#not because i don't get the time travel stuff but because What Real Life Concept Are You Referencing Bro

[8cfc00]

something so frustrating about reading a discord message and not comprehending what it means or what its potentially referencing

[sharkylass]

ALRIGHT, I ASKED FOREVER AGO, BUT WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT MY ISA LOOPS AU??

Heads up this contains a lot, and I mean A LOT of spoilers for In Stars And Time. Including: = Act 6 spoilers, including main mystery and secret encounter = Minimal Act 5 stuff = And a bunch of extra stuff that happens through Act 3 and 4. SO BASICALLY ALMOST EVERYTHING, FINISH THIS GAME COMPLETELY BEFORE READING (ESPECIALLY THAT ACT 6 ENCOUNTER, IT WILL LITERALLY BE THE FIRST THING I MENTION UNDER THE CUT)

With all those warnings out of the way-

IN REPETITION AND CHANGE

Initial Concepts:

I feel it's important to show these sketches because they were the first ideas I ever had. I wasn't even entirely sure I wanted to make an AU at this point, I didn't even know how I'd approach it. But I started sketching and it's been on my mind since- SO! Isa is stuck in the timeloop. I know what his wish is and he DOES have a Loop equivalent! The grumpy dandelion guy is Roboro (it/they/he). Their name is a very small play on Ouroboros and they call Isa "Seedling". However, this post is not about them, as I'm gonna talk about it and Isa's dynamic in a separate post. In short, Isa is his normal loud self up until Act 3, right? They beat the King, they reach the end, and whoops, the loop isn't broken. So now, what happens is that Isa starts getting his brains out. He starts thinking more analytically and tries to problem solve.

The more stuck he gets in his head, the less he's able to perceive his friends as real people, and more like them holding him back. Because even if Isa explains that he's smart, that they shouldn't be surprised if he says something, shock of all shocks, reasonable- They'll forget it the next loop.

So Isa is stuck with trying to portray his confident, loud, supportive facade- Which is fine! It wouldn't be the first time! But it progressively gets more and more frustrating, as he tries to find answers and simply looses the energy to pretend to be stupid.

TL;DR: Isa in the timeloop, unlike Siffrin, becomes more distant and cold rather then something more akin to Sif's mania.

NOW, MORE ART!!!

KILL KILL KILL:

I imagine Isa didn't have this encounter the same way that Sif did. Yeah, frankly, Isa is pissed with the sadness- But that's not why he goes through with this.

In this moment, Isa is trying to kill two birds with one stone. He's trying to get through this quickly, as well as reassure Mira that they can do this! If he shows how strong he is, then she'll feel safe right???

Poor Isabeau forgot that whenever he shows that he thinks ahead, he scares people. How could he forget that? How could he forget that he's inherently---

Family Quest:

I still think Odile is the one to call out to him (same with sus quest).

The hangouts I'm still figuring out, cause I don't think they'd too similar to base game- But, fun fact, at the end of this run, everyone agrees to keep travel together!

Isabeau brings it up, can't hurt if you can fix your mistakes right? And everyone agrees. The relief on Siffrin is the most palpable thing Isabeau has ever seen.

In this moment they love you. In this moment they all love you. In this moment---

Death Screen:

He loops back anyways. (This is one of the initial concepts that I ended up animating. This line in particular is when he reaches the end)

Act 5 Tarot Card:

NOW TO SEE MORE OF HIS PASSIVE AGRESSIVE SIDE

Thanks to @the-bitter-ocean for prescribing tarot cards to Isa (THEY ALL FUCK SO HARD) and for the RAW ASS LINE

If interacted with in act 5, predictably, Isa tears it apart. He doesn't need the divine judgement upon him, he's faced everyone's perception his entire life.

However, he tears it methodically. Tears it once in even pieces, twice, three times, and one of the pieces once more. In a way he isn't even getting his emotions out, it's like he's actively trying to tear it apart so it stops nagging him, like he wants to shut it up. Though, the Judgement card symbolizes rebirth, absolution and inner calling. In Act 6 he'd be able to look at it and find comfort and confidence in the card.

Act 5 Mirror:

And lastly, I have the Act 5 mirror picture. I haven't quite figured out how to make the normal ones work yet, however, I couldn't let go of the idea that Isa would not want to be in the picture.

The idea of seeing himself at all makes his head hurt and his stomach squeeze. The memory haunts him as he stands to the side and says the word. He didn't think the mirror would catch him.

AAAAND THAT'S ALL THE ART STUFF FOR NOW!!

I still have quite a bit of it to post, especially about Roboro, but I'm gonna leave it here for now.

I still gotta figure out the hangouts and potentially the dagger equivalent- but I have ideas for Bad Touch, the glass equivalent, and some extra little things that didn't happen in Siffrin's loops.

I needed to yap about this, because I've been slowly stacking up ideas and writing and I needed to share it at some point- If anyone read all this and has questions and stuff I fully welcome 'em!!

[studentbyday]

week 1. a stuttering start.

i can't believe autumn is already approaching. i feel like i haven't done much to truly live on my own terms this year... (the majority of my time was spent either chained to my desk, living the studying hermit life as usual, or...and this is a new one for this era of my life, feeling like a child following the real adults around on my travels which @zzzzzestforlife documents way better tbh. the travels, that is...)

in addition i've been feeling very unmotivated and numb this school year. even more so than usual. i've never been as zesty as...well, Zesty when it comes to new school years, but it has slowly been getting worse since i started uni and i think i'm getting dangerously close to falling off some cliff i'll later realize was an important cliff to not fall off of. do you get what i mean? i'm only speaking vaguely because i myself do not quite know.

i oscillate between wanting to be extraordinary and extra ordinary. i have fallen back into bad habits, which do not set a good precedent. and overall i feel lost. so so lost that i started reading designing your life. and dulled by the isolation of school i can hardly focus. it's not a new problem, i've just finally been able to put words to it after all these years. engaging and/or cathartic verbal conversation brings me back to life, whether i'm listening or speaking, but i don't get enough of that in my daily life...this is just a very weird mundane state to be in. don't get me wrong, i was relieved to get back to this life with a very predictable pattern after the hectic-ness of travel, but something about it always felt off and i almost can't believe that only now i've realized why.

anyway, feelings pass. and i have overcome the jet lag, so i am that much more energized (and perhaps a little more desperate) to bulldoze through this problem.

Study:

Read/skimmed all the syllabi for anything new (much of it is the same year-to-year as they're all courses in the same faculty and i am resigned to the fact that there will be weighty group work in at least one course out of every year)

Caught up on course announcements

Finished microbiology module for this week (hmmm i read like half of this module last year when i attempted and then dropped this course so it wasn't the most interesting the second time around but i think it'll get better as i get to the new stuff and the nitty-gritty details 🔬 mwahahaha 🦠 i also decided last minute to make flashcards for these and had to transfer my notes to anki. i wish there weren't so many isolated facts or similar but distinct processes i need to remember.)

Made flashcards for half of this week's immunology content (seems to be a memorization-heavy course and i think i really need the active recall since i barely remember the pre-req info 😅 luckily they review it in the module... 🤭)

Reviewed some of the flashcards made this week

Worked on (but didn't finish) global health slides for this week (i'm...not entirely sure what i should be taking notes on or how because...this all seems either very common sense or kind of..."woo-woo" based on my way of understanding the world...but ig that's my own biases talking? i hope they'll just test us on the common sense stuff. that will be easier for my brain 🥴)

Around half of pathology slides are left from this week (probably the most work intensive course i'm taking rn based on the timeline 😵 but also it's shaping up to be my favorite subject this semester because the modules are so well designed AND it's large processes or, even if it's smaller concepts, they're all connected to each other so i don't need flashcards!...i think! i can just pull on the thread of memory and it all unspools (...ideally...)!)

