#STOP BIASING THE RESULTS IN YOUR FAVOUR | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

darkwing-ramblings · 2 months ago

Text

Please, don't be worried. (This is Tumblr so I assume people can get worried easily, sorry if I am talking too much here)

Ooh I've figured out indenting! That makes sense, intentions are often notably harder to parse online after all and direct and explicit communication is the most effective method to ensure everyone is on the same page. I understand and read you silent and clear 👍. I also believe my previous check up was openly described as motivated by worry in any case making it relevant to address.

Also, I like to "credit where due" to characters too.

It's the only way to drag and/or celebrate them later after all if that's what the heart desires! Feats diminished in veritable satisfaction if you can't laud or criticise them with, goodness gracious, sufficient accuracy! Why, the shame! (I jest here, but also heartily concur that accuracy where possible is important just like seeing merit where present in characters no matter what else is going on with them, it's a nice exercise in recognising one's one biases and practising that personally disliking something does not fundamentally change its essence)

XD I love this! Also, true. (And disliking M&Ms because they killed Elves.)

I'm flattered! Yes, the silmarils have such non-controversial moral standards it's great as well as personal sensibilities going by all of the examples above! Hence murder=bad, torture=bad, eating me=bad. They may wear out mortals but that's not deliberate, all of their deliberate decisions they do something about (burn it, burn it with treelight-essence-fire!) are very simply motivated!

First, to repeat from another post (I don't expect you to read all my posts, but also, do nor expect me to paraphrase things I can copy):

These are reasonable expectations if I may say so myself!

I don't feel like going into an "omniscience, Providence, free will" debate

I understand as wholly as I find myself intrigued by that summary of the essence of the debate. But never mind that! I have seen the opportunity for a somewhat relevant favoured tangent of mine!

I leap for joy at the opportunity to supply my understanding of how writing a character works! That being if you've set up consistency of history, personality, values, opinions and relationships in a character by placing them in a context the equivalent of multiple choice options that they could take should present yourself to you and it's up to you to pick which one works best for your aims and run with it. So the character need not fundamentally change to react to something one of a few ways but once you're chronologically past that if it properly shapes their development their pattern of choices developing gives you insight into them and creates more streamlined understanding of why exactly that is.

It's a fun part of writing, as sometimes a character will therefore fundamentally stop being the "themself" model your parameters guide you to write if you force an ill-fitting choice onto them for narrative smoothness; therefore, it takes clever manoeuvring of your options originating from them and/or adapting the external factors as required to go the direction of you want that functions as a puzzle built on an in-joke known only to you! Hence outlines are fluid guides that are not hard and fast rules and writing is interactive and interesting and enjoyable and never entirely predictable despite it originating from your own mind! It is understandable that it is as a result not always helpful as a minor point in larger discussions if that's not the point of figuring out an alternate timeline/universe because the detail is a little excessive for wider considerations!

with some characters having foresight (and Providence being a canon-established thing), we cannot do linear (in time) reasoning

It makes for fun considerations that are very text-specific, yes.

Finwë would be grieving for Feanor, but also he was more level headed. So… worst-case scenario you can probably imagine (no Flight, Morgoth Melkor roams free and still has a cool name).

Melkor not be renamed, for shame! Shame on all of the elves who couldn't come up with a suitable name-insult upon such similar circumstances! Feanor's greatest impact on the world made clear: having the audacity to wittingly rename an ainur as an insult that stuck for all of forever. Does Mairon similarly remain Mairon the Not-Sauron/Thauron because of this then? I actually don't know who granted him his clearly more accurate name, but without precedent/Feanor dead it could theoretically also not occur, hmm.

(Joking aside I can indeed imagine this, yes, I am with you)

Finwë promises the Silmarils to the Valar (because Trees), swears a better Oath (we will reclaim the gems and defeat Morgoth to avange my poor son + no blasphemy + no revenge on people who are not Morgoth). Many Noldor follow him, not as many as followed Feanor, but they probably get some Maiar as support.

Ooh that's interesting. Nolofinwe likely accompanies him but probably due to the noldor not having to repick a favourite/most-legitimate royal with the same haste as post Finwe's death has a smaller host too. Arafinwe keeps his remaining status to look after things at home easily enough I imagine here, because someone ought to.

I see we must replace the oath with another oath for without it the story would differ, fair enough, better is still improvement.

The war still isn't as quick as Finwë hoped. Sun and Moon are still made, Men are awaken, but Morgoth is defeated sooner thank in the canon timeline and with less losses. Also, Finwë hangs out with his friend Elwë and convinces him to let his daughter marry a Man with no stupid conditions. ;)

Oh of course there still needs to be plenty of ill-fate going around. I would not blame Elwe for being sceptical of Finwe's family related advice. But I'm sure Melian would keep her stance of that's a bad idea husband whatever he might suggest (possibly pointing out the hypocrisy of banning a never before seen marriage between kindreds, exactly like their own was unprecedented) and perhaps with Finwe and Melian tag-teaming it Elwe would concede?

Regardless, there are plenty of tasks to set Beren if Elwe still insists of him proving his worth/hopefully failing to ever force Elwe to follow through with the "win" condition that need not end up inciting kinslayings in this hypothetical au.

Morgoth (courtesy of whoever stepped up to grant the name in Feanor's place) being defeated earlier is our first tangible improvement that affects the simarils- rescue from the horrible, evil Morgoth and horrible, evil Angband!

Morgoth defeates, Trees maybe restored, maybe not. I can see some people (Maeglin, for example) stealing a Silmaril for weird reasons (to impress Idril), so we can still have the two Silmarils gone if we need it.

Aha, we return to the heart of the matter! For we must forget about everyone else and ask how this changed things for the poor silmarils! Hmm, I don't think the trees being restored is necessarily better for the silmarils in question for they have life as they are and are already perfect. For the elves quite possibly? But, for the silmarils I don't know that gem-plant-light-hybrids being forced into the shape of the original trees to forever be compared to the glow of their forebears is a happy ending? I think they would need to be somewhat more differentiated to have their distinct lives recognised as their own and not imitations of the "better" long-mourned similar but fundamentally different from them trees. If we're leaning into free-range silmarils they also are now even more immobile and not even moved around to see different things by other beings.

But you hit the mark that one silmaril must be retrieved/taken from Morgoth earlier than the other two to not decrease possible silmaril-happiness from the canon timeline and end up somewhere or equivalent or better note condition wise.

Second, I really don't think Thingol had the Feanorians in mind when sending Beren on his quest. It is possible that he didn't know about the Oath at all! Just that the Noldor (in general) want to reclaim the Silmarils (but not that it's such a high priority).

Hmm see this has merit and notably dampens the bettering of a Finwe lives au, for it means that if the oath's absence affects them not at all a kinslaying/violent conflict that accidentally ends in grievous harm is not out of the question yet and the silmarils may meet someone they accordingly do not like! Finwe is Elwe's friend yes but also a leader of a foreign people it's not unthinkable that Elwe feels some need to save face in front of/prove he is still separate and not beholden to.

(Plus there is the languishing in Thingol's vault, not optimal for silmaril happiness, slowly killing Luthien may also make them sad the same way if she ends up with it too but we really don't know about that).

If there was was no Oath of Feanor, there would probably be no mass murder at Alqualonde. And then there would be no closing of Valinor and Earendil wouldn't be necessary.

Well that sorts itself out neatly. There's certainly a pretty equivalent scenario to canon where the first kinslaying happens irregardless of Finwe's best efforts if the offer of the silmarils to the valar isn't enough to convince them endorsing leaving this early is a good idea yet. Given Olwe is not Finwe's best friend and his reasons for denying the ships weren't that related to Feanor as an individual- more the principle of taking them at all/valar disapproval. But it's easily enough handwaved away as it'll work itself out from creasing the song of arda whatever way it needs to probably.

As I said, much of the reason why "Silmarils in a vault" give me a red flag, is metatextual. In the Bible there are some verses about putting a lamp/light under a (bucket? not exactly but I don't know the English word) and that you need to put it up somewhere high instead so it can shine. And I am sure Tolkien knew those lines, because they are some of the more well-known.

It's got a higher possible relevance than where my mind went of the debates surrounding which pets can be kept inside if the conditions are favourably sympathetic to them at least? I also thought of houseplants and standards of care for them. That's a cool titbit to bring in at least that's new to me as a concept put quite that way anywhere. I was more thinking UV light and plants... wait! Wait were the poor trees also deprived as nearly the only light sources with no sun powering them!?! Stars are something maybe... plus they have wider foliage etc giving surface area to get things through than the silmarils have.

I wouldn't be complaining so much about the poor gemsies if not for that. However "poor gemsies" seems to be a reading supported by the book. ;) (But yes, Elves and Men are more important than gemsies)

Gasp! Shock horror! But the poor gemsies!?! How can lives be so easily compared when each is immeasurably of value? The poor gemsies have rights, rights I say! Just because they do not have legs and arms. What is this outrageous mobile-children-of-Eru based discrimination! The poor, poor beleaguered gemsies!

What makes a happy silmaril?

For context we must consider that the silmarils are written as living is not intelligent beings in a way and that they were derived of trees and so are a probable never-before-seen-gem-plant-hybrid-creature-with-opinions-just-no-mobility. Also I am @darkwinganimus by another name, to be clear, and this moves a previous discussion @eri-pl and I were having in the replies of one of their posts over to a format with no restrictively frustrating word limitation.

As @eri-pl puts in their Silmarillion reread part 6: "They loked like diamonds, so canonically white-ish. their fire is made of mixed Treelight, so I would assume warm white is canon.

They shone like stars of Varda but had real life inside — I really need this in English! OK, I googled it.

OH. Something else but: "he pondered how the light of the Trees, the glory of the Blessed Realm, might be preserved imperishable" — It may be me jumping on things + Tolkien's poetical wording, but this seems like a strong suggestion of "Fefe wanted to jump higher than his head" (he was not the first one) and sheds a light (pun intended) on his sttitude towards the Silmarils later.

Anyway back to that part about life: "and yet, as were they indeed living things, they rejoiced in light" So they are living things, not just "like" living things. Silmarills = baby Trees is canon! (OK, somewhat canon? but they *are* alive, and by logic they must be bred not made-in-the-strict-sense by Feanor)

So they glow by themselves with warm white, but also they are iridescent like diamonds. Beautiful indeed."

(Opinions such as disliking Morgoth then Carcaroth enough to burn him when the former wore them in his underground torture fortress Angband and the latter rudely ate them).

Anyway, the discussion points I actually want to raise are below, now that the nature of the silmarils are established as probably-living- beyond the possibility of poetic and figurative language along those veins merely sounding cool- is explained:

@eri-pl Hmm, okay, so per your reply attached to this post "Melkor (to be precise this was his name at that point :D ) wanted to kill Feanor anyway. He thought Feanor would be home too, iirc from the book. And still, Fefe could have worn them to a well-guarded situations, at least. But he was too paranoid." let's imagine Feanor takes the measure of no vault and just wears the silmarils everywhere, because he's pretty sure no one else distrusts Melkor enough to be sufficiently on guard. Melkor now has no reason to attack Formenos during the party so I don't know waits to ambush Feanor travelling on the road back from it, directing Ungoliant at the trees for a distraction etc and stealing the silmarils+killing Feanor as planned. Good for Melkor he achieves all his goals.

I humbly ask how this then might end up in your opinion better for the silmarils in question, aside from more time outside out and about Aman in sun years per your "Feanor wearing them might have ended up better for them anyway. At least he could have worn them to well-defended occasions (like That One Party), but he didn't because he was paranoid about the normal Valar too.". Because without Feanor and with Finwe alive there a question of if the flight of the noldor even happens afterwards- which they were agitating let's assume so and skip the how-that-happens/goes for now- and about the oath.

Now the oath is terrible for most beings involved, yes, but is it terrible for the silmarils themselves? It's a force of dedicated warriors specifically trying to retrieve them from Melkor their evil abductor- a force of dedicated warriors who make their retrieval from Morgoth so fraught a topic Thingol invokes it in an arguably rash and spur of the moment to Beren arguably meaning "I-would-see-you-dead-before-I-give-permission-for-you-to-marry-my-beloved-daughter-go-die-to-Morgoth-and/or-the-feanorians-over-a-silmaril".

It sees one of them get out of Angband in the hands of Beren and Luthien and enjoy free-range-ish years in the open then ultimately make it to Earendil upon Vingilot's prow. Earendil and Elwing's arrival with said stolen silmaril also helps petition aid from the valar in the war of wrath successfully leading to one ending up in the ocean (not terrible for pseudo-plant-gem-creatures as an environment) and a random volcano that maybe also got swallowed by the sea (at least there's no Melkor and it has possible gem-friends in its volcano). If there is no oath all of the latter is in question and whilst things could end better for the silmarils probably (and definitely those who died because of the oath on both sides, but that's not the focus here) they could also end up worse.

Now, Feanor's son's swear the oath of their own initiative when he begins to but on their own with him dead it's not exactly assured say Kanafinwe is going to see to it a very similar one is made.

I understand entirely that it is a lot of words however so won't be offended if you'd rather call it a day/don't actually read this all. Either way putting it together in one place has pleased me greatly whether any response, staggered yay or nay, results.

#the silmarillion #jrr tolkien #the silmarils #the two trees of valinor #meta #finwe #feanor #melkor #morgoth #other people's thoughts #eri-pl #my thoughts

37 notes · View notes

footygirl114 · 2 years ago

Note

43 Sorry to text so late, can your dog come over? / for Alexia Putellas with Nala

You and Alexia had been dancing around each other for weeks. You were new to the team, and as the back up goalie you both spent a lot of time together, she wanted to make sure if you came in to a game you were ready. Many nights post training the two of you would stay late and she would practice free kicks and you would practice saving them.

The late nights often ended with the two of you walking home together, you lived across the street from her. When you found out about Nala you immediately wanted to meet her. You loved animals but dogs were your weakness.

After your walks home, Alexia would gather Nala and you both would continue your walks with the dog. You were too shy to ever entertain the idea of you and Alexia actually getting together so you often just enjoyed the time you had together. She was way out of your league.

When Sandra got hurt and you ended up playing your first game for the team, you were nervous but so excited. You knew you were ready and knew you could play up to the level the team needed. When in the first minute of the game a break came for Athletico and when the one on one with you resulted in goal you were so upset.

The team was shocked that it even happened, but it did not bode well for their confidence in their 2nd string keeper. When half time came and the scoreline was still 1-0 you couldn’t bear to meet anyones eyes. You were so disappointed in yourself, when the team was ready to head back on the field you are walking out eyes cast down when you feel a hand on your arm.

You turn back and meet Alexia’s eyes who says “it wasn’t your fault Y/N, you are amazing, shake it off and prove it to everyone else”

You roll your eyes and pull you arm out of her grasp and say “easy for you to say, it wasn’t your fault” and you walk away towards the field.

The game needs up finishing 1-1 and when its over you are immediately off the field and in the change room trying to get out of there as quickly as you can. Alexia tries to stop you but you brush right by here wanting to sulk on your own.

