#// based on snippets of conversations and context clues

[ferromagnetiic]

SBS volume 107

Kid doesn't care if it's his bloody birthday. He's going out of his way to send him a proper Fuck You. He will personally deliver him a celebratory Molotov cocktail.

[thesmollestsnek]

Death echoes

So a while ago, i found this dp x dc post that had a really interesting lore headcanon for Danny’s ghostly wail. Idk if I’ll be able to find it again, I’ll link it here if I do, but essentially it posited that every ghost has something called a “death echo”, which is an ability unique to them based heavily on their deaths. These echoes are the most powerful move in a ghost’s moveset, but they’re also extremely volatile and draining, typically damaging the ghost in some way when used, with Danny’s being his Wail because he died screaming. The original post then went on to some really cool halfa!Jason ideas based on these death echoes, but for this lil snippet with an extremely long intro I’d like to focus on Danny a bit more.

Edit: Apparently I may have extrapolated a lot of the actual lore behind these death echos myself? The inspiration post was a lot longer in my memories. Or I might've mushed multiple posts into one mental box and then forgot lol. So a lot of the actual detail from this point on is seemingly mostly original material? I think? Idk man, sometimes my brain spits out information without giving me any clues as to where it got that information. Anyway, this post got kinda long and since I'm... decently sure this is where I shifted from summarizing @ailithnight's post to writing all my own thoughts I figured here would be a good place to throw the cut lol.

So! with all of the context-for-the-context out of the way, let’s move on to the actual context for what I’m writing cause I can’t be bothered with writing an intro XD

Essentially, this is an au where Danny is an established member of the Justice League, or maybe one of the teen hero teams? I’m a slut for eternal teenager Danny, but maybe he’s enough of a powerhouse to be on the main team despite him both looking and acting like the dumbass fourteen year old he died as. Either way, he’s on a League/League-sanctioned mission and things go bad. Like, everyone-almost-dies bad. And so as a final desperation attack, Danny uses his Wail, a power he’s never told anyone on the league he even has. And it works, and they make it out, but after the fact everyone has. Questions. And because in this au death echoes are deeply personal, Danny dodges those questions, but the league coughbatmancough isn’t satisfied with that. So they push for answers. Answers Danny’s not willing to give, because. In my mind death echoes aren’t just based on how a person died, but also their experience of that death. What their last thoughts were. When Danny died the only thing that he could process beyond just an all-encompassing painpainpainpainpain was the sound of someone screaming. His screaming. And so his death echo is the sound of a fourteen year old child screaming in deathly pain and terror weaponized, which definitely gave the league Even More Questions than they would’ve had already. Which finally brings us to the actual snippet, which is a conversation between John Constantine, who was brought in for his experience with the supernatural once it became clear Danny wasn’t going to talk, and Danny himself. 

~~~~~~~

“So, kid. Batsy tells me you’ve been hiding some of your abilities, wanna tell me what's up with that? Call it an occultist's intuition, but somethin’ tells me you’re not just being stubborn for the hell of it.”

“It’s... complicated. And not anyone’s business, either!”

“Kid...”

“Why does it even matter?! It’s not something I want to or am even able to do on a regular basis! I saved the mission, can’t they just accept that and move on???”

Sighing, Constantine reached up to start massaging his brow. “Kid, you and I both know that ain’t gonna be enough. Now I know that some things are better left alone, but the rest of these idiots? They can’t accept that, Batsy especially. That man’s never left bloody well enough alone in his life”

He looked up just in time to see the otherworldly teen shrink into himself, looking every bit the child he was. “I know but... why? Why do they need to keep asking questions? And why do they only ask the ones that hurt to answer?”

A sharp glance. “The fuck kinda questions are they asking? Batman was speaking in more grunt than word, so I didn’t really catch all the details of what this power you’re supposedly hiding even is.”

Phantom shrinks even more into himself at that, and responds in a voice so small it’s more sigh than speech. “I... I can scream. And it breaks things and pushes people back. But it, it sounds. Bad. And it brings up bad memories and I don’t like to do it or listentoitoreventhinkaboutitandtheywon’tletmeforgetand-”

“Breathe kid. I know you don’t need to but just take a deep breath with me. Don’t you go getting lost in your own head on me now., Constantine reassured the kid automatically, the sheer hopelessness prompting action long before the words themselves could be understood. Then the rest of him caught up, and he had to pause. Looked up at the kid, saw just how distressed he was. A picture was starting to form in the back of his head, and Constantine didn’t like what he saw one bit. A last-resort power that the normally open Phantom was strangely reticent about. A scream so horrible sounding the rest of the league would not to stop asking questions about it. Terrible memories to match said scream. And one truly miserable child who couldn’t bear to even think about any of it. 

“Phantom... is that your Echo? Screaming?”

A miserable nod is his only response, the tears that had been welling up in the kid’s eyes finally starting to fall. Cursing softly to himself, Constantine stood to leave, bracing himself for the Bat’s inevitable questioning. “Well then you just take all the time you need love, and leave the rest to me. I’ll make sure the rest of those idiots know not to ask you about this ever again.”  And with that Constantine turned and strode towards the door, leaving the quietly sobbing child to collect himself in privacy.

~~~~~

I had a whole-ass lore dump conversation between Constantine and Batman planned here, explaining how death echoes are deeply personal, and asking about one is a taboo on par with, potentially even worse than, asking a ghost about their death outright. Because they are formed from an amalgamation of how a ghost died, their last thoughts, and their final emotions, in some ways asking a ghost about their Echo is like asking them to describe their death in painstaking detail. But uhhh... inspiration bug left. So yea. Side note, I’d like to apologize if my depiction of Constantine’s accent was Bad, I’m but a lowly USAmerican whose only exposure to British accents is through tv ^-^’

[princess-of-the-corner]

So . . . going out on a limb. Katsuki doesn’t mention that was her 1st full moon where she actually knew what was going on until the day or week AFTER it happens. Through a few conversation snippets, context clues, & at least 1 smuggled Human-Directed Werewolf based horror film, they piece together what she THOUGHT was going to happen. How many of these kids want to fistfight All Might in a Denny's parking lot?

Kinda its

It's literally when Aizawa is showing her UA's Werewolf Containment Area.

Because he notices that she's very apprehensive and then confused by the accommodations so he pushes. And she's hesitant but says she was expecting more of the "Chain her up" type of deal.

At first he's concerned that this was what she'd had happen in the past, and ready to rain down righteous fury on whoever did that to anyone but especially a child.

Katsuki kinda. Dances around it. Saying no no one's done that to her. But she was expecting it to be done.

He eventually realizes she might be new at the Werewolf thing. He was not expecting to hear that this is literally her second Full Moon(the first she is expecting) nor that she was fully Human, not even a Witch, before this.

They don't get to talk long because it's almost Full Moon time so she tells him to talk to Izuku. And Izuku explains that they were both raised Human, only found out about Magic because Katsuki got bit, and that All Might "explained things".

Aizawa the goes to have a stern talk with All Might but ends up decking him because he neglected to explain A Lot and let Katski have a whole moon cycle of anxiety and confusion over her changing biology and how she'd be treated and let both kids' education suffer because their teachers didn't know they were dealing with kids who only knew about Magic for like two weeks before the school year started.

(All Might didn't /intend/ this tbh he just kinda. Didn't think about it. )

[aalinaaaaaa]

Trivia Tuesday

Thanks as always @bardic-tales for the tag! For this week's edition, I'm going to talk a bit about the inspirations behind a certain aspect of Eshani and Cerigo's relationship, and indeed the Court of Morilast also (because those two things are rooted in the same inspiration).

A few days ago, I posted what some people may recall as this snippet , which deals with a pivotal moment in Eshani and Cerigo's relationship. It's after Eshani first got anointed as a High Councillor, meaning that, among other things, she inherited the court's vow of madness (anyone with this vow is only able to venture outside Morilaste's* borders for a day and a minute, any time spent after this will result in one being driven to madness. It's actually one of the terms of the treaty that resulted in Helinda's existence).

The Court's vow and the tragic tone of Eshani and Cerigo's relationship were both inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean; At World's End, namely the parts relating to Will and Elizabeth's relationship and how Will's sacrifice lead to him being stuck on the Flying Dutchman for basically forever (except the spend ten years at sea = one day on land stipulation). This wasn't something that I consciously took inspiration from, it was a case of my interpretation of those ideas bleeding into my work and then upon seeing the movie again, I'm like 'oh, that's similar, lol'.

However, it has to be said that the Court of Morilaste was born from conscious inspiration on my part. It was because I took interest in how the Court of Nightmares from A Court of Mist and Fury was the place where the Night Court's notorious reputation came out of. When I finished that book (I was 13 going on 14 at the time), I was like 'uhh, could we please see more of Rhys being the most powerful High Lord in Prythian 👀👉👈'. I think there was a whole of one, maybe two scenes set there and it came off as like 'here's the basement where all the nasty stuff happens, next'.

The net result was what you see today, a sequestered court split from the rest of the country where there are no less than seven (I promise the number is a coincidence, it's because I wanted a superstitious/mythological number less conventional than three) High Councillors, each one very strong and devious in their own right. All because some guy thousands of years previous had some controversial ideas and an excellent hand at tattoo-based spellwork.

...

*Sometimes Morilaste is spelled with the 'e', sometimes it isn't.

It's, in terms of the lore, an anglicisation of how it's represented in the Helindian language, where placenames typically have a symbol at the end, akin to a silent letter, to indicate it's a place. This is employed in instances where a place is named after someone. In verbal speech, the name is said the exact same way whether it's a name or a place being talked about. Context clues in the conversation indicate the distinction.

If one is talking about the geographical area, then it's Morilaste.

If one is talking about/referencing the namesake, and/or the High Councillors or other people in the court, then it's Morilast.

—

I'm going to drop the taglists of Obsidian Sapphires and Soulswapped here, along with the general one, (ask, comment, etc me to be added/subtracted from any of my taglists): @midnight-and-his-melodiverse @outpost51 @mr-orion @the-ellia-west @guessillcallitart @thelaughingstag @thereadingfoz @glassstardust22124 @original-writing @honeybewrites @ashirisu @drowsy-quill @oliolioxenfreewrites @theglitchywriterboi @did-i-do-this-write @threeking

[jayoctodot]

The Silent Patient vs The Maidens

I will start by saying that I understand the appeal of these novels as page-turners. They are easy to read and if you want a twisty reveal at the end, you will probably be entertained and satisfied. That being said, I am SO CONFUSED by the near-universal adoration of The Silent Patient and the reasonably positive reception of The Maidens. The weaknesses of the two are strikingly similar, as well, which doesn’t give me much hope of seeing improvement from this guy, though I am intrigued to see whether he keeps repeating the same (apparently successful!!) patterns. These books were at least super fun to hate.

(For context, I read The Maidens for a bookclub I'm in, because several of the members had read and loved The Silent Patient, and one of them gave me a copy of the latter to read on my own time. I loathed The Maidens and then read The SP for comparative purposes. And because I'm a masochist, apparently.)

SPOILER WARNING! Do not read on unless you've finished both books (or unless you care not for spoilers). Sorry if it gets a bit shouty.

Here are the similar weaknesses I noticed in both:

PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY

-> Weirdly similar “group therapy” scenes early on where a cartoonishly unstable patient arrives late, disrupts the meeting by throwing something into the middle of the circle, and is asked to join the group after the therapist(s) speechify on the importance of boundaries (HA! None of these therapists would know an appropriate boundary if it kicked them in the ass) and debate whether to “allow” the patient to join. Both scenes are so transparent in their design to establish the credibility/legitimacy of the narrators as therapists, but instead both Theo and Mariana come off as super patronizing. The protagonists are less and less believable as therapists at the stories progress (though at least Theo’s incompetence is explained away by the “twist” at the end; Mariana, on the other hand, is confronted in the opening pages of the novel by a patient who has self-harmed PRETTY extensively, and rather than ensure he get proper medical attention, she essentially throws him a first aid kit and tosses him out the door so she can pour herself a glass of wine and call her niece... and it devolves from there).

-> Ongoing insistence throughout the narrative that one’s childhood trauma entirely explains the warped/dysfunctional way a character behaves or views the world, which is why the books go out of their way to give EVERY potentially violent character a traumatic childhood; when Theo insists that no one ever became an abuser who hadn’t been abused themselves, I wanted to throw the book across the room. (That is a MYTH, SIR. GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR ARMCHAIR PSYCHOLOGY.)

-> Female murderers whose pathology boils down to “history of depression” and “traumatized by a male loved one/family member.” Because, as we all know, depression + abuse = murderer!

-> The “therapy” depicted in both books is laughable and so so unrealistic, mostly because neither narrators function as therapists so much as incompetent detectives, obsessively pursuing a case they have no place pursuing (or skill to pursue - both just happen across every clue mostly by way of clunky conversation with all the people who can provide precisely the snippet of info to send them along to the next person, and the next… until all is revealed in a tired, cliched “twist”). Their constant Psych 101 asides were so tiresome and weirdly dated (also, the constant harping on countertransference got so ridiculous that at one point during "therapy" Theo literally attributes his headache and a particular emotion he feels to Alicia, as though the contents of her head are being broadcast directly into his mind... and I'm PRETTY SURE that's not how it works???)

CHARACTERS

-> Psychotherapist narrators with abusive fathers and pretensions of being Sherlock Holmes, which results in both characters crossing ALL KINDS of ethical lines as they invade the personal lives of everyone even tangentially connected to their cases (and, in Theo's case, violate all kinds of patient confidentiality. Yeah, yeah, by the end, that's the least of his offenses, but before you get there, it's baffling that NO ONE is calling him out on this).

-> All female characters are either elderly with hilariously bad advice, monstrous hulking brutes, or beautiful bitches (except for ~MARIANA~, who is Bella Swan-esque in her unawareness of her own attractiveness, despite multiple men trying to get with her almost immediately after meeting her. I'm so tired of beautiful female characters being oblivious to their own hotness. Are we meant to believe all mirrors and male attention have escaped their notice? If it’s to make them “relatable,” this tactic really fails with me).

-> All characters of color are shallow, cartoonish side characters, and most of them are depicted as unsympathetic minor antagonists (the Sikh Chief Inspector in The Maidens continuously drinks tea from an ever-present thermos, and his only other notable characteristic is his instant dislike of Mariana, whom he VERY RIGHTLY warns to stay out of the investigation that she is VERY MUCH compromising… the Caribbean manager of the Grove is universally disliked by her staff for enforcing stricter safety regulations at the bafflingly poorly run mental institution, because HOW DARE SHE. There's a very clear vibe that we're supposed to dislike these characters and share the protagonists' indignation, but honestly Sangha/Stephanie were completely in the right for trying to shut down their wildly inappropriate investigations).

