#if nothing else its a fun character vignette

[silverskye13]

What's nailmasters folly out of curiosity? Hope I spelled that right

You did spell it right!

Nailmaster's Folly is a Hollow Knight fanfic that I dropped for over 4 years, and then inexplicably picked back up again this year. I have,,,, another few chapters ready on it to post I just haven't posted them yet because, as is my want, I keep forgetting the fic exists.

The fic centers on Nailmasters Oro and Mato, estranged brothers who, after a chance encounter in the Colosseum of Fools, are forced to deal with the reason for their estrangement. In the process, Oro must face down the anger and resentment issues that caused everything in the first place, and Mato must learn a thing or two about the ingloriousness of (almost) dying in battle.

It's the only Hollow Knight fic I've ever put even a remote amount of effort into, and whenever I think I've gotten it beaten, much like Oro's anger issues, it likes to stand back up and kick me in the face.

If you want to watch me struggle in real time, you can find the link here. Be wary: half of this fic is four years old, and the other half I'm clearly trying to relearn what it was about in the first place.

[merakiui]

mera mera did u read the platinum jacket vignettes for jade and floyd??? there’s some new tweel lore that would make good character analysis 👀 👀 👀 👀

>:) my writer brain is bouncing around the confines of my skull!!!!! It's too good. I rambled a lot, but I hope it makes sense. Forgive me. orz I wanted to share my thoughts and write something of an analysis/characterization. >_<

Floyd who plays with things until it's broken and thoroughly in disrepair, whereas Jade prefers to dissect said interesting thing until there's nothing left to glean. The both of them tossing aside these interesting things after they've "broken" them because it's no longer fun or entertaining. The implications of the physical and the mental, which is how I often characterize them: Floyd is more physical in everything he does. Jade is more about the mind. I think this is rather obvious, though. Floyd is very physical, both in affection and in intimidation, within the game. Jade is always so meticulous and calculating. Whereas Floyd would rather execute vengeance right away with his fists, Jade prefers to stall the suffering so that it truly cuts deep (mentally).

To illustrate the hurt: Floyd will break bones, spatter organs, leave you completely, horrifically, bodily devastated. Jade will dig into you with metaphorical scalpel, stir your brain around within your head, and watch you squirm, all with the sweetest smile. The difference is that Floyd is swift, like a hatchet splitting wood, and perhaps there is some level of mercy in the quickness. Jade is not. He's the type who tilts his head at a cute angle and asks, "Does it hurt? I should hope so," all while you're (very obviously) hurting. Jade thrives off of the build-up and the consequent break-down.

Floyd likes the chase, the euphoria of a quick capture. He plays with you, breaks you, and skips off to find something else that'll grab his attention; he doesn't linger or loiter or spend time considering the other ways in which he could have fun with you because he's already lost interest. Jade becomes your second shadow; he dwells in the corners of your mind, the little paranoid parts that spur you to think, "Am I truly alone?" And you're not. He puts you under his microscope and he studies you; turn the scope or spotlight on him, however, and he hates it because there are no shadows to hide within.

These "interesting things," which we can classify as hobbies or fleeting/temporary interests, hyperfixations, or even obsessions, mean that the twins require stimulation from such obsessions (naturally, as most of us don't like feeling bored). When the obsession no longer serves its purpose, it's useless, meaningless, and boring. It makes sense for Jade to have such an attachment to terrariums and cultivating mushrooms because the unexpected almost always happens with plants (which keeps him properly invested) and, as he's mentioned in the game, he enjoys "controlling what lives and dies." Again, the mental implications of control, of getting to pick and choose and be particularly selective when playing with the thing. If Jade likes you enough, you should hope he never tires of you because once he's finished playing with his obsession it's soon discarded. He has no feelings for it anymore. It's nothing to him.

In that regard, Floyd's interests may be slightly more fleeting than Jade's because of how mercurial he is. That, and Floyd doesn't look towards the future as much as Jade does when it comes to hobbies. For Jade, it's a matter of how long will the hobby sustain him, keep his interest, provide entertainment and stimulation? For Floyd, it's a matter of how will this entertain him in the here and now? The present. In his basketball club wear, Floyd remarks how he and Jade once found a ball floating on the surface and they spent time throwing it around. But it was short-lived fun because it soon deflated, which essentially means they were likely whipping it at one another. Both twins play rough and are only gentle when they want to be or when (or if) certain situations call for it. But playing rough is the most fun because that's how they get the most use out of the fun things.

At the core of it, though, they both want to obtain things that are difficult to get or things they can't have. No matter what, at any cost. And when they have it, it's not enough to derive satisfaction from simply celebrating such a success. They have to truly appreciate it until it's breaking, which makes me happy because I love to imagine both of them (especially Jade) loving until breaking. They love their thrills. Life wouldn't be any fun if it was predictable and mundane. They need their thrills. And sometimes it's thrilling to break something. To enjoy something until it's no longer usable or enjoyable must be quite cathartic; there's a level of ownership to that, too. No one else can play with it because it's broken (physically or mentally). Or: no one else will want to play with it because it's broken (physically or mentally). By that logic, it belongs solely to the twins. No one else will ever be able to experience or play with that thing in the way the twins did.

There's so much more I could say, but I fear if I continue anymore it will start to sound like an analysis paper. ^^;;; I'm grateful if anyone read up to this point!!!

[raisinchallah]

im reading the long way to a small angry planet and i wanted to like it.. it kind of sounded like a nice light book with a vibe similar to a lot of sci fi tv shows i enjoy but man its just not really clicking with me im like halfway thru and it still feels like ur just getting sloshed with world building soup i do actually think it would make a pretty fun tv show if u managed to extend everything out and a lot of the events of the random chapters do feel like concepts for specific episodes i think u could also more gracefully weave the world building in when u can also explore things visually rather than trying to meticulously explain what stuff looks like in fairly bland prose and more tactfully come up with an entire episode concept that gets into this corner of the world rather than someone just explaining another characters entire backstory in meticulous detail that also somehow has to do with the politics and history of the world but has almost nothing to do with the actual plot or character moments since its always someone else relaying this info or relationships and its like ostensibly supposed to be character based but i still feel like i barely know any of the characters and the world building also doesnt really feel like it has some kind of cohesive unifying vibe either like a lot of silly words for random sci fi gadgets i think the idea of ships being fueled by algae and space tunnels is cool but it doesnt really feel terribly woven into the like how the whole universe functions theres no weird algae vats on different planets or anything terribly organic about how the rest of the tech seems to function the space pirate ambush could feel different taking place in weird space tunnels do the tunnels have names are there more unsafe tunnels are there space ports inside these tunnels constantly under pressure idk like things feel kind of hodge podge but also not like super exciting which would be fine but i feel like this level of world building detail and every alien planets history and whatever is kind of taking time away from the story feeling like it has any motion or interesting complex relationships idk i do think somebody should adapt this into a low budget syfy show or something i think it could be a very fun tv show base because i think u could fix a lot of the structural problems and breaking up the random vignettes into short stories with multi act structures would help cuz theres also kind of a dire lack of conflict or intrigue propelling things forward

[unproduciblesmackdown]

question re: for the joie de vivre, asked for the joie de vivre: were there any particular lines / details / etc that you put in with the intention of conveying "this is Nonbinary/Genderfluid Rian (Billions)", or was it more a case of "it's in the tags, knowing and perceiving is left as an exercise for the reader"

ooh yeah for the joie de vivre is for the joie de vivre so truly exactly in the spirit of things

most immediately to the point: more of the latter, where it's like yeah this interpretation has kind of always been there such that naturally it doesn't feel like anything would really be changed if hypothetically it was made to be addressed directly in the text. and then it's just like, yep, this is the framework / general perspective, and the tag is there as an exercise to know & perceive, or, of course, just be considering / ruminating on as much for enrichment & wellbeing

related to the "was already always perceiving rian as gendery" and also being gendery oneself it's like yeah it's not like there's people having these So Cis moments (and not in a closeted "oh yeah we're all so totally cis right. tfw" way) that'd need to be excised if using tags where anyone's nonbinary....then there's also the convenience of having a nonbinary pov character here also, And who's involved in everything going on, so there's plenty of room in that way for anyone else here to be nonbinary, or, say, "weird" with their Affect(tm) / comport / etc whatever. and there's no approach that like, for things to be Sexual is inherently also to heighten the supposed Gender Binaryness of everyone's bodies & behaviors, such as that [gender is a shell game, lift up the cup, there's nothing there] desirability / eroticism is described via how Unlike [thee Other gender] someone is innately being in this situation. fun to get into details without either worrying about maintaining some ultimate mystery Or preventing anyone from being like you're fingering which hole right now? not really important. there's classics like firmness softness pressure heat wetness to be found in various ways various places, and it can be appreciated & enjoyed for its physicality & stimulation without being a Test of how much someone has the supposed platonic ideal body for supposed platonic ideal sex....think taylor mentally refers to winston's Dick less than he does theirs in the other briefer fic i wrote, and after he refers to it as such first....let's check. yep! pov winston w/5 references specifically to their dick(tm) vs taylor pov 1 to his. with, naturally, some differences in what all's going on....also fun to do things like write winston blowing rian where w/this description it's like yeah it works no matter specifics of geometric configurations really. if someone's rubbing someone off then you get the gist of the essentials already, room to maneuver

with similar potential ambiguity, it's like, rian could already be out to these two in this fic, and if not, it'll happen at some other point, just chilling atm....less [whee yippee]ly, sprinkled the concept into the wip limbo in like Vignettes Of Malaise of basically winston in that misalignment where he's thinking of himself & rian as friends & hoping/trying for constructive developments on that front, versus, as in canon, rian thinking of herself as a person & winston as not a person (and even when trying to adopt that angle like aughh it's so difficult to do it like billions does it and have rian have such bizarre perspectives / lack of any consideration of pretty much any concepts) wherein it's like, winston might feel Affirmed to be confided in & have that apparently be a rewarding experience for rian, but then like, well if you think telling winston anything Vulnerable is actually instead a completely safe test run b/c again, not seeing him as a person you're sharing things with, just a possession you're doing things at/to....but in that scenario of course it's not About [textual nonbinarity win!] as thee crux of the idea. to write about her coming out or doing anything else where it's not miserable sure requires further deviation from / dismissal of canon ofc, and to write her already being out would require writing about something else going on also like ah shit compounding the difficulties lol

so yeah no like easter eggs in that way! but fr i did still have it in mind at all & engaging in some [text description of bodies / spatial movements / textures, with room to maneuver] is fun & enriching anyways and only pairs well w/nonbinarity. even when things are also "obvious" b/c they're also not meant to be Not, like well, no Gotcha surrounding that here. and no characters are particularly interested in Asserting Their Own &/Or Their Declaration Of Someone Else's Gender by way of this sex they're having somehow so it was like yeah not particularly like any room had to be made for [p.s. rian nonbinary] in that it was already gonna be there. not unlike winston's autistacity ofc, he's also not necessarily, specifically, explicitly Out about that, but doesn't need to be, may not know it himself, doesn't have to....as ever, the power that the [trans/autistic] similarities & parallels & overlaps & resonances etc etc can have here, but we have to spin off into an au about it

[rauhauser]

Time In A (Klein) Bottle

Starting in 2010 I’ve had fairly regular trouble with right wing hate groups. The most distressing lesson in this was discovering the cozy relationship between neo-Confederates and law enforcement. I keep records on what I do in the same fashion a lawyer would take contemperaneous notes while dealing with a sketchy client. This stuff gets backed up off site and I have a longtime friend who holds an air gapped copy.

That’s the set of events, 2174 of them, during the time I’ve been working on my new project. Almost nothing in there has anything to do with the new material, this is evidence, occasionally civil or criminal for someone else, but mostly exculpatory for me. Those files have at least a YYYY-MM-DD date stamp and a small percentage have YYYY-MM-DD-HH-SS. I used a little awk script to stamp the file modification times based on their names, and then The Timeline Project can ingest the whole directory.

