#Sufficiently Advanced Alien (trope)

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Although Peacemist’s computer system looks like standard 21st-century technology,

it’s actually an highly advanced alien computer from a distant galaxy that has never been named.

[magicaldogtoto]

Saw some discourse on the Other Website about whether or not magical girls who use technology "count" as magical girls (or something like that) and it reminded me of a few months ago when someone asked me over there what I meant when I said that Tokyo Mew Mew was "less magical" than other magical girl works I've interacted with.

To be clear, Mew Mew to me is definitely a magical girl story. I wasn't really saying that it was "less magical" so much as commenting on how the girls in-universe got their powers. (I did reply to that person, but you can only do so much in 280 words.)

There are (from my understanding based on what I know) multiple ways for a magical girl to get her powers. Sometimes it's a fairy, sometimes it's an ancient relic. Mew Mew has the girls get their powers from having animal DNA spliced into them. Moreover, they are referred to at one point as "biological weapons." Their enemies are also aliens who use parasites to mutate animals into monsters. That's all very soft science fiction in premise. (The English translation of the original pilot calls the magical girl's outfit a "battle suit.")

But the powers still manifest as magical girl outfits and weapons. If you showed someone a photo of the team, they would probably not immediately think "those characters get their powers from animal DNA spliced into them." In the end, it's a very Clarke's Third Law kind of science. You know, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Or perhaps here it's "Science that isn't explained in detail seems like magic."

So yeah, the series is still magical. But it does share a lot of tropes you'd see in science fiction, too. And I think that's pretty cool.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 15 – Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles

Okay, continuing to try to catch up on my 7-review backlog! If very inadequately, but hey.

So someone on here recommended I gives this a try, and having read it I’m flattered that they thought I was sufficiently cultured to get that much out of it. Or better to say that I appreciated it as, like, a concept or an art object more than I enjoyed it as a story or as a work of literature?

So the story itself is of a space station in the middle of nowhere, its economy based on gathering some strange cosmic fuel source from a local gas giant, and about to collapse as a revolutionary advance in starship technology decimates demand for that resource. At the same time, there’s a resident xenologist studying the strange alien ships pulled up from the gas giant, and strange spectral energy ghosts have begun to haunt the station.

But the actual point of the book is that it’s written in the Orcadian dialect (that is the dialect of the Orkney Isles) – each page is half filled with the text in Orcadian (and I’m fairly sure in verse), and then repeated in English in the bottom half. It is, if I’m trusting the marketing, the first science fiction novel ever written in Orcadian, and the first novel published in the language in fifty years.

Sadly Orcadian is just barely mutually unintelligible enough with standard English that I basically had to rely on the translated halves of the page for at least two parts in three, and it’s just...not great. Dealing with ambiguity in language is the curse of every translator of course, but I’m really pretty confident that just clumping every option together into a new compound word (e.g. “swellwaves and whirlrushdancespins”) is, in fact, the wrong choice. I got a headache from the eyestrain trying to parse the potential meanings at least a couple of times.

The whole idea is kind of charming in a 19th century cultural nationalist intelligentsia sense, and the flow of the Orcadian verse was usually really very pleasing to the ear, but yeah, didn’t especially work for me.

The story itself is – well, I was left entirely confused about the whole thing with the energy ghosts and all that, but everything else was fine, but kind of shallowly dealt with? The station was vividly drawn, the cast all seemed very real, but there just wasn’t the word count to actually deal with any of the stuff the book wanted to except by just touching on them and gesturing at wider tropes. Like, the sense of entropy and the worry of your home fading away and all the young people leaving to go seek a future their home can’t give them, and people desperately trying to find some way to adapt or giving up entirely – that was pretty keenly felt (one rather gets the sense that Orcadia and the Orkney Isles share more than just a language). But everything else? Just two many POVs and irons in the fire, not enough space for any of them to really breathe.

The comparison that comes to mind is the one Becky Chambers book about humans still living on the Fleet (Records of a Spaceborn Few, I think?), compared to which I’d say this felt much more poetic and emotionally resonant going after a similar sort of concept, but then I’m wildly biased here.

Anyway, yeah, really wish I could have enjoyed this more, but I can’t really say I did.

[tigger8900]

Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kyr has trained all her life to serve Gaea Station in its sole mission: to avenge the destruction of Earth, whatever it takes. But upon reaching adulthood, her twin brother gets assigned a mission guaranteed to bring both death and glory while she's assigned to bear children in the nursery wing. In defiance of her orders, Kyr leaves to join her brother's mission, but what she finds when she gets there are the answers to questions she never thought to ask.

This book was fantastic. I can't even say too much about why I loved it, because most of the things that were so great are massive spoilers! I'll settle for saying that it takes several familiar sci-fi tropes — some of which you'll spot immediately, and others which take some time to reveal themselves — and remixes them into something that felt both fresh and timely.

The most impressive non-spoilery thing the book accomplished was managing to keep the reader just slightly more clued-in than the main character is. It's tricky to keep that balance with the reveals, between the reader knowing everything too early and the main character essentially narrating every logical step. I also enjoyed the setting, particularly the aliens and their sufficiently-advanced-technology, and the way the characters were developed as the plot went on.

I will warn you that you're not going to like the main character. She's a real piece of work when we first meet her. I promise, she gets better. Much better. Ordinarily such massive transformations over the course of one book ring hollow, but due to the spoilers I actually believed it this time. I also want to say that, if you're anything like me, you're probably going to be wondering around the 15-20% mark if you can trust the author with what this book seems to be taking on. The answer is yes. Again avoiding spoilers, but the things that are making you raise your eyebrows are intentional and serve the plot.

My biggest point of contention with the book was with the ending. It was foreshadowed pretty early on, so it wasn't deus ex machina. It's fair enough, I guess. It just felt a little too convenient for my tastes. Like, the bow shouldn't have tied up so neatly, if that makes sense? But I'm not really mad at it.

Does the tiger die? Mild spoilers ahead! There is, in one scene, a tiger. I'm not kidding. The tiger is presented from its introduction as an adversary, and is killed(in a somewhat graphic manner) in the course of a character defending themself.

[miloscat]

[Review] Sin & Punishment (N64)

A cool, hip, and experimental rail shooter.

Lylat Wars is easily one of my favourite N64 games. Another well-regarded entry in the rail shooter genre on that console is Treasure’s Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Earth/Stars aka Glass Soldier, a cult classic Japan exclusive. Until the Wii Virtual Console that is, where it was given an international distribution and the menus were newly translated (the game's spoken dialogue was already in English). Then came the Wii U Virtual Console release with new controller remapping features (essential for this game if you ask me) and savestate support, and that's how I played it.

It's an unusual sort of rail shooter as it has platforming elements, and a stop-start pace akin to gallery shooters. One level even plays out like a sidescroller! Your character is on foot and for the most part advances automatically but can strafe side to side. The control scheme is actually pretty complex, not helped by playing it on a controller other than its native release, and fumbling with it cost me a few cheap deaths. The ideas are sound but it feels like it demands a lot of practice and mastery, even on Easy difficulty. Thankfully checkpoints and credits are generously handed out, so even without savestates it's doable.

Your analogue stick controls the cursor, while C-Left/Right strafes/rolls, shoulders jump. The Z button is the all-important shoot function, a rapid-fire stream of projectiles. Holding it down makes for easy DPS but tapping it at the right moments instead does a sword strike for bigger damage and the ability to reflect projectiles back, which is a necessity for certain fights. The A button toggles between free fire and a lock-on reticle that isn't as useful as it sounds, but has its moments.

At this point I'd like to explain the story... but the truth is it's nigh-incomprehensible. Presumably the manual set up the premise somewhat, but in this release we're dumped into the post-apocalypse in medias res, in the unthinkable future year of 2007. What follows is a torrent of superpowered moody anime teens blasting monsters, soldiers, and robots, flatly delivering dialogue about saving the world and the conflict between various proper nouns. The genetic mutants are called Ruffians with a straight face, and the main character Saki soon turns into a kaiju himself, at which point sidekick Airan takes over as playable.

After blasting away an entire armada single-handed while floating on a telekinetically levitated slab of scrap, she enters a vision of the yet more unthinkable future of 2017, meets her own son, and manages to contact spiky-haired Protag-kun sufficient to revert him to semi-human form. Airan, sadly, quickly becomes helpless and Saki takes the reigns, blasts some fools, and eventually blows up a mock Earth which is trying to supplant our Earth. I think it's a metaphor. Anyway your friend the magic god lady turns out to be an alien or something who engineered the whole thing as a test of the powers bestowed on you by her magic blood... I think. So yeah, it's a big pile of anime tropes, poorly-explained sci-fi wackiness, and nonsensical twists, but as an excuse for some cool setpieces and visuals it's perfectly serviceable.