Wrote down due dates for all assessments this semester

Other life things: (yeah idk what to call this section)

I became a 6AM girlie!!! 🥰🥰🥰

Unpacked

Washed my water bottle

Caught up with a friend 💗

Health:

Yoga x2

Journalled x2

Early morning walk in nature x1 (the air smelled so so fresh i was so glad i went out...and even gladder that i went out when i did because after that the air quality got super bad from wildfire smoke 🥺)

Pilates x1 (i made it! in 2 split sessions, but still! and i feel great!!! 😃 i'm so glad i found this channel because she explains the moves in a way that i can get it even with my bad coordination 😅 she also goes slowly and there is no annoying workout music so i can completely focus on the movements and how they feel, it's perfect. 😊)

Music in My Head:

Blue Danube Waltz (OG piano version)

Treat People With Kindness

On the Sunny Side of the Street

Hikaru Nara (the perfect song for my current ambivalent mood because the whole theme of the anime, which is reflected in the sound of this arrangement, is the need to reignite your spark for the things that mean something to you and make the absolute most of it because life is short)

a few dark academia playlists that i put on loop to study to (links under the cut) (somehow the ones with new age music are the only ones i can listen to...light/quiet enough that it doesn't interrupt my thoughts but intense and melodic enough that it puts me in the mood to focus 😅)

[gegesusu]

Sebaciel‘s childhood sweetheartAU 4: The present

*English is not my first language

*It is just a concept story under Modern AU, where both Sebaciel living as normal human, met each other in their childhood. In this setting, they both have a normal family, and living in a normal life.

*[Ciel] do exist in this setting, so Bocchan will be called as he\ little one in this fiction. It’s annoying not to know his real name, but I do not want to make it up :

Part 1:

Sebastian doesn't seem to be all right these days. The little Phantomhive have some concern .

It does not mean he is in sick.No cough, fever, or runny nose, he is as healthy as always.

Then he did not do well on the test? However little once just heard from his parents that Sebastian got a perfect score on his school exams...

Or because Sebastian missed the cartoons he wanted to see yesterday...

[Ah, if it was me, I would be very sad, but not reasonable for Sebastian.]

Obviously, the possible reason in his mind not powerful enough to make Sebastian such an unhappy child these days. So what is it?

“What shall I do... Sebastian always cares for me so much! Now it’s my turn to care for him this time!”

How about a gift? So in a flash, the little one start his brainstorming:

【1, Make a surprise! Once,I had being in a bad mood because of the fight with my brother.Sebastian brought me a box, I opened, and a hand-made frog jumped out of it, and I was frightened in a moment since it was so out of sudden! At the same time. I laughed out loud because of the shock. Yeah, just scare away the bad stuff! Sebastian is a genius. I'm just a little surprised he likes pranks, but I don’t hate that, after all he hasn’t tried to scare me even once. Maybe he has noticed me having some bad days. He's always been very careful with me... Can I do it? Making something scary to make Sebastian happy again? That sounds strange, but I wonder if I could see a new expression of him?

2,How about a cake? Sebastian always brings us really good cakes.Mom always said sweet things make you feel good. I can make him a cake in return! But, Can I even able to make it? If I can't make it as good as Sebastian makes it, I'll buy it myself. I don't know if there's enough money in the Piggy Bank... No! it will be pointless if it didn't do it myself!

3 Let’s take a trip somewhere！That time Sebastian took me climbing a tree, I could see the place so far, far away. I heard that a traveling can change the mood, so if I took him to that“Far away place”could work? But I don’t know where it was, and how to get there, can I go there by bus, train or plane? Do I have enough pocket money to buy a ticket? Can I

come back that day? Sebastian's mom and dad will be worried if they come home too late... What if he gets scolded when he gets home? I don’t want that happen to him.

4 A picture book! I have a collection of picture books, every time I will take out at a lonely moment and I can have a nice dream, it is a magic book! Oh, and Sebastian read it to me last week when he sleepover at our house, we were lying in bed together, and I leaned against him, and he read it to me. Sebastian has a beautiful voice, and if he sings me a lullaby, I'll fall asleep right away, and he smells good, not like mom, but reassuring, and just as I'm about to fall asleep, he patted my head. . 】

“No, no, no. I have to think about what to give to Sebastian. I can't think about anything else!” To clear his mind, he shaked his head again and again.

But they are actually about Sebastian. He do not know when it began, the figure of that older boy have been in his mind and brain for a long time.

“Why am I always thinking about Sebastian?”

Even he have brother already, and Sebastian could be count as his brother too, Why are they mean so different to him?

And when every time he think of Sebastian,his face would be turning hot, and his heart started beating faster as if it is about to explode.

Is it because he think too much? The little one thought.

Come to think of it, Sebastian did a lot of things for him, made him a lot of delicious desserts, took him out to experience all kinds of things, told him a lot of interesting story and knowledge. Sebastian always understood him and stayed with him when he needed. However,he had never given something proper in return to Sebastian. At the same time , he knew nothing about Sebastian.

Well, He did know Sebastian likes cats better than dogs.( it is the only topic they have a conflict about) He doesn't seem to be interested in girls, but he is good at anything, he never mentioned other things he likes …

Oh, and the last time Sebastian's mother visited, she did mentioned. “He used to be like a little adult at home, but he's suddenly become a little more lively out of blue these days after the party, it’s like he have been a different person!”

[Isn’t Sebastian always lively? Why does his mother say that? There is a different Sebastian whoI don't Know in another place?]

Rachel just chuckled softly.

[I really don't know Sebastian, how could I possibly give him a gift to make him happy again?]

Part 2:

“**， do you have any dreams for when you grow up?”

“HMM?” The Little Phantomhive who sitting beside Sebastian while making something,he looked up and met this inquiry in a sudden.

Yesterday Lizz showed him how to make a wreath, and today he wanted to make one for Sebastian.

“Well...” something is on his mind, he feel a kind of stiff when he is trying to say something.“Yes... but it's nothing special... You might think it's childish.”

“I would never call you childish, and of course, I won't allow others to say it.”

Maybe it's because the wishes of a child are equally childish, but even so, Sebastian's words were sweet.

Sebastian always knows what to do to make him feeling eased.

“Okay …so I said... I want to open a toy store.”

“ A Toy Store?”

“Well, because I was… weak when I was still little, and I was always being alone in my room, it wasn't so lonely to have toys around. With these toys, I can build a world of my own, and I think that's Amazing!”

“Well, it's cool to build your own world!”

“Yes! Ah... You don’t think I'm naive, do you?”

“No, I think it's very you. I like it.”

... Even an ordinary word from him is with the power to move the heart. Is Sebastian a magician?

“So... is there anything Sebastian would like to do in the future?”

Sebastian paused, looked up at the contrail sewed into the sky, and said:

“I. . . never have a specific goals like you do,but I'd like to try to see the world.”

“The world...”

“Yeah, something like go to China once and see if the Great Wall is really that long, or if there are actually mummified zombies exist in the pyramids...”

“Mummies! That's Cool!”

When looking the sparkle in this little one’s eyes, Sebastian smiled and continued:

“Then I will learn about the culture, learn all kinds of things, and become a better adult.”

He stretched out his hand firmly to the sky, and a goal was set in his mind.

Sebastian is so great! He will travels all over the earths and going to explore his potential . He has already been very capable enough to do anything, he is still looking for more chance to get progress. As if he is Sebastian, any dream cannot be a hardship.

But then...

“Are you... going to leave me?”

Regret raised just as the words slipped out of his mouth, he quickly covered by his hands, but it was too late.

{ what am I talking about! ? Why would I say it out ！？} He really want to punch myself who just said it out...

The two were silent for a while, and the elder one’s replied.

"Yes”

The sound of the wind blew away,the whisper of birds faded,the rustle of leaves stopped, only leaving their echo in the hole of his heart.

I wish this sentence was just a joke, but you won't lie to me, is it?

