#maybe it’s cause the realism in those

[alfairy]

Fears to Fathom episode 4 came out. It was good, but people are out here calling it the scariest episode? Nah, I still think Carson House or Norwood Hitchhike are the scariest

[sillyandquiteawkward]

Idk if you've been asked this before but do you have a ideas why Curly's hands and feet had to be amputated? I understand that his fingers would've been fucked to all hell... Maybe because he was in the front of the crash, considering the foam in the cockpit, the impact's recoil and being burnt alive (as seen in Jimmy's hallucination), it's a miracle he survived at all.

In the cryopod 20 years later or perhaps in the meantime, I hope Curly died a quick death somehow. It's what he deserves, but hauntingly unlikely.

at least for his hands, i imagine the foam ate them.

the foam covers the controls completely, so i assume his hands got encased in foam as he was trying to steer. and then you have the delusion from jimmy of the axe planted into curly's chair for the feast scene, so thats where my mind goes. gotta carve him out of the foam, and whats left of him is probably too weak to get yanked out (even in daisukes escape from the foam had a lot of yanking and struggling, with enough momentum needed that he took several steps to right himself after pulling out of it)

they said the cockpit had the worst damage, they were too scared to even go inside it for 2 months. so whatever they did to dislodge curly from the foam was fast and dirty. im not very knowledgeable with medical injuries and the realism of them, so i dont have much other than that.

i do think curly did catch on fire and get roughed around from the crash, so maybe those teamed up to cause the need to amputate his feet as well due to the dead tissue. doesnt seem like a good idea to keep necrotic tissue attached to your body, if it doesnt fall off on its own.

sadly im in the opinion that curly dies painfully slow and agonizingly after his 20 years is up. esp if you take how how fish is made/the last one and another ties into mouthwashing and if you consider that canon. thats a lot of time to sit there and Think about everything.

[novemberheart]

Chapter 3 <- Chapter 4-> Chapter 5

{Overview} As you grow closer to Johnny, Simon steps in

{Warnings} Slight angst, female reader, this chapter is a bit short, Johnny being a sweetheart, cursing

“Good morning everyone!” You sang, making your way to the front of the large room. A few mumbled greetings reached your ears. You put your hands on your hips a heavy sigh leaving you. “I said ‘GOOD MORNING EVERYONE”! You shouted, your hands cupping the front of your face.

Louder groans echoed through the room but ‘good mornings’ were quickly passed to you.

“I know the coffee isn’t the best, but I encourage you to have a cup.” You huffed. “Who remembers what we’re talking about this month?” You hummed, beginning your pace around the room.

“Symbols.” Robert spoke up from next to you.

“That’s right.” You cheered, turning back on your heels. “Let’s narrow that down a bit, what is our main focus this week?”

“What different colors symbolize.” Another man shouted from the back.

“Perfect. Thank you, Captain Taylor.”

“We are learning about what different colors can symbolize. So let me just throw out the color orange. What does that make you think of?”

“Oranges.”

“The sun.”

“My grandson.” A few laughs broke out in the one. “What? His favorite color is orange.” Sergeant Pierce huffed.

“No that’s actually perfect. Sometimes colors can remind us of people. Alright what about the color white?” You continued, pacing back around the crowded room.

“Snow.”

“Sheep.”

“Clouds.”

“A nice, sandy beach.”

“A wedding.” Your ears perked up at that one. You turned on your heels, your eyes squinting towards the far left of the room. Your eyes widened as you locked them with Johnny. A polite smile pulled at your cheeks as you suddenly felt shy.

“All of those are good.” You complimented, making your way back up front. “Today we are going to be focusing on what Sergeant Pierce shared with us. I want you to paint someone from your memory- but I want you to stray away from realism and focus on colors that either described your relationship with them. For example let’s say- I don’t know- twenty years ago you met a pretty little thing while you were stationed in Italy.” A few hoots sounded off from around the room. “Yeah, yeah.” You smirked rolling your eyes.

“Anyways let’s say you met this person and they were passionate. What color would you draw them as?”

“Red.” A few people said in unison.

“Perfect, red. Now let’s say along with this person being passionate this person made you happy. What color would you add?”

“Yellow!” A few others shouted.

“I think most of us agree on this so far. Now let’s get a little deeper. Now we know you can’t be happy all the time so let’s say between these moments of happiness there were pockets of uncertainty. Maybe one of you wanted a more serious relationship or maybe there was the looming possibility you could be transferred somewhere else. What color would you add to represent that?”

“Dark blue.”

“I’d add red again.”

“I think a dark green.”

You let out a small gasp. “We finally got some different answers. So far we have a person painted in yellow, red, maybe some dark blues and greens. Now just looking at this painting we would be able to grasp the sort of feelings this person might cause you. That’s our goal today. Now I don’t want any of you to worry about being vulnerable because your perception of a color might not be the same as another’s- so don’t go making assumptions, okay?” You paused for a moment. “Oh and try to keep the paintings somewhat PG, I plan on hanging these in the hallway.” You said. The room grew with chuckles before the vets got to work gathering canvases and brushes from the center of the table.

You made your way around the room chatting with each table, this was the part you loved about your job. Getting to know about each person and watch as they opened up without even realizing it. You flushed and excused yourself after a particularly raunchy table, finally ending up near Johnny.

“What do we have going on here?” You teased looking around at the canvases.

“Don’t know where you’ve been hiding this one.” Thomas spoke up, nodding his head towards Johnny. The Scot looked up from his canvas sending you a wink. This corner of the room had been the loudest, breaking out into laughter every other minute.

“He is pretty funny isn’t he?” You replied, eyes dancing back over to Johnny. The man flushed, obviously not expecting the compliment. He looked extra handsome with a red hue to his cheeks. He quickly recovered, flashing the table a smile.

“I got nothin’ on you bastards.” He finally spoke up.

“You remember that son.” Elias chuckled, giving Johnny’s shoulder a slight nudge.

“Well don’t you boys go scaring him off.” You whispered sternly. They smiled at the playful glint in your eyes.

“We’ll be nice to your boyfriend, Hun. Not to worry.” Thomas assured. The instinctual urge was to deny it-for Johnny’s sake, but you decided to let it be, you and Johnny sharing a knowing glance.

“Well that was fun, Bonnie.” You jumped at the deep voice.

“Really? They did seem to get into it a bit more than the ones in the past.” You beamed. Johnny got a bit closer admiring everyone’s handiwork. His shoulder brushed against yours, and you felt the instant urge to sink into his warmth. With him this close you could smell his cologne- a fire with a hint of spice. Out of your four temporary roommates Johnny was the one you felt the closest too- the next runner up being Kyle. He went out of his way to check in with you and be friendly- even with his playful flirting.

“Hey, where’s yours?” You perked up, turning towards him a hand resting against the table.

“I was trying to sneak out with it.” He whispered, his eyes wide as he got caught. “I was going to leave it by your door, but here you go.” He removed the still wet picture from behind his back.

Your hands reached up to cover your mouth in shock. You knew Johnny was good- but you had yet to really study his work. It was a portrait of you, with one hand on your hip, the other resting against your cheek as you looked down with a slight smile. The aspect that really blew your mind was the emotion he was able to capture in your eyes. Happiness, content with a hint of amusement. Your picture was filled with color.

“Johnny.” You gasped before you could stop yourself. Your bleary eyes looked up to meet his. “This is the most thoughtful thing anyone has given me.”

“Well that makes me sad.” He whispered back. His hand reached up, the pad of his thumb brushing a fat tear that rolled down your cheek.

“God, I’m a mess.” You sputtered, wiping your tears on your shirt collar.

“A hot one.” You laughed through your tears, your eyes meeting his melted blue ones one again.

“Thank you, Johnny. I mean it.”

Afterwards Johnny took you out to lunch at a cozy pub a few blocks away from work. You two chatted over the daily special. You learned he was the second youngest of four sisters.

“So that’s why you’re not uncomfortable around me.” You jested.

He talked about where he grew up, the look in his eyes making you homesick for a place you’ve never been.

