#and the idea of rewriting the universe slowly collapsing in on itself

[lyricalchrysanthemum]

Playing devil survivor 2 and thinking about the concepts and plot points it introduces in the game. Mainly the Akashic Record.

It makes me think about like. The universe’s creation in Pokemashe and makes me want to incorporate the akashic record especially with the multiple timelines.

I might do a full write up about Arceus’s role in the universe, how it was created, and the record sometime soon it’s very interesting to think about worldbuilding wise.

[pokemontrainertom]

Keeping Things Canonical

Hello and Happy Holidays to @alittlecstaticxilophone, I was your @mlsecretsanta!

I need to say that this is only chapter one. This whole thing kinda got away from me…

Read on AO3  | |  FF.net

“You chose me because of this, Minibug. I know how to keep a secret.”

With a final wave to the tiny spotted heroine Bunnyx ducked inside the burrow, closing the portal behind herself.

Looking back to ensure she was now alone Bunnyx let out a relieved sigh and flexed her recently restored limbs. They were all there.

She promptly collapsed to the ‘floor’ with a groan.

Turns out, Chat Blanc? Total nightmare for everyone involved.

And as if she needed any more reasons to beat in Gabriel’s face.

With a slow exhale to release some of the tension her last thought had just added to Bunnyx allowed her eyelids to slowly close.

If she had anything else she had to do today that didn’t involve lying right here for the next few hours, she was going to-

“Long day?”

Repressing a groan, Bunnyx shot to her feet, her umbrella held tight in hand.

“Woah, back it up.” The intruder said, dodging back from her swing. “We really don’t want to set off that Blinovitch effect thing, especially not in here.”

Weapon still raised, Bunnyx stared at the other figure inside her burrow. The very familiar figure.

“Hey Bianca.” Bunnyx said with a wave. “Is this a bad time?”

Bunnyx blinked.

Blinked again.

Raised her umbrella to her face.

And screamed.

...

A few minutes later and feeling a lot better Bunnyx looked across at the other rabbit in the room.

“So… you’re me from…?” Bunnyx questioned.

The other Bunnyx, henceforth dubbed Futuryx to avoid confusion, looked over from where she had claimed the bean bag that was normally stuffed in the same corner she kept her bowls.

Yes she was well aware that the Burrow was round.

No she did not know how the corner existed.

Please don’t ask.

“About… a month or so by my count.”

“About?” Bunnyx asked in disbelief. “How can you not know?”

Futuryx’s nose began to twitch.

It only took her a second before she recognised the motion. Obviously she had never seen it herself, but she had been told it was the same thing she did whenever she was trying to think of an answer that wouldn’t jeopardise the entirety of time.

Ladybug had been surprised to learn that it came up so often it had its own gesture associated with it.

Chat just found it hilarious it made her look so much like an actual rabbit.

Stupid trait bleeding magic watch.

“That’s… complicated.” Futuryx finally replied.

Bunnyx sighed, though not without a smile on her lips. “Isn’t it always?”

“Tell me about it.” Futuryx said with a groan that sounded only half exaggerated.

Bunnyx snickered. “So why are you here?”

“Right.” Futuryx said straightening in her seat, managing to look cool even while relaxing on a bean bag twice her size.

She was awesome like that.

“I’ve got a job for you.”

“Right.” Bunnyx nodded, having expected as much.

You don’t time travel just for a social visit after all.

“So, the job?” She prompted.

Futuryx remained silent, nose twitching once more.

“Nothing universe ending I hope?” She joked with a grin.

Her future self winced.

Bunnyx felt her ears slump. “Seriously?”

The older hero shrugged with a sheepish smile. “‘Fraid so. It’s… Well…” Pause. Twitch. “You know how the whole Chat Blanc thing was caused, right?”

“Yeah? Minibug left her signature on her gift to Rapunzel and-”

“No, no. After that.” Futuryx interrupted.

