#its not really relevant to the story but i still wanted to put the information out there

[mitchell-nihil]

Cassandra character sheet!!!

These keep getting longer and longer...

Reblogs appreciated :D

close ups! kinda! because you can hardly read anything

[zahri-melitor]

Blade Runner, The Matrix and Robins: if you want to run a conspiracy in your story you need to put in the work

One of the central conspiracies people like to speculate about in Blade Runner is the theory of whether Deckard is a Replicant. It's a high-context theory woven into the plot and cinematography of the film. (I'm aware various people, decades on, have 'confirmed' it's true; I don't think that's particularly relevant to this).

The reason why the theory is so compelling for audiences to discuss is that the film in itself poses the question 'what is a human' and sends the main character, Rick Deckard, on a hunt for those clues and mistakes that give away the Replicants he is looking for. Things like Deckard's evasion over whether he's ever taken a Voight-Kampff test, and moments that suggest implanted and shared memories make for a fun second level mystery for viewers to think about and solve. The unicorn dream sequence, with both the dream and silver foil unicorn, provides another pointer for audiences to consider the idea. Even the Replicant Red Eye moments are subtle clues that get called out via the broader focus on eyes.

What also helps the debate and hunt for this potential symbolism is Ridley Scott's reputation as a director who heavily goes for visual cinematography hints and altering stories by changing them in Director's Cuts.

Similarly, The Matrix has a conspiracy that the real world is another level within the Matrix. This one is easy to understand how it developed. The Matrix, as a film, invests a substantial amount of its runtime teaching its audience the clues used to distinguish the Matrix from the real world. We get explicit scenes like The Girl in the Red Dress and explanations of how déjà vu works to demonstrate alterations in the Matrix. We see how characters can alter the Matrix to their own ends, leading into moments in the trilogy where Neo appears to use those skills in the real world being able to be read as 'are we still in the Matrix?'

The thing is: neither movie fully commits to these readings. They're possibilities that audiences can read in, that feel like they've been woven into the plot for people to consider. The audience is drawn to ask the question via the way the hints/clues are found in things the audience is already directed to consider. At their worst, they're artefacts of the audience taking the themes of those films and extrapolating too far.

My feeling about Robins as a comic is that Tim Seeley and Baldemar Rivas want to suggest one of these conspiracy theory stories, but did not have the skill to convincingly pull it off.

One of my difficulties the entire way through the comic was that the story did not know when it was set, and indeed repeatedly suggested via both dialogue and art that it was set in very different periods.

Robins takes place at least partially in a generated overlay from information based on Bruce's notes on the five Robins and also on various criminals. It's trying to take the log entries from Gotham Knights #1-11 and extrapolate that concept out to 'what if having this went wrong for Bruce'. (And I shouldn't really be surprised that Seeley chose to do this: Seeley is very big fan of Devin Grayson's work in the Bat books and frequently chooses to reference it)

The markers used for this simulation are firstly the level reward bonuses, and secondly the singing robin (that apparently uses the wrong call).

In that light, you could argue that problems like characters wearing the wrong costumes, from non-matching eras, and holding views that don't really accord with those characters is supposed to be a series of hints about the resolution of the title, rather than a set of weird screw ups that involve suggestions that the team didn't both checking details.

My issue is that it doesn't feel earned. If Seeley and Rivas really did want to hint and direct their audiences into reading that the presentation, comments and impressions of each of the Robins in their story were wholly based on Bruce's conception of them, then I think those discontinuities should match each other more clearly within each character.

Take Tim for a moment: he wears his original 1990s Robin costume; is the opponent of Damian's 'gauntlet' (a period in which he was wearing his all red Robin costume); has his overlay stolen for a rant about how Tim things the Obeah Man and other villains should die in a way that explicitly references Red Robin #26 (his post-Crisis Red Robin period); and gets specifically removed from the story and trapped in a way that he has to direct others to find him and try to escape himself (suggestions of both the Ünternet and more specifically Mr Oz during Tynion's Tec run). These do not match. If we're supposed to think Bruce is hung up on a specific conception of Tim, and a particularly backward-looking one (which you would assume, given he's put in his earliest Robin costume), why don't the other elements match? Why not put him in his all-red Robin costume to hint that he's Damian's gauntlet? Why not put him in one of his Red Robin costumes if you're going to keep referring to him as Red Robin, and that Bruce's worries about him relate to specific events in that period? And why, if the early Robin costume is supposed to reference Tim's own 'gauntlet', then is he the only character wearing his original costume from the storyline?

And what does not help with this is that Seeley has several obvious screw ups. The most prominent one is he conflates Rite of Passage with Batman: Identity Crisis. The Obeah Man was the villain of Rite of Passage for Bruce, where he was hunting him down to save the Drakes. Tim's personal combatant during that story was tracking down Lonnie as Moneyspider. The storyline where Tim showed the skills and personal judgement that made Bruce decide that he was ready to be Robin was in Identity Crisis, which was a story rescuing Bruce and Vicky Vale from Scarecrow. While the stories are sequels to each other, they're not a contiguous whole: they take part in different titles, with a gap in time between them. Similarly, Seeley places Felipe Garzonas' death as Jason's first case as Robin, rather than his last case.

The whole concept of the 'gauntlets' is the underlying thread holding the story together, the aspect on which Bruce's analysis of each of the Robins and whether he wants to work with them is based, leading to the computer files, leading to the entire plot.

If you mess up like that, audiences are less likely to grant that you're trying to build hints in that something is wrong by having things be noticeably mismatching, because you've also screwed up the ground on which you're trying to construct the story. You cannot fairly claim that the incongruities you put in to hint at your plot are something that should be analysed as clues when you've already primed your audience to think that you're just a hack making blatant mistakes.

And this problem extends to all of the characters, not just Tim. Tim's just the easiest for me to pick apart because I know the references made so well (and Tim Seeley clearly doesn't actually care as much about Tim as several other characters, making the oopsies more obvious).

The issue with this story isn't simple single-panel moments like "And I need to hear it from you, Tim, because Jason and Damian lie through their teeth" or Tim saying he "demanded" to be Robin where people can dunk on it by showing another panel like the Teen Titans 2003 "I lie to Batman" panel or ALPOD. It's in the fact it tries to be clever but doesn't earn audiences' trust to do that analysis. And it doesn't earn that trust because you can't pick apart what's a deliberate incongruity as a hint from what's a general mistake from the team, and if you do pick at elements that look like outright mistakes, the whole thing comes tumbling down.

Blade Runner and The Matrix train their audiences from the very start of the story to look for these incongruities and hints and showcase what problems to look for openly in the plot, leading to people to heavily analyse background details for further suggestions of these hints. They earn the buy in that leads to the elaborate fan theories.

Tim Seeley forfeited his audience's buy in to the story he apparently was trying to tell by not being exact enough about the details in a story where he wanted them to pick at those details, and not showing early enough that the audience is expected to be picking at those details. And that's just poor writing and biting off more than you can chew.

[blkkizzat]

Hi you’re such an amazing writer and great smut writer!! I was wondering if u had any tips on writing smut cus I wanna start writing it too! Do u have tips on dialogue/action/pacing and being descriptive 😭 it’s harder than it looks!! Ps your suguru bumpy car ride is one of my fave fics!! And I’m excited for sadako!geto 😘😘

hey nonny, pookie tysm ur too sweet! im so glad you enjoy my perversions enough to ask me for advice kcjhdscjkhsdb 😩🩷🙏🏽✨

also sure idk if these will be helpful but these are things that help me:

smut:

i think the cardinal rule of smut writing is if it doesn't make you horny, re-write it until it does. lol.

i am a very visual person so i like to close my eyes and imagine the scene before i write it. not just going through the motions either. if this is me, reader, what am i thinking, feeling (both physically and emotionally).

5 senses (touch, taste, smell, sound, sight) should be covered. not every action needs all 5 but if you are describing something you should at least be hitting two of these. " tears falling, you cry out as he enters you slowly" is fine but "blinking away tears you hiss from the overwhelming stretch of his girth entering you, even slowly, proves to be too much" is better.

sometimes i need a boost and if you partake then a few puffs from a weed pen or a glass of wine (im partial to bubbly) will put you in the MOOD lmfao.

