#i have a bit to work on for the new 'standard' verse like metas. character stuff etc.

[mercless]

things I've decided in my head but haven't shared here yet: I will have two verses for classic. the first will be following the comic + marcus is ded rip 🙏 talon is flittering between noxian settlements, not completely aligned with the black rose but definitely branded a traitor to noxus. they're trying to learn more about swain's demonic powers & the precautions needed when he (INEVITABLY :/) goes full evil demon, and tiptoeing around the black rose and being affiliated with the group. this is for standard interactions without discussing things/if it fits the best. the other is my version of talon that I have been writing already, and is connected to the verse I write on my Marcus blog wherein he did in fact go missing for a while. this one is for those who are interested in interacting with both blogs, and specifically with the divergent lore I've written up already.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #498

Top Ten Movie Cameos

The first time I think I ever noticed someone cameoing in a movie was Steven Spielberg. I was watching The Blues Brothers, and there was this guy, who I was sure was Mr. The Berg. I must have seen him in some behind-the-scenes something or the other. But he was a director, not an actor, so it couldn’t have been him, right? Then years later I was reading Empire, and sure enough, I was vindicated. It was indeed the play mountain himself. But more on that later.

So, cameos, then. What is a cameo? Now, in my opinion, I think it really has to be small. Really, it should just be one scene – or even one shot. The smaller the better. I’ve seen people online refer to Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love or Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder as cameos, which is very, very daft, as those are clearly supporting roles – even if they are quite small (and remember, Dench didn’t win her Oscar for “Best Cameo”, she won it for “We Meant To Give You This Last Year”, which is a very important category in the Oscars). I also think the best cameos should be unexpected; a nice surprising treat. And usually they’re funny – the incongruity of seeing that person in this film. Because that’s the other thing: for a cameo to really work, the person cameoing has to be kinda famous. For instance, some might say that Ashley Johnson in The Avengers is a cameo, but whilst she’s obviously awesome and prodigiously talented, I don’t think she’s instantly recognisable enough (which, y’know, she’s mostly famous as a voice actor); also there’s nothing inherently funny or surprising about her role, she’s a waitress who’s saved by Captain America. It doesn’t feel like it’s saying anything to have Johnson play that role, other than I guess Joss Whedon wanted her in the movie (it’s actually funnier that her brief scene is referenced in Loki, because Kate Herron had the whole of the MCU to draw from in a montage, but chose to use an unknown character who’s in one tiny bit of one film, entirely because she’s a huge fan of The Last of Us – see, that is arguably a cameo).

So my rationale for what is and isn’t a cameo might seem complex or even arbitrary, but when has that stopped me in the past? And so, with no further ado, we now get deep into the weeds of it and celebrate my favourite movie cameos of all time. Oh, and there’s no Bill Murray here; I know, I know, it’s a really famous cameo, but, er, I’ve never seen Zombieland. Sorry.

Stan Lee in Pretty Much Everything (2000-2019): I mean, who else? The absolute King of Cameos. Lee was a massive publicity hound all his life, and passed up no opportunity to get in front of the camera, so once big, proper movies were being made of his comics, he was right there, selling hot dogs in X-Men (2000), rescuing children in Spider-Man (2002), and then right through every MCU film until his sad death in 2019 (and even popping up in Teen Titans!). Hearing him tell Miles Morales “I'm going to miss him,” in Into the Spider-Verse chokes me up every time.

Carrie Fisher & George Lucas in Hook (1991): this has always been one of my favourites because unlike virtually every other entry in this list, you only know this if you’ve been told. But it’s funny and it’s sweet. When Tinkerbell takes Peter to Neverland, she flies over a bridge, where a silhouetted couple are seen canoodling. Her pixie dust falls across them, and they begin to float into the air. And apparently the unrecognisable couple are played by Princess Leia and the director of Star Wars. Which, I think you’ll agree, is pretty cool (Hook is really good for cameos).

Brad Pitt in Deadpool 2 (2018): having an invisible character offers plenty of opportunity for some good gags, especially in a Deadpool movie, but the real laugh in the film comes when the Vanisher is electrocuted and we get to see his face for a split second. And – ha – it turns out to be the hugely mega-famous Brad Pitt. It’s funny because he’s a massive star.

Martin Sheen in Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993): it’s one thing for the movie to do an Apocalypse Now gag, as Charlie Sheen’s Topper Harley sails down a river on a military boat, but hanging a lampshade on it by making it cross over with Martin Sheen’s Willard from the classic seventies Vietnam epic is another thing entirely. And then both actors notice each other – ha, funny, they’re father and son in real life – and say in unison, “I loved you in Wall Street!”. Very on-the-nose all the funnier for it.

Steven Spielberg in The Blues Brothers (1980): well, I mentioned him, and here he is, a totally nonplussed-looking administrator bloke just merrily eating a sandwich. He’s frightfully young (I’m guessing he was probably about 32 or 33) and he’s got a big brown tache instead of his usual ‘Berg Beard, he’s dressed very smartly and he’s awfully polite. His demeanour is hilariously in stark contrast to the mayhem around him, and his public persona is also hilariously in contrast to the raucous and ribald mood of the movie.

Cate Blanchett in Hot Fuzz (2007): this is one I didn’t even notice till I read about it after seeing the movie. In a very funny scene where Simon Pegg’s Nick Angel chats to his ex-girlfriend Janine, she is head-to-toe in forensic gear throughout, with a mask covering her face, so all we see are her eyes. But the gag of it is, she’s played by the phenomenally famous Cate Blanchett. You get a megastar to do one scene but make her unrecognisable. So funny it beats Peter Jackson’s evil Santa.

Don Ameche & Ralph Bellamy in Coming to America (1988): this is another one I remember finding hilarious when I was a kid. Walking down the street late at night with love interest Lisa (Shari Headley), Akeem (Eddie Murphy) nonchalantly gives a huge wad of cash to some poor homeless bums. But it turns out that they’re played by Murphy’s old Trading Places co-stars Ameche and Bellamy – and they refer to each other by their character names from that earlier film. “We’re back!” declares Ameche, referencing the end of Trading Places, when their crooked broker characters were defeated and ruined by Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. It’s a great bit of shared-universe tomfoolery, and very funny for fans of Murphy’s movies. Oh, and speaking of Aykroyd…

Dan Aykroyd in Casper (1995): in 1995 it had been six long, bitter years without a new Ghostbusters film; back then, we could still hold out hope for a proper Ghostbuster 3. Sadly that never came to pass, but it was a very pleasant surprise when Ray Stantz himself popped up in Casper, of all things, fearfully running out of Whipstaff Manor in full ghostbusting regalia and declaring, “Who ya gonna call? Someone else!”. I mean, after facing down Gozer and Vigo and who knows what else, you’d think three sarcastic arsehole ghosts would be no match for him, but maybe the ‘busters were having tough times. Maybe this will all be backstory in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Maybe Cathy Moriarty and Eric Idle will return the favour and do cameos of their own. We can but hope.

Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, & Sam Neill in Thor: Ragnarok (2017): twenty years ago you could point to Goldmember as the, er, gold standard in multi-character cameo pile-ups. And while that is great – Danny DeVito giving the finger, Spielberg back-flipping – I think it’s been surpassed by this minor gaggle of stars hamming it up. Matt Damon – famouser than anyone actually billed in the movie – is An Actor Playing Loki. Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park is An Actor Playing Odin (whilst Odin’s actor, Anthony Hopkins, plays Tom Hiddleston playing Loki playing Odin – do keep up), and Thor’s Real-Life Brother plays An Actor Playing Thor. It’s all delightfully meta and hilarious.

Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas in The Incredibles (2004): this one’s really sweet, and like the Hook cameo, would very easily slip you by. At the end of the film, after the climactic battle, two old men cheer on the superheroes – “That’s old school!” “Yep, no school like the old school!” – but what’s great is that they’re voiced by – and designed to look like – Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas, the last two surviving members of the famous “Nine Old Men” group of Disney animators, who’d worked on many of the classic Disney films. This was Pixar and director Brad Bird giving a tip of the hat to the legends who came before them, and made all the sweeter by the fact that Johnston and Thomas (both sadly now deceased) were absolute best buds in real life. A cameo that educates and makes you think! How nice!

There you go. Sadly no room for any of the many great Star Wars cameos, from Daniel Craig through to George Lucas’ entire family. Oh well!

[syncogon]

[QZGS meta] what’s in an OP? dawning glory (pt 1)

or, why TKA S2′s OP is actually really good

{The King’s Avatar season 2 premieres in less than 24 hours!}

(part 2) (part 3)

Ever since I got into The King’s Avatar, I’ve always wondered what a “classic-anime-style” TKA opening would look like. OPs are something I pay a lot of attention to, both for the sheer enjoyment and hype as well as the deeper story and symbolism they may allude to. And although I enjoy the S1 and OVA OPs for what they are, I always wanted an OP that really followed the tried-and-true formulas, an OP that gave a proper look at what the series was really about, an OP that had a lot to dig into and analyze. 

S2 brought us this kind of OP, finally, and I’m very excited to see it. Heavily inspired by the “What’s in an OP?” youtube series by Mother’s Basement, I really wanted to try and break down this OP. Because things got very long, this is only part 1; the other 2 parts are linked above and below.

