#so here's me (hopefully) positively contributing to that vibe
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thefunnyandthoughtful · 1 year ago
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A few more ingredient ideas:
Cabbage (crunchy but generally noticable flavor)
Spinach (when chopped finely, can be disguised in lots of stuff)
Yellow squash (can be cooked until very soft or left slightly crunchy; great with cheese; does have seeds)
Spaghetti squash (literally nature's pasta)
Butternut squash (great pureed and put on pasta; 20/10 recommend for tomato haters)
Peas (can be blended into a pesto for pasta)
Herbs (such as basil, chives, oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, parsley, and sage -- if you find an herb you like, it can help drown out other veggie flavors)
A few recommendations from someone who hasn't always eaten veggies:
If you're someone who struggles with seeing their veggies, I humbly recommend the quesadilla. Chopped spinach will lose its leafiness when cooked inside a quesadilla (or grilled cheese). Chopped cabbage will still remain pretty crunchy; it's flavor can be drowned out with a little BBQ sauce.
If you're someone who doesn't mind a lot of textures/colors/flavors, I humbly recommend stir fry. Chuck some veggies you like in with proteins and rice, add some seasoning, and see what works.
If you don't like the texture of veggies, try incorporating pureed veggies into pasta sauces, pestos, or pizza sauces.
General Cooking Tips:
Boiling isn't always your friend, so if texture's the issue, it might be time for a new approach. Try steaming, frying, or roasting in the oven.
Oil, salt, and pepper can transform some veggies when cooking.
If you don't like a lot of seasonings, or you just want your veggies roasted plain, get your paws on a dish like a CorningWare. Cook your veggies in them until tender, and you can mash or puree them.
Don't be afraid to cook/prepare extra! If you buy a cabbage and you know you'll eat the whole thing chopped, then chop it all and put what you won't eat for this meal in a mason jar in the fridge! Then, the next time you want cabbage, it's already ready!
Also, veggies have families. Some veggies are clearly related but other veggies don't seem like they'd be related when they actually are! It might be helpful to find out what veggies are related to the ones you like and dislike. You might like and dislike different foods from the same family, but you also might discover that you dislike more foods from certain families than others. It's not a perfect method, but it can be a tool in guiding your search!
i mean this in the gentlest way possible: you need to eat vegetables. you need to become comfortable with doing so. i do not care if you are a picky eater because of autism (hi, i used to be this person!), you need to find at least some vegetables you can eat. find a different way to prepare them. chances are you would like a vegetable you hate if you prepared it in a stew or roasted it with seasoning or included it as an ingredient in a recipe. just. please start eating better. potatoes and corn are not sufficient vegetables for a healthy diet.
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birchbow · 2 years ago
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How exactly do moirails work? I keep getting confused between what constitutes a matespiritship and moirailegence. I know that moirails are able to help sooth and calm but I feel that there is way more to moirails than just that and I’m having a hard time understanding.
Ahhh, well, this is one of those things that's really only defined in-comic in a fairly skeletal way, and the form it takes in fics is always going to be like 50% headcanon, minimum. And in my case probably more because I've been fascinated by the concept of non-sexual romance/intimacy for a long time and so I've written a LOT of pale content lol. SO here's some rambling about moiraillegiance, which I'm pre-emptively putting under a cut because I know myself.
First, a brief review. Pale-related things we get in the canon, at a quick top-of-my-head scan, are basically:
some trolls are a more emotionally unstable/violent and will find somebody who complements their personality and helps keep them from murderously flying off the handle.*
of the four quadrants of relationships trolls are expected to have, this is not a concupiscient (sexual) one** but it is a (positive emotions toward your partner) one, which Karkat and the narration frame as "pity" (see "****")
At one point, a scene that appears to be setting up for a death-match is defused by one party shh-ing the other one and patting their face until they calm down, from which fandom took 'shooshing" and 'papping' as terms, from the sound effects in those panels.***
talking about your thoughts and emotions is mentioned several times in the context of pale relationships****, and I believe at one point called a feelings jam although I don't have it in me to dig back and see if that one is canon
that is the canon stuff that occurs off the top of my head
*how much of the part where the narrative explains quadrants is biased (because of what a shitshow Alternia is) is up for debate **fandom interpretation varies on this from "having sex with your moirail is a huge taboo" to "it's totally fine, it's just not one of the quadrants the drones demand contributions for". ***And also where I (and quite a few other people I would guess) started thinking about trolls having separate, alien instincts and responses to stimuli that humans would find relatively unremarkable, like having their face patted or having somebody shush them ****Alternia aggressively punishes perceived weakness to the point that seeing another troll being vulnerable and not killing them for it is narrated as "pity" which is the closest we seem to get to an Alternian-culture concept of "love". ANYWAY that probably has a finger on the needle RE: how exclusive it is to ONLY talk to your moirail about your feelings, because they're in a relationship with you and therefore hopefully won't cull you for it.
Things that are NOT canon include: most of it lmao. If you wanted an itemized list of things in my Troll Society writing that were made up almost entirely whole cloth, we would be here all day. Moving on!
When it comes to writing pale vs flushed, I mostly go by vibes, tbh lol. I suppose if I had to organize my criteria a little bit,,, I am going to spitball. Bear with me.
Pale looks at its partner and goes "I see the things wrong with you, and instead of culling you for them, we are going to fix them" and also "the place where we both are is a place we're both steady and safe" (passive/steadying/protective),
and flush is more like. "I see the things wrong with you, and instead of culling you for them I'm suffering them with you" and also "the place where we both are is a place where we Want More" (active/passionate/aggressive I guess??? Can't find the word).
or to rephrase
pale->unpicking feelings, controlling violent impulse, steadying emotional state, physical touch to invite a sort of subspace-adjacent hazy alien-arousal-that's-not-arousal.
flush->passionate, intense, active attraction, sometimes kind of violent! sometimes too passionate for its own good! Physical touch to work each other up and drive each other higher in a positive way (hopefully) (mostly) (trolls are violent assholes tbh)
I DON'T KNOW DUDE there's no guide for this stuff lol. As evidenced above, canon basically has just like a skeleton framework, so we are all out here putting these lines down ourselves.
Making this more complicated: regardless of what the author of any given fic headcanons as the social norm, it also makes sense to me that there are variations in trolls just like in humans. I usually don't write my pale pairings fucking, but it seems reasonable and inevitable to me that some trolls would be into that! Or trolls who were attracted to concupiscient quads but didn't want to bone down, although that's dangerous and untenable for reasons mentioned in previous asks.
fig 1: Meenah and Kurloz's swinging back and forth² from the (hate+fucking) quadrant to the (love/pity+no fucking³) quadrant in PoF felt like it came naturally as I was writing, because what else are two of the oldest, most powerful trolls in the universe going to do, when each of them is the only person around who comes close to actually knowing the other enough to hate/pity?
²Switching back and forth between quadrants is actually called "vacillating" and seems to be a fairly common event in troll society and media--the blurring/combining pale and pitch that they're doing is the more scandalous part, according to general fanon ³I have always preferred to write pale relationships with a lot of the traits my culture associates with sexual relationships (nudity, intimacy, an industrial porn complex lol) but to cut the sex and leave the rest and play with that contrast. How much of that is because I'm personally not sexually attracted to people, and I'm deeply Emotions about a society recognizing that kind of relationship as crucial and desirable??? I mean idk boss y'all don't pay me for introspection lol.
ANYWAY that also means the boundaries of what any given troll defines as "too much intimacy not to be pale" or "the feelings you're talking to me about are too personal for this not to be pale" or "you're touching me in a way that seems pale (or flushed)" are going to be different, which makes this extra hard to answer. Example!!
When I write Kurloz, I write him with an old-fashioned and strict view of what quadrants entail, but also being too old and above too many laws and social norms to give much of a shit about whether he blurs those lines or not most of the time. The little nods to things like it being slutty In His Time to wear your hair short and show off the roots of your horns hopefully bring across some of the cranky old man vibes lmao.
VERSUS when I write Karkat, I'm writing a much younger guy who spends a ton of time thinking about relationships and watching romcoms, synthesizing his own very in-depth thesis of What Feelings Are--and also just coming from a much younger generation. He's not nearly as comfortable blurring the lines, but he also places those lines in very different spots than Kurloz does.
TBH follow your heart haha it's just an alien sandbox and we're all just slapping sand around.
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studynxiety · 1 year ago
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08/11/2023 (Day 2 of 100 days of Productivity)
Hello...
My last post was some two months ago. The two months were some of the most hectic of my life but I'm unsure if I want to call them productive.
In my books, productivity has always been doing things that are important to me, bring some level of utility and happiness. However, the things that kept me busy the last two months often felt ... redundant and unfulfilling. I didn't have much time to myself to do the things I truly love while a lot of the important things were put in the backburner to meet immediate deadlines. With that being said, I do not regret any of the things I put my time and energy into. I only wish I could have done them more efficiently so that they had bore better results.
In all honesty, I like tumblr and studyblr. Everyone has such nice posts and positive vibes. I have missed this place. I just didn't have anything to contribute the last two months so I was MIA. However, as exam season rapidly approaches, I realise I have no choice but to get my act together. Hence, I'm back.
Today, I have quite a lengthy to-do list but I believe I can finish them all given I don't have a choice. It's cramming season babyy.
To-Do Today:
Clean the desk
Study Nuclear Physics
Study Quantum Physics
Study Thermal Physics
Study Ideal Gas (Physics)
Write an article for my portfolio
Write the two assigned articles for the job application
Review Magnetism and Electromagnetism
Review Electricity
Review Capacitance
I'll hopefully be posting an update later tonight on the progress of these tasks. Here's to hoping for better days and better results.
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kosmicplumbobs · 28 days ago
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. I hope you all enjoy this time with family and friends. And I hope the food is equally delicious as ours was.
Edited to add:
It's about 6pm (at the time of writing). We just ate dinner and my mother dropped a bombshell on us. She's at work and still managed to ruin Christmas. I wish I was making this up. Thankfully, the movie I was watching had finished but the vibes are just gone. Like how am I supposed to enjoy the rest of Christmas when that's now on my mind. I genuinely am tired of this year.
That being said, it does effect me heavily including the time I would have to contribute to this blog. So unfortunately, I'll be on hiatus. This is my last post for the year. If I do post at all, it will likely be updates here and there. I'll try to have things queued for when I return. Hopefully, things will sort themselves out but it wouldn't be this year if it didn't end worst than it started.
PS: I know I shouldn't think negatively. And all year long I've been trying not to. But it's hard to remain positive when every glimmer of hope immediately flashes before your eyes. If I were to even make a positive out of this whole thing is that I am glad it wasn't on my birthday? sighs I'm so tired of this suffocated feeling, both physically and emotionally.
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iconic12 · 4 years ago
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Tough Love - Asahi
Tough Love - Asahi
Any music is fine <3
Pairing: producer!Asahi x internproducer! gn reader
Warnings: insecurities, shouting(?), anxiety (?), a mention of crying
Genre: Angst, Fluff (at the end)
Author’s Note: Hi! This is pure fiction! I just got any song for the story, so you’ll be seeing some random titles every now and then. I’m not a producer so there may be some inaccuracies. Anyway! Hope you enjoy this fic!! Keep reading under the cut! <33
The day is done, and the night is coming. I’ve been working hard for the past 12 hours at the studio for the upcoming evaluations. I’m here, working as an intern at YG Entertainment. Hoping to find a place here to make a career out of. My other friends are in the other rooms also working their heads off. Our assignment is to make a song, and it has to be perfect. This is our first evaluation. If I fail this, the judges will get the wrong impression of me.
Someone knocks on the door. “Y/N!! OPEN THE DOOR I NEED HELP!” “Yes Bora, what do you need?” I answered. “I can’t think of any lyrics!”, “well that happens sometimes, I don’t know what to do either. I mean, I have the melody down, but I can’t think of anything to write about.” “We are both going to fail, aren’t we” “HEY! Don’t say that. We got in for a reason. So, all we have to do is work our hardest.”, “You’re right, thanks. I’ll write about that!”. “Wait what?” Before she could hear me, she closed the door and ran to her studio. ‘Hmmm, everyone seems to be getting things right nowadays…. Can’t say the same for myself” I thought. Just go to keep on working I guess....
The next day..
Evaluation day. The most dreaded day of every intern and trainee. Everyone is panicking and it’s scaring me even more. “Interns, please come inside the practice room” Okay, it’s time. I have to be confident, or else I’ll be an easy target. “Hey, are you scared?” Bora asked. “Of course I am, these are professionals who are going to be judging us.” “You can do this bff, don’t be too scared.” “Thanks!” We sat down on the benches, and waited for the mentors to come in. A few minutes later, the door clicks and reveals our three mentors and two guests. “Omg they are the treasure members” “It’s Asahi and Choi Hyunsuk sunbae” “Omg they’re legends” as the amount of murmurs grew, our head mentor spoke up. “For our evaluations from now on, we’ll be having guest mentors, Asahi and Hyunsuk of Treasure, joining us. Please give them a hand.” After the applause ends, he speaks again. “Okay, let’s start the evaluations. Beware that we have the camera to record your progress. Thank you” As they go through all of our names, the more I get nervous. I’m panicking, help.. I can’t do this. As I was thinking to myself, I was cut off.
“L/N Y/N '' Okay it’s time. I stood up and went to the front. “Hello, I’m L/N Y/N.” “What’s the title of your song?” “It’s called BBIBBI (original by IU).” “What’s it about?” “It’s about the toxic society we live in and the standards put up by the media for artists” “Okay, let’s hear it” I clicked the play button. They all have blank faces, what are they thinking? Do they hate it? As a train of thoughts kept on running, I didn’t realize that the song ended until one of the mentors spoke up. “Okay, what do you think of the song?” he asks the panel of mentors. “It was enjoyable and the vibe was nice,” says the head mentor. “Thank you” As each of the judges give their comments, Asahi speaks up, “I didn’t really enjoy it, it’s not exactly my type and it was kind of a typical topic to write about” he says blatantly. Ouch, that hurt. Oh my god, that’s so embarrassing, the mentors must think I’m stupid or something. After an awkward silence, someone speaks up, “Okay thank you, next”
“Okay, thank you for attending. Results and rankings will be up in three days. Thank you.” As everyone starts to leave the room, Bora stands up and pulls me with her. “Come on, it’s not that bad.” “It's horrible Bora, I was completely embarrassed over there. I was put on spotlight and was given the worst comment a producer could get. TIMES 3! I just want to bury myself in a hole and disappear. You didn’t even see the way others were looking at me. They were looking at me with pity, PITY!” “Hey, don’t say bad things about yourself. Just move on and let’s keep on working harder.”
Three days pass and I rank at the bottom. God this hurts.
Months later…..
Months pass by, month after month, after month. Nothing but criticism. From him.
I feel like I’m not going anywhere. It’s starting to get to me. Am I not good enough? Am I really as bad as he says I am? This is killing me. There is another evaluation coming. I really want to disappear right now. I can’t do this. They don’t know the amount of times I had a breakdown in my studio. It hurts too much to still be here. Just one last evaluation. One more, if it goes wrong, that’s the last straw for me. I just have to give it everything, I guess.
This is my last song. This is it. Hopefully this will work.
Evaluations are on going. My name is called. “L/N Y/N” “Okay, what’s the title of your song and what is it about?” “The title is How You Like That and it’s about saying goodbye to a toxic and painful past, and leaving those who hurt you behind.” (this is just a version to match the story!) “Okay, play it for us then.”
I waited as their eyes were judging me, shaking their heads every now and then. Great, they hate it. As the song ends, they say, “Thank you, next”
To cool off some pressure, I went to a café to get a drink. As I sat down after ordering, someone approached me. I look up and I see a middle-aged man. He hands me a card and says, “Hello, I am Kim Myeong Jun and I’m the head of Music Production at SM Entertainment.” “Oh, hello! May I help you?” “I heard that you are an intern producer at YG. We heard a snippet of your work and we would like to offer you a position at our company as a producer, not an intern.” “Wow, that’s great…” “You don’t have to decide right now, we can give you a week to think about it. Hope you could consider our offer.” he smiles and says. “Thank you so much, I’ll think about this and I’ll call you about my decision.” I smile back. As he stands up and leaves, I think to myself, ‘This is great. Should I take it?’
