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#gods in the script (whose game are we playing)
imaginarylungfish · 5 months
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nothing is good or bad (or how i realized god still lives in my brain)
I grew up pretty Catholic. I don't know if my experience was extreme or not by others' standards, but to me, it felt pretty all-encompassing. My sister, mom, and I went to church every Sunday and prayed every day. I whole-heartedly believed I was born sinful, Jesus sacrificed his life for an unworthy lowlife like me, and I would go to Hell if I didn't behave in accordance with the Catholic teachings.
Looking back, it's all so absurd. How is there an imaginary man in the sky looking down at me and punishing me for being born? How did a man who lived thousands of years ago die on a cross and magically wash away the fact that I lied one day in 3rd grade? How is there a creature with horns tempting me to commit sins and lure me to a magically place with eternal fire? Like what?
It's funny because the thing that made me start to stop believing in "God" was sort of up to semantics. When my great grandpa was dying from cancer while I was in middle school, I had this prayer card from the Catholic store that said if I prayed it for 11 days straight, anything I prayed for would be granted by God. I, of course, didn't want my great grandpa to die, so I religiously prayed for those 11 days. A month later he died. I was crushed. I genuinely thought I could save him. I asked my mom why my prayers didn't work. She said it was because it wasn't God's Will. That broke my brain. What's the point of praying for something if this guy can just flip the script because that's just how he wants it? How was that fair?
Throughout high school, I still went through the motions of being Catholic (and even was confirmed), but I was skeptical. It wasn't until college that I cut ties with Catholicism and their "God" entirely.
It's been almost a decade since I've first questioned "God," yet I still have him in my brain. I thought by now, in 2023, his hold on me was gone entirely. But a conversation with my (now ex) partner nearly 6 months ago made it clear that isn't the case.
I was having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that what I thought to be the "best" in a situation was not objective. As in, it is no better to play video games all day than to go outside on a hike. Or delving deep into yourself and healing your traumas is really no better than just letting them be. It just depends on what you value and what you need in that moment. "There is no good or bad," my partner said, "it just is."
Yes, living is just living. Good and bad mean nothing other than what an individual person thinks. This made sense in my brain, but it didn't feel like a fully solidified understanding to me. I know I still unintentionally and unnecessarily assign morality to things based on my Catholic upbringing. Sex is bad. Tattoos are bad. Eating past when you're full is bad. Not being productive is bad. But why? By whose standards? Mine or the "God" that still lives in my brain?
After this conversation, I Googled some (secular) articles to analyze my thought processes. I knew I needed to expand my perspective if I wanted to integrate this new idea of neutrality into my way of thinking.
I came across a few articles written by William L. Mace Ph.D. on Psychology Today. The first was called "There is Nothing Either Good or Bad But Thinking Makes It So." In this article, Mace was asserting that everyone believes their way of thinking is the best, but it's not. It's just a way of thinking.
He talks about how people tend to gather evidence for our own way of thinking. When people don't align with our values, "we can always console ourselves [by saying], 'I may have lost to that deceitful so-and-so, but at least I came out ahead by holding to a higher ethical standard.'"
While reading this, I couldn't help but find my own self being reflected back to me. When I interact with someone who does something that doesn't make sense with my worldview, my knee-jerk reaction is to dismiss them. I rationalize to myself that they must just be morally inferior, right? I've done more self-work than them and they must just be ignorant. But on further reflection, isn't that just my ego trying to assert itself? Isn't that just the Catholic judgement I received as a child being spit back out as my own thoughts? There is no good or bad, no superior or inferior--things just are.
But realizing that is groundless. It's scary. I think, as humans, we want retribution for wrongdoing and reward for righteousness. We want punishment for sin and exaltation for virtue. (Hmm, sounds like a good basis to start a religion...) But that's just not reality.
In another article by Mace called "The Difficulty of Accepting Reality" he talks about how cognitive dissonance plays a role in our everyday lives. When we run into something (a person, a situation, etc.) that doesn't align with our beliefs, we have a choice to disregard the facts, re-adjust our own thinking, or blame something else entirely.
For example, when you're watching a movie that's hard to follow, you do your best to piece together the plot with the clues given and come up with your own interpretation of what's going on. In the end when everything is revealed, if you realize you were wrong, you can either dig in and assert you are actually right, admit you were wrong and re-adjust to the new reality, or blame the screenwriters for not making it clear enough. And there is no right answer. It's just your choice.
I was given these choices when I first broke away from Catholicism as well. After being exposed to more secular life, I realized there were some things that did not fit with my worldview of believing in God and following Catholic beliefs. I chose to re-adjust my views instead of insisting God is real. (This did not, by any means, happen overnight--it was a multi-year process of letting go and trusting my own beliefs over the arbitrary rules of the Catholic Church. Plus, it's an ongoing process.) Coming to terms with the idea that God does not exist is viewed as a lack of faith by believers and therefore I am labeled as "bad." But in my view, I am good. I escaped.
So, does that make those who still believe in God wrong? Is anyone right? My ego wants to think so, but I guess no one wins because there are no winners and losers. It's just life.
I am coming to my own conclusion that there is no better belief or way of thinking. Sure, there are codes of ethics enacted by societies. But those aren't facts. They're just collective agreements of conduct. Nothing is inherently better than anything else. Not everyone will think this way and that feels more okay to me than earlier in my life. I feel like through learning that nothing is superior or inferior, I can start chipping away at those old, deeply held beliefs from Catholicism in my mind. I, personally, don't want them there. I don't want a "God" living in my head anymore. I want more of me and my thoughts that I've cultivated through my own work, not some scripture shoved down my throat when I was 5.
Before wrapping this up, I do want to say, yes, for me, real damage was done by growing up in the Catholic Church. However, I don't blame my parents or guardians for raising me as Catholic. Nor do I think Catholicism is all-out bad (we literally spent an entire post on trying to eradicate that black-and-white type of thinking). I believe this runs deeper than mere individual fault. I know my parents thought being raised Catholic would be good for me and my sister. Even though I didn't ask for any of these negative consequences of my upbringing, here they are, and I want to do something about them, so I am not controlled by them any longer.
I want to internalize the belief that life is just life. Things are just things. There is no good or bad, no superior or inferior. There isn't much rhyme or reason to the events in my life or anyone else's. I am the one who can assign meaning to things. I don't want to follow an external set of rules, much less ones made by institutions that feed off of shame, fear, and ignorance.
If you agree or disagree or just want to see where this takes me, stick around. Thank you for your curiosity about my inner thoughts and reading this far.
-L
resources that have helped me process my Catholic trauma:
Leaving the Fold by Marlene Winell: this really opened my eyes to the distorted reality the Catholic Church puts forth as "truth"
Ex-Catholic Subreddit: it's reddit, so keep your expectations low. but there are some solid posts on there that help me remember it's okay that i'm still struggling and i am not alone. plus, the "sheep no more" motto makes me smile.
We're Having Gay Sex podcast: this has helped me learn sex and pleasure, especially queer sex and pleasure, is not wrong and is okay to talk about
Queer Sex Therapy: this has also helped me normalize queer sex and queer joy
exvangelical and non-religious friends: honestly, just talking with others who have been through the same shit as you have or see how ludicrous what you learned as a child was is super affirming
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FYI: I have a degree in digital media and audio production and some of you need to know what ADR is.
Automated dialogue replacement
It means that most and/or everything you hear in professionally produced films is dubbed over with voice acting.
Boom Mics are used to record things said during filming so that the actors can (sometimes months to a year later and/or after the actors have had training on certain accents) record the same lines they performed in the scene based on the script they are given. This is done in a recording booth and with the same methods as voice acting in video games/anime/and animated movies.
I'm not saying that Chris Pratt should have voiced Mario, good god I wish we could remove him from Hollywood for good, but I do promise that he has done voice acting. All the face actors have. All those 'ha's and 'ack's are done in a booth. Every scene has approximately 0 of the original recorded audio while filming playing in the final release. Even sex scenes. Each actor has to then make all those sounds again in a booth later.
Most voice actors were also filmed actors or still are. Travis Willingham is a prof voice actor but he was also in the film Secondhand Lions with Robert Duval. Talasin Jaffe was in HOUSE MD and Mr. Mom.
And Kung Fu Panda is a good example of wildly talented hollywood actors doing voice acting and absolutely nailing it. All of them gave a performance that couldn't be replicated to the same level, and I know, I watched Kung Fu Panda: The Legends Of Awesomeness, in its entirety.
The problem is not that famous Hollywood actors can't do voice acting correctly, many do it very well(Idris Elba), it's that the studios are more interested in getting a Hollywood name to voice Mario, and not Charles Martinet. Because Travis Willingham or Colleen O'Shaughnessey don't have their faces on cereal boxes or toys with their likeness being sold to children.
This isn't (usually*) a talent problem, it's an extention of the situation when Disney screwed over Robin Williams. It's about companies not caring who actually does the best job, but whose name they can flash on the screen biggest.
*Benedict Cumberbatch definitely had months to perfect his Dr Strange accent so he has no excuse at all.
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drivingsideways · 1 year
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What's so great about Sejong? He's kind of an uggo tbh no disrespect.
you come into * my * house and-
ok, you know WHAT
*rolls up sleeves *
If you and I had been parented by Yi Bang-won, we would have DIED before reaching the tender age of 12, considering that Yi Bang won had no compunctions in killing off children related to him, but our baby boy SURVIVED multiple purges to become King, most likely because Yi Bang won thought he was clever but lacked the ambition or fire to be a threat to his own power.  However, in this Yi Bang won was FOOLED, because despite being paralyzed by a very justified fear of his PSYCHOTIC FATHER , who basically idk chopped off entire branches from the family tree and who eventually not so subtly suggested that his OWN SON and HEIR  that he’d CHOSEN personally, OFF himself, it turns out that Yi Do is a bit of a chip off the old block minus the murder-gene. [Note to self: The murder gene skipped a generation, hiii King Sejo] . Time catches up with all villains, and Yi Do made the first decision that made me go crazy for him- and it was just to SURVIVE his father, and like? The way he does it? He’s so CLEVER about it, is the thing- he gives his father the thing he wants when he says I’ll let you control the military and be advised by you in all matters of state, but it was only to get the thing he wants- the thing that he knows will enable him to build his Joseon. I’ll never forget Yi Bang won’s contemptuous little expression when Yi Do says, “I want to gather scholars together,” and Yi Bang won snorts and says, sure, go ahead, make a little building, and that little building, my friends, is the Jiphyeonjeon, or the Hall of Worthies. And of course, Yi Bang won, who sees the world as a thing to be conquered, would never understand his son’s vision; or have the patience to see it through because that would require, idk, humility? Whatever, he’s DYING, goodbye child murderer, thanks for the land and tax reform and introduction of id cards aka surveillance state, I GUESS. 
Skip forward and we have THE GREATEST GLOW UP IN MODERN CINEMATIC HISTORY when  Song Joong-ki morphs into Han Suk-kyu with his crinkly eyes and odd barks of laughter, as the older Yi-do/Sejong. And *this * Sejong? A brilliant, mercurial, tormented insomniac, who has no TIME to PLAY when MYSTERIOUS ENEMIES are picking off his people one by one, and stopping him from playing HIS GREATEST GAMBLE, the introduction of a native script that would set his people free. Going up against HISTORY, as several people say over and over; he’s going to overturn the established socio-political order and  he’s going to do it while cussing you out like a commoner. The balls on this man? Pure steel. 
