#if i can't figure out what the whole “it” is beyond the initial concept then maybe it can't be done

[wereshrew-admirer]

scratching at the walls

[katyspersonal]

Thoughts about Crucible and conceptual corruption of religion

I've started trying to figure out what Crucible is exactly today while playing Elden Ring and I need to put down my thoughts about it before I forgot 🤔 I think basically it is what happened when the divine met the natural, the lifeforms on the setting's earth. In a way, the original Greattree is somewhat of a Crucible itself! Conceptually it is a very primordial faith that was yet filling life with meaning beyond just survival in a very good sense, but in ER the divine needs us as much as we need it, if not more so. Elden Ring hasn't always operated by Golden Order / Marika obviously; it was initially just a cool thing that fell from space and kind of accelerated everything, especially life itself! Presumably the result of Greater Will wanting to manifest itself in some sort of personality and coherent shape, but before the decision of what the order would be got handed to mortals (Empyreans first of all)

^ In Farum Azula there is a depiction of Elden Ring in more abundant form, very overflowing with life, so alternatively it'd rely on (ancient) dragons, the lifeform of whole other level back then for "order and personality"!

But yeah, uhhh like how do I put it...? Crucible is the result of the divine growing within the earth full of nature, primordial matters and mortal life. The initial Greattree "contracted" it like an influence, nature of life itself crept into it, it became the divine matter turning imperfect but alive! And the way Misbegotten, Omens and alike have animalistic features placed without any logic (and at times these features are useless) is a reflection of how chaotic life in its nature is brought from a concept to a display! Also the evergrowing "horns" were already a thing in simpler times, like what Ancestral guys are associated with! That's why Crucible used to be seen as a sacred thing - it was like a display of the divine matter wiling to live through you! But also Greattree wasn't meant to last forever and would one day die and in turn give the way to new life to replace it (Erdtree). It is a principle the divine naturally adopted upon becoming alive in the way nature knows it through the first big tree; life sprouts from death as much as it sprouts from birth!

So yeah, the problem began when the mortals (Marika?) pulled an ultimate purity wank and wanted that eternity, divinity and "perfection" forever rather than this new Erdtree once likewise dying (even if in turn it would give way to new life and so on forever). The whole DS3 is just Miyazaki being salty about how some people just won't let things die after their cycle expired, why not use what works again? XD But ALSO in these terms, the beastly idiocy nature of life started being seen not as simply something that MAYBE needed discipline to get the best out of it, but as a "disease" or a curse that "dirtied" the divine essence. So the divine in their eyes needed to be protected from being "sullied", from being pulled down to this level, the imperfections that make the life what it is started to just being liability - a bad mistake forms of civilizing (especially religions) keep making.

So Erdtree eventually ran out of its blessed sap and became ephemeral, useless as the holiness that only preserves its "purity" and doesn't sully itself for anyone can be. How it could give the world any more of the sap that was good for it without subjecting itself to it? It is like sharing advices without ever listening to what people's struggles are to BEGIN with. Age of Plenty was over because of obsession with the purity and defending the divine from "lowly" life, Crucible was an evidence that it once got "dirtied" but now never again, when in reality the very worst thing that could have happened with Erdtree is it dying like Greattree once did but giving life to the next tree in turn. I do think that fixation on the idea of eternity is still a larger part of it but I just can't ignore the thing about purity and control in it

^ @val-of-the-north also showed me these shapes when I shared my thoughts with him, to illustrate my point back to me (basically he said he agreed with my thought process). He pointed out that progression of the symbols shows the same thing - modern Erdtree and Fundamentalist incantations notably lack "life" in them in the form of branches and leaves. It could be not just what the Erdtree stopped doing, but also what they wanted to remove from the divine (Floral Crucible is only mentioned in cut content, but still). The latter two are "trapped" in concrete geometrical shapes, reflecting an actual order like what Greater Will wants in the end; it wants some organization, no matter which one. ...but also doesn't, there are enough implications that Frenzied Flame is just another side of the same coin. It even also has the hand as a conduct of the GW! And makes it funnier how they've sealed the Frenzied Flame away too, removing the alternatives- For sure, a decision that is understandable, but what does life mean if you don't have to fight against the essence of existential despair for it?

___________

Hhhhhh I went on a tangent but I was trying to say that I think Crucible didn't "come from space"! Elden Ring fell in this world cold empty and without self-comprehension like the cosmic void it came from, but initially assimilated with what life is here and Greattree was the manifestation! But Crucible also wasn't fully natural for this world too; it reflects aspects of life forms here but they get taken through this assimilation and then boosted with the blessing and given new meaning! Life for the sake of itself and next level magic for the sake of itself both are far from being meaningful but it is when low and high matters meet everything becomes full and complete! But in chasing to make the good things that come from it last forever people will end up demonizing and trying to exterminate natural things and prioritize only the divine.

Looking back at real humanity history, yeah I can see the relevance with how religion has been developing as a concept. How it started simple and fulfilling as a (successful) attempt to add higher meaning in existence than just surviving, was full of joy and wonder and freedom. And how in the end it came to incredibly suffocating and corrupt systems of control, purity wank and denial of normal parts of life 🤔

[jmdbjk]

Episode 6: Begin and Again

Beyond the Star, produced by HYBE Media Studio

Why is it titled Begin AND Again and not Begin Again? That was my question. Let's delve...

It opens with Hobi working on PROOF, the anthology album. I'm guessing the clip we see was filmed late 2021. Maybe between October and December. He says the concept of PROOF was to organize their numerous narratives and many other parts of their story.

Recording Yet to Come...

While being interviewed individually, I think the question proposed is what are the thoughts that come to mind when thinking about the past ten years and Tae says this: "The vigor of youth, our time as young boys, the time we didn't receive any acknowledgement, and when we pressed on in spite of that, I think that time was the most passionate moment in my life."

Yoongi said perhaps because of their situation at the time of trying to gain ground in their career, they set very high goals and when they achieved them, they weren't satisfied, they wanted to press on to the next goal and that desire was their strength and their weakness, as he says: "their weapon and the chink in their armor."

Jungkook says he often thinks of what he would have become if it wasn't for BTS. He has received so much positive influence from those surrounding him. He feels very lucky to have met the members and believes BTS and everything related to BTS are what created the path for him to mature as a singer and as a person.

Watching them record Run BTS (the song) was amazing. I love that song and watching them have fun in the studio is a healing sight.

They cherish their youth, their first ten years, their "Chapter 1" but they agree, its time to open a new chapter. Begin and again. The pause of the pandemic and beginning again after it was over. The pause for enlistment and the need to begin again when they are back. A lot of beginnings and agains. Begin the period of personal growth. Become BTS again at some point.

PTD Seoul in March 2021 was a situation where a limited number of attendees would be allowed and they would not be able to stand or cheer or sing along or any of those normal things that audiences do during a live concert. It would be a unique situation and possibly may never happen again in the future of live music concerts.

K-Army were thrilled, nervous, excited.

Waiting to go up on stage for sound check they already notice how quiet it is. They speculate amongst themselves whether Army will accidentally cheer. It's funny because we can see both sides as it happens. Yep, the audience accidentally let out an excited cheer upon seeing BTS for the first time after so long and the members are amused when they hear it.

They get started with sound check and reassure Army that they will get through this together.

In the second half of Ep. 6 each member speaks about their thoughts in this initial period where they are beginning "anew" after the pandemic, after they've achieved everything they have so far, after reflecting back on where they've been. They are doing personal things, Jin is fishing, the rap line working on personal projects, etc.

Yoongi says (at the time of this interview) they don't know what to do next (as a group). This is the beginning of their next chapter. Personally, Yoongi says again for the nth time that nothing goes as planned or expected. He would like everyone to have time to figure it out. He personally needs to reconnect with himself.

One of the moments is when Yoongi is in LA recording his part of the collab with Juice WRLD. He is telling the producer that he doesn't want to ruin Juice WRLD's song and the producer says to him: "you can't ruin it, you are only going to make it better"... Suga of BTS is still coming to understand the status he holds in the music industry.

Hobi tells us he will not waste the time until the group is whole again. He has things he wants to accomplish, personal dreams he wants to fulfill. I believe this is one of the reasons why Jack in the Box was ready first and why he enlisted earlier than the others. He was restless to get back into his work.