It was his dream, like he keep supporting me, and I should also support him like he did, but, why I am so hate him to leave me here alone... I should ask him not go, then, Sebastian may promise not to leave...

No, I had no right to stop him from having a his dream, but now I just eagerly want him to give it up for me? I'm such a -- I'm such a selfish, horrible friend! Bad friend! Bad!Bad!

The wild sky above him overwhelming him. Like it will crash him any moment.The vastness of the sky is the stage for Sebastian's future, and about him, he is just an audience who can do nothing about the actor on the stage. He felt he is drowning into the sea of the people, he never have breathed so loud after stay with Sebastian. He felt closed to his edge of asthma going to relapase.

Just when he thought he was drowning into it, the Actor make another sound to drag him back to the earth:

“But I will come back to be with you.”

The drowner stop breathing harshly and look at the actor.

“Oh! I mean…. If I haven't found my dream by then, Can I come to help your toy store Dream”

the actor seems a little panic in a sudden and he shyly scratched his face with his finger. Like the words he just said are not from the script, but from his own heart.

But that is not important, because these words are just for that little audience. These words swept away the sadness, but keep the tear of joy on his face.

“Will... will you be with me then, as always, forever?” He urgently grabbed Sebastian's arm and let the tears fall, afraid he will be disappear at any moment.

“Yes, we'll never be apart after then”Sebastian took out a handkerchief and wiped one tear and another from little one’s cheek.

{I'm so happy that Sebastian said she wants to be with me forever

Even if he went to a far away place, after that he would choose to return to my side, not his parents, or others, just my side.

The Birthday Chocolate Cake, the Christmas present, but this is even better.

Sebastian won't lie. He always keeps his word, so I'll believe him!

One day, he will back on his own, and I also want to be stronger at them” so that I can be strong enough to stand with him one day, I also want to grow up to a better adult!}

So he wiped his tear on him own, and made the decision.

The Breeze brushed the dew off the buds, bloomed.

“We had a deal! I will also try my best to grow up bigger and better, and make our all dreams come true!”

Tears have fallen with the wind, leaving the most brilliant smile.

It shone on Sebastian's eyes like a grain of sunlight cross through a leaf onto the grass, small,but enough to turn into a star among those leaves.

For the first time, Sebastian felt he all he wanted is nothing more than what was right in front of him.

So the knight touched his Little Lord.

And got the gift he has longing for….

[aerodaltonimperial]

hello katy. i had just the most fucked up thought about your split jack au and ive never used tumblr before but im learning how to send an ask right now because i NEED to know what you think of this.

does julia… tell jungle boy that he’s going to forget? those five years that he goes back and changes for the better— surely julia knows that when the time comes, the jungle boy that got sent back to 2019 and changed jack’s world for the better will become nothing but a memory that everyone but jack himself will be aware of. and if julia tells him… lets him know that his time is limited… does jungle boy not do it all anyways?

does he make every decision in this new timeline knowing that he’s setting up a life for the jack who deserves it most and not himself? when the days tick down and he knows he’s running out of time… does he leave notes for jack? does he leave notes for darby? how do you explain to the person that matters most in your life that one day you’re going to wake up and be replaced with someone a thousand times more scared and broken, and you need to love him just as much as you love me now, because he’s me, and i love him too?

im sorry you fucked my whole world up and i hate you and ive been crying about it for days. im sending you an edible arrangements. fucking god damn it man

Yo, you just fucking CHANGED MY WORLD with this ask. Like, this.... this is the stuff I legitimately DID NOT LET MYSELF THINK ABOUT when I was writing that because this is so much. Jesus CHRIST. I am... I am sitting with this because I am going to be really honest with you, I don't know the answers. The only thing I can say that I leaned on during this was the traveler's immunity concept: that essentially, the person doing the changing is immune from shifting when everything else does. And it's that immunity that all of this hinges upon. 2024 Jack has the immunity, and he is the original remnant that will remain.

Would Julia tell Jack, the Jack that is going to become nothing once the timelines merge? I presume that, eventually, she would. But what he DOES with that information? Oh my god. I don't even know. This ask has fundamentally changed me as a person LOL. I imagine... in a perfect world, that Jack does leave notes for himself. Because in the end, that's who he is doing this for: a better future, even though he won't be there to experience it once the right time hits. He got a gift. And he is giving one back. A huge, monumental gift that he will never get to see through to the end. But that's what so much of that fic really ended up being about, in the end: forgiving and loving yourself. He would want himself to have SOMETHING to figure his way around, even if it's just important dates. Anniversaries. When events happened. When things DIDN'T happen.

Would he warn Darby? Honestly, I'm less clear on that one. Because at his core, Jack knows that would change them, in his present. And if he had limited time, I don’t know. Would he be able to tell Darby, knowing that it would fundamentally change everything? Would he be able to say, hey, I'm not going to be here anymore, at least not the way you knew me? Man. I don't know. How do you warn someone that you are going to disappear, but that part of you will remain? And that part isn't going to understand that love should be soft? Or that you don't have to fear letting someone in? Or that people, deep down, care about you? How do you prepare someone for that?

This is the most fucking horrible and amazing ask I have ever received. I'm going to frame it on my wall. I'm going to be thinking about this for days. Holy shit, man. As for the notes that Jack could leave for himself, for when he's gone? Let him cook for you, it makes him happy. When you argue, he'll need to go blow off steam before he comes back. I never told him about what happened in that jump, but I also didn't lie when I told him he was all of the firsts.

You told me that love wasn't real. Well, he loves you, and it's the realest fucking thing in the world.

[seattledaytwo]

🍒

didn't get a chance to play DE yet, but I humored myself with some playthroughs already and I'm... questioning shit rn. I just checked what max's phone has to offer in my ending (bae ending with pricefield as... hs sweethearts apparently). and I just don't understand wtf happened. I don't want to spoil the main plot of DE, but the way they don't offer any datas or timeframe... I'm kinda offended by the messages shown in max's phone. it looks so wrong. I mean, ofc there is the whole multiverse and I can believe that in some universe pricefield could've broken up but??? it feels wrong actually seeing it, I mean my expectations are my own mistakes, but... I need time to process

I mean, it could be great, but they promised to respect both endings. and the way I see it, most people who saved chloe didn't do it to see such an ending. I get that this stuff happens in real life, it's natural outcome for the relationship built on trauma, but for both Max and Chloe it's really off and out of character. I probably need to see more from the game to get a better perspective, but now i'm just sad.

how are u feeling tho?

OOF okay yeah I'm going to be brutally honest about my thoughts on Double Exposure.

So from the very first announcement, the concept left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt incredibly cheap to bring Max back, and I knew that even if the game was fantastic, that narrative choice would always rub me the wrong way. I don't like the idea of Deck Nine taking Dontnod's characters and continuing a story that had been tied up with a perfect bow already. It feels...I don't know. It feels gross, I guess, is the best word I can use.

Chloe's lack of presence stood out to me immediately, and combined with the pieces of the game we'd seen, I knew she wouldn't be part of it. At best, there would be some offscreen explanation about her traveling or something (like how Dragon Age explains where the Warden went if you romanced Leliana). What they went with was...worse than I anticipated, lol.

In my opinion, it's very clear that they brought Max back solely to bait people into buying and playing, and it's backfiring HARDCORE on them right now. I've seen so many people cancelling their preorders and turning away from the game. The promos for the games were purposely avoiding a mention of Chloe, not to be fun and surprise the fanbase, but to string people along until the very last second. Clearly, it didn't work out!

It's really a bummer because I think I would have LOVED this game if it featured a new protagonist. I mean, switching timelines, a university story, an older protagonist? Absolutely right up my alley! But the fact that they dragged Max in to be the hook immediately turned me off to it.

