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dazzle02 · 6 months ago

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9-1-1 Love Interests

I've decided I'm just gonna write a total defence of all of Buck and Eddie's previous love interests because the amount of hate they get is insane. I will go in order of appearance. I will not be including Tommy as this is more about the Misogyny towards the female love interests. But I love him and his relationship with Buck...

Abby Clark

Now, she was NOT perfect and I'm not gonna pretend she was. But she wasn't a monster either. First of all, contrary to what people love to claim, she was not a paedophile or predator. Buck was an adult even in Season 1.

Getting Buck's number from the system was weird, I'm not going to deny that. But let's not pretend she was just getting it to try and get a hook-up or anything, the first time she calls him is to check in after his first loss on the job.

All through their relationship she was dealing with her Mothers sickness and then her death. Buck was great through it all, and it really sucks for him that she left after all that, but she desperately needed to find herself and get out of LA.

I will forever be mad at her for not just ending things with him the second she knew she wasn't coming back though. She shouldn't have ghosted him like that. As soon as she realised she wasn't going back, she should've called him up and said so. Instead she just slowly stopped replying to his texts and calls and left him to figure it out on his own.

She didn't do anything wrong with the train stuff though. Of course she was worried about her fiancé! It sucks that Buck had to be the one to be faced with that, but she didn't call him up and ask him to come save her fiancé. He saw her, she admitted what was going on and then he went to do his job. (And of course he went further than just doing his job because he refused to let Abby's fiancé die. But she didn't ask him to do that...)

I didn't like her "apology" though. I wish she actually acknowledged what she actually did wrong, and that is not communicating and just ghosting him instead of ending things like the adult she is.

Overall, I'm not a huge fan of her. But some of the takes I see make me uncomfortable.

Ali Martin

Now Ali really did nothing wrong. This will likely be the shortest part as we didn't see much of her. Which I think is a shame...

She had every right to break up with Buck when she realised she couldn't handle his job. But not only that, she waited until he was out of Hospital. She came to see him at the Hospital, she brought him home.

She ended things with him because she wasn't going to ask him to give up his job but she also knew that she couldn't handle a life of constantly worrying that her partner might not come home from work.

And that is okay.

Taylor Kelly

This will probably be the longest as she was around the longest...

Now obviously Taylor did some messed up stuff. In her very first episode she was more than happy to use the footage of Bobby nearly killing himself while drugged to get herself a better job.

But onto Season 4.

Honestly, she had every right to be upset with Buck for the whole "double date" thing. Do I like that she called him needy? Of course not. I hate when any character has their biggest insecurities thrown at them like that. But of course she was upset. And then later in the episode, she was grateful to him for helping out when she needed it. That story wasn't supposed to be a "oh no, mean Taylor called Buck names!" it was a story of Buck realising that he'd messed up and fixing it. And before all that she willingly listened to Buck's whole story about Albert and Veronica.

She helped Buck out with finding out the truth behind Sue's hit and run.

When Eddie was shot she came to the Hospital just to be there for Buck. She didn't do any story on the shooting because someone she cared about was involved and she was just there for him instead. And sure, we could say that's just human decency, but it IS her job. She was likely told to do a piece on it. But she didn't.

I don't like their first(ish) kiss. (I mean, it's a good kiss, but the circumstances aren't ideal...) I don't like that it was while Buck was clearly going through the trauma of seeing his best friend get shot, and Eddie wasn't even awake yet. And it was right after Buck's climb up the crane definitely hoping he'd get shot (we've all seen the smile on his face as he sees just how exposed he is). And I don't like that she then left. I think that scene could've been a really good scene if they hadn't kissed. She was understandably upset with Buck for risking his life like that. Showing she cares.

But she came back. And she clearly was sorry for leaving like she did. And then she was at Eddie's Welcome Home Party!

And now onto Season 5.

She was very understanding when Maddie and Chimney were gone. She reassured him that everyone at work likely weren't actually mad at him. She knew he missed them and that he was hurting due to everything that happened. And she was the one he felt able to be open about his feelings on being the only one who didn't get to say goodbye to Chim.

She was constantly there for Buck while he was struggling due to a tough case or personal stuff.

She had her story with her Dad, and understandably needed to handle that her own way. Like she said, this was HER childhood trauma not Buck's. Of course he was concerned when he felt like she was pulling away, he also has his own issues. But she had every right to deal with her stuff with her Dad in the way she was comfortable with.

And people love to say she was being rude during that dinner scene at Eddie's. But Buck literally told her to eat before they got there because he didn't trust Eddie's cooking. She genuinely wasn't hungry. And she was polite about it too!

And then HE CHEATED ON HER! And then asked her to move in instead of telling her the truth. I'm glad he eventually told her, but that was after she'd already moved in and so she didn't have her own place to go to.

And I can believe Taylor being able to forgive the cheating. One drunken kiss in my opinion can be forgivable. But I don't know that I would've been able to forgive the position he put her in of finding out after she'd already moved in. (I understand Buck's side to all this, but Taylor did NOT deserve any of it...)

Also, he never told Taylor that he was now working with the woman he kissed. She figured it out herself, yes, but he didn't tell her. (Again, I can understand that he probably didn't want her to feel uncomfortable or anything, but I think that was something she deserved to know...)

Taylor never had a problem with Buck's friendship with Eddie either, or his relationship with Chris. That's all totally made up. In fact she literally helped Buck find Charlie to help Eddie start to heal. And this was after he said no to getting her in touch with Lucy for her story. Yes, he offered her other intel, but he refused what she'd actually wanted.

She also totally understood Buck's dynamic with the 118. She had her whole speech to Lucy about it in May Day. Talking about how when things are bad at the 118 he falls apart and how she would hate for that to happen again. Yes, this was due to her figuring out Lucy was who Buck had cheated with and she was upset. But that scene completely proves that she understood and respected Buck's dynamic with the 118...

And now we get onto the Jonah stuff. To be clear, I do not like that she did what she did here. She promised she wouldn't. She didn't just promise Buck either, she also promised Hen and Chim. And by doing her report anyway, she not only betrayed all their trust, she also put people at risk and also as we later learn she risked Buck's job.

She was right when she said that Buck knew who she was from the start. And of course she didn't wanna be something he learns to live with. That's not what anyone would want out of a relationship.

And they actually ended on good terms.

The whole book thing that was revealed in Season 6 was just weird, but we don't have enough information on that to really judge one way or another. I do generally dislike people writing books about other people without their permission though...

Shannon Diaz

I will defend Shannon forever! She was treated so unfairly and it makes me so angry!

I will get this out of the way. No, I don't like that she left Christopher.

Now into my defence!!!

She was a kid when she got pregnant. Just like Eddie was. Only, she was the woman. She was the one who likely got slut shamed and ridiculed. She was also the one who had to go through the actual pregnancy and child birth.

Men get away with these things. Sure, Eddie was very likely ridiculed too, growing up Catholic and all. But he wasn't getting called slurs. Shannon more than likely was.

And as a result of her pregnancy, she is now getting married. And she loves Eddie, so she probably thinks that it won't be too bad. They'd probably get married eventually anyway.

Only he enlists into the Army in order to provide for her and the baby. And she's left having to deal with everything without him. The pregnancy was likely rough, she would've had her In-Laws smothering her and telling her how to do everything even before Chris was born.

And it doesn't seem like her Mum was in Texas at this point? Her arriving at the Hospital surprised everyone. So it seems she'd already moved?

So basically Shannon was dealing with it all alone.

Then Chris was born and Eddie was almost immediately gone again. And I truly believe she likely had PPD.

So she was raising her son alone. With her overbearing In-Laws who didn't believe she was capable of taking care of her own son. Who clearly didn't like her much either.

But there's a silver lining. Eddie's Tour was almost over. Only Christopher got diagnosed with CP and Eddie reenlisted without even discussing it with her! Again, leaving her to raise their son alone. Again, leaving her alone with his parents. Leaving her to deal with this diagnosis alone.

So she's basically raising Chris all alone. And Eddie even admits to Buck that he'd reenlisted because he was scared and was running.

But then hey, Eddie's home after being discharged. And he's traumatised. And she understands that, she does. But she's going through stuff herself.

And then her Mum was DYING and she asked Eddie to go with her so she could take care of her and he refused. Her Mother was literally dying.

So of course she left to do it herself. And she shouldn't have left Chris. He didn't deserve that at all, he was a kid and she was the only constant parent he'd had.

But I totally get it.

And she felt that she was the reason Chris had CP and that she did something wrong, and it's so unlikely she was ever told otherwise until that moment in S2. In fact, it's more likely she had all that confirmed for her by others. (This is one of the main things that makes me think she might've had PPD she was never treated for...)

She was alone in everything.

And her asking Eddie for a Divorce. THAT WAS NOT HER LEAVING CHRISTOPHER AGAIN! I see so many people say that she was about to leave Chris again before she died, but that's just NOT true.

She literally said she wanted the Divorce to make sure she didn't. Because she knew she needed to focus on being a Mother to Chris, and that also trying to focus on a marriage that was never really good was just going to make that harder.

She wanted to be there for Chris. She knew Chris needed to be her number one priority, and she didn't want anything getting in the way of that. And the number one threat to that was her marriage to Eddie.