Jin is a simple guy. He talked about how (at the time of this interview) they had made it to the top and whatever happened, happened, he just wants all the members to live their lives as they want to. As BTS, he wanted the group to be able to do whatever they and the fans wanted to do. He was simply excited to bring back fresh fish to the team and staff after a day-long fishing trip.

RM says the team was telling each other their thoughts on what BTS could be in their 30s and mentioning he was working with The Neptunes which is Pharrell's duo. I wonder when that collab will see the light of day.

The maknae line was wondering how to find themselves since they have tied their identities to BTS, they don't know who they are yet as individuals and they wonder what it will be like. Jimin says they won't know until they live it.

Yoongi says, this is the time for them to get to know themselves.

[maschotch]

I was rewatching season 5 and I'm sorry but I find the episode immediately after hotch gets his shit wrecked by foyet so funny bc they're all treating him like he's this unhinged psycho like abdjfjds yeah I GET that that's what he was supposed to be like but the way they executed it, he really wasn't that out of order. It's just funny to me when he did like literally anything the other character on screen would look at him like 😧😦🫢

i actually find this soooo interesting for so many reasons.

foyet is the first "big bad" we really get for criminal minds. i've said a lot about whether this was a good directional shift for the show, but it was an interesting move to target the team leader first. hotch has, for the most part, gone largely unrecognized by the drama of the show so far. sure he's had his divorce blah blah, but he doesn't talk about it much. if he doesn't talk about it, the team's curiosity will fade sooner rather than later. that seems to be his strategy whenever something is going on with him. and it tends to work.

but now it's different. this was a serious event that happened. they can't help but recognize the severity of what just happened, and there's a palpable difference in the team dynamic because of it. so when everyone has their eyes on hotch, scrutinizing his every move, i don't think it's necessarily because he's acting different (even tho he is--even if his general risk assessment is the same, he's still initially snappier towards friends and strangers than they're used to seeing from him), but because they're aware of his presence in a way that they're not accustomed: he's vulnerable. he's not the unbreakable monolith of stability the team has believed him to be this whole time. i think a big reason why it hit the team so hard isn't just because of what happened, but the way their relationships have all developed up until now.

morgan and garcia are very clearly the most concerned out of everyone. beyond their closeness, i think that has a lot to do with both of them losing a parent/parents at a young age. seeing their leader--who they have so much respect and love for--severely wounded fucks them up!! hotch more or less holds a father figure role in both of their lives, and it's not something that appeared out of nowhere (and here i'll add reid since he doesn't have the trauma of a parent's death, but he does see hotch as a parental figure). it's the result of years and years of building trust, both in character and as a symbol of strength and security (which is now relevant to jj, whose whole character development is about trying to emulate that mythical strength). their faith is shaken in him--not because of his own actions, but because of their own idealized concept of him that was challenged by hotch's very very human fallibility. even emily, who doesn't rely on him emotionally the way the rest of the team does, is disturbed, but only because she sees him as a protector of the team--as a protector of the new chance of life she has with them. now that that's threatened, she needs to see his safety through with her own eyes (which is why she's the first to notice him missing, and the one who needs to drive him to and from work after this). he's the rock of the team, and no one expects the rock to crack.

i hate when rossi ends up the voice of reason, but in this case it really makes sense. he doesn't have any aggrandized notions of who hotch is: he watched hotch grow within the bau. rossi knows how to push hotch, when to push hotch, because he knows hotch won't break easy. even when hotch hates himself, like the original omnivore episode, rossi doesn't hesitate to shove a gun in hotch's hand and tell him to kill himself because he knows hotch would never. rossi's perfectly aware of the weaknesses hotch refuses to let the rest of the team see. when rossi tries to assuage derek's worries, it's not because he doesn't care, but because he knows not to stifle him. he knows hotch will get through this, he just needs time. i think everyone's reaction to hotch's return is perfectly emblematic of their relationship to him: morgan questions his authority suddenly because the inherent trust is lost. emily is above all worried about his safety because she knows that jeopardizes the team. reid is worried but he doesn't interfere because, as far as he's concerned, hotch can handle it. garcia is worried but doesn't interfere because she doesn't know how to help. jj's concern is more akin to pity because the bastion of strength she's respected for so long ended up being just as human as the rest of them. rossi's concern for hotch is on the back burner because he sees that the team is fracturing around the edges

i love 5x02 because we spend surprisingly little time on hotch dealing with his emotions; instead, we focus on the team dealing with hotch's vulnerability. they're fully aware of him for the first time, and they overreact to everything they would normally accept at face value. they rarely question his judgment before this because they trust him implicitly. he's proven himself, and it's heartbreaking that--through no fault of his own--he has to build that trust back. rossi says to derek "we have to show we have his back." derek interprets that as watching his back, to double check every decision and making sure he's alright based on those decisions. even jj knows that, given the heat he's getting from his superiors, that's the last thing hotch needs.

[iviarellereads]

Full TLT series to date thoughts on rereading Harrow the Ninth, chapters 11-15

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

(Fair warning, this one's a lot more personal than usual. Controversial hot takes inside.)

I really haven't had much to say about 11-13, but 14. Just. Let's address this in order of appearance.

Harrow "so rarely ate for pleasure that it was beyond imagining" that she would learn to cook. Just gonna smirk knowing chapter 25 is coming. Soup.

The BOE! It's not until the end of the chapter that Jod says the least bit of who they are but I gotta yell now. Fascinating how he views them. He's the paternal figure framing himself as "bitten" by their ungratefulness. These children of the children's children's children on down ten thousand years or more of history, of the billionaires who fled and he couldn't reach in time. He killed his whole SOLAR SYSTEM trying to kill them instead and he still has this tone. He's still trying to make them pay for their ancestors' sins. And I mean, what sins they were, if the dream River in Nona is at all the real story. But, I think it's kind of incredible. I don't think he's right to still be pursuing vengeance, I don't think his actions were acceptable, but I can see how he came to it and why he can't let it go.

And then John's gentleness with Harrow over the circumstances of her conception just totally undoes me every single time. Just to THINK about, really. I said it in the initial notes, but I'll expand it here: I know some people hate him, find him manipulative and irredeemable, but I think Muir is doing something deeper than that. At least with him. Ianthe is irredeemable and perfect for it. John…

Like, sure, you could read this as a scene where he realizes how much more power he has over Harrow knowing this blackmail, but he's never used it that we've seen, he's never leveraged it against her to get her to comply. He manipulates, yes, but I firmly believe he also cares in his own way, twisted by circumstance and ten thousand years of anger and pain and lack of therapy and nobody being able to tell him no.

And I guess I also just… I saw a tweet before Twitter went to hell, about how John is Maori, he's an Indigenous man with a whole lot of baggage from his society about it, and Muir making him out to be irredeemably evil feels so insensitive that I don't want to believe that of her until I have to. I think a lot of people are projecting their assumptions and biases and opinions and expectations of fiction onto him rather than giving him room to be more complex than that, even though a lot of them are the same people who love other characters, particularly women, for similar, if smaller-scale, atrocities. And, heck, I'm also projecting my life experiences onto him, I'm not saying that's BAD.

I just see a lot of who I could have become in John, the way I see myself in every sociopath in fiction who isn't played explicitly for a villain, because I don't think it's that clear cut, here. I want to think there's room for him to change, the way I have tried to change. Somehow. I bring my hope like a candle into dark places, knowing that at any moment (well, when the final book is released) it could be snuffed without warning.

And of course, chapter 15, where we learn Alecto died twice. Once when John blew up the world, and… once, metaphorically, when he left her in the Locked Tomb? Or something else? True death, the death of sleep, or the death of her heart? But the part of her that becomes Nona still loves completely and guilelessly. It bears thinking about.

[the-gay-prometheus]

OP, I see what you're going for here and I can appreciate it, but we also need to remember that the Creature's first response to rejection was NOT violence. In fact, real violence was the very last resort for him. Essay incoming, because I think it's important to get the facts right about these characters. I'm not disputing anything you said about Victor, but what you've said about the Creature is demonstrably incorrect.

First and foremost, the Creature basically speedran Growing Up™. When he first awakened, he had no concept of Literally Anything. Him standing over Victor's bed can be attributed to little more than basic instinct of trying to attach to the first person he sees. In his recounting of his side of the story, he has no memory of ever even doing this, because at that point in his story he was barely capable of having memories beyond the fact that everything was so overwhelming. He can't even conceive of the fact that he had to have come from someone, somewhere, because for all he knows he's just. Here. He doesn't know why or how, and at that point the why and how isn't important. So of course he's not seeking out his creator, because he can't even conceive of the fact that he's been created.