To be honest, I would be very unsurprised if this is the last Life is Strange game after all the backlash that's already starting. And honestly? I'm kind of okay with that. I have concerns about how Deck Nine and Square Enix would/could handle future installments, since it feels like the integrity of the series has been degraded so much with DE.

I never had any plans to play the game, but I don't even really feel like watching a playthrough now either, lmao. All that to say, I really don't consider this game canon. This feels more like a parody than an actual continuation of Max's story.

It's very, very sad to me because the first game came out when I was a teenager trying to figure herself out, and Max and Chloe were very integral to exploring and discovering my sexuality (even before I realized it)!

I love True Colors and I think Deck Nine is capable of writing a compelling (if not a little lacking in some aspects) storyline, but diving back into Max's story was a really bad idea and I think it might be the series' downfall.

And...wow, I guess I had more to say than I realized 😅

[balioc]

Holiday Engineering: Leap Dave Williams

S6E9 of 30 Rock, "Leap Day," provides us with a fascinating and valuable artifact from a holiday-engineering perspective: an invented, made-from-scratch festival that is designed to feel like a real and successful festival that already has legs.

...this is rare. The people who invent new holidays are usually in the vanguard of new social/cultural/ideological movements, and they're usually doing so with an eye towards their immediate circumstances and their immediate goals; they want to Make a Statement about their favorite principles, they want to appeal to the idiosyncrasies of their most devoted fellow-travelers, often they want to promote group cohesion and insularity, etc. You don't often get people creating stuff from whole cloth while asking, "how would this work if it were already fully embedded in society and treated like a normal holiday?"

For that you have to turn to fiction. And most fictional holidays, I've found, are not very well-thought-out. But 30 Rock's weird bizarro-world version of Leap Day is...surprisingly impressive, and would-be holiday engineers can learn something from it. It's pretty stripped-down and basic, as you'd expect from a festival made up for one 30-minute episode of television that's mostly about something else. But there's some real there there. I think you could actually observe the holiday-as-written, without adding content, and people would get something out of it. Certainly, with a little embellishment, you could get something good.

(We're going to discount the part where there's, allegedly, a cheesy holiday movie where Jim Carrey learns the true meaning of Leap Day. That kind of thing is great if you can actually swing it, but you can't, so it doesn't help.)

Theme. This is honestly the holiday's biggest weakness, but even so, it's better than you might expect. The message is: "Leap Day is for taking a leap! Do something bold, something new, something unexpected!" Which is punchy and resonant. The problem, of course, is that it's not observable in a ritual context. You can't be in the proper Leap Day spirit without thinking outside the box, and holidays are all about providing a box in which you can stay for a little while. To do the Leap Day thing, you have to make reference to the particular contours of your own individual life, which is the opposite of how festivals work. But everyone can probably think of some way in which "making a leap" would be meaningful for him, so OK.

The flip side is that, because Leap Day is such a necessarily-individualist holiday in concept, it makes sense for the observances to be so minimalist. There's no Leap Day Festive Family Meal, and thus no traditions surrounding such a thing, but...that makes sense, right? You're not supposed to spend Leap Day going home to eat with your family, you're supposed to do something crazy.

Timing. Also kind of unfortunate. Once-every-four-years is not enough observance to build up resonance and holiday feeling. You're probably going to experience only four Leap Days over the course of your childhood and adolescence, when you're building your deep-seated associations, and each time the memories of the last one are going to be very fuzzy. Ah, well, it's baked into the core concept, nothing to be done.

Mythology. Every four years, Leap Day William emerges from the Marianas Trench to exchange candy for children's tears. And you know what? That's solid. It's a very simple story, but it's memorable, and you can riff on it.

Activities. You pretend to cry so that people will give you candy. Again, simple but solid. Easy-to-perform, but very distinctive. For a holiday that mostly can't be ritualized by its very nature, it's probably good to have a two-second ritual easy-peasy ritual to remind you that 'Tis the Season.

Symbols. You're supposed to wear blue and yellow. Garish, but that's the holidays for you. It's as distinctive a color palette as Christmas's. And if you don't wear blue and yellow, people get to pull your hair (or kick you in the shins) (or something). I have a strong personal dislike for the St. Patrick's Day-esque "enforcement of sartorial holiday norms via cheeky physical violence" thing, and I'd encourage aspiring holiday engineers not to include that kind of content on moral grounds, but -- from an amoral design perspective, it's great, it uses base human instincts to turn people into propagators of Proper Holiday Spirit.

Traditional food (sweets). Everyone loves candy. If want to add some cheap zing to your holiday, find a way to incorporate giving people candy. It's better to have a distinctive and memorable holiday food, but that's difficult and may not be appropriate. Candy is super easy and there's almost always an excuse for it.

[xyywrites]

Hello! I have this plot idea but I need someone to check it out and tell me if there are any plot holes or something that doesn't make sence :3 I'll try to keep this short (also no pressure, you don't have to answer this if you don't wanna)

This is a My Hero Academia AU btw

Two main characters: one character has a time traveling superpower (Time Traveler; prns: they/them) and the other one can explode at will (Explosion Kid; prns: yap/yaps).

My idea is that Time Traveler likes to fuck up other people's lifes in some small ways (like making sure they don't get help in the moment of need), then go to the future bit by bit and watch this person become the worst version of themselves.

Time Traveler did that to some random kid, Explosion Kid, and that kid became a villain, seeking revenge on yaps father and on Time Traveler.

At some point Time Traveler gets caught by Authorities and is no longer able to use their superpower (special drugs) Pro-hero watches over them while the Authorities decide on what to do with them (Time Traveler is concidered a supervillain) There's a whole thing where Time Traveler suffers from not being able to use their quirk and builds some sort of platonic relationship with the Pro-hero.

Explosion Kid will spend chapters trynig to get revenge on yaps father and Time Traveler.

Then at some point it will be revealed that Time Traveler has been killed by Explosion Kid somewhere in the future but managed to survive thanks to their superpower. Now Time Traveler is horrified of reaching that point of time where they were killed and is also paranoied that Explosion Kid will find them. Time Traveler isn't able to use their quirk and they're nearing the time when they were killed. But they will somehow (idk how yet) avoid their death.

Explosion Kid will be devasteted that yap failed to kill Time Traveler. Yap has already revenged yaps father and Time Traveler was supposed to be next. Explosion Kid will be willing to do anything to get to Time Traveler and that's when yap will undergo a bunch of experiments to be turned into Anonymous (a creature that canonically excist in My Hero Academia) prototype.

After avoiding their fate Time Traveler will be able to finally relax and try to live a somewhat a normal life. They will agree to join the Authorities to help them with their superpower and their life will get overall better.

I haven't really planned how but Explosion Kid (now Anonymous prototype) will get to Time Traveler and will kill them, and yapself, in explosion.

Time Traveler was an error and now that they're dead the universe will return to how it was supposed to be (canon) And that's supposed to the sad part because Time Traveler will die beliveving that their actions mattered and stuff but they really didn't and Pro-Hero, who Time Traveler have gotten to be very close with, will never know that they've excisted.

Any thoughts, tips, anything really is very needed because this is my first AU ever and I'm really scared of fucking it up :_)

Also sorry for bad spelling, English isn't my native language :(

So glad to see yaps again! Unfortunately, I haven’t watched the anime (My Hero Academia), but I’ve heard a lot about it.

I love how ambitious this AU is. You’ve got some really strong concepts in here—especially the way Time Traveler manipulates lives for their own amusement and the looming inevitability of their death. There’s a lot of great tension to play with, and I can see this being a really compelling, psychological sort of story. So don’t stress too much about “messing it up”—it’s clear you already have a solid foundation.

there are a few things that could further be developed though:

the time traveler's motivation: Right now, Time Traveler is a little unclear in terms of why they do what they do. Is it purely for entertainment, or do they see it as an experiment? Do they have a god complex? A philosophy about fate? Giving them a strong core belief will make them feel more real and give their paranoia later on extra weight. If they start off thinking they’re untouchable, the irony of being afraid of a specific moment in time would hit even harder.