-> "Working class" characters (or basically anyone excluded from the comfortably upper-crust, educated main cadre of characters) are few and far between in both stories, but when they show up, he depicts them as such caricatures. We got Elsie the pathologically lying housekeeper in the Maidens, who is enticed to share her bullshit with cake, and then a TOOTHLESS LEPRECHAUN DEALING DRUGS UNDER A BRIDGE in the SP. I kid you not, a man described as having the body of a child, the face of Father Time, and no front teeth, emerges from beneath a bridge and offers to sell Theo some "grass." I was dyinggg.

-> There are no characters to root for. Anywhere. Partly because they’re all so thinly drawn — and because we’re clearly supposed to view almost ALL of them as potential suspects, so they’re ALL weird, creepy, or incompetent in some way.

-> The flimsiest of flimsy motives, both for the narrators and the murderers. Theo fully would have gotten away with his involvement in the murder if he hadn't gone out of his way to work at the Grove and "treat" Alicia and his justification for doing so is pretty weak; his rapid descent into stalking and murder fantasy and his random ass decision to "expose" Alicia's husband as a cheater with a spur-of-the-moment home invasion and staged attempted homicide is ONLY justified if the reader hand waves it away as WELP, HE'S CRAZY, I GUESS (after all, he DID have an abusive father and a history of mental illness, and in Michaelides novels, that's ALL YOU NEED to become a violent psycho). I guess we're lucky Mariana didn't also start dropping bodies (because the logic of his fictional universe says she should definitely be a murderer by now... maybe that'll be his Maidens sequel?). But she especially had NO reason to randomly turn detective - and she kept trying to justify it by saying she needed to re-enter the world or that Sebastian would want her to (??), even though she had no background in criminal psychology... or even a particular fondness for mysteries (really, I would've accepted ANYTHING to explain her dogged obsession with the case. WHY were Sebastian and Zoe so certain she would insert herself into the investigation just because one of Zoe's friends was the first victim? WHY?). As for Zoe and Alicia, their motives are mere suggestions: they were both abused and manipulated, and voila! Slippery slope to murder.

WRITING STYLE

-> Incessant allusions to Greek tragedy and myth, apparently to provide a sophisticated gloss over the bare-bones writing style, which opts more for telling than showing and frequently indulges in hilariously bizarre analogies. Credit where credit is due — the references to Greek myth are less clunky in the SP, and I liked learning about the Alcestis play/myth, which I hadn’t heard of before - but OMG the entire characterization of Fosca, who we are meant to believe is a professor of Greek tragedy at one of the most respected universities on the planet, is just absurd. His "lecture" on the liminal in Greek tragedy is essentially the Wikipedia page on the Eleusinian Mysteries capped off with some Hallmark-card carpe diem crap. The lecture hall responds with raucous applause, clearly never having heard such vague genius bullshit before.

-> Super clunky and amateurish narrative device of interludes written by another character; Sebastian’s letter reads like a mashup of Dexter monologues and Clarice’s memory of the screaming sheep, but by FAR the worse offender is Alicia’s diary, where we’re supposed to believe she painstakingly recorded ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS, BEAT-BY-BEAT DIALOGUE, even when she’s just been DRUGGED TO THE GILLS with morphine and has mere moments of consciousness left… and even before that, she literally takes the time to write “He's trying the windows and doors! ...Someone’s inside! Someone’s inside the house! ETC ETC” when she thinks her stalker has broken in downstairs. WHO DOES THAT?)

-> Speaking of dialogue, the dialogue is so bad. Based on his bio, Michaelides got a degree in screenwriting, which makes his terrible dialogue even more baffling.

-> HILARIOUSLY rendered voyeur scenes where the narrators spy on couples having sex. Such unintentionally awkward descriptions. First we had Kathy’s climax sounds through the trees and then the bowler hat carefully placed on a tombstone before the gatekeeper plows a student. Again, I died.

PLOT/"TWIST"

-> The CONSTANT red herrings make for such an exhausting read. Michaelides drops anvils with almost every character that are so obviously meant to designate them as suspects in our minds. There is absolutely no subtlety in his misdirections.

-> The “crossover” scene between the SP and The Maidens makes no sense - when in the timeline does Mariana’s story overlap with Theo’s? They confer just before Theo starts working at the Grove, obviously (though Mariana appears to be the one who alerts Theo to the job opening there? Whereas in the SP, Theo has been obsessively tracking Alicia since the murder and had already planned to apply to work there?), but then are we supposed to believe that while Theo has been psychotically pursuing his warped quest to “help” Alicia, he’s also been diligently treating Zoe, so invested in her case that he repeatedly reaches out to Mariana to get her to visit Zoe and even writes Mariana a lengthy letter to convince her to do so??? And then a couple days after The Maidens ends, Theo is arrested???

-> But the thing I really did hate the most is how Michaelides treats his female murderers (who are both also victims themselves) as mere means to deploy a “twist”; there’s no moment spared to encourage our sympathy for Zoe, who was groomed and manipulated by the only trusted father figure in her life, and even after spending a decent amount of time getting to know Alicia via her ridiculous diary, where it’s so apparent that she’s been demeaned, objectified, manipulated, gaslit, and/or used by EVERY man in her life, she’s sent packing to spend the rest of her days in a coma… HOW much more satisfying would it have been for her to succeed in exposing Theo and reclaiming her voice? But no, she basically rolls over when he comes to finish her off (SPEAKING OF — ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THIS INSTITUTE FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE????), writes one last diary entry, and drifts off forever. And then a couple pages of nothing later, the story is over. GOODNIGHT, ALICIA!

Both books kept me rolling throughout (by which I mean eye-rolling but also rotfl). Maybe I will check out his next effort — I’m morbidly curious what he’ll turn out. It does leave me wondering whether I should give up on thriller novels entirely, though. Are many of the weaknesses of these novels just characteristic of the genre? Maybe I'm just holding these books to unfair standards? I'm mostly only familiar with thriller films — many of which I think are amazing — but maybe you can get away with more in a film than you can in a novel.

...I really only intended to write a handful of bullet points, but more and more kept coming to mind as I wrote, to the point where subheadings became necessary. Whoopsie.

[jojo-fantasy-aus]

Fantasy AU!

Josuke x F! Reader- ch9

It takes two!

Minor TW for bullying.

Can't wait to see ya'll next week!

"So," Josuke starts. "What did you have in mind?" Shigetchi smiles, almost vibrating in excitement. You were all seated comfortably in the carriage, promptly entering when Shigetchi asked you to, and unfortunately, Shigetchi had a bit of a rambling habit. Finally, after a few minutes on the road to his villa, he stopped talking long enough for Josuke to get a word in.

"I'm throwing a party this weekend." Shigetchi paused as if he was expecting immediate praise, but the carriage was silent. Okuyasu whistled and started to clap out of pity.

"... anyway." Shigetchi rolled his eyes. " I thought it'd be a better fit for the three of you to gain some leverage on the whole rescue situation. Viscount Brimsey, his family, and his colleagues all will be attending." Your face scrunched up in disgust.

"Family?" The Viscount has only one family member to speak of. His daughter, a redhead named Gwendolyn, was intolerable. Just like her father, she was a Royal suck-up, only she was more of a spoiled brat than her father. Shigetchi nodded.

"Yeah. I'm not too 'xcited about that. His daughter's always been a… well," You frowned.

"Trust me, I know. She used to visit the palace during her summer vacations." That, and pay the stable boys to put mud under your pillows. She's always been a rather jealous thing, and you can't imagine how well a future meeting would go without Yukako by your side to defend you from the Royal menace. Okuyasu scratched the back of his neck, looking quite confused.

"What's so bad about her? I thought all those rich ladies are supposed to be hot, and well mannered, and..." You couldn't help yourself from laughing. Where in the world would he get that idea? Josuke sighed out of embarrassment, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Okuyasu, You've been reading too many newspapers." You giggled. Josuke's warm smile was a welcome sight at the action.

Shigetchi stretched widely, causing Okuyasu to shift uncomfortably next to him. He snatched a fancy flask from the inside of his coat pocket, taking a swig of something you hoped wasn't alcohol before shoving it away again. You could feel Josuke stiffen next to you. Wonder what was up with him?

"Anyway, if the three of you are up for it, I have jobs for you that I think will work perfectly for the information you're looking for." He smirks in an almost evil way. "What do ya say?"

----

"I can't believe you agreed to this." You muttered in a playful tone. All the jobs Shigetchi assigned to you were fitting, you as a server once again, Okuyasu as the guard just outside the doors, but out of all the jobs for him to give Josuke…

Apparently, he had caught Gwendolyn's eye while the three of you had been traversing the town over the past few days. Unfortunately for him, (and you) she had asked Shigetchi about him. After a little conversation with undoubtedly some bribery involved He agreed to get Josuke to be her escort. That's how you found out the real reason the kid had "invited" You all.

"She can't be that bad." You shook your head as you buttoned Josuke's borrowed tailcoat. He had no clue about this woman. He also had no clue on how to dress himself properly in such formal fashion, which was why you demanded to help him with his many layers. Honestly, it felt good to be this close to him.

"Oh please, she's like your worst date experience times ten."

"... well, I'm sure I'll be able to handle her." You rolled your eyes.

"Maybe. Rich girls like that tend to fall easily for a handsome face," Did you just say that out loud? Josuke stiffened a bit, and you prayed that it wasn't because you made him uncomfortable. You had to change the subject fast.

"Let's just hope she doesn't try insulting that hair of yours," you giggled a little awkwardly as Josuke ran a hand across his carefully styled pompadour defensively.

After finishing with his coat, and flittering around him to make sure everything was fine, you took a step back. You looked him up and down, appreciating how nice he looked in the clothes, even if they did look a little stuffy.

"You look great!" Josuke chuckled, a light blush on his cheeks. For a moment, but just a moment, he stopped, looking at you fondly with a smile. You smiled in return before a sudden look of shock flashed across his face.

"Hey! Before I forget…" You followed him with your eyes as he walked over to the grocery bags on the bed, pulling a round hat box out of the fray. You immediately recognized it from the same ones behind the counter at the market earlier today. Josuke walked over to you, holding out the box for you to take, and after a moment of confusion, you realized what he had done.

"You didn’t!" You gently scolded. He smiled, nudging the box forward again. You gently lifted the lid, a bright smile spreading across your face at the sight of the old hat.

"I meant to give it to you earlier, but with Shigetchi rolling in I didn't have time." You picket the hat up by the rim, holding it delicately in your hands. You were overjoyed, at first. But when the doubt sunk in it was impossible to get rid of.

The three of you only had so much money to use while you were here. Not to mention you weren't sure how long you would be away from your job. You were sure Okuyasu and Josuke weren't going to be paid by the foundation either. Why would he spend this money on you? There were so many other things you all had to worry about-

"But… Why this? Why for me?" Josuke paused, furrowing his brows at you with a sigh and setting the box back down in the bed. When he turned to look at you again it was hard to look away from his blue eyes.

"You deserve to enjoy the little things sometimes. Everyone does. Whether that little thing is an old, out of season hat or not." He started to reach out for you, but hesitated, sticking his hands in his pockets instead. "Plus, with everything going on, you gotta give back to yourself once in a while. Trust me, I know."

You smiled softly, that fluttery feeling blooming in your chest once more. Without thinking, you carefully set the hat back down in the box. Josuke looked like he was about to question you, but he didn't have time before you grappled him into a warm embrace.

Josuke returned the hug promptly. The two of you sat there for a good moment before a servant knocked on the door, letting you know that the guests have started arriving.

"I hope you're ready for this."

"Trust me, as long as you're around I'll be just fine."

----

It started just like any other party. With hands gingerly reaching out for oeuvres, simple gossip, sneering Nobles. It wasn't anything you hadn't seen before. It was easy to glide through the crowd, to catch snippets of conversation. Whatever you lacked in strength you definitely made up for in your ability to eavesdrop.

One by one businessmen and noblemen and their wives and family were announced at the door, every once in a while you'd glance up to see the faces entering. You tried not to let it get in the way of the job you were supposed to do, but when Gwendolyn Brimsey's name was announced you couldn't help but lookup.

What you saw made you go red in anger. It wasn't the fact that she was escorted by Josuke, or that she was smugly attached to his arm, it was the disgusting, powder pink dress she had on.

Wrong. That's what it was. It was wrong. The floral elements and lace were gone, replaced by satin and useless frills. The slim, A-line changed and puffed up with surely more petticoats than you could count. That was Yukako's dress. That was your mother's design. Or at least a cheap knockoff of the beauty that it was designed to be.

"Miss...?" You were startled out of your angry stare by one of the other servers. You smiled politely at the young man, hoping that the disgust hadn't been too evident in your face.

"Lord Yangu says that we should start serving champagne now."

"I'll be right there." You nodded, heading over to the kitchen. You pushed down the anger and disgust as you walked. Gwendolyn was not innocent as to what her display meant. That design was the last dress that Yukako was seen in. Your mother's dresses were remarkable. Each cut, design, frill- all of it was signature as your mother's specific tailoring. Everyone who looked at her knew. The only difference is that you knew she was begging to replace your best friend in the social circle of nobility.

You wove in and out of groups with the tray of champagne, trying your best to focus on what they were saying instead of the hate in your heart. You had a job to do, and no spoiled girl was going to take that from you.

"They say the duchess-"

"Oh! These are quite divine-"

"-and he said that to you? I'd-"

"... I can't wait till we can get that bitch out of our hair." The quick part of the conversation caught your ear. And you slowed for a moment, offering the tray to the others around you all the while Laser-focused in on the conversation, it wasn't hard to realize that it was once again the Viscount's goons from the dinner the night before. One out of the duo of men speaking shushed the other, glancing around before speaking softly.

"In more ways than one." The other scoffed. "I've been pulling my hair out for weeks with my stand-" There was that word again. Damn, it was so hard to tell what it meant based on context. Frustration aside, you knew that it was important to mention to Josuke. You busied yourself by refilling glasses around you, intent on listening to the remainder of the conversation.

At least, that was the plan. The high-pitched squeal of your name caught your attention. It was Gwendolyn, still attached to Josuke's side, and waving you over to her crowd with an empty champagne glass.

