#this is too long and probably don't make sense SORRY

[skygemspeaks]

fic concept where xie lian, early into his second banishment, finds out that if he goes to offers prayers at one of mu qing or feng xin's temples, they will always inevitably show up to see him, each time in a different form and pretending not to know who he is

they think they're being SO slick, but xie lian always manages to clock them immediately, because they're not very good actors and because he knows them better than he knows himself. he doesn't say anything though because he's afraid to scare them off. they'll usually hang around to talk to him for a few hours, and it's just. it's nice. to not be alone for a little while. to know that they still care, even a little bit.

(he knows they don't care about him, not anymore, not after all he's done. he knows that their need to keep tabs on him is probably due to a lingering sense of loyalty to the crown prince they had once loved so dearly, the crown prince who had died long ago. he tries not to think about that)

after he ascends for the third time, he wonders if either of them will come talk to him, as themselves for once. they don't. he tries not to be too disappointed by it.

then, he's tasked to take care of the ghost groom on mount yujun, and then nan feng and fu yao show up as volunteers to aid him in his quest, and xie lian doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. he wonders if it's just going to be like this from now on. he decides not to say anything though because even this is better than nothing.

then they come with him to banyue pass, and when they return to puqi shrine afterwards, he invites them to stay for dinner.

they both decline, ready to make their escape, and xie lian can't help it. he starts crying.

they both immediately freeze in their tracks, horrified, before immediately rushing to him and starting to fuss over him, asking if he's okay, if he's gotten hurt.

(it's at this point that hua cheng decides to make a discreet exit for them to have this conversation in private)

"i-i'm sorry!" xie lian sobs, tripping over his words as he desperately wipe at his tears. "i just-i just thought it would be different after i ascended again!"

fu yao and nan feng are both baffled. "you thought what would be different?" asks fu yao hesitantly.

xie lian flails his arms between the three of them. "THIS!" he wails out loud. "but now you're LEAVING again and-and-and you won't even show me your real faces so i can apologize to you properly for everything i did wrong!"

nan feng and fu yao feng xin and mu qing turn to stare at each other in mounting horror as those words sink in.

"Your highness, you knew this whole time???" demands feng xin, his face beet red from embarrassment.

"why didn't you say anything?" mu qing hisses through his teeth, turning his head in an attempt to hide his mortification.

"because i thought if i did, you wouldn't come back!" xie lian replies, still sobbing

feng xin and mu qing both lock gazes, having a wordless argument as they try and figure what to do now that their covers have been blown.

in the end, feng xin is the one that gives in first, taking a deep breath as he gathers up his courage and lets his disguise drop. he steps forward, and pulls xie lian into a rough embrace.

"your highness, you have nothing to apologize for," he says. "we're the ones that did you wrong."

xie lian is still sobbing, but he's clinging onto feng xin like his life depends on it, and he's shaking his head in denial.

"you both stayed by my side longer than i deserved!" he insists. "if i had just listened to mu qing and swallowed my pride, things wouldn't have gotten as bad as they did!"

now mu qing steps up, and though his face is still flushed red, he looks determined as he joins the embrace.

"regardless of who was right or wrong, that didn't give me the right to treat you the way i did that day, your highness....i'm...s-sorry."

xie lian shakes his head again, ready to argue, but mu qing stubbornly speaks over him.

"the reason we came to you in disguise was because we were too ashamed to show our faces to you. we hope your highness will forgive us."

xie lian insists that there's nothing to forgive, and in the end, feng xin and mu qing both end up staying for dinner anyways, though they're saved from having to eat any of xie lian's cooking when hua cheng returns from his impromptu walk with some food that had been given to him by the neighbours for helping them with some tasks while he was out.

#tian guan ci fu #xie lian #xianle trio #feng xin #mu qing #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #raw fic #long post

[senblades]

Hi :)

I love your art and your writing, and you have such a great grasp of these characters that I was wondering if you have any fic recs? Rating doesn't matter ;)

boy do I! (and ty for the compliment <3 <3 <3)

[cracks knuckles] alrighty:

The Dissapearence of Goro Akechi by Kupowonders - Probably my favourite fic ever, honestly- it's like. derailing the plot of persona 5 post-medjed thanks to the persona 4 accomplice ending years prior. (So, spoilers for p4 in that, too) it's. very good.

Marigolds by Colbub - Akechi gets ng+'ed to right when he started working for Shido, and has to take a good look at the future to come and be like "Aight how the fuck do I fix this". Fun times!

Daredevil, You've hit the wall by ez_cookie. Essentially, p5 Strikers but Sumire and Goro get to be in on the fun, too. And, there's a direct sequel currently being updated that's a similar premise for p5 Tactica. very very good stuff

A Tale of Two Tricksters by Zoe2k8 - Murder boyfriends! ...sort of? Angst! Angst and murder boyfriends! An oversimplification, obviously, but I'm not kidding when I say this fic is amazing and is also over a million words holy shit-

Throw away your mask by MollyPollyKinz - Another ng+ situation for Akechi, but this time the poor guy gets thrown all the way to 2009. You can imagine how well that goes (For the audience, less so for Akechi himself.)

The Crow Cries at Midnight by Dorked. hehe this one is very fun. Basically, a series of coincedencs causes Akechi to get thrown into the plot of persona 4. No time travel here! Just a grumpy 12/13 year-old Akechi trying to solve a murder mystery

The entire Tales of Chaos series by Eternalmomentss (The first one is called Like sand between your fingers) Very very good stuff! Something of a character study, I would say, of Ren and Goro. Plus, all the funky plot stuff that comes from trickster-typical bad luck and poor descision making. I really love this series hehe

uhh this post is getting very long I need to make this less wordy- lightning round?

Hunger for a life by Leonawriter - do you like vampires? I sure do! Mix that and the p5 plot and you get shenanigins. [evil laughter] a lot of shenanigins

Fishbowl by KivaEmber - Akechi has a terrible time in Maruki's reality. And I mean a terrible time

You have a beautiful smile underneath that mask by Saposaki - Akechi has a crush on Akira and Joker has a crush on Crow. No one is aware of the other's secret identity. Dramatic irony and hilarity ensues.

MASTERMiND by StumblingBlock - No Metaverse au where Akira really doesn't want to follow in the footsteps of his crime family, and fails miserably

Rose and Rot by SixteenJuniper - Read this!! I'm serious!! "A fun fantasy adventure" don't listen to Juniper. You'll be in tears by chapter two. (/pos, of course) (Seriously this fic is incredible)

Redressing the Balance by Convocated - ...almost a ng+? Ng+, in the sense that shuake are getting funky visions that are very quickly derailing the standard plot of p5r. This causes problems of the "Someone get the popcorn and maybe the tissues" variety

She's got a heartbeat full of lead (And she's aiming straight for the head) by Dots - This fic haunts me, often. In the best way possible, of course; but seriously, read it

Cracked into by SydneyHorses - Ren makes bad descisions and it becomes Akechi's problem. 2/2 timeloop, perhaps most notably featuring HaruGoro friendship! Love love love this fic

Okay that wasn't as "less wordy" as I intended but it'll do

Aaaand that's a wrap! Sorry for the long post.. and this is by no means all of the fics that I've ever loved (nor are the ones here in any particular order) but I swear we'll be here all week if I keep going HAHA

ty for the ask (and again for the kind words), anon! Hope this was helpful and to your tastes! (I... hope you like Shuake HAHA it's present in most of these- I assume you do, since you came to me (points at literally everything shuake I've made) of all people, but uh. Some of these fics are gen if it's not to your liking?)

#persona 5 #asks #[sigh] another long post for the pile #I yap a lot HAHA #it's probably part of my charm?

