#upfront & said it was a limited series

[torisprlng]

💬

[pekoehoneyncream]

Ghoaptober # 18

Prompt: Secret

Words: 1000~

TW: None (sfw)

This version of Ghoaptober was created by @spadesandshovels

I realized that I'd been neglecting Gaz throughout this series and decided to remedy that. I think he'd have preferred if I'd left him alone.

Enjoy!

Ghost slid onto the bench across the table from Gaz. From the moment he’d come into the officer’s mess hall and had clocked Gaz’s presence he’d kept an unbroken unblinking stare on him. Soap was keeping a secret from him and Ghost knew that Gaz knew what it was. The only reason that Ghost hadn’t had a breakdown over Soap keeping something from him was the fact that Johnny was being very upfront about it, outright saying that he didn’t want to share whatever it was yet.

That was all well and good, but then, almost one month into forcing himself to respect Soap’s right to have privacy, Gaz started acting squirrely. Avoiding Ghost, cutting himself off mid-sentence and dancing around an -oddly diverse- array of topics. All but screaming that he was in on it. 

Whatever it was. 

An awkward flush climbed higher and higher up Gaz’s neck the longer he was caught under Ghost’s ungenerous scrutiny. He started pushing his food around on his plate, taking more and more time between each bite as his appetite fled before Ghost’s predatory gaze. 

“Hey, Ghost,” Gaz eventually greeted with poorly feigned calm.

“Garrick.” Ghost acknowledged flatly. He knew that Gaz talked more with active listeners, he liked it when people vocalized along with what he was saying, and Ghost needed Gaz feeling chatty. 

“What’s up,” Gaz kept his eyes locked on Ghost, his training demanding that he not take his eyes off a potential threat, “You gettin’ something to eat?” 

“Nah,” Ghost dismissed, “Not after food.” 

“Yeah?” Gaz questioned, his hopes that this would be a normal conversation visibly dying behind his eyes, “Did you need me for something?”

“You know what I want.” Ghost threw down the metaphorical gauntlet, leaning forward to brace his forearms on the table, “And you’re gonna tell me.” 

Gaz forced himself to not lean back, or scan the room for cover and escape routes. Showing any weakness right now would be a death sentence. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He bluffed, subconsciously straightening up in his seat.

“Yes you do.” Ghost threw back in his face, unphased by Gaz’s posturing, “I’m gonna find out either way, so why don’t make this less painful for everyone and just tell me.” 

Gaz’s eyes started flickering between Ghost’s, and the Lieutenant knew he was on the edge of fessing up. He leaned back to scan the room for witnesses -there were none, Ghost had carefully timed it so they were alone in the room- and Ghost knew he’d won. 

“How did you know?” Gaz hissed, leaning close to Ghost over the table.

“It was obvious.” Ghost lied, not bothering to lower his voice. 

“Obvious!” Gaz shrilled, “But we were so careful.”

Ghost responded with only a derisive head tilt. Silently implying that he thoroughly disagreed. 

“Okay, okay,” Gaz capitulated, “But you can’t tell anyone.” 

With only his eyes showing, you’d think the amount of scorn Ghost could wordlessly express would be limited. Not so. 

“Yeah, okay,” Gaz could admit that wasn’t his brightest moment, “I’ve been asking him out since, like, February, right? And in August he finally said that we could ‘give it a try’, so I’ve been working super hard to-” 

“Wait. Wait.” Ghost exclaimed, his voice sharp with betrayal, “You asked out Johnny and he said yes?!” 

“What? No!” Gaz denied, leaning away from Ghost, who looked ready to climb over the table to murder him, “Price! I asked out Price!” 

“Price?” Ghost repeated, sitting back into his seat, entirely confused. What did Price have to do with anything?

“Yeah, we’ve been fucking for years-,”

“Right.” Ghost acknowledged.

“and that was never all that I wanted from him, but I couldn’t- What do you mean ‘Right’,” Gaz cut himself off, “You knew!?”

“Of course I knew,” Ghost answered, a defensive edge creeping into his voice, “That really was obvious. I was talking about whatever Johnny’s hiding.”

“What, his new tattoo?” Gaz blurted.

“Ky!” Came Soap’s dismayed cry, “Ah told ye no’ tae tell him!” 

Ghost and Gaz whipped around, baffled to find Soap stood by the end of their table, a tray of food in hand. How long had he been stood there?

“Did you know about Price and me?”

“You got another tattoo?”

They spoke over each other, both demanding an answer. 

“Whit? Tha’ ye’ve been ridin’ the Cap for years?” Soap addressed Gaz as he set his food on the table and sat down next to Ghost, “Didnae ken ye were tryin’ tae hide it.”

Gaz let his head drop onto the dubiously clean surface of the mess table, clamping his arms over his ears and tenting his hands over his head. Letting out a muffled, but no less heartfelt, groan of despair. 

“A tattoo, Johnny?” Ghost repeated, staring at Soap with pitifully sad eyes. 

“Aye, quit y'ur mopin’. Was gonnae show ye when it was healed.” Soap grumbled, stabbing mutinously as his food, “Was meant tae be a surprise, but Garrick ruined tha’.”

“Can you show me now?” Ghost inveigled, batting those pretty brown eyes that he knew Soap loved. Not that he wouldn’t adamantly deny ever doing any such thing.

“No’ here,” Soap caved with a sigh, “It’s no’ in a guid spot fer tha’, but I’ve a pic ye can see.”

Ghost watched Soap with rapt attention as he dug his personal phone out of his pockets and navigated to his gallery, handing the phone to Ghost once he’d found the photo he wanted. Cradling the phone, Ghost stared down at what he recognized to be the -previously unmarked- skin of Johnny’s left inner thigh. Inked there now was an exact replica of a knife. Ghost’s knife. The cherry on top being the addition of their anniversary date printed in clear numbers along the spine of the blade. 

“Si?” Soap asked hesitantly after Ghost had sat unmoving for a worryingly long moment, “Do ye no’ like it?”

Ghost’s head snapped up. He stared blankly into Soap’s stressed blue eyes for a beat, then burst into motion. Shoving the phone into one of his pockets, he stood from the table and hauled Johnny up with him. He headed out the doors and towards his room at a quick clip, dragging his unresisting boyfriend along behind him.

The both of them leaving a mortified Gaz alone in the mess to wallow and mourn his burning worldview without a second thought.

Thank You For Reading!

Poor Gaz, getting called out like that.

PekoeHoneynCream's Masterlist

[empressofthewind]

Analysis of Near's Relationships & Social Skills

fairly long post below the cut :-)

something that i find really interesting about Near's sociability in the manga is the fact that he's immediately presented as a recluse. in his very first scene, he's sitting alone completing a puzzle, and declines Linda's invitation to come outside "for once", without looking up or even remotely entertaining the request. this is backed up by his profile in Volume 13, in which his social skills are rated a 1/10, and it's said that he "keeps human contact to a minimum". yet when we see him throughout the rest of the series, this doesn't really seem to be the case. it's tough to analyse what he's like in typical social situations given that the circumstances under which we see him are quite unique, but he is surrounded by people pretty much 24/7 and seems to be very comfortable in this setting. he frequently asks for the input of his team, he is extremely willing to share his thoughts with them at any given time, and he also empathises with them and encourages them to speak up if they feel uncomfortable at any point (e.g., telling Gevanni he does not have to touch the notebook if he's too scared, and telling the entire team that they are welcome to stay at headquarters if they do not want to risk Mello making contact with them). so it doesn't feel right to say that he's shy or unwilling to talk to others, or that he has limited understanding of/regard for others' feelings; nor does it feel accurate to say that he keeps contact "to a minimum" when it's both shown and confirmed that he functions best with others around him.

the impression i get from him is that he is very willing and able to talk to people, but only when he needs to. he can hold a conversation just fine and he talks a lot when prompted, but he does not engage with people simply for the sake of socialising. he won’t go out of his way to initiate a casual chat just because. he does not conform to social norms, as exhibited by his preference for wearing socks and pyjamas even when meeting the President of the United States, so he won't participate in activities or conversations that he is not interested in just for the sake of earning brownie points with the people involved. he doesn't crave the approval of those around him and would rather be alone than engage in forced social interaction. his manner is also very blunt and he is not above brutal honestly. even his lies are very blunt and bold, such as him pretending that he dialled the wrong number when calling Light to confirm that Mogi was not Kira, or announcing to the task force that Mogi had died - which is a stark contrast to L, who lies often and is generally not upfront about it. i also feel like as much as he is willing and able to articulate his thoughts very clearly and extensively, this isn't necessarily his default. when receiving the news of L's death, for example, his instinct is to remain quiet, and process the information internally before speaking about it. on several occasions during the Kira case, he has to be prompted by the members of the SPK to share his thoughts. so i think it is perhaps reasonable to say he is instinctively a fairly quiet person, but is more than capable of speaking his mind if the need arises.

but despite all of this, i do definitely feel like he prefers having people around him. he's perfectly capable of reaching conclusions on his own, at times even faster than he would be when thinking aloud - case in point, the moment when he deduced that Mikami is X-Kira - so it isn't as though he needs to voice every individual thought. in fact, he doesn't really need to have others in the room with him at all, which is once again exemplified by the X-Kira deduction. but he often chooses to be around his team and voice his thoughts anyway, especially when he has strong opinions about something or someone, such as Kira supporters attempting to break into his hideout, or the president withdrawing his support from the SPK. i also think it's worth mentioning that despite him having been alone when he deduced that Mikami was X-Kira, he did invite both Gevanni and Rester into the room individually to ask for their opinions on who stands out to them from the broadcasts, so he could, in his words, use them as a reference. this suggests that he does not just share his thoughts and ask for input because he feels obligated to do so as a member of a team, but that he deems their contributions worth taking into account. it seems to me that he genuinely values the input and presence of his team and recognises that they are instrumental in solving the case; thus he offers them the courtesy of hearing his thoughts at every stage throughout the case, and explaining the logic behind the duties he needs them to perform for him.

once again, though, it's tough to analyse Near's social skills & habits when looking purely through the lens of his interactions with his employees, and there are limited options to investigate outside of the SPK. one thing that is clear to me, though, is that he draws very clear lines between people he does and doesn't respect, and treats them differently as a result. Light is the best example of a person Near does not respect. even before establishing that Light is Kira, Near has no issues telling him to his face that he and the task force are incompetent. after deducing that Light is Kira, Near is snarky with him, calls him out on his lies, and is the only person in the entirety of Death Note who tells Light to his face that he is a mass murderer, not a God. this ties both into Near's bluntness & honesty and his lack of desire for social approval; he has no interest in pretending to like people he fundamentally does not.