“I’ll take you there one day, Bon. You’d like it. It’s rainy with lots of farms.”

He asked about you. Not that you had too much to share. You told him about your different jobs, growing up as an only child, how you missed home but overall were happy you worked up the courage to leave.

He paid the bill before you even realized it had been dropped off at the table.

As he drove you back to work the realization that this was the best date you’d even been on hit you like a bolt of lightning. Not that you had any right to call it a date. He was just being friendly and wanted you to feel welcome. Maybe he was trying to score some points with Laswell that he was being a good host. The thought made your heart sink a bit. You shook the thought away.

“You okay?” Johnny spoke up from the drivers seat. You quirked your eyebrow. “You shook your head like there was a bug on you.”

“I did?” You muttered causing him to nod his head. Had you always done that? Sure you would shake thoughts out of your head- but you weren’t aware you physically did it. “Spasm, I guess.” You shrugged nonchalantly. He hummed- seemingly fine with your answer.

That night you were by yourself. The house was empty when you came home. You made yourself a quickly dinner, washing the dishes before you even began to eat. It was another nice night out, just chilly enough you could wear one of your favorite sweaters. It was quiet outside, except for a few planes passing overhead. One of the perks of living all the way in the back corner you supposed. The trees rustled from the wind and even though you couldn’t be more in civilization- you felt far from it.

A few moments passed until you heard movement over by Simon’s shed. Your hairs quickly stood up as the familiar feeling a fight or flight kicked in. Luckily that was short lived as the door opened to reveal Simon. You took a deep breath, adjusting your gaze to look back at the sky.

“Heard Johnny took you out.” He grunted.

“Yeah, he did.” You confirmed, not even registering the sweet smile that graced your face. He sighed causing your smile to fall.

“Don’t get use to it. I bet he told you all about his home and how he’s going to take you there one day. We’ve got enough on our plate without you crushing him.”

All the safety that had begun to settle in your bones quickly disappeared. You stiffened in your seat suddenly feeling all too imposing.

“I don’t think that.” You sputtered. It was a rare occurrence that someone would be so blunt with you. “I didn’t mean to overstep.” You continued, your throat tight and a small shake beginning in your body. Simon refused to meet your eyes, his trained on the house. With another sigh he made his way back inside leaving you in the suddenly all too dark and cold backyard. You made quick work of heading back inside and up to your room.

You heard a car pull into the driveway and a small commotion downstairs. With an embarrassing whimper you rolled over pulling the covers far above your head.

Hi friends! I hope you liked this next chapter. Sorry I made Simon a bit of a meany- he’s just protective of his boys and doesn’t want to see them get hurt! You understand right? As always likes and reblogs are greatly appreciated. See you next time! 🤎

[glitter-stained]

On villains with tragic backstories

Sometimes I'm like "is it really psychophobic, maybe i'm reaching, the character did say that they're not actually crazy they just like killing people" and then the narrative will hit me with "some terrible, dark horrors have happened in your past and this is why you are killing people but it's not too late to get admitted in a psych ward" and I wanna throw the comic through the window and myself with it.

The "mentally ill villain" trope isn't just saying that the villain is crazy or giving them hallucinations. If you're giving a villain a tragic backstory, and that backstory has caused them severe suffering the memory of which is still painful to the day, and the story expects you to believe that the villain's horrible behaviour is explained by the fact that this suffering broke something in them... It's worth examining if you're not just vilifying or demonizing mental illness on accident.

The issue isn't that your villain can't have a tragic backstory, or that the tragic backstory can't explain their actions: the issue is when the suffering itself is treated as a sufficient cause for the behaviour. Say a character was raised and abused by a cult that taught them killing puppies is good and then they kill puppies: not psychophobic. Say a character who used to love puppies was kidnapped and tortured by some guy just for the fun of hurting someone, no brainwashing or anything just pain, and then they get out and kill puppies because of the torture: psychophobic. There's a missing link in the reasoning here, a question of "what about this event taught/brought the person to the conclusion that it was a good idea to kill puppies or gave them a desire to?" The psychophobia is insidious, hiding in the implication that the trauma (because this is what it's really all about) is what made them kill puppies. Sometimes, people with trauma kill puppies. But killing puppies (or exploding buildings with children in it, or shooting someone in the spine, or severing heads and putting them in a duffle bag, or, or, or) is not and has never been a symptom of ASD*, PTSD, CPTSD, BPD, DID, DDD or any other trauma-induced disorder. It's a good idea to verbalise the logic, emotions, needs and desire that motivate your villain and where they stem from, to avoid falling into the trap that thinking their trauma, because of the magnitude of the empathy it's meant to generate for the character, is enough of an explanation for their behaviour. A villain being sympathetic because of their backstory doesn't mean that their actions are necessarily coherent.

On top of that, it's important to take in account other factors such as the original background of the character, their vulnerabilities, their age (super important when writing childhood/teenage trauma/young villains!), but also their ethnicity, gender etc etc. This is important for realism and accuracy, because trauma is neither a magical button that creates heroes nor sociopaths, but also because psychophobia interacts so easily with other forms of discrimination slipping through the cracks. Now that you've identified that your woc character becoming a manipulative, sociopathic "crazy ex" because of her trauma was not just a consequence of her trauma but the interaction between the trauma and personal factors, what are those implicit factors that contribute to make her manipulative, obsessed with her ex, etc.? And now that you've extracted them explicitly, like a zip file, can you examine them to see how many of these personal characteristics have to do with her being a woman of colour?

I hope it's clear that I'm not telling you what to write- I think imposing the idea that villains can't be poc, or queer, or working class, or disabled, or mentally ill, etc. is harmful, because it reduces potential representation, it's based on the assumption that I know what you're gonna write and it's gonna be fundamentally ableist, and it puts this pressure on fictional characters to be perfect icons of representation rather than actual characters with depth and personality (kinda like thinking you can't write a female character who cries because it implies women are weak). This is just to encourage you to be mindful about what you're doing when writing that tragic backstory, because it's not necessarily what we think about when we talk about mental illness, and it's important to analyse what you're writing with a measure of introspection: why am I writing this? What does this imply about the character? What's my reasoning for this character's reasoning?

I have zero issue with a mentally ill character kicking a puppy as long as the narrative isn't trying to tell me that it's a symptom of mental illness to kick puppies. But of course, perhaps the story could also be a critique of those stories about mentally ill people kicking puppies, and the satyre is flying way over my head; or perhaps there will be a secret plot-twist that happens after I stopped reading that explained why the character was kicking puppies, perhaps the book was an attempt at guiding and manipulating the reader into realising the flaws in that reasoning on their own, or perhaps it was a metaphor for something else entirely, etc, etc. I don't know. The point is, write whatever you want; but write it self-aware.

*in this context, ASD meaning Acute Stress Disorder

Two examples of comics I think do it pretty well:

> Arkham Knight Genesis: for all its flaws (i didn't really like this one), I think it does a pretty decent job of getting us to understand how Jason got where he is, that it wasn't just "tortured until evil", all the reasons for his resentment, all the brainwashing and manipulation are pretty explicit. Kind of an "easy mode" because the plot revolves around brainwashing, but solid on that front.

> Red Hood Lost Days: this one I'm more mitigated because there's this whole "pit madness/the pit made him a psychopath" thing Winick introduced to limit the damage of previous runs (and rightfully so imo, Pit Madness is a much better explanation for some of Jason's most batshit ooc runs than just trauma), but there are some pretty solid elements, especially when you know earlier comics. I'm thinking specifically about when Jason says something around the lines of "you murder people; i put down a lizard", as a direct echo to Judy's "I put down a mad dog", that's one of my favourite comic lines ever, I cheered seeing that parallel like yes, I can see the reasoning, I understand where you learned the lesson and what the thought process is and I support it.

[plumpybread]

I had a bit of a question with the Genshin AU because I was planning on doing a bit of playing around with it myself with possible fanfics, and I was wondering about how sizes would be in terms of the female population of Teyvat! Would they also fit the average size standards of the region or is it something that only applies to the men and the women are all relatively thin? (I'm sorry if this has already been asked before i'm new here)

Hmm, good question! I think I mentioned it in the past, but even I can't recall it too well cause it was probably buried in some random paragraph in one of the one hundred text bibles so I can't blame you.