[angelisgonnastartchangingurls]

roger

that fall, annie's new neighbors nick and nina moved in across the hall. "nick and nina," annie would always say when she saw them. "love saying those names together."

they were a couple just slightly older than annie -- probably 30, 31. nina worked in publishing and nick was an architect or something.

annie was a good neighbor--she was quiet--from her days living with robbie she'd adopted the habit of listening to everything from music to podcasts to TV in headphones. her apartment was clean because despite her overall efforts to clean up her drug use, she was not ready to let go of her adderall-fueled weekend cleanup sessions.

because their apartments were the only two on the floor and were shaped as mirror images of each other, their bedrooms shared a wall. this of course meant that annie could hear nick and nina fuck, which was pretty much an every-evening thing. sometimes it was very short--15 minutes or so with very clear climaxes. annie thought of mark and his wife and their focus on making each other cum and getting it over with. but other nights it was long and giggly and rough. one evening, after hearing them clearly wrap up, annie turned on her vibrator.

annie rarely used sex toys--she was truthfully, much better at getting off with her hands. her clit could be so sensitive that she often needed to wear panties to cum with a vibrator. today she put her bedsheet between her wand and her cunt. she sensed a quietness in nick and nina's bedroom. they were listening to her. she had a vocal orgasm - nothing too excessive, but audible. and then she kept going. she heard nina make an impressed noise.

leaving for work the next morning, annie ran into nina in the hallway. nina immediately blushed. annie hovered around deciding between playing dumb and being all-knowing and decided on the latter. "was i too loud last night?" annie asked. "i realized after that you could probably hear me since i can always hear you."

"oh god," nina said, turning a brighter shade of red.

"don't be shy," annie said, putting a hand on nina's shoulder. she felt nina relax into her touch. "that's being neighbors, right?"

"i can tell you're a therapist," nina said. "most people don't say this stuff out loud."

"maybe so," annie said. "well i think it is great that you two have such an active sex life."

nina whispered a shy "thank you" and practically ran from annie down the street.

on the way home, annie ran into nick, who had clearly talked to nina during the day. "hear anything good lately?" he asked her. he gestured at the headphones around her neck, and then grinned.

"sorry if i freaked out your wife," annie said. "but i do really enjoy knowing you two get after it so often."

"every night," he said. "my other friends don't believe me."

"well, i can testify," annie said.

"they've known nina since we were in high school and i think they can't really picture her as sexual."

"do you want them to picture your wife as sexual?" annie said wryly. "is that fun for you?"

he laughed. "kinda, yeah. i mean, everybody likes to brag about their hot partner."

"women like being bragged about," annie said. "even when they protest."

that evening, annie went on a second, long-delayed date with roger. they had drinks, then dinner, and then annie invited roger back to her apartment. she liked watching him reconcile in real time that he was going to fuck his therapist. it put a real pep in his step.

as roger railed annie from behind on her bed, she wondered how hard her headboard was rattling nick and nina's bedroom. the truth was, roger had a modestly-sized cock that he wasn't all that familiar with. the sex was rough and quick, and annie did not have an orgasm, and roger did not offer to get her off after cumming on her back. she politely got him out of her apartment, took a shower, masturbated, and fell asleep naked.

this time, she saw nick in the hallway in the morning. "high five," he said. "we both got laid last night."

"mine was very disappointing," annie said. "small dick, no skill, didn't get me off. you?"

"my wife rode my cock with her tight little shaved pussy while i put my fingers up her ass," he said. "i can't complain."

"nina is shaved, huh?" annie said. "i wouldn't have guessed that."

"she is sometimes," he said. "i like the variety."

"me too," annie said. "i mean, i like variety. and i am also sometimes shaved."

"you have really big tits so guys probably don't even notice your pubes, right?" he said.

"yeah that is not inaccurate," she said.

on the way home, it was nina in the elevator this time. surprisingly, she initiated the conversation.

"older man," she said, looking away. "is that a thing for you?"

"definitely," annie said. "daddy's girl."

nina laughed. "i had a...phase."

"an older man phase?"

"yeah. when i was 16."

"hot," annie said. "how old was he?"

"52," nina said. "my parents were so mad."

"i bet," annie laughed. "was he your first?"

"no," nina said. "i screwed a couple of boys my age first. just to make sure i wasn't missing anything."

"and your older man won out?"

"he had the biggest cock i have ever seen. still. i mean, nick has a very nice one. but this guy was gigantic. i don't think i could have taken him without an elastic teenage pussy."

they were in annie's apartment now. without even communicating it, annie had led her in and poured her a glass of wine.

"tell me more."

"i used to call it climbing mount rushmore, because you know, he was very gray, and it would take like a half hour to get him hard and then like 90 minutes to get him off.

"90 minutes? straight?"

"90 minutes of sucking and fucking. we dated for like five months and by the end of it i was in such good shape. i had amazing abs. he was so perfectly shaped to nail my g spot that i would cum, vaginally, like 6 or 7 times."

"amazing."

"i haven't been able to cum more than twice in a row ever since."

"so why did you break up?"

"his kids came to visit and his daughter found my panties in his bathroom," she said. "and you know, they were like, whatever, something very slutty from victoria's secret at the mall that only a teenager would buy. and his daughter forbid me from seeing him again."

"i hope she was willing to suck his dick for 90 minutes then," annie said.

nina laughed so suddenly she sprayed wine out of her nose. they both laughed. "no joke," nina said. "i called her and said something like that. she was like 22, which is so funny because at the time she seemed like an adult. but i was like, 'well who is gonna fuck your dad now, you?' and she said, 'maybe.' which made me feel like I lost the argument."

"kinda hot," annie said.

nina looked warily at her. "yeah i know," she said. "but that's a very therapist thing to think about. how all women want to kill their moms and take their place?"

"yeah i think that's universal," annie said. "although i do finally get along with my mom now."

"maybe there's hope for me," nina said. "i fucking hate my mother."

[famdommcfanface]

An analysis of alcemy for the Magnus Protocol!

I have just finished the episode I have found a list of alchemical symbols let's fucking gooo baby. Just to clarify it is my belief these are the new entities. I know it would probably be better if they were less rigidly defined but I love sorting things and am hyped!!! This is going to be long so strap in (not all of those though they're just to illustrate)! I am so sorry if you use dark mode (like me!) these images are almost all transparent.

1: Mercury!

Referring to both the metal and the planet, go wild. Mercury is all about transcending boundaries as it's kind of both a solid and a liquid (it's not but whatever), specifically the boundary of life and death, possibly even transcend death. That seems relevant. Also related to snakes so if snakes show up... probably mercury. Also if we ever get some sort of white queen in a chess way? Mercury. It also represents the mind, or spirit maybe? It's got a lot going on. Colin said it'd make the world end. Fuck yeah probably why not.

2: Salt

This is one that is not included on one list I have but is on the other. I'm not guaranteeing all of these are significant I'm finding it hard to find a definite list. If you look into just all the alchemical symbols they've got loads and I doubt they're all significant. Anyway. Salt is the physical body in this trifecta (we'll come onto that). Very to do with physicality, the body, honestly might manifest in a few ways similar to the Flesh. Also to do with purification? In general but also 'purifying' the body which I think medieval people meant in a good way but sounds evil to me. There is also of course, seperate to the whole alchemy thing, salt circles and all that. You've seen supernatural you know what I'm talking about. Although that's also to do with purification.

3: Sulphur

Or sulfur, if you are American. This one's actually got a few different symbols but let's go with this one for now. Honestly, and I know we shouldn't be comparing these to the TMA entities, but this one's pretty desolation. It's all dry heat and masculine destructive energy. Yeah this one's 'masculine' and mercury's 'feminine' for some reason, I doubt that will come up. Which I guess makes salt non-binary. This is the red king, too. This is the soul in the 'tria prima', Mercury, salt and sulphur, which were the three first elements apparently, and also cause disease? Idk. That might be relevant. Hell's meant to smell of sulphur, that tells you most of what you need to know. Again, we've all seen Supernatural. Colin said something about this making you go mad. I think yeah sure but less spiral-type mad more slaughter-type mad.

