#storyteller sunday more like it lmao

[sueheesblog]

Let's talk about some stuff! SZN 3: SPOILERS I watched the season after I saw some spoilers on X and from friends lmao. I didn't sleep. Sorry for the typos n shit. I need to vent.

- First off, Syd and Cousin carried the whole fxcking SZN on their backs, while Carmy was too busy being a psycho. Ayo n Ebon deserves all the awards. JAW is a fantastic actor - 10/10 for all 3 of them. Everyone else did great too, Napkin was 😭😭😭 AYO DID THAT. Those 3 are legends in my eyes!!!! If Ayo leaves or if the writers do her dirtier in SZN 4 I'm DONE. I cried for her this SZN, n for Carm too.

- All of Sydcamry scenes for some reason gave me butterflies even though they drifted farther apart each eps. Syd getting Carmy's dish was top tier - incredible writing from the writers. I just need them to explain more - what is the purpose of having Syd n Carmy tied together - if Claire is so great why not tied her to Carmy? Why does she seem like someone who died, haunting Carmy like his toxic boss? She more unbearable this season n I think it's intentional.

- Some ppl were saying Claire had alittle more substance this SZN and I beg to differ. She's like a dead gf to me. Her scenes with Carmy are so cold, dead, and heavy - like a burden. She triggers my anxiety n I don't know y - n I don't want to be mean, but just how their scene are edited, it literally puts me at the edge of a panic attack. The writers had the audacity to call her PEACE. I did not experience peace watching her scene and I think Carmy feels the same way from the jump. So, Fxck no, she ain't PEACE, that's Syd and it's obvious.

- Claire being labeled as PEACE makes no sense - the writers are trying too hard n it's make me sick. If she's so great, let her n Carmy run/manage The Bear.

- Syd is the invisible string that's holding everyone together in this chaotic sh!thole, while babysitting Carmy and keeping him from combusting. Unc, Nat, Pete, COUSIN, Marcus, and everyone else are staying afloat because Syd is the fxcking life vest that's strapped to their chest.

- Syd is calm, organized, observant, caring, considerate etc. Yet, these fxcking writers said Claire was peace- that line had my blood boilingggggggg.

- Syd's relationship with her Dad is everything

- Sydcarmy is sooo far apart it physically hurts. They didn't even do ther sign thing over their chest this season.......I get this feeling (just a FEELING) that Syd might be in love or has a crush on CARMY 😭😭😭. The margin wider scene gave me that vibe. When you like someone, you notice every little thing they do. There were times I wanted her to hug him soooo bad, I just felt like if she did if would've grounded him. He really needed a hug this season.

- Something I think some of you might have missed. Remember SZN1 Ep1 when Syd said her dad ate at The Beef on Sundays. We got confirmation from Carm, in SZN 3 that The Beef/The Bear only closes on Sundays. 😂😂🤣😂 (this was in the scene with him n Claire in a dark room or whatever. It might have been a dream scene idk) So, Carm knew Syd lied. I need the writers to have Carm n Syd talk about it and the meal she had in NYC. These are only a few important stuff they hid in the storytelling and I need to know WHYYYYYYYY.

- Carmy had a panic attack during service. Syd's voice took him off the edge. And I must say, her voice could really calm me down too lmao.

These fxcking writers are lowkey abusing Syd at this point. She's being stretched thin, and again this is also why I think she's in love with Carmy. It hurts her, but she's so into him, connected to him physically n mentally. It's really hard for her to let him or The Bear. It reminds me of the time Donna said "I make things pretty for others, but no one makes things pretty for me" not being verbatim lol. Syd did sooo much heavy lifting this SZN and no one noticed it, they all subconsciously over look her and gave all praises to Claire and making her the peace and angel.

- We finally saw Syd broke tf down in ep 10. Baby girl couldn't be strong anymore. She doesn't want to leave Carmy or The Bear but after the round table talk with the workers from Ever. She realized that Carmy - the person she idolize or even love/crush on, might not be good for her. Carmy is trying but the communication is lacking so bad, and on top of that he's pushing her away.

At this point, the partnership agreement seems like a trap to keep her. If Unc cut his connection to The Bear that's going to be Syd last straw. And if she leaves, I kinda see Tina, Marcus, and maybe COUSIN going with her or they will stay and give Carmy HELLL for losing her. The tables would turn. Everyone is so hang up on Claire leaving, if Syd leaves, Claire would go straight through the window. That would be the moment of realization (for all of them. Especially Carmy) that the woman he really NEEDS is Syd and not Claire. But for some reason, they all think Syd ain't going nowhere which is so naive. She got a bigggg offer and I can't wait to see when she tells Carmy. Would he confess her importance to him to keep her? Would he beg her to stay? Would he listen more or communicate more to keep her? Would he ask her what would make her stay at The Bear? Or would he be a b!tch and tell her to go cauase it's a great opportunity? And then after confess that he's having a hard time letting her go. Very interesting stuff.

- Last thing - Unc talking to Syd. I was shock he was looking to Syd for answers as to what's going on with Carmy. This was also telling. Unc believes or senses that these too are CLOSE. And Syd being a good gf/partner kept her mouth closed. SYD is an angel sent from heaven, cause I would be so done with The Bear😭😭😭😭.

We saw that Carmy and Syd are having conversations that we are not seeing on screen. For example, he asked her about her new apartment. When did she tell him?? He then asked about her dad. Sir, what about her dad? Did she tell him about the annoying bathroom exchange? Are they sharing more about their personal life that we, the audience is not seeing? So many fxcking questions in SZN3.

This is just my thoughts. I saw the season once so this not an analysis.

[mysticstarlightduck]

Seven Sentences Sunday! Writing Share Tag! <3

Thanks for the tag, @rickie-the-storyteller!!!! I know this is a 7 Sentence Tag but I am too lazy so I'm gonna treat it as a Writing Share tag lmao

I'll go with a snippet from Arrows of Nightfall for this one (:

Snow crunched underneath Asrius' worn out, heavy fur-lined boots, as he trudged through the frozen trail. The ground was covered in thick blankets of white, frost crawling up the treetrunks and tinging everything around him with cold. The trees were barren, their ashen branches creaking in the howling wind, their fallen leaves long since turned to wet mulch under the thick snow.