The setting is presented in a cool way within the N64's polygon limitations. There's good use of colour and the shifts in perspective from level to level keep things fresh. The English dialogue however was probably an afterthought for the Japanese audience, and for a native speaker it's flat and stilted, not to mention tinny from cartridge compression. At times they apply mechanical filters and it becomes genuinely difficult to make out. Certainly leagues below Conker's Bad Fur Day, the gold standard for voice production on N64.

In most ways for an N64 it's genuinely impressive, and experiments in some interesting ways. I don't think it quite comes together well enough to best the purity of Lylat Wars, but they can coexist comfortably. The fact that you can save and jump into completed chapters makes it approachable, and there's little penalty as you don't have any resources to expend apart from credits to continue after a death. No resources does mean there's no helping you out of a pinch though; instead you just have to learn the patterns and get better at reacting. Overall for Treasure I think it's much more successful than Wario World, even if it's trying to fit 10 pounds of story into a 5-pound story bag.

[soulvomit]

So basically I'm on a kick of seeing if I can write a space opera/optimistic space adventure setting with zero supernaturalism of any kind that's 100% about sentients' agency. And it's wild how hard this is actually to do and how much theology and supernaturalism are in *most* modern sci fi.

Star Trek, often seen as one of the more atheist of sf franchises, interestingly has tons of this - possession, godlike aliens (regardless of whether people choose to worship them), ancient astronauts, and the premise that some species' religions refer to things that are objectively real rather than a matter of faith.

Nothing has made me realize most popular media sci fi has supernaturalism and theology in it (including and especially your favorite shows and movies written by professed atheists), like trying to worldbuild an s/f setting that *doesn't* have a lot of that and retains a fair amount of human responsibility for human consequences.

(One of the things in my setting bible is that I want problems to be solved by collective sentient effort and personal responsibility *most* of the time, and alien intervention in our history to play very little role. Humans collectively are the cause of most of our own failures and successes. This actually wipes tons of popular tropes off the board right away and is trickier to write than you can imagine!)

And almost all popular media sci fi has huge elements of supernaturalism and theology. (though hilariously, Star Wars *only* asks audiences to accept the existence of space wizards, which actually makes it one of the least supernaturalist of the various popular sf franchises.)

Past the 70s, tons of media sci fi goes the direction of "Gods are real but they're actually sufficiently advanced aliens that we only worship because we don't understand them." Which is an interesting stance but after a while it still boils down to "theological premises are objectively real rather than a matter of personal faith."

Also given I'm couching my own thing in the visual language and themes of retrofuture, it really makes me realize that somehow the supernatural themes as well as "can't show humans having too much collective or even realistic agency" in sci fi actually *stepped up* after the 70s. How and why did that happen? When did it stop being a thing to portray human agency let alone collective agency?

As of the 80s, harder stuff that doesn't go theological, has a tendency to be somewhat grimdark (cautionary tales offering no solutions; there is no way out of the exploitation and human-wrought horror being portrayed, except perhaps for - in the case of cyberpunk - doing crime. But the system of oppression must always be portrayed as intractable and oppression and inequality are always destiny. Sometimes 80s works got a little more hopeful, but I want to see more of life AFTER the revolution.)

Even Asimov (whose work was more grounded and human affirming up to this point) began tying up his narratives and explaining them away so that we're all pawns in the schemes of more powerful beings - by the time we get to his much later work, little of what his human characters achieved in his earlier works even really matters anymore in the same way that it did before I knew that super-robots moved pieces into place, and time-cops had already decided how things would go.

Why did this kind of theme take over sci fi after the 70s? When did that slippage actually happen?

What happened in the zeitgeist to make that happen? It's like theological arguments just unconsciously slipped in and became a big norm in media sci fi. And tons of atheist franchise writers seem to construct worlds in which godlike beings *do* exist.

[l-egionaire]

First Law of Biology.

So, if you're a nerd of any persuasion, you've no doubt at least once seen Clarke's Third Law referenced or used in media. For those who don't know Clarke's Third Law is this idea:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Now, this concept has been used in dozens of type of media from movies to T.V. shows to comic books. But after being in the How To Train Your Dragon fandom, I've began to wonder something: Is there a biological equivalent to Clarke's Third Law? I believe there is and I'm going to explain why and provide a few examples.

To set a baseline for what I'm talking about, I'll give this as a description. A biological equivalent to Clarke's Third Law would be something like this.

"Any organism with a sufficiently complex biology is indistinguishable from a magical creature."

Now what does that actually mean? Well, it's basically a living creature, whether its an animal or a more humanoid sentient being, whose biology is so extremely complex and capable of such unusual things that it's impossible to tell the difference between that organism and an actual magical creature.

Case in point, my original example, The dragons of the How To Train Your Dragon series.

In the How To Train Your Dragon series, the dragons are treated and referred to as, well, dragons but they are never treated as inherently magical. In fact, a lot of dragon behavior, abilities, and habitats are all examined through the lense of biology with many of the dragons being compared to real life animals such as reptiles, insects, and mammals. The dragons of How To Train Your dragon also have remarkable abilities such as flight, fire breathing, and their eggs explode when they hatch. They have biological abilities that are so alien and unusual to see that they'd seem like magical creatures to some. Just look at the Changeling below. Its camouflage ability is probably similar to an Octopus or Cuttlefish but its so bizzare to see that in a land creature and such a large one, that it would seem like magic if you didn't know better.

If you want another example of this kind of thing, look at Zombies in media like Z Nation, Zombieland, and World War Z.

Now, in all these different pieces of media, these creatures are considered Zombies. They are lifeless corpses who live only to kill and eat brains. They turn other people into zombies by biting them. To most people these things would absolutely seem demonic or supernatural yet in most media, zombies aren't treated this way. They are seen as scientific creatures caused by a virus or a contamination not through magic. These beings are a perfect example of a lifeform whose biological systems give them such a resemblance to a magical or supernatural creature that the difference is moot.

And if you want an example of this in a sentient lifeform, look no further than Ben 10.

In Ben 10, The ectonurite species are lifeforms who almost perfectly resemble ghosts. They can phase through objects, they have a weakness to the sun, they can "posses" people, and they don't posses "life energy" like most other life forms do. Yet they are always just treated as another type of lifeform in the universe. There's even a special kind of goo that can nullify their intangibility. These "ghosts" are just one more unique form of life that exists in their universe.

This idea is one that I personally find to be very interesting because despite it being used so much that its a unique trope, its not something people usually identify as a trope. If anyone who reads this has any other examples of this id love to hear them because I'm really interested in this topic. This kind of "First Law of Biology" is one that shows up in a lot of media and I hope more and more people identify it when it does.

[chaucer-blackwood]

You know one trope that really annoys me whenever I see it? The whole “Above Good And Evil” thing: this idea that a sufficiently eldritch/alien/transcendent being is somehow exempt from “traditional” or simply “human��� morality by nature of it’s incomprehensibility. 

Mostly because this comes in two distinct flavors: “Evil, but really pretentious about it”, or “Good, but with an excuse not to help the heroes so there’s still a plot.”

“But wait!” you say. “What about storms or viruses or animals! They kill people, but would you call them evil?”

The problem with that argument is that storms and viruses and animals are not sapient, self-aware beings. Something with complex thought though? I don’t let them off that easy. Especially since we’re supposed to believe that said being are more advanced and/or intelligent than we are, not less.

It’s not as though alternate forms of morality don’t exist among humans, but the key difference is they still functionally believe in good and evil; what they disagree on is what constitutes a good or evil action. Look at the “Guilt/innocence, honor/shame, power/fear” triangle that sociologists use.

But no, in fiction we get “This thing is an inconcievable horror that devours worlds and tortures people, but because it’s not from Earth that means it’s too incomprehensible to be labeled as evil.”

