#this is a WHOLE TOPIC that ive mulled over multiple times as you can probably tell

[talkinfanfic]

Hi Storyshark! I'm a big Oasis fan and I think you're such a great writer! Is there any chance you would write more Gallaghercest "origin stories"? I always love to read about how it all started and like stories that are set in the early days of the band and before Liam even joined.

Did you ever entertain the idea about writing something that touches on the topic of why Liam's relationship to big brother Paul is so different to big brother Noel? I think it's quite interesting to think about what could have happened in their childhood and youth that made Liam crave Noel's attention and approval more than Paul's and made Noel more of a father figure to him. And I think anyone who meets Liam would be attracted by his beauty and charisma, so I think it's also interesting to think about how Paul reacts in a different way to it than Noel. And the topic of Noel feeling guilty of what he's doing to and how he's feeling about his baby brother is also always so interesting.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!

Thank you so much for reading and submitting an ask, gosh how flattering! For anyone interested in my writing, you probably already know I've got a blog over here (@storyshark2005) To answer your question-- Yeeeesss actually! I've got a few ideas and WIPs going right now in the "Been and Gone" universe. It's just a matter of time and me focusing long enough to get the next one out!

Paul in particular is the story I'm probably most focused on. I was just working on it last night! I'll stick a teaser below :) But here's kind of a rough checklist of what I'll be trying to accomplish...

Gene POV - done! Summary: “The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.” Falling down (2005 - 2019).

"A Week in Mustique" - multi POV, some shorter glimpses from multiple characters over the course of a family holiday in Mustique!

Paul POV - Paul trying to be his own man. Some possible romance with Katie. His complicated relationship with his brothers. Feeling outside.

Sara POV. - Set during and after Story IV. Honestly I had a whole thing for this, but story 4 turned out a bit different, so I'll have to mull this one over... but it'll prob flash back to Sara's upbringing, and also go into some of broke down in their marriage, which isn't JUST the Liam factor. (*cough* freaky fridays *cough)

Matt Morgan POV - A night out, late in 2022. Maybe a party to celebrate one of Noel's singles releasing. He finds out about Liam/Noel. Debbie brings him into the circle. We see Debbie stressing being the 'secret keeper'.

Debbie POV - Debbie finding the Liam/Noel thing more intense than maybe she’d thought, navigating where she fits in. The REAL start of the Noel/Debbie bit of the triangle!

Anyway here's a bit from "Paul" below the cut:

Saturday, 19 August 1978. Burnage, Manchester

“Eeyare,” Noel pokes his head in the door. He’s all sweaty, fringe stuck to his forehead. “What’s the score, our kid?” 

“One-nil to Derby. Charlie George, overhead kick.”

Noel’s nose wrinkles. “Gooner cunt. Can I borrow your guitar?” He nods to the corner behind Paul’s bed, where the cheap little Yamaha acoustic lay dusty and neglected.

“No.” 

“Well you’re not fuckin’ playin’ it.” 

“Yeah, and neither are you.” Paul adjusts the dial, swiveling from the commentary on Picadilly Sport, over to the BBC2.

“Whatever. I’ll just play it tonight while you’re out helping the old fella.” 

The dial skitters to a staticky stop. Fuck, but he’d forgotten. 

“It’s your turn,” Noel says flatly. “He’s got 32 Club tonight.”

He’s right, is the thing. Noel hadn’t come home last night till almost 3am. It’s Paul’s turn to haul the boxes of vinyl into the club, and then nurse a coke in the corner for six hours while Tommy DJ spins his tunes and then pisses away the week’s earnings on cards.

A sudden thunder of trainers pounds up the stairs, and Liam comes skidding into frame, crashing up against Noel’s hip. He’s bright-eyed and pink-cheeked, and just as sweaty as Noel, fringe split in half by a violent cowlick. He’s wearing a faded old ringer tee with Ernie from Sesame Street on the front that used to belong to Noel (and possibly Paul before him). 

“I want a Capri-Sonne,” he curls a fist in Noel’s shirt and tugs. He’s got grass stains on his knees from chasing Noel and his mates around the park. 

