#i think you can tell which members of the crew i like the most lol

[byfulcrums]

More IDW TF out of character fake twitter!!!!!

[magnifythesun]

Hiii so mexican salsa YES this post is a prompt! Feel free to change it to whatever you like, but I'd love a lil' story like this:

Ian and anthony are both very obviously in love and the whole smoffice knows it, but them lmao! I'd love this fic to be just text messages or slack posts or sth, where the cast and crew report of sightings of Ian and anthony doing very ianthony stuff and not realize it themselves. Maybe they come up w a way to show or nudge them in the right direction? But Ian and Anthony will still make it a bro moment (broment) bc they think the other one just wants to be bros LMAO ~ Japhan2024 💖

@japhan2024 FANTASTIC IDEA I have to believe that the Smosh cast legit has a secret group chat for stuff like this hahaha the looks on their faces whenever Ian and Anthony do something shippy is priceless

im going to wrack my brain for my favorite moments lolol I hope you enjoy!

(mid writing note: i first wrote basically all texts but it wasn't quite flowing the way i wanted it to so now there's a little more prose lol. this also taught me i do NOT know enough crew members' names)

read on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56346769

---

It took Erin less than ten minutes to create The Group Chat following the slapping video caress incident.

Erin: "okay so what the fuck"

Tommy: "i'm beside myself."

Angela: "SO WE'RE FINALLY TALKING ABOUT IT"

It began, and all hell broke loose from there.

Most of the cast and crew didn't know Anthony too well when he first returned, but everyone could tell Ian began to positively glow once he came back. It had started mostly with little under-the-breath comments about how big Ian had smiled at something Anthony did, or shared glances after they looked lost in each other's worlds. It's not that everyone wanted to speculate about their bosses, but rather that their bosses were practically giving them no choice.

The real watershed moment was the birth of The Group Chat, which finally provided an outlet for all ianthony incidents witnessed by the cast and crew.

---

Shayne: "Please tell me how Anthony managed to turn his smosh cast interview into an hour of us complimenting Ian."

Tommy: "i swear he practices in his car on the way to work"

---

Erin: "not them discussing deepthroating injuries for like three whole minutes..."

Erin: "while Anthony sucks on his rainbow lollipop......"

Chanse: "they are not beating the allegations"

---

Josh: "So this is I think the fourth video I've edited where Anthony has called Ian daddy??"

Josh: "WHAT is the thought process. I just can't put it together. is Anthony just like yeah I'm going to call my bro daddy about seventeen separate times with varying levels of seriousness and that's good and het and normal."

Erin: "Josh, istg you don't see the half of it. Come watch them film and pay special attention when the cameras are OFF."

---

Erin: "im losing it"

Arasha: "oh god. what happened"

Erin: "i am not fucking kidding right now anthony just called him submissive and breedable."

Keith: "WHAT"

Erin: "he said what he said."

Angela: "BREEDABLE????????????"

Erin: "in front of god and everyone."

Angela: "BREEDABLE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

---

Tommy: "catching up on the main channel sketches and i just have to ask"

Tommy: "How many men can Ian date in his sketches until he realizes he'd like to date one in real life?"

Chanse: "don't SPEAK to me about it"

---

Tommy: "bicurious, hmm? Ian would you like to share something with the class???"

Chanse: "hes so deep in the mental closet his art is trying to scream it at him through his subconscious."

Chanse: "ive been there 😞"

Josh: "I've never been more prepared to edit a video in my whole life"

---

Angela: "Erinnnn not u directing them to stand closer together 😭😭"

Erin: "look I'm at my wits end. I'm thinking forced proximity might do it"

Keith: "if that could work they would have gotten it during kissing currency 😙💸"

Shayne: "@ courtney is this your thought process behind wanting a kissing video"

Courtney: "HA"

Courtney: "yes."

---

Courtney: "okay so if our plan at this point is just to make them read so many fanfics about themselves out loud that they spontaneously realize they're in love, we've got to find some fics that don't contain the word 'cummies'"

Angela: "what are cummies?? 😇"

Shayne: "ANGELA I SWEAR TO GOD"

---

As the incidents kept piling up, a plot began to form. Maybe Anthony and Ian were just so oblivious that they all needed to adopt a certain 'push-comes-to-shove' mentality, and do what had to be done. Everyone agreed, they had to find a way to put them in such a charged situation that this would all finally boil over, and the astounding tension that had plagued the office would be resolved. The ultimate achievement of this long-weary Group Chat.

Erin: "okay so one more time. everyone has talked with HR, yes? and everyone slated for the vid is comfortable with the concept of spin the bottle"

Angela: "what's spin the bottle? 😇"

Tommy: "STOP"

Shayne "1) Yes for the thousandth time, we promise. 2) What the FUCK are we going to do if this bottle never lands on Anthony and Ian"

Erin: "I will keep this shoot going as long as necessary."

Shayne: "That sounds like a threat?"

Chanse: "I'm suddenly regretting my decision. May I take my week's vacation right now?"

---

Erin: "how..."

Courtney: "did you see the look in their eyes????? :O"

Angela: "FATE WAS ON OUR SIDE. IT LANDED ON THEM THREE WHOLE TIMES"

Erin: "yes but,,,,,"

Tommy: "don't speak to me I'm still reeling"

Keith: "oh please don't tell me it didn't work."

Chanse: "i just have one question. how did they kiss THREE TIMES and still not realize."

Courtney: "they were both practically levitating from giddiness"

Arasha: "they just kept looking away from each other and laughing it off... they didn't see each other's expressions 😭😭"

Angela: "guys. guys"

Erin: "what"

Angela: "do u know what this means"

Angela: "now that we've pushed them over this hurdle... They're going to start bro kissing in their sketches"

Chanse: "oh my god"

Josh: "oh fuck you're right"

Erin: "that's it."

Erin: "im quitting smosh"

Amanda: "Oh hey guys! We have a group chat?"

Shayne:

[chuplayswithfire]

re the ask about stede not doing enough to make up for ditching ed - did it not balace out that ed tortured his crew for weeks and tried to kill lucius? idk why everybody is woobifying ed as if being sad or having a hard life is a justification for any of the shit he did like he has autonomy and chooses to behave the way he does when stede leaves. same goes for blaming all of eds actions on izzy as if izzy forced him to do anything? i think its weird and doesn’t do justice to his intentionally morally gray dimensional flawed character

okay so anon you are bringing up multiple things and conflating them, i think so let's take this one bit at a time

re the ask about stede not doing enough to make up for ditching ed - did it not balace out that ed tortured his crew for weeks and tried to kill lucius?

so first, let's be clear: ed's actions towards other people do NOT balance out stede's actions towards ed. that's uhhhh not how it works. when it comes to if stede did enough to make up for ghosting ed, that is a situation resolved only within ed and stede's personal relationship. stede leaving doesn't justify ed being callous and later cruel to the crew, but likewise, ed being callous and later cruel to the crew doesn't mean stede didn't owe something to ed if he wanted their relationship to work.

now let me further say that...i don't think that ed tortured (members of) stede's crew for weeks. in fact, i don't think he's physically harmed any of the crew aside from izzy, and I would argue that his dynamic with izzy is it's own special beef. if anything, i would say that between season 1 episode 10 and season 2 episode 1, ed's been a classic overachieving boss pushing his staff to the breaking point by having them work long shifts with no breaks and low pay.

this is not good, by the way, i am not saying he is being a good boss; kraken ed is fully that shithead boss who schedules 13 hour days and thinks a pizza party or donuts in the lounge make up for it. izzy tells him morale is low and he asks if they got cake, and then if they want drugs. the crew does not describe being worn down from specific fear of ed - they are worn down by day after day after day of endless raids without breaks; all the worst parts of piracy (the raids, the violence, the death) with none of the benefits (the break time between targets, the shore leave, getting paid).

again i say this is not good because it's not, but also, i think the fandom has marinated in this idea that because ed took izzy's toe he'd be doing all kinds of violence to the rest of the crew, and s2e1 doesn't really bare that out. they're shocked and horrified that he actually shoots izzy, and none of them are missing bits - in fact, the behavior is apparently so unique to izzy that they think izzy and ed have a toxic relationship. if it was any of them getting that, it wouldn't be an intervention getting plotted.

(he did for sure try to kill lucius though, which is why i'm glad lucius got to dump him overboard lol. lucky lucius. izzy tried to kill stede twice and stede didn't even get to stab him once.)

idk why everybody is woobifying ed as if being sad or having a hard life is a justification for any of the shit he did like he has autonomy and chooses to behave the way he does when stede leaves.

now half the fandom is woobifying ed because we love him and like him and also because the other half of the fandom is wildly racist about him so.

but, also, it's important context that the showrunner describes ed's actions as "a bit much" and "not entirely inappropriate". in the context of their environment, most of what ed did is not that shocking or stunning; he has hurt people, but even the people he hurt move on from it relatively soon, and we can see from spanish jackie (who doesn't give her employees enough money to pursue their own ambitions/perfectly fine with killing a husband to remove an obstacle) and ned low (literally all of that in episode 6) and izzy (in the like ten minutes he was captain and forced people to season his food and threatening folks with going hungry for laughing at him) that pirate captains are, generally, pretty shit, actually.

roach and archie at various points express sentiments that show this is all pretty normal for pirates; it's not that ed wasn't a dick, it's that he wasn't uniquely evil or fucked up. it's also that his behavior is sympathetic to many people because the show makes it abundantly clear that he's incredibly depressed and suicidal, and while it's definitely NOT okay to hurt people because you're in a bad way, the show is definitely more geared towards "even when you do all that fucked up shit, you still can be deserving of love and compassion if you reach for it" rather than "if you do fucked up shit you instantly are on the death list".

same goes for blaming all of eds actions on izzy as if izzy forced him to do anything? i think its weird and doesn’t do justice to his intentionally morally gray dimensional flawed character

izzy's not responsible for ed's actions in the sense that he put a gun to ed's head during every move, but he plays a critical role in making all that shit happen. it's like how stede wouldn't have ghosted ed if chauncey hadn't of dragged him out of bed - the festering self hatred that chauncey tapped into was there in stede, but he wouldn't have given in without a jolt from his past. the festering self hatred in ed wouldn't have broiled over into the kraken without izzy, but that was all still in ed.

izzy is pivotal in all that shit happening. if izzy hadn't of come in and jabbed ed in every sore spot he had and been a huge homophobia ridden pest that *also* threatened ed if he continued behaving in a way izzy didn't like, ed wouldn't have gone all kraken.

however, ed still DID go all kraken, so like, yeah, he did that shit. izzy is the explanation for why he did, but it's ed who did it so he has to make amends.

but also like ed is only as morally gray as literally everyone else. frenchie and roach are both in full support of torture. jim fully tried to kill a guy for throwing a glass at archie. all of them are professional murderers who make their living being the absolute living nightmares of people who are just living their lives doing their thing.

ed isn't any more morally gray than anyone else, but it's very weird how people try to make it out like ED is the intentionally morally gray character when it's just that this is a show about professional violent criminals, so the show doesn't really moralize about acts of violence.

now taking it back to the top though:

nothing ed did to the crew would change stede's need to re-earn ed's trust for ghosting him without a word and not being honest about his feelings and doubts. if ed wanted stede to atone for that, that would be ed's right as a person in the relationship - just like it would be the right of frenchie, archie, jim, or fang to want to ed to do something more before they offered their forgiveness. the fucked up shit you do to other people does not retroactively justify the fucked up shit someone else did to you. stede doesn't get a get out of the doghouse free card for ghosting ed just because ed was a dick to other people; he gets a get out of the doghouse free card because ed decides to forgive him and try again.