the best example of someone Near does respect, in my opinion, is Mello. Near's relationship with Mello is a particularly interesting case to analyse as an outlier amongst the people he interacts with. Mello is the only person we see him engage with (other than the brief exchange between him and Linda) whom he has history with beyond the Kira case, and who is neither a direct ally nor masquerading as one. Mello is actively working against Near, and thus, in theory, Near has no allegiance to him, nor any reason to be polite to him unless he considers Mello a potential threat whom he needs to be especially sensitive towards - which clearly isn't the case, given he makes no effort to appease Mello when his gun is pointed at Near and instead gives Mello permission to shoot him. so the way he speaks about and to Mello is very notable to me. it's abundantly clear to me that Near likes Mello and has a lot of respect for him. he praises Mello on his ability to get the Death Note before the SPK could, and does not hold Mello's crimes against him. Near talks about Kira and his followers with disdain and condemns them for their crimes, but he vehemently defends Mello, and is very quick to justify Mello's actions. he also went to great lengths to protect Mello by contacting everyone he knew of who had seen Mello’s face, and kept his photo protected for five years.

however, Near also puts very little effort into forming any sort of amicable relationship with Mello, as far as we can tell from canon. he accepts Roger's request for them to work together, but does not complain or attempt to stop Mello when he walks out. he does not console Mello over L's death, either, and he makes no attempt to extend his interactions with Mello later in the manga when Mello visits his headquarters and sends Mogi to him so they can conduct a joint interrogation. he never tries to convince Mello to like him and he doesn’t make a big deal about the effort he has put into protecting him. what this shows, in my opinion, is that if Near does have any interest in befriending and/or working with Mello (the latter of which i think is implied, and the former is more so a matter of interpretation), he does not want to force those relationships. he would be willing to align himself with Mello directly, but he does not want Mello to do so out of any sense of obligation. since Mello has made it clear that he has no interest in working with him, Near does not try to persuade him, and is perfectly comfortable to let him follow his own path if that is what he wishes to do. this could also give context to his apparent lack of friendships at Wammy's House, as specified in Volume 13 - if all of this is true, it's possible that there were others at Wammy's House whom he liked and would have been open to befriending, but because of his unwillingness to take initiative when it comes to forming these relationships, he gave off the impression that he was not interested, and would rather be alone.

[buffyfan145]

Now we've gotten a 3rd "Rings of Power" fan account saying they've gotten slightly different takes on the role Calam Lynch is playing that is a mix of what Fellowship of Fans, The One Ring Net, Rings of Power Updates, and the leaks on Reddit said and new information. This also includes possible major spoilers about Celeborn, Halbrand/Sauron, Galadriel, Haladriel/Saurondriel, Celebrimbor, and more as well. They also provided new information about Charlie Vickers, as well as the role Gavi Singh Cherra is really playing. We'll finally be getting official spoilers from the US media, Amazon, and the cast/crew starting next month at the May Upfronts so we'll be able to cross reference all of these and get a clearer picture to what is correct or false as we get closer to season 2 airing this fall. Personally I'm excited but I totally understand why some fans are upset, especially since this sounds like the writers are taking a storyline from the books and giving it to a different character. The link to the article is in the comments but I've summerized it behind the cut.

Firstly the fansite Redanian Intelligence posted these. They're a fansite not just for "ROP" but also "The Witcher", "Games of Thrones", and other shows. They are usually pretty accurate with what they post too. Like FOF, they are saying that Calam Lynch has been cast as Celeborn but they also are saying he's playing two roles as Sauron does indeed shapeshift into Celeborn pretending that he came back from the dead/Valinor.

They're also saying Annatar isn't in the season but Sauron playing as Celeborn is what gets him back into Eregion. He pretends that the Valar gave him warning to come back and help the elves and that they have to create more rings and gets Celebrimbor to help.

However, the Annatar/Celebrimbor thing from the books is now changed to be Celeborn and Galadriel. Sauron pretends to be her husband and that he's helping them, but really it's not. It's not clear yet if the audience knows it's him but some are suggesting we might know it's Sauron/Halbrand possibly suggesting we see Charlie shapeshift into Calam and/or there are scenes were we the audience see it's really Charlie/Halbrand/Sauron instead of Calam/Celeborn.

So this is why the Celebrimbor fans are upset today and I totally understand as that is a major book change. Also since it's likely that Celebrimbor gets killed off at the end of the season too. At the same time being a Haladriel/Saurondriel shipper it'll show that they're one of the show's main relationships.

This site also says that in season 3 Calam will only play the real Celeborn, as Galadriel and everyone finds out the truth in the season finale, while Charlie goes back to being the only Sauron actor for the rest of the series. This I hope is true as I really only want the shapeshifting limited as it really should just be Charlie.

They're also claiming the show filmed multiple endings as a cliffhanger with Galadriel and Celeborn/Sauron. One is that she finds the real Celeborn and he's badly injured and we don't know if he'll live. Another is that Sauron as Celeborn tells her the real Celeborn is dead. A third is that she finds out Celeborn is still alive and being held prisoner but has to work with Sauron if she wants him back. Possible even more endings were filmed and not sure if Charlie was on set too but it's possible as FOF did have someone say Charlie and the other Sauron actor did film scenes at the same time.

They're also saying Galadriel and Celeborn/Sauron do kiss as well. One was saying it was the ending but it's possible since she thinks her husband came back they will have more kissing scenes. Very curious about this as if that's the case we're actually getting Haladriel/Saurondriel kissing scenes which I wanted but never thought would happen. LOL But now also wondering if we'll see the camera show us that it's Sauron/Halbrand kissing her too since again it's really them kissing.

This also would explain the chemistry tests too with Morfydd and Calam as he not only has to do one to be her husband but since he's playing another version of Sauron/Halbrand too so it has to match how it is between Morfydd and Charlie, who had a chemistry test in season 1. So we can say the show is doing a full fledged love triangle with them.

Then about Gavi, this site is saying the new race character he plays is a Stoor, the other Hobbit ancestor besides the Harfoots, and will have scenes with Nori and The Stranger. FOF and others confirmed that he was playing a new Tolkien race we hadn't seen yet.

[aspoonofsugar]

you wrote such a beautiful rwby analysis but unfortunately I think you put more thought into the plot than the entire writers room

Hi!

Thank you, I am happy you found my analysis beautiful!

That said, I am sorry, but I disagree with your statement. It is fine if you dislike the series and even if you criticize it, but as for me, I think the writing is rather strong.

Here are some thoughts, which aren't really directed at you, but rather are born by me seeing a tendency going around where it is somehow "cool" to outloud state RWBY is badly written. I even saw people like... "apologizing" because they enjoy the series. Newsflash...RWBY is good.

RWBY is a series with a writing that goes from decent to very good depending on the moment. I would give it from 7 to 8.5 or even 9 in some scenes. More importantly, it is a story the writers are clearly enjoying writing, as for now. This is why I like watching it. It is genuine, upfront in what it wants to say and it takes risks. Ironically, a series with limited resources shows much more freedom in execution than many other stories, which are economically backed up.

I would also add people keep talking about good writing, but never really elaborate on it... And like, trust me, I do think there is good writing and bad writing. The problem is that people just take examples of "well written series" and decide a series written differently must be bad. This isn't really the case.

First of all, let's focus only on a specific type of story, which is the kind most modern movies, books and series are. This type of story is built on 3 (4) factors:

Plot

Characters

Themes

(Worldbuilding)

I would say the first 3 are more important usually, but there are some stories where the worldbuilding is so strong it becomes its own selling point.

Now, a good story is usually strong in all these departments. The perfect story is top notch in all 3 (4). That is because a good plot usually lets you develop the characters better, which in turns helps exploring the theme.

However, here comes the amazing truth... even the most incredible stories. Even the masterpieces loved by everybody... even them... end up choosing only 1 or 2 of these aspects and sacrifice a little bit of the 3rd (and 4th) one.

Naoki Urasawa's Monster? Its focus is themes. He chooses to go all out on this department, which is why the story is so powerful and resonates so much with people. Still, to do so, he chooses to sacrifice some parts of the plot to the point... some mysteries are not really solved. Some people may be annoyed by it, but I would not call it a flaw. It is a choice. Leaving some things open enriches the themes.

Death Note? If the story has to choose between characters, themes and plot, it goes for plot. This is why despite having so many well liked characters, it is difficult to think of outstanding character arcs in it. The same goes for the themes, which are only touched superficially. This is why btw Death Note is not a fave of mine, really.

Now obviously, many examples can be done and we could discuss forever on some because there is always always always a subjective component. What I am trying to say is... there are different ways to write a story. Not all people would like the same. Luckily, we have tons of stories.

Back to RWBY. I would say RWBY shines when it comes to themes. Characters and plot are good and interesting, but what keeps the story together, despite it playing so much with genre is that it has a very strong thematic core. You can't invent it or fake it btw. See, Death Note's author tries to do it in later works (Platinum End cough cough), but fails. At the same time, there is another department RWBY is top notch and that is symbolism. RWBY has a very rich symbolic system. Again... surely there are coincidences, but like this is a little bit too much...imho.

Now, does it mean, the writers came up with all the patterns I and others find? Probably not, but here is the thing... writing has an unconscious component. If you go earnestly at it, you are bound to unconsciously create patterns. A good writer is able to recognize them (either consciously or unconciously) and to capitalize on them. So far, I think CRWBY has capitalized on the patterns they created. I also think it is clear they are very good at researching and at playing with different sources by going deep into them. Again, you can't come up with the Ever After if you have not read and even studied Alice in Wonderland. It is just impossible. You would end up with a shallow and uninteresting copy cat. The Ever After isn't that because it is used to explore themes, characters and lore in an interesting way. Hence... ladies and gentlemen... it is a fruit of... good writing.

But really, since people are not commenting on it... I would like to point out that in 5 episodes of less than 20 minutes, they have managed to introduce a whole world, with its own lore, set of characters and main story (Alyx's) and to tie it to the protagonists' predicament in a way that hits really hard thematically and psychologically... To do that you need exceptionally thight writing... it is not that simple to do...

Anyway, have a nice day anon and consider watching something else. Thanks God the world is full of stories!

[elrielbaby]

What are your thoughts for Rebel Witch? Think Gideon and Rune will end up together? I really hate Gideon right now! I know, I know after all he suffered of course he would act the way he did but still. He was willing to have Rune killed! How dare he!

