#honestly whether or not i want the show to be good

[poorrichardjr]

I am going to tell you something you've probably heard before from the perspective of someone who was drawn into those very hate groups as a young man, but who soon realized it was just BS too. It is easy to draw young men into this mindset. Our current culture sees young men as violent, ignorant, stupid, lazy, etc., etc., etc. There is a disconnect between what we as young boys are taught or see from television or other sometimes misguided men, and what is often perceived as acceptable by society at large. For instance, young boys are often punished for trivial things, taught that we have to show no emotions (except anger), and that women will naturally be drawn to us simply because we are men (even when we aren't, yet).

This point in life, almost always in our teen years, we are easily brought into a society that seems to welcome us and says repeatedly that they understand our anger and frustration with society. It was easy for these sorts of groups to get me when I was a child because I had no father figures who spent any time with me. These groups, whether they be racist, fascist, militias, or any other type of hate group draw young men in simply by accepting them and telling them they are good. They say their instincts are right and that society is wrong because it caters too much to (name the poison that the child has or the group wants to put on the outside).

For young men, like me at the time, who have very little "caring" or "supportive" contact, this outreach is very attractive. It isn't hard to see how a group of "men" supporting your beliefs is seen as right where society seems to have a massive taboo against teen boys. Since young people's minds are often easier to manipulate, that simple act of drawing someone in by "accepting" them is all that is needed to start them on the road to full bigotry and hatred.

This is a simple paraphrased version of what happens, but it happens everyday. There are ways around it and ways to keep your boys from falling victim to it. But, honestly, some work needs to be done in our society as well. Young people, both boys and girls, are often demonized for different reasons as society tries to put them into a mold it likes. The thing is, to help keep young men out of this very deadly trap that is set for them, you have to have some lines of communication, whether that be parental or authoritative, where truth and support can flow. I am not saying coddle all boys to make them feel better, but it really does boil down to how teen boys feel in society and in life. If they feel unvalued, they will seek it out, just like anyone else. If there is a group out there with bad intentions, but it seems welcoming and supportive, then it is just like any other cult that grabs you.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[felassan]

David Gaider on Shale, under a cut for length:

"Oops! I realized I'd moved on from DAO but missed one of the companions I'd written. Which checks out, honestly, because I almost didn't write Shale and, even after I'd written her, she almost didn't happen anyhow. Then she did. Prepare yourself for... PIGEON QUEST. 🦤 So... I'm wracking my brain, but I don't recall how Shale began. I have this vague memory of us wanting a "weird" party member who didn't conform to the normal classes (this was back when Dog didn't need to be in the party), and I think my mind drifted to an old indie comic character named Concrete."

"Now, your reaction to that is probably "who?" That's OK. When I explain that HK-47 in KotOR was inspired by an old Canadian TV show called the Littlest Hobo I get the same perplexed response. 😅 In short: Concrete was just a regular dude. Who happened to also be a walking hulk of rock. Cue hi-jinx. The problem here is I don't remember whether the Concrete thing was part of the original inspiration or something I thought of at the point when I started writing the character. Because I didn't, at first. That was later. Shale was initially taken on by Jay Turner, then one of our junior writers. Jay had an idea to make Shale more of a robot, an emotionless automoton killer... think HK-47, but without the layer of sarcasm. I was leery, and told Jay he'd have to be very careful. "Emotionless" can very quickly turn into "boring", after all, unless you're VERY careful. But Jay was determined. Sigh. This was a fail on my part, as his lead. There's been a couple of times in my career when I've let a junior convince me with their enthusiasm to take on something my experience said they shouldn't. And then watch their confidence crumble despite every effort I made to reassure them it was OK. This was one of those times. Jay, no idea if you'll read this but: I'm sorry. Even an experienced writer would have found that a daunting challenge. Tonia, my other Big Fail on a similar situation in DAI: I'm sorry. Both times, I should have known. You did your best, but I set you up to fail. 😔"

"Jay did his best, and this version of Shale was certainly interesting... but, when he was done, it was one of those peer reviews where every writer had that look of "I'm REALLY sorry to say this..." It felt flat. Jay tried numerous revisions, but the issue wasn't his ability - it was the concept. I only allowed my writers a certain number of tries before I take it away. This hearkens back to an earlier time at Bio when writers would hack away at something that wasn't working 6, 7, 8 times or more until finally their soul was dust. Mike Laidlaw can attest. Revision isn't always the answer. So I moved (a much relieved, I think) Jay onto something else, and the question arose: what do we do with Shale? Do we cut it? It was already very late. Then Shale dropped in my lap. I don't remember if it was me refusing to let it go or maybe Brent (Knowles, Creative Director) giving it to me. I suspect it was the latter, because I recall being a bit bitter about the whole thing. WHAT am I going to do with this character? At the time, they'd moved me out of the writers pit to instead be in a big office with the other leads. I had this corner desk by a window (yay) with an awful view (ugh) What was so awful about it? It looked out onto the neighbouring roof, where there was only an HVAC unit to see. In the winter, pigeons would gather around it. They pooped all over everything - there was this alcove around the access door, right? The pigeons roosted there and it was POOP FAUCET city."