*note i dont think you need to have experienced something to write about it, sex included for any virgins however in lieu of that, with anything you don't have experience in, you need to do research to make it believable.

dialogue:

use dialogue to tell us/reiterate who the character is. you can tell us the character is nervous but then its highlighted by the stuttering, rambling, etc of their spoken words.

break up long dialogue with descriptions. this is also a pacing tip. also can insert memories, i will have readers have a whole dialogue and in the middle their will be a relevant memory to give context and insight to the character and their motivations.

using subtext to explain character feelings, you dont have to be so explicit with dialogue all the time. instead of a character saying "im so fucking mad at you right now," use "alright" your voice is clipped, flipping your hair over your shoulder you go back to your task at hand, not even sparing them another glance.

i rarely use explicit dialogue tags now like "said, spoke, cried, yell" i will still use them but ill weave into the description that follows. ex instead of "please stay!" you cried—i would write—"please stay!" your lip quivers as tears gathered on your lashes.

action:

the last subtext tip also helps with action too, alot of times its what we see that really enriches the dialogue so "show" dont "tell".

this is also a pacing tip but during high action/intense scenes using shorter sentences helps express the urgency. although it all depends as long sentences/paragraphs too can help build tension, slowing down descriptions/actions during the climax (lol non sexual) of a scene builds anxiety/thrill.

explaining emotional reactions of heart racing, sweaty palms, etc, is just as important as physical reactions (even tho these are physiological actions they still are emotion driven).

pacing:

besides the pacing tips above in the other sections i think the biggest pacing issue i think people have is adding in details, actions, etc that don't inform your story. everything action/thought you take time to elaborate on that your character does, should be relevant to their motivations, story or characterizations. if it doesnt apply to one of those then cut it out. (note: sometimes it does apply and needs to be cut out and moved another section if its making a scene go on to long)

edit your stories, i know some people post and go and thats fine. everyone has different goals. some just want to get out thoughts and go. however, pacing can be hard to effectively capture on the first go so you will need to reread at least once to ensure your fic is properly paced.

editing leads into eliminating redundancy. often i will write something where i expressed an emotion/feeling then did it again a paragraph or two down the line just in a different way. unless that feeling is evolving, its redundant. redundant doesnt mean the feeling isnt applicable in both places, it means ive already established this feeling/state of mind in my story and it isnt needed both places. this can be one of the hardest things to identify or even fix. however i think my fics are 100x better when i do.

descriptive:

i think people fall into one of these buckets, 1) having the inclination of being overly wordy descriptive or 2)not being descriptive enough. i am the former, so my issuing is editing is pulling back and giving emphasis on somethings but not others. if you arent descriptive enough you will have to decide where in your story its important to give emphasis.

use metaphors that make sense to the person speaking or narration style. you wouldnt use overly flowery language for example if you were writing how sukuna is feeling about something lol.

hope these tips were helpful!

[homestuckreplay]

Explore Remix (This Time It's Wobbly)

(page 827-835)

This is a neat segment, opening and closing with pesterlogs we’ve seen before, filling in some gaps and bookending three really important things: Dave’s monologue, Jade’s FreshJamz, and the Midnight Crew. One small thing stands out - ‘He is undoubtedly gallivanting around his house in a state of barely restrained birthday mirth.’ (p.827) is a strange perspective on John, and sounds more like Jade herself. She doesn’t recognize him in the Midnight Crew comic (p.831) either, so she doesn’t know what he looks like and also doesn’t really see below the surface of his personality.

Dave’s monologue. Dave messages Jade at 23:14 Jade time which is 05:14 Dave time which means this guy does NOT have a good sleep schedule. In his living situation it’s not surprising if he struggles to sleep due to always having one eye open for the next trap. Dave clearly leans on his friends a lot, and they have subtly different roles – John is who he messages about an unexpected juice windfall, Rose is the person he pesters ‘like clockwork’ (p.415) because he can be honest with her about his feelings, and when he can’t sleep, he wants to talk to Jade.

Jade also helps Dave with the self-exploration he’s otherwise not comfortable with. He’s clearly joking when he’s creating his kangaroo rat fursona Akwete Purrmusk, but he’s still creating them. Jade has a FurAffinity account (p.834) and she’s gotta get Dave on there too so that he can start making ‘ironic’ furry art so many layers deep that it becomes sincere.

Dave – and more importantly Andrew Hussie – should not be using a homophobic slur on page 829, as it’s not in the context of reclaiming it. However. As a person who does sometimes reclaim that word I found it a pretty funny variant of the act 2 title [cw slurs if you click that].

FreshJamz! Jade’s music player confirms that all four kids compose music. John and Rose wrote their own themes, ‘Showtime’ and ‘Aggrieve’, both of which have been remixed by Dave. Jade composed ‘Explore’, which was featured in ‘WV: Ascend’ (I will stop talking about Jade-WV connections when they stop showing up) and now Dave has remixed this too. Dave and Jade co-wrote the top tier ‘Crystalanthemums’, and it is very cute to imagine the two of them trading this file back and forth and building on each other’s work. Jade is not a gamer, and John, Rose and Dave have spent a lot of time playing games together, so this media player establishes a shared interest between Jade and the rest of the group.

Midnight Crew. I don’t think page 831 breaks the fourth wall, more like it puts two or three additional fourth walls up, and man do they destroy the image quality. This image doesn’t correspond to an exact page or quote in ‘real’ Homestuck, but it’s based on the events of p.163-165. I think it’s VERY relevant that John is referred to as ‘GT’ here, which are the Pesterchum initials he would have had if he followed his friends’ pattern (TT, TG and GG). And this is happening five pages after we’ve seen a bunch of new chumhandles.

We currently know of [GT/EB], TT, TG, GG, CG, AG, TA, TC and CA. Using only G, T, C and A, we are missing seven possible combinations: GC, GA, AT, AC, AA, CC and CT (which is my initials so I could get assigned a chumhandle!) I think four of these could correspond to the Midnight Crew, but that still leaves eight unaccounted for characters. It may be a coincidence, but these four letters correspond to the base pairs of DNA, and ‘biologist’ and ‘geneticist’ both show up in chumhandles. I’m uncertain of what this means right now, but there is a laboratory near Rose’s house decorated with the Skaian spirograph. If that’s where the mausoleum tunnel leads, that might give us more information.

I think the Midnight Crew is objectively a worse comic than Homestuck. It’s on Act 1031 (10/31, Halloween) but the story is still establishing its titular characters and having them hit each other with sticks. No wonder Dave’s fallen off this so fast. But I also think this is going to become important, and these stories are deeply entangled – Midnight Crew is a story within Homestuck but Homestuck is a story within the Midnight Crew and it’s not impossible that the Homestuck we are reading could also be zoomed out to find another Midnight Crew. More concretely, the player submitting commands could be one of these four characters, similarly shiny and carapaced to WV, the commander we’ve seen.

The beta kids are four thirteen year olds, and the Midnight Crew are four suits of thirteen playing cards – so they’re like a counterpart group, the after dark, morally questionable version. Time is complex in this story but it would be fun if any time it hits midnight for a Homestuck character, the story switches over to the Midnight Crew before the sun comes up, as is suggested by the sun/moon clock at the start of page 833 – something like the Flatland MSPA[LINK].

MSPA, where Midnight Crew and Homestuck are hosted, is also the only piece of media all four kids are into – John, Dave and Jade have all looked at Midnight Crew (p.112, 327, 833), while John and Rose both have Problem Sleuth art (p.11, 224). The Problem Sleuth characters also show up briefly in Act 1031, indicating that it was the previous MSPA in this universe as well as ours. So my new theory is that John, Rose, Dave and Jade all met on the MSPA forums prior to or at the start of Problem Sleuth, giving them over a year before the story starts to form close friendships to the extent of exchanging addresses and birthday gifts. Given that the forums are where commands are submitted in our world, it would be a cool addition to the many meta layers.

> Jade: Navigate to MSPA Forums and submit a command for the Midnight Crew.

[sflow-er]

for the writing asks: 4, 16, 23

Thank you kindly for the ask, friend! <3

Coincidentally, @redleavesinthewind also asked 4 and 23, so I hope its okay I split those between you!

4. was answered here.

16. Favourite place to write

Sadly enough, I don't have much of a choice, because I don't currently own a laptop or even a tablet. I only have my desktop and phone, of which I infinitely prefer my desktop haha. I don't actually like spending time in my home office when I'm not working, but it's my only alternative at the moment.

23. Pick three keywords that describe your writing

This is a really tough one because my first instinct is to self-deprecate and start with something like wordy, but I'm going to try to pick positive words.

Backgrounded. I realise the English word isn't as commonly used to mean 'furnished with background (information) and/or considered in context' as the Finnish word taustoitettu, but I can't think of another one-word equivalent so please humour me! I like to think it shows that I put a lot of time and effort towards studying both the canon and the relevant real-world concepts and details. It's labour-intensive, but I think it helps to ground both me and the reader in the world of the fic and the character's perspective in said fic (informed by my understanding of their world, which may differ from fanon takes the reader has encountered before, for example).

Evocative (in terms of prose). I guess most writers aim to evoke feelings, images, and other experiences in the reader, but specifically in my own writing, this shows in word choices and passages that lean into the character's emotions, memories, sensory observations etc. Sometimes it can even show in the general style of prose or structure of the story, which can be used to give the reader a certain feel of the POV character or to reflect their development. I wouldn't say those play a significant part in the narrator's characterisation in all my fics but they have done in some. (Other people's secrets is the most notable example of the style thing and Bright ideas of the structure thing.)

Organic (in terms of dialogue/internal monologue). This can be a tough balancing act when I'm writing characters half my age "speaking Swedish" in English, neither of which is my native language. So I would not necessarily say my dialogue is realistic; the characters are often too mature and they don't speak like real teens, and while I try not to put in too many things that couldn't conceivably be there if this was a Swedish source text that I was very freely translating into English, I always prioritise fluency in English.

