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gremoria411 · 1 month

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How to get into Gundam

Because fuck it, I was gonna do one of these sooner or later anyway.

So you want to know what this Gundam thing’s about, maybe you like the mecha design, maybe you caught part of an episode one time and want to catch up, or maybe you saw a nice piece of Chamuro fanart and want to go to the source.

But there’s so many shows and timelines that it can be quite daunting on first look, so this guide is intended to give a rough overview.

I would however like to stress two four things beforehand however:

This guide is not intended as “The One True Way” or anything. There’s no harm it coming into it a different way, and these are only my own opinions.

There’s nothing stopping you from just watching one show and leaving it there. You don’t have to watch every single show going, even I’ve only seen most of these, not all. Gundam typically has variations on similar themes - it’s very nice watching multiple shows because they complement one another, but it’s not necessarily required.

I am very much an insider looking out here, so let me know if there’s any details I’ve missed.

I’m not gonna recommend these on a “if you like X, then watch Y basis”, mostly because I don’t personally find genre recommendations helpful, so I’d recommend picking based on promotional material (vibes, if you will).

I’ll be using this chart, supplied by the excellent@l-crimson-l, to illustrate everything.

Gundam as a whole can principally be divided into three sections: Universal Century (or UC), the Alternate Universes (AU’s) and the Build Series.

The AU’s are below the light blue line, near the bottom of the Chart, the Build Series is within the bright green line at the top-right corner of the chart and UC is the big line in the middle. We’ll talk about each of them individually.

The AU’s

The Alternate Universes were conceived as a way to get away from the continuity-heavy nature of Universal Century and provide an easy jumping-on point for new fans. The AU’s are standalone and require no prior knowledge, and are thus an excellent place to start. Honestly, I’d recommend quickly searching some promotional materials (like posters) and just going with the one you find most appealing based on that. They are (in production order):

Mobile Fighter G Gundam (1994)

New Mobile Report Gundam Wing (1995)

After War Gundam X (1996)

Turn A Gundam (1999)

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2002)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2007)

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (2011)

Gundam: Reconguista in G (2014)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans (2015)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2022)

There’s side series and movies and other things besides, but these are the mainline shows, if you will. I have specific notes on a few of them:

Witch From Mercury - It’s of a shorter length than is usual for mainline shows, so consequently it’s a much smaller time investment than the others.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam - While undeniably rad as hell, I would recommend watching another AU first. G Gundam differs from its stablemates in a few key areas, and I find it helps to have a contrast to fully appreciate those differences.

Gundam AGE - is probably the only one I wouldn’t recommend. I didn’t like the art style and the technical explanations just got on my nerves, so I stopped watching.

Turn A and G-Reconguista are technically part of UC as well, but it’s not really crucial information so don’t feel like you have to watch UC first (I’m only including this detail for completionism).

I’ve found all the AU’s I’ve seen to be pretty good, so I’d say that which one you start with really just comes down to personal taste.

The Build Series

Is just kind of doing its own thing. The Build series is basically Buy Our Toys: the series. It’s got a far lighter tone, and I’ve had cause to compare it to pokemon prior. It’s also chock full of references and in-jokes to the other series.

Build Fighters and Build Fighters Try are the ones I’d recommend - they’ve got actual stakes and the fight scenes are really good.

Build Divers and Build Divers Re:rise I can’t recommend - I just find Build Divers aggressively boring. Build Divers Re:Rise is just okay - neither standout good or particularly bad. Its main flaw is that it’s a sequel to Build Divers.

The OVA’s are pretty much bad across the board - I’d particularly recommend avoiding Gundam Build Metaverse.

Universal Century

Universal Century is the big main timeline of Gundam, and is the timeline the original Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979 takes place in. There’s a tendency among certain fans to place UC as the one-above-all of Gundam, but I wouldn’t really go that far. It’s all pretty good, but I wouldnt really say one timeline is better than another (save personal preference, anyway).

Because UC is so big, it can be subdivided a couple times. The primary division is “Mainline” UC versus everything else. Basically there’s four-five shows in Universal Century from which everything else flows. As long as you know roughly what happens in these shows, then you can watch basically anything else in UC and have a good idea of what’s going on. These are (in order):

Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) - sometimes called Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985)

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (1986)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988)

With Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2010) as a nominal fifth (honestly I feel like you could argue either way).

The rest of the shows are:

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989 Three-Episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (1991 Movie)

Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory (1991 Thirteen-episode OVA)

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (1993)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1999 Twelve-episode OVA)

G-Saviour (2000 Live Action Movie) - nobody ever talks about or acknowledges this one, it’s just here for completionism.

