#if someone can come up with a succession au for the critical role universe they are a more inventive writer than me.

[essektheylyss]

Am I going to watch Succession for, primarily, fic research. Am I really going to do that. (The answer is yes.)

[skipppppy]

Character design concepts for my Carmen Sandiego timeskip au!! I imagine it takes place about 3 years after the final scene of the show (which seems to be a 2 year timeskip, making it 5 years altogether); It follows the characters slowly coming together as V.I.L.E’s faculty properly break out of prison and are hellbent on revenge and rebuilding their criminal empire.

I have explanations for what each character is doing under the cut!

Carmen and Player:

After spending several years reconnecting with her mother and helping out at the orphanage, she heard whispers of V.I.L.E returning and decided it was once again time to throw on the red coat and get back into action. She takes a less active role this time round, as she knows that there are other people on the case, but she still shows up to kick ass when necessary. Mostly she’s just there for fun

This time, however, her good friend Mr. Bouchard had just graduated from university, and decided to join her on an “apprenticeship” so they could travel the world together. They’re basically crime fighting best friends/siblings who stop heists occasionally and then spend most of the time doing really dumb shit together

Zack, Chase, and Julia:

You know those movies where a character stumbles into great fortune and success by complete accident? Yeah that’s EXACTLY what happened to Zack. After a couple years of working for ACME he decided to leave and finally pursue his dreams of being a race car driver; not only did he make it to the top of his field, but through a series of unpredictable events he also became a wildly famous model, a respected food critic, and AN ACTUAL DUKE. Nothing about his personality changed, he’s still a goofy Bostonian himbo, just living his best life in Italy where all of this happened.

Unfortunately for Zack, with great fame comes a couple of haters, notably ex-V.I.L.E operative Dash Haber who was plotting his downfall from the shadows. Chase was assigned to investigate, and then Chief realised how much chaos Zack and Devineaux would cause if they were in a room together, so she assigned Julia as well so someone among them would have a brain cell

Ivy, Sonia, Xifeng, and The Troll

When Zack left ACME to go pursue his dreams, Ivy initially stayed behind because she liked her job, but eventually started questioning what she wanted to do with her life. That is, until, one night when she ran into Sonia, who had followed in Carmen’s footsteps and was now acting as the new “femme rouge”. Ivy found purpose in the work she did for Carmen, so she decided to assist Sonia in her work by providing her with tools and a getaway driver, just like the good ol’ days.

While on their travels they ran into Xifeng, who joined the two of them on their travels, since she wanted to see the world (and also had a bit of a crush on Sonia oop). They also ran into ex-V.I.L.E operative The Troll, who they were initially going to turn in to the authorities, until Sonia remembered that Carmen had a hacker on her team who made their capers run a lot more smoothly. So they basically blackmailed him into going with them. While Ivy was naturally suspicious of him at first, he actually warmed up to the group eventually, since he was still committing cyber crime and making money, he had no reason to betray them.

With the new Team Red assembled they basically did the same stuff the old Team Red did, although Sonia’s strategy and the group’s general chemistry made their capers go WILDLY different to how Carmen’s used to. Sonia is much more mischievous and playful than Carmen used to be, and she isn’t as hesitant about fighting dirty. Xifeng is the only chill one on the team and The Troll is still a bit of a jerk, and Ivy is frequently driven up the wall by their antics. I can genuinely imagine her yelling at them after their goofing around got them into trouble and calling them “unruly pranksters” and feeling Shadowsan’s spirit physically channeling through her

Shadowsan

Taking a well deserved nap and being bullied by his brother. Do not disturb him

[nevertheless-moving]

I always have mixed feelings about Jedi!Leia, like, on the one hand, she’d be SO powerful, and that’d be so cool to see. Literally all I wanted as a kid was to see Leia kick some ass w/ the Force, AND SHE COULD. She’s literally the embodiment of protective instincts and justice. But on the other hand, she’d be SO POWERFUL, and Leia is... an angry person. She has every right to be, too, but that kind of thing doesn’t vibe well with ‘partially-trained powerhouse’. But then on the other side of THAT, her NOT using the force feels like denying an important part of who she is and what she could do, and Leia is the sort to do EVERYTHING SHE CAN for those she loves and feels responsible for.

Do you think she’d do the responsible thing (Anakin could never) and more or less give her powers a hard pass, or do you think she’d figure out some way to make them work for her?

There are a lot of ways to channel the force, right? 

Jedi Knights are trained in the most obviously badass methods, with the clearest physical impacts. But the jedi order had other branches (and I realize canon's probably a mess about those so good thing im overwhelmingly informed by fanon).

I think wanting to be a jedi knight is similar to wanting to be a firefighter or cop- it's a job that's description involves saveing people and ALSO comes with the chance to kick down a door. That's appealing, and necessary sometimes. But unfortunately not all problems can be solved by breaking a window dramatically with a chair, and fortunately there are other ways to do good.

So we've got medicorps- force healing and using that understanding of the living force to direct medical research.

Exploracorps- these are the jedi who probably use the force most in the way that untrained forcesensitives do, but on purpose. the successful spacers are the ones who listen to their 'instincts' and 'gut feelings' when 'something' tells them to drop out of hyperspace now or approach that stranger over there. There's an energy field that binds the universe together. People who listen to it when it's loud or follow it when its twisting around something are probably going to be more successful in general, and that edge is going to be most OBVIOUS in high risk professions.

We've got agricorps-  and kriff as someone whose done hands on conservation and farm work isn't that one dreamy. A trained jedi who can just reach their hands into a layer of soil and over the course of a year speed up nitrogen fertilization and healthy root growth and all those other things that might take a hundred years to make a noticeable impact DAMN. I'm not saying it's as cool as being a knight, backflips and laser swords are objectively cooler but it's definitely as HELPFUL if not way more so.

And then educorps and diplocorps right? That last one might be fandom so let's talk educorps- how do you use the force to teach? If i could read a kids mind to understand what they didn't understand sure maybe it would be creepy but it would honestly be more helpful and less fucked up then all the impacts of repeated testing! Do you have any idea how much less stressful your education would have been if you never had to take a test because your teacher just KNEW what you were struggling with and partnered you with another student and overt the course of a conversation it all clicked into place? If you could just clear the bad vibes out of a classroom with a wave of your hand when something scary happened in the community, allowing children in low income areas to critically think and learn without the interference of a prolonged stress response, thus giving them the opportunity to excel in the way their core world peers do? Karking one generation of psychically enhanced education, just doing that alone, could lift a planet out of institutional poverty.

And then diplomacy, politics. I'm not sure if this a cadet branch of the jedi order or LITERALLY their primary role prior to disenfranchisement and conscription. Either way it's leia's chosen profession pre and post original trilogy, and I'm gonna say she could ABSOLUTELY be doing that as a trained jedi.

Well as trained as any jedi can be at that point in the timeline.

There's one really good au out there about crechemaster anakin. And honestly? If you have severe trauma and anger issues, your culture should probs be encouraging you towards pursuing a career that does not include violence. Maybe before their numbers were depleted and conflicts became increasingly violent, the most volatile jedi were encouraged as far from physical ass kicking as possible, not out of exclusion, but because it's only going to make their problems worse, while creating brand new problems for everyone else. The tendency of the culture I live in to encourage people with violent tendencies to become cops and soldiers has CAUSED SOME ISSUES FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING THE COPS AND SOLDIERS. Look there's no such thing as a rule that's perfect for everyone but as far as healthy outlets for agression go, vulnerable people in high risk situations are really low on the list. 

Yeah so jedi leia would probably be taught how to Not accidently on purpose kill people with her brain by willing their spaceships to crash into asteroids or screwing with their blasters in a firefight so they consistently miss, or all the other ways she unintentionally but gleefully force murdered people in the original trilogy. 

And then she'd be taught to use her skywalker-bullshit-level powers for politics. 

And holy SHIT.

Do you know how many problems are caused by miscommunication? In international security theory, rational actors pretty much ONLY go to war because of unavoidable communication errors. If you could have a trusted neutral party guaranteeing treaties with demonstable magic SO much less military spending would happen. I'm sorry but that is LITERALLY how the vatican became a political powerhouse. As it lost its credibility, so many wars happened. So many.

And that's just one of the big most clear cut things.

Domestic politics? Government reform? Jedi politicians would be INSANE. I - look.

When a policy workgroup is trying to make a change in a democratic society they genuinely try to use mind tricks. Fearmongering is the easiest- imagine if the nra was able to put a little force suggestion behind the idea that criminals were trying to break into your home and murder your family and if you give up your gun then only criminals will have guns. You're already scared- and now there's a supernatural element pushing it along. 

On the other side of the political spectrum, again, the most successful campaigns uh, also involve fear, the left is just less good at structuring the entire argument in those terms (shame is the more common go to). Pushing the fear that anyone could get sick and lose everything, even you. You could get cancer and lose your job and then you wouldn't have insurance so that's why EVERYONE needs government health insurance. Shaming anyone who does racist shit publically was so effective that racist people started getting so quiet that they accidentally raised way less racist children. 

A jedi would be unbelievably  effective with the 'negative' emotion public outreach, but that might be darkside stuff. 'righteous' emotion driven social change does happen sometimes, compassion is at start of most human rights movements.  

Tho not going to lie anger and shame is kindof what keeps those movements going so...

Jedi Politician Leia using vaapad to reshape the galaxy? 

[vesperlionheart]

Vesper’s Quarantine ‘Finished’ Reading List

If you’re stuck indoors and feeling anxious sometimes the best thing is to drown your brain in distractions until you’re able to function again. Thus, I’ve put together a list of Sakura centric stories to entertain you. There’s a lot of shameless self promo here, fair warning, but it’s my blog and my blogpost so that’s where we’re gonna start.  Some of my favorite fic are ones still being updated but this list includes only stories marked as [complete]. 

[Finished personal fic]

Obelisk: Kingdom of Man By: VesperChan 'She could swear she smelt sulfur when she exhaled. Nothing good ever came from boys who smelled like sulfur.' An ancient Egyptian curse and a world of dreams opens Sakura up to a life devoid of safety. In the darkness her nightmares bow themselves to her. In the morning they feast on her heart. AU SakuraMany Obelisk: Kingdom of Beasts By: VesperChan One Kingdom down, three to go. Carrying the scars on her heart, Sakura must brave the dreams again as this time, there are more sinister things then men waiting for her when she goes to sleep. The wolves have come to feast and her body will know their teeth. AU SakuraMany Obelisk: Kingdom of Monsters By: VesperChan More than halfway through the curse, Sakura's nightmares hold nothing back as fangs and spells seek to drag her down and bury her with the dead. Monsters have come at least to feast on what is left of her bones and devour her wounded heart. Beyond the scars and bloodshed, her soul is beginning to fade under the dim lights of another enchanted speakeasy and ruby eyes. AU SakuraMany Obelisk: Kingdom of Gods By: VesperChan Entering the final kingdom, Sakura stands atop a castle of sand to face down the gods who first orchestrated the curse and began the bloody tradition of collecting human souls in a little black obelisk. Gladiators, Egyptian gods, and blood thirsty pharaohs paint a vivid picture on the inside of her mind as she sleeps, dreams, and struggles once again. AU SakuraMany Total word count for Obelisk series: 565,292 (just over half a million words)

RED KING By: VesperChan In the wild country where it never snows but always freezes, the Red King marches his armies against the White Tsar. That is why Sakura is swept away from the lonely streets and the empty barracks into a car with a bastard prince and a promise of redemption, but if only she can face the demons that chased her in the first place and be what the king needs in his war. SakuraCentric 

Touken Revolution by Vesperchan (rated E)  Sakura, a sword smith, is nearly killed for what she really is: a sage, one who can animate weapons into warriors and give bodies to the souls she hears inside swords. Now a refugee in the land of Kiri she's building an army because it's her only hope for survival and maybe even happiness. SakuraKiri Sakura centric