[mrmcdonut]

I have a theory. A Book Nerd Theory.

So. In the Percy Jackson series and Greek myths, in the afterlife there are many possible ways to get past the River of Styx and into The Realm of Hades (or the Underworld in general, death by naturallity); Fields of Bliss, Asphodel, Tartarus, The Fields of Punishment, (unmentioned, but part of the actual Greek mythological accuracy) and the Field of Mourning. In Bliss, you can try to reincarnate five times to go to where the truly best of the best go to: The fields of Elysium, the best place to spend your Greek afterlife.

This is a cross section analysis of the Percy Jackson series and EPIC: The Musical; both of which were inspired by Greek myths and, more specifically, Homer's The Odyssey (AKA an EPIC adventure).

This contains spoilers for the new saga for EPIC: The Musical and Percy Jackson and The Olympians, by the way.

So, when we first meet Annabeth, one of the wisest demigod children of Athena at Camp Half-Blood, she is taking care and looking over Percy in the infirmary/Apollo cabin after he got into the fight with the Minotaur. One of the first and most memorable things she says to Percy is that he talks in his sleep.

In EPIC: The Musical, Odysseus (aka "Ody") has just sacrificed the remaining member of his crew to Zeus to appease Helios for killing Helios' best friends/prize cattle, and after Zeus launches a lightning bolt into the ship and Ody is incapacitated and drifts onto a lone, unfindable island named Ogygia. Ogygia is the unfindable island where the sorceress -and daughter of the titan, Atlas- Calypso is held prisoner, where any man that drifts onto her shores, she is permitted to marry until the gods decide that the man's punishment has been dealt with and is permitted to go onto a boat that goes to any part of the ocean at random and the Ogygia disappears into a new location.

After Calypso wakes Ody up, she comments that she thought he was dead until she managed to wake him up. She also commented that Ody talks in his sleep, saying (singing, whatever), "Did you know you talk in your sleep? Tell me though, who's Penelope?" as he starts to get his bearings and observes his surroundings. Annabeth And Percy meet in a similar fashion.

Instead of asking Percy "who's Penelope," she instead comments, rather bluntly, on how Percy drools in his sleep. I'm joking, though, not about how they first met... Well not Annabeth and Percy anyways.

When Calypso and Percy meet after getting spewed out of a volcano, also on the verge of death, a bit after Calypso wakes Percy up, saying, "‘You talk in your sleep... [Response from Percy]. Who is Annabeth?’

You see where I'm going with this? Probably lol.

But like, think about it, Ody started in Greece made it to Rome and succeeded in destroying Troy.

Percy started from a form of Greece, crossed the Mediterranean (Mare Nostrum), and slowed the progress of Gaia (while destroying most of Rome and getting sent to Tartarus, but that's not important right now).

Also, EPIC: The Musical Odysseus never (technically) cheats on Penelope, and Percy never (technically on purpose) cheats on Annabeth, despite many distractions for a very good looking teen of his age (I am around his age, shut up, I'm allowed to say that).

Also, Annabeth can be reincarnated Penelope, but there's not as much evidence to support that than Percy being Ody.

Also, think of Odysseus, the person Poseidon absolutely DESPISED with a watery passion, being his favorite son in a different life is absolutely hilarious to me lmao

@lemedstudent2021 I have a feeling you'd love this absolutely deranged rant of me connecting four pieces of three different puzzles.

[sanctus-ingenium]

answering your asks vol 3

Full context for the Inprnt issue can be found here on this post , tl;dr my shop is closed until I receive my payments from inprnt in a timely manner and essentially won't reopen unless they clean up their act. Regarding the money they owe me outlined in that post, I still have not received it and on Friday I sent a support ticket in to inprnt demanding they send it soon. Haven't heard back since. I think where Inprnt is concerned, it's worth mentioning that they no longer send promotional emails (which used to be a regular occurrence) and there seems to be a complete lack of communication and the only thing about the site that regularly updates is the sale banner (ending soon!!! 🙄)

So honestly I'm of the opinion that the print on demand bubble has burst and that this method of selling art was a very short-lived feature of an internet that doesn't exist anymore. Think about it - I make money on a sale after having spent nothing on promotion, on materials, on postage fees, etc. It's so easy to game the system using bots or stolen art to essentially print free money that I'm shocked it even lasted as long as it did. Maybe I'm wrong but I won't tie myself to another print on demand service that's just going to pull the same old shit redbubble and inprnt have done this year, or one that requires me to constantly promo it like some kind of influencer on instagram or tiktok or whatever.

Will prints come back? I hope so. I am looking into local printing shops and considering the feasibility of handling the process myself but you must understand that if I do that, the price will rise. I won't have the ability to run constant discounts or eat a loss if I order 20 prints and only 7 sell. It is what it is.

And the actual worldbuilding asks below the cut lol:

(referring to this post)

Only if you want to! I've had a few people send me cool sketches and stuff via dms and it's always nice to see but you really shouldn't feel pressured to. After all it's not like I post my rough practice here lol (that goes on patreon ;)

-

I'm going to be SO real with you right now - I did not consider that at all. However I do know that tinting flames with various chemical compounds was a huge part of alchemy, part of the whole flashy show of it to impress the layperson. So sure, I bet they do throw in copper sulfate or various other chemicals to produce the coloured flames - these make a huge impression on witnesses who might not even have imagined such a thing possible, and also help identify a holy beast at a distance on a battlefield choked with smoke and dive-bombing serpents.

Fun fact, the flames come from the furnace wells, right. Each well is connected to specific systems, where it can most efficiently deliver fuel to the heart and onwards. So it is possible to 'read' the pattern of flame bursts from the furnace slits - they are not constant, but there'll be one every few seconds based on when the furnace tenders excite each well. You can tell at a distance, for example, that Leun is readying an acid spray, or rerouting power to the rear legs for a leap, or even what direction he's turning. It all runs at a slight delay, which is why the crew inside has to be SO closely coordinated.

-

@absolutely-flabbergasted Knights are allowed to reproduce but not marry, because it's sort of accepted theory that blood relatives of a knight will be 'accepted' by the knight's beast when the time comes. This is not true but it means that sometimes the knight's apprentices are their own children. The other parent is mostly another member of the church and usually not identified or considered important (unless they're a smith...). There are usually a decent number of known knight bastards running about.

Smiths are not allowed to have families or marry, because their first devotion should be to their art or their beast if they are assigned to one. If one tries, the kids are taken away, anonymised with new names, and put into the pool of potential novices in some other stable. Now, in reality some stables or churches are just not that strict and have a slightly different culture, so there's often an Open Secret about some master smith's illegitimate family or a priest's secret mistress. This is tolerated by the authorities to a certain degree but if it becomes too rampant there'll usually be a change of management and some sort of crackdown.

Families who give up their second born cannot stay in contact, but if the child becomes successful in some way (say, if the child becomes a knight) the families are sent tokens symbolising this which can be placed in the family/village shrine. This can be a huge point of pride, with some people faking the tokens just so that they can show off about their successful kids that are totally knight apprentices.

The reason they don't get to stay in touch with their children is due to the secretive nature of the church and its arts. The church has been at war with the neighbouring nations for a long time and only its mastery of engine work has kept it afloat, and nobody wants these secrets to fall into enemy hands. Particularly if your kid goes on to become a scribe, which is if anything an even more closely guarded profession than that of a knight (those engine diagrams don't draw themselves). The laity are usually quite devout and understanding of this. If they aren't, they might attempt to find their child, often without success.

If you want your church kid back: it depends. If you can prove to the church authorities that you need your child's labour to stay afloat or to carry on the family line, they might take that into consideration. Of course, the only children that return are the likes of sweepers, cleaners, altar boys, pages, etc. Nobody who might have witnessed any Secrets. The church is best understood as being in the middle of a cold war for the past few centuries (and sometimes just regular war) so it's far more closely guarded.

-

@kicks-tiktaalik-back-into-water

It's not likely. Even if the ventilation system worked perfectly, he is still from an older generation of holy beasts and no longer represents the pinnacle of the technology. Leun might have a less sophisticated ventilation system but everything else about him is head and shoulders more advanced - including the crew number he can take on. Leun only requires a single enginesmith in the heart, for example. This is because there's more automation of his systems, and he can actually manage to walk home from battle without anybody inside at all, just based on the knight's input (because the throne chamber is open to the air the knights are technically not inside the beasts). It's not preferable (it can damage the systems) but it is a huge bonus.

Think about how in the early days of commercial aviation, there could be as many as eight people working on the flight deck. In the 60s, a 3-person crew was standard; captain, first officer, and flight engineer. Today there are only two pilots needed. This is down to increased automation, and it means that it is cheaper to fly the plane - the airline has to hire fewer pilots, 'flight engineer' is a nonexistent role these days, and that means you need to train fewer people, have fewer people on call, feed fewer people etc etc. It is cheaper for the church to run Leun than it is to run Krokodilos and even though the church is wealthy, the money and resources are not infinite. Especially now, in times of plague. Leun, for all everybody sings his praises, is basically a reskinned Pantera with better systems - again, cutting costs, because now we can get all of Pantera's old enginesmiths to work on him instead of having to train up new ones on a brand new and wholly unique platform. It's as much a matter of logistics as it is innovation and technology.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Visions And Voices"

Maul returns to be a menace and freak both me and Ezra out.

Obligatory "I've already done a live reaction version of this episode" link.

From the very beginning, with just the washed out dingy lighting and the whooshing wind sound effect, this episode already feels unsettling. The atmospheric touches here with the storm and lightning and the camera movement and shot choice once things start happening evoke a horror movie.

The way they have Hera's voice fading out and going watery every time Maul calls to Ezra, the way Ezra keeps squinting and blinking and the tiny headshake he gives like he's trying to shake off some fatigue or jerk himself alert, make himself stop seeing things...

He looks so frightened. :(

COURSE I DON'T BLAME HIM WITH THE APPARITION OF MAUL LOOKING LIKE THIS.

Kanan and Zeb both trying to shake him awake after he faints. <3

I mentioned in my original liveblog but this episode gives me major Teen Titans 2003 "Haunted" vibes, with the plotline about a character being menaced by an imaginary villain only they can see. Rebels ultimately diverged from that parallel but my mental "If I had a nickel for every time" associations linger.

Something I loved about this episode was just how present everyone was for Ezra, how worried and concerned they were over him. Like here, all the members of the crew, even Chopper, are crowded in Kanan's room waiting for him to wake up.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: How Ezra touches the back of his neck like he's trying to rub out some stiffness or ache.

