#for this and for the discussions we've had abt this & related topics

[spheciform]

thoughts on Dedf1sh + Paul Sashimori siblings theory/hc? im a personal fan but id love to hear your thoughts :3

Hmmmm rotates it around in my mind... it's something that is definitely plausible and definitely has been done in really good and interesting ways (dedzone especially was what really sold me on it as something that can be really interesting to explore past the basic 'what if these two knew eachother'), it just never really captured me? Until this ask and I started thinking about the shrimplications. I think why it never really captured me until this point is just because of how little we know about Paul? Who is this little guy, past being just a baby savant u know? There's at least a little bit of characterization for most splatbands guys, but Paul is just... oddly devoid of it. Like there's more discussion about the events that surround him (mixing human vocals, sashimori possibly being pearls old band, the fact that he's a 10 year old ultratalented kid, him being friends with marina) than there is about Who He Is as a character? Though I guess that does leave more room for wildly making things up!!! Which. With the info from side order has some really neat shrimplications in its favor:

-Acht and Marina "going way back", and Paul and Marina being friends. This is possibly the coolest thing this has in its favor. The siblings hc makes this sudden random bit of information have a lot more weight to it, like oh yeah my old buddy's little brother. They went missing but at least their little brother is doing ok and being looked after... (rips the walls apart)(though this does imply that both acht and paul were octarian octolings, which is neat, but also doesn't really help the common assumption that all octolings must inherently be octarian, given the only two confirmed non octarian octolings we've seen so far are shiver and warabi. Yoko and the gold bazookas mysterious blue ringed octopus girl... who are you....)(I don't even know if it's a common distinction made by fans I have just been going fuck it we ball like "octarian" is the more wide term for those who were ruled by DJ Octavio (including both tentacle guys and octolings) which makes sense why there are octolings & octopus guys who have been on the surface and in society absolutely fine for seemingly generations when u look a shiver's family, and is a slightly more plausible reason why people are so instantly normal about octolings bc like. They've been here. They just don't know they're octarian. Etc. Does this make any sense??? Maybe. Is it nitpicking??? Absolutely. Is it a huge diversion from the topic at hand?? Absolutely yeah I'll get back on topic)

-If sanitization seemingly had no effect on Acht, and they canonically made it to the surface(hotlantis window sign)... have they seen Paul yet? Have they met? If not... why?

Now for the more HeadCanon Realm of things:

-It's been said that Acht was really... intense and anxious over their music pre-sanitization. The fact that Paul is also very talented has some neat possibilities in exploring how that sort of perfectionism could be shared between them. Like did Paul pick it up because he idolized them? Did they ever hear what he was doing? How did that make them feel, honored or oddly threatened by his skill? This shit is soooooo (spins it around in my mind.) this is the good shit to me. Strained sibling relationships my beloved. This is the good shit that really interests me abt this hc, rather than the inherent tragedy of losing Acht. This is the stuff I think I would want to dig into if I ever wanted to explore this personally. If we take it that they never met back up after Acht reached the surface... boy. Whether on purpose or by circumstance it has a lot of potential to breed some crazy characterization moments. Dies a million times.

Even further into realm of headcanon, specific to my take on dedfish and the shit I've been cooking in relation to her:

-the shrimplications are making me crazy in the brain in relation to what I have already written and have planned around dedfish. Reoccurring awesomegirl delta summers and her strained relationship with her 14-15 year old sibling. Eternally broken unable to enter society lost in the sauce (blood) fringe desert dweller dedfish and her complete loss of her relationship with their now 15 year old brother. You see it. You see it and you explode with me. Parallels. Implications. Etc. There isn't really a way to capitalize on it given the fact that I have kept it so that dedfish was completely transformed by and lost their complete previous personality to the double goopening, and the fact that they're completely isolated, meaning there wouldn't really be a way for them to ever know about or interact w paul without outside interference... but you see it. The cooking. The ideas. The everything.

Um tldr: it's good 👍 don't know if it's something I'll ever fully explore and it's not like a hill I'll absolutely die on but I'm a fan of when people do it and do something really cool w it because it has the potential to be really cool!!