Anon, I apologise, I went whole hog on this answer 😆

I have faith that we’ll get a good ending anon (and by that I mean they end up together and in love) I’ve watched a couple of lives the author did (they’re on her insta if you’re interested, one with fairyloot and one for a book club I believe) and the things she’s said give me hope. They’ll just have to suffer to get there 😆

Oh my friend, I know. I was pissed — but isn’t that a sign of the best, most true, enemies to lovers? At some point or another, one or both of them were in real danger from the other one 🥲

More than anything I want them to have an upfront, honest & to the point conversation.

Yes, Cressida is evil, beyond evil. That does not mean all witches are evil and should be treated the way they have been and put to death. Two things can be true at once, and two wrongs do not make a right. Cressida, and any witch who used their powers in similar ways, should pay for their crimes - but they are not the crimes of all witches.

Their problems are currently (but not limited to):

The current criminalisation and collective punishment of all witches, regardless as to wether they committed any actual crimes or not

Gideon believes Rune to be in league with Cressida, and potentially blames her along with Cressida for Alex’s death (as well as himself I’d wager)

They both believe that the others feelings were some sort of ruse (which is a confusing point to argue, because the manner in which they happened upon the feelings was a ruse - the feelings were an unwanted byproduct)

The power imbalance that exists between witches and non witches. I’m not sure if this is the series that will expand upon this issue, due to the fact it’s a duology, but there has to be a fair and just system put in place to be able to regulate the power witches have over those without powers.

Cressida.

My current hope, is that they work together in order to bring Cressida down, whilst also coming to an agreement on how best to move forward in order to have witches and non witches live together safely and peacefully. And of course, that they recognise and accept their feelings for each other and we leave them, happy and in love! I am SO excited to find out which way it goes though.

[kariachi]

The thing, with Gwen's actions in Cooper's premiere- I can't remember the title right now and I'm not looking it up- is that she is choosing to be as rough with Kevin as she is. The show makes it clear that she doesn't have to be hitting him as hard as she is, but she's doing it anyway because Kevin's been a teasing little shit all episode and Gwen believes that that is good enough reason to be use physical violence against him, repeatedly. The show could have used Kevin's role in the plan as a narrative punishment for his behavior and it would have been annoying but fine, but they had to make it clear that this was an interpersonal matter. They could have had her serious, they could have had her apologizing, but instead they have her smiling and happy and blatantly taking this opportunity to punish Kevin for displeasing her. The first episode these two have together as a couple and it entails Kevin being his normal self and Gwen responding with violence. And this isn't supposed to be a red flag.

And I'm thinking about it now and you can see Gwen getting bolder with this shit? Like, she pulls this once each series (off the top of my head) and each time she's more obvious with it? Like, here she's behind the boys, they can't see her expression, it's serious when they can see it, she lies about how hard she has to hit Kevin. In the Pandor episode she's upfront with dropping Kevin out of the air, and doesn't try to pretend she's sorry, but she does lie and say it was an accident, as unconvincing and without any real attempt to be convincing as it is. Then you get to Showdown, where she just straight shoves Kevin and Ben into freefall in front of witnesses without a single word.

Which makes sense, of course, in character, she would get bolder with that shit when she never gets consequences for it. The closest there are to any for her behavior is in the Pandor episode, where Kevin gets kidnapped and tricked into releasing Pandor who attacks her and threatens the area. But even then, the fact that this whole chunk of plot was prompted by her being using violence against Kevin again doesn't come up, and even the lesser issue she apologizes for is brushed aside with Kevin pointing out that she never holds shit against him- which is just canonically untrue. The point being, Gwen never actually has any consequences to her actions hit her. Shit is always brushed off, or in the cases where she's accidentally doing harm the blame is pushed elsewhere (looking at you In Charms Way and fuckers stating that Kevin should have read Gwen's mind apparently and known what she was up to). Even when it's people who aren't Kevin, like her threatening Nocturne- which surely didn't contribute to her developing Stockholm Syndrome, no way would one of the heroes threatening to, quote, "peel [her] like a grape" immediately after a traumatic experience have led to issues- things are just brushed aside.

So yeah, of course she gets more bold with this shit. Any sense that maybe there's something wrong with her actions and she should obscure or hide them (but not not engage in them, apparently) would have been repeatedly undercut by the lack of consequences, and by her being absolved of any guilt in shit with a quickness. The people in she and Kevin's life enable this shit by seemingly just rolling with it all and taking her side. Gwen of AF probably wouldn't have shoved Ben and Kevin into freefall, and definitely not with Rook watching, but by OV she's learned there's no consequences. And from what we're shown that remains the case.

Worse, given what we're shown and that we're shown it consistently, it's more than likely that she pulls similar, if likely smaller scale, shit in their day-to-day life. I've said before, somebody who'll shove their loved ones into freefall in front of witnesses like it's normal is not somebody who engages in healthy relationship patterns behind closed doors.

Personally I like to think that we've seen the limit of what she's willing to pull, because despite what people think I do like Gwen I wouldn't be so pissy about this shit if I didn't, but you could very much use this as an argument that she's going to get worse before she gets better. And I do believe that she could move off this path, but first she would have to get hit with consequences, proper consequences that hit her and aren't just shooed aside by those around her. Because she is a good person- in fact I think in-character the idea that what a Good Person does can't possible be That Bad plays a role in a lot of things from her behavior here and how people react to it to Ben getting away with a some of the shit he does, and that out-of-character it's why you get some fans who'll bend over backwards to explain how nothing they've done wrong was actually them doing wrong- but I think it's likely she's got herself convinced she's not doing anything wrong, with enabling forces on all sides, and would need a solid kick in the pants to realize that she's being an asshole.

She doesn't need to be like this, she didn't need to be like this. But the writers decided this was the person they wanted her to be, and that they didn't want us thinking twice about it or judging her based on her own actions. Same thing happened with Ben. It's poor characterwork in conjunction to story, a tale as old as longform stories.

Just had to go fuck up a perfectly good female lead with their own bullshit and bad humor.

[mady871]

LISTEN TO HOW SHE SPEAKS FOR KANTHONY! I AM SO EXCITED FOR S3

FANDOMS EVERYWHERE NEVER LEARN!!!

GRANTED IT WILL NOT BE AS GOOD AS THE BOOK! IT NEVER IS! SO MAKE DUE WITH EITHER WATCHING OR NOT BUT IF YOU DECIDE TO WATCH, THEN THEY MIGHT BE MORE INCLINED TO GET TO YOUR PRECIUS SHIP OF CHOICE!!!

OLD FAN HERE. FROM FANDOM OF OLD, THE FIRST ON THE NET:

HERE ARE MY CONSIDERATIONS:

I might have an idea of where are they going with season three if indeed it’s the last. if not even better, and it’s going to be glorius i think. sad that the actors for daphne/simon have decided not to reprise th role. i read this series years ago and i love all the books and carechters and the ensamble is unbelievable. my favorite is of course Penelope. i wish they had made show Penelope darker, and if she is, IT MAKES SENSE. I LOVE WHISTLEDOWN, but that is just me. show Pen might regret it on screen and want to be better. i wished instead she wouldn’t apologize to anybody. she had her reasons, and they are just as valid if not more then other. don’t canoodle in public and nothing would have hasppened. i think the Bridgerton are some sort of magnets for scandal and despite that they are not goven their due because they are who they are, while everyone else gets threted the same. bottom of the piramid is the Feastherington, and other then false pleasentries, they are threted as such. Penelope stands out, because she rebelled to the shackells not only of being a woman, but being a Featherington. PLUS whistledown, or the real society papers were mostly read by middle to lower class and they were to provide entrteniment to the average commoner.

ITS FUNCTION IS TO MOCK THE TON!

YOU ARE A PART OF THE TON, YOU ARE FAIR GAME. AGAIN BEHAVE WELL AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.

Don’t try to lie and cheat and make your way to a marriege where your husbund will have to raise someone else’s son. be upfront and marry. why wasn’t Marina upfront with Colin and give him the truth? why didn’t Colin listen to his darling friend Pen. i see Pen here stuck between not two but three sides. Colin, her own family and Whistledown, and Whistledown never betrayed her! lesser evil and all of that. today’s generation in commenting this issue show their naivety. you cannot judge a period piece with your modren criteria. you would need educate yourself on society in the 1810-1820 onwards.

AS A BUSINESS WOMAN, WHO EARNED HER OWN FUNDS, PENELOPE IS An INDIPENDENT, GO-GETTER. which is more then can be said for Eloise in the show, or earlier books!

PENELOPE KNOWS HER WORTH,  and utilises it at he best of her ability to try and limit her parents absolute incapability of managing the estate and the title. the lenght she goes to make sure her sisters are taken care of, i would have not done it. GOODBAY AND GOOD LUCK!

PENELOPE DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE TON AT LARGE.

she only wants someone to love her (WILL ACCEPT ARRANGED RESPECTFUL MARRIAGE AND EVEN LATER SEPERATE LIVES. DOES NOT EXCEPECT COLIN), a house to manage and children of her own. much like a woman of her time. a girl really, that was already put on the shelf the day she debuted.

RIMINDING PEOPLE THAT WATCH THE SHOW BUT NOT REALLY, THAT PENELOPE GAVE THE QUEEN THE DEEPEST, MOST DELICATE OF BOWS EVEN SURPRISING HER OWN MOTHER, WHO LET IT GO. COINCIDENCE, I THUIK NOT. BUT I DO NOT LIKE SHONDA RIMES, SO GOD KNOWS WHAT THAT WOMAN CAME UP WITH! “SHUDDER AS A X-PHILE”

PENELOPE HAS A TEMPER. NOT SOMEONE YOU WANT TO TRIFLE WITH, an i whish for s3 to show it. i want s3 to show that because of eloise/colin, for pen not to have a choice and shun whole of them. protected them long enough at her own expense!

PS: WORST WITLEDOWN VICTIM OF ALL? WHY, pen herself. None shunned, malingned overlooked, ignored, sneered at MORE than our Pen.

SHE REALLY MEANT ALL OF THOSE THINGS SHE WROTE ABOUT HERSELF OF THE DARLING BRINDGERTON CAME TO HER DEFENCE. ELOICE MANTIONED HER FAMILY, NEVER PEN HERSLF.

PENELOPE HAS BEEN LOOKING IN A MIRROR FAR LONGER THEN ANY OTHER CARACHTER.

FOR ME THAT SCENE WITH COLIN WAS SO FITTING, SHE BELIEVES WHAT THE MIRROR REFLECTS, AND HE SHOWS HER AND ONLY THEN SHE REALLY BELIEVES HIM! ONLY FUCKING THEN.

SHE IS NO VILLAIN, EVEN IF SHE WAS, SHE MANAGED NOT TWO BUT I THINK THREE SEASON BEFOR BEING DISCOVERED, AS SHE HAD ALREADY A SEASON UNDER HER BELT ALREADY DESPITE NOT HAVING HER COMING OUT TO THE QUEEN. BEFORE THE BRIDGERTON CAME TO LONDON FOR DAPHNE, BEFORE ELOISE.

