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fallloverfic · 16 days

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Mithrun and the changeling shapeshifting

This isn't directed at anyone in particular, but I see comments about Mithrun and the changelings/shapeshifting mushrooms a bit and I think there's some misunderstanding about what the shapeshifting does. Spoilers for the manga for chapters 51-the end/volume 8-beyond, and the Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: Adventurer's Bible (first one) below the cut. (Also yes, I know it's partially played for laughs in the manga, but I think Kui also does some neat stuff with it, particularly in Mithrun's case).

The shapeshifting emphasizes different racial traits, and that's going to be defined differently by each race, like how each race has different beauty standards, abilities, and puts on muscle differently (e.g., Senshi is maybe beautiful by dwarven standards, and his beard is huge, so as an elf he's beautiful by elven standards, but his beard is too powerful to shapeshift, so he has a mustache despite the fact no other known elves have facial hair). Kabru, for instance, is a sort of smaller tank, and is kind of waify as an elf (possibly because elves are just kind of waify generally, though this might also be due to his losing weight after being revived; he also doesn't have much magical ability: he has even less than Laios does, versus Mithrun, who's maxed the magic stats chart).

The most muscular elf we know of is Lycion, on the left:

Lycion still looks "skinny" in a way, but he's strong and muscular, just not Hollywood bulky. He matches a race that doesn't put on thick, bulky muscle, at least not easily. Compare this to Mithrun on the right, who isn't as naked as Lycion so we can't quite see what he looks like as an elf under his clothes, because the clothes give him some padding. The closest we get to modern him as nude as Lycion is, is that shot in his cabin in the Adventurer's Bible:

It's hard to tell, but his arms are decently muscular for an elf (also one-armed push-ups are hard, that's not something you do on a lark). His whole thing since Milsiril talked him into getting back into shape to go to dungeons has been solely that: getting back into shape to go deal with the demon, and he's had to build up his body to be able to walk on his own and stay alive long enough to deal with the demon. Given he's also a powerful magic user, but he seemingly doesn't have those abilities as a tall-man (or at least he wasn't using his magic on the door), it might be his tall-man form is also compensating for that. This is Mithrun's stats chart:

"Though he's an elf, both his strength and stamina are excellent. His one weakness is his terrible sense of direction." p.73, Chapter 01 / Characters, Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: Adventurer's Bible. Dudes' beefy even for an elf, even if he doesn't precisely look it. But compare Mithrun and Lycion here:

Mithrun's shorter, and the clothing is probably making him look bigger than he is, but they're somewhat similar, comparatively, once you compensate for the height differences.

We also get some shots of him in motion and wearing that tightish shirt/dress.

Clothing can of course make your bust look more defined than it is, but it's notable that we get some obvious muscle definition to him in the chest area (for an elf), and his lower chest/trunk is rather solid-looking, rather than the thinner forms of his female companions. He seems to be a bit thicker in his mid-section than Pattadol, for instance, who's only slightly taller than he is, and she and Cithis have similarly-sized waists (actually Cithis might be a little thinner? Which would make sense as her focus is on casting).

His focus is movement and physical interaction more than the other casters in his party (he has to touch stuff a little to teleport it), so he builds up his body accordingly. Which also makes sense for how he does one-armed push-ups in his ship cabin in his spare time.

I think a big reason Mithrun is viewed as weak/tiny is because he's often around Kabru so we often compare them physically. Mithrun is thinner and six inches shorter than Kabru, who is not in the best physical shape due to his revival, on top of, at this point, not having a great meal regimen due to neither of them being good at gathering or apparently making meals.

Some shots of Kabru and Mithrun together, for comparison, including Mithrun helping Kabru stand. Kabru is more muscular, but not the bulkiest for a tall-man (he's smaller than Laios, even accounting for the height difference, though still tanky in his own right, I mean he grabbed Falin pretty easily, and Kabru and Falin are the same height; Laios is just big).

(I know Laios' armor makes him look bigger than he is, especially when Kabru has his off, but, ignoring the height difference, Laios is broader than Kabru, seemingly, particularly in the chest and arms).

Yeah, Kabru lost weight after the first revival, so he's not the best comparison, but if Mithrun, an elf, doesn't look rail thin even next to Kabru, who's not that skinny for a tall-man (skinnier than he used to be, but not skeletal), it kind of also says something about Mithrun. He's not like... bones. He's thin, but not rail thin (we know because he was shown rail thin in Daydream Hour during his recovery, and he put on muscle since then). And shots of him, while variable at times - sometimes he's drawn thinner, sometimes thicker, often in comparison to who he's sharing a shot with, e.g., Sissel - often emphasize how thick his arms are, even near Kabru, who is broader and more muscular. I think my best description of Mithrun is "mostly solid for a dude often running on fumes".

And we see him moving fast and hitting hard a lot. Whenever he fights, he's running, jumping, punching, or kicking something. Being lithe would help with that, but he'd need muscle too, especially for how fast he is (an easy comparison is a ballerina or a track runner, both of whom have to build up specific muscles for their craft, and regimens for both can be grueling). And he's not just teleporting people, he's smacking them hard.

He also was (and is) still notably good-looking for an elf. He has nice hair (that he doesn't pay as much attention to as he used to, but still is nice), a good body (even without half his ears, which seem important for elves), and would be considered attractive by a lot of people.

So yes, he's possibly still stringy-ish for an elf because he's likely exhausted due to lack of proper sleep (the bags under his eyes, his noted issues sleeping while in dungeons without aid), and doesn't eat regular meals (while in dungeons). But he's still muscular - to an elvish degree, anyway - and strong, particularly in terms of magical power, so it makes a lot of sense that the guy on the left would become the guy on the right when shapeshifted into a tall-man to become a race that better creates bulkier muscle and has to compensate for Mithrun's magical abilities (also looks kind of cliche handsome, maybe mimicking how Senshi looks as an elf).

I mean obviously there are strong human magic users, like Falin... and she has stronger stats all around than he does/roughly close in some places, so it makes sense he'd be as tall and bulky as she is.

Mithrun is, canonically, way more powerful than Kabru, as well, (at least against monsters), hence probably part of why he's seemingly bulkier than Kabru as a human. Mithrun is the one who deals with almost all the monsters for a reason. It's only when Mithrun is distracted or tired that Kabru gets one over him (e.g., in Sissel's house, or when Kabru grabs Mithrun at the dungeon entrance). Notably, when Mithrun crawled out of a spider and got knocked out by Kabru in chapter 76, Kabru was pointing out that Mithrun needed to rest. He was at his most wet cat moment then... when he was exhausted. So to me at least, this shapeshift makes sense. Normal Mithrun isn't really a wet cat most of the time. He's strong. He just runs himself ragged for various reasons.

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focsle · 9 months

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have you written anything about tattoos? is that relevant? don't know how your niche lines up with generic "sailor" tradition, but wikipedia simply says on knuckle tats that deckhands may get "HOLD / FAST" as a charm to support their grip on rigging, and i thought that was kind of cute.

I haven't written anything myself, mostly cos if you throw a stick out in the internet you'll find any number of articles about the symbolism of sailor tattoos, like hold fast and pigs and roosters and swallows and all that!

In my narrow window (the middle decades of the 19th century), I don't see tattoos mentioned all too often, compared to late 19th and throughout the 20th century where they became more common. For instance, this register of seaman's protection certificates (which are admittedly limited in the scope of things, since they're only from a few specific ports) from 1796-1871 rarely list tattoos as distinguishing marks, beyond the odd mention of being marked with an inked anchor, eagle, or letters here or there. Here's a neat jstor article (if you have any more of your 100 free monthly articles to read with a google account) that goes into late 18th-early 19th c tattoos that has some tables and visuals. The research was also done using seaman's protection certificates, with the following stat:

"The SPC-A records start in 1796 and include tattooed men born as early as 1746. There were 979 tattooed men out of a total of 9,772 men whose records survive from 1796 through 1818.26 These men were marked with a total of about 2,354 separate designs."