The familiar smell of burning wood from scattered campires was the only welcome he had as he neared the war camp once more. It would've been comforting, if it wasn't followed by the faint smell of roasted venison and the cheers of the older soldiers sharing their vast, filling portions in the main tent. None of that feast would ever make its way to him, or to his cousin.

That, the Commander had made damn well sure of.

All that Asrius had to keep him and Eirian from starving in these frozen wastes were small, dwindling stashes of dry meat and stale old bread, and whatever small critter - usually a hare or a phesant, though now, at this point in the winter, where the forests had turned into a deserted death trap, he wasn't above hunting for rats - he could manage to kill and smuggle into camp without being spotted by his so-called comrades. If he was lucky.

Today, he wasn't lucky.

His hunting escapade today had left him with nothing more than weary, frost-bitten bones and empty hands, his entire body protesting the unwanted effort after the grueling scouting missions the Commander had not-so-generously burdened him with. Nothing. He'd gotten nothing. And he knew what awaited him in their small, shared tent in the far edge of camp - Eirian, his cousin, barely eleven winters of age, and their tiny stash of supplies hidden under an old pack. Today it wouldn't be enough for half a meal for even one of them, let alone them both.

He'd have to take a risk. To steal from the more favored soldiers, the ones gathering around the main table. The ones who loved to beat him up, and whose cruel laughter seemed to be the backdrop of his life nowadays. He'd have to try. Maybe he could swipe a pastry or two from the feast the others shared, sneak it away under his cloak. He hoped they were drunken enough that such an act would go unnoticed.

Asrius tugged at his cloak so it wrapped more tightly around his shoulders, as if the rough hewn cloth could offer something akin to warmth in this weather, with the wind slashing at his skin like icy daggers. Each step he took closer to the main tent felt like a battle against his own instincts screaming at him to just stop. But he couldn't afford to stop. If he did, he and Eirian would be soon to become like those corpses that seemed to litter the edge of the roads, gaunt husks reaped by illness and hunger, drained of life.

He refused to let that be their fate.

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[superconductivebean]

#1429: Inside the Charmed Tent

I have finally replayed The Lost Child quest. Lots to say about it, but as of now, a short roomtour through the insides of the hideout.

It's one of the rare instances when we can pique into how Ashwinders live. My default stance on it is that they are having rather low living standards and frankly speaking, I do not suppose I'm wrong about it; most of the settlements and camps are stationed in abandoned or ruined places where their sanitary conditions aren't spectacular or safe: greasy sheets, fast-built beddings, very little comfort overall. Which is understandable given their lifestyle but in contrast to the Loyalists, it is comparing a shabby shed to a sturdy cottage.

And the fact that many Ashwinders speak in accents pertaining to the London working class (of all places)… Firstly, is ti a whiff of classism do I hear, after we consider that The GoodTM is once again speaking in posh English; of all historical things this game could have had, they picked era-accurate bias in the storytelling. Sigh. Secondly, that explains the conditions, to an extent; lower classes of London lived in hell of the living accommodations, according to slummers, a bed without bugs and hair without lice would've been a significant improvement. Anyhow, these people lived in dreadful conditions.

Poppy described the camps as rather depressing. She isn't wrong.

The tent offers very little privacy, it's also quite dusty and dark:

The only private areas are the boudoirs but I'm not sure an explosive bowl movement is muted — and that the smell is well-contained. The humble ask where does it all go. The tent also has a laundry area, too:

Every wall is fabric. A question how warm is it inside.

Ashwinders don't mind the booze. They even have a bar area:

And a rather fancy area upstairs, for a higher up in the hierarchy, no doubt (Catrin Haggarty is found within this tent, it must be her semi-private quarters; she's an Infamous Foe; vicious grandma likes sheet music, Hufflepuff aesthetic and sipping on a bottle while bathing; bits of lore I always hope to find LMAO):

The loot Catrin had likely stolen includes lots of crates, chests, boxes, shields and coats of arms, all placed about the tent, and even the all familiar statues of the faceless witches are these:

Other things I found interesting: 1. Potions area, they must have their own potioneer able to brew some tens of litres; 2. Scrying orb; 3. Tool stand; 4. Corner of measurements?

Rich of them to have fresh ananas and strawberries:

But that food seems to be reserved for someone else as what can be found on the dining table is a lot more humble:

I can see why Poppy thinks the tents aren't the best place to live.

They're spacious but have lots of dark corners, leftover booze, snaking paths, and frankly, fabrics are terrible insulators and they won't cover much noise. You won't be able to speak much of your mind there, let alone if you're a small child and need space. Sharing an open space with rampant alcoholics also doesn't sound enticing.

A side note: the Daily Prophet's page marks "Wednesday. Oct.15":

It's important to note that this newspaper sometimes doesn't have a date. I don't know why. But the year 1890 does have October 15th falling on Wednesday—but the event itself isn't really spoken about by any character. The date is also a little… odd.

In my Hogwarts Inquiries series, I placed The High Keep quest at the Sunday's night-morning of October 26th. Mr Bickle dies in few days after this quest has been completed—or at this very Sunday morning, since The Lost Child becomes available right after The High Keep is turned in. Given the locale of this newspaper, Harlow's mannerism of killing witnesses, and the slow but sure escalation in the tensions between the Ashwinders and the common folk, won't surprise me if the Auror killed was also looking into Harlow's business.

[eowynstwin]

Lmao do soap hc's count if they're also with oc's/readers? Cus imagine getting into a fight with soap (nothing serious) and he just whips out the most. Ridiculous. Scottish saying (eg the first time i heard "ur bums out the windae") and they're halfway through snapping back but they stop and just....wtf did u just say Mctavish??? And they both just burst into laughter.

Also may or may not be writing a thing thats eventually gonna be for a ghostxocxsoap fic but i hc that soap had like 3 sisters and a mom n dad and just sweet family and his mom would make these big family meals every sunday, and so imagine (maybe while still in the friend stage) soap feeling really homesick and through convenient storytelling oc has decided shes gonna fuckin make this man a BIG OL MEAL and ghost walks in on her and is like 🤨🤨 so when did you start suddenly cooking for people all of a sudden and she tells him its bcus soap is feeling sad and then makes ghost chop veg and soap maybe maybe not tears up when he sees what she did for him. I dont think soap is used to having people do things like that for him so i think it'd really touch him that someone not only noticed he was feeling homesick but then did something so nice about it also.

