#— the storyteller & the story told. | ABOUT. ) +.*

[jolieblack]

Something finally came to me! (I usually can’t write to prompts to save my life.)

May Prompts 2024 by @calaisreno

May 24th: Imperfect

We've always done things the wrong way round.

We moved in together at a time when we knew no more than four or five facts about each other. Significant facts, granted, such as John being a war veteran and me having no patience with idiots, but neither of us could have claimed to have had anything even close to the full picture at the time. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if either of us had. Only on my really bad days, though.

I don’t have all that many of those any more, luckily. And when I do, I have plenty of good memories to help me pull myself up again. Take the ones of how we confessed our love to each other to a beautifully decorated room full of people in festive dress and in even more festive spirit, to much applause and cheering and well-wishing. Yes, you heard that plural right. Those are two separate memories, years apart and in two different places. I got to go first, and it wasn’t even me who was getting married at the time. That’s another thing that most couples would do differently. Coordinate it a bit better, at least.

The second time around, as a lot of you will remember well, it was John's turn to talk, and I‘d been told in no uncertain terms to keep my mouth shut and say nothing, not even to correct his grammar, till he was done. I can now attest that it is true that the groom never gets to have a say in anything at his own wedding. Someone got his late revenge there. And believe me, that doesn’t depend on whether it’s one groom or two. Yes, and I know there are still people out there even in this day and age who feel that it’s not normal to have two grooms at all. They can all go away and never show their ugly faces again where I can see them, or smell the foul breath of the bigoted filth they’re spouting. That’s not the wrong way around, that couldn’t be more right for both of us.

But we did other things the wrong way around, too. In most romantic stories, killing someone to save the person you love is usually the culmination of long mutual trust and dedication. It‘s supposed to be the crowning glory, the final sealing of a bond that has long been in the making. It’s not supposed to be the starting point. And John is usually the more patient of the two of us, but when it came to this, he could barely contain himself for 36 hours after our very first meeting before he did it. Ever heard of timing and pacing, Doctor, I hear you people wonder? And he’s supposed to be the one with the talent for good storytelling. The timing was good, though. The timing was excellent. There’s another 'what if' for you that is no fun to contemplate at all.

There is killing out of love, and - I have to say it, I can’t not, I‘d be lying by omission if I didn't - there's also dying out of love. I doubt, however, that there’s anyone out there who has ever put a more elaborate effort into pretending to die out of love than I have. As far as I‘m aware, that’s not really a romantic convention, either, and I sincerely hope I haven’t started a trend. I honestly can’t recommend it. Effort is well and good, and I dare say the execution in my case was flawless, but I can’t deny there was a certain lack of forethought as to the emotional impact on both parties concerned. Don‘t try this at home, folks.

People also usually date first, then start cohabiting, then get married, then raise children together. Please don’t ask me to define at what time in our lives exactly John and I were dating and when we weren’t yet. To this day we have never been able to agree on a definition for this mysterious activity that emphatically, according to John, for whatever reason, does not encompass two people who like each other going out together and having fun. But it is an undisputed fact that we had been raising a child together for a good while before we got married. And we have been going out together and having fun for years uncounted now. Crime scenes never fail to work that particular magic on us. Oh wait, no, that was another example I had on my list for what most other couples do differently. Hang on, do I see a certain Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard raise his hand in objection? Raising both hands, actually, showing us… what, seven fingers? Is that the number of couples working for the Metropolitan Police that you know personally who have met at crime scenes? Or are you reminding us of the number of times John and I were actually kicked off a crime scene because we were enjoying ourselves entirely too much, and were told not to come back till we could behave like adults? I could have sworn those were more than seven occasions, but I‘ll take your word for it.

Talking of raising a child together, I‘m sure Rosie will say a word or three about that herself later, but I have never understood why most of you had doubts about the practicability of that particular endeavour. Let me just tell you that a baby carrier is entirely compatible with a cashmere scarf, or didn’t you know cashmere can absorb up to a third of its own dry weight in liquid? And it got only easier from there when Rosie grew older and stopped affectionately drooling on whoever enjoyed the happy privilege of holding her and carrying her around. She hasn’t demanded being carried around in a good while now, and I don’t know what our poor old backs would say to that these days. But we were talking about happy memories, weren’t we, so there’s another. And at least in the metaphorical sense, I hope you know, Rosie, that you’ll be held and carried for as long as you want and need, as long as we both live. You were my daughter even before I was your father’s husband, and that has been one of the greatest honours bestowed on me in my life.

Because this is who we are, isn’t it, our crazy little family, where nothing is as you’d expect it to be. But we still wouldn’t have it any other way, topsy-turvy, weird, flawed and utterly imperfect, but also utterly us, unique, one of a kind. I don’t know if it was fate that threw us together, or if it really was just a whim on the part of the comfortable, corpulent, bespectacled gentleman sitting at this table over here, smirking with his trademark benevolence. But there’s a debt of gratitude to be paid there, and today is a good day to do it. In this at least, we’re doing the conventional thing, but who’s to say we’re not allowed to do that at least once in a quarter-century.

So, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends and family from far and wide, I give you: John Watson, the man of my life, the man at my side for over thirty years, and for exactly twenty-five years in the legal sense on this very day. Please raise your glasses with us to the next twenty-five. And for God’s sake stop snivelling like that, Mycroft. You’re embarrassing the whole room.

#bbc sherlock #may prompts 2024 #mayprompts2024 #jolie writes #imperfect #bbc sherlock fanfiction #johnlock #old married couple #johnlock fanfiction

[figgyfaeth]

Thinking about Lucy Frostblade yet again and how we now have confirmation that her friends killed her. That her adventuring party, the hi five heroes, and most importantly her Kipperlilly brought her to the woods that she had spent so long in with them and tore her apart.

Kipperlilly was so convinced that rage was the answer, that Lucy, her dearest friend would embrace it just like she did. The tragedy is that Lucy's conviction and love of her goddess was stronger than the hate that fueled her friends now. The rage star never would have worked and maybe she knew Kipperlilly was always going to be doomed by the narrative and she decided she didn't have to go down with her.

So the Hi Five Heroes come back to life, another chance to do it right. Lucy's unjust death is reversed, she gets another chance to be kind to rats. Kipperlilly died alone in the lava, a mastermind, a party of one.

What I love about d&d as a medium for storytelling is that it needs collaboration. It requires cohesion in it's players for any story to be told well. The Bad Kids' story is a triumph, a great success, a wonderfully engaging story. The revived Hi-Five Heroes are now going to tell their tale of redemption.

The tragedy is that rage did what it always does when it is the only thing you have to rely on - isolates you from anyone who could have helped until it is just you and the hate in your veins keeping you warm at night and that is no way to live.

#dimension 20 #fhjy spoilers #dimension 20 fhjy #junior year spoilers #lucy frostblade #kipperlilly copperkettle #the bad kids #the rat grinders #the hi-five heroes

[dr-futbol-blog]

The Storm/The Eye, Pt. 4

Finally, the Genii arrive at Atlantis with Acastus Kolya at the helm. With Robert Davi acting, it's rather on the nose how much the events of the story follow the plot of Die Hard with Kolya as Hans Gruber and Sheppard as John McClane. And, as I mentioned the polysemic storytelling used by the series, the role of Holly Gennero is played by both McKay and Weir.

McKay and Weir are captured by the Genii almost immediately.

They're clever enough to keep their communicators on so that Sheppard can eavesdrop on the discussion. McKay is clearly frightened, even more so than Weir because he actually has experience of these people from before, but he's not about to give them anything that would jeopardize Sheppard (not even his own name, confirmation of which Sora provides for Kolya). Rodney is a brave little toaster but he's way in over his head. You can see by the minute tilt of his chin that he just entered What Would Sheppard Do? zone, he's trying to navigate the situation the way he thinks John would.

The fact that Weir responds verbally to Kolya's inquiry about his identity and McKay does not but is recognized anyway is exactly how the entire scenario plays out main text / sub text wise. We are verbally told: Elizabeth, from contextual cues we are able to interpret: Rodney.

We actually cut from Sheppard's reaction to what he just overheard to the storm brewing outside. Because if he was frightened of the storm and what it might do to this newly found home at the beginning of the episode, he's now terrified.

In the Genii home world when they were held hostage, McKay and Sheppard both attempted to keep the other safe in their own ways, and they continue doing just that here. Sheppard is using his military training, McKay is using his brain (and Weir is using her skills as a negotiator). McKay is trying to convey information that Sheppard could use by "accidentally" leaning on the communication panel but at the same time, he's letting him know that they are both still alive and unharmed. It's notable that all of the characters are lying to keep each other safe. They are saying counterfactual things in the hopes that the others might be spared.

Also notable: Kolya is smart enough to know that they are lying.

McKay seems to realize that he has no experience in dealing with the kind of sociopath Kolya is but he tries his best. He's being careful not to antagonize them unnecessarily and is also lying about the most important things.

Kolya has figured out that McKay is too important to be there. There must be a reason why he stayed behind. The Genii clearly recognize his importance on a lot of fronts, the least of them not being that he's the one that knows how to use the C4 to build an A-bomb which is something that the Genii don't know how to do. He would go as far as to injure McKay but it's doubtful he ever had intention of killing him.

But even under physical torture, he didn't give up Sheppard. The Genii only learn that Sheppard is in fact in the city through the radio he left in the armory himself. The only reason he gives out the plan to save the city is that he has such faith in Sheppard. This is why he looks guilty when Kolya and Sheppard have this exchange:

Kolya: Your offer is very generous, Major. Sheppard: Yes, it is. Kolya: However, Doctor McKay recently shared with me there's a plan in action to save the city. Sheppard: He did?! Kolya: He did.

Like, McKay overhears this and thinks that he's disappointed Sheppard; as though Sheppard is expressing surprise that he would do such a thing. The last thing McKay wants is to let the Major down. What their exchange is actually about is Kolya letting Sheppard know that he has hurt McKay enough to get information out of him, and Sheppard gets this.

