#editing isn't quite up to standard but whatever

[2btheanswertothequestion]

“I’m not calling for El.”

Jonathan, just drawing breath to shout El’s name, pauses. Puts the receiver back to his ear with his brow furrowed.

“You’re not?” he asks.

“Nope,” Max says on the other end. There’s movement where she is, rustling and footsteps, and her television is playing what sounds like a car commercial. She lowers the volume before he can catch for which car. “I wanna talk to you. Will said you have a skateboard?”

“I do.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

Jonathan puts the pile of mail, and the butter knife he was opening it with, on the table and slouches against the wall. He does know how to use it, or at least he did. It’s been years since last. Once he started working, there’s wasn’t any time to squeeze in skating for fun between homework and chores. Once he got his driving license, there wasn’t any point in using it for transportation either. But before that, the skateboard saw more wear than the soles of his shoes did.

“Yeah, I do,” he says, because though it’s been years he still knows how, right? It’s like swimming or riding a bike. Once you know, you know.

“Great. Then I have a favor to ask.” She breathes deeply over the line. “Mom doesn't want me out on my own. Because of my eyes and my legs. So, could you, like, help me out?”

––  –– –– –– –– –– –– –– –– ––

The area by the Mayfield trailer isn’t great for skating, with the cracked pavement and the seemingly permanent layer of gravel, and every other area that isn’t actually designated for skating but so used anyway is bound to have other people there. It’s because of that, he guesses, Max tells him to meet her by a little cul-de-sac south of the park. He arrives thirty minutes early to test the road and his rusty skills. Perhaps simply skating there would have been enough to refresh his muscle memory, but why take the chance?

It’s a nice area. The asphalt is even and the lawns are mowed. A few houses have fruit trees in their yards, and every window has the kind of curtain retirees like. A dog, small by the sound of it, yaps from inside one of the houses at one point, but calms quickly. After that, the only noise is the wind and his squeaky wheels.

He was right – it is just like riding a bike. It’s not as smooth as once upon a time, and he can’t go as fast, but he never eats shit. He even nails a kickturn and a tic tac on his first try, and a basic ollie on his second. By the time the Beemer turns up, he’s back to 100% confident in his abilities.

Max jumps out of the car, and for a moment it’s like nothing happened. Her spine is straight and her head is level. Her bright hair is loose and she’s wearing a yellow T-shirt.

Then she looks toward him, and her eyes are just a little unfocused. She walks and her movements are a tad too stiff. It’s impossible to forget the fact that she turned her back on death twice.

While she retrieves her skateboard and crutches from the backseat, Steve rolls down his window and beckons for Jonathan to come closer. He doesn’t have much to say apart from “Hey, man” and “I’ll be back in two hours” and, after leaning in close to whisper, “she won’t admit it, but she gets tired after standing for twenty minutes, so make sure she takes breaks”.

Jonathan promises with a nod and then the BMW drives off.

The first thing she asks is if he brought his board. He replies “yes”. Then she wants to know if he still remembers how to skate. “Yes” again. She nods, pushes a long tress out of her face, and drops her own board onto the road. The crutches, just a precaution according to her, are left lying on the sidewalk as she steps on the board.

When he asks how she wants to do this, she admits she hasn’t ridden in months – only balanced in her room, by her bed – and needs to figure out the basics again. So they start with pushing and stopping. 

He leaves his board behind for it, opting to run next to her as she rides. It’s slow-moving at first, with lots of stops and starts. She wobbles but never falls, the one close-call when she veers too close to the curb and almost crashes aborted by Jonathan grabbing and steadying her. After thanking him she points out it might be a good thing for her to fall, and that he should let her.

He says he’ll consider it if she wears a helmet. She rolls her eyes and makes sure to ride farther from the curb on her next try.

Twenty minutes in he suggests a break, which she manages to delay for an additional five minutes before sitting down to drink some water and eat a banana. Above, the sky turns a shade grayer. She’s unconcerned when he lets her know, instead throwing herself back on the board. The uncertainty from before has all but evaporated off her.

She attempts tricks. Riding switch is easy for her, as is the kickturn and manual. The nose stall is harder since she can’t see when it’s time to shift her weight and balance. They solve the issue by having Jonathan stand on the curb and talk, letting her hear how far away she is. A few dozen or so tries in, she’s memorized the distance and succeeds without him. Cackling, she raises her hand for a high-five; he obliges.

By their second break, Max is almost smiling too wide to drink from her water bottle. Buzzing with excitement, she wants to continue immediately, but he puts his foot down because, happy or not, she’s exhausted. The corners of her eyes droop and despite the high temperature she shivers, goosebumps erupting across her bare arms. She still waves him off when he offers her his jacket.

At least until it starts to rain.

It’s nothing major, just a late summer drizzle. But it might become more, so he’s grateful when she huddles underneath the dark denim, resting it on top of her head to keep her arms free. And then they simply listen.

The clouds keep rolling in, the sky growing darker each second. Both it and the wet pavement are slate gray now, but the leaves are vivid green and the air smells like warmth and earth. Max’s head drifts back and forth, seeking the sounds, zeroing in on the heaviest droplets as they hit the asphalt. His too-big jacket hangs like a curtain around her, shielding her from rain and darkness alike. 

Actually, no. Just the rain. She wards off the darkness on her own. Her sunshine-yellow shirt, her flame-orange hair, her smoke-white skin, so pale it’s almost translucent, the veins running fluorescent on the insides of her wrists. 

She’s glowing like a candle.

“Thanks,” she says. “For being my eyes today.”

“No problem. Thanks for making me finally use this again.” He kicks at his board, the wheels spinning slowly.

“I want to skate at the park or the lot later. When I’m ready.”

“Sure. I’ll be there.”

Max nods, a small smile on her face. Untangling her crossed legs, she pulls them to her chest to rest her chin on her knees.

“Have you heard what Dustin’s been researching?”

“No, what?”

“Well. He has a theory,” she says, and Jonathan actually snorts at her imitation, both expression and cadence a perfect copy of Dustin’s, “on human echolocation.”

Jonathan draws a breath. “Human… echolocation.”

“He thinks that, by studying echoes or whatever, I can learn where things are by snapping my fingers, or doing this,” she says and clicks her tongue. “So, I guess that’s a backup in case that doctor won’t make it work with the surgery.”

“How’s it going with that?”

“I dunno. They’re ‘figuring it out’.” Max makes a face that tells exactly what she thinks of that. “Guess, right now, Dustin Henderson is my best bet.”

She shrugs, her lips curving into a smile’s likeness. The lines around her mouth and shadows by her eyes make her appear both impossibly old and unbearably young. She sniffles, which might be due to the cold, might be something else.

Jonathan says, “His success-to-failure ratio is in your favor.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she says, now smiling for real again.

Anything else they might have to say is cut short by the appearance of Steve’s BMW. It hasn’t been two hours yet, not even one and a half, but the rain is starting to come down harder, so they stow away the items in the trunk to make space for Jonathan and drive off.

The Beemer smells like pine and expensive leather. Steve has the heat on high and the stereo low, and together with the rain smattering on the windows, it creates an ambiance one could fall asleep to. Jonathan sinks into the backseat, draping his jacket over his legs for the sake of the seats, although he’s pretty sure they’ve been through worse things than rainwater. In the front, Max’s pointer finger squeaks against the misted-over window, and as Freddie Mercury sings about losing his way in the darkness, she draws perfect flowers and suns despite not being able to see them.

[inkpotsprite]

I came up with this AU a while back - probably a few months after I stumbled into this fandom - and it's been bouncing around in my head for a while. (Excuse the scatterbrained nature of this post, I'm just writing my thoughts as they come)

Tim Drake meets Peter Pan (OUAT edition)

I mean, he's the perfect candidate for a lost boy. Neglected, lonely and will probably become scarily loyal to the first person who offers him a way out of that. Not to mention, he's smart, has loose morals (I mean, he did stalk and blackmail Batman) and can be a little ruthless at times, he'd be Peter's right hand man in no time.

So, he lives as a lost boy for a while, but finds Peter's ways of doing things too dark or cruel and, being the baby genius he is, escaped from Neverland, back to Gotham.

But also, we could combine this concept with the Tim joins the family early trope. Like, he goes to Neverland a couple of times, but also starts connecting with the Waynes, so that could be part of the reason he's able to let go of that loyalty to Peter, because he's got something better waiting for him. He never tells the Wayne's about his time in Neverland, worrying that they'll see him differently due to the morally grey things he did there as Peter's right hand man. Tim deals with quite a bit of imposter syndrome and insecurity, but ultimately, he's more happy than not.

Then, a few years later, Damian comes in and is all, well, Damian about things which makes things take a bad turn for Tim. The family is bad at balance/communication and Tim "Abandonment Issues" Drake is a very unreliable narrator at times, so it's angst galore. Then Peter turns up again.

Tim goes with him to Neverland, this time with the intention of staying forever.

Or, we could go another route and look into Damian, a kid whose whole life had been uprooted as he's sent to live with a father he's never met and with a family with vastly different dynamics to what he's used to. He's not neglected, but he's certainly lonely. Especially when being held up to expectations and moral standards that he finds impossible to comprehend after being raised by Talia and Ra's.

So Peter comes back, but he takes Damian instead, as a way to lure Tim back to Neverland. And, even if he doesn't like Damian much right now, of course Tim will go after him because that's his little brother and no way in hell is he letting Peter take him.

We could even sprinkle in a little backstory about Peter knowing Bruce from when Bruce was a kid, after his parents died. Now, two of Bruce's sons are missing and he has to find a way to Neverland.

That's where Jason comes in. Jason Todd, the ultimate lost boy who never was. Not for lack of trying. Peter's shadow swooped down to get him when he was living on the streets, but Jay isn't some naive kid, he's a Gothamite, a Crime Alley kid and he knows that if someone - even that someone is a creepy shadow person - grabs you and tries to get you to a secondary location, you fucking fight it with all you have. So, Jason never makes it to Neverland. Instead, he fights so hard that the shadow drops him, right onto Captain Hook - Killian Jones' - ship. They bond, Killian teaches Jason the ropes, but Jason ultimately decides to go back to Gotham for whatever reason (maybe Killian messes up or Jason's trust issues get the better of him) and he leaves.

We could also play around with parallels between Bruce and Peter. Both taking in lost, lonely kids that no one else wants, having them fight battles, Peter could even hit Bruce with that 'at least my boys will never die' as if forcing them to live forever in eternal stagnation is so much better.

While in Neverland together, Tim and Damian start to bond over their feelings of never truly belonging anywhere. That they'll be forever defined by what they did over who they are. As they grow closer, Tim reassures Damian that he will always belong with him, to give him the chance to prove it.

Meanwhile, Bruce, Dick and Jason are on their way to Neverland. And Peter is ready to start playing the game.

... And that's all I've got so far.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Anonymous asked:

[ask edited for length and content]

Egodeath/Jealous Anon. Thank you. I feel better after your response. I wanted to clarify two things, just if you want more context: With the similarities, I think I'm afraid that if I do get published, my books will be instantly rejected because people think it's just another copycat. I've seen people instantly reject a book just because it was similar to one that's already popular. I put so much effort into making sure my ideas are my own, it would really hurt if readers thought the work was copied and not my own.

You are deeply overthinking things here.

If you want to be a published writer, you need to reconcile yourself with the fact that everyone isn't going to love your books. And that's fine, because no one has EVER written a book that was universally loved 100% across the board. No one. Ever. In history. Every single book ever written has its critics. Every single author whose ever put pen to paper has people who don't like them. This is just a reality.

If some people don't like your books because they're similar to another book they read, that has nothing to do with you. That's their prerogative. Other people might dislike your books because they're not similar enough to another book they read. It's pointless to worry about it because you will never please everyone. Why people don't like your book is none of your concern.

