an inch of its life, and casting judgement. You’re going to find every stylistic tic you have (for me, everyone is constantly quirking their eyebrows and smirking like they’ve got cramp in their facial muscles), and you’re going to get rid of them (a person only has so many eyebrows, and they can only quirk so far). Now is the time to kill your darlings - don’t hang on to anything unless you feel it’s really doing a job to further the story and the characters.

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King

If you have ever worried about the unbearable sensation of being Known, the line edit is where you will experience that with every word, and you’ll be doing it to yourself. This is when the doubts will really start to creep in and you will maybe feel like everything you write is unoriginal, derivative trash and unfit for human eyes.

Here I’ll reiterate what I said above:

This is a normal feeling, everyone experiences it when editing. E V E R Y O N E.

It’s a lie. No-one else will ever read your story in this state, no-one else will ever read your story this closely. Of course it feels obvious and uninspired to you - you wrote it. It’s your idea, and you’ve read it several times, it holds no surprises for you. (I may be projecting my feelings from every time I’ve edited something here, but…)

You’ll also be catching any ELEPHANTS or whatever your mammal of choice for placeholder text is that you’ve stationed throughout the story as a flag for you to come back and add in a name, or a food, or a song title later. You know, the things you decided were a problem for Future!You. I have bad news, the future is now.

Top Tip: if you have changed someone’s name halfway through, DON’T for the love of Mike, just do a straight find and replace to correct it. Because that’s when you suddenly find out how many other words actually contain names (Mark became Bill? That’s great, until your characters are going to the superBillet to buy groceries). Some word processing programmes have a “whole word” option which is your friend, otherwise ensure to put spaces either side of the word when you search. If you don’t, you’ve just made another horrible job for yourself...

Filter 3 - Copy Editing

Once you’ve made it out the other side of the Line Edit (and given yourself a nice treat to congratulate yourself because that stage is HARD), we get onto copy editing. This is basically the set-dressing stage. You’ve built the house, you’ve decorated the room, and now you’re just making sure every bit of furniture is in the right place for optimal feng shui.

Here’s where you go through and go, do I really need a dash here, or could I just use a comma? Could I use fewer commas? Could I go in and move all of @kangofu_cb’s commas around because I’m the sort of person who will come into your house and change how you hang your toilet paper or where you keep your ketchup.

Now is the time to be as picky as possible, like you’re an interior designer for the most demanding client in the world and the ornament must be exactly equidistant from both ends of the mantlepiece and facing precisely south-west. Things that may have just survived your line edit will be measured again, and if they’re found wanting, then they get binned.

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” Mark Twain

Another thing you might like to do here is check that all your features and things are correct. Did you make a wild claim about the lifecycle of salamanders, or the average price of corn and then never go back to verify this? Take a second to just do that now. It may be that you decide it’s not a problem (I received one copy edit note saying that an idiom used in a book wasn’t recorded until 200 years later, and I made the editorial decision that no-one would care), but for bigger things you may want to make sure you’re accurate.

If you google it (as I just did, to make sure I was definitely giving you the right information), copy editing is often conflated with line editing, and that’s because in reality a lot of the elements of copy editing actually wouldn’t usually be done by the author, and are probably irrelevant to fanfic. The copy editor is responsible for ensuring the book has a consistent grammatical style in line with the preferences of the publisher (em-dash or en-dash, curly quote marks or straight ones, how you deal with acronyms, what needs to be italicised, etc. etc.), which isn’t necessarily required for fanfic. In reality, for fanfic I’d use this stage as a second, lighter line-edit to see where things can be tightened up in phrasing, as well as perhaps a preliminary proofread where you start to mark up any spelling errors.

Filter 4 - Proofreading

By this stage, you’ll be exhausted, and sick to death of the blasted thing. But the end is in sight! Now you’re onto the proofread. This is another close read, where you go through and check for spelling errors, typos, missing full stops, strange formatting stuff (which probably will be less of an issue as AO3 basically makes everything uniform anyway).

Before you even start this, change your font.

We’ve all been there, thought we’d caught every spelling error, every weird typo, only to spot six immediately after posting. That’s because after a certain point our brain becomes used to the font we’ve written in, and will automatically correct things that aren’t right. AO3 has its own unique formatting - colour, spacing, font - and the minute your fic appears on there in this new format you brain wakes up and is like “oh shit, yeah, that’s not how it should be.”