Some of the points I bring up may be reading too deeply, but whether some of these details were intentional or not, their meanings and effects are still worth analyzing. Also as a warning, there will probably be novel spoilers. 

For reference, watch and read the lyric translation here.

With all that said, let’s jump right in.

We open with some very nice shots of the morning light streaming in, shining on the gamers’ tools of the trade. Right away, the new animation studio promises us a visual treat - the lighting and colors are excellent. Although the props are unmoving and there are no living beings in these shots, the changing angle of the light adds motion to the scene, giving the impression of a sped-up sunrise. This accompanies the music well, which starts out muffled and distant, and gradually comes into clarity. From the very beginning, the OP grabs our attention and holds it, building our anticipation for what’s to come.

Now we cut to outside, atop a roof, and we get a proper look at the sunrise - only for a brief moment, though, as Ye Xiu’s hand quickly comes up to block the blinding light. “Anime protagonist staring at sunrise” is a pretty common trope, but I think it’s used to nice effect here - we’re introduced immediately to the “dawn” motif that underlies this entire OP (it’s even in the title). It’s a suitable motif for this arc of the story, because this is where Ye Xiu finally has the concrete goal of building up his own team - this is truly the dawn of Team Happy.

I like how it’s Ye Xiu’s hand that’s the first thing we see of him, or of anyone. As a pro, his hands are the most important part of himself; his hands are also one of the first things that Chen Guo notices about him when she first meets him. 

Furthermore, this view provides a nice natural transition to the next shot, in which we finally get to see him properly.

Look at how pretty the sky looks! Look at how pretty his smile looks! 

After the first few seconds of pure buildup in the music, the beat kicks in at the exact same time as his hair begins to blow in the wind. I think it’s very important for the visuals and the music to sync together in an OP, simply because of the raw impact this has on the viewer - they reinforce each other’s effects. Both components of an OP need to work well together in order to create something greater than the sum of the parts. It’s just very exciting, when you can sit back and think “oh yeah, it’s all coming together.” 

Ye Xiu stares thoughtfully at the sunrise for a few moments, before breaking into a soft, relaxed smile (right on the second four-count after the beat starts). It’s not one of his mocking smiles, or his shamelessly confident smiles - here he’s just genuinely happy and hopeful at what the future has in store. 

We see him lower his arm, and then the camera pans upward to a shot of the new series logo for Season 2. This pan-up to title card is also a fairly standard technique, but hey, it’s effective and efficient at getting us ready. 

Speaking of the new logo: it’s basically the same as the old, but I was shocked to see just how prominent the English title “The King’s Avatar” is now. Honestly, it’s really exciting to see - feels like it adds some legitimacy to our small English fandom, and it’s also so cool, knowing how the title “The King’s Avatar” became the official English name almost by accident - we could have easily ended up with something much less interesting. However I do think they could have positioned the text a little better, because I and others keep reading “The King’s Iavatar” haha

As the dawn shifts more into morning, we refocus on Happy Internet Cafe, the origin of it all. Notice the new green leaves on the tree: our story began on a snowy winter, but we’re now firmly in spring, a time of new beginnings. 

The music excitement level settles down a little as we enter the first verse, and here we get a montage of many of the to-be Team Happy members. Although each shot is fairly short, each manages to tell a story, conveying a good amount of information about the character in question. One of TKA’s strengths is its large cast of well-developed characters, and I’m really glad to see that they’re not completely flattened out in this opening montage.

Here we see Chen Guo, presumably opening up the cafe for the day. However, by the time she comes down here to do this, it seems that Tang Rou has already been awake and training for a while.

Like Ye Xiu, the first thing we see of Tang Rou is her hand, a parallel that perhaps emphasizes how deep Ye Xiu’s influence on her is and how she wishes to learn from and surpass him. The nimbleness of her fingers on the keyboard definitely evokes the image of a pianist - a subtle clue for the future.

Look at her straightened back and serious eyes - her posture and expression say it all. Awake, alert, steady, calm, as she continues to strive for improvement. 

The lyric for this part is roughly, “the bugle call to split open the dawn is sounding right here and now.” As mentioned, it’s here at Happy Internet Cafe that it all begins.

From one internet cafe to another, it’s Wei Chen and his bros! Notice how he’s at the center of their little group, in both position and attention - we immediately get the sense that he’s their leader. Slouched against the couch (which seems to be built more for comfortable lounging than proper gaming), hands behind his head, glancing between his friends, an easy smile, it all gives off a relaxed, casual air of confidence. 

Still, in contrast to the seemingly light-hearted mood of this scene here, the accompanying lyric is somewhat melancholy: “were those daydreams or the past?” 

When Wei Chen’s character design came out, a lot of people were surprised at how young he seemed to look, and he has barely any stubble. But with this close-up of his face (which is specifically timed to “or the past”), the lines under his eyes are clear to see. Combined with the lyric, there’s suddenly something sad beneath his smile here. He’s not young anymore. 

Notice the one screen that’s turned on behind him - clearly an image of Glory. Despite everything, he couldn’t bring himself to leave this world entirely.

Where the hell is Steamed Bun? Why does he have a bat? We just don’t know. We don’t even have any lyrics to give us a hint. He’s a real-life Brawler, totally incomprehensible. Even the camera shakes a bit erratically as it tries to follow his movement. Honestly, isn’t this just the best way to sum up his character?

Our favorite math nerd Luo Ji, in a library of course. The shot begins with everything blocked off by the books, and it’s only when he pulls out one of the books (the black-to-light is timed with the lyric “I open my eyes”) that we’re able to see him. He’s still framed by the books in this shot, because he’s first and foremost still a student. For now and for a long time to come, his studiousness and mathematical ability will be what defines him and his contributions to Team Happy. 

Still, he looks thoughtfully at the book in his left hand. Maybe his contributions can go farther. Pay attention to his character Concealed Light when we see him later.

I can’t say if there’s a significance to the woman passing by, but it serves its purpose as a transition to the next scene.

Qiao Yifan! From the logo in the back, as well as his uniform and color scheme, you can see he’s still at Tiny Herb here. He looks determined and focused on his screen at first. When he blinks, though, his gaze subtly shifts to the side and down. Something is distracting him; he’s not quite as certain as he might appear at a glance. 

The lyric here is “[I can’t tell] what side of the road I’m running on,” an apt reflection of his current, conflicted and somewhat precarious situation. He’s on a championship team right now, a place that so many would envy. But he feels much more at home with the ragtag crew from Happy. But what prospects do they have? But it’s not like he has much of a place in Tiny Herb right now either…

From Qiao Yifan looking to the side, we cut to An Wenyi looking to the side - our eyes are able to very naturally follow the transition. Although blurry at first, we soon see that he’s looking at a figurine of Immovable Rock - the number one Cleric in Glory, An Wenyi’s idol. He looks at it thoughtfully for a moment, brows furrowed, before turning away and closing his eyes. As though in resignation, knowing he’ll never be able to reach that level.

The lyric is, “do I understand” - a very short line, with the note held out.

An Wenyi is the logical one; he’s the one who understands. He understands his current position, he understands that he has no hope as a pro with his current skill, he understands that the chance Happy is offering him is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity for someone like him. It’s a decision he considers carefully, he’s unafraid to ask bold questions about the practicality of what Chen Guo and Ye Xiu are trying to do, but in the end he knows this isn’t something that he can pass up.

I like An Wenyi’s character arc a lot. There’s a lot of worry and self-doubt in his expression as he looks at that figurine; there’s a lot of sadness as he turns away. Even through Season 10, this aspect of him doesn’t just magically disappear - he has to deal with this reality of being Happy’s weak point. His logical mind is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

From An Wenyi’s closed eyes, we cut to Su Mucheng’s downcast eyes - another natural eye-focused transition. She looks up as the wind picks up around her, blowing her hair and scattering leaves. 

Notice that she’s not wearing her Excellent Era uniform here. Her dress reminds me of her outfit from the prequel movie, actually - color scheme, sleeves, bow, length, cut, etc. 

It’s a style calling back to younger, simpler times. The light pink color adds to that effect as well. 

As the camera pulls out, we’re able to see just how alone she is, isolated from the cars passing beneath her, not a single other person nearby. And at this point in the story, she really is rather alone; she doesn’t really have any allies on the team, and her only escape is to play in the game with the Happy crew. 

The wind is scattering many leaves, and she blurs into the background as the camera focuses on one drifting red maple leaf in particular. 

Blatant symbolism is blatant (it’s not even fall right now, it should be early spring…). Still, it’s a convenient shorthand to reference many things. One Autumn Leaf, Ye Xiu’s account and identity for a decade, now snatched away. The symbol of Excellent Era and those earliest hopes and dreams, now lost to the wind. It could even reference Su Muqiu himself, the boy with “autumn” in his name, now lying in eternal rest. 

The lyric is, “interwoven in the dawn, those memories and rests.” The past is now past, far out of reach; all we can do is look up and reminisce on what once was. 

Over the course of these shots, you can see the passage of the morning. The earlier characters are illuminated by a golden glow, but by the time we reach Su Mucheng, she’s standing in full daylight. Here we end section 1 (verse 1), and move onto the next part of the song.

Thanks for reading so far!