You begrudgingly trudged over with the bottle, making quick eye contact with Josuke before slowly filling glasses. After calling your name, Gwendolyn paid you no mind as she continued her conversation.

"Honestly, how did you find such a beautiful dress? It looks so much like the one Princess Yukako… " The woman trailed off as Gwendolyn shot her a glare. "It's incredible, I mean." Incredible was an exaggeration. You managed to hide your annoyance for the time being.

"I know~ I saw the design on some street in the royal city and just had to ask my seamstresses to recreate it!" You tried not to scowl outwardly. Gwendolyn was only mentioning it because she knew the shop was your mother's. It's like she's just trying to get under your skin.

"It's quite flattering on me, don't you think Josuke?"

"I-erhm," Josuke coughed politely, and unfortunately for him, she held his arm closer. The anger you felt now started to feel like a sad, stabbing pain as she did. Josuke's confident posture hardly changed through the conversation, despite his stuttering, and honestly. It hurt. You knew he was a lady's man, you had known since you met him. Did that fact stop you from being hurt? From being jealous? No. Should it have? You weren't sure.

"The dress is beautiful." His confident tone returned. "Who was the original designer?" Josuke's eyes flickered towards you for just a moment as you finished pouring their drinks. You had had quite enough and quickly walked away from them. You almost felt bad for leaving Josuke behind, but he looked like he could handle himself. He surely didn't need you to chaperone his little date.

----

Josuke honestly had no idea how he was going to go the whole night without snapping, and with you walking away from himself and the Red-head girl, angry and torn, he wasn't sure if he could.

He was distracted as the women continued to talk, following your form with his eyes as you faded into the party-goers.

"Sir Josuke?" He snapped out of his haze, turning towards Gwendolyn. He gave her a half-assed hum in response. Her face scrunched up in a mock-up anger.

"Were you even listening to me?" He smiled sheepishly. Damn, he has to think fast.

"No, sorry. I've been a little distracted, I haven't eaten yet today." Gwendolyn's face lit up into a smile again, waving the other noble Woman away as she led him by his arm. Josuke tried not to cringe. The feeling of her skin on his was just… It wasn't welcome. It didn't feel right. It didn't help the fact that he wasn't actually hungry.

She wasn't you.

"Oh! That's completely understandable!" Gwendolyn started walking over to the small table of savory appetizers, and he begrudgingly went along with her. He didn't want to respond when she kept talking. But the responsible part of him said otherwise.

"The food here is usually good, but honestly, the selection today is awful."

"Is it now? I thought everything was pretty good."

"Oh dear sir, you can't mean that. Look-" "Hate that- hate that. I'll only have caviar with truffle- oh! You should try the deviled eggs~"

Josuke smiled nervously as she shoved the egg in his face, offering to feed him. Oh no. No-no-no. He needed an excuse to get out of her grasp, and fast. Then, in a sudden moment, he spotted you across the room, heading into the kitchen. An idea flashed in his head, but he had no clue about the consequences that it would cause.

"I'm so sorry, but if you'll excuse me, I need to have a word with my friend over there-" He moved away from her tight grasp with ease, her strength nothing compared to his, but he caught his arm again, looking at him with an accusing, disgusted look.

"Friend? That servant is your friend?" Josuke stiffened. Maybe you were right about this woman. She was awful after all.

"Yes. She is. I'll see you again in just a moment." He said, turning curtly and staking away, all the while a polite smile played on his face.

Although a few groups closest to where they had been started to gossip, most guests were completely unaware as Josuke wove through the floor and over to you. Gwendolyn snarled at no one in particular, narrowing her eyes as Josuke walked away.

"Need any help with that?" The deep voice startled you, causing you to almost drop the tray of dessert in your hands. Two hands steadied you, and you scoffed at Josuke.

"What are you doing? Where's Gwendolyn?" At this point, you were somewhat concerned. Josuke smiled sheepishly, warm hands brushing against yours when he was satisfied that you wouldn't fall.

"Well…" After his short pause, it took less than a second to figure out what was happening. You smirked.

"You couldn't handle her, could you?" Josuke rolled his eyes, a smile still wide on his face.

"Let's just say I needed a quick break from the party." You laughed.

"Sure, but try not to get on her bad side in the process." You mused, lifting a finger to point to Gwendolyn, who was still staring at the two of you, a dirty look on her face you were sure that she would hide once Josuke turned around. And she did, scowl turning into a bright smile when the knight spotted her. She waved him back over, and he sent a quick nod back, turning to you again.

"What time does this thing end again?" You couldn't help but burst out laughing from his words, switching the tray over to one hand while you pushed him with the other. His dazzling smile flooded your chest with comfort before he said goodbye, and walked over to the woman he was escorting.

The rest of the night flew by for you, but you can't imagine how long it must've felt for both of your companions. Strangely, it felt nice to be working again. Your feet started to hurt from all the walking, and you savored the thought of how wonderful you would sleep tonight. Unfortunately for you, a pair of envious eyes caught your daydreaming look. A sharp tug of your earlobe made you yelp, and you stopped in your tracks.

"Pay attention, Churl. Or you'll lose your footing." You glared at Gwendolyn, remembering about politeness and appearances after, and shifting your face into a lin-lipped smile.

"Sorry miss, did you need something?" Her smile did nothing to hide the malice in her eyes.

"I need you to remember your place. Low-borns like you have no place mingling with nobility." So that's what this is about. It was laughable. She had only known Josuke for a few hours at most and yet she was still laying her claim on him. You'd seen it multiple times before, with other various young men at court who she simply couldn't give away to any other woman. She'd lash out at anyone who spoke to the man she had fixed her desires on until she had bored herself with him and moved on to the next.

It wasn't healthy, and you used to hope that she would get help. To be better. But that was when you could still see good in her. Now, all you could see was the entitled person who her father had made. You didn't want to disrupt your appearance as the mild-mannered, polite servant, but someone had to burst her bubble.

"Sir Josuke has every right to speak to anyone he wishes." You had more to say, but you stopped prematurely. You had said enough. She certainly wouldn't take it well if you continued to say that she certainly wasn't exclusive to his affection- attention. Attention.

You had to remember before you went any more down the rabbit hole that whatever relationship you had with Josuke- or whatever you wanted to have, was one-sided. You were pining over a man who wouldn't return your feelings, and yet you wouldn't give up his friendship for anything in the world. If you could just stay his friend, that would be enough for you.

You didn't stop to look at Gwendolyn's face before you turned away from her to walk back to the kitchen. You thought she had taken the words rather well until your foot caught on something.

The ground came fast, and when you hit the marble, the tray of deserts pushed into your stomach. After a moment that felt like an hour of you desperately trying to catch your breath, you sat up slowly, covered in the frivolous dessert. You scowled at the giggles and laughs of the girls behind you, and began scooping the mess off the floor and into the trey.

"Some servant you are, can't even walk without tripping over your own feet. How sad." Gwendolyn sneered at you. You promptly finished cleaning up to the best of your ability, and stood. The red-head stood in your way when you tried to leave however.

"First you were fired from the palace, and now you're failing Lord Yangu and Sir Josuke. I'd just quit now if I were you." Hell. No. Usually you knew when to hold your tongue, especially in situations and settings like this, but you had worked too hard for your place at the palace to let that disrespectful statement slide. You'd been through hell in back for both your station and your friends and this was your fucking snapping point.

"I wasn't fired from the palace, you'd know that if you plucked your head out of your ass during your summer trips and paid enough attention to Princess Yukako and the King to figure out that she wasn't going to let me go anytime soon. And another thing-"

You quickly snapped yourself out of your daydream, completely aware that such words could get you completely kicked out of both your mission to find Yukako and the inner circle of Viscount Brimsey. So instead, with hands shaky from adrenaline, you simply tipped the trey forward. A simple mistake for a shaky servant. You looked straight into Gwendolyn's eyes as a glob of cake fell on her infuriating intricate, powder pink dress.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! That's entirely my bad, madam. I'll bring you some towels after I clean myself up." You relished in the sounds of her immediate wailing. What you did not expect however, was the skinny teenager to grab you by the collar of your dress and seemingly ready herself to hit you. The trey slipped from your grip once more.

"You little twat! I'll-" A pair of strong hands separated the two of you, Josuke pulling you back from her and making sure the trey was held tightly in your grip. When did it- you were sure that you had just dropped it!

"There we go!" He smiled, face a complete contrast to his eyes, which burned with anger. "You still seem a bit shaky, I'll escort you to the kitchen." Gwendolyn huffed, but didn't say a word to Josuke as he led you away.

As soon as you stepped through the kitchen doors you set the tray down, hands shaking even worse now. God- you thought you had seen spoiled brats in your days at the palace, but this chick was impossible!

"Are you alright?" You rolled your eyes.

"Oh, sure. I'm just dandy." Josuke frowned at you, stepping closer.

"Look, you know she's hard to handle. Just try to make two more hours, alright? Just two more hours and you'll never have to serve her again." You scoffed at him, grabbing a kitchen rag from the cabinets to wipe off the sticky mess that used to be desert.

"You don't think I already knew that? I don't know what's changed but she's completely- it's like she's gone mad! She managed to turn worse than she used to be. I just don't understand how she's managed to inflate her ego so much since the last I saw her." You turned to the indoor water pump and grabbed a bucket, slowly filling it with enough water that you could rinse your arms. Josuke paused after your words, brows furrowed, thinking.

He was about to speak when Okuyasu burst through the kitchen doors, he scared the shit out of the both of you. The bucket almost knocked over until it rocked back onto its bottom, the water stilling unnaturally. When you turned, Josuke's gaze was still on you. Soft gaze shortly turning to Okuyasu as the loud man sighed.

" 'don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to think that this is a waste of time." He looked up, scanning faces in the room, immediately sensing the fading tension.

"Everythin' alright?"

----

The moment you got back home you went straight to your room without speaking to either of your companions. You were frustrated, angry, sad- today had been such a disaster. You sighed, folding back the covers on your bed and preparing yourself for bed. You had just finished changing out of your ruined clothes when someone knocked.

"Come in." You said, maybe a bit more sour than you had planned. Josuke enters, face already scrunched up in a concerned look. Fuck! You were so tired of that look- even if it was from Josuke, you were tired of being worried about. It's not like he actually… cared.

But you know he does.

It's just not in the way you wished it could be.

"What's wrong? You haven't said a word to Okuyasu or I since we got home." You huffed, busying yourself with removing the necklace and setting it down with unnecessary carefulness.

"I'm just not in the mood to talk, ok?!" You snapped. Josuke slowly approached you from the door, sitting down at the foot of your bed so that you couldn't ignore him or go to bed unless he moved.

"Is it about Gwendolyn?" You stiffened.

"Who else would it be about? Josuke, she humiliated me today." He frowned.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Are you?..." You said, your tense shoulders had fallen. You felt dejected. Remembering just how she treated Josuke, how she touched him.

"She was all over you Josuke. I'm not sure you would've even noticed the accident if she hadn't been the one to do it." The words felt wrong as they fell out of your mouth, and the wrongness increased as josuke stood, insulted.

"I- you really think I wouldn't notice that?"

"I don't know!" You tore your eyes away from him, looking at the floor instead. Your insides felt like they were tearing themselves out.

"... I don't know." You repeated. Josuke started slowly walking towards you.

"Have you really not realized it yet?"

"What Josuke?! What could I possibly be missing right now besides a temper?" You said bitterly. Josuke's skin burned hot against your own as he grabbed your arms gently, staring straight into your eyes with an almost- an almost sad look. He lifted a hand to your cheek, caressing your face fondly. You tried your best to not melt into his touch. Regret immediately flooded you. Why were you acting so mean? So jealous? There was no point in it. Josuke deserves to love anyone he pleased. You certainly weren't on the table, you never would be-

Josuke called your name.

"I am hopelessly, irrevocably, in love with you."

[ace-disgrace-from-space]

Avatar, but LANGUAGES

     So, uh, this most likely, probably, definitely been brought up and discussed before. However, I don’t care and I’m bored, so, here we go anyways and I hope you can stay with me until the end.

     I was just vibing and had a thought pertaining to Avatar:The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Specifically the idea that because the show is always in one language, in my case English, we don’t seem to consider the fact that from a cultural and global stand point, all of the nations would have different native languages. Of course, I brought this up with my good friend, @lunaria-gryfe​ in Discord because I assumed they’d indulge my strange train of thought.

     Upon receiving the message, Luna responded with the fact that not only would there be different native languages, there would be several different dialects as well. Here is a small snippet from this conversation, please pardon any spelling errors I induced by having large thumbs while typing on my phone.

     We discussed different nations and the dialects and such, stating that, as seen above, the Water Tribes would have different dialects as they are fairly far enough apart. Which prompted Luna to state that the Earth Kingdom, with many rings, would have several dialects and accents within each one. Such as the Lower Ring having more informal language compared to the Upper Ring having more formal language based on upbringings and access to education. The next thing I asked was what were their thoughts on the Air Nations language and dialects. Luna, being smarter than me, assumed that because they were nomads, the Air Nation’s language would be a bit of a conglomeration of the other three nations languages along with some things of their own.

     Now, this inevitably led to the crackhead zone. By which I mean, we started using this idea of languages and dialects in context with the show because I stated that if it had been a thing, it’d would have been much more amusing whenever they went to a new nation. We both agreed that when it came to languages, Katara was an absolute hot mess, while Sokka was literally the greatest linguist of all time and easily became the Gaangs makeshift translator. (I made up that last bit myself, but whatever.) Another thing we agreed on was that Aang uses slang words from 100 years ago, that mean something entirely different now.

     Something important to know about me is that I have dumb thoughts and I may or may not have a total of three brain cells. With this knowledge, my three brain cells came up with something that elicited a strange, yet amusing conversation.

     It went on for a little bit longer as we found this scenario quite funny and I don’t know why, exactly. After a moment, it translated into Legend of Korra where Korra now knows different slang terms in different dialects and languages that she shouldn’t know because they’re like over a 1000 years old. Also, Republic city has it’s own language, very closely tied to the Air Nomad language. Anyhow, the only reasons she knows these slang words is because of her past lives, so when she’s saying this shit, combined with current and more modern slang, no one has a clue of what’s happening whatsoever, not even Korra. Luna decided that this was how everyone was dealing with the situation.

After this, our conversation derailed into snakes and how dumb and cute they are, courtesy of Luna. Hope you enjoyed YET ANOTHER ESSAY FROM ME. I’M SO SORRY FOR THIS. 