Yap's villain original story: If Explosion Kid was someone who never would’ve turned out this way otherwise, the tragedy of it becomes even more powerful. Also, if yap is willing to undergo brutal experiments just to kill Time Traveler, what does that say about their mental state by the end? At that point, is yap still acting out of personal hatred, or has yap become nothing more than a weapon of yaps own obsession? The more you explore that psychological unraveling, the more devastating yap's transformation will feel.

The timeline reset you mentioned: Maybe the Pro-Hero gets a lingering sense that something is missing, even if they can’t remember what. Or perhaps the timeline isn’t perfectly restored—what if a subtle anomaly remains, hinting that Time Traveler left behind a scar on reality itself?

Time traveler cheating death: Maybe they left behind a failsafe in the past (unknowingly or on purpose), or maybe there’s an unexpected third party who interferes.

This is all I could think of for now, but honestly, you’re already onto something unique and exciting. And don’t worry—doubting our first drafts is just part of the process. The fact that you’re questioning things and looking for feedback already means you’re on the right track. Trust yourself, and keep going! 💜

@maplerthanyou

and pls don't worry too much about the font size coz honestly it's okay either way

[rafatello]

Any facts/concepts about your 72au? I loved the recent post with Ted and Onceler haha

Hi dear anonymous!! Sure I'll be glad to share  what the hell is 72Au (The Magical seed) -Don't mind the name pls-

As you wonder, the story remains almost exactly as the original, Once-ler being rich, destroy Truffula Valley, etc, etc. Except for some differences.

1.-  Differences from 1972 animation

Ted, Audrey, O'hare,  Ted's Mom are here to play one roll in the story. 

This universe has different locations with Time-Space warped. This allows Mr. onceler travel to different Aus and special events (camp WH, Ski, etc.)

Lorax here is human and an ancestral creature that has been existing since time is time. Sadly, he doesn't have powers, with the exception of his connection with the Magical Truffula seed and, he can understand animals and plants)

Exist a magical seed that is the last stand for the valley in case of massive destruction, but you may be careful because it has more secrets than you think.

I want to explore a little more of Onceler's duality and his relationship with Ted as his "successor" as well as his friendship-rivalry with the lorax. 2.- Two parts

The story will be told in two parts: Before disaster, After disaster. In this story, Ted's and Once-ler 's paths cross and they have to work together.

I will not tell the story that every fan knows, maybe just little mentions or if the plot requires it.

Also, there's not the Once-ler and Greed phase. 72ler is greed/Onceler all the time, so he isn't a separate character. Right now, I'm doing the intro of the Au, it's just school and real life stuff gets me busy, so I'm working slowly, just be patient. 

[rainbowbananamilkshake]

Why the Banana Splits would terrifying in real life: A Post

TW: Mentions of the Banana Splits Movie, Mild Swearing

(also don't take this post seriously, I'm just doing a silly-)

We've all heard about the Banana Splits movie released in 2019, yeah. A guilty pleasure to some and sacrilegious to others, the once relatively innocent quartet of goofballs were turned into zinger-slinging robotic serial killers a la Five Nights at Freddy’s. Personally, I found some of the cheesy elements of the film funny. But what isn't is how scary the Banana Splits are outside the B- horror flick, for an encounter with a Split in the flesh would be infinitely more dangerous than any robotic treat.

1. They're walking, talking animals.

Before we get into the good stuff, we have to start with the simple fact that the very existence of the Splits is terrifying. The Bananas may be portrayed as glorified circus clowns, but 4 animals that are not only smart enough to speak but smart enough to run a semi-successful band and drive is a concerning concept. Not to mention Fleegle's knack for creating very complex machines, some capable complex thought (see Cuckoo and Vac), time travel and actual magic at times.

2. Fleegle's ""Gavel"" and how it's used.

If you are someone who is somewhat interested in the og Banana Splits, you know that Fleegle has a large gavel used to call meetings to order. Ignoring how the "gavel" from the children's show is significantly larger than the "hammer" from the gore filled horror production, the gavel is usually seen shaking the room it's used in. Despite how obviously heavy it must be, its main weilder can carry the assault charge on a stick with one hand. It has also been seen that Fleegle has hit himself and other band members with it at full force, and it has not caused broken bones/caved in skulls. This puts the strength and damage resistance of these lunatics in questions.

3. Snorky survives this.

In one of the episodes, Fleegle and company force the poor bastard into a fight with their rivals, The Sour Grapes Bunch (which could be their own post on how bad they are, but that's for another day). This ends quickly in Snorky being flattened like a pancake. Instead of being very dead, Snorky pops up like a cork and beats the utter shit out of Fleeg and Drooper, with Bingo escaping out of sheer luck. This doesn't even tackle how a character said to be a baby elephant in some BS media took down at least 2 consistently adult men.

4. Drooper can run faster than a train.

In the end of a Super Drooper segment, Drooper is pushed into the tracks of the oncoming train and thankfully outruns it. The average running speed of a human is 6-8 miles per hour. The average speed of a locomotive is 20-60 miles in the 70s, but can go into the hundreds today. Keep in mind that this wasn't a close shave ethier. He was several feet away from the train, only remaining on the tracks out of mindless, comedic panic.

5. Ogre / other monsters

Ogre is a feral dog that leaves underneath the floorboards in the Banana Pad. He has canonically murdered and eaten several people. There's also a terrible purple hand that torments Fleegle sometimes.

6. Bingo survives the vacuum of space / Drooper can breathe underwater.

In The Magic Machine, Bingo gets flung out of a spaceship and into deep space. (On his birthday too, damn-) Instead of dying like 5 times over, he just lives, chilling like a villain. He even describes the vast void as cold and airless, yet it doesn't even phase him. His ass lights on fire and doesn't notice until his boss calls it out. The terrifying metallic arm that tosses him into the void tickles him. He is truly a madlad.

In other news, Drooper is tossed into the ocean by pirates. He soon comes up, not for trivial stuff such as oxygen, but because of his crippling claustrophobia.

(Continuing this later)

[chibivesicle]

Asks that I will never really answer. My apologies; life gets busy and I get distracted.

I'm dropping these here today, so I can clear out some of the asks from my inbox. Apologies for some of these going back to when Trigun Stampede was still airing. >_< If I don't have a clear and concise answer, I'll let things sit in the inbox but they occasionally do fall off my radar.

Uuummm sorry Anon, I meant to give this more of a response but as I got angrier at Stampede, I just couldn't bring myself to give you a well thought out reply. My overall vibes for the Christian themes that were missing in Stampede had to do how they kept a lot of the surface content, images/style/design from the original but with the sci-fi emphasis removed the weird esoteric Christian stuff and made it look that way. Vash was more willing to engage with others in the original manga/'98 anime based on what Rem taught him. Yet, we never get why he does what he does in Stampede. By changing Wolfwood from being a traveling preacher where Vash lambasts him with 'thou shall not kill' the nuance of his character's moral conflict is lost. He's a trained killer for a quasi-religious organization that might be using a Zia in a really not cool way. We also do not see him act in a self-sacrificing way, which he does from the get go in the original. The angelic body horror was gone, replaced by a sci-fi reading of plants and the concept of plant worship was missing in there as well. There is a lot of internal dialogue that many of the characters pose through the anime and manga and its just gone from Stampede and it revolves around forgiveness, violence, and justice.

For me, the complete re-interpretation of the world and loss of the moral conflict that all characters show hurt the Christian (and Buddhist) themes that underpinned the original. It really came down to how the characters acted and talked. There is no point to a gunslinger who is almost completely passive when one who is active but uses a non-lethal method based on principle. There is a chapter where Vash gets taunted by some enemy for how bad his target practice is until they determine he was that accurate at shooting someone but not killing them. The best way to summarize is that they took some of the aesthetics of the original and didn't follow through on how the characters acted. There is so much contemplation in the original and that is missing in the remake.