There are a couple other tools with temporal capabilities in my kit.

Elasticsearch started life as a machine data indexing system – for handling consolidated logs of all systems in a data center. It’s grown from there into many areas, and for me it’s been a way to handle large volumes of Twitter data. That all came to a screeching halt back in April, but the historic material lingers. This historic image is the creation date histogram for Elon Musk’s new followers, from the purchase through the end of my API access.

One of my tasks this month is getting temporal data in and out of Sentinel Visualizer, as I described in Conversion Therapy. This is a law enforcement/intel grade link analysis system. I guess I could put my timeline material in there, but I’m much more interested in date/time data that has coordinates. I want to fully exercise its geospatial and temporal capabilities.

There are couple telemetry things I have going around the house. The only one that presents a nice visual output is Fitbit's sleep monitor.

The combination of contemporaneous notes with a sleep monitor are a sledge hammer that will be employed if I face another malicious prosecution attempt.

So that’s work,health, and the side effects thereof; what about the project?

Here’s some time related mood music.

I tried feeding the lyrics pages to the IBM Watson named entity recognition transform in Maltego but none of the top three sites worked. Wikipedia was the only thing that coughed up some names, and this is messy and poor quality.

Wikipedia has a marvelous resource in this area in its 239 pages of band member timelines. That happens to be the members of southern rock titans Lynyrd Skynyrd, one of a number of bands in that genre who've been touched by tragedy.

There are some things in this world that literally are best left to Philomena Cunk ...

Or to a series of related Gallifreyan adventurers.

The point here is that you are probably not going to be able to find a TARDIS in a timely fashion, even if you could afford one. You will need to "tool up" to follow things. You'll need a way to handle discrete events, things that happen over periods of time and ... for the brass ring ... the ability to handle fuzzy time. Things that happened no sooner than or no later than become vital to understand complex flows of events.

I've suggested The Timeline Project and mentioned one other tool, Sentinel Visualizer, that I use, but which would be a frightful expense for someone just following along for fun. The other way to come at this is not intuitive for investigators, but don't laugh ... at novel writing software.

You will encounter people, places, and things - all of which can be modeled as characters. There will be various vignettes - scenes and chapters. You might not have a full understanding of how to order events, but the Snowflake Method applies to sense-making as much as it does to writing fiction.

[egophiliac]

hi, just wanted to say I've just started to get into Twisted Wonderland and binge read your comics and content for it, it was really fun to read! i love how you draw the different characters' expressions! im still super new to it (haven't played the game yet but i got kinda hooked on reading the main story after looking it up by chance) but id love to play it eventually! do you have any suggestions on what to look up/read next as far as character backstories/interactions go? ive really enjoyed the parts from the birthday events (? i think?) that you have done comics from, they sound really fun! thanks for your time!

oh boy, GET READY because the personal stories/vignettes are where the real meat lies. like, the main story is the main draw, of course, and for good reason -- I am champing as the start of episode 7 grows nearer -- but Twst's strength is definitely in its enjoyable characters and their slice-of-life interactions in Zany Magic School. and fortunately, there's a lot of them!

(sorry this got so long, I have many feelings about anime characters)

most of the stories and events don't have a specific chronology aside from taking place sometime after episode 2 of the main story, so once you've gotten that far you're good to jump in almost anywhere! (the more recent events, starting with Fairy Gala IF, are explicitly set after episode 6 -- though if you're going off of the English version then I don't think any of them have been released yet.) event cards also assume that you've gone through the event story first and usually have spoilers or references for it. otherwise there's no real order, so you can just pick a character you like or event you think looks interesting and go from there!

one of the things I really like about Twst is that interactions aren't limited to defined groups -- everyone has inter-dorm friendships and clubs and sub-friend groups and opinions on everyone else that range from "well, I don't know if we're exactly friends, but we study together sometimes" to "I would literally die and/or murder for him" (and sometimes "I would literally die and/or murder for him but he won't let me >:("). characters pop up in each other's stories all the time, and pretty much everyone gets some extra depth or development to them that doesn't come out in the main story, so I do think it's worth it to read through at least a few for every character.

like, if you just go through the main story, you only really get to see Nice Mom Friend Trey, and not that he's actually kind of a petty asshole who is weirdly obsessed with dentistry and goes around sticking his hands in people's mouths. everybody has things like that! Jade is super into mushrooms! Leona is a feminist! Malleus has an intense emotional attachment to his tamagotchi! Cater participates in shallow consumerism because nothing in life has any meaning and actually his friends are pretty worried about him!

tl;dr read everything because this game knows what it's about and that's ✨Characters✨

[lil-tachyon]

Hey logan, i'm trying to get into sci fi more, do you have any media, movies or otherwise you'd say it's a must watch for someone starting to get into it? Thanks

Super broad question! And precisely the thing I love to talk about. Although unfortunately I really don’t watch a lot of movies or TV so the best I can do for you is list some stuff I like and hope that you find something you enjoy. If we were talking sci-fi literature, that’s something I would probably write a full essay on- if anyone’s interested in reading my thoughts on that and getting my really long list of recommendations, just let me know. I might even do it on my own anyway, just for fun…

I guess if we’re going to talk about “must-watch” sci-fi movies then we have to talk about Star Wars first just to get it out of the way. I’ll keep it brief, far too much ink has been spilt regarding this franchise and you can find more in-depth opinions somewhere else. The original trilogy is great- there’s a reason it launched one of the biggest media franchises of the past 45 years. Endlessly rewatchable, somehow still looks better than basically any other big budget SFF popcorn movie and just plain fun. If you somehow haven’t seen the OT yet, get to it. 

You don’t really need to watch any other Star Wars stuff aside from the OT. The prequels aren’t exactly essential and they’re unquestionably worse in terms of dialog, acting, pacing (i.e. the nuts and bolts of storytelling.) If you’ve never watched Star Wars before you won’t have any nostalgia for them so you can skip them. Don’t even bother with the Disney sequels- pointless and incoherent. If you DO for some reason want more Star Wars in your life I can give you two recommendations: 

First is the masterpiece that is Genndy Tartakovsky’s (creator of Samurai Jack) Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) (no, not the CGI Clone Wars show you’re probably thinking of). Split into 25 episodes ranging in length from two to twelve minutes, the whole show is only about two hours long but boy is it sweet. There are no main characters and not much in the way of an overarching plot. Instead the show is composed of a series of rapid-fire vignettes that take place across the entire Star Wars galaxy and tell dozens of unique microstories. It’s pulpy and fun and never takes itself too seriously and the whole thing is on YouTube because for some reason Disney actually hates everything that made Star Wars good and hasn’t taken the time to copyright strike it.

Second recommendation is the Mandalorian. I didn’t believe it when people started raving about it, but it really is great and tells a poignant, self-contained, original story. It’s not perfect and it definitely suffers from the Disneywars curse of really obnoxious references to the OT, but it’s absolutely worth the watch.

Damn that’s so much more time than I wanted to spend on Star Wars. I always forget how much of a SW geek I am until I start talking about it…

Quick list of the other big “essentials” that I’ve seen and can recommend before I get into more personal stuff (in no particular order):

Alien (1979) - Weird and creepy and gross and with impeccable visual design in every single frame. I need to rewatch it, only seen it once.

Akira (1988) - Massive, groundbreaking, unsettling, beautiful. Brought cyberpunk into the visual realm, brought anime to the West in a whole new way. I could rewatch it a hundred times. 

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - A foundational film that moves at a foreboding crawl and leaves you feeling unsafe and unsure of what you just watched. (Also my dad’s band referenced the monkey scene in their big-label debut music video, so that should be reason enough to watch it)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - UFOs, the American West, and the most 70s-looking cast imaginable. It feels more a product of its time than most of the others on this list, but I love it for that and it does nothing to make it any less impactful or engrossing.

The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) - I waited waaaaaay too long to watch these. I only got around to seeing them this past year in fact. I had always just written them off in my head as nothing more than cheesy 80s action flicks but my God are they good and so much different from what I expected. The first one is basically a sci-fi slasher film and the second is probably the best sequel film I’ve ever seen and takes everything in a totally different direction that still manages to build on all the groundwork laid by the first. Please watch, don’t be like me and wait until you’re twenty-six. 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) - My favorite Ghibli movie. For being a film about people flying airships and fighting bugs in a giant toxic jungle, it really has a lot of important stuff to say and says it very well.

Castle in the Sky (1988) - Hits a lot of the same plot beats as Nausicaä and, imo, suffers a little bit in comparison but still a great anime sci-fantasy romp. 

The Thing (1982) - Disgusting sci-fi horror in the glacial Antarctic wastes

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) - The first, the best. Sure, it’s inconsistent in terms of quality, but it’s at least consistently weird and inventive and the good episodes are really damn good. Also something I love about it is the acting- it’s very over-the-top expressive and exaggerated. Feels more like it’s meant for the stage than for the small screen. You don’t see a lot of TV like that these days. 

The X-Files (1993-2002, 2016-2018) - Absolutely in my top 5 TV shows. It was great to watch as a 14-year-old because I was still young enough to find it scary, and it’s great on every re-watch because I can really appreciate how much chemistry Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have and how fun, goofy, and overall weird it is. As I recall it starts to decline noticeably in season 8. Season 9 you’ll have to grit your teeth to get through. The 2016-2018 revival is half composed of unwatcheable “storyline” episodes and half surprisingly good-to-great “monster of the week” episodes.

Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999) - My number one favorite anime, I love everything about it. So much effort goes into small background details and characters that only appear for a few seconds and it really goes a long way to making the whole universe of the show feel so real that you could see yourself living in it. Also the soundtrack is top-notch, I listen to it regularly. 

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996) and End of Evangelion (1997) - Another one that I took too long to get to and to be honest I probably would’ve been more into it had I watched it when I was younger, but it’s still great and I recommend it. Features a classic “inflation suit” episode

Stuff that’s less “essential” but I really like it:

Planetes (2003-2004) - My second favorite anime. Starts off as a workplace slice-of-life and slowly builds into a really, really emotional conclusion. Can’t recommend it enough.

Forbidden Planet (1956) - A sci-fi adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (I’m an illiterate piece of shit so I can’t tell you how good an adaptation it is). It’s slow-paced and eerie, and way more atmospheric than its decidedly 1950s visuals would lead you to believe.

Digimon: The Movie (2000) / Summer Wars (2009) - A short story: as a kid I probably watched the Digmon Movie about a million times. It was huge with kids my age and was probably an entire generation’s first introduction to ska-punk. It’s a great movie. Anyway, fast forward about a decade and a half and at some point I sit down to watch Summer Wars with my brother on no other information than that we heard it’s good. And it is! But pretty soon into the movie we both notice something odd- it seems to feature almost the exact same plot as the Digmon Movie. After a bit of digging we find out that they were both directed by the same guy and it seems he just had this idea in his head for a story that he really wanted to make for over a decade because Summer Wars is basically a more mature and less merchandisable remake. Watch them both!

Samurai Jack (2001-2004, 2017) - the first cartoon I saw as a kid that really made me say “finally, something for me!” I wouldn’t get another TV show aimed at me that was “cool” and “epic” and “badass” until ATLA came out. Nothing beats watching a samurai fight a million robots and bounty-hunters on an endless quest to go back to the past. Also the season 5 revival is great and I genuinely don’t get why a lot of people seemed to really hate on it. 

Moon (2009) - It’s been a LONG time since I watched it, but I liked it quite a bit. A lonely lunar miner runs into what seems to be his double and things get spooky…

Prospect (2018) - More space miners running into trouble! Really great costume and prop design on a super small budget (but you wouldn’t know it from how good it looks). 

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989) - Listen- I’m not a gundam guy. I don’t care about all the different robots and I’m not about to watch 40 years of TV to try and figure out the story. Which is why War in the Pocket is great because it’s six episodes long and it just tells a really touching story punctuated by cool robot battles and you don’t need to know anything about Gundam to enjoy it.

