#otgw is whatever you see in it and whatever you take away from it and don't you dare take that away from someone

[thestuffedalligator]

As we enter Over the Garden Wall season, remember: Friends don't let friends pigeonhole Over the Garden Wall as being about death and the afterlife and Dante's Inferno.

#over the garden wall #otgw #autumn #fall #obviously there are shades of death and memory and the grave in otgw #but i don't think that the unknown is the afterlife and i think that saying 'otgw is about the afterlife' is too reductive #otgw is about living in the space of myth and folklore and stories #otgw is about characters living in cycles they are unwilling or unable to escape from #otgw is about our relationship to our loved ones: brothers and daughters and dearly departed #otgw is - and i cannot emphasize this enough - about the importance of frogs #otgw is whatever you see in it and whatever you take away from it and don't you dare take that away from someone #10k

[moorwood]

Hi, I'm not sure how to word this in a way that doesn't sound a little rude so I'll just say up front that I'm trying to compare my experiences and figure stuff out. What does having alters and switching front feel like? How can you tell the difference between a switch and just a dissociation-moodswing-identity meltdown triple swing from your brain being a dick to you?

Okay, so. First and foremost I want to say that I’m sorry if this isn’t the answer you’re looking for, I’ve been there. I know just how frustrating it can be. But I will try to describe this the best I can.

Our system tends to go through cycles of activity. There can be days and weeks at a time where no one is fronting, and it sucks. Our communication isn’t the best either. Most of our time is spent blurry, as it’s usually referred to, where there’s still a detachment to the self and body but no clear identity in control. Some systems can summon a headmate to front, others can’t. We can if said headmate has specific (positive) fronting triggers, but most of the time it is a seemingly random process.

Because of this, having alters/headmates for us can feel like nothing and it can feel like everything. Sometimes you feel completely alone, but you’re aware that there’s something else there. Like something is watching you from the shadows, from behind the bushes. Some headmates have stronger presences than others, but their existence is just… a gut feeling.

Other times you feel like you’re in a room full of people with no way out. We don’t get multiple alters fronting at once most of the time, but when we do, it can feel crowded and overwhelming depending on how many. We’re usually aware that these things are happening entirely inside our head but depending on who it is or how deeply dissociated you are, what’s “inner” or “outer” world can be confusing.

For example, part of our innerworld is an OTGW-esque autumnal forest and we’ve gotten pretty familiar with how it looks and feels since we first discovered it. Someone from the forest fronted for the first time today and what our body was doing and seeing was completely foreign to them. Even if we know something as a whole, it’s not guaranteed that every alter will have the same knowledge and they may need to relearn things. When this happens, it feels like they’re aware of the knowledge, but actually being able to collect and process it is impossible. It’s just out of sight, hidden behind a metaphorical (or physical) door.

But! Not everyone is like that. Some headmates front for the first time and immediately know what’s going on. I’m not sure how to describe fronting since that too varies but if someone else is still conscious for it, it can feel like a body possession. We like people describing it as someone else taking over driving a car and you ending up in the passenger seat. Sometimes you still have your own stream of thought, sometimes you hear someone elses. Sometimes it gets blended.

Fronting can be an immediate switch-over, but it can also take hours. Headaches and confusion are common. Same goes for splitting/a new headmate forming, but that can take days. For a while it can feel like the metaphorical door, where their presence is noticeable but their identity is unclear or locked away. Most of our headmates are fictives (present as/identity with a fictional character) so sometimes you can have a Vibe or be presented with certain thoughts/mannerisms and clock them.

I guess it can be hard to distinguish things from other causes, but my advice is to take note of unusual thoughts, mannerisms, memories, feelings, etc. Not every headmate is going to be completely different from one another, but if something feels Different, look into it. Taking notes did us a lot of good when we were first figuring out our situation. Some things will be more obvious than others, do whatever feels right.

There’s a lot more we could say but we’ve rambled enough in this response. If you have alters, they will change and grow with you. The way things function inside your head may change too. Remember that. You’re not faking if something doesn’t line up the way it used to.

Not every part of being plural needs to be dramatic and profound. It can be as simple as hearing comments from someone who isnt you or just… not feeling alone inside your head. It can feel like your imagination, and that can cause a lot of doubt, but trust in yourself. Plurality can be determined by so many different things and there’s no right way to be multiple.

#ask box #my rambles #system shit #sorry if this is a bit of a mess it was written in sections by like three different people lol #feel free to dm or send more asks if you need anything else #i also want to add that plurality and identity crises go hand in hand we have changed our collective name and pronouns so many times #just this year

[ravensroleplays]

Doo dee doo, don't mind me, just posting one last drawing before the upcoming AHIT DLC...

Today on 'AU ideas I'm never actually going to do anything with'*: MUfia. Hey, I actually came up with a name for this one! That already puts it a step above my GF/SU/OTGW crossover AU!

Right so, anyway, once or twice I've toyed around with the idea of 'What if the Mafia Boss adopted Mustache Girl, the same way Snatcher adopted Hat Kid in my main AHIT AU?' Obviously, the main problem with this idea is that I couldn't see any...I guess PLAUSIBLE way for it to work, since, outside of the whole 'Hatty being raised by Snatcher and growing up in Subcon Forest' thing, my AU actually more or less follows the events of the original game pretty closely. Even if the Mafia Boss, for whatever reason, decided to take in the little street kid who spent her every waking hour trying to take the Mafia down, and later shoved him in a jar, I get the feeling that MU's response to an offer of adoption from the man who stole her home away and, quite possibly, killed all of her friends and loved ones, would be a bomb or a half-dozen to the fa...erm, jar.

But then one day, the thought just came to me: 'What if, for this hypothetical AU, I did the exact opposite of what I did for my main AU?' As in, what if unlike Snatcher, who just FOUND Hat Kid in his forest as a baby (after Moonjumper sent her there in a failed attempt to basically make her into a sacrificial lamb for him), and just kind of...took her home, and even started to become a better person by caring for her, what if in this one, the Mafia invaded MU's island while she was still a baby herself, and, in the midst of their invasion, the Mafia Boss just tore the little MU from her parents' arms before launching them, and the rest of their equally mustached kin, off to parts unknown? After all, what's to stop the MAFIA from stealing a baby????

So yeah, in this one, Mustache Girl actually grew up in the Mafia, being raised by the Mafia Boss, and groomed to be his heir and successor, all the while never knowing the truth about what he and his goons did to her island and people. Heck, maybe they could even lie to her, saying that her people were weak, or ‘bad’ somehow, and they ‘saved’ her from them? In any case, I get the feeling this MU would be even more of a foil for my Hat Kid...and, if she ever found out the truth, have even more reason to be jealous and resentful of her. Also, I’m just going to come out and admit it...this idea was partly inspired by @z-doodle‘s OC Mafia Girl. Hope you don’t mind me aping your idea a bit, mate.

Seriously though--the Mafia Boss having a daughter is a fine idea, but said daughter being the same little girl who, in canon, hates the Mafia more than anything?!?! Even if I never do anything else, ever, with this idea, the dramatic irony was just too good for me not to draw it at least once*.

**Disclaimer: Actually, I kind of like this idea a bit too much to toss it by the wayside completely? Maybe I’ll retool it for a future original story or something...

Reblogs>Likes

#my ahit au #mun's art #mustache girl ahit #ahit fanart #tw: murder mention

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Fic: Wayward Souls pt.2

Read Part 1 Here

Weeks later, Wirt didn’t feel any more at ease.  It was slow, but the gap between when fusion fighters revived and when they regained consciousness only grew until a handful of them simply wouldn’t wake up at all.  

Not that they were dead: It was more like a coma.  At first, people wondered if the Resurrect ‘Ems had somehow broken, saving the body while leaving the soul behind.  It was so severe that even Grim got involved.  However, further investigation revealed that the soul was still present, just... hard to reach.

It didn’t make sense.  Every fusion fighter’s soul was bound to the Resurrect ‘Ems via magical contract.  Wirt remembered having to sign one himself, how the foreign ‘ink’ seemingly burned his name into the paper and how it felt as though something tugged at his chest when he finished writing it.  It wasn’t the kind of thing anyone could break easily.  The problem was that that wasn’t impossible either.  For example, while the contracts made it more difficult, there was still a chance that beings like Demongo and his fusion could still steal souls.  Which meant that monster likely could as well...  

He still wasn’t sure whether or not everything about the Unknown was something his oxygen-deprived mind had made up, but he couldn’t shake away the memory of the soldier who knew the Beast’s song.  The timing was too perfect: It was too big of a coincidence.  And it ate away at his mind every day on the job.  If the Beast was somehow involved, then countless people were in danger.

None of them knew that though, not like he did.  Wirt had tried prodding other fusion fighters to see if any of them shared memories of a place similar to the Unknown before they regained consciousness, but hadn’t had any luck with their answers.  They seemed confused when asked, as if trying to recall something from a dream.

