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mrspasser · 2 years ago

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6. Paper I

Gavin and Nines return to a crime scene to get one last look. They are not the only ones who return and things go south.

Cover made with fanart by @donlemefo

Gavin has been staring at the evidence for what must be over an hour now. It is all there, neatly displayed in the evidence room. Every little thing tagged and put into the system before it was hung up on that wall. He knows everything that’s up here, because he had been staring at the files at his terminal earlier today. He hoped that coming down to the evidence room gave him some fresh insight, some new ideas. He was missing something. Some tiny fucking thing that would tie everything together.

It isn’t there.

He groans, tipping his head back and running his hands through his hair. “Fuck. I need a cigarette.”

“Smoking is bad for your health, detective.”

Gavin curses loudly, grips his shirt at his chest and turns around to the source of the voice. “Damn it, tin can! The only thing bad for my health is you ! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

His partner tilts his head slightly and looks at him inquisitively. “Your heart rate is elevated and your stress levels have shot up. However, there is no direct risk to your health. I advise taking a few deep breaths to help you calm down.”

Gavin moves his lips soundlessly, for the moment unable to voice his frustration with his android partner. Sneaking up on him with his fucking stealth mode, scanning him when he knows how Gavin hates that, bugging him about his smoking and doing it all while looking perfectly calm and collected. Mr. Plastic Fantastic.

He glares at the android, who stares back with a hint of smugness. He did it on purpose, at least the part of sneaking up on him.

“Fuck off, Nines,” he eventually spits out. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“The evidence is inconclusive,” Nines says in that matter-of-fact voice of his. “The crime scene will be released tonight, I thought you might like to take one last look at the scene.”

The android ignores the harsh words, like he usually does when there’s no real venom behind them. He calmly looks at Gavin, hands clasped behind his back. He’s wearing his usual ensemble of charcoal grey slacks and a black turtleneck; the brown leather straps of his shoulder holster stick out against his dark clothes, giving him a classic detective look. It looks good on him.

Gavin favours wearing his handgun on his hip, where people can see it, along with his badge. Nines prefers a more concealed carry, the gun hidden under his white jacket in most cases. Some people still get nervous about androids carrying a weapon, no matter whether they are police officers or not, so the concealed carry makes sense. The android gets enough shit as it is already.

“Fuck, why not?” Gavin presses a few buttons on the terminal to lock the evidence in front of him away again and starts for the door. “Maybe I’ll get some fresh ideas there.”

“How’s your new apartment?” Gavin asks, swallowing a bite of the pretzel.

The RK900 drives them to the scene, an abandoned factory building. The last owner was a printing company, it’s main business printing newspapers. No wonder it went belly up: who the hell reads newspapers anymore?

It’s a twenty minute drive from the precinct, twenty five because they make a stop at a drive through for coffee and a pretzel. Detective Reed can’t think on an empty stomach.

“It’s adequate,” Nines answers, keeping his eyes on the road. Not that he really needs it: Gavin suspects the android can drive with his eyes closed and still not hit anything or anyone.

“Anything with four walls and a roof is adequate,” he scoffs, shaking his head a little. “That depressing android storage room at the precinct was adequate . I should hope having your own place is a little more than that!”

Nines doesn’t comment on that, his face blank as always. “Connor gave me a Monstera. He told me a plant is a typical housewarming gift among humans.”

“And he gave you one called Monster?” Gavin scrunches up his face.

“I believe it’s called like that because of its large leaves,” Nines answers. “It’s actually quite nice to look at. And it purifies the air.”

Gavin chuckles. “More clean oxygen for you to breathe in. How thoughtful of your tin twin.”

Live pets were not allowed in the highrise, so Tiny still lived with Gavin. Nines visited her a couple a times a week, often staying over for the night. Gavin was already used to seeing the android in his home first thing in the morning. Although this morning had been a little different, as he woke up earlier than usual and walked in on Nines still in stasis. Other times the android had been milling about his kitchen, the coffee already brewing and the cats fed. This time Nines was stretched out on the couch, one arm behind his head and the other resting on his stomach. His feet rested up on the armrest, crossed at the ankles. Tiny was curled up on his chest, tucked in the crook of his arm. Gavin will not admit to anyone that he stared for a couple of minutes, before bustling loudly into his kitchen, making noise on purpose so the android would wake up and not look so… innocent and human anymore.

Earlier this month Nines finally gave in to Connor’s pressing - and Gavin’s, to be honest - and found himself an apartment in a complex that was specifically catering to androids. That meant having a small kitchen and bathroom, mainly for any human guests that might come over, and large open rooms with a smart home system that allowed the occupant to control everything digitally.

Gavin dropped him off at his new home once: it was a white highrise, looking very slick and expensive. Made sense, because androids saved money on groceries and their utilities bill, leaving more for rent.

The entrance to the factory lot is closed off with holographic police tape, a single android officer keeping watch at the gate. Nines stops the car and makes the window go down to show their badges, which is probably only to show Gavin’s badge, the rest of it is only a matter of being polite and acting human. Gavin is pretty sure the androids send some data back and forth. The officer informs them the forensics team just left, giving them all the space they need to take a look.

It is raining, making the November day darker than it already was. Behind them the android officer deactivates the holographic tape with their permission. There’s no point in having the guy stand in the rain for nothing, he might as well go back to the precinct. Nines parks the car close to the backdoor and they quickly enter the building. It’s a factory like most others: large spaces, high ceilings, obsolete machinery and some random inventory left behind. This factory has some offices and a breakroom at the second floor, metal walk bridges crossing the empty space above the machinery. The printing presses are large, their height an easy three or four times Gavin’s length and each one taking up the space of a classroom. There are some giant rolls of paper stacked to one side of the room, like enormous rolls of toilet paper.

The break room is their main destination: it was there that they had discovered the remnants of four different androids earlier this week, not enough of everything to reassemble even two androids. Every component was drained of the last drop of Thirium. A fifth android was found in the storage closet, her memory so badly damaged they couldn’t even access it. She still had some Thirium left in her body, though it was hardly enough to be able to reboot her. One of the offices was used as a storage space for the collected Thirium, the blue liquid now all safely stored away in the evidence room of the Central Station of the Detroit Police. Traces of Red Ice had been found on several spots in the offices and the break room, making it an easy guess why the perps had been draining androids.

The forensics team has taken everything with them, there are no yellow evidence markers left and all the portable bits of evidence are taken to the precinct. Finding something here is like looking for a needle in a haystack, yet Gavin wants to give it a try anyway.

He slowly walks around the spacious break room, remembering where everything was and what it looked like. Nines stands in the door opening, watching him for a moment before telling Gavin he’ll be taking a look at the loading dock downstairs. “I want to review my reconstruction of their supply route.”

Gavin waves him off. “Sure, go do your thing.”

The rain patters loudly on the roof windows outside in the main factory hall. The sound is more muffled in the break room, making it easy for Gavin to drown it out and focus on his thoughts. Fact is that a criminal group took androids off the streets to drain them of their Thirium for the production of Red Ice. Gavin suspects they have encountered this group - or members of it - before, although there is no hard evidence pointing in that direction. In fact, there is no evidence at all that helps them find out who is behind this shit. All he has is a hunch, nothing he can take to court, not even something good enough to get a warrant.

Gavin opens the door to the storage closet where they found the fifth android. It doesn’t make any sense that she was there. All the other androids were disassembled, their parts tossed together without regard for their respective owners. Something tells him the android girl was not taken off the streets for the purpose of draining her. There was no missing persons report on her for one, and they found traces of Red Ice in the seams of her plating. It really is a shame her memory was so fucked up. The tech department was still trying to find a way to retrieve it, though they had no luck thus far.

His phone beeps at the same time as there is a loud ruckus out in the hall. A clanging of metal, some unintelligible shouts and above everything the booming voice of Nines: “Halt! Detroit Police!”

Gavin takes a quick look at his phone. There is a text from his partner, informing him of the presence of two suspects, one human, one android. A second text comes in: Human suspect is armed .

He pulls his gun and moves towards the door of the break room, staying away from the windows. If he can get a clear look on the suspects downstairs, he might be able to get a shot on them.

A shot fires, the sound ringing through the mostly empty factory hall.

Nines!

He takes a risk, counting on it that the android isn’t carrying a gun since Gavin hasn’t been shot at yet and runs across the factory hall over the walk bridge. If he pushes himself, he can just intercept the android who has to take the long way to reach the roof exit. Last year he wouldn’t have thought he would be able to outrun an android, yet having the RK900 for a partner made him want to train harder, to be better. He wouldn’t be able to outrun an RK-model, Connor and Nines are far too fast, but this suspect is likely a domestic model. Gavin has a chance.

Gavin feels his heart skip a beat when he spots his partner’s pristine white jacket. He’s pretty certain the perp was the one who fired, the android only fires his gun as a last resort. Luckily the perp is a lousy shot. Nines is in pursuit, obviously going after the gunman first. The other suspect, the android, runs off in the other direction, taking the stairs to the second floor. There’s an exit to the roof in the corner of the building, that is probably where he is going. With the gunman and Nines out of sight, Gavin runs over the nearest walk bridge. He can’t prevent the sound that his boots make against the metal, alerting the suspect of his presence.

“DPD!” he shouts. “Stop!” He points his gun for emphasis, yet the suspect is not impressed. The android glances back shortly and carries on running.

The large printing press is right beneath him as Gavin sprints across the metal walk bridge. Just one more push and then he’ll have the fucker. With a grunt he collides with the android, slamming them both against the rail of the bridge. A human would’ve been hurt by the force, hell, Gavin’s teeth knock together from the impact. The android is made of sturdier material and he pushes the detective off him, trying to run again. Gavin grabs at him, there is a struggle and with a loud curse the detective topples over the railing. One short second he sees the floor coming at him and then an all consuming pain shoots through his hand, arm and shoulder. His body turns in the air, swinging by his arm on the edge of the walk bridge. The pain is too much, he has to let go. It’s not a conscious decision, there’s nothing he can do. His arm goes limp instantaneously, gravity taking over.

“Gavin!!”

The floor is closer than he thought, the air rushing from his lungs as his back hits a hard surface. Everything goes black for a few seconds, his vision only returning with white and red streaks of pain shooting behind his eyes. He’s alive. Everything fucking hurts, but he’s alive. Short, shallow breaths. His left arm hurts like a motherfucker, especially his shoulder. His right arm is hanging down, dangling in open air. So is the lower part of his right leg, his knee bend and something solid pressing against the side of his calf.

“Gavin! Don’t move!”

With some difficulty Gavin can locate the voice that is coming from above him. A white spot in his blurry vision, a blue glowing triangle.

“Stay still, Gavin! I’m coming!” The white spot moves up and with another blink Gavin can see how Nines climbs the rail of the walk bridge.

The android is seven or eight feet above him, ready to jump down. His LED is circling red. “You’re hurt. You need help.”

“No!” His voice croaks and it’s nowhere near as loud as he wanted it to be, yet his partner hears him anyway.

“Get… suspect.” Gavin coughs, trying to get some more air in his lungs.

“Can wait,” Gavin grunts. “Catch asshole first.”

“You’re hurt,” Nines states again, his brow furrowed.

“You are most definitely not fine!” Nines is angry. “You are in need of medical assistance.”

His surroundings start to make some sense to Gavin. He is lying on top of one of those giant rolls of paper, his arm and leg dangling off the side. With a groan he pulls his right arm in, letting it rest across his stomach. He doesn’t want to roll off the side, where another 8 foot drop is waiting for him.

“I’m fine,” he tells his partner.

“Fine, I’m not fine!” Gavin coughs again, his lungs still recuperating from the fall. “But I can wait until you catch that fucking waste of plastic first!”

The LED on Nines’ temple spins furiously, first red and then turning yellow. His jaw sets and then he steps back over the railing. With one last look down at Gavin he turns and then he’s off.

Gavin lets his head fall back against the roll of paper and screws his eyes shut. He almost pities the android that now has the RK900 hot on his tail. Almost, because he actually pities himself more. Fuck, this hurts.

He is distantly aware of the weird angle his left arm is lying in. He knows better than trying to move. Nines has probably already alerted the emergency services. Help is on the way. In the meantime he tries to focus on his breathing to keep from hyperventilating.

Gavin pulls his face in a pained smirk. “What, no Gavin anymore?”

Sooner than expected, there’s a loud thud from closeby. Gavin feels more than sees that Nines drops to his knees next to him. The large paper roll moves a bit, but remains stable.

“I’m gonna scan you, detective,” his partner says, voice low and concerned.

“Shoulder, arm,” Gavin breathes out. “Head too. My back a little.”

“I see your amazing personality didn’t suffer from your fall,” is the quick answer and Gavin huffs out a laugh, ending in a groan.

A warm hand closes around his own on his stomach, squeezing reassuringly. “Where does it hurt?”

Nines nods. “You have dislocated your shoulder and there’s a high probability for a concussion. Your back and spine seem to have suffered no real damage, except for some heavy bruising.”

“I’ll walk it off.” His lame joke earns him a firm squeeze in his hand, bordering on painful. “Ow! Careful there, terminator.”

“I’m gonna have to set your shoulder,” Nines says. “The longer we wait, the bigger the risk for permanent damage.”

Gavin nods and grinds his teeth together. “Do you know how to do it?”

“I’ve downloaded the necessary procedures,” his partner answers and removes his hand from Gavin’s to inspect the detective’s shoulder.

Gavin curses when a new flare of pain shoots up his shoulder. The RK900 is not a medically trained android, though he has the basic knowledge to provide first aid. However, he also delivered a baby on the side of the road, so it’s safe to say setting a dislocated shoulder is not beyond his abilities.

Nines says some quiet words about Gavin not being in the ideal position but not wanting to move him too much in fear of his other injuries. He also brings Gavin’s right wrist up to his face, pushing the sleeve of his leather jacket up to his lips. “I advise you to bite down on this.”

The moment Gavin bites down firmly, the android pulls on his left arm and Gavin feels bones and muscles grind against each other. He curses up a storm and doubles over, colliding with his partner’s chest.

It’s an awkward position, Gavin hunched over in Nines’ lap, with the android supporting his repositioned arm to prevent the joint from coming out of the socket again. He can’t bring it up to move himself away just yet, panting harshly to breathe through the pain. Gavin fists the white CyberLife jacket in his good hand, digging his nails in. His forehead rests against Nines’ thigh, the fabric of his slacks soft against his skin.

“Fuck you,” Gavin answers, not really meaning it.

A gentle hand strokes his hair. Once, twice, a third time in time with his breathing.

“So far for not moving you too much,” Nines says with a hint of amusement. “At least we now know for sure you have no damage to your spine.”

“You’re welcome.”

Gavin chances a look down. They are on top of three stacked rolls of paper, too high for him to jump down, especially in this state. He’ll probably hurt his ankles or fall on his injured arm.

Gavin punches the android lightly in his side, still clutching the jacket. He only holds back to prevent hurting his own hand: Nines his plating is really hard.

He carefully sits up, sliding sideways a little to not put too much pressure on his painful limbs. Nines moves with him, supporting his arm until Gavin can take over. The android removes his thin jacket and folds it to form a makeshift mitella. It’s not ideal, but it’ll work for now.

“We can get down on the other side,” Nines says, guessing his thoughts. “Or we can wait for the fire department to get you down.”

“No fucking thank you.” Gavin already finds it humiliating enough that the android has to help him to his feet.

Nines keeps his hand on his elbow, guiding Gavin over the stacked rolls to the other side, where there is one roll next to a stack of two, making a giant stairs.