Secondly, his first and only initial interactions with human beings goes as follows: A. Somebody screams and runs away from him. B. Many people scream and run away from him. C. Someone faints upon seeing him. D. People start pelting him with stones and (his words) "other missile weapons". How does he handle this rejection? He runs away. He doesn't fight back, he doesn't run after them, he doesn't destroy their property, he just leaves.

When he does finally discover how and why he was created, he was disgusted by what he read (and likely for good reason - we don't know all the details, but Victor himself knew what he was doing was fucked up and was disgusted by his own actions after the fact). Of course he's not going to want to have anything to do with his creator at that point. All he knows about Victor is that A. Victor isn't in his life anymore for some reason (he has literally no idea about the illness or fainting stuff, and Victor never tells him anyways) and B. Victor seems like kind of a gross guy to him.

Even after he gets rejected by the DeLaceys (and straight up beaten with a stick by one of them), he flees. By this point now his fear is turning into anger, but even now he tries to cope in a way that won't harm others (runs into forest and just screams for a while - good for him). He calms himself down and tries to go back to talk to them the next day, and instead hears the guy who beat him say "Hell no we're not coming back here ever again with that damn thing hanging around."

And it's only then that he actually chooses some form of violence - but it's barely even violence! The cottage is uninhabited. Nobody lives there anymore, the DeLaceys are very much not coming back. So yeah, he burns it to the ground in a fit of rage because at this point there's only so much that screaming in the woods can do. But it doesn't even belong to anybody except the landlord anymore (who he doesn't even know lol), so really he's not actually causing any harm here even though it is a more "violent" escalation.

We see again and again and again that the Creature does his damn best to control his anger and not cause harm, but eventually, yeah. He snaps. He's alone in the universe with no one to help him through all the shit he's going through. Of course he's gonna snap. And even in his first true moment of violence (killing William), there's some evidence that the murder of William was accidental. That's a whole separate essay, though.

The reason he doesn't even bother going to Victor until after William's death is because remember, at this point, his opinion of Victor is "This guy straight up left me and also did some really fucked up shit to make me, so I don't really know if I want anything to do with this mf." But now he figures "fuck it, I've got nothing left to lose, I don't have any other options, and I mean I guess I've got leverage against him now if he's as much of an asshole as I think he is, so alright. Lemme find this guy - I don't want to be his friend, but maybe he can make a companion for me." It also doesn't help that Victor's first reaction to him upon seeing him is "COME AT ME BRO!!!!1!!!1!!!! I'll beat your damn uglyass face in!!!!!!!" Like. This is clearly not a safe person for my guy to be seeking any form of companionship from, so his first instinct isn't going to be "Hi dad ;~; Can u pls love me? ;~;"

Anyways. Their dynamics aside, by this point he's tried over and over and over and over and over and over to respond to rejection with nonviolence or at least in a way that isn't causing direct harm. He's done with that now, because clearly nonviolence is doing nothing. So yeah. He chooses violence. But again - it is the LAST choice, not the first.

And it's a really bad and awful choice!! Anyone saying "the creature did nothing wrong" either should be saying that as a joke or is completely missing the nuance of this book. I completely and totally agree with you that Victor gets way more hate than he should, but we don't need to lift him up by putting the Creature down.

I'm so protective of Victor Frankenstein, because everyone is like "the creature is actually completely right and he should have just made a second creature and it would be fine" or "he shouldn't have abandoned his creation" and like, come on.

First of all, he didn't abandoned the creature. He basically spent 9 months obsessing of creating this thing because (a) his mother died and he developed a morbid fascination with death to cope and (b) his father, instead of explaining why alchemy was a bad idea, just dismissed his interest out of hand. But the thing was that it wasn't //actually// supposed to work. And he also isn't eating or sleeping and he is mentally Not Well. But then the creature opens it's eyes and it's terrifying because even though it should be beautiful, being made of beautiful parts, it is still made of fucking corpses.

So, Victor passes the fuck out and wakes up after the creature has escaped. And then he's like, wtf was that?? Am I going insane?? He doesn't go looking for the creature because he thinks he made it up in his head. I think his friend was also like, "hey, dude, I think you just have a fever."

And then he finds out that his 6yo brother has been MURDERED and his childhood friend is accused of having killed the child, so he goes home. He can't even say, "hey, I think I made a monster that did this" because no one will believe him. And this creature shows up and tells him that it killed his brother simply because it hated Victor. It killed a young child because it wanted to hurt Victor. Now it wants Victor to make a second creature like the first.

And, for the record, the creature has been having a hard time because its a giant walking corpse and people aren't giving it a chance to prove that it can read Shakespeare. Here's the thing. The creature is smart. It reads classic literature. It speaks well. It is also cunning. After snapping William's neck, it frames Justine by slipping William's gold locket in her apron pocket.

Victor takes responsibility for this. He is aware at this point that he has fucked around and found out. He feels guilty about his little brother's death, and the execution of his friend. He agrees to create a second creature out of fear, but then decides that he will accept his fate and let the creature kill him because he is afraid that, given how terribly the first creature turned out, he will be endangering more people. What he didn't count on was that the creature would not actually kill him (he is its only shot at getting a companion, after all) and would instead kill his best friend and his wife.

The creature is lonely, but it's first response to rejection was not to seek its creator and ask for a companion. Its response was to murder people weaker than it, then seek out a companion from Victor through threats of violence. Why would he want to help it at that point? Why would he trust it?

[tachvintlogic]

Hi!!

I’m making a fan theory/HC for a LU fic I’m working on that incorporates some Danny Phantom-esque aspects, and I figured you were like the perfect person to ask about it bc they’re both right in your wheelhouse haha

But do you think it’s reasonable to say that the goop Dink explodes into in LU could be ectoplasm? It’s malleable and permits shapeshifting, and can reform into whole beings even after they’re initially destroyed like Wild destroyed the Darknut in the sunset arc (this is also going off of the concept doodles Jojo drew of wind watching Dark Link reforming out of a pile of black goo).

(Also please feel free to ignore this if it’s a nuisance lol sorry)

Aw, dude, you're not a nuisance! You don't need to apologize!

I have never thought about that, but that sounds so cool! The concept of Dink being a blob of ectoplasm that can reform and infect things (I think the black blood is because monsters are infected by his goo) reminds me of doctor's disorders, Johnny 13's Shadow, or even the clones since they too melt into puddles of goo.

Now I'm thinking about it, what if Dink is a failed clone of Time and is now a partially-destabilized goo-man? He can't keep a form for long so he becomes goo when defeated, but he can reform so long as he isn't hit when enough light magic.

The black blood is all just a part of himself, so he's basically possessing all those monsters which is why they so focused on protecting him.

As for said goo being Danny Phantom ectoplasm specifically, I'm pretty sure that in Danny Phantom, the real is that anything "alive" that's made of ectoplasm can use invisibility/intangibility, and Idk if you want to give Dink that. However, the general concept of ectoplasm beyond Danny Phantom absolutely works.

One thing I would recommend you check out is @floralflowerpower and her post on ectoplasm being a pyscho-reactive substance, aka "mood slime" as Ghostbusters put it.

[spiritsonic]

Hey there! I was wondering, do you have any concepts/concept art or storylines for gotf that you never ended up using? If so may we see? :)

Sure! There's a handful of things Okida and I have brainstormed at one time or another that I can confidently say won't happen now. Gonna put it under the cut so the post isn't super long!

Black Knight

The main one is a second Storybook Series adventure, this time focusing on Black Knight. We had a good time thinking about the changes to the setting post-game. Our version was more SatAM themed, putting "Robotnik" in the role of an invading Roman general, and "Sally" as a renegade Guinevere leading a Robin Hood-esque band fighting back from Sherwood Forest. There would have been a focus on Silver playing Galahad's role and needing to go on the Seige Perilous. Sonic and Metal were along for the ride too, but due to some magic rules bullshitting Sonic didn't get alive'd again, but instead played a haunted sword alongside Metal as a shield, both wielded by Silver.

(I would have it be known that I came up with this BEFORE Pokemon's sixth gen came out, thus Honedge didn't exist yet. Nintendo, I expect my royalty check in the mail any day now.)

Long story short, while coming up with the setting was fun the story quickly got VERY big and didn't offer a ton of opportunity for character or plot advancement so in the interest of time we decided to not do it.

