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insanitysilver · 1 year ago

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(Hi, sorry to be awkward and barge into your inbox, but if you’re still giving writing advice, I’m hoping to get an opinion on how to let of my anxiety about writing. But if not, please feel free to ignore.)

A while back, I tried to write my own take on a character backstory for my fandom. The fandom already had a well-known and beloved backstory fic that was recced all the time for the character and that also established much of the standard fanon. So I was very insecure about my version that didn’t use the known canon and instead uses my own ideas. Still, I managed to push through my self-doubt, complete my fic, and post it. But my fic utterly bombed, no one remembers or cares about it, and even though I like the fic, I frequently think about deleting it because of how everyone ignored it and preferred the astronomically more popular fanon-fueled version. (I don’t believe kudos are a measure of quality, but I do believe they’re a measure of how much fandom wants your writing.)

The problem is that whenever I get a fic idea for any fandom at all, if my plotting/brainstorming produces ideas I know go against popular fanon, I feel like I can’t use them, or else my fic will suffer via stats. I constantly worry about if I’m writing the most popular and accepted version of the character, but it’s so frustrating that I can’t include any of my own ideas. This conflict of writing for the audience vs. writing my own ideas constantly paralyzes me, and I generally feel that if I write, the characters will just be cardboard boxes of the standard fanon. Because if I diverge from what’s popular, I might end up with another humiliating flop of a fic that most readers didn’t want or notice, and I’m not sure if I can stand the 2nd realization that I’ve been screaming into void the entire time.

What do I do here? How do I let go of past failures and start concentrating on what I can do, instead of constantly angsting about if I’m wasting my time by writing an idea that doesn’t align with what the fandom itself values?

Firstly, congratulations on publishing your backstory fic! Sounds like you had to fight your anxiety to do so, and that’s always a worthwhile victory!

Let me challenge this: “I do believe [kudos are] a measure of how much fandom wants your writing”. For this to be Good and Proper Science™, we’d need everyone in the fandom do a blind taste test with both usernames redacted and then keep a record of which everyone preferred.

But, that’s not how fics are experienced in the “wild”. Lots of Ao3 users sort by popularity metrics to find fics. Kudos accumulate so older fics have an advantage, and popularity compounds on itself. Readers aren’t making value judgements about you and your work. They just have five minutes to wait at the bus stop, so they whip out their phones and grab from the top of the metrics bag. It’s really nothing personal.

The median number of kudos on AO3 is 12 (and that’s counting works that have been around forever). I’ve been posting various forms of art on the internet for 10+ years. Most never found an audience. 1 note, 5 notes, 0 notes, a 200k word fic that I worked on for four years that approximately 3 people have read per year since (if that). And yeah, that can sting. I get it.

So, what’s the solution? My advice is two-pronged:

1.) On Wanting Fandom Recognition

A desire for internet metrics is actually a specific need in disguise. These excellent posts go into this far more eloquently:

@ao3commentoftheday's 'People Don't Actually Want Comments, They Want Community '

@sinigangsta-ao3's 'On Fandom and a Sense of Belonging Part 1' & 'Part 2'

What do you want from that fandom interaction? Prestige & respect? Encouragement? A creative peer group to bounce around ideas? The more specific you can get, the easier it will be for you to work on a solution that fills that need that isn’t reliant on the capricious whims of the greater internet.

Prestige? – These authors write a lot. Relentlessly. Also typically involved in the fandom somewhere offsite and tend to build things. Events, rec lists, secret santas.

Encouragement? – Voice this need in your relationships. Don’t have writer friends? Drag irl friends in or look out for positive fandom subgroups. If there’s a discord server, maybe ask about making a channel just to celebrate wins? If not, invite fandom ppl you’ve interacted with in and make a server of your own.

Idea Sharing? – Nearly the same as above. Groups, in my experience, thrive with something to do. I wanted to practice fundamentals more, so I dragged a group of friends in and made a writing circle where we followed a prompt to write a short story every month. At the end, we shared and critiqued each other’s work. Massively nourishing. (I can post the “curriculum” if there’s an interest.)

2.) On Writing for You

Two practices have helped me on this front. First, I put the watcher away. I make work I never intend to share. I see that blank page and say “whatever happens here is for me only, and I’m going to stick to that”. I also advise hiding your ao3 stats. [This site skin will replace your personal stats page with an image of choice]. [This site skin will hide every stat on every work except word and chapter count]. (I use both together when my brain gets naughty on me). [How to Use AO3 Site Skins]

Second, digging into what excites me. I made huge list of my favorite characters, tropes, themes, narrative tricks, everything. Found patterns. After that, you just cram as many as you can into one story until you’re obsessed with it. Until it haunts you and you simply can’t stop yourself from writing it regardless if anyone reads it.

All-in-all though, noticing your brain is pulling a fast one on you and wanting to make a change is much further then a lot of people get, so I am very serious when I say you should congratulate yourself and celebrate that. You’ve already done the hardest part. What comes next won’t be effortless, but it will be worthwhile. 🌱☀️

But, I’ve rambled enough, and I’ll open the floor up. Anyone else want to weigh in? If you have a writing buddy, how did you meet with them and how do you stay in touch?

#asks #building community

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hanshyundaiindelhi · 2 months ago

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horizon-verizon · 8 months ago

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Reposted bc of changes to the original ask/answer #3

You: “U know there is difference between keeping a normal peasent mistress and noble lady mistress? keeping a mistress is not a problem, keeping a highborn mistress is a problem. Before rebellion,Robert sleep's with a peasent women and if u see rhaegar situation, he's going to keep a f*cking stark as a mistress and again like i have said it first time, if lyanna was a peasent women or even a minor lord daughter, then elia wouldn't have any problem from rhaegar relationship.”

A woman does not mean they are mistress or a "paramour". You need to provide them some means of living or money as well as consistently go to them for intimacy/sex for them to constitute an actual mistress/"paramour."

I already explained what I thought about mistress-keeping in the specific case of Lyanna-Rhaegar and the entire Stark-Targ-Martell case (in the scenario that Rhaegar deposed Aerys successfully). You're talking in general without looking at the specific case here.

Yes, Rhaegar sleeping with OR having a noblewoman as a paramour/mistress presents more potential political problems than sleeping with a peasant.

However, when we're talking about Elia, Lyanna, and Rhaegar and the court politics that you specifically brought up to say would influence Elia into hating Lyanna or just hating Rhaegar & Lyanna's relationship, I (as of 11/1/23, semi-)disagree. Again, the court politics. BTW, court politics do not have the same settings or circumstances and actions as "politics" as those played between lords in different locations.

HOWEVER, I think Rickon Stark--Lyanna's father--would have never accepted Lyanna being Rhaegar's publicly know mistress or lover of any kind not just because she is his highborn and eminently esteemed daughter for being the scion of a Lord Paramount, but bc he arranged her to marry Robert clearly for an alliance or political bond with the Baratheons for whatever reason. He would have done what he already did if RhaegarxLyanna had "come out"; really, only his & both of Lyanna's brothers' freak deaths could have allowed Lyanna a credibal possibility of being Rhaegar's public mistress and have a relationship for Elai to be okay or not okay with.

B) [i don't think this one matters anymore; already made the change in repost above abt--ironically--the misreading of Lyanna's words vs "Northern"-unique sentiments abt bastards]

You: “I can't really understand what are you really trying to conveying to me ? That I'm bastardphobic in real life????”

I said that you do not have a grasp on how you yourself think about people born out of wedlock. So, yes. You can reread if you need to.

You: "If visenya really think that aegon was also going to be like aenys then she should have simply choose aenys other children and groomed them into a powerful ruler and keep maegor as hand of the king."

To "choose" & "groom" another of Aenys' kids to become the next monarch would still be usurping Aegon the Uncrowned because Aegon was Aenys' chosen heir, not Maegor!

And Visenya doesn't have the "legal" right to "choose aenys' other children" because in Westeros Queen Dowagers or any sort of Queen (except regnants) do not have the legal authority to choose heirs...this would still be an usurpation.

You're suggesting a usurpation...to stop the actual usurpation that happens already in canon? You're contradicting yourself, bc with your suggestion, Visenya still ends up usurping someone!

You: "Why elia as a dornish women who are already prejudice by the entire Westeros going to accept lyanna and her children wholeheartedly without any of her own benefit? I'm using the term lord paramount again and again because in Westeros coming from a higher position means more power, support and prestige that peasent people can't afford for themselves.when did I say that rhaegar is also held the prejudice against dornish?"

And I already explained why I think she could. Operative word.

It is you who refuses to actually counterargue with a different argument bc you cannot think of anything to counterargue with. Which is how you keep repeating yourself. And when you brought up Aerys' words against Rhaenys to indicate that the anti-Dornish sentiment was strong, I countered with the argument that this sentiment is not as strong or consequential as you think & gave why I thought so.

We're pretending that the Starks and Baratheons are not connected or strongly and haven't built an army against the Targs with the Arryns' support. You think that a succession crisis is inevitable between Elia's kids and Lyanna's. And you think a succession crisis is inevitable because you think that Lyanna's father/brothers would, what, push for Lyanna's kids to inherit the throne by killing Elia's kids?

Meanwhile, no, Lyanna and Rhaegar are not proven to have married in the original story (forget the show, we're talking about the actual story) and even if they had married & it was ruled/accepted enough as a "legitimate" marriage, this, more than Rhaegar having an illegitimate child with Lyanna, could have triggered more dissension and a real Stark protest against the Targs or Aerys because:

it would call into question how "valid" Valyrian marriages were in the realm of Westeros -> thus a perception of the chance of Lyanna being made the "exception" and being the second legitimate wife of the heir to the throne aside from her no longer being available to marry Robert and the final seal to a Stark-Baratheon alliance -> by your own theory, it is then Lyanna's family would try to pressure her into being a rival against Elia -> but even still, Elia's kids would always be both older than Lyanna's hypothetical kids with Rhaegar so whether they are married or not THUS every which way & regardless of gender, Lyanna's kids with Rhaegar--legitimate or not--has less claim to the throne than Elia's kids....them being bastards would give less incentive for the Starks to try to get them to be the next heirs or to kill off Elia's kids; no one would be on their side bc bastards do not ever inherit before their legitimate siblings unless they were legitimized -> they'd be more incentivized to have Rhaegar punished for "sullying" Lyanna & interrupting the Stark-Baratheon alliance through her marriage to Robert

Maegor's name would be brought up and Idk if Rhaegar really would have wanted to make things harder for himself by bringing that up for his own plans to use others' support to take the throne and keep it for himself for the long term -> which means if we go along with the idea that he'd want to make this as smooth a thing as possible for himself AND his kids if he doesn't marry Lyanna

Why do you think Rickard would want to go into actual war for Lyanna's kids to become Rhaegar's only possible heirs and become the next monarch? What about Rickard's actions show you that? He confronted Aerys specifically to get Rhaegar punished, not to stir up things for Elia. And it still doesn't prove he would try to get Lyanna's kids on the throne.

We still do not know his aims, other actions, or perception of the political climate but it certainly wasn't for his grandkids to be royals.

You: "Even a favoured lowborn peasent mistress can hold some power ,see Tytos Lannister mistress and here we are talking about a highborn noble lady mistress from a great house."

And I do not see why you haven't answered my question/addressed my statement as to why you think Lyanna would be willing to contend with Elia for her children to sit on the throne?

You keep speaking in general and with assumptions. Yet the text suggests to us that by Lyanna's own character, it is unlikely that she would actually be the plotting kind or try to fight with Elia specifically to get her bastard/legitimized/legitimate kids on the throne.

Like I said above, what makes you think Rickard Stark would want his bastard grandkid(s) to be the next monarch? And why would Lyanna--if Rickard does--be willing and follow his directions, to contend with Elia if all she really wanted was to live comfortably with Rhaegar and their kids? Lyanna, while willing to stand up for the downtrodden and wanting to be a swordswoman in some capacity herself, doesn't want war itself. Just because you can fight, doesn't mean you want to fight or will find an excuse to fight for its own sake.

Unless we're talking about Elia's calculations about Lyanna?

Again, while of course it's possible that she wouldn't like/hate the hit to her reputation or the further alienation from society (she had been bedridden after Aegon's birth), Lyanna's kids can't inherit before hers. Whether they are legitimized or existed in an unlikely legal marriage b/t her & Rhaegar. Her kids would always be younger than Elia's, so in the event that she does care about the possible rivalry b/t the kids over claims and inheritances or social graces, this is one of the only but important factors that could bring some comfort. We'll have to see how Elia felt in Winds of Winter.

I mean... Of course, Cersei hates Robert, he routinely rapes and beat her. It wouldn’t be a problem if Robert was only a cheater, he’s a wife-beater and rapist.

*EDITED POST* (3/3/24)

I assume that you are talking about this recent REBLOG I just put up about Rhaegar, Elia, Lyanna, and Tywin.

The entire point(s) of that post was to:

point out how Rhaegar's cheating was not the cause of Elia and their kids' death.

argue against the idea he was entirely or mostly responsible and also want to say that the entire dynasty's collapse was only caused by his infidelity. That such a thing could be caused by such.

argue some people have conflated Victorian (a hyperbole) family values of fidelity or their own personal past with a bigger, interconnected political condition that was a maelstrom in Rhaegar's case. While ignoring his concerted attempts to even get rid of his own father before.

argue that some people think that somehow, just staying with Elia would have prevented her death, or that it was easy to ascertain that Aerys and Tywin and everyone else would act as they did if we were him -> as I already listed in that post.

And this is what I said about Cersei:

The text never once explains or indicates how Elia herself feels about Rhaegar or Lyanna, but we have people claiming that she was emotionally wracked by this? Maybe upset for her reputation or shocked, but we still don't know who this woman was by personality, this all the guesswork based on her heritage, her health and the arrangedness of the marriage itself. One also cannot claim that she was something like Cersei was/would be, feeling totally humiliated, jilted of a perfect and glorious life, hating Rhaegar, etc. Nothing in the text gives strong evidence of that.

She is not only hateful towards Robert because he beats and rapes her (completely justified); she hates him for treating her as second place to someone she sees as inferior to herself and someone who "stole" Rhaegar from her. BUT she is hateful toward Robert & compares him to Rhaegar specifically bc for years she has wondered what life would have been like for her if she married Rhaegar instead of this man who she thought would at least appreciate her for the qualities she's told to have/be the best for a woman...but instead gets an abusive, self-deluded man who lusts for a girl who never even liked him AND was not the idea of a "perfect" woman to Cersei, but is still her competition for male favor (a woman's political key to access to power).

(*I must bring a more nuanced point about this, though and note that aside from Robert whispering some other girl's name on their wedding night, Cersei also has had an issue with not "measuring" up to the masculinized standards of competent personhood, so Robert's revealing that he wants and continues to want Lyanna over her pokes at Cersei's deepest insecurity. GameofThronesHistorian on TikTok notes how Cersei expected to marry Rhaegar after Tywin dumbly got her hopes up and she spent a lot of her time fantasizing about being with him and being Queen but he marries Elia, Aerys basically insults the entire house along with Tywin, and her hopes are dashed along with a bit of her pride ostensibly (nobles get a lot of their pride from their house identity). She finally gets to be Queen (the position dangled in front of her like a prize since childhood, snatched away, and now she "has" it back), but she discovers that the queenship doesn't make up for Robert's clear preference for the same girl "her" Rhaegar got himself supposedly killed for. When Cersei married Robert she expected to finally overcome the haunting legacy both girls left behind her own insecurities & ruined hopes. When she actually gets to be Queen, she discovers that this thing she thought would fix everything and that has been long promised to her cannot make up for the slight Robert gives her and thus traps her in a marriage that quickly becomes abusive. For someone like Cersei, who grew up hearing that she is the most beautiful person around while having almost nothing for herself other than that and later being queen as Tywin always promised to her name [bc her patriarchal society affords way less in terms of prestige, value, and recognized respect to women as it does men & boys AND makes physical features comparatively final measure of worth for girls and women], it's not that hard to see that Cersei's feelings are not baseless or totally irrational. Her already existing insecurities mushroomed into a plague that also sharpened her need to be "perfect" and counteract the feeling of never measuring up. Therefore, her classist-generated need to self-empower evolves into her stomping on others to get power and the self-satisfaction always distant from her*)

Neither her feelings nor Catelyn's for Robert/Ned cheating on them are things one could automatically guess are the exact same as Elia's toward Rhaegar being with Lyanna. Even without the beating/raping, because they are unlikely to be similar women w/exactly the same experiences.

I say this to point out that Cersei, while definitely being a victim of domestic abuse, still has a specific personality, history before him, and expectations of herself from her class position and gender. From those expectations, an idea--and the need to constantly reaffirm that idea bc of how little room it leaves one for developing a constant sense of self apart from it--of her exceptionality. Cersei is a NLOG and very much by a social-inspired inner compulsion.

What we know about Elia apart from her having kids and being married to Rhaegar comes from Oberyn and her Martell family members. And we get barely much from there (compared to other characters) aside from how she had had her own mind (her voicing her desire against a potential match by his farting). We have her in her early/mid-teens at the Lannisters wanting to see baby Tyrion and thinking/acting like she thinks him cute and witnessing child Cersei pinch baby Tyrion's penis (which already shows us a deep resentment against male privilege at such a young age and how it turned to who her father blamed for the absence of her mother). We don't have a PoV from Oberyn, so we get a few sentences of his feelings towards her in dialogue and dialogue is not as rich as the direct inner thoughts of characters. He does not have a reflective view of who Elia was as much as current/adult Ned Stark for Lyanna (who had PoVs) because he's focused on revenge. Even Ned could have thought more about other things that showcased Lyanna's personality independent of her engagement to Robert, but Oberyn seemed much more aware of who Elia was than Ned with Lyanna.

We don't know who adult Elia really is like we do Cersei, just her position, she was sick most of the time, and that she was Dornish. We do not get her life with Rhaegar, we do not get details nor suggestions in-text of her dynamic with Rhaegar as much as we get with him & Lyanna.

In a Con, GRRM has reportedly gone on to state that Elia and Rhaegar's relationship was "complex". Does this mean that there was affection but a mutual understanding that there was no deeper romance? Does this mean that if Elia were healthier, she would want to develop one with him? Either way, would she want it to be monogamous or not? Again, she's from Dorne, she's more likely to be more okay with it being an "open" marriage AND it being known Rhaegar has a side lover as she has enjoyed more body autonomy and a stronger sense of her own political autonomy from childhood.