“I’ll go first and then I’ll help you down,” Nines says and lightly jumps down to the lower roll of paper.

“Medical support is here,” Nines says. His LED blinks yellow as he communicates with the ambulance personnel. He guides Gavin to sit on the floor, sitting on his haunches in front of him.

Gavin has no other choice than to shove forward on his butt until his legs dangle of the edge and Nines can reach up for him. His partner keeps a firm grip on his hips as he lowers him, Gavin grabbing the android’s shoulder with one hand to steady himself.

They repeat the process until they’re on the floor, with Gavin out of breath from having to grit through the pain.

“I secured them for our uniformed colleagues,” Nines answers and there is something about that statement that sounds a bit off to Gavin.

Gavin leans back against the giant toilet roll, wishing it was as soft as real toilet paper. He closes his eyes.

“What did you do with the perps?”

He has no time to ask about it though, because the ambulance is coming in through the loading dock and so are three patrol cars. Gavin is happy to see his friend Tina getting out one of the cars. She hurries over to them, already calling out from a distance. “What the fuck, Reed?! Who told you base jumping was a good idea?!”

He gives her a one-sided shrug, grimacing when even that hurts. “You know me, always eager to try something new.”

“Bullshit,” she laughs. “You don’t even want to try the chef’s special at Roasty’s!”

He bickers with his friend, grateful for the distraction. In the background Nines is interfacing with one of the medical androids, no doubt filling her in about what happened.

When he is done he steps closer to them, watching Gavin. “Officer Chen can stay with you. I’ll go assist the other officers to retrieve our suspects.”

Nines looks confused. “I don’t understand?”

“No, you stay with Gav. I’ll fetch those guys.”

Nines looks like he wants to argue with her, yet she is adamant.

“I have wrangled him into getting his shots twice already. You’re his partner now, it’s your turn!”

Tina smirks and stands up to whisper loudly in the android’s ear. “Our boy here is terrified of needles.”

“I can hear you, you know!” Gavin scowls over the shoulder of the medical android who is treating him.

His friend only waves sweetly. “Might want to put a muzzle on him too. Last time he bit the doctor.”

Nines rides in the ambulance with him, staying silently by his side the whole time. There is one needle. A big one. It’s a painkiller of some sorts and Gavin tries to convince the doctor he doesn’t need it. The android nurse prepares the needle anyway and there is nothing more humiliating than failing to hide his fear for his partner and ending up in his strong arms, hyperventilating and with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Everything starts to blur together after that. Nines takes him home and when he wakes up the next morning, he is only in his underwear and a T-shirt, meaning the android must have undressed him. He also vaguely remembers getting woken up by the android repeatedly during the night, the reassuring image of the glow of a blue LED in the dark stuck in his memories.

“Like I fell from 16 feet.”

Getting up is almost impossible: his whole body hurts. He curses loudly and manages to roll over to get his feet off the bed, before he can push himself up with his good arm. There is a knock on the door and a moment later Nines appears in the door opening.

“How are you feeling, Gavin?” Nines only calls him detective when they are at work nowadays.

“That sounds accurate,” is the dry response. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“I need a shower first, I feel fucking filthy.”

Undressing turns out to be another humiliating experience. He has to call Nines back into the room because he can’t get his T-shirt off by himself. The android is gracious about it, acting like it’s the most normal thing in the world that a grown man needs help to get out of his clothes. Only once Gavin sees his eyes wander over his naked chest, the android’s eyes quickly fixating back on his shoulders when he is caught.

Gavin stumbles into the adjacent bathroom, glad to shut the door between him and Nines. The struggle to get his underwear off is a fucking nightmare and he nearly falls over. The split second thought of asking his partner for help in the shower is pushed down immediately. When he is finally in the shower, the hot water helps to calm him down and it soothes his sore muscles. He takes his time, staying in the shower until the water runs cold.

He pats himself dry with a towel, not able to get himself completely dry, yet he refuses to call for Nines. For a second he expects the android to be waiting for him in his bedroom and he actually peeks into the room to check before walking out. Getting dressed is more of the same nightmare and it takes him way longer than it should. He opts out of wearing a T-shirt and searches his closet for a button up shirt. The only choice he has besides the shirt of his dress uniform is a Hawaiian shirt in screaming colours that Anderson would probably compliment him on. He gives up on buttoning it halfway, fucking exhausted of the whole ordeal of getting showered and dressed. At least his joggers are not falling from his ass. There is a sling waiting for him on his bed and he decides to not be a stubborn ass and just put it on. The sooner his shoulder heals, the better.

“I don’t mind,” Nines says pleasantly. “Besides, you would probably just grab a cereal bar and call that breakfast.”

A cup of coffee is ready for him when he comes into the kitchen, his partner busy making pancakes.

“You don’t have to do that,” Gavin grumbles, taking his coffee from the counter.

Gavin carefully leans his backside against the counter, side eyeing the golden brown pancake on the stove. “Do you even know how to make pancakes?”

“I can follow a recipe, it’s not that hard.” The android flips the pancake perfectly. “I quite enjoy cooking, actually. It’s relaxing.”

“Too bad you don’t eat then,” Gavin scoffs.

“I didn’t fall on my ass, plastic idiot.” Gavin stiffly goes to sit down at the kitchen table. The pancakes smell good, they taste even better. He eats in silence, Nines cleaning up the kitchen.

“I could cook for you when I come over to visit Tiny.” The suggestion is made so casually that Gavin almost agrees with it. As if getting more domestic with his DPD partner is a good fucking idea in the first place.

“Your breakfast is ready. Do you think you can sit down?”

When his plate is empty, Nines collects it with a pleasant ‘did you enjoy your meal?’, like he is a fucking waiter.

“Yeah, it was good. But, Nines… you don’t have to fucking do this.”

“Woah, you can stop your whole personal guilt trip right there, tin can!” Gavin pushes his seat back and gets up. “What happened was not your fault. It was just a stupid accident.”

His partner seems to understand he means more than making him breakfast. “I stayed over because someone had to wake you up every hour to check for a concussion, otherwise you’d have to stay the night at the hospital. I thought you would prefer being at home, so I called us a cab.”

Nines washes the plate in the sink, continuing their conversation. “You got injured on the job because I was too late to spot the two intruders. Taking care of you when you’re injured is the least I can do.”

The LED circles yellow and the expression on Nines’ face is way too fucking serious. The android really seems to think Gavin getting hurt was somehow his fault.

“I mean it, Nines,” Gavin states again, getting in the android’s line of vision. “Not. Your. Fault.”

It takes a few seconds, but then Nines slowly nods, his LED turning back to blue. “All right.”

His eyes fall down Gavin’s shirt. “You still need help though.”

The android’s fingers make quick work of the open buttons, straightening out the Hawaiian shirt with a short pull at the bottom when he’s done.

Nines tilts his head in acknowledgement. “I do. I have some interrogations waiting for me.”

Gavin doesn’t think his face can get any redder. And it’s not just because he’s being dressed like a small child again. It’s more about the way Nines’ hands feel on him, like they simply belong there. He steps back, creating more distance between them.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” His voice cracks embarrassingly on the first couple of words.

Normally Gavin would have insisted to be there for the interrogations of the suspects they caught yesterday, yet now he is relieved to see the android leave his apartment. Not that he won’t be back: one of the officers drove Gavin’s car back to the precinct yesterday and Nines will bring it back to him at the end of the day.

He walks out onto his balcony, lighting a much needed cigarette. He smokes a second when he realises the android effectively distracted him from wanting to smoke yesterday in the evidence room. Nines has wormed himself into nearly every part of his life and Gavin can’t even be mad about it. The android only ever goes as far as he lets him. If he told him to go, the android would obey. The thought of what that would do with Nines is unsettling, the realisation that Gavin doesn’t want him to go even more so. He smokes a third cigarette before crashing on the couch, letting daytime tv numb his brain and make the weird thoughts go away.

At some point he falls asleep on the couch, sorely regretting it the moment he is woken up by his phone. It’s Tina, so he answers despite the pain.

“You sound like shit,” she tells him immediately.

“I fell asleep in front of the tv, shouldn’t have done that,” he explains, groaning as he pops a particularly sore kink in his back. “How are things at the office?”

His friend explains how the two suspects were interrogated, Nines being able to get valuable information from them. “He was brutal though,” she says hesitantly. “I’ve never seen him like that before.”

“Well, he was shot at yesterday,” Gavin answers. “We never take kindly to criminals who shoot at cops.”

“Attempted murder?” Gavin mulls it over. He almost fell to his death, that stack of paper rolls saved his life. “He did throw me over that rail.”

“I meant the android suspect, actually,” Tina interrupts him. “I thought Nines was gonna rip out his Thirium pump. He was fucking scary, Gav!”

Gavin frowns. Nines is usually very careful and strict around their suspects. He only uses force when he really has to and even then he is never out of line. For him to act like this, the suspect must have been really getting to him.

“Nines is trying to get him for attempted murder on a police officer. Don’t know if that’s gonna stick.”

“I know. But the guy can really do us a number if he files a complaint against Nines.”

“Why? Because he was a little hard on him in the interrogation room?”

“No, because he…” Tina pauses. “He didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

She chuckles. “We found that android on the roof, folded up like laundry in an airco housing unit. I guess Nines wanted to get back to you quickly and didn’t have the patience to take the perp with him.”

Gavin almost breaks a laugh because of the image. The message behind it is more serious however. “That doesn’t sound like Nines. What about the other suspect, the gunman?”

“That one was chained with his wrists to one of the printing presses. He was a lot more comfortable than his friend.”

They chat a little longer, Tina telling him about the little things he missed at the office today. Gavin only listens to half of it, his mind is stuck on Nines’ rough treatment of the suspect. Slowly, he comes to a conclusion. One that is in line with Nines feeling guilty about Gavin getting hurt. One that fits in with Nines taking care of him, hanging out in his home. He remembers the question Nines asked him when he showed up at his house to apologize about getting him a new cat: ‘Do you care about me?’. And Gavin’s answer was important to his partner, because of what the android was really saying.

I care about you.

<< 6/10 >>

DBH Partners series Masterpost

#dbh partners series #dbh #detroit become human #gavin reed #rk900 #reed900 #gavin reed x rk900 #fanfiction #reblogging is appreciated #slowburn #casefic

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waitmyturtles · 2 years ago

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This might be an unpopular opinion, but I’m waffling on The End of the World, With You again, and kinda wondering when is this damn meteorite gonna hit already why this show needs to be eight episodes. For episode 6, I think the Madoka storyline was an important one, especially as we see Meguru essentially embody the visual identity of their sister*, but -- what, exactly, did this arc take us to, except for a possible reveal that Ritsu may harm himself in the next episode out of what, guilt?

Not to sound whiny, but I think this is another case in this script of something being relatively obvious, in that we’ve long understood now that Ritsu is a questionable character, and like -- there have been many times where Ritsu himself has realized that. Why would the end of the world bring on such a guilt trip, as opposed to any other time in his life? It seemed like Ritsu was owning his behavior previously, even to Masumi (which also made me wonder about the apology scene in this episode -- Ritsu WAS right when he and Masumi were dating in college that they had never discussed exclusivity).

Am I missing something? I could ABSOLUTELY be missing something, so if there’s anyone out there reading this and wants to offer some insight, I’ll take it! I’m seeing otherwise positive reviews of this episode on the tag, but I thought this episode plodded. Maybe I just don’t trust Ritsu with his revelations, and that might be swinging me.

***I’ve seen this motif before in Japanese literature, of someone capturing the visual identity of a close person who passed. It was a central motif in Banana Yoshimoto’s short story, Moonlight Shadow, and it’s a lovely piece that I highly recommend. That short story also had a wonderful magical realism framework -- I wonder if there are intentional similarities with TEOTWWY, but I’m too tired to dig into it at the moment.

#the end of the world with you #the end of the world with you meta #teotwwy

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curio-queries · 12 days ago

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@xcziel leaving a gem in the tags! Please let me know if you'd rather I not tag you in this but you reminded me of a point I'd meant to include as well. For anyone that missed it here's the tags:

Yes! there is absolutely something at play with the guys and the brands they were working with as ambassadors prior to their service. All three members of the maknae line clearly wore clothing from the brands with which they were partnered. I'm positive this was by design. There are many ways this could have come to be. Maybe some of our more fashion-focused blogs here can comment because I'm really out of my depth speculating how these sorts of deals might work with luxury clothing brands (@myobsessionsspace, @irmi3454, @shimako any insight??)

I vaguely remember noticing some bangtantv content that had a brand name blurred out even though it wasn't in the actual performance. Can't remember what it was to pull any examples unfortunately. Does anyone else remember this? Please share if you do. It's possible I've made it up entirely.

Anyway, if this did happen, it likely would be more to do with the nature of the agreement with the specific brand at the time. There could be terms regarding exactly which types of events the artists will feature their products and if the brand has a requirement to review prior to release. There may be instances where production doesn't want to go through the approval process with a brand for such minimal placement and would rather just blur the logo.

But getting back to the above tags. Even while i was rewatching AYS last month to gather my final thoughts and I was specifically making notes of the product placement, I never pinged on Nike as a possible sponsor, but I think you're absolutely right, it very well could have been! Honestly, I think Nike has just become so much of a household name that even their name spelled out (not just their logo) doesn't register as product placement. Thank-you for helping me learn something about myself!

Going clothes shopping was absolutely on the schedule from the beginning. JK mentions when he's packing that he's incorporating those new clothes in his planning of what he'll wear. There was a time where I wondered if they stopped BECAUSE they wanted clothes specifically for kayaking but I don't think that was the case. The production team knows we enjoy seeing the members shopping. There's been plenty of content that featured it over the years and I believe every season of BV had a few non-grocery shopping scenes as well? Am I remembering that correctly also?

(This entire post has been an experiment in my memory retrieval it seems...)

Are You Sure?!

(Is this the end?!)

It's finally time for my AYS wrap-up post! (goodness knows I've rambled on about this show enough, maybe there'll be more to say in the future but this is likely where I'll conclude this series for now)

Link to my AYS MasterList

Promotions/Finances

One of the points we discussed quite a bit while watching this show was how paying attention to promotional content and financial implications can help us discern a little regarding the inception of the show and how that influences the final product.

I'd assume this methodology is similar for all of the content Hybe produced but I admittedly don't watch much that's outside the scope of BTS. If any of you have any insight on how this is structured for other groups, I'd definitely be interested to hear about it! Anyway, regarding AYS, we've been theorizing that the US episodes were filmed on speculation and could then have been used to shop around to brands for sponsorships which would continue to fund more trips.

Product placements:

Ep.1 (USA): None

Ep.2 (USA): None

Ep.3 (Jeju): Clothes

Ep.4 (Jeju): Vitamins & Hydration Spray

Ep.5 (Jeju): Perfume

Ep.6 (Sapporo): Sunglasses

Ep.7 (Sapporo): Sunscreen & Skiwear

Ep.8 (Sapporo): Perfume

Something else that stuck out to me during my initial watch-throughs as well was the progression of including establishing shots of the businesses they visit. There were basically none in the US episodes but by the time we get to Sapporo, these shots linger for long enough to me to notice. The signs and logos are blurred out as expected to bolster BTS's brand power but it's interesting to me that these shots just weren't included at all in the US portion.

The crew brought some very skilled operators with them to Jeju and Sapporo as evident by the gorgeous cinematography. I'm not saying they didn't have the same level of skill in the US, but there may not have been the same directive to focus on this or the level of equipment needed for the crew to really show off.