Liam’s a horrible little brother. Five-going-on-six, he’s lightning in a bottle, caught only just barely-- crackling and popping with a heaving, restless energy. He’s also a charming little fucker when he needs to be, which he never does around Noel or Paul. The church ladies and the aunties think he’s an angel.

Noel ignores the tugging and whining. Paul can see a fading bruise above his elbow where their Dad had grabbed him last week, screaming about some perceived slight or uppity attitude Noel had apparently been giving off.

“Hewitt nicked the Pistols record from Sifter’s. Youngie and Vince are comin’ over, we’re all goin’ round his in a bit for a listen.”

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Noel shrugs. 

Liam butts his face into Noel’s stomach. Noel allows it, resting a hand on top of his bowl cut. Noel casts his gaze somewhere out the window, out to the clouds, barely invested in the conversation, or the little brother buzzing under his hands.

Liam gives another headbutt, drawing a scowl and Noel’s attention back.

“Fucking stop it--” 

“I WANT my FUCKING DRINK!”

Paul looks down at his scorecard. “Maybe after the match.” 

Noel looks up, distracted with Liam wrangled into a one-armed headlock. Liam has his arms wrapped around Noel’s waist like an obnoxious little squid.  

“What?” 

“I said, maybe I’ll come round after the match.” 

Paul’s not really planning to show up. He could go round Hewitt’s any day to listen to the album. And it’d be better without Noel there, anyway, talking all the way through. (Mister fucking McCharmley, was Noel. Hewitt had been Paul’s mate, originally.)

Anyway. Noel’s only asking ‘cos he knows Mam’ll ask him where he’s off to, and why Paul’s not going with. 

“Whatever.” Noel shrugs and turns out of the room, disentangling himself from Liam’s sticky grasp. “Liam, getoff--!” 

“I’m coming, too!”

“No you’re fucking not.”

“Noely!” Liam curls his fingers into the back of Noel’s shirt and tugs again, whining for his Capri-Sonne. 

“Get it yourself!” 

“Mam put ‘em on top of the fridge, I can’t reach--!”  

Noel groans but diverts down the stairs, and Liam gives out a joyous whoop of triumph.

Paul sighs, turning back to the radio. Halftime, still one-nil. He skips back to Radio 2. Which is when he hears it. 

Years and years and years later, Paul will meet this photographer friend who’s into fucking birds, of all things. Like...photographing them, and going on trips to find rare ones. This friend, she tells him about her ‘spark bird’. Apparently, a spark bird is the first bird that lights the match in you, that makes you want to get up at the crack of fucking dawn and go creeping through a marsh for a glimpse of some rare South American ruffle-headed whats-a-ma-doo. 

Paul doesn’t give a fuck about birds. But he knows what she means when she talks about a spark bird. Because Paul’s always liked music, same as he likes talking to pretty girls, and the smell of brand new trainers, and Man City winning a string of matches. 

But something about what he hears crashing through the speakers that Saturday afternoon; that strange, hitching synthesizer bit in the intro; the fast-train staccato of Keith Moon up on the hi-hat, nervous like a racing heart; Entwhistle dancing patiently underneath, holding the rhythm down; Townshend’s carelessly cool, yet exacting and luxuriant guitar work; and above it all, Roger Daltrey’s relentless, fearless growl demanding an answer to the most important question that Paul had never heard asked before, by anyone, including himself:

Who are you? 

Who? 

Who?

Paul listened that day, and then bought and nearly wore out the single over the next few months, totally entranced and unable to answer. Anything he could have mustered seemed superficial, insubstantial: ‘Paul Anthony Gallagher, son of Peggy and Tommy, brother to Noel and Liam.’ 

And what else, the question seemed to beg, what else?! Give me something real-- who the fuck are you??

Make something of yourself, it seemed to say. Find an answer.

Years and years and years later, despite the fire burning in his belly to do something, be someone...he still doesn’t have an answer. 

‘The other brother,’ maybe. 

Anyway. Fuck knows. Maybe he’s nobody. Most people are nobody. They’re born, they live and they have a few dreams, and then they die with most of those dreams unrealised. 

That’s just life, mate. It’s not that tragic a story. ***

[dogtoling]

I’ve been thinking recently.

Before I say this, know that I absolutely love your head cannons and the thought you put into every one of them.