I believe women would also be pretty big in nations like Fontaine and Mondstadt, but in comparison to men, much smaller. Like the average Fontainian guy being 1000lbs but women being around 400-500, maybe! And those who reach hugely immobile sizes being men mostly.

Obviously Im gay so im not like interested in female weight gain, but for the sake of realism it just wouldn't really make sense for me to say women stayed average while men reached 100 thousand pounds so yeah, they're also pretty hefty in these nations!

[zmediaoutlet]

In honor of the rewatch, what do you think caused Sam and Dean to not speak for two years? I know there’s some stuff Kripke said about flubbing how long Sam had been at school for, but from the show it seems that Sam leaving for college wasn’t what made him and Dean stop speaking, and that something happened after that to cause it. I’d love to hear your take! ❤️

Yeah, I firmly believe we should just ignore meta information about the show. It doesn't matter if Kripke says he made a mistake -- that's what's in the script and that's what got filmed, so that's what the characters said and it's what the truth of the thing is. So what happened?

I'm just gonna copy something I already wrote about this -- https://zmediaoutlet.tumblr.com/post/696657028926652416/happy-wincest-wednesday-a-stanford-era-q-for-u -- but this part is key:

I do like to headcanon (…or maybe this is actual canon) that Sam started dating Jess right around that two year mark, and therefore his spare time was taken up with girlfriend. And then from there, it is very easy to imagine Dean calling on the road somewhere in South Carolina, trying to stay awake by bothering his little brother, but in the three hour time difference Sam’s on a date with this killer blonde and he silences his phone so as not to interrupt. And then maybe Dean’s in Maine and he calls Sam because he’s bored on a stakeout and Sam’s watching a movie with his new maybe-he-can-call-her-his-girlfriend, and he misses that call, too. And then maybe the next time they do talk, Dean’s kinda snippy-bitchy because, damn, you avoiding my calls?, and Sam’s kinda snippy-bitchy back because, no, but he does have a real life, Dean, he isn’t just waiting around for random VH1 Behind the Music trivia. And so maybe the next time Dean thinks to call, nursing his stitches in a motel room somewhere in Texas, he decides not to. Don’t want to bother big time college boy, does he. And then maybe Sam hasn’t heard from Dean in a while, and he actually makes the initial call, but that time Dean’s with John and sees the name come up on the screen and doesn’t want to start a fight, and Sam hears it go to voicemail and thinks, fine.

The realism of drifting apart because 'if you won't call me, then I won't call you' -- it just kills me. Especially because Sam's filling in his life with friends and a girlfriend and a planned-out future (no matter how ephemeral those things are or how connected to them he is in reality), and Dean's... increasingly lonely, out on the road. He tried to date Cassie for 3 weeks and that failed. John's hunting alone more and more. Dean's got one-night stands and empty motel rooms and a contact list on his phone that he tries not to look at too hard, for fear of getting sucked down into the darkness of a number he's too afraid to call. Miserable. I love it.

[jennysparksandtheauthority]

The fallacy of realism in Life is Strange Double Exposure. Another more or less analytic rant :)

Okay. I lied. This is the real LAST commentary about Deck Nine's fiasco. Or maybe not.

ANYWAY. I'm reading a lot of discourse of how it's realistic that Max and Chloe would break up.

Even the devs have been on Twitter saying the most basic stuff you've heard a thousand times before:

As someone who’s been in a loving, committed relationship for more than a decade (and we met in our early 20s), that shit MAKES NO SENSE FOR PRICEFIELD. Move forward? Yes. Absolutely. But you can move forward with another person. Moving forward doesn't have to mean leaving your partner behind, and certainly not for these two.

Max and Chloe didn’t create a “trauma bond”. People seem to forget they were childhood best friends. They went through trauma together. There’s a difference.

Each time my wife and I went through devastating shit (cause life is a bitch sometimes), I leaned on her, we carried each other. We went through rough days, of course, we fought sometimes, but we grew together. I fell more in love with her seeing her taking decisions, reacting to me, dealing with her own shit, taking care of me when I didn’t have the energy to take care of myself as I would take care of her when the roles were reversed.

Sure, some relationships don’t survive when they go through bad times.

But Max and Chloe? These two literary broke space and time for each other.

Characters have to be profoundly CHANGED at the end of stories for them to be meaningful, for stories to move us. This has been established since we began to tell stories around campfires thousands of years ago. It's been engraved in conventional storytelling even way before Aristotle gave it a name in his Poetics.

At the end of the BAE romantic path, Chloe was ready to die for Max, and for a whole town of people who mostly despised her. She had changed profoundly. She had understood the meaning of love and loyalty and devotion, because Max showed her.

Max was ready to face the consequences of choosing Chloe. She had changed too. She had understood that loving Chloe made her better, braver, determined, that the past was in the past and that she couldn’t keep rewinding. That she had to accept herself, fight back, take ownership of her destiny.

When they left Arcadia Bay they were both devastated, but ready to fight for each other and move on. The Chloe that gave Max that reassuring touch and that loving look at the end of the game would NEVER, under no circumstances, break up with Max by letter saying all kinds of mean shit. This destroys both their characters' arcs from LIS1. It's an unsuccessful, poorly camouflaged reboot.

Maybe if the break up was presented differently it wouldn’t have enraged so many people. Maybe. We’ll never know. I’d still argue that having a path where Chloe is dead, the decision to break them up was absolutely unnecessary. But to have made that decision, and to justify the OOC behavior and the outcome of their relationship by saying “it’s realistic” (some people have taken the devs' discourse to heart) is just ridiculous and dissapointing, and just straight out unprofessional. This kind of revisionism and lack of understanding of the themes and motivations of the first game is truly baffling, so much so it’s hard for me to believe how NO ONE at Deck Nine or Square Enix with some level of responsibility and proper education in media stopped the madness.

Writers choose what to include in a story, meaning they bear responsibility for the narrative choices they make, regardless of whether those choices are realistic. Fiction is an inherently constructed art form. Authors decide what to include, exclude, emphasize, or downplay. Using “realism” as a justification can be seen as a way to avoid responsibility for narrative decisions, especially when those decisions are unpopular or ethically troubling.

This is writing 101, and I can’t believe a supposedly professional game dev studio is acting like children writing their first fics on Wattpad and falling into the realistic fallacy.

In “The Decay of Lying,” Oscar Wilde famously argued that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life,” suggesting that art should not be constrained by realism. Another example is the philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes, who in “The Death of the Author,” argued that the meaning of a text is not determined solely by the author’s intentions, thus challenging the notion that invoking realism absolves a writer of their choices.

They CHOSE to break them up.

They chose to villainize Chloe, the canonically queer, fan-favorite character that was at the heart of the story along with Max. Together.

Crying realism doesn’t make it any less senseless, knowing damn well they knew how it would affect people.

So, Deck Nine, Square Enix: please take some fucking responsibility.

BONUS (Michel Koch ❤️):

[ewingstan]

Worm and other media that won't just let you shoot the Joker, part 1:

Worm comments on the structure of stories, especially superhero stories, in some interesting ways. There's a lot of stuff that happen in superhero comics for no real reason than that it needs to happen for the story to be interesting; a huge amount of Worm's worldbuilding is devoted to taking these things and making the fact that they have to happen an explicit in-setting constraint. For instance, superhero stories tend to have more powerful heroes face off against much more powerful villains than their less-powerful allies, to the point where it seems like super-powerful threats are coming to earth every few weeks just because it wouldn't be interesting to read that comic otherwise. It gets weirder when you compare what villains end up visiting the cities of uber-powerful heroes vs the cities of less powerful heroes: Gotham mostly just has to deal with serial killers while Metropolis is a magnet for evil gods. Worm plays with this by having the Endbringers exist only because the big hero needed something to fight in-text: it changes "powerful heroes need powerful villains or else it wouldn't be interesting" from a Doylist justification to a Watsonian one. Then there's the fact that so much of the horrible conflict in Earth Bet is explicitly caused by Gods making sure the powers they grant people lead to increased conflict, the fact that one of the most powerful characters does what she does because the plot path to victory says she needs to, etc.

