#escape from the labs

[tiamattseirei]

Closed starter for @soulsfractured

Tiamatt took the first opportunity she could to escape Shinra's Research and Development department, taking advantage of the unknowing new lab tech by pretending she was still under the effects of sedation. Once the door was unlocked, the change was instant, a red scaled dragon replacing her smaller form and knocking the tech to the side with a single sweep of her tail.

Alarms blaring, the beast barreled down the halls, ignoring the shouts of those she encountered as she searched desperately for an exit. Finally, seeing large windows overlooking the city, she flung herself through the glass, feeling shards scratch at her scales.

Taking wing, Tiamatt tried to get altitude, but not before a gunshot rung out. Feeling the bite of the bullet hit her shoulder, the dragon roared in pain, her wingbeats faltering for only the briefest of moments. Unwilling to look back, she pushed through the pain and forced herself higher, faster towards freedom.

Tia knew they would try to hunt her down and return her to the labs, back to the place that had turned her into what she now was. That knowledge fueled her flight, traveling well into the following day. Still, she refused to stop, flying onwards for as long as she could.

She was unsure how long she had been flying, unsure how long she had traveled. All she knew is the sea had turned to land once more. The last thing she saw before plummeting from the sky was a building, a temple. Then nothing as exhaustion finally claimed her midnight.

[icebear4president]

After this year, it seems Tommy does not give a fuck anymore and is just on a rampage of intentionally giving bad creators a taste of their medicine. Then disappearing for months until it’s time to announce his new comedy show. What a legend.

He could be doing drugs, yet he’s here is, doing Tommyinnit things, whatever that means, no one can figure out his behavior though many have tried.

[mamawasatesttube]

i also want to see more timkon of the "oh tim is a monsterfucker. okay" variety. there's an alien freak of nature hovering ominously in the air, not moving, not even breathing by the look of it, unnaturally beautiful with horrific glowing red eyes. everything about it seems straight out of a horror movie. a thing that's almost but very clearly not human. and this fucking guy tim is over in the corner going 😍🥵🥰😳 about it??? is anyone else seeing this????

[bonefall]

Hey, what makes a character a 'plot device but not a character'? And how do you not do that? I'm trying to do it on purpose but also I need to still make them interesting because it's on purpose, yknow?

A good skill to pick up is to learn to criticise criticism itself. A "plot device" is simply a thing that moves the plot along, it's a neutral literary analysis term! Usually, when people are angry that "a character has been used as a plot device," it doesn't mean they hate plot devices. It means they're gesturing at something deeper.

Runningwind and Bumble are equally plot devices in their deaths. They are both killed by the antagonist to escalate political tension. Runningwind is rarely "accused" of just being a plot device, and yet, we're talking about Bumble for the same thing.

So, why?

Well, Runningwind is just a background character, but in life, he was a part of the community. He was characterized as impatient but responsible. Yet, he wasn't SO important that he died with a bunch of unresolved plot threads.

He is mostly an extension of the entity of ThunderClan. His killing by Tigerstar, and the fear and paranoia that settles on the group after this, feel like a progression of the story insteas of something forced.

Bumble, on the other hand...

Is hated immediately by Gray Wing, when she's established as Turtle Tail's friend. Bumble's abuse at Tom the Wifebeater's hands invites even MORE investment. The rejection is shocking and upsetting. There's a story there about our main characters being imperfect; jealous, bigoted, and judgemental.

But, she is simply killed off. Everything they set up for this character is gone with little personalized fanfare. It's not a tragedy with a lesson about cruelty, or something anyone regrets.

It's just... plot. Gray Wing whinging that no one will like his shitty brother now that his body count is 2.

More than that, in the discussion of women in particular, "Fridging" was coined to give a name to the way women characters often don't get their stories told at all. There is a CULTURAL trend of female characters facing disproportionate violence, for the sake of advancing male plots.

Bumble has a lot going for her. Petal had a lot going for her. Turtle Tail had a lot going for her. Bright Stream had a lot going for her. When they died, they took their potential with them.

It's not always wrong to kill off a character of high potential, mind you. In Gurren Lagann, Kamina's death is sudden and shocking, leaving a massive hole in the hearts of the cast that never heals. Grappling with that loss, but also letting his memory fuel them, is a major theme of that story.

All that to say... there's no formula for avoiding it. You've gotta identify what the deeper issue is, in your specific narrative.

I can't say for certain what that will look like for your story, but here's some things I keep in mind;

When you make characters who exist to die, make sure they're people before you axe them.

Ask yourself; what about them does the cast miss?

If they just miss them because they were (pre-existing relationship), go back to the drawing board.

Fluttering Bird as an example. Who was she? Dead sister. Why do they miss her? Dead sister. No traits until after her death.