And maybe they would've eventually found their way back to each other if she'd lived. Maybe a Divorce would've been exactly what they needed to learn to truly be coparents and partners and they could've started their relationship up again in a much healthier way. Who knows.

And let's not forget that it's not just Eddie's parents who clearly hated her. Abuela and Pepa were clearly not fans of her either. I hope that they weren't that way with her before she left and that it was just anger over her leaving. But no one really ever tried to understand what was going on with her.

Eddie says it himself that they both ran, but he got to hide behind being a Hero fighting for his Country and she just got called a terrible mother and wife. And yes, he still had contact with them while he was gone and Shannon didn't. But that doesn't mean he was there for either of them during that time.

And I'm not saying Eddie is a bad Dad or anything. But his story is literally him learning how to be a good Dad. Learning it's more important that he's there.

And Shannon's death. She deserved better! I hate that they killed her just as she was back in Chris' life and coming to terms with what she needed for herself in order to be the Mother Chris deserved.

Shannon Diaz, I love you!!!

Ana Flores

She was done so dirty!!

Yes, she should've been paying more attention to the kids on the playground. The incident with the skateboard wasn't good and teachers need to pay attention to their students or they could get seriously hurt. But it was a mistake and Chris was okay and she had no way of knowing one of the kids had brought a skateboard. And most of all, she completely acknowledged her fault in the whole thing.

And when was she Ableist? I'm sorry. I see this often and I just don't get it. Was it what she said to Eddie about limitations? Sometimes we have got limitations. Everyone does. Yes, Buck and Eddie found a way to get Chris on a skateboard, but not everyone is going to be able to do that. She was literally saying what Eddie had been saying to Chris earlier in the episode. That sometimes someone can do something that someone else can't, but then there could be something that first person can't do that the other person can. Idk, that's just how I read that. If I'm wrong, tell me.

Then in S4 they ran into each other again and they were both happy to see each other. Eddie was flirting! It wasn't like she was aggressively hitting on him while he was totally uninterested and telling her to stop. And they went out, because Eddie decided he was ready to try.

And she never pushed for Eddie to tell Chris about them. The opposite in fact! she offered to come by and help with his homework if he needed it, but she also said she understood him not telling Chris they were dating yet. She would've just gone by to help out as his old teacher. Then when Eddie did tell Chris he was dating someone and he reacted badly, she offered to take a break from the relationship until he was ready. Because she understood that it was a sensitive subject!

And Chris very much adored her. Idk where people get the idea that he hated her from. He was very happy to see her when Eddie invited her over to tell Chris who he was dating. He was constantly happy to be spending time with her.

She was the one who figured out there was something going on with Charlie and his Mum. She literally found out through trying to donate to help them out. She literally figured it out through being a good person.

When Eddie was shot she didn't leave his side. And she CALLED BUCK WHEN HE WOKE UP! Like Taylor, people have this weird idea that she had a problem with Buck's place in Eddie and Chris' lives, but she so clearly didn't. In fact it seems like she and Buck likely communicated quite a bit when Eddie was shot, with him staying with Chris and her with Eddie. I highly doubt she didn't check in to see how Chris was doing, and Buck also would've checked in with her to see how Eddie was doing. And she also didn't seem to have any problem with Buck being the one to get Eddie from the Hospital.

And onto Season 5...

She invited Eddie and Chris to a family event. She wasn't pressuring him into going or anything, she invited her boyfriend and his son to a Christening and they said yes.

She was the one to correct that she wasn't Chris' Mother, because she knows that's not a place that can just be filled. She knows no one can replace Shannon, and she was never trying to. (Which is something I've seen people say she wanted to do...)

It was NOT her fault Eddie had a panic attack. It wasn't actually about HER. It was about the idea of someone replacing Shannon and the idea of actually being a family.

And all through the Blackout she was with Chris. She brought Eddie food and brought Chris by to say hi. She was great.

But Eddie clearly isn't all in with her. He admits that. And let's do some calculations here... Carla could see this at the end of Season 4, she could see that he wasn't all in on that relationship. In 5x01 Ana says that Eddie was shot 4 months ago, which happened like the day after he and Carla had that conversation. So that's 4 months of her basically being led on. Most likely taking care of him after the shooting, helping with Chris, all this stuff.

And it's not like she just showed up at his work to demand to be introduced to everyone. She was bringing his son by with food. (Another thing I have seen people claim...)

Buck and Eddie's conversation about Ana. That was NOT Buck telling Eddie to break up with Ana for the sake of it, or because Ana wasn't good or anything. That was him saying that ANA deserved better. Because he understood Ana from his relationship with Abby. That conversation was Buck telling Eddie that HE was in the wrong here and that it wasn't fair to Ana for him to stay with her.

And the breakup! No, that was AWFUL!

She'd been there taking care of Chris for DAYS! And she and Chris are bonding over the baking they'd been doing and talking about what they should make next and Eddie just kicks her out.

It was all overwhelming for him, I get it. And when you're overwhelmed things can come out in really awful ways. But she did not deserve that!

So she goes to the kitchen so they can talk without upsetting Chris. And she starts trying to clean up the mess from all the baking. But Eddie stops her and she knows it's over. She's not stupid. She knows Eddie doesn't feel the same way about her as she does him.

Her line "I'm sorry about the mess, but I guess it's your mess now." Is NOT her being evil! She tried to clean up, but Eddie stopped her and then broke up with her. What was she supposed to do? Stick around in the house of the guy that just dumped her and clean his kitchen? Hell no!

And then she goes to say bye to Chris because she cares about him and he really liked her.

Oh, and the Edmundo thing. Eddie never told her not to call him that. He never seemed to have a problem with it either. It was literally the thing they first bonded over. Her correctly guessing his full name first try when most people don't. So I'm pretty sure that her calling him that was a reference to that.

She did nothing wrong.

Marisol

Let's just start with the fact that she didn't even have a last name! She deserved a last name.

Okay. She was introduced to the show for a call where her brother nearly died. She didn't do anything wrong there. Buck and Eddie bring a few other guys over at the end of the episode so they can all fix up her house. Because they destroyed it. (That should be a thing. Is that a thing? A service that will clean up and fix things that Emergency Services have had to destroy? It should be...)

Then she and Eddie run into each other, they flirt, she likes him and he likes her. Things are fine. He's excited to get a date with her. (Yes, it was all rushed due to outside forces... But still...)

Into Season 7 they're dating. Things are apparently going well. She's chaperoning Chris' date with Eddie, she's literally not doing anything wrong. He invited her, this is their date too.

She is CONSTANTLY being used as free childcare (Chris is a teen, but for some reason childcare sounds less infantilising that babysitter...) while Eddie goes to hang out with his new friend.

Then Eddie asked her to move in with him. Little early, but sure. So she does, she moves all her stuff in. Then Eddie finds out she used to be a Nun and freaks out.

Used to be. As in not anymore. She decided that's not what she wanted.

And okay, that can still bring stuff up for Eddie due to his own Religious upbringing, but she did nothing wrong.

He was avoiding her. He'd just asked her to move in with him, and now he's immediately avoiding her.

And she explains that she's very used to people having negative reactions when finding out she was a Nun. Which, yeah. And the sexualisation stuff is AWFUL!

Then Eddie doesn't want her moving in with him and so she moves back into her house. Meaning she has to take everything back and unpack it all over again there.

And now we really get into it. Eddie starts seeing his dead wife's doppelganger behind her back! He claims he wasn't cheating because there was no sex, but it was emotional cheating. Which can be so much worse.

And she walks in on them together. She had been spending time with HIS SON, and gets back to find him cheating on her.

And I bet that if we saw the aftermath of that with Marisol ending things and being angry at him, people would somehow vilify her for it.

Marisol did nothing wrong. Was she particularly interesting? No. But she wasn't some evil witch either.

Natalia Dollenmeyer

Okay, I think she might actually be the one I struggle to defend the most. Mostly due to how little we actually saw her.

I don't like her reaction to Buck's death all that much, I do think it was uncomfortable and inappropriate. But I don't think it was quite as awful as people make it out to be. That was what Buck was looking for at that point. He didn't wanna face the trauma part of it, and so he jumped at the chance when he found someone who was intrigued by it. If she'd been talking about how cool it was and Buck had told her it made him uncomfortable and yet she kept going, then it'd be a bigger deal.

Her reaction to people from Buck's life showing up was a bit extreme. They ran into one person he'd kissed once, saw his ex on TV (due to her being a reporter) once, and Kameron showed up. I can understand everything feeling a bit much though. Kameron showing up was definitely the nail in the coffin in that moment, but then Buck apparently just like told her his whole dating history and everything about Conner and Kameron? Which I think was kinda unnecessary. But hey.

But she came back. She wanted to apologise because she'd had time to really think about everything and knew she'd possibly overreacted. She didn't freak out over Buck having to deliver the baby on his couch, she did what she could to help.

And hey, Buck broke up with her because they just weren't clicking. It just wasn't working.

In Conclusion...

You can dislike these characters. You can dislike the ships. But a lot of the hate comes from Misogyny. None of these women were evil monsters who abused Buck or Eddie. They were human beings who were going through their own stuff. And a lot of the things people hate about them isn't actually even canon. I'm not saying they're perfect and never did anything wrong ever, but come on...