I guess with ACOTAR it was just too many specific things. The character design and role of Rhysand. The telepathy between the love interests. There was a whole lot more but I put it down so long ago I've forgotten most now - but at some point it just felt like reading my own notes when I opened one of those books. The worst was when a fictional name I made up was used in that book - and given it's popularity I 'd probably have copyright issues if I tried to keep it in my work anyway. I think that was just the last straw to make me quit the series.

It happens, and it's honestly not as big a deal as it feels like it is now. Again, ideas don't come from nowhere. As much as you strive to make sure your ideas are your own, our "creative wells" are all filled from the same places, and human experience is only so varied, so the odds of multiple people coming up with the same things over and over are actually pretty likely. You're holding yourself up to impossible standards by expecting yourself to create stories that are wholly original and share no similarities with any other story.

Let me share a few times when this has happened to me in hopes it will help you see it's not that big a deal...

A few years after I wrote my first novella (which was not yet published at that time), I saw a commercial for a new TV show. The background concept, setting, and many surface details were pretty identical to my novella, but what KILLED me is one of the main characters had the same name and nickname as my protagonist... and they weren't even that common a name/nickname for that time period. I was sick... absolutely sick. It completely derailed my plans to flesh the story out into a full novel and publish it. Now, YEARS later, I just laugh when I think about it because the things that felt like glaring similarities now are nothing. The plot and conflict of the TV show are completely different from my novella. In the intervening years, I've come across countless other stories with the same background concept, same setting, same surface details, similar characters... and all of those shows, movies, stories, books, video games, comics, graphic novels, plays--whatever--have people who adore them and DGAF about any similarities to some random TV show.

Less than two years after my debut novel was published, I was reading a newly released book and was absolutely floored by the number of similarities. Two less common names, two unusual titles used in a similar way, and three unusual descriptive words used in the same way. Plus, 24 bigger similarities like setting similarities, plot point similarities, situational similarities... Were it not highly unlikely that the author had read my book, and had it not been for the short amount of time between my book and their book, it would have been tempting to think they'd intentionally copied me, because the similarities were just that glaring. But the reality is, we're just two writers who think alike, and in the years since, I've found a few other writers with whom I constantly have these kinds of similarities. They happen, and they feel world-ending at the time, but I promise you they're not as big a deal as your brain is making them into.

So, seriously, stop worrying about it. Similarities are going to happen, and they're going to be glaring sometimes, and there's nothing you can do about it. There's absolutely no way you can write a book that has not a single similarity with an existing story, and even if you could, that's not going to mean you'll write a book that will be universally loved 100% by everyone. People are going to dislike your book no matter what you do, and some of those people may see similarities between apples and oranges. There's nothing you can do about it. You're not writing for them anyway. You're writing for the people who are going to LOVE your book, and that will be the majority, similarities or not. ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Moving right along. Episode 5

Sad guy is sad and is hallucinating the weirdo.

wait what happened with the teacher and the voice that I assumed was the rival? did I miss something. Did they? oh well

Ok what was that? was that suppose to have come out of his mouth? Cause his mouth didn't move. not even a little. But it seems like what comes after is a continuation.

ok. weirdo apologized but that doesn't seem to help. this is some very weak conflict even by bl standards.

sad boys montage. And I'm not an expert but this song is really not doing it for me. it's not good. Seriously, not even the music? I am in pain.

The guy is sick. Of course weirdo found the guy's house and shows up. At least he brought food. And of course he just walks in.

Ok. I haven't mentioned until now but what is it with this lip tint? It was obviously put in post and it does not look good.

Obligatory messy eater moment. So of course he needs to be fed. And hugged. Did they just make up?

Rival in the house. And he also brought porridge. This isn't awkward at all.

Great moment for weirdo to confess and then run away. And it's the rival's turn. The guy is popular today.

oh the guy thinks he's bad luck for other people. that's sad.

He needs to choose. He chooses weirdo. Every pot or whatever it is.

Ok this time weirdo asks for the kiss. This is improvement.

Episode 6 - oh it's the last one. let's get it over with.

flashback time. I literally just saw this.it's been 10 seconds.

Ok, that was a good kiss. And a long one for kbl.

We're back at the weirdly lit coffee shop. Oh wait I recognize this dude. Isn't he from a strongberry short? which one? I need to look this up later.

Ok. the guy got the job at the coffee shop.that cake looks good. is that cheesecake? it looks like it. like blueberry cheesecake. and now I want blueberries. preferably on top of cheesecake.

More kisses and the sound effects are back. also the silent comedy music. How much longer? wait is the weirdo also working there?

OMG. WHAT WAS THAT VOICE? THIS WAS THE CRINGE TO END ALL CRINGE. Ok, it turns out that they are both weirdos and they are perfect together. I'm sorry but this bit of dialogue needs to be shared.

the guy : today was tough huh? the weirdo: It's very different from when I was a costumer.

Was it? that's so weird. It's just going from one side of the counter to the other. I mean how different can it really be. 🤦‍♀️

Oh the kbl classic. Boy sleeps on table with one hand under his head and arm stretched.

Another good kiss. oh he was just helping his boyfriend but now he got the job.

Hug from behind my beloved.

They're missing an ingredient and one of them has to go get it. I'm having MODC flashbacks.

of course weirdo wouldn't let him go alone.

What's with the sudden tension, is that the rival? can't be.

AND THAT'S WHERE IT ENDS???? WTF? Is that it? ok, then...

Final thoughts

Strongberry we need to talk. I forgave that whole 20 minute short split in 3 parts. Mostly because those 20 minutes were at least well shot and well acted. And because we've been together for quite a few of these and there was a certain level of trust between us. I'm afraid going forward that will no longer be the case. Of course I'll keep my eyes open and if you decide to drop by I still wanna see you, but it's not the same. I have been burned too many times in this bl world and sadly I need to protect myself from future disappointment. So consider this an adjustment of expectations. I'm getting really good at these so don't worry about me. I'll be fine. I wish you well on all your future endeavours.

If anyone has made it through all that, I thank you. posting these made the whole experience a bit better. also I did not spellcheck or look over anything so sorry if there are mistakes. 💜💜💜

Edit: previous posts in the series if anyone is interested. E1 E2 E3&4

[lollytea]

thinking about your actor au ... thinking about Hunter not being allowed to be his natural healthy body weight. thinking about his scars getting covered with make-up. thinking about the gap in his teeth getting edited away whenever possible. thinking about Amity having to appear Perfect at all times. thinking about Luz and Willow probably getting their hair straightened before filming. thinking about all of them getting dressed a certain way for Marketability. THINKING. VERY HARD.

You are so me. I'm always thinking. Always.

Willow didn't even know Hunter had scars until after knowing him for MONTHS because whenever she saw him he was always caked in makeup. Nobody ever noticed when he got a new one.

Hunter wears a dental flipper. Which is basically just a set of false upper teeth that he clips in over his real ones.

Amity is under heaps of stress to perform well in school, to keep up with her acting classes, to stay on top of work, to never appear as tired or overwhelmed, to keep her reputation squeaky.

You read my mind about the hair!! They DO straighten it!! Luz isn't an actor but just like in canon, she fries it to fit in better. All the characters she admires on TV have straight hair.

And I'm so sorry to give this bit of info about Willow but...early on in this AU, she really does not like the way she looks. At all. She's very insecure about it. Tons of young girls fall victim to an inferiority complex from the conventional Hollywood beauty standard but also. It is so SO much worse if you're an actress. And you constantly feel out of place. So Willow allows her big poofy curly hair to be straightened. Braided. Tied back. Whatever they feel like they need to do to make her more palatable to their audience. She's such a doormat before she meets Luz.

They ARE dressed a certain way. Modest. Colourful. Flashy and child friendly. An insane amount of layers and chunky accessories.

But Willow is very aware that the people in wardrobe are way more enthusiastic to dress Amity than her. They dress the two girls distinctly differently. Both aren't allowed to show too much skin but she can't help but notice that sometimes Amity gets to wear tank tops. Or skirts without leggings. But never Willow. It seems like Willow always has to be covered.

She doesn't want to show her bare arms. Or bare legs. She really really really doesn't. So she should be relieved they don't make her, right?

Well....its complicated. Because even if she does not want to dress like Amity at all, it really does reinforce her inkling suspicion. There is something wrong with the way she looks and people want to keep her covered. It's hurts. It hurts quite a lot.

THINKING THINKING THINKING THINKING

[genericpuff]

Hello I’ve had this on my mind for awhile. How much of the plot is Rachel’s doing? What I mean is that we all agree that the canvas series was written better. So how much of the original is actually written by RS and how much by webtoon? RS said it herself that she didn’t think the comic would be longer than 40 episodes. What are your thoughts?

There have been AMA's in the past from Webtoons Originals creators where people have asked those questions, and many other statements from creators on Twitter basically verify everything that's been said in these AMA's (or at least pretty close). I don't know what Rachel's situation is specifically, but Webtoons really doesn't exert as much control over the final product as, say, traditional markets do.

Like, in the book publishing market, if you want to work with a publisher, that means you have to submit a manuscript to publishers until one accepts you. Then they'll typically assign you an editor who will go through your book and help make it into the best version it can be before it gets put on shelves. While they'll try to work as best to your original vision as possible - as your original vision is what they accepted in the manuscript stage - they'll still be holding certain expectations over their authors because they don't want to release a book that's crap. They want to ensure the book that releases is good enough to make money, because if it makes money, that benefits both the publishing house and the writer. If the writer refuses to work with the editor - whether due to the publisher not acting in the writer's best interests or the writer being too stubborn to allow change - then the publishing house and writer may decide to go separate ways as the publishing house doesn't want to sell a book that isn't up to their standards.

Webtoons, on the other hand, does not operate this way. The 'editors' seem to be less for the sake of quality assurance and polish and more for acting as middlemen between the creator and the company. The creators do not speak to the "higher ups", if they have questions or concerns that can only be answered by specific departments in Webtoons (ex. statistics, finances, etc.) then they have to ask those questions to their editor who will then go to the higher-ups, get the answers they can, and then relay them back to the creator. This is basically the bare minimum function of editors. Anything else they do for creators is offering helpful suggestions which, unlike in the traditional publishing industry, the creators are not obligated to listen to. The creator's only real obligation is to meet their deadlines. The editors are really just there to ensure that the creator is following Terms of Service guidelines (i.e. if the creator submits an episode that blatantly breaks those rules, the editor can tell them no) and to act as a liaison between the creator and the company.

So, knowing this, I fully believe a lot of what's happening in the comic is Rachel's own doing. That said, they could very well have a different structure with how they operate due to Lore Olympus being the #1 comic on the platform. Maybe Rachel is more obligated to listen to whatever the higher-ups say. Maybe it's in her contract that she has to include certain things for the sake of "marketability". We don't know.

What we DO know is who edits Lore Olympus. Bre Boswell.

This is where I'm gonna go on a bit of a tinfoil hat rampage, so bear with me, but take everything I'm about to say with a potentially-lethal dose of salt.

I see people bring up the editor a lot, but honestly, I don't think LO having a bad editor is the case. Bre Boswell edits a lot of series on Webtoons - and it's a well known issue that many editors are working on WAY too many series at the same time but that's a separate can of worms - but none of them are quite as blatantly awful as LO is. The Kiss Bet isn't a masterpiece, but it's just fine for what it is. Shiloh and Nevermore are both solid pieces of work with great art and great writing. Aside from that, I've spoken personally to people who know Bre and can attest that she's a great editor and a very sweet person.

But Bre wasn't always the editor of LO.

The original editor was Bekah Caden.

Bekah is no longer an editor at Webtoons. Whether it was her own choice, again, we don't know, but she does stand by the fact that Webtoons wasn't an awful company to work for during her time there, so I'd like to believe she had an overall positive experience.