He really didn’t want to pry more than that, knowing it would only lead to trouble, but Wirt didn’t think he had a choice.  So, with a foreboding feeling clenching at his heart, he approached the cloaked skeleton inspecting the area’s Resurrect ‘Em.  

Normally, Wirt avoided every kind of supernatural being; he even shirked runs to Grim Gardens to keep from interacting with the Underworlders that worked there.  Having the Reaper himself come and inspect their Resurrect ‘Em--out of the worse ones--was a chance that shouldn’t be passed up.  He felt a lump form in his throat as eyeless sockets peered back at him after a tap on the shoulder.

“H-h-hi, uh...!  E-excuse me, Mr. Reaper?  Do I call you that...?” his voice cracked and he he cleared his throat, “I work here, and I might have an idea of what’s wrong--”

Those sockets narrowed.  He couldn’t stammer out his explanation before a boney hand waved him aside, “Not now, child!  Can’t ya see I’ve got me work cut out for me here?”

That alone was almost enough to make Wirt give up.  He knew Grim wasn’t being rude: He was just as frustrated as everyone else--if not more--about the recent events.  The real issue was that Grim didn’t have to even try to be terrifying to make the young man’s blood run cold. 

Ok! I’m not as used to the supernatural as I thought!

He tried to pull himself together, turning away for just a second to take a deep breath and work out his nerves.  He flexed his fingers, hoping that would quickly drain the anxious energy that made him want to wring his hands.  He couldn’t stay this way if he was going get the Underworlder to listen.  

You’re being stupid! Think of Pottsfield: Ignore the scythe and he’s not much different than those guys... You can do this: Lives are on the line.  

That was right... If what he knew was important and he kept it to himself, people could actually die.  He wasn’t a soldier, but he was a field aid: It was his job to save them.  Reminding himself of that once again gave Wirt the last bit of strength he needed. 

“It’s really important!” He turned back around, this time able to keep both his voice and expression steady.  

The firmness in his tone, that told the reaper he wasn’t going anywhere until he heard what he had to say, brought Grim’s unamused, doubtful gaze back onto him.

“Look, I’ll admit, I don’t know the first thing about souls or magic or... whatever kind of occult power you use to make those,” he pointed to the Resurrect ‘Em, “but I’ve helped take care of the people here since the war started.  I caught one of the soldiers singing something that I’ve only heard once, when I was close to death myself.

“Have you ever heard of the Beast?  Or the Unknown?  It was his song!  I know it!”

Grim didn’t have to answer.  His ‘eyes’ widened knowingly.  After his initial surprise, rather than speak, the reaper looked away and tapped his chin in thought.  

Only after a minute did Wirt hear him murmur under his breath, “...yes, I suppose dat could be it.  Dat parasite, if he’s breakin’ da rules now, of all times...”

“You know him?!” Wirt couldn’t hide his disbelief, but even he didn’t know whether he came more from the fact that Grim understood exactly what he had implied or that his theory had apparently been completely on-point. 

“Of course I do!  I reap souls: He’s one of da creatures dat takes dem,” Grim almost seemed offended that he even asked.  Nevertheless, the anger in his voice was directed at another, distant someone. “And I know de Unknown as well.  For most mortals, it’s a subconscious realm ya can only enter in dreams or at da brink of death.  However, if ya make it out, most of your memories of de place don’t typically come back wit ya.”  Here, he gave the field aid a curious glance, “If dey did, it’d probably be because you’ve already been exposed to supernatural forces.”

Considering that he’d lived what he considered to be a pretty normal life up until that fateful Halloween, that confused Wirt.  Rather than question it though, he let it slide to focus on the matter at hand.  “I didn’t think the Beast would still be around...” He didn’t know what happened after he left the Unknown and returned home with his brother, but he thought the Woodsman would somehow deal with him.  Looking back, what if he’d made a mistake, giving back the lantern and leaving the old man by himself? 

“He went quiet some time ago, but if he is the cause of dis, den we need to act as soon as possible.  We’ll gather a team.  I can open a portal to dat place, and you can search for the souls of the unconscious fusion fighters.”

Although he didn’t understand how that worked, Wirt nodded.  At least now they had some kind of plan.  Still, it took him a second longer to digest the full of the reaper’s words.  We... You...

His voice cracked again, nearly rising a whole octave, “...what?”

((Quick note, since I know some people who’ve watched OTGW might probably know the references to Dante’s Inferno and understand that the Unknown is supposed to be based on a kind of limbo/purgatory: I 100% agree for the show’s canon, but I wrote it as a place overlapping with the subconscious due to how the Unknown is presented in the comics.  In them, we not only have the context of Anna--the Woodsman’s daughter--being born in the Unknown and her family having an entire history there, but we also see Greg, his frog, Wirt, and even possibly Sarah there post-show on another series of adventures through dreams.  That considered, there may be more to the various inhabitants of the Unknown outside of just lost spirits and I wanted to leave that more open.))   

#my writing #fanfic #fanfiction #fusionfall #video games #congrats you survived the first test #but i have some unfortunate news #you're going back #bye!! :D #...please let me know if someone gets that reference

[smile-files]

melon’s comprehensive kinlist!

including name of character, source, image, short personality description, mbti, and then why i kin them! take your time to read, or don’t. i get it if you don’t want to scroll through an entire page just to psychoanalyze me lmao, have a good time

1. wirt (over the garden wall)

an angsty, socially awkward dweebus who nerds out over interior design and plays the clarinet. fears death. infp.

my first kin! for a month after rewatching otgw i desperately wanted to be him. to be like him. anything!! it eventually wore away but i still feel that urge sometimes - the urge to write r/im14andthisisdeep poetry and to distance one’s self from their siblings... and heck - his tape for sara is indeed just as awkward as he is but let me assure you that his poetry and clarinet are actually pretty cool. 9/10 i need to see him more. give me more otgw comics. ok thanks.

2. snufkin (moomins)

a philosophical vagabond of vague age. acts stoic all the time but can and will leave every social situation whether or not it’s humanly possible. infp.

after watching some 90s moomin (and later on moominvalley) i realized how much i liked him and how much i was like him; i soon daydreamed of myself, as snufkin, venting to someone. it made me very happy. i vibe with his general demeanor and ideals (minus his gripes about rules, i follow those by the book) and i love psychoanalyzing him. so fun. so fun.

3. arnold perlstein (the magic school bus)

overly-anxious jewish kid and certified expert on rocks and panicking. owns a pair of fire-proof pyjamas in a lovely shade of green. isfj.

you all saw this one coming. my early childhood lives in my mind rent free and such i can’t help but revisit arn and his character. i’ve always loved him (even in, and quite possibly especially in, the reboot) and i’ve always loved psychoanalyzing every single little thing he does (remember that one time he said he was traumatized? me too). i soon realized a lot of it was me projecting! so sue me. actually, sue miss frizzle. either one of them. i mean, if arnold really didn’t like the field trips he could’ve just filed a restraining order! ...just saying.

4. fluttershy (my little pony)

anxious pastel butterfly baby child. probably loves animals more than she loves herself. cries upon impact. isfj.

the pony i’d mentally point to and think “me”. i had like 10 fluttershy-related things growing up, like plushies or funko pops or that sdcc guardians of harmony thing. while not shy in the same manner, it was nice having a character i could relate to about so much! i cosplayed as her equestria girls form for my first comic con as well, so that’s pretty cool. in addition, me being a little lepidopterist means i was bound to love her. it was destiny~

5. lammy lamb (um jammer lammy)

socially anxious and generally anxious rock star who thinks literally everything is a guitar. has an emotional support girlfriend. infp.

man!! she embodies the feeling when you have to go to the eye doctor by yourself to get your glasses fixed or when you have to call someone over the phone... that sheer tension. the panic. the feeling of ‘i want to throw my entire being into the trash can’. but lammy has a bunch of friends to support her, so she’s cool. died by slipping on a banana peel! same, sister. and man would i like to shred on my ukulele now...

6. loser (bfb)

humble (screw bfb 21), supportive, well-loved cube dude who’s voice is like that of an angel. has an entire fanclub in his honor. enfj.

okay, no, i was never a cool kid or ‘popular’, really, but in school i was never bullied for whatever reason and was generally well-liked; i hung out with a squad of weirdos and yet the cool kids would often talk to me? and try to engage me?? despite my very apparent self-deprecation and awkwardness??? either way i feel like it’s such a blessing to me, that i have so many friends! i often feel like i don’t deserve it, but hey. it’s nice! and heck, back when i was on scratch i had a little fanclub myself :0

7. fan (inanimate insanity)

nerdy, friendly aspie boyo who subliminally vents via blogging. longs for stability in his life; was best friends with an egg. entp.

ever since i noted his aspergers-like behavior i became super attached to him - whether or not it was intentional, i found it nice having a character i can relate those feelings with. he’s really sweet and dorky and i love how he gets along with test tube, paintbrush, and lightbulb! it makes me really happy to see him whenever i do. it made me really sad when he was eliminated. what the heck. yeah i dunno i don’t kin him super strongly but i love him to bits.