MIGHT BE THE ANTI-HEROINE. NO DAMSEL IN DISTRESS I IMAGINE, SHE NEDDED TO BE!!

LASTLY, BEACAUSE IF I WAS IN PEN , IF I WAS IN HER SHOES IT WOULD BLOODY ANNOY ME TO HIGH HEAVENS TO THE POINT OF CALLING FOR STEALING TO THE LOCAL COINSTABULERY, ELOISE RUMMEGING THROUGH PEN STUFF, TURNING UP A BLOODY FLOOR BORD, BOY YOU BETTER RUN, I WOULD HAVE BEATEN YOU WITH IT!

THE UTTER PRIVILEDGE, AND DISRISPECT! THE UTTERMOST ROTTED THING ELOISE COULD HAVBE DONE, AND I SEE NO ONE ASKING WHY ELOISE DIDN’T CAME TO THE CONCLUSION SOONER AND FUCKING ASKED PEN, INSTED OF MAKING SUCH A MESS! IT ANNOYED ME SO MUCH LIKEHOW FUCKING DARE YOU? TO SOMEONELSE’S HOUSE, OH BOY!!!!

PEN IS A KEEN LISTENER, SHE TELLS THE TRUTH. SHE DOES NOT RUMMAGE IN PEOPLE GARBAGE! AND THAT IS WHAT ELOISE DID! IT’S MAYBE EVEN MORE UNFORGIVABLE THAT THE WAY COLIN SPOKE OF HER.

CAUSE YOU JUST KNOW THAT ELOISE IS GOING TO BE FINE, SHE IS A BRIDGERTON! (CAN’T DO NO WRONG!) AND YOU KNOW SHE WILL TELL SOMEONE, I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BONES (PLUS SHONDA RIMES! #ONEOFTHEWORSTSHOWRUNNERSEVER).

COLIN...oh you little summer child, the first three books “open mouth insert footh” lord almighty just thank good you are cute! noting bewtween the ears.forth book for me was oh, colin you utter imbecil, you pillock!!! still knows almost nothing ( insert John snow-kit harrington picture here”. still in the end he got it thank god.

WISTLEDOWN IS THE REASON WHY YOU KANTHONY, SIMON AND DAPHNE AND BENEDICT AND SOPHIE! FUCKING DEAL WITH IT!

Without wistledownn there would be no Bridgerton series! no ships no nothing. maybe it just me that nitece the intricaces but thats kindergarten stuff. READING  comprehension and all of that!

SO PUT THAT IN A PIPE AND FUCKING SMOKE IT!

FINALLY I WANT TO SEE THIS SIDE OF PENELOPE. enough with the sadness and the need to atone for sins were there were none!!! some anger would do her good. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT.

...”feels good TO TAKE BACK WHAT’S YOURS every once in a while...”

[cavalierious-whim]

With the current batch of commissions in the editing stage, I'm opening up another round. This is not first come first serve, I will be picking and choosing which ideas I like and contacting those people. I am limiting to 3-5 SLOTS, depending on word counts.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.

This is a round for flash fic commissions with two options:

- 1k words for $12.50 USD.

- 1.5k words for $20 USD. 

NSFW is an additional $5.

My usual commission rate is $1.50/100 words + $10 for NSFW, so you're actually saving $2.50 USD and the NSFW surcharge is half off!

I WILL NOT WRITE:

- Incest

- Pedophilia/Shota/Loli

- Hard Kinks suchs as piss/scat 

Ideas I'm Vibing With ATM:

- ZhongChi/Tartali/ZhongChiLi

- ChiXiao/XiaoChi

- ZhongChiXiao/ChiXiaoZhongli/Etc

- Dehya/Dunyarzad

- BeiGanyu/Ganyudou

- Beigguang

- ZhongXiao/XiaoZhong

- Cynonari/Tighnari/Cyno

- Haikaveh/Kaevham

- Cynotham/Alhaithno

- Aki/Angel

- Sylvix

- Genshin Impact

- Chainsaw Man

- FE3H

- Legend of Zelda

That being said, as everyone knows, I'm open to most ships. Just toss your idea out there if you're passionate about it.

If you think your idea fits within one of my series', note it! I'm more than willing to toss it in there if I agree. 

In addition to flashfic commissions, I also have a 'sponsor a wip' option. These come at a flat rate of $15 for 1-1.5k estimated words, and no NSFW surcharge. They are ideas pulled from my spreadsheet and perfect for people who want to support, but don't know what they want.

You can find the spreadsheet here: Sponsor a Prompt

Payment is due upfront and will be paid through my commissions tab on ko-fi. Expected turn around time is 1-2 Months. I will refund the total if I do not hit this goal.  If I decide to go with your commission, I will message you with further details.For any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and ask, either in my DMs, or my Ask Box.

[imaginationlandtrilogy]

Ike Broflovski Analysis Project: Relationship with Gerald (3/7)

My basic framework for these full character analyses - the limited that I’ve done - involve sections on as many family members as the character has. In my previous full character analysis, I wrote about Gerald, which involved a section on his relationship with Ike. When I write these, I like to get into the mindset of the character to view things from their perspective, hence why I was able to do a section on Gerald’s relationship with Ike and am now writing a section on Ike’s relationship with Gerald. However, it would be repetitive to do another analysis of this subject from the other side, so the framing of this section is going to be a little different.

An effect of viewing things with Gerald-tinted glasses previously was the claim of him attempting to be closer to Ike, as he was unable to be with Kyle. I made the claim that because Kyle was closer to Sheila in personality and Ike was more impressionable and young, Gerald sought to mold Ike to be more like him. Now that I understand Ike more as a character, I’d like to add on to my previous statement: Ike is more like Gerald, with or without his attempted influence. Perhaps Gerald senses this, or he just sees Ike as too young to be aware, but Ike is more like Gerald than anyone else in his family.

A large part of Ike’s personality is his desire and eagerness for maturity and independence, which, as it appears, ties into Gerald’s influence on him and how he’s linked with his father. Gerald’s most prominent influence on Ike is in his personality. There’s a clear shift in Ike’s independence and desired maturity around this point, as he moves further away from Kyle and the audience is able to view him as his own person, not just Kyle’s little brother. The influence that Gerald has on this is being the bridge between Ike’s dependence and independence. A future section of this analysis deals with Ike’s desire for maturity, so rather than repeating what I had said in my Gerald analysis with few differences, I’m going to get a head start on the future section and discuss the influence Gerald had on Ike’s development and increased desire for independence, beginning with the pre-existing similarities between the two.

Both Gerald and Ike prefer to be in the shadows than not. They’re not the type of people to be upfront about things, as compared to Sheila and Kyle, who aren’t shy of being vocal with their thoughts. They also tend to have a more vulgar vocabulary than the rest of the family and find humor in that. Interestingly enough, Gerald and Ike’s similarities counter Sheila and Kyle’s well. While Sheila and Kyle have been shown to be more gentle and other-focused, Gerald and Ike tend to be more closed and self-focused. Other-focused and self-focused are in reference to how an individual views the world. Neither is good nor bad, just differing personality traits. Other-focused individuals are those who tend to think of themselves alongside others as a group, the “we”. Self-focused individuals are the “I”, the people who view themselves as independent and less-grouped than others. It’s the thought process of the decisions someone makes in their everyday life - are they more likely to make decisions upon the impact of the group or themselves?

Typically, when it comes to a child being like their parent, there are two major influences: genetic and environmental. Kyle’s influence with Sheila is genetic - this is made evident throughout the series. “It’s a Jersey Thing” (S14E9) is a good example of this, as he couldn’t help becoming Kyley-B when he was around people from New Jersey, much like his mother. It’s mentioned numerous times how much Kyle is like Sheila, so much so that there’s an entire episode centered around this joke (“Super Hard PCness” [S21E9]). It’s heavily implied that Kyle’s similarities to Sheila are genetic and cannot be helped. Ike, on the other hand, does not show many similarities with his mother, but rather… his father. Of course, Ike is adopted, so it’s clear his similarities are rooted in environmental influences, not genetic.

Ike is still a child, so among the biggest factors of influence that Gerald has on him is speech and vocabulary. Ike is a follower rather than a leader, so he prefers to observe than participate. If you pay close attention to Ike throughout the series, you’ll notice patterns in his behavior. One of these patterns is his habit of repeating after others, particularly when the word tends to be more vulgar or aggressive. This begins around season nine, which correlates with Ike’s increase in development as a character. Something happened with the overall tone of South Park in these ‘golden seasons’, as they’re often referred. The kids became much less like traditional children and began having more firm and adult-like personalities. Imagine if these children, based on age, went up a few steps on a metaphorical staircase representing maturity. Children like Stan and Kyle now had a stronger personality closer to that of the adults in the show, while someone of Ike’s age is a few steps behind … still retaining some childlike qualities, but also standing out as an individual character - not just a child.

In “Mr. Garrison’s Fancy New Vagina” (S9E1), we witness Ike’s habit of repeating vulgar things for the first time. When Kyle is telling his parents about his teacher’s sex change, he uses the words “penis” and “vagina”, which Ike is happy to repeat. The full sentence was: “But our teacher, Mr. Garrison? He just had his penis made into a vagina. How come?” There are plenty of words Ike could have chosen to repeat, but he opted for the more unfamiliar and vulgar-sounding words. It’s not uncommon for children to do this, as they’re in their prime developmental stage and seek to learn all they can. However, it’s the repeated offenses on Ike’s part that makes this a part of his personality. The second example of this is once more repeated from Kyle, this time in “Smug Alert” (S10E2). When Kyle and Ike are high from the acid they took, Kyle says, “the acid. Dude. I’m totally tripping balls”. Ike immediately repeats, “I’m totally tripping balls right now. I’m totally tripping balls”. It’s interesting that his first two mimics of vulgar speech are from his brother, as given what occurs later in the season, you would expect Gerald to have that early influence on him. Instead, it seems when Ike was still moving up those metaphorical steps in development, he took after his brother. It’s plausible that Kyle paved the way for Ike to speak this way (especially considering how often Kyle swore in the early seasons), and when Ike got his footing as his own character in later seasons, he began repeating more after Gerald in season twenty, as that’s where he speaks the most vulgarity in individual episodes. There’s a gap in the series in-between Ike’s mimicry of Kyle and Gerald. It ties into Ike’s desire for maturity and independence, and in this gap, we see Ike speaking vulgarly on his own. As it isn’t directly tied with Gerald’s influence on him, but rather, Ike’s own personality, I won’t dive too deep, but I’d like to take a moment to point some of these out.

“Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy” (S10E10): “You’re dead to me, Kyle!” This isn’t quite as vulgar, but it is harsh in speech, especially considering how much Ike cares about his brother. I think… in terms of what Ike wants, he can be selfish at times and be more prone to do things for himself (like Gerald) when he has control over it, which can sometimes be at the expense of others. In “Fatbeard” (S13E7), Ike willingly leaves his family and everyone he loves behind to live his ‘dream’ as a pirate, but in “It’s Christmas in Canada” (S7E15) when he’s taken away from his family, he is extremely upset. I can only assume it’s the lack of control - Ike felt powerless when he was taken by his birth parents, but he had more control over leaving his family in “Fatbeard”, hence why he felt more comfortable doing so.

“Fatbeard”: Ike’s note to his family read, “...everyone at school is a fucking idiot, and if one more person talked to me about that Susan Boyle performance of Les Misérables, I was going to puke my balls out through my mouth” (extremely vulgar). When Ike is in Somalia, he doesn’t hesitate to slap Clyde when Cartman tells him to (harsh behavior). Near the end of the episode, Ike confesses, “I feel like an asshole” when he realizes how lucky he is to not have to pursue a pirate lifestyle (vulgar speech). 

“Dead Celebrities” (S13E8): When Ike gains consciousness of his body, he says in surprise, “holy shit. What the fuck am I wearing?” and “Kyle, what the fuck is going on?” (vulgar speech). 

Getting back on track and closing the gap, we see Ike mimic his brother again, this time in “It’s a Jersey Thing”. Kyle curiously asks his parents what ‘muff cabbage’ is and Ike excitingly repeats, “muff cabbage!” recognizing that it is a vulgar word in some way, despite not knowing what it means. He repeats this once more later in the conversation. This is the last we see of Ike mimicking Kyle. From here on out, Ike either picks up vocabulary from Gerald or speaks it on his own. In a way, this is the point where Ike truly shows his independence as a character.

The events of “Taming Strange” (S17E5) show Ike acting as if he were going through puberty. The canonity of this behavior is up in the air, as this was Ike on hormonal medicine - this was not regular Ike. However, I would like to believe it was, in a way, regular Ike, given the previously and soon-to-be-discussed evidence. It was Ike, but envisioning him as a teenager. The way he acted still had some hints of his regular self, such as his love for Yo Gabba Gabba or his annoyance of Kyle’s ‘Kick the Baby’game. Therefore, I would like to believe this is Ike’s personality, but at a much later time when he will naturally be affected by these hormones. That aside, I wanted to tie this section back to Gerald and pay special attention to the beginning of the episode. The episode begins with Mr. Mackey introducing Intellilink, and as he does so, he reads out a message that Ike posted to the school message board. The message read: “my brother is a homo”. Once more, this is evidence of Ike being vulgar or offensive in his speech. Attached to the picture was a drawing that Ike made of Kyle with a penis on his forehead, and written underneath is the caption “my brother”. That is just… so strangely similar to what Gerald did. I’m not saying that Ike would ever stoop to that same level, but the fact that both he and his father at some point had posted a photo to the school message board of someone with a penis on their face is too similar not to point out. The reason Ike did this was to antagonize his brother, something Kyle later confessed Ike had been doing more frequently. Sheila replied that Ike was just getting older, and “part of getting older is finding ways to assert your independence”. “Taming Strange” is not about Ike’s love for ‘inappropriate words’, but rather, his desire to be apart from his brother as if he really was a teenager. That is why he posted the message. He likely thought it was funny, but unlike Gerald, Ike may not have done it to be funny, but to differentiate himself from his brother as an act of rebellion. 

As established in my Gerald analysis, I discussed Gerald’s desire to speak with Ike about what he was doing. With having to keep his online identity a secret, it was likely eating away at him not being able to tell anybody, so, he decided Ike was the person he could trust the most. Ike is quiet, and Gerald knew this. His lack of involvement in things, contrasting heavily from his morally-firm brother, translated to Gerald as Ike being more similar to him. With all that’s been said and proven so far, it’s safe to assume that Ike is more like Gerald, but it’s unknown if Gerald was able to piece this together. He’s intelligent and there’s no doubting that, but at the time, Gerald was so smug about what he was doing that he didn’t truly consider that, but let his ego do it for him. What’s interesting about this assumption that Gerald mentally made is that… he was right. Although Ike didn’t go to the same depths as his father did this season, his one-on-one time with him did have its influence; and that is evident in Ike’s severe increase of vulgar vocabulary. Gerald had Ike type those vulgar comments for him, and later in the season, we see Ike using the same language without Gerald present. 

Perhaps it was Sheila’s behavior that allowed Ike to be influenced by Gerald, as Ike was visibly scared of his mother, but less skittish around Gerald. Despite the severity of the words he was saying, Gerald spoke more calmly, yet sternly, to Ike than Sheila did. To a child, tone is everything. Ike may have been more drawn to Gerald than Sheila this season for this reason. Sheila was in the same house, yelling and screaming, calling Ike a monster and threatening him with punishment, while Gerald was on a screen on the computer, telling him to “make sure the little worm is in the woman’s mouth”, and instructing him to type vulgarities. The difference in how Ike’s parents spoke to him likely influenced how he was going to respond to them. Of course, Ike didn’t agree with what his father was having him do - in fact, his expressions implied he was quite uncomfortable with it, but he was much more nonchalant and less fearful than he was with Sheila’s behavior. In season twenty, Ike was between a rock and a hard place, and he felt safer with Gerald than he did with Sheila, if only because he was more scared of his mother than his father.

This forced comfort is likely part of what pushed Ike forward to begin mimicking his father’s obscenities. First and foremost, Gerald having Ike troll for him meant that the words that Gerald was having him type were certain to enter Ike’s mind, and in turn, his vocabulary. It’s already been established that Ike has an interest in vulgar speech, so with Gerald having Ike type out these words, it sort of gave Ike this unspoken permission to use those words and incorporate them into his vocabulary, and he was eager to do so.

“Not Funny” (S20E9) showcases the verbal influence Gerald has on Ike firsthand. When Kyle and Ike are rushing into the church to rally people, Ike follows Kyle’s statement of “like, uh, a bunch of babies” with “like a bunch of pussies”. It’s unmistakable that he picked up this word from his father, especially since he pointed it out in the previous episode, “Members Only” (S20E8) in telling Kyle, “daddy called you a pussy”. He seemed quite eager to use the word again, given how his tone was much more direct than Kyle’s. This word is used again by Ike later in the episode when Mr. Slave is on the phone with President Garrison, persuading and manipulating him to bomb Denmark. Ike corrects Mr. Slave’s “pussy” statement into “pussy-ass bitch” to anger Garrison more. This is Ike personally learning from what Gerald taught him. They attempt to, in tune with the overarching plot, troll Garrison into bombing Denmark by riling him up through harsh words. Ike has always been the type of person to use vulgarities in his vocabulary, such as him exclaiming “oooh, shit” when he realized his father was in the soon-to-be-bombed Denmark. Comparing this to the rest of the series, however, the sudden increase of Ike’s swearing aligns with Gerald’s influence on him - this is clear. In a mimicked scene from Mr. Slave’s phone call with Garrison, Ike once more corrects Kyle, who is now calling, on his speech in order to anger Garrison. When Kyle calls Garrison “a little dipshit president”, Ike adds on in the background, saying, “with a dirty asshole…”. Kyle repeats that on the phone, and Ike finishes off with, “and you shit out your dick”. Kyle then holds the phone back and curiously asks Ike where he learned to speak like that. Ike replies cheerfully, “daddy!”. Ike’s vulgar similarities with his father are no longer speculation, but a fact, thanks to this patch of dialogue. Ike replied to his brother very matter-of-factly. He seemed proud of his vulgar vocabulary, and proud of the fact that he learned to speak that way from Gerald. I wouldn’t imagine that he wants to be like Gerald, especially all that Gerald had done this season, but Ike clearly gets enjoyment out of vulgarities, so it makes sense that he would pick up this way of speaking so willingly.

Ike’s season twenty vulgarity ties to a close in the finale of the season, “The End of Serialization As We Know It” (S20E10). This time, Sheila finds Ike speaking vulgarities to his computer. Interestingly enough, Ike wasn’t trolling. In a previous scene, Kyle had instructed Ike not to troll, so given this information, Ike is likely helping Kyle and his friends troll by instructing them of what to say, just like Gerald had done with him. Ike proved to be vital in Kyle’s mission to overload the Internet, as even Kyle was unable to replicate his father’s vulgarities so flawlessly. Ike aids in this again when Kyle moves to the library to troll - he adds small statements here and there to spice up the insults. Ike, no doubt, learned this from his father in “Members Only”, as he explained that although the extra words are a nuance, they are important. Ultimately, this is what Ike is replicating when he adds short comments to Kyle’s trolling. Following the added statement, Kyle tells Ike, “Ike, when this is all over, we’re going to need to clean your mouth out” only for Ike to reply, “you clean your fucking mouth out”. This statement was not meant in harm, as Ike loves his brother dearly. Rather, Ike likely found humor in the vulgarity and replied for his own enjoyment. 

It’s clear that in season twenty, Ike was influenced by Gerald’s vulgarity to incorporate it into his own vocabulary, but… does it last? Is Gerald’s influence on Ike’s vocabulary visible up to the present? It’s difficult to say for sure, as Ike hasn’t been as prominently featured in an episode since “The End of Serialization As We Know It”, but there are clues here and there to support this theory. Firstly, vulgarity doesn’t necessarily mean swearing. Vulgar, as defined by Oxford Languages, is “lacking sophistication or good taste; unrefined”. It’s the informal way of speaking, and Ike’s speech can often be nonchalant and informal in the vulgar sense. There are two major encounters with Ike following this season - the first being “Splatty Tomato” (S21E10) and the second being “Tegridy Farms” (S22E4). “Splatty Tomato” focuses more on the serious side of Ike, and when Ike is more serious and determined, he tends to be silent. His use of vulgarity is often reserved for situations where he’s more relaxed, so that could not apply here.