Of course, Bekah has not been the sole editor of Lore Olympus since Episode 30. So while I'm sure she's speaking in good faith here, I think a lot has changed on the backend of Webtoons since she was a part of it, especially during that pandemic period when Webtoons experienced a boom in readership... only to lose a lot of it by 2022, when the company made some risky ventures in advertising and got (justifiably) called out on it, and when many creators stepped forward to talk about their negative experiences with the company (as much as they could under the weight of their NDA's). I'm not saying Bekah is lying here, more so just that clearly things have changed since she was working for the company. She hasn't been the sole editor for LO since 2018, literally two years before the plague.

Of course, that was when she was the sole editor. For a short period of time, LO actually had two editors - Bekah Caden and Annie LaHue.

Now, Bekah has worked for other publishers like Dark Horse and has calls for work, but Annie, on the other hand, seemed to have her breakout with LO, and then switched gears entirely by working for Webtoons' competitor, Tapas. Now it seems like she's stepped away from editing entirely (but she's writing a book so that's neat ! )

Anyways. Where does Bre come in to all this?

Bekah slowly phased out of editing LO, fully quitting by Episode 54 where Annie took over.

And then Annie just... disappeared.

There was no transition period like there was with Bekah. Annie was there, and then as soon as Episode 100 hit, she was gone. Bre took over as the sole editor of LO with Episode 101, and she's been the editor ever since.

So now let's talk about Bre.

Bre is the editor of Lore Olympus. She's also the editor of Down to Earth, Shiloh, Nevermore, The Kiss Bet, The Doctors Are Out, Edith, Metaphorical HER, Messenger, Matchmaker Hero, Lavender Jack, Wolfsbane, Soul on Hold, Muted, Unlucky is as Lucky does, Brass & Sass, Assassin Roommate, BOO! It's Sex, and I'm sure many more that haven't been updated on her website. She's not the only editor who's managing this many series, there are some editors who are rumored to have 30+ series on the go. That is a ridiculous amount for ONE person to have to keep track of. That's a lot of series for one person to have to read all on their own schedules, let alone manage. In Bre's case, out of that list alone, that's something like 16 separate creators to keep tabs on, communicate with and for, with series that vary wildly among genres and contractual obligations.

So yeah, Bre is a straight up badass, but something about her sudden presence in LO has always bugged me. Then it came to me, something that I believe I've mentioned here before, but will talk about again because it really is interesting food for thought to chew on.

Bre came on as the editor in March 2020. Five months after the Jim Henson purchase was announced.

And what does Bre have on her resume?

Traditional animation, with a minor in Writing for Television.

This is very tinfoil hat, don't get me wrong, so take this with MOUNTAINS of salt, but there are a LOT of things that point to LO turning out the way it did due to its TV deal. Not only did Bre come on suddenly shortly after the TV deal was announced, but that time range is when the art really started to look like what it does today - because it's where Rachel started taking on more assistants, some of whom still work on the series to this day (ex. Dnaeri, who came on as a regular assistant around Episode 74, which came out August 2019, two months before the TV deal was announced, but had likely already been signed. Dnaeri, btw, has an education in... you guessed it, Fine Arts in Animation.) Many of her assistants nowadays are people with experience in larger industries and massive portfolios featuring work far more advanced than what's being done in LO.

So while I don't think a lot of the plot threads are on Bre or the platform - I think it's genuinely just Rachel writing herself into a corner and not wanting to let go of the one project she clings to the most as her only "success" - I do think there are some creative decisions regarding the structure of the comic (like it's constant use of pointless soap opera style cliffhangers and its corporate scrubbing of the art style) that may be consequences of the comic being picked up for TV. Like how it now feels like the comic is being fluffed up with way too many plotlines, possibly in an attempt to give the TV show more to do, or how it feels like they're scrubbing and retconning all the S1 content that came from before the TV deal.

A shame if that is the case, because the TV show hasn't happened and likely isn't going to happen. It feels like such a waste of Webtoons' resources and money to sign on all these industry-class assistants and editors for a comic that's being managed by Rachel "Retcon" Smythe.

[valeriefauxnom]

Euden's Surprising Spread of Spidey Senses

So this is another of the 'things I noticed a while ago but am now properly committing to text so I don't forget everything'. Anyways, I found it funny the more I looked that Euden seemed to have a wing of general senses/ability to discern things/feelings or reactions that nobody else had, and sometimes he thought he was completely normal when they really weren't.

The earliest example I can think of offhand is chapter 13, wherein he feels drawn to the whatever ominous mana stuff that gives Ranzal the heeby jeebies.

Yes Euden I wonder why you're attracted to artificial mana that may be corrupted by black mana

As my friend joked in this scene, he's the one kid in a tv show that has to be stopped from licking whatever clearly bad object everyone else has the good sense to not touch (even if in this case, he'd be perfectly fine if the main reason it is 'dangerous' is because of black mana, being immune. Not that they knew that because since everyone hightails it as soon as it starts getting too thick so they have no idea he's not susceptible, but I digress).

Then, there's his ability as I jokingly refer to as the ability to sample and dissect dragon roars/behavior like fine wine:

Nothing like being able to tell if a dragon is hurting or sane as well as their mood based on their roars. And it's not exactly a set science or habit that can be learned with all the noises the very-varied-in-form Dragalia dragons make. I think he does this at least once or twice more, but I could be wrong.

Regardless, imagine Euden and Bahamut having a conversation where Bahamut does his standard Variations On A Roar performance and Euden's just like, 'hm, interesting. that does sound tasty'. And everyone is very confused how he got that from ROOOOAAAARR.

Then there's his sensitivities regarding other things, like his ability to tell when someone is about to shapeshift.

This is where he also tries to turn to his siblings to go, 'hey this is normal, right guys??' only to be flatly rejected.

Granted, they more suggest experience might be the cause of his talent here, but since it's ultimately speculation and up in the air and explicitly something everyone else finds weird I elected to include it. Regardless if it's natural or supernaturally developed, it's a sense nobody else has.

Even Nedrick realizes quickly that Euden's just Weird and hypersensitive to dragon-mana stuff and decided to formulate a plan around that and extend a bit of trust to his ability. Which, for Nedrick, Mr.Never Trust Anyone Ever To Do What I Need Done, is a testament to just how weird and valuable he finds the skill.

He later goes on to use his understanding of dragons and pacts to split up the power concentrated under Elysium back to their proper owners, the individual Greatwyrms.

Then, of course, is the built-in 'GPS return to sender' he has when it comes to Xenos' location and status. Quite handy he had that, or else we would immediately have gotten Dragalia 2: Electric Boogaloo wherein everyone collectively realizes Xenos isn't dead and has to assemble the gang again x years into the future. (Actually maybe it'd be better if he didn't so we could've gotten another Dragalia-)

Ahem. Anyways, this is getting long, so I'll cut it off there, but the fact that Euden was weird compared even to his family is just a thing that is passively baked into canon. And this isn't even counting his behavioral oddities that constantly leave others going ??? regarding him all the time, just his sensory ones!

And I like those little kinds of oddities very much.

Long story short regarding Euden:

Bonus round on editing:

Oh yeah, he also has a Find a Friend working ability that allowed him to track down and hear his friends across pocket dimensions. Even Mids, who has supernatural senses of his own in being able to derive 'true location', can't hear across worlds. Perhaps it's a good thing Euden didn't make too many otherwordly friends. Imagine constantly hearing friends speaking that aren't even in the same area or time of existence as you are (like Luca did that one time in the comics).

Also, it's a bit funny that even if it's a power innate to him he's still addressing it as if it's completely separate from him and asking 'it' nicely to open up portals. Nothing like Euden being unable to do something himself, but because he's asking 'himself' nicely suddenly finds the willpower to make manifest what he wants.

...Imagine if it applied to food. 'Please mysterious power my friends and I are starving, can we have some food?' and a luxury turkey dinner just pops in front of them, what he was secretly wanting and is like 'wow what a coincidence, exactly what sounded heavenly to me personally. Thanks mysterious power!'

[marshallpupfan]

Marshall Merchandise Update!

Update #37... or whatever number I'm up to now. Either way, I've got a few new items to show off today! Some new, some old, and some I didn't expect to find!

First off, this Jumbo Gummy Easter candy, from "Galerie"! I just happened to stumble upon it while helping my mother with her grocery shopping. I was in kind of a rush, so I didn't have time to check if they made any of the other pups. I have to imagine they have some of at least Chase and/or Skye. It cost $5 (a little pricey, imo).

To tell you the truth, I don't know if I want to eat this. I might try to preserve it... if possible, anyway. It wouldn't be the first editable piece of merchandise that's sitting among my collection. Probably won't be the last, either. It's a good thing my folks never bought me a Marshall cake for my birthday, otherwise I'd probably try to save that, too. 😂

Next up... this plush! I actually found it while browsing around a Goodwill for something. Before I left, I figured I'd take a quick peek at the toy section, since they tend to have a few PAW Patrol dolls from time to time. I only seen a few of Chase at first, but then out of the corner of my eye, I seen this thing, somewhat buried under a bunch of other dolls. It was only $2, so... sold! :)

Funnily enough, it's actually quite similar to another plush doll I bought a few years back, only smaller. Now that I think about it, these aren't the only dolls I own that have a bigger and little version. I wonder why they do that sometimes? Hm...

Moving on, here's yet another plush doll I found! It's by TY, unless I'm mistaken. This one was found at a flea market, although it was a tad more expensive ($5). However, what's funny is that...

...it, too has a bigger version! And a smaller one, as well (I feel like these are the most common). It's like we've got the eldest brother, the middle child, and the younger sibling. An interesting set!

I was tempted to move the bigger plush for a better side-by-side comparison, but with so many dolls around it, I figured it was best I just keep things where they're at. Otherwise, moving it might give us something akin to a Marshall wipeout, and I don't want to pick them all up from the floor right now. lol

Last, and a rather unexpected find, I must say... a Marshall "Born Brave" ceramic coffee cup! To be honest, I had no idea this even existed until I seen it on Mercari about a week ago. Despite my best efforts, I can't find any indication of where this came from, who sells it, if it belongs in a set, if they made some of the other pups... nothing!

I believe it's official, since most knock-off or home-made products don't include stuff like this on the bottom. It says it was made in 2023, so that tells me it's not too old. Have any of you seen these in stores?

In any case, it's pretty cool coffee cup! I believe it can hold 11oz, which is pretty standard for these things. The picture, itself isn't the highest of quality, but that's no biggie. I actually wouldn't mind using it, since I still drink a lot of tea (and cappuccinos... too many cappuccinos...), but I hate the thought of it getting damaged, so it's going up on my shelf for now. Maybe if I can find another one someday, then I'll use it.

...again, IF I can find another. 😅

That's all for now! I apologize for the inconsistent quality and brightness of some of the pics. I forgot to turn the flash on for the first pic, no flash made everything pink around the gummy, and the flash made the dolls look too dark so I had to adjust the brightness in Photoshop. My TracFone camera just doesn't cut it sometimes... maybe I should invest in something better someday.

[apple-salad]

Mary Magdalene Faltetto (Farutetto) Dress Unboxing + Details

2023 edition, navy (sample) and mist (2017) colorways.

Please keep reading under the cut for more detail pictures, descriptions, waxing poetic etc.

Note: This dress is commonly translated as "Farutetto", but I will be calling it Faltetto from here on as Mary Magdalene has previously translated it as such.

Other note: If the video isn't loading on my blog, you can view it on my instagram, but the quality is a lot worse and it's split into parts.

Words cannot describe how elated I am to own these two pieces, which I have had quite the history with! And, I feel incredibly lucky to have obtained not one but two pieces from Mary Magdalene's sudden update.

The mist colourway especially had been an item that I had been pining over for a long time and had always regretted backing out of paying a SS to preorder it when advance reservations for this new colourway (which later became "exclusive reservations" when MM failed to open any general reserve to the public after, and to this day) opened to attendees of a Chinese event in Guangdong, in 2017.