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snuurp · 3 months ago

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i made more of them whoops. six wasn't enough apparently.

also i don't normally draw fluffy dogs or long face dogs because both of mine are short haired BRICKS so any advice is appreciated :) i love Scratch so much. more info and plain text under the cut again

i will draw Halsin and Jaheira eventually i swear. the diner doesn't have a name yet either, but it WILL. one day. i kinda want Astarion to work there in the future, his cafe job is a different, worse one. Halsin lovers i need your feedback because i do not know much at all about this man.

and thank you for the support on my first post!! i've never gotten this many notes before lol

sidenote: Fennel is a drow. she's just got that dragonsblood sorcerer thing going on and also i like horns. (she IS lolthsworn in game, i'm still debating how to include that here. is three characters with religious trauma too many??)

FENNEL

5'9"

works at Halsin's coffee shop/diner as a line cook.

first stable job she's had in ages because she has no tolerance for rude customers and kept saying things that got her fired.

adopted Scratch after his owner passed away, does everything to improve herself for his sake.

met Jaheira through the diner as well, who recommended the support group to her.

this was 90% because Jaheira likes collecting these nonfunctional gay losers to watch the drama unfold in ways better than any sitcom, but she (probably) actually cares at least a little.

hates the idea of going until something (or someone) suddenly motivates her ooOOOo what could it beeeeee........

coffee order is a plain americano until she gets introduced to sweet drinks and realizes life is worth living.

it's hot chocolate now, caffeine doesn't do anything for her anyway.

favourite board game is phase ten, but she never wins. just happy 2 be there.

absolute beast in mario kart tho, matches Karlach's competitive streak.

SCRATCH

best boy!!!!!!

used to be a drug sniffing dog, VERY task oriented. Fennel has to hide things for him to search for daily or he gets antsy.

he's shockingly intelligent, knows more than a dog should.

misses his previous owner a lot. has to be walked to the cemetary weekly for visits.

likes all foods, but LOVES fruit a weird amount.

blueberries are his high-value treat.

calm in thunderstorms but can't handle fireworks. howls at sirens because that's the noise that took his best friend away :(

his previous owner was a handler for a different dog. he knew Scratch wouldn't hurt without a good reason, so when Scratch attacked a TSA agent, he took Scratch with him and left the job.

this saved Scratch and he knew it, was extremely loyal. the other dog got moved to a new handler, no harm done.

very protective little guy, he loves the gang. sees them all as his responsibility.

those losers are HIS sheeps, and he is a VERY GOOD GUARDIAN.

can his sheeps stop being sad please. also stop having "jobs". walk him instead.

#:) art tag #snuurps bg3 au #bg3 tav #bg3 scratch #baldurs gate 3 au #baldurs gate 3 #bg3

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mllemaenad · 1 year ago

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Right, well, I wanted to write, so I'm going to do that, even if my wrists hurt. Things I will pay for later, but make me feel better now.

Have now listened to episodes 1 and 2 of The Magnus Protocol.

My first impression is that this is much worse than what was going on in The Magnus Archives.

The Magnus Institute was a private institution with no obvious access to other people's information (Magnus's occasional psychic spying notwithstanding). Most information it received seems to have at least been given willingly. There are a handful of instances of John forcing people to talk, yes, but not so many that I am constantly concerned for the privacy of London's citizens. Gertrude is said to have disliked compelling people to talk (Family Business), so while her tally very likely exceeds John's purely due to the length of time she was in the job, it's still probably not very high. It's impossible to account for the behaviour of previous archivists of course but, well, the whole place is set up to entice people in to tell their tales. I would hazard that most of the materiel in the archives was volunteered.

Even in cases where someone was forced – at least they knew about it, because they were there. The lady in Scrutiny who was so deeply disturbed by John's behaviour was also able to make that behaviour stop just by rolling up to The Magnus Institute and reporting it – which is a reasonably straightforward outcome, given the general weirdness of their world.

I don't mean to say that The Magnus Institute didn't do harm – it very obviously did. But even in terms of its final apocalypse, we're looking at a horror that lasted mere months (assuming a passage of time that broadly corresponds to the broadcasting schedule) before a group of disgruntled employees (and Georgie) burned the nightmare tower down, stabbed Magnus and reset reality. There were limitations to The Magnus Institute's reach, and Jonah Magnus's personal ambitions concluded with an utter, embarrassing flop by any reasonable estimation.

Here, though, you're looking at a government department with truly concerning access to people's data. The forum-based statement in First Shift is perhaps not too awful (forum threads can often be read by anyone, even if actually posting requires an account), but the earlier piece regarding the bereaved woman was a private email thread, and the story in Making Adjustments is drawn from a recording of a woman's session with her therapist. Sam calls out the massive invasion of privacy this sort of thing entails, but is shut down on the grounds that it's fine because they "work for the government".

Alice Ok, so looks like it's an email. Sam And I just… read it? Is that even legal? Alice Probably. We do work for the government. Sort of. Sam What about GDPR? Alice Look, Sam, I don't know what to tell you. This is the job. I've been doing it for years and there's never been any problems. Maybe ask Lena? She’d probably know. – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

While it is too early to definitively establish the worldbuilding rules here:

In The Magnus Archives, giving a statement was functionally feeding an eldritch power

Gertrude Robinson took statements, but kept the archives themselves in a state of disarray, to impede Magnus's plans (Dwelling)

Much of The Magnus Archives played on the difference between knowing a thing and understanding it

The characters in The Magnus Protocol are not just collecting, but blindly categorising statements – they are organising them by keyword, but not encouraged to analyse what they see or hear – Alice notes that they are paid not to care (Making Adjustments)

At least in The Magnus Archives, making a statement tended to come with consequences: typically horrifying recurring nightmares

So you have to wonder – what consequences will there be for these people, who have had their stories stolen from them?

In terms of workplace horror, this is very much coming at it from the opposite direction. The Magnus Archives was about the horrible job you couldn't quit. Most people find themselves stuck in these for economic reasons rather than supernatural ones, although in fairness both Martin (Children of the Night) and Melanie (Dig) are explicitly called out as very much needing the work, but the characters are nevertheless stuck and constantly call back to the fact that they would absolutely quit – if only they could.

It ran on punishing hours and constant exhaustion, the expectation that you would take on tasks you were in no way qualified or trained for (this started with "archiving" and escalated quickly to "apocalypses"), the boss who expected you to "just know" things you couldn't possibly know at all, and a soul destroying amount of responsibility with little hope of advancement. The same person ran the institute since its founding, literally consuming his employees along the way, and if you wanted, say, to be Head Archivist, you were very much stuck waiting for the current occupant of the role to die.

It is significant that, with the noted exception of Eric Delano, all of Gertrude's assistants died on the job (some of them by her hand), and tallying John's assistants is a bit like listing off the wives of Henry VIII: dead, dead, dead, divorced, survived, status unknown. While the story leans on deaths for drama, it gets a lot of mileage out of using historical data, so characters stick around. It's weird for them to be actually gone.

The Magnus Protocol opens with Teddy quitting the OIAR to take a job in insurance. The very first thing you learn about this place is that people leave, and this idea is reinforced a number of times even in the first two episodes: Gwen is pressured to resign by Lena because she is "difficult", and Lena notes outright that, for most people, this job is strictly short term:

Lena Hmmm. I’ve always known you thought you were slumming it down here, but I never actually considered you might think of this as the first step of a career. Most people simply move on within 12 months or so. Gwen I’m not most people. – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

Moreover, Making Adjustments concludes first with a fraught conversation about possible redundancies and then with Alice accusing Sam (however playfully) of looking to "jump ship" when he's seen researching The Magnus Institute.

This is the horrible job you might lose tomorrow. While the threat in The Magnus Archives was that you were probably going to die in this job, here it leans more toward – if you didn't show up tomorrow, who would question it? People leave.

It is a night shift, for no clear reason – they're doing data entry on what definitely looks like non-essential information so why the hell can't they do that in the day? Employees are not encouraged to think about their work, and Gwen is criticised for favouring accuracy over speed. It is grimly impersonal, and what little solidarity there is appears to be hard won; it's noted, for instance, that Colin is really only social with Alice, and Alice seems committed to team camaraderie.

But above that is the sense that the employees are considered too insignificant to participate in what is really happening here. I mean, among other things, Colin seems to be having a wildly different workplace experience to everyone else.

Alice postulates that they are a fossilised department – one that only really exists because it's been forgotten – although even she notes that the theory only works if you don't poke at it too hard:

Sam I've no real idea what the OIAR even is. Alice You and everyone else. I’ve checked and there's not really much info on it. My current working theory is that maybe it got set up in the 70s, back when everyone was off their tits on LSD and giving ghost-hunters massive grants to wave crystals in graveyards. I reckon at some point they must have put together a small government department to, like, oversee the spending and monitor this stuff and no-one's noticed it's still going. Sam Makes sense. Alice As long as you don’t pay too much attention. – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

Even if that is a bit extreme, the general consensus is that their work goes nowhere and does nothing. Which fits broadly with the general lack of action and urgency in the department ... unless you happen to be Colin.