GOTF Marine

While figuring out all the New Chaotix stuff, we considered adding Marine to the cast. She would have been a friend of Blaze's who was obsessed with conspiracy theories, especially relating to aliens and GUN. She was very pushy and wild, and kind of a technical/hacker genius sort, and of course like her game counterpart she would have been terrified of ghosts. In this earlier version the parents' secrets were kept longer, so the kids ended up doing an investigation on their own, I think.

(I would have it be known that I came up with this BEFORE Sonic Boom or Steven Universe had come out, so Sticks and Peridot didn't exist yet. Cartoon Network, SEGA, I expect my royalty checks in the mail any day now.)

We didn't have anything in mind for her beyond that initial arc though, and Sicily ended up filling the role of paranoid techie person so she never made it in. A bit of a bummer, she would have been fun to write.

Tarnish

Tarnish was the name of Anti-Silver from Moebius, and was considered for a much longer version of the Moebius arc. He would have been the last surviving disciple of Antique's cult, her warped protege. You already know what he would have looked like, the outfit Silver wears during the story was originally intended for Tarnish. the big difference is that when he was a child, Antique had his arms amputated so he'd be forced to develop his psychokinesis faster. So he had big weird psi-arms.

(This isn't actually a picture of Tarnish, I can't find one in my files, but you can see I re-used the arm idea here)

While cool and spooky, Tarnish really boiled down to a miniboss for the gang to fight before reaching Antique, and since Okida and I were getting really tired of being stuck on Moebius we decided to just get back home ASAP. If I ever do a "director's cut" of GOTF in prose form, I'd probably put him back in and expand on Antique's whole deal.

That one time I wrote a GOTF screenplay in college

Ok so in my first screenwriting class in community college, I in my infinite hubris decided to write an alternate version of GOTF that would be more tied to the Archie-verse. I think I was around 17? It starts off as a pretty straight redo/update of Issue 1, then the story veers off as the Zone Cops bust in, here to arrest the boys and destroy the dimension for being a fan AU disrupting the balance of the multiverse. Unfortunately, the class wrapped before I got past the very beginning of act 2... but what's there isn't that bad? It's not perfect, but does a better job explaining the premise and doing things in an exciting way. I have it saved as a PDF, if people want I could put it up on my Patreon.

The absolute worst part was when we did a table read in class. Listening to a random dudebro do a "haha you're too slow!" Sonic impression while reading GOTF Sonic's Traumatic Backstory Monologue... truly exquisite suffering. The teacher loved it, he wanted to submit my script to a college screenwriting competition.

----

Anyway, that's some scrapped GOTF stuff. There's probably more, but these are the ones that came to my mind right now!

[lasquadrasfuckhouse]

Hi! Can I ask for la squadra reacts to a Ghost in their base who love singing like a siren. But other members can't see or hear.

This is my first asking, im not sure of i did it correct.

Thank you so much♥️♥️

you did wonderful!!! i LOVE this concept. i wrote more general 'la squadra if their base was haunted' stuff here so i'll be working off of that

this one's dedicated to both the ghost that would hum in this one washroom at my high school when no one else was there and melissa the beautiful scene queen ghost that haunts my house and sings fall out boy and mcr with us ���

la squadra with a singing ghost in their base 🎶

first and foremost all of them would probably make sure it's not a stand attack and THEN would make sure they're not hallucinating but once those explanations are out of the way, here's what would follow

risotto ✂️

he's mostly just kinda confused but he doesn't let it bother him. he's a logical dude: you can't prove ghosts but you can't exactly disprove them either so he's just kinda like.... ok i guess

the singing is nice, actually. eerie but very beautiful. as long as he can still sleep, he doesn't mind. if he can't sleep, he may like.... politely ask please no singing while he's trying to sleep? he really doesn't know how to talk to a ghost. but they seem nice.

he won't go out of his way to either interact with them or avoid them and it doesn't really bother him that no one else can see or hear them. they just kinda peacefully coexist.

if the others ask him about it, he'll tell them straight up about the singing ghost, as long as the ghost doesn't appear distressed about being known to the others. but he doesn't want this ghost thing to distract them either, so he reminds everyone to keep their heads on.

prosciutto 🚬

prosciutto is dumbfounded. for real? a ghost? this is ridiculous! and why is he the only one who can see or hear it? he's just kind of annoyed by it more than anything.

the singing is rather lovely, though. if there's too much noise going on in the house and he's getting a headache, that's probably the first time he'd try like, talking to them? to be like, please--and he feels ridiculous just talking to thin air or an apparition--no singing rn. he will begrudgingly thank them when they stop, and while he's at it he may as well let them know that they do have a beautiful voice there's just too much noise right now. the ghost seems to like the compliment.

it's very soothing otherwise. maybe after some time has passed since that first interaction and he's the only one in the house, he may ask why he's the only one who can see or hear them, cause he is a bit curious. whether the ghost has an explanation or not, he'll just kinda be like aight then

really he's a bit curious about the whole ghosts existing thing in general but he just kinda takes what he's presented with. may not give straightforward answers about the whole ghost thing if the others are making a ruckus about it, at least at first, cause he doesn't want to rile em all up.

pesci 🎣

YEAH, HES FUCKIN SCARED. he can't explain it, he can't get rid of it with his stand, and now he feels embarrassed b/c he thinks he seems either incompetent or silly. in reality at least the others know that lying isn't his style so some of them are starting to wonder if he is seeing something unexplainable

the singing gets his teeth chattering. sure, it's pretty, but it's chilling. catch him hiding under the blankets with his pillow pressed over his ears.

he may very meekly ask the ghost to leave him be if they're around him and he'll leave them alone too. way too scared to interact with them and avoids them almost at all costs.

won't initiate conversation about it. some of the others may goad him on to freak him out more. be nice to pesci you losers!!!!! >:( but even if someone asks nicely about it he won't want to talk about it much but he'll be relieved that someone believes him.

formaggio 🧀

yeah, all cockiness goes out the window when he realizes it's a ghost. like, he tries his best to cling onto the attitude, but honey he is freaked out. no ghostes for him thanks

the singing gives him shivers. he'll be like HAHA YEAH.... REAL NICE VOICE YA GOT..... BUT IM NOT GONNA FALL FOR THAT....... U AINT POSSESSIN ME but the ghost is literally just chillin. he doesn't trust like that tho

may try some methods of banishment he remembers from his nonna. even if they don't work in the sense of forcing them to disappear or leave, the ghost probably still gets the message and leaves him be.

will insist with a hand over his heart that yes there IS a fucking ghost and no way in HELL is he fuckin w/ it or joking HES NOT JOKING HE SWEARS, but will puff up his chest like yea i told that ghost to get lost!!!! my love you are fooling no one everyone heard you shrieking like a little baby.

illuso ✨

he's actually a bit freaked. thought it was ridiculous until he actually couldn't find an explanation for it and it's unnerving that he was somehow singled out. should he be flattered? yes yes he knows he's lovely and cool but please don't only show your ghost activities to him or preferably no ghost activities at all

because he's freaked out he may lose his cool and yell into the air to shut up with the singing, which really does not help him feel any better.

with time, he may just get used to it, seeing as the ghost doesn't really do much aside from being a ghost and sing. he might come to appreciate the singing for how pretty it is, too.

will use the opportunity to scare everyone and definitely won't give straightforward answers just for the fuck of it

melone 🍈

VERY fascinated. thrilled, honestly! how fucking cool is it that there's a ghost right in front of him? too bad the others can't see or hear it, but he supposes that makes him lucky.

will compliment the ghost on their beautiful voice and ask a whole bunch of questions. why is he the only one who can see or hear them? do they like to sing just because? are they bound to the base, or to him, or something else keeping them tethered to this world? do they know what's beyond? can they see or interact with their stands? souls exist, seeing as someone's stand is a manifestation of it, so are ghosts souls without bodies? or something else?

he's just very curious and friendly, maybe a bit overbearing, but he's just excited. even with all his questions, he avoids asking how they died cause even though social cues aren't his strong point (especially with the dead????), he still figures that must be pretty rude to say the least. he may happily sway to whatever tune they're singing or find himself humming it later.

will be very excited to share this with everyone as long as the ghost is okay with that. doesn't care if he sounds silly or the others don't believe him, that's not his problem. will assuage any fears from the ones who are more scared by the idea of a ghost (they're just a person!)