Mobile Suit Gundam MS Igloo (2004-2009 Three OVA’s with three Episodes each)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (2015 Six-Episode OVA, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (2015 Eight-Episode Series, adapted from the Manga of the same name)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Twilight Axis (2017 episode, adapted from a light novel of the same name. Later rereleased as Gundam Twilight Axis Red Trace, with additional footage)

Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (2018 sequel movie to Gundam Unicorn)

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway (2021 ongoing movie series, very much adapted from the novel Hathaway’s Flash)

Most of the other series relate to events in the aforementioned “mainline” shows in some way, but a lot of the sidestories set during the One Year War require very little introduction (Thunderbolt, 0080 and 08th MS Team). Similarly, works set in “Late UC” (F91 and Victory Gundam) carry on from the other series thematically but don’t have any plot connections, so they can all be watched without any background knowledge of the rest of the Universal Century.

Compilation Movies

Just a quick note here - many of the Gundam series have compilation movies, where either a whole series or part of one are compressed down into a movie. While each movie compares differently, they usually boil down to this: Compilation Movies usually have worse pacing, but really nice animation.

One of the great things about Gundam is that different shows offer variations on themes, so seeing how different characters react to similar situations, or how different settings change their approaches can make it incredibly rewarding.

I haven’t seen enough of SD Gundam to make any sort of recommendations there, and Manga is something I might touch on another day.

EDIT: Oh hey also: You can watch a good chunk of these on YouTube, for free, officially. The Official Gundam.Info YouTube channel rotates the series shown on its channel periodically. I think it’s got F91 and SEED on there currently? But it’s had Wing, 00 and Witch From Mercury before. Also all of the Build Fighters series are there.

So yeah, that’s a thing.

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letters-from-dekarios · 6 days

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(Dreuer is a middle aged tiefling durge warlock. He’s a gentle old soul, and from act 1 has always looked to Gale as a source of information and reassurance.

Their relationship is one of deep affection and sharp academic rivalry.

Post game, while largely living and working together, sometimes Dreuer’s research into Bhaal and Bhaalspawn takes him away from Waterdeep. On one of his adventures, he writes Home. This blog is absolutely delightful I hope you are having a lot of fun with it.)

Gale;

As expected, there is a wealth of information in Candlekeep, more so that I was able to find in Waterdeep. The Blackstaff should consider expanding.

This however is not the reason for my letter.

You explicitly stated you had not removed my dagger from my pack and yet it isn’t here.

Did it walk off on its own or did you once again go through my things looking for a letter opener?

It is not a letter opener.

Gale.

NOT a letter opener.

It would be beneficial for you to visit the athenaeum here when you are able to tear yourself away from the Academy. You might learn something.

Let it be known I also met a very kindly dog. His name was Arnold.

I do hope my correspondence hasn’t left you feeling too envious.

Yours always,

Dreuer.

Ps. I found the dagger, it was under my socks. But you are still on thin ice, love.

My treasured Dreuer,

I am glad to hear your adventure is serving your mind well. I’ll bring the consideration up to the Academy once I have a moment to review your findings when you return. You know I must go in prepared before their grimy hands can go about devouring any new information.

While I love you deeply, it is disheartening to hear you believe me to be a thief. I would never remove such a crucial piece of your pack from you, especially not with the journey to Candledeep.

I’m not sure whether to be more offended at the accusation or the insinuation that I do not know the difference between a letter opener and a dagger. That mistake only happened once! Yet you lord it over my head as if I would ever repeat it.

On an unrelated note, we do need to begin labeling our medicine bottles. They look far too similar to the dyes we have stored away and I will not elaborate any further.

Perhaps I may visit someday soon, but the ink wasted in writing your accusation could have served you some groundbreaking study time. Save your pages for the books you’ve yet to read, dear.

Give plenty of pets to Arnold from me, if you happen across him again.

I’m actually having quite a lovely time in Waterdeep with the pure silence surrounded by the hundreds of books I’ve already read. There’s not a lick of envy to be found within my heart, swear on my mother.

Eternally yours,

𝑮𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒌𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔

P.S. I wonder how it got there! I may be talented, but my spells can’t reach far enough to move it. Maybe it was Arnold.

text reads: gale dekarios

writing this had me giggling so hard while imagining gale’s tone of voice. i can hear the sass as he writes it, repeating the words on dreuer’s letter in a mocking tone. like “yOu mIgHt lEaRN soMeThiNg” and then he goes and cries because he misses him and is definitely 100% jealous. ~kore

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pinkeoni · 1 year

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The Importance of Lonnie Byers in Season 5

After much theorizing and consideration, I am confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only will Lonnie be present in season 5, but that he’s actually crucial to the main plot of the story.