Oh hang on, did I just stumble across another Kanera-Sabezra mirror?

I DID! :D

Getting a little ahead of myself though, gotta appreciate this moment here with Ezra's fond little smile as Sabine bullies AP-5 about the munitions they're taking.

Also Sabine's "Can you believe this guy?" look lol.

Sabine immediately knows to send Chopper for Kanan. (Oh look, the two of them being the Most Important People in Ezra's life again. :D)

Sabine is very worried and alarmed this whole scene. She knows this isn't like him and oh ouch there are those Teen Titans "Haunted" feels come back to stab me again.

It's not actually clear what Maul was doing with this whole making-Ezra-see-him-everywhere trick--and you know it was deliberate, Ezra wasn't getting anything useful out of his end of the mind bond--but honestly the visions going unexplained are effectively creepy and unsettling enough. Personally I think it was one part to scare Ezra, make him doubt himself and his own mind, make him and everyone else think he was going crazy, and one part to manipulate him into doing something horrible he'd regret so that the Rebels would cast him out and drive him to Maul.

:((((

Hera understandably takes Ezra off the mission in light of events and heads it up herself. There's very soft worried mom energy radiating off her in this scene.

I'm kind of amazed Kanan and Sabine putting a tracker on Ezra without telling him didn't get any rancid takes complaining about how ~cLeArLy tOxIc~ it was. Maybe people actually remembered the part of Ezra's characterization where he tends to impulsively go off half-cocked to save people and figured, "Oh, Kanan's taking some obvious precautions in case he does that." Or maybe they decided given two previous kidnapping attempts Kanan was allowed a little paranoia over his kid.

Aaaaaaand this is the first we've heard Ezra's theme in a while.

(Note: Sabine has already painted one of Ezra's new Scout Trooper helmets, which he decides to wear to see Bendu. Even though the last time they rode the speeder into the Bendu's hollow he didn't bother wearing a helmet at all. Upgraded your comfort item/security blanket metaphor there, Ezra, eh?)

Full on horror strings here as we pan up to Maul just chilling like a creeper at the top of the hollow.

The way Ezra almost steps between Maul and Kanan. <3

Something I loved this episode was Ezra consistently rejecting Maul's attempts to touch him, smacking or shoving his hand off his shoulder, deliberately stepping away and keeping a distance.

Since a straightforward request was denied, Maul resorts to blackmail, threatening to broadcast the location of the base to the Empire and oof, Ezra's face.

Maul then dangles the "key to defeating the Sith" carrot in front of them, which activates Ezra's Hero Complex and hyper-responsibility and is what makes him agree to go. See, Maul is his responsibility, it's his fault Maul is even after them in the first place, so Ezra feels a sense of obligation to take care of him as a personal problem.

Love how Kanan says Phoenix Squadron will just wholecloth pack up and move to a new base in order to keep Ezra safe. I don't think it works like that Kanan, lol, but the spirit is appreciated.

Ezra's awfully confident that Maul won't hurt him and, ngl, that is not a risk I would have taken. But Kanan decides to trust Ezra and so the snippet of Ezra's theme that's been playing (marking his gesture of self-sacrifice) gives way to the same cue that played when Vader was descending on top of the TIE Advanced in "Twilight of the Apprentice", kind of an auditory callback to Malachor and the start of this whole arc.

Sabine's already getting the Phantom II prepped. <3

Dathomir looks appropriately hellish. Twisted gnarled trees, barren rocks, broken architecture, drenched in deep red with fog obscuring the horizon.

It's subtle at first and grows more obvious as the episode carries on but Maul is a little bit, ah... bipolar in his actions and displays of emotion here. He oscillates between speaking calmly, growling in frustration, outright snapping at Ezra sometimes, cackling to himself randomly, and of course dropping his voice down into that soft, vulnerable cadence that's his go-to whenever he wants to garner and play to Ezra's sympathies. Ezra takes his erratic behavior in stride, for the most part, doesn't flinch or comment on Maul's mood swings.

Really do love the environment work Rebels does. <3

Ezra flippantly dismissing Maul's murder hoard as "junk" lol.

"Fun" easter egg to note: The scrawled Mand'oa on the wall spells KENOBI.

Aaaaaaand our introduction of the plot device that is the darksaber, displayed prominently under a cubist painting of Satine, whose theme plays as Ezra examines the darksaber. This reference is pure fanservice for TCW fans. It basically means nothing to me emotionally, I was never a fan of Satine or her romance with Obi-Wan, so mostly I just feel offended and creeped out on her behalf that a painting of her got hauled to Maul's murder cave and defaced.

(Interesting to note that the slashes of... paint?... blood?... stuff crosses out Satine's eyes and cuts her throat. Is Maul reveling in his murder of her, trying to relive it by destroying her image? Did he stub out her eyes to stop her from "staring" at him? Who knows.)

Okay I lied, Ezra flinches precisely once, right after Maul yells at him not to touch the darksaber.

I like to think it was possibly calling out to him, the kyber crystal inside a natural siren song to Force wielders, and that's how Ezra knows it's some kind of lightsaber and not just a weird stick.

Love the drums in this music cue. It's got some exotic-sounding eastern instruments in it too, I think I might hear a bit of didgeridoo?

Subtle animation appreciation moment: How Ezra screws up his face in preparation to down the potion, it obviously doesn't smell or taste very good lol.

The music turns frantic and rushing when we cut the Sabine and Kanan landing out, like it's telling them to hurry. More exotic instruments, some kind of tinny percussion, cymbals maybe?

Right, so this episode was clearly another Halloween special right? Has all the perfect trappings of one lol.

Maul strays into Dangerously Genre Savvy here; he never intended to pay for using the Nightsisters' magick himself and his dialogue to Ezra seems to indicate he didn't intend to sacrifice Ezra to them either. So his plan was either to evade the spirit witches long enough to get away scott free, or he was counting on other members of the Spectres to come after Ezra trying to save him.

Either way, it leads to one of the creepiest scenes in the show.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The bewildered way Kanan's head jerks around right before the Nightsister spirit possesses him, like he can tell that something freaky is there but he can't tell what or where.

The unnatural character movement the animators use for Possessed!Kanan and Possessed!Sabine is really good; they're limp like puppets for a bit before the spirits take full control, and even afterwards move in jerky, inhuman motions.

And thus a half-dozens angst!fics were written lol. (And still not nearly enough.)

Ngl, Maul technically does show Ezra how to save his friends buuuuut he gets no points for that since he clearly thought Ezra would just write them off and come with him.

I'm still amazed he didn't just kidnap him right there. Kenobi obsession too strong I guess.

Other people have already pointed out the irony of Maul screaming at Ezra to forget the past and his attachments while himself being obsessed with the past and clearly trying to use Ezra as a Replacement Goldfish for Savage but I'll mention that anyway.

You know, the Fridge Horror of this episode is really unsettling. I know at least one fanficcer and @better-call-mau1 have asked the question of how, exactly, does possessing Kanan and Sabine allow the Nightsisters to rebuild their clan? They're either going to use Kanan and Sabine to perform some kind of freaky necromancy ritual, use them to lure other Rebels in (seems like it'd have limited effectiveness, eventually Rebel Command would decide retrieval isn't worth it), or they would rebuild the clan using more... ah... conventional means.

Add that unsettling thought to how possessed Sabine seems to stalk Ezra, specifically, while the possessed Kanan returns to the altar and fkhkhffjhjhgggfgjjjj--

Yeah.

"That doesn't belong to you!" "Then take it from me, Jedi!" Are they talking about the darksaber or Sabine's body?

...Yes.

This music cue is amazing. Possessed Sabine scrabbling on the ground like a feral animal while Ezra just calmly Force Pushes her out of the threshold is excellently staged.

Well that's a heart eyes expression if I ever saw one lol.

Sometimes I like to listen to different language tracks for specific dramatic parts of shows or movies, to see how other actors do it, compare performance notes and kjsahfkajshfkajh one of the Chinese Nightsister-possessed Kanans was one of the most horrifying scary things I've ever heard.

This scene is just heartwrenching. A lot of this episode was spoiled in the trailers so this maybe didn't have as much dramatic impact as it should have had at the time but I still found it pretty gut-punching. A little short, maybe. That's about it.

This is one of Ezra's finer moments, frankly, outsmarting and defeating the Nightsister spirits. You really feel the care he has for Kanan. Love it. <3

From the moment Ezra said that the answer to destroying the Sith was "Obi-Wan Kenobi" I think I knew it was a false flag and what Maul had manipulated him to see. Because, obviously, they key is Luke.

Interesting how Ezra thinks if Obi-Wan doesn't, eventually, fight, that the Sith can't be stopped. He's pinning a lot of hopes on a man who doesn't, ultimately, wind up being the narrative Chosen One who accomplishes that task. Again, more on that later in "Twin Suns".

Ezra seems to pay Sabine a glance as he passes, aww.

*PORTENTS OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT*

This episode is one of my favorites, and the "Haunted" mental connections are only one of the reasons why. It's got great dialogue, creepy suspense, adorable subtle Sabezra moments, furthering of Maul's slow mental degradation and descent into full ruin, and Ezra gets to be amazingly self-sacrificing, brave, and awesome in it. What's not to love?

[artbybai]

Can you tell us more about Kohi? -nudges you- What drives her? whats her backstory?

Does she work for the Frieza force? Or was she on Planet Vegeta? Is she a fighter or more a behind the scenes worker kinda gal? Her strengths and weaknesses? Her guilty pleasures and her petpeeves?

Is she one of many DB OC of yours, or more a main one?

:D ........................... :DDDDD

✨Screeches excitedly✨

Kohi Slaad

The Feisty Frieza Force Foot Soldier

Kohi Slaad, daughter of single parent Frui Slaad (pun on Fruit Salad & Coffee lol)

Kohi once worked as a botanist/ecologist on Planet Vegeta, having grown up on her family farm in the agricultural division of the Outer Colonies—the furthest from the central Saiyan city. That is, until her job was basically reduced to that of ensuring crops weren’t poisoned before being shipped off to the central city.

Afterwards, as she and her mother desperately needed more income to keep their farm afloat during hard times (and King Vegeta’s focusing of most efforts towards supporting the Frieza Force at the time, Kohi chose to reenlist as a foot soldier on the Force.

It’s there that she was eventually assigned to work under Raditz’s command/supervision/their partnership began.

Now that I have the basics of her backstory down, here’s a few more answers on who she is as a character!

🌟 First and foremost… Yeah, Baiya & Kohi are my main DB OCs (self-inserts that evolved into their own characters, but I still enjoy living vicariously through them shhh lol). There’s other OCs that I wanna bring a spotlight to, which mostly relate to Baiya’s stories I have in mind, but there’s a handful that’re important to Kohi as well (Anaba, other trainees/Privates and Cadets she worked with in the Saiyan Army Academy/Frieza Force etc.)