ghiaccio ❄️

this is dumb!!! ghosts aren't supposed to be real!!!! that doesn't make any sense!!!!! goes on a rant about how ghosts don't make sense, and maybe he'd be less ticked off if they made sense. like, sure, souls exist cause stands exist. but like, what the fuck? he's honestly not scared, just annoyed.

it's extra annoying how he's the only one who can see or hear them. he's another one who gets irritated when there's too much noise in the house, so he'll yell to cut it out with the singing, if you're gonna make him talk to the air and do ghost nonsense at least don't bug him with it!!!! but soft singing in the quiet is actually very relaxing. he'll find himself sighing and just about falling asleep to it.

he's not good with words and how the fuck does he talk to a ghost but over time he may be like hey.... nice singing. when the other assholes aren't being noisy too. he'll still grumble about it not making sense until he makes sense of it, but he gets used to it.

on that front, he may actually talk to melone about it. he thinks a lot of melone's pseudoscience stuff is nonsense but he's got something concrete right here and he wants to understand it and melone is great at working with weird ideas so they try to make sense of ghosty things

sorbet and gelato 🔪🍦

they're both just kinda like. well i'll be. sorbet isn't bothered by it, gelato is like oooo how chilling but isn't like, actually scared. he's the one who may fucking flirt with the ghost like oh my is there a reason it's only us who can hear your pretty voice?? ;) sorbet thinks that's pretty funny.

and their voice is pretty! they both really like the singing, they find it beautiful and soothing and it keeps things interesting on base. what's not to love?

sorbet continues just doin his thing, but he will nod to the ghost in greeting when he sees them and exists comfortably with them, he's very chill about it. gelato will chatter and joke and flirt and be like hey let's duet this [SCREAMS] just to fuck around and see if he can make them laugh

they will both absolutely play it up to freak out the others. eventually if their antics get to be too bothersome risotto will tell them to cut it out, and they'll be like 'no problem capo, there really is a ghost tho' and then that causes a whole new wave of fuckery through the squad because even sorlato aren't crazy enough to lie to risotto's face after he told them to knock it off which means there is a ghost but HOW MUCH IS TRUE AND HOW MUCH IS THE TWO OF THEM FUCKING AROUND??? it never ends with these guys.

[stupidzeldaaus]

Okay- here we go-

The Steampunk Minish AU

I'll leave a whole bunch of explanations under the cut because it's a mess. There's a lot....

Okay getting the minish themselves out of the way first- these are just three of them.

So first off is the minish girl with a mini guardian sword. She's the reason it turned into spirit tracks brainrot so it was fitting to give her an outfit based off of the engineers outfit.

She has a grappling hook as well, which is mostly for scaling up tables, chairs, and bookshelves in the Hateno Ancient Tech Lab. And the guardian sword, due to being effective against guardians, is used to sever connections inside of them.

I had a sibling ask (around the vaatea au) if the minish used acorns as coffee cups so she has coffee in an acorn. She needs it.

Next is this guy. I honestly haven't put much thought into him except he's probably alot older than he looks. Also I think he'd vibe with Robbie in Akkala. Those goggles he has probably move like Robbies do as well.

He was also the one who made the little guardian sword.

Oh and his tail is under his clothes. It's probably so it doesn't get in the way.

Alright- my personal favorite and also the one that will probably out me on discord cause they're based off another OC I've already shown off and do not shut up about. Anyway, they're a ray of sunshine.

So they seem to carry a lot of tools on them, some of which can't be seen. They also have a lot of belts on their jacket, which, while it seems like just a fashion statement, I think they have a use. Most likely for holding more tools. The big pockets probably have tiny nuts bolts and screws. Also snacks. They gotta make sure their partner didn't just have coffee for breakfast.

So Purah. She's actually pretty important since, not only is she a scientist, she can see them all as well. I had a theory a while back that she turned into a child to study minish and then that was cut from the game. She can see them but, can't quite understand them at that point. Maybe she makes a translator or finds a jabber nut later.

The minish trying to explain something here might be the first based off of handedness but also might be the first ones mother. The first picture has her speaking minish while the bottom has her drawing out a wrench, glasses, and a sword. The sword might be in reference to the minish cap.

Yep. They still wear leaf cloaks. But they're more for camouflage now. Botw may not have cats that I know of but they do have birds that typically eat mice. And the manga did show that yep animals can see the minish pretty well actually.

Alright- the fun part! It's mostly going to be explanation since- guardians...

Robbie studied guardians mostly so its probably his research that gave the minish the knowledge on their inner workings.

So the first picture has who I think is a younger version of the second minish.

We saw where Link had trouble climbing up sheikah walls and the minish probably had the same problem.

Theres one scene from secret world of Arrietty where they use double sided tape for climbing, and i wanted to use that but I didn't think tape was a thing invented in the zelda universe. And (after an adult timeline and beyond quest) SURE ENOUGH- Spirit Tracks wellspring station. Also possibly Purah or Robbies labs. So... I guess that can be a thing...

Secondly is the guardian labeled dead. It's been taken down. One thing I should mention- I'd like to think that if the active guardian stalkers are closer to towns or roads used regularly there's probably more of a chance that they'd be immobilized.

Plus the thought of the scene from revenge of the sith, with the AT-AT, would probably be cool with a guardian.

The guardians probably would go even more haywire than they already were while trying to shut them down and it's probably better if there isn't a giant spider robot running into one of the stables.

Link ran into this guardian, and knows he didn't take it down. So who or what did...?

There's a third unfinished doodle that I couldn't bring myself to finish, mainly because i couldn't figure out anything about the inside of a guardian. What I know is that there are gears, shafts, springs, and cores. I wanted initially to let them meet the hylian champion but- this link is more of an adult and he probably can't see them.

Finally- I did say it devolved into spirit tracks.

The first picture is a book on New Hyrule, which is covering the Spirit Train, The Hero of Spirits, and Byrne apparently. This book might have been lost somewhere in Hyrule Castle, since I'd like to believe the royal family would keep track of all the legends and history of Hyrule.

Finally, the final picture.

So the minish girl (Okay they all really need names...) is trying to decide on how to power the train. Sheikah technology or Lokomo technology. Two very different technologies.

They are not the same. Not even remotely.

The train she's in the middle of sketching was from the ST concept art. Apparently the book she was reading didn't have much on steam power.

(But that doesn't mean it's the only book. If I had to guess there's most likely a few more books on the technology from new hyrule.)

I'd like to have eventually a train going from Akkala to Hatenos lab, and eventually go across all of Hyrule

Anyway thanks for reading through! I know it was a mess.

[hotchley]

i saw your reblog of the Spencer giving Aaron a father's day card thing and i can't stop thinking about how Aaron is the father figure to the entire team now.

(yes I'm also especially thinking about that one scene of Spencer and Derek stuck in the malfunctioning lift shrieking for Aaron just because. 🥴 dad!Hotch ftw!!!!!)

i know this concept has probably been done hundreds of times already but imagine: (SORRY THIS IS GOING TO BE A REALLY LONG ASK, I deeply apologise in advance)

[tw food/eating habits, some references to murder cases because you know this is Criminal Minds, some slight spoilers for people who haven't really watched the show and also reference & mention of autism & a character on the autism spectrum -> just a heads up, a disclaimer, I'm in no way diagnosed with autism, so if i have misrepresented autism, or made any mistakes, i apologise, it wasn't my intention, and i welcome all feedback & criticism — i genuinely want to learn]

a year after Spencer joins the BAU, Aaron notices & becomes very concerned over Spencer's (super bad) eating habits aka him only drinking coffee and forgetting to eat actual proper food when he gets absorbed in cases or research or reading etc -> which results in Aaron absolutely being like "hey Spencer let's grab lunch together" almost everyday just so Spencer eats (healthy, full meals)