[feather-dancer]

2, 10, and 20

2 Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project 

Honestly probably when I’m allowed to write Stars again (Still under my ban until Ghost!AU chapter 3 is out) when I can start dabbling into troll culture/lore where because of what I usually write Trollmarket is already lost or it’s somebody who will never go down there which is annoying! It’s one of those neat things to think about as we’re only given glimpses in canon (Mob mentality, Heartstone is but one place with access to far more via gyre, the holdovers that would remain about a former General being about) plus I’d be able to tackle it from the perspective of somebody who already knows scraps, is being forced to pretend otherwise trying not to freak out in the middle of it so it’s great. Not to mention in that case Bular, Draal and Vendel are all alive right now giving me a unique opportunity to write them for the first time.

10 How would you describe your writing process?

It genuinely depends what I’m doing. Drabbles long as I have a guide be it a prompt or in the cases of the two drabbles with legs a single line to bounce off, I can go to town without really thinking too much getting them out fairly quick if they don’t grow. Very much no think, just do and only really have any hiccups if there’s specific checks I need to make like correcting language for the ones not based in the modern day.

Plotted stuff though oh god. I have a spreadsheet timeline for both Ghost!AU and Stars which read like this presently if I “accidentally” crop out any spoilers below the line/wipe them out:

In both cases because of canon being a bounce point I still need to keep track of what was happening when as well as keeping notes of everything that I need to put in a chapter which is generally what lives below the line so I have a pretty A to B set up for the chapter unexpected sliding permitting. Most of the time my reminders probably seem to be shit posty but then I’m the only one who sees these timelines so it doesn't matter lol I saw a post about making a discord as well which I did as well as can be seen below.

Finally I have somewhere I can chuck the little snippets that may be in a future chapter, things I’ve hoarded as reference and the ability to remember the various song lyric references I stuff in my fics. Never again will I completely forget an entire scene that was going to happen because I drown myself in reminders.

20 Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Since I mentioned my discord this is one I have sitting in there for Ghost!AU presently which likely will be heavily edited when it comes into use but it’ll be there ready for when I need it:

Changelings by our very nature are borne of magic, shadowmancy that is very much like your own to be precise. We are a very more sensitive or indeed vulnerable to certain things and in turn this means that we have a natural gift for noticing what might be overlooked by the common troll or human... However, much like any skill it is as good as an odd feeling and largely useless without the proper training to truly utilise it. Honed however the world opens up by but a crack and you start to notice the little things like the shift in the air, a relic surrounded by the harmless or a potential threat wrapped up in a harmless skin. The obvious downside of course is that you start to realise how much of a beacon you are to others who possesses a similar ability. 

I may have deliberately engineered things so there will be a conversation between Strickler and Claire in the future specifically around magic which lets me ramble about a favourite of mine. One learned Shadowmancy and was possessed by a Master of it, the other created by it it’s just a goldmine of potential given the only other magic user that anybody knows about (Douxie is a complete unknown right now) is Merlin who would not indulge in the context. Even though it’s not been actively brought up magic has already been running around in the background of things because something rather odd was going on in the Lake household when they confronted the wizard.

There’s also gonna be a second reference (Possibly a third it depends) to the Strickler fic in chapter 3, very curious if anybody catches it!

[ais-n]

How do you create your characters? (anon ask)

Another question from the same anon I mentioned in the other post: 

In general, how do you create your characters, especially their psychology/thought process/ flaws? 

haha I have two answers to this - and they depend on the level of ridiculous I’m being.

MORE THOROUGH - CHARACTER BIO TEMPLATE:

I actually have a character bio template I made so it was easier for me to track multiple aspects of characters in complex stories. You can download and adjust/use however you’d like - more info at http://aisylum.com/give-and-take/resources/ or download directly as .odt, .doc, or .rtf. 

I made that for my fantasy series but you can just change whatever you want to fit better for your particular situation.

In the thorough cases like this, I will usually start with some sort of idea of the character, whatever that may be, put that into the character bio, and build out from there. Sometimes the vague idea is the gender and/or orientation, sometimes it’s their past, sometimes it’s just a snippet of dialogue I think of someone saying and I have to figure out who would say that thing in that way and why. 

I also try to think about what leads to what. 

Like, Boyd was starved of consistent love and stability as a child, so he came to fully believe he didn’t deserve it while also desperately and subconsciously seeking it out. But because he also had low self-esteem and other issues including a number of tragedies in his past, he became self-destructive at times in his quest for feeling loved or needed. He was willing to put the needs of others above the health of himself, if it meant he wouldn’t be abandoned. Which meant he would be reckless at times, and it meant his emotions would vary hugely when it came to relationships; he would do really stupid things out of fear of losing love or acceptance because he had wished so dearly for it for so long - but that can also backlash and lead to the very thing he feared because he was doing things at times for the wrong reasons or was too willing to compromise when it would be healthier for everyone to stand his ground.

Or, looking at my LGBTQIA+ sci-fi/fantasy/cop/murder mystery-type story Incarnations for other examples - Cypress is a type of Mage (magic-user) who is maligned by pretty much the whole world, especially by other Mages. His kind was all killed in a genocide centuries ago. For various reasons that also pertain to his past (and which would be a spoiler to dictate right now but come up later in the book), he has a huge distrust for other people, to the point at times of rage and hatred and violence. He has almost no one who has been on his side and stayed on his side from the start, except his twin brother. But that comes with its own set of fears, of what would happen if something happened to his brother?, and because he equates emotions to weakness, and he loathes weakness, he can be very aggressive and cynical and sarcastic when interacting with other people. But at the same time, precisely because he’s the type of Mage who gets hunted down and killed or detained by others, and because of how he grew up, he’s learned how to stay under the radar and how to blend in when needed. For all his rage inside, he’s very good at playing a part if he has to, and those two pieces of him may feel at direct odds to one another but they’re just two sides of the same coin. He has the rage because of who he is, and because of who he is he had to learn to not be seen. He is volatile at best when he’s being his own ‘normal’ and yet he can act totally ‘normal’ according to the rest of the world at the drop of a hat if needed. You could meet him in the middle of a grift and have no clue he’s anything other than a regular Joe Schmoe kind of dude who wouldn’t hurt a fly, when in fact he wouldn’t hesitate to brutally kill you if circumstances made it in his best interest.

Basically, I often try to think of what makes sense for how people would react to things they’ve been through (both good and bad), and then how that might affect their behavior going forward, and what would positively or negatively affect that.

One very short, truncated example I’ll give is Sloane, another Mage from Incarnations; because of an event in her past that she survived and others didn’t think she should have, she’s seen as a monster by much of the local community. She became inured to random death from a young age, so she doesn’t question things the way you might expect someone to in the same circumstances, but she also became resentful of others because of how she was treated. She was a troubled child who acted out a lot, but then she had one person who decided to keep reaching out to her, again and again, despite how often she lashed out. And that person became a sense of stability for her, that led to her doing a 180. She went from a kid who was constantly in juvie to being a cop (in this world’s equivalents). There’s a lot more to her story but that’s just a quick way of showing her past and the way people treated her affected her negatively until she had enough of a positive impact on her life from someone else that she ended up changing her trajectory.

I work through a lot of those sorts of things when filling out the character bio so I get a good idea of their past, their tendencies, their biases, etc. And then there’s a section that asks questions like what would build them up, what would bring them down, what is needed for them to progress, etc. I answer those questions as much as I can, and oftentimes get some revelations about the character along the way. And then I look at the plot of the story as a whole and see if it makes sense to include pieces along the way that will provide character progression (or regression) for the character. 

That can be a good way of not only making sure characters don’t stagnate in a story, while also providing layers to the plot itself so that it’s not just about one single thing - there are multiple things happening along the way that provide something potentially interesting or fun or whatever as well.

I personally like to write stories where you can enjoy it as much or more on the second, fourth, tenth read as you did on the first... I want to try to add little things, if possible, that you may glance over the first time without enough context but later can go back and say OHHH when you know more. I find that doing that is particularly fun and enjoyable and easy when you have character progression or little character quirks you can include along the way, because it doesn’t have to be some big dramatic thing for the plot of the world or overall story. It can be something as simple as a character with long hair deciding to cut their hair off, or someone who always wears shoes and makes fun of another person who goes barefoot, now trying to go barefoot and thinking “oh crap, I get why they liked this all along.” It can be totally inconsequential things for the series as a whole that have some sort of meaning for the character or reader, big or small.

I get bored easily both as a reader and a writer so I guess to me that brings in a level of entertainment.

So essentially, I start with something that either I feel I know about the character or makes sense to me about the character, then I try to think about how they would view this thing, and then I try to think about logically what would follow based on their worldview. And that often will lead to flaws, psychology, thought processes, etc. You could think of it like “What would I do if I were them?” but try to not put your personal values in place of their own.

Like, I would never murder the fuck out of people so callously as Cypress does, but I want readers to understand why he does, and for that I need to understand too as the writer or else that’s asking way too much for the readers to understand something I don’t.

QUICKER, LESS RIDICULOUS WAY

I don’t always want to fill out a whole ass memoir/biography on a character to write or create them - sometimes I just want something simple.

In those cases, I don’t write everything down like that bio template, and I don’t go into such specific and detailed questions about every part of their past and their relationships and what they do or don’t need to get better or etc. Instead, I’ll just go with the vibe of someone - what’s the information that’s of import for them as a person and their particular story? Sometimes that’s gender, orientation, race, etc, or sometimes it’s things they like (like spooky things) or things they hate (like restrictive rules).

I try to do more of an overview of why they are how they are, and therefore how they may react to certain things, but I don’t worry myself about going deep into their thought process and psychology to know every detail of how and why. Because depending on the story, I don’t even need to know that information.

I tend to do more of a ‘surface-level’ view of characters for my short stories, because going super in depth would work against what I’m trying to do when I write those - which is develop SOME sense of brevity in my life. Somewhere lol 

A good example of that mentality is probably my short story Five Star Review which is about a god and a spiritual being having a conversation in a closed restaurant. In that story, both main characters are they/them, because that’s the pronouns that worked, and they are very briefly described but barely at all. That story is more about philosophy and the way spirituality/religion interacts with humanity, so that’s what more of the focus is on. I didn’t need to know every single thing Deity (the god) has ever thought, because it’s irrelevant; I just needed to know how they would feel about the particular topics brought up in this particular story. And then, if the dialogue, plot, or otherwise leads to it, I could figure out their flaws or merits as needed, based on the sort of “person” they had already shown themself to be in the previous scene(s).

I don’t know if that helps or if all of that is more confusing. But I basically just start with something I feel I know about the character, then build on that in the context of the world or environment they would have developed in, and then just kind of follow the logic along. 

Also, if that doesn’t lead to flaws or any depth of the character, I will go back and look at something central to them, and try to see if there is anything seemingly directly opposed that could be introduced as a flaw or aspect of them. Because I feel that humans are rarely one-sided, and oftentimes the complexity of us is because of juxtapositions within ourselves we have or haven’t come to terms with. So to make a character feel more “real,” I think it’s important for them to have at least two things about them that don’t, at first glance, seem like it makes sense - but it doesn when you think about them as a person growing up where they did, or how they did, or where they are now, or whatever other piece of them. Not only does that feel more nuanced as a character and more realistic, but it also introduces some internal conflict that can be used as character progression or, at the very least, something interesting to bring in when the plot is in a lull and you don’t know where to go next.

For me, the most important thing is being willing to change my presumption of the character as the writer, if the character naturally develops in a different direction. And therefore also being willing to change the plot to accommodate, instead of forcing the character to follow the plot.

Sorry this post was a million miles long..... hopefully it helps, like, at all, and isn’t just massively confusing.

[triviareads]

Fic Writer Interview

Thanks you for tagging me @daphnejane 💖💖

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

15 works

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

143,492 words

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

3...? Bridgerton, 39 Clues, and Pride and Prejudice. And also 19th Century RPF technically, and kinda-ish Atonement.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

do not go gentle into that senior year (just rage): Kathony Modern AU, in which Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton go to an elite NY prep school and are rivals who totally despise one another (or so they think).

as certain dark things are to be loved: In which Selina Bridgerton, illegitimate daughter of Anthony Bridgerton and Siena Rosso, navigates life, love and the ton in order to achieve her romantic and political goals.

she's not in the attic anymore: In which Kate and Siena are high school seniors and have a series of conversations on a roof.

None But You: Kathony oneshots, ranging from modern to historical to next-gen Charlotte Bridgerton shenanigans.

Snippets: A series of snippets centered around Amy Cahill and Ian Kabra and various 39 Clues characters.

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Absolutely. I love to chat and reply to any questions

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Alright so I've written the ending and not some of the middle bits which is why it hasn't been published yet, but in Blood and Birthright, there's a coup/summary execution.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Ah no, I haven't.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don't think so.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I'm trying!!! I've been working on a scene to practice and I really would like to publish it someday.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated.

No.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Viktor/Hermione... or Col. Fitzwilliam/Lizzy Bennet in the one fic I've read them in... idk, I'm honestly an equal-opportunity shipper. If it's written well, I'll probably enjoy it.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Daughter of Pemberley, my very first fic which was P&P's next generation-based.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. I could just have two people sitting around and just verbally going at it for an entire story (fun fact: I pretty much did with she's not in the attic anymore, and to a lesser extent with The Courtship of Charlotte Bridgerton).

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing action- it's a stress. There are so many specific pretty words and arrangements of words out there but somehow my mind gravitates towards the same 4 (or so it feels like).

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

As long as it's not used to exoticize other cultures and makes sense in the context it's being used, I'm chill. I've probably thrown in an Indian word or two in my fics (ashirvad, pallu, etc.). Something I find deeply hilarious is when characters use foreign terms of endearment but never say another word in that language.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Pride and Prejudice!

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

probably The Courtship of Charlotte Bridgerton. It's all romantic drama and verbal sparring with a lot of focus on a woman's role in society and how people circumvent (Bridgerton) convention in their own, quiet ways.

Anyone who wants to join, you've been tagged!

[sophie-zadeh]

Yahoo News: Body Language gesture missing from Trump speech reveals his distress

Donald Trump has Taken Over my Life

Yesterday, a friend based in the US asked me if I knew what was going on in the US. I’m a Brit, living in Australia, following British and Australian news daily. Let me assure you we know what is happening.

US news has taken over on a global scale. US headlines are our headlines. They have been since Trump was elected in 2016. More and more, it feels like Donald Trump is the subject of everyone's conversation.