Anyway yeah rambling done lmaoooo. Hope ur day gets better!!!!

YES YES YES

Soap getting all misty and trying SO hard to hide it but he can’t because his friends, his people are doing something so nice for him fully because they care about him. He expects nothing out of the people he loves, will give all of himself until there’s nothing left and still ask for nothing back, so going out of your way to make him feel better? He’s so in love it hurts.

(He’s still a menace though. He’ll hover and steal bites and generally make cooking more difficult. Ghost whacking him across the hand with a wooden spoon will not dissuade him.)

[multi-lefaiye]

Two things for storyteller saturday. 1) feel free to extrapolate as much as ud like one eden and gold colour/symbolism cuz i eat that shit up. 2) anything on the road trip or even storm chasers or The Building stories ud like to share bc those are intriguing to me :3c 3) wait one more eden question. whats he like at parties? i get the feeling he doesnt go to them if he has the choice, but if made to go he might find a way to have fun

HELLO i am responding to this in the most timely manner yes. it's sunday now but that's okay. /silly

THANK YOU FOR FEEDING MEEEE.... fellow color symbolism enjoyer. you understand me. so, yeah, for the uninitiated, gold is the color i associate with my boy eden the most. it's The Eden Color. there's a few different reasons for that, but mostly it comes down to me associating the color yellow with pride, which is eden's sin, both his greatest flaw and in many ways a defining character trait. my dm and i have been planning for eden's design to change over the course of the campaign to slowly and slowly incorporate more and more gold to parallel him coming closer and closer to self-actualizing, to living his truest self and making peace with himself. (side-note, they also told me recently that i've forgotten a part of his design that's already changed! the nails on his right hand are permanently gold. i love it)

TEEHEE okay you're getting a three-for-one because i wanna talk a bit more about each of these. - i haven't developed the post-apocalyptic road trip wip in a hot minute, but one part that's still near and dear to my heart is gaia's character arc and what it represents. i'm a big fan of characters who've done horrible shit and have to contend with that and make the choice to be better. gaia, without going too deep into spoilers, is in large part the reason the apocalypse is on its way. and, yes, they regret this very deeply! and much of it wasn't their choice! but they have blood on their hands and it's up to them to decide to fix this. (side-note, gaia having blood magic is meant to be literal symbolism for the blood on their hands. idc if this is too on the nose, i'm having fun.) - a modern ghost story (my storm chasing beloveds) is kinda both on the backburner and not lately, because i've been developing it more and more in bits and pieces in my brain. but one part i'm excited about is roach's character arc as represented by their weight. roach is probably my biggest example of showing a character's positive growth through them gaining weight. they start the story with a host of severe body dysmorphia that parallels other self image issues they've lived with for years, and over the course of the story as they accept themself and take steps towards *healing*, they gain weight. and it's scary at first, but it's a sign of good things coming for them. - and my beloved storage facility horror wip... so i imagine it's not a surprise that a lot of the characters and plot threads in that wip are based on things i've either dealt with or heard about happening at work, usually taken to some kind of logical extreme. but one example i don't think i've talked about publicly is this character named lynette, the previous manager who worked at the facility and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. she's partly there to establish more of a mystery at the start and a *reason* for people to be afraid of the sentient building, but she's also highkey inspired by the fact that i keep getting blamed for mistakes made by people who haven't worked here in YEARS lmao. so yes this is stress relief, kinda.

ALSO EDEN AND PARTIES... i'm so glad you asked because i do in fact have an answer! and it's a no, generally. he's not opposed to them and often *does* have fun on the rare occasions he goes to them, but for the most part he sees them as kinda beneath him. (at least, that's what he says.) i actually wrote a quick outline a while ago for a short story about the one (1) party eden went to while he was studying at university... tl;dr it ended poorly and eden decided that he's never doing that again, after a shitty encounter with one of his classmates. as for what he's LIKE at parties, eden's good at being very sociable and chatty, and he likes talking to people and being the center of attention. but he's not the "life of the party" by any means, and he prefers not to drink most of the time. he has an image to maintain, after all.

[applescabs]

tagged by @phoenixfangs yayyaa get ready for paragraph assault. it's vacation so I'm watching lots of shit.

reading: oof. lots and lots of things. plenty of ongoing mangas (i mostly follow by the volume) most notably I'm almost done w Homunculus (2 vol left) and King in Limbo's last omnibus is dropping on tuesday (i preordered it) so im excited for that! ig I'm also playing through slow damage rn, which is mostly a visual novel, but it has more gameplay than the usual nc visnov. its a mystery, which im always a fan of.

currently watching: 4 things w my brother; -boku no hero season 7. yes, season 7. yes, I still like this series, in fact I think it's really good and it's kinda funny to me how there's so many joke posts going around (made by people who havent even seen it) about it being shit. it airs on saturdays but we usually watch it on sundays (because that was more convenient last season and it sorta stuck) -isekai suicide squad. its entertaining/interesting enough and has some good animation sometimes. it airs on thursdays so we literally just watched the newest one. i like clayface n deadshot in this one. -blue lock. i went to the Nagi movie w another friend and then managed to convince Finn to watch the show with me. he's not a sports anime guy (this is his first) so we'll see how it goes, lmao. we're trying to watch s1 before s2 drops in october, but we're keeping it a weekly thing, watching it alongside new releases. -jojo part 3 ova. we watch this one sporadically since the episodes are longer than the standard nowadays, so he's not always in the mood. the music in this one was made by one guy with his midi soundboard, but I love the vibe of the whole thing, very different from david prod p3. I'm also watching 4 things myself; -Cowboy Bebop. constantly in awe of how good it looks. the fine details on the ships and weapons... augh. its making me want to check out more 90s animes. i'm also a big fan of how it does its storytelling, its got good visual language and utilises "show dont tell" well. i exclusively watch this one on the tv instead of my laptop, its too good for the laptop. -Shuumatsu Train. one that i didnt finish last season that i decided to pick back up, since its strange and interesting enough that it seems like a waste to leave unfinished. -Boueibu s1. im rewatching s1 so that i can immediately watch s2 afterwards (havent seen it yet) -Tasogare Outfocus. what can i say. i always watch anything gay that comes out (not that i always finish them...) i do also like movies and moviemaking so the backdrop interests me as well.