"Not only that, the pigeons used the HVAC like some kind of sex den. Angry, ugly pigeon sex. The only respite was when a hawk would appear and the pigeons scattered. Then I'd get maybe a day when there was a single pigeon corpse, like an exploded ball of down, to act as a scarecrow. Good days, those. What does any of this have to do with Shale? Well, there's me, staring out the window trying desperately to think what I'm going to do. But I CAN'T stare out the window because, gross. But what else am I going to stare at while I think? It was making me furious. I hated those pigeons SO SO MUCH. And then it hit me: Shale is basically an animated statue, right? Something that pigeons are rather notorious for also gathering on? And so I wrote. I wrote like the angry, angry wind. I had zero time to do this so it was basically me vomiting all my annoyance at everything into a single character. Not that it helped much. There was a battle going on over Shale - first, as I recall, it was the art team. They were going to make every doorway in the game EXTRA HUGE because they were worried that Shale was too large and might clip. So, yes, let's alter the whole world to fix that. Good idea. 🙃 Eventually, they compromised by making Shale smaller. Sten-sized. Or Brent went Akira mode, but I don't really know. This was a battle happening above my level. Yet Shale got cut anyhow. There wasn't time to do her abilities and we were short on cinematics time. There was never enough time on DAO."

""Oh well," I thought. "That's that." I did what I could, but cut content is almost never resurrected. The idea was floated of making Shale into a DLC but I scoffed. Yeah, right! But... it happened. That's why the "almost" is there. Enough of the team liked Shale they made it happen this one time. This meant I could finish up the writing once we'd more or less wrapped DAO, and the rest of the team (cinematics, in particular, who were pressed the hardest for time) could move onto the Shale DLC once they were ready. It was supposed to come out well after release, but you know. Shenanigans. This particular shenanigan was EA deciding to sit on the finished DAO a few months in order to delay the release. Why? Again, not my level. To get closer to Christmas, maybe, or maybe for sim ship. It did mean Shale ended up being ready for release day. Unexpected confluence of events, honestly. Cue some fans getting upset that "cut content" was sold to them separately, which... fair, I guess? The alternative would have been that Shale was simply cut, period, and it just worked out this way but... yes, fair. This was back when DLC was the main beef of hardcore gamers. Oh, the good old days. Overall? I have a soft spot for Shale. She has no soft spot for anyone, being... you know... made of rock. It's why I put her in Asunder, and why she was also going to be in the - apparently now notorious for its Fenris murder - cancelled fourth DA novel. Also, if you're a pigeon fan: not sorry. 😇"

[source thread]

[coralchoral]

honestly thinking about the sonadow twitter takeover and how the plummeting to earth thing very much affected Sonic a lot more than it affected Shadow. like in a previous takeover Shadow even made it a positive memory about Sonic trying to save him.

Meanwhile in Prime, Sonic has a moment of saving Shadow from falling into the void that's very reminiscent of that other fall (in the same way Prime has a lot of motivations and references that only make sense from a fandom insider perspective).

Sonic also gets repeatedly tilted, loud and anxious, (which I'm pinning more on RCS's/whatever writer's sense of humor, as is all the voice acting gags) and is coping badly any time Shadow comes out ahead. I think Sonic's insistence on his ability to grow chest fur is as big a Cope as floaties=fashion statement.

But really, Sonic's repeat date suggestions and Shadow's own descriptions of Sonic's behavior (dragging out their races, etc "just to annoy me") reads, whether romantically or platonically, that Sonic just really wants to spend time with Shadow.

He feels he needs to justify it, though, insisting that he and Shadow have something other than occasionally getting in each other's way ("two sides of the same coin") (friendly competition being "why you keep me around-" seemed like odd wording to me).

Needing to make it meaningful, because that's what Shadow wants out of a relationship- Shadow /says/ he dislikes Sonic for being frivolous and inauthentic, that (for instance) his hugs don't mean anything, and that he doesn't want "(Sonic's) kind of hug."

Sonic really wants to spend time with Shadow because he's also intimately aware that that time is limited. Either Shadow's patience (and/or social battery) is limited and he's liable to make a batman exit if he doesn't want to be somewhere (not that we've ever seen Shadow do this in canon, he seems to awkwardly/quietly hang around as if he doesn't realize he can just hit the bricks (or he likes being there and has no idea how to express it re: smiling at Big the Cat) ), Or Sonic and Shadow will get caught up in their own lives again and not see each other until Fate Deigns to Allow Them to Cross Paths Once More.

And Sonic misses him.

(This ties in with my Sonic Frontiers is the Saddest Game Ever posting from a while back, too. Sonic is lonely AF and Needs Other People to Talk To or he'll start talking to the walls and robots, and Shadow will almost always either talk back or groan in exasperation, which is as good a reaction as any.)

All this, plus Sonic's opinion flip-flops (shopping with Amy vs shopping with Shadow, opinion on Orbot) could be either (Sonadow Optimist) Sonic is Down Bad and not even conscious of his mirroring Shadow/trying to appeal to Shadow, or (Sonadow/overall Pessimist) Sonic trying to appeal to the Most Popular Character Right Now and getting increasingly desperate as he is rebuffed.