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987) - A story about a space race set on an alternate world. What really sets it apart is the visual design- every detail from books, to currency, to texts to vehicles, to architecture is unique enough to feel totally alien but also grounded enough to somehow feel familiar. It’s quite an achievement. Trigger Warning: there’s a very uncomfortable rape scene in the middle of the film that seems to come out of nowhere. I’m still not sure why they chose to include it.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999) - Military police get up to some real nasty stuff in alternate history fashy 1950s Japan. Very depressing, all my friends complained to me about how sad it was even though they went into it knowing what it was about and agreeing to watch it with me. You just can’t win sometimes!

That’s about all I have for now. I know it’s all kind of basic bitch stuff but like I said, I don’t often watch movies/TV. Hope it helps and thanks for the great question!

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" from The Owl House

Wow. They are really pushing it for that secret message, huh?

Anywho--Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

I think it goes without saying at this point that Season Two of The Owl House is setting itself up as a season without filler. Now, filler episodes aren't always bad. Yes, it hurts when a series turns away from the main plot for a week. But at best, they're utilized as a chance for the writers to play around with the characters and developing said characters without it relating to the overarching story. So, some people who see that consider it a bad thing that a series doesn't have that many filler episodes.

I like to call those people: F**king morons.

Don't get me wrong, I see where some of you are coming from. And I'd be willing to agree...if The Owl House was a plot-driven series. Which it's not. It is a character-driven series. Because for every plot thread and narrative that the show presents, they always relate to the characters and develop them further each time these threads get brought up. For example, look at "Knock Knock Knockin’ on Hooty's Door" (It pains me just to write that). Several narratives move forward, and it’s all done to make the characters grow. And to explain how requires going into spoilers. So keep that in mind as you continue reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Hooty: Might as well start with the character that this episode is about.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't a huge fan when I found out we're getting a Hooty-centered episode. I've grown to love him over time, but he is a comedic character that's best used in small doses. Primarily due to how his voice is grating to me (My ears are still bleeding...). With that said, I do really love his contributions in "Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (Seriously, there couldn't have been a less awkward title?). Hooty's antics when trying to help everyone are as hilarious as they are heartwarming. He deeply cares for his friends but just doesn't understand how his plans could do some unintended harm, which is pretty lovable if you ask me. We also get some surprisingly great insight into his character, as he feels insecure about basically being the comic relief who doesn't really do that much other than being funny. Rarely do you get that level of dimension from a comedic character, and it's even more uncommon for that to work out as well as it does here. It once again proves just how competent the writing is in this series to the point where we get an episode about Hooty, and it's funny and heartwarming instead of being annoying. And whoever is responsible for that, you're the best.

Lilith’s Letter to Hooty: I mean it when I say that I love how Lilith kept her word about her and Hooty becoming penpals. Their friendship was something I would have never expected to love, and I'm still shocked that it works so well, so seeing it continue like this just warms me to the bone. Plus, it is pretty sweet that Lilith's kind words are what inspired Hooty to do what he's done in this episode...meaning it's Lilith we should thank here--SON OF A WITCH! Even when she's gone, she's still working her way into my heart!

King going through Puberty: What?! KING IS EVOLVING!

(There, I made a Pokemon reference. Do I get my cookie now?)

Eda Keeping Herself Awake to Train Herself: I'm willing to bet a large sum of money that this has everything to with Raine getting captured last week. If Eda was still the most powerful witch in the Isles, she might have actually saved them. But she isn't, and now the love of her life is in the clutches of a tyrant planning something that could potentially be the end of everything. So I can understand Eda pushing herself to her limit to get back on top again, as I would probably do the same. It's not healthy in any way, and Eda would be doing more harm than good. But when it comes to the people you love, logic doesn't always win out in the end.

Luz Wanting to Make her Way into Amity’s Heart by Making the Echo Mouse Happy: ...That's it. I Just...I just love everything about it, ok?

This was also when I knew that I was wrong to doubt that there would be zero Lumity in this episode. I realize my follies now, and I humbly apologize.

Hooty Teaching King About Demons: This was so funny. So, so funny. Probably doesn't come as a surprise, especially since The Owl House proves itself as a comedy before, but the jokes have never hit as frequently and as hard as they did here. From Hooty getting offended by King's dance to him and Dana's insert wanting a "DNA sample," everything managed to successfully make me lose my s**t. It does come at the expense of King suffering, but I can stomach that much more than if it were Eda or Luz. And, as a bonus, we get lore about how demons work, added with another great joke of King getting in trouble with Hooty for saying he already knows this stuff. Humor isn't always the show's strong suit, but when it works, it f**king works.

King Wanting to Know What he Is: But despite how funny King's vignette was, we still get to see more of his character grow. We learn that he's frustrated now that there's this big question mark over his life now, feeling extra angry that his father "abandoned" him to leave such a present mystery. It shows the hidden resentment he has that Lilith inadvertently brought out, made even worse when King's father hasn't responded to the video yet. King hasn't really gotten that much development until "Echoes of the Past," so it's pretty cool that the writers haven't really slowed down on it. Especially when it leads to these great moments of King venting his frustrations.

King’s Shouting Powers: KING learned FUS RO DAH!

(And now that's a Pokemon reference AND a Skyrim reference. WHERE'S MY GOSH DANG COOKIE!?)

Eda’s Nightmare: If King's vignette hits you hard with the laughs, Eda's will absolutely hit you harder with the feels (never make me say "feels" unironically again). Knowing that Eda's life got thoroughly screwed over by the curse is something we could figure out on her own. But seeing just how much the curse ruined her life and tore apart relationships that mean the world to her really does a swell job at ripping apart the soul. What's even more tragic is, technically speaking, it's all sort of Eda's fault too. She kept hiding the curse, refusing to be a burden to others who would do all they could to help. If she had only been open and honest, things probably wouldn't have changed much, but they most likely would have been better than they are now.

Eda Attacked her Father as the Owl Beast: ...I don't know what I was expecting when "Keeping Up A-Fear-Ances" hinted that there was some possible tension between Eda and her father...but it definitely wasn't this.

The fact that we see blood where his eye used to be doesn't make things any happier, either.

Raine Broke Up with Eda: Before we get into anything else, let's celebrate the fact that it's now confirmed that Eda and Raine really did use to date in the past. Because this show is just f**king phenomenal with its LGBTQA+ representation!

But, seriously, this is a fantastic reveal that goes far beyond just shipping...well, sort of. It shines a new light on Eda and Raine's interactions from last week, revealing that while they're not a couple anymore, they still very much love each other. It helps make their last interaction especially tragic, as they were both on the same page now and could very well be together again. Only for them to be forced apart for the second time in a way that's much worse than the first. And I frickin' adore that this series changes the impact of one episode one week later. Again, it shows just how competent these writers are, and kudos to them for making something so...perfect.

The Moon Person: WHO THE FU--Nope. Nope! We have more than enough mystery bulls**t to deal with through CreepyLuz and Philip Wittebane, so I am PUTTING YOU ON THE BACKBURNER FOR NOW!

(They're probably nothing more than a one-off character, anyway)

The Owl Beast and Eda are Connected: Through visuals alone, we, the audience, can clue into what the curse really means. The Owl Beast doesn't want to be a part of Eda as much as she doesn't want it to be a part of her. Whether they like it or not, and they very much don't, they're stuck together. The thing is, and this is what I love the most, they still decide to make the best of their situation rather than let it ruin their lives even more. This might be the best possible turn Eda's curse could have made. It'll still affect her, and there are probably more negatives than positives, but at least now, it's not the worst thing in the world. And I feel like that's all anyone can ask when in a position like her own.

Eda's “Pretty Dream”: I don't know what emotions are toiling inside me more with this moment. Awe and wonder over how beautiful Eda's dream is, or heartbreak over the implication that she has only had nightmares since getting cursed...I'm gonna say both. Yeah, it's definitely both.

Eda’s Harpie Form: Well, fan artists are gonna have a field day with this...especially the freaks.

(You know who you are. And you're weird!)

Luz Calling Amity a “Cotton-Candy Haired Goddess”: ...Have I ever mentioned how much I love this show?

Hooty Kidnapped Amity: ...Hooty, if your stupidity wasn't charming, I would be more than willing to call the authorities over how you kidnapped a girl in your version of a knapsack and locked her in the basement. For that is going to ring SO MANY alarm bells in people's heads.

Amity and Luz Stuck in a Tunnel of Love: *Smacks lips* Mmm. The adorable awkwardness of this moment is just *chef's kiss* magnifique!

Luz being afraid of getting made fun of:

Amity’s look of hope: I mean...just...f**king--LOOK AT HER:

That is the look of a girl who, while embarrassed as hell, still is ecstatic to learn for a brief moment, everything that she is hoping for has a high chance of being real. Who, in their right mind, wouldn't go "Aw!" at something so pure and innocent?!

Luz Destroying the Tunnel of Love: This is how to effectively utilize dramatic irony. The audience can understand why Luz is tearing the place apart because she explicitly states that she's afraid of Amity rejecting her in the end. They also know that's bogus, thus making it extra painful to watch Amity's heart break more and more with each second (which is perfectly represented through Amity's expressions). You feel bad for both of them, and even worse when you know that it can easily be prevented by the simple art of communication. That's what makes it great dramatic irony. Knowing the point of view of each character results in a scene that evokes emotions in two different ways.

Hooty’s Breakdown: This was...genuinely hard to watch. Not that it was badly written, far from it. It just...hurt seeing how destroyed Hooty was when he realized he failed the people he has such an admiration for. On the upside, a wholesome moment follows soon after as the Owl House gang tries to reassure Hooty that he's done a lot of good that night. It's a pure action that shows even though Hooty gets on their nerves all the time, they still care about him...damn it. I think I'm gonna cry.

Eda’s Advice for Luz: ...Eda...You're the best.

You found out that your surrogate daughter wants to ask a girl out, and not only were you quick to deliver the best possible advice ("Just go for it!"), but you also quickly reassure her that it doesn't need to be perfect.

And you know what? That's it. Eda is the best cartoon mom! She might not technically be Luz's mom, but I don't give a s**t because she is the best!

Luz and Amity Ask Each Other Out: Shh-sh-sh-sh...

Do you hear that?

...

...

...It's the sound of dozens of Lumity fans collectively losing their s**t...and I'm one of them.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!

IT!

IS!

CANON!

AH-HAHAHAHAHA!

HOLY S**T! Holy s**t! Holy s**t...might just be the best way I could possibly describe this! Finally, after all the waiting, speculating, and praying, THESE TWO IDIOTS FINALLY GOT TOGETHER! AND IT WAS PERFECT! I mean, it was awkward as s**t, but that's what makes it perfect! You know why? You wanna--Hey! *snaps fingers*. You want to know why? It's because they're teenagers. Of f**king course, it's going to be awkward! This is their first relationship, so there will be a lot of missteps along the way. And that, in itself, brings me to the best (second best part?) thing about it happening in episode eight of the new seasons. Most endgame couples get together in the climax or even at the end of the series. But to have them get together this early on, means there will be quite a few episodes dedicated to showing them grow as a couple.

And better than that--EVEN F**KING BETTER THAN THAT--dozens of kids are going to see these two, a realistic depiction of young love that just so happens to involve two girls, and are going to learn once and for all that there is nothing wrong with being who they are. That fact alone is f**king incredible. Yes, it sucks that season three got cut short, and we'll have even less time with Luz and Amity, but knowing how many kids have felt seen today almost makes it worth it in the end.

And if I see one mother f**ker saying this was poorly paced, I might just hunt them down for SPORT...Sorry if that was an overreaction. I'M JUST SO HAPPY! Because they're happy! Look at them. Listen to them! It's so...GAH-HAHAHA!

“They’re adorable! And deserve all the happiness!”: You're darn right, Hooty! You're darn right.