4: Air

Right, onto the four basic elements. These all have a humour related to them too and air has blood for some reason. Air is life and light and God and passion and all that good shit. I have to imagine it's gonna have some vast shit going on too because I don't think Jonny can help himself, but it's also to do with being changable and generally quite nice. Oh also ideas and creativity. All that good shit!

5: Earth

Basically the opposite of air. The 'masculine counterpart' as all these websites keep saying. It's associated with salt, which makes sense, and is all about stillness and being grounded and again, I feel like there's going to be some buried attributes in there. It's got the humour black bile which is all about sadness and shit. Most of the four basic elements are fairly self-explanatory.

6: Fire

You know what fire does. Passion, emotion, love and hate and all that. Although honestly in an alchemical way fire seems to be more emotional. So far (and I am writing these as I look into them) if you want something based around physical destruction you're gonna wanna look at sulphur. Its humour is yellow bile.

7: Water

Water, humour is phlegm, connected to mercury, honestly alchemically I can't find anyone having much to say about it but y'know. It's water. BUT I HAVE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT WATER. Okay so this has gotta be the deep, right? The whole mix of the buried and the vast thing with the sea? That killed the girl Alice saw? Or at least was involved with the death. It's all very water.

8: Lead

Right, onto planetary metals! Which Mercury kind of also was but hey ho. So, Lead is associated with Saturn. So, alchemists believed that lead was the base metal, that all other metals were just lead that had turned into something else. Which means it's really important but also kinda sucks, and is why people kept trying to make it into gold. So lead is also to do with change but also kind of purity as they thought it 'purified' into gold. Also associated with the Roman god Saturn/Greek god Chronos, who are both to do with time so that might be involved.

9: Tin

To do with the planet Jupiter. It seems to be connected to wisdom and maturity and education and all that. BUT ALSO. It is connected to Lady Mowbray, hell yeah. Because I watched a video about the arg and noted that on the back of Lady M's assistant's clipboard or whatever is this symbol which I recognised at the time as Jupiter! Now. What does tin have to do with dogs and eating people. As far as I can tell fuck all. I thought I'd misremembered for a moment and it was actually the Saturn symbol because that would work with cannibalism at least but no Lady Mowbray seems to serve... tin. Which is kind of funny. I get the connection to nobility at least, Jupiter is king of the gods after all, but as far as I know he doesn't hunt people with dogs? Idk.

10: Iron

Related to Mars and, as I'm sure you can tell, men. Because these fuckers loved gender. Similar to fire it's all about anger and passion, but also seeing as Mars is the god of war I don't think it's beyond belief we've got something similar to the slaughter on our hands here.

11: Gold

Connected to the sun and therefore does not have a classical god I can interpret. Damn. Maybe Apollo? Gold is about having gay lovers. No. So gold's big thing is that it doesn't corrode. Something about staying as you are, the opposite of Air's changability, sort of similar to earth... I could make something out of this.

12: Copper

Well hello ladies. Copper actually has a cooler symbol but I suspect we're sticking with these. Connected to Venus, obviously, which is all about attractiveness and desirability because copper is a very pretty metal. Personally, I would say episode 2 is to do with copper. I don't know if ink5oul themself is (I think they might sort of span entities) but what's her name from the episode and her obsession with looking good seems very copper to me. I know I'm not sorting all these episodes (yet! I have to relisten first) but this one jumped out at me. Copper is also to do with love, of course. I feel like one reason maybe the desire theory got so big is a lot of alchemical elements are to do with love and desire, so that just sort of bled through?

13: Silver

That's right, it's the moon! Very to do with mystery and weird shit. I think if you get the non-literal elements of The Dark you've got Silver. Also keeps away evil, again, Supernatural. Although it also has to do with tides so I think there is a very small chance that actually this is the Deep? I doubt it though.

14: Antimony

So I wasn't going to do the mundane elements because they're less likely to be important (you'll see) but some of them are really interesting! I might not do them all. Anyway, antimony is about the wild and animalistic side of human nature, and is to do with wolves. That remind you of anyone? A certain... aristocratic milf? I know she's connected to tin but it should be antimony okay??

15: Arsenic

Arsenic is cool, we all know it. It's my mum's favourite element on the periodic table. Anyway. Swans? It's to do with swans. Apparently it transforms its appearance like a cygnet to a swan. It also fucking kills people which I'm not convinced the alchmists were aware of.

16: Bismuth

Nobody knows what they were doing with bismuth. RIP. Also, I don't know my astronomy but that is taurus. Does that mean anything? I looked into the metal; it's quite pretty and people get it mixed up with tin.

17: Magnesium

Oh boy. It's hard to extinguish once it's lit, so it represents eternity! That's gotta be something babyy! Some combination of the end and the vast and all that.

18: Phosphorus

They thought phosphorus trapped light. I know it's easy to say this from a modern perspective but alchemists were fucking dumb. I feel like I could disprove this. But they were the first scientists so we have to be nice to them I guess...

19: Platinum

Supposedly a combination of gold and silver, hence the symbol. Possibly something about being bound to something... idk.

20: Potassium

Or potash. Didn't seem to have much historical context. But I believe it has very important modern context.

21: Zinc

They burned zinc to get what they called 'white snow'. You fucking idiots snow is already white.

That's it! Honourable mention to horse dung, which is a more obscure element but gets its own symbol and everything.

also soap and urine and all sorts of shit so I think we should stop there. What have we learnt? Possibly nothing! One of these has got to be to do with plants - I assume earth? That would make sense. One's something to do with luck from the sounds of things and I have no idea what that is, hopefully someone knows more about alchemy than I do for that. There's definitely some sort of watcher and I think either that's the eye crossed into this dimension or possibly mercury? I don't think the names are going to be these because honestly imagine Lady Mowbray being like hey I serve Tin. She's probably going to say Jupiter but we all have to know in our heart of hearts. It's just fucking tin. I am very tired I am going to bed.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp theory #the magnus archives #tma #posts what I done #I think I lost my mind when I was writing this #I suspect I'm going to try and sort all the statements into these at some point but I need to relisten first

[idrellegames]

hi there! sorry if you've gotten a similar ask before. do you write wayfarer directly into twine or do you keep it in a separate doc? do you just have really clearly labeled sections in a word doc or something or is there a specific program you use to keep track of every story path? basically, with something as expansive and w/ as many routes as wayfarer, how do you keep all your writing organized?

I have answered this before, but I can't seem to find my posts on the subject (you may want to peruse my coding in twine tag, the masterpost has a bunch of different resources for this kind of thing!).

But in short, no, I do not write Wayfarer directly into Twine. This could functionally work for a very small game, but I would still advise against it as Twine doesn't really work as a word processor. You can't proof-read in it.

My process has three main steps:

Outlining

Writing

Coding

Compiling

Outside of my big beat chart (which spans the whole game), I break each episode down into their own outlines, and then break the routes of each episode down into their own outlines. Sometimes specific sections end up with their own outlines too. My system probably doesn't make much sense to anyone other than me, but as long as I know what the divisions are, then it's all good.

I write in MS Word. Each episode has its own folder (sometimes with subfolders) and every section of the game gets its own document.

Here's the main folders, each episode goes into its own thing.

This is an subfolder for Episode 1, specifically Route B.

Within my word documents themselves, I use a colour-coding system for separating out branches and sections. This is extremely useful for writing dialogue loops, like this:

I also add in any coding notes (variables, true/false states, stat checks) while I am writing so I know what I need to do when I sit down to code 4+ months later. I usually throw a X or XX on choices after I have written them as a note to myself that I have finished it (this is just personal shorthand - X means I've done the pass version of a check, XX means I've done the pass and fail states).

