#<- does not know how brevity works basically

[varilien]

Do not freak out BUT....

I absolutely adore your Vash and his hcs and you're honestly in the top section of my tier list for trigun artists 🥺

I'm absolutely also a sucker for how pretty vash is, have you ever seen a man so pretty?? No I have not and wolfie is blessed everyday by waking up to him 🙏

ANYWAY I JUST REALLY LOVE YOUR VASH AND YOUR HCS FOR HIM ARE SOMETHING I THINK ABOUT TOO....

YAAAAAY IM SO GLAD U ENJOY!!!!!

[knife-eared-jan]

Ok, as much as I have been hyping and playing 12 hours a day since it got out (still in Act 1 though, bc I'm a slowass player and completionist), I feel like I have to say something that is getting hard to ignore at this point... and I wanna preface this by saying that I am loving a lot of aspects of the game and I adore the writing when it comes to the companions, who I am obsessed with.

And maybe this will get better yet, as I generally heard the writing picks up once the story progresses beyond picking up all companions..

But I'm starting to get quite upset at the way the writing just does NOT care about the established lore and the politics of Thedas like at all, when to me - and many others - that richness, nuance and depth of the world is what makes the games so special.

(Spoilers below)

I looked past the way the elves in Arlathan just seemed to know that their gods are evil and Solas is "kind of a dick" but was right about that. When, you know, that made him basically the Satan of their pantheon up to now.. It was after all the tutorial stage of the game and I understand that you wanna ease newcomers into the lore. I could also handwave it in-universe with Morrigan being there - she could have filled the Veiljumpers in on the discoveries of the Inquisition or even what the Well told her.

It felt a bit weird that our contacts in every other faction just accepted this huge revelation without a blink, but again it was the early stages and I also get that having a discussion about it 6 times with different faction leaders would have been incredibly tedious. So I ignored that. And yeah, at least the First Warden found it hard to swallow.

The fact that they brushed aside the gods finding elven subjects - many of whom after all still worship them - with one sentence from Solas was disappointing though. Instead they chose to ally them with the Venatori and the Antaam who are the pure evil factions with no nuance or motive to side with them besides a comic book level of hunger for power. They didn't even throw in a sentence about the gods maybe speaking to the Venatori through the Archdemons to get them on their side or how it's very ironic that the Venatori, who want to make Tevinter great again, stoop to working with the pantheon of the people they oppress because they see them as lesser and other. No political exploration of the massive lore implications at all.

It really hit me when I picked up Davrin and he commented how Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain blighting the world would really endear us (elves) to the rest of Thedas - this was the first time anyone actually mentioned the political impact of the elven gods being real, freed, evil and blighted on modern day elves at all, when this should be HUGE. It should be ugly. It should be complex. It should be explored in as many examples as bloodmagic and the oppression of mages was in DA2. It should be a central point of Act 1. (This btw made me love Davrin so much in that moment because this was the first time in the game for me when I actually felt like talking to a Dragon Age elf and even just that one line felt like home.)

And now I just did Taash's first companion quest and it seems Qunari lore is also being ignored (except for the gender aspect of it, which I look forward to). Taash's mum was a scholar and had a baby and the only problem about that was that it could breathe fire and was special but otherwise all would have been dandy? Like she would have just been allowed to keep Taash long enough to find that out about her baby if she was living under the Qun? That directly contradicts everything we know about how the Qunari's culture around reproduction and childcare works.

Sorry to be negative and talking myself into a rage - I know it's not something people want to see rn. But like, I realise you have to brush over some lore intricacies for brevity and to make it digestible for new players. But this is a world initially inspired by Wheel of Time and ASOIAF, both of which are interesting because of the depth of ficitional cultures, lore and politics, and hence it's also what gives Dragon Age its appeal. And now they take us to the most politcally interesting areas on the world map and just get rid of all of political depth?

That's really disappointing. Imagine if Winds of Winter dropped all political themes just because there's several previous books and it's been some a lot of years.

Also, I managed to play DA2 before I ever played Origins and they could introduce me to a vast established background of lore just fine back then.

Sorry. Rant over. But I had to get that out of my system.

[andhumanslovedstories]

I've been thinking the kind of writing I do and the kind of reactions it gets. Some authors get goofy comics of their works. Me? I just got a comment on my Captain America: Winter Soldier fic that I helped the reader understand 9/11. I am, by the way, delighted by that.

I struggle to describe my own writing style. It's wordy, I know that, and favors a LOT of detail, to its benefit and detriment. I'm indulging this tendency for my current fic because it's fanfic and I am having a lot of fun seeing what details I write that I end up elaborating on, but my number one style goal this year is to work on brevity and a snappier pace. My style is so introspective; characters spend a lot of time reflecting on themselves. I put a lot of work into making my characters complex, even at times contradictory because I think that's true to human nature. And by god, do I think about a story's themes. Do other writers think about themes this much? Sometimes I'm like, hey brain, I'm actually good on themes. Would love to get some plot.

Not to entice all the sapiosexuals out there, but I take a very cerebral approach writing. (This does not btw mean that the fic itself will be particularly intelligent.) I'm not saying this is a good or bad way--it's one way to write. My writing can feel very cold to me. Very same-y as well. That's why writing SQQ pov is so fun, it's such a radically different voice than my usual.

The fic I'm writing now was supposed to be a lighthearted fic that was an excuse for me to practice writing a sex scene. Almost 80k words in, it's so super not that. I just can't resist the thrall of complication. Although you know, as I'm writing this, I'm not exactly sure what an "intellectual approach" to writing even means to me. I use big words? I overuse semi-colons?

Maybe it's the way that I'm so language-forward in my writing. Like, what I love doing is crafting a sentence. Someone described literature to me as writing where the main draw is the author's technical accomplishment in executing their style. I definitely favor authorial voice, to the point where the stories I write that I like least feel like balsa wood gilded over. It looks nice, but you quickly realize it's weak as hell.

There's works that clearly value style over plotting, and vice versa. You need both when you write--all plot with no style reads like a synopsis of itself and all style with no plot is imagery in pursuit of nothing. Both very boring in their own way. It's interesting how totally which one weighs more affects every part of the story. Mrs. Dalloway is not a fast-paced page turner, and a thriller doesn't halt itself so we can read really beautiful, pointless paragraphs about how the color of the sky evokes memories of a long ago time when you were so different.

Maybe what I mean is that my stories tend to evolve out of the ideas that I'm exploring. In the fic I'm writing now, I had this core conceit of misunderstanding: people failing to interpret something without knowing they're doing so. In a way, the entire story is about the hard work of moving from misunderstanding to understanding. Getting information, interpreting it, having that interpretation challenged, exploring what that challenge provokes, moving either closer or further from "the truth". Shen Qingqiu misunderstands basically everything, and basically everyone misunderstands Shen Qingqiu. What situations can I make that center on misunderstandings? I also think a lot about the concept of fault--how have people failed in the past, how are they failing in the present, and how do you make up from what you have done wrong? Do you get to just move forward? Are you always at mercy of whatever you did in the past?

So a lot of the plot of the story stems out of ways that I can bring those ideas to the forefront. When I get stuck, I think of different ways these concepts can manifest. Ming Fan's getting a whole plotline because of this. I like my writing, I do, but I’ve really been thinking about the way I write affects what I write. And then in turn the reactions I get to my writing. And then I wrote this whole post because ao3 was down and I couldn’t post my chapter. And now here we are.

Also general DVD commentary on OOC fic--I hit such a roadblock because we're very close to the point of the story where Big Things are going to happen, and I could not decide on exactly how those things should occur. I had about three ideas that I was excited about. None of them were compatible with the others and each would have very different emotional implications. It's hard to write when you're essentially juggling three different drafts. The only way I got myself to commit to one was promising myself that I could always write AUs of my own fic. I honestly doubt I'll get around to doing that, but who knows. Maybe someday there will be a fic of (spoiler warnings ig for things that aren't going to happen) this fic's version of sqq and lbh in the endless abyss together.

Also you would not imagine the amount of thought I've given which conversation should happen before the abyss and where each character relationship needs to be. I have dithered like crazy. And there's so many relationships I'm working with. I'm keeping track of Shen Qingqiu's relationship with: Luo Binghe, Liu Qingge, Yue Qingyuan, Mu Qingfang, Ming Fan, Shen Jiu, Qing Jing Peak as a whole, a couple of OCs, the System, and his concept of self. Mu Qingfang has not been on screen for a minute but it's not because he doesn't haunt my plot outline. Sorry, bud, everyone else just keeps getting more pressing stuff.

[kronos-lungbarrow-oakdown]

What if...

Imagine Jade (aka Death) decides to play with the Master's - and the Doctor's - lives a bit for entertainment reasons and attracts & locks them somewhere remote in a room to play a game (more or less like the trivia game from "The Long Game" from 2005) and brings people from all over their lives to "participate" the games.

The trivia basically works like this: Jade ask the participant something about the Master's and Doctor's lives. If the participant gets it wrong they get a penalty that will apply for the next round or two or three - depends on Death's calculation system.

The companions of course are extremely nervous and so is the Doctor (imagine 13th) because they aren't able to talk while another participant is answering - or else a penalty will be applied for who interrupted and who was supposed to answer until the end of the game. The Master (imagine Dahwan) is mainly mad to be trapped and have his personal life exposed in such ridiculous way.

Let's suppose that there are roughly twenty-five participants in the room including the two Time Lords, and for the sake of brevity let's suppose it's all happening from the Master's point of view. So, of course he doesn't know half of the companions names but he - as a little shit he is - can see familiarity in most of their faces. All of their faces except one guy, of who he quickly becomes aware of when the Doctor gives him a puzzeld look as if also trying to figure out who is he.