8. spinel (steven universe the movie)

emotionally unstable clown girl who stood in a garden for thousands of years. patience of a saint. edge like an 11-year-old me. esfp.

uhh um uh totally wasn’t completely disturbed by how much i related to spinel after watching steven universe the movie... totally wasn’t reminded about how and why i hated middle school... totally didn’t rethink my life that day... that’s it. this is all i’m saying.

9. molly blyndeff (epithet erased)

innocent child who has a terrible father and a wonderful demeanor. teddy bear who needs a hug and a criminal as her new dad. infp.

epithet erased is adorable okay?? i knew molly was infp in the first few minutes... more precisely, i knew she was me. man!! i don’t relate directly to her angst but i still feel it. i can replicate her voice so accurately it’s scary. also, i coined a new thing -  ‘molly cake’! you have a chocolate cake, preferably with chocolate chips inside. use chocolate frosting and add little pastel star sprinkles! on top! my mom would make this cake for us anyway but then i realized it was literally just molly in cake form. and it’s just as sweet!

10. tommy coolatta (hlvrai)

a 30-something-year-old child who rocks a propeller hat. chose his last name off of a dunkin donuts menu despite the fact that he has a father. infp.

everyone loves tommy. he’s so sweet? and funny and loveable?? often times when i say something funny but bizarre, i just remember that tommy has said ‘soda helps you see faster’ and it makes me happy. if i’m going to be a weirdo i want to be the wholesome weirdo who loves soda and has a .png for a dog! also i legally have to kin tommy. i took a test for it (and i’m not complaining! i find it quite flattering).

11. twyla (monster high)

the daughter of the boogeyman; would very much like to boogey out of here, if you know what i mean. avoids people like the plague. infj.

seeing her role in the show and in the movies, i really love twyla? first of all, her voice is my new favorite thing. it’s like... gravelly? and soft? she’s the type of person who would very much like to disappear when in a crowd; thankfully, she literally can. i am drawn to any sarcastic, self-deprecating introvert who takes care of their bonkers extrovert friend (in this case howleen), as i often act as such myself. also the phrase ‘boogey sand’ will never leave my mind now :)

12. lapis lazuli (steven universe)

water gem who wants you to leave. cynical as all heck, sensitive as all hell. is there such thing as a gem therapist? just asking. infp.

in a similar way to twyla, i vibe with lapis’ sarcasm and wit as well as her emotional side. it can be kind of addicting, isolating one’s self. anywho, me and my sister used to do this routine of yelling up to each other this certain dialogue between lapis and peridot when peri was leaving for something (in which lapis replied to everything she said with dry ‘yeah’s); i would always do lapis’ part. i do reply a lot with ‘okay’ or ‘yeah’ or ‘cool’ to things people tell me, as i never really know what to say.

13. brad meltzer (xavier riddle and the secret museum)

shy jewish butterfly kid who absolutely hates time travel. attracted to people who know how to socialize like a normal human being. infp(?).

okay okay so... combine everything from arnold and everything from fluttershy and that’s basically what brad is to me. a jewish socially anxious nerd who loves butterflies and drawing. badabing badaboom, there i am. that’s it.

and boom! all of the kins i can think of, of course not including comfort characters like will byers from stranger things or isabelle from animal crossing. if you have any kins to suggest to me, i would love it! thank you for taking your time to read this, friend! have a fantastic day :)

#melonposting #extreme melonposting #kin #kins #kinlist #i will not tag every character here for the love of god #13. 13 is the number of the kins #good night folks :pensive:

[theinvisibledoodlewizard]

Eugene Appreciation Week Day 4: AU

To tell you the truth, I was kinda meh about this ( I got a bunch of stuff I need to get drawn) until I saw it was an excuse to draw Greg from OTGW as Flynn Rider, and Eugene from TTS as Greg! Ack! Cuteness! Aaaaa!

Greg: Hey there miss golden hair! You’re really pretty!

Rapunzel: Oh! Flynn Rider! Eugene, you know I always fall for Flynn Riders! He’s SO DREAMY! *pretends to faint in Greg’s arms*

Eugene: Sunshine! He’s six!

Rapunzel: Eugene! Don’t be mean! *whispers* I’m just going along because he’s so cute! Besides, it isn’t that bad.

Eugene: YOU’RE NOT THE ONE IN OVERALLS AND A TEAPOT!

Meanwhile...

Wirt: Greg! What are you doing?!?

Greg: Flirting with a princess?

Wirt: I know that, but why?

Greg: Cause she’s cute and I’m Flynn Rider. And that’s a ROCK FACT!

Wirt: oh man oh man oh man! Greg! You need to stop! You’re WAY too young for her! AND SHES A PRINCESS!

Rapunzel comes back over: Oh Flynn Rider! Take me away, so we may be together forever!

Greg: Oh boy! Bye Wirt! I’m gonna go lead a princess now!

Wirt: GREG!

Eugene: Rapunzel!

Greg and Rapunzel go over to Max. Greg can’t climb up cause he’s too short.

Rapunzel whispers: Eugene! Help him.

Eugene: A six year old is stealing my fiancé! And you want me to help him?!

Rapunzel death glares at Eugene.

Eugene: Fine, fine, whatever!

Eugene picks Greg up and sets him on Max’s back.

Greg: See Wirt! I knew I could get on this horse!

Eugene and Wirt: Oh, brother!

Rapunzel climbs on Max: Lead the way, my dashing Flynn Rider!

Greg: Ok! Bye Wirt! Bye, Mr. Goatee Guy! Ya!

Rapunzel and Greg ride for about ten minutes, then Greg turns around: Ms. Rapunzel?

Rapunzel: Yes Mr. Rider?

Greg: I think we should see other people.

Rapunzel: Oh?

Greg: Yeah. You’re a nice girl and all, but I want to keep my options open.

Rapunzel: I understand. If you ever change your mind though...

Greg: Thanks for understanding! Hey, maybe you should go out with Goatee Guy! He seemed nice!

Rapunzel: I’ll take that into consideration.

Wirt and Eugene see them riding back. As Rapunzel gets off, Eugene asks: What happened, Sunshine?

Rapunzel: I got rejected.

Eugene: What?

Rapunzel: He told me he wanted to keep his options open.

Eugene: He did WHAT!?! Why the little...

Rapunzel: Then he suggested that I should look into a “Mr. Goatee Guy”. That he’s nice. Do you know him?

Eugene calms down and grins sheepishly at Rapunzel.

Later as Rapunzel and Eugene are walking back into the castle, they see Greg run up holding Queen Arianna’s hand.

Greg: Hey Ms. Rapunzel! Hey Mr. Goatee Guy! I figured if it’s so easy to win over a princess, why not a queen? Come on Ms. Queen!

Queen Arianna: I’m coming, Mr. Handsome!

Rapunzel and Eugene look at each other then King Frederic walks by grumbling: It’s Mrs! The little brat. Taking my wife out on a date. Her going along with it! If he says “toots” one last time...

Wirt follows close behind and shrugs at Rapunzel and Eugene.

I don’t own anything but my art. Over the Corona Wall is @honeyxmonkey ‘s AU.

Here’s the other one I did.

#otgw #otgw greg #tts eugene #over the corona wall

[queen--kenobi]

Could we please have more Beast from OTGW? Perhaps the reader is in the woods? Maybe gets hurt?

Thank you nonnie! I hope this is something along the lines of what you’re thinking! I will say that this, uuuuuhhhh, got away from me.

People always said to never go into the woods, and to never ever do it in the middle of the night. When you were younger, you had always headed the advice. The woods were a dark and scary place during the day; you couldn’t imagine how much more dangerous and terrifying it would seem during the night. Of course, that was when you were younger, stupider. Now you could defend yourself if you needed to. You knew what to do in order to survive in a place like that. Hell, you’d survived this long on your own, hadn’t you? The woods would be nothing.

That thought continues to haunt you as you bandage the giant gash on your arm. The fabric was at least soft under your fingers. 

You weren’t so stupid that you would go into the dark woods without a jacket of some kind when it was this cold outside. It wasn’t full winter yet, but the threat lingered in the air. The chill was just beyond autumn cold, and more and more of the day was consumed by darkness. The jacket ended up being more useful than you initially thought, seeing as you were taking shreds from it to bandage up your arm. 

The gash was deep. At least, you assumed it was. It felt like it was. You had to use the light from the moon in order to see, and it was nowhere near being a full moon. If you had to guess, it was almost a new moon. Another night or two, and the moon would be completely gone. That was a small comfort, knowing that you had some moonlight. 

You nearly yelped when your fingernails accidentally drag across and dig slightly into the flesh at the edge of the wound. As it was, you let out a small whimper, biting down hard on your tongue in order to stop it from becoming a full-blown noise.Though the noise was fairly contained, you still felt the need to look around for several seconds and listen intently. You had no good way of knowing if your attacker had followed you. 