Alice Colin! There’s my guy! How's it hanging? Is it an app yet? Do we have a minimalist logo? I assume you’ve finished all the social features? Colin Don't you start. I swear I'm going to shove a cable down that prick's throat, pull it out his ministerial anus and floss him to death. ... Teddy Colin, mate, you know you’re never getting out of here. Colin Christ, don’t say that. Teddy Even if his nibs lets you off the hook, which he won’t, you couldn’t bring yourself to just leave. Not 'til you’ve figured out all these fun little errors. Colin Or they finally kill me. ... Colin I already have to explain to some chinless inbred politician that we’re running on something as old as the goddamn Atari Falcon, now I’ve got some green little smartarse giving me lip for it too? Well you can take your funny little lines and shove them up – – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

Colin, specifically, is suffering from ministerial oversight. A lot of it, apparently. Departments that only continue to exist because they've been forgotten don't typically have the responsible minister leaning on the IT manager. Not even on the boss – the IT guy. It's interesting because his specific level of stress and frustration seems more consistent with what was going on in The Magnus Archives than here.

And then, of course, there are the stories themselves. It's impossible not to note that the text-to-speech programs sound an awful lot like the protagonists of the previous series. Presumably this is plot relevant, or else it's a really distracting choice. It's impossible to state at this stage whether that means it actually is them or not, but assuming for the moment that it is (because it is not interesting to discuss other possibilities until they become interesting) then what they have to say seems noteworthy.

They are presumably reacting to Sam specifically (welcome to the cursed protagonist club, new guy!), possibly to the box he ticked during onboarding, and likely to whatever past trauma led him to this job in the first place. And both seem to be issuing a warning.

Norris/Martin tells a story that Gwen classifies as "reanimation", but I admit I'm not sure I agree. The thing sounds like an iteration of the Anglerfish monster.

Norris/Harriet Winstead “Arthur? Is that you?” And that voice I have loved for twenty years answered: “Some of him.” – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

Archivist Are you the same Sarah Baldwin that disappeared in Edinburgh in August 2006? Sarah Some of her. Skin. A few memories. Not on the inside. – The Magnus Archives: Return to Sender

That feels at least in part like an Easter egg – no newcomer is going to recognise the Anglerfish – but it is the crossing of the boundary: this is the first true story they heard, and proof that there is something very wrong with the world. And presumably the themes of grief and loss that pervade the story would relate pretty strongly to Martin's whole ... situation. I'm assuming nobody here chose to be a text-to-speech program.

Chester/John, meanwhile, issues a fairly stern warning about The Magnus Institute. The canary in the coal mine is a bit on-the-nose as a metaphor, sure, but if I were trying to explain to someone what was wrong with that place, I would likely also be blunt. The rough thing, though, is that quite explicitly no one heeds the warning: while the "removed" image is not described it pretty clearly illustrated RedCanary's fate. It's not just that the canary died down the mine. It's that it died in vain, because no one understood what killed it. And of course, it does pique Sam's interest to the point that he starts digging in to what happened. I'm disinclined to believe that curiosity is bad in these stories – if anything, John's issue was that he could never find out the things he needed to know fast enough to make a good decision. But there is a point there ... if you start looking into things, you have to be prepared to deal with them.

The third one, in Making Adjustments seems to be playing somewhat on The Picture of Dorian Gray: Sam and Gwen start the episode by doing practice runs on classification using classic horror, and the story, when it begins, draws on that confusion between art and subject. You can line Dorian up beside Dracula and Frankenstein any day. But the bigger point seems to be that the catalyst for this happened on camera:

Daria Before I could reply they hit a button on their set-up and suddenly we were live streaming with lights in my eyes and their arm tight around my shoulders. I don’t remember much of what they said to their viewers, but they kept telling everyone how lucky I was whilst they dragged me into the chair. – The Magnus Protocol: Making Adjustments

There are nested violations in this story: Daria expected a photo shoot, but at no point agreed to be tattooed on camera. Beyond that, the story she told in private to her therapist is now being recorded and catalogued by the OIAR. And whatever happened to Daria, this "Ink5oul" person seems to have profited by it, and by things like it.

I must admit, I'm not much of a "what entity is this" person, because as far as I could tell the general consensus on that in general fell between "that's arbitrary" and "all of them, probably, if only by their conspicuous absence". That sort of thing is very useful when talking about the people and their particular obsessions – if Simon Fairchild turned up, for example, you knew exactly what sort of aggravating bullshit you were in for – but worrying too much about the exact nature of a supernatural manifestation rarely leads anywhere useful.

I am more interested in the broader implications of how the story is told. In The Magnus Archives, the characters read the stories aloud – and usually adopted the persona, and sometimes even the accent – of the original statement giver. That had supernatural implications, of course, but also played into the broader themes of the story: John is very much invested in the individuals. The tragedy of Jane Prentiss, the mystery of Gertrude Robinson – these are his obsessions. Pretty much the only point he scores in his conversation with Leitner (The Librarian) is being able to instantly spot a passing reference to Gerard Keay: John is crap at the cosmology, but he's been paying attention to the people. Many of the recurring characters are very dead by the time the story starts, but they are kept alive in the narrative because the living characters step into their shoes, and care about what they did and what became of them.

Here, though, there is built in distance between the active protagonists and the individual horror stories. They largely don't even read them – Alice says she "skim(s) the case for keywords" (Making Adjustments) and otherwise tries to ignore what is happening. When a story is read aloud it is done by the text-to-speech programs, and they, as John and Martin did, adopt the personas of the authors in a way that sounds much more fluid than software from the 90s should be capable of. When the story comes straight from the source, it is not told to Sam or Alice or Gwen, but to someone else entirely. There is a reason for the audience to connect with the stories – from that external perspective you're getting pretty much the same thing you did in The Magnus Archives – but the actual characters have no reason to connect, or even to truly listen or empathise with what they're hearing, and doing so is regarded as a mistake.

Which makes you wonder – what might you miss when you're not paying attention to the people?

#the magnus protocol #the magnus protocol spoilers #the magnus archives

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rockinlibrarian · 14 days ago

Text

Two AO3-Writer Year-End Surveys that astonishingly don't have THAT much overlap in questions.

And I believe they were both originally meant to be "Ask Me a Number" Games so they wouldn't be as long as this is? But I'm using it as a proper yearly wrap-up. And I've done so for the past two years at least. So there.

I apologize to whomever wrote these surveys that I no longer have your info because I just dumped them both in a Scrivener file. I'm pretty sure I personally got both sets of questions from @uniasus. So that's sort of credit. Anyway, to begin:

I better put it under a cut for length, even though I'm afraid no one will click through. You can click through and THEN skim! I give you permission!

Survey Set 1:

How many words have you written this year? 36,643 new words POSTED to AO3. Don't even know how many words I've WRITTEN. But it's more than that.

2. How many works did you publish this year? Seven. And this year I didn't even update any previously posted ongoing fics.

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? Mayyyybe "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely"? Because it does a really fun job of combining characters from two different fandoms, and some of those characters were quite complicated to write and I think I pulled it off.

4. What work of yours has the most hits? This is always weird to answer when you've done Yuletide and inevitably the work that WILL have the most hits— and kudos, and comments (judging by one year's previous Yuletide at least)— will get them all in the very last week of the year. But AS IT CURRENTLY STANDS, the answer is "New World Symphony" — by a lot (936), actually, so maybe the Yuletide fic WON'T be able to catch up.

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? I have a kind of complicated answer for this, involving my two new multichapters, because it's not so much more feedback as "not the feedback I expected). When I started "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely," I thought it would get more attention than "New World Symphony," because it's Gen and a post-season-4 fix-it, as opposed to the latter with its controversial ship. But even AFTER I posted the former, "New World Symphony" got way more kudos (and, as you see above, hits). Someone on the TUA Discord pointed out that it's about finding a niche— something can be more generally appealing, but it's got loads of competition that way, people may never find it— whereas they're going to come LOOKING for your weird ship if they also ship it. ON THE OTHER HAND, though, I'd also figured "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely" would get relatively more attention from TUA fans, because it's a bigger fandom than Legion…but instead, Legion fans came out of the woodwork to be the primary readers of that one! Now if they'd just go and read "The Magic Man of Oz" while they're here…!

6. Favorite title you used. If you stick only with titles I've actually PUBLISHED… possibly "Viktor Squares a Love Triangle" in "Beginning of Something Else Entirely." But my absolute favorite title I wrote this year is for Chapter 5 of "New World Symphony": "Fugue for Strings and Synth." It is SUCH a good title you have no idea. Maybe in three years when I finally post Chapter 5 of "New World Symphony" I'll say it again.

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? No use of song lyrics this year. I don't think. I may have made lyric references without thinking about it too hard, since I do that in real life, but nothing's standing out, and nothing in the titles. No Sound of Music ones since I didn't update "Captain with Seven Children"…

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year? Um, Fiktor. Still. A couple just platonically, even. And I worked really hard to keep the platonic ones that way! If you ask I can still point out the places where my shipper heart was poking through…

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? Well, obviously Fiktor as far as / pairings go. But & pairings I can't narrow down, because I found so many fun ones combining the Legion and TUA characters for "Beginning of Something Else Entirely." Those characters were destined to meet! On the obvious side, the Chaos Couple of Lenny & Klaus is RIGHT THERE, but I'm probably proudest of pairing up Allison & Syd, who just— their relationships with their powers and their similarly checkered pasts, they're so good for each other, especially with Syd's post-Astral-Plane growth to lead the way. And speaking of the astral plane, Oliver Bird & absolutely anyone.