Hours later you have cocooned yourself inside your apartment with a bottle of whiskey trying to forget the game. You are flipping channels and fall onto a dog show and immediately you think of Nala.

Y/N (23:02): Hi sorry to text so late

Alexia (23:03): Its okay, what’s up?

Y/N: (23:04): I need a favour.

Alexia (23:04): Anything for you Y/N

Y/N (23:05): can your dog come over?

You sit there staring at your phone waiting for the answer, minutes go by and you think maybe she fell asleep. When there’s a knock at your door. Getting up with a groan you open the door and immediately you feel Nala jumping on your knees. You crouch down and accept her kisses.

“You know she never greets me like that” You look up and se Alexia there, bundled in pjs and hoodie looking sleepy.

You stand up with Nala in your arms as you meet her eyes you say “I’m sorry about today Ale”

She immediately shakes her head and steps closer to you, she reaches out and rubs Nala’s head and when your hands meet on the fur, she moves to entangle them. “You were amazing today Y/N, I am so proud of how you bounced back after the early goal. You played unreal the rest of the game. It was just nerves”

You shake your head back and say “I let you down though, I could see it in your eyes”

“Never, Y/N I am a little biased when it comes to you, but you are easily the best keeper I have played with.” she tells you. When you look at her with a questioning look she steps closer and closes the distance and presses her lips to yours.

#woso imagines #woso #woso x reader #alexia putellas #alexia putellas x reader #alexia putellas imagine #espwnt x reader

288 notes · View notes

littlemisswriter · 3 years ago

Text

Saving London - Part 1

Summary:

What if the Frye twins never grew up to be assassins, yet to be working men and women in the city of London along with the others? What if Lily had been the only assassin to respond to Henry Green's plead for help? And what if she recruits the twins to work alongside her to stop the oppression and fight against Templars?

[Here is my promised written imagine, there will be more parts soon so don’t worry! Let me know if you like it; I am trying new concepts around the Syndicate storyline, types of AU’s that I don’t see much in this fandom, let alone this game specifically! So hope you all enjoy :)]

Society had been they way it had always been for the last hundred years. A biased dictatorship working in favour of their own gain and allowing those under them to indulge in nothing but their scraps. The world was a large place, with London in the very centre.

The blue skies above were being met with black hazes from the factories below, and those situated in those said factories were not faring any better. Day in, day out were workers worn to the bone. Hands calloused and dirty from maintaining the machines that built the technologies around them. Men spent most time away from home, doing their best to support families in spite of their decreasing health. Though it had not only been men that were subjected to this environment, but women and children as well.

Morally it had been frowned upon to have such a vast amount of workers, but business wise… those who held power could get away with whatever they wanted. Well, had been able to get away with what they wanted. Times were changing, people were oppressed, and a certain underground gang had taken it upon themselves to answer London’s calls.

Outside the factory walls in Southwark, the sun had begun to descend behind the horizon; the chilly night air settling in for those still out and about on the streets. But for those in the factory, the temperature had been nothing less of humid and uncomfortable. Those workers that kept away with their tasks had been there for hours, body’s aching and spirits broken, yet still desperate to cling onto what little pay they could get.

Among those had been a particular young man, muscles built deeply by his youthful ability to complete his tasks and those around in need of help. He had built up a sweat, resulting in the first few buttons of his shirt being undone to provide some form of air to his skin. His hair had been hard to maintain on its own, strands consistent to fall upon his forehead and block his view irritatingly, so he simply kept it slick back with the help of his newsboy cap. “Oi Jacob!”

The call of his name had distracted him momentarily, hands gripping around the broom as he watched an older worker approach him cautiously. His eyebrow raised.

“What is it, Tommy?” Taking a proper stand with a lean on his elbow and hand to his waist, he stood waiting for the chap to spit out whatever sat on his tongue. Tommy pointed behind him and Jacob’s gaze followed.

“Little Charlie seems tired, he does. Poor lad can’t barely keep his eyes open.” The mention of the young boy had Jacob’s brows furrow in concern, their eyes landing to watch the child struggle to pick up a basket from the corner. Tommy had not spoken a tale, the boy’s legs weak as he struggled to carry his own weight, and face red from exhaustion of working more than half the day. “Do you think you could ‘elp? I know it’s a bother to ask-”

He was interrupted by a raise of Jacob’s hand and a quick reassuringly smile. “No bother.” The older man sighed in relief, hands rubbing together stressfully as the lines on his face etched a smile to replicate.

“Thank you. I don’t know what we’d do without you.” The thought given a moment to linger at the consequences of those if Jacob were not there to aid them. It was chilling, and most unwelcome.

The broom was leant on the wall he found it, forgotten as Jacob made way quickly over to help the young boy. His pace was quick, but not quick enough as Charlie’s knees gave out and he slipped down to the floor. Jacob’s eyes widened as he came by him, hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright, Charlie?” The young boy could only nod and wipe his elbow out from under his nose, as if to hold back tears.

“I’m just tired, sir.” As would be expected.

“Jacob,” he corrected, not fond of the title from a boy he knew relatively well, “and don’t worry. Go take a rest out of sight, and I’ll take care of this.” Charlie’s eyes glimmered in relief, offering only an eager nod. But before either could move, they had been called. And not kindly in the slightest.

“You two!” A pair of Blighters had caught the workers dawdling, meaning now a confrontation was imminent. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Impulsively, Jacob stood with furrowed brows, his arm outstretched to the boy behind him as he acted as a barrier.

“I made the mistake, not the boy. I was about to rectify-”

“Stop your babbling, boy!” Jacob was shoved back, his footing catching his fall easily as he narrowed his eyes up to the guards. “What I see is two slackers! And you know what happens to slackers?” The brute standing behind the accuser had grinned evilly, knuckles cracking as he came forward. Slight panic rose through Jacob as he once again placed himself between Charlie and danger.

“I’ll take punishment, whatever it is. Just let the boy go.” A mere cackle came his response as the two made ground towards them.

“Boss told us to give a thrashing to those sitting idle.” As he would, seeing as that man had been the least compassionate foreman Jacob had ever come across. His only concern was himself and everything that he reflected. Ministered beatings had not been uncommon here, yet nobody seemed to adjust to the mistreatment or became brave enough to stop them.

The scene had many eyes turn, some stopping to witness the horror of the Blighters. Though nobody moved. Most had uttered a few courageous words before, but nothing drastic to make a change. They all knew their place, as uncomfortable as the reality of it was. And the truth was, if you wanted to eat, you did as you were told and took what was given to you.

Jacob stepped back a few paces, keeping Charlie hidden well behind him as he did his best to appear brave. If anybody had a shot at countering hits and supplying their own, it was Jacob. But that had not meant it was going to be any less brutal.

They came closer, almost cornering the man as the boy did nothing but whimper behind him; all in all, they had felt helpless. But yet… it appeared fate had other plans.

“I’m gonna hit you so hard, I’ll-”

A commotion could suddenly be heard from higher up, stilling the Blighters as they bore witness to yells and thumps at the top of the factory. It had not sounded too promising, especially when no one knew whose yells they belonged to and why they were suddenly prominent. Then, a body came tumbling down to the bottom floor, everyone gasping in horror as it lay limp and lifeless for everyone to see.

Jacob blinked back profusely, glancing back to Charlie before allowing himself to recognize exactly who lay dead before him.

The foreman. His throat continuously bleeding out as well as two stab marks to his chest. A sight that most may and did feel faint from. And so, panic ensured as the workers let down their tasks easily and made way for escape. Charlie had been one to catch himself in the mass of the crowd, yet Jacob’s feet were planted firmly to the ground. It was a horrible sight, yes, but he was also oddly intrigued as to what was going on.

“Oh shit!” The brute muttering, looking over to his partner before hesitantly making way to the body. Though he did not get far when a figure had abruptly dropped done next to the man. They had been covered head to toe in robes, their identity concealed with a hood though a belt masked with weapons had been on display for all to see.

A lump caught in Jacob’s throat as he and the few others that still remained quickly pieced together that whoever was under those robes had been the culprit to the foreman’s death. And rightly so, ruminating on the behaviour that led the man to his own demise.

“Who the hell are you? What have you done?” The figure stood straight, turning to face what appeared to be the last remaining Blighters in the factory. It was quiet, too quiet, and that had sent up an unnerving chill through their spines.

“Now, that is not a polite way to speak, is it?” The voice was female, a surprising notion in on itself. But yet it had been cocky, the calm demeanour of someone having just murdered another was terrifying. And her dry laugh that followed after had both Blighters step back in hesitance. “This man is dead,” she pointed to the body, allowing Jacob to capture a look at a glistening blade attached to her forearm. He swallowed back harshly.

“You’re the dead man!” The shorter Blighter had been snapped back into anger as the stranger merely found humour in his boss’s death. He yanked a blade from his pocket and charged at the woman, all bodies tensing as they waited for the clash. Though she had easily ducked his swing, her speed impeccable as she twisted the same arm intended for harm back behind his back. A crack had been heard, the Blighter yelling in agony as she took his own blade and ended him with it.

No sweat was broken, neither had her spirit. As if she was simply strolling through a park with infinite time on her hands. The brute had been next, fighting back resistance as he too took charge. His hits were hard, the man built on nothing but sheer muscle and height. Which left his weak spot open, something she took great advantage of.

A slip between his legs and a kick to the back of his leg brought him to his knees. He swung against vigorously, though his attempts had been in vain as she used her height advantage to slide the very same blade on her wrist down into his neck.

Blood came and sept through as he lay limp in it, all threatening seeming to disappear as now stood the workers and the dangerous stranger. She looked around, taking a moment to ensure that the factory had been completely wiped out of all Blighters before echoing a large whistle. It was a call, and soon enough, as if waiting for the signal, a handful of Rooks had stepped into the building and immediately made claim.

“What in the…” Jacob could not fathom what was happening, or how it had actually been done. Who was the stranger? Why go to all the trouble for a factory in Southwark? Why had he been more intrigued than fearful of it all?

“My fellow companions!” The stranger began, finding refuge on a crate as she stood centre of attention to all those around. “I know you may be confused, and even frightened, but fear not! We are not here to hurt you or any others that do not belong to the Blighter gang!” Precuring the safety and wellbeing of those who had feared had them relax, but not entirely. Their bodies still tense and hesitant as they gathered around.

Jacob had been one to come closer, arms crossed over his chest as he stood in the small surrounding crowd. His brows furrowed as he kept all attention to the stranger.

She looked around her, nodding to her Rooks before gently pulling her hood back. It was if his heart had stopped as he first lay eyes on the woman. She had been beautiful, no doubt about it. Yet she was foreign, dressed to what society would deem inappropriate for women. She was cocky and dangerous, a small grin still etched to the corner of her mouth as she spoke to those openly around her. “My name is Lily Harvard, and these here are my Rooks!” Arms out wide as she gestured to the green coated gang surrounding. “I am here to make you all an offer. To help us take down the Blighters in all boroughs and liberate London back to its people!”

An honourable quest yet a large ask. She had taken employment from those under an authority that much less cared about the health and wellbeing of its workers. But did not come empty handed.

“Join me! Join the Rooks!” Some had already taken to the idea, a few more Rooks entering with spare jackets to pass to those that were eager to be invested in something, and others that did not want to be left stranded. “You do not have to do anything you do not wish, but bear in mind that you will be apart of something larger than yourselves! Help us destroys Crawford Starrick’s hold on this city, and we in turn will welcome you like family!”

The coaxing appeared to deter a few, those leaving subtly out of the eye of others though most stayed, agreeing to the terms and enlightened to be better looked after in this new emerging gang. Jacob had not peeped a word, his eyes still drawn to Lily as she looked happily to those around her. A nudge had suddenly caught his attention and a woman holding a green jacket extended it out to him. “You in, sunshine?”

Jacob took a moment, looking from the jacket to the Rook, to Lily, and back to the jacket. Well… it could not possibly be worse than working in this factory with little to no regard. Plus… redemption for him and those around him did sound quiet appealing.

“Why not?” The Rook offered him a toothy grin and chucked the jacket in his hands. The man grasping to the material before ridding his own jacket and replacing it.

It was the start of something better, and he couldn’t wait to tell Evie.

#assassins creed #jacob frye #fandom #assassins creed syndicate #assassin creed syndicate #evie frye #assassin's creed syndicate #frye twins #older jacob frye #ac syndicate #Jacob Frye gif #au #storyline #imagine

24 notes · View notes

vettely · 4 years ago

Note

Would genuinely love a breakdown of the multi 21 materials you have offered your friend!!! I'm also a newish fan and missed out on all this good shit from back in the day 🙌

first of all i'm so sorry for the wait but i finally found the time to write this all down and apparently i had a lot to write about kskdk also there probably might be people who know a lot more about multi 21 and everything that comes with it but i think my little breakdown could also be useful. oh and also if you want to know more about f1 history or some interesting topics about f1 you should definitely check out @mclarenp1 and their f1 essays, they have a masterlist so you can find all the essays easily! the essays are really interesting and give a good insight into some f1 stuff.

also, this might be a little biased since i'm a seb fan so i apologise for that. and i apologise for my english, it's not my first language. anyway, enjoy! :)

to begin with here's a video from the official f1 yt channel that touches on the events of multi 21, it doesn't go into details but it's objective unlike some other videos out there.

incident took place at malaysia 2013 gp. here's short run through of what happened. seb started from pole but mark took the lead at the beginning of the race. seb was instructed by rbr to hold his position and stay behind mark by coming onto radio and saying the infamous words 'multi 21' so that the team could have safe 1 and 2 finish. seb disobeyed the orders and attacked mark and took the lead from mark which resulted in him eventually winning the race. to say the tensions after the race were high is honestly understatement. mark was disappointed and furious and literally everyone was hating on seb and found his move unsporting and disrespectful.

i want to start this breakdown by explaining what exactly multi 21 is.

multi 21 basically means that mark's car number 2 stays in front of seb's car number 1. it's also known as multi 12 or car number 1 stays in front of car number 2. it was used before in the races but people never really gave it much attention. actually, everyone assumed it was some kind of engine setting on the steering wheel but only after malaysia 2013 and mark's reaction in the cooldown room people realized it's in fact a coded message. of course, teams could have just directly instructed drivers to hold their position but they probably didn't want to have it broadcasted so they used this instead.

some say seb disobeying orders was a payback for what happened in brazil in 2012 (x) but others say this all first started in turkey in 2010 and i'm here to briefly explain to you what happened in those races and also in silverstone 2011.

in turkey 2010 seb caused a crash with mark but the team sided with seb. that was not a surprise at all since seb was favoured by rbr.

next we have silverstone 2011. rbr was running safely in second and third so they instructed mark who was in third to hold the position. just like seb in 2013, mark disobeyed the orders but the difference is mark didn't manage to pull it off and pass seb so he stayed behind him.