Things We Lost in the Fire By: VesperChan Years later, living alone in the woods with half a dozen dogs, questionable reading material, and crippling non-attachment issues, Sakura realizes she has turned into her teacher. Agebent Sakura Sensei ShiSaku

Jealous gods by Vesperchan When a coup takes the lives of the king and the rest of the royal family, Sakura, the sole surviver, escapes to the edge of the world with Kakashi to strike a bargain with an old god. Her worship in exchange for his power. She's warned he's a dark and jealous god, but that's not enough to sway her. ItaSaku Kakasaku darkItachi AU

Lindworm & the Tam Lin Love a Changling by Vesperchan Sakura travels as a curse breaker across the land, doing what she can to put some peace back into the world. She doesn't think much of it when she breaks the curse on a lesser dragon or a fae knight, but maybe she should have. MadaSaku, HashiSaku Poly

A Confluence of Stars by Vesperchan (my WitcherAU) With the war over between two princedoms, Sakura, a sniper, returns home to celebrate Confluence with her grandmother, the local Story Keeper. She had expected it to be nothing more than just another celebration when the star rivers overlapped and the poor people partied. But, along with the rest of the world, Sakura soon realizes that Confluence did more than just give people a reason to celebrate. A wicked new world filled with monsters and magic straight from Baba's tales spills into theirs, and Sakura is forced to turn to her rifle and her stories to make sense of it. Sakuracentric 

Sugarplum by Vesperchan "They will use you up, and love you all the while, until there is nothing left of the girl you used to be." Sakura had been a chosen one, once upon a time, but that was years ago, and all the magic has left her. Still, the world calls her back and she has a new role in supporting the next girl savior many years her junior. ItaSakuSaso

Stag by Vesperchan  He was a wizard with a tower and a set of rules he should never break. Sakura was a girl with just a bit of budding magic he decides he can't ignore. Some things were made to be broken. TobiSaku 

[Finished general fic list]

Hollow Point by Sariasprincy @sariasprincy​ Arms dealing is her trade, but young and in a man's world, it takes a criminal mastermind to play with the big dogs without getting bit. TobiSaku/ItaSaku. Crime!AU. Rated M for mentions of adult themes.

Where it Happened also by @sariasprincy​e He was the new head of Cardio and her new boss, and though she thought him a little full of himself, it seemed there was more to the famed Uchiha Itachi than he led on. Not that she could claim her life was that uncomplicated as well. ItaSaku. Modern AU. Grey's Anatomy AU. Rated M for mentions of adult themes.

Nightmare in Red by @sariasprincy​ Haruno Sakura used to think the eyes were the windows to the soul, but after witnessing the horrors of the Sharingan firsthand, she's convinced they are the doors. ItaSaku. Nonmass. Rated T

Blurred Lines  by @sariasprincy​He was an international criminal. She was a federal agent. And she wanted nothing more than to arrest him - or shoot him - if only he would stop providing her leads to more desirable criminals first. MadaSaku. Rated T.

The Man in Black  A man in black haunts her hospital. But what does he want and why is it that Sakura is the only one that can see him? ItaSaku. Modern Myth AU. Death AU

The Choices We Make by @sariasprincy​He was the Head of the Uchiha Clan and she the fearless discipline of the Hokage, but how the hell was she supposed to find the strength to tell him she was pregnant? MadaSaku. Rated M for mentions of adult themes.

halcyon days by jaylene @thefreckledone​ Sakura sees dead people. Well, two dead people to be exact. Everything changes. Sakura-centric. Indra/Sakura/Ashura. 

hands like houses by @thefreckledone Sakura finds herself trapped in the past and discovers a new family along the way, however unwilling she may be. Time travel. Fix-it fic. Sakura-centric.

Borage by @thefreckledone Sakura is in search for answers. What she finds doesn't please her.

Forest Fire by Moor @kendochick-moor Mod AU. Sasu x Saku x Ita. A small spark can launch a forest fire.

Forest Fire II by Moor @kendochick-moor Sequel to "Forest Fire". University AU. Sasu X Saku X Ita. After Sasuke inexplicably broke up with her when he leaves for Oto, Sakura throws herself into her school and social life. Friends like Ino, and surprisingly Itachi, are there to help her along the way. Meanwhile another threat, in the form of unbalanced Uchiha Madara, stalks her, ever nearer.

Tipsy series by Moor @kendochick-moor Mod AU. MadaSaku. The 1-5 part  of the "5 Drunkfics" prompts.  (Rated 'M' for language & themes)

Akatsuki Sakura AU by moor  DeiSaku, ItaSaku. Konoha-verse AU. Akatsuki Sakura AU. Raised by Uchiha Madara as part of the Akatsuki, Sakura is sent to infiltrate Konoha's ranks. Things become complicated when she is promoted to a team with one of Konoha's most well-respected ANBU captains, Uchiha Itachi.

Soulmates by Moor - KakaSaku. Age-swap AU. Based on the "Soulmates" prompt from the October 2015 tumblr KakaSaku fest. Kakashi has a reputation as an enfant terrible; at least, until Sakura sensei takes him under her wing. Rated M for later chapters.

Fancy Footwork by silverfootsteps @silverfootstepswrites For Sakura, there's always been dreary days of schoolwork and unreliable people. Who knew a clumsy womanizer, an accidental pervert, a soft-hearted glutton, and an incredibly sexy virgin would light her life up like this? A friendship founded on dancing and the strange threat that tied them all together: "Fiji". AU

Equinox by silverfootsteps Sakura is half-siren, half-human, and 100% unprepared for what waits for her when she moves to a little seaside town. A place where calling someone a monster always receives the answer: "….well, duh". Monster AU. Multisaku.

Lullaby by Silverfootsteps Sakura is part-siren, part-human, and learning how to deal with a nest of lovable dorks. But nothing seems impossible in the sleepy little town of Old Pines, where magic hangs heavy in the air and a certain werewolf has learned to stop pissing everywhere. Sort of. Sequel to Equinox. Monster AU. Polysaku af.

Butterfly by silverfootsteps After winning her first and only Olympic gold, Haruno Sakura shocks the world by announcing her retirement from skating. When she returns to her little hometown of Konoha, she finds that not much has changed. The same old temples, the same old persimmon trees. Resigned to a quiet life, she settles in for what she hopes will be an uneventful retirement. Skating AU. Itasaku.

Five Kingdoms for the Dead by Evil Is A Relative Term After the Forest of Death, Sakura comes to realize that being weak is no longer an option. However, she finds that change is sometimes painful and that truth doesn't always come easy. Luckily, she'll have some help along the way.

Vertigo by Cynchick Sakura accepts the most critical and dangerous mission of her life, but the price of success may very well be her soul. When your entire world turns upside down, how do you keep from going under? DeiSaku.

An Indispensable Assistant by TayMor Professional. Intelligent. Intuitive. Haruno Sakura is the assistant every boss wants. She is smart, she is capable, and she is experienced. Operating with her own hard and fast rules, Sakura has one, very important personal rule. Never fall in love with your boss. However, being indispensable to Uchiha Itachi will put that rule under heavy duress. AU. 

The Third Chance by TayMor reviewsJust because he died didn't mean he got to stay dead. The Rikudo Sennin reincarnates Uchiha Madara as his 26 year old self and he begins his third life broken, humiliated and full of despair. But things change as Madara finds himself competing against Sasuke for the attention of Konoha's favorite medic... MadaSakuSasu Set after the final battle and during the blank period.

Rainy Days by Wynth It took her a while before Sakura was convinced that she was once again in her twelve year old body, but by that time it was too late. •Time-Travel / AU•

Consequences of Saving a Life by BelleDayNight reviewsAt the end of the war, Neji is revived by Sakura. She has saved his life, now she is responsible for it. The Hyuga clan leader covets the power that Naruto and Sakura could bring the clan with unions with Hinata and Neji. Can they survive the politics of the noble clan? Naruto trains with Sasuke and Hanabi for CPE while Sakura and Neji embark on a mission together for the Daimyo.

Take It or Leave It by kc-archive  Akatsuki & Sakura. After a moment of shock, Sakura realized that two fully grown, fully naked men were sitting squished uncomfortably together in her bathtub. (dubcon warning)

Till Death Due Us Apart  by SpeedDemon315​ Ever since he was gone, she never was the same. The world was warm and cheery while she was cold and dreary. She thought there was no hope left for her…or was there? Oneshot, character death [SasorixSakura]

Bringing Back What's Dead by SpeedDemon315  Sequel to Till Death Due Us Apart. She made a promise to herself to discover a way to revive him and have him finally see his son. What happens when your greatest enemy from the past is the only one who can grant your fondest wish? SakuraxSasori

Time Flies Like An Arrow by katlou303 Sakura traveled back in time with the intent of changing everything, but something went wrong, and now she's a four-year-old civilian having nightmares about impossible monsters and losing friends she has yet to meet.

Uneasy coexistence by DeGlace One grinning shark–man. One pink–haired medic. Ankles. Teeth. Kisame x Sakura. Yes, you read that right.

The Art of War by leafygirl  Entry for the LJ Kakasaku AU contest. Sakura gets stuck following her teacher after a bet with her friends. But his mysterious life is nothing she ever expected.

Vespertine by Cynchick  Two enemies strike a bargain to save what they both hold dear. He will reveal a truth that shakes her beliefs, drawing her into a web of lies and betrayal. She will offer the redemption for which he never hoped and show him how to be human again. ItaSaku.

Caught and Set Loose by Celtic Oak AU. On a mission, Sakura and her companions find themselves in the custody of the wildest clan of the East Province. Forced to accept their hospitality and a redheaded escort, the medic must make the best of her situation, wherever it leads her. GaaSaku. 

[a-student-out-of-time]

Rambling about V3 Again

Today I saw a really interesting quote from author Brandon Sanderson and it honestly got me thinking. He talked about what he considers the single worst thing you can do with critique in writing, and that’s if a critic “tries to make your story into one they would write, rather a better version of one you want to write.”

That got me thinking about V3.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that V3 is a very polarizing game, and I’ve seen many people talk about how they would’ve preferred to see the story play out, from character arcs to deaths to story conclusions. And while I do honestly enjoy seeing alternative perspectives and takes and AU’s, I feel like a lot about the game, what it’s trying to say and be, is skewed by those ideals.

I’m not saying that the critiques about the game are invalid, because there are a fair share of flaws with the game. What I am saying is that we end up talking so much about what we wish V3 could’ve been that what V3 was trying to be often ends up lost in that, and I want to talk about it.

It wasn’t until I really saw this quote that I was able to articulate all my likes and dislikes about the game and the reactions to it into a cohesive whole, which is what I’d like to do here.

So let’s ask this: what was V3 really trying to be?

Let’s start from the game’s theme: the relationship between truth and lies. This is best exemplified by the fact that you have the option to lie during trials, that you can use deception to find the truth. That’s a very different take from the previous games, where hope was associated with finding and confronting the truth.

Kokichi is another example, as he’s a self-admitted liar who claims to lead a criminal organization and it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s thinking or saying. Yet Kokichi actually helps bring the group to several truths: he helps find the culprit in trials, he reveals Maki’s identity as the Ultimate Assassin, tells the truth about Gonta murdering Miu and it’s thanks to his actions that the group later discovers the reality of their situation.

Throughout their journey, the group is confronted by numerous truths they don’t want to acknowledge, even refusing to do so and attacking people who continue to push them through. And with every revelation, there’s always those lingering details that don’t really make a lot of sense.

Let’s look at the game’s main narrative. At the start of the game, Kaede remembers she was kidnapped in broad daylight, thrown into a van, and brought to some abandoned school with a bunch of other people. She doesn’t act like a particularly nice person and is dressed differently, at least until the Monokubs arrive and give everyone their new clothes and memories. From that point, the narrative shifts considerably.