But the big one is Jack Slash, and how he's only able to get away with his bullshit because he has plot armor as a secondary power. As WB says here, "Jack's a reconstruction of the Joker type character in the sense that you can't have such a character take such a high profile position in the setting, without having there be a cheat." The Joker and similar characters are only able to keep being relevant threats in their stories because the narrative bends to let them win and stops them from being killed. Jack Slash is only able to keep being a relevant threat because his power makes the universe bend to let him win in the same way. Not only does this make for an interesting obstacle (its almost like they're fighting an authorial mandate!), but it skewers the use of similar character's plot armor and how unrealistic and unsatisfying it makes their stories.

But wait, what does it mean for a story to be "unrealistic" in the context of superpowers? Is being unrealistic in those contexts actually a problem? For that matter, what does it mean for a narrative to bend to let someone win? Its not like there's an objective way fighting the Joker would go, which the author is deviating from by letting him survive.

[Stuff under readbelow contains spoilers fo, the movie Funny Games and the book Anybody Home?]

Maybe we could say that if characters like the Joker were real, and put in the situations they are in their stories, they would end up being killed really quickly. But is that a reasonable way to judge stories? A narrative where such a character is killed unceremoniously to satisfy a need for realism isn't any less an expression of the author's deliberate choices than a story where the character keeps showing back up to satisfy a desire for fan-favorite characters. And while Jack Slash's arcs help show why deviating from "realistic consequences" in the service of keeping a character alive can make a story exhausting and screw with an audiences' appreciation of stakes, it doesn't make a strong case against the concept of villains having plot armor in general. A story isn't necessarily worse just for being constructed to keep the villains alive—all stories are constructed, and sometimes being constructed that way makes for the best story.

That becomes more clear when you take the premise of Jack Slash as "killer who wins because the mechanics of the universe says so" and make clear just how much "the mechanics of the universe" really just means "the story". Which is how you get Peter and Paul from Funny Games.

I'd highly recommend watching Funny Games (though for the love of god check content warnings), as well as Patricia Taxxon's review of it that I'm cribbing a lot from here. But to summarize, Funny Games is a movie written and directed by Michael Haneke about a family's lakeside vacation being interrupted by the appearance of two murderous young men, who capture them in their own house and slowly torture and kill them off. At least, that's what it seems to be about initially. It marketed itself as a somewhat standard entry in the genres of torture porn and home invasion thrillers, and played itself straight as one for the majority of its runtime. But then one of the two villains of the pair, "Paul," starts talking to the audience.

It starts small: after crippling the family's father and revealing that he killed their dog, Paul has the wife look for its corpse outside. While giving her hints, he slowly turns back towards the camera and smirks, before turning back. In isolation, maybe it could be interpreted as Paul smirking at Peter, seeming to look out at the audience only because of clumsy blocking. But then it happens again. Paul tells the family, who are completely at their mercy at this point, that they're gonna bet that they'll all be dead within twelve hours. When the family refuses to take the bet, asking how they could hope to win it when he can clearly off them all whenever they wish, Paul turns towards the audience and asks "what do you think? Do you think they stand a chance? Well you're on their side aren't you. Who you betting on, eh?" The audience is being acknowledged; their role as someone invested in the story is being examined by the ones introducing the stakes.

But the biggest moment comes near the end, when the mother grabs the shotgun she's being threatened with and blasts Peter. Paul startles, grins, and then hurredly grabs a tv remote and presses rewind. The movie itself suddenly rewinds to right before the mother grabs the gun, and plays again with Paul grabbing the shotgun right before the mother reaches for it.

Its a truly incredible moment, in that its the perfect way to forcibly take away the audience's suspension of disbelief. It forces the audience to acknowledge that they're viewing a story, not something happening to a real family. After their moment of catharsis against the villains, Paul makes the confront the fact that the movie will end however the creators want it to, and if they want the villains to win they'll will regardless of how little sense it makes. Fuck you, we can go from being set in the normal world with normal rules to the villains traveling back in time with a tv remote, because a story does whatever its creators want. Haneke just decided to make that obvious in the most jarring way imaginable.

But maybe the best way to illustrate Funny Games effectiveness at this type of artful unveiling is comparing it to its less-effective imitators. I've recently finished Anybody Home?, a recently-published book by Michael J. Seidlinger. It has the conceit of being narrated by an unnamed mass-murderer, guiding a new killer in their first home invasion. I started reading it before I watched Funny Games, and even afterwards took a while to realize the unnamed narrator wasn’t just a pastiche of a Paul-like character but was actually supposed to be read as Paul himself. Seidlinger was having his book be a sort of unofficial sequel to Funny Games, narrated by its star. Once I realized, a lot of the books details suddenly clicked. The big one was the constant references to “the camera" and the idea of murder being a performance for an audience, one that needed to be fresh and original to make “the cults” enjoy it. Take these passages from page 77:

If it happened, it would perturb. It would create suspicion. It wouldn’t end up ruining the performance, and yet, it could have derailed our casing. The camera can have all it wants; either way, it’ll make it look better than it really was. It’ll strip away the cues and other planned orchestrations and it’ll show the action—the actuality of each scene, each suggestion…

This is a spectacle, above all. The craft pertains to keeping and maintaining a captive audience; behind the camera, you’ll never know how it happened—the trickery that made the impossible possible, the insanity so close to home. It is spectacle.

Through online activity, the son made it clear that something is happening at home, yet we cannot be certain if he has noticed the camera.

These all point to the idea that the murders are being viewed by an audience rather than just by intruders, that this is a performance for said audience's benefit more than anything else. But notably, it also reinforces the idea of these characters having an existence outside of the camera: the camera shows the action and "strips away" the cues behind it, the victims have a life outside the camera such that they could plausibly sense that the camera is now here. The victims are sometimes described as playing into their role, but always metaphorically; always as if normal people start acting like characters when put in certain circumstances. Whereas Funny Games posits that characters will behave however the author wants them to, denying the claim that stories are realistic simulations of hypothetical scenarios.

The whole thing is predicated on the idea that there needs to be a guide, that the villain of a home invader movie is really in danger of something going wrong. Paul/The narrator keeps giving directions on what needs to be double checked, what needs to X, and its completely against the spirit of the role Paul served in Funny Games. If something goes wrong for the villain they should just be able to rewind and do it over, because the story was written for them to succeed. Anybody Home? throws out Funny Games theme of the story being on rails, of the winner being whoever the author wants it to be and the events following whatever the author wanted rather than what would "really" happen. It throws out the whole idea that it’s all just a story, by supporting the idea that the characters have lives not captured by the camera—or more relevantly, not captured on-page.

Because Seidlinger using the language of film in a book leads to different things going on with the fourth wall. The way Funny Games and Anybody Home? make the camera explicit are just different, and the former does it much more interestingly than the latter. Seildinger’s characters aren’t looking back at the reader, the fourth wall is never actually breached. Funny Games has Paul look into the camera to address the audience, making clear how it’s a story being set up for the audience's benefit. Anybody Home? invokes the idea of a camera tracking everything home invaders do in general, having it be a third-party force that’s itself an unseen character contained within the story, observing the intruder's crime rather than the reader. Why is it still a camera, if we're in a book rather than a movie? A character in a book talking about a camera watching them does not convey any of the same meaning as a character in a movie suddenly looking into a camera and smirking at the audience!

By the end, you realize that this is caused in part by the book's bizarro take on how horror movies exist in this world. It reveals that in its setting, all horror movies are adaptations of real home invasions, which get recorded by unseen mysterious forces. Killers enter a home and enact violence, are filmed by some supernatural camera, the footage gets leaked to the public, and then the killers sell the rights to the work to studios. The events of SAW really happened, but the movie was just an adaptation. Funny Games really happened, but the Paul in the movies was just an actor playing the Paul narrating this book. The killer's victims eventually realize that they're "victims," but not in the sense that they realize their characters in a story, only in a sense that they realize they got sucked into their world's magical realism bullshit.