then brazil 2012 happened. it was a championship deciding race between seb and alonso. mark was out of the running just like massa, alonso's teammate at the time. massa helped alonso during the race while mark didn't do much to help seb. in fact he even compromised seb's start, disobeying orders and squeezing seb. (x)

another difference between silverstone 2011 and malaysia 2013 was that at silverstone the 'only' problem the team could've had if multi 21/multi 12 was ignored was that drivers could've taken each other out or by pushing the cars to their limits could cause them to fall apart.

at malaysia 2013 the huge problem was the tyre life. there was an agreement before the race whoever was in front after the final pit stop would remain in front. both drivers would then turn down their engines and the driver ahead would possibly take the victory.

apparently mark did turn down his engine and seb didn't so he eventually overtook mark and won the race. there were also talks mark turned his engine back up but didn't manage to defend from seb. (x)

also, seb was on the strategy that had him faster tyres in the end.

there was also one other detail about this race that is quite interesting. seb was told to stay behind mark earlier in the race but he could fight for the win later on. so seb was actually promised that he could race mark but was denied when told to hold the position.

it isn't really strange that the incident was made a bigger deal than it is since seb was hated on a lot back then. people despised the fact that seb won so many races and made a battle for the lead boring. he was also percieved as a cocky little bastard while mark was seen as an underdog and second driver who deserved better. but the thing is mark was not that innocent himself, he painted seb a villain every opportunity he got and that was actually the only way he could throw seb off his game since he couldn't really do that on the track. seb was also playing mind games there of course, but he also had the result to back it all up and was a three time world champion then.

the story of multi 21 was always kinda presented only from mark's side in the media, especially since he released the book and his pr team really did everything to sell the book so they kept spinning the seb hatered in the media.

there were also number of interesting interviews that happened after this race.

mark was obviously mad and fuming and seb was feeling sorry and stated that he made the mistake in his post race interviews.

but at the next race when they asked seb again about the incident he said the iconic "i was faster, i passed him, i won" (x) line which made it clear that he stuck by his decision of disobeying the order and passing mark.

fun thing here is, after race in silverstone mark said that any driver should ignore team order like that, alluding that he indeed was fine with disobeying team's instructions but apparently only when it suited him. (x)

but tbh maybe rbr itself and their poor management was to blame here for everything. they created poor relationship between them, mark and seb. they clearly had seb as their favourite and he was getting the priority at mark's expenses.

also, there was no need to not let them race in malaysia, yes there were risks, but it was early in the season and the championship was still open to everyone. seb eventually proved in that race and during the season that he was the faster driver, he was also young and motivated and had won three consecutive titles previously. rbr could've assumed that seb was too determined and devoted not to race his teammate there.

anyway i think this is mostly it, i didn't really bother to find all the articles i was referring to here but maybe i'll do that later and add all the remaining links. hope this was good enough for you anon :)

#i'm so sorry for all the mistakes #and that you waited for so long #should i put this in the tag?#i'm gonna #f1 #long post #sebastian vettel #mark webber #multi 21 #ask #anon

51 notes · View notes

sxfterhearts · 4 years ago

Text

40. [8:59 am]

➳ pairing: mark x reader

➳ genre/warnings: fluff, coffeeshop!au, barista!mark, side!jackson,yugyeom (being silly)

➳ word count: 2,038 words

➳ summary: “I made this for you”

➳ author's note: for @strxwberri-milk 💖 i truly truly appreciate you!!! :”) and thank you for indulging me with your story hehe i hope something similar to this happens to you 🤭

➳ inspired by: (no one asked but) the bookstore in hear, here!!

You were early.

On regular meetups with your friends or even your dreadful 9ams, you would be running at least fifteen minutes behind schedule.

Today, however, you were early.

Therefore it goes without saying that meeting your Chemistry lab partner in the café he worked at to discuss your upcoming report was anything but a regular meetup, especially because said lab partner is none other than Mark Tuan, also known as the intelligent, introverted shooting guard who mostly stuck to and looked after his group of six other basketball jocks. Or your crush for the academic year, for short.

Taking in a nervous breath of air, you reached for your phone and began to type.

[08:59] Me: Hey, I got here early. I’ll go inside first and save us a spot.

Your feet tapped against the pavement as you stood beyond the café doors, your fingers gliding across the screen as you began typing another text to describe your outfit, just in case he couldn’t spot you amongst the sea of café patrons. It’s busy on Saturday mornings anyway, you rationalised your decision to double text, who cares, right?

[09:00] Mark: Yellow jumper and white Converse??

He had beat you to it. Your fingers halted its motions, staring intently at the panic-inducing typing bubble.

[09:00] Mark: I like your outfit :)

[09:00] Mark: And good morning!!!

It took all the self-control you had within yourself to not jump into a little happy dance right in the middle of the street. Calm down, Y/N, your inner voice rang clearly through your fuzzy thoughts, it doesn’t mean anything. Don’t overread his texts. Don’t overthink. Don’t –

“So,” A deep mellifluous voice broke you out of your daydream, its owner’s head poking out of the doors with his signature charming smile as an invitation. “Are you going to come in?” Your ears not failing to pick up the slightly teasing lilt in his tone. “Or are you going to stand there?”

For a few moments, you slowly tilted your head up, staring at Mark with a mildly shocked expression. Mark, with his fluffy permed hair and neat barista outfit, a white button up, black apron and a tiny bowtie around his neck. Mark, holding the door open for you, welcoming you into the humble establishment with a guiding hand. “Ah, Mark. Hi.” The words awkwardly stumbled out of your lips as you stepped inside. “Thank you.”

It felt like you were stepping into another universe, eons away from the quiet neighbourhood beyond the double doors. The café was situated a distance away from your home, hence why you never visited until now, despite many of your classmates’ recommendations of the café for group study sessions. Being more of a library person yourself, you couldn’t imagine being able to focus in a place where customers were constantly entering and leaving, and people were allowed to talk over one another.

This café, you realised, was different. Its white-bricked walls were lined with shelves upon shelves of novels, with colourful volumes of all shapes and sizes on display. Most patrons seemed to be preoccupied with their own reading or chatting quietly amongst themselves, mindful to not disturb or distract others with loud noises. The atmosphere was peaceful; serene. The only audible sounds were the rhythmic whirring of the coffee grinder or the low whistle of the milk steamer, which didn’t bother you at all.

“What can I get you, Y/N?” Mark asked in a practiced manner. You followed him deeper into the café and admired its interior, which strongly resembled a bookstore. While you were busy perusing the selection of CDs behind the counter, you felt a clipboard being thrusted into your hands. It was the menu. “Should I choose instead? It’ll be a surprise.” He offered, noticing how your eyes glanced over the paper repeatedly, never settling on a single item.

“Yes, please.” You were simply spoilt for choice – there were one, two, three, eight choices of coffee beans and over ten varieties of tea! “I’m not picky. I like coffee and sweet things.”

“Breakfast?” Mark asked. You shook your head. “Leave it to the capable hands of the experienced barista. Go take a seat at the table by the window, I’ll join you real soon.”

Heeding his words, you made your way towards the French windows, but not before browsing through a table full of literary classics. As you sat down, you decided that this quaint little book café was not a bad place to study after all.

Which reminded you, you made the thirty-minute commute here to discuss the results from your Chemistry experiment. Pulling out your notebook, your chest was filled with the same pang of disappointment as yesterday when you found out Mark left early for an away game and was unable to join you for the experiment. He sent you a text full of apologies and pleading eyes emojis, the first one you received from him after exchanging numbers. It took you another three or four exchanges to realise that the real Mark was very different to the Mark you thought you knew. Who would’ve thought the boy you had only admired from afar, the one who always seemed to watch over his friends wordlessly, blending seamlessly into the background, would’ve been such an enthusiastic texter? He had thrown in a generous dash of emojis, a sprinkling of GIFs and one too many exclamation marks, which never failed to pull amused smiles out of you.

“Finally decided to change the flowers on that table, hyung?” A male voice questioned mockingly from behind a nearby bookshelf.

“About time he did…” Another voice chimed in.

“Shut up, Jackson, Yugyeom.” You heard footsteps approaching you and looked up from your neatly-drawn results table to catch a glimpse of the playful glare Mark shot at his co-workers-slash-best friends. You began to wonder whether your girl friends frequented this café due to the favourable ambience or the attractive baristas.

You gave him a little wave as Mark stood in front of you and set down the serving tray. Your eyes feasted on the stunning array of goodies it carried – a cappuccino with a stunning Rosetta pattern and heavy dusting of chocolate powder, two slices of chocolate mud cake, a plate full of scones, jam and cream, and a butter croissant. The small jar of fresh, seasonal blooms in the corner – roses, daisies, chrysanthemums, daffodils and buttercups in shades of white and yellow immediately drew your attention. They complemented the shade of your mustard jumper perfectly.

Mark carefully positioned the flowers on the table before offloading the rest of the tray’s contents. “Flowers for you, Miss Y/N.”

The more you were around him, the more he surprised you. You fought hard against the blossoming heat on the apples of your cheeks, reminding yourself again to not overthink his words. Perhaps he’s just like that with every girl he talks to, you figured, there is no way he’s flirting with me.

“Surprise!” Mark exclaimed, moving onto the seat directly opposite yours. “I got a little bit of everything, so I hope you brought your appetite with you. There’s our signature chocolate mud cake, super rich and moist, wonderful scones and homemade strawberry jam, and our flaky butter croissant. Oh! Here,” He pushed the large cup of coffee towards you. “I made this for you. Try it!”

His brown orbs sparkled and twinkled as he eagerly watched you pick up the hot beverage and place your lips on the cup. A strong whiff of fragrant aroma drifted into your nose as you took a sip, your tastebuds instantly flooded with the creamy deliciousness of the coffee. You may be biased, but it was undoubtedly the best coffee you’d ever had. “It’s really good!” You finally said after several long sips. “Why is it so good?” You wondered aloud to yourself.

“Because I made it with care and love.” Mark answered without missing a beat. Upon hearing his bold declaration, you halted all movements and simply stared at him, steadily swallowing your coffee and feeling the warm liquid travel down your throat. “It also helps that we only brew the finest coffee beans and use the highest quality, imported full cream milk. A matchmade in heaven, really, I – ” He paused, noticing your unwavering stare. “Sorry, am I boring you? It’s just that, I really do love my job and I love talking about it and I’ve also been told I talk too much when I’m nervous. Sorry.” Mark cringed, frowning apologetically while visibly shrinking into his chair.

“No! No, not at all. Don’t say sorry. Actually, I like hearing you talk. As in, you sound so passionate just then. It’s just, it’s nice to hear you talk?” You wanted to facepalm yourself. Perhaps you should just dig a hole in the ground and hide in it forever. At least that way you would never have to face him ever again.

“Is that so?” Mark sat up a bit straighter, the corner of his lips pulled into a wide, heart-stopping smile. The tiny pair of adorable canines poking out of his mouth were all too distracting. “Well, why don’t you dig into your breakfast while I run you through what I’ve done so far for the report? Try the croissant first, it’s a good one to start on, fluffy and light. Alright, I stole the titration results from Youngjae’s group and used it for the calculations.” He quickly pulled out a pile of papers from his apron’s pocket while you savoured the sweet pastry. You had to admit, you never expected Mark to get any work done after his game last night. His hardworking attitude and dedication amazed you. “I wrote out the hypothesis and the matching observations for each reaction, pretty straightforward. There’s also the equations at the other side of the page, here, along with the calculations. They were a bit of a pain and I am this close to finishing up but unfortunately there’s still two more left. I can finish it while you’re eating, though, no big – ”

“Mark,” You called amidst a small, polite mouthful of cake and a light giggle, pausing his lengthy monologue. “You’ve done so much already. Leave some work for me too! This is a group project, remember?”

“Ah, right. Sorry.” He apologised sheepishly, a hand coming up to rub against his neck, embarrassed. “I guess I just wanted to make it up to you. I feel really bad about leaving you alone yesterday, Y/N. I wish I was there, with you. I would choose to watch solutions turn purple with you over playing ball any day of the week.” Mark admitted sincerely.

“Why?” You breathed. Your brain had started to get ahead of itself and pieced together the clues he’d left. Apart from his voice and your drumming heartbeats, your ears blocked everything out.

“Because I want to spend time with you.”

“Like… right now?”

“Well – ”

“Hyung! Mark hyung! Hey,” Yugyeom came running towards your table in a hurry. “Sorry to interrupt your date but,”

“It’s not…” You started, your tone shy and your eyes refusing to meet Mark’s.

“Date, study date, whatever it’s called. Sorry, Y/N, but I have to steal Mark hyung for a moment.” Yugyeom turned towards said boy. “It’s an emergency. Jackson dropped an entire crate of teacups, they’re all broken.”

“He what?!”

“There was a bee, apparently! I don’t know, ask him! He got scared and freaked out.”

Mark closed his eyes and took a deep breath, suppressing his urge to bust out a string of profanities in front of you. Once he felt reasonably calmer, he faced you. “Forgive me, Y/N. I have to go clean up after a child. I’ll be back, okay? In the meantime, make sure you eat up.”

You nodded vigorously and motioned for him to go, understanding the urgency of the situation.

“I’ll bring you another coffee later!” Mark called over his shoulder, to which you responded with two thumbs up.

A date? You thought to yourself. I guess it is a date, after all… The sweetest of smiles brightened your face as you gazed fondly at the flowers, now viewing them in a new light.

86 notes · View notes

adultingautistic · 4 years ago

Note

[Sept. 7] Re: Non-Autism diagnosis. Thank you for your reply! (Ha - I realized as I typed this I consciously applied my mom's "thank you FOR + THING" formula for how to properly thank people. I used to just say "thank you"& didn't realize it could be rude). This will probably be some parts to explain more, sorry. So my mom was told that children w/Aspergers or Autism were "happy in their own worlds" & my trying to engage/wanting friends was a sign that it wasn't true. She also cared v [1/?]

strongly that I was never grouped in with ppl w/ Autism. I learned of the connection when there was a uni networking event for ppl with Autism & NLD, my diagnosis. It's Non-verbal learning disability, which basically means I struggle with non-verbal social cues, spatial awareness, visual learning, auditory processing & executive dysfunction. The more I knew people w Autism the more I saw a lot of overlap. There's also nearly no record of NLD existing.

It wasn't ever in the DSM, or lumped into anything. There have been few studies on it, & a lot is speculation. The best I can find is some early 2010's Psychology Today think pieces. I was also diagnosed with "tics" & trichotillomania which I think may have been stims. I'm still definitely not in a close friend group - I tend to be socially outside & I struggle a lot socially, especially now in workplace settings where friendly/professional/friend blurs.

I've been given fidget toys & found them unappealing. But I know I find it very difficult to do the eye contact, particularly if I'm at home or with family (or strangers in my home). I do also have to sleep with earplugs bc I hear water rushing in the pipes, I can't have clocks around, & I'm very distracted by the hum of fluorescent lights. But I stopped crying at school assemblies/crowds around 10. When I was 17 I was re-assessed to qualify for my uni's

to take up space or claim it without a diagnosis (self dx isn't really favourably looked at here, among the ppl w Autism I know anyway). Lol but this is my last year to try while in uni & I wonder if it's even worth it. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if there are reasons for things I'm dealing with still (especially as I get older things seem stranger) & if there's a community. Bc there definitely isn't one for NLD lol. Sorry for how long this is!