And Sheppard's plan is to rescue them. He hides the thing that he knows the Genii care most about, the thing they can't do without, it being the C4. He's holding the most important thing to the Genii ransom because he hopes that this will be enough for him to get back the most important thing to him. Everyone is attempting to find the leverage and use it.

Knowing that Sheppard has walked into an ambush, even though he is afraid McKay tries to help him the only way he can which is by pointing out that something is invaluable (reminding them that they might break the only thing that can save the city if they start shooting at him). Likewise, Sheppard only went to the grounding station with the hope that doing what the Genii asked would keep Weir and McKay safe. And boy is McKay relieved to hear the Sheppard managed to dodge the ambush:

Note that it's McKay's reaction we get to this, and his alone.

Now, Sheppard makes the mistake of mentioning McKay because he just can't keep him out of his mouth. When you're thinking about something or someone, it's going to come out of your mouth. He tells Kolya that he's going to get "an earful from McKay for" his soldiers breaking the controls to the grounding station, and then this very thing actually happens. What he actually did was to demonstrate to a really intelligent sociopath that he knows McKay pretty damn well. Too well. And that he cares about him because damn, if that didn't signal familiarity between them.

Starting to play hardball, Kolya tells Sheppard "Say good-bye to Doctor Weir". But note that he actually looks at McKay just before he says this, thinking about something. Kolya and Sheppard are playing a game with extremely high stakes.

Now, it seems like Kolya threatening Weir is too much for Sheppard. It's the mention of Weir that throws him off the edge, right? Makes him threaten to destroy to whole city if he hurts her. Weir, and not McKay. Easy, heteronormative reading. That's what they say, after all.

The thing is, we've seen before that Sheppard is both a strategic thinker and (especially in Underground, S01E08) that especially when it comes to the Genii, he thinks that the less information they have about them, the better. He lied about the number of puddle jumpers they have. He was willing to let them know that they have a ship, but not that they have many ships. He stopped McKay from spilling the beans on how much weaponry they have. Each and every one of the characters have been lying through their teeth all through the ordeal to keep each other safe.

Kolya is likewise a strategic thinker. He's trying to figure Sheppard out. He has two hostages and he's trying to find out how he can use them for leverage. He knows all of them are lying.

Some people watch the episode and come to the conclusion that Sheppard cares about Weir the most because Kolya threatens her and he loses it. And like, he doesn't mention McKay so he must not care about him as much as he does about Weir. But it is precisely because McKay is the one he cannot and will not lose that he plays it out as though Weir is the one he cares the most about here. Giving the enemy that kind of leverage like revealing the thing you actually can't live without would be stupid. And Kolya figures it out anyway.

Sheppard tells him that if he hurts Weir, he would rather blow up Atlantis with all of them in it, indicating to him that Weir is the one he cannot afford to lose. Anything you do, just please don't kill her. And yet we end the episode with Kolya telling Sheppard that he is about to kill one of the two, and he's not telling him which. Having just glanced at McKay before he decided to test Sheppard out by threatening Weir by name.

Why would he do that? If Kolya believed that Weir was the one Sheppard cared most about like he indicated to Kolya, why would he not simply use the leverage Sheppard had just (on purpose) given him? Why suddenly be vague about which it's going to be?

Because Kolya can play 4D-chess too. And it's when Kolya tells Sheppard that he is going to kill one of them and he does not know which that is going to be that Sheppard actually capitulates, not when he threatened to kill Weir a moment ago. Notice that Sheppard was still relatively cool and level-headed when Kolya was just threatening her life; when her life was on the line, he was still negotiating with Kolya. But suddenly he loses it.

Note that while he's shouting throughout this dialogue because he's outside in the storm trying to get his voice heard, his tone of voice changes throughout:

Kolya: You killed two of my men. Sheppard: I guess we're even! [flippant] Kolya: I don't like even. Sheppard: I'm not finished yet! [bravado] Kolya: Neither am I. Say goodbye to Doctor Weir. Sheppard: The city has a self-destruct button. You hurt her, I'll activate it. Nobody'll get Atlantis. [still calmly negotiating, able to formulate a plan of action] Kolya: Even if it exists, Major, you need at least two senior personnel to activate it -- and I'm about to take one of them out of the equation. Sheppard: Kolya?! Kolya?! I'll give you a ship! I'll fly it out of here for you myself! KOLYA!! [suddenly desperate]

Sheppard is willing to do anything and say anything to keep McKay safe. The man he's fallen in love with. His home. The person he cares so much for that a stranger he's known for all of five minutes was able to figure it out and use it against him. Threatening Weir wasn't the thing that pushed him over the edge, it was not knowing which one the gun was pointed at and the fear that Kolya had figured him out, had his ticket.

This is when Kolya made himself into Sheppard's mortal enemy. And it's notable that in every one of their subsequent encounters, Kolya knows to use McKay to get to Sheppard.