Kohi would answer that she’s “Happy to be wherever she’s needed”, but oftentimes prefers to work in the background. She hesitates leaping into battle, partly because she’s a little lean compared to most Saiyans, but mostly because she worries she’d become a hindrance to her fellow warriors. When she’s not doing odd jobs around the starship, she’s acting as support & providing aerial backup as a fighter pilot

Kohi’s family, the Slaads, have a tense history with the Vegeta bloodline. As such, she’s icy towards Vegeta, at best—much preferring Raditz’s company in comparison. Although Kohi’s had no part in the events of the past, she feels the crown was in the wrong for the way they once treated their subjects. She feels the Outer Colonies like her own are still suffering the effects, which explains her attitude towards the Prince. Kohi and Nappa have a fairly amicable acquaintanceship, though.

I’ve noticed this is a rather basic/common trait others have given their feminine Saiyan OCs, so I feel kinda bad abt it lol, but I imagined Kohi would have a sweet tooth, and collect rare/gourmet candies from each planet she visits. She finds it’s a great way to win a little favor with her crew mates, and this tactic can even sway Vegeta, to a degree. (She’ll give him a chocolate if he demands it, to get him off her back)

Aside from candies, and given her background as a former ecologist, I think Kohi would keep a collection of small plants from planets she’s visited. I doubt the barracks of a Frieza Force starship are particularly spacious (unless you’re a higher ranking member like Prince Vegeta, the Ginyu Force, or medical staff,) but she’s probably keep a little greenery around to brighten up the confined space she calls home!

Kohi’s sharp tongue can sometimes get her in trouble, as her banter with Raditz and other Privates/younger members of the Frieza Force can get a bit… Out of hand, when it comes to poking fun at their commanding officers. She’s likely to let her temper get away from her, too, if an authority figure demands something ridiculous of her (such as menial tasks like polishing boots, or scrubbing floors again to do it “the right way”)

Along with her rebellious streak, Kohi enjoys finding loopholes in commands given to her that involve more violent measures, such as planetary raids for rare resources. She’ll instead attempt subterfuge to obtain her given objective, if possible, playing up her weakness to hide her cunning.

When Kohi’s off-duty, however, she’s much more laid back, even a little sloppy, preferring loose clothes over her tighter armor and shorts. This has thrown Raditz for a loop more than once, LOL

Kohi will also, occasionally, visit the observation lounge after her shifts (if a starship she’s on contains one) to unwind. She’ll enjoy stargazing, and reminiscing about doing so with her mother back on Planet Vegeta as a child, sipping on a cool drink until she decides to turn in for the night cycle.

Sadly, it’s hard not to be homesick. Kohi sends letters back to her mother after each payment she receives from her services in the Force, including a bit of her funds to help support their farm on Planet Vegeta.

In a separate AU, where Kohi joins the Crusher Corps and serves under Turles instead (yes I ship them too 👉👈) I like to imagine they’d bond over said homesickness. She’d probably be one of the few women aboard his ship/as part of his crew, so she’d probably stand out to him bc of that.

I hope this answers your questions!!! I still have to flesh out Kohi quite a bit, I know, but she’s honestly just a fun character concept to explore random story ideas with :3 Maybe next time I’ll write up a bit more info on Baiya, too! Or another random OC (like Colla, Leed, my Namekian OC Timpani, some other various Saiyans I’ve come up with for the other Privates Kohi’s worked with, and a few Crusher Corps Saiyans to someday :D )

Thanks for the ask!!! THIS WAS SO FUN TO ANSWER AND INFO DUMP ASDFGHJKL ✨

[fandomtrxsh19]

Merrin from Jedi:Fallen Order is Autistic: A Headcanon

I was thinking about Fallen Order, since the Survivor gameplay trailer came out, and I have a headcanon surrounding Merrin

Merrin is Autistic.

HEAR ME OUT

Looking at all the cutscenes and story elements, these are the traits she exhibits (if there's one I missed, tell me in the comments/tags):

Blunt

Looking over her lines in the story, it's obvious that she says goes straight to the point and is straightforward. When she first meets the rest of the Mantis crew, she immediately and directly answered Greez's question of what she's doing on the ship and says that his fear is unnecessary.

Has no/minimal social skills

We all know that our girl was sheltered. She was on Dathomir surrounded by Zabrak Nightsisters, without knowing anything beyond that. As we can see in the scenes she has with the Mantis crew, she doesn't really know how to talk to people, such as her blunt confusion to BD's communication. Another example that comes to mind is when she hugs Cal

She goes in for the hug and...

Seconds later, she backs away, apologizing and straightening up. So, its safe to say that she's isn't used to physical contact like hugging

Has a specific kind of body language

If you focus on Merrin, she always sits up perfectly straight, either with her legs cross or down while, the other members of the Mantis are slouching and hunching over.

Speaks in a monotone ish voice

In her dialogue, she doesnt really stray far from the inflection that she uses. When you look up screenshots and pictures of her from the game, most of them have the same facial expression. She does break that sometimes when smiling or saying certain lines.

Fixates on her magick and her sisters

I think this ones more obvious lol.....

Little to no ability to pick up on social or vocal cues

This moment also stuck out to me in this context as well as the previous one. She notices BD is trying to communicate something to her, but she doesn't pick up on it until minutes later when she says something. Honestly, this is the only example that I can think of ngl so if I'm missing anything from the game and/or Battle Scars (which I probably have), feel free to put in the comments/tags)

Now, for something a bit interesting......

Magick could not just be part of her, defensive, offensive, or otherwise, but it could also be a form of stimming for her since we see her use it throughout the events of the game (or just moving her hands as if shes using magick if you know what I mean)

I don't know if this is just me but

NIGHTSISTER MERRIN IS A FUCKING AUTISTIC QUEEN

[dragonmarquise]

Alr!!! Crews general music tastes??? I know damn well eclipse loves Beyonce

Oh boy, music!! This is gonna be a fun one to get into, at least imo.

So to start off, I like to think that in general they all like the kind of music genres that pop up in the game’s music track already. Also, we know DJ Cyber made the mixtapes besides the one for the hideout (that one being made by Tryce), so bonus headcanon: at least a few of them made suggestions to DJ Cyber for songs to include on those mixtapes.

Now moving on to some specifics!

BRC:

It depends on which individual member you ask, they probably have the most varied tastes between them? Again, besides the game’s existing genres.

There is a small subset who are into Vocaloid/vocal synth songs, mainly thanks to Bel introducing it to them. Also J-pop, again from Bel introducing it to others.

Other than that, not gonna go into further detail, especially since I’d have to think on it a lot more. :u

Actually, before I move on, a bonus headcanon: both Vinyl and DJ Cyber have probably the largest range of music tastes, and are both very knowledgeable about music. They can tell you the name of a song from the first couple of notes/lyrics, knowing when songs were release, explain differences between genres of music and which one is a subgenre/derived from/evolved from what other music genre, at least a brief history of bands/musicians/singers/etc.

One time they competed against each other in a music-focused quiz game (not like, an actual game show or anything like that, it was an informal thing at a party with the other writers). Vinyl just barely won in the end, and she still lords that over DJ Cyber every now and then, lol

The Franks

Tryce mentions at one point in the game that they blast electrofunk music. Some people might think that's something made up for the game, but it is in fact an actual music genre! So I like to think that's their main favorite, along with related genres like funk in general and breakbeat.

I like to think the Flesh Prince got into these particular genres thanks to listening to old CDs and mixtapes his parents had. Not that the Prince will ever admit it to them. :P

Eclipse

Definitely Beyoncé like you said, lol. Also other R&B/hip hop/pop/dance artists in the same vein as Beyoncé: Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Shakira, Janelle Monáe, Lil Kim, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Lizzo, Chapelle Roan, etc.

Okay that list ended up longer than I meant it to be, but you probably get the idea, lol

Cassiopeia (leader, the winter palette for the crew) also has a fondness for orchestra music. Mostly when she's relaxing at home, it helps her unwind after a long day of either working at her shop or being out and about as a writer.

DOT EXE

Old school EDM (especially older disco, techno, and house) in general. Which is perhaps cliche/stereotypical since they're all cyberheads/full-cyber, but whatever lol

Twoson and Fourside also have their Weird Music Tastes that I mentioned back in the big DOT EXE post I made. And then Cueball in particular really likes video game soundtracks, and is a big fan of chiptune music in general.

Devil Theory

Hip hop and rap and related genres! And because of their love of anime, various Japanese songs that have served as anime openings/endings. :P

Sai also introduces the others to reggaetón too! And other Spanish genres related to that. Nunchaku and Bō don't speak Spanish, but they do still understand most of what's in those songs too. Besides, sometimes it's about enjoy the music and the beat, even if you can't understand the words!

Okay, also, I am going to give extra attention to my DT OCs specifically, with some extra particulars for each:

Sai likes salsa music, especially to sing along with, but like I mentioned in my big Devil Theory post, he never sings in front of other people. (Rise is the only exception, hee hee)

Nunchaku likes rock and metal music! And almost every subgenre for these two you can think of, like punk rock and nu metal.

Bō likes old school EDM/disco stuff, though in contrast to most other people, he especially likes EDM songs with a slow tempo. Bit of a contradiction since most people associate EDM with fast tempos and beats.

Daishō likes listening to horror media soundtracks, because of course he does, lol

FUTURISM

EDM in general, I would think. In contrast to DOT EXE, I imagine they're largely into newer songs and subgenres in that giant genre!

---

I would give personal favorites for some of the genres mentioned here, but man, that'd make this post way too long. Hell, EDM in general covers so many subgenres.

Actually, I think I can at least link some playlists I've made? Just 3 (for now?), because I have like 20 something playlists for different music, a bunch of them being for OCs I haven't talked about publicly. But I digress. :P

A playlist of reggaetón songs specifically. Okay actually tbh I think a few of these are of a different but still kinda related genre. If you can't tell by the name, I was planning at some point to pick like 5 favorites from this and make an actual mixtape to mod into BRC. I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna get back to that. :u

A playlist of mostly salsa songs, though like with the previous playlist, I think some of these are actually a different-but-related genre.

A playlist of EDM songs, mostly my favorites from a particular set of music channels! And it covers a lot of different subgenres: house, trap, drum & bass, even a few electro swing songs in there too.

Alright, now that's it! :>

[nebulouscoffee]

7, 23, 27, and 33 for the Star Trek ask meme?

Thank you for the ask!