After much thought, I decided to take it. It hurts too much to still be in a company that doesn’t appreciate my work.
The next morning, I walk to the office and ask for a resignation form. Although, I don’t understand why the woman at the desk looks at me with shock. Did something happen? Anyways, I have a day to move out and submit this. I have to hurry up. While walking in the hallway, I accidentally bump into somebody. “I’m so sorry!” I look up and I see him, Asahi… “Oh, hello sunbae.” He greets back and all of a sudden asks, “What’s that in your hand?”, “Oh, this is a resignation form.” “You are leaving the program?” he asks. “Yeah, I got a better deal somewhere else, so I have to resign. I’m sorry but I don’t have that much time. I’ll see you around.” I bow and turn around to leave. “Why are you leaving?!” he shouts. I huff and turn around. “It’s because of the treatment I get here. I get treated like trash and I get nothing but degrading comments from you and the other mentors.” “It’s for your own good!” “No it's not!! You aren’t teaching me anything but to feel bad about myself! You hate me just admit it!” “Hey! Nobody said I hated you” “Then why do you treat me that way? Huh? What did I ever do to you?!” I said. “You are a good producer. That’s what you are. Okay? You are good and I’m teaching you the way I was taught. With pressure. I don’t hate you. Your last song was very good, the best we’ve heard in months from any intern. But it was your choice to leave and quit.” he says. And he walks away. Leaving me in shock.
A few months later…
I’ve been doing great here. I really enjoy being here and making a contribution to artists’ music. I still keep in touch with Bora and everyone else and it sounds like it’s going great over there. I just feel kind of bad with how I left things with Asahi. I was so disrespectful. I still think about it every now and then. I wish I could apologize, but I can’t do anything about it.
Mr. Kim comes into the room and says, “Okay! We are having a collaboration with YG Entertainment so here is the list of people joining us for tomorrow’s meeting.” YG?! Oh my god. I take a look at the list, and I see my name. Of course it’s there, I think. “Hey Y/n, didn’t you work there before?” Yoojin, another producer, asks me. “Yeah, but I was only an intern.” “Oh, interesting. You’ll be having a blast from the past I guess!” “Yeah, I guess.”
The next day...
Wow. It feels different to be here again. I got out of the van and followed Mr. Kim into the building. They really upgraded their system, I thought. We are led to a room and I greet everyone. “We are just waiting for some people if you don’t mind waiting.” someone says and we just nod. “Hello, sorry for being late.” I look at who says that and I see someone who I never thought I would see again. Asahi and his members. Great. The universe is really not on my side, is it.
After the meeting, someone walks up to me. I look at who it is, and I see Asahi. “Hi. It’s been a while.” he says. “Oh hi, yeah. It has been a while.” A silence washes over, and I say, “Um, I just wanted to apologize for how I acted, you know, last time we met…” “No, it’s my fault. I was the one who was too harsh on you. I apologize.” “Oh, it’s alright. So, does this mean we’re okay?” “Yeah, we’re good,” he says and smiles. “Would you like to help me out with something?” he asks. “Sure, why not?” I said and smiled as he led me to a studio. ‘He’s not as bad as I thought he was,’ I think to myself.
What they didn’t know about those bad experiences was that it was the start to a blooming friendship.
The End
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sepublic · 4 years ago
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The Old West and Pig Baby Car!
           I love Kez, she’s… SUCH a weird, chilled-out, unusually-attracted-to-anything little ding-bell! With her head constantly in the clouds and always sparkling like there’s stars obscuring her eyes… And her simplistic yet incredibly expressive design, those two beady eyes that as said, go stare into FOREVER…! And how she’s a remorseless disaster magnet and a weirdo who’s always vibing and on some weird wavelength that’s hard to understand, but once you get it, you get it!
           Let me say it again, I ADORE how this show takes advantage of its premise and setting to always do something NEW with the characters, and I love how we’re building up to a conflict of Kez’s past enemies teaming up to get revenge! That seems to be a theme of this season so far, teamwork, coming together, etc., how ironic that collaboration is going to be a danger to the dynamic duo as well! Kez’s weird, clumsy, forgetful, and overall just… MOOD, and way of talk- I love her, I love her voice, she’s amazing! Also, I halfway called it with the sheriff caterpillar metamorphosizing… But into the judge, THAT I did not expect!
           Also, it seems that in this world, only THREE things are constant- Death, Taxes, and Samantha the Cat! When I saw her I legit deadpanned my expression, but c’mon, we all saw it coming, and honestly she’s such a reassuring part of this show, in a sense; We know she’s always there and we can always count on her to be present, she’s SEEN some stuff and she’s a veteran in a sense! Weird thought, but could one say that Samantha is the true protagonist of the show, and the show is about her watching various passengers and their messes?
          Perhaps a final book for the show would’ve had Samantha as the primary denizen, to round things up and cap it all off… Either way, I love seeing her differing roles and how she’s handled in each book- First as this unusual enemy and ally, then as a brief obstacle/cameo, then with emotional resonance and guilt and backstory… And it seems so far here, mostly just a cameo and an ally! It’s neat, I love seeing how Samantha’s story, brief as it may be sometimes, is handled in each book! Who knows, maybe Samantha is writing the books, and that’s why they’re called that! Now I’m waiting for Randall to show up…
          And also, that GAG and cut to Samantha instantly flipping on a (literal) dime for money, even if she’s also collaborating with Kez, was hilarious and so wonderfully expressive of her character in a nutshell, even for veterans who’ve already SEEN her like this! Seems she hasn’t changed much, but with how she seemingly betrayed people, only with the plan to come back… Makes you wonder if that’s what she intended for her and Simon in that Cardboard Box Car with Ghom, only for Grace to inadvertently sidetrack things? Oh god, that’s dark- The idea that Grace unknowingly ruined things between Samantha and Simon, and that plays into Samantha disliking her… But at the same time, she doesn’t seem to hold things against Grace for it, so probably not.
          But oof, that’d just play into Simon’s accusations of Grace ‘ruining’ him, while Grace wants to save and help others like with those kids in the Apex or Hazel, only to misunderstand… The concept of retroactive revelations to characters and thematic foreshadowing, SO GOOD, and it’s making me appreciate more this concept of a Book that takes place in the past, to establish additional context for previous and even later characters, perhaps!
           Also, just… The colors, the zany hijinx and ideas, the premise for each car, the denizens- They’re all so wonderful and unique, and I applaud the crew for their creativity, for never letting things get old… Each car is such a fun place to get stuck in, well most of them… Pig Baby was unusual, and I can see what Owen was referencing with that one pig tweet! I think there’s a clever pun to be made in the way the numbers sync, almost like a duet for music… The motifs, man!
           The jabs at post-war American cuisine were hilarious, and Ryan man… I’m glad to see him learn to cool down; But unfortunately, Min thinks it’s ONLY Ryan, and he doesn’t realize he has to collaborate as well! And I like that… This idea of like; Two people are both contributing to this mess equally, you can’t just pin the blame on one, and they BOTH have to make concessions and work together! It’s a contrast to Book 3, in that it seems Ryan and Min are actually slated to work things out, VS Simon and Grace… With Grace recognizing how the two of them screwed each other up, but Simon refusing to admit his fault! Duet then forms a duality with Cult of the Conductor, one about the downfall, the other about two reconciling… Hopefully, we’ll see later down the line.
           It’s definitely going to be a hard pill for Min to swallow, that he also has stake in this issue- I wonder if he’s under this impression that… He’s more ‘mature’ than Ryan, and as a result, he doesn’t want to confront his part in the situation? Though to be fair, it could just be a matter of circumstance; Ryan was the first to have a puzzle dealing with his own fault, and Ryan was the one who got them on, so it makes sense that Min assumes it’s Ryan’s issue! But dang… I felt for Ryan at the end, I feel like he’s just incredibly lonely himself and desiring positive attention, to feel validated; Whilst Min sort of feels validated? At the very least, I don’t think it’s as much of an issue for him, whilst with Ryan he has to compete with his siblings…
           Hopefully Ryan will be able to find that sort of positive attention, while also still respecting Min’s boundaries and his own needs as a person; Min can’t just attend to his every need, the way the Cow Creamer does for Pig Baby! Also, another random thought, but Kez’s very lax, go-with-the-flow attitude… Honestly, it kind of reminds me of like, the kind of partners that Ryan had, before he went back to Min maybe? I dunno, I recognize that Kez definitely has huge stoner vibes, and a hypothetical Human Kez in an AU seems like the type of person Ryan would’ve encountered… Hitching a ride, taking his van and thanking him, but not being THAT grateful, lol.
           Nevertheless, that’s one stop- Onto the next one! And as Kez reminds us so importantly, it’s not JUST about the destination, but the journey… I’m glad to see Min be self-aware of the need to apply lessons here the way Lake was, and I bet this whole ‘journey and destination’ mentality might apply to Ryan’s whole thing of travelling around and doing performances! We’ll see… Next stop, passengers!
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mikauzoran · 4 years ago
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Lukadrien: Your Hands Hold Home: Chapter Ten
@lukadrien-june
Read it on AO3: Your Hands Hold Home: Chapter Ten: Synesthesia
Luka just so happened to be walking by Adrien’s room when, through the open door, he spotted his crush lying on the floor.
“Adrien?! Are you okay?!” he exclaimed as he rushed to Adrien’s side.
Adrien sat up with a jerk, pulling the earbuds out of his ears.
“I’m fine,” he assured, guilt pooling in his gut as he took in the frantic expression on Luka’s face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“No worries,” Luka assured with a sigh of relief, slumping down to the floor beside Adrien. “So long as you’re okay.”
Adrien’s insides twisted into pretzels at the affection shining on Luka’s face.
“What were you up to before I so rudely interrupted?” Luka teased.
“You didn’t interrupt,” Adrien responded hastily.
Luka laughed. “Adrien, I literally did.”
“Well, you weren’t rude about it,” Adrien clarified so that there would be no doubt. “And I was just…”
He bit his lip, squirming as he looked away and lowered his voice. “I was playing a game.”
Luka’s eyebrow arched in interest. “What kind of game?”
Adrien shook his head. “It’s stupid and childish. My father always said—”
Luka reached out and placed his hand on top of Adrien’s.
Adrien looked up in startled surprise.
Luka’s lips spread into a comforting smile. “Don’t talk down about yourself for him while he’s not here to do it. Be nice to yourself, okay?”
Slowly, Adrien began to nod.
“So, what is this game you were playing?” Luka prompted.
Adrien wetted his lips. “When I was little, I used to listen to music and draw the pictures it made me think of. They were lousy drawings, but…”
Luka rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they were fabulous drawings. Anyone who told you otherwise is a jerk.”
That got a laugh of out Adrien. “My father was never very good with children…. I thought it could be fun to play that game again.”
“You’re going to try drawing? That’s a great idea,” Luka encouraged.
“You think?”
Adrien had thought so, but he couldn’t shake the need to get approval and validation from someone. Years of being told that he had nothing to contribute beyond his pretty face had eroded his confidence in himself.
Luka nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Just let me know if you need to go to the art supply store. I’ll go with you and help carry stuff.”
A wide grin stretched across Adrien’s face. “Thank you. I really appreciate you always being so supportive.”
“But of course. You deserve support, and I’m happy to give it…. So, what are you going to draw? What are you listening to?” Luka pressed, trying to draw Adrien out a little more so that he could continue encouraging Adrien’s ideas.
Adrien’s cheeks glowed like morganite as he looked down at the floorboards and mumbled, “I was actually playing a version of the game where I pretend I have synesthesia. I learned about people who see sounds as colours when I was nine, and I was really fascinated by it, so I started to pretend that I had synesthesia,” he explained.
“I did a lot of abstract drawings, and Father hated them because he hates all art done after the 1880’s, but…I had a lot of fun coming up with what colours the songs were, so…that’s what I was doing when you came in,” Adrien continued bashfully, still half afraid that Luka was going to tell him he was being silly. “I was listening to Yoshimatsu Takashi’s And Birds are Still… and pretending to have synesthesia.”
“May I join you?” Luka inquired, seeming completely in earnest.
“You want to?” Adrien blinked in surprise.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. It sounds like fun,” Luka replied with a shrug.
“I’d be happy to have some company,” Adrien returned with a pleased blush and a smile to match as he got to his feet.
He tipped his head towards his bed. “If it’s okay, I think the bed would be a lot more comfortable than the floor.”
“Sure,” Luka agreed, following Adrien’s lead and lying down beside him.
Adrien offered Luka one of his earbuds and started the song over once they were both settled.
Luka tried not to betray how their location and position was affecting him, but it was difficult when he was in Adrien’s bed where even the sheets smelled like his crush and Adrien was snuggled up shoulder to shoulder with him.
Thankfully, the music provided a welcome distraction.
It started off mellow and fairly static before the strings suddenly began to move and take on a soaring life of their own. Long, graceful passages seemed to evoke birds in flight, moving like a team of synchronized swimmers through the air.
“This song always makes me think of pastel colours,” Adrien whispered. “It’s really subtle and sparse in places, but even the simplicity and occasional scarcity of sound adds to the piece.”
“It’s like a Chinese painting,” Luka mused. “Like those ones done on wall scrolls in black and white. The artists get a lot of milage out of a monochrome palette and simple lines that combine to form impressive landscapes.”
“Yeah,” Adrien hummed, closing his eyes and picturing it. “The empty spaces are just as important as the places there are ink…. This song is like a wall scroll painting of birds in flight…only done in pastel yellows and greens and blues.”
“It’s beautiful,” Luka whispered as the music quietened and returned to the soft, still sounds at the beginning.
“…Want to listen to another one?” Adrien asked hopefully.
Luka was content to lie there with Adrien and listen to music as long as Adrien desired, but he didn’t want to let on how eager he was.
He pretended to be impartial concerning the outcome. “Yeah, if you want, I’m game.”
“Cool…. How about…this one? It’s by Missy Mazzoli. It’s called Vespers for Violin, and I, personally, think it’s really neat. There’s only one violin playing, but it sounds like two because they play the audio from the performer again delayed a second or two, so it’s like the soloist has a musical shadow,” Adrien explained with enthusiasm.
“That’s such a cool idea,” Luka hummed, quickly getting sucked into the music as it started.
“…I think this one is a kind of surreal painting,” Adrien evaluated a minute or two into the piece. “Maybe even abstract.”
“I could see that,” Luka agreed. “Definitely in dark, rich colours. Maybe, like, deep purple and crimson?”
“Yeah,” Adrien chuckled, snuggling closer and resting his head on Luka’s shoulder. “Dark, but not bleak. The sounds are kind of creepy but…sort of…majestic?”
“It reminds me of a crumbling castle out on the Scottish moors with lots of mist or something,” Luka added.
Adrien giggle-snorted. “Yeah. I get that vibe too. Lots of spooky mist. And whales.”
“Whales?” Luka chuckled, caught by surprise.
“Whales,” Adrien confirmed. “My drawing is definitely going to have majestic whales floating around the ruins of an old castle on the Scottish moors in the mist.”
“That could be an album cover,” Luka remarked, suddenly getting ideas. “You’re a genius.”
“Am not,” Adrien laughed.
Luka’s body sang at the vibration.
“You most definitely are,” he pressed.
Adrien turned his head, hiding his face in Luka’s shoulder. “Okay, but I’m only agreeing with you because my self-esteem is really poor, and I need the validation.”
“I’m more than happy to give it to you. You deserve it,” Luka stressed, hoping that Adrien would one day believe him.
“…Thanks,” Adrien whispered, voice brittle and on the edge of tears.
“You’re welcome.” Luka leaned in and gave Adrien’s hair a nuzzle.
They stayed like that in silence until the song came to an end.
“…Would you want to do another one?” Adrien inquired tentatively, not wanting the moment to end.
“Yeah. This is fun,” Luka agreed, thinking much the same thing.
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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years ago
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Whoopsie King Rhoam’s a dick but I gotta flesh him out so
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Read Part 1 here!
Part 2
If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!
Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1
‘sup ya beautiful bastards it’s time to gush about the process of storytelling and writing as we fix up the fix it fic so let’s just jump into it
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A quick recap of Part 2, and I swear this recap is faster than the recap last time: Chapter 3 of Age of Calamity opens with a more substantial scene the beginning points of Revali’s character, and contrasting the old position that Link and eggbot have, so that their later changes in this chapter (well, at least for Link in this chapter) are more pronounced. We edited a bit of the dialogue to make Revali’s intentions make a bit more sense, while also putting some little foreshadowing points with some camera tricks for the Hollow Champions. The Hollow Champions can now speak, which means their potential for being used to bring out the flaws or bitter aspects of each character is more readily available further into the story. And of course, we’ve introduced the main antagonist of Astor, and coupling his presence and dynamic with Zelda’s insecurities. While his intentions of needing Zelda for something is clear, his motivations and backstory remain a mystery as of yet, the only true clue we have so far being some sort of connection to eggbot. 
I didn’t get any big asks or comments about Part 2 so I’m going to assume that it was mostly well received (although I will note that I promise I’m going to flesh out Revali to be more than he has been presented as of yet, this is just the very very start of this development don’t you worry your feather loving butts) that being said, you should totally critique me or give me your opinions or comments. I’d love to hear them! Although, keep in mind that I am restraining my rewrite to the guidelines already said, so don’t get mad at me for not killing off all the Champions or something. Thaaat’s a rewrite for another time. So yeah if you reblog you get a little kiss from me because believe it or not I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite an entire storyline while keeping it’s tone and integrity intact. So thanks much <3
Okie dokie then chaps! Let us finally delve into Urbosa lesbian vibes, a zest of Zelink angst, rants about pacing, and a couple tablespoons of Astor backstory, all starting in the latest stage of Chapter 3: The Road Home, Besieged 
So right of the bat, big problem here. This Chapter follows directly after the events of Korok Forest, so you assume that maybe “The Road Home” refers to the team, going home, back to the castle, to tell King Rhoam what’s up. But...that’s apparently not the case. 
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So this entire stage, firstly, it brushes over any scenes where Zelda, Link or the other Champions might talk to King Rhoam about the Master Sword, or the Deku Tree, or...hmm what else happened last stage that might be interesting to see—oh yEAH HOW ABOUT that mysterious magic guy that tried to kill Zelda and was going off about the future and stuff?? That guy that wielded a bunch of dark magic and malice looking stuff and, uh yeah, you’d think it might be important and interesting to see the King’s take on was is essentially a wanted traitor to the crown who may or may not be leading the entire movement for the Calamity’s uprising. But nope, no one asks questions, no one says anything or has interesting conversations that reveal stuff about the plot. It's just….just all about Zelda and ooooOOooo she can’t awaken her powers oh no what’s a gal to do!
And I do mean that quite literally, this entire stage is all centered around two scenes with Zelda. The first, an admittedly narratively important scene of Zelda having a quick flashback about eggbot after he sings her a song, but it lasts for five seconds. And the second, being a pep talk with Urbosa as Link eats rocks in the background. For the majority of this stage, it’s all focused on Zelda, and pacing wise, it does virtually nothing to progress the narrative/plot forward.
And on paper, there’s nothing wrong with that! Hell, people read entire fanfictions dedicated to character development and relationships that have absolutely no external plot. Having a scene dedicated to just character development is completely fine, it’s something that’s pretty common and even encouraged to an extent. The problem arises when you remember that this is a story being told through the medium of a video game. 
Now, I am going to try and  breeze by this because, similar to Age of Calamity, I have to also construct this post with pacing that keeps my audience engaged, while progressing with my core narrative and story. But I highly encourage you to watch through this video by hello future me (On Writing: How to Master Pacing) because a lot of what I know about this I’ve picked up from his videos, and if you’re a writer or just someone who thinks storytelling is cool, it’s a great guide to the art of pacing.
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Anyhow. There are two levels of pacing within a story. There is the small type of pacing, like for the structure of a singular scene. And there is the pacing of the overall core narrative, how the larger beats of the entire story is revealed. Good pacing for your core narrative is about whether the reader feels like they are getting closer to the big thing, the big climax or answer or promise of satisfaction. The smaller type of pacing, for your singular scenes, focuses on that timing between how close you get to achieving new information, this refers to  your slow and fast pacing, tension versus rapid action.  
So, overall the rule of thumb is: the amount of time you invest into your smaller scenes, even put together, that must correlate with a big enough payoff in the core narrative. That’s what good pacing is. (And that’s why people make stuff like the Three Act Structure to help visualize this pacing process but obviously other forms of pacing guidelines exist like the Five and Seven Act Structures but that’s too complicated for this Nintendo Game anyhow that’s just some educational flavour for ya to impress your highschool English Teacher I guess) 
So knowing that, the question now is: Does The Road Home, Besieged contribute good pacing to the story? This is going to be my excuse for changing up other later scenes in the game, so when I mention pacing and narrative again, remember this. The time spent playing for thirty minutes, minimum, in the game, to only be paid off by two lines of character development isn’t good pacing. So the answer is “no.” 
Delving as long an amount of time as thirty minutes, means that pretty much everytime a stage is complete, you must introduce new substantial progress to your story. A game like this just doesn’t have time to waste it’s valuable cutscenes on character development alone. There’s an even further wrench in the issue when you consider you also need to account for sidequests, so you could really be forcing your player to go through hours of gametime before you introduce new details in the story. 
Obviously it’s not always gonna be cut and dry like that—sometimes you have to account for how enjoyable the gameplay is, and sometimes the amount of character development offsets any lack of narrative development—but for the majority of stages I’m gonna change, they all suffer this pacing problem. In a game that's entire story hinges on these cutscenes, bad pacing is just something it doesn’t have time for.
Anyhow anyhow anyhow, I got to get my dose of serotonin by talking about pacing writing structure and stuff and blah blah, so now I shall grace you with the changes that address these problems that would theoretically lead to vast improvement. I gave you this reasoning and backstory to writing because I am making hella changes, to hopefully make the experience more “poggers,” which is something the cool kids say these days if you didn’t know. 
Firstly, timeline wise this stage is gonna take place directly after the Korok Forest battle. The gang is returning home from the battle, with Link, the new wielder of the Master Sword, along with this new information regarding a certain Astor character. 
We open the same way it does in game, focusing on Zelda’s face, before the frame is suddenly blocked by the pommel of the Master Sword. A wordless way to express how the sudden revelation of Link being the hero has forced its way into Zelda’s mind, great use of camera Koei Tecmo 10 outta 10
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Now I don’t want to immediately jump into Zelda’s “oh poor me I can’t awaken my powers” dialogue because—and this is something even Breath of the Wild is guilty of—This game seems to forget that there are other characters besides Zelda. It’s marketed towards kids, sure, but I assure you that kids playing this game have a longer attention span than 2 minutes. You don’t need to keep reminding the audience every single scene about how Zelda is anxious about her powers. It gets redundant, you waste the audience’s time, and therefore you waste your own time, because you could have been using that precious screen time to develop some other thing further.  So anyhow, goes a bit like this. 
Zelda’s walking, the Master Sword comes into frame. Zelda looks down at the ground but keeps walking, but you can tell from her expression that she’s troubled. Don’t need to waste time on dialogue for her here, show don’t tell, we need to make the most of the scene here. Camera is still on Zelda, but the focus blurs shifts from Zelda to the Champions behind her. We can start with Mipha, I don’t have my heart set heavily on any specific dialogue, but I want her to say something along the lines of “how proud she is of Link” and what an honor it will be to fight by the side of not just her dear friend, but also someone selected by the goddess to be the hero. Subtextually, I want her to say this in a tone that suggests that she doubts the need for her to be here at all. She’ll say something like “He’s grown so…” glances up at Link who's just walking ahead, “...so much stronger than I could ever imagine. [Something Something] His power has grown so much over the course of a few days, more than I have achieved in a lifetime.” She looks down, but she still has a sweet smile. 
Now I’m doing this because I want to develop further this plot line of “getting stronger” that Age of Calamity sets up but never does anything with. Remember how in Chapter 2, Mipha asks Daruk to train with her to get stronger? I really like the possibilities of this arc with Mipha as it can not only parallel with her feelings for Link, but also make her character better as an individual. Mipha wants to get stronger so that she can protect Link, but now she thinks that Link’s already growing stronger to an extent that she might not be needed. She’s not jealous of Link, nor does she wish him to be weaker, she simply wants to be more than she already is. This is literally echoing her words that she left her father, about how leaving the Domain and experiencing new challenges would be “good for her.” So I wanna run with it. The dialogue here establishes Mipha’s motivation to grow stronger, almost equivalent to a rivalry of sorts. 
So after Mipha says this, Revali scoffs and butts in. Again, I’m not too set on any particular dialogue here, just something like “Hmph! Well, I don’t know about that. Seems to me all that’s happened is some magic sword gave the knight an ego boost. Blade’s only as strong as the little Hylian who wields it, and—based on my own extended experience and professional observations of course—I’ve yet to see this ‘stronger’ boy that you speak of.” Another camera pan to Link a ways in front of them. “If you ask me, hero or no, that knight is still exactly the same as I first met him.”
Revali places a wing on his chest dramatically. “Perhaps if you’re truly keen on seeing growth in skill and strength, Mipha, you’d do well to—”
“Flattering of an offer as that may be, Revali,” Urbosa interjects, “But I think Mipha might find it difficult to observe growth from one of the shortest Rito in Hyrule.”
Cue laughter from others or snickering or something. We just need some banter to add a bit more flavour to the characters. Revali can do a little huff and cross his wings or flip his scarf or something. But then Urbosa continues. 
“Although...he is right about one thing.” Urbosa looks straight ahead. “A sword does not alter a hand, just as strength does not alter character.” She puts a hand on Mipha’s shoulder. “Grow as he might, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the same boy as he’s always been.” Urbosa looks up in the direction of Zelda. “Whether you realize it or not.”
Ok so, scene’s not done yet, BUT quick gush on the dialogue flow here. I’m trying to establish parallels in these character perspectives based on the flow of conversation. We started with Mipha who, like I said, wished to grow stronger along with Link. This flows into Revali who also has a similar parallel as he wishes to grow above Link’s shadow. But the distinction between Mipha and Revali is that Mipha think’s Link’s strength is earned, and Revali thinks he cheated, gaining authority through a magic sword, and not through merit and skill. Thus, leading to Revali’s perspective of Link being exactly the same as he’s always been, he believes the sword doesn’t change anything. Urbosa then speaks, because she thinks exactly the same thing. However, her distinction is that Link is the same as he’s always been: a determined young boy earned his place and cares for his friends. Then she looks to Zelda who, as we know, will develop a perspective that contradicts this. So you get it? This scene is like 20 seconds long but it already mirrors nearly all the character parallels and perspective, that’s why the flow of dialogue is important. And I know half of you probably think these kinds of details are a stretch but I promise you it’s not, just look at any movie or show ever and I guarantee you can find similar stuff there too. Ok moving on moving on— 
Urbosa looks up at Zelda, comments her, “He’s the same boy, whether you realize it or not” piece of dialogue. Camera shifts back to Zelda and Link, who, idk if I mentioned this, but in the scene there’s enough distance between the Champions and Zelda and Link that the Champions can speak without the other two listening. So they didn’t hear any of this. 
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So the camera is back on Zelda, and now we can get her “How can I…..If I am unable to awaken my inner power….” line. Eggbot senses her sadness, does his little cheer up dance, Zelda gets a flashback.
One small change I wanna make to this flashback: Instead of just a baby Zelda going “nighty-night” I want there to ALSO be a figure in the background behind eggbot wearing a silk royal blue dress. And said woman has blonde hair and she’s by the table back there. We don’t have to show her face or anything because Nintendo hates that. Just place the woman somewhere in the back somewhere
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Also possibly you could add the shadow of another figure by the doorway, maybe? It would serve good continuity purposes for the plot points that I’m telling, but that part is not as necessary. I just need at least the woman there. 
Then Zelda is like “I remember you” to eggbot and all that and blah blah… Now, instead of Impa offscreen just yelling “enemy ahead!” I just want it to be a full on ambush. Not like a major one, but just enough where the group is surprised a bit. Maybe on the cliffs above, a lizalfo throws a boomerang, or a bokoblin shoots and arrow, or even just throws a rock. I don’t really care. I just need this to happen because…
As soon as this danger is presented, Link turns around to grab Zelda’s hand and they start running again. And he can like use his body to try and shield her a bit, I need it to parallel how he acted during Chapter 1 on the road to the Royal Tech Lab. However, this parallel has one important distinction because…
Zelda rips he grip from Link’s after a moment. “You don’t need to coddle me!” She says, or something along those lines. “Y-You...You’re the hero aren’t you! I’m perfectly fine, you don’t need to spend your precious time playing babysitter to me.” In the distance, a horde of monsters is beginning to form. Zelda looks between the monsters and Link’s Master Sword, her expression unreadable. “Well? Just...just go do what you need to do.” Link hesitates, looking between her, and the approaching monsters. Zelda speaks more sternly now, “Go!” So Link, not one to disregard an order from the Princess, gives one last look to Zelda before setting off towards the monsters. Maybe Zelda can take a deep breath to steady herself after he leaves, but as soon as Link unsheathes his sword, the metal glistening in the setting sunlight, it cuts immediately to gameplay. Start battle. 
For essays’ purposes this is the part where I explain why this is better than the original. So here’s my reasoning:
Uhhh, it just is. :3
Ok but seriously, I’ve already talked a tone about why the pacing and dialogue flow is better than the original. But also this scene doesn’t just say “Ooo Zelda is sad about her powers,” because that’s not interesting. Like I said, it’s redundant information. What is interesting is see how characters deal with that internal conflict and how it affects their relationships. AKA Zelda’s relationship with Link, who now basically embodies the success that she’s been working so hard towards but never achieved, is deteriorating a bit. I wanted to get that sense of the Zelda that we see in Breath of the Wild because all things considered, they should be roughly the same character.
So that’s that, you fight the battle, the Hollows show up a bit, so insert “dark evil Champion” dialogue because if you’re gonna use the evil clone trope might as well use it to the fullest. Then you fight the Talus and hurray horrah the day is saved. 
Then we have that iconic Urbosa motherly pep talk to Zelda as Link eats rocks in the background. Now honestly, I’m not that big a fan of the first half of the dialogue, so I wanna change it into something more interesting. But the rest of the beats and camera work go roughly the same. 
Zelda: “Link is...so much stronger now”
Urbosa: “‘And yet I have not.’ I presume that’s what you’re thinking, hmm?”
Zelda: “Well it’s true, isn’t it? More and more, monsters have been appearing around Hyrule. It is a sign that the Calamity draws near. So...there isn’t much time. And still, no sign of my power awakening.”
Urbosa: *sighs* “Little bird…”
Zelda cuts her off, in an attempt to change topics: “Why do you call me that?”
Urbosa: “Hmm?”
Zelda: “Little bird...I feel like I’ve heard it before. Why do you call me that?”
Urbosa, after a beat looks off in the distance or something: “A long time ago, my dear friend would call me to the palace, or perhaps invite herself over to mine, [she chuckles] ...and she would talk with me all day, and ask me to gaze upon her little bird with her. Her dearest daughter...a princess”
Zelda: “You mean my…”
Urbosa just smiles with a soft nod: “Back then, times were a bit different. The destiny that you have was still upon the Queen, who worked day and night to refine her powers and fulfill her destiny. In just a few short years, I went from being friends with a Queen, to friends with the destined sealer of the Calamity.”
Another pause, before Urbosa speaks again: “But...she was still the same woman I had grown with. Still the same loving mother who spoke about her little bird with joy. She had not changed one bit.”
Urbosa: “Even when your mother passed, her loving smile was there until the very end. She always loved you—believed in you, Zelda. She had great hope, great faith that her daughter would grow into the beacon of light Hyrule needed. That even with her gone, you would spread your wings and fly, because you were just that amazing to her.” *Urbosa puts her hands on Zelda’s shoulders.*
Urbosa: “Destiny did not change your mother’s love, just as it does not change Link’s courage, or your value.” *the camera can pan to Link eating rocks now*
Urbosa looks directly at Zelda now: “Look how hard we’ve all worked to get this far, how hard you have worked to get here. While we may grow in strength, in that regard, we’re all one in the same.”
Zelda: “...I….well…”
Urbosa: “What did the Great Deku Tree say? There is no need to fret princess.”