But while she is Dornish, after she married Rhaegar she had to live in a nonDornish court in a nonDornish region while raising children, knowing that a man versus a woman having extramarital lovers are treated very differently. [a fuller explanation by dwellordream HERE]. For her own image and social standing, would she want him to be discrete even more than if they were just minor nobles? Or is she secure in the knowledge that her kids will always inherit before any of Lyanna's bastards (would she be, how likely is this) and de-prioritize how bad Rhaegar's cheating makes her look for her own safety (she nearly died the last time she gave birth)? We simply don't know for sure, even though I believe that Elia knew about Rhaegar and Lyanna bastard and wasn't against it.

this is essentially just a reception, so you could scroll past if you need. I basically free-write these things.

The answers to all these questions for Cersei are too obvious. We have Cersei's PoVs and her interactions with multiple people with both PoVs and with none--either dead or still alive by the last published book. And we get her own PoVs to draw her motivations and psychological processes and make better, credible conclusions.

Cersei's Lannister self-defensive-exceptionalist mindset feeds into her believing herself to be the paragon of any living woman, especially paramours, and mistresses. That PLUS her own need to have something close to or the same authority and power a man could have in her world, which she buys through sex, giving up some of her agency during some sexual encounters, and making herself NLOG to (mistakenly) gain men's loyalty or at least obedience to her commands. All of which is always in flux and depends on the person. To repeat myself, she very much cares about and is emotionally dependent on her nobility, her titles, her rank, her Lannister name, etc to accrue power for herself to her own detriment and to the abuse of others, which worsens or gains justification under Robert's abuse.

On the other hand, Cersei, her whole life, has been externally defined through a sexual lens. Yes, even in childhood. Sex and reproduction. She isn't a "whore" or a "slut" for then using what people used to objectify her into a weapon or device for her own intentions when she has learned that that is a direct way of accruing others' interest in her own and her kids' advancement. Cersei, while loyal & protective to her children, also--from her own experiences with powerlessnes from her gendered value in her family and society--tends to be less patient with them and be less able to address their emotional distresses. She seems abusive towards at least Tommen. And yes, in a feudal world, one can gain much political power & resources through their kids' claims and/or positions of power -> Tommen or Joffrey were kings and she could be Queen Dowager/Mother, the highest female rank a noblewoman could have...at least how GRRM wrote Westerosi society.

This is the crux of her motives: she learned that power-as-masculine AND power = male sexual dominance. Unlike the Tyrells, who have a better grasp of using both actual soft power and hard power (mostly yhr first) to maintain social dominance, Tywin is more the silent, golden rock that intimidates you into following him. Power, she learned from her father, is less diplomatic and more forceful and fear-inspired, violent, physical, and from Robert, sexual. All traditional qualified as masculine and assigned to men, who are given the privilege to hold/lead armies and wield weapons in battles:

In medieval times a woman could not bear arms; therefore a woman could not take on a role which, even symbolically, required her to carry arms. In medieval times a woman who took on an overt military role was an aberration. Lyon, A. (2006). "The place of women in European royal succession in the middle ages."

From childhood, she absorbed this ideology and "decided" to essentially prove she was "not like the other girls." And the loss of her mother to childbirth, how her father never truly coped, would have had her rush to gain his love, and when that didn't work, to gain his respect. But she is female, so Tywin never will. She learned that being anything "feminine" is inherently "weak", and so she tried her entire life to differentiate herself from the "weak" women around her. Cersei is the ultimate NLOGs.

She gave up her sexual agency for her children (yes, the same ones who she abused at one point) to shore up defenses for their/her own position and safety, as she wouldn't in a hundred years have sex with some people willingly if it did not come with the expectation of their support, resources, etc. Class/masculinity-perceived-through-hypersexuality is to her, strength even as it puts her at a disadvantage as a woman, as she's that much more open to scandal if the odds go out of her favor and the Lannisters lose much of their power and the others' fear of them.

She imagines herself as Robert/in the male/"dominant" position (she herself imagines that position as male, the place of power she internalized as prime her whole life) when she's sexually rubbing and fingering Taena of Myr. She continues to finger her painfully despite Taena protesting in pain, thus herself becoming a sexual abuser so she can feel the power and defy Robert/men. Power that she learns directly resides in using sexual ties or performing sexual abuses. Taena also, as Cersei's "spy" on Margarey, and as one far beneath her rank, is also a person who acts as socially lower than Cersei herself, which feeds into Cersei's ego. So Cersei banks much of herself and self-worth on her class to a dangerous fault.

She has basically felt compelled to buy into that exceptionalism at full speed to compensate for her lack of power and feelings of inferiority from that lack. Cersei is rather a pretty complicated woman, while also being very simple. Her class position as aristocratic and Queen Dowager/Mother and her desire for power in the aristocratic space are directly related and inspired by her long sexual objectification. This is where gender and class intersect. Her hatred of Robert is obviously justified and comes from her long struggle to gain and keep autonomous power from men; that doesn't mean that she also doesn't eventually use her class and internalize female inferiority as her final crutch.

Cersei's personality and her abuse from others and against others are two related and unique things informing each other from her young childhood, especially evidenced by her thoughts and actions of her youth before she married Robert, how her father & those others around her treated her, and her observations of the events before Robert rebelled concerning women's abilities. Elia is, by contrast, a silent victim so it's easier to project a lot onto her the way it isn't for Cersei. Or Catelyn.

Even with the societal setup of misogyny put up against her since birth and her trying to collect power for herself, the consequences of how she does it, the carelessness of it, and the losing control of her impulses are going to be reasons for her downfall anyway.

#elia martell #rhaegar targaryen #lyanna stark #westerosi society #asoiaf infidelity #elia and rhaegar #lyanna and rhaegar #the starks #asoiaf asks to me #agot characterization #elia martell's characterization #lyanna stark's characterization

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emprexxluxaic · 2 years ago

Text

YOUR FUTURE SPOUSE

Pick A Picture

disclaimer: i don't own any of these images that used for this reading,i just saved them from pinterest & credits to the rightful owners . Tarot Card reading can't predict the future at all , it all based on your current energy & to your other person energy. takes what resonate & leave doesn't .this is made just for fun & remember the decisions is all up to you and your the one who can your create your future.

● how to choose?take a deep breath & take a look to each pile & choose which pile you feel drawn too:))

CHOOSE A PILE FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

IMAGE 1

Your Future Spouse POSITIVE TRAITS

quick

versatile

adaptable

free-spirited

energetic

well traveled

flexible

experimental

social

adventurous

Your Future Spouse POSSIBLE NEGATIVE TRAITS

irresponsible

over-indulgent

disrespectful

impatient

restless

distracted

Reading for your FUTURE SPOUSE

I see here someone who attracts strong, powerful and famous people with a high will-power and a stable character , can be both a gift and a punishment. The one who support or the provider for financial of the relationship(especially if your soulmate is a he).They may have work in entertainment or behind the scenes they prefer to work in secret service or not in public eye. People appreciate their good judgement like they know how to determine the truth and the falsehood.They can be friendly and they have alot of friends,can be trustworthy and reliable lovers and soulmates as well.This is someone generous and they are willing to serve people who surround them,they can be patient and ask right question or know how to calm down people.They may work as a teacher / counsellor or they will like to teach you the things they knew,they are honest and faithful whether in relationship and work/bussiness partnership. They prefer to choose lover who face obstacles in life and someone who can kept a secret who cannot be shared to anyone.Their family have a spot to their heart when it comes to needs they tend to stop to being selfish and become empathetic,they tend to give up their interests and may suffer for the sake of other benifits.They spend their money carefully if they living alone,it's important to them to live in peaceful place so that they have focus to concentrate and to do whatever they want and that makes them feel happy.They learns how to keep right distance to people so that others may respect their privacy.They don't like routine,as well making them have limits on what they do and must work where there's no limitations.They don't believe that money can buy happines but gaves you freedom and makes doors to open new chances.Most of people who choose this pile their soulmate can be work in entertainment industry like actors,singers,dancers and so on and so forth,also in sales/businesses and the rest are working in medical jobs(especially medical doctors).They can be happy too in fields of psychology and counselling,also in authority position or a teacher who writes books about leadership.They are too generous because whenever they have money they gave it to less fortunate family members and friends.For this people giving is a give and also a lesson to share from others.In some cases your soulmate is quite attrative and also shrewd and canny.For some reason he could experience heart breaks in past relationship maybe because their lover doesn't love them enough that makes them lose of interest and feeling and the best way to get rid of this hurtful feelings is to read postive books about love or even by writing.They can be confident and self-assured.They know what is the best for.They can be an excellent leaders and also parent.

🌱 : Extra messages : Capricorn , Aquarius , Pisces , Aries , Taurus , Gemini , Cancer , Leo , Virgo , wisdom , travel , quick thinker , business minded , generous , fun-loving , faithful , romantic , consciousness in money , prestige , illusion , irresponsibility , power , obsession , fear , glamour and foreign investments.

🌱 : Song For You :

🌱 : Hello there my dear pile 1 , hope y'all enjoy this reading.You can follow me for upcoming pac readings.If you have questions or any suggestions you can ask in my ask box or you can direct message me,thanks💚💚😘

IMAGE 2

Your Future Spouse POSITIVE TRAITS

caring

giving

well mannered

harmonious

conscientious

humanitarian

supportive

artistic

kind

fair

protective

romantic

balanced

nurturing

Your Future Spouse POSSIBLE NEGATIVE TRAITS

too passive

worrisome

self-righteous

emotionally needy

stiff

overly idealistic

whining

Reading for your Future Spouse

For some reason my dear pile 2 you wanted to choose pile 1,so here let's dig your reading.i see someone who likes to inspire others by creating things from small things.They are independent and entrepreneurial skills, they can make great success in leadership roles.This is someone who develop their strong will to overcome the challenges of their life during in early years.They may be gifted or may love to do arts,dancing,studying languages and science since they were young(they maybe intellegent as well).This is someone who is kind and other people might take it for granted or may use them for their own desires and when the moment they realize it they tend to be selfish and judmental.They have something on their voice when they're talking like they might have deep or soft voice.They can inspire others through their bright and smart ideas.They may have desire or yearning to help other who are less unfortunate or people who seeking for help.They might own a pet or an animal lover or they want to build a charity for animals.They might like the idea or imagine being hero to someone more often in family members and to their friends(even to you too who pick this pile) and there's possibility that your FS might have 2 jobs . They may like to travel often. They like dancing,music and poetry or even acting(a celebrity?).They are successful and their success may come from meeting new people who inspire them.A good communicator they may work in industries where interactions is required.They may have psychic ability or vice versa.They may be foreign or lives away from your home/where you live.For some they may like to stay close to you,to their work and travel together.They really love to travel and there's possibity that you will meet them while they are travelling.Like i said they like the idea of being a hero - so they might save you from loneliness.If your FS is male they may have alot of crush ( like every women they met ) but when they fell inlove to you deeply they spend there whole life to you and will remain faithful.Your FS is someone charming too and may bd good at mathematics.They want someone who can love them unconditionally ( if not they lose interest in love/ relationship ),they like to explore whether it's different and new for them.They may love to read books, writing journals,fixing schedule etc or reading postive books about love change their perspective.Your FS is really truthful person and don't want to ignore their responsibilities.They may sport or likes to play sport,your FS may work on military,on goverment sectors,politics,law(lawyer/ attorney), even in medical field or even a influencer/vlogger.A family oriented person who are devoted to their home life and family.They may own a business too.

🌱 : Extra messages: Fire sign/element(Aries,Leo,Sagittarius) , Water signs/element(Cancer,Scorpio,Pisces) , Taurus , Virgo ,Gemini , independent , determination , negotiation , balance , influence , school , money and worth , bright , curious , pessimistic , sefish , achieve , goals , career change at 39 to 52yrs old , communication , intelligent , warm , friendly , adventurer , chance , and gamble.

🌱 : Song For You ;

🌱 : Hello there my dear pile 2 , hope y'all enjoy this reading.You can follow me for upcoming pac readings.If you have questions or any suggestions you can ask in my ask box or you can direct message me,thanks💚💚😘

IMAGE 3

Your Future Spouse POSITIVE TRAITS

intuitive

perceptive

gifted

supernatural

sensitive

emotionally intelligent

Your Future Spouse POSSIBLE NEGATIVE TRAITS

anxious

overly worried

unfocused

stressed

Reading for your FUTURE SPOUSE

Right off the bat i'm getting someone who is genius as the same time a millionaire(if not financially stable) that may come from inheretance/gift/hardwork but they have some fears like everyone do,they fear of not having enough money, fear in failure , fear of being abandoned and left alone .There's something about their family or your family.They can be stubborn.Wow,this person is really successful and they attract riches.They may suffer to anxiety due to think they're not enough/have not enough.This is someone who can fulfill all of their dreams.They remain responsible to work for their family.This is someone who is really talented and may change position/profression more often,like they got the higher position in their work then suddenly they want to resign and start a new work.They want to leave where is there birth place / home town or vice versa, then travel alot and become independent.I see someone who likes to teach so they may work as teacher/professor or bussiness wo/man.This is someone who is fully developed intuition , clever who has fast reaction.Through travelling they may want to revive their minds and may gain inspiration to it.This is someone curious and has desire for more knowledge.They may be famous as well ( in community standard not a celeb ) , they celebrate there birthday happily and cheerfully and many visitors.They can be good at public speaking and they're really friendly that even in short period of time thay can make friends.Often invited as VIP- when they're invited in large gatherings/event . For some reason you will be friends that turns to lovers,your fs is attracted to someone who have the same views as them,loving, creative, adventurous people.

🌱 : Extra Messages : January 1 ,Earth Signs (Taurus,Virgo, Capricorn) , Aries , Leo , wisdom , potential , power , leadership , noble , failure , challenges , teach/learn , opportunity , mastery , affairs , one night stand , 5-7yrs , balance , smoothly , stability , and suffer

🌱 : Song For You :

🌱 : Hello there my dear pile 3 , hope y'all enjoy this reading.You can follow me for upcoming pac readings.If you have questions or any suggestions you can ask in my ask box or you can direct message me,thanks💚💚😘

IMAGE 4

Your Future Spouse POSSITIVE TRAITS

strong-willed

rebellious

self-reliant

assertive

ambitious

decisive

original

strong

Your Future.Spouse POSSIBLE NEGATIVE TRAITS

aggressive

boastful

selfish

domineering

arrogant

impulsive

intimidating

self centered

Reading for your FUTURE SPOUSE

This is the shortest pile in this reading and finally my dear pile 4 let's get in to your reading.Right off the bat i see your FS might be a good thinker and a fast learner.If your FS is feminine they may have emotional problems because of their family and worries but may help there husband or encourage them to join in family bussiness and if this is masculine they willing to sacrifice everything for the future of his child and gave them good education.This is someone who is intellegent and may knows your motives before you say or do it.They might be a loner; a bit introverted and somehow act weird or strange but tend to be very good and loyal friend.They may have problems regarding to their health because of mistrust to doctors(like don't want to consult to a doctor).and I see this person have good judgement and positive attitude and that's all your reading my dear pile 4.

🌱 : Extra Messages : Air Signs(Libra , Aquarius , Gemini ) , 333 , financial obligation , resist to change , wise , business associate , doctors or healers , and teachers , magnetic personality , greater , jealousy , gossip , unrealiable friends

🌱 : Song for you ;

𓂃𓊝𓄹𓄺

Hi there my dear lovelies go and check out my masterlist for other pac readings,xoxo💚💚💚

PARTICIPATE IN MY YES OR NO EVENT HERE

#Spotify #future spouse pick a card #future spouse #pick a card #pac reading #pick a card readings #pick a card reading #pick a pile #pick an image #tarot reading #tarotblr #pick a deck

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what-the-witch-stuff · 4 years ago

Text

Allright. Elliott thread that nobody asked for. Part 4

The words you read seem to be some alien gibberish? Try these first:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Don’t worry guys. It will be over soon, I promise.

Bevore we start: This happened yesterday.

And I basically turned into that iCarly gif, where she’s on the Computer, sippin’ her drink and goes: interesting.

Because look who we have here. Our future husband acting all self-aware? Right after I assumed in my last post that he never talks about the possibility of his failure...

Elliott, do you know that I talk shit about you on Tumblr?

Please stop breaking the 4th wall...

To safe at least some of my ‘credibility’, he followed this up with something along the lines of:

“No, no...I am not fishing for compliments. Which does not mean I don't appreciate them ;) “.

Sure. Whatever.

In comparison to that:

A few in-game days previously, I had a cut-scene with Leah, where the player can suggest that she should organise an art show. And there, Leah openly communicated her fears of ppl not liking her art. I was surprised about how open she was, given that it was probably her 2nd heart event or something (?). It's interesting, how Leah (who I perceived to be more reserved than Elliott), was so willing to let us know about her insecurities. Meanwhile, Elliot seems to brush these thoughts aside rather quickly and returns to his nonchalant, graceful self.

I always thought that from the two of them, it might be Elliott who is more vocal about his emotions. But now, Elliott doesn't seem to wear his heart on his sleeves as much as I thought he would. Which changed the way I think about him quite a bit. Maybe he is more likely to hide behind platitudes and a self-assuring smile, after all.

And what can we take from this, when we would want to write, let’s say a scene with Leah/Elliott friendship dynamic?

What do you guys think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyways, before I was so disgracefully exposed, I was roasting Elliott’s life choices. To which I now gladly return to.

You see, the "issue" I see with Elliott is, that he plays into a trope:

The brooding hermitic author, who turned his back onto society in favour of finding inspiration in nature.

While this might sound thrilling and "romantic", we know that Elliott is not the best candidate to conform to this lifestyle. Just compare, how we as the player, manage to form quite strong relationships with everyone in Pelikan Town just by talking to them regularly.

We see Elliott outside the beach-area quite often. But aside from Leah, he does not seem to interact with anyone much. I don't know if there are statements about Elliott made by other characters, to have some inkling on how they feel about him. But its quite remarkable, how all other friendships outside to his connection with Leah, are not explicitly known as canon (?).