I use about 8-10 colours in my documents; I have a set of MS Word macros set up so I can easily switch between them.

I share my word documents with my editor via OneDrive, which makes it easy for her to got through and proofread.

I use MS Word because I've been using it to write since the 2000s and it's what I prefer to use. I have also been writing professionally for over a decade now, so I have systems and strategies in place that work for me that I've developed for myself over time. But if you're new to writing and you're looking for a word processor that can also help you with outlining and keeping your story straight, something like Scrivener may be helpful.

One the text is ready to be coded, it's a lot of copy/pasting from Word into Twine. When I'm coding I will typically be running multiple programs at once:

MS Word

MS Excel (for my variable sheets)

Twine

Notepad++ (which has some regularly used code stored in it; I also use it to edit CSS and Javascript, as well as any really code-heavy sections since it's easier to do that in Notepad++ than it is in the Twine editor)

Notepad (just the regular version - I use it for writing notes to myself while I'm coding)

a web browser to launch tests in as I code

Once I am done coding and I have tested things, it's time to compile. The Twine editor can only handle so many passages and text in one file (around 500-700 passages before you hit massive lag), so I break Wayfarer into multiple story files. Having multiple story files also makes it really easy for me to cross-reference events (if I need to grab a passage title to reference it later) because I don't have to look through one big file. If I know the event happens in Episode 2's first scene, then I know I need to open Chapter_2.1.

My Twine library looks like this at the moment:

I am using an old version of the editor (with an up-to-date version of SugarCube) since I didn't like the new one. I don't necessarily recommend using the Twine editor when you can easily make your game with Twee extensions in Visual Studio Code and have better support and functionality, but this is what I like and it really comes down to personal preference.

But because everything is in separate files, I have to merge them altogether. I have Tweego installed on my PC; it's run through the command prompt and outputs multiple story files into one HTML file. I've talked about this process here and here.

And that's basically it! I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution to keeping track of your IF. You need to figure out what works for you, based on your writing and outlining habits, how big your story is, and how much you intend to keep track of.

Hope this helps!

#wayfarer #wayfarer if #coding in twine #twine #twine game #interactive fiction #interactive novel #answered

[warpedpuppeteer]

i just don't trust these major network showrunners and writers to actually write buddie to its logical and rightful conclusion. I've followed so many shows and observed so many fandoms over the years, so many amazingly layered characters with extraordinary bonds that spawned popular and beloved ships. And each and every one of those ships were used to bait viewers without ever going canon, this way they get the views from the ship fans as well as the more general fans. The only difference in 911 is they somehow managed to make Buck canonically bi, which is a huge deal for a main male lead on a network procedural show. Yet they immediately slapped him with an underdeveloped character who has zero onscreen chemistry with buck, and relegated their relationship to the background entirely. Almost like the networks's checking off a box and being done with it.

if buddie is in the grand plan, I feel like there should've been some onscreen textual hints already this season after buck came out. But there's been nothing from any of the characters, and it's just heartbreaking. I'll remain a buddie truther for the rest of my life, but it really does feel like the show is trying to draw the line in the sand to say "buck and Eddie are bros only," even if the way the show does this is to forcibly retcon/erase all of the buddie buildup over all these seasons.

Sorry Non for not answering this for awhile. I absolutely understand where you're coming from as I've also been a part of fandoms for a long time especially ones who gleefully use queerbaiting to keep fans interested. I think the biggest difference between 911 and other shows is that generally other shows don't have any queer characters or only minor queer characters. 911 however has a main queer couple (henren) and plenty of side queer characters/pairs as well. So that's an advantage for us; this means they're very much open to a queer storyline.

We've gotten bi Buck which is a very big deal for not only queer representation but also in regards to Buddie. The are clearly aware this is something we want and they've told us that it has been discussed in the past for Eddie to be queer as well so they have definitely at some point discussed making Buddie canon. The actors are down for this as well (Oliver no. 1 buddie truther). The setback seems to have come from the network before so it couldn't happen. But things are changing with the new network.

The reason I think they haven't made Buddie canon yet is that it was simply too short of a season for them to do so. Also it seems like there have been a lot of issues with this season and a lot of it was written hastily. Tim probably had completely different stories in mind for the characters but I guess things like scheduling issues put a wrench in it (Natalia's actress had a scheduling issue and the issue with Marisol's actress). I think Tim had planned completely different arcs for Buck and Eddie in regards to their relationship but had to just do whatever to finish the season because of the issue with the actresses. I think he introduced Tommy as a sort of placeholder for the moment because they couldn't expand Buck's bi story just yet. This was also probably to test the audiences' acceptance of a main character being queer after 6 seasons and to test how much leeway they have with the network. This doesn't mean I agree with what he did because I actually hate it lol. Leaving them both single would have made much more sense than introducing another shit character/actor who only created a divide in the fandom and brought in absolute weirdos into it.

Honestly I could go on forever on why I think Buddie being canon is in the books but for now all I can say is that don't give up just yet! I personally think there's been a lot of deliberate choices this season that were made to jump start the 'making Buddie canon process'. Give it another season at least! If they don't get together, I'm hoping there would at least be a CLEAR indication that they're heading there towards the end of season 8. If they don't do anything of that sort then we can consider giving up on them and living happily in our fanon bubble. But for now stay with us! There's much hope yet!!

Also sorry if this got rambly and doesn't make much sense! My inbox is always open and you can shoot me a message if you wanna discuss or vent more!

#dagger answers asks #answered asks #buddie #eddie diaz #911 abc #evan buckley #evan buck buckley #anti bucktommy #anti tommy kinard #anti lou ferrigno jr

[coquelicoq]

In talking about Chaucer (p. 74), I said that, in general, puns and verbal connections of sound were unimportant and not to be sought out; and now, you will say, I have been using them to explain cruces in Shakespeare. Alas, you have touched on a sore point; this is one of the less reputable aspects of our national poet. A quibble is to Shakespeare [Johnson could not but confess] what luminous vapours are to the traveller; he follows it at all adventures; it is sure to lead him out of his way and sure to engulf him in the mire. It has some malignant power over his mind.... A quibble was for him the fatal Cleopatra for whom he lost the world, and was content to lose it. Nor can I hold out against the Doctor, beyond saying that life ran very high in those days, and that he does not seem to have lost the world so completely after all. It shows lack of decision and will-power, a feminine pleasure in yielding to the mesmerism of language, in getting one's way, if at all, by deceit and flattery, for a poet to be so fearfully susceptible to puns. Many of us could wish the Bard had been more manly in his literary habits, and I am afraid the Sitwells are just as bad.

William Empson, 7 Types of Ambiguity, ch 2 pp 100-101

i'm sorry this is so fucking funny. that pathetic loser shakespeare who loved puns so much it cost him everything, except of course his status as the most famous, most read, most immortal english-language author of all time. but everything else, he lost and it's all because of how weak he was to resist a pun :/ pouring one out for my sad little girly man who could have had it all if only he was better at writing, the thing he is the most famous guy in the world for.

even empson, who disagrees with johnson that shakespeare "lost the world", is like, too bad our favorite poet is susceptible to the thing that made him famous :/ really tragic that the guy whose wordplay we've been talking about for 300 years likes wordplay :///

also i can't get over writing a book about the types of ambiguity and NOT INCLUDING PUNS?? sorry but puns are ambiguous! that's where their juice comes from! imagine liking ambiguity so much you write a book about it but never mention puns except to dunk on them. imagine being a POET and POETRY CRITIC who looks down on sound-based ambiguity! could not be me!!