Urbosa: “Our faith, Link’s, your mother’s, it’s all as strong as ever. And everyday, with every moment that you travel towards your destiny, it just grows. It is always with us. So believe in that, have hope, yet, little bird.” *Eggbot can scurry up and make cute noises here next to Zelda*
Urbosa: “I know, you are where you need to be. You must accept that too.”
Zelda: “...”
Zelda gives a solemn nod: “Thank you, Urbosa.”
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So that’s that scene! Don’t let the length fool you, it’s technically even shorter than the original scene in Age of Calamity. So why is it, in my opinion, better? Because for one, we actually get an insight into Zelda’s mom and Urbosa’s relationship, something that was PROMISED To us but never given and I’m still a bit salty about it. Anyhow, in addition to just getting some lore details, that relationship between the Queen and Urbosa is important for this scene because, just like Urbosa spells out, it’s in direct parallel with Link and Zelda. 
Before the Queen suddenly got sick and died, she was destined to seal the Calamity. But she didn’t let that destiny change her, she was still the same loving mother to the end. Now that is something that Zelda needs to realize about Link, as his newly acquired destiny doesn’t change who he was before, the knight who cares for her and wishes to protect her. Zelda needs to realize he’s the same and that she can still trust and confide in him. Hence, that’s why this mom backstory is in this scene and not somewhere else, because it serves to the narrative but also more impactfully to the character development. 
The dialogue could probably be polished a bit more but come on, not half bad for an improvement yeah? So that concludes Chapter—
SIKE we’re not done yet. We still have to move into the entire point of this stage, the road home, to the castle. 
So, badabing badaboom, I’m adding an entirely new scene from scratch right here at the end, because it is VITAL that I set up something new about the story, as a sort of clincher. So anyhow 
Zelda is alone with her father, let’s set it in the royal library (Intact, not ruined, of course) because we don’t see enough of that location and it’s really cool. So Zelda is briefing her dad about the events in Korok Forest and on the journey back home. I know I always gush about cinematography but it can’t be fully appreciated since I’m….writing,,, this, BUT I think it might be fun if the side shots of Zelda have her background be some bookcases of the library, maybe half bookcases and the other half the ornate walls. Then the background for the King’s shots is the full symmetry of the elegant staircases.
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[And if you needed the specific reasoning for that, because it makes camera shots more fun. Like when Zelda says something that aids in her scholarly side, the camera angle can change slightly where the bookcases take up more of the frame, and then when the King’s will takes more power, then the book cases can be angled a bit more out of frame. And then the symmetry of the King by the staircase is a way to show his higher power dynamic to her, and contrasts well with Zelda’s shots since the bookcases are dark and the stone is lighter, so on a meta level is also makes it easier for the audience to understand where they are. Shot composition is fun ok, and that’s not even getting into color theory (Thinks about Baby Driver and LaLaLand....even videogames like Undertale and Hollow Knight have such wonderful shot composition and use of color theory hhhhh love it)]
Ok so Zelda’s briefing the King in the library, she’s standing while he’s sitting at a desk. There’s maybe two or four Royal Guards on the staircase entrances, but for the most part, they’re alone. You can tell that this meeting between them has been going on for a bit now, as from Zelda’s dialogue, she’s retelling events midway through the story. 
The King is flipping through some paperwork, not really looking Zelda in the eyes. She continues speaking. 
“And so...with the malice cleared and the monsters being dealt with, Link and I made our way into the heart of Korok Forest.”
The King hums a response, flipping through another page. “And this is when Link pulled out the Sword that Seals the Darkness then, I presume.”
Zelda paused, as of thinking of how to phrase her next words. “Not exactly. I...we both encountered someone beforehand. A man, with a pale face, and dark hair and robes, and he had the power to control malice, using a strange object in one of his hands.” 
Rhoam stops writing in his journal or whatever. He doesn’t look up, but the sudden stop he makes is obvious. Zelda notices, but continues. 
“He talked about...the Calamity, and my birthday...destiny, and the future….I’m not quite sure I can remember his intentions word for word. But he did introduce himself as—“
“Astor…” Zelda and the King say simultaneously. The King has fully perked up now, looking at Zelda. She’s pleased to see a reaction from him. The King rises from his chair, and starts pacing a bit, stroking his beard thoughtfully like the asshole he is. 
“So you know him then? This Astor man? Who is he, father? What does he—“
“Were you alright? Did he hurt you, or mention anything else?”
Zelda pauses for a moment before shaking her head, as if the concern he was expressing was uncharacteristic. “N-No. No, I’m fine, and Link was there. During the battle, as Link fought him off, that was when the sword was pulled. Then Astor fled, or...” Zelda pauses for a beat, “retreated...he expressed his wish to speak with me again.”
Another beat of silence, as Rhoam gets up, hands clasped behind his back. “He used to work at this very palace.” The shot is now directly on Rhoams back, as he faces a bookcase, although it’s clear that he’s just deep in thought, and not just staring at books. Rhoam is in third column of the shot (he’s to the right, not in the center) 
“A trusted advisor. Someone gifted with foresight, who many years ago, had first predicted the coming Calamity.” Cut to shot of Rhoams face, the camera being by the bookcase, so that we see Rhoam’s expression and Zelda’s.
“In truth, I thought him dead. For the last time I saw him alive—truly, truly alive—was ten long years ago...” The shot goes back to the original establishing shot, of Rhoam facing away from the camera, towards the bookcase, he’s standing to the right, hands still clasped behind his back.
“...when your mother still graced this earth.”
From left frame, a younger Astor walks up and stands beside Rhoam. He runs his fingers along the books. Rhoam looks to his left, as if he is seeing Astor. Camera cuts to Astor’s right, as if looking at him from Rhoam’s perspective. He continues brushing his fingers against the spines of the books, before he finds the one he’s looking for. Pulling it out, he opens the book, flipping through its pages, before giving a genuine smile. Cut back to wide angle behind them. With the book, Astor starts walking back out left frame, but this time the camera follows him. Filter fade to a memory tint as the camera pans right to left
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[when the camera fades fully into the Astor memory, the figures can have that silhouetted effect like you see in botw. Cause I know Nintendo hates making new character models for some reason.] 
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So if it wasn’t clear already, even though the memory filter doesn’t come immediately, Astor isn’t actually there, but it’s just a flashback. I’m a sucker for merges, which is something this game and botw NEVER do which bugs me because there are so many creative ways you could introduce flashbacks without just doing “ooOooOoo fade to sepia filter and then oooOOooOOO we fade back to reality and no time has passed.” I apologize if my explanation of the camera doesn’t make sense as it’s hard without much visual aid, but hopefully it makes sense so far. Anyhow! Let’s continue.
We’re now fully immersed in this memory, but King Rhoam’s voice still narrates overhead. 
Astor brings the book to one of the desks in the library, where a woman sits writing something onto paper. News flash, it’s the queen. Astor hands her the book and starts speaking about something, although you can tell the tone of their conversation is light, almost akin to Zelda rambling about Sheikah Technology. The Queen laughs about something unheard, as Astor continues ranting about something, his hands moving to like a professor giving a lecture. 
Rhoam Narration: “When he had first predicted the Calamity, things were much more hopefully for our kingdom. As although his foresight granted him only glimpses and fragments of a future, he was almost certain that with the Guardians, and the strength of your mother’s power, our victory would be absolute.”
Scene changes to the Queen walking down a corridor, Astor is leaning against the wall by a window. 
Rhoam Narration: “He and your mother would often work together tirelessly to study the ancient arts, to make the most of the powers given by the goddess.”
The Queen has walked up to Astor now. She crouches down and gestures to her left, the side not yet seen by the camera.
Rhoam Narration: “In fact…”
The camera changes to focus to where the Queen was looking towards—a young Zelda, crouched behind her mother’s dress, stares up at Astor. 
Rhoam Narration: “I would not be surprised if you found within yourself, a memory of such.”
I would prefer if you could see the expressions of Astor (giving Zelda not a smile, but not really a frown or anything rude either) and young Zelda. But I guess it can also just be silhouettes too cause again, Nintendo hates giving us younger character models outside of first person POV stuff. Anyhow. 
The scene fades, the light from the window dimming as everything darkens.
Rhoam Narration: “I often times wish we could go back to such a time, when victory and pride swam in every corner of this castle.  But of course…”
The scene brightens again, although not as bright as before. It’s the exact same corridor with the large window, but now it’s raining. A young Zelda stands alone in front of it, looking outside.
Rhoam Narration: “Such a time did end…”
We now cut to a new scene, King Rhoam is walking down a hall, the camera’s perspective is of a bird’s eye view, like we’re peering in from outside a window. We can see the shadow of Astor chasing after him, as he starts speaking frantically about something, not quite, but almost to the point of shouts. 
Rhoam Narration: “After your mother died, the visions of the future shifted drastically. No longer was there glimpses of rolling fields and shimmering skies, but instead, of rubble, red earth, and death.”
You can now more clearly hear the words coming out of Astor’s mouth. He is telling something about failure, and souls, and the Calamity to the King’s ear. He’s still walking forward.
Rhoam Narration: “He was adamant that our demise was now coming faster than ever, and that without your mother, we were doomed. That even you, should you take up your mother’s mantle, could not save everyone.”
Astor: “I’m telling you Your Majesty, if you go down this path, there is no going back.”
King Rhoam: “There is no other choice, we are moving forward.”
Astor: “I don’t think you quite understand the true gravity of the fate you’re choosing for yourself. It is a guarantee that you, me, and countless others shall die.”
King Rhoam: “I don’t want to hear it.”
Astor: “And of course, there are a multitude of possibilities, but the end result is the same.”
Astor: “Do you have a preference, perhaps? Crushed by rubble? Suffocation under ash?”
Rhoam’s tone is deadly: “Stop.”
Astor: “I’ve seen fire too. I’m not yet quite sure the exact circumstances that lead to flame appearing and spreading so quickly, but rest assured that if you—”
King Rhoam: “Stop.” 
Astor: “If you saddle someone else with this duty I am absolutely certain that you and I will—” 
King Rhoam, voice not shouting, but still with a booming intensity: “Just like you were so certain of our victory 10 years ago?”
Astor’s face darkens. He’s silent for a moment, collecting his words before practically spitting the first articulation: “...That, future, was the one that would come to be if Her Majesty was alive. If you’re so unsatisfied with my departed wisdom you can go ahead and flail around with destiny alone. You think I choose for these events to happen? You think I lie when I saw I want what’s best for this kingdom—”
King Rhoam: “What’s best for you.”
An ugly pause.
King Rhoam: “It is decided, Seer. It’s time you accept this. My wife is dead. That is the truth. Thus the role of sealing the Calamity shall pass to my daughter. She will work to awaken her own ability. It will be her duty to save us.”
Astor half laughs: “A child?! Surely you don’t need the supernatural to see how foolish that is.”
King Rhoam’s voice is even more stern: “You are living proof that the future is not absolute. Therefore I...must place all belief in her ability.”
The King walks away, leaving Astor alone. Weirdly, he smiles. Perhaps to mask some other emotion.  
After another moment, Astor yells to the King: “I’ll fix this! Alone if I must!” He’s chuckling as he shakes his head. “Your useless faith may cost many lives, but even so mark my words, I will fix this.”
The King looks back, but says nothing, his expression unreadable. He continues forward, leaving Astor alone chuckling, or perhaps something in between chuckling and crying to himself.  
Rhoam Narration: “We haven’t spoken since that day. I simply left him to his devices. If he was so determined to find another way to stop the Calamity, then who was I to stop him. I doubt my word could have swayed his mind regardless.
We’re now looking at a room, the camera is just by the doorway, looking at an office, circular and domed. It’s stone brick walls are covered in parchment and ripped books, covered in symbols and frantic writing. An old Sheikah tapestry hangs crudely on the left wall, and the window on the right seems to tint grey, or even a deepest crimson. Centerframe, is the back of Astor, robe hanging just above the paper ridden floor. He is flipping through something on his desk. 
Rhoam Narration: “Fixated as he was on the perfect future that you mother might have led, I still had hope that with time, he might still assist you with your destiny one day.”
The camera slowly comes closer to Astor. We can see more clearly the type of stuff that sprawls the papers and books and diagrams across his office. Some depict stars and constellations, and even a few notes on Ancient Technology, although in a noticeably cleaner font. However, as the camera moves close and closer to Astor, the papers and books depict only one clear topic: the aura of death that comes only with necromancy. 
Rhoam Narration: “It seems…”
Astor finally reacts to whatever he was doing on his desk. You don’t see his eyes, but as he fully turns around to face the camera, you see his smile, along with him holding a dark orb of unknown energy. It hovers in his hand. 
Rhoam Narration: “...I was mistaken.” 
The camera cuts to a wide angle, looking at Astor from behind a stack of books on his desk. The stack of books on Astor’s desk brighten in color (from the memory dull filter), until the scene fully fades back into the Royal Library. The camera is now focused on a similar stack of books on the desk behind Zelda, where Rhoam was working before. 
Zelda is still looking at her father, who is still turned away. Now, he turns back around to face her.
“He had disappeared completely one day, so it was my understanding that whatever he was working on killed him. However, if he is truly back as you say…”
Rhoam walks closer to Zelda, close enough that he might have put a hand on her shoulder, but his arms stay behind his back.
“It is in your utmost interest to prove him wrong. I know not what he plans on doing, but it would be wise to stop him before he does.”
Rhoam turns away now, pacing back to the otherside of the desk. “But, your more important priority is unlocking your powers, understand? Now more than ever, is not the time to get distracted.”
Zelda, taking this all in, takes a deep breath. She then nods at him. “I understand...Father.”
After a moment, the King makes a motion as if to dismiss her. She starts to walk away, her thoughts churning in her head, heart thumping to the same beat as her echoing footsteps. Suddenly, Rhoam calls, 
“Zelda.” It’s not a question, but the tone is asked like one.
She turns back, looking at him, expectantly. Rhoam only stares at her, an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty for him. The words he wants to form seem stuck in his throat, until finally, he lets out a quiet breathe through his nose, before simply saying:
“You must.”
Zelda can only frown, her shoulder’s slumping slightly, as she ducks her head and leaves.
- - - - - - 
And that’s that! That’s the complete end of Chapter 3. So tune in next time for Chapter 4, including a new slight but important story changes, Yiga husbands, and shocking turns of events.
Edit: I forgot that posts with link’s dont show up in tag results so a rb is appreciated :p
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prettygirlcore · 4 years ago
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fall - hwang hyunjin
a/n: i think i’m gonna start putting summaries on my posts, but don’t expect them to be good because i suck at that.
i also used like a million pet names because i find them really sweet and endearing. hyunjin’s a boy i want to protect, ya know?
warnings: fainting, hyunjin overworking himself :(((, and just overall sad vibes.
summary: hyunjin’s worried about being good enough, so he starts to work harder; that doesn’t end well.
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hyunjin’s rarely late. being on time is usually something he holds himself to and when he knows he’ll be late, he’ll text you and let you know. but you haven’t heard anything from him since morning and he’s an hour late to your scheduled date. admittedly, you were just going to eat dinosaur chicken nuggets in your pajamas and watch tv, but all your stay-at-home dates are memories that you really cherish and value.
so you call him. and he doesn’t answer. at this point you’re more worried than annoyed, so your next resort is to call chan. hopefully you didn’t have to resort to calling jyp themselves.
“y/n? what is it? is everything okay?”
“chan, thank god you picked up, do you know where hyunjin is?”
“he’s still in the practice room. we told him he should get home to you, but he said that you’d be gone so he doesn’t have anything better to do but run through his sets a few more times,”
“Uhm no? i’m at home?? waiting for him???”
“maybe he forgot?”
“hyunjin’s capable of forgetting many things, our weekly dates isn’t one of them,”
“do you want me to get him for you?”
