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dovetart · 3 years

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A Character Analysis Of:

Fives my beloved

Welcome to my character analysis of my amazing, cool, badass, smart, handsome husband- I mean, my favorite Star Wars character. Why am I doing a character analysis of a character analysis of a character that only shows up in 14 episodes of all 7 seasons? Because I love him Well, for a few reasons…

First off, I am a little tired of a large portion of the fandom just watering down Fives’ character to being a dumb idiot who doesn’t know what’s going on and never listens to anyone. Canon him ain’t really any of those… or those traits aren’t his whole character lmao. I find it annoying when people take it too far and people just ignore the rest of his amazing character and/or they often make fanon him a totally different character from canon him. And canon him was the version of him I fell in love with first anyways. So, I will be trying to stay as close to canon him as I possibly can in this analysis, either that or making assumptions that fit in the realm of possible for his character. I want people to appreciate this man and stop calling him an idiot lmao and I hope this analysis helps with this.

Also I’m writing a fanfic with my OC’s and he is sorta a big character in them, so I want to research his character so I can do my man’s justice in my story lol. And finally, I want to analyze A LOT of characters in the future. I don’t really have trouble creating new characters *looks at my almost 200 Star Wars OC’s and 20+ original OC’s* but I think it would be pretty good practice to help me learn how to build and write dynamic characters.

ANYWAYS

Let’s get started.

Introduction:

To us fans, a lot of this information in the first two parts will be kind of common knowledge. But to make a complete analysis, I need to touch on them.

Fives is a human male clone of the famous Mandalorian bounty hunter, Jango Fett. He was born, raised and trained on the ocean planet, Kamino. Just like his clone brothers, he ages twice as fast as a normal human, meaning, by the time he was war ready, he was the physical and mental age of 20, when he’d only been alive for 10.

Growing up on Kamino, he was apart of the Domino Squad, alongside his brothers, Echo, Hevy, Cutup and Droidbait. Eventually, Fives became an ARC Trooper within the 501st. After a while, he became notorious for standing up for what’s right and speaking his mind freely. He was loyal to his brothers and friends. For the most part, he knew what the right thing to do was in most situations. He was good with his words and was fast on his feet.

Background:

Alright, if you’ve watched Clone Wars, which I’m assuming all of you who are reading this have, then you should know Fives’ background pretty well. But, for a quick reminder;

Once Fives graduated from the training program, he was sent to the Rishi Moon Station along with the rest of Domino Squad. There, only he and Echo survived an attack from the Separatists and Captain Rex took them into the 501st. After a while serving in the 501st, they went back to Kamino to protect it from an attack. There, Fives and Echo were also promoted to ARC Troopers. Shortly afterwards, Fives and Echo went on a mission together to the Citadel. There, Echo presumably died and Fives was forced to move on without his brother. Later on in the war, Fives went to Umbara, where General Skywalker was called away from the battlefield and Ping Pong Krell was put in charge of the 501st while he was gone. Fives didn’t like the vibes that came off the new General, and often voiced his concerns with Rex. After being put on multiple suicidal plans from Krell and losing many brothers, Fives and Hardcase went behind enemy lines to secure an airbase. Even though it was against Krell’s orders, they were successful. Once taking root in the airbase, Krell gave out another suicidal mission, and that was the crossing line for Fives. Not wanting to see even more brothers get killed because of a stupid plan, he, Hardcase and Jesse went to destroy a Separatist command ship to help the tide of the battle. They came back without Hardcase. Fives and Jesse were arrested and put on the execution block by Krell, but Fives was able to convince his brothers not to shoot them. They were put back in prison. But, after a few hours, Rex came back and freed them to help arrest Pong Krell for treason. After successfully arresting and executing (thanks Dogma) Krell, we don’t see Fives again until when he’s on Ringo Vinda. There his closest brother, Tup, prematurely executes Order 66 on a Jedi General and Fives goes with him to Kamino to figure out what’s happening to him. There, he uncovers that there are chips in all the clones brains. He took out Tup’s chip, hoping to save him but failed. After some research and being on the run throughout Tipoca City, Fives takes out his own chip. Once he was caught, they agreed to bring him to the Chancellor to talk about the chips with him. Unfortunately, Fives was drugged on the way to Coruscant and once he was alone with the Chancellor, he wasn’t well enough to think through his actions clearly. Palpatine supposedly told Fives the whole Sith Plot and that makes Fives lash out at Palpatine. He was framed, and without any choice, Fives went on the run across Coruscant. He stopped at 79s and told Kix to tell Anakin and Rex to meet him at a warehouse somewhere in the lower levels. On his way to the warehouse, a probe droid spots Fives and follows him. As planned, Anakin and Rex meet him, but at that time Fives was in no state to be explaining everything he found out. Trapping the two behind a shield, he tries his best, but he just makes Anakin upset. Before Fives could continue, the Coruscant Guard comes in and Fox shoots him, killing him.

Ok, I lied… it wasn’t that quick lol. But, still, that is an overview of his background before we continue.

Use of Language:

Fives is very good with his words. When he is passionate about something, he gets really into it and can come up with amazing speeches, like that time in Kamino to the cadets, or on Umbara when he was about to be executed. Even though he is still a good listener and often checks up in his brothers, he still is stubborn and very vocal about his opinions (for example; when he argues with Rex on Umbara on multiple occasions). He is mature with his words and know what to say, either if it’s to encourage his brother or to persuade others to his point of view. Still, he is shown to joke around once and while (for example; the “Are those scopes Jedi issue, sir?” and a few other jokes he cracks), meaning that in his free time he probably is a fun person to be around (gives me some sarcastic/dry humor vibes). He also isn’t afraid to ask questions. And when he has one he wants straight answers, no bullshit ones. Because of all those points, he comes off as a good communicator.

There is one thing I agree 100% on with the fandom though… And that’s that Fives is a terrible liar lol…. WHICH kinda makes sense, because clones were taught to be obedient and truthful, not to be liars. So of course most clones wouldn’t be the best at lying.

I also noticed that Fives is quite animated (haha get it because he’s an 3D animated character)while he talks. He uses a lot of hand gestures and animated facial expressions to get his point across. Just another thing I picked up on.

Personality:

Alright, this is my favorite part! I will be trying to do this in a way that I enjoy breaking down characters personalities, which is using 16 Personalities, the 4 tendencies, and other personality tests (scientific ones not the buzzfeed ones lol) Also I won’t be doing Enneagram because I’m still researching that.

Fives is an ISFJ, the “Defender” Personality

And her is why I think this:

Introverted: For starters, Fives is for sure an introvert. I know a lot of people headcanon him being closer to an ESTP or ESFP. But, he really doesn’t act like either of those personalities much in canon. In fact, he’s a lot more quite then some may remember him. When Echo was around, he let him do most of the talking for them. I know, a little surprising, but Echo was a tad more talkative (Echo is still an introvert tho). What Fives is, is a social introvert, yes we exist. He has good people skills and he is a conversationalist. That is kinda a rare trait in most introverted personality types, but not for ISFJ’s. It’s common for ISFJ’s to be caring of those around them, especially to their friends. They treat kindness with kindness. And they never sit idle when something is left undone (or something is wrong) and they like it when their accomplishments are noticed in one way or the other. (I can’t let this slide but, this thing on the official 16personalities page for ISFJ has this head that I feel fits Fives so well ㅠㅠ “If I can protect you, I will” ㅠㅠ)

Observant: Fives is very observant of his surroundings! He kinda needs to, to be an ARC Trooper. There was this one scene in Umbara where Anakin and Rex were talking in the foreground about Dogma, and in the background you can see Fives. Fives looks mostly focused on his task, but for a moment you can see him glance over at Anakin and Rex with a somewhat interested face. So, he was obviously listening in on them. Also to pick up that Pong Krell wasn’t the best since the minute the lizard-fish man stepped out of the gunship, it takes some observation. Same with being able to find out about the chips and Order 66 all by himself (something not even the Jedi could pick up on). I also feel like he can usually read the moods of others pretty well, so I think there has to be a quite observant and sharp mind in his head.

Feeling: From how passionate Fives can get about some things, he is probably someone who feels emotions strongly. He can control it, of course. He is also able to express them in pretty mature ways. And he seems to be able to pick up on others feelings too (for example; him noticing Tup wasn’t acting normal on Ringo Vinda). And he certainly feels like the kind of person who’s be good emotional support for someone when they need it.

Judging: Yeah, of course he judges others lol did you see all those side eyes and glares he sent Pong Krell’s way? No, but seriously, what it means is that he is able to view things for the way they are. A realist if you may. Which, yeah, he does seem to have a pretty good grasp on the way clones are treated, so it’s not far fetched to say that he could be a realist. Also, when the main plan goes to shit or it’s just a shit plan to begin with, he is always able to come up with a pretty good plan B on the spot. Another judging trait.

Overall, he is an ISFJ because he is loyal to his friends and family and likes to help those in need out. He speaks up when necessary and wants his accomplishments to be noticed, one way or another. And even though he’s an introvert, he still has a good social life. His relationships are important to him and if you aren’t treating him or his brothers nicely, he’ll probably hold a grudge.

Fives leans to Questioner Tendencies

Some people probably view him more as a Rebel, but Questioner personalities are often mixed up with Rebel personalities. Questioners ask questions a lot (duh). They ponder about themselves and the world around them a lot. And because of that, they question many things, even question authorities (which is just one of the ways they are often confused for a Rebel). And they don’t like it when someone avoids their question or gives them bullshit answers (like “because I said so” or “just because”), because that doesn’t answer them. They also might continue asking questions if they don’t understand an answer, trying to get clarification. And because of that and the fact they question things (sometimes things people are too afraid to ask about or things people say are normal) they are often misunderstood and brushed aside as either not smart, immature or as a Rebel. Which Questioners and Rebels do share some qualities (these two types to get along with each other quite well). One of them is that Questioners resist outer expectations, just like Rebels. They don’t think they should do something just because everyone else is doing it. But, unlike Rebels, Questioners do things and/or follow people whose goals align with what the Questioner thinks is important. If a Questioner makes a commitment, they’re gonna keep it.

And how is Fives a Questioner? Well, we see both in the Umbara Arc and his own Arc that he questions authority and way of life a lot. If he doesn’t trust someone, he’ll challenge them and come to his own conclusions. During the Umbara Arc, he didn’t do what most were doing around him because he believed what Pong Krell was doing was wrong. And he is shown to follow those he does trust. It’s only when their orders conflict with his moral goals that he decides to go against them. He also makes commitments to his friends and especially to his brothers. And, he always tries to keep those commitments to them, doing anything to help them.

Also I may or may not know a lot about this tendency because I myself am a Questioner personality. When I first watched Clone Wars, I always wondered why I related to Fives a lot, especially when I knew his personality wasn’t 100% like mine. Then I found out my tendency and realized that it lined up with Fives character a lot also. Plus it just happened to be the part of his personality that I related to the most lol

Fives’ Love Languages (Ranked) 😘

Acts of Service. A little surprising for some maybe, but the way he cares for his brothers first over anything kinda makes me think that’s it’s at least high on his list.

Physical Touch. You’ve seen the way Fives slaps his brothers lovingly lol This one is for sure high on the list!

Words of Affirmation. Not as high as the others, but as an ISFJ, he probably wouldn’t mind being told that his actions are being appreciated by someone.

Quality Time. He feels like someone who would love to spend time with those he loves. Still isn’t as high as others on the list

Gift Giving. Lowest, but I’m sure he still wouldn’t mind getting a gift or giving one, it’s just not on top of the list of priorities for him.

His Relationships With Other Characters:

It’s pretty clear to me that Fives cares very deeply about others around him, especially his brothers. He always seems to develop one close friendship with someone around him (for example, Echo and later Tup), but he seems pretty social with others still. He seems to have a lot of trust with both Rex and Anakin, being friends with both also. Fives can be a pretty good leader for others when the time calls for it.

His Growth Throughout His Story:

I think an obvious growth he had over the 7 seasons is from being a somewhat prominent background character to eventually Turing into a character who was fleshed out and also extremely important to the story, even after he died. But, taking a closer look, he does have quite a bit of character growth through the small amount of episodes we see him in. He went from want to be an ARC Trooper (example; that one deleted scene where he’s taking to Echo in the hangar. I know that it could be argued to not be canon because of that, but I think weather that conversation in particular was canon, I think it was still something he wanted) to wanting the best for his brothers. From having his goal being more self wanting (example; the ARC Trooper thing but also that once scene where him and Echo ask Shaak Ti to put into Bravo squad. It was intentionally a selfish want from both of them, something to work through and learn how to work with others even they didn’t necessarily want to) to having a very selfless goal of want to help his brothers and save the Republic from the sith plan. He was born to be a soldier, but he went beyond and became a hero.

So, that was my Character Analysis of Fives! Dip you agree or disagree with me on anything?

Even though this started out as me getting annoyed at people misrepresenting Fives character, this turned out to be really fun and interesting! I like getting to know characters I love even more. Tbh, after researching all of this, I feel like I’m even more in love with this man lol I hope I can do Fives justice in my fanfic(s) now lol

#star wars #clone wars #the clone wars #clone trooper #the bad batch #bad batch #arc trooper #arc trooper fives #fives #ct 5555 #arc 5555 #my love #character analysis #clone trooper fives #the love of my life

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krakenartificer · 3 years

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When I got my ADHD diagnosis, I looked at the questions on the screening form and thought, "If this result comes back positive, then I'm definitely not the only person in my family who has it." Questions like

"Have difficulty finishing one activity before starting another one" and

"I finish others' sentences before they can finish it themselves" and

"have trouble staying on one topic when talking"

...I thought were just weird quirks of my family, but no. When I got my results, I contacted my cousin, and she contacted her sisters and mother, and .. .. yeah. Basically everyone in my dad's side of the family is ADHD.

Now there are some problems with that, obviously, (getting family reunions to stick to a schedule is lol no) but there are some really fantastic perks. For one thing, no one in that family minds if I interrupt them while they're talking ... everyone's happy to keep 3 conversations going at the same time .... and no one minds if you fidget constantly.

But the best perk -- at least that I've found so far -- is that all of our parents have coping mechanisms, and passed them on to us. When I found myself unable to handle tasks with more than one step, my father didn't say "WTF are you talking about? It's easy! Just do the thing! Stop being lazy!" No, he could relate completely, and he sat down and taught me how to handle that.

So today, I'm going to pass on to you the coping mechanism my dad taught me for handling the "cannot put tasks in order / cannot get started / forget what I'm doing" problem. You'll need to adjust it for your own needs and your own struggles, but hopefully it'll be helpful in setting up your own process.

I'm going to walk through it with a big project I'm doing at work, just to have a concrete example. That will make some of the discussion specific to computer programming and technical writing, but I do the same thing for all my projects, so hopefully it'll be generalizable.

So to set the stage:

I was supposed to modify this piece of code -- we'll call it "Rosetta" -- to make it handle call data as well as what it was already doing. I did that.... but we now need the code to be able to handle calls (if that's wanted) but also to be able to handle NOT having calls (if THAT'S wanted).

Which is just .... ugh. So much. SOOOOOOOO much.

So. Break it down.

Step one is to get some recording mechanism - pen and paper, whiteboard, blank computer document, whatever

(Technically, this is a different coping strategy, so we'll just take a quick detour: WRITE THINGS DOWN. Your brain is shit at remembering things, and anyway you've already got limits on your working memory; why would you choose to tie up some of that limited resource in something that could be accomplished with literal stone-age technology? Don't even try to remember things. WRITE THEM DOWN.)

I like sticky notes: they're readily available in all offices, they're pretty cheap, and (most importantly) they can be rearranged if it turns out that I forgot a step or put the steps in the wrong order (which, like, let's be honest, I am definitely going to do). But they kill trees and create unnecessary methane emissions, so I've recently switched over to using virtual sticky notes. That's the format I'm going to use for this example, but you can use anything that meets your purposes.

So, you've got something to write with, you're ready to start.

The first question is: what are you trying to accomplish here? What would "done" look like? What is our goal?

I need to end up with a version of Rosetta that will make the correct results if you don't want calls, and will also make the correct results if you do.

The goal here is that you end up with a statement that you can definitively say (a) Yes this is what I wanted or (b)No this is not right because _______

In this case, in order to do that, I'll need to define "correct results" for both call- and non-call versions. But if I have that nailed down, then this statement meets that criterion: I'll be able to say "Yes, this is what I wanted: see, it makes the correct result for calls, and it makes the correct result for not-calls". Or else I'll be able to say, "No, this is wrong: see, it makes the correct result for calls, but on not-calls it does X and we wanted Y."

I have a clear, definitive standard about what I need to do and whether or not I've done it.

But there was a prerequisite there: I need to define "correct results".

So that goes on a sticky note: Create test that will compare my results to existing call!Rosetta-results and to existing not-call!Rosetta-results.

[ID: Two blue boxes, one on top of the other. The top one says in white text "Create test to compare my results to call!results" The bottom one says "Create test to compare my results to not-call!results"] OK. So now we know what we want. The second question is: what do we need to do in order to get that? Here's where the sticky-note recording system really shines, because you don't have to answer this question sequentially. You just start writing down every single thing that is not the way you want it to end up.