Bunnyx racked her brain for a moment. Recent as it may have been, it had still been a lot of events she had witnessed. “Er then… “ Her eyes widened in realisation before immediately narrowing. “Hawkmoth being his- Gabriel, his Mom being alive and then being forced to choose between her and Minibug on top of that…”

“Nearly.” Futuryx commented tersely, nose twitching like mad and hands tightly clenched to the fabric beneath her, “Just back up a little bit, how did that happen?”

“They… retraced the path of the akuma, the one sent after Mininette because she had been forced to break up with Rapunzel, some bull about-”

“Stop.” Futuryx spoke, interrupting her upcoming rant. “Right there.”

“The… break-up?” She asked, head fuzzy from the rapid emotional changes.

Futuryx didn’t reply, merely staring at her, nose still twitching. “What do you think Minibug and Kitten will be up to now?”

“They… what?” Bunnyx tried, completely thrown by the apparent non sequitur.

“I know, I know.” Futuryx rolled her eyes. “Sorry. You’re nearly there though.”

“Well… Rapunzel goes back to his ivory tower, while Mininette gets dropped back into a list of responsibilities as long as she is exhausted…” She said with a wince.

“And…?” Futuryx prodded.

“Minibug will fight akumas with Kitten, while Rapunzel will be friends with Mininette, both of them somehow ignoring slash not realising the fact that they’re completely and utterly in love with each other…”

Futuryx’s eyes narrowed. “And if they were to ever realise those feelings for each other?”

“Then… they would begin to date. Likely wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other.” Seeing that Futuryx was still just staring at her she continued her thoughts, “Eventually their identities would be shared for one reason or another, their teamwork would improve which would lead to more efficient akuma fights…”

“And in response?” Futuryx asked, now slowly walking towards her, each step heavy. “What would Hawkmoth do? What did Hawkmoth do?”

The break-up. The akuma. The confrontation

“But that means…” Bunnyx swallowed, eyes wide. “Chat Blanc…?”

“Chat Blanc, Miss Fortune, Chatastrophe, Princess Justice, Black Widow…” Futuryx counted off on her fingers before trailing off with a humourless chuckle. “Different method, same results.”

Bunnyx swore.

“Exactly.” Futuryx grumbled. “Chat Blanc was the catalyst, and now they’re popping up all over. Even past events are changing.”

Bunnyx took a deep breath. “So… the job?”

“Keeping Adrien and Marinette’s relationship non romantic, no matter what. Otherwise it always manages to end up with a fight with Hawkmoth.” Futuryx sighed, head bowed. “And they’re not ready. Not yet.”

“Figures.” Bunnyx muttered. “The one good thing they have to look forward to and it manages to cause the apocalypse if it happens.” She sighed, forcing a smile. “As bad as it sounds at least I won’t have interfere too often, right?”

Futuryx didn’t reply.

“You’re joking.” Bunnyx said flatly.

Futuryx just shook her head, jaw clenched.

“No.” Bunnyx denied. “You’re telling me that even with how oblivious Adrien is, and with Marinette’s grand gestures that never work they still get together?

“They did. Do. The gestures I mean.” Futuryx clarified.

“They…” Bunnyx’s hand raised to her head. “How many?”

“All of them.”

“All…?”

“All of them.” Futuryx repeated.

Bunnyx did not shriek, she was too cool for that. “Even Operation Flower Garden?! ”

“All. Of. Them.” Futuryx punctuated, looking like she was half a second away from throttling something, probably her, paradox be damned. After taking a breath she continued, voice tight. “And every single one leading to… to…”

Bunnyx swallowed. One or two were simple, she’d done it before even, but rewriting all of that? That was a full time job on its own, let alone with all the usual surveillance she did. And that was without thinking of all the moral implications…

But if she didn’t…

White light, expanding out across everything, consuming everything-

Mustering up a grin, Bunnyx relaxed the grip she had on her umbrella and gave it a twirl. “I guess I’d better get started then…”

“Great.” Futuryx said, a grin similar to Bunnyx’s own on her face. “That’s the bad news out of the way.”