But in regards to the mechanics of things like how ink weaponry seems to literally melt into the ink and how the ink itself seems to have a depth that affects Cephaling technology but little else, it occurred to me that some Cephaling equipment may just be more advanced than anything humans are used to.

For example, staple Octarian equipment includes invisible platforms, floating platforms, and invisible floating platforms. Because of this, could it be possible to take this into account for future headcannons?

Forgive the lack of grace with this ask, my head feels a little hazy.

Thanks for the ask and the thoughts! This is actually interesting stuff and something I have thought of before. There are reasons for specifically why I exclude them from my headcanons, though, and I will go into them here.

I try to go with the general approach of “a type of technology only exists if we clearly see it in game”, and even then, take it with a grain of salt. As this is a GAME world we are dealing with, a lot of things are implemented for game mechanics and simplicity. If it’s seen in use outside of gameplay purposes or makes up the majority of an environment, I say it’s probably a safe bet that it’s just futuristic technology (for example the aforementioned anti-gravity technology and some kind of invisibility)! So I’m specifically going to talk about hammerspace here because it is without question the hottest topic when it comes to sci-fi in Splatoon.

It’s an interesting thought that the Splatoon world would have technology that makes objects soluble into ink. It is shown a LOT, but obviously I have a lot of problems with it. One theory I see thrown around a lot is that all gear and weapons are made of hardened ink (which is a plastic-like material that’s mentioned at least once in concept art) or just ink as a whole. This doesn’t work for multiple reasons,

A. Many of the weapons DO have plastic-y parts that could be ink, but they also have metals, cogs, rubber, stickers and whatnot, all things that would not melt into ink if we were talking about a hypothetical scenario where ink melts inside ink... for some reason

B. If there indeed was a way to make all materials soluble into ink, it still means they would not only melt within milliseconds, but also pull out and reform into exactly what they were before within some other milliseconds. This is like melting an ice sculpture (or since we’re doing regardless of material, a WHOLE LAPTOP OR SOMETHING) into a lake and expecting it to reform itself when pulled out... and you can’t even pull it out because it’s just water molecules now within the other 150 million water molecules that were in that square meter of water before that (i dont know how many water molecules fit into a square meter but it is probably a lot)

C. Since the object literally turning into liquid ink is out of the question at this point, this leaves ink as a hammerspace entity. As we see in the game, things just dip under the surface of the ink. This is a cool gameplay mechanic but in practice it means that this random liquid of a random animal has physics-breaking abilities.

Hammerspace as a whole is one of those plot crutch things where it’s implemented to make things play out smoother, for example Turf Wars in video game form would likely be a NIGHTMARE if your weapons and gear did not conveniently slide out of existence when you need them to do so. You can also pretty easily tell when it’s implemented for gameplay reasons and not because the world is MEANT to have it.

Aside from the INK being hammerspace which just makes no sense whatsoever but IS definitely cool, I would be down for hammerspace to generally exist. HOWEVER, The sole reason the Splatoon world is not meant to have hammerspace technology (and this could literally change any time who knows what lore curveballs they throw) is because it Does Not Have Any. And when I say that, I mean specifically OUTSIDE of when it’s a necessary tool for gameplay, for example:

We see hammerspace technology in the game when it’s needed and used for flavor, convenience or game mechanic purposes. Gear and weapons disappearing into ink, Sting Ray from a lunch ration bag that couldn’t even fit a sandwich in it, 15 Cohocks popping out of one cooler box during Mothership (and we have to note these are probably 1,500lbs+ vertebrates with bones and muscles, NOT entities like Inklings that can squeeze into a jar or possibly even be made of liquid considering how closely you follow the game), THE ENTIRETY OF MAWS, secret boxes through the single player, Octobosses.... list goes on.

This might look bad because I’ve just laid down like 5+ examples of hammerspace indeed BEING in the game while trying to explain how it’s not. Looking back at all of these, they all specifically exist to enable something that the game does. Because it is convenient in a Game. You wouldn’t realistically have a Sting Ray in a Salmon Run because nobody is dragging a pressure washer into a fish mob where you’ll get your limbs ripped off, it’s there to add strategy and fun into the GAMEPLAY.