They form their suspicions but each and every suspicion one of them has are dismissed as soon as the guy starts to say all the right answers to questions that no one there would know the answer but the Doctor and the Master.

Suddenly it's the Master's turn to answer and the question is a bit different from the others.

Jade: How is the title of Death's Champion is passed on? A) It is transmitted to the child, if there is one, of both parties involved. B) It dies when the Champion dies. C) It is passed on on random order. D) It is passed on to the current Champion's child.

And, as odd as the question is, both, Master and Doctor, knew that this game was to play with their emotions. And that there are a lot of questions meant only to confuse them. So confidently the Master answers "B) It dies when the Champion dies." and - not that he would admit - but he never saw a more cruel smirk in his life than the one Jade gave him.

"Wrong answer." Jade would answer and instantly the Master would brace himself for a punishment but he doesn't feel anything and looks up to the panel to see what punishment has been assigned since he doesn't feel any different.

"Letter A was the correct answer." Jade would proceed as the Master read the letters written in red.

Punishment: double the successor's drum noise.

A scream echoes through the place.

In a snap of head everyone is facing the guy who none of them know only see him kneeling on the floor holding his head with both hands.

It takes the Doctor a moment to process but when she does she throws a desperate look to the Master who can't get his eyes off their son screaming in pain.

How could he not recognize him?

[princess-of-the-corner]

Amnesia!Dabi

Ok, so like, I am going to preemptively apologize for how long this will probably be. I will be skipping around the timeline a bit, so if you see any plot holes, imagine that they happened off screen, or make up your own version of events! Cause I don’t know how likely this is, but it won’t leave my head till I write it down and share it!

(if brevity is the source of wit, then i am seriously short changed)

AHYWHO

(Okay this is a LOT so I’m gonna add my comments in parentasis and italics instead of at the end. Would love to color code it but for some reason I can’t do that rip)

a couple general ideas, so we know where everyone is.

The trial wraps up in Himiko’s favour. The Togas are arrested. Himiko (now a Todoroki) is technically going to U.A.. Really, she’s being tutored through U.A., as she’s still a bit “fragile” to be going into a regular school, and everyone is still a bit concerned about the LoV coming after her (I mean, not really, but any reason they can use is a brick in the wall that keep the HPSC FAR AWAY from Himiko). U.A. is also giving Himiko Quirk Training (something her parents never bothered with), and as Himiko improves, she’s spending a lot of time with Recovery Girl. Partly because using her Quirk, at the moment, can cause dizzy spells, partly because Himiko is seriously thinking about being a doctor at this point, and wants to use her Quirk to help people. RG has agreed to give her some pointers, and Himiko is basically interning with the woman now (calls her “Granny Chiyo”, & thinks she’s amazing). Himiko is also tentatively friends with a few U.A. students now - besides Shoto.

(She’s doing great! Get this girl some friends!! I think most of 1-A would jump immediately to friendship by now (both from Shoto’s talking and Katsuki being like ‘yeah she’s chill’ and seeing her parents) even if she’s just like ?????. Ya girl has a gameplan and she’s getting better!!!)

Dabi is … well, he now responds to Toya when people call him that. He mostly feels like Toya, too. Like, he, for the most part, feels “yes, that’s my name”. He doesn’t remember EVERYTHING (and being honest, probably never will) but he remembers enough that he’s getting bits and pieces of his old life back. He remembers his school friends, his teachers. His siblings. His parents … well, he remembers Rei. Enji … I headcanon any memories about Enji are the last things Dabi gets back. If he ever does. Most things he currently remembers about Enji aren’t so much about him, but about his absence. An empty training room. A spot at the dining table set up, but never filled. A feeling of heat, but Dabi can’t remember the source.

(SIDE TANGENT: part of my theory for all this is Dabi’s memories of Enji have gotten caught up in Dabi’s memories of the forest fire where he “died”, and his brain is still repressing that HARD. Basically until Dabi remembers any part of his “death”, his Enji related memories are going to be mostly out of reach.)

But, ya know, otherwise Dabi’s doing ok. He’s managing.

(So I said before but I think one of the things that’s hindering Dabi remembering Enji is how /different/ Enji is. Because the man got himself some help and his own mental health is better so he’s just. He’s there and encouraging and admits his faults. And that’s good! But it’s not triggering the memories of what he was like for a good chunk of time.)

Jin is … well, honestly, Jin’s probably the worst off right now. Like, he’s mostly healed at this point - physically. He’s walking around. He’s working with U.A. to figure out some things, LoV and otherwise. He’s, weirdly, made friends with Lunch Rush, and spends a few days a week helping out at the school cafeteria. Also made buddies with Hound Dog, they like shooting the shit together.

But Jin’s also having lots of nightmares. He’s basically insomniac. He catnaps, and wakes up screaming more often than not. His Quirk being stolen has really messed him up. Like, you’d think it would AT LEAST help with his identity problems. Which, if you want to get EXTREMELY TECHNICAL, it has! By kicking his old identity problems to the curb in exchange for brand new ones! So, Jin is having a ROUGH GO OF IT right now. However, he isn’t being left to drown. He has friends. Nezu himself managed to find the guy a therapist. He’s trying some medication that seems to be helping. He is coping and getting better.

(oof. Yeah no it. I talked on it before but being without your Quirk absolutely fucks you up. He’s getting help but that’s gonna leave a mark.)

Magne, by contrast, is doing GREAT. Leaving the LoV when she did basically started a domino chain effect that’s set her up to be in a pretty great place. She’s working at a small, underground clinic that caters to people who, for whatever reason, don’t feel comfortable going to regular hospitals. Quirk status, prejudice, possible crimes, lack of money. It’s run by an old couple with some fairly balanced healing Quirks, and their apprentices. Magne works the front, as both receptionist and security. The Doctors are both kind, compassionate people - if a bit grumpy - and while they can’t pay Magne a lot of money, they CAN get her any medicines or drugs she needs free of charge, which means Magne is doing fairly well for herself. She has her own apartment, but visits the Todoroki’s fairly often, where she has a standing invitation to stay over whenever she needs to. Enji is also helping cover certain “expenses” to help Magne out.

(Note: I remember what you said about the HPSC being transphobic, and that’s why they can’t get Magne - “Oh, you’re looking for a man? Well, we just had this lovely lady over for tea!” - but I kind of ran with that, so Magne is in the middle of medically transitioning. Enji has helped set her up with records, so she’s officially “Magne Smith” or similar, and has basically gaslit the HPSC that Magne’s deadname is a completely different person who’s run off to Tibet or something.)

(Honestly? Good for her! I love this.)

Now, let’s jump over to the League for a hot second.

The League is doing … not great. They have, at this point, figured out Jin didn’t just run off, but they are extremely confused and wary. Compress managed to contact Magne, and while she was reluctant, she’s given them a VERY basic run down - how Himiko’s doing, Dabi’s status … and the fact that Jin doesn’t have his Quirk anymore. 

The League knows there’s basically only one way that could have happened. But none of them really know what to do. Compress has nowhere else to go at the moment. Spinner and Kurogiri refuse to leave Tomura behind. And Tomura couldn’t leave, even if he wanted too. (And at this point, he’s beginning to …)

So that’s the general state of things, when Overhaul comes calling. At first, the meeting seems like it will go the same … except no one gets torn apart, cause Tomura says “yes” to joining up right away. So, when the Raid happens, the LoV are all there. It both changes things, and nothing at all. The Raid happens mostly the same. Overhaul goes nuts, Deku straps Eri to his back and fights him one on one. However, at the end, when Eri’s losing control, before Aizawa gets there, Compress gets there first. He manages to get Eri off Deku, and traps her in one of his spheres, which apparently negates her Quirk briefly … though not before Compress himself is de-aged (his bio says he’s 32, so let’s say … cut his age in half, he’s now physically 16. Congrats, you get to relive puberty).

See, I like to imagine this was Compress’s turning point. While working with Overhaul, Compress gets drafted to work with Eri for a bit. And Compress is horrified by the state this poor kid is in. Like, they all are, but for Compress, it hits him HARD. I imagine his own childhood wasn’t great, and he’s getting hit with “Similar situation, but this is SO MUCH WORSE”. And now not a single one of them trust AfO even REMOTELY, so Compress is struggling to think of a way to help Eri without causing all of them to go down in a fiery blaze. When the Raid happens, Compress basically goes “Welp, this is my best shot!”, and does his best to help the heroes. He makes sure Nighteye doesn’t die, and keeps a couple of the kids from being shot (though not Mirio, unfortunately). When Compress sees Eri losing control at the end, he doesn’t even think. He just moves. 

When Aizawa shows up, Compress releases Eri, and her Quirk is nullified. Compress then surrenders to Aizawa, and U.A. (somewhere, a HPSC Agent feels a sense of dread). After some time, U.A. decides to release Compress into Endeavour’s custody (the Agent wonders why they want to bash their head against a wall), and Enji decides hosting them ALL at his house might not be the best, so Magne offers her spare room. Compress starts adjusting to the fact he’s physically a teenager again - someone jokes about him signing up for U.A..

(Oh fucking RIP to getting de-aged he absolutely hates it but hey /technically/ he’s now underage which means getting him protected from the Commission is easier.)