“There’s good news?”

Futuryx waved a hand. “Kind of. The better news is there’s a whole group of us working on combating it already so you’re not doing this alone.”

Bunnyx felt her ears perk back up at that little revelation. “Oh thank Fluff.”

“Yeah, we were all kinds of freaked out when time started changing on us, but we managed to track it back to your present. Of course, by the time we’d done that the whole thing had fixed itself.” Futuryx smirked. “Good job with that by the way.”

“Heh, thanks.”

“But as I said these disruptions are now turning up all over the place, changing time itself. We have no idea what’s causing it, so the most we can do is fight them as they appear. And who better to join the team than the Bunnyx who was involved with case zero?”

Offering herself a salute, Bunnyx grinned. “Glad to be of service.”

“Remember, any differences to your memories need to be changed.” Futuryx reminded. After a grimace she added, “No exceptions.”

“Right.”

“We’ve got a lot of your present handled and I’m afraid none of us can look at our personal futures so… Oh, wait you’re the youngest of the group!” Futuryx stated, ignoring Bunnyx’s raised eyebrow. “You should start at the beginning and work your way through each day chronologically for now.”

“First day they get their Miraculouses, yeah?” She confirmed. “Got it.”

At her hip Futuryx’s pocket watch beeped and was swiftly flipped open. “Agent Alice, I can confirm Agent Bianca is on board. Heading back now. Agent Bugs out.” Replacing the watch to her side she looked back to meet her disbelieving gaze. “What?”

“Agent Bianca?”

“Sorry.” Futuryx, or well Bugs she supposed, apologised, not sounding sorry in the slightest. “Recruiters get the nicknaming rights. Look I’ve got to get back, but here,” A list of frequencies was carefully handed over. “To keep in contact.”

Flicking her own pocket watch on and receiving a quick message from an ‘Agent Alice’ Bunnyx looked up just in time to catch Bugs heading over to the wall of portals.

“Good luck.” Bugs said, shaking her raised foot, before stepping through a portal out of the burrow with a wave.

Bunnyx sighed before turning to the portals outlining the burrow. Already she could see static forming along the edges of some of them.

Selecting one she began rewinding the picture as fast as she could. No need to let herselves down.

The rewinding stopped, paused on the now famous image of Minibug and Kitten confronting Stoneheart. Bunnyx stared at it for a moment, her face hardening. “Sorry guys.”

She pressed play.

[tumblunni]

Hmm i think i may have possibly settled on an idea for how to rewrite Kin and Gin to be more complex and potentially redeemable.

Gonna focus on The Big Family Love, because these siblibgs caring about each other so much its literally their battle power is already their best and only slightly sympathetic trait

So i was thinking about the whole 'hey here's another third sibling in the third version of the game' thing and had a BIG BRAINWAVE

What if kin and gin want to turn back time to fix a mistake in their past? And all the evil they do with manipulating other people's pasts is something that they regret having to do buy see as a necessary evil in order to achieve their goal.

Their goal? Bronzlow.

Why did he not appear in the original version of the game and wasnt even mentioned? Because he was DEAD.

Kin and Gin's goal in life is to save their baby brother who died when they were children. Maybe his 'funny' clumsiness and struggle to keep up with his sisters was very much not funny in this original timeline. One day the twins were teasing him over something or other, he messed up yet again and got their kite caught in a tree or something. And they were supoosed to be responsible when looking after the lil guy, but on that day they just happened to be a little short tempered with him and made the stupid decision to yell at him to get the kite back even though they knew he wasnt good at climbing. It was just a stupid mistake of some kids who were probably too young to be put in charge of babysitting their brother. He just.. Fell. Everything was over so fast. And it felt like time had forever stopped at that moment.