Continued in Pt. 5

#stargate atlantis #sga #sga meta #john sheppard #sheppard is bi #rodney mckay #rodney is gay #ep. the storm #ep. the eye

[goldenhour-s]

with autumn in full swing, it's gotten quite chilly and slow in henford on bagley. the girls knew this time of year would be perfect for a weekend trip somewhere warmer and sunnier. they spent the night before their flight packing and discussing trip plans. it was difficult for hemani not to mention her surprise for nas... 👀

#you can bet ani is glad that naserian would pack a nice dress no matter if her gf told her to do so or not #yes i posed a whole post as if this wasnt supposed to be a gameplay without storytelling WHAT ABOUT IT ;-; #i couldnt help myself #now we NEED a title for this au fr #because it's becoming a story of its own lol #sims 4 #ts4 #ts4 gameplay #sims 4 gameplay #sims 4 story #carnelian au #oc hemani #oc naserian

[ichorblossoms]

lots of respect for ppl who don't post/talk abt certain oc things due to not wanting to spoil their own stuff, however i will not be doing that. by the time any of this stuff is finished it'll probably be different anyways

#i have this thing where i simultaneously cannot ever find the words to articulate my oc stuff and the inability to shut up about it #who the fuck knows if i'll actually finish it. i mean i'd love to. i WANT to but these are (for now) passion projects and i can't devote #myself to them full time so! i'll hand over the details #nothing wrong with not wanting to spoil things either i get it. i jsut talk a lot. esp if i'm excited abt smthin #actually now that i think abt it there are some ttw things i keep close to my chest #partially for spoiler things but also the canon of the story is so wildly different from what it has been that it is the one case where i #don't want to introduce something cool and neat only to have it scrapped later bc this blog is evidence that i have done that. many times #and thinking abt storytelling the way i imagine honeybee being told is nonlinear so at times it necessitates me 'spoiling' things from #p1 and p2 for instance to explain how they got to where they are in p3 #i'm thinking a bit more and with ttw being horror i think the next time i get around to taking a solid jab at it i will actually be more #cagey about certain things. esp in regards to sanguine as a whole #but it's underbaked in the middle rn so. shrugs #i still also don't really mind spoilers in general so i don't give much of a shit abt spoiling my own stuff yknow? #good stories are good regardless of spoilers and my intention is to make good stories. not that i can be the one to judge that tho #but i like what i make and that's the really matters yeeeeeeeehaaaawwwwwww #rambles

[solovelyanddry]

Imagine watching an adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper where the husband was proven to be correct in his treatment of the narrator and you will begin to understand my problems with Poor Things (2023) as an adaptation (and, frankly, as a film).

#it's not even that i thought the book was that great! #but leaving out the part where “bella” has her say about how the previous 3/4 of the story was a silly sexist fairy tale #told by her loser husband is very weird! #the noms for best adapted screenplay and ruffalo are bad enough but the costumes literally hurt the storytelling in the film! #honesty the only nomination that it really deserved would have been dafoe (i would trade stone for robbie in best actress in a heartbeat) #this film is my whale in that i want to kill it with harpoons and also in the sense that the whale (2022) was also terrible #anti poor things #< if you're only following for saltburn or other content and you liked poor things go ahead and block that tag #i can't guarantee this will be the last rant i do about this film

[crypticallylies]

Things I've learned about Disco Elysium through my friend, despite never playing the game or paying attention online:

• Harry or Henry or whatever his name is is incredibly mentally ill

→ he wakes up with no memories

→ he literally blacks out and loses PHYSICAL HEALTH anytime he thinks about his ex-wife

→ there are so many voices in his head

• Kim whats-his-name follows you everywhere in an "annoying pose" with his hands behind his back, judging Harry (rightfully) for everything he does

• There's a horrific tie that talks in, reportedly, the best voice in the game

• harry is the most pathetic guy to exist he is literally like a wet cardboard cutout of a sad dog. and he probably smells like wet dog too

• there's a murder case happening apparently?

• My friend apparently chose to make their Harry so incredibly stupid he did not even know what a postcard was, but he's great with people!

→except for when she messaged me asking if she should take a 17% chance to punch a guy (i said yes) (she failed) (it was apparently a racist) (she nearly died) (its ok she succeeded when she tried again later)

• At some point Harry can input a random "familiar" number and sob to his . presumably ex wife. but we have no idea if this leads anywhere because my friend saw him losing health and morale so quickly during the phone call that she quit the game and reloaded the last quicksave

•it took learning harrys name was harriet dubois to tell the difference between whether he was named henry or harry. i still call him harry on accident

• the horrific tie is the best character in the game

#disco elysium #harriet du bois #kim kitsuragi #i love hearing my friend ramble about their most recent excapades in the game #its genuinely hilarious they're so good at storytelling #they start stories so suddenly like #'harry almost got shot' and the time they told me about the disco ball hanging fever dream #genuinely fantastic

[royalarchivist]

Phil: I always love hearing about like, different stories -- especially from the teachers in the chat -- where like, a student or like just a member of the school has some form of like, Techno merch or like, does something that is clearly a Techno reference. I just love that. It’s ‘cuz like -- exactly what I was hoping to happen is happening, where people are just keeping his memory alive. Whether it’s through wearing, you know, his merch and stuff, or still supporting him through doing like, you know, just talking about him or making like their art piece about him, stuff like that. It’s very cool. Technoblade truly never dies, if everyone just keeps f**king talking about him. [Laughs] If everyone just keeps referencing him, which is very easy to do because he was incredibly funny. He has a lot of referenceable quotes and sayings.

