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aviivix · 2 years ago

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IMPORTANT EDIT MAY 18 2024

A lot about this has changed since I originally wrote this up, especially around act 3 since while right now it’s still up in the air between a few different ideas, the act 3 in this post is cringe-tier and I’m embarrassed for having wrote it. Another significant enough change to mention here is that old Agent 3 and Agent 8 now join Off the Hook as antagonists, and recruiting “enemy” Octolings is now a core mechanic that the story anchors around more heavily. Also, Cy actually looks good now.

I’ll do a revised writeup of this at some point, but for now, take most of this with a grain of salt! A lot has changed. Now, flashback to about a year ago!

Soooo... I’ve been dead for a while and that’s because I’ve been fixated entirely on Splatoon 3 basically since it launched and all this time I’ve been working on an AU/HC/Fanfic/Something Like That called Culture Shock.

Given this has been something I’ve been working on for a LONG time, and given it’s entirely tied to Octarians, I figure I might as well make a big post about it before Side Order totally invalidates it! (Though I’ll keep working on this as an AU even if I don’t like how it interacts with Side Order.)

Details and more art under the break! (Though the quality will vary greatly as, again, I’ve been doing stuff with this since Splatoon 3 came out.) This is an extremely long story concept and if you read the whole thing I officially owe you my soul

There's a LOT to this (as there is with any hyperfixation concept like this) but I'll try to keep it somewhat light on details. Of course, it’s subject to change, and the exact plot progression is still kind of in the air. A big part is whether the climax of Act II should actually happen at the end of Act I... But here’s what I’ve developed so far.

The Story

Prologue

Culture Shock is designed as a DLC story mode set a year after the end of Splatoon 3's main story. The Squid Sisters have disappeared at some point in that time (a familiar situation), and ol' Cuttlefish has called in all of the agents-- plus Pearl and Marina-- to join forces against the Octarians that are undoubtedly behind it. Rather than going into stages alone, the levels are designed for you to do them with CPU teammates.

It's pretty quickly made certain that Octarians were involved, and thus the group is airlifted by Off the Hook into Octo Valley to find Callie and Marie. Upon landing, the player is ambushed by a group of Octolings -- that is, until one member in the backline pulls down her mask and excitedly calls out. It’s Callie? And though she doesn’t immediately unmask, Marie is definitely next to her.

After some confusion and accusations from both sides, the Squid Sisters assure the Squidbeak Splatoon that they’re not brainwashed, and offer to explain everything. Though Marie warns that it’s a long story, so the group settle down by ol’ Cuttlefish’s shack for a massive flashback played from the perspective of the Squid Sisters.

(Gameplay-wise, this whole setup is to allow the player to interrupt the Squid Sisters’ sequence at any time, and then pick up where they left off. It being a flashback also means it’s easy to replay missions or go for 100% by just asking Callie to repeat something.)

Funny title card, and the real story officially starts. I’m gonna skip through things a lot more, since at this pace it would take WAY too long to summarize every little scene and there are a lot of things not really settled on. I’ll be keeping detail for the introduction, as well as some key scenes, but for any less important/in-between type stuff, I’ll be summarizing what happens. Even doing this it will be extremely long, though Act I is far bigger than Acts II and III because it’s primarily setting up the world and motivations.

Act I

Introductory cutscene, in which the Squid Sisters find themselves stuck in purple ink, locked in an Octarian vault. The Octarians who squidnapped them keep their distance, though one particular Octoling does try to chat (to the annoyance of the others).

She claims that the Octarians will let them go in time, and that they won’t be hurt - though the Squid Sisters are suspicious at best. And, after noticing their discomfort in the Octarian ink, she offers them her Octoshot to paint the ground their own color. As the Octoling goes back to standing guard, Callie inks the floor and the two slump over, one of them idly singing the Calamari Inkantation under her breath.

Fade to when the Octoling swaps guard duty with another Octoling, who leans up against the wall and, after the first Octoling leaves, promptly falls asleep. Callie realizes she still has the Octoshot from before, and suggests slipping through the keyhole in squid form. With help from Marie, she’s able to get out on her own, and sets out to find the key to the vault. (This serves as a tutorial for stealth missions - though the guard will not wake up even if you fail.)

After freeing Marie, the two of them head towards the door, whispering about how crazy it was that the guard slept through all of that. The guard then dully tells them that he wasn’t asleep. The Squid Sisters prepare for a fight, but the guard barely has his eyes open and has not moved. After some back and forth with Callie, this Wendy’s employee of an Octoling just assures them that if he could beat them, it wouldn’t have even gotten to this point, and tells them to do whatever they want - just warning them that the other Octarians wouldn’t be so lenient.

An Octoling watches them come out, but just looks around frantically before running up to meet them. Marie declares that they’re breaking out, and prepares for a fight... but the Octoling starts freaking out instead, first worrying that they’ll get hurt trying to escape, and then worrying about what the rest of the Octarians are going to do with the Squid Sisters gone.

Before either Inkling can interject, a much more stern Octoling calls out while angrily marching up to the group. Through this conversation the Squid Sisters learn that the worried Octoling is named Aris, the tired Octoling is named Oregil, and this new more angry Octoling is named Cy. What originally seemed to be a jailbreak quickly turns into some (rather silly) negotiations with Cy, the Squid Sisters trying to convince her that Aris didn’t do anything wrong, and that Oregil totally did all he could to stop them.

Though Cy clearly doesn’t buy it, she lets it go, returning Aris’s Octoshot but also warning the Squid Sisters that their squadron’s mission is of utmost importance, and if the rest of them won’t do their jobs properly, she will. That said, the two of them just broke out of the only vault they had. So now, the Squid Sisters have to just stay in camp under Cy’s supervision.

With no more weapon to brandish and a clearly blown cover, the two of them kind of have no choice but to agree. Though Marie alludes to how dysfunctional this squad appears to be, and how easy it will probably be to escape.

Though before the conversation ends, Aris asks if “Tetra” will be okay with this. There’s a sort of tension in the air immediately upon mention of the name, immediately pierced by an intimidating voice asking what was going on. This was an Elite Octoling, apparently Tetra. After a recap from Cy, Tetra turns to the surrounded Squid Sisters, and tells them in no uncertain terms to always remember that they are prisoners - they are not one of them.

From here on out, the rest of Act I is a sort of slow burn. At the start, it’s purely the Squid Sisters looking for ways to escape. But as time goes on, they learn more about these Octarians by sort of living their life, and through learning about the octo squad themselves.

Aris is kind, possibly to a fault. While she’s committed to the squadron and their goals, she’s also the most both-sides-ist of the bunch. She wants to think that everyone is trying their best, and does everything she can to avoid conflict, but as a result she doesn’t speak up as much when the Squid Sisters make faulty assumptions about them, and she uninentionally hinders their growth at the start by letting them hide behind her leniency. Over the course of Act I, she eventually has to realize she can’t just hold everyone’s opinion equally - the Squid Sisters are making judgements off of bad information, and she realizes that her enabling that is making it harder for everyone.

Cy is the opposite. Cy is deeply passionate about their situation, and takes any opportunity to show the Squid Sisters what they get wrong. She especially butts heads with Marie, having little patience for the various non-solutions to their problems, or for the ignorance about Octarian culture. She’s extremely well connected among Octarians, even having worked with Octavio himself, although she doesn’t seem thrilled about it. Thus, despite coming across as very headstrong and aggressive, she also is the source of a lot of information about Octarian life.

Oregil is a self-proclaimed realist - in actuality, a doomer. He doesn’t say much, but what he does say is not particularly hopeful. When put in charge of something, he doesn’t tend to have a lot of energy behind it, as he’s become convinced that, in the end, Octarians cannot be saved. That said, it would be wrong to call him fully complacent. He still sticks with the team, even if he doesn’t have much energy to contribute, and would rather go down with his sinking ship than abandon his friends and family. Though he always seems to be napping on the job, he never actually does, though not for lack of trying. He has insomnia, and it’s rare to find him asleep at all even when laying in bed.

The Elite Octoling Tetra rarely shows herself. The only things the Squid Sisters have seen of her is that she’s intimidating, and not to be reckoned with. But the way the others talk about her and interact with her betray a different story. Oregil is flippant about her commands and doesn’t actually give anything his all. Cy goes along with Tetra’s commands, but seemingly only due to her own reasons aligning with Tetra’s rather than out of any respect for her authority. Aris obeys, but the way she acts and talks about it makes it almost feel like she’s obeying out of pity.