So they spent their whole lives trying to find a way to bring him back to life, even doing forbidden magic to become yokai and gain the power they needed to bend time. And they grew old and cynical and slowly lost their grip on morality, because the guilt just kept hauntinh them and the closer they got to making their dream come true the more they became tempted to let go of morals and hurt people in the desperation to finally achieve it...

And then this would be a good excuse for me to lets play one of the original versions of the game and then also the third one. And it could be interesting to set it up like this story with my oc is actually left hanging on the first playthrough and only fully completes after the third game. Like its all in the same continuity as if Mallory really did experience both games! Kin and gin's time travel messing up the future could be a good excuse to show all the different versions as alternate universe type things! And have it so that at some point Bronzlow just suddenly appears without explanation and everyone acts like he was always there. Which would lead to the reveal of the whole backstory and like.. Bronzlow is here now and looks like how he would if he'd lived a full long life, because their plan is almost complete. Theyre always sassing him and he's all funny comic relief but really all alpng he mattered more to them than anyone else and theyre so happy to see him again. And getting to see him again has made them so desperate to make it real that they'd even collapse time and space itself just to not have to let go of him again! Like what if some of his 'funny clumsy moments' are actually like.. Signs that he's not completely saved and the paradox is trying to correct itself? Like he doesnt remember that he died but his sisters do, he's just like 'wow i felt kinda dizzy there for a moment, im sorry' and 'huh i seem really forgetful lately' and he doesnt notice himself flickering in and out of existance and just DAMMIT IM GETTING REALLY EMOTIONAL ALREADY

And in the end of course kin and gin would have to face the fact that bronzlow wouldbt want them to bring him back if it meant other people had to get hurt. Thats why they tried to hide the truth from him, they knew he would sacrifice himself to fix the timeline and save everyone. And it could be super depressing with him joining you to fight his sisters even when he knows it'll kill him, and then the last moment of the fight is the time machine thing being broken and then a vision of the siblings as kids standing beneath that same tree, and the twins begging bronzlow to let them just stop time here and stay with him, if they cant save him then they want to die together... But there's no timeline where he'd ever say yes to that...

:(

So umm yeah, the redemption fot these two would be finally accepting their grief instead of running from it, and you hug them and let them know that they have a second chance at a happy life. He never blamed them, they didnt have to destroy their own chance at happiness for his sake. He'd want them to go out and enjoy life, every time theyre smiling he'll be smiling with them...

I dunno i just think itd be a good way to make people care more about an underrated character. Cos from what ive heard about bronzlow he apparantly barely even talks, and really is just 'we added another one in the third version' with no more complexity than that. Kin and Gin already arent very popular so its understandable that their lil bro would be even more ignored, so this is an idea for how to make his low plot role a big plot role yet alsp at the same time get meta with thw low plot role itself being the big emotional tragedy...

Also i dunno if i'd actually find some way to bring him back eventually? Like as a reward for them at the end of their redemptive arc, maybe have them return in yw3 and help the heroes there and then after a loooong long journey they find another non-evil way to bring him back in the postgame. I dunno if itd dampen the emotional arc to bring him back tho? I feel like the importabt part os just that they learn not to hurt other people tp try and save their brother, as long as they actually finally give up and stop their evil plan it could still show the same amount of character growth if he does come back. Like it wouldbt be a moral-ruining 'yeah their evil plan actualky worked' kind of thing, just some different miracle happened, possibly directly caused BY them making the right choice? Like by confiding in others and not doing it all alone they finally manage to find the answer. But maybe have it happen some time after the endibg so the sadness still has enough time to breathe and it feels even happier when it eventually happens.

Also gives me an excuse to play out the credits sequence but with bronzlow vanishing out of that happy pic of them together. (Thanks to my friend who showed me that!)