Kaede is suddenly an outgoing, optimistic leader and Shuichi is a sullen, withdrawn detective who serves as her deuteragonist for Chapter 1. She’s resolved to escape the Killing Game and tries to rally the group together. However, when her methods don’t prove successful and they start drifting away from her, she considers saving them by any means necessary and goes so far as to attempt murder against the mastermind. When that happens, she’s found guilty and executed, leaving Shuichi to take up her role as protagonist.

As you go through the game, using devices called flashback lights that apparently reawaken lost memories, you learn more and more about the reason that the group was brought here: the Gofer Project. When meteors began raining down on earth, all seemed lost until they established this project to send a group of survivors into space to colonize a new planet. A group of Ultimates.

They had established early on that Ultimates have even greater rights in this world: they’re the only ones allowed to vote and hold office. As the meteors came down and the news of this project got out, some people formed a cult that believed it was divine judgement and that mankind should be destroyed. That’s when they began the Ultimate Hunt, pursuing the candidates for the Gofer Project across the world. The Ultimates, with no other way out, decided to erase their memories of talent and live their last days as normal people.

To protect them, the people in charge spread a false story that the Ultimates had died, even holding a fake funeral for them and sent them into space secretly. However, while everyone was in cold sleep, one member of the cult- Kokichi- had sneaked aboard and piloted the ship back to the ruined and now inhospitable earth. They have no way back and no way to survive outside, and thanks to Kokichi’s claims to be the mastermind, they’ve been killing each for nothing. The group ultimately loses hope.

However, they’re resolved to continue on in their fight against the mastermind when they find a flashback light that reveals they weren’t just any ultimates: they were the next generation of ultimates from Hope’s Peak Academy. It wasn’t really the meteorites that got everyone, it was an alien virus that pushed mankind to the brink of extinction. That the cult that rose in the wake of this was Ultimate Despair.

That seems like a definitive way to link this game with its predecessors...until you really begin to stop and pick it apart. If this was about saving mankind, why did nobody have their memories right away? Why would you only bring 16 people? Why students who don’t make them suited to colonization? Why people like a death row inmate, a serial killer, a self-proclaimed liar and criminal, and an assassin?

Furthermore, going through many Fte’s highlights how much of the characters’ backstories seem very out there. Gonta wasn’t raised by wolves but a race of dinosaur people living in the woods, Kirumi is so hyper-competent that she became prime minister during the meteor crisis, Korekiyo’s killed almost 100 women and yet has never been caught, Maki can attend high school despite Japanese orphanages being too underfunded for kids to usually attend, Tenko’s neo-aikido breaks all the rules of traditional aikido and she's impulsive, has low pain tolerance, and disregards fair rules, none of which are very befitting of a martial artist.

And to conclude, even I thought that the reveal of their connection to Hope’s Peak felt very fanficy and out there, especially when the game had made no references or implications of it beforehand. But the reason for all of this is simple and effective:

None of this is real. It’s all staged.

Chapter 6 reveals that everything from their identities to the outside world they thought they knew was all just a fabrication. In truth, Tsumugi shows herself as the mastermind and that they’re actually in the 53rd season of an in-universe show called Danganronpa. Something alluded to even in the beginning of the game with the Team Danganronpa logo. This moment was very make or break for a lot of people, but let’s treat it fairly.

According to Tsumugi, the outside world has become a peaceful, boring place and Danganronpa is the only source of real entertainment the people have. A place where people literally come to have their identities replaced with those of Ultimates and then made to kill each other. This, as it turns out, was an outgrowth of the actual series we’d played before. A game that’s gone over 53 times.

This revelation is devastating for the characters. The lives and memories they’d known were all fabrications, which Tsumugi claims to have intentionally written. The Flashback lights were designed to implant fake memories to manipulate them, which is why that Hope’s Peak connection was set up after everyone gave up following the reveal of the outside world. A truth that could lead the world to despair, a lie that could lead the world to hope.

She even goes so far as to show everyone’s audition tapes, claiming that Kaede, Kaito, and Shuichi himself were willing to participate in the killings out of sheer misanthropy, popularity, and morbid excitement 

Kiibo is also revealed to be the audience’s means of interacting with the game, able to carry out their wishes and can even be hijacked and used as a way to fight against the characters’ decisions.

In the end, Tsumugi claims that the ongoing battle of hope vs despair needs to continue in perpetuity and that the survivors need to sacrifice someone, since only two people can survive Danganronpa. Shuichi, however, convinces Maki and Himiko not to vote for anyone and actually convinces the in-universe audience to give up on the series. Kiibo then blows the set to hell and allows Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko the chance to escape and see the world outside and what sort of influence they could have.

Now, let’s this break this down piece by piece here, because I feel like this part of the game is often conflated. Often I’ve seen people say that Chapter 6 is a giant middle finger to fans of the series, that nothing about the series really mattered, or that the flaws of the game can simply be attributed to bad writing on the creator’s part.

I honestly used to be in that camp myself, but the more I’ve thought about it, the more I feel those statements don’t hold up to scrutiny. We often conflate writing and narrative decisions we don’t like with bad writing. However, if the creator deliberately wants the narrative to move in that direction and has made intentional foreshadowing, references, and motivations that match it, we can’t simply equate that with it being “badly written.”

It’s not bad simply because we would’ve preferred they do something different. There’s a lot of very acclaimed books out there that I’ll admit I don’t care for because of their narrative decisions, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re badly-written.

Furthermore, if something intentionally doesn’t make sense in-story, that is not bad writing. That is purposeful on the part of the creator, not a plot hole. The Gofer Project is not supposed to be a logical narrative, it’s meant to serve V3′s role: deconstruction of the nature of the series. It does this in many different ways:

Sequelization: 53 is a ridiculous amount of entries in a franchise and as I’m sure we’re all aware, as the number of entries goes up, the writing quality tends to go down. The Gofer Project story was purposefully meant to be nonsensical because it’s a story in an in-universe franchise that jumped the shark long ago.

A lot of people found it confusing or ridiculous that Shuichi and Kaede would have a romantic connection despite knowing each other barely a few days. That’s also the point; quick romances are a convenient narrative device to establish a means for character growth, followed by fridging her, a bad narrative trope designed to propel Shuichi toward development. Tsumugi even said as much during Chapter 6.

Similarly, Maki’s role in the story and her feelings for Kaito were reminiscent of that as well, with him helping her come out of her shell. 

When you go back, you can see Danganronpa is loaded with references to other series. Tsumugi is an obsessive otaku and went so far as to fill the entire story with deliberate references and callbacks to things she enjoys.

The Monokubs are deliberate references to executive decisions to add more marketable and merchandisable characters as the series drags on.

The fact that there are (supposedly) people willing to sign up for a killing game deconstructs the idea that some in the fandom may have had. That is, actually being in a killing game would not be fun or exciting, but horrific and traumatizing. Most of us wouldn’t be badass detectives or heroes, we’d be scared out of our minds, afraid, and want to find a way out.

Furthermore, Shuichi being repeatedly told that he’s just a fictional character and that his role is to be the protagonist, to go through hardships and come out stronger for the audience’s entertainment pisses him off so much that he wants no part of it. 

The climax is ultimately a deconstruction of what the series is famous for: the battle of hope vs. despair. In-universe, this has been reduced down to a simple narrative where the audience wants the same thing again and again: to see hope win in the end. Because hope keeps winning, the audience keeps wanting more. It’s become so formulaic that the audience doesn’t want to break out of its shell and just wants to see it over and over.

The final PTA against Kiibo is not meant to be an insult to the audience, but a representation of fighting against toxicity and entitlement in the fanbase, especially the ones that don’t want change. It’s not saying “you’re stupid for liking this series,” it’s saying “don’t be like these people.”

And how does the game? An unsatisfying ending that’s so bad that it drives the audience to give up on the show, finally allowing the killing to stop. Tsumugi decides she can’t live in a world without her favorite show and decides to die.

And that brings me to what I think is the ultimate thing that people conflate about the ending: that it’s all fiction, so nothing about it matters. That the��entire franchise was fake, so it’s not worth your time.

That’s exactly the opposite of what V3 is trying to say.

First, Tsumugi is a completely unreliable narrator. The kind of person who let fiction consume her entire life, yet she believes it can’t change reality. She’s a liar and a hypocrite, and there’s no way of knowing if anything she says about the outside world is even true. It could be like she says or it might not be.

The fact that they have technology that can remove memories and add fake ones adds an entire dimension of ambiguity to everything she says, especially when you consider how the beginning of the game does not match up with what she says. We have no idea what the kids were really like before the killing game, so why should we believe anything she says?

And how can we be certain of her claims that she just wrote everything as planned? Kokichi and Kaito managed to put together a plan that completely threw her and Monokuma for a loop

Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko ultimately choosing to take the words of Kaede, Kaito, and Tenko to heart, even if they were part of a fictional narrative, is proof that they still had an influence on the trio. They choose to take something meaningful from their experiences regardless of the reality of their situation. And that’s something we all do.

The media we consume has an influence over who we are as people, and it’s part of why so many of us have such strong attachments to works we love. They were often influential in help shape who we are as people now, for good and for ill, and it’s important to take that into account.

V3′s message is that yes, that is important, and that you should read and enjoy stories and fiction, just as long as you don’t let it consume your life. They can influence you and even the world at large, and so it’s our responsibility as writers, artists, and creators to use that influence positively, to use the medium as a way to change the world for the better. That the only way for stale franchises that we’re tired of seeing over and over is to demand change, even if that means walking out on them. That the only way for things to change is for us to take action and demand change.

And by the end, we may not see immediate results, but we can at least work hard at trying to bring them about. V3 ends with Shuichi, Maki, and Himiko facing an uncertain future in a world they really know nothing about, but hopeful that their actions can and will change the world for the better. Real life doesn’t have solid, satisfying conclusions and it always doesn’t play out like a story, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on ever finding something satisfying or hopeful out there.

This, by no means, is me saying that V3 is a flawless story. I can point to numerous critiques that I still think hold water. However, Sanderson’s point is that we shouldn’t criticize a work based on what we wish it was rather than how it is and what it was trying to do.

I know there’s a lot about the story that bothers people, I know there’s a lot that wasn’t polished and a lot that feels uncomfortable and hard to swallow. Like Shuichi, coming out feeling confused, lost, unsure of what to do, but choosing to see merit and things to take to heart even in a story that turned out to be full of lies and uncomfortable truths.

If you didn’t enjoy V3, I wouldn’t force you to enjoy it. If you did love it, then you should love it. These are all just my thoughts on a story that, as time goes on, honestly feels more and more relevant to me.

[annoying-lucy]

Evan Evagora did an AMA involving the Star Trek Shitposting Facebook Group - the questions and answers below were copy/pasted direct from the collated master post. Evan is a member of the group, who participates under an unknown pseudonym.

———————————————

AMA Master Post!

Thanks so much to Evan Evagora for taking time out of his day for our AMA earlier. To make the questions and answers easier for ya'll to find, here they all are together below.

Q: How does my love of cats compare to Elnor?

A: Im actually more of a dog person, there was a scene that had Elnor and spot 2 unite briefly but unfortunately it didn’t leave the editing room

Q: How familiar was I with Star Trek before and did I have to do research?

A: I grew up with TNG, I’d have to say either worf, Guinan or Q are my favourite characters. And I was given episodes to watch that were to help with information before filming Picard

Q: How was I prepped to deal with the crazy fans?

A: I got told to join Star Trek shitposting 😉. Not but in all seriousness, it was Jonathan Frakes who gave me advice on entering the world of fandom from the other side and he said it’s been nothing short of a pleasure

Q: So if Hugh had survived would they have made out?

A: what happens on the cube stays on the cube

Q: My favourite moment of s1

A: getting to slice that romulans head off

Q: How did I hear about Star Trek shitposting?