#puns are a device just as much as any other kind of ambiguity! this value judgment is hilariously nonsensical to me #why are puns bad but other ambiguities aren't? you can't just call them feminine and expect me to be like oh okay in that case #next time my dad makes a pun i'm just going to sigh sadly about his lack of decision and willpower #what a feminine pleasure in yielding to the mesmerism of language i will say. not very manly of you dad :/ #i'm annoyed too because one of the types of ambiguity he respects is when one word has multiple meanings possible #in the context of the text. but that is in a sense a kind of pun. he says puns are homophonic but guess what #when one word has multiple meanings another way of saying that is that those are different words that happen to be spelled the same #that is then homophonic ambiguity! aka a fucking pun!!!! #i'm not just quibbling over the exact definition of a pun. i'm saying the boundaries are THAT porous i don't see how you could possibly #like semantic ambiguity as long as the spelling is identical but suddenly think it's facile when the spelling/etymology is different #that's not at all based in rational thinking but he's over here like 'the mesmerism of language is for girls' #pot meet kettle much??? #poetry #ambiguity #puns #shakespeare #my posts #there was one other thing i was gonna say what was it. OH YEAH. he also was saying a few pages back that spelling was completely #unstandardized in shakespeare's time...so then why does it matter??? #okay and one more thing. he keeps trying to convince me that various verses are syntactically ambiguous if you ignore the punctuation #okay. if we're ignoring punctuation we must be hearing it orally. which means we also don't know what spelling was used!!!! #i think probably he would say he cares more about etymology than spelling. words with different meanings that are etymologically #related are allowed and manly but words with different meanings that came from different roots are a weakness to be avoided #like i'm sorry dude but that is so arbitrary. and you are just cutting yourself off from an immensely rich body of possible ambiguities #by disallowing that kind of wordplay. why would you want to do that????

[katyspersonal]

I know we don't talk and there's stuff we may not agree with. But I am truly sorry you've dealt with a lot of drama over fictional crap. And I'm sorry if my posts in the past ever contributed to that. Hope you have a better day.

Hey... That's all fine, don't worry! After all, it takes a lot of time and Insight to realise that Gehrman is a very gentle and respectful man and Godrick is an absolute gigachad kdkdkshdffhhgfds /lh /lh

But yeah, on a serious note. It was quite frustrating to find out the real motivation under all that... mess was something so pathetic, but at the same time this is what happens when people make engagement with media and fandoms a moral, political act. Not necessarily a problem, after all, I was the one who concluded that the way a fan judges fictional characters and other fans will very well reveal how cruel they are to real people who do something bad, or how much they will forgive based on personal sympathies. And my mad ravings about caring about female characters! I think the problem comes when a fan is so insecure that they have nothing else besides this defence of ideals through fandomry. If your only way to assert yourself is to be a good guy punishing the bad guys, and that mad raving loredigger discovers there is NO bad guy, what is left of you?

This is why it is crucial to have passion for nurturing rather than for undermining! I think if you speak like this, you've found this truth too? This is true that I don't know you very much (mutual-in-law thing), but to be honest.. you didn't poison my fandom experience at all? I tend to never be aware about discourse until someone basically calls me for help fhdhgsdgdfs Can't scout the fandom tag regularly!

But not only it actually was a quite long ago I saw a "negative" post from you, but also I've seen through the posts that my friends liked or reblogged from you that you've actually became very eager person to defend people's passion and interests! I think the post that particularly got stuck with me was when you resented seeing someone's light die after some Redditor asshole "well aktualy"'d a thing they were excited about creating (not exact wording but maybe you remember too)? Like... you are fine, man. At that point I realised that you were a good fan and in the end valued people's creativity and passion over personal preferences. That you never wanted to be THAT guy, even if your interpretation could not be further from someone else's. Coming to terms with what actually matters in fandomry is very mature and I am happy to see this attitude!

I am still glad that you messaged me about this though; I did not expect this, but thank you! I think I will continue getting involved in fictional discourse because my autistic senses cannot ignore factually incorrect takes with a clear insidious motive, and.. eh, sooner or later, I'll piss off the wrong guy again. Don't feel bad for me when it inevitably happens :p I've accepted the shortcomings when I decided to be the debate guy. Simply laughing at some gremlin starting a discourse with the girls in DMs and not stressing over it is only funny until I realise that newer fans could get misinformed right off the bat.

#ask replies #fandomry rambles #sorry this is probably a bit too long and emotional #this topic just makes me remember a lot of stuff.. it is not you! like I mean it my impression has been positive for a while now #I could already sense that you've changed your stance on things before this message and I respect this a lot! #I am just thinking about..... stuff #how there was an actually strongly furious gehrman hater who finally matured and became chill after two years of terrorizing fandom #and I even wrote them a DM saying how much I respected the change.. only to lose them forever a couple of weeks later because of timing LOL #or story of the guy that got driven away from the fandom with fake accusations and slander because he criticised maria when her toxic fans- #-back then were not pretending to 'recognise her flaws too' #or people talking to me how they stopped feeling safe posting in fandom over that crap #like... you did not really hurt me. I knew you had strong opinions but I've noticed more and more based posts on the fandomry topic #there are just many things that make whole fandom situation sad. I am happy to be the part of what helped BB fandom a bit #but I've heard some shit going on in ER fandom and like... yeah I am bound to get into trouble again because I can't sit back and meme #just don't feel bad for me when I end up with another arch enemy because of my autism about lore fhshdffsd

[cathodic-clairvoyant]

Fun math/counting problem for everyone

Okay so I know this will only be interesting to like maybe one other person but I came across a fun counting problem I wanted to share. For a given number of digits, n, how many numbers have a unique sequence of digits up to permutation? (So to be explicit about what the question is asking, 15 and 51 would both count as the same digit sequence since the digits of 51 are just a permutation of the digits of 15. Also, leading 0s are also included in the number. For example in the four digit case, 15 would be written as 0015.)  

If you’re at all math inclined or like number puzzles I do genuinely encourage you to try to figure this question out yourself partially because it's fun but mainly because I’m curious if anyone else can come up with a different/better solution than I did. I'll put my solution under the break. It's half informal proof (making it more rigorous is an exercise for the reader or w/e) and half just like a guided solution. If you're familiar with manipulating sums and can read basic math notation (if you're unfamiliar with the notation when defining the function, don't worry about it, it really doesn't matter I just think it looks pretty) you should be able to follow (hopefully, unless i've done something terribly wrong).

#channel 3 #sorry if my solution makes like 0 sense #i've been thinking about this problem for a couple days now #and then i spent too long today writing and rewriting my solution #because originally my goal was to make this unintimidating and easy to follow even if you don't have a lot of math knowledge #but then i realized that was probably a moot goal #(mainly in that i don't think my math communication abilities are that good. i'm sure someone else could do it) #so i just wrote it closer to how i normally write proofs just a bit more conversational/informal and probably less straight to the point #(but i've never been good at going straight to the point with proofs anyway) #and i've sort've gone down the rough draft spiral and can't tell if it only makes sense because i've written it so many times #all that being said if i wasn't clear about something or if you're curious about something let me know and i'll do my best to explain #also if you do have an alt solution let me know! #i know there /has/ to be some solution involving the fact that the diagonals of pascal's triangle are figurate numbers #or some beautiful proof that leverages the question's proximity to combinatorics better than i did

[automatonknight]

honestly i need a knight helmet AND a pair of those big ass gloves and i’ll be so so happy

#sorries i'm having a knight moment again #it's late so i might be making no sense but i'm so happy i also found knights um. relatable? comfortable? #in a gender way. like ideally i'd be a robot but. armor is also so so good #i honestly don't know where that came from too? like i used to like a few knight characters i guess but never like. found their uuuh #the way they present. something to be envious of or whatever. well guys will love metal #realistically i probably COULD buy myself a helmet but i think i'm going to wait until i'm an adult for that. which is honestly not that lon #*long. oops. i'm sure there's a bunch of businesses that make helmets bcoz poles love knights ok? we love knights #and honestly i love the idea of wearing a helmet just casually. like i'd be in a tshirt and shorts and yeah i'm wearing a knight helmet :]

[nientedal]

god that post made me mad. "humans just CAN'T be persistence hunters, because persistence hunting doesn't make any sense to me personally! no i'm not going to cite any sources, just trust me, i read about it in school!"

okay, mmhm, sure...except it does work. it does work, and we know it does because it was still in practice by modern humans in the central Kalahari until AT LEAST 1990. some of those people have even explained some of the challenges and nuances of the practice as well as the knowledge they use to make it easier. it's not the only method of hunting humans have used over the years, but it is definitely one of the methods in our repertoire.

