#and then wrote it whether or not it made sense character wise | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

irithnova · 9 months ago

Text

More on Chagatai Khanate

I feel as if Chagatai Khanate is not talked about a lot by me. This is despite the fact that I pretty much have his whole characterisation and storyline planned from birth to death in my head and I have written about him before as a part of larger posts however I have not dedicated a single post to him.

I somewhat fashioned his personality off of the actual Chagatai. I also did something similar with Golden Horde and Jochi.

He really fits into the role of the ignored middle child well to be honest. Both character wise and how the actual Chagatai Khanate is perceived. From what I've seen over the years, when people reflect on the different Khanates of the Mongol Empire, they often think of the opulence of the Yuan Dynasty and Ilkhanate, or the infamous reputation of the Golden Horde in Europe, with the Chagatai Khanate often coming last and least in many peoples minds. Hell, a Khan of the Chagatai Khanate itself declared that it was a "miserabe little ulus", so its no wonder its not given as much attention.

I wrote this before in a much longer post about Mongolia's relationship with the different Khanates (Mongolia came to be the figurehead of the Yuan Dynasty) but I think Chagatai Khanate was born only one year after the Golden Horde (kind of wanted it to be poetic in the sense that this reflects the actual age gap between Jochi and Chagatai) so they're quite close in age. I think this only made him more competitive towards his eldest brother (Ilkhanate being the youngest). This is especially because Golden Horde felt outcasted to an extent as he was the representation of the Jochid territory and there was a lot of speculation about the nature of his birth - if Genghis Khan was actually his father or not. This casued a lot of tension between the actual Jochi and Chagatai, this is something Chagatai constantly berated him for. I think this is the same for Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate. Not in the exact same way of course - no one was questioning whether he was Mongolia's child or not. However as he was the representative of Jochid lands - he was seen as illegitimate by proxy if that makes sense.

Out of the three brothers, I think Chagatai Khanate was the most similar personality wise to Mongolia. Don't get me wrong, all three of them inherited his traits, such as his stubbornness, competitiveness and intelligence. However if I was tasked with knee jerk picking the one son who just is the most like Mongolia personality wise overall, it has to be Chagatai Khanate.

This is one of the major reasons as to why Chagatai Khanate wanted to be the favoured son. Golden Horde was technically his first born, however he represents the Kingdom of a bastard. He considered Ilkhanate a weakling who was not strong willed like he was and just bent over to whatever Mongolia said (unfortunately for Chagatai Khanate, thats exactly why Ilkhanate was Mongolia's favourite). He thought Mongolia would prefer a more hard headed son - like him.

Considering this reasoning, Chagatai Khanate was expecting... More? From his father. More approving pats on his shoulder when he did something right, more proud smiles when he stood his ground. Sure Mongolia gave them all attention but it was never enough. He was always busy with something else or late for something.

For the longest time, Chagatai defended his father a personal level and was extremely uptight about upholding tradition and rules. Out of his brothers, he was the one who was so anal about upkeeping proud Mongol tradition. Not that he was not a troublemaker in his own right - he most definitely was, however he was very conservative when it came to this. He could pretty much recite the entire Yassa code off by heart. Hence another reason why he thought he should be the favoured son.

Before Chagatai Khanate came to resent his father, he saw his meticulousness of upholding Mongol law and tradition as an extension of his love and respect for his father. But as time went on and there were more developments in the empire (as in, infighting between the divisions), Chagatai Khanate no longer saw it as an extension of his love for his father but as a competition. He was already given the short end of the stick when it came to the wealth of his Ulus ("miserable little ulus") which he was most definitely a sore loser about and not only that, Mongolia went on to establish the Yuan Dynasty under Khublai Khan - a dynasty that ruled over China, posed itself as being a legitimate dynasty with the mandate of heaven, Khublai himself was very fond of China and there were whole wars fought between Khublai and Qaidu - the de facto ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, as Qaidu was more traditionalist compared to the more liberal Khublai. It's speculated that one of the discussions that took place during the 1269 Talas Quriltai was about Khublai straying away from Mongol tradition and turning to China! I explained this in more depth in a previous post I'll link here, it's a lot more historically dense but it's worth a read if you want more context.

Even before the different Khanates went their separate ways, I think Chagatai Khanates resentment began to blossom. I think he realised that no matter how hard he tried, Mongolia would never consider him his favoured son. So he got strangely competitive with Mongolia in more subtle ways before everything blew up. Who could inspire more fear in the lesser staff, who was the better wrestler. Mongolia caught onto this and was... Not impressed. He was quite annoyed at this. I don't think he felt threatened but I do think it's funny how the son most similar to him personality wise annoyed him the most. Admitting that you're obnoxious, Mongolia? (At least in the context of this era).

Mongolia definitely had his own thoughts on Khublai and absolutely raised an eyebrow at a few things he did (like moving the Mongol Empire capital to China) however he was not expecting his children (except for Ilkhanate who pretty much always sided with him) to turn against him in such a way - and to accuse him of all people of disrespecting Mongol tradition! Yes, he was pissed. Especially at Chagatai Khanate who he saw as the instigator of it all. Despite this conflict ending, Chagatai Khanate was still very sore about it and continued being a pain to his family. What's funny is how much Chagatai Khanate and Golden Horde hated each other, but one of the only things that could unite them was when they wanted to bully and threaten Ilkhanate. lol. And I guess their shared frustration when Mongolia inevitably sided with Ilkhanate in the conflict - Mongolia/the Yuan Dynasty being one of Ilkhanates only allies (daddy's boy I guess)..

This staunch adherence to tradition did not stop though. Whilst the other Khanates became more sedentary, the Chagatai Khanate was still living traditionally (ironic as this was a factor in halting the growth of wealth in the Chagatai Khanate, something he complained about) and when the Chagatai Khanate broke up into two, the West in Transoxiana and the East called Moghulistan (Chagatai Khanate became the Eastern Moghulistan) , Moghulistan was a hell of a lot more traditional than the Western Chagatai Khanate. They upheld Chagataid tradition whereas the Western Chagatai Khanate used Chagataids as puppet rulers usually. They were even discriminatory towards the Western halfs more mixed status, and the Western half similarly looked down on Moghulistan for being "uncultured" from what I recall. Yes I do think he was hatecriming his son-

Anyways it's ironic because Moghulistan itself became increasingly Turkified over time and even adopted Sharia law over the traditional Mongola Yassa. He's my fave jock loser

Some other hcs:

Ruddy face

He and GH are similar in stature but he is slightly bigger

Bushy eyebrows

Small scar on his cheek

#aph mongolia #hetalia #hetalia world stars #hws mongolia #hetalia world series #hetalia world twinkle #hetalia mongolia #aph chagatai khanate #hws chagatai khanate #hws golden horde #aph golden horde #hetalia golden horde #hetalia chagatai khanate #hws ilkhanate #aph Ilkhanate #hetalia ilkhanate #historical hetalia #hetalia headcanons #hetalia hcs

18 notes · View notes

pynkhues · 6 months ago

Note

fun rpf stuff aside (though I'm totally fine with whatever people believe as long as no one bothers actors in real life), does it seem to you like Jacob and Sam have an unusual friendship? Or am I, as a woman, just not well-versed in guy friendships? But it seems like everyone around them agrees that they have an unusual friendship too? Thinking of Eric talking about them every chance he gets lol, and Rolin saying that he wrote a scene into the script specifically for the two of them that came out of their bond. They just seem to genuinely have so much affection for each other and they express it openly, and they talk about how much time they spend talking, and that all seems so beautifully sincere and the opposite of trying to be macho or whatever. I love it.

Haha, I love it too! It does seem like they've connected on a pretty deep level.

I don't know, I don't know either of them of course, but I think there's probably a lot of factors at play. I think true creative partnerships can often be pretty intense and binding, and that does seem to be the way they've both approached their work on the show and how they've felt about building Louis and Lestat as both individual characters, and as the show's big, beating, bloody heart. It also seems to have influenced how they choose to be leads on set.

Crews will usually say that a culture on set starts from the top of the callsheet, which I imagine would be Jacob at 1, Sam at 2, and they both seem to take that seriously as well. Eric's talked about that, as you said, but Roxane actually talked about how much they look after each other and the energy they bring to set quite a bit in her interview with Autumn too, which was lovely. I've timestamped it here if you haven't seen it:

youtube

So yeah, I think how they've chosen to create together plays a role. I also think timing probably had a bit to do with it too. Jacob's joked a few times that he and Sam are trauma bonded, which makes sense given the casting process and filming s1 all happened during the COVID lockdowns, so it was a fractuous time anyway and they were probably in a cast bubble, which I imagine added to the sense of shared experience.

I also think it probably helped that they were in pretty similar places career-wise when they started on the show. They were both fairly established in their local contexts (Jacob in the UK, Sam in Australia), but less so internationally and I think that probably a) put them both on a level footing from the get-go, b) gave them both a shared sense of what this opportunity was, and c) that their professional lives have made this pretty significant change together.

Plus, y'know, they just seem to really like each other, which is a lovely thing. So yeah! I think their friendship is something special, and whether that's a result of their personalities, the context of the last few years, or something else, who knows? I'm just glad we get to watch the result of it, haha.