10. What work was the quickest to write? "Brother and Also Brother Home for Christmas" literally took me an hour, and part of that was just watching the commercial it was based on a few times. Somebody on the TUA Discord server pointed out that the Folgers Incesty Christmas commercial was practically a ready-made Fiktor fic and as the only Fiktor writer there, well… I responded. —I started filling this out before I spontaneously posted "Did Anyone Ever Tell You You Look Just Like Aubrey Plaza?" which was probably physically written in even less time, but I'd been telling it to myself in my head for a few months already so I'm not sure that counts?

11. What work took you the longest to write? No idea, especially since two are multichapters that are still in progress.

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year? Well besides the two I started posting this year, there's "Captain with Seven Children" and "Tesseract" which are still slowly in progress, a couple more bits and pieces side works for the Legion/TUA crossover now-series, aaaand… I think that's it? How many is that?

13. What’s your longest work of the year? "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely" at 18,377 words posted so far, and that's not even counting the additional 2,248 I've drafted. Then again, "New World Symphony" has a LOT drafted, so with its 12,655 posted… no, with draft chapters it still only comes to 18,305, so "Beginning" wins.

14. What’s your shortest work of the year? That would also be "Brother and Also Brother Home for Christmas" because it's a retelling of a 30-second commercial. Unless you count "happy birthday," which is a piece of visual art and therefore appears on AO3 as having a Wordcount of 0. It technically has a wordcount of 12, which is still the shortest, but @destinyandcoins wrote those words, anyway. See... some number below for more.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you? ALL OF THEM.

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? For just this year, it's a tie between "Remix" and "TUA Masked Author Summer Remix 2024 (Umbrella Academy)," with two each, because I did two remixes for said event. And otherwise none of the fics had ANY overlapping tags! … For all time, it's still "Backstory." …oh, after I added "Did Anyone Ever Tell You You Look Just Like Aubrey Plaza?" I double-checked because I thought there might be some overlap with "Brother and Also Brother," but no, I tagged one "ficlet" and the other "flash fiction," and only one of them as "crack" even though they both probably count. And apparently "Brother and Also Brother" is the only one I tagged "pseudo-incest" in. Because they're NOT brothers in "New World Symphony," I guess. It might be… pseudo-pseudo-incest?

17. Your favorite character to write this year? I THINK it may still be Oliver Bird. He just keeps consistently delighting me, enough that I felt the need to squee about how much I love writing Oliver Bird on social media several times. There's also a character in my Yuletide fic that I kept having to STOP myself from squeeing about how much I loved writing, being that it's STILL A SECRET that I WAS writing them. I'll tell ya later.

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? I had a lot of trouble getting into Diego Hargreeves's internal voice when I first started trying to write his scene in "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely," but once it clicked I ended up really enjoying it! I also found writing David Haller's alters butting in to a conversation to be an interesting challenge, but that one really did feel more like a puzzle, a challenge to overcome, than that it was actually giving me trouble.

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? I don't… know really? No, that's not true, I have been thinking a lot about the father/daughter aspects of Oliver Bird and Syd Barrett. Maybe it's me still missing my own dad; and I'm writing this crossover full of crappy or at least absent dads in both sources, EXCEPT for this foster-father relationship that was only established in one episode and never got to be explored further, but now that they're living together again post-Astral plane, I just feel like Syd and Oliver are going to be hanging out a lot, especially since she's been avoiding David— Oliver's really the closest thing to a best friend she has at Summerland now (though also now she has Allison!). I did throw that soup-making scene into Chapter 2, but I love the idea that it's just COMMON for them to be doing father/daughtery stuff around all the time, and maybe you'll see more of it in the chapters to come.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most? None are really sticking out. Either "New World Symphony" or "Beginning of Something…"

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year? Again with I KNOW I'm going to get a boatload in this last week on the Yuletide, and I just posted another new fic that has gotten two kudos in the twenty-four hours since I posted it, so— as of me writing this it's 156. Oh, and that's just on new fics! I got a lot of kudos on old fics, too! ("The Invitation" is still going strong at #1)

22. Which work has the most comments? Currently (again, Yuletide people are so good at leaving comments, so this may change in the next week) it's "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely" with 36! And most are from Legion fans! Holy Legion fans Batman! To cross your Marvel/DC streams!

23. Did you do any collaborative works this year? Yes, technically! The TUA Masked Author event was focused on Remixes, and I did TWO! One was an elaboration on a drabble written by @faithfulcat111 , the other was an actual piece of VISUAL ART based on @destinyandcoins' "Notes from Nowhere" when I realized I could actually do art for it that didn't require me to draw people!

24. Did you write any gifts this year? YES BUT I CAN'T TELL YOU WHAT YET. Unless you count the remixes, which were also kind of gifts for their original writers. I mean I would have considered a remix of my work a gift at least.

25. Did you receive any gifts this year? Yes! TWO! One proper Yuletide gift and a BONUS one in Yuletide Madness! I do a happy dance! But I can't actually read them for another couple of days! I'm still so delighted though!

26. What’s your most common category? Gen

27. What do you listen to while writing? This year I listened to my Legion playlist (combining the actual score-soundtrack with the needle-drops) a LOT lot while writing "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely," because Viktor is also listening to it in the story. But to be honest I listened to the Legion playlist a lot when I WASN'T writing, too. IT'S JUST SUCH A GOOD SOUNDTRACK!

28. Favorite work you wrote this year? Eh, tie between "Beginning" and "New World Symphony." Depends on what I'm more in the mood for. That goes back to the one I reread the most question, doesn't it.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? Okay, the next survey breaks this question down farther, into beginning lines, ending lines, dialogue, and funny bits, so see down there, but I guess I can put my favorite lines that aren't any of those four things here:

He giggled, and Five set a new goal for the week: to make the little Russian boy laugh at every opportunity. —that was my ship threatening to slip in the otherwise platonic "What's In a Name?"

Less hopeless than he thinks? What did that mean? He'd have to deflect and think about it later. —Just the right amount of a look at the way Klaus works.

Blonde, conventionally pretty. The kind of girl she used to have to Rumor studio execs into not wanting as their lead. —Allison's first impression of Syd is just exactly what she would think.

[Allison to Syd Re: the Birds]: "You're their daughter?" Syd startled, then slowly broke into a wry smile. "Well….Yes." She nodded sharply, as if she'd only just decided this. "In a way. The Birds have been second parents to me. Sometimes more literally than others." --Because! Like I said in #19 above. I just feel like Syd genuinely considers the Birds to be her parents now, and she's maybe not put it into words until this moment.

It wasn't like someone could sneak up on Viktor. Especially not someone with his own musical motif— a high, looping piano, melodic lines joining in canon. —there is so much potential for the ways Viktor's powers could work, and I love coming up with new ones.

"OH." Cary's eyes lit up. He started shaping an imaginary sphere in his hands. "I invented— but I didn't, you see, that's the fascinating part— this orb came from the future to kidnap David and warn him about this— catastrophic future if he didn't— well, I don't know, but I do know my own work, and I could tell I invented it— but that future never happened and I never did invent the orb, but the orb itself," he emphatically tapped the table, "remained." —It's just so Cary, and I've missed writing Cary.

On the lower level was a big round atrium with a large tableau in the center: a hill of real plants and trees and taxidermied mountain goats, as if the building in the middle of the forest couldn't bear to remain separated from the forest by anything as silly as walls. —sometimes I write good description. Actually is this good description or just nicely metaphorical description?

"And, Viktor—” She leaned in. “When I say 'power,' I'm not just talking about the ability to manipulate energy waves. You have power just by existing in the world— in a society. In a family. You've always had that power, even when you felt the most powerless. What you choose to do— or not to do— can have huge effects on those around you, whether you realize it or not." —Melanie is directing this right through the screen at ME.

"Not me. I don't get to be loved. I don't get to be happy. I am…fated to wander from universe to universe, alone. I can't even get annihilated from existence properly!" —best single line of angst I wrote this year.

And the whole of Viktor discovering smart phones in "New World Symphony."

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year? I don't know. I am tempted to answer with some interesting facts I learned while writing my Yuletide piece. Oh, here's one: when I was first writing David and Viktor's conversation in "Beginning" Chapter 2, and suddenly realized I'd been writing Divad instead of David Prime the whole time.

ALRIGHTY THEN, here's Survey Set #2!

1.How many fics have you worked on since January? Maybe…9? 10 if you count "happy birthday" as a fic? I have a couple side things going on in the "Beginning of Something Else" crossover universe that I'm not sure how much count as separate. —Actually one of those was "Did Anyone Ever Tell You You Look Just Like Aubrey Plaza?" which I just posted.

2. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? It's not something new to ME, but I never POSTED a fic written in script form before "Brother and Also Brother Home for Christmas."

3. What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.) I guess Umbrella Academy, by sheer numbers.

4. How many fandoms did you write for this year? Just three (and two of those in the same fics). Or at least I POSTED fics for just three— worked on some others.

5. What ships captured your heart? Um, nobody new. I'm still not a shipper, and I'm still inexplicably obsessed with Fiktor.

6. What characters captured your heart? All…of them? I've never written so much Klaus before this year, and he kind of writes himself, which is quite fun, so maybe I'll go with Klaus.

7. Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year? Nope. Spoilers for Yuletide I guess— yep it's one I've written for before. But I have quite a few obscure or at least rarely-written fandoms on my list so don't get cocky.

8. What fic meant the most to you to write? I think— I think this question is making me oddly uncomfortable actually. It's probably "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely," because it was my response to TUA Season 4 and there was so much negativity around so I was like "No, see this? I've got an idea. I'm gonna make it work. It's gonna be great." And I think I put a little too much on its metaphorical shoulders, and I got a little desperate, like I was going to save the fandom, but nobody actually cared so I got all Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria about it, like everyone was yelling "STOP TRYING TO MAKE 'Everyone loves Beginning…' HAPPEN! IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!" But then, like I said above, the Legion fans found it and made me remember everything I loved about it, so now I'm just writing it for the fun of it again.

9. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? Conversely, "New World Symphony" was really just for my own enjoyment, and it's very happy because things are actually working out WELL for everyone for once, so I think that one was the most pure enjoyment.

10. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? Not sure any really fits the bill. Getting the Yuletide fic in on time was satisfying for that reason, but also unsatisfying because I know I could make it better if I just had more time…!

11. What fic was the most difficult to write? I don't think the fic ITSELF was difficult to write, but real life and the writing of my Yuletide fic were vying VERY hard for my attention. It was down to the wire, and I really wish I'd gotten more of the fic done BEFORE the last minute when I've also been prepping for Christmas.

12. What fic was the easiest to write? Not actually sure. Oh, now that "Did Anyone Ever Tell You You Look Just Like Aubrey Plaza?" exists— that one. Like I said, Klaus writes himself, Lenny almost writes herself (she's so much more crass than I am that it does take a LITTLE work to get in the mindset), and this totally crack conversation between the two of them definitely wrote itself.

13. What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year? See 14 and 13 in set 1.

14. What were your go-to writing songs? As 27 in the first list said, I listened to the Legion playlist on shuffle. But if I had to pick just one song, at least to start, I'd usually go with "Darkness (Full Suite)" because it captured the whole mood best, and was also instrumental so perhaps better for writing than the needle drops. Though if I was putting the playlist on and NOT necessarily trying to write, I usually started with "Undiscovered First." For no reason other than I love it. (I just looked at the comments on that YouTube video and 2/3 of them are "Who's here from Legion????")

15. What was the hardest fic to title? "The Beginning of Something Else Entirely." I even put up a Tumblr poll.

16. What's your favorite title of the year? See #6 in Set 1.

17. Share your favorite opening line: "Klaus had more experience with the Afterlife than any living person, and this wasn't it." This is the only one I don't feel compelled to give multiple answers for, because how can you beat that?

18. Share your favorite ending line: My ending lines suck in comparison. Plus I have this problem of extending my natural endings with little epilogues. For example, I think my answer to this is from "What's In a Name?" which emotionally ends with, "They could make of themselves whomever they wanted to be," which is a GREAT closing line on its own. But then I add this little scene:

The three giggled through the keynote speech, drawing a cumulatively bizarre caricature of the speaker together. Ben had started the doodle, then encouraged the others to collaborate. It was silly and subversive and utterly language-barrier-demolishing. The tall blonde boy who’d joined their table waved impatiently backward at them, keeping his eyes dutifully on the keynote speaker. “Tyst! Our lecturer is speaking!” Ben added the tall boy to the doodle.

—which I ALSO love, actually, but it's much less of a closing line. Also, yes, that was Luther making a little cameo there. Don't know how subtle or not it was. I figured pointing out that his nametag had a Swedish flag and an aerospace symbol on it would be a little too obvious. The other ending vying for this answer is from my Yuletide story, which has even LESS of a standout ending line and is more like Very Short Concluding Scene than Epilogue too, but I love the imagery of it. Tell ya later.

19. Share your favorite piece of dialogue: Conversely, my dialogue is my favorite part of my writing, because it tends to come easiest, and is basically hearing the characters in your head so— I have a lot of contenders, but I think I'm going to go with this scene (first speaker is David Haller, I add since he doesn't get a tag until far into the conversation):

"I heard about what's going on with you and your wife. And all I can say is, time travel sucks ass." The irritable jitters were back. "Hey, let me pose a scenario for you guys. Is it cheating to hook up with a future version of your own girlfriend?" Diego and Luther exchanged a glance. "What, like…in the future?" "Whenever. She came from the future. You went to— time travel. It's confusing, is what I'm saying." Luther frowned, and drew in the air as if connecting the dots. "Well, is that really different than hooking up in the future without time travel?" "That's what I said! But if there's also a version of you in her future, who's very different from you now—" "So you're cheating on yourself?" Diego clarified. "No, they broke up. And that future ended up not happening." "So it's a separate timeline." "But they're still the same person," Luther offered. "Wait, no. That's like saying our Ben and Sparrow Ben are the same person." "But aren't they? In a way?" "No." "But you're talking about two versions of a guy who was raised differently from birth," David said. "I'm talking about a potential future version of the same girl." "So she was going to turn into the future one?" "She didn't. But she could have, is the thing." Diego shook his head. "Damn. Time travel." Luther looked sympathetic. "I'm sure if you just explained to her—" "Hah. Too late for that. She's gotten all kinds of new ways to be pissed at me since. This is where Divad used to butt in to remind us that we're fundamentally unlovable, but no, he's trying to self-actualize or some shit now don't even think of it, Divad, it's my turn, we need to be angry."

I love it for so many reasons. First, it just flows nicely, like you can hear these guys having this "philosophical" discussion, it's just how it would go. Second, I kind of lied about the first speaker, because it IS technically David, but he switches to Dvd during the first sentence (find the moment!), and it amused me that Diego and Luther are completely oblivious to the fact that this guy's alter personalities are having an argument right in front of them. Third, the seeming randomness of the topic, which sounds theoretical at first, unless you know (or until you realize) that it's not theoretical, and this has been nagging at David— or at least at Dvd— for a year or so and suddenly he's talking to someone ELSE facing time-travel-complicated-fidelity-issues so he can't resist getting an outside perspective.

Runner up: every single conversation Oliver Bird has with anyone whatsoever. Wait, I'm going to give you a preview of "Beginning" chapter 4, because this is exemplary of one of those times I just kept squeeing "I LOVE WRITING OLIVER" after:

"She's right, you know." "What?" He turned to see Oliver Bird poking his head out of a room. "Your— what should you call her. Conscience?" "You heard… Delores?" "Is that her name? Old-fashioned, but charming. Our Lady of Sorrows. Martini?"

20. Share your funniest line: Hard to choose, first being that I don't know that I'm the best judge of my own humor; second being that they inevitably are probably all in my Yuletide fic, which is the only straight-up comedy I wrote this year. Again, I'll get back to you on that.

21. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? I answered the first part in 30 above, but it DID change the story a bit, in that it made me way more aware of which of David's alters might be fronting at any time, and I realized I could do more with them intentionally. For example, the scene at breakfast referenced two questions ago.

22. What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand? I keep most of my stuff in Scrivener, because I love the ease of adding interconnected files and pages, particularly as I tend to write out of order. I compile it into Word before printing and/or posting it. And I do write by hand, usually in the middle of a draft, when I have the basic shape of the chapter/work down and need to fill in the gaps. I also edit by hand.

23. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year? What drives me nuts is that I had an answer to this— I remember distinctly feeling "Wow, was THAT satisfying to write!"— but I forget what it was, now. Maybe Viktor and David's conversation in "Beginning" chapter 2. Talking to a guy with a dissociative disorder was REEEELY enlightening for Viktor on a lot of levels.

24. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic? When I posted my Yuletide entry, I went to bed. It FELT like a special thing to do!

25. How did you recharge between fics? I was so busy in real life I don't think I noticed much. I just wrote whatever I felt like writing in the moment.

26. Did you create fanworks other than fic? *preens* as referenced in 14 and 23 in the previous survey, I made an Art!

27. How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!) Two! The TUA Masked Author and Yuletide!

28. If this were an awards show, who would you thank? First I'd like to thank @versaphile for doing all the research and posting it on AO3 on How the freak to write David Haller (Not to mention the deeper characterizations of his alters in "When My Fist Clenches…" which I was probably drawing on even subconsciously). And secondly, to Guest User Valerie, who's most recent comment on "Beginning…" was just what I needed to hear to stop feeling like it was all Pointless, made me feel motivated again. And thirdly, @sunnymarbles, who was sitting across the room most of the time I was writing and gamely put up with me speaking my thoughts out loud and occasionally asking them questions like "Which one of these concepts is funnier?" and also supplying a made-up brand name for my Yuletide fic.

29. What's left on your to-do list for 2024? My annual round-up post of life events and media reviews!

30. What would you like to write next year? Continue "Beginning" and "New World Symphony" and maybe get back to "Captain with Seven Children." And as I've said for like the past three years now, I SWEAR I'm going to update "Tesseract" and finally post "Child of Hypnos"! But maybe this time I mean it!