I’m going to first explain why I think his appearance will be important from an objective storytelling point of view and then theorize what I think his role is actually going to be.

TW: Discussions of child abuse.

Lonnie’s absence has created major unresolved conflict with both Will and Jonathan

I wanna start by saying that I’m looking at this from an objective storytelling point of view and not in the context of real world situations.

Lonnie has only appeared in season 1 and has not made an appearance since. In fact, he hasn’t been mentioned by name, only indirectly mentioned majority of the time by Jonathan. Will and Lonnie haven’t even shared a scene. This creates a huge hole of unresolved conflict between Lonnie and his sons. In fact, the only member of the Byers clan who has resolved their conflict with him is Joyce.

When Joyce is in an emotionally vulnerable state, Lonnie shows up and she clings to him, despite how much he belittles her. Eventually Joyce stands her ground, defends herself, and then demands that he leaves. We can see that Joyce has finally moved on from him once she has moved on to different and better romantic partners in later seasons. She hasn't even mentioned him, not in the way that Jonathan has.

In each season, Jonathan has brought up his father through dialogue. It usually revolves around Jonathan's inner conflict of fearing that he is becoming like his father, and that his father has affected who he is today.

And given that this has been brought up in every season, we see that this hasn't been resolved yet. Lonnie returning would be a good opportunity for Jonathan to come to some kind of self realization.

In the case of Will, it's pretty unclear how he really feels about his dad. Aside from a few lines of dialogue from season 1, we don't get much in the way of Will's point of view. However, I do think that Will misses his dad. I think this could also create interesting conflict between Will and Jonathan; Will is highly receptive of their dad coming back and Jonathan is not. Jonathan and Will have never really had any conflict before, so it might be interesting to see them fight about something. If everyone is on the exact same page about Lonnie, and there was a simple resolve, it wouldn’t be interesting to watch.

Again, as stated above, I want to be clear that I'm looking at this from a fictional storytelling standpoint. I don't think that abuse survivors need to confront their abusers in person in order to find closure, however when discussing fictional characters and character arcs, leaving the show without any confrontation from either Jonathan and/or Will would leave that conflict open.

Lonnie's absence tells me that they are holding out on something big from him

The fact that Lonnie has not shown up in the past three seasons informs me that when he does show up, he'll likely be the catalyst for a major plot point. Think about it this way, if Lonnie were connected to some kind of major plot twist (such as Will's powers) then it would make sense to not bring him back until the last season, because doing so prematurely could set in motion some of the larger set pieces that needed to be saved for the ending.

I think if Lonnie were truly unimportant to the future plot, then they could have wrapped up his arcs with Will and Jonathan earlier. I think he could have easily fit in to season 2, especially with the focus being so heavy on the Byers family in that season. But no, they are holding out on him until the very last season, which speaks to the importance of his role in the main plot of the story.

Lonnie is likely connected to Will's powers

Now that I've explained why he is important to season 5's plot, now comes the part where I theorize about what his exact role in the story will be. Namely, I believe that he is connected to Will's powers.

I'm not going to go into all of the theoretics involving Lonnie and Will's powers, that would just make the post even longer than it already is. I've made a few posts in the past exploring Lonnie's possible connection to the lab, which I think is highly likely. You can read them here, here, and here.

I have another large theory post where I discuss how Lonnie may have even been the trigger for Will's powers here, which relates to another long theory post I made regarding Will's childhood memories here.

There's a lot of different ways this could go, but either way, I think Lonnie is a major part of Will's powers and is likely connected with the lab. Will doesn't remember this very well, but seeing his dad again could likely jog his memory.

Lonnie could likely die, following a pattern set by the show of abusive figures dying

I've theorized about how this could go in a number of different ways, but the ending is still the same. If Lonnie were to die, it would be the third in a pattern of abusers dying that started with Billy's death and was continued with Papa's death in season 4. There also seems to be a string of deaths involving father figures, starting with Bob and season 2 and again continued with Papa in season 4. Either way, Lonnie Byers your days are numbered.

Here's a rough timeline of my prediction of how I think the season could go:

Lonnie returns very early on after the time skip. He claims to be there to make amends with and spend time with his boys.

Joyce and Jonathan are weary of his return and intentions but Will is excited to see his dad again.

Joyce decides that Will's feelings about his dad should be up to him, while Jonathan is more combative. This creates tension between Will and Jonathan.