However, I do try to make the dialogue organic in the sense that it flows easily and uses words and concepts that feel innate to my version of those characters. I let them be unclear and awkward at times, and I try to steer away from words and phrases that they definitely wouldn't use. (One good example is Walter's internal monologue in The real deal, where Henry's hair is always ginger or a blondish red and never 'strawberry blonde' which definitely isn't in my Walter's vocabulary.)

Thank you again for the questions!

I'm still open for more if anyone wants to send them - list here.

[lxikobsd]

absolutely loving your kunidazai analysis chart and also your kunikida analyses in general!!! hoping to read more

it still saddens me that skk fans will stop at no one, not even the author who gave them everything, to get what they want..

AAAAAAAAA THANK YOU!!!!

I'm glad you like it, when I start getting into analyses I feel like I become less coherent and just feel like this 90% of the time

I do not plan on stopping being unhinged about Kunikida or Kunidazai any time soon. Analyzing BSD is fun between analyzing the series as it is, and also fun looking at the IRL author's life and work and trying to find potential information that could be relevant to the characters.

Also yea about SKK fans they are ummm... I feel like this might come across as being over dramatic but I genuinely haven't been in a fandom this bad at shipping and mischaracterizations since I was into Hetalia. Not all SKK shippers obviously, but there is an extremely loud portion of SKK shippers who are some of the most immature and toxic shippers I've seen in a long time.

I do not believe SKK shippers who are like this are actually fans of BSD, I think they're just fans of the ship. They don't care about BSD outside of SKK shipping and maybe other popular ships like SSKK or RanPoe.

People intentionally misinterpreting Asagiri-sensei's words to boost their flavorless ship kinda irks me. No he isn't being possessed by a SKK shipper every time he tries to write KNDZ, no he isn't prioritizing SKK because its "the better ship", and no its not like he doesn't know what series he writes and all the SKK bait he's put in it. He quite literally said something along the lines of "I want to write the Kunikida-Dazai duo more, I think I could write them endlessly, and I hope to make Kunikida more active in the story again. Kunikida and his duo with Dazai got pushed to the side because my producer wants me to write Chuuya."

IDK if this is gonna get me crucified but I am starting to believe that SKK is kinda ruining BSD. Not because of the duo itself but rather the push to prioritize them bc of money, it takes away from developing other characters. Maybe I'm just an angry biased Kunikida fan, but getting confirmation that SKK and Chuuya are the reason why he's been shafted stings.

And then shippers threatening Asagiri-sensei over him saying the obvious, that SKK isn't gonna be canon? We need to actively put down behavior like this. Its not only gonna ruin the quality of the manga, but it can cause it to be cancelled entirely if he feels like his life is threatened if he continues.

IDK at the end of the day I hope whatever plans Asagiri has for Kunikida end up being really cool and I hope its not ruined because of immature and insatiable SKK fans.

[popcultureoverdosed]

Blood Blockade Battlefront is New York at its Finest

NYC often gets a bad rep. Most people either see it as a smelly hellhole filled with crime and crappy attitudes or a breeding ground for hipsters and vapid socialites. People only see what they want to see without looking at the whole picture. This makes Leonardo's all-seeing eyes of God all the more important. Instead of lumping NYC into a box, he sees it for what it truly is; a chaotic blend of volatile elements.

The storytelling of Blood Blockade Battlefront is pure chaos from beginning to end. Leonardo is thrown into a world of highly deadly scenarios with very little breathing room in between. Each episode focuses on a moment in the character's life. One episode will focus on Leonardo befriending an amnesiac monster who loves burgers and another will feature a brigade of Charlie's angels-esque spies who happen to be invisible werewolves. It's the type of show that always keeps you on your toes because you never know what to expect. Some have criticized the show for its lack of an overarching plot and treat it as if that's inherently bad. Blood Bloockade isn't the type of show that needs a complex narrative. Its biggest appeal is simply seeing its eccentric cast interact with each other. Its episodic nature made watching it a breeze since viewers are never overwhelmed with too much information.

Worldbuilding is done at a casual pace where background lore is only given when it's relevant to what's currently happening. Since most characters are already well familiar with the lore, they usually cut the small talk and get straight to the action. In this way, the narrative mirrors New Yorker's aversion to beating around the bush. Show don't tell at its finest. We need more shows that just get to the point. Rie Matsumoto, director of season 1, feels a bit different about the story than I do, though. She inserted two original characters, Black and White, a pair of siblings who share a character arc that Intersects with Leo's. Under normal circumstances, this would have been an incredibly bad move. Filler in anime tends to feel pointless and just detracts from the story. Luckily, Rie Matsumoto made sure that the filler didn't feel like filler. It was fun watching the mystery surrounding the sibling duo unravel with each episode. It eventually culminated in a finale that was nearly an hour long. Matsumoto took a huge risk with her bold decision, but she definitely stuck the landing.

The production values of the show are also top-notch. Pretty much every episode is a reminder of why studio Bones is such a beloved company. They seriously put their key animators to work in both seasons. The fluidity of the fight scenes always left me impressed. Character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto did a great job at bringing Yasuhiro Nightow's art to animation with his iconic style. I love how even when Toshihiro is adapting someone else's character design, his style still shines through.

Special mention needs to be given to composer Taisei Iwasaki because he really killed it with this soundtrack. It's an eclectic blend of jazz, RNB, hip-hop, rock and more genres that perfectly captures the vibe of a busy New York City. Each track is a different flavor of the city and made me feel at home. The soundtrack truly embodies the chaotic feel of the show and captures its occasional serene moments perfectly.The true musical highlights are the openings and endings. BBB is one of those shows where you feel compelled to watch the full episode because the opening and ending are too good to skip. They're all incredibly upbeat songs that make you wanna stop everything and dance. Sugar song and bitter step is one of my favorite anime endings because of it's colorful animation and cheerful aura.

Blood Blockade Battlefront is the type of show that can really resonate with native New Yorkers. We see all the highs and lows of the city almost every day and you have to be just a little bit crazy to appreciate NYC for what it is.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 46 – The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Okay the month of August was essentially a write-off for...a lot of things, but non-web serial reading among them! Now trying to claw my way out of the pit and back on the horse. So, some high concept genre fic full of queer people and war crimes, just what the doctor ordered.

The Spear Cuts Through Water is the fantasy epic and love story of a pair of warriors – one a generally despised one-armed checkpoint guard, the other a positively reviled princeling – as they escort the moon goddess in her attempt to escape the prison her sons had trapped her within as they tyranize and empire that spans a continent. As told through a dream/vision of the Inverted Theater, where shades throughout time are called while they sleep to witness a performance put on by the favoured child of moon and sea. Intercut with the same tale as told through out POV’s grandmother, along with vignettes of his life as the son of a failing cloth merchant centuries in the future as the world goes through its equivalent of WW1. All this metaness and layering is either the book’s strongest point or it will make your eyes roll back into your skull so, you know, make an informed choice here.

Being entirely honest I don’t remember exactly how this book ended up on my radar – I believe I was first pointed towards after I expressed some dissatisfaction with this year’s Hugo nominees as something that would have been a more deserving inclusion on the short list. Certainly I’d never heard Jimenez’s name before picking it up. Entirely happy I did, anyway – whoever first rec’d it yes, this does deserve a Hugo nod way more than some of the other nominations.

The plot itself is quite well done, but absent any of the stylistic flourish wouldn’t really have been anything that memorable. The layered framing devices – and the way that they intrude on the narrative in a hundred different ways, switching from depicting the action to saying how it was staged and presented or how the narrator heard the tale told – are really just fantastically well done, enough that even when it got all meta and self-referential I was still enjoying it more than enough to just go with it.

Not that our heroes aren’t fun in their own right. They’re both at times profoundly unlikable, and other times utter idiots, and always totally and completely incapable of intelligibly expressing their feelings. It’s great, love them. Even if on occasion I also wanted to throw rocks at them. The main supporting cast – or at least Defect the tortoise and the moon/empress herself – are even better, really.

Though as far as characterization goes its the extras where the book really shines. It has a trick I really, really like where little snippets of the internal monologue or history of some fellow traveller on the road or sentry being gutter from behind are interspersed into the action in italics like this. Diegetically this would be the chorus in the theatrical performance, but regardless it does a shocking amount to make the world feel like it’s full of actual people and not just mannequins forming a backdrop for the characters who matter.

The book fits into the honourable tradition of modern SFF with cool-eyed and unsentimental portrayals of feudalism/imperialism, war crimes and general oppression (including in this case very plot-relevant and character-informing ableism) but only a vague and attenuated sort of 21st century homophobia, if that. Like all modern queer genrefic it’s also at least kind of in conversation with the looming shadow of Burying Your Gays, with a bait and switch tragic heroic sacrifice that seemed very conscious and pointed.

The framing devices lend themselves well to the book being written in a kind of mythic register, which I very much enjoyed. The epilogue felt like an intrusion of history on mythology, and I do mean that as a compliment, full of messiness and ambiguity and short on heroes and golden ages or utopias. Overall very much enjoyed the book, perfect reading for being stuck in a waiting room for a passport renewal.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Layers and white lies: a Puzzle House takeaway

I'm not going to delve into too much detail on this amazing book here, but I will touch on a few themey, plotty things I saw and roll around in some angst for a while, so, behold, a cut for big ol' Puzzle House spoilers:

One of the clues that helps Claudia delve deeper into the Puzzle House - and the plot - is the little clue on the bottom of the lantern she picks up: some things are hidden in plain sight. And the deep angst and all of Kpp'Ar's intentions are some of them!