#Technoblade #Philza #Emerald Duo #Phil plays Hardcore #Phil #In my culture (or at least; the way I was taught) grief is navigated through storytelling #you keep a person's memory alive by sharing their stories #American culture -- at least the part where I've lived -- seems to try and enforce the idea that grief is silent #that it's meant to be quiet and dealt with privately #which is. a very unhealthy thing #That being said; in the past I've hesitated sharing clips about Phil talking about this stuff #because grief IS personal and it felt inappropriate to share #even if hearing him talk about it made me feel better #but Phil's right. it's part of the storytelling. it's part of the legacy #I remember a few weeks ago one of my little cousins was talking about Youtube videos he's been watching #and he mentioned Technoblade and I froze up #because it caught me so off-guard. and he's obviously way too young to know what happened #But I sat down and I talked with him about Techno and told him stories I knew #And I told him about the whole ''Blood for the Blood God'' thing and ''Technoblade Never Dies'' #And it was really nice #It was nice to see a new generation discovering him and his stuff. #Sometimes stories are all we have #But Techno's legacy is cemented in our minds and it's available for almost anyone to stumble upon it #I've cried so much for Techno and I know that grief will never go away #but grief is a form of love too

[no-light-left-on]

every dishonored game (with the exception of DotO) ends with the Outsider narrating what came after, when the story came to a close, and it does give the game the quality of one - a story recounted to you, in detail, by a master storyteller that explains what came after, what fate the characters you grew to love in the tale met, before it all fades to nothing. and it conjures ideas of human Outsider relaying strange stories like this to others, those of the plague and of the coup, tales of the Knife of Dunwall, or the tales of the witch-Empress before she became an Empress at all. maybe even presents the idea of the third game being, at the end of it all, a retelling of what human Outsider lived through, but now he is a little older, a little less otherworldly.

#dh #dishonored #li.txt #sory just thinking about dh3 as a concept. a possibility #Im obsessed with stories that are revealed to be stories told by someone? #the kinda book you read and in the last chapter it is revealed that it is one of the characters relaying the tale of their youth #kinda like bilbo and frodo did in hobbit/lotr #but this time instead of the outsider talking of how the characters went on to live out their lives as a deity that is unconcerned #he tells it as someone who lived it through and talks of what became of his friends #i just really love the story-like epilogues he gives us #'she lead dunwall into a golden age. and then at the height of her reign buried corvo by her mother's side' #'billie lurk wanted to be a pirate-' #like the way its formatted is SO !!!!!!!!!!!!!! #outsider as a storyteller #such a wonderful concept #i heard the shrine music dakota posted and it flipped a switch #missing my son hours

[cadaverkeys]

will u tell us things abt tarrare so we can understand him better

If you ever get the chance to stumble into this interaction in real life I'm sure you would get the cinematic shpeel of Tarrare - life to death. The entire "it begins in a farmhouse with a boy being kicked out in his teens" and the "they say when he died he still had a golden fork stuck in this throat" But I think it comes down to this:

Imagine being this medical mystery- unable to be understood even today, a man with a never ending stomach who was always emaciated. In a time of great famine and poverty. Forced to eat live animals for the entertainment of others. Admitted to hospital to hospital to hospital and never knowing why you could never be like anyone else. You have tried every experimental treatment no matter the cost. And have remained the same. And they feed you animals and corpses. They catch you trying to sneak dead flesh in the night. And when a child disappears it's all too clear that you've lost all decency. And you cannot stop your compulsion until you've eaten the plate, the dish cloth, and the silverware. When you die from the abuse it did the doctors find your body so disgusting that they refuse to dissect it.

I think there's something existentially terrifying and poetically significant about a life like this. Himself unable to write somehow remembered because he struck disgust in everyone he met. Often we joke about him being suspected of eating a child. But you must remember he was forced to eat live animals and corpses as a living - and by the scientists that studied him. He was uneducated and truly unable to grasp his condition or his expectations.

#ram asks #anon #i dont really find his story funny- but it's often told that way. #supposedly there was plays about his life but I can't know how much tragedy or comedy was injected for storytelling #theres stuff about him passing notes between enemy lines by eating them #and it would come out the other side undigested and legible #on one side i think theres a humour to that #on another I think. how humilitating an existance to be a human carrier bag.