After several tense seconds? Minutes? You had no idea. 

After some time, you determined it was safe enough to start working on the bandage again. This time, you were extra careful, feeling gently for the damaged flesh so you didn’t repeat the same mistake. Grimly, you squared your jaw. You needed to focus on bandaging this up so you could get the hell out of here. Once you did that, you had to go to a doctor. Judging from the pain that had shot up your arm when your nail scraped it, and how the pain was acute and almost burning, it was a deep wound. Maybe even tore through some of the muscles in that arm. It wouldn’t surprise you; whatever it was that had gotten you had long claws or talons. 

Long and sharp claws. You were going to go with claws. Long and sharp claws and bright eyes. The brightest eyes you’d ever seen. Not in a romantic sense or a lively sense, but in a color sense. The eyes were almost entirely white. It was an iridescent white, an unnatural shine that wouldn’t have been out of place in a haunted attraction. Bright, burning white. No other colors in it. 

Well, for a moment, when you had been knocked to the ground, you swear the eyes began to change from the eerie white into a kaleidoscope of colors. Purple and green and black and blue all swimming around where the thing’s eyes should be. It was almost as unsettling as the pure white eyes. Almost being the key word. 

You’re almost finished wrapping one scrap of fabric around your arm when you hear a noise. You stop, freezing completely. Your heart began beating in your chest, while all of your muscles tensed, body ready to launch yourself into a run at any given notice. The bark of the tree you were against dug painfully into your back, and the tops of your shoulders nearly touched your ears. The beating of your heart shifted into a pounding rhythm.

Wait...

Where you...

Was that...?

Why were you hearing something almost operatic? 

Who the hell goes around in the dark woods at night singing something from... Fuck, was that from Faust? You could swear you heard the name, and the tone seemed to fit. It was so dark and foreboding. That, and it felt as if a choir should follow it. A choir of devils, most likely, but a choir nonetheless.

At first, you had been frozen out of fear, but now, you were captivated by the music. Hesitantly, your shoulders drop down. The moon must have been behind some clouds because, suddenly, some of the spaces in between the trees had been lit up by the pale, waning light. You see something dark yet shiny littering the ground. If it were any other circumstances, you would mockingly called them jewels. You knew they weren’t, though. The trail of “jewels” end right at your feet. Your stomach leaps into your throat. The damage done to your arm was a lot greater than you thought. The pool of blood by your feet was a testament to that. The fabric around your ripped bicep was almost the same shade of darkness as the trail leading to you. 

You resisted the urge to laugh.

No wonder you were hearing opera music! You had to be going delirious from blood loss. That was the only logical explanation as to what was happening. You grab the rest of your ruined jacket and begin wrapping more of it around your shredded muscles. You wrap as tightly as you can. If you were going to get out of these woods, you needed to be conscious. Something told you that if you passed out while still trapped in the thick forest, you wouldn’t be found in time.

You quickly turn all of your attention to stopping the bleeding. The sooner you stopped the bleeding, or got it to a manageable level, the sooner you could get out of these damned woods. The sooner you got out of these damn woods, the sooner you could go home and forget about this night. Forget about anything that ever happened in these goddamn woods.

The jacket dropped from your hand, and your eyes widened.

You’d been too preoccupied to notice the singing getting louder, to notice the air become even chillier, to notice the white, almost lummiscient, eyes coming closer. You didn’t notice until they were almost upon you.

The moonlight doesn’t hit the owner of the eyes. The owner who looks like a man except for the eyes and antlers. The antlers spread outward from his head, forming a pattern that blended in with the gnarled branches of the trees behind him. The shadows seem darker where he stands, as if his very presence made them thicker. 

“Is something wrong?” His voice is soothing and almost melodic as his singing. His tone is gentle and caring, but you know better. You can feel the edge of amusement underneath it. He knows exactly what happened and what’s wrong, but he wants you to tell him. He wants to know what brought you here and how you think you’ll escape. He wants you to tell him these things even though he already knows what’s going to happen. He’s known how this sequence of events was going to go the minute you stepped foot into the dark forest.

Hell, if your gut is right, he knew what drew you to the woods in the first place.

Your lips are suddenly dry, and you run your tongue along them in search of relief. You don’t want to tell him, don’t want to play into this stupid, sadistic game, but... You feel like you have to, as if you have no choice in the matter.

“Accident.” You find your voice. It’s not necessarily a lie, either. You did stumble onto the creature that had the same eyes as this man by accident. A deep, amused chuckle comes from the man. 

“It must have been quite an accident.” He moves closer to you, and you find yourself backing up even further into the tree. You’re sure the bark has left red welts on your back. 

“It was.” Your eyes dart nervously from side to side. 

“Would you like me to fix the results of your... unfortunate accident?” He asks, carefully. It’s phrased in such a way that you instantly become suspicious.

“Oh, and what do I have to do in return? I’m not giving you my soul.”

Another amused noise, although it’s closer to a full-blown laugh.

“Clever. But that’s not what I require. I have a former friend who stole something from me. Something very dear to me. He won’t give it back no matter how much I’ve tried. You might have better luck.”

“And what is it?”

“A lantern.” You blink. That was surprising. How hard could it be to get the lantern back, though? All you really had to do was come up with some excuse for needing a light with you, and it wasn’t like that was going to be hard to do.

“Yaeh, sure.” You find yourself saying. “I can do that.”

“Good. I knew I could count on you.” A sharp pain, an unbearable one, rips along your arm. You scream, clutching at the place of torn flesh. It hurt! It felt as if someone was sewing your flesh and muscle and bones back together, and you wanted to cry or vomit. It was the most intense pain you had ever felt in your life.

It takes you a moment to register that your wound is gone. You don’t feel anything under your hand. You rip the makeshift bandage off your arm and feel the skin. It’s smooth, smoother than it’s ever been in its life. You look up at the owner of the eyes.

“Thank you.” You move to your feet. He gestures towards your left, a clear indication of what direction to start.

“Do uphold your end of the deal.” He tells you. You nod. On shaky footsteps, you head the direction he indicated.

“Your soul.” You hear him say when he’s almost out of earshot. “Why would I need what I already have?”

#the beast x reader #reader insert #Over the garden wall reader insert #blood mention #you bet ur fucking ass the beast meant for you to hear that last bit

[snellyboi]

Psst, hey, you! Want a Steven Universe hot take?

Words: Too damn many Summary: It’s a Steven Universe hot take about hurting connie, and how it ties into the show, the original Steven Universe, the lack of filler, and Steak Dinners. Warnings: Longe boi, a bit of a text wall but I do use paragraphs so it’s not awful I guess? A lot of talks about filler and stuff at the beginning.

ALSO I SHOULD POINT OUT this isn’t, like, some sort of SU critical circa 2017 post. I have qualms with the show, which are discussed, but overall, I think it’s pretty good stuff. Please be aware of that. I’m not gonna say it’s the worst thing on the planet because it’s not. 

UNDER THE CUT:

Before we get into the meat of the conversation, I need to tell you where I’m coming from. 

I have...strange feelings about Steven Universe.

It came out when I was starting High School, when I was bingeing cartoons like nobody’s business because peer pressure for years had made me repulse them. I didn’t care much about the deeper meanings of the show at the time, if I wanted to do deeper meanings I could go back and watch ATLA or those Rebecca Sugar episodes of Adventure Time, or OTGW. This was a bunch of magic space rocks fighting other magic space rocks! I was SO down!

Near the middle, though, and closer to the end, I guess I got a little...bored with it? I dunno what it was; well, I do now, but at the time I had no clue. it just seemed...a little over the top. I guess I had signed up for something like early Adventure Time, or the early parts of any given ATLA season. It became more of a drama than anything else, like a hundred Zuko and Iroh moments rolled into one, emotional punch after emotional punch.  

This isn’t the most sound assessment, no, and current me would be...a little annoyed at best if a show started doing this today. Sure, one could make the argument that I sound super hypocritical in retrospect, as I’m a huge fan of She-Ra and Infinity Train, but for every ‘Mermysteries’ in She-Ra there’s a ‘Roll With It’, and Infinity Train’s seasons are 5 nights long, perfect for punch after punch, but on Steven Universe? For every ‘Mirror Gem’, there was a...’Gem Harvest’. Which, sure, it was alright, but c’mon, calling an episode where we meet an entirely new character, even if only for a moment, filler, is a bit of a stretch. Filler is like ‘Always BMO Closing’ or something. And that hits the bone of the weird part here, does Steven Universe even have filler?

The whole 'no true filler’ idea is one of those things that sounds great on a show, but falls flat, because when people complain about filler, it’s complaining about bad filler, not the presence of it in general. If I get a steak and fries, and the fries are bad, I’m not complaining because they’re fries, I’m complaining because they’re bad fries. She-Ra is a good porterhouse with great fries. Infinity Train and OTGW are filet mignon with lobster tail, not really filler, but perfect in a way. Near the end, and really, for me, all the way through, Steven Universe felt more like a strip steak with no sides, just a little bit of A1. 