After a whole year living in this town, previous to our arrival, I would suggest, that Elliott might still be very much an outsider. He even remarks how, with our arrival, it will be nice, to no longer be "the new guy" in town.

But the problem with that might have been Elliott's reservedness, to begin with. Polite, but yet, maybe, quite impersonal. All pleasantries and platitudes as mentioned above. It all plays into Elliott's refusal to experience the comforts of a normal lifestyle in favour of pursuing his art.

And I love how Elliott just brushes that aside as if its nothing. I'd really love to know: what would have been his plan b, if his debut failed?

Worst case cenario: What would he'd done, if he ended up stranded in Pelikan Town, penniless and unsuccessful?

Where would he go? Is there a place he can return to? A previous home, previous friends?

I don't think so.

But, dedicated, impuslive, sweet, dumb Elliott just thought to himself:

“I can do that. How bad can it be???, it will be fi~ne.It will be marvellous!

Authentic, truly!

It will be superb pictouresque and that is all I need to write my novel....”

Thanks Yoba. You’ll keep doing that please.

And then we also have interactions of the likes of:

“People have scaped a living off the sea for thousands of years....

I just go to the grocery store.”

A different thought I had on Elliott kind of plays into what I already said previously. But I will adress it as its own topic.

The downside of Elliott’s ego.

As much as we explored the rather whacky / chaotic elements of his character and how he does stupid shit for prestige itself, it is interesting to see what happens when the player challenges his self-dramatisation.

I keep re-thinking if and to what degree Elliott can laugh about himself.

He is not one for self-deprecating humour, I think.

I can imagine that to be more Shane’s thing.

We see different scenarios, in which Elliott reacts differently to things not going his way. One of the positives is the whole “A tiny crab made a home inside his coat pocket”- story. I have seen two interpretations of this scene. And both are dependent on the tone, in which you read his dialogue. One group thinks he is just complaining yet again.

On the other hand, you could read it more like:

“My, look what we have here. Can you believe that [y/name]?!“.

I think that Elliott does not appear to be angry or annoyed at all in that scenario, too. He could have vented to the player, how he needs a new coat, now. But he simply leaves it at that. And you know what?

But, there are other times, where Elliott reacts negatively to the player not doing what he wants you to do. Meaning: your reaction to him or your behaviour in a specific situation. Let's look at his 2nd (?) heart event at the Stardrop Saloon. He comes up to the bar, finds himself in the mood for company, and orders wine for you and ale for himself.

New Headcanon:

That little crab still lives there! It will probably live there long after you two get married. And he will feed it scraps from the dinner table even though you ask him not to.

Whatever...Sounds Cute.

My first reaction to that was: “aw, wHaT a GeNtLemAn!!!”. My second reaction was my inner feminist having a temper tantrum because: “how dare a man, to assume what I want to drink!”

New Headcanon on Elliott and gender roles, anyone? Or is it given, that with him being a good old fashioned lover boy, his expectation on any relationship dynamic might be more traditional?

As much as I find Elliott charming and all, this could be a great red flag and, again, beautiful material for character-conflict. Maybe Elliott needs to learn to not take everything at face value. Maybe he needs to learn, how to take a joke. Especially those made at his expense.

However, when the question arises, what the two of you should drink on, he will not laugh if you say “your doom”.

This is not something he sees as sarcasm or as a joke. In fact, you lose 50 friendship points! Like holy shit. That in itself is not much, but its a game-penalty. He is actively reacting negatively toward you. This is one of the few times, where your decision actively has an impact on the friendship-metre. Of course, that statement could be delivered in a non-joking matter. Which then justifies his reaction.... sure.

But even the fact that Elliott chooses, to not downplay or gloss-over your comment, leaves me with the following interpretation:

He hoped for a charming, flirtatious interaction. All you had to do, was to play along. But you ruined it.

Just imagine a situation with a little bit of miss-communication and a version of Elliott that is a little too proud for his own good and *chef's kiss* we have drama.

Me to Elliott and Farmer-OC: fight! fight! fight! fight! :D

All of you reading right now:

omg can't you just chill??? We are here for the fluff :(((

Also: depending on how it's written, that could be one of Elliott's major character flaws. The one that is not cute at all!

__________________________

I wanted to take some jabs at Elliott's likes and dislikes. But as it turned out: Yes, you can turn Duck feathers into quills. I had this funny headcanon that Elliott wanted to be extra special by choosing duck feathers as his preferred writing instrument. And I was all like: “use a pen!!”.

But then I found out about the Unobtainable Weapons-List and Elliott’s pen is one of them. Okay, whatever.

And then I asked google how to make quills. And while duck feathers are not the preferred or most popular option, there is also nothing that would speak against it, as long as the feather’s shaft is durable enough. So that theory has flown out of the window pretty quickly as well.

The only thing that comes to my mind instead is, how Elliott would still need a digital manuscript for publishing. But me screaming: “Where is your Laptop Elliott??? You need a computer! Its the 21 century!!!” is not half that funny anymore.

I guess I’ll end it here.

I hope you enjoyed this completely useless stream of consciousness.

I will now continue playing Stardew Valley and indulge in all my other quarantine-born obsessions.

I wish you a wonderful day and happy farming.

#stardew valley #stardew elliott #sdv #sdv headcanons #stardew valley headcanons #sdv elliott #elliott stardew valley #stardew valley elliott #elliott sdv #elliott stardew #it ends there #i am done #byebye #sdv fanfic

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derekfoxwit · 3 years ago

Text

Doctor Dorpden’s Critical Tips of Prestige

Note: This post was made with satirical intentions in mind. I’m only emphasizing because I’ve had a couple of comments on previous joke posts I’ve did take it seriously. With that said, here we go.

Tip 1: For starters, remember that when looking at the work, if the Mystic Knee twitches fast enough to punch a hole in a wall, this suggests that the work should be near the lowest of the low. No further development of opinion is needed.

Tip 2: For an equal degree of sophistication, give the warm comfort of nostalgia at least 5 times more chances than the new thing that MAY seem actually poggers.

Tip 3: If you have the anecdote of encountering shitty fans, then use them as a scapegoat for the show they flaunt over being shitty. Clearly, they’re always making the show the way it is.

Tip 4: If you haven’t heard much about a newer film or show you’re yet to watch, there’s an 85% chance that film or show is actually not worth your time. The Father (2020) isn’t as widespread as Joker (2019) for a reason.

Tip 5: At this point, just go for the Asian Artist Dick. I’m actually in the mood to see merit in that because I want to look edgy against cute doodles. Stop attacking Uzaki-Chan, you cowards!

Tip 6: Avoid the electronic tunes. They’ll make you smell like a bum, for there’s no structural in a music album that’s nothing but wubs.

Tip 7: If you see a Tweet that looks dumb, use it as a means of generalizing all the fans of a work as sharing that same opinion.

Tip 8: If the cartoon I’m given doesn’t provide me with mature ideas such as slicing an Arbok in half or fake boobs, then the cartoon might as well be on the same level as Teletubbies.

Tip 9: You know the music is (c)rap when it brings up drugs, regardless of lyrical context.

Tip 10: Raw mood is the indicator of quality cartooning. If you’re quick to assume the worst in the newest HBO Max original cartoon, then you got thyself a stinker. Same thing if you were super bummed out when watching a new thing, regardless of anecdotal context.

Tip 11: When you’re not given continuous throwbacks, ensure you’re as reductive and over-generalizing about the works shown as possible.

Tip 12: If your hazy and imperfect as hell recollection of a children’s film, whether it’s Wall-E or Lilo & Stitch, would describe said film as “too sugary” or “key-waving schlock”, then that HAS to be the case. No meat on that bone whatsoever.

Tip 13: Simpler, more graphic style that isn’t as realistic as old-school Disney or Anime? You got yourself a lazy style with zero passion put into it.

UPA? Who’s THAT?!

Tip 14: Don’t trust anyone saying that western children’s cartoons had any form of artistic development after 2008 (with, like, TWO exceptions). If it did, why didn’t we go from stealing organs in a 2001 cartoon to showing opened stomachs in a 2021 cartoon?

Tip 15: Big booba is always important to the strong female character’s quality.

Tip 16: Only MY ships count, for they provide me with a feeling of intelligence.

Tip 17: “PG-13″ and “R” rating just simply mean you’re not caring for expressing themes in a sophisticated manner. It’s just THAT simple until I dictate otherwise.

Tip 18: In this age of smelly radicals, “Death of the Author” is more important than ever. Without it, this’ll imply that a classic like The Matrix was secretly toxic, due to what the Wachowskis have to say about it being an “allegory of trans people.”

Tip 19: Turn the fandoms you hate into your torture porn. Ask in Tweets to Retweet one sentence that’d “trigger” them. Go out of your way to paint all of them as blind consoomers. That’ll show them, and it’ll show how much more intelligent you are compared to those clowns.

Tip 20: Whatever the Mystic Knee dictates upon the first viewing of a work is what shall indicate the full structural extent of the film.

Tip 21: The mindset of a 2000s edgelord is one that actually understands the artistry of the medium of animation. Listen to that crazy but ingenious man.

Tip 22: Because sheer ambition makes me feel manly, the high pedestal you bestow upon a cartoon work should be based mostly on the mere mention or mere suggestion of serious topics. This means that pure comedy is smelly.

Tip 23: Is the new work tackling subjects that you’ve loved a childhood work of yours for covering? Just assume it’s super bare-bones in that case compared to the older case, for there’s nothing the older work can do to truly prove itself otherwise. Seriously, Letterboxd. Stop giving any 2010s cartoon anything above a 4/5

Tip 24: If the Mystic Knee is suggesting that the work is crummy, then consider any explanation off the top of your head for why the work in question is crummy.

Tip 25: Sexual and gender identity is inherently political, so don’t focus on them in the story. It’s no wonder why Full Metal Alchemist has caught on more than the She-Ra reboot.

Tip 26: Since I got bothered by a random butt monkey type character in a crummy cartoon, I’m now obligated to assume that having a butt monkey will only harm the writing integrity of the cartoon.

Seriously, Mr. Enter....what?!

Tip 27: We’re at a point where pure comedy for a kids’ cartoon is doing nothing but dumbing down the children. Like seriously...... I doubt Billy and Mandy would ever use farts as a punchline, unlike these newer kids comedies.

Tip 28: The difference between the innuendo in kids’ cartoons I grew up on and the ones Zootopia made is the sense of prestige they give me. Just take notes from the former instead.

Tip 29: Wanna make a work of artistic merit? Just take notes from the stuff I whore out to. It’s just THAT simple until I dictate otherwise.

Tip 30: Always remember this golden rule: If the newer work, or a work you’ve recently experienced the first time, was truly great, why isn’t it providing the exact emotions from your younger, more impressionable years?

Tip 31: If the Mystic Knee aims to break the bones of a character doing certain things (.i.e. having body count of thousands; lashing out to character; etc.), that means the character is bad and deserves no redemption.

Tip 32: If you want me to believe there’s any intrigue or depth in your antagonist, give them redemption, for I am in need of that sorta thing being spelled out. Looking at you, Syndrome. Should’ve taken notes from Tai Lung.

Tip 33: In a case where you’re going “X > Y” (.i.e. manga compared to western comics), ALWAYS CHERRY PICK! Use the recent controversies of the “Y” item while pretending that the “X” item has never had anything of the sort.

Tip 34: BEFORE you bring up those comments that shat on the original Teen Titans cartoon back when it was new, whether for making Starfire “more PC” or whatever.......the DIFFERENCE between them and me is that THEY were just bad faith fools that couldn’t see true majesty out of blind rage. I, however, am truly certain that calling any western TV cartoon from 2014-onward a work that transcends its generation suggests a destruction of the medium.

Tip 35: Based on fandom growth, it shows that any newer show isn’t being watched much by kids, but rather loser adults that act like children. Therefore, there’s more prestige in what I grew with.

Tip 36: The focus on children is bad at this point since the children of today have attention spans that flies would have.

Tip 37: A select few screenshots (or even one) of either a less elaborate attacking animation, less realistic game graphics, or a less on-model image in a cartoon indicates EVERYTHING about the work’s quality.

Tip 38: Consuming or writing media where characters go through constant suffering is little more than gaining pleasure out of it. YOU SICKOS!

Looking at you, Lily Orchard!

Tip 39: Whether it’s a sexual awakening story or just simply a romance, focus on a character being lesbian, trans, bi, etc., then it shouldn’t be in a kids’ work. It’s too spicy for them by default. Kids don’t want romance anyway.

Tip 40: The very idea of a western cartoon with no full-blown antagonist (i.e. Inside Out) is a destruction of animated artistry. Sorry, but it’s just THAT simple until I dictate otherwise.

Tip 41: Unless it’s my fluffy pillow, such as Disney’s Robin Hood, it should be obligated to assume the inserting of anthros is only there to pleasure the furries. Looking at YOU, Zootopia!

Tip 42: With how rough and rash The Beast was, it shows that he was more of an abusive lover. Therefore, I refuse to believe that Beauty and the Beast has any of the meticulous moral writing that most of Disney’s other 90s films has.

Tip 43: When you suggest one work should’ve “taken notes” from another work in order to do better, BE VAGUE! Those who agree will be shown to be geniuses.

Tip 44: Remember how morally grey Invader Zim was? That really goes to show how little the Western Animation scene has been trying since that show. Really should just be taking notes from that series (and of course anime).

Tip 45: Even if I have a radar that clearly indicates such, hiding the item I look for inside an enemy is always bad, for I refuse to believe it would be inside the enemy.

Goddamn it, Arin!

Tip 46: People struggle understanding your gender identity or pronouns? All there is to see in that is a giant cloud of egotism that reads “My problems” zapping another smaller cloud that reads “other people’s problems”. Seriously, kids are starving, so WHAT if you identity confused someone. Grow a spine!

Tip 47: Stop pretending that adaptations should colorize how a story or comic series should be defined. No way in FUCK can a cartoon or film incarnation become the definitive portrayal of my precious superhero idol.

Tip 48: Enough with your precious “limited animation” techniques, YOU WESTERN HACKS! All you’re doing is admitting to sheer laziness and lacking artistic integrity. Now if you excuse me, I’ll be watching more anime, since that gives me a sense of prestige.

Tip 49: If getting five times more detail than the 2D animated visuals have requires someone getting hurt, so be it. No pain, no gain after all.

Tip 50: Yes, I genuinely struggle to believe there’s this majestic level of layered material without having the most immediate yet still vague re-assurance practically yelling in my face. But that’s STILL the work’s fault, not mine.

Tip 51: Every Klasky-Csupo cartoon has more artistic integrity than any of them cartoons with gay lovers such as Kipo or the Netflix She-Ra show.

Tip 52: If Sergio Pablos’ Klaus is anything to go by, we have no excuse to utilize those smelly as fuck digital animation “styles” found on Stinky Universe, Suck-Ra or Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turds.

Tip 53: Stop projecting your orientation onto works of actual talent. Seriously, how does Elton John’s I’m Still Standing expel ANY rainbow flag energy?

Tip 54: Hip hop and electronica have been the destruction of music, especially the kind that’s actually organic and not farting on the buttons of a beeping or drumming gadget.

Tip 55: The audience for cartoons has become significantly less clear over the years. We should just go back to Saturday mornings of being sold toys or shit kids actually want.

Tip 56: PSAs for kids shouldn’t be about ‘woke’ content. They should be actual problems such as doing drugs; not playing with knifes / outlets / matches; or acceptance.

Tip 57: The instant you realize a detail in a childhood work that’s better understood as an adult, you’re forced to paint that work as the most transcendent thing in the world. It’s just THAT simple until I dictate otherwise.

Tip 58: Before you lash out on ALL rich people, remember this: #Not All Rich People.

Tip 59: There’s nothing to gain out of the (c)rap scene other than becoming a spiteful, gun-wielding thug that sniffs weed for breakfast.

Tip 60: Since the Mystic Knee told me to get anal about prom episodes in several gay cartoons, this shows that writing about one’s younger experiences just makes you look pathetic.

Tip 61: Another smelly thing about Zootopia is how it was painting a police chief as stern and exclusive. #Not All Chiefs

Tip 62: Me catching a glimpse of Grave of the Fireflies as a kid and turning out fine shows that you may as well show kids more adult works without worry. No amount of psychological questions being asked will suggest otherwise.

Tip 63: There’s a reason why the Mystic Knee keeps leaning more toward the 90s and early 2000s than most decades. That knee KNOWS where there’s a sense of true refinement.

Tip 64: The BIG difference between rock and electronica? Steward Copeland actually DRUMS. All that the likes of Burial, Boards of Canada, Depeche Mode and several others did was push drum buttons.

Tip 65: One exception to the golden nostalgia is when the work in question doesn’t stuff your face with fantastical, bombastic stories. At which point, there can only be rose-colored blinds covering Nickelodeon’s Doug. Nothing of merit or personal resonance to be found.

Tip 66: Remember that the sense of nuance in the work comes down to there being everything including the kitchen sink, whether it involves multiple geographic landscapes; giving us hundreds of characters; etc. Only through the extremes will I be able to tell there is nuance.

Tip 67: Once you see a joke that has an involvement with sexual or violent content, just ignore the full picture and just reduce it to having nothing to it but “sex, violence, gimme claps.”

PKRussel has entered the chat

Tip 68: With all the SJWs messing up the art of comedy, lament the times where you could be called a comic genius, NOT a monster, for shouting out the word “STAB,” calling a gay weird, painting Middle Easterns as inherently violent, etc.

Tip 69: Guitar twang will always win out over (c)rap beats. There’s a reason your grandma is more likely to listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd than Kendrick Lamar.

Tip 70: Once the Mystic Knee notices a lack of squealing at the video game with linearity, that shows there’s more artistry in going full-blown open world.

Tip 71: Related to Tips 66 and 68, ensure your comedy gets as much information and mileage out of each individual skit as possible. EMPHASIZE if you need to. Continuously spout out your quirky phrase of “STAB” if needed.

Tip 72: Based on the onslaught of TV shows with many seasons and episodes, animated or otherwise, it shows that there’s more worth going for that than simply having a miniseries or a 26-episode anime.