I need it to remove commas in the python script, not the bash script

I need to delete the first part of the get_runs() function, which doesn't do anything

I need to delete the rest of the parameters passed to build_query_script() function, because runs encompasses all the others

while we're on that subject, runs doesn't even need the group_variable, so let's pull that out of the parameter document

we also have a dmf defined, which the bash script demands but doesn't use; let's change that demand

since we're changing the structure of the parameter document, we don't need to pull new metrics for each run, so let's move that outside of the runs() loop and only run once

right now the parameter document is ALMOST but not quite "one row per template". Make it so it's actually one row per template.

among other things, that's going to require making it possible for a template to be followed by nothing at all, since it's the assumption that a template will have a metrics block after it that makes it not quite one row per template. So make it possible to publish a template with a null block

the other thing that's weirdly hard-coded is the definition of what a block looks like. Would it make more sense to separate that out into an input file, like the parameters document? On the one hand, that would make it much more flexible; on the other hand, that's another piece that can break. Don't know. Put a question mark on it.

etc

Here's what it looks like at the end of this step:

[ID: A black and white background showing many boxes in two different shades of blue, all with white text. Some of the boxes are overlapping each other.]

As you can see, at this phase you don't need to worry about any of the following:

ordering the tasks. Just stick 'em right on top of each other for now

how you're going to do any of this. Right now we just need to know what, not how

sticking to only one project. As I was working on this, it occurred to me that this whole process would have been a heck of a lot easier if someone had just made a user manual for this, and since I have to go through all the code line-by-line anyway, I might as well write up the documentation while I'm at it. (To help out future-me, if nothing else.) So I put those tasks on another color of sticky note.

making notes that make any ***ing sense to anyone else. This process is for you, and only you need to understand what you're talking about it. Phrase it in ways that make sense to your brain, and to hell with anyone else.

on that topic, also don't worry about making steps that are "too small" or "too dumb" to write down. This is for you. If "save document" feels like a step to you, then write it down.

You also don't need to get every single step involved in the project right now. Get as many as you can, to be sure, but the process is designed on the assumption that you ARE going to forget important steps, and is designed to handle that.

When you can't think of any more steps, then the third question is: what order does it make sense to do these in? Are there any steps that would be easier if you did another step first? Are there any that literally cannot be done unless another step is complete?

This is also a good place to group steps if they fit together nicely. When I used physical sticky notes, I used two different sizes; digitally I can of course make them whatever size I want.

So I have several documentation steps that (a) do need to be written to make sense to other people and (b) I really need to know what's going on before I can do that. I could write them now, but if I did, I'd just end up re-writing them based on things that change as I'm coding. So we'll move those to the end:

[ID: Three dark blue boxes with white text. They read "Create step-by-step instructions for creating your own metric agg", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a metric", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a query."]

These parts, though -- if I had all the variable structures written down, I could look at them while I'm coding. Then I won't have to keep scrolling back and forth in the code, trying to remember if it's an array or a dictionary while also trying to remember what part of the code I was working on. Brilliant. Move that to the front.

[ID: Seven dark blue boxes with white text, three large, four small. The first one is large and says "Write up explanation of how Rosetta works." The second one is large and says "Document structure of all variables." Attached to that one are four smaller boxes that say "All_blocks", "Runs", "metric", "New_block". The third large one says "Document what qb_parameters.csv contains"]

Also, while I'm at it, I should get the list of variables I need to document -- then I won't have to keep scrolling to find them. Make those sub-steps.

I definitely keep needing to look up what's in the parameters document, so I should write that down, too. For the user manual I also should write down what's in the metric document, but I don't need that for myself, so I can send that to the end.

[ID: The same three dark blue boxes from two screenshots ago (create step-by-step instructions for metric agg, modifying a metric, and modifying a query), now with another dark blue box in front of them with white text that says "Document what granular_metrics.tsv contains."]

These five are all small steps, and are all related in that they don't actually (hopefully) change the functionality of the code; they're just stuff left over from prior versions of this code. So we can lump them all together.

[ID: Five light blue boxes with white text that say "Delete first part of get_runs()", "Have build_query_script only receive the "run" parameter" "Delete dmf" "Move metrics=get_metrics() outside build_all_blocks (all the way up to the top level?" "Delete group_variable from qp_parameters"]

My brain likes this better, so that I can keep track of fewer "main steps", but that's just a peculiarity of me -- you should lump and split however you prefer to make this process easier for you.

[ID: The same five boxes from the prior screenshot, now all made smaller and attached to a larger box that says "Remove Legacy Code"]

Keep going, step by step, sticky by sticky, until you've got them in order. If -- while you're doing this -- you remember another thing you need to do, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile; you don't have to stop what you're doing to deal with it, because it's written down and it's on the pile and it will get processed; you can just keep working on the thing you're on right now.

[ID: All the same boxes from the first screenshot, now in a neat row. Some of the original boxes have been grouped together. The ones that were said to be at the beginning of the process are on the left and the ones that were said to be at the end are on the right.]

Step four: for the love of all that's holy, SAVE THIS LIST.

Write it on your cubicle whiteboard where it won't be erased

write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the office wall

send an email to yourself

take a picture with your phone

I don't care but save it.

When I used physical sticky notes, I kept them all on the hood of my cubicle's shelf. Now, as you can see, I use Powerpoint, which is irritating af but does allow me to keep everything in a single document, which I can write down the path of.

[ID: White text on a black background says "open ~/Documents/Rosetta\ Modifications\ and \Documentation.pptx" The next line says "Notes in Rocketbook pg 10-12, 16" The next line says "Turn that into documentation that can be used for making modifications."]

And now (finally) you can answer the question "How would I even get started on that?" You look at the first thing on the list, and you treat it as its own project. You can hyperfocus on this step and completely forget about everything else this project requires, because everything you need to remember for the rest of it is written down.

If, as you're working a step, you think of something else you need to do for the big project, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile. Don't even worry about trying to order it or identify sub-steps; as long as it's not blocking the thing you need to work on right now, you don't have to care. Just stick that bugger anywhere at all on the list, and go back to what you were doing. When you un-hyperfocus and come back to look at your list, there'll be a big sticky note stuck sideways across all the rest of the steps, and you'll remember to file and order it then.

Other benefits of this system

1) The first question really helps with unclear directions from your boss. You can take whatever they told you to do, and translate it into a requirement that is clearly either met or not-met, and then run it back by the boss.

If they say, "No, no, we want ______" then phew! You just saved a huge miscommunication and weeks of wasted work! What a good employee you are! What an excellent team player with strong communication skills!

If they say "Yes, that's what I want," then you know -- for sure -- what it is you're trying to accomplish. Your anxiety is reduced, and your boss thinks you're super-conscientious.

(And if your boss is a jerk who likes to move the goalposts and blame it on their subordinates, then have this conversation over email, so you can show it to their boss or to HR should it become necessary.)

2) Having this project map means that when you spend an hour staring at the requirements and trying to figure out how to get started (which, let's be honest, you were definitely going to do anyway) ... When your boss/coworker comes by and says, "How's it going?" Instead of having to say "I haven't even started 😞" You can say, "Pretty well! I've got all the steps mapped out and am getting ready to start on implementation!" and show them your list, and they think you're very organized and meticulous. 3) Sometimes, especially in corporate jobs, you and your coworkers will run into a problem that's too big for even Neurotypicals to hold all in their heads. At that point, the NTs will be completely lost -- they've never had to develop a way to handle projects they can't just look at and know how to get started. So then you pipe up in the meeting and say, "OK, well, what exactly are we trying to accomplish?" and everybody at the conference table looks at you like you're a goddamned genius and you don't have to tell them that you use this exact same process to remember how to make a sandwich 😅

4) Having this project map makes it so much easier to stop work and then start it up again later, but this post is already really really really long, so I'm going to address that in a separate (really really long) post.

#adhd #adhd life #tips #semi-solicited advice #gpoy #your mileage may vary #long post #very long post #sorry I wish I wrote more concisely too

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justasimplesinner · 3 years

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Ok ok Eddie with a jock friend (and eventual s/o), here's what I'm thinking: High school Eddie (whatever version honestly) mouths off to some teachers or embarrasses them with his superior intellect in an insulting way and gets sent to the principal's office. Since this is a repeat offense (try seven times and counting) the punishment is more severe...but the principal says she'll lighten his detention sentence if he uses his smarts for good and enters the high school's peer tutoring program for at least a month. Cue jock who is eager to learn but maybe has a learning disability or ADHD and their course material just isn't sticking.

They come to Eddie for help and he's a bit of an ass at first but then he realizes that they're not just looking for answers; they are genuinely interested in what he has to say and wants to learn so they can do their homework on their own. He gets to know them and how intelligent they are in other ways and his little heart goes doki-doki.

this invoked violent daydreaming in me, i've gotten distracted by my own thoughts every 5 minutes while writing this

Edward with a dumb jock s/o hcs:

safe to say, this situation isn't ideal, and Eddie is not happy at all. he has to deal with idiots and brutes every day anyway, and now they're taking some of his only spare time away from them all just because he was right and his teacher was wrong? why is he constantly being punished for being right, for being smart?

he doesn't get along with his fellow peers from the program at all. some of them recognized him already and knew it was better to stay away lest they wanted to get insulted either by him or everyone else for talking to him, some of them tried to reach out but gave out pretty quickly. in highschool, Edward became way more bratty and mean. in middle school, he was still trying to fit in but he was incredibly overwhelming for other kids and also an easy target, and that really made him resent everyone around him. so getting along with the other students wasn't really an option

however, he dreaded meeting the ones he had to tutor even more. partly because he did not want to deal with some idiots that couldn't get an equation right, partly because he knew most of those idiots are going to be the same ones that always pick on him. half the football team had to be assigned to that program so they would pass their classes. sports don't always give you a get out of jail free pass apparently, and they were forced to study, which didn't sit well with them at all

and then, you came along. he didn't know if you were better or worse than the rest of the jock community that he had the displeasure of meeting. you were just so... dense. it's like you were smart but didn't even know it and couldn't quite use that to your advantage. it fucking annoyed him. incredibly so. you were frustrating beyond imagination. you were getting distracted so easily, and he had to explain the same thing over and over to you and it was driving him up the wall. why couldn't you just get it? Edward both thinks he's the smartest and that nobody will ever understand the lengths his knowledge goes to, and can't quite grasp the fact that people just can't understand something that's so blatantly obvious to him. safe to say, he would not be a good teacher

Ed is absolutely appaled by your eagerness to learn though. practically everything he says flies over your head and despite all his rambling, you still don't understand jack shit, but at the same time... you're such an avid listener. you genuinely think this peer tutoring program could help you get better. you want to get better. and as much as he doesn't want to admit, it really scores you some brownie points in his eyes. because despite everything, you at least try. you don't expect him to do your homework for you and guarantee you a good grade, you genuinely want to work for it. you expect him to explain things to you so you can do that homework yourself and you can be proud of yourself for doing something right. sometimes, he thinks he'd prefer it if you just threatened him to do your work for you because getting you to remember something is an impossible task, but he doesn't mean that

he remembers one of your first study sessions together when he just snapped and almost screamed at you that you were an idiot. to his absolute astonishment, you didn't beat his ass, you didn't even scream back. you just smiled your stupid dorky smile and laughed your stupid dorky smile, saying that he clearly wasn't in the mood so instead of studying you took him for a late lunch. a lunch. and instead of learning more about what you were supposed you, you were trying to learn more about him. best thing is, that day was the first and only time he shared any form of personal information with you and - as opposed to the Mendeleev's table - you memorized most of what he said. hell, next time you saw him, you brought him that specific chocolate he somehow admitted to liking

more and more often, you were bringing him small things, 'thank you gifts' as you called them. as if you knew you were hard to put up with sometimes, at least for him. of course, at first he took it as some sort of bribe, that you tried to worm your way into his graces so he'd do your homework for you or whatever but soon enough you made him realise that you were just genuinely being nice. he has never met someone quite like you, you were an enigma to him

soon enough, he didn't even realise he was looking forward to those study sessions with you. he was constantly lying to himself about how annoying and dense you were, and yet he started feeling more comfortable around you and talking with you freely. he started liking your stupid inquires that usually were something along the lines of "what kind of animal is the Pink Panther", even smirking at them under his nose as if he found idiocy amusing. it was both a nightmare and a blessing to have you around

he couldn't quite understand the weird feeling he got whenever you referred to him as your friend or greeted him at the corridors. or when you offered to have some study sessions at your house because you couldn't keep quiet in the school library and put all the librarians on edge. he didn't really get what was going on with him when he smiled and laughed along with you, in your messy room, as you were trying to figure out how to write a proper essay

he... liked coming to your house. it was admittedly better than the library. your parents were really warm and welcoming, weirdly supportive which he couldn't quite understand since you weren't... well, the brightest. the food was nice, too. and your room was so... you. that's the only way to describe it, what with all the little trinkets and posters and things laying around, and with some music or movies in the background. he also noticed a constantly reoccuring theme amongst your possessions and he was surprised how much knowledge you had on one or two specific subjects. your small little obsessions that you somehow learned about a lot easier than anything else

at some point, without even realising it, you two started hanging out. like, really hanging out, not just meeting up to study. you played some games and talked about random stuff, with you always inquiring about everything, which in turn made him feel like someone actually listened to him for once and rambling for hours to no end. you even tried to teach him your favourite sports, despite his protests, and he was really shocked when you didn't laugh at his general clumsiness and awkwardness when it came to physical activities. you were actually just as weirdly supportive of him as your parents were of you. he didn't see you get annoyed at him even once, and you always tried to explain to the best of your abilities how things worked in sports. show him the proper moves and stances. he didn't quite pick it up, but you two had... fun

spending so much time with you made him notice your strengths, and there were suprisingly many, not just physical (but god, you could just lift him up like a stick? like he wieghed nothing?). he started to slowly figure out your thinking process which made him use different teaching methods that suited you better and lo and behold, there was progress. nothing too crazy, but it was progress. he didn't know which one of you was more proud - you or him

you finally found a way to learn and you started getting better grades. you didn't have to sacrifice school for sports or vice versa. you were going to pass. and all those small victories made Ed realise that soon enough, you won't need him anymore. you'll be capable of learning by yourself, since now you found a good way to do it. you weren't going to meet up with him so often, instead going out with your actual friends since now you could. now you had time. and when i tell you that he almost sabotaged you both just to force you to stick with him for a little while longer-

who was going to tell him stupid jokes now? who was going to listen to him? who was going to talk to him? who was going to cuddle him on your bed and fall asleep there with him from the pure exhaustion from studying? who was going to be his golden retriever friend when you were gone? he wouldn't ever imagine he'd be so sad to get rid of a bumbling idiot in his life? you were his bumbling idiot, and he really didn't want to go back to how things were before he knew you. he didn't want to be alone again. he didn't want to stop being so happy

so let me tell you, the pure fucking relief on his face when you start telling him about how many fun things you two can do now that you don't have to study all the time and hang out more is unimaginable. you never felt him hug you so tight as in that one moment

#riddler #edward nigma #edward nygma #the riddler #edward nashton #my writing #headcannons #fluff #some angst #sovereign of succ #god this is my favourite trope #i love it here

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harlowdoylepi · 3 years

Text

Here is the first part of the TA-418 Saga! This is the Extended Edition™ so if it looks a bit different from the version on fanfiction.net, that's because it is. 😂 I've added more scenes/dialogue/exposition since then.

Also note: If you read anything in the present tense or in the first person, it's someone thinking. I can't figure out how to italicize words on this yet, because I'm a apparently a boomer when it comes to technology 😂

So without further ado, enjoy the first part of the TA-418 Saga: The Starting Point.

*lights dim and as the screen comes to life*

The Starting Point

To my Dad, whose encouragement and advice meant the world,

To Paul Mcusker, and the other AIO writers, whose talent inspires me,

And to the Adventures in Odyssey actors and actresses, who brought these characters to life so beautifully.

Richard Maxwell walked down the hall of the building. It was just another day at work. It wasn’t necessarily a cushy job, but it paid his apartment rent and put food on the table, so he couldn’t complain too much. However, he couldn’t shake that old, restless, feeling.

He walked to the elevator and pressed the down button. The doors rolled open and he walked in. He sighed quietly. He’d settled down and gotten a job at this computer software company, but it wasn’t what he wanted to do. He - well - missed the times back when he was chasing Blackgaard. He had a mission, a focus, a goal to chase down that was bigger than himself.

It made him feel like he was ‘worth saving’.

Ever since Whit had told him that, he wanted to prove that it was true. It was strange. Despite the years that had come between Richard and his criminal history, his past actions haunted him constantly. Tom’s barn, Blagaard’s Castle, Lucy, Applesauce. He hated himself for all the damage he had caused. He wasn’t worthy of love, forgiveness, or grace he had been shown. If anything, he needed to earn it. So, he often got involved in different ministries at his church, and did volunteer work as often as his schedule allowed. He had become a favorite with the kids at VBS and the teens at the youth group, but especially with those who came from rough backgrounds or bad family situations. It seemed to him his way of redeeming himself.

Richard maneuvered his way past a woman carrying a tall stack of papers, made his way into the reception area, and headed straight for the door.

“Have a lovely weekend Mr. Maxwell!” said the chipper receptionist, Ms. Stables.

“Thank you.” Richard smiled politely.