Lastly, there is also a fifth mysterious Octoling that the Squid Sisters will occasionally grab a passing glimpse of. They don’t know who this Octoling is, and whenever she’s mentioned, the others assure them that “she’s nobody”.

As the act goes on, Callie especially pries deeply into the hows and whys of a lot of Octo stuff. She had been in Octarian territory before in Splatoon 2, sure, but she was being brainwashed by DJ Octavio himself and held up as a superstar. This time, she was fully aware of herself, and living the life of the average Octoling soldier in the time between Octavio’s Zapfish heists.

The two of them wonder why the sun hasn’t come up, and learn that without the Great Zapfish, the kettle’s “sun” cannot shine. It’s a land of eternal night. The Octolings seem to live on a diet of mostly power eggs and salmon, which they learn is because without light, most crops don’t grow. Many little things like this illustrating just how resource-starved this nation is.

There are a lot of assumptions made and corrected. A lot of complaints put into perspective when the things they find uncomfortable or annoying are things these Octarians have had to deal with every day. But one of the biggest things is their ideas of resolution. An early question being, “Why don’t you just leave? Inkopolis is a stone’s throw away.”

There are a lot of answers that are given to this, but to some effect, they all boil down to “culture”. Inkopolis isn’t the same as Octaria. It has different people, different history, different fashion, different food, different expectations... it’s just a totally different place.

Oregil’s lived in Octarian society his whole life - it’s his home. Cy is an artist, she makes distinctly Octarian music and sees firsthand how it connects those in Octarian communities. Aris knows Octolings are “accepted”, but only insofaras they appeal to Inkling expectations. It’s hard to express their culture without being seen as weird or other. Even little things like how they look - Octolings in Inkopolis tending to make their hair slimmer, straighter, adding patterns and minimizing the amount of visible suckers. Plus, how many non-Octoling Octarians do you see in Inkopolis and beyond? Maybe an Octoling can fit in, but what about an Octotrooper?

The most impactful realization for the Squid Sisters as well, is just how few Octarians are even there anymore. Between the exodus in Octo Valley, the bigger exodus in Octo Canyon, the horrors of Octo Expansion, and just recently the similar horrors of Alterna... all stacked on top of the nation itself being less and less hospitable year by year? Since the events of Splatoon 1, so many Octarians have been lost. Within the squad they’re in, pictures and murmurings from the rest of them tell the stories of at least four other Octolings that were previously in their squadron.

So then the other aspect of the Squid Sisters’ arc is... if they don’t think Octarians should be stealing the Great Zapfish or dealing with Salmonids or anything like that... what should they be doing?

Because so far, nothing has worked for them. Negotiations fail, because Inklings don’t know enough about Octarian society to understand why they need so much support. They don’t know enough about the history of Inklings and Octolings to realize that Inkadia is largely the reason they’re suffering. The average Inkling doesn’t know enough to realize there’s a problem, and the average Octarian doesn’t have a loud enough voice.

All this compounded onto the fact that now, the only Octolings Inkadia sees are the ones who decided that Octarians were oppressing themselves, to the point where they abandoned everything they knew to live in the nation that started this in the first place.

Though, it’s hard to blame them when life in Octaria is practically nonexistent. Losing so many people, living in such horrible conditions, led by an egomaniac whose awareness of his people is performative at best... but most Octolings can’t let that take away from who they are as a people. They don’t let it tear their communities apart, or sever the bonds they have with people. Their lived experiences show them that it’s worth fighting for. Well... except in one scenario we’ll get into later.

The final important thing that comes to light over this period... This whole time Octavio has barely come up, because he doesn’t even know the Squid Sisters are there. The squadron are a real squadron in the Octarian army, but this whole mysterious operation involving the Squid Sisters is entirely outside Octavio’s control. In fact, it becomes apparent that the Octarians at least in this squadron or associated with this squadron, hate Octavio and everything he’s been doing to their society as a whole.

They’ve always seen the Zapfish heists as a horrible, horrible ego trip. An extremely hollow, expensive move that only plants targets on the backs of Octarians. But even in feeling that way, Aris and Oregil both admit that there isn’t much else offering them hope. If not for Octavio stealing the Zapfish for those couple days of “sun”light, what would they be doing? Though Cy has a much more strong opinion there, asserting that doing nothing would have put those resources into survival rather than gambling it all on a fool’s errand.

Needless to say, the Squid Sisters get a bit wrapped up in this stuff. Talking to these Octolings, learning about their life, living it, offering to help (gameplay sections), and all around having a lot of beliefs challenged. It’s a lot of stuff that they are only able to wrap their mind around from actually knowing what it’s like to live through it, without the option to just leave when it gets too rough.

While at the beginning they were just looking for an opening to escape, by the halfway point they aren’t even really being watched anymore, let alone trying to break out. Tetra may call them prisoners, but by that point they’ve had so many opportunities to just walk away. The only thing keeping them there is the fact that if they leave, what will happen? And can they confidently say that it’s the Octarians’ fault for it happening?

By the end, their primary objective is to find something they can do to actually give them a shot. And for that... they’ll need more than just the two of them. The idea of bringing in the Squidbeak Splatoon is immediately dismissed as insane by Cy - especially the idea of bringing in THE Agent 3. But after a little while, with Oregil indifferent as always and Aris on board, she comes around, though warning that Tetra will not like it, and they could be accidentally luring Agent 3 into a death trap. But it’s a risk they decide to let the Captain decide for themself.

Act II

Acts II and III are far less elaborate, because this is after all the characters have been established, and the world has been largely explored.

Act II kicks off with there being a lot of reactions. (As a note, the Octolings with the Squid Sisters at the present time are Oregil, Aris, and Cy. In their own ways, they’re uncomfortable in the presence of Captain 3. Cy and Oregil also seem to have an attitude with how they look at Marina.) A lot of disbelief, but also, to some degree, understanding. Naturally, Captain 3 is skeptical, taking a moment to contemplate what they’re being asked to do.

But around this time, Marina cuts in, asserting that regardless of the cause, Octarian society is inherently a problem. That’s why she left. She accuses the squadron of perpetuating DJ Octavio’s oppressive rule, and that they could have their cake and eat it too just by moving to Inkopolis.

The group go back and forth, with escalating emotions and accusations, until Pearl declares that, whatever they’re plotting, Off the Hook and the Squidbeak Splatoon will put a stop to it. Silence falls over the group, until Marie retaliates saying that she doesn’t think she can in good conscience fight against people who are only trying to exist.

The other agents start taking the Octarians’ side, even Agent 8 who, despite hesitating given their trust in Off the Hook, still resonates too strongly with the plight of the Octarians to turn their back on them fully. Pearl is taken aback, but after a glance at a very betrayed Marina, declares the Squidbeak Splatoon their enemy too, Marina locking eyes with Agent 8 before Off the Hook take their leave.

Cy remarks that it’s a shame, but she understands exactly why Marina is acting this way. Callie asks why, but Cy just assures her that Marina isn’t stupid, so if everything goes right, she’ll come around. Aris tells the player where the kettle’s entrance is, and at their leisure, they can join the Octarians there.

Upon entering the kettle as the player Cy assumes you know how things work, and there are a few filler travel stages to break the story up a little, before eventually the group return to see Tetra emerge for the first time, locking eyes with Captain 3, removing her goggles for the first time, and immediately going on the attack. Captain 3 drops their weapon and holds up their hands, but Tetra still rushes them down, holding both Dark Tetra Dualies up to their face.

After a long moment of them staring each other down, Tetra narrows her eyes, throws her arms down in a burst of anger, and leaves without saying anything else. After a few sighs of relief across the group, the tone lightens up, and Cy guesses that Tetra won’t be bothering them - which is a relief.

The bulk of Act II itself is actually fairly underdeveloped story-wise and is a lot more gameplay focused. It reinforces a lot of the character stuff from Act I, but a big ongoing theme is repeatedly clashing with Off the Hook in various places, and getting more glimpses of the strange fifth Octoling and getting more hints as to what it really is that the squadron is planning, and why they’ve kept it hidden.