Tip 73: Building off of the previous tip, you’re better off squeezing and exhausting every little detail and notable characterization rather than keeping anything simple and possibly leaving a stone unturned, especially if there’s supposed to be a story.

Tip 74: Playing through the fan translation of Mother 3 made me realize how much some newer kids’ works just try too hard to get serious. Why even make the kids potentially think about the death of a family member?

Tip 75: The fear I had over Sid’s toys from the first Toy Story and similar anecdotal emotions are the be-all indicators of what kind of show or film is fitting for the children.

Tip 76: Seeing this British rapper chick have a song titled “Point and Kill” just further exemplifies the fears I’ve had about rappers being some of the most harmful folks ever.

Tip 77: The problem with attempting to make a more “relatable” She-Ra is that kids aren’t looking for relatability. They want the escapism of buff fighters or something similar. This is why slice-of-life is so smelly.

Tip 78: Based on seeing the rating of “PG-13″ or “R,” I can tell that the dark humor is little more than “hur dur sex and guns.” Given the “TV-Y7 FV” rating of Invader Zim, the writers should’ve taken notes from that instead just so I can sense actual prestige.

Tip 79: The original He-Man has more visual intrigue in its animation than any of those smelly glorified doodles found in the “styles" of the 2010s and early 2020s.

Tip 80: It’s always the fault of the game that my first guess (that I refuse to divert from) on how I have to go through an obstacle won’t work.

Tip 81: Zootopia discussing prejudice ruins the majestic escapism I got from my precious childhood films from 1991-2004. Them kids might as well be watching the news. Now to watch some Hunchback after I finish these tips.

Tip 82: There is no such thing as an unreasonable expectation, and there’s especially no wrong way to address the lack of met expectations! For example, if you expect some early 2010s cartoon on the Disney Channel to be a Kids X-Files, yet you get moments such as some girl getting high on stick dipping candy, you got the right to paint the worst out of that show for not being “Kids’ X-Files.”

Tip 83: Related to my example for Tip 82, if you get the slightest impression of something being childish, you know you got yourself a children’s work that does little than wave keys and has basically nothing substantial for them. In this situation, those malfunctioning robots found in Wall-E are the guilty party.

Tip 84: Without the extensive dialogue that I’m used to getting, how can one say for certain there was any amount of characterization in the title character of Wall-E?

Tip 85: Ever noticed yourself gradually being less likely to expect an upcoming work or view a work you’re just consuming as “the next best thing”? That’s ALWAYS the fault of smelly “artists” (hacks really) and their refusal to give a shit.

Tip 86: It’s obligatory for your lead to be explicitly heroic just so there is this immediate re-assurance that they’re a good one.

Tip 87: Without the comforting safety net of throwbacks, one cannot be for certain that there has been an actual evolution of a series or the art of animation and video games.

Tip 88: Don’t PSA kids on stuff they give zero fucks about. That means no gender identities or pronouns, race, etc.

Tip 89: Don’t listen to Mamoru Hosoda saying that anime women tend to be “depicted through a lens” of sexual desire. He’s just distracting from the superior prestige found in anime women.

Tip 90: If you’re desperate to let others know that your talking points are reasonable, just repeat them over and over with little expansion on said talking points.

Tip 91: 7 or more seasons of art is better than 26 episodes of art. EVERY TIME!

Tip 92: Always remember to continuously talk up the innuendo and mature subject matter of the childhood work as the most prestigious, transcendent thing of all time. With that in mind, there’s a high chance that your favorite childhood work will be better known than Perfect Blue (1997), and there’s likely a reason for that.

Tip 93: An art style that gives many characters relatively more realistic arm muscle details will always shine through more than any sort of art style done for “simplicity” (laziness, really).

Tip 94: Seeing a few (like, even VERY FEW) people show more enthusiasm for Steven Universe over Invader Zim really shows the lower bar that has been expected out of the western animation scene compared to anime.

Tip 95: Electronic music makes less conventional time signatures cheap as hell. REAL music like rock makes them the exact opposite.

Tip 96: If your Mystic Knee suggests that the 90s cartoon being viewed doesn’t showcase a vague sense of refinement or artistic integrity, then every related assumption of yours is right. EVERY TIME!

Tip 97: Doing everything and the kitchen sink for one series or movie shows a better sense of refinement and prestige than any form of simplicity. THIS includes character design as well.

Tip 98: The advent of that Star Wars: Visions anime really shows just how stinky western cartoons have become.

Tip 99: For those wondering, no, Europe isn’t being counted in my definition of “western animation”. Doing so is a complete disservice to prestige.

Tip 100: If even less than half of these tips aren’t being considered, you can kiss that prestige badge goodbye. After all, I SAID SO!

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samueldays · 5 months ago

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[Part 1 of 2] Taking a stab at the notion of "post-scarcity" here as a prelude to longer comments on AI, automation, and artbots.

At first pass, it's an absurd incoherent notion. Star Trek talked a big game about having something of the sort thanks to the replicator, and the moment an author blinked, it was back to scarcity, for example with Picard's French chateau. Those are very very scarce, and even in fiction, replicators can't replicate the prestige that comes with a French chateau.

At second pass, a bunch of people noticed that their idea was poorly named and the name didn't represent their hopes.

See for example, Wikipedia:

Post-scarcity does not mean that scarcity has been eliminated for all goods and services but that all people can easily have their basic survival needs met along with some significant proportion of their desires for goods and services.[3] Writers on the topic often emphasize that some commodities will remain scarce in a post-scarcity society.[4][5][6][7]

This sort of vague handwaving about "some significant proportion" and "many goods" and backpedaling is the good sort of talk about post-scarcity, relatively speaking, from what I can find. The bad sort is brainrotted whining about capitalism, blaming scarcity and entropy and greed and everything the speaker dislikes on capitalism.

But let me try to interpret it charitably nonetheless. It seems that my homeland of Norway became a post-scarcity society sometime between 1960 and 1980, having been electrified by then, not suffering any famines or invasions since then, having a poverty rate within measurement error of 0%, et cetera.

This runs into new problems. Even if Norway of fifty years ago matches a putative stated definition of "post-scarcity", Norway of fifty years ago very much does not match the way I observe that "post-scarcity" is used in practice. Post-scarcity is poorly defined in use but it's implicitly a future that's better than the present, not worse.

Maybe we need to go back to Star Trek.

Third pass: Post-scarcity is when there's replicators.

On the one hand, it feels like a kinda cheap shot to accuse some (many?) people of having a worldview revolving around a fictional device from a technobabble show, where setting implications usually went away at the end of the episode, and where technology might work or not depending on the needs of the plot this week.

On the other hand, a lot of people are TV-brained, and "replicators" is still usefully more specific than "scarcity", and seems to be the general sort of thing a lot of people mean by "post-scarcity", ignoring the sorts of things that Star Trek ignored. For those unfamiliar with the technobabble show in question, lemme briefly recap how it works: the replicator is a machine that can make a very wide variety of products in very short time.

If you want a bicycle, for example, you go to the replicator and say "bicycle" (and search through the offered models, and other interface implementation details that we can gloss over) and the replicator spits out a brand new bicycle that's made then and there. The replicator is free for the marginal typical use.

Caveats: There might be a monthly subscription fee, or a limit on not making your own skyscraper, but a new bicycle is free. The Everything-Maker might be restricted from outputting some substances like radioactive elements, but it can make a new bicycle and other items of a median home. Matter input and mass recycling are probably required. With that said...

Broke a plate? Get a new one from the replicator. Stained a shirt? Replicate a new one. Lightbulb stopped working? Replicator. You want a surfboard? Replicator. You want tea? Replicator.

The replicator's omni-machine status replaces a lot of cupboards and storage and supplies when you can get almost whatever you want on the fly. It's an amazingly convenient fictional device, and gets rid of the kind of "scarcity" of not having some doodad on hand.

"Post-scarcity", also called "AI has taken all the jobs."

#all #essaying

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drethanramslay · 4 years ago

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A funny thing called Fate: Chapter 1

Pairing: Bryce X MC (Aisha Khurrana)

Word count: 2.6K words

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

Warning: None really, just some cursing

Author's note: Hello!! I am back with the first chapter of "A funny thing called Fate" and this time this is in Bryce's POV

Like I said last time, there would be time jumps so you will be seeing both- 16 year old Bryce and present day Bryce

Just a word of caution, 16 year old Bryce (according to me) is your typical bad boy who is a jerk and upholds his reputation and prestige as the most important priorities

I decided to take part in @choicesseptemberchallenge20 the prompt being- LOST

Also decided to take part in @choicesweeklychallenge the prompt being "I just... don't know. Honestly."

Both of them will be in bold

TERMS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

-> kanilehua: Motherfucker (I literally googled curse words in Hawaiian language so please forgive me if they are wrong 🤧)

-> okole: Butt/ Ass

-> budhiya: old woman in Hindi

Forgive me if I make any mistakes

10 years ago- Bryce's POV

"Aloha!!" Bryce's cheerful voice ran clear through the hallways as he approached his teammates, instantly capturing the attention of the people.

"Hey Bryce, my man." Jason, his best friend stepped forward and did a complicated handshake with him before patting his back.

"How was the summer?" Kai, his other best friend spoke up as he leaned against the lockers, his dark hair falling on his eyes.

"You know the usual. Practice and stuff. My parents did take us to Australia. The waves there are sweet." Bryce whistled lowly, remembering how he spent numerous days surfing at sea.

"What a lucky bastard. Do you think your parents would adopt me?" Jason asked causing Kai to chuckle.

At this point, they would want anyone but me as their son. A dark look passed on his face but he hid it behind the over cheerful and happy go lucky mask.

"So, what's up with you guys?!" He asked, smoothly changing the topic.

Jason began. "Well I for one, had a fun summer hanging out at the beach, enjoying the sun-"

"-having flings left, right, centre." Kai completed the sentence, snickering.

"As if you weren't the one who fooled around more. You broke so many hearts, Kai!!" Jason rolled his eyes.

"But I finally settled down, unlike your unsettled ass." Kai exclaimed.

"50 bucks you will break up with him in ten days." Kai narrowed his green eyes and smacked the back of Jason’s head.

"Wow, seems like I have some catching up to do." Bryce smirked.

Kai turned towards Bryce, suddenly serious. "Glad you brought it up. We have a proposition for you."

Bryce incredulously raised his eyebrow.

"Your two o'clock. Short brunette with glasses. Don't be too obvious."

Bryce ran his hand through his long hair and his amber eyes fell on the girl.

He leaned against the locker near Jason.

"What's her deal?"

"Apparently, she joined the school last year and has been on the low. Keeps to herself, certified nerd, teacher's pet and super uptight."

Bryce eyed her and he recognized that she was in his chemistry class last year.

Aisha Khurrana.

"Wait... That's Aisha. She was in my chemistry class last year. Introverted and quiet."

Jason did a double-take. "Wait really? Well, that makes it easier for us."

"Good. I will make y'all talk to her-"

Kai stopped him midway. "Woah, woah, woah. We don't want to interact with her. You are the one doing this."

"Will one of you kanilehua tell me what the fuck is going on?" Bryce asked, getting annoyed.

"After the legendary prank Ano pulled last year, it's time we step up. So while you were tanning your okole in Australia, Jason and I were brainstorming to come up with a better idea."

Jason continued. "So we decided that you could get her fall in love with you before the finals and boom! We could pull the prank on prom."

Bryce's eyed widened. "Woah, don't you think that's extreme?"

Kai rolled his eyes. "Please, Ano humiliated a teacher and exposed that he was having an affair with a junior. I don't think it's that extreme."

"What is this prank you have planned on prom?"

Jason waved his hand. "We haven't worked out the details but we have the entire year to do that. You on the other hand... Are running out of time."

Bryce's eyebrows furrowed. "And why can't either of you take this up?"

"Because Kai here is surprisingly getting cosy with Kaeo the jock from Sunset High while I am on the principal's radar for the shit I did last year. I am this close to getting expelled." Jason enunciated his point by touching his pointer finger and thumb.

"Jas... you're touching your fingers."

"Exactly."

"So will you take one for the team?”

Bryce sighed. "I just... don't know. Honestly."

“Bro, this could literally make or break our popularity bro. You don't want to be the laughing stock of the school, do you?" They asked with puppy eyes.

The peer pressure and the need to uphold his reputation as the golden boy made him raise his hands in defeat. His eyes glanced at the losers down the hall, who people were blatantly ignoring.

Definitely don't want to fall in that category.

"Fine. I will do it. But you will owe me."

"That's our boy." The boys whooped as they clapped his back.

Bryce's eyes wandered to his new target, finding her brown eyes staring right back at him. The flecks of hazel shone with curiosity but her face was impassive as if she didn't want to let anyone in.

Well, this is going to be an interesting year, Aisha Khurrana. Bryce thought to himself.

PRESENT

When Bryce woke up this morning, he didn't think his day would turn out this way.

Who would have fucking thought that the one girl you could never get over shows up at the hospital you are a surgical intern at?

Not me.

He was looking forward to this fresh start. A new city where no one knew who he was and he hoped it stayed that way. To hone his craft and become one of the best surgeons in the country. Anything to get rid of the stains on his name.

After Aisha left at the beginning of Junior year of high school, things were hard. Not that anyone was going to believe him but he actually loved her and no matter how many people he hooked up with, no matter how much he drank himself to oblivion, there was just no getting over her.

He often wondered- no believed that he had lost his one shot at love.

You only get one great love and of course, I had to blow it up, and for what? Popularity? Reputation? That already went down the drain because of my beloved dad.

When he finally got his head in the game and things were bearable, the scandal happened towards the end of the Senior year. Sure, he could hide face during the summers, lounging in his gaudy compound. But he could hear the occasional shouts and protests out of the gates of his home, reminding him that he couldn't escape the truth.

To distract himself from his dad going to trial, his mom selling out to the feds and his baby sister crying from the stress, he dove right into his studies, hoping to score well in his SATs so that he could get away from Maui.

But there was still one year of high school left, and that was fucking awful. He was relentlessly bullied at every turn of the corridor, got the stink eye from the teachers and people jumped away from him as if he was a social pariah.

Technically, I was.

Though his parents were very tight-lipped about the details of the case, it wasn't that hard to get to know more from the internet. And the fact that the people in his school always made it a point to remind him.

Aisha's dad was one of the people who worked for the company that got screwed over by his dad.

Bryce had given up after all these years that he will ever find her again. He often wondered what would he do if he were to meet her again. The apologies he would say and the monologue on how ‘he was never the same after she left’ had been practised over and over again.

But right there she was, half-naked in front of him, completely at the loss of words. His eyes wandered, making sure if it was the same girl from tenth grade. There was a nose piercing and he saw a little ink near a hip.

"Aisha?" He repeated, completely shocked, his jaw dropped. Never in his entire life has he felt the loss of words.

They stared into each other's eyes, chocolate brown eyes meeting his amber ones, completely lost.

But that moment didn't last for long because Jackie shutting the locker made them realize that this was indeed reality.

Aisha managed to snap out of her reverie. "Oh my fucking god, I don't have time for this shit." She rapidly threw on her fresh sets of scrubs and slammed her locker before making a move.

Bryce stepped in her path, blocking her. "What are you doing here?!"

Her eyes snapped up to meet his, the familiar fire and hatred flooding in those brown orbs. "Well, I could ask you the same thing Mr. I-will-become-a-lawyer. Now out of my way, I'm getting late for the orientation." Though she was short (5 feet 3 inches to be precise), she still managed to slam her shoulder against his chest and walk away.

"Oh My God!!" Jackie's voice resounded after a few quiet moments.

"Put a cap on it nose wipe." He muttered as he rubbed the area where Aisha slammed against him.

"I didn't say anything."

"Yeah but that expression says it all." He rolled his eyes as put his stethoscope into his breast pocket.

"But, for real. Who is she?" Jackie asked, inquisitiveness laced in her voice.

Bryce flicked her nose. "I found your nose in my business, why don't you take it right out?"

"Ugh. Fine. Keep your secrets. C'mon, let us get to the orientation before it gets over."

"Yap. Right behind you." The duo headed towards the main atrium and made their way towards the front so that they could hear the hospital chief. The rest of the interns were already gathered in front of the stairs upon which an impressive, statuesque woman stood and spoke.

That is Dr Harper Emery!! Bryce thought to himself, as the very thought of standing in the very same room as his inspiration made him giddy. He turned to talk but the excitement instantly vanished because thanks to his amazing luck, he ended up standing right next to Aisha.

The universe, what games are you playing against me? Bryce let out a sigh which caught Aisha's attention. She just gave an annoying glance and stared up, as if to ask why was this happening to her.

Both of them turned away from each other and focused on what Dr Emery was saying. "... because as of today, you are no longer students, You are doctors."

Aisha turned towards Jackie and whispered. "Psst. Who is that?"

Jackie whipped her head towards Aisha's short build. "I don't know if you are joking or are serious."

Aisha's ears getting red was the only confirmation Jackie needed. Her jaw dropped and she was physically incapacitated, unable to speak before she finally managed to string together words.

"Seriously? Did you learn medicine in the woods or something?"

Aisha's eyes narrowed and Bryce just knew that if he didn't intervene Aisha would absolutely roast Jackie and her lineage.

So, in a low voice, he spoke up. "That's Harper Emery, the hospital's new chief." A smile made his way on his face as he continued to talk about her. "She's a total badass! World-famous head of neurosurgery before she got promoted."

He turned towards Jackie, smirking. "Guess she's just a scalpel jockey too, huh?"

Giving a Cheshire grin she responded. "She's the only scalpel jockey who deserves rights."

Aisha gave a stiff nod before turning back towards the Chief.

Someone is definitely a ray of sunshine. Bryce thought to himself. His conscience promptly snarked. Bold of you to assume that this isn't your fault.

Brain... Stop. as he shook his head to shake off the guilt that slowly swirled in his chest.

"More will be demanded of you that you've ever experienced. Some of you will buckle under the pressure. Some of you will quit. But some... some of you will thrive."

"Damn... She is so inspiring... I feel like I can do anything." Aisha whispered, her brown eyes sparkling with admiration.

"Well then, can I inspire you to pipe down? I'm trying to listen."

"Can I inspire you to get your ears checked, budhiya?" Jackie looked offended but you could see the glint of amusement and respect in her eyes.