I try to spend my time avoiding anything Trump-related, but there seems to be no getting away from him. Our weekly Skype sessions with the in-laws are consumed by Trump talk. We laugh hard at some of his stunts but are always left feeling low before one of us asks to change the subject to something positive.

Husband, while working from home, a room away from me, spends his lunch break watching Trump-related videos (mostly satire). Then again, while preparing dinner, the videos are back on. I try not to listen, but Husband’s gasps draw me in. Then he shouts with urgency and often horror, “Did you hear that?”. Most of the time I do. I try not to listen, yet it still goes in.

This Trump consumed life is killing me. I long for the day when this man (distancing language) gives the world a break, vanishing altogether from the news feed–from my life.

Donald Trump Body Language in the Media

You can imagine my horror when Olivia Lambert from Yahoo News contacted me last week for analysis on Trump's body language. I thought about saying no, but Olivia is one of my favourite journalists to work with. Husband reminded me it would probably be the last time I'd be asked to do it and since the video snippet was short, I agreed. I could do it quickly then wipe my hands clean of it.

The analysis was from a video of Trump’s press conference during the election race, where he falsely accused the Democrats of trying to “steal’ the election, making baseless claims about “fake polls” and “corrupt mail-in votes”. With gritted teeth, I hit the play button.

You can read Olivia's story in Yahoo News here, otherwise keep reading to see what I submitted:

Subtle gesture missing from Trump speech reveals his distress

Donald Trump Nonverbal Communication Analysis

Trump’s nonverbal behaviour seems out of character. Initially, his hands grip the podium tensely as his body sways slightly from side to side, a pacifying movement to bring comfort to his distress. Trump’s usual elaborate hand gestures are absent as he reads from his notes, making little eye contact and with less power in his voice. This isn’t something we usually see. 

At times, Trump perks up a little as his emotion becomes more positive and confident. His body rises momentarily, three times, with a gravity-defying behaviour which nonverbally punctuates his words. Trump rises onto his toes as he says, “As everybody saw we won by historic numbers”, “They [the pollsters] got it knowingly wrong” and “We had polls which were so ridiculous”. 

There’s another clue into Trump’s thoughts with a sudden momentary head tilt to his left occurring three times. This indicates his delight at certain points in his speech, as he says, “I’ve already decisively won”, “massive victories” and “Ohio”. 

(In context: “I’ve already decisively won many critical states, including massive victories in Florida, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio.”)

[resonanteye]

via http://resonanteye.net/youve-arrived/

you've arrived

hosting/reposting

  The Great Awakening

You have arrived.

It’s been a long journey. Take a moment. Take a deep breath. Get a glass of water and sit down. This is going to be long. It’s going to make you uncomfortable. It’s not what you thought it was going to be, but it’s what you didn’t even know you needed to hear. The totality of this is greater than the sum of its parts and I implore you to read all the way to the end. It’s going to make you angry. It’s going to make you feel a lot of things you don’t want to feel, but you wanted to wake up and this was the only way. You are going to want to dismiss it. People will tell you not to read it. Belief is the most powerful force in this universe, and your belief is about to be challenged in a way you didn’t expect. Fortunately, you don’t have to actually believe anything written here. All you have to do is read it with an open mind. If you get to the end of this your thinking will change. You will be one step closer to being free, and then you can then go on to free the others. Where we go one, we go all.

  Before we go any further, we need to set some ground rules:

1) The language here is going to seem really… off, but I promise you it will make sense by the end. This document is designed to be interpreted _literally_. I can’t stress that enough. Do not look for hidden clues—there are none. There is no misdirection, no deeper meaning, no numerology or special calendar to look at. This is the end of the line. This is a 1:1 conversation, speaking as open and honestly as possible. We are just two people having a chat. Any other meaning you try to derive outside of what is written here is on you.

2) Much of this is about language. To some, the language is going to seem very strange, crude, cryptic, nerdy, or childish at times. I’m trying to be as authentic as possible. Please understand it is not meant to be interpreted as racist, sexist or bigoted. Internet culture, “the chans” in particular, have a kind of language that is systemically all these things, but people do not interpret the language literally in use. I will try to keep it as civil and digestible as possible.

3) Be kind to yourself. Be kind to each other.

  And before we even really get started, we need to everyone on the same level, with something that approaches a fair knowledge base. Over the past three years people have joined this movement from all around the world. Q Drops have been translated into dozens of languages. There are now mobile apps, shirts, hats, podcasts and documentaries. QAnon means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. As I’m writing this, former military generals are swearing oaths to QAnon. The movement has grown beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. Many people are joining the QAnon movement, but they don’t really understand what they are reading. They are confused. I want to talk just briefly about the history of a part of the internet where QAnon comes from, not in an attempt to legitimize myself as some elder sage, but to build understanding. To truly understand all of this you need context. Context about the people and platforms that now bring you your information—and ultimately, your news.

  Some of you go all the way back to the Something Awful forums and the days when platforms like IRC and ICQ still felt new.  Some of you literally just joined yesterday. I am going to give you an abbreviated history of the chans as it pertains QAnon. Most people know 4chan and 8chan as the place where Q lives online, but they don’t really understand them. “No outside comms” seems to be what the 99% of QAnon understands—that these are the “official” channels where Q posts. But have you ever been there? Have you ever really gone to boards and looked at them? Some you have, but the vast, vast majority of QAnon followers have not. Perhaps that is no surprise, as they aren’t easily comprehensible. So, let’s talk briefly about three things: Something Awful, 4chan, and 8chan/8kun. And I do mean briefly. You could write a book about each of these, but we can move forward with some broad strokes that should give you the context you need to truly understand Q.

  We have to quickly go back to 1999. In 1999 someone known as “Lowtax” created a website called Something Awful (which I will refer to as SA going forward), which still exists today. You can go and check it out if you like. Before Facebook and Twitter, before YouTube even existed, and even before most people knew what Google was, there was Something Awful. SA has been a lot of things over the years, but it is mostly a forum—a message board. On SA everyone was mostly anonymous because, at the time, no one other than academics used their real name on the internet. SA was a semi-private board. It was the internet’s first large “secret society” of sorts. It was mostly focused on video games and Adobe Flash content, and it birthed some of the internet’s very first memes. It was a trollish but a (mostly) well-meaning community of nerds. Some members, known as the “GoonSquad” or just “Goons” would often group up and bombard players of the early MMORPGs to troll them. It was (mostly) harmless fun and pranks. In the late 90’s and early 00’s only nerds were on the internet anyway, so it was mostly nerds trolling other nerds in video games. You could identify other Goons by asking as simple question: “Do you have stairs in your house?” If someone answered, “I am protected,” then you knew they were a fellow Goon.

  Why am I talking about this? Well, if you had to pick a place to put on a birth certificate for where internet culture itself was born, Something Awful would be that place.

  A few years later someone known at the time only as “moot” created a website called 4chan. 4chan is a fully anonymous (seemingly, anyway) message board, based on a Japanese message board design known as 2chan. It’s actually better described as an “imageboard,” since you have to upload an image with every post. 4chan was open to all. There were few rules, and on some boards—none. Post whatever you want, do whatever you want. For the most part, everyone except moot himself was simply labeled as, “Anonymous.” This is where the “Anon” in QAnon comes from.

  Like SA, 4chan was originally a haven for nerds talking about video games and anime. But its anonymous and open nature allowed to build its own form. The most iconic memes, from lolcats themselves to Rickrolling and beyond, started on 4chan. SA might have birthed internet culture, but 4chan gave it form—and it still powers much of the creativity of internet itself to this day. The anonymous nature of the form allowed for a kind of collaborative creativity that—and I truly believe this—has changed the world for the better. It’s a special kind of creativity and one that you really need to experience if you want to understand it. On 4chan you will see new creative concepts born and shaped in real time, and you can watch them spread around the world. You can contribute whenever and whatever you like, and the community then gets to riff on your contribution. 4chan has even birthed new formats and new types of creativity. I want to talk about some of these specifically, to provide some kind of context for what “the chans” are really all about it, but we are just scraping the surface here. You might have to Google around for quite some time to truly understand this if you are new.

  Among the myriad of things that get posted on 4chan, one of them is known as a “green text” or “green text story.” A green text is a short story format that includes green colored text and a small picture, often a meme of some kind, like a Pepe. It can be pages long or just a few lines. It is often written in broken sentences and shorthand. They often start with the line, “be me…” and then launch into a short narrative. They can be true or fictional or somewhere in-between. They are often designed to be shocking, depressing or trollish, but they can also be uplifting. It is perhaps the simplest and most pervasive form of content on 4chan other than image macros themselves. I’m going to coin a new phrase and call this a form of Creative Anonymous Fiction or CAF for short. The anonymous nature of the platform lets you tell a story in a new way. Often times people will take green texts and remix them, giving them a different ending. I could post examples, but I’d be doing you a disservice. You are better off looking them up and reading them yourself until you understand it.

  Green texts can sometimes end with what’s called copypasta, which is a type of bamboozle. Copypasta is a snippet of short form copy that gets reposted over and over again. A bamboozle is a type of switcheroo—you start telling what the reader feels is a novel story, building to some climax, and then end it with a classic copypasta for that “gotcha” moment. It is, essentially, a prank. A text based prank. This sort of content now exists all over the place, far beyond the reaches of just 4chan. You might be wondering where all of this is going… we’ll get to that. In some ways this is actually the most important part of this entire document. I wanted to make sure that everyone has some context for what is to come, but I can assure this is going somewhere. Please do not let this extensive clarification distract you from the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table.

  So that’s a quick overview of the playful side of things. But on 4chan you will also see some dark and disgusting shit. With the good comes the bad—and the bad can be really bad. Because everyone is anonymous, everyone subject to being hassled by other anonymous posters. Everyone is gay, a fag, a retard or an autist. A thread without insults is a failed thread. The more people who tell you how gay and fake your shit is, the more people actually like it. 4chan may have given us lolcats, but it also ended up being a place for violence, misogyny, bullying, extreme racism—and even far more heinous things. For 12 years moot moderated the site. May criticized him at the time, but I think we can all look back now and know that he really did a fantastic job. For over a decade he was the beam scale that balanced free speech against the darkest depths of humanity—and I meant that literally. He developed a system to help identify “anonymous” posters and worked with the FBI to put away pedophiles, child pornographers, and even would-be domestic terrorists. He did this all while being told constantly how gay he was and how many dicks he sucked (as is the way). Moot was a hero we never deserved.

  The two most popular boards on 4chan are /pol/ (for politics) and /b/ (which stands for random). People who post on these boards are often referred to as /pol/tards and /b/tards respectively, with /b/ being one of the more nefarious (but also one of the more creative) boards as it had essentially no rules on what you could post. If “tard” sounds harsh, know that it is said lovingly. Even seniority within the community itself is derogatory. There are “oldfags” and “newfags,” where being called an oldfag is an informal compliment and recognition of seniority. Opinions will differ, but oldfags are generally recognized as being those who were around 4chan since before the pool was closed—one of the very first large raids. In 2006 a sort of prank was organized on 4chan by a group of Anons to “raid” the Flash game Habbo Hotel. Hundreds of people created black avatars in the game and went around spamming the chat with racist and anti-Semitic nonsense, drawing swastikas and blocking off the pool area in the game, declaring that the, “Pool’s closed due to AIDS.” Why? For laughs. The average age of the userbase for this game was around 15 years old. Then again, the average age of the then Anons was probably the same. There is a lot more to this story, and I encourage you to look it up if you have the time, but the point is that this event eventually lead to 30 seconds in the spotlight on some news outlets. This was the first big event that was attributed to 4chan and Anonymous as a group. It was the first time that most people outside of the depths of the internet had ever even heard of 4chan.

  After this, more newfags joined. 4chan grows and the subgroup of /b/tards and /pol/tards that would come be to known more formally as “Anonymous” starts to take shape. All the while, moot is trying to balance what content stays and what content goes. The rest, as they say, is history. You start to see all kind of digital activism being organized on 4chan. Raids turn into DDoS (Distributed denial of service) attacks that shut down websites. People get arrested. Splinter groups form. Anonymous becomes more political. /b/ and /pol/ start to leak out of the internet and into the real world. People start protesting various things, like the Church of Scientology, wearing the iconic mask that the character V wears in the movie V for Vendetta. Logos are created. Anonymous comes into its own as a digital force. The group aligns itself with what DnD players call, “Chaotic Good.” Anons enjoy playing a character that is either an anti-hero or anti-villain. Sometimes Anons will pretend to have some super elite hacker ability, and while that is sometimes true it is mostly embellishment. Some people refer to this as Live Action Role Playing (LARP or LARPing), but it is not quite that. LARPing is when people take their Dungeons and Dragons game to the next level or dress up like Harry Potter characters and roleplay out in the woods. What happens on 4chan is very much a form of roleplaying, but one specifically shaped by the anonymous nature of the platform. I’m going to coin a second term here—Creative Anonymous Role Playing, or CARPing. More on this later.

  Moot continues to run 4chan until 2015. During that time, it gets harder and harder to manage. Anonymous becomes more unruly, and the site starts to spiral. Cyberbulling goes to a whole new level. There are celebrity nude photo leaks. Gamergate. A series of actual murders and killings get posted on 4chan. 4chan didn’t cause them, but that’s where the content ended up living. The site starts to become unmanageable with the old rules in place. Why moot bothered to keep it going I’ll never understand. There was never much money in the site itself and it always seemed like a huge headache. But the site starts to take moderation more seriously as harassment ramps up.

  Boards like /pol/ start to get more strict rules. Even /b/ starts to see more and more threads get removed. In 2013, a piece of shit Anon known as “Hotwheels” doesn’t like what’s happening to 4chan decides to splinter the group and starts 8chan.  While moot is trying to wrangle 4chan into something better, Hotwheels goes in the reverse direction and starts empowering (and in some ways, encouraging) harassment with things like Gamergate. 8chan doesn’t remove anything. No morals. Doesn’t matter who gets hurt. Free speech above all.