#i do think rolin letting them have that last line to each other at the reunion is an acknowledgement of that creative partnership #there are sooooo many ways this show could've Not Worked #but the biggest would always be if lestat and louis didn't work #both as individual characters and as a dynamic #and you can write the most beautiful scripts in the world but if an actor isn't willing or able to go to those places with another #then it won't work #and they needed jacob and sam to go to a LOT of places #and they both sold it every time #like literally not so much of a beat where one of them wasn't entirely committed #they've also talked about each other as being generous actors #so they get a lot from each other #which is IT baby creative partnership dreams are made of #iwtv cast #welcome to my ama #jam asks #roxane duran

8 notes · View notes

bleachbleachbleach · 5 months ago

Text

8/12 - 8/18/2024

I wrote a version of Renji 11 what is at this point several years ago (RIP me), and have since just been throwing random stuff/required additions into that Note with no rhyme nor reason, so it took over two hours this week just to sort it all out. But! It is sorted!

Modern-era Renji 11 consists of 3 new scenes and 3 already-existing scenes. I wrote 1.5 of the new scenes. As far as how well I think this Chapter is going, I dunno. As a narrator, Renji’s kind of like, oh hey, here’s a thought I had. And here’s another one! Which feels legit but I’m not sure if it allows the reader to understand which pieces of information are actually important for following the narrative.

You know those reblog memes that like, ask people to identify hallmarks of your writing? The concept is fun, but it wouldn't work in practice because 0.02% of anyone who might see that post would have any familiarity with my writing. SO. I WILL SIMPLY TELL YOU. My hallmarks are that I love an interstice—love having things that should be on the cutting room floor not on the cutting room floor—but am also a firm believer in stories not needing to have every scene the characters experience to exist on the page. This combination means there’s a good chance that actually relevant, defining scenes simply do not exist and only the interstitial nonsense does. I think in certain stories this can be a real thing that works. I think it can also have the effect of nothing hanging together, making any sense, or meaning anything, without certain bits of key information/certain scenes that I simply did not include because they exist in my head and therefore exist everywhere right. I think that’s where this chapter is.

Maybe the remaining 1.5 new scenes will help ameliorate that, but I feel like that’s asking a lot of them. And then, theoretically, you’d think fixing the existing scenes would go more quickly than writing from scratch, but I don’t know that they will. Because the story leading up to this point has changed enough that the characters are in very different headspaces and perceptions of each other than they were when I first wrote those scenes. Well, that’s not true—Kensei and Renji are in a very different place with each other. Renji and Hitsugaya need to have the exact same conversation but, you know… better. And FRANKLY, I do not know whether entirely overhauling Kensei and Renji will be harder or easier than merely line-editing Hitsugaya and Renji. =_=;;

I’d really like to finish Renji 11 by the end of next week, and then take some time to finish out the revisions on Rukias 7 and 10, which are the most related to Renji 11. Then I’d like to go back to do final line edits on Chapters 4, 5, and 8 before heading into the big mess of revision that is Hisagi 9, because those revisions will be most related to Hitsugaya 12.

I’m not anticipating getting much done in September, because I have a major work deadline September 30th, and the rest of autumn will probably be kind of garbage, too, and I probably won't exist. But I would love to finish Part II (so, Chapters 12 and 13) by December. Well, speaking honestly, my original hope was that I would finish Part II by May, but here it is, August, and I am still working on Chapter 11. So: I would LOVE to finish Part II by December.

—

I did a low-res mockup of the fic banner several months ago (okay, this might have been last November). I pulled out some high-res assets to work with on Friday and played around with a new design I thought was fun, but it turns out design-wise the old mockup looks much more polished. Or it would, if I were using higher-quality materials. XD So I’ll probably go back to the old design. The only reason to continue with the new one is that it reflects the clusterfuck spirit of everything that happens in this fic, but I kind of like the way the old banner puts a pretty bow on the clusterfuck lurking beneath the surface. Maybe I’ll solicit opinions once I’ve made a more serious mockup of the first version.

#'[pivotal fic scene]'s a nothing part captain'#'it's nothing 'til you don't got one. then it appears to be everything'#^ i'm part of that rare and exclusive club where that's one of my most-quoted lines from a famously quotable show #where that line probably shouldn't feature in my or anyone's top 10 #but here we are #stories for the sea

7 notes · View notes

dream-beyond-the-fantasy · 7 hours ago

Note

Question: If you are writing a story in that nebulous time between the movies and Cobra Kai, which fandom do you tag? Would like your insight and opinion on this.

Well, you could do either or both.

My OG Cobra Jimmy/OC wip Is This Love? takes place over several decades. But the majority of that fic, whether it is currently written or not, takes place primarily in the 1990s and even spans into the early 2000s. I incorporated information from Cobra Kai and even wrote a ficlet around Robby's birth, so it made sense for me to tag both the movies and the show.

It helps to think about the characters you will utilize in the story. Are they in both the movies and the show? Would it make sense timeline-wise to tag one or the other fandoms? And think about your audience/readers. How wide a net do you want to cast?

#girlwonder-writes #answering asks #cobra kai #the karate kid #cobra kai fanfic #karate kid fanfiction #writing fanfic #tagging fics #is this love

5 notes · View notes

magicaldragons · 11 months ago

Text

writing.

things i've learned throughout the years

speaking from personal experience, writing, whether it's for a fic or an original work, is a process that comes to everyone very differently. which is also why it took me a WHILE to figure out what worked for me.

you've definitely heard this one before, but: 1. do not worry about making your first draft perfect. it will seem terrible, and that's ok.

it's the most common writing advice i've always heard as well, and i always understood what it meant, logically, but it was a piece of advice that was very hard to follow.

the second i gave myself permission to suck, though – the moment i said "i'm going to write trash," is when everything started flowing so much more easily.

it helps IMMENSELY to just push ahead and write whatever comes to you in the moment. do not start searching up synonyms. (yeah, i see you) and if you hate a word or phrase, put a *** next to it and come back later. chances are, you'll change your mind after seeing it from a new perspective, or be able to come up with something to replace it with.

it's always easier to edit than write from scratch, so give yourself material you can edit.

2. write for yourself. write what you love – what you would read.

it definitely draws people in more than any formula you think works or a piece you deliberately craft for a specific audience.

3. as long as your writing is comprehensible, grammar means little in front of the emotion your work conveys

i've read so many works that have left such a profound effect on me, solely because i could feel the amount of heart the author poured into it, it's always easy to look past minor mistakes, as long as what the writer says makes sense.

4. most importantly, when you're starting on that path of developing your writing skills, don't show your work to anybody. hear me out:

i've written about seven stories (for various fandoms) that will never see the light of day – not because i dislike them, but because i now realize, i had to write them for me.

and these stories (and the evident progress in my storytelling skils across all of them) are what give me the most confidence when i doubt my skills.

you can always share your works in the future, but the first couple of times you venture out with a vision in mind, make yourself your audience, it prevents you from diluting your ideas with expectations of other people's perceptions.

+ and finally, a bonus point:

a lot of the writing process, is just discovering yourself, in various ways

i always used to hear writers say:

"my characters did this on their own" or "the story just wrote itself like this"

and i never understood, because MY characters never did anything of their volition, in fact, they refused to do what i intended for them to and it would be a struggle to write a scene sometimes

and again recently i had that same problem, where i couldn't for the life of me, figure out how to describe a character performing a particular action. i waited for days for any sort of inspiration or logic to strike me, but it wasn't working.

i surprised even myself though, when i highlighted the whole section and deleted it.

but as soon as i let go of writing that one scene the way i'd planned it, a completely new option presented itself, and writing THAT scene was so much easier.

so no. my characters never tell me what to do, but they tell me what they don't want to do, and the realization that common experiences in writing will manifest differently in different people, really made me realize that writing is something you should follow your instincts in.

technicality-wise, you will always keep learning and improving. growth never stops.

so it's important to do what feels true to you, and do it in a way that makes YOU feel comfortable, whether that includes taking risks, being spontaneous, or starting small.

that's when some of the best things are created.

#for that one anon specifically #there's no failing when it comes to passion #there are only two options: success or growth #trust in yourself & your ability to grow #because it makes me go :( when people say “i love (writing/editing/art) but i wouldn't do a very good job”#writing #creative writing #fanfic #fanfiction

11 notes · View notes

alyjojo · 1 month ago

Text

December 2024 🫶 for Cancer

Preshuffle: A King of Pentacles is unbothered with issues surrounding the home or relationship, they’ve “got this”, and I’m hearing it’s okay to calm down. Whenever you get 🤯, this feels like advice.

Meditation: Weirdest one in awhile 💯 You were prancing about in the yard of a house, there was an in-ground pool, it felt like summer, you had on a big floppy hat and sunglasses. Or not you, idk, it was a blonde woman. She had kind of a pretentious, “new money” way about her, and evvvverything around her was solar paneled, that’s the weirdness. She was bragging about this and selling everyone else on it too. I mean everything, the house, areas all over the ground, there was a whole garden area and decorations, the pool was surrounded, I’m not sure what these all were for exactly but they were everywhere. I’m lost to the meaning of this. Cost effective? Soaking up the sun? Electricity issues? Bad connections/wires or something idk, you’d know. Maybe you really really like solar panels ☀️ She was made of money, maybe that’s a suggestion for a Cancer out there, your electric bill is killing you?

General: 2 Swords ⚔️

Love: The Star rev

Work: Wheel of Fortune rev

Someone could be losing a job, and money issues would be describing the 🤯 energy from you…not sure if it’s you or someone else, someone you care about, a partner or coworker either one. Wheel of Fortune rev feels like bad fortune, or can be disciplinary measures, consequences for actions, “bad karma”, something like that…not feeling karma though. Bad timing maybe. Or, okay, it’s karmic but only specifically how you would be seeing this, not because it’s actually something karmic in your chart - but if the shoe fits, right? That’s the vibe with this, it’s like YOU believe this is karmic, and maybe it is, but more for you than anyone else or it’s unconscious somehow.