Also I have had zero assistance with skills or strategies to manage these things since childhood - I had some occupational therapy for balance & my mom gave me "conversation lessons", & I was usually in the special ed classes (which often confused ppl bc I could read at a normal time). I'm very much struggling w/ executive dysfunction & socially, with not much to go on. If I had a diagnosis, maybe there's something to help? idk. OK finally done srry!

Oh wow. So, that is a lot! And as I was reading your description of your experiences, my mind is going “Uh huh, that’s autism. Yep, autism. Sounds like autism to me...”

Then I went and looked up this “NLD” thing, and found this article:

“There is clearly a great deal of overlap between Aspergers Disorder (AD) and Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (NVLD), so much so that it is possible that the symptoms of each describe the same group of children from different perspectives—AD from either a psychiatric/behavioral perspective, and NVLD/neuropsychological perspective.”

So basically, it seems like NLD is Aspergers, and Aspergers is autism. From a few other articles I read, it seemed like NLD is diagnosed when a person is “too mild” for Aspergers, which is itself diagnosed when a person was “too mild” for autism.

Since it was determined between the DSM-4 and DSM-5 that the divide between Aspergers and autism was so arbitrary and impossible to pin down, therefore there shouldn’t be a divide and they are really the same disorder, it would seem to follow that the line between NLD and Aspergers should be the same.

In other words, you’re on the spectrum, the same spectrum that autistics are on, but at the time you were tested they gave you a diagnosis of “Asperger Lite”, which in of itself was “Autism Lite”, and now Aspergers has been folded into autism, so it might be that NLD will be folded in as well someday (but as of now, isn’t, for some weird reason).

I can’t answer for you what will happen if you go to get tested again for autism. I don’t know what the result will be. But what I can tell you is that you do belong in the autism community, regardless of whatever official diagnosis you have. You obviously share autistic traits, I related to literally everything you said about your experiences, and maybe you just have better social skills, or maybe your doctor was biased, who knows.

You already have a diagnosis, and that may be enough for you to get accommodations at your university, or at a future job. You will have to look up what the laws/rules are regarding accommodations where you live. But if the current diagnosis you have will get you the support that you need, then there is really no benefit to you getting your diagnosis changed to autism in that way.

So really it comes down to whether you feel your NLD diagnosis is accurate, and whether you want to be tested for autism instead. It may turn out that your original doctor was right on the mark and that you’re on the mild end of the spectrum, so mild that you’re NLD instead of autistic (but it is the same spectrum). Or it might turn out your original doctor was biased and didn’t score you correctly and your symptoms are more severe and a label of autistic fits you better.

It’s entirely up to you whether you want to get re-tested, of course. But you don’t need an autism diagnosis to be part of the autism community- this community is about sharing our experiences which you obviously relate to, and are absolutely welcome to participate in discussions about.

So getting re-tested is really about two things: accommodations (which you may already be able to get with your NLD diagnosis), and feeling that your diagnosis is accurate to yourself. So to answer your question whether it’s worth it to get tested again- only you can decide that. It’s entirely up to you. But I hope I’ve given you enough information to help you make that decision. But no matter what, you belong here, everything you said was absolutely relatable to me, I felt like I was reading the story of my own life in a lot of ways.

#actuallyautistic #actually autistic #NLD #NVLD #Aspergers #professional diagnosis #DSM5 #ask

19 notes · View notes

fairymadnessyeah · 4 years ago

Text

Visiting Time

Shigadabi week day 4

AO3 Link

Summary: EXTRA! EXTRA! The villain Dabi has been captured! Affiliations with Hawks and Endeavour, the Number one hero!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Captured / Mystery / Trust

"You want to what!?" Shigaraki shouts in disbelief at his second-in-command.

"Go to Tartarous," his idiotic partner repeats. "You said you are planning a prison-break, right? That you need someone you trust on the inside? Well, I'm that person, I'm volunteering," he is crazy, Tomura is sure.

"Why?" he scans him from head to toe.

"What? Don't you trust me? You think I'll double-cross you?" the raven mocks with a grin.

"No, but you usually have other intentions whenever you follow my plans," he tells him, but the other just shrugs. He doesn't say anything else, so Tomura knows he is going to have to drag it out of him. After a year together, he had learned to a lot about Dabi, especially what made him tick. "Whatever, I'm not sending you either way..." he shrugs and turns around, giving his back to him.

"Why the fuck not!?" Dabi argues.

"First and most important, the mission is a very physical one," he starts explaining. "It needs to look as if you put up a fight before you get caught, and then you have to survive prison. In your burnt ass state, you wouldn't last a day," Dabi smirks.

"But you are going to fix that," he reminds him. "With all the notes from the Doctor we recovered and that nice lab you got for Skeptic, you can fix my weak constitution. I know Toga is getting tested to go through the process, I just need to go before her, and I'll be ready in time," Tomura hates that he makes a good argument.

"I still wouldn't send you," he tells him again. "Even if you stop being a burnt corpse, you still are my second-in-command. Heroes know that, and so does the public. If you get caught, it would seem like the heroes are getting closer to stopping us, which is not the message we want to send," he explains and believes it's the end of the discussion, but Dabi's grin only widens.

"Oh, babe, if you send me, the hate for heroes is only going to grow," he comments and gets a confused look from his boss. Dabi, then leans closer and whispers his answer in the boss' ear.

Shigaraki can't help but gasp at the revelation. The last puzzle-piece, the truth about Dabi. It's so simple and so glaringly evident, he is a little ashamed he didn't notice it earlier. It makes so much sense. How could he have thought the fire wielder was mysterious at any point? It's so obvious. "Is that why you want to go?" Tomura asks the man once he leans away.

"Yeah, it's time for people to know the truth," the raven says, and his grin widens until the staples on his face are taut and tight.

Dabi is a match, Tomura realizes, and it's bound time to light it up and set everything ablaze.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They are all together, watching the news when Dabi gets caught. Tomura, Toga, Spinner and Compress are all worrying. Even if this is a plan, it's a risky one. Many things can go wrong, and they might never see Dabi again. But Tomura weirdly trusts him. Dabi knows what he is doing, and from the first mission, he has brought him nothing but great results. He knew he had chosen well when he picked him as a second-in-command.

The league or what was left of it along with the leaders of the liberation army, were all in Skeptic's new lab to see it. The attack started simple. A blue fire, going off in a building near Endeavour's agency to make a threat and make sure they knew it was Dabi the one behind the attack. The building they choose was a communication centre and could be a possible target. Once the fire started, people began to get evacuated while Dabi made his way to the top of the building, Endeavour hot on his trail.

The whole thing was being televised with a helicopter, so they all got to see the moment Dabi was in the roof with his new hooded jacket and the moment Endeavour froze mid-attack when he took it off. There wasn't a lot of build-up to it. But the commentary from the reporter on the sky was serving their case amazingly.

"That- That is Dabi, right? The villain?" the man said as the camera focused on the new unscarred face of the villain. "Why does he look so much like Endeavour? That's not possible..."

The man narrating wasn't wrong though, Dabi was almost a carbon copy of his dad. Red hair, turquoise eyes, cold gaze, steady shoulders. After his surgery, it had been quite a fright, especially since Dabi lost his shit after seeing himself in the mirror. It had taken Spinner, Compress and him to knock him out while he was burning himself. The incident had postponed the mission for a few days, but it had been worth it. The look of Endeavour's face at seeing the son he tortured back had made it worth it.

"Can we get closer? The villain is saying something," the reporter says, and they can see them get close enough to catch what Dabi was saying.

"- you are not going to fight me? Or can you only do that when I was a weak fucking kid!?" Dabi is heard screaming, and then he lets out a giant torrent of blue, blazing fire. That seems to snap the hero out of his trance, and he defends himself, meeting Dabi's fire with his own. But it isn't enough. The surgery had made Dabi stronger, and soon enough, the hero is on his knees as his son towers over him. The villain, when he is close enough, kick the hero in the face, making him fall down. "Aren't you proud now!? I surpassed the number 1 hero! Isn't that what you wanted!?" Dabi keeps screaming at his father as he steps on him, the heat rising with every word.

Suddenly, Dabi's eyes widen, and he turns towards his back, releasing another torrent of fire. The camera follows his attack and then focuses on another hero who just entered the scene. Hawks, with two feathers out as swords, dodges the attack and tries to find an opening to save the older hero. Dabi keeps his foot atop his father as he also keeps an eye on the flying pest. "Well, isn't this a little reunion? The two highest-ranking heroes came to try to stop me! Don't I feel special?" the villain keeps monologuing, Dabi loved hearing himself talk. "How's it been Keigo? Did you kill anyone else? Who would think that the two most trusted individuals in the country are the two of you? A monster and murderer are the pillars of society, the saviours of tomorrow, the heroes everyone is looking up to!"

BANG!

The door to the roof is kicked open. But as Dabi is about to attack the newcomer, he stops.

In the entrance, is a panting teenager with split hair of two different colours. Him and Dabi lock eyes for a minute, before the teen speaks softly. "Please, nii-san..." the baby hero begs his brother. Dabi stares silently for a second, and for a while, they think he is going to attack. But he only sighs and raises his arms in surrender, stepping away from his father. Then, in an action that makes them stand up from their seat and hold their breath, Hawks attacks. He is going for the kill, and he would have gone through with it if it wasn't for Dabi baby brother. The hero-rookie, notices his intentions, steps in the way, creating a wall of ice in an instance. The league sighs in relief as they see their teammate get handcuffed and the tv programme go to a commercial break.

Part one of the mission had been successful. Now phase two started.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A month after his arrest, Shigaraki contacted him again.

Once he was cuffed, Shoto took him back to the ground and inside a prisoner moving van. The entire way Hawks had been by his side, ready to leap at any moment, and his brother never left his side, not trusting Hawks for a second. The moment they were out of the building, cameras and flashes surrounded them. Every reporter from every piece of media was there, and they all wanted an answer. The police tried to keep them at bay, but the masses were unrelentless and only left a tiny hallway for the heroes to take him to the van.

He didn't say a word. It wasn't time yet.

Once he was in his cell in Tartarous, the questioning began. The detective Tomura warned him about, the lie detector one, questioned him for two weeks before giving up. Dabi made sure to only speaks in half-truths. Things like 'This is my plan, not the Leagues...', 'I have wanted revenge for years, is why I still stuck with the League, they are a means to end...' and 'He is my brother, you think I'm going to hurt him like my father did? I'm not a monster...' did the trick well enough.

After the interrogations, came the interviews. The fight with his father and Hawks, and the revelations it had brought had been the only thing people talked about. Investigations, debates, conspiracy theories were all focused on him and what he preached. The public was getting anxious for an answer and, to calm things down, an interview of half an hour was allowed. The commission must have believed the people would see him as just another psychopath and would go back to praising the heroes, but Dabi was smarter than that. He knew how to keep people interested, to be enigmatic and draw attention to himself. If he got the leader of the league captivated, he could do it with a bunch of nobodies.

The entire interview, he flirted and teased the reporter and gave nothing but half-answers. But for the last question, he dropped a bomb to make them want more. "You think I ran away from home? No, sweetheart, I died in my home. My father watched me burn and then left me for dead. I left to heal and returned to a family in mourning," he tells her from behind the glass.

"But- but Endeavour is the number one hero...?" she asks, trying to get the results the HPSC wanted.

"All heroes are full of crap, Sweetheart," Dabi winks at her. "Look at your so-called number 2, if you think I'm biased,"

"What do you mean? Hawks is a good person-" the reporter tries to argue back in favour of the winged hero.

"Don't you get tired of lying to yourself?" he mocks her. "Hawks tried to kill me when I surrendered. He killed Twice, someone who never killed anyone before, and an innocent man to prove himself to the league..."

"What- what do you mean prove himself to the League?" she stutters, clearly afraid of the answer.

"He was a double-agent," he tells her. "Keigo joined us and then stabbed us in the back, like all heroes end doing sooner or later,"

"Keigo, huh? It sounds like you were close..." she tries to lead the conversation away from dangerous territory.

"You don't call somebody by their family name when you have sex with them, Sweetheart," he grins as the time runs out and she is escorted out of the cell.

The interview caused riots of massive proportions. The two top heroes integrity were being questioned, and it lead to all heroes to be doubted. People didn't want to be saved by them anymore, UA had to cancel their Sports Festival, and hero agencies were being vandalized. With slurs and insults getting graffitied on their wall and sometimes, people even through rock at their windows. It was beautiful, and with every interview, Dabi made the heat go up. The pressure to find the rest of the PLF had never been more, but he had proved to be useless on that front.

He didn't regret any of it. And when the interviews stopped, he was left alone to rot in his cell. Maybe they were waiting for him to crack when he was left in solitude. He wouldn't and he was a little offended his jailers thought that. That was the moment Shigaraki made contact with him again, and phase three started.

With a mind-communication quirk, Tomura told him that soon they would let him out to the shared space on the prison. He was supposed to start scouting and riot the convicts so that they became loyal to them. The two talked all night, and when he left him, his boss promised a repeat of their last time together if he did a good job.

That made left him reeling and eager to give what his leader wanted and more.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All the league had said their goodbyes before he went on the mission. He spent an entire day with Toga, letting the crazy girl do all she wanted with him on a self-care day. He never had been able to before, not fully at least. Since his scars wouldn't agree with all the creams the bloodthirsty girl used. She made him promise to return in one piece. He shared a night of drinking with Compress, where the masked man stripped him of a pocket knife and some piercings. He then said he would hold on to them and give them back to him when he came from his mission safe and sound. He trained with Spinner all evening. The lizard asking him to talk nice about him if he saw Stain and to not get himself killed like a fool. He knew they were all worried about him, not only because of the danger of the mission but also about his psyche.

He hated how similar he looked to his dad. He would do anything to stop seeing him every time he looked in the mirror. Tomura helped him.

On his last night with the league, Tomura called him into his room, and he didn't come out till morning. The two spent hours together, softly killing the last moments before he had to leave for a long time. Between whispers and bedsheets, Tomura made Dabi felt thing he thought he had forgotten how to. It was different from his other experiences. It was slow and tender, each caress meant something, and he felt his heart would give out at any moment. Tomura, who could now touch things without the imminent threat of dusting it, pieced him back together tenderly, in a way the surgery couldn't. That night had been heaven on earth, a sanctuary in his everyday inferno. In those quiet moments, between skin and silk, Dabi didn't need anything else. And he had a feeling Tomura thought the same.

After that night, he woke up with a clear objective. They were fighting for a world where they could live in, a world where Magne and Twice could have lived in, and if Dabi needed to burn the one they were in first, then he would gladly light up and do it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two months after the first contact, he heard from Shigaraki again.

He gave him an update on his mission, and his leader kept him up with the outside world. Not many news made it into Tartarous, they had an hour of Tv time when they ate and sometimes heard gossip between the guards, but nothing more.