It’s not just that he’s lonely because of his position, and everything that entails- which includes a physical isolation quite unique to it- it’s also that he’s the smartest man in every room he walks into, and that is it’s own special kind of loneliness. To understand the world that well, to be able to see beyond the surface, to be burdened with purpose, is to consign yourself to a private hell. And how he struggles! GOD. It’s not just his father’s legacy that torments him- what if Yi Bang won had been right after all, and why shouldn’t he use his power in the way he’s expected to- but the person he’s still answering to is his younger self- the scared, shamed child who hid behind giant sudokus, unable to confront his father or mitigate the misery of those whose lives Bang won ruined. See, someone as clever as him: he can the paths branching out in front of him; he can see the game board ten, twenty, fifty moves from now- he knows the things he’s capable of. 
And yet? He chooses the path of least harm, even when it increases the probability that he’ll lose.  He’s so good. Even in his darkest hours, in the face of incalculable loss, he won’t take the  succor , however momentary, that exercising his absolute power as King would surely give him. Instead, he chooses the hard way: the way of persuasion. But it’s not just the power of ideas in abstract; he’s very pragmatical about his tactics. I love that his wins come because he can read people- Lee Shin jeok, for eg, and even Jo Mal Saeng. He schemes AND plots AND negotiates AND persuades and he’s so clever and funny and RIGHT for it. 
One of the most moving scenes in the show is where he’s bidding farewell to So-yi, his beloved comrade,  and gives her a command that is also a blessing :Live in joy, that’s translated as.  Sejong himself has been cut off from that joy for nearly his entire life by then, because duty and responsibility  and all consuming purpose have taken precedence over everything else; it takes him till the end to be certain in his own mind that all of those were in fact, born from love, and not as he had feared, the little worm that his father had bequeathed him, and that nestles in the heart of all people. I love that in the end, he comes to this very beautiful conclusion: do the work, enjoy the wildflowers and the blue sky, because that’s all we can do, in hope and love, and the future will take care of its own. 
Tl;dr I am getting those Sejong the Great booty shorts even as I type this. 
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clockworksteel · 1 year
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Since Hades II seems to be centered around a Titan, I thought I'd search the first game's lua scripts for the word "Titan" to see what we know about them. I didn’t find anything super interesting and I imagine most of this has already come up in groups speculating about Hades II, but it was a nice review of the lore for me.
These are from NPCData.lua
AchillesMiscMeeting04 Achilles: "The sealed weapons by your chambers; your father won't observe their absence, I don't think. They remind him of a time he stood together with his brothers and sisters. He wants nothing more to do with any of that.  I think it's fitting you've inherited their power." Zagreus: "A power that once sealed away the Titans... maybe it's a power that can break me out of here. Thank you for helping me, Achilles."
The Titans here are referred to as "sealed away". Some other conversations act like they're actually dead.
AchillesAboutSuperLockKeys01 Zagreus: "Achilles, sir? I got a relic of some sort out there... a globule of ancient blood, which formed after I fought with Megaera. Is this really the Titans' blood I found?" Achilles: "As far as I know, yes, lad. That it is. Though whose, exactly, I'm not so sure. You'd best hang onto it, and keep it safe. Your weapons... they shall thirst for it and drink it up. Not yet, perhaps, but soon."
About Titan Blood and the Infernal Arms.
DusaWithMegaera04 Meg: "...We got off on the wrong foot from the start. Just what happens when you're born of Titan blood, I guess. It's for the best we haven't crossed paths much since."
I'm not sure when she says "born of Titan blood" if she means the furies literally just crawled out of a pool of blood or if she's referring metaphorically to lineage. Looking over Wikipedia, though, it seems one possible origin myth (of course there are multiple) is the literal interpretation of that statement, though.
From EnemyData.lua
LordHadesMiscEncounter04 Hades: "My brothers and my sisters and myself. We, too, wanted to slay our parents. The Titans. Bastards. And worse." Zagreus: "And you succeeded. Chopped up some of them into many tiny bits, and sprinkled them throughout the pits of Tartarus so that they can't regenerate! Or so I hear. Inspiring, really!" Hades: "We had no recourse at the time, save to collaborate. Developed a specific plan, and saw it through. And, the Titans...? You think me cruel, yet know nothing of cruelty. But, here, you want something to hate, then have it!"
The current location and state of the Titans as of the first game. I imagine if the pieces were brought together they could regenerate.
From LootData.lua
DemeterAboutFather01 Demeter: "We all are willful children, are we not? I'm daughter to Hyperion, you know; a Titan so obscure and hated that Lord Zeus, he started calling me his birth-sister, so much did he dislike this bit of truth! And to get a rise out of me, too."
Since Demeter was one of the six that stood against the Titans I can't imagine she was interested in helping them, but this was still interesting.
From the Codex
I didn't search it in its entirety because I didn't find a convenient text file for that, but I checked all the infernal arms to verify who used which against the Titans. I mostly wasn’t sure if Eris or Hestia used the gun.
Stygius the Blade of the Underworld: "Back when the six elder gods sealed the Titans in the deepest recesses of Tartarus, that blade evidently played no small role in their success. It must have been Lord Poseidon who brandished that blade before he opted for that trident he so likes."
Varatha the Eternal Spear: "It must have been a sight when Lord Hades wielded Varatha the Eternal Spear versus the Titans, driving back those fiends into the depths, together with the help of his Olympian brothers and sisters."
Coronacht the Heart-Seeking Bow: "...the finest bow ever conceived, and wielded once by none other than Mistress Hera, who stood side by side with Zeus, on better terms back then, as they drove back the Titans under a storm of arrows and thunder."
Aegis the Shield of Chaos: "...the Lord of Thunder defended his brothers and sisters using that very shield when, together, they conspired to drive the Titans back into the lowest reaches of the Underworld. The shield was shattered, yet a burning effigy remains, its power still intact. A power sealed within the visage of a monstrous entity even the titans feared."
Twin Fists of Malphon: "It is said even the Olympians hesitated to embrace the Twin Fists, until Lady Demeter, her hands accustomed to tilling the land, stepped forward and accepted the gift. The Titans recoiled from Malphon's relentless attacks, overwhelmed by its fury, unable to defend against it as one might a spear or blade. The Titan Hyperion suffered the worst of it, his undying body pulverized to such an extent that even his legacy was destroyed."
Adamant Rail: "Least known among the gods who stood together to depose the Titans is the Lady Hestia, reclusive goddess of the hearth, and one-time wielder of Exagryph, the Rail of Adamant" and also "For now, its secrets remain trapped within the darkest regions of the Underworld, along with the remains of the Titans defeated by it. Someday, however, I imagine it shall break free from this place; for any weapon once possessed by Eris, Lady Strife herself, becomes possessed of an eternal hunger to destroy."
Other mentions I skipped over earlier
For completeness, the word "Titan" also came up in these conversations but there was little to learn about them that wasn't elsewhere: NPCData.lua
HadesShrineProgress02 (Zagreus says he used "your discarded Titan-slaying weapons", among other things, to overcome the Pact of Punishment.)
AchillesAboutLuciferAspect01 (Achilles speculates that maybe Lucifer's rebellion was before the Olympains rose up against the Titans, but he doesn't know.)
MegaeraAboutSisters01 (Another confirmation that the Titans were cut up and scattered in Tartarus)
OrpheusTallTale04 (Zagreus is outright lying about stuff.)
PersephoneMeeting06 (She compares a possible war with the Olympians to the war against the Titans. We already knew the Gods slew the Titans.)
PersephoneAboutHades01 (In a conversation about whether he hates Hades, Zagreus mentions hearing about the Olympians "rending their immortal Titan parents to bits" and that he doesn't feel that way. We already knew the Titans were in pieces.)
EnemyData.lua
SkellyAboutSuperLockKeys01 (Just about earning Titan Blood. No new lore.)
SkellyAboutSuperLockKeys02 (Just a hint about how Titan Blood is used. No new lore.)
SkellyAboutWeaponEnchantments01 (Skelly acknowledges Aspects have unlocked. No new lore. Although Zagreus saying "Calm down, Skelly. I'm sure whatever it is is perfectly normal for a legendary semi-sentient Titan-slaying weapon from the dawn of time." is kinda funny.)
LordHadesHasGuanYuAspect01 (Hades comments on Varatha having changed form, which Zagreus says is from Titan Blood. Also Hades' current spear is called Gigaros, which he says is "the mightier weapon, with none of the treacherous past".)
LordHadesExtremeMeasures02 "You wish to test yourself against the full extent of my wrath, then very well. You have earned that right. Besides yourself, only the Titans have."
LordHadesExtremeMeasures03  "You vanquished me... even when I threw everything I had at you, and more. I fought you as I fought the Titans themselves, and still I failed."
LordHadesHasWeaponUpgrade01 (Another mention of the Titans being chopped up with the Infernal Arms. Hades muses "Perhaps the Fates decided that its wielders ought to all eventually wind up on its receiving end. Come, then! Let us see what the great Achilles has taught you.")
LootData.lua
ZeusBackstory03 "My brothers Hades and Poseidon once fought bravely by my side, you know that, don't you, Nephew? We prevailed against the Titans and established law upon the earth. Your father then descended to the land of death, and we've not seen much of each other since."
ZeusHasWeapon01 "You fight your father's legions with Varatha, the Eternal Spear? The irony must not escape him, for he long ago stood by my side against the Titans, with that thing in hand!"
AresAboutWar03 "Do you ever think to yourself that you were born a bit too late, my kin? For my part, I wish that I could have been there myself when my father and the others waged ferocious war against the Titans. Ah, it must have been a sight!"
AresHasWeapon02 "Ah, you wield Coronacht, the Heart-Seeker. It pierced three Titans in one shot back in the war amongst our kind. Please do take care of it!"
DemeterPostGiftPickup02 "My, but you're as determined as my foster-brothers were, when my sisters and I stood with them 'gainst the Titans way back when."
DemeterAboutFather02 "As seasons give to one another, so do generations, I suppose. Hyperion, my father? He'd not a one redeeming quality. My sisters and my foster-brothers and myself; this world owes us a debt for ridding it of him and his kind."
ChaosAboutHades01 "Your father and his brothers, when they sealed the Titans in the darkest reaches of this world, that was the last they saw of me, as well. You are dissimilar from them, and I feel safe communicating thus with you."
ZeusWithDemeter01 (Zeus mentions Demeter isn't actually his sister. She's not impressed. Her reaction includes "Almost as though you felt compelled to speak the truth only whilst I'm directly within earshot.")
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yvesdot · 8 months
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Writer Questionnaire Tag Game
Tagged by @avi-why who answered such wonderful questions I couldn't believe the ones he posed were even better!
is there a common piece of writing advice that you disagree with? alternatively, is there one you think (generally) most people should follow?
“Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses.” <- why I will never recommend On Writing, a memoir, as a how-to book on craft.
Keeping on theme, I think anyone looking to 'improve' their writing should get into analyzing plot structure. How do their favorite movies work? How do their favorite books work? What differences do they find between novels and short stories by an author they like? What makes a "boring" story to them? Do cultural folktales from their family share any similarities to each other in their beats? You don't have to outline your work (though I'm also a believer in learning how to, for similar reasons); plot knowledge is nice to have just to ambiently improve the way you think about your stories as you tell them.
you can have dinner with any author, living or dead. but the catch is that after the dinner, you and that author will team up against a third writer in a no holds barred cage match throwdown. which 2 authors do you pick?