So, not a large number, but also 10% isn't insignificant. The protection certificates while a reliable source, also only describe the man in one specific moment. I'm sure a few of those men who just have their moles and scars and crooked fingers listed eventually picked up a tattoo or two in their time. Most journal keepers perhaps didn't think it important to mention who had tattoos or what of, though the typical motifs of anchors, nautical stars, girls, religious & patriotic imagery, etc. were certainly a part of the visual language at this point. Whaler William Abbe who sailed in the 1850s, devoted considerable attention to describing the physical appearance of some of his shipmates. In one instance, he wrote about the tattoos of one 'Johnny Come Lately' or 'Jack Marlinspike' (Real name, John Hewes of Buffalo NY)

'from beneath this cap his face looms out - while beneath supporting his comical head is a bare neck and breast — hairy + brown —the upper timbers to a stout hull of a boat that boast a pair of arms all covered with India ink tattooings — the figure of American Liberty — Christ on the cross — an American Tar holding a star spangled banner in one hand + a coil of rope in the other — a fancy girl — + anchors, rings, crosses, knots, stars all over his wrists + hands — the memorials of different ports he has visited — for Jack has been in all kinds of vessels from a man of war to a blubber hunter — + has consequently been to many ports.'

From the logbook of another whaler who sailed in the early 1840s, James Moore Ritchie, he had a page of his drawings with prices included. This potentially may have been a tattoo flash sheet for his shipmates:

American whalers also noted the tattoos of indigenous people who had signed on to whaling vessels, particularly in the South Pacific. William B. Whitecar, whaling in the 1850s wrote: "Several New Zealanders in the respective crews of these vessels attracted my attention from the tattooing on their bodies" making mention of "figures on their face and breast".

I'm too sleepy to have a conclusion lol. Tattoos! They existed! Though perhaps not as ubiquitously as the pop culture sailor designs would imply, at least prior to the late 19th c.

#asks #anonymous #awhalin

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duckprintspress · 5 months

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Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor S. J. Ralston

We’re entering the final week of the Kickstarter campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, an anthology of 17 aetherpunk stories starring characters outside the gender binary, and we’re still going strong! As I write this, we’re $3,700 shy of our goal – an amount we definitely can raise, but the more help we get spreading the words about this project, the more people will know it exists, and truly that’s the single biggest barrier to hitting our goals: effectively spread the words. So, if you believe in this project, whether you’re a backer or not, we’d really appreciate you taking a moment to share/reblog/retoot/reskeet our posts about it!

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Thanks for all your support! Now, let’s introduce another of our contributing authors…

About S. J.: S. J. grew up in a distinctly weird, distinctly southern hometown, then hied out West for grad school before landing in Texas, where they currently work as a planetary scientist. They’ve been writing original works and fanfiction since they could hold a pencil semi-correctly, and continue to write both whenever possible (as well as still holding a pencil only semi-correctly). In their clearly copious spare time, S. J. enjoys hiking, tabletop RPGs, jigsaw puzzles, and enthusiastically crappy sci-fi.

Link: Personal Website | Tumblr

This is S. J.’s first time writing with Duck Prints Press. You can read another example of their writing by visiting their website to check out Anglerfish, a horror sci-fi story.

An Interview with S. J. Ralston

How did you pick the name you create under?

It’s a line from the opening of the Aeneid that’s stuck with me ever since AP Latin in high school: “On account of the mindful wrath of cruel Juno.” It’s a synchesis, where the adjectives have been swapped from where you expect them to be; it’s Juno who is mindful and her wrath that is cruel, but rearranging them in such a way elegantly implies the relentless, vindictive onslaught that is to follow.

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

Dialogue and dread.

What do the phrases “writer’s block” or “art block” mean to you?

The state of wanting to create but not having the intellectual raw materials to do it.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I would consider myself a plantser. Typically I start with an IDEA, writ large, center of the page. Then some key scenes will populate around it–dramatic moments, fun bits of dialogue, cool setpieces. At that point I get out my corkboard and red string and start trying to piece everything together, and if I’m lucky, the shape of the story will reveal itself to me. Sometimes it’s the classic parabola of rising and falling action, other times it’s been a ring, a tri-fold posterboard, a descending spiral, or a series of concentric circles. Then I fill in until the structure is complete and hope like hell that I can stick the landing.

What are your favorite tropes?

Found Family, Robots With Feelings, Enemies To Lovers, Destructive Romance, Kirk Summation/The Man In The Room

What are your favorite character archetypes?

Brooding Loner Secretly Just Lonely, Lying For Fun And Profit, Badass With An Obvious Dump Stat, Too Old For This Shit, Taciturn But Bizarre, Himbo

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

I make a playlist for almost everything I write that’s longer than a few thousand words. Sometimes it’s for listening to while I’m creating (in that case, it has to be primarily instrumentals or I’ll get distracted), and sometimes it’s just for daydreaming to (in which case, the vibes must be correct, so I can construct AMV’s in my head).

Share five of your favorite books. (You can include why, if you want!)

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett – Eerie, funny, and poignant in equal measure; a police procedural done right.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – Lush with joy, curiosity, and love, yet still remarkably dark, with an ending that will nestle in your brain forever.

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer – Fourth in the series and the absolute pinnacle thereof. A master-class in shit hitting the fan.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – Everyone, down to the most momentary background character, behaves more like *people* than any I’ve ever read before and it’s *disastrous* and I *love* it.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson – The classic of classics. The horror of horrors. The transgenderism of it all.

What are your goals as a creator?

(1) To write something that’s better on the second read-through than it was on the first, and (2) To write something that stays with the reader.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

When you finish a first draft and you *know* you’ve got something really good, put it down. For a month, six months, a year; until the glow fades, or you’ve fallen in love with whatever you’re writing next. Then come back and re-read that first draft. Take extensive notes, diagram the plot, profile the characters. Notice the holes, redundancies, missed opportunities, and inconsistencies. Then open up a blank document and *start over.*

S. J.’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: Razzmatazz

Tags: bipoc, body horror, butch, character injury (non-graphic descriptions), classism, dehumanization, eye horror, horror, humans are the villains, mechanic, minor character death, misogyny, murder (accidental), non-binary, non-human character, past tense, sentient construct (magical), third person limited pov

Excerpt:

The thing was damn near unrecognizable, not just as Marilyn Monroe, but as human. People had tweaked the proportions through the years—amateur artists who couldn’t put down the paintbrush. That kind of thing was bad enough on paper, but seeing it in person made Skipper’s butthole clench.

The dress and the curls were Monroe. The rest was something else.

“Shit my ass off,” Skipper said under his breath.

“Yeah,” said Charlie.

“This gets up and walks around?”

“She does.”

“Shit my ass off.”

Maybe it was a trick of the light, a too-heavy head on a too-thin neck, but the Monroe wasn’t staring across the aisle like the others. It seemed to be looking down at Skipper. It put out waves of dare-you-to-start-some-shit energy.

“Is it because they messed with the proportions?”

“Huh?” said Skipper, pulling out of the Monroe’s tractor beam.

“The reason she moves around so much. Could it be because of…” Charlie gestured to its whole body.

“Hell, maybe,” said Skipper.

The Monroe loomed like a landslide, just waiting for the rain. Skipper had a hammer on his belt. He felt like the Monroe was staring at it. If he broke the case, what then?

#duck prints press #s. j. ralston #aether beyond the binary

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goeths · 8 days

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howdy y’all, my name is norb ( h / th, 21+, pst ) here with workaholic & pathetic yearner, moon yohan ! his plots page is a wip atm, but feel free to take a gander at his stats for now, background and a few wcs under the cut. please drop a like if you would like to plot and i’ll hop into your ims ( d.scrd also available upon request ) !

background:

only child born to moon ilho & gan sumin, two people who didn’t really like each other but definitely really liked conformity ( and validation ).

a sensitive kid ⸻ he’s still sensitive now; literally any movie can bring him to tears at any given time ⸻ who preferred time alone more than the myriad of extracurriculars his mother enrolled him in

he didn’t mind community theater, but he would’ve preferred to work on the set pieces rather than perform in front of them.

started drawing and self-publishing during high school when his parents’ marriage really started turning sour.

under the pen name wisol, yohan quickly built up a following both for his prolific output ( no need to stop drawing if carpal tunnel isn’t a concern ) and his body of work.

became known as the king of isekai for popularizing a genre that went out of fashion after virtual/simulated reality became reality itself.

still, despite his success, it was not enough for his mother on the sole basis that it was anonymous. she pushed him to publicize his appearance rather than hide behind drawn mascots and text-based interviews like his peers.