A few of these Twitter Takeovers have had moments of Sonic in particular getting thrown off and not really able to recover. (which makes me question what the writing is like, if there's any at all and these VA's aren't just riffing on an outline. Considering they don't talk over each other constantly, there must be something like a script, but it also does occasionally feel like a bad roleplay (and I've been a bad roleplayer).) It leads to a Something Is Wrong feeling in the "We're doing this for fun" question-answering joke show. Sonic needs therapy. (We all need therapy.)

Meanwhile, Shadow really is pulling out all the grunts, groans, and whines with Sonic that, if scripted, would be egregious as hell to read or write. He doesn't make these noises in the games (or shows, really?) mostly because there's a sort of efficiency necessary to production that cuts out that interpersonal realism and partly because it's annoying? Shadow, you're the annoying one?

Unrelated, everybody latched on to Sonic's "Go off, King" but nobody even noticed Shadow's "Deal With It."(sunglasses drop) How soon we forget the sacred texts and/or the deep magic, I guess? (It's an old meme, but it checks out!)

[beelinx]

leo valdez dating an apollo kid hcs

a/n: as an apollo kid who's absolutely in love with leo, this one is might be biased... sorry chat

I think Leo would absolutely LOVE a child of Apollo that’s mostly in the creative fields!

Honestly he would love you however you are but

I just think those little moments when you’re both working on your own projects, basking in each other’s company, are so special to him.

If you’re talented in music, PLEASE play something for him

I GUARANTEE you he will fall in love immediately

Apply that same criteria to any other hobby / art form you can show off for him and you’re set

Since his love language is definitely gift giving / acts of service, if you’re more gifted in doing paintings, sculptures, or other similar stuff, and you give them to him, he literally burns up.

Like fully bursts into flame immediately.

ALSOOOO

If you’re in the infirmary just like Will then he would go there even if it was just for the smallest scratch ever.

He just wants to see you being cute <3

Talking about Will…

He would definitely be protective over you, but most of the times it's in a joking way.

Except that his “joking” has Leo shitting his pants in fear because Will can be TERRIFYING..

It’s the southern in him.

If you were dating during the events of the Trials of Apollo, then I can guarantee you he tried his hardest to impress Lester / Apollo.

It was kind of confusing though, associating that guy as your dad.

He got his blessing very quickly though!

He knows Leo makes you happy and that’s all that matters to him.

You and Leo doing karaoke together! <3

Even if you aren’t the best singer, this is one of the most fun activities ever.

I think Leo would be a strangely good singer, but he would never try.

You just know if that man actually put in the work he’d put most singers to shame, but he doesn’t.

Instead you get the most ear-bleeding performance ever at karaoke night.

You couldn’t get through your duet because you kept laughing your asses off.

He’d force you to teach him to do anything Apollo was associated with, no matter whether or not you’re actually any good at it.

“TEACH ME HOW TO DO THAT PLEASE.” “Leo, I’m not even good at drawing…”

Says you’re his muse constantly.

It’s like that term changed his life.

You’re convinced he’s saying it jokingly because there’s literally no way he’s calling you that seriously, but he swears up and down that you're both his inspiration and motivation to do stuff.

His favorite nickname / pet name for you will always be sunshine though !

Even if you don’t like it, it’s his favorite ever.

You can rip it out of his cold, dead hands.

If you shine in the dark (like Will) then trust me he’s absolutely going to abuse that power to his advantage

You’re his flashlight now so expect staying up late at night to help him light his work table.

He could get a lamp, but he swears you shine more (also you’re prettier) (and he wants to spend time with you)

He’d make anything you need for your hobbies <3

Guitar? He’s got it.

Easel? He already built it.

Bow and arrows? Done. He even rigged the arrows to have special effects.

In other words, Leo is the best boyfriend ever and he would do anything for you!

[cravesunconditionallove]

On your recent post for Vivisections

Do you have any more advice or maybe a quick scene lay out on how you'd accurately describe and show it? I've not seen many people explain this before I'd love to know more!

Permission to infodump?? awesome :D

Because it's on topic here, there are a few blogs I think need a mention because they have AMAZING medical/torture writing advice (@scripttorture and @justkidneying )

You didn't ask whether the character lives or dies, I don't know which you want so here's info on both scenarios:

Dying:

First off, without anesthesia, the pain alone would likely lead to a thing called Neurogenic Shock, which will in turn cause a BP drop and organ failure among other things. Your character will likely be breathing quickly, appear pale, have a rapid pulse, and be confused if they are still conscious. And yelling in pain of course.

For death due to blood loss: it's hard *not* to hit a major blood vessel if you're flaying someone open neck to groin, and that will also lead to quick death without immediate treatment. Cautery (using electricity to burn an area, stopping bleeding) will work on smaller bleeding but major blood vessels not so much. Symptoms are similar to shock: clammy/pale skin, thready/weak/rapid pulse, loss of consciousness.