Now, how does this in any way imply that the world itself has no hammerspace tech? Well this is when we look past the gameplay and look at the WORLD itself.

Technology is usually developed to either make something pre-existing more effective or convenient. What does hammerspace make more convenient? It makes things fit into a smaller space, obviously. It would be an absolute turning point for logistics and cargo business everywhere. You basically wouldn’t need cargo ships, containers, delivery trucks. Or maybe you still would if you were to transport x200000% items as opposed to what they would fit in them before, so small scale is where this comparison makes more sense:

If hammerspace existed, we would KNOW. Space-warping technology would turn the entire society on its head. Inklings’ society is very human-like, meaning their technology has to be much like ours. Having hammerspace only in a sport and NOT in something like logistics and literally everywhere else, with the implication that it’s mainstream enough to be used in a kids’ sport and a crappy part-time job company, just does not work. That’s like if we invented the wheel and ONLY used it in like, uni-cycle races for people in their 30′s meanwhile Larry from downtown is still dragging home lumber on a plastic bag through the snow because no one puts wheels on things that they would be useful on.

Hammerspace is BIG technology and basically, if it existed, it would be the new mainstream. You can buy your house in a can and just unleash it onto some random plain if you want to. Buy your car inside a bottle and just uncork it when you want it. Nobody needs a backpack to school, just put your books inside a locket. Want a new couch? Put it in a bag. Bought a bunk bed? Put it in your pocket. Want to move the entirety of the Ruins of Ark Polaris into a nicer spot so it can be a tourist attraction? You can take it!

TL;DR Hammerspace is WAY too powerful and to make it “make sense” there have to be tons of unspoken rules about what it can or can’t engulf, how, or how long for. Also the point of this post was that while the Splatoon era and especially Octarians definitely have more advanced technology, hammerspace is not one of them. We would know.

[i-am-very-very-tired]