joining romance roulette was a last resort to get away from her nagging ( both regarding his fame and his single-ness! )

most of his popularity on the show came from his earnest compassion coupled with the admission that he’d never been in a relationship before.

did not anticipate being the most popular contestant but was more than happy to take advantage of the perks that came with it, like finally being able to move out of his parents’ place.

not very satisfied with the trade-off of now being a public figure expected to do stuff like endorsements and talk shows and even acting once again, but anything was better than being stuck at home.

at his very peak, he was cast as the male lead in an adaptation of one of his own webtoons. however, he never got to see its release before a series of suggestive messages and photos implicating him in infidelity were plastered all over terra.

no one cared for his claims of innocence and he became public enemy #1 almost overnight. the public perceived this as an unforgivable betrayal of the wide-eyed naïve persona he portrayed on romance roulette.

his plummeting ranking has finally plateaued at 0.4, but with that came his ejection from the gated districts, each of his forthcoming projects panned regardless of quality, and he was forced to move back in with his parents.

he still has a small pocket of fans sustaining him, but he’s become embittered and developed a chip on his shoulder at their defense that they enjoy his art in spite of his personal life ⸻ as even his most die-hard fans take it as fact that he’s a cheater.

wcs:

a disgruntled fan. wisol is known for never pulling punches with his work, story & themes >>>> character ALL the time which means that a lot of his earlier stuff has character deaths up the wazoo. think gege akutami/jjk for his breakout series dungeon master became the tank! you have never forgiven him for killing off your favorite character after all this time, meanwhile he has zero regrets and won’t hesitate to tell you so to your face.

an old neighbor. maybe you guys grew up together in the megabuilding. he was always quiet and kept to himself (though not quite shy, he just never saw the point in talking to other people), so to see him put himself out there on romance roulette must’ve been quite the shock. and now he’s back home after an icarus-like fall. come to offer a shoulder to cry on, or maybe to gloat?

former co-stars. at the time, starring alongside him in the live-action adaptation of in this life, i’ll flip the script! was a job everybody wanted. it could even have been your big break. but after the cheating scandal emerged, the whole thing was on the verge of being axed ⸻ it finally saw the light of day after a massive delay and its reception was nearly 100% negative. he won’t apologize for dragging you down with him, still insistent that none of this is his fault because none of that scandal was true.

the person he supposedly cheated with. ruiner of his life. person he wants to hate but can’t, for whatever reason. the obvious thing would be to stay away, lest his ranking get worse just by being in your presence, but he just… can’t. really open for anything with this!

the person who exposed him. whether they genuinely believed he was unfaithful, whether they just wanted him to fall, whether he was collateral in an attempt to show terra’s fallibility in accessing his private correspondence, he’ll probably never find it in his heart to forgive.

#ts:intro #im writing this on mobile at work so hopefully this is coherent fhdjdbdbs

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traincat · 4 months

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ive never played the games so i dont know what to picture when im reading your fics, how tall do you think soren and ike are?

I said recently that they have a Mulder and Scully level height difference and I stand by that statement. This one is a little hard to answer, because I don't think there is a definitive answer -- it's not like comics where there's an official handbook with heights and weights listed, although there is like, a vague equivalent. I'll get to that. I know recently some people deduced heights by, I think, converting the measurements of their respective models in Fire Emblem Engage, the anniversary game for the series that featured both characters, but I'll be honest, that's too much math for me, and I'd rather rip into the text of the original games until I come up with my own answer. So I'm gonna give you my thoughts, and the canon evidence that backs them up, but it's just my opinion.

Anyway I'm going into this with the same amount of thought that I go into with all my comics meta. I'm sorry about that in advance.

So two things about Fire Emblem 9 and 10. The first is that the games aren't new -- FE9 came out in 2005, and FE10 in 2007. Graphically, they hold up well, but it's because they're not very complicated. The majority of conversations take place involving still portraits with text underneath -- there's only a few fully animated cutscenes. (Soren is in exactly one FE10 cutscene, and they're not standing next to each other.) The second is that the games take place over a period of a few years (each game takes place over about a year, with a three year gap in between FE9 and FE10). Ike starts FE9 at 17, and he's about 20 at the start of FE10. And he evolves like a Pokemon.

This is not meant to be to height scale; I just wanted these three pieces of official art next to each other for comparison. Graphic design is not my passion.

Also, this has nothing to do with height, but I'm going to point it out anyway: Ike's FE10 artbook page literally ends by talking about how he's in love with Soren.

(credit to Kantopia for the translation.) (did I mention that, by FE rules, the ship is canon. because it's canon.) The character designer, Kita Senri, also drew this picture of FE9 and FE10 Ike standing back to back, which. Yeah. Okay!

By FE10, at least, so by age 20, Ike is tall. (His parents come from the Tall People Country, Daein.) His size is remarked upon a couple of times in the script, too, by people who hadn't seen him for a few years:

Ike: Tormod, it's been a while. Tormod: Holy moly! You are absolutely huge! I feel puny next to you… Ike: That's because you are puny. Magic clearly doesn't give you much muscle tone. (...) Tormod: Nah, you just can't see me properly because all of your blood gets pumped to your muscles, away from your brain! [leaves] Ike: A little touchy, Tormod?

(FE10, Part 4 Chapter 4)

Volke: You’ve grown quite a bit since the last time I saw you. Ike: Everyone loves telling me that. Volke: You’re starting to look like Greil. Ike: That might be true, too. He IS my dad.

(FE10, Part 4 Endgame-1) It should be noted that Ike's dad, Greil, was pretty huge.

Engage also has it remarked upon, with one character saying that Emblems (essentially FE main character force ghosts in-game) are big, and Ike remarking that that's not an Emblem thing, he's just huge. (He's the funniest Fire Emblem main character except for his co-star, Micaiah, Little Miss War Crimes, and I'm barely even biased at all.)

There are in-game stats for height and weight (build/constitution and weight, respectively), as they relate to mechanics -- if one character is significantly bigger and heavier than the other, the smaller character can't rescue them or shove them. Weight varies because, for example, if a character is on a horse, the horse factors into the weight, or if they're wearing heavy armor, etc. Build, for me, is the best indicator of general (not exact) height. In FE9, Ike's build and weight start off at 9, which is pretty average, and then 10/11 upon class promotion. In FE10, his build is 12 and weight is 13, which is on the bigger side -- I'd say compared to other human men in the game, but there are a lot of big guys in this game. Again, he's twenty, so he's probably still growing, and everyone is already remarking that he's huge. I'm almost always gonna go with what the text says, and the text in FE10 says he's huge, pretty unequivocally.

Soren... is not huge. Soren is, debatably, pretty tiny.

If we're going to use build/weight as a metric, and I think for these purposes we have to, then Soren is a 6 build and 6 weight to Ike's 12 build and 13 weight. So half Ike's size. Either way, 6 build and 6 weight is small -- the only people who are smaller than him are a handful of the female characters, including the one with literal bird bones. How much this reflects on his actual height is up for debate -- I think when that FE Engage height math was done, it was determined that, based on his model there, he was probably 5'10", which is obviously not that short, but if that's the case he's probably very thin to account for that weight stat. His father and his eldest uncle, if not also his mother, are very tall, so there is that to factor in. Soren is half-dragon and he ages slower than an average human, so there's potential for him to end up quite tall -- but it could take twenty, thirty years. (Soren is 19 in FE9 and 22 in FE10.) It's kind of a big shrug in his case. I don't think he's particularly tall, but I think it's more up for personal interpretation how tall he is, as opposed to Ike where the text is repeatedly shouting "HE'S HUGE!!!" at you. He is, pretty clearly, quite a bit smaller than Ike.

I'm going to wrap up this insane person analysis with this pretty art of Soren which does nothing to suggest anything height-wise. I just like to look at it.

(PS thank you for reading my fic even though you haven't played the games! It always makes me really happy to hear that people like my writing enough to do that. but also I have like, fully conspiracy theoried my way into believing they'll rerelease the games.)

#traincat talks fire emblem #*replies #insane person height meta the not spideytorch version

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smallearthboundfindings · 1 year

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"now ask about ness for an equally long essay" formally requesting the essay ^__^ unless other people got the same idea to ask about him and in which case go with any other main character you feel like doing (although the more obscure ones have been fun to read/think about)!