So for work I see major changes and upgrades…I’m not sure if they’re letting a bunch of people go, could be, maybe a whole software system, maybe the location they’ve been operating out of or the entire rules of operation y’all have been working from. Like here’s the rule book, well, they just wrote a new rule book with all new systems, now throw it away. But it’s all you know. You’re emotionally connected to whatever is being left behind work wise, like you personally identify with THIS mode of operation - not the new AI version. It’s like because your job is using something other than pick-a-thing, you’re personally triggered like it’s an attack on your character - and maybe you’re the pick-a-thing person, it would make sense why you feel this way. A new way of doing things is triggering you big time, you feel like the changes being made are drastic, extreme, and largely unnecessary, but there’s nothing you can do or you don’t know what you could even do about it.

Similar energy for love, whether in a relationship or not, there is a situation where you have to face a “conventional” way of doing things where you’re more like…sup? 😅 NOT conventional. Baggy shorts at church, rolling in late to the holiday dinner, not doing some traditional thing everyone else does. It’s like you don’t see you’re the outcast or black sheep here - or you definitely do, but that’s their problem 💯 Could be with your person’s family, or your own, flip it however. Maybe you’re dating the village weirdo and your Dad is a pastor it’s just…gonna be fine 🧡 The Star rev shows no healing taking place, if someone is a stick in the mud then they just are, or kinda crazy and irresponsible. It could really get you down, trying to fit in, you could have moments of pessimism or even depression because it weighs on you…why is xyz like this? Could definitely be a parent.

What you’re doing is pulling your head up, getting cute, showing up, and enduring. Maybe dropping a hint or two, making attempts to plant some more open-minded or future focused seeds for people to see or understand. Solar panels 💯 Politics could be messy at your house, or with someone you’re dating/with. Feels more like someone’s family, maybe where they come from - if this is new. Jupiter Aries shows an independent spirit is good for you, stay true to yourself regardless of anyone’s expectations or “rules”. Capricorn vs Aries here, opposing/squaring you, you could be dealing with these signs. Scorpio is heavy too. Your energy is light, happy, chatty, intuitive, you can see that bs from a mile away but HOW ABOUT THESE BISCUITS MA? Delicious. *chef’s kiss* And you’ll do fine 🧡 2 Swords is showing to just ignore it as best you can and enjoy the date, gathering, or event. You could end up deciding someone isn’t for you romantically, after a convention vs. independence battle of some kind, maybe a discussion - doesn’t even have to be with you, you could hear them being narrow-minded af from the bathroom, but you’ll be nice anyway.

If it’s money/job issues that has you down, then you’re judging yourself based on past holidays or situations where you were in a different spot - Spirit is saying to get creative and use your social abilities to really get to people. Emotionally. Make them cry 😌 Because it’s sweet not sour obv. but do you 😆For someone, there’s an unconventional person that likes a person in a suit, or switch that. There’s no hope this will take off but something about them hits different, you just know…something. 2 Swords shows ignoring it. Or? Ask them out 🤷‍♀️ Worst they can say is no. Or if you’re meeting someone’s family and feeling like…jeez they own Google they’re going to hate me - I see you being wrong and it all turns out just fine. Hang in there.

You come into December with:

Saint Apricot 😇

“I’m sorry that I have to take care of myself.”

Saint Apricot comes to you when you have been (or are about to be) freed from a situation that has you chained. This is a lesson in taking care of yourself. It’s a reminder to not give away more than you can, or it will drain you. We are not giving from a place of love if we are giving only to get. People may not like it when we focus on taking care of ourselves, but it is necessary in order to have a truthful relationship with them. If you speak the truth from your heart, then any guilt you feel is from the fear of being disliked. Feelings of shame come up when we feel we are “bad”, guilt comes up when we feel something we’ve done is “bad”. If another person no longer chooses to be in our lives, due to what’s been said or done in total honesty, it’s not our fault, it is their choice. This signifies a turn in your destiny. You are moving in a new direction towards freedom, and this opens the gateway towards more rewarding relationships in life.

You leave December having learned:

Final Sunset 🌅 :

“A life has come to its spectacular conclusion.”

This is a reminder to cherish all of the beauty in your life, including endings. Spirit embraces you and the loss you are aware of at this time. When we watch a day’s sunset, we can recognize the beauty of an ending. All things have a completion, even life. This is the end of a long journey. It is a time to reflect on your part of history, and discover what you value most. This could be a long emotional road ending, or simply a project at work that took a lot of effort and time. Too often we look to what is “next”, and miss the spectacular beauty of the finale. Do not fear the completion. Stay in the now, cry, laugh, reflect. Be with the fullness of your experience.

Orange may be a lucky color 🧡

Compatibility for December:

10 Pentacles rev could show divorce, unemployment, deep rooted issues surrounding stability or lack, in you or others. These could be coworkers, family members, or people around you going through hell - or they know you have been either/or.

Aries - failure to give to the situation, maybe they’re not into gifts or gift-giving, won’t be around or they’re just busy - not coming

Taurus - has a lot of love for you, reflects your energy back at you so they get you on a deep level, but they feel this won’t go anywhere

Gemini - over the sadness of you leaving, but they’re still very bitter towards you /switch

Cancer - could be losing their shit at you 🤬

Leo - could randomly pop up with something fun to do, I’m seeing sports ⚽️ events, and if they’re flirting it’s because they like you

Virgo - one person gives way more to this than the other one, it’s unfair and imbalanced

Libra - sees that you’re not going to cooperate with them or maybe never have - it’s like a wake up call to them /switch

Scorpio - super excited for a new thing that doesn’t go anywhere or they don’t try to make it go anywhere…they’re just venting fun ideas

Sagittarius - not committed, but cares, but isn’t serious, but feels things, so…a headache

Capricorn - not fighting for something, doesn’t care

Aquarius - has a dream and only that will do - I don’t think it’s shown up yet because 4 Cups is kinda pissy and dissatisfied - not choosing you? Or mad you didn’t choose them. Or your/their idea. Or something stupid like they’re supposed to make the pies and make flan instead - flan is disgusting idc

Pisces - not communicating on purpose, they’re up to something that could bring down whole Towers if other people knew about it 👀 shaaade

#cancer #december 2024 #monthly tarot reading #tarot #astrology #monthly #love #dating #relationships #compatibility #spirituality

2 notes · View notes

sprinklecipher · 2 years ago

Text

How Much Dialogue Each Character has in PLvsPW

I made some graphs about the amount of dialogue each character has in Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright, because I'm a graphs kind of lady :)

(Minor/oblique spoiler warning)

The color coding will make more sense when you see the 2nd graph, but it’s basically unique colors for major characters, and category-based colors for minor characters (witnesses and Flynch = blue, characters who give puzzles = orange)

I was curious what it’d look like if you grouped the word counts according to characters’ series of origin, so here’s that:

More details below the cut ~

Some notes about the 2nd graph:

“Puzzle characters” are characters who give you a puzzle (or only show up in the puzzle gameplay segments) and are not part of the trials

“Trial characters” are the witnesses and Flynch (although all of the dialogue they have outside of the trials still counts towards their total, fwiw)

The unlabeled part at the bottom of the PLvPW column is the Storyteller, with 5,200 words, and the one at the bottom of the PL column is Chelmey with 986 words (couldn’t get the labels to fit lol). Edgeworth has 50 words fwiw, which isn’t really enough to be visible (although he technically is represented on the graph, as a tiny line at the top of the AA column)

Also, in case it’s not obvious, the judges are grouped into the PLvsPW column because they’re not the same character as the AA judge. The English and Labyrinthian judges are also lumped together due to them being labelled the same in the data and there not really being a good way to separate them out with how the data is structured

Part of my inspiration for making the second graph was that PLvPW seemed like more of an Ace Attorney game than a Professor Layton game to me based on vibes, and I was curious whether the balance of dialogue would reflect that (with the caveat that the dialogue would naturally skew towards the AA characters since the trial gameplay is more dialogue heavy than the puzzle gameplay is). To be clear, I don’t mean that as a criticism of the game or anything—I enjoyed it a lot!—I just thought it leaned more heavily on the AA side compared to the PL side, and I was curious what that leaning might look like, numbers-wise

With that said, the overall dialogue word count totals end up being 99,256 for PLvsPW characters, 63,633 for AA characters, and 48,070 for the PL characters, a 47%/30%/23% split, respectively, although notably that's counting expy characters (like Flynch) towards PLvsPW

Some observations:

Layton and Luke have way more dialogue in PLvsPW than they do across the first couple PL games (Layton has ~19k and Luke has ~10k total words of dialogue across both Curious Village and Diabolical Box combined, vs ~29k and ~18k here). I don't have data readily available for any of the later games, so IDK how those would compare, though

The overall total character-based dialogue word count is 210,959 words, which is about the same as AA1 or AA2 (which have roughly ~210k words of dialogue) but less than AA3 or AAI1 (~260k words)

The vigilantes collectively have more dialogue than the Storyteller, which is just wild to me

Data source: I used the scripts that Jozerick posted to the Court Records forums, which pulled the text from the PLvPW ROM. I wrote a python script to process those scripts further to use like this, so there’s a chance I introduced some error with that, but the numbers should be pretty accurate.