While their convictions are still the same, there is a growing level of uncertainty among the group as they feel less okay with being kept in the dark. Eventually, the Squid Sisters, Cap 3, and Agent 8 catch a glimpse of the mystery Octoling leaving, and watch them enter a building off the edge of the camp alongside the other Octolings. The Squid Sisters take the opportunity to snoop around the building, which appears to be a laboratory of some sort.

As the group search deeper within for answers, strange, distorted music can be heard - with oddly familiar vocals. It turns into a full stealth mission, until eventually towards the end you’re spotted and confronted by all four of the squadron members. Tetra warns that they were not supposed to come here, Cy is quiet for once, Aris is quiet as usual, and Oregil... actually looks motivated to stop you.

Of course this is a video game and you win that horrible 4v4, breaking through into the room ahead to find that fifth Octoling in a room full of synthesizers, speakers and computers. She calls for Cy, before turning around and realizing who it actually is.

Marie asks the obvious question, of what the hell this is, and the fifth Octoling who introduces herself as Sock, answers that this is a studio, actually. Well, a lab and a studio. Maybe it should be called a studyo. Weirdly lighthearted for what the group was expecting.

Cy, having respawned and entered behind them, is audibly defeated as she guesses an explanation can’t be avoided.

The studio was used over this entire period to study the effects of a song whose influence is as potent as it is destructive... the Calamari Inkantation. It’s the song that spawned not one, but two mass exoduses. It has an undeniable impact on the cephaling psyche. And, as they know, it’s one of the most important songs to not only the Squid Sisters, but Inkadia as a whole.

The fact that the Inkantation can grab the mind so easily when it isn’t being actively fought, and cause such extremely psychological changes... it was, and still is, one of the biggest problems Octaria has had to deal with. And up until recently, there was little you could do about the Inkantation besides actively study its influence.

What they found, was that it was able to simply cloud out your own lived experience. It would walk you down mental shortcuts, take advantage of the simplicity of certain ideas, and corrupt experiences that contradicted it. Causing Octolings to simply leave their struggling communities, their memories twisted with the idea that they’ve somehow invented their own struggle, corrupted only to enable the Octoling to gravitate towards assimilation without dissonance.

The only Octolings welcome in Inkadia are those who have listened to and internalized the Inkantation... those who, consciously or not, allow it to twist their memories and reshape who they are as people.

It’s a lot. Some Octolings are more resistant than others, and some, like Sock here, have managed to reverse engineer it and escape that way. Sock, an Octoling raised in Inkopolis, raised with the Inkantation, and only later exposed to its flaws - without memories of Octaria to have been twisted by it, she was only able to create new ones, to learn from those who live Octaria every day, rather than being stuck behind a layer of cognitive dissonance.

Of course, other Octolings simply could not leave. The new experiences formed after the Inkantation constantly falsify the old, corrupted memories, and reinforce the reality. But many Octolings, upon being swayed by the Inkantation, simply left and assimilated into Inkling societies.

The idea that the Inkantation is not only not good, but actively a corrupting force, was not something Cy nor any of the squadron were confident the Squid Sisters or anyone else exposed to the Inkantation would be able to process. And without that, how else would they understand the importance of their mission - to reverse the effects of the Inkantation using the strange, distorted song the group have been hearing.

Taking a lot of voice samples from the Squid Sisters was the only way they would be able to relpicate the sound that originally entranced those under the Inkantation’s effects. That’s why they needed to go for broke and resort to squidnapping. The Inkantation being a strong corrupting force meant that it was unpredictable how they would react to learning the truth behind the song, while still at least partially under the effects of it.

And that’s also why Cy said of Marina that she understands why she’s so hostile - Marina is one of the most deeply Inkantationed Octolings.

A lot of the breakdowns of how the Inkantation affects Octolings also resonates extremely strongly with Agent 8 - who, despite how prominent and overpowering the Inkantation was, was still able to hold onto friendly feelings around Octarians, and frustrations around their place in Inkling society. So many weird, dissonant feelings, are starting to make sense. But also, a lot of really awful feelings are starting to surface as well - traumatic feelings, now that they’re starting to think back on their life, and counterbalancing that to the horrors they witnessed in the Deepsea Metro. Horrifying, but... real. So, so, horribly real.

This is their last shot. If they can reverse the Inkantation across Inkopolis... who knows what it would achieve. But the plan, at the very least, is unity and community. Cy admits that in all likelihood, most Octolings will stay in Inkopolis even after the Inkantation is cleared. That’s their home now - they have new friends, new commitments, a new life... and there’s not much of a home to return to in Octaria.

But, maybe, some Octolings come to visit. Maybe some Octolings come back. Maybe those that don’t, can at least use their new life in Inkopolis to raise the voices of those suffering back home, and create a real partnership - no egotistical DJ required. And not just turning Octolings into Inklings with funny hair.

Act III

Well, once this whole reveal happens, there is a lot of internal conflict, but on the face of it, there’s really nothing to argue. There’s the disgust and to a degree personal insult felt at the idea that this song that was so important to them, that became a cornerstone of Inkadia, was harmful. That they the Squid Sisters enacted that harm onto tens of thousands of Octolings.

But it’s all there. Their minds want to deny it, but there’s nothing to stand on.

At the very least, they have a rare opportunity to set things almost entirely right. And so, they take it.

The plan is simple: Do what the Inkantation did. Blast the song out to as many Octolings as possible, and then... maybe overthrow Octavio for fun just as a bonus lol

The Squid Sisters are already popstars - they can just take the song into the Inkopolis News Station, perform it live, and get it playing all over, such is how Inkopolis is with its new music. Or well, that’s how it COULD work... if there wasn’t a sudden “NEVER GONNA HAPPEN” and muffled “Pearl--!!” coming from Agent 8′s earpiece, that they forgot to take out.

So... the easy walk-in walk-out strategy just turned into a big climactic final battle for the station. The specifics of which........ are still being ironed out, sORRY!

But generally, Pearl and Marina get backup in on the situation, and it’s a lot of small missions in one building, split across multiple teams, some stealth, some just battle, some objectives, and the final battle being a survival section over the Squid Sisters performing the song (playing as the squid sisters is cool but its not quite a Splatoon Final Boss if the Squid Sisters aren’t singing some variant of the Calamari Inkantation over it except that one time) including Pearl and Marina themselves getting in on the battle.

I’m not musical enough to think of how this would work, but it would be kinda crazy for it to sort of be objective-based by whether the Squid Sisters’ reverse-Inkantation or perhaps even Off the Hook singing the normal Inkantation is playing for more time - like a dueling song of some sort

After it’s over and you win, there’s this sort of both relief and confusion since it feels like not much happened - but it affects Marina. Like, god, does it affect Marina after everything that happened to her after the Inkantation. A lot of what she knew, the people she was close to, her life in general, all just flooding back. Suddenly realizing that these were not shadowy monsters that were out to get her, they weren’t evil clones trying to destroy the world. They were people she knew, old friends, family even, that were just trying to get by as best they could without leaving their friends and family in the dust. And then she let herself be swayed by a song, and then suddenly... how could she have just left them like that? What did she do to them? What did she do to herself?

But cutting through it all is Pearl’s voice, asking if she’s okay. Despite what she was worried about... it’s still Pearl. It didn’t make her hate Pearl or not recognize Pearl or change anything about how she felt about Pearl. It just, cleared the fog around the other people she cared about, that she had been convinced she didn’t.

So.... yeah!! Once all is said and done, Marina assures Pearl that she’s still her, that all these fears she had, didn’t happen. Plus, some minor panic over how close she got to keeping these thoughts down forever. But she didn’t, and now that it’s all over, she can let it out to Pearl and the rest of them.

Epologue

Other Octolings throughout Inkopolis start feeling similar things, though minus the Deepsea Metro trauma, and as anticipated, some of them do return. Some come back temporarily, some just have a lot to think about. Many who come back in some form or another will also sadly realize how close Octaria is to just crumbling to the ground. But over the following days, weeks, months, and years, both Octolings and Inklings work together to both raise awareness and to help reconstruction efforts.

It’s the start of a much, much, much larger social shift - that kind of also passively involves removing Octavio from power, but that’s easy enough at this point. And of course, Pearl and Marina come up with some shenanigans to get the squadron and the Squid Sisters... off the hook.

