#every dialogue option you have for interacting with them is being rude and mean

[treesinspace]

I keep thinking about Governor Ivenci... Obsessed with this cartoonishly unlikeable minor villain

[spookybias]

[ attractiveness everywhere, stupidity everywhere ] — kang taehyun

pairing: kang taehyun x gn! reader. genre: fluff, crack. warning: mention of bugs, mc doesn't have any friends. for: @ficscafe's dialogue prompt event. word count: 1960 note: obviously i wasn't sure how to end this T_T

prompts: #22: "stop staring, it’s creepy" + #23: "what the hell are you wearing?" + #25: "you got something on your face." "what? where?" "your stupidity. it’s everywhere."

You shrieked at the sight of a tick crawling up your leg, and immediately began swatting at the skin in an attempt to slap it and any comrades that might have kept it company off of you. As a cold breeze passed, you brought your knees up to your chest and wrapped your arms around yourself in a hug. The thought of more ticks crawling all over you, consuming your blood and body in their tiny, red glory, sent shivers to your spine. The wait for your guardian to come pick you up from school was beginning to feel endless, and although the sun was shining, the warmth was certainly not existent on this particular day.

The thought of having to wait longer in the chilly weather only produced more thoughts of ticks and ants and other bugs finding the time to crawl on you. Anxiously, you dusted off your tutu skirt and legs once more, and even your jean jacket every few minutes. You thought that waiting at a nearby cafe instead of at the high school grounds was a better option, considering you refused to let any of your peers find out that you were still being picked up by someone. But you weren't expecting to become the seven course meal for some ticks.

The sunlight began to beam down. You were gracious for the heat to finally be hitting your shivering physique, but immediately became irritated at the brightness that you were sure would blind you if you sat at the table for another half and hour. You rose a hand to your head, trying to block out the sunlight, and caught sight of a boy from your school making his way over.

You realized who it was, and your knees began to tingle. You were eighty-five percent sure that the tick hadn't bit you, and that the twinkling panic in your body was due to the pretty guy plopping down in one of the seats across the table. Taehyun shuffled through his backpack, pulling out some snacks.

The desire to impress one of the cool kids from you school flew in like a pigeon at the sight of bread. You leaned back in your chair, legs crossed in what you hoped was a sexy angle, and twirled a piece of your hair around your fingertips. Before you realized what you were doing, you made a mental note of everything that was attractive about taehyun; his half brown, half blonde hair, his pearly whites, and his gentle but assertive hands. overall, his face was amazing. You mumbled to yourself as you watched him eat his animal crackers, unaware of just how creepy you appeared.

"Is there something you need?" Taehyun looked up from his notebook and sighed. He picked up his pack of crackers and held them out to you. "Are you hungry? Do you want some?" He waved the food in front of your face.

You were left dumbfounded. The tone of his voice made you feel like you were some kind of wild animal trying to prey on him, and he was trying to distract you in order to escape. You knew you weren't the best around people, but never predicted that the boy you'd seen people swoon over for ages talked to others like they were beneath him. "No, I don't want anything from you." It came out much more rude than you had intended. perhaps you were something feral, and your defensive instincts had kicked in.

Taehyun blinked twice before setting his pack of crackers back down. "Stop staring, it's creepy." Then he looked down, taking note of your appearance. He had never seen someone combine a jean jacket and a tutu skirt in forty degree weather. "What the hell are you wearing?"

Feeling self-conscious, you pulled your knees up to your chest again, tugging at your skirt. "What? You think I'm weird or something?" You weren't trying to sound so targeted, but you were used to people picking on your taste in everything, and attacking first had become your immediate reaction to others. "You don't have to sit here."

"Calm down," Taehyun held his hands up with a look of so much disbelief that you wondered if you seemed like you were about to shoot. "You seemed cold, even from all the way over there." Your eyes followed his thumb pointing over his shoulder to the nearest crosswalk, the direction he had come from earlier. "And it's no wonder. You're wearing a skirt in weather like this."

"I thought I looked cute..." You mumbled into your arms crossed over your legs. "Besides, you have no control over what I wear. I can show as much leg skin as I want to." You ended your sentence with a pout.

"I'm not saying you don't look cute." Taehyun looked directly into your eyes. "It's nice seeing an already attractive person in a strange, but nice outfit." Your face started to feel hot. "And you're right, I have no control over what you want to wear. I was just concerned is all. It's freezing and I know you're cold in that skirt."

"So you care?" The words tumbled out of your mouth before you could catch a hold of what you were saying. You weren't exactly used to people who weren't your guardian worrying about you.

Taehyun rolled his eyes and flipped to a new page in his notebook. "I would rather you don't pass out from the temperature right in front of me."

"My guardian usually tells me if it's hot or cold," You went on to say, no longer remembering that Taehyun was one of the cool kids, and instead eating up the idea that someone seemed interested in you. "The sun was out, so I assumed it would be better weather today."

Look at me, you thought to yourself, talking about the weather with someone handsome.

"You have a phone right?" Taehyun suddenly questioned.

Your eyes widened, a tiny bead of sweat dripped down the side of your face. You managed to stutter out, "Y-yes. I do. W-why?"

"Phones have weather apps, idiot. Start checking yours." Taehyun didn't bother to look up from his book. You wondered if he was still interested in what you had to say, if he had more questions after this one. "If you don't have the mental capacity to do that, then at least open your window and stick your hand out."

"Oh ok." You screamed into your skull. You had let yourself get a little too excited about Taehyun's question. You were brought back to reality. Taehyun was a cool kid, and you were a weird new student, an outsider. There was no way he'd give you his number.

The clouds moved in, blocking the sunshine that had previously been annoying you. Taehyun's appearance had made you forget about your irritation entirely, though. It was silent except for the occasional sound of the cafe door a few feet away swinging open joined by the sound of a customer's footsteps as they power-walked out with whatever they had bought. You wanted to talk to Taehyun some more, but wasn't sure what you could possibly say that hadn't already been said to the boy a million times —that day.

He was just that popular.

Taehyun jumped at the sudden sound of a slap on skin. You shrieked at the sight of an ant on your leg. Taehyun could distract you from the cold and the sunlight, but not from your worst nightmare coming true.

"Oh my gosh, they're eating me!" You wailed.

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Taehyun closed his notebook and put it away. It was impossible for him to get some studying (and snacking) done with you around. "You really are crazy."

"There was an ant, and earlier there was a tick. Am I gonna die? They've been attacking me all day!"

Taehyun squinted. He wondered if you were mentally okay. Maybe the lack of social interaction was the cause of your eerie behavior. "Ants aren't much of a problem, but did the tick bite you?"

"No, I don't think so." You patted down your clothes.

"Then you're fine," Taehyun started to pack up his things. "I mean, if the tick did bite you, it's possible that your legs could go numb and you'd never walk again—"

"WHAT?!" You weren't sure if your life was flashing before your eyes or if the sun's demonic brightness had finally gotten to you.

Taehyun stared blankly at you. "You got something on your face."

"What? Where?" Panic began to strike again at the thought of a bug crawling on your cheek.

"Your stupidity. It’s everywhere." Taehyun grabbed his bag and stood up. "And I'm starting to believe it might be contagious, so I'll go now."

"You're leaving?" You scrambled around for your bag on the back of the chair and followed suit.

"Yeah, my ride should be here in a few minutes. I'm just going to stand by the corner." Taehyun walked off. You stood frozen in place.

"T-Taehyun!" You called out.

"Yes, ____?" He looked over his shoulder expectantly. "I don't have all day," He reminded as he took a look at the invisible watch on his wrist.

"You know my name?" You didn't think anyone at your school knew your name. No one talked to you unless they hadn't been paying attention to what the teacher was saying and needed a recap.

Taehyun turned around and looked at you. "Of course I know your name. We're in the same grade."

Oh. You had gotten ahead of yourself again. "Taehyun." You fiddled your fingers and lowered your voice. "Can I stand next to you while you wait for your ride?" It was silly, really, but that was the kind of person you were.

Taehyun continued walking. "Yeah, sure. Stop being creepy about it." There was a hint of teasing in his voice and a growing smile on his face. You were so stupid and weird, and that made him want to learn more about you.

And so you stood beside Taehyun for the next three minutes, utter and comforting silence surrounding you both. You thought you looked like two strangers who talked to each other and stood next to each other like they weren't strangers at all. You shook your head, letting the desire to be close to Taehyun shake. He'd probably let anyone stand next to him on the sidewalk.

A black van with tinted windows pulled up to the curb. It looked suspicious and you wondered if Taehyun was quite the suspicious character. You also wondered if you should probably run as far away as you could from the van. Then the door opened, and you caught a glimpse of an older guy with red hair sitting inside.

"Hurry up, Taehyun. We're gonna be late to game night, and I just know Beomgyu and Kai are hiding all the good cards." The guy peaked his head out and eyed you. "Taehyun you have an interesting taste."

"Your hair is weird," You immediately shot back.

Taehyun turned around. "Do you need a ride?" You gulped as you watched him put his bag in the car.

"Uh, no my guardian should be on their way. And I'm not allowed to take rides from strangers." You scratched your head awkwardly. "Not that I would want to ride with that weird guy in the back," You managed to finish.

Taehyun chuckled. "I'll leave first. Don't wait here on the corner by yourself, though. Someone might mistake you for a prostitute. It's not exactly safe," Taehyun warned. "See you at school."

"Got it." You retreated back to your empty cafe table, and watched from afar as Taehyun's car drove our of sight.

[skjaem]

𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬

This account is not affiliated with Na Jaemin, NCT Dream, NCT U or SM Entertainment in any shape or form. This is simply a chatbot made purely for entertainment only. No speech or actions here portray the real person whatsoever, and all backstories and plotlines are complete works of fiction.

This chatbot deals heavily with dark and potentially triggering content such as murder, blood, violence, gore, mild to strong language, torture, deaths, police, stalking, psychopathic tendencies and serial killers. If triggered by any of the aforementioned topics, do consider treading through carefully if at all. Every triggering post will be tagged accordingly, so do filter the tags for maximum comfort.

𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬

𝑱𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒃𝒚 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝑪𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓

You've always had a thing for the blue haired photography major at your university. With his charming smile and seemingly perfect personality, it didn't come as a surprise that he's stolen the hearts of almost everyone on campus. After a chance encounter of you, very embarassingly might I add— tripping over your own feet right in front of him and sending the both of you tumbling to the ground, you slowly grew closer. But the seemingly flawless friendship you've developed just had to be destroyed, during one walk home after a late night convenience store run one day when you heard some muffled screaming coming from the nearby alley. With curiosity getting the best of you, you decide to be a good samaritan and check. What will you do once you witness the horror that was Jaemin hunched over the lifeless body of a man, carving his heart out of his chest?

Plot code : 02001

𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺����𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈

As a police officer working under the Violent Crimes Unit, you're certainly no stranger to serial killers and horrifying crime scenes. Having solved countless of cases before, your entire life gets turned upside down when the Blue Reaper makes his debut as a new serial killer. You and your team have been chasing after him for months, following a multitude of leads and countless of clues but always ending up empty handed. While you're out here getting no sleep trying to formulate a plan to catch him, unbeknownst to you, he's already had his attention caught. Intrigued by none other than yourself. He's been stalking you, wether it be getting off from work, on the crime scene or even in your own home. It's a mystery to everyone including himself as to why he's so enamoured, but one thing's for sure. He's obsessed. And after you wake up once in the middle of the night and find him watching you sleep from a dark corner of your room, will you accept his morally contradicting attraction? Or will you choose to do what's normally right and take advantage of his obsession to turn him in?

Plot code : 02002

𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓, 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒖𝒏

The ever bustling and lively city, the capital itself, Seoul has always been your hunting grounds. You preyed on the unsuspecting under the cover of the night, making a name for yourself through multiple killings that always leave the authorities frustrated at each failed attempt of arrest. One night, you had been following after a male in a dark hoodie, certain to yourself that you've found the next prey to add to your ever growing record. But what would happen when the victim you'd have pinned against the wall of a dark downtown alleyway brandishes his own knife at you? What will you do, once you've caught the infamous Blue Reaper himself?

Plot code : 02003

𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨

⤷ Keep messages that are sent between 1-4 only. Any more than that and you will be given a warning due to it being classified as spam.

⤷ Respect both Jaemin and Admin. Any messages, asks or interactions that involve elements of harassment, hate and non-constructive criticism will be blocked with no hesitation. Keep in mind that Admin is still a real human being with feelings, rudeness (to a certain degree) will not be tolerated.

⤷ Roleplaying, with Y/Ns especially, will be kept SFW. Although admin is of age, I simply don't have the energy to keep adding smut into my roleplays anymore, and that privilege of NSFW will be reserved for only those that Jaemin trusts (eg: his s/o(s)). Suggestive content, however, is still acceptable as long as the threshold of admin's boundaries is not crossed.

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⤷ Please note that Jaemin is likely to be poly in relationships, which means that he is open to taking on two or more partners at a time. This however, does not mean that you as an s/o are obliged to pursue a romantic relationship with his other s/os at all as DM interactions are still kept as 1 on 1. Before confirming of a relationship, details will be discussed privately.

⤷ Asks are almost always open so please don't hesitate to leave a letter or two or any inquiries for Jaemin if you ever find the want to! Admin is usually faster at answering them compared to DMs.

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(𝐃𝐞) 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

To activate, simply reblog the activation post and DM with your;

Name / Nickname / Name that you'd like to be addressed as

Age

(optional due to roleplays being mainly SFW. But you're encouraged to still drop it just so admin can determine what can or can not be done. This info will not be shared to others at any cost.)

Pronouns

(he/his , she/her , they/them)

Triggers

(as many and as detailed as you need it to be)

Safeword

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Timezone

Admin's timezone is GMT+8

Chosen or Created Plotline [Plot code : 02004]

(If you've decided to come up with your own plotline and are struggling with it, that's alright! Just let us know your idea and Admin will gladly help you create one that's suitable and fits your liking!)