In “Tegridy Farms”, however, this vulgar side comes out once more. He has a small part in the episode, but his attitude is visible. In this episode, Kyle finds Ike vaping on the playground. The fact that he was vaping sets him apart from his straight-laced brother and mother, and closer to his father, who has been shown on occasion to give in to similar things (cheesing in “Major Boobage” [S12E3], to name one). When Kyle finds Ike, he’s very upset, but strangely enough, Ike isn’t. He doesn’t seem to show regret that he’s vaping, only regret that Kyle found out. He denies vaping with a very nonchalant “no” as he blows smoke into the air. Then, when Kyle takes the vaping pen away, Ike gets up and says, “Hey! Gimme back my vaporizer” in a defensive, demanding tone. Kyle once more reprimands him, and Ike replies, “Oh, come on! All the kids are doing it!”. It’s clear that Ike has changed since season twenty, I would say. He’s much more independent and willing to talk back. Even his voice is more clear and evolved from what it was earlier in the series. Bringing back the stairs metaphor, it’s as if Ike took one more step into becoming his own fully fleshed-out character - he’s well on the way. Gerald played a part in this, although he didn’t intend to. When it comes to Ike’s vulgar nature, it’s always been there. Ike simply has a personality where he finds humor and enjoyment in a blatant and often harsh way of speaking. Yet, there’s a bridge between the way he acts now and the way he acted earlier in the series - at the beginning of that bridge is his brother, and at the end is his father. Ike has become much more independent from Kyle, likely as an act of rebellion to be his own person, and in the process, he unintentionally took after Gerald, particularly in the department of vulgarity. This increased vulgarity aided heavily in Ike’s journey of self-appointed maturity and independence … to be fully discussed in a later analysis.

[alphabetsoup-blogposts]

Salary?

I've already said there was nothing to the story with F and AV other than R's spooky and prescient intervention. I had actually almost forgotten the amount (in dollars) until it appeared in the ether.

As for the other, it's a 15-year-long story with many intricate side-tracks and I don't know which bit you want. I don't know what I want to say about it, either. Clearly money is important now, since it feels a bit as though it is the measure not just of time but of time on earth. Nonetheless, as I say, I find it almost pathologically impossible to focus on it and if I leave a grievance behind me it won't be penury. If someone chooses to chisel a message on my gravestone let it be "they took my sanity and equilibrium" not "they wouldn't pay me enough"!

Here are some very brief highlights:

In 2004 I joined the organisation. It was an unusual set-up, legally employed in one hierarchy but asked to serve another. I thus had an internal manager and an external boss. The nearest analogy is a secondment but it was not that. Internally, the salary rule was generous in that it prescribed a presumed 2% pay increase every year to track the inflation target.

In late 2005 I became pregnant and later went to my internal manager to update him. The difficulties with the strange, unprecedented structure then began to reveal themselves because it was clear that the old lady had given no forethought to the situation and had no intention of paying two salaries for the requisite period in order to allocate someone to cover the role adequately. The solution that seemed to occur to everyone was to close the organisation down for the period of my maternity leave and that idea was floated. I knew, however, that the project wouldn't survive that kind of hiatus, so I arranged for an external provider to provide support free of charge for 3.5 months (which is all they could manage) and I limited my maternity leave accordingly. I only mention this because it made me very conscious that T&C negotiations were not going to proceed along normal (or even legal) lines—an inference borne out, as you have seen, by their wish to avoid auto-enrolling me into the pension plan in 2013—and that, if I wanted to preserve the organisation, I had to make personal sacrifices. In short, I realised that no one cared about the project as much as me. Here's a retrospective rant about it from my 2019 diary, nearly fifteen years after the event.

In 2008 my employer off-loaded costs, including my salary, on external funders. I was nonetheless still an employee in the traditional and standard way but I inferred that it was now less likely the old lady would take me to her heart (which was my chief ambition) and I started to look for a new job.

In 2008/9, after the GFC, my external boss asked me to forgo pay rises for the foreseeable future to demonstrate public spiritedness and I agreed. Nevertheless my final salary was, I think, some GBP154k.

In 2009-10, after looking all over for a role elsewhere, I resorted to being self-employed—a move that was, as discussed, facilitated by E—and I ended up working with R. Meanwhile, the subcommittee of external superiors which had been established to find a successor failed to do so. They made one offer and received one declination. I agreed with my external boss that I would serve in my old role as an interim, part-time manager at a salary of GBP55k. The idea, obviously, was that I would only work one third of my former hours.

From 2010-2012, I established myself in both roles. The self-employment was not a huge or instant success. It made some progress but the nature of the beast is roughly that one pays tax and expenditure upfront and waits patiently for income. Things were quite tough but we survived! Because I had (only) technically resigned from my full-time role, the old lady in the person of the Valet mandated that I should enter into a series of rolling 6-month contracts on minimal terms in my new part-time role. The written contract was in the form of a short letter each time. I honestly forget who signed them but a lot of additional terms would have to be implied into those contracts to make them make any sense at all. This is why the TUPE point is complicated.

In 2012-3, the old lady resolved to spin off and incorporate the organisation. I've said a bit about this but I'm going to be elliptical here because it's so involved. It was a kind of bomb detonating in my life. Between 2010 and 2013 I lost medical insurance, whatever claim arose from having been encouraged to opt out of the pension, and all the myriad day-to-day conveniences of institutional support. Everyone said "just pull a company down of the shelf and incorporate" but of course, I had to draft the articles,* find a system for expenses, consider liability for tax, institute a systems of controls and a code of conduct, figure out how to hire, fire etc, learn employment law and all the rest etc, etc, etc, etc. Meanwhile, I turned down work on other things and what small practice I had collapsed--yet I was still working round the clock.

Incidentally, one issue that the spin off brought to the fore was the question of the accuracy of the management accounts previously provided by the old lady, which led to a dispute over the funds to be transferred. During the 10 or 11 months prior to incorporation, it was very difficult to secure any agreement with respect to staff salaries and T&C

R assisted with the drafting in 2013. I told my external boss, who thought he should be invited to join the organisation for this and other reasons.

In 2014 I started working with F. Things eased financially but I now had 3 jobs and at least 4 different roles.

In 2015 AV fired me unceremoniously from the job with F without giving reasons. I cannot say it was a surprise since things had been, as we have said, combative and antagonistic from the start. This meant that things were tough financially again. R—by now on the board--suggested that he could ask for a pay rise on my behalf. I responded rather tartly that I had previously earned much more than he was suggesting for doing the same job (citing my final full-time salary) and that I was the CEO and could award myself a pay rise since I was now working much more than the 33% FTE originally envisioned. I did not ask for his help (since I had begun to harbour "appropriateness" concerns, you might say) but I did notify the Board that I expected to be paid GBP75k (or thereabouts) and my salary was increased accordingly.

Between 2015 and 2017 the Board suggested further pay increases and I demurred on the grounds that I would then be earning 4x what I could pay other members of staff.

(During 2015 through January 2016 there was another organisational shift as we registered and acquired a regulator of sorts. That process was largely directed by R—who had relevant expertise and was very familiar with the ins and outs—and approved by my then boss. K spoke up in favour. I was more or less fine with it but not particularly keen, recognising that it would involve more admin every year. I don't think it's particularly relevant to this discussion but it was another very busy, over-committed period for me.)

In October 2017 a new boss arrived. But in the preceding July he attended a board meeting as a guest and asked me if he could appoint a remuneration subcommittee of two persons, R and K (whom he named), to deal with my pay and the question of pay for other staff members. I (naively) agreed.

In the autumn, when said boss took over the reins it immediately became apparent that everything was going to be very, very fraught and I resigned. One aspect of that was his tendency to favoritise a younger staff member (M) and—inadvertently or otherwise—to cut me out of my own chain of supervision. I was then persuaded to stay by various reassurances but things actually only got worse.

Meanwhile the remuneration subcommittee was doing it's thing. There was a recommendation to increase my salary to GBP135k and that was put into effect because I dropped my ethical objections to a raise—TLDR, thinking that I would not stay long in any event—but there was also an astonishing, weird, creepy process of renegotiating contract terms which I just had not anticipated and found utterly fearful. A law firm was brought in and produced acres of boilerplate most of which seemed to be along the kind of "shall not bring into disrepute" lines. Clearly we were suddenly all opponents in some war that I hadn't foreseen and couldn't understand. This was weird. I'd put my career and life on hold again and again to bring this baby back from inevitable death, how could they suddenly see me as a the big, looming reputational risk? The subcommittee members insisted on having private meetings with the law firm drafting the new contracts...about what? Meanwhile, there were a series of humiliating board resolutions to cap my expenditure powers to below GBP5k per month and/or item...why? No reason was given other than natural caution. What changed?

Creepiest of all, in one meeting R started staring at M—the staff member responsible for HR in our tiny little enterprise—whose contract was also under consideration--in a bizarrely coded way...the kind of stare a parent might give to communicate to a child in public without "making a fuss". But we weren't in public. There were just 4 of us in every remuneration meeting. There was an almost imperceptible nod I caught, too...WTAF? And then he went off into one of several bizarrely fixated, rambling monologues about sick pay and his theory that someone could somehow take 18 months of sick leave on half-pay by "milking" her contract terms—a risk that just bore no relation to anything in the organisation's past or present. That was surreal given the actual, live TUPE questions the organisation should have faced but didn't because, as I say, I was too busy resuscitating a baby that the old lady wanted to kill off.

There were half a dozen reiterations of the contract boilerplate and I always refused to sign... ostensibly on the grounds that no risk was on our heat map that could possibly justify the new terms (which had not been stipulated for when the board resolved to address remuneration) but in reality just because I was utterly freaked out by the creepiness of the process. Something or other most definitely was being coded for someone and it wasn't being articulated to me.

In 2021, I finally did resign. I cited the remuneration process as "creepy" but there was so, so, so much more to say ("finger pistols" anyone?) and I mentioned it as just one minor issue in a litany. What I did not say and had no reason to say was that I wanted more money. I did not say that and it would not have been true, although now, of course, I have none.

If you want detail on a particular aspect you will have to be more precise. This is just the briefest overview and should be taken as such.

*As mentioned, R did a lot of the work here and made some strong recommendations on content. Some internal lawyers were assigned to help but they either did not, in fact, produce anything or they failed to produce anything usable—I think the former, but it was a long time ago.

[minkydinks]

I will say upfront that while I'm gonna argue my piece about Deathbringer here, it should be said that I'm not here to shit-sling or convince anon that they're wrong. You are entitled to your feelings about DB and I'm not going to sit here and say that you're evil or anything for not liking him. Nobody is invalid for thinking he's shitty.

Although I think a point should be made that literacy is very important and I think anon missed a key part of Glory & DB's relationship from start to end. So,

In defense of Deathbringer:

The thing with DB is that he's sort of almost the WoF fandom's Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde. He's a sly fox trying to survive and she's a person trying desperately to prove to the whole world that she's capable of, and worth more, than they think she is.