[futuristichedge]

Writers are so talented. Your words are doing things to my mind, showing me ideas and connecting dots... inspiring my brain to connect MORE dots

Pure wizardry. It's scary

#rambles #text #<- burdened by thoughts #im so. ive been obsessed with dadow fics. i stg its so fun to read about #that or characters learning/coming to terms with identity and self. #learning to trust others #i live for that intrapersonal/interpersonal variance and interaction #how do they see themself? what changes that? what doesnt change? #how will they tackle an issue out of their control. or their comfort zone #DISABILITY. How do they manage disability or navigate their world. How does their worldview differ because of it #what does daily life look like for them. what are their dreams/goals/ #their aspirations. their worries. can you see their past or mindset in how they love someone. in how they act or protect or cook or care #sorry. im tired and love creativity and seeing the stories we tell and feel need to be told #this is about storytelling in general but spurred on by me being tired and finding comfort in other people sharing experiences thru writing #maybe if i wrote stories instead of mini essays in tags id have a small fic out by now... #anyway dm me or hit me with fic recs i NEED to read

[archiephd]

in my black sails rewatch, i was tempted to say i was noticing a pattern of two kinds of characters in it, but as i continue to watch i think there are mainly three. three, but two of them take up the most room, and they are the storytellers, and the characters in the story they're telling. the third is the audience, and it's the place we see the most intimacy in. it is a role associated with being an audience to a truth, not a story. it's bearing witness to someone once they trust you with their truth in place of whatever story they tell for everyone else.

when silver first meets flint, he clocks him as our main storyteller right away but it's not until he directly cues flint he can see straight through it that flint pays him any attention at all. silver doesn't see his storyteller status because he's a character becoming self aware, like gates, or even billy, or because he yet loves flint enough to be his true audience, like miranda, but because silver's a storyteller too. gates is too smart not to be aware he's in a story, but he can't quite breach the containment of character into storyteller. they have just enough awareness to judge the story, but not to escape it, while someone like miranda, who plays the role of audience, sees through the narrative enough not to judge it, but to love it. for it's honest truth alone, not for it's ability to tell a compelling story. she loves it enough to want to live it, not tell it. she loves flint the man, not the storyteller, and yet he is a storyteller, and so she loves him too much to end it either. almost, when flint is willing to cede his storyteller status himself, for her, who he loves in return. however brief it lasted, almost.

after flint kills gates, he starts becoming too self aware to continue, he becomes aware that he too is a character in it and he's the villain. he becomes aware of the story and so it must come to an end, as stories eventually must from the audience's perspective. for the audience, there is no way out for a character like him, and he's too aware of which character he is. in the moment he kills gates, he becomes him; sees the story being told and his role in it, and that it's a story he doesn't want to be a part of, not in that role. there's no way out for that role. little does he know, it remains true even after he rescinds the awareness to become storyteller again. there's no way out for him anymore, not in that state. then silver walks in. and he sees not flint's story but flint's truth, crying over a man he just killed because he hates his character, hates being that character, and silver reacts not like another character, not like the audience, but like a storyteller too. he offers him the way out, and the next we see flint, he is walking back out on deck, and he is telling a story again.

i didn't even see the significance of this kinship on my first watch, how even a match it is, and how not just important that moment was for the story, of course, but how intimate for both silver and flint. it's the first scene that establishes their equality in the narrative to each other. fellow storytellers now telling a joint story, and because of it, it starts to become a story only both of them together can tell. if one loses the other in the finale of season one or the premiere of season two, the story would end. they need each other because they are equals, both refusing to let their story end against all odds.

which is why i also believe flint genuinely lost silver's respect after he lost his leg! silver's decision to protect the men had nothing to do with telling a story, he was subject to one. he wanted to be a part of the crew and that story, he wanted to live it, and the crew are just characters to flint. for a moment, he let someone else write his story. silver, as we later find out, lives life uninterested in joining stories, but telling different ones of his own, one after the other. until flint's crew. until flint! flint had him there too. he wants to be a part of that story because it's the first time in maybe forever he's felt like he could be a part of something, not just see the parts and create more favorable shapes to survive in. he is a storyteller by necessity, not an artist. it's just as likely flint loses respect for silver after the season two finale because he suspects silver backed out of their joint narrative to start telling a different one, one in which flint is just another character to right off and no longer an equal to write with. either way, it's not until silver rescinds that threat and flint believes in silver's desire to keep writing a story with him that they see eye to eye again.

it's not until they genuinely care about each other that flint lets silver see the truth of him, not just his story, and it shifts their balance of power immediately. flint gives up his storyteller position for silver and silver alone, to tell him about thomas. it is no story, it is just the truth only miranda had ever born witness to, and he tells it to him! and silver can't do the same in return. he can't be an even match to that, he can't be an equal to it. whatever his truth is, he can't tell it. he offered himself as flint's audience and flint accepted the vulnerability and offered to be silver's audience in return, but in silver's own words, there is no story to tell. the narrative falls apart for him as soon as he tries to make enough sense of it to speak out loud to someone. he can't speak of it without giving up the position of power as storyteller. he refuses flint that intimacy of stepping out of the story with him, he refuses it even to madi. the closest intimacy he can offer is to write a story in which he can pretend he's just a character in it existing alongside them. a character who loves them.