Runningwind was short-tempered and helpful. Kamina was a valuable leader who made people believe in a brighter future. Swiftpaw was fiesty and desperate to prove himself. The better characterized, the more profound the loss usually is.

If this is a female character who is dying just to serve the plot, be aware of cultural bias and tropes. How is the gender ratio looking in your cast? Is this happening disproportionately with your girls?

Note how Quiet Rain's litter had both a boy and a girl, but the girl was chosen to be "weaker" and wither away.

And how most of the time in DOTC, whenever a man had to be upset, a girl would get killed for it.

If you ever feel like the character on the chopping block is NOT a full character, ask yourself why it needs to be a character at all. You don't need to spend narrative time building out someone when a literal object of high value might suffice.

"My sister died when I swore to protect her and I can't face my family" = Old. Tired. Ive seen this.

"I lost my heirloom sword when I swore to protect it and I can't face my family." = Fascinating. Why was the sword so valuable? Will they really not take you back? How did you lose it?

When you do kill off "high value" characters, try to make sure you're not leaving too many plot threads hanging. Or at least make a point of how they will never get closure.

[loveyourhate]

little miss malpractice

[rocketbirdie]

I finished Crisis Core and ough my heart <///////////3 THE ENDING DID NOT NEED TO HIT THAT HARD also Genesis and Zack most wonderful characters do you maybe have some art of the two of them (Zack's line from the final Genesis fight "(resigned)Why's everyone ... always pushing things on me" is on repeat in my brain)

No doodles at the moment BUT i do have some agonizing thoughts about Zack's dialogue...

UGHH i had a post somewhere. or maybe it some tags? where i went on a small tangent about Zack and his self destructive people-pleasing tendencies and his lack of agency. i just spent the past like 20 minutes trying to find it but tungle dot com's search function is uniquely mediocre. no luck :(

[ct-multifandom]

If I met award-winning murder mystery author Stuart Turton (the 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, the devil and the dark water, the last murder at the end of the world) in person, I would gift him a copy of the zero escape trilogy the way Matpat gave the pope undertale

[fictionadventurer]

*

[squeakadeeks]

moodboard for this past week ❤️

[spellshite]

i want to adopt number 6

[outofthiisworld]

👽// me still high off of my self-inducing cleaning mania: by all means i very well could give doc and ophelia a real life furby to take care of. a weird little furblet if you will. maybe more. i have all the power at my fingertips to make those be very real creatures in the setting Just Because™️

[icebear4president]

He needs to be studied. Like a science project, but I don’t anything can explain what goes on his mind

[hsslilly-blog]

thinking about that one ask about claire getting into genetics/biology as a child but shes literally an ivf baby. i think biology would be a natural curiosity to her

[protectxthem]

Dogmeat doesn't want anything, just wants to show off her teddy bear.

Look at how happy she is! Look at her tail go!

[greenlaut]

old ocs 👍 (late night ramblings in the tags)

[rizardofether]

Thinking about Reiss again. He's an artificially created asura. The inspiration came from a manga I was reading, where the protagonist got reincarnated in another world into an artificially made new body and at some point one of the other characters finds out about it and brings it up by saying: "Your face has such a gentle smile. You wouldn't think it was the face of an artificially created human." Which sounds really fucked up to say to someone in my opinion...

Anyway so it inspired me to make my own artificially created character, and asura were the perfect target, since they would be the type to do something like that. I was unsure if I wanted him to be basically the clone of his creator or just a mix of genes he got his hands on...

But then this happened:

For the first time I got the doppelganger targeting me and it just happened while I was playing on Reiss. Which then led me to think about if Reiss was a clone, then seeing a doppelganger of himself would feel very uncomfortable.

Reiss' story is that his creator wanted to try his hand at artificially creating asura, and used his genes to make clones. Reiss was the first successful one, though he ran out of funding for his secret project so he remained the only one. Though he had plans for more, he had to put the project on pause to secure more funding.

In the meanwhile, he began raising Reiss as his son/test subject. He was a messed up fellow who would have treated his actual children terribly as well and he never got anyone to consent to having children with him he was that rancid.

Reiss was made to be very intelligent even by asura standards, as well as physically stronger than any normal asura. It worked for the most part, though he ended up with poor eyesight, having to wear glasses. Reiss quickly learned to act in a way that pleased his creator, hiding his displeasure at his treatment, secretly working towards escaping from his lab.

Then one day he was caught in the Inquest attack to take over the golems, getting killed by one of them. Reiss who had secretly built and planted a listening device on him, learned of this and took it as a chance to escape and be free.

While Reiss is a clone, he is a younger version of his creator, who was already an old man, so at most people would only recognize him as his son, since he kept his project secret from everyone else. The name Reiss is one he came up with for himself, his creator only ever used a test subject number name for him.