Other: you can also risk damaging organs (someone being vivisected probably isn't going to be staying very still, even restrained, and one slip of a scalpel and oops, that's the aorta...) A punctured lung could lead to pneumo/hemothorax (air/blood in the chest cavity (pleural space), where it shouldn't be) causing respiratory distress—and then shock, and without treatment—death. If the heart is damaged, death would be near instant. Other organs like the liver, kidneys, bowels, spleen etc are pretty big bleeders, so see my Blood Loss section.

Sepsis: If they don't die immediately, sepsis is a big risk, as even in sterile environments you can't completely prevent it. Sepsis is when an infection reaches the bloodstream and is very serious. I imagine whoever is vivisecting the character probably wouldn't care too much about using sterile technique, so you can bet on an infection happening. This can set in within hours or days. Symptoms include high fever, pain, confusion/delirium, sweaty/clammy skin, low blood pressure.

Now, if you want them to live?

Surviving:

If the vivisectionist wants their patient/victim to survive, they'd need a lot of materials. Like any major surgery you'd need blood products, fluids, antibiotics, ligatures, and a way to keep the pain (somewhat) under control. Alcohol has been used in the past for similar procedures, but you could also just opt for a dose of opioids.

Antibiotics are necessary, opening someone up like that is a MAJOR risk (see "Sepsis").

I imagine they'd also somewhat monitor the character's vitals. They'd also probably have a few assistants to help with similar smaller tasks like that—stopping bleeding or handing tools, etc.

Closing the wound: Stitching someone up from such an event would be a lot of work, as you have to close many skin layers (muscle, fat, and the surface skin) and bandage it.

If you don't want to stitch them up immediately, a wound vac (negative pressure wound therapy) would be a good option. Doctors use these in cases of things like compartment syndrome. It is used when you cannot close someone back up right away.

Bandages and proper wound care are also important, you'd need to change the bandages every few hours for the first few days as deep wounds tend to produce a lot of fluids (called "exudate.") Sometimes doctors place drains to help drain away this fluid faster.

All in all, Healing from this would take months, not to mention the psychological trauma from all of this.

The scene:

Writing these scenes is honestly so variable so here's a few thoughts of mine:

You could describe the environment: (cliche, but cold metal table? Harsh lighting? Straps? A table with sharp scary-looking objects on it? How about the scent of disinfectant (or its absence).

The initial sensation would be the biggest to focus on: does the vivisectionist take their time? (pressure before pain?) shock as nerves fire as they are severed (lightning sensation shooting upwards), and the body’s instinctive flinch or freeze. Initially screaming, swearing? Sweating, rapid breathing, muscle spasms, or even vomiting as the body tries to cope?

Smells: Metallic tang of a large amount of blood (I personally HATE this smell, it's like having a penny in your mouth, or if you've ever used a metal scrubber to clean a pan, it smells kind of like that.), burning flesh (if they use cauterization) etc

If the character is partially sedated for it, keep in mind they will still react to pain, albeit sluggishly.

I hope this helps!

[cicaklah]

get ready for my thoughts on yaoi UBI

So I’ve kvetched about UBI in the tags for long enough someone finally asked me what I was going on about so here we go! 

I will start with some caveats: 

I am British, and so I can only speak about the British specifics.

I have for the past twelve years worked as a professional health economist, and health economics is based on social welfare theory (specifically growing out of Arrow’s work in the 1960s and Sen’s work in the 80s/90s). I literally could talk forever about this, but I won’t. If you want to know more, read the pretty good wikipedia article on welfare economics.

But fundamental to welfare economics is two things: if we make a great big change, do the benefits outweigh the costs? And does the change make a fundamental change for good? (aka cost-benefit analysis and pareto efficiency).

The other thing you need to know about me is that I don’t like activists very much, because they never have to show their working, and my entire professional life is showing my working, and critiquing other people’s working. We all have ideas mate, show me the plan! I love a plan! and this isn't coming from anything but personal experience; I have been to talks by UBI activists before, including ones by economists, but I have never had the case made to me that UBI would be either cost-beneficial OR approach pareto efficient. In fact, it usually reminds me of arguments that are based on some other imaginary world, and then I get so annoyed I want to scream. 

In the early 2010s when I was first starting working as an economist, I was asked to build a model to see whether switching a disability benefit from government administered to individual administration would be cost-effective. Essentially, if you were newly in a wheelchair and you needed a ramp building up to your house, would it be better for the government to organise a contractor, or for you to be given a cash transfer and organise it yourself? The answer was that it wasn’t, but anyone who has ever had to hire a builder could have told you that, and the government didn’t have to pay my firm £30,000 to make that decision. But that is what UBI essentially is; a cash transfer where you get cash and the government gets to enjoy less responsibility.

There are 37.5 million people of working age in England. (Nearly) every single working person gets what's called a tax free allowance, where the government doesn’t claim income tax on the first £12,570. (Once you make over £120k, your allowance starts to decrease, and you lose it entirely at I think £150k)

Let’s assume that instead of just not claiming tax on this amount, the government switched to making that £12,570 your UBI. That is £471,375,000,000 just for England - just under half a trillion pounds. In cash, or nearest as in our modern economy. And not one off - Every year. 