Woo, Ness the Bess, let's go!! (Nope, no other Ness requests yet!)

Unfortunately, now I am faced with a new problem: I have TOO much material to work with! (Ness's section alone on my headcanons doc is 5 pages, 12px Times New Roman, Double Spaced.)

But you know what? I’ll just pick the one I can elaborate on the most. It also goes into a larger theory of mine, so here goes: this one's about Ness's homesickness status effects, a few other things, and the implications this has on how PSI works as a whole.

Here's the original snippet from my doc:

"Explaining his homesickness status, [Ness] has a tendency to become overwhelmed under stress, which can either weaken, disable, or throw his powers completely out of his control to spark out randomly by his emotional state. Remembering home is just the most common manifestation of what his brain will try to calm him down with but, ironically, this tends to just make the problem worse due to his sentimentality."

I’ll elaborate upon this because I think it has more to be said.

PSI is clearly heavily linked to its user’s emotions. For one, the magic butterfly that restores it is stated to “make Ness and his friends relax”. This implies that a calm mind is required to use psychic moves. Not only that, but there is also the “Can’t Concentrate” status condition, which, guess what? Disables psychic moves. These combined with the fact that things like homesickness can cause missed attacks show that, yes, emotional state absolutely has an effect on the moves. If you are not stable enough, they simply will not work.

Look at Giygas (corrupted form), for example, who clearly is not controlling any of those moves you cannot comprehend the true form of. They seem almost random and for his clear chaotic state of disarray, it makes sense that the attacks become just as random.

So emotional disarray can either disable your powers, make you use them less efficiently, or throw them at random it seems.

Now, most of the time, Ness is a pretty jolly kid, but you know he is absolutely emotionally driven by his family (has to call both his mom and his dad to do well). And something interesting about the homesickness status, is that it’s only relevant in the middle of the game. See, I’m copy-pasting but the stats on that are as follows:

Level 1-15: 0/256

Level 16-30: 3/256

Level 31-75: 2/256

Level 76-99: 0/256

Here’s what I think is happening here…

At first, he’s very close to home, so no problem! He’s just like, “Yay! Adventure! :D :D”

But once he’s out of Onett, then he starts thinking, “Am I out of my mind? Is this too far? What if?” And it’s clear he thinks these things too if not evidently clear by Lumine Hall’s dialogue. He clearly puts a lot of pressure on himself to keep the others safe at a certain point where it is no longer just fun and games until he has actually and literally fought his inner doubts in Magicant and returns sure of himself and brave (aka. the Lv. 76-99 range).

So yeah, that’s what I think! Ness was not always the best with his powers because he channelled his sentimentality in the wrong way. It’s not that he couldn’t be sentimental, being sweet is part of his character! Look at his Magicant and he’s clearly still trying to justify Porky no matter all he’s done. He has so much optimism in the world, yet doubts in himself, ironically. He seems like the type to mask these doubts in his humor but if becomes too large, he simply cannot bottle it further. It’s just that he had to learn to believe in himself to be able to calm his nerves from the inside.

PSI users also accidentally using PSI under emotional distress is also great for angst. Just imagine one of them clearly trying to hide they feel scared or something but little flecks of colors are just sparking off of them, making it clear to their friends that something’s wrong but they don’t know what? Oh, that’s good for the angst. I could say something really heartbreaking about Claus now. But I won’t! Cause this ain’t about him!

But anyway, there’s your PSI/Ness’s homesickness essay! Hope that was essay-y enough for you! Thanks for asking!

#not a finding #ask game #headcanon #ness #long post #5 pages???#12 font times new roman double space??#haha yeah #should i invest in a neurodivergency screening? probably! but it's funnier if everyone thinks i'm just chronically obsessed #now mind you some of those headcanon doc items outdated due to either me changing my mind or canon i found later but anyway #interestingly one of them was actually correct though! It was about King’s age and breed but anyway. Deal for another time #man wait I think this one is longer oops!#blorbo posting #< warranted

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factorialsotherfandoms · 5 months

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xcom1au questions @cubitodragon !

I can't actually get a fully accurate count gamplay wise, as the last time you can access the character stats page is before the sequence. As such, this chart is too few for BBH, Philza, Etoiles, Foolish, Cellbit, and Missa. No I have no idea in what order that pans out. But, here is my stats spreadsheet as per immediately before the final mission, sorted by kills! As we can see Jaiden is a monstr (though Etoiles has the best kill:mission ratio of people I actually used. Walter Bob did not get used beyond the recruitment mission as I hate that class).

It should be noted that covert missions aren't counted on this list - Tina and Bagi were doing a lot of that. Also for story purposes rank is ignored. Low missions and high rank is generally a good indicator of a late recruit, however. Also please look at my boy Mike with his BS hack score of 102% base chance and 40% bonus from gear, and his highest base health. Sad times he got kidnapped and so lost 2 months of chances to get xp else he would have been terrifying. Also Pac and Foolish the only people who ever learnt to fucking dodge.

Story wise... I mean these are good rules of thumb for during plot kills. Some characters have backstories where they've been killing much longer than others (Fit, Roier, the Brazilians), while say Baghera only started killing around the time she was recruited (her primary function is as a liason for the French. Really she should have been a templar, but I didn't recruit any until late and despite how few missions because she random rolled into a class I had too many of already she is my girl)

2. Not sure I have stats for that in game! Didn't write all that down. I mean, no, it's Luzu because he showed up for a single mission and didn't get hurt on it, so his time clocked in the infirmary is 0. Over the entire group, 212 days were spent out injured by units in game (once infirmary was built, time per injury halved) over 45 missions. I'd have to trawl though my notes to work out who actually used got hurt least often, and I don't have enough hands for the tally today.

3. Funniest egg story... I mean they could all be very funny, but frankly the funniest egg rescue is Ramon. There's BBH, Foolish, Fit, Pac, Mike and Jaiden on the mission. They're having a truly dreadful time. The Hunter, that guy who kidnapped Mike, is back again. They get rid of it (for now) and start securing the area and working out how to get this massive plot object back on a helicopter when this kid just... hops down from a tree, walks up to Fit, and hands him a bit of paper that says "your husband is dead my condolences or maybe congratulations you didn't seem to like him much" (Dapper and Leo helped him write it when Ramon recognised Fit from Spreen's memories - Spreen got kidnapped, he and Ramon were forced to bond so the aliens could work out what was going on with the vanishing kids and the metaphysics of the bonds. they took their readings and Spreen was killed like 4 hours later once they had their notes). Fit has no fucking clue what to do with this but does laugh and everyone was pretty sure Spreen was dead by this point and like. What do you even do there. It's like. Well. Um. Shit I guess. And maybe that's not actually especially funny but /I/ think it's hilarious, even if traumatising for Ramon poor kid.

... More generally funny is probably just that when Richas gets upset with Forever not spending enough time with him he starts stealing the paperwork and putting it in random places. Like the freezer. or slipped into books. Or whatever. Forever has learnt the quickest way to get it back is to spend time with his kid, then take a nap, and once the nap is over it is all returned even if a little crumpled and/or soggy...

4. I mean Missa was supposed to retire like 10 missions in and never did. Felps actually doing stuff is novel. Antoine is being weirdly important given he has neither a role on the ship nor was he playable nor does he have a direct parallel in the game. Baghera only has a little and I wish she'd been powerful enough for the final mission as it makes her plot an epilogue which sucks. But she does actually have very fun stuff occurring and I'm wrangling a way to make it more important. Jaiden pulls more plot than I was expecting her to while being an actual guy, though it's still more plot happens near her than she does plot.

5. *points above* /Baghera/. The original 5 Brazilians have stolen my life but dear god I want to do some of her stuff my amnesiac weirdo girlie. Also just like generally everyone, and the next five fics in my head are all Brazilians again (though one is Bagi-focused for once), and then egg stuff, and I should maybe the plot sometime, but /Baghera/. You understand?

6. I mean many but that's super loose errr trying to think of a good one... Niki is probably the least likely person to have a day off, because she's the only helicopter pilot. Well, no, she has many days off as if she's not needed she's never asked to do other work, but she can never actually leave. She's on call 24/7, poor woman.