  This stance obviously has consequences. While moot would work with law enforcement, Hotwheels gives them the proverbial middle finger. As a result, all of the bad actors now had a new platform. You see swatting become a popular tactic. More and more violent threats. While moot would work with the FBI to help track down pedophiles and terrorists, Hotwheels decides to relocate the site to Philippines (where the age of consent is 12, mind you). He can barely keep the site running. No one wants to host this content; he can’t even keep the .com anymore because the registrars don’t want to work with him. Hotwheels finds some other shitstain in Manila who runs a pig farm and a porn site designed to get around Japanese pornography laws. They partner up. After three shootings (Christchurch, Poway, and El Paso) in 2019 where the shooters posted their manifesto to 8chan, Hotwheels finally admits the site got away from. The site shut down for a while, but the pig farmer and his son started it back up and rebranded it as 8kun after finding a Russian hosting provider who was willing to host the content. It is now a safe harbor for literally the worst of humanity, and you don’t have to take my word for it. Even Hotwheels himself now advocates for shutting the site down, but the pig farmer and his son have run away with it.

  This is where your information comes from. This is where it lives.

  Now that you have a better understanding of who is creating this information—your news—it is time. This next part is going to be hard.

  You have been bamboozled. QAnon is a hoax. It may well be one of—if not THE—greatest, most pervasive, hoaxes of all time.

  How do I know this? Because I am Q. In fact, I am the original Q. One of them, anyway.

  This is the point where many will stop reading. You are likely either angry or starting to feel embarrassed. I’m going to ask you to try and put those feelings aside for a moment and keep reading. You have absolutely no reason to feel embarrassed. This isn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. You got caught in a world you didn’t fully understand and there are people now trying to prey on you at every corner to sell you hats and t-shirts.

  If you are willing to go forward, allow me to explain.

  What has happened here is what I’m going to call a “Galaxy Quest” moment. There is a lovely movie that came out in 1999 called Galaxy Quest. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s worth a watch. It’s a family friendly comedy about an advanced alien race who watches a TV show made on Earth called Galaxy Quest. Galaxy Quest is a TV show, but the aliens don’t know it. They refer to the TV show as the, “historical documents.” They built an entire civilization around the historical documents, never realizing it was a TV show. It’s a fun concept. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. Anyway, the aliens weren’t stupid. In fact, they were the furthest thing from stupid as they made all the science fiction from the show come to life (although they are portrayed are dumb for the sake of comedy). The aliens simply did not have the context necessary to understand what they were seeing. They didn’t realize it was fiction. They didn’t know what fiction was. That is what has happened here with QAnon. You have read things on platforms you didn’t fully understand, and you brought your own context and understanding to it. You read fiction as non-fiction and no one has bothered to explain to you how or why this content even exists.

  We are going to go back as far as I can remember. I ask that other Anons corroborate what follows, not for me, but for those who are trapped by what has become a truly insidious ideology.

  This all starts in the summer of 2016. Someone on /pol/ makes a post pretending to be someone working with “intimate knowledge” of the “Clinton case.” They made a post in the style of an AMA (which stands for Ask Me Anything, a form of Q&A popularized by reddit). This is just another form of CARPing (Creative Anonymous Roleplaying). The first two responses are: “Will the Hillary get Pregnant again?” and “Why are you on 4chan on a Friday night?” This thread almost instantly devolves into what is commonly known as a “shitpost.” It is nonsense. You might say to yourself, “Why would someone go on the internet and tell lies?” Well, this person isn’t really lying, they are shitposting. It is a form of artistic expression. It’s an attempt to get someone to suspend their belief for a few moments. Any seasoned oldfag or /pol/tard knows exactly what this kind of thread is. No one takes this literally.

  However, at the time /pol/ is growing. You’ve got new people coming in daily. Much of /pol/ favors Donald Trump, broadly for his trollish nature and memeability, but also for his politics. Months later, someone cites the AMA as the FBI source behind the Pizzagate theory. This finds its way to Twitter. No one actually understands what they are reading, and no one checks the sources. Someone actually thought a months old shitpost on /pol/ was some kind of real leak. Long story short, someone goes into a Comet Ping Pong pizza with an AR-15 and starts shooting. A Friday night shitpost turned into shooting.

  Fast forward about six months.

  Someone on /b/ posts a depressing green text asking for recommendations on a new cult to join after they found out their girlfriend was cheating. Someone mentions that OP should become a Tibetan monk, because Tibetan Buddhism is a really great cult (e.g. because you can “light yourself on fire if you ever get too depressed OP”). Tibetan Buddhism goes on forever because the Dalia Llama gets reincarnated infinitely, so maybe if you are lucky you get to be him one day. This is the thinking. This isn’t exactly enlighted discussion. I respond suggesting that I have a great new cult that OP can join (which is loosely based on Heaven’s Gate, I’m just making this up on the spot). I had recently listened to a podcast about Heaven’s Gate and I was riffing on it. I loved the absurdity. OP asked for more sauce, but I decided to start a new thread instead.

  Warning: This about to get really nerdy.

  I started writing some shitposts with pseudo biblical writing, talking about saving humanity. I’m actually more embarrassed about it now than anything, as it was not my finest work. I would refer to “the awakening” as being the time when I would deliver the evidence that would let people “wake up” and realize we were in a simulation. Have you ever seen the Matrix? Yeah, like I said… not my finest work. I signed my posts as Q. Where did Q come from?

  Well, initially, because of John de Lancie’s character of Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The character of Q was omnipotent and omnipresent. In the show he would speak to Captain Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise in his own form of strange riddles. Q took a particular interest in humanity as a whole and would appear as a jester-like sort of mix between an anti-hero and anti-villain, always giving Picard hints on how to expand his mind to solve a problem, usually to save all of humanity. So, this was my model.

  The goal was to get a few believers and then set a date a few weeks later and reveal “the awakening.” The Awakening was just supposed to copypasta. It was a bamboozle. I was trolling I never even did it because I got bored with it. Most people could see through it (fake and gay) anyway. But someone was watching. Someone who likely called me fag and told me to choke on a bunch of dicks and kill myself was watching.

  A few months later I start to see the first “Q” posts, which would eventually be called “Q Drops.” It migrates from /b/ to /pol/. Wow, so original. You took one shit idea from /b/ and made it political. Round of applause.

  This person knew exactly what I was doing, not that what I did was that original either. Star Trek is pretty popular among internet nerds. But this is why Q has always talked the way he does. This was the model. This is where Q comes from.  The “Q Clearance” stuff that came later is, well… coincidence. But not even a good coincidence because it doesn’t even really make sense, as that is a clearance for the Department of Energy.

  The Q from Star Trek also exits as what is known as the “Q Continuum”, where there are other omnipotent beings, and everyone is referred to as Q. This is where the habit of Q referring to himself as “we” comes from. It’s a Star Trek fan, just like me—only one who managed to make a piece of creative anonymous fiction into something political. Likely for lulz at first, because lets be real no one thought it would turn into what it has.

  I suspect that Q has been played by many different people over the last couple years as the tripcode has changed, but likely all of them are Star Trek TNG fans. You can really see it in the writing and the constant talk about “humanity.” It’s also possible that the person currently playing Q is the same as the person who was shitposting in my original thread. It doesn’t even matter.

  So that’s it. That’s Q. Q eventually moved from 4chan to 8chan and then 8kun. It should be obvious who controls the narrative now. There is nothing truly anonymous or secure about 8kun. We have technologies for that (i.e. tor, torrents, modern cryptography) and 8kun ain’t it. QAnon is the cash cow for the pig farmer and his son in the Philippines who run 8kun, giving a platform to future terrorists and pedophiles. There is a reason for “no outside comms” and “no dates”—control the narrative and keep the machine rolling as long as possible. Why? Money. Between ad revenue and merchandise QAnon is now a profitable venture. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and eventually you will make some prediction that will feel real enough, even if 99% of everything you say is bullshit, and keep the train running. In fact, it’s much easier than you think.

  Take the twitter account, for example.

  In early June I saw a number of trending hashtags around #JFKJRRETURNS. I could not believe the amount of people who were latching onto this. I watched the account go from zero to tens of thousands of followers in a day or so and then disappear. Everyone was saying that Twitter “banned” him. But when Twitter bans an account the language on the page says that the account was suspended. The account page for this account said that “This account doesn’t exist.” That means one of two things: 1) the account holder changed usernames; or 2) the account holder deactivated the account. When you deactivate an account, it puts it into a 30-day limbo period where you can recover it. I thought to myself, “If I could get ahold of this account perhaps, I could do something good with it.” I never thought I’d actually be able to do it. Low and behold, thirty days later I went to see if the handle was available and it was. Now I would get to play Q once again.

  I just started riffing on whoever was playing Q with the account before me. No idea who that was. The envelopes were just responses from various government departments, nothing more. The postmarks are meaningless. Turns out if you write a letter to a government agency they will respond, and you get some cool looking envelopes. You can try it if you want—pull a FOIA request on yourself. July 22 was a date I pulled out of my ass. HUMAnity and ALl GOod ThiNGs are just more references to Star Trek TNG. The last episode of the show is called All Good Things, hence ALGO TNG. The very first Q Drops on record talk about Huma Abedin, and I thought maybe someone would try to make a connection with, “HUMAnity.” The last post from !!Hs1Jq13jV6 also mentioned “humanity”, but I didn’t even make that connection. It’s really not hard for those coincidences to pop up when you are all playing the same character. Manila, well, you know what that refers to now. St. Augustine is a reference to St. Augustine, Florida, where the largest QAnon merchandise operation is run from. The mentions of Hotwheels, moot and having stairs in my house was my way of gauging to see if anyone really had any idea about anything. The strange code in my location was just a Google Maps Plus Code. I picked a spot in the middle of the ocean off the Cook Islands and pulled the code for it. Turns out I didn’t even do it right, so it shows a different answer for everyone when you plug it into Google Maps.

  So that’s it. That’s the whole thing. Beginning to end. Call it whatever you like, but that’s the story. The story of the chans, of QAnon and how Q became Q. Do with this what you will. Believe or don’t believe, it doesn’t matter.

  Maybe this is all 100% true. Maybe it’s all 100% nonsense. Maybe truth is somewhere in the middle. What’s important is that you have more information today than you did yesterday. Where we go from here is a choice, and one I leave to you. What will happen to me? Well, I’ve been at a standing desk for 14 hours straight in order to bring this to you. I have done what I set out to do over three years ago and fulfilled my purpose as Q. My palms are sweaty. My knees are weak, my arms are heavy. It’s starting to fall out of my pockets already.

  Mom’s Spaghetti,

  Q

[sanatrath]

Giggles App

A second screen application to learn jokes in sitcoms. 2014. 

The problem

Being on the outside of an inside joke is no fun.

Landing in the US for the first time in 2012, I had to quickly make myself familiar with 200 years worth of culture, education and lifestyle. A big part of this was the conversation I had with my friends in grad school. However, I often found myself unable to understand the seemingly funny cultural references and failed to laugh with folks. It was getting hard to blend in when I wasn’t getting the jokes. 

This wasn’t just me. As Henry Jenkins points out, networks and media have created a convergence that has created highly generative new cultures. Inside jokes describe this group’s identity, create a bond of uniqueness & a distinct blend of language that smooths out social interaction. However, an exposure to local television content can develop certain sociolinguistic skills that can in turn help foreigners identify unique inter-cultural ‘clues’, including the overarching parallax of humor.

With my masters thesis, I decided to try just that -- Help users understand humor in TV shows so that they can get familiar with a foreign culture.

Background: a medium and an agent

According to Scarborough USA+ Study done in 2012, 52% of users prefer watching sitcoms to any other shows. 20 of the top 50 TV shows on IMDB were sitcoms. Time magazine’s list of the top 10 most social shows included 7 comedies. Given the pervasiveness of sitcoms, they can be good purveyors of the aforementioned cultural ‘clues’.

Additionally, I hypothesized that a second screen application that users can follow along with their favorite sitcoms, would be the ideal way of providing contextually relevant content. An NPD Group study from 2012 found out that 87% of people are already using at least one second-­screen device during TV watching. Further, viewers using a sync app on a second screen have 26% higher engagement than viewers doing solo TV viewing.

Research

Although there were a growing number of companion second screen apps in the market, only a few of them catered solely to the genre of comedy.

To understand how users view and appreciate sitcoms, I conducted a survey to know more about TV viewing experience of 60 participants.

Making sense of it all 

After the first round of formative analysis, I found that the app needs to cater to multiple user types interested in different tasks at different points of time throughout a TV show. For example:

Viewer experience: A viewer’s experience can range anywhere between naive (new to the show) to seasoned (an ardent follower).

Type of tasks: Viewers would either like to find the humor themselves (exploration mode) or want some assistance finding them (explication mode).

Timing of the interaction: Viewers would focus on the TV content during the show and actively interact with the app before or after the show. 

However, a user’s goal remained the same i.e to gain popularity in their social circle. Thus, the app had to be on the active side to helps users generate ‘talking points’. Majority of these could be solved with these use cases - uncover the hidden humor, identify the local references, and help users follow the characters on screen. 

With the variables and use cases at hand, I could draw a multivariate task matrix to find touch points to facilitate a viewer’s migration from one experience level to the other. 

From this exploration, I observed a few patterns:  

1. Naive users would spent time before the show to find reviews. Experienced users would engage in watching gag reels and interviews, or sharing metadata after a show.

2. Intervals are critical for viewing missed humor. Experienced users watching the show during reruns would be interested in reference clips from the future episodes to relate to instances of foreshadowing.

3. During the showtime, viewers with less familiarity would want to be told about a joke or a character, while experienced viewers will try to spot humor by themselves and share snippets with the community.

Kicking off the design

For a proof of concept, I picked an episode (Season 2 Episode 3: Amigos!) of the Arrested Development and analyzed it manually. With the help of multiple fan sites, I selected 26 jokes in the episode. I split these into 4 types of humor:

1. Easter Eggs or background jokes: An intentional inside joke, hidden message, or feature in the show.

2. Recurring gags: These are repeating humor that appearing in multiple instances throughout the entire show.

3. Foreshadowing: This is where the author explains certain plot developments that may come later in the story.

4. References: These are radical intertextuality are connections across multiple shows or textual structures.

I mapped these jokes with their timestamps in the episode to help development of the design in a later stage. Then, with my use cases in mind, I sketched the interactions as a storyboard.

Video mockup

Before starting on a prototype, I iterated on the concept sketches. I considered that a second screen app should not disrupt the immersive viewing experience of the TV. Instead, the interactions should be subtle and seamless, providing essential details on demand. The viewer can save content for referencing later during interval or after the show ends. 

However, it was hard to visualize all the moving parts of the app in static sketches. So, I created a rough video mockup in After Effects to understand the interactions necessarily in the final prototype.  

I shared this with fellow designers in design critiques for feedback. Based on the feedback, I created the final app flow.