Ultimately, while the book does the same trick of being all about how horror stories are “for” us, it gets rid of all the tricks that made it work for Funny Games. It even strips it's in-universe version of what made it special; Funny Games is just another adaptation of a real home invasion. All the meta stuff that makes it interesting in its genre are just gestured at as aesthetics.

So what makes Jack Slash in Worm succeed where the killers in Anybody Home? fail? Both are constructed to be entertaining for a 3rd party who stand-in for but aren't actually the audience; the entities in Worm, the cults in Anybody Home?. But Jack Slash doesn't mix his metaphors. Worm may turn various real-life factors affecting a work into in-story mechanisms of the world in the same way Anybody Home? does. But it doesn't also base itself off a text that takes in-story mechanisms and breaks them to force the audience to see the various real-life factors affecting the work. In effect, WB pulls off a trick Seidlinger tries and fails because WB wasn't taking another metatexual story and stripping it of what made it interesting.

Though that introduces the question: can such meta-moves be mixed? Can you have a text where story conceits become explicit plot mechanics the characters are aware of, while also having characters really look at the camera and tell the audience that its all just a story? Can you actually sell it and make it something interesting?

There is one story that tries this. I don't know if it pulls it off, but it certainly makes a lot of interesting moves that create a fascinating whole. It even comments on the Joker in the same way Worm does, having a character who seemingly cant die because the roll they play in the story is too impor—

Ah fuck.

Continued in part 2.

[moonspirit]

Jealous aruani are fun and all, but...what if it's their friend that's the reason for the jealousy??? No love triangles.

Annie suddenly feels a twinge of irritation when she sees Pieck say something to Armin and they laugh together. Or maybe Armin overhears gossip about how Annie Leonhart and Connie Springer look so cute together. The next time he sees Connie, his stomach twists. And it's terrible!

Considering how Armin and Annie both have self-esteem issues...well, I can see how that could happen. Irritation, doubt, jealousy, and self-loathing for feeling that way about a friend. it's just painful, stupid and awkward. I have no idea how they will solve this😗

Hello jealousy anon! As promised, and thank you for the ask, it made me laugh xD

Because of-fucking-course there's nobody more capable of causing problems for Aruani off more than their very own family xD If you ask me, outsiders don't have the type of talent the other four have in creating misunderstandings and unnecessary chaos xD Plot-required-3rd-party-love-interest who? Move over, here's Connie the Springer man!

At first it's all quite unintentional. Connie spends time with Annie because Circumstances and Coincidence and hardly notices Armin's watery puppy eyes gazing at him from a depressing corner. It's not like Armin ever says anything out loud either because of course, he's happy! He's happy Annie has a silly friend that makes her laugh and forget that she's awkward and possibly frightening around people. He's glad Connie comes prepackaged with a whole lot of shitty jokes that happen to tickle her. He's really fucking glad Connie treats Annie like he treats everyone else!

But. Connie can also... dance. Really well. Like the guy's got those moves and can easily take Annie for a nice spin. He also... makes her laugh, like... a lot? A lot lot? Hm.. has Annie ever laughed like that with me? Uh... yeah, nevermind that, um- oh god, Connie's been looking pretty nice lately in those suits and he's rather good with the whole easy-fashion thing and uh- well shit, it's Connie, he's my friend, he's not- no, I mean, that photo in the newspapers was just an accidental shot, of course Annie was just laughing at his bad joke but well... she did look really happy with him and, oh shit--

Man.

Pieck on the other hand, doesn't fuck with people more than necessary. I don't actually see her getting *too* close with Armin but they do become very good friends! They have a lot in common, (for example music) and vibrate on the same atomic level of "yeah this is wrong and backhanded and probably will get us arrested in 18 countries but lets do it hehe". Hc that they probably get off to a slightly rocky start as Pieck doesn't put much faith in Armin's "naivete" and harbours resentment for his blowing up of Liberio's port, but as time goes by, they grow closer!

Maybe... too much closer for someone's liking 💀

Because okay? Annie gets it, she finds politics too boring and her takes end up being too cynical and skeptical in the room. Technically, she's glad Armin has someone in Pieck who will humour his ideas with a generous (but nice) dash of realism. Also, they enjoy picking out records together and she often finds them nodding their heads to a new tune once home.

She's glad, okay?

She is, she really is-

*sound of a thigh being stabbed followed by sounds of Reiner screaming*

Pieck is a cheerful girl tho 🥲

On a serious note, both Aruani are going to feel like total crap about this jealousy tho. Because as you said, it's their friends, their literal family who they share a lot of time and space with, and if anything could be clear it's that none of them want to see Aruani unhappy. So its not real, it's not anything to worry about, it's all just in their heads-

And yet.

Tbh the extra funny bit about this is gonna be when Connie and Pieck realize what they're doing to their poor lemonheads xD

"What! We're making you jealous?! wHAaT?? ... Hell YEAH, LET'S TURN IT UP!"

🥲🥲🥲🥲

I mean what else did you expect lol, Pieck and Connie are that duo who are going to derive more entertainment from their very own organic, homegrown family-drama than the moving pictures being shown in the town-square.

Suddenly it's all: "HEHE Armin, I bought Annie CAKES, see? FIVE Cakes! FiVE delICIOUS cakes and *I* am going to give it to her! Me!"

and: "Annniieeeeeeee~~ Oh no, why the long face this morning? Btw did you know Armin wants kids? Like a lot of kids? He told me- oh, he didn't tell you? Hehe I thought you'd be the first to know hehehehehe"

Their approaches to fanning this dumpster fire are different 😌

Their solution when things get too Sad?? Lock Aruani up in a room. Always ends well.

[mercurial-thrills]

An Introspective View of ✨Journalling✨ for Writers

Many writers get their start somewhere: doing a writing project in the third grade, starting stories on scrap pieces of paper, or being given a diary from a friend or family member. I had a variety of different starting points, encouraging me to write more often.

I have been journaling on a regular basis since the 5th grade. I kept a journal for all my secrets and all my changing feelings I wanted to burst out into the world. As a writer, this taught me how to express my feelings, as well as jot down any writing ideas that came about as a response to events in my daily life.

What’s a better place than a journal to jot down your life? Aside from having an outlet for your feelings and thoughts, journalling can have an immense benefit on your writing:

Real life events can cause inspiration. From life-changing events(becoming a teenager, graduating high school, a life trauma) to the most mundane(getting stuck at a red light, washing the dishes), experiencing these events can bring you greater understanding of how a character may act in those situations. 

Will she be squirming at the thought of touching moist dishes with old food stuck on them? What stakes will being stuck at a red light have on a character who is late for work? Will a traumatic event in his life cause a mental breakdown and cognitive decline for years to come? Any of these experiences could happen to anyone. If you experience something significant, writing it down can help you recall it for your story.

And what’s a better place to write these things down than a journal?

Writing your emotions and sensations helps you understand how a character may be feeling in the same, or a similar, situation. I recall this snippet of a diary entry from October 18th, 2019, when I was having a mental breakdown at the age of 15:

“If one more bad thing happens in my life, I am going to scream.” 

Maybe your character is at the breaking point of the novel. She is going through immense conflict with her peers, along with dealing with some other stressful situation in her life, and she cannot take it anymore. Nothing positive can come out of the situation without immense change happening to the main character. 

Maybe this is your character’s daily life: a person lacking in patience, a pessimist who wishes everything could go right. Now, what would happen if this scenario was different? Would the character scream at the sight of something going wrong? Would she bite her tongue? What would happen after she screamed?

Most importantly, journalling gives you a judgement-free place for writing. While you are writing, you may feel pressure to make a perfect, or an as-perfect-as-possible draft for your story. Writing i nyour journal is something people are less likely to see, unless you decide to publish it in the future. There is no need to be perfect.

It’s okay if you don’t journal. The benefits of writing a journal can be reaped through other means. Still, there are plenty of benefits of journaling about life, which can create a sense of realism in the most fantastical, futuristic, or prehistoric tales. 