currently craving: im actually like. full af i just had icecream for desert plus an iced coffee afterwards. ig im craving brushing my teeth.

coffee or tea: see thats the thing. cant choose. im choosing both. i like to have both coffee and tea at night, coffee as a nice after dinner treat (mostly iced coffee, if it's hot i usually drink it in the afternoon) and tea late at night when I'm chilling. might make some tea after i stop being so full. also zach i might just have to take you to court over the sweet tea thing. better find a good lawyer.

tagginggg @kuwupikaa @sunflowermews @isleofair @drakefisher @xrd n anyone who feels compelled to do thisss

[worldwright]

Good evening !

My roommates are currently playing synthesizer, one of them being in a, hm, music field in college ? i don't get your uni system AT ALL, but in short, she studies musicology and plays music ?

I voted today, next sunday same thing, urgh, forced to see my parents bc I vote at the same place they do but at least I can see my sweet doggo <3 she was so happy seeing me today, so was I

Have a wonderful morning my friend ! See ya later if you're still good for the call :}

yayyyy doggo time!!! some consolation lol

hehehe music night sounds fun, at least more friendly and lively than your old place

finally got myself to keep going in magnus archives lol. i am 1.5 episodes from the entire end of it all. slightly less scared but. ah well we'll see where it goes. some absolutely genius storytelling decisions happening

my parents and sister all come up to hang out yesterday, it was Very chaotic. it was technically for my dad's birthday (and father's day, they happen on pretty much the same day) but we were also celebrating my sister being done with a really shitty job she'd had, and my mom's birthday (it's next month) AND me getting into college officially

OH HEY I FORGOT IF I TOLD YOU, I GOT INTO COLLEGE OFFICIALLY

i wasn't realllyyy worried that i wouldn't be accepted, but it was still stressful to not know for sure. anyway I'M A COLLEGE STUDENT WOOOOOOOOO

my mom got me some chairs and a table for my deck, and my dad brought up a computer that he wasn't using anymore that's WAY better than my laptop lol. and a new wifi router because he felt like upgrading mine ig. no idea why, it worked fine. but whatever he wants lmao

hope you have a wonderful evening, friend!!

[dolokhoded]

hii this is the-reynolds-pamphlet (this is my main and i cant get rid of it LMAO im not active on here)

re what you said about the s4 pacing. LITERALLY i wrote that whole other post as an answer to another ask i got about how the chosen's storyline really sucks in some aspects and i said the pacing is going to be incredibly off for season 4

okay first of all. there's a huge timeline issue in season 3 concerning the holidays and how much time passes since season 1, i was gonna make a whole other post about all the timeline inconsistencies but i didnt get around to doing it (i probably should). but like at this point it has been one year minimum since s1, realistically it should be three years if the end of season 4 is palm sunday. then like ??? theyre gonna spend the entirety of s5 on ONE week? and for fucking what. i thought they wanted a "bingeable" proper show with pacing and everything, why would they zero in on that

but anyways about ramah. first of all im 99% sure it's because her actress has schedule conflicts and likely wants to drop out of the show (that's why she mysteriously left to go talk to her dad in season 3). but also it's kind of obvious that they're using her death as character development for thomas for the rest of the series (which is gonna be like 2 weeks maximum over 3 seasons anyway. unless they continue onto acts but that poses another huge pacing problem.) which is pissing me off like?? i had the same reaction when tamar was acting weird for like one (1) episode and then she told mary everything and just left. why would you not give them proper character development established over a long period of time and just confine it to singular episodes like that. im pretty sure tamar's backstory won't be brought up again lmao. also ramah doesn't really have much of a personality (which sucks because i got the impression she was a bit of a rich daddy's girl and there was potential for character exploration) and her character hasn't even been that established so like... partially it's easy to kill her but on the other hand, it isn't as emotional especially bc she wasn't even here the last season.

also remember how in the other post i was like why are they literally giving consistent character arcs and emotional plot for matthew, mary, simon & eden, and james & john but theyre basically forgetting everybody else exists. yeah like james just fucking launches himself at someone and gets knocked out in season 4 which is great but how long are they going to be just keep throwing new arcs for the main cast and keep ignoring thaddeus' existence. btw i watched a clip of That Scene in s4 (i didnt realize what it was when i was watching it lmao) with thaddeus and james and they're basically asking jesus why he's talking about dying. so thaddeus stays personalityless while big james is over there getting concussions #maincharacter. im not saying that scene w/jesus isnt necessary but im saying its thad's big scene and it is once again about Not thaddeus

this entire thing is incredibly bizarre to me because they COULDVE made an actual show with fleshed out characters and everything ??? they confined themselves to 8 1-hour long episodes per season, which of course restricts how much storytelling they can do while keeping in all the major gospel events they need to put in. but like first of all they couldve Not Done that. i think their audience wouldve gone insane for more episodes. second of all, if they WERENT gonna carry on character arcs and give everyone a fleshed out character then why did they introduce them as such??? i mean it was probably because they wanted to spark interest and then just forget about it but that kind of sucks. why did they do this lmao they literally had the opportunity to make it better

ok v rushed reply cause i have to go to the library the bus is coming in 15 minutes which means all the law students are leaving which means empty spaces BUT

you're so right the chosen's timeline is fucked up atp i can't really tell when it's been a day or a week or like. a couple months it's. i dont understand what theyre doing and why theyre doing it like this. cause like. even the characters who do have decent arcs like matthew and simon peter and james and john are not being developed properly cause the timing is so goddamn off. and i Know that in this new season they're gonna try to make john like Rise Above and start to kind of live up to his name as the favorite and have more understanding of jesus' teachings while james doesn't which is very stupid to me cause like. When. i think it was last season that this guy was bragging about getting to plough a field. how are they going to have john transition into one of the most competent disciples just. doesnt make sense.

and ALSO !!!! the reason all of these arcs are being so rushed is because they never get a break because as you mentioned literally nobody else gets any character developement. i wanna see more of thad. and little james. and nathanael while we're at it, and zee, and philip, and mary and tamar's friendship. why are they just throwing shit in there and never expand on it at all, unless you're thaddeus, in which case you don't even get that.

also i have a.,., suspicion, kind of, on where they're going with big james, and i can't be entirely sure, i'm not saying i'm correct, but just in case. Leave Tamar Alone ! i'm begging you ! dallas ! leave tamar alone ! not every single one of your female characters needs a romantic subplot ! i know big james is pretty and you want to give him a love interest so the repressed christian women in your audience keep watching your show, i see him, but for the love of christ actually ! leave tamar alone ! i know that if this happens you're only going to utilize her character for romance LEAVE TAMAR ALONE !!!!