"Girls, can this fight wait until after the speech?" Bryce muttered.

"This is not fighting. This is us bonding scalpel jockey. Get on the same page." Jackie whispered causing Aisha to smirk.

"I give up. But please for the love of everything good can we keep it on the low." He shot a pleading look and they managed to shut up.

"You've been entrusted with a sacred duty: the care and wellbeing of every man, woman and child who enters this hospital. Are you ready?"

The interns promptly burst into applause and they look around, sharing excited smiles with their new colleagues.

Harper Emery raised her hand, to silence the applause. "You'll be introduced to your senior residents tomorrow but for now, you'll be partnering up for your first patients. Your assignments are posted on the board. Good luck, doctors!!"

Bryce swaggered up to his board and searched for his name and found out that he was paired with a Samantha.

Wait for a second... that name sounds fami-

"You?" He swirled around towards the feminine sound and as soon as his eyes landed on her, the memories hit him.

Him running his hands through her hair whilst they kissed passionately against the door of her apartment. Her running her hands down his abs and pulling him by the loops of his belt. Both of them lost in the sensation of each other and Bryce still had the scratch marks on his back to remind him of the amazing night they had the previous day.

"Sam? I didn't know you worked here!!"

"Well fate is a funny thing, isn't it? So apparently we are partners?"

"Yap and we need to take our cases from the residents and be on our way. Are you ready?" Bryce asked, a smirk playing on his lips.

"I was born ready baby." Sam winked as she started pushing her way through the throng of interns and Bryce followed suit.

When they finally were free, Jackie showed up next to him followed by Aisha and another girl who had a striking resemblance to Chief Emery.

"See you later meathead."

"Try not to miss me too much." He winked before glancing towards Aisha. Their eyes met and she immediately looked the other way, chatting with her partner.

"It's a beautiful day to save lives. Let's have some fun, shall we?" Sam asked her eyes twinkling which just made Bryce smile.

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

It was going good so far. He had been allotted two cases that day. One with a routine appendectomy and the second one being a benign tumour removal from the right lung. With a cool, calm collected mind, the two of them diagnosed the patients, raising eyebrows.

"Dr Lahela, what is the treatment plan?" Dr Tanaka, the head of cardiovascular surgery asked.

"Well we are administering her with tumour shrinking drugs like bromocriptine so that we could decrease the size and then after a couple of days we will take her for surgery."

Dr Tanaka gave a nod of appreciation. Sam turned and held the young patient's hand. "Miss, you are in good hands and if you have any more questions you can always ask for us."

"Thank you so much, Dr Anderson."

They stepped out of the room and Bryce shut the door behind them.

"Keep an eye on her and do checks every four hours. Good job." Dr Tanaka turned on his heels and only when he was out of earshot Sam fist-bumped Bryce.

"The surgical society is back at it again."

"God Sam that was awful." He groaned as he pulled his pen out to sign the charts.

"Well, that just means I need to keep thinking of names for the dynamic duo. See you later byeee."

He shook his head and gave the charts to the nurses' station before whistling down the confusing corridors of Edenbrook when suddenly he heard a thud sound from the nearby supply closet.

Must be a doctor who is not having a good day.

He stopped before the door, contemplating whether he should enter or leave but his instinct to help overpowered and he cracked open the door to see Aisha leaning heavily against the racks, her back towards him. Her shoulders were shaking and he could hear her heavy breathing.

He was about to leave unnoticed when Aisha’s voice wafted over to him. “get in or get out. Don’t hold it open.” She glanced towards the door and Bryce knew that he could kiss his unnoticed exit goodbye.

Oh boy.

Oh? so we have a new character 👀 And um that really wasn't the reunion Bryce was looking forward to lol

And now the supply closet yikes yikes yikes okay now i will shut up heheheh

Like, comment, reblog and share your thoughts

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julia-highstorms · 4 years ago

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Undermount series: The Heir to House Nightbloom

Chapter 1 - Shocking News

Summary: The story revolves around Luxia (my MC), who has her life turned upside down when both her parents die and she’s back to Undermount, to live with her grandfather, Sir Emrys Nightbloom, a respected scholar and private professor to the most influential houses. Now, being an outsider to the elven society, she must learn its culture and traditions and how to fit in (or not). While falling in love with the heir to the Ascendent House, Tyril Starfury.

Author’s note: I am very excited with this idea and it had been playing in my mind for a while now, so I thought “what the hell!” and I am finally posting the first chapter here! I wanted to write a couple more chapters before start posting it because I know me and it will take me 84 years to post a new chapter 🤦 but oh welp. Maybe posting it now I force myself to write more regularly? Who knows. Anyway, sorry in advance for the lateness of upcoming chapters.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Pixelberry Studios.

Rating: T (trigger warning: death, violence)

Pairing: Tyril Starfury x Luxia Nightbloom (F!Elf!MC) - read more about them here

Word count: +1.8K

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Chapter 1 - Shocking News

The young lord leaned comfortably against his favorite armchair and looked outside the window, admiring the House Starfury Gardens.

That was one of the few moments in which he could sit down with a book in his hands and relax. Just relax.

As Tyril reached majority, more and more responsibilities were passed down to him by his father - Valir Starfury, the current Lord Starfury -, which the young man accepted proudly. Sooner or later, they knew he would inherit that duty as Valir aged and his health declined, so it was only natural that his first born child would take his place as the head of the House.

So, those rare moments of complete peace were always welcoming to the young man. Whenever he had a spare moment in his agenda, Tyril would lock himself in his study room to read and let his imagination run free. He firmly believed that few activities could bring him such joy as reading.

But today, somehow, he was unable to do so. He tried to pick up where he had stopped in the book, but was unable to focus. So he picked his favorite map and opened it. Sometimes, when he was unable to concentrate, he liked to open the old map and study all those places he had read about. Whitetower, Port Parnasus, Flotilla… Places he was sure he would never see in real life, only in his imagination.

But that proved to be an equally unsuccessful activity. The young lord did not know why, but he was feeling restless today.

Finally giving up after his fifth frustrated trial, Tyril decided to just relax. He watched the scene that unfolded in the house's gardens through the large windows for a few moments, the world complete serene.

He wondered to himself why the gardener was watering the plants when it was clear that it was going to rain soon. The sky was filled with dark and low clouds.

But his thoughts were soon interrupted when Adrina stormed into the room. He turned his face to his younger sister and raised a single eyebrow, surprised by that display of rushness.

"My dear brother, I've finally found you!" - she panted out of breath, her cheeks flushed. - "You won't believe what happened!" - but even before he could ask her what indeed had happened, she spilled it in a rush of words: - "Sir Nightbloom's son and daughter-in-law are dead and his granddaughter is back to Undermount!"

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A week earlier

House Nightbloom was fated to great things.

At least, that was what Emrys Nightbloom stated and firmly believed.

Those from that house were known to be great scholars, masters of a greater magic and undying loyalty, with generations and generations of tutors and professors who dedicated their lives to teach young lords and ladies of the nobler houses, gaining status and prestige through the centuries.

They were one of the ancient houses, but had lost their importance through the years since the Great War, when Gustaf Nightbloom decided to flee instead of staying and fighting. But as Sir Emrys himself believed, better be an alive coward than a dead hero, because those that were able to move worlds were the alive ones. And that was what the past generations of the House Nightbloom had been doing since their embarrassing display during the fatidical war. They were great strategists and were able to restore some of their previous glory through the last millennia.

They would never be a noble house - unless one of their descendants married a noble house -, but they attended that social circle closely.

Sir Emrys Nightbloom was its current head and a very respected professor within the elven society, having taught some of the great houses' lords himself. Such as Lord Valir of House Starfury, the current Ascendent House. And his heirs, Young Lord Tyril and Lady Adrina. By this, it was easy to presume how old he was.

But Sir Nightbloom had never been ashamed of his age. In fact, he was very proud of it. He had lived longly and greatly, and was among one of the wisest citizens of Undermount.

And being that wise, he knew that he was doomed. House Nightbloom had no direct heir.

Of course it wouldn't cease to exist, but when he died - which he was pretty sure would happen sooner than later. It didn't matter he had been saying that for the last 30 years, he knew this year he would definitely go -, the House's leadership would pass on to his younger brother, Qildor, who wasn't much younger than him, but much less… wise. His hobbies were playing card games and drinking lots and lots of elven wine. Old Emrys was worried that his brother could bring shame and dishonor to the House Nightbloom again, after all those centuries of hard work from their ascendents.

If only his only son, Kal, hadn't decided to be an adventurer and leave Undermount… Sir Nightbloom would be feeling much more secure about the House's fate.

It was a cloudy Saturday afternoon, and the old man found himself in his garden - besides teaching, Sir Nightbloom's great passion was taking care of his collection of exquisite flowers and trees -, when Siveril, the butler, came running toward him.

"Urgent news, Master Nightbloom. I'm afraid they're disturbing."

"Well then, shoot!" - he said, not taking his eyes off of his majestic yellow hibiscus.

The other man nodded and stepped closer to whisper into his ear. Sir Nightbloom's eyes widened and he even let the pruning shears he was holding fall onto the floor, as shock spreaded through his body.

"Are you sure?" - he asked after Silveril helped him to sit down on a bench.

"I'm afraid so, sir."

"Both of them?" - the butler nodded. - "And… and… what about Luxia?"

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Everything happened in a blur.

One moment, she was laughing and talking with her parents, and the next moment, the small village they lived in, Riverbend, and their house was invaded and they were attacked by a bandit raid that took the lives of a dozen of villagers. Including her parents.

Luxia's mother promptly ordered her to hide inside the supply closet in the kitchen. She heard everything, her parents' cries as the blade slashed through their flesh, drawing out blood, while she forced herself to be as quiet as possible as they were being killed.

She crawled out of her hiding place only after she was sure that the bandits had left her house.

The young elf was found by Kade - her neighbor and childhood friend - and other villagers just hours later, after the bandits had been dealt with. The young human's parents had been killed too, but luckily, he was outside at the time of the attack.

The last two days went on a frenzy. The village's physician had examined her and stated that, although she didn't suffer physically, she was deeply traumatized. She had the vague memory of being asked if she knew about any relative she could have, and she told them about her grandfather in the elven city of Undermount, to the north.

She still could hear their screaming ringing in her ears, and the scene she saw when she left her hiding place. She found her parents lying on the floor, both dead. There was so much blood, the furniture and walls were stained by it. Their bodies dilacerated. They were stabbed to death.

She kept staring at them, unable to move or to do anything. The neighbors' screamings and cries for help could be heard from outside as the bandits invaded other houses, but Luxia couldn't pay attention to any of it. All she could think about was that Mom and Dad were gone.

Now, two days later, she was again staring down at her parents' and other villagers' bodies. Kade's parents were among them. Luxia was lined up with the other survivors, paying their tributes to those who had lost their lives in that vicious attack.

Even though Kal's and Irin's corpses lied in front of her, covered by blankets, waiting to be buried along with others, she still felt numb and overwhelmed by all of those events. She was unable to let a single tear out.

The burial was long and painful, everyone helping and digging graves for the dead, and it took the whole day. Those who had lost their families were being taken care of by other villagers. A kind farmer took her and Kade under his protection.

She was left in one small bedroom by herself and her thoughts. The young elf lied down and tried to sleep, but she just couldn't shut her eyes. Her mind kept replaying the events of the past couple days again and again and endless questions popped up in her head.

How could that have happened? Could she have done something to save her parents? Should she have been killed with them? What was she going to do now? She had nobody. Of course, the people of Riverbend wouldn't throw her away and she knew a thing or two about medicine and cures… she could work with it.

She tossed around the narrow bed. Mom… Dad… What was she going to do? She already missed them. She felt so alone…

And then. An idea popped up in her head.

The girl sat up and looked over to the old desk across the room. Not thinking twice, she went over there, lighting up the candle and pulling a blank sheet of paper and a pen. And started writing.

Emrys Nightbloom. That was the name of her grandfather. She knew her father and he didn't see each other in the eye, but he was the only family she had left.

Although she had grown up in Riverbend, and she had few friends there, like Kade, they weren't her family. And she had been and would always be treated differently. Because she was an elf. Maybe, among others like her, she would feel less of an outcast. Although she didn't have much faith in it.

Her grandfather and she were nothing but strangers, but still, she was positive that he would take care of her. He was family after all, and one thing she knew for sure was that the most important thing in the elven world was your House. Your family. So, she had to try something.

That same night, Luxia sent away her letter. She didn't know exactly her grandfather's address, but she knew that just writing down the House's name meant something. Her father would often say that House Nightbloom had a sort of status. Hopefully, it was status enough to bring her letter to grandpa.

And so, only after three days she had sent her letter and had buried her parents, an answer from Sir Nightbloom himself arrived and he was taking her under his care.

Luxia left Riverbend that same night, taken by her grandfather's maid.

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Tagging: @hellomynameisdevi @thequeenchoices @srta-give-me-my-jax-rl @soft-for-drake @ohsnapitzlovehacker @melodyofgraves @sitsoncornflake @keviriass @lady-kaya-duskraven @tealtranquiltatter @vanillamaa @my-remedy-is-euphoria @choicesloversstuff @tyrils-star @lxdy-starfury @caaliyahxx @choicesarehard @fireycookie @sophie-summer @dalishessence @choicesficwriterscreations (and if you’d like to be tagged, just tell me 🙂)

#tyril starfury #tyril x mc #tyril starfury x mc #blades of light and shadow #playchoices #choices stories you play #playchoices fanfic #playchoices fanfiction #choices fanfic #choices fanfiction #undermount the series #luxia nightbloom #tyril x luxia

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chibsytelford · 4 years ago

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A Last Goodbye

*** GIF CREDIT TO CREATOR ***

Anon requested - Hii, I'm the one who requested the Chibs 'A broken heart' minific. Thank you so much for writing it! And now I am in mood for mooore angst and heartbreak hehe. I was thinking something along the lines of Chibs and the reader having a mutual breakup (e.g because Chibs is going to prison, or to 'protect the reader, or whatever you feel fits!) even though they're still in love, and the fic is their last night together before officially breaking up. So essentially really sad fluff. ♡

Authors Comment - Another Chibs heartbreak fic - it doesn’t get any easier to write about, but I still enjoyed writing it if that makes sense! This one is pretty long - maybe my longest yet.

Taglist - @agirllovespasta @everyhowlmarksthedead @rebel-without-cause-x @starrynite7114 @sheeshgivemeabreak @naytraydr @jadesamhart @whyisgmora @talicat713 @fangirlingaesthetics - if you would like added to my taglist just ask :)

You knew Charming was just a temporary stop. Your dream was to move to New York and become a big shot artist. It had been your dream since you were a little girl. You moved here from San Francisco 2 years ago, to complete the last 2 years of your art degree. San Francisco was a bit too busy for you, and you needed peace and quiet to complete the last 2 years, so you chose Charming. You had looked at pictures and found a small house by the beach for rent, which would be perfect for you to focus on your painting. The views from the house were spectacular and you knew that you could definitely spend 2 years here just drawing the landscapes, the beach, the water and the hills. What you didn’t expect was to fall in love.

You met Chibs the day after you moved here. You were shopping in the supermarket and couldn’t reach something from the top shelf when a tall man with dark greying hair came over to you.

“Need help wi that lass?” he had asked you as he stretched round you and got the beans down from the shelf.

You had thanked him and thought you wouldn’t see him again, but you were so wrong. The next day you were down by the beach getting ready to paint when you saw the same man, just sitting out staring at the water. You approached him and he told you he did this every morning, to clear his head before he started work. And he wasn’t lying. Every morning you looked down onto the beach and saw the man who you learned was called Filip, or Chibs. And that was the start of your relationship. You started by taking him tea down in the mornings, and tea turned into breakfast and you guys got to know each other. You told him about your plans, that after 2 years you would be leaving Charming to go to New York. You told him you were not looking for a relationship, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try and get you to change your mind.

About 2 months into your new breakfast routine, you headed down to the beach as normal. But when you got there, breakfast was waiting for you this time, with a single red rose. You looked up at Chibs who just shrugged and played it off as normal. You ate and talked about what your plans were for that day, and then you got up to leave.

“Love, will ye go on a proper date wi me?” Chibs had caught you off guard. You reminded him of your ‘no relationship’ rule and he told you it was bullshit and if he only had you for another 1 year and 10 months then he would be a happy man. Against your better judgement, you agreed to a date, and after that one date you knew you were in trouble. You fell in love with him.

He introduced you to his brothers early on in the relationship. You instantly clicked with all of them, and they all had their little quirks that you found amusing. You slotted right in to the goings on at Teller Morrow and the clubhouse. Before introducing you to the Sons, Chibs explained what he actually did for a living. He told you he was in an MC that shipped drugs and guns and money, and occasionally did bad things. But you knew that no matter what he told you, you wouldn’t love him any less.

Your new daily routine was going down to the beach, having breakfast with your boyfriend, then painting for a few hours, before taking lunch for the boys, and then sitting with them for a couple of hours if they were actually in the clubhouse, then heading home to do more painting. Then you made dinner, and went to bed. Chibs had pretty much moved in with you after the first date. It was a bit fast, but you both felt the same way towards each other. You always made him dinner, but usually he heated his up when he got home as he always showed up late, but you didn’t mind, it gave you time to paint in peace.

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You didn’t realise you were crying until you looked down and saw tears splatted onto the letter you had in front of you. It was a job offer in New York. Today was your last day in Charming. The 2 years had flown by so quickly. You got your art degree like you wanted, and now you were offered a job in a prestige New York Art Gallery, where they said you could sell your own work as well as work there, because it was excellent. This was your dream, and you were excited, but you were also heartbroken, because it meant saying goodbye to Charming, and goodbye to your boyfriend. You knew that the distance between New York and Charming was only 44 hours away, even less on a plane, but realistically you were going to be so busy with your new job, and Chibs couldn’t leave the MC for more than a day. Plus New York wasn’t for a man like him.

“Why are ye crying love?” Chibs came over and pulled you up so you were standing in front of him. You handed him the letter and he read it. His face was a picture of sadness, which soon vanished when he looked up to you and gave you a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“I’m so proud of ye, New York is your dream, and now ye can go” You nodded whilst wiping your tears away using the back of your hand. “Are they happy tears or sad tears?”