[inconspicuouspotatosack]

relatable :( audhd here, frequently overwhelmed in conversations with other a(u)dhders. I'm typically relatively... content (?) to let my friends monologue, bc I don't have much to say (bc my brain is too busy being devoted to processing incoming information to formulate any original thoughts of my own). but frustration arises in situations where I Finally have something to say, perhaps even a Relevant Anecdote, and am Trying to contribute but don't feel like i can get in a word edgewise. like okay well. i DID have something to say and did Try to say it but no one heard me and now we've already moved at least 3 degrees of separation from the topic i had a comment on 30 seconds ago and it's Irrelevant now🙃

i've talked to a couple of friends about it but i will not lie, it is Scary trying to determine if they'd be understanding bc of the whole ADHD Baggage thing (which i Also have. i used to monologue like a motherfucker and then a combo of ppl impolitely telling me to stop being so chatty and also autistic burnout which slowed my processing power down by a not insignificant margin.... anyway.) it definitely has gone better when I tried broaching the subject when it was Not Actively Happening, i.e. pulling them aside to initiate the conversation.

the convos that I've had with my friends abt it went something along the lines of "hey I've been having some frustration recently, it's not a Big Deal right now but i wanted to talk about it before it Becomes a big deal. Ive been feeling a bit left out of our conversations for xyz reasons and would really appreciate if you could (slow down / give me some more gaps in conversations to allow me to catch up / make efforts to actively seek my input and give me time to say my piece without interrupting/etc) and otherwise try to consciously include me"

one particular friend was very understanding and was like "yeah i definitely do that, sorry it's been affecting you like this and thank you for letting me know!" It doesn't always Fix The Problem of course, and the people that care about us sometimes need reminders. it's a balancing act! but usually, if I've already talked to them about it, they're happy to accommodate.

and i have Also had situations where I've just been at the end of my rope and snapped a bit and been like "I'm sorry but i really need to be about Me right now" altho that was after we had already had the Discussion about it. and tbh I don't believe it would have gone over as well as it did if we hadn't had that conversation first.

basically in my experience. it's important to bring it up Separately and Not when you're actively experiencing those frustrations. the ppl who care about us are often even appreciative when you bring these things up, because it shows that you trust them enough to communicate your needs to them and having the Difficult Conversations can potentially strengthen the friendship. your friends Don't Want you to feel left out!

I have noticed this problem hanging out with a couple of different friends with ADHD. They talk so much and so fast, I have trouble processing it, I don't feel like they leave space for me in the conversation and I end up feeling quite overwhelmed, and also a bit neglected because I feel like they did like 80% of the talking and they didn't ask about me or bring me in. (and then sometimes when I DO talk they get excited about what I'm saying and interrupt me.)

I love these ppl and I care about what they have to say, but it makes one on one time hard and then I hit a wall and have to end the hang out. I KNOW the answer is to just express my needs and say "hey you're talking a bit too much/too fast and I'm struggling to keep up/don't feel heard/don't feel like you're making space for me" but I also know that oft times ppl w adhd have been made to feel bad about this exact phenomena and I don't want to add to that feeling.

How best to balance this? How best to broach it with a minimum of hurt feelings? How to convince myself that my need for them to slow down and throw me a conversational bone is just as important as their need to be comfortable expressing themselves naturally? All advice/thoughts/experiences welcome, esp if you yourself have been the excited over talker in this scenario.

[shoshiwrites]

DVD commentary on your History Book, please, because I love ittt 🥺💕

It’s a funny business, she’s found, grieving for someone you think in some other life you might have known. She’s stronger than almost anyone’s ever given her credit for, but the memories mix like swirling water, the flashbacks hit without warning. She’s never sure, these days, what year she’s crying for.

They had damn well tried, she knows, to get them out, the bruises and dirtied hands say as much. But only twenty feet of progress a day — that meant hope faded fast. They didn’t even know the names of those who’d died until after; the list of miners working was trapped along with those whose names were on it.

She wonders weakly, blood rushing in her ears, how many more boys they will feed to these hills.

This got so unbelievably far away from me I'm sorry.

[send me a fic snippet and I'll give you the director's commentary!]

Can I just take a minute to say how !!!!!!!! I am that you love this AU? Because I am !!!!!!! it was just hanging out in my GoogleDocs and I'm so glad I revisited it, due in no small part to yours and the GC's enthusiasm😊 Like literally would not have without u guys.

Regarding the AU in general, I didn't do a really big uh, renovation when doing the rewrite. Which I guess I say to mean, if I was doing it NOW, from total scratch, I'd probably do some things differently. Each section is referencing a specific, real historical event. This one was the Twin Shaft disaster which occurred in 1896. It took place in Pittston where certain RL people are from but. We're ignoring that, see note above. Also I regard this basically as historical fiction at this point since neither of them is actually named IN the piece but anyway.

This passage, save for these two lines, "she’s never sure, these days, what year she’s crying for" and the last sentence, are from the original writing. The rest is all facts taken from sources & Wikipedia. (I'm also !!! that you picked this part because I honestly thought it came off as a little info-dump-y?)

That being said, I really do like how this fits as a piece into the rest of the AU. It's important that there be these lifetimes where the two of them barely know each other but that the pull is so strong, and that she runs because of something inside her that she doesn't really understand (though not for lack of trying). The isolation she feels because of this is particularly strong in this section, I think, even though she's part of this larger community that's grieving.