Sidenote: I KNOW I'd made some notes also on the blurring of the various vehicle logos as there were some inconsistencies and we know BTS as a whole has previously partnered with Hyundai but I can't find my notes and I'm not rescouting the episodes right now for this. If any of you happen to remember, please share!

Bonus Footage

Something I was really looking forward to was seeing if there was any obvious reasoning behind what footage would be saved for the bonus release instead of included in the official episodes. Afterall, access to this footage was likely the main reason many decided to purchase the photobook at all so there had to be some fulfillment for the perceived value. I wondered if they might take a similar approach to Run BTS's bonus footage where there is regularly a dedicated camera capturing footage specifically for this purpose. Now that I've finally received my photobook and been able to watch these clips, I believe most of footage was separated for the bonus content for a few specific reasons:

Footage quality: There's a good portion of the bonus footage that was captured via handheld cameras with less-than-stellar quality. I'm not trying to disparage the operators' skills but there's a specific tone that non-steady-cam footage brings and it wasn't necessarily in-line with the overall tone much of the edit required. It also reminds the audience at least subconciously that our guys are being followed by a camera crew which typically isn't the intent of BTS content and definitely was minimized as much as possible during AYS. More on this concept in the next point. Example: JK packing his suitcase in USA. That footage is very pretty shaky.

Fourth-Wall Breaks: Is this a phrase y'all still understand these days? Again, the idea of reminding the viewer that this is footage being captured by cameras and microphones and we're not just a fly-on-the-wall. There were plenty of moments in the Bonus footage where JM/JK call attention to the fact that they're filming a show or where the crew interacts with them. Quite a few of these were specifically to highlight photo ops (another subconscious reinforcement of the value delivered with the photobook purchase. the viewer can see footage of JM/JK taking pics that only appeared in the photobook they just flipped through and feel a further connection to the moment). Example: JM and JK taking each other's pics in front of the restaurant in Sapporo.

Pacing: I would categorize the rest of the bonus footage as micro-moments or extensions of scenes we did receive in the full episode but if included as-is, would have broken the desired pacing of the episode. There's no flow to worry about with the Bonus footage rather than chronologically so they're welcome to throw everything together and it doesn't feel like a storytelling misstep. Example: Jimin actually eating and chatting with V and JK at the seaside restaurant in Jeju. Including this would have broken the flow of the edit where they had the sped-up footage of JM describing the history of Jeju while the others just ate.

I was honestly surprised by the amount of editing present in the bonus clips. I'm sure there was always a plan to release some extra footage some way but it wouldn't surprise me if this decision was made early enough that they left much of it in queue for the first rounds of edits because they knew they'd be charging for access to it. Having at least some basic editing again helps justify the value.

Sidenote: there is no reference to 'keep going' in the photobook. So we have no further clues there. There's a couple of 'Go JK' or 'Go Jimin' captions but not 'keep going'.

Title Cards

Y'all I had been so confused by these from the very beginning but probably not for the reason you're thinking. I made note of which scenes had title cards and exactly what Jimin's voiceover line stated with each one. Mostly, WHY they decided to include the ones they did and the inconsistencies with what activities got a title card and which one's didn't.

Ep.1 (USA): We're having our first meal in America

Ep.1 (USA): It's fun to ride kayaks

Ep.2 (USA): We enjoy a yacht ride

Ep.2 (USA): We're eating our final meal

Ep.3 (Jeju): We're going climbing

Ep.4 (Jeju): A three-way split is fun

Ep.5 (Jeju): We are going for a swim

Ep.6 (Sapporo): We're on a train

Ep.7 (Sapporo): We are at a ski resort

Ep.8 (Sapporo): I love the convenience store

We know from the bonus footage that Jimin recorded many more than they used. Episodes 1 & 2 have two each and the rest only have one. Now, I'm not trying to say that they were trying to make those episodes seem more full than the others...but I'm not NOT saying it either...

It's just also very interesting which ones they decided to use as well. Prior to the footage of Jimin recording it, I'd wondered if they'd just asked Jimin to make something up about whichever activities were the most memorable for him but that definitely wasn't the case (thank goodness, our guys do NOT have the best of memories with things like this).

Follow-ups

Queries from my first AYS episode post:

Will there be any tonal shift? Specifically, now that JM and JK have some uncertainties about the viability of their US adventure. Will it seem like they're compensating?

I don't think so, not for this reason at least. It seemed more like this production was naturally growing into what it would become. There were definitely some tonal variances, especially how 'action-packed' ep.3 was but I still feel like it was not too far of an outlier and more just helping them find what works best for this type of show.

We know Tae is going to be in at least the next episode. How is this going to handled narratively and will there be any visible contradictions from that narrative in the production?

I mean, there was definitely some variance in the story from the episodes to some of the bonus footage but I think that was generally just the guys being their entertaining selves.

At what point was the final quantity of locations and shoots locked down? And when/if will JM and JK make mention of this.

Genuinely, I think this was only finalized when they couldn't actually schedule anymore trips! It's definitely an interesting approach when you consider how intense the BTS production engine must be, especially in the lead-up to the members' military service and trying to prepare all of the releases that we would get while they were away. It's also one of the things I think JK was referring to in that clip from the US where he says he's never travelled so freely before. To start a shoot of this magnitude and not have some firm deliverables for the end result nailed down is pretty wild. I'm so glad it worked out for them as well as it did.

If/How will the music promotion narrative shift? It's clear that this episode could not have been released until after MUSE's release once they decided to keep the footage of JK listening to Who. But when was that decision made?

Interestingly enough, I think this show was never really designed with music promotion in mind. Yes, they definitely couldn't have released it until after MUSE's release with the inclusion of that Who-listening session but that easily could have been removed or included in the bonus footage if a delay was needed. I think the timing did work out great for it but yeah, overall, music promotion was not likely one of the main drivers of this show.

On a somewhat-related note though, one thing has had me wondering from the beginning. Y'all remember the end of ep.1 when JM says he doesn't think this footage will air? Just what experiences does he have with content they've filmed that we DON'T get? Just what else have they hidden back from us? haha, we want it all!

The End

Okay, that's enough from me on this topic for now. I'm sure there's more we can chat about with this show and I absolutely can't wait until our guys are back and can travel again! I hope they're able to use this show as an excuse to do things they want that they typically wouldn't.

Thank-you to everyone that's been joining me in these chats. It's been so lovely to chat with many of you about this show and it's beyond humbling that people are at all interested in my random observations. I'm so happy y'all were here with me experiencing this great show together.

#AYS #jeon jungkook #park jimin #jikook #Are You Sure?!

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3wisellamas · 3 years ago

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Some insights from the Japanese version of chapter 2!

(I'm not THAT great at Japanese, and am NOT a native speaker, it's been years and even then I never got super-fluent, but I can still read a little, and just used my dictionary for the rest. So, if anyone wants to correct me on this, go for it.)

-In case you missed it, Spamton's speech is translated REALLY interestingly, using "death" in English instead of "desu" (since they're pronounced the same), spelling daisuki (love) as "die-suki", uses Watakushi (formal and gender-neutral, though not exclusively, pretty much anyone can use it) as his pronoun but replaces "kushi" with the numbers 9 and 4, which are pronounced Ku and Shi but whose sounds out of context can mean "death" and "pain/torture" and are therefore considered unlucky numbers, etc. Also, less horrifying, instead of BIG SHOT he just says he wants to be "BIG" -- which, given that he's a literal email spambot from the 90s, has some implications...

-Seam's pronoun is...Atashi? o____O Which is, like, really feminine. The girly girl pronoun. If they don't straight-up identify as a different gender in Japanese, I guess we're supposed to interpret this as them seeing themselves as being more feminine?

-King and Queen both use Watakushi, with Queen even using it and all other words referring to people/specific topics in [brackets] sorta similar to Spamton (though in Japanese this translates more as just being in quotes), along with other formatting quirks like everything she says being enclosed in <!-- HTML comment tags -- >, making her seem more computer-y.

-The Addisons don't use any pronouns at all. None. They NEVER say the equivalent of the words "I" or "Me" ANYWHERE in Japanese.

-SCC all use male pronouns:

Sweet and Cap'n both use Ore (very masculine, tough guy, arrogant, connotations of being a delinquent/gangster).

Interestingly, Sweet rarely refers to just himself, but as part of the whole group (Oretachi), while Cap'n does both.

K_K uses Boku (standard friendly male pronoun)

-Susie also uses Ore, which makes sense for her since despite being almost exclusively a male pronoun, she doesn't care about that shit! She is tough and you WILL respect her.

-Now for the big one! Swatch also uses Watakushi (gender-neutral, formal). Now, literally anyone can use that or its less-formal version Watashi, male, female, or otherwise -- it's pretty much just the default pronoun (I use Watashi whenever I speak Japanese, since I'm NB). But, in this case, without any English equivalent to go on, I think we can officially say They/Them Swatch confirmed!!

-I've seen others bring this up before, but I'll include it for completeness: Rouxls Kaard uses Yo as his pronoun, which is...basically Watashi but EXTREMELY formal and a little old-fashioned, only really used in writing rather than speech. So, pretty accurate to him!

And now for some more SCC stuff, since I focused on those scenes (for obvious reasons):

-Sweet and Cap'n both speak pretty normally, albeit VERY informally, with the latter using slightly harsher/even more casual language and not really ending his sentences properly, but K_K's manner of speaking is different. He basically speaks in either a really lazy or cutesy manner, rarely using difficult kanji and ends every sentence li~ke thisssss!!~

-In Japanese, K_K's nickname makes a little more sense -- the line where in English he says "K_K is short for 'Cakes.'" is instead "K_K wa 'Kēki' no ryaku da yo~" or "K_K is an abbreviation of Kēki (Cake)!~" In Japanese you abbreviate something by either using the first kana of each word or, especially in cases like this with a shorter word in katakana, the first English character of each kana. So, his name is Kē Ki -- KK!

-Instead of "See ya! Smell ya! Hear ya!", they all just say goodbye, but in their own way:

Sweet: "Mata kaiou!" (Until we meet again!)

Cap'n: "Mata na!" (See ya, very casual)

K_K: "Mata ni~" (Same as Cap'n, but in a much more cute, childish manner)

-Instead of lemon drops, K_K talks about lemon jelly. Which...explains a lot of the Japanese fanart I've seen with K_K eating it.

-Instead of saying Queen gave him candy for being so sweet, Sweet says that Queen gave him a nickname that translates directly to "Little Sweets/Candy Boy". And when he hears it, Cap'n says he wants to be called that too!

-Cap'n drops the freaking k-word! Granted, it's referring to the damn Berdly statue, which, I would use that word to describe too, but still. Someone wash this boy's mouth out with soap!

-"Boku wa sweets daisuki!" / "I love sweets!" Shippers, this one's for you.

#i can't believe deltarune is now rated pg-13 because of cap'n #deltarune #sweet cap'n cakes #spamton #swatch #seam #queen #susie #rouxls kaard #sweet #cap'n #k_k

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onaa-ohokthen · 2 years ago

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Let’s talk about Grace Carrow (again)

I wrote a meta a million years ago about how Grace’s most basic characteristic is being wrong. I lost it when my old tumblr was accidentally deleted, since it was under a Read More tag. I tried to recreate it! This time, since it won’t be under a read more tag, anything past this sentence can be considered a spoiler for Natasha Pulley’s The Watchmaker of Filigree Street.

Grace isn’t the first thing I think about when I consider Watchmaker. I think about Thaniel and Mori and about how endearing Katsu is and how I hope(d, prior to Pennyharrow) that Six got a better life. But Grace. Grace is a bit of a mystery.

Superficially, Grace Carrow is a character the reader ought to feel connected to. She is a Victorian woman who is also a scientist; her desire to be left alone to focus on physics is her drive for over half the novel. She rebels against society’s standards, not just in her clothes (often masculine to sneak into the Oxford libraries) hair (short, a good thirty-five years before it become even vaguely acceptable) and social habits (hangs out with a male foreigner and spurns female companionship) but in her goals in life. Her mother despairs, her father rages, even Matsumoto is confused about her intense focus on physics. Fanshaw calls her, in a moment of foreshadowing, “the madwoman in the attic full of explosives.” She doesn’t want to marry, but must. All of these are elements we’ve seen in stories before, and they should endear Grace to us, the readers. Perhaps they do, at least initially, but then we land in the insight that Grace is, fundamentally, as a character, wrong. She’s wrong about lumiferous eather, she’s wrong about women’s suffrage, she’s wrong about Mori, and she is wrong about Thaniel. Yet she’s far from stupid; it’s her inability to see the full picture that is the problem. Let’s begin:

Lumiferous aether was a real hypothesis in physics at the time Watchmaker is set. Grace can’t prove it because it’s wrong, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. It was first suggested to be entirely mistaken in 1887, and finally disproven in the 1920s, and it was in abandoning lumiferous eather that physics opened the door to Einstein and his theory of general relativity. But Grace is so sure she’s right, so sure that she can prove it. Lumiferous eather fits into what she knows about science, what she knows about the world and she has attached so much of her life on proving it that she couldn’t abandon it if she wanted to.

Women’s suffrage is more interesting. Grace is actively suffering from a lack of legal independence, despite her high social standing, and one would assume she’d be invested in women’s rights. This is not the case, she fails to identify the root of the problem as structural and opts to hop over the metaphorical lawn rather than try to change the rules. Her decision is rooted in disdain for other women, and in anyone not a physicist (Grace isn’t alone in this attitude). Other women and are, in her opinion, stupid and undeserving of respect, nevermind that that they’re in the process of trying to solve her problem. Grace doesn’t want women’s rights, the wants as solution to her own personal lack of access to a house and a physics career, failing to see that they’re one and the same.

It is instrumental to the entire plot of Watchmaker that Grace is wrong about Thaniel. She calls him a telegraphist, “an ordinary man who works in an office and sometimes plays the piano,” and misses his depth and nuance, dismisses his artistry, his uniqueness, really his whole personhood beyond what his presence does to her life on a purely mechanistic level; being married - to anyone - allows her to inherit a house. The fact that this dooms Thaniel to shrinking his personality to fit into her life isn’t something that bothers her, because she never sees him as he is. He is just a telegraphist to her, “clerk written all over him”, to borrow Matsumoto’s words from the banquet. She doesn’t love Thaniel, at least not yet, but she is still possessive enough of him to make some very bad decisions (that are rooted in being wrong about Mori.)

Yes, finally, Grace is wrong about Mori. One of my favourite aspects of the book: if Grace could have just left things well enough alone, not picked a fight over her experiments and the proceeded to cut down the pear trees, and especially if she hadn’t blown up a building, she could have had what she wanted; Thaniel would have stayed with her, slowly abandoning Mori. But seeing that would require her to understand Mori’s motivation, and it’s obvious, both from her narration and actions that she never sees him as anything other than a manipulator, someone who meddles in the world solely because he enjoys it. We can’t entirely fault her; Thaniel, too, fails to make the full connection before Mori tells him. But the truth is that when it comes to Thaniel, Mori acts out of love. Thaniel gets a better job, a better wage, weekends off, tea and company. He gets to play the piano again, not because Mori needs someone to stop Yuki at the Mikado performance, but because Thaniel loves playing the piano. But because Grace sees Thaniel as nothing but a toy, she fails to see that Mori values him for himself. Grace doesn’t love, she desires, at most, to possess. She is habituated to being catered to.