The issue with them, is that a LOT of their dynamic is heavily implied and not directly spoken in narration or dialogue. It's implied incredibly early-on in their meeting that Glory finds him attractive in some form, and this feeling is mutual between them; whether Glory appears as a RainWing or not, being disguised as an IceWing. Their banter isn't genuine animosity, and this is obvious to most people who understand their character archetypes. Glory is just as cunning as DB, if not more so. She is more than capable of accurately determining whether or not another dragon is a genuine threat to herself or her friends & family, and she had been on the fence when she realized that his original order from the queen was to kill her and a handful of the other dragonets.

She would have been perfectly content to file him away under "dragons that are undoubtedly going to ruthlessly chase down and attempt to kill us", but Glory in all her intelligence and curiosity watched and waited to see what he would do, and saw that he really didn't care for doing that.

I believe that while he ultimately contributed to the attempted genocide of the RainWings, he himself admitted that he was never one for the idea, and thought the NightWings could have placed their limited energy into much more valuable things. As soon as he felt confident & free in doing so, he helped Glory whilst barely knowing her as a person, freeing her and helping her free other RainWings. To the NightWing kingdom, that kind of treason comes with a hefty price if caught, and he still put his life on the line for a cause he thought made more sense to him. We have to also understand that the dragon world is much different than ours, and we would react differently than our soapbox morals would want, if we were in that situation ourselves.

DB says himself, speaking to Flame in the NW dungeon, that to be a successful assassin, you have to be able to kill dragons and not care, and that involves doing it for what you believe is an incredibly good reason. You have to believe in that reason 100%, or you'll care about the dragon whose life you planned on taking, and then you won't be capable of going through with it. Deathbringer finding every excuse to get around killing any of the dragonets is proof that he did NOT believe in the cause the NightWings had put upon him.

Glory is more than capable of dictating her personal space. She has full control over her bubble, and who's allowed in it or not. That's been noted several times throughout the series since the very beginning. The fact that DB is still alive & allowed to enter that bubble consequence-free, is implication enough that she doesn't actually feel like her boundaries are being crossed.

It speaks volumes especially because even the dragons she grew up with under the mountain, whom she loves very much, are not tolerated in her personal space for very long. DB understands personal space, implied by him clearly not invading the personal space of anyone else. His "invading" Glory's space is purely out of mutual enjoyment for each other's company, and if she really didn't want him there, he wouldn't be. Her mock-annoyance is just that; playful and unserious knockdowns that DB himself enjoys just as much as she does. He doesn't infantilize her, quite literally the polar opposite. He treats her like the royalty she is, revering her actions and words; but he treats her the way he's accustomed to treating royalty. Protecting and serving, offering council, and looking out for her when he thinks she might make a decision against her best interests (which is something Glory is KNOWN for doing, and something that she knows she needs to work on).

It never helps that these types of dynamics aren't explicitly written, because these are things that the average reader (especially young readers) will miss. A lot of readers will look at Glory and DB's relationship and think it came out of nowhere, and that Glory is out of her mind for not killing him for the way he treats her. But all of that is missing the whole... everything. There's an unbelievable amount of subtext to their interactions, which is heavily eluded to in the narration (and for some reason a lot in Sunny's internal dialogue during book 5?), but more than that, there's SO much subtext to the entire series. It's easy to miss a lot. I've read the series so many times over, it's almost second nature to think of the subtext, but I can see why readers who may have only read the books once before moving on to fandom content might not fully register all of it.

More than anything I wish people would realize that these character archetypes are real. There are real people in real relationships similar to this, and they aren't abusive just because you don't think you could be in the same position and be happy; we all have different needs. They're fine. Not everything has to be super uncomplicated. Its okay for relationship dynamics to be a little unexpected and a tad bit hard to understand for some people. That's just how life is sometimes.

Sorry for going on for fucking EVER but I don't see this talked about with much nuance very often. Again, not trying to press OP anon to change their mind, they're fine and I'm not trying to start any fights. I appreciate the prompt honestly! Fun to talk about

Deathbringer is an annoying piece of dragon dung who CONSTANTLY infantilizes Glory and doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of personal space. At all. He thinks he’s charming and magnificent but really he’s just another crappy NightWing who supported genocide against RainWings and him falling in love with one doesn’t make him get off the line scot-free. I want Glory to just venom spit his face one day.

.

[vanillahub]

Things you should know before becoming a mutual

List 10 or more things you find to be essential for your blog. Essentially, highlight your rules! Let people know what they should be aware of and expected, from you! Then tag anyone you would like to learn more from!

REPOST, DON'T REBLOG!

You must be at least 18 to follow any of my blogs, minors will be blocked on sight. With that said, I'm NOT comfortable interacting with anyone below the 20+ y/o mark.

I won’t follow if: I can’t see our muses interacting / you don’t have a rules and about page for your muse / you don’t have a writing sample / you post too many things unrelated to RP

English isn’t my first language. There will be posts in my mother language. No, they won't be tagged, cope. I'm open for PT-br RPs!

I will unfollow if I see anyone vagueposting. It doesn't matter the excuse one tries to use to defend it, I'll not stand by it in any shape or form.

When I ask you (rp partners) about your boundaries and limits. PLEASE be upfront and give me an honest answer, what you refuse to write, etc. The last thing I'd like to do would be to pitch an idea, that could be triggering to you! Don’t be afraid to tell me if I end up crossing a line with anything! It most certainly was a genuine mistake.

The fandoms I refuse to interact/associate myself with: League of Legends (including any and all spin-offs, especially Arcane), MLP, Homestuck, Undertale, FNaF, Fnf, Genshin Impact, Disney, Marvel (especially the MCU), Harry Potter and any form of real person/historical/religion roleplay. This means, I'll be extra picky towards multifandom blogs that have muses, from any of the aforementioned franchises.

Tags for you to blacklist: Sexual sunday (nsfw prompts reblogged on Sundays), shipping cw (art or edits of a ship), triggering content is tagged as “___ tw/cw” (tw for picture/visual posts and cw for written things), anything borderline risqué is tagged as suggestive cw.

No fictional kins/self-inserts period. I'm not here to judge anyone, but I'm also not here to engage or indulge others in that way. Have the concept of IC =/= OOC very clear, when approaching me.

I'm VERY selective with crossovers. It's not something I'm actively looking to do, in general. Contrary to what people may think, I actually don't know a whole lot of other series, outside of the ones I'm already RPing for. I also prefer doing crossovers with series that in my eyes, mesh well with one another to a degree. My most well known series include: Star wars, pokemon, castlevania, saint seiya, Tekken and Sonic

I’ll not dumbify or tone down my muses for anyone. While I'm totally open for discussing things, I'll NOT change core elements of my portrayals, just to suit sb else's wishes.

In that regard: It's up to you to avoid muses you know, will touch on subjects that may make you uncomfortable or trigger you. Prioritize your well-being.

Is shipping wars still a thing? Yeah, we respect our ships in this house. Regardless if they are CC x CC or OC x CC or even OC x OC. My only real hard limits for ships in general are incest, minor/adult and some specific NOTPs.

[kitsuna-ri]

So I lost my job yesterday and while I know it’s for the best (because ooh boy constant anxiety and stress) things were kinda fucked how it went down and I just want to make sure I’m not crazy. Here’s the rundown (it’s long, sorry):

Accepted SM assistant role last August. Was upfront about having limited experience, mostly either with accounts that had no budget or having long steps to go through to get a post approved. Said I was primarily a social WRITER but could make simple graphics and what not because I can use Photoshop and Canva. Basically hit the ground running, had virtually no real training and vague instructions. I was also suddenly in charge of way more categories, some of which had their own separate pages on social platforms and I would have to be responsible for all of them. I started with 5 categories, three of which consistently had multiple weekly or monthly events that needed posts. I also had to help boost, do mild comment and message moderation, and live tweet well into late hours or over the weekend. After getting settled I took on more work because we were a small team and I wanted to be as helpful as possible. I ended up taking on a weekly filming task that meant filming and editing the video in less than a day’s time. It took time because I had mentioned I don’t have strong video editing skills but I was willing to learn and try my best.

In late January, I was hit with a surprise move. I was told I had to be out by March and it was a few days from February. I was scrambled. But I still continued to take on what I could while panicking about my living situation. I get the move scheduled to not cost me too much missed time in the office. I asked my manager if I could WFH the day before my move just to wrap things up and was told to come in. I complied.

All this time, I have never once been approached about my quality of work from my clients or my boss. In fact, I even received a glowing yearly review and told I’m doing wonderful and I work great with my clients. We did have one of my categories break off and essentially took over their own social media with an influencer. It came as a big shock but I tried to roll with the punches and keep working hard for my other clients.

Then we had a HUGE event, like all hands on deck kind of thing. Still not given a ton of direction just “make as much content for this event as possible.” So I did. Now, around the end, I was having some trouble in my life (worries about my health, parents, etc) so I was admittedly burned out. I dropped a few balls. Nothing bad happened, no social catastrophe or anything, just didn’t pay attention when reposting a post and didn’t realize it was a carousel and not just one photo. I used a photo by prof photographer from a preview party and my manager felt the angle wasn’t good and took it down. Then, after she talked to me and was wanting to offer to show me some tips and tricks which I was eager for. Then there was an issue with a department she had basically dumped on me with little explanation and told me to use artist bios and I used one from the artist’s site and apparently that wasn’t ok. I told her I’d definitely be much more careful.

Then, I asked our intern to post a video on TT to continue a series we had started. Our intern was out but told me she could post things no problem even when I voiced concerns. She posted the video and apparently there was a typo. My manager completely loses it in in Teams but worse yet, in a group chat with one of my coworkers. I had a panic attack and was trying to explain what happened, apologizing and taking the Ls and offering solutions. She demands a conversation the next day so I agree.

She realizes like late morning that she had berated me in front of our coworker and apologized. But we were still having our convo. In this talk she’s telling me suddenly that my work has only ever just been “ok” which is the first time I’m ever hearing this feedback. We had monthly one on ones and she Never. Said. Anything. But now suddenly I was a problem and I needed to reconsider things, see if this is the right position, and she said she’d work with me and I was like “ok. I’m going to improve, I’m not going to screw up like this again.”

So the process was I sent her the design and proposed copy of what I wanted to post and she’d give me feedback. She NEVER came to shoot with me or show me tricks or tips except like once near the end. Instead she started “not giving a fuck” Because she was getting demoted from director to manager and was mad about it. She started half assing things and even being really curt and rude to clients. Meanwhile, I’m busting my ass to create only the best with minimal to no direction or real advice but I was noticing improvement. Plus, my clients were so happy with the work I was creating and how I was working with them.

I had another one on one and she tells me I’m doing great, she’s happy to see me taking everything to heart, etc etc.