And the navy...I had preordered it via a Chinese SS for the Le Panier event in Shanghai in 2018 (announced to be an exclusive colourway, along with a lilac), only for it to be cancelled a year later! So I am very happy to own this sample version which is likely the same one used for the Le Panier event.

I have written a long, rambly post that goes into more detail of the history of where the Faltetto samples might have come from, + Mary Magdalene's activities that I am aware of from around 2017, so please check it out if you like.

Actual worn/coord photos will be in a separate post (or a few separate posts), but following will be some detail photos with a little bit of overlap from the video.

The bedspread I used is super wrinkly in the video and my photos, so I apologize in advance for that.

This was my first time purchasing directly from Mary Magdalene! I'm super thankful to rabbitreverie, who let me know that MM had suddenly updated their website with a message that they were planning to upload a few items the next day (or that night? I can no longer remember), with only a vague time frame given (in the evening). We both stayed up all night refreshing, and everything MM uploaded sold out in about 5 minutes (a lot of the stock was sample pieces, so only one was available, I reckon).

So as it follows, this was my first time receiving a Mary Magdalene branded box. I had the package sent to a forwarding service and asked them to keep the shipping box for this reason!

Unfortunately, the box did get super banged up not only in shipping, but also when it was consolidated, and it's quite misshapen now. Plus, the warehouse clearly opened up the box so I don't get that "freshly cracked open" experience, oh well. At least the pieces inside seemed to be untouched.

Both dresses came in a plastic garment bag with a very ordinary, flimsy plastic hanger, which was then folded into a thin non-woven dust bag, and further packaged in a "Mary Magdalene" logo branded plastic bag (without handles).

Since I'm a terrible hoarder of branded items, it was nice to get some more Mary Magdalene bags. I have just a couple that came with some coats I bought many years ago. I believe there was a point where Mary Magdalene shipped branded wooden hangers with their pieces, but no longer (I am not sure if such a thing was a special novelty for larger items like coats, or if it was commonplace back then).

Here are the hangers--at the point of photographing I had removed the dresses, so just imagine the dresses in there like the video. For whatever reason, the hangers are different, but they are both cheap plastic so it's whatever.

Only the Mist colourway came with a fabric swatch--I assume this is because it was a non-sample and was considered to be the 2017 standard release (so, this is how the dress would have shipped in 2017). One interesting thing is that both tags have the pink tag design, even though I swear I saw a red tag design on the maroon faltetto dresses from last year.

It's somewhat impressive that Mary Magdalene printed a tag for the sample pieces at all, as they really didn't need to bother (I feel like most brands don't)!

On to the dresses! I didn't take any extra photos of the two pieces side by side, so you can reference the very first photo in this post for that.

The colours are just gorgeous. I had wanted the mist for a very long time, but I'd be hard pressed to choose only one out of the two if I needed to. The mist is a lovely blue-toned gray which seems to change depending on the lighting, but the mature dark tone of the navy is also lovely!

Mary Magdalene had noted two differences between the navy sample piece and regular releases of faltetto: first, the chemical lace at the bodice is different; and second, the buttons that secure the neck ties to the bodice are different (regular release have sort of matte textured buttons that match the dress in colour, the samples have plain clear buttons). Both are minor and the construction of the piece seems to be the same as a typical release of faltetto.

I have to personally wonder if the sample pieces are handsewn by the designer (Rieko Tanaka) herself, though!

A closeup of the skirt section. One difference I've noticed between newer faltetto dresses released in 2017 and after is that the rose lace on the tier here is gathered along with the skirt. I don't think I've seen it gathered on the older faltettos (or at least, not on the other ones I own, of which their release year is technically unknown).

Hopefully this photo portrays the difference in lining. Usually faltetto uses a kind of satin textured lining, but the navy lining is a very ordinary polyester lining with a slightly cheaper feeling. It doesn't change the dress very much, but I can see the choice of material adding to the "sample" factor of the dress.

This is the back of the bodice. Part of faltetto's design appeal is the partial shirring panel at the back, which makes its sizing a lot more forgiving than a lot of other Mary Magdalene.

The image might be a bit small, but perhaps you can also see the difference in neck tie buttons.

The bustle ties are tied in bows at the back of the navy! I wonder if tying them is something leftover from when it was worn for the Le Panier fashion show...?

A closer look at the bustle ties and the little loops that you thread the ties through to bustle it.

The fabric of both is a textured chiffon--I think it's sometimes called georgette or pearskin by brands? I was concerned that the fabric would be thin because the chiffon used on my 2017 maroon faltetto is quite thin, but the fabric on both mist and navy seem to match my other faltetto releases.

That was all the mist/navy faltetto photos I took, so while we are on the topic of 2017's maroon, here are more comparison photos between those two. I figured it might be interesting putting them side by side because allegedly both of these pieces were produced in 2017 for Chinese lolitas who had pre-reserved (I bought the maroon secondhand in 2018, so I can say relatively confidently that it is the 2017 release and not 2022).

As far as I could tell, aside from the main fabric used, the construction seems to be pretty identical. The lining on the maroon might be a bit wrinkly from storage, but it has that satin sheen like the mist.

Maybe not the best photos, but hopefully these close-ups express the difference in fabric texture and thickness between the two. The chiffon used for maroon definitely feels somewhat cheaper and common, somehow.

Lastly, here's the washing tag. They also seem identical, except unfortunately it looks like the previous owner of maroon cut the tag and removed the extra button for some reason (the other side of mist's tag has an extra necktie button attached). The navy has no washing tag at all, which I suppose makes sense with it being a sample (however, it does have a "Mary Magdalene" brand tag sewn into the inner facing of the bodice).

By the way, while I was loading petticoats under the mist JSK for photos, I discovered that it had a minor factory defect!

It seems that one of the threads tacking the main skirt fabric to the lining was sewn down to the wrong seam of the lining. There is both a side seam and a side back seam to the lining, with the side back being where the lining's snap is attached (for the bustle). With the skirt fabric attached like this, when you try to raise/bustle the lining with the snap, there is a puckering effect.

Thankfully, it's an easy fix (I undid the thread tack and re-knotted it to the right seam), but not what I expected from the mist colour technically being first-run quality!

Fixed, and now the skirt can be bustled nicely!

That's all for this post, I think! At this point I have all of 5 faltetto dresses, which is...ouch. I never thought I'd end up with so many. I may need to find some way to utilize all 5 at once...

[psychosomaticdeicide]

In storytelling, there are certain mediums for stories that logistically will not work as anything else. This isn't just about adapting a story that currently exists, but what has yet to exist in the first place. Or does exist but fits strangely in its current form.

Here's an anecdote:

The one time I managed to show up for a meeting of my local writing group, I had no idea how it worked. This was a perpetual “sign up for this slot and share for criticism!” and I could not have any thoughts on the stories that had been written and shared via email. I had to experience them as read by the writer while sitting around a table.

The man running the group that week—a small-time published author—had notes and corrections written into the document of one of the people sharing. He shared with me because I had no reference for the stories being told that week. This made it incredibly challenging for me to distinguish what I was meant to be reading (or what the original work even looked like) before the person began sharing.

This gentleman in his sixties had quite a few things technically incorrect in the writing itself, I learned as I tried to follow along with the published author's notes.

However, if I stopped reading and listened, there was nothing wrong with it. He was telling a story the way stories are told. The grammatical issues and strange turns of phrase were not present in a verbal telling of his story; they were punctuations of breaths and emphasis and just the way he spoke. He was fully in his element as he read, and I wondered briefly if that would make up for the issues of “craft” as the published author had later put it.

And to this author, who believed in craft over all else, that was not enough.

I found that the gentleman's storytelling style didn't match the medium that we were "meant" to be using. The group is specified in its name to be a “writers’ group” and not a “storytellers’ group.” This means that the medium is a large part of the evaluation of the work—all of it is meant to be read as text.

As we know, a novel is different from an interactive visual novel, which may have some differences compared to text-only interactive fiction, which is different from most types of video games and their various storytelling methods, which is different from the stories a grandmother tells her grandchildren about the country she came from.

And then, of course, there are stories with timelines moving in parallel and epistolary novels and countless structures within these mediums to choose from.

But given the choice to expand your horizons and create a story in another medium, what would make the most sense?

For half my life, I’ve focused solely on linear narratives to be read rather than told, edited to neurotic degrees of what I considered “perfection” (or oftentimes, "Good enough!” and posted blindly with my eyes half-covered) at whatever time I had decided the story was complete. Now, given the tools of Twine and RPG Maker, I have more options than just a standard narrative.

At the same time, I find myself apprehensive about taking a step forward in using either of these for a project. Theoretically, I know how these stories are told. I've gone through several stories (and demos) made with Twine. I've seen environmental storytelling built through settings, item descriptions, and in-universe texts in various RPG Maker games.

In the novel Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, we get to explore Gideon's world because she's reminiscing in the final moments before her attempt to leave all she has ever known. And then, the plot kicks in.

In the interactive fiction piece Hornets by Kitty Horrorshow, we explore the remnants of an insect-based apocalypse in the shoes of the person who caused it. We are given comparisons of what this world was like before the destruction while bearing witness to all that came after.

In the RPG Maker game Symbiosis by Spicaze, you first read the description of a situation that feels familiar, and have it changed in such a way that a stock character from a fairytale becomes a compelling protagonist. She is a witch, she lives alone in the woods, but she has a child she cares deeply for and someone has broken into her home. The beginning of the game, however, has you in the shoes of another character. It sets up stakes very nicely while exposing the things this witch doesn't want outsiders to see.

[gorbalsvampire]

On Mass Combat

There are mass combat mechanics in Dark Ages Vampire's Storytellers Guide, but...

Look at it this way. There are a few key principles to fitting mass combat into an RPG, and if you follow them all you don't really need a mass combat system as such.

0) Your players don't want to sit there and wait

This is rule 0 for a reason. I once sat through an interminable Star Wars D20 game in which the GM's particular flavour of brain worms meant he had to roll attacks and damage and reactions for every combatant in a scene before he described what happened. It's not that he had no imagination, it's just it wasn't fair if he didn't roll, and it wasn't fun if it wasn't fair. Or maybe he just hadn't thought about adapting the standard "declare, roll, describe" process of RPGs for an encounter with dozens of active participants. Either way, it was a terrible way to spend an afternoon - and I like rolling dice for attack after attack after attack, when it's a wargame. When I turned up to roleplay, it's just false advertising.

1) Only the PCs' dice really matter

You're running this scene for your players. They're rolling for their characters. Dice that have nothing to do with their characters don't need to be rolled. Really, this is an extension of Rule 0, but turned sideways so it becomes advice rather than an excuse for an anecdote. I'm a big fan of "only players roll" in general for RPGs and for the way the ST systems work, it really helps to set the players a roll against a target number and have margin of success or failure decide consequences.

2) Just because it's combat doesn't mean you have to roll combat pools

Mass combat is a chance for Leadership to shine. In V5 I would consider something like Resolve or Composure + Leadership to be the best possible roll for a player trying to command a mass battle. In older editions that don't have the good stat grid, sub in a Mental Attribute of your choice - I'd say Perception for the first round, Wits if something surprising happens, Intelligence to close the engagement favourably. If your player isn't in a leadership position I think it's better to roll a few Stamina + Melee/Brawl/Firearms/Atheletics rolls and inflict superficial/bashing damage equal to the margin of failure than to sit there modelling it all out exactly with the four rolls per attack that conventional combat needs. You could even break out a Composure + Survival for a character who just does not want to be there. Again, I have V5 brainrot and I know it, but "three and done" is such a good way to stop system creep and keep the sessions moving.

3) What are you using mass combat for in story terms?