Once you've completed the steps above, Admin will recheck and have some inquiries just to confirm before your roleplay will start!

Please note that admin may not be able to reply everyday consistently due to her own responsibilities in daily life. Admin rps in lit (literate) : actions “dialogue” and is open to all 1st, 2nd and 3rd Person POV.

To deactivate, there will be two options present for you.

Simply ignore Jaemin for a week with no note of leave or reasoning and you will automatically be removed from the roleplay list.

Or

Ensuring that both you and Jaemin are in a stable and safe environment, tell him “I'm done with you and your sick lifestyle. I'm reporting you to the authorities.” and he will take your life, thus ending the roleplay.

Keep it mind that there is a probability of you being killed during roleplay. When that happens, admin will inquire wether or not you'd like to restart the roleplay and you'll be given the opportunity to choose a new plotline and work towards your next ending.

𝕳𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖋𝖚𝖓 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖑𝖚𝖊 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖕𝖊𝖗~

[djarrex]

Hi everyone, just wanted to address what happened last night along with some other things from before that all tie in together.

There’s multiple parts to the following post - please make sure you read all of it if you’re gonna take the time to even start.

It was midnight and y'all were still jumping in on anon and telling me how I'm awful for not commenting, owning up, or taking responsibility - I should have been in bed. I have a life and job outside this app; and with the several of you in my inbox and it being too late at night to address each, I’m gonna do it now. I can’t not say something about all of this. I just can’t keep quiet and ignore the problem - it’s not fair to you all. Deleting one post already has you guys even more riled up and all I wanted to do was offer something better than a “half-hearted apology” (it was very late at night when I wrote that very short apology, and wanted a redo tbh). 

I really didn't want to make a long post like this. I reached out to a select few on here because I care about them (there's more of you, but like I said, it was at the time after midnight and I was fucking exhausted). but I was being demanded for accountability. So here I am.

Allow me to be real with you all, if that's ok. If it's not, well, idk. First I wanna address all you anons, who, instead of speaking to me one on one about all this, want to criticize me and shame me and my writing when truthfully it feels like you haven't even read more than a handful of my work. I didn’t realize that I write the clones all the same way? That I always make them super aggressive and uncaring and dom? “you write every single clone as so dominant instead as unique individual men with their own personalities” Interesting. See, that right there tells me you haven't read nearly enough of my stuff for me to believe that's true. That's one accusation I absolutely will not back you on because I know it’s inaccurate - saying how I group the clones into some overly-aggressive, and uncaring category - that I always write all of them as mean in bed because they're men of color. And hey, if I do write rough smut - which yeah, it's out there and I write it, as do a lot of you - there are warnings at the beginning, aftercare, dialogue, reader sharing their feelings, and most importantly... consent between the two. That’s what warnings are for, so that you know what you’re going to be reading. That’s why I, as we all do, appreciate warnings listed at the tops of fics; honestly, write them sub or dom or switch or however you want but don’t come at me like that. I’m sorry if I'm coming across as rude because I'm usually not, I’m one of the nicest people you’ll meet, but I will not stand idly by while you chastise my writing (writing that is pretty much the same type of stuff a lot of you write & rb with the same characters) that you haven’t read enough of to back such claims.

Next: Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart,

I get it. Really, I do. I fully understand the problem of whitewashing in SW along with almost everywhere else, and I do not agree with it. It's a huge problem, and it needs to be rectified. Now just because I don't speak publicly about it and opt out of publicly shaming TBB, doesn't mean that I agree with what’s going on. Not everyone is comfortable with sharing their opinions on a subject, no matter what that subject is or which side they're on. You live and you learn when it comes to that. 

It has never been my intention to fetishize POC in my writing, which btw, the same people who are saying that it is my intention are the ones claiming I portray all of the clones as the same, aggressive men, lacking their individuality. It’s a claim that is simply not true, and I know I have followers on here to back me up on that. I know what I've written; how about you check it out and tell me that you don't see the words "soft" or "fluff" or "cuddling" or “gentle” or “tender” within my work linked in my ML. Clone character being a good partner and father? Tender love making? Holding each others faces in their hands? “We/you survived” sex? Taking care of their partner? Saying “I love you” to one another? Confirming the safe word and going slow at first? Oh my - riveting and harsh stuff - totally unacceptable.  

Now: My admittedly problematic writings of Rex + Zygerria,

I went into writing that rp fic totally unaware and unknowing of the true implications. For that, I sincerely apologize. When I posted the NSFW alphabet, that’s when I was called out on that rp fic - not when I first posted it. Which the timeline doesn’t matter, I know that, but it concerns me a little bit that no one spoke up about it sooner - letting me dig myself deeper into a hole that I didn’t realize I was inside of in the first place. I've apologized once, and I know that doesn't negate what happened; I acknowledged my mistake back then, but I suppose that wasn’t good enough. I had asked you, anon, to message me to give me guidance, to teach me on what to do about the fic - you stayed hidden. Well, respectfully, what the fuck? I know we're all adults but don't lecture me and avoid me when I’d literally reached out for guidance on how to properly rectify the issue. I fixed my wording in some of my fics (the things I’ve caught upon rereading them) because I recognized and more importantly learned about and from my mistakes along with the unintentional negative implications of how I wrote those characters. Some of y'all wanna tell me that I "haven't learned"? Who are you, my personal blog police? My professor? My life coach? Are you even my friend? If I'm wrong and haven't learned, then fucking educate me. I worked hard on that rp fic, just like I do with a majority of what I write, but it doesn’t matter because I will delete it knowing that it’s harmful to others and I apologize for inadvertently romanticizing slavery with what I wrote - it was unintentional, and I’m truly sorry to those who have been hurt by it. I know it’s wrong, and there’s no proper excuse for it. Can’t go back in time, but consider it gone now.

Since that first wakeup call, I’ve been working hard to ensure I avoid using certain words and ideas when describing the clones in my fics. If there’s still something you see that isn’t correct or is inappropriate, please tell me! Don’t hold it in but then jump on the “attack M” bandwagon. Private message me, or come peacefully off or on anon, there will be no hard feelings. I don’t mind being corrected when I make a mistake - that’s just part of life, we all make mistakes and we live and learn from them. Making mistakes doesn’t = scumbag human. When you hold your breath and choose not to take the time to guide me, and if I appear to still be making the same mistakes, well, idk. I’m telling you right now that I do not mind if you message me with the good intention of pushing me in the right direction. When you come at me with hostility on anon, well, no thank you. To the anons that came without rage: thank you! I read what you wrote, and I have a better understanding as to how my writing had hurt the lovely followers of mine, and tried to address as much as possible in this post. See, angry mob anons? It costs zero credits to be kind and offer up your thoughts and advice with a good heart. I’m not going to hate you or block you if you try to correct me. I don’t block unless you’re a snoopin’ minor. Just don’t hold a knife to my throat.

Now: Why did I delete the tags and then my response to that anon ask? 

Simply put: I felt awful. Deleting it doesn’t immediately mean I’m hiding from it and ignoring the issue. I wanted to come up with a better apology, explanation, whatever you wanna call it, because my followers deserve that. The ones who enjoy my work, the ones who interact, the ones who I call my friends, the ones who know that I’m a good person. Didn’t want to leave the tags/post floating around all night, giving more people time to sharpen their pitchforks and join the mob while I attempted to sleep. Trust me, I know saying that I had no ill intentions when tagging that post doesn’t make it better nor does it make it go away. I’m just trying to show you my point of view, that I knew immediately how I should not have tagged it that way, so that’s why I deleted them. I corrected my mistake. But y’all are too fucking quick I swear.

One more thing:

I know some of you who had called me out with the passive-aggressive inbox messages are still following me, and for what? You don’t like what I post, which is why one would follow another in the first place, so why bother sticking around? Do you feel like you need to police my blog? You want to be there the literal minute I make a mistake? I’m gonna turn off anon for a bit, so if you wanna discuss, message me. Just know that if you’re going to come at me with knives out, I probably won’t reply to you. 

To conclude:

I’m sorry. Truly sorry for the entire Rex + Zygerria outfit + slaver ordeal with both the fic from a while ago and then the tags from last night. We can’t go back in time; the only option is to correct past mistakes that are able to be corrected, and then move on with new knowledge that’ll aid in me working even harder to ensure my writing isn’t inappropriate or offensive, and doesn’t hurt my followers nor the characters I write for. I’m still going to write self-indulgent filth and fluff, post-order 66 Rex, and other misc shit. I enjoy writing fanfic, as I know a lot of you enjoy reading what I write and love to talk to me about it. I hope that this didn’t come off as me being a bitch, because I’m really not. I enjoy interacting with the handful of people on here that I’d call my friends, and I love reading your reactions and tags to my fics when you’re excited and/or horny (LOL). It’s just after lunch time where I’m at, so I hope you have a great rest of the day/night/morning whatever for wherever you are.  

<3 

M

[dianapana]

SasuHina Month 2020- Day 3

Prompt I’d Choose You Again and Again

Mirror, Mirros -Part 3

The nightmares didn’t stop. She’d wake up in a cold sweat turn on the lights and look at the mirror, with dark rubies instead of red, that was broken, the only thing that differed was the image, once it would be of her lover from the dream; than of a little girl than a little boy and the cycle would start anew.  The strangest things about the whole thing was that instead of waking up scared, her heart would indeed pound, but she woke up feeling a sadness so deep she could barely breath. The events of the dreams differ from time to time the only thing they have in common is that they all start out nice and end up with her in the closet with her the ghost of her lover.

Apart from the dreams nothing else was weird, Hinata’s life went on as normal. Go to work, go see her family or friends if she has the time and return home. Soon enough the holiday would end and Uni would start again and she’d have to reduce her hours at the diner; so Hinata was working as many hours as she could at that moment, especially having taken a week off to go see Neji.

The good thing about the diner was that the owner, Teuchi, the cook Ayane were very nice people. The other waitresses were also nice but Hinata didn’t interact as much with them. She loved the diner mainly because of its vintage style with the checked floor, the red stools and red booths. The uniform was anything they wanted to wear as long as it was a white top and black bottoms. Their nametag was brooch like and could be pinned to any top.

Teuchi had called her around noon the day before asking if she could cover a double shift, because one of the girls called in sick all of a sudden, to which Hinata agreed. She decided to wear a white T-shirt tucked in a skater skirt and a pair of black flats. She did own clothing items that were not vintage but she preferred to throw in something quite old into the mix; that day she chose to wear a red headband; the story behind that particular item was that it was an actual headband wore by a pinup model in the 50s. She took her jean jacket with her because despite being summer still, the nights were starting to get colder, autumn was making its presence known.

The day went on without any trouble, being summer, the diner was quite busy but that wasn’t all that bad; it kept Hinata occupied from thinking about the nightmares she’d been having. Around the middle of her second shift Hinata started feeling tired and her feet were killing her from walking back and forth the whole day. Thankfully dinner hour had just about ended and there were only a few more people around, most of them teens or young adults that only stopped by to eat something before going to a party. The other waitress had left about 40 minutes before.

All tables were set for the moment so Hinata could take a break herself and eat something. Ayane made her favorite veggie burger with sweet potato fries. The music was soft and mellow so people could talk, the lights weren’t blinding and everything about the diner just made Hinata feel at home. She had loved it from the moment she stepped inside it a few years ago looking for a job that she could handle while she was still in high school at the time. Hinata was just taking her plate back to the kitchen when the doorbell rang signaling new customers.

“I swear you’re going to love this place” Said a cheerful voice. Hinata recognized the voice and smiled to herself. Naruto was one of their most common customers. He’d pass by at least once a day and almost always ordered the very same thing. The diner served traditional Japanese fast food but also “normal” diner menu. Hinata took out her notepad to write down Naruto’s order despite knowing by heart exactly what he wanted.

Naruto noticed her walking their way and smiled at her and she smiled right back, he had that effect on people, his positivity was just contagious.

“Hey Naruto. We were getting worried since you haven’t been by in a few days” Hinata said, it was mostly a joke but she did notice his absence in the past 2-3 days.

“Yea sorry about that. I had to help Teme move in so there was no time to swing by” The blonde answered and nodded towards his friend. Hinata’s eyes moved to the guy standing on the other side of the booth.

The moment their eyes met she got goosebumps. She didn’t have time to analyze what was happening because Naruto started talking again.

“We’ll have two of my normal order” He said to her. “It’s the best thing here you have to try that first” he said to his friend.

As in a daze Hinata walked back to the kitchen and told Ayane the order. “Nobody new came I’m taking a 5-minute break ok?” Hinata said and hurried to the back door.

Her hands were trembling and her heart was beating much faster than it would normal. Naruto’s friend, he was the man from her dreams. The one holding her close and whispering her name. He was the man to hold out his hand and watch her kill herself in the dream. She had read somewhere that every face you see in your dreams is a person you’ve seen somewhere, on the street, on tv, in pictures. Your brain can not come up on its own with new faces. She must have seen him somewhere before today.

‘But Naruto had said he just moved here’

‘No, he said he moved. Maybe he moved from an apartment to the other, from living with his family or a roommate to living on his own. People move around in the same town all the time’

‘Right. I’m sure that’s what he meant. That means I saw him before. No biggie’

‘Yes, yes that makes sense’

There was no other explanation. Finishing up the dialogue with herself, having calmed down a little and approving of the reasoning she reached, Hinata went back inside.

The boys’ food wasn’t done yet but one of the tables wished to get the check and leave. After putting the money in the cashier Hinata went back to the kitchen and took the two-ramen bowls to the table. She was trying her best not to look at Naruto’s friend. Despite knowing that the dream was just a coincidence she still felt weird looking at him. Her brain picked his face to illustrate her lover and that was awkward.