Let's just make this a list: 1.) Leo would actually have a real girlfriend. I already have issues with White, I think adding her in as a quasi-girlfriend was a disservice to Leo's character. 2.) Zapp would be white. Less of a manwhore perhaps? 3.) Chain would be cute as opposed to cold and distant. No drinking assholes under the table and vomiting in her bathroom later. See Meryl Stryfe.

4.) K.K. would have boobs, and somehow be more sexy than an awkward and doting mother. See Rem and Luida. 5.) Steven's scar would be smaller or missing to make him a real lady killer. Either they'd lean way too far into Steven's shady side or they'd clean it up completely. Like he'd wink at women as opposed to sleeping with them to get intel. Be Klaus #1 fan! But like all the time, making himself to work too much. His hangry side would either be missing or played up for laughs. 6.) Zed would be dropped because he's the non-human team member. What's the point of having him? 7.) Luciana Estevez would only appear in her super sexy doctor form not her silly clone or normal form.

8.) They would try to create lore and filler to explain things that you have to assume are just how things work. Or they would info dump as opposed to leaving it up to you to worry about things and figure it out from the context. 9.) The entire cast gets aged down, because having a bunch of 30+ cast members who don't have all their shit together is too embarrassing aka very realistic. e.g. K.K. has a house husband (not a good mother like Rem and Luida in Stampede), Steven will die single and alone, Daniel will die single and alone, Patrick carries a torch for Guinness but is single, Abrams is a walking disaster.

10.) Character designs which are super unique and fun, especially in the manga all get 'isekai treatment' were they look homogeneous. The whole point of the diversity of the cast is lost. Women are short and cute, men are tall and slender or tall and buff. No other options.

11.) They attempt to rationalize the 13 Kings and give deep meaning behind their behaviors. Which maybe we will get that someday, but part of the fun is how fucking chaotic they are.

12.) Hellsalem's Lot is an empty city. Somehow, the city lacks people on the streets and we don't get the rooftop betting scene between the giant stomping creature and super-sized Riel. Sex, drugs, gambling are minimized in their version.

13.) The entire Prosfair story line is cut because it is so fucking bizarre and awesome; they wouldn't understand the point of the entire game.

14.) The OST is bad.

[thegeminisage]

sigh it is star trek update time. last night we. sigh. watched voy's "heroes and demons" and "cathexis."

heroes and demons:

this episode made us look up how many holodeck episodes there are in voy vs the other shows. i guess i shouldn't be surprised that voy has the most considering it has a main character who IS a holoperson - it's also got the most borg episodes, and seven's only in it for four seasons. still, disheartening, especially considering how much i LIKE the doctor.

this episode DID have a couple of moments. the doctor picking and then discarding a name, him getting to see trees and a sky, and of course him getting smooched. it's great for him! i just wish it hadn't been buried in the dumbest holodeck shenanigan possible. there are surely creative ways to let the doctor get some screentime and see trees without resorting to vikings. vikings, which is exactly what i tuned in to star trek to see.

side note, poor harry. this shit is always happening to harry kim.

the existence of the holodeck in general continues to plague me. firstly, we have seen in voy and ds9 that holo-people are alive. like, they're real. so i can't get over things like that detective asking if his home was still gonna be there after the holodeck shut off, or trapping the fake moriarty in a simulation, or sex slave deanna (barclay die challenge). it's especially jarring, in a show with the doctor, who is alive, to have these holodeck characters running around as though they're less alive than he is. like at the end of this ep after the doctor said the last time his name was spoken it was painful, so he's gonna pick a new one, and janeway is like well it sounds like you had quite the adventure! like, girl, this isn't a character in a novel that died. she is a real ass person!!

furthermore all the CONSTANT safety issues of the holodeck - we quite literally only seem to get an episode about it when something breaks, because otherwise it's too boring to write about. so it's just this piece of tech that's always broken and endangering the crew and they don't have MECHANICS or REPLACEMENTS out there. like, yes, holodeck good to distract them from their predicament or take them back to earth, but HOLODECK BAD IN GENERAL

this will continue to be a struggle for future me, i'm sure - trek can never seem to decide where it wants to land with this holodeck shit.

cathexis:

to be honest, i feel like it wasn't possible for me to give this one a fair chance. we had the one-two punch of holodeck/racism after having JUST finished a holodeck ep and even though i probably would have really liked the other parts of this episode in different circumstances i was just not able to recover very well. i maybe could have suspended my disbelief for one or the other, but not fucking both.

like, we opened with a holodeck novel, which was perhaps the worst possible sin - again, i did not sign up for this to watch some p&p/sound of music mashup. i wanna watch space people doing space shit. and since they did two time travel eps in a row i was TERRIFIED they were gonna do two holodeck eps in a row and totally checked out. like, we were playing chess while this ran

then janeway got called away for plot stuff and i started listening again, only to be IMMEDIATELY met with the medicine wheel. and like, look. i don't pretend to be an expert on native american culture. but i just have the sneaking suspicion that the medicine wheel as presented in star trek voyager was not wholly accurate to any type of medicine wheel used in real life.

actually, the sad part about chakotay's whole deal is, if they do accidentally somehow do something with his culture that IS good and authentic most people would still not know it and assume it was bullshit fed to them by that hack. i probably would.

that said the concept of this episode was good and fun. i love chakotay's brain getting stolen out of his head like he's spock. i also love a good body-hopping ghost. OH YEAH AND IT WAS A GHOST. JUST LIKE JACK THE RIPPER IN TOS. IT WAS CHAKOTAY'S GHOST. i said this about 1000 times during the episode and was met with total SKEPTICISM but i was RIGHT. it was his ghost telling them not to go into that freaky ass nebula

possessed tuvok my best friend. i really wish i'd been able to enjoy this episode...i don't think a rewatch would hit the same since i already know the plot twists, but i just was not in the headspace to meet it. but it was fun watching his feathers get ruffled and watching him get into fights.

the standoff between tuvok and janeway was SOOO fun. harry literally had a choice to make and he did a great job. you could tell he was sweating bullets though. i mean who wouldn't be.

i did like janeway touching chakotay's shoulder and her Very Big Smile when he woke up and was fine. idk how into that i may or may not be but i think almost any two people on this cast could get it as long as one of them wasn't tom paris.

speaking of. tom paris was sooo rude to the doctor in this ep i hope he dies

TONIGHT: ds9's "improbable cause" and "the die is cast." i was tricked into reading the summary for the latter and i'm going to be in anticipatory AGONYYY until we finally watch it. THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!

[centrally-unplanned]

Gonna try to do some seasonal anime takes, lets start with:

Heavenly Delusions

Episode one of HD has a shot that I really liked in episode 1, where main girl Kiruko is getting undressed for the first time (giving off a great impression out the gate aren't I?), and scars that riddle her body are revealed:

So, for one, the cracked mirror is just cool ya know, she is scarred, her world is scarred, good shit. Its also clever though - like sure, her shirt is covering her nipples, but sans that crack this would be a very risque shot. But we don't want it to be, this isn't meant to be a risque scene - she needs to be unclothed to show us her damage. So the crack is arranged to cover the breasts and make the scene work to organically highlight what its supposed to. It does double duty, and that is a sign of good directing.

Now, what isn't a sign of good directing is the entirety of the somber tone is undone by the following scene being a classic someone-walks-in-oh-no-I'm-naked moment and you get some minor but full-on fanservice...but its anime, its gotta hit its quota, whatever. And I will credit the show that jumping between comedic and extremely serious is what it does on the daily, it is being consistent here.