Lewis Carroll, before I even finished reading the question, because she and I could have a great time. Then I got stuck because I don't know who I'd want to fight that I'd really have a chance against, and I feel like I wouldn't really want to physically defeat anybody. Maybe if we were up against a recently-beloved currently-hated public figure we could raise money for charity, or something.
have you ever experimented with poetry, plays, or screenwriting? what was the result?
I have written poetry and I've written a few script versions of scenes (on Patreon!) and I just don't understand the fundamentals of either. What really baffles me about screenwriting is how one can imagine so thoroughly what they want (?) a given scene to look like, only to distill it into a text-only medium. How do you keep it all in there, while leaving all the 'extraneous' bits out? And how do you see the potential when reading and evaluating it? How do you tell the difference between a script that is bad, and one that can be made good in the shooting and casting and acting and directing? How do you delineate what is the screenwriter's job versus, say, the composer or the costume designer's? Don't even get me started on poetry.
(If you have answers to these questions you're welcome to peep me anytime; I love hearing people talk about art.)
what type of rancid twitter discourse would your current wip generate? Well, in Book Two there's a scene where someone mentions Kay having an Oedipus complex in passing, to which Kay says they've clearly never read the play, and they say of course they have, and nobody ever addresses the claim again. So there's that.
what author would you love to be compared to? what author would you hate to be compared to? I'm rarely picky about being compared to authors (or texts) people like, though I think the big ones that have been done repeatedly are Carmen Maria Machado and Lemony Snicket. I only think I'd mind being compared to authors if I felt the reasons for comparison were unappealing-- e.g. "your prose reminds me of [author whose prose I dislike], because [thing I dislike about their prose]," or "your work has wonderful political messaging, just like Harry Potter." There's a point at which you start feeling sorry for yourself.
design the ideal piece of merch/swag for your wip.
The obvious answer is custom mantel clocks for each of the characters (Constantine would be a little grandfather clock, Kay something lovely and see-through and mechanical, and Atlas a simple black mantel clock to match his in canon), but why not consider a universe in which we also do Kuroshitsuji-style shoes?
free space: what's one thing you really want to talk about in your writing that no one ever asks about?
I do a lot of foreshadowing throughout KAY that isn't going to be discussionworthy until Book Two. Depressing! I also think mysterygf's morality is very interesting as someone who has to write it; I want her to seem one-hundred-percent justified in everything she does to some people, and the devil personified to others. Again, though, how are we to discuss this when I haven't written the book. Speaking of which, off I go...!
Five questions for @asablehart @goose-books @musetta3 and anyone else who'd like to pick up the tag!
If someone has just come here from the tag game, what piece of yours should they read?
Is there an overlap between the genres you won't read and the ones you won't write? Are there any genres you'd like to write but, for whatever reason, haven't? Why?
What's the last book that really positively surprised you? Why didn't you think you'd like it, and why did you like it in the end?
Self-pub, indie pub, or tradpub?
What would you like teenagers to think of your work? This is regardless of what age groups you write for, because they're going to get ahold of it anyhow.
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bellamyroselia · 1 year
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Kid Icarus & Aphrodite-problem
Well, I guess after Ares and Apollo this was kinda meant to happen eventually. There’s a lot to say about Aphrodite… Or truth to be told, there’s a lot to say about how Kid Icarus seems to have written itself into a corner when it comes to her. I’ve already joked about how Aphrodite isn’t allowed to have things in this franchise despite the fact that she hasn’t even been introduced yet, and that’s the issue. Taking things away from Aphrodite is a risky game, because she’s probably the Olympian who indirectly has had the biggest influence over the Western civilization as a whole. You can’t really act like she doesn’t exist and compositing her with another figure is near impossible… So what to do here? 
Compared to the two previous parts, this one went into a much more unexpected direction so discussion is now more encouraged than ever.
Going quickly over Aphrodite’s historical background, her name doesn’t exist in Mycenaean Linear B scripts - what this means is that just like Apollo and Hades, she wasn’t worshiped in Mycenaean Greece but instead came to be during the Dark Ages. As for where she came from, it’s widely accepted that her character was influenced by Phoenician Astarte and Mesopotamian Inanna, both of whom are goddesses associated with not just love, beauty and sexuality but also war… So yeah, come in peace Aphrodite did not. Her oldest points of worship as Aphrodite we recognize can be found on Cythera and Cyprus, and in both of these places she was worshiped under epithet Areia (Warlike). So Aphrodite in her oldest recognizable form was still a goddess of beauty and love but also a war goddess - in case you ever wondered why she and Ares were an item in the mythos, this is it, it’s all about the local war god meeting the import war goddess. But as you may have expected the idea of a goddess of love and beauty also being a goddess of war was seen as scandalous in most city states, and therefore her connections to war were mostly erased, Iliad even having a scene where it’s told that she doesn’t belong to the battlefield. But despite the erasure of her more warlike qualities, that did nothing to slow her down since she still manages to be quite conflict-happy in the mythos and she’s not afraid to go big with it. She’s definitely a goddess whose good side you wish to be on because just like being loved by Apollo gives you huge death flags, being hated by Aphrodite will always make you suffer in one way or another. And how much people tried to avoid being hated by her indeed - she was one of the most beloved Olympians, playing second fiddle only to Zeus. So yeah, Palutena’s in-game popularity is built on a lie!
Aphrodite’s influence in the mythos can’t be underestimated. She of course has at least five children with Ares, these being the twins Phobos and Deimos, the goddess of harmony Harmonia and the most important ones regarding Kid Icarus, Eros and Anteros - Pit being quite clearly an Eros-expy and Dark Pit could qualify as a darker take on Anteros, who’s already a bit more edgier than his brother, being the avenger of unrequited love. This is however just small potatoes compared to all the other myths Aphrodite has featured in; to begin, she’s actually the main reason why the constellation Pisces even exists. The most common tale says that once Typhon attacked she jumped into a river and was brought to safety by two fish, alternative story says that after she was born from the seafoam she was brought to shore by two fish (more often portrayed as ichthyocentaurs in art). She was the one who gave Galatea life on Pygmalion’s wishes and later on would end up falling for their great-grandson, for their daughter was Adonis’ grandmother. On Hera’s wishes Aphrodite made Medea fall for Jason, on Poseidon’s wishes she made Pasiphaë fall for the Cretan bull, she gave Hippomenes the golden apples to distract Atalanta during their race and she did end up causing the whole mess that led into Theseus ordering a hit on Hippolytus. Aphrodite was also the one behind Eos’ lust, as she cursed her to desire a new man every day because she didn’t want to share Ares with other goddesses. She similarly cursed Helios to forget everyone he ever loved romantically and then made him fall in love with princess Leucothoe because he had ratted her and Ares out (long myth short, sad ex desperately wanted to get back with Helios and that’s how we got heliotropes). And to round this up quickly, Aphrodite was the one who gave Pandora her beautiful looks (it was Hermes who made her a bitch), she cursed Orpheus to die terrible death (she and Persephone were having an argument on who gets to keep Adonis, Zeus asked help from Orpheus’ mother Calliope regarding it and Aphrodite saw that as an personal attack) and she along with Hera and Athena was dead-set on getting the apple of discord, which would start the chain reaction that leds into the Trojan war. She also famously wasn’t into Hephaestus, but she wasn’t into Apollo, Zeus or Hermes either so one could argue that good looks and power can only get you so far when it comes to her. 
Into more important matters, Aphrodite is the mother of Aeneas, one of the last demigods. He’s first seen in the Iliad as a minor character and his origins are told in the first Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, but his influence would only end up growing as the years went by and not just in literature - you see, gens Julia believed that they descended from Aeneas. Long history lesson short, gens Julia was quite influential in the Roman society as this is the patrician family line the likes of Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero belonged to, without them the world would be much different. Aeneas was also the main character of Virgil’s epic Aeneid, and it’s pretty much the only reason why most of us even care of the name Virgil nowadays. Aeneid’s meaning to Western literature can’t be ignored as one can easily name a work influenced by it, and if you think you can’t you’re a filthy liar - Historia Regum Britanniae makes the first royal house of Britain (the one likes of Blaiddyd, Lear, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia belong to) descendants of Aeneas and Dante Alighieri chose Virgil to appear in Divine Comedy as his guide precisely because he had written Aeneid (Aeneas also appears in Limbo, whereas the likes of Achilles and Odysseus are in much more unpleasant circles, Achilles honestly deserving worse than what he actually got). Other works such as Faerie Queene, Paradise Lost and Os Lusíadas have also been influenced by Aeneid, and that’s only the surface. Through Aeneas Aphrodite holds Western culture in chokehold, for all of this exists only because she thought Achises was hot. It’s pretty weird to think that something like Shakespeare’s King Lear or Devil May Cry exists thanks to her, that truly puts things into a whole new perspective. And you probably thought I was joking about Aphrodite’s influence over Western civilization! All roads may not lead to Rome, but surprisingly many of them lead to Aeneas and therefore to Aphrodite.
As for what’s probably the most important Aphrodite-myth considering Eros, it’s of course the tale of Eros and Psyche. It begins in a city where people had declared that local princess Psyche was as if not more beautiful than the goddess, so they abandoned Aphrodite in favor of worshiping the princess. Aphrodite was obviously angered by this, so she ordered Eros to make Psyche fall in love with something hideous as a way to humble her down. He agreed to do the deed, but once he saw Psyche he couldn’t help but fall for the princess himself - for once in his life he decided to defy his mother’s wishes and crafted a plan on what to do next, even getting the god of west wind Zephyrus on board to help him.
In the meanwhile Psyche was quite miserable, as everyone was treating her more like an object rather than a person. This didn’t go unnoticed by her parents, so they went to console oracle of Apollo for help. Considering how Apollo’s a quite petty man, the oracle told that they should abandon all hope and leave Psyche on a mountain, as she would be marrying someone feared by not only Zeus but also every other deity. Psyche and her parents were obviously horrified by this, but they did as the oracle told and she was left on the pointed cliffside. Later on Zephyrus picked her up and brought her to a beautiful palace, where a disembodied voice told her it was all hers and that she would be provided by many invisible servants while living in there. At first she was nervous to meet her husband, but after the first meeting she started looking forward to their nights together. This continued for quite some time, our main couple grew even happier together but in the meanwhile Psyche’s family was getting more depressed over her fate and she was starting to worry about them in return. Eros promised that her sisters can come to visit her, with a condition that she wouldn’t listen them if they sounded jealous and Psyche agreed. Zephyrus then brought the sisters to the palace once day came, but as expected the sisters started to get jealous really quickly and made Psyche worry if the oracle’s words about her husband being a monster were indeed true - what finally broke the camel’s back was them suggesting that he was planning to kill her and their unborn child. So when the night arrived, she had prepared herself to see if her husband really was a monster, only to be pleasantly surprised when she found Eros in her bed. But while admiring him some oil from the lamp she was holding spilled on Eros, causing him to wake up and leave. Earlier in the story Psyche had said that she’d much rather die than throw this marriage away and she was willing to live by that statement, so she goes to search Eros and atonement - in the meanwhile Aphrodite was behaving like a spoiled brat and made the whole deal about herself and how much suffering it had brought to her. She kept calling her son a horrible child for daring to defy her, refused to refer herself as his mother, said he was a good-for-nothing, loathsome seducer and threatened to replace him as he clearly wasn’t trustworthy anymore. Yikes!