7. Who would make up your crew dream team?

You know, this is something I've thought about before (shoutout to @fancy-a-dance-brigadier for always asking the real questions lol) - but I could never quite find an answer I was satisfied with! Because I don't think taking all my favourites and smushing them together works, they just aren't as interesting together as mixups between characters who have bigger ideological differences. Like, he might be my fav captain but I don't want to choose Sisko over Janeway and Picard, I want to see him interact with Janeway and Picard, you know? So here's a sort of half-cooked, this-would-change-every-time-you-asked-me answer:

Captain: Ben Sisko First Officer: Michael Burnham (I wanna see them interact!!) Chief of Operations: Data Chief Xenoanthropologist: Chakotay (I know this is not an actual position in Star Trek but it should be!! The dude who makes sure dealings with alien cultures are being handled with respect, basically) Chief of Security: La'an Singh (trying to mix and match here) Chief Science Officer: Jadzia Dax (ft. Harry Kim always giving her ideas) Counsellor: Deanna Troi (ft. trainee Ezri Tigan) Chief Medical Officer: Julian Bashir (ft. Kes starting graphic and unhinged conversations about autopsies with him) Chief Engineer: Geordi La Forge (ft. B'Elanna on staff. Drama!!!) Helmsman: Ro Laren Communications: Hoshi Sato Also There: Kira Nerys (recurring character who works with them when it's relevant), Guinan (bartender), Admiral Picard (recurring character that makes Sisko do the iconic "Kai Winn is boarding the station" facepalm), Jake Sisko (son), Garak (local menace), and Admiral Janeway (temporal menace)

23. Favorite tropes?

Character's past comes back to haunt them. Character is forced to confront their inner demons in a way that blurs the line between imagination and reality. Member of an alien society seeks asylum. A peek into the world from the "outsider" character's eyes. Two people from opposite sides are forced to spend time together (and the guest character SLAPS). Captain is out of commission and the unlikeliest people are forced to step up. Oh no the holodeck isn't shutting down and the only way we can save everyone's life is to LARP through this thing fully committing to the bit. Here is a spacial anomaly that makes everyone act weird one by one (either revealing important hidden truths about the characters, or just letting the actors have too much fun). ALL of us have to go back in time together for some stupid reason (and it's amazing)

27. What do you wish they had handled differently?

SO many potential answers- but since it's always on my mind, I wish they'd followed through on the thread of Jem'Hadar dissent. In 'The Abandoned' we find out they're genetically engineered to (rapidly) grow very strong, be dependant on drugs, and loyal to the Founders while demanding no individual rights, which frames them as tragic victims. Then we get a Jem'Hadar character who not only broke free of the Dominion's hold on him, not only expresses but also acts on the dream of freeing his fellow soldiers- and a lead character (Julian) risks his career for him! Sisko tries to get through to them in 'Rocks and Shoals'. They're so clearly complex beings with unique thoughts & personalities & feelings & needs, and are constantly fighting this inhumanely imposed programming that tells them they're just killing machines who live to serve their masters. Even in lighthearted episodes like 'One Little Ship' we see conflict between the Gamma and Alpha Quadrant soldiers, for example. We could've had this be relevant to the Dominion War's resolution! We could've had a defector Jem'Hadar as a recurring character! We could've had Julian finally make that breakthrough & help start a Jem'Hadar revolt!! It could've been so much more interesting (and so much less racist)

33. Whose twitter feed would you most want to follow?

My first instinct was Dax, but I'm leaning more towards Jake Sisko- I feel like because he's the son of a Starfleet officer (but not in the service himself) he'd have absolutely zero fear of authority & he'd just post the most savage things about prominent Starfleet officers and blow up incredibly unflattering pics of all the admirals lol

[just-orbiting-you]

on twitter tae solos and even tkkers are literally spiraling and going crazy about the fact that jikook were setting boundaries and telling him that ays is THEIR show and they let him come. it’s kind of insane to see all these tweets but really goes to show how much they coddle tae. how did you interpret the way jikook said it was their show at the japanese restaurant? did u think it was a joke? i honestly took it as a joke when i first watched the ep but rewatching it still obviously feels like they were joking but now i feel like there was some hard truth to what they were saying, we all know jikook have a bluntness in their sarcasm that to eachother can be funny but everytime they joked about him being a guest i can feel the animosity. it honestly made me feel bad for them cause i get hes a close friend and band mate but imagine all of the sudden the plans u had for two changed to three because of a group schedule chat, they didn’t even tell him or the other members themselves lol. anyways this ep felt more light and fun with jikook. i know tae was tired and a little sick but the way he stepped back multiple times to let them be showed he also saw how his presence caused a bit of tension. sorry for the long ask, don’t know if ur tired of talking about this situation lol but i wanted to hear ur thoughts!

hey! thanks for your ask! no worries about the length!! i apologize this ended up being so long 💀💀.

this ties into a larger issue with fans of bts these days, where finding slight issue with a member’s behavior, etc. or in this case, stating literal fact opens the door for defensive stans. you’re right, it is coddling and they were coddling him a month ago with his instagram post. tae stans to me are some of the loudest, most defensive, and will never really see the fault in their rhetoric. that thread someone made saying “tae being the ‘uninvited’ guest” and it was all the ways they deliberately accommodated him and deliberately gave him the spotlight. people are coping hard.

i’d like to compare this situation to jungkook’s second suchwita episode, which was shot around the same time and has a very similar vibe. in this episode, taehyung randomly shows up to their shoot after seeing that jungkook was filming that day from the infamous group chat. jungkook’s immediate reaction was “we are doing a shoot, could you please leave?” which ended in a fit of giggles. yoongi and jungkook make a few comments about how he showed up to just eat their prepared meal and when asked to address army in the video, tae just does a thumbs up. jungkook goes “that wasn’t a sentence,” and tae ends up saying the generic 2025 stuff. he makes small reactionary comments, talks over the other two, but basically just sits, listens to their conversation, and mindlessly eats. where i feel like jimin and hobi were integrated as a part of the larger conversation in taemin and jin’s episodes respectively, (probably because they were planned appearances) tae presents as a slightly awkward presence in the video.

i bring this up to say, while the stakes weren’t as high as are you sure, jungkook said a similar comment which while serious in tone as their omakase comments, ended up being in jest. jungkook nor yoongi stopped the shoot to kick him out. i also think there’s a “well he’s our bandmate…” at play here. like they’re not going to kick out taehyung, it’s taehyung, you know. while his presence may have been slightly distracting, yoongi and jungkook still were able to have their conversation and finish the shoot.

i personally think are you sure was bigger offense, purely because this was a trip with preparation, flights, planning and crews involved. and while many have been saying “jimin and jungkook were seemingly happy to have them there and let it happen,” yes they did. again, it’s taehyung, how could they refuse him, especially if he played a pity card of “why am i being left out of this?”

i haven’t seen this problem with any other member’s behavior during chapter 2, where that member overstays his welcome during another member’s schedule. but tae has a unique way of making me say “why is he here, what purpose does his presence serve?” and i think to him, everything is silly and informal, since these are his members. but he doesn’t have the foresight or awareness to think “well what am i intruding into? why do i feel entitled to be here?” it’s a matter of respect.

hence why i think they made the comments that they did. they accommodated him, made arrangements with the crew to change the plan in 48 hours, yet he turns around to say “i shouldn’t have come here” or “why didn’t another member show up” as if their efforts for him were worthless and he was now running the show to invite whoever. everyone of these conversations ends in a lighthearted tone, just like jungkook’s suchwita comment. but i think they effectively put their foot down with the omakase conversation and they had to. while “i shouldn’t have come here” ends in laughs and jokes, i don’t think jikook particularly liked that comment if they both were saying “go home then!”

if tae didn’t get the memo with that reaction, he got it from jikook at the omakase restaurant, he should at least be grateful instead of making flippant comments. i don’t know what the circumstances were on why he wasn’t debriefed or had any assumption about why this shoot was taking place, because he really does not have the awareness on that first day. jikook did something nice for him but they know how tae is. he expressed feeling left out initially, then they poke fun at him being the “guest looking for attention.”

so tldr, i think we can chock the comments up to playful ribbing with a touch of passive aggression, especially from jungkook. even if they felt like they had to, jikook still let him come and seemingly had fun with him, so i don’t think they have it in them to be outright angry or upset on camera. but their persistent small comments throughout the ep do tell me that there might be a touch of exasperation with him working his way into their plans.

[manonamora-if-reviews]

All or Nothing (1973) by Autumn Chen

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by Autumn or follow @cyberpunklesbian

============= Synopsis

A collection of anecdotes about a troubled Kickstarter production

============= Other Info

All or Nothing (1973) is a Dendry* short game, submitted to the Goncharov Game Jam**. * **Autumn was also the organiser of this jam.

Status: Completed Genre: Unreality, Goncharov, Slice-of-Life, Meta

CW: / Note: cheating, mention of violence/death

============= Playthrough

First Played: December 2022 Last Played: 3-Jun-2023 Playtime: around 20mins Rating: 4 /5 Thoughts: Give your All and get Nothing...

============= Review

Adding to the Goncharov craze of November 2022, All or Nothing (1973) takes on a meta commentary approach on internet trends, the cashing out on said trends*, and artistic creation. Set during an undefined present, we discover through snippets a group of four adults are putting together a trailer for a Kickstarter project to create a Goncharov movie, competing with other crowd-sourced project on the same idea. *which, lol, considering the jam

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

The game starts as a rendition of a scene for a Goncharov movie*, being shot, formatted like a script and with a dark edited picture. You get to choose some options about where the scene goes until one of the characters yells CUT, following one of the actors fumbling his lines. The scene moves to real life (change in background and font), as the crew bickers about the production. The game will continue flipping between the dark setting while the scenes are shot and the brighter background of real life, announcing the transitions**. *which is not a real thing, just to be clear... **until... movie and reality are but one.

We are introduced to a four-member crew shooting materials for a Kickstarter campaign: Arash - playing Goncharov - the director of this whole enterprise and maybe a bit too obsessed with the project, Vivian - playing Katya - the scriptwriter who is disillusioned with making it in the industry, Tony - playing Andrey - looking for a paycheck, and Sofia - playing Sofia* - also here mainly for a paycheck**.*This made me laugh so hard. **I think? It's not as explicit as Tony. Maybe some connection or support?

Like most of Autumn's games, All or Nothing (1973) takes a storylet approach to the storytelling of the downtime of the crew (about 2-3 scenes). You can follow two groups: Arash/Goncharov and Tody/Andrey, or Vivian/Katya and Sofia/Sofia. Each will discuss their view on the production, their worries and dreams, and what is happening in their lives.

Arash's method acting is worrying some of them or getting on their nerves, but he only cares about making art and be remembered* *this is an interesting conversation between Tony and Arash on the subject, where fame doesn't seem to interest Arash if behind it there is no creative output to show for...

Vivian is starting to resent telling Arash (her boyfriend) about the meme and letting him string her along the production, while she questions whether she still want to even pursue this.

Sofia lives in a shitty studio with a baby, Tony looks to get paid* (and maybe more?). *Unlike the other three characters, it didn't feel like there was much to Tony. Maybe being paired with Arash made him more of a background character...

By the second storylet, lines between the characters in the real world and in scenes start to blur. Vivian and Sofia comment on events being similar to struggles the Goncharov characters suffer through, while Arash and Tony lean more and more into the method acting (with Arash being much more into it). Like their movie counterpart (according to lore), both couple have the option of potentially leaning into the sexual tension in the air (with Vivian/Arash cheating on the other*). *Funny thing, in the lore it is unclear whether either party knows about the cheating, condones it, or resents the other for it. Still they don't see each other separating because of it.

The line fully disappears when the real world characters embodies their scene counterparts so much during the height of filming, that neither Arash, Vivian, nor Tony realise Sofia's cries to stop the scene (even her holding her child do not phase them). At this point, the background does not even return to "real-life" mode. While Tony and Vivian do manage to come back to their senses, Arash still stays in character, ending the game with I am Goncharov...