[rogue-hammer]

ELDAR PART 2: #5 EXODITES You know that army everyone says their going to do, and then you never see anyone doing it? You know that concept that seems kind of bizarre and niche, but is always kind of fun when you think about it? Lets cut the bull, do you know about the Exodites? Yeah you know the ones I mean. The Eldar who where smart enough from the get go to realize that shit was gonna hit that fan. And by hit we mean, the shit was a dirty nuclear bomb, and the fan was spinning at Mach 10, and no one within a 1 million light year radius of it was going to not get shit on them? The Eldar that if they had a proper army dex, would probably be Toughness 4, Strength 5 and could break an Aspect warrior over their knee? Well fear not, because the Chaos Druid is here to tell you how it may be possible to have these “Salt of the Earth” Style Eldar as a force. -First off, the lore. The Exodites as we all know, where those Eldar who, at the time before the fall realized what was going to happen, and after trying to tell the rest of their race that the liberal agenda was a bad idea, went fuck it and took off for the distant Eastern fringe of the galaxy. Abandoning much of what their race had achieved, these highly attuned seer like Eldar went and settled many a wild and dangerous world. You could say they where Mountain Men of their race. Minus the Buckskins. When establishing a concept for your army, it should be important to note these sorts of things, and mayhap research our own real world history, looking for those who left behind more advanced surroundings to wander the wilds and tame or become a part of their new surroundings. Besides, whats not to like when coming up with a how did your army tame mutha fuck’n dinosaurs for an army concept than to read about people who did much the same thing? 

-How to represent it? This is the big hurdle to Exodites. GW never did give these backwoods space elves a codex of their own (sometimes I wonder if they where meant to be a mirror to wood elves from WHF) and so you have to be able to work a little bit of magic to bring them to the table. There are two ways of doing this: 1: Use a community created and tested Codex. This one is pretty simple. There are loads of communities on the net who enjoy making non-official but professional quality dexs that never existed, or that did and got left behind. This can be a good place to start if your unsure what exact kinds of units and characters you want to try and represent on the table. 2: Do a “Counts as army.” While this may seem a bit less interesting than going out in search of a quality fan made dex, believe it or not, counts as armies and models are some of the funnest challenges in the hobby. After all, who says you have to stick to one area? When it comes to a race as wide spread as the eldar, you can use all kinds of lists to represent your Exodites. From IA books, to the various inner factions and old codexes, you have a wealth of pre-made stats and rosters for your army, and it may even inspire you to create a Home Brew Dex of your own for use with friends and fellow Exodite fans, it can even be a group project!

-Modeling. Ah yes the next big hurdle in your quest to make this awesome idea come to life. But lucky for us, in this day and age of vast miniatures Renaissance, your never short on companies who produce all sorts of models for use in creating your own flavor of Exodites. Even the GW ranges can be put together via the various universes and factions to give rise to a unique and conversion heavy Exodite host. It’s these kind of armies that GW once upon a time used to really try and get their community interested in. Your own imagination is the only limit when making a fully converted army, and since everyone likes Dinosaurs, dragons, and laser guns, well, who isn;t going to have plenty of models ripe for bits fodder and base construction? 

-So then next, whats your theme? After all, Exodites can be as various as their craftworld kin. They don’t all have to be from the same sort of planet, or even have the same sort of unit arrangement. Think first to yourself, what wild and possibly feral world has my army tamed and guards as their own? Are they Jungle style folk, Eldar survivalists of the deepest jungle worlds know to the galaxy who could give catachans are run for their money? Taming giant lizard like creatures and avian like Dinosaurs for use in war, while using mainly Stealth and Guerrilla style tactics against invaders, blending seamlessly into the Jungle foliage to strike while using the elements of their home world to wear down an enemy, Maybe they are a desert folk. Having traversed the sands of a barren wasteland planet in the style of Dune. (Dune….Eldar. Ok I may have to do this now) and have grown hardy and strong from the unforgiving conditions. Training and using burrowing and dangerous desert creatures such as serpentine lizards, Scorpion and draconic scalies of fire and ash to their use. Able to blend in and traverse the known ways of the sands to out maneuver and flank their foes foolish enough to come after them (and now I also want to watch Lawrence of Arabia). An alpine people would also not be a far stretch. After all we have seen plenty of Jungle Exodite concepts. So what about their Highlands dwelling kin? Eldar who live off the rock and timber of a giant temperate and sub arctic worlds. Strong of limb and able to survive the cold and wild temperaments of their chosen homes. Going into battle atop heavy plated and massive dino/prehistoric mammal like hybrids, battering their foes aside by ferocity and strength much like our own history’s hardy people of the mountains regions. Truly when creating an Exodite army, any hardy and primal like folk of our own world can serve as an excellent source for theme and character.

-And that leads us to story. Yet another thing that can have infinite possibilities based off your own imagination. Are your Exodites of the first migrations away from their Stellar Empire? The ancient and proud ones who fled the fall of their doomed race and have since held onto life and world for thousands upon thousands of years? Are you a young and newly aspiring tribe of Exodite travelers, having only just now in recent years and light of galactic events decided it best to leave the constraining confines of a Craftword and forge a new and hard destiny for yourself? Are you a sanctuary to Outcasts and those who have been forced or chosen to leave their homes in the Craftworld or even the Dark City. Do you dream of rising once again to dominance, or have you accepted the humble life of survivors and exiles. Are your Exodites proud warrior like people, given over to tribal customs of battle, honor and glory in combat? Or have you attempted to become a peaceful and conservative folk, only drawing a blade when pressed by outside forces. Do you count many of the ancient seers among your ranks, or do the physically strongest and most warlike lead you? Have you shunned all forms of technology or do you harbor much of your ancient relics and tech for use to give you an edge over your environment and enemies? Again, the sky is literally the limit with the number of ways you can forge your own unique brand of Exodites. That is, at the end of the day the fun of non-official, but canonical armies. #6 CORSAIRS Everyone’s thinking it I’m just say’n it. Pirates! Ah yes, corsairs. Eldar Corsairs no less. A throw back to the original concept of these ancient Space Elves from the Rogue Trader era, where the Eldar, much like Orks, and even Chaos were cast in a more “Raider, Pirate, Freebooter” light than as giant interstellar empires of their own. And if I may be frank, my favorite style of all Eldar. Corsairs are in a league of their own when it comes to lore and the table top. If Craftworld Eldar are the Boomer parents, and the Dark Eldar are the teen goth phase kids, while the Exodites are the redneck uncle you visit during summer vacation, then the corsairs are that cool older sibling who always seems to have a few rings in his ear, rocks out to old style metal music and owns some sort of sup’d up car you love riding in. Over the years the Corsairs have had many attempts at army lists and most have fallen by the way side with each passing edition. So what is a pirate to do? Break out your Space Rum and lets find out. 

-Find your inner Outcast. This is the best place to start. Of all the Eldar sub factions, Corsairs are considered the Outcast. Too liberal minded and self serving for the Craftworlds, not into back stabbing, court intrigue and BDSM which counts the Dark Eldar out, and still too fucking full of themselves to go and play salt of the earth farmer with the Exodites. In all things the Corsair is the embodiment of the classic pirate trope. Those who live outside law and country. Content to ply the stars and do as they wish, when they wish, and save their own skin above all else. This type of “Sandbox” mindset can be used to create an eldar force with limitless background, style and character possibilities.

-What sort of pirate be ye? That’s your next question. Being Self sufficient and serving, Corsairs fit just about any niche you can think of when it comes to reaver like style. This also means they can be found just about anywhere, with just about anyone. Are your Corsairs a club for eldar only? Or have they allied to other even more unscrupulous characters? Corsairs can be found raiding alongside the likes of Rogue Traders, other alien species, and even among chaos warbands and Ork freebootas! And the reasons are just as varied. Are your pirates proud Corsair Princes/Princess’, plying the stars on an ambitious mission of their own? Are they fallen from grace renegades who have or will fall in with any dirty crowd? Are they the ruler of a pirate kingdom all their own, or do they sail the stars in a single infamous vessel like pirate stories of old, ravaging and stealing as they desire? Are they survivors of a larger group of CW Eldar, hiding amongst Exodites and teaching them the old ways of your people while trying to accumulate enough power and followers to rebuild what was lost? The options are almost limitless when forging a narrative for your Corsair warband.

-What is your goal? In the end, many a Corsair is an individualistic character. Shunning the Narrow dogmatic path of the Craftworlds, and refusing to become a corrupted sadist like the Drukari, they live a life of self fulfillment and ambition. So what motivates your band of pirates? Do they seek a sporting challenge as arrogant reavers of the stars? Are they after the ancient glory of their Race’s past when they ruled over the galaxy? Maybe perhaps they are altruistic, and ally themselves with whoever they foresee being a benefit to the galactic order of things. Fame and fortune? Women and wine? A warrior code dedicated to Khaine, or another esoteric group of reavers worshiping the many faded or forgotten gods of the past? Nefarious allegiance to chaos, or maybe a darker order of things. Maybe perhaps just indulging your own hedonistic desires without care to share them with others. Again, a corsair can have many a goal, which makes for all sorts of unique concepts regarding your army.