Yet it turns out I was a little bit wrong on the double-duty thing; this is more like triple duty. Because we learn in episode 2 that our girl Kiruko kindof isn't a girl - she is dysphoric:

There was even additional events during that original bathroom scene that suggested this too, so the foreshadowing intent is clear. Now I really like that original shot - the cracked mirror now cleaves his actual body, a split to mirror his own fractured identity. The fact that it downplays the sex organs is probably just a coincidence due to the others factor mentioned, but it still works thematically even better now!

But before you scramble to tune in to watch this egg hatch, its not what is going on here. This is an apocalyptic sci fi story, and Kiruko is actually Haruki, the brother of Kiruko, who died in a monster attack and had his fading brain swapped into Kiruko's body for mysterious reasons. Haruki/Kiruko is now questing to figure out the mystery of how that happened and why his sister died while he was saved. Its a dysphoria born of aberrant circumstances over identity.

Now that isn't the slam dunk it might come off as - using ~plot dynamics to create a new context for metaphorically exploring a real-life issue is a classic technique. It allows distance from the petty minutias of reality to apply focus on the author's own interests, allows the author to push boundaries intellectually with their creative freedom, and generally allows people who don't experience the issue in real life to relate via making the experience more universal. A show could absolutely do some interesting stuff with how someone copes with a body swapped and sex-swapped reality.

Here however is where genre rears its head; its just not going to do that. With its action-comedy premises and modern shounen-adjacent sensibilities (even if it is Seinen), its not interested in that kind of story. The premise reveals that - the 'origin story' for Haruki's swap is all about violence, betrayal, mystery, revenge. These concepts externalize the problem, placing the cause of them in other people and therefore the *resolution* of the problem in the hands of external interactions. I'm not saying there will be no complications, and hey, its episode 3, maybe I will be wrong! But when you have scenes like her male travel partner having his confession shot down this matter-of-factly:

To me all signs point to this being a plot device for drama or even comedic shenanigans than a vehicle for metaphorical identity & gender explorations.

Not helping is I looked into interviews with the author Masakazu Ishiguro, and while I find a little bit on gender exploration I what mainly found was a whole segment on his brother-sister complex, which really makes you think that might be the greater focus for the show.

This may came off as harsh, and its a critique for sure, but overall I am enjoying Heavenly Delusion's great art & character designs, fun setting, and mystery plot. I am just saying that the mirror shot I was so fond of is likely not going to deliver thematically on the meaning its directing imbued it with, which is disappointing to me.

But maybe we will at least get some fun genderbending flirting with the main duo along the way!

(We won't, sigh, this isn't even a good translation, HaruKiri is using the word bishounen, which you wouldn't translate as good-looking, its more specific - 'getting that pretty-boy look young girls favor', something like that. The tone is way more specific, and therefore less flattering. Anyway...)

[fuzzypuppybuddie]

Hey! I love your AHR AU drawings, but I wonder what it's about?

THANK YOU!!;:★

Well, the AHR Au is based on a "sonic boom comfort au" I made when I was like Twelve(?)

I used to go into my mind and visualize little storys, planets and places when things were bad in the real world. I don't cope like that anymore but I still have the concept in my head plus I can draw now!;:★

I can talk about the designs all day so I'll just say they're made specifically on a way I can doodle them easy and constantly without getting bored of them or stressed out. They're kinda like dolls or legos; They can separate parts of their body at their liking.;:★

「Sonic particularly separate his torso to appear a little more tall- But click it back again with a little jump before running」

The world is heavily inspired on the special zone from Sonic the Comic and the void between shatter spaces in Sonic Prime;:★

It's an infinite space with random stuff everywhere where you can breathe & travel around if you want.;:★

There's tiny planets all across the space, some more illuminated than others- The difficulty of the access on foot depends completely if they want new people there or not. ;:★

Some planets count with little roads and pretty stairs while others... don't. People prefer to use vehicles to move around for that reason but most of them just stay in their little planets their whole life.

As you can Imagine the planets are so little they're divided by zones! And most of them don't have more than 3 zones anyway (hehehe) ;:★

「The planets are based on all the dreams I had to date 🌠」

★; There's not a lot of lore. I don't have big plans with the Au yet it's just my favs having a good time but the info-thingies I think I can count as ""lore"" are:

Amy was scared of the dark (and she have parents)

All eggs are cubical

Chaos emeralds exist and they make silly noises when squished

Planets can be extremely detailed, with civilizations and fauna! Or uncomfortably abstract, made of geometric shapes and colors.(They're not very defined so people avoid going in there because it's really confusing to navigate)

The more you decend at the bottom of all this place- There's less stuff floating around and more and more darkness. You can find more abstract (unnamed) planets too! Leyends say they produce their own weak little shine and that in the core of each one there's treasures! ^^

⬆️That's also where Sonic & Shadow comes from tho'

[coll2mitts]

Movie Minute: Cool World (1992)

Guys, uh, I found something bizarre on YouTube yesterday and I have to talk about it. I can't let myself focus on this for more than a few hours, so enjoy this new thing called Movie Minute where I word vomit out a bunch of stuff in an attempt to purge the subject from my mind.

Cool World is what would happen if Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Heavy Metal procreated. I'm 100% convinced its target audience was middle school-aged boys during a time period where porn was physically printed media and not a 2-second google search away. It tries so hard to be edgy and instead succeeds in being the most uncomfortable thing I've ever seen.

Do you want to know what it'd look like for a real life human to "make it" with a cartoon? No? What if the human was the nerdy German professor from Little Women and the cartoon was Kim Basinger? Well, the director of Cool World, Ralph Bakshi certainly did and now we're all worse off.

Nothing could have prepared me for the plot of this movie. Riffing on Bakshi's original concept, the writing pair that also gave us Starsky and Hutch and 2 Poltergeist movies posits "What if a separate animated world called Toontown Cool World existed? And in that world a down-on-his-luck human detective played by Bob Hoskins Brad Pitt and his cartoon sidekick called Roger Rabbit Nails investigated the extracurricular activities of a sultry singing bombshell named Jessica Rabbit Holli Would? And what if a toon Doodle tried to impersonate a human Noid for their own personal gain disregarding how it affected the citizens of their own town? Like, what if someone told that story?!"

Honestly, I don't want to focus too deeply on the similarities between this and Who Framed Roger Rabbit because that is an entertaining movie and Cool World is teenage spank bank slop. It tries to be more than that, but after the 30th scene of cartoon Kim Basinger doing this exact thing, I think it lost the plot.

See, Brad Pitt's character Frank Harris is a WW2 vet who returns to Las Vegas to be with his mother after the war. During a motorcycle ride they get hit by a drunk driver, and Frank's mom immediately dies. Simultaneously, some cartoon scientist opens a rift between Cool World and Real World using some "spike" he invented, witnesses Frank's emotional break that somehow interferes with the spike and facilitates his transportation into Cool World.

How did this cartoon scientist rip a hole into reality? How did Frank navigate between the real world and Cool World by being really, really upset? I dunno, fuck you for asking.

Instead of being like hm, clearly this is a psychotic break, I should try to get back to reality, Frank spends the next 47 years of his life in Cool World, somehow nagging a job as its only detective. What's he trying to prevent from happening? Holli, a Doodle played by Kim Basinger, fucking a Noid.

First of all, the slang they created in this movie in an attempt to build out Cool World is :chefs kiss: amount of cringe. The animated creatures are called "Doodles" and the humans are "Noids". The antagonist, aptly named Holli Would ("Holli would if she could... And she will" EYEROLL) wants to become a Noid and travel to the real world where powerful woman have agency because Marilyn Monroe seemed to have all her shit together. The only way Holli can do that, however, is to have sex with a real-life Noid because Noid sperm turns Doodles into Noids, I guess.