King’s Father(?) Shows Up: What the--WHAT?! They're doing this now?! Here?! After everything else?

Oh, man. What could this mean? What dynamic changes will this cause in the main cast? How could the writers fit this in during the next two episodes? And what--

Hooty Eats the Letter: ...Pfffft--HAHAHAHA!

Oh, man...I should be mad, and I wouldn't blame others if they are...but that is too much of a brilliant f**k you that I can't help but appreciate it. Bravo writers. Bravo.

WHAT I DISLIKED

...Dislikes? Dislikes? You would honestly believe that after everything I witnessed in this episode, that I would have the gull to list anything wrong with it?!

HOW DARE YOU ASSUME THAT I WOULD BE SO CALLUS TO--Actually, I do kind of have an issue with the episode's title. It's just too much of an awkward mouthful for me to get behind. I understand that the writers wanted to sneak the K into the secret message, but were there really no other titles starting with K that they couldn't come up with?

But that's just a personal issue, and in no way do I think anybody else would feel the same way. Especially with how well-written everything else is anyway.

IN CONCLUSION

"Knock Knock Knockin' on Hooty's Door" (title aside) is another A+ episode. It was hilarious, heart-wrenching, and downright adorable while keeping me entertained with every minute. I'm sure there are some issues I was willing to ignore due to how expertly written everything else was, but why bother looking for the chinks in the armor when I could just enjoy a perfect episode for being so...perfect! Some of you might be willing to disagree with me, but to that, I say: Don't knock it till you've tried it.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I'm going to go lie down. It's...It's been a day.)

[duckprintspress]

What is a Story?

When Duck Prints Press put out our call for applicants, we asked everyone to submit “a sample of their work (between 1,000 and 2,000 words)… [that] must function as a short story.” When we reviewed the 100+ samples we received, we noticed many areas where writers commonly struggled. Based on what we learned, we’ve planned a number of blog posts to discuss these challenging areas, and we’ve decided to tackle one of the most frequent issues first. Many otherwise strong submissions lost points on our rubric line regarding “plot and events,” and specifically, they scored a 1 or a 2 because “the story has no plot (for example, is a vignette).” 

So, this begs the question, what is a story, and, of course, what isn’t a story?

(note that throughout this post, I use the word “narrative” to refer to any amount of text that may or may not be a story, and I use story only in a more narrow, specific sense.)

What is a story?

The answer is deceptively simple: a story is any narrative that has a plot. But...what is a plot? There are many ways to define a plot, but at its most basic, a plot has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and by the ending, something has changed. If, at the end of the story, nothing has changed, then it’s not a story. However, even if something has changed, it’s still not necessarily a story, because characters and time-frame also influence the definition. A narrative without at least one character is not a story. Likewise, a narrative time-frame, if it’s discussing events at a meta-level (“this happened, then this happened, then this happened”) may show that changes occur, but it’s still not a story - it’s an overview or an outline. The lines, of course, can be blurry - and where any given author, reader, or DPP reviewer draws the line between “this is a story” and “this isn’t a story” will vary. 

How is a story communicated to the reader?

To function as a story, the narrative must include characters. Now, character doesn’t necessarily have to mean person, or even require sentience, but there must be some point of view being explored, and if the character is an animal or an inanimate object, writing it as a character will require a degree of anthropomorphizing. The key aspect is that the character has some form of agency - some ability to interact with and influence their surroundings. This character will have a point of view and a perspective that affects how they perceive the story’s setting, and by the end of the story this character should have either changed themselves, or changed their surroundings, or changed their relationships. The circumstances around this character must be different by the end of the story than they were at the beginning - or else it’s not a story.

What is change?

As part of the narrative, one or more characters in the story must engage in some form of activity that results in the world around them changing. Writing advice most oftenly calls this “conflict,” but honestly? I hate that word. The classic couching of “person vs. self, person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. society, person vs. fate” as the available types of conflict is tired. Defining the only kind of change as conflict and specifically describing it as “x versus y” is to automatically get a potential writer thinking in terms of antagonism. While antagonism is one available type of change, it’s not the only, and while many pieces of writing advice point out that these “versus” constructions don’t mean enmity by nature...why not simply choose a less confusing construction, one that doesn’t require addenda to explain the existence of narratives that clearly are stories but are less “versus” and more “and” - “person and self,” “person and person,” “person and nature,” “person and society,” “person and fate.” I’ve opted to use the word change, because one of the clearest ways to tell if a narrative is a story or not is to look at the nature of the character(s) are at the beginning, and look at the nature of them at the end, and say - what’s different? Maybe they’ve built something. Maybe they’ve reached a new understanding. Maybe they’ve conquered a challenge. Maybe they’ve altered their perspective. Maybe they’ve learned something. Maybe, they’ve changed the world, or maybe, they’ve just changed a light bulb - but something has changed.

Before some writing snob comes at me and says, “okay, fine, we dare you to come up with a plot that doesn’t fit into the classic five conflict types” ...of course we can’t. That model functions because all stories can be shoehorned into it, as long as very loose definition of “conflict” and “versus” are used. But because it’s described in oppositional terms, a lot of writers get distracted by that terminology and think there has to be, well, a conflict, in the narrow definition of the word. And that’s clearly absurd - many of our favorite fanfiction tropes, for example, are fluffy and comforting and soft precisely because they’re not about conflict, they’re about harmony. Yes, “enemies to lovers” is wonderful, but so is “friends to lovers.” Two people going on a date that ends with a marriage proposal is a story: they started out as a couple and ended engaged. Something has changed - their relationship status. But to call that “person versus person,” while perhaps technically correct, is ludicrous. Now, to keep it interesting, there might be some “person versus self” - “I’m not worthy of this love, omg do they really care for me, oh will society give us problems if we say yes?” which is how it can be shoehorned into the “conflict” model. But be it ever so soft, and their love ever so accepted, and their faith in each other ever so steady - if there really is no conflict, just those two people meeting up and having a nice night and ending in a proposal...it’s still a story. To say it’s not a story because there was no conflict, only an advancement of their relationship...yes, a story like that is borderline to being a vignette or “slice of life” narrative. Certainly, if there’s zero sources of tension, it may not be a very interesting story, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a story. 

What else does a story need?

Honestly - not much. Don’t get us wrong - a story is stronger if it has a setting so that it doesn’t just take place in endless blankness. A story with multiple characters but no form of dialog (verbal or non-verbal) may be a little flat. A story where something changes but some of the introduced plot elements aren’t resolved will feel incomplete to a reader. A story without any negativity could be boring. Stories lacking these elements may not be good stories...or they could be amazing, and innovative, showing how a tale can be told without elements we usually consider essential! As long as something or someone has changed, and the story is told in a narrative, descriptive format that includes a character - it’s a story.

What isn’t a story?

Things that aren’t stories fall into two broad categories:

Narratives that have description, characters, dialogue, setting, and other story elements, but nothing changes. Examples of this are “slice of life” narratives and what, in fandom-parlance, would be called an episode coda or canon insert - a chunk of narrative deliberately meant to make a bridge between two established events but in which nothing can change because the surrounding events remain established. (A coda or insert might be a story, it varies.)

Narratives that are either entirely “show” (for example, a vignette) or entirely “tell” (for example, a synopsis),  These can also be seen as relating to time - either there’s little or no passage of time (usually the case in vignettes) or far too much passage of time (usually the case in synopses). Narratives like this may or may not include a character, but even if they do, they’re still not stories. Why not? Because any story that is entirely “show” and involves minimal passage of time is unlikely to result in change, and instead will be an extended description of a moment. And any story that is entirely “tell” and depicts a large swath are overviews - there’s no element to actually grab a reader and no reason the reader should care about this dry relationship of events. That’s not a story - it’s a history textbook.

Drawing the lines between these categories can be difficult, and to some extent will come down to taste. Anyone who says there’s a hard-and-fast rule in writing is a liar. Just because a synopsis or a “slice of life” narrative isn’t usually a story doesn’t mean they will never be one. But, in general, if you’re looking at a piece of work and you’re trying to determine if it’s a story or not, there are some signs that will strongly suggest it’s not a story:

There are no characters.

There is no setting.

Nothing has changed between the beginning and ending of the narrative.

The entire narrative is an extended description of a single person/object/setting.

The entire narrative could easily be reworded into a sequence of, “thing one happened, then thing two happened, then thing three happened, then thing four happened.”

The narrative feels like a “pause,” or a “bridge” that takes place between two events that aren’t depicted in the narrative.

A central conflict or issue is introduced or described in details, but nothing is done to try to solve the issue.

Now, for the most important part of this discussion of what isn’t a story: writing something that isn’t a story isn’t a bad thing! Especially in fanfiction communities, we live for self-indulgent narratives that make us happy. We love to see those “moments between.” We live for a thought-out thousand-year history for some setting that didn’t originally have that much background. These kinds of narratives are fun to write, and especially when they’re part of an existing franchise, can be a delight to read. We are not saying that there is literally anything wrong with writing a narrative that isn’t a story. 

That said, Duck Prints Press’s applicant call specifically asked authors to submit a writing sample that was a story, with the eventual goal of selecting authors to write short stories for an anthology. Which is to say: there’s nothing wrong at all with writing “slice of life” stories, codas, canon inserts, vignettes, or synopses - it’s simply not what we asked people to submit in this specific case, and we’ve come to see that a lot of people submitted non-stories without an apparent understanding of the difference, and we wanted to explain that difference.

But, to everyone reading this: write whatever brings you joy, in as much detail or vagueness as makes you happy, and share it with whoever you want. Just also understand, that for many types of narratives, if you’re asked “is that a story?” it’s not. That’s not to create a hierarchy - they’re all equal as art forms, they’re just not the same.

Okay I kinda understand this in theory but what do these differences actually look like in practice?

In long-form works, it’s usually relatively easy to recognize what is a story and what isn’t. Almost every novel ever published has a plot, and has things change, and is therefore a story. (though there are exceptions - Wikipedia lists a few longer vignettes and, when done thoughtfully, it can be astonishingly effective.) However, in shorter works, it can be difficult to tell the difference - and, as previously mentioned, the lines can blur.

In the interest of giving an idea of what the differences are, here are a few examples I quickly cooked up to try to show you all, since I’ve done a lot of “telling” so far (this blog post: also not a story, ha!) and very little demonstration. These are each around 150 words, to show that even in a tiny word count, any of these narrative structures is a viable choice. (Sorry these aren’t high literature - I just threw them together for this post, so I’d have something that suited.)

(read more)

A story - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where something changes:

The door slammed open. Looking up from her embroidery, Victoria blinked as Margaret strode into the room.There was an air of expectancy that was inexplicable to Victoria; she grew more confused when Margaret approached and dropped to one knee.

“What are you doing?” Heart pounding, Victoria attempted self-restraint, but she couldn’t rein in her hope, because it almost looked like...it seemed like...but--

“Proposing,” announced Margaret, pulling a velvet-covered box from her pocket and opening to reveal an emerald set in a gold band.

“But you can’t!”

Margaret tilted her head to the side and frowned. “Why not?”

Objections occurred to Victoria, but examining them...she couldn’t think of a one that Margaret wouldn’t demolish with her usual brilliance. “You know what? You’re right. Who’s to stop us? And...I accept.”

And as Margaret slipped the ring onto Victoria’s finger, she knew: there could be no objection. Nothing had ever felt so right in her life.

“Slice of life” - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where nothing changes:

“What a day!” said James, dropping onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. 

“I know what you mean,” Tom agreed. He fumbled a hand across the cushion separating them, and James delighted in the simple comfort of threading their fingers together.

A beep, beep, beep sounded in the kitchen, announcing that the microwave had finished nuking their leftovers.

“You getting that?” asked Tom.

“It’s your turn!” James countered.

“But I don’t want to let go of your hand.” Tom gave his hand a squeeze, and a pleased glow suffused James’s chest.