In the meanwhile Psyche had wandered around to find some trace of husband, and she eventually found her way into Aphrodite’s temple. After beating Psyche for a while and having a good laugh over it, Aphrodite then locked her in a room, dumbed different kinds of grains on the ground and said that she should sort them by night if she ever wanted to see Eros again. Sometimes prompted by him, ants nearby take pity on Psyche and helped her - predictably Aphrodite wasn’t all too happy about this, so she came up with a much more deadlier task. The goddess brought Psyche to a grove and told her that she should gather some golden fleece from the aggressive sheep living in the grove. This disheartened her as she knew gathering fleece directly was a suicide mission, but she was consulted by local river deity who told her how the sheep behave and that instead of approaching them she should just collect fleece caught on foliage.  Psyche did as was told and Aphrodite naturally became even more enraged, telling her to go gather water from river Styx. While Psyche found her way to Styx without much hassle, she was overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation - luckily for her everyone had come to the conclusion that Aphrodite was being horrible and Zeus sent one of his eagles to help Psyche to get the water.
At this point Aphrodite’s patience was running thin so she gave Psyche a box and told her to go into the Underworld, get some of Persephone’s beauty and come back with it because this whole deal of torturing her little daughter-in-law had been so hard for her and she had to look good while going to the divine theatre. After being consulted by a tower on how to actually get into Underworld without dying, Psyche did as was told and and it didn’t take long for her to be greeted by Persephone. She ignored the banquet the goddess had set up for her, told Persephone why she was visiting her and she agreed to help Psyche without a hassle - but after returning into the mortal world, Psyche’s curiosity took the better of her and she wanted to see that beauty herself. It turned out it wasn’t beauty at all but rather Stygian sleep, and it Psyche caused to drop down a like a rock.Thankfully for her Eros finally managed to escape his imprisonment at this point and he flew straight to his wife, drew the sleep back into the box and gently pricked her with an arrow to wake her up. The two had a heartfelt reunion and Eros then brought Psyche to Olympus, asking Zeus if they could now get properly married. Everyone agreed, Zeus told Aphrodite to stfu and they gave Psyche ambrosia, making her the goddess of soul. The two had a glorious wedding as equals and some time later Psyche gave birth to their daughter, either named Hedone or Volupta, the goddess of pleasure, joy and delight - because only with both a heart and a soul, can any of those feelings exist.
Now with all that out of the way, I think you can see what I meant when I titled this post as Aphrodite-problem. She’s literally too important to be ignored, be it when it comes to history, the myths in general, the role she plays in Eros’ life and even in-game references as minimal as they may be (after all, Pisces Heal has to come from somewhere). But despite all of that it’s almost like Kid Icarus wants us to believe that she doesn’t exist, but all that does is launch even more questions. Would she end up upstaging everyone else if she was around? It’s a possibility, and I guess it could also draw a lot of unwanted attention things such as why Palutena would even have angels - Aphrodite having the Erotes around is justified since she’s their mother, Athena in the other hand has no such justification. I think it could be possible that Palutena may have been intended to be in fact more of a composition of Athena and Aphrodite rather than just simply being less problematic Athena; that could explain some things, like why she has angels. Aphrodite is also actually associated with mirrors unlike Athena, mirror not only being one of her symbols but the astronomical symbol of Venus and the female gender symbol in fact is her hand mirror. However it only really makes sense from a marketing standpoint, since Athena and Aphrodite are two deities you really just can’t composite. While I can understand the basic “This is primarily for children so there can’t be anything too sexy here” reason combined with the thought of mother using her children as free labor being scummy with the added misconception of Athena being more ””pure”” when compared to other Olympians for going with more Athena-based character, all it does is create a character with an internal consistency of a flipflop.
What are things Athena and Aphrodite have in common? They’re both Olympian goddesses, neither of them are into Hephaestus, they both wanted the apple of discord, have a kill count and were worshiped under epithet Areia, that’s about it. Pretty much everything else about them is contradictory, the most obvious thing being how Athena is one of the three virgin goddesses while Aphrodite is unapologetically sexual, with all the quirks it brings to one’s life added to the top like parenthood. Their relationships with other deities and people are wildly different, and it just reaches into uncomfortable levels once you remember Ares, his and Aphrodite’s shared children and Aeneas - Aphrodite’s relationship with Eros isn’t really a problem by itself, but it has potential to become one if we want Pit to become independent from Palutena. 
Starting with the easier problem which is Aeneas, it boils down to the fact Athena and Aphrodite supported different sides during the Trojan war. That alone is problematic enough, but it becomes even worse when one remembers Athena’s actions during the war. One could even view it as Athena’s villain arc just for the fact that she supported Greeks, because multiple works from Classical antiquity portray the Greek side of war as being pretty morally bankrupt, it all culminating in the lost epic Iliupersis. As for what Athena did during that time, short list includes her doing things such as ignoring the pleads of Trojan women when they asked protection against Diomedes, luring Hector to his death, telling Achilles to go kill Troilus and giving Odysseys a the idea of the horse. Quintus Smyrnaeus even goes as far to say that she and Hera were the only deities happy about the destruction of Troy, which… Yeah. That’s straight-up villain behavior. Pretty much everyone Aeneas has ever loved is either dead or POW at this point, and that’s ignoring how during the war Athena fully supported the guy who tried to kill him. With all this in mind, it’s definitely a good thing that Minerva isn’t an important character in Aeneid. Juno’s the closest thing to a villain it has, so Minerva would’ve likely been in the same boat had she been there. 
Moving into the other elephant in the room, it being Ares. He’s Aphrodite’s favorite boyfriend and depending on your point of view, them having one the best relationships among Olympians is either highly amusing or just plain sad. As already mentioned they have at least five children together and if you remember my post about him you know that I think he’s a likely candidate for being Pit’s father, for he and Pit seem to share much more similarities than Pit and Aphrodite. The big wrench here is that Ares and Athena famously don’t get along, which is the complete opposite of his and Aphrodite’s relationship - so what’s the relationship even supposed to be like in the case of the potential composition? Majority the myths of them interacting follow the formula of some guy does a thing → Ares doesn’t like the thing → Athena supports the guy who did the thing, so they’re not even the type of people who autonomously interact with each other. Most of the things in question that anger Ares are however related to his children, which puts things in rather distressing light - you see, going after your lover’s children by other man/woman is pretty exclusively Hera-behavior when it comes to Olympians. Hera’s behavior in these various myths is rooted to the fact that she’s the goddess of marriage and a loyal wife, so this would absolutely not fly with a composite character. Unlike Hera Aphrodite isn’t even married to him, and she also has multiple children with other men like with the already mentioned Adonis and Anchises - so what we would have in our hands now is a character who's a massive hypocrite. One can definitely try to view the myths Athena and Ares interact through romantic lenses and after doing so one could definitely make an argument of Athena being romantically frustrated… But that still leaves way too many uncomfortable questions out in the open, like what’s the case of Ares’ and Aphrodite’s shared children. Even when Eros and Anteros are ignored, it leaves Phobos, Deimos and Harmonia in this odd limbo. Them being specifically Ares and Aphrodite’s children is important to their characters, so whose kids are they supposed to be now and where are they? Considering the way she treats Pit, I doubt Palutena’s actually a mother of any sort but it just makes me wonder who their mother is then supposed to be. Phobos and Deimos being with Palutena would actually make more sense than her having angels, since Athena is a war goddess and would therefore technically have power over twins whereas this isn’t the case with Erotes… And speaking of Eros, wouldn’t this mean that if Pit ever wants to go on his own, Palutena has the potential to become his worst enemy? Aphrodite seen in Eros and Psyche is quite an intimidating figure, even if the worst of it reserved for Psyche.
So… What have we learned here? That Kid Icarus indeed seems to have written itself into a corner when it comes to Aphrodite. That and one doesn’t need Ovid to come up with reasons for Pit to think that Palutena may not be flawless, but that’s a discussion for another day. There wasn’t even any room to talk of potential plotlines, because you can’t even be sure if she can exist by the rules Kid Icarus has set on itself. On one hand, they really badly want Palutena to be like Aphrodite - she’s the one who’s pretty, popular, widely beloved and worshiped, has an interesting history and most importantly, has Erotes as part her retinue loyal to her and only her, them helping to pave the modern day view of angels. On the other hand there are multiple things that don’t just make sense if Aphrodite doesn’t exist as herself… Not to mention that Palutena’s character would take quite a nosedive if the theory of her being intended to be more of a composition of Athena and Aphrodite rather than being simply less problematic Athena is true. The intent may have been good, just take the best of both of them and leave the ugly bits behind, but… Their contradictory natures mean that things that weren’t problems before become ones, so what actually ends up being created is this horrible hypocrite who’s a bad romantic partner and even worse mother. Considering how the games already don’t really want to acknowledge Athena’s actual faults because it would mean acknowledging that Palutena isn’t perfect, all this would do is to make it much, much worse. Palutena’s character would be ruined beyond saving and the tragic part there would be that it was by her very design. Handwaving can only take you so far when it comes to something of this magnitude.
So all in all, I think this post can be summarized to these three points:
If you’re creating something based on an already existing material with an established world, some figures are literally too important to be ignored. However if you’re still trying to pretend that they don’t exist, maybe don’t include any references to them into your work. It just draws attention to their nonsensical absence, which is the last thing you want to do.
Compositing characters is harder than it seems. If it looks like the characters you’re trying to composite may not mix well, it’s better to not composite them at all. Last thing you want to do is to create a character that’s not internally consistent.
On hindsight, maybe it was a bad idea to make the Eros-expy work for a goddess primarily based on Athena. 
That’s all from me right now. What do you think? Do you think Kid Icarus can write itself out of this corner or does the series have to accept the consequences of the writing choices that have led it here? Is there even a good way to solve the Aphrodite-problem, meaning that the best way to handle it just to never bring her and people closely connected to her up? I’m interested of hearing your thoughts.
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h-worksrambles · 2 years
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I have talked shockingly little about Undertale on this blog but rest assured, I love that game to bits. And, as it happens, I’m having a bout of brain worms about my favourite boss fight, which is also against my favourite character. Spoilers below.
God, the Asgore fight is so good.
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There’s just so much good stuff going on this fight. The buildup where you’re given a twofold image of a kind-hearted, gentle, beloved ruler and that of a king with blood on his hands. The way your meeting with him is filled with this sense of melancholy and dread as both you and he both know that neither of you wanted this to happen. The fact that he shatters the MERCY button because he feels he doesn’t deserve mercy. Ow, my heart. I’m also amazed how well balanced this fight is despite how wildly your level can change based on your playstyle. You can just fight Asgore head on, but proper use of the ACT system can also make the fight much easier. Regardless whether you played Pacifist or not, it still feels like a good final test of whatever skills you were relying on throughout your playthrough. The other final bosses are mostly in the Mother tradition of semi-scripted fights driven moreso by emotion (or alternatively, intentionally frustrating trial and error). Asgore’s fight just feels the most complete. And there’s so much more in terms of great subtle storytelling here. Much like Toriel, Asgore is also holding back. Throughout the whole fight, he never looks at you. He uses wide ranging area of effect attacks that don’t require aiming. Because he can’t bear to look at what he’s doing. Maybe it’s because he’s reminded of the other fallen humans when he looks at Frisk? Maybe it’s because of how much Frisk looks so much like Chara? Or maybe it’s to give Frisk a chance to finish him off. Considering how quickly he offers up his soul when he loses, it’s not hard to assume Asgore wanted to lose. He never wanted to go through with the attack on humanity. As much as he wanted to give the other monsters hope, he was sick of taking lives. And now, more than anything, he just wanted to see his children again...