This story, like all of TDP's stories, is written to be understood at a certain level by children. And it is. But for us adults, if we slow down and study what's in front of us - another Claudia clue, which she advises Soren with - we can see more. (this works in the show too of course)

In this case, I'm seeing Kpp'Ar's entire plan - and why he abandoned it - and how it worked anyway.

There's the real angst. He set something in motion, and it became too big to stop on his own. And that's very much relevant to TDP's concept of the cycle too!

Okay, let's break down the situation Kpp'Ar found himself in:

Soren was very ill

Kpp'Ar was engaged with Viren in helping find a way to save him

Kpp'Ar knew about the power in unicorn horns

he captured a giant who was guarding a map scroll that could lead him to one

but then he realized he was not worthy to read its information, and instead of stopping to look at that, he pushed forward in a new direction

This is when things get a little dark.

When the fun cute carousel (that might be made of actual creatures turned to stone? did they all die for this performance?) carries Soren and Claudia deep into the tower, Soren sees the horrible traps and assumes he and his sister are off the planned track for their surprise. At one point he claims that what they're dealing with is literally too big for them.

He's right... but also, he isn't.

Follow the unicorns. That's what Kpp'Ar wanted Claudia to do.

They start on the lantern, and they're present on the balustrade right next to them. She was always supposed to pick up the lantern, remember the snap magic trick Kpp'Ar taught her, and head right up those stairs.

She was supposed to fail at the slide. She was supposed to find a different way to keep chasing what she wanted. Just like Kpp'Ar. When he closes a trap door, he opens a window? Sure.

Follow those unicorns, Claudia! Cutesy and bright, they led her all the way to the giant's prison. She was always supposed to push past the boundaries of "child-friendly" fun and go in there and read the map, so that her father and his mentor could go kill a unicorn for its horn, and then save Soren's life with it.

That was always the plan.

And it was always too big to just ask a child to do. So Kpp'Ar made it into puzzles for her. That way Viren could still save Soren's life, and Claudia would have fun and never be burdened with knowing what she was really doing.

She learned that trick, too, btw. Good job, Clauds.

The hidden angst of what happened to Kpp'Ar is a little harder to see, but it's there too:

Kpp'Ar realized he was dragging Claudia into the same kinds of machinations he'd dragged Viren into

he'd known Viren for years and something in that arc gave Kpp'Ar pause

he could see what Viren couldn't (until S5) - that he was hurting Claudia's future despite her trust in him

something in Kpp'Ar broke, and he had a tantrum (like Viren in S2) and a big change of heart (took Viren 3 more seasons)

he gave Claudia those snake bracelets just before he vanished because he wanted her to free the giant

she'd still have to follow the unicorns to find him - she still might find and use the map - but he couldn't control that now, all he could hope for was that she would show compassion for the giant too

And she did, because she was pure of heart. Kpp'Ar helped set things right, with one of his final acts. But he'd already put into place a whole big plan to kill a unicorn, and there was no way to separate rescuing Kruha from aiding that plan in progressing forward. He had to take his hands off the wheel and trust someone else to do the right thing. He had to give up his need to control everything, and start to trust just a little.

Themey, innit.

What's interesting is that Viren gives no clear indication to anyone - Atticus, Claudia, us - that he's aware of this big puzzle Kpp'Ar made, or its goal. All he admits is that things are complicated and the Puzzle House is dangerous. Very on brand with those layers and white lies.

Couple possibilities:

Kpp'Ar knew Viren would not allow him to endanger Claudia, so he didn't tell him about it, and Viren didn't understand the full scope until after Claudia had seen the map - possibly several years later, shortly before Viren proposed his vengeance plan to Harrow

OR, Viren knew all along about the plan to use Claudia (and was willing to risk her life for Soren's), but it didn't matter anymore, because he'd already found another way to heal Soren - possibly with (some of?) Kpp'Ar's life force - so he played dumb with the map paper and only told Claudia to keep it safe for later

Since he couldn't read the map... I lean toward him knowing all along. Coining Kpp'Ar for having a change of heart - something anyone should be allowed to do at any time - certainly added to the darkening of Viren's heart, but surely he and Kpp'Ar tested the map and found that neither of them could read it before going to these lengths.

With the comments Kpp'Ar makes to Viren in his fever dream - which now might be partially... real? - it's very possible that Viren pushed for the whole thing, trying to save his son's life. Offered Claudia up, got Kpp'Ar to give her a book so she could start studying up on magic, and then lost his cool entirely when his mentor basically said Soren should die, and coined him for it.

And Claudia never knew a bit of that. Probably still doesn't!

I wonder if she'll interact with any Kpp'Ar details in future seasons!

Alright, that's my thoughts!

Puzzle House is possibly the theme-iest graphic novel we've gotten so far. It's themes all the way down. They reach down through the PH plot, into Claudia's onscreen tactics, and they reach up to the meta level with the way that The Dragon Prince approaches the entirety of the show itself.

There is something scary in the dark. But that doesn't mean we should run. It's always better to go slow, to have compassion, and to follow your heart.

Because sometimes the solutions are hiding in plain sight.

Thanks for reading

[hifuminto]

Have you see new Hypnosis Mic A.R.B? Part 1

Man i didn't play this game but i suddenly invest with these game after seeing their recent event called "Detective Six Part 1".

Sorry for my Bad English and writing, I am not native speaker and I don't really understand how to write bcos my dyslexia but I really want to make this long post bcos I really exicted! Here we go!

So this event is now about Badass Temple and Fling Posse Cosplaying as some detective to solve mystery. If i am not mistaken this is not first time this game do this. I remember previously they make similar event with Sherlock Holmes's theme with Samatoki, Gentaro and Rei as characters.

I don't really understand Japanese, bcos i can only read Katakana for now. But i like detective stuff, so i will have fun to write my guest here. In the moment i saw the character artwork I recognize some of them. If i am mistaken, please inform me.

Let us starting first with Kuko's base on his card title. 【波羅夷家の一族】 is pretty similar to a Japanese novel name 【犬神家の一族】 or in English title The Inugami's curse.

Kousuke Kindaichi is detective created by Seishi Tokomizo. He is describe as a shabby looking young man with a short height. But have a strong observation skills and logic thinking. His character is feature on 76 novels and appearing in a numerous FIlm, Television and Stage Adaptation.

The Inugami's curse was novel written by Seishi Yokomizo, a mystery novelist as part of Kousuke Kindaichi's series. So of course I think he's cosplaying as Kousuke Kindaichi. Minus the robe but he wears the iconic hat base on the statue. I also doing google a bit and later find out the hat is also part of the costume for 2006 film adaptation. This is a neat reference!

Next is Jyushi. Jyushi card is 【アルゴξ急行の殺人】 that literaly translated in google translate as "Murder in Argo Cart". This is clearly referring to Agatha Christie's novel "Murder in Oriented Express" and who is the star of the novel? Of course its Hercule Poirot!

Hercule Poirot is one of Agatha Christie most famous character. Not much know about his history beside he came from a large family with little wealth in small town on Europe. But he's a former police officer turn into private detective who solve many mystery in his later career. Poirot operates as a fairly conventional, clue-based and logical detective. But sometimes he willingly to hide some important detail of his plan if necessaries. Another fun fact is, Poirot sometimes refer to himself in third person.

Actually before i notice his card name, I already knew he cosplaying either as Hercule Poirot bcos his outfit is pretty familiar to this detective. But i have second thought and think maybe he's cosplaying as John Watson, considering what Hitoya wearings.

But after seeing the card name. I am pretty sure he's cosplaying as Hercule Poirot! But still I am still supersize finding out about this!

And then last, the third member! Hitoya! His card is written 【医師が相棒】 which is literally translate as "Your partner is a doctor". Now who is the famous detective with doctor as their partner? That right. its one and only Sherlock Holmes!

Sherlock Holmes is a detective that no need introduction. Currently he's IS the most famous fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that still relevant in this age thanks to numerous modern adaptation.

Hitoya maybe the fourth person who cosplaying as the famous detective from Arthur Conan Doyle story. But I think his outfit is the closest one that similar to the legendary detective compare the other three. I mean look at the old Sherlock Holmes picture that i found as reference.

(But I do admit, maybe not his belt thou hahhaa.)

Anyway here some picture of other Detective trio wearing Sherlock Holmes's inspired outfit!

But then i think He IS the perfect choice to portrayed as the famous detective <3 he just need to put the hat on his head XD

Anyway i finish with BAT for now. I will do Fling Posse soon after this.

[monsterblogging]

Pacific Rim: Ascension is pretty good, actually

So yeah, Pacific Rim: Ascension is a prequel novel to Pacific Rim: Uprising, and based on that you might think it wouldn't be that great. But IMO, it's very much worth reading for a number of reasons.