Prototype

I created the prototype for user study in HTML5 & Node. The client app on the tablet communicated with the video player running on the browser using socket.IO.

Evaluation

I conducted fifteen minute long 1:1 sessions with 14 participants of the age group 22-­28. Half of the participants were native english speakers, whereas the other half were non-­native with english as their second language. All of the participants had mentioned comedy as their favorite genre of TV show. 3 of the 14 participants had no experience with Arrested Development, whereas 5 considered themselves to be experienced viewers. 

The session was split into 4 segments - a background interview, a free-­run direct observations, and cognitive walkthrough followed by a brief semi-­structured interview. During the direct observation segment, participants were asked to watch a shortened 5 min version of Episode 3, Season 2 of Arrested Development, and concurrently use the companion application on the iPad. The sessions were video and audio recorded for note-­taking purposes. The sessions were conducted in a quiet lab with a TV and a couch with minimal interruptions.

Findings

I coded the data from the user study into behavioral, empirical and design pain points. The top 3 pain points evident from the data were

Viewers get fewer jokes than they think they do: Before the study, 11 of 14 participants said that they get 90% of jokes in a comedy show. However, participants scored an average of 48% in the Game mode. This is 35% less than the expected 83% mark. 

Understanding increases with experience: Seasoned viewers got 62% of the jokes in average, while naive users scored 23%. 

Non-native viewers get more jokes using the app: Non-native participants scored 39% compared to 53% by native users. 

There were some major pain points with the app’s usability. These had mostly to do with the interruptions caused during the show watching. I created affinity diagram with the feedback from the user study to help formulate design recommendations for each screen. The pain points were posted in red; the concerns and negative feedback in yellow; and the positive feedback in green. 

Final Design

The updated design followed on Shneiderman's mantra -­ overview first, zoom and filter, then details-­on-­demand. The changes focussed on removing interruptions caused because of the need to do small careful interaction. 

The app in its default state showed snippets of the jokes and the characters on the screen. On swiping up, a more detailed view of the current joke will come up; whereas as on swiping down the character map was shown along with the details of the selected character. Swiping left revealed the previous jokes which could be bookmarked by clicking on the star icon. These interactions help the app seamlessly extend into various modes in lesser time and keep the focus of the viewer on the show.

Takeaways

There are 3 big learnings from the entire process: 

Countering omniscience bias: People tend to overshoot their confidence in general cognition. For example, the viewers expected to understand more that three-fourths of all jokes in a TV show. Whereas in reality, they got about half of jokes. Applications should be designed with the assumption that majority of users find it hard to comprehend the functionally designers take for granted. 

Affordances change between mediums: Bookmarks work great for books and browsers. However, they don’t communicate the same meaning in the context of watching TV. Instead, ‘starring’ better applies to the action of saving for later.

Reward, not shame: One of the findings from the study showed that users do not like to be tested while watching a TV show. Instead of showing the number of missed jokes and embarrassing a user, it would be more rewarding to show the number of jokes they understood. Incentivizing rewards can enrich the experience of joke finding even further.

[amamblog]

Postures of Engagement

As the Allen this week begins to de-install the two Fred Wilson shows that have occupied and transformed the museum over the past year, Curatorial Assistant Mir Finkelman pauses to document and reflect on her experience of teaching Oberlin students with Wilson’s work. 

Visitors to the Allen during the 2016-17 academic year encountered a space which appeared to deliberately obfuscate its own legibility. Oberlin College students often had the benefit of a staff member to walk them through the avenues of meaning-making presented by artist/curator Fred Wilson in his site-specific “museum intervention,” christened Wildfire Test Pit. Discussions with college classes centered on students’ observations of the show. Noting aspects of the installation that appeared familiar, and then unfamiliar, they interrogated what a visitor might expect in the space of the museum, and how Wilson’s intervention challenges and subverts those expectations. Every discussion with students illuminated new ways in which the familiar is made strange through Wilson’s inversion of standard curatorial practice, which engenders an entirely different approach to seeing objects and navigating an exhibition.

The casual museum visitor encountered Wildfire Test Pit without this structured, guided experience, and had to pick up on cues from the physical arrangement of the space in order to know how to delve in. After entering through the front doors of the Allen directly into the King Sculpture Court, a visitor was confronted with a marble portrait bust of a man named James Peck Thomas, encircled with a ring of salt. Flanking the bust were two telescopes, fixed upon objects high above the viewer’s sightline from the Sculpture Court floor. Both the telescopes and the salt, seemingly out of place in an art museum, provided keys to understanding how Wilson might have envisioned visitor engagement with the space. Wildfire Test Pit relied on perspective, viewership, and active bodily engagement to build meaning and promote discussion, and most importantly to preserve a multitude of possible approaches to the objects and the installation as a whole.

Wilson gained international acclaim following his 1992 commission Mining the Museum, staged at the Baltimore Historical Society. Objects from the bowels of the Society’s permanent collection, including cigar store Indians, fine silverware, and iron shackles, were evocatively juxtaposed, raising haunting questions about the nature of collecting and recorded history, particularly vis-a-vis the experience of non-whites in America. Wilson has since staged a number of similar interventions at museums across the country, unearthing untold stories through his selection and placement of objects, and through his rigorously researched wall texts, which function as subversive footnotes to the established narratives of the institution. His installation at the Allen was equally rich and changed the way I viewed our collection, which I had gotten to know over four years as a student at Oberlin. While there were many threads of the installation that made for great conversation and discovery, three themes, outlined below, consistently arose in my discussions with current students and casual visitors, and helped us together to begin unpacking the installation’s nuanced layers.

Sightlines

There were two telescopes in the installation: the north telescope focused on a golden Baule female figure, looking down onto the sculpture court, while the south telescope was trained on a facsimile of a drawing of Urania, the muse of astronomy. The reference to Urania seemed to many the key to understanding the purpose of the telescopes: their connection to astronomy. This was, however, only one part of their function. While the telescopes seemed to facilitate the viewing of these objects, positioned high above the ground, they also obscured them, as one had to shift their eye around the eyepiece to view each work clearly. The telescopes revealed themselves not as instruments of clear sight but rather as mechanisms of translation, as the objects did not neatly fit the mechanical strictures of the telescopes, and thus remained elusive.

The viewer was integral to this act of apprehension. The installation prioritized the viewpoint of the visitor, implicating them in Oberlin’s history and in the role museums, including the Allen, have played as inheritors and translators of cultural legacy. The viewer was made vulnerable by bending over or bowing before the telescopes and the objects upon which they gaze, exposing the backs of their necks, and losing sight of their immediate surroundings. Here, the secondary and tertiary functions of the telescopes came into focus. They acted as foils to heighten the visitor’s perceptions, also making them fully aware of how their bodies moved in the space. Within the context of the installation, which was thematically focused on the life and legacy of the first documented female African-American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, the telescopes also functioned as a metaphor for our relationship with history: we rely on extant or available documentation to understand the past, and sometimes there simply isn’t enough reliable information to reconstruct what we ourselves did not experience. Lewis’s story, in particular, was forgotten for almost a century and has been told and retold by more recent historians, leaving us with only a partial knowledge of her history. The telescopes point not only to the limitations of recorded history, but in the partial views they construct of objects in the exhibition, they also point to a more museum-specific problem, namely that museums must choose what to include or exclude from their versions of history-telling. The telescopes, combined with the historical references within the installation, thereby prompt visitors to reflect on the limitations of understanding history through any museum’s collection or presentation of objects.    

Salt

With the telescopes signaling from the start the need for close-looking within the installation, visitors were presented countless opportunities for small moments in which the familiar was made strange. For the attentive viewer, these moments marked continuities throughout the exhibition and offered clues to a path one could take through the installation. Though the bust of James Peck Thomas looked outward from the installation, confronting visitors as they entered the museum, the ring of salt Wilson placed around its columnar base and just below its shoulders invited visitors to circumambulate the entirety of the work, putting the visitor’s body in full motion right from the start of the show. The salt was also echoed nearby, where it spilled out, brilliantly white, from an overturned trashcan. Visitors had to bend or crouch down to read the label beside the metal bin, a posture of lowering similarly demanded by the Three Graces, a plaster cast with an open cavity in the back that harbored four African figures surrounded by a mound of salt. Whereas the trashcan positioned the salt as a familiar commodity, its presence at the feet of these African figures or placed like an emblem around the bust of Thomas brought out other functional and symbolic allusions: purification, preservation, corrosion, protection, which together nodded to various histories that involve salt, including trade, mining, colonization, snow, and the ocean.

Even if a visitor did not initially realize how prolifically salt was used throughout the space, the overturned bin made its presence very apparent and helped draw attention to other, less obvious places in which salt appeared. The recurrence of a non-traditional material in the space invited visitors to double-back and move around, taking a path through the Sculpture Court that was neither circumscribed nor linear. This looping path, combined with the postures that the placement of salt, like the telescopes, required of visitors, showed them how to engage with the show: fully, even bodily, and with a questioning or curious attitude.

Surveying

The final clear indication Wilson gave the viewer on how to navigate the installation came from its invocation of abnormal height. Most visitors to a museum expect the majority of the artwork to be centered at eye-level. As the telescopes at the front of Wildfire Test Pit signaled from the start, the visitor was encouraged not just to look straight ahead (or down, as the salt demanded), but to look up. Vinyl texts of varying sizes and lusters were installed high up on the walls of the Sculpture Court, sampling quotations, providing timelines, and presenting lists, all mingling together in a nonlinear fashion. Visitors were left to interpret how these snippets of text were connected to each other and to the objects below, and to do so, visitors had to actively move about the space in order to see the texts above at all, as their matte or glossy finishes of caught the light differently depending on where one was standing. Understanding the role of the text thereby required both physical and mental acrobatics--visitors really had to work to produce meaning from all of the stimuli filling the space.

For visitors to the Allen over the past year, Wilson’s installation was almost inescapable, no matter where one went in the museum. As one moved through the ambulatory galleries that surround the Sculpture Court, each of which displays art and artifacts from around the globe, Wildfire Test Pit presented itself anew through the arches, and lent different texture to other works on view. When visiting the upstairs Ripin Gallery, which also hosted objects from across cultures, it was almost impossible not to look down upon the Sculpture Court, and out across at the text that was now mostly eye-level. When seen from above, the ruddy earth-toned paint of the Sculpture Court walls (a color Wilson specifically chose, which museum staff dubbed “Fred Red”), along with the fragmentary components of the installation, evoked the archaeological “test pit” of the title, bringing the allegory of excavation to bear upon the museum’s material history. When observed from this height, other visitors became a part of the installation as well, enforcing the notion that histories and objects inhabit a liminal, and ever-evolving space in which we actively participate, often unknowingly. The varying vantage points available to the viewer acted in conjunction with the telescopes, salt, and selection of objects to make the visitor aware of the integral necessity of their perspective and presence in meaning-making, both inside the museum and out.

Though both the space of Wildfire Test Pit and its narratives were complex (and undoubtedly sometimes frustrating for visitors), Wilson’s skillful arrangement of the objects demonstrated the availability of a multitude of modes with which to engage the space—there was no single correct way understand the show or the stories it aimed to tell. In my experience working with the show over the past year, Wildfire Test Pit opened an arena for Oberlin’s community at large to pose questions about whose history is chronicled institutionally, by whom, for whom, and how—and indicated at every turn that such questions do not have answers that can be resolved by one exhibition.

—Mir Finkelman, Curatorial Assistant for Academic Programs, 2016-17

If you’re hungry for more information about Wildfire Test Pit, the Allen has also published a catalogue documenting the show, now available at our Front Desk. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy from afar, please contact the museum at 440-775- 8665 or email administrative assistant Sally Moffitt at smoffitt@oberlin.edu

[darklorddiscourse]

You asked and I delivered

@tolcveistodestrcy Here is your analysis on the Obscurus!Graves/Servant!Gellert AU. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is not a live analysis. This is an analysis from having read everything you (and Mados) have produced and then going back and rereading for this analysis post.

The first post

“’A miracle,’ Grindelwald breathes. ‘You are a miracle. I always knew you would make it. Can you hear me? Come with me. Think of what we could achieve togeth-‘”

Now, I know you didn’t write this line, Miss T, but it still belongs in the analysis as it is part of the beginning of the AU. I don’t have much to say on it other than I feel like it somewhat parallels what Grindelwald (disguised as Graves) says to Credence in the movie. Or maybe I was just imagining things. But I feel like I’ve seen or heard similar words to those before.

“This is not good! He had made a mistake. An Obscurus was not a shadow. It was a living being. It was a sentient being. A creature, people did not know much about. And he had just planted it inside an adult wizard’s body!...Never ever attempt something so risky when you do not know where the consequences lay! Gellert seized up his wand…Gellert’s eyes widened. ‘Wait!’, he howled, ‘No! Please, no!’”

In these snippets from multiple paragraphs, I think that we can see one of the few times Gellert actually shows fear. For the most part, Gellert is calm, collected, and calculating. He seems to know exactly what he’s doing at all times, and everything he does is for a reason. But in this one instance, we are shown a more human side of him, a side that I feel he rarely shows. He made an error in his actions, and doesn’t know what it will lead to now, especially given that the circumstances led to his already-powerful opponent becoming more powerful in a way that isn’t fully understood. Therefore, a very human reaction is seen as Gellert faces off against something he couldn’t predict. It almost causes one to sympathize with him. At least, for as much as one can sympathize with a dark wizard.

“His body burned and ached, however he and his new roommate were already forming connections inside his mind.”

It’s a single line, but in context it says more than what’s written. Taking the events in the previous paragraphs and then the ones following into mind, the conclusion can be drawn that the Obscurus played a key role in establishing the new hierarchy between Gellert and Graves, as I feel that Graves himself would not want Gellert as his servant. Based on my perceptions and personal opinions (you don’t have to agree with me), I feel that Graves would rather have nothing to do with Gellert, even in his amnesiac state. Gellert has already done so much harm to Graves that if Graves had the chance to walk away, knowing that Gellert could no longer pose a threat to the wizarding community, he would take it. Therefore, it must be per the Obscurus’ influence or taking over Graves’ body that binds them to each other as master and servant.

Shatter Me

“The acts always left him in a strain afterwards. It was like this today as well. Graves had sentenced another man to death and now was heading home. Once Percival entered into his home, he was greeted by Grindelwald in the corridors.”