By changing the font before you proofread, you preempt this step.

Another thing to remember: it’s unlikely you will ever catch every mistake. Published books regularly go out with a smattering of typographical errors throughout the text - how many first editions of books are valuable because of misspellings that slipped through the net? You’re only human.

“Connie's other job was proof-editing which she did very badly. Transferring the author's corrections to a clean sheet of proofs was something Connie was unable to do without missing an average of three corrections a page, or transcribing newly inserted material all wrong... she put angry authors' letters about the mutilation of their books under the cushion of her chair to deal with later.” Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington

Often, spelling errors and things you would look for in a proofread are things that a beta reader will pick up as they go, as they’re the easiest things to spot, but it’s also worth looking over yourself for anything your beta might have missed.

Whether you decide to follow any or all of these steps, always do the proofread last.There is no point carefully spellchecking a chapter you are then going to delete, or proofreading the whole thing, but adding loads of new paragraphs later that either don’t get looked at or mean you end up having to proofread twice. That’s the only hard and fast rule when it comes to editing, and it will save you a lot of unnecessary work!

FREEDOM

And then, finally, unbelievably - you’re done. Your literary child is ready to leave the nest. Resist the urge to keep re-reading and tweaking. Instead, click “publish” and give yourself a nice little treat. You’ve earned it.

Miscellany and Disclaimers

These editing stages are ones that would be applied to a published novel. An author would probably do this several times - once on their own to get it ready for submission, then perhaps again with their agent, but the really heavy work would be done with their editor. The structural edit would be done under the advice of an agent or editor where the author looks at their comments, rejigs things accordingly, and lather, rinse, repeat until everyone’s happy. The editor would undertake the line edit, and the author would decide what they wanted to keep or change. The copy edit and proofread would be done in-house or sent to freelancers, with queries and changes wafted past the author for clarification or approval.

Self-published authors will often hire freelancers to help at various stages to get feedback and advice.

Very rarely would an author go from draft to final published piece by doing all their editing alone. Because it’s hard fucking work, and because your brain will get exhausted.

In light of that, you need to remember:

You’ve written a fanfic

The editorial standards of fanfic are significantly less stringent than published books

Editing by yourself is really hard work that many people are often paid to do for published books

No-one is paying you for your fanfic

Fanfic is supposed to be fun

Some published authors will edit and rewrite and edit and rewrite again and again. At a panel I attended, Joanne Harris said that if she didn’t rewrite her work at least five times she was being too easy on herself, while Joe Hill said he usually aimed for three rewrites - Joe edited as he went along, going over the previous day’s pages before continuing, where Joanne completed her manuscripts before editing. Elizabeth May has talked about her stages of drafting, starting with her Trash Draft, then her Clean Draft, and then rewriting and editing after that.

These are people who are writing professionally, getting paid for their work, and so the time they put in has monetary results. If you want to write original fiction, their advice is extremely valuable.

For fanfiction, it’s a large time investment for something you’re doing as a hobby for free. If I’m strictly honest, I’m fairly lax with my fanfiction editing. I do structural discussions and tweaks with my beta reader as I write, and then a spell check. I’m also aware that my fanfics aren’t narratively complex, nor do they seem as polished, rich and deep as some of the other works out there. That’s fine by me. You simply need to find the level you’re happy at, where you can still feel proud of your work but you’re enjoying the experience.

In the end - it’s all for fun!

Resources:

Online

Curtis Brown Creative: An Editor’s Guide to Editing Your Novel

Joanne Harris: Ten Tweets About Editing

Joanne Harris: Writing Resources

NerdsLikeMe: Beta Reading vs Proofreading vs Editing

Books

Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Ursula K. Le Guin - Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

#winterhawk #winterhawk olympic bang #whob #writer workshops #writer workshop: editing #guest post #chronicwhimsy

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tlbodine · 3 years

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The Great Content Warning Debate

Horror Twitter has been aflame for a few days now with heated discourse about trigger/content warnings, and I keep seeing the same arguments and questions and points come up repeatedly so I wanted to collect all of it into one place because I feel like discourse can only get so far if people keep reinventing the wheel -- so perhaps having the full discussion laid out in one place could be helpful.