#writing #fanfic #year in review

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onebadpunspoilsabunch · 1 year ago

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And the way awhuizotl and garble were redeemed in season 9 didn't make any sense at all, since it contradicts things from the previous seasons

Oh yeah, that too. Just more to add to the pile, haha 😄

I don't hate the idea of Garble being reformed, I just hate the execution. It was weird… I actually really like the idea of Garble and Spike being friends again :)

They said that he acted like a delinquent so he wouldn't get bullied by his friends, and he was peer pressured into it. You can say that about teenagers in real life.

I think it was supposed to be a contrast to Spike's character, because in Dragon Quest Spike almost succumbed to the same peer pressure but decided to be better, because of the positive influence his pony friends had on him.

The implication being that Garble succumbed to peer pressure because unlike Spike, he didn't have any positive influences at all, whether it be family, friends, etc.

But he has a really good relationship with Smolder, who never judged him or treated him harshly for being soft. So Smolder's existence as his supportive sibling doesn't make any sense when you think of the way he's acted the entire show.

I think a better idea for Garble's redemption is that it could've been a Cutie Map mission. Fluttershy and Spike could've been called to the Dragon Lands to solve a friendship problem that involved Garble. Not only because Spike and Fluttershy were the two main characters involved in that episode, but because it makes sense for it to be them.

Spike because he has more of a personal relationship with Garble than any of the others. Also Garble is technically the first dragon friend Spike ever made (until they fought), so wouldn't it be a fitting bookend for Spike to help turn Garble around and the two can be proper friends again?

Fluttershy because before she hated dragons (specifically older ones), but she learned to not be afraid of them. Garble hated ponies, so Fluttershy would've been a perfect 2nd choice to help redeem him.

I'm just throwing out ideas lol

The Ahuizotl one made less sense to me, because again they retconned what we've seen of the character in order to make him a misunderstood character. They said that Ahuizotl was protecting the artifacts of his forest from being stolen from Daring Do and Dr. Caballeron.

I actually like the idea of Daring Do taking the artifacts to be put in a museum being seen as bad by the jungle inhabitants, and I like the idea of Ahuizotl having more to him. But retconning Ahuizotl's character doesn't make much sense.

In one episode, Ahuizotl tried to use the artifacts to cause a heatwave in the jungle for eight hundred years. Seems pretty evil. Maybe because he was created to make sure the artifacts stay in their place and do their intended job, he didn't see a problem with it? Idk.

Maybe they could've said that Ahuizotl was preprogrammed to act in this way? Idk

#ask #my little pony #mlp fim #my little pony friendship is magic #mlp g4 #ahuizotl #garble the dragon #garble #spike the dragon #spike mlp #fluttershy #smolder #smolder mlp #daring do #dr. caballeron #mlp season 9 #mlp analysis #mlp critical #critical

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alicepao13 · 2 months ago

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Hudson and Rex S04E09 - Impawster Syndrome - Part A

I like this one better than the previous one but... I disagree with a lot of the things Jesse says, and mainly with how he thinks his coworkers should have treated him in this case.

Black letters in quotes: Actual show quotes.

Green letters in quotes: What I come up with my twisted brain.

I wonder if they had Justin Kelly voice the criminal in the opening scene to throw us off.

Wait, I take it back. They probably did because they already had him play that scene.

Oh, that rascal.

Remember when we thought that the worst thing to come out of technology the last decade were deepfakes? Good times.

Dear Hudson and Rex, I think your actors are suffering from the cold again.

lol why is Rex the most annoyed that Jesse stepped on evidence? Everyone else is pretty chill.

I bet this won't come up later as sketchy behavior.

Sarah: "Wait, I need Charlie to translate Rex-speak for me." Rex: "I wait for no one. Follow me."

That's what they all say.

Why would he not assume that since his car was stolen (crime) it was used in the robbery (also crime)?

I wish. What I mean to say is that they took a long time to actually act like they should impartially investigate this.

I'm sorry but Jesse's acting like a child. He knows the procedure, he should know that if this case went to court and he was on it without having been cleared beforehand, he would be the one to blow it and create doubts for the court. He should know that it doesn't have anything with his friends not trusting him. Which, later, they will actually have ample reasons not to.

On my first watch I'd actually thought she had something to do with this.

Dude, you stepped on evidence and your face is on camera committing a crime, and there's currently no explanation for why this isn't your face. You can't be surprised they don't want you anywhere near this case.

Oh my god stop! I mean the thing with the tongue, I can't concentrate. Also, stop joking around because we definitely will be doing the "I'll hear something my friends are saying about me out of context and take it the wrong way" trope.

What did I say?!?! Jesse, this is just how they do foreplay, I promise. It has nothing to do with you.

Charlie is actually doing his job and entertaining the possibility that Jesse might have had something to do with this, even as a joke.

Yes, guys, after all this I, too, would assume that Jesse's car was used in the robbery. I'd bet on it before finding it.

I'm not sure what joking about Jesse having many action figures achieves when the house does look geeky. A loading bar on the wall? An entire gaming installation in the living room? That's how I'd imagine it. Does it have to have action figures? Not to mention that I don't remember Jesse mentioning action figures a lot. I'd love to go to Comic Con too but I don't want to buy action figures.

Not sure they should have done this. Then again, if it was any other case, they would have done this. They have had Rex sneakily search again and again. And I think they mostly did this because they thought that would at least clear Jesse.

Not Rex too!

Sarah is the one who's supposed to clinically examine the evidence, how did we get to that point?

Oh, he was. Which definitely didn't make all this any better.

I'm not sorry for suspecting Imari. She was the red herring, anyway. She always popped up at the right time. And was too chipper for this job.

I think the most clear sign that Jesse hadn't done this would be the fact that he wouldn't be so stupid to deposit robbery money into his own account. He's worked so many cases. Although that's not exactly a defense and they'd still have to keep searching.

I'm sorry, you're interrogating him and you say "We're on your side"? This is insane. Will IA review the interrogation tapes?

Jesse plays online poker. That's not as weird and out there as they make it seem.

Crypto again. I know that in my country most of the gambling websites that gave winnings in crypro have been banned. Probably in the EU (although the law here has a pretty funny idea of who is and who is not allowed to run a gambling website).

"Are you doing a search of my apartment?" Shocked Pikachu meme. Are you serious right now, Jesse? Yes, of course they are! The evidence is piling up.

All this is because you were gunning for Charlie's job in the previous episode, Jesse lol

Aaand, they found a shotgun.

"Nice find, Rex." May I ask how you humans were searching Jesse's apartment all this time? Because it was literally on the chair under a blanket.

Sarah: "If I take your approach forgetting we're talking about Jesse and just looking at the evidence..." The investigative, approach, yes.

Indeed. At this point, the frame-job is getting way too obvious.

I got to the image limit in 16 minutes of episode runtime. This is not good.

To be continued in Part B.

#the great hudson and rex rewatch of 2024

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astrologycharts242 · 1 year ago

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Me reading Jungkook's Tropical chart 2nd house (Part 2)

I'll upload the video and the transcript of it. At the end I added the wrong chart but it is what it is.

youtube

Something I forgot to mention in the previous video. With Jupiter being in aquarius 2nd house. This made Jungkook had a very weird or unusual childhood than the average person. Not in a bad way because his Jupiter is more so positive. His Jupiter makes him want to speak about trying to make society a better place.

All because aquarius is about humanitarianism and environmental science. Moving along his Jupiter aspects the 8th house of in laws (any in laws), not just the spouse's family, but Spouse's money, gifts, unearned money, inheritance etc. Perfect in regards to money because now Jupiter increases the amount of unearned money and gifts Jungkook obtains in his lifetime. Yeah he would be one of those types of people that would have other people willingly give him money and gifts. Gifts for particularly birthdays and Christmas. I wonder if his fans send him gifts?

A way he gets unearned money can happen is through inheritance. Keep in mind too 8th house is the spouse's finances so if he gets married or engaged We can easily assume he ends up with a spouse that has slightly above average income than the average individual. Since Jupiter increases the spouse's finances. He might have a spouse that comes from a big family background.

Here's the thing though since Jupiter in aquarius is giving its energy to the 8th house.Jungkook would have weird inlaws. Any in laws not just the spouse's family could be a sister in law.Another too whenever Jupiter influences the 8th house regardless of the sign a person becomes heavily involved. Involved with occult sciences like astrology.

Jungkook is definitely willing to pay an astrologer or a tarot/psychic reader. His views on things like astrology are kinda unusual. He wants scientific proof or a legitimate reason to believe in things like astrology. When he does indulge in those mystical things he won't do it the traditional way that it is practiced. People like to say Jupiter expands things and the 8th house represents genitalia but I'm not gonna get into that discussion. 🤣🤣

Things of the 2nd house like money sources go into the 4th house. This means 4th house stuff like homes, vehicles, the mother etc become reasons for Jungkook gaining money. Then I remembered reading on my Twitter show picture of someone saying the 4th house represents our birth place. Turns out that might definitely be true for Jungkook. As we know he made lots of money from performing in Korea. This 2nd house placement that he has shows a person making money from local governments too.I wouldn't know how the local government stuff works for him though. His role would be to administer things. Which if he was to ever work a local government job or a partnership with the local government. Then Jungkook is doing something upper management related because Saturn is in the 4th house.