[jwilsonmajorone2020]

IMPORTANT UPDATE CONCERNING THE DIRECTION OF MY WORK

At the end of December, I had devised a clear conception of what my major project one piece would look like, and how I intended to produce it. The concept was titled 'In the memory of Catullus' and was an experimental, found footage, narrative film that critiqued power and its ability to disrupt beauty, using the symbols made available in the mythic dialect of the Roman poet Catullus. The major step I had taken to produce such a piece was to write a poem of my own, using the language of Catullus, that would be read accompanied by a soundscape, all in service of elucidating the visuals. However, the events in my life that occurred during January have changed this. And so this post is an update to explain why my idea has changed, and how my previous posts are related to the new direction of my current work.

Throughout January, I had to complete an MA application which involved producing a portfolio, personal statement, project proposal, and university application. All whilst finalising my Extended essay, which required a lot of rewriting and research till the very end. This meant that I postponed working on my Major project piece until all the before mentioned work had been completed. But obviously, this is not why the concept of the piece has changed. Instead, my film concept has changed because my father has been diagnosed with cancer, and the news of his diagnosis has inspired me to take a new direction with my work.

First, I must briefly explain how I found out about my father's diagnosis. My father and I had just argued about me doing either a one year or two-year degree in London; he wanted me to do one year and wouldn't explain why, and I wanted to do two years because that was always the plan, and was what I considered best for me. The argument ultimately resulted in physical violence being inflicted upon me by my father, and so I inevitably retreated to my room (for I am currently at home due to the Covid-19 lock-down). That's when my mother came to me and told me of my father's diagnosis, making it clear that my father wanted me to do a one-year degree because he was afraid of where he would be in a year's time, and that the violence that happened was because of his inability to express his fear and pain with words.

Despite my reluctance to be so honest, I mention this because the incident, and not the news itself, has inspired my new direction. When my mother told me of my father's diagnosis, I expected to collapse into distress. That the anger I had just developed towards my father would be lain to waste by the sudden news of his illness. But no such thing happened. Instead, in the centre of my vision, the colour red appeared. After a while, I realised that this red was the ensuing future and that my distance from this red was the time between me and an end. Now how much of what will end is unknown; however, I believe it to be clear that this red was ultimately a sign of the sudden sense of instability I felt. The future that I had so well comprehended before this moment was now at odds with the reality of a distant threat. A threat that seemed just as incomprehensible as it was unstoppable. As my mind rushed to conjure all the tomorrows that would become lost due to this red, I began to panic. And so those futures, those images of desire suddenly felt impossible, as if they were spectres of people who had never been born, and who were slipping out of my life simply to mock me. Essentially, the image of red and the idea that It was a threat to my way of life was the only certainty at that moment.

This image of red, living at a distance, slowly coming on, is now what I would like to execute for my major project piece. In a later post I will write the project proposal, discussing the context of the piece on a larger scale, and the methods I will use to create the work but to finish this post I will discuss how this new direction relates to my previous posts.

'In the memory of Catullus' focused on Caesar's rise to power, and how his use of slaves to build Roman symbols in Bithynia stripped those symbols of their significance and beauty. The piece would inevitably have some Marxist undertones, discussing power and class relations, critiquing globalist actions and authoritarian behaviour, and would utilise images that create a sense of empathy for the struggle of those slaves forced to do Caesar's self-aggrandising labour. After January, I realised that the piece I was making was a warning for our contemporary political shift towards a dangerous existence. That the images, sound, and language, I had intended to use were all in service of warning an audience about the ensuing danger of our political climate. And so now, instead of a focus on Caesar, Catullus, Rome, Bithynia, Slaves, art, and politics, my piece will simply focus on that abstract notion of danger. To put in plainly, I wish not to show an audience a story of danger, nor use symbols to illustrate it, but to encourage a sense of it utilising an abstract impressionist aesthetic. The idea is that the audience will experience the anxiety, confusion and anticipation that comes with knowledge of a threat danger. So despite the two concepts having significant differences in their form, one symbolic, one abstract, I believe that both have the same fundamental message, and so I am dropping the symbols, and am instead focusing on the essence of such a message.