(part 2) (part 3) 

[eiriini]

Meta: Personality Analysis

Disclaimer: I, in no way, am a psychologist nor claim to be good at this. This is purely for fun, and for character growth. Also, this is based on the way I write Kamui/Corrin. Some of her personality is divergent from canon, due to past interactions in the four+ years I’ve written her. 

Edited: August 15th, 2020

Also this got even longer and I’m sorry.

Enneagram: Nine

Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting. They typically have problems with inertia and stubbornness. At their Best: indomitable and all-embracing, they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts.

MTBI: ENFJ “The Protagonist.”

Protagonists are natural-born leaders, full of passion and charisma. Forming around two percent of the population, they are oftentimes our politicians, our coaches and our teachers, reaching out and inspiring others to achieve and to do good in the world. With a natural confidence that begets influence, Protagonists take a great deal of pride and joy in guiding others to work together to improve themselves and their community.

Four Temperaments: Sanguine

Your temperament is sanguine. The sanguine temperament is fundamentally spontaneous and pleasure-seeking; sanguine people are sociable and charismatic. They tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be boisterous. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when they pursue a new hobby, they lose interest as soon as it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy. Sanguines generally have an almost shameless nature, certain that what they are doing is right. They have no lack of confidence.

Moral Alignment: Chaotic Good, "Rebel"

A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he's kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society.

Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit.

Chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment when it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.

Astrology: Taurus

Strengths: Reliable, patient, practical, devoted, responsible, stable

Weaknesses: Stubborn, possessive, uncompromising

Taurus likes: Gardening, cooking, music, romance, high quality clothes, working with hands

Taurus dislikes: Sudden changes, complications, insecurity of any kind, synthetic fabrics

Practical and well-grounded, Taurus is the sign that harvests the fruits of labor. They feel the need to always be surrounded by love and beauty, turned to the material world, hedonism, and physical pleasures. People born with their Sun in Taurus are sensual and tactile, considering touch and taste the most important of all senses. Stable and conservative, this is one of the most reliable signs of the zodiac, ready to endure and stick to their choices until they reach the point of personal satisfaction.

Taurus is an Earth sign, just like Virgo and Capricorn, and has the ability to see things from a grounded, practical and realistic perspective. They find it easy to make money and stay on same projects for years, or until they are completed. What we often see as stubbornness can be interpreted as commitment, and their ability to complete tasks whatever it takes is uncanny. This makes them excellent employees, great long-term friends and partners, always being there for people they love. Earthly note makes them overprotective, conservative, or materialistic at times, with views of the world founded on their love of money and wealth.

The ruler of Taurus is Venus, the planet of love, attraction, beauty, satisfaction, creativity and gratitude. This tender nature will make Taurus an excellent cook, gardener, lover, and artist. They are loyal and don't like sudden changes, criticism or the chase of guilt people are often prone to, being somewhat dependable on other people and emotions they seem to be unable to let go of. Still, no matter their potential emotional challenge, these individuals have the ability to bring a practical voice of reason in any chaotic and unhealthy situation.

Taurus – the Wandering Bull Being the one who betrayed their best friend, goddess Hera herself, this is an unfortunate being that has to wander the Earth in order to find freedom. As if something was always poking them behind their back, reminding them of happiness that once was, stinging and pushing forwards, they close up in their own worlds, lonely and separated from their core. To find love, a Taurus has to travel the world, change perspective or make a shift in their entire belief system and their system of values.

Conclusion:

There are some contradictions in these results, but overall, it is her at a basic premise. She tends to be very strong with her foundations, doing whatever she can to keep by them. Most of the time, she will listen to what others have to say, for they can hold more wisdom than her. However, there are just some things that she won't change on. Her Nohrian family knows this the most, and there are some thing that they've tried to change about her. Especially Leo ( sorrcerii ).

When it comes to the vices, she holds those in as much as possible. The insecurity, the side of her that may be uncompromising -- her reaction to sudden change that isn't what she planned for. Things like that. As a tactician, she likes to be as many steps ahead of her enemy as possible. In mundane life, she tries to put that side of her away. But there's always going to be a part of her that takes notice of every little thing. She notices how someone reacts to a gift, a conversation, and logs it away. However, unlike the standard, she tends to be rather lenient. She's also like clay; she picks up on traits. For example: because of Jeanne's ( noircisaint ) influence, she has more of a backbone than the 'standard' Avatar. With Zero ( echoedfates ), more of her playfulness comes out. He’s shown her that it’s OK to be a bit of a prankster -- well, more than she was before -- and it’s OK to put the title away when it’s just them. That there’s a difference between ‘princess’, ‘general’, and ‘wife’. 

In her Type Moon verses, Makoto ( dekirukoto ) and Yi ( einhcrjars ) have taught her it’s OK to let her guard down. Especially while in Chaldea, and around them. That it’s OK to love, and even though it may hurt when they are returned to the throne, that things don’t have to stay at a standstill. That, hey, it’s OK to be you -- even more now than you were. 

However, that doesn't mean she'll bite the bullet on it's first fire, and will always try to resolve a conflict before it arrives. Her anger is one of a slow fire, unless you pour the right amount of gas. 

Kamui also holds in a lot more than most people. Even around those she calls her confidants and her retainers, she rather watch herself burn and suffer than those around her. She's very much a 'the world must be saved instead of myself'. Yet, over time, she's grown to understand that some people don't deserve it. Later on in the game, and depending on what route/verse, she will show some aggression to those who she deems deserves it. Which, as we know, is extremely small. ( Base game alone, Anankos, Hans, Garon, and Iago are the ones who get no special treatment from Kamui. And if she's acting nice, it's an act. ) 

There are times where she’ll return to a child-like state as well. There were many things that she didn’t get to experience, which lead her to have an imaginative mind and, at first, such a naive personality. Even during and after the war, she still retains it, since it’s so ingrained. It’s hard to ignore, hard to hide, but over time she comes to accept it. This is why she’s always reading; always wanting to learn; always wanting to experience what others have. A void can only be filled so much.

However, even though she may not seem it, she is rather intelligent. Because of lack of human contact outside of her retainers and teachers, she can come off as an 'airhead' or 'aloof'. Over time, that fades, and her true colors begin to shine more. She's able to find hoops she can jump through, but only will if the time seems right. Calculating outcomes begins to come second nature to her.

This is especially true when in Conquest, where she goes and knocks out almost all the Hoshidan soldiers she fights, just to put on a show for King Garon. In the end of that route, TECHNICALLY, she committed treason and blasphemy against Nohr. But thanks to Xander, she was absolved, and history wrote it to be that King Garon was dethrone on the basis of madness and insanity, dying in a battle in the Hoshidan capital.

And that’s it on this segment of, “Carrie adores Kamui too much, and has a problem.” Back to your regularly scheduled fluff! Thank you for reading this, and I’m sorry this turned out so long. asdfg

[youngrevolutionary]

Out of Mercy // Rules Overhaul

I dove in with the full intention of shortening my rules page but I wound up making it a touch longer but at the same time, far easier to look over. I would ask you guys please take a quick glance -- for mobile users, I have listed the modified rules in plain text under the cut.

https://misplacedheroics.tumblr.com/rules 

[ SEIFER’S RULES ]

NOTE I would very much appreciate that you take the time to give my rules a glance. These rules are here to make sure that we both enjoy ourselves, both on the dash and on Discord. Please, don’t be afraid to pop into my DMs to ask me for clarification or questions about my rules. If we engage in RP, I will proceed with the assumption you have read and understood my rules!

I myself, as the mun, write the general universe of Final Fantasy VIII with a bit of intensity and seriousness. I write things coming from Seifer’s perspective of the world, and not everyone is comfortable with his perspective. He’s a very serious muse, and his views of the world can get a bit dark. As a writer, my motivation and creativity are primarily angst-driven and my threads often go in this direction for the muses I write. My portrayal of Seifer is not for light-hearted roleplayers or for anyone who is primarily seeking out fluff or slice of life threads. While they are possible, they are not with just anyone, and it takes a good long while for Seifer to be comfortable with another muse for threads like that to happen.

Seifer is a volatile muse and has the capacity to be an asshole. He’s not necessarily a villain but he is a product of behaviorism and exhibits behaviors that accentuate his flaws. He derives enjoyment out of playing with peoples emotions. If he has found a weakness, Seifer can and will abuse it. Specifically for his canon verse, Seifer may exploit your muse for personal gain. In order for me to write my muse effectively, he can and will succeed, just as he can and will fail. It can be awesome writing for Seifer, but writing a character that is story-locked and doomed to fail has it’s downsides, but just because Squall managed to defeat him does not make Seifer Almasy weak.

My muse is not immutable. Over time, Seifer’s attitude, behavior, and headcanons may change. His opinions or standings may not always be the same. I am not twisting Seifer out of character by changing his opinions, I am giving him a relatable quality because none of us are immutable and won’t always have the same opinion of everything.

I am not my muse.

Speaking specifically for canon character purposes, the only Seifer Almasy that exists on this blog is his original form from Final Fantasy VIII. You will not find any reference to KH!Seifer on this blog.

[ SYN’S RULES ]

The standard etiquette of RP applies here:

PERSONALS Please do not reblog my threads, IC asks or headcanons without permission. (Aesthetics, PSA’s, game-focused headcanons / metas / drabbles are fine!) If you are reblogging multiple things from my blog, please queue them.