Word counts: The data set DOES include dialogue from the animated cutscenes, but it does NOT include puzzle instructions/hints, any descriptions from the Court Record, or interjections that have a gif rather than normal text dialogue (“Objection!” etc.). It also doesn’t include the dialogue from the special episodes, since those weren't included in the data source I used.

#Ace Attorney #Professor Layton #PLvsPW #PLvPW #PLvsAA #Ace Attorney in Graphs #Graphs #Tableau #sC original #PLvPW spoilers #<- kind of? putting it to be safe #Normally I make these graphs using the wiki episode transcripts but those are sadly incomplete for this game #The main side effect of that is it really limits the ways that I can slice and dice the numbers #which makes me sadder than I'd like to admit #Also legit thought that I posted this months ago #oops

31 notes · View notes

themattress · 1 year ago

Text

From this video. I....have some issues with this.

First off, I have three criteria for acceptable retcons.

It should make logical sense in-universe and not contradict solidified facts.

It shouldn't disrespect the point made by the writer whose work it's retconning.

It should be either as compelling or even moreso than what it is replacing.

And yeah, the Ansem-Xehanort retcon covers all of those bases which is why I'm glad she's defending it! In KH1 there was literally nothing solidifying for a fact that the guy was Ansem. All we had to go by were his own words; people like the Final Fantasy crew or Mickey who would know for sure how Ansem looked like never interacted with him. Nomura co-created Ansem, Seeker of Darkness with Nojima in KH1, and Nojima wrote KH2's scenario, so no-one was being disrespected - the same people retconning the character were the same people who created him. And finally, Xehanort (the apprentice, not the Keyblade wielder!) is made more compelling through this retcon than had he simply been the real Ansem, and on top of that the real Ansem is also a compelling character who has his own arc of descending into darkness as a direct consequence of Xehanort's actions, which are themselves a direct consequence of Ansem's. Xemnas in particular benefits greatly from the retcon, since his desire to become the supreme existence now makes that much more sense character-wise.

But that's not what she says about it. Instead she says:

"It's the kind of reveal that simply would not work in any other story, and as such sets KH into a class of fiction all its own. Whether intentionally or not, the reveal that Xehanort's Heartless stole Ansem the Wise's identity creates a level of separation between certain types of fans of the story. If you're here for the characters and themes of this story and interested in the way that KH specifically likes to explore identity and connection, then no matter how weird you feel this reveal is, you're still going to accept it and keep pressing forward into the story to see how they use this retcon to advance the themes and the characters. But if you're someone who only gets invested in a story for lore and perfectly consistent world-building, this reveal is going to throw you off. And quite possibly make you feel like the story itself has betrayed you even though all its done is remain true to its own meaning and ideas. And I am 100% in the former camp and have no sympathy at all for the 'no meaning, only lore' crowd, especially since this reveal makes it so the world and history is malleable if it can be turned to serve the story's themes. The freedom and flexibility this precedent gives the creators is honestly core to what makes the series so compelling to me. The games' writers are not bound even by their own previous ideas, if what they wrote contradicts something new they want to explore. And it makes the series more thematically rich for the unbound creativity it gives the creators. From this point on, if you're on board with its approach to its own history, it's here to tell you a story packed with meaningful themes and compelling characters. And if you're not on board with it, well, it doesn't care. It's going to press on, telling the story it wants to tell regardless."

A retcon that passes those three criteria I listed before should absolutely NOT be used as a justification for carte-blanche retconning that doesn't pass said criteria under some nebulous reasoning about themes and characters. There are so many fallacies in what she just said.

To claim that only people invested in lore and consistent world-building would reject retcons in the KH series while people invested in themes and characters would embrace them is demonstrably false. How do I know this? Because I personally was invested in the themes and characters, and I along with many others feel as though all of the retconning Nomura has kept doing with the series only served to destroy the themes and characters that we were invested in...and in fact, the majority of these retcons are far more centered around lore than around themes and characters! "No meaning, only lore"? That sounds exactly like what the Kingdom Hearts series has devolved into! Since BBS, "meaningful themes" are contradicted or discarded and "compelling characters" have their entire personality and purpose rewritten on a whim just so that Nomura can change up the series' lore, since that's all he cares about.

"The games' writers are not bound even by their own previous ideas, if what they wrote contradicts something new they want to explore, and it makes the series more thematically rich for the unbound creativity it gives the creators"? First off, Nomura is the only creator in the equation here. Everyone else who was there early in is now gone. More importantly, not being bound to previous ideas makes the series thematically rich? To use the most extreme scenario possible, if I wrote a story where I hammered home that abuse is a bad thing, but then decided that abuse is a good thing actually and changed up my story to reflect that, would you say my work is "thematically rich" and laud my "unbound creativity"? No, you'd call me a hack who pissed on the message of my own story. So how is Nomura any different?

Lastly, this treatment of the KH series' crappy writing with this "rah rah, do your own thing, fight the establishment, tell a bad story if you want to and don't let the haters tell you otherwise!" rebel spirit is annoying as fuck. It encourages complacency, cult mentality and toxic positivity, which I cannot get behind. This entire argument of hers is also based on a fallacy: the Ansem-Xehanort reveal, which as I already detailed passed the acceptable retcon criteria, "would not work in any other story"? To that, I must refer to this post and that reveal:

This operates the exact same way as the Ansem-Xehanort reveal: you previously thought this character was one thing (Ansem / the man who killed Luke's father) only to learn he's actually another thing (Ansem's apprentice who stole his master's name / Luke's father himself). It didn't contradict anything concrete since all we had to go by before were someone's words ("Ansem" / Obi-Wan), it didn't disrespect a previous writer's work, and it gave us a more compelling story and character than the more simplistic ones we had before. Yes, the aftereffect of one is that two characters were combined into one while the aftereffect of the other is that one character was divided into two, but otherwise it's the same. So clearly, there are other stories, very famous stories, where reveals like this can work. KH ain't that special.

Bottom line: the Ansem-Xehanort twist is defendable. Nomura and the KH series are not.

9 notes · View notes

sleepyowlwrites · 1 year ago

Note

Dragon Ask:

Wing: share a snippet that you daydreamed about before writing it (or a snippet that you were really looking forward to writing.)

Talon: share a snippet that tugs at your heartstrings- can be sad or happy!

Teeth: share a snippet that was difficult for you to nail down/required a lot of revisions.

Scales: share a snippet that describes something. (can be a person, a place, a feeling, etc.)

Fire: share a snippet with some dialogue you’d like to show off.

Ice: share a snippet where a character is taking a risk.

Poison: share a snippet that’s all about relationships (good or bad).

Breath: share a snippet that makes you laugh.

Storm: share a snippet where a character is angry.

Tail: share a fluffy or cozy snippet.

this has been sitting here for ages so I'm going to use my fanfic for it because I can, because I want to. because sometimes I reread my own fics as a comfort/coping mechanism and they're good stories! I want more! oh no!

Wing: a snippet I daydreamed about before writing

from Meta-portal, my great fantasy kpop crossover fic (the rewrite) that I have abandoned. sometimes I can still hear its voice.

we gotta start the story somewhere, so I'm starting it here, in Soul City, on the night that Younghoon decides to investigate the lion he's convinced he saw in the woods the other night. since his brother is busy researching, Younghoon gets Haknyeon to come with him, because his brother Juyeon says he's not allowed to go into the woods by himself. this is wise, because Younghoon has a lousy sense of direction and will get lost. turns out it doesn't really matter about direction or not, because they've barely made it past the tree line before Younghoon spots something shiny and runs after it. Haknyeon sort of hurries along behind and is consequently too late to stop Younghoon from tripping and falling into a bush. the bush has a discarded mirror in it, for some reason, and instead of hitting his head, Younghoon goes through the mirror and disappears. Haknyeon stares at it for a few seconds in shock before somebody else pops out of the mirror. then the mirror cracks and starts smoking a little. the new person is not very perturbed by this and instead just asks, "is this northern scarlentis?" "no," Haknyeon answers with some difficulty, since he's still in shock. "this is amarantis." "oh wow," the stranger says. "I came somewhere totally new this time." just then, Jacob - the witch who lives in the woods - comes through the trees, a little out of breath. "I sensed trouble. was I right?" "I hope not," the stranger says. "I'm Jisung." Haknyeon rubs at his eyes. "see that mirror? Younghoon went through there." "and I came out!" Jisung should really be perturbed but maybe he goes through strange portals all the time. Jacob inspects the mirror. "it's a portal," he says, rather unhelpfully as all present understand what it is, or was. "I guess you better come home with me. we'll talk in the morning." it's not even midnight but Haknyeon agrees to sleep over and they tromp through the woods to Jacob's house.

Talon: a snippet that tugs at my heartstrings

from Good Brother, my KinnPorsche fic that I wrote based off of several gifsets and my love of complicated brother relationships

It's five in the morning. Kim can't stand being in this bed, in this room anymore. He doesn't want anyone to see him, but he can't stay here. He leaves the confining space of too much empty space on unsteady legs and creeps out of the house.

The garden is quiet and the sun isn't up yet. A line of pale yellow lurks at the horizon line, waving hello. Kim knows his movements are being tracked. There’s no true solitude in this house. Just another reason why he hates it. He chooses to be alone, but he fears it.

Kim stands in the garden, shivering in the early morning despite the heat already sitting dead in the air. He’s good at being alone. He despises it.

Footsteps sound from behind him. Someone is going to break the illusion. Kim doesn't know whether to be grateful or not.