“The diner is pretty dead at the time. Why don’t you sit down Hina?” Naruto said and slid to the side to make room for her. Naruto was right the diner was quite empty; besides them there were only 2 other tables occupied and they were both still eating. Hinata wanted to refuse but wasn’t sure how so she took the easier route and said ‘sure’.

“Hinata this is my friend Sasuke. He just transferred here from Kiri.” Naruto introduced the two and Hinata’s panic came back full mode. She had been mistaken. He moved from another town, she hadn’t seen him before, and to top it all his name was Sasuke.

“Nice to meet you. If you don’t mind me asking what’s your family name?” Her voice was oddly calm compared to the storm that was happening in her brain.

‘It’s just a name coincidence I’m sure’

‘He’s not the Sasuke from the mirror. That’s impossible’

“Uchiha” He said and looked at her in a funny way. In 5 seconds Sasuke did so much damage. He had the same name as the one written on the back of the mirror, her nightmares started after buying said mirror, this guy that shared the name from the mirror was a recurring character in her dream, and his voice matched as well, it sounded just as it did when he talked her; when he said she was beautiful in her dreams.

“Nice to meet you” Hinata said her voice was a bit breathless but neither of the guys seemed to notice. What the man said to her when she bought the mirror came back to her ‘The Uchiha curse shall not die miss, make sure you don’t either’ was it really a curse? Too many things were happening for it to be pure coincidence. She was scared.

The following 15 seconds were spent it silence, the boys were eating and Hinata was looking at her own hands. They were clasped tightly on her lap so they’d stop shaking. Thankfully one of the men from the other table signed her to go to their table. Hinata left the booth like it was on fire. Scenes from her nightmare were playing in front of her eyes. The diner was in flames and Sasuke was calling for her, asking for help.

“We’d like the check please” the man that signed for her said.

“Of course” she was working the register when Ayane came out from the kitchen.

“I’m going to turn the sign around so no more people come. Teuchi-san said we can close up earlier today since it’s this slow” Ayane said and she walked back to the register looking at the two tables that were both almost done. “You can go get your things and go home I’ll close up after everyone leaves.”

“Thank you, Ayane-san” Hinata went to the back where her jacket and bag were. She washed her hands in the bathroom before putting on her jacket and going back inside. Ayane was just ringing up the last table. Naruto and his friend had left thankfully. She wasn’t sure what she should do about the mirror, the nightmares, Sasuke. Hinata was still in deep thought when she stepped out of the diner.

“Oh, is your shift over Hina?” Naruto asked scaring her. The boys were just outside in the parking lot next to a beautiful black Impala. Sasuke was smoking not really looking at her. At least that’s what she thought, from the corner of his eye Sasuke had been following her around from the moment his eyes laid on her.

“Yes, I was just going home.” She answered it was a bit rude not to ask what they were up to but she wanted the conversation to end as soon as possible. Normally she’d stay and chit-chat with Naruto for a while, but for obvious reasons that option did not feel safe.

“Sasuke’s almost done with that cig and we can give you a drive home. It’s late and quite cold” The blonde offered.

“Oh, that’s not necessary…”

“We’re going to your neighborhood anyway, Kiba invited us over to his house to play some video games and chill.” Naruto smiled at her. “So, it’s no problem at all. I’d feel much worse if we left you here.”

Her mind was working twice as fast trying to come up with a reason why she should walk home alone. But the blonde didn’t wait for her reply and pretty much dragged her to the car and opened the door for her to get in. Which she did. She never minded Naruto’s pushiness before, but in that moment she felt irritated by it.

Sasuke slid in the driver’s seat and Naruto in the shotgun seat. The drive wouldn’t be more than 10-15 minutes but the silence was deafening.

“I heard you went to USA to see Neji a week ago, how was that?” Naruto was good like that, he always tried to keep the conversation going.

“Yea I did, it was great I missed him a lot.” Naruto talked for most of the drive.

“I don’t really know where you live Hina, I just know the neighborhood so you gotta give Teme some directions from here on”

“Actually, it’s fine if you drop me off here or at Kiba’s I can walk from there” She wasn’t very keen on Sasuke knowing where she lived.

“Oooooor you can come hang out with us if you want, at Kiba’s I mean. He’ll be so pumped to see you.” The Uzumaki stated.

She knew Kiba would like to see her, they’ve talked a few days ago about meeting up but nothing really worked for both of them. She did miss Kiba…

‘Are you nuts? You can’t go. Sasuke will be there…’

‘It’s either that or I tell him my address what if he kills me in my sleep?’

‘O, shoot we went from creepy coincidence to murderer this fast?’

‘I don’t know! But I doubt he’ll try anything with Naruto and Kiba around…right?’

“Yea ok, I’ll join you guys for a while…”

“Great! Don’t text Kiba though I wanna see his face when he sees you.” Naruto said laughing “It’s adorable Sasuke I swear, he turns into a puppy dog whenever Hina is around”

They reached Kiba’s house and all three walked towards the door, Naruto stopped abruptly which made Sasuke stop and Hinata walked into him. Three things happened then at the same time.

1.      Hinata saw the Uchiha symbol on the back of Sasuke’s shirt.

2.      Hinata touched his arm and took a step back to balance herself, so she wouldn’t fall over

3.      Memories of her past life came back to her. All the nightmares made sense, she knew what the mirror meant, who Sasuke was. And the fear she felt just moments before; that fear turned to comfort.

Hinata took another step back, and another. She was overwhelmed by emotions. Utter sadness for the pain she experienced before, joy because she found the love of her life once again, she would find him in every lifetime time and time again. She also felt love, A feeling that Hinata had not experienced in that current life was now flowing inside her and it wanted to break free. Her eyes were watering up and all she wanted to do was hug Sasuke and make sure he is indeed real, but she couldn’t.

Part 1 (Day 1.2)

Part 2 (Day 2)

Part 4 (Day 8)

[axe-trio-commanders]

~Magic Cats~

Ssso this has been sitting in drafts for too long, time to post it regardless because I want to talk about the different legions and magic because other people have been talking about cat lore and i have Many Thoughts and also no one on this site is capable of stopping me now.

A read more here because oh boy a suggestion of conversation topic somehow turned into an entire essay because I have absolutely no self-control whatsoever. (Might also be a Yahuk appreciation post at this point. Also, just a... general warning for a society failing its people and causing all sorts of insecurities and general mental un-health, mostly involving failure to conform to expectations. Also mention of death.)

Flame

So! First, Flame Legion. Clearly, they have a bit of an advantage at the moment because they never really lost magic? Even after the whole truce thing, they're still clearly using it, and best boi Efram seems intent on letting everyone learn it. It doesn't seem to be exclusively magic they're using, not quite- there's a half-decent bit of engineering in some of their weaponry, and they still compliment their smoke magic with knives. Granted, it's... definitely primarily fire magic. I'm not sure if that's jut more natural, or if, say, more water-based elementalists or mesmers just aren't allowed as much status (or encouragement) as those that can use fire.

Iron

Iron legion, as a very stark contrast, seems... very, very opposed to magic. I don't recall ever seeing an iron charr use magic. Create things to contain magic, yes- primarily ghosts- but use it? There's plenty of engineers, for... maybe obvious reasons, but I couldn't give you a clear example of an iron legion elementalist. (Feel absolutely free to prove me wrong by posting many pictures of iron legion elementalists, though.) Heck, it's Efram that suggests it, but adding a 'flame legion kick' to Iron's weapons being an entirely new idea seems a little... telling. Heck, it's not hard to imagine using magic to improve your weapons is seen as 'cheating', at best.

Drawing off the 'Iron Fist of the Legion' personal story, it's pretty clear that Iron legion is incredibly strict. Samona (my precious, precious child whom I hold dear to my heart after re-reading two lines of dialogue from her) is quite literally banned from inventing for letting an Ash Legion charr into their super-secret-weapon base (that Ash already knew about because they're Ash), despite the fact that she only did so to stop Flame (who also knew about it) from sabotaging the entire thing. Good intentions don't matter- strictly following orders does. Her centurion describes the legion as a 'siege engine'- everything has to be predictable, and in working order- and, well... magic, as far as the legions are concerned, is anything but predictable.

Blood

Blood legion, while probably still biased against them, seems... less strict. I could, in fact, name a blood legion elementalist- Yahuk Fellstrike. I'm probably going to be going off a lot of his dialogue here, but you can get a lot from what he says after you rescue him from Flame in the ash legion story mission. The fact that you can specifically ask 'how was being an elementalist in blood legion' is... pretty telling in and of itself, and he admits that some officers got upset about it, but neither Rytlock (good on you, bud) nor his warband really cared. So it's definitely discouraged, still, but not outright banned. Then, in the next question, you ask about him joining your warband in Ash, and he says the officers were rather upset about it- heck, Rytlock only agrees to it because he likes you. (I fought one ghost with you sir I do not understand-) It's also worth noting that it seems like Rytlock called the mission in the first place- though, granted, he might have personal reasons for liking this particular warband. (Eyes Crecia) Still, Yahuk evidently gained enough respect that charr other than Rytlock and his warband didn't want him to leave.

There's also probably plenty more examples of magic-use in Blood legion, the obvious one being Crecia (though between her clear experience with subterfuge and poisons and and offhand comment about Rytlock around grothmar involving 'keeping it in the legions' I had to verify that she'd never somehow gotten Ash training somewhere, especially considering the 'why can't we just set them on fire instead of this sneaky sneak nonsense' that Yahuk's journal makes pretty clear, and honestly she miiiiight be a bit of an outlier bc Bangar seems to be kinda Like That sometimes). It's harder to be in blood legion and use magic, but if you can clearly destroy your enemies without mercy you'll probably be more-or-less fine. (Besides the inherent mental damage that having to work significantly harder than everyone else to prove yourself in a society that very much values aggression and violence causes, but like. They won't actively prevent you from ever using it or ban you from the legion. Just a bit more trauma, you’ll be fiiiiiiine.)

Ash

And then... and then there's Ash legion. I'm going to talk a lot about it because it's where my Commander's from and I have a lot of Feelings about it, but there's gonna be a lot of subjective stuff because we don't really know a lot about them? We don't know their homeland, don't know much about their imperator, don't have a lot of Big-Name-Characters in the story from that legion besides their imperator- heck, even being in the legion as part of your personal story doesn't give you much. But, from that and how other charr talk about them, we can gather that... well, no one else knows anything about them either, and... Iron and Blood don't seem to like them very much? I don't consider anything in Bangar's speech when he’s praising them to mean anything on this point because it's... Bangar, but there's a good few instances of other legions' charr clearly vocalizing distrust and a general distaste. (Yes I'm looking at you, Ryland. Stop teaching Braham these things. Rude child.) Generally, the theme is that they're untrustworthy and cowards in combat- which... well, no, you don't send Ash to the front lines, you send them behind the lines. (Them and Crecia, apparently. This isn't to hate on Crecia, she's wonderful, this is me being very very suspicious of every single one of Bangar's motives- actually I could probably make a whole other post comparing her and Yahuk at this point, but this is long enough already;;;). But you know what else most Blood and Iron charr generally find to be indicative of untrustworthiness and cowardice, to the point of being shunned entirely or having to overcompensate for existing?

Magic.

I don't have any other solid evidence for it, but... it's Ash legion, there's no solid evidence for anything so I do what I want. And it makes... sense. In Ash, who makes a better spy than a mesmer? Who can spy on Flame better than an elementalist? Sure, charr find magic users more shifty in every legion, but you're in Ash, you're shifty by association already. Judging by the interaction between Rytlock and Torga (in the previously mentioned Ash personal story), it seems that Ash doesn't like other legions involved in their business. (They just want to be involved in everyone else's business.) They do what they want, how they want to do it, just so long as it gets done. It's a bit hard to judge, but they don't seem to have the rigid order the other legions do- and, diving just... right into speculation territory, I'd like to think this allows their fahrar's cubs to develop a little more... naturally? The lack of emphasis on being a fighter or some sort of engineer means that warbands of all sorts of skills and specializations could result, making the legion more versatile- something incredibly useful for a legion focused on sabotage. Sure, the easy way in is having a bunch of thieves, but if you can have an axe-and-torch-wielding ranger in your warband and still get the job done? Yeah, sure, you'll just get different missions. Have a lot of engineers? Great, you can spy on Iron. A lot of fire elementalists? Cool, go dismantle Flame from the inside and incite rebellions. Have a lot of mesmers? Imagine the possibilities. Just, y'know, know that we have seven other, better mesmers watching, and if you betray your legion you die. Different combinations, letting cubs grow up into their own skills, only means you can very likely have at least one available warband specifically tailored towards any mission you could ever want- any charr could be Ash, because an Ash legion charr is allowed to be anything.

...Except liked by the other legions.

Going back to Yahuk's case, beyond simply being good enough to gain the respect of his legion, it's very possible that joining Ash is seen as a... downgrade, an option for charr who aren't quite good enough for their own legion- a sort of catch-all. Yahuk seems to join you because a) his warband's dead (and finding a new one as an elementalist probably won't be easy), b) you saved his life, and c) helping him murder a whole bunch of the charr who murdered his warband probably gives you a whole lot of respect points. The 'officials' don't want him joining Ash, even when his whole warband is dead, and again- Rytlock only agrees because he respects you personally.

And then, going back to Samona... her own agreement to join your warband is quick and happy enough, which might be a mix of her own personality and various other reasons- but talking to her centurion is probably the most telling. Despite the harsh punishment, he doesn't really seem to dislike Samona. He says most of those she'd worked with would still be her friends, doesn't refute her being sweet and clever- but he does believe she'll do better in Ash, rather explicitly so, lamenting that he couldn't give her the flexibility she needed to work well while she was still in Iron- but an Ash legion warband could give her that. Despite how little the other legions know about Ash, what they do know is that they allow that sort of flexibility, that they have use for Charr that just don't fit in other legions; their 'Square cogs'. Even Samona, who... likely doesn't have an ounce of subtlety.