A: most of the crew is either a part of the group or knows about, one of the amazing hair and make up ladies got me into I think my first or second day

Q: If I had to be Tuvixed with someone excluding elnor?

A: mirror verse Elnor, nah worf to be honest

Q: What is something I’d like to do in season 2

A: Id like to see Elnor and spot 2 together

Q: How am I passing my time woth quarantine?

A: ama for the gronp! Nah I’ve just been reading, writing and also the contact I’m having with the fans too has really helped a lot

Q: If I had to quarantine with any of my costars who would it be and why

A: I’d go with hardy treadaway he’s got the nicest place

Q: What am I hoping to see in Elnor’s future

A: Inner peace, contentment and possibly shorter hair?

Q: Am I intimidated by working on a show with such a big fan base?

A: no I grew up with Star Trek, you’re really in a bubble of filming when you’re making the show, it all didn’t really hit home until the first trailer at San Diego

Q: Would I consider playing Elnor as non binary

A: I’ve seen a lot of debate and discussion about not only my character but others in the series, if there is something that connects you with a character on this show and it resonates with you, even if it’s shown, not shown or hinted at I’m all for it. I am not for the constant belittlement, bullying and criticism of not only the characters on the show but also other fans. It really does break my heart reading comments where people aren’t welcoming of one another, because that is the whole reason why Trek has bought so many together and by spewing these disgusting cruel words out your not only showing the world you don’t understand the meaning behind the show, you also are destroying the thing that makes us all love it

Q: Is there Australia on romulas

A: yeah they have a down under I’m sure of it. No the accent can easily be explained with, Elnor left romulas at a young age, moved to a planet with different species and languages spoken so that influenced his accent

Q: Have I seen Elnor fan fiction and art?

A: yeah some of it has been really amazing! And some others have been...creative

Q: How excited am I to make home movies with my action figures?

A: my plan is to buy everyone’s, make them record audio and then film shit using the dolls and their voices

Q: Are you playing animal crossing?

A: I’ve preordered it because they’ve sold out here in aus, but in playing civ 6 to pass time and Mario party

Q: Did I get to try Romulan ale?

A: no I wish, I’m kind of hoping for a scene next year where Elnor gets drunk for the first time

Q: What character did I wish would appear in our show?

A: one word, one letter Q

Q: What’s my background have I been acting long?

A: Picard was my third acting gig, and the first project to release, so I have got some experience acting and I have previous work but it has either just aired or is going to next year

Q: Please my friend choose a charity you would like us to donate to

A: food bank

Q: Favourite ninja turtle

A: it’s always been Raph and always will be

Q: Do I know much about Elnors background

A: I know things that haven’t been mentioned yet, but also given his character is new and season 1 just finished, hopefully some of those things are explored

Q: How would o feel about the fan theory that Spock is my father

A: I mean, I’m not really sure, I can always shoot Ethan a message and ask him what he thinks too

Q: Which classic episode trope would I like to see?

A: mirror universe

Q: Can we look forward to more ninja representation?

A: is Elnor not enough? ☹️

Q: Were there any particular characters I drew inspiration from, any elves?

A: there’s a particular group of people I think Elnor might have been inspired from. Can I just say how cool it would be if Elnor is just cosplaying as an elf because Picard left him a copy of Lotr when he was young

Q: Would I be open to exploring Elnors sexuality in s2 and what would it be?

A: I am totally open for that, and as for Elnors sexuality, I’m not sure he’s only 17 he’s just left his planet and gone off on an adventure where he openly knew the success may lead in his death or others he hasn’t had time to figure himself out so seeing his sexuality explored would be amazing

Q: What stories did you hear about working on precious trek series from the OG actors?

A; So we found out Michael Dorn used to muddle his lines up because he was normally the last close up of the day. They used to put bets on to see how many takes he’d have to do. All I must add in very fun spirits nothing ever malicious or mean

Q: My long term career goals

A: id like to keep pursuing more roles I’m acting, I’m a big writer and have some projects I’m looking at getting created but right now I’d say I’m just here to learn and grow

Q: What do I write?

A: right now I’m working on three screenplays and two pilots most of the stuff I’ve written is just sitting on my hard drive just waiting to be used

Q: Ever fried an egg, buttered and vegemite'd some toast and eaten it like a sandwich?

A: what I just read, scared the crap out of me, I love vegemite but the most I’ll do is add cheese to it

Q: What is one of my favourite stories about s1

A: Jeri Ryan and I had a scene together in the borg cube (what a queen she made!) it was shooting at night and I think it was the final shot of the day, we couldn’t keep a straight face and just laughed through about fifteen takes

Q: Are you a big fan of fandom besides Trek?

A: Star Wars, lotr, the magician series Raymond e feist, a song of fire and ice series, avatar last air bender and legend of Korra (would love to play zuko) and of course Batman (fav Jason Todd as the hood)

Q: Could I see myself playing Elnor for six or seven years?

A: as long as there’s a good story that myself and fans will enjoy, but if it didn’t meet my expectations no. And also hopefully the writers and creators would want to

Q: My top TNG eps are in no particular order

I borg, all good things, tapestry, the measure of a man and all good things

I’ll also add I borg especially because it’s just cool seeing where Hugh began and how he ended up

Q: How did I land the role of Elnor?

A: I was on a break from filming Fantasy Island (a movie based off the old tv show) and I was home for pilot season which is when they cast for shows, I had two weeks of daily auditions before I was due to fly back and start filming again, two days before I was meant to leave I got an audition for Picard, the script had a code name and Elnors name was Kbar on it, but I was told it was Star Trek. I went into the room and thought I didn’t do a very good job, then I flew to film and two days later I was told I’ve made a list of people being considered, after a few more auditions and a couple of phone calls from producers and everything I found myself on a plane to LA five weeks later

Q: Have I made friends among the cast?

A: no, we tried really hard to become friends, but unfortunately we ended up becoming a family instead. Everything we say in interviews about us getting along is all true and not fake. I’m the newest to acting out of everyone so I was kind of of shocked to find out that how close we all are isn’t necessarily how it will be when I shoot other projects, so I think we just got lucky or they casted really well

Q: Have the Picard people seen your memes?

A: yes I’ve shown them the memes from the page, I’ve shown everyone including Patrick we find most of them funny (some shocking)

Not shocking in a bad way

Unexpected I should say

Q: How do I feel about the ears?

A: I wore them so much they came up in my dreams, but they were the easiest thing to apply onto me

Q: Which non tng character would I like to see return?

A: I wouldn’t mind seeing the doctor

Q: The most relatable Star Trek character?

A: Look for me growing up it was Wesley, i just picked anyone who was the young one. And I grew up with my sisters and was always being told I’m either wrong, an idiot or just to shut up

Q: Did I have previous martial arts experience before the show?

A: I have a background in boxing which helps when it comes to movement, reflexes and just all around fitness for stunts. I didn’t have any sword fighting experience before we began training for the show however

Q: How do you think being raised by an order of women affected Elnor?

A: I think it gave him a healthy understanding of not only the strength and resilience of women but I think he understands not only gender equality but just equality in general and I think that’s directly to do with growing up in a sect of all female warrior nuns

Q: What is a type of meme you would like to see more of in the group?

A: I love all the memes in the group, I hardly like any of them now incase someone figures out who I am though ahahah

Q: Favorite recent memes?

A: See my comment below

[sonicringbond]

Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey - Scene 17

Greeting everyone, Scene 17 is here and Rosy is finally off looking directly for one of her friends. Obviously being the second episode she won’t be successful yet, but I have brought a character back who has appeared once already. I wonder if anyone will recognize him. I guess the best way to find out is to let everyone read...

Scene Prompt: Rosy finds a flower-shaped (rose maybe) crystal ball.

-----

    ~One really weird thing I noticed while searching for my friends was that almost everywhere I went there were plants growing over everything. It was really pretty, but really odd too. Especially when it occurred out in the sandy desert.

    ~I hadn’t gone to the desert though to sightsee, even though that was the type of traveler everyone thought I was. Nope, I had gone actually because of a rumor.

    ~Supposedly out in the desert there was a crystal rose in a ruin. No one had removed it yet for fear that it was cursed or that the ruin was trapped at least. I’m pretty sure I could remove it, but I know Fang could as well and that’s why I went out there.

    ~Though no one who I had shown my picture too recognized anyone, there was still a chance that Fang would go check it out. He’s a treasure hunter after all and a crystal rose is quite the treasure. But that means it could attract bad people too. But that’s alright too.

    ~We were attacked by mean sky pirates before we ever ended up in these lands and they kept attacking us whenever they caught up. But the last time I saw my best friend he was fighting them, so if any of the pirates show up maybe I could find a clue to where he is. But I have to get there first, and since I don’t want to spook anyone with my speed that means joining a bunch of other sightseers on a tour.~

    The canvas covered truck bed was full of people, more so than could have been comfortable due to the stifling heat and still air. Rosy made herself as comfortable as she could, but there was only so much room and the sightseers had begun to grow restless.

    “Maybe we could do something to pass the time,” Rosy suggested cheerfully, far removed from the tailgate and any opportunity to see the passing scenery. If she had been able to though the rocky crags and blowing sand did not provide much of interest to view.

    “There isn’t anything to do but share stories, and it’s already too loud in here,” one woman bemoaned the situation.

    Rosy puffed up her cheeks not to be deterred. “Well, I happen to tell fortunes as a hobby!”

    It was a moment of pride for Rosy, but she had forgotten that the lands she currently traveled were not fond of the idea of people practicing more than one role.

    “That’s foolishness,” one mangy sapient cat spat.

    “Agreed,” another passenger chimed in.

    “If you wanted to tell fortunes you shouldn’t have become a sightseer.”

    “Ooh~! It’s just a hobby! A little bit of harmless fun!”

    “Communion with the powers of the world should not be taken so lightly child.”

    Rosy paused as a voice that sounded almost as though it were spoken from somewhere other than where it came from warned her of her actions. Turning to find the immediate source, Rosy lay her eyes upon a curious traveler. They were garbed in a burlap robe that completely concealed them. It was hard to get a read on their size and build as well, but Rosy could tell they were easily taller than her to the shoulder. More peculiarly was the size and shape of their head. From where their shoulders ended their head rose to a point that nearly doubled their height. It was obvious they were a member of a smaller sapient species, but what was beyond Rosy. She cared little though as she found their warning to her rude.

    “They’re my friends, well at least my tarot cards are,” Rosy defended herself and her relationship with the mystical. “They help me out when I ask, and I help them out when they ask. Though they can be pretty scary when they do…”

    Rosy trailed off with a laugh, but the atmosphere around the robed figure completely changed. Where the other travelers had no desire to involve themselves with someone who dabbled in more than one occupation, Rosy now had the full attention of the robed figure.

    “Curious child, you claim to have communed directly with the powers of the world. Are you perhaps a medium?”

    “Oh! I haven’t been called that since before I came to these lands. Hee-hee. Though it was a friend of mine who did, even if he said I wasn’t very good. He actually said I was a very bad medium. That was so rude of him, and just because I use a cat-a-something.”

    “A catalyst,” the robed figure corrected Rosy. “I am intrigued now. So much so I would like to take you up on your offer.”

    ~I had talked with the weird person because it was the polite thing to do, and I was bored, but something about him made my spines itch. He was so weird and didn’t come out of his robe at all. Even when I presented him my deck of tarot cards to split it after I shuffled so the reading would be more connected and personal. It was really weird and unsettling.

    ~Even weirder though was how calm he was when he got a really bad reading. I felt bad, but…~

    “Then my goals will be challenged by a powerful adversary. Amusing, but perhaps understandable.”

    “You’re not a bad guy are you,” Rosy pried, growing concerned more and more with each passing moment. Her concern gave way to the laughter of the robed figure however and Rosy’s emotion was soon shared by the other travelers.

    “I do not know your definition of “bad guy” child, but my goal at this point is but to find an old friend. It is unlikely that he is not well, but the state of the world leaves me curious to his wellbeing.”