"I hope you know I don't get up this early for just anyone."

Kim pretends he isn't startled to hear Tankhun's voice. He certainly wouldn't have predicted it. "No one asked you to get up."

"I did," his brother sniffs, coming around into view. "Kinn said you were sick and I told Arm to wake me if you tried to sneak out, which I knew you would do."

"I'm still here," Kim points out, feeling too tired to argue further.

Tankhun rolls his eyes, something he's good at. "You want to run out, though." His tone is matter of fact.

It is fact. Kim just shivers more.

A blanket is draped around his shoulders.

"Thank you," Tankhun says to someone behind him, drawing the edges of the blanket together and securing them in Kim's hand.

Kim needs to say something, snap out a witty retort, shove his brother away. He accepts the blanket and turns his face a little. It's just as hard to look at Tankhun as it was to look at Kinn.

Teeth: a snippet that was difficult for me to nail down/needed revisions

from Blood Curse, the fifth part of my Blood Cultivation series, a The Untamed fanfic. honestly, this part STILL needs another edit, but it's been three years so I don't know if I'll ever do it.

Meili had expected it, honestly. She’d been expecting it since her father had first appeared in front of her in Lanling some days ago. Even with the brief encounter during their nighthunt, he hadn’t really tried anything extreme. It had been surprising that he’d waited so long to make a move, choosing instead to bait her and let her friends work on the problem that she’d been living with most of her life and never thought anyone else would know about. Meili had assumed that she’d spend her days cleaning up after other people and avoiding her father and eventually her cultivation would get the best of her and that would be that.

She had never dreamed of developing close friendships or befriending sect leaders or telling anyone the reasoning behind her unorthodox cultivation. Secrets were her close friends; breaking her silence was the enemy. Sharing a secret had the power to kill, but she’d just handed it over without even a struggle. Besides the obvious one. She hadn’t tried so hard in years to tell anyone all her greatest regrets. The loss of her core and her choices on certain matters had ceased to be something she mourned, being instead something she just accepted. If she couldn’t speak about her horrors, she would at least avoid them. She would refuse to commit more sins.

Watching her father pace back and forth in front of her was like a nightmare come true. Everything she had ever hoped to conceal or ignore stood there, imposing his insistent chaos on her desire for peace. Meili traced the sigils drawn in blood on the ropes binding her hands. She’d found them almost immediately, erasing what was written and instead pricking her finger on a sharp bead embedded in her robe and writing her own in their place, infusing the blood with an energy signature so faint that her father would never sense it.

Wei Wuxian probably would, if he decided to ignore her warning and come after her. It was all the help she was willing to ask for at this point. Couldn’t her father see that he would never get anywhere with her? Wasn’t her initial refusal so many years ago enough? What he’d asked of her a few days ago was of course going to be refused as well.

“You’ve valued your own life well enough this far,” he’d snarled at her, flitting in and out of focus like a mirage. “If you can value it so preciously all these years and keep your silence, then you will value it enough to do this for me, for us. And there’s not nearly so much time now. You will either kill Sect Leader Jin or you will die and then I will take control of you and all your running away will have been for naught.”

Meili had no intention of being anyone’s puppet. That was what the talisman stuck to the inside of her robes was for. When the new adjustment to the curse inevitably killed her, her body would burn to ash, leaving her father with nothing. Sure, she wasn’t eager for death, but if there was something she valued more than her own life, it was those that deserved to live were able to. Also, it would be satisfying to know that her father would lose his greatest creation.

“I really don’t know why you expected anything else from me.” She said it to the air, not interested in seeing the rage on her father’s face.

Jin Feng had enough quiet madness in his voice to set her on edge anyway. “I never expected much from you. You were the one always surpassing my low expectations. If you hadn’t been so clever, I might have given up on you years ago.”

“You wouldn’t have. Once you’re obsessed with something, you won’t change your mind. I was a plaything and you strung me out to dance for you.” Meili tried not to let her own anger cloud her senses. The sound of her father chuckling to himself was hard to ignore. “And of course, once Xue Yang saw something in me it was all over. Even if I’d played dumb you would have just killed me and made me a puppet right there.”

“A child puppet would hardly have been useful,” Jin Feng said, far too casually. Meili dug her nails into her palms to keep herself steady. “I would have simply hurt more people to coerce you. If perhaps you were less of a wilting flower, able to see justifiable costs, I might have taken longer to reinvent you.”

Scales: a snippet that describes something.

from Heartbeat, my first The Lost Tomb Reboot fic. sensory descriptions my beloved.

Liu Sang watches the sky crackle along its seams and flash purple for a moment. There’s a pause that seems too lengthy, making him wait in unearned agony until the following crash of sound reverberates throughout his whole body, hissing at the tips of his fingers. There's a sizzle across his collarbones, a fresh sting in his cheek when he bites the inside.

A storm is a natural, normal occurrence. The air hums with humid energy around him, there are birds beating hard against the wind and trees bending gracefully beneath it. Liu Sang breathes and the same air catches in his throat and hurts to swallow. The natural is fast becoming the unnatural.

He can hear it, surrounding him. He can hear all of it. He can hear Wu Xie’s strong lungs, unperturbed by the weather, can hear Pangzi’s slightly wheezier breath as they hike along the trail. He can also hear Pangzi mumbling under that breath about dinner and how he’s going to have to fend off Wu Xie as he cooks. Liu Sang can hear his ouxiang at the back of them, hear how his heartbeat never changes pace no matter how rough the climb gets, unless Wu Xie slips on a rock, in which case it trips for only a singular beat before relaxing again.

It’s a comfort, or it usually is, when Liu Sang can measure his breaths along with the others’ and calm himself by the mere reassurance of their presence around him. But here, the sky splits and spits and the thunder answers its signals with a coarse trail of anger and Liu Sang feels himself drifting. And falling. His feet catch on a root, which seems to become a hungry claw in the dark, and he doesn’t have the breath left in him to shout as he tumbles.

The trees morph their shapes in front of him and the dirt under his feet becomes a smooth stone floor. There is darkness around him and the air tints green and the thunder is everywhere. Liu Sang is surrounded by both silence and sound and he can’t hear a thing.

He can’t- he can’t hear a thing. There are shapes in the shadows, there are specters creeping past. The ceiling lights up in one moment and descends upon him the next, burrowing past the pillars and soaking him in rain. The shadows cloak him in colors, there is hurt, hurt, he can’t hear the enemy but it kills him regardless, it wraps him in terror and laughs at his pain. Liu Sang can’t hear the mockery, he can’t think with these things, these things clinging onto him. They want to bury him, to erase his existence.

He’s being buried by purple sunlight, by the birds he can’t hear, by the trees made of bronze; the dirt on his skin welcomes him. He’s a thing of nothing, he’s alone, he can’t hear-

He can’t see-

He can’t breathe-

Something strikes his chest like the lightning in the sky. Liu Sang opens his mouth and fresh, mountain air floods his senses. His head aches. The birds are rustling in the trees above his head, can he hear that? Is he only imagining what he believes should exist? He peers out between the raindrops as sees nothing but blurry branches and lumbering shapes above him.

He can’t hear-

He can’t see-

“Jinx, I swear if you don’t say something I’m going to punch you and then both of us will hurt and it will be a bad night for all of us-”

Liu Sang blinks. And breathes.

Fire: a snippet with some dialogue I'd like to show off.

from Beating Hearts, the sequel to Heartbeat.

“Are you still mad at me?” He says to the jacket across from him, his voice coming out a lot croakier than he intended.

Pangzi lets out a noisy breath, shaking his head. He shakes his coat a little, causing the tiny flames to waver and wilt for a moment. “Who said I was mad at you?”

Liu Sang shivers in his wet clothes. They sit uncomfortably on his skin, like they’re trying to become the next layer. “I underestimated you. Again. So you’re upset with me.”

“Honestly, Jinx, it’s just a wonder you can think of such a thing when you’re so cold. Take your coat off and let it dry a little.”

“It won’t help very much.”

Pangzi’s exhale is even noisier this time, the frustration clear in how he stutters into it, how his heartbeat hitches along with his temper.

“Liu Sang,” he starts, and it never bodes when when his real name is brought into things, “I’m trying to take care of you. I’m always trying to take care of you. Why won’t you just let me?”

Liu Sang slowly strips off his jacket to give himself something to do, the squelching noise of it making up for his lack of an answer, at least temporarily. He’s colder without it, but he bites his lip to keep his teeth still. He spreads his outer garment out over his knees and on the ground, holding the side of it up like a wall between him and Pangzi. He measures his breaths, counting them as they go in and out. As he does, he catches himself counting Pangzi’s breaths, too. They’re not any calmer than his own, which is distressing. His fingers slide along the edges of his jacket, feeling the stiff material of threads swollen with water and dirt. He’s distressed to know that Pangzi is distressed.

“How can I let you,” Liu Sang says, slow and hesitant, with his eyes still on the ground, the words like acid as he forces them off his tongue, “when I know that nothing will last?”

He can’t look up at Pangzi, he can’t bear to, so he listens for cues in the other’s heartbeat instead. It gets louder, angrier, and Liu Sang has caused it.

“I used to think, sometimes, that Xiaoge wouldn’t return to us. That maybe I or Wu Xie would die, or that something would separate us, and all three angles would be left alone, or one would be left without the other two.”

Liu Sang brings his head up without meaning to, startled by the strange color in Pangzi’s voice. It’s not resignation, and it’s not fear. He’s just musing, thinking out loud.