Okay, let's say that the country does have a spare half a trillion a year (in cash) lying around. What is the benefit to switching from tax free allowance to UBI? Well, let's assume that no one stops working, so there would be the tax receipts from the 20% income tax on the £12,570, and that’s just a shade under £100 million. Not bad.

But if you’ve seen a UBI post, you will know that people like the idea because they will be able to work less. Which probably means that UBI will need to be paid for in some other way. Perhaps by cutting existing benefits. The universal credit cost is around £100 billion. So we’re still £300 billion short, and honestly, you wouldn’t cut all of universal credit anyway, probably only the unemployment benefits, but I’m not digging into the maths on that tonight. 

But, look, I am sympathetic. I am a welfarist. I genuinely believe that the economy is not just money, that welfare is happiness, it is utility, it is all the stuff that makes life worth living, and it is the responsibility of the government to maximise the welfare/happiness/utility/quality of life of the country through efficient use of taxation and other sources of money. So people give the government money and it spends it on goods and services and then people get utility, and then they spend their own money to get more utility, and ultimately we can gain intangible things that are incredibly valuable. 

But the problem is that cash is cash, cold and hard and very real. I don’t know how unlimited spare time translates into half a trillion real pound coins. I wouldn’t know how to build a model that complex and uncertain, especially as this all assumes that you can live on 12k a year, and that whatever replaces progressive taxation is equally progressive. I haven’t even touched on how having a convoluted welfare state insures it somewhat against being entirely destroyed after a change in political opinions, aka what I call the daily mail test. You think the narrative about people on welfare is bad now? But also, how would you deal with people who didn’t manage their UBI money well? What happens if there is a personal crisis?

The more I look at it, the more the existing system is actually remarkably good value for money. Individualism is expensive. Collective decision making and spending is just cheaper. 

Ultimately I don’t see the additional benefit of UBI, requiring a pie in the sky change, when it is far, far, far more cost effective to strengthen the existing regime across the board; taxation law, social safety net, childcare, working laws, education and health - all systems that are already in place, and have a thousand times higher likelihood to be pareto optimal and cost effective than trying to find half a trillion pounds of cash round the back of the sofa, while torching 150 years of progress so middle class people can write their book without having to have a job. If I was conspiracy minded I would say that UBI feels like a psy-op, trying to shut down old fashioned progress in favour of ripping it all out and starting again.

Ultimately, that is my real annoyance. It is far, far, far cheaper for the government to provide you with your new ramp for your house, and that is done through politics, but not fun moonshot politics, the hard shit that isn’t sexy.

[serene-cinders]

Arcane Season 2 Act 3

Honestly, it was always clear that Vi would have to choose between Jinx and Caitlin in the end. They can all accept eachother, but Caitlin and Jinx are inherently opposites. They represent different things within the story. Jinx, of course, is chaos incarnate. She’s what Silco wanted her to be, and then she’s a revolutionary, what the people of Zaun want her to be. Caitlin represents the status quo. She’s a high-born social elite who ‘wants to do good’, but lacks the knowledge to mean anything to the people she’s trying to help. Then she descends into authoritarianism after the attack on the memorial.

Literally the only reason Caitlin and Jinx get along by the end is because of their shared love for Vi, but it isn’t like they love eachother.

Jinx knew all this inherently, hence why she faked her own death in order to leave Vi’s life as quietly as possible. She viewed how happy Caitlin made Vi, and took the choice out of her sister’s hands. And then Caitlin gets everything she wants because she’s rich girl in a class based society, but that’s neither here nor there, I guess.

There’s no universe within the show where Caitlin and Jinx have a steady sisterhood. They will always be Piltover and Zaun, whether they choose it or their people choose it for them.

[igglemouse]

My day starts with my paper delivery job. Oh, yes, I guess I never mentioned that I do have a new job? Just something to supplement my jewelry thing as a little extra income never hurts and the job is easy enough. Drop papers at doorsteps and move on, that's it!

When I do make it home I find a surprising little bowl of stew sitting right on my counter. This must be the work of Niklas, who else would randomly do me a kindness like this? My only question is, did he make it with magic or cook it by hand?

And hey, whether it was made with a dash of magic or pure culinary skill it was pretty good all the same! Seriously, what doesn't he do? Maybe he's just showing off at this point.

In the middle of my meal Niklas strolls out of my restroom, as if he lives here, mind you, and asks if I'm enjoying the food. Honestly, yes, I am. Okay, alright, it's about a 6 out of 10 but it gets 2 bonus points simply because I didn't make it.

"So did you sprinkle a bit of magic in it?" I can't help but ask, it's a harmless question, but I imagine if I could make my dishes better with magic, I would.

"No? I mean I guess I could but-"

"Could you make the perfect meal with a touch of magic?"

"I guess you could? Never tried it though," he admits and from the look on his i can tell he's never really thought about it. He really doesn't like using his magic, huh?