“Mostly sad, because tonight is our last night together, I don’t know when I will be coming back, if I ever do” You had now started crying again and Chibs pulled you into him.

“Shhh lass” He tried to hide the sadness in his voice but he knew he couldn’t for long. You both knew this day was coming because you had marked it on the calendar. But now the day was finally here, it started to become more real that this was goodbye.

You had spoken about you moving to New York a couple of times in the last 2 years. You both decided that long distance wasn’t going to work, with the different time zones, and the MC was getting busier and busier and you didn’t want Chibs to have to try and juggle a long distance relationship and focus on the club. So you mutually agreed that when you went to New York, you would break up. It was for the best.

“Am gonna phone Jax, tell him am not coming in today, and we are gonna spend our last day together, just me and you alright” you nodded into his chest before pulling away to make you both some tea to put into a flask. You then decided to make some breakfast like you normally did, and take it down to the beach for one last beach breakfast.

You both walked quietly hand in hand down to your usual spot on the beach. There was a hint of sadness in the air, and you were afraid that if you spoke you would just burst into tears, so you stayed quiet. Chibs laid out the blanket for you both and you sat down on it, pulling out the breakfast rolls and the tea from the small basket. Chibs was the first to break the silence.

“A just wanna say, these last 2 years have undoubtedly been the best of ma life Y/N, ye have made me the happiest man alive” You turned to look at him and saw he was barely keeping it together.

“I never thought I would fall in love with you Filip, I tried not to, but I knew the minute you dropped me home after our first date, I was in love with you” A lone tear escaped his eye and he angrily swiped it away.

You heard the rumble of bikes before you saw them, and when you turned around you saw the Sons walking down to where you and Chibs sat.

“A hope ye don’t mind, they wanted to say goodbye” you nodded at Chibs before squeezing his hand and standing up to greet the men. You never thought a goodbye to them would be hard either, but by the end of all the hugging and the goodbyes, there was not a dry eye to be seen.

“Come on lass, let’s get ye home ti get some rest before your flight in the morning” You said one last final goodbye to the Sons, the men that had all become your close friend, and headed back to your house with Chibs.

“I need to finish packing, can you help?” you asked Chibs. You packed pretty much everything in your house except of course the furniture, and your phone charger, toothbrush and hairbrush as you would need them in the morning. You packed the picture of you and Chibs, and the picture of you and the rest of the MC. You wanted them as a reminder of how much you were loved.

The rest of the day was spent with you both curled up on your sofa, just cuddling and reliving old memories. There were lots of tears, laughter, silence and more tears.

“Ye know, I will always love ye lass” Chibs reached out his hand and moved your hair from your eyes. “A have seen a lot of sad stuff, but what am feeling now is the saddest I’ve ever felt in ma life” Chibs was not hiding the fact he was upset anymore. All you could do to answer him was press your tear soaked lips onto his.

“Can we go to bed? I need to feel you against me one last time” Chibs nodded and you stood up and lead him to your shared bedroom which was basically empty besides the bed and a chest of drawers. You slowly undressed, and climbed into bed to wait for your boyfriend. Everything you both did at this point was full of sadness. Chibs gently grabbed your face in his hands and kissed you passionately.

“God am gonna miss these lips” he whispered against them.

“Please make love to me Filip” and he did. He did until the early hours of the morning before you both fell asleep in each others arms.

Your alarm went off at 6am, to indicate you had to get up. You woke up and instantly remembered that this morning was the last time you would ever see your boyfriend. He stirred beside you and opened his eyes and gave you a small smile. You could see he was thinking the same thing. Your flight was at 9am so you needed to leave soon to make it to the airport in plenty of time.

“I’ll drive ye love” Chibs said as he picked up the keys to your car that you drove to Charming in.

“No, if you come with me to the airport, there is a chance I won’t ever get on that plane” He tried to protest but you put your hand up to silence him. “Please, the goodbye is already going to be hard Filip, just let me drive myself” you pleaded with him. He reluctantly agreed.

“Again, thank you for the last 2 years, they really have been amazing” Chibs said as he pulled you into him for one last hug. “A know ye will kick ass in New York, and am really proud of ye”.

With one last final squeeze, one last final kiss, and one last final ‘I love you’ and a lot of tears you picked up your bags and suitcase and your car keys and left the man you have shared your left with for the last 2 years, the man you fell in love with, the man who owned your heart standing at the door heartbroken. Before you drove off, you turned to look at him and blew him a kiss, before leaving your past behind. Even though your heart was broken and the tears wouldn’t stop falling, a part of you was excited for the new chapter of your life.

#chibs telford x reader #chibs telford #filip telford #sons of anarchy #chibs telford fanfic

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monstersdownthepath · 5 years ago

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Milestone Spotlight: Deskari, Lord of the Locust Host

Chaotic Evil Demon Lord of Chasms, Infestations, and Locusts

Domains: Chaos, Destruction, Evil, War Subdomains: Blood, Catastrophe, Demon, Tactics

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 42~43

Obedience: Meditate while allowing insects or worms of any type to crawl upon your body. If no such vermin is available, you must instead lie facedown in a trench dug into soil and mouth prayers to Deskari into the dirt while scratching yourself with sharp bits of bone or wood. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against disease and against effects caused by Vermin.

Have a buggy familiar? Done. Don’t have one, but a party member does? Done. No one have a buggy familiar? Keep some bugs as a pet; done. Can’t? Well then this gets a little harder. Plopping yourself down besides an anthill is unfeasible for multiple days in a row, not to mention dangerous to your health if they believe you’re a carcass that must be scavenged. Sometimes, you can just dig straight down a little bit to find some nice worms to plop right onto your chest for an hour, though heaping loose soil on yourself every day has dangers of its own.

Not as many as the secondary option, though. The wording here implies that you can’t use mud or sand, though your DM may be a bit more lenient here because it also requires you to scratch yourself to pieces with sharpened wood and bone. Thankfully you don’t need a carved knife or anything so complex, you can just snap a branch off a tree or somesuch if you need to (and bones are always available for adventurers!), but covering yourself in bleeding scratches every day will likely get people wondering what on earth you’re doing each time you vanish for an hour, which can lead to numerous uncomfortable questions. Unlike many Demon Lords, Deskari is known all across the Inner Sea Region because he’s responsible for the Worldwound, one of the greatest threats to life on the entire planet, and as such if you’re publicly found to be one of his followers? Roll up a new sheet, bud. It only gets harder if you use literally any of Deskari’s Boon abilities in public, too.

The added danger of worshiping one of the most prominent Demon Lords in the setting can make for an experience that’s both interesting and potentially hair-pulling, because you’ve got to make extra sure not to have your faith revealed to the authorities of a given settlement. At the very least, dropping bug-infested soil onto your body each day to perform the first ritual could be explained away as you communing with nature or the earth, rather than the insects within the earth, but carving up your own skin while laying facedown in a hole is a pretty big red flag. ... Also, now that I think about it, if you’re facedown in a hole, it’d be pretty difficult to scratch anything but your back and sides, right? Hm.

The benefit is low-tier. Diseases are rarely too much of a danger if you have any sort of caster in your party, though stopping them before they begin will save you a bit of gold in the long run. A universal saving throw bonus against the abilities of an entire creature type would be fantastic if that creature type wasn’t Vermin, who are known for A) disease and B) poison and little else. In Deskari’s favor, this bonus does indeed apply to the Distraction ability of most swarming Vermin, so a bit of extra help to avoid being Nauseated is always welcome.

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 7; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Servants of demons may also take the Demoniac Prestige Class; you don’t get the Boons any faster than E/E/S, but you may select which Boon set you get, and you get cool demon-related powers!

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EVANGELIST

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Boon 1: Locusts’ Gifts. Gain Jump 3/day, Acid Arrow 2/day, or Fly 1/day

Why bother looking at Jump when Fly is an option? Granted, getting affected with Jump at level 10 (the earliest you can get this spell) means you can, among other things, clear a 30ft gap with no effort and get yourself an Eight Foot Vertical Leap... But flight will always be infinitely more useful. The biggest difference is that, while they last the same amount of time (1 min/level), you get Jump 3/day. It’s really up to you if Eight Foot Vertical Leap three times a day would be more useful for your character than a 60ft fly speed once a day, though to me, staying out of an enemy’s reach is always preferable.

Acid Arrow is alright in that respect. The damage it deals is pathetically low, but it’s repeated damage that cannot be resisted once it begins (unless the victim can jump in some water immediately) and both castings of the spell can stack together to make the damage stack on. I personally can’t think of a reason you’d take it over Fly, though.

Boon 2: Avatar of the Locust Host. 1/day, you can cast Verminous Transformation as a spell-like ability; the swarming parts of your body are comprised of locusts, and your swarm attack deals double damage to Plant creatures.

For 1 round/level, you transmute portions of your body into swarming locusts that can chow down on up to four Medium targets (or one Large+ target) within 10ft of you, automatically dealing 4d6 damage and forcing the victim to make a Fortitude save (10+1/2 your HD+Cha mod) or take 1d3 Con and Str damage from poison. Spooky! It also forces you into melee range more or less, but your swarm form also means you only take half damage from piercing and slashing attacks!

Also, it hits four targets for automatic damage. If you find yourself in a melee you want no part of, suddenly exploding into locusts and harrying your foes can break their morale in a hurry. Slapping four enemies at once means you can easily chew through smaller foes while damaging larger ones without the usual dangers of using AoE magic (like hitting allies), and 4d6 is a nice sweet spot of being a good chunk of damage without it being overpowering. And, again, it’s automatic; no attack roll needed, with the only interactions being the enemy HP going down and them rolling versus your poison. Being stuck in melee while your bugs are literally eating the enemy’s Str bit by bit doesn’t sound so bad, all of a sudden!

I like the touch that it deals double damage to Plant monsters, because if any intelligent Plant creature sees you turn into a swarm of locusts, they’re probably going to stop fighting immediately. The downside to this ability is that it lasts only 1 round/level and can only be used 1/day, so it may fall into Too Awesome To Use territory, though I’d personally unleash it any time I was facing a group of enemies that was even slightly challenging.

Boon 3: Infestation of the Flesh. 1/day as a standard action, you can transform into a Hellwasp Swarm for up to 8 hours. You gain Swarm traits (including immunity to weapon damage), a swarm attack, and the Hellwasp’s poison, Distraction, and Inhabit abilities. While in this form, you cannot perform any actions that the swarm could not perform; this includes casting spells with somatic components and wielding weapons or items. While not using the swarm’s Inhabit ability, you can return to your normal form as a full-round action. This is a Polymorph effect.

Heurghh, nasty. For your enemies, of course! You’re perfectly fine.

The fact you gain these abilities rather than just replacing your statblock with that of the Swarm makes me think that this means it runs largely on how other Polymorph spells in PF works; namely, your statblock largely remains the same, but new stuff is stapled onto it. If this is true, it means that your swarm damage is 4d6 rather than 3d6 (and increases to 5d6 once you hit 20 HD), and your poison and Distraction have a save of (10+1/2 your HD+your Con mod) rather than what a Vanilla Hellwasp Swarm possesses. Nice!

The real important bit here, though, is that you have the swarm’s Inhabit ability. Suddenly, any enemy that’s not outright killed is an unholy vessel for your power. Your poor victims are eternally Dominated by your presence until an outside source either kills them or expels you, or you finally eat their Constitution to 0 after a few hours. Even then, though, you continue puppeting their corpse around like a second skin, shielding yourself from attacks as you march to find a better body. If you don’t really need your spells or items, you can spend a full adventuring day walking around inside other people’s skin

Dominating your victim means you can use all of their powers for your own evil benefit, so if that wizard you just knocked out still has spell slots left? If that troll is still kicking? If that dragon just recharged its breath weapon? All yours to command. Plus, even if your other foes kill your new shell, you continue to animate their corpse to use as a beatstick or an extra mountain of flesh to protect your insectoid form.

It takes a full minute to inhabit a victim, so you can’t just jump from shell to shell in the middle of a pitched battle, but you know what you can do? Jump from shell to shell all day until just before you reach the final boss, and then hop out and reform, basically fresh as a daisy with all your resources ready to tear into them. It’s very hard to take meaningful damage while inhabiting a shell, so while the rest of your party is nearly tuckered out and running on fumes and what few resources they could cling to, you’re likely barely below 75% health and have spent exactly one (1) of your dailies for the current session.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: Swarming Susurrus. Gain Inflict Light Wounds 3/day, Summon Swarm 2/day, or Summon Monster III (Vermin only) 1/day.

Inflight Light Wounds has already fallen off by this point, useful only to patch up any Undead allies you may have to keep them on their feet, Summon Swarm can be dangerous to use unless you conjure it at maximum range, as the swarms are indiscriminate in their tide of destruction. The Vermin-only restriction on Summon Monster III means you’re likely going to be stuck summoning Fiendish Giant Ants or a pair of Fiendish Giant Centipedes to aid you. In either case, their usefulness in combat is minor if you’re fighting foes of a similar CR to your level, with the main selling point being that their mindlessness means an enemy Enchanter cannot control them and turn them against you.

All three of these are fairly underwhelming, but Summon Swarm is fun to drop directly on an enemy’s space, because it will continue to pursue the closest source of flesh it can--just make sure it’s not yours!

Boon 2: Swarm-Walker. You can walk through any swarm without taking damage or suffering any ill effects—swarms recognize you as one of their own. As long as you stand within a swarm, you gain a +4 profane bonus on initiative checks and saving throws.

Well... I guess that’s alright? I like the idea of monkey swarms, swarms of Beheaded, and masses of Grey Goo all leave you be just as a swarm of ticks or locusts would.

Taking advantage of the Initiative bonus requires conjuring or finding a swarm beforehand, or being ambushed by a swarm that falls upon you. You should be trying to summon things before combat begins anyway (due to most summoning spells taking a full round), though if you have no means of doing so beyond what Deskari has granted you, Summon Swarm is a pathetic way to reap this ability’s benefits as your shield of vermin crawls off to go eat an adjacent ally. You’ll want something more reliable, such as Vomit Swarm or Mad Monkeys (the former even scaling better with your level than Summon Swarm) to invoke this ability, not only making creatures in melee with you regret it, but bolstering your saves against everything by an additional +4.

... But only as long as the swarm lasts, and only while you don’t move outside of it or it moves away, and only as long as your enemies don’t blast you with AoE that kills the swarm instantly, and so on and so forth. It’s a very difficult ability to really take advantage of, and half of its usefulness is completely lost if you’re only inundated in a swarm before combat begins.

Boon 3: Swarm Master. 1/day, you can cast Quickened Insect Plague.

No, no, no no no! Awful!

Yes, it lets you take better advantage of Swarm-Walker, but this is by no means a good final Boon! Come on, Deskari, if you want our assistance in your fiendish goals, you need to sweeten the deal a little bit here! No one’s going to want to be your Exalted if all you have to offer them is a 1/day wall of wasps!

That’s more or less what this ability is, by the way. It may as well be literally called Wall of Wasps, because your summoned swarms (all five of them) can’t move from the spot they’re summoned in. While they can act as obscuring cover, their low HP (31) will rarely survive a single Fireball or Cone of Cold from a level-appropriate enemy, and the DC 13 save on their poison and Distraction abilities will rarely land on any target you need them to. Both their damage and their poison deal so little damage (2d6 and 1 Dex, respective) that they’re unlikely to keep anyone from just walking through the storm of wasps to get at you,

It’s more for intimidation than anything else, making an enemy rethink coming closer. Intimidation and using the Wasp Ocean to take advantage of Swarm-Walker, and that’s just not good enough in my book.

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: Split the Earth. Gain Stumble Gap 3/day, Create Pit 2/day, or Spiked Pit 1/day.

I’ve stated my love of the usefulness of Create Pit and Spiked Pit in the past (under the Sentinel Boons), with them being pseudo Save-or-Sucks that can take anything without a decent Strength score or some Climb skill ages to clamber back out of the pit, while you and your allies either deal with other foes, or rain destruction down on them from above. Even if the victim makes their initial save, the pit doesn’t go anywhere, letting you push your targets in one at a time if need be. Since it’s literally just a huge hole in the ground, you can even hurl multiple enemies inside!

Which leaves a unique spell in Stumble Gap. It’s a cute spell, essentially cursing a single 5ft tile with a mobile, extradimensional gap that tries tripping up everyone who enters it. Anyone in the square when you first cast the spell or who enters the square while it’s still in effect must succeed a Reflex save (11+Cha mod) or fall prone into an adjacent square and take 1d6 damage. The real kicker, though? Even succeeding your save against the gap makes you stumble ever-so-slightly... which, for some reason, gives you a -1 penalty to ALL ROLLS AND CHECKS for a full round. Everything from attack rolls to damage rolls to saving throws to Knowledge checks (somehow) suffer a -1 penalty for a full round.

It’s not much, but it’s an interesting consolation prize and a very interesting line of text in what is otherwise a very simple spell. The penalty to every roll they make even on success makes it almost worth taking, if just for the possibility of making a 1-point success into a failure. It’d be difficult to make use of it more than once per casting, but I can see some amusing scenarios arising if you cast it three times in a row to either cover a single 15ft hallway, or in a long line in a 5ft hallway as a crowd of foes behind you trips all over themselves and each other.

Still, for all its potential (comedic and otherwise), I’d stick with the more reliable Create Pit or Spiked Pit.

Boon 2: Planar Wound. 3/day as a standard action, you can strike the ground with a scythe to open a fissure under your feet or the feet of an adjacent Medium or smaller creature (if you target yourself, the rift opens just enough to let you—and only you—through, regardless of your size). This fissure is a planar rift that sends the creature to the Rasping Rifts in the Abyss, as per Plane Shift, except the fissure can transport only one creature and closes instantly after doing so (or after being avoided). An unwilling target can attempt a Reflex save (DC = 10+1/2 HD+Cha mod) to evade the fissure and negate this effect. Flying and levitating creatures are immune to this effect, and a creature capable of flight that is standing on the ground can avoid this effect if it succeeds at a DC 20 Fly check (it can still attempt a Reflex save to avoid the spell if it fails this Fly check).

im sorry what

did. do you just. you just... you just send them to the Abyss? Like straight up?