He walked out the revolving door and into the parking lot.

He opened his car door, sat down, and started it up. As he looked over his shoulder while backing out, a shockingly familiar figure sat up.

“Heya, Maxwell.”

Richard hid his surprise. “Myron.” He turned around and shook his head. “The one time I leave my car doors unlocked." he muttered, "Good thing I didn’t leave my keys in here too.”

Jellyfish sneered. “ Forget your crummy car, I came for something else anyway.”

Maxwell had a hunch where this was going, but decided to play dumb. He tried to remain calm and continued driving.

“Like what?”

“You.”

Richard snorted. “You should have gone for my car.”

“You testified against me in court, remember?”

“Because you tried to murder me.” Maxwell interjected smoothly.

“Yeah. Pretty gutsy move for you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Yeah well, I’m settling that score. Now.”

Richard smirked. “Sorry, I won’t go along with that.”

“You don’t have a choice. You’re going to do exactly as I tell you, GOT IT?”

The way Jellyfish raised his voice told Maxwell that he was not to be denied. He gripped the steering wheel. “Alright alright! Where are we going?”

“Nevermind that Ricardo. Just do as I say. Take the next left.”

“Ricardo” glanced back and saw Jellyfish’s gloved hands fingering a long knife. A chill ran up his spine. His suspicion was confirmed. He felt sick. Maybe I SHOULD have gone to the Witness protection program when I had the chance. I should have known Jellyfish would want revenge and come after me! I should have…. but no. I have to focus. God, help me find a way out.

Everything was deadly quiet for several minutes. Outside of Jellyfish’s occasional instructions, the only thing Richard could hear was his heartbeat pounding in his ears as they drove across the Chicago cityscape.

“Go across that bridge over there. But not too fast, there’s a cop at the end there.” He jabbed a finger towards the aforementioned vehicle.

AH-HA! That’s my ticket out! Thanks, God! “As you wish.” he glanced back at him. “Seems you and I were in this situation a few years ago, Myron.” He switched lanes to the one closest to the police car. “An attempt to get rid of me, because I know a few too many things. Is this time revenge for me landing you in prison? Or is the good Doctor alive again and wants me out of the way because he knows I’ll find out about whatever it is he’s doing?”

“If he was in charge he’d ensure personally that you were out of the picture.”

“I’m just that good, huh?” Richard flashed a grin in the rear view mirror.

Jellyfish gave a scowl in return. “Nah Blagaard is dead for real. I’ve got another job, anyway.”

Another job? Richard shoved the thought out of his mind and drummed on the steering wheel. “Anyhow, I had a little easier time escaping last time, since I wasn’t the one driving. I’m in a bit of an awkward position now.”

“Yeah, this time there ain't nothing you can do about it.” Jellyfish gloated. “I made sure to have you caught this time.”

They were about 40 yards from the cop car now.

Richard sat back and smiled. “I wouldn’t be too sure.” He said quietly.

“What was that?” Myron snapped.

“I said… I wouldn’t be too sure!” At that moment, Maxwell slammed down the accelerator, and cut his wheel hard. The tires squealed, and the car swerved violently. Jellyfish flew back and crashed against the door. The car hit a lamppost. Hard.

Richard jumped out and ran toward the officer.

“Hey! I need help!” He turned around and his eyes widened. Jellyfish was running toward the bridge guard rail, then he vaulted over it!

The cop spoke into his radio. “Hodges, get me back up, some guy just jumped off the bridge!”

They both ran to the edge and looked down at the river. There was no sign of him. “Do you think he made it?” Richard panted.

“I don’t know.”

Hours later, after a full witness report and police investigation, no sign of Jellyfish was found anywhere. Every fiber of Richard’s being was tingling with apprehension. How did Jellyfish know where to find him? Did he know where he lived? Where was he now? The police found no trace of Jellyfish in the river or the surrounding area, so they could only assume he got away. He had more questions than answers, and he wasn’t sure where to find them.

Richard stayed at a hotel overnight. He didn’t want to push his luck. If Jellyfish could discover where he worked, he could discover just as easily where he lived, if he didn’t know already. Maxwell was confused. He didn’t know what to do, where to go, or who to go to. He wasn’t sure who he could trust. Richard decided to take a walk outside to see if he could come up with a logical conclusion as to what the next step should be.

He meandered for quite some time, past shops, cafes, and parks, lost in his thoughts, eventually wandering straight into a rough area of town. There were many abandoned buildings, and very few people lived there, not even the homeless ventured in much. The air was still as a light drizzle gently misted the area in a shade of dull grey.

The place was eerily quiet. Richard shuddered. The place gave him the creeps. He turned around, fully intending to get out of there. As he passed one of the buildings he heard the sound of shattering glass. It sounded like it was coming from his left. Curiosity got the better of him and quietly walked toward a dilapidated apartment complex.

The door creaked open and Richard gasped. There was an old table that had fallen over with one leg kicked in. A bunch of broken bottles lay on the floor, but it was what was next to them that caught him off guard. It was a person. He was tied up and gagged. As soon as they locked eyes, he gave a muffled cry and looked pleadingly at him with dark green eyes.

“What in the world?” Richard walked to him, broken glass crunching under his tennis shoes. He pulled out his pocket knife and cut him loose. The man took the gag out of his mouth.

“We have to get out of here!” He said urgently, practically shoving Richard out the door. “Run!" he shouted, "Run as fast as you can!”

They both tore off racing down the street. They ran down to the end of the neighborhood when there came a thundering BOOM, a splintering crack, and a shattering crash. A huge cloud of dust overtook them and debris flew everywhere. The echoes of the blast reverberated off the surrounding buildings. The two men darted around a corner, shielding them from the flying shrapnels.

Maxwell turned around with a look of shock and horror. “Did it just-?”

The man swallowed. “Yes. The building was rigged to blow.”

Richard collapsed against the wall and put his hand over his heart. He sank to the ground and silently thanked God for protecting them.

“Why were you in there?” He asked.

The man sat down by him. His hand trembled slightly, as he brushed a lock of his brown hair that fell across his forehead. “I flew in here from Virginia early this morning. I was on my way out of the hotel when two masked men manhandled me into a blacked-out van.”

That sounds familiar. Thought Maxwell.

“They put me in that apartment building. They started the timer on the bomb and left. About one minute later, I heard you walking by, so I kicked that old table leg in and knocked those glass bottles over.” He looked Richard in the eyes. “You saved my life. Thank you so much.”

Richard smiled modestly and shrugged. “Happy to help.” He felt like there was more he should say, but he didn’t know what. He stood up and brushed the dust off his shirt. “Should we go to the police?”

The man stood up as well.

“No, there was nothing we could have told them, anyway. I’m trained to listen for helpful things, but they barely said anything. They knew what they were doing.”

“Trained?” Richard raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Oh, I’m sorry, I guess I never properly introduced myself.” He chuckled warmly, “I’m Agent Robert Mitchell, with the FBI. But my friends call me Mitch.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Richard Maxwell.” The two men shook hands.

Mitch studied Richard for a moment. “What were you doing here, anyway? This area is abandoned, and you don’t look homeless.”

Maxwell chuckled. “I’m not. Actually, there’s a whole story behind that. But, first I think it would be smart if we get out of here.”

“Yes!’ Mitch agreed emphatically.

They walked through the streets of the city, talking in low voices, so as not to give out too much information to listening ears. Richard told Mitch of Jellyfish’s first attempt on his life, and how he ended up in the hospital as a result of it. He also explained that he was a key witness at his trial.

“My testimony added several years to Jellyfish’s sentence. He hinted not-so-subtly that revenge was what he was after in our little run-in yesterday. And still is, as far as I know.” They walked into a little corner cafe where they ordered coffee from a barista who looked like she had been there since five in the morning. Which she probably had.

Richard slid in on one side of the booth, while Mitch took the other. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“It’s a perplexing problem alright.” Mitch agreed. “I’m not sure there is a lot you can do. I mean, you can try to go to Witness Protection, but I can tell you upfront that you probably won’t qualify.” He looked out the window and thought hard for a minute, watching the bustle of the city on this dreary day. A small tree on the corner was sprouting small pink buds. Some tulips were starting to show themselves in the small landscaping of a law firm across the street. Early spring had come upon Chicago, and was apparent even in the thick of the city.

A perky barista with a high blonde ponytail came up to them holding two cups of coffee. “Richard Maxwell and Robert Mitchell?”

“Yes, that’s us.” Mitch said, smiling.

She set the cups down carefully. “Enjoy!”

“Thank you.”

Richard pulled his cup towards himself. “We will, thank you.”

Mitch’s phone started vibrating. “Oh that’s my boss, Peter Bourland. Excuse me just a moment.” He stood up and exited the shop.

Richard leaned back in the booth and thought. He stirred his coffee absently. He didn’t have a lot of people he could go to. His past often lent itself to loneliness when it came to trustworthy relationships. He wished there were a simple solution to all this, but that was looking less and less likely.

“Sorry about that.” Mitch came back and sat back down. “Where were we?”

“Thinking about a solution.” Richard answered.

“Ah, yes.” Mitch sat down and took a sip of his coffee, then winced. It was still too hot.

The twosome sat in thoughtful silence for a few minutes.

It seemed as though a lightbulb went on in Mitch’s head. “One solution does present itself, though it’s not very practical. You could skip town and lay low for a while! I just received orders to make a quick stop at a small town a few hours away from here, and you could come along with me if you like. It’s called Odyssey.”

Richard’s jaw dropped. “You know about Odyssey? I used to live there!”

Mitch laughed. “No way! I lived there for a couple of years. I was even engaged to a girl, you don’t know Connie Kendall, do you?”

“Connie almost got married?! It has been a while since I’ve been there.”

“And you must know John Whitaker.” Mitch lifted his cup and took a sip.

Richard grinned. “Doesn’t everyone?”

“What a coincidence!”

Maxwell shook his head. “No. I learned a long time ago that there is no such thing as coincidences.”

Mitch nodded. “Whit always said that.” He smiled sentimentally. “Whit was always such a great example of faith in God.”

“Yes. Actually, he was one of the first ones to show me what the love of Jesus looks like played out in real life.” Richard remembered vividly the time he had almost died in a burning building, but Whit risked his own life to save him, even though he knew all that Richard had done. He still remembered the way Whit looked at him and said ‘Your life is worth saving.’ Those words had stayed with him ever since that terrifying night.

“So, shall we go?” Mitch pulled Richard out of his reverie.

“Yes.” He put some money on the table and they left the Cafe.

Over the course of half an hour, they got a hold of a rental car company and found a good car. Afterward, they went to Richard’s apartment. He packed a couple of bags, including his laptop and other essentials, and was about to exit his room when he stopped short. He wanted Jellyfish to know that he had been outwitted. He thought for a moment, then smiled mischievously.

He shoved a couple of rolled-up blankets under the covers of his bed. The old blankets for hobbits trick.

Richard and Mitch were on the road about ten minutes later. As the traveling continued, they found they had quite a lot in common. They talked about family, interests, all things computers, listened to music and laughed as though they were old friends. About 6 hours later, the two men took the exit into town. A sign on the side of the road read “Welcome to Odyssey.” The sign was still the same as it was. Richard could just make out the town on the edge of sight.

A few moments later, they pulled past a sign that led to a dirt road and led to a farm and orchard in the distance. It was the Timothy Center. Richard’s face brightened. He couldn’t wait to see Tom Riley again. Once he’d become a Christian and gotten out of the hospital, he had lived in Odyssey for several months. During that time, Tom had been pivotal to his Christian walk. He was like family to Richard. And Richard didn’t have many family members, let alone positive ones. He was half tempted to ask Mitch to pull over and go see Tom then and there, but decided against it. It was getting late in the evening, and tomorrow was Sunday, so he’d most likely see him at Church.

Richard looked out the window and sighed contentedly. Mitch was obviously thinking the same thing. “I know. I love coming back here too.”

“You’ve been here since you moved?”

“Yeah, a couple times. While I love the travel and the busyness of my job, it’s nice to go to the quieter places, even if it is just for work.” They watched the scenery fly by them as they started making their way into the small suburb.

Richard scanned the town as they began driving through it. Even though there were a few minor changes, Odyssey still had it’s timeless, home-like essence about it. He had missed it more than he realized.

Brrriiinnng!

The phone rang loudly. A bony hand picked up the receiver.

“Hello?” The voice turned deadly, “What do you mean, you failed?” the voice rose until it was almost shrill. “I told you specifically we had to do this without a mistake to get him out of the way!”

Quiet.

“A tracking device? Hmph, it’s almost like you knew you were going to mess this up or something.” He said sarcastically. “Well, do you have the coordinates? Ok.” He scribbled them down hastily. “What? No, I’ll send somebody else. Yes, do get him on the line.”

There was a pause for several moments as he waited.

“Yes, I have a mission for you. You know the man you’re after? Good. We have his current location in a town called….” he looked at the paper. “Odyssey.”

There was a pause.

“I don’t care. That’s your specialty! Just do whatever it takes to get him out of the way!

{THE END}

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queenlua · 3 years

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hey, i started following you recently and ur bio says ur a hacker? any tips on where to start? hacking seems like a v cool/fun way to learn more abt coding and cybersecurity/infrastructure and i'd like to explore it but there's so much on the internet and like, i'm not trying to get into anything illegal. thanks!

huh, an interesting question, ty!

i can give more tailored advice if you hit me up on chat with more specifics on your background/interests.

given what you've written here, though, i'll just assume you don't have any immediate professional aspirations (e.g. you just want to learn some things, and you aren't necessarily trying to get A Cyber Security Job TM within the next three months or w/e), and that you don't know much about any specific programming/computering domain yet.

(stuff under cut because long)

first i'd probably just try to pick some interesting problem that you think you can solve with tech. this doesn't need to be a "hacking" project at first; i was just messing around with computers for ages before i did anything involving security/exploitation.

if you don't already know how to program, you should ideally pick a problem you can solve via programming. for instance: i learned a lot back in the 2000s, when play-by-post forum RPGs were in vogue. see, i'd already been messing around, building my own personal sites, first just with HTML & CSS, and later on with Javascript and PHP. and i knew the forum software everyone used (InvisionPowerBoard) was written in PHP. so when one of the admins at my RPG complained that they'd like the ability to set multiple profile pictures, i was like, "hey i'm good at programming, want me to create a mod to do that," and then i just... did. so then they asked me to program more features, and i got all the sexy nerd cred for being Forum Mod Queen, and it was a good time, i learned a lot.

(i also got to be the person who was frantically IMed at 2am because wtf the forum is down and there's an inscrutable error, what do??? basically sysadmining! also, much less sexy! still, i learned a lot!)

the key thing is that it's gotta be a problem that's interesting to you: as much as i love making dorky sites in PHP, half the fun was seeing other people using my stuff, and i think the era of forum-based RPGs has passed. but maybe you can apply some programming talents to something that you are interested in—maybe you want to make a silly Chrome extension to make people laugh, a la Cloud to Butt, or maybe you'd like to make a program that converts pixel art into cross-stitching patterns, maybe you want to just make a cool adventure game on those annoying graphing calculators they make you use in class, or make a script for some online game you play, or make something silly with Arduino (i once made a trash can that rolled toward me when i clapped my hands; it was fun, and way easier than you'd think!), whatever.

i know a lot of hacker-types who got their start doing ROM hacking for video games—replacing the character art or animations or whatever in old NES games. that's probably more relevant than the PHP websites, at least, and is probably a solid place to get started; in my experience those communities tend to be reasonably friendly to questions. pick a small thing you want to do & ask how to do it.

also, a somewhat unconventional path, but—once i knew how to program a bit of Python, i started doing goofy junk, like, "hey can i implemented NamedTuple from scratch,” which tends to lead to Python metaprogramming, which leads to surprising shit like "oh, stack frames are literally just Python objects and you can manually edit them in the interpreter to do deliberately horrendous/silly things, my god this language allows too much reflection and i'm having too much fun"... since Python is a lot of folks' first language these days, i thought i'd point that out, since i think this is a pretty accessible start to thinking about How Programs Actually Work under the hood. allison kaptur has some specific recommendations on how to poke around, if you wanna go that route.

it's reasonably likely you'll end up doing something "hackery" in the natural course of just working on stuff. for instance, while i was working on the IPB forum software mods, i became distressed to learn that everyone was using an INSECURE version of the software! no one was patching their shit!! i yelled at the admins about it, and they were like "well we haven't been hacked yet so it's not a problem," so i uh, decided to demonstrate a proof of concept? i downloaded some sketchy perl script, kicked it until it worked, logged in as the admins, and shitposted a bit before i logged out, y'know, to prove my point.