The author was clearly very familiarized with the lore developed for PR1, and actually integrates a lot of it into the story in a way that gives it a sense of depth, reality, and drama that Uprising and The Black lack. Characters are also generally written well (and Hermann is written so wonderfully well), and Vik and Jinhai's backstories are, in my opinion, extremely engaging. And if you're one of the people disappointed that the Kaidonovskys and Cherno Alpha didn't get more screentime, you are absolutely in for a treat.

For the lore-oriented fans, the author's clear attention to detail means this book is actually a fairly reliable source on what was originally developed for PR1, including Jaeger details and character histories. It does include at least one piece of outdated data (Romeo Blue having three legs), and the story claims that drift compatibility is something you either have or don't have (something we know isn't true from Beacham's posts), but there's no reason to dispute, say, Vulcan Specter having a drill weapon or Shaolin Rogue having an extra-aquatic design.

The book also gives us lots of wonderfully bizarre kaiju. The somewhat frequent mentions of tentacles (forbidden by del Toro) suggests that these are based on very concepts, or were invented by the author himself. Either way, they are absolutely great monster designs. If anything, some of the things these monsters have going on make the movie's kaiju look a little boring.

That said, it's not perfect. Hermann's cane is never mentioned at all, and - well, the rest of the issues are spoilers, so I'll put them under a cut.

We learn that some people have apparently been using Pons technology to implant programming into people's minds - a detail which ultimately has no relevance on the plot, and feels weirdly edgy for Pacific Rim. And I know it's a common trope in sci-fi, but its proximity to right wing conspiracy theory bullshit makes it... not exactly my favorite trope. I don't know whether its presence in sci-fi is really super problematic, but in real life belief in this kind of thing has been used to basically justify witch hunting. Like, I understand the dramatic value here, but at the same time, people still living today were put on trial and even sent to jail based on belief that this was a real thing. Like I'm not going to tell you that this is an Objectively Bad Trope, but it's definitely a trope with a lot of terrible baggage.

The story also gives an explanation for how it was worked out that kaiju blood explodes when exposed to rare earth minerals, and it's pretty ridiculous. Supposedly a kaiju's blood rained down on a microchip factory, and the factory exploded. Accepting this detail means accepting that nobody's phones, laptop computers, or other electronic devices never came into contact with kaiju blood splatter or mist, and that kaiju blood never splattered into a damaged conn-pod. This is the kind of thing that should have been observed fairly early in the kaiju war, not several years in.

Also the PPDC in this book apparently just classifies information for No Real Reason, like the fact that a particularly violent kaiju cult tried to destroy the world. Like you'd think that this would be the kind of thing they'd want to broadcast, for reasons of "hey look how awful our political enemies are."

Also lol the fact that PPDC records pilots' drift memories and just peek into them is creepy. Like it doesn't exactly make Mako Mori look good when we learn she's been invading cadets' privacy like this, ya know?

But yeah like, I think it's definitely worth a read. The book shows a lot of imagination and makes good use of Pacific Rim's worldbuilding. Even if you don't like Uprising, you'll probably still find something to enjoy about it.

[thefinalwitness]

i think i already made this post but i'm in the brain space and i want to be super clear about my intentions re: dawntrail spoilers, so this is the rundown of how i'll handle them, and how i handle all expansion spoilers!

for the first month following the full release (not the pre-order release), i won't be posting anything at all about dawntrail—no story spoilers, no non-story spoilers, nothing at all until august 2nd 2024.

after that, i usually start posting small spoilers, but not major ones, for anywhere from 6-12 months after release. all these posts WILL be tagged with "7.0 spoilers" (and "7.1/7.2/etc spoilers" when it becomes relevant), and since i've seen it's popular, i'll TRY to tag them as "dawntrail spoilers" for as long as possible too, but full disclosure that isn't how i naturally categorize ffxiv spoilers and that tag may be missed even on early posts, and may disappear much sooner than its patch number counterparts. "7.0 spoilers" is by far the most reliable way to block dawntrail spoilers fro me!

whenever i DO start posting major spoilers, these will be put under a readmore and both tagged as stated above, as well as prefaced before the readmore with a warning that it contains spoilers (and probably some details about what kind of spoilers, ie story/non-story, what level any related quests/zones are, etc).

furthermore, i personally take spoilers REALLY seriously, and will be blacklisting any and all words related to the expansion until i complete the MSQ. because this account is just a sideblog to my main blog, the dashboards are combined, so there's also a chance i will be temporarily blacklisting usernames and/or unfollowing people to avoid spoilers, as i would otherwise have to stay off tumblr as a whole, which would be very boring for me LMAO.

this isn't personal at all! i'm just REALLY allergic to even very small spoilers, and especially because i will likely not be playing dawntrail when its pre-order release goes live, i want to make absolutely sure i avoid spoilers as much as possible. again, once i finish the MSQ, i'll unblacklist and refollow any blogs. :)

i also want to touch on something i feel a lot of regret for regarding how i handled endwalker spoilers with friends: specifically, i had a tendency to debunk friends' theories with pre-endwalker information. at the time i didn't think this was a problem because i also didn't know the answer, just that xyz theory wasn't it because of pre-endwalker info, but in hindsight i think this has a lot of potential to ruin the fun of others who really enjoy speculating on the story as it unfolds, so i'm going to aim to not do that this time around! specifically, i'm not going to debunk other people's theories, EVEN if the info i'd be using comes from pre-dawntrail sources. i just think this was an unfun mistake on my part that i don't want to repeat without explicit permission, and i'm sorry to friends i did this to whose fun i soured in doing so. spoilers are really important to me, and while i know these aren't technically spoilers, i think they still have the potential to hit the same, and i don't want to make anyone feel the way i do when it happens to me.

i think that's everything! i hope everyone has fun in the new expansion, and i look forward to joining you whenever i get my own stuff sorted so i can play too! <3

[vertumnanaturalis]

A lot of people seemed to like my last one, so woe! More fic ideas be upon all ye again; compilation of au ideas I posted in LQ and haven't been edited to be easier to read edition!

(below the cut, because theres like 12 of them and its a big messy mess)

Nem?Tang fic where they wake up in some ancient convergent domain plant device with only hazy memories of how they got there but nothing solid enough to work off of, and also why is their hair so long, and where are their clothes, and where is the goddamn colony? Because oopsie daisy! it seems that somebody put them in the ancient alien magitech healing goo and forgot to take them out when they were done, and now two hundred years have passed and everybody else they know and love are long dead, and also apparently some giant ass fleet of earth guys tried to land while they were having a snooze but! oh! whoopsie! yet again! somebody sent them the wrong information about how to safely get through the wormhole and the majority of the fleet did not make it to the surface in one piece!!! and the some of the survivors may or may not have folk stories about people that may or may not be Nem and Tang’s loved ones doing either great or terrible things during those two hundred years they were sleeping through!!

mermaid au where Besk was a mermaid trapped in a research facility and Instance broke her out during her ecoterrorist days but Besk couldn’t go back to the ocean because (hand waves) so she stayed with Instance as a slightly-more-free test subject who could technically come and go as she pleases, and she did, and eventually came back from one of her outings with two whole goddamn babies, and despite their both their hopes both babies seem to be pretty much normal human babies except for the occasional weird non-human thing, like eating whole raw eggs or Tangent having an overnight sex change shortly after saying she’s a girl, and feeling like she’s the only mermaid left in the world eventually leads Besk to doing the same thing she always does, and now Instance is stuck with two ambiguously half-human grieving kindergartners, and now it’s the world’s words hybrid of Wolf Children and The Thirteenth Year (with a mild dose of human experimentation sprinkled on top)

modern day/modern-ish all humans on earth au fic where Sym is a pre-school teacher(or aid??) who just moved to a new town with his beloved edgelord of a boyfriend who never wants to talk about his past or childhood and Sym only knows bits and pieces that he’s mentioned over the past few years (but that’s fine he’s just got his secrets nothing new there), and at his new job with his new class there’s a young single parent of twins that also moved into town only a little bit after he did, and apparently they don’t have anybody in their life besides their kids, they don’t have any family and the kids dad isn’t in the picture, so he does the nice friendly thing and offers to lend a hand if they need help with anything, and one afternoon as he’s supposed to be leaving work after making sure that the kids are all picked up, he spots said single parent and said beloved edgelord talking/arguing about something, because apparently they used to know each other but haven’t seen each other in a long while, and his boyfriend doesn’t wanna hear what “actually super important and kinda immediately relevant” thing that his old friend wants to talk about, and before Sym can really stop them the two kids go running to greet their parent, and look we all know where this plot is heading fellas