[hemingwaystan]

A Guide To Actually Portraying The Lords Part 2: House Beneviento

Hello, fellow RE8 fans, this is the second part of a rant/post/open letter/essay which I intend as a detailed essay with five parts on how they should've portrayed the lords and then Miranda, with more realism and nuance, because they are nuanced characters when you actually think but Capcom is so bad at showing it. This is my opinion, feel free to disagree.

This is the section I'd change the least of but that doesn't mean I don't have a ton of shit to say so here we go. I'd say the player shouldn't be lured to the manor, the Duke just tells you where it is, no Mia picture, assuming we keep Mia because honestly? Ethan as a single dad makes more sense. No Mia bashing it's just that a marriage, if we think with even a tiny bit of logic can't survive all that. Also single dad rep is so rare in media. Because the player being lured to the manor, to me, just feels illogical to her portrayal otherwise, think about it. Donna is portrayed as a recluse who almost never leaves her house right? She probably didn't even want to have a Rose flask. She's the least involved in Miranda's work. Why would she want to bring another person, let alone one set on killing her or at least from her perspective but honestly pretty much true, to her house? Why would she in any universe want a home-invasion. So the player arrives in the manor and begins tripping balls. I'd keep this mostly the same with a handful of major changes, Angie and Donna don't do anything that could be misinterpreted to cause the braindead infantilization of them some people have been doing.

Throughout the house you'll experience flashbacks, one of your life in the mannequin section, and 2-3 of Donna's life, besides that mostly general horror stuff but also those. You'll see a few major moments in Donna's life so the characterization isn't limited to just reading stuff. But right before the end, in a vision, she cries, she has no idea you're seeing this as with the others. These visions of her only happen after the player first gets a hit off on Angie (Donna) which I'll instead put around 65% in. Killing Angie is still the focus through this because as far as you know Angie is not secretly Donna and they're, of course, trying to kill you. This happens because it lessens her control over her powers which she had before but in the pain is also experiencing a spiral because like, wouldn't you if you were in this situation, especially if you already had Major Depression. So we see our own reflection in the proverbial mirror but we also see manifestations of Donna's life and emotions.

The player will also be attacked by groups of armed dolls more than once, maybe every time you break them in defense Angie gets angrier causing some kind of increase in danger. Just because you get one stab off on Angie early doesn't mean it will end quickly, because Angie could be anywhere, not just among the dolls, hiding in any number of places, maybe even in the basement at times although the baby would've already happened by now. Trying to destroy Angie is just the goal but you have to do all the other Resident Evil puzzle shit throughout as before. And I'll put this to rest, the baby is and will be a hallucination, being eaten by it is representative of losing your mind. Why the fuck would she keep a giant baby in her basement? This is kind of out there but toward the end their could be like a sanity meter that goes down slowly. Like 90% in, you're in the room where she said "You can't leave, I won't let you." earlier. And right as you're finally about to defeat Angie the mirror shatters and you see the actual world.

Donna is on the floor, the blood is still on the wall, but she's very much not dead, just very injured, she'd survive because Cadou regen if you don't continue. You see her face either way because the veil was knocked off during the fight so there'll be real emotion to see in her expression. She begs you not to kill her. It's your decision whether you do or not, if you don't she'll show you where she hid the Rose flask, this also means she might say a couple things to the player, maybe good luck or something, Angie will say something too so it's proven and not just obvious that they're independent entities that are closely connected. Maybe Donna gives you a really good defensive charm and if you do kill her you'll get Angie and a Donna crystal to sell to the Duke for like combined 1.5x what Angie is worth in game, you'll also get a horrible charm with a directly opposing bonus as the one she would give you in the spare route (this is more for storytelling purposes as opposed to the kill one being useful) but you will have to search the house for the flask which will be a fucking pain but still a puzzle with clues. But past the gameplay decision, the real, meaningful choice is, are you putting a mentally ill servant of Miranda that tried to murder you out of her misery or is she not evil, just a victim of Miranda that deserves to live.

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

How do you think ghouls would react or cope with their(maybe occasional) impotence. Cause I have to imagine it’s hard enough trying to cling to yr libido amidst a fallout, & even w/ apathy/desensitization like… ghouls have endured Major nerve damage— burns are one thing, but radioactive burns from enough gamma ray exposure… anyway we take major liberties as fallout fans & I adore (most) every ghoul across the games(god they Always have to have a sad backstory…) but I keep getting hung up on like. The emotional toll, Especially concerning new budding relationships

Friend, I owe you a huge thank you, because this ask came at a perfect time for me; I got it when I was ironing out the finer details of the newest Raul long-form piece and it really helped gel things together for me . I had given this topic some thought before, especially with characters like Cooper and Raul (who are very similar men who have very similar reactions to their traumas IMO...maybe more on that later), who I think would neglect their sexual needs for decades on end.

The physical stuff almost goes without saying. Almost. Yes, I think a large part of the fandom, me included, usually takes liberties with how well most of our favorite ghouls can jump straight into the fray, but too much realism and none of our protagonists would survive very many intimate ghoul encounters. You'd literally have to die for the dick (or metaphorical dick), and not a sexy death, either. I often try to include some of the more realistic physical aspects of ghoulification, though, especially for older ghouls who would definitely be feeling the impact of their age at a few centuries old.

I'd say that the scarring and the nerve damage would tie for first in how much potential they have to hamper your sex life, but I suppose they sort of hold hands. Scar tissue often has nerve damage and hence is less sensitive (except to things like heat and cold, the sensation of which can be amplified by the presence of scarring). The lack of sensation could make it difficult to become fully physically aroused, even with proper stimulation, and it could make sex feel different than it did before, even if you're perceiving the sensations. Some aspects of it could even be unpleasant, painful. I think "outercourse" is probably a big hit with ghouls, honestly.

Scarring isn't the worst situation you could end up in as a ghoul, though. Gamma radiation is incredibly hard on connective and soft tissues, so if you live long enough, well...needless to say, many of the nude feral ghouls you see in-universe have no genitals. Those who are "flash-ghoulified" by a single massive dose of radiation like John Hancock also run the risk of coming out with burns so bad they cause contractures (an injury where the length of your muscle/tendon/skin is shortened and stiffened, causing it to lose much of its function), or burns so bad that flesh fuses to flesh. Ghouls have a wide range of bodies and injuries that decorate those bodies, some much more unfortunate than others. They all still want to be loved on some level.

In terms of the potential emotional roots to impotence, you'd think that that would be just as large a hurdle as the physiological stuff, honestly. I don't think there's a character in the Fallout universe that hasn't experienced significant personal loss and hardship at some point in their lives. For many, life is loss and hardship. Overall, it's a very un-erotic world full of emotionally unwell people. "Apathetic" is a great word to describe the average person you meet. It's not like you can just schedule an appointment with a therapist downtown, either, or call the crisis hotline when things are at their worst. Unfortunately, the most effective way of dealing with one's emotions while continuing to stay alive is to simply swallow them down or drink/use them away. That sort of emotional constipation can have unforeseen physical consequences, especially if it goes on for years and years.

But, as I've pointed out before, love often finds us at the most unexpected times in our lives. It's both a blessing and a curse if you're a ghoul; even those who don't hate ghouls often have no love for them, so actually being desired feels amazing, but to be loved is to be truly known, seen...a level of vulnerability most ghouls actively avoid, lest it be used against them. Tender emotions and sex are both massive, easy cudgels to wield. Ghouls also have to navigate the hostile waters of fetishization when it comes to people who do express attraction to them. Still, the temptation of love, true companionship is enough to make most risk it, and taking that risk makes it sting even more when your body doesn't want to cooperate.

It would be a bit of a vicious cycle: a lack of confidence and too many insecurities causes issues with one's performance in bed, which takes a further toll on your confidence and plays into your insecurities, which makes the issues in bed worse...and on and on. For many, it would definitely be an uphill battle. I imagine that for some, sex with other ghouls would be preferable simply for the fact that you both understand that sometimes your brain and body don't want to be team players. Though, I also imagine there are some who can't stand sex with other ghouls and consider it "depressing". Self-hatred is easy when the whole world seems to hate you, too.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I had two quick questions about one of my characters.