Unsurprisingly enough, Lonnie is there for his own personal gain, probably connected to the lab. Most likely sent in by Owens

As Will discovers the extent of his powers throughout season 5, his childhood and the extent of Lonnie's abuse will likely be revealed to him, forcing Will to contend with the fact that his father is a monster

The above bullet is a mirror to El's arc last season with Papa. Except now, Will will likely be horrified to learn this information and will want to see his father as good as much as possible.

There is a final confrontation between Will, Jonathan and Lonnie which is likely the climax of whichever episode it's in, likely episode 6 or 7.

Lonnie's arc ends with his death.

I know that a lot of the details are a little loose toward the end, this is something that I'm still theorizing about and putting together. Regardless of specifics, Lonnie's importance and likely appearance in season 5 is something I'm still highly confident in. Let me know what you guys think, or any predictions that you have!

#lonnie byers #tw lonnie byers #tw child abuse #tw ca #tw csa #will byers #jonathan byers #joyce byers #stranger things #stranger things prediction #my predictions #my theory #byler #<- target audience #not byler related #long post

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iwonderwh0 · 2 months

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How do you improve in picking up on the correct meaning of scenes in movies/fiction/real life? Like sometimes it's easy, and when it's easy I feel like it is quite obvious if you just think about it for a moment, but the others times when I don't get something I'm just becoming aware of just how unaware I am with no understanding of how can I even improve. It's like being a kid again surrounded by foreign language that you can barely speak, constantly feeling like you're missing relevant context even if you understand the words. Just chronically at loss at what to think cause chances are high that I miss some crucial piece of information that turns everything up. In fiction it may be because sometimes I miss the historical or an overall context, but god is this frustrating when it happens. And it gets even more frustrating when I see no one else expressing this confusion, as if it's an easy and obvious task for anyone but me for some reason. The most frustrating part is getting this feeling when I can't even name what is it I'm missing, I just know that I do miss something. And I can get the story overall, but there's always just this nagging frustration, that feeling that I don't understand it fully, miss something important, something obvious, some relevant context the existence of which is in my blind spot.

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donniesexceptionalmind · 6 months

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HI! HAVE ART!

I have no idea how accurate the outfit is (and I suck major ASS at drawing hats) but I tried and I hope u enjoy :333 (I also made the lil clip thing for the cape the logo thing (???) yall have bc its cool >:D) (AND ALSO PLS PLS PLS TAKE THIS AN EXCUSE TO RANT ABOUT EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION OR SMTH BC I HEARD U HAPPEN TO RANT A LOT ABOUT AUTISM AND I AM V INTERESTED IN THAT STUFF!!!)

Me when J saw the art:

I actually infodumped about executive dysfunction before!

But I will share some additional information about it because you drew this amazing piece of art & I am very joyous. ✨️

Here is my personal experience:

Executive dysfunction can be really challenging & for me, it is a huge part of all the things that make autism a disability.

The everyday experience as an autistic person is already loaded with stress, anxiety & discomfort - and on top of that we are getting blessed with not being able to do things even though we need to. There is a barrier in our brain that says "No" & you can't do anything about it. You are perhaps paralyzed, doomscrolling social media or just staring at the wall for hours.

The outside perspective of this is always "You are lazy, you are not trying hard enough, just do it", but it is not as easy as that. If it were that easy, we wouldn't be struggling. Because, you know, we DO KNOW we need to get these things done & sometimes we WANT TO get them done!

In short, executive functioning skills are cognitive skills that help us to regulate & control our thoughts & actions. Planning your actions is actually a higher executive functioning skill just like problem-solving.

Struggling with executive functioning can look like:

Not being able to begin a task that involves multiple steps, e.g., cooking a meal - it's just too much to process, too much to do!

Hyperfocus: getting too absorbed in a task so you forget everything around you, including bodily signals like hunger, thirst, tiredness (although hyperfocus can also be a blessing to get things done and/or experience a large amount of joy, especially when it comes to our special interests)

Struggling to reply to messages in time (e.g. my inability to answer inbox messages even though I genuinely want to)

Struggling with decision making, e.g, which task do I do first, what should I wear? Even crucial things like 'Should I get up?'

What helps me:

ROUTINES. Honestly. As an autistic person I have a lot of terrible days, but there are also days that are not too bad. And the perfectionist that I am, on days that are not too bad I try to do as much as possible- which can lead to having a terrible day straight after. BUT I have established a very well basic system of routines & tasks that IF I stick to them, I will be fine (mostly). (If I were sticking to it. It's a struggle. AHEM.)

And it is OKAY to have rituals & routines.