    “Oh~! So, you’re like me then!” Rosy exclaimed finding common ground to fend off her growing feeling of dread. She could feel the questioning gaze on her through the robes and answered the unspoken question before it could be formed. “You see, I’m looking for my friends too. We got separated a while back and I’ve been looking for them while I travel.”

    Reaching into the shoulder puff of her leotard where she returned her deck of tarot cards, Rosy removed a folded-up photograph and presented it to the robed figure.

    “See these are my friends! Maybe you’ve seen one of them. I know the Ring Shifts make it hard, but even just an idea of where one of them could be would really help.”

    The robed figure stayed quiet for a long time, seemingly studying the picture through their robes. Before finally speaking, they ran a burlap hidden finger down the center of the picture. “The one you have embraced. I have seen him.”

    “You have!” Rosy nigh jumped to her feet with excitement, her tail wagging energetically. “Where was it, where!”

    “Not here child,” the robed figure vaguely answered. Rosy’s boring eyes however prompted them to clarify. “Rather it was a passing moment in some long-forgotten ruin. The presence of the Rings was powerful upon them, but then they were gone.”

    “I hope your friend wasn’t victim to the monster attacking people with Rings,” one of the travelers spoke up before Rosy could press the robed figure for more information.

    ~And that was the second rumor I had heard. It wasn’t just out in the desert though. Supposedly someone was going around attacking people with Rings. It’s such a weird thing to hear since Rings can’t hurt people. But I guess if you’re scared of Rings it would make it scary. But I hadn’t considered that it had anything to do with the crystal rose. The two seemed further apart than me and my friends. That wasn’t true for the ruins however that held the crystal rose.

~Before I could ask the weird man any more questions about where he had seen Sonic we had arrived at the ruins. Tour guides ushered us away and I lost sight of him. Even as much as he made my spines itch though I couldn’t help but worry about him. The rumors of the Ring Striker were all anyone could talk about as we were led into the dark ruin to see the crystal rose.~

Scene 17 · CLEARED Desert Rumors, to be continued

-----

And there is part 1 for our second episode of Rosy the Traveler. I hope the slower pace isn’t putting people off. The next part will have more action for those who need it, though it’ll have more world building as well. World building in general is kind of the heart of traveling stories like this, so I’ll work on better blending in the action as I write more and more. Of course as always I’ll be asking for you help by providing me prompts to keep me coming up with new way’s to build the story so I look forward to the future and hope everyone else does too! Thank you!

-----

Prompt Submitted by – Skylor-The-Ninja Story Format by Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song - Granblue Fantasy — Lumacie Archipelago Mysterious Forest

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

[queerofcups]

By the amount of fic I read and how bad my memory is I'm still not surprised that I remember exactly what happens in your fic a superstar, a year on and I'm still so intrigued as to what would've happened next it was so good and such an interesting take on kid fic ugh your mind blows me away with your creativity and conception of plot

oh wow, a superstar! barring something truly unexpected that’s gonna be a forever WIP, so here anon, is what happens next along with a shit ton of backstory

Backstory / Outline

Dan’s been an au pair since he was 20. He’s only had a few families (because he’s so good and they love him) who all swear by him. Families who can afford nannies are, by nature of the job, usually wealthy. Families that can afford an au pair, particularly one of his rate and reputation, are usually quite wealthy. He hasn’t broken into the big Old Money leagues quite yet, but he finds the nouveau riche to be a little more flexible as far as Dan’s style and general deportment. 

Of course, working primarily with new money means he’s often working with celebrities. They’re British, so the celebrity culture isn’t nearly as rabid as it is in America. 

But he does have a respectable stack of clippings from gossip mags that have identified him as someone’s mysterious new lover or piece on the side. 

He doesn’t blink at Bryony’s assignment of one last job: Phil Lester. 

Lester’s been making a comeback in the last couple of years, rebuilding his cultural cache after a few years outside of the spotlight. Bryony swears it's a short job, nothing like the last years-long job he just wrapped up. 

Dan’s loathe to admit it, but part of the reason he’s hesitant to take on another job, other than wanting a career change, is that leaving families wears on him. 

He’s not that breed of caretaker who can separate himself from his families. Some of these kids he’s watched grow from little lumps of cute into real humans with opinions and preferences and it can be hard to let go. 

Which is why, when he meets Sophia, he knows he’s screwed because she’s a firecracker of a kid and he falls a little in love with her as soon as they meet. 

Note: Sophie’s real first name is Manon

Dan’s bi and ends up helping Phil work through some of his own stuff about being pretty much gay, but having been in love with Margaux

He’s got depression and a touch of anxiety and explains those to Sophia at some point. 

He knows he’s in when he realizes he’s been looking up tutorials for styling curly hair online. 

Phil

Former youtuber that won a contest to be on a couple episodes of some failing TV show & became a dark horse who ends up getting picked up for a few other shows and eventually (shortly) makes the jump to film. 

The industry falls all over themselves to talk about how -nice- he is, how -polite-

It's untreated anxiety that leaves him bordering on panic attacks at every red carpet debut but he never says that. 

It gets worse after he’s caught coming out of a gay bar, mouth still attached to some boy

It's not exactly homophobia that drives him out. People are kind and don’t say anything to his face. 

But suddenly they want to know things. 

How long has he known?

What's his type?

They want him to be a role model and he just wants to live

It's an easy decision. It's so easy to walk away he almost feels guilty. He loves acting, so much it surprised him when he first started, but he knows he can’t stop doing it. 

So he stops taking roles. He doesn’t sign any new contracts. He nods and smiles when people tell him he’s making a mistake and he pickets his last checks. 

He doesn't go far,  just moves to a smaller apartment in London, in a less ritzy area and waitings until people stop trying to follow him home. 

It's not a meltdown, no matter what The Sun (?) says. The fame just starts to feel like a cold hand around his throat and he gets out before it starts to squeeze. 

There are people who understand and they’re proud of him. That feels awkward too, but nothing like the gaze of the public. 

He can eventually go back to school, for video editing, and he has a few things with guys that are short term. 

Which is fine. He’s young enough that he’s allowed to be restless and a little freewheeling. 

Margaux is...was...is a shock to his system. 

She’s a second generation French-American who moved to London so she can be boring in peace. 

(She’s French & Creole specifically. Sophia’s legal name is Manon Sophia Ange Siméon Lester. Obviously she only goes by Sophia Lester for the most part. Her maternal relatives aren’t pleased with that)

Margaux’s family was small when they met and only got smaller over the years they knew each other until it feels like it's just them and Sophia. 

The thing is, Phil never called himself gay. The press did. 

But he would now. Because he knows that there won’t be other women after Margaux. He knows it's unhealthy, but it's better than deciding there will never be anyone else at all. 

They were friends. They’d never called themselves anything more than that--not before Sophia and not after. 

Sophia is nearly seven with Margaux goes on the trip. They’d lived together on and off, so it's nothing strange for her to be with Phil rather than one of her two remaining maternal grandmothers. 

Phil is Sophia’s father, legally, biologically, all the way. But he sometimes feels like the most out of place person in her life. He doesn't know how to express to Sophia how much he loved Margaux while still being a mostly-gay man. 

Phil’s weirdness about bisexuality (his own and the very idea) is a sticking point between him and Dan

Sophia knows and doesn’t particularly get why the delineation matters. All she knows is her Dad sometimes acts unsure of his own Dadness. 

Margaux dies because of a head injury. She’d gone on an extended vacation with friends and gone bike riding without a helmet and fell. The friends took her to a clinic and she’d gotten a bandage for the scrapes to her forehead, a scolding and a clean bill of health. She’d skyped with them that night and made jokes about ruining her moneymaker. In the morning, she was gone. 

People in Phil’s life, his relatives and former friends, characterize Margaux as a funny little deviation that would have just faded into a fun story if not for Sophia. Phil doesn’t argue, because he doesn’t want to upset things)

Dan realizing that Phil loved her is a moment of breaking through Phil’s shiny veneer of untouchable politeness)

When Phil decided to start acting again, he’s not expecting things to progress as quickly as they do. He knows that people were impressed with him when he was younger. He’s shocked to hear words like “critically acclaimed” get thrown around. He was just a kid escaping into the lives of people who had bigger problems than him. 

But he reaches out, because he misses it and he’s tired of being a not-widower, hanting everywhere he goes, and the roles come. 

And the gaze comes with them. There are small things. A c-plot role, a secondary character. A lead role from a smaller studio. And then a big break comes across his desk. It's a middling role, but everyone that gets top billing comes with an Academy Award attached. And there are explosions in the script. The kind that mean a summer blockbuster. He takes it, and suddenly, he’s on the edges of spotlight again. 

Phil knows what he looks like. Internet star turned film star who goes gay, disappears for a few years, then returns, unpartnered with a brown, French speaking, half-American (half black America) pre-teen in tow. He looks like a ton of clicks, maybe a record number of copies sold.

Soph is 11. 

He takes the role and calls Bryony directly, because there’s no way he can do this alone. 

Part One: Meeting

Dan’s finishing up his first month back home after leaving a family. He’s got scripts on his desk--good, meaty roles that have him thinking he might not take another family on, yet. 

Bryony calls, which is interesting. She’s the head of the agency & they’re friendly but not on phone call terms. 

She offers him the job. He initially refuses. She admits it's a personal favor kind of job, and temporary and she wants her best on it. 

Dan agrees to a chemistry meeting. 

They meet up, Sophia charms dan and he still says no. 

She comes with a short term nanny because her dad’s running late. 

Phil shows up & Dan’s jaw clenches because PHil’s the kind of rung-jumping acting success story that Dan’ resents. 

So he’s sarcastic and a little cross because he hates that and the choir boy facade Phil puts on

Maybe he makes a euthanasia joke? Or something about an uncaring universe that goes over Sophia’s head. 

Except Phil laughs and doesn't glanced nervously at Sophia the way parents do sometimes when dan gets a little dark. 

Phil finally sends Sophia off to buy a cupcake so he can be alone and upfront with Dan. 

He explains that it won’t be a long term job, just the 9 months he needs to be in America to shoot and then Dan is free. 

“This is just the first time we’ve done this,” Phil says, watching Sophia through the window. “And I want to give Soph the best. She deserves the best. Better than that.”

And Dan’s a goner. He’s still a businessman, so he asks for time to consider and sends his terms of employment to the agency’s lawyer. But he knows he’s going to do it. He makes a mental note to look up a list of tutors if they don’t already have one hired. 

Part 2: Getting to Know Each Other

Dan makes the assumption that Sophia is adopted & Phil awkwardly corrects him--this is the beginning of their conflict over the word bisexual. 

Phil’s never had an au pair, so he’s uncomfortable with how *there* Dan suddenly is. He doesn’t move into their London flat because there’s not room for him but they start preparing for the move & he’s got experience in ordering houses for that, more than Phil does. 

They don’t have any other staff. Sophia will get a tutor in America, but she’s finishing her year in school & Phil lives well within his means, small flat, they cook for themselves and the cleaning lady visits once a week. Dan’s the only one there all the time & despite all his years of experience, he feels invasive. But he also gets to see how close Phil and Sophia are, including watching them do “homework” together, Sophia doing equations & Phil running lines. 

They go to America. Phil’s one movie has turned into parts in three movies. In one he’s playing a semi-serious playboy villain who was once the husband of the (superhero) lead. In another, he’s a professor/mentor in a teen dramedy. In the last one, the blockbuster/oscar bait, he’s playing a man whose life is ruined by the rise of the regime the main cast is fighting. Dan thinks the last one is the only one that sounds interesting. But he’s impressed with Phil’s handling of learning all the scripts. They’re surprisingly disparate characters. The playboy is, at his core, a sleaze that covers himself in a fine patina of British politeness. The professor is clearly meant to be someone whose awkwardness translates into the kind of cool kids would find appealing & Phil manages to strike the balance gamely. And the last one is...it's Oscar bait and even though Phil’s part isn’t big enough to get him supporting actor billing Dan can see him prepare to give a career-changing, maybe even life changing performance. 