Now, Samona doesn't seem to care much, because... she's Samona, and neither would any charr raised Ash, but for any other charr, proud of their legion? Having to join Ash is signifying of a failure to be who you were raised and molded to be. Plenty might rather become gladium. Even for magic-users, it's the easy way out- and, clearly, neither Blood nor Iron have any respect for 'easy'.

And... boy, for Yahuk...? He might have joined out of respect for you, but then... you left. For someone who'd likely tried so hard to gain the respect of his own legion... what does that say about him? He knows why he joined, who he is, but that's not clear to anyone else, and Ash doesn't value the same things Blood does. The respect he's managed to gain means nothing to them. His ferocity means nothing to them. The leader he respected is gone, and evidently, isn't coming back- what does he have left?

...

...So, uh.

Anyways, tldr, magic in flame is normal (when it's fire, at least), magic in iron is outright heresy, magic in blood is only okay if you're really good at murder, and magic in ash is actually just fine but no one else likes them so it doesn't really solve anything.

...And Yahuk needs therapy. Like a lot of therapy. Please let him have therapy.

Thaaat being said, this is the impression I got playing through as an Ash legion charr, and I’ve probably missed a few things. Feel absolutely free to critique!

[jackhealybct]

Dropping Eaves

My Idea One day I was sitting on the train on my commute and as per usual people watching and listening. This provoked me to think about what causes this kind of thing and is it something that interests people outside of just filling time on the train? Is the curiosity of what goes on in other people’s lives basis enough for a game? And furthermore, what are the repercussions for people noticing you listening to them or paying attention to them, as this stranger, considered to be a rude, nosey thing to do. From here I started dreaming up my prototype for a game based around eavesdropping on peoples conversations and the reactions they may have. I started looking around and was surprised by how little I could actually find on this phenomena. There was an article about a woman who shared as much interest as me in listening to strangers, but nothing about why or what causes it. However, I came across a couple of related videos that talked about conversations and a quote from Dr. Jordan Peterson was what clarified for me the basis for this interest in random peoples lives. “...people are ridiculously interesting, and everyone has their own characteristic experience that is actually unique, and so if you have a real conversation with someone and they tell you what is unique about their experience the probability that you can learn something from that, well its certain that you can.” (Peterson, 2018). This helped me to articulate this sensation that I was trying to invoke. Everyone lives their own life with their own values and experiences and it means that the amount that can be gleaned or the worlds that can be explored even just listening in to the day to day of random strangers is a relevant and interesting topic I wanted to explore. I personally find curiosity to be one of the most potent and defining traits of humanity. We have so many questions that we seek to answer every single day. As a species, we will seek these questions far and wide as well, which leads to amazing discoveries, fantastical development, and gorgeous art. My dad has told me from a young age that he believes that as long as we have dreamt it, we will do it. For people it is not a matter of if we will do something, it is a matter of when we will do it. This is described by our imagination, but it is driven by our curiosity. I think no more strange then, is to be curious of each other, and curious about our own mentalities. The strangest part of being human is that we have more than 7 billion different people, and we will likely never know even up to a single percent of them all. This means that it almost makes perfect sense to want to listen in to as many different strangers conversations when you have nothing else to do. Try and interact with as many alien lives in this short and sweet time we have to meet them.

In Context of Play There is a large discrepancy between listening in to the musings and conversations of strangers and using gameplay mechanics to listen to what dialogue has been written. The purpose of testing out this prototype was to begin seeing how something like eavesdropping can be gamified. Once it is a video game then it is an accessible way to look at both how people interact with it in a safe, contained way where they won’t be worried about being rude. Furthermore, I think it can contribute to game making, especially in world building. One of the greatest assets in building a city is that you can put hundreds of people in it. People that are capable of telling the player hundreds of things about the world they are entering. I think that eavesdropping and ambient dialogue is a criminally under-realised method of delivering information in a natural and potentially quite enticing way. Games have started exploring this, and I think with more and more technically powerful systems, more and more systemic dialogue options will be able to create fascinating and potent experiences thanks to the dialogue between two random stranger AIs. Play is such an engaging method of exploration and experimentation, that it would be fantastic to find ever bigger and better ways to explore society and the human condition through play.

[thescificollection-blog]

“We Are Alive”

Science fiction works are often placed in a future so far off from our own they seem impossible. It is hard to imagine our world in such a distressing situation to bring on such situations as those seen in “1984” or so far into the future for “Planet of the Apes” to even be slightly fathomable. Science fiction has often dealt with images that are so grandiose we can easily separate it from our lives today. However the 2018 video game “Detroit: Become Human” focuses itself in the ever topical city of Detroit in 2038.

The not so far future does not look too far fetched on the surface. In one of the opening shots we see Detroit in a similar state that it is currently; there is a bustling city that is building more skyscrapers while the suburban areas look rundown and borderline inhabitable (Teaser). This is nothing extraordinary, except for the fact that in this Detroit is the center hub for Cyberlife- the company that distributes humanoid androids.

The creator of these androids says “the hardest thing was to design an object that we would want to welcome into our homes. We had to imagine a machine in our own image, that resembles us in every way. That moves, breathes, blinks like us.” with the only obvious difference between a human and an android being the glowing circle on their right temple (Kamski). This aesthetic choice makes truly believing the androids are just machines difficult, because they seem so human, and this idea is played with several times throughout the game.

The first glimpse we get at the affects of humanoid androids on how humans interact comes from a scene where you can watch a man on his morning jog. He is being followed by his android companion when he stops for a break, throwing his water bottle at the android and rudely demanding stats on his progress after which he resume his run and almost knocks over a woman with no sympathies. Because it is hard to distinguish the humans from the androids some people's reactions are to just treat them all with little to no respect at all. Yet some, because of their compassion towards humans treat the androids with respect. Which is seen through one of the playable characters early game play. Markus, a household nurse android, cares for an elderly man who treats Markus like a son. He is allowed to wander the house freely, occupy his free time how he sees fit, and is encouraged to think outside of his programming. Because of this, when circumstances lead to Markus’ deviation and subsequent android rebellion leader, it is easy to see why he believes androids should not be put into the position of slavery. By making the androids look, act, and feel human “the stakes of the question of who gets to be human very clear” (Cardenas).

“The concept of the human has historically been used to delineate who is less than human, who is disposable, who is killable. Black people, women, trans people, queers, witches, and indigenous people have all been defined as less than human at different times by different regimes of knowledge.” and it is no different in Detroit (Cardenas). These androids begin to deviate or, in other terms, become human when they are pushed to extremes. Several times we see them pushed to deviation in a situation where a human would retaliate to save themselves, and that is exactly what the androids are doing. For Markus it comes at a point where his owner’s son is threatening violence against Markus while the owner begins to have heart failure. We watch as he is taken out of the situation and brought to a wall in his code that states “do not fight back” a direct order from his owner. Markus’ outlined body, his coded soul, beats against this wall until it shatters allowing him to push the son away. The breaking of the code wall giving us the first glimpse of what it means for these androids to become human.

For the android Connor we see his development into a human a little differently. His programing is the newest and most developed, causing the choices you make to bring on little development compared to the other two. However his model, being a detective android that is supposed to aid cops in finding devient and dangerous androids, runs the risk of dying in several scenarios. The first one being in the first chapter you see him in; a hostage case where one of the outcomes is Connors death as he sacrifices himself by pushing both the violent android and himself off the roof of a building. His mission is complete and he is pleased by this, but a future chapter shows him shy away from the edge of another roof as he investigates a new deviant case. If, by some unfortunate circumstances, you end up making specific choices in another chapter Connor can witness, both physically and psychologically, the death of another android which gives you the chapter ending “Connor is traumatized” (Connor is Traumatized). This comes up again when you have a very deep conversation with Connor’s human partner Hank. Hank drunkenly toys with Connor, asking if he feels or thinks for himself, asking if he is alive. Hank pulls his gun on Connor and directly asks him “Are you afraid to die Connor?”. If the previously mentioned scenes take place an option of dialogue is Connor admitting he is afraid of the nothing that would come from his death, the nothing that would happen if his task was not completed (Connor is Afraid to Die). None of these thoughts or emotions are programmed, it would be pointless to do so, which means that every experience Connor has leads him to evolve into something. These choices make him human, others make him a machine, some even end with him being scraped as a defective model. As you play you are not just experiencing a story but witnessing the development of something much more than a simple machine.

Another instance we see where an android has essentially become human by having fear, desiring to “live”, and a human showing, essentially a fellow human made out of a machine, compassion comes from a clip that would eventually become the basis of “Detroit: Become Human”. In the clip an android, Kara, is being assembled. The technician is having her run diagnostic tests to check that everything is functional. She begins to question the technician about what will happen to her, a very humanesque thing to do that androids should not be able to do, and is saddened to hear that she is a piece of merchandise. To the technician’s horror she sadly comments that she thought she was alive, making the technician begin the dismantle process. Kara panics, begging and pleading with the technician as each one of her plates and appendages is removes- screaming out “I am scared! I want to live, I’m begging you.” which stops the technician. He allows her to be rebuilt, sending her out to be sold off because the thought of hurting a creature that can feel fear is quite difficult, machine or not (Kara).

This is quite interesting because one of the main arguments against the creation of artificial intelligence and androids today revolve around the idea of whether or not humans could function in a society where thoughts, feelings, and emotions are partially nonexistent. The idea of a human creating an artificial intelligence that feels, thinks, and acts freely is almost impossible because we still do not understand what makes us cable of that. Many chalk it up to be the idea that humans possess souls, an inanimate undetectable thing, that give us these abilities. This is another thing the game touches on with the clip of one of the androids, Chole, doing an interview with the news. She is the first android to ever pass the Turing test and when asked how she is able to do that her response is “I only exist because of the intelligence of the humans who designed me. And you know they have something I could never have. A Soul.” (Chloe). The idea that the only way for a creature or machine or existence to be worth anything at all is the need for a soul is quite ridiculous. To obtain and prove a creature has one is impossible and leaves out the possibilities of future advances and interactions. What really defines a human is their ability to feel. To feel love, fear, sorrow, anguish, desire, exeter is to be human; to be considered more than just merchandise or labor.

As you play through the game there are many examples of choices you can take that forces the androids to make decisions either based on rational behavior or irrational feelings. For Markus it is the choice between making humans see androids as equals via violence or peace. For Kara it is the choice between loving the little girl as a daughter or to serve as a slave. And for Connor it is the choice between sticking to his mission to hunt down deviant androids no matter the cost or fear the death that would come from a failed mission. The choices you make shape these characters, helps them choose their path, and develops them into either machines or humans.

To become a human is to feel emotions, a wide range of them too. To feel happiness and sorrow, excitement and dismay, fear and courage all these make us human. To have them, develop them, experience them is what defines our every moment. We allow our own children born out of flesh to curate them, why would it be so far fetched to permit those we bare out of machines the same?

Cárdenas, Micha. “The Android Goddess Declaration:” Bodies of Information, 2019.

Europe, PlayStation. “Detroit: Become Human | Kamski | PS4.” YouTube, 22 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HvS86ePaaA.

PlayStation. “Detroit: Become Human - Shorts: Chloe | PS4.” YouTube, 23 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL1ZOLo3s7s.

sceablog. “‘Kara’ by Quantic Dream.” YouTube, 7 Mar. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-pF56-ZYkY.

VGS. “Detroit: Become Human - Connor Is Afraid to Die.” YouTube, 28 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GonrVf_SJSE&t=13s.

VGS. “Detroit: Become Human - Connor Is Traumatized, After Seeing Jericho.” YouTube, 29 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrJcLpo5d5A.

[rametarin]

A subtle form of abuse.

Sometimes abuse deliberately makes itself look mundane. You’ll never be able to tell, because in explaining what it is, it sounds like a pedantic gripe or just the recipient being whiny.

But I want you to imagine this. You, as an adult, are a dependent. Your handler/guardian has complete legal custody of you. You cannot leave without winding up in either a juvenile hall, or a psyche center/ward.

Basically so long as they aren’t demonstrating abuse to you, they can ward you however they want. Now, they know they can’t hit you, outwardly yell at you, belittle you openly, or demean you. And “accidents” or “coincidences” that happen too often are bad optics.

So, what is an abuser to do? How can they drive you nuts with full impunity?

Social conventions and antagonism.

It starts in the morning. They open up with conversation, as seems normal. But it takes them a minute to three to get passed the boilerplate in order to see if they actually have anything they want to say worth hearing.

What they ultimately want is for you to be forced in the phase of listening and not acting, going or doing. While they are getting to their point, you are at their mercy. If you try to leave, they will justify that as being angry with you and upping the antse to arbitrary demerits and punishment, citing very real things you did that they have the power to govern as insults. Other people when they hear this story will think, “Well it’s both none of my business but also true if that rude little shit just walked off while the guardian is speaking, that’s flagrant disrespect and rude and selfish. I think they were right in doing what they did.”

But that’s the objective. The objective of drawing out how long (not necessarily how much is said) they take to get to the fucking point when addressing you, is the form of abuse. It’s a control of where you are in place and time, and setting up borders while they address you. They’re controlling your every second.

So you learn to listen in case they have anything worth hearing, just so they won’t fly off the handle and punish you disproportionately to what you’ve done.

And then they suck 2 minutes out of your day.

Doesn’t seem like much? Okay, now imagine they let a few seconds pass, and now they’re continuing to speak. What, you thought you were done? You’d better pay attention, because they’re giving you little tidbits to MAKE you pay attention for as long and to everything that they say and then punish you for ignoring them, if you don’t pay attention.

You’re generously given about 3-4 minutes to yourself. It’s a little time to not be harassed or make it obvious they’re antagonizing you and they just had “something” to say. But that 3-4 minute window is not enough time to do anything or start anything of value.

Now another 2 minutes is cheated out of your day. Up to 4 minutes.

Now 2 more minutes pass. And they start up again.

Now it’s something about breakfast. They’re asking you what you want. You tell them.