It was Tom’s turn to retrieve their dinner.

But Tom was right - holding hands was wonderful.

“Let’s get it together,” James suggested. 

Hesitating, Tom remained still as James sit up and gave a tug on their joined arms, then he broke into a smile and rose at James’s side.

“I love the way you think.”

“I love you, too, darling”

And together - always together - they got their dinner.

“Bridge” scene, episode coda, or canon insert-style fic - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where nothing changes:

Arriving home after the battle, Sandy opened the rough-hewn door and shed her damaged armor. Her dented cuirass had left an aching bruise across her chest; she carried it to the smithy out back for repair in the morning. A gash on her thigh throbbed where an arrow had pierced the straps holding her greaves in places; she brought them to her leather-working station. Nicks and fissures marred her once-gleaming sword blade. All Sandy wanted was to collapse in bed, but resisted the pull of relaxation, because blood limned the damaged places red, and repair to the damaged weapon couldn’t wait. Taking a seat, placed her feet on the treadles that set her whet stone to spinning and set about polishing out every imperfection.

Yes, she was exhausted.

But her sword must be cleaned, and smoothed, and honed, and prepared.

Sandy must be prepared.

There would always be another battle to be fought.

Vignette, a narrative without a beginning, a middle, or an end, which may or may not have a character, and nothing changes and in which the emphasis is on showing, rather than telling (but, as in this example, a combination may be used):

The wind blew chill down the narrow mountain pass. All was silent, save for the rush of the breeze. All was still, save where gusts stirred the tall grasses and the branches of trees that reached, claw-like, toward the sky. 

Once upon a time, a stream had carved this cut through the cliffs, forcing its way through soft chalk and hard shale, leaving jagged stones that emerged from the steep pass walls like teeth. The stream was long dry, now, only water-smoothed stones strewn across the ground to show where it had ever been.

Once upon a time, travellers had traversed the dried-up rill bed, pounding down the dirt, knocking the rocks aside, leaving scars where their fires burned. They’d lived, and laughed, and explored, and sought...and left, never to return.

Now, there was nothing: nothing but the storm.

And all was silent.

And all was still.

And the wind blew, chill, down the narrow mountain pass.

Synopsis, a narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end, which may or may not have characters, and where something changes, and in which  the emphasis is on telling rather showing:

Emperor Xiang Zhen was born in 9884 to Dowager Empress Luo Zexi and the warlord Xiang Yijun. After his birth, there was a long period of strife. Those who supported Xiang Yijun’s claim to the throne battled those who still supported the Dowager Empress’s deceased husband Peng Zhenya. Eventually, the factions found common ground when Xiang Zhen came of age, and he was enthroned in 9902. 

With his reign came peace and prosperity. The arts flourished. Scholarship advanced, and many great Dao masters arose, using cultivation to rid the land of evil’s left by the long war. Xiang Zhen longed to join a Night Hunt himself, but he was trapped by his political position. He didn’t dare risk the fragile stability in the Empire. If something happened to him, the results could be catastrophic. So he studied, and ruled, and adjudicated, and endowed, and endured.

Xiang Zhen did as he must.

But, oh...he wished he weren’t alone.

I know this is long, so we’ll leave this discussion at this point. Hopefully you found it helpful, and please do let me know if you have any questions! Duck Prints Press is always here to offer support to writers, and we love getting writing asks!

[masterhandss]

Hello! Uhm… there’s something I’ve been wondering about for a long time now regarding Nicol. And I figured I may as well ask now, since S2 has started airing.

I’ve seen his wiki page. And it says and I quote: It was later revealed that his emotionless face and quiet nature is a result of extreme trauma. From a young age, people of all genders and ages would tend to do absurd things, as well as assaulting him.

I’ve been so fixated on this probably since S1 had finished, yet I haven’t really had the time to read all the light novels to know where this specifically comes from or even be sure if it’s actually true. The only thing I managed to find was a scene (I think in one of the later volumes) about Katarina pointing out this creepy guy that took Nicol’s used utensils and stared at him a lot, but she didn’t do anything about it because Sophia saw nothing wrong with that guy’s behavior and told her it was okay.

I’m not sure if the wiki was referring to that scene, or something else. And since I know that you read the light novels, I was hoping if maybe you could check that info and confirm/deny it for me. If it is true… then it really puts a whole different perspective on Nicol. People in the series have been shown to faint if Nicol smiles, but it was also mentioned how he was one of the only second year students in the student council because people would fight over him.

And to think their behavior possibly had escalated to the point of traumatizing him as a child makes me very heartbroken to think about. Especially when the wiki also mentioned how he feels very uncomfortable when he’s the center of attention… makes me wonder if the anime will even touch upon any of that.

Hello! I'm sorry if answering this one took such a long time. This one definitely caught my interest so I wanted to take my time in writing a response for this.

// trigger warning: brief mentions of assault (nothing too graphic I swear)

I'm an editor for the wiki, so I admit that I have seen that description on Nicol's page too. I don't know who wrote it (and I never bothered to edit or adjust the wording), but that doesn't really matter since it's not exactly something I can deny.

Before that I just want to make it clear first that the "assault" mentioned in the wiki is probably not sexual or physical assault, it's likely referring to a simple assault, aka any unwanted advances that is done without consent. Whether or not any advances on Nicol while he was growing up were leaning towards sexual assault or physical assault (unwanted physical contact from men and women, sexual invitations, groping etc.) has not been mentioned by the books. It used to be a very popular headcanon for the more darker and realistic depictions of the hamefura or fortune lover world to give Nicol that kind of backstory, which is why I still feel like clarifying just in case anyone might get the wrong idea.

Hamefura is a very light-hearted series so I doubt it would put Nicol is such a tough dark position. While it's played for laughs, thankfully Nicol's beauty makes him so dazzling that people can't get close to him rather than being so handsome that people would try to initiate physical contact at every opportunity lmao.

Rather than the wiki pertaining to a specific scenes, I think it might be written in hindsight instead. It could very much be referring to the guy from Volume 6 who keeps staring at Nicol and stealing his uetnsils, but I feel like it could also be referring to the possibility/likeliness of such events and advances happening regularly. Like we don't really need to be told that men and woman throw themselves at Nicol for us to know about it. I mean if its frequent enough for Nicol to be unbothered by it, then it must happen a lot (as gross as that is). Regardless, those advances can still be classified as assault (since Nicol is not a fan of it at all) and the only reason he doesn't do anything about it is because it happens so often that it might be not worth the trouble anymore. At least we do know from the StoryMe hamefura game that Nicol will act in the face of an unfavorable position if he can, so hopefully he isn't just sitting around like an animal in the zoo if he were to receive unwanted advances.

I wouldn't deny that all of these interactions hadn't traumatized Nicol though. They never really mention in the books word-for-word why Nicol is so emotionally stunted/incapable and silent, they only really mention that he doesn't talk because he doesn't want to receive any unwarranted pity. In the first hamefura anthology (whose canonicity is up for debate), they do say there that the reason why Nicol doesn't talk a lot is because people would twist his words in order to turn it around and make him sound more tragic and pitiable than he actually is. I'm no expert on what is or what isn't considered as trauma, but that sounds like a source of trauma to me. The idea of Nicol being so fed up of people misinterpreting his words and expressions in order to fit what they want to hear must have been so hard on him, to the point where he decided to just not speak at all. It can be easily link to his emotionless-ness too, since any positive reaction like a smile could be twisted to mean other things.

Realistically, having people constantly fight over you, whisper things about you behind your back, constantly ogle at you and be constantly flirted on regardless of gender sounds terrible. If that was me I'd be traumatized too. He definitely hates being in the center of attention for all the reasons previously discussed and other well-known variables; he's always in the eyes of every noble around him which makes him hate being in the spotlight (from his perspective, maybe he always feels like the spotlight is on him, like it'll just never leave. he'll always bothered by the eyes of other people even maybe when he's at home... eyes watching him with desires and expectations, haunting him even when he's alone...). It really makes you think about what kind of life Nicol had been living in without Katarina's positive influence. He would have to bear the burden alone, without being able to say a word about it because he needs to act tough for the sake of Sophia.

Like geez, Nicol is even aware that he has stalkers but isn't doing anything about because "they aren't harmful". He never even really clarified what he meant by that (at least I don't remember anyways, feel free to correct me), like is he already doing something to stop the stalker, is it happening so often that he doesn't care anymore or is he fine with it because the stalker hasn't done anything dangerous (yet)???

If you want an /objective/ answer to whether or not the wiki description was referring to the stalker man from Volume 6 or something else, that line on the wiki was added on April 27, 2020; while the JP release of Volume 6 was on March 20, 2018 vs the EN ebook release which was on June 28, 2020.

The editor is likely a JP reader, or it was just an interpretation based most-likely what-if scenarios/interpretations. That's a fun fact for ya :DD

—and since you mentioned that you haven't read all the volumes of the light novels yet, let me help you by listing chapters in the books with a Nicol POV (that I can remember, as of Volume 9)

Volume 1 Chapter 5 (Encountering Katarina) Volume 2 Chapter 4 (Remembering Katarina's Positive Influence) Volume 3 Chapter 2 (School Festival Various Vignettes - Nicol Ascart) Volume 4 Extra Chapter (The Troubles of Nicol Ascart) Volume 5 Chapter 4 (A Lady for Nicol) Volume 8 Chapter 2 (Nicol's "dream")

With this, hopefully it'll be easier for you to cross-reference if you want to look into Nicol's character on your own :DD

TLDR; the trauma and assault mentioned in the wiki is definitely real, although the extent and severity might depend on the reader('s imagination). There's no particular scene to point to as the source, explanation or example of Nicol being given uncomfortable treatment, but it's not hard to imagine given the kind of character Nicol is. He is a silent beauty who caries himself smartly and politely, which in the eyes of many carnivorous nobles is the perfect kind of prey. Whether or not he was assaulted in any way or if people's behavior towards him can be considered as assault depends on the reader, since we still have yet to get a deep dive on Nicol's life outside of his friend group.

If there's any confirmation or deconfirmation to anything I said that I have missed during my skimming on the light novels, feel free to tell me! If I got the definitions and examples of trauma and assault wrong, feel free to tell me and I'll edit this post as fast as I can!

I know this might not exactly be the response you were hoping for, but I hope it was good enough to read qwq. There's so much I could still say but I know I'll go too deep into interpretation (I kinda already did though...), which I want to avoid since the question is asking for in-canon proofs and instances.

Thank you for the ask!

[blazehedgehog]

Are you of the opinion that giving a character voice acting essentially robs the reader/viewer of their agency on how they imagine a character sounded like? So to put it in another way, would no voice acting be better than any? A Sonic-related example would be Classic Sonic, who isn't voiced in Generations, but the main inspiration for this question is Bill Watterson's hesitancy in giving his characters voices.

I mean this is just a different version of the argument people sometimes make where, like... there were people who were against making movies based on the Harry Potter books, right. Because some kids might imagine themselves in Harry's shoes, or retroactively J.K. Rowling said she imagined different characters in different nationalities when she was writing them (famously I believe some people interpret Hermione as african-american).

The idea that movies might damper the imagination inspired by books isn't entirely incorrect. However, in my experience, it's also just different mediums and reaching different audiences, right.

I don't read a lot of fiction. I know I should, I've made more efforts to in the past, and it just never works out. Maybe it's my ADHD brain or whatever, but I'll start a book and never finish it. Even audio books are like this for me a lot of the time.

But there are two books I've finished in my life: Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, and its sequel, The Lost World. They are pretty much the only fiction books I've ever read purely for fun, and also, more importantly, finished reading.

I would have never tried reading those books on my own terms if I did not see the Jurassic Park movie first. The movie is what sparked my interest in the books.

And the books, for what it's worth, are VERY different experiences! By their very nature, books are longer, more detailed stories than most movies. If you translated the Jurassic Park book into a movie, as an exact replica of the novel, it would be something like 6 hours long. Maybe closer to 8 or even 10 hours. To get a watchable movie, you have to cut a lot of scenes out and streamline things to a huge degree.