(not sure if this one should follow Tang or Dys primarily but Imma go with Tang side for this) fic where there’s more people than canon but they’re still on Vertumna with little research on it & Sol has dream memories (maybe use part of the old idea about the Helio arriving as part of a mini fleet instead of a lone ship?), and Tang’s intelligence is lauded like in canon and she’s put into the best position to learn smarty smarts stuff, while Dys’ rebelliousness gets him no favors with the Man and gets himself marked as a troubled kid and moved away from his sister, with Tang being told that she can seek him out once she’s an adult if she still wants to but for now not to waste her time or energy on worrying about him and focus on her studies. She keeps hearing him being mentioned in passing as being part of some big secret alien-centric program to so she knows that he hasn’t gone awol, but she still doesn’t see him for the next 3 to 5 years even tho she still gets to see most of the other kids (bar Sol, who was also yoinked by the secret alien program). Fast forward to her being an adult enough adult who seems appropriately level headed for doing amoral sciences, so she’s invited to see the big important secret alien project, and “_so Tangent, you know how some of the xenofauna can pass information and feeling between individuals of different species through physical contact, and that there’s some functional technology leftover from the alien civilization that lived here beforehand? And that your brother spent a lot of time exploring ruins? And how sometimes science needs sacrifices? For the greater good and all that? :)?” and Tang gets to see her brother as one of the star subjects of the project’s attempt to recreate a messy version of the array (while not even understanding what it actually is)

like 3 different variants (Geranium, Flulu, and Hal+Tonin+Sol’s she group on a field trip” of “like 3 weeks after landing somebody falls into a mini wormhole and comes out 25 years into the future, except none of them went missing in the second timeline, and now they’re in the future having to deal with the way life actually turned out, and they don’t even know all of the stuff that their other selves do/did, because they may or may not be alive still in this other timeline”. (Actually what got me into working on all those future kid things because I wanted to know who’d be doing what when and with who)

au where Besk blacks out shortly before her suicide attempt and wakes up in a cave on Vertumna, having 0 idea where she is or how she got there, and stumbles around thinking she’s dead until one of the surveyors finds her, and upon getting back to the colony she finds out that she’s supposed to have been dead for the last 11 or so years, with her two five year olds now being sixteen (the same age as her when she left Earth & also how long she spent on the Strato), and she has to learn how to adapt to everything and being alive when she shouldn’t be while there are so many others who died and aren’t magically alive again, and also has to do all this while more or less locked under constant observation, because BOY nobody is going to casually leave her alone for like, so many reasons

fic that opens with Kom waking up in the medbay after the age 14 glow attack and Nem and their younger brothers and all his friends are so unbelievably glad he’s awake and ok, but he keeps learning about the not canon possible things that happened either during the attack or while he was healing (like his mom dying while helping the kids evacuate the creche or chief Rhett and Sol’s parents having died defending geoponics), and he’s just stuck with this unending feeling that he’s supposed to be dead right now, but he’s not, and I’m not sure where to go with the story past that

au where Kom wakes up five years before the Strato reaches the wormhole with the knowledge that he’s going to die ten years from now, and it more or less follows a dreamer Kom story except that he knows that his story only has one conclusion, and rather than trying to prevent his own death he spends that time trying to save and protect as many people in his life as he can (maybe prequel to above scenario?)

obligatory single “nice” modern au fic except that nice has to be in quotation marks because technically it’d be about Dys breaking into Sym’s house after committing a major felony and definitely in a big hurty thinking that it was abandoned, but like surprise! it’s not! and even tho Dys fully expects Sym to call the cops on him and wake up in jail he instead wakes up in Sym’s guest room and immediately assumes that he either died already, accidentally tripped into the fae realm, or Sym is some kinda polite hannibal ass serial killer, and it’d be just a whole bunch of Sym being genuinely kind and nice to Dys while Dys is just “y tho like literally what is wrong with you”, and it takes like 2 years and several more major felonies for them to get together. also this might’ve spawned off of the earlier pre school teacher one but it’s not 100% attached to it so that’s why it has it’s own bulletpoint

2.5 flavors of a Hunger Games AU, which are "special games where its announced that this year each district has to send two siblings/other close family members, and the twins get reaped in their district", "one of the younger boys gets reaped but Kom volunteers in their place", and "Tang watching as Dys gets reaped the first year he's applicable for it and she can't do anything about it, and then having to watch as Kom (in his last year of being applicable) volunteers in her brother's place and all of his siblings are now freaking out" which only came to me as I was sharing the first two.

also have this flawless related image

au where Sym sees videos of wild animals in urban areas being relocated to a better habitat on the data thing Sol gives him and he comes up with a fresh new idea; cut to his two favorite humans (age 13/14) waking up on a strange beach some few thousand kilometers away from the colony several weeks later with 0 idea how they got there (ark opening tune starts to play)

also whatever this is

anyways, that's definately not all of the random au ideas I've had and don't include some of the more developed ones I've actually made effort to work on/flesh out, but these were on hand and I wanted to share them too

[grave-queen-jakrabitt]

PROGRESS wrestling in the 2020s and why it’s so captivating

So I’ve told the story of the reign of Cara noir, his rivalry with spike trivet, and the rise of kid lykos but to be honest I don’t think I did a good job and I want to approach it from a more analytical perspective. So I’m going to do that by looking at how the booking strategy affects it.

It’s no secret that pre nxt uk progress was what you may consider a super Indy and post pandemic progress really isn’t. Pre 2021 progress was fucking nuts, it put on dream matches and made people take notice of England, but the fact is it was quietly able to build its rep since 2012. WWE UK was built on its back. 2020s progress doesn’t exactly have the same roster depth but it has another strength. It’s limited roster made it’s booking really good and the Tale of the swan, vulture, and the wolf is the best example.

Spike trivet and Cara noir came into the company in 2019. Cara would go on to win the progress title and take it into the restart. Spike would ask for a title match and he would be denied….this single decision would inform the next 2 years of progress wrestling. Meanwhile kid lykos would win in the tag title tournament alongside kid lykos II losing them after 96 days to the smokin aces. Lykos gets a few wins and gets a shot at Cara promptly eating swan shit and focusing on tag wrestling losing a title match, making friends with a wrestler named Warren banks along the way and getting some backup.

Spikes vendetta against Cara really kicks in and he screws Cara out of the championship against one of the best wrestlers on the planet Jonathan Gresham. Warren banks is next in line for a shot but kid lykos screws Warren over and helps Gresham as the two have history, on that same show Spike brutalizes Cara. This is extremely important because it sets off a chain of events. Keeping Cara and spike away from the title picture but still extremely relevant, giving the title picture space for a masterpiece.

Gresham being American only had time for a short reign with the belt, but he’s so good nobody can really beat him. Gene munny asks to face Gresham as a qualifier for super strong style 16 2022. But Gresham has a stipulation forced upon him. If he cheats or lykos gets involved he’ll be stripped of the title. Lykos sees a chance. He knows he can’t beat Gresham but if the title is vacated it’ll be crowned in the tournament. He turns his back on Gresham solving that problem, munny says he’s not going to strong style without a 3 count and smashes lykos 2.

In the tournament we get the revenge of Warren banks as he knocks out lykos, along with eventual crowning of distant contender Chris ridgeway. But we also see trivet vs noir in an I quit match …loser leaves progress. The silent black swan speaks after the vulture threatens his wife, the swan is gone. Spike says he can stay as long as he just goes by his real name with no gimmicks and doesn’t use his signature moves. Unfortunately he would be injured for a bit, this unfortunate bit of fortune would lead to a brilliant idea, a terrible, awful, brilliant idea. The match known as the thunder bastard. Pinfall or submission 9 people enter in 3 minute intervals winner gets an anywhere any time title shot. Spike enters close last and this match is a good example of the way spike works there are very few people he can out work so he plays mind games and he orchestrates. He blinds Dan Maloney so he spears man like deriess and jams the prop key in dans eye for the win. The mind games with cara showed how desperate spike is for control, so what happens when a machiavellian gets chekhov’s gun?

Meanwhile shitwolf and el eijho de shit wolf have been trying to drive a wedge between the tag team champions, while lykos also began shit talking his former partner Chris brooks, Chris ridgeway loses the title to big damo, but in the matter of a few shows chekov’s gun would fire with the shattering of a glass bottle over Maloney’s head. The vulture swoops in and steals the title. His first defense was Eddie Dennis which had a dusty finish with his foot on the ropes then losing the restarted match by disqualification for again bottling someone

Then drew Parker comes home to the uk. both he and spike were part of do not resuscitate, drew starting it but spike handling a majority of the things they did. Spike brings up the scars from his first death match with drew. For those that those who don’t know spike trivet and drew Parker were 2 of the 4 pillars of uk death match along with Chris brooks and cliff margira but spike fell into a more standard style of wrestling. He berated drew for being a dogshit wrestler to get him to change his mind about a death match. It doesn’t work but this again proves my point, spike is a middle of the road wrestler so he cheats to get ahead, when the rules go out the window he can play the game but he knows he has to be careful, so he brought backup….his own personal bodyguard bullit.