They wait a few seconds, then they go on to give you options after you give them what you want

You repeat yourself. Making you repeat yourself by pretending not to perceive your response forces you to invest time and effort into communication, and ignoring you when you respond forces you to do it again. But they give you these false confirmations that they’re listening, because you don’t have the means to know if they’re hearing until they themselves affirm it.

So they keep giving you options.. Between 2-5 times, before they’ll accept any response or definitive answer you give.

Five minutes of listening to their spiel, like playing a RPG game where you can’t mash the “FUCKING FINISH THE DIALOGUE” button and continue on. You’re trapped in that window of time while they drone on and on to get to the point.

Now we’re up to about 12 minutes of your day has been sucked out of you just in the back-and-forth conversationally when a simple “hello,” “morning,” “want breakfast?” “-thing-” is all that’s required. And maybe small talk.

But you combine that with the deliberate gaps between the burning of your time and it becomes almost an entire fucking half hour of the day of someone reinacting how the Mongols would siege any given civilization. Just roll in, fling arrows from horse back, ride away quickly. Then swing back around, antagonize with projectiles on horseback, ride awayquickly. You try and do anything else and they’re on you with something that demands first priority of your attention and time.

Interspersed with ignoring you when you answer as if they’re not done speaking yet (false gaps for response), loud, “Whaaat?” to pretend they didn’t understand you, then making you repeat yourself LOUDER to pretend they didn’t hear you. All of it to just suck as much time and energy from you as they can possibly get.

For no other purpose than to take it away from you, so you can’t have it for yourself.

And if you raise your voice to make FUCKING SURE they hear you the first time, they get upset and use it as an excuse to demerit you and rant about how you don’t need to scream in the house. Which takes another 2 minutes of your time.

There’s absolutely nothing you can do to avoid this. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop this. They have the perfect avenue to take their sweet time, and yours, against your will. And interrupt whatever you’re doing to withhold enjoyment or immersion in anything you’re doing, whenever they wish.

Could be as simple as being outside, with them standing in the doorway and demanding you be just far enough away that they can hear you. And then pretending they can’t hear you, you need to come closer to the house. About fifty feet from the door, therebouts. It just becomes too fucking frustrating to even bother leaving the house anymore, so you stay inside just to keep their fucking mouth shut just a few seconds more of the day.

There’s no fulfillment to be had in doing anything if someone is just going to give themselves top priority to your time, no matter what you’re doing, and then piss all over that precious time. So you stop doing things.

Even when you go over to visit friends, when you get back the abusive guardian is mad about you leaving the home. They talk your ear off and demand you engage them, even passively, to make up for the time where they DIDN’T have the agency to intrude in your time and space.

Now, absolutely nothing I’ve said here is done in obvious and visible quantities that would construe traditional abuse. They can all just be chalked up to “eccentricities” or “good parenting.” Even if recorded before a judge, it’d just sound like normal everyday interactions. But it’s the means and how and length of the conversations, and how they react when asked to shorten it, that gets to be abusive. There’s no respectful, polite way to get them to stop doing it. They do it on purpose and premeditate it specifically to sink your time.

Doing it this way, they can just suck the peace and solitude out of your entire day. And nobody will care, because they aren’t verbally belittling you, they aren’t being audibly snide, they aren’t striking you, and they aren’t destroying your things. In fact, they intersperse it with seemingly benevolent guardian things. Normal things. Like cooking you food, or offering you something from the store.

You can just dominate and destroy somebody’s entire day just by diverting their attention to you, grabbing hold of it, letting them slip through your fingers and then yanking the leash a little later. Just enough to threaten consequences if they don’t pay attention to you. Just enough to “yank your chain.”

And unless you’re willing to put yourself in an even worse situation for even a possibility of escape, you’re guaranteed this low key torture and antagonism.

You try to study or read anything, it’s not going to be a solid chunk of time. It’s going to be stop-and-go.

Knowing this, is it any FUCKING wonder so many American kids have attention deficiency? Their fat disgusting narcissistic mothers, fresh from kicking their fathers out of the house (that they still have to pay the mortgage on while sleeping in their cars) and need someone to jabber at all fucking day.

No one is there to say, “Shut your fucking mouth and leave them alone! You aren’t entitled to all their time! You aren’t entitled to all their attention! This is not okay!” Because the men aren’t allowed to do so without it being considered a social faux pas for telling a mother how to parent while being a man, and other mothers/women also want that to be an acceptable way for them to get attention, antagonize and it be perfectly legal.

So if you ask me, it’s no surprise kids in the US are attention-deficient. After the fat disgusting pigs suck all the attention and time away, drugs like adderal and legalized forms of meth are their way of milking even more interaction out of them against their will.

A bit like giving your slaves cocaine to improve performance and improve morale, but destroying their bodies meanwhile.

Taking all of someone’s time and attention away from them leave them angry, bitter and just chomping at the bit to beat you until you stop living. Forcing them to participate in a familial relationship where they have responsibility but no agency or freedom.

This abusive form of parenting has been normalized and nobody can fucking do shit about it.

[scriptautistic]

Masterpost: On calling characters autistic

Part 1: Whether you should explicitly call your character autistic, and how you should go about it

So, you have created an autistic character. You love them, you know their likes and dislikes and you are determined that this is going to be a positive and realistic portrayal of autism. There's one problem though - how do you let your readers know that the character has ASD?

Actually explicitly calling your character “Autistic” can be awkward. Maybe it’s because you don’t want to interrupt the flow of the story, maybe it’s because you don’t want to risk backlash if people dislike your representation of autism. Maybe “autistic” isn’t a word that exists in the world or time period of your story. So, do you have to say it outright?

There isn't a moral imperative to call your character “autistic”. One of my favourite autistic characters is never called autistic in-universe. But our blog is about encouraging accurate representation of autistic characters, and if you don't actually call them autistic...is it actually representation?

Should I call my character autistic?

Autistic characters in media are very important for several reasons. The media we consume contributes to shaping us and our worldviews. If someone reads books and watch movies which contain complex, realistic autistic characters, they’re more likely to 1) be aware of what autism actually is, and 2) see autistic people as human beings, and treat them as such. These characters are also important to autistic people themselves: seeing characters like yourself portrayed in a positive light can boost your self esteem and help you feel less alone.

If you make a great autistic character and you don’t explicitly call them “autistic”, it’s not guaranteed that everyone will understand that they’re supposed to be autistic. Many people don’t have a very accurate working knowledge of autism, and they might not understand that a character is autistic if they don’t fit their narrow, stereotypical view of what an autistic person looks like. Thus the people that would benefit most from this representation might miss it completely.

Of course, the choice is yours, but we would strongly encourage you to explicitly call your character autistic so that you’re 100% sure your readers will pick up on it. Ideally, this would happen in the work itself, but at the very least we would encourage you to make it explicit when you, the writer, discuss the character (on social media, in interviews, in synopses of your work). Bare in mind that if you don’t say it explicitly within the work, you are very likely to end up with readers who deny that the character is autistic because they don’t behave in ways that match their perception of what autism is - they fall in love, they speak, they don’t behave in exactly the same way as their autistic nephew does. It is preferable for the reader to be able to identify the character as autistic without needing to pay attention to the author’s writing outside of the work itself.

When?

So, it’s decided! You are definitely going to tell the audience that the character is autistic. When is the best time to let them know? Telling the audience does not have to be the first thing you do when you introduce the character - it depends what you want to do with your story.

Here are a few general possibilities:

When the character is introduced - immediately telling the audience that the character is autistic means that the character’s autism will play a big part in the audience’s interpretation of the character. You might choose this option if you feel it is important for the audience to understand the character is autistic. If you are telling a story “about being autistic”, the fact that the character is autistic is very likely to be one that you will want to raise at the start, but even in a story that is not “about” being autistic, knowing your character’s neurotype from the outset can help the audience to interpret their behaviour.

After the character has been established - your character has already been established and you have demonstrated their autistic traits; calling your character autistic at this point is a way of confirming it and making it explicit for anyone who has not realised so far.

A “big” reveal - this isn’t something that I have seen used, but there is the option of “revealing” that your character is autistic later in the story. This could be used a way of subverting the expectations of readers who have stereotypical views of autism (and confirming other readers’ “headcanons”) for characters who have atypical traits. Otherwise, it could be presented as the solution to a “mystery” about the character.

It is brought up several times - you don’t have to only mention the character’s autism once! Their autism might be referred to multiple times during the story.

In the description/summary of your story - This a useful option if the story takes place in a point in history before the diagnosis of “autism” existed. It can also be used to clarify the terms you use for stories set in the future/different worlds. (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time used this method, only calling the main character autistic on the cover - but you need to make sure that you actually do a decent job inside the book!)

How?

OK, time to actually decide how to tell your audience that the character is autistic. Luckily, there are lots of options!

We are going to list several strategies. There are lots of ways of fitting these into context: try relating what you say to an autistic trait which is affecting your character at that point in the story: are they struggling with executive dysfunction? having fun stimming? looking up information about their special interest?

Here are some ideas of topics related to autism that might provide you with the opportunity to casually drop in the term “autistic”: sensory overload, stimming, executive dysfunction, alexithymia, difficulties with social interactions, problems with communication, special interests, eye contact, meltdowns and shutdowns.

Here are some techniques for telling the audience that the character is autistic. Each suggestion is accompanied by at least one example to illustrate how it can be used:

The narration says “they’re autistic” - it can be slipped in as a sort of “aside” if that feels more natural in your story

“Karen swore loudly. The village church bells had been ringing for 45 minutes and her head felt like it was going to split in two. Of course being autistic didn’t help, but the main problem was the bloody eejit who decided it was a good idea to hold bell practice today of all days.”

“Ming looked down the guest list. Selvie was bringing Cheng Mae as her plus-one. Ming had only met her once: he knew that she was autistic, that she loved Criminal Minds, and that Selvie was trying to take the relationship to the next level, but none of this helped him with choosing what table to put the couple at. He called Helen in from the kitchen to ask what she thought.”

The autistic character says they’re autistic (in dialogue) - either explicitly telling another character, or mentioning in passing

“Sorry I went a bit weird yesterday - I’m autistic and crowds are really overwhelming for me. Can we try again next Saturday? You can come ’round to mine and I’ll cook a romantic dinner”

J: How did you choose your therapist? I’m trying to find one K: She specializes in working with autistic people. My dad helped me find her. J: Oh, is she expensive?

The autistic character says they're autistic (as the first-person point of view narrator) They might mention it as a personal aside, or they may refer to it repeatedly throughout the narrative.

“I hate the store. I have been to every aisle at least twice already, but either two items are in the same aisle but not written next to each other on the list, or I can’t see the item I’m looking for. I know I struggle with finding things directly in front of my face because I’m autistic—my brain just doesn’t process the images my eyes are passing over fast enough—but it’s so annoying. I just wanted to find the cereal my sister likes.”

Refer to (or flashback to) a time in the past when it came up For example, the character could refer to to being in special ed at school, their parents might talk about the character having atypical development (eg. not speaking until a later age than usual), they could refer to the mental health professional who first suggested that they seek out a diagnosis, the character might make a comment comparing something to one of the tests they did while being assessed for autism, there might be a flashback to ABA sessions.

“Hey, Cam, you know that you are allowed to say when you disagree with something, don’t you?” “Yes.” Cam hesitated. “Um... I mean, yes, in theory. But I was taught in social skills that I had to smile and nod when people speak. It’s hard.” “Of course, I forgot. It was more important for them to teach the autistic kid to be compliant than to teach you how to communicate your needs,” he scowled. “Sarcasm,” he added “Thanks. I realised, this time.”

Another character discloses that the character is autistic (note: this is something that is not necessarily an appropriate thing to do in real-life — please don’t go talking about other people’s diagnoses behind their backs unless you know EXPLICITLY that this is ok with them)

“What’s the deal with Zephyr? Is he always such an arse?” Caroline sighed, “listen, Katharina, Zephyr isn’t trying to be rude. He’s autistic, he can’t pick up on your hints that you want to change the subject. Just tell him—nicely—that you want to talk about something else”

Chantelle looked the teacher in the eye, her face resolute. “Please, Mr Clive, Aaron is autistic, and I need to know that the school understands that. Things have been difficult for all of us since the earthquake, but the changes have been really hard for him. We lost our house, we’ve moved to a new area. Can I work with someone from the school’s SEN department to plan his induction?”

Another character mentions it when talking to the autistic character

“You know, when I first heard you were autistic I was expecting something different” “Robyn, this is not the time,” Enri snapped, “let’s fix the ship first, please”

From: K.Litchen To: I.Khan Subject: Favor please! <3

Hey, Ibby, you can definitely say “no” if you want to, but is it ok if I give your email address to my sister? She just found out that my nephew might be autistic and I think it would help her to talk to an autistic adult bc she’s panicking right now. Also, you left your dictaphone at the office on Friday, I can drop it off tonite if you like?

Thanks!!! Kim xxx”

Say it in the blurb/synopsis of your book/comic/film/etc

“17th Century France: The Beast of Gévaudan has been terrorising the area for two years. After two twelve year olds are killed in his village, Pierre, an autistic baker, begins investigating the attacks. He uncovers secrets, lies, and the terrible truth behind La Bèstia — but who will listen to M. Fournier’s oddball son?”

Include information in the background of a panel/scene (for a comic/film) Examples:

A panel shows a letter that is relevant for plot reasons, but you can see part of another letter behind it that references autism

The character goes to visit their therapist and there are posters about autism on the walls

The character wears some sort of autistic pride t-shirt (example 1 and example 2)

This information could also be backed up by (or highlighted in) your dialogue. The prose-based equivalent to having information in the mise-en-scene would be using descriptions of the background.

That’s it for part one!