Maybe this one should have come first, I 'unno, but this is the thing about mass combat - a lot of the time the systems seem written to simulate it happening without asking what it's doing in the story. Is it a command challenge, for PCs who are trying to command a small army for whatever reason? Is it a social challenge, for PCs who have to lead that army and keep up its morale? Is it an endurance challenge, for PCs who are built to throw hands to a degree no mortal could match? Or is it something that's happening around the PCs, a kind of environmental hazard that they need to negotiate on their way to achieve something else? (This is my favourite way to use mass combat - my Dark Ages game had, er, several city sacking sessions during which PCs were trying to traverse the fires and the furore to rescue so and so or stop such and such escaping or simply to escape.)

I hope all this has shown that you can include a mass battle in your games without needing a ton of new rules (that you won't use very often so they're a faff to learn, internalise and run at table anyway). Quite often, less is more, and you can boil down a situation into something you can represent with unusual uses of the conventional rules.

[dandelion-wings]

I have been waiting for a while to have the free time to write up Kaeya's Vision story in the Adventurer Kaeya AU, and also saving it as a treat. Which I am cashing in today! :> Some of the background in here may already be jossed by the 3.5 updates, I have seen some very confusing slivers of spoilers, but I do not care. It's going to be at least a month before I can play through that stuff to take it into account, I wanted to write this today, and any edits that will be required by new lore can be a problem for Future Me if I ever clean any of this up for AO3 (which, if it happens, will not be for A While).

Thanks as always to @theabysscomeshome both for originating this whole AU in the first place, and brainstorming through the details with me. <3

---

ETA: Now available on AO3.

---

The commission is going well, by Bennett's standards. It had been a little risky for them to venture into the freezing environs of Dragonspine, he knows that, even if they were only briefly on the lower slopes. Katheryne had been uncertain about giving him the commission, and Kaeya had been uncertain about taking it, enough so to suggest a handful of others. But there's been plenty of torches along the way, and only two of them had given him any trouble lighting them up.

Now that they've finally located the tunnel entrance they need, which he has to admit *did* take a while, they've descended far enough beneath the snowline underground that they don't even need torches anymore. Which is good, because there aren't any. The ruins buried here really are ancient, and Bennett isn't sure anyone's actually been here since they were buried. Though someone must have been, for the scholar who placed the commission to have known what she was looking for.

"Okay, the commission says that the reliefs we're supposed to take rubbings of are in the fourth chamber, and we're in the third," Bennett says, double-checking his notes. "I don't see a door... but check out this wall! I bet it's hidden in this one."

He bounds up to the wall to the left, where a series of circles are inset, each with a different pattern of indented dots. They're arranged in a square, with one at the center that depresses when he pushes on it, though that gets him nothing but an empty click as it resets. The other four don't depress, but when he puts his fingers in the dots, he finds that they rotate instead.

"I imagine we have to line them up with this," Kaeya says, brushing his fingers over the other dots indented on the wall itself. "Though we'll need to work out what shape they're supposed to make."

"Or we can just try them in different positions until we find one that works! We could use Dad's rule of elimination."

"That's going to take quite a while, if you plan to test them all."

Bennett glances over his shoulder. Kaeya is hunched in on himself a little, arms crossed. Maybe it's colder in here than Bennett had realized, with his Vision keeping his warm. Kaeya doesn't have anything but the fur-lined jacket one of their dads had given him for his last birthday, and while Bennett knows it's warm--Kaeya has dropped it over his shoulders often enough when his own jacket has gotten scorched or torn--it's not quite up to Dragonspine's weather. Kaeya has always hated being cold.

At the same time, when he glances around, he doesn't see anything on the walls or ceiling or floor that would work as a guide. "Why don't I start testing them while you look around for clues?" he suggests. "You're better at finding those anyway, and if there aren't any, that way I've already started trying the combinations."

"Whatever you say, Team Leader Bennett." Kaeya sounds less teasing than he usually does when he calls Bennett that, which probably means he really is cold, but he takes a few steps back, examining the larger pattern on the wall.

Bennett turns back and starts to turn the circles, depressing the central circle after each one. They keep resetting with a series of clicks, right back to their starting points. He's so focused on keeping a mental track of which combinations he's eliminated that he doesn't realize there's an *extra* click from behind him until Kaeya yelps. Bennett spins about just in time to see Kaeya teetering on the edge of a hole that had suddenly appeared in the floor, then topple in.

"Kaeya!" Bennett kneels at the edge of the pit. It's not too deep, thankfully, only about ten feet down, and Kaeya is at the bottom looking more annoyed than stunned. "Are you okay?"

"I will be once you get me out of here."

"I've got you!" Bennett pulls a coil of rope out of his pack and glances around. There's no really good spots to secure it, but there's a broken pillar not far away that will kind of do. He lashes it there, doubtfully eyes the crumbling stone, and then goes back to the edge and ties the rope around his waist, too, before lying down and starting to lower the end to Kaeya. That way there's two anchors.

The rope pulls uncomfortably tight around his waist as Kaeya swarms up it, and then Kaeya has to climb directly over him, but he's very careful not to step on Bennett as he comes. Bennett springs up and starts to unlash the rope while Kaeya brushes himself clean of dirt and straightens his jacket. There's a big gross splotch on the back that he's not going to like when he takes it off.

"I'm sorry," Bennett tells him, looking guiltily at the splotch. "I guess I got unlucky again, finding that combination before the right one...."

"How about you just refrain from touching anything else, hmm?" Despite the lilting tone, there's a frosty edge to Kaeya's voice that makes Bennett shrink back, his guilt redoubled. Kaeya spares him barely a glance before he goes back to examining the wall.

It probably *was* Bennett's bad luck, is the thing. They'd been doing so well that it had to come along sooner or later to mess things up. That's always how it goes. Bennett's used to that, and he's used to people being annoyed about it, but Kaeya usually takes it much more in stride. Is he still unhappy that Bennett picked this commission, instead of one of the easier ones? Or is he just getting tired of tagging along with Bennett's bad luck in general?

That's always been a fear at the back of Bennett's mind, ever since he joined the Guild himself and started up his team. Every other member he manages to recruit quits because of it sooner or later, even if Katheryne's nice enough to tell him that they've put themselves on leave. Kaeya has stuck it out for two years now without any complaints--but he is Bennett's brother, so he probably feels like he has to. He's really good, Bennett knows that; if it wasn't for him, Bennett would have failed a lot more commissions. Any other team would be glad to have him.

"Here," Kaeya says after a minute, and spins the corner circles before reaching out to depress the center one. Instead of the usual clicks, the stone grates as lines appear in the wall, and a triangular door slides open.

"That was awesome!" Bennett darts forward, only for Kaeya to catch him with a hand on his shoulder and push him back. It's more than fair, after the last mishap, but Bennett's stomach still squirms as he falls in behind Kaeya and lets his big brother take the first steps inside. The worst part is that he can't blame Kaeya for not wanting him to mess anything else up.

***

The way Bennett shrinks under Kaeya's cautioning hand sends a pang of guilt through him. He shouldn't have made the comment he did, not if he couldn't pull off the tone. Maybe not even then. It's not Bennett's fault that the mechanism had done exactly what it had supposed to do. Frankly, Kaeya is surprised that it hadn't happened sooner. Any wrong combination was probably supposed to do exactly that, and the floor was just so old and jammed up by dirt and mud from the ruins' collapse that only a few of the floor tiles still worked as intended.

He's just on edge, and has been since Bennett jumped at this commission. It should be a stroke of *good* luck, for him. His handler has long since given him standing orders to take any commissions available that involve Dragonspine, and report back with any information he gathers about the ruins there. Kaeya's sure that, whoever they are, they'll be pleased that one has finally come his way.

But he doesn't know why they're so interested, or what, exactly, he's meant to bring back. And, more to the point, he isn't sure how they'll feel about involving Bennett. Kaeya had tried to sell him on any of several monster-clearing missions, where the worst harm that his bad luck could cause would be injuries during the fight--injuries that would give him a good reason to leave Bennett home to recuperate while he doubled back to take this one on his own. But Bennett had been insistent, and so now Kaeya has to worry about what dark secrets might be lurking down here that might endanger Bennett to be privy to.

There's *something*, though. He can be sure of that, because on the wall in front of them, right across the chamber, is an ancient and familiar seal.

"That must be what we're supposed to take rubbings of!" Bennett says, some of his exuberance rebounding as he spots the reliefs in his Vision's glow. "Let's just light this torch- do you think it's a trap, too?"

His hesitation makes guilt twinge through Kaeya again. Bennett's a good kid, and he'll apologize to anyone caught up in his bad luck, but he's too irrepressible to be kept down by their anger for long. When it's one of their dads or Kaeya, though, he takes it a whole lot harder.

Glancing over, Kaeya confirms in an instant that there's no triggers lurking around the torch. "I'm sure it's not," he tells Bennett, turning further to give him a smile, but Bennett is looking deliberately away from him as he walks up, rather than bounds up, to light it. Kaeya makes an effort to keep the smile as he turns back to the relief, so Bennett doesn't mistake his expression.

Kaeya's memories of his childhood slip further and further away every year, but some of them remain too well-engraved to ever forget. The seal of the kings of Khaenri'ah is one of them. No wonder his handler had wanted him to take any chance he could get to poke around on Dragonspine. There's going to be another door hidden in that wall, behind the seal, and beyond it will be ancient secrets, or treasures, or even weapons preserved against the Cataclysm.

"I'll get the rubbings," Bennett says, scrambling to dig the paper and charcoal out of his pack.

"Whoa," Kaeya says, starting forward before Bennett can do more than pull them out. "Why don't I do that?"

The trigger for the door will be somewhere in the seal, and while it should take careful precision to activate it, Kaeya can envision all too well how Bennett's luck would strike to set it off accidentally. If it's just treasure or books back there, that might not be too much of a disaster, but if it's weapons.... For that matter, even secrets and treasure could be a problem if Bennett sees too much, or Kaeya has to convince him to leave perfectly good treasure alone. He hates squelching Bennett again, but he can't risk any of it.

As he'd feared, Bennett's shoulders slump, and he scowls down at the floor as he hands the paper and charcoal over. "I guess we'd fail the commission if I chipped it, right?"

"And here I figured it was my turn to do something useful, since you did all the hard work getting us here," Kaeya offers, but Bennett still refuses to meet his eyes. Doing his best to shrug that off, Kaeya steps forward and sets the paper against the seal.

Getting the rubbing shouldn't be a problem, as long as he doesn't set the triggers in it off. He's pretty sure he remembers what order they go in, and he knows they start on the left, so he starts the rubbing on the right and works his way gradually across. It won't do any harm to get this--a researcher from Sumeru might know what it is, but she won't have any time to act on it so long as Kaeya doubles back tonight. He'll open the door, he'll grab whatever's behind it, and then he can stash it in a dead-drop for his handler and there won't be anything left for the scholar to find later. Neither she nor Bennett ever have to know.

He's most of the way through, still taking it carefully to avoid setting any security measures off, when he hears Bennett yelp. Spinning around, Kaeya sees Bennett taking several steps back from some metal plates in the floor that seem to be rising out of it, a glow manifesting at their core-

"Look out!" Kaeya drops the paper and flings himself forward, going for his sword, as the Ruin Scout's tentacles whip free of the floor and it tilts sideways to lunge at Bennett in a headbutt.

"Wah!" Bennett has his sword out, too, and he swings wildly at the Ruin Scout in a burst of flame. "What's that?!"

It's a good question. Kaeya has never seen Ruin Sentinels in Mondstadt before. There's *definitely* something important behind that seal. He falls in beside Bennett, moving in unconscious synchronicity to circle around the Ruin Scout and pin it between the two of them. It rotates, trying to chose an opponent, and Kaeya slashes at it from one side while Bennett does the same from the other, making the tentacles flap.

There's something charging between them, though, and Kaeya knows it's going to hit back in a second. He and Bennett could handle it, he's fairly sure, though there's some ominous buzzing and clicking from beyond various cracks and holes in the stone walls that suggest there's going to be more upon them shortly if they stay. It could get rough in a few moments.