And that’s Culture Shock, the entire story exists for that one throwaway pun at the end thank you for listening you’ve been a great audience and even if this FINDS its target audience NOBODY will be able to read this before the direct that will inevitably have Side Order content which means NOBODY except ME will have the knowledge of this before their expectations are shfited by the existence of Side Order

Okay but seriously if you somehow finished all of this like, DM me on Discord @aviivix or something because we will become best friends

Also... if you can believe it... this is like maybe HALF of like all the story stuff I’ve got in Culture Shock - each member of the Octo Squad has an arc (especially Tetra she has the biggest arc but I barely mention Tetra here) and there’s big ass history with the dead Octos and a lot of specifics I didn’t touch... if you ask me about any of it I will be your best friend no questions asked.

TYSM!!!!!!!!!

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #squid sisters #octoling #agent 3 #culture shock au

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childrenofcain-if · 3 months ago

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Hi! I want to start by warning that this will probably be a long rant about how much i love your IFs. But first, I hope you feel better soon!

The first IF of yours i played was the pjo one, which sent me down a rabbit hole of going through the rest of them (still haven't played tcs but i will soon 🤞🏻). It was just BAFFLING how people could be so purposefully ignorant about the concept of fanfiction and accused you over and over of plagiarism like, please go outside and touch grass, clearly the internet has stopped your brain from developing critical thinking.

Anyways, the adaptation was so well done and faithful while also exuding a newness to it that i am very excited to see unravel. I understand at the moment it has been paused (and I don't know if you've addressed why it's no longer up) and i hope with time you can feel comfortable with it again. None of the shit you've gotten was deserved or even understandable but alas, it still happened. As a content creator myself, i truly truly sympathize with you. I hope these words offer some comfort, however small.

Same goes for WLB, but the awe at how descriptive and raw your writing is really peaked through in something of your own creation. I find myself revisiting it and experiencing the exhilaration from my first reading all over again. I can't wait to watch everyone around my mc descend into eldritch madness as they become more and more unhinged. Consequences of my own actions? Never heard of them, i want my mc to go apeshit!

Now, gods where do i start... TBOTYG is *chef's kiss* flawless, i never thought i could become so obsessed with anything with only one part. I awaited the demo with baited breath, already anticipating all the ways you would surprise and impress (and you did). Every choice, every scenario, the way you build your plot and characters, your descriptions (I don't know if you can tell that I'm a little too hung up on the writing aspect of it) of characters and actions and feelings. The amount of work and effort you put into characterization is so very clear and it feels very freeing to have that amount of control over a character that we're supposed to "relate" to (in the context of the narrative, almost as if living vicariously through them). i think that no matter how much time passes, your IFs will remain a staple in the community and every player who finds your gems will feel blessed and changed after playing.

It's gotten to the point I've created a whole google doc of my MC, and made fake ig accounts with interactions (just for myself, to cope with the anticipation) and this is a level of commitment I've only felt with my own OCs and works. In such a short time, your IFs have carved a deep space for themselves in my life. I find myself replaying and going through their official pages religiously even though I've read every post already.

a question! will every LI's gender be chosen individually? I'm wondering because C and D are suitmates, but is it doable if they're different genders? same for mc and V. I'm thinking yes but also wanted to be sure

Honestly very very sorry for the long rant, I'm sure you have better things to do 😭😭 but i had the uncontrollable urge to express my feelings on your art and it took me an entire day of trying to talk myself out of it (i failed).

(also, here's my mc's profile and dm box. her royal highness maxine's ig profile is private btw. going for c route first. Mitică is the romanian diminutive for the name Dimitru, and opsis is an ancient greek concept i thought would fit V)

i’m speechless (sentimentally), dear reader 😭 i still can’t believe some people would take the time out of their day to think about my silly little worlds and the characters in it, less of all like how i’ve written my works. every single time i hit a writer’s block or have the whole doxxing trauma flare up again, i think of quitting but it’s the urge to write stories and the joy of sharing it with everyone that is still keeping me going.

i can’t explain how much your words mean to me because this is what i write for. to have people relate to or identify with or adore the world and characters i’ve built is such a dream within itself. from the bottom of my heart, i am thankful for every single reader who has always been nothing but supportive from day one. if elias has his apple, i have y’all. and no, it doesn’t mean y’all can have my meagre inheritance but it’s the sentiment that counts.

to answer your question, every single LIs gender will be selectable! blackthorne hall has individual bedrooms per suite so y’all will only be sharing the common areas and kitchenette with V while having your own personal space. it’s more like an apartment than a usual college dorm tbh.

oh and please, rant away! i’d love nothing more than to hear about your MCs and the various headcanons, questions, or theories you might have!

(also please knock C down a few pegs, they desperately need it 😔)

#if you saw me tear up #no you diDN’T #my readers are way too lovely #if: the ballad of the young gods #interactive fiction #interactive novel #twine wip #interactive story #sinkingescapist

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taiyaki-o · 6 months ago

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HI NEIGHBOR! pt 3

synopsis: you and Gojo officially become coworkers! antics ensue

tags: gojo x reader, fluff, non curse au

pt 1 pt 2

“Good morning, Y/N.”

A smooth, deep voice resonates in your ears as you enter your office.

“Morning, Nanami.” You smile as you set down your coffee and bag. “You finished setting up for tomorrow?”

Nanami nods, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. “Yes, I finished updating my syllabus just now. There were some concepts from last year that I think my students were not prepared for adequately, and I will not make that mistake again.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like anything our resident mathematical genius can’t handle,” you chuckle softly, downing the rest of your coffee.

“And I know our resident virtuoso and creative visionary will have no problem guiding our students to being their best creative selves,” Nanami quips lightly.

You had been the art teacher at Tokyo Tech for nearly four years now, and you’d enjoyed every part of it. The students, brilliant as they were, often had an untapped creative side that you did your best to unearth. Your coworkers were also some of your best friends: Nanami, who could break any mathematical concept down to its simplest parts; Shoko, a talented nurse who seemed to be able to fix any ailment; and Ijichi, who was a bit of a doormat but was an incredible IT technician.

And Gojo. Who was supposed to be here already.

“Aren’t we supposed to be welcoming the new literature teacher?” Nanami sighs. “He’s already five minutes late.”

“Hm…I’ll text him. Funny story, he’s actually my neighbor,” you say as you pull out your phone.

Nanami raises his eyebrow in surprise.

“I’ll tell you about it later.”

“Apparently traffic is really bad right now. He’s almost here,” you say, fighting the urge to roll your eyes.

“Late on his first day, huh? Can’t wait to see how this plays out,” a new voice says from the door.

“Shoko!“ you turn to your coworker and best friend with a smile. “….you know you’re not allowed to smoke in here, right?”

“Do you see a principal or superintendent here? Great, neither do I.” Shoko chuckles as she takes another drag of her cigarette. “Besides, the kids won’t be here for another hour anyway.”

“Regardless, this office has very poor ventilation. Please try not to get cigarette smell on my things.” Nanami sighs for the umpteenth time.

“Relax, Nanmin, I won’t-“

“SORRY I’M LATE!”

You nearly jump out of your skin and Gojo barges into the office, breathing heavily.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in.” Shoko sizes up the newcomer with a smirk.

“Gojo! You made it!” You laugh. He chuckles breathily.

“Yeah, I finally got a friend of mine to take Megumi. I should introduce him to you sometime, I think you’d get along.” Gojo says.

“Speaking of introductions-“ you take him by the arm (which totally doesn’t fluster him, not a damn bit) and pull him over to your coworkers. “This is Ieiri Shoko, the school nurse-“

“Yo.”

“-and this is Nanami Kento, head of the mathematics department.”

“Pleasure.” The blonde shakes hands with Gojo.

“And of course, me! I’m head of the art department. Shoko, Nanami, this, as you may have guessed, is Gojo Satoru.”

“You’re the new history teacher, right?” Shoko asks.

“Yep, that’s me!” He says cheerfully. “Is there somewhere I can drop my stuff, or..?”

“Oh, your desk is right here!” you show him to the empty space in front of yours. “Here, let me help you set up.”

Shoko watches the two of you with a sly smirk, elbowing Nanami’s shoulder.

“You seeing what I’m seeing?” She snickers.

Nanami sighs. “It’s inappropriate to speculate about the private lives of our coworkers, Shoko.”