Foolish is the first one who found and wired up a games console in the common room. Etoiles is usually the one found playing it, though. When doing supply runs people actually make a point of stealing games (video, board, whatever), music, films, and books from abandoned cities as well as actually supplies because 90% of their lives are extremely boring and the other 10% is spent nearly dying. Allies have stuff like ink and paper, but stuff to do is hard to get hold of. Art and music are a bit easier, as you can covert other supplies, but writing is too much paper per unit time. Oral storytelling therefore is also a big thing. Wilbur's job is running the radio station, but it's also his sanity.

Recruitment wise... It's funny, because you could say Foolish, Max, and Bad recruited Forever, Pac, and Mike and you wouldn't be wrong. The two trios were the first to join forces and sort of... met in the middle.

(Feel free to ask either more or follow up questions! Same goes for other people too)

#qsmp x xcom #... i'm not tagging everyone in here have fun!#qsmp au

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shining-gem34 · 2 months

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The Cynical Puppet

Name: The Balladeer (Scaramouche)

Age: 500+

Species: Puppet

Birthday: January 3rd

Region: Snezhnaya

Affiliation: The Fatui

Vision: ????

Delusion: [Electro]

Weapon: [Catalyst]

Constellation: ????

Ship Status: Open to multiship, but this will require HEAVY-HEAVY plotting.

>To see the Wanderer (Post-Fatui), please click here. >To see Kabukimono (Pre-Fatui), please click here.

>Lore || Voicelines || Headcanons

"As the Balladeer, he is the Sixth Fatui Harbinger bearing the title of "Scaramouche". An arrogant and haughty figure who sought to become a higher being surpassing both mortals and gods. The Balladeer had reached his dream, but alas even he must wake up and face his own reality..."

Backstory

After leaving Inazuma, the puppet was recruited by Pierro to join the Fatui. In exchange for Dottore unsealing his power, the puppet becomes his test subject. At the same time, the Tsaritsa gave him a task- He would lead an expedition into the Abyss and bring results back to the Fatui. A grueling cycle of the puppet body breaking and repairing, but he eventually succeeded and was given the rank of the Sixth Fatui Harbinger- The Balladeer (Scaramouche).

Within the Fatui, the Balladeer is usually on standby and tasked with odd jobs helping the Fatui behind the scenes. He is still Dottore test subject and sometimes explores the Abyss on the Pierro orders.

At some point in time, the Balladeer returned to Inazuma under the name “Kunikuzushi” and pulled the strings for the Raiden Gokaden to fall from grace. He is the reason why three out of the five schools are destroyed. This incident later known as “The Case of the Eccentric” is Kunikuzushi vengeance against “the blacksmith” leaving only Kaedehara Yoshinari (whom he recognized as a Niwa) and the Yashiro head as the survivors during the chase.

[Rest of the Balladeer story where he meets the Traveler, please refer to “Lore” to see the summarized version on his wiki page]

Abilities

Delusion: The Balladeer wields an Electro Delusion gifted by the Tsaritsa. To the surprise of many, the application of his newfound powers went into healing/support rather than destruction. It doesn’t mean he isn’t any less violent as he will shoot bolts of lightning at you and finish it with a spinning lightning blade.

Skill: The Balladeer casts a ring of electro around you applying electro to nearby enemies. In exchange for his and his allies' vigor, the Balladeer can boost your stats temporarily. At the end of the duration, the ring disappears and your vigor (health points) are restored by a certain percentage.

Ultimate: The Balladeer summons multiple spinning lightning blades that fly and attack enemies, casting an AOE electro damage to enemies within range.

Weapon: The Balladeer main weapon is a catalyst used to strengthen his elemental attacks. He is capable of using a sword and has some knowledge of martial arts.

Durability: Due to his origins, the Balladeer puppet body is more durable than a human. This is further enhanced by his time during the Fatui where as the Balladeer, he was assigned missions to explore the Abyss and experimented on by the Doctor.

Dancing: The Balladeer, who used to have no name, was known to be a beautiful and elegant sword dancer by the people living near Mikage Furnance in Tatarasuna. Whether he can still dance is a topic he avoids with great intensity.

Cunning: He has proven to be a skillful actor capable of hiding his true self behind a polite and friendly mask.

Blacksmith: When the Balladeer was raised among the people in Tartarasuna, he was taken in by Niwa and the other swordsmiths who taught him the art of crafting blades. He is one of the few who still remembers the Isshin Art (the other being Kaedehara Kazuha). But he cast such memories aside for they are bitter on his tongue.

Talents: The Balladeer can decrease the cost of enhancing catalyst and bow weapons.

Special Dish: ????

||Updated 3/23/24

#the not ascetic (The Wanderer)#the cynical puppet (Balladeer/Scaramouche)#the little fledgling (Kabukimono)#a wrathful void (angst/serious/gore)#hat guy (general/casual)#unsightly insects (Honkai Star Rail AU)#jade makes a bio (character)

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theygotlost · 5 months

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2023 book log/year in review!

here is a comprehensive of breakdown of every book I read this year!!

Terry Pratchett's Discworld

this was THE YEAR OF DISCWORLD for me. I read more disc books than non disc books. I'm probably gonna take a break from the series for a few weeks to get my breath back. I read my first ever disc book, Going Postal, in december of 2022 so it doesn't technically count as being part of this year, but here's every one that I read starting in january, in the order I read them:

Making Money

Raising Steam

Guards! Guards! (x2)

Men at Arms (x2)

Soul Music

Feet of Clay

Mort

Jingo

The Fifth Elephant

Night Watch

Wyrd Sisters

Faust Eric

The Wee Free Men

Witches Abroad

Thud!

Monstrous Regiment

The Truth

Lords and Ladies

Hogfather

Rereads

The Fourth Bear is kind of whatever but rereading all the others has cemented them as some of my favorite books and I'm really glad I got to experience them again because I hadn't read them in years 😁

The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

How I Killed Pluto (and Why It Had It Coming) by Mike Brown

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams

Other Books

It's kind of embarrassing to see how this list pales in comparison to all the disc books but I WAS reading other stuff I swear!! look!!

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Sacrifice by Mitchell Smith

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Did Not Finish

Some of these I got through more of than others. the really bad ones I dropped only after 50 pages or so. im sorry women.

Closing Time by Joseph Heller

Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

The Real and the Unreal, vol. 2: Outer Space, Inner Lands by Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Total Stats

Books started: 36

Books finished: 31

Books finished that I hadn't read before: 26 (19 Discworld, 7 not)

I PROMISE I'm not trying to be one of those "30 books in 30 days!" type booktok people, I wasn't aiming for any specific number. I only read this many books because i genuinely really loved them and couldn't stop reading them!!!!!!!

Reading List for 2024

I have an even longer list than this with a bunch of books that I saw or were recommended to me and I thought "oh that seems interesting maybe I'll check it out" but who knows if I will actually get to them. this list below is basically a new years resolution, books that I fully intend to read this year:

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (already currently reading this one, just need to finish it)

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Facing the Wave: A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami by Gretel Ehrlich

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Discworld Reading List

Yes, I am keeping this one separate. I don't necessarily intend to get to all of these by the end of 2024, just some time in the future (I probably will end up reading them all next year anyway LOL). Once I finish these, only the Rincewind and Tiffany Aching series remain. I'm not as interested in those based on the small sampling I got of them, but I'll probably read them all at some point just for the sake of completion.

Moving Pictures

Snuff

Reaper Man

Pyramids

Small Gods

Equal Rites

Maskerade

Carpe Jugulum

it's kind of scary to think that this is all thats left..... idk what im gonna do after that man..... kill myself? start over from the beginning? I guess ill just have to cross that bridge when I get to it ☹

happy new year everypony!!!!