And do I even need to mention the music? Bergentrückung/ASGORE is my favourite battle theme in the game. The melody is so emotionally charged. The buildup from chiptune to full instrumentation is excellent. And the use of leitmotif is on point. In particular, the way it reprises Heartache and Determination.
Considering Asgore’s history with Toriel is a huge part of his character, reprising her theme as part of his vain hope to see her again makes sense. It also serves to parallel how your journey began and ended, both times pitted against one of the Dreemurrs, whose tragic history has led them to a fight that neither of you want. But coming back to it after doing a Pacifist ending is even worse. In the Pacifist ending, Toriel completes her character arc by overcoming her fear and facing her past. She refuses to let anyone else die and ultimately stops the fight, saving both Frisk and Asgore. But in Neutral? There’s no Toriel to fix things. The only trace of her comes from the music. It almost makes the player miss Toriel and wish she was here to help, which is exactly Asgore has been feeling for possibly hundreds of years (at least, it could have been that long. The timeframe of Undertale is a little hazy). But there’s also the use of Determination. Whenever the player dies, they hear a voice clip that sounds like Asgore, urging them to stay determined. Eventually we learn that this a memory of Chara’s last moments, that Frisk glimpses whenever they themselves are close to death. So there’s this horrible irony that Asgore is both the last obstacle to your journey, and also the thing that’s been motivating you time and again. And it’s got even more impact since it was the moment of Chara’s death, the moment you are reminded of every time Determination plays, that led Asgore to this point in the first place. To Frisk, it’s the song that motivates them to keep moving forward. To Asgore, it’s the song that represents the moment he lost everything, one that would set the stage for him to make the biggest mistake of his life, which he is convinced he can never atone for.
Which just provides you with even more drive to convince him that maybe he still can.
Asgore is notably limited in screen time compared to the other major characters. So the pressure was on for this fight to make the best possible showing for him and it does not disappoint. Asgore is incredibly well characterised in a very short space of time, in both gameplay and dialogue, in a suitably epic and challenging fight. Even after everything he’s done, this moment made me want  to save him, to go back and find another way so he wouldn’t have to die again.
It’s been four years now since I first played Undertale (yeah, I was a little late to the party), and I still think about Asgore, and this fight, so often. It’s just superbly done.
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superhenryjones · 1 month
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I know Tumblr isn't a sports place. I am a universal translator for various social circles because if you are in certain parts of the Midwest, you have to know sports to just talk to people. I'm not Jon Bois or anything, but here's a funny observation.
The 2023 NFL football season was mostly what was expected in the most WEIRD and STUPID way possible. The Chiefs and the 49ers met in the Super Bowl like they were supposed to. Doing that, one of the most dude players in the NFL who was so giddy about trying to see Taylor Swift at Arrowhead Stadium and was disappointed when he wasn't able to trying to give her a friendship bracelet out of NOWHERE is dating Taylor Swift. On the 49ers end, they had to come back and get lucky against the NFL's walking punchline, the Detroit Lions whose best player of all time retired extremely early instead of getting beat up playing for the them again, to get here. The Chiefs won their scripted Super Bowl championship to get Joe Biden re-elected by a botched punt return where every 49er was doing their job, and the ball was simply directed by the Hand of God. That last sentence was 100% true.
I did a 30-minute rant elsewhere, but I realize it could all be summed up by one thing. One GIF.
Backstory: Aaron Rodgers is the NFL quarterback who talked to Jake from State Farm before Patrick Mahomes took over all advertising (Including local HyVee spots. Hi, Iowa Mentioned!). He's also a premadonna, an anti-vaxxer, and the person Iowa State receiver Allen Lazard's career relies on most (Hi, Iowa Mentioned!). He made his free agency THE official show for sports programming to an extremely annoying level. He eventually chose the Jets, a team most late night talk show hosts use to get an instant laugh, and this meant MORE media coverage. This was going to backfire. HARD. What we didn't know is it would backfire IMMEDIATELY. This is Aaron Rodgers after injuring his Achilles tendon for the entire season after the FIRST play he involved with in the FIRST game.
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This has been the 2023 NFL season. What the hell was that?
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thetoxicgamer · 1 year
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Plague Tale Requiem Was an Emotional “Wreck Room” for Amicia’s VA
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The journey taken by Amicia and Hugo in A Plague Tale: Requiem is troubled by conflict and characterised by suffering. The main character of the rat game's mental instability spirals into a PTSD-driven state as she begins to break under the pressure of a hostile environment. In-person at WASD, PCGamesN spoke with Charlotte McBurney, Amicia's BAFTA-nominated voice actress, about how both she and her character changed throughout Requiem. McBurney is a soft-spoken, polite Englishwoman, whose nervous excitement matches the buzz of WASD itself. It’s a hectic time for Plague Tale: Requiem, which has been nominated for several BAFTA Games awards in the wake of last year’s somewhat disappointing Game of the Year Awards. McBurney is up for best performer in a leading role; something she has more than earnt. As discussed in our Plague Tale: Requiem review, McBurney’s Amicia is no longer the innocent young girl of Asobo’s first game. Instead, she’s hardened, battle-ready, and ruthless in her pursuit of a cure for Hugo. She kills without fear and punishes without regret, yet the violence has taken its toll on her mental state. Stricken by PTSD, the story game‘s focus is as much on mental health as it is the rats, and McBurney admits that playing the part of a shattered teen was no walk in the park. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbzwb8vzNI “When I read the script at home, I would cry,” she tells PCGamesN. “I was definitely drawing on things that I’ve been through, things people I know have been through – real . I was definitely channelling a lot from my own experiences. “It was very fun to explore in a very weird, macabre way, because it’s not often that someone says ‘here, let loose.’ We did one section where they said ‘can we just stand you in front of the mic, and can you just cry?’ So I just stood and wept for like, five minutes. That’s probably the most cathartic thing that I’ve ever done – not that I’m hurting, but it’s a good thing. We should all try it!” Amicia’s emotions are what make her so relatable – it’s one of the reasons I fell so in love with her as a character. With a smile she says “I sort of thought of like a wreck room – you know those places where you go in and wreck plates and things – that’s what working on Requiem was like; it’s like going in there but with my emotions and just letting loose.” A young woman and a little boy holding hands walk on a red carpet made of flowers in a high, ornate building with the sun streaming down on them“When I read the script for the first time I was like ‘oh my god has seen right through me, it’s terrifying! Why has he written me as a character?’ and then when I spoke to about it was like ‘oh, I’ve written myself.'” Trauma, anxiety, and mental health transcend temporal boundaries, and that’s one of the things that makes Requiem – and the Plague Tale series as a whole – so powerful. If you haven’t played yet, I really suggest you take the game out for a whirl; just ensure you have some tissues nearby and potentially a tub of ice cream. If you do, we have a rundown of the Plague Tale: Requiem system requirements to make sure your rig can withstand the might of the Macula, or if you’ve already played and had your heart broken, we have a list of the best stealth games to keep you entertained. Interview conducted by Nat Smith at WASD 2023. Read the full article
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thefilmsimps · 1 year
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Dark Passage (dir. Delmer Daves)
-Jere Pilapil- 6.5/10 I’ve seen this movie before, in my college days, going through a noir phase or a Bogart phase. Either way, I’d forgotten this one and probably conflated it with Key Largo in my head as “one of the ones with Bogart and Bacall in it, but not The Big Sleep and not the one with the ‘you know how to whistle, don’t you?’ scene”. And in the end, that’s kind of what it deserves: Delmer Daves’ Dark Passage is a perfectly passable noir with a couple wrinkles that elevate it ever-so-slightly. The first of those wrinkles is that the first third or so is filmed from a perspective. Humphrey Bogart plays Vincent Parry, a prison escapee convicted of murdering his wife. Except he doesn’t look like Bogart, as we see in a photograph printed in newspapers all over (an uncredited Frank Wilcox in the photo). It’s from this perspective that we meet Lauren Bacall as Irene Jansen, a woman whose father suffered a similar fate as Parry: innocent but convicted of murder. She shelters and clothes him long enough for him to (oh my fucking god) get plastic surgery that makes him look like Bogart. This is probably the most interesting stretch of the movie, though not entirely successfully. Filming like this is limited and goofy: early, when Vincent throws a punch, it looks an awful lot like melee combat in a video game. But we do get to enjoy Irene bossing Vincent around a bit, and some fun character work by Tom D’Andrea as a cab driver. Throughout, I had an uneasy feeling that the whole movie might be like this, that Bogart - then the highest paid actor in Hollywood - somehow agreed to essentially a voice actor roll. But once the movie reveals Bogart and gets down to business, things get a bit generic. See, Vincent, of course, wants to escape the law and wants to investigate the murder of a friend. The set up for this is a bit too neat: Madge, a former fling and a witness who testified against him (Agnes Moorehead) and her current beau Bob (Bruce Bennett) happen to be close friends with Irene. It creates the feeling of too tight a circle, a snow globe world that is distractingly convenient to the plot. The performances, specifically Bacall but Moorehead and Clifton Young as a smalltime crook, elevate this thing, but the third act falls apart as Vincent corners the perpetrator with essentially no leverage, and the final scene of the film feels extremely tacked on. Bogart is basically on autopilot here, navigating a bumpy script. Still, there are a lot of fun corners explored here. It may just be a silly curio, but it’s an enjoyable enough one.
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theperplexedpoet · 3 years
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dig your way out of this hole
just to stand on unstable sands
hear the pleas for your survival
“suicide is no answer”
instead walk into this world
a pandemic of waking death
for the convience of normal
“suicide for capital”
now, that's more like it
forgo those you're holding,
give these dice a roll
and play our game
not your own
economic depression
the climate changes on Wall Street
but the only reports we see
push business as usual
bury your head in the sands
for the public eye works better
when it is shielded from the truth
not seeing the body's plight
what they've done to it
we “decide” the “rulers”
but don't set the rules
and play their game
not our own
from frying pan to fire
must life always be lived to burn
semantic choices over terms
ending in the same six feet
so is this my plot or yours
and whose ends is this end serving
that's the query that breaks the code
serving the final error
and shutdown begins
prompted for a command
not a commandment
we built altars
for worship
coded gods in the script
to live as hypocrits
and play their game
not our own
and now when we need answers
we're told look upward, not inward
turn from the script to the scripture
from author to follower
no longer shepherd but sheep
flocking to this power transfer
just so we don't have to answer
to or for what comes after
now it's in their hands
whose game are we playing
for it's our life at stake
(1/3/21)
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kindestegg · 2 years
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Deltarune Theory: Ralsei is a guide for the script
It feels crazy that Deltarune Chapter 2 has only been out for like, what, two weeks? As of the time I’m writing this, and yet, there has already been so much secret hunting and speculation over this. Not even the full game, and people already go crazy over it. Naturally, I am part of this craze. In fact I was one of the people that played it as soon as it dropped.
And, I thought it was only me, but, at least for a little while, Ralsei’s behavior struck me as… odd. Not outwardly malicious, but just… odd. Particularly the first bit of the game, it was just so… happy and convenient? And Ralsei was at the center of it all, orchestrating it, making sure everything happened accordingly.