“no, just… let him be, i guess. whatever he’s doing is important to him, anyway,”
“y/n-”
“bye chris,”
you said before hanging up the phone, not giving chan a chance to finish. it was so incredibly embarrassing to think that hyunjin probably knew you were waiting for him, but didn’t care. maybe he was with someone else, since he was in a position where he’d be alone for a few hours. god you felt so dumb. chan felt pity for you and your stupid, dumb idea that hyunjin actually cared to make it to your stupid date.
you sit there, scrolling through a bunch of different apps, trying to distract yourself from how horrible you felt for a good twenty minutes, when...
your phone is ringing again.
chan is calling you again.
you watch his face light up your phone, you can hear the ringtone, and yet, you don’t pick up. maybe it was the underlying rage you felt towards hyunjin, or the absolute hatred you felt at chan’s pitiful voice when you almost broke down crying during the first call.
chan’s call fades out as you officially ignore his call and send him to voicemail, but he calls again.
you still don’t answer.
he calls you again.
once again, you can’t find it in you to answer.
he calls you a good five more times, maybe more, you don’t remember. all you know is that this ringtone is starting to annoy you. you move to put your phone on do not disturb, but before you can hit the button, you were getting another call.
guess who it was?
wrong.
you think to yourself if minho, of all people, is calling me, maybe i should answer it.
so you do.
“minho-”
“yah! what the hell? why weren’t you answering chan’s calls?”
“minho i don’t want to talk about it right now-”
“oh my god y/n for one minute stop thinking about you and your feelings! for just once in your life! hyunjin’s at the hospital!”
hospital?
hyunjin was at the hospital??
you were shocked, stunned into silence that you completely disregarded minho on the other line until he brought you back to reality.
“y/n?”
“a-ah, i’m sorry, why is he at the hospital?”
“they think he fainted from a combination of a lack of sleep and dehydration. he’s not awake right now, but the doctors assume he will be soon. he took a pretty bad fall when he fainted, and because he was all alone, nobody knew anything had happened to him until you called chan about him,”
“did he break anything when he fainted?”
“no, he just has a pretty nasty bruise on his side. agh, why am i explaining all of this to you? just get over here, okay? he’ll want to see you when he wakes up,”
completely disregarding all the irritation you had felt a second before, you thanked minho and grabbed your car keys, heading over to the hospital. you were driving faster than was safe, but it didn’t matter. hyunjin has fainted when you assumed he was cheating. what an asshole you were.
seeing him in that bed, all pale and weak-looking, truly made you think. had you paid any attention to hyunjin these past few days? you were sure he was fine just the other day, if a bit tired looking. he did also seem weaker. but you just took that as something sleep could fix.
maybe the last time you had seen him was yesterday, but you haven’t really seen him since maybe a week ago, your last date. he’s been so busy, you just assumed he was sleeping at the dorms when he wasn't sleeping next to you. was he really not sleeping at all?
you were pulled from your thoughts when his hand started to squeeze yours, a telltale sign he was waking up. you looked over at him, and his eyes were closed but you could tell he was drifting out of sleep.
“don’t try to get up, sweetie, you’re a bit weak right now,”
“y-y/n…? where am i?”
“you’re okay, you’re just at the hospital,”
“o-oh, um, look i’m really sorry for causing so much trouble and for missing our date, i didn’t mean to i just got caught up in practicing-”
“practicing doesn’t come before your health, jinnie, you know that,”
“i know but i was so worried about this past comeback and i feel like i didn’t do my best and you know jyp never gives us a break and i just have to be better-,”
“hyunjin,”
“y/n i have to be more than just a pretty face. i can’t be remembered as just a visual, i have other talents! i promise that i’m just working harder so i can show that there’s more to me than my looks,”
“stop, please, just stop,”
“y/n-”
“do you think i’m okay with seeing you like this? do you think the boys are okay with seeing you like this? what about stay? do you think they could fully enjoy anything you’re making knowing that you had to resort to unhealthy habits like not sleeping and forgetting to drink water?”
“i mean no i guess not, but this wasn’t supposed to happen-”
“what was supposed to happen, hyunjin? were you just going to keep carrying on practicing day and night, destroying your body, all while not talking to me about this?”
“you shouldn’t have to deal with-”
“that’s not up to you to decide what i should or shouldn’t deal with! because i’m here now, dealing with the aftermath of what you did,”
“... you’re right, i’m sorry, y/n,”
you suddenly realize that you’ve stood up from the chair you were sitting in. you’re also towering over him, since he’s laying in a hospital bed, and your angry expression and pointed finger in his direction probably didn’t help. he does look kind of scared of you.
“ah, i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to scare you. i was just really worried, i felt really helpless when i first saw you laying there, so i’m sorry if that was too much. i’ll check in with you doctor and see when we can get you home, sweetie,”
you say with a kiss on his forehead, and suddenly he’s alone again. like he was in the practice room. he didn’t like to be alone, more specifically, he didn’t like to be without you.
the doctors do plenty of tests to make sure there wasn’t anything else that contributed to his faint, but hyunjin is soon in the comforts of your arms and bed finally. he cuddles up close to you, resting his head against your chest. he feels safe when he heard your heartbeat.
“jinnie?”
“hmmm?”
“can we talk?”
“y-yes, sure,”
he looks like he doesn’t want to move, so you don’t force him to. his voice is slightly muffled but you can still make out what he says, so it’s not a big deal.
“you said you started practicing more because you were worried that you didn’t do good enough,”
“uhm, y-yeah, that’s why,”
“jinnie, darling, what made you feel that way?”
he looked at you like a deer in headlights, before resting his head in your lap. you run your fingers through his long hair, but it’s not enough to calm him.
“i… i see the things they say. i know it shouldn’t get to me, that i shouldn’t let it get to me, but it does. i can’t just tell myself to stop thinking about their criticisms like you want me to, it doesn’t work that way,”
you were almost taken aback by his slightly aggressive attitude, but you let it go. he’s not in the state of mind to care to watch what he says. with all that he’s feeling, it would be selfish to put the spotlight on you.
“i’m sorry, jinnie. i can tell it’s hard, so much more than i know. i can empathize and try to help you but i’ll never know what it truly feels like,”
it’s silent for another minute or two, the silence isn’t unbearable, but it’s awkward.
“how can i help you, jinnie? what would make your life easier right now?”
he’s quick to dismiss you, say you don’t need to do anything, but you speak up again before he can respond.
“and don’t tell me i don’t need to do anything. i want to help you,”
he smiles, somewhat sadly as he looks down to avoid looking you in the eye.
“just…”
“yeah?”
“...please be there for me,”
he looks up at you with watery eyes, and before you crush him in another hug, he speaks once more,
“please be there to catch me if i fall,”
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dascarecrow · 4 years ago
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Scarecrow Thoughts - Wandavision Ep. 6
Beware of spoilers 
-Title is “All-New Halloween Spooktacular!” So we’ve gotten to the Halloween episode. Was expecting it to be later in the series. 
-Opening credits are an homage to those of Malcolm In The Middle. Interestingly Agnes and Pietro both are credited during this. Hmmmm... 
-We get straight to the Halloween stuff and we get some solid personalities for the twins. Billy is the more thoughtful and tempered one, going into a diatribe about the spirituality of Halloween. Tommy is the snarky and abrasive one, thinking Halloween is just about candy. Nice touch, I wasn’t expecting much distinction between the two. 
-Billy is speaking to the audience directly, so I guess they’re going wholesale on the Malcolm in the Middle vibe. 
-Billy is dressed up in his Wiccan costume from the comics. Really didn’t expect that.  
-Pietro is sleeping on the couch while the twins debate waking him up, unaware that he just did and pranks them a bit. So Quicksilver is in the role of the looser, fun uncle here. About what I would expect. 
-Wanda hears the commotion and comes downstairs, dressed in her classic costume. The twins both get some depth with their responses. Billy guesses Old Red Riding Hood, showing some snark of his own. Tommy actually likes it, showing some sincerity and warmth but changes his opinion when Pietro claims it’s lame. 
-Wanda claims the costume is supposed to be of a Sokovian fortune teller. Nice bit of backstory, don’t know if that’s the case in the comics. I don’t think it is. 
-Pietro reminds Wanda of one Halloween as kids. Wanda remembers them getting a fish, much to their young selves revulsion. Funny scene but there is gunfire in the background so trauma rears it’s head again. Wanda claims she remembers the incident differently and Pietro notes she’s suppressed a lot of trauma. 
-Billy comments that Wanda had been acting oddly since Pietro’s arrival but puts it down to her not seeing him for a long time. Uh Billy if your fully aware of what’s going on then get a message to a nice lady named Monica Rambeau, she’ll be able to help you and your family. 
-Vision comes downstairs in his classic costume, which is simply great. We get an example of his and Pietro’s relationship which is mostly Pietro’s childishness clashing with his straightforward nature. Vision notes that Wanda hasn’t spoken about her brother much, which might be a big contributing factor to this whole mess. He also gives his opinion that Pietro is “great with kids”. Woah Vision did you just snark of your own volition? I know you got a dig in on Ultron but dang. You were built by Tony Snark after all. 
-Vision reveals that the costume was all that was in his closet, with the implication that Wanda made so it was all that he could wear. It also seems that Wanda has a thing for Mexican wrestlers. I did not know that. 
-Vision heads out on his own, much to Wanda’s confusion. He claims that it’s for neighborhood watch duties but Wanda is confused but it’s not what he’s supposed to do. Vision interrupts her and she stands down so he still has his awareness of things being wrong and Wanda can’t push too hard without more problems it would seem.  
-Billy comments on Wanda and Vision’s recent issues but Pietro notices him speaking to the audience. Intriguing. 
-The conflict gets settled with Pietro offering to step in for handling the boys tonight. He spooks Wanda with an in-show jump scare, which might hint at more sinister doings. Wanda comments he can’t for lack of a costume but he just zooms out with Tommy and both come back wearing their comic costumes. So good. Also this might be coincidental but Pietro’s hairstyle could also be devil horns. Regardless Wanda threatens to magic him into a pickled herring if he causes too much trouble. 
-Outside of the Hex, we get to enjoy the “How do you screw up a bad situation for the worse show.” Hayward has officially broken through the ice and I... I really wish he hadn’t. So from now on I will be calling him Haywad for he is unfit to be addressed by his actual name. 
-Monica calls Haywad out on his stunt with the drone while he tries brushing her off. Darcy snarks at how he got outdone last episode and he questions if Darcy works for SWORD. Actually a good question. She’s with Monica it would seem. Hayward gets his own moment snark by asking who’s the sassy best friend but good old Jimmy tells him off for trying to diminish the people who are actually handling the situation and know what their doing while also trying to start a fight with Wanda. 
- “Maximoff was never going to negotiate with us.” I’ll admit she probably wasn’t going to but trying to blow her up before even offering her a chance is a bit too far Haywad. 
-Haywad wants to take Wanda out as a quick and easy fix to things but Monica makes a point that they don’t know for certain that will happen or what else might happen if she dies while the Hex is up. A bit of a reach and I can see Haywad’s logic but I’ve heard worse rationales. 
-Monica continues her defense by pointing out that they don’t have anywhere near the firepower to outstrip Wanda and winding her up is just escalating things worse. As Monica puts it Wanda is the problem and also the only workable solution they’ve got. 
-Haywad is unflappable in his position, declaring Monica an impediment to the mission but he doesn’t stop there. He gets on her case for her defense of superpowered beings, even acknowledging her history with Carol. He goes on a rant about how the Snap devastated the world and how difficult choices needed to be made in light of what happened. The narrative almost paints him as a man pushed into a bad state of mind by how the world was ruined. And I call bullcrap. 
-Monica’s response? “Don’t use the last five years as an excuse to be a coward.” Oh yes! I hate it when people try to use their dark past as an excuse to lash out and lower themselves to cruelty. I also love it when these people get called on their bullcorn and have how selfish they really are laid out. Tragedy befalls us all... and life goes on uncaring of our struggles. 
-Heywad’s response is to belittle Monica by telling her it was a good thing she wasn’t here for her mother’s death because she doesn’t have the stomach for their work. Oh you son of a... those aren’t fighting words, that’s a full on declaration of war.  And he follows that up by ordering Monica, Darcy and Woo expelled from the area. 
-Woo notes that Heywad is overstepping his authority with this stunt. Oh Jimmy you magnificent so and so I could slap you with a wet pancake! I knew Heywad was up to something that could give him trouble and you just made that clear for the audience. This isn’t just a SWORD mission this is a co-op between them and the FBI. And the dorkrector just tried to force their main agent on the ground off the assignment for no reason. Oh ho ho, Heywad just put himself in the line of fire and I can’t wait for someone to pull the trigger. 
-Woo cold clocks the soldiers escorting them off base and Monica joins in, knocking them all out. “Why didn’t anyone tell me the plan?” Oh Darcy never stop being delightful. After stashing the soldiers and going with the old MCU standby of disguises that don’t really disguise you the trio gets back to work. 
-Back in the Hex the family gets going on trick or treating with Wanda taking the chance to question Pietro about their past. He knows she’s trying to test him, admitting that he looks different from how she remembers. He guesses that it’s because Wanda doesn’t want to be reminded of the past in her little bubble of paradise. Is he aware of what’s going on or what? 
-Pietro takes the kids off to get into some mischief while Wanda goes to speak with Herb. The brief sequence is hilarious but Herb reveals that Vision isn’t on duty for the watch. Then there’s a slightly disturbing scene where Herb asks if Wanda wants something changed. She declines but it’s clear something is going on. 
-Vision is off by himself and sees a couple repeating the motions of setting up Halloween decorations. One of them sheds a single tear. Oh not that cheap trick for drama again. Also eerie.... 
-We get to the commercial for the episode and it’s one of those claymation snack commercials. Which ends with a kid starving to death and turning into a skeleton trying to open the snack. Uh... Okay then. Let’s just go back to the... just as ominous parts of the setting. 
-Wanda makes the boys return the candy that Pietro helped them steal and is upset with how bad of an influence he’s being. Pietro notes he’s just playing his part, literally that is. He’s hitting all the boxes of the standard fun loving uncle in a sitcom. He says to Wanda that she wanted “to give you grief”. Okay hopefully Pietro’s presence is Wanda trying to work through the grieving process so she can figure out what’s going on and fix it. 
-Wanda questions Pietro’s missing accent and he fires back about how she’s missing hers. He claims that the details of his return are fuzzy, the last thing he remembers being his death before Wanda called for him. This does not prove it is the MCU version of Quicksilver with a facelift okay. It could still be the Fox version with MCU Pietro’s memories zapped into his mind. 
-The boys get excited about a candy score and Tommy literally zooms there and back with superspeed. He doesn’t even seem aware of it until Pietro points it out, at which point he does as children and has fun with his new powers. I just love how Wanda just catches him no problem while he’s zipping around, no powers needed. She lets the boys head off for some solo candy hunting but warns them not to go past Ellis Avenue. I know Ellis is the name of a comic worker I just can’t remember which one. 
-We return to the SWORD base for another installment of “Keeping your idiotic boss from destroying the world.” It is sad that there are actually enough moments like this in the MCU to be a thing. The trio find a computer room and Monica discovers Pietro’s presence in the Hex. “He brought the wrong face” So funny! Monica doesn’t want to hang around too long, which is smart. Darcy hacks into the computer systems for the compound, which is extra smart. Seriously a degree in astrophysics and computer hacking skills, what have you been up to in the... decade since we last saw you? 
-What does Darcy find? Well Haywad found a way to look through the boundary and didn’t tell anyone. I am so looking forward to his downfall. Turns out Vision is being tracked through the decay signature of vibranium, which I will admit is at least clever. The tracking method also shows the residents of Westview in Vision’s immediate vicinity. Good old Jimmy goes right into work mode, figuring that Haywad must have a near accurate head count and assessment of the residents wellbeing by now. He takes note of the denizens at the edge of the Hex barely moving and questions if they’re even alive. 
-Cue Vision discovering a group of completely immobile residents. Wary of the whole situation Vision assumes his normal superhero look and takes flight, discovering that the inner depths of the town are plenty active and behaving normally. This is a very well shot sequence just showing him flying and capturing the unsettling nature of what’s going on. While airborne Vision takes notice of a stopped car near the border. 
-Turns out its Agnes in the car. She seems to be in a mental short circuit at the moment. She asks Vision for directions... in a town she supposedly grew up in. Vision worriedly does his mind trick to free her suppressed personality and she quickly identifies him as an Avenger, believing he’s there to help everyone. Vision does want to help but is clueless about what an Avenger is, so it seems he hasn’t regained any of his memories yet. This leads to the “Am I dead?” discussion from the trailer. Vision needs it clarified for him that Agnes believes he’s dead. Several times. Vision wants to leave Westview to figure out what’s going on but Agnes questions how. No one leaves, which isn’t true you just have to tick off a reality warping witch. Agnes identifies that Wanda is the one in peoples head, preventing them from even thinking of leaving. While that does sound incriminating we still don’t know everything that’s going on so I’m staying hopeful. Agnes isn’t however as she winds up going on about how “All is lost” and cackling until Vision zaps her brain back into the illusion. So I guess she isn’t evil here. Once Agnes is back on her disturbingly merry way Vision makes his way to the boundary line. 