[friendlyneighborhood-writer]

Happy STS!

Do any of your characters want/have children and if yes, how many and what are/would be their names? What do they think of their partner?

I’m answering this on a Sunday so just pretend STS stands for storytelling Sunday lmao

Anyway, hi Leia! Thanks for the ask <3

I’ll answer for The Realm Beneath The Sea :)

Sage definitely, absolutely does not want kids. She plans on being a pirate until she drops dead or is murdered, and having a child would kind of get in the way of that.

Evi similarly does not want them, but she’s good with them (better than Sage at any rate, but that’s not exactly hard lol).

Tristan, on the other hand, does want kids. He’d be an amazing father, too. He’d love to have three, because he grew up with two siblings himself, but he wouldn’t mind having just one. He doesn’t necessarily want kids of his own, by the way, he’d be just as happy to adopt.

Rylan hasn’t given it much thought yet, he’s only 15 when the story starts. He’s got a bunch of younger siblings, though, and he’s really good with kids.

Ignatius doesn’t have kids, which is probably for the best because something tells me he wouldn’t be a great father.

Aidan would love to have kids someday. Much like Rylan, they’re also great with kids. I’ve always pictured Aidan as running an orphanage after the end of the story, considering they were orphaned as well.

[bestworstcase]

you've mentioned that you're anti-redemption arc? i think? so i kind of wanted to ask what you meant by that? are you against redemption arcs as a concept (like you think they shouldn't be used in writing) or is it more like you're against like the expectation a lot of people have for every character reformation to be a redemption? or is it something else?

when i say redemption arc what i’m referring to specifically is villain-to-hero arcs that are structured around absolution through suffering and forgiveness—the, not to put too fine a point on it lmao, Christian Model.

cassandra’s arc is a perfect example.

1. she sins—stealing the moonstone, usurping rapunzel’s rightful destiny

2. she suffers—spending more than a year beholden to a cruel demon who uses her as an unwitting pawn and then brutally stabs her in the back when her usefulness ends

3. she repents—sobbing and castigating herself to rapunzel, who embraces, forgives, and comforts her

4. & she’s absolved by that grace, literally paying the debt of her wrongdoing with her life and then being resurrected through rapunzel’s love for her—after which everything is gravy and she gets to skip off happily into the sunset without a care.

notably absent here is any narrative engagement or reckoning with:

1. the actual wrong things cassandra did

2. the wrongs done to cassandra

3. her reasons for acting this way

4. the systemic injustices that created her

5. genuine healing or atonement

and then the fandom collapsed into the same tired argument that always happens when a villain is given a redemption arc without undergoing the optional step of atonement, which boils down to one side going “she didn’t deserve forgiveness! she should have been punished!” while the other goes “she literally died! of course she deserves to be forgiven! hasn’t already suffered enough?” or sometimes trotting out the ol’ “the point of forgiveness is that it isn’t something you can earn” bit.

and

like

i adore villain-to-hero arcs. i also love hero-to-villain arcs. i am ALL ABOUT characters undergoing huge realignments of perspective or morality or motive that wrench them from one side of their narrative to the other. but i like to, you know, see it

( and also im an evangelical apostate )

and the thing is, the classic redemption arc—those narrative beats of temptation, fall to sin, suffering, repentance, absolution—it’s not really about character growth, good or bad: it’s a christian moral fantasy that arose from the narrative structure of 15-16thc european morality plays and metastasized into the western storytelling tradition, fantasy and science fiction in particular. it is inseparable from christianity and the profoundly christian idea that choice and deeds are irrelevant to moral goodness because salvation is given by grace to those who humble themselves to ask for it.

I DETEST THIS.

not to be like, anti-christian on main but when i was eight or so, someone broke into our church and robbed the offering box; that weekend in sunday school the pastor’s wife got up in front of her little gaggle of children to tell us this—describing to us, with palpable indignation, how she and her husband discovered the theft, how upsetting and violating it felt, and what kind of person steals from a church?—and then she asked us how we felt about that. we were all furious, of course, in the way all eight-year-old children will be furious if you sit them down and tell them a bad person did a terrible thing to you. and then she tsked at us and primly informed us that that was the wrong answer, because jesus would say to forgive and pray for the thief, and our anger is rooted in sinful human nature and the temptations of satan. all my little—again—EIGHT YEAR OLD sunday school classmates just sort of wilted, and i very distinctly remember thinking but that’s not fair—you tricked us!

it’s been twenty years and i still get mad when i think about it. this is one of my clearest childhood memories. i didn’t have the emotional vocabulary to articulate or understand this at the time, but recognizing that the pastor’s wife had purposefully manipulated our sunday school class to make us ‘sin’ so that she could teach us a lesson about how we were bad and needed god to save us from ourselves completely obliterated my trust in the underlying moral framework of christianity.

like. hating the moral logic redemption arcs are built on top of is literally one of my key formative childhood experiences, is what i’m getting at—

and to be clear, i’m in no way opposed to heroic characters forgiving reformed villains for past misdeeds (or villains forgiving corrupted heroes lmao). the act of forgiveness in and of itself is not the bone i have to pick with redemption arcs. nor do i care if the villain switches sides without first suffering punishment or retribution or even properly apologizing: cass knocked a kingdom down and got off scot free, and i say good for her!