ROLEPLAYERS Please do not  force headcanons, pre-established relationships or ships on my muse. If I want to stop or refuse an RP campaign, I have that right to do so.

I will not roleplay with anyone under the age of 18. I will also not engage or interact with self-inserts, fictionkin, ‘genderbent’ characters (ie. Female!Squall or Male!Rinoa) or RP blogs where the primary function is for mindless smut.

Please make a new post when replying to answered asks! I will not respond to reblogged asks.

This is a multi-ship blog. I do not ship with one single character, but a selective few. However, as a rule, I will not romantically ship Seifer with two of the same muse. I am also disinclined to ship with a muse who is already shipping with another Seifer. NOTE: This doesn’t mean that it won’t happen, but OOCly, I do not wish for me or my muse to feel like we’re a part of a collection or harem. What I ideally look for in shipping takes time to grow and develop organic chemistry, especially with Seifer. If you’re serious about shipping, be prepared for slow development. I am also not roleplaying with the goal to ship in mind.

Replies vary in length and the chemistry between muses will determine the amount of detail put into a reply. I try to always provide a substantial amount of content for my writing partner’s muse to work with, but I will only reply with what my muse feels is enough and how comfortable he is with your muse(s). If we’re new to writing with one another, I will always prefer shorter replies and we build from there.

I have a zero-tolerance policy on manipulative or damaging behaviors. Excessive posts about deleting, suicide baiting, vague/jealous blogging or tagging, guilt-tripping and other methods of harassment or other obnoxious behaviors that frequently disrupt a positive RP experience will get you unfollowed or blocked. Bleeding your feelings into the RP is also something that I am not comfortable with, please don't do it.

This blog also does not support or tolerate callout culture.

I do not tag particularized triggers. I will not tag things like ‘tw murder’ or 'tw blue eyes’. If you are following my blog, I am under the assumption that you are 18+ and can police your own content. However, threads heavily detailed with violent or generally NSFW content will be tagged and hidden with a ‘read more’. This blog will occasionally post NSFW content.

I do not RP blatant, mindless smut/porn on Tumblr. (Blacklist tags listed further down.)

[ TAGS FOR BLACKLIST ]

NSFW TAG ;not safe

CRACK TAG ;crack

OOC TAG out of mercy ; ooc

[haynr]

all blog info below the cut, 

apologies now to my mobile users 

RULES 

Before we interact you must…

have a properly displayed muse

have easily accessible posted information regarding your muse in a section or page

have easily accessible posted rules / guidelines in a section or page 

for AU’s, you must have posted information regarding your muse within the fandom universe in its own section or page

make sure I am following you

cut threads

I Won’t

roleplay sex, generally. there may be a few exceptions, but keep the standard that i probably won’t. sexual content, perhaps, if all muns involved are over 18. If we do, it is with the understanding muses involved will be aged up appropriately. 

tolerate any sexual advances toward myself ooc

roleplay inserts

always follow back, nor will I follow personals

tolerate pressuring, be it to rp in general or consistent pestering to answer threads

answer everything in my inbox. It’s not often I ignore asks, but I won’t answer something if it violates my rules. If I have difficulty answering something, I will privately message senders or make public inquires about anonymous messages. 

follow everyone back / interact with everyone, even if you technically follow all my rules. i’m selective. 

Please Don’t:

reblog meme asks. I don’t mind this so much, but it keeps things cleaner when they’re moved to a new post. 

reblog inbox answers for non starter memes. examples would be mun opinions and the like but extend to headcanons and other writing. violators will be asked to delete the post and may be blocked. 

reblog threads you are not a part of. warnings will be given to violating rp blogs, but personals will be instantly blocked. 

reblog personal posts, especial images of myself. violators will be instantly blocked. this means anything tagged ooc. 

force ships with me. I am a p easy going shipper, but I will be a bit more restrictive with Hayner. most of it has to do with his muse in general. he’s not thinking about romance atm. if it comes up in plot, great. if it doesn’t, you’re more than welcome to put it forward, but please do not expect me to go along with it. on that note, don’t expect me to always agree with your interpretations of my muse in ships. ideas and suggestions are fine, your own take is fine, but i cannot stress enough, please do not push hcs. 

I am open to

multiple threads

duplicates of other muses (i do not rp duplicates of my own muse, but I usually have other muses in the fandom which I will be more than happy to interact with there, no twins etc) 

shipping, though I will be highly selective, possibly exclusive. I will not instant ship, but I don’t mind developing our muses’ relationship privately over DMs. 

mutli verse and/or polyshipping as befits all the muses and muns involved

rping toxic relationships of any sort, will be tagged accordingly and placed under cuts.

angst and/or triggering threads, though I would prefer to discuss  the thread and tagging beforehand

crack threads

select AUs

ask/tagged initiated threads/starters but I ask for some warning if they are not from a meme or other prompt

responses of any length, so long as it is enough to reasonably work with for the pace of our thread

group threads

generally questionable plots. regardless of whether or not I approve of such practices ooc isn’t usually relevant. this is fictional, exploration of an idea– not a real-world execution of that idea. Feel free to DM for details.  

Please Also Note:

I do not require length to be matched and may not always match partner’s length. I will respond as much as I feel I am able to or that I feel is necessary. 

If my response is inadequate, difficult to respond to, or otherwise distasteful, FEEL FREE to ask me to redo my response.

Understand that my selectivity will depend on my comfort level and that I am not obligated to explain myself.

I tag all my threads as “thread”

I tag my partner’s url

if partner’s url changes, I will tag both old and new urls for the first response then only the new url going forward.

I generally tag triggers as “trigger tw”. same with general cw’s. i’m not the best with tagging, so let me know if I should watch for stuff in particular

my activity is generally a joke, but I’m constantly lurking, so feel free to drop a message

I am incredibly anxious. It doesn’t matter if we have late night conversations for like a month straight i will still be afraid to talk to you every. single. time. so always feel free to come whack me on the head or smth

while I can be very laid back / crack-ish, I do prefer to explore darker themes and my thread responses are much more serious than I come off as. 

Blacklisted / Ask to Tag:

food

nsfw (for general safe scrolling, just let me know what your tag is since t simply wont show not safe for wombats content anymore) 

“little space” related

“daddy,” “mommy,” etc

literally anything in this vein. in the vaguest, most removed sense. idc what you tag it. either let me know or just tag it “jade don’t look” whatever.

in fact feel free to tag any and all of these as just “jade don’t look” or some variant.

a/o/b related 

anything pregnancy related

vivid depiction of sensory / memory alteration (particularly in images, but not excluded to)

unreality (also especially, but not limited to, images)

Of course I can’t require people tag these, but I will most likely not follow you if your post these regularly and do not have some warning which will be picked up by blacklist applications.

In regards to the sensory alteration, I mean things like seeing/hearing/etc things that aren’t there, mis-remembering or outright tampering with memory, etc. It’s kind of situation to situation on what gets me, but when it does it tends to hit me pretty hard. If you have any questions about it, fire away! [ example text post ]

On unreality, this somewhat relates to the above, I use this as a catch all phrase for images, vivid descriptions, and most especially videos/gifs of things that basically don’t behave or seem to behave as they should. Sometimes, I’ve seen these things tagged as “trippy” and the like, but they those posts tend to be too…idk how to put it. Extra? What tends to get me is when things are going fairly linear and then suddenly go for a loop. That’s not the greatest description, but here’s a few posts that have triggered me the worst that I’ve slowly gotten used to.  There are also things which should seem fine or normal but aren’t. If anyone has a better description for this, by all means let me know! example posts [ one ] / [ two ] /  [ three ] + a weird image that also gets me for some reason. hmvent is actually a blog I use to store things that trigger me so I can slowly get used to them or try and figure out what it is / why these things get to me.

META 

Hayner is a young lad who resides in the sleepy Twilight Town. He is described as “impulsive and determined, and is always looking for a new adventure. He is bold to the point of recklessness…He gets bored easily during uneventful times… also easily angered/irked…thirsts for some kind of recognition…” During the events of KHII, he is 15, the same as Roxas/Sora. He has deep brown eyes, dirty blond hair and is a bit tall and, while still skinny, muscular for his age. He is the leader of his quartet trio including Pence, Olette and Roxas himself.

While he does have parents, he’s rather distant from them. While he does receive support from his folks, they were just never really there. Because of this, his loyalties lie greatly with his chosen family, his friends. He considers it his duty to help, lead and, if needed, protect them, even if he’d never admit as much even to himself. If any of his actions or ideas end up hurting someone he cares about, he takes it very much to heart, often beating himself up about it for weeks and weeks after.

Hayner, despite his hotheadedness and brashness, is a very observant leader. His tough guy act, while not entirely based on this, is partially to build himself up, make other less inclined to pick fights with him and his friends. Whether or not this works out, however, is certainly debatable. He also does his best to incorporate his friends’ wants and needs– or at least what he perceives these as– into his plans.

As oblivious as he may seem, he is quite mindful of the people around him. Whether it’s picking out the shady figure on that street corner or this one, or noticing some random kid’s not having a good day - he sees a lot of it, but often it doesn’t strike as a huge priority. He thinks things through a lot more than he’s credited for, but unfortunately, he doesn’t go through the whole process before starting his plan of action.