(they responded by banning me for two weeks, and did not patch their software. which, y'know, rip to them; they got hacked by an unrelated Turkish group two months later, and those dudes just straight-up deleted the whole website. i was a merciful god by comparison!)

anyway, even though downloading a perl script and just pointing it at a website isn't really "hacking" (it's the literal definition of script kiddie, heh)—the point is i was just experimenting a lot and trying a lot of stuff, which meant i was getting comfortable with thinking of software as not just some immutable relic, but something you can touch and prod in unexpected ways.

this dovetails into the next thing, which is like, just learn a lot of stuff. a boring conventional computer science degree will teach you a lot (provided you take it seriously and actually try to learn shit); alternatively, just taking the same classes as a boring conventional computer science degree, via edX or whatever free online thingy, will also teach you a lot. ("contributing to open source" also teaches you a lot but... hngh... is a whole can of worms; send a follow-up ask if you want that rant.)

here's where i should note that "hacking" is an impossibly broad category: the kind of person who knows how to fuck with website authentication tokens is very different than someone who writes a fuzzer, who is often quite different than someone who looks at the bug a fuzzer produces and actually writes a program that can exploit that bug... so what you focus on depends on what you're interested in. i imagine classes with names like "compilers," "operating systems," and "networking" will teach you a lot. but, like, idk, all knowledge is god-breathed and good for teaching. hell, i hear some universities these days have actual computer security classes? that's probably a good thing to look at, just to get a sense of what's out there, if you already know how to program.

also be comfortable with not knowing everything, but also, learn as you go. the bulk of my security knowledge came when i got kinda airdropped into a work team that basically hired me entirely on "potential" (lmao), and uh, prior to joining i only had the faintest idea what a hypervisor was? or the whole protection ring concept? or ioctls or sandboxing or threat models or, fuck, anything? i mostly just pestered people with like 800 questions and slowly built up a knowledge base, and remember being surprised & delighted when i went to a security conference a year later and could follow most of the talks, and when i wound up at a bar with a guy on the xbox security team and we compared our security models a bunch, and so on. there wasn't a magic moment when i "got it", i was just like, "okay huh this dude says he found a ring-0 exploit... what does that mean... okay i think i got that... why is that a big deal though... better ask somebody.." (also: reading an occasional dead tree book is a good idea. i owe my firstborn to Robert Love's Linux Kernel Development, as outdated as it is, and also O'Reilly's kookaburra book gave me a great overview of web programming back in the day, etc. you can learn a lot by just clicking around random blogs, but you’ll often end up with a lot of random little facts and no good mental scaffolding for holding it together; often, a decent book will give you that scaffolding.)

(also, it's pretty useful if you can find a knowledgable someone to pepper with random questions as you go. finding someone who will actively mentor you is tricky, but most working computery folks are happy to tell you things like "what you're doing is actually impossible, here's why," or "here's a tutorial someone told me was good for learning how to write a linux kernel module," or "here's my vague understanding of this concept you know nothing about," or "here's how you automate something to click on a link on a webpage," which tends to be handier than just google on its own.)

if you're reading this and you're like "ok cool but where's the part where i'm handed a computer and i gotta break in while going all hacker typer”—that's not the bulk of the work, alas! like, for sure, we do have fun pranking each other by trying dumb ways of stealing each other's passwords or whatever (once i stuck a keylogger in a dude's keyboard, fun times). but a lot of my security jobs have involved stuff like, "stare at this disassembly a long fuckin' time to figure out how the program pointer got all fucked up," or, "write a fuzzer that feeds a lot of randomized input to some C++ program, watch the program crash because C++ is a horrible language for writing software, go fix all the bugs," or "think Really Hard TM about all the settings and doohickeys this OS/GPU/whatever has, think about all the awful things someone could do with it, threat model and sandbox accordingly." occasionally i have done cool proof-of-concept hacks but honestly writing exploits can kinda be tedious, lol, so like, i'm only doing that if it's the only way i can get people to believe that Yes This Is Actually A Problem, Fix Your Code

"lua that's cool and all but i wanted, like, actual links and recommendations and stuff" okay, fair. here's some ideas:

microcorruption: very fun embedded security CTF; teaches you everything you need to know as you're doing it.

cryptopals crypto challenges: very fun little programming exercises that teach you a lot of fundamental cryptography concepts as you're going along! you can do these even as a bit of a n00b; i did them in Python for the lulz

the binary bomb lab is hilariously copied by, like, so many CS programs, lol, but for good reason. it's accessible and fun and is the first time most people get to feel like a real hacker! (requires you know a bit of C beforehand)

ctftime is a good way to see when new CTFs ("capture the flag"s; security-focused competitions) are coming up. or, sometimes CTFs post their source code, so you can continue trying them after the CTF is over. i liked Stripe's CTFs when they were going, because they focused on "web stuff", and "web stuff" was all i really knew at the time. if you're more interested in staring at disassembly, there's CTFs focused on that sort of thing too.

azeria has good ARM assembly & exploitation tutorials

also, like, lots of good talks out there; just watching defcon/cansecwest/etc talks until something piques your interest is very fun. i'd die on a battlefield for any of Christopher Domas's talks, but he assumes a lot of specific x86/OS knowledge, lol, so maybe don’t start with that. oh, Julia Evans's blog is honestly probably pretty good for just learning a lot of stuff and really beginner-friendly?

oh and wrt legality... idk, i haven't addressed it here since it hasn't come up in my own work much, tbh. if you're just getting started you're kind of unlikely to Break The Law without, y'know, realizing maybe you're doing something a bit gray-area? and you can cross that bridge when you come to it? Real Hacking TM is way more of a pain-in-the-ass than doing CTFs and such, and you'll learn way more with the latter, so who cares lol just do the fun thing

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hipparelinda · 3 years

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I am shooketh that someone made a silhouette mirage iceberg... you are amazing op... and now, I’m gonna talk about it, share my thoughts! Go read op’s comments on it first. I’ll only comment on the points I have thoughts on/know about

Here’s the original post, please check it out!

It’ll be long so I’ll leave a break

Tip: Religious references: Only in the japanese version, mostly names of things that link to christianity and judaism. Shyna Nera Shyna is called Sinner Neutlarva Sinner (sins being a big thing in religion, duh), Bug is Moses, Polly Peepers are called Cupids and Specters are called Devils. A lot of the guardian angels are named after stages of angel hierarchy in judaism. I made a list of all the names in english then japanese

Playable Zohar: They’re playable only in the english version in the credits and the ‘Super Core Fighter 2′ mode (never heard of that one...) perhaps as a bonus for the english version

Censorship: In jp version bunny salesman has a cigarette which was changed to thumbs up and when he wants you to hurry up shows a flaming cross in the background which was changed to a dragon in the localised version

Regional differences: Kinda referenced already with hell bunny and name changes. Also, the reaper and geluve aren’t in the japanese version (which with the latter I was surprised about when I found out)

Delia’s wife is Serah: Before the fight with Deliah, Hal states something like ‘think about Serah’ before he buggers off. I dunno if it’s really implied that they’re married and there’s no other reference of it, even from Delia. Though I believe there is a track in-game called ‘your wife is an angel’ so that could relate to it

Ikaruga: Think I heard about this game while watching a review on sm. Apparently it has the same silhouette and mirage thing with two aspects and facing two different ways when fighting etc etc

The genus of Zohar (their gender): Pfffftt they’re just both, duh, dunno why people get wound up over this... anyways, I just headcanon them as two separate characters..

Shyna and Clod are brothers(means, Clod is Shyna’s brother): I..... always thought Clod was female... -_- after reading up jp stuff about it I think they were male in the og version but changed to female in translation because of the translators not getting their gender. I always thought their voice sounded female in the english version. Nevermind... in the jp version Clod (dumb name) says ‘Goodbye, sister’ before the fight.

Which ending is canon?: Whichever you want... there isn’t a sequel... My chosen one is the restore edo one. I believe everyone is reborn too

Shallows Discarded bosses: Judas, Nebuchadnexxar and Hashmalim04 (+ Geluve in the jp version). Judas was apparently meant to be an ally of Megido. I believe she may have betrayed him though since Judas bible betrayed Jesus bible in the bible tm. Nebu man looks like the stereotypical anime pervert.... I think he’d play a roll in Delia’s tv pad since he looks like a director. Not sad to see you go, sir. Hashmalim04 is, duh, the fourth guardian angel. Looks real cool, probably controlled both silhouette and mirage.

Zohar crying: I’m not aware of this, god, I felt so much for Zohar.... ;-; apparently its during the cypher zohar fight. Went to find it again and it’s kinda barely noticeable.. I must’ve thought it was just flashy particle effects. Though it’s quite sad now looking back on it.

The reaper: English only boss, appears if you haven’t lost all your health at all. Apparently they’re challenging you since you so op. I find them kinda boring... love their horse chariot though..

Merchandise: WHERE CAN I GET IT?! Nowhere probably because they most certainly made barely any

Doujinshi: Damnit these look so cute..! Doujinshi is japanese for fan manga. Not official works

Hal is not that smart: Well it’s more Shyna’s just powerful... I believe that if the angels couldn’t stop her that nothing would’ve stopped her.

The image of adult Shyna: God... I’m not a fan....

The middle bit The age of Shyna and Zohar: I see them as programs/robots so I don’t think they have ages. Op states Shyna is 14 and Zohar is 17 which I think is a good choice.

Ying and Yang: It’s the idea that good and bad must be equal and the other exists a little in the other. I really see this link. Since it’s shown that Silhouette and Mirage need to be in balance - as seen in the ending where Megido goes weird cause Har was killed therefore there was too much mirage. I believe Silhouette and Mirage in the world of the game are perhaps like light and shadow or good and evil.

Geluve’s father is Hal: I believe this one but I don’t think op does. Doesn’t Har distinctively call Geluve ‘daughter’ as she interrupts him...? I do rather believe some of the guardian angels see Har as a father, such as Dynamis calling him ‘daddy’. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Har took the angels in like children after they were abandoned

Pollys and Pumpkins are human: It seems op believes this but I’m not sure if I do. I just don’t see the evidence. Why would the humans be attacking Shyna is she’s going to restore the world for humans??

Bottom of the iceberg Shyna is has (hmm) a bomb: Like, kinda a reset bomb. She isn’t really a bomb as she’s never destroyed - you can see her in the reset ending, alive and well. You could say she was carrying a reset button that turns on automatically once close to Edo, it’s not particularly a bomb.

Shyna needs the player for her to have a purpose: I think that’s a bit deep. Yeah, every game protagonist can only do things if the player controls them. I think this is just thinking a bit too deep.

Hal and Megido are Clod’s personalities: I’m not sure what to think of this. So Clod was an asshole and an asshole? I don’t think Har and Megido are different enough to be ‘separate personalities’. We don’t really know enough about Clod to know this at all.

Depths Was she the messenger of destruction or not?: I think this all comes down to what you believe happens after Edo is restored. If you think everything is reset and all the humans are saved then she’s the messenger of justice. If you believe everyone is killed and new humans are born, perhaps it was destruction after all because everyone died anyway.

Shyna committed human genocide: See above

Silhouette Mirage 2: I wish. Though I think treasure isn’t known for continuing their ips so I don’t think this would ever happen.

The side effects of being subjected to experiments: I suppose this is talking about Clod. I really have no idea what to say about it. As I said before, we really don’t know enough about Clod to tell us what really happened to them during the experimentation.

Geluve represents how Shyna would end up if she turned out to be another failed messenger: Uh, I suppose..? Wouldn’t all the guardian angels be though..?

Bonus! Explaining the images on the iceberg: Tip: Shyna talk sprite Shallows: ‘Adult’ Shyna official(?) art Middle: ? merch perhaps? Bottom: image from a comic about how the Polly Peepers and Specters see Shyna Depths: the real faces of Polly Peepers

#silhouette mirage #iceberg

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thebibliomancer · 4 years

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Dark Crystal Age of Resistance Tactics liveblog pt 3

So last time on video games, Rian’s dad died but I got a sweet drop out of it. This probably doesn’t make him feel any better about his dead dad though.

This time some more sweet rewards. Like: friendship, a fork, and lots of bar fights.

---

Dreamfast Memory: Leave None Behind

Huh, I guess we're still in flashback zone.

But this is a very important mission to rescue Gurjin because he's worth it. Look at him with his Sam Gamgee like loyalty.

Tavra joins the party! Tavra leaves the party! Wow, that was fast.

In this mission we play guess the lever that will free Gurjin. I appreciate the variety in goals. There's beat up everything, beat up everything, beat up everything, escape, and guess the lever. 'S nice.

So turns out that behind most locked doors there's angry monsters. Food sometimes but mostly monsters.

I have earned the most important reward of all: Gurjin.

---

There's random encounters. Well, not random. But non-plot missions you can do to get more pearlmoney or XP. I'm still in flashback zone so I'm not sure if its predetermined that I did side missions or not.

Whether I did this all along or not, I'm not sure if its the best use of my time to get in pub fights.

Then again, I got some simple hides for it so one fewer naked Gelfling.

WHY IS THE PUB FULL OF SPIDERS

I hit lvl 5 which is like the college of gelflings. I gotta start making a lot of decisions on what they're going to be when they grow up.

And I thiiiink Rian is going to be a Strategist? He's the Hero Guy and he's rallying all the gelfling to oppose the Skeksis and geez someone has to have a brain. It may as well be. Ok so maybe Rian isn't that smart but I'm going to pump some learning into him. Time to go to med school, Rian.

I think Alyadon, my healer, I think I'm going to enroll her in the music program. And as we all know, in order to become a bard or Song Teller, you need to have background in track and field. So she's going to learn to Scout. Bonk.

And my bestest boy Gurjin is a Soldier. I might make him a Grave Dancer because that sounds rad or I might just have him be a Stone Warden. Either way, I'm leaving him in Soldier.

Now to get more characters to lvl 5 so I can decide their entire lives. HENCE more nonrandom encounters.

There's also spiders by the gobbles. I bullied them.

I got the characters to level 5 and then couldn't decide what to do with them so left them where they were.

Cool, I got a Serving Fork for shoving people into the gobbles. Nobody can equip it yet!

---

Dreamfast Memory: Rescue Rian

Very close to the title of a story I wrote.

It wasn’t a Dark Crystal story though. I’m not that cool.

Forest Road.

Gotta rescue Rian from the Chamberlain. I wonder how or if they'll translate the exciting pillbug chase scene.

They don't!

We're all stationary. And Chamberlain is telling me to surrender. Buddy, if there was a surrender button I'd maybe think about it.

Oh right, Rian is still very angry about Mira.

CHAMBERLAIN HAS AN ABILITY CALLED SPITHEAD.

Its a debuff, as of course anyone would be after being so viciously mocked.

Dammit Rian you dumb idiot I can't believe you switched sides on me.

I also can't believe that Chamberlain has an ability that talks people into defecting to his side. He's never convinced anyone of anything in his life. He's so bad at being charismatic.

Anyway, Chamberlain stomped me bad so I gotta go back to beating up people in bars.

---

Okay take two and I manage to spank the Chamberlain. The key was bar fights. And some strategery.

Its really an annoying fight. Chamberlain gets to go first and Rian is in range that he can confuse him first turn and then continue confusing him everytime it wears off. And once enough damage is done Chamberlain gets the power to convert a confused enemy to his side. SkekSil is fitting a really annoying dingus to fight.

Also apparently I stole his clothes while he was passed out because I get the Chamberlain's Embroidery. Woo. That poor guy, always getting stripped naked. It is his weird lot in life.

Its a worse outfit than the simple clothes I'm already wearing. What the heck, SkekSil!

---

Dreamfast Memory: The Paladin

Oh riiiiiight Deet! She's part of this plot too. Weird actually to have her in this tactics game but there you go. More importantly HUP

So in this version, Deet is accompanied by two of my party when she encounters the arathim. Lets not question it. We're in the flashback zone.

HI HUP

fightin spiders, as ya do.

And then Deet and Hup became friends. Based on spider fighting.

My two party guys there didn't get mentioned or have a line of dialogue so maybe they weren't there? Flashback zone is confusing.

---

Dreamfast Memory: Rascals

Of course the bar fight Hup got in is going to be a mission. This game loves bar fights.

I do like that the enemies are just called Rude Gelflings. Straightforward.

Wait, beating people up in a bar causes consequences and not free XP? I don't understand these mixed message.

Oh well, I got Deet and Hup out of the bargain. A good reward if you ask me, which you did.

Hup's job class is specifically Podling Paladin.

Going to give Deet the Chamberlain's clothes. They'll be huge on her, it'll be great.

Wow, podlings have a weird skill tree which is more a skill ring. I wonder if this is unique to Hup or whether there are other podlings you can recruit.

So Hup is who uses the fork I've been holding onto for a while. Use the fork, Hup.

#dark crystal #dark crystal age of resistance #dark crystal age of resistance tactics #THE GAME #liveblog #gelfling college

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scni · 4 years

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chicago’s very own addison sani has been spotted on madison avenue driving a rolls-royce wraith , welcome ! your resemblance to greta onieogou is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty fourth birthday bash . your chance of surviving new york is uncertain because you’re reactive , but being tenderhearted might help you . i think being a virgo explains that . 3 things that would paint a better picture of you would be walking out of a casino with double the money you walked in with, sunkissed skin all year round, drunkenly dancing on a table . ( my dad has ties to the mafia and when things started getting out of hand my mom forced him out of our lives what she doesn’t know is that i meet him for lunch every week ) & ( cisfemale + she/her ) + ( taylor , twenty , she/her , est )

wow ok guys , this took me alot longer than i expected ? i’m TIRED , lol . i’m taylor though , hi legends ! i’m 20 and live in the est + go by she / her pronouns . a little about me before we get to my lil baby — i spend too much time in the timewrap that is youtube where i’ll watch a ricky thompson video one minute then daily vlogs of a raccoon to mgk’s kelly vision vlogs true story , this MAY have happened while i was supposed to be getting this intro up 🥺 i’m a total music whore and love everything that has a good flow idc if it’s rap or country if it’s good it’s lit ! also heads up i have the attention span of a squirrel so if i don’t respond to a thread or ims it’s because im a dumb hoe , i still love ya . anyways , enough about me lets get this intro rolling ! give this a like if you’d like to plot . ALSO ? i know the background is a lil long it was honestly mostly for me to really flesh addison out and give me something to look back to , so if you wanna get to the point of the intro just skip the background ? there is a tl;dr after it followed by her personality / secret / stats + some basic wcs toward the end of the post !