what i take issue with is repentance-and-forgiveness being the fulcrum of moral change—the thing that actively transforms the villain into a hero. i want character arcs that are interesting and dynamic and driven by intrinsic motivation and choices! i want characters with agency who react to things like real people instead of roles in a morality play! i want to be able to read or watch a fantasy story without getting sucker punched by bland repetitions of a moral perspective i categorically reject, especially by narratives that do not otherwise align with that moral perspective!!

i would also very much like it if fandom at large would stop calling every. single. villain-to-hero arc ever written a ‘redemption arc’ and i would LOVE it if people would stop mindlessly applying the structure and moral logic of redemption arcs to villain-to-hero arcs that aren’t that, because oh my GOD i’m tired of the endless discourse about whether the character du jour was sufficiently punished for their wrongdoing to deserve ✨forgiveness✨

if you ever want to break yourself start mentally substituting “deserves to try to be a better person” every time you read the phrase “[character] deserves a redemption arc” and then you, too, can look upon christian moral hegemony and despair

[consul-valerius]

“See what happens when you swallow your pride and ask for help, consul? Now we have such a pretty platter to use 🖤”

this one is truly an exercise in visual storytelling lmao and solidified that Val & Sam’s cheesy ship name would be something like “Whiskey & Wine” ;P but day 2 of Donna getting got, this time with implied rich bastards off camera lmfao

Full undercut for one NB nipple, more explicit bondage, and French nails most definitely done by Valerius lmfao Minors DNI 🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

I’ve been looking for an excuse to do a novelty pearl ball gag, and now just. Felt like the time to do it I guess LMAOO anyway happy Sunday and Halloween-eve, I may have something else up my sleeve this weekend depending on how my brain works 👀👀😌😌

[transmasc-wizard]

happy storyteller saturday!! hello! I would like to know... how do your characters function on zero sleep? :D

Hello!! happy STS and thanks for the ask!! I received this when *I* was on zero sleep and thus made the executive choice to make this storyteller sunday monday :D

So!! I will pick a random selection of wonderful characters, beginning with my Rose Librarians children

Eleanor is grumpy with no sleep, but like, quietly grumpy. She'll hate everything but be totally silent about it, because she understands it's the sleep deprivation. She'll also be pretty bad at focusing. Charlie's default state is zero sleep, so he's mostly fine! He is terrible at interacting with people though, even more so than usual.

For GFS (not all of them but Some):

zero sleep Angel is scariest but least actually harmful Angel <3 she's very screechy and annoyed and threatens people, but could literally be subdued with a small shiny object. She is a cat. She doesn't function all that well like this, but at least she's not hurting anyone!

Zero sleep Corey is a common state for him. He functions well when he can't focus on anything but the project at hand, and since he's the strategist and inventor, he starts a lot of projects on zero sleep and energy drinks. That actually ends up, uh. with him gaining a serious addiction to what is basically "fantasy red bull". So... that's zero sleep Corey.

Zero sleep Oliver is cuddly as hell. He can and will drape himself over the nearest friend. He is not functional in the slightest, because while "almost zero sleep Oliver" is a studying fiend, "literally zero sleep Oliver" simply wants to Gain Sleep (and Hug Frems).

For Val Saintly, because I've been neglecting it on this blog lately:

Zero sleep Val is very loudly grumpy. She hates everyone and everything and will never forgive you ever again for using her towel and--is that??? a snack??? you have a snack for her??? best friend.... (she is an emotional nightmare lmao.)

Zero sleep Mack... zero sleep Mack sobs on the floor because there's no waffles left, and then solves a 20 sided shades-of-blue rubik's cube with laser focus like 2 seconds later. Zero sleep Mack is either comedically non-functional or functional to the point it's scary, with no in between.

Bonus for zero sleep James, because that's how he is for the entirety of Val Saintly. Zero sleep James is focused on nothing but his horrifically complicated uni courses, and barely realizes he's on a road trip with someone trying to avoid the government and stop a wizard cult.

[tracle0]

hey hi, happy storyteller satursunday! I remember you posting a super neat ramble a while back about TSS and language? among other things you mentioned you were telling the story as a translator! I was wondering if there are any fun language facts you can tell me about how things might differ between original and translation? would there be certain untranslatable concepts? any odd idioms or phrases that pop up that we might not be familiar with? anything that might get lost in translation and require a footnote or two? :P or maybe in general, 'cause you talked about uhhhh potentially having spoken differences between spider and Spider for instance - any other funky little twists like that for how language operates? ok bye have a lovely day xoxoxo

Hi hello! Read this yesterday and went “oh boy” so that’s a good reaction! Sunday now! Hi!

So mmm yeah! The way I approach TSS and TCD is as a translator - but it’s more for convenience than anything? If I were to try to make up new weekdays and units of measurements and swears and numbers constantly, it’d be hard to follow the story because you’re juggling all these essentially useless facts.

Like. Sure, it’s cool to know that “Jyipday” originated as a tribute to the Rabbit for whatever reason, but it’s not necessary to the plot. So to make it easier and to stop myself from going “hey why would they have Thursday without Norse mythology” I just approach the entire story as if I’m translating it into normal English.

I can totally tell you some cool language bits though lmao I have a grand total of four (4) idioms that I’ve come up with since starting this.

First of all, if you were to think someone were lying to you, you might accuse them of “spitting Spiders” on account of the Spider being the god of lying. Not many people believe it’s hugely active in the world they’re wrong but they’re aware of it enough to assume all lies stem back to it.

Example in a sentence: “Can you believe that asshole looked me in the eye and said that? Spitting Spiders the whole time, I’m telling you.”

Second; if someone were to be a bit of a daydreamer or be a bit drifting in terms of attention, you could claim they were “dancing with the Magpie” - also possible as specific forms of dancing, eg: waltzing, tangoing, fukkin,,, rocking, idk, I’m a writer not a dancer. The Magpie is the god of sleep and dreams so. Yeah. Pretty self explanatory.

Example: “Dannels a good kid. Very sharp, very articulate, but he dances with the Magpie a bit too much to be the perfect student.”

Third - if you damage your nail enough that it starts to turn black (either marginally with blood trapped under it or entirely as to fall off) you’d diagnose it was a “Foxes claw” - the Fox is the god of perception, but when it sponsors people, it gives them black nails, just to mark them out really. You do not get magic if you damage your nail. You just get a damaged nail.