Now, jumping around a bit, why does Tomura join up with Overhaul? Well, this time? He had orders. When the Heroes look through the base, they can’t find ANY of the Quirk Cancelling bullets. They find the research, and a few samples, but all of the PRODUCT is gone. Then, on the way to Tartarus, Overhaul’s transport is attacked … and Overhaul is taken. The Public is told minimal information. The Heroes are told he escaped.

(AfO smiles. He has another part of his plan.)

[Note: my general idea at this point is AfO is realizing his plan for Tomura is kind of falling apart. So, he’s thinking of backups. By utilizing Jin’s Quirk, and Overhauls, plus a few others, he’s hoping to make himself a new, back up body, up in case Tomura doesn’t work out. As Mimi pointed out, he doesn’t technically NEED Tomura for his plan. Using Tomura was more about the style points, with the kid being Nana’s grandson.]

(You’re absolutely right about the style points thing like I went on a tangent either here or in discord on how I kinda questioned AfO’s choices in backup bodies because Tomura was his first choice and then supposedly Toya was a backup if Tomura didn’t work out but like. Other than style points neither of them are really /good/ for this whole thing because he should really be going after someone whose body is capable of handling multiple Quirks due to his own Quirk’s nonsense. But also like. No way in hell is AfO going to just let Tomura leave at this point, even if he’s no longer useful as a new body.)

[allthatyouknow]

I haven't listened to a lot of the podcast yet, so far I like it. But, I listen to a lot of shows and I have always been wondering about them: how do you find the time and energy to do this?

First of all I want to say sorry for letting this rot in the inbox for so long, life has been kinda crazy lately. (I hope you see this answer!)

This is a difficult question, and I feel like it's been simmering in the back of my mind for awhile. For the sake of brevity, I've tried to boil this down to some short points.

I Love Doing It

I love it.

When I was a kid, I'd make up all these fantasy worlds in my head - and my one wish was to be able to explore them with my friends. I'd have these persistent yearnings to wake up in some fantastical adventure, and just be able to experience something new and exciting free from the usual expectations of life.

Obviously, that didn't work out - so playing pretend with my best friends is the closest thing I have, and like I said - I love it, therefore I'm willing to expend a lot of energy on it - often times at the detriment of other parts of my life.

2. My Lifestyle Enables It

I don't want to really get into any personal stuff too much, but basically - I have a good job, I work from home, I have enough breaks in between my work that I can put in some time here and there during work hours to develop the podcast.

Motivation aside - this is a huge part of it. I still ran games when I was busier and had more demanding jobs, but there was definitely not enough time that I would make a podcast out of it (at least, an edited one).

Editing the episodes, making music, trying to maintain the blog takes up a chunk of time that honestly, I wish I didn't have to worry about, and there are still a lot of things I could be doing better. (Promoting, making more music, etc). But I am very lucky to be able to do even this much.

3. Release Schedule

Having a two week release schedule has been essential to push me to produce this. Without that consistent deadline, I think things would have fallen apart.

(I am extremely glad I didn't do a weekly release schedule, I'd have burnt out so quick.)

4. I Crave Validation

Up until probably my mid-20's, I was afraid to share what I wrote. It was a mix of self-consciousnesses, doubt, shame, etc.

What I realized was that I wasn't afraid of sharing my work, I was afraid of sharing my work and having my fears about being a bad writer confirmed.

Ultimately, I realized that the chance to share my work with people, and interact with a wider audience was worth the risk of having people not like it.

Even just being able to say "I am making this thing, you can find it here" is really good for my self esteem. It feels like I'm creating proof of my creativity, instead of just squirreling it away.

So, here we are. It's been worth it - being able to know people are interested in the show, seeing the questions that come in, being able to interact with other creators.

-----

That's it, but anyways hope that at least partially answered the question. Hope it wasn't too rambly!

As always, thank you for writing in - it really does mean a lot to me.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

saw your arc-v livepostings on twitter n' your z-one/aporia posts and now i really wanna get into the show and into ygo in general. do you have any recommendations on where to start so that it won't be too confusing for a poor sap such as i if you can? please and thank you (:

WAHHH IM HONORED THAT MY SILLY POSTING HAS INSPIRED YA TO CHECK OUT YUGIOH!! ;w;

yugioh really is something truly special and an absolute blast to really dig into, but it IS a very big franchise.... forgive me for being a bit inexperienced at giving recommendations, but I shall do my best!! here's some pointers that I think could be helpful if ya wanna get into the show(s) (not getting into the mangas too much on this, for the sake of brevity LOL) (the spinoff mangas are fun reads, though!)

ok so the thing with yugioh is there are Eight Different 'Main' Yugioh Series (and a few little stray other series but we ain talkin bout those right now)--my recommendations are focusing on the first five series, since those the ones i've seen (though ive heard glowing reviews for VRAINS and Sevens and you could certainly go check either of those out if you wanted to! You don't really need to know anything about the plots of the other series to follow those stories)

as a yugioh fan i am of course obligated to recommend Duel Monsters as a starter. It's the OG, just absolute Yugioh at its most tried and true Yugioh, it Is that good, the dub and sub are both classics--but IF i am being my most honest true self, if my arc-v postin and zoneporia chattering have got ya ygo hooked then I would recc maybe taking a gander at one of the spinoff series first instead ;3

(In general what's cool about yugioh is you can basically pick up any of the series as your 'first' ygo experience to start with and have a great time with it! I know tons of people who've all started with different series/only are invested in 1-2 series,Theyre all made to be their own self-contained plots, and there's really something for everyone among 'em! you could honestly just read wiki blurbs on each series and go with whatever one sounds most interesting to you, and that's a fine start right there.) (though sometimes youll see characters from one series show up in another one, the Entire Storyline isnt Hinged on that--i.e. a bunch of alternate version GX/5D's/Zexal characters show up in ARC-V, but you dont need to have seen all those series to watch arc-v or follow its plot.) also idgaf what anyone says, the dubs are just as wonderful a watch as the subs are when it comes to ygos--you have to deal with some scene censorship or dialogue changes, but to me it doesn't really impede the experience. (in fact I almost want to recommend the dubs MORE for someone just starting to get into yugioh--it can be easier to follow the duels sometimes. AND a lot of the dubs are free on Youtube!!)

ANYWAY Z-one and Aporia are from Yugioh 5D's!! The, Last twenty episodes or so. Of 5D's. 🥴 <--the suffering nicherfaverrrr. So if you want to meet them properly you Do unfortunately have to be in for the long haul (i am of course biased and will say: Worth It.) 5D's is all around fantastic though; it has its slow spots, but the duels get crazy fun on those damn motorcycles, so even if you do buckle in for the All of It you'll have a good time--there are some chunks in the second half of the show that never got dubbed though (sad!) which is just something to keep in mind.

RE: Arc-V! since youve seen me tweetin about it, I will say, the first 50 episodes or so of it, that first season, does make for a really great crash course intro to yugioh and its worlds/how dueling works, since it touches upon all the main types of summoning as part of its plot, and talks about how they work. You get to learn about them as the characters do, which is really cool! My main hesitance from suggesting it 100% as a starter series is that it gets. fucking Bonkers. like characters from the other series showing up aside there is just So Much Going On in Arc-V At Any Given Point. IT CAN BE A BIT OVERWHELMING. AND APPARENTLY ITS ENDING IS. NOT VERY GOOD. which might not be very fun for a first time ygo experience 😭BUT BY ALL MEANS GIVE IT A WHIRL IF YOU'RE INTERESTED. I'm having fun with it at least, hehehe.

OK HONESTLY. HONESTLY. I think if I have one good recommendation to take away from all of this: watch Zexal. Zexal is a fantastic starter yugioh, I can't recommend giving it a go enough. Yuma as a protagonist starts out dogshit at the game and gets better over the course of the series, and that really helps the viewer follow along with the card game and start to understand it at a nice pace without getting confused over all the finer points of it. It does a really nice job of explaining how things work imo! It's also just, a gorgeous show. It's one of the most beautiful cartoons ive ever seen art direction wise. It's so kind and so fun and goes hard as hell and the characters are so full of love and personality. AND THE WHOLE DUB IS FREE ON YOUTUBE. BTW. BONUS.

THIS ENDED UP SO LONG SORRY tl;dr you can pretty much start with whatever yugioh sounds most interesting to you personally as your first series and you won't be missing any critical lore! Also Zexal is one of the best, consistently good and really easy to pick up. I think if you could only ever watch one yugioh make it that one.

also this is a less a recommendation and more just "little things about watching yugioh to keep in mind" but: don't let the card game aspect intimidate ya too much! the show really does it's best to explain how cards work and keeps it engaging; it's a show geared towards kids so of course it tries to keep things pretty easy to follow along, game-wise (also do not listen to the 'The Duels Arent Important' Crowd they are Wrong. yugioh is a sports anime but the sport is a card game. that's the crux of its storytelling. and it's genuinely really cool!!!) And if you're interested in giving the game itself a whirl, Duel Links is pretty beginner friendly imo!