But he has a bigger problem. If there's something valuable enough around here to leave Ruin Sentinels to guard it, he can't bring back that seal. There's way too much chance that whatever's behind it is going to be too big or complicated to easily move, and the scholar will no doubt make the same realization about its value as soon as she gets Bennett's report. He can't take that risk.

"Stay on it!" he calls to Bennett, slashing in again as the glow between the Ruin Scout's tentacles intensify. Two strikes, another blaze of flame from Bennett, and then the power discharges, knocking them both back. Kaeya deliberately loosens his grip on his sword as he stumbles, and lets it fly from his hand and go skittering away.

"Kaeya!" Bennett yelps, and comes rushing around the Ruin Scout in worry.

As if on cue, a Ruin Cruiser comes through one of the holes in the wall, and a Ruin Defender bursts up through the cracking floor. Kaeya steps sideways, kicks his sword further out of reach, and grabs Bennett's arm. "We're going to have to give up on this one."

"No way! We can take them!" Bennett protests, trying to pull away and go for Kaeya's sword. "They have to have weak spots, we just have to find them! I can keep us going-"

"Long enough to outlast however many come through the wall?" Kaeya drags Bennett between the Scout and the encroaching Cruiser towards the door.

"But-"

"I'm not hanging around to fight a bunch of mystery monsters because you tripped over the wrong spot on the floor," Kaeya snaps, regretting the venom he has to put into his tone.

Bennett makes a muffled, miserable sound and stops pulling back as Kaeya yanks him through the last hidden door, spinning about and slamming the central circle. The door slams closed, muffling the whine of the Cruiser's laser as it fires at the spot where they just stood.

He doesn't fight all the way up the tunnel, which Kaeya takes faster than necessary--the Ruin Sentinels shouldn't chase them much past the room they're guarding. If he keeps Bennett rushed off his feet, though, he doesn't have time to push back or ask questions. They burst out into the freezing air of Dragonspine and Kaeya gasps at the sudden assault on his lungs, cold air prickling through them. He's suddenly, intensely aware that the whole lower back of his jacket is damp.

"Awww, man," Bennett mumbles, staring dispiritedly back down the tunnel. "Your sword...."

"I can afford a new sword," Kaeya says, and grasps for something to say that will balance out the hasty words below. "I can't afford a new brother, now can I?"

Bennett's shoulders only hunch further. "I bet you could if you wanted," he says, and he sounds on the verge of tears--but there's an unexpected edge of anger beneath them. "*Anyone* would want to team up with you."

Kaeya has no idea what to make of that. He puts a hand on Bennett's shoulder, feels it stiffen, and lifts it away. "Well, too bad for them. I'm on your team already."

"Yeah, until I make it too much work for you!" Bennett's head come up, and there *are* tears in his eyes, glinting and damp even as he glares. "We could've beaten them and still gotten the commission done. I *know* you could've gotten your sword back, and *you* know I could've kept us on our feet. Instead you just gave up!"

Acid roils in Kaeya's stomach, but he makes himself meet Bennett's eyes. "I might have panicked a little," he lies. "It's a little unnerving, dealing with all the strange things on Dragonspine."

"Yeah," Bennett mumbles, looking away again, the burst of anger fading. Kaeya has the itchy, uncomfortable feeling that he's seen through the lie. "I know. You didn't want to come up here in the first place. I'm the one who made you, so.... Let's just go home."

"That sounds good," Kaeya agrees, struggling to keep the light, lying lilt to his voice. "Why don't get Dad to make his famous hot chocolate. We'll both feel better for something warm and sweet."

***

It feels like Bennett is seeing all his worst fears come true right in front of him, and it's only worse that Kaeya is trying to be nice about it. Which of course he is; Kaeya always tries not to let it show when he's mad. Usually he does a better job of it, though, so Bennett knows this commission really must have been a tipping point.

This one wasn't even that bad, compared to how his luck usually goes. Not until the very end, with the weird mechanical monsters. Maybe it hadn't just been the bad luck that upset Kaeya. He'd looked at them like he recognized them for a moment, calculating the same way he does when they run into hilichurls or slimes, something they've both fought hundreds of times.

But then he'd had some kind of thought that made him miss a beat and get caught by the thing's discharge--is it a bad memory, maybe? He never talks much about his old dad or his life before the Guild, but Bennett knows he has nightmares. It could have been some kind of flashback that he didn't want to admit to, and that's why he'd given up on the fight.

Whatever it was, though, Bennett's achingly afraid that it might have been the last straw. If Bennett's bad luck has progressed to making nightmares from Kaeya's childhood appear in Mondstadt, he can't even blame Kaeya for deciding that's just too much.

He sits and drinks hot chocolate and watches Kaeya twitch nervously across the kitchen table, refusing to meet Bennett's eyes. At last Kaeya declares that he's going to go see about a new sword before the shop closes and goes bolting out, leaving his cup behind him. One of their dads glances in as he picks it up and raises an eyebrow.

"Kaeya never leaves food behind. It went that badly?"

"My bad luck struck again," Bennett says, and tries to force a chuckle. It doesn't really come out right. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Then you don't have to," his dad says, ruffling his hair.

He takes Bennett's cup, too, and goes to wash up. Bennett knows better than to offer to help. A few of his dads have taken to carving him wooden mugs and dishware, which at least don't leave sharp shards when he cracks them, but if there's a way to ruin them while cleaning, he'll find it. Especially on a day like today.

They'd gotten so close, too. Kaeya had almost finished the rubbing. Even if they'd had to run, if they could've just grabbed that and taken it back, at least they'd have finished the commission....

"I'm gonna go on a walk," he tells his dad, pushing his chair back and standing up. "Don't wait up, okay? I'm- I'm probably going to go visit Razor."

"Take care," his dad says, glancing over his shoulder to give Bennett a sympathetic smile.

Bennett only feels a little bad for lying. Maybe on the way back he *can* swing by Wolvendom and visit Razor, so that won't even be a lie. But he has to get back to Dragonspine first. The monsters have probably gone back in their holes by now, so he'll have enough time to get the last couple inches of the rubbing, right? If he has to run away after, it's not like it'll be the first time. He just can't give up on the commission when they were so close to finishing it.

Maybe if he does finish it, Kaeya will be impressed enough not to quit the team after all. He knows that isn't likely, but it's a nice thought. An adventurer has to keep his hopes up.

***

Kaeya isn't lying when he leaves, not exactly. He does stop by Wagner's to buy another sword. And then he straps it on and heads back out the city gates with a casual wave to the guards, like he always gives, so they won't think anything of it. If he moves fast enough, maybe he can get in and out of that ruin before the torches Bennett lit burn out.

He's tempted to just send a note to his handler about the location of the stash and let them take it from there. But he doesn't know what resources his handler has in Mondstadt--doesn't know who they are, or who else might work for them, or what magic they may have available. For all he knows, he'll just get a note back telling him to retrieve it. He's been sent to grab other things for his masters before. He might as well cut out the middleman and at least find out what's there before he sends his report.

Besides, this way, if Bennett wants to go back and try again, Kaeya won't have to try and talk him out of it. His gut still clenches at the memory of what he'd said to justify leaving. What hurts more, though, was how quickly Bennett's anger had burned itself out and turned into misery instead. He hates when other people leave Bennett that discouraged. It burns to know that he'd done the exact same thing.

One way or another, he'll make it up to Bennett. He just has to get this out of the way first.

The Ruin Sentinels have gone quiet again by the time he reaches the third chamber, which is a relief. Kaeya hadn't looked forward to having to fight his way through them alone. But he had suspected the door sealing might shut them down, and when it opens up again, they're quiescent; now that he knows where they'd come from, he can see the places where various cubes fit into holes in the floor and walls. He steps very carefully so as not to trigger any of them as he heads back to the seal.

Kaeya still keeps his fingers crossed and one eye on the cubes as he presses the trigger-points spiraling around the seal, one by one, waiting for each to click into place and stay down before he moves on to the next. If he messes this up, there's a good chance that will also wake the Ruin Sentinels again. When he reaches the last one, at the very center of the seal, he holds his breath while he pushes it down. A triangular chunk of the wall slides open.

Beyond it is a treasure trove.

Not the kind of treasure that most people would recognize as such. But Kaeya can see the writing engraved on the stone slates scattered all about the tiny room, an alphabet that he remembers well from his childhood, though he doesn't immediately recognize the words. He steps inside carefully, quietly, glancing back one more time at the dormant cubes in the walls outside, and then turns to deciphering the Khaenri'ahan script.

Once he starts to make out a language he once knew by heart, his breath catches. He won't be able to carry all of this out on his own, not in one trip. But he has to drop a note for his handler as soon as possible, because he *knows* they'll want this. There's slate after slate, each describing other locations, listing where they lie and what they contain, a list of precious artifacts and ancient weapons and scientific research that anyone loyal to the cause would be desperate to get their hands on.

That researcher would be too, if she saw this. Kaeya is going to have to talk Bennett out of coming back here after all.

As he turns back to the doorway, he can hear the sounds of the Ruin Sentinels starting to power up.

For a moment, Kaeya assumes they're reacting to him--that he'd brushed something when he'd crouched to read a slate on the floor, or stepped on a hidden trigger while approaching another. Then he hears a familiar, startled yelp, and his heart seizes in his chest. *Bennett.*

Drawing his sword, Kaeya rushes out of the room. The Ruin Scout of earlier has been joined by two more, and that's two Ruin Defenders bursting up alongside them. He flings himself at them from behind, striking their exposed backsides while Bennett hacks furiously and uselessly at their shields. He drives his blade through one's core, and it shudders and falls apart in a shower of parts.

"Kaeya!" Bennett cries. "What are you doing here? Is that another door?"

Kaeya grits his teeth against a word his dads would be horrified to hear him using and flourishes his blade as the other Defender rotates to present its shield to him. "Is now really the time to worry about that?"

"I've got you!" Bennett hits the Defender from behind with a blazing strike, and it, too, falls to the floor.

That does nothing about the Scouts, or the Destroyers bursting one by one from the floor, or the Cruisers flinging themselves from the walls. There's far more than there had been before. The rest must have activated in waves, in response to the initial activation, maybe powered up by the elemental energy that brief fight had put into the air. Kaeya jumps over the ruin of the Defender to stand by Bennett's side.

"There sure are a lot of them! But I bet we can take them this time," Bennett says, and Kaeya can hear the quiver of nervousness under the bravado. "Benny's Adventure Team can handle anything, right?"

"You've got that right," Kaeya says, adding in some false bravado of his own. He's pretty sure he's selling it better than Bennett is.

"Teamwork is dreamwork!"

Ruin Sentinels swirl around them, and Kaeya and Bennett turn to meet them, back-to-back. If there'd just been a few, this wouldn't be so difficult. But they keep coming; every time they knock one down, another is there to fill in the gap. Bennett's Inspiration Field helps, but it's keeping them on their feet, nothing more. Kaeya isn't sure if they can finish all the Sentinels before they hit a point where Bennett can't keep it up any longer.

"They're coming through the walls," Bennett calls over his shoulder over the sound of a Ruin Cruiser, aflame, shuddering apart. "Are there holes like these in that room there? If we can get in there, they can only come at us from one direction!"

He's right. Despite himself, Kaeya is proud of Bennett's strategic thinking. And there *aren't* holes in those walls; the builders of that cache wouldn't have wanted to risk it being damaged in a fight. Which is exactly why Kaeya should keep Bennett, and the battle, out here.

But from the strain in his voice, Bennett is flagging. Kaeya knows that he is, too. He's not helping Khaenri'ah if he gets killed by a bunch of Ruin Sentinels, right? Grabbing Bennett's arm, he throws himself sideways through a gap between Ruin Defenders, and they both tumble into the small, slope-roofed space of the room.

"What are all these?" Bennett looks around in wonder at the slates. "That scholar's going to be stoked! Maybe we'll get a bonus."