“But those sorts of thoughts are useless. Someone must die first, or leave first. That will happen eventually. Until then, we just have to press on as we can and enjoy everything. Xiaoge will outlive us all, but he keeps coming back to us even so. Why does he do that?”

It isn’t a real question, so Liu Sang keeps silent.

Pangzi continues, his face tilted up toward the ceiling. “I won’t speak for him. He can do it himself. But I know that he believes in us, in our friendship. And it didn’t happen overnight.”

Liu Sang keeps his gaze steady when Pangzi drops his eyes to meet his. He doesn’t waver, doesn’t flinch.

“We built this,” Pangzi says, with so much feeling that it’s palpable in the air. “We built our triangle from the ground up and grew to trust each other gradually. It took time. But here we are. And here you are, with us. And you’re not just with us. You’re part of us, okay? We chose you and you can choose us, too.”

Liu Sang trembles under the weight of those sentences. “It’s hard to trust,” he hears himself say, distantly, like his voice doesn’t really belong to him.

Pangzi nods. “It is.”

Ice: a snippet where a character is taking a risk.

from Blood Energy, part two of my Blood Cultivation series.

Blood and poison, her two true companions. As Meili spun the resentful energy into clean energy and send it spiraling down the path, she couldn’t help feeling the pain of it all a little deeper than she normally would. She had been introduced to people who accepted her and talked to her with respect. How was she supposed to be satisfied with the loneliness of her persecuted wanderings now?

And then a real, audible scream echoed across the field from the mountains behind, followed by shouts from her companions in response to it.

Mountain demons. This task would remain unfinished, then. Meili slowly separated her blood from the resentful energy and drew it back into her body, some of the poison coming along and burning through her veins. She couldn’t allow it to remain, but would have to purify it later. In the meantime, it would give her enough strength to fight the demons. As she emerged from the cloud of resentment, Sizhui and Jin Ling hurried up to her, their faces taut and serious.

“Senior Lin, it was only one scream and there was no answer. It’s only a single demon. We should be able to take care of it ourselves. Are you able to fight?”

“I am.”

“Come on, we can’t let it attack the villagers.” Jin Ling was all business after his initial gaze of scrutiny washed over her, his earnest desire to protect the innocent people below him bringing out a bit of pride in Meili even though she’d only just met him.

“Let’s go, then.”

—

In retrospect, Meili could’ve done better, could’ve fought better, could’ve protected herself and her companions better.

But things were always easier in retrospect. At the time, she had been in severe pain from the heavy battering the resentful energy gave her as she’d worked to purify what she could as well as the vestiges of it lingering in her body after pulling her blood back to her. She was considerably weaker than either of her companions, and she was weaponless. She’d let her guard down and it had stayed down. Meili tried to swallow her anger as decisions that could not be undone and instead focus on what was happening in front of her.

Jin Ling and Sizhui were excellent fighters, she could see that. And it was only one mountain demon. Though they were fierce creatures with swift movements, a lone mountain demon was no match for the two cultivators at full strength. Meili was mostly occupied with keeping the resentful energy surrounding them all from aiding the creature in its fight. When it finally fell dead, its own negative energies quickly seeped into the ground despite Meili trying to prevent it. She was caught up in pushing the energy currently under her control behind a talisman barrier when new talismans took the place of hers and held strong.

The jolt of it sent her staggering, control lost. Absently, she watched her own blood leak from her skin and pool in the grass. In another moment, Sizhui was beside her, wrapping her hand with a cloth and Jin Ling crouched beside him, eyes full of curiosity and a little bit of fear.

“Explain.”

“Later,” Sizhui said, tapping on Meili’s face with a hesitant hand. “Senior Lin?” He set his hand on her shoulder and Meili regained control of her spiraling mind. She sat up.

And turned to spit dark, poisoned blood into the grass.

Poison: a snippet that's all about relationships.

back to Good Brother.

His little brother is silent, which is an alarm that keeps going off. Tankhun wants to shake him, to shake some words out of him, to get rid of that horrible melancholy that Kim is wearing. He doesn't, because that would be cruel, and he refuses to be cruel.

Kim sits on the couch where Tankhun puts him, clutching at the blanket like it might fly away. He lets Tankhun feel his forehead, doesn't shy away when he huffs at the heat he feels trapped there.

Tankhun tells him to sit still and not move, which is a test. Kim fails it completely, because he doesn’t move, which puts a feeling of strangulation at the base of Tankhun's throat. Kim is not like this and he hates it.

"Alright, we'll have something light that your stomach can handle. And you need fever reducers, and after we eat you're going back to bed, no arguments." Tankhun orders everyone in the room, which is only Kim and Arm, the latter nodding and leaving to fulfill those orders.

Kim just sits.

Tankhun plops down beside him on the couch. "You're scaring me," he says, returning to his usual self a bit.

Kim cracks the tiniest smile which would be reassuring if it didn't look so broken. "I'm known for being a handful," he says, finally.

"A handful that I can't get my hands on, typically," Tankhun says pointedly.

"You usually a talk a lot more. You talk and don't say anything." Kim sinks back against the cushions, closing his eyes. "So why are you saying things now?"

Thank goodness. This is marginally better, more of the sass he associates with his baby brother. Still, "You're not saying anything, not even lies and excuses. So as your eldest brother of course I will have to take responsibility."

Arm comes back with pills and water. "I told the kitchen about food. They're making it now."

"Thank you," Tankhun says with a smile. Arm smiles back and leaves without a word. He's good like that. "Take the medicine, please."

Kim peels his eyes open just a crack. "Please?"

Tankhun knows he’s out of character, or at least the character he often sinks into, but he has a baby brother to look after. That's more important. He shakes the hand holding the pills a little.

With a sigh, Kim takes them, grimacing as they go down.

"Does your throat hurt?"

"Not really." It's a lie, which delights Tankhun more than it should.

Breath: a snippet that makes me laugh.

from Meta-portal, the original version (which was written almost entirely in a friend's dms. I'm very proud of this.

And then- Hyunjae finally shows up in the story. He stumbles out of his room on the ground floor because Sangyeon knows from experience that he doesn’t mix well with stairs. He looks remarkably sober and like his eyes have sunk far into his face. “Do you need a headache cure?” Haknyeon asks, very dryly. Hyunjae squint at him. “Yes, thank you,” he says in a reedy voice. “Sangyeon, your pub is still a mess. Why do you have guests?” “Hyunjae!” Changmin interrupts, because he is an interrupter. He’s smiling very brightly. “We have need of your services.” Hyunjae looks around for a chair. Jisung coaxes Yeonjun onto his lap so Hyunjae has somewhere to sit. “Aren’t I heavy?” Yeonjun whispers. Jisung snorts. “You weight as much as two heads of lettuce and cucumber. You’re fine.” Hyunjae drops onto the chair heavily. “What can I help you with?” he says, suddenly sounding a lot more professional and awake. Jacob shoots him a suspicious look. Changmin tones down the brightness of his smile just a tad. “There’s a portal. In the labyrinth.” Hyunjae just raises an eyebrow. “We were hoping you’d make it a working portal,” Eric says quickly, happy to contribute. “You make portals, after all.” Hyunjae pauses, and his expression is so blank everyone except Eric is instantly aware that he’s hiding something. But then Sangyeon nudges him with an elbow. Hyunjae sighs. “Yeah, I make portals. But we’ve got maybe two hours before the brainwashing kicks back in and I might try and paint another volcano portal and push you in.” “Hold up.” Haknyeon has come back with a mug, presumably with headache cure in it. “You’re aware that you’ve been brainwashed?” “Well, yeah. Why else would I choose to be drunk at all hours of the day? I’m wasting all of my time, not making a living. I get a window of a couple hours before the alcohol fully washes out of my system and I get evil feelings again. And I am not interested in that. So I keep drinking.” Hyunjae takes the cup and swallows whatever was in it. “Threw in something for gut health, huh,” he comments. Haknyeon shrugs, then snaps out of it and glares at Hyunjae. “I was worried about you!” “You can still be worried,” Hyunjae says tiredly. “That brainwashing is not going to go away by itself.” Eric suddenly looks very excited. “There’s only one solution!” Sunwoo groans and hides his face in his hands. Hyunjae looks at Eric. “Aren’t you that not really lost prince?” Eric slumps a little. “Has just everybody really known where I was?”

Storm: a snippet where a character is angry.

from Blood Enemy, the third part of blood cultivation. Jiang Cheng and anger are synonymous.

Jin Ling could see his uncle ahead, looking like a simmering storm as he always did. “Uncle!” He tried to make his voice sound less happy and more dignified, but even if a potentially disastrous situation lay ahead of them, he would always be pleased to see his uncle.

Jiang Cheng looked Jin Ling over brusquely, like he both cared about his nephew’s condition and was looking for something to criticize. It was probably both. “Couldn’t even be bothered to greet me properly, huh? What kind of Sect Leader are you? I raised you better than that!”

Jin Ling flushed and came to a stop in front of his uncle, bowing with his back straight. “Sect Leader Jiang, the Jin Sect welcomes you.”

Jiang Cheng echoed the bow and immediately started to assess the addition to the party. Senior Lin also bowed, deeper than Jin Ling had, murmuring, “Sect Leader Jiang,” in a pleasant tone. “Who is this?”

“This one is called Lin Meili,” Senior Lin answered, rising from the bow slowly, her face devoid of anything resembling discomfort. “I have been lucky enough to be a guest at Sect Leader Jin’s request.”