"You really don't like using your watcher given abilities, do you?" I can't help but shake my head as he's made that very clear. It's a little frustrating. Having so much power at the tips of your fingertips and denying it all.

"Honestly, Grace, the whole bit is overrated."

"You keep saying that and yet just last night you waved your hands around and poof, clean tub. Just that alone is amazing."

But he's not convinced, he's shaking his head as if I don't get it at all and takes a deep breath before continuing. "The Realm and all it deals with is not only overrated but dangerous. The regular person lives a nice and safe calm life while we? Well, we could be called upon to face horrors you could never imagine."

"Well..." I falter behind his gaze just a bit because who wouldn't when facing unimaginable horrors? "I umm, yeah, I guess it's that whole great power great responsibility thing then."

"It's exactly like that."

"Alright then...but still, I don't see anything wrong with a little sprinkle of magic to make a pasta just a pinch better."

"I could try, mess up, and accidentally poison your food and you'd be in the hospital right now instead of just eating an average bowl of soup."

Ok, I guess I get his point.

So the man wants the normal life. I can't blame him for that. It sounds like he wants to just move to Henford and live out the rest of his days there or something, I don't know. Again, I can't blame him for that but personally...I'd like to be able to do something magical. I guess it is true, you always want what you can't have, unlesssss you want to soak in milk I guess and relax. You can absolutely have that.

Magic or no magic I am handling my bills pretty well. Thankfully, this place isn't too pricey so I can manage. It always feels good to have things under control financially.

Especially when I can sell a piece of jewelry for 1k. It's not a fortune in the grand scheme of things but it's enough to cover rent and still have simoleons left over. A little breathing room helps!

Hopefully this little ring will sell!

With the rain pouring down outside I can only decide to settle at my computer for the evening and dive into video games. There really isn't much else to do in my little place especially with Niklas off doing whatever he does. So it should be a quiet and peaceful night. Just me, the rain, and my laptop.

At least that was the plan but it looks like I'll be having a late night visitor.

Standing at my doorstep in the middle of a storm is none other than Lilja, the vampire I met earlier in the spring. Our first meeting was strange and now I can't help but wonder what brings her here on this rainy night. It's hard to tell from her expression as it is completely neutral and her eyes, cold and seemingly lifeless, stare right through me.

"So, may I?"

"Come in, you mean?" I ask, stupidly. Of course she needs an invitation. She's a vampire. "Y-yes, I guess so."

"Thank you."

"So, you're not going to like abuse my invitation, are you?"

Lilja chuckles softly at my question, amused in that delicate way of hers. "No, if I wanted to take you then you would have been taken," she says with precision. Perhaps she's right. I have been a little casual with my night time activities but she has made it clear that she's not out to harm me.

"So, then," I take a steady breath and gather my courage. "What brings you here? Despite the fact that I don't remember giving you my address or anything." But I'm sure she's been stalking me. Vampires are natural born stalkers, I might not know much about them but I do know that.

"Did you know that there was a ward put up around your house?" she asks that question with a tilt to her head, as if she is testing me.

"What? Yeah, a magician friend put one up, I'm not sure why-"

"Friend huh?" She gives me a knowing look. Does she know about Niklas? "It was a very weak ward but it did tingle just a little bit, it seems your wards are...weakening."

"Yeah, he's..." I trail off but then stop myself. Why am I explaining this? "Are you stalking me?"

"Watching you, did you forget our deal?"

"I..." guess I have. "Can you remind me again?"

"The blood magic," she says, watching me, her eyes intent and focused upon my expressions. "Do you remember?" and so it comes back to me, the deal, the offer of her maker willing to teach me blood magic. It felt theoretical at the time but now it feels much more concrete.

"I-, yes, I do remember now. Is it difficult to learn?"

"No, just costly."

"Costly? May I ask why you're willing to do this? What is in it for you and your umm...maker?"

"Everything," the weight of that word brings silence and for a moment I'm not sure what else to say. "The Realm have hunted our kind to near extinction and only the help of a blood witch can save us now."

"Oh," so am I the chosen one? "You can't just find someone else?"

"It is in your blood, your mother-"

"Yes, yes, she was a blood witch, I know."

"I am inviting you back to the castle," she says, and I'm reminded me that she had warned me against coming back because her maker might attack me again and she sees that concern and memory in my eyes. "He rests still, he is still weak. He needs...blood."

"Umm, yeah, sure, since you are inviting me I guess, does Saturday work."

"Yes, sounds perfect."

I'm not sure what the time is but I am getting a little uncomfortable with her here. "Umm, now, it's getting kind of late for me so if you don't mind..."

Episode List - Next Episode 3.4

[cbk1000]

'Anyways, I blame booktok for everything lmfao.' Valid.

I think a lot of people associate amateur writing with the worst possible examples you can find online because there's this pervasive idea that if a writer is any good, they'll be published professionally, or at least pursuing professional publishing. I saw that sentiment several times in the discussion thread this post spawned. 'If a writer can actually write better than published authors, then they probably will soon be a published author, because they have the talent and the motivation.' This forgets that sometimes it's just a hobby, whether or not a writer is any good.