* 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 !

addison mikhailovna sani , was born in saint petersburg , russia where she grew up in a home too big to even be referred to as a house . she wasn’t the first child of ivanka and mikhail but she definitely was their first planned child . a couple that met early in their twenties , had their moments but at the end of the day they loved one another . both extremely traditional and their beliefs , they were given no choice but to accelerate their love story when they turned up pregnant with their son . he was a beautiful and happy little boy , but posed a threat the ivanka and mikhail’s pretty storybook life they wanted to set up for themselves . obsessed with staying on some sort of timeline , ivanka began her campaign for her budding political career . then she turned up pregnant again , with their second child , a daughter this time . in their eyes their daughter was just another bump in their perfect life . they held a sort of resentment against the kids for that , especially given that ivanka had lost her window of political popularity . she’d resigned to the life of a socialite and stay at home mom and they decided the best way to fill her time up was with another child . this time , one they truly wanted . her parents would never admit it , but they hadn’t seen the true “ sani potential “ in their children that wasn’t until they had addison . her parents truly doted on her . from her point of view life was perfect . silver spoon life did her well . that was until the perfect facade the sani’s held up was beginning to crumble before their eyes . her father , a wealthy international real estate investor comes from a crime family , it was a world he hid in the shadows but things grew rather messy and the family was posed with a choice (a) leave russia and start up life somewhere else or (b) stay in russia and chance mikhail going to jail for the entirety of the kids childhood . of course they chose to leave russia , on the one promise to ivanka that mikhail was done with the life of organized crime .

they made the move to chicago , illinois when addison was just ten years old . luckily for her she’d grown up speaking three languages russian , nigerian , and english and so coming to america was made just a bit easier for her as she wasn’t completely fluent but was able to get by and converse with others . her parents quickly integrated themselves into the elite society within chicago’s wealthiest families , which wasn’t too hard with her father’s up - and - up line of work of real estate investing and her mother’s status as an heiress . the same could be said for the kids at school , each one integrating fairly well into their own friend groups . like at home stayed the same , they may have been in a new country but her parents love or obsession with addison knew no borders . she had everything a little girl could ask for and more , plus her busy parents actually made time for her - that was much more than her siblings could say . addison knew the dynamic , she was a smart girl and picked up on it quickly . often apologizing to her older siblings and offering up her own support for their lives in place of their parents . as she grew older the pressure from her family started taking it’s toll . when ivanka and mikhail sani thought you were destined to be great , they really pushed you and placed the highest of expectations on you . addison carried around the fear that one day they’d look at her the same way they did her siblings and so she worked herself in all aspects of her life to be the perfect daughter . she excelled at everything she did - academics , ballet , student government , and even becoming a debutante .

it wasn’t until she was sixteen that the toll really started chipping away at addison . she’d spent a month on a downward spiral; popping pills , drowning herself in alcohol , losing her virginity , and throwing parties . it all came to a head when she stole millions from her father’s secret stash and booked a private jet with a couple friends . the three went missing for nearly two weeks before they were spotted at a resort in ibiza . her parents brought her home only to send her away to an inpatient program for a little over a month . addison spent that month really digging deep , finding out who she was and what she actually wanted . her therapist had told her for her to get out of the dark place she was in she’d need to separate her thinking from her parents and let go of the perfectionist act . when she came back home it was like the last few months had never happened , her parents ignored it all . to them , the issue was fixed and now it was time to sweep it under the rug but for addison it broke her heart . she realized over that next year that her parents didn’t see her as a person with her own choices but instead some sort of maniquin for them to play some weird version of real life sims with . despite this realization she couldn’t help but to fall back in line .

senior year of high school came quick and the four years of student government , mock trial , equestrian , and perfect grades was nearly over but not before addison’s whole world crumbled before her . no matter how perfect she tried to be the sani’s could never run from the truth . they weren’t this perfect family , when her mom caught her dad tied up with the russian mafia within the city of chicago it was over . by the end of the night ivanka was kicking him out of the house , with the threat that if he so much as looked in the direction of her and the kids she’d have him sent to jail for the rest of his natural life . the threat was enough to spook him , he’d known her well enough to know she wasn’t bluffing . just a few months later he moved out of the state leaving secret letters for the children to let them know he loved them . but of course , addison wasn’t allowed to so much as miss a beat . ivanka was still on her like some crazed momager and when she landed multiple acceptances in some of the top schools across the country the two inevitably made the decision for addison to attend yale . secretly she wanted stanford but bit the bullet . she studied finance with a major in philosophy . joined a sorority and mock trial . in truth she took a liking to connecticut and the change of scenery helped her forget about everything happening back in chicago .

during her senior year at yale , her mom broke the news of the family making the big move to new york city . which really just meant addison and her mom were moving to new york city because her brother had started a family in his college town of durham , north carolina + was also playing for the carolina panthers while her sister traveling the world on some sort of instagram model high . her mom rambled on for week about how the move was perfect since addison would be attending columbia for law school so now the two could see one another more often . even at twenty two addison couldn’t put her foot down when it came to her mom and so for the millionth time in her life she held back what she really wanted to do ( finally going to stanford , for law school ) and committed to columbia law .

* 𝐭𝐥;𝐝𝐫 !

basically , addison is the baby of three kids . born in st petersburg , russia but grew up in chicago . she was always the favorite of her parents ivanka ( a russian heiress + philanthropist ) and mikhail ( a international real estate investor ) as she grew older she realized their love was more of a obsession with control + perpetuating a picture of a perfect family + daughter . the pressure to a toll on addison during highschool and she had a break down that led to a major downward spiral landing her in an inpatient facility for a month . when she got out , her parents ignored all the issues within the family and went back to treating addison like some sort of puppet + addison continued to go along with it , as she didn’t really know how else to be . today she struggles with being who she wants to be and who her mom wants her to be . she and her siblings have always gotten along , even though their parents never treated them all the same they were all able to see the struggle in how each one was treated and able to bond through their messy parent situation . as of now addison’s trying to play up a double life sort of situation . having fun + being the perfect daughter . she’s also on the path to becoming a big time lawyer . she’s in her 2L of law school at columbia + also works as a paid intern at the district attorney’s office .

* 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 !

addison has always been full of love and unlike her parents her love isn’t conditional maybe delusional sometimes but never conditional . don’t worry , after a nation wide search i’ve found the first girl who doesn’t suffer from resting bitch face . instead you’ll always see a smile on her face , to the point where if you ever see her not smiling be worried . something life shattering has happened . she’s the type to say she “ hates drama “ but perk up the minute she hears about drama going on in some else’s life . don’t worry though , after she done being nosy she’ll do all she can to help fix the issue even if you don’t want her too . hey , she may make things worse in the process but atleast she cares , right ? maybe not , i don’t know . incredibly loyal and loves to have a good laugh , she’s incredibly witty and a lover of corny jokes . very talkative . wants everyone to like her and if you don’t like her get ready for her to try at every chance to win you over . very much so the “ pardon me , but you really hurt my feelings “ type . she’s really just a soft , smart rich girl trying to navigate through this big world . also she falls in love quick , although she’d never had a real relationship . not because she’s a T H O T , she’s not , well , she doesn’t mean to be atleast . she just finds her befriending guys more than becoming their girlfriend . despite her naturally affectionate behavior , she just has this weird “ no boyfriend “ curse going on . maybe she’s pushing them away when things get close to serious in fear of losing the guy from her life . on a negative note , addisons hands down worst quality is her inability to control a situation she is incredibly reactive / volatile . she’ll easily fall into a screaming match or crying fit . never the type to walk away . a true virgo , y’all , the girl can and will argue until you’re blue in the face .

* 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 !

so basically , her dad is apart of the russian mafia . he was heavily involved while they lived in russia but when the government was catching onto his actions the family fled the country before they could dig any deeper into the case . he was supposed to cut ties when they moved to chicago but it was a way of life he simply couldn’t let go of . when addison’s mom found out she forced him out of their lives threatening to turn him in if he so much of looks at his children . despite this when addison and her mom moved to new york he reached out to addison . they’ve been meeting for lunch once a week for almost a year and a half behind her moms back . absolutely no one but those involved with the mafia know about her dad being within the mafia , which is exactly how he’s always wanted it , which is why her mom could never find out addison and he are continuing their relationship .

* 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

full name : addison mikhailovna sani age : twenty - four date of birth : september 7th place of birth : saint petersburg , russia zodiac : virgo label : the facade pronouns : she/her gender : cisfemale orientation : bisexual , biromantic height : 5′8″ weight : 132 lbs ethnicity : nigerian , russian hometown : chicago , illinois occupation : law student , intern @ the district attorney’s office more : allergic to apples , hates takeout food , has an affinity for adult cartoons and stand up comedy, lives for alternative music , believes cuddling is a natural human interaction , loves video games , graduated valedictorian of her high school , loves painting .

* 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 !

soooo i know these are pretty basic but im just throwing things at the wall here and hoping they stick , okay ? im down for really anything so we can take inspo from these ideas ? expand more on them ? or just brainstorm something completely different ? whatever works ! , best friends , GIRL squad , drinking/party buddies , we’re just friend or at least that what we say but i always bring you as my date to big events type of deal , flirtationship , sibling like friendship , someone who has a crush on her , they don’t like her and she’s always trying to get them to change their mind , someone who tries to talk her into standing up to her mom , a confidant , someone she has a crush on , booty call maybe she initially wanted something serious from them but just fell into this booty call dynamic and she wont say anything otherwise because she likes having them around , someone she has a crush on , an ex friend who probably broke her trust .

#wealthyhq:intro #( 🍒 ) a look 𝓫𝓮𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓭 the mask — ooc #rehab tw

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fourteenacross · 4 years

Text

moby-dick thoughts at last

Okay, I’m going to see Moby-Dick one last time tomorrow and I still really want to get my broader thoughts down. I wrote the following as emails to a couple friends who saw it and wanted to chat about it, so I’m just going to put it here for posterity and maybe add more tomorrow night?

I'm still all over the place, though, so I'm going to answer this in no particular order, heh.

First off, some things I love:

Everything about part two is just like candy for me. The audience participation, the anachronistic theme park announcement, the silliness, the way that Choksi pulls out that pointer and keeps collapsing it to make one more comment, then pulls it out again, then collapses it again to make ONE MORE COMMENT. I love the puppets and the puppet show aspect of it. I love how much fun the cast seems to be having! Watching it is fucking delightful, it’s the reason that I’m a member of the ART and the reason I love Malloy’s weirdness and the reason I love weird regional theatre.

The performances are stellar, of course, and there’s a lot of emotion, especially in part four. Starr Busby as Starbuck blows the fucking doors off the place and while I am usually fairly femme4femme, that fucking costume she wears is A LOT for my tiny gay heart to handle, okay? Choksi is brilliant, of course--perfect perfect PERFECT, I cannot imagine a single other person in this role. It’s so weird, I was watching some old Comet clips a couple weeks ago and it’s CRAZY how the beard and the attitude turn him into an entirely different person. (I know, that’s how acting works, but still.) I don’t particularly care about Ahab, but I love basically everyone else? Tashtego and Daggoo’s little asides throughout were particularly good. I loved the use of Dawn Troupe as everyone who’s NOT on the Pequod and her costumes were stellar and that bit where she’s the Rachel in part four is INCREDIBLE.

The music is also incredible. I’m not like, smart about music, but it manages to keep incorporating like, melodies and refrains again and again to bring the different sections together and it was....good. He musiced good, that Dave Malloy. Good on him.

“The Pacific.” Oh god. That song alone could kill me.

The costumes were great, the set is amazing, and overall it’s just...fun. I had a good time! It’s a 3.5 hour musical and the only parts where I thought, “Oh god, this is long” were a couple of Ahab’s songs. I was never bored! It is a wild, sprawling work, but even though parts of it didn’t work for me, nothing turned me off entirely, which is saying a lot for something that long and intricate.

(Also, to be clear, I haven’t read the book! I saw a few review on the internets where people were like, “If you haven’t read the book, you won’t be able to follow it at all!” which I have to say is untrue. I read a couple of the first chapters in a class in college, fifteen (!!!!!) years ago, but I didn’t so much as wikipedia the thing over the entire course of preparing for this show. I meant to, but I never got around to it. And despite that, I had no problem following it or enjoying it?)

Anyway, onto the criticisms.

So, I agree with a lot of what you said. Some of it is def intentional--I remember either Rachel or Malloy saying in an interview that most adaptations are focused entirely on Ahab, when he largely exists more as sort of this weird, menacing figure who occasionally drops in to be obsessed and then disappears again. But there's def a lot of messiness that I think is the result of trying to do too many things in a very limited amount of time. I would have LOVED to see the seven hour version for comparison's sake. I think the tonal shift is intentional as well, but I don't know that it 100% works for me? Like, I get that Pip's section of the book is fascinating and I get that he wanted to draw the parallels to Pip and the lost boys and Ishmael in part four, but I honestly think a lot of that could stand to be cut. It could be a great stand alone piece, but the things it sets up don't justify the length of it. If they used that time instead to set up some of the despair in part four, I think the tonal shift wouldn't feel so abrupt as well.

The framing device is also a weird choice to me. Like, I love Choksi's performance of it, and I would hate to lose some of those bits, but I feel like, to justify it being in there, you need a follow-up after act four? It would space out three "character" breaks--the prologue, the Fedallah monologue, and then something like an afterword--and do a better job of actually "framing" the show. But also, honestly, I think it would work just as well to take it out all together. It feels like kind of a foreword? And I think that would be better served as like, a note in the program ahead of the bibliography. It's such a fucking weird choice to open out of character and then never really return to that? Like, you can have Ishmael address the audience and break the fourth wall and be anachronistic and not need that weird set up, I promise, Malloy.

(I love reading the bibliographies in playbills at Malloy shows. That has nothing to do with anything, it's just a dumb thing I like, haha)

I would have loved to see some more time devoted to developing Starbuck and developing the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg, which, again, I feel like there would have been space to do if they got rid of some of the Pip stuff. Especially because Starbuck carries so much of part four, and I would die for Starr Busby and she can definitely shoulder that weight, but the narrative needs to shoulder some of it too. I'm glad that he made Ishmael and Queequeg explicitly a queer couple, but I feel like there's a line between "this is quietly happening in the background and not of importance to the narrative" and "this happened almost entirely off-screen and people who need 'explicit' confirmation of things aren't going to understand it, entirely." I feel like the average cis het folks seeing this show would very easily be like, "Oh, they're slow dancing and holding each other like friends do!!! :)" not out of any malice, but because it wouldn't even occur to them to look at it any other way.

To answer your last question: this is definitely NOT going to broadway any time soon, if at all. It's def still in the development stages and I don't think he has his eye on broadway for it. It's too long and too weird and too much, and I think he knows that. So I feel like it's important to not hold it up to the same metric as the out of town tryouts that the ART normally does? Like, it's not going to compare to Waitress or JLP or even Comet, which had very inventive staging but was a very simple story and fairly well hammered out by the time it was in Cambridge? Which doesn't give it a free pass or anything--it's def still very messy. But I feel like it's mess is different as a piece in development than it would be as an out of town, you know? And I really like that there's a place in regional theatre for weird, messy, experimental things that aren't necessarily aiming for that level of commercial success.

So my tl;dr is that I agree with a lot of your criticisms and think it needs a whole lot of work going forward, but also I kind of loved it for what it was, warts and all, and I'm going back to see it again tomorrow, SO XD

#theatre notes #does the moby dick musical have a weird dave malloy name yet?#dave malloy

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shinelikethunder · 5 years

Text

Fandom Userscript Cookbook: Five Projects to Get Your Feet Wet

Target audience: This post is dedicated, with love, to all novice, aspiring, occasional, or thwarted coders in fandom. If you did a code bootcamp once and don’t know where to start applying your new skillz, this is for you. If you're pretty good with HTML and CSS but the W3Schools Javascript tutorials have you feeling out of your depth, this is for you. If you can do neat things in Python but don’t know a good entry point for web programming, this is for you. Seasoned programmers looking for small, fun, low-investment hobby projects with useful end results are also welcome to raid this post for ideas.

You will need:

The Tampermonkey browser extension to run and edit userscripts

A handful of example userscripts from greasyfork.org. Just pick a few that look nifty and install them. AO3 Savior is a solid starting point for fandom tinkering.

Your browser dev tools. Hit F12 or right click > Inspect Element to find the stuff on the page you want to tweak and experiment with it. Move over to the Console tab once you’ve got code to test out and debug.

Javascript references and tutorials. W3Schools has loads of both. Mozilla’s JS documentation is top-notch, and I often just keep their reference lists of built-in String and Array functions open in tabs as I code. StackOverflow is useful for questions, but don’t assume the code snippets you find there are always reliable or copypastable.