-Back with the trio Monica gets a response from her engineer associate who is coming with the way back into the Hex they started on last week and wants to head out to meet them. Darcy mentions they can’t do that. “Sure we can. I’m a whiz at hot wiring cars.” Ha ha ha ha ha! Okay that was funny. Monica thinks the worst case scenario is her getting whammied and dressed up again but it turns out Monica specifically can’t go back in because every time she crosses the boundary her cells get transformed. Monica balks at the data, mentioning she’s seen enough lab results for a life time. She goes on and talks about what she went through with her mother’s cancer and reveals that’s why she wants to help Wanda, because Monica has been through grief like her and wants to do what she can to help her through it. 
-Darcy chooses to stay behind so she can find what Haywad is hiding, feeling it could help them get answers about the whole thing. Monica and Woo aren’t crazy about the idea because of how dangerous it is but relent and go on their way. The Son of Odin would be proud of you Darcy. 
-Back in the Hex Wanda and Pietro talk about how nice Westview is and how their parents would have loved it. So of course Pietro ruins it by asking where the kids were until now. Okay that’s a bit unsettling. He thinks Wanda just had them asleep and didn’t want them traumatized, which starts getting her bothered. Pietro praises her for her handling of the ethical ramifications of her little bubble. Families and couples aren’t split up, most personalities are close to their normal ones, they even have better jobs. Pietro how do you know all of that? Wanda is surprised that he is okay with all of this, which sadly proves that Wanda is aware of what she’s doing. Pietro is actually impressed with how much Wanda’s powers have grown. 
-Pietro continues the ominous vibe by asking how Wanda did all of this. She’s reluctant to tell him but he wins her over with their familial bond. Wanda doesn’t know how she’s done all of this, just remembers overwhelming and all consuming grief. So we’re about where we started and what’s behind all of this. 
-Wanda takes a moment to compose herself and sees Pietro as his gunned down corpse for a moment, just like she saw Vision two episodes back. Pietro questions if she’s okay and balks when she tries to confirm she is. Seriously what is up with you Pietro. You better not be Mephisto I swear. 
-Darcy finds something called Cataract in Haywad’s files. The file says its Eyes Only so I think she can’t see what it actually is but I don’t know. She sends an e-mail to Jimmy before she notices that Vision has made his way to the boundary. And she notices because Haywad did. Uh oh. 
-Vision crosses the boundary but I wouldn’t say it’s successful. There’s an energy effect connecting him to the line, which seems to be trying to keep him in or pull him back in. Parts of Vision start breaking off and getting pulled back into the field. 
-And where is Haywad during all of this? Just standing there doing nothing while commenting on how much Vision must want to escape. Okay Haywad if your going to be a jerk and possibly evil then can you at least be smart at it. There is no reason for you to just be standing around. Unless your hoping that some part of Vision is still remaining for you to collect but I highly doubt that will happen. 
-Darcy charges in to try and help Vision but of course these guys are from incompetence incorporated so they keep her from helping. Oh Haywad is going to get the mother of all lighting bolts shoved up his rear when Thor finds out about this. 
-Billy is somehow perceiving Vision’s struggle at the moment hearing his fathers voice in his head. He stops Tommy with telekinetic powers and goes to Wanda to save him. 
-Vision is still desperately struggling and begs SWORD to help the people of Westview. Hero to the end that one. 
-Pietro makes a tasteless joke about Vision can’t die twice and gets blasted for the remark. Should not move mouth faster than brain can think. 
-Billy is able to to focus his powers to figure out what’s happening. They seem a bit different than Wanda’s. He’s either mentally linked to Vision in the moment or he’s clairvoyantly witnessing what happens. Billy worries that his father is dying. 
-Wanda stops the town cold in its tracks and focuses her powers. Monica and Jimmy notice that the field is moving so it seems that Wanda is expanding it. The SWORD agents try to flee and the one who cuffed Darcy leaves her behind, only to get abandoned by his fellow agents. Delicious karma. The restores Vision once it passes over him but it doesn’t stop there. The Hex keeps growing and expanding, ensnaring almost all of the SWORD personnel. Only Haywad and a few agents remain and I know this is a bad thing but in the immediate moment for him I can only think “Yeah Wanda zap him, zap him good.” We see the Hex growing without end and the episode ends with a cut to Wanda as the red glow fades from her eyes. 
Final thoughts 
-Can’t tell if this is the era for the 90s or the 00s. I’m personally ascribing to 90s because of the commercial fitting the aesthetic of that era better. 
-Evan Peters as Pietro is a delight. He honestly comes across as his character from the Fox movies dropped into the MCU and it is done very organically. I sincerely hope that he actually is the Fox version of Quicksilver brought to this universe because that would be amazing. 
-Haywad has officially used up my good will towards him. I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt until he brought Monica’s mother into things. That was just low and solely to hurt her. At this point it’s a toss up over Wanda zapping him, Vision rearranging his insides from the outside, Monica frying his rear end with her incoming powers or Woo getting him trouble through good old fashion legal fu. 
-I think we can safely say that the Vision sight we saw in episode 4 was just a hallucination as we see the same effects when Wanda looks at Pietro and Vision doesn’t wind up looking anything like his destroyed self from Infinity War once he crosses the boundary. 
-Liked what they did with Tommy and Billy. I was not expecting them to do much with the two but they already have their powers. I’ve been hearing rumors about the Young Avengers making their way to the MCU but its one of the teams I don’t really follow. If it happens great, if not I don’t really care. 
-Woo proves to be an MVP, schooling people with his words and decking them the heck out when he has to. You know mister Woo the United Nations is trying to put togethers a group known as the Agents of Atlas, could we interest you in a position. 
-It is fully confirmed that Wanda does know what is going and is willingly continuing it. There is a semi-confirmation that she is trying to do right by the people of the town like trying to protect the children but the fact is she knows she’s keeping them trapped so there had better be a dang good reason for wanting to keep this going or so help me Wanda we will get someone in there that takes you down. 
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thewakingcloak · 4 years ago
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April 2021
Alright, so I’m a bit late here, haha. April had a good start but ended kinda crazy. Our two-year-old got sick for a few days (just a cold, not the ol’ COVID-19), which wiped us out, and then she had a lingering “mood” for the rest of the week, lol. General exhaustion made me more interested in playing games than making ‘em (currently playing Rune Factory 4, which is a good time!). So no fancy images and stuff this time. Hope y’all don’t mind a bit of text.
Anyway, here are the news.
When playing with a gamepad, I’ve noticed the eight-directional movement feels really clunky with the stick. This clunkiness happens in a lot of older games too, for both eight- and four-directional movement. For example, on NES Online and SNES Online on the Switch, I can’t use the joystick at all. I have to use the d-pad.
In the first two ProtoDungeon episodes, I mitigated some of the issue by tinkering with some of the thresholds, but when I started testing a gamepad for Episode III again, I realized this was still not ideal.
Juju, who wrote my old input system, is working on a new open source input system. I haven’t contributed code, but I did give my input (hehe) very early on. Now after coming back to look at it, it seems to be just what I need. So I spent the first week of April swapping out input systems (which isn’t as easy as you might expect if you’ve never done it before, BUT it was way easier than I expected). Then I modified the movement code to use the new input_direction(), which gives much finer control to the stick.
But that much fine control--fully omnidirectional--was actually fairly nauseating. It was difficult to walk in a straight line. I ended up rounding the input direction to the nearest 22.5 degrees, meaning we were now at 16-directional movement. It feels really good! And as I played more over the month, I tweaked it further to lend more weight towards the ordinal directions (north, south, east, and west), in addition to scaling the speed slightly based on how far you’re pushing the stick. In my opinion, it’s now preferable over the d-pad or arrow keys (though don’t worry, I do the majority of my work with the arrows, and they are very functional and fun.)
The new input system also gave me an easy way to set gamepad axis thresholds, which is something a few people have already asked for. This is a setting in the behind-the-scenes file, but probably not an option I’ll add in game yet since that requires some rework on menus.
Then on a whim, I threw in gamepad vibration! This wasn’t related to the input change... I just wanted to do it, lol. It was a small thing that took me about 30 minutes but adds a surprising amount to the game. I can choose the intensity of the vibration based on what’s going on, and I added a setting for players to control the overall intensity (or turn it off). There’s no menu option for this yet, either. Hopefully I’ll get time for that in Episode IV.
I created a free GMS2 extension out of my vibration system called Good Vibes! It can do all kinds of fancy stuff using animation curves, and it handles some of the weirdness of GMS2's vibration functionality too.
Next, I created a Linux virtual machine to allow me to export stuff to Linux! I tested this successfully with the current version of PD3. Tried to immediately export PD1 and PD2, but those projects don’t exactly work anymore--I’ll need to do it from the current project after I go through and apply engine changes to them (current project always contains all episodes, don’t worry, nothing is lost).
Finally, I ended this month’s changes on two separate things, neither of them finished: true borderless window toggling and proper depth sorting.
Borderless window toggling in Windows isn’t something possible with vanilla GameMaker. I got a small DLL from a friend, though, that can force the toggle. The only reason this isn’t finished is because the application surface gets stretched weirdly, and I haven’t figured out how to offset it properly yet. This one isn’t required to go live at all, so not sure when I’ll get back to it.
Depth sorting IS required, though, and that’s what I’ve been wrapping up. My z-height system is pretty complicated, and the old depth system didn’t always work--and when it didn’t, there wasn’t much that could be done about it. Occasionally you’d get weird overlaps where the player was under the ground tiles and so on. I did come up with a depth method that would’ve resolved it, but unfortunately it would’ve gone past the supported min and max depth that GameMaker can handle. So I switched to a simple grid sort system, where I can basically just chuck everything into a ds_grid, sort it, and then trigger each object’s draw event in order by iterating through the grid.
There are a few kinks to iron out. First, I need to fix cliff sprite generation. Cliffs create their own sprites based on the tiles beneath them--this way they can be properly sorted so the player can either walk on top of them or behind them. Currently there are some bugs with the generation so that the sprites are too tall and they don’t properly handle animated tiles.
Second, I need to get enemy sorting working too, which will be much easier when I’ve put enemies back in the game. :) The old way was to manually set their depth based on the player position, but that won’t work anymore. That said, with the new grid sorting method, this may not be an issue at all. We shall see.
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visible-buttholegirl · 3 years ago
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a cute little ranting sesh
okay so there is some good and some bad. so i'm gonna start with the bad:
i have been doing really well all things considered actually, even today, despite getting very little sleep, i had a nice day! i got dressed all cute and wore my rings and did my eyebrows and hair and didn't feel ugly for once. had a good day at work and then hung out with some friends later and it was a super fun night overall! but in the last like half hour of seeing my friend, i got super depressed. not their fault at all, and probably a result of exhaustion more than anything else.
but it happened, and i think what initially triggered it was the latest Lil Nas X music video. it featured him with a male love interest getting very intimate and even doing some (non-sexual) activities that are very similar to things i did with my ex-boyfriend. it was so hot and also cute and empowering, especially with his booming, anthemic song in the background. it made me yearn for gay love. for a man to want me and pursue me with such conviction. for a man to hold me tight and kiss me and run his fingers through my hair. a man to lay in bed with and smile back at me, holding my hand.
now i know what you're thinking, "i've heard this before from you!!" oh well. here it is again. it was especially painful considering my recent run-in with a Tinder man which ended up in nothing, after i was excited and gassed up like something was going to come of it. this is only the most recent in a myriad of attempts made by me to pursue a potential love interest, with literally NO avail. not ONE taker. i've been in the game for a few years now, and not one single person i've pursued has wanted me enough to take the plunge or even take the time to get to know me. now its taken time but i KNOW i'm hot, i KNOW i'm interesting, and i have passion and drive to do things in my life. to me it seems there is some aspect or characteristic of me that is just not resonating with people, and i wish i knew what it was. my toxic brain points fingers at my body, and sometimes even my overall appearance, but again, we're not about that life. we're about that HOT GIRL SHIT ONLY. but what could it be then??
i'm sure that it will happen eventually, and hopefully this long wait will have been worth it, but..... when??? i feel like i've done all i can, and i don't want to throw in the towel, but i'm just not sure what else there is to do on my end other than live my life and do me... literally. also while my friend was still at my place, they said "i need to get laid" and they said that after being broken up with their partner as of a week ago. i just found that kind of insulting because, well YOU KNOW, and they've only been on the market for like five days. if anyone needs it I DO goddammit. so if there are any hot boys interested in nerdy shit and tall people, hit my line.
onto something more positive, i am starting to feel much more motivated to create! i wanna get more art supplies and get back into drawing foreal! i feel like i'm enjoying drawing at the coffee shop again and i want to keep that vibe going, especially into the winter months. i've also been working on music with a friend here and there, and i am excited to work on that project but also get going on some solo work! i have an idea for the sound i want to go for, which is sort of like moody electronic music, sort of similar to some older Owl City tracks, as well as similar to artists like Kllo and No Rome. the lyrics will probably be garbage sad boy shit (i mean have you seen all the ranting i do here) and i'm actually so okay with that. i think i'm going to attempt to tap into the sad tumblr boy aesthetic with my music. its something that i find enjoyable and endearing in other artists and as a sad tumblr boy myself i think i can contribute something to that field! maybe it won't be good, and maybe it isn't necessary but it sure will exist. eventually.
anyways that's it, maybe next you hear from me i'll have a cock in my mouth, right???? hahahahahahahahahahahaha....... *cries*
#me
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im-whatchamccallit · 5 years ago
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Their S/O Helping with Their Music//3Racha
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(A/N: This is based on the Hongjoong+Mingi reactions I did two days ago if you’d like to read those. Also, I have a notification for an extra message in my ask box but nothing shows up. So if you requested something, and have been waiting forever for it, I’m sorry but I literally can’t find it. But please feel free to request again!)
Let me preface by saying 3Racha have a great work dynamic, mainly because they’re all proficient, if not experts, when it comes to music. Because they all know what to do and how to do it, everything is fun and effortless. That being said, let’s talk about why 3Racha would be STRESSED having their s/o try to help them make music.
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For starters, Chris would say yes to your offer to help. He thought it’d be a cute, fun, nice couplely activity to do together. But Chris is also very serious about his music, so watching you nearly screw up the melodies and beats he spent weeks making was enough to give him a panic attack.
Chris would ask you to just write some lyrics for the song, giving you a basic idea of what the comeback would be and the vibe he needs the lyrics to fit, honestly just needing you to not screw anything else up. And, thankfully, you didn’t this time. Sure, the lyrics needed a bit of touching up, being a bit too romantic for a song about spiraling into the deep, dark abyss we call life but, dammit, he was proud of you.
He’d feel bad that writing is all you’ve done since you got there, knowing you wanted to contribute a lot more, but being a complete novice in a room with nearly completed songs that only needed editing was dangerous. Chris would push aside that project and start a new one, ushering you over so that he can teach you the basics, giving you the opportunity to create a song of your own now that it’s clear Chris doesn’t really need the help.
Was he stressed out because it took you 3 hours to understand the difference between a mixer and controller? Yes.
Would he ever let you come back to help him again? Maybe, but only when they were on a break and didn’t have to focus on deadlines and promotions.
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Changbin is a lot less lenient than Chris. You learned that the first time you visited him at the studio, only to be scolded as if you were a random person that broke into his home, and that’s when you learned the most important rule of working with Changbin:
HE IS SPEAR B WHEN HE’S IN THE STUDIO AND SPEAR B IS NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!
Spear B doesn’t coddle you and do the work for you like Changbin most likely would, so you had to make sure you had some ways to contribute to helping him or else you’d be gone within a second.
Changbin knew you were a great pianist and had a particularly great ear for music, more so in terms of vocal abilities, and you’re notes honestly helped him correct his songs the way he needed them to be. So, after giving you his typical “no fooling around, one strike and you’re out” warning, you were in.
You were both pretty productive, but every time Changbin glanced over to you, hearing a tune that was unfamiliar or, if familiar, was from a movie or video game, he’d eye you suspiciously.