The Jurassic Park book opens with this long vignette that's practically a whole short film itself -- it starts with recapping the history of the "designer genetics gold rush" of its world, and focuses on a hospital at the edge of Costa Rica that continually receives patients with strange, poisonous bite marks from unidentifiable animals. The head nurse there suspects a conspiracy, because the patients are all InGen construction workers flown in from a nearby island and they refuse tell the doctors how they were injured. Clearly something else is going on. It weaves together with Costa Rican folklore about demons that visit cursed villages in the night and steal their children, only for one of the nurses to witness a creature in the newborn ward doing just that before seeing it skitter back in to the jungle. (The implication being that it was a dinosaur, of course)

If translated to film, that entire sequence would be 10-20 minutes long, if not more. Instead, it was condensed down in to the far more action-heavy "SHOOT HER!" opening scene. It gets some similar ideas across, but it is nothing like the book. It only lasts two minutes.

And not only is there a lot of stuff like that, but characterization is often dramatically different, too. John Hammond is much less sympathetic in the book, and much more of a villain. Alan Grant is more of an Indiana-Jones-type cowboy who is deeply ignorant of even the most simplistic modern technology. It goes on and on. There's one particularly great chapter where Grant is piloting a pontoon boat down a river while being stalked by a T-Rex that swims like a crocodile. They painted concept art for it for the movie, but it never even made it to storyboarding.

There's even a level for it in the Genesis game!

And if we're talking about The Lost World, well... 80% of that book is a completely different story from what ended up in the movie. The book has dinosaurs that camouflage like chameleons! It's terrifying!

For me, at least, it means that they don't even really compare. I find it much like how comic books feature multiverses and showcase many alternate versions of a character, where Ultimate Spider-man's Peter Parker is a different guy from the original "616" Spider-man. The book interpretations of Alan Grant, or Hermione Granger, or whoever are usually entirely different people from how they are portrayed in movies, or cartoons, or whoever. Ergo, it's hard to visualize Sam Neil as the book's version of Grant in Jurassic Park.

Even in comic books. A couple years ago I went through and read all of the original Dragon Ball. I cut my teeth watching the Saban dub of Dragon Ball back in 1995 and 1996, so I knew in my head what I thought these characters sounded like, but after reading deep enough in to the manga, that all kind of faded away and it just became it's own thing. Every now and then my mind would drift back to reading the dialog in the voices from the Saban dub (or the voices from Funimation's re-dub of Dragon Ball from 2005), but for the most part it stood on its own as its own thing. I mean, that's one of those things that lead to Dragon Ball Kai, right? Because the anime ended up just that different, and they wanted to re-edit it to be more faithful to the original books.

Not everyone has a good imagination. Reading can help facilitate and exercise a dormant imagination, I guess, but representing these things in other media formats can also aid those who struggle with the original text. Again, I'd never have read Jurassic Park if it wasn't for the movies. I'd never have read Dragon Ball if I wasn't feeling nostalgic for the anime. An important bridge was formed by adapting these properties so that other types of people could also enjoy them. It all contributes to a richer overall experience for all involved.

The only thing I'd say is that giving Classic Sonic a voice is a different kind of stylistic choice, because as Sonic Mania Adventures has shown, you can still use those characters to tell stories without necessarily having dialog. The difference there is that characters like Calvin or Hermione or Alan Grant are written with dialog in mind, and you change who they are by translating them across media types. How Classic Sonic is depicted is a bit more of a strange beast because he's been left mute. I suppose it's not that different, but it's still a little different regardless.

[writteninsunshine]

Howling Outside Your Door - Lewis Legend/Swan - SFW

Title: Howling At Your Door

Author: Reno

Fandom: Lollipop Chainsaw

Setting: Swan’s House

Pairing: Lewis Legend/Swan

Characters: Lewis Legend, Swan, Vikke

Genre: Romance

Rating: T

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 535

Type Of Work: Drabble, Gift for Ed-Love

Status: Complete

Warnings: Gay, Slash, Yaoi, MLM, Obsession, Zombie/Human, Undead, Necrophilia (possibly), Pre-Slash, Unrequited Love, Swan has no idea Lewis likes him

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.

Summary: Any time apart was unacceptable.

AN: Hey guys, it’s me again! Just thought I ought to say, if you want vague updates and to talk to me more, I have a writing Tumblr, too! Twitter is Sunshinecackle, and Tumblr is Writteninsunshine! I also have a writing Discord that is currently pretty dead. xD If you want it, please contact me on Twitter!

Wow, so I’ve owed this fic to my Ed-love for like, four years. Here’s one of a few, I hope that you enjoy it, lovey! At any rate, let’s get to the fic!

Lollipop Chainsaw Fic Masterlist

Howling At Your Door

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Anxiety was leaving Lewis’ brain swimming, his grip on the couch nearly tearing the ugly thing apart. 

Swan had been in the bathroom for what felt like eons. Lewis had decided, at first, that he would stay glued to the couch no matter how long it took. No, yeah, it was fine if Swan decided to skip out on their What We Do In The Shadows marathon, that would be totally cool. It wasn’t like Lewis had set aside working on Elly, it wasn’t like he’d spend the rest of his afterlife waiting on Swan. It wasn’t like this was hurting him.

Who was he kidding? For all he knew, he’d end up with tears in his eyes. Fuck. He knew he had it bad, but he had never thought it was this bad. It was like Swan was the only thing waking up his sluggish, coagulated blood, setting it to boil every time he saw him.

With a snarl, despite himself, he rose from the couch, a loud rip of the fabric over the arm leaving him with a handful of stuffing and corduroy. Frowning at it, he tossed it to the side and stormed up the stairs as quietly as he could. One could say that he didn’t like Swan being alone for safety reasons, but everyone seemed to see right through that excuse. 

Even Vikke knew that he was ass over tea kettle for their master, and chuckled about it as he lumbered past, likely to go downstairs for something to eat. Lewis knew things had been too quiet. The bear of a man had probably been sleeping through Josey’s drug-filled videogame marathon, and now he was starved. It took so much to keep him fed.

“Go easy.” Was all he said, accent thick and voice a deep rumble, winking at Lewis before disappearing around the corner. Lewis had to try and bite down on the growl building in his throat, closing his eyes tight to get a hold of himself. It came out quietly regardless as he pressed his ear to the bathroom door to listen for anything; A breath, a heartbeat, a sob. Anything to tell him that Swan was there, that he was okay, or, worst-case scenario, that he needed his help. 

Holding the breaths he didn’t even need to take, Lewis closed his eyes, straining his ears. Nothing. For a second, he thought his undead heart skipped a beat, leaped into his throat, and plummeted to its second death in his feet. Nothing?! Why didn’t he hear him?! Something was wrong, what if he’d passed out? What if Swan had just up and died in there? He swore to Rotten World he’d shoot himself to follow Swan there.

Without a second’s hesitation, his hand flew to the faux gold knob and turned, just in time to hear Swan’s bedroom door close behind him. A little gasp left the goth, and Lewis went dead still, eyes wide as he stared at the door as if it had offended him. His lips formed a soft smile of relief and he let himself relax a little bit.

“...Lewis?” Swan’s voice was laced with confusion. Dead, yellow eyes turned to take in Swan’s outfit; he’d washed off his makeup, removed his contacts, and changed from his usual suit into a pair of soft, black satin sleep pants and a large T-shirt. Lewis’ large, white, oil-stained T-shirt, to be more precise. The one he’d been missing ever since he’d done his laundry. He wondered absently if it still smelled like him, the soap he’d used, or Swan. Even his hair had been let down, and Lewis found himself gulping softly. 

Fuck, he was beautiful no matter what he did to himself.

“Uh, yeah, kitty cat?” Finally standing straight from his hunch, adjusting his stance, he offered what he hoped was a relaxed smile. If nothing else, he felt better now that Swan was in his line of sight. He wouldn’t be leaving it again for the rest of the day if Lewis could help it. “So, that’s where you’ve been.”

“Yes? I figured I might as well change in case I fall asleep,” One brow lifting, brown eyes wrought with confusion, Swan only tilted his head as Lewis swaggered over to him, lifting his hands, “You know that I usually do after eleven.” Those hands cupped his cheeks, Lewis tilting Swan’s head one way and then the other. He had to admit, Swan’s lightly flushed cheeks and parted lips were eating away at his self-control.

“Missed you, kitty cat. That’s all.” He murmured, his voice smoke and darkness, pressing a kiss to the goth’s forehead. With a swift movement, he had Swan scooped up into his arms bridal style. Not waiting for consent, though he chuckled at the little yelp Swan gave him, he started them back towards the stairs, and then the couch. He was going to swaddle Swan up in a blanket and hold him in his lap for the next millennia or five. That would show him that he couldn’t take so long when Lewis was waiting on him.

Any time apart was unacceptable.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: I hope you guys enjoyed it! I really have fun writing these little vignettes. They’re so much fun to do, and I adore writing things for those I love! ; u; See you in the next one! Yes, Swan is oblivious to Lewis’ crush on him.

Side Note: Yes, Lewis tries to do anything in his power to show it and Swan continues to be totally clueless. I love the dynamic, sorry.

Prompt: Obsession

[avasghost]

Crane Anatomy Update #2

(slightly outdated WIP intro here)

DISCLAIMER: this is my original work. please do not plagiarize in any way.

Hello!! I’m finally back with the second crane anatomy update!

first of all, this is probably going to be a very long post, so brace yourself for a lot of mindless rambling.

LOTS of things have changed since the last update, and its going much better now thankfully! what has happened:

i restarted the book

i changed the form

i got very burnt out

i stopped being burnt out (mostly) after making a verb list (fun verbs always help)

i figured out some stuff about my writing process

so there’s a lot to cover.

first!! I restarted the book!! This is obviously the biggest change that took place. I made a post about it here, when i wasn’t sure if i was going to restart yet, and then decided to go for it and now i’m about 4000 words into the new version. It’s going a lot better in most ways, the prose is better (somewhat), and so far nothing boring or unnecessary has happened so that’s nice! but also some things are worse: this version is burning me out a lot more, probably because i’m trying harder to make it good. there was a long period when i was hardly writing it at all, but i’m getting into it a bit more now so that’s good.

secondly, with the restart, i made a few form changes that i love and really benefit the story. first of all, it’s not in vignettes anymore (sigh of relief) because i realized that wasn’t working and the book didn’t need it. vignettes are kinda light and jumpy and fast paced, and at first i thought that was perfect for this book because of its lightness, but as i figured out more things about the characters and plot, i realized that even though the settings and aesthetic are quite sunny and bright, it’s actually a very inherently heavy story and the longer chapters will help that quite a lot with the lightness and yet also heaviness if that makes sense?? and also, the exciting part: every second chapter is a vignette flashback to Isobel’s old life.

for context, at the beginning of the first chapter, they arrive at their new house, and it’s them entering a new life, which is much darker than their old life. but the vignette chapters are flashbacks to their childhood growing up in their old house. the prose in these vignettes is very hazy and bright and dreamy and saturated, because Isobel’s memories of her childhood portray it as brighter and better than it probably really was.

and finally, in all these major changes, i figured out something about my writing process: i’m a pantser, but i like to have the first few chapters outlined, as sort of a springboard into the rest of the book, something solid to base everything else off of. i guess that technically makes me a plantser, even though everything else is pantsed.

now, onto the chapters and excerpts! i’m finished the first chapter and the first vignette, and currently working on chapter 2.

you may notice that some scenes are very similar to the first attempt, because i did keep a lot of scenes and also a lot of the same prose.

excerpts under the cut.

chapter 1: this new life

it felt soooooo good to write a full length chapter again. after trying to write vignettes for a while, writing a full length chapter was so much more enjoyable. i used to be a very serious underwriter, but (luckily) have mostly gotten over that and can write actual full chapters now, and have a hard time writing short ones!

i named the chapter “this new life” because my plan is to mirror it later in the book, when there’s a vignette flashback to right before they left their old house and its called “this old life” (if i decide to title the vignettes). i love mirroring chapter titles and lines and stuff so i’m excited for this.