We seek to replicate success when we experience it because it makes us feel safe, grounded & happy!

And also bring order to the chaos that is the world around us - it is REALLY upsetting to live here, isn't it?

For Leon it's incredibly hard to establish routine because of his ADHD & this is a whole new topic to cover.

And yes, it is fairly common that people of all neurotypes have routines.

The difference though:

My day will get significantly worse if I can't do what I have planned or if I miss a segment of an established ritual.

For example, if I can't have my lunch in the time frame I always have it, it will cause physical & mental pain - sometimes to the point of a meltdown if things add up.

As I mentioned before I am sometimes NOT coherent with sticking to these routines & that is because of internal ableism & my own ignorance.

I struggle to accept that I have a disability & that I am not functioning like neurotypicals. Their standard shall be mine, but I can't live up to that standard. This is a problem I still have to overcome.

I sometimes expect too much of myself & burn myself out, blame myself for not achieving goals etcetera. This is not healthy.

There should be a base level of respect for an autistic person's need for routine & compassion when it does get ripped to shreds.

The world is unpredictable. Unexpected changes will happen if we want it or not.

I hope I was able to provide additional input! /g

#IT LOOKS AMAZING #ME AS VAATI #donnie speaks #donnies exceptional mind #turtle net #the legend of zelda #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #executive dysfunction #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt donatello #autism awareness #autism spectrum disorder #donatello infodumps #autism #autistic thoughts

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arcanekai · 8 months

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Dear Detective | Chapter 7

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cw | mentions of bruises and scars as well as a deceased person

an | none

Previous | Next

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As Heizou walked into the precinct, he expected to see a pile of papers and files on his desk, however, he was met with the complete opposite. A single file was placed in the middle and it was rather thin. Laying on top of it was a piece of paper and a post-it note stuck on top. The post-it note was from Kujou Sara and stated that it is of utmost importance he solve this case as it was a request from none other than Grand Priestess Guuji Yae. As for the paper, well it read:

Dear Detective Shikanoin,

I have heard a lot about you and your expertise in solving cases. I wish to commission your help to solve this one. It is of great importance to me to see this case solved and you are my only hope in solving it.

With nothing to go on other than the emphasis of its importance, Heizou would have not taken the case, however, since it was requested from Guuji Yae herself, how could he refuse. With his curiosity piqued, Heizou opened up the file.

A cold case.

The murder of a Liyuean woman, Renshu Ong, occurred almost fifteen years ago. Her body was found buried in the forest of Wu Wang Hill. Married a man by the name of Hsin Ong, but he died five years prior to cancer. The autopsy report states she died from blunt force head trauma and there were multiple bruises and scars along her body. No DNA was recovered.

To the untrained eye, one would see this case as having no leads. Detective Shikanoin, however, is not your ordinary detective. The one crucial piece of information everyone overlooked, no soulmate mark. In the detective's eyes that could mean two things: one, she was born without one or two, she got it removed. However, based on the time frame that the murder happened, getting rid of a soulmate mark was a lot harder to do. The machines used to remove them could not properly remove it without leaving some sort of scarring. Also, the procedure is expensive. Based on the clothes she was wearing when found, she was part of the lower class. There was no way for her to afford it.

Since Heizou debunked the latter, that meant the victim was born without a soulmate mark. It was a little strange that there wasn’t much information on the victim. A lot of crucial information was missing, but his intuition was telling him that all would be revealed later.

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

The evening sky was at its peak when Heizou walked up the stairs to the Grand Narukami Shrine. He would have come earlier had it not been for Uesugi talking non stop, but he couldn't exactly blame him since he was telling Heizou what had happened when he was gone. Finally reaching the torii gate at the top of the stairs, he sees Kano Nana patiently waiting by the prayer box.

"Hey cuz. So, when do I get to meet this mysterious person?"

"Heizou," Kano Nana replied, "just in time. Our guest arrived not too long ago and is with Lady Yae as we speak. I'll go fetch them for you."

After waiting for a few minutes, Heizou sees a familiar mop of pink hair coming out of the shrine along with his cousin and an older man. As the older man approached him, Heizou notices the man has some gray streaks in his hair. Just from that, Heizou guesses that he is most likely in his mid fifties. He also noticed that he has the same icy blue eyes as Y/n and can't help but feel like she is related to this case in some way.

The man stood in front of him and reached his hand out to Heizou,

"Hello Detective Shikanoin. I am Bai Jun. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Thank you for coming all this way."

While grabbing Bai Jun's hand, Heizou replied,

"There's no need to be so formal. I'm more than happy to help, so it's no problem at all. But I must ask, why did you decide to have me, an Inazuma Detective, take on this case instead of a Liyue Detective? If I am not mistaken, this is a Liyuen case."