That’s it. No development environment. No installing node.js or Ruby or Java or two different versions of Python. No build tools, no dependency management, no fucking Docker containers. No command line, even. Just a browser extension, the browser’s built-in dev tools, and reference material. Let’s go.

You might also want:

jQuery and its documentation. If you’re wrestling with a mess of generic spans and divs and sparse, unhelpful use of classes, jQuery selectors are your best bet for finding the element you want before you snap and go on a murderous rampage. jQuery also happens to be the most ubiquitous JS library out there, the essential Swiss army knife for working with Javascript’s... quirks, so experience with it is useful. It gets a bad rap because trying to build a whole house with a Swiss army knife is a fool’s errand, but it’s excellent for the stuff we're about to do.

Git or other source control, if you’ve already got it set up. By all means share your work on Github. Greasy Fork can publish a userscript from a Github repo. It can also publish a userscript from an uploaded text file or some code you pasted into the upload form, so don’t stress about it if you’re using a more informal process.

A text editor. Yes, seriously, this is optional. It’s a question of whether you’d rather code everything right there in Tampermonkey’s live editor, or keep a separate copy to paste into Tampermonkey’s live editor for testing. Are you feeling lucky, punk?

Project #1: Hack on an existing userscript

Install some nifty-looking scripts for websites you visit regularly. Use them. Ponder small additions that would make them even niftier. Take a look at their code in the Tampermonkey editor. (Dashboard > click on the script name.) Try to figure out what each bit is doing.

Then change something, hit save, and refresh the page.

Break it. Make it select the wrong element on the page to modify. Make it blow up with a huge pile of console errors. Add a console.log("I’m a teapot"); in the middle of a loop so it prints fifty times. Savor your power to make the background wizardry of the internet do incredibly dumb shit.

Then try a small improvement. It will probably break again. That's why you've got the live editor and the console, baby--poke it, prod it, and make it log everything it's doing until you've made it work.

Suggested bells and whistles to make the already-excellent AO3 Savior script even fancier:

Enable wildcards on a field that currently requires an exact match. Surely there’s at least one song lyric or Richard Siken quote you never want to see in any part of a fic title ever again, right?

Add some text to the placeholder message. Give it a pretty background color. Change the amount of space it takes up on the page.

Blacklist any work with more than 10 fandoms listed. Then add a line to the AO3 Savior Config script to make the number customizable.

Add a global blacklist of terms that will get a work hidden no matter what field they're in.

Add a list of blacklisted tag combinations. Like "I'm okay with some coffee shop AUs, but the ones that are also tagged as fluff don't interest me, please hide them." Or "Character A/Character B is cute but I don't want to read PWP about them."

Anything else you think of!

Project #2: Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Fork (DIY blacklisting)

Looking at existing scripts as a model for the boilerplate you'll need, create a script that runs on a site you use regularly that doesn't already have a blacklisting/filtering feature. If you can't think of one, Dreamwidth comments make a good guinea pig. (There's a blacklist script for them out there, but reinventing wheels for fun is how you learn, right? ...right?) Create a simple blacklisting script of your own for that site.

Start small for the site-specific HTML wrangling. Take an array of blacklisted keywords and log any chunk of post/comment text that contains one of them.

Then try to make the post/comment it belongs to disappear.

Then add a placeholder.

Then get fancy with whitelists and matching metadata like usernames/titles/tags as well.

Crib from existing blacklist scripts like AO3 Savior as shamelessly as you feel the need to. If you publish the resulting userscript for others to install (which you should, if it fills an unmet need!), please comment up any substantial chunks of copypasted or closely-reproduced code with credit/a link to the original. If your script basically is the original with some key changes, like our extra-fancy AO3 Savior above, see if there’s a public Git repo you can fork.

Project #3: Make the dread Tumblr beast do a thing

Create a small script that runs on the Tumblr dashboard. Make it find all the posts on the page and log their IDs. Then log whether they're originals or reblogs. Then add a fancy border to the originals. Then add a different fancy border to your own posts. All of this data should be right there in the post HTML, so no need to derive it by looking for "x reblogged y" or source links or whatever--just make liberal use of Inspect Element and the post's data- attributes.

Extra credit: Explore the wildly variable messes that Tumblr's API spews out, and try to recreate XKit's timestamps feature with jQuery AJAX calls. (Post timestamps are one of the few reliable API data points.) Get a zillion bright ideas about what else you could do with the API data. Go through more actual post data to catalogue all the inconsistencies you’d have to catch. Cry as Tumblr kills the dream you dreamed.

Project #4: Make the dread Tumblr beast FIX a thing

Create a script that runs on individual Tumblr blogs (subdomains of tumblr.com). Browse some blogs with various themes until you've found a post with the upside-down reblog-chain bug and a post with reblogs displaying normally. Note the HTML differences between them. Make the script detect and highlight upside-down stacks of blockquotes. Then see if you can make it extract the blockquotes and reassemble them in the correct order. At this point you may be mobbed by friends and acquaintainces who want a fix for this fucking bug, which you can take as an opportunity to bury any lingering doubts about the usefulness of your scripting adventures.

(Note: Upside-down reblogs are the bug du jour as of September 2019. If you stumble upon this post later, please substitute whatever the latest Tumblr fuckery is that you'd like to fix.)

Project #5: Regular expressions are a hard limit

I mentioned up above that Dreamwidth comments are good guinea pigs for user scripting? You know what that means. Kinkmemes. Anon memes too, but kinkmemes (appropriately enough) offer so many opportunities for coding masochism. So here's a little exercise in sadism on my part, for anyone who wants to have fun (or "fun") with regular expressions:

Write a userscript that highlights all the prompts on any given page of a kinkmeme that have been filled.

Specifically, scan all the comment subject lines on the page for anything that looks like the title of a kinkmeme fill, and if you find one, highlight the prompt at the top of its thread. The nice ones will start with "FILL:" or end with "part 1/?" or "3/3 COMPLETE." The less nice ones will be more like "(former) minifill [37a / 50(?)] still haven't thought of a name for this thing" or "title that's just the subject line of the original prompt, Chapter 3." Your job is to catch as many of the weird ones as you can using regular expressions, while keeping false positives to a minimum.

Test it out on a real live kinkmeme, especially one without strict subject-line-formatting policies. I guarantee you, you will be delighted at some of the arcane shit your script manages to catch. And probably astonished at some of the arcane shit you never thought to look for because who the hell would even format a kinkmeme fill like that? Truly, freeform user input is a wonderful and terrible thing.

If that's not enough masochism for you, you could always try to make the script work on LiveJournal kinkmemes too!

#userscripts #greasemonkey #tampermonkey #fandom #coding

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swellwriting · 5 years

Text

Familiar

Fandom: Marvel MCU

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: a smidge of violence, but it’s mostly fluff! No endgame spoilers here, this is a trip down memory lane because this takes place in my version of the tower era, aka the good old days yee haw.

Request: No request but this is my submission for @whirlybirbs nostalgia challenge, my prompt was “Please don't cry.”

Word Count: 4k

A/n: She's a long one because I'm dramatic and also don't know how to shut up, thank you.

Familiar, not in a particularly good or bad way, just familiar was the word to describe how you felt about Bucky Barnes, or how you used to know him by, The Winter Soldier.

You were a creation of Hydra, not for nearly as long as Bucky was, but he had turned from just a creation to their own soldier, their weapon. You hadn’t had the chance yet before everything happened with the Avengers. Before they broke into the lab you were being held in and Captain America ripped off your restraints and The Black Widow gently pulled the IV from your arm that was keeping you sedated.

That's how you got here, to the Avengers tower. It's how you specifically got to Tony’s lab, practically nose to nose with him as you argued.

“It's unfair! I’m just as equipped as Bucky is and you’re sending him on the mission! We have been here just as long.”

“You aren’t ready!” Tony barked back, an angry and stern look on his face before he walked away from you.

“I'm not ready? I'm a copy of him! If I'm not ready than he isn't either.”

“You're a copy that's never been put to test, you've never been on a mission. You may be just like him but he has years of experience, you have none."

You huffed crossing your arms, he was right. You had never gotten a chance to do a mission for Hydra, which you were thankful for, but it meant that you weren’t seen as being as skilled as The Winter Soldier.

He had done years worths of missions, while you had been locked in the lab, forced to watch as they would debrief him, take his restraints off and let him gear up and leave. Then you would sit in your glass cell, across from his and watch as they brought him back, sometimes uninjured, sometimes not. You would watch as he would bite that rubber mouth guard down with a frown as they wiped his brain again. This was familiar to you, it wasn't to Bucky.

Every time he had seen you back then was like the first time for him. You never spoke to him, you weren't allowed to go near him, but he was still familiar to you.

In a way that was worse than others, he reminded you of Hydra, of being held there against your will, of being experimented on. Every time you saw him do something, whether it was sparring with Steve in the training room, or killing someone in an old resurfaced Hydra video, you were reminded that everything he was, was also inside you.

Steve watched on sympathetically and silently. He knew how much you hated being left behind on missions, not that you didn't love being here any other time. When the tower is empty and everyone is gone on a mission except for you it's the most lonely feeling, you feel like something must be wrong with you.

“What is so bad about staying here, where it's safe, where your only responsibility is to relax? You’re lucky to not have to go on a mission yet.” Tony continued to argue.

“Lucky? I'm lucky to be left behind? I'm lucky to have to sit here alone, feeling like some sort of burden or like I'm not good enough. You call me an Avenger, you gave me the title, you welcomed me to live here and you saved my life but how on earth am I an Avenger if I never leave this building?”

“You will be when you are ready!”

“How can I ever be ready if you never let me go on a real mission! What's so dangerous about this mission that I can’t go. I'm stronger than you think! At least let me know what's going on.” You pleaded, growing hopeless with this one-sided argument,

“Fine. Steve, debrief her, I have a meeting I should show up to at some point.”

Steve fiddled with his hands and avoided looking at you, so you sat across from him at the table and waited. He watched Tony leave the lab and walk down the hall before he let out a deep breath and then looked up to meet your eyes before looking back down. “We are raiding a Hydra base-”

“Like the one I was held at?” You interrupted but Steve didn’t mind he just nodded to your question.

“But it’s a kill mission, it’s not like yours where we were specifically going in to rescue you, we have confirmation that any assets that we could have saved have been...terminated. Now it’s just a sweep, kill and intel mission.”

“That should be easy! Just killing, it’s what I'm made to do.” You felt your excitement grow as you imagined what the mission would be like, how it would be fulfilling killing people like the ones who stole your old life from you.

“But they never altered your mind, they made you a perfect killing machine but they never took your mind from you, they hadn't altered your brain at all according to Bruce's tests.”

“Well, they never got the chance thankfully.”

“We are worried that even though you are programmed and capable of killing, that you won’t be ready when the time comes,” Steve said and you could tell he didn't want to be the one telling you all this but you were glad it was him, he was always honest about things.

“You’re worried I’ll panic when it comes time to pull the trigger and get myself killed? I know how to kill, just because I haven't done it yet doesn't mean I won’t be able to, I'm ready to.”

“You think that now but when you’re face to face with someone who’s pleading for their life, it’s not easy,” Steve explained trying his best to be level with you. “Some of us are also worried that going back there, back to a lab exactly like the one you and Bucky were held in, might be hard to handle, it’s a tough first mission for you.”

“I can handle it, Steve. I'm ready I promise.”

“Okay, I’ll tell Tony that I think you’re ready but I don't know if he will agree.”

“Thank you,” you said with a smile that he only half returned, he was worried, he always worries too much.

“Better strap in little one.” Thor teased as he gestured to the seatbelt straps you hadn't buckled up yet.

“I was just about to. Besides I’m not a little one, I may be the youngest but only by like two years.”

“Compared to me? You are a little one, you all are.” Thor said with a chuckle as he toyed with the strap on his hammer.

“Sorry, we aren't all gods.” Clint joked as he grabbed his arrows and sat beside you.

Nat was on your other side and Steve and Bucky were sat directly across from you. As you sat there, joking and having light conversations with the team you would notice Bucky looking at you from time to time, whenever you would look at him he'd look away, it was strange.

You would think that you and Bucky became close once you were brought into the Avengers, similar background and such, but he was quiet and reserved, he spent most of his free time with Steve or Sam and kept to himself other than that.

Bucky was one of the two who didn't think you were ready for this mission, he wanted to protect you from Hydra after what they'd done to you, both of you.

Although you were technically capable of doing anything Bucky could, you needed a lot more training.

Bucky watched as you nervously fiddled with your seat belt, as you laughed at Clints dumb jokes, as you cleaned and loaded your gun and slid your small knives into their place at the side of your thighs and he couldn't stop starring until you would catch him.

You watched him back, when he wasn't looking you would watch him as he stared at the wall behind Clint's head, as he loaded his guns and put his knives where he needed them, as he pushed his long hair out of his face and behind his ears before he would look over at you.

When Tony stood up, talking over the exact plan once more you looked up at him, paying close attention, Bucky stared at you. He watched you intently listen until Tony called out the pairings, naming you and Bucky to work together, then you both stared at each other, equally unprepared for that information.

When you landed and exited the jet your back was to Natasha as you looked around seeing if it was safe, you made your way to the base doors. Tony broke the way in and you all split up into your smaller teams.

“Come this way,” Bucky ordered and you followed him, your gun was drawn finger on the trigger waiting for anyone to make themselves known.

You and Bucky were set to go to one of the labs, it was empty but you and Bucky checked around anyways.

He tossed you the drive and you caught it with one hand, keeping your gun in the other. “Here, you load the drive.”

You just nodded as you plugged it in and began typing away, Bruce was at the main computer and he spoke to you through your own channel on the headset telling you the passwords as he figured them out. Bucky watched as your fingers typed fast, as you listened to Bruce with no questions or problems. You both looked down the hall as you heard gunshots, you stopped typing and Bruce asked through your headset if that was near you.

“It's coming from down the hall.” You answered and Bucky raised his gun, peering down the hall carefully, the gunshots were coming past the corner and he couldn't see who was the cause of them.

“Could use some help here!” Clint shouted into his headpiece and Bucky looked over at you, and then around the empty room.

“I'm going to go help him, stay here and finish receiving the data.”

“Be careful,” you said making him smile slightly as he cocked his gun and spoke into his headpiece.

“On my way Clint.”

“How long till your upload is done Y/n?” Bruce asked through the headset.

“456 files to go, so 67% done but it's going slower, must be larger files. You're the lucky one who has to go through these right?”

“What? You don't want to help with that part too?” He joked and you laughed but before you could give a witty answer your mouth was covered with a hand as someone pulled you back, your headset pulled from your ear and thrown onto the floor with a thud.

“Y/n?” Bruce asked but he got no response.

You elbowed the person attacking you and pushed them away but they pulled you down onto the ground with them, knocking your gun from your hands.

You reached for your knives but the person pulled them away throwing them across the room and then holding one to your throat.

“Y/n!” Bruce yelled and you didn't respond again, he heard faint noises of struggle but nothing else so he turned back onto the main channel with the rest of the team.

“Y/n isn't answering me, I don't know what happened.”

“Where's Bucky?” Tony asked sounding annoyed and worried.

“Running down the hallway back to the lab they were in,” Clint answered as he watched Bucky do just that, leaving Clint and Natasha to hold the fight in the hallway.

Before Bucky could make it down the hall, you grabbed at the knife, cutting your palms. You reached for your gun but it was too far and before you could try anything else the man stood up, pulling you with him, he elbowed the keypad opening the lab cell door and pushed you inside before closing it and locking it.

You threw yourself against the door and slowly realized that this cell was familiar.

Familiar in a very bad way.

You stopped for a minute as you looked around the cell, it was exactly like the one you were held in, you looked across from it and there was one there too, exactly like Bucky’s but it was empty.

Your heart came up in your throat, you felt like you would be sick. This was all too much, being locked in here again.

You screamed and pounded on the door as the man who attacked you started doing something on the computer.

You screamed and screamed as the panic set in, the blood from your hands smeared against the thick glass and your knuckles became bloodied from your relentless pounding.

Bruce could hear the faint noise of typing and your screaming muffled in the background.

“Any updates on Y/n?” Tony asked as Bruce turned back into the main channel.

“I hear, typing, “ he paused, worry filling his voice, “and Y/n screaming but it's muffled, I think it's her but I'm not sure.”

“Where is bucky!” Tony yelled and Clint and Natasha rushed, following the long hallway Bucky had just run down.

Bucky didn't bother updating Tony, he didn't have the time, he had to get to you.

“Me and Clint are following where he ran, he went the direction of the lab Y/n and him were in. We will be there in two minutes.”

“Two minutes is too slow!” Tony yelled. Steve and Thor where busy clearing out the other side of the large Hydra building.

Bucky rushed into the room, he shot the man in the head without a thought and then noticed you in the cell, screaming to be let out, screaming so loud he could hear it through the thick glass. He stood panicked in front of your cell, standing right in front of where he would have been at the old lab you were in.

It was weird seeing him there, it was familiar, you had been in this position so many times before, not that he remembered that.

Tears streamed down your face as you banged on the door.

“Stepback!” He yelled but you were too busy, consumed by your panic that you didn't hear him.