Isn’t this post about Connie, SUF, and how that all works? 

Yes, it is. We’re getting there. 

Steven Universe Future has been all emotional roller coasters the whole way through, seemingly. I’ll be honest, I’m not as into it as I was into Steven Universe, for a few reasons. Mostly, it expands on that no filler problem, big time. Nothing feels like it can be out of place, there’s even an episode titled the ‘Very Special Episode’, a slang term used in TV to talk about stuff like stranger danger specials, or the Golden Girls tackling the issue of gay marriage, etc. With the tense build of Steven’s mental health issues, I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. Whether I like it or not, it’s doing what it needs to do, and I’ll acknowledge that it does exactly what it sets out to accomplish. 

So in Steven Universe, the main conflict is Steven and his past, and trying to convince people that no matter who someone is, they can be redeemed. It’s not a space war epic like I thought it would be (I used to be angry about that, but, just like the show said, people change, and now I have different qualms with it) but it does really well with that. So what is the conflict in SUF?

Steven has lost his raison d’etre. 

He’s going through that most existential of crises; “I’m at the top of the mountain, now what?” 

NOW WE FINALLY GET TO THE HOT TAKE!

The reason I brought up any of what I just did is to link it back to this heinous, outright stupid idea that Steven would just, like, I dunno, choke slam Connie or whatever you sick monsters wanna see. 

All of this No Filler, Everything is important stuff told us a lot about the characters. After all, it’s hard not to have character development in a show environment like that. Steven was shown as someone who genuinely cared, a lot, about everyone around him. He almost over-empathizes, to the point where he’s able to see the good in a bunch of arguably fascist space rocks voiced by former broadway divas. As much as I dislike the show for only ever being weighty and never having any ‘true filler’ or whatever, the reason it did that makes stylistic sense; Steven has no filler in his life. He’s way too empathetic. He cried when he found out that Snakes don’t have arms, for christ’s sake!

As annoying as it felt watching it, it’s an unfortunate reality that some people are forced to live their lives that way, empathizing with anyone and everyone they meet, and it hurts, and when you fix all the problems people had, but they suddenly leave? 

That fucking hurts. And that’s how I think we ended up here. 

That’s also why I think he’s not gonna hit Connie. At least, not purposefully. 

Steven has pretty openly expressed feelings for Connie before, and while we haven’t seen a romance line yet, it’s pretty obvious it’s slated to at some point. 

Now, if Steven can empathize with Space Stalin™, he can empathize with a girl he’s had a crush on for years at this point for going away to seek higher education. Sure, these pink outbursts are getting to him, as recent leaks may have shown, but I doubt that hurting Connie would crop up. It goes against a lot of the show’s themes of community and healing. But most of all? 

It’s just crappy writing. 

The show has had its fair share of clunkers in my opinion, as every show longer than 2 seasons is bound to have. Remember that episode where Nanefua runs for mayor? Or how about the one with Lars and the Off Color gems where they’re there for a grand total, of, like...the opening? 

None of those were terrible episodes though, just...forgettable. It’s not as if Steven just pulls out a chain gun and starts blasting in one of them. That would be stupid, and garbage, and a copout to generate ratings. Punching Connie would be like killing Brian on Family Guy; no weight, just shock. Flash in the pan. A bomb going off with no warning, no suspense. A jump scare. 

And that’s why I talked about the whole No Filler thing, and how it annoys me to no end, but how it’s necessary and worth while!

No one would ever have spent this whole time building up Steven as an over empathizer with an Atlas personality just to have him punch someone whose been his love interest since 2013. 

We would never spend an entire show cycle building someone up as caring too much about the people around him for his fatal flaw to be punching his girlfriend. The no filler thing was a noble, brave idea, that in my opinion fell over. But damn, did it do great things for the characters on the show, even if it sacrificed pacing. 

It should come as no surprise by now that the no filler thing, to me, is a bit of a stretch. Of course there was filler; sure, lore gets expanded, but when it’s not expanded well it just feels like the writers aren’t quite sure what to do (hmm, maybe they’d be better at filler if they’d written some beforehand...). 

But it portrayed the lead amazingly well, giving us a world through his eyes, and set up an amazing story about someone who cared too much about a world that was starting to care less and less about him. Setting us up for an amazing show, whether I want to watch it that often, or not. 

Let’s face it, it may not be my favorite meal, but sometimes you just can’t beat a strip steak with a little bit of A1.

#steven universe #suf #steven universe future #connie maheswaran

[destiny-smasher]

I just keep thinking about the bay or bae choice but like in the context of the choice the beast gives Wirt at the end of over the garden wall. Like the tornado asking to choose between chloe and Arcadia bay and Max just responding with, "that's dumb" and choosing something else that saves everyone lmao

Haha, I’ve never drawn that comparison but that’s amusing. OTGW is one of my favorite stories in general at this point, though. Thinking on all of this led to an informal essay that helps me ground myself in my own mistakes with other fics I’ve worked on, All Wounds’ planning stages, and how I’m approaching its impending ending.

This one’s a bit of a doozie.

(I will be referencing elements of the endings to Over the Garden Wall, Life is Strange, Steins;Gate, and Oxenfree, in case you’re worried about knowing things you don’t yet want to know)

OTGW and LIS are very different stories dealing with very different themes, and OTGW can get away with a blunt and brusque resolution like that because it’s a dark comedy that’s in many ways subverting or teasing a lot of melodramatic tropes. LIS often introduces tropes and then peels back a layer and asks us to look deeper, which is a whole other sort of deal.

The problem, though, is that its own finale and final climax kind of doesn’t hold up, because it hinges upon a choice that really makes no sense – and a moral-oriented choice, at that, which makes it even harder to swallow.

With Wirt and the Beast, there’s a physical character within the world to confront. To call out. To vanquish or scare off or outsmart. Greg’s disposition can be broken apart and he can be released. The entire story is about mystery and, well

OTGW makes no allusions that its story isn’t supposed to quite make sense, it embraces its mystery, and it subverts things by making ‘reality’ a hidden element until the final act.

The story makes it pretty obvious that this world isn’t supposed to make much sense, too, which leads us to not really question things when it doesn’t.

Wirt is the elder brother, he’s supposed to set an example, he’s supposed to look out for his sibling, and he fails.

And while there’s a lot of darkness to this story, it is, ultimately, a comedy, first and foremost, and most resolutions with the various antagonists are resolved with some kind of clever or amusing tactic. It doesn’t want us to take it too seriously, and it’s often making fun of tropes in dramatic fantasy stories.

What’s happening with Max, Chloe, and the tornado isn’t so physical as being lost, as confronting magical beasts. It’s abstract and unexplained, yet the story wants us to take it seriously and tries (weakly) to ‘explain’ things. This falls short because there aren’t really any concrete, established rules, and yet we’re supposed to buy into everything being Max’s fault when we don’t even know how it’s her fault. This is tricky because within the context of the narrative, it makes the player assume the position and perspective the creators wanted:

Max Caulfield is supposed to choose between the greater good, or what she desires as an individual.

The premise of that choice is great, and it’s what the entire game has been foreshadowing and leading up to. The execution is just very iffy to me because of the dodgy attempt at explanation…without explaining anything. ‘Chaos Theory’ literally does not work the way the game alludes to it. The writers know none of this makes sense, which is why in the finale they unfortunately go as bluntly as to make Chloe say:

Pretty blunt cop-op that even made me squirm on my first playthrough. Lazy writing that was intentionally planted right before the finale scene to remind us as the audience to just…”ya know, just forget getting a proper explanation OK? We ain’t got one, so just stop waiting for it, all right?” It would’ve been better to just not draw attention in the first place. Not have Warren toss ‘chaos theory’ inaccurately, not have Max keep reminding us of how this is all ‘her fault’ somehow, maybe instead focus on how/why letting Chloe die would undo this.

In fact, the only reason we as the audience are expected to believe the Storm is her fault is because Max…says it is?

Why does Max feel this way? How do we know she’s not just internalizing things? There’s not really much evidence as to why random snow is falling, why the eclipse or the two moons happen, why the Storm happens…yet we’re told, over and over, how this is Max’s doing…somehow. And that wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the final climax didn’t hinge upon this nonsensical phenomenon. Plus, how can we be expected to assume Max is able to intuit her own powers properly, when time and again she’s illustrated that she doesn’t understand how they work? This element is sometimes played up for effective character growth, but in the finale it just works against things. We’re only supposed to believe Max comprehends her own abilities when it’s convenient to move the plot along?

It doesn’t even really add up that Max going back and letting Chloe get shot would prevent the Storm, either. That ending bothers me more than the other one because it makes the entire story basically mean nothing. Max has endured all of this psycho shit and no one else can understand it, no one else can get what she’s been through, because it hasn’t happened for anyone but her.