Eventually, that initial feeling of distrust went away, but… not quite. And it seems a lot of people began to feel the same way, pointing out bits about Ralsei that are just… out of place. Things that didn’t seem to stand out in the first chapter, are now popping out about him.
Questions include:
How does he know about what’s outside the Dark World, about the school?
How does he know about the game mechanics and call them out by names?
Why is he so interested in keeping the balance between only Kris acting and him and Susie doing magic?
Why does he seem so eager to dismiss what happened with Spamton NEO?
Why doesn’t he turn into stone or even get weak at any point during the time he spends in Cyber World?
Are the parts of his name and design connecting to the Dreemurr’s intentional, and if so, what does that mean for his relation to Kris?
How and why does he take player control away to look at what Susie is doing? Why must he wait until Kris is willing to do it? What does he tell them when he succeeds in this?
Now, I don’t intend to pose here “a supreme theory to rule them all”, I’m just a guy having fun and I’ve seen people voice particularly similar ideas to this one I’ve had, so I want to at least try to answer these questions through a relatively simple idea that would, almost entirely, immediately answer ALMOST all the doubts.
First, let’s start with some steps to build up this idea. For one, we know for a fact that Ralsei holds knowledge over game mechanics and may even break the fourth wall at times.
But we also know that Ralsei’s design resembles a lot of characters from Undertale we know and were fond of. For one, he can be likened to Toriel in the sense that he is the one to give you the first tutorial of the game and his clothes resemble her original outfit as well. Another connection, much more common, that people have made is that he is like Asriel, no doubt due to his name being an anagram, but also due to the fact he is also a cute young goat.
I would like to do a complete turn around here though, and say I do not think any of this points to Ralsei being related to Kris in the familial sense, for more than one reason, but my main one being that I don’t think Toby would be as frankly disgusting as to imply such a thing when there is so so much teasing in the direction of Ralsei possibly having a crush on Kris. I mean… really, Toby?
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You know, I’m not too sure this would be the smartest idea, Mr. Fox, but alright.
However, I do think all these hints in his design and name have a purpose. And it has to do with how us, the fandom, see these two characters. For one, they are very beloved characters, and Toriel is one that we associate with her tutorials and guidance, whereas Asriel is one that people have yearned to see more in action. They are back, in a sense, but not present in our adventures so far.
What I’m getting at is that Ralsei is specifically designed to be the darling of the fandom. He is made to be loved, to be trusted, to cause feelings in us that make us want to protect him and accept his advice. This, in a way, also affects the in-universe characters who see him, as Susie put it: “as a big portable teddy bear”, whose job is “giving hugs”.
And I don’t just mean this in a character design way, like “oh wow Toby was so smart to make a perfectly marketable boy!” No. I think Ralsei exists as a meta element, his form being a direct manifestation of what we want to see.
He looks like that because he wants us to see him and lower our guard and expect his guidance. Remember how his form was shadowy and vague throughout all of chapter 1 until the very end of it and how he poofs into nothing but a pile of clothes in both chapters so far, no matter what form he’s in? What if he’s a shapeshifter? What if Ralsei isn’t even his real name? That certainly would explain why he says he doesn’t know what being Ralsei-like is like.
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Ralsei? Ralsei? Oh God he’s gone.
Now, do I think he’s lowering our guard in the sense of leaving us vulnerable for an attack? Not exactly. I think it's so we learn to accept him…
Accept that he is a GUIDE for the game’s script. His entire existence hinges on guiding the main characters, specially Kris, throughout the story, and making sure the whole story, all seven chapters, play out exactly as planned.
You see, Ralsei isn’t evil. His goal is pretty simple, actually: guide us, the player, throughout the game, making us feel as safe and happy and secure. In that sense, of course he pushes so hard towards the pacifist route. After all, that’s the one that’s closer to a completionist route, as the sparing + recruiting mechanic adds more characters to your town, and therefore more content. He wants you to see all this content and get the most enjoyment out of it. His code urges him to bring you the best experience possible.
This would also answer why he does that thing with taking our control away from Kris and to watch Susie’s shenanigans. Because it’s satisfying to us. Notice how stressed out and pushy he gets in the alternate route when Susie comes out of Noelle’s room without being able to let us see what happened. He knows he messed up, something went wrong. He was supposed to let us see, so that we wouldn’t be bored, because God forbid the players be bored.
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Just imagine this going through his head.
He also seems to genuinely care about Kris and Susie, and with good reason, as he knows these are the protagonists, and he is supposed to care for their well being too and ensure they reach their goal. I do think, however, there is a good amount of being genuine in his care, as he has no reason to react so boldly sometimes to either of them, showing outrage or affection in pretty telling ways. He isn’t heartless despite carrying out this job.
However it is also worth noting, for all his care, he cannot do the one thing that Kris would desire the most: free them from our grasp. And that is his ultimate failure towards them, and may end up creating conflict later on in the game.
From, here, there are two possible pathways:
Ralsei does not know about the dilemma Kris is going through, and believes Kris is entirely oblivious and passive towards being in a video game. He may even end up being the final boss to fight, as he desperately tries to keep everything on rails while Kris very much does not care for any of that.
Ralsei is entirely aware of what’s going on with Kris, after all, everything in a game’s design is planned, even the cutscenes, therefore even Kris’ struggles. Ralsei knows of the fate that lies ahead, that Kris will eventually be free, how it all ends. But to get there… is still a road ahead.
I think Ralsei’s affection towards Kris will definitely be explored in the later chapters. Not just because of the teasing we’ve been getting, but, if Ralsei really is a guide of the game’s code and script, what would that mean for him to get so attached towards the character the player is controlling?
Ralsei will have to make a choice. He will either recognize Kris is suffering and cannot wait any longer, or be faced with possibly having to fight them himself. This is why those two pathways matter as well. If he doesn’t know, his choice will come later and it will be an unpleasant surprise for him to find out the game universe is breaking apart around him with the self awareness of certain characters. If he does know, however, his choice is NOW, and waiting for the inevitable will be torture.
Just how long until he breaks? Or will he keep the facade until the very last chapter?
Like I said, I don’t intend this theory to be the biggest, most revealing and coherent theory. But… It could add a very interesting layer to Ralsei’s character, as well as answer many questions posed beforehand. He knows the school layout and game controls because he is part of the code. He can get to the other Dark World’s easily and remain unharmed because the game demands him to be. He looks like this so that we love him. He wants to give us the most fulfilling Castle Town so that we will love the game. He doesn’t protest even when Kris does things like try to give him the thorn ring, because to him, everything will be okay anyway. Everything he is, is for us. He isn’t evil or malicious per se, he just opposes Kris’ biggest need.
But he may have gotten himself attached. And that may be a clue to sparing him if he does become a final boss.
But! Tell me what you thought of this theory! Do you think it’s way too weird and farfetched, or do you think it’s possible that it could happen? Or maybe you agree with some stuff but not with other stuff? Go ahead and tell me!
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nanamisflowerfield · 2 years
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Heyo could I ask hcs for guy, tsuzuru and taichi with an s/o who says really cheesy pickup lines (for example; "my mum told me to follow my dreams can I follow you?) just to see them blush?? Thank you anyways have a nice day and please stay safe!! Lovec your work!! <3 :]
I really enjoyed writing it! Thanks for requesting it and for your sweet words (////)! I hope that you like it and have a great day!💕
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📝 “I’ve heard it said that kissing is the ‘language of love’. Would you care to have a conversation with me about it sometime?” You smiled at Tsuzuru, noticing that he had raised his eyebrow at you. It was the very first time, that you had used a pickup line on him, but maybe it will help you to finally see him blush!
📝 “If we talk about it… Maybe it could help me with some ideas. Sure, a small talk about it won’t hurt.” Tsuzuru said, turning his head back towards his laptop as he continued to work on it, leaving you standing behind him.
📝 Maybe he was just tired. That could be possible, right? He is always busy and doing lots of things. You just have to use more on him so he will figure out that you actually use some cheesy ones on him!
📝 A week later, you walked to your dear friend, sitting down next to him only to ask him out of the blue: “Kiss me if I’m wrong but, dinosaurs still exist, right?” Tsuzuru’s bright eyes widen at your words. His cheeks were dusted red as he listened carefully and hearing even those words in his mind, asking him the same question over and over, making his cheeks go redder. “W-What…?” He stuttered, now realizing that you used a pickup line on him.
📝 “You heard me. Kiss me if I’m wrong.” You smirked at him, winking at the flustered man, as you stood up. Oh, how adorable Tsuzuru was, when he looked at you with this expression. You surely will not stop using those cheesy pickup lines. Who wouldn’t even want to stop after seeing the script writer so flustered and nearly dropping his phone…?
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🐶 “Hey, I just wanted to thank you for the gift… I’ve been wearing this smile ever since you gave it to me.” You smiled sweetly at Taichi, whose blush spread from his cheeks towards his nose and ears. “Huh…? I… What? M-Me…?” That was the whole reason, why you started to use those cheesy but also funny pickup lines on sweet puppy-like Taichi.
🐶 You could never stop doing it, as it made Taichi so flustered. He was even more puppy-like whenever you did so, even following you like one, making Yuki and Banri laugh at the redhead’s behavior.
🐶 Never did he thought that somebody would try to flirt with him. He doesn’t even know how to stay calm around you. Hell, there was even a time, Taichi tried to use some lines on you, but when you were faster than him, words couldn’t escape his mouth, as he stared at you.
🐶 “Your hand looks heavy—can I hold it for you?” The autumn troupe actor wanted to scream “YES!” in a heartbeat, but again, he stood there, hiding his blushing face with his palms, while you chuckled at his reaction.
🐶 You used them all the time… Even when you two ate your food together. “What’s on your face?” You asked him, making Taichi look up from his food, asking himself if he had a bit of his sauce on his cheek again. “Is it… sauce?” He asked, trying to wipe it off, while still munching on his food. “Oh, sorry… It’s just your beautiful eyes! Huh… Taichi!? Oh my god, I’m sorry, please don’t die! I didn’t want you to choke on your food! Taichiiii!! Take a deep breath! Oh nooo!”
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🤖 “My mom told me to follow my dreams. Can I follow you?” Guy raised his eyebrows at you, not familiar with any pickup lines at all. “I wanted to go to the park. If you want to accompany me, you are very welcome to do so.” Guy said, leaving the building. “W-Wait… What?”
🤖 One day, Guy will learn about it and you will make sure, that his face will get as red as the roses you’ve seen your friends getting, after their plays. “I will never stop my cheesy pickup line game.” You laughed, only to see your friend Izumi shake her head at you. “It’s Guy. I’m sure that he won’t react the same way like some other people.”
🤖 Oh boy, was Izumi wrong! You never gave up and threw them at the actor, wherever and whenever you could. You will see the reaction you wanted!
🤖 “I swear someone stole the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes.” Your hands were on top of Guy’s shoulders, as you eyed him. “That’s not possible, (y/n).” He just said, turning around to leave you once again alone in his room. “Mh… Guy’s ears were a little bit red… Wait… Was he blushing?” Your lips turned into a wide smile, cheering and happy that you finally did it! Guy was blushing! Not as much as you wished for, but he still did it!
🤖 “Next mission… Make him blush more often…” You smirked to yourself, running after the taller man, as you told him more pickup lines.