His mission had been going well. He had found Muscular on the first day, who had a small gang of followers, and he quickly earned their respect. He guessed Shigaraki had also communicated with him, since the blonde man followed him from day one. On his first day out of solitude, he learned how the hierarchy of the place worked, and on the second, he made sure everybody knew he meant business.

The prison had three top dogs, one was Muscular, another one was Dorobo, and the third one was Chisaki. He went after the Yakuza first. The only thing that made him dangerous was his lapdogs, since other than that he was a quirkless armless germ freak. Luckily the Yakuza didn't change much, and the moment he underestimated him, Dabi humiliated him in front of the whole patio of convicts. Some of his lapdogs even changed sides, coming to him after finally seeing Chisaki was a lost cause. The Dorobo part was more tricky, but he was slowly making the small gang respect him.

"Do you trust those Yakuzas?" Shigaraki's voice echoed in his mind.

"Not entirely, Setsuno and Hoyo are more likely to betray us, but Rappa, Rikija and Tabe are desperate to get out of here," he thinks, talking to Tomura.

"Anything else I should be aware of?" Shigaraki asks.

"Kurogiri, Stain, the Doctor and your Sensei are in constant lockdown. I can't reach them and not get caught," he informs him.

"I see. I'll deal with Kurogiri and Stain, the Doctor and Sensei can wait," he tells him.

"You sure?"

"If he wanted to, Sensei could get out of there with a flick of his finger. He is making his own plan. And we don't need the Doctor, for now. We can get him out after we free Kurogiri," he hears Tomura explain.

"Mmm, I miss you," he tells him, not having much of filter inside his head.

"Me too," Tomura breathlessly responds.

"Is there anything you want from this place?" he asks, confusing the leader. "I can't go back empty-handed, I want to give you a gift," he tells him.

"Just come back safely, and I will be satisfied," Tomura admits.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took seven months for the mission to reach its final point.

One morning, in a peaceful part of town, they released some second-rate Noumus and made them run through the woods. Heroes went on a wild goose chase after them, and while they were busy, the prison break began.

They first cut communications with the outside. Skeptic did it electronically until Toga got inside and gained control of the whole prison in the control-panels. Once Toga had taken control, Dabi started another riot. It began as a fight between his group and the Yakuzas that escalated, and the Dorobos joined in. It was a common occurrence for riots to break out whenever Dabi felt bored, so the guards inside already knew the protocol they had to follow.

As they were distracted with that, Spinner and Compress slipped inside with the help of Toga and liberated the two key players who weren't in the riot. Compress went after Kurogiri and Spinner after Stain. Once her task was done, she went to the storage room of Tartarous, where they kept all the villains personal stuff and met with Compress, Spinner and the two older men, who were back in their usual clothing. With bags full of Compress' marbles, Kurogiri opened a portal, and they all left.

While that was happening undisturbed, a giant icicle broke one of the walls of the prison, just where the prisoners were at the moment. Out of the ice structure, Apocrypha and one of their underdogs came out. The underdog, one with an electrical quirk, created a make-shift fence between the prisoners and the guards. At that moment, Toga, who was still in the control centre by that time, enabled the convicts quirk to be back. But only those Dabi had said it was okay. Then, with the guards leaving them alone and their quirks back, Dabi stood among them with a way to escape.

The small group of five ended in a green, flowery clearing, where Tomura was waiting. As soon as they arrived, the leader asked the mist man to open another portal, back to the prison, where the other convicts were. Apocrypha, once the black portal appeared, made an ice wall to give the convicts time to escape. They all went through it, but when Hoyo and Setsuno were about to follow them, Dabi stopped them. The Yakuza's didn't have their quirks back yet, so even if the red-head was alone, there was no way for them to win against him. Not to mention that Apocrypha was behind him, giving him time and keeping the ice wall up.

"None of you are going to leave this place until you prove to me you are not loyal to Chisaki anymore. You don't have to join the league, but if you want freedom, you can't serve Overhoe," he gives them an ultimatum.

"What!? How!? In any moment they are going to break that wall! There is no time for that!" Setsuno complains.

"Grab Chisaki and hold him for me," Dabi tells them, no panic in his voice. "I'm going to gift him to Tomura, but he is heavy, and I don't want to carry him," he explains and watches as Chisaki's eye widen in surprise as his shoulders begin to shake with rage. "So, what's it gonna be?" Setsuno and Hoyo share a glance and then look behind them.

The blonde lowers his head and then steps back towards the Yakuzas. But Hoyo doesn't. He turns around, pushes the skinny lapdogs out of the way and grabs Chisaki like a bag of potatoes. The germaphobe screams and pleads with the bald man, but he doesn't listen. Dabi lets him pass and finally, as the ice wall falls, the fire and ice wielder step into the mist.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the convicts start coming through the black portal, they are distributed into cars. Those that don't want to join the league but become allies are given a small car per groups of four, and the one who join the Paranormal front are moved into a truck. The only ones left inside the prison are Geten, the Yakuza and Dabi.

The league waits for them as the truck filled with ex-convicts leaves.

Tomura doesn't know what's taking the other so long. The fire-maniac had asked they give him a few minutes to sort something out, but he was really pushing it. Had they got him again? No. He trusted his second-in-command. Whatever he was doing was for the league, he knew that. He was impatient, though. It had been seven months since he last saw the pyro, and while hearing his voice and seeing news about him was enough for a while, he still wanted to be next to him.

Suddenly, a bald man carrying the screaming and pleading mess of Chisaki Kai comes through the portal, with Dabi and Geten behind him. Kurogiri closes the gateway, and it takes all of Tomura's self-control not to run towards Dabi.

"I brought you a gift," Dabi states as Geten stomps away, fuming and cursing and the ex-yakuza leaves his former boss on the ground in front him. "Take a ride with the ice Gremlin. Something tells me you won't join the league," he tells Hoyo, who grunts and leaves.

"Welcome back," Tomura greets him, as Dabi comes closer to him. "I knew you could do it,"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The league partied and celebrated their win that night.

Their new base was hidden inside on a mountain, and the more civilian-like part of the army were at a different location, so it was private to villains. The new recruits, who had been locked away, were drinking and enjoying their freedom. Re-destro and the rest of his group was trying to control them to no avail, but otherwise were having a good time and basking in the triumph of the mission. Stain, who, although he was not going to join the league, decided to hang around, was meeting his fans. Toga, after finally letting go of Dabi, latched onto the hero-killer like a parasite. She asked him all sort of question about blood and showed him her knife collection. Spinner stood by their side, listening and staring in awe as the man talked. Dabi was beside them too, chuckling in amusement at the scene and talking for Spinner since the lizard was unable to. Compress travelled from small group to small group, basically hosting the entire thing and giving out clothes for the ex-prisoners to change.

Dabi leaves the one-sided chat with Stain when Compress gives him his clothes. He steps away from the celebration altogether and heads towards his room. As he walks through the halls of their base, he comes across Tomura and Kurogiri. The two had disappeared at some point of the party, and they were now trapped in a loving embrace. He didn't interrupt them and kept on his way. He was taking off the jail suit when Tomura stepped inside his room.

The two crossed gazes, and Tomura closed the door behind him and finally gave in. He strode to his second-in-command and clashed their lips together in a wanting and desperate kiss.

They didn't come out of that room until the next morning.

#shigadabiweek2020 #shigadabi #dabishiga #shigaraki x dabi #shigaraki tomura #Dabi #bnha #mha #manga spoilers #ao3 link

14 notes · View notes

solacefruit · 5 years ago

Note

hello! something i really enjoy about your stories is how naturally you blend worldbuilding and stories within the actual story itself - do you have any advice on how to do that effectively? i always worry i'm going to too far into "just listing off facts about the world" in the middle of a story if i try and include TOO much worldbuilding, but i'm a big lover of worldbuilding and have a hard time not planning out every detail

Hello there! Thank you so much. Stories within stories (fun fact: this technique is called mise en abîme or mise en abyme) is something that I’m really enthralled by and that I’ve worked hard to try to get the hang of in my own work, so it’s wonderful to know it’s something you enjoy about my writing! That feels very good to hear.

As far as advice goes, I can offer the following thoughts:

Whatever amount of world-building you think is enough, go slightly under it. What I mean by this is that very often less is more when it comes to building a world (see my notes on Pullman’s Northern Lights here). By using a bit of restraint and cutting things down just a touch on your final edit, you can help yourself resist the thrall of the too much gene that many writers experience when talking about their world-building. Ask yourself “does this need to be here, or am I just excited to share it?”

Unfortunately, if it’s just the latter, it’s probably a good idea to trim it: lean storytelling keeps readers hungry, and hungry readers usually ask for more. Trouble is, as a writer, you’ve got to be the one to remember that it’s always better to leave while a crowd is wanting more than stay until the crowd is begging you to stop. (cough several media series we could mention cough)

An example of this would be in a world where there are ten gods. In your first chapter, you don’t need to list all the gods. You can maybe mention one or two, and perhaps imply there’s more. Immediately, that creates mystery and a sense of a larger world; a reader gets to wonder, who are these other gods...

You mentioned you’re a planner, so I want to reassure you: keeping the story trim doesn’t mean all your planning is wasted! If you, the writer, knows the details of your world, it will come through in everything you write. The fact you know all the answers means you have a lot of control over what you want to reveal, when, where, and how. Which leads me to:

When possible, world-build obliquely. What I mean by this is that a lot of world-building can be done in subtle ways, that leave impressions of the world without having to be told directly by a character. You also can stretch out details, sprinkling them only here and there, meaning that it takes multiple chapters to piece together concepts or institutions or other world-building elements.

Doing this can help make it never feel like an exposition dump or listing off facts, because you’re putting only tasty little morsels in (sometimes hidden) for readers to find or look back on later. The reason for it is the same as why keepers will scatter-feed animals in enclosures: enrichment. If you dump it all in one place, the animal will eat, get full and/or bored, and won’t feel good. But if you make it into a puzzle to solve, the emotional reward of finding and figuring things out for yourself is so much nicer than whatever you’re finding, usually. (Sorry to keep using animal metaphors for readers, but like... it works).

An example of this would be something like:

Anwar turned the corner onto the opulent mosaic path of the shrine district and continued towards the temple of Kenuf, furthest from the city centre. On either side, acolytes of all kinds were leaving offerings--jars of salt for Meshut, baskets of yellow lilies for Pesht--and the air was thick with the smell of incense, making his eyes water slightly. He walked as quickly as he could past the grinning crocodile faces carved on the outer wall of the second last temple, before greeting the black-robed bell-keeper outside of Kenuf’s shrine.

I’ve made this up off the cuff so none of it “means” anything, but if we look at what’s here, we learn the following:

there’s at least four gods, possibly more

Pesht’s devotees leave yellow lilies, but we don’t know what Pesht is god of yet

Meshut’s devotees leave jars of salt, but ditto above

Kenuf’s shrine is furthest from the city (does this imply it is least favoured? or maybe least used?)

all gods seem to be named in consonant-e pattern (pe-, me-, ke-), but we don’t know yet if this is meaningful or coincidental (but if you wanted it to be, make all gods and maybe royals have this same pattern and just... leave it. let your reader infer from the text that the pattern signifies divinity)

the unnamed god is represented by crocodile iconography

the bell-keeper of Kenuf wears black robes (is this a uniform, or just a fashion choice?)

Anwar does not feel comfortable with the unnamed god in this passage (scared? disdainful? a mystery...)

A “too much” passage would offer lengthy descriptions of every shrine, listing what the offerings were and what the acolytes and other staff wore and Anwar’s thoughts about how he felt about each of the ten gods. It’s not impossible to write something like that that’s good, I do want to point out! But if you’re looking to slim things down, less is more, space out details over multiple chapters.

Write for your ideal reader, who is clever and attentive. Some writers fall into the habit of over-explaining their world (resulting in info-dumping) because they don’t trust their readers to get the “right” vision of their world, or because they’re worried readers will overlook all the cool stuff they’ve put in. I can recommend not doing this and part of getting to that point is imagine you’re writing for the perfect reader of your story, who does get it and will look for all the cool clever tricky things you sneakily put in. Will every reader be that person? Definitely not! But if you write for that reader, you will elevate your work, rather than dumb it down and make it heavy with unneeded hand-holding.

This kind of overlaps with the above in the sense that it boils down to “you’re allowed to leave things out, let readers make the intellectual leaps based on the pieces you give them” but it’s also saying that you’re allowed to let things rest. Put in subtle symbolism and never draw attention to it.

Additionally, as the creator, you know all the information about the world, which is a huge power and means you can choose the exact right moments to reveal meaningful, revelatory details. For example, somewhere around chapter three or four:

Anwar closed the door of his room, walked to the wall shrine, and fell to his knees, pulling the curtain aside.

“Ye’emer, it is done,” he said, looking at the floor. “It is finally done.”

In the distance, the bells of the temple of Kenuf began to ring: a strident sound, sharp and mournful. The dawn acolytes must have found the body already.

He reached forward, carefully placing the offering on the black silk of the tiny altar. The chips of animal bone looked like stars at night, bright white in the dark.

“I don’t know why you chose me,” said Anwar, forcing himself to look up.

The burning eyes of the crocodile statue stared back.

And now you get to go ohhhh. You know the name of the god now, you know the offering, you know (or at least can speculate better at) why Anwar felt so uncomfortable near the temple. If you time when you reveal world-building details, you can make them do so much work for you in telling your story.

Make up lies about your world--or at least, untruths. This maybe sounds counter-intuitive, but there is a logic in it. Most of us are not experts on our world, and your characters should be the same. They should be biased in their perspective, or limited by what they know, or perhaps even inclined to embellish details. If two characters talk about the same event, make them have personal feelings about it! Unless your character is a historian, their account of a historical event probably isn’t going to be totally correct or certain about all the details, and that’s not a bad thing. You can use that to weave in ambiguity or intrigue, or leave out important facts that will become relevant later, or contradict it later with a different telling and make the protagonist have to question who to trust or what’s the truth.

As a species, everything we do is stories. The concept of a nation is a story we tell ourselves about what it is to be “us.” Who we each are is a story we are always telling to ourselves: I am me because I do x, I am me because I don’t do y. Often, these things aren’t The Truth so much as they are A Truth, so when it comes to writing stories into your stories, don’t forget to think about the stories characters are telling themselves about who they are. And remember that all characters are unreliable narrators, because they’re people and they’re filtering the world through their perspective. You can do so much with that.

Use stories to create meaningful parallels for the larger narrative. If you’re featuring a story (which I’ll call tale from here, to cut down on confusion) within your story, it needs to be doing something more than just telling the reader facts about the world or passing the time. One way to make sure you’re doing that is thinking about parallels, which is to say, think of how the tale can impact the “real world” of your story. This might be the protagonist having a realisation or plot breakthrough, or later deciphering out important information or applying ideas from the story to a problem they encounter.