Bai Jun slowly drifted his gaze to the floor and let out a sigh before looking back at Heizou, his face stern and eyes piercing straight through his soul.

"As you have probably guessed, I have a deep attachment to this case. The victim was my younger sister. Although our family wasn't on speaking terms back then, she is still my family. This case needs to be solved in order for my sister's soul to finally be put to rest which is why I requested Guuji Yae's help. And trust me, I tried with the Liyuean police, but they are also the reason why it's a cold case in the first place, so there is no one else, except you."

"Well, if I'm going to solve this case, I'll need that information that was missing from the case file which I assume you have because it was never used in the first place, am I right?"

"Your assumption is correct. Although we are related to her, the police at the time believed that our little family quarrel was not something worth investigating. I have our testimonies, along with all of my family's records. I hope they will be of use to your investigation."

Bai Jun opened his messenger bag and pulled out a file folder, handing it over to Heizou with two hands.

"As much as I would like to be a part of this, I'm afraid I can't be away from my shop for too long. If you have everything you need, I'll be heading back to Liyue. I hope to see you there."

And with that, Bai Jun makes a swift exit, back facing Heizou, never looking back.

With all the information finally in his hands, Heizou bids goodbye to his cousin and Lady Yae Miko. As he walked through the torii gate and down the stairs to the entrance of the shrine, he utters these words of affirmation:

“I guess it's time to visit Liyue.”

#genshin impact #heizou #shikanoin heizou #heizou x reader #soulmate au #yae miko #kano nana

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morganas-pendragons · 2 months

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I want to tell a story about one of the best people I knew. Because he died today.

And he was one of the few people who pushed me to pursue my creative passion.

This is long and personal. Dont by any means feel like you have to read it. I just want it here for myself to come back to.

I moved to Illinois in August of 2016. Not long after, I was informed about a standing tradition in Indiana called The Covered Bridge Festival. I was intrigued. And since my mom was going, 18 year old me decided to tag along.

I remember walking down the main road of this event and finding a giant banner that said, “WALKING DEAD ART” on a barn nearby. I was perplexed. It was an antique show. What on Earth is art from my favorite show doing here?

So I went in and was greeted with the most beautiful art I have ever seen. I still hold to that, to this day. I remember walking into that booth and gazing upon that art: Art drawn by a man much older than me who saw the world in only black and white.

Hence his social media presence: the black and white guy.

I was so lonely at the time I had done this. I had just moved to a new state, had left everything I had ever known, to follow my family to a town I hated. And I was so lonely. So bad off. I just felt very.. lost.

I’ll never forget his response. Once I told him I also was a fan of the show, he asked me about that, and then I proceeded to spend the next three hours explaining my OC that I had written just for the purpose of Carol being able to keep a child.

Three hours. He listened to me talk about this for three hours. By the time my mom was ready to leave, she found me still in the barn, still talking his ear off. And he heard every word. I left that barn the same day with so much art and promises to return the following year.

Eventually I came to his booth so often that he started giving me his art at a huge discount because I was “such a devoted fan” (or something along this line) and it was so nice solely for this reason: despite him being an artist and me being a writer, we pushed each others creative passions. I was constantly asking him for art from different shows we both loved.

The last time I vividly remember seeing him was before he was diagnosed with cancer. My mother told me that he was coming over to the house but wouldn’t say why. I was so confused. I only met the man once a year, and now he’s coming to my parents house? Why?

This man, knowing my love for Carol Peletier, took one of his original art pieces of Melissa McBride and put it in this gorgeous frame. To give to me.

For free. Because he wanted to.

“I know how much you love her.”

At this point, I had spent probably 5-6 years expressing my love for Carol and Melissa every time we met. I only missed the festival once due to being too far away and in college. He’d driven from his little town in Indiana to give me this drawing, which now sits on my wall in my apartment. So do his drawings of Daenerys and Wanda.

I was working this morning when I went home for lunch. I had just prayed for him. He had been battling cancer something fierce, which caused him to miss the art show in October of 2023. His wife was there in his stead.

I haven’t been thrown off guard like I was this morning since 2015, when my choir teacher suddenly died of pancreatic cancer. All I saw was a picture of angel wings on his Instagram, and the words: Robin left.

He was gone. Just like that, just after I had gotten home for lunch. I lost my appetite. I lost my energy. I just… feel so defeated. I haven’t experienced death a lot in my life. Every time I do, it’s with someone like this. Someone who teaches me something so crucial, so beautiful, that end up passing away anyway.