by the end of the show, silver must pretend he is more like gates and less like miranda in order to end the story. gates was at one point one of the biggest threats to flint's narrative throughout because his self awareness as a character in a story he didn't like threatened the story being told at all. the self awareness of being a character threatens to kill the story altogether, just as the self awareness of being an audience threatens to end a story for the sake of letting truth be a fact, not something to convince everyone else of, which is why both gates and miranda are killed for the story to continue. you need the mutual agreement to suspend your belief, and gates' struggle is that he couldn't make peace with that and still be in the story which is why it becomes his end, just as miranda loved the storyteller too much to not either be its end or be ended by it herself. silver, on the other hand, as a storyteller himself, knows how to be both. furthermore, he loves flint enough to try. especially if he thinks it will save madi's life. as much as flint changes to him throughout the show, he can't give up his storyteller position either, not even to just live it. so silver tells one final story, and it's the last chapter of flint's. he ends it and himself as the author, and becomes a character he is himself constantly in the process of writing. a character to himself. he becomes all three; storyteller, character, and audience. but then again, isn't that what he always was from the start?

#j rewatches black sails #shouldn't have. had an edible right before reaching the s1 finale with my sister #ANYWAY. you can see the pattern of intimacy throughout all the characters #the most intimate characters get are the moments they are willing to give up their position of storyteller in order to just Be #with who they love. to love them. to live! and not convince it into a story #seeing black sails shrimp colors tonight #also fascinating that i could even spot these dynamics only upon my first rewatch #once i knew enough about the whole story of all 4 seasons to no longer just be audience to it but spot the story itself as it's told #so very fascinating to me #having moments thinking thoughts

[iwanderthroughthesenights]

The instrumentals in The Manuscript (both the main piano and the strings in the back) are just absolutely impeccable. The isolated chords on that very high octave during the intro and the first verse. The added notes after the second verse. The fill up with more strings and sounds during the bridge. And then finally, the way in the last verse it strips completely back down to the simple high-pitched piano notes from the beginning of the song, as she hands over the story to the audience. As if saying: "now it's your turn".

The instrumentals succeed wonderfully at conveying that moment of resolution in a story, when the hero discovers how to properly use their powers after going through a big downfall or defeat. You can feel in the buildup of the instrumentals how the protagonist is building the determination and bravery to move forward from this defining moment. It's like that moment during a film that happens after the climax and downfall but right before the conclusion, when everyone thinks the hero is defeated and gone for good and then the hero shows up stronger than ever before, after all the hard lessons learned during the story.

#the manuscript #ttpd #atw10mv #taylor swift #storytelling #the music nerd in me could write a whole essay about the chords and the pitch and the absence if percussion and how it's all intricately #linked to the story being told

[fragmentedblade]

No but even beyond the heathcliffean air of his story as a kid, Nelly scene and revenge fantasies included, and even beyond the identification of the self with the craft, the entire concept of Yingxing is so good.

The glimpse we get of the relationship he has with his master has so much potential. What it says about him, what it says about everyone around them, what it says about the kid.

The fact that already as a child Yingxing was vindictive, as he will be as Blade.

His self-consciousness about being a short life species, and how he is right to be self-conscious about it. How in such a short time, being so young, he's had to deal with enormous tragedy, so that he can even as a kid look the truth in the eye and admit it. Admit that he has to work harder, longer, more obsessively, and that still nonetheless there's little chance to get ever at the level of the long life species that look down on him and take him for granted. How he is able to overcome it.

It's incredible also in the context of Dan Feng. How both struggle with their identities and how they get new ones, but in totally opposite ways. Dan Feng is weighted down by what he is and what he can do, and wants to escape that fate, and dreams of a new life in which he can be something else; and Dan Heng is born. Yingxing takes pride in that which he can do, something he wasn't born into, something he had to work very hard to achieve, and that was the path to overcome the prejudices and undermining gazes he had to bear as a short life species. He crafts his place into the Xianzhou society and becomes the legendary Furnace Master. Even on a more personal level, one could argue this is his way of maneuvering his life, of expressing himself, this is how he deals with things; like his relationship with Jing Yuan having a turning point after giving him his weapon, or how he crafted that jade flask. And then he loses his ability to create and loses himself; he becomes Blade.

The fact that even as an adult, as an exceedingly arrogant craftsman, something of the shy self-conscious kid remains is both endearing and heartbreaking as well. In some ways we still see that in Blade.

We also see echoes of that personality in Mr. Xiao, who worked under him. And that alongside his craftsmanship, his ability to fix and create auromatons even though they are vanishing in the civilian landscape, live on through Mr. Xiao. And die alongside him, for Mr. Xiao too has become but a relic of another time.

The way the other stories of craftsmen enhance facets of Yingxing's is so good too. Mainly in the story of Master Ryan and Chengjie, with the insight we get of the struggles of short life species in the Xianzhou, especially those dedicated to a craft, and how hard it is for them to reach positions of prestige. It also poses the question of how we can transcend time, if it's possible at all, and how the sharing of knowledge, the passing down of skills, the shared loved, is one of the answers. This was all already significant before, but the information gains weight with the existence of Mr. Xiao. I'd argue there's echoes of Yingxing even in Master Gongshu. His love for his automatons, his sincere fondness for them, his pride on his job, his loyalty to his position and duties, the way he is both hard and stern as well as loving with his apprentices, and how he talks about short life species.