She lost one of her eyes as a child (she had it removed as a child due to cancer) and now she wears an eye prosthesis. She's a very friendly, outgoing, funny person and she's a fashion designer.

Question 1

I know a lot of people like to customize their canes/wheelchairs/etc. and have them in fun colors, put stickers on them, etc. and since she loves making and wearing tons of fancy, cool outfits, I thought it would be fun if she had customized eye prosthetics.

I've seen ones that look like gemstones, funky patterns, and even smiley faces and that seems like something she would love, but I'm not sure if that would be bad in some way?

I guess I just don't want it to come across as me saying disability aids need to look super cool and crazy or else they're boring? She does have a normal one that she wears most of the time, but sometimes she just likes to have fun with it and wear a wacky colorful one, especially when she's dressing up.

Question 2

She's a very funny person and she loves making jokes and pulling pranks. I know a lot of people with prosthetics like to make jokes with them (for example I've seen one of those "this outfit is super expensive" videos but the twist was that most of the cost came from their prosthetic arm, which they proceeded to swing around inside their shirt).

She's absolutely the kind of person to make those types of jokes, but I want to make sure it doesn't go too far or come off as offensive or rude.

One of the jokes I was thinking about is her pretending to sneeze, popping out the eye, and then going "omg I sneezed so hard my eye fell out!" only to reveal that it's a prosthetic.

Another one would be someone asking her to keep an eye on something and she goes "Yeah man I got this" so she pulls the prosthetic out and sets it down on whatever she's supposed to "keep an eye on".

(Don't worry she's going to clean the prosthesis after setting it on stuff lol).

Hello!

Having custom prosthetic eyes is completely fine and, at least in my opinion, doesn't imply that they need to be cool/fashionable/fun/etc. It's just another way for your character to express herself!

Something to consider, however, (Especially if you're going for realism) is that prosthetic eyes are expensive and, depending on your character's circumstances, her insurance would likely only cover one (And a fairly simple/basic one at that). Custom made prosthetics are always going to be a lot more expensive and a lot less likely to be covered by her insurance.

You mentioned that she's a fashion designer, however... if she has some connections in the fashion community, she may have easier access to those kinds of prosthetics than other people would. Maybe she knows people that make them? Or maybe she can trade favours/designs for them? Either way, it could be a solution or even just an interesting plot avenue to explore.

In response to your second question, writing characters making jokes about their disabilities is fine but you want to be careful about how you go about it -- especially if you're not disabled in that way yourself. It's a bit of a balancing act to make sure your character isn't being written to be the comedic relief (Which is, unfortunately, something that happens with a lot of disabled characters).

Although the jokes seem to be in fine taste, I do have some logistic concerns with them.

For the sneezing one, I'm not sure she'd be able to pop it out that quickly and, if she can, it wouldn't be the best idea. Popping the eye out quickly is a great way to drop and damage it and, as mentioned, they are EXPENSIVE.

Taking the prosthetic eye in and out frequently also increases the likelihood of causing damage to the eye by irritating the socket or turning the eyelashes inward which, trust me, is NOT comfortable. You would also want to be careful with setting it on random objects. Because the prosthetic eye is going directly into the eye socket, you really don't want it to be dirty when you put it back in and if they're out and about, it may not be possible to clean it properly right away.

This isn't to say you can't do this. It could be funny once or twice but doing it regularly could have some not-so-ideal consequences so it's good to keep this stuff in mind.

You didn't ask about this but I'd just like to mention: Be careful about writing self-deprecating jokes about her disability. It can get VERY uncomfortable for your readers very quickly, especially if you don't have that/a similar disability. Honestly, I'd advise that able-bodied writers avoid writing these kinds of jokes for their physically disabled characters in general.

Overall, your character sounds great and very well thought out! I'm glad to see more characters that are blind from illness/medical causes rather than the usual traumatic incident.

Cheers,

~ Mod Icarus

[whorediaries-09]

Hi! if you still taking requests I'd love to make another one about the love of my life, James Potter.

I know it might be super cliche but I was thinking about professor! James forgetting his lunch or maybe reader is a sweetheart who brings lunch to him and everyone at Hogwarts it's obsessed with them because they're sooo cute and they're like their cool school parents

Please and thank u, muak right to youuu.

ugghh this is so cute!! i loved writing this one!! i hope you like it!

labyrinth;

pairing- professor!james potter x professor!reader warning(s)- fluff. (let me know if i should add more) a/n- i literally changed a lot but it's low-key similar?? i'm sorry though i hope you understand, my brain could only come up with this.

little train.

' you would break your back to make me break a smile you know how much I hate that everybody just expects me to bounce back '

'good morning students! i hope you've got your models ready for today.' you say, walking into the class. the curtains have been rolled up perfectly by your plethora of eager art students, who chant a good morning, staring at you as your steps fall into the classroom. they know you like to work with the sunlight.

they scramble around their canvases and models, the soles of their shoes rubbing against the newly polished tiles. they look at you with eager faces, waiting for your model to appear. you raise your hands, addressing them.

'okay so this the first class is for realism - which annoys a lot of people over here, i know. but everybody has to pass these few assignments okay? i've to send them for supervision to the higher authorities so that they can ensure i've put on the correct grades according to the quality of the work.'

'because unlike you, they don't care about the creativity,' the political science professor enters the classroom, wearing his dazzling white smile. the students turn their heads, watching him enter the room. among the few students who know both him and you, there's rumbling. and among those who know you, there's questions rising of the cause of the sudden rumbling.

'quieten down kids, no more talking. this is a very important class. you'll learn the basics and the importance of this branch of art. mr. potter,' you look him in the eye. he visibly tones down his raised arms and shoulders, 'i need you to bring me two tools and a canvas.' he nods.

*-

james is sitting directly under the rays of the sun. they are golden, reflecting upon his beautiful dusky brown skin. it hits him in the eye, but he's still, letting you take your sweet time while you explain the theories and the basics of the art.

he likes how patiently you teach them the correct ways and methods while also consoling them by reminding them every other artist has a unique style and shouldn't be bound by some rules. you stay to teaching them the outlines of color theories, which couldn't be modified much when this art style was practiced.

he's also never felt this nervous and giddy. he's usually a very confident man, but within your presence, a few ties of his uptight confidence break, and all hell loses free. he's turns into a puddle right under your piercing gaze, which is unusual for a man like james potter. he would still remember the day you'd asked him to model for you. he'd gone home and giggled into the pillow like a high school high on hormones.

'hi, mr. potter,' you'd whispered behind him. he'd been talking to sirius. he'd been taken aback by your sudden appearance- and sirius' lack of reaction, considering he'd been sitting facing james.

he turned around, and by habit ruffled his already messy hair. he smiled, trying to hide the pleasant shock behind his eyes. he felt his cheeks warming up with the way you looked at him. sliding him a paper cup, you stood, twiddling with your thumbs.

'this is?-'

'chai! masala chai! consider it a bribe for the awkward question i'm about to ask.'

'nothing is awkward james, love. i think you'll be fine.' sirius said. he slipped his fingers within the crook of his jacket that had been hanging on the edge of the chair. he smiled, a mischievous uplift of his lips. 'but just in case,' he said, walking out of the room, leaving you and james alone. james gulped, following his friend's silhouette.

'so...'

'yeah, uhm so i was wondering whether you'd model for me? only if you're comfortable though!' james was sure the red hot blood rush into his cheeks was extremely was visible. he felt his nerves turn mush and stomach flip with giddiness.

'i don't particularly mind it no,' he said. he took the burning cup into his grip, taking a slow sip. he only hoped it wouldn't be too spicy.

'so you're up for it?' you asked. he saw the tension from your back literally lift up, and a glee float in your eyes.

'i am up for it,' he said taking another sip of the tea. 'but you need to tell me why me,' you rubbed the back of your head, laughing nervously.