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pyolyuja · 1 year

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hi again everybody !! it’s admin ocha here with my 2nd child who is the epitome of tranquil surfer boy aesthetic~ i am wayyyy less prepared with him, so pretty much all his info barring his profile/stats page is under the cut , but i wanted to go ahead and post something for him 🧡 beyond the read more, you’ll find his bullet point origin story & some wanted connections so please do hit the heart if you would like to plot with yunseong !

grew up in the yangyang city area of gangwon district. his parents owned a bed & breakfast at jukdo beach, so the family spent quite a lot of time there.

the family dynamic was really tight-knit and was very reliant on humor to make it through difficult times, something that would have a lifelong effect on yunseong.

while their parents worked, yunseong and his older sister (wc!!) would kill time for hours on the beach. he loved being there, smelling the sea salt in the air, hearing the battling chirps of seagulls and the crashing of waves.

this was where he took his first surfing lesson. he saw them being given on the beach and begged his mother for the 26,000 won it cost to enter the class. he fell in love on the first wave, even though he fell into it within milliseconds. by the end of that day, he had enough muscle memory in his calves to withstand a good five or so seconds on the board.

the lessons became semi-regular and a few months later, he could surf bigger waves and his balance had been trained along quite nicely. he could officially consider it a hobby, and didn’t really need the input of an instructor anymore.

he used his newfound balance to also learn skateboarding, something that translated into a very specific friend group in school.

yunseong was fairly athletic, playing a few different sports in school, but never having any real aspirations to go pro at anything. still, the world of sports fascinated him, and he could definitely see himself doing something behind the scenes.

after graduating from high school, he admittedly slacked off quite a bit. all he really wanted to do that summer was hang out on the beach he grew up on and surf as much as he could. he didn’t really wanna accept that his childhood was over, and it was time to start taking responsibility for himself.

after a year of goofing off, his father scolded him about not taking his future seriously and pushed him to start thinking about what he wanted to do with his life.

he wound up getting accepted to meikyung university in daegu, and is currently pursuing his degree in sports marketing.

after moving to daegu, he got a job at xpixel in the mall to pay his bills and rent (he was insistent on moving out of the dorm and living off campus bc he just couldn’t take it anymore) and is about a year out from graduating.

he’s once again become unsure about his future, because he enjoys working at sunset galleria so much. he kinda just wants to stay at the hotel pool or hang out at the arcade with his friends for the rest of time.

personality

some beachy surfer vibes; mostly he’s just an extremely calm, laidback individual. he’ll really only fight or argue if it means keeping the peace in the end, if that makes sense.

complete mama’s boy. his mom is his favorite person on the whole earth, whereas he wasn’t as close to his more stern father.

still uses humor to lighten the mood or deflect his true feelings. can be a little self-effacing sometimes in a humoristic way. doesn’t like to make other people the butt of his jokes unless he knows them and they have that type of comfort level.

he is the type to cover your shift to help out, but also, don’t expect him to do a good job rip

is slightly competitive due to his background in sports, but again, it’s more in a joke-y way

has a hard time taking anything seriously, and it can be to an annoying degree. it may sometimes feel irreverent, but just when you think he’s incapable of being genuine, he tells you something very real and you’re taken aback by it.

this communicates into how he loves quite a bit. you may sometimes feel like he doesn’t say the right words enough, but he always comes through in the end. he is also pretty big on romantic gestures, rather than using words to convey his feelings. catch him making u a mixtape of songs that remind him of you and planning you a poolside picnic 🧡

wanted connections

gamer friends

friends he hits up the pool with a lot

mutual crush / flirtationship

frenemies

fwbs

roommates

friends from college / study buddies

people who will actually eat his strange cooking

literally anything give me all the things

#╰ * 𝙸𝙼 𝚈𝚄𝙽𝚂𝙴𝙾𝙽𝙶. : intro. ⧽ it’s okay if the waves grow .

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 years

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The last few times I’ve posted something on here from Twitter, I’ve prefaced it with “I know I said I was going to stop doing this, I’m trying, but in the meantime here’s something I found.” I don’t have to do that this time, though, because I have a good excuse! I commented on one of Mark Watson’s Tweets in which he said you can comment and then he’ll follow you and then you’ll DM him your email address and he’ll put it on a mailing list and then tell you about online comedy shows that his production company runs. Which is a ludicrous process and I’m still not convinced I could actually bring myself to DM my email address to Mark Watson like he’s a normal human being, and that’s probably a moot point because you can only DM him if he follows you (that’s why he told people to comment on the post) and he’s not responded to my comment yet and probably won’t because, obviously, he’s a famous comedian and it is absolutely ridiculous that we can just say things to famous people on the internet. It feels like it shouldn’t be allowed.

But anyway, I gave it a shot, and I can now justify going back to his Twitter page because I want to see if he’s replied to my comment and/or followed me so I can possibly be on an email list where he’ll tell me if his production company puts some comedy on the internet. I have never posted a Tweet, that comment I posted on Mark Watson’s Tweet yesterday is the only time I’ve ever posted anything at all on Twitter, and I have zero followers. If Mark Watson follows me, 100% of my Twitter followers will be famous people. That’s a hell of a stat.

Anyway, while going back to his page, I found this:

Again, amazing. Amazing that they can just ask regular people things like this. Obviously I immediately started thinking of what I’d write if I were the sort of person who can write replies to famous people on the internet. I am not that sort of person, but I can write things on my anonymous Tumblr blog. This blog might just turn into where I write my replies to Mark Watson’s Tweets, except I’m posting them somewhere he won’t see them.

When asked what my wishlist would be for comedy shows I want to see, lots of names come to mind that aren’t realistic. I mean, if we’re just fantasizing here, then I want to see Jo Brand do a show with Sandi Toksvig where Toksvig gives interesting historical facts and Jo Brand says she doesn’t care. I want to see a Chocolate Milk Gang/Honourable Men of Art reunion. I want to see Armando Iannucci do 45 minutes on whatever the fuck happened to the British government in the summer of 2022. I want to see Joe Lycett and Chris Flemming in a room together. They don’t even need to do comedy, I just want to know they’ve met. I want Frankie Boyle to come on the Mock the Week finale and say her pussy’s definitely haunted now. I want Jon Richardson and Russell Howard to write that movie together, the one they were planning in 2008 before the most dramatic breakup of the 21st century. I want a panel show called 10 Out of 10 Cats that’s hosted by Sarah Millican and the panelists just play with cats all episode and no one who’s ever done anything terrible is allowed to be a guest on it. I want more seasons of The Department with the entire original cast, on radio or TV. I want a reboot of Nathan Barley with the same premise of satirizing its time only this one’s set in 2019. I may be getting slightly away from the original remit. I mean, while I’m dreaming, I want Sean Lock back. I want to make the Atlantic Ocean smaller so I could catch a short ferry ride from Canada to see the Edinburgh Festival.

Obviously I’d sell my soul to see Rhod Gilbert’s Book of John show. I want to see Frankie Boyle’s new show, but given... certain historic events, I’m not about to ask Mark Watson for that. I’d sell my mother’s soul alongside my own to see Daniel Kitson do anything. Literally anything. But I don’t think he’ll do gig for someone else’s production company, because he doesn’t do other people’s stuff or production or company. He may occasionally do gigs, but only if no one’s allowed to see them.

But to try to go slightly beyond that into what I think might be the general realm of people who might actually do this sort of thing, and are also people I like and want to see more of their comedy but it’s not always easy to find online (or I’ve already found what’s online and I would like more please, and/or I just want to see what they’re doing currently): Jen Brister, Susie McCabe, Ahir Shah, Sarah Keyworth, Sarah Kendall, Harriet Kemsley, Huge Davies, Ed Night, Angela Barnes, Toussaint Douglass, Rose Matafeo, Rosie Jones, Mark Steel, Andy Zaltzman, Alice Fraser, Paul Sinha, Josie Long, Desiree Burch, Susan Calman, Isy Suttie, Felicity Ward, David O’Doherty, Sophie Duker, Mae Martin, Darren Harriott, Chloe Petts. I know Helen Zaltzman doesn’t do stand-up but I think she should start. And, you know, Mark Watson. (Mark, I’m assuming your boy Kumar from the Taskmaster days goes without saying.)

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karizard-ao3 · 11 months

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My son (9) read Assassination Classroom recently. I read only the first few chapters and couldn't get into it, but he was enthralled. He hates handwriting anything because he still struggles with penmanship, but he was so excited about the series that he would laboriously copy down character stats onto a notepad. The ending made him cry. I was sitting next to him on the couch, working on a wip or maybe playing a game, when he said, in a trembling voice, "Mom?"

I looked over at him. Tears were pouring down his face. "[spoilers]," he said. "I want to stop reading. I'm so sad."

But he couldn't stop reading so he kept going and he kept crying. And he was still thinking about it days later.