There are Save-Or-Die effects in Pathfinder, and then there’s this. This is a step above Save-Or-Die, this is Save-Or-Be-Personally-Delivered-To-A-Demon-Lord-As-A-Plaything. This is Save-Or-Wish-You-Could-Die. If you manage to hit an enemy with this, they have a limited time to Plane Shift anywhere but where they are right now or they’re done. That’s it. On the best of days the Abyss is a hostile place to be, but the Rasping Rifts is close to the Worldwound and thus crawling with demons eager to pounce on the first non-demon creature they see. It’s also the personal realm of Deskari and is flooded with a hive-mind of verminous beasts, and as a level 13 servant, he’s likely to be paying attention to you and everything you do. He’ll know when you’ve sent someone to him.

He may even ask you to. Knock them unconscious or strike them with some form of paralysis and they can’t make their Reflex save, so they’re helplessly delivered right to the Lord of the Locust Host, who himself is a CR 29 horror beyond the hope of a single mortal to beat. The lack of a restriction beyond size means you can make extra use of effects which shrink your enemies down to ruin their lives even further. At the very least, since it operates like Plane Shift, the delivery point isn’t exact; it may take some time for the Demon Lord to find out where its new toy has gotten off to.

A DM wishing (justifiably) to rein this ability in may have Deskari command the Sentinel to hold off on sending just any old victim to the Rifts, and instead focus on specific targets. Of course, a DM can also point out that this ability carries with it the risk of losing out on loot, as your victim takes everything with them when they go. Be wary about using this on someone who’s carrying the Plot Device!

... using it on yourself, by the way, isn’t recommended. I doubt Deskari would tolerate cowardice. Could be an interesting roleplaying opportunity, though, bargaining with the demon horde of the Rasping Rifts, offering to lead them out. Just make sure you do have a way to get back out, because Planar Wound only goes in one direction. I wonder what happens if you use it while already in the Rasping Rifts?

Boon 3: Welcome the Rasping Rifts. 1/day, you can cast Rift of Ruin as a spell-like ability. When the rift closes, each creature still present within the rift must attempt a Will save (against the spell’s save DC = 18+Cha). Creatures that succeed at this save are expelled violently (as normal for the spell), while those that fail are expelled violently into the Rasping Rifts in the Abyss. If you close the rift early to summon creatures, you summon one additional creature of the same type.

For those who don’t know what the Rift of Ruin spell does, the short version is that it’s a souped up Spiked Pit spell. The hole is 5ft wide, 5ft/level long (so 80ft when you first get it), 60ft deep, and loaded with chewing mouths, acidic mist, starving fiends, and all sorts of other Abyssal nasties that make it painful to stay inside the rift. Everyone and everything inside takes 6d6 damage that’s randomly selected from bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, Electricity, Cold, Fire, or Sonic upon entry to the rift and each round they begin inside of it. If the spell ends and everything’s shot out, they take double damage that round and are knocked prone as the rift spits them back out.

So, every good thing I have to say about Pit spells? Say them bigger and louder here. But, that’s not all! Because you can end the spell early to instead call upon an Abyssal denizen, summoning two Bebeliths or two Vrocks, 1d3+1 Shadow Demons or Succubi, OR 1d4+2 Babaus or Brimoraks. Two Bebeliths or two Vrocks is usually the correct choice, as they’re resilient and dangerous in their own rights (especially Bebeliths, with their ability to shred armor like paper), but swamping stronger foes with smaller enemies can quickly finish a fight... if it wasn’t finished in the first place by the Rift of Ruin vomiting the victim into the Rasping Rifts.

One fun thing to try is to sit at the edge of the rift and waiting for an enemy to almost, almost climb their way back out before snapping the thing shut and either sending them to the Abyss, or stranding them on your side where they’re prone, tired, and now surrounded by demons.

Deskari is kind to his Sentinels.

You can read more about him here.

#Milestone Monster #Spiritual Spotlight #Sinister Spotlight #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

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angelofthequeers · 5 years ago

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Will You Marigami Me: Marigami Week Day 2

Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.

Day 2 of @marigami-week 2020!

Day 1 | Day 3 | AO3 link

2. First Meetings

“– Adrien’s arriving today, and since that’s going to be his seat, this is going to be my seat. Get it?”

Kagami Tsurugi’s first impression of her new class is…not great. An unpleasant blonde dressed in eyewatering yellow and white – whose pale pink lipstick is not doing wonders with her tan skin, and Kagami is willing to bet that she considers herself some kind of fashion icon – is looming over a pale girl who looks like she’s of East Asian descent just like Kagami, with her jet-black pigtails and her softer nose ridge in comparison to the blonde girl.

“Who’s Adrien?” the pigtailed girl says. The blonde bursts into shrill peals of laughter, accompanied by the pale redhead next to her.

“Can you believe she doesn’t know who Adrien is?” the blonde says. “What rock have you been living under?”

Kagami turns to look at the redheaded teacher, waiting for her to use her authority and resolve the issue, but the teacher is just sitting at her desk and regarding the confrontation with an air of detached interest. Ah. A teacher who believes that children should solve their own problems. While Kagami might ordinarily respect that, this seems to be far from the first altercation that these girls have had, so why hasn’t the teacher spoken up and resolved it?

And Kagami was so hoping to go an entire day without making an enemy. Oh well. It’s hardly the first time she’s gotten on the wrong side of someone with an inflated ego. Before she can intervene, however, she’s beaten by a dark-skinned girl with reddish-brown curls, who’s sitting alone at the front desk in the other column of seats.

“Hey, who elected you Queen of Seats?” says the brunette girl, standing up and crossing her arms. The blonde sneers at her.

“Oh, look, Sabrina! We’ve got a little do-gooder in our class this year!” the blonde says. The redhead – Sabrina – giggles. “What are you gonna do, super newbie? Shoot beams at me with your glasses?”

The brunette rolls her eyes and heads for the pigtailed girl. “Wouldn’t you like to know. Come on.”

The pigtailed girl trips on her way down to the front, spilling her box of macarons everywhere, and her face flushes as she scrambles to gather them up while the blonde and her friend Sabrina laugh loudly. The teacher finally leans forward, but before Kagami can hope that she’ll finally speak on the matter…

“Has everyone found a seat?” the teacher says once the students are all seated. Kagami blinks. A girl was blatantly bullied in front of her and she’s doing nothing? And judging by the air between the two girls, this rivalry has been going on for a while.

Wait. No. It’s not a rivalry. To call it that would imply that they’re on even footing, and the blonde most definitely has the pigtailed girl under her foot, not to mention every other classmate who just sat and watched silently. No wonder the pigtailed girl has no confidence, if this has been a long-term thing. Well, unluckily for the blonde, Kagami is not in a good mood; not after losing her chance to join the most prestigious fencing teacher in Paris due to being late for her tryout to help an old man in a hideous red Hawaiian shirt being harassed by a group of older teenage boys. And as Mr D’Argencourt had rightly said, if Kagami can’t be on time for her tryout, how can she be trusted as a reliable student?

“If your friendship with this Adrien is contingent on you sitting near him, I fail to see how it’s particularly strong,” Kagami says, slowly approaching the blonde as one would approach a venomous snake. She pauses in front of the desk and makes sure to loom over the blonde just as the blonde had done with the pigtailed girl. Unlike the pigtailed girl, the blonde merely raises one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

“Adrikins and I happen to be childhood friends, new girl number two,” she says. “And I wouldn’t advise getting on my bad side like super newbie just did.”

Kagami’s lips twitch without her permission. The blonde’s trying to come across as tough, but she’s really just reinforcing Kagami’s first impression of her: a particularly weak bully whose only power is some kind of influence that she seems to have over everyone. This action doesn’t go unnoticed by the blonde.

“You dare laugh at moi?” The blonde slams her hands on the tabletop. “I am Chloé Bourgeois, daughter of the mayor of Paris and the Style Queen herself!”

Ah. There it is. Kagami had been wondering how this Chloé had so much power. Allowing herself a small smirk, Kagami draws herself up and straightens her back.

“And I am Kagami Tsurugi, only daughter of Tomoe Tsurugi and heir of the Tsurugi family,” Kagami says. “I can match you in both wealth and influence.”

Chloé snorts, while her classmates start to mutter. “Wealth, maybe. But influence? I’m Paris’ darling!”

“No,” Kagami says. “You’re no one’s darling but the mayor’s, if what I’ve seen in this room is any indication. The only reason you have influence is because of him, and if he wasn’t in power?” She shrugs. “I, on the other hand, have worked for my prestige. I’ve won fencing competitions and plan to compete in the Olympics. I’m a model student. Everything I have apart from my wealth has been earned.”

The other students’ heads swivel back and forth between Kagami and Chloé, as though watching a particularly exciting fencing match. Except in this case, Chloé’s far from the trickiest opponent that Kagami’s dealt with. In fact, judging by the interesting shade of splotchy red that her face is turning, she seems to know very well that she’s not winning this bout, even if she’s not going down without a fight. Out of the corner of her eye, Kagami notices a tan boy with golden hair and green eyes appear in the doorway, then pause and frown at the scene that’s unfolding before him.

“I will destroy you, Tsurugi,” Chloé snarls, drawing Kagami’s attention back to the petty drama before her. “I will make your school life a living hell. You think they’ll lift a finger against me? My daddy can cut their funding just like –” She snaps her fingers, “– that. No one would dare side with some ugly Asian bitch with a super tacky haircut over me, so you may as well go and mingle with Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Kim Chiến Lê over on that side of the room.”

Kagami can’t help but laugh at the fact that Chloé thinks that she’s just made a terrifying threat. The pigtailed girl – Marinette – is watching the confrontation with wide eyes, so Kagami offers her an attempt at a small smile. From what Kagami’s seen of her, she seems to be a sweet girl, if lacking in self-confidence, but Kagami has plenty of self-confidence to offer. That is, if Marinette is willing to be her friend. Kagami’s not sure how to go about befriending someone.

“And how do you think my mother would react?” Kagami says. “She sent me to this school under the assumption that it’s the best one in Paris. If the quality started to slip, she would most definitely investigate. And while your father may be extremely influential here in Paris, I highly doubt that he could withstand an inquiry led by the national board of education. So, go and run to your daddy. Tattle on me. But I can promise you that if your inflated sense of entitlement affects my education in any way, your influence will disappear just like –” She copies Chloé’s earlier move and snaps her fingers, “– that.”

Chloé opens her mouth, closes it, then lets out a terrible little snarl and slouches back in her seat, crossing her arms. “Whatever. Like I give a damn about your empty threats. But I’m not moving, and you can’t make me!”

“Yes, I can!” Marinette stomps over to the desk and stops next to Kagami with her hands on her hips. “That’s my seat, Chloé. I ended up there in the first place because you made me, and I’m not playing musical chairs just because you want to sit with this Adrien guy, who’s probably just as stuck-up and snobbish as you!”

Chloé’s blue eyes glitter dangerously. However, Kagami’s pleased to see that this time, Marinette doesn’t back down.

“Watch how you speak to me, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé hisses. “You’re nothing but a baker’s daughter. Don’t make me put you in your place again.”

Marinette shoots a look at Kagami and straightens her spine. “Well, as Alya said, “all that’s necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing”. And as Kagami said, if your father takes it out on the school, people will have to take notice! I’m not going to sit back and let you bully me any longer! Now, move. You’re in my seat.”

Chloé makes no attempt to move, instead regarding Marinette with a curled lip. It’s at that moment that the blond boy in the doorway makes his presence known by clearing his throat and, judging by the way Chloé squeals and almost launches herself out of her seat, this must be the Adrien she’d talked about. Her shrill shriek confirms this.

“Adrikins! You’re here! Come, I saved you a seat right in front of –”

“I don’t sit with bullies.” Adrien’s shaking but holding himself tall, and Kagami’s first impression is that this is someone who’s very much unaccustomed to standing up to people. Maybe Kagami can help him as well. Helping people is what friends do, right?

“Bullies?” Chloé gives an exaggerated gasp. “Moi? Adrikins, you don’t know what –”

“I saw everything, Chloé. If you weren’t a bully, then why did you call Kagami that? Why did you just threaten Marinette?”

“And she’s wrong,” Marinette says, chancing a quick sideways peek at Kagami. “Kagami’s not ugly. She’s super pretty. It’s a bit hypocritical for someone to call her ugly when they think that shade of lipstick matches their skin tone.”

Kagami slaps a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. She sneaks a look at Adrien to see if he’s going to disapprove of Marinette’s jab, but he thankfully seems to have tuned it out. That’s something that Marinette needed for her self-confidence, and it’s not even a particularly mean remark. And to be fair, Kagami probably wouldn’t be this close to losing control of herself and laughing if not for Marinette’s compliment. The fact that a gorgeous girl thinks she’s pretty too…

“No, Chloé, I don’t want to sit anywhere near you,” Adrien finishes. “Now, give Marinette her seat back.”

For a moment, Chloé doesn’t move. But then, with a wail, she jumps to her feet and stomps back to her usual desk, with Sabrina scurrying behind her. Marinette sinks down in her seat with a wide smile, joined by Alya a second later.

“Thank you,” Marinette says, directing her smile at Adrien. He grins and ducks his head.

“No problem. I just really hate bullies. And I never thought she was like that.” He turns to Kagami and adds, “Do you want this seat? I’m happy to sit at one of the back desks.”

Although she usually sits in the front, Kagami finds herself shaking her head. For one, she’ll be right across the aisle from a furiously scowling Chloé, which isn’t something she particularly wants to deal with all year. And for another, the dark-skinned brunet boy with the blue T-shirt who’s watching them from next to the empty seat seems like he’ll be much better company than the massive boy behind Alya, who gives off an air of very much wanting to be left alone, or the redheaded boy in the back behind the large boy, who’s doodling in a notebook. Kagami can co-exist with either of them, but Adrien seems to be a much livelier person than her, and he could potentially make great friends with this brunet boy in the front row.

“You take it,” Kagami says. Adrien’s face lighting up lets her know that this had very much been the right call, so she offers a small smile of her own in return and treks up to the large boy. “May I sit next to you?”

“Oh – uh, yeah,” the boy mumbles after a moment, so Kagami takes her seat beside him.

“Wonderful!” The teacher claps her hands like she’d done anything to help defuse the situation. “Now, for those of you who don’t know, my name is Ms Bustier…”

Kagami tunes out Ms Bustier after that, because Marinette turns to give her a radiant smile and mouth, “Thank you”. Kagami smiles back and ducks her head. Is this what it’s like to have friends? Hopefully, it’s not always this dramatic, although Kagami doesn’t think she’d mind drama if it means being Marinette’s friend.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fic #aotq fic #aotq: marigami me #marigami week 2020 #marinette dupain-cheng #kagami tsurugi #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #chloe bourgeois #origins part 1 #kagaminette #marigami #yeah kagami that's definitely not gonna turn into a crush #cat!kagami #cw racism

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rallamajoop · 5 years ago

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Inception: A Fannish Retrospective

For a while now I’ve found myself craving a fic of a particular hard-to-define quality – something with a bit of grit and maturity – not graphic or grim, but perhaps the kind of seedy underworld setting you might find in the better parts of Tarantino or Guy Richie’s oeuvre. The kind of fic that lets me believe that if the author toned down the slash and published it as a mainstream crime or espionage thriller, I’d still be enthused about reading it. Cord Smithee’s work is a particularly good example, for the UNCLE fans out there, but you can only reread those fics so many times, and fic of that quality has been especially sparse in the last few fandoms I’ve drifted through, and so the craving lingered.

Then it hit me: hey, you know what fandom used to be really good for that kind of fic? Inception.

And after all this time in Venom fandom, it was hardly a big jump to more Tom Hardy, so.

Maybe the bigger wonder is that nearly ten years on, most of the fic is still just as good as I remember it being. Mirabella’s Towards Zero remains one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever read in any fandom, and delires’ chav!Eames AU is better than any idea that cracked has any goddamn right to be, and (at least as long as you’re into the juggernaut ship that is Arthur/Eames) you are spoilt for choice for more.

But revisiting a fandom this much later and binging this much fic, you notice things. We’ll start with…

The Film

Still holds up on rewatching today. It will never be nearly as smart a film as I’ve seen some claim: totems, for one, make no fucking sense (they’re objects with details known only to you, but if Cobb can unintentionally bring a carbon copy of his wife into a dream, why not a top that falls over when spun? And why does it keep spinning indefinitely in dreams, anyway?), and for all the exposition on ‘kicks’, why the kicks need to be synchronised to work under sedation is woefully under-explained, to the point I’m always by distracted trying to make sense of it in the middle of the third act. (Do not even get me started on the ‘it’s actually about filmmaking!’ theory – the mental gymnastics required to explain how Yusuf or Mal fits in or why we’re so fixated on the importance of the set designer, of all roles, is laughable. Some of the parallels are moderately entertaining, but don’t try to tell me you’ve unlocked the secret meaning of the film – Inception is not a movie that makes you work that hard to find its main themes.)

But the film works despite its plotholes because it’s not, ultimately, a story driven by its mechanics: the endlessly spinning top may make no sense, but film is a visual medium, and it’s such a good visual gimmick it’s gets a pass. The practical stunts are still as impressive ever, but what really lifts Inception so far beyond your typical action/heist film – for me, at least – are the characters, and the huge emotional payoffs at the end. Fischer’s reconciliation with his father is no less moving for its falseness, “We did grow old together” has gotten a sniffle out of me time and again, and the final “We’ll be young men together” scene is wonderful in so many ways I could only dream there was the Cobb/Saito fic to live up to. It’s not for nothing I’ve got Inception mentally filed in my very short list of humanist action movies along with Mad Max: Fury Road, Terminator II, and precious few others.

And then there’s…

The Fandom

Film fandoms are always an interesting beast, peaking as they do when the film is still in theatres, when most folks writing fic are working off imperfect memories of having seen an hour or two’s worth of canon maybe once or twice at most. Fanon can go feral in far less conducive environments, is my point here – inevitably, there’ll be the details that get analysed to death or flanderised to the point of parody, and the details that get altogether forgotten. Here’s just one example that hit me on a rewatch: I have lately read god knows how many different theories on just what it means that Arthur knew Eames was in Mombasa – none of them the least bothered by how everything in Cobb’s behaviour in that scene suggests he already knows exactly where he’s going, and may even be right now leaving to catch his flight. We could talk about the artefacts of clunky exposition being shoehorned into the dialogue, or the actual intent of that exchange, but shipper-goggles give you some powerful tunnel-vision (and I say this as someone who ships it like burning).