Example: “Yeah, the fall was pretty bad, but I’m not too hurt. Bit of a headache and a Foxes claw, nothing to worry about.”

Fourth and finally, if someone were to hyper-fixate in something, be consumed on a new topic or medium or idea to the point of obsession, you could say they were “answering the Salmons lure” (or yknow just diagnose them with ADHD or autism but whatever man). The Salmon is the god of determination, and although it doesn’t sponsor anyone, it’s often assumed that those who work tirelessly on one thing/hyper-fixate are blessed by it.

This mostly came about cause I was like hey why is there rarely if ever any mental illness in fantasy. Fuck that let’s make an idiom

Example: “I’ve not actually seen Nara for about three days. She comes down in the night for food and water, but I think she’s been pulled in by the Salmons lure again”

None of these have come up in story yet, but maybe soon. Maybe maybe.

In terms of how language exists! Re: Spider/spider/liar as different words, I’m. Mm. Settled in most places. I’d like to maybe make up specific swears and curses. I’ve been avoiding using things like “Jesus Christ!” As an exclamation cause that would imply the existence of Christianity and I do not want that.

Oh that’s a tangent actually. Religion! In world, there’s some specificity about what makes up a god - most people may accept that the gods they have are gods, but some disagree. A god has to be all powerful, and the gods they have are not - they’re limited to specific domains like sleep or heat or biology. Therefore, they are not gods. Some decide there is another, higher being above the gods they know that is a true, capital-G God, that gave the other gods their magic. Some assume it means there are no actual gods.

This is the conclusion Andy eventually reaches in TCD. The man really encounters the god of death in person and decides “nah you ain’t shit”

On! The topic of Andy, I’ll mention accents too! Glalis has a very distinct accent that’s mostly informed by the environment - because they live in a cave, there’s a need to keep their voices quiet, to prevent a horrible echo from breaking their ears constantly. The Glalis accent achieves this, hushing the harsh sounds like D or T or CH and keeping the voice soft. I personally am very happy with it

Atlas also has a fun voice but that’s not really any language or accent thing, just a hangover from original Sonder, and tiny tiny me going “well they’re not a girl or a boy, so what kind of voice would they have?” Two voices is apparently the answer, one high, one low, harmonising to make their words. They are an excellent mimic.

Maybe a good time to mention that the main characters names might not… actually be their names?

I mean, the main offender is Atlas tbh. Much like Norse mythology does not exist in TSS, neither does Greek mythology, which is the root of their name, with the titan who holds up the sky. I could brush it aside as “atlas” having another origin as a word…

Or I could be difficult about it!

See I know their name would have to be something map related - specifically because Sam comments on it at one point. I could brush it aside as their name sounding like whatever the god of the planet or earth or fakkin… mapmaking is, but I can’t see the Spider letting one of its servants be named after another god. I could also give “map” a proper translated word, work from there to condense it into a potential name, and then claim I was translating “map” from whatever this word is, and “Atlas” as a result of the similarity.

Or.

I could just.

Let their name be Atlas.

And stop overthinking this so much lmao

[albatris]

it is saturday here! (idk about australiatime.) happy storyteller saturday! my question for you is as follows:

would or would not the casts of ATDAO/Rental Car/both be able to successfully dogsit? Not babysit, dogsit. A big dog. How would it turn out?

(i feel like there would be some chaos)

this is a proper storyteller saturday ask, yes? idk i never know what to ask with these things but theyre fun

saturday! storyteller time! happy storyteller saturday! it's sunday over here but storyteller sunday still has the alliteration going for it so, this matters not :P thank you for the ask!!

oh EXCELLENT question, alright, here we go

well, right off the bat I can tell you the ATDAO gang would have hardly any trouble at all. Shara has a huge boisterous dog of her own that she adores, and, though he is more of a cat person, Tris is good with furry animals of all sorts! he does in fact basically spend an entire scene in canon entertaining three ginormous over-excited huskies while Kai works with a customer. yes he does almost get bowled over and smothered to death in kisses. yes it is the best day of his life

honestly between the just two of them they could handle it just fine and would have a blast! but it's no fun if Noa and Kai haven't also been roped into this question lmao. both of them also like dogs, Kai more so than Noa though :P Noa has never looked after a dog before and doesn't really know what to do. she could handle an old mellow chilled-out Big Dog I think, but wouldn't be too keen on anything excited and bouncy and unpredictable. plus she's super short and would likely get offended if the dog jumps on her and is taller than she is, and would spend the afternoon sulking about it dhgjdfhg

Kai......... likes animals. Kai is also allergic to fur. both cat and dog. they'll be fine as long as they don't shove their entire face into the fluffy friend's fur and cover them in kisses and hug them 24/7. do they do this anyway? yeah you fucking bet they do. I feel like most of the chaos would arise from the rest of the gang trying to get Kai to stop actively fuckin murdering themself in their attempts to hug a Big Fluffy Friend and Kai engaging in mission-impossible-esque shenanigans in order to snuggle next to a Big Fluffy Friend on the couch and die of allergies

"but Logan why did they bring Kai along if they knew this would happen?" they didn't. Kai wasn't invited. Kai invited themself because. hello?????? it's a big fluffy dog??? they're not missing out on this

mmmmm as for the Rental Car gang, they'd have considerably more trouble lmao

Nat might do okay! Nat adores animals and has at least a basic understanding of how to look after a dog :P a really really really high-energy big dog would stress him out though, unless Nat himself happened to be really really really high-energy that day. it happens occasionally. he will adore any dog, of course, but much like Noa, he'd prefer a super mellow chilled-out dog so he can just take a nap with it

Alex and Quinn........ have no fucking idea what they're doing

Alex doesn't DISLIKE dogs but dogs are sorta loud and slobbery and weird and all-up-in-your-personal-space and Alex is. not into that at all. Alex likes space! and boundaries! and being asked before being snuggled with! Alex isn't sure what to do with something that's so open and forceful with its affections immediately, because though Alex is very affectionate, it needs Considerable Time to get comfy enough to show those affections. Alex and the dog are speaking an entirely different language to each other

I think Alex would attempt to reason verbally with the dog, very diplomatic. hello canine, while I appreciate your enthusiasm, I will need you to go sit over there. I would like you to refrain from licking my face until I say it's okay. while Nat is just like ??????? dude this is a dog???? not a person???? it has no clue what you're saying??? this is not how you get a dog to listen to you???