Of course, the folks arguing probably won’t see this post, but perhaps there can be some benefit from talking about it anyway. This is intended to be more of an overview of arguments and counter-arguments, collected and displayed as impartially as possible, but of course my own opinions are going to leak in and color some of this.

NOTE: This is written specifically from the perspective of the horror book community, a genre that traditionally is associated with troubling, transgressive, risk-taking and shocking works. There are discussions to be had for content labels on other types of fiction, but as I’m unfamiliar with the norms and expectations of, say, romance, I’m not going to wade too deeply into that here.

So without further ado, the arguments and counter-arguments and discussion points that I keep seeing hashed and rehashed and circled around when the issue of trigger warnings comes up!

If you’re sensitive, you shouldn’t be reading horror

“Horror is supposed to be horrifying! It’s not fluffy bunnies and kittens! You’re supposed to be made uncomfortable!”

There are a few problems with this:

“Uncomfortable” is not the same as “Sent into a panic attack/flashback/relapse” (ie, triggered)

People with PTSD and other issues can and do engage with horror all the time and often love the genre for entertainment or therapeutic purposes

Many people are fine with some types of content but not others; blood and guts won’t affect them the same as rape, or they’re fine with adults dying but can’t handle child death, and so on and so forth

Knowing what you’re getting into can help you prepare/brace yourself so you’re not taken unaware; people with the right warnings can mentally prepare themselves and enjoy a book that they would not have been able to read if they were confronted with it unexpectedly

Trigger warnings are censorship

Some folks have an implicit/kneejerk reaction that “trigger = bad thing” and respond to the request to put warnings on a book as a moral value judgment on the book’s contents. I can see why they might fear that, especially because at a glance it’s easy to conflate the groups asking for warnings with the groups who say things like “if your characters have underage sex then you the writer are literally a pedophile.” But by and large the folks asking for warnings do not seem to be asking for folks to stop writing certain difficult themes, only to provide a heads up for readers about the type of experience those readers can expect from the book.

There is an argument to be made that warnings could affect the sales of a book, in much the same way that an NC-17 film doesn’t get the same distribution opportunities as an R-rated or PG-13 film, and that authors/publishers will make marketing decisions to include or exclude certain types of content in order to avoid this.

Trigger warnings will spoil the book

While some readers will benefit from content warnings, others might have their reading experience ruined by knowing about major twists. This seems especially relevant with a warning like “child death.” It’s very important that people who have, for example, recently lost a child not be unexpectedly re-traumatized by reading about a child dying without warning. But it’s also important that people who want to enjoy the full, shocking impact of such a scene have the opportunity to do so without having it dulled by forewarning.

Any kind of warning system needs to be opt-in for a reader. Some suggestions include:

Placing warnings at the end of a book, where readers can flip to that page to look (not helpful if you’re ordering online)

Placing warnings on the author’s website, where readers can search (not helpful if you’re buying in person)

Given the limitations, a combination of those strategies seems to make sense. It may also be unfortunately true that someone looking for one type of warning (ie, rape) will have their experience ruined if they spoiler themselves for another warning (child death). This may be unavoidable collateral damage.

Authors/Publishers should be responsible for putting warnings in their books

There seems to be some debate over whether the onus of responsibility for providing warnings rests on the author or the publisher. It should be acknowledged that authors may not always have the power to make this choice -- and if the presence or absence of warnings becomes a factor for judging the quality/moral fiber of authors, those authors could be punished by the reader community for a choice that was largely out of their hands (although, there’s still nothing keeping the author from hosting those warnings externally - how successfully that is implemented is another matter).

Additionally, the demand for warnings will be placed more consistently on small presses simply because those presses are more likely to heed the request. This could create a double standard where readers might be more forgiving of large pub works that forego warnings because there’s no expectation that they would have implemented them anyway. On the other hand, this could be a way for indie publishers to differentiate themselves on the market and appeal more to certain subsets of readers.

External groups or communities should be responsible for warnings

There’s a line of reasoning that an author or publisher may not be sensitive to the potentially triggering/damaging things in their work, and some kind of external governing body should manage this work instead. This does sound a lot more like the censorship argument that people are worried about.