The deadly viper tour’s California mountain snake sees the return of return of Chris brooks and debut of masahiro takanashi and the lykos gym a few days before brooks vs lykos at return of the fly, this time eating squid shit. But in the main event spike beats man like deriess but the water is getting deeper, he’s st

Return of the fly gives us the moment, lykos vs brooks, months worth of aggression taken out in no disqualification catharsis. Lykos gym bring out a door with fuck CCK written on it that will get used on lykos later. But something to highlight here is at a point Chris brooks gets ahead and honestly starts doing some fucked up shit. To the point where when lykos refuses to die the crowd start cheering, Chris hits his half of the CCK tag finisher dropping his partner of half a decade back first into thumbtacks…he stays alive, it devolves into a fistfight….he stays alive. Lykos goes to hit his diving swanton off the top rope Chris moves and lykos lands back first into the pins….and still he stays alive the blood soaking through the mask that now clings to his neck by a thread. His biggest bombs have been dropped and nothing could put brooks away from the Casanova knee, to the blood moon, mangy’s revenge, even pulling out his old full moon Spanish fly nothing worked so what does he have left? Skill, a roll up puts brooks away for a 3. After that the two partners make up and hug it out.

The next stop on the deadly viper tour sees kid lykos taking on Luke Jacobs. Jacobs is very familiar with lykos after he and his partner Ethan Allen were defeated by lykos gym in the final of the tag team title tournament. He then became atlas champion before losing it to big damo. Lykos is still a shitwolf but he’s been like that since CCK. Luke will been important later. But for now spike takes on drilla Dan Maloney….in a non title match. Spike made him so pissed that he didn’t care about the title. Dan wins but spike keeps the belt. This sets up a title match but also makes sure spike gets some comeuppance.

The next show sees lykos gym facing Kidd bandit and warhorse. However the biggest thing they do is jumping the tag champs and cutting the hair off chuck mambo one half of the champs. Actually cutting it next show. At the surprise unboxing show for the year spike barely beats big damo. But after the match gene munny totals spike setting up the match

First show of 2023, lykos gym vs the sunshine machine. Kid lykos actually tells off lykos 2 for cheating and repeatedly tries to make amends with chuck mambo. Mambo counters lykos’s blood moon for a pin. Gene munny gets jumped by spike and bullit trying to make sure he can’t compete. But munny asks if that’s all he’s got. As expected gene loses. But as spike tries to batter gene with a chair Tom Dawkins comes home to the ballroom, he lost a match to bullit and left for Japan.

Next show the smokin aces lose a title match to the sunshine machine and brutalize them, weather it was the gauntlet at the 10th anniversary, or the 3 way ladder match the sunshine machine have been the ace’s kryptonite. Then we get bullit and trivet vs munny. The aces make themselves involved on the side of spike

Chapter 150, non title trivet vs Dawkins Cara noir on the line. This match is insane, to begin with spike comes out in shit Cara makeup. Tom Dawkins made the point that after 10th anniversary spike said Cara had no friends, then he responded with “I don’t fucking need any friends because a couple of people in the back hate you” out come sanity to deal with bullit. He could probably deal with teicher but not him and damo. Tom gets close to pulling it off but one of his own students yanks the ref out of the ring. Bullit bullied him into it after the pre show. He instantly regrets it and bullit puts him through a table. Thanks to TK Cooper jumping them for busting open chuck mambo the smokin aces won’t be an issue. Spike takes the boots off of Tom then the kick pads, out of sheer desperation a capoeira kick blasts spike and in all but image Cara noir is back with a devilish smile. Swan At one point we get another reminder of the 10th anniversary beating, and like the I quit match Clair Dawkins gets involved, unlike that beating however she fights back showing off some excellent training. A swan woo dropkick to spike, ddt counter to bullit’s chokeslam, a moonstomp blackout sleeper combo. Madame guillotine, package piledriver, all hail the black swan.

151, steel cage noir vs trivet one last time. Spike candidly speaks about how he felt like robbing Tom Dawkins of Cara noir would expose him…but spike was exposed, he promises to give Cara the fight of his life rather than the swans. And in an effort to keep what’s his now he fights like hell. It starts… with a handshake into a nose break. spike isn’t a bad wrestler but he’s not out wrestling the arguably best champion in progress history. So when spike taunts Cara into beating his ass instead of winning it again shows his strength, starting shit. But at this point they’ve both lost a lot of blood, Cara had his foot mangled by the cage and he fights on but he realizes he can’t anymore. Bowing to the vulture almost giving spike his blessing to finish him with the tower of silence. It feels wrong at first but the more you think about it it makes sense

Spike wanted something, but he didn’t get it, so he stole something from Cara. Cara for the better part of 18 months had been motivated to get back what was stolen, Spike had the championship he wanted so badly, Cara was back in full force they didn’t need to do this anymore. It was time for the wolf to go on the hunt.

Super strong style 16 2023, kid lykos makes it through big damo, Nick Wayne, Nathan Cruz and meets mark Haskins in the final. The ultimate shitwolf plays completely above board, especially since Nigel mcguinness is the referee, Haskins fakes lykos 2 tripping him to get him kicked out. Mark puts his hands on Nigel one to many times and as he’s about to brain buster lykos Nigel shoves him into a lykos brain buster. He calls his shot a few shows down the line. Next show, bullit vs lykos and lykos 2 vs spike trivet, it doesn’t go well

155: Feel the noize bullit vs lykos ends how you’d expect, lykos vs drilla Maloney is a great match, trivet vs Luke Jacobs, ends in an interference brawl with Maloney spearing trivet. Setting up Jacobs Maloney and lykos vs dominatus regnum (spikes group who’s name I couldn’t spell) and before I get to that I wanna talk about bullits side quest. See every member of dominated rectum has a goal, the aces wanted the tag belts and spike wants to solidify his reign so what about the one man armory? Simple, he wants to be better than big damo. And at chapter 155 bullit does it, he beats him no spike no aces. This is a good motivation and it also solves half DRs sanity problem. The tag match is chaos but lykos pins trivet, keeping the pin in as long as possible to show it wasn’t a fluke.

Hungry like the wolf is the next show. And it’s hard fought but again by the skin of his teeth trivet beats lykos. But at Novembers show vendetta it’s mask vs title. It’s as brutal as brooks vs lykos, glass, doors thumbtacks, but at a key moment bullit chokeslams lykos 2 through a table as a distraction. And lykos loses his mask. It’s the importance of what happened next that I wanna talk about. Lykos talks about how things is the first lucha wager match in British wrestling, and Spike lets him….he silences the crowd giving the floor to the shitwolf…to Ethan beach and shakes his hand. These two will meet again, they will hate again but all is said and done, spike has his prize, and the shitwolf never dies!

At unboxing and a movie lykos battles Eddie Dennis in the main event. Spike trivet puts his hands on one of the owners of progress getting himself suspended. Kid lykos 2 has a few words for bullit “kid lykos 2 is not your distraction, I’m not your decoy I’m your fucking problem.” Spikes suspension opens up the door, at light of the dragon it’s the thunderbastard match. Lykos enters at number one, he manages to outlast Connor mills, gene munny, Luke Jacobs, mark Haskins, Yoichi, and Tate Mayfairs. The very key that belonged to the vulture is now in the jaws of a wolf. And like strong style he calls his shot for February. Lifting the suspension of the vulture. He gets attacked by spike from the crowd. In February it’s another cage match. The last word however belongs to lykos “hey vulture, I’m still here”

Chapter 163: twisted metal

Smokin aces screw sanity over but out come cheeky little buggers. They goad the aces into a giving them a shot. Falcon brings up that the tag titles aren’t really gender specific. Crowley kicks out of the penalty kick piledriver. And by the same method the cheeky little burgers beat the aces.

lykos 2 vs bullit. Bullit beats the shit out of lykos 2 for a while, but the chokeslam is countered and built eats a Death Valley driver as the 5’6 shitwolf picks him up. Again the chokeslam doesn’t work, the spinebuster doesn’t work, lykos 2 has a mission. A sunset flip off the top, and the lykos gym brainbuster gets him the win, the giant goes down.

The last moment of the reign of terror, lykos comes out to a video of his highlights from progress. The vulture of progress comes out flanked by the aces. Spike fakes out putting on a lykos mask and tosses it to the man himself who throws it aside and smashes spike. Like a coward spike runs for escape but he can’t. Lykos gets busted open from a shot to the cage. Spike is in his element now and the crowd taunts him with his real name. He tries to escape the cage but lykos grabs his ankle. He goes for a pin but lykos kicks out. Lykos gets up and spits blood at the vulture. Defiant but he takes a beating for the trouble. He knees trivet, a flurry of offensive blows gets him control. He goes to the top but he’s caught by spike. But again lykos claws back. A package piledriver by lykos gets kicked out of, as is the piledriver by spike. The two slam each other’s heads into the cage as an escape attempt goes south. Lykos goes for the door but Charlie sterling slams it on his head. The right hands that spike uses to crumple lykos earlier stop working. A massa takanashi nose grab, a lariat from Luke Jacobs, the late mad Kurt’s saga mega driver, Chris Brooke’s octopus stretch. The aces break it up but the locker room clears out. Spike is alone in the wolfs den, a superkick, a brainbuster, a kick out from spike, the dive off the top rope from lykos. After a two and a half years the reign of terror ends….let the new horror begin the vulture all hail the shit wolf.