The first two he practices in front of them. Dan gets sick of the lines, finds himself muttering them along with Phil as he makes Sophie’s snacks. 

The other one, only Dan sees. 

He doesn’t at first. For a while Phil locks himself away in his room and Dan can only hear the muffled yelling of a one sided argument. 

But one night he’s sitting, looking out over the city, thinking about going to bed when Phil comes out and asks him, sheepishly, if he’ll listen and tell Phil if he sounds wooden. 

Dan agrees and they sit at the kitchen table. Phil takes a long, steady breath and suddenly there are tears. He holds his head just slightly higher, proudly, and there’s suddenly a stoney archness Dan’s never seen on him before. 

“And so that’s it,” Phil says, his voice cold, closed off and defeated. “Eleven years and you hand me over to your precious leader.”“Josiah,” Dan says, looking at the script. “You have to understand. I had no choice--”“Coward,” Phil says. It's a simple word but still feels like it pierces Dan’s core.“My darling,” Dan says. “Please.”Phil stands. Dan watches him. “Remember that.” He stalks around the table, his eyes still shining with tears. “When I am on my knees, begging for life, when they’ve made you my executioner.”He steps closer, standing a hair too close to Dan, and says, anguished, “Remember that I was once your darling. Your beloved. Your love.”Dan is rapt, waiting for the next line, but Phil clears his throat and takes a step back. “And then they kiss and Josiah leaves,” Phil says, suddenly back in his own body and self. “What d’you think?”“Wow,” Dan says, hoping his face isn’t betraying his surprise that Phil can actually, really act. “Um. It’s good. Your movements could be a little smoother. They were together, right? So Josiah should be used to getting in--what’s her name?”“His,” Phil says, settling back into his kitchen chair. “Theodore. Theo.”“Woah,” Dan says before he thinks better of it. “You’re playing gay?”Phil quirks an eyebrow, “It's not really...playing?”Dan waves a hand, “Obviously. But that’s a big choice, role-wise. You aren’t afraid they’ll just see you as the gay one?”Phil stares at him, brows furrowed until Dan mouths, “What?”“You do know...about me, right? How my career got started? And why I stopped? I’m already the gay one.”“But you have a choice. I’m not saying you should change your mind. The film industries closet shit is bullshit. But you have a choice.”“Dan. I know. And the choice is what I get to be private about.  An actor--a celebrity who isn’t trying to walk back their youthful indiscretion is way more interesting than a mostly gay man with a kid and a dead...Margaux.”Dan feels...so many things. “You can’t hide Sophie. She’s your kid.”“I’m not hiding her,” Phil says, and Dan knows immediately that this isn’t the first time Phil’s heard this exact argument. “I’m protecting her.”

Dan keeps agreeing to run lines with Phil. He never asks for the script, so he learns Josiah through Phil, the early scenes where he’s playful, teasingly sensual, his deteriorating life and mental state and the way he dies. 

They don't run those lines when Sophie is home. It's understandable. It's unsettling for Dan, an adult who understands the depths you can get to while acting, to watch Phil muss himself up and drop unceremoniously to his knees, hands clasped behind himself. It's a short scene & Dan knows the public will be outraged with the scene. But every time he reads his own lines, a choked, delicate line of “I have to.”Phil nails it with workman’s precision everytime, He looks slightly past Dan, huffs a soft broken laugh and says, so quiet and tender, so full of betrayal. “You’ll never forget this day, Theo.” Dan doesn’t know what happens in the rest of the movie, but he’d pay the price of admission to watch Phil say that sentence.He’s been convinced, won over, sold & transported.

The fic doesn't end after they hook up for the first time, follows them through figuring out that this can’t be a one time thing and they both want this to last. Phil encouraging Dan to take on acting and not just because they can’t be together publicly while Dan is Sophie’s au pair. 

Ending of the fic is Sophie and Dan hanging out at the Oscars (or BAFTAs?) waiting for Phil to come out of the bathroom. It's a few years later (enough years that Dan should probably be freaked out about how many of the actresses he and Soph agree are super hot) and Phil’s up for an Oscar for best supporting actor. 

*At some point they get drunk together (after some terrible award show?) and talk about their first and best times with men and Dan accidentally dirty talks to Phil because he’s drunk and reminiscing about some truly outstanding cock he’s had in his day.

[prettywordsyouleft]

Modern Day Fairytale

Summary: You had been best friends with Jaehwan forever and somehow grown feelings for him. Would bad timing and miscommunication ruin your chances of a happily ever after?

Characters: Kim Jaehwan x reader

Genre: angst, fluff, university au, friends to lovers

A/N: Requested by anon. Originally I was going to do this in two parts, but it flowed nicely as one, so I hope the anon who requested this doesn’t mind! Also I added in only the hyung line from Wanna One due to the setting I placed this story in.

Word count: 3716

You had no idea when it had happened.

There was no clear cut signal that alerted you to the change within your friendship with Jaehwan, and you wish there had been one, just so you could prepare your heart and mind for enduring this unexpected crush.

You had grown up together, from bickering neighbours as children, through the turbulent ride of your teenage years, to now being young adults; every thing had been done with Jaehwan at your side.

He was the reason you smiled from his infectious laughter, the person who helped you dry your tears, your study buddy, your boredom buster, the one who knew all your secrets and fails in life, and had been the first to congratulate you on all your successes. He was more than a friend, and now, he was someone you realised you had feelings for.

It was disorientating to have your understanding of his place in your world turned upside down.

At first you decided to ignore it. He was after all, three years younger than you, and so whilst you were finishing up with university, he was just beginning. Soon your life would hold further expectations, none in which his world was ready for. With this solution in place you attempted to continue on, paying no mind to the fluttering in your stomach when Jaehwan greeted you on campus. But this was easier said than done. Even in university, you spent a lot of time together, studying in the library or grabbing dinner when your schedules permitted it, and because you both had the same large group of friends, you crossed paths at events frequently, even if you didn’t know the other would be there. Soon it became impossible to think about anything but grabbing his warm hand within your own and leaning into his side like you used to when things were platonic. Unlike back then, there would be more emotion involved and it was becoming dangerous, a couple of times you had almost slipped up and told him how you felt.

Your solution had been temporary, like a bandaid over a gaping wound, and the more you left the bandaid there, the more you knew it was going to hurt when it came off.

So your next phase was to avoid him. If you didn’t see Jaehwan, then you could deny the feelings steadily growing for him. Initially this solved a lot of your issues. You felt like you could breathe more easily on campus, knowing Jaehwan’s schedule well enough to alter your own so you wouldn’t cross paths each day. You also began declining your friend Seongwoo’s offers to join him, Minhyun and Daniel on Friday nights, knowing Jaehwan would generally join them. But soon it began to impact your psyche, you were stressed, trying to maintain your grades as well as your stealth tactics on campus was exhausting. Not to mention when you actually messed up the timing and saw your best friend, it was far more heart crushing than you expected it to be. You’d be a lost cause for a couple of days after. And to make things worse, your classmate and good friend Sungwoon who you had been spending more time with became difficult to be around, he now had a girlfriend and all he did was gush about how great dating was.

So you were alone, and miserable, aching for Jaehwan more than ever.

The only step left was to tell him. You spent a considerable amount of time trying to decipher how to confess to him in a way that wouldn’t hinder your friendship. The longer you mulled, the more apparent it became that there was three ways it could go. One, he miraculously had feelings he’s never mentioned before either, and it ended happily ever after. But since you weren’t a princess, or gone through hell and lost your family and was now being courted a Prince Charming, you knew that was unlikely to be the case. Next was the awkward stage where he would laugh it off and tell you it wasn’t going to affect your friendship, but at the same time you both drifted apart due to the tension of your unreciprocated feelings. And three, well you didn’t want to believe you could lose Jaehwan for good, and the idea of even considering this as an option sent you into despair.

You realised telling him would have some implications that you seriously weren’t ready for.

So it came as a surprise when he sought you out first, arriving on your doorstep one night with a grin and a bag of beer cans. You always knew what that meant, something was up and he needed you to help him through it. You figured it might be a perfect night to air out your feelings and accepted Jaehwan’s offer, taking the bag of beer as he shrugged off his coat and followed you into your tiny living space and sat down.

“So I haven’t seen you around much, noona.”

“Mm, I’ve been rather busy,” you said weakly, readily grabbing the alcohol and opening one can for Jaehwan and then one for yourself. You clunked the cans together in toast before each taking a drink.

“You never used to be busy for me, I’m hurt,” he admitted with a whine and you couldn’t help but smile at his pout.

“I’m sure you’ve survived.”

“Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with something,” he mentioned, placing his can down on the small table between you both and smiling graciously.

You leaned back and shook your head. “I don’t like that look. It means trouble.”

“No, no, no!” He waved his hands in disagreement, and soon his cheeks were flushing with colour. The reaction confused you, knowing Jaehwan didn’t embarrass that easily, especially around you. Since growing up together, nothing was sacred between each other and you had heard it all.

You had to admit you were hopeful and curious by his blushing. You chewed at your bottom lip lightly, gesturing for Jaehwan to speak up.

“Okay, so you’re a girl.”

“Last time I checked.”

“And you know a lot about being a girl,” he continued, his expression becoming earnest. You frowned. He cleared his throat and let out an awkward laugh.

Your heart was thumping in your ears by now, and the anticipation you felt was overwhelming. You swallowed. “Just spit it out, Jae.”

“There’s this girl I like, and I want to ask her out.”

Please let this be my happily ever after, you pleaded inwardly, your eyes widening at his statement. Your brain flooded with attempts to connect feelings and situations, that you almost missed what he said next.

“I was wondering if you could help give me some tips?”

You instantly wished you hadn’t of let him in the door earlier on. Your world crashed down around you, and your inner critic began to laugh manically at your thought that it could actually be you Jaehwan wanted.

You had never felt so stupid in your entire existence.

Jaehwan was waiting, an awkward laugh soon falling from his lips. “Y/N? Don’t be so shocked, I know it’s crazy to think I like her too. She just joined our class as a transfer student. She lived over in Canada for some time too, so she’s well versed in different cultures, so I’m unsure what is the proper way to confess to someone like her.”

You didn’t respond, your mind feeling numb. Jaehwan reached over to shake you and you jumped back, hitting your knee on the table. The pain wasn’t anything like what you were experiencing in your heart right now and you ignored his questioning if you were alright. There was nothing right with this situation.  

“Y/N? Can you help me? Please say yes, you’re the most important person in my world. It would mean everything if you could.”

You stared back at him, nodding once. You were unable to join in with his cheerful cries of gratitude, and you barely acknowledged his animated conversation afterwards.

Because the person you had fallen in love with didn’t like you, and now you only had one option left – to let go.

 -------------------------------------------------

Jaehwan had been thankful for your help initially. After all, he trusted you the most, and knew you would put everything into helping him, like you always had. You had been a dependable pillar throughout his entire life, supporting all of his crazy ideas, or reproaching him in ways to help him grow up well. To him he had idolised you ever since he was a child when your red ball was cooler than his blue one and you had let him play with it. To not have your guidance when he needed it the most would be the most difficult thing to face.

And so he was relieved you hadn’t let him down.

At first he just asked for your advice, writing down notes as you told him things that girls liked. It was intriguing from a male standpoint as well as your best friend. He noted when you blushed over some concepts compared to others, making him smile and wish that someone would make those ideas come into fruition for you as well. It also made him wonder how your brain ticked further. You never had a distinctive gender role in your friendship, since you had known each other for so long and you hung out with a lot of his male friends, you never really stood out overtly as a girl to him. But he wasn’t blind to it either, during puberty when your body had begun developing and you had grown into your curves, he had a few stints of being awestruck by you. He knew he would take the sins he had fantasised with you as an adolescent to the grave. But now as an adult, although he appreciated whenever you wore a dress, he never gave it a seconds thought.