(also Spencer picking up on this after Aaron "casually" gets him lunch/treats him to dinner/invites him over for meals for almost every day of the week and he was initially almost irritated/offended until he realised he could use Aaron's habit to make Aaron himself eat properly too because this hypocritical bastard doesn't eat properly himself either so every alternate day you can see Spencer purposely not going for lunch breaks while sneaking glances at Aaron's office just waiting for him to notice and drag them both to lunch together 😌)

also I really think Spencer is on the autistic spectrum (high functioning, imo, but I'm not really sure how this works, and I'd have to do more research) so I'd like to imagine Aaron knows that too because he's noticed Spencer's behaviors + Spencer got an official diagnosis and told him about it maybe 6-7 months into joining the BAU so I really think Aaron lets Spencer stim (physically, his hand gestures) on their lunch break because he knows that Spencer can't really do that in front of the others, so even when they're on cases, he would take Spencer out either for a private lunch or dinner or something, just the two of them, and he'd let Spencer stim & talk about any subject of his fancy as much as he wants to (I'm pretty sure someone wrote a fic like this and I absolutely can't remember the name or the author but I really LOVED the idea too)

initially Spencer was really taken aback too, because you know, this isn't something you do with your boss, of all people, but Hotch had always meant what he says and his facial expression and body language suggested that he was being absolutely sincere and serious about this, so Spencer tentatively started talking, and as their meal progressed, he eventually got comfortable enough to just go on, and not once did Aaron cut him off rudely, until the end of their meal, when Aaron couldn't continue to pretend to drink his soup because he'd finished it somehow with those incredibly small spoonfuls, and he'd had to gently tell Spencer that they had to go back, but Spencer wasn't upset, because he'd just got over an hour to talk about this recent seminar about the connection of ancient Greek mythology to the developments of the society in ancient Greece which no one had ever done for him before and he's full, satisfied and beyond elated because Hotch really didn't have to do this, but he did anyways

at first it was just something between them but eventually Derek noticed & like in the end I think it's a kind of open secret between Aaron, Spencer & Derek and now when Derek notices Aaron doing it he gives Aaron a small nod and he wards off & deals with the questions that the others have when they inevitably notices the private meals Aaron & Spencer has

speaking of Derek, Aaron definitely has 1 on 1 time with Derek too, but doing different things. Derek's thing is sports & home renovations, and he repairs/maintains cars & bikes when he can, and I like to imagine Aaron knowing about his hobbies and casually asking Derek about the home renovation he's working on one time (before or early S1) Derek came into his office to submit a case file, and Derek being kind of shocked/caught by surprised initially (because he knows Hotch has a soft spot for the kid because he's much younger and much, much more inexperienced but Derek's older and should know better, so Hotch won't do the whole private lunch thing with him, right?) but then he grins and starts telling Aaron about how "I got that place absolutely shining right now, man" and then he invites Aaron over to take a look at the place out of courtesy/habit (his mama raised him as a good, polite young man, and no way Hotch would even say yes right?) and to his surprise once again, Aaron does accept his invitation

after that one time, Aaron begins casually asking him about his projects and even starts offering to help him do some of the painting and decorating (to be fair, it calms Aaron too, to have a getaway from Haley and initially from the crying baby, because while he absolutely loved Haley and Jack with all his heart, some days, some days he just couldn't take it, all the stress from Strauss and from trying to be a good father unlike his own, and he had to take some time off to himself, and painting walls is calming and therapeutic to him in some sense) & Derek and Aaron start bonding over hotdogs while sitting out on the front porch of some halfway remodelled house, talking about the latest sports news (they support different baseball teams but that's okay, because Derek gets to grin at Hotch and ask him to pay up when Hotch's team loses to his, and Aaron gets to raise his eyebrows with that small knowing smirk of his and ask Derek to "complete this by the next weekend, will you" when Derek's team loses to his)

when Aaron recruits Penelope, he's read her file, or what little the FBI's cyberteam got on her anyways. he knows the Black Queen's reputation, and he knows that the cyberteam really don't trust her and recommended high levels of surveillance, but the moment he saw her through the glass of the interrogation room and her resume & application on pink paper, he knew that she's not just what the file said she is. initially, she sticks to the "bureau regulated office attire" because you know, Penelope knows she's lucky, she should've been jailed for what she did, she was jailed, until this Aaron Hotchner guy decided, somehow, that she was deserving to be on his team, even after looking at her resume, which she had written on pink paper out of pure spite (because nothing in the FBI rulebooks said anything about submitting your application on specialized coloured paper anyways) but she was moody and unhappy because she's stuck in this tiny office having to answer the phone whenever agents called to ask for details on icky, gruesome murders and disgusting, vile murderers so she decides that hey, since no one ever comes in here anyways, she might as well do some re-decorating right? so she starts bringing in her own soft toys and figurines and starts amassing a whole collection of soft, plushy, and colourful toys in because it's her office and if she has to deal with all these yucky stuff on a daily basis she's going to make it at least bearable to be in here

one day, some tall, stern looking guy just comes into her office with this Tupperware in his hands saying "hey, Garcia right? my wife made some extra cupcakes for the team, you want some?" and she asks "do i know you?" and he blinks, stands there for one, two seconds before- "sorry, i forgot we haven't actually met. Special Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner, assistant unit chief of BAU Team 1, nice to meet you," [i like to headcannon that before Boston & all, Hotch was Gideon's assistant, some kind of assistant unit chief probably, but while he wasn't yet the unit chief he was definitely taking care of most, if not all of the administration matters i.e. hiring new agents etc already because let's be real Gideon is caring & capable but really hands off sometimes (also in S1E1 Derek referred to Gideon as their Unit Chief so I assumed Hotch took over the position full time, officially somewhere between S1E1 and S1E2 or 3)]

and then Garcia's brain kind of short-circuits because holy shit this is her BOSS, aka the guy who somehow, crazily looked at her resume and decided to HIRE her and she just asked him if she knew him OH GOD ALL THOSE FIGURINES- and she tries to explain because she really didn't mean to break any rules with them and they aren't, are they? and she can remove them but just, please, she can't go back to prison.

but then Agent Hotchner just goes "hey, hey, Penelope. it's fine. I understand. this is your office, and you have the right to decorate it. I'm not going to fire you over.... My Little Ponies? and uh, some unicorns?" and Penelope can't help but laugh because he genuinely looks baffled by her collection on her desk, and did he just call her Penelope?

and after that, once, after a bad case that Aaron knew affected Penelope (it involved murdered parents & their only child left orphaned and it just hit too close to home for Penelope), he stopped by a local toy shop and bought the brightest, most sparkly, most colourful thing he could find in there (it ended up being a small figurine of a princess on a small, detachable throne that could light up and play some really funky pop music. Aaron cringed internally as he brought it over to the counter, and awkwardly nodded as the cashier asked, "buying this for your daughter, sir? she's going to love it, it's the latest in a collectable series" and he pretended to not see the questioning eyebrow that Derek gave him after seeing the package) and when he presented it to Penelope when they got back, he got the biggest and most bone crushing hug ever from Penelope because "aw that's so sweet, thank you! and you got me the latest in the collection! it's limited edition!" and it just ended up becoming a tradition — Penelope always looks forward to the end of a case now, not only because that means her people are coming home, safe, in one piece (sometimes debatable but still, they're coming home, to her) but it also means that Hotch has brought her yet another tiny figurine or souvenir to add to her collection and she can't wait to see what it is, and Hotch always, always, finds the time after they've wrapped up the case, before the jet leaves, to pop by a local toy shop to get both Penelope and later, when he's older, Jack some toys or souvenir from wherever state he's in, because he wants both of them to know, that despite all the bad out there, there is still good in the world, and they should never forget that

OKAY this ask is SUPER LONG already i apologise skfjsk i have ideas for JJ & Emily but idk if you'd even wanna continue reading them... (maybe.... give me a sign and I'll send another ask and write it? 🥴)

anyways this was just something that came up and i had to write it out 🥺 sorry for spamming you, i hope you're having a great day/night ahead.

- 🌙

Hi so I'm putting everything below the cut for scrolling purposes x

He is!!

Oh my god, I love that scene. It came up in a TikTok about ships, because Person A and Person B are both very smart when they're alone, but put them together and it cancels out, and it made me laugh.

I also love Dad Hotch. Like I love him as much as I love "fighting to keep his emotions in check because he needs to be a leader, but you can tell from the slight change in tone, or the slight glaze of his eyes that he's seconds away from crying" Hotch. Which is saying something.

DON'T APOLOGISE FOR LONG ASKS!! That's what the keep reading on posts is for :))

Oh I love how much Hotch cares about Reid, and of course Reid uses it to his advantage to get Hotch to do the same, because they're similar in that way. Also, he would definitely start grinning when Hotch looks down at his empty plate like: oh. Platonic Hotchreid is everything to me, because it's these two people that have been caretakers their entire life trying to look after another person that wouldn't let anyone do that and it's just... the HOTCH ANGST POTENTIAL THAT IS SO UNTAPPED!!!