I didn't think much about it at the time, because at this point, I've been deeply affected by so many pieces of media that I take it for granted. I cried at the end of the new Pixar short, Carl's Date, right there in the middle of the theater. I was a broken zombie for days after the end of Attack on Titan. My brother finished Attack on Titan and had to go lie down for a while before we could talk about it.

But, this morning, I found one of the note pages where my child had so enthusiastically copied out a character's details, and, left with a moment to think because he's away at his dad's for a month, I realized that this is maybe the first time he's become really invested in media. Like, he's had favorite shows and whatnot before, but I don't think he's ever let himself become so fully immersed in a story before. And I started thinking, what a beautiful and human experience it is to lose yourself in something that another human being has created, to have it find something inside you that connects you to it in such a deep and profound way that it makes you feel visceral joy and sorrow, that you want to talk about it and think about it and wrap yourself up in it. How lovely that a work does not have to be high brow or genius (in general, I haven't read Assassination Classroom to make that call for it) to get you in its grip and light you up. What a joy of being alive.

Bringing this back around to fanfiction, this reminds me of something else I've thought before. Being a fan of post-apocalyptic dystopias to begin with, and with the news over the past few years being the way it has been, I've thought a lot about society collapsing, and the future anthropologists (if there are any left) who will study our society. And imagine if all they have left of us is a remnant of the internet (I'm not a computer person. I do not know if this is even possible) where they find AO3, a digital library of tributes to original works. The original works themselves are gone, or lost behind a paywall, but the fanfiction is there, and the future anthropologists and historians and digital archaeologists (I made that up, as far as I know, but why not?) base all their understanding of how we engaged with and created stories based on our fan writing. What would they infer about us and Attack on Titan based on studying our Eremika fics? Would they read our "ancient classics" and be consumed by the characters like we were? Will they write essays about the many faces of Eren (is he a fuckboy or a simp? A toxic daddy or a pathetic goofball?)? Will they speculate about whether Eremika or Jeankasa is the true pairing? What can our portrayals of Mikasa reveal about our society's internalized misogyny? Surely they'll be able to tell from the comments and author's notes that these stories are based on other media, but what if fanfic is all that's left? Isn't that interesting to think about?

God, sorry, I went off on a tangent. It's just so exciting. Art and creation is so exciting, and the idea that these pieces of our minds can live on and change people even long after we're gone.

In conclusion, I just think it's all so neat.

#musings #fanfiction #ao3 stuff #speculation #It was just supposed to be a cute story about my beloved child #fanart is art #fanfiction is literature

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anchoragecafe · 1 year

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INTRODUCING GÉRARD!

hey, isn’t that gérard mensah? i think that the fifty year old from sitka, alaska works as a private investigator, but outside of that people describe them as running on nothing but a bagel and a coffee, gold locket with a photo of your family in it, stacks of paperwork on your desk. i hear they are cautious & anxious, but they are also known to be sedulous & forbearing. consider giving them a visit at their home in seal harbor apartments and get to know why they’re called the diligent.

current connections in play

connection ideas page

BASIC STATS⸻

full name: gérard mensah

nicknames: gerry, mr mensah

age: 50 years old

gender, pronouns: cis man, he/him

sexuality: gay

notable family members: his mother, henrick ‘ricky’ mensah (husband), babette mensah (daughter)

ABOUT THE CHARACTER⸻

triggers: illness, parental death

› gérard was born in sitka to a loving single mother; she did everything in her power to give him a good childhood. they were all each other had for a very long time. his mother meant everything to him (and very much still does)

› moved to go to university for criminology and had lived away from sitka for about 10 years until he got a call that his mother fell ill so he decided to move back and take care of her. unfortunately, she would succumb to her illness only a week later

› after his mother’s death, gérard dove head-first into his work; to the point where he fell pretty ill himself. it was at the hospital that he met his current husband, ricky. ricky pulled him out of the cycle he was in. a few years later, they got married and a few years after that, they adopted their daughter, babette

› gérard was asked to help investigate the murder of monique jackson by [redacted] and having never been the lead on a murder case before, he agreed to go. unfortunately, he ended up biting off way more than he could chew but he refused to give up

› present day, he’s back in his work-obsessed cycle; he barely sleeps and spends most of his time following leads and trying to piece things together. gérard decided to rent an apartment as he’s determined to stay until he solves the case, no matter how long it takes. he got himself a little betta fish who he let his daughter name (mr fishy) to help break up his cycle. he has an anxiety disorder that he takes daily medication for

HIS VIEWS⸻

› gérard is stressed about everything!! trying to solve what happened the night of monique’s murder, trying to figure out who the hash-slinging slasher is and arrest them, figuring out who and what the heck the miroirs are. it’s... a lot

› he’s super curious about the missing people and the miroirs. like..... he wants to know everything he can about them. and can sometimes get a bit too nosy when talking to them / asking them things

#anchorintro

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htao-des · 8 months

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Week 8 Design Tech Capstone

The focus of this week is the preparation for video production which is part of the "create a pitch" step with the IDEO design kit. This would facilitate the process of video production and to prepare props or collect/ create assets.

Story structure

Describe the context: 20s

Depression amongst young Aucklanders (social isolation, changes in life, stress from work, bad relationships, lack of stress relieve)

Your aim: 20s

Kickstart the recovery journey of people who is lost and do not know how to begin

What you did: 20s

researches and stats on depression, purpose of the app

How will it work: 20s

showcase functionality, show the protagonist recovering

Summary: 20s

problem--> this solution is meant to be temporary and help user find a real solution

Next steps: 20s

scalability, app development, collaboration

Credits – Crew members, course, year and uni logo in a single page

The structure originates from lecture slide and is strongly advised to adhere to. As there are 6 sections within 2 minutes, each section will be 20 seconds long, for some parts this may be easier, but will definitely be very short on time for most. To counteract this, each section can have +/- 5 seconds so more time can be distributed to more important parts. This will be my first video production with editing and assets to help pitch an idea, but the production will be bottlenecked by prototyping process which is iterative and will take a long time and the final high fidelity prototype is needed for the production. Time management will be of essence in here.

Pre-production

Concept:

The recovery journey of an emotionally lost boy following the advice from the APP, the features of the app allow the boy to converse with a kind and caring AI which provide him with valuable advices and set goals for the boy to re enter society.

Logline:

A boy is emotionally lost from being socially isolated, when he is at his lowest point, he discovers the APP and help motivate him to get back on his feet.

Script:

Depression is a complex and multi faceted issue with a large range of factor that contributes to the issue and is different from person to person. One of the main cause of depression is the sudden changes in life and a lack of social interaction. Presence of depression can negatively impact a person’s performance and cognition leading to self-doubt which feedback to depression. In The recent years, lockdown has forced many to stay homebound for a few years, by staying homebound, one may not be able to interact with others and make meaningful connection. The feeling of uncertainties and anxiety due to recent events accompany by loneliness would wear away at the person’s mental wellbeing. The weakened mental health may cause one to become more reclusive, not allowing them to form meaningful connection, this eventually forms a negative feedback loop leading to depression. Without an outlet to vent and manage their emotion, one may find themselves trap in this loop.

The research will be used to design an outlet to guides the users emotion through this ever changing world with use of emerging technologies.The platform would use a personalised AI, for forming personalised solution for everyone to escape the loop, The AI can also act as a support and help their stress tolerance. This research would allow more people to be more sociable to making connections with each other and decreasing the amount of people who are left out and alone.

Storyboard:

Shotlist

show his incompetency--> boy depress in corner --> look at phone (app) --> AI first converse with boy --> show the boy's goal --> AI set goals for him --> AI motivating him to complete goals --> over time the boy no longer need reminders --> show his improvement

Recce

Allocate roles

Collect assets - props, images, music

Here is the pre production template, the script is not finalized. The shotlist took the longest to decide as all these ideas need to fit within a 2 minute video while explaining the function of the APP along with stating the problem. Working on pre production allow me to visualize the general feel and flow of the video and what should be included within the 2 minute time. The process took longer than expected, as this is a major part of assignment 3 more time will be invested here.

#design #prototype #production #film making

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incarnateirony · 11 months

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IDK how to explain to my other GM friend like. When this started he popped in and decreed, "You are witnessing the origin story of God." to everyone. He specifically arranged his godly characters all as wheel turners of the cosmos in this campaign. Players and characters alike have struggled for over 700 pages of content.

Then he realized his version of God has made a less than favorable impression and says like "well in the main world I'll say he did it on his own power."