“Remembering something that no oneelse can is a painful thing. You can’t talk to anyone about it. Noone will understand you. You’ll be alone.”~ Okabe Rintaro; Steins;Gate

And what did Max do to deserve this? The cause of her powers is never explained, and thus it ends up just being a needless tragedy without any real purpose or cause. Was she supposed to learn to “let go” of Chloe? That’s a popular feeling, and I do love this concept of ‘learning to let go’ in other stories (and it’s one of the most common themes I write about) – except she’d already let go of Chloe before the story even started, having lost touch with her for five years. Why shove Chloe back into her life, only to rip her away again with none of it having technically happened?

Steins;Gate and Oxenfree tackle time travel and its consequences in a way that’s more rewarding, IMO.

With the prior, you have the protagonist making choices beyond his understanding, slipping deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole, and needing to claw his way out, one step at a time; only to realize by the end that he’s wound up back with the same problem he had at the start (much like Max trying to save Chloe for so long, only to remember the Storm at the end).

Eventually, this culminates in Okabe needing to be clever, and outsmart himself, after having grown and matured through enduring the insanity of time travel. The story suffers from a lot of characters who are kind of one-dimensional anime tropes but at least it manifests chaos theory and time travel into a plot that’s rewarding. It’s a story about a character facing consequences for foolhardy choices and needing to make things right, coming out the other end a better person for it.

“Keep the past,for all intents and purposes, where it is.”~Okabe

With Oxenfree, it’s a different genre, and so it ends up being more of a thriller/ghost story with time travel looped around it, but even this story boils down to these core concepts in my mind: don’t fuck with things you don’t understand, appreciate the life you have and think before you act.

“Whatever. I’m sure it’ll be fun. It’s something to do. Right?”~ Alex

Alex ends up in her situation out of boredom, essentially. Is that fair? No, it isn’t. But the story doesn’t hide this, and Alex herself sometimes (depending on the version of herself) vents her frustration at how unfair her situation is. And yet, all the same, it’s a Pandora’s Box she did open, a choice she did make, due to her own aimless meandering and indecision – a desire to just do something over not doing nothing, and even if that led to bad things, it’s a much more interesting setup than just her being dropped into things.

Enough of an explanation is provided (and even more details if you are observant and explore!) to convey to the player, ‘Alex done fucked around with shit beyond her comprehension, and that’s not good.’ This isn’t to say that Alex deserves to be dealing with what happens in the game. Max Caulfield doesn’t deserve what happens to her, either. But Alex is still an active participant in these supernatural things that are happening, in multiple ways. There is an explanation for why she ends up in her situation, whereas for Max there is none. There is an external force outside of Alex’s control, working against her, with a reasonable and logical motive, if a selfish execution. There is an explanation.

Even if that explanation equates to “Well, she didn’t know what she was getting into” it still gives meaning to the ending, because she at least understood how she ended up where she did, even if it was unfair. This makes her choice(s) at the end more rewarding, because we have some idea of what she’s been dealt, and when you replay the game from the beginning, everything still makes sense and adds up within its own world, and you can see, plainly, how Alex got herself in a bad way, and influence her decision in how to deal with it.

With Steins;Gate, when you go back to the start, everything still makes sense, and it’s already obvious before you get to the ending in the first place why and how Okabe ended up in a bad way.

With Max, it’s sort of making stuff up as it goes (which is not always bad!) but when you get to the end and you start over, it’s like…you’re still confused. Why does this all happen? Why is it Max’s fault? What did she really do that triggered this situation, and how does it make sense? Why is she seeing visions of a Storm that she supposedly caused by mucking with time before she’s even made the accidental and inadvertent act of Rewinding in the first place?

If her vision in the very first scene of the game was supposed to be a warning, how the fuck was she supposed to heed it? It had no context, it made no sense.

Was it even possible for her to not have chosen to Rewind in the bathroom if the vision of the Storm happening was already a thing before that opportunity even presented itself to her?

Hell, by the time she even realizes it was a vision of the future, she doesn’t really have an opportunity to try warning anyone about it, because she’s too wrapped up in everything else. She has no way out of this situation without sustaining trauma and pain that she didn’t deserve or ask for, without any defined reason, opposing entity, or purpose. It’s unfulfilling.

Yes, life is indeed strange and sometimes things happen without an explanation, and that is fine. But it’s not so fine when the entire story’s conclusion is hinging upon a situation oriented around a choice (a morality skewed choice) that has no explanation and makes no sense. This leads to the audience becoming frustrated the more they dwell on it, because a glaring lack of explanation naturally leads the human mind to question things further and further, exposing more and more cracks and fallacies. But, provide enough of an explanation to the audience, and they’re much more willing to suspend disbelief and go along with it.

Wirt has to accept a situation that he and his brother mutually got themselves stuck in, and while there isn’t an explanation for how they ended up in The Unknown, the story bluntly tells us at the start that it’s…The Unknown, a mysterious place that doesn’t make sense. Right from the start. It’s a story about two brothers who got lost in a magical land, who are too young to really know themselves too well, and no real clear motivation at the outset.

The story’s climax does not at all hinge upon how they ended up there, or the nature of this place, but rather, how they’re going to get out. It’s all about being lost, and finding your way back home by never giving up on yourself or those you’re connected to.

By the story’s end, we’ve seen both brothers rise up to help save each other, be clever and outsmart fantastical creatures in their own ways, and in general realize that they want to get back home, that they don’t want to remain lost.

They act on that desire accordingly and are able to not completely lose themselves.

Okabe Rintaro has to accept his situation he got himself into, understanding how and why he ended up there, and knowing it’s kind of his fault, primarily (though Kurisu certainly works toward this bad decision, too, if out of curiosity more than anything). The story has a climax where Okabe must accept responsibility for what he’s done and make things right again by using his mind, and using his heart to stay vigilant and determined in the face of insanity. Along the way, he’s forced to confront that he focuses far too much on trying to build a false persona born from childish desires, rather than just…being himself. He’s forced to face that he’s been acting immature toward those around him and needs to grow up.

By the story’s end, we’ve seen Okabe realize how foolish he’s acted, the weight of choices on others, and he realizes his motivation is to set things back to the way they were, because the way they were was perfectly fine and he should’ve appreciated them in the first place.

Okabe is able to act on these realizations and desires accordingly, and is able to not lose himself – or those around him.

Alex has to accept her situation that she got herself into, understanding how and why she ended up there, even if it’s unfair, and knowing that the force at work actually has legitimate motive to be acting selfishly. The story has a climax where Alex confronts this external force that she’s known about for some time, and must simultaneously choose how to react to it while accepting her own part in opening such a can of cosmic worms.

Alex’s situation is more tragic – she arguably has no way out of her mess, but she can perhaps prevent someone else from suffering her fate, which she somewhat brought upon herself (if unintentionally).

She acts on her knowledge of what happened in the past to try to change things, both past and present; she tries to assist other versions of herself, her family, or just the friends she was with in the first place. She confronts her own part in things, accepts responsibility to try and fix them, and maybe, under the right circumstances, leave is possible, if only for another version of herself.

In so doing, Alex’s story highlights a fascinating element of being a human being through its tragedy – humans have the ability of foresight. They have the ability to leave knowledge behind for those who come after them.

Max, meanwhile, has to accept a situation that was pushed upon her without her understanding much of anything, and it’s unfair and arguably not even her fault (and if it is her fault, it was unknowingly and accidentally caused).The story has a climax where Max is forced to choose to give up someone she lost and found again, or give up the abstract “greater good” despite not understanding how or why this is even her responsibility in the first place. And neither choice leads to something inherently good, which can be a great device if the main character actively got themselves into a bad situation. But Max didn’t, she had a bad situation forced upon her, with no motive of her own, no motive of some external force, no logical lesson to learn, and thus no logical meaning to take away from it.

To make matters worse? Max’s entire driving force in the story is, at its core, protecting the women around her. Chloe, of course, but also Rachel, Kate, even Victoria, and other side characters who…had potential for deeper side stories, but they ran out of time/resources to flesh them out. This is such a great theme.

But –

This core value and character trait of Max’s – trying to fix things, trying to help others, trying to protect them – is given no final resolution, no climactic test, no illustration of value or even a proper examination of its double-edged aspects (though the Nightmare does certainly touch on this). This power, this core element of her character, is betrayed by an ending that forces her to accept that she can’t protect or save anyone, not really, and that it’s somehow all her fault when she didn’t do anything to actively bring this all about.

This is unsatisfying, to say the least.

It is nice for Chloe to be pushing at the end, here, to be trying to tell Max how awesome she is for trying to do good, and of course for saving her. That’s great – but even that gets a bit watered down by Chloe’s need to keep trying to insist that this was all ‘supposed to happen’ if the endgame is that she wants Max to undo all of it. There’s a lot of weird, forced writing right before Max’s nightmare, on the beach, where it’s like the writers just had no planned explanation of things so they tried to have the protagonists make up their own half-assed explanation. That’s cute for their characters, I guess, but unsatisfying as the moments leading to the climax of the narrative.