I see a LOT of 'Anyone writing fanfiction is, by definition, not a good writer, because if they were a good writer, they'd be published/trying to get published, not posting for free online.' It's honestly quite sad, because it shows that many people believe something is only worth doing if you can monetize it. It's not bad to pursue publishing as your ultimate end goal, if that's what you want to do; it's also not bad or an indictment of quality to just write for fun.

Saw this post on r/books, and I actually am confident I can write better than (some) published authors, thanks. Have you not read a published book worse than free fanfic you randomly found online? Because I certainly have.

[competitivedust]

I am going to act like a toxic fan but every time I see an update about Daredevil Born Again I want to strangle someone. Mostly Kevin Feige.

It's great that DD is back but not bringing Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll as Foggy and Karen respectively feels like slap to the old fans' faces. They stomped on our excitement about Daredevil's return in the worst way possible. And I don't care what reason they come up with to explain away their absence, it's going to be stupid and contrived bullshit.

This isn't my Daredevil. I hope the show fucking sucks. I am sorry, I know that's not cool but it's how I feel. It's fine if you don't care about these characters because you only are interested in the show because you find Charlie Cox hot, they were important parts of the story and so very important in turning Matt into the wonderful character he is.

But then again, it's not the fault of the fans who are excited about the show. I hope you guys get what you want.

But honestly? Eat shit, MCU.

[panharmonium]

i am not usually interested in dramatically canon-divergent scenarios because the canon story is what compels me, but i've been obsessed with this moment ever since i re-heard it during my second viewing. from the perspective of someone who already finished the story once and now knows the truth - this was wild.

WHAT IF?

[wildevenusian]

i just don’t understand. why say ur ready to talk if you aren’t?

can u believe this post is what got me to reach tag limit

[hyperfixationcritter]

Ok but I like this take.

Honestly both Ekko and Viktor didn't get enough backstory on this end. Like, I just assume Ekko's an orphan, which is fine, but it would've been nice to get more background on him as a character and how he ended up with Benzo. It could also delve into where he got some of his values/worldviews from and how that influenced the formation of the Firelights and why their ideology is so important to actually healing Zaun.

I'm on the fence of whether or not it would've been interesting to have his parent(s) also die on the bridge with Vi and Jinx's bio parents because on the one hand, it could add weight to that event by showing other kids orphaned from that night but on the other hand, it toes the line of "everyone's actually secretly connected to each other" which isn't good writing or worldbuilding.

In the case of Viktor, having his mom be a character would give him something that ties him directly back to Zaun instead of being written as oddly removed from it, even for someone in his position who climbed the ranks of the academy and presumably lives in Piltover currently. There's obviously room to talk about the compromises someone in his position would make unwillingly or even willingly in some cases, but for a character who's set up as someone who cares deeply about the plight of Zaun and helping the people there, who doesn't seem to view himself as separate or better than them for being in the position he's currently in... it felt like a disservice to that characterization to not expand more on that.

Her dying of illness and him grappling with his own terminal condition would make for a really interesting parallel and further drive home Viktor's trauma around Rio and how that influences his view of himself and the people he wants to help. And, as you said, this character would also give him someone else to tether him and disprove Singed's claim of his loneliness coming from being "too smart" for the people around him when it's really things like ableism in Zaun and ableism and classism in Piltover, especially if he had a mother like her who he sees as getting his talents from.

It'd also be worth exploring further how body modifications are commonplace in Zaun but stigmatized in Piltover, no doubt due to classism among other things. But for someone like Viktor and his mother, their conditions wouldn't exactly necessitate that/wouldn't be something that could be helped by that. It's one thing losing a limb and replacing it with a prosthetic, it's another thing dealing with a terminal/internal condition or a leg that's still there but has presumably femoral anteversion. Growing up in a place where body modifications are common but not helpful to him could add some depth to where his character heads in his approach to trying to help people/treat different conditions like his own.

On a smaller note, I agree that it would've been nice to, following this theme of mothers, have some attention given to Ximena. She's kinda just there at the end and we don't see reactions from her about... everything that's happened this season which feels weird. I think it's easy for stories, especially with high stakes, to make everyone an orphan and/or forget the family members of characters that do have family but I personally think giving her some moments in the show could've drove home this theme of mother-child relationships. It would also, again, just make sense to have her react to the things happening this season and potentially elaborate more on her and Jayce's backstory, how they ended up on that mountain and began living in Piltover, etc.

I wouldn't want any of this to come at the cost of the leading women of the show because a cool thing about Arcane was that it had so many of them that were, initially, the main focus but I think it would've really grounded the writing to explore these things.

In a different world, with Arcane season 1 having such a focus on fathers, Arcane season 2 has a focus on mothers. The highest stakes remain the Piltover/Zaun conflict.

Mel and Ambessa, Caitlyn and Cassandra, Vi and Jinx and Felicia, Jayce and Ximena, Ekko could have someone too, and you know what? We meet Viktor's mom too. Here's why.