On a sort of ontological way, it's very interesting to see how Yingxing goes from craftsman to tool or weapon, from creator to creation, from subject to object. The potential in the context of Abundance/Destruction is also extremely intriguing, I think. He who created is unmade by a curse of Abundance. He who forged weapons now follows that path of destruction. There's so much going on with Yingxing conceptually around the cycles of death and rebirth, destruction and creation; it's so fitting that now Blade is stuck in such a cycle in the most literal way.

And it's so fitting too that, in all this context, given Yingxing's entire story, Blade's entire being, that which he made unmade him. That which he created and gave him so much pride was the weapon that killed him. And now he wields it himself, his tool of revenge while he follows the path to eternal and irrevocable death.

#Yingxing #Blade #I talk too much #Fragments and scraps #sort of. I think I'll delete that tag when I save these ideas somewhere else #These are only some of the things I can't stop thinking about #Among other things I wondered what it must have been for Mr. Xiao to see his master's face everywhere around the Luofu #Fu Xuan makes a comment about not believing the short life species are necessarily less knowledgeable and that also said a lot I think #Due both to how she worded and the context. How it seemed to be another sign of her superior wisdom that she realises this #but how it's still an extended pov along the Xianzhou #The idea of being/becoming/losing oneself through and/or because of one's own skills and abilities is also applicable to Jing Yuan #I don't know. There's really so much to think about and dissect. It's so juicy #For real Yingxing is so good as a character. I didn't expect something so good and so well crafted #(and so in tune with all my favourite characteristics and stories. I've not talked #about the Orphic elements and the suicidal tendencies here‚ or the play on betrayals‚ but goodness) #I really wasn't expecting something as good and with so much potential (I am so afraid of them ruining the writing) #The way the worldbuilding and the little glimpses at everyday life of NPCs enhance every concept forming the character is amazing #I truly can't stop thinking of Yingxing/Blade in every facet he has. The very way we are told things is telling #I always say form is substance‚ and I mean it. Yingxing's and Blade's story is such a clear case of this #The fragmentary condition of the storytelling as well as the different levels of trust one can give to every fragment works magnificently #with Blade as a mara-struck person dealing with memory loss and the loss of the self #It also works well with Dan Heng and Jingliu going through something similar‚ with Jing Yuan being manipulative and deceptive and silent‚ #with Baiheng being dead. Ironically in my opinion it also works very well with how it seems to be hinted that both Dan Heng #and Blade may recall more than they let on or admit. I'm talking a lot and I should stop already but yes. I can't stop thinking about him #He's skyrocketed to the higher positions in the list of my all-time favourite characters in no time at all #Or at least his potential has. Goodness‚ I hope they don't ruin him... #Ugh I've talked way too much. I'm going to have to move the tags

[citylighten]

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[ 🎶🎶] 

#dear diary #simblr #ts4 story #ts4 storytelling #black simmer #sims story #did sal tell franco about this shit? sal TOLD HIM about this shit

[rithmeres]

@604 (i love u mwah 😘) tagged me to list 7 of my favorite comfort movies:

the secret life of walter mitty: my favorite movie of all time, i’ve gone so many places and tried so many things that i never would have had the courage to do if i hadnt watched this movie

howl’s moving castle: thee number one comfort movie on this list, this movie has it all. weird family, hot wizard, beautiful visuals and music, themes of hard work and anti-war and self-acceptance and becoming whole again!!

interstellar: my first real intro to sci-fi and it knocked me flat on my back when i was 15 and ms hathaway’s character says that love is the one thing that can transcend all distance and time and death and universes. do not go gentle into that good night.

shrek 2 LMAOOOOOOOO sorry but it’s true. one of the only sequels that outshines its original & i have such fond memories of watching this with ryan and beatrice and the homies before i moved away :(

phantom of the opera 25th anniversary at the royal albert hall: every so often i remember that this version of phantom exists and i cant believe it’s real and i watch it and go insane for a few hours and make heart eyes at the insanely beautiful cast

mad max fury road: GOATED. FILM. incredible story about women for women featuring big guns and bright colors and autistic-coded tom hardy and real exploding cars

im bending the rules and giving this spot to both princess mononoke and spirited away because they evoke the same hard-to-conjure hard-to-explain emotion in me. something about the bigness of the movies and the smallness of the characters within a sweeping green dangerous enchanting historical-mythological setting makes my heart ache

tagging anyone who is currently in bed

#i just watched mononoke hime last night it's so insanely good it's unpredictable without being uncohesive #so many trite things from western/modern movies that i hate are subverted and it's not even trying to subvert things #it's just telling a really really incredible and true story #with a wholly pacifistic and peacemaking protagonist i could go on and on and on #and i WAS. i was talking about all kinds of storytelling elements and for once nobody told me to shut up #rare w for me in this house