I really enjoyed figuring out that the characters' lives mirrors the ones they portrayed (though the exact lore is unclear one the specifics), with Vivian and Arash being a couple and playing Katya and Goncharov who are canonically together, Katya's dalliance with Sofia, Goncharov and Andrey contrasting identities (light/dark, naive/serious, free/taken...)... as well as trying to find the Goncharov themes (the clock, the gun, the boat...).

A final note: the game references two works: All or Nothing (which is incidentally the name of the game, paired with the fictional release year of Goncharov) and Miss Officer and Mr Truffles, two crowdfunding campaigns which started from a meme post on Tumblr making the rounds on the website. Neither managed to deliver an end product (the second never reached its goal). A bit of a wink to A Paradox between worlds there... Is it also foreshadowing the future of this project?

[tiredassmage]

Okay, eons ago I threatened another npc dynamics post by asking the populace whom they'd like to see next and then I. never got around to the post even though Vector won by a landslide and I do already have that dynamic pretty well-figured out. BUT. Better late than never, right? (Seriously, it's a little embarrassing how long this thing has been sitting in my drafts at this point.)

I still, ideally, would love to get through. everyone on that list and maybe branch through some others, but. For now, let's just set my sights on finishing what I half-promised, lol.

This does, naturally, involve spoilers for the Imperial Agent storyline, which should all be contained underneath the cut. <3

So, Vector is one of Tyr's most consistent and reliable companions and support structures. They're probably the one member of his crew Tyr never feels a particularly strong need to doubt the intentions and motivations of and he's incredibly vital to keeping Tyr grounded to his own ideals.

He's inquisitive and a kind of compassionate that's hard to find in the realm of intelligence work, which also means he's really the only member of Tyr's crew to know anything about the agent's past prior to being a Cipher from his own lips. Vector I think sees him for at least most, if not all elements of what he is: a bit of a bleeding heart in addition to Cipher Nine.

And they worry about him, about how thin the line of balance he treads is. Tyr isn't able to tell him everything about what he goes through - both by inherent design of the Castellans function and the orders he operates under them with and for the way Tyr carries that trauma, but he's comfortable being a kind of honest with Vector that he doesn't really have anywhere else to place. In Vector, he can confide his growing disillusionment with the Empire (though Tyr makes some effort to spare him from the harsher edges of his broken faith, as he still sees something of a patriot in Vector and doesn't want to compromise the budding alliance for the Killiks) as well as personal worries like Shara and the mounting pressures of her operating as Keeper of Operations, of the tempestuous status of Imperial Intelligence going back into the reignited war, about Intelligence as his family. Around him, some of those walls can come down, at least for a time.

Chapter Three is... rough. By the end of it all, there's times Tyr doubts his trust in even Vector - not for any fault or action of Vector's own doing, but because Tyr's painfully stripped of any kind of support and backing he did have and facing a particular precarious position with the Dark Council about his ongoing service as an intelligence asset. Bitterly, this is one of the several elements where Tyr realizes that Hunter kept his promise - the Cabal took everything from him, except his life, in the end. The people he called family in Intelligence are scattered in reassignments, if they survive the fallout at all, whatever faith he had in working inside a system for change and improvement is battered, and Tyr's worried about trusting his own people because he is a defector, all but physically. A traitor. Sometimes, it's really less about trusting any of his crew as it is not wanting to take them down with him. The Empire isn't particularly well-known for leaving survivors and he knows, believes too strongly that all of them would be viewed as complicit regardless of their true feelings about his alliance with Ardun Kothe.

But Vector is ever-reliable and still always one of the first that's really looking out for him - him. One of the few that directly asks him is this what you want? Is Tyr if not happy, at least at peace with his decisions? Are they true to him?

And, yes, even with Tyr's own growing reservations about the Empire, he does hold his tongue when it comes to counsel about allying the Killiks with the Empire. Tyr sees they believe in it, genuinely, and doesn't have the heart to rob that kind of hope from one of the few people he would consider a dear friend. They are of the same mind that the Empire could benefit from different allies, from different perspectives, but Tyr's not particularly certain it's a solid decision for the Killiks in the long-run. Still, he has Vector's back the whole way, and he's never entirely unaware of the agent's thoughts, as much as he tries to soften what words Vector does coax him to use on the matter.

He's got a kind of patience that is extremely soothing and beneficial to Tyr. Truly, if the man ever needed anything, he'd only need to ask and Tyr would move hyperlanes for him to make it happen. Many years later in the Alliance, it's a relief to know one of his best friends is still safe. He regrets that he ended up right in the end about a fate of an Imperial-Killik alliance, but there was never any question to Tyr about working with him again. They remain one of the few that can see through Tyr's colors with relative ease, and one of the few that can slow him down enough to actually talk about and process it all.

And there's... a whole crush Tyr had on Vector (and probably still has) that he's never done anything with that Vector seems largely unaware of, or at least has never mentioned. Neither of them have brought it up and all these years on, Tyr's just glad to have his company as a friend. Most of it likely comes down to Tyr's other relationships - first with Shara and then with Theron Shan, both relationships he was/is happy in. And, of course... Chapter Two made them pretty busy with other problems.

Him and Vector are really fun to write... I really need to do some more with them. They're confidants, they're friends, allies... He's one of the few people Tyr would trust to search the ends of the galaxy for him, if he asked, and they're someone Tyr can trust secrets and confessions to. Vector encourages him to remember himself as something more than just a Cipher and follow his heart, his ideals to what he truly believes is right, and that's a friendship and counsel you can't find just anywhere, especially in intelligence work.

[erigold13261]

I WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE ARACHNIKIDS ALWAYS BEING WITH SAYU CREW AU THAT YOU JUST TALKED ABOUT (sorry if this sounds too demanding but I’m so intrigued!!!!)

lol, you're good! I was able to tell this was more intrigue than being demanding!

[Adding this after I wrote everything. This came out a LOT longer than I intended. I said I wasn't gonna get into the history or that this would become a fully fleshed out AU (I still don't think it is honestly) but I did write a lot more than I intended. I probably forgot some stuff or went off on tangents and didn't connect back, but your ask made me start thinking a lot so have fun reading all of this! Especially if you were really excited about this AU, I hope I did it justice lol]

I will say, this probably isn't going to be a super fleshed out AU (not like most of mine are half the time lol), so instead of some complicated backstory as to why the Arachnikids and Crew ended up as a group, it will be more simple (so I'm not going back into super past history during like the border war or something to justify the group forming). [[I say this and then I kinda go into a justification as to how this group came to be later on down the line lol]]

I also don't have exactly much for this AU at the moment. I did see your ask you sent about your ideas for the AU, I forgot what it was at this moment since I just skimmed it since I want to give a version I think would happen before possibly altering it with other people's ideas (plus I might want to doodle something with your ask if I get time). So I'll give what I think this AU would hold.

So firstly, I honestly don't think that ALL the Arachnikids would be in the group. Well I guess that depends on who you consider an Arachnikid actually. If you see Hobie as one, I don't see it really being in the group, same with Noir or Porker.

I do see Pav, Miles, and Gwen as definitely being in the group. By extension I can also Gaya since Pav would be in it. For Margo and Peni, it can a toss-up honestly where they could be or could not be.

This actually does call into question how Nueva York would be affected by this without Miles. Looks like Hobie, Noir, and Porker aren't getting out all that soon unless they complete the programs. But anyway, let's just ignore that can of worms for right now and just get onto the mermaid part lol.

Also, so I'm not constantly using Sayu Crew and Arachnikids, I'm just gonna say like the team so I don't have to keep using both titles.

Anyway! I think the team would still start with Tila and Remi interacting at first (Tila stealing Remi's art for one of her songs/covers then apologizing after realizing what she did). Then instead of bringing on Dodo and Sofa, it is Gaya and Pav who join next because of Remi and Pav's relation to Eve.

I can see Pav and Remi being friends after meeting as kids when Eve took Remi to see her side of the family at some point (Eve being so much older she was hanging out more with older members of the family while Remi gravitated to Pav and that age group of the family).

Once Remi and Tila kinda teamed up I can see Remi telling Pav this (either in person on a visit or online) in a very excited manner and then it turns into Pav and Gaya wanting to join in and have fun.

It's mainly just animatics and drawings with some voice acting, sometimes a short full animation would come out, but it got quite a few people interested online. That would be where I can see Gwen getting really into these mermaids online since they expressed a kind of teenage femininity that she wanted to be, which then led into Miles getting into these mermaids to try and have something to talk about with Gwen (and later becoming a pretty big fan himself).

Once the team so far saw how popular they were getting, Remi and Tila recruited Sofa and Dodo respectively since they were already friends and knew those two had skills that could help them out, which only helped the quality of their project to keep getting better.

Miles and Gwen being really big fans of the project probably made their usernames known to the team. Especially if Miles and Gwen made fanart and tried making some music , which made them really popular in this little fandom that started to be made online.

Overtime I honestly see Miles and Gwen virtually becoming part of the team (like how Pav and Gaya were mostly virtual compared to the Crew was still physically close to each other).

Miles and Remi would work as designers for the mermaids. Gwen would help make music (Miles would help with lyrics) but also became another voice for a third mermaid (before it was just 2 with Tila and Gaya. Before it used to be one with Gaya the talking voice and Tila the singing voice, but that changed as they got more popular, some fans still get confused why Sayu's voice changed lol).

Pav also helped out with inspiration and stuff, making cool looking realms, landscapes, designs and more with his powers (kinda looking like AI art from the early days, before it started becoming like photo realistic and junk like that) and having Gaya take pictures to send to the team to work on.

I can also see Pav doing cool stunts that Gaya would record and send in to the rest of the team. Things that Dodo just wouldn't be able to capture with mo-cap either because he lacked those skills, the environment wasn't right, or it went beyond what mo-cap could actually capture at the time.

All of this was going well and good, except that Sofa was basically doing all the editing and putting the whole project together by themself, and were starting to get very overworked since almost none of the others could really help them out in this area. I think Miles definitely would have started learning more editing skills to try and help Sofa out at this point (maybe Ganke taught him or Ganke might come in at this point, I don't know what Ganke's lore is and if he has a tech background).

However, what I see happening is the team kinda asking for help with their project, like if any of their fans would want to help them out in this area or knew someone who could be hired (these are still teens who aren't part of NSR yet, so it's not like they are completely rich or rolling in money).

But the team is in luck! One of their more recent fans is really good at tech stuff, especially things like 3D animation or rigging up avatars! This would be when Margo ends up joining the team. She and Sofa work on the editing and software of the mermaids, with maybe Remi and Miles helping with video editing at times.

Now, at this point, I would say that the mermaids (Sayu, Aoi, and Yua are definitely made at this point, or at least versions of them are) have been around for maybe like 2 years. I can see the team is still about a year away from actually being signed onto NSR. I do think it took the OG Sayu Crew a long time to get enough skill and recognition to be at the Megastar level we see them at (not to mention having to get hologram tech at some point because I doubt Sayu was on the screen when first performing at a Light Up audition).