Hayner also isn’t exactly the most social person. He is outgoing and nice to people out of politeness and giving people the benefit of the doubt, but as a whole he’d much rather just stick with his friends. The only exception to this has been Sora, as he feels a “familiar vibe” about him, and therefore is also open to his circle of friends.

A couple more misc hcs below:

Is a very exceptional swordsman (at least with the training swords). However, his skills do not seem as outstanding compared to that of Roxas and other more major characters.

As much as he hates school, his best subject science. And although one would think he’d be a good athlete because he is competitive, he actually doesn’t have good PE grades because he doesn’t try if he doesn’t have to. The only way to get him to really participate is to make it a competition.

MORE WILL BE ADDED MARCH, 2019 TO INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR KH3

AU Info will be added shortly. 

[duckbeater]

My friend Emma is the lit editor for Third Coast Review, a website following Chicago-based culture. She solicited my response to a novel that I thought would be a joy to read! And sometimes it was. The below reproduces my notes and feints as I worked toward producing what became a fairly strident response for her section, which ultimately surprised me. I read what was published on the site to Daniel and he said, “Wow, it’s unmistakable that you hate the novel!” and while this didn’t perplex me, I thought, Oof, I don’t actually hate the novel, I just have opinions about its shortcomings. So the below is also, I guess, something of my softer, second consideration.

 —

I read Browning's first novels, I'm Trying to Reach You (2012) and The Correspondence Artist (2011), a few winters back, at a rare juncture of poverty and exhibitionism. I had no money, no standards, and I was tired of staying indoors grousing over very cheap meals. I volunteered for a community dance project having never done anything like that before—that is, aside from drunkenly dancing my ass off in bars. I thought it would be constructive to turn a thing I loved to do, but that nevertheless filled me with deepest shame (trust me, I really broke it off at weddings), into a more mindful, more healthful and more regimented activity. It would get me out of the house, I thought, and it was free. I would be a part of making art, which is usually prohibitively expensive, as anyone with a fine arts degree can tell you. For dance, for this dance, the choreographer requested only that we show up on time. I'm a freak about punctuality. The stars had aligned.

Browning is herself a dancer (and an academic, and of course a novelist) and the narrators in her novels are same. The performing body and its capacities as a connecting medium (shamed and celebrated), this is the great inquiry of her work. If I felt, in that first month of reading her books while also dancing for the scrappy little corps, that I was conversing with her ideas—augmenting thesis with praxis—then I also responded to the novels’ meta-inquiry, the nagging suspicion that dancing for the company increased my sense of disconnection and isolation; that I had waded, in fact, into embarrassment. I might love to shake my body, I might even have the intensity and ferocity of a really expressive dancer—but that doesn’t mean I actually contributed in a meaningful way to a successful artistic enterprise. Being a part of an artistic failure, besides, is its own kind of experience, albeit one we try to avoid.

Browning’s latest novel The Gift probes the narrator’s compulsion to create “inappropriate intimacies,” while working to define what those intimacies could possibly be. Some of this work is done through dance—articulating intimacy by bringing us into proximity with a body, with the body’s hands, the body’s nakedness and movement—and a lot of this work is done through failure: failing to arrive, failing to tell the truth, failing to appear. Are we foremost bound up in bodies? When we extend ourselves across mediums—social, textual, televisual—and when we breach boundaries of cultural and creative divides, is the effect additive (increased sensorium, expanded presence) or subtractive (do we just spread ourselves too thin). How is intimacy sustained, enhanced, or encountered at all via absence?

Browning only half sustains her inquiry “novelistically” (with characters and situations), relying instead on a more academic mode of glosses, summaries, interpretations and applications of post-structural theorists and other en vogue critical discourses. A character is rarely in love without also examining that “love” through a lens of affect, queer, disability, and/or political theory. Sexual acts go through the Lacanian ringer. Emails, reproduced, irritatingly, seemingly unedited, are examined and replied back to at length. (Having a JSTOR account on hand isn’t necessarily a prerequisite, but it can really help.) On Browning’s website, she calls her works “fictocriticism,” an uglier version, I suppose, then Lance Olsen’s “critifiction,” though the fussiness of these designations could be swapped out with “auto-fiction” or “metafiction” with minimal loss in comprehension of the novel’s interest in formal innovation and authorial exposure.

I’m an advocate of Browning’s work but I want to be careful to express my unremitting frustration with this novel. Her avatar, Barbara Andersen, guides the reader through a series of low-heat, low-friction performance art encounters, recalled in (admittedly) hazy detail. The opulence of the narrator’s apologies on behalf of her faulty memory feels like the extension of a crude olive branch from the author herself, apologizing to the “real” people and their “real” projects the book describes. Some of these details are a bit off! It’s very much graduate student winking at the professor in the middle of a dissertation, or perhaps the dissertation’s acknowledgements section. I used to format edit those; that was my stipend work as a graduate student; the impulse is touching. Reproducing that impulse in fiction is, I think, meant to be a selfless corrective against critical overreach: the narrator doesn’t want to totalize or co-opt someone else’s experience or someone else’s performance: this “liminality” is ethically less suspect but makes for ponderous, slack descriptions of what would be better served by brute assertion of detail. (I just looked up “liminality” and it’s a term used in anthropology. Wikipedia says: “In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the middle stage of rituals, when participants no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the ritual is complete.” Browning would probably appreciate the idea that her sometimes fuzzy reenactments mean the readers must do the collaborative work of more fully imagining the novel’s happenings, the novel’s timeline, etc.)

Browning is adept at staging intellectuals in their milieus; she’s also acute in describing their off-hours, when they’re frustrated, alone, bouncing bad rent checks, and dithering away on deadlines. The Gift’s academic, in her off-hours, makes ukulele covers of sentimental pop songs, and begins a hiccupy romance with a musical savant in Germany. Whether you find yourself engaged by this part of the book may in part have to do with whether you’ve read Browning’s other novels, and whether you’re at all stimulated by a belated discussion of “the real” at a time when most any fourteen-year-old is versed on the personas we create online and the messy ways those personas betray our offline, “RL” bodies. It might also help if you love to dance or spend long hours avoiding your actual work (that is, the work your employer expects to compensate you for) (as I often do) watching YouTube videos of people dancing. Having a love for the mores of the academy and the scruples of graduate students and the particulars of cultural reportage also helps. Jennifer Doyles’ Hold It Against Me, a study of emotions and affect in in art (Ron Athey, Aliza Shvarts, James Luna), should figure but somehow does not.

Lauren Berlant crops up in Browning’s novels, and for this I read her essay “Affect Is the New Trauma” (wasn’t paywalled!), a discussion about “work” in the academy—a truly broad designation of activity that doesn’t necessarily look like “labor,” and that doesn’t necessarily describe a “career.” A painter sitting in his studio looking at a canvas is still “painting,” is my example. And professors, Berlant writes, describing her own procedures, “we are allowed to experiment and fail, to be wrong and revise, to get distracted, to not know what we’re doing while we’re doing it, to stop in the middle, to follow our instincts and hunches, not just building on established foundations. We are allowed to demand patience for the obscure, the experimental, the political, and the pedantic.” This is The Gift to a tee.

I would argue that the mediated self is a poor substitution for the living presence in all of Browning's works, not only especially this one. The German musician in The Gift, a mysterious figure who seems to drive the plot’s engine of desire, has a literal amputation—his leg above the knee—and a more figurative one, in his autism, which affects his ability to communicate and emote. He becomes a missed connection, and, if I’m reading the novel’s ending correctly, an ultimately abandoned one. Browning’s previous novel I’m Trying to Reach You said it right in the title: her characters are stymied by missed connection, by the shortcomings of most communiques, and then they’re heartbroken. You might send a stranger a quick ukulele cover, but it doesn’t mean that stranger will thank you.

[chvrchesrp]

This is more like a “meta Apocrypha”—it is meant to help understand the philosophy and perspective of our game and its Churches. The Admin team thought it might be helpful for me to share, so, here it is! I just didn’t have an appropriate header image for ‘the CHVRCHES concept origin story in May’s brain,’ haha. So this might get a skosh personal.

When we opened CHVRCHES, responses from the community were predominantly great. However, there were a few folks—people I respected—who had questions for me along the lines of “what about other religions?” and “the religious aspect makes me feel uncomfortable?” and I think, seven months in (haha), it’s a good time to talk about that a little bit. 

The first question has earned a brief Forward on out plot page: all pantheons are canon here. Greek gods? Real. Norse gods? Real. They won’t be appearing here, nor will our pantheon folks have interacted with them much, but they would know of their existence. Kind of like, Heaven and Olympus can both exist, but Olympians don’t go to Heaven. Not much of cross-pollination. Because belief is precious, there’s a wariness between pantheons.

In this verse, belief gives power. Belief doesn’t create these gods, but it feeds them. Their strength—though not their existence—relies on how many people believe in them. That is why the foundation of ours, around loss of belief due to humanity expanding belief into other pantheons and atheism, lands us in the power struggle our story’s pantheon is in. We are dealing in the Christian pantheon’s response to this phenomena in current modern society.

I can only speak for myself and my views, having been raised Roman Catholic, and I understand other folks are entitled to their own views. I believe that, if you’re Christian, you can believe there is only One God and he is Your God. Even if other ‘gods’ exist, in that perspective, they wouldn’t be gods—they’d be mythology, or spirits, or any number of things they are called by Christians today. We are an “angels and demons” roleplay, more than anything.