"Let's worry about that once the fight is done," Kaeya says, ruthlessly shoving his own panic at that statement to the back of his mind, and turns towards the door.

A few Defenders fling themselves forward, crab-leaping at them, but Kaeya takes advantage of the momentary vulnerability to stab upward and get one in the core. The other lands and throws up its shield before Bennett can do the same. It can't get at them without dropping the shield, though, so Kaeya turns his attention to a Destroyer trying to burrow up through the floor and lets Bennett catch it at the moment it does bring its shield up to make a strike. A few Cruisers dive for the upper part of the door, hit the edges, and make themselves easy prey for a stab and a flaming strike respectively.

They keep throwing themselves at the door for a few hectic seconds, meeting Kaeya and Bennett's paired blades. Only the Destroyers, with their burrowing ability, have any chance of catching them unawares, and Kaeya is able to turn enough to dispatch the handful that make the attempt. Then the Ruin Sentinels pull back, hesitating a moment in eerie unison as their cores blink in some kind of pattern.

"Uh-oh," Bennett says, echoing Kaeya's wariness. "Do you think they're communicating somehow?"

"Something like that."

The blinking turns to a familiar glow as the Cruisers and Defenders spread themselves wide, their cores charging. Kaeya wishes, briefly and passionately, for a bow. But to rush them while their cores are exposed would just bring him back into the disadvantageous field of the wider room, and the remaining Scouts hover with their heads lowered, clearly waiting for such a move. He glances around the room, looking for some kind of door control, anything at all on this side-

"We've got to dodge forward," Bennett says, elbowing Kaeya in the side. "As soon as they fire!"

"But the slates-" Kaeya bites off the protest, as if he can keep Bennett from realizing that they're important if he just doesn't mention them.

"I'd rather lose out on the commission than lose my brother," Bennett says stoutly, and starts to twitch forward.

Too early. The hum of the Ruin Sentinels has reached a fever pitch, but Kaeya has been timing their bolts and lasers. They won't fire for another second yet, and they'll have time to readjust as Bennett moves. For a single, calculating moment, Kaeya considers letting him do it. He'd draw the fire, the slates would be safe, Kaeya could get past the Sentinels while they were recharging, and-

"Wait!" Kaeya grabs Bennett's arm, holding him back the extra second, and then flings them both forwards, crashing together onto the ground. He hears the shattering of stone behind them and doesn't look back. Instead he grabs Bennett and rolls them both over, sideways, as the Ruin Scouts rush towards where they'd landed and slam into each other and the floor, then hauls Bennett up onto his feet with him and starts for the far door. There's something terrible and cold in his stomach, spreading through his chest, at the thought that he might for even a moment have contemplated anything else.

Just as he reaches the threshold, three more Ruin Destroyers come slamming up through the floor, scattering chips of rock in a spray as they rise up to block their path. One of them slams its head down and sweeps it about. Kaeya jumps back just in time, but Bennett, a bit slower, gets caught by the heavy metal head and yowls in pain as he's slammed into the wall beside the door. He slides down the wall to the floor and doesn't bounce back up again.

Kaeya hisses the word he'd bitten back earlier and slashes out at the writhing trunk of the Destroyer as it comes back upright. One of the others is throwing down a glittering energy field, and he hurls himself right through that, ignoring the pain of the pure energy crawling over his skin and swiping out sideways to lash through its core as he dives for his brother.

Hauling Bennett, limp and pale, up in his free arm, Kaeya turns about to see the third Destroyers head spasm open to fire a small energy orb. He turns himself sideways to put his body between it and Bennett, raising his blade like it's going to help. He sways on his feet as he moves, the room spinning. The cold spreading through him grows stronger. He and Bennett are both about to die down here.

Then the cold flares, the very air around him growing intensely, bitterly chill, and a hard-edged, geometric dome appears just beyond his upraised blade. The Destroyer's energy bolts splash uselessly against it. Kaeya gapes in astonishment, then catches himself when he sees a Cruiser rising up behind the Destroyer. There's no time to worry about what the hell happened. They have to *go*.

Scrambling back over the threshold, Kaeya reaches up and slams the hilt of his sword into the central circle that makes the door slam shut. He can hear energy blasts and lasers striking against the stone on the far side, and once again, this time with real fear pounding through him, and races up the tunnel towards the surface. The sounds of the riled Ruin Sentinels fall into silence behind him as he takes the twists and turns.

When he reaches the exit and stumbles out into Dragonspine's air, beneath the stars shining overhead, somehow his first breath gasping doesn't feel like a blow. The chill of fear is still permeating all through him. Kaeya shivers reflexively, but it's because he feels like he should, not because he's actually that cold. He looks down as Bennett stirs in his arms and sees something glowing, pale and faintly blue-toned, hooked on the left lapel of his winter jacket.

"K'ya?" Bennett mumbles, blinking sleepily. He squints, frowns, and then grabs at Kaeya's shoulder to steady himself as he reaches up with the other hand to touch the gleaming, ice-cold gem. "Oh, *wow*."

"Yeah," Kaeya says, feeling numb. "Wow."

"That's so cool!" Bennett is still pale and obviously shaky, but he wriggles free of Kaeya's grip to lean in and peer at the Vision. "You got that saving me, didn't you? The gods must've been really impressed by whatever you did."

"I'm sure they were." Kaeya still feels cold all through, the chill of the Vision seeping straight down to his bones. "It doesn't make me any more immune to Dragonspine, though, unfortunately. We should get ourselves out of the snow."

"Oh, yeah, we probably should," Bennett says, chuckling ruefully and rubbing at the back of his head. He takes a few steps forward and wobbles on his feet.

Kaeya reaches out and puts his arm around Bennett's shoulders again, offering him some support. Bennett pulls a sheepish face, but loops his arm around Kaeya's neck. He's always been warm, had even before he got his Vision and more so afterwards, but now he feels downright hot. Kaeya resists the urge to flinch from that heat and tugs him closer. As they make their way down the mountain, holding each other up, he feels Bennett's warmth seep into him, driving back the numb chill of his own silent horror.

***

Bennett's legs give out shortly after they reach the foot of the mountain. It's embarrassing to have Kaeya pause and haul him up onto his back, but it's kind of nice, too. Bennett clings close to him, feeling a faint chill rising from him even through his warm jacket, and tries to pour as much heat out of his Vision and through his arms as he can to warm him up. It's probably just his Vision, but Kaeya *has* always hated being cold.

They're halfway down the road to Mondstadt when Bennett dares ask, "What was that room you found?"

He may not know, but Kaeya must. When Bennett had walked into the fourth chamber, before he'd tripped over one of the monsters and woken them all up, he'd seen Kaeya crouched down inside the little room, intensely studying one of the stone tablets in there. He'd been paying it so much attention that he hadn't even noticed Bennett.

"It just opened up behind the seal," Kaeya says, his shoulders going tense under Bennett's hands and his grip tightening on Bennett's thighs. "I thought I'd try to finish the rubbing, and I must have hit some kind of mechanism."

Kaeya is a good liar, but he always tenses up when he does it, just a little. That wasn't what he'd been there for. Had it been the tablets? The markings on them had meant nothing to Bennett, in the brief glance he'd gotten while scrambling into the room, but Kaeya isn't from Mondstadt. He'd barely been able to read Mond when he first arrived. Maybe the tablets were in a language he'd recognized.

"You could read those tablets, couldn't you?" Bennett remembers how Kaeya been scrabbling at the walls while the monsters charged their shots, as if trying to close the doors. He hadn't wanted those tablets damaged. "Were they important?"

"Not as important as you." Kaeya can't turn his head all the way to look at Bennett like this, but he glances back as well as he can, so Bennett can see half of his smile. He *means* this smile. It's too small and soft and fond to be otherwise.

"You're going to stay on my adventuring team, right?"

"Of course I am." Kaeya sounds surprised. "Why wouldn't I? You're my *brother*."

"But my bad luck-"

"Isn't your fault," Kaeya says firmly, almost vehement. "What I said earlier... was cruel, and I didn't truly mean it. I had other concerns on my mind, and I shouldn't have taken them out on you."

The tight, clenched fear in Bennett's chest eases at last. It doesn't matter what Kaeya was doing, or what secret he's trying to keep. All that matters is that he still cares about Bennett.

"It's fine," he tells Kaeya. "Everyone loses their temper now and then! Our dads say so, right? As long as you're staying on my team, I don't mind."

He can feel Kaeya's shoulders relaxing again. Kaeya shifts his grip to tug Bennett in more snugly against his back. "You don't need to worry. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

Reassured, Bennett leans forward to rest his chin on Kaeya's shoulder. Mondstadt is rising up in front of them, windmills turning slowly in the evening breeze, the starlight glittering off the lake. Maybe it's not where Kaeya came from, but it's his home now. His Vision proves it. Proves he's Bennett's brother, too, and cares about him just as much as Bennett cares for him. As long as that's true, Bennett isn't going to worry about anything else. Kaeya can keep all the secrets he wants. Bennett trusts his big brother.

[vegitoswife-archive]

A ship meme template I filled out some months ago - Amito edition!

Who’s the cuddler? Both of them are likely to initiate, though Amita does it somewhat more often. Vegito didn't really do it in the beginning of their relationship, but he has grown more used and open to it.

Who makes the bed? Amita, most of the time. Sometimes she doesn't (usually because she forgets to), and Vegito does then.

Who wakes up first? Vegito. He gets up early in the AM (3 or 4) to get a big exercise session in for the day before going to tend to his crops (DBS!verse only) - though he'll shower and return to bed after exercising if he has nothing else to do. Amita's up by 5 or 6am since she has to be at work by 8, but if she has the day off, she tends to laze in bed til around 9 or 10.

Who has the weird taste in music? Amita, though what she usually listens to isn't all that weird. Vegito just listens along to whatever she has playing from her phone or the TV.

Who is more protective? This is a tough pick...both of them are fiercely protective of one another, in their own ways. Neither want to be overbearing or come off as patronizing, but if push comes to shove, they will make their displeasure VERY clear. In terms of the one to be wary of though, it's definitely Vegito - for obvious reasons. If he plans on beating you into a pulp, literally nothing and no one can stop him.

Who sings in the shower? They both hum, but Amita does it more often. Sometimes when they shower together and they're in a playful enough mood, they softly sing a little duet.

Who cries during movies? Amita at least is more likely to do it, but it still would take a lot to make her tear up.

Who spends the most while out shopping? Both of them technically, since groceries ain't all that cheap and Vegito has quite the appetite. He can have an average-sized (small by Saiyan standards) meal and still function, but Amita likes making sure he's fed well or can feed himself well. In terms of clothing, it's Amita who spends the most since she actually tries to buy a substantial amount in one outing - both for she and him.

Who kisses more roughly? It's a toss up, but Vegito is more prone to kicking things up a notch; especially if he's in a needy mood.

Who is more dominant? Another toss up that goes to Vegito in most instances. After Amita grew more comfortable with sexual aspects being introduced in their relationship, she became more confident and likes occasionally taking dominance - only just to fluster and pleasure Vegito. He's a massive switch.

My rating of the ship from 1-10. 10+, it's my personal self-indulgent comfort ship so it's ✨special✨.

[torirocksonhere]

walk-in review; An Cailín Ciúin | part one

DISCLAMER: i work in a large retail cinema here in ireland. part of my work is doing temperature checks inside of the screens, and whenever im assigned to that duty on my shift, i do just that every half hour (while sneaking in a minute or two of watching the movie). the first part of these reviews comes from whatever i happen to see when i walk into the screen every half hour.

i dont get to see a whole lot, thus this first review comes purely from ~5 minutes of watchtime in random intervals of the movie, and talking to people before and especially after the movie. as you can imagine, it isn't really comprehensive

however i dont watch trailers for movies, even ones that i already want to see, mostly because all of them edit together the best bits of the movie, leaving me disappointed at the shortcomings that they hid behind the big moments. so i count this first review as a sort of "trial-by-fire trailer" for said movie. essentially; "can a couple minutes of watchtime and word-of-mouth alone convince me to watch a movie?"

first i want to preface this with the best thing to come from this movie; the people who come to see it. to put it simply, most of them are quite old, and they are so adorably sweet it makes me so happy ! they always have something nice to say, they never spend too much, and theyre so chatty and lovely and i love old people and WILL DIE FOR THEM.

anyways, the actual movie.