Let me be clear about something re: All Wounds: Other Max does not symbolize my own beliefs. She is a manifestation of Max’s anger at how unfair her situation is.

She also symbolizes Max Caulfield’s own self-projected fears, worries, and doubts, which have been propagated by an unfair situation that doesn’t really make much sense.

So how does she make sense of it? She blames herself, which is what human beings sometimes do when people around them get hurt without explanation.

Max and Chloe’s story could have culminated in a meaningful and rewarding lesson or theme regarding the tough reality of death and how we have to let go of people we love sometimes in order to move on. And for people who play LiS once and are done with it, that might still stick with them. But because things don’t add up, this invites more dedicated fans to dwell on how they don’t add up, and this leads to frustration. It’s good to present your protag with a situation that isn’t fair to them, but it’s not so good when they had no part in its creation, were not at fault, and have no way out of the situation. Nonsensical tragedy is a real thing, but a story is an intentionally constructed device. If you don’t take care and you treat your story as disposable, the people who really get attached will end up annoyed and pick apart at your story’s flaws, because we want stories that stand up, that endure, and if you’re building a temporary story without that foresight, it’ll fall apart quicker than you might like.

Max’s story does allude a lot to an idea of “myself vs the greater good” or perhaps “how I view myself vs how the world views me” and these are excellent themes for a young adult narrative. It’s a core aspect of adolescence, but the story doesn’t really add up to something that delivers on this message in a meaningful way, but one that is cheap and robs the protagonist of actual power in their situation.

If the story doesn’t make sense, it makes it harder for the audience to comprehend what the message was.

When I dwell on Life is Strange and why I love it, I am not dwelling on the ending, because it doesn’t add up and doesn’t really deliver on a concrete theme or message for me. I instead dwell on things that happen before The Storm, before Episode 5 (because, frankly, Jefferson’s motives and ham-fisted monologuing don’t quite add up with the character presented in eps 1-4, either), because LiS offered up many interesting and meaningful themes about dealing with real life problems and understanding real life people. Its strengths are not in its time travel plotline, at all, but in its humane and rounded treatment of its characters, giving them reasonable flaws and strengths.

Another pro that’s…also a con, actually, is how it’s a time travel-themed story that is very much about the protagonist not having any power at all. What little we can decipher about Max’s powers are more to do with what she can’t do, rather than what she can do, and this again culminates in an ending where she realizes she can’t do much of anything to resolve things. This was foreshadowed very well, and it creates a theme of “I can change things – but not really,” and it’s a nice contrast to other time travels stories that are about “I can change things – but I shouldn’t.” But, it results in a weaker endgame because Max didn’t do anything to put herself in this mess in the first place, plus the story is literally about her not having power to fix or change or protect anyone/anything, which…just isn’t rewarding or satisfying, is it?

Thus, the climax is disappointing, and that can lead to bitter feelings and a sense of “Well, what was the fucking point of all this, then?” And I see a lot of LiS fans experiencing this. It’s honestly my biggest issue with the ending(s) of Life is Strange, because there’s not…really a defined purpose or point. And copping out with ‘well life is strange and weird stuff happens and it doesn’t always make sense’ is a much easier pill to swallow when it doesn’t involve magical tornadoes appearing out of literally nowhere because of reasons.

[art by sketchingsands]

That isn’t life, that’s fantasy, and that’s OK! But you need to have it culminate in something rewarding, something satisfying, or something with meaning and purpose. Fantasy is fun because of how it can rebuild reality by creating alternate rules – and seeing how those alternate rules play out, or are bent or broken themselves, and how that creates a type of character development that can’t exist in reality is, really, what makes fantasy stories rewarding, IMO. Fantasy is interesting to us as humans because it’s about seeing characters do things we can’t do – but so much of Max’s story is about what she can’t do, which makes sense for a character who’s full of themselves and needs to have their ego knocked down a peg, but not much for a girl dealing with self-esteem issues and self-doubt. When Max actually finds out she can do something new, something useful and amazing, she’s almost immediately brought down by limitations, and her powers just make things worse. While this is a theme of time travel, pretty consistently, Max never asked to be put in this position, unlike most time travelers.

No matter how much you try to explain to me, “It’s about how Max has to let Chloe go” I’m always going to counter with, “Why does she have to let Chloe go in the first place?” (even apart from the unsettling context of queer romances not surviving mass media stories) Seriously. Why does Max need to let Chloe go? Because Chloe makes self-destructive choices that can hurt those around her? That’s kind of the only potential reason I can think of, but the story doesn’t really develop this concept enough for it to seem to be the intent. And Max has no reason to let go of Chloe the first time she encounters ‘modern’ Chloe in the bathroom. She doesn’t even know who that girl is.

For me, it’s about the journey more than the destination (which is why I still love Mass Effect even if the ending was dumb), but if you’re going to make such a big fuss of your destination, have it make sense, at least. This is usually a big deal in time travel stories – you create a loop, or you break the loop. Many time travel stories do this, and typically, there’s some kind of message there. And while I definitely can feel and relate with Ashly and Hannah’s feelings on the ‘Sacrifice Chloe’ Ending creating a powerful reminder of losing people you love, Max is not losing Chloe in a realistic way but a fantastical one, which, without an explanation or a purpose, really drains a lot of the power from it. If Max was supposed to let Chloe go in the first place, we needed some kind of context as to why. She didn’t even recognize Chloe in the very scene where she’s expected to ‘let her go.’ She only finds value in her relationship with Chloe because she chose to save someone she didn’t even recognize at first, supposedly acting in a way she ‘wasn’t supposed to,’ per this theme of ‘you need to let her go.’ If Max had ‘done what she was supposed to’ and let go of Chloe in the first place, she’d have no emotional investment, no reason to do so. But because she tried to save someone, tried to do a good thing, she developed an emotional investment that was punished but without any reason why.

ie it all doesn’t add up and doesn’t make sense, and that’s frustrating.

And perhaps, in the end, the entire point was to make the audience question things. Question themselves, question what matters to them, and why. And that’s great, and something choice-based games really have a way to facilitate. But if you don’t have a defined theme or message, you don’t have a climax that makes sense, it’s basically as if you’re being a bit lazy and asking the audience to define these things for you, when you are the storybuilder, and it is your responsibility to at least construct a frame to support those interpretations, those questions. Otherwise, again – what was the point?

When a protagonist (and thus the audience) understands how things led to a climax, it creates a much more rewarding conflict resolution, even if that resolution isn’t happy – because a character can’t make effective choices without understanding what position they’re in. This isn’t to say that the other three stories cited are inherently better than Life is Strange. But I would argue all of them have much more rewarding climaxes, because rather than trying to get a cheap tug at heartstrings, they make enough sense for the protag to be equipped enough to make a proper choice, and thus make said choice much more meaningful and valuable – and their climaxes recontextualize the entire rest of the story and add extra meaning, rather than confusion.

The human mind is hardwired to make sense of things. When it can’t, it tries to figure them out – failing that, it gets frustrated.

In other words, when a story makes sense within its own world, it is inherently more satisfying. This leads to willful suspension of disbelief, and without that, a story can lose a lot of its staying power.

I adore Life is Strange, but for its characters, not for its plot, and frankly, I kind of wish the game had no time travel nonsense at all, if it couldn’t be bothered to at least portray chaos theory accurately in its conclusion. ^^;; Have there be some horrible event that could only have transpired if Chloe was alive, something that adds up and makes sense. Problem would’ve been solved. But I guess that’s not as bombastic and theatrical as a tornado. Sometimes going big or going home aren’t the only options. Oftentimes, you can go just the right size, but it’s not easy.

Whew.

This…turned out way longer than I planned, and I’m not at all saying I never make mistakes or trip into these pitfalls sometimes. In fact, I openly admit that some aspects of All Wounds’ plot don’t fully make sense and have no solid explanation – because I have no canonical rules to build from, I’m stuck with a lack of logic and have come up with my own plot twists, but with no concrete rules to build from…it can be frustration. But I don’t have an entire development team, an entire animation studio (~glares at Legend of Korra’s lazy-ass cheap writing~), a publisher, or anything like that. When you do, when you have so many people helping you construct your vision, it really pays off to actually construct something that is architecturally sound, so to speak, and won’t fall apart when enduring the natural elements of, well, a critical audience.

In other words, you want to build stories, not just moments, that weather storms.

(PS if you wanna see how I’m coping with LiS’s ending you can play my visual novel demo here or check out the fic/art here.)

#Oxenfree #Steins;gate #OTGW #Life is Strange #Critique #LiS #LiS episode 5 #Episode 5 Polarized

[mistress-of-tea-leaves-blog]

Tagged by: @heartofwriting

Rules: Answer all of the following questions before adding one of your own.