Shoko raises her eyebrow at Nanami. He pushes up his glasses, pretending to ignore her, but the slight smirk on his face doesn’t escape her gaze.

“Suuure. Whatever you say.”

“Do you want a tour of the building before the day starts?” You ask Gojo.

“Oh, yeah, that’d be great! Thanks so much!” He beams at you as the two of you exit the office. Shoko takes a long drag of her cigarette.

“…This Gojo guy is hopeless.”

“And here’s where I am most of the time,” you push the door to the art studio open with an overdramatic flourish.

“Wow…” he pushes up his glasses as he takes in the sight of the studio. Drawings of past students litter the walls alongside pictures of their respective classes, and countless small trinkets covers your desk (also gifts from your students). He notices a particular picture on your desk: a dark haired boy, a green haired girl, and a particularly tall boy wearing a panda hat. “Who are these guys?”

“Some of the first-well, now second-years that hang around here a lot. That boy on the left is Yuta, the girl is Maki, and the guy in the panda hat is Panda.”

“Panda?”

“We’ve called him that for so long we honestly don’t remember his real name.”

“Gotcha. Is it-“

“Yes, it’s because of the hat. He’s worn that hat every day since last year.” You giggle as you pick up the photo with a soft smile.

“Pretty…”

“Hm?”

“Oh-sorry,nothing-!” Gojo mutters in embarrassment. “It’s nothing-so when are these first years coming, eh?” He laughs awkwardly.

You check the clock. “About…twenty minutes?”

“Great, uh, I’ll go check out my classroom before then, get set up, all that, thankssomuchforthetourimgonnagonow-“

“Wait, do you need me to show you where your-aaand he’s gone.”

You sigh as Gojo darts off.

“Your classroom’s the other way!”

“Shit-thank you-“

a/n: part 3! sorry for the disappearance, my motivation withered and died during exams and I spent the last two months recovering and spitting out this brief chapter. updates will continue to be sporadic, but I’ll try to at least be more engaged and post more stuff on here

@hotvinimon @marcillyan @kinny-away @sakui1 @generalstephkenobi

#taiyakiwrites #jjk #gojo satoru #gojo x reader #jjk fluff #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x you #jjk x you #jjk fanfic #jujutsu kaisen x reader #gojo x you

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cow-rants · 8 months ago

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Fair warning: this post is in regards to the recent Assassin’s Creed: Shadows trailer. I will talk about my thoughts and feelings regarding race. Thank you.

I’ve been a massive fan of Assassin’s creed (AC) since I first saw my uncle playing it at 7 or 8 years old. I’m a massive history buff and the idea of being able to experience the past through the eyes of an ancestor is such a brilliant idea. Not mention the concept of a secret war being fought through out the centuries is always fun. But as of late, I haven’t been really excited for a new entry. Odyssey was the last game I really played and it was alright, but I’m personally not a huge fan of the new RPG mechanics (although I do understand why they were implemented).

Valhalla looked interesting, but didn’t really feel like an AC game to me. So I put it on my “to play later” list. Mirage looked far better and I definitely do want to play it, but I honestly just haven’t felt a super big pull to pick it up. But when I saw that AC was finally going to Japan, I was ecstatic. I adore Japanese history in general and the Sengoku period is full of interesting conflicts and characters that would fit perfectly with the assassin’s and the templars.

Although they went with some pretty standard people to showcase, such as Oda Nobunaga, I still think they have a chance to do something really interesting story wise (of course, reserve all real judgement for the gameplay reveal. But I’m mainly just talking about the story). Especially with the portrayal of Yasuke. From what I could tell, it seems like his story will be one of disillusionment, possibly betrayal, and redemption. Certainly a story we’ve seen before, but it’s still interesting to see Yasuke in something as big as AC.

Before I get into the more unfortunate discourse regarding Yasuke, I absolutely have to talk about Naoe. See, what caught my eye about her was how she and my OWN AC OC have very similar stories. Well, I don’t know for sure. But they certainly share a similar experience, which is watching their families be butchered by Oda Nobunaga’s armies. It’s not much, but by the gods does it make me pretty happy. My OC’s name is Minori Kishimoto and she’s one of my favorites, so seeing a canon character with some similar traits is kind of exciting for me (okay, very exciting).

Anyhow, back to Yasuke. As soon as I saw the trailer, I knew I was going to see people saying something stupid. So I checked both the comments on the video and twitter. And I was certainly not mistaken. So so so many bad takes and ridiculous arguments that, honestly, only go to show either mild racism or straight up hatred toward African people. Not to mention the fact that they completely ignore Naoe as a protagonist. I guess she must be the greatest assassin of all time.

From what I understand, a lot of people are upset that for a Japan centered AC game, there is a black protagonist. Which, again, ignores Naoe entirely. The biggest argument I have heared against Yasuke being one of the protagonists is that he wasn’t actually a samurai. To which I say: False. Incorrect. Mistaken. Wrong. Factually incorrect.

The primary issue here is the fact that many people refer to him as a retainer. A title that he never officially held, as far as I’m aware, but even so that still makes him Samurai! Looking just at the facts of his life, he was respected by arguably the most powerful Daimyo of that time, earned his trust, received a pension, received a sword, and received property. So then the question becomes: what exactly makes a person a samurai at this time? Because I can tell you one thing, it isn’t noble blood.

A peasant man was once hired by Nobunaga to do a multitude of tasks, one of which was to hold his sandals. This man would soon prove himself to be capable of all of his tasks as well as in the art of war. He would become a powerful man and rise through the ranks until he held the rank of Taiko at the end of his life . That man was Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

If Hideyoshi’s story proves one thing, it’s that at this time anyone could rise to become a daimyo. So then, why wouldn’t Yasuke also be considered a samurai? We’re not even trying to claim he was a daimyo, just that he was a samurai. Retainer, bodyguard, slave, whatever. The fact is that the man was 10000% a samurai and was a respected one at that. To claim otherwise is to prove yourself ignorant in the history you claim to be proficient in, and incompetent at backing up your argument.

Not to mention that from a writing point of view, it’s a brilliant move. Yasuke was not super well recorded and thus is relatively unknown to others. Which makes him perfect for being a:

1. Fish out of water character

2. Real person, that can be treated written like a fictional one

All of this to say, I think that this newest Assassin’s Creed has a chance to become one of my personal favorites. As well as putting the series back on the map for many. But, with no gameplay and an already worrying pre-order package, I’m worried to say the least. Only time will tell, but I look forward to it.

#assassin's creed #assassin’s creed shadows #video games #ac yasuke #AC Naoe #rant post

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whiskerknittles · 6 months ago

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Hey hello hi! I made a video game

Actually I did all the art for a video game. Specifically this video game, One-Thousand Cuts, a pixel-art samurai hack-and-slash with brutal one hit kill combat, super in-depth story and world building, and even pettable cats - and it’s on Kickstarter right now!!!

Why haven’t I mentioned this before, you ask? Well. I’m shy. Also I usually try to stay relatively anonymous on this website bc that’s kind of a selling point for tumblr imo, but I’ve been working in this project for about, well, two full years or so, and now that we’re fundraising I really really want to share it!

EDIT: WE MADE OUR BASE GOAL TONIGHT, BUT WE STILL NEED HELP TO REACH OUR STRETCH GOALS!!!

Why do this, you ask? Well, along with helping us make the full game (which has a free Steam demo available you can play this very second, by the way) supporting our campaign can get you some super cool rewards such as:

- t-shirts!

- a copy of the OST!

- a digital and/or physical artbook (packed with concept art, first drafts, and progress timelines)

- and (my personal favorite): adding your pet to the game!!!

We’re just over halfway to our base goal on KS, BUT we’ve got more than a dozen stretch goals that we’d really really love to reach! Some extra goals include alternate gameplay modes, language localizations, and console ports, PLUS entirely new area expansions that could up to DOUBLE the current projected length of the game.

I know money is tight for a lot of people (myself included) and I fully understand if you can’t support our campaign yourself, but just reblogging and sharing this post (and the more official ones on Instagram, TikTok and Xwitter) would honestly mean the world to me (and the rest of the team).

Anyway, this post is well past long enough 😅 Thanks for reading / sharing!