With that aside, the next thing that tends to comes up is: isn’t this a little too close for comfort, drawing from the Bible as a text? 

And to that, I say, I don’t believe so. For 2 major reasons—

1) Dogma, Supernatural, Lucifer, Preacher, and so forth... all of these exist. They incorporate biblical stories and scripture, show portrayals of biblical characters and people. A ton of songs explore biblical canon. Christianity is the dominant religion in much of the world, and certainly in the United States, where this verse is set. It is also an open religion that actively converts, asking people to engage with and believe in it. Exploring the stories between the lines seems a natural progression. People do this regardless of whether or not its an online writing game. If these other mediums are generally accepted, I haven’t yet been presented with a reason CHVRCHES should be deemed different.

2) Predominantly, the people I’ve spoken to have spoken of a discomfort they can’t quite name. I don’t know if this is true for them, but I imagine it’s a similar feeling to the one minority religion practitioners feel—like pagans, hellenics, and heathens—when engaging with other media portraying witches, Greek gods, and Norse gods and practices, respectively. There is certainly a dissonance when you first experience your beliefs as perceived by someone outside your own familiar religious group. I think this discomfort may stem from not being used to others exploring your religion as mythology, the way our culture—and Christianity— treats other religions. 

I wanted to incorporate the text in order to revive and honour it in a different way. Christianity is the dominant religion here. As I type this, the line of the separation between Church and State is thinning, and the aspect of the church that is wielding political power is literally one that wants to kill me (for being a woman, queer, disabled, chronically ill, et cetera—and those like me, for being those things and more). That church isn’t the interpretation of Christianity that I grew up on. Granted, I grew up Roman Catholic in New York, so take that how you will, but I wasn’t kicked out of my Church for being gay, nor did I have to undergo conversion therapy. I know that isn’t true everywhere.

My intention isn’t blasphemy any more than my existence is blasphemy.

Understandably, belief among my generation and those like me is waning. That is part of what inspired me to create this verse. A future many articles have written about: what happens when the younger generation finds other faiths, becomes secular or atheist or spiritual, empties out the coiffers and pews of standardized churches? That’s the world I created: one where all the churches we are already familiar with are small, quiet, defunct, fringe. As a foil, I kept the Roman Catholic Church with Pope Francis as canon, as a bastion of the old era in this new society and verse I conceived. My intention was to take biblical text and re-consider it, wonder:

What might it look like if we focused on the parts that were positive and not alienating? What if, for all the cherry-picking held against us, we could cherry-pick back in support of ourselves?

After all, every sect of Christianity began with a man and some interpretation of the text. This is me, creating fictional sects, with my interpretation. All churches started somewhere. Protestantism wasn’t a new stone tablet from God: it was Martin Luther with 95 Theses nailed to a church. These are mine. I’m not trying to make a revolution, I’m just trying to offer an alternative vision. It can’t happen in the real world, but in our escapist verse here, it was a thought process I wanted to see come to fruition. The possibility of a Church where the emphasis wasn’t on judging your identity, but instead focused on what kind of person you were; what you did and how you perceived the world around you. 

And so, the Church of Saints isn’t “Christianity” and the Church of Sinners isn’t “Satanism” nor “Luciferianism.” It’s important to not perceive of the Saints as you would our current-day churches and assume that the Sinners are ‘the individuals,’ a way out of current dogma, a different perspective catering to outcasts. The thing is that they’re both different perspectives from what we’re familiar with because their fundamental construct is from not-now. These are Churches who managed to capture the hearts and minds of a generation that wanted to leave the pantheon altogether. Out of a failing ideology, both Churches emerged and thrived to become the top Christian sects, succeeding where what we are currently familiar with in our world waned.

In a way, both Churches are the churches of outcasts, created in safety until the minority became a majority. That is how Christianity thrived, in this verse. That’s how you wind up with a bisexual, multiracial man who is a former-pirate heading the Saints—and now a biracial, asexual lesbian who questions everything, a daughter of an immigrant pragmatist. That’s how you wind up with a Vice heading up the Church of Sinners who conceived of the idea after bonding with a demon, carving her own path by the skin of her teeth and the dirt under her nails, not accepting ambition as ugly—traits utterly unbecoming of a woman, in theory. Both of these Churches are the song of the unsung, singing themselves into a better tomorrow.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

That’s why that’s #9 on both of the Church’s 9 Beliefs.

The Churches were based on two basic ideas: Saints believe you make the world better by caring for self and others. Not to a fault, not to self-sacrifice and do only good and be perfect and conform to the hive mind—no. But with self-care and good boundaries and consideration for one’s own self and others. Sinners believe you make the world better by bettering yourself first. Kind of like an emotional trickle-down, the concept is that if I am the best me, and others are the best them, then we will have the best world. It’s self-focused and charges oneself with the responsibility—and consequence—of choice; less considerate, it asks you to do for you before anyone else. Both Churches try to create the best people as individuals, encourage their individuality, and aim to make the best world.

Both Churches’ views are flawed, of course.

That’s the point: it has to be that way, in order for a “real” Church to be “living, breathing, and responsive” to its congregation in our verse. These Churches are more attentive than what most of us have experienced in our lives, both Churches more interested in experiences as ‘mass’ rather than broadcast-sermons. It’s about the nuance of believing, existing, and moving through a text these muses thought failed them and breathing new life into it, making it work for each of them. Each Church is meant to make room for each believer. One believer might be startlingly different from the next, each believer might have their own individual interpretations of the Bible. 

So with that perspective, I invite you to re-imagine your muse’s relationship with the Church they chose. Try to let fall away the projections and ideas of how we feel about the churches in our world, be those feelings positive or negative or neutral, and try to perceive a world in which these Churches are familiar, personal, and the hope of both their people and their God.

[sword-and-quill]

Replies

@cuntharidin said: This was a delighting piece of bedtime literature, absolutely! Can I say that I was especially excited to finally, finally, /finally/ have the pleasure of meeting Allan? I mean, I’m obviously thrilled to witness the whole band of loners assembling, but having had the opportunity to watch him interact as Tremere DID somehow raise my expectations to meet him in his “original” manifestation as a …warlock.

Thank you very much! :) It was a pleasure to introduce him and I hope he lived up to expectations! I’m really excited to get everyone together in the same space and working as a team.

(And I’m infinitely happy Booker survived – not just from the “avoid the trope” aspect, but I also think the narrative profits. The whole ‘must find new social radius because everyone else is dead’ is quite prevalent in young adult fiction, and, y'know, especially since this is all about finding people to trust after experiencing betrayal/some sort of abuse. From my own experience getting away/cutting ties is extremely emotionally straining, especially if people stay back that you liked and who didn’t do anything wrong – and Booker really isn’t a bad guy – but sometimes you gotta leave these behind as well, even though I’m not sure what’s going on with him in the story. I’m not quite sure how to phrase it, yet I always felt the whole “everyone died, tabula rasa” situation oversimplifies extremely and doesn’t answer the “Can I still go and leave people behind that didn’t do me wrong? Or that are somehow dependent on me? Is that a reason to stay?” question. Does that make sense?)

It makes a lot of sense! I’m really happy I finalized the change as well, for several reasons. I think you’re right, I really think you’ve hit on a lot of elements where the death was... well, I don’t want to get too down on myself, but it was a lazy / inexperienced decision that was easy to make when I was 16 and working within the standard tropes of the genre, but definitely needed to be revised.

I think the necessary core impact of separating from Booker - the result that I need to accomplish, in a meta sense - is generating the freedom for Mara to grow. To sift through, synthesize, adopt and/or possibly reject lessons she learned from him and the other authority figures she’s left behind. Her parents, who loved her dearly but with whom she felt she couldn’t be entirely honest. Booker, with whom she could be entirely honest but didn’t always agree. And Thein, who offered a haven of ‘honesty’ and agreeableness, but was ultimately using those as tools to control her.

Which brings me to the question – in how far do warlocks and mages differ? Is it a specific nomenclature within Mara’s universe, or did you chose to adapt the classification for example D&D proposes? It seems to be a thing in high fantasy to separate these supernatural professions, but I have no idea; Z already indicates that the warlock’s interests are of “cosmic” nature and she seems a tad more earthed with her, well, stones. Quite casual about it, too: I believed these phenomenons belong to a “secret society”/beyond convention masquerade not unlike the WoD, but apparently it’s common knowledge and can be discussed openly? After all, Grey’s are public presences as well.

It is a distinction in their magical styles, yes! Though the nomenclature may change. Mage and Warlock are alright as catch-all magical labels, but... they don’t have the right oomph yet. I struggle with naming, at times, I still have half of the Antehex tiers to finalize! Anyway, the main difference is their approach to magic. Allan’s style strongly prefers that you put rules on the spells you cast. You have to build the tunnel through which you wish your magic to travel to the intended result. Zory’s style treats magic with a great deal more trust and personal development. They’re more willworkers than architects and they get a lot of fulfillment out of watching the unique ways magic manifests with their personal touch. “Practitioner” is the catch-all term for people who use magic in this ‘verse.