You also can (and often should) create tonal and emotional parallels within the tale as well and/or use tales as a form of foreshadowing. For a very basic example, in a story that involves a protagonist who gets trapped in a big horrible maze later in the book might feature a version of Minotaur in the Labyrinth as foreshadowing, and the character might have a fleeting thought about it that later will resurface with new significance.

I hope some of this is helpful to you! Good luck with you writing, and please write in again if there’s anything I can help with.

tl;dr: my tips are:

do a little less and space out what you tell your reader

don’t say directly what you can imply or gesture vaguely at

write cleverly and time your moments

make use of ambiguity

make the story impact the real world

#reply #advice #i really hope some of this makes sense. it's a difficult question to answer in a post #because honestly you could do six weeks of seminars just on world-building. this is like a hyper condensed minimal example version.

72 notes · View notes

a-little-slice-of-fandom · 4 years ago

Note

Congratulations! ❤️ Just a question because I’m curious: How did they make your grades this year? I finished school in Germany, we did have some classes after lockdown and then took our exams as usual (1/3 of the final grade). The rest are the results we’ve got over the two final years, of course the grade for the last semester was calculated based on the results we already had.

Ahhh thank you sweetheart!!! ❤️

Once we officially knew that exams weren’t going to go ahead, teachers were told to start trying to predict what grades we would have gotten in exams as best they could and were asked to provide evidence of these grades. All the students were told to stop studying/handing work in as exam boards wouldn’t be accepting any work done after lockdown had begun (obviously because teachers would intentionally set easier work and mark easier on these assignments as they now knew it would impact our end of year grade). The predicted grades were made up of class tests, mock exams, performance on homeworks etc etc. Apparently teachers were also asked to rank students from strongest to weakest in the class but I’m not sure if that actually went ahead or it was just discussed.

After that, tecahers gave the predicted grades to the exam boards who then used an an algorithm to try and determine what we would have gotten if we had sat the exams. This generated grade was what students received today.

However there are serious issues with using this algorithm because it didn’t just take into consideration your predicted grade or your previous performances in exams like GCSEs. It also looked at your schools overall performance in the past and what area you live in. This basically penalises students for things that are completely out of their control, and many students who had been predicted A’s and B’s were suddenly getting C’s and D’s for no reason. For example if your schools average grade for English A-level was a C then people who were maybe predicted A’s would have their grade lowered just because of how previous students did in the past. I think like 40 percent of students were given results that didn’t match up to what they would have gotten had they sat the exam which is insane. What’s more,this has disproportionately affected people who go to local comprehensive schools and those from working class/lower income backgrounds while private schools weren’t really affected...which just screams classism. I’m from a working class background, but that doesn’t mean I’m not just as capable of achieving top grades as someone from a wealthier family. I’m very very lucky that I wasn’t really affected but I know so many people who are getting results that don’t reflect the work that they put in.

(Also if teachers were asked to rank students then this opens a whole other issue. Teachers would obviously be biased towards their favourite students and rank them more favourably.)

Basically, while I’m happy that I personally got good results...I’m very aware that the way the government and exam boards handled this today was terrible and is disproportionately affecting some people. I’ve seen so many of my friends upset by grades that make absolutely no sense. I don’t understand how students who were predicted A’s in some schools got to keep their A’s, but my friends who were also predicted A’s have suddenly got C’s. It’s insane and while alevels do not matter at all in the long run, they are important to get into Uni and people are being turned away from their first choices of university because of an algothrim. It’s insane.

#ask #ask answered #a levels

23 notes · View notes

kingdomofthelogos · 4 years ago

Text

Reason Belongs to God

Read Mark 4

Download a printable version here.

The world desires us to commit the suicide of thought, to take our God-given will and make it passive to serve both sin and hell. Our faith calls us to be patient in waiting for God but also hastening the work of Christ’s Kingdom. The world often wants to bait us into going to war over narratives, emotional opinions, and all things petty, but Christ wants us to preach His message: the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15) This is the message that we must preach, realizing that reason and truth belong to God. When Christ calmed the storm at the end of Mark 4, He was giving us evidence that we must either accept or ignore. Either Christ calmed the storm or He did not, and if He indeed did such a miracle, then that means something substantial about everything He said. We do well to illuminate the truth of Jesus’ miracles, for they show us how the spiritual affairs break into our material world.

We tend to think of our faith in the abstract, that the spiritual warfare of powers and principalities is confined to the heavenly realms. We tend to think of the supernatural as that which breaks the laws of physics and reality, and therefore it can be dismissed as both impossible and irrational in an orderly world. However, to you I posit this: that perhaps the supernatural is not the breaking of the laws of physics, but the perfection of them. Perhaps the great miracles of God are not behind the curtain manipulations of the elements in life, or the quick swapping of cards done by a magician's sleight of hand, where God quickly rips a broken piece from our world and replaces it with a new one before anyone sees His dangerous appearance, but rather the miracles are the skillful and holy actions of the resolute hand of the Master of all. The miracles are not breakdowns of logic in the fallen world, but restorations back to the providential order of creation.

Inasmuch as Jesus teaches us wisdom through parables, He is extremely gracious in showing us signs. The calming of the sea is a material fact, and through such an act of domestication Jesus shows us how the immaterial virtues break into the material world. Do not be deceived, the spiritual world is breaking into our physical one and it has a substantial impact on everything in life.

The arena of objective truth belongs to God, and it is the devil who lives in opinions and subjectivity. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and at the end of each day said “it is good,” but the devil came along and tried to deceive Eve in saying “did God really say?” Jesus firmly declared that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but His murderous accusers wanted to contrive a narrative where Jesus said He was the King of the Jews. Not even the ancient world would deny the fact of the resurrection or the material miracles of healing and exorcisms; therefore, it would create narratives and perspectives to distract from the hard facts.

Reason belongs to God, and the more people pay attention to the logical order of God’s creation the more they are drawn to God. It has been a very clever trick of hell to make us believe the foolery that reason and faith are contradictory to one another. Reason is not opposed to God, but the whitewashed idolatry that charades as reason is. Hell wants us to view truth as a sensation, something to only summon as it pleases.

CS Lewis writes very cleverly on this matter in the Screwtape Letters. Uncle Screwtape, a demon in hell, writes to his nephew Wormwood saying: “It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of God’s clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly news and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily “true” or “false”, but as “academic” or “practical”, “outworn” or “contemporary”, “conventional” or “ruthless”. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient’s reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences.”

What CS Lewis is trying to teach through these demonic conversations is that reason and objective reality belong to God, but hell wants to distract you with subjectivity, with the unreasonable world where you have “your truth” and I have “my truth,” and nothing is actually held as true. The fact is this: if people will use their minds to contemplate the healings and miracles of Christ, things which were not even denounced by those who hated Jesus as He walked the earth, then they will be inclined to realize that He is Lord of all creation and the true Messiah. Those who disbelieved in Jesus could not denounce Him on the basis of rejecting His miracles or resurrection, so they had to ignore those facts and make statements like “would God really care about your sexual life,” or “how could a loving God permit suffering.” All rejections involve some form of ignoring the material truth of His miracles, because if you honestly square your mind around calming a storm, or around a bodily resurrection, then your mind is awakened to the truth of Christ.

In Acts 4:16-17 the ruling counsel said 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” The counsel in Acts 4 included Annas and Caiaphas, two High Priests who had interviewed Jesus and then sent Him bound to the cross. By the time of the events in Acts 4, they realize they cannot argue with the factual truth of Jesus. If people know anything about the resurrection or healings done in His Name, they will discover the truth that He is the Messiah. Therefore, the only choice they have is to censor the discussion. If any light is shed on the subject, even in a biased way, they run the risk of the truth getting out. Their only choice is to outlaw any mention of it.

If someone does not want a subject talked about in the public sphere, history tells us this is almost always because giving any light on the matter will disprove the official story. One does not have to silence things which disprove themselves. Our world has a big problem with shoes being made by slaves in sweatshops, and recently I have been trying to buy some shoes not made in a sweatshop. There is a particular company that asserts itself as being a virtuous shoe company, giving a pair of shoes to an impoverished nation for every pair someone buys in a developed country. However, they will not give a straight answer to the simple question “are your shoes made in a sweatshop?” Here is a truth: if someone cannot answer a simple question like this in broad daylight, then the answer is not good. If something is indeed false, then the best tactic for defeating it is to shed more light on the subject, not to cut out to the tongues of dissenters and hope that others forget their dissent.

In our modern world we are afflicted by an inability to receive truth. Sometimes it is a rejection of the truth, and other times a lack of interest. Regardless of intention, our world only tends to believe something is true based on whether or not we like the consequences of something to be true. Rather than letting the truth be its own reward, we tend to be more focused on whether or not we want to live with something being true.

For instance, if we consider the fact that a child has a unique human DNA at the moment of conception, then we will indeed realize that aborting an unborn son or daughter is indeed murdering a child of God at his or her most defenseless state. There are many in the world, even the secular world, who will happily quote 1 John 3:15 saying, “anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer,” so that it can feel morally superior in giving a tut-tut to those who speak roughly, but at the same time they will bear false witness about abortion with the euphemism of calling it healthcare. They ignore the very fact of murder because they do not want to live with the consequential fact that those who advance it are openly advancing murder. The assertion that abortion is healthcare is not rooted in logic, reason, or truth, but in the desire to appear morally superior; however, any recognition that a child is indeed a child will immediately destroy any notion of justice or mercy. It is through this attitude that some become so obsessed with wanting to slander the church as ignorant and immoral that they completely ignore the fact that they had to stop kissing a statue of baal in order to speak.

Despite this sad degeneration into paganism, we must count it as joy when people kiss a statue to baal before slandering us in our faith. For the more open the world is about its paganistic insanity the easier it is for us to draw the distinction between the Way of Life and the way of death. James 1:2 instructs us to consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials.

Hell is filled with storytellers and yarn-eaters, but the seat of Heaven has a watchful eye through which all things unknown will be made known. God is one of truth, and in the business of making things known. At the heart of revival, is recognition of an almighty and absolute God. Christ wants us to step into the light and walk in the truth. The more we speak the truth of Christ’s authority over the wind and storm, the more the Gospel is spread. It is God who wants us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and hell who wants us to be passive and have others think for us. For so long we have been shy about asserting the hard truths of Christ’s power to heal and cast out demons, but the more we awaken the organ of critical thinking on these issues, the more glory is given to God.

When Christ displayed His authority over the sea, He demonstrated with evidence that His power is genuine. He is not here to dismantle creation, but out of love to restore it. The sea is a great mystery, for its depths wait in eternal darkness far beyond the reach of ordinary man. Yet, Christ is even lord over the sea. The miracles of Christ are not a creed, philosophy, or even a narrative. They are a fact, a piece of evidence that one must then either reconcile or reject. Christ gave us the means of verifying the great truths He revealed, both those which were moral and those which were material.

Our modern world is extraordinarily concerned with whether an idea is “what the scholars say” or if it is merely an opinion held by the “non-college educated,” whether something is the “prevailing narrative” or “conspiracy theory.” But this is the suicide of thought, and Jesus comes in strict rebuke of it. Jesus calms the storms, and He gives us something which is a material fact. People can bicker all day long about whether or not they think Him a sorcerer, but if they recognize the hard fact that He calmed the storm then something serious is awakened. Moreover, the chances are that if people come to terms with the fact that He calmed the storm, they will then realize He is Lord over the sea, and if He is Lord over the Sea then He is indeed the Messiah. From this fact, it will then become certain that His teachings are indeed correct.

The suicide of thought is very serious problem in our modern world. We must understand that reason belongs to God. The more we tell the Gospel and trust its truth to convict fallen hearts, the more it will spread. God wants to transform us and restore our minds that we might be free from the inescapable burdens.

Ephesians 6:10-12 instructs us: 10 finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. It can be discouraging to realize the sinister dimensions of the evil against which we truly stand. However, we must raise up courage. We are called to both be still and know that I am God, as Psalm 46:10 details, but to also contend for the Gospel as instructed in Jude 1:3-4, where the apostle appeals to us saying: I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Peter gives us clarity on how we walk this straight and narrow pathway. 2 Peter 3:11-12 read: since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

We must be patient in waiting for God but also hastening the work of Christ’s Kingdom. The world often wants to bait us into going to war with one another over petty things, but Christ wants us to preach His message, which we find in Mark 1:15, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” That is the message that we must preach, and when we let the Gospel out of the cage it will awaken minds more than any popular topic of our day. Sure, the world was obsessed with the politics of Rome vs Jerusalem, but Jesus’ message was altogether different. Jesus did not debate the world on the topics it wanted, but affirmed an entirely different way of thinking. It was the Gospel and its unwavering truth, and it alone is the way to good, the true, and the beautiful.

1 note · View note

bippityboppitybibuck · 4 years ago

Text

I know this post will likely go no where but in the midst of everything happening in the news (especially with coverage going down on the protests) and the understanding that not being racist isn’t enough and that we all must be anti racist and the fact that white people are raised into a society that is inherently racist and as such we internalize things we don’t even realize and then have to actively go about unlearning those things, I felt like I had a story I could share.

I am white, and middle class, and who at the time of this stories events identified as a straight, cis woman, who was considered neurotypical.

I was 15, in tenth grade, in a good school with a good group of friends, I was the poster child for ‘healthy upbringing’.

I had also had twitter for about a year. Through Twitter I learned what the n-word was, I have no memory of knowing it before that age (something that is a direct result of my privilege). Though twitter had taught me the word it didn’t teach me its meaning. For a long time it was just another word for me. However I eventually came across the “what is your first memory of being discriminated against” post where POC retweeted with their stories of being called atrocious names at an age where I was dealing with nothing more than not understanding why my friends liked Barbie dolls but I liked plastic dinosaurs.

Of course as you could probably guess the N-word was a common part of that thread. I believe that was the first time I realized the word was far more damaging than twitter had led me to believe. For context this happened almost 7 years ago in early 2014 possibly even late 2013. If you remember anything about the twittersphere for teens in 2013/14 you understand what I am talking about in this story.

One day at school I was with my friend at our lockers getting our books, I have no idea what we were talking about but at one point I thought it right to use the n-word, I didn’t though, I got as far as ni- before I switched the word and said my friends name (her name started the same way). I can’t say with certainty why I thought it was right to say the word. It’s easy to blame it on the content I was exposed to on twitter, but I stopped myself from saying and that proves that I already knew it was not a word I should say (not as in it was a curse word equivalent of fuck or shit because I was already saying those).

I’m not writing this to get brownie points for being a ‘good white person’ and not saying the word, I’m writing this to show any white person who thinks they are above the system we were raised in that you aren’t.

I’m a vocal proponent of the black lives matter movement, (despite my location) I march in gun control marches, I march in women’s rights marches and I attend pride with a sign that reminds people that we didn’t always have the freedom we have now. I vote so far left I’m essentially a socialist, I advocate for proper representation in the media for all underrepresented and marginalized groups, I do this and more.