ALSO i said in the first writing update (which i won’t link because it’s embarrassing) that there’s a redwood tree in the backyard, but i changed it to an oak tree lol because i realized it would be v weird for someone to have a random redwood tree growing in their backyard.

excerpts

first of all, the new first line:

(idk if this is actually an oak tree but i don’t care about tree accuracy as long as there’s aesthetic accuracy ✨)

The first time Isobel steps onto the lawn outside the new house is the first time she feels her life change in person. It’s instantaneous, like a death or a rebirth. Clouds thread across a sun-smothered sky like gossamer strands, swallows trill out of the limbs of oak trees that arrow down the sidewalk. The car only halfway to a stop, and Isobel has already clambered out. A squirrel bullets along an oak branch. A wind chime tremolos in the breeze. It’s the first day of summer. Life has never felt so dead.

a bit about them unpacking and living sad times (also i changed their mom’s name from beth to pamela because beth was too stereotypical)

Nobody speaks except to toss instructions back and forth, or ask for something to be passed to them as they unpack the few things they need to last the night. Their mother, Pamela, is quick-tempered. It’s clear she never wanted to come here, even though she always smiled when they talked about it, encouraged everybody, told them it was for the best, which it was. It was for the best, but that didn’t make it a good thing. That didn’t brighten the prospect, make it feel better. That just made it less avoidable.

Cyrus, their father, keeps up his usual attitude of encouragement, just like Pamela, pointing out every good thing: the sunlight that spangles everything in citrine, the pizza he’s about to order, the bluebird that spits music in the open window, though he says all these things half-heartedly. His faltering smiles give him away. The strands of grey hair pasted to his forehead. The woolly cable-knit sweater he only wears when he’s unhappy and has been wearing almost every day for the last two months.

and of course, margaret is having the time of her life because she’s margaret:

Margaret is the only one who shows no sign of remorse. She unpacks quickly, then spends the rest of the day ruffling through boxes and coolers for crinkly chip bags and frozen strawberries that melt on your tongue and dribble down your throat. A pocket mirror spined with cracks sits beside her on the table, in case she needs to tweak her reflection. Gold chain jewelry chimes around her throat when she moves, glints in the sunlight that pools around her.

after they eat dinner and isobel leaves (yes i’ve shared most of this excerpt before but it’s one of my favorite parts so here it is again!)

After dinner, Isobel’s throat is still throbbing and she decides to leave the house, leave her family, so if she cries no one has to see her. She doesn’t know where she’ll go, where there is to go, but at seven o’clock she lies about where she’s going, shoves out of her chair and clatters out the door without saying goodbye.

From the doorstep, this new life is just a neighborhood. A car parked in half the driveways, the others at work or school or nowhere. Hedges only trimmed on one side. Flower beds, half withering and half thriving. Marigolds are the most radiant as Isobel stalks down the road. Their fluorescent buds like blood-rimmed suns.

She walks down the middle of the road because the town is quiet at this time, no cars whisk on the pavement, swish corners because they don’t think anyone will be walking there. It’s a risk she finds thrilling because she knows Pamela would make her stop if she was here.

Isobel told them she would go explore the neighborhood, the town, maybe the empty spaces outside it. Wave hello to the skinny chiffon woman bent double over the trunk of her red Chevrolet, the man in the houndstooth jacket in his gaping garage, smoke snaking up the throat of his cigarette. Smile when they wave back.

and of course she runs into a forest because everything i write features too many forest scenes!

She runs until her breath clumps in her chest and she stops, one hand splayed over the itchy bark of an elm tree to keep her balance. It’s dark here, but she’s not afraid of the dark. It’s lonely here, but she’s immune to loneliness. Trees spoke the thin canopy, a veil of gauzy leaves. The sky is clotted with sagging clouds.

this chapter is also where we meet felix, who i love so much. i want to make a character intro for him and also his brother, miles, soon, but i’ve been planning to do that for weeks and haven’t yet so i don’t know when/if i will.

felix shows up in the forest and he and isobel talk a bit: felix is very nice and isobel is my lil psychopath wannabe <3. isobel ends up leaving abruptly because it’s about to rain, and then she gets home and talks with piper a bit and then goes to bed. i don’t like ending chapters with characters going to bed, because i do it so much! a character going to bed has a sense of closure since its the end of the day, and obviously there’s nothing wrong with ending a chapter like this, but i do it do often that it’s starting to irritate me.

first vignette

i still haven’t decided how i’m going to title the vignettes. they’re not chapters, so this isn’t going to be called ‘chapter 2′, but they’re still sort of chapters?? right now i just have them titled as roman numerals, but i’m not happy with this and am going to change it as soon as i think of something better.

this vignette is a short flashback to that morning, right before they leave to go to their new house. it features isobel and piper going into the forest and then they leave and its v sad.

this is the first flashback in the book, and then in future flashbacks it jumps back a few years and follows their childhood right up to this flashback again. the last flashback is going to end with the same line as the first line of the actual book, so it comes full circle.

excerpts

There were different types of trees. It was a different town, in a different province. Isobel and Piper had evaded Pamela’s searching fingers, hopped the fence, blotted under the trees like redwing blackbirds.

Piper slowed first, sunlight quivering over her sawn black curls, pinching out a cramp after outrunning Isobel the whole time.

same excerpt as in the first update but with an extra sentence at the end and the beginning! why share new prose when you can just recycle old excerpts galaxy brain

here’s when pamela calls them out of the forest and they leave:

Pamela’s raspy shouts wound Piper and Isobel out of reverie. They trundled to their feet, flitted through the trees back to the house. Then they left.

Isobel stared at the house through the rear window as the car clicked into motion, wheels whirring on the pavement. She watched it shrink: first it was her home, then just a house, then a dollhouse, a triangle of roof on the horizon, and then nothing. From that point on, it was just an image in her head, a lingering wish. A life lost. A life she would never get back again.

this is v sad i’m sorry characters but i had to cause you this misery for the sake of the plot (also you probably deserve it)

anyway that’s all i have for this update! bye!

- Ava

Crane Anatomy taglist (ask to be added/removed!):

@gracestowewriting​​ @flip-phones @shaelinwrites​​​

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: It Had to be You by Georgia Clark

After being secluded and quarantined for most of the past year, and with social gatherings limited to nothing more extravagant than the occasional FaceTime, I found this ensemble romance to be rejuvenating. Restorative, really. The wedding backdrop gave me the pandemic break I needed. It was nice to imagine throwing on a curve-hugging dress again, some high heels and lipstick, escorting guests to their seats with a smile. I had a lovely time picturing the New York wedding atmosphere with its flowers and scents, with foods simmering on stovetops in the kitchen, my foot tapping as the band jammed to well-sung cover songs, a flute of champagne still in hand as an old friend approached to ask for a dance. There was something so joyous, so irresistible, about remembering what it's like to be sociable again. To attend an event (even a fictional one) where the energy and ambiance is palpable. To be reminded how it can feel to gather with family, friends, lovers, colleagues, or strangers for one night. Raising a glass to happiness. Taking a sip of spontaneity. Celebrating love and commitment. As a reader, it was wonderful to be so fully immersed in wedding season. To feel the angst and stress of what it meant to plan someone else's Big Day. The book itself kicks off with a Bridezilla disaster turned tragedy. Liv Goldenhorn, co-owner of In Love In New York, a successful wedding planning business, learns in the middle of a work crisis that her husband, Eliot, has not only died but has left his half of the business to his twenty-something mistress, Savannah, who had no clue the man she'd been seeing was married. Even though Liv is initially appalled by the idea, Savannah insists they work together. That they run the business as equal partners. Since one is young, eager, and sweet, while the other is middle-aged, reluctant, and sharp, the two could not be more different in personality let alone in life experience. Yet, still, they manage to come to a tenuous work agreement. They also learn to lean on as well as confide in each other over time. It's beautiful! From there, the focus widens to introduce other characters who are either connected to the wedding circuit or to Liv and Savannah in some way. Gorman and Henry are the florists. Sam is the chef. Honey is the Kentucky-to-NY, fried-chicken-loving transplant. Zia is the in-between-non-profit-jobs waitress, Clay the famous actor. And Darlene and Zach are the musicians. Usually I'm not a fan of crowds - whether that be in real life, or in books where tons of POV's are swirling about in constant rotation - but I didn't mind them here. In fact, I rather liked all the bumping shoulders, all the intertwining stories. I had fun skipping about from trope to trope. I enjoyed perusing relationships from a variety of ages or genders, sexualities or experiences; from vantage points I hadn't considered. The narrative winds its way in and out of all the characters' lives, peeling back the layers of their separate journeys. What readers are gifted as a result is five different couple vignettes. Five separate romances. And they feature hetero, LGBT, and interracial relationships alike. What I liked about that, aside from the diversity that was depicted in or around the couples themselves, was how love was shown not to be one size fits all. Where convention worked for some, it was restrictive, undesirable, to others. Where a few knew what they wanted from the beginning, a bunch didn't. Mistakes were made, promises were broken. Forgiveness had to be earned. Second chances could happen out of nowhere. Happiness wasn't guaranteed. It was work, it was a choice the couples had to find a way to forge together. The point is love in this book was a unique experience for everyone, and I appreciated the message of that. So, listen, if you miss weddings or love ensemble romcoms then give this one a read. Strap yourself in because you'll be floating on a sweet summer's breeze in no time!

3.5/5 stars Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

**Follow me on Goodreads

[elareine]

Fic Masterpost

For a masterpost of my tumblr ficlets, see here.

Note: I’ve added fics with multiple pairings to every relevant category.

Jason Todd/Tim Drake

Secret Witness (34k, ao3) CSI except with ghosts. WIP. 

A Hope Like You (12k, ao3) A/b/o with single dad Jason and identity porn. WIP. 

Silver and shadow and vision of things not seen (8k, ao3) WW2 and post-WW2 urban fantasy noir. WIP.

Turn yourself toward home (4k, ao3) Retired pirate seeks retired navy officer.

The space between us (8k, ao3) Mr. & Mrs. Smith in space.

Hold me (like you held on to life) (6k, ao3) Vampire sex to spite the parents.

If I know you (4k, ao3) Annoyed witch cares for sleeping prince.

Lifelong learning (5k, ao3) College, but it’s not an AU.

safe with me (14k, ao3) Figuring out intimacy, with a dash of d/s.

Ornamental (2k, ao3)  Christmas party butt plug fun.

Far away (1k, ao3 I tumblr) + So close (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Tim’s in space and then he’s not.

Like no other pain (2k, ao3) Soulmates, but Tim makes it angsty. 

If I had a type (then baby it would be you) (1k, ao3 I tumblr) One-night stand with surprise bondmark.  

The Sacredness of Tears (13k, ao3)  Tim gets the ability to travel through time, but somehow that’s not the main story. 

The Reluctant Brides (13k, ao3) Genderbent regency.

Adamare (9k, ao3 I tumblr: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) Harry Potter AU. 

What demons they carry (5k, ao3 I tumblr: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) Outsider POV of demon!Tim.

Shelter (19k, ao3) Royalty arranged marriage. 

glaukopis, promachos, atrytone (4k, ao3 I tumblr:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) A god and his reincarnated lover.

Not the hurricane (2k, ao3 I tumblr) Soft handjobs. 

Night falling softly and without mercy (4k, ao3 I tumblr) When you want to marry your bodyguard but are pretty sure he means to kill you. 

Reasons to be jealous (4k, ao3 I tumblr) Unfounded jealousy crack. Side DickDami.