Since our chaste friend Frank won't give up the goods, Holli targets Jack Deebs, a cartoonist she inspired to write the "Cool World" comic series because of her frequent visits in his dreams. Jack is currently serving time in jail for murdering his wife's lover, but somehow has an entire art studio in his cell and Holli scribbled on his walls. He's going to be released in a few days, and he moans out a thanks to Holli for helping him through his time incarcerated. I don't for a second want to picture Gabriel Byrne jackin' it to a picture he drew of a blonde chick, but here we are.

How has Holli been communicating with Jack? Did she reach out to him first, or did he somehow slip into Cool World by accident? How did Holli pull him into Cool World? Is the "spike" facilitating this interaction somehow? I dunno, fuck you for asking.

Frank catches wind of this new development and hunts down Jack to have a little chat about The Rules. The sexual tension between the two factions is incredibly awkward, but my favorite line in the whole movie is the intimidating way Brad Pitt spits at Gabriel Byrne, "Noids do not have sex with Doodles".

"Keep your PENCIL in your POCKET if you know what I mean."

Someone had to write this. Someone had to print this in a script, give it to a director, have them sign off on it, deliver it to two well-known actors, block it, rehearse it, and then tell Brad Pitt, hot off of Thelma & Louise fame, to deliver this so fucking earnestly that we would believe if Gabriel Byrne stuck his dick in a cartoon the world would explode. And then Brad repeats the rule the same way Tyler reiterates to new members not to talk about Fight Club.

The missed opportunity of Frank not warning Jack with, "Don't diddle a Doodle" breaks my heart if I think about it more than 2 seconds.

So what does Jack do after this encounter? Fuck Holli.

This turns her into a Noid, cause again, magic Noid sperm will do that. Jack and Holli somehow travel back to the Real World and Holli immediately tries to stage fuck Frank Sinatra Jr. in an attempt to get famous. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding about any of this.

Except the effect of the sperm starts to wear off, threatening to turn Holli back into a Doodle. Jack also starts morphing into a Doodle because cross contamination, I guess? This makes him nervous but he's generally inept and can't think of a way to fix it. Holli decides the best course of action is to hunt down the "spike" to give her power, which she thinks is at the top of the Union Plaza hotel in downtown Las Vegas because of a rumor about a Doodle named Vegas Vinnie who crossed over years before and guys, the last 30 minutes of this movie are come at you fast, please try to stay with me here.

See, Vegas Vinnie is based on the scientist from the beginning of the movie. He was afraid of someone exploiting the rift he created, so he used the "spike" to plug the tunnel between Cool World and Real World lest they bleed into each other. This rift just happens to be at the top of a massive casino, so Holli ditches Jack and attempts to climb up there herself to grab the spike. Frank figures out the plan, relieves the trauma of losing his mother to travel back to the real world, and goes to the site of the spike with intentions to arrest Holli. She Doodle shifts to shove Frank off the building, unsheathes the "spike" like it were Excalibur, and inadvertently triggers the merging of the two worlds.

I'm having Super Mario Bros. flashbacks and this movie came out a year before that.

Jack witnesses Holli murder Frank and only then decides to embrace his inner Doodle and stop this catastrophe from happening. He transforms into a super hero, smashes his way through the Doodle ghouls, bypasses Holli and returns the spike to its home.

The Doodles (including Doodle Jack and Frank's Noid corpse) are returned back to Cool World. I think we're supposed to feel bad Frank died from a 50 story fall, but actually it's fine because when a Doodle murders a Noid the Noid turns into a Doodle somehow. These rules are just... whatever, it doesn't matter, they are what they are.

Now Frank can fuck his Doodle girlfriend that I completely forgot to mention he has guilt-free. The end.

The marketing for this film was bananas. Paramount partnered with DC to release a prequel comic book series and set the stage for the story. They donated money to the parks department to promote the movie by plastering a cutout of Holli on the Hollywood sign, which outraged people exactly as much as you think it would. They also worked with David fucking Bowie to record a song for the soundtrack.

How, as a child of the 80s/90s and teenage fan of Brad Pitt, did I not once encounter Cool World before it randomly appeared as a free movie on YouTube?! Maybe because this had an estimated budget of 30 Million dollars and only grossed shy of half that. The plot is convoluted, the interactions between live action footage and animation never look natural, and the performance of every single one of these decent actors is terrible somehow. Kim Basinger is more of a cartoon character in the live action footage than she is animated, which is a shame because she's absolutely capable of being funny while being seductive. Cool World only solidified my #teamlaurie allegiance cause I can never look Gabriel Byrne in the eyes again. And how did Brad Pitt get cast as a detective in Se7en after his creative accent choices in this?!

So, what did we learn? Uhhhh... Don't fuck a toon, even if they look like Kim Basinger. It always ends bad.

Also, they made several Cool World video games and if I can find one I'm 100% going to play it on twitch.

[littleladymab]

Hi! I've just read the snippet from your Ezra/Luke/Mara fantasy AU on Ao3 and I'm super intrigued!

Don't know much about Mara (or Legends for that matter) but it's super compelling so far! Love the way you describe all their magic, lightsabers being summoned energy weapons sound so cool! I know that Ezra's magic is teleportation (love the detail about the hyperspace eyes btw!), and Luke was using Runes I think? What's Mara's magic like?

I magic something rather rare in your universe? I think it's implied in your fic that the Empire is hunting magic users? (But I could be wrong!)

Anyway, just wanted to drop by and say I loved your writing! No pressure to answer if any of these questions are spoilers or silly! (Also Ezra/Luke/Mara is very big brained)

HELLO OMG THANK YOU!!!

So like real quick Mara 101 just in case is her first appearance is in the original Thrawn Trilogy (Heir to the Empire etc) and she had served as the Hand of the Emperor, which was he would send her out on super special secret missions and she would spy or assassinate etc. Not as a sith or dark jedi apprentice (legends is RIDDLED with dark jedi) even though she is force sensitive. She only uses it to like, tap briefly into the precog senses and reflexes. After the emperor is killed, she does keep hearing him in her head and he's like "man you know who I hate? Luke Skywalker. You should kill that guy". And she also hates Luke because he killed the emperor and so she makes it her life mission now to kill him but, well, we've all seen how well that goes LOL

I keep some of the same concept here in that she is working for the Emperor (in this setting it's ticked back a few years to be during rebels era) and she's tasked to go hunt down Luke. A huge "with us or against us" in that Jedi/magic users have to keep their abilities secret still and they're hunted down -- and any magic users the Empire catches they'll study the abilities of in order to find a way to turn it back on other magic users. Mara existed as a super elite commando type of person who HAD magic but was never taught how to use it beyond the bare-bones senses it gave her. Anything to give her an edge in fighting against other magic users.

Luke, for his part, spent most of his youth with Obi-Wan who taught him enough to defend himself if needed but still made sure the bulk of his magic was kept secret (Leia is here, but she's got a WHOLE other story). Ezra's teleportation is my fun little wink and nod to him getting yeeted into hyperspace and then also just his interactions with the Interdictors in Rebels (and that scene where he's talking to the purgill for the first time and he gets those hyperspace eyes? LOVE it)

All magic users are able to do a lot of the same basic stuff -- shields, wards, heighten their senses and reflexes, etc. They can also physically manifest it as a lightsaber. But then sometimes you'll get super special abilities (Ezra's transportation). Luke specializes in protective spaces as he started to learn how to use his as a weapon later (after he and Ezra started traveling together) and it doesn't come as naturally to him as it does Ezra (and Mara).

Mara's magic is still primarily geared towards being offensive, but Luke helps her a lot in getting a solid foundation of the basics, and Ezra spars with her to get her used to using an energy weapon/lightsaber instead of an actual metal blade which she used to use.

Thank you so much again for reading and come to ask me about it!!!

If you ever do want a great intro to Legends (and Mara) I highly recommend the Heir to the Empire trilogy! Timmy Z, the author that you are!! I love the way he writes Luke and it's really influenced how I approach Luke as well. (Also Thrawn's there!)