Until now.

He was unsure how he had never realised how feminine you were. As you described some scenarios in full detail he could tell they were desires you had, and he tried to recall if it was from memory or a want to fulfil. You hadn’t really dated all that much that he was aware of and it had been custom for him to be your Valentine each year, both of you watching comedies and gorging on junk food together every time. So Jaehwan was confused, had you always been this interested in the little details and he had never bothered to delve deeper as a friend, or were you just doing research on his behalf? Since you were good at studying, even taking the effort to learn some of his own music theory to help him at times, he decided it was the latter, attempting to find comfort in not thinking of you to be that in-depth with your emotions.

But there was a small part of him that was uneasy; there was more to you than he had known. And for some reason the more time you spent discussing how to help him, the sessions were now spent internalising you as a person, as opposed to taking his notes.

He didn’t know why he was more interested in understanding you than getting your advice to help his confession be successful.

So it came as relief to him when you started mentioning you were suddenly busy. He had been slowly using some of your advice with Sora, the exchange student, and was pleasantly surprised by how receptive she was, but instead of this spurring him to press you for further details; Jaehwan was content in allowing your own time back for whatever was keeping you busy.

That was, until he found out what you were doing.

“Mm, I set her up with him,” Jisung confirmed one afternoon, glancing at Jaehwan and frowning. “Why aren’t you happy about this? We’ve all said that one day Y/N would find her desire to date.”

“She’s supposed to be helping me, not herself,” he complained, Jisung’s face scrunching up at Jaehwan’s pettiness. He noted it and sighed. “Hyung, what if he’s not good for her?”

“Then we both know Y/N is strong enough to turn him down. Besides, I didn’t just send her off to any guy; this person is someone I’ve known for some time, okay.”

“Tell me about him! What’s so special about him?” Jisung shook his head, smiling lightly to himself. It irked Jaehwan greatly and he folded his arms across his chest. “Oh what hyung?!”

“Why are you so invested in knowing? She might be your best friend, but she’s also at the age now that she’s got to start thinking more.”

“More as in how?”

Jisung prodded his friend and tilted his head. “Honestly, use your brain Jae. She’s moving onto the next chapter in her life. You can’t expect her to wait until you’re ready to be on the same playing level like she always has. It’s different for girls. If Y/N waits too long for marriage and babies, she’ll only get slack for it from everyone. So it’s natural she starts dating now, right?”

The feeling in Jaehwan’s stomach didn’t agree with what his older friend was saying, though he nodded his head softly.

He hadn’t realised just how much he didn’t want things to change.

  You were busy for sometime. Jaehwan watched from afar as you went on countless blind dates, frustrated that you were throwing yourself into dating so desperately. It made him angry with you, not only had you ditched helping him, but now you were acting in a way he had never expected from you. And he didn’t know how to approach you about it.

He was annoyed at himself too. Jaehwan believed it was due to his insistence to know how the female mind worked that had created the fuel for you to be distancing yourself away from him and your friends, trying to find the elusive Mr Right. He felt neglected by you, and as the weeks went by he was so sour, that your behaviour was interrupting his way of living.

The tip of the iceberg that sent him overboard was when Sora ended up dating another student because he was so invested in disapproving what you were up to. He was furious, and this had him banging on your door later that evening, hitting it until you opened it suddenly in the middle of a further knock.

You eyed him warily, stepping aside silently to let him inside. Glancing around your studio apartment, Jaehwan noticed an outfit laid out upon your bed and strode up to it, snatching it up within his fist. “Again?!”

“Yah, Kim Jaehwan, what the hell?!”

“Answer me, are you going on another blind date tonight?!”

“Why does it matter to you?” you snapped, yanking on the dress in his hand. He didn’t budge. “Jaehwan!”

“You’re not going!”

“What?! You cannot stop me!”

He nodded promptly. “Yes I can and I will!”

“Let go, stop acting like a child! Why are you even here?!” You attempted to pull on the fabric some more but Jaehwan rearranged his grip.

“To stop you from making another mistake!”

“Mistake?!” you hollered and if he wasn’t so worked up himself, he would have shrunk back at your tone. You weren’t normally this aggravated with him unless he had done something terribly wrong. “What mistake?!”

“You don’t need to rush about meeting random guys in hopes to find love!”

“Oh no?!” you challenged, still yanking on the dress. “But it’s alright for you to come to me for help over some girl you barely know too? Why aren’t you focusing on that yourself huh?!”

Jaehwan shifted closer to you, glaring down at your verbal attack. “Because I’ve been so worried about you and what you’re up to, she’s found someone else!”

“Has she?” you faltered for a moment and he nodded. Your eyes turned cold again and you yanked on the dress. “Well I’m sorry but you’re not going to ruin my love life as well!”

“Why are you so hell bent on dating all of a sudden?! And why are you avoiding me?!” You didn’t answer, letting go of the dress altogether and heading over to the door. You opened it and gestured for him to leave. Jaehwan shook his head defiantly. “I’m not leaving until I have answers.”

“I have nothing more to say to you, get out!”

“Why?! Why can’t you turn to me anymore? Why does Jisung-hyung know more about you lately than I do?!”

You slammed your door shut and returned to his side, your eyes probing through his unnervingly. Jaehwan broke his stare first, but the steeliness in his dark orbs remained.

“Because it’s time for me to let go.”

He snapped his gaze to yours again, feeling a hopeless desperation wash over him. “Of me?!”

You nodded, a tear slipping down your cheek. Jaehwan’s resolve crashed then, much like his body did on yours as he hugged you tightly. It made you tremble in his arms and he hated that it had. He buried his head into your neck, inhaling you as if he hadn’t been aware that he hadn’t been breathing properly all this time. His arms held you even closer to him, and he began to feel more at ease with you there. It was making his mind conjure thoughts he had never considered before.

Like how well you fitted against him. How your smiles always made his heart warmer. How having you in his daily life was what made it worth getting up in the morning.

He had a surprising amount of clarity in that moment, unlike the weeks of discontent.

“Let me go, Jaehwan,” you whispered, and it was only then that he realised you were still crying. He shook his head and you choked on a sob. “Please.”

“I won’t let you go to any other man.”

“Jaehwan, I can’t keep being around you anymore,” you begged and he finally shifted enough to take in your anxious gaze. “I need you to respect my need to do this.”

“What if I told you I know a better person for you to date?” he heard himself say, his heart thumping erratically at how easy the words fell from his mouth.

“Who?” you asked tiredly, avoiding his gaze.

“Me.”

It took some time for your eyes to travel back up to his, but when they did they were wide with emotion. He smiled and nodded once to confirm you hadn’t heard differently.

“Y-you?”

“I realised tonight why I’ve been so mad at you,” he started, smiling weakly. “How frustrated I’ve been seeing you go on dates. Why it irked me that you weren’t with me anymore. I barely had time to care about Sora, I was so focused on what you were doing.”

“I’m sorry Jaehwan about that but I-”

“It’s because I like us. And not us as in a friendship, but us as together.”

“I’m confused,” you admitted, trying to push his arms off of you. “And its better you stop there because I can’t cope with you doing this to me.”

“Tell me honestly,” he urged, capturing your eyes in his again and searching for the answers himself. “Why are you avoiding me?”

You didn’t answer, frozen to the spot. It made Jaehwan smile again, moving closer. He liked that you didn’t shift back, and so he closed the gap between your lips and his, softly exploring your mouth for the first time.

It was like an explosion went off within you both, and there was a surge of passion that overwhelmed you, your lips and hands demanding more of each other. Jaehwan backed you up blindly to the closest wall, his lips parting to let his tongue entangle with yours, his hands running up and down your sides, gripping at you now and then as the kiss deepened. And finally after what felt like a lifetime of imprinting yourselves into each other, you pulled away from him, panting heavily.

As he caught your eyes, he smiled widely, never finding them so captivating as they were now with the lust and love coursing through them. He then cleared his throat. “Don’t tell me that can’t happen again.”

“I love you,” you uttered, your cheeks deepening at the sentence. For a moment you appeared like you were about to take it back, but you decided to own it, making him fall for you harder. “That’s why I was avoiding you. Because I had been crushing on you for awhile.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he breathed, running his hand through your hair.

“It’s kind of frightening to tell your best friend that you like them.”

“Love them,” he corrected and you chewed at your bottom lip gently at how easily he had said that. It made him lower his head again, resting his forehead on yours, pecking your swollen mouth lightly. “I have always loved you, Y/N.”

“Really?”

“Mm.” He chuckled lightly. “As a friend up until now.”

“And that’s changed?” you asked tentatively. It made him laugh, considering just how in-depth you had been exploring each other’s mouths just before. You cringed meekly, grasping onto his train of thought. “I guess I always wanted the happily ever after with you, but since I’m no princess, I convinced myself it couldn’t happen.”

Jaehwan kissed your forehead before hugging you again. “I can’t give you any promises; I mean I’m no prince myself. But I’m sure we’ll be very happy from here out right? The best of both worlds, as best friends, and lovers.”

“Lovers?” you repeated, pulling your head out of his chest to look up at him. Your cheeks were tinged pink again. “You’re thinking that far ahead?”

Jaehwan smirked. “You have no idea where my brain has gone over your body in the past, but I’m sure looking forward to seeing if those fantasies live up to how good they once were.”

“Kim Jaehwan!” you cried, slapping his arm lightly, but accepted his incoming kiss all the same.

And he could tell you were ready to experience all you own fantasies with him too.

[Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

[careerjugglr]

Graduate jobs: Why ‘lazy millennials’ are struggling to find work

Will your degree leave you jobless?

New research from the Grattan Institute reveals the degrees that could leave you jobless.

August 9th 2016

7 months ago

/video/video.news.com.au/Business/

Here are the real reasons millennials can’t find jobs. No, it’s not just that they’re “lazy”.

WHEN IT comes to millennials entering the workplace, we’ve heard the stereotypes over and over again.

They’re lazy. They’re unmotivated. They’re glued to their smartphones. They’re entitled and expect to come in as CEOs, rather than work their way up from low-paid entry-level positions the way their parents did.

But an expert who has spent almost three decades in recruitment services has sharply rebuked the stereotype, saying it’s frankly “bullsh*t”.

THE REAL REASON MILLENNIALS CAN’T FIND WORK

A survey of more than 14,000 Australian university graduates published earlier this week suggested young people were shooting themselves in the feet.

But Steve Shepherd, CEO of career guidance firm TwoPointZero, says it’s more complicated than that.

When asked if the stereotype that young people were lazy and entitled was true, he said it was “bulls**t”.

He told news.com.au young people face significant employment challenges nowadays that have nothing to do with laziness or entitlement.

Rather — based on his own experience helping struggling millennials find jobs — he said digital disruption, increased competition, false understandings from the education system and parental pressure play significant roles here.

“If we look at jobs that were available in the 1980s and compare them to now, it’s significantly different,” he told news.com.au. “Entry level positions have now gone — they’ve either been replaced by technology or sent offshore.”

He referred to the banking sector as an example, noting a number of his clients are rejected from the Big Four banks.

“People were processing bank cheques in the 80s — it was manual data entry, and they’d start at the bottom and work their way up.

“Technology has now replaced those roles, and others have been moved offshore to cheaper labour markets.”

Entry-level positions that existed in banks 30 years ago have now been replaced by technology. Where does this leave university graduates who want a job at a bank?Source:Supplied

Shepherd also said the screening process for hiring prospective employees has become more stringent at the expense of the new generation, thanks to technology.

“In the old days, you’d phone up, apply on the phone, and even if you weren’t quite a match, they might go, ‘Well, there’s something about this person, I’ll give them a chance.’