Whenever I read this I can just picture him walking home with his head down, sighing every once in a while. From what I know, Graves does not like the fact that he is now an Obscurial. Therefore, I imagine that the strain on him would not only be physical from using the Obscurus, but also mental and emotional because of him having to acknowledge what Gellert made him into.

“Percival had no problem with the fact that he had stolen the identity from the dark wizard and gave him a new one. A humble one and an obedient one. It was a good and satisfying feeling. To have him under his controll, squirrling under his thumb when he wanted to.”

“Percival slowly began to eat. He did not turn his head, however he knew that Gellert stood near his chair, hands behind his back, ready to spring into action when needed. Depending on what mood he was in, he sometimes ordered Gellert to sit on the floor like a dog or massage his feeth while he ate. He found great joy in dressing the man up in a neat, little servant uniform with gloves and a tie.”

It may just be written this way because this one-shot was (likely) written before Mados was brought onboard the AU, but in my opinion (coming from a reread) this is like a point or an instance where the Obscurus is influencing Graves’ thoughts and actions, as it is stated in the thread later that Graves still does not like Gellert because of what he had done.

Anything for the Master

“’You are looking tired, Master Graves’, remarked Gellert as he stepped besides the table, hands crossed behind his back, ‘Was work very exhausting today? Or is it the weather? If you like, I can make you a hot bath.’ He was always suggesting how he could be of service. It lay in his nature. Or rather it lay in the curse placed upon him.”

So, normally, the animal I associate most with Gellert is a panther. A sleek, silent, powerful killer. But when I read this all I can see is a golden retriever wanting to please its master. Ironically enough, it’s somewhat fitting in that his animal has flipped as has his personality. To explain a bit better, his personality is now the opposite, going from dominant and commanding to subservient and submissive. The animal I associate with him has also become opposite, going from a feline to a canine.

“Percival was drained by the creature more often than not. It always was demanding when the former dark wizard was around them, and that pretty much happened whenever Percival was at home. He hated Grindelwald for giving him an Obscurus, he hated that man so much, and yet the Obscurus loved him, loved him to the point that he got unbearable when they were close.”

This goes back to what I said earlier about the Obscurus taking a toll on Graves both physically and emotionally/mentally. Here it is flat out stated that Graves hates Gellert. But the Obscurus has become attracted to Gellert from early on. So this circles back to the idea that the Obscurus is also emotionally/mentally draining, as Graves is constantly having to mentally fight against the parasite and its feelings for its captor in addition to the mental fatigue that comes from the knowledge of what his enemy turned him into.

“Gellert of course heard tidbits of the conversation, however he could not understand why his master sometimes switched the pronouns. Though he did not ask. A servant never asked unless he was specifically spoken to. Graves had made this rule very clear: Certain questions were allowed for Gellert, concerning his master’s well-being for example, but other questions, in fact any question that revolved around Gellert and the Obscurus were strictly forbidden.”

Simple analysis. What this tells me is that Gellert will likely never learn of his “past” or at least what events led to the current situation. He will not be returning to fulfill the goals he once held.

“He gave up, from the moment he gave the order to Grindelwald, he gave completely up, and looked at the man on his knees in front of him. He’s precious, isn’t he? Just look at that face. The Obscurus whispered, and Percival felt like gagging, he just rolled his eyes. ‘If you want him to suck you then stop talking, or I swear I will leave!’ Why of all creatures, why of all Obscurus, this one, his own, had to fall in love with Grindelwald?! This torture was physically horrible. Shush it Percy at least you get laid often. ‘Not with who I want, and certainly without my consent, it’s you who forces me to this.’ He whispered to the creature that huffed in disapproval.”

While Graves hates his Obscurus and what it makes him do, trying to fight it is like going against his own nature. It is very much a part of him, and one that he cannot deny forever.

“Standing up, white eyed Graves spoke, but it wasn’t his tone of voice anymore, it was deeper and angry. ‘YOU FILTHY PIECE OF SHIT!’ it growled as the tendrils crawled around Grindelwald’s body. ‘YOU CANNOT LONGER PLEASE YOUR MASTER?!’ The thunderous voice roared. ‘WHAT USE WOULD I HAVE FROM YOU, IF YOU CANNOT EVEN GET ME HARD! GIVE ME A GOOD REASON NOT TO KILL YOU NOW!’ The Obscurus could love Gellert, could feel all flushed and happy when he saw the blonde wizard, but he was very protective of Graves, it was his own host after all, the reason he existed.”

What I draw from this is that the kind of “love” the Obscurus feels for Gellert is not love in the traditional sense of the word. It seems to be more of a mix of appreciation and amusement. Appreciation in that Gellert provided it with a new, more powerful host, despite his attempts to control it. But also amusement because the punishment it bestowed on Gellert gave it something to play with. A sort of “toy”, for lack of a better term. Think like the giddiness and love a child would have for a new plaything. Therefore, it has no problems with causing harm to the object of its “love”, as a toy ranks significantly lower than a host.

“Still when the Obscurus demanded a reason to keep him alive, Gellert croaked: ‘I can try harder, Master Graves. If you tell me what you want and how you want it, I am sure I can do a better job. Aside from that I could do deliveries and inquires.’ He had no clue how he could say these words but he somehow knew that he could do this. ‘I could spy on people for you. I could steal things. I could assist you in your work, Master Graves. Just please’ - Tears streamed down his face – ‘don’t kill me!’”

Under the assumption that the Gellert Grindelwald at the beginning of the AU (the one who was initially experimenting with the Obscurus) is the same portrayal as yours, this gives a glimpse of the original “Gabriel Grimmwood”, as your Gellert would often employ himself for tasks such as these under his alias. Additionally, one also has to remember that Graves would never allow this to happen, as it was stated previously in the one-shot that “His little Gabriel was his secret, his special servant, his pet… He would not share him with anybody.” (Shatter Me) If Gellert was allowed to perform these duties, it would mean that he would be going out into the public. Not to mention that if he went outside, there is a high probability that someone could potentially recognize him as he was formerly (as Grindelwald or the original Grimmwood), which would cause problems for both of them.

[anothershadeofpurple]

What do you think the hug means in the context of operation out? You previously discussed how the touch Emma and Regina share fits the narrative of someone in a comatose/vegetative state, but now a hug seems to break the rules there? Or do you think this is happening perhaps in Snow's dream world? Also, thanks for sharing your positivity and theories!

Hey!

I don’t like posting incomplete theories, but I’ll share the bits and pieces of what I think has been going on this season, because it’s so good for us, actually. Everything under this is my current hypothetical based on first impressions.

What’s been happening this season is that Emma is starting to wake up. Her subconscious recreates what’s happening to her in little summaries. The wish realm showed us what happened since the Pilot. She’s slowly sunk into a dream world where she lost her memories and tried to live up to her fairy tale parents’ expectations. The Emma she remembered was the Emma we first met.

Snow & Charming’s sleeping curse reflects her current state where she’s half awake, half asleep. Emma is their heart. That’s why I suspect they’ll break their sleeping curse, but get stuck on the sleeping side. It’s what happened to Emma, it would be another clue for her that it’s possible to think you have broken a curse while you haven’t. It gives them the opportunity to do a marriage and a musical. It’ll clue people in that something’s up… while still having Emma marry her Animus figure and thus making peace with herself.

That’s the bigger picture in a nutshell, let’s zoom in on the hug.

In this wish realm there was a choice to go back to the dream world - go through the portal - or stay with Regina who was going after Robin. Emma made her choice, she chose Regina and the world that seems less real to her than the current one - reality. 

Robin - I assume - is/was Regina’s boyfriend in the real world, but he is also a self-insert for Emma. That’s why it’s difficult to understand what this character is about. Emma really dislikes him and thinks he isn’t right for Regina - on top of her jealousy, I think he is a lawyer who screwed up Emma’s case or something - so we get all these scenes where he becomes the character to ask the not-so-smart questions. In other moments he has conversations with Regina where Emma expresses what she would like to say to Regina through him. I think what died last season was Regina’s image of the man. She ended her projections and now she’s dealing with reality Robin. So that’s what’s going on with Regina emotionally and it’s mixed up -as usual - with what’s going on with Emma.

When Emma and Regina didn’t take the portal back, everything changed. Instead they went back through the wardrobe. We saw Emma go through the wardrobe in the Pilot, when she had the accident. Going through it again symbolized Emma getting closer to consciousness. She’s crossing over.

Emma is probably starting to sit up and make real eye-contact. Maybe she’s uttering some words, but she’s still very far gone. Meanwhile Regina has been living for years fighting this battle with her and for her. Regina feels like she knows Emma. She’s researched Emma’s life, she’s done the coma work where they talk through gestures and touches. Where someone taught her to interpret the fluttering of Emma’s eyelashes and twitching of a finger. She feels like she knows Emma intimately and similarly, she has shared a lot of herself with Emma she hasn’t told anyone… but suddenly Emma is waking up and she can’t be certain of anything anymore. 

Now keep that in mind and think about Emma’s perspective. Her mind is constantly working to make a mash-up of her fairy tale world and the real world. As she gets closer to the real world, we get more and more snippets of real conversations and she has to work harder to make sense of what she really sees around her. What we’ve seen was always reality-related, but you have to imagine it’s becoming less and less warped. Conversations and people’s actions very close to the real world.

Regina is one of the people she has the most contact with. Suddenly Regina’s acting really strange to her in reality. Regina’s acting like she doesn’t really know her. All this time Regina has been talking to her like a normal person. Snarky, telling her things. Suddenly, because Regina sees the signs of Emma waking up, she’s talking to her like they’re acquaintances who sorta know each other. It doesn’t add up for Emma. She doesn’t understand the change in Regina. So what happens in Emma’s mind? First we have the wish realm where she’s lost her memories, that initially explains Regina’s actions.

…but even though she's starting to remember who she is - which was significant and to be taken literally - Regina keeps being really weird. This can’t be about her, so it must be that Robin has come back, but he’s a different Robin who looks like Robin… Yes, that’s it. That’s who Regina’s talking to.

So when Regina and Emma came back through the closet…. that’s when Emma left her own Narnia. She crossed a boundary of wakefulness. She’s probably starting to sit up. Robin in this instance was simply Emma as well. He only appears after she leaves… and that’s when the first hug between Emma and Regina actually happens.

First it’s Regina just acting on emotion. She knows Emma, the thing nobody expected is happening, she’s still alive and now she’s actually waking up. Regina carries all this guilt about Emma’s car crash - it was the middle of the night and she’d given her a drink before she left. It’s just her first instinct. “You’re finally back.” She’s fought so hard for this woman, risking everything… and there she is suddenly. It’s a heartfelt hug full of emotion. She knows Emma, they’ve been in this together.

…but Emma’s still really weak. She isn’t very responsive yet, this is a very slow and gradual process. You can see it hit Regina. All the questions she has no answers to. How much does Emma know? How did she perceive all this? Does she feel the same about their bond, about their fight, their journey? She realizes that she has no idea how much Emma knows, how she perceived all of this, how she really feels… and how the image she has of her compares to reality.

…then she pulls back. Self-conscious, not sure how to proceed. She apologizes for maybe overstepping. Emma isn’t strong and aware enough to reassure her. She’s there and not there.

Then the conversation between Mary Margaret and Regina further reinforces they are really talking about Emma.

Mary Margaret: Regina what were you thinking, how could you bring him here?Regina: You weren’t there. He was miserable in his world and he wanted a fresh start and I’m just trying to help him.Mary Margaret: But you don’t know who he is. Looking like Robin Hood doesn’t make him the same person. Trust me, I once kissed David’s twin, world of difference.Regina: We’ve barely even talked.Mary Margaret: Well, there’s some things you should probably tell him, like for example he has a daughter.Regina: It’s not his daughter.Mary Margaret: Exactly my point, they’re different people.Regina: But there could be a part of him in there. He was able to cross into the real world, that has to mean something.Mary Margaret: Regina I want this to work out for you, you deserve this. I’m worried.Regina: Yeah. Me too.

This is very close to reality. They’re worried because Regina has no idea how close the reality of who Emma is will be compared to the expectations. Not only did she only talk to Emma very briefly before the car crash, she’s gotten to know her through talking to people who knew her, through files and research. She knows her because they have been fighting together and Emma reached out to her… but they don’t know how Emma’s going to come out of this. Will she be the same person after brain damage? It’s all up in the air. They haven’t been able to talk much yet, Regina can’t really gauge the situation. 

And then there is the issue of Henry’s custody. They share custody - it’s what happened during Going Home and it was represented by Snow & Charming’s heart split. I’m not 100% clear on the why behind it, but I think it was partly about keeping Henry - the small print on the adoption was what Mr Gold blackmailed Regina with during season one - that’s what the “Please” was about. And on the other hand legalizing Emma’s ties to Henry so they could take care of her and make decisions on her behalf to keep her alive.

Of course now imagine this unusual situation for Regina where she has to tell Emma - who for all she knows may want nothing to do with them - that she now has a son. And at the same time she is terrified that she will want Henry and they will disagree on parenting him, but she has legal custody. It’s a terrifying situation for her.

That’s what’s going on in reality. The hug is actually a good way to show how cyclical this show is. How we get the same experience from a very different perspective to process all the emotions behind it.

Of course, Emma wanted to frame this hug between the two of them as well, but it had to make sense in her current reality… one where she is marrying Hook and in denial about loving Regina. That’s where the warp happened. I think there may be a slightly darker side to his, because I think this is Emma’s jealousy. In the real world Emma is alone and she’s jealous of Robin… she’s turning the emotions around, it’s less painful for her if she imagines Regina being the one pining for her instead of the other way around. In this world Emma has it all and she’s afraid of letting that go. That’s why the hug between them was the anti-climatic one. Emma has to make all the stories match up with reality and they still have to mean something on an emotional level. 

Last but not least, we had the hug between Regina and the Evil Queen - which was very much about Regina starting to love herself and looking at her past with compassion… but a part of it was also once again processing that first hug and how much it meant to Emma. There are now three instances triggered by the same event, the first hug. 

Emma has a troubled past that Regina and Henry know about and it was one thing for them to fight for her when she was completely helpless and in a vegetative state… It’s another thing for them to keep her in their life when she’s awake. The Evil Queen represents Emma’s Id. Her essential self… and Regina hugged her. She hugged her anyway in spite of everything she knows. She told her they are in each other’s lives now, because of Henry, whether either of one likes it or not and that means something. Regina doesn’t treat her differently now that she’s waking and… Emma…. now she has that tiny sliver of hope that maybe this family is going to keep her. 

…and excuse me while I go cry in the corner.