I HOPE THATS AT LEAST SOMEWHAT HELPFUL the trials and tribulations of recommending where to start with a franchise that boasts some 1000+ episodes across 8 series is mighty but that should give ya some sort of idea!! whatever you end up going with I hope you have a ton of fun! YUGIOHHHH

[sublimesublemon]

wicked thoughts, under cut for brevity:

oh no. there is exposition text at the beginning. this ain't a good start, y'all. this is a very very bad start

okay okay this is winning me over, it does just look so joyful in oz, during the overture

why the change from "atrocious" to "uncanny"? seems unnecessary, and i don't think it gets across the anger and hatred as much - "uncanny" is weird, "atrocious" is bad

a burning efigy in the middle of the this cutesy little colourful village

the flash-forwards of their friendship........ guys why are you DOING this??? your audience isn't stupid!!! even if they didn't already know the story of wicked going into the theatre, i think the subtle "glinda the good witch is singing about how wonderful it is that the wicked witch of the west is dead, but has a pained look on her face" acting is an intriguing hook to get them curious about the story to come!!!!! "is it true you were her friend?" "yes... well, i did know her... (*flashes of glinda and elphaba touching hands*) our paths did cross..." is NOTHING. cut that shit out, wicked 2024! (of course, it's a 2-hour 40-minute movie that is the first act of a 2-hour 45-minute musical, so i imagine there will be lots of time for throwing in exposition dumps and whatnot (i swear i'm not trying to go into this with a judgement already. i love wicked so much, and i want to love this movie so much))

i do admit it's nice that the dialogue has a little space to breathe. i've never really minded, but on reflection the stage production is very... rapid

i really do love the environments. like, the sets and costumes and shit in the background - it really is such a fantastical world, cartoonish and childlike and bright

GOD cynthia erivo can fuckin BELT it. this might be telling on myself a little bit, but i was so focused on how stunning i knew ariana grande was gonna be as galinda (i was right, ofc, btw) that i didn't even consider that this newest elphaba might possibly hold a candle to idina menzel (high praise)

get the fuck out of here with ANOTHER FLASHFORWARD????? of something bad happening in oz???????? god trust your fucking audience

oh my god this fiyero is here to FUCK (and i agree with every person at the school also wanting to reciprocate)

the reality of oz such that sometimes people just break into song and/or dance, and that any given group of people can potentially just join in a dance number, choreography and all, without batting an eye - that this is just how the world works is a wonderful way of demonstrating how oz is just simply a different land than our own. much like barbie 2023

i mentioned before that i liked letting things breathe in this movie - elphaba's and galinda's scene where they dance at the oz dust ballroom has literally made me tear up, something i don't think the stage production did, and the ost hasn't

this movie is so gay. we love it

in the promos when i saw oz displayed as an actually green city, i was a little upset bc i've always been especially tickled by the fact that the emerald city isn't made of emeralds. everyone just wears emerald-colored glasses. i think that's a very pointed and sinisterly funny commentary on self-delusion of the goodness of a blatantly shitty government. furthermore, the green glasses were an explicit part of the show. they sold em with the posters. i still have a pair from when i saw the production in high school. i'm very disappointed that they didn't find some way to use them. they would have fit right into this movie. sigh

i do love oz as this exaggerated retrofuturistic steampunk land. that sort of thing was always implied in the book and musical but it's so cool to just see all the gears and cranks and steam and shit

i do like the cameos. i do not like that it's a new song that's basically another iteration of the expo dump at the start. hate it.

jeff goldblum is fucking inspired casting. cold take, but not wrong. love it

okay okay okay we're here at the end of part one, the climax of the show... please don't let me down, "defying gravity" from wicked 2024...

i can't believe they turned a 6-minute song into the last half hour of the movie. i can't believe i was fine with it. it could have been so cheesy, so flat, so pretend. it was...

good. this movie was good. still shouldn't have been 2 movies. i loved this adaptation so much.

[ifearifearifear]

The FNAF Multiverse (8/10)

Almost at the end of my introduction to the multiverse. Just two chapters left. (Closer to one chapter, really.)

Chapter 8: Exaverses

Ah, exaverses. It’s high time we talk about these properly. I’ve mentioned a few times about how while the focus of this AU is the FNAF multiverse, it is simply part of a bigger whole.

This ‘whole’ is the local exaverses. Exaverses contain a number of multiverses, and are generally reflective of genres, fanbases, and mediums. They are not based specifically on position, nor are they static. Exaverses can, and frequently do, overlap quite noticeably. For brevity, I’ll list just a few of the exaverses that the FNAF multiverse has been local to.

The HORROR Exaverse - This one is self-explanatory. FNAF started with a horror game, and it has become rather recognizable and well-known in the space. Though many would argue that it has since grown out of the horror label, and skews more towards the thriller label. Also contains Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dracula, IT, The Thing, Creepypasta, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, and various other horror works.

The INDIE GAME Exaverse - Another self-explanatory one. FNAF began with an indie developer, and has inspired many independent developers, in turn. Also contains worlds such as Undertale, Super Meat Boy, Journey, Untitled Goose Game, Cuphead, Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, and various others.

The MASCOT HORROR Exaverse - This one is particularly interesting, as FNAF is, for all intents and purposes, the progenitor of this relatively new exaverse. While Bendy and the Ink Machine and Poppy Playtime are regarded as the type specimens of the Mascot Horror genre, FNAF is generally seen as the face of Mascot Horror, due to being so deeply influential to the themes of the genre. Also contains Tattletail, Amanda the Adventurer, Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (though with a more parodic sentiment), Mr. Hopp's Playhouse, Duck Season, and several other properties, including The Banana Splits Movie and Willy’s Wonderland.

This obviously isn’t an exhaustive list, as the number of exaverses is basically countless, and their borders are fuzzy and subjective at the best of times. And not all of the universes encompassed by the FNAF multiverse are under the same exaverses. Some fanmade universes aren’t part of the HORROR exaverse because they aren’t meant to be scary, and some canon universes can’t be placed in the INDIE GAME exaverse because they aren’t indie and aren’t games.

I specifically made this chapter to address something that I know I’ll get asked, because it’s something I would ask, if I saw an AU like this. “Why does this logic apply to this property, but not others?” The answer is… It does! Other franchises very much do have their own multiverses under this AU. I’m just focusing on the FNAF part of it because that’s the part that I’m most interested in. Certain multiverses have other rules under their community creators. Certain multiverses have a much more ‘closed-circuit’ approach than the FNAF multiverse. Others are more open. Some have a lot of movement between universes, while others have none.

And next time, that’s what we’ll be talking more about how the FNAF multiverse in particular handles movement between universes.

- Chapter Navigation -

- 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * 10 -

[shefellofftheworld]

Please lose the last shreds of your self control and yell about bd-1's arc and its place thematically in fallen order

Ahh I was not expecting anyone to want the rant but SINCE YOU ASKED

So I absolutely love JFO and everything about it, because at its core it’s a story about hope and healing when everything has fallen to pieces. I can’t get enough of that. I’m going to do my best to keep this post to a reasonable length, but I am going to be honest: brevity is not my strong suit when it comes to stuff I like. You have been warned. 

Here’s the thing about BD-1: he didn’t need an arc. They didn’t need to thread him through the thematic and emotional heart of this game as much as they did!! That’s part of why his arc took me so much by surprise. He basically has a stealth arc, and it works so well because he’s already serving the game really well before I even got an inkling of it. So first I’m gonna go through BD-1 as I experienced him in my first playthrough, and then look at the ways that JFO retroactively adds a TON of meaning to his interactions with Cal. 

Long post and many spoilers for Jedi: Fallen Order under the cut:

Bogano: First Impressions

BD-1 is a cute lil droid companion, and frankly Respawn could have stopped there and I would have been entirely on board. I mean, look at him.

He’s adorable. 

Respawn didn’t stop there though! BD also serves to make several game mechanics diegetic in a really cool way. He provides the map, he does the healing, and he analyses stuff for the codex. Again: Respawn did not need to go as hard as they did. Cute Droid That Serves Gameplay Purpose would have been more than enough to sell me on BD-1. But! They not only used BD-1 to make those mechanics fit inside the narrative of the game, they used the gameplay mechanics to inform BD’s character!!!!

Excuse me while I take a moment to be incredibly excited about good game design. 

So we first meet BD-1 on Bogano, just after the prologue/tutorial level for the game. We met Cal on Bracca, got introduced to our initial exploration and fighting mechanics, and played through JFO’s inciting incident. Cere and Greez drop Cal off on Bogano and give him two goals: meet someone important, and find the key to rebuilding the Jedi order. 

We’re now introduced to the Meditation mechanic (Star Wars Brand Bonfires). It’s yet another example of how Respawn took a mechanic specific to the genre of game they were making and then turned it into a core part of the narrative. 

I love this game so much.

It’s already been established that Cal’s trauma is hindering his ability to connect to the force—whenever he tries, he relives his memories of Order 66. After we finish the Meditation Tutorial, we exit to a cutscene that reinforces that character beat:

And introduces someone new. 

I know I talked a lot about Cal here, but that’s because BD-1’s characterisation is intrinsically linked to his interactions with Cal—he’s a Companion Character. It’s important that we first meet BD here. The first time we meet BD, Cal is in pain and BD-1 wants to help. 

(I love him) 

Throughout the game, we understand BD’s dialogue through other character’s responses—mostly Cal’s. In this scene, BD introduces himself and then asks Cal if he’s OK. Awww. Cal says he’s looking for someone, and BD-1 perks up and responds. “No, not you,” says Cal immediately. He’s looking for a Jedi! We’ve definitely never seen this play out before. BD-1 is not discouraged. He knows about a Jedi! He is Very Excited to lead Cal where he needs to go. 

We learn a lot about BD from this scene! First: he’s adorable. I know I’ve said that a lot, but it bears repeating. 

look at him

In terms of characterisation, we learn that BD-1 is helpful, important to Cal’s quest somehow, and apparently full of love and enthusiasm. He wants to know if Cal is ok!!! And he wants to help!!! BD stands both for Buddy Droid and for Best Droid. This scene has done its job well: the story has progressed, and presumably there remains not a single member of the audience who hasn’t instantly fallen in love with the Loveable Droid Character. This is good, because he’s going to be with us for the rest of the game. 