Coke or Pepsi?: Pepsi.

Disney or DreamWorks?: ...Mm, I’ll go with DreamWorks.

Coffee or tea?: Surprise, surprise, would you have guessed that I favor tea?

Books or movies?: Both. For different reasons, of course.

Windows or Mac?: I don’t know.

DC or Marvel?: I believe I’d be more inclined to say Marvel but, since I’m not really a fan of either of them anymore (and never was a fan of DC to begin with), I’ll say neither.

Xbox or PlayStation?: I don’t know.

Dragon Age or Mass Effect?: I don’t know.

Night owl or early riser?: Honestly, I’m not sure. It varies from day-to-day.

Cards or chess?: Cards.

Chocolate or vanilla?: Vanilla unless we’re talking about dark chocolate which is arguably the best type of chocolate. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. 🤷

Vans or Converse?: Barefoot preferably. 

Fluff or angst?: I live for fluff so...

Beach or forest?: Forest.

Dogs or cats?: Cats. How could you say no to cats?!

Clear skies or rainy days?: Rainy days (indoors).

Cooking or eating out?: Both. Again, it just depends.

Spicy food or mild food?: Mild. 

Halloween or Christmas? *the OtGW soundtrack that’s always crooning softly as the background music in my mind suddenly intensifies tenfold* 🍂🎃🍂

Would you rather be a little too cold or a little too hot?: A little too cold because then you can bundle up with blankets and a warm beverage. When it’s a little too hot, there’s only so much you can do without taking off your skin and wringing it out of the sweat that it’s almost positively soaked in, you know?

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?: Probably flight.

Animation or live action?: Animation all the way.

Baths or showers?: Showers unless I happen to have a spare Lush product handy.

Team Captain America or Team Iron Man?: To quote Hamlet, “no”.

Fantasy or science fiction?: Fantasy.

Do you have a favorite quote? If not, do you think you will have one in the future?: Oh, this one’s tricky. There’s a lot of quotes I’m fond of, but I’m sticking with one that resonates with me on an innate level and that perhaps isn’t a quote at all: It’s the entirety of the ‘The Stolen Child’ poem penned by W. B. Yeats. I don’t know why, but I love it. Anything said by Emily Dickinson is also on point.

YouTube or Netflix?: YouTube.

Classic Disney, Disney Renaissance, or Modern Disney?: Is there a difference? Probably, but I’m not well-versed in the specifics of Disney to see it, so my answer is all of these or, alternatively, none of these.

What would you tell your younger self?: Some things will get better, some things will get worse and, for whatever may come your way, you have to embrace the surprise of it as best you can.

If you could change one thing about the world around you, what would it be?: Just one? That’s not enough.

Would you rather make music or listen to music?: Listen to music.

Shakespeare’s comedies or Shakespeare’s tragedies?: Okay, I wanted to answer with comedies, but then I came to the abrupt realization that the only three Shakespeare plays that I’ve read have all been tragedies (Romeo and Juliet in the ninth grade, Julius Caesar in the eleventh grade, and Hamlet, well, right now in AP English), so I guess I have no choice but to say his tragedies.

What song do you have stuck in your head right now?: An endless repeat of Renée Elise Goldsberry singing ‘Satisfied’ from Hamilton: An American Musical.

Going to a concert or going to a huge party?: I’ll pass on the party; a concert seems more up my alley.

Favorite animal: Right now, it’s ravens or crows or really anything from the corvidae classification.

Favorite T.V. show?: GUESS.

Favorite Disney movie?: Why are there so many questions related to Disney?! But, regardless of that, it’d have to be...Brave. Honestly, I can’t recall the majority of them, and I did enjoy that one quite thoroughly. 

Favorite movie you watched in 2016?: It’s a three-way tie between Moana, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Spirited Away which, as many of you may know, absolutely did not come out in 2016 but, since last year marks the first time I’ve watched that amazing film, I’m going to throw it in there anyways.

Dearest childhood memory: I can’t remember. #whoami?

A language you would love to learn: In a practical sense, either Spanish or French. In an impractical sense, Gaelic.

How many body modifications do you have?: None, but I’d like to get a tattoo eventually.

What inspires you?: Art in its countless forms especially art made by my friends.

And my question is: Ice cream, frozen custard, or gelato?

No one’s under any obligation to complete this, but if you’d get a kick out of it:

@k8katbloggity, @ritathedragon, @um-what-even-is-this, @ominaterthegreat, @generator-sex, and whoever else wants to participate!

#Thank you! 💚 #tagged in #tea talks #long post

[ecotone99]

[MF] Molasses

[idk if anyone will even want to read this but whatever here we go]

Hey there, it's me again. I'm here doing one of these random thoughts things. That sounded stupid. That's a bad intro, this is a terrible introduction, but here we go. Hopefully, the rest of this will be good. What even is good at this point? I mean I'm just getting this out. I don't give a shit if people like this or if this is entertaining. I'm sorry, I'm a little irritable right now because my brain feels like it's stuck in a jar of molasses even though I want to do things. I want to write, to do something, but nothing is entertaining, so I don't think this will be good and that is why I'm here. I'm in a state of anhedonia, where nothing interests me, or maybe things do interest me and I literally can't get out of this mental state that I'm in to engage properly. It's like there's just absolutely nothing in my mind like there's just a blank wall there and someone keeps turning off the lights, then on, then back off again. It's like a strobe, constantly flicking on and off like a terrible horror movie where the lights go on and off and the villain has the protagonist cornered in the house somewhere.

Where are they? They don't know, because they can't see, but they can feel the knife. Run away, generic protagonist. Just kidding I don't care. You can run up the stairs and trap yourself like a fucking moron if you want. God, why are characters in horror films such idiots? All can be solved with a quick text, a call for help, but it's never done. They just, they trap themselves. You know what would be funny? If the protagonist were the bad guy and the tables were turned. What if, for the life of them, they just couldn't catch their victim and they end up getting themselves into more trouble than they started out with? First, the cops show up, then the victim pins their bag of coke on the bad guy who was trying to murder them. They're sent to jail for doing coke. Wait, no, that's less trouble than they would have landed in had they had been caught for murder. You see what I mean? My brain is just not working logically right now. How is it that I can go from having such a good time with things and then there are just these mental blackouts.

I don't understand it. Perhaps the things that I write lack any real base in reality, and I don't understand all of the illogical things that I've done here. Some people seem to like that though. I just can't make sense of my own mind right now. Fish. Yes, fish, I don't know why but I like that word. You know how some people are bothered by the word moist? Surely even the mere mention of that word is enough to make people stop reading at this point if they somehow haven't stopped already, but if that's not enough, personally that word has never bothered me. You know what bothers me? You know what word I think is more gross than a smelly gym sock? The word gooey. That's right, gooey. Ew, I just typed it twice. It's so weird, in a bad way, like it's an incomplete word. Like it's something that Mr. Webster aborted before it was finished, and it just sort of hangs in the air unfinished. Kind of like my thoughts right now. Like my brain in a jar of molasses.

Oh, potatoes and molasses. Do you remember OTGW? How Greg was just so happy about those potatoes and molasses and all of the animals cheered up. I remember feeling the way I do now when I saw that, and I thought what the hell, I'll try it. So I went to my kitchen and got out some mashed potatoes that were left over from Thanksgiving and I poured a little molasses on top. Okay, okay, it was a lot. I poured a lot over those potatoes that day, and you know what? They were freaking delicious. Try it some time, that kid had the right idea. I'm more of a honey lover myself. Have you even ever tried the creamed kind of honey? You know that opaque stuff that's really thick because it's crystalized in the jars. Think of the best thing that you've ever eaten. That was my reaction the first time I tried creamed honey. I wondered just now if some people don't like that word, creamed. It kind of has a certain sexual connotation. Oh man, I just ruined that whole memory, because my brain can't stop being a pervert.

This is so fucking gross I'm so sorry you guys. Like my other post, the one with the volcano on it called Release, all I'm doing is typing the thoughts in my head as they come to me to get unstuck from this sort of darkness that takes over my brain from time to time. I can't really explain it other than it feels like everything is slowed down, or like I'm stuck in a dark room and I don't know where the light switch is. There's this tension around my head, like one of those elastic workout headbands, that's what they're called, is wrapped too tightly around my head. Ah fuck, I'm totally going to post this. I don't care. I don't have to write anything, I could just be. Sometimes that's important. I read a lot of Eckhart Tolle's works, great guy. He said to be in the present moment, and that's what I'm doing now. Thoughts are not your enemy, they just are. They're a part of this moment, and you can choose to hang on to them or let them go. I think I understand why I'm writing this now.

Writing is a way that I get back to myself, like letting go of a breath.

​

Originally posted on Wattpad January 30th, 2020.

Link to my story on Wattpad here: https://www.wattpad.com/833586158-molasses

submitted by /u/bosandaros [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2TWd9NU

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