-Models models models. Ah yes, models, and what to use for your physical army on the table? Fortunately we live in a time where not only is there quite an expansive range of Eldar style models, both official and third party, but there are other factions with models that can be used to further augment your Corsair warband. The options are many. Maybe you use a combination of CW and Dark eldar models to achieve a rough reaver/noble look.  You can also dip into the Human side of models, utilizing Necromunda and RT faction models to give your eldar a much more grounded and space faring/gang like look. Even fantasy Elven ranges can be used to boost a more primal look to your Eldar, or perhaps Out of the way factions like Mechanicus and Warcry warbands can be augmented with Eldar models to produce some very unique Tech mash ups or tribal like appearances. Not to mention older far more grim looking GW models from Ebay can be used to add a spice of old to your model ranges. However you choose to do it, make sure your models are cut apart from straight up CW or Dark Eldar style figures. After all, your above that kind of crap. 

-Now we come to the final question, how do we play this army? As I mentioned before, there are older Corsair lists under official publishing one can use, as well as no doubt a bevy of fan made content. Like the Exodites, the Corsairs can easily be used as a counts as force, with even more options as you can pull from a number of different books in order to create homebrew allies and piratical alliances with your army. Once you have down how to create a list, its time to ask, how will yours be a unique pirate band? The cornerstone of any crew of pirates is Speed. After all, no need to hang around and risk your own neck am I right? This luckily is the Eldar’s forte, and can be done in numerous ways without too much overlap. On one hand, taking advantage of Eldar Air power is an awesome idea for Corsairs. Not only have they used in pass incarnations many of the powerful aircraft of the Eldar race, including the feared Void Dragon, other smaller editions have been made of time such as the handy Wasp, and fast moving Jump pack corsairs. Building off this concept, corsairs can utilise the various armies of the Eldar to kick into high gear. Between the DE and CW books, there is a wealth of fast moving raider vessels, teleporting and deep striking units, as well as high initiative and deadly close combat infantry. Depending on your list and homebrew rules, you may even have options to add other races in for flavor, such as Ork Meatshields…..I mean Ork allies that are very useful and cared about. Human RTs that can use various codex designs to function as an extra bulwark of strength and toughness and even Chaos elements if your feeling like you need the warp on your side. Maybe your corsairs favor Jetbike and light attack craft tactics and are made up almost completely of such units, along with jump infantry to help support your already fearsome maneuverability. There’s even ways to create an Eldar Corsair force that deploys almost exclusively from Deepstrike, entering the table at any point, ready to strike the enemy’s weak spot or run circles around their more cumbersome units. Always remember the enemy can;t hit back if they never see you coming, or are too slow to catch you!

It can be said, if the Exodites are a Modeling enthusiast’s dream, then the Corsairs are Narrative army creator’s playground. Enjoy Pillaging the stars fellow pirates! I can only hope this lengthy entry has given some of you new perspective or even just revivied old ideas on how to create and Eldar army of unique or simply enjoyable design. Sometimes I do feel as if Eldar are bottlenecked into repetative lists and story styles that leave little to customize, and rarely seem to fire the imagination. So really, these Pointy Eared ones arn’t just simple ELVES IN SPACE. There is little limit to what one can make of so many different aspects of this once great and powerful race.

As Always, Happy Hobbying!

[eternlle]

𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐒

use tv tropes to associate 10 tropes with your muse that you think are important  (tip: your character is likely to have some tropes already listed if they are part of a recognized canon!)  feel free to copy-paste the definitions of the tropes, or explain their relevance by identifying them on your own. repost, don’t reblog.  (and tw for possible imagery / triggers on some tv tropes pages.)

i.   the ingenue :    “ The Ingenue is a young virginal woman with the purity of a child. she is kind, sweet-natured, polite, and optimistic, and on the sliding scale of idealism vs. cynicism, she falls very much on the idealistic side. her innocence will often inspire protective feelings in heroic characters, and she is frequently one of the more beautiful characters because of the convention that beauty = goodness. unfortunately, her innocence also often makes her woefully naive, making her a prime target for a villain seeking to take advantage of her, often in an I Have You Now, My Pretty fashion. ”

ii.   who wants to live forever  ( averted )  :    “ the worst fate possible might well be immortality. sure, you might like the idea that you get to live forever and see what the world's like hundreds of years from now, but what's eternal life compared to the pain of life in general?   from eventual boredom to eternal entrapment and torture to the emotional anguish of seeing your loved ones die, one by one, as you stay fixed in time.  then let's not forget that the earth might be destroyed by the expanding sun in a few billion years, so if you haven't a way to leave by then you can look forward to spending eternity in space, orbiting the dying core of the sun.  this attitude toward immortality is older than feudalism, going back at least as far as the greek myths. ”

evelyn has the opposite attitude  ;   she enjoys her immortality for all it’s worth.  at least, she definitely doesn’t see it as a curse.   though she has no idea how it happened, she also doesn’t know how to reverse it, so she figures she may as well enjoy the benefits.

iii.   older than they look :   “ sometimes characters don't look their age. whether it was a deliberate artistic choice on the behalf of the creator (usually to make the character more attractive or to legally fulfill a fetish) or something much deeper and linked to their characterization and the plot, this character will be older than they look. although usually still within the normal range of the human lifespan (for that setting, anyway), this character will look noticeably younger than their age. sometimes even improbably younger; it's not unheard of for a seeming teenager to be over the hill chronologically. ”

iv.   cope by pretending :    “ a character is currently (or has been )  in a very stressful situation. it might be that they're dealing with the loss of someone dear to them, an event that traumatized them.  as a means of coping, they quite literally pretend that things are not as bad as they are.  perhaps by making up imaginary people, or pretending that, in-between scavenging for food and running from monsters, the morning paper is still running.  it could go as far as to pretend that the event that hurt them so never happened at all.  someone who is aware that they are Coping by Pretending knows how bad their situation truly is, and knows that the pretending is just that.  but it just makes things easier, so they keep doing it. ”

v.   healing factor :    “ a character is hard to kill, not because he doesn't get hurt, but because he has the ability to rapidly recover from serious damage. although it depends on how fast he can heal and how much of a beating his body can take, a character with healing factor will bounce back from severe injuries that other beings can't, often with no scars or medical treatment   rarely will a character need to worry about infection, as a super immune system is most often packaged in, but they may need to worry about setting broken bones. ”

vi.   the lost lenore   ( inverted ) :    “  The Lost Lenore, aka the dead love interest — not parent, not sibling, not offspring, love interest. one of the oldest ones in the book, named for the famous deceased in edgar allan poe's "the raven".    in order to qualify for this trope, it must be clear that the characters who lose their Lost Lenore grieve strongly for her, and that overcoming their grief and learning to love again is a significant part of character/plot development.  sometimes subsequent love interests never entirely replace Lenore.  if she left children behind, the children often have considerable emotional baggage to deal with, including a father (or father-figure equivalent) whose grief can render him overprotective, neglectful, abusive, or absent. the children may feel, or even be told explicitly, that they are either too much like the Lost Lenore, or else not enough like her. angst ensues. ”

evelyn is the lost lenore to her husband, who presumes her dead.   after a search of the woods could reveal no sign of his wife beyond the place where her footprints ended, mr. ferriday was driven to distraction by grief.   he took the entire household and fled to london, where he established himself permanently   ;   he could never bear to return to the place where his wife died.   though he was not deeply in love with evelyn, her loss haunted him nonetheless, and he sank into brooding despair for many years.

vii.   mad dreamer :    “  if the reason that humans don't deal with creative sterility is that humanity is insane, then this character is just that extra bit more insane than the rest of humanity. they not only make up fantastic art and stories, they then live them. expect them to be the odd ones out in any kind of group, since they're the only ones talking about the adventures they had last night hunting dragons. however, rather than be held in lower esteem for being unable to take reality (or cope with the way that society creates it), they are held in higher esteem within the work for the imagination and vivacity (for these characters are almost always very energetic and emotional) with which they live life. ”

viii.   nature lover :    " this is about those who love the great outdoors and all that dwell therein. they may be a forest dweller themselves, or live in the countryside where they commune with nature. it's also a safe bet that they'll either have a close bond with the local fauna, or at least have extensive knowledge of them. In their view, the world is just awesome so they want to spend as much time with it as possible and share it with others. whereas ones who live in the city may often spend time at the park, or just watching the sunset. usually a sign of goodness, indicating a wholesome character uncorrupted by secularism. ”

ix.   back from the dead :    “ a major character has been killed, pronounced dead and buried. however, the established laws of the universe allow for functional magic, a sufficiently advanced alien, applied phlebotinum, deus ex machina or similar agency to intervene and subvert what naturally follows dying.  namely, staying dead. (In some cases, an explanation isn't even bothered with.) ”

x.   spirited young lady :   “ a certain kind of character commonly found in historical fiction set in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  she is the girl who bends the rules just a little. oh, she can dance a country dance or pour tea with the best of them, but she may also be a good walker or horseback rider....  the Spirited Young Lady has the same grace and style as the proper ladies, plus an added spark of attitude or rebellion...  she may not speak out for women's rights generally (a few examples do), but she will speak out for her rights pretty clearly. Her willingness to say what she wants is part of what makes her stand out. In unskillful hands, such a character may seem anachronistic, though there are many examples that are both believable and well-rounded. ”

tagged by :  borrowed from @westenyra​ tagging :  anyone who wants it!!