#for boo #indie games #one thousand cuts #1tc #WERE AT 88% OF THE BASE GOAL!!!!!#video #reference

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orsan1070 · 17 days ago

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Alolan Raichu's Dark Origins

Yes, the title is kind of clickbait. No, it’s not incorrect. Bear with me here. It’s rare that a theory like this holds water.

Alolan Raichu is a sweet, fairly unassuming mon on the surface. However, with new information that has surfaced from the recent GameFreak “Teraleak”, its behavior and origins are painted in an… interesting light.

This post kind of got away from me. If you don’t care about the nitty-gritty, here’s the TL;DR: Alolan Raichu adapted from a diet of alien drug pancakes. No, this is not a joke.

First, let me preface this. I do not speak Japanese and do not claim to. All translations shown here are done in DeepL and/or Google Translate, or an amalgamation cross-referenced. While I have verified that my ideas hold water with someone who does speak Japanese (@kiskeym on Twitter / @boh.nonso on Medium), I do not have a full direct human translation.

Okay, so, let me provide some background. Some of the documents contained within the Teraleak were development profiles on Pokémon from gens 3 through 7. Of particular interest are the gen 5-7 ones, which contain information that came back later in various dex entries (particularly, I’ve noticed, in SwSh and SV) and other tidbits supported by canon. As these are from close to release and have come back later, I think it’s safe to say that the lore in these is canon. Most of the changes between these profiles and release comes from gameplay changes– I’ve only managed to locate one lore change, and that’s in Golurk. By Alola, these profiles were even being done alongside the concept art, as Palossand’s directly references it. Ergo, I’m treating these as canon. (Not 3 or 4, as those are too early in development, have a lot more changes, and don’t cover every mon in their respective gens.) I’d like to do, or help with, a full deep dive into these at some point in the future, but for now, I just wanted to get this out there.

That said, the information I’m providing here is frequently alluded to in various tidbits in games released after SM– I will provide those sources when necessary. This is almost certainly canon, outside of its scrapped gameplay integration.

(One more sidenote-- I've put leaked profiles in blue, official in-game content in orange, and supplementary material-- in this case, websites-- in green.)

Okay, enough preamble.

Alolan Raichu’s adaptation is, in the games, played off as somewhat of a mystery, oddly enough. The Sun and Moon website says “Even Pokémon researchers don’t know why Raichu’s form changed in the Alola region.” Sword also says “It's believed that the weather, climate, and food of the Alola region all play a part in causing Pikachu to evolve into this form of Raichu.” Both of these have some sort of uncertainty to them– while there’s folklore about Raichu’s adaptation, the true cause is only through belief. The only consistent factor brought up is Raichu’s diet. The leaked profile expands upon this in an… interesting way. The Japanese text is as follows:

幻とされるデザート『スペシャル・パンケーキ（仮）』を食べることで進化する。

パンケーキに必要な食材はウルトラホールに起因するとされるもので、アローラ地方にしか存在しない。食材は熟練の職人により特殊な毒抜きをしない限り可食できず、そのレシピも、アローラ料理界において秘伝とされている。古老による口伝で語��継がれるのみで、知る者は極めて少ない。

A rough translation of this is:

It evolves by eating the mythical dessert "Special Pancake (tentative name)".

The ingredients needed for the pancakes are said to come from Ultra Wormholes and only exist in the Alola region. The ingredients are inedible unless a skilled craftsman removes the poison in a special way, and the recipe is also considered a secret in the world of Alola cuisine. It has only been passed down orally by elders, and very few people know it.

This is already hugely interesting, regardless of the later conclusion. Even if you disagree with said later conclusion, this is still definitely fascinating info. It does mention a scrapped evolution item, the ‘Special Pancake’, but this is far from the only case of scrapped and altered evolution methods in these profiles– another example is Alolan Grimer originally being planned to evolve by use of a crystal shed from Alolan Muk. However, we know from Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee that the Special Pancake still exists in the lore:

It loves pancakes prepared with a secret Alolan recipe. Some wonder whether that recipe holds the key to this Pokémon's evolution.

So, Alolan Raichu adapted because of extradimensional pancakes. Crazy.

It gets weirder. Another excerpt from the profiles says

ほっぺのでんきぶくろを揉みしだくと、カスタードクリームと洋酒（仮）が混ざったような甘い香りがすることで有名。その理由は解明されていないが、サイコパワーを高めると香りが強まる為、超能力に由来する現象とされている。その香りには謎の中毒性があり、愛好家は感電防止の策を講じてそれを嗅ぐことに臨む。

Which roughly translates to

It is famous that when you squeeze the electric sac on its cheek, it gives off a sweet scent that resembles a mixture of custard cream and liquor (tentative). The reason for this is unknown, but since the scent gets stronger as the psychic power increases, it is believed to be a phenomenon that originates from psychic power. The scent is mysteriously addictive, and enthusiasts take measures to prevent electric shock when they try to smell it.

The Japanese word used for ‘addictive’ here is, in fact, a word frequently used to describe addictive drugs. This addictive scent has been alluded to in games after this, also, particularly in Ultra Moon:

When you rub its cheeks, a sweet fragrance comes wafting out. However, you'll also get a light shock!

The aforementioned Pokemon Sun and Moon website also relays this information:

Raichu has electric sacs on its cheeks, and rubbing them causes a sweet aroma to be released. The mechanism behind this is not clear, but it’s thought to be connected to the psychic power that Alolan Raichu possess.

This directly reflects the profile. So, the pancakes made with ingredients from Ultra Space made safe for eating by an expert, give Alolan Raichu psychic powers (since it adapted to have them as a result of this diet) that are directly correlated with an addictive scent. The profiles also specify one more detail, this time about Alolan Raichu’s personality:

実際の性情も大人しくボーっとしたもので、何事においても動じず、常に笑みをたたえている。

This roughly translates to:

Its actual nature is also quiet and absent-minded, unfazed by anything and always smiling.

This is in direct contrast to Raichu’s usual nature, characterized frequently in the Pokedex as becoming aggressive when it has too much electricity stored:

It turns aggressive if it has too much electricity in its body. It discharges power through its tail.

When electricity builds up inside its body, it becomes feisty. It also glows in the dark.

These specific instances are from Brilliant Diamond and Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee respectively, but there are several more. This means that Alolan Raichu’s personality changed with its adaptation as well.

So, in short, we’ve got pancakes made with poisonous extradimensional ingredients, purified by experts, that give Alolan Raichu psychic powers connected to an addictive scent and make it quiet, absent-minded, and unflappable. While nothing is explicit here, outside the mention of the scent being addictive, this is certainly reminiscent of common portrayals of various kinds of drugs.

Alolan Raichu is on drugs. Canonically. Probably. Alien drug pancakes. What has Pokémon lore come to

(Thanks again to Kiskeym for verifying this information, and to MewMallow for pointing out some of the similarities here and making me realize what’s going on.)

#pokemon #pokemon lore #pokemon ecology #alola #ultra space #alolan raichu #this is insane to me. the mascot #of all pokemon #is implied to have adapted a new form because of alien drugs #crazy.#orsan's lore postings

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conundrumoftime · 3 months ago

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Cat, what do you think Galadriel’s role will be from now on? I’ve heard so many disheartening opinions that she’ll just settle as the wise and distant and passive Galadriel from the movies. While I’m afraid of that and don’t really trust tv writers anymore, I can’t see them going down this route so soon. They showed already they’re not giving into the tolkien bros, I don’t see why she wouldn’t keep her role as commander.

I love this question! I have been thinking about this so much. My short answer is that I don't think they'll do that. My longer answer:

I've talked before about how I think people are mistaken about where Galadriel's canon story ends up, and a short version of why I don't think TROP Galadriel will end up as the 'lady of light [passive, retired]' figure people remember is that she never really existed; even for film Galadriel, people are remembering a version filtered by pop culture history of a story where she's a minor character. (As are all the other powerful elves of Middle-earth at this point - Glorfindel, Elrond, Círdan - it's not b/c they've settled down and got married now, it's b/c this is the hobbits' story we're seeing through the hobbits' eyes and the big mythological figures need to take a back seat.)

So here's my predictions for what they will do with her story:

She'll still be a main character. It's an ensemble show, but they have set up a main antagonist and main protagonist and built the whole idea off one of her lines in LOTR about him.