'uhh... i think you've gorgeously complicated features which would allow me to teach my students with enthusiasm because i teach the best with complicated features. i don't mean it in a harsh way, i also think you're beautiful so...' he nodded letting your words sink into his brain and stop himself from taking you by your neck and press his lips onto yours.

'is it any good? the tea?' you asked, breaking the awkward tension and the lack of his response. you wondered whether you made him uncomfortable with your answer.

'it's perfect. the sweetness and the spiciness.'

it was not.

*-

'okay so carefully outline your vision for the model, and let your brains take over your mind! this has been a boring class i realize but please submit your homework by the deadline so i'll suggest ways for improving your work-'

'-because this is extremely important for your grades students. now the kids over here who are also in my class, i'll deduct grades if you all don't take her words seriously.' james completed for you, cracking his back and rolling his shoulders. the students booed mockingly. one of them, a fiery person too raised her voice,

'you're barely serious in your own classes!' james knitted his eyebrows.

'are you questioning my abilities of teaching?'

'no, i'm not. i'm saying you're not serious in your own lessons sometimes- and you're a pretty much of a goofball yourself.'

'that's fine, i can be a goofball and be a good professor too. ms. grace, please mind your tone, or i'll be obliged to turn into an insufferable old prat.'

'okay come on let's not create an unnecessary drama over here, you have theatres and mr. pettigrew to help with that.' you said, trying to calm down bubbling waters. the students picked up their bags, walking away. yet again, leaving the both of you alone.

james helped you put on your coat. he wondered whether his part was done. he wondered why he cared so much about whether his part was done or not. the question lingered at the tip of his tongue before he spat it out.

'is my work done now?' he asks. you linger, your back faced towards him. he feels a wave of heat from your body crumple over his senses. you turn around, facing him. the remnants of the sun rays surround him, filtering out his outline. there's something in his eyes. a string of vulnerability you've never seen in his eyes. a string of vulnerability he's never felt within his.

'no.' you say. your breath is hot, which falls on his lips. he gulps, noticing how close you are. somehow it feels natural. in your piercing gaze he feels his beating heart stop. it's as if your features are one hell of a drug, reeking him into a spiral of things he's never felt before. your beauty is surreal, captured within his memories and his heart. he wishes he'd capture the way he sees you onto the canvas.

'are you bored of me, james?' you ask. you've never said his name before. it sets his senses on fire, a creeping hotness melting onto his nerves.

'no,' he says. he moves closer, his mouth so close to yours. he wants to touch them, get drunk upon the reminiscent taste he's never tasted before.

'are you sure, james?' you ask, your eyes falling onto his lips. he nods, unable to answer. in your eyes, he sees his portrait in a beauty he's never seen before. his fingers slips into yours, and he feels them.

and he wonders, when your fingers work on the canvas, how you conceive him, how you decipher him. all he's sure of is that he's the most beautiful when you portray him.

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taglist - @reggieisfit @siriuslycaptainofthedawntreader @jamespottergf @eternallybipanicking @fictional-magic @iamgayforyourmom1510

(if you want to be tagged please send a request through my inbox.)

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[morganbritton132]

Ahh I love your emtts I catch up on every day like it's my evening newspaper 😂 Speaking of I just saw the response where you mentioned Robin and Steve saying hi to their FBI agents and that's hilarious

Like the idea that Robin and Steve are so used to being bugged that they say hi to the FBI, Steve is vehemently against Alexa, doesnt have much of a social media presence (aside from Facebook) and is still futile trying to stop Eddie from breaking his NDA because Eddie may only have one Steve signed FOUR is so funny in the context of this au where Eddie just tells tiktok Steve has mommy issues 😂 The contrast is just so funny to me

But anyway. I absolutely love your au and all the details you've put into it and I hope you don't feel too much pressure when you get responses like this. Hope you have a good day

No pressure felt at all! I absolutely love being sent stuff like this. I think it’s so cool that people pick up on little world building things and expand on them because those are my favorite things to write. I’ve always found something really fascinating about grounding a character into a realism that’s just kinda mundane. I think it’s neat and I think it’s cool that other people see it and seem to like it.

It's like the saga has it’s own fandom and I love it.

After Starcourt, Steve and Robin started signing off their phone calls with “Bye Steve/Bye Robin/Bye FBI agent bugging my phone” because sometimes there was this weird staticky sound on the line when they talked.

And sure, maybe it was because the mall fire caused significant damage to the power grin and everything was flickering and staticky that summer. Maybe it was Steve’s second concussion of the year still ringing around his head. It’s funnier to imagine that it’s an FBI agent sitting in some hot sweaty van listening to them talk about girls and minimum wage jobs.

“Holy shit,” Steve said one night, cutting Robin off in their ever-depressing job search. “We’ve talked about girls.”

“Uh, yeah? Did you forget?”

“That means that you came out to me and the FBI, Buckley.”

Steve actually told Robin that the FBI monitors them for a bit after every Upside Down event. They patch you up and give you an NDA, and then they watch you for a while to see if you’re a traitor to your country. That’s just common sense.

Dustin overheard him and said that this was real life and not a bad spy movie. Steve was just being paranoid.

Steve’s just like, “Oh yeah, if I’m so paranoid then why was there a weird van in the school parking lot when I l picked you up from your nerd club? That’s classic FBI.”

“You mean Eddie Munson’s van???”

Eddie signed the NDA but he’s never taken it seriously.

The first thing he did after he left the hospital was write a song about Vecna. He still preforms that song to this day. The artwork for their first album cover was a drawing of a demo-bat. That album sold over two million records.

Eddie’s never had a secret that he hasn’t told. Sometimes Eddie starts talking and he doesn’t know what’s going to come out and other times, he outs his husband’s mommy issues to his audience of six million.

Eddie will start a live stream like, “Ask me anything, I’m an open book.”

Steve’s just like, “Babe.”

“Sorry, Steve said I’m not allowed to be an open book.”

 

(Side note: It is very important to me that the only social media that Steve has is Facebook because (1) it’s a mom’s social media and (2) it’s unsecure as fuck. Not only is Facebook spying on you but it’s selling information. I just think it’s so funny that Steve won’t get an Alexa but he’ll give all his pictures and location to Mark Zuckerberg.)

[tamelee]

What do you think of the will of fire and konoha? Do you support them?

Ah, I think a lot about that. It's challenging to dive in without getting completely lost in it, though, and without me having to go and take a million screenshots. Most scenes include some sort of example why the current system or why WoF have failed a certain character, and that is important because those are the messages within the story that support the overall theme. Specifically how a character reacts to a situation. 

And in the end, it's the Shinobi system that needs changing one way or another. 

Creating a village that prioritizes unity, loyalty, and protection is great. I definitely support what Konoha was supposed to be, and it had been necessary. But it failed because there are bigger issues.

I've read a lot of pro- and anti-WoF posts, and I think most of them are right in some ways, but I don't think you can judge the operation of an ideology that's part of a system without questioning... the broader system. And that's exactly what it distracts you from; the WoF never addresses the root cause of any conflicts. 

The ideology itself isn't to blame. The WoF doesn't inherently promote anything harmful, but it's too simplistic. Hashirama's ways to achieve peace were ambitious but perhaps too naive, whereas Tobirama operated from his own biased sense of realism. I don't like how authority applied the WoF, that includes Hiruzen and Danzo, of course, who manipulated and abused it in a way only to serve their own interests and encourage people to sacrifice themselves for it or do that sacrificial part for them. Prioritizing a single village or nation without questioning the system that applies to all Shinobi is bound to fail. 

Hence, Naruto wanted all Shinobi to work together, or why Sasuke believed there had to be a single enemy that would force all Shinobi to work together. 

And why Itachi made it a point that certain things like a clan or village should be questioned. Or why it was so significant to question what personal bonds meant as opposed to the collective belief that made Shinobi with the same headband comrades automatically.

There are many issues, so do I support it? Maybe? But only if applied responsibly, and we haven't seen a good example yet. So maybe it's not even possible, but that also makes it interesting. 

Or—hear me out—you can introduce aliens, and none of that matters anymore because now Sasuke is right and Naruto gets his wish without any creativity while both are miserable regardless—tadaa~