“Bucky, please Bucky! Get me out of here please.” You cried but you were blocking the glass he needed to break, he turned to the control panel and smashed it with his metal fist making the door open, you fell to the floor where the door used to be and just lied there, placing your bloody pams on the ground and bringing your knees to your chest.

Bucky kneeled down, grabbed your palms and then he grabbed your shoulders making you look up at him. You had a large frown across your face as tears streamed down your cheeks, harder than before.

“Please don't cry,” he said softly unsure of what to even do in this situation.

You responded with no words but a mere whimper as you just cried more, unable to control yourself.

“I can barely handle my own emotions, I have no idea what to do with yours,” he said softly again, not trying to complain but making it clear that this was not his area of expertise.

He pulled you against his chest wrapping his arms around you and holding you.

Your body was so tired and limp that when Natasha and Clint ran into the lab they thought he was cradling your dead body.

“Is she?” Clint whispered to Natasha as they stood there in shock.

You wrapped your arms around Bucky's neck as you calmed down, he whispered things to you, things that maybe he would want to hear too in your situation, it came naturally.

“It's okay, you are safe, I'm so sorry I left you here and didn't check hard enough, we can leave soon, we can go back home, I promise.” He repeated soft things like that, reassuring things. “You're safe, I'm sorry,” Over and over again as Nat and Clint went over to the body of the man who attacked you, they kicked him aside and finished uploading the files to the drive.

“Y/n is here, she's safe, she's with Bucky. Clint and I will finish uploading this drive and then we will meet back at the Quinjet in five.” Nat filled in the rest of the team on your groups status.

Bruce sighed in relief as the others finished up and made their way to the Quinjet.

“Do you need help, I can carry you?” Bucky offered but you shook your head, already feeling so foolish, so stupid for letting this happen.

"And embarrass myself even more? No thank you.”

“You shouldn't be embarrassed,” Bucky tried to assure you.

“This was my first mission and I messed it up.” You complained as Bucky helped you stand then you wiped the tears from your face smudging blood across it in the process.

“Messed it up? You got attacked, that's what happens on missions if this was any other place, a place that wasn't traumatic for you then maybe you would have handled it better, but you still did well. We got the information we needed and they are all dead. Let's get back to the jet so they can burn it to the ground?”

You offered him a weak yet thankful smile. “Burn it? Sounds wonderful.”

As the Quinjet flew away you watched out a window, elbows propped up on the tiny sill, resting your head against your bloody palms as you watched the large Hydra base be engulfed in flames, burning it to the ground.

“You okay?” Steve asked quietly but the whole team was staring at you waiting for your reply.

“Yeah, it feels good to watch it burn. I never got to see the lab I was held at being burned but this feels just as good.”

“You never got to see it because you were too busy unconsciously drooling on my lap.” Natasha teased as she sat down beside you, putting her hands out so you would give her your palms to bandage.

You smiled at her, you felt better already, it was only minutes ago that you felt scared and alone being locked in that cell, just like you had been for years. But you were safe now, surrounded by your friends who loved you and cared about you, who would never hurt you.

The fear, the pain and the flashbacks were all subsided on the ride home, then during dinner and debriefing. But it wasn't until you were alone in your room that you felt the walls close in around you.

You stood in the middle of the large room, it was luxuriously large, it had big windows and a balcony, you walked over to the window and pressed your bandaged hands against the glass as you looked out.

It made your mind go back to earlier. To being trapped in that cell again, banging on the glass doors. You quickly opened the balcony door and the windows to let the air in and then started pacing nervously around.

Freedom is overwhelming, the ability to have whatever you want, to go wherever and do whatever was too much, so you spent most of your time in this room.

A knock sounded at the door and you stopped pacing, looking at where the sound came from, thinking of who it could be before you walked over and opened it revealing a startled looking Bucky.

“Hey, Bucky, what's up?” You asked casually.

“I just wanted to, I'm here cause, I don't know why I'm here,” he studdered over his words.

“Did you want to come in?” You asked, thinking that he maybe wanted to talk in private.

He just nodded as he walked in, looking around your room and admiring it, you closed the door and then walked over to the balcony, he followed and you both sat in comfy seats, the wind was calm and refreshing on your skin, the noise of the city below was a welcomed background buzz.

“There's a lot of reasons I came here I guess and it's like my brain is trying to spit them all out at once,” he admitted as he anxiously carded his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath.

“Well, start with the first, then the next. I'm in no hurry.” You said with a reassuring smile.

“I'm sorry,” he said and then paused, looking down at his hands and then back up at you, “what happened today was my fault and I wanted to say sorry and make sure you're okay. I know how hard it is to go back in those labs but to be locked in that cell again, exactly like the one you used to be in, I can't imagine how scary that would have been.”

You gulped, preparing yourself to talk about this without bursting into tears. “Thank you, for checking on me, thank you for getting me out of there, it wasn't your fault that happened in the first place. Being in that cell again was terrifying, and then seeing you on the other side of it brought back so many memories of my time spent there, things you don't even remember.”

“I remember,” he admitted and you froze. “I didn't at first until I saw you, then the memories came back in little bits very slowly but after seeing you in that cell again, I remember everything. I'm sorry I sort of avoided you before, I was just worried about what I would remember, not to say they are good memories but just seeing your face is calming sort of, it's familiar. Not in the way Steve is, but not in a bad way either, just different.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” You agreed.

He was standing now, leaning against the balcony and looking down on the city, you stood up and leaned on the balcony ledge right beside him, elbows and arms touching.

“I much prefer seeing you out here, free.” He spoke quietly, staring at the sky and then turning to look at you, your hair blowing in the breeze, skin soft and clean from your shower, comfortable clothes on and no glass door, blocking him from you.

“I much prefer not seeing you tortured and brainwashed.” You offered back after a few minutes of silence, a smile on your lips.

“I'd like to see you more, get to know you better.” He asked as he grabbed your hand, intertwining it with his so gently as if he was weaving a piece of lace between his fingers. He pulled you gently so you were still leaning your sides on the balcony but now you were facing each other, growing closer by the second until you were pressed to him.

“Me too.” You admitted, smile wide as you continued, turning the more serious tone to a much more playful one, “we can bond over our shared trauma and similar scientific modifications.”

He brought his hand to your cheek and stroked it gently. “I forget sometimes that you're like a copy of me, the original is always better of course.”

“Well, I don't have any of the sick upgrades you do, like a metal arm.”

“Trust me you don't want it.” He said timidly as he moved his metal arm out of sight and placed the cold hand on your waist, squeezing you lightly.

“I like it on you though.” You said as you pulled his hand back up and kissed the tips of his fingers gingerly. He looked small at this moment, his cheeks blushed and he seemed not so much like the hardened soldier he so often presented himself as, but like the soft boy from Brooklyn with a big heart and doe eyes. You could get used to seeing him this way.

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cruddyborderlandstheories · 5 years

Text

SO idk fellas and felladies and those of you who know better, u know i don’t do too hot unless im constantly working on something so i decided i was gonna work off the stuff from the japanese descriptions of the calypso twins about you know... the whole ‘brainwashing’ thing

which is all well and good and then i was thinking about TFTBL while i was doing it and realized mmm you knooow only 2 sets of people have ever really “gone inside” a vault, being the TPS VHs and the TFTBL VHs and we know these two games were made within super close time frames to one another. SO i have a proposition for you, post readers: im here to suggest that Eleseer IS the Vault of TPS

tl;dr: i did actually do some talking about Eleseer being the ACTUAL Vault of Elpis (not the giant eridium crystal we see inside Eleseer) and that Tycho’s ribs was actually a generator/bigass key keeping the entrance opened. because that starry-background thing was also shown in the Vault of the Traveler and it made me go OH! those are the same thing. then eleseer must be inside a vault. because that actually makes sense. also the giant eridium crystal thing was just the Eridians’ version of the Claptastic Voyage turing the VHs into code.

and then i went, well im on the subject of TPS, might as well update my “the twins are going to use the chemical filth of elpis’s Vault to turn their followers into pseudo-Sirens like the Lost Legion Eternal” theory. so i did. and it was cool. there’s some concept art of the twins statues hanging out on a DAHL pumping station. and dahl did have a presence on pandora, but they were mining iridium, which is a metal. on Elpis, they actually did have pumping stations for the methane. which would make a lot more sense

also i go over the rakk-winged dude from the mask of mayhem again, because i mean... rakk wings... angel wings... i still can’t believe nobody else is talking about that.

oh also possibly the idea that the Commander Lilith DLC ties into the Lost Legion Eternal ties into the ‘creating Sirens’ thing that’s going around right now. As in, all 3 things would be: it’s latent in person -> some outside thing activates it -> now they have their abilities/physical change. bonus points for the Commander Lily dlc tying in this plant monster thing to Eridian ruins (the mine) and the gas to the Vault Key/Map (hector uses the key/map to mass produce the gas). and that possibly tannis wanting to create a plant monster army is just foreshadowing for her creating an artificial siren army in 3 to help us defeat the twins. because i mean... why wouldn’t she. plsdon’tlettannisbeevil

so hear me out for a second

you guys know im 100% unconvinced that eleseer is actually inside Elpis. We see that giant hole in the ground, we see those eridian ruins, we see tycho’s ribs. and that, sure that is believable to me, because Tycho’s ribs is built into the ground. we see parts where the ruins are sticking out of the cryo rocks (methane rocks? hm.)

from the giant pit in the center of tycho’s ribs

the entrance to eleseer from tycho’s ribs:

and we know that Vaults only open with a key, and that key only automatically charges once every 200 years (OR according to the Vault of the Traveler, be anchored somewhere and held open by the key) and/or the key must be charged with eridium through a Siren

and i think you might see where I’m going with this.

do you remember that easter egg? Moon = Key. yeah? yeah.

Remember, every other Vault that is opened in the series requires a Vault Key (artificial or no) to be opened, and it’s not open forever.

im going to pause here and show some pictures of Eleseer for reference. compare them to those pictures of the inside of the TFTBL Vault, if you could :)

i noclipped out of the normal area to get a full shot of the platform

suspended in this weird starry night sky

which should look familiar to you now

because this is the same kind of area the Vault of the Traveler leads to

both these games were in development around the same time and i don’t think this is coincidence in the slightest

in bl1 and bl2 we don’t enter the vaults, instead whatever is inside comes to meet us, so we don’t have a frame of reference for those two vaults.

however

these two vaults look nothing like tycho’s ribs/eleseer.

not even the outside of the Vault of the Traveler looks like Tycho’s Ribs. in fact all three of these Vaults look identical. unlike eleseer and its ‘vault’

u might be saying to urself, but cruddy there IS a vault that looks like this in eleseer.

im getting to that >0>

my theory is that the Eridian buildings/ruins on Elpis (Tycho’s ribs, that big shaft/hole)

is actually keeping the Vault of the Sentinel open at all times

and that

well that must take a LOT of power and eridium, right?

i think that’s exactly the purpose of tycho’s ribs

now im not a physics major but i would bet this is some sort of power generator

because of these pulses

and would it be so hard to reason that the eridians decided to build it in the cryo rocks/methane reserves of elpis in order to keep it cooler?

in fact i could not shake this feeling so i looked around on the wikia for tycho’s ribs

here’s a list of the areas in tycho’s ribs

compression chamber

exhaust port

maintenance access 42 (which im certain is a HGTTG reference)

observation deck

particle collection chamber

the most important of these areas i would say is

maintenance access 42, mostly because it’s explicitly stated to be “lined up with a number of energy generators” that then leads to the exhaust port (and from there, eleseer)

sooooo break here because im about to switch gears 180%

----------------------

guess who just realized eleseer might mean ele-seer as in [Extinction Level Event]-seer [where seer is a person who is supposed to be able, through supernatural insight, to see what the future holds]- because everything in tps is named after seeing/watching. we got the Watcher, the Sentinel, even the Vault treasure is being able to see the future. considering most things are named after mythos in borderlands, eleseer is actually not a single word in mythos and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh “ele” and “seer” both actually mean something.

that is, Eleseer should mean something like ‘prophet of the extinction’

That’s pretty metal

also no good, i guess

am i about to rewrite my entire zarpedon and the lost legion eternal theory? oh i guess i am. wheeeeeeee

oh, and given that this was the story summary of the game before the website was updated all those weeks ago, i think we know exactly what sort of extinction was being prophesied

cool? cool

doesn’t help that tannis hints at this, too

with her ‘mass extinction’ reference in Commander Lilith

“... mass extinction. i figured we had at minimum six or seven years before something like that”

(sorry for the cruddy screenshot i took it my first time through, am not up for playing the entire dlc again for that one line right now)

okay i might pull this back later on in this post, because i think i have a good idea of where to go, but just keep this in the back of ur mind. sorry u gotta deal with my dumb ass jumping between topics so often lol

---------------------------------

anyway, tycho’s ribs being the opening to the real Vault of Elpis. Yeah. I refuse to believe there’s a giant space place in the middle of the moon just hanging out. i’ve discussed in an earlier post about whether or not it was a pocket dimension fueled by Eridium, but i mean what is a Vault but that?

i mean if they need eridium to power the opening to the vault, they’ve certainly got that covered, there’s eridium EVERYWHERE in tycho’s ribs. that plus all those (apparent) power generators... yeah i think they’re covered

also somewhat off topic but have you guys noticed in TPS how rocks surrounding cryo get white/blue lines, rocks surrounding lava get red/orange lines, and rocks surrounding eridian ruins get purple lines?

probably from all that FUCKIN ERIDIUM

sorry i get off topic so much

anyway

i think that the entirety of Eleseer is the Vault of Elpis. That the entrance is being held open by Tycho’s ribs/Elpis through massive amounts of power/eridium

and it could be possible that using all that eridium to keep the Vault from closing is what’s causing all that ‘chemical sludge’ that mutated the Lost Legion Eternal into the pseudo-Sirens they are.

and remember that the center of eleseer is a giant eridium crystal? and apparently entering it teleports you inside and then you fight the sentinel and see the future?

i think that’s all an illusion. I wouldn’t argue that you go into the Eridium. sure. But i think that the whole thing in there is actually a program/hologram/illusion, or the eridian equivalent of it.

You remember in the claptastic DLC where the Vault Hunters are ‘turned into code’ and injected into Claptrap?

don’t you think that was like... really weird concept despite being canon? it’s possibly that was gearbox’s way (because gearbox did take over for that dlc) of introducing that idea as something that IS possible in canon, as to explain that the Vault of the Sentinel actually isn’t magic

and you might be thinking

what the fuck is cruddy on, this is super far-fetched

but it’s not!

think about it, the skybox is the EXACT SAME as Eleseer. which should already be ur first clue that something isn’t right, considering you can’t see eleseer anywhere around you. Even the map is the same. If you had a side quest open, you can see that the game still thinks you’re in the correct area. even though this area is LEAGUES bigger than the actual crystal. shit, you can even seen the enemies around you still

and what animation plays when you teleport inside the crystal? the same one as the lilith teleportation

all those circuit looking things. the same exact things that are everywhere on eridian tech, including the Vault Key from bl2

but you haven’t GONE anywhere

you’re still where you were before, the map confirms this, even the skybox confirms this and yet there’s no hint of eleseer actually around you

there’s more hang on lemme get the ~pictures~

okay you see that pink 2d fire effect on the ‘walls’?

if you actually walk up to it, you’re greeted with this grid effect locking you on the platform

and this effect on the floor

which you know, screams projection/hologram to me. i mean the fire is legitimately 2d. it’s flat.

also the Vault pieces that form the Vault of the Sentinel (ignoring that we’re already inside the Vault of the Sentinel

you know...)

they’re formed out of the floor. just materialized

which again... is really weird. and i don’t think this is a real Vault for obvious reasons (we’re already inside the Vault of the Sentinel, Eleseer is the Vault, etc etc) but also just look at the Vault in general

it looks weird

again, calling back the other Vaults we’ve seen in this series

they’re all made of stone/rock

the Vault of the Sentinel is... not? if it is, it’s shiny asf obsidian or something

either way, it’s entirely different compared to the other Vaults we’ve seen in the borderlands series, it’s entirely smooth with no markings and, while it’s broken into pieces to hold that aesthetic, it’s not cracked or anything. the broken look was likely intentional

too shiny

not a real Vault

~everything in this area is fake~

even the steps appearing as the sentinel walks down is just... not real to me

like the sentinel is the one controlling this tiny pocket dimension/hologram/program/whatever you get the idea

further proof by him summoning more structures as the fight goes on, from stuff to hop onto to avoid his attacks and barriers to hide behind

hell, he even crawls out of the ground himself at one point, as a bigger version of himself, which is probably the real version of him considering that one actually dies when we kill it, while the tiny one just keeps getting brought back to life and laughs at us

i mean cracks even appear around the floor when the big boy comes in, unlike every other thing that’s summoned from this floor cracks appear only when the Empyrean Sentinel comes in. the real sentinel

like this rock (iunno lol it’s the first screenshot i found) im saying the tiny sentinel and the vault he walks out of are both fake

the big sentinel is the real one come to kill us after getting frustrated we keep destroying his avatar

he’s feeling the gamer rage lol

and you know how when you kill a Vault Monster and the Vault closes, it drags it back inside? referencing the warrior here, because idk wtf the canonical thing is for the Destroyer given when Hyperion does

instead of being dragged into the Vault we see him walk out of, the one that’s right there in front of us, he’s dragged back into the floor

there he go

oh speaking of that Vault

yeah it’s not like any other Vault we’ve seen for another reason

check out the edges on this bad boy

it’s like a bubble in a bubble wand

good shit

meanwhile the Vault of the Sentinel is all crinkly and shit

like hmmmm i don’t THINK so

and when you actually walk into that structure? you’re just teleported to the back of the crystal you walked into

which should be another indication that maybe something isn’t right here

also the Vault Treasure, while inside that weird hologram/pocket dimension/program/seriously whatever you wanna call it, is probably an illusion, too. personally, i can see the entirely of this Vault being like a huge computer, that can compute the future of whoever touches the key and show it to them

We know Vault Monsters are tied into their Vaults, like the Traveler being able to teleport just like the Vault it came out of, the Warrior being the giant living weapon, the Sentinel is probably the guardian of the timeline or whatever. He probably has 3 faces to see the Past, Present, and Future. that’s my theory, anyway. i also noticed the one on the furthest left doesn’t have eyes, while the one furthest to the right doesn’t have a mouth.

which i thought was a cool detail to tie into that theory

anyway

i was going to regale you the tale of my lost legion eternal/Calypso twins theory

but like BETTER this time with MORE evidence

cuz i can and tbh that post is getting harder and harder to find every day

lemme just copy and paste the tl;dr for everyone who doesn’t wanna read the whole thing (i meaaan maybe do because it goes pretty in depth and im gonna summarize a lot of stuff plus im about to add more stuff here so)

“The whole Tl;Dr is that I think the events of BL3 are a chain reaction from Jack opening the Vault in TPS and that Zarpedon saw even further beyond into the future than Jack did with the 2nd Vault on Pandora. Bonus, the Lost Legion Eternal and the Vault on Elpis is the key to giving the Children of the Vault superpowers because the twins kept failing. Yes, that’s a reference to the cover art easter egg.”