In researching for this AU I looked at a lot of Pennsylvania Gothic Tumblr posts (lol), to try and get slightly more of a sense of ... ambiance is the wrong word. Landscape. Pennsylvania's not a place I grew up or have spent a lot of time in, though there's .. something similar there, I think, to PA and the Rust Belt sections of NY where my dad's family is from (least of all the fact that the two states are next to each other aha). The last line in this passage is directly inspired by this post (the word 'fed' specifically) and also from thoughts I was having while researching these mining disasters.

That last line wasn't meant to be something scary or creepy, though I could see how it might read that way. The use of the word boys was intentional. The word sacrifice also comes to mind (whole other ramble there about uh. Capitalism).

One thing that really struck me, back when I was researching this the first time around, was looking into places like Centralia, which is probably the most famous name out of all of this. I'll be honest, I was intrigued by it the same way as most people, like, ooh! Neverending coal fire! Abandoned! Silent Hill! But when you actually read and watch and learn more — I think there's a documentary somewhere —it's just very sad. It's a story of people being failed by government. That's manmade disasters. Mine collapses are stories of people being failed. Dam collapses are stories of people being failed. There's nothing creepy about it.

There was so much rattling around in my head for this AU — landscape, memory, markers, remembrance. Photos of old mine entrances and the remnants of stone foundations and old memorial sites documenting ghosts towns. Like. I wish I could say this with the gravity with which it's meant but. The whole state's haunted. Anywhere that's that full of industrial history, of that relationship with the land (I.. is it a relationship? We're getting even less coherent today lads) is going to.. have that.

Mine disasters continued well into the 20th century and of course still occur today. But for this AU specifically I wanted to dive into that period of time that's mostly the 19th and early 20th centuries. There's so much there I didn't know about. These tragedies that were so huge at the time, so life-changing, and what's left now is in the land, and in passed-down memories and stories.

[qwedfas]

hey fam omg omgggomgggggg like this mhs guy started talking to me bc I posted smth 13 reasons why related on my story and he replied and we've been talking abt 13rw and stuff and comparisons between the book and movie- he seems like a rlly nice guy and im not sure what will happen once we stop discussing?!? like I still wanna talk to him but idk how to keep the convo going with a diff topic I'm so inexperienced with talking to boys :((((

Hey!

It’s great to talk to somebody about a common topic!! I also struggle with talking to people and keeping up conversation but here’s a few tips:

Ask if he watches other tv shows and if you have any in common you can go from there

Maybe talk about something that happened in your day and it’ll branch off from there - for example today I ate Dessert Story and I told my friend about it and we had a debate for about half an hour which asian desserts taste the best :)

Ask him what he did today or what he does in his spare time, or let him know what you did in your day

Make sure to ask questions so he know you’re interested in talking with him - you can start with what he’s doing at school/ subjects

Discuss news events - in my group chat we like to talk about these kinds of things and they can have an easy opening - so you could start with ‘omg btw did you hear’

Talk about sport? Exercise? MHS boys like the gym for some reason hehehehehe ;)

Also are you trying to razz or just be friends with him because if you want to razz here’s some flirting tips too:

Meet up irl and in my opinion it’s best to eat food bc idk food

Laugh a lil like hahahah even if he says smth weird

Flutter your eyelashes like bat wings gurl you got it be confident with yourself!!!!!

Hopefully these help!

Love, FAM xx

[sydmarch]

ok it's like not really later but i'm thinking too much to not just write a bit now so i had never really given this topic much thought on previous playthroughs because i had NOT previously gotten any of the gary related dialogue around it, just these mentions iirc:

Joyce Messier - "How do you think they're financing this strike? There are thousands of unpaid dockworkers going strong for the fourth month straight."

Kim Kitsuragi - "There was a shakedown of local businesses preceding the strike. Many were squeezed to bankruptcy to fund it."

Joyce Messier - "With all due respect to these desert cacti, the contents of a few cash registers cannot provide for *two-thousand* men. The local businesses can scarcely provide for themselves."

&

Garte, the Cafeteria Manager - "You mean somewhere else to run up a huge debt? I don't think so. The Union squeezed most places out of business to fund the strike. You're better off home."

i think w the first mention of this being from garte who was do dismissive of the strike & union right away i'd kinda brushed it off my first go around as oh that could be another rumor or whatever (sorry garte baby) & then just didn't think much of if again bcus it wasn't really mentioned again outside of that brief bit of joyce dialogue. but this time around i DID get the dialogue around gary.the joyce convo above & previously, this from evrart after opening the door:

Evrart Claire - "Believe me, he's not a killer. He's a nobody. Just a basement-variety armchair fascist, who comes up with needlessly complex conspiracy theories."