My choir teacher in 2015 was the start of embracing my passion for much.

Robin in 2016 was the start of me properly embracing my passion for writing.

So.. Robin… thank you. I am so grateful for you and so heartbroken that you’re gone.

#tbd #personal #tw death

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thoughtsandbones · 11 months

Text

Revelations and Misconceptions

Simon 'Ghost' Riley x F!MedicDoc OC (codename: Blue) 💀💙

WARNINGS: Mention of alcohol, war, profanity, medical inaccuracies and just getting the POV of our friendly neighbourhood masked menace.

Plot: Doctor Ruhari Hari Kaur (OC is South Asian ☺️) joins the 141 again, but this time as their doctor. After the betrayal of Shepherd and Graves, Task Force 141 begins their hunt on his whereabouts and locating Makarov.

PLEASE reblog and like! Hope folks are enjoying the series, I am building up characters and plots, cos I have a lot ideas and just been enjoying writing :D

Song inspo: Sonne - Rammstein

A/N: Flashbacks are getting messed up when I am indenting them and I am getting lots of errors when publishing the work, please bare with some mistakes and spelling issues.

RAMC - Royal Army Medical Corps

I grew up with the OG MW2 game, so there are some references to the old one, so kind of a mix of both the OG and the new timeline... (Also I'm ignoring the OG Shepherd betrayal and keeping in line the one with the new timeline..)

spelling and some grammar mistakes as I am bad at times... :/

(FYI: bold sentences... that are like this... are supposed to describe redacted data/info to the plot... ;] .. )

Please do let me know how you all are finding this fanfic! :D

PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5, PART 6, PART 7 and PART 8

Part 9

LIABILITY?! FUCKING LIABILITY!! The thought rang through your head as you walked back to the training course and hand in the pistols and the cleaning kit.

You head back our from the base and catch Price and Ghost walking out from the garage, you hear Price call out your name but you don't respond, you just keep walking ahead to Building 2, quickening your pace to trying to increase the distance between you and Price and that masked menace.

Once inside you sprint up to the infirmary and see Soap waiting outside, leaning back against the infirmary door, head lowered with one leg bent against the door. Soap lifts his head up as he hears you approach. You take the key out of your pocket and Soap moves away from the door, giving a smile to you.

"Hey lass-" He begins

"It's Dr Kaur" You snap at him unlocking the door giving him a cold stare. Ghost reignited the diminished anger and you felt like you were on fire with rage.

Soap was shocked. Did I really annoy you that much last night?

"I'm sorry about last night" Soap said, following you into the infirmary, watching you go round the table and sit. The same look on your face that you had earlier in the mess hall. Soap felt nervous for first time in a long time.

Leaning back in the chair you take a deep breath. You look back at Soap with regret. You didn't mean to snap at him.

"No, I'm sorry sergeant." You say "I've been in a shit mood and I should not have snapped at you like I did just now" You add, sighing leaning back further in the chair.

Soap stepped closer, your face now relaxed. You gesture at the empty seat opposite you, and Soap sits, leaning close to you over the desk.

"Yer alright Doc- tor Kaur?" He stammered

You smile, "Doc is fine" you say. "Just a shit day."

Soap nods.

"How's the head" You ask

"Been better" Soap responded

"Still drinking water?"

"Aye" he says, pulling out a steel flask from his pocket of his fatigues.

"Good"

"I did not mean to say those things or offend you you last night Doc" Soap said

You smile, huffing a small laugh. The rage simmered down within you.

"So you don't think I'm pretty?" You say, widening your eyes, leaning forwards resting your head on your right hand.

Soap felt his cheeks flush has he washed your expression change to this doe-eyed look.

"I err-- what?" Soap said stammering. Seems like Gaz, Price and Ghost missed out a crucial piece of information from the events of last night.

Laughing aloud at the flustered look taken ahold of Soap.

"Last night you said:" you clear your throat

"Yer real pretty" you say mimicking Soap's Scottish accent. You laugh again, the rage now washing away.

"Ah Jesus" Soap says burying his head in his hands.

"It's all good, don't worry. We all say shit when we're drunk" You say reassuringly.

"It was the first time I tried sambuca since I was a young lad" Soap chuckled, lifting his head up. You were beaming, your smile showed off a slight dimple in your right cheek.

"Also, I don't want you to think I'm er..." Soap said, struggling to say the words correctly. "homophobic" he whispered

You looked at Soap shocked. "Soap, you are not. Most men are surprised when they find out I've been with a woman"

Soap was still looking at with concern in his eyes.