Now we get to mechanics. First, we’re introduced to the map. Cal sees the Vault in the distance, and says that whoever he’s looking for must be waiting there. BD-1 stops frolicking to show Cal his map of the area, and the game takes a moment to do a tutorial. BD has helpfully put an objective marker over the vault! Thanks, lil guy. The holomap also highlights unexplored areas—more standard game fare, but because the map is diegetic, it’s also technically information about BD-1. He wants to help us explore! 

The next thing we learn about BD-1 is that apparently he, uh. Likes to improvise. “Any ideas?” asks Cal. “We’ve got to get across this gap somehow.” BD-1 proposes that he serves as a tool to help Cal zipline across gaps. Both of them seem to have fun ziplining. 

“How’d you know that would work?” 

“Bee bo-boop!” 

“Wait, you didn’t?” 

Don’t sound so concerned, Cal. Nobody fell into any bottomless chasms. You don’t have any room to talk, anyway. I saw you on Bracca. 

We run around a little more, and then the unthinkable happens. BD-1 rushes to the defense of a lil critter that’s about to get eaten by a predator, and gets his leg chomped for his troubles. He does a heartbreaking little limp away from danger while Cal practices his lightsaber skills 

poor baby

Words cannot do this scene justice so I'll just give you a video:

This scene reinforces how adorable BD-1 is (very adorable, in case anybody wasn’t sure) and continues to set up his friendship with Cal. It also serves to set up an in-game way for the devs to control access to certain areas of the map—BD’s busted scomp link is going to stop us from opening a few doors until we’ve hit a few more story beats. 

This scene is also one of the most important in BD-1’s arc, but that doesn’t become apparent until later. 

Shortly after this, Cal happens to receive some injuries that nobody could have possibly forseen or prevented by not swinging lightsabers at live wires. We get one of the most adorable cutscenes in the game:

And then BD-1 presents Cal with the Star Wars Brand Estus Flask and joins Cal as a permanent companion.

(he's so cute)

Cal asks BD-1 how he got to Bogano, and BD-1 says he doesn’t remember. Weird for a droid to be forgetful, but oh well. To the Vault!

Ok but first we need to get some cosmetic loot, because the real goal of Jedi: Fallen Order is to collect ponchos.

BD-1 goes rifling through chests for us, because the devs at Respawn saw an opportunity for adorable character moments and grabbed it with both hands. Over the course of the game, BD-1 continues to fling himself at the nearest poncho receptacle. Cal in response takes a journey from confused through resigned and lands on indulgent. I love this game so much. 

Ok, now to the Vault!

Wait wait wait BD-1 has found something cool and he really really wants to show it to you. 

Now for real to the Vault.

There’s some more story stuff that happens before we get there, but that’s the bulk of our initial introduction to BD-1. We make a friend and learn a bunch of new mechanics, which themselves teach us about our friend. BD-1 is a friendly little droid who wants to help and likes to explore and learn things. He’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie and gets excited when there’s something to scan. He doesn’t like it when Cal gets hurt, and for some reason wants to go to the same Plot Location that Cal does.

He’s probably not the person Cere wants us to meet, though. That’s a Jedi! A great warrior. For sure. 

(I think I’m funny)

At the vault, we learn that BD-1 is, in fact, the person Cere wants us to meet. In fairness to Cal, though, there is also technically a Jedi. Technically. 

BD-1 contains encrypted messages from Jedi Master Eno Cordova, who has hidden the holocron we’re looking for. In order to find it, he wants us to follow in his footsteps. Thus follows one of my favourite scenes for Cal, but this post is already going to be too long so I’ll spare anyone who’s made it this far that particular ramble. Cal and BD-1 officially team up, find some more clues, access a couple of Master Cordova’s video diaries, and head back to the ship. 

I will now proceed to exercise incredible restraint and move on to the next section rather than giving you a play-by-play of BD-1’s every move for the rest of the game. I would say 'you’re welcome', but you’re missing out on BD-1, so. 

The Burgeoning Friendship

I want to emphasise how constantly present BD-1 is in JFO’s story. Not only is he literally present on Cal’s back for the vast majority of the game, but he’s also constantly interacting with both Cal and the player. 

For one, there’s all those mechanics I mentioned earlier. Every time we look at the map, heal damage, or find something new, JFO is drawing our attention to BD-1. Granted, some actions are less obvious than others—we don’t pause in the middle of any given battle to show a long ‘BD-1 gives Cal a healing stim’ animation, and rightfully so—but when we’re just running around the map, BD-1 manages to feel like a character in his own right. He gets excited when Cal finds more healing stims (or literally any box for him to jump into), he runs around to show us things, he’s got his own adorable little idle fidget animations, the whole shebang. Mechanically he pretty much ends up functioning as a secondary player character. 

Teamwork!

There’s also a bunch of incidental dialogue between Cal and BD as we run around. Cal likes to comment on what’s going on—be it a new force echo, a distant objective, or even just his thoughts and feelings about whatever is happening at the time. It’s a good way to keep an audience in touch with a character, but it can feel a bit weird to have a character start talking to the air about whatever it is the devs/writers want the player to know right now. Enter BD-1! Now Cal is talking to the cute robot buddy, which is incredibly relatable. 

I, too, would tell this little guy all of my deepest darkest secrets. 

BD-1’s trustworthy face aside, it’s also a good design choice! Now not only do we have a way to naturally insert whatever information Cal needs to deliver at any given time, we can turn that information into character beats for both parties. Cal and BD respond to each other, and so both of them feel more like independent characters who are present in and reacting to their circumstances. It helps keep us immersed in the narrative even when we’ve temporarily left the narrative behind to attempt the same jumping puzzle 15 times in our endless quest for ponchos.

My compulsion to give Cal as many ponchos as his little heart desires aside, Cal and BD’s conversations are really effective at keeping the player involved in what Cal is feeling. Some of my favourite moments are when BD-1 checks in with Cal while they explore the crashed Venator (ow), or when the two of them find Cordova’s old workshop. There’s definitely more, but I’ll be honest I have neither the time nor the energy to play or watch through the entire game to find it. If you’re reading this, though: you absolutely should. It’s such a good game. 

Where was I? 

Right! Narrative! 

I’ve spoken about gameplay, but we really see BD-1’s narrative presence in cutscenes. He’s constantly involved in every story beat, even if sometimes he gets a little distracted. 

He's very worried about your salt intake, Greez

BD-1 cares about our quest and about our characters. He has fun hijacking an AT-AT, and intervenes to help Cal when a fight is getting a bit dicey 

To outline the full extent of BD-1’s involvement in the narrative would be to outline the whole narrative, and I swear I am trying to keep this post to a somewhat readable length, so I won’t do that. But I want to highlight these moments. They’re moments that get us attached to our characters, and moments that build the story. They draw us in to the relationship between Cal and BD-1, and also in a sense build a relationship between BD-1 and the player. I know that when I play JFO, I’ll often talk to BD-1 myself. If he hops off of Cal’s shoulder to look at something, I get excited too. NG+ removing all of the chests may make completing every corner of the game more convenient, but sometimes I’ll start again from scratch just to let BD have his fun. One of the benefits of games as a narrative medium is how involved the player is in the story—even at its most linear, the player is still an active participant. Another benefit to a game like JFO is the length. More is not always better, but in this case Respawn uses the player’s time well. No matter what we’re doing, we’re interacting with the world and the characters—and time spent interacting is time spent building a connection. 

All this is to say that by the time we take our little detour via bounty hunter coliseum, I am right there with Cal panicking about our little friend 

Those monsters

Dathomir and Ilum: The Payoff

This section is going to be hard for me to write coherently, mainly because whenever I think about this part of the game my brain stops forming words and instead descends into incoherent screeching interspersed with playbacks of various moments. I have to take a minute before I even go to Dathomir because I know what’s coming. I love this game so much and this sequence wrecks me every time. 

I’ll do my best though! 

Cal and BD have been through a lot together by this point. They’ve joined a rebellion, fought Inquisitors and delved into ancient ruins. They’ve been hunted by the Empire and by bounty hunters. We’ve done all that with them, too. As we go to Dathomir, Cal is wrestling with a lot of things. He’s back to the level he was at before the Purge, but he’s still hurting and traumatised. 

I could talk at length about Dathomir, but this is a post about BD-1 and I am ostensibly trying to keep this somewhat concise. 

(laughs in over 2500 words so far)

It is on Dathomir that things come to a head. Cal has a flashback of the events of the Purge, then faces a vision of his dead Master Tapal. When he comes to, his lightsaber—the one passed on to him by Jaro Tapal as he died—is broken. He is forced to flee Dathomir, and returns to Cere and Greez on the Mantis. 

It’s a heartbreaking sequence. The player is right there with him throughout—we are high-fiving the trooper who teases Cal. We are navigating the vents of the Venator as clone troopers hunt us down. We are watching Jaro Tapal die defending Cal, and then we are fighting a vision who verbalises what Cal has been feeling this whole time—he has failed. His master died because he was weak and slow and useless. He can’t save the Jedi Order. He isn’t fit to wield his Master’s saber, and he isn’t fit to be a Jedi. 

BD-1 is not there for any of it. 

BD-1 has been with us for practically the entire game. In every cutscene I can remember, he’s been involved. He’s been running around doing his thing, or peeking over Cal’s shoulder. In this sequence, he is not present. He’s not there in the flashback, and he’s not there when we fight Jaro Tapal. He is present when the vision ends—but not really. He’s positioned so that we can barely see him behind Cal’s head. 