Also, not a criticism of you, but from what I've heard from people is that functioning labels are harmful and shouldn't be used because it misrepresents the situation!

I love that idea though!! And Derek being protective over them so he's just like: no, you won't interrupt them, and I will take control of the situation for a few hours AAH!!

OH I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT MORGAN AND HOTCH BONDING!! It's so perfect!! I love the idea of Morgan teaching Hotch to do things, and Hotch realising how relaxing he finds it to do these things.

And because we can't have nice things: he refuses to go after Foyet breaks into his apartment because he doesn't deserve peace, but then Morgan just uses his key, drags him out, takes him to a house and presses a brush into his hand because he's not going to let his friend self destruct like this.

EVERYTHING ABOUT GARCIA!! OH MY GOD!! I need to get some work done, so I'm going to finish up there, but seriously!! Amazing!! I love the idea of Hotch getting her little figurines and stuff <33

(shameless self promo, she does the same for him in "and he will come back home" hehe)

I would love to hear the Emily and JJ ones!! I hope that's the sign you need :)

Don't apologise for spamming I was having a dull day, and I hope you have a good day too!

[quillquiver]

So I already didn't trust occam when she was bullying people for doing art wrong over a year ago and I don't trust Jess after she lied about future episodes and tried to blame it on meta writers. Like I know no one has any network connections or anything like that.

All I know is I can't think of one book, tv show, or movie that has a love confession between two big characters and then never mentions it again. I can't think of another one that had a blatant love interests with dates and a kiss and is dropped. To me that's weird. That says "something" happened. I don't know what but I know nothing can be done to change what occurred.

I do think though we should use this instance to try and make sure that CWs inclusivity isn't just tokenism. Our show is done (for now) but no other fandoms on tv in general should have to settle or deal with whatever episode 20 was. Queer characters, BIPOC, and disabled characters should have more fulfilling story arcs and we need to try and keep that message.

Yeah, for sure! My reblogging and sharing of receipts has nothing to do with my feelings re: campaigns for better representation. The CW might be the most “progressive” network in looking at the number of queer characters they have on screen, but you’re totally right, a lot are tokenism, very few are actually well fleshed-out characters, and it often feels like they understood that there’s a dedicated audience for queer content but haven’t thought about anything beyond capturing our viewership. 

I also think that this would be a great time to start talking more seriously about representation on TV--and on networks like the CW--in a more meaningful way. But I think that before we start talking to the network directly, we need to figure out what we actually want.

The problem with representation is that it’s a really nebulous concept. Good rep to me might be bad rep to you! So if we’re going to start asking for better representation, we need to be specific about what we want, and we all need to rally behind a unified message. Do we want sensitivity readers? Do we want the network to put forth a hiring initiative for projects headed by BIPOC, queer, disabled and/or woman creatives? A hiring initiative that tackles the lack of minority rep every CW writers’ room? 

Asking for things that are actionable and can be implemented into the structure of the network will guarantee us better results than vague demands about representation. At that point, it would probably be a good idea to set up a website; transparency is key, here. We’d want everyone--not just SPN fans--to understand what we’re asking for and why. I think that after all of that is done, only then would we want to start twitter campaigns, writing letters, sending in proof of cancelled subscriptions, etc. and we’d want to let people know what we were doing via our website so that if, say, we did get the network’s attention, they could go to our website and see what we were asking for. 

Like, I can’t stress how important transparency is here, and how transparency paired with a centralized platform leads to consistent messaging and, hopefully, actual results. We got a whole bunch of things trending a little while ago, but it sounded like almost no one outside the movement understood what we actually wanted. I think this was a mix of people being deliberately obtuse and not doing their research... but also just us having a fractured message from the get-go. So yeah. I realize this is probably way more than you wanted when you sent me that ask, anon, but I truly think that we could make a difference here if we went about it differently. 

[sho-minamimoto]

more umi thoughts (spoilers)

i tried clicking the execute button on beatrice's character bio to see what would happen and this popped up. i think the nature of beatrice's existence is starting to solidify in my head a little bit to something more comprehensible.

Beatrice is formless and a personification of concept, which is why when people say she 'exists' in the story they say it with quotation marks. Maria is the only one who can see her clearly, because she has the strongest and most unwavering belief in her. Beatrice has no form in the story, because not everyone believed in her throughout the chapter until close to the very end. Only at the climax of the story when tensions and confusion are at the highest does beatrice finally appear. The more people believe in her existence, the stronger she becomes, but if only one just one person can deny her existence then her existence and power is not absolute.

I initially thought that maybe the murders were carried out to fulfill an agenda completely separate to the epitaph (and just made the murders resemble the epitaph to stir confusion) but now im not so sure. Maybe the killer (or killers) were trying to revive beatrice, but the why and how of it is what's mixed up. They weren't murdering people following the epitaph because those are the instructions on how to revive beatrice, but instead, by following the epitaph so closely while killing people, it would strengthen the overall belief in beatrice within the remaining survivors, and then give birth to magic, giving beatrice a form.

What beatrice's execution bio says makes me think this more. you cant kill her through normal means because you can't kill a thought or concept, it just is. there does exist just one way to kill her, which we the player already hold in our hands, but she mocks us and says a mediocre human can't pull it off. the only way to kill a concept or theory is to disprove it, and by proving the murders were done by human hands she will lose all her power. so its a direct challenge to the player to figure out the mystery and a warning that its not going to be easy.

My biggest question has to be about the epitaph itself though. There's nothing really explicitly stating that the location of the hidden gold is on the island, but logically it should be, otherwise there can't be any way for the people to win against beatrice. are the parts of the epitaph that describe sacrifices also supposed to double as further hints for where the hidden gold is? how? i heard that the epitaph is impossible to solve unless you have knowledge of japanese and kanji because it makes use of extensive worldplay, so while i have No way of figuring this out i feel like the nth twilight lines of the epitaph hold the secret and that the parts that describe different areas of the body are actually describing different locations or something. maybe.

Finally, who exactly is beatrice? i mean i know i just went on a whole spiel trying to explain and reason out What she is but we don't really know anything about her motivations. everything that happened in chapter one was driven by beatrice's first letter that was read at the dinner table, but that was supposed to be beatrice collecting what was rightfully hers and abiding by kinzo's special clause. does she have any personal stakes and motivations in all this beyond her arrangement with kinzo????

[merleprocesstime]

Class Work No.1 - Workbook and Final

Kia Ora,

apologies for how poorly these have been scanned/photographed!

I'm currently working on using the scanner in my hall and will have updated images soon hopefully. For now please take into account that the colours and quality of the images here aren't entirely accurate.

Independent Study Task no.1 - Intial Thoughts

BRIEF: Research Mihimihi and in your own words describe what you find. Also, provide your own reflection on the potential of announcing your connections, from a Māori, Pākehā or other cultural or personal perspective. 200 WORDS.

NOTE: I wasn't sure if this task was to accompany my piece or happen before I made any works. I wrote something for both cases.

A mihimihi, under my understanding, is the act of introducing yourself and connecting with others; a greeting. This concept originates from Māori culture. Typically a mihimihi is practiced towards the end of the pōwhiri process, which in itself traditionally is used to welcome guests to the marae and has expanded to other settings. Often mihimihis utilise a person’s ancestral ties and/or connection to the place around them. At its core it seems to be about the connection that comes with greeting others and inviting them into aspects of yourself that show who you are.

 Reflecting on what I’ve learned from research and initial in class discussion, I don’t entirely know what my mihimihi will look like throughout my work. On a very basic level, I can announce the places I’m from and the people in my life (Scotland, Aotearoa and my immediate family), maybe even my values, but I feel like even here there is a lot to explore that I don’t really know. A mihimihi seems like a way to establish yourself amongst others and my sense of connection is still growing as I grow. I don’t know if I’ve ever formally done a mihimihi either, so this concept is somewhat new to me.

The work below shows my response to these questions:

- What is a mihimihi?

- How do I introduce myself?

- How do I make something that introduces me?

- How do I make it so that it connects with others, like a verbal mihimihi?

Additional Notes/Brain Dump:

Connecting with others: show connection to surroundings, show self present in work, make something 'authentically me' so that viewers are forced to think or analyse piece somewhat and are engaged with my visual mihimihi/introduction. In that sense, I am introducing myself.