And like? No? This is the only solid campaign in the whole server. Everyone has their individual plots and stuff, a random heist or whatever, but those are more like Events of Life. The world outside of the great game has a few settings that get poked but none have ultimately led anywhere to the point the Great Game has like 20x deeper mythos understood by the players than anything in the main game, they have literally been climbing and suffering that mythos.

So like. After all of that, the players aren't just going to forget that mythos. You specifically asked me to bring that mythos too, so it's not like I surprised you with it. The players will not release the feats they have done without, or even in spite of your version of God. You cannot make them erase their adventures and work in the main timeline so you can hit a button and be their grandmaster in the main timeline unquestioned. That isn't how it's going to work, you can not force the most active server members to forget and disregard everything they have done. It Does Not Work. And is also fundamentally unfair and contrarian to everything that makes a GM a GM.

Like my shit's hard on paper. Here's Zenthus' resources, the whole world can review how it calculates, grows, regenerates, levels, whatever. It is absolutely on display. "Well I like mystery." So do I, but if hiding your stats and changing the narrative are your only way to do it, I'm sorry bro I love you but you're doing it wrong. Even with Zenthus' resources pinned to the wall, the last 3 months have been relentless mystery. It is the delivery of that mystery that designed the entire plot they lived and breathed and still had to find answers in themselves. That's mystery. If the stats and powers are the only mystery, you've already failed, and furthermore if you give them no access to pursue that mythologically.

In fact, despite always being overt about how to end this guy, there has always been mystery. *You* have been taken by the mystery when you said "Zenthus hides Zento well" no the fuck he doesn't, he walks around in public with him on a stick and trades plurals and voices all day. The only things hidden are what people have failed to observe. And that is the real riddle of it. I hear of god's cry for help, but god looked Zento in the face when he communicated the entire nature of his struggle and helped advise and mentor him, and walked off without doing a single goddamn thing to help, even send a message. Zenthus' entire existence for a quarter century IRL is a cry for help. His son existing at all for the last near 10 years is a cry for help. It's all a cry for help and god only cared about his own.

And that got a LONGGGGGGG silence and "well how do I fix it" and it's like. Honestly, you don't. You don't unless you take the time to figure out what went wrong. Both as a GM and a God, the urge to control or intervene on the scenario, assuming you understand it better than they do without the effort, is literally what has made them so goddamn angry at him. So either he can sit and reflect about these for real more than some anime speech about finding his purpose and really break down how he has been genuinely fucking up, or he can just get them angrier. Or do nothing. But if god keeps reaching in and shaking them to do it his way and it keeps backfiring on their asses, then no, they're not going to like him. Sometimes you have to let them find their own way, especially if you haven't found yours yet.

And if you want to play an actual competent, compassionate, empathetic god, maybe he should reach out and ASK what they need, or know, they he might have missed in his Knowing Of Everything, the importance of the details may be arbitrary from his scope. If you're gonna try, do that, but saying "hahaha nvm didnt happen" or "OH GOD HOW DO I FUCK AROUND NOW TO FIX IT" is not the answer.

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longlivefeedback · 3 years

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Hi, I'm a fairly new writer and I just wanted to ask your advice on caring less about statistics (sorry if this has been asked before). I'm writing for a pretty small fandom, and one or two of my fics have done pretty well, but some of the ones I was proudest of got quite a few hits but literally only two kudos. How do I write for me and not for the response I get from other people? It feels so disheartening to put in hours of work when no one seems to enjoy most of my fics

Hi Anon!

Welcome to the world of writing and posting on AO3! You question: "How do I write for me and not for the response I get from other people?" resonates a lot with me personally and is something I still ponder and confront myself with from time to time.

I'm going to echo a response to a previous post that I saw once but can't find again which has stuck with me and aligns with how I deal with this question: Divorce the act of writing from the act of sharing your writing.

Put another way, can you separate:

the act of writing—the physical act of putting words down on paper—as a craft and an activity, from

the act of sharing the results of your work—which is more along the lines of publishing, marketing, advertising, promoting, and generating "engagement" (to use a social media term) to make your work known and get it out there in the world, so to speak.

I've heard people use (and have used it myself) the analogy of a potluck when talking about fanfic and the response to fanfic. Rephrasing your question to use this analogy: How do I cook for myself and not for the response I get from other people?

This post by @ao3commentoftheday and this post is a good starting point for beginning to create that separation. Hopefully you find the advice and perspectives there useful. Additionally, the answer to this ask here has links to other posts which may help give you additional perspective and deemphasize the importance of the numbers on your stats page. Think quality vs quantity; Or 10 acquaintances saying how much they enjoyed the food you brought vs your significant other saying it.

I'd also like to focus more on the first part of your question:

How do I write for me...?

1. Ask yourself 'why do you write?'

It's one of those questions that has no right answer, and which everyone will have a different answer for. What is your answer to it?

If you want to continue writing for yourself, you'll need to find some intrinsic motivation.

Consider taking a step back and doing some internal reflection. Is there something you find satisfying about the act of putting words down on paper? What makes writing fun for you? What sparks joy in the process of writing?

If you have answers to those questions, can you focus on those reasons and use them as fuel to write? If something took away your ability to share your writing with others (e.g. you are stranded on a deserted island with no internet), what are some things about writing that would still bring you comfort, solace, satisfaction, happiness, and/or joy?

2. Find a reason to write that is independent of other people

There are many reasons why someone writes. Maybe they're the type of person who just needs to get their thoughts out on paper, else they'll go mad. Maybe they do it as a way to cope. Maybe they're just doing it for attention. Maybe they're doing it out of spite. Maybe they're doing it just because. Maybe it's all of the above for some stories, and none of the above for others.

Can you find your reason and focus on it such that the response to your work becomes that much less important? If you have a reason for writing that is independent of other people's response to your work, I would encourage you to think of ways to derive a sense of accomplishment from those intrinsic reasons instead of external responses which are out of your control.

Some examples of goals that don't depend on anyone else are:

Writing challenges which are focused on completion instead of a qualitative (i.e. is this any good?) valuation. These can be things like "Can you write a fic in 1,000 words or less?" or "Can you write fics for your OTP that are about [trope]?" "Success" in these depend on the work just existing, and even if no one else reads it. In other words, your writing is a success because the work exists and you did it. Fullstop.

Do you find writing cathartic/soothing? Does it help you wind down after a long day of school/work/life? Is it a form of escapism (like reading or watching a movie) that helps take your mind off things? We all need a mental break, and if writing a way for you to do that, I'd say it's well worth the effort then!

Is there something you've always wanted to try writing? Maybe you want to try writing fantasy/sci-fi/magical realism/comedy/smut. Maybe you want to explore how two characters who never met in canon would interact if they were handcuffed together. Maybe you want to write your OTP as cats. The world is your oyster! Let your imagination go wild! Have fun with it! And hopefully the reception to your writing becomes less important because, heck, you had fun writing it, and that counts for something.

3. Set development goals for yourself.

If improving your writing as a craft appeals to you, then there's no better way to improve than to practice writing.

Thinking of the stories you write and post as practice pieces can take some of the pressure off of its reception. Mentally, it's easier for me to be less bothered by the reception of a fic if I *know* this is an experimental piece or something I'm trying for the first time. It allows me to use AO3 as what it is actually meant for: an archive of my work; and less as a platform to share and interact with fandom.

There's so much to explore in writing. Whether it's learning how to write action sequences or a fight scene, how to avoid info dumps, how to write a fic without dialogue tags, how to write flowery prose, there's so much that you can focus on and try to develop in your writing. Try focusing on those instead when you write and see how your writing changes and develops over time!

Again, thank you for sending in this ask, Anon. You're not alone in these struggles, and here are some parting words from Denis Villeneuve, the director of Dune (2021).

I hope this gives you some perspective and helps you on your journey as a writer. I'm not saying that doing all the above is going to be easy or immediate. Or if it's even going to be enough for your to keep writing. It's definitely not all there is to writing, and I'm not saying that you have to renounce all external feedback and motivation that comes with posting and sharing your work. I just hope that the advice above can help give you some balance and show you that there is value in writing in a vacuum and as a standalone activity. In the end, it will be up to you to decide if it's enough.

#llf asks #anonymous #writing #writing culture

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