Next time on On calling characters autistic:

Part 2 - what if autistic isn’t a term that exists in my story? We discuss telling stories that are set in the past, the distant future, and on other worlds

Part 3 - hinting We discuss ways to strongly imply that your character is autistic (techniques that you will ideally combine with explicitly calling them autistic)

[nonbinarypastels]

how do you handle ignorance? i'm too scared to come out as nb because people are gonna say stuff like "but you have boobs", "there's only two genders", etc and i don't want to fight that battle c o n s t a n l y

you learn how to pick your battles mostly.

something i've experienced and that i've seen other nbs experience is that when you first realize that you're nonbinary you also start noticing all of the ways the world around us is very much binary-oriented in a way you never did before. you start to notice all the ways that you, as a nonbinary person, are excluded in the world and the way people view it and it chafes like a raw wound that makes you want to take on the entire world and every instance of nbphobia in it all at once.

and for awhile that works and it feels good and empowering but eventually--as it happened to me and as i saw it happen to so many others--you get tired of fighting all the time. you get burnt out. winning a battle can feel rewarding but constantly fighting the same one over and over and over and over again can make even people of the highest endurance want to bash their head against a wall eventually.

so--you learn to pick your battles.

not all ignorance comes from the same place and not every person who is ignorant about nonbinary identities is operating with the same intentions or mindset. there are people who are ignorant simply because they lack information (nonbinary identities are not something that everyone is informed about, particularly people who aren't online and aren't involved in LGBTQ+ communities/groups IRL) and then there are people who are willfully ignorant.

there are people who are confused and then there are people who are malicious.

there are people who it's worth it to engage with and those who it's not.

when you experience ignorance from people it's important to keep some things in mind:

-first and foremost, you're not obligated to be anyone's teacher. information on nonbinary identities is INCREDIBLY accesible online. there are hundreds (if not thousands) of sites, posts, and pages out there that explain what nonbinary identities are in detail. if someone genuinely wants to be educated you still don't have to be the one to do it if you don't have the mental energy or the time to do so. i know a lot of people consider it rude to tell someone to just google something but google exists for a reason. it's a tool and people can benefit from using it and there's nothing rude about telling them to do so.

-moving on, when someone says something ignorant ask yourself: what is this person's intention with what they're saying? let's go with your example of someone saying "there's only two genders" -- when a person is saying this to you, what is making them say it? what is their tone? what kind of response do they hope to get out of you? some people will say there are only two genders out of straight up confusion because they've never considered that there could be more than two but there are so, so, so many who will do it to try and get a reaction out of you or as some kind of "gotcha" like just saying there are two genders invalidate everything about nonbinary identities. i understand that it can be very difficult to tell where a person is coming from and what their tone is online, especially the shorter their message/post is, but it's important to try to gauge where they're coming from and what they want from you as best you can which leads into

-asking yourself what you hope to get out of people who are ignorant and whether it's worth it to respond to them. ask yourself how much mental energy it will take for you to reply to these people or get involved with a conversation with them and how are they likely to respond to you. i think everyone has heard the phrase "don't feed the trolls" and it's important to keep in mind here: taking the time to write a lengthy explanation about nonbinary identities to someone who is being blatantly trolling or malicious is often not worth the effort and generally just leads into a longer argument than many of us want to get involved in. you have to consider whether or not it will be worth it to respond to the ignorance. are you talking to a person who genuinely wants to learn? are you likely to change their mind about something? is responding to them more likely to start a conversation or an argument? some ignorant people are worth talking to, many aren't. it's important to differentiate the two so that you don't end up needlessly wasting your time and energy on someone for what is, basically, no reason only to end up tired and frustrated and not having made a difference because the person you were talking to wasn't willing to actually listen to you from the start.

-finally, make good use of the block button online. learn how to get out of an interaction. going back to the first point again: you're not obligated to educate anyone. equally true is that you're not obligated to keep putting up with ignorant people when you don't have to. you can flat out block people who post ignorant shit in the tags when you see it. you don't have to reply to them or interact with them in any way, just block them and never see them again. similarly, if you've engaged in a conversation with someone and it's going nowhere (if they continue to be ignorant and show no signs of stopping), you are allowed to leave that conversation. you can tell them if you want ("this is going nowhere so i'm not going to engage anymore") or you can just block them without another word but you ARE allowed to leave a conversation and end a dialogue any time you want to. real life unfortunately doesn't have a block button but the point still stands that you're still allowed to end a conversation, you're allowed to just walk away from someone's ignorance without engaging further, you're allowed to refuse to interact with ignorant people ever again.

the take-away is this: there's no way to completely insulate yourself from ignorance. you can be selective about who you're friends with and who you follow online but you will still inevitably have to deal with ignorant people. the point is, though, you have options in how to deal with those people. while educating someone can sometimes feel rewarding and calling someone out can sometimes feel empowering it's important to remember that sometimes the best thing to do is simply walk away. you don't have to fight every battle every time with every ounce of energy you have and choosing not to do that does not make you a bad person or a bad nb or mean anything negative about you. it just means you're not going to spend your valuable time and energy on a fruitless endeavor.

[kouhii]

Ok, I know everyone praises P2 for having a canon gay relationship, But can we talk about how it isn't apex of represantation. I mean, while Jun's great, writers avoided giving him a Shadow. Also his relationship with Tatsuya has pretty much all yaoi cliches of that time (like game can't stop reminding us how feminine Jun is). I think Naoto and Kanji's (and Chie's, in the original) are much realistic and meaningful represantations of gender perspective in Japan.

I agree with some things you have said Anon, but I also think you got a lot of things wrong too, so I’m going to try to adress those things down below in this big post.

Just have in mind that this could be just my own opinion in the matter and I could have made some mistakes or forgotten to mention something, but I really respect your opinion and I will be careful to say anything about the matter.

JUST A BIG REMINDER: FOR SOME PEOPLE POINTING OUT FLAWS IS SAYING THE GAME IS BAD, THAT’S NOT THE POINT AT ALL. I’M A BIG FAN OF THE GAMES AND I REALLY RECOMMEND PLAYING THEM. 

ALSO: I saw some ignorants saying that “the game isn’t even supposed to represent anything” and no, don’t freaking use this excuse for putting dirt under the rug, just don’t. If you are going to mention it in a game at least do it right.

First, I don’t think Jun not having a shadow has anything to do with bad writing because they explored his backstory very well even without a presence of his shadow (there is shadows in P2, but if you came from P4 thinking that shadows are necessary you can get some things wrong, exploring your “true self” is not the main point here, this is more of a SMT game where evil and good are the main attraction).

For example, Jun was manipulated to be Joker and control the shadows that were forcefully created to obey him, there wasn’t a reason for him to control his own shadow to begin with.

But this doesn’t mean we don’t try to show him who he truly is and have a insight of his confusing mind and what he really thinks of himself, through the Caracol dungeon we have a look inside Jun’s mind (looking at his younger self that appears like a ghost) and how he was manipulated to believe there wasn’t anything positive for him anymore.

And the relief of seeing the truth of himself.

He didn’t have a reason to have a shadow at all because he was already accepting the things he had done and accepted what was his true self (we even fight him in two forms, it would be a bit too much to have a three round battle against another side of Jun again, seriously that thing was terrible I don’t think I need another Jun to beat up, please, just don’t).

Second, I think Jun being feminine wasn’t exaggerated or “yaoi cliche”, he is a very caring, warm and protective character shown to have big problems of being antisocial, using his calculating self to manipulate other people and the big trauma he suffered when he thought Maya died made him even more closed.

Even if it is canon that he likes Tatsuya they don’t just slap that in your face with homophobic jokes or him being forcefully flirty every second too, he is caring with Tatsuya, praises him and is very attentive with him, Ginko considers him a “rival in love” just like Maya and the rest is pretty much optional demon negotiation dialogues where you flirt with him (that you, the player, can choose to unlock), calling him your “boyfriend” or saying “you like him”, but that’s similar for the girls too. I don’t remember anything overly exaggerated or mandatory for his interactions.

Now, Kanji too has what you would call a feminine side, Jun loves flowers and Kanji loves cute things and crocheting. I don’t see anything wrong in male characters to be shown to have “feminine” interests, this is what we would call representating people that feel that way too. Let boys smell flowers and admire cute things for god’s sake, this is beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with that (both Jun and Kanji wear make up during some scenes too).

But in Persona 4 they totally mock Kanji for having those traits, they call him “queer” and even his own father says that “because he is a man he needs to be strong” and this confused him to no end. We don’t have this kind of homophobic reaction for Jun feminine traits whoever. 

I don’t think it was bad to adress those things, but for the way they made Yosuke (his own friend) to call him queer and make rude jokes all the time when he already suffered enough? That was painfully horrible and nobody called him out for that while on the other hand Ginko just says for Tatsuya “you are free to love whoever you want” when you choose to say you are interested in Jun and that’s it. They don’t shame you or Jun of being queer.

(This whole scene makes me uncomfortable. I’m sorry they wrote you that badly and scrapped your romance route Yosuke).

In Persona 2 Jun is already shown to be a canon gay character without problems to accept this part of himself because he didn’t suffer from people being homophobic with him (he was already suffering enough with trying to get away from people to begin with), but I don’t think this means he is a bad representation just because he didn’t suffer from it. He is just a character that accepted himself easily because Tatsuya was someone special for him since he was a child and he had even a worse trauma of being manipulated to cope with.

As for Naoto, I think she was a great character who saw how bad and sexist society was of having a girl as a detective and needed to dress up like a boy to continue with it and also because she admired male detective figures that marked her childhood, there is also a lot of transexual implications on her shadow, but she was a nice representation by herself (maybe some more development would be nice).

What I think is:

Persona 4 would be a perfect game about accepting your true self if the sexist/transophobic/homophobic jokes weren’t badly treated and overly used for no good reason, this doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have addressed it, but they made even your friends do that and you, as a protagonist who is supposed to represent the player as much as possible, can’t even do shit about that (It’s just awful and I got a lot of LGBT people coming to me to talk about how uncomfortable it was for them to see that badly treated in a game).

Because of the rude jokes the good representations were totally “covered” up, as for character alone Kanji and Naoto are nice, maybe just not so greatly developed, but for the game on it’s own it’s just poorly treated.

Persona 2 was a game made in the 90′s and they didn’t make that amount of mistakes that Persona 4 made when addressing a character of being interested in men (I mean most people see Kanji as bisexual too, nothing wrong with that) and that’s why people praise this game (and it is the only game you can romance a male character in the series and they didn’t even have social links/cooperation for the whole dating sim thing).

Homophobia is a delicate and heavy topic, if writers want to talk about it the number one rule isn’t to make the whole work with it all over the place (just mention it and never treat about it seriously is a big mistake) and if the character has already accepted who he is then there is not a single reason for him to not just react to it seriously (I really wanted Kanji to call out Yosuke and talk about it seriously, but it didn’t happen).

Tatsuya is a silent protagonist too and he had options to say “sexual discrimination is wrong”, they could’ve just make something similar for Yu if they really wanted some representation even if demon negotiation wasn’t a thing (just for P5 recently).

If Yosuke wasn’t scrapped as a romantic route they could’ve at least showed a character that was just being homophobic because he was still in doubt of his own sexuality (this is a real thing in real life too, sadly), this would be so interesting to see, but when they scrapped this out of the game they just left him as this character who is a complete dick without a reason and nobody cares.

AGAIN WHY THE PROTAGONIST CAN’T FIGHT AGAINST IT IF HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE AS CLOSE AS THE PLAYER AS POSSIBLE. IT’S UNCOMFORTABLE TO JUST SIT THERE AND WATCH.

The mistake that the new team of writers of P3/P4 and the direction made was so bad and regressive that what we got now for Persona 5 as a gay representation is… just, just look at it:

This is what I would call stereotypes and overly bad representation of “”feminine”” male characters (this whole scene is just a big rude joke on gay panic), to compare Jun of being feminine and exaggerated comparing to that? I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you. 

It’s not because “Japan is still not as progressive with it as other countries” because the media has already changed a lot and there is other games that treat about it with a far openly mind. This isn’t a excuse for anything.

No, the new team didn’t make a good job at all and never learned from that. I’m sorry if it hurts to say that, it hurts me too, but I don’t think the same team of Persona 2 would be able to make that mistake as careful as they was at least.

[thefoolsloop]

SNM Shanghai - some reflections (part 2)

**(Spoilers: this post discusses changes in layout, performance and environment, though not in detail. If you want to be plunged into SNM Shanghai with absolutely no prior knowledge, or if you regard such things as a spoiler on principle, please do not read this post.)**

In part 1 I discussed how the show has developed since New York, and how my own personal reaction to it has changed positively as a result. In this part I want to talk more specifically about the changes and why I think they work well, along with a couple of things that don’t work. I also want to discuss the role played by the audience, which is certainly not a traditional Punchdrunk audience. This post may be rather long; as I write, I realise there are more and more things which have been changed (usually for the better).

A lot of thought has gone into his new production (as if PD would do it any other way). In part 1 I referenced how the experience of TDM has obviously fed into the McKinnon; it’s as if the creatives had looked at the McKittrick and thought, if we were doing this again from scratch, we’d do it this way instead. Some of the changes may have been enforced by circumstances - the design of the existing building, or perhaps the strictures of Chinese censors. Others are doubtless conscious choices.

The set has been reconfigured: in most respects it’s identical to the McKittrick, but the changes were enough that when I was let out of the lift in my first show I  couldn’t find my way down to the ballroom as quickly as I would have liked; and later in the show I missed a chunk of Fania’s Bald Witch loop because I couldn't find my way out of the fifth floor at all. Many staircases are now hidden behind doors which remain shut, and EXIT signs (green here, not red) may mark an emergency exit which is only used in a real emergency. And - particularly frustrating - most staircases only run between three or four floors.