Think about projects I've wanted to do/ motifs I use for myself. I draw myself a lot so I do have an established sense of self within my art somewhat: draw on that.

Not just a bog-standard self portrait. To what degree do I incorporate my physical self? Personally I find self portraiture that focuses too much on just showing a person not very thought provoking. To draw a technically well done version of myself wouldn't be achieving mihimihi - might let viewers know I value realism, that I'm technically skilled (hypothetically - I'm not I can't draw realism to save my life) but says little beyond that, especially in my case.

That being said I don't know if I want to fully push myself out of the picture. It's about me!

PROCESS

PIECE

Additional thoughts throughout development process:

I want my form to be amongst thistles - no massive focus on body and not taking away from the thistles too much so that they are simply 'the background'

At same time, choose colour to help self stand out somewhat so I don't get lost amongst noisy flower field.

Expression and pose was chosen to help prop myself out of the flowers swathed around my form.

The figure I drew isn't necessarily meant to make eye contact - I didn't think too much about where they're looking but the expression is supposed to hit somewhere around contemplative, distant and neutral.

The thistles are going to represent me as well, its a mihimihi. The whole piece is an introduction, I am not just one aspect located in it - make this clear in final piece through placement of physical self.

Response to created expression of mihimihi (UPDATED):

The panel format of the piece was intentional - a reference to my love of visual storytelling - comic panels and such. I hope to be a successful storyteller in whatever medium or fields I explore. The ink pens I used are my trademark tool. Ink is also what some of my favourite illustrators use: Tove Jansson, Quentin Blake and Jillian Tamaki for instance. I am always looking up to them.

The person in the picture is myself. I didn’t want the focus to be centred too much on my figure, so the choice to have myself swathed in thistles was made. This is because the flowers around me are more important as a tool of expressing myself. The thistles are symbolic of my connection to both Scotland and Nz. I moved here as a baby and not being very connected to my non immediate NZ family along with my accent makes me feel like I’m not fully a ‘New-Zealander’ at times. Home is both here and there. The lack of an obvious figure is also a bit of a reference to my gender. While I connect to femininity strongly, it's very much my own brand and I find a lot of depictions of femininity really objectifying. When I introduce myself, I want my femininity to be passive rather than used to assess me.

GOING AHEAD

If I were to take this piece further, I would give myself more time to add on to it. Originally this was going to be one aspect of a mobile with more components. The biggest challenge with this was trying to balance the approximate three hours I was supposed to work on it between quality of the work and what I wanted to achieve. While I'm really happy with the outcome, it's very different from what I imagined. I think it is successful even then - it shows mihimihi.

[plotlinehotline]

What are some good tips for getting started with writing a book? I have a concept but i can't put it into place.

Getting Started with Your Story

There’s no one way to start writing a book. For some people, it’s enough to just jump in and start writing to see where the story takes them. If you’re not too keen on that idea, then here is one process (as in, not the only process) that might help you move beyond your concept. 

Concept ≠ Plot

Many writers mistake concept for plot, but they’re actually two very different things. A world where everyone grows up with superpowers is a concept; the plot is what you decide to write about within that concept - the specific characters and what happens to those characters; who your antagonist is and what conflict arises when that antagonist goes after what they want. All of these things contribute to your plot. 

So first, define what it is you actually have at this particular point. Do you just have a concept? If so, you’ll need to take the necessary steps to develop that concept into a plot. 

Concept >>> Plot

If you’ve decided that all you really have is a concept, then how do you take it and turn it into a plot? You brainstorm. All brainstorming really amounts to is expanding your ideas. All you’re doing is asking questions about the concept and delving deep into the answers. 

The most simplistic way to start this process, especially if you’re struggling, is to ask one of two questions (or both, if applicable). These two questions: What could go wrong? What could go right?

Going back to my example about a world where everyone grows up with superpowers. If I were to ask the question “what could go wrong,” I’d end up with a whole list of possibilities. 

The powers suddenly disappear

People start abusing their powers

Someone figures out how to steal powers

A hierarchy of strong vs. weak powers develops, creating superiority/inferiority dynamics

Someone is born without a superpower

There are many more possibilities I didn’t even think of here, but any one (or more) of these could become a plot. Choose one that sounds interesting, and then ask yourself “and then what?” 

Say I choose: Someone figures out how to steal powers. Then what does that person do? Do they recruit people to do the dirty work for them? Do they work alone? Do they hoard these powers and barter them for other goods? Do they attempt to enslave people? Do they attempt to take control of institutions? What do they do?

Your goal is to take your ideas and turn them into actions taken by characters. People doing things. And each piece you add will usually lead into another. If you went with the idea that this character is stealing powers and essentially selling them for other goods, you’d have to ask yourself follow-up questions. First, who are they selling to? Why would anyone buy a new superpower if they already have one? What uses would they have for additional ones? What is the key demographic that this person is trying to reach? Secondly, what are they selling them in exchange for? Money? Favors? Souls? What is this character getting in return?

Now that you’ve examined potential actions that the character takes, you’ve also exposed potential new characters. 

People they’re stealing from

People they’re bargaining with

People that try to police these crimes

People that try to copy this character’s process

At the beginning of this section, I talked about using “what could go right” as another optional jumping off point. This is a good path to follow if your concept is already really negative. For a concept where someone is killing people for some pointed reason, you might ask “what could go right” and explore ideas where the killer is caught and brought to justice. 

The point of all this is to think about change as a means of taking your idea from concept to plot. A concept is static - it doesn’t move, evolve, or change. By developing a plot, you’re forcing the concept to be challenged in some way. If you think about it that way, you’ll be able to formulate conflicts, and the people that orchestrate and fight against those conflicts. 

On that note, I think we’re ready to move onto the third piece of my graphic above. 

Plot = Character Actions and Consequences

At this point, you have sketches for characters. You’ve got this nameless, faceless person that is stealing the powers, and all these other nameless, faceless people that I listed above. In essence, we have character concepts. And just like we turned our initial concept into a plot, we have to turn these character concepts into actual characters. 

The basics are the easiest way to start. You figure out their name, their gender identity, their age, their appearance, some brief backstory and personality traits. I personally prefer the simplest questionnaire that I put together back in the early days because it hits on the poignant pieces of a character without overwhelming you with 100s of questions. 

Now that you’ve given your character concepts names and faces and potential behaviors, you start to consider how one character’s view of the world inspires them to take certain actions, and you then think about how those actions affect your entire story. 

We already kind of talked about the motives of the power thief in our example, but definitely delve deep here. On the surface, this character seems bad - stealing from people and then selling what they steal. But depending on what it is they’re getting in return, could we not argue that this character is a supernatural Robin Hood? Maybe instead of selling, they’re giving, and maybe the characters they’re stealing powers from are people that abuse and misuse their powers. Character motives can take a plot and turn it on its head, forcing you to reconceptualize everything. And that’s okay! That’s part of the process.

But separate from that idea, if we have a character concept of someone whose powers were stolen, and after developing their basic backstory, we discover that person’s name is Rose, and she has an especially close relationship with her brother. So when her powers are stolen, how does this affect her life? Was she using her powers to keep her brother alive and protected? What she using them to keep a roof over their heads? Was she using them as part of her job, as a means of providing? What happens to her life when her powers are stolen? And what will Rose do about it? Whatever Rose does will impact the story. If she does nothing to get her powers back, how does she solve her problems and does that make for a good story? If she does decide to act, then you’ve moved onto a new plot point to dive deeper into.

My point is, character concepts come from plots, but characters themselves often create plot, as their decisions and mistakes and successes create new outcomes. So if I could modify my original flow chart:

Before you develop something, you conceptualize it. You have a concept, then you make it a plot. You have concepts for characters, then you make them characters. And those characters end up driving your plot, to the point that this happens:

Plot inspires character. Character inspires plot. And it just keeps going around and around and around. Breaking it down into these pieces helps organize the process, but developing a story is rarely this neat and tidy. You’ll get ideas that don’t make sense, ideas that aren’t cohesive, characters you don’t need, characters that piss you off, problems you can’t solve, or plot points you’ve committed to that you no longer like…it will be messy. But it’s your mess, and the more you work on developing your own process, the more it’ll make sense to you. And it’ll become easier to know how to go about fixing it when something’s not right. 

Have fun with this process! It’s supposed to be fun. When the pieces start to become clearer, you’re able to put them together in a rough outline. And once you have a rough outline, you can start writing, and really see it take shape. 

-Rebekah