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scmediafest · 2 years
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Happy Monday! We’re dropping some groovy fics today, if we do say so ourselves. We’ve got magic, music, love letters, reluctant superheroes, and more! This bunch definitely strikes all the right chords. 
If you’re following along with the daily releases and want to track your progress,  you can find the latest updates in this Google Sheet!
🎵
The Enchantment Umbrage
[David/Patrick - E - 25,361]
The prompt: David Rose has always believed in fairy tales. So it’s no wonder then that he’s spent his career crafting them on the long-running reality dating show Ever After. When the show casts disgraced tech wunderkind Patrick Brewer as its star.
Patrick doesn’t believe in true love, and only agreed to the show as a last-ditch effort to rehabilitate his image. But they begin to open up to each other, and Patrick realizes he has better chemistry with David than with any of his female co-stars. But even reality TV has a script, and in order to find to happily ever after, they’ll have to reconsider whose love story gets told.
From the book blurb for The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochran, which just has a wonderful David and Patrick vibe to it.
*🎵*
you never shined so brightly
[David/Patrick - T - 23,226]
Large, broad hands with silver-ringed fingers stroke at the keys in a blur. Patrick’s eyes trace up the hunched over curve of his spine, clad in a black suit that blends in with the dark ambiance of the room. The man’s lips are parted slightly as he plays, full body leaning into each chord progression.
Patrick’s heart crescendos in his chest at the same time as the melody.
OR
A La La Land AU in which Patrick is the aspiring actor and David is the struggling musician.
*🎵*
Stab: The Elmsboro Murders
[David/Patrick - M - 7,487]
Someone in Elmsboro is terrorizing teens. Finally, the story that journalist David Rose can use to get his big break. If only deputy sheriff Patrick Brewer would answer his questions instead of blocking him at every turn and distracting him with those big, dumb, earnest eyes of his.
*🎵*
always and forever, twyla sands
[Alexis/Twyla - NR - 4,896]
Twyla hasn’t spoken to Alexis Rose in years. Not since she kissed her during a game of spin the bottle in seventh grade, effectively ruining their friendship.
Since then it’s been passive aggressive comments in the hallway over her blouses and disdainful glances in between classes.
Well, except for now.
Because right now, Alexis is standing in front of her, with a confused wide-eyed expression that reminds Twyla of her seventh grade crush on her former best friend. And in her hands is an envelope —
A soft pink envelope covered in Hello Kitty stickers with Alexis’s name written on it in glitter gel pen.
Oh god.
Twyla’s gonna faint.
--
Or To All the Boys I've Loved Before the Twylexis Remix
*🎵*
canned heat in my heels tonight
[Alexis/Twyla - T - 4,130]
@Karen666: I've been watching #DWTS for decades. It has always been family-friendly entertainment. And just like the Biden Administration has ruined everything else, now they and the liberal media have ruined #DWTS!!
@BootyfulBecca: @DancingABC @LilBitAlexis @TwirlingTwyla WHAT'S THE TEAM HASHTAG OMG??
@DancingABC: @BootyfulBecca #LilBitTwylexis is what you're looking for!
The internet has a lot to say about Alexis Rose and Twyla Sands, the first same-sex dance couple on Dancing With The Stars.
*🎵* 
The Kiss That Kills
[David/Patrick - T - 4,074]
When Patrick asks out his long term crush, his best friend David is there to listen to him talk through the details and, when certain doubts emerge, offer some help of his own. Patrick's reaction to David's assistance leads to some surprising revelations.
Written for the SC Media Fest and inspired by the movie Some Kind of Wonderful.
*🎵*
got a knack for burning bridges down
[Alexis/Stevie - T - 3,794]
Stevie Budd is a private investigator and reluctant superhero. Alexis Rose is her childhood best friend and newly powered. They have their issues, but find themselves working a case together.
Inspired by Marvel's Jessica Jones series
*🎵*
Stardust
[David/Patrick - NR - 3,141]
Patrick had just about finished packing his desk; the movers were coming in a few days to bring the contents of the apartment to the cottage. He picked up the rogue books on the bottom shelf of his nightstand then went over to David’s side to do the same, adding the small stack of personal journals David had to his pile. As he turned to the box sitting on his desk, the top journal slipped, weathered spine opening on impact. Placing the remaining tomes in the box, he reached over to retrieve it when he recognized the poem on a taped piece of paper. His fingers grazed the page, heartstrings pulling.
*🎵*
Into your heart I'll beat again
[David/Patrick - M - 1,695]
Patrick is inspired to add a song to their wedding reception playlist without David's approval.
Patrick wants to tell David all about how it makes him feel.
*🎵*
[Podfic] You Can Still Be Free
[David/Patrick - E - 03h:03m:31:s]
There were certainly prescient hints about David’s obligation to follow all commands given to him. For one, his own irritability over wanting to say no sometimes but seemingly being unable to do so.
A modern-day AU in which David is cursed to follow any command he’s given, and the stark, rippling consequences of such a burden. Inspired by Ella Enchanted.
*🎵* 
CREATORS: If your works were released today, please don't forget to update your posting date!
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beneaththetangles · 2 years
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Reader’s Corner: Madoka Wraith Arc, The Hunters Guild, and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl
We have a diverse lineup of light novels and manga to close out the month of November, touching all sorts of genres and types from magical girls to harem, shounen to shoujo, and isekai to yuri—those last two within the same work! Come check out our reviews of this interesting crop of releases from Yen Press, Viz, and J-Novel Club!
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The Executioner and Her Way of Life, Vol. 3: The Cage of Iron Sand
If volume one set of The Executioner and Her Way of Life set the groundwork for a visceral and creative fantasy tale, and volume two turned the heat on the story all the way up to its highest setting, volume three makes the wise choice of going a more modest route while still continuing to move forward with what is becoming an epic story. Menou and Akari continue their journey toward the latter’s execution, but run into ruffians with surprising tech along the way, as well as a new character, Sahara, a former classmate of Menou’s whose past is more entwined with hers than she realizes. While volume three continues the sin of featuring drippy dialogue that is intended to develop fun relationships between the almost entirely female cast through various levels and types of flirting (but fails in doing so), it also moves further down the route of stronger characterization by diving into Akari’s head (we only got a hint of this in volume two—albeit a shocking one) and laying out what that means to various characters. Meanwhile, Saraha is a welcome addition to the cast of mains (and is given a particularly strong backstory), each of which received considerable time in these chapters. Despite their throwaway dialogue, readers will care for each of them by this point, and the story as well, which continues to be smart, epic, and oftentimes, pit-in-your-stomach fearsome. ~ Twwk
The Executioner and Her Way of Life is published by Yen Press.*
Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte, Disc 1
Deeply dissatisfied with the tragic fate of otome game “villainess” Lieselotte, a high school girl and boy decide to record a Let’s Play of said otome game. The trappings seem conventional: a commoner girl attends Magic School for Nobles and encounters a not-so-villainous aristocratic “villainess” engaged to a prince. But then things go off the rails. The “players” have no control over the game, the save file is glitched, the protagonist’s stats are maxed out, and certain characters in the game can hear and respond to their commentary! Then these “gods” surprise themselves by conferring blessings, have a cryptic encounter that might be connected to the mystery of the game, and more. Awkward teen romance abounds both in-game and IRL, as well as non-romantic drama of various kinds, including medical, familial, and evil-witch-scripted-to-be-Lieselotte’s-doom-al. Lieselotte’s fiancé, Prince Siegwald, provides first-person narration when present, while scenes without him are told in third-person. Notably, this isn’t an isekai story, instead being more similar to The NPCs in This Village Sim Game Must Be Real!, where people in our world “play” a “video game” that seems oddly real, are perceived as deities by game characters, and start to uncover possible connections between our world and the not-so-virtual one (though if you’ve been reading Village Sim for this month’s Light Novel Club discussion, rest assured that there are many differences!). This volume was sweet and funny and intriguing, and I loved it. ~ jeskaiangel
Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte is published by J-Novel Club.
Cheeky Brat, Vol. 1
Can’t say I’ve previously ever bought a manga simply based off the font alone, but I can officially say that I have now now after purchasing Cheeky Brat! I absolutely love how colorful the font is! While this was more of a cover buy for me at first, the sports overtone in the blurb made me decide this was one I needed to pick up. The story centers around a second year, Yuki, who has a crush on the team captain of the basketball team (which she manages and decided to be specifically because of this crush). One of the first-year players, Naruse, finds out about “this crush” and starts to tease her about it. The thing is though, is Naruse just teasing? Or is he not? Outside of the manga Waiting for Spring, Cheeky Brat is the only other popular title I know that is a sports shoujo manga, which is something I can’t get enough of. However, while I deeply loved Yuki and her backstory of why she never smiles (as well as how caring and loyal she is to the boys’ basketball team), I could not love this story as much as I wanted. Well, the story—that I did like. What I didn’t was the couple. I could not ship the two as I had hoped because I could not support the Naruse not respecting Yuki’s boundaries. It works well for the story and does have its humorous moments, but in between the first meeting involving boobs and this sense of acting on touching because he likes her, it was more than I could let slide by. Outside of this, I loved the story, but it is one I sadly will not be continuing. ~ Laura A. Grace
Cheeky Brat is published by Yen Press.
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl
While future volumes are on the way, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, the sixth light novel in the Rascal series, reads like the climax of the franchise, focusing on both the main heroine and the the most mysterious and otherwise most significant of the rest of Sakuta’s harem, Shouko, who arrived in volume five aged as a college student. Having accepted this Shouko into his home, Sakuta also invites in a situation fraught with discomfort and difficulty when Mai returns from her work trip to discover the older girl (and Sakuta’s first love) love taking residence in her boyfriend’s household while clearly declaring her love for him. But the situation goes beyond simple romcom antics, both because Sakuta is simultaneously attending to the middle school-aged Shouko, whose health is declining, and his own divided heart. Harem series often avoid facing such an issue head-on and with contemplation and appropriate drama, but author Hajime Kamoshida does in this sixth volume of the series, and deserves praise for doing so. And while Sakuta once again proves to be less reliable and good-hearted than I think the author would want us to believe, the ride itself is quite heartfelt and engaging. It’s also increasingly anxious as the novel moves toward its conclusion, particularly when one realizes there are only 30 pages left and a frightening resolution in sight. Those who have already watched the film—myself included—won’t necessarily be surprised by the main plot of the story, though access to the inner thinkings of Sakuta and Shouko, larger parts for the secondary characters in this volume, and some interesting relationship development that the anime will need to include should a second season come along, make the light novel more than worth the read. This is the most complete volume yet in the Rascal series, and gives me confidence that Kamoshida will continue to challenge himself as a writer instead of relying too much on unreasonable circumstances and explanations, a problem from earlier volumes that, like the original bunny girl senpai, has started to disappear. ~ Twwk
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl is published by Yen Press.*
The Hunters Guild: Red Hood (Series)
The Hunters Guild: Red Hood, the first series from mangaka Yuuki Kawaguchi to get a full run, is fantastic, and unfortunately was cut too soon. It begins with the premise that fairy tale monsters which looked like eldritch horrors from some sort of Lovecraftian mythos attacking villages. The Red Hood, Grimm, a member of the Hunters Guild, arrives to protect the first village. The story then follows a villager, Velou, who goes off to become a hunter himself. However, the story moves in such a unique direction from there as it shows that the entire world is truly a created thing, a reinterpretation of fairy tales. As the manga progresses, readers will start to remember and recognize various fairy tale characters reimagined, including Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as the reinvention of werewolves. I wish this series was given a proper send off with at least a few more chapters, as the final arc is really compelling. However, it really all depends on readership, and so it happens sometimes. Even so, I would highly recommend this series if you are interested in this premise. ~ MDMRN
The Hunters Guild: Red Hood was simulpublished by Shonen Jump.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc, Vol. 1
Tainted beings known as wraiths prey upon young women, feeding on their emotions, and in Mitakihara Town, are growing in strength. Thankfully, magical girls Mami, Sayaka, and Kyoko are there to combat them—if they don’t kill each other first. The Wraith Arc, a short series developed by Magica Quartet and their frequents collaborator, Hanokage, fills the space between the end of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Rebellion Story, and in mining this part of the lore, presents a fascinating and fun read. Readers get to see how Sayaka and Kyoko come to form their deep relationship out of animosity (with some wild twists), with Mami in her wisdom holding the team together. And meanwhile, of course, there are no witches. There is no Madoka. But much like the “absent” God in the Book of Esther, she is ever over the events of the book, and in this series, especially haunts Homura. Knowing what’s to come in Rebellion Story makes that chatacter’s actions all the more compelling, though it should be said that this volume belongs to Sayaka’s and Kyoko’s for the most part, illustrated in full glory by Hanokage, equal parts a feast for the eyes and a thrill for all lovers of PMMM. ~ Twwk
Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Wraith Arc is published by Yen Press.*
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Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.