Her temptation will continue to be linked to Sauron. Partly as a convenience of visual TV storytelling (harder to have her do a speech to camera about how she desires power and realms to rule in the abstract); partly to tie into what the show has already established for two seasons; and partly because the show does so love visual callbacks to the films, in which we get this Galadriel:

recognise the dress?

(second one there is the official concept art by Julian Gauthier. We had a whole year of people saying "her hand is NOT on her stomach as if she was pregnant in that scene, you foolish Haladriels!" and then this came out and who's laughing now, eh? Who's laughing now. Anyway!)

She'll play a role in the Battle of the Last Alliance. They might put her on the battlefield - Tolkien doesn't say she was there, but on the other hand Tolkien doesn't specifically say she wasn't, soooo - but I think it's more likely they will bookend that conflict with some other kind of confrontation, like a mindbattle raft vision during the fight. My bet would be they will also do something with repeated images of water/the sea/Nenya/calling back to what Peter Jackson called the 'drowned Galadriel' look and that we'll see that s1 raft again - the showrunners do love mirroring and repeating and echoing.

They will make Celeborn and their marriage interesting. I am less confident about this one because they certainly don't have to and it's always possible that they'll just parachute him in at the last moment like "yay! husband back now :) well done :) off you go back to the forest" and God only knows I've been burned before on interesting 'female characters + marriage = boring, lesser, unimportant' on TV shows. However! I have a reasonable degree of confidence, like say maybe 65%, that they will make him and their marriage interesting.

Celeborn is probably another post so short version of why is: she is still the main protagonist and him being back gives the writers the opportunity to show more of her journey, not because husband = destination but because you can learn a lot about characters in how they relate to loved ones; and they've set him up in a way that introduces conflict (where's he been, how have they both changed from the younger idealised versions of themselves they remember) that makes for good storytelling.

They will link her back to Numenor somehow for that storyline: again I'm less confident on this one and I have no clear ideas on how they'd do it, but it feels like too good an opportunity to pass up when she's already been there once.

Her storyline will have something about learning compassion and pity - which I think people do not like the sound of if (like me!) they like her angry and violent, but it is such a Tolkien-y thing and it's already been set up in what we have seen. Note: I don't mean this in a "she'll be sweet and calm and exist to pat the male characters on the head" way; I mean it in the sense we already saw in s2 with Adar. And who else did she have a really angry, inflexible, "nothing you do will ever be enough to be forgiven" line with in season 1? hmmm...

Her getting and learning how to use her Mirror will be a big thing in some upcoming season. It's such an intriguing question mark in canon - we don't really know anything about where she got it from, how it works, even how she personally uses it - but we know it's important in the future. They will definitely do something with this.

#rings of power #galadriel #eyeofacat meta

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yosajaeofficial · 6 months ago

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JUNE UPDATE

WASSUP BROS AND HOES, IT’S ME, YOSA FRICKING JAE. BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH ANOTHER UPDATE ABOUT THE JMC 🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️

Last time, I remember saying it’ll be different and things will spice up, and I am indeed gonna provide more stuff piled into these updates because the debut comic is taking so long. I wanna make sure you all get full when consuming these updates instead of being like “oh, nothing happened lol”. I have a good chunk of shit to talk about that’s outside of the comic itself, but it’s like behind the scene stuff about it :3

With that out of the way, let’s finally get started!

The Comic

(W.I.P OF THE OFFICAL DEBUT COMIC)

The comic is slowly making progress, the first thing that’s changing is me showing progress of the comic itself and giving ya’ll w.i.ps in order for me to give you guys content to look over, and because I just want ya’ll to see it yk? The honest truth is that it’s moving slow because of burnout. It was huge and made me wanna give up on the comic and leave the fandom, I was struggling for a good while but my best friend told me it was best to take a break and recharge instead of pushing further. They told me to do something else so I can regain my motivation and passion for the project, and she was right, because I’ve been having fun hanging out, watching her play Stardew Valley, and letting loose without the pressure for the debut comic to come out. I have to prioritize my health and well-being before anything else, and I know the comic will be done!

Also for you all to know, the team I had disbanded, and right now I don’t have a full official one to help with the debut. I have amazing friends that have helped look over the script, one did some sketch compositions, one helped fix up grammar in the script. They helped me greatly and I’m so grateful for them and their loving support even through all of the rough patches. For the most part, I’ve been doing everything on my own, and it can get stressful easily because of how much I’ve had to change my plans and shuffle around when the team disbanded. I’ve been the one doing the scripting, sketches, lineart, color, management, and just everything. Even if I try to act like things are fine behind the scenes, I definitely got more anxious and depressed after events occurred, so this break (not hiatus) has helped me recharge after going through a bit for this comic. To end this section on a good note, I’m feeling so much better and I’m recharging absolutely greatly, I even renewed my love for Donnie after a friend drew him 🦐 Sooooo…The JMC is still in good hands.

Bonus Content: The Villain

YosaJae, what is this? This is the section that’s hella new, the place where I show you guys some cool concept art, ideas, and plots that show the origins of the JMC or even scrapped/cut content. Today we’re gonna talk about the villain of Arc 1. Fun fact, two were created at the same time but one of them was finalized to be the primary villain for Arc 1!

(First ever concept art of Archie Gomez)

Here he is! The cat himself, ✨Archie✨ I needed some variety and needed an anthropomorphic character since Rise has lots of their mutants and yokai. Archie was a character that was a lot more serious and hella threatening but he was toned down after more arcs were created. For some reason, I included freckles because I originally thought, “Ginger people…..” then included the freckles to make him more recognizable. Let’s just say that they weren’t as rememberable as I thought because I forgot them after a while-

Fun fact, Archie was originally gonna be a native Spanish speaker but not be able to speak English. The actual conflict was gonna be about the turtles and Archie fighting due to language miscommunication, but it was later scrapped because of the issue with translating each of his sentences and being truly accurate with his dialogue. He also at first was a one off character that would never return, but he was popular that he became the reoccurring bad for Arc 1.

(Archie Gomez Evolution 2022-2024)

Archie had went through a good bit of design changes over the years and I changed him to be more easier to draw by giving him a more unique silhouette by drawing his head as a pentagon instead of a circle. The transition was at first a circle to triangle, but then the shape was too complicated to recreate so I had to go with a pentagon (as an accident at first too). That changed him A LOT but I was hella happy with the way he turned out because he started to look more unique and iconic. Pretty cool, eh~?

Aaaand that’s it! Thank you all for stopping by and coming in to read this update! I hope it was fun to go through and very refreshing. I wanna make my updates more like this instead of what was said above. Especially because this is taking so long, I wanna be able to go over behind the scenes with you all since ya’ll at least deserve that; I can’t keep being mysterious about the comic since it is taking years for it to be made, but it’s trial and error so I gotta do this in order for it to be worth the progress. I’m strong, I can do this! Hopefully your day/night is amazing, and take care until next time 😋🫶💜

#rottmnt #rottmnt oc #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #tmnt oc #oc #oc x canon #jmc update #jmc related #jmc #comic update #art

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aemiron-main · 2 years ago

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Henry’s In A Tank: Stranger Things vs The Evil Within (2017)

So, I talked in this post and this post about Elder Brains, and today, I want to talk about The Evil Within, Ruvik, and the STEM system.

Long story short, I think that Henry is in another NINA tank somewhere, since Edward Creel is Vecna, and we don’t know where Henry is, and since Henry seems weirdly present during NINA.

Henward vs Ruben vs Ruvik and The Creels vs The Victorianos

I’m going to talk about Ruben/Ruvik in general in a little bit, but first, let’s just take a look at the initial, most obvious parallels.

Ruben/Ruvik as an adult vs Vecna/vs Burnt Henward:

Ruben as a child vs Henward as a child:

And if you still don’t believe me that this parallel is intentional, look at this official concept art for Vecna:

That’s definitely inspired by Ruvik. Ruvik even does the same damn hand thing that Henward and El do:

Now, let’s get into Ruvik’s backstory, and then get into the story of the rest of the game and how it ties to ST, and why I think Henry’s in a NINA tank.