Just a fool for you (6k, ao3 I tumblr) The Regency Daemon Thing. (Part two of ‘foolish, perhabs’)

A fool’s game (1k, ao3 I tumblr)  Outsider POV of The Regency Daemon Thing. (Part one of ‘foolish, perhabs’)

A fool to believe (2k, ao3 I tumblr) Epistolary companion to The Regency Daemon Thing. (Part three of ‘foolish, perhabs’)

Blood will tell (9k, ao3) October Daye AU. 

So easy to begin (4k, ao3) Dealin’ with fear toxin and trauma, a/b/o-style. 

Somebody ring the alarm (2k, ao3) Strangers flirting while undercover.

To love and to honour (6k, ao3) Five anniversaries and a wedding. 

A question of trust (3k, ao3) Jason hides an injury.

The Wedding Job (3k, ao3) Leverage-style heist.

One day the slipper fits (2k, ao3) The perils of not-dating. 

Dick Grayson/Jason Todd 

clock ticking (sudden silence) (7k, ao3 I tumblr) Dick’s soulmate timer is an asshole. 

The stars gaze back (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Stardust AU with more swearing.

In the Shallows (20k, ao3) Celebrity ‘She Loves Me’ AU.

I dream of our story (our fairytale) (1k, ao3 I tumblr)  Epilogue to In the Shallows. 

A revolution is a simple thing (6k, ao3) Anastasia AU.

Dick Grayson/Damian Wayne

Soft, sweet (and never too much) (2k, ao3) Sweet and kinky PWP.

Don't make me close one more door (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Bodyguard AU. Dami goes undercover and develops feelings. 

Misperceptions (6k, ao3 I tumblr) DamiDick-centric compaion to Reasons to be jealous.

Damian Wayne/Tim Drake

These stars will guide us home (2k, ao3 I tumblr) Developing feelings while being far apart.

Vigil (4k, ao3 I tumblr) Injuries, cuddles and feelings. DamiTim, Joyfire+Dick.

That sacred bond (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Fake marriage for the aliens.

Jason Todd/Roy Harper

Winners get road rash with @scootboot97​ (3k, ao3 I tumblr) College AU dorks and oral. 

Of wizards and black knights (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Cyberpunk damsel in not-so-much distress. 

Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne

Wonder (2k, ao3) Officer Grayson partners up with Batman.

All that's dead and gone and passed tonight (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Hunger Games AU. 

Tim Drake/Conner Kent

Met a boy (cute as can be) (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Summer romance.

Snow comes down in June (2k, ao3 I tumblr) College dumbasses try to stay friends.

Jason Todd/Damian Wayne

That word on your skin (2k, ao3 I tumblr) Getting the same tattoo is one way to ask for a date.

warmth, shared (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Jason’s feeling old and gets cuddles on a mountain.

Jason Todd/Roy Harper/Tim Drake

At its core (1k, ao3 I tumblr)  Considering fatherhood and marriage. 

Turning point (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Cuddles against nightmares, with a surprise ghost.

Other ships (DC)

Vigil (4k, ao3 I tumblr) Injuries, cuddles and feelings. Joyfire+Dick, DamiTim. 

The wonderful everyday (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Flirting in an Ikea. Joyfire.

Down, down (2k, ao3 I tumblr) Prince visits tentacled sea witch. Superbat.

Would make me whole (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Angsty jerk-off session. JayRoyDick.

Promises (whispered, shouted) (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Injuries in the desert with not much hope. JonDami.

Won't you die tonight for love (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Vampire marriage surprisingly includes a third person. DamiJayTim.

You still look like a movie (2k, ao3 I tumblr) High school teachers pine. DickWally, side JayTim.

Spellbound (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Morning after marred by worry about a love potion. Trinity.

Through the night (we'll make it) (2k, ao3 I tumblr) H/C vignettes. Robinpile.

Gen (DC) 

rewind, fast forward, stop (3k, ao3 I tumblr)  Deaged Jason angst. Jason, batfamily.

In silence (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Jason’s telepathy doesn’t help him with Bruce. Jason, Bruce.

A soft place to land (2k, ao3) Trying to get Bruce to retire. Jason, Dick, batfamily.

touched your head gently (felt my heart melt) (7k, ao3) Movie-verse Floyd as a father through the years. Floyd, Zoe, squad. 

Will someone tell me what's going on tonight (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Dick’s OC boyfriend is an asshole, Wally offers comfort. Dick/OC (past), Bruce, Wally

At its core (1k, ao3 I tumblr) Considering fatherhood and marriage. Duke-centric, side JayRoyTim.

Hockey RPF

Sometimes I lie (4k, ao3) An FBI agent and his informant. SidGeno.

Finding Surety  (13k, ao3) Fake Dating. Marner/Matthews.  

Do you know (I still miss you) (6k, ao3) Getting back together with a little help from your friends. Eichel/McDavid. (Part two of ‘Read all about it’)

The name that history wrote (8k, ao3) Harry Potter AU, triwizard tournament. Eichel/McDavid.

the whole world's out of sync (9k, ao3) 13 going on 30 AU. SidGeno.

stellar nucleosynthesis (13k, ao3) Magical realism and truth spells. Danny/Claude.

But you were always on my mind (7k, ao3) Soulmarks complicated by dyslexia.

Feather (9k, ao3) Crimean war magical realism AU. SidGeno.

Other fandoms

starts with truth (MCU, 8k, ao3) If Steve talked to Tony and Pepper earlier about the winter soldier. SteveTonyPepper.

someday my prince will come (X-Men Movies, 7k, ao3) Erik deals with an enchanted forest. Cherik.

Nothing easy worth doing (Power Rangers, 2k, ao3) Superheroing while autistic - pros and cons. 

Shoot me down (Star Wars, 12k, ao3) Kier survives. Everything else still happens. LeiaKierHan.

Ask his mind (ask his heart) (Star Wars, 2k, ao3)  Anakin gets dosed with sex pollen. ObiKin. 

A Woman is Herself (Lady Sherlock, 7k, ao3) Joanna Watson character study. JoannaJohn. 

Will it burn forever (this light) (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, 11k, ao3) Love spell adventures. ArthurTristan. (There’s a podcast!)

Someday soon (Arashi RPF, 1k, ao3) A glance into the future. Ohmiya. 

With fates to come (D.Gray-man, 1k, ao3) Tikki is Cassandra. TikkiAllen.

Dedication with @magoril​ (FBAWTFT, 2k, ao3) Theseus fixes things for his brother. TinaNewt. 

Shiny things (FBAWTFT, 2k, ao3) Percival gets a service Niffler. Gen. 

[gascon-en-exil]

But What If You Want to Come Out on Vers Bottom?: A “Coming Out on Top” Review (Part 1)

A review quoted on this game’s website describes it as “the Citizen Kane of ripped, naked big-dicked dudes in love.” Incredibly narrow superlative notwithstanding, that’s some high praise. Does Coming Out on Top earn it?

(I also solemnly swear not to make a relevant innuendo involving rosebuds, because there’s enough dirty wordplay here without my input.)

It’s been a bit unusual for me to return to CooT, having played it when it first released in late 2014 and then only on and off since then as the game was regularly updated. I believe it’s actually the first proper dating sim I ever played - no, Fire Emblem’s Avatar romances do not count as far as I’m concerned - and it set a very high bar for quality that has unfortunately never quite been surpassed by other (gay) titles in the genre.

This is perhaps all the more remarkable in that the premise here is not the most original thing in the world: Mark Matthews (you can change his name at the start, but I’ll be going with this default masterwork of blandness) has just come out of the closet to his two roommates Penny and Ian at the start of his final semester at university, and the story plays out from there as he meets, dates, and potentially falls in love with a wide assortment of men while also balancing his studies and his relationships with the aforementioned roommates who also double as his friend group. That’s...basically it, and apart from the romance plotlines the rest of the game’s content feels fairly extraneous. Mark can’t flunk out before the end of the story no matter how much you neglect his grades (although his job prospects in the ending will improve if you do work on them), and for the most part whatever money he amasses or friendship bonding moments he has during his free time on the weekends only plays into whether you get friendship endings with Penny and/or Ian. Unlike Chess of Blades survival is usually a given in CooT, and while there are quite a few death endings sprinkled throughout the game’s content almost all of them are played for laughs (and sometimes Steam achievements, because why not).

No, there are three major selling points here independent of the excuse plot. First and perhaps most noticeably, the writing never takes itself too seriously and incorporates everything from silly banter to fourth wall-breaking (refuse to come out at the start of the game, for an early example) to the sort of understated pun work that makes Dream Daddy’s script apparently living off corny dad jokes all the more egregious by comparison. There’s even a fair amount of self-aware meta humor, in a game released several years before the likes of Doki Doki Literature Club! made that par for the course for dating sims.

Then there’s the sheer diversity of options on display in terms of storylines and how certain scenarios play out, including the third point which is, well...the raw, uncensored gay sex. Despite the innuendo of CooT’s title Mark is not a total top, and most of the game’s myriad sex scenes can go down in a variety of different ways depending on what Mark/the player expresses a preference for - including situations involving various types of kinks. There’s also a very limited degree of body customization available; in the options menu there are toggles for Mark and all of his (primary) sexual partners that give you the option to add facial and/or body hair to their portraits and CGs. The hair options aren’t gamebreaking by any means - for Mark it only allows him to switch between twunk and otter, and while there is some diversity in race, age, and body type among his love interests and hookups there’s still a notable number of muscled 20-somethings. Still, I do appreciate that the toggles are there. You’ll notice my own preferences for the guys in my screenshots.

Back to that other kind of variety though. With six primary love interests and numerous divergent paths for each of them - some good, some bad, and some hilariously strange - there’s a ton of content to work through in CooT. The pathing is set up so that you get the opportunity to meet almost all of the love interests before you’re asked to commit to one of their stories, something the game heavily telegraphs so you’ll never feel like you’ve been unknowingly pushed past a point of no return. These introductions are generally on the SFW side, but there are two chances for some rauchy fun even before you commit so let it not be said that this game has strictly enforced monogamy at all times. On that note, there’s also Brofinder.

Penny comically missing the point aside, Brofinder is an in-universe Grindr equivalent. It can be accessed if you decline to pursue any of the love interests, or more conveniently from the main menu independent of the story. Fittingly for the type of app it’s lampooning, Brofinder dates are disconnected vignettes that all, if done correctly, end in some hot NSA action but impact nothing else after you’ve completed them. There are ten of these, all added via progressive updates following the game’s initial release, and taken together they add substantially to the many ways in which Mark can get laid.

I should also mention the secret seventh joke “love interest,” but as that one has become a bit of a minor meme and will probably come up if you Google blindly about this game I’ll leave it at that.

...Yeah. Leaving it right there.

There are some places where the presentation of CooT falters, but nothing on the scale of the dodgy voice acting found in some of the other gay dating sims I’ve discussed - mostly because there is no voice acting. Aside from the CGs and the character portraits the artwork can be rather workmanlike and forgettable, and similarly almost all of the soundtrack I would liken to elevator music which might have inspired one of the Brofinder dates now that I think about it. The supporting cast on the whole also doesn’t get much opportunity to shine aside from Mark’s roommates, because the love interests’ stories are all unrelated to each other and as such the people around them can only be involved in one of the game’s plots. I’m tempted to sum this all up as weak worldbuilding, but let’s be honest here - all this game needs is the suggestion of a generic American university and surrounding town peopled mostly with archetypes (at times comedically memorable ones, granted) to give it sufficient background. Most actual porn gets away with far less than that.

When I did my review of Chess of Blades I was able to discuss each of its love interests in a single follow-up post, but CooT simply has too much going on for that. Therefore this review will have three additional parts: two covering the six primary love interests, and a third going more quickly over the Brofinder dates. At time of writing I don’t think I’m also going to be grading the sex scenes of how realistic they are like I did with CoB, because there are too many of them and nothing sticks out as egregiously as it does in that game. There will however be as much description for them as I can manage; that is the main selling point here, after all.