Cal goes through all this alone. 

(I will note that having now watched the scene a few times with special focus on BD-1, it does look as if he’s watching the rest of the room? Which gives me the impression that he’s tried to get through to Cal, realised he’s not responsive, and decided to watch his back while he deals with his Trauma-Based Force Stuff. Which. Ow. That’s so cute but he must have been so worried.)

It’s not until after Cal starts to leave that we check back in with BD-1. He sounds wrecked. And BD-1 can’t help. 

The saddest wooo

We now proceed through a conversation with Cere and also, incidentally, several tissues. 

Ow.

But! There’s hope! New goal: Get Cal a new kyber crystal to replace the broken one, then everything will be fixed and we’ll be ok. 

:(

After some more troubles, because poor Cal can’t catch a break, we finally get to the crystal. Cal seems upsettingly close to freezing to death, but we’ve made it! 

And then the crystal breaks. 

Cal gives up. 

Like, it’s-open-for-interpretation-but-I’m-pretty-sure-he’s-just-decided-to-lie-there-until-he-dies gives up. 

not pictured: my distressed yelling

And then: Eno Cordova speaks, and BD-1 enters the frame. “Failure is not the end, my friend.” It’s Cordova’s words, but BD-1 is playing the recording. BD-1 is encouraging Cal. Cal doesn’t really believe him. 

So BD-1 shows Cal Master Eno Cordova’s final recording:

Look, I am trying my best to be something resembling coherent here but. SCREAMS. 

S C R E A M S

I could talk at length about how much I love this whole scene but I have been basically just recounting for a while now so I will be brief. 

This scene completely reframes BD-1 as a character. He was already more than just a cute mechanics delivery system, but in this scene we learn that he chose to have his memories erased, and also that he chooses to believe in Cal. His faith in Cal gives Cal faith in himself, so he gets up and keeps fighting. 

Now please excuse me while I cry a little more. 

The First Meeting Again: What Makes Us Who We Are

One thing I really want to highlight from the above scene is that line from Eno Cordova: 

“Only with a trusted connection will your memories be restored.” 

I know it’s already pretty thoroughly emphasised by the game itself, but I didn’t quite understand its full impact on Cal’s journey and the themes of JFO until I replayed the game. 

Remember that scene way back on Bogano where BD-1 injured his leg and Cal fixed it? 

When I first played, I found it a little odd that BD-1 scanned Cal here. Why not earlier? Why now? I also thought it was a bit of a clunky story moment—Cal has already indicated that he’s going to the vault. Why are they repeating that goal here?

Because Cal fixed his leg. 

BD-1 was hurting, and Cal helped, and so the first memory was unlocked—a drive to get to the vault and show him the way forward. 

It’s a sweet little moment, and it’s cool to understand it better on a replay, but I think it’s also a moment that’s core to the themes of the game. On Dathomir, Cal’s fears are revealed: he is no Jedi. On Ilum, he gives up. 

And then BD-1 says: you were a Jedi all along. 

It’s been a repeated refrain throughout JFO: we are who we are because we choose to keep going. Jaro Tapal tells Cal that failing and getting up is the only way to succeed. Cere says “it’s the choice to keep fighting that makes us who we are.” Cordova says “Hope will always survive in those who continue to fight.” 

Cal has been doubting himself ever since his Master died. He’s been hiding, cut off from the force and from his people. But over and over we see him choosing to help. He helps Prauf on Bracca, knowing it could cost him his life. He helps BD-1 on Bogano, just because he can. He helps Saw Gererra’s fighters and the Wookies on Kashyyk, because they need it. He struggles and he messes up, but over and over he chooses to help. To quote another piece of Star Wars media: His compassion leaves a trail. BD-1 shines a light on that trail. 

Respawn did not have to go as hard as they did with BD-1. He’s a cute little droid who delivers some mechanics in a cool diegetic way. They could have stopped there. Instead, they use BD-1 to enrich the story and the characters, and to drive home one of the the major themes of the game: how we work out who we are when everything has fallen apart. 

In the end, our gang won’t rebuild the Jedi Order. In that sense, they’ve failed. But each and every one of them is fighting. They’re holding on to hope, and sharing it with one another. It’s what makes them who they are. And by being who they are—in Cal’s case, choosing to be a Jedi, they have won a victory, even if they fail. 

Man I love this game.

[brisquad-unit-4402]

AHHH OMG 4402 I JUST READ THE FIC YOU JUST WROTE AND IT WAS AMAZING ❤️❤️

I’M LITERALLY GONNA RE READ IT EVERYDAY ITS SO GOOD 🥲💕

Also I’m gonna be honest I kinda forgot about the request I made since it’s been awhile but when I saw this omg it was so worth the wait! You’re amazing 4402 <3

-🖋️

ah thanks 🖋! super glad you enjoyed it. it’s been a long time coming i’m sorry it took so long you forgot LMAOOOO

real talk sending asks on anon is so hard. you lose track of what you sent so easily. i almost wish this was a main blog just so i could say hey without inserting my full url at the end like a dork

anyways.

this fic was such a Project with a capital P that there were so many scenes and little bits i thought of writing, but eventually scrapped for brevity even though we all know that’s not my strong suit. here’s a list of some of my notes under the read more because of spoilers, most of them are more recent because they’re fresher in my memory lol.

for clarity’s sake here’s how i hc it when i write about these characters being vtubers: the models on screen are a more polished or stylized lookalike of the person behind the screen, but without some of the details of the real person. so basically while vtuber!ike looks like how we all know him, the ike you interact with during the off-collab also has blue-tipped hair and gold earrings that match his glasses chain, but doesn’t wear the same thing daily, shows a full range of emotion, and has, ya kno, pores and freckles and all that instead of anime skin. they’re identical but in different art styles lol. (obligatory disclaimer that i’ve always written for the characters and not the real people working for nijisanji, and that we do not encourage unhealthy parasocial relationships here)

i wanted to hone in on the friends-to-lovers dynamic as much as possible by establishing friend moments before the actual meat of the romance during the off-collab. same with establishing pen and paper as a common in-universe ship. i’m a believer that including these scenes only strengthens the dynamic between mc and li, even if they aren’t necessarily about them interacting!

in the same way i wanted to establish the comfort of being in love with your best friend just as much as the worry. the outlast scene is really tense but i wanted to write it so the dialogue there could apply to anyone comparing themselves to others. same with the last two scenes. one of the elements i love most in hurt/comfort is that they can be like little affirmations even when the reader is completely different from the insert. reader and ike have a million different insecurities about themselves but they rarely see what the other is so worried about because it’s just another part to love. and when they do see it, they’re still there for each other even if it’s as simple as a weird photo or as big as pining

while we’re at it SHOUT OUT TO AIA, MIKA AND ALBAN FOR BEING THE REALEST MFS EVER i loved writing those three interacting with reader. they’re so funny sometimes. and when they’re not, they also serve as great sober advice. they all have different ways of getting you there—aia is the “soft” one but encourages you to get out of your comfort zone when she sees an easy way in and out, alban is the one that tells it to you straight and gives godly advice because of it, and because she’s close with both you and ike, mika does a lot of work behind the scenes encouraging you both. but at the end of the day no matter what your love life looks like, those three are there asap if you need them, regardless if they’re online or in-person

in the meanwhile vox, nina, and mika serve as ike’s close circle of friends and i think that’s beautiful lmao. i didn’t make those four’s relationship that explicit but i like to think of it as a family dynamic of sorts. vox and nina are the patient parent figures while mika is a younger sister type, and all of them also hype ike up like how aia, mika and alban hype you up

and speaking of vox i wanted to include him referring to ike as his work husband, and maybe a more serious one-on-one advice/shovel talk with reader about ike. this was one of those things that was tricky to place in the order of scenes, so it was eventually scrapped

honestly i think this fic is more about the power of friendship than the power of love lmao. it’s a love letter to friends that would drop everything for you regardless if they see you romantically or not, just as well to friends that want you to get every bit of happiness you deserve

you can probably tell how much of this fic is ruled by close friendships down to the kiss scene. reader is pretty clumsy with their feelings, and ike is even worse (though reader never notices because they’re so worried about themselves). i have this hc that for his first kisses, ike would always ask before he goes in, but if it weren’t for that this would’ve been one of those mutual go-for-it wordless kisses, you know what i mean? where everything feels right and even righter when you realize the other person is also leaning in