"humans can't run for multiple days without food and water (which is how i assume persistence hunting works, for some reason)! and they're not fast enough to chase an antelope without losing it! and tracking is a stupid concept that doesn't work, and i'm going to scoff and ignore it!"

you don't have to run for days. you don't have to be super fast. you just have to be fast enough to not let your quarry rest long enough to recover, and you do have to be able to track-- which is absolutely a real thing that people can and do learn how to do.

(i suspect the OP ignored tracking as a possibility for the same reason they tried to discredit any information about the indigenous peoples of the Kalahari as basically being (1) all noble savage bullshit from the 60s or (2) irrelevant because it's not what their forefathers were doing-- their anthropology course probably taught them about the challenges these bands are facing with colonialism, and probably also taught about the rampant misinformation about them, but it did not teach any actual respect for their cultures or knowledge. or for them as, you know, people. whose grandparents remember the way their grandparents hunted, and can talk about it, even if they are no longer able to continue the practice.)

(knowing the noble savage stereotype is bad doesn't make it less racist when you still talk about people from a stance of "but my modern ways are better than their hungry primitive ways and i'm going to talk as if they're already extinct and have no expertise worth discussing.")

"there's no POINT to it! we have tools! and weapons!" the point is not getting gored and kicked to death by a wounded animal four times your size that didn't die when you hit it the first time. the point is that an exhausted kill is an easy kill where you don't die. it's a decent point. it's fucking reasonable. also, afaik there's decent odds we learned hunting before we learned tools.

and yeah, i get that the OP was just upset and yelling in the initial post. i do understand that. and I understand their frustration at hearing a theory misrepresented as fact. but their subsequent reblogs and responses are equally thoughtless pseudointellectual posturing, and i'm sorry, it's garbage. someone pointed out modern pursuit hunters exist, and they basically went "mmmmyeah, all of that is just outdated, cherry-picked misinformation and you're very stupid and i'm very smart, look at me i know lots of tribe names and i'm going to link some articles about why these people no longer matter, isn't that sad and TOTALLY relevant to this conversation." someone else mentioned tracking, and they ONCE AGAIN basically said if you lose your line of sight, that's it, you're done, you've lost your quarry. tracking isn't real, don't even bring it up. hoofprints in wet ground in the rainy season? those are fake. doesn't happen. broken brush where a panicking animal has run? lol, that's not real. you can invent tools, but learning to follow an animal? bullshit. total malarkey. it's all just guesswork. you can GUESS where the antelope went but that's the best you can do.

🙄

anyway, i don't know enough about human evolution to guess why we're shaped the way we are, and i'm not going to speculate on it today. but what i DO know is that i am willing to believe the G/wi and the !Xo when they say, hey, if you drink a lot of water and then chase a large ungulate through the hottest part of the day in the fucking Kalahari at a steady jog, it will probably overheat and collapse before you will. because one, i kinda figure they know what they're talking about, and two, it does actually make sense when you stop and think for thirty fucking seconds. sure, you need to be physically conditioned to run distances in extreme heat, and you need to be able to find your quarry again if you lose sight of it. but conditioning and tracking are both things you can learn, no matter how badly certain clowns wish it wasn't because it doesn't support their bias. 🙃

#persistence hunting #is not the only kind of hunting in our evolutionary history #but it does work #and has BEEN working for humans for a LONG FUCKING TIME #like i am super fucking sorry but you are not presenting me with anything even RESEMBLING a coherent argument! #is persistence hunting the reason we're shaped this way? i don't fucking know! #but i do know it works as a technique! jackass! #god. i'll probably turn off reblogs in the morning but I'm still too angry at the absolute goddamned stupidity #and the way people in the notes were like Oh this makes so much sense! This is my favorite informed rant on tumblr! #BITCH W H E R E #i have not read nearly as much on this as i'd like to but jesus #just from the holes in what they're saying #JUST from the holes #what they're saying is a steaming crock of shit #and! are they right about the gaping holes in the persistence hunting theory? i dunno! maybe! #but i can't trust anything they say! obviously! #ooooo you're not gonna run carrying an ostrich egg full of water ooo #no of course you aren't! you're going to drink the water first! and then run! because that's what you've been conditioned to do #BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THIS WORKS ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh #feel free to reblog for now at least #god #dal is a scream #i got to their shit about tracking being a totally ludicrous proposal and lost my damn mind

[missionkitty]

sometimes i really wish i could easily respond to tags because you guys really come through with them and just make some rough days a lot better but i don't wanna clog your dms or your notifications (i love you guys but i get petrified to engage with you sometimes 🫠 i am a big anxious weenie)

i put something kind of regarding this in my pinned post but i absolutely am so okay with you guys going deep into my blog for my old art or things or spam liking (and maybe a reblog here and there) things i've previously posted 😭 especially if you're new!

🅱️lease feel free to take a look at my older stuff!!! treat this like a museum and wander to your heart's content 🥰

i try to keep stuff circulating in my reblog side @missionkittyroyal but WAY more people follow me on here than on there and i am kind of trying keep this one more portfolio style

aaaanyway if you're reading this and you've recently reblogged something from a little while ago, your tags have basically saved my morning and you probably know who you are and i love you you

#will probably delete later #but i wanted to put it out there without breaking myself into a cold sweat this morning with a dm #it was a long night last night and i am not totally normal right now lol #also sidenote? i saw a story post from someone i follow on instagram of them #being proud of blocking somone 'in the middle of spam liking' all their stuff #and it made me really sad... #cause spam liking doesn't really affect the account being liked...but there's such a strange almost toxic mindset #especially among the artist community that i've seen that scorns these things #that have so much scorn for people going and looking at older stuff #and instagram is partly to blame too with the prioritization of constantly new content #but like...if i see a string of likes through my stuff i am pleased to know that i have maybe tickled your senses a little #and even better if you reblog things and follow to stick around #so please!! if you see something older that you like don't be afraid to interact with it #i'm from the deviantart era where galleries were meant to be explored over and over again #tumblr is able to kind of encapsulate that feeling still #oof sorry for going off on a huge tangent in the tags #just that ig story still makes me sad to think of

[shadeswift99]

Today on really stupid things to be happy about:

The fact that when I stopped being able to read or write four months ago my Works and Bookmarks just happened to be perfectly even

#it makes sense in a way because i had started trying to keep them even as a half joke ages ago #but still I'm so weirdly happy to have left it like that dhfhfhd #not like its easy to not be able to do the things i love (it's been hell actually) but it would be so much harder if I'd left it uneven >:[ #....yeah. I don't think I've ever fully explained on here so #hi I'm Shade :) i used to write things and then i went on a month long break for school stress and THEN a many month long break #unplanned because apparently chronic illness. so. so sorry to the people who were waiting for that Red Thread update in may #or yknow literally anything else other than semiconscious reblogs and radio silence #don't worry I am far from 100% still but i have meds and they're helping a lot #and i AM going to work my way back up to writing. I am. slowly #but it's probably going to be very slowly and low effort for a while because i still don't know if i can handle full time uni in the fall #but i have been able to read again! physical symptoms are still kinda eeh some days but the brain fog most times is gone #huge win #and at least my works and bookmarks are even :] #i don't usually put personal stuff here and honestly i don't even know if there's still anybody around who remembers me more active but #feels good to not be too hopeless to open ao3 again. #that's about as much shade ramble as you'll have to put up with today have a great evening everyone 💙 #ah fuck i forgot #tw medical

[jeoseungsaja]

When he hears the sirens, the Black Knight knows his cue to disappear. ANACHRON knows it’s their cue too, slipping back into the shadows, yet again. Dammit, he was so close too! And yet, his first instinct isn’t to run. But rather, when he realizes a certain detective is within the vicinity, ready to fight his way into the circle, the Black Knight's first instinct is to grab that detective’s hand and then run. Never mind the ache building in his leg or the protests on Hyuk’s part, the important part is that he gets Hyuk as far away from both ANACHRON and the police as possible. Hyuk might be familiar with the Gangnam Police, but even he cannot hope to get away without repercussion should they find out he shares a connection, however minuscule the thread is, to the Black Knight.