So, as a child, Ruvik was isolated and “weird,” but very close to his sister, and also a child prodigy. He came from the wealthy Victoriano family, with a religious father (much like Victor), and a mother that he wasn’t close to. Ruben was doing science experiments as a child, and when he was still a child he met a doctor, Dr Jimenez, who assured Ruben that he also did similar science experiments, and that it didn’t make Ruben a monster. Even just initially here, this is already extremely similar to Henry having already known Brenner (talking about “the very doctor I had hoped to escape,” recognizing Brenner immediately by his face after waking up in the lab), and we also have the “monster,” imagery that is constant with El, Brenner, and Henward.

Then, one day, Ruben and his sister were playing in a barn when some disgruntled townsfolk lit the barn on fire. His sister died saving him, and Ruben was left burnt and disfigured, much like Henward in the yellow UD.

Although Ruben survived the fire, Ruben’s father faked Ruben’s death, and led Ruben’s mother to believe that Ruben died in the fire when in reality, he was imprisoned in the basement, and then later at Beacon Mental Hospital. This is SO similar to what happened with Henry- his death was faked (and Virginia likely involved), and then Victor was led to believe that Henry was dead when in reality, he was at HNL, with the mother vs father thing swapped for Henry vs Ruben.

Ruben, much like Henward is frequently associated with spiders. During the game, the player sees a fucked up fleshflayer-esque spider version of Ruvik’s sister. It’s a common motif for him, just like it is for Henward.

When the game begins, the player plays as Sebastian Castellanos, years after the Victoriano fire/Ruvik’s disfigurement (which we’ll come back to later in the STEM system section) but you don’t need to know much about him for this analysis, just that he’s the player character.

We end up at Beacon Mental Hospital, which takes us to the next section of this analysis.

Beacon Mental Hospital vs HNL and Pennhurst

So, Pennhurst and Beacon Mental Hospital look EXTREMELY similar:

At the beginning of the game, the player/Sebastian ends up at Beacon Mental Hospital, pursuing Ruvik. As the game progresses, we learn that the characters aren’t in the real Beacon Mental Hospital at all anymore- instead, they’re part of the STEM system/the version of Beacon Mental Hospital that exists in Ruvik’s mindscape/memories, as Ruvik is part of the STEM system, and the player character is hooked up to a STEM system tank, which we'll get into later, linking their mind to Ruvik's.

The whole "not in the real Beacon Mental Hospital" thing reminds me of the fact that the area of the lab that we see during NINA is COMPLETELY different from the lab we’ve seen in other seasons, and we’ve never seen the NINA area outside of NINA, and we have two different rainbow rooms, too, and the lab and Pennhurst are paralleled all the time, both being likened to prisons, both having orderlies in white uniforms, both experimenting on their patients, etc etc.

The STEM System vs NINA vs Elder Brain Tanks

So, the STEM system is basically multiplayer NINA (although, as is the point of this analysis, I think that NINA is also multiplayer).

Now, going back to the Victoriano fire and Ruben’s disfigurement and the death of his sister and Ruben’s father faking Ruben’s death. Prior to the player character entering Beacon Mental Hospital, Ruben escaped the basement, killed his parents, and became “Ruvik,” and went to work at Beacon Mental Hospital with Dr Jimenez.

Dr Jimenez would betray Ruben, however, and teamed up with the company, MOBIUS, to have Ruben captured, restrained, and forced to become a test subject, just like Brenner kidnapping Henward forcing Henward to be a test subject at HNL.

Ruvik was the first test subject for the STEM system project, and he was hooked up to multiple machines, and his body was experimented on until there was nothing left of him except for a brain, which became part of the STEM system. Ruvik, although just a brain in the real world, had a physical form in his own mindscape, and spent decades trying to find a way to escape his imprisonment. (again, VERY similar to 001/Henward trying to find a way out of the lab.)

Before Ruvik was killed/left as just a brain, though, MOBIUS attempted to sync his brain with Leslie’s- Leslie was a quiet boy, very similar to Ruben, and Leslie reminds me a lot of both Will and El, and was also a test subject at Beacon Mental Hospital.

Ruvik and Leslie’s brains were synced in the STEM system because they had shared trauma- both had lost their families in a violent manner.

I’m staring DIRECTLY at Murray talking about “shared trauma” in ST. Murray even ties "shared trauma" to "your dad," just like the shared Brenner trauma between El and Henward.

So, I’m also staring DIRECTLY at Henward and El during NINA and syncing their brains, and the shared trauma of Brenner/growing up in the lab, especially with all the talk of “you’re like me/we’re the same/papa hurt you," and how they have shared trauma and shared memories.

Unfortunately, Leslie’s brain was unstable (much like NINA glitching for EL), and that’s what resulted in Ruben being killed/stripped down to his brain, as Ruben wanted to proceed with the use of Leslie, but MOBIUS did not.

Decades later, Ruvik somehow managed to manifest himself in the real world briefly, and committed a massacre at the real-life Beacon Mental Hospital (which is why Sebastian was at the hospital in the first place, investigating the murders). Ruvik was searching for Leslie when he committed the massacre. It reminds me a lot of a.) Henward seemingly committing the massacre to try and get El out of the lab and b.) Vecna searching for Will.

Now, let’s look at the STEM system vs NINA vs Elder Brain tanks:

And when we jump to DND and look at Elder Brain tanks, how do those work? What do they do? Well, an Elder Brain (which resides in an Elder Brain Tank) is a hivemind- it’s what controls Mindflayers. And it’s also known as a living library, which has me staring DIRECTLY at the library in ST. Elder Brain tanks are typically kept in caves beneath cities, much like the NINA bunker, but I’m also looking at the basement of the library in ST as some sort of connection, especially since the library basement specifically was brought to our attention & tied to the Creels when Robin and Nancy went down to the basement to look for newspaper information about Victor & the Creel murders.

And interestingly enough, the fleshflayer from S3 also resembles the STEM system- which makes sense, since the fleshflayer is basically a hivemind/combined minds, just like the STEM system.

Also, the STEM tanks are literal bathtubs- bathtubs that are eerily similar to the Creel tub, and need I remind you that the sensory deprivation tanks in the lab are referred to as “the bath” by Brenner and El? And the fact that the S1 episode with the NINA-shaped, round pool in the school gym that El uses as a sensory deprivation tank is called “the bathtub”?

Like, it's the SAME sort of clawfoot tub.

Mirror Imagery

So, in order to save the game in The Evil Within, you have to find a mirror, which takes to to the safe zone of Beacon Mental Hospital. Mirror imagery is constant in this game, and I'm staring DIRECTLY at Henward talking about how he held a mirror up to his family & the mirror in the rainbow room during NINA.

Music

If you’re STILL not convinced that these parallels are intentional, I want to draw your attention to a certain song that plays in Pennhurst:

Clair de Lune. This song is CONSTANT in The Evil Within (which, need I remind you, takes place in an asylum JUST like Pennhurst), it’s the main song for the game, and is always associated with mirrors (which are extremely associated with Henward in ST), and specifically, are associated with the “safe zones” in the game, which, again, are accessed via mirrors, and the whole “music is safe/saves you” thing is VERY ST4. Clair de Lune is not just a song that happens to play once in the background of The Evil Within- instead, it’s THE song for it, you absolutely cannot miss it.

Dream Imagery

So, every subject that’s connected to the STEM system has some level of subconscious, “dreamlike” influence over it, and throughout the game, the whole experience of the STEM system is described as being like a dream/nightmare, except it's alive and can kill you because you're hooked up to the STEM system. (staring at all of the nightmare imagery with Henward, and Victor's "a nightmare far worse" vs Henward waking up in the lab vs El waking up in NINA, and Victor talking about a "waking, living nightmare" vs NINA basically being a waking, living nightmare)

We also have El talking about a shared “dream circle,” with Terry vs all of the dream imagery with Henry (Dream a Little Dream of Me etc), and the circular shape of the NINA tank. I think El and Henry were both likely present during NINA/connected mentally, like a STEM system, like an Elder Brain tank, and like a dream circle.

El talks about the dream circle "repeating," JUST like the repeating scenes during NINA.

Conclusion

But yeah! Like I’ve talked about before, I won’t be surprised if Henry has been in a NINA tank this whole time, which would explain why he seems so weirdly present during NINA sometimes- because he IS present. Just like how Terry was present in the dream circle and how Ruvik is present in STEM.

#stranger things #henry creel #edward creel #st creel timeline weirdness #st-evil within parallels #st nina project

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