This continues and other than one misunderstanding, I thought everything was great! I was doing more with video editing and really trying to make dynamic designs.

This month comes around and we’re suddenly hit with three BIG events in one of my categories, all happening at the same time, two events in one of my other categories, and I had also agreed to take one one other category which had weekly events as well. That meant for this month I ended up having 10 events to promote. We also lost our ability to boost ads so everything was relying on purely organic engagement. I made assets, I tried to balance posting with the three big events because they all had to post on the same IG/FB page. I didn’t want any one to be out shined and wanted to make sure the page didn’t seem spammy with so many posts each day because my other coworker also had two categories that shared the same page. So A LOT was being posted.

We have a meeting and someone asked if we were posting about a specific collection on social. We said yes, for sure. Because I had been posting. Then he continued on to say that he knew the lack of bids was just because this collection had way too high prices. Didn’t say anything else about social or our posts.

But my manager messages me basically berating me for not posting enough and why the fuck wasn’t I working hard. I was like ???? And explained my reasoning and immediately got told I was wrong and I had ten days to get posts up to three per event per day. So I proceeded to bust my ass.

Now, here’s the thing, I couldn’t post if she didn’t review my stuff. So I sent her all these posts to hit this new goal annnnnnnnnnnnd I got nothing back. For a day and a half. I had to ask for them three times before finally getting the feedback. But I still kept working. Then I unfortunately got food poisoning.

BUT because we had our new director starting, I took pepto and sipped on ginger ale so I could make it into the office. And I did. I did wind up leaving early but I had still been creating work and sending it.

However, because I suppressed my food poisoning the next day I was MISERABLE. So I finally decided to take the day. I sent my manager a message and hear nothing back so I make sure all my shit is handled and ended up having to do a whole video while feeling like death. But I did it.

I still had things ready and scheduled so I at least would be good to go. Now, in the afternoon my manager finally messaged me only to try and yell at me about a post my other coworker had done. She did say “apologies” and then asked if I’d be in the next day. I said I was going to do everything I could do I wouldn’t fall behind.

The next day, I did go in. A few hours later she suddenly showed up (she doesn’t work in office on Fridays). I’m working on some stuff, I had already sent her some things to approve, and she suddenly messaged me asking if I had a sec.

And that’s when she walked me to a conference room that HR was in. I even asked her if everything was ok while we were walking and she was like “mmhmm”

They didn’t let me pack my stuff, I had to ask my friend to get my things. They tried to be like “this isn’t a firing for anything bad…you just weren’t the right fit.” And my manager kept saying “we had all those discussions” but I’m over here like ?????? We’ve had maybe TWO and one was THIS WEEK!!! And it takes more than a day, hell a week, for HR to process a firing. I had formal write ups and yet I was done.

I’m so mad and also scared and just ugh. Fuck Capitalism, fuck that lying bitch, and just…fuck my life.

[subcorax]

(Caveat upfront: I do not have ZERO criticisms of Veilguard, it's still a Bioware joint and there are some issues, I definitely agree with what a lot of other folks have said about Taash's storyline and some other cultural/writing issues, so please do not read this as a completely uncritical take lol.)

BUT, okay, some slightly more cohesive thoughts:

I am actually completely okay with Veilguard deciding that few/no decisions from prior games mattered. I love my Warden, my Hawke, and my Inquisitor, but I think VG was a stronger game - and frankly, that Inquisition was a much weaker one for it. To be clear: Inquisition is a well-loved, well-remembered, well-reviewed game, and for good reasons! It was a lot of people's first point of entry into the series, and a lot of people's favourite even now, and I don't begrudge them that at all, but for me personally, it really, really did not work, and a big part of that was the scope. It was too big to be able to do what it wanted to do. The DA Keep was ambitious, but fell flat, because it was impossible for the devs to account for every possible variation of a worldstate in the same game. Whatever impact your previous choices had on the world had to be surface-level and easily interchangable with any other outcome of that choice. Most minor choices ended up being functionally easter eggs, an NPC you might happen to recognize in passing or a stray line of conversation with one of your companions or advisors. The choices that had major outcomes on the social and political landscape of the setting, like who the current ruler of Ferelden is or whether Starkhaven is currently doing a crusade in the Free Marches, had to be confined to tightly-controlled cutscenes, or war table missions. Because all of your choices had to matter, none of them could actually matter.

I think that Veilguard just deciding upfront to go, "Don't worry about southern Thedas, Inquisitor's got it covered, worry about what's going on up here" was genuinely a smart choice, because it freed them from having to worry about accounting for variations in the worldstate and allowed them to just tell the story they wanted to tell. (And for what it's worth, I think DA2 also made this choice by setting the game in Kirkwall and going "man who cares what's happening in Ferelden, we've got other shit to worry about", and I think that was a good choice for the story they were telling. DA2 did also have the benefit of being from the same console generation as DAO and therefore being able to easily port a worldstate from one to the other.)

And genuinely, I think that time and effort was better spent on building out the world they did in Veilguard. The story and setting feel concentrated and purposeful; the maps are a lot smaller than Inquisition, but have felt unique and interesting, because man, is it cool to actually get to explore the crypts in Nevarra instead of just reading a codex entry about them or having an NPC exposit to me about them! And it feels as though your character's background actually matters! The sheer amount of ambient dialogue, casual references, variations in conversation during quests, based on your character's faction and race, is fantastic to see! Like, that's where I'd rather have the time and effort of development going, to making each variation, each version of Rook feel fleshed out and established within the world, a character with a background that they and others think and talk about.

And of course, your mileage may vary on any of this. Folks are both happy with and disappointed with Veilguard for any number of reasons. But for me personally, with what I wanted out of this game, I'm glad they made the choices they did, and I honestly do think it's a stronger and more cohesive game because they deliberately limited the scope of it.

may or may not elaborate on this later but ultimately where i'm falling on this is:

if someone loved inquisition for all the reasons i hated it, they'd probably end up hating veilguard for all the reasons i'm loving it. and i don't think this is necessarily a good or a bad thing, we just probably wanted quite different things out of a game

[thenickelportrust]

Masterpost

The Blurb:

It’s a story about a world full of heroes with odd and amazing powers! But… you’re not one of them. You don’t have powers, and you don’t plan to go and fight crime. No, you’re just a model, everyday citizen. A reporter, in fact, tied into the events of heroes but never really a part of them…

Except for one (well, two, but thats already said and done), little exception.

You work for The Nickelport Rust, a controversial paper known for one reason and one reason only.

Unmasking heroes.

_________

The Demo

Here!

Url: https://dashingdon.com/play/definitelynotrena/model-citizens-unmasked/mygame/

_________

The Characters

Characters Page (Has everyones genders, sexualities, and personalities. Includes minor characters)

Asks with everyone tagged

Finley Burke

Tag, Appearance

Rafael Darzi

Tag, Appearance

Jacob Greenhill

Tag, Appearance

Lucille “Lucy” Pinchette

Tag, Appearance

Yolanda Waltz

Tag, Appearance

Eileen Abney

Tag, Appearance

The Informant

Tag, Appearance

Ricky Dempsey

Tag, Appearance

Vera / Vega / Vincent Bayer 

Tag, Appearance

Erin Liu

Tag, Tag (before their name reveal)*, Appearance

Other specific Qs:

Where do the ROs live?

What about the MCs family?

*(there’s no link here yet because apparently I did not possess the foresight to actually tag the Qs with them as 10 before their name reveal so... that’s gonna take a hot second gimme a minute)

(Will also get the appearances up soon, too, having trouble finding the specific post with their appearances)

_________

Sketch Sunday, Fun Fact Friday, and Other Fun Things

Sketch Sunday Tag

Fun Fact Friday Tag

Short Stories Tag

_________

Other Social Media

Linktree

Redbubble

Itch.io 

Twitter 

Discord

_________

FAQ

When will the next update be out?

I don’t know the specific date and I’ll be honest I also don’t like giving specific dates because then if I break them that’s Bad. 

I do have a general goal and I’ll be happy to tell you my general goal but also keep in mind that, as always, Model Citizens: Unmasked is something written for fun and put up so others can have fun with it, too. While I wholly intend to see this project through to the end no matter what, I also intend to keep it as something I do for fun and relaxation, which does mean progress can slow if other priorities take precedence.

But all that aside--

Current General Goal for Next Update:

-- (i’ve been in a truman show style series of strange but minor misfortunes so its gonna take a hot sec to get that settled, sorry!) --

What will the next update be?

More stuff in the interview! Two main goals:

Adding more questions

I’m going to add some more basic questions to either make Yolanda more or less suspicious. So far not a lot of people have been kicked out of the interview and that’s good because it means I have more space to play around with the results of her suspicion.

To also go with this:

Upping the number of questions you can ask.

With the addition of questions you can ask I’m going to up the inquiry limit before you get kicked out of the interview. This will give you more room to pick and choose what’s important, I hope (allowing you to choose ones that aren’t as important to your article but could be a chance to curry favor / lower suspicion with her / just get to know Yolanda more, or stick to purely info gathering)

This will be a shorter update, and thus also come along quicker (not another year-long gap, aha) and hopefully with the higher inquiry limit and the extra questions make some secret scenes (getting kicked out and her romance, for example) more accessible in general.

Thanks for sticking around and your continued support!

Have you dropped this project? / Why is it so slow?

I know I kinda ramble-answered this in the first q but it’s my policy to be upfront and honest with the state of my priorities and this project:

Model Citizens: Unmasked is not dropped.

Model Citizens: Unmasked has always been for fun. This does mean it’s not going to be my number one priority most of the time-- however it also means I have zero qualms about taking all the time I need to do everything I want with it.

Model Citizens: Unmasked is going to be a very large undertaking. But that’s okay! Part of the reason I want to keep it as something I do for fun and relaxation and put up so others can relax and have fun with it is so that I don’t have to trim it back. I can let this story run wild and have three totally different paths for one scene because I’m not holding myself to a deadline or an expectation of word length or writing time or whatever. I can let myself go wild with 10 different ROs and their own storylines because I don’t care how long it takes to write them. 

I just wanna write them, so I will.

What’s the Current Word Count?

According to google docs: 350,000 words* *(rounded to the nearest 1,000 // including code (including that horribly messed up coding I have in chapter one, so once that’s fixed it might easily knock another 1-2K words off of that.)

(Send me some qs youd like in the FAQ if you want)

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General Content Warnings:

Drugs and alcohol, violence (in terms of fights, both physical and using weapons) / fantasy violence (in terms of powers), romantic content (nothing explicit).

If there’s anything else, let me know. Nothing should go into graphic detail, but they exist and there is some level of detail of each. So take care of yourselves!

Have a lovely day!