So right now, the Sayu project, or Mermaid project (whatever it would be called because I doubt it would be called the Doki Doki Mermaid Club in this AU, as that was a spin-off game that was made after Sayu was NSR in my version of things), has Remi, Miles, Tila, Gaya, Gwen, Pav, Dodo, Sofa, and Margo.

The mermaids I'll just use the names I gave them, but honestly with this AU they might change drastically because of the added people in the creation process. Sayu is voiced by Tila, Aoi is voiced by Gaya, and Yua is voiced by Gwen. I can actually see Gwen at some point during the time working on the project probably came out socially to her friends as trans and so when Yua was being made a decision with the team was made to one day make her transition (which happens before joining NSR) so that Gwen could grow with the role as time goes on and she does more voice training. As of now though, Yua is probably like a merman or a mermaid but the backstory hasn't been fully revealed yet and so just has a slightly deeper voice (as Gwen at this point hasn't done any voice training at all).

Miles, Pav, and Remi are all working on visual art for the project. Gwen, Miles, Tila, and Remi are working on songs. Dodo, Pav, and Gwen are working on the motions/mo-cap. And Margo and Sofa (with some help from Miles and Remi at times) are working on the editing and software of the project.

All of this is well and good, but like I mentioned earlier, they are gonna have to figure out a way to get Sayu into the physical world in order to ever be able to try out for a Lights Up audition. In the OG version, I can see Eve actually helping Remi get connections, but in this AU I can actually see Peni being the person they go to.

I like the idea that Peni's family is very tech savvy (most of them probably are technomancers) so she would have the resources to help them. This is probably before she accidentally killed her father with her powers messing up his medical equipment at the hospital.

Honestly, I think it would be really nice if being a fan of the Sayu project could have helped her with her technomancy. Like I can see her making mini robot figurines and stuff because she was inspired by seeing the mermaids and thought their designs were cool and just naturally honed her work through a hyperfixation. So yeah! In this AU kits father is probably still alive! How cool is that! :D

Anyway, I can see Peni making some cool hologram or something of Sayu, something still pretty wonky and not perfect, and posting it online in the fandom/community space. Which absolutely catches the attention of the whole team as it was something so cool, done by someone so young (I see her as the youngest of the Arachnikids).

There would definitely be a line of communication that opened up about how cool kits work was and all that. Peni would be so happy to have been recognized for kits work and show kits parents happily! Something something, I don't really know how this part would happen, but I can see Peni joining the team.

Maybe her dad travels a lot and (considering I see him as a technomancer) probably has connections to robotic works in other areas (like Vandelay or J-1), which would allow Peni to go visit the main part of the team (the OG Sayu Crew) and talk about making an actual working, life-sized hologram of the mermaids.

Either that, or I can see Peni being able to visit Miles and Gwen (as they are closer than Pav and Gaya or the OG Crew), and there they make "live action" videos of the Mermaids. It would required a lot of editing and really good internet, but I can definitely see the team working together to make this video happen (it definitely would not be a livestream for a while as they sort out all the bugs or find a way to get everyone into one area).

Actually, this could be how Ganke gets roped into the situation! He could have been the videographer for any life action stunts as well as like a boom operator with his silencing powers. The team never had to worry about weather conditions thanks to Ganke's powers!

This skill would later help the team when they were working on shot compositions and stuff. Making sure all the mermaids were framed correctly at all times. This would be one less thing Margo and Sofa would have to focus on which allowed special effects (especially in livestreams) to become so much better since both editors could work at the same time without having to focus on 3 mermaids.

This new addition of a different media like this would really push the mermaids' popularity skywards. Especially considering people are now asking if they could meet these mermaids in person. Fans started comparing them to robot stars like 1010 or other robotic artists, which was just a huge boost in confidence for the team.

Honestly, I can even see a new mermaid being put into the mix. The only ones left are Haru and Renho, and I can kinda seeing Peni's voice and personality fitting Haru a lot. That kinda leaves Renho out of the mix, which I am sad about.

The only way I can really see all 5 being in the mix is if Margo ends up also being a voice actor (the team probably wanted to keep mostly feminine voices with an exception for Yua who would later get a more feminine voice as Gwen voice trained).

I can see Margo actually taking up a voice acting role, but that would shift the roles around a bit, but if Ganke is also on the team, as well as Margo and Peni learning how to use their powers more, this is definitely something that can happen!

So in this case, to have all 5 mermaids present before they ever end up at NSR (which I think would kinda be a goal at this point for the team, but they also just want to have an established group of mermaids) the roles would kinda look like this:

-Voices: Tila (Sayu), Gaya (Aoi), Gwen (Yua), Margo (Renho or Haru), and Peni (Haru or Renho).

-Mo-cap/movement: Dodo (Sayu), Pav (Aoi), and Gwen (Yua). Margo would learn to use her powers (astral projection) in a way to be more tech savvy thanks to Peni and would be able to control both Renho and Haru without actually having to do mo-cap (Peni can communicate with Margo through the computer, I can explain this more in another post if I remember lol).

-Live Editor: Sofa and Ganke mainly for live edits (Margo used to do this before being the main mover for Renho and Haru).

-Post Editor (not live): Sofa, Ganke, Margo, and Peni. Miles and Remi help with video editing.

-Hologram/robotic engineer: Peni. She is also the connector between the holograms and the mo-cappers. Without kit the mermaids literally cannot be holograms (this problem gets fixed after the team becomes Megastars as they have the money and resources to make a mechanical connector for IRL holograms to work).

-Animator/Artists: Remi, Miles, and Pav for the most part. 3D animations or anything with models is a group effort honestly but that would fall more into the post editors' hands (2D animation and comics are solely Remi and Miles job though, with Pav helping them get their ideas out physically with his powers)

-Music (lyrics): Tila, Gaya, and Miles are the main lyricists. I can see Dodo helping in this regard as well as Pav.

-Music (non-lyrics): Remi, Gwen, and Dodo. Miles is learning to make music. Sofa and Margo help with editing the music (Sofa more than Margo as they were brought up in a musical city and has more experience with EDM music than she does).

Uh, I think that's all the roles for now that I can think of. I tried to make it realistic in what they would do in terms of work load and skills they have/could have. Honestly looking at this, Tila and Gaya have the least work it seems lol. However, they are probably the ones making the bulk of the lyrics for the music and probably the dialogue/script for any animations (especially if the two get in character and end up making a lot of funny banter).

Anyway, once all of this was settled and all 5 mermaids were introduced, I can see the group trying to get a Lights Up audition. It definitely took some parents more convincing than others (like Gwen's and Miles) but with all the progress that the team has made, I can definitely see them having enough evidence for all their parents to let them go and try out for NSR.

I bet almost all the parents didn't believe they would actually be successful. Thinking that most likely these kids would be turned down and they would have to try again when they were older. So it came as a HUGE shock that the mermaids actually made it and were accepted with basically a fully acceptance from the standing Megastars at the time and from Tatiana.

Which basically meant that the team literally just skipped over a ton of work of having to prove themselves and work their way up to being Megastars. They were literally right at the cusp and a few months of work would grant them the title of Akusuka's charters!

That is to say, it would IF their parents actually let that happen. We know that the OG Crew's family does end up letting this happen (one way or another, I didn't even think about the Crew's emancipation from their families so that had to have happened at some point during all of this). But the other parent's might not be as willing to let their kids go off to a new country and be superstars.

Pav's family is definitely letting him go. He has family in the area and with Eve being a Megastar already, she could help him control his powers (which he is already really well in control of, I will try to talk a bit about the powers more at the end of this, I hope I remember).

Gaya's might be on the fence. On the one hand, this is something she put years into and it has shown she is very talented and could potentially become very rich, famous, and happy. On the other hand, she if still very young and they don't want her to go alone or to move the whole family (I can see her father willing to go with her, giving up his job where they live and trying to find another one if this is truly what Gaya wants, but the rest of their family might not approve).

Peni's family is probably not found of the idea in all honesty, but her parents would definitely be willing to move to Vinyl City if the dad could also get a contract specifically with J-1 or any other tech company in the area (which he would get and be willing to move Peni and the family there, plus they probably have better cybercare there than anything Vandelay could offer which is another plus).

Margo's family, depending on how you see them, would be either pushing her to go or trying to keep her there with them. She says in the movie her home life isn't great, and there is a lot of yelling (and probably neglect as she can just sit on her VR headset all the time in their minds), so she might just be able to promise to send money to them and they would allow her to leave.

Okay, so now Ganke, Miles, and Gwen's families. I do not see them at all being on bored with this decision. They all want what is best for their kids and this does not seem like it would be a good fit. Not with them all being so young and Vinyl City being so far away.

It also would cut in deeply to their education which I see all three of those families taking very seriously. Peni is probably gonna be homeschooled for a bit, Margo would take online classes, the Crew basically drop out, Gaya and Pav would enroll in a Vinyl City school probably. But Miles, Gwen, and Ganke are already in very good schools of their own (and Miles' family need a scholarship for that school I'm pretty sure), so even if the world runs on music, this change from a good schooling to just playing music probably doesn't seem like a good idea for their parents.

I can see Ganke's parents eventually giving in and letting Ganke go work for NSR as long as he get into a good school in Vinyl City and keeps his grades up (they would try to find a way to move to Vinyl City in the meantime as they can't fully uproot their lives right at that moment and this deal is a very limited time offer).

Miles' parents are probably extremely against the idea. Think this is not something that will be a forever career, or that it will become unstable (especially if the blackouts of Vinyl City are well known, which Miles would fight against and saying this could help the city and the world if they could produce enough power with their music). It would just be a very big back and forth but eventually they would see how much this truly means to Miles and let him go. I can see his mom going with him but his dad has to stay behind so he can try to transfer jobs or tie up loose ends.

Actually, depending on when this is, Aaron might still be alive (in this case, instead of meeting Gwen in a support group, they just met online in the mermaid fandom). So instead of Miles fighting alone in why he should be able to go to Vinyl City, Aaron would be there right with him and is the one to convince Jeff and Rio to let Miles go (Aaron probably went with Miles instead of the parents since it would have been hard for them to leave while Aaron could easily accompany Miles to a new life).

The main problem now is Gwen. Since Aaron is alive, Peter probably is too, at least in this AU (because I am now just realizing this, I don't know how to really put Peter into the story, so let's just say he was always helping support Gwen but couldn't really care about the mermaids themselves and so never got into helping with the project himself). Gwen is also still pre-transition and definitely not out to her dad. Or at least she wasn't before the auditions happened.

See, in my head, Gwen did get voice training thanks to the team helping her, but she never used her feminine voice around her dad at all. So when her dad heard her voice, he didn't even realize it was Gwen. Only after he looked up more about the mermaids (as I can see Gwen keeping a lot of this secret or super vague) did George realize Gwen was voicing the transgender mermaid with a very feminine voice. He looked through a lot of the old videos and could hear the voice transition over the years and kinda realized Gwen is probably trans and just never told him.