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

When the Inspector visits the future, especially on alien planets,

expect there to be star-scrapers all over the place.

[x5red]

Five frequently asked Supergirl CW questions...

...and possible answers from the comics

Check social media. Read the forums. Scroll through the Subreddits. There are some questions that just refuse to go away. Time and time again fans of the CW’s Supergirl show keep asking the same old questions: How does she hide her costume? Who is stronger? Why does nobody recognise her?

Likely the questions will continue to be asked long after Melissa Benoist has hung up her cape on the final episode, but just for fun it might be interesting to take a meander through the 60+ years of Supergirl’s adventures in print, to see how successful the comics were at addressing the tv show’s most quizzed quirks.

Covered herein:

How does Supergirl fit her costume under her everyday clothes?

Why does nobody recognise that Kara Danvers is just Supergirl with glasses?

Is Supergirl more powerful than Superman?

How did Kara get her ears pierced?

How come nobody connects the name Kara Danvers with Kara Zor-El?

It’s roughly a ten minute read, peppered with interesting Supergirl pictures. Enjoy...

#1 -- How does Supergirl fit her costume under her everyday clothes?

The modern tv incarnation of Supergirl seems uncertain as to whether Supergirl’s costume uses a futuristic (and budget depleting) nano-tech solution, or a classic (and cheap) costume-under-clothes trick. Traditionally, with the exception of Matrix’s brief shape-shifting stint in the job, the comicbook Supergirl has tended to favour the latter tactic, prompting fans to ask how her costume fits under her street clothes. The first such query to reach the DC letters pages was from reader Helen Silberman of Irvington NY. In Action Comic #263 (March 1960), Helen wrote:

Dear Editor, I like SUPERGIRL very much. She is my favorite feature. But I often wonder how she conceals the long sleeves on her costume when she wears a short~sleeved dress as Linda Lee.

Acknowledging that this was a common question, editor Mort Weisinger explained that Supergirl’s super costume is super flexible.: “She merely keeps the sleeves rolled up.” This was confirmed inside the strip itself when Action Comics #342 (Oct 1966) saw Linda referencing the costume hidden under her t-shirt, and an editorial caption handily adds “Linda has rolled up the long sleeves of her super-flexible costume.”

But, respond the fans, what about her boots?

Since the Silver Age, Superman has adopted the practice of stashing his Clark Kent attire as a super-compressed parcel inside a hidden pocket in the inner lining of his cape. Various stories confirm that Supergirl does the same, and visual proof of this came in The Daring New Adventures of Superman #5 (May 1983), when she is seen reclaiming her dress from the pocket. Presumably the same pouch could hide her boots when dressed in her everyday identity?

Okay, so the boots are super-compressed inside the cape, but what about the cape itself?

This is where things start to get a little problematic.

There’s plenty of mid-transformation frames stretching back as far as Supergirl’s early Silver Age antics depicting her wearing her cape underneath her regular clothes. How she does this seems never to be explained, so we probably have to chalk this one up to a comicbook trope that readers (and now the tv viewers) just have to accept.

#2 -- Why does nobody recognise that Kara Danvers is just Supergirl with glasses?

Supergirl has adopted various means of masking her true identity down the years. The tv Supergirl hides behind a pair of glasses; her comicbook counterparts have variously used wigs, special molecule-rearranging hair dyes, shape-shifting, and advanced DEO technologies. None of these, with the exception of Matrix’s ability to shape-shift into Linda Danvers, really stands the real-world credibility test.

The problem here is that the comicbook superhero genre has its origins in a more simplistic storytelling age, were the application of just a pair of glasses, or a wig, or a fake moustache, was sufficient to create a false identity. There’s countless examples from Superman’s early decades of Lois Lane fooling the Man of Steel with just the application of a wig, and indeed the epic Silver Age tale that first revealed Supergirl’s existence to the world hangs on evil Kandorian scientist, Lesla Lar,successfully fooling Superman into believing she is Kara Zor-El by just rearranging her hair.

One can argue that Kara’s use of a wig is potentially a better disguise than Kal-El’s glasses and change of posture, but ultimately both methods have severe limitations. Research conducted by the universities of York and Huddersfield (UK) suggested that while some disguises (makeup, wigs, etc.) are effective at hiding a person’s identity, the effectiveness drops if the subject is known to the person doing the identifying. As such, in the real world, neither Clark nor Kara would stand a chance of fooling their friends and colleagues.

In Superman #330 (Dec 1978) there was a half-hearted attempt to address the problem by suggesting that the Kryptonian glass used in Clark’s eye-wear boosts a subconscious super-hypnotises power, projecting an image of Clark as feeble, but this created more problems than it solved. What happened when Clark anchored the WGBS News on tv; and how did Linda Danvers get by without any Kryptonian face furniture? So, sadly, the comics don’t really provide much of an answer -- we must write the problem off as a relic from a bygone storytelling era, that modern audiences just have to accept as part of the established baggage that comes with superheroes.

#3 -- Is Supergirl more powerful than Superman?

Although both Superman and Supergirl have Kryptonian origins, their route to Earth was markedly different. Kal-El arrived as an infant, while Kara didn’t arrive until her teenage years. Fans (at least those who have wont to obsess over such matters) have therefore speculated about how this affected their power levels.

When Supergirl first appeared in comics it became clear early on that Kal-El and Kara Zor-El had identical superpowers. There isn’t a direct comparison of the two cousins -- they never went head to head -- but DC’s writers certainly seemed to adopt the principle that any super-feats that Superman could do, Supergirl could do just as well.

That said, during Supergirl’s long history there have been periods when the power balance has clearly shifted. For example, it is reasonable to assume that the Matrix Supergirl (both pre and post merger with Linda Danvers in Volume 4) was less powerful than the Man of Steel. Indeed in the latter part of Volume 4 -- the period when Supergirl sported a white t-shirt and gloves -- she was significantly de-powered, even losing the ability to fly.

Likewise from Adventure Comics #402 to #423 (Feb 1971 to Sep 1972) the Girl of Steel had intermittent issues with her superpowers, thanks to the effects of a drug concocted by super-villain Starfire. At inopportune moments her powers would fail her entirely, resulting in Kara relying on various gadgets developed in the Bottle City of Kandor as a backup.

But wait a moment... because the balance of power hasn’t always shifted in favour of Superman.

During this Bronze Age period Superman also had issues with his powers. As part of a shake-up of the character, editor Julius Schwartz instigated a story running across Superman #240 to #242 (July to Sept 1971) that saw Superman lose a third of his power levels... permanently(!!) This was part of Schwartz’s plan to curb some of the silly excesses of Silver Age. Some fans have noted, however, that the Girl of Steel’s power loss was only intermittent, and eventually the effects of Starfire’s drug wore off entirely, so in September 1972 she technically became 50% more powerful than her cousin.

#4 -- How did Kara get her ears pierced?

Since the tv show began fans have been asking about how Kara could have pierced her earlobes of steel. It is clear from the opening moments of the pilot episode that Malina Weissman’s young Kara doesn’t appear to have any piercings when departing the dying Krypton, yet when the episode skips forward a decade to Melissa Benoist’s twenty-something Kara, she clearly does.

Show creator and producer, Ali Adler, responded to a fan’s tweeted question by suggesting that Kara had her ears done “At the mall on #krypton”, which is a fun answer, but doesn’t seem to concur with the pilot. So is there an explanation from deep within comicbook lore?

Yes. (Probably!)

The most likely explanation is that Kara used her heat vision and a mirror to burn the holes into her own earlobes. Since the early Golden Age era it has been established that Superman is strong enough to piece his own skin with his fingernails, allowing him to give a blood sample. Editors initially responded to inquiries about how Superman shaved or cut his hair and nails by suggesting that these parts of his anatomy didn’t grow under Earth’s sun. But eventually, as Superman spent more time on alien planets, they devised more creative solutions -- the heat vision haircut was one of them.