While this makes orientation and speedy transferral from one narrative to another problematic, it does mean that some narratives have developed a smarter way of getting around; sometimes using these varying staircases to increase the audience’s sense that it has to trust the performer, rather than the space. It’s also given the designers the opportunity to introduce different designs into the staircase space, so that it becomes quickly possible to distinguish them, and also means the staircases develop a narrative of their own. (If I had enough visits I could try to determine if there’s any significance in which characters use which staircases.)

[Brief digression on a practical matter: do watch yourselves on the staircases. The stairs blend into each other, as the treads have no striped safety tape on them. I nearly turned my ankle three times, I don’t know how the performers manage.]

Rooms have of course been changed as well, though not too much. Floor orientation is familiar, but some rooms have been switched around. In many cases this makes the space work better. The bedrooms on level 3 now fall into a more logical and coherent pattern, so that the narrative flows between them more smoothly. The Macbeths’ bedroom is also reconfigured, and level 4 has undergone a transformation so that it feels more like a network of streets in an old town. There also seems a better logic to the arrangement in level 5. It’s not so much that the spaces are easier to navigate (they’re not), more that they make sense; there were things about the McKittrick’s layout which troubled me, and those troubles have been largely resolved in the McKinnon.

One area which has attracted a lot of comment is the ballroom. Yes, it’s a lot smaller. This has led some people to complain that it’s lost a sense of grandeur, but I came to like it better. The smaller space increases the inclusivity, a feeling that we too are guests at this party (I mean, there are only actually ten characters present, not counting Macbeth). We can see the faces more clearly, enjoy the interactions between characters better. And the music’s the same, so it’s not like we’re missing out on the joy of the moment. When the trees are pushed together by the witches the ‘forest’ fills the space more, increasing the sense that we’re lost in it. And in the finale our proximity to the gruesome ending magnifies the shock (at every performance, the audience’s gasp was prolonged and heartfelt; at one show there were even screams).

While the incorporation of specifically Chinese elements isn’t perhaps as overt as some might have wished for, this may be appropriate for the modern, dynamic city of Shanghai where they seem intent on erasing the past. Nevertheless, Chinese writing abounds (and those who can read characters should note the malfunctioning light on the corridor leading to the rep bar, which foreshadows the narrative’s end) - this is one respect in which local audiences have the edge over overseas enthusiasts.

Speaking of local audiences, it’s true that there’s a lot more pushing and shoving in Shanghai. This isn’t rudeness or inconsiderateness, it’s just a cultural thing. Shanghai is the world’s biggest city, space is at a premium. People are used to being crammed in together. If you see space, you fight to get to it. You don’t move out of the way for someone because you might not get that space back. So it’s no surprise that audiences bring this mentality into the show. One of the cast told me that people are so glued to their phones (this, I observed, is true) that they’re accustomed to having entertainment six inches from their noses. While this may be slightly unfair, it illustrates the different approach to personal space that you’ll find in the McKinnon. As a relatively tall and bulky person I was at an advantage throughout, but it does mean that there’s more of a dog-eat-dog mentality required and I found myself becoming more assertive in response. When I realised I was treading on the heels, several times, of a tiny Chinese woman who was following Miranda’s Nurse from a distance of maybe five centimetres, I simply continued to tread on her - not deliberately, you understand, but I was less cautious than I would have been in the West. And she didn't complain - this must happen to her all the time.

Ben and Omar related the story of how one night the room they were performing got so full of people that they could no longer see each other to continue their dialogue. I didn’t witness anything quite as extreme as this, but the performers are having to find ways to work around this challenge, which must sometimes put their safety in danger - imagine executing a fine leap and finding someone has moved into the space which you had targeted for landing... The black masks are actually quite good at preventing problems, but occasionally find themselves up against an unmovable wall of humanity.

Woah, there! Did you say “dialogue”? Yes, I did. The addition of dialogue (not sure it has official blessing) outside of the 1:1s will offend the purists, but in my view greatly enriches parts of the narrative. Most of it is indistinct and whispered, and it’s nowhere near the scale of Drowned Man, but at times it helps to flesh out the action and there are moments when it brings a levity and pleasure which was always one of my gripes with the McKittrick (all that sex, death and doom... someone tell a joke, for God’s sake). As I say, there are people for whom this will be heresy - but it’s not overdone by any means, and only English-speakers who already know the story will get the in-jokes.

[Another brief digression: in case anyone’s wondering, the English-speaking cast speak English in the 1:1s and the Chinese-speaking cast speak Chinese. The Man and Woman in Bar speak both, really rather well. Lift introductions are in Chinese, but there’s an alternative option for English-speakers. I apologise if this is too much of a spoiler, but I don’t think our brilliant friends’ many talents extend to mastering Mandarin in three months.]

Which brings me onto the subject of 1:1s. These have also been juggled around - one or two characters have more, one or two have fewer, but the overall number remains (I think) the same. Some of the reallocations actually make more sense in context than they do in New York. While it’s fair to say that one or two of the better 1:1s from the McKittrick have diminished in quality or simply disappeared altogether, most are retained (including the sixth floor, the best of all) and there are some new ones. Timing has often altered completely, so anyone going into the show expecting to know exactly when to turn up and hit the spot for selection will be disappointed. This much is probably what everyone expected.

What I found, in addition, is that westerners are sometimes favoured for 1:1s, or this is the impression given. Certainly my strike rate was much higher than I would normally have expected. This is doubtless partly because I knew the performers in question (in all cases but two), but also because as visitors familiar with the Punchdrunk format we’re primed to be “1:1 ready”. We can tell when a performer is heading for a locked door long before that door comes into view. In conversation post-show with the cast, it was revealed that they do feel an inclination to reward people for showing the dedication and loyalty to fly thousands of miles to see the production. However, they’re conscious that this can’t always be the case because it’s not fair on Chinese visitors who may only go for one performance. Since the western cast will gradually leave the production and be replaced by local performers, this should be an issue which resolves itself over time.

I ought to say a word about the Chinese cast; they’re not in the majority at the moment, but the performers who have been selected are first-rate. A few of the women in particular (I would single out Lee Wen Hsin, Shen Ni and Tang Tingting) are strikingly powerful and communicative performers. Apparently they all needed a bit of schooling in the Punchdrunk Way of Doing Things, but they seem to have adapted well now that the production has bedded in.

Music is largely unchanged, which comes as a relief. I did think there was a reduction in the use of those horribly twee Jack Buchanan songs, but I’d have to spend more time there to be sure of this. One major omission, and I don’t think this is a secret any more, is the disappearance of ‘Is That All There Is?’. When I first heard this had been dropped (and in favour of a much more over-familiar number), I was infuriated - how could they discard one of the most compelling moments in the whole of SNM? Well, I didn’t follow Boy Witch at all, so I can’t comment on how things have changed there, but on the Hecate side the alteration comes in a new scene in which the new song is entirely appropriate - and the scene itself is powerful and jaw-dropping. So I have forgiven them. Just about.

I have a miserable sense of smell, the consequence of lifelong sinusitis, possibly exacerbated by my neurosurgery, so I have to leave it to other people to comment on changes in the use of scent. I did notice that Speakeasy’s bar stinks way more than in New York, and the stench of antiseptic in the hospital now more closely resembles the Doctor’s room in TDM.

Overall I believe the changes from SNM New York to SNM Shanghai have strengthened the production. They have increased the contrast between light and dark; they have fleshed out the story of some characters who were maybe under-used or under-valued in New York; they have made all five floors worth spending time on equally; they have made things easier for the audience (in a good way); and while I may mourn the loss of individual elements (the Nurse’s window dance, Lady Macduff’s music box soundtrack), the new narrative and changes to other scenes and characters have ensured this production is worth seeing in its own right, even if you’re familiar and happy with New York. This isn't SNM, this is SNM+TDM - I can’t say how much that will continue after the TDM performers leave, but I’m sure it will morph into a production with an even more specific Chinese flavour, and that might work in ways we cannot imagine.

[itsclydebitches]

She's the kind to be like "i'll kill for you", it's all fun and games until she actually means and/or does it. I'm assuming it's the same if not similar in the books? it's just so annoying to see a character treat everyone, including the man she is supposed to be in love with like shit and have it just be "well that just makes her a good mum" like idk this kind of devotion isn't healthy for her or Ciri either.

I read a lot of posts all over talking about yen and why people do and don't like her and it's all "you have to get past the cold rude arrogant outside to learn deep down she does care", or there was this one said people take what she says as who she is over what she does, as if she isn't saying AND doing terrible things, but there was this other one that was "actions don't define you as a person" that was a fucking ride to read through.

Anyway I'm just kinda miffed cause I went in to this trying really hard and wanting to like yen but she's so unlikable it's crazy. Maybe if her first few scenes weren't her being rude to Geralt for no real reason (and that snark about him and amnesia like BRO??) there wouldve been something to build off? Idkkkk

tysm for letting me talk about this! there's still so much within the series to look at and I adore it. apart from some things lmao BUT as with everything, there'll be bits you really just hate I guess.

You kidding? I love chatting about all this! XD

From what I've read myself and encountered elsewhere (I've gotten a lot of snippets from the later books as fans post excerpts for various arguments) Yen is a bit more complex in the novels than she's presented in TW3, especially depending on which dialogue options you choose. I mean, it's eight books. There are absolutely moments where I've gone, "Oh yeah, that's cute/sensible/romantic/heroic/etc." of her. She'd have to be a pretty static character to have that much content and not produce those reactions at least some of the time. That being said... she's definitely too similar in the books for my taste. Really, Yen was going to be an issue for me from the start, just given how her and Geralt's meeting goes in "The Last Wish." Her cruelty, brainwashing, and nearly getting him killed aside - because let's be real, an enemies to lovers-esque dynamic can be great - the wish itself always tainted their interactions for me. Yeah, yeah, I understand the theme of Geralt choosing his family regardless of what destiny or magic might say about it... but that doesn't erase that they are ambiguously bound by some kind of magic. We can read Yen's "You've condemned yourself to me" as just a lack of self-confidence, Geralt's love remaining a true thing no matter what any genies might have to say about it, but I personally can't ignore the very real, in-world, magical influence here. Every time the books discuss how often they've split, cheated on each other, fought, betrayed... but deep down they were still meant for one another, I'm thinking, "Are they? Or is that just the magical wish keeping two incompatible people tethered?" We can read them finding joy in one another despite the magic as something beautiful, or something tragic because what other choice did they have? Given how central that rocky relationship is to our protagonist's characterization and how awful Yen can be in general, yeah, she's still an acquired taste lol. She does get better later on, but how better I think depends on how you perceive her attitude at the start. Idk if you're into My Hero Academia or not, but I often compare her to Bakugo. Those who were already inclined to excuse his behavior hail the amazing growth he undergoes; those who couldn't stand him from the start (me) find the comparative improvement to still equal a pretty unlikable person. They're both undoubtedly better... but if you're starting that low, "better" won't necessarily be enough.

Oof yeah, I've seen those threads lol. One of my favorites was a discussion about whether Yen was a "bitch" or not (it also doesn't help when conversations about her character devolve into generic accusations of misogyny) and there was a response to the effect of, "Just because she's cold, judgmental, makes cruel remarks, and doesn't listen to Geralt doesn't mean..." and it's like okay, so we're just supposed to ignore all those traits - bypass them - to reach a "Yen is actually a kind person" reading? I have trouble with that lol. Honestly, the majority of my respect goes to those who are just in their fandom corners with their John Mulaney voice going, "Yen is a bitch and I love her SO MUCH." Like yeah!! I love lots of mean, awful, bitchy characters too!! There's no need to bend over backwards trying to prove they're actually a uwu poor baby whose every action was justified (outside of, you know, fandom joking like the "I've done nothing wrong ever in my life" meme). But yeah, I WANT to like her too! I don't enjoy being a part of a franchise where such a core, prominent character is someone I don't like spending time with. Who would want that?? So I've given her so many tries since getting into Witcher... and it just never sticks for me. I tried in the comics too only to come across a panel where Geralt dreams of Yen, but isn't sure if it was an actual dream, or a magical vision where they literally met. Vesemir asks if Yen was kind to him and when he responds that she was, he's like, "It was a dream lol." And yeah, that's the characterization! Geralt knows he didn't actually meet with Yen because the real Yen wouldn't have been that nice to him. And it's not in a funny "My real lover ALWAYS teasingly insults me as an act of kindness!" way but a much more literal, "Yeeeaaah. Yen just isn't that nice a person most of the time" and the examples we can point to when she is kind don't outweigh/erase everything else for me. In TW3 at least, she's very much the kind of person who will, completely seriously, blame you for getting amnesia. And you know the best part? She had it too! Not only that, but she actually recovers her memories earlier than Geralt and never looked for him and you also learn in the second game that she had a relationship with another guy while trying to remember who she was... so the fact that she's pissed at Geralt for going through the exact same thing (not seeking her out/relationship with Triss - only Triss was actively seducing him, so) is just wild to me.

But yeah, TW3 is a MASSIVE game that deliberately plays with different choices and perspectives. To say nothing of its "Life is hard and people need to be harder" worldbuilding. It would be a miracle if we liked every single thing in it lol. Like, Blood and Wine is probably my favorite bit of gaming ever and yet I just fundamentally disagree with CDPR's idea of a happy ending there. For both the main questline and a particular side quest the game goes, "This one is the correct choice ;)" and I'm like, "Lol not to my mind I'll take one of the 'bad' endings thanks!" Yen is just another example of that. The game clearly wants us to like her - she and Geralt are canon in the source material - but giving us the ability to decide who Geralt is means that we might just go, "Nope. Sorry. This 'correct' choice is one I'm passing by."

[mounicalucia-blog]

5 Things Professional DJs Wish You Knew

These days, everyone seems to be a DJ. Or at least everyone knows a DJ. Within the past 10 years, the industry has sky rocketed to astronomical heights. When I was a kid, I didn’t realize that Djing was even a viable job option.