Viktor is inspired by the real historical inventor Nikola Tesla. Today, Tesla's family is usually considered Serbian and they lived in what is now Croatia. His father was an Eastern Orthodox priest and his mother, Đuka Mandić, ran the household, a genius in her own right in several ways, including being a clever seamstress, having an incredible memory, and being an inventor herself because she made tools and appliances to help with household tasks. Letters and pieces of interviews show that Tesla spoke fondly of her and that he felt that his talents came from her.

Tesla lived in Prague, Paris, New York, all over, throughout his career. When he was in his 30's, he was giving lectures in Paris when he got word that his mother was dying of illness. He rushed back to Croatia to see her and was there when she died, devastating him.

Listen, arguments can be made about respectfully reflecting real historical figures' lives in fictional characters - but the good, bad, and ugly parts of Tesla's life have already been ground up and used for parts of Viktor's story and in many other pieces of fantasy media. Just imagine a Viktor who leaves home (this wasn't in the show, but according to the writers, they believe Viktor's mom helped him sneak into the Academy, which makes me think they knew about Đuka and if they had included Viktor's mom, she would have been like her) to attend the Academy, intending to help the undercity someday. Arcane plays out in its usual tragic way. Imagine a plotline where Viktor hears that his mother is dying. He goes to see her, help her, something. She dies in his arms.

Just think about Viktor's mom being the specific example of someone he couldn't save, this moment being the one where he realizes his time in Piltover was spent in vain. Imagine she dies because of the problems Piltover and the Hexgates are causing Zaun, be it the Zaun Gray or the tainted water or what have you. It would tie Viktor's story so much more strongly to the plight of Zaun itself, it would be thematically consistent with the other Arcane characters who lose parents, it could be just one of several concrete examples of Viktor trying to help someone with his own hands, and it would show that he had connections besides Jayce that were tethering him and that Singed's "loneliness is often the byproduct of a gifted mind" really was bullshit (whether Viktor realizes it or not).

[deliriousblue]

the eclipse, episode 6 (previous eps)

akk's expressions in this scene absolutely breaking me. he's so innocent here in contrast to the mess that being a prefect has dragged him into.

the sequence at the ocean......the confirmation that yes it has been akk the whole time contrasted with him looking younger than i've ever seen him. and the revelation that ayan has known the entire time and hasn't told anyone.

godddd it's. ayan is constantly begging akk to put himself first for once and akk is constantly saying no, the director wasn’t involved, i did it by myself. and even when ayan threatens to expose him and he says no you can’t, it’s not because he’s afraid of what will happen to him directly but because of his parents.

and there's also something about. again the constant threat of exposure. where on some level ayan saying he'll tell everyone akk is the one behind everything is just as much about outing as the overt references like the picture are. don't tell everyone, my parents will be disappointed......

i feel like i should have something interesting to say about the scene with khan and thua but in fact i just have “you might be in danger because you hang out with aye [Known Queer] [Tainted By Homosexuality]” immediately followed by the accidental “i’m worried jealous” bouncing around in my head. we aren't getting a lot of them but what we do get is fascinating to me in terms of — how extremely aware both of them are of how one another and their relationship might be perceived by others.

aye offering to spit out the meatball he stole from akk hits different when i’ve seen first take a sausage out of his mouth to try to give it to khao with my own eyes who said that.

something about. watching the others be out and queer and joyful while akk is quite literally hiding himself away. well.

thua saying khan invited him over because he didn’t want to be alone in that big house while his parents were away FLASHBACK akk asking ayan if he lives in that big house by himself SCENE CHANGE ayan staying over at akk’s room. send tweet.

akk, my darling boy, who is simply having the worst day at all times.

god.

okay so. if i'm honest on an objective level i don't know that the pacing of this episode entirely worked for me? a jumble of different things happened and i don’t feel like i was given the space to react to them fully or process the emotional consequences. it's like there are all of these Ideas being tossed around but not all of them are being woven together into a vision that’s totally coherent.

and also.....on an emotional level none of that matters to me at all because. akk. akk!!! he’s such a jumble of contradictions too but first is making him coherent. the way he's been convinced that he has to protect the school and that the way to do that inescapably involves harming the (obviously no coincidence) queer students of suppalo. the way he is around the director vs the way he is around his friends, the way he's constantly fighting himself in every direction at once. the way he's going to extreme lengths to uphold order — physically dragging the protestors out of the hallway, almost setting fire to the school — while simultaneously defying orders: letting the student on his phone go; confronting the director about the way the teachers are treating ayan.

the way akk perceives the world....constantly calculating the effect his actions will have by erasing himself fully from the equation: how will this affect the School? how will this affect my Family? the conflict with the protestors is not about them as peers or individuals; it's about the threat they pose to the rule of order. meanwhile for ayan everything is always personal and specific; he's constantly needling akk in ways that force akk to confront himself as an individual with needs and desires.

and then the kiss itself is a precipice of — akk choosing to ask himself very straightforwardly what he wants.

[crownedwille]

.

[aliennooboo]

I've been dealing quite okay with all the changes coming to my workplace this spring, but now I learned there's gonna be yet more changes, and it's just too much for my autistic ass to handle adgsdfdfddfgf 😒