They’re both practitioners and magical abilities aren’t limited by the style you prefer; in a lot of ways, I’m treating magic ‘in universe’ as art! People have their own distinct styles, some people treat it as a formal school and climb to the peak gladly accepting the lessons of those who came before, some people accomplish fantastic results simply by practicing on their own, and some people do magic in truly bizarre and unexpected ways. Some people have all kinds of classifications and distinctions and genres, while others just see it as one big umbrella. For some people it’s a career, for some it’s part of their identity, and for some it’s just a hobby. What you get out of magic depends strongly on what you put into it.

Now, as to the casual nature of it, I may need to put some additional effort into refining how it’s brought up in this scene. Because yeah, there is that thin veil of pseudo-secrecy, for sure, even if it’s far more permeable and permissive than the Masquerade! I actually based this on how casually my Wiccan and Pagan buds discuss their own practices, buuuuut... I think you’re right, giving it another readthrough with your feedback, I think the initial dialogue does end up being too explicit for the balance I need to hit. They can still have much the same conversation without necessarily tipping their hand to a stranger about how much magic is involved. I’ll work that into my revisions, much appreciated!

In fact, I’ve given it a quick once-over that I think should help! She should come across as a more traditional spiritualist now, until Mara tips her hand that she knows about magic and then they can open up the discussion.

Anyways! I really do love that you chose to invest quite a significant of words into the descriptive part, here; it’s just so very vivid and evokes a wonderful atmosphere and aesthetic to place the newcomers in – one fleeing from it, apparently, despite being versed in maneuvering the field; I’m generally very inclined to dialogue and I wholly enjoyed the character’s exchanges!

That’s delightful to hear, I appreciate it!! I thought mood and setting would be particularly important for this; how Allan treats his environment is as much a part of his character as his words and body language, so I wanted to be sure readers have clarity about him.

Another element that stood out was your choice to let A cry. I was a bit surprised, in fact – which is, I realize, all me, and pointing it out might reveal more about me than about your particular choice. Still, stroke me as positively remarkable, also gives a nice perspective on how significant the solitude and even loneliness which A’s paranoia necessitates might influence him?

!! It wasn’t a decision I made casually, but I... think it’s impactful, both thematically and in terms of character development.

Allan is dealing with a lot. He’s been profoundly disturbed by his experiences, he’s not always coping in the best ways, and he’s having a difficult time not taking it personally that his best friend decided to move out. Certainly he would have preferred not to show vulnerability with a stranger nearby, but... he’s only human and he’s hurting. His social support structures are practically nonexistent due to his isolation and losing a housemate compounds that.

So much of society demands that we put on a cheerful face, move along, pretend everything is alright and sweep everything unpleasant under the rug. A huge part of what bonds this group together is going to be that they can’t pretend everything is okay. They know things aren’t okay, they desperately need to address the fact that things aren’t okay, and none of them truly want to be alone yet they’ve ended up on their own all the same. If I do my job right, the story will make it apparent that they’re all facing extremely similar pain from different angles for different reasons. Sometimes they’ll be able to help each other. Sometimes they won’t. But they’ll always be nose-to-nose with that same kernel, that question of “What do I do?”, trying to answer it in different ways.

I don’t know, I just- Allan deserves the same space to express that pain as everybody else. He has a right to not be okay and to admit that it sucks. I want the story to have compassion and nuance for him and everyone else and I sort of feel like giving the characters that kind of emotional space contributes to that goal. At least, I hope it does.

I don’t want to bother you with an all too extensive comment, so I’ll speed up a little: The state of the house seems very curious – at first I thought he might be a compulsive horder, but he faces no troubles eliminating the dishes, so that’s not it! I wonder what’s the story behind all of this! Additionally I can’t but wonder how Booker and he met!

I can see why you’d think so! He’s not a hoarder, though, just struggles to get out of his own head to deal with real world concerns. It’s not easy to summon up enough focus to clean the house when it feels like the world could end at any moment and the next ritual is far more important anyway. I think that bit of characterization will become more clear as more context and interactions are given.

And you will get to find out how he and Booker met, in the story!! A tiny tidbit, though, he was friends with both Booker and Jackson, so they go back several years!

I might not be qualified to comment on it, though you introduce Zory with the formulation of “tall black woman” and while you describe Allan with the adjective “pale”, you don’t explicitly mention that he is white yet explicitly state that she’s black. I read some guides that say this is an imbalance to be avoided when introducing characters of color! Like I said, I’m not sure, I just stumbled over it.

aaahhhhh, I thought I’d been thorough! Thank you for pointing it out, you are absolutely right to do so! I received some feedback on an earlier section that I didn’t go into enough detail on how characters looked, which resulted in assumptions that everyone was white. And given that a lot of the characters aren’t, I’ve been trying to compensate and make sure everyone’s ethnicity is clearly stated and I missed Allan. Thank you! I’ve fixed that as well. Now we are like... draft 1.3 instead of draft 1.0. That much closer to the second draft!! Haha

I HAD SO MUCH FUN READING THIS. I was disappointed when it ended. WHATS NEXT. lmao too long

!!!!! I’m really glad you had fun! And I super appreciate that you took the time to read it and leave me your thoughts. Reactions, opinions, what you liked/hated/noticed feedback, little error catches - all of these are incredibly valuable to me and they help raise the overall quality of the work itself and make me aware of where I may need to pay more attention, so seriously: thank you! You rock. :)

[shinygoku]

Boy oh boy, I sure love Keith

...but why? Sometimes it’s really hard to round up feelings to put into orderly words, but it can be interesting to step back and look at results.

Why Keith in particular when no one is ever gonna displace Son Goku of #1 in my heart, or be a better written character than Zuko? I guess it’s partly as Keith is a new addition to my life, of sorts, and also other things I’m about to try and cover.

Oh, this is gonna have spoilers for the series so far, be warned.

And it’s rather on the long side, so under a Cut~! 😺✂

Part 1: The Superficial

What better place to start at than the beginning? And anyway, I may as well get this out of the way first: Keith caught my eye as he’s pretty and reminded me of the aforementioned Zuko. He’s a bishounen in his late teens with dark hair and associations with Fire and the colour red. I mean, this may’ve been partially on purpose, as even accounting for Keith being The Red Guy in the 80s version, he didn’t have the Fire Lion until VLD. There’s also the way both characters have swords, albeit different types, and Keith gets the option of using 2 swords in S2, like how Zuko’s blades are a twin set.

Anyway, the thing to take away from that paragrath is that being reminded of Zuko automatically made me feel more interested in Keith.

Part 2: The Secondhand Content

Unfortunately, I couldn’t watch Voltron, and I wasn’t all that interested when I had other shows to consume and games to play. For quite a while, the only indication I’d get of it were the odd posts from people I follow, which weren’t generally that helpful for someone who, like me, didn’t have context for the show, and lots of it was shipping. Eventually memes trickled through, as well, but they also weren’t that informative (what a shock!)

This wasn’t really enough to actually keep me interested, it just reminded me that Voltron was a thing people liked and it had that Zukolike dude in it.

Part 3: The Spark of Interest

Season 2 came and went, apparently, and I still didn’t really care. Except a couple of people I follow and trust had noticed. One of ‘em, Storm, didn’t write a whole lot about it, but it made me aware it was Current and New. I asked him but he confirmed that from what he’d seen, the Red Guy was pretty bland and only Looked like Zuko. I felt disappointed, like I’d bet on a poor horse or something, lol.

This didn’t motivate me to tune in, but @scrawlers started making a number of posts about Keith, and seeing as our common interest in Yugioh characters meant I had a good time reading the stuff written about Jounouchi from their posts, I got a lot more curious and more secondhand interest than ever before.

Part 4: Season One and Sitting Tight

So now I has much more reason to tune in. I had been spoiled, but only for broad things or things that were meaningless to me, having so little knowledge of the show.

To be really, brutally honest, I wasn’t really blown away by Season One. I felt a lot of the jokes fell flat and that large areas had been skipped over. Areas like characterization. The first episode had been fun, but I wanted them to stay on Earth a bit longer. I still want more Earth stuff, really, but I expect future eps to have flashbacks.

But the worst of all (to me) was that the only Episodes where Keith was interesting for more than a moment was the Pilot and then the 2 at the end. In the big middle chunk of the season I was finding it hard to list his characteristics that couldn’t just be grouped under a Vanilla Protagonist heading.

Part 5: Speeding up and Season 2

So yeah, First Episode aside, I couldn’t feel much for Keith until the last pair of episodes of the season. Things were finally getting more interesting, he went off on his own, in spite of the others warning against it and eventually gets in a fight which is a lot of fun to watch, as he puts up a good effort before having to skedaddle. In the next episode, he’s the only one to suggest not risking The One Superweapon in order to try and get Allura back, which I’m not saying is the right or wrong call, but it’s interesting as he’s trying to think of the Bigger Picture. Heck, the conflict in that scene is interesting too, as he doesn’t argue after the others chew him out, he just says his bit and clams up afters. Then later in the episode he’s pragmatic enough to try and attack Zarkon himself, finds out that won’t work, but keeps going anyway, essentially stalling for time even as he’s getting thrashed.

Like, suddenly I’m able to find seedlings of his characteristics growing! He’s a Determinator! He’s fighting for the Greater Good! He goes to pretty big and risky lengths to achieve his goals! Some of this is still Standard Shounen Hero type stuff, but starting to draw away from the mould and he feels less plain.