Instead of waiting for her to come home to talk, he called her up while she was still in Vinyl City or on the plane and tried to confront her. If she was on the plane, I can see her running away to Peter's once she landed and trying to hide from her father. There she would do her best to find a way back to Vinyl City, especially after she realized that she was the last one of the team that needed to get some kind of permission or give and okay. So she just has Ganke, Peter, and Miles help her get to Vinyl City without her dad knowing (probably using Remi and Pav's connection to Eve to do this).

If she was still in Vinyl City, she would have not gone back home and tried to stay with the Crew or with Eve if Remi explained what was happening and Eve offered her own place.

At this point in both options, there would definitely be some corruption and abuse of power on Eve's part to make sure that Gwen would be allowed to stay in Vinyl City and work against her father's wishes even though she is a minor. To Eve, this is helping Gwen get out of a potentially bad situation, but to George it feels like kidnapping or some horrible shit going down and he is losing his daughter. He'd do his best to get her back and would quit his job and move to Vinyl City to try and make things right.

Since he had time after his phone call with Gwen (they probably didn't talk on the phone about this) he never freaked out for a moment and said something to push Gwen away. No, instead this whole issue happened because Gwen was terrified of the potential that her dad would not like hearing she was trans. So instead of a reactive runaway scenario, it was a preemptive runaway scenario.

Anyway, that could probably be a small plot for the Revolution (imagine George and Kliff teaming up to try and take down NSR for their own reasons! ooooh!).

So yeah, once all of that had been squared away, the team is all set to work as the mermaids! They would spend the first few months getting used to everything as smaller Akusuka artists, and work their way up quickly to charters! From here it would be relatively the same as canon NSR for the most part except with 5 mermaids instead of just one of them (I'll think of fight mechanics later because I have to think of how the mermaids would be different now).

Oh! Right! I was gonna talk a tiny bit about Nueva York!

See, the whole thing with this AU hinges on the idea that the arachnikids do not get put into Nueva York really early. Pretty sure I said that Hobie was one of the longer instituted residents at 3 years at the time of the Power revolution.

So that would mean that... uh, pretty sure his one year mark at being at Nueva York that is when the Rock Revolution happened. And I see OG Sayu as having worked at NSR for like... 3 years I think it was?

That means 3 years of mermaid development, 2-3 years of NSR work, and then like 2 years of a timeskip before the Power Revolution (close to 3 kinda? sometimes, idk, still working on that for the OG NSpiR AU honestly lol).

At that time of the Power Revolution, Miles is about 14-15........ That would mean the mermaids were first developed when Miles was 6-7 years old by this logic... It would also mean that Remi was about 7-8 years old when he and Tila started the project....

Okay, so that doesn't work. At all. Specifically because I think that means Peni would have been 4 at the start of the project (and like 6 when kit joined the project). Which obviously doesn't work as joining a project like that is different from like being a prodigy and joining an organization with the help of your parents (looking at you Yinu).

I think I can fix this though. Maybe? I think if I just move the timeline over a bit, so that the mermaid team was brought on when they were older instead of younger (Also I think I'm gonna stick to the 2 years of work instead of 3 years because it messes things up later on I think). So like, instead of Remi being 14 and Miles being 13 at the time of the ROCK revolution (because 3 years of development and 2 years of work), instead I could change the order of the bosses and ages a bit because of timeline reasons.

So for me, I like the idea that the bosses in reverse order is how they got to NSR. That means that instead of Sayu being brought on before DJSS, instead DJSS was brought on BEFORE the team.... Wait no, because Nova had to have been fired from his professor job to get to NSR in the first place.

Okay! New plan! Nova get put in at the same time he originally was, BUT the mermaid team waited until they were super ready for NSR. Meaning that in this AU, there was an entirely different charter for Akusuka that would later be replaced by the team as they traveled up the ranks once they were actually brought on.

So, here's the idea I have. 5 years is the total time it takes from mermaid development until the Rock Revolution (I'm just ignoring the timeskip because I just needed it for ages at the moment and I'll be using 2 years of NSR work, not 3).

[This also means that the Revolution technically takes place later because I am moving the timeline up a little. Maybe something happened and B2J didn't get an audition for an extra year or two].

-At the beginning of development it is just Remi and Tila

-Quickly Pav and Gaya join

-Before the half year or 3/4 year mark Sofa and Dodo join

-At about the 1 year mark is when Gwen and Miles join

-1.5-2 year mark is when Margo joins (they start getting serious)

-At 2 or a bit after Peni joins along with Ganke quickly after

-Then a year of final development before joining NSR

-2 years of work and then it's revolution time!

I put this up here to kinda help me with ages. Since Peni is the youngest I am gonna work with her to help me figure out the ages. Peni is 14 when the timeskip happens, so that means she is 12 when the Rock Revolution happens, 10 when she joined NSR, and 9 when she joined the mermaid project.

I can see that as something happening, especially if Peni's parents are pretty lenient which I can see them as that (especially with someone like Yinu who is working at 9 in OG version lol, meaning she joined NSR even younger). So by the time of the revolution the approximate ages would be:

-Peni (14), Gwen (15), Miles (15), Ganke (15), Pav (15), Gaya (15), Remi (17), Margo (17), Tila (18), Sofa (18), and Dodo (19).

Because of these ages, I think this means that this AUs Rock Revolution happens 3 years after the OG Rock Revolution would happen. That is because Remi is 17 and I have him in my notes as 14 (I used to have him at 15 but for some reason I had to keep checking my notes because I kept saying 14 in my head, so I just changed it to 14 a bit ago since that is what my brain thought was better. So the rest of the Crew got bumped down at that time as well by one year).

Anyway, this means the ages of the other characters also ended up getting changed:

-Mayday (24), Zuke (30), DJSS (44), Yinu (12 going on 13), Mama (43), Neon J (60), 1010 (28), Eve (30), Tatiana (51), Kliff (48), and DK West (34).

Don't know what happened in that 3 year time span that made B2J not start a revolution, but something had happened to delay them.

Oh my fuck... I just realized I went on that whole rant of ages because I was supposed to talk about Nueva York but I went into NSR ages instead! Okay! Nueva York time!

The whole reason I was going to talk about ages was because at this point in the OG NSpidR AU, something would have happened to each of the Arachnikids during the mermaids development time that would have sent them away to Nueva York.

However! Because they had the mermaid project to occupy them and help them find creative solutions with their powers, they never had that outburst moment that got them sent to Nueva York. They learned how to use their powers through positive affirmation and community instead of through fear and repression.

The sucky thing about this is that some people get stuck in Nueva York. Hobie, Noir, Porker are all there without the help of Miles (or the rest of the Arachnikids) so there is very little chance that a Power Revolution will end up happening.

Well, actually, I guess since NSR doesn't get attacked as soon, Ex-Jay would actually have more time to look for Hobie since they aren't being contacted by NSR for at least another 3 years (so I think that would mean Hobie has been in Nueva York for 4-5 years at this point which would be enough for Ex-Jay to just try and get Hobie out themselves since it was put in there very unfairly).

Honestly, it would be cool in this AU that the revolutions were reversed! Like the Power Revolution happened since there was less resources put into Nueva York (since the Rock Revolution couldn't have been used as propaganda) and so that had elements of rock to it thanks to Hobie and Ex-Jay which would be a small inspiration for B2J once they got rejected by NSR during their auditions.

There was an abuse of power in Nueva York, and now there is an abuse in power in NSR. Which would actually tie in nicely with George and Gwen's story plot as this could be propaganda that helps push B2J to take down NSR. Especially if it came out that Eve helped Gwen get away from her father using her power and privilege, it would keep George around after the mermaid fight enough push B2J to get to Eve and then Tatiana (where Kliff's intentions become fully known to the group).

So yeah! I know I said I didn't have much to say, but uh... Well I lied lol! I apparently had a lot to say about this haha! Hope you liked reading my ramblings! :3

[edalynn]

the art i was referring to was art of gus and willow are flying on palisman but willow is looking at hunter from the back who's noticeably blushing but. Yk now reading your points and thinking about it doesn't really feel like dana ships it but that it was more the rest of the crew. And if that's true im gonna be sooo annoyed why would you keep shoving a random ship in there just bc you like it 🧍‍♀️

KJAKSFASF you're good anon lmao, I was about to answer this with a screenshot of the art before I saw u responded again sfjals. I know a bunch of ppl colored the lineart when the art was first released, so honestly I assumed you may had seen a fan-colored version and thought it was the original lol. But yeah, Dana has never once drawn anything implying hunt//low at all. The only reaction she's ever had to hunt//low is going red-faced and looking away from the camera which is way more of a dramatic reaction than she's had to be questioning raeda and lumity before they were "canon". And Dana is notorious for pulling one over on fans and throwing us curve balls so I can only imagine she has something (most of) the fans won't expect instead of making it canon. Especially because she'd actively had to ask her crew to tone down their own personal shipping stuff their professional work for the actual show, along with those crew members admitting that and admitting they were trying to slip it in. So like,, unfortunately yeah. It's the crew shoving it in the show because they like it and are kind of super not professional abt it imo when the creator literally has to tell multiple people to stop explicitly putting their own personal ship in her show.

[depizan]

Creator's meme! 🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?, 🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing, 🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

🌈 I don't know if anyone can tell when I've struggled with a fic, though the fic I was stuck on the longest has the most kudos on AO3, so...probably not. But I've talked several times about being stuck on Conflicts of Interest because I wanted some way to keep Savler from trying to complete her job, so I'll talk about something completely different that I'm still struggling with somewhat: the fallout from Kyrian's life getting wrecked, as shown in the ficlets I collected on AO3 as Adjustment Period, and which will still impact the next long fic I write. (Whenever I write it.)

What happened to him wasn't remotely fair and wasn't intended to suggest (thematically) that trying to do the right thing was wrong. (And was, perhaps, an overcorrection from the game's "lol, why would light side choices in the Empire have any consequences?") But, like, logically, what he was doing was wildly unsustainable.

So how do you write a character coming back from that? Without it being too easy. Without falling into the Hollywood cliches. And--this goes beyond just the character--without it signaling a permanent change in tone in the stories.

How do you show a character struggling with understandable doubts and uncertainties, yet still wanting what he always wanted: to see the galaxy and help people. Does he need to be what the Empire wanted him to be to be a valuable member of Jezari's crew? Can he be something else? What does that look like? Did I mention these are supposed to be lighthearted adventure stories?

That's a lot for a series of vignettes to carry. And I have no idea if I pulled any of that off. (Or exactly how to show Kyrian regaining his courage, and the courage to do things his way, while still having learned the important life lesson of knowing when you're in over your head.)

I just know I didn't (and don't) want the hollywood character arc of "congratulations, you can still do violence, that's just like being mentally healthy!"

I'm not sure that's an answer to quite the question that was asked...

🎀 I think I'm pretty good at fun character interactions and scene-setting.

🪄 Once something is finished, I have to post it, and once it's posted I have to run away and do something else, so I'm not just obsessively looking for some reaction from one of the tiny handful of people who read my stuff. Finish -> post -> oop, now it's time to get groceries, do dishes, take a walk, watch a movie. (Though I still hope that sweet, sweet validation will have arrived by the time I'm done. Which probably isn't the healthiest relationship with fic writing.)