In the comics, Injustice 2 #21 (May, 2018) finally let readers see Supergirl (at least a version of Supergirl) using heat vision to cut her hair. Meanwhile the tv show had already treated viewers to Kara giving a super-trim to Mon-El’s mop in episode 2x05 - “Crossfire” (okay, so he was a Daxamite not a Kryptonian, but hey, same difference!) This suggests that Kara’s invulnerability can be defeated by her own powers in the tv universe, just like the comics, so a piercing blast from her eyes rather than a trip to the mall is probably the most satisfying answer.

#5 -- How come nobody connects the name Kara Danvers with Kara Zor-El?

It may be a small problem, but it’s one that clearly bugs some viewers. Kara Danvers not only has the same first name as Kara Zor-El, but she also pronounces it in the same distinctively European way -- “Kar-ah” not “Care-ah” (despite what Cat Grant may want us to think.)

How does she get away with this?

In the comics this generally hasn’t been a problem. Prior to the Melissa Benoist tv show, Supergirl had been known as Linda (Linda Lee, Linda Lang, Linda Danvers), or as Mae (short for Matrix), or briefly as Claire Connor. Only Kara Kent, the Supergirl of the cartoon show, Superman: the Animated Series (1996), had stuck with her Kryptonian first name. This changed in 2016, however, when DC adopted many of the tv Supergirl elements into its comicbooks, including the Kara Danvers secret identity.

Up until the tv show’s fourth season it could be argued that Benoist’s Supergirl had been very careful never to make her birth-name public, so there was little opportunity for anyone to link her two personas. But that changed in episode 4x14 - “Stand and Deliver”, when Kara can clearly be heard announcing herself as “Kara Zor-El, citizen of Earth” at a public protest, as a crowd watches. So very likely, after that incident, the Maid of Might’s Kryptonian name was plastered all over social media, and given Kara Danvers’ high profile as an award-winning journalist, we’re no closer to explaining why an army of armchair sleuths on Facebook or Reddit haven’t connected the two women.

Sadly the comics can’t really answer this Kara conundrum, because it is a problem largely of the tv show’s own making. Perhaps the only solution is to ignore episode 4x14 and assume that everyone in National City (aside from the regular cast) live in blissful ignorance of Supergirl’s Krypton name.

Conclusion

So it’s a mixed bag of success and failure. The comics provide answers to some problems, but come up empty handed for others. But perhaps we shouldn’t be too disheartened. Sure, it may be fun to devise answers to the quirks and oddities of the tv show, but ultimately it won’t stop fans from asking the same questions time and time again. The sillier aspects of superheroes are part of the genre’s charm, and trying to devise clever ways of explaining away the wackier elements is all part of the fun.

Hopefully you found the above an entertaining and informative read, but the five proffered answers shouldn’t discourage anyone from dreaming up their own explanations -- after all, these questions aren’t really properly answered until the tv show’s writers choose to answer them.

Until then, we can all have fun speculating.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Calling for dedicated roleplayers with a passion for writing

Hello! My name is Aaliyah or Ally for short, and I will cut right to the chase. I am looking for a mature role-player, preferably 21+ but will also accept 18+ (just to be sure that you are of legal age, otherwise it’ll be very uncomfortable).



As I am 26 years of age with 12 years of experience, I hope to meet someone who shares my passion in creative writing, as well as formulating interesting plots and characters. 

In case you are curious about me as a person, I am a full-time student and a young writer who works at the gym on the side, but also enjoys other creative outlets such as drawing. Usually my schedule is fairly full, including the attendance of friends or family. However I always have ample time for a good roleplay. :) 



I am seeking a literate writer who is committed to a long-term partnership, and by that I truly mean it. Please do not respond if you are uncertain of upholding a stable roleplay. Furthermore, I’ve noticed the “ghosting after the first few messages“ trope is a fairly widespread issue in the roleplaying scene / community. I would like to implore you from refraining it. I’ve grown quite irritated by it lately and rather like to avoid it in the near future. That way we don’t waste anyone’s time. Thank you in advance. If you are hitting a hiatus, that’s completely fine! A simple message of putting things on hold is completely sufficient, but I would like to keep in touch in case the story bears great potential. Now I have a wish, or as other say it, a certain craving for something new and fresh. And that something is quite specific, as my interests are a little unorthodox. Not the typical ‘Marvel, DC, My Hero Academia, etc’ type of stick. (Not to throw shade on them! They are great! Just not my cup of tea at the moment)


I heavily enjoy video-games, tv-shows, comics, films, books, the list goes on. Hopefully I can attract some kindred spirits. 
 I do roleplay both Canon and Original!



So if there’s no luck in finding a fitting Canon based story, we can always switch to original world building. First, I like to list all of my heavy cravings and interests. The ones marked in bold are usually the ones I am very willing to do.



Books:

Harry Potter Next Gen (original character cast)

True Blood

Vampire Hunter D (or Manga / Anime)

Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Game of Thrones

Videogames:

Dragon Age (from Origins to current instalment)

Castlevania

Devil May Cry

Infamous series

The Darkness

Smite

Star Wars the Old Republic


Webcomics:

Lore Olympus

Lookism

True Beauty

Comics:

Constantine

Hellboy

Witchblade

The Darkness

X-Men

Films:

Alita Battle Angel

Kingsmen

Vampire Hunter D

TV-Shows live action:

True Blood

The Boys

Vikings

Game of Thrones (Open for discussion. Still haven’t recovered from the season finale however…)

TV-Shows animated:

Hellsing

Castlevania (Netflix adaptation)

Devil May Cry (Anime adaptation)

Demon Slayer (I have only started watching this)

FMA Brotherhood

Jojo’s bizarre adventure

Black lagoon

As for original plots, I am very keen on urban and gothic fantasy, but also mythology as well as horror and crime and action. I have plenty of ideas up my sleeve, some of them quite fleshed out and some of them being concepts in the making. Either way, I would rather have these ideas introduced throughout email or whatever platform we choose to communicate on. Themes for an original story I am most inclined to do are:

Supernatural / Metaphysical (Demons, Angels, Spirits, Monsters, etc.)

Mystery

Crime

Action

Sci-Fi & fantasy (Aliens coming in contact with unsuspecting earthlings during the middle ages / ancient time-periods)

Urban fantasy mixed with high school / college themes (similar to Supernatural with local monsters, creatures, etc)

Now onto the qualities of what my roleplaying partner should have.

What it all entails: What the Partnership should be: I strongly encourage an active roleplayer who is not afraid of sharing 50% of ideas, plotting, length, detail but most important of all, passion. A bird cannot fly with only one wing. Communication: I love making new friends and brainstorming, and communication is the bedrock of it all. It strengthens our compatibility and the story. Should there be anything that might bother you, or if you think you are left out in some type of way (be it a mistake on my part or if we’re both at fault here), simply tell me. It really doesn’t bother me rewriting certain scenes to better fit the narrative. We can always exchange opinions and see what would benefit the story most. The Way of Writing: No one-liners. No text-talk. No half-assed replies. And certainly no ‘quality over quantity’ when you can have both. I don’t expect anyone to write a novel, absolutely not. I don’t either, but if I get the feeling of my partner wavering in their effort and not investing as much as I do, I have to give them the chop, unfortunately. Too often have I encountered partners who showed strong enthusiasm at first, but after a while… they slacked and eventually only put the adequate effort into their side of things whilst completely disregarding my characters. I hope to avoid this in the future. And now to myself and how I write: My writing: Third person perspective usually, although I have made some exceptions in my years of writing. My style is wide-ranging and flexible, which means that frequently, word count will go up 1000+ per reply - though it also depends on the given situation and partner. And yes, I do double, preferably even, most likely in a canon universe. However this again wholly depends on the type of story, partner and cast of characters. I am very open and willing to discuss.


Rating: So you are writing with some of mature age. I have 12 years of writing under my belt. There will be violence, there will be swearing, gore, intimacy, uncomfortable topics, drama, conflict and other dark themes included when you are writing with me. I have few limits but I will respect the boundaries of my partner. And lastly, I won’t fade to black or skip out on the nitty gritty, unless it doesn’t serve a particular purpose in forwarding the story.

Characters: I write canon as well as OC characters. Faceclaims, GIFs, drawings, mood boards or just a plain physical description is absolutely sufficient. Characters should be written as opulent, flawed, unique, talented, heroic, villainous, spiteful, angry, and everything in-between. In other words, don’t be scared of making them flawed.