“If you’re looking for a marriage, you’ll have to come through me, first.” Jiang Cheng said, politely fierce.

Jin Ling’s jaw dropped and he closed his mouth with a even deeper blush spreading across his face. “Uncle!”

To her credit, Senior Lin kept her expression mostly placid, though her eyes were clearly amused. “He’s a bit young, don’t you think?”

“Exactly! He shouldn’t even be thinking about marriage!”

“I’m glad we’re in agreement, then, Sect Leader. I am merely here to assist on the nighthunt.”

“The nighthunt?” Jiang Cheng swung around to glare at Jin Ling. “You knew I was arriving but were planning on going on a nighthunt without me?”

“Actually, I assumed you’d just come along,” Jin Ling said faintly, wishing the evening was over already. “Do you want to come?”

Jiang Cheng stared at Jin Ling like he’d grown a second head. “Do I want to-,” he cut himself out, looking quite close to murdering someone. “Jin Ling, you have responsibilities, you can’t just go off on a nighthunt because you feel like it! Were you going with your disciples or just with this new cultivator I have never met before!”

“Uncle.” Jin Ling swallowed hard. “Lin Meili has new techniques that I’d like to see. She was available to hunt tonight and if you don’t want to come, you don’t have to. I’m sorry to make you entertain yourself, but there are other pressing issues that-”

“Other pressing issues? Other pressing issues that you are just sweeping aside to have fun for a night?” Jiang Cheng was shaking, he was so angry. Zidian was sparking and vibrating on his wrist.

“No, we’re going on the nighthunt because of the pressing issues!” Jin Ling finally snapped, though his courage left him almost immediately. “Uncle, I believe there is a new threat in the Jin sect and Lin Meili is going to help me find and deal with it. The nighthunt is an excuse, but only so I can see the techniques she uses. It’s complicated, uncle, please. Trust me, I’m not shirking my duties.”

Jiang Cheng made a visible effort to calm himself, his spiritual tool also dimming. “Nobody is going on a nighthunt until I know what on earth you are talking about, Jin Ling.”

“Right.” Jin Ling turned around. “We’ll go to my office, then.”

Tail: a fluffy or cozy snippet.

from the bonus Blood Cultivation series collection.

Jin Ling turned and said, “Jingyi,” and glared at him. It was less of a glare and more like he was silently asking for something. But Jingyi only understood Sizhui’s silent communication. He had no idea what Jin Ling wanted from him.

When no words arrived to help translate the silence, Jingyi rolled his eyes. “What?”

“Hug me.”

Jingyi blinked. “What.”

Jin Ling didn’t look away or fiddle with his robes. “Senior Wei said you give really good hugs. I’m tired, I’m stressed, and you don’t want to hear me complain anymore, so give me a hug. Please.”

There was a teasing remark on the tip of his tongue but Jingyi swallowed it when Sizhui looked at him meaningfully. That was a silent sentence he could understand. So, he just shifted closer to Jin Ling and hugged him. His friend positively melted in the embrace, which honestly worried Jingyi a little, and this whole Jin-Ling-being-aware-and-accepting-of-his-own-emotions thing was already pretty weird. Feeling him so relaxed against him made Jingyi both concerned and fond. He tightened his arms when Jin Ling pressed his face closer to his chest, making a sound that might have been contented, might have been a sob. Jingyi really didn’t want to ask which one it was.

Sizhui started to stroke Jin Ling’s hair from the other side. “Are you alright, A-Ling?”

“No.” The muffled sound was petulant, much more Jin Ling sounding. Jingyi’s relief swooped up from his heart and exploded in his eyes. He blinked rapidly to clear them. There was no need to get so emotional over Jin Ling being emotional. Sizhui then pat his hair too and it was Jingyi’s turn to melt.

“We’re here for you,” he promised into Jin Ling’s shoulder, pretty sure that this moment had become less about whether their relatives were getting along and more about the three of them being together and willing to listen to each other and apparently, give good hugs.

“I want our family to be happy,” Jin Ling mumbled. “I think most of us are most of the time, maybe, but I can’t always tell, and sometimes it feels like one of us goes just a little too far and there’s a dark edge to everything. If we push into that we get lost and it takes a while to come out and I wish it would go away. I want uncle to smile and my other uncle to smile and I want you two to smile and Senior Lin and everybody. I wish we could just talk at dinner without it either going dark or getting cryptic. Can’t anybody have a happy conversation that doesn’t include thinly veiled insults?”

we made it! @another-white-void I'm tagging you because some of this is wuxia-y.

thanks for asking, Trouble >;(

#sleepy answers #excerpt asks #ff: blood series #ff: the sounds in silence #ff: meta portal #ff: stars find their constellation

4 notes · View notes

secretsofthestorymakers · 1 year ago

Text

Ok, last post about Wish for now, I promise! A few years ago, I was writing a lot of short-ish analyses on various Disney Movies, and I remember I actually wrote one for Wish based only on the song This Wish! So I thought it would be fun to go through my analyses from over a year ago and see how correct I was now that I’ve actually seen the movie…

The black text is all direct quotes from what I wrote over a year ago. The purple is my comments on it now.

09/12/22

Considering that it is over a year until this movie comes out (the current date is 9/12/22), I am fully aware how ridiculous it is that I’m already writing an analysis on it. The main character, Asha, appears to be princess-like, although she may not be actual royalty. (I personally think she isn’t royal or high-ranking at all, since I think that will work better with the story and themes). That is actually true, although I still think she is Disney Princess coded. When I listened to More for Us (This was the original title for This Wish) the other day, I was literally crying, and that is with it out of context. It is a beautiful song that combines the simple magic of The Golden Age with the power of the universal truths and complex themes of The Revival Era. It is a perfect I-want song, and showcases Disney at its heart as a beautiful celebration for its 100th anniversary.

09/13/22

I finally found the lyrics to More for Us! (This Wish) Now that I have the lyrics, I can analyze the song properly. Also, after reading the lyrics, I’ve changed my mind about what I think the themes will be and where the story will go. Seriously, by giving us the I-want song, Disney gave us the most valuable single piece of information they could give. I have a LOT to say about these lyrics. Who is “us”? Now, I’m thinking that either she is part of a minority group in her kingdom, ehhhh, that is not true or that this is kind of a kingdom where the rulers (presumably the people who live in the tall palace-like building on the left side of the concept art) control/harm the people in some way. That was spot on. Knowing Disney, I would assume the first option, but the way she says “open their eyes to all lies” implies some sort of combination of the two options. I’m thinking that themes could be something like, action, making choices, standing up, etc. I will stand by those themes, in a way. They certainly aren't the only ones, but they are definitely present (think “if not us, then who and when” from Knowing What I Know Now. I would also say a theme is how knowing the truth can change your perspective. And a bit about willful ignorance in the way that the people unquestioningly gave their wishes to Magnifico because it was easier than trying to pursue them themselves. It appears that Asha is on the edge of something when she sings this. She’s had some sort of realization that sets her apart from everyone else in her world, but she hasn’t taken the step to act on it yet (“I’m past dipping my toes in, but not past diving in”). By challenging Magnifico and learning about the wishes, she’s gone too far to go back to her life just as it was, but she hasn’t made a decision on how to act on this yet, but she knows she needs to. By the end of the song, she has made her decision to act on her realization/feelings. Mhhhmmm not quite. I think she knows she needs to act already when she starts singing, she just doesn't know how. And that’s what Star shows her. She gains strength and confidence throughout the song. It acts as an I-want and a catalyst, as most of the recent I-want songs do. Yeah, that is definitely true. I find it interesting that the I-want itself was the catalyst, but I love it. It feels very Disney. Asha says “the way you always taught me to.” Who is “you”? My guess would be some sort of (likely dead) mentor figure like a parent or grandparent. Yeah, Disney’s pretty predictable with the dead parents. It does make sense story wise though. Whether this is the case or not, whoever “you” is has clearly had a significant impact on Asha, her personality, her values, and how she views the world. They will be an important part of the story, even if they’ve died before the movie begins. Her father was actually mentioned directly less than I predicted, but I still think that what he taught her about the stars’ guidance stuck with her and is the reason she wished on one to begin with. So in a way, her dad did have a big impact on the story, just in a less obvious way. And he definitely affected how Asha views the world and how she chooses to respond to what she learned while in the palace.

#Disney #disney 100 #wish #wish spoilers #wish analysis

3 notes · View notes

uneducated-author · 2 years ago

Note

I know I said I wouldn't talk about it, but since you're wondering, yes the god-like character Dazai came into contact with but didn't nullify is Sigma. The theory I alluded to was that Sigma wasn't just created from the book, but is The Book itself in human form.

[https://www.tumblr.com/vampireonastick/694131792916152320/what-if-sigma-is-the-book?source=share] (The theory is almost a year old but nothing as of yet confirms or denies it)

It does have backing like Sigma being written directly into The Book rather than from a page and that the Decay couldn't have been the ones who created him because him going years being trafficked would have made little sense— especially when they could have written him as perfectly obedient to the ideology of the Decay and wrote him where they could easily locate him.

[https://www.tumblr.com/dazaistabletop/683826086154567680/guildsarchitect-ok-heres-the-sigma-post?source=share]

So if we take this theory and the fact that Dazai danced with Sigma and very much made contact with him but Sigma didn't go poof, we can say that The Book isn't an ability of someone because if it was, touching a creation of that ability would've caused it to cease to be (Like Q's doll). Also, by virtue of it still having anomalous powers of writing and rewriting reality, it's not normal. The Book is said to have every possible outcome that could ever happen that branches off in its own universe (If I remember correctly this is said in BEAST? I have not read nor have interest in reading BEAST so take that with a grain of salt) and something like that is obviously god-like just by existing.