An Cailín Ciúin, from what i can tell, is a movie about all the joys of growing up in rural ireland in ~early 1960s. including, but most certainly not limited to;

abusive and compliant parents

abhorrently obvious middle child syndrome

extensive breaks to your grandparents

cars driving on what can barely be considered as roads

in all seriousness though, this movie has everything to do with observation. (An Cailín Ciúin is irish gaelic for "the quiet girl" and oh boy is our main girl siobhan quiet ! ) our story follows siobhan, a young girl growing up in ireland. if im getting this right, then her parents had a child, needed a break away from minding all the kids at home so they could focus on just one, and in a standard Irish parenting move, sent one away to live with relatives for a while. siobhan is initially scared by the prospect, considering how shy she is, and how scared she is being in a completely new place (autistic coded characters??? in MY irish indie film?????), but she does agree to go, i believe in large part to her abusive father. really standard bad dad. y'know the type. "arent i allowed to have a drink after a long days work?" type beat. it helps the negative connotations that he's the only one who cant speak irish out of everyone in the house.

as an aside; i do believe the father is an allegory for ireland and the irish still feeling the effects of british rule, a time of history that has irreversibly destroyed our culture; a culture that this movie attempts to keep alive, and which it does beautifully. talking to the people who've seen it right after, they said how they felt taken back to a time that was much simpler, a time that was in many ways much better than present time. it's such a shame this movie is being written off by the larger public as "old people movie for old people only no younguns allowed", when in reality this film is trying to show everything that we as the Irish are best at, and where we as a culture shine, and how that's very very quickly being completely eroded to make way for the English way of life. if anything, this movie needs to be shown to the younger generations. it needs to be shown to people that have never experienced the feelings of community that came with being irish, and the incredibly beautiful language that gaeilge is. this movie is the perfect time capsule of Irish culture.

i frankly never got to see a lot of the middle of the movie, there was a plot of siobhan going to a funeral for the first time, and her struggling at school? but the middle of the movie is something i unfortunately have not caught a lot of, and understood less of.

the end of the movie is absolutely heart wrenching, even to me as someone who hasn't watched the entire thing start to finish. essentially, siobhan goes home, her trip is over. her, her siblings, her mother, and her grandparents are all in her house, talking and waiting for her father to get home. when they hear his car pull up, siobhan's mother gets very spooked, with a very worried look on her face. (look if it wasnt obvious at the start that the dad is abusive it really should be now). her grandad tries to reason with her mother, asking her to seek help, which of course the mother refuses. after all, it could take away her children, it could make him angry, it could do all host of things she doesn't want. its easier to just be complacent and suffer. one thing leads to another, and siobhan's grandparents leave. she, along with her mother and father, watch them leave. as soon as father is satisfied, he just heads back in, but mother talks to siobhan, asking her what happened while she was away. they share a stare with each other. mother's filled with dread and despair, and siobhan's with desire. then, siobhan runs down the road, attempting to catch up to her grandparents.

this... hurt to watch. how much she clearly loved and enjoyed life with her grandparents, and how much she hates life at her house, how she just wishes she could stay with them forever. however, as she embraces her grandfather, she sees him. father. she just repeats that, over and over. father. father. father. father. and then the movie ends. the pain in my heart from watching that ending was... unparalleled. it knew exactly how to tug at my heartstrings and did it so well and i hate it for that !!!! (i love it for that)

now that the stuff about the story is over, i wanna talk about close second for the best part of the movie; cinematography!!! and oh my GOD THE CINEMATOGRAPHY

first, most of the movie is shot lower than typical, which is done for two main reasons; to reflect both siobhan's physical and emotional height. obviously because she's a child, she sees the world shorter than most of us, but she's also really, really timid, and shooting low shots further strengthens that feeling of anxiousness that comes from a child, especially a child as quiet as siobhan.

second, the film is in 4:3, which i think is used as a passive reminder to the audience that the film is set in an earlier time frame, since most CRT televisions of the time period were in 4:3.

third, film grain. it isn't present in every shot, but the shots it is present in provide this super lovely and cutesy vintage feel to the movie, which just adds to how much i love the art direction of this film

fourth, focus. focus is barely used in this film, and when it is, it's usually in a shot that siobhan isn't the focus of, which i believe is used to remind us that siobhan is just a child, and children take in a lot more information than us. plus, it adds to one of this movie's greatest strengths; discover, don't show.

...and to be honest, thats all i have about the movie. essentially a girl just wanting to get away, but being scared to. i really like this movie, how it looks and how it sounds and how it feels. it makes me proud of being irish, it makes me want to preserve Irish culture. i love it and i will go and see it. i will either update this post or make a new post when i go to see it, to see if anything about my review changes, what i got right and wrong, and any more tidbits i have to add

(ignore the poll i can't get rid of it im sorry)

[skadren]

I keep seeing a bunch of live and let go, boundaries are personal and not moral stances posts about writing and i largely agree ppl should be able to explore what they want in fic but also. Is there a way to balance or talk about "hi um white author so you kinda reinvented racism/blood eugenics and unilaterally present sex work as inherently degrading and etc etc etc for Shipping Angst Drama fodder, when the text is like. None of that" in fandom or even just in like. A server community. Maybe I'm a bit sensitive bc i feel constructed/projected misery is kind of tacky to begin with and i wouldn't do it with a complete stranger but idk my guy. I don't want to alienate myself but it's weird to go completely uncritical here

i think there are a couple items you need to check off the list before you can go "yes talking to internet stranger #37461239 about a highly sensitive topic is a good idea"

is it tagged appropriately? if it's tagged trust me the writer knows. they have probably gotten way more unsolicited feedback than they would really like

is the portrayal you're concerned about reinforcing an unhealthy or discriminatory predominant social narrative? if it is and you think the writer is genuinely unaware, then yeah, it might be worth bringing up. the emphasis here is on predominant please i am begging on my hands and knees

will this result in a productive conversation? if the intent behind this is to get people to reconsider, it isn't helping anyone if you know it will just lead to them doubling down and doing it even worse. at that point you're only making a performative statement to validate your own stance

if it really is bothering you that much, is there a compelling reason why you can't just block and move on? it isn't your responsibility nor is it feasible to fix how a fandom is doing things, especially if it's a group of people you don't really know. your own mental health always comes first, and a bit of salty venting in private with your friends never hurts anyone

if it IS a friend or acquaintance who is doing this and you think they would be open to discussing it with nuance, then you can probably bring it up. if that person has a basic level of consideration and respect for you it tends to go well, but i've also seen people double down because they already know there's something wrong with their attitudes but get mad at you for wanting them to change, and then it creates a whole ton of drama and people get hurt and it's not pretty. so. ymmv

ultimately, someone's views on racism or sex work or whatever is reflective of a broader social norm, and fandom is not the best space to try to fix that through confrontation-- it's usually someone's "safe space" where they want to retreat from the world, not come face-to-face with any sort of personal reckonings. do i think it's a mark of privilege that some people have the luxury of ignoring these issues when they "just want to have fun"? yes, but again, this is about being able to have productive discussion, not about what's "fair". unfortunately.

my two cents: if you're in a server community or some other space that makes you uncomfortable there's really nothing wrong with going "hey, we have fundamentally different standards when it comes to [x], and i don't think i want to be here" and moving on. the best way to challenge these things is quite literally to make your own food. there's a much better chance of the people you're worried about coming across it and realizing they like it than magically being able to argue them down with well-placed logic and reasonable points or whatever

EDIT: OH ALSO IM STUPID if you mean talking about it in general. not naming writer names but trends in the fandom. yes absolutely-- not in a public space like social media but definitely find a group of people who you trust who you can talk about these things with!! it is good and healthy. just make sure it isn't just a discord server open to the public or smth tho so you personally know and trust everyone who can see it (and you don't accidentally shit talk someone who is in that space lmao)

[golbrocklovely]

how are they always looking for an editor? and its always for sams half of work?? maybe dont write a novel on how people should do your work and then someone might actually want to work with you🤷🏼‍♀️ just a thought.

well last year it was just them editing. i think they had one person help them for some videos (or maybe just a handfull idk) but they never found someone permenant.

my guess is that sam micromanaged too hard and either the person quit or sam was like "you're not doing it the way i want you to, so goodbye."

and giving directions or notes on what you want the thing to look like… i get it. i'm a perfectionist too. but if you have to give literally 20 pages of directions, that means either you think the person is an idiot, you hired someone that isn't qualified at all, or YOU MICROMANAGE TOO MUCH.

snc (sam mostly, let's be honest here) have made it abundently clear that they want to have creative control over how the videos look, and that's fine. but if that is the case, and somehow you can't teach someone to replicate what you do, then you yourself HAVE to do it, especially if you're not gonna compromise at all.

which is why, again, i think they should take colby's part and train someone to do that instead of the creative aspect, that way they still have control over it and can do what they want without having to train someone in excessive detail.

i mean this with no disrespect towards sam but two things i have noticed about all of this: a), he truly thinks he does the most difficult part of the editing and b) he's really leaving colby in the dust with all of this nonsense. i mean, he makes it seem as if he's doing so. much. work. when in reality he is given a somewhat finished product by colby, who actually has to sit thru HOURS of footage and piece together a storyline that makes sense. and all sam does is add on stock footage, music, sound effects, and some basic text - which god knows are all in a folder that he's been reusing for years now - and making it seem as if he's going above and beyond that to finish the video. my issue with that is both of their parts are crucial, i will not argue about that (even if i downplayed what sam does as a joke). but sam has alluded that sometimes he goes back thru the footage colby edited down and adds more stuff in. so it's no fucking wonder he feels like he does more when he can barely trust colby to make a storyline and edit down 6-8 hours of footage.

and not only is colby doing that, he's pulling out parts and making videos of that extra content and putting it on xplrclub. sam doesn't touch the footage nine times out of ten after it was filmed. tbh, i think they both do about the same amount of editing, it's just one of them likes to act like they do more.

and sam is leaving colby in the dust with all of this bs. first off, he's gonna be burning a lot of bridges if he keeps searching for an editor that can replicate his style but is also someone he has to micromanage the whole time, or has to give 600 notes too bc god forbid it isn't up to his standard. like, i get you want the product to look good in the end, but clearly you either have too high of standards and are expecting too much or you're just a shit teacher and don't know how to train someone and thus are ending up with an editor you don't trust and product you don't like - which are all YOU problems. and the part that doesn't make sense at all to me is…. why is colby the only one, in the end, doing the editing? is he supposed to find an editor on his own? or is he expected to do his part of the video so sam can go off with his gf and do whatever? bc highkey it feels like the only reason colby is stuck editing and doing his own share is bc he doesn't have a gf that he has to look after bc she gets scared of her own shadow or can't be alone in their gated community mansion.

let me just rewind a bit bc i think i got slightly off topic lol

personally, i get sam on some aspects. i get wanting something to look exactly the way you want it too. i get being a perfectionist, having an idea of what you want something to look like, and not taking other ppl's advice or critiques when they give it. however, you also have to know when to just accep things as they are. and if you can't, then do them yourself. but don't get upset when you end up doing everything on your own.

if you want an editor, train someone to be your editor. don't hire an already experienced editor just to be pissed when they do things differently than you. and if you really have to give 100s of notes or 20 pages of directions………. you gotta tone it down a bit. you're not making movies, you're making youtube videos for christ's sake lol