Logic - What if one of those *complex* theories is right?

You - "Did one of his theories turn out to be true?"

Evrart Claire - "What if it did? What if he took a whack in the dark? Started telling people the strike is funded by a protection racket that drove local shops out of business?"

Evrart Claire - "What if he planned to write a hack-piece to the local newspaper regarding these crazy theories he had developed. Just to stir up trouble. Wouldn't that be annoying?"

You - "I see."

Evrart Claire - "Journalism, Harry -- I love it, you love it, and you know why? Because we've got nothing to hide. Let's keep it that way."

previously i'd only gotten these dialogues when discussing the door w gary:

You - "Really, I don't even know what it was about, I just opened the door."

Gary, the Cryptofascist - "Whatever it is, tell him I'm silent as the grave." The man thinks. "I was probably talking too loud in the Whirling the other night, about some theories..."

Gary, the Cryptofascist - "I won't do it again." He looks around nervously. "If there's anything I can do to assist you -- or the Union -- just ask, okay? I'll try to help if I can."

so i'd always just kinda figured that was that w the door & never thought much more about it so. INTERESTING to find out what's really going on here & looking on fayde there are options to discuss the article with gary but anyways i'm getting off topic bcus what i have actually been thinking abt since discussing the shakedown w evrart was like. how does this fit in exactly.

as i've said plenty of times in the past my thoughts on evrart's motivations are that he's an ends justify the means kind of guy & i do believe that his ends are more influenced by the desire to improve martinaise than anything strictly/primarily self serving, and his conviction about achieving these ends justifies extreme or questionable actions in his mind ('please see attached my posts on the subject' ass moment x x). more than anything else the squeezing local businesses thing i've felt is so contrary to that perspective & i've been rolling it around in my head trying to reconcile the two because i didn't feel like it was enough to prove my previous interpretations wrong but there was just like, a piece missing.

so thinking about it the past few days it feels to me like an example of getting so wrapped up in the ultimate end goal or the big picture that you lose sight of or stop caring about the 'smaller' things in the process. or maybe not even 'stop caring' but more like 'allow yourself to intentionally disregard because you can rationalize it away.

what does it matter if these businesses have to close down for now - they'll have even better opportunities once the youth-center-supermarket-church-complex is built and employing thousands of people? small, temporary sacrifice to be made for the good of the district as a whole! (not my opinions but like. potential evrart thoughts on the matter i hope that makes sense LOL)

i just find exploring questions like "how far will you go? what are you willing to do and how will you justify it to yourself?" to be soooo endlessly fascinating.

also worth considering with what we know about the doomed commercial area a lot of martinaise businesses were struggling/shutting down long before the strike began so how much of the fact that there are so few businesses left is entirely the fault of any union shakedowns vs other factors but that's like, tangential.

note to self to write about this sometime later

[themadcapmathematician]

Yeah except aphobic exclusionist also had really nbphobic ideas regardless of someones gender presentation, as demonstrated by their absolutely fucked up beliefs abt "same gender attraction" and how many of them used it as an excuse to call all nonbinary people straight or straight if they weren't attracted to other nonbinaries, or how much the rhetoric of "straights sneaking into queer spaces" included nonbinary people and the people attracted to them. "Mogai" exclusionist were also often q slur exclusionist also targeted genderqueer people until it nearly wiped out the term. Many regs jump at the chance to call androgynous people ugly and use slurs based on they/them pronoun use. Nonbinary targeting by regs has a long and ugly history and not a single one of us have ever been safe

That comparison to aphobia brings up a topic I've been meaning to touch on though, which is that the examination of aphobia and biphobia completely divorced from monosexism and amatonormativity has been largely toothless and purposefully obfuscated root causes behind reg behavior, relabelling it as exclusively lateral aggression. It completely ignores the widespread societal mechanisms behind these kinds of attacks, or the fact that the vast majority of aphobes also hold biphobic, kinkphobic, whorephobic, and otherwise radfem-related beliefs

A better example would be how people have spent so much time talking about aspec people who do have relationships and/or sex that there's been chronic passive aggressive behavior against aspec people who are romance and/or sex repulsed. The conversation has shifted to a point where it can be extremely alienating to people who are also fundamentally excluded and harmed by regs and widespread aphobia, based on a lie of expectation that protects no one from harm, including people that fit stereotypes. If we can't discuss those requirements as the lies they are alongside criticizing them we've produced absolutely nothing useful but back and forth lateral aggression

"Nonbinary people dont owe you androgyny" when exactly has society desperately wanted people to present androgynously i want to know