The Black Knight only stops once they’re in an alleyway. It’s in one of the more rundown parts of Itaewon, which is also where the Black Knight’s base is located ( Rook is not going to be happy- what if the detective starts poking around here too? ) .His leg is aching. And his side stings from a bullet graze. And yet he forces himself to stand tall, sword still unsheathed. The sound of metal dropping against the cobblestone barely registers.

“You really don’t listen, do you? Keep loitering around these spaces and you’ll be lucky to get out in one piece. Is that what your friend would want?”

Letting go of Hyuk’s hand ( they haven’t done that in years ), he turns away to make his escape, only to pause. Why does his vest pocket feel empty- panic floods in. Where is it? He couldn’t have dropped it, that’s never happened before, and- the Black Knight whirls around.

It’s Hyuk, picking up his POCKET WATCH, the one Felicity gave Patrick all those years ago.

Patrick’s stomach drops.

And without thinking, he lunges forward, snatching his watch out of his dear friend’s hands. The watch dangling between the two of them, Patrick stares at Hyuk in bewilderment. And fear. Hands shaky, he shoves it back into his coat pocket. Patrick turns away.

“You’re lucky this time. Next time, I’ll stab you.”

( HI ALEX!! SO THIS PART OF THE INBOX CALL :DDD pls don't mind me flood u with a few unprompted asks sjdkflsj, but also...so hyurick in black knight verse?? I went overboard and basically he was one step forward, two steps back 🙃, but also feel free to ignore this if you think this doesn’t fit!! Have a wonderful day and care you lots!! <3 )

@ofgentleresolve ♚ hyuk didn’t get stabbed but i did...right in the heart--

♔ ———–

    Sirens roar and even its incessant bellow is not enough to push him away from the scene. It should, shouldn’t it? After all, he’s been nothing but a menace to the police, who already have sent him away previous times with a warning (as well as with long, tired sighs from the detective currently handling the cases Hyuk would officially and legally take care of, once upon a time). Tickets of caution can only last for so long and one day he’ll face the real danger by being dragged behind bars for obstruction and suspicious activity. No matter how careless Hyuk’s gotten now, he cannot afford to go to jail, for that’s precious time he cannot waste by simply counting the days until a release. All minutes, seconds --- they should be dedicated to find out the truth.

   The truth about his best friend’s death.

    Still, he takes a step forward, toward the smoke; swirls that seem all too familiar at this point. There are spots of dirt on the detective’s skin, as well as cuts that might heal if he lets them be; a victim of his own heedlessness. The adrenaline in his veins does not let him feel the exhaustion, or the way the open wound on his forehead burns. He steps into the fog and as he tries to adjust his vision, he’s unexpectedly yanked by a gloved hand. 

   His first instinct is to tug back, but his palm is well-adhered to the other’s fingers, as if knowing he’d fight back. A frown; long legs unwillingly bend toward this uncharted territory whilst trying to see who has him under their grasp. 

   He’d recognize that top hat anywhere.     The all-black attire.     The high collar of his coat.     The sword shining under the bashful moonlight. 

   “Yah, let me go! Let me go!”

    But the Black Knight won’t relent, will he? Oddly enough, that’s something they both share: Thick stubbornness. While one pushes, the other tugs...but, ironically enough, they keep colliding onto the same paths; onto the same places. 

     Growls of protest echo through, gaze registering the surroundings. What is this place? It looks dilapidated, with paint peeling off the walls and buildings resembling an ancient world long forgotten. A rundown neighborhood, a side of town not many would care to look at. It seems the Black Knight is aware of desolated spots, for he walks as if he’s utterly familiar with the surroundings. Not even him, who’s well-versed in pinpointing several streets due to years of patrolling and case-chasing, would think about heading to this place. 

     Why did he take them there?      Is it a simple detour, or should it mean something?      Hyuk cannot allow any details to slip away. 

     “I’ll break your arm if I have to, is that what you want? Because I will break---” 

     Finally, fingers get harshly unlatched from the strange warmth of cloaked hand when the Black Knight loosens his grip. Hand turns into a fist, nostrils flare at the unwanted scolding, jaw tensing at the mention of his friend. 

     “What do you care, huh? Who do you think you are? Stop using my friend as an excuse to make me reconsider. He’s not here anymore. The one who used to think things over isn’t here either.” 

     Pieces of him decayed when Patrick passed away, like a sunflower that no longer has the sun by its side, or a shrub of forsythias losing its color because the healthy Earth has open cracks of dryness; wounds that remain and never really close. Parts of Hyuk died when his best friend did, or perhaps they’re deeply buried somewhere he blocked from memory so he’d never find them. After all, the one who could retrieve them is no longer living, so why would Hyuk want them? 

     “You don’t listen either. I told you to never come back again with your warnings and needless advice, remember? So why do you keep---” 

      He, indeed, does not let any details slip.       His ears take note of a sound; a descent.       Metal colliding upon cobblestone.       Once shy, the moonlight becomes stronger in that alleyway.       It guides him, lets him know there’s something on the floor.        A watch. 

     Silence. The detective bends down; catches watch’s circular body with his palm and thumb; chain feeling heavy between his fingers. He stands up and some of his steps falter when keeping his gaze glued at the item --- not because he’s not watching where he’s going, but because he knows this watch. The details on the tightly shut cover, they look worn, as if fingers kept rubbing and grazing to the point of getting edges blurry, but they’re still there, staring back at him. 

     Patrick’s watch. The one Felicity gave him years ago. This one and his dear friend’s look exactly the same. The only difference is that the one on his hand has suffered due to the hands of time...but the same thing would’ve happened to Patrick’s watch if he was still alive, wouldn’t it? All items, no matter how precious, start to show signs of wear after years of usage. Much like the mandarin duck plush he still keeps somewhere in his apartment. 

     Eyes lifting, he sees the Black Knight’s back. His hand tightens around the watch. And he remembers, he remembers he couldn’t find Patrick’s pocket watch under all the rubble when he went to London to see the chaos himself. He remembers that the evidence never showed any pictures of that watch, not even signs or traces of charred metal or clock’s hands and numbers bent by the merciless waves of fire. He also remembers that this was one of the factors Suki considered suspicious when Hyuk commented about it. 

    And if this is, indeed, Patrick’s watch, how did it end up here?     In South Korea.      Under the Black Knight’s shadow. 

  Speechless, he witnesses the vigilante suddenly whirling around. He’s forgotten something, hasn’t he? The watch is still on Hyuk’s hand, but he’s too stunned to react quickly; his own fingers trembling as palm shows the other what he’s found. 

   “How?” 