Wiki-style sites and places where people can freely tag books (such as Storygraph) also fit this bill to an extent. They would presumably have less power over the market than a ratings board like the MPAA, but could still exert influence over how a book is received.

Demanding warnings will negatively impact marginalized authors

We’re already seeing some evidence that BIPOC and LGBTQ authors are affected more by user-generated trigger warnings on sites like Storygraph, and that these warnings can be weaponized against marginalized authors. Much like review-bombing a book before it comes out can affect its launch, labeling a book with inaccurate trigger warnings could damage its sales.

Similarly, lists of “safe” and “unsafe” authors have already begun to circulate among some groups, and there seems to be a disproportionate number of marginalized creators on that “unsafe” list -- at least according to the anecdotal reports I’ve seen.

Historically, it is true that any attempts at censorship or content moderation will be more harshly applied to marginalized groups (see: film ratings for gay sex vs straight sex).

It’s impossible to warn for everything

One hesitancy that some authors have with tagging their work is they’re not sure what to tag for. Triggers are highly personal, and there’s no way you can possibly guess what might upset a reader.

Here’s a list of commonly agreed-upon things that might make sense to tag for in a given work:

Violence/gore

Suicide/self-harm

Rape/sexual assault

Domestic violence

Child death/endangerment

Animal death/abuse

Drug use/substance abuse

Racism/slurs

That said, it’s still difficult to account for context. At what stage do you warn for something? If a character is drinking a beer, do you need to tag for that? Do you distinguish between the tone things are written in, such as being played for laughs vs seriously? If the rape scene is written artistically/metaphorically, does the same warning apply as if it were described act-by-act in a clinical sense? What if your blanket list of warnings gives readers a false sense of what the book will be like -- is it actually helpful at all, or is it just posturing/virtue signaling to include warnings that won’t actually be effective?

Some would argue that this is dramatically overthinking it, but this does seem to cause a great deal of distress to authors who want to do the right thing but worry about getting it wrong. An argument could be made that trying and failing might be worse than doing nothing, especially if your attempts get you labeled as a “trustworthy” or “safe” author only for that trust to be “betrayed” by a warning you used incorrectly.

On the other hand, many would argue that we all “pretty much know” what needs to be warned for, and that warnings are intuitive. These granular questions could be viewed as a distraction from more common sense issues.

Readers are responsible for managing their own safety

Ultimately, because it’s impossible for every potential trigger to be identified and warned for, readers will need to remain vigilant. Of course, there are already ways to identify the content of a book without any kind of established warning system -- such as, for example, reading posted book reviews, asking a question on a book’s Goodreads page, reaching out to the author directly, asking about the book in a reading group online or having a friend/parent/spouse/trusted person read the book first and report back with their findings.

This is the system we’ve pretty much used as readers for years, before “trigger warning” became part of the common vernacular, and it does have some distinct advantages just because you can get a lot more specific information this way.

It is possible that if warnings become more commonplace for books that readers may become less vigilant about their own safety, which could paradoxically put them at greater risk of finding troubling content unexpectedly.

There’s also the issue of “safe” and “unsafe” author lists. At the moment, while the discourse is hot, it’s perhaps more natural to pick sides and disregard some authors for reasons that may be unfair -- for example, marking an author as unsafe or boycotting her work because she doesn’t want to include warnings, but she wants to avoid warnings because she strongly believes they will be detrimental to a reader’s safety. A reader may or may not agree with that perspective, but it’s certainly not the same motive as an author who would do something actively malicious to a reader (like, idk, emailing a screamer to a reviewer or something. that’s a made up example.)

In the end, trigger warnings are a good idea, but the issue is complex to implement and some people do still have reservations about their overall efficacy.

We simply won’t know one way or another until we try to implement it. But in the meantime, I do think it’s valuable to continue talking about this, as long as everyone involved remains civil and engages in good faith. Once people’s perspectives start getting thrown out the window in the heat of the moment, or strawmen arguments are erected that don’t reflect what anyone involved actually believes, the discussion ceases to be helpful.

#trigger warnings #discourse #twitter nonsense #authors behaving badly #writing advice #writeblr #writing #publishing

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