Romance: Openly play and accept characters of both genders, preferable m x f pairings, but I am open to m x m and f x f relationships as well. I have more experience with m x f relationships, so I might be more adaptable with this one. If the chemistry of two characters compel me, I’m on board with it! When it comes to sexual scenarios and intimacy (intercourse, foreplay, all that funny business). I encourage eroticism, but always in a tasteful, sensual manner (that goes for romance as well), though it is never the main focus of any of my stories, rather a tool to further the plot. Erotica is welcome but never the focus of any kind of roleplay. Content: Drama, violence, sex, metamorphosis, symbolism, action, romance, pretty much everything is a-okay. I am not explicitly bothered by certain subjects that may be uncomfortable for the general public. Roleplays are fictional stories and we best keep treating them as such. If there are things you are uncomfortable with, name them and I shall respect those boundaries. But don’t be surprised when suddenly one of our characters bites the dust, or gets tortured, etc. It may be difficult to write and read, but it is all part of the story and a tool for furthering the plot. My roleplays imply and involve brutality, mayhem, psychological and physical altercations among other things. But I also endorse beauty, serenity and placid moments for our characters to grow in. I love it when it comes full circle… everyone- and everything has a beautiful and hideous side. Again, this is mature and I am not here to coddle, I am here for a challenge. Should I hit a hiatus myself, I will inform you as soon as possible. :)



Platforms I usually roleplay on are email and google-docs. I also have Discord in case for plotting and chatting outside of the RP. Though Google Hangouts has proven itself as a sufficient chat-medium for such things, so I rather stay with that one. 



When you message me, please use the given codenames so I know what you like to specify in.

Blue Rose: Canon 


Red Feather: Original 




I’d be happy to receive a small description of yourself and what your passions are! :) Message me here: EMAIL: aylosreverie@gmail.com I am very excited to hear from you! Sincerely yours -Ally

[cyberramblings]

Rambles on Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Shadow

Sonic: I’ve never really been super happy with Sonic’s characterization. I feel like Sonic is always either bland (Adventure 1), silly (Forces), or just generally protagonist-y. I’d like to see a Sonic that shows some modicum of vulnerability while keeping a smile, something like All Might from BNHA. Sonic’s wholesomeness means especially little when every single character is equally smiles and rainbows. Let Sonic be the Captain American or Superman of the games, especially part of an ensemble. As terrible as the new Justice League movie is, there is a scene at the beginning where Superman awkwardly answers these little kids’ questions and stay positive and wholesome the whole time. I would like to find a way to see Sonic become that, but without him romancing a human child again, ugh. I want to see a game that shows Sonic as charismatic, the way Captain America leads the Avengers through force of will rather than being the most powerful, even if Sonic is the fastest character here.

Tails: I feel like Adventure 1 and 2 are peak Tails. Functionally, I am fine with Tails being nonplayable but providing the means for scene transitions or entire levels/minigames (such as the various planes). However, I really like the concept of his narrative arc in Adventure 1 where he envies Sonic. I would love to see Tails as a kind of New Game Plus in a 2D Sonic game, getting bumper cutscenes to set up his reason for going through the levels and then how it ends. I would also love to see a Sonic game that starts with Eggman’s final defeat, but with Tails taking over control of Eggman’s lab and becoming a more morally grey character in his pursuit for power to match Sonic. I know that is bordering on fanfiction territory, but I think part of the reason Sonic has so much fanficiton is that the characters have so much personality and chemistry that the games fail to capitalize on. Adventure 2 directly sets up Tails and Eggman as two sides of the same coin just like Sonic/Shadow and Knuckles/Rouge, so I think it is totally reasonable to return to that idea.

Knuckles: I feel like Knuckles has gotten too far away from his original character concepts. In Sonic 3, he is a straight Rival turned antihero, almost like Shadow. In Adventure 1 and 2, all he cares about is the master emerald but he has to learn to team up with the rest of the gang to make that happen. Furthermore, in Adventure 1 his arc is one of the more important since all 6 characters learn about the history of the echidna tribe and the Emerald. These two games are also the ones that associate Knuckles with rap music (although you could argue that 3&K has a hip-hop feel to the soundtrack) that is totally abandoned in future games. Knuckles goes from rival, to aloof warrior monk, to just basically being red, strong Tails: just another sidekick. Even in Forces, Knuckles is just another talking head. I’d like to see Knuckles express more indecision about having to choose between his duty and his friends, something more like Loki and Thor in Thor: Ragnarok where Knuckles flip-flops between his loyalties so often that the other characters stop trusting him. Again, I know that is getting into fanfiction territory, but I don’t think it is much of a stretch from what we see in Adventure 1 especially, just extrapolated a bit.

Amy: I like Amy a lot, but she is criminally underutilized. I would like to see her perpetual crush on Sonic evolve into something more mature. Again, fanfiction territory, but she needs a different defining personality trait besides huge crush. Personally, I’d love to see them quietly become a couple offscreen with just a couple casual references to it in the game, seems like she has earned it at this point. That is unrealistic though, so I would be happy with her main trait becoming having a former crush on Sonic or even having some kind of grudge against him. Again, if that is asking too much, I could handle Amy’s main trait being to crush on other characters too. Ideally though, she’d get over the whole concept and have something more sophisticated, like taking care of the flickies that Sonic leaves behind or something like becoming Sonic’s PR manager (if this is in one of the human-populated Sonic games). I would love for her arc to be abandoning the Piko Piko hammer as a sign of her childish crush on Sonic, only to have to return to it out of necessity. I’d love to see a twist on her Adventure 1 levels where she has to flee a pursuing enemy through a handful of short levels, but with the twist of returning to them later with the hammer in hand, kinda like getting the flamethrower in Alien Isolation. I would also love to see Amy in an ensemble game as a representative of the Advance games: having the ability to do tricks uniquely, being able to hammer springs, having the high jump and the dive. While I am being unrealistic, I would really like to see Amy as a uniquely upgradeable character, since her hammer allows for so many combat and platforming techniques. That is not totally off base, since Adventure 1 and 2 featured upgrades. I’d also be happy seeing her paired with Cream or E-102 (rest in peace).

Shadow: Shadow single handedly features many of the most fanfiction-y moments from the actual games (between Adventure 2 and the many paths of his titular game), although he clearly loses out to Elise (since she is a straight up human princess that kisses Sonic, or whatever, I refuse to even fully comprehend Sonic 2006). I think Shadow is very easy to make cool, even if the “dark version of the main character” trope is a little overplayed. Honestly, I feel like including him at all is sufficient to make me happy. I’d like to see his teleport as an in-game maneuver, maybe as his double jump or spindash. Other than that, I’m really happy as long as he is in. I’d prefer for him to just be a straight up anime villain: arbitrarily antagonize the protagonist, then join him once beaten. I mean, I would like to see more complex stuff expanding on his relationship with the other characters or some kind of character arc, but I am fine with just “fight him, then play him” being his whole deal. I would particularly like to see him get a little more friendly with Rouge and E-123 Omega after being on the same team in Heroes and Forces (14 years!). I would also love to see a teamup between Tails and Shadow as a foil to Sonic (I particularly enjoy the mental image of Tails carrying Shadow with neither of them looking pleased about it).

[bigmoodword]

On Mary Sues and Underdevelopment (pt. 2)

In [Part One], I discussed how Mary Sues are often just underdeveloped characters in need of a character arc, and while character arcs are a great way to fix potential “sue-ish-ness,” sometimes that’s not enough.

Sometimes the problem stretches beyond the character, because for whatever reason, the rest of their story is underdeveloped too.

But that’s kind of odd, isn’t it? 

The Mary Sue* trope originated in fanfiction, so in theory, the character inhabits a fully developed world with other fully developed characters. In theory, most of the development is already done, yet if that’s a core assumption, we’re horribly underestimating what fanfiction authors actually do.

To write good fanfiction, an author must research the existing canon on top of developing their own twists, and that takes time. That takes patience. Ostensibly, an author’s work takes place in the same universe as their source material, but without a deeper understanding of the canon characters’ internal landscapes or the wider world’s mechanisms, the story starts to warp.

The original cast break character for Mary Sue’s benefit, and the world’s previously rigid rules bend whenever Mary Sue needs them to. 

Applying the same lens to original fiction can be tricky, because unlike fanfiction, there’s nothing to compare it to. Technically, there is no “out of character” or rule-breaking, because the world’s built by the story itself. However, it’s still possible to see the same warping effects...

footnotes —

*again, although this post uses the gendered name, i’ve never considered the trope female-exclusive**, so i’ve opted to use “they/them” pronouns instead of the typical “she/her.”