ESPECIALLY WHEN READER BUMPS IKE’S GLASSESSSSSSSS one of my favorite things in fic is when it’s not always picture perfect and people mess up! and then roll with it! things happen irl including being clumsy but those things tend to be the parts that make things special. i said what i said about reader and ike always being there for each other even when they’re insecure and i meant it. especially because the happiness is so contagious that reader smiles before kissing back and how they both take a laugh break before kissing even more

ren’s ukulele is also a personal touch. it’s not a very grand feeling to just zone out with your friends while one of them plays music, but it is one that i hope everyone experiences once. it really is comfortable, and if you have a friend that’s a bit of a smartass like ren? it gets funny too

when this fic was in development around early april if i remember correctly, ren did a karaoke stream with iris, which was the moment i realized that was the perfect song to describe the fic. i mention a bunch of other songs but iris is the “theme song”. it’s romantic and pretty and intimate, but with an ukulele and nina casually singing along, it fits the comfortable vibe well

wannabe by the spice girls was chosen for the recognizable goofy factor alone. i mentioned motionless in white, my first story and spiritbox mostly because i’ve heard ike mention them before on stream, but spiritbox gets a special shoutout here because i’m pretty sure they’re one of the only ike band recommendations i actually like (talluh too if you include the two songs i’ve listened to). toxicity gets mentioned because, uh… i was watching gavis bettel’s birthday karaoke when that happened and he was too blasted to do system of a down but that just stuck with me. i also have to admit i never actually listened to the emo holy trinity and only knew one mcr song from guitar hero but luckily it’s recognizable and it’s in a wide enough range that i think most people could sing it. ahhh i wish writing lyrics in fic wasn’t so clunky! i have such a picture in my mind of how reader and ike would sing the breakdown and onward

vox singing george strait is pure self-indulgence and i am begging us all to imagine handsome from the cowboy asmr singing christmas cookies. i have been thinking about this since october 2022

the final bonus scene is a neat bow to explain the important parts of the off-collab as well as ike’s real feelings. after all, the fic was written with limited pov and one of the major sources of tension is that ike’s feelings aren’t explicitly stated until the second confession (and the high-stress q&a stream). i wanted it to be so reflective and fond that it feels like a victory lap, and reaffirm what reader and ike’s relationship actually means to him even though he struggles with articulating it out loud

that final scene also had the most ideas that ended up scrapped. this includes but is not limited to: ike telling chat about the cafe with reader but without admitting it was a date, alban teasing ike in the chat, reader teasing ike in the chat, confirming that uki and ren going cafe-hopping was actually so they could playfully gossip about the sexual tension in this airbnb, actual descriptions of the photos reader took, confirming that ike or reader stole the other’s shirt (ike is a smaller guy so i wanted to keep it ambiguous for any reader body types), redirecting to reader’s stream, ike and alban actually talking about why alban knows so much (and him giving ike a shovel talk), and maybe most tragic of all; a forum-style text post scene where the delulu fans get it right for once and guess that reader and ike are in a secret relationship

i might write the delulu fan forum fic one day for fun but if i do then i’m going to call this little series “the pliskinverse” unironically and im that is not a fate i want to impose upon anyone

the word ~ verisimilitude ~ recently entered my vocabulary from a review of the candle cove creepypasta. it basically means when fiction seems authentic, like how a kind character would have polite manners or how an evil villain would laugh completely different than the hero. you could say an ooc fanfic would lack verisimilitude for example. anyways i bring this up because that creepypasta is formatted like a forum thread with distinct personalities between the posters... just like how i wanted the chatters to come across! i don't think it's subtle but i did write them all with different personalities and interests in mind. maybe for fun you can look through them and figure out what team they all play for, even though i'm awful at coming up with fake usernames

it’s really obvious that one of my favorite tropes is shovel talks isn’t it

[see-arcane]

Writer asks

Thank you, @bluecatwriter, one of my favorite subjects to write about is me writing about things

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

39 so far

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

289,213. No wonder I have carpal tunnel

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Magnus Archives, Dracula (the novel), and one story apiece for Frankenstein (the novel) and Last Night in Soho

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Family, Found

Chamomile

Deserving

Along Came a Spider

Another Guest for Mr. Spider

(Fair warning to new folks who followed me for Dracula antics, these are all TMA stories.)

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

I do my best to respond, but sometimes messages will fall through the cracks in the email pileup :c

6. What's the fic you wrote that has the angstiest ending?

...

......

.........

That implies the list is small enough to trim down to a single Angstiest title. I don't think that flies with my stuff. So, a handful:

Zephyrus

Along Came a Spider

Found and Lost

Gnaw

(Again, also TMA. It's a podcast made for woe.)

7. What's the fic you wrote that has the happiest ending?

Also surprisingly rife with those!*

*(All you naysayers hush. Just because I drag the characters screaming over broken glass to start with does NOT negate a happy ending.)

I can definitively whittle the options down to two big ones:

Death May Die is best for sheer Happily Ever After catharsis factor. It's a big old classic supernatural lit crossover and basically an AU take on The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk webcomic currently being made.

Extinction, Emerging is best for the undiluted ecstasy of the shock ending. Note, this is another The Magnus Archives fic. And it's probably the most hopeful and joyous thing I have ever or will ever write.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nothing I've received personally in comments/inbox

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

I can do smutty scenes and paint in erotic strokes here and there, but even then I don't think what I publish is enough to qualify strictly as smut. More horror/drama with sexual bits peppered around.

When it does sneak in, it's usually there as a flavoring to the larger story or atmosphere. In Kiss Him No More, sex is used both as a predatory act that Dracula plans to inflict out of petty vengeance and possessiveness, and a contrasting act of love and mutual care between Jonathan and Mina. When I write eroticism, I treat it like fire--only as tender or terrifying as its use.

That said, I have written notes and vignettes about some significantly raunchy goings-on, both happy and horrifying, that have never seen the light of day. Time will tell if that changes. ;)

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yep! The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk was the foundation for three of my biggest and favorite fics in the The Adventures of Jonathan Harker and the Strange Old Men series, and that comic-in-progress is itself a growing medley of Victorian era classic literature characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. (But I do keep my account locked so that only Ao3 members can read--AI scrubbers can fuck off.)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No clue

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

Nope

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

[INSERT DISTRAUGHT ENGLISHMAN NAMED JONATHAN HERE] x The Horrors

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but don't think you ever will?

Not a fic, exactly, but there's a Frankenstein tale that I've been pulling apart like Penelope putting her tapestry through the shredder. So many false starts and do-overs! But I'm taking a break from it to come back fresh later

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am so good at making words. So many, many words.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Too many words. Brevity and I are only rarely in the same room together and even then it's because I locked the door and ate the key.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I will only hesitantly add snippets of non-English language to dialogue because I'm positive I'll screw up another tongue even with translations

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Magnus Archives 👁

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Extinction, Emerging, The Adventures of Jonathan Harker and the Strange Old Men series, Along Came a Spider, (all linked above) and Molt.

Tagging

ANY AND ALL WRITERS WHO ARE READING THIS.

ALL OF YOU.

👁

[theenderwalker]

i wanna talk about c and exception and spectre because like ok if you’ve seen their designs they’re very obviously related and like. yeah they’re kind of technically the same character.

C has like, their own whole thing going on leading up to this but ultimately what it comes down to is that after having basically abandoned their job/getting stuck in the dsmp they’re chased down by an ex-coworker that he has a Very weird relationship with, who is very very resentful of her. Said coworker, in short, kills him and dies in the act. C’s at the time partner captures her soul in a soul jar but because this is dsmp (and specifically C is attached to ranboo’s story) he’s dealing with the soul/mind dichotymy

so 800813, his partner, has the soul while the mind is trapped in the currently dissolving corpse that gets fished out of the river , a ghostly rotting mess. this part, the mind, is SpeCtre. spectre has stolen the ex coworkers veil. it remembers everything, and it is angry. without its soul, it’s almost exclusively acting on this rage.

800813, himself a robot with a human soul, had been building a robot body for the case in which C ever died. Because. well in the time they’ve been together there had been… at least a couple attempts on C’s life. They’re really really good at making enemies.

And 800813 puts the soul in the body, and it powers on, and it remembers nothing. It has no access to any memories of ever being alive, and in fact makes the assumption that it’s, effectively, an AI. 800813 does nothing to challenge this assumption because for the first ~~100 or so years of them being a robot, they had believed the same, and C was the one that had made the connection that he had a soul in the first place. It was an intensely traumatizing experience when C had the capability to restore their memories, and in this situation 800813 doesn’t know why Exception doesn’t have its memories or any clue of how to restore them. By all accounts, it should have worked, but 800813 doesn’t yet know about the ghost.

So 800813 makes the decision to let Exception believe what it believes and let’s it be its own person, as much as they’re capable of separating them while processing their own grief, etc etc .

& so the arc is like about . exception developing into it’s own person and spectre making a lot of assumptions about seeing 800813 with a new robot it never saw while it was alive, a sort of comedy of errors leading to the two never being in the same place at the same time

there’s a lot more to it and a lot of important characters i omitted for the sake of brevity and clarity but these are my special little guys and i care them a lot

(ex coworker, O, played by @oraclemilf and 800813 played by @hispanicin)

[pizzapasta23045]

The Dyson supercomputer theory.

So, a couple of people have asked so here it is.

So, first things first, this is my theory for how the world of Teyvat looks like. Some people say that the world of Teyvat is just a flat plane but I'm not sure since there are starts and planets in Teyvat as far as we can tell. Like actual places in the universe and stuff.

So it'd be weird for Teyvat to be flat imo...

Either way, if we assume it's a round planet.

Both Teyvat and Khaenri'ah have a sky and this is basically the only option for it working imo.

Honestly, this part matters to a point. The only way the Dyson supercomputer theory doesn't work is if the planet isn't round which I think is the least likely option.

So, taking for granted that Teyvat is round for this theory. And this is the only assumption I'm making I think

So, there's this concept in Physics. A thought experience actually. The Dyson Sphere.

It's based on a sci-fi book but it was explored in a couple scientific paper, one specifically by mister Dyson, hence the name.

It's imagining an interstellar civilization that needs immense amounts of energy every day, every second that it cannot get through traditional methods. They can travel through space and basically have conquered their entire solar system.

So, to get this amount of energy, Dyson imagines, they could just use the sun! Like an entire sun covered or almost covered in solar panels. That would, functionally, allow you to harness the energy of the entire star, instead of the much smaller quantity you get on earth.

There's a couple confirmation. One very unlikely that's basically like entirely covering the sky, but that would be inefficient and to easy to destroy. But others have a bunch of satellites that move around the sun and move when an asteroid/solar flare gets close.