I have spent years unlearning my bias, unlearning the engrained influences that the media I grew up on instilled in me (POC are always the bad guys, mug shots for POC and family portraits for white people- trying to convince me that POC are inherently more dangerous) the fact that this happens shouldn’t be news to anyone because this tactic is in every single facet of media that you can see in normal cable, satellite, the internet. It’s disseminated through everything, you have been exposed to it from infancy (all of your books featured white characters didn’t they? Even that is part of this system)

I took the time to understand what I had been raised in and how it hurt communities that I valued, for some it may start as an understanding that it hurts a friend instead of realizing the broad and overarching scale of the damage done. And I may be putting my foot in my mouth with this but as long as it starts somewhere right? (this is in the same vein as understanding women shouldn’t be harassed but only because you have a daughter, no woman should be harassed no matter her relation to you- you shouldn’t examine your biases because you have a black or brown friend no POC deserves to be a victim of your bias but if having that friend causes you to examine it all a little harder then at least you are examining it).

I knew at the time that the word wasn’t one for me to use at least to some degree, and yet I was going to use it. My friend asked me about right after, wondering if I was about to say the n word and I said no, because in that moment I knew that it was so far past wrong for me to say it that I was ashamed I almost had.

To any white person reading this, you are not above how we were raised, you are not above the system that overwhelming benefits you and those like you. My parents did a hell of a job raising me, but I know they were raised into the same world, and I know that because of that, biases they hold/held were projected onto me as a child, it takes time to unlearn everything, for anyone who suffers/ed from internalized misogyny who has also gone about unlearning it, sometimes you slip up and think that a woman wearing revealing clothes is below you because she’s a ‘slut’ and you know that when that thought crosses your mind you stop it in its tracks and reevaluate.

It is a never ending process, and it is one you must engage in. Listen to black voices, listen to brown voices. Engage in black and brown spaces but understand that it is not a place for you to look for a damn pat on the back for not being a racist, it is not a time to get on a soapbox and wax about how not racist you are - don’t make it about you, you are there to learn that is all. I am a white person I can not speak on what they have experienced at the hands of a system I have taken for granted all my life. If anyone is wondering I have never said the n-word, not in songs, not in memes I’ve read aloud, not ever.

In the same way a man who has never assaulted a woman isn’t somehow an exceptional man I am not an exceptional white person for never saying that word. It is the bare minimum for you to not use the words that are so often hurled at POC as insults, insults that have centuries of history of oppression and genocide behind them. This goes for any word of that caliber, any. They are not yours to use, if you hear someone say them that does not give you a pass to say them as well, if you see a person who shouldn’t be using them use them make it known that that shit doesn’t fucking fly, never has, never will.

Too often we see people apologize for their behaviour only after they’ve received backlash for it. But this only feeds into the system. No one and I do mean no one knows this story except for me, not the friend who was part of it, not my therapist, not a soul. I could have taken this to my grave and no one would be any wiser about it. But that benefits me and me only. And that is part of the problem. Our re-evaluation of our past transgressions shouldn’t come only when people bring it up. Yes you can do it without sharing it like I am but you must do it. It’s one of the first steps into the long long (never ending) process of unlearning things you aren’t even aware you’ve internalized.

It’s 2020, this conversation should have been happening at this scale (in terms of how big it’s been on media outlets) for decades now, but it is happening now, and as such we should all take the time to participate in it.

Hey white people, do me a favour and read this, thanks

#black lives have always mattered #blacklivesmatter #black lives matter #racism #unlearning your inherent racism #feel free to interact #white people especially #free to rb

6 notes · View notes

aspoonofsugar · 5 years ago

Note

Hi! :) What are your thoughts about the latest chapter of SNK and Eren specifically? Do you think he's out for more bloodshed and the full power rumbling? I'm still really shocked!

Hello anon!

I have talked about Eren here and in the post tagged in the one I linked. The last chapter has not changed my impression of him, but simply strengthened it.

In short, I still think what I wrote here:

However, Eren might be willing to use the power of the Coordinate in an offensive manner instead of in a defensive one like Armin suggests.

Or he might be willing to use it more than what Armin thinks (he states he thinks it would be sufficient to free the Titans in Shiganshina and Eren might be willing to free more). Given the power of the Rumbling it is possible that Eren choosing to do one of these two things might leave a huge impression on the characters and on Armin especially.

I will now admit that I am partial to this theory simply because I really think that a major conflict between Armin and Eren should happen.

I think so for different reasons and I will say that some of them are rooted in me reading some interviews made by Isayama (which I usually don’t use as evidence) which coupled with what happened at the beginning of the arc made me develop specific expectations. Now, I don’t really wanna use the interviews as evidence, but simply to convey the fact that I may be biased also because of things not related to the text, so I might be completely misdirected here, but I can’t really force myself to let go of these expectations I developed.

The reason why I can’t is that I really think that by this point a major conflict among EMA is really one of the best writing choices possible for several reasons.

First of all, as I stated in the metas I linked Armin and Eren taking different paths is something which seems to have been foreshadowed in the story itself:

These panels suggest that Armin is starting not to understand Eren anymore, but so far this difference in perspectives has neither been explored nor has it been resolved. It is simply something which is mentioned and stays in the background. On one hand Eren doesn’t care about others’ pov. On the other hand Armin has not done anything constructive to make his ideals concrete and has tried to compromise with Eren’s actions. In other words nothing interesting has been done so far with these two points of view and I think it should be done instead.

Finally, I think that for the ending of the story both Mikasa and Armin should have more of a role than the one they have had so far in this arc. They have been framed since the beginning as important characters, so they should play a role in the resolution of the story. The problem is that in order to do so they need a conflict which lets them shine. I think that the one between Marley and Paradis is not really the one since if Eren manages to use the Coordinate Paradis has basically won. As far as the conflict with Zeke goes, I think that the conflict between the two brothers will be almost completely settled in the current chapters. After all they are fighting over the control of the coordinate and whoever wins manages to do what he wants. It is true that Zeke might temporally win and Eren might ask the others for help, but this is not the feeling I am receiving from current Eren and we have already been told that Eren’s wish is the one which will come true:

In other words, even if potentially other conflicts could give Armin and Mikasa the room they deserve, I think that a conflict among EMA is by far the most interesting option.

This is true also considering the current conflict between Eren and his friends. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of characters growing distant because of miscommunication and then overcoming the misunderstanding and growing in this way. However, I don’t really see the 104th’s current situation being built to be settled in this way. After all:

We have already seen Eren’s friends accepting to trust Eren despite everything, but we have yet to properly understand Eren’s goals and reasons. As you can see, the “reconciliation” of chapter 118 is not really the result of a climax where all the characters involved grow and manage to understand each other, but it is a one-sided effort where one side is doing its best to understand and justify the behaviour of the other without being given any explanation and after having been treated poorly for no apparent reason. In short, Armin, Mikasa and the 104th’s growth can’t lie in them understanding and trusting Eren simply because they have clearly shown to be able to do it already and they have done so without being given any guarantee in return. If chapter 118 is the apex of the 104th’s growth as a group, then I think it is underwhelming and not really meaningful considering that all they did was to do what they have been doing since early on aka trusting in their bonds as comrades. At the same time, so far Eren has more or less managed to obtain what he wants without much psychological struggle that we can see. What I mean is that we have been shown him struggling physically, but we have not been given any access to his head, so we know he is struggling and suffering, but for some reason we are not experiencing it with him. However, we need to see this struggle and not just to know that it is probably there. In short, Eren is in the middle of a series of conflicts among which the one with his friends is one and before he can solve all of these conflicts we should be shown more of his internal world. This is why I think the conflict between him and the others is still not solved and that it would be more interesting for it to escalate before it can be solved.

I tried to explain why I like this hypothesis, but all in all there could be different ways to approach the whole matter I am not considering, so I am open to be happily surprised. However, as it stands, I favour this idea and so I will theoryze that something among the lines of a major EMA conflict is going to happen. This is my starting point.

Now, it is obvious that if such a conflict must happen Eren can’t be thinking of simply using the Rumbling like Armin suggests here:

This is simply because this action won’t make the conflict escalate, but will simply settle it and prove that Armin was right. At the same time, it is really not enough to explain why Eren was so cold with Mikasa and Armin.

In short, Eren’s actions will most likely create a major conflict and different reactions in different characters and I can see each character taking a different choice in reaction to Eren’s.

We have already been told that what Eren wants to do is terrible:

What is more, Grisha asks him if in this way Eldia will be saved:

So, from this chapter we know that Eren’s objective is to save Eldia and probably to protect his loved ones, but that in order to do so he will do something terrible.

Now, we must discover what this something terrible is and how the others will react to this.

I can see two main options that can be declined in different ways.

1) Eren will do something terrible knowing what he is doing and choosing to do it anyway. In this case he might have pushed his friends away because of some complicated inner feelings he has towards both them and himself and so the reason of his behaviour towards them is mostly psychological.

2) Eren will do something horrible knowing that he will be stopped and this might explain why he acted the way he did towards Armin and Mikasa in order to push them away.

Let’s highlight that these two options are generic and can be combined in different ways.

For example, Eren might be missing some major pieces of the future:

After all, it has been said that the Attack Titan’s power has its limits and stories of a person who misread or misinterpreted the future are very common.

This leads us to what is the real new revelation of the chapter aka Eren’s power to see the future and how it is clearly linked to some time-paradoxes the fandom has been wondering about since forever. One of the most interesting things about this chapter is that it did not solve the most famous ones:

So, they might become important later on.

That said, I really like the Titan’s power for different reasons.

First of all it is interesting to me because it is used to create time paradoxes of the kind I talked about here:

I would like to propose an alternative (definately crack) theory: the time paradox may actually be a “virtuous” loop i.e. the events we assisted, despite their violence and sadness, are actually necessary to arrive to a positive ending and Eren’s final decision will be to actually accept everything that happened to him and to “send his will back in time” to influence the past events and to be sure that everything goes as it is supposed to go (i.e. as we have seen in the series). Basically I am proposing a time paradox like the one we get in the third book of Harry Potter where the characters going back in time and interfering with the past don’t actually change it, but are used to explain details the protagonists saw the first time and couldn’t understand (like the person saving Harry from the Dementors who turned out to be Harry himself).

Now, by using this quote as reference I don’t mean to say that what Eren did in this chapter is a part of a virtuous loop, but simply that the kind of time-paradoxes which are happening are similar to the ones I talked about above. What I like is that this mechanism has been used in a completely different way than the one I proposed. I was imagining it used to highlight Eren’s free will to choose his own destiny and to accept every single horrible thing which happened to him as necessary to reach a positive ending. It would have been very powerful to show the boy whose Titan was imposed on him by his own father choose to make sure that this actually happens for everyone’s sake. This is something which can still very well happen and I think Eren might see his actions in this light. However, the chapter frames what Eren is doing in a different way. It is not about choosing one’s own fate, but about imposing one’s will on others:

This is paradoxical especially because of how Grisha describes the power:

Grisha links the ability to foresee the future to the ability of being free and of not being controlled. The ironic thing of course is that Grisha and the other shifters before him have actually been manipulated through Eren’s future memories:

This is not the future Grisha has chosen, but the one he has been shown by Eren and so the one he has come to accept.

All in all, the person who is supposed to embody freedom is also presented as an individual who manipulates others. One could also say that Eren is doing something very similar to the first King just on a smaller scale. The first King wanted peace, but his manipulation and brainwashing led to Marley becoming a nation built on war. Eren wants freedom, but he is imposing his own point of view on others. The first king wanted a peaceful heaven and to create it he imprisoned people and left the rest of the world to fight each other. Eren wants to be free and is ready to take others’ freedom to do so and also to move war to the world. The manga has kept presenting concepts like peace and freedom and has shown us that they can both be extreme. It is probable that they’ll need to balance each other out in the end.

Let’s now briefly consider the conflict between Frieda and Grisha. All in all the two of them are both being manipulated by family members and both are conveying an ideology which is not really theirs, but which they came to accept because of the influence of another shifter. For Frieda it is a previous one, while for Grisha it is a future one.

Let’s also highlight that both Frieda and Grisha eshitate. They are two people who are able to emphatize and would probably prefer not to kill each other, but they are both told to do so by their families (Frieda is told so by her father, while Grisha by his son).

All in all it is very interesting on multiple levels.

On one hand the father-children relationship is a very important one for the series and we have seen that so far children have kept paying for their parents’ mistakes. Eren is a character who is clearly trying to change the system and him embodying the future against the first King (and Rod Reiss) embodying the past is clearly symbolic of this.

However, at the same time, his idea of freedom is one which does not consider others:

If everyone were to apply this concept nobody could be really free because everyone would be too much busy fighting each other to actually be free to live as they want.

In other words there is no doubt that what Eren is doing will be fundamental to change the current corrupted system, but at the same time I think his pov needs to be integrated. I think Eren is missing a piece of the puzzle and that someone else should give it to him.

Let’s now consider this:

The ideas of “moving forward” and of “looking forward” which have been present since the beginning are now acquiring a different meaning when one considers the Attack Titan’s power.

These ideas have always been connected with freedom. The SC kept considering the future of their people and realized that if they did not act they would have been doomed someday.

So, a titan who sees the future given to a character who represents freedom is a pretty coherent choice.

However, the ability to foresee the future might very well become a binding ability under certain conditions.

1) For example, knowing the future will definately influence you and this will lead to your possibilities being reduced. We have seen so in the chapter itself where Grisha can’t oppose Eren’s plans because of the memories he has been seeing. He talks of future events as if they are the past and asks Zeke to stop Eren (and in this way the cycle of a father leaving his own burden on a child is repeated). This behaviour is ironic because if Grisha really thought of Eren’s scenery as terrible he would have been in a much better position to change it compared to his other son. However, he didn’t.

Now, we don’t know if Eren is being influenced by some future shifter and I honestly think he is not and that he will be the last Shifter of the Attack Titan. However, he too has seen the future and it is probable that he has been acting in a certain way because of what he saw. If Eren had not seen that scenery would he still be acting the way he is? Would he have attacked Liberio? In short, it is obvious that Eren himself has been changed by the future.

2) The ability to see far away is precious, but it can be dangerous if it is coupled with the inability to perceive what is close to you. What is more, it can lead to a disaster if it is coupled with narrowness. You might be able to see the future, but if your vision is narrow you might misread and misinterpret what is going on.

Eren has developed the ability to see what is coming, but he might need a broader vision if he really wants to succeed.

To summarize, I think that what Armin says here might become important:

1) Is freedom connected to hurting others?

2) Is Eren sure that he is not a slave?

I think the story needs to answet these two questions.

These are my major thoughts on the chapter so far. Thank you for the ask!

#snk #snk 121 #snk meta #eren jeager #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

99 notes · View notes

otogetranslations · 6 years ago

Text

A Sasazuka Essay

Written by one of our most beloved translator: khikari AKA Kujouhikari!

She completed translating mostly all of Sasazuka route in our on-going translation project: Collar x Malice Unlimited!

Here is the link to the original post: Reddit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUA27Rhfe3vyf1Ug_Qi5U1RZXvzwMZ1dT8hX8bEy_RM/edit?usp=sharing

Greetings.