Binge as much fic as fast as I have in the last few months, and you begin to notice trends. Common themes and popular fanon that have ascended to gospel, and facets of the original film I’d love to see explored that fandom seems to have collectively missed altogether (and the sad lack of decent Cobb/Saito is only one). Below, in no particular order, are some of those observations.

Since most of these come across as critical, I want to emphasise that I have had a ball revisiting the fic in this fandom, and there are probably multiple fics guilty of everything I touch on below which I have loved to bits. It’s only the repetition that really starts to make you sit up and notice.

1. The Cobb-bashing, oh my god the Cobb-bashing! I had forgotten just how much this fandom hates Cobb. In the film, Cobb’s plan is the only reason Arthur and Eames ever end up in the same room at all – yet in fanfic, Cobb has been recast as the only thing keeping them apart. I’m not kidding there – fic with that exact premise is almost its own genre. In Inception fanon, Cobb is crazy and cares only about himself, and Arthur has wasted years of misplaced loyalty keeping him alive. Fanon!Eames hates Cobb for monopolising Arthur’s attention (in the film, Eames seems underwhelmed to learn Cobb is still working with Arthur at all). Fanon!Eames only works with Cobb at all because it’s an excuse to work with Arthur (in the film, they’re barely capable of having a civil conversation). Fanon!Eames never forgives Cobb for concealing the level of sedation they were under Inception job, and nor does Arthur (in the film, no-one even mentions Cobb’s deception after they leave the first level, and Eames’ main disappointment at the end is that he won’t get to see the Fischers’ big reconciliation, but why let that douse a good hateboner?) Meanwhile, Yusuf’s corresponding betrayal and Arthur’s equally-disastrous research-fail are rarely referenced. It’s not every fic, but the base level of Cobb-hate around these parts is pretty astounding. There’s nothing new about fans bashing the main character for having the gall to take screentime away from their OTP, and I’d be the last to play down Cobb’s real failings. But when one finds oneself tempted to leave enthusiastic comments on decade-old fic, praising the author for giving Cobb a minor scene or two where he gets to be a total bro to Arthur for a change… I promise you, it’s not me, it’s this fandom.

2. For all that Eames is basically the single biggest reason I’m reading in this fandom, his fanon characterisation leaves something to be desired. I do get the appeal of flirty!Eames or pining!Eames – it’s just that once in a while, you find yourself longing for fic about the guy who was actually in the movie – y’know, the one who’s first response to Arthur’s name was, “Arthur? Are you still working with that stick-in-the-mud?” I am totally down with the idea he was feigning indifference– maybe for Cobb’s benefit, maybe he’s actively in denial himself, whatevs. But fanon!Eames characterisation typically ranges from “hopelessly in love with Arthur from the moment they met” to “a walking sexual harassment lawsuit in action,” and neither of those guys could convincingly feign indifference to save their lives. It’s also a shame we don’t see more of the side of Eames that got so genuinely, unashamedly invested in what they were doing for Fischer – quite beyond the money and the prestige, Eames loves that they get to fix Fischer’s relationship with his father and reveal Browning as the rat that he is, and it’s a wonderfully humanising side to such a shady character. There should be so much scope in there to cast Eames was a guy with a real idealistic streak, or more conscience than he’d usually admit to, or just an abiding love for melodrama – the possibilities go on and on (and if you can’t think of a dozen ways to tie any of those in as fuel for his rivalry with Arthur for bonus shippy fodder, you aren’t even trying). But that part of Eames never does seem to have found a place in the fandom’s collective headcanon, because hell if I can find any exploration of it in fic, le sigh. (Cynically, I have to wonder if it’s because it clashes with the fanon where Eames spent the Inception job furiously hating Cobb and focused on Arthur, but even that seems somewhat lacking as an answer. Who even knows?)

3. As a corollary to the above, remarkably few fics make any attempt to deal with the fact that Arthur and Eames a) basically hate each other, b) for reasons that do not entirely revolve around how Arthur won’t put out. Obviously, this is a ‘hate’ that covers a much deeper well of underlying respect, but these are two guys who only stop taking potshots at each other when they’re being shot at for real, and to me that is 95% of the fun of the pairing – why does no-one even seem to try to recreate that dynamic in fic? Even 99% of Eames’ infamous ‘flirting’ would be better described as him pulling Arthur’s pigtails. Yet virtually no-one seems to want to tackle their antipathy head-on – even fic that acknowledges it as a past phase of their relationship isn’t set during that phase. I’m all for seeing them eventually end up friendlier, but you’ve got to show me how they get there first – that’s the good bit! Why does everyone skip over it? :((((

4. This fandom has SUCH a thing for underage!Arthur. Fics will go on and on about how young he looks, or theorise that he was actually underaged when he first got into dreamshare, or at least looked it. Seriously, the idea of Eames having mistaken Arthur for a teen when they first met is, like, the accepted pan-fandom headcanon as to why they don’t get on (unless we’re in military-backstory land, in which case it’s that Arthur had to deal with Eames hitting on him during the time of DADT). Then there are the many (MANY) AUs where Arthur really is a teen, hitting on the much-older Eames – there’s that one semi-parody where even twenty-something!Arthur gets cockblocked by his own looks, and there’s even at least one that flips things so that Eames the one who was underage when they met, just for variety.

It’s a real Thing, and I only wish I understood where it comes from, since (to me) Arthur has always looked like the 29yo man JGL legitimately was back when Inception hit screens – I don’t think he’d even passed as a Hollywood!teen for a solid half a decade at that point. So… are there really that many people who thought JGL looked that young when the film came out, or is this just one of those fannish meme things? I may never know.

5. No-one (by which I mean almost no-one) gets how limbo works. Fic after fic treats it as basically just a garden-variety coma, and colleagues can spend days or months moving the victim, gathering a team and planning a complex rescue. Rarely is it ever remembered the whole point of limbo is that you can age and die trapped in your own mind in no more than hours in the real world. When Eames talks about being ‘trapped in limbo until our brains turn to scrambled egg’, I think it’s safe to assume he’s being pretty literal. Basically, if you’re not treating limbo as the temporal equivalent of the Total Perspective Vortex, you’re probably doing it wrong.

6. No-one does anything interesting with Ariadne. This, I have some sympathy for: it’s hard to know where to go with someone who ends the film where she does – her push-pull relationship with the world of illegal dreamshare is not a contradiction that can be easily resolved in a subplot, if at all. But the Ariadne who so quickly had Cobb picked as a loose canon never seems to appear in fic either, and nor does the Ariadne with the guts to sneak into his dream to find answers, or the prodigy whose last-minute moment of inspiration saved the whole job. No, Inception fic is more likely to give you an Ariadne who giggles and drags her teammates out partying than any of that, which is absurd to the point of being genuinely offensive. Seriously, that is some A-grade “all we remembered about her is that she’s female”-bullshit. Even when she’s not saddled with OOC giggle fits, fic!Ariadne also remains frustrating static: years after the film, she’ll still be doing extractions with the Inception team, despite seeming no more at home in their world. Where’s the Ariadne who embraces the underworld wholeheartedly and reaches Arthur or Cobb levels of badassery? The Ariadne whose natural gifts and overconfidence get her into Cobb-levels of trouble? Who takes the Inception job as inspiration to go into therapeutic uses of dreams? Who finds legitimate dream-related work through Miles or Saito, but still lets the old team drag her back into extractions every once in a while (because she’s easily one of the most reliable architects in the whole shady business, and there’s a part of her that still kind of loves it)? WHERE?

The obvious rejoinder to all this is that it’s hardly surprising Ariadne doesn’t get much play when you’re mostly reading Arthur/Eames fic. So (because the land of fic is still terrible at cataloguing character-specific gen) I had a dig through some Arthur/Ariadne fic for comparison – only to run into much the same frustrations all over again. No-one takes her character anywhere very interesting.

So you can imagine my surprised delight when I tried a couple of Arthur/Ariadne/Eames fics on a whim, and almost immediately found not one but two different stories willing to dive headfirst into the questions surrounding Ariadne’s future in the world of illegal dreamshare (plus multiple stories which made a very convincing case that Ariadne should absolutely celebrate their successful Inception by having a threesome with her colleagues, I mean, damn).

I have absolutely no idea what it says about fandom that I had to go looking at threesome fic to find real character development, but at this point, I’ll take it.

7. So, I get why everyone reads Eames as queer (duh), but having discovered two quite excellent straight!Eames fic (which is to say, fic which utterly sells the idea that Eames considers himself straight or had no experience with men until long after meeting Arthur), the fact no equivalent seems to exist for Arthur baffles me. Sure, there’s one or two stories where one smile from Eames is about all it takes to make him change his mind, and one great kink meme fill that might have been just what I was looking for if it had ever been finished. But otherwise, the idea that Arthur (a guy who snogs Ariadne and is given no other obvious sexuality) -- the same Arthur whom every other fic portrays as seriously emotionally repressed – the idea this guy might not be experienced and comfortable dating men just… doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone. Which is so weird.

Is there not enough RL evidence that Tom Hardy can and does make straight guys reconsider their preferences? Is the idea of an Arthur who’s repressed that side of his own sexuality not a juicy enough explanation for the tension between them? How on earth did we wind up with a fandom where Eames is more likely to be the designated “straight” one at the start of the story than Arthur? The mind boggles.

Holy shit, you’re still reading? Damn! Have some more recs as thanks for listening to me ramble at so much length.

Recs!

Here’s those two from the top again, because I really do love them that much

We Can Do This Until We Pass Out by delires Disturbing London, baby, we about to branch out. (The one where Eames is a chav)

Towards Zero by Mirabella Five levels down, and five to dig yourself back out. Arthur met Eames' projection long before he met Eames.

Where the Dead Live also by Mirabella There's a monster in Arthur's basement. Maybe he shouldn't have invited it in. It’s the vampire!Apocalypse, and this one is intense. Utterly brilliant, but equally unapologetic about the implications of its premise. So, for a somewhat-lighter take on monster!Eames, I will also throw in:

Cthonical’s demon!Eames verse Unfinished -- arguably never even properly started, just a series of ficlets from a ‘verse that never quite got written, but they are scorching hot and still well worth a look.

That’s a lot of darker fic though, probably time to lighten the mood a little.

Anal [Inception] aka Not Now Cobb We're Doing BGs also by cthonical Arthur and Eames both play WoW. They kick ass at Warsong Gulch, and when they team up they’re nigh on unstoppable.They don’t know they’re playing with each other.

Champion Sound by pyrimidine Prompt: Arthur is a DJ, Eames is a bartender.

London Bridge by sorrynotsorry Arthur loves whiskey, and maybe strippers.

My two favourite Arthur/Eames/Ariadne fics

How to Cure Insomnia by wonderfulwrites When she called Arthur for advice on how to deal with the unexpected insomnia - okay, fine, on the pretense of asking for advice – she hadn’t expected to have to wade through a sea of bodies to see him. But then, she also hadn’t expected Eames’s cheerful but surprising, Just come, Ariadne. You can sleep when you’re dead. Or Eames, at all, really. The Wind on the Mountain by Starlingthefool Something in her rebels against this casual, passive seduction. God knows why, but she’s sitting up in the water, taking her foot back from Eames and dislodging Arthur’s hands from her back. She stands, wet underwear clinging ridiculously to her, and says to Arthur, “All right. Your turn.”

Aaand let’s have a few more straight Arthur/Eames to round it out.

Untitled and Untitled, redux by Helenish -- two variants on a theme, and do not let the lack of proper titles put you off, they’re both great.

Unexpected Plot Twist by ethrosdemon Post-Inception -- long and (as promised) twisty, and a very solid read.

Four Corners by Mithrigil In Eames’ line of work, a first impression means nearly everything. It’s always a pity when he doesn’t get off on the right foot.

Kiss With A Fist by cmonkatiekatie Because apparently, to find real Arthur/Eames antagonism, I have to go looking for hate sex. (Not complaining, this is some amazing hate sex.)

And also basically Everything by Wiltling There’s a darker vibe to their work, but it rarely gets oppressive -- just generally a lot of great fic.

#Inception #meta #fic recs

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whocalledhimannux · 5 years ago

Text

hi I wanna like...... yell about the whole Godekker sequence and the poetry of Kamet relying on Costis for 99% of the journey and feeling like an idiot, but then having this mini-episode where he is the one totally in charge, he is the one in charge of executing his own plan, and it involves him 1) making good use of the skills he developed as a slave, not in dealing with free men, but in dealing with OTHER SLAVES, and 2) being forced to confront the way that he thinks about slavery and society.

this is going to be long and rambling because I’m tired and should be sleeping. but I feel like, throughout the book, Kamet’s views of free and enslaved people are both very convoluted and very black and white. he can be simultaneously arrogant about his own importance compared to [all] Attolians, and put himself so low in the social hierarchy that he doesn’t deserve a bed or a full meal. and to some extent, this kind of thinking is both logical and necessary! that’s reality for him! if he blurs any of those lines, he would be forced to deal with the fundamental inequality and trauma of slavery, and he can’t do that.

(he also puts himself above other slaves pretty much throughout the book--which, again, makes sense given his actual position as the future emperor’s secretary, and given his mode of thinking. “those other slaves may be abused, but I’m special. I’m smart and important, and if I’m mistreated, it’s not because I’m stuck in a fundamentally oppressive system, it’s because I made a mistake. I have control over whether it happens again.”)

and for most of the journey, he doesn’t need to challenge those subliminal beliefs. he either pretends to be a perfect humble slave surrounded by free men, or he pretends to be a free man himself (although he does struggle with that). but that falls apart a little bit when he’s around other slaves, because they understand each other in a way that the free men around Kamet don’t understand him. think of Kodester, when his first use of his authority as a “free man” is to help out a slave--and that slave almost instantly realizes Kamet must be an escaped slave himself.

and then, when Kamet is threatened by Godekker, he thinks back to being in Nahuseresh’s household and how he dealt with slaves there, and this is what he says: “Gentle with them, I explained my authority, always making them see that we were on the same side, both slaves, both capable of treating the other with the respect we were denied by free men.” (emphasis mine)

I know this is a reflection on how Kamet used to feel, so it’s not new to him, but it’s new to the reader. it’s Kamet simultaneously feeling true humility (in solidarity with other slaves) and acknowledging his fundamental worth that his enslaved state has denied him. this feels like a natural progression, too, from when he and Costis were talking about Kamet’s time in Attolia and Costis said “you were lonely” and Kamet replied “I was underappreciated.” I think that frank attempt to explain his feelings/the power dynamic to Costis paved the way for him to talk about this to the reader later. so this is my point #1--by taking on that role again, a slave talking to another slave, Kamet is able to relate to people in an honest way, which he struggles with elsewhere in the book. For him, self-respect and mutual respect are very thoroughly entangled. he can’t respect others unless he admits that he is as powerless as they are, but by putting himself at their level, he can acknowledge that they both deserve respect.

(this comes back to the whole “slaves don’t do favors” thing--slaves can’t give away any of the little power they have. free men can be gracious. and one of the first conversations Kamet has a free man is along the same lines; Relius tells him not to drive a hard bargain, but to trust Eugenides. essentially saying “you aren’t a cheap person, so don’t act cheaply. treat others with respect, because you are worthy of respect.”)(any other Jewish QT fans out there? I’m basically struggling to describe the concept of b’tselem elohim here in a secular context.)

moving on to #2, Godekker is really the PERFECT foil for Kamet, because he is that uneducated, powerless slave that Kamet tries so desperately to distance himself from. yet he has so much power over Kamet and very bluntly tells him the things that Kamet has been subconsciously saying to himself for years. Godekker tells him that he’ll never stop being afraid, that he can’t have friends, that he’ll always be a slave to some master, that he shouldn’t do favors for people. ALL things that Kamet has said elsewhere in the narrative. (honestly, in another genre Godekker would be a spirit sent to Kamet in his dreams or some shit.) and some of these things he agrees with even as Godekker says them. some of them he doesn’t.

sometimes (most interestingly) his actions and his words conflict. he says that slaves don’t do favors, while at the same time doing this massive favor for Costis--like really, if anyone ever believed that Kamet would leave Costis at any point in this novel, I am 100% certain this section of the book killed that idea. I also find it so interesting that Kamet says “he’s taking me to his employer, who will free me,” which is the official plan, which Kamet DOES NOT INTEND TO HAPPEN, instead of just like... saying “he helped me out and I want to make sure he survives, but I’m bailing on him soon, don’t worry.” this is also the first time Kamet admits that he doesn’t actually like being Nahuseresh’s slave, despite all the prestige he’s been bragging about for two hundred pages--that he might smash Nahuseresh’s head in with a rock if given the chance!

and then, when Costis wakes, Kamet keeps trying to interrupt him with reassurance, and Costis doesn’t need them. Costis trusts him and tells him that he’s strong enough to be a free man--again, Costis has thought of Kamet as a free man for THE ENTIRE BOOK and Kamet has never once believed him, until this scene. Costis’s faith in him, combined with his... individual authority and agency in this scene, that’s what pushes his character development.

I’m almost done, I swear. but like... I think Kamet might honestly be my favorite character in the series, and one reason for that is that MWT shows his development so well but almost never tells it. Which is so fitting given that he’s a slave and given that we’re reading his own narrative. Kamet loses a lot and gains a lot throughout this novel, and irl that’s hard. we don’t always recognize when change is for the good. it’s natural to regret what we had, or what might have been, and what looks like a positive change to other people doesn’t always feel positive in the moment.

we, as readers, know that Kamet has been treated terribly, know that he and Costis are friends, know that Eugenides is a good person and will be a good friend to him, [think we] know that he will ultimately be better off, know that he has the strength and skill and moral character to live life as a free man. and we see so many of these seeds in this section of the book. but Kamet doesn’t see them as clearly as we do. and that is some DAMN good writing.

in conclusion, Thick as Thieves is incredibly written and I love it very much, good night and I’m sorry for the inevitable typos/repetition.

#thick as thieves #kamet #queen's thief #qtmeta

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