I could go on forever about this placement like how homes can make him money. Obviously most would say that's real estate. I think it's more so construction and him selling land rather than actual homes. 2nd house is family right? Connected to the house of homes or birth place. This means most of his family members stay in Korea and that's where his family lineage is from. Additionally family members stay in his homes. With Saturn in the 4th house either Jungkook's family members are restricted from going into residences that he stays in.

Now which family members? Only he or his family would know 🤣

Regardless if they do Jungkook doesn't like family members being in his home or vehicles. This shows family events happens in the places he lives. The house of savings is connected with the mother. I wouldn't know how that works but I don't think he would be a fan of his mother managing his savings. Which his mother doing so is very likely.

2nd house shows what we speak about so he speaks about local governments, what's going on his home environments. From the perspective of how it affects him rather than others. For example the local government implements a new law. Rather than Jungkook talking about how it affects the citizens of South Korea. He instead talks about how it affects himself. Since Saturn is in Aries. Aries represents the 1st house which is yourself.

This could show he keeps his savings in South Korea as well because the 4th house is birth place.

Follow me on the other apps I'm out.

#astrology #vedic astrology #birthchart #birth chart reading #bts #bts jungkook #Jungkook #western astrology #astrology observations #astrology community #astrology notes #astro observations #Youtube

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f0point5 · 8 months ago

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The only thing I find weird about Rebecca is her mouth. Like it doesn't match the rest of her face for me. But that said she's incredibly beautiful and I wish I was half as beautiful 😂

I remember seeing you say in a previous post that all the fic hate comments are irl based and I still come across hate comments about Rebecca. I'll admit I was sceptical at first but then I took a step back like whoa, it's non of my business. But what irks me to no end is how she's scrutinized for allegedly being an escort (back in the day with Scott Disick) but like be for real. Who wouldn't want to be paid to hang onto the arm of some dude? What if she's a clout chaser? What if it's pr? Who wouldn't jump at the chance.... And at least it's not some ugly 80 year old grandpa but Carlos Sainz and Scott Disick. These people act like they're holier than thou but it's so clear they're just jealous.

We need to normalize women taking advantage of their looks, why shouldn't life be easier for us? Men already treat us like some play things why can't we make a profit off that? I say good for her. I do think their relationship ship is genuine but even if it's not, good. For. Her. I'm not a work boss bitch girlie if I looked hot enough I'd 100% be doing the same thing. Work is just not it for me.

I think she’s done a lot of filler. I don’t think it looks bad at all but I think because how we all see filler now that it does kind of take away from the elegance of her face. It doesn’t make her any less beautiful but I think it kind of makes her look a bit more…commercial? I think that’s how they’d say it in modelling terms.

You know, everyone’s a girl’s girl until she’s pretty. Everyone supports sex workers until they’re not standing on a street corner in ripped fishnets risking their lives. The Pearl clutching over how women maintain their lifestyle will never end, especially when these women actually manage to do better out of it than people working a 9-5. I could go for hours on that topic but my point is…they only “support” a woman’s right to do what she wants if they can still feel superior about it. It’s the vestige of bitter people. It’s the same people who will call wags “jobless” while sitting at their desk at the job they hate and are resentful that they have to do in the first place.

And this is resentment because the genetic lottery didn’t swing their way. Because their “principles” would evaporate real quick with a winning lottery ticket I’ll tell you that.

I do think Carlos and Rebecca are “genuine” in the sense that they aren’t a PR set up. I do think it’s a relationship of convenience for them, just from the vibes, but that’s their private business. It only bothers people who know he wouldn’t look at them twice.

#Carlos sainz

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acaplaya-musings · 9 months ago

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Voiceplay-adjacent Visuals: Jack's Lament

Can you feel me practically vibrating out of my skin???

On one hand, I'm a little sad because this is the last video I'll probably be making a post about for a while (though by the time you see this, Geoff might have uploaded a new video that I can actually talk about the visuals for (EDIT from future me: he did!), and if so, you'll be seeing a post for that one tomorrow), but on the other hand, this is my third (though in no particular order/ranking) favourite Geoff video on his channel so far, and I am so excited to finally be able to make a post for it!

Geoff's cover of Jack's Lament debuted on the 8th of October, 2023, though I didn't see it pop up in my YouTube recommended until the 29th (if you remember from my Hellfire post, I wasn't initially subscribed to Geoff or Voiceplay, and both channels somehow ended up dropping off my radar for a while. Jack's Lament was the first from either channel that I had seen in at least a year, and as soon as I saw that thumbnail, I knew it was going to be amazing, but oh my GOD it was even better (and with me stumbling upon Hellfire the very next day, well let's just say I was pulled even deeper down the Geoff/Voiceplay rabbithole than I had been the first time around 😅).

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll hit image limit on this one, or how much actual commentary I may have, but regardless, let's freaking go!

One hell of an opening shot, not gonna lie. Geoff's very-skeletal-looking hands playing the piano (in a beautiful way, might I add), immediately sets a very spooky/eerie vibe!

And this is one hell of an establishing shot! I mean goddamn there is a lot to take in here! Though one thing I will point out (that I actually only just noticed myself ^^;) is the Haunted Mansion headstone on the left, memorialising Madame Leota!

(Also shoutout to Pattycake Production Studios where this was filmed!)

I of course have to give a MASSIVE shoutout and kudos to Rick Underwood for the makeup job in this one, like holy christ he really outdid himself here! (and I can't thank him enough)

Ngl, if I don't come up with any other ideas between now and October, then I kinda wanna dress as "Jack Skellington Geoff" (Geoff Caskellington? 🤔), makeup and all (or just attempt the face makeup at least)

And seriously take a look at his hands! If it weren't for the super-high-definition closeup of his hands on the piano at the start, you'd be forgiven for thinking those are just really well-fitting gloves, but nope! An amazing airbrush job from Mr Underwood!

Also, if you look at his neck and chest in both this image and the previous one, you'll notice that he's got airbrushing going on there too, highlighting (or more accurately, shading) his ribs and other bones!

Finally, on the subject of the body paint job, if you've been paying attention to some of my other Geoff posts (and some of my Voiceplay posts), you might notice what's missing...

No necklace, and no rings! Had to remove them for costume/makeup/character purposes, rip. Must have felt a bit weird without them, but all that paint must have felt weird too, so maybe the weird feelings cancelled each other out? 😅

(His acting in this is of course 10/10 👌)

This video is one that I do actually know involved Geoff deliberately colouring his hair to make it grey, and it still looks as lovely as ever!

(Also this picture is a better one to check out the airbrushed detailing on his chest! (if you're gonna leave a couple of shirt buttons undone and your chest exposed, might as well take advantage of it! 😁))

The "moon" in this video is apparently just some big spotlight with a moon cover on it or something? Apparently you can fairly easily find them online or something, and you can in fact see the pole it's attached to underneath in this image here, but you likely wouldn't notice the pole if you weren't looking for it, and the usage of the moon is 100% perfect! (I've seen/heard one or two people wishing the moon was yellow like in the movie, but eh, it probably wouldn't have fitted the overall colour scheme of the video as much)

I had to include the "jumpscare" of course I had to! 😁

Also I can't get any good screencaps of it, but the way Geoff shifts from sombre on "a longing that I've never known," to more theatric/dramatic on "I'm a master of fright, and a demon of light" is so good, and the acting/choreography is absolute chefs kiss

"Bonjour!"

(For those of you not familiar with the original, the line "and I'm know throughout England and France" is part of the original song, but the "bonjour!" bit is not 😆)

A Geoff head not connected to the body! It's happened again! 😂

Also it's cool the way Geoff is quickly jumping/flashing from one point to another, reminds me of his Headless Horseman video

"No animal, nor man, can SCREAM like I can!"

What can I say, it's a very cool effect! Really ups the "oomph" factor of the little belt moment!

Tiny pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns in his eyes!!

"But who here, would ever understand..."

(I'm not even at half the maximum image limit yet, so I'm 100% just throwing in an extra screencap (or two) just because 😁)

Geoff pats the side of his leg to call for Zero the ghost dog, just in in the scene in the movie! (Also shoutout to Kathy, who I believe helped with puppeteering for this bit?)

"...that the pumpkin king, with the skeleton grin,"

(Freaking obsessed with this video, I tell ya!)

"The fame and praise, come year after year, does nothing for these empty tears"

This is the last shot before we see the gramophone logo (a very gorgeous shot btw), but there's a little bit of a bonus bit for those who stick around for the Patron credits!!

It starts to snow! Like at the end of the movie! It's a sign of hope and good things to come! <3

The original song is good for the movie, sure, but Geoff's cover feels like it has so much more depth (in more ways than one!) and emotion! And his vocal range is ugh god absolutely stunning and mindblowing! I cannot get enough, can never get enough!

But anyway, I hope you've been enjoying my Voiceplay/Voiceplay-adjacent posts! If there are any videos I've skipped over that you actually would like me to make a post on, please let me know! (And don't worry, I am planning to do all the 2017-onwards Christmas videos for both channels eventually - maybe as a Christmas In July thing?) I'm typing this on the 22nd of February, and if Voiceplay uploads a video in March that I wanna make a post on (nope), well you reading this will have already seen that post, and if Geoff uploads something in March that I wanna talk about (he did), then you'll see that post tomorrow (you will!). But otherwise, thanks for reading!

#geoff castellucci #jack's lament #jacks lament #acaplaya analysis #voiceplay-adjacent visuals

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