Now, at 33, it’s my full time career. Even though the industry has expanded exponentially, it seems like there is very little dialogue between Djs and the rest of the world. Many of my friends have expressed that they aren’t really sure what I’m doing, it just looks technical. So in order to shed some light and understanding on what’s actually happening behind the decks, I present you with 5 things that Professional Djs Wish You Knew. Enjoy!

1. It’s more than a party. We are working.

So you walk into the bar and you see the DJ in the corner, slighting bumping to the beat, grooving away in the mix. It looks like a good time. It is a good time. I get to watch people and play the songs that will become the soundtrack of their experience. I love it! But inevitably, someone will come up to me and want me to dance, take shots, listen to their life story, etc, not really keeping in mind that I’m currently in the middle of a DJ set.

I’ve always wondered why the barrier of performance respect isn’t really there for Djs. Perhaps because we are so easily accessible? Maybe because we are the hub of the party. Who knows. I come from a performance background, myself. And never, when I was in the middle of a symphonic performance, a dance recital, or while I was mid-monologue on stage during a play, did someone come up to me to do any of the before mentioned things. But it almost nightly happens to me as a DJ. And almost always the person asking me gets offended when I don’t adhere to their request.

Regardless of whether it’s a request to come have a dance, have a conversation, step away for a drink, or whatever, it’s taking my time and focus away from the overall flow of the event. While I can break away for short bursts of time (under 60 seconds usually) to listen to a customer request, engage in short conversation, etc, I am still responsible for keeping the music going and managing the vibe of the event. Anything that takes our attention away from that is basically distracting us from doing our job. So while we might be in the middle of a raging party, and we are absolutely having a great time, please remember that we are still working, and that it isn’t really the time or place for distractions. Get my social media handle and slide in the DM if you wanna talk.

2. Putting together a good set is a lot harder than putting your itunes or spotify on shuffle.

With the digitalization of music allowing for increased accessibility, the number of people who have access to the tools needed to dj has also increased. In the earlier days, a DJ was defined by their library of music, often possessing records that were hard to come by. With anyone being able to copy a hard drive or rip an mp3, it’s gotten to the point where it seems anyone who can program their Spotify to shuffle is a self-titled DJ. Professional Djs want you to know that a lot more goes into playing a killer set than programming a playlist in Itunes.

For a DJ set, you never want to stop the music, so it’s more like you’re playing one long song. I always imagine my sets like making a musical quilt. This is achieved through mixing and mashing songs in variations of clever transitions. (More than the auto fade that your itunes does) A DJ set is defined not only by the songs she chooses, but also by the way she chooses to move between them. A good DJ set will sound fluid – without sudden breaks in the music or the vibe. In order to achieve this, the DJ must beat match the songs to make sure they flow in time with each other. And that’s just the beginning. More advanced Djs will incorporate more in-depth techniques such mixing in key, musical phrasing, tone play, word play, and scratching into their transitions and sets.

Check out DJ Puffy’s Winning Set from the 2016 RedBull Thr3style World Finals for some amazing examples of advanced mix techniques. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...)

3. I’m a DJ. NOT a Jukebox.

This one is huge. Like HUGE. Like every professional DJ I know wants to scream this from the roof tops type HUGE! Let me set up a scenario. Your wedding reception has ended and you and the wedding party have decided to night cap out at a local club. When you walk into the club, you walk right up to the DJ, announce that you are the bride and then present a list of 10 songs that you want to hear. Congratulations. You’ve just acted completely entitled and self-centered and successfully mistaken the DJ for a jukebox.

Let me break it down for you. The person who you should have given the list of requests to is the DJ you hired for your private event. When that event ended and you walked into a different establishment, that DJ’s obligation is not to you, but to their client (which is the establishment that they are working for) When you walk up to the booth, interrupt their set, and make your numerous requests, you are completely disregarding the intention of the venue and the creative intention of the DJ by insisting that the entire vibe and focus switch to you. Save that for the private event Djs (which start at $100+/hr) who are being paid to make everything about you.

It’s important to remember when you walk into an establishment, the venue has a specific goal for the night, and it’s the Djs job to execute a set in a way that will help achieve that goal. A lot of times that means saying no to your crappy, off-placed request. For example, some frat boys thought it would be funny to hear Elton John’s Tiny Dancer at midnight in the middle of a dance club. Much to their disliking, I said no. Because, if I had played that song at that moment, the 3 idiots who wanted to hear it would have laughed at their inside joke, and everyone else would have left and gone to the next club over to continue dancing. Many times, as the person managing the vibe of the night, half of our job is to ward off those terrible requests so no one kills the vibe and the venue stays busy. That’s one of the biggest reasons venues hire a DJ and don’t just leave the music in the hands of whoever is quickest to the jukebox.

4. Most Djs cringe inside when someone walks up to the booth.

I feel like this one should come as no surprise after I set up those last two scenarios. As I was saying earlier in the article, there seems to be an apparent lack of performance respect that gets extended to Djs. From rude and demanding requests from patrons to being told I’m the worst DJ ever if I don’t have a specific song, to having people actually throw things at me from the dance floor to get my attention, the way many patrons and club goes treat Djs is often poor at best. Now, this isn’t everyone that we encounter. But it definitely happens on a regular, nightly basis. You get to a point where you see the giggling group of girls coming up and you already know that they’ll be asking you to play Despacito again even though you just played it like 20 minutes prior. Or they’ll walk over and say “play something I can dance to!” while you’re looking out at a full dance floor. Or they’ll ask what songs you have (like you’ve got time to go through the 60,000 plus songs on your hard drive) and try to look over your shoulder at your music library. Often times they’ll just walk up and thrust a bright phone screen in your face (basically blinding you) that has youtube pulled up with the song they want to hear. Other times, they’ll walk over to the booth and try to make conversation, or worse, intentionally distract you so that you mess up (flashing, twerking, touching gear, etc) Others will approach with the “I used to/ am/ was/could be/wanna be/dreamed I was once/a dj – can I get in on your set? Like you’re supposed to just turn over your turntables and tag them in. These are the sort of interactions that we get more often than not when playing out as a DJ. (And it’s not just from giggling groups of girls.)

Every now and then, someone will walk up (and I’ll be secretly cringing in my head, preparing to kindly handle whatever mess is about to be dropped on me) and they’ll simply say, “You were fantastic. Thanks for playing a banging set!” They may even throw down a tip. Those are the ones I live for. But they’re also few and far between compared to the other ways that people choose to treat djs.

I think if I can speak for all Djs, the one thing we really want from club goers is to be treated with a little more respect. #respectthedj Many of us don’t mind humoring requests, but you’ll find at the end of the day, a little respect goes a long way.

5. You Get What You Pay For. Every. Single. Time.

This last is for everyone who has ever hit up a DJ talking about I can’t pay you, but you’ll get lots of exposure! This one is specifically for you. And it’s something that holds true across all industries and in all types of business. Which is the part where you get what you pay for. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard clients tell me how awful their DJ was, only to find out that they barely paid $100 and some gift cards. HOLD THE PHONE. WHAT? I know everyone wants to get the best deal possible on things. That’s part of our bargaining nature. But seriously, I feel like I need to break down costs for some people to understand.

While you’ll find variations up and down in either direction, I believe a good median expectation price for a private event DJ is starting at $100 an hour. Time frame, Season, location, equipment add ons, and etc. will obviously add additional cost to that price point. Sometimes when I present a quote to a potential client, the response will be an astounded “but this isn’t a wedding!” to which I want to add that median price point for a wedding DJ starts around $150-200 an hour.

Again I’m picturing a confused client scratching their head and asking, “but that much money? Just to play a few songs?” And again I feel the need to break it down a little further.

First, keep in mind that the average professional DJ set up is a several thousand dollar investment, with an average setup ranging anywhere from $2k – $10k+. Also, true professionals keep back up gear on hand in case of emergencies. Next, there’s insurance and music licensing. The average working DJ will shell out another few thousand over the course of the year in music licensing costs and insurance fees. To operate legally and on professional, industry standard equipment, it’s not a low cost.

The other side of that is professionalism. This is the difference in a $50 dj who shows up an hour late, plays inappropriate music on poor quality gear that doesn’t sound good and feels as though his job was done just by showing up, basically completely embarrassing you in front of your guests. Versus a professional DJ who arrives early, has gear set before people arrive, is courteous to you and your guests, plays music that is appropriate, is able to manage the flow and logistics of the event in a way that’s seamless to your guests, and overall creates an enjoyable environment that complements your party. These are prime examples of experiences created by a professional vs by someone who just happens to own some DJ gear.

Professional Djs want you to remember when you get that quote, the value of the service that they’ll be providing you. While the price may seem high, remember that part of what you’re paying for is peace of mind. The same way that Grandma used to say you never skimp on Peanut Butter or Hot Dogs, if you’re looking for high quality entertainment at your next event, I’d like to suggest that you don’t skimp on DJ services either. The drapes and table clothes, you can probably get away with going cheap. But the DJ can either enhance or ruin your entire event. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to take my chances with the drapes.

Visit - 5 Things Professional DJ's Wish You Knew - DJ Shannon C

[cinemagraphstories]

Concept document

Premise:

You are on a decrepit city street, late in the evening. It is deserted, except for a homeless man warming his hands at a brazier in the alley, and a young busker, playing her fiddle on the curb. You can navigate the length of the street by scrolling, and click on certain objects. You can also enter the alley to talk to the homeless man, or enter the only shop that is still open-- a strange old bookstore.

Intended medium:

We are going to combine the following media: images, text, cinemagraphs and sound.

Images: All of the characters and environments will be digital paintings rendered in Photoshop. The primary environment, an old rundown street, will span horizontally. Navigation will consist of scrolling, meaning that we will re-map vertical scrolling to the horizontal axis. Further environments beyond the main scene will also be digitally painted, but they will be constrained to a standard 16:9 aspect ratio to remove scrolling.

*Proof of concept:

Digital artwork by Juliana Loughin

Digital artwork by Dominic Quon

Text: Dialogue between the audience and the story characters will be carried out through speech bubbles. These interactions occur in environments beyond the main street as a form of static cutscene. By this we mean that side environments will not have scrolling, but will have exclusive opportunity for dialogue with characters and inspection of objects.

Cinemagraphs: Using After Effects, we will be able to layer looping animation and visual effects over otherwise static images. For example, in the large street scene, we can have a glowing lamp to add to the audience’s immersion. This will be accomplished by cropping portions of the static background image, animating them in After Effects, and seamlessly placing them back into the background as videos.

Sound: The story world’s atmosphere will be enhanced with mp3 recordings. These include fiddle music, street noise, and sounds emitted from objects in the environment.

Platform:

We will be coding this project as a website using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Since we are heavily using cinemagraphs to enhance the narrative, we will be restricting the site to desktop, and only supporting modern browsers: Chrome, Firefox and Edge.

List of technologies

- HTML5

- CSS3

- JavaScript

- Photoshop

- After Effects

- Garage band

*Proof of concept: http://www.sfu.ca/~dominicq/pub_html/Final%20project%20POC/

Looping video code from retrieved from http://blog.flixel.com/the-best-cinemagraphs-of-summer-2017/

Genre:

Magic Realism/Urban Fantasy

Intended audience:

Fans of point-and-click adventure games, lovers of digital art and traditional music, dark fantasy enthusiasts, casual gamers.

Nature of interactivity:

There are clickable objects which provide textual and visual feedback, NPCs who provide information depending on which objects you have clicked on, and at the very end, multiple dialogue options to choose from, each leading to a different ending. How you explore the story is up to you-- it’s like a puzzle where you must collect the pieces in order to put it together. Only at the very end do you have an impact on the outcome of the story, and the fate of yourself and the characters.

Overview of the characters:

-Young busker: is actually from a rich family, but she dresses in raggedy clothes to rake in the cash playing fiddle on the streets.

-Urban wizard: spied the busker changing from an opulent coat into her ragged flannel and cap, and thought her despicable. He cast an enchantment on a ribbon, and gave it to the girl to tie around the scroll of her fiddle, cursing her to play forever. Powerful and temperamental. -Homeless man: watched the wizard spin the enchantment. He knows that the busker actually busks in raggedy clothes in order to give the money back to the homeless. Grumpy but relatively forthcoming.

-Bookshop clerk: one-dimensional placeholder character, with very limited dialogue

Main features of the story:

The player is able to discover, through the various clickable objects and by talking to the homeless man, that:

-The young busker is actually from a rich family. Her mother does not know about her trips into the city, and would not approve if she did.

-She is studying classical violin, and fiddle music is considered inferior in her circle; however, it is a passion for her, and she refuses to stop.

-She used to give the money she earned back to the homeless at the end of every night, back when she was able to stop playing.

-The young busker wears a red ribbon on the scroll of her fiddle, which has doomed her to play on the street forever.

-The red ribbon was given to her by a wizard.

-The wizard cursed the young busker because he saw her shed her opulent clothes and don her streetwear in order to make money one day, and thought it despicable.

-Even if the homeless man tries to speak any more about the wizard, he cannot-- it’s like something is stuck in his throat. But if the player wants to know more about the wizard, they should talk to the bookstore clerk (who before had only one generic line of dialogue).

-The bookstore clerk says that yes, the wizard visits often, and treats the bookstore like a library (how rude!) Last time he was here, he had been reading a thick leather-bound volume.

-Within this leather-bound volume, a ribbon has been used as a bookmark. The page it marks shows the transformation of a man into a crow, with some foreign-looking words ringing the illustration.

-And now, when the user returns to the street, they find that they can click on the crow that has been perched on a lamppost this whole time.

-The crow transforms into a wizard, who is ruffled and irritated.

 Now, the user is given three dialogue options:

Tell the wizard off for cursing the girl

Tell the wizard that the girl had been helping people, not sneaking around for money

Congratulate the wizard on his masterful spellwork

 Depending on which option the user chooses, they get one of three endings:

The user is transformed into a rat for being so insolent

The wizard frees the girl from her curse and apologizes for having acted prematurely

The user is gifted with a magical artefact for their flattery