This is a nice setup for Season 2, and the first episode of that is one I really love.

Part 6: Shiro and Keith

I haven’t mentioned his relationship with everyone’s favourite Space Dad yet, though in this case it’s more Space Big Bro

Ok so, I’m gonna say right here that I looove the Broganes. Like, dang! What a marvellous brotp it is! I’m largely avoiding Shipping in this series at this point, but point me in the direction of some Quality Broganes Content and I’ll be delighted! I really, really want the series to go into some more depth and flashbacks for these two, and I’m very much for them to be Bros (adopted or otherwise) and all their interactions so far have been bright points that I like to bask in.

Anyway, onto S2E1. The part of the plot that was focused on them was sooo good, and while I liked the other threads in that ep, I still kinda feel that the segments should've been divided to 2 plots per episode, instead of 3 in one and then 1 plot for the entire next episode.

I think Across the Universe is super great for showing insight into the Broganes, like Shiro’s vulnerabilities and bleak humour, and Keith’s resourcefulness and urge to go help, but naturally the main points of that were boiled down to Keith being Shiro’s successor, what with Keith being able to pilot the Black Lion for a bit and more things that are left comparatively subtle.

The show has very heavily implied (as in, I’d be very shocked if they swerved away from this) that Shiro and Keith go back a fair bit. Keith tends to go off on his own, but will always listen to Shiro. He’s often hovering nearby in group shots and is quick to defend him, as in Season 1′s finale. This really wouldn’t work if he only Kind Of Knew Shiro from them having been in the same building, and a lot of jokes are made about Shiro having a Keith bias but they really do gel together and they clearly know each other well.

The point with that is that Shiro knows Keith’s got more to him than the show had really gone and shown at this point. Fortunately, the show steps it up and we get more precious details on Mullet Boy as it goes, and it backs up Shiro’s assessment. Episode 8 brings up the successor point, makes it a very clear point, and it’s only dropped because Keith doesn’t like to think about Bad Things happening to Shiro (same tbh). Still, one can’t dismiss S2E1′s conversation as being something brought on by Shiro’s bad state, as he reasserts the same things here! He points out Keith has gotta reel in his temper and work a few things out, but would otherwise do really good~

This section’s getting a bit long and rambly, I’ll progress

Part 7: Self Doubt

Yeah, if you want me to analyse Keith’s relationships with everyone, nnnot today! Sorry, I don’t consider myself to be a good enough meta writer to tackle that, especially seeing as this is already pretty long lmao

Ahem, back to the show. Once the gang’s reassembled, the plot starts to really propel itself into hyperdrive, so in quite a short space of time we’re given:

Keith recognises the mark on Ulaz’s blade, and later goes to check on his on knife in private. That episode has Keith also get cross at Allura with Shiro for the princess being so discriminative lol

Running away from Zarkon, who is somehow tracking ‘em and won’t leave them alone

Keith has a nightmare about being Galra and thinks ‘aw shit, what if that’s how Zarkon keeps teleporting behind us?’ Allura has similar thoughts, but without the Galra part so they run away together. Turns out that wasn’t either of ‘em, but they have some interesting awkward car conversation about The Galra and how Allura still thinks they’re the Orks of this verse (Chaotic Evil), though Keith does a good job at not getting too upset about this

SPACE MALL!! Also the Knife Keith has is super duper rare and valuable (Duh Nah!!)

Keith finds out at the end of the next episode that (Spoiler warning) He’s Part Saiyan Galra!!

This would be a nice place for the show to have had a bit of a breather, but instead it goes even more into Maximum Overdrive, but I’ll get to the other eps in a bit.

So the first half of S2 really likes to drop heavy hints about Galra!Keith. I’d like to say if I saw it coming or not, but I’d already been spoilered, wup waaah. I didn’t have the whole context, so it was still enjoyable! But I dunno how well they wrote it as I wasn’t fresh and unimpressioned as would probably have been intended. But they did hint at it in Season One, with the hand panel that Only Galra Tech could activate and Keith getting purple burns from the Sith Lightning. This S2 stuff really drives it home for that sweet, sweet reveal, but it was apparently a fond fan theory pre S2, so Good Job, writers.

And, y’know, the Galra thing wasn’t the only thing that had been teased at in S1, but elements of his personality, too! They’re much easier to locate with S2′s revolutions and heavy focus on him though, so I can’t really congratulate the Writers for that. It seems odd that he was so ignored and then so focused, though I get it’s hard to give even coverage to multiple characters and have an action-filled plot, but it’s quite the reversal. I really love the focus he gets in S2, though this does seem to come at the cost of some of the rest, which oughta be corrected in the next season/s. I’m gonna try and recap personality traits towards the end of this post, mind you.

So yes, back to the remainder of S2 (and the series at the time of writing, nooo)

The ep right after the Amazing S2E8 is also really good, already getting the wheels in motion of the fallout of Galra!Keith being established. Not only that, but Keith also slides pretty smoothly into a leader role here and continues to refuse to tar Galra with the same brush, opting to save the mysterious stranger and shrugging it off when they leave while stealing some loot. Keith seems to generally be really patient and easygoing considering what’s been going on, and Hunk goes from being vocally wary to warming right up and learning. It’s gooood.

Allura continues to be generally distrusting of all the Galra, and now that officially includes Keith, that means she freezes him out somewhat. Again, Keith’s response to this is interesting; he doesn’t get angry, instead he’s just quietly sad. It’s like he’s trying not to let it get in the way of all the other shit happening, but it’s obviously cutting pretty deep.

It may be partly this why Keith volunteers himself for a suicide mission, though there’s good technical reasons why he does as well, and we already know Keith isn’t all that idealistic and is willing to make sacrifices for the Greater Good. Eventually Allura comes to her senses and we get a heavy handed, but still quite sweet scene where she apologises.

Keith goes and does some cool stuff with Thace, the respect between ‘em is really cool but nnooooo, Thaaace--! And then, hoo boy, it’s time for the Finale

Part 8: Secret Blade Club and The Season Finale

You may have noticed I skated over most of The Blade of Marmora. Let’s fix that, shall we~?

Aw gosh, man, this episode...! It’s not as cute and funny as SPACE MALL, but I’d be crazy not to find S2E8 The Best. And the suit Keith’s in barely even factors into this choice lmao

But yeah, this episode goes above and beyond and certainly hammers things in. Things like: Keith will never give up. Keith longs to learn about himself and find out who he is. Keith cares so damn much about Shiro. Keith will still put the Greater Good above himself and may even, finally, fold his hand even when before he had utterly refused to quit.

And now... the last of the series (so far!) Blackout. Hoo boy

So the episode is pretty much a long fight scene, and it’s fun to watch, but damn does that end shot feel cheap-- but I’m not here to talk about that

So! Keith in this ep was really good for a nice, simple reason: He automatically took charge when Shiro was out of action. And everyone else listens! And it works, even if Shiro got magic’d to Another Dimension, or whatever.

Scrawlers made a post or 2 about it, but in the post-battle scene, Keith is the focus character, we see his running towards the Black Lion and he’s in the centre when The Gang is all in the cockpit. Symbolism~!

Also a post that’s around shows the first and last lines of the cast, and Keith’s are: “Shiro?!” and “SHIRO!?!”. owch D’:

Part 9: So, what’s Keith’s characteristics, again?

Man, this is long and a bit all over the dang place, ain’t it? Let’s recap Keith’s characteristics:

He’s one hell of a Determinator

Hot blooded and sometimes has a quick temper

But conversely, he’s capable of staying calm even when stressed

Socially awkward, very attached to his friends but doesn’t get some of the nuance associated

If you hurt one of his amigos, he’ll go right for your throat

He’s not as wide-eyed as most of the group, has suggested making sacrifices, taking hostages and often seems to disregard his own safety

He’s always working for the Greater Good

Likes the quiet, which might help explain how he could live on his own for a year in the middle of nowhere without going bananas

Has abandonment issues

Longs to know more about himself

Part 10: ShinyGoku, you didn’t really explain why you Love Keith, you just listed a lot of things haphazardly

It’s hard to really explain using words! Feelings don’t have a direct translation, haha.

In summation, I love the character he was eventually revealed to have!! I’ve said there’s crumbs to be found in S1, though I stand by that outside Ep 1 and the last 2 of S1, you really have to go through with a fine-toothed comb and a magnifying glass. Yeah, you see him get the most angry when Pidge wants out. Yes, you see the much-touted Bonding Moment bit™, but like, it’s really thanks to S2 that I can love him as much as I do

His character is interesting, and the part-Galra thing sure gives a lot of the issues and conflict more ground and ironically makes him lighten up a bit, but even without doing a Dragonball Z an playing the Alien card I do already like the traits listed, haha

Speaking of DB, I feel most Shounen Protagonists are influenced by Goku, as long as they came later. The original Golion was earlier than DB, of course, but Keith has a bit of a blend of playing some of the Goku traits straight and subverting others. I’m not saying this is intentional, but I find it Neat.

Keith Kogane is my Space Son, a Golden Boy from the Battlefield, and I dearly love him. He’s got cool depth and lots more potential! I can’t get enough of his interaction with Shiro! I’m hoping for more Bonding with the other characters (like Pidge! The Super Arm Brotp!!) and am very interested in where he’s gonna go next.

And he is indeed very pretty, lol