He knew you were getting a bit restless, and that your boredom was taking over, so he tried to do whatever possible to keep you entertained while also keeping the progress of his work going. From asking you to make an outro for an unreleased (and already completed) song, to having you revise lyrics he wrote months ago and hasn’t batted an eye at since.
Not even 10 minutes after being assigned those task, you were finished, letting out a groan followed by a whiny ‘I’m bored’. For an amateur, you worked fast.
At this point, Changbin begs you to give him a few more minutes with editing, knowing he needed to get it checked over by Chan and Jisung afterwards anyways, but still wanting to complete it on his own. But you continued to complain, your voice echoing in the space as you asked him if you can start on something new, hopefully creating something for 3Racha or Stray Kids to perform in the future, your rambling cut short by a loud and obviously annoyed ‘Do what you want! Just let me finish this!’.
This is how you began to work in silence, you pressing away at the keys to form a strictly melancholy tune, Changbin finally done editing. When he looked at you, he felt his heart sink. You were only trying to help. It wasn’t like you were goofing off or distracting him, you just wanted to do even more work on top of the work you already finished, but he was so worried about his deadline that he took it out on you. Again, Spear B wasn’t your boyfriend and you both knew that, but that doesn’t mean Spear B had to be a dick to you. You felt Changbin readjust your hands so you were now playing a more upbeat melody, one that fit his style just right, not giving him any attention until he called you ‘jagiya’, a smile forming on your face as he attempted to silently apologize for his anger.
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(I don’t even like guys younger than me but I’d D I E for Jisung ;-;)
Jisung was TERRIFIED when you offered to help. He would contemplate saying no to you, especially with you already here at the studio, standing in front of him with doe-like eyes filled with determination. But that wasn’t what scared him. What scared him was watching that determination disappear after a few minutes with him.
Considering Jisung is the main lyricist of 3Racha, he puts his all into his words, that includes his emotions. This song in particular was a bit dark compared to his usual lighthearted behavior at home. You’ve never sat in on his writing sessions, and he was positive this would be a terrible introduction for you to experience it, but he let you in anyways, watching you practically skip towards the spinning chairs as you prepared to witness the great J.One in action.
And, my god, were you shocked.
You’ve seen Jisung cry plenty of times, sure. But you’ve never seen him like this, silently sobbing over his phone as he typed out lyrics, your eyes trained on him despite the fact you were supposed to be improving your mixing. He’d be so deep in the unspoken emotions he felt, finally letting them spill into what would be his next hit, when your voice interrupted him with a soft ‘are you okay?’.
This was the last way he wanted you to see him, he honestly felt pathetic. So, in typical Jisung fashion, he gave a few sniffles, wiping his face with one hand before bringing back his usual grin, trying to convince you he was fine. But you weren’t convinced and your face showed it, his smile faltering as he reassured you he was alright, encouraging you to keep practicing until you were proficient enough to add more instruments to the current melody.
Jisung tried to suppress his emotions from then on, only making you more anxious as you played around with the bass and drum settings on the keyboard, giving up and instead asking to review his lyrics so far. It was an unexpected request, and it made him a bit insecure considering he wasn’t even close to finished, but he allowed you to take a look anyways.
This was the first time anyone outside of 3Racha has seen his writing process, so he couldn’t help the anxiety building in his chest as your eyes skimmed each word. If he had written it all beforehand, maybe you wouldn’t have to see him with puffy, red eyes. Maybe you’d think he was cool just helping you compose so he can find the right beat to perform it to you.
He had so many thoughts running through his mind, almost freaking out until you handed him his phone back, a blank look on your face while his eyes watched you expectantly.
“The lyrics are obviously showing sadness but you worded them in a way that makes it seem like you’re angry and defensive. Don’t let your sadness be an undertone when it’s the main theme of the song.”
It wasn’t something one would describe as philosophical, but it made Jisung feel as if he were speaking to Ralph Emerson himself, your words an eye opener that did nothing but helped him transcend (pun intended) out of the box of emotions he lived in. There was just one problem...
“I don’t know where to start...” he admitted, staring down at the words he wrote as if he’d never seen them before in his life.
But you just offered a small smile and abandoned the half-asses harmonies you created before turning your attention to him, reminding him that you came to help and, got dammit, you were gonna help.
It wasn’t what either of you expected, to be sitting and talking about deep topics that brought tears to both your eyes, but you managed to write something both powerful and energetic while still true to Jisung’s emotions. He felt silly at that point for getting so worked up over you helping out, but after all the crying he’d done, he decided that would be a wrap for the day, not even bothering to finish with the actual beat, saying a playful ‘I’ll ask Chan to do it’ as you both left the studio.
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shrinkthisviolet · 4 years ago
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Author Interview Tag!
Tagged by @maipreciation, thanks for thinking of me! This looks really fun :D
(Note: I’m keeping this as a running list, so if you’re ever wondering what fics im working on/brainstorming, make sure to check here! Last update was on 12/12/2020)
Name: Lavi! As of 12/5, I’m no longer going by my real name (see this post)
Fandoms: so many 😂 check my bio, I think I have them all listed. I’ve posted fic for Hamilton and ATLA, and then there was a huge Inktober compilation I posted last year with a whole host of fandoms. Currently, my major fandom is ATLA, and probably Kipo as I’m starting to move through S1
Where you post: I have an AO3 (lavi0123)! I used to have an FFN and a Wattpad, but I don’t use either of those anymore :/ tbh, I’m embarrassed of anything I still have up there 😂
Most popular one-shot: Most definitely we’ll give the world to you (and you’ll blow us all away), one of my contributions to Maiko Week! I’m not surprised it’s an ATLA fic, but I find it interesting that a fic with Izumi in it blew up so quickly. But hey, if y’all want more Izumi content, you won’t be disappointed 😉
Most popular multi-chapter fic: ...I’m really embarrassed to say because I don’t think I’ll ever finish it...but En Hamilton Heights is the only multichap fic I’ve published so it’s gotta be that one 😂 hopefully soon I’ll have another fic to add to that, since I’m working on one (sorry EHH fans but it’s been too long and tbh I don’t remember where I was going with it :/ I’m thinking I might orphan it)
Favorite story you’ve written so far: you think this world is a dream come true (but you’re wrong) for sure! It’s super niche but it’s something I wrote out of love for a movie I discovered this Halloween and absolutely love. Though all you’ve got to do is want something (and then let yourself have it) is a close second. Basically, anything I write that sounds absolutely bonkers as a concept is one that I love 😂 (and it’s no coincidence that both fics are Mai-centric! I love all my Mai-centric fics nearly equally)
Fic you were nervous to post: Is there an “all of the above” option? 😂 I’m always nervous to post. But in particular, I was nervous for if you ran away (come back home), because it was Mai-centric and longer than any one-shot I’d written thus far, and also you think this world is a dream come true (but you’re wrong), because it’s Mai-centric and a Coraline AU, which makes it BONKERS as an idea
Why was I nervous to post Mai-centric fics, you ask? Two reasons: 1) Mai is very different from who I am as a person (I vibe a lot more with Aang and Ty Lee, sometimes Katara and Sokka), so I didn’t want to upset the Mai stans by writing her incorrectly. 2) Mai is generally not well-liked in the fandom at large, so I especially didn’t want to attract antis who would accuse me of writing Mai as too emotional and loving (which is why I tried to justify that in my tags). Luckily, my comments have all been lovely, and I’m far less afraid to post fics about her now that I’ve written three fics with her as the focus! And the shoutout from @nonbinary-crafter-aang praising my portrayal of her?? I was touched 🥺 still am
How you choose your titles: Song lyrics or movie/book lines that speak to me, occasionally a pun. Remember that post I rb’d about how authors title their works? My tags pretty much say it all 😂
Do you outline: Ehh...define outlining 😂 for my one-shots, nope. But for my upcoming multichap works (see below) and Nanowrimo work (original fiction, so I won’t talk about it on here, but send an ask if you’re curious), YES ABSOLUTELY!
For my Nanowrimo work and one of my upcoming AUs (a Soulmate AU), the worldbuilding is so complex that it’s an absolute necessity. For the other upcoming AU (a time travel AU), there are just too many things that need to happen at certain times so as not to interfere with canon events, and things I want to change from canon and things I want to keep...I think you get the idea 😂
Complete: Basically my entire maiko halloweek series! Check it out if you want some fics about the most underrated canon ATLA couple :)
In-progress: ...En Hamilton Heights again...but not for long, sadly. Still trying to decide between a quick conclusion and just flat-out orphaning it. Still haven’t made up my mind, but either way, it won’t be what I originally planned, unfortunately.
I’m also counting my ATLA Soulmate AU on the basis of forever in my mind (only you), which has the worldbuilding and fits into the AU without much problem (the AU is going to be a series of one-shots, not a multichap fic, because there won’t be enough deviations from canon imo to justify multiple chapters. And one-shots are just less pressure for me 😂)
[EDIT 12/12/2020: added another fic because I’m an idiot and forgot about this too 🤦‍♀️😂 it’s a year-old idea that I started writing but I’m picking it back up thanks to the Heist banter in MatPat’s St Jude stream!]
-A fic series combining Escape the Night and Who Killed Markiplier (Heist and Date are part of it too, but only tangentially at the moment. Depends on how involved I want DA Y/N to be). Tentatively titled A Heavy Cost, and definitely won’t happen in any of Mark’s projects, but in a way that’s actually for the best 😂 the canonicity for me stops at ETN S3 (with some S4), then it’s canon divergence
Coming soon/not yet started: OOOH YESSS HERE WE GO
Okay okay sooo we’ve got two main things:
–An ATLA Soulmate AU, featuring platonic and romantic soulmates! I know I called it in-progress, and I stand by that even though I haven’t actually set up the series on AO3 yet, but this AU is about to be SO MUCH MORE than just a few Maiko moments. Because...drum roll...it’s gonna be entirely Aang-centric (with maybe one or two exceptions)! Like Mai, Aang is a character that doesn’t get as many -centric fics as he should (and being an Aang stan also isn’t unanimous for some reason??), so I’m gonna fix that. Plus I want to dive further into his mind, and I think I’m more equipped to do that than I was with Mai, since Aang and I are very similar in attitude.
–Bumizumi time travel AU, which can be read as platonic until the last couple chapters (it’ll be multichap) but definitely has a romantic agenda throughout. So just. Be warned if you don’t ship them. It’s gonna be chock full of comedy and antics! Also A LOT of platonic affection between Izumi and teen Zuko (and just between Izumi, Bumi, and the Gaang in general), because platonic affection is underrated and also I can :D I’m also probably gonna make fun of how some elements of affection have become solely romantic territory, because...um, no, hugging and holding hands and cuddling can be done between friends, thanks! (Maybe it’s the ace in me talking. But regardless)
There are also vague concepts I’m spitballing, like:
-Zukaang telepathy AU (Platonic Zukaang, the only romance I’ll ever write in ATLA is for the canon ships, prompted by a dream because apparently ATLA lives in my head rent-free forever now 😂)
-Evil Zuko AU (Azula doesn’t exist, mostly prompted after watching Aang make fun of Zhao and realizing that if Zuko had been in any position of power during the War...the Gaang would have stood no chance at all)
-Bumizumi Arranged Marriage AU (Bumi and Izumi both think the other is hotheaded/reckless (Izumi @ Bumi) or uptight (Bumi @ Izumi). So Kataang and Maiko (along with Sukka, Ty Lee, and Toph because...duh) set them up in an arranged marriage, with the presented reasoning being that they already know each other’s families, it’ll be a great symbol of unity, and this way Izumi doesn’t have to worry about suitors. They both agree to it (it’s arranged, not forced), and over time, they warm up to each other...and maybe even...fall in love?? Prompted because we need more arranged marriage fics! On that note, I’m gonna plug shadows and steel by @dearestpartnerofgreatness because arranged marriage needs more rep and this fic does it and with Maiko to boot!)
-Zukaang as Brothers AU (I saw a fic about this, but it wasn’t complete. If it’s not done by the time I get to this concept, I’m gonna write it, because just...imagine the possibilities! Zuko and Aang are already basically brothers in canon anyway, this is just making them brothers in blood as well as in their hearts. This is especially vague because I have no concept of how this is gonna work 🤷‍♀️ I’ll get to it eventually)
(Can you tell I’m obsessed with Zuko and Aang’s friendship? Because I am!)
[EDIT 11/25/2020: I’m adding two more because I forgot these have been swirling around in my head too 😂]
-A fix-it fic based on May You Always Be Satisfied, a backstory fic for Who Killed Markiplier by @blackaquokat! I recently reread it and remembered that I was gonna write a fix-it for that fic. Not because the fic sucks, it’s actually amazing! I’m just a sucker for the main (requited unrequited) pairing, and there’s at least five ways to make that pairing canon and avoid the mess of Who Killed Markiplier. And THEY ALL DESERVE TO BE HAPPY OKAY
-A Finnrey fix-it for the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (this one is especially vague, and I probably won’t write it since a bunch of these already exist, but it’s fun to think about. Maybe if I ever run out of WIPs 🤷‍♀️)
Upcoming story that you’re most excited to write: I’m equally excited for the Soulmate AU and the Bumizumi Time Travel AU! I’m also excited for my Nanowrimo work to be finished, but that’s more so in-progress than upcoming
Tagging:
@nonbinary-crafter-aang @dearestpartnerofgreatness @ohsalamanders @blackaquokat (no pressure ofc, only if you want to! But please tag me if you do, I’d love to see it!)
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mooksie01 · 5 years ago
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In The Morning Light
Summary: An early morning in the Ebi-Branwen-Ederne Household.
Pairings: Clover Ebi/Qrow Branwen/Elm Ederne, Clover Ebi/Qrow Branwen, Qrow Branwen/Elm Ederne (@littlemissmoony suggested the ship name Buried Fortune and I love it)
Warnings: Rated M for coming very near to smut
AO3 Link: [X]
Notes: Hello! I mentioned a few days ago that I was writing this and now I'm posting it! So this is my Clover/Qrow/Elm fic. I'd love to write more for this pairing in the future, especially if people like this one! As a note, this fic gets pretty damn close to smut, but I don't have the balls to go all the way. If anyone would like to pick up where I left off, though, I would not mind in the slightest. Just credit me if you do. 
My vision for the relationship dynamic between these three isn't so much that they're all dating, but that Elm and Clover are both dating Qrow. I'm sorry, Clover Ebi just gives off vibes too gay to pair him up with Elm also. It's more of a "Hi, I'm Elm, this is my boyfriend Qrow and his boyfriend Clover" type deal. That said, if anyone wants to write anything for this pairing, you definitely don't have to have that same dynamic.
I hope you all enjoy! Please like, reblog, and comment if you're able!
---
Qrow drifts along aimlessly in a world that is just a little too warm. Everything around him feels soft and airy, and a steady rhythmic sound echoes nearby like the waves crashing onto the beaches of Patch. 
Is he on Patch?
Something beside him shifts and he shifts with it. Pressure falls around his waist and he is pulled up against a firm surface. He cannot bring himself to be concerned by the change of position. 
He feels safe. 
He sinks down again into the ether, losing focus for what seems like only seconds.
When he comes to the world again, he groans softly. He feels hot everywhere. The back of his neck is wet. 
Ah, he’d been sleeping.
With no small amount of hesitation, he cracks open his eyes the slightest bit. Immediately, he squeezes them shut again against the light. After a few seconds, he tries again, slower this time. 
He’s in bed. The bedroom of their house on Patch glows golden with the indistinct haze of the morning sun that shines through the gauzy white curtains Clover had insisted on putting up as, “a little reminder of Atlas, Qrow.” The clock on the wall ticks steadily, reading 7:32AM. Their alarm won’t be going off for twenty-eight more minutes. 
His eyes finally fall to Elm, sleeping facing him. Her face is completely relaxed, and this is the only time when Qrow is able to see her like this. Usually, her sheer enthusiasm and exuberance makes the entire idea of “calm” a stranger to her expressions. Now, though, she simply lies still, her only movements being the measured rise and fall of her bare chest, no longer covered by the blanket which she has evidently kicked to the end of the bed at some point in the night. 
The sunlight illuminates Elm’s dark skin, outlining her curves and the contours of her musculature until she looks like one of those old bronze statues that the ancient societies of Remnant would build to honor their goddesses of the hunt and of the sun and moon. 