"How yer feeling after that Dr Jones fella?" Soap asked

You shrug your shoulders.

"Target course helped" You say, omitting the details of what Price and Ghost said. You didn't want to get angry again.

"Aye, you're a good shot" Soap said nodding at you. "Been impressed with your skills, even after all these years" he adds

You look back, pondering if he also thought you'd be a 'liability' in the field.

"Hmmm" you mumbled

On your desk, lies the black notebook. Suddenly you remember the tasks that lay within, mostly importantly, the 141 were going on a mission in two days and you needed to make sure their med kits and that they were fit enough to be deployed.

"Sergeant, you leave in two days right?" You say

"Aye, to Urzikstan" Soap says

"How's your med kit?" You ask

Soap lifted his head, pondered at the thought.

"Think it needs re-filling" He responded.

"Is Captain Price calling a general meeting before deployment?"

"Aye, along with Laswell"

You nod along. "When?" You ask, reaching for the black notebook, and flicking to a new page.

"Tomorrow afternoon I believe, Laswell gets in tomorrow morning so guessing sometime tomorrow." Soap says. "You comin' with us?" He asks, raising his eyebrows.

At that same moment, Price walks in, followed by Ghost who stood by the door.

"No, apparently I am a liability" You say coldly, staring straight at Ghost. Soap turned around and saw Price and Ghost and gave them a nod.

"Hari" Price said "That was a suggestion" He added

"That I'm a liability or getting the active duty status?" You ask, flickering your eyes between Ghost and Price.

"Yer allowing her to be on active duty?" Soap quipped turning to Price

"No.." Price said sternly, looking at Soap and then to you.

Ghost stood in the doorway, staring at the ground whilst he could feel the daggers you were giving him. A part of him regretted what he said, but knows that it is for the best.

Soap looked at you and then at Ghost, the looking tension flickered and began to rise within the atmosphere.

Your eyes met Ghosts. Was he even going to say anything at all? Briefly looking at your watch then back to Ghost, who continued to stare back, he finally broke his gaze, looking at his shoes. You look at your watch again. 21 seconds..

Price sighed heavily, noticing the staring contests, turned to Ghost and gave him a stern look. Soap smirked slightly; something happened between you two surely..

"Soap says Laswell is coming in tomorrow, I'd like to part of the debrief prior to the mission. I also need to check the med kits." You say whilst jotting down the notes in your notebook.

"Debrief is at 2pm in BR.04" Price said finally easing the tension. "You will meet Kate Laswell, Station Chief" Price added

Looking up, you nod and smile "Looking forward to it sir"

"Do yer need to do medical overviews Doc?" Soap says

"In what sense?" You say looking up to Soap, witnessing a sheepish grin appear.

"Check our vitals and all? Mission prep eh?" Soap glees

"Good shout Soap, routine health check ups tomorrow morning" Price concluded nodding to Soap, who nods back and then turns to Ghost, who was still in the doorway.

Ghost glared at Price and Soap, he then looked at you, continuing to write in your journal.

"Right then. Let's go lads, we as a team, have lot to do before our debrief tomorrow" Price says looking at the three members in the room.

"I shall send an email to you all this evening at what times I'll do these.. health checks.." You wearily say looking at Price and Soap.

Price smiles at you, turns to leave, Ghost swiftly left as Price moved towards the door. Soap sat in the chair looking at you.

He leans forwards and lets out a sigh, you look up from your notebook and weakly smile at Soap.

"Hope yer alrigh' Doc" Soap asks, eyes gleaming with concern. You could tell he was being genuine, and not at all cold and glacier cold like Ghost...

"Yeah, I'll be good Soap" You say, trying to smile.

Soap looks back and nods, he finally gets up.

'For the record, I don't think yer a liability, I think yer'd be great, being with us on missions" Soaps says and grins and gives a wink.

A light laugh leaves your lips. You watch on as Soap leaves the infirmary, the door remaining open.

You flick through to the end of your notebook, beneath a set of numbers, you jot down 21 seconds. You scan the column, ranging from 56 seconds to 14 seconds and to 1 minute. The amount of time Lieutenant Ghost has been staring at you.

It's understandable this guy has trust issues, but surely he has to have a valid no bullshit reason for not wanting you on missions.

You look up, and as the thought flashes through your nerves within the grey of your brain, eyes widening at the revelation.

Unless he knows about what happened in Siberia ...

#modern warfare fanfiction #simon ghost riley x doctor #fan fic ideas #simon ghost riley #cod fanfic #simon ghost riley x medic #cod mw soap #angst #modern warfare ghost #ghost mw2 #simon