So for those of you who don’t know, basically the twins claim to be giving their followers “special powers”

‘Learn special powers!’

and i’ve been thinking a lot about how they’re going to do that, exactly.

because Siren powers, well, there’s only 6 (supposedly), and you can be sure Tyreen isn’t going to give up her own. Now she could just be handing out Siren powers to high-ranking cultists after she steals them (like Liliths), but we see she (or Troy) is using Lilith’s powers on the cultists to teleport them on Promethea. so that can’t be the case.

But we do know about something that’s really, REALLY similar.

We know about the Lost Legion Eternal. and i’ve been thinking about them a lot.

in the post I go over some ties to Sirens, notably how Magus ones can fling slag balls at you, just like Maya’s melee override capstone, how Tempests have the same elemental wings Sirens get and can sling elements, one is literally called a phasewalker, etc, etc.

but they’re not Sirens. they’re super imperfect and just weird. like the slag balls aren’t perfect orbs like maya’s is, they’re weird and wobbly. the tempests wings aren’t fully formed, they don’t even have, as far as i can tell, actual tattoos

and how did these Eternals get these weird Siren powers exactly?

it’s explained that these ‘rashes’ and shit started appearing after Zarpdeon’s dig team was exposed to the Eridian ruins, specifically some vapors in the air

[callback to the ventilation shaft in tycho’s ribs, anyone?]

during her boss fight, zarpedon even mentions that the Vault is buried underneath a ‘tangle of chemical filth’

so it’s obvious this ‘chemical filth’ is what’s mutating her team and turning them into Eternals.

but they’re not like... always using Siren powers.

they’re not always ascended

they actually have a trigger to ascend. for one, they gotta be low enough health. but two... im pretty sure they gotta have Eridium on them

a lot of the LLE models have Eridium on their belts

like so. which is fair, you know? lots of eridium on elpis apparently because of tycho’s ribs.

but then there’s this

when the eternals ascend

when they come back down, they have eridium growing out of their chests/shoulders

take this tempest for example

im also not 100% sure what their ascending animation even is? it looks almost like they're throwing eridium powder on top of themselves? or stabbing themselves with the crystals? idek

maybe they’re just saluting/grabbing at their bodies as they change

there’s gotta be something there involved with eridium cause they certainly don’t have those crystals growing out of them beforehand

i almost want to say their blood has crystallized/hardened into those crystals cause if you look at Zarpedon’s death scene, she’s bleeding neon purple

just like Guardians do

which is fun

im also curious if this, in any way, ties into the Commander Lilith DLC. Like we know the plant stuff in the mine was more than likely mutated by the eridian ruins and that they’ve already gotten into everyone on earth

and Hector is using the Vault Key/Map to synthesize the gas to ‘activate’ the particles that are already inside of everyone

which ties into the Lost Legion Eternal in that they’re also not always ‘ascended’ (mutated), but they need Eridium (Vault Key gas) to become their second state. given these are both caused by Eridian stuff, I 100% can see them being tied together in some way. probably worded a helluve a lot better than i just did, too.

OHHHHH YOU KNOW I JUST HAD AN IDEA

okay maybe this ties not only into the Lost Legion Eternal, like you know what i was actually getting at, but Sirenhood as a whole. in that everyone is inherently a Siren, but only 6 are ever “active” at a time

and maybe Tannis can figure out a way to force this/induce Sirenhood in people. We know she’s the one who’s been studying both Sirens and the Vault Key (and Eridium) for the longest time. and now she has experience with this sort of deal with Hector and the gas. Maybe that’s why there’s cut content of Tannis going “oh is that why... nevermind” when talking about Angel’s powers appearing at 5 instead of birth.

s o oh man okay so the twins are going to use Elpis (moon is key) to create their army of pseudo-sirens

okay

okay oh man okay

and then tannis is going to reveal that she’s figured out a way to induce sirenhood in people like officially, none of that cheap rip-off shit and there’s gonna be an all out WAR of real Sirens vs fake Sirens

im just saying you know the game devs were all like “mmm we might introduce new skill trees instead of new VHs as dlc” and IM JUST SAYING maybe those new skill trees are already in the game and they’re gonna appear when the VHs get their own Siren powers (Amara gets an upgraded version of her own, like Lilith) and that’s why Guardian ranks are unlocked until the end of the story because then we’ll be able to buff ourselves with

alright yeah sorry i got a little too excited there

let’s ground ourselves back in reality

we know the twins are planning to somehow give their cultists powers, and we know that the Lost Legion Eternal are basically pseudo-Sirens without the need to steal and gift anyone Siren powers (which you know we don’t even know if Tyreen or Troy CAN gift the powers they steal. I’m still holding onto the theory that Tyreen passes them to Troy with the arm shake and Troy is the output and Ty is the input, but now isn’t the time to discuss this).

it wouldn’t be viable to give all their followers Siren powers ANYWAY, unless they find a way to multiply them (possibly a part of Tyreen’s/Troy’s powers? like being the main holder, but being able to gift it to others so long as you keep yours- could explain the ‘knighting’ looking thing Troy does with a cultist)

UGH I KEEP GETTING OFF TOPIC OKAY I HAVE STUFF I WANNA SAY

THEY’RE GIVING THE CULTISTS POWERS

YES

OKAY

we know in the mask of mayhem, Siren powers are indicated by Angel Wings.

What if the fake Sirens are indicated by something that’s not Angel wings. something that’s still wings- still holding Siren powers- but maybe indicative of a corrupted angel wing

like uhhhhhhhh

rakk wings?

yeah

yeah let’s go with that

you know like how bat wings are supposed to be demon wings and bird wings are angel wings okay yeah we get the tie-in

im just saying! directly below this dude (who is the cover art psycho, just you know, putting that out there, probably some sort of tie in to the gold weapons (high standing in the cult) and the robes and stuff. you knoooow you only get powers when you’re loyal enough or whatever, you know)

we have lilith with her angel wings, indicating her Siren-ness. which i don’t think is a coincidence

i got more though, because of the museum of mayhem

we know on pandora, there are hyperion pumping stations for slag and eridium, right? so if the twins were controlling some pumping stations on pandora, it’s a given that they’d be, you know, hyperion-brand

so in this concept art we see something like a pumping station, with a waterfall of purple goop, which you know, i immediately associate with those darn eridians annnnd

this isn’t Hyperion.

this is DAHL baby

and where did dahl have such a big presence and huge pumping stations all over the surface? (with bandits already everywhere, no less?)

elpis!!

originally dahl was there mining and pumping methane all across the planet, and, while they also had a mining presence on pandora before bl1, there weren’t any pumping stations there. they were mining for iridium (not to be confused with eridium), which really wouldn’t require pumps of any kind cause its a metal

so why is this pumping station considered holy holy holy? because it’s the source of their fake Siren powers

we even see, on the mask of mayhem, giant pumps with scaffolding and ladders all around them, they even have valves and shit

which, you know, are spewing vapor which could also tie into the gas that transformed the LLE

orrrr the purple stuff is just slag runoff from the eridium refinement process and cultists are fucking weird cause it could also just be a way for the twins to charge all the vault keys they’re collecting but damn it please let me have this lmao

i mean, why wouldn’t the twins go to elpis in search for the Vault that lets you see the future? that seems like a HUGE deal to me. especially for the two who seem to have this huge, grand plan in place. “you’re my most loyal follower vault thief, you just don’t know it yet” yeah i sure don’t let’s go to elpis and see what you guys have in store for us vault hunters!

man how fucked up would it be if us vault hunters had been brainwashed from the start to think the cult was the crimson raiders and the crimson raiders were the cult

now that’d be one hell of a twist

could explain why sanctuary-iii goes from orange/gray to blue/yellow with red graffiti on it

but uhhhhhhhh that’s a theory for another time because it is 2:07 in the am and im tired as FUCK

#borderlands #bl3 #borderlands 3 #wow sorry i just #really love the lost legion eternal #and i really hope they come back at some point #also there is space in the moon??? huh????#how does that work? it's gotta be a vault. it's gotta be #and i don't want tannis to be evil!#but seriously #kudos to gearbox if they tie in hector's plant monster army into tannis creating an artifical siren army #like actually she uses the info she learned to be like and then we have infinite sirens and break the universe #oh! well its latent in everybody so just like hector's gas all we need to do is #ACTIVATE IT!#plot twist tannis forcing more than 6 sirens to exist at one time collapses the fabric of the universe #that's actually the universe destroying power not whatever's in the vaults #oopsie

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marksloan · 5 years

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cristalcarrington’s icon tutorial!

a little treat for day 28 of my filmuary challenge!

i’ve honestly lost count of which one this is, but welcome to another icon tutorial! here i’m going to breaking down my icon creation process step by step. i currently am a mac user and all my previous tutorials have been windows orientated (which unfortunately were all lost in the great url loss of 2017). my process hasn’t changed much since then, but i have picked up quite a few new go-to tricks and i’ll be sharing these tips in this post!

anyway! here’s what you’ll need-

photoshop (i currently use photoshop cc so be aware that options and tools may not translate onto other programs/versions of ps) and yes, i do pay for my photoshop but if you’re in need of a decent, safe download i might be able to point you in the right direction so hmu

patience (believe me some of these icons have taken me a painfully long time to create) just don’t feel discouraged if things don’t work out perfectly right away!

a creative mind. please be aware that this tutorial is only for educational purposes. under no circumstance directly replicate my icons! the one involved in this tutorial is clearly fair game, but please try to take creative liberty with your work. what i’ve found a lot of fun is incorporating bits and pieces of what other people do into my own work.

further resources

if you need more reference/help, here’s an icon psd for you to have a look around while reading the tutorial or instead of the tutorial. again, please do not re-upload or redistribute.

please consider reblogging this if you’ve found it useful. or checking out my resources!

starting off

so today, i’m going to tackle a screencap for my ongoing filmuary challenge!

i tend to get my screencaps from google, so for this i literally just googled “mirror mirror screencaps” and selected a image from google images. when i’m not feeling lazy, i tend to go through the whole movie (great screencaps can be found at screencapped or kissthemgoodbye)

my first move is to open the screencap in the photoshop on it’s default canvas. the one i’ve chosen is normally the sort of screencap i’d go for-- one that has a central focus on the character and allows me to get a solid outline.

i tend to avoid screencaps that cut off the top of the characters head. i also tend to gravitate towards scenes that look easy to colour; if you choose overly saturated screencaps or screencaps that are too dark/light, then you will find it difficult to colour while conscious of the screencap quality.

base colouring

i then duplicate the screencap.

and then i set that duplicated layer to screen.

i like to make my icons super bright so i repeat this. it will vary depending on how dark the scene is. i prefer to do this to the screencaps as i find that it preserves the quality of the cap.

alternatively, you can use a psd-- my favourite as mentioned in previous tutorial is @blairsfelicity‘s icon psd which you can find in her tutorial here. my new method is just a whole lot lazier and i’ve been really enjoying the way my icons have turned out.

outlines

now here comes the menial part-- time for the outline.

remember to add a layer (unless you want to break your own heart by doing it directly onto the cap and being forced to start over (which i would NOT recommend by the way, crying over a screencap is as demoralising as it sounds)).

i vary between using the pen tool and a brush/eraser for my backgrounds. i like to shake it up depending on what i feel like doing or what the screencap would best fit. it also completely depends on whether i’m feeling particularly lazy or not-- if i have time to burn, i’ll use a brush. if i’m in a rush, i’ll use the polygonal lasso tool and refine my selection area with masks.

in this tutorial (due to my boredom of doing things over and over, this beautiful filmuary) i’m opting for the brush method. but if you want me to talk through polygonal lasso process which is a lot quicker and really streamlines the process-- then feel free to drop me a message and i’ll be happy to make another talk through.

i like to use a brush for my erasing, on 30-50% hardness. i like to use a diffused/low hardness so my icon doesn’t look too sharp and the background and model seem to go with each other more. i’ll go for a small brush size when it comes to detailing (for example, when it comes to profiles, hair etc).

once i’ve outlined the model, i select the area around her with the magic wand tool and fill in the selected area with either a brush or a fill layer. then i merge the outline layer with the new colour layer.

(these two examples are from another icon process bc im dumb and forgot to take screenshots)

there will be a full little line around the model once you’ve merged the layers. i just tend to fill it in manually with a brush.

now here comes the fun part-- the colouring.

make those colours pop!

as you can see, the screencap has a lot of colours, but we need to make them pop. i take one of the colours, make a new layer and just paint until it’s vibrant and bold. once you’re happy with your colour selection, set the layer to soft light and adjust accordingly.

i tend to go for softer brushes when it comes to facial features. the lips, to make them a darker colour, i opt to set the layer style to multiply instead of soft light, and paint over the lip shape with a light pink/red.

i always like to highlight the eyes to aid contrast in the screencap. i also like to fill all eyebrows in with a black (set on soft light) as well as the lashline, just to add further dimension and contrast to the model.

prepping the icon

this is what my screencap looks like with the colouring complete. as you can see, each colour is on a separate layer. this is so i can adjust/duplicate each colour accordingly. once i’m happy, i place everything into a group together.

i make all of my icons on a 100x100px canvas.

i like to edit the screencaps on their original canvas as it helps with the quality of the screencap as well as allowing me to outline accurately.

i just drag the files from one tab into another.

and then you can size it appropriately.

my next step is to select the same colour as the background and to paint over the white strip at the top of the icon. i do this directly onto my outline and then merge the two together. you now have the foundations of your icon to build onto!

final touches in the colouring department

there is honestly no direction that i could give you when it comes to these final colouring steps.

i like my icons to be very bright, so i target the contrast with levels and brightness/contrast layers. I like to also turn up the vibrancy to make the colours pop even more.

my preference is for the skin to be very neutral, so i try to combat the saturation of the skin with colour balance and selective colour layers (as well as another step i will explain later in the tutorial)

as you can see above, i place the final colouring all underneath the background layer as this makes it easier for me to place textures later on.

if you have problems with the model’s skin appearing too saturated, i’d recommend taking a solid fill layer of a black/white/grey and setting it to colour. place that layer just above the screencap and adjust it so it combats any saturation you might be experiencing.

textures and finishing touches!

clipping masks are honestly a god send for me. you can find them by right-clicking on the layers and selecting clipping masks. as you can see above, i use clipping masks to place a green texture on top of the icon’s background. i then layer above that by using further clipping masks, adding other textures and even layers to adjust the colouring of the background.

my favourite place to find textures are livejournal and deviantart-- soaked on livejournal is my go-to at the moment and i really enjoy evey-v’s icon textures. i also have my own resouces/textures that you can find here!

once i’m happy with how the icon looks, i copy all of the layers together and paste them under the background.

this is a super lazy way of sharpening the icon-- an alternative method is explained really well by @jennifergarner (aka the god of icons) on her icon faq page. i have used this in the past but after filmuary i’ve found a few little tricks.

i then just sharpen the icon and adjust the opacity of the sharpened layer depending on my preferences.

and then there we go---

my chosen export settings are just to go for PNG every time. this helps preserve the quality of the icon and help it look super clean and tidy for whoever wants to use it.

and with that, that’s a wrap up of my tutorial.

for other tips and tricks, here are some of my asks that i’ve responded to;

do you have any tips for cutting short/curly/messy hair?

hey, would you mind sharing a psd icon?

what are some of your favorite icons textures?

can you break down how to use different types of textures?

#icon tutorial #tutorial #mine: tutorial #mine: filmuary #resources

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