Having told you that tale I think there’s a theme throughout the 2020s for progress in the form of identity. You can certainly see it in a lot of the title reign of spike trivet, robbing Tom Dawkins of Cara noir, making it seem like drew Parker’s identity as a death match wrestler made him lesser, trying and failing to rob lykos of his identity and failing. It goes further down the card, from the sunshine machine thriving as tag team champions when as singles wrestlers they floundered, the entire crux of Nina Samuels vs Alexis falcon. Since the restart progress has been about identity. I feel like that’s because it’s kinda been without one. When it started it was punk rock pro wrestling and you could feel it you understood it, after the pandemic it kinda lost some of that feeling. Not only do I feel like it got it back it’s only gotten stronger. They don’t have all the names that made the scene, names they built but they proved they can make more. They thrived when the pressure was on and what’s more punk than that?

[sentientgopro]

I've been thinking about representation again and the forms it can take and classifying them, and kinda just want to organise my thoughts here. Don't mind if I ramble for a bit, using a few examples.

From what I've seen so far, representation tends to take 3 main forms, and ALL OF THEM HAVE A PURPOSE.

Understated and insignificant, a slight mention

Meaningful and a fairly important part of the character

the character is an exaggeration of the thing they represent

So, first off, the "shallow" rep. Y'know, the kind people call "shoehorning" or whatever. This one can be a bit of a hot topic, and I feel like most people act like it's more of a problem than it actually is. However, in some cases it actually becomes very beneficial to the message the representation is trying to add.

For this one, I'm going to use Rainbow Six Siege as an example. Bear with me. For those who don't know about Rainbow Six, as in the original concept, not necessarily just the game, the idea is to have a global unit of the world's best soldiers, from as many different countries and backgrounds as possible, so that you always have a local expert on any situation and someone to provide a different view. The whole point of team Rainbow IS diversity, and always has been, but it more means diverse nationality.

However, Siege does add little tidbits of Sexual and gender diversity; a few gay characters, bi, trans, and Enby. However, this information is only mentioned briefly in the bios of the characters, regarded as a very insignificant detail. While this could come across as shallow representation, I think it really serves the game's message well. It does not matter who these people are or what their background is, they can do all the same cool operator shit as everyone else. There are trans people in the military, bis, enbies, and so on, and alot of people are against that, but Rainbow presents the message that it does not matter and they belong there.

Moving onto rep where it's a meaningful part of the character, or the media uses one to one metaphors to represent the identity (what I mean by one to one will make more sense later). This is where most "good rep" falls, and the example I'm using here, because it's one of the characters I know best, is Gwen Poole, AKA Gwenpool. Gwen's Aroace identity is still a fairly recent addition, with her having a several comic arc dedicated to learning about it. It would take far too long to delve into the deep details of Gwen's story and why she acts the way she does, but in short, she often tries to "put on a show", do things because she thinks shes supposed to in order to be interesting and relevant to avoid her comics being cancelled and fading into obscurity. In this comic arc, her appearances in Marvel's Love Unlimited series, she attempts to start an interesting romance to be interesting and stay relevant. She goes through attempt after attempt, trying different things, stopping on being gay/bi for a bit and seeing if that works, before things fall apart and she realises her identity. What I mean by a "one-to-one metaphor" here is how she forces things to happen to be an interesting character and because she feels like she's supposed to, which parallels how alot of Aspec people force themselves into relationships because they feel like it's normal and what they're meant to do.

And the third category, the exaggeration. This part is when "one to one" is going to make more sense. The exaggeration normally exists in a fantasy setting, where you can more clearly and outwardly display the complex inner workings of a person's mind. This is different to one-to-one where a character experiences those feelings as normal and just talks about them, as opposed to the media exaggerating and clearly displaying those feelings.

The example I'm gonna use for this is Jordan from Gen V, a spinoff of The Boys. (For those who don't know much about the boys and thinks its just that show edgy teens watch, its not. Theyre both very leftist shows, both in being supportive of marginalised groups and a larger criticism of capitalism and the right wing, especially with anti-immigration politics.)

Anyway, Jordan's power is to switch between being a man and woman in an instant, and having different powers depending on which they are. (For the purposes of this character, I am going to talk about gender as a binary, because that is how their power works.)

The show's target audience aren't exactly the kind of people who are going to pick up on nuanced ideas of gender identity, dysphoria, and such, so it isn't exactly subtle with that it's trying to say. Masc Jordan's power is being indestructable and immovable, and fem Jordan's power is some form of shockwave power, so their fight dynamic is attack as a girl and switch when they need to take a hit. I'm not gonna talk about the obvious implications of being a man to take hits and feel strong, it'd be a waste of time.

So that covers why they switch in fights, but which identity do they use out of fights?

The show makes 3 things clear: Jordan grew up as a boy before discovering their powers, and prefers being a girl and feels more confortable that way. So why do they ever present masc?

It's when they want to impress people, appear respectable/ traditional, appear strong and intimidating, or generally do not feel safe/comfortable, especially around their unsupportive parents. It's almost all based around internalized misogony.

So while the obvious interpretation to take about this character's identity is gender fluidity, I don't think that's the case, and this is where the exaggeration idea comes in. Jordan's power acts as an exaggeration of how they feel like they should present, as opposed to their actual identity. Having an instant and clear switch makes it easier for the audience to understand their feelings and comprehend what's going on identity wise. I believe Jordan's story much more closely resembles that of a trans woman, and the fluidity is just a way of showing their feelings.

I don't feel like I'm explaining this the best, but the exaggerated form of representation can make it clearer for the audience to understand emotions that are usually very subconscious and deep down. I recently cracked when I realised that most of the time, I was subconsciously viewing myself as more feminine and as a girl. I started questioning being NB or Fluid when I noticed sometimes I felt it was right to be more masc, but Jordan was there to exaggerate and clearly display those feelings to make them easier to interpret, and I realised I was in a similar situation and felt the same way.

So, in summary:

Subtle rep is designed to show that we're really all the same, and should be treated as equal.

One-to-one rep is designed to be directly relatable.

Exaggerated rep is designed to make it easier to interpret compex ideas and subconscious feelings to get a better understanding.

I hope this all makes sense, thanks if you read all the way to the end, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have.

[delphi-shield]

For your wip tag game:

I would love to know more about "Moving Forward" and "America's Suitehearts" pretty please? 🥹

OH THANK YOU FOR ASKING oh man, oh man this is exciting! i'm so sorry, i got so carried away. i had too many thoughts when i went back to skim these wips lmfao. i'm putting this under a cut that's how bad it is.

Moving Forward is a one shot and maybe the stupidest fic I've ever written. idk i like thinking about the transition periods between all the different leon's we get to see, and i was thinking about infinite darkness through re6 leon and his relationship with adam benford. i know a lot of people decry their friendship as character assassination but i genuinely have never thought that it was out of character. by re6 (and arguably infinite darkness, though he's still kinda finding his footing there) leon has resigned himself to operating in a broken, fucked-up system. he's able at this point to recognize the people around him who are trying to do good and trying to work within the same system to get shit done. leon is not and never has been a leader, he's consistently happy to hand over authority to a more established, senior power. he does not spearhead change. he'll hold his ground and speak up if something violates his personal code of ethics/morals but he is absolutely not reforming anything by himself, he is way too happy to fall in line and play good little soldier and by that point in his life he's recognized that about himself and he's playing to his strengths.

anyway only like half of that is relevant. the fic deals with leon's servitude and his attitude towards his work a little bit, but it's mostly a fluff piece in which leon takes the reader to have dinner with his friend. he neglects to inform them beforehand that his friend is president-elect adam benford. insert hi-jinks. here's where the fic gets its name!

The house is a two-story colonial, fresh paint, a manicured lawn with a BENFORD 2012 sign stuck in the front yard still.  It screams money.  “Always thought that was kinda tacky,” you tell Leon. “‘Moving Forward’ - like, yeah, I hope so. It doesn't even rhyme with Benford.” “It's a slant rhyme.” “Why do you even know what a slant rhyme is?”

America's Suitehearts on the other hand is basically me shoving all my Ashley headcanons into a fic and making everyone deal with that!! Post-re4, poly leshley/reader, extremely inaccurate portrayals of how the secret service operate with adult children of sitting US presidents because i'm struggling to research it. reader is a big lonely loser in this fic and they're really fun to write. part 1 is very office romance, slice of life-y, part 2 is established relationship, sort of navigating the awkwardness of the early stages of a relationship.

perfume and cologne also play a really big part in this fic. i think it started as a way to practice writing smells and then it very quickly just became 'okay but ashley would smell good though, she'd probably like gourmand scents'.

“I think it smells better on you,” you say, offering her a sheepish little grin over top the cubicle. You hand her the perfume back, catching the pout of her lips and the furrow of her brow when she looks up. Her fingers brush yours. Warm and soft, yet they still send a chill through your body. “That can’t be right,” she declares. She stands up, leaning over the low wall separating your desks, gesturing for your arm. You give it to her without a second thought. Her hands cradle your forearm. Her nose presses to your wrist. You’re grateful for the empty office. If she wanted to open her mouth and sink her teeth into your skin, you would let her just to feel her tongue laving at your skin, to have her teeth leave impressions in your skin like a flower pressed between pages. Jesus, what a weird thought. You’re going to have to unpack that later. Maybe find a date or something. Fuck, you’re lonely.