Quinn in particular can only appreciate dogs from a distance :P they BARK. they drool. they steal shoes and chew them. they make a mess. they shed. they just hang around taking up space and getting under your feet. they're kind of idiots at times. Quinn definitely appreciates why people like dogs, but would rather not deal with dogs themself ahaha. Quinn spends the entire afternoon just kind of grimacing and on edge, both following the dog around to try and keep it from being a menace and simultaneously trying to avoid interacting with the dog at all costs. this is especially a fun scenario if the dogsitting happens to happen at Quinn's house

Yvonne is. fine? but chaotic. like, the dog would love her and she'd love the dog, but also, she's probably the one giving the dog Quinn's shoes to chew on. she's genuinely delighted by how much stress the dog is causing the others and kind of wants to coax the dog into making More Stress. the fabled elusive High Energy Nat would definitely join her and would also have fun tormenting Quinn and Alex. low energy Nat is unfortunately also a target for shenanigans and will have chew toys thrown at him while he's napping so the dog barrels into him full force and scares the shit out of him. Yvonne can also not be trusted not to Steal The Entire Dog and just be like "mine now"

so yeah, Quinn and Alex are useless, Nat has the expertise and love but not the energy, Yvonne has the energy but is going to be Evil with it

Do Not Ask Riley To Dogsit Your Dog. she's chill but also she will be highkey tempted to eat it if she gets hungry

[jonny-versace]

In all brutal honesty, Euphoria has no safe space for shippers. There is no clear shipping material if I'm being honest... Fans can create their own parallel universe out of the aesthetics the erotic dynamics create but that's not canon shit, , it has to do with the audiences fantasies and needs (for representation like you said) and not with the actual intend of the creators. Other shows are catering to shippers, they even get out of their way to have more of them using their more popular pairings to achieve that

yeah listen, just from a personal perspective I'll never ever ever ever root for "healthy representation" over storytelling, in a ideal world you'd get both but, especially when the story is coming from a singular vision/one mind, I'll take good, honest storytelling over the desire for comfort representation any day of the week and twice on Sundays. so like you say, if people are going off and making their own universes and stories featuring these characters that cater to what they want then that's fantastic, all the power to them, but this constant need to have that vision reflected in the actual works and these tantrums that happen when shocker! it doesn't work out that way drives me up the fucking wall.

it's the one thing I can't stand really (and it happens with so much media today and it drives me insane), specifically re this show, the people who are like (and let's be honest here, they're mostly young adults who have only ever consumed media through fandom/shipping lenses) "oh my god we don't want to see <insert character here>! we want to see Rue and Jules sit down for an hour and honestly discuss their issues and get healthy together! the writing for this show sucks!" totally disregarding that Rue is in very deep in addiction and this blowing up of all her bridges is ABSOLUTELY common in these situations (and also they're literally 17/18 years old yet, they haven't done cooking, they're going to be messy regardless of drugs).

it's why it makes me laugh to see people reaching so hard to dump all the "blame" on Elliot, as if he isn't just some grotty horny little stoner boy who met two girls, developed a couple of crushes and acted on them (also acting as if Rue and Jules have no agency wrt him as if Jules didn't initiate all their canoodling and as if Rue hasn't blatantly used him for drugs from the start).

and it might be that the ultimate goal is for Rue and Jules to be happy ever after! I tend to believe Zendaya when she says the ultimate goal is for Rue to get healthy and sober, i think the show would be just too nihilistic if she fucking died lmao. but she has to get there, to wherever she's going, and people have to be willing to let shows tell the fucking story even if it goes places that are bad or uncomfortable on the journey

[cmescapade]

Simblr Community Challenge by @amelettes

Rules: Tag some people, and let the community bonding commence!

Tagged by @aniraklova & @simsulate! ty for the tag 🥰

I’ll tag uhh @forgotten-pixels @fataleromeo​ @theageofsims and whoever would like to do it 🥰

gonna put it under the cut bc im chatty 😭

How long have you been playing the Sims?

On and off since uhh 2004?? My first exposure to the Sims was The Sims: Bustin’ Out for the PS2, where I had a sim named Pepto Bismol. 

...it was my favorite commercial ok 

How long have you been a Simblr, and why did you become one?

I’ve been a simblr since uhhh December 2017? I wasn’t that active then because I was too busy trying to figure out how everything worked on Tumblr since I never really had one (My really old one in like 2010 or w/e doesn’t count since all I did was reblog things when I remembered I even HAD a tumblr ahahahah)

I became a simblr only because I was told I should have one lmfao 😭 I thought simblr was scary bc ppl come and go all the time and everyone’s so good at editing n shit n all i ever do w my screenshots is redraw a hand every now and again

anyways Pre-Dec 2017 I made poses for myself, friends, and basically anyone who asked because I loved storytelling in The Sims. No one back then ever made poses for children specifically since child rigs in like 2015-2016 were so janky the only way to make them was to pose an adult rig and import it--so I decided that I could put up my random child poses for download in case anyone else was like me and needed them

even tho everything i made back then was.................................. questionable 

What type of Simblr are you?

The kind that tries to post sims-related content but fails bc they post pics of their INCREDIBLY HANDSOMe son every other time i mean c’mon u cant blame me for that just look at him

my chonky son, i love,, he smile,

i post gameplay and cc! for my gameplay stuff i’ll post as often as i could, but i’ll usually post cc on like sunday or monday, if i forgot to hit queue LOL

Which generation of Sims do you primarily play?

I prefer playing TS2 and TS4, but TS4 more often as of late. Nothing wrong with TS3, it just constantly runs like ass on my computer and I always forget where I saved my mods lmfao 

I don’t post my TS2 screenshots here because they always come out odd or I end up using a 3rd party program to take them, but here’s a gif of Colin & toddler Amy before they became vampires lmao

I also really like the Sims Medieval and ofc Bustin’ Out :))) but I forgot to backup my TSM screenshots when my old drive decided to peace out still kinda sad about that.......................