**gary stu and marty stu exist, but afaik those never quite caught on.

2ȼ (on story)

Underdeveloped original fiction features only a superficial setup. There’s a cast with set appearances and broad roles, such as mentor, sidekick, or love interest. There’s a generalized setting, like a major metropolis, and a vague plot, like “Mary Sue becomes the best superhero.” 

That’s pretty sparse, and just as in fanfiction, that underdevelopment can lead to some familiar problems.

The vague plot creates a disjointed story. One day, our superhero is hosting a fancy gala. The next they’re fighting aliens, and the day after that they’re saving orphans from a house fire. While it’s certainly possible to link these events with an overarching narrative, an underdeveloped plot has yet to specify what exactly those links are. The story jumps from one to the next, because the only goal is proving the character a great superhero. Consequently, that character is the only obvious throughline, and the work reads like Mary Sue’s fantastic to-do list.

Likewise, underdeveloped characters read like a list of people for the Mary Sue to help, get support from, or overcome. If readers get the chance to see what these other characters do when Mary Sue isn’t around, they’re usually discussing or thinking about Mary Sue. There is little to no hint of a life beyond that central character, because without further development, they don’t actually have a life of their own. They exist to fill whatever role the Mary Sue needs.

Put all this together, and Mary Sue stories are infamous for being The Mary Sue Show all the time, but again, the problem isn’t actually the Mary Sue. Rather, it’s the cardboard world around them. If there’s no real plot to direct the story and no set personality to guide the other characters, of course they warp to the Mary Sue’s whims!

Better developing these other elements can give them their independence, and one of the quickest ways to test whether or not a story is sufficiently developed is to, well, remove the Mary Sue.

To revisit Marvel’s The Avengers, if Tony Stark (Iron Man) didn’t exist, the other Avengers would still come together, still learn how to work as a team, and most likely, still take on Loki at the big climax. The exact circumstances may change, but the broad strokes would probably stay the same, because the other characters have their own reasons to pursue the main plot. At the climax, however, the story sans Tony fundamentally changes.

Tony is the character who takes a nuclear missile through a wormhole to destroy the Chitauri fleet and disable the forces already on Earth. As the only Avenger with true flight, he’s the obvious choice for this task, and because his suit gives out, he falls back through the wormhole before it closes, ensuring his survival. If he didn’t exist, what would happen instead?

It’s a stretch, but because Thor feels responsible for his brother Loki, he might try using his hammer to fling himself and the missile through the wormhole. If he succeeds, the heroes would still win, but Thor’s survival is even less likely than Tony’s. A similar scenario would play out if Hulk, in an overzealous rage, somehow jumped high enough to do the same, but either way, the team would probably have a true death on their hands.

Alternatively, without that tidy finishing move, New York City might cease to exist, because the Avengers are forced to 1) destroy the fleet on Earth and 2) fend off the World Security Council’s nukes. Maybe they eke out a victory but have to deal with all the collateral damage, or maybe they don’t and humanity falls under Loki’s control.

That’s an awful lot to consider. However, having flexed our fanfiction muscles to craft a theoretical, it’s possible to see why Tony Stark is so important to the story. At the same time, it’s also possible to see how, despite that importance, the plot and the other characters don’t fully depend on his presence. Whether or not he exists, the villains will still attack Earth, and because they’re well-developed, it’s possible to imagine how the other characters might act in a slightly different situation.

In a genuine Mary Sue story, removing the suspected Sue brings the whole thing to a screeching halt. The plot is so tailored to the character that it doesn’t change in their absence, it disappears altogether. The characters are so dependent on Mary Sue’s influence that it’s genuinely hard to imagine them doing anything interesting without their lead.

Obviously, not every character needs to be developed down to their favorite ice cream flavor, but every character should be developed enough to boast their own internal logic. Whether that means giving a recurring character their own character arc or simply picking a few relevant personality traits for the local barista, it should be possible to imagine the other characters going about their lives behind the scenes.

In the same vein, not every plot needs to sprawl across different worlds and feature an ensemble cast. Sometimes a plot is small-scoped and features a single protagonist trying to fit in at a new school. Maybe their ultimate goal is to make friends, and maybe the plot isn’t much larger than their main character arc. They’re the plot’s primary driver, absolutely, but in a fully developed story, events beyond their control will push the plot forward too.

Much like a puzzle, every story element works together to create a whole picture, and while a major character may be the piece that ties it all together, they’re still just one piece. Alone, they’re little more than a spot of color. Only once all the other pieces are assembled will that spot of color became the eye of a much larger portrait.

development resources

for characters

legit-writing-tips’s character worksheet

the internet writing journal’s guide to character profiles

writer’s digest nanowrimo character cheat sheet

for plot

story writing help’s plot worksheet (basic)

annie neugebauer’s plot worksheets (requires microsoft word)

jami gold’s story building worksheets (advanced)

for worldbuilding

eva deverell’s worldbuilding worksheets (basic)

ny book editors’ fantasy worldbuilding worksheet

the novel factory’s ultimate worldbuilding questionnaire (advanced)

shoutout to — @el-queen for the discussion that inspired this post and @mvcreates for an encouraging chat!

[xerxestexastoast]

ALRIGHT HERE WE GO

Parentheses are very much a no-go in traditional prose for me. They break up the flow far too much and remind me of how I relay my meandering ADHD train of thought in casual conversation. As such, it's completely inseparable from casual conversation for me in literary or dialogue contexts. They're free game in academic contexts, though, so if you're writing diegetic document, especially a docufic science report, go nuts! Add those fake citations!

Em-dashes, on the flip side, are like candy for me. In my dialogue, ellipses (...) denote trailing off, a slow drop in volume and coherence into silence. The em-dash, conversely, is a sharp cutoff. It's great for when characters interrupt each other, interrupt themselves, or are interrupted by outside events. This can also be used in narration, so long as the narration leans into expressing the PoV character's internal monologue.

Italics are my go-to rich text emphasis for all my prose needs. It is the most common form of verbal emphasis I have ever seen in published novels, aside from the extremely rare all-caps. I have never seen anything else used in physical books of literature, and when I do, the book has already gone for wackier format screws such as alternative fonts. It is for this reason that I prioritize it whenever possible when I need to emphasize something. Sometimes I overuse it because I'm writing dialogue like a screenwriter and not a novelist (my fics are Extremely loud and vivid in my mind's eye and ear), so I have to cut it back during editing on occasion.

ALL CAPS DIALOGUE is, in my opinion, to be used as sparingly as possible. It's like seasoning a mild taco with ghost pepper sauce; you gotta be delicate and decisive. Overcapitalizing can make a whole passage, chapter, or even story feel way too shouty. It feels like I'm getting audio sensory overload from the text. I reserve all-caps for singular words and phrases shouted at the top of the lungs. The only time I will ever break the one-phrase rule is for the voices of gods, mighty spirits, sufficiently advanced aliens, and the like, where the sensory overload is part of the flavor. Hello, legendaries of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon!

As I mentioned above, I am ADHD as hell. This means I naturally speak in run-on sentences. Comma splices are, however, grammatically incorrect by default. While breaking language rules to achieve The Vibe is part of the creative writing process, comma splices have an overwhelmingly specific Vibe to me (namely, that of carrying on and on without stopping or having too many feelings that need to get out). Semicolons are the grammatically proper way to splice two sentences together without a conjunction. I generally prefer to limit myself to one semicolon splice per 500 words or thereabouts.

Capitalizing Important Words is a casual internet conversation trope for me. I'll capitalize proper nouns, and sometimes the pronouns of gods if I'm feeling saucy, but Important but Random Nouns getting the capital treatment would usually happen when I get poetic for a surreal dreamlike atmosphere. To be honest, I've never tried it before. I totally should.

Repetitive punctuation is hit or miss for me. It's fun in casual chatspeak, but in my prose it's pretty much limited to one extra word on the end of a sentence. Example: "He slipped on the ice and hit the ground. Hard." It's good for small dramatic pauses like that, but too many and it gets difficult to parse the vibe in a literature context.

In conclusion, you can tell I'm a very feels-based writer when it comes to my grammatical choices and which rules I like to break and follow for what reasons. It's all about the Vibe

hey, writers. reblog this with your opinions on:

(using parentheses)

using em-dashes—more or less liberally

using italics

DIALOGUE IN ALL CAPS TO IMPLY YELLING

the semicolon; or, how to properly use it

capitalizing Important words

using. repetitive. punctuation. for. emphasis.