There is also the theory that Dazai's dance with Sigma had an ulterior motive for which I will quote one of the two reasons why:

“2. Dazai wanted to touch Sigma because he wanted to use his nullification ability on him. Knowing Sigma is a product of The Book, seeing if Dazai’s ability has any effect on him could be beneficial to Dazai, especially if he is thinking of using The Book himself in the future.”

As far as I'm aware, the BEAST universe exists because Dazai got his hands on The Book and if Sigma is The Book, well... it's no wonder Dazai of all people got his hands on it if it's that close by. [https://www.tumblr.com/vampireonastick/694165005381287936/im-wondering-if-dazai-had-ulterior-motives-when?source=share]

For my last two points, I want to reiterate about Atsushi being the key to finding The Book as what this whole thing was about since the very beginning. In the Skyfall chapters, when Sigma is about to plummet to what would have been his death, Atsushi grabs him and tries to save him. Not just because they need the page and Sigma is the only one of the Decay they have access to that can give them that information, but because Atsushi empathized with Sigma about how the latter didn't know what his purpose in life was and Atsushi didn't want him to die like that. Sigma freely gave that information to Atsushi rather than take it to the grave (or really just never give it to him since Nikolai saved him) because he was touched by Atsushi's kindness.

When it was said that Atsushi was the key to obtaining The Book— if Sigma is The Book— then at that moment right there we see why. Not only that but, Sigma is similar enough personality wise that Dazai himself literally remarks that Sigma is similar to Atsushi.

So yeah, Sigma might be The Book but it hasn't been confirmed or denied yet but if he is, then he's a god-like being rather than simply an ability user created from The Book with this supported by Dazai's ability not making him go poof and the only other straight up God that Dazai came into direct contact with is Lovecraft because Atsushi's ability, whether a God or not, is still an ability and not immune.

Very interesting! Definitely makes the rampant Atsushi Sigma parallels and comparisons make a lot more sense. I thought Dazai dancing with Sigma was more a manipulation tactic to bring him over to the side of the ADA, but checking if he would discorporate is way more interesting (and low-key horrifying). I love the potential of Sigma joining the ADA as a manifestation of a literal reality altering artefact, and being the LEAST weird person there.

I had assumed then, like how Dazai doesn't disappear the dolls from Q's ability, just their power, he would merely strip Sigma's ability, but now I'm interested in how Dazai would interact with the Sky Casino. He seems (or maybe pretends) to be surprised at the revelation that Sigma and the Casino are written from the book 'can you even call that human?' and I wonder if a secondary part of him motivation for being is Meursalt is because at the time he was unsure on how the Casino would interact with him. It's also interesting that the book has had no real affect on him like it has with the detective agency. They have been posited in the position of killers, made to be suspected criminals with the mind manipulation of law enforcement, but Dazai, partially because he removed himself from the equation, has not yet taken any action under the control of the book.

I love the point you raised about Atsushi being the one to find the book, and how the 'Sigma is the book theory' opens up so many interesting plot points, as well as means that there are such different interpretations of other scenes.

Sigma's repeated self reference to himself as 'an ordinary person' then takes on a whole new light, especially if he's unaware of his... Not quite heritage, but reality. It would also make his working under the decay of angels an incredibly interesting sort of plot point.

Oh and thanks for the link to the fifteen translation. My exams just finished a few days ago, so I should have time to read it! I fear I shall become infuriatingly annoying to my friends as I overanalyse every written word 😅

#bungou stray dogs #bsd dazai #bsd atsushi #bsd sigma #thank you so much for all the fascinating theories you're explaining genuinely #you're completely incredible

2 notes · View notes

realinspirations · 1 month ago

Text

The Road to Wealth: Lessons from My Financial Freedom Journey

Achieving financial freedom is a dream shared by many, but the journey toward it's miles as precise as the individuals pursuing it. For me, financial freedom became no longer merely approximately collecting wealth but about creating a life wherein money turned into not a regular supply of pressure. This is the tale of the way I navigated challenges, found out treasured training, and ultimately carried out an experience of monetary independence.

Financial Freedom My Journey

The Early Struggles

I grew up in a middle-class family wherein money became frequently a subject of situation. My mother and father labored tirelessly to offer us, but discussions approximately bills, debt, and constrained savings had been a normal part of our lives. This environment instilled in me a strong experience of monetary obligation but additionally a fear of economic lack of confidence.

When I commenced my first job after college, I was thrilled to receive my first paycheck. However, my exhilaration quickly waned as I found out how a lot of my earnings became fed on with the aid of pupil loans, rent, and basic living costs. I was residing paycheck to paycheck, with little room for savings or investment. It felt like a vicious cycle, and I knew I had to break free.

The Turning Point

The turning point came in the course of communication with a mentor. They added me to the concept of financial freedom, emphasizing the significance of living underneath your method, saving aggressively, and making an investment wisely. This communication becomes an eye-opener. I found out that monetary freedom was no longer approximately how a great deal cash you made but how successfully you managed it.

Determined to trade my instances, I started out instructing myself about non-public finance. I wrote books, listened to podcasts, and followed blogs that focused on budgeting, saving, and making an investment. I was particularly stimulated by the tales of folks who had completed financial independence through constant effort and subject.

Building a Solid Foundation

The first step in my journey changed to developing a price range. I began monitoring my earnings and prices to identify regions in which I ought to cut returned. It became humbling to look at how much I spend on non-essentials like eating out and entertainment. By making small modifications, together with cooking at home and canceling unused subscriptions, I changed into capable of freeing up a good sized part of my earnings for financial savings.

Next, I tackled my debt. Using the snowball technique, I targeted paying off my smallest debts first while making minimum payments on the larger ones. Each time I paid off a debt, I felt a sense of accomplishment, which motivated me to keep going.

Learning to Invest

Once I had a handle on my costs and debt, I grew to pay attention to making an investment. At first, the arena of shares, bonds, and mutual funds felt overwhelming. However, I quickly found out that I didn’t need to be a professional to begin making an investment; I simply had to start.

I opened a retirement account and started contributing a portion of my profits. I also explored low-fee index finances, which offered diversification and lower risks as compared to character stocks. Over time, as I learned more about investing, I became greater cushty making choices about my portfolio.

Adopting a Growth Mindset

Throughout this journey, I cultivated a boom mindset. I understood that achieving financial freedom might take time and that setbacks were part of the method. I embraced the concept that each financial choice I made—whether or not big or small—became a step closer to my larger purpose.

One of the most sizeable classes I learned was the significance of continuous learning. The economic landscape is constantly evolving, and staying knowledgeable is important. I attended workshops, sought recommendations from economic planners, and kept up with marketplace developments.

Side Hustles and Diversified Income

Another key factor of my journey turned to diversifying my income streams. While my full-time task supplied stability, I found out the significance of getting multiple assets of income. I explored freelance possibilities, started a small online enterprise, and even monetized some of my pastimes.

These facet hustles no longer most effectively furnished additional profits however also gave me a sense of security. Knowing that I wasn’t completely dependent on my number one job for financial stability turned into empowering.

Embracing Minimalism

As I labored towards economic freedom, I started out reevaluating my dating with material possessions. I realized that a number of the matters I had gathered over time no longer added to my life. Embracing minimalism helped me focus on what definitely mattered.

By simplifying my way of life, I become capable of storing extra and reducing the mental litter related to excess possessions. This shift in mindset additionally strengthened my dedication to dwelling deliberately and aligning my spending with my values.

Reaching Milestones

Over time, my efforts started out to pay off. I constructed an emergency fund, paid off my scholar loans, and watched my investments grow. Each milestone delivered me toward my aim of economic freedom.

One of the maximum rewarding moments became being capable of providing again. With my price range in order, I had the potential to aid causes I cared approximately and assist friends and circle of relatives in want. This feel of reason delivered a new dimension to my adventure.

The Role of Discipline and Patience

Achieving economic freedom required a terrific deal of area and patience. There were times after I became tempted to splurge or take shortcuts, but I reminded myself of the larger photo. I learned to put off gratification and make selections that aligned with my long-term dreams.

I additionally found out the significance of celebrating small victories along the way. Whether it turned into hitting a financial savings goal or earning passive earnings from investments, these moments of development stored me encouraged.

A Life of Freedom and Fulfillment

Today, I can expectantly say that I have finished a level of economic freedom that permits me to stay lifestyles on my phrases. I have the power to pursue passions, journey, and spend time with loved ones without annoying approximately money.

While the journey wasn’t constantly clean, it turned into undoubtedly really worth it. The lessons I found along the way have not only advanced my monetary well-being but also enriched my lifestyle in countless different ways.

Final Thoughts

Financial freedom is not a vacation spot but a non-stop adventure. It calls for patience, adaptability, and a willingness to study. For absolutely everyone embarking on this route, my recommendation is to start where you are, set clear goals, and stay devoted.

Remember, economic freedom is not about the quantity of cash you have but the selections it permits you to make. It’s approximately growing an existence in which you may cognizance of what definitely subjects, unfastened from the limitations of economic stress.

My journey to monetary freedom has been transformative, and I desire my tale to inspire others to take charge of their budget and embark on their very own paths to independence.

#Financial Freedom My Journey

0 notes