“Now you can have a Bachelor’s degree and five years’ experience, but if someone doesn’t tick all of the boxes XYZ, you reject them. There’s more people graduating and more competition.”

Today it takes young people 4.7 years on average after leaving fulltime education to enter fulltime work. 30 years ago, it only took an average of one year.

While university graduates will on average earn significantly more than people who finish their education at year 12, those without assistance will bear the financial burden for a long time.

According to the Foundation for Young Australians, a three-year bachelor’s degree costs AU$26,298 — this is almost three times what it cost in 1991, adjusted for inflation.

Despite this cost, Shepherd argues universities aren’t adequately preparing young people for the workforce.

“I don’t want to sound too critical of universities, but we’ve got 10 to 15,000 final year students and limited resources to provide career support for them,” he said.

He rejected the “linear” approach to education, saying it’s not as simple as picking a lone career path in high school, following it through university, and coming out with a job.

He also criticised tertiary education systems and “career fairs” for giving people “false understandings”, saying big brands showcase a tiny percentage of successful graduates who land a job at Google or another major corporation, creating “clouded views” of what interning and employment look like for the majority.

Shepherd said universities are giving people “false understandings” of the reality of the job market.Source:News Limited

Based on his experience working with millennials, Shepherd said it’s clear parenting plays a role here, criticising the impact of parental pressure on millennials’ career decisions.

“Parents apply their own desires for their children, and often children end up studying things they hate,” he said. “They’ll say ‘Get a law degree, you’ll be right in the market’, when we know there’s an oversubscription. It’s nice-sounding to say, and they can tell all their friends their child has a law degree, but is that child really going to get a job in this field? We need to create a broader awareness of the employment market.”

He said these same parents need to put place pressure on universities to adequately prepare students for the workforce, rather than just educate them.

A 2016 study by the National Institute of Labour Studies found the proportion of graduates in relevant fulltime work has plummeted.

In 2008, 56.4 per cent of university graduates had secured full time work in the four months since completing their studies. In 2014, that number had dropped to 41.7 per cent.

But the most alarming drop was for new graduates aged 20 to 25.

In 2014, only 39.4 per cent of 20- to 25-year-old graduates had secured relevant fulltime work, leaving almost two thirds (60.6 per cent) languishing in casual or part-time work.

Statistically, most of these graduates won’t be quite so cheery when they’re trying to find a job.Source:Getty Images

Shepherd says the solution isn’t simple, but that all sides need to play a part.

“Really, I think everybody can play a role in this,” he said. “The government can put more pressure on the education system, and provide the system with more funding to deliver that.

“Likewise, employers need to be more active in hiring young people. Baby Boomers are retiring — employers need to adapt, and take risks on millennials.

“But if parents start saying: ‘I’m not going to let my child study at your university unless you can actually show them something different’, they’ll start to make movements somewhere.”

Rather than following a traditional, “linear” approach, he said young people ultimately need to be encouraged to broaden their horizons, and apply their skills to different fields.

They may end up surprising themselves.

[cho-sekiei]

The Mom-friend trope in fan fiction and why it is problematic (an essay by me)

@eloarei asked:

So I saw that post about Ignis and the mom-friend trope, and I feel like I get the gist of what you're saying, but I guess I wanted to ask if that means you actively dislike it when people refer to him as the mom-friend? Or perhaps you just dislike that trope? Or maybe you just don't like tropes at all? Personally, I love tropes (esp. mom/dad-friend) probably more than is reasonable, as long people don't reduce good characters to JUST those tropes. (Same as any label; we are more than a word.)

Okay… let me try to organise a bit what I have to say because there are several things here. Also I’m going to take FFXV and Ignis as an example here, but this can be applied to lots of different fandoms where a caring male character exists (for example, Hakkai in Saiyuki would be the same, Shiro in Voltron, Sugawara in Haikyuu, take your pick).

The first problem is language related, the name of the trope itself. Not because of the words themselves but because of what they reflect. Do I have a problem with Ignis being referred to as the ‘mom-friend’? Yes, I do. I’m going to explain why, but, in short, this trope glorifies the existence of damaging gender-roles and I think it’s important to be aware of it and recognise it. I should point out here that while I have a problem with the existence of the trope, this is not an attack on all the stories that use it. They are too varied and numerous for me to talk about them as a whole. So not all of what I say here applies to all stories using the trope.

I know it’s an accepted fandom trope and people don’t mean anything bad by it, but it’s interesting to analyse why we say the things we say and to question whether we should at all. Words have power. They are the reflections of our beliefs and attitudes, they have implications and hidden meanings. But they're not innocuous, they can perpetuate hurtful stereotypes and systems of oppression which is why it's important to recognise the implications behind the words we speak and write. The fact that as soon as a male character is empathic and caring he becomes automatically referred to as having feminine traits or attributes (the mom) is a reflection of the rampant and toxic masculinity that exists in modern patriarchal society. Suddenly, he doesn’t fit with the typical image of a male anymore, he has to be the kind-of-feminine-friend. It’s the same kind of attitude that prevents men from recognising and expressing their emotions, the eternal ‘boys don’t cry’ thing, which is unhealthy and damaging. It’s one of the reasons men are so much more likely to be successful when they attempt suicide, because they are raised in a way that forbids them from expressing / dealing with their feelings without feeling weak and questioning their own worth. It also leads to violence against others as an alternative reaction / outlet as well. And it feeds homophobia.

The second problem is that in a lot of cases - not all - identifying the character with that trope will automatically give them attitudes they might not have at all in canon. The mom-friend often becomes nagging and annoying, the dad-friend is cool and fun. Again, what is reflected here is internalised misogyny (even from female writers… and I’m not saying this as a criticism. I still catch myself every day doing or thinking things that are stupidly misogynistic, because our society raises us to believe a lot of stupid things about women’s character or abilities. It takes a lot of self-awareness and introspection over a long period of time to recognise them). As you say, using a trope doesn’t mean you are going to fall into all the pitfalls that come with it but it’s a dangerous slope since some negative attitudes might be so engrained within the trope that they might seem natural and get integrated in your writing without you even realising it. It’s why we refer to ‘internalised misogyny,’ because it’s all but obvious or conscious.

As a brief tangent (I’m not going to go into it too much because I’ve promised @terra-bunny to write a whole post on the topic of toxic relationships in fandom), using the mom/dad trope automatically creates a situation of power imbalance between the characters with some being in charge and some being infantilised with part of their agency and autonomy being taken from them (again that’s coming from the kind of vocabulary that is being used). Of course, the extent of it will vary with the individual story, some will be a lot more extreme than others in their portrayal of the trope. However, in many cases, it doesn’t stop the two types of characters from being shipped together and it’s often presented as a cute and healthy relationship. I’m afraid it’s not. This is not a case where power exchange has been negotiated and ways out agreed upon as in a healthy D/s relationship. It’s not a relationship where the characters are on equal footing. It’s manipulative and a dangerous glorification of abuse, grooming and pedophilia. What matters here is the power balance between the characters rather than their age. If this sounds harsh, I mean for it to be. Our modern societies are way too comfortable with the romanticisation of abuse and exploitation of vulnerable individuals. Creative content does not get a pass on those issues because it's dealing with fictional characters.

Does that mean you can’t write about it? Of course, not. Writing is awesome because you can write whatever you want if it fits your story. What you shouldn’t do is pretend it’s a healthy model to follow. If you write about those topics, then you should be aware and explore the problems that they raise and how those can be resolved (i.e. by restoring / creating a healthy balance of power) or not; and if they cannot be resolved then you should definitely question whether that relationship should continue. Not doing so is passively condoning it as okay. As Desmond Tutu would say 'if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.' Now I should point out here that the smart way of addressing problematic situations is through a clever plot rather than a moralising author's rant.

You can see the tendency of glorifying that kind of unbalanced relationships in fan art as well, with the physical size difference between the characters being over-emphasised, the less powerful character being more slender and given a more youthful face than canon, etc. I have been made very uncomfortable recently by some of the Gladio x Prompto fan art on my dashboard. Without knowing the characters and their age, it looked like pedophilia. It felt very wrong and it is a problem. I don’t think we can pretend it’s not just because it’s part of the fandom. Fandom can be problematic and we should speak up about it.

Now, obviously, I know some people are going to wonder why I get so worked-up about those things. After all, we’re talking fan works, as part of a fictional universe. It’s entertainment, it’s fun, why would I drag all those issues into it? And my answer is because the stories we tell matter. They reflect what we believe in and they might also send some messages to our readers - some of whom might be in vulnerable situations - that might either reinforce their acceptance of or lead them to question problematic attitudes. Being aware ourselves when we write of why we would portray a character or a situation a certain way is the first step towards questioning whether we should. One story won’t change the world, but words have power. The other reason is that you can learn a lot about yourself by looking at what you write and how you write it. Who doesn’t want a good journey of self-discovery? :) And this might end up changing how we act and the problems we recognise in real life as well.

Parenthesis about tropes in general: Not all are problematic. And they’re often part of the fandom life (coffee shop or flower shop AUs for example). We’ve all read them, we all love them. Tropes that give characters stereotypical behaviour (mom-friend), I have more problem with because they tend to lead to paper-fine, somewhat OOC, portrayals of complex characters. But obviously, that depends on the individual writer.

I guess my view on non-damaging tropes depends mostly of what a writer is trying to do. If it’s filling a fandom need, have fun with a stereotypical story, then most of the time they’re fine. Fandoms are interesting because no-one would read twenty novels about people working in a coffee shop… but then we’ve all probably read that many fanfics about it - if not more. I also think tropes are useful to help inexperienced / beginner writers get started. From that point of view, they can be very beneficial.

Now, if you’re trying to write a more nuanced and original story, tropes can actually be dangerous. They will simplify the characters and the plot, they might make them caricatural, less alive and credible. They might rob you of your own creativity. You can use tropes as a tool to get started, but for a more ambitious piece of work, it’s good to stop and think about how you can subvert or move beyond the scope of the tropes, and whether problematic situations in the story should be addressed at some point (as previously mentioned, I’m not talking of doing this in a moralistic way, more in the plot itself).

@eloarei asked:

Anyway, sorry for rambling in your inbox so incoherently. It's hard to explain my feelings about this in so few words. But to get to the honest point of the matter: I'm actually writing a fic that sorta revolves around Ignis as the "mom" type (not /exactly/, but you know, that's why I use quotes), and I'd hate to think that someone I admire (you) would find it distasteful. So if it's something you have strong feelings about, I'm happy to take advice on how not to be tropey about it, at least.

First, let me blush like mad. 😳 ‘Admire me?’ 😳 Why would you do that? 😳 I’m honestly a badly put together mess. Nothing to admire here. 😝 It’s hard for me to tell you if I’d find it problematic without reading it. I just want to emphasise here that I have no problem with Ignis being a caring (sometimes a bit overbearing) character. That’s canon, that’s who he is. The problem is not that Ignis is caring, it’s how it is often portrayed. I often write Ignis telling others what to do because he’s a bossy jerk who thinks he knows better (and he often does) and he cares deeply about his friends and tries to stop them from getting into trouble. I guess the question to ask is whether the way you write him falls into any of the pitfalls I’ve described above (does he get feminised or appear weak for being caring? does he come across as more nagging and annoying than in canon? does he respect other characters’ agency and autonomy or not? and if not, is it acknowledged as problematic at some point in the story? etc.). You could even push this further and subvert the mom-friend trope by engaging with the character’s experience of his own identity and how a toxic vision of masculinity might hurt him and make him feel vulnerable even as he tries to come to grips with his caring nature. But obviously, that’s a much more engaged and deeper kind of story.

I hope this makes what I meant a bit clearer. I probably think about that kind of thing too much, but I can’t rightly ignore it either. Also stop saying ‘sorry’, you have no idea how much I love talking about all that stuff. ^ ^’’’ If you want me to expand on anything, let me know. ;)