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spideyanakin · 3 years
Text
Silent Britain - Chapter 5
Tom Holland x Reader
Series Masterlist 🍒
Normal Masterlist 🧚🏻‍♀️
Summary: You’re pretty new to Hollywood, finally getting a role in a blockbuster Martin Scorsese film, working alongside some of the biggest actors in the game. To your surprise, Tom Holland is playing your love interest in the high-stakes British Gangster film. Eventually, you and Tom become love interests outside the film, but is it too difficult to keep a relationship in all your new found success? Or will you and Tom find your happy ever after?
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"Alright, well im going to go-” You choked on your words before wiping your tears with the back of your hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow”
~
"It went terribly" You sobbed onto Timothee's pillow as he looked at you with sad eyes, folding his t-shirts and dropping them into his suitcase.
"He hates me."
"Don't say that! I'm telling you, I don't understand his behavior." Timothee shook his head as he thought about what he was going to add to his bag, mixed with why Tom could have possibly been so mad at you. "He really loves you know?" He added as he did a full 180 to grab some of his pants, folding them and putting them on top of his shirts.
"Loved, you mean." You grumbled as you hugged his pillow and wiped the tears from your eyes. "I pushed him away twice and he doesn't want to be pushed away a third time, that's what it is. I brought this on myself. I was a terrible co-star and now karma has it for me."
Timothee looked at you with vague eyes, not knowing what to tell you next. He clapped his hands when he finally got the answer.
"I'm talking to him tomorrow. Let him cool down from whatever happened." He decided.
"What did happen!" You almost screamed and he backed away with a chuckle.
"Calm down Dicaprio in the wolf of wall street."
"That's a specific reference." You folded your eyebrows and looked down at your fingers.
"He's always angry and screaming in this film what do you want." He shrugged before handing you a chocolate bar and taking one for himself.
"Thanks." You grumbled opening the packet, letting the comforting taste bring warmth back to your body.
~
"Morning." Hardy smiled as he rolled his suitcase towards the taxi waiting area.
Tom grumbled something barely audible as he passed right through Hardy, almost hitting him with his shoulder.
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Hardy laughed towards Tom who ignored Hardy's playful stare and planted himself right next to Timothee Chalamet.
“You alright Tom?” Timothee turned his eyes to him, clearly seeing the frustration in Tom’s eyes.
“Everything’s fine...” He looked away and scanned the line, surprised when you were nowhere to be seen.
“If you’re searching for Y/n she has the later Taxis and the latest plane” Timothee gave Tom a tight smile.
“Oh...” Tom suddenly felt sad as he realized you wouldn’t be on the same flight as him. But angry when he realized Tom Hardy would.
An assistant waltzed towards Tom’s group and handed out the plane tickets, and some further information about the arrival. Every actor took separate cabs, and Tom found himself walking into the plane in a short amount of time - headphones into his ears desperately trying to push away the anger he felt towards Hardy.
He eyed all the seat numbers until his eyes fell on seat number 38. His stomach did a flip when the window seat was occupied by the one and only Tom Hardy - the one person he didn’t want to see.
While Hardy gave Tom and a large smile, Tom looked away and placed his bag on top. Half a plane of business class seats and he had to be paired with the one person he didn't want to see.
Hardy took the cue and looked down at his phone - a little shaken up by Tom’s coldness.
Two hours into the flight and Hardy got his script out. Tom finally removed his headphones to order something from the flight attendant and the other Tom took it as his cue to nudge his shoulder.
“Hey man.”
“Hey.” Tom said a little harsher than he meant - but what do you want to sound like when the person is trying to steal your girl.
“Martin wrote a new scene yesterday and I’m still trying to learn and practice it - he said it will be the first thing we're going to shoot tomorrow do you mind helping?” Tom looked at the script that was standing on Hardy’s lap and then back to his eyes.
“Um sure.” He gave him a tight smile.
“Thanks." he nodded with a charming smile "Here.” He handed Tom his script. “Alright.” Hardy cleared his throat "You ready?"
"Yeah."
“Alright. Here we go" He gave the cue and started his line. "Lilibet this is a warning.” His line entered Tom’s ears as his eyes scanned the page to make sure they were the right words.
“Father - you don’t understand. This is more than just some-”
“No.” Just like in the script the line cut Elizabeth’s line. “This is about family.”
“He's also my family. If you can’t accept it, then he will be my only family” Tom’s heart pounded in his chest when he realized what the next line was.
“But what about us?” Tom felt his blood turn cold. What he had heard last night was rehearsing and nothing else. Hardy wasn’t trying at all to win you over, he was rehearsing the new scene Martin had written.
Tom gulped. “But, I love him-”
“How is he more important than this family?”
“It’s just ‘How is he more important than this?’ not family” Tom looked into Hardy’s eyes and he gave a thankful smile.
“I always get that one wrong.” He shook his head with a smile breaking from his character and Tom handed him an awkward chuckle in return.
‘Well maybe if he hadn't said the line right yesterday, maybe I would have discovered it was indeed just a scene’ Tom thought to himself before coming back to the lines.
“Im asking it again. How is he more important than this.” Hardy repeated and Tom continued.
“D- dad, you don’t understand.” - ‘If only I had stayed to heard this line’ Tom thought and suddenly felt a strike of stupidity flash through him.
“Hardy do you mind if I leave you for a second.” Tom pointed behind him. “I just remembered something I have to tell Timothee.”
“No problem.”
Before he knew it Tom took Helena’s empty seat and started rambling to Timothee about the whole situation.
“Hey calm down Gnomeo.”
“Gnomeo?”
“What? You wanted me to say Romeo?” Tom didn’t know how to answer. “They both die in the end - I don’t think you’d want that.”
“Can we get back to the actual problem?” Tom shook his head at Timothee’s absurd comment.
“Yes. So the fact that you got jealous for no reason. Because you thought that Edward Thomas Hardy CBE was in the way of your relationship with Y/n?”
“He’s a CBE?” Tom stayed frozen for a second.
“Yeah, men! how did you not know that? Aren't you British?”
“I am-” he wanted to say something but shook his head. “That's not the point.” He sighed in frustration. “and yes....” He grumbled.
“Dude he plays her father.”
“I know-”
“He could be her dad in real life.”
“I also know that.”
“He’s married.”
“I know,” Tom whined.
“He has kids.”
“I know.” He melted in his seat in shame. “But- they’re both such great actors and it sounded so real.” He looked away too ashamed to face Timothee's stare “And I’d just read The Princess Diarist.” Tom grumbled and folded his arms.
“Wait there's a book to the films? Oh my god iconic.”
“No not the princess diaries and there’s always been a book about these - the princess Diaaaarriist” Tom looked at Timothee whose eyes were full of confusion. “Carrie Fisher’s memoir. She talks about her affair with Harrison Ford- it got to my head.”
A loud chuckle filled the gap between the two boys and Timothee had to grab the chair in front of him to stop from laughing at Tom’s stupidity.
“You better tell Y/n that you love her, the second we land.”
~
The tropical air filled your lungs the second you landed. The view was breathtaking and everything was just perfect - apart from the fact that you might had ruined all your chances with Tom.
Great way to set the mood.
You checked into the hotel. Unpacking a few things and washed the flight away with a shower. You threw your clothes into the closet with frustration as you thought of Tom. Your head wasn’t even where it should have been - in the acting. It was far away wondering how in the world could you have been so stupid to push Tom away.
‘Maybe if you had given it a chance. He wouldn’t have been so mad.’ You thought. But that thought was too painful.
You threw on a bathing suit and the first dress your hand landed on and went off to explore Hawaii on your one day ‘off’.
You walked through the hotel garden and found a nice spot on a bench under a few palm trees. You let out a small sigh when you sat down, letting the day flow away from your mind and finally taking a second to focus on the scenes you were filming tomorrow. You thought your peace was going to last until a voice brought you back to reality.
“Hey.” A British accent that was all way too familiar made your eyes open.
“Hey?” You forced a smile as he sat next to you. For a second, there was only the sound of birds chirping and the wind blowing in the palm leaves.
“I’m sorry.” He sighed and you turned your head with a quizzical look. “I shouldn't have ignored you yesterday- That was wrong of me sorry.” He shook his head.
“Is it my fault?” You looked into his eyes. “Because I rejected you so many times? I came to tell you how I really felt yesterday. I came to give you a chance and you pushed me away. I guess I know how you feel now." You let out a sad chuckle
“You- you did?” His eyes went wide.
“Kinda yeah” You played with your fingertips.
“I’m such an idiot.” He folded his eyes and sat back.
“You want me to back up that statement?” You smirked.
“Yeah, yeah no need to rub it in.” He let out a stiff chuckle before looking back at you. “I was more stupid than you think.”
“What did you do now?” All the anger and sadness you felt suddenly melted away when you met his eyes.
“I was looking for you to make a huge love speech and ask you to give me a chance but I overheard you rehearsing with Hardy and I didn’t hear the whole thing and thought he was asking you to be with him instead of me.” He ended his rambling with a sheepish grin and you couldn’t help but laugh.
“Tom he’s married.”
“I know” He whined.
“He has kids.”
“I know.”
“You’re such an idiot.” You shook your head with a smile.
“I know.” He looked at you with a small smile. “Forgive me?”
“Yes. I forgive your jealous ass.” You shook your head in disbelief. “Now can we stop making each other cry or scream?” You giggled. “And finally... freaking finally get this to go somewhere.” Tom nodded at your every word.
“Y/n?” You nodded when he called your name. Tom smirk as an idea flashed through his eyes. He got down on his two knees and placed his hands on either side of your hips, looking right into your eyes.
“Will you be my girlfriend?”
“Yes, Tom. I will be your girlfriend.” You chuckled before pressing a kiss to his lips - sparks flying at the contact. Your hand climbed up to Tom’s curls - Tom smiling into the kiss.
“You’re not going to stop it this time?” He chuckled in between kisses.
“Never again” You shook your head. “I’m all yours.”
~
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