Mori, of course, is always, definitionally, right. He can know every outcome except the truly random ones, and as such is forced to constantly consider the whole picture. He lacks a single area of study throughout his life, having been a soldier and a government aid prior to being a watchmaker. (Although clockwork is a choice he’s made for himself contrary to his background just like Grace’s physics.) He’s intelligent but mainly effective due to his clairvoyance, and not otherwise a genius. Grace, on the other hand, is very intelligent, clever enough to outwit a clairvoyant, to “have two big numbers to multiply, and [she] could do it in [her] own head if [she] made the effort, but [she’s] feeling lazy and [she] hold[s] them still until [she] can reach an abacus”, but lacking the necessary insight to see that she doesn’t need to do any of those things. Whether she is blinded by class, the inherent racism of her time period, lack of experience, or just personal arrogance (remember what her father is like), she makes a very interesting foil for Mori.

#the watchmaker of filigree street #the watchmaker of filigree street spoilers #natasha pulley #grace carrow #thaniel steepleton #keita mori #twofs

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tnbc-thoughtsandheadcanons · 3 years ago

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Mirror Moon Series Review

The Nightmare Before Christmas: Mirror Moon comic by TOKYOPOP has recently ended. I’ve read through all of my Issues to give this series a proper full review! As always, I’m tagging with #Mirror Moon Spoilers to anyone who’d like to avoid them. This post *WILL* be long, since I’m talking about the entire series, so read the review below!

I want to start off with my pre-ordering experience with this series. Mirror Moon was expected to release in its entirety by October 2021, but kept getting delayed and only officially finished in April 2022(August, if we’re counting the Graphic Novel’s print date). It was irritating to lose money over this series. I hope no one endured the Hell I did with preordering Mirror Moon. Crossing my fingers that TOKYOPOP improves from this experience because I was not happy with ordering the Issues. :/

With that aside, I’ve broken things into categories to make things easier..!

The Art / Style

Mirror Moon has a unique and colorful art style compared to other TNBC adaptations, similar to Story of the Movie in Comics! Which might by explained by most of the events taking place during a sunny day. I love the stylization of most characters / Residents in here - I love what they did with the Witches and Sally especially! It’s always nice to see TNBC characters getting experimented with.

This comic *does* go with some recent changes, like the Behemoth’s axe is missing and the Vampire Brothers have pupils, both of which aren’t consistent with their designs in the movie. Something I want to mention is that...with the new style, some of the characters / residents are hard to recognize. This isn’t a big deal since these are side characters, but...Who is this tree, for instance??? 🤔 Is it the Hanging Tree from the film? His cousin? I love the insight as to who else could be living in Town, but it leaves me feeling confused since they’re either not addressed or explained.

Another criticism I have is the trouble with some scaling in the comic. Particularly, the way Jack Skellington is drawn in here...he’s known to be extremely tall and thin, as a skeleton, but in Mirror Moon, he’s drawn rather short and bulky. Something about it seemed off to me and I couldn’t enjoy the way he was drawn in here. A few other proportion issues come with other characters, but it can be chalked up to the stylized choice. In my case, I loved most things about it, but found Jack in particular to look....odd?

Another small mention is how Sally is drawn normally for the first couple of issues, but then is colored with a blush for the rest of the series(after she meets her clone). My best assumption is that they either decided on a style change, or did this to differ her between the clone? Maybe, to show how flustered she was from the ordeal? It still was off-putting. 🤔

The Plot / Story

A *LOT* happens in Mirror Moon’s story, so I will try to be brief explaining it all:

The comic is about Jack Skellington inventing a mirror that duplicates both objects and people, inspired by a dream he had where all of the Holiday Doors opened at once. In order to work on the mirror, he puts Sally in charge of the Halloween planning, merely a few days before Halloween. Understandably, Sally is stressed with all the responsibility, and has a premonition where she breaks Jack’s Mirror. She gets the feeling something terrible will happen from his plan.

The rest of the comic is Halloween Town spiraling into chaos from the unpredictable and malicious copies, while Sally learns about the mirror and helps get rid of the clones using the Vampire Brother’s help. She ends up breaking the magical mirror so no more things can be duplicated. Her ending line to the comic is: “A rag doll’s work is never done!”

...The comic is fast-paced, so things happen quickly. I think it would’ve benefited from a longer series to properly explore the concept. I would’ve loved to learn more about the clones - maybe see them team up + revolt together? See more of the Townspeople’s reactions to their copies? I think there was a lot of potential to this story that I expected too much out of - I find the plot a little lazy in explanation(the fact that Jack was accidentally copying people because the mirror was pointed outside? Really?) I feel like there was more they could’ve done with these ideas.

The concept felt a little more sci-fi compared to Nightmare’s usual fantasy. Still. It was filled with a lot of drama that kept with the story, so I appreciate Mirror Moon not being **boring**. Far from it! But I wish they had executed more bold ideas, and had the opportunity to do so instead of a 5-Issue series. I feel like that limited them greatly with what they could’ve done.

As a TNBC Adaption

I saw Mirror Moon described as a “sequel continuation to the Nightmare Before Christmas”. However, after reading the story....I can both understand and argue against this. The first thing we’re shown is Jack Skellington having a dream about all the Holiday Doors opening at once. Which means he’s aware of them and the Christmas debacle *likely* happened. It would also explain why Sally has more confidence to take charge of the town and approach Jack about his announcement to begin with.

However, some other things would point to Mirror Moon being a prequel. For instance, Oogie Boogie has an appearance later in the story. Since he dies onscreen in the film, this means it would *have* to be a prequel for him to be alive. The fact that Jack & Sally don’t seem to share any romance in this would also support the Prequel theory(that they’re just friends in this time). Unless both of these happen to be goofs / forgotten details.

If we’re treating Mirror Moon as a sequel, then it brings interesting worldbuilding / theories into play. The Clones prove doppelgangers are possible in the TNBC universe, and they turn malicious the longer they exist. Do they have their own universe in the mirrors? Are reflections’ true purpose is to be evil? Are they really a copy, or their own people in some way? This brings interesting questions!

Mirror Moon doesn’t necessarily have a new villain character either(unless we’re counting the clones themselves!). Nor does it bring new characters to the franchise...I know they introduced Gourd in charge of the pumpkin patch, but..c’mon. He’s just Jack’s Scarecrow design from the movie/games. It seems like a lazy way to bring a ‘new’ character in, borrowing an already-canon design of the MAIN character.

Other Commentary

I happen to be a big Jack X Sally fan. In this case, I somewhat expected some romantic scenes between them, only to be left in the dust. I know their relationship wasn’t the main focus of Mirror Moon’s premise, but...it doesn’t seem to exist in here, either. Which is confusing if this is a Sequel. Their first conversation is mostly one-sided with Jack not even asking for Sally’s consent to have her take charge of all the Halloween planning, or telling her in advance that he made this decision. The two don’t talk again until the very end. But Jack doesn’t necessarily apologize - and the two don’t share anything romantic. Weird.

-- To add onto this, some Mirror Moon concept art was shared in the digital Graphic Novel release(Credits to @violetified for sharing them!). Interestingly, some of these actually feature both Jack & Sally together, with a couple showing their malicious reflections behind them! I wonder why these weren’t used, but I also wonder if they were initially meant to interact more in the comic? Least to say, I prefer these layouts more than the finished result...

Also....one main character doesn’t even make an appearance in the comic. Dr. Finklestein is nowhere to be seen. He isn’t shown when Sally has to leave the Tower - which makes me wonder if she either approached him at all, had to sneak out, or (since this is a Sequel) she’s granted more freedom? I would’ve loved to know because I can’t see the Doctor allowing Sally taking charge of Halloween Town if he knew about it. He’s kind of crucial to her situation with her home life. He would also probably recognize her clone since he created her and knows Sally the best - possibly helping out with the story’s plotline!

- He isn’t my favorite character, but I think the Doctor’s presence would’ve contributed greatly to the story! He’s a mad scientist, and Jack was basically running a science experiment with the clones and mirrors. Why didn’t he ask for his help? Or work together with him? He could’ve assisted Sally with a solution to get rid of the copies! I find myself lamenting the lack of his presence in here because I can see him fitting so well with Mirror Moon’s events. :(

Overall

Mirror Moon was a fun experience, and something new for the TNBC franchise! I hope the fandom talks more about it. It brought an exciting plotline and shed light on Sally, arguably an underrated TNBC character who rarely gets proper focus in most adaptions! I love to see her character properly explored and written like this, where she’s able to show off her strengths! <3

However, Mirror Moon has questionable details that leave me confused. I wonder if the creators intentionally forgot some things from the movie, or if these were honest mistakes. (Dr. Finklestein, Oogie Boogie’s Death, Jack being the Scarecrow, etc.) It is a short story, so it can’t explain/explore everything unfortunately, but I still am left...confused....however, I’m delighted I got to read something like this!

Comparing Mirror Moon to Zero’s Journey, I can say that it felt like *more* actually happened in this series, which is funny since this was shorter in comparison. I looked forward to each Issue and was excited waiting for them to release! Both have their strengths and weaknesses as Sequels, but Mirror Moon is more fast-paced with a lot going on. I’d recommend this comic if you want something a little bizarre and different, but Zero’s Journey if you want something more loyal / consistent to the original movie!

If anyone has any further thoughts/theories/etc. on Mirror Moon, feel free to bring them into my Inbox! I’d love to talk more about this series!

#The Nightmare Before Christmas #Nightmare Before Christmas #Mirror Moon #TOKYOPOP #Mirror Moon Spoilers #Jack Skellington #Sally Skellington #Oogie Boogie #The Mayor of Halloween Town #TNBC #Tim Burton #Henry Selick #Zero's Journey #Zero Skellington #Lock Shock and Barrel #Jack X Sally #Jack and Sally #Gourd

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peachsayshi · 3 years ago

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Chapter 7 - Games

Gojo Satoru x Female Reader

Tags: Friends with Benefits, Teasing and a little bit of Fluff.

Summary: Trying to make sure the two of you stay out of the bedroom, you suggest playing a game of Twister and Gojo's mind starts to wander.

A/N: Sorry if there are mistakes! I don't have a beta and get tired rereading the chapters over and over again. This is a little short but we have some fluff and feels and we get a little insight on how Gojo has been feeling. I'm building up to something, I promise!

- - -

“Okay, left foot on green…”

With his right foot remaining on the red circle, Gojo spread his legs wide to place his left foot on the green circle towards the end of the mat. Things were easing up on his end when it came to work and he decided to take advantage of that by spending his free time with you tonight. What he didn’t expect was for the two of you to be in the middle of your living room playing board games instead of the usual physical activity that you both have grown accustomed to partaking in.

“Is this really how you want to spend our evening together?” he asked, taking the spinner from your hand as he proceeded to flick the arrow with his thumb and index finger.

You nodded your head, “We need to keep ourselves out of the bedroom. Otherwise, we will never leave...”

Gojo rotated his neck from side to side before replying, stretching to prepare himself for the awkward positions he was about to hold, “you’re making it sound like that’s a bad thing.”

“Listen, game night is going to make up for movie night which never happened because we wound up doing it on your couch instead...”

A smug grin spread across Gojo’s face, thinking of your failed plan to have a scary movie marathon with him. You were hoping to catch the sorcerer squirm but what you didn’t expect was him teasing you thirty minutes into the film that inevitably resulted in you being fucked senseless on his couch.

“You’re really going to put the blame on me for that? If you were paying attention you wouldn’t have succumbed to my advances so easily,” he retorted defensively.

“You had your hand up my skirt!”

“Now, I told you what that skirt does to me,” he jokingly snapped, pointing his finger at you sternly before shrugging his shoulders. “I couldn’t help myself…”

“Okay, well how about the night we were supposed to go out for dinner but missed our reservation because you decided to rip up my dress on the car ride over…”

“Let’s not get too dramatic, I merely broke the zipper and I did buy you another dress.”

“Okay, how about last night?”

Gojo parted his lips, pausing to think how the two of you wound up naked in the shower instead of going to the karaoke bar with Rina and her friends.

“Last night... wasn't my fault,” he pointed out, arching his brow at you as he recalled the way you teased him into submission.

“Oh, yeah. That’s right…” you shyly replied, biting your bottom lip as you scratched the back of your head. “So, uh, what’s my next move?”

“Quick to change the subject, I see?” Gojo answered with an easy smile, “Put your left hand on the blue circle…”

With your feet on the green and yellow circles, you leaned your body forward to put your left hand on the blue sphere. Meanwhile, Gojo dropped the spinner on the ground beside you, suppressing a laugh as he watched you struggle to spin the arrow and call out his next round.

“The point here is...” you grumbled as you tried to adjust yourself back into a comfortable position, “...the two of us are getting carried away. I just think this little break might do us some good.”

“I don’t think working up a sweat is a bad thing,” Gojo insisted.

“Well, we can burn calories after I kick your butt,” you added on, waiting for the arrow to land. “Right hand on green...”

“For someone trying to make sure we keep our distance, you sure picked an interesting game tonight,” Gojo teased, finding his new posture which brought his face close to yours.

“I know for a fact that you can’t cheat playing Twister,” you reminded, before glancing up at him from under your lashes and inching forward to peck him on the tip of his nose. “Besides, I never said I wanted space, I just thought I’d change things up for the evening.”

Gojo’s smiled into your lips as he gave you a soft kiss in return, “if you think you can distract me by being cute, you are absolutely wrong .”

“We both know how much of a sore loser you can be,” you answered back, “I just hope you’re ready to throw yourself a pity party by the end of this because I am definitely winning.”

“Mhmm, whatever you say. Right hand, blue…” he continued, trying to pay attention to the game and observing you reach your arm slightly underneath him to place your hand on the circle.

He couldn’t explain when things became this comfortable with you. If he had known that hooking up with you would bring you both closer together as friends, he wouldn’t have rejected your offer that easily.

You’ve both already broken one of your rules. However, Gojo didn’t mind forgoing the “drinking” rule to decide whether or not the two of you wanted to hook up. You both no longer needed the excuse anyway, after a while it became painfully clear that regardless of what the plans were, things always resulted in the two of you tangled up in someone’s bed sheets.

The sorcerer spent a majority of his spare time alone, unaware of how much it bothered him until you came along. He thought about the way you described yourself when you were in a relationship with your ex-boyfriend, and wondered if this felt similar in any way. Not that he considered you as anything other than a friend...but he was curious .

You both were different in many ways but often clashed when it came to your perspectives on love. You believed that there was a person out there for everbody, that there was nothing like falling in love with somebody who looked at you as if you were their whole world.

Granted, those were your opinions when you were in a happy and loving relationship but Gojo always disagreed with you because he was convinced that relationships were messy and only brought unnecessary drama to the table. That’s why he had his own personal rule that was standard practice when it came to his “love” life.

He never hooked up with somebody more than once.

Rumors about his womanising ways only stemmed from the fact that he did actually have plenty of lovers. However, he could barely recall their faces and didn’t even remember their names. Sometimes they recognized him on the street, and foolishly attempted to strike up a conversation with the handsome, rich stranger who paid for their company.

Gojo would politely brush them off every time. His stone cold reaction broke the hearts of those who were lucky enough to even be in his presence. He surely didn’t need to pay for the escorts or call girls but the act itself was easier and he had the money to spend anyway. These acquaintances never asked him any questions about his personal life, which benefited him greatly because it left very little room for anything other than small talk. Once both parties were satisfied, Gojo would leave every encounter without ever looking back. Sex was a routine way for him to blow off steam or merely take care of his natural urges. However, you didn’t know that you were the first person who he consistently kept as company in the bedroom.

Up until this moment, he had been suppressing his desire for you. Now that he has you, the sorcerer could tell he was getting greedy. He respected your wishes when you asked him not to see anyone else on the side but surprised himself when he realised that he had no interest in seeking out the strangers that used to keep him company at night.