Does Travel Make You Smarter? January 11, 2010 A delightful piece by Jonah Lehrer in the San Francisco Panorama on the cognitive benefits of travel. He argues that travel is not just about pleasure. It’s about stimulating your mind in a way that enhances creativity. It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do — it’s the physical act of movement and the newness of anything new that generates new thoughts. In fact, several new science papers suggest that getting away–and it doesn’t even matter where you’re going–is an essential habit of effective thinking. It’s not about vacation, or relaxation, or sipping daiquiris on an unspoiled tropical beach: it’s about the tedious act itself, putting some miles between home and wherever you happen to spend the night…. The larger lesson, though, is that our thoughts are shackled by the familiar. The brain is a neural tangle of near infinite possibility, which means that it spends a lot of time and energy choosing what not to notice. As a result, creativity is traded away for efficiency; we think in literal prose, not symbolist poetry. A bit of distance, however, helps loosen the chains of cognition, making it easier to see something new in the old; the mundane is grasped from a slightly more abstract perspective…. According to the researchers, the experience of another culture endows us with a valuable open-mindedness, making it easier to realize that a single thing can have multiple meanings. Consider the act of leaving food on the plate: in China, this is often seen as acompliment, a signal that the host has provided enough to eat. But in America the same act is a subtle insult, an indication that the food wasn’t good enough to finish. Such cultural contrasts mean that seasoned travelers are alive to ambiguity, more willing to realize that there are different (and equally valid) ways of interpreting the world. This, in turn, allows them to expand the circumference of their “cognitive inputs,” as they refuse to settle for their first answers and initialguesses…. So let’s not pretend that travel is always fun, or that we endure the jet lag for pleasure. We don’t spend ten hours lost in the Louvre because we like it, and the view from the top of Machu Picchu probably doesn’t make up for the hassle of lost luggage. (More often than not, I need a vacation after my vacation.) We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything. ### Here is the State Department’s commentary on the difficulty of learning various foreign languages for native English speakers. Ross Douthat on Avatar’s virtual appeal. (I loved the movie btw.) Cal Newport on what chess grandmasters can teach us about building a remarkable life. Best of Craigslist: sex duel with the neighbors. ShareTweet+ 1Mail Previous Post Next Post 8 Responses DaveJ January 11, 2010 Couldn’t I just drive to work in reverse or something? There has to be a better way than traveling. Kyle Hansen January 11, 2010 My favorite quote regarding travel: The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine Krishna January 12, 2010 “….But when we get home, something in the mind has changed…” That something, I guess is altered reality. No doubt, the great affair is to move. But for the insularity offered by travel, the world would be full of couch potatoes chomping wafers, watching TV or worshipping celebrities. So much is the motivation – to flee reality – that defines escapism than the behavior itself. Travel allows us to slip into altered reality letting us start living for real once more, enjoying connections with others. It’s the need for altered reality, not necessarily more pleasant than where you come from, that urges you to backpack, as opposed to the escapist that seeks to run away from routine. Vince Williams January 12, 2010 I must say it’s a bit sobering to realize that by the 10,000 hour rule, the only subject I’ve mastered, apart from my vocation, is onanism. Well, I suppose there are worse things to excel in. After more than forty years of intensive deliberate practice, I think I qualify as a grandmaster of the art. I enjoyed Jonah Lehrer’s essay, too, though I felt he gave other modes of transportation than flying short shrift by writing as if there is no other way to get where you’re going. Sometimes the journey to another place is the whole adventure. I sailed to Bermuda with a buddy who built his own sailboat, a 38-foot steel-hulled sloop. Three of us, obnoxious rebels all, sailed downwind wing-and-wing, over 900 miles to St. George’s. Two days of our passage we sailed in twenty plus-foot seas. My first watch at the helm after the swell picked up I turned around to look at the wave behind us– and had to crane my neck upward to see its unbreaking crest. It struck me that steering the vessel was like surfing on a forty-foot surfboard. My sensitivity to the boat’s movements was profound– a moment’s lapse of attention and I could easily broach the boat. I took in a big gulp of salt air and in that moment I experienced soul-wrenching ecstasy. Whatever consciousness expansion and realization of human potential happened on our trip, it happened in moments like this, and it was all in the getting there. I believe it’s the same with our ordinary, humdrum realities– our everyday sojourns through time and space. Who says you have to hop on a plane and fly to some foreign country to experience the ‘other’? All the psychological benefits of travel that accrue to the lucky bastard who has the jack to get over ‘there’ are available to the poor son of a bitch stuck at home, too. All he needs is some bio-sourced DMT or 5-MeO-DMT to smoke, and he’s on his way to high adventure and possible enlightenment. Spanish cathedrals and Venetian palaces cannot compare to the glorious visions of the universe he may see (the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey was nothing, Keir Dullea would be envious) after being launched in this neural rocketship. After all, jets are not the only way to fly, and some drugs, like these, can stimulate your mind in a way that enhances creativity. The movement may be all in your mind, but the newness of the experience (it’s always new, even for the experienced psychonaut) is sure to generate new thoughts.;-) Tyler January 13, 2010 Great post on this topic. I totally agree. Travel and moving around stimulates your brain and changes your brain’s neurochemistry. Thus, it helps you think in new ways that will expand one’s learning capabilities. Brett Bolkowy January 18, 2010 Lehrer writes: “our mind is most likely to solve our stubbornest problems while sitting in a swank Left Bank café. So instead of contemplating that buttery croissant, we should be mulling over those domestic riddles we just can’t solve.” I disagree- I think that it isn’t simply being in a different environment that helps you to see new problems in a different way- I think that an important piece of the puzzle is not being intently focused on those same problems while traveling. When you’re traveling you have more of a clear head- you’re focused only on what’s right in front of you. Your mind ends up wandering back to those same problems, but it can see them in a different way, outside of the patterned thinking that has led you to the same dead end when tackling these problems head-on. I find the same effect when I completely put aside what I am working on and let my mind wander. What are your thoughts? (If interested, my post on the subject is here: link to brettbolkowy.com) Ben Casnocha January 18, 2010 Agreed, that being focused ostensibly on something else can also help the creative process. kevin cook June 8, 2010 Hmm, it seems true. Every since I started traveling on summer vacations Ive gotten very good grades in both high school and my college courses. I’ve also became one of the smartest ones in some of the classes that use to be complicated for me. Leave a Reply Name* E-Mail* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Publish Back to top MobileDesktopSumo