To discuss Ichika in donut's route, we would have to discuss donut himself as well. It is something unavoidable. I have a generally favourable opinion of donut, to be point of being extremely biased towards him. As such, this is purely opinion with that fact established. This post will also be long because I have trouble finding 'concise' in my dictionary.

I played the game in Japanese so my experience might also differ from yours in that respect.

Also, there will be spoilers.

1.) Hoshino Ichika as a person

Basic background (Just so we are on the same page): Hoshino Ichika is a newbie police officer, quite fresh off her graduation. She is only 21 and still does not have that much experience in the workforce. She has impressive accuracy in her aim and handling of guns, however she is not a professional in it (compared to others). Her family is implied, and is confirmed, to neglect and dismiss her diligence and will in a variety of ways. She is often compared with her brother, whom she loves but is on unsteady relations with, after he moved to Tokyo.

Personality: She is an ordinary person with an ordinary sense of justice and morale, is empathetic, and not especially talented. Her most significant trait is her strong will and diligence, working hard for her ideals to come true. She faces things head on, for the better for worse, and tries to confront things that she is uncomfortable with as well. Not being a complacent person, she constantly strives for a better reality within her abilities. She understands what she can do, and what she can't do, very well. She also has extremely low self-esteem due to her upbringing, and was under a lot of stress during the X-Day incidents due to being a newbie, not going well with her family, then the collar happening.

I admire her for all this. She might not be the most powerful, or greatest, or most active, but she does what she can and tries to be true towards herself. She might fail and fall on the way, and even be a hypocrite sometimes, but she is only human. She isn't trying to save the world, she only wants her family safe, and those that she care for to be alright. I admire people who try despite knowing their limits, just as much as I admire those who are active and cause real change.

Also, I find it strange to pick at her hypocrisy sometimes. Her low-self esteem means that she is constantly unable to accept praise as what it is, yet her upbringing makes her yearn for understanding of some sort that she never received from her parents. I think critisizing her for that can be unfair.

I also personally find realistic egotism in characters to be something beautiful, influenced by the many literature I have read. I empathise with them better.

2.) Sasazuka Takeru as a person

Background Summary: Sasazuka Takeru is 24, an extremely talented hacker who moved from America to Japan due to his trauma with his mother. (In the beginning) he resigned from the police due to despairing at the police and the government's methods, in hope of trying to do something himself. He is used to the merit-based system in America, where ability influenced your input in the situation. However, Japan is the opposite, where the number of years you have spent in a corporation is prized over your ability (this can be still quite relevant in modern Japan). The ability to present your argument can be more important than the substance of it in this case, where these incidents have shook up the entire country. Thus, he is highly frustrated and running short on time with little resources to try to solve something important to him.

Personality: I personally empathise a lot with Sasazuka, as I have a similar sewage personality diluted slightly with coke. (I just wrap it up slightly better thanks to books.) He is highly pragmatic and has his priorities on a rigid hierarchy according to his personal investment, and thus can be seen as egostical. In other words, he ranks his individual needs and morales higher than what is important for the 'greater good'.

This means that he sees practical solutions to problems as more important than the decorums and traditional methods of society, and cares little about feelings he trample on. He evaluates every decision he makes with cold harsh logic, and spends no effort on things he deem 'meaningless'. (For example, society values family relations. However, if he evaluates the relationship to have no future, he'd cut it off, even if it is family. He places value on his own judgement and not general consensus.) And thus he is the most morally grey of the main cast.

He is a true neutral, which diverts from the tradition lawful good or lawful neutral protagonists society tends to value. I cannot comment on him much due to the similarities I find. He is neither good, nor bad. You can only measure that compared with your own moral compass, and whether he is against you or with you. (That's how war works, really. Nobody fights for what they don't believe in. Being the enemy doesn't make them wrong, but it doesn't make them right. It's the same for allies. Imperically, right and wrong can only be decided on how many casualties one's actions result in.)

As a person, he is extremely guarded of other people, and does not give his trust easily. There is no point spending time and effort on someon who is either going to betray you or is not worth it. However, this means that once someone has earned his respect, he will always prioritise them over other things. He has time to spare because he has cut off unimportant people, after all. He will go the extra mile to make sure they grow and can be happy independent from him while he accomplishes his own goals. This is true for both friendships and romantice relationships. This makes his relationships either very shallow or very deep, but nobody has qualified for the latter in love so far.

He is also very honest and tries not to be a hypocrite. What he says are usually logical and sound. He just doesn't wrap it up and consider the other party's feeling as much, because he wants improvement. Babying people will cause no progress. He shows his most natural self to the world because of this. Pleasantries might make co-operation more smooth, but they don't solve the actual problem.

His good parts and extra effort are reserved only for those who he deems as deserving.

(Also, this might also help you understand why he chooses to be morally grey and result based. In Australia, the the first British settlers came across the native Aborigines and judged their standard of living to be 'low'. Feeling the Aborigine children to be 'abused' in such a 'lowly' environment, they decided to kidnap the children so that they could have a better life. They brought them to these 'schools' where they are taught the skills to be a servant so that they can have a job in the future and lift themselves out of the 'poverty cycle'. They had good intentions in their opinion, but for the Aborigines, this is just them stealing their children away and throwing poop on their culture.

Doing what seems 'good' depending on societal morals can lead to these situations, and thus the best a person can do is to not betray themselves. I'm rambling sorry, but in this case, Sasazuka would value the result and say that the good intentions are not excusable. Would this make sense?)

3)Finally answering the question (I made you wait long enough.)

Sasazuka's treatment of Ichika: Just would like to address this first. Sasazuka is cold towards Ichika, calling her 'baka neko' idiot cat the first time they meet. The Japanese wording is less harsh than the English equivalent. (There is even a saying that someone more cute the more baka they are.)

Sasazuka is harsh and cold throughout the beginning because of how badly their personalities clashed. Sasazuka is a person who doesn't value meaningless effort, while Ichika tries despite having little experience or ability. For Sasazuka, Ichika should be focusing on something else and not bother him and lower his efficiency. Explaining to her would be wasting time because she is very unlikely to grasp hold of the situation quickly and contribute to it. She may be a victim, but Adonis is a large organisation adept at manipulating the emotion of masses, so she might be just acting. The enemy formally nearly suceeded in bringing the president down...They must have had many spies in government to make that possible, so they have the resource for this little act.

Conclusion: Time spent on her is wasted, and keep information from her as much as possible. Giving her extra information might even cause her to poke into dangerous situations due to lack of experience, thus encourage her to rely on someone more capable and caring like Yanagi-san. It is a lose-lose situation to work with her.

Meanwhile, for Ichika, she knew that she was dead weight, so she wanted to try and help in whatever way she can. She wanted these incidents to stop, and her hope of restoring the gun law is her main motivation in this route. Sasazuka handled the August(?) case which was the reason for this to happen, and thus he was her best shot. Enomoto's cases were to do with internal police conflict, Shiraishi was most likely a dead end, and she knew that she didn't have the ability to keep up with all cases like Yanagi. Therefore she sorted her priorities and decided to try to help Sasazuka.

Having a lot more EQ than Sasazuka, she realised early on that he was trying to do both of them a favour by not involving her. She also knows that he is extremely independant and would find her help to be intrusive, so she opted to help in the only way that would not bother him or slow him down: health support. She tries to do what she can, and hopefully would gain his trust so that she could have other ways of helping, like gathering information the slow way. For her, it's not that she likes Sasazuka over the other people or anything, it's just that she rationally did what she could for her goal to be accomplished.

Here, there is extra tension because Sasazuka is extremely frustrated and rushed because working in the police meant slow results slow action, but working alone meant less resources. People are dying by the day and he understands those deaths as a victim himself, so he wants to do something about it but it's slow. Ichika is under a lot of pressure for reasons stated earlier. Both of them are types to bottle things up and thus they kind of take it out on each other, but Ichika is more mature about the whole thing.

The love part: As to where they both start getting drawn to each other.... Sasazuka slowly opens up to Ichika who constantly tries without overly disturbing him, which makes her comfortable to be with. She respects his abilities and knows her own limits, which he can respect in turn. She might not be talented, but she is doing what she can while taking his preferences in consideration. Her care for her brother is something he admires, because he can't do the same for someone who doesn't return his affections. She...might remind him of his own mother who treated him as more important than her own life, despite him having such a troublesome personality. Thus, he wanted to help her with her brother while getting to know Sera in the process. Win-win. He knows that he is generally disliked, and thus he could test Kazuki's reactions. If he loved his sister, great. If he doesn't, then he'll tell that to Ichika upfront.

He begins to like her because he can respect her, she is gaining his trust, and most importantly, he feels comfortable around her. The last quality is something rare for him to find. (Isn't the ideal relationship being able to eat potato chips together on the couch, watching the same movie and laugh while pointing out its ridiculousness? In real life at least.)

Thus...he kissed her. Not to start a romantic relationship. It is him trying to repay her with his earnest feelings mixed in. Words wouldn't console her, then. (He also has less reservations about it because, you know, America.)

Ichika grows to like him because of his kindness and honesty she sees through his actions. His words can be aloof, but he has never truly abandoned her or led her astray while she was partners with him. He might even remind her a little of Kazuki, who is aloof and tsun as well. Since Sasazuka is opening up to her, some of her big sisterly feelings of taking care of Kazuki seeps through. She grows fond of Sasazuka, who shows more and more of his softer parts the more she gets to know him. (Please remember that she has high EQ and has a pretty good read on him. He's not that hard to read because he is quite straightforward and doesn't lie.)

He is earnest and trying his best, and thus she can respect him too. She admires him for being both diligent and being talented, but on the other hand he is terrible at wrapping his words and taking care of health. Thus, she can't leave him alone, because she admires him and grows to like him.

His support of her helps these feelings grow, and the kiss reminded her that romance yes indeed could exist. With that in mind, she also slowly realises her own feelings of protectiveness and affection towards him.

For both of them, it isn't a sweet romance purely based on love. (Though this can be said for all of the main cast except Enomoto.) For Sasazuka, it is comfort, trust and respect which led to affection. For Ichika, it is admiration, trust and caring nature that led to affection.

However, it doesn't progress to actual romantic feelings as quickly because of this foundation. Just one step short. They have mutual respect, but haven't closed enough distance to reach a deeper relationship.

Therefore, the turning point was when Ichika tried to protect Sasazuka, Sasazuka tried to protect Ichika and his trauma was dug up. This set off the last chain reaction needed for them to close the distance. Later, when Sasazuka confesses that he was morally grey, he trusts her but is also half testing her. He would never change, and he knows that, so he wants to know if she'd be disgusted or appalled. Because of how invested he was, however, he couldn't bear for her to react negatively and cut it off completely, so he made her drunk first. So that he and her both had a way out.

But...she didn't do any of that. She said that he was kind. She asked him to not go down the dark path. She...accepted him. For Sasazuka, this is more than enough reason for his feelings to tilt to romantic affection.

Then she proceeds to cry and he panics. He doesn't want someone who did all this for him to cry, and thus this memory became important for him. Important enough that he could push down the feelings of revenge, because he doesn't want her to cry. He doesn't want to make her, who helped him and accepted him despite his sewage attitude and questionable morals, to cry again.

It is for this reason that he couldn't confess to her that easily, too, which would lead to the tragic love end. He knows that he isn't the best choice and isn't good enough for her to be happy. She makes him comfortable and is special in doing this, and thus deserves the best happiness she can get. He also has the priority of destroying the remainder of Adonis, and thus...

In the good end, his feelings overrode his other wishes and his reason. Love > Respect & Reason, basically. He planned to confess to her on christmas, but she did first, and you know the rest. From then on, his affections are more open, but at his core, he is a person who isn't made of honey, so he is honest, showing his natural dry self.

For Ichika, Sasazuka confessing is a sign of trust, but also something that panics her. Her feelings progressed to love earlier than him, and she called him an idiot for being so stupid. He calls himself mean and morally grey, but she knows the kindness hidden within him. He downplays all his positive sides and says all this to her, expecting her to push him away. Are you an idiot? (I already love you!) So, don't go off to do things that will hurt yourself!

Because of this, the...Sera event affected her deeply. She knew he was on the edge. She doesn't want Sasazuka to stray off. Desperate to keep him in the side of the light, she remembered how he was troubled by her crying, and the fact that he trusted her enough to confess all that. She then threatens him with her tears because...it's the only thing that made him halt and unsure.

But ye I don't have anything more to say on her front, the rest is all in the game, go play the game you heathen!

Ichika in comparison with other routes:

To discuss this, we have to discuss what part of Ichika shines in other routes. Enomoto - Cuteness, initiative, bravery and willing to confront what he was unwilling to face. Shiraishi - She showed her will strongly. Her EQ was high and saw right through him XD. She chooses not to give up on what is precious to her no matter what. She pointed out his wrongs actively. She was so...kind. And cute. Okazaki - High EQ, figured out what Kei actually wanted. Won't take his poop reasons for using her as a reason. Refuses to give up and self sacrificing without being overly so. Cuteness. Yanagi - Willing to face reality and not run away, whether it is with Yanagi or the last boss. High EQ. Takes initiative and does what she needs to do. Shows her compassionate nature and helps Yanagi forward, together. Cuteness.

As we can see, cuteness is the common factor in all of them. She shows the same in donut's route. Nuff said.

High EQ - As shown in my rambles, she shows this very well.

Compassion - yep.

Strong will - Yep, was willing to do anything to improve the situation, even if it meant buying donuts or doing other things.

One thing I think is special to Sasazuka's route is her grasp on her own limits. She knows what she can and can't do, and that's important. It's admirable. She doesn't shove her nose into matters that aren't hers, and she listens well. She is willing to admit that she isn't capable and that's important in the real world.

As for why she might not seem as exceptional...well. It's because Sasazuka is almost never doing the wrong thing, and is always trying to improve himself. Enomoto refused to accept reality. Shiraishi was blind to what he really wanted. Okazaki wanted meaning to his life in a destructive way. Yanagi was stuck in the past and is overly compassionate, so much that he could not move to act.

Sasazuka is always acting to solve the case, is self-motivated, and is grounded in reality. He is mostly a self-completing person. Though his words are sharp, he always does what is needed. He is honest. He doesn't hide his intentions. His main flaw is his true neutral alignment which does not mesh well with his trauma. Thus, he doesn't need to be changed or forced to change like the others. So she could never assume a super active role in this relationship.

For Sasazuka, Ichika represents comfort and somewhere he could properly breathe around. She is someone he respects, and he wishes her to grow into the best version of herself. They might not be equal in ability, but their mutual understanding, respect and admiration makes them treat each other as equals.

And isn't that enough? I find that to be admirable. I think she shines just as much as in other routes, just in a more realistic way rather than an active way. Valuing a more active and interactive heroine is great and all, but I think the writing in the game captures more realistic and...explicit? Not so pure? Love relatively well.

#takeru sasazuka #ichika hoshino #collar x malice

82 notes · View notes