Even though you both insisted that this new partnership had no influence on friendship, Gojo was observant enough to see that it was not the case. Little things were starting to change here and there, and he was carefully making note of it every time it happened.

For example, whenever he was off fighting curses, you started habitually checking up on him to make sure he was okay. One night when he was unable to answer his phone, he received a string of unusual text messages from you to find out what happened. He remembered calling you right after, teasing you to ask if you were worried about him. You surprised him with your fear, how you easily believed that something was powerful enough to harm him despite him repeatedly telling you that nothing could touch him. When you responded to his question with a sincere yes, an unexpected sensation spread across his chest. If he wasn’t paying attention to how much you cared about him before, he was more aware of it now.

To ease your worries, he made it a point to shoot you a text whenever he could just to let you know that he was alright. Although, he did sometimes forget which resulted in you panicking on the phone with him. Only this time, Gojo never made fun of your concerns.

In turn, he realised how fiercely protective he became of you and it killed him whenever he had to deflect your questions when you asked about his life. There was so much you wanted to know and so much that he wished he could tell you. However, he had every intention of maintaining this invisible boundary. The last thing he wants is for you to get caught up in something that you couldn’t understand. If he were to invite you into his whole world, that would only lead to you facing dangerous threats that loved to lurk in the shadows.

He would never forgive himself if something were to happen to you.

A few more rounds passed, and the two of you were intertwined in the most precarious situation. You were in a reverse tabletop position, looking like a crab with two hands and feet on the blue and yellow circles. Meanwhile, Gojo was in a plank position above you, his palms pressed on the red and green circle by your side, with one foot next to yours on a blue circle and another on a yellow circle.

You were shaking underneath him, desperately trying to maintain your awkward stance while Gojo appeared bored holding his own position with ease.

“Okay, I didn’t take your strength or height into consideration…” you groaned with a pout.

A chuckle escaped his lips, “give up, yet?”

“No…” you groaned, eyeing the spinner by your side as you reached for it with your right hand. You lifted your head slightly, your neck straining as you tried to call out the next move. “Left foot, green…”

Gojo picked up his leg but as he stretched himself out he realised that he couldn’t bend himself properly in that particular way.

Your eyes widened, watching him shake as he tried to rotate his body without lifting himself completely up off the mat.

“Or maybe your height is actually a disadvantage?” you questioned, ignoring the way your arms burned from holding yourself up as your heart raced with anticipation.

“Shhh, I’m concentrating...”

Gojo kicked his leg out one way and then the other, the comical image of his tall body in motion only made you laugh at his reaction. He tried his best to ignore the sound of your voice but knew that he could barely maintain his balance as he tried to find the green circle. However, he miscalculated the gravity of his own weight when he shifted to the left side of his body, his elbow buckling underneath and causing him to collapse.

“Yes!” you exclaimed, raising your arms up in victory, paying no attention to his body pressed on top of yours.

His face was buried in the crook of your neck, breathing in deep to inhale the scent of your soap. He felt your hand pat the back of his head lightly, indicating that you wanted him to get off from on top of you. He slowly unraveled himself, irritated by his own misfortune as he rolled onto his back to lay down beside you. He tilted his head to look at you, noticing you turn so you both were making direct eye contact with each other.

Gojo always knew you were beautiful. Nothing in this world could convince him otherwise but he never paid attention to the details of how pretty you actually were. Little things about you that made the gears in his head turn, from the gorgeous mane that sprouted on the top of your head, to the way your eyes sparkled whenever you were excited or how the curve of your lips was your secret tell to let him know exactly what you were feeling when you couldn’t find the words to explain yourself.

Why me? He thought to himself, if you wanted to fuck around with somebody then why did you ask me?

A kiss on his lips snapped him out of his drawn out thoughts, he felt the pads of your fingers along his cheek, slipping lightly underneath his blindfold to reveal just one of those blue eyes.

“Ready for another round?” you questioned.

Gojo softly smiled, thankful that you haven’t grown bored of him just yet. He lifted himself up, bringing one of his hands to cup your face as he pulled you in for another kiss. His tongue parted your lips and he allowed himself this one indulgence as he trailed his hand to the back of your neck.

Whatever thoughts that were running through his mind, he chose to ignore. There was no reason for him to consider such trivial things anyway. You were spoiling him with your body, playing out the fantasies that plagued his mind. He was aware that his greed fueled his lust for you and honestly did not know what he would do if you were to ask him to stop.

He deepened the kiss, allowing the frustrating thought to play out in passion instead. You shifted your position, your hand falling to his chest as you gripped onto the collar of his tee. Still holding onto the kiss, Gojo lifted himself upright so he was seated and as much as he would love to take advantage of this current situation, he chose to pull himself away instead.

“Best of three?”

“That sounds good to me!” you replied as you circled your arm around his neck, before returning to kiss him again.

Gojo gave in for only a second, before cheekily breaking away and tapping you gently on the forehead with his index finger.

“Oh no, you aren’t doing this to me again...” he said, his hands moving to your waistline as he gently pushed you away from him. “You wanted to have a game night and we are going to see it through.”

He leaned across from you to pick up the spinner, before settling back down and holding it in between the tiny space that separated you both.

“Winner goes first.”

- CHAPTER 8: HEAT -

#Gojo Satoru x reader #Gojo Satoru x you #Gojo x reader #jjk x reader #jjk fan fiction #Gojo Satoru fan fiction #Gojo Satoru smut #Gojo smut #Gojo Satoru fluff #Gojo fluff #gojo headcanons #gojo x oc #Gojo x ofc #Gojo x reader insert

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kyluxtrashpit · 3 years ago

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Okay so I jokingly mentioned I have an entire rant on twitter and then people wanted to see it so I’m gonna crosspost here too cause why not

(Note: includes spoilers for Major Grom and Plague Doctor comics, has nothing to do with the movie. It’s regarding what I strongly predict will happen in volume 8, which comes out next week)

(Second note: I’m gonna tag this with ‘long post’ even though it’s behind a cut for the sake of mobile users to go blacklist literally right now if they’re not interested cause I included the relevant comic panels and thus it’s LONG sdklsdklsdks)

Anyway: why Sergey must be the one to personally rescue Oleg in volume 8, from a narrative point of view

In order for Sergey and Oleg's relationship, regardless of how you want to define it, to move forward with positive momentum, this /must/ happen. The narrative demands it in order to bring closure. Why? Well, let's get into it by analyzing what we have so far

1) While I do fully believe Oleg trusts and forgives Sergey (and I’m not gonna go into proof of that here, as others have before), there is a constant spectre hanging over them. A spectre in the shape of 5 bullets. We are reminded constantly of it, largely in the form of Sergey's guilt, which is something we haven't gotten any real closure on yet. Sergey believes himself only capable of destruction, which is literally represented using a picture of him and Oleg.

The rift in their relationship is why Sergey doubts himself. The lasting physical effects bother him as well and we are all but beaten over the head with it - Sergey can't forget and neither can we, the audience. Oleg, too, has to live with this, even if he has made his peace with it

In fact, his long term injuries are what cause him to be captured in the first place. This situation, from a narrative pov, is thus Sergey's fault - if not for the 5 bullets, it's implied Oleg could've won. But no, he's captured and tortured, because of what Sergey did

What Oleg does or doesn't think of that is honestly irrelevant; the narrative is what's setting this up as a direct consequence. Also, whether or not Oleg has forgiven Sergey is also irrelevant because Sergey hasn't forgiven himself. This is what the story has presented and thus what it needs to conclude.

2) We are all also aware that Oleg has rescued Sergey more than once, even when it was ill-advised. The first time, sure, there's some risk, but it’s still in the range of manageable. But the second time? Not only was it more dangerous, given all that was going on in the immediate aftermath, he’s also risking himself to rescue someone who shot him 5 times. Oleg is cautious; he keeps Sergey in a cell presumably until he feels safe freeing him, but he still did it. He planned it, had that place ready, faked their deaths, all of it. He did that after the 5 bullets

So Sergey isn't lying when he tells Lera they don't leave their people behind. Oleg has been there for Sergey before, rescued him no matter the dangers, continues to stay by his side, and even cares enough to make sure he sleeps. Given this, how could Sergey not be ready and willing to return the favour?

3) Every outside character who knows anything about their relationship believes it to be imbalanced. The mercenary, Altan, Vadim, and even Lera. They all say this, they all point out the 5 bullets, that oh, Oleg, why does he stay?

While they don't have the insight us readers do, this tension is here for a reason, especially coupled with the previous two points. Even if we know better, the narrative is offering us a kernel of doubt. Does Sergey really care? Will he go as far for Oleg as Oleg has for him? Did he really mean those apologies? Or are the others right? Even Oleg, although I do think he's lying to protect Sergey, says he has doubts. Vadim seems certain Sergey will come, yet still calls Oleg “Mr. Stockholm Syndrome”.

The equality of their relationship is continually called into question - why do that if it's not going to be resolved? Why play this 'will he, won't he' game if he won't? Why set us up for disappointment? If Sergey doesn't go, all of this will remain unresolved and their relationship can only get worse, not better. The spectre will never leave them alone.

(One note here: I believe most of these perspectives are from unreliable narrators, given what details they give and that their accounts conflict with what we actually see. But these perspectives are included for a reason – imo, so that Sergey can prove them wrong)

4) The other thing the narrative tells us is that Sergey can be impulsive. Yes, he's brilliant, frighteningly so, but it's Oleg that is constantly urging caution. Sergey is aware there are risks, yet he forges ahead anyway, restrained (sometimes) only by Oleg's advice.

Why would that change now? If anything, with how distressed Sergey seems to be, I'd argue he'd be even /more/ impulsive than usual because he's too emotional to think right.

And who's going to urge caution, if not Oleg? Lera? I doubt he would listen if she did and, to be frank, why would she care if Sergey gets hurt? She knows him primarily as the one forcing her into a situation that is having serious negative effects on her life. Her secondary knowledge is that he's a murderer and terrorist. Much as it's fun to think of them all having a friendly relationship, Plague Daughter and all that, that’s not where they are right now. She might from a logical point of view, just because it is very obviously a trap, but Sergey knows that - her saying it isn't going to convince him of anything. Even if she did try, I don't think it'd have any effect.

5) And lastly, Lera is absolutely not ready for this fight. This isn't some regular asshole on the streets; Vadim is a professional killer. He beat Oleg in a fight and, even with his injuries, we all saw the kitchen fight. We know what Oleg is capable of. I love Lera with my whole being and she is a badass, but she's not ready for this. She had trouble with Kamenny, who honestly may have let her win under Altan's instructions.

Even still, Vadim is MUCH better and, much as Altan wants PD alive, I don't think he much cares in what condition. Best case scenario is that Lera gets captured too, and Vadim likely wouldn't hesitate to kill her, and then Sergey has to go himself anyway. Lera may come to help, but Sergey needs to be there. If Sergey really is better than Oleg at present, he's the one who needs to fight Vadim (with a plan, obviously, and maybe some extra backup).

In conclusion, all of this comes together to say one thing: Sergey needs to go. He needs to prove to himself, to the audience, and most of all to the narrative that no, this relationship isn’t one-sided, and that he will go as far for Oleg as Oleg has gone for him. The narrative made this a big point of tension, insisted upon it, beat us over the head with it, and now has teased at Sergey’s opportunity to put up or shut up. It has to be Sergey, both practically because Lera isn’t ready yet, and in order to be a satisfying story. Because if he doesn’t, that tension isn’t resolved. His guilt will only grow after failing Oleg once again, despite Oleg sticking with him through everything, and it would have been by his own choice, not because of the Bird’s influence or anyone else. He will know it. Oleg will know it. We will know it. And their relationship can only sour from there. There will be no more possibility for positive momentum, only negative.

As a last point, I will also say that I’m aware my anxieties may be unfounded. These creators do seem to legitimately care about these characters, telling a good story, and satisfying the audience. But I’ve been burned by pieces of media where that is not the case, so it’s hard for me to trust and not doubt, even with creators who have, so far, not let me down lmao.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my tedtalk, I’m sure I missed something I would’ve liked to add but holy shit this is absurdly long already sdklsdklsk so uh bye ✌️

#serovolk #сероволк #sergey razumovsky #сергей разумовский #oleg volkov #олег волков #чумной доктор #plague doctor #bubble comics #meta #hey everybody friendly reminder I was a meta writer before I wrote fic skdlsdksld #lmao anyway enjoy... whatever this is #my cats have heard it enough times and twitter has been spammed to hell with it #so now it's your turn tungle friends!#shut up nerd #text #long post #major grom

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tonyglowheart · 3 years ago

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I mean, even mxtx herself said that jc isn't an evil person. Deeply flawed for sure, but not bad. It's like any and all nuance is thrown to the wind in pursuit of the next "jc hot-take"

yeah exactly, and like the whole point of Jiang Cheng's story and reveal, as other people have said before, is that mxtx wants to play with your perception of your certainty on how you judged a character/person or a situation. It's a big theme in MDZS in general, the idea that like the "certain" reading or the most popular reading isn't always the "truest" reading, but that even a "true" reading is subject to personal perspective/context. And that, sometimes there is no "true" reading of a situation, because there's always going to be someone's context and truth that you miss, or are not able to reconcile against someone else's.

sidebar: MXTX literally does this with Wei Wuxian early on, she starts off by portraying Wei Wuxian in a way that he can be read as a typically "evil" villain character (e.g. when he mentioned going to Dafan Mtn to look for evil spirits, the more evil the better! <- paraphrased she might have used a softer word than "evil" but the point is that line is supposed to make you think you're reading a book where the MC is the "villain" of the story, until you learn more about the backstory/history and get more insight into his perspective)

I'm not saying that Jiang Cheng isn't a flawed character, because yeah, he very much is. But at the same time. Like the Jiang Cheng reveal is supposed to operate a bit more like a "Gift of the Magi" situation, as well as shedding light more on Jiang Cheng's perspective and adding context to how he's come across and how he has been shown to act/react. All of these do in fact have contextual influences on how Jiang Cheng is, imo, intended to be used in the narrative & as a narrative foil.

re: lack of nuance- that's something that's definitely frustrating me a lot recently in the tone of some posts I see in the tags lol. Even now with my recent posts, the reaction(s) I've seen seem to have boiled down to "we just want canon JC characterization; why are you using culture as an excuse for the bad shit he did lol," which like... fine maybe it's not a bad faith reading of what I said, maybe I didn't convey what I was trying to convey well enough, about there being nuances to analysis that I think are being omitted or ignored, some of which imo are culturally-influenced that people seem to discount in favor of an "objective imperative" kind of standard (which imo is generally not as "objective" or "contextless" as people think, they're just not seeing how their own contexts are still acting as a lens thru which they view things).

I don't think I took it to that extreme of "I'm using culture to excuse Jiang Cheng of wrongdoing," but then again does it matter what I think I was doing if the other party is perceiving their truth of the situation a certain way? The ideal is that one's intent can be reconciled with the other party's perception, and that both parties act in good faith to try to find that overlap in understanding, but I can't force other people to engage with me in good faith or be open to interrogating their own self-evident truths or things they've taken for granted which may serve to be examined. I'm fairly cognizant that I'm probably not going to be changing the minds of people who are already made up on this subject. Experience tells me that's not how arguments on the internet tend to play out, and if I do end up swaying anyone it's usually people who are watching as opposed to the people actively arguing with me on a given topic.

Anyway, I do think a lot of this arguments of "canon Jiang Cheng" are reductive in general, but also not the whole picture as far as canon goes if we do try to take that seriously or on face value. For example, what IS Jiang Cheng's "canon" characterization? The story isn't told largely from Jiang Cheng's perspective - whatever you come up with will still largely be based on outsider perspectives (each of whom have their own interpretations and agendas which color their views). So then, are you playing with Jiang Cheng's reputation vs characterization? If that's the case, that's fine, I can't control what other people do, but then to claim a moral high ground of having a "purer" or more "complete" or "true" reading because you eschew certain nuance points (which are also canonical) or take a more cynical reading of certain aspects of a text, comes across as arrogant and narrow to me. The opposite extreme of a thing isn't more correct than the extreme one is reacting to.

#asks answered #Anonymous #trying to come up with what to tag this for ppl who might want to filter it out lmao...#fandom negativity tag #mdzs #last random thought: lowkey I think some of the 'jiang cheng stans' that ppl say they're reacting against... may have been reacting against #a cycle of jiang cheng hate too lmao. it's been a hot second since I've been deeply in touch with the trends but I feel like some of the #bigger jc accounts on twitter for example that I remember were like. specifically pushing back against certain jc villain narratives as wel #I mean the whole cyclical thing in fandom is fairly common - this whole push & pull of 'prevailing' narratives #and as often happens we get to a point where people don't know or forget or are not aware of where certain things arise from #and so they assume it exists outside of context and to them it's 'ridiculous'#but I mean also as a general principle... who is it hurting for ppl to like a certain character. why should someone have to apologize for #liking a character just because you dislike them.#my ultimate thesis for fandom in general tends to be: there is no one sole arbiter of 'truth.' sometimes pervailing views hold certain #amounts of weight but nothing says that people HAVE to comply with those #like mxtx says: ultimately the point of fandom is to have fun. don't go overboard

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xbaebsae · 4 years ago

Text

Changes and Deleted Content Part 2 - Far Cry 5: Features and Missions

This is a small passion project series of posts where I share some insight of what’s hidden in the game(s) files, but also some general observations. The main focus will be on character changes or deletions with a few words about functions and deprecated missions.

What will not be touched upon are a lot of the things the Resistance Mod on PC restores, namely deleted store weapons and clothes, weather systems and general gameplay related things like skinning animations. I also won’t go into audio files and their content, as @lulu2992 is already working on an amazing series for FC5 that summarizes them per character.

This part will be significantly shorter Edit from post finishing-Angy: This post turned out really damn long despite only discussing some scrapped or changed features and a couple of deprecated mission strings. I still hope you find this as interesting to read as I found writing and investigating it :)

1. Changed and Scrapped Features

1.1 Guns/Fangs for Hire

Just for reference, the release version of the game has 9 unique GFH/FFH available + 3 slots for random specialists you can hire throughout the world.

Among the game’s UI textures for tutorials is this image, showing an earlier version of the GFH screen.

What this indicates is that the planned amount for active GFHs you can have was originally 4; or the top row could function as some sort of favorites tab. We will probably never know for certain.

Interestingly though, this version has slots for 20 GFHs in total, 18 either filled a character icon or a locked symbol, suggesting the originally planned unique GFH count was 18.

Considering almost every NPC in-game has spawn-able archetypes with battle audio fully in place it is possible that we were supposed to be able to recruit more of them. I will return to the matter of recruitment shortly.

Another thing I’d like to open up for consideration is that there may have been plans for (ex-)cultist GFHs or at least areas where they act friendly towards the deputy. Reason for this assumption is the fact that cultists have recorded lines for when you meet them (spawn them), aim weapons at them (the taunts GFH and friendlies do too), along with idle lines when you use mods to spawn them as friendly followers. The game has no purpose for most of these lines, as you never walk into peaceful cultists outside of the intro. In the intro you have no weapons to aim at anyone, making it impossible to trigger these lines.

You may argue they were recorded for the arcade, but the Seeds are also featured in it and have none of those. However, they may also be a leftover from scrapped missions that would feature cultists that don’t shoot you on sight.

Additionally to that early menu screenshot, I have also found an old reddit thread discussing the game’s Uplay page near release because of the following image:

Unfortunately I was not able to find this particular page myself anymore, and knowing how short lived everything is nowadays, it might be lost in time forever. The commenters discuss that the three additional slots here refer to potential DLC characters, but we don’t get to use any of the DLC companions in the main game (nor do the DLCs share the main game’s art direction). So, this might be another indicator for additionally planned GFH/FFH we never got to see.

One of these was likely the Eagle FFH called ‘’Freedom’’ (Character/Unique/FFH_Eagle_Freedom), which was partially restored through mods on PC as its loaders and everything are still present. It is unknown why this was scrapped.

It also appears that there once were inventory (purchaseable?) items for almost each GFH (Boomer and Jess have none), as these placeholder icons exist inside the game’s ui\icons\inventory folder:

Possible functions: Quest items you needed to obtain to recruit them (implying changed missions); Gift items (for potential level up?)

Now to return to the matter of recruitment: Deprecated mission strings suggest that originally you had to hire unique GFHs similarly to random ones; and that was part of quest lines. These lines appear in ‘oasisstrings’, the game’s main language file(s):

HIRE Jess RECRUIT Adelaide Drubman ADD Adelaide to your squad

In light of the old GFH screen I actually looked up the definition of ‘Squad’, and on wikipedia it is listed that a Squad is a team of 5+ members, further strengthening the theory that originally you could have 4 active GFH (plus the Deputy they’d be 5, therefore a squad).

1.2 In-game Wiki menu

Some of the previous Far Cry titles have a sort of wiki menu that features short bios of characters, explanations of locations, resources and weaponry. New Dawn sort of brought part of this back with the ‘Survival Guide’ (accessible from the pause menu), but 5 does not have this at all. However, in the ui files there are still texture leftovers, implying this feature was planned and it had sections for Animals, Base Jumps, Characters, Destructible Structures, Fish, Locations, Parking Spots (Garages), Plants and Treasure Hunts. The following image shows the ‘undiscovered’ symbols arranged in that order.

Again, no text entries along with a lot of duplicate and unfinished images imply this was scrapped early.

You can view the additional images (minus characters, because they will be handled in the next posts) here.

2. Abandoned Missions

This section will focus on mission strings that still exist in ‘oasisstrings’. For the sake of readability I removed the style code the game uses and the line numbers. You can easily find them by searching part of the text in the files or website listed in References. Please keep in mind that only the mission titles themselves are 100% like that in the files, any assumption as to what they might have been used for is purely speculative, but I attempt to always provide a reasonable explanation with evidence for the theories presented. Also I am not perfect, so it is possible I missed something in-game. In that case please do correct me!

2.1. Investigation Type objectives

There is a set of objectives listed that imply a different setup for Willis Huntley’s mission. It introduces the objectives PHOTOGRAPH, TAG, LISTEN and INTERROGATE:

PHOTOGRAPH potential property PHOTOGRAPH an animal slaughter TAG the target PHOTOGRAPH the target LISTEN to the conversation INTERROGATE the target PHOTOGRAPH cult signs and rituals: BRING the photos back to Willis

The release build mission has you tail someone and steal a VHS tape. None of the above objectives appear. It’s interesting to see that at one point there were mechanics in consideration that included intel gathering.

2.2. Quest centered around Melvin

The only Melvin I could find in relation to Far Cry 5 is Nadine Abercrombie’s grandfather. Melvin Abercrombie joined the cult. It isn’t assured that these objectives refer to him, but if they do it’d mean a potential mission where you speak to a lower ranked cultist.

Please Note that mission strings are not always in correct order.

TALK to Melvin LOOT Melvin's corpse REACH Melvin's house WAIT for Melvin to arrive GO MEET Melvin

2.3. The ‘Redeemer’ Objectives

At some point there was a quest-line revolving around something called the ‘Redeemer’ in Holland Valley. I could not find out what this thing really was supposed to be, but it sounds like it was either a boat or a submarine (???). In this line it appears that the garage in Fall’s End had actual relevance.

FIND a similar engine BRING engine to Mary's garage TALK to Mary's assistant TOW Redeemer Back the Garage (this typo is also in the file) SUBMERGE the Redeemer FLIP the Redeemer upside down GET IN the Tow Truck PUT the Redeemer on the Flat Bed

What this also implies is the inclusion of tow trucks and that there was a ‘Mary’s assistant’ character.

2.4. A few seperate Entries before we focus on plot relevant ones

In light of the afore mentioned wiki menues there is also an objective type that goes very well with its character section:

DISCOVER this character.

This could be attached to unknown entries in the character list.

There also is an unused objective called:

FIND the cow in the field

Which at first glance made me believe it was related to the mission at Cattle co., but it is not used there or anywhere else. I suppose we will never find out what was so special about this mysterious cow.

TAKE Joseph's writings

is also an interesting entry, as it is not related to the mission where you burn his book. This is again an unused string with unknown original purpose.

2.5. Mary May and John Seed

There are two particularly interesting unused mission objectives in relation to these two characters.

For one, it looks like originally we were supposed to rescue Mary May from John’s ranch:

RESCUE Mary May From John Seed's Ranch

This could either be a replacement for saving her in Fall’s End or it is a mission that appeared later on in which John possibly captured her. It gets more possible applications with the next one, though.

FIND John and Mary May's secrets

Now, this one caught my attention immediately, because there are two big things that come to mind in terms of possible application. It could refer back to the novel Absolution in which Mary May gets captured and tattooed by John, heavily implying that part of the plot that made it to the novel was originally intended to be shown in the game (we will get back to this in the character episode when talking about Holly).

Additionally, keeping the previous objective in mind, it could also imply that Mary has been converted during her capture (or her capture was planned) and played a different role in the story overall. Of course, all of this is only speculation as we will probably never know, but the objective specifically says ‘John AND Mary May’s secrets’, refering to shared secrets, not just one of Mary herself (which would fit more into the tattoo theory).

If you have ever even considered the possibility that Ubisoft might have cut a lot of stuff from the Whitetail region of the game, the rest of this Mission section should finally prove this to you. I’d like to make clear here that this is unbiased. I have tried to dig up deleted content equally in all regions but it just turns out that this is the one they really went wild with. There is nothing that stands out in terms of deleted or changed missions in the Henbane area and the Holland Valley content is mostly not that plot relevant minus the last examples just mentioned.

2.6. Eli and the Wolf’s Den

In the final version of the game we are told that Eli is an important character, but he is not very active in any way. Where Mary May assists you on the way to John’s Ranch and Tracey and the others at the prison fight by your side in defense missions, Eli will stay at the Wolf’s Den and have you run his errands for him. Just like the other mentioned characters he has full fight capabilities though. His AI is capable of using that bow, despite him never leaving the bunker.

As it turns out, he used to be a far more active character and there were multiple ways you could encounter him for the first time. For reference: In the game as it is now you will only meet him when he and his people rescue the deputy after Jacob’s first trial. You cannot enter the Wolf’s Den prior to this point.

Inside the game’s animations folders are these three subfolders including the respective files (JJ and Key03 is how Eli is often referred to in the files, I will get back to this in the character post):

This means there were three ways that you would encounter Eli: Inside a cabin, through being captured in a net or by being released by Perkins. This was most likely Doc Perkins, giving her a bit more significance in the game.

The main cutscene files for these are not present anymore, only the animations remain so I could not find out where the exact locations for these were supposed to be at. I however, loaded these animations into a game cutscene so we get to look at them anyway. I have chosen Jacob’s death cutscene for the simple reason that there’s only the player + 1 NPC, it is daytime and there’s no intrusive DOF blurring everything. The video below shows all of them.

Keep in mind that only the player animation matters in the first two! Ignore the rest. The third one features Doc Perkins and has her animation applied to her. As you can see it is very very unfinished, but it shows that she possibly unties the deputy or opens an animal cage, then drives away in a car.

youtube

This unused mission string supports the theory of these different ways further, as it implies that you met him somewhere and he would guide you to the den:

FOLLOW Eli into the Wolf's Den

There are several other objectives that suggest a more active Eli, who might have accompanied you on some missions:

WAIT for Eli to arrive GO with Eli GO inside the Wolf's Den

2.7. Jacob and the Veteran Center

Before swan diving down a very deep rabbit hole, let’s address this unused mission string first:

TALK to Deputy Pratt

Sounds very unspectacular and like something you would do at some point, but this is never an objective in the game. The intended function will forever remain unknown most likely, but possibilities are vast, especially with the upcoming abandoned objectives.

There are hints at an alternate useage of Jacob’s bunker (specifically called bunker here and not armory). Mission strings are:

FIND a way out of Jacob's Bunker LEAVE Jacob's Bunker

Again, on first sight you’d think these are just what’s there in-game. But they aren’t. During the final mission it goes from RESCUE Deputy Pratt straight to ESCAPE Jacob’s Armory. There is no indicator that you’d need to find a way out. The objectives above hint that it was similar to John’s and Faith’s bunker initially, where you had to do a few more things before escaping.

An observation derived from the game’s subtitle file is that at one point there might have been a differentiation between ‘Armory’ and ‘Bunker’ as, most likely, a random NPC says "I don't know where Jacob's bunker is. I'm not sure anybody does, but it's out there somewhere." The armory is (other than John’s and Faith’s bunkers) directly next to a main road, next to McKinley Dam. It is quite impossible to miss. Therefore this statement, along with the inconsistent switch between calling it ‘armory’, ‘bunker’ or ‘gate’, could mean there was originally a different bunker and the armory really functioned as such.

Before moving on to more mission strings, there is one more subtitle entry worth mentioning: "When you tried to arrest Joseph, Jacob got wind of it and things got real crazy here in the Whitetail Mountains." It heavily implies that at some point, Joseph’s family might not have been intended to be present during the opening, and they instead found out about the arrest afterwards. As far fetched as it sounds at first, it does check out with the inactivity and absence of the three heralds after you cuff Joseph (and in case you ever wondered what the three of them are doing while you guide Joseph outside, they de-spawn and are gone as soon as you turn around).

But enough about that and let’s get back to more missions we never got to see.

For instance there is:

GO TO the Veteran's Center

Which, as most of you know, is impossible during the game because you get repositioned everytime you attempt to go close. This string implies a different kind of mission at some point.

HUNT Jacob

No, this also does not appear in the game. The final mission goes from DESTROY Wolf Beacons to KILL Jacob Seed. Possibility in combination with the previous entry is that you were supposed to follow him back to the Veteran Center and that’s where the final fight would be. It could also imply a different kind of trial.

Small observation because we are talking about the final fight: The Prima Games’ guide (based on a pre-release build of the game, it will be featured more prominently in the next post) depicts Jacob at the bottom of the mountain during this encounter. WIth a lot of perseverance I’m sure you can somehow manage to replicate this in-game. But it is interesting regardless that they chose this image. It might imply that at some point he was not positioned on top of the hill, and instead closer to the area he finally dies in.

Before we move on, here are a few other interesting unused strings:

TRAIN TRAIN yourself INTERACT with Jacob for finishing takedown TALK to Jacob

They imply a different way to end the fight along with the possibility to talk to Jacob at some point (unrelated to each other mind you). I have no clue in what kind of scenario you were supposed to talk to him. The only explanation I have is that trials were possibly supposed to be different at some point and maybe they had more intentions to explore the whole brainwashed aspect of it to the point you casually took strolls around St Francis. Now before you say I just made that up, I implore you to wait till after the next part to call me out on it, because there are reasons I offer that possibility up for discussion here.

TRAIN and TRAIN yourself might not be linked to this region at all. But it is interesting to have these sort of objectives as they form the ‘Train, Hunt, Kill, Sacrifice’ part of the region’s theme, when you refer back to other mission strings: TRAIN (yourself), HUNT Jacob, KILL Jacob Seed.

Now to get to the main part. If you ever used mods on PC that let you access the Veteran Center, you will have noticed that the AI acts very strange. Your assigned GFH might wander around, aim at nothing or even attack civillians. Cultists inside the area will not always attack you, while civillians will do. This is most likely why the developers were so quick to patch out the tricks to access the region without mods.

I have seen multiple speculations circling around, but the one that always struck me as the most plausible one is that there was some kind of mission after Pratt rescues you from the cage. It is a very discontinuous cutscene, in which you transition from the cage directly to the top floor of the Veteran Center, implying there were no problems for Pratt and the Deputy to get there, despite having to cross the entire guarded frontyard and going through multiple building floors to get to the office. So, naturally I wasted some time of my life trying to dig up stuff that proves this theory right and I...well I did find something.

Important note so you understand what’s going on here: It is very common in games to load objects underneath the map (outside of sight of the player) to assure they are properly loaded in when they are needed. I have seen posts circulating around which depicted Pratt underneath the building, suggesting they eventually had an area planned there. The more likely case is that Pratt was loaded there for later use in a cutscene.

Why am I saying that? Well, this following screenshot was taken underneath the map during the cutscene where Pratt rescues the deputy and it transitions to the top of the building. I have changed the time to daytime for a bit better visibility.

What you see here is an entirely unused set of either cutscene or gameplay elements. A truck, Jacob (who’s absent in the cutscene we see), Pratt, a random NPC, a bag, a small table (unseen in cutscene), a single door (unseen in cutscene), a double door and 3 small pieces of paper (only two are in cutscene). I have kept watch on these assets for the entirety of the cutscene and none of them were moved into place. Meaning that all of these were here to be used in either a different cutscene or even a gameplay segment.

It brings me back to the mission theory, where there was a potential stealth segment between leaving the cage and entering the office. Maybe there was an alternate cutscene for the case where you’d be caught and the one we see in the game is the one after successfully sneaking up there? We will never know for certain again but it is one possible explanation as to why these assets even still exist. It would also check out with the TALK to Deputy Pratt mission string, as you maybe had to speak to him after reaching a certain area.

Here are also some additional screenshots of the room in front of the office:

It was modelled and filled with a few detail props we never get to see much of.

Another potential mission, which would explain the broken AI behavior better, is the already mentioned theory that they might have planned to do more with the whole brainwashing aspect. Cultists inside the Vet Center area do not shoot and are allied, while civillians act hostile, implying while the player is there they are considered to be allied to cultists. TALK to Deputy Pratt, TALK to Jacob or TRAIN (yourself) could have taken place during this also. Something that could support this theory is also this unused timelapse marking days passing:

youtube

3. The Game’s Title and Closing Words

Internally the game is often called ‘fc zeta’, ‘zeta’ or ‘fcz’. So *sigh* of course I tried to find a deeper meaning behind it all and came to the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet ‘Zeta’. If you count Far Cry: Primal as a real standalone title, Far Cry 5 is the sixth Far Cry release. But because the Greek were special snowflakes or something, the sixth letter actually has the value of 7. So Zeta is actually 7 despite being the sixth. If you count Blood Dragon as a Far Cry release it’d mean FC5 is the 7th release. However, these theories exclude all the expansions and stuff for earlier Far Cry games.

Another indicator that Zeta might have been more than just a number, is this texture used as a decal on some clothing materials:

I have not found someone in-game who has this anywhere, and they might just disable the transparency and use it only for the American flag. But still, why would they make such a decal texture in the first place? Maybe very early name of the cult or resistance group?

Before closing this incredibly long essay, here is an old, unused version of the logo found in the files :)

Phew, we finally reached the end. If you made it all the way down here: CONGRATULATIONS you just read a long af essay! Again, i’d like to remind you that a lot of what you’ve read is pure speculation. I tried to prove my arguments as best as I could with evidence that I provided but only Ubisoft knows what really happened. And they are unlikely to tell us.

The next post will focus on the expansive character list and I may split it into parts because there is a lot to say and show about some characters.

I hope you have a nice day and thank you for reading ♥

_______________________________________________________

References:

text.farcry.info (website where you can look through Oasisstrings yourself!) languages\english\oasisstrings.oasis.bin languages\english\oasisstrings_subtitles.oasis.bin animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_cabin animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_net animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_release domino\user\fcz_proto_ld domino\user\zeta_dlcm ui\resources\textures\04_menu\tooltips ui\resources\textures\06_icons\inventory ui\resources\textures\05_hud\tutorials\_images __Unknown\XBT\AE800D066AB2E84A.xbt __Unknown\XBT\FD080AA2BBABE691.xbt Zeta on Wikipedia (english) Squad on Wikipedia (english) Prima Games guide (2018, collector’s edition, print and digital) reddit.com/r/farcry/comments/89nsf1/so_theres_3_missing_guns_for_hire_here_maybe_3/ __Unknown\BIK\C6AB10EDBC81E933.bik

#far cry 5 #gameinfo #obligatory longessay tag #if you ever wondered how much of a nerd i am #look at these essays #and know that i enjoyed writing and capturing footage of every second of this

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nerdyfangirl67 · 4 years ago

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I’ll Be There - Criminal Minds Reader Insert

Pairing: Morgan x reader (platonic)

Warnings: slight angst, sweet Morgan

Word count (original): 1240 Revamped: 1519

It had been on a flight back from a long case in Nevada when the topic of siblings had come up.

Spencer had quickly quipped, in a matter of fact tone, “Well I don’t have any, at least to my knowledge.”

Morgan had been eager to share a number of tales about the antics he and his siblings had gotten into when they were younger, many of which ended in him being scolded by his mother.

Hotch had simply stated how much ten years in age can really separate a pair of siblings.

JJ had stayed silent, a sad, reminiscing smile on her face, and no one had pushed her to talk about it.

Rossi had simply listened to the conversation, with no apparent insight of his own to add.

Then, as you had been sitting, quietly observing throughout the conversation, Spencer turns his attention to you.

“What about you Y/N? I’ve never heard you talk about any siblings. In fact, I’m not quite sure if you even have any.” He questions you, bringing the attention of the rest of the team onto you.

You shrug nonchalantly, before responding, “Um yeah, I have an older brother.” You hope that it would be left at that, but of course, that wasn’t the case, especially since you were surrounded by highly skilled profilers, who could most certainly sense the trepidation you were feeling.

“Mama, you never said anything! You gotta tell us what kinda trouble you used to get into ‘cause I just know you did.” Morgan’s words are light and humorous, but you feel anything but. Especially now that you were put on the spot, which is something that has always made you uncomfortable.

“Uh, ya know, typical sibling stuff.” You mumble, looking anywhere but at the faces of your team members.

Rossi decides to use this moment to join the conversation. “Oh come on, Y/N. You have to have done something crazy with your brother.”

You lift your head, your eyes falling on Morgan. As you stare into his chocolate brown eyes, you say, “My uh, brother, and I aren’t close. He had to take care of me growing up a lot and wasn’t happy about all he missed out on because of it.” You blurt out before embarrassment creeps into your thoughts and across your face. You feel your face heat up and your heart start racing. You stand quickly, rushing to the bathroom as you feel tears fall down your cheeks.

You close the flimsy door to the jet bathroom and scrunch up on the floor between the small sink and the toilet. Of all the emotions you were feeling right now, remorse was one of the strongest.

You wish you had had a brother who was willing to get into trouble with you. You wish you had been close enough to your brother that you could call him a friend and a comforter. Yet, despite your best efforts, your brother had informed you the last time you had called him that he despised everything he had to do for you. Which had broken your heart and had effectively cut off all communication.

A soft knock sounds on the door. “Hey, baby girl, why don’t you come out of there?” Morgan’s soft voice echoes through the door. You roughly brush the tears from your eyes before pushing the door to the bathroom open a crack. Morgan takes one look at your face before shoving the door aside and pulling you into a tight hug.

“I’m sorry baby girl. I shouldn’t have pushed it.” He murmurs near your ear. You tighten your arms around him, pressing your face into his chest, your heart aching at the thought of what you had missed with your brother.

“It’s not your fault.” You mumble, your voice muffled by his chest. You feel his hand softly rubbing up and down your back, helping calm your frazzled nerves.

“I’m sorry you weren’t able to have crazy adventures with me baby girl.” His grip on you tightens before he pulls back and gently wipes the tears from your cheeks.

When you return to the jet cabin, Morgan pulls you down next to him on the couch. You lean against him as he starts talking about the house he was currently working on remodeling. He wraps an arm around you, pulling you close. It doesn’t take you long to fall asleep; Morgan’s warmth and comforting scent surrounding.

----

After that flight back to Quantico, Morgan changed. He was always caring and gentle around you before, but it was different now. He went out of his way to make sure you knew how important you were to the team, and to him. He made sure to spend time with you on your days off and the two of you had even started pranking Reid and Garcia on slow days in the office.

Morgan had even talked you into helping him do a few things in his most recent remodel. You had learned how to make new cabinets, grout tile, refinish a floor and even replace a toilet. No matter the number of times you had accidentally hammered Morgan’s hand, which was surprisingly higher than the number of times you’d done it to yourself, or the number of different screws and parts you’d ‘misplaced’, Morgan never lost patience with you and he never got mad at you. Although you weren’t entirely sure if you would use any of these skills again, you were glad you were able to spend time with him, doing things that you hadn’t ever had the chance to learn.

----

It was Christmas eve and the team had just gotten back from a case in Texas that had lasted over two weeks. You were sitting at your desk, trying to finish the case paperwork before you headed home for the evening. The office was quiet, as only you, Morgan, and Reid remained in the bullpen.

“Why don’t you guys go home and enjoy as much as you can of Christmas before we get another case.” Hotch’s voice filled the bullpen, pulling your concentration away from your paperwork.

No one says anything, but Morgan and Reid start to gather their belongings to leave. Knowing you didn’t have anyone to celebrate the holiday with, aside from the small get-together the team had planned for New Year’s, pending no case interruptions, you didn’t make any move to get up from your desk.

Spencer sends you a look as he passes, mumbling a tired, “Merry Christmas” in your direction. Morgan, on the other hand, is currently standing in front of your desk. You turn your attention from your paperwork to him, raising an eyebrow at him in question.

“What are you doing?” He asks you, giving you a look as though you should know what he’s talking about.

“Um...paperwork, last time I checked.” You give a sarcastic reply, not really in the mood to play at the guessing game you feel is coming.

“Well, we gotta go or we’re gonna miss our flight.” He answers, grabbing your jacket and bag.

Even though you have no idea what he’s talking about, you shut off the lamp on your desk and stand. He helps you into your jacket as you ask, “What flight?”

“Our flight to Chicago. It leaves in two hours.” His tone is matter of fact and straightforward.

“You mean to visit your family? For Christmas?” Your confusion continues to grow as you follow Morgan to the elevator.

“Well yeah.” He lays an arm over your shoulders and pulls you into the elevator with him.

“But I’d be intruding. This is a time for you and your family. You don’t want me tagging along like some lost puppy.” You mumble, sadness welling up inside you as you attempt to back out of his invitation.

As much as you want to spend Christmas with Morgan, who has become something like a big brother to you, the big brother you always wanted and never truly had, you couldn’t bring yourself to invade on Morgan’s time with his family.

He looks down at you, his eyes finding yours. He releases your shoulders as he brings a hand to the side of your face. “Why do you think I’m bringing you, baby girl? You are family and I know Mom and my sisters will feel the same way.” He gently says, as his thumb rubs slowly over your cheekbone.

“Do, do you mean that?” You whisper, your heart swelling at the thought of being a part of his family.

“Of course I do, Y/N. You are like a sister to me and I couldn’t ask for someone more important to me to bring home for Christmas.” His words have you tearing up and he wraps his arms around you in a tight embrace.

“You are family.” He states simply and firmly, putting an end to the conversation. Your heart swells at his words and you relax into his hug, excited for Christmas for the first time in a long time, especially since you’d be spending it with your ‘brother’.

#criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #criminal minds fandom #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds reader #reader #reader insert #fanfiction #fandom #criminal minds reader insert #morgan #derek #derek morgan #derek x reader #derek x you #derek morgan x you #morgan x reader #september reblog #revamped one-shot

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idreamofplaid · 4 years ago

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Walker 1x 05 Reaction

This is a memorable episode, and it’s taken me awhile to get around to writing my thoughts about it (after watching it three times). For me, this is the best episode of the season so far. I loved the undercover aspect of this one. I’m hoping there’s more of this in the future. I am dying to know what happened during those times Walker “went dark”. I hope we get flashbacks of this to explain some things and give us more insight into him.

What else did he do besides ride bulls in a rodeo? (I so wanted to see that). I enjoyed seeing Jared become another character. Duke isn’t Walker, and Walker isn’t Sam. This is the silver lining to the end of SPN for me. It’s interesting to see what Jared can do as an actor with other characters (but I will love Sam Winchester until my dying day). I’m also looking forward to seeing what Jensen does with Soldier Boy.

I know everybody has seen the comments and the pictures. Duke is sexy as all hell. So, why no sex? That’s the big question. Twyla Jean is an absolute mystery. What was the exact nature of their relationship? They did have sex. That’s pretty clear.

The way she dragged him into that motel and had half his clothes off in under three seconds is the behavior of a woman looking for some reunion sex. And was that scene ever hot! I have a new bandana around the wrist kink.

After a few glorious seconds, in which we get to objectify Jared, he stops her saying, “We can’t do this.” His reason? They shouldn’t be seen together. So, what does he do? He takes her to a bar-in public. WTH?

While I was trying to figure this out, I thought “Maybe the bar isn’t in Austin.” But then when I watched it a third time, it seemed more like “No, this bar’s in Austin.” So, I’m totally confused about that one.

Walker has some complicated emotions about Twyla Jean. Oh, how I want to know more about the time he spent undercover! Did he actually have any real feelings for her, or was it all pretend the way he told August?

He’s not interested in having sex with Twyla in that motel, I mean the Texas Rangers and the FBI are watching, or is he? When he had sex with her undercover, was it just part of his job? Did he have to be that convincing as a rodeo cowboy, somebody he wasn’t, that it required having sex with this woman?

Maybe he enjoyed it and started having feelings for her which made him feel guilty because Emily was dead, and it was somehow dishonoring her memory? The scene where Duke is talking to Twyla on the bleachers gives me the feeling it’s genuine, or at least he wants to feel something for her because he opens up to her about “losing someone.” It could be he misses the emotional intimacy.

Does she actually care about him? The way she argues with him over the money like she doesn’t trust him makes me take pause. Then later when she’s dancing with him with a gun pressed into his side makes me think “How much can she really care about him?” It could be she wanted to care about him but knew it was pointless because “There’s something behind those eyes that’s never quite going to let me in.”

That thing could be his whole identity is fake., so anything they have is built on a lie. It could be he’s still in love with his dead wife, so he can’t truly feel anything for her. It might be a combination of both.

The complexity of this whole storyline fascinates me. Liam says, “Cordell hated who he had to become as Duke.” And it looked to me like Walker was on the verge of a panic attack every time he ducked his head in a sink full of water. That broke my heart.

Add into this extreme level of stress Cordell is experiencing that August just can’t stay out of it. Goaded by Ruby, he follows his father and gets right in the middle of his undercover job. There’s something about this Ruby girl that has annoyed me from the start, and this didn’t help her case.

Cordell ends up yelling at August to get him out of this dangerous situation he’s put himself in. This is after his son calls him a “fake cowboy badass”. I know the kid is traumatized, but there are limits. Cordell deserves a Gather of the Year medal when he’s the one who apologizes to August later for that scene.

Walker even refers to August when he has the idea to “kill” Duke by saying “let’s give my boy what he wants.” This happens in a staged shootout where Duke pulls a gun on the FBI. An agent “shoots” him, and he falls into a swimming pool.

The English major in me has to talk about all the submersion symbolism in this episode. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think water and symbolism is emotion. Cordell is clearly overwhelmed by confused and churning emotions.

The next meaning is the baptismal one or the cleansing and washing away of sins. Cordell definitely feels the burden of them, but we still don’t know what they are. Again, what did he do undercover? Does he feel he has failed as a father? Does he think he failed as a husband because he should have “protected” Emily? I feel like we’ve only gotten a small glimpse inside of him, same with Twyla. We very well may not have seen the last of her. If not her, other people Walker knew while he was undercover will be brought into the story.

At the end when he falls into the pool “dead” then rises back up, it is his symbolic resurrection. The question is “What is this new life he’s being born into?” I think this is tied to the conversation Stella has with her new soccer coach, Trey. She tells him she played soccer while her dad was gone because she thought it would bring him back. Her father went to all her mother’s college games, so she thought by playing soccer it would bring him to her too.

In a notable conversation, Trey tells Stella she has to decide who she’s playing for. Is she playing for herself or her dad? I think there’s a definite correlation to Cordell here. Why is he doing what he’s doing? Is he trying to prove something to someone? Is he trying to atone for Emily’s death because he somehow feels responsible?

The most extreme thing he’s done is go undercover. Why? Why so soon after his wife’s death? Cordell has secrets, secrets we don’t know yet.

I didn’t tag anyone in this because I don’t know who would be interested in this sort of thing. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode. If you want to be tagged in these reaction/analysis posts let me know.

#walker reaction #walker commentary #walker spoilers #walker analysis

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cordytriestowrite · 5 years ago

Text

Disclosure

Bucky x Reader

One Shot

Summary: "Bucky and I slept together." "Twice."

"I'm just saying. Who hasn't had gay thoughts about Captain America?"

The silence that followed Tony Stark's outburst was so palpable you could almost taste the half-hearted denial in the air. The urge to laugh started to boil in your chest and even though looking around you were not the only one stifling a chuckle you didn't want to be the one to break in what was supposed to be a very formal meeting. You covered your mouth with your hand, attempting to look like you were rubbing a bit of something from the corner of your lip, when you caught the eye of the one person you shouldn't be sharing a moment with in a meeting like this. He didn't seem to hold the same levity in the situation and gave you a cheeky half smile and a wink, nodding his head to the blushing blond next to him as if asking if you agree with Tony.

Your challenging brow asked him the same thing before turning pointedly away.

"Thank you Tony for that, uh, insight" Maria said, staring studiously at the digital pad in her palm. "But I meant physical relationships need to be disclosed. Not...thoughts you might have about another member of the team."

Behind Maria Hill, Nick Fury rolled his eye and turned toward the large windows, his back the only thing anyone would probably see for the rest of the meeting.

"But, what is the purpose?" Vision countered, genuinely curious.

"Is the disclosure of our relationships necessary to do our duty?"

Despite the obviously budding romance between Vision and Wanda both seemed pretty adverse to admitting it out loud in front of the whole team. Not that you were one to talk, you hoped you could leave this room with some secrets still intact.

"It is necessary," Fury's tired voice easily called everyone's attention. He didn't turn around, but you could see his fingers tighten around his wrist where they were clasped behind his back. "In case romantic relationships compromise a mission or, a relationship brings about unwanted media attention."

"Fury, I'm sure everyone has been very careful."

Steve, still red at the crests of his cheeks, couldn't help but speak for the team. It was noble of him, but you knew it wouldn't help. Fury and Hill wouldn't be satisfied until they uncovered all they think needs to be disclosed.

You dared another look in Bucky's direction, but his head was tilted to give Steve his attention, nodding along in agreement. You absently mirrored his nod.

"All relationships? Even a one night stand?"

The intensity with which you turned your head resulted in an audible pop in your neck. Sam's gaze was steadfast on Hill despite the curious glances coming his way. His hands were intertwined on top of the long table, thumbs swiping through the air restless with nerves. As the silence stretched half a second too long the curious glances became pointed and accusatory to the other onlookers and it's then that you realized one pair of eyes was steadfast in its staring contest with the control panel just to the right of the door.

Natasha's expression was cool disinterest, but the stiffness of her bottom lip revealed that control was on the cusp of wavering.

A lump the size of a peach pit formed just below your voice box putting pressure on the secret you were hoping to keep inside. You were a team right? And a team has to look out for each other right? You knew Natasha's life was a closed book and her love life even further buried under lock and key and six feet of concrete. You caught the blink-and-you'll-miss-it shift in Sam's attention, recognized the shine of fresh tears rimming Nat's blank stare and that peach pit in your throat grew larger and larger until you couldn't keep the words in anymore.

"Bucky and I slept together."

There was no dramatic gasps or fainting, but a groan resound from one side of the table.

"Twice."

You practically lunged across the table to smack Bucky in the temple for his comment, your face growing hot. He allowed your palm to make contact, only offering up puppy dog eyes and an over exaggerated pout.

"Pay up Tony. I told you." Rhodey chuckled with his palm open next to Tony's head which was now cradled in his palms.

"FRIDAY, send the funds to the smug bug over here."

"Of course, sir. Congratulations Mr. Rhodes." FRIDAY replied seconds later and if it was possible for the AI to sound smug it absolutely did.

Maria and Fury shared a quick glance before Fury turned back to the window. With a slight frown Maria began tapping into the pad now clenched within a white knuckled grip.

You didn't know who to glare at; Tony and Rhodey for their bet or Bucky for digging your shame hole a little bit deeper. Convinced looking anywhere near Bucky's direction would somehow aggravate things further you directed your anger at the former pair.

"You bet on us?"

Rhodey gave a quick what-can-I-say shrug before continuing to rib Tony who apparently would not catch a break today, but it seems neither would you.

"And will this...arrangement continue?"

Arrangement. What a nice way for Maria to ask if you were going to continue fucking each other's brains out. It's not like you could help it. After the first time you had told Bucky this was a one time thing, a fluke, though you hesitated to call it a mistake. The second time just somehow happened and realized your one time fling could rapidly develop into a habit. Still, you knew the right thing to do was tell them what they wanted to hear.

"No."

"Probably."

Now you were mirroring Tony's posture, heels of your palms pressed to your forehead with your face pointed toward the table top. You didn't understand why Bucky was sabotaging you. All you wanted at this point was to leave the meeting with your dignity intact.

"Well which is it? No or probably?" Fury asked, his voice edged with frustration.

"No!"

"Probably."

"What the fuck Bucky?" You practically shouted, your voice pitched with a slight hysteria.

It wasn't until Bucky got to his feet that you realized you had stood. He met your eye, his own stern yet vulnerable as he searched your face. The muscle in his jaw tensed for a moment before he cycled a deep breath through his nose.

"I was going to ask you out, after this meeting. Hell, I've been wanting to-"

He cuts himself short, his lips twitching into a smile stifled by tugging teeth. You had seen this before, this adorable way he terribly tries to hide his grin. It had been only minutes after you had hastily donned your clothes and insisted what just happened would never happen again. Looking back you make a heart stuttering realization. Bucky was probably going to ask you out like a proper gentleman after you did the not so proper naked horizontal thing, but instead you rushed out of there like an idiot. He had done the same tug to his lips when he approached you last night too, but you hadn't even let him get a word in before your mouths were fused together and hands began to grab at clothing.

Well you may have fucked up his opportunities before but like hell you would let another chance pass either of you by.

"Maria."

Your voice was the only sound in the pin-drop silent room. All eyes were on you, but your attention was solely on Bucky and the way his teeth were loosening on his lower lip and allowing his gorgeous smile to spread wide.

"I'd like to disclose my current relationship with Bucky Barnes."

You stood there, a pair of grinning idiots, before Bucky leaped straight up and over the table, scrambling to place his backside on the edge and nestle you between his legs with his hands on your hips.

"You mean it?"

You nodded, already leaning in to kiss him so your forehead ended up rubbing up and down his once or twice. There were wolf whistles and jeers and laughter and if you weren't so damn happy you would have felt the embarrassment more pertinent to the situation at hand.

"Stand down soldier." Steve joked, reaching across the table to pull at Bucky's shoulder and separate your lips. Bucky laughed but listened to his captain, sliding off the table and walking back around to his seat.

"Okay but seriously none of you have thought about this ass?" Tony exclaimed in disbelief as he pointed to Steve's tush which was now at his eye level with Steve's change in position. Fury finally turned around to face the team, looking tired and sounding just as much.

"Agent Hill just put Tony's...thoughts down in the file. I have a feeling we'll need media cleanup at some point."

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stiles-o-dylan24 · 4 years ago

Note

Hiii, sorry to bother you, I hope you doing well and are safe

, I wanna do a rewrite of an series, do you have any tips you can share, please?

If you don't wanna then it is fine.🤗

Hey friend💛 thank you, I’m doing well and doing my best to stay safe and I hope you are as well! You’re never a bother and I don’t mind at all to offer my writing tips!

I wrote down things below the cut that helped me the most and I tried to be as organized with them as I could, so I hope these help and I’m always happy to answer any other questions or help in any way!

Character & Relationships

First thing I would say is to map out your character that you’re adding in to the show.

Who they are, if you’re going with an OC or a reader insert, and if they’re going to be related to a canon character or if your character is going to have their own family that you’re also going to be creating

What kind of relationships, romantic or otherwise, they will have with canon characters.

Romantic relationships- map out how the ultimate endgame relationship will go: slow burn/enemies to lovers/friends to lovers.

Have distinguished scenes that will set the pace for whichever of these tropes you go with to be believable.

Figure out what you absolutely love when reading those tropes and how you can give that same pace to your characters, making sure to include the angst/longing/frustration/soft pure adorableness/body language light touches that makes those tropes so freaking amazing

Knowing all of this beforehand will ideally help figure out how involved in the scenes you want your character to be. Which I personally think it’s important to brainstorm and actually put thought into reshaping the scenes with your character first, as it will really make it believable to imagine that your character was always in canon and not just put in a scene because you, as the author, say so.

I’ve read one rewrite in particular where the author obviously didn’t think about that with their reader insert character and it really showed. That caused it to feel annoyingly forced and after three seasons not enjoyable to read for me because it never felt like the reader was supposed to be there and I stopped reading it.

I know I view rewrites differently than most people but, to me, if you’re going to take on a rewrite that means you’re altering canon, at least a little bit, for the story to make sense for a new character to be added in like they were there all along. So why not change relationships and morph the story to include someone who in my opinion, and yours since you’re wanting to rewrite it, was definitely missing from the show?

Transcripts/Scene layout

So once you have a good idea of your character and the relationships you want them to have it’ll make how you alter the script easier.

Try to find transcripts of the episodes as this is incredibly easier than watching the episode with subtitles and pausing every few seconds to copy down how says what in a scene.

Every website with transcripts are usually fan made so as you copy them be warned and keep in mind that

Sometimes who they have saying the line could not always be correct.

Sometimes the line itself is not quite correct to what was actually said

In my case, sometimes the website went away and there’s no data on the page

So for that last bullet point I do suggest, as soon as you find a website with the entire series of transcripts, copying every episode into a separate google doc(or your preferred writing doc).

Yes it takes some time, depending on how many episodes your show has, however it’s so worth it to not have to go back and worry about the webpage being down when you’re starting season 4 (Yes that happened to me and when the page came back up I copied the rest of the series into docs)

Writing POV

More than likely the webpage you’re copying from will copy the entire episode script into one big paragraph. You will have to go through and space it out properly, however, I used that opportunity to watch the episode at the same time that I was spacing the dialogue.

which helped in checking that what the transcripts had was correctly copied

the right person was saying what the transcripts had and if not I could quickly change the character

if you’re writing in 1st person you should also use this opportunity to take out scenes that obviously your character wouldn’t/couldn’t logically be in

though I also suggest trying to keep scenes that you feel are necessary to keep the overall story together to be read in a cohesive way.

You can alternate to 3rd person or you could have your character do a story time to the readers in an inner monologue type of way or have them/another character explain what happened in a little recap.

I mean your audience, for the majority, has probably watched the whole series and knows what’s happening, but you’re writing a story– why not have it flow as smoothly as if someone was actually watching the series?

To me with writing my series, keeping the overall main story well described was really important.

I made sure to include story times and little summaries of major events my main character wasn’t apart of whenever I could and it paid off because some people had either stopped watching the show or had forgotten what had happened in later seasons and really enjoyed the fact they could still follow along with the main story.

At the same time do not feel overwhelmed with making sure you include every single event or detail.

do whatever you feel is necessary to tell your story with your character as you would like it to be read.

And if you’re writing from 2nd or 3rd person, well you’ll more than likely be rewriting everything anyways so my hat goes off to you my friend.

Dialogue

So once you have the layout of the original episode script go through it and write the scenes with your new character(s) as best as you can from memory, since you just watched the episode while you were spacing out the script lines.

Make the scenes believable and truly feel like your character is supposed to be there by slowing down the need to just cram your character in and instead

Have your character(s) say some of their own lines in between when the canon dialogue lines are spoken

Morph the actual canon dialogue line by either cutting it halfway and having your character(s) finish the line

or have your character(s) say the canon dialogue line and give one of the other characters a new line/a morphed line from another character’s canon line.

Final Writing of the Episode

Once you’ve altered the episode with your character(s) watch the episode again and read through what you have written.

adding in more actions from the characters/facial expressions that may be missing to really make the scene flow more realistically.

This is the process that really worked for me to edit the episodes one by one and I felt like was the most time efficient to getting through an episode.

I think that writing through the episode without watching it and only reading the script helps in not being distracted or feeling rushed to get through a scene.

Last Notes From Me

Personally I would suggest having the first one or two seasons(depending how long they are) already written out in the ways I mentioned above, if possible the final edits done as well, before you publish the first episode.

This will drastically help you as you continue to finish writing the rest of the episodes and keep to the schedule you wish to keep to.

It could also help you in making sure that you have added in everything you possibly wanted to add in to later episodes.

Also help you see that the timeline of a relationship is going exactly as you would like it to.

There’s nothing worse than getting overwhelmed with a posting schedule and it causing you to rush through an episode and you leave out a key plot point that needed to happen for something you wanted to happen later on be exactly as you originally envisioned it happening.

Remember to have fun with this whole process and don’t forget that you’re telling your story for you more than anyone. You feel like something is missing and this is your opportunity to write something you will want to read.

Yes the interaction is fun and helps you get through the moments of ‘is this worth it’, however you also need to write for you. Create something you will want to read to fill that space in your mind of what’s missing when you’re watching the show/reading other people’s rewrites.

Again this is all just my advice and is to be taken with a grain of salt. You need to do things in a way that works for you! What I did was really beneficial to me and my work schedule plus my mindset for what I wanted to bring to my rewrite. It may not work for you so if it doesn’t just be patient with yourself and you’ll find your way.

Hopefully through my long ramble of a message I answered your questions or gave you some form of insight. If I did not or you still have more questions please don’t hesitate to send me another message!

I am here if you need anything– to vent, run ideas by, a beta reader, literally anything- and I absolutely love rewrites, so please tag me in yours🤗

Good luck and I hope you have so much fun taking on a series rewrite!

#series rewrite tips #Ellie answers #writing tips #sweet nonnie words

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