   But he gets no answer. Not a verbal one, at least. The watch sternly departs from his grasp; gazes locking. Is the confident brown of those eyes hesitating? Is the smug Black Knight scared? The detective is trying to learn as much as he can, even if the high collar of the other’s coat doesn’t let him see if lips are twitching or not, even if the mask might cover a widened expression. His eyes. Hyuk’s slowly learning to decipher them.

    And the Black Knight’s hands. They seem unstable.

   “Where did you get that watch?” 

   Hyuk reaches out, tries to stop the vigilante from leaving, but his hand only catches air. 

   “No, no, you have to---where did you get it?!” 

  The detective starts to run after him, but it seems the vision of the watch causes him to have a million and one thoughts; a trigger of a lack of balance. His hand lands on a brick wall; jog halts.

    He starts to get flashbacks of Patrick showing him the watch for the first time.      His face of happiness when he says that Felicity gave it to him. The love of his life.     He remembers the times Patrick takes the watch out of his pocket, just to fondly stare at it.     A precious memory of someone he unfairly lost.     He takes note of the echoes of his voice, and they seem so near, yet so far.      Like he’s watching all of this through the grainy screen of a television.

    A groan; dizziness kicks in. He presses one side of his body to the wall, breathing in and out. This isn’t the time to disconnect from the world, Lee Hyuk. Everything around him looks blurry; the wound on his forehead starts to remind him of pain. He slowly slides down in an attempt to sit down, gather his senses so he can at least return to the office without a hassle. 

    Jae-Hwan and Suki must not know about this.      They might suspect something is going on already, though.     He up and left without saying anything, like he usually does.     That doesn’t mean they don’t worry...they always do. 

    The fire. The charred wood; the strong scent of burnt.      Whoever started it knew what they were doing.     Nakamura’s voice invades his head now.     They wanted you to think the fire was accidental.

     I couldn’t find any signs of his watch. Why? He kept that watch with him at all times.

     All the models of watches in existence, and the Black Knight had to have that one. A pocket watch, nonetheless. Something that a lot of people don’t use frequently these days. 

     God, he has to stop thinking.       He closes his eyes. 

     The last thing he sees is the distant and distorted view of a battered clock tower.

———– ♔  

#ofgentleresolve #♔ || verse three (arc two). #♔ || i'm in it with you (patrick | black knight au). #EXCUSE ME AS I HECKIN' SCREAM OVER THIS IWEUHIWUEDHIWEUHDIEH #JUST IMAGINE ME RUNNING IN CIRCLES AND YELLIN' AS SOON AS I READ IT AND SAW THE WATCH BEING REVEALED TO HYUK--- #against Patrick's wishes bUT Y'KNOW WHAT SOME THINGS DON'T GO AS PLANNED MY DEAR PROFESSOR--WIEUDHIUEWDHIUWEDH #THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING THIS IN FERRE :D NEEDLESS TO SAY I GOT VERY EXCITED --- EVEN IF THIS VERSE IS PURE PAIN IT'S SO INTERESTING TO #SEE THIS SIDE OF THEM / THE WAY THEY'D REACT AS THE TRUTH SLOOOOWLY UNCOVERS #HYUK IS SUCH A CONFUSED MESS HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO THINK WIEUDHWIUEDHWDH #I also hope Hyuk's reaction isn't exaggerated or anything of the sort #sometimes this happens where reality gets warped #and he doesn't know where he is for a moment in time #he gets overwhelmed and since there's the ongoing repression of emotions -- wELL -- #bUT YEAH IF IT'S?????? TOO MUCH OR ANYTHING DO LET ME KNOW AND I CAN TOTALLY CHANGE THINGS #I did mention it was going to be a long post 👀 #iwudehiweudhUIHWEID COULDN'T HELP MYSELF / HYURICK MAKES ME SPILL ALL THE PARAGRAPHS--- #I HOPE WHAT I WROTE MADE SENSE AND IT'S SOMETHING TO WORK WITH DEVELOPMENT-WISE ;WWWWWWWW; #Sorry Rook you are perhaps going to be upset because....now that Hyuk has seen the area...he's probably going to stick his nose around IWUHE #he leaves no stone unturned (wHEEZE) #Also Hyuk acting all tough when saying 'stop using my friend as an excuse.../he's no longer here...' when I know he's breaking inside C: #IUHWEIUDHWEDI #ALSO I HOPE IT'S OKAY THAT I MENTIONED SUKI HERE???? #I took those lines from what you told me on Discord ;W; BUT IF??? YOU'D LIKE ME TO CHANGE THIS I WILL JUST LMK <3 #ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU HEAPS FOR SENDING THIS IN / LOVED REPLYING TO THIS WIHDIWUEDHUH #AND THANK YOU FOR LETTING HYUK BE PART OF THIS WONDERFUL (BUT SUPER PAINFUL) VERSE UwU #Also watch him arriving to his apartment just to take a shower and put on other clothes #since the other outfit he was wearing got full of dirt due to him sitting on the ground for a while until his dizziness subsided #and after that going straight to the office to refresh his mind about the watch IUWHEDIWUEHDIH #PLS HAVE A NICE DAY FERRE!!! CARE YOU HEAPS ;W;!!! #♔ || queue.

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

#my favorite out of these is comicfury because it gives you the most control out of all of them #and you can offer monetization tools like ads and patreon links #it also offers super easy tools to help build your own site if you're new to that #it's as close to “running your own site” as comic hosting can get #but you can also learn how to run your own site if you want undeniably full control without fear of the platform host shuttering #also look into collectives like SpiderForest! #they basically operate as a co-op where people host their work with them and get ad opportunities #but you have to apply to get in #ama #ask me anything #anon ama #anon ask me anything #webcomic tips

[probablybadrpgideas]

Number of Goblins, ranked

One Goblin - That's just a goblin. He's probably just getting his groceries or something. Leave him alone, you asshole.

Ten Goblins -- That's a fairly normal amount of goblins. There's generally around ten goblins in any given situations. They're just here for aesthetic, so you know it's a fantasy world. Remember to tip them when you leave.

One Hundred Goblins -- Ok this is too many goblins, but this is a reasonable amount of too many goblins. Like, this is maybe an army of goblins or something? My point is that they're probably here for a good reason. Best not to mess with them, they're likely load-bearing in some way.

One Thousand Goblins -- This is probably a goblin town, in which case this is really more a case of One Human, which is a completely different list only available on goblintube. If not, all these goblins are lost. Return them to the goblin town. The orcs are worried.

One Million Goblins -- A million goblins? I'm not sure I've even seen a million things in my life , and now there's a million goblins? That's, like, all the goblins. Why are you at a convention of all the goblins? Are you a goblin? Actually, no, that would make sense. Yeah, that's probably what's going on here. Sorry you had to find out this way.

One Billion Goblins -- Ok, look, at this point you have clearly been sent to a future time where humanity is extinct and goblins have inherited the earth. I can think of no other explanation for a billion goblins. This sadly means that you're the weirdo, and you have to go be a cryptid now. At least you can find a phone and read the goblin creepypastas about you.

One Trillion Goblins -- How? What is happening? This is more goblins then there are birds, and they'll all in your house? How is your house this big? Wait, forget the goblins, how is your house this big? Are the goblins here to guillotine you? Probably! Move out of your stupid mansion and let the goblins have it, you weird rich bird-hoarding freak.

One Quadrillion Goblins -- One quadrillion? I'm only like 80% sure that's even a real number! Luckily, you won't have to deal with a quadrillion goblins for long, because soon they'll collapse together under their gravity, forming a far more manageable single planet-sized goblin. Picard's not gonna be happy about this one!

More Goblins -- Fuck off, you do not have more then a quadrillion goblins. Why are you lying? Are you worried I won't like you if you don't claim to have an implausible number of goblins? Don't worry. Your worth is not dependent on your goblin numbers. Go back to the actual number of goblins secure in the fact I love you, no matter how few goblins you have <3

#D&D #fantasy #character idea