His chest tightens with affection and awe. Carefully, he tries to raise himself up onto an elbow to get a better look at her without disturbing his other bedmate. 
An effort which proves unsuccessful as he feels the weight around his waist (which he now realizes is an arm) tighten almost imperceptibly. Cursing his poor luck, he glances over his shoulder and meets tired teal eyes.
“Good morning, little bird,” Clover whispers, raising an eyebrow at him. He smooths his hand out along Qrow’s abdomen and pulls him a little tighter against his firm chest. “You never wake up before the alarm. Something wrong?”
“You’re a godsdamned fireplace, that’s what’s wrong. Between you and Elm and the sun, I’m gonna sweat out all the moisture in my body.” Qrow grumbles back. He wraps Clover’s fingers in his own anyway.
Clover smothers his rough chuckle into the back of his neck and Qrow shudders as he feels the vibration of Clover’s chest against his back. From there, the other man begins to press firm kisses into the side of Qrow’s throat. 
Qrow moans quietly at the warm, wet feeling of Clover sucking on his skin. He reaches back to smack lightly at his boyfriend’s face. “Clover--” he hisses, then gasps, “Clover!’ as teeth are introduced to the equation. He slaps with a little more force. “Stop, you’re going to wake up Elm!” 
“Oh, please.” Qrow startles and looks up, his hand falling back to his side as he meets Elm’s warm brown eyes across from him. “Don’t stop on my account. It was just getting good.”
Clover huffs another laugh into his skin. “Morning, Elm,” he says comfortably, without removing his face from Qrow’s neck. 
“Captain Ebi.” Elm pulls herself up to rest properly on her side, watching them. “You seem busy.” 
Qrow feels his face grow warm--or, warmer, rather. Clover finally backs off enough to shoot the woman a challenging glance. “Definitely working on it. You gonna contribute to this mission, Ederne, or am I flying solo?”
She smirks, “Consider me your Squad Charlie.” 
Qrow groans loudly, drawing the attention of his lovers. He scowls at both of them. “Do you guys always have to do that?” 
Elm snickers. Clover reattaches his mouth to Qrow’s neck with renewed vigor, and Qrow’s shaky inhale dissolves into a breathy moan as the other man’s teeth scrape against his pulse point. Clover’s arm around his waist tightens momentarily, then releases so he can slide his hand up to Qrow’s chest, finally coming to a stop right over top of where his heart rests under his ribcage--where a puncture scar marrs the skin from the blow that had almost killed him in their final fight against Salem two years ago. Clover pushes down lightly, the pressure soothing something in Qrow’s mind, as it always did. 
Qrow whines and squeezes his suddenly-wet eyes shut. His free arm, which had been resting limp on the bed, flies up to thread his fingers through Clover’s hair and encourage him to work his lips down to Qrow’s shoulders. 
Then, Elm’s hand is resting on his waist in the same spot that Clover’s had just vacated.
Qrow blinks his eyes open to find Elm’s, so much closer all of a sudden. Her heated gaze runs across his face. “Hi, birdie,” she mutters, smiling tenderly. His breath hitches at the endearment. Clover gentles his trembling. Elm cups his cheek, scratching at his stubble. “May I?”
Qrow’s voice escapes him, but he nods. 
Elm’s smile widens into one of her regular blinding grins. Then, she seals her lips over his. 
Qrow’s world narrows down to Elm firmly licking her way into his mouth, pressing against the front of his naked body, her strong grip sliding down and tightening around his hipbone until he’s sure that she’ll leave bruises. To Clover, only applying tiny, dry kisses to his shoulder blades, now; running his hand soothingly up and down along Qrow’s side; hips twitching up and into Qrow’s thigh ever-so-slightly. He feels like he’s drifting again, like before he’d woken up.
He makes a helpless noise into Elm’s mouth and wraps an arm around her in return. She hums into the kiss and seals her lips more tightly over his. Her tongue strokes along the side of his own, then over the roof of his mouth. He quivers like a leaf in the wind. 
His partners love to shower him with affection. He knows this from three years of experience. But it still feels new and unexpected every time. He doesn’t know that he’ll ever get used to it--that he’ll ever fully feel like he deserves it. 
Clover’s hand begins to drift downward in the direction of a certain bit of Qrow’s anatomy that has been steadily growing more and more interested since the morning’s proceedings started. Qrow eagerly arches into the touch. 
The alarm blares, an annoying, high-pitched BEEP, BEEP, BEEP that rips them away from each other, chests heaving and eyes wide. Clover only avoids falling off the bed entirely because the blanket has just-so-happened to get conveniently tangled around his waist at some point during their activities. 
Qrow groans loudly, throwing an arm over his steadily-reddening face. Elm starts laughing beside him as Clover rolls over to slam the OFF button. 
“Ooooo,” Elm coos. Qrow shifts his arm and cracks open one eye to glare suspiciously at her. She offers him a cocky grin. “Bad luck, Qrow.” 
“Elm,” Clover scolds as Qrow grabs one of the pillows off the headboard, fully intending to throw it at her. Clover sntaches it out of his hand and fluffs it, replacing it neatly, apparently too used to Qrow’s bullshit. 
“Sorry, birdie.” Elm grins crookedly at him, then reaches out to frame his face with her calloused hands. “Let me make it up to you.” She kisses him soundly. And, seeing as how he’s not completely stupid, he decides that he’s willing to forgive her. 
Clover chuckles next to them. He runs his fingers through Qrow’s hair, gently detangling a small knot. 
Qrow pulls away from Elm to make a face up at him. “Sure you don’t want to just stay home today?” he asks hopefully.
Clover smiles adoringly, “Sorry, Qrow.” He leans down to give him a brief kiss. “Duty ever beckons, unfortunately. Elm and I are needed down at the relay tower. And I believe that you promised your nieces that you would go over to Tai’s house and show them your fancy new leg today.” 
Elm laughs.
“Ugh,” Qrow sighs, “why can’t you be pretty and dumb instead of pretty and smart, lucky charm?” 
Clover shrugs, shooting him a sly look. “We all have to be bad at something, I suppose.” 
Qrow rolls his eyes. 
Almost simultaneously, Clover and Elm scoot off the bed, leaving him lying alone in the middle of the mattress. “Aw, come on. You’re just going to leave me here?” Qrow grumbles.
“Well,” Elm says teasingly, “if you hurry up, we could probably catch a shower before Clover and I are due to report in.”
Qrow sits up and throws the thin topsheet off of himself in record speed. The light coming in through the window glints off of the metal of his right leg, shining dark red and slate gray in the morning sun. He glances at it for only a second before hauling himself out of bed and joining his boyfriend and girlfriend in the doorway to their ensuite bathroom. “You had me at ‘shower.’”
---
More Notes: So there we go! This ship really hit me out of nowhere, and it is 100% purely motivated by the fact that Qrow 100% canonically has a thing for muscles and Elm and Clover are both buff af. That's pretty much it.
I know that Qrow probably wouldn't sleep with his prosthetic on unless it was properly fused to him like Ironwood's, but I was having difficulty smoothly incorporating that detail, so we'll just say that he left it on by accident. I was honestly just winging it for most of this fic.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it!
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fullblackpinkalbumleak · 4 years ago
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Full K-Pop Superstars BLACKPINK 'The Album' Leak Download
Download K Star Blackpink Group The Album tracks in mp3 (Leak). Hurry to download. Earlier in 2019, the quartet became the first K-pop group to hit 1 billion views on Youtube with their single "Kill This Love." They followed it up with a sizzling performance of the single at Coachella, making history again as the first K-pop girl group to do so.
Album Link:--> https://www.mp3lover.xyz/download-the-album-tracks/
Along with the weight of the epithet, thus, the title encompasses a vast journey that the quartet has covered in just a fraction of the time it takes established acts—four years to be precise. So, excuse the members of BLACKPINK for taking a couple seconds to reflect, please.
"It's very surprising to us," Jennie says at last. "Every day we try to acknowledge how grateful we are, but more than the pressure, we are ready to give them back as much as they [their fans, BLINKs] gave us. It just gives us more motivation to go further than we ever dreamed of."
If you’ve been acquainted with the BLACKPINK ethos, you will have seen this coming. For the better part of four years, the members of BLACKPINK have stood tall on the backs of the self-assured, self-aware messages in their music. Whatever the challenge, the BLACKPINK way is to always go up. Now, as they get ready to reacquaint themselves with the world with their first full-length release, The Album, the same determination abounds.
"We tried to put more colors into our music, say black and pink," says Lisa. "I wish each member has a stronger presence on the stage and explores more various genres. I hope people don’t know what to expect from us, except for something better than before. We want to be unpredictable."
Ahead of the release of The Album, GRAMMY.com sat down with BLACKPINK to discuss their career, achievements, motivations and future.
Play Video
BLACKPINK's Rapid Rise | For The Record
This is going to be your first full-length album after your debut, so the hype is very real. What was the mood when you heard it was happening?
Rosé: At the very start, when they said that we were going to [be releasing] our first album, we were very stoked, because we do know that our fans have been waiting for this moment for a very, very long time. We were very excited but also nervous at the same time because we do know that it is a big deal. It's the first time we were able to put all of our colors into something. We had mixed feelings, but overall it was very positive vibes, and we were very stoked to be able to finally release the full album.
The Album is coming after almost four years of your debut, which is a long time. Why do you think that this is the right moment for it?
Rosé: We had four years to kind of build our own colors as BLACKPINK. Throughout the four years, we got to explore different genres and really find out our exact, distinct colors. So, I feel like [in] this album, we were able to put our prepared music style and contribute with new music genres that we're still exploring recently. [That's why] I think now is the best time to come out, because any later would be too late and any earlier, we might have been in a rush. We definitely feel like, right now, we are fully ready to put out a full completed album.
How do you think this album represents the kind of artists you are? How does it represent your colors?
Jennie: I think we've said this before, but our new album is full of surprises. We like to believe that it's something no one has tried before. We just want to bring something new. The album is cool, you know, and we tried to put together all the colors of BLACKPINK that we've built before into one.
You started this year with some amazing collaborations. What do you look for while working with other artists? Where is that middle ground between your style and their style?
Jennie: Since there are already four of us, we're very adjusted to working with people, so somebody new is always welcome. They bring a new perspective to the group, and it's an amazing experience. It's like stepping outside of our usual boundaries and into a world that we haven’t been to. To create something new with a great artist, like Lady Gaga and Dua [Lipa] and much more to come, it's just a great chance for us as artists and groups.
How was working on The Album different to working on your previous EPs? The Album is more cohesive, it's longer; there are more songs, more opportunities. What was that like?
Rosé: Definitely, because it's not like separate projects that we were working on. In the past, when we were working on individual projects, it was mainly all about that "one" song or that "one" concept that we were coming out with. But, because this was an album, we really had to think about the flow and the meaning behind this. I feel like this time around, we do have personal songs in there, something that tells our story, something that is fun.
And since our name is BLACKPINK, we represent the diversity in our personalities as individuals and as artists. So, we feel like we really had to put that forward and address that as well as we could.
You told me how the album went from concept to final form and how you showed your colors; are there any parts of the production process that you paid special attention to?
Rosé: I feel like we stayed in the studio for a while. We didn't want to just have a bunch of tracks and songs written for us and for us just go and record. We did spend a lot of time in the studio trying to find what we really wanted to sing about, what kind of music we wanted to put out. It took us a while to get together a list of good songs so we could get into recording mode. That's the really big process: just hanging out in the studio and making sure we have fun there so we can be honest.
Let's talk a little bit about your recent achievements. You've broken records that at one point a lot of people thought were unachievable, especially for Asian artists. You performed at Coachella, you’re the most followed K-pop act on YouTube, "How You Like That" broke so many records right after its release. In context of all that, the pressure of being BLACKPINK must be so intense.
Jennie: It's very surprising to us. All the records are the results of our fans, BLINKs, and their unconditional support. Every day we try to acknowledge how grateful we are, but more than the pressure, we are ready to give them back as much as they gave us. It just gives us more motivation to go further than we ever dreamed of.
There's always a line between the persona and the person, so how do you make sure that the expectations people have of you are realistic, that what is going on in your professional life is either a reflection of who you are or a separation from it?
Jisoo: We are grateful, as artists, as individuals, that people have such big expectations of us, and we are ready to take on the burden that comes with the expectations. We chose to do this: we try to send that message in our music, to show our confidence and the boldness to take on the challenge.
I feel like you’ve gone beyond the concept of a traditional girl group now. BLACKPINK is not just a name, it’s sort of become a force of nature where everybody knows who you are. With a position like that, there's always a danger of thinking: "I'm fine here. I'm good. This is comfortable." The position limits growth. How do you guys ensure that you always keep on reinventing?
Rosé: While we are very grateful for the amount of things that we have achieved and everything that follows this, we are just four girls who always really loved music and we just enjoyed performing. So [staying] creative is not too hard, because once we do one thing, we are always looking at the next thing, always dreaming of things that we have always wanted to do. But we definitely don't settle with what we have right now. We're all very greedy when it comes to. [Laughs.]
Jennie: We have each other to look and be inspired by. We let each other know what we're doing and where to head.
Lisa: We're like the same person.
Rosé: I think all of our members try to remind each other of how we're all just human. The hype, we try not to let it get to us. We don't really go: "Oh my god, we broke these many records or da di da..." We just look at each other and like…
Jisoo: We're just happy with how far we've come.
How do you think you've grown since your trainee days?
Rosé: We definitely have become a little more professional when it comes to this job, I guess? When we were trainees, we were only training for the music. This job is actually a job.
Jennie: There is much more stuff to care about than just music, but to carry ourselves as somebody to influence or [somebody to] look up to.
Lisa: We just enjoy every little step of it, and when we're off camera, we're pretty much like, still four girls.
Rosé: Teenage girls. [Laughs.]
Tell me how you're going to relax after the album comes out. Will there be a party, or a girls' night in?
Rosé: The crazy thing is right after our album releases, we're going to be promoting it and trying to get as much content out there for our fans. Definitely there will be a celebration at some point, but I still think we will be at working mode.
Jennie: But an excited working mode, since our fans have the album in their hand.
Lisa: [From the back] We're workaholics!
Rosé: And our biggest celebration is kind of like, staying at home in bed. Sleeping all day, so that's going to happen, hopefully.
A lot of your plans for promotion might have been thrown off course with COVID. How does this synergy with fans affect your performance? What are you expecting this time around?
Jisoo: Even though the opportunity for us to meet our fans in person has decreased, we're very grateful for social media at this point. I actually feel like since we do have social media we have more of a platform to connect with our fans on a bigger scale, so we're grateful for that at this point in time. We just hope to reach out to our fans and give them more hope through our music and content.
You guys are in a position where you are some of the people spearheading the modern K-pop expansion. Since your debut, we have seen K-pop grow so much. What kind of responsibility do you think you personally have towards its global expansion?
Rosé: It's amazing that K-pop is spreading around the world as a culture in itself. There are a lot of other K-pop artists out there who are trying to put out their music right now, and we are really grateful that we get to step in and be a part of that.
Jennie: Since we get such amazing opportunities and records because of the people that are interested in watching K-pop right now, we'd like to take the responsibility. We are fully committed to the work. We want to be proud when we look back on our history when we grow old.
[Rosé laughs.]
Jennie: We want to be proud of ourselves. I don't want to let ourselves down, so we put extra time, extra effort into every single thing we put out. I think that's why it takes a bit of time for us, but we really want to perfect the quality of the stuff we put out, so we can be represented to the world as a K-pop group.
Rosé: It's amazing how things are going. It's a big responsibility but a good responsibility that we have.
ease of their debut LP, 'BLACKPINK: The Album,' in October, revisit their swift ascension to the global superstars they are today
ANA MONROY YGLESIAS
GRAMMYS SEP 2, 2020 - 2:24 PM
Just two years before they'd have their big international breakout with 2018's "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du," BLACKPINK formed in Seoul, South Korea. The fiercely talented quartet has been serving up pop star realness with their infectious genre-meshing music, stellar choreography, arena-filling live shows and eye-catching music videos.
For the latest episode of GRAMMY.com's For The Record video series, we revisit the swift ascension of Lisa, Jennie, Rosé and Jisoo.
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