Some graphs for reference:

There's others but I won't bore you with all that.

Whatever, this is a basic thing you've got to know for the theory. And like I said, just a thought experiment, we don't have the resources or the engineering abilities to build one.

Now, onto the actual supercumputer bit.

So, Teyvat, in multiple ways, works in a similar way to a giant supercomputer. Or a simulated reality, whatever.

One of the most glaring signs is the fact that Nahida has similar attack patterns to computer and electotronic objects.

These are the most glaring exemples. Respectively a select tool and a keybord button. Which to me is important because as the dendro archon she's the one that's most closely related to Irminsul and is one of the most "in the know" on the workings of the universe. Also she's directly created from Irminsul.

Also, Irminsul erasure works in a similar way to a search tool on a computer, in that it erases all tings with the correctly written name but does not look for references in a more intelligent way. It also erases parts of the game that technically don't exist in the game itself (like the lore part of the game), which is odd.

People's memories inside Teyvat work similarly to the way it works in a pc too. Plus there's the fobidden knowledge bugs the computer out part of the theory but i won't go there rn.

Safe to say, the theory that proves Irminsul has quite manyyy pieces of evidence and stuff. I could list more but I won't for the sake of brevity.

Now, this is where my speculation actually starts.

We know that Clestia is keeping people subjucated for an unknown reason and everything. So, my idea as to why that is is that Celestia or the first who came, whoever is in charge at the moment, is keeping people locked in Teyvat because they basically built a Dyson supercomputer.

So it'd be a computer with similar concept to the one of the Dyson sphere but instead of collecting energy, it collects data and harnesses computing power. Now, it could be for many reasons.

Two of them I could think of are aritficial intelligence and military purposes. Mostly the first.

The collective brain of Teyvat could be incredibly useful in training artificial intelligence for, well, litterrally anything. Also keep thousands of brains constalty processing information could be used for military puposes of a galactic scale, like to control multiple fleets of spaceships constantly operating. Something that otherwise would require millions of people.

The artificial intelligence being trained could be used for the second purpose as well.

But honestly with a computer so big you could functionally do everything with enough time. And they've had it for a longggggggggggg time....

[bluetomorrows]

The Top 10 of the '10s (Part 4)

Alright, after much procrastination and rambling about movies I don’t even like, it’s finally time to talk about my #1 of the 1910s. This is a good one, so settle in.

1. Shoes (1916, dir. Lois Weber)

Women had an odd place in early film. When these films were being made women in America, and all over the world for that matter, were still fighting for the right to vote. Yet they were still granted creative roles in filmmaking in its early years. Before the industry was fully established and by extension respected, writing and directing roles were open to women. It wasn’t until film became a “high art” that filmmaking suddenly became a man’s job. All the women who wanted a role in filmmaking (that wasn’t acting) usually settled for editing, something incredibly important that many of those in power considered a simple menial task (Women really did hold the majority of editing positions in early filmmaking, and by a wide margin at that. The ripples of this are still felt in editing today). Lois Weber was fortunate enough to come in right at the end of the wave of female creatives in film. Weber had a very interesting life and career but for brevity’s sake let’s just zoom in on this one movie.

Shoes is a film about a woman who wants to buy… a pair of shoes. It’s not a war epic that spans decades and sets worth millions of dollars, and it didn’t change the world when it came out. What it is though, is a compelling story that stands out amongst its peers and feels decades ahead of its time while still uniquely commenting on the state of society in the 1910s. Shoes is about Eva Mayer (played by the very talented Mary MacLaren). She works for a shitty department store that only pays her $5 a week. Using that $5 she must try to provide for both her parents and her little sister, as her father is a bum who is happy to leech off of her rather than get a job himself. He sits back and relaxes while his entire family struggles to get by, living paycheck to paycheck, all-knowing he’s responsible but not able to speak up to the man of the household. Eva gives everything she has for other people and wants something for herself. She wants a pair of shoes. Her current pair are falling to pieces, just like her life and mental state are. On her current wages, she simply can’t afford it, her life does not allow for such privileges. She gets the opportunity to sell her body for a night in order to get the money to buy new shoes and after much anguish finally agrees to do it.

Shoes is a simple story, the film itself is only 50 minutes long and could be much shorter if it was just the basic story. But Shoes is more than that. The film is made in small moments. It’s made in the anguish and the anger of being a woman, the moments when we get to see Eva exhausted and empty. Unlike some of the other films on this list, Shoes is never trying to impress you, it’s just trying its best to communicate what it wants to say effectively. This film is shot gorgeously and goes so much further and more experimental in its visual language than so many other films, especially for such a grounded story. Weber understands that cinema itself is a unique language. So many movies of this time just felt like filmed stage plays, the best of them felt like an evolution of them, but the very very best like Shoes, felt like something completely new. The camera is a free agent to move the flow of the film wherever it wants to go.

The worst thing a silent film can be is packed with unnecessary intertitles, just explaining how a character feels or what they’re thinking (D.W. Griffith was very guilty of this), but Shoes tells you everything you need to know about the state of the characters purely visually. And none of this visual storytelling feels like it sacrifices how grounded the story needs to be. Weber opted to use fully furnished sets rather than the corner sets which were standard at the time and it goes a long way to make this place feel lived in. Weber builds up the world in Shoes, knowing that it’s identical to ours, but needing to show it from a different perspective. Shoes is unique in its character study. Something so focused in on exploring one person’s life and psyche was rare in the entire silent era, let alone just the 10s. But I don’t think I like Shoes just because it stands out from its competition. It’s just a damn good film. And it combines the form of this era with the kinds of storytelling that wouldn’t be found in film until decades later. The result of this marriage of ideas is a film that isn’t quite like anything else I’ve seen. It has the depth and complexity of storytelling that I expect from later films but retains the visual language of silent film, one interested in simple striking images and the need to convey a lot through physical performance. The silent form forces the film to play straight for emotion at all times, no time is spent wasted on exposition or any other bland unnecessary aspects, instead, every frame of the film is focused on drawing out emotion in a complex and psychological story. For me, Shoes represents everything great about filmmaking in the 1910s and beyond. It’s a wholly unique film, and one I would be quick to recommend to most people.

I hope through this retrospective I’ve done a good job explaining not only why this era is important but why it is worth watching. It’s an entirely different kind of filmmaking than what we have today and is still quite different even when compared with the 20s. It’s something that film fans should at least investigate once in their lives, as it’s an important step in understanding how and why we got to where we are now.

[artisticbunny]

BUN.

THAT LORE.

THOSE AWESOME CHARACTERS.

(THE ADORABLE DOODLE AT THE TOP THAT I ABSORBED IMMEDIATELY.)

bun. What is going on in that beautiful brain of yours. I— I know I’m not supposed to immediately pounce on the subject but— bun I have an atrocity to confess to:

I’ve played a bunch of personal rpgs with my friends and fam… so I know what magic and fantasies are but…

I’ve never played dnd before…? How does all the character dynamics and stuff relate? :3c Also, how does your magic system operate, and will Brook’s mother return, like ever?

(Don’t wanna ask for too much this time, but please feel free to share as much as you like, I don’t mind and I love to read your fantasies Bun your brain is full of beauty that I am willing to see!)

BOUNCING UP AND DOWN AND SQUEALING IM SO SO HAPY YOURE INTERESTED!!!!!

PLEASE BY ALL MEANS FEEL FREE TO BOMBARD ME WITH QUESTIONS I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY!!!!

Basically when I first started this story I was like,,, a freshman??? Sophomore???? In Highschool. (I’m in college now!)

Back then I didn’t have anyone to play dnd with so I’d basically take the idea of it and like…. Go from there and daydream about it! I REALLY loved fantasy stuff, like a WHOLE lot, and this story has changed a LOT since I first started writing it, but at the base of it was really just me fantasizing about playing dnd (albeit with a lot of homebrew elements hehe) you can see that each of the characters has a really in-depth backstory I made to play off, and I basically thought of them like I was thinking up characters for dnd! (I left out a few bits for some of the characters for brevity ;) )

Idk that it’s very similar to dnd anymore but that’s what HEAVILY inspired me to make this story :)

The magic system is a bit complicated!

The basics of it is that it’s a form of energy that is found everywhere, much like air. People intake it as they live in order to move and grow, and a certain amount of it is required to be functional, but usually a person has a little extra that they don’t need they are able to expel. Anyone can use their buildup of magic, but specialists work to increase their ability to hold more. If you dip too far down into your supply, you risk getting sick, hurt, or worse. People’s abilities to store magic also vary, Sam has a naturally high ability to do so, which is part of the reason he was forced into an (cough cough multiple cough cough) apprenticeships. Magic expelled in ways like this can be easily replenished through rest and through food, as all living things are partially made up of magic, and one naturally intakes the magic in the air around them at a slower rate. Magic acts much like how matter does, if only for the fact that it can be changed, but it can’t ever be created or destroyed. It acts on a cycle, returning to the earth as the deceased decay

In Sam’s case, his specialty is summoning magic. He can summon objects and food and the likes by giving his excess magic physical form. Many magic users, Sam included, like to use wands made of biotic material, as it is easier to channel magic into physical form by doing so. Wands made of abiotic materials such as metal or rock cannot channel magic, and as such are not used as magic focuses.

In the case of necromancy, magic is used much like jumping a car, but instead, you use a little piece of yourself to get the person up and running again ;)

Magic is also often used in technology in this world much like how electricity is in ours, as it also works similarly to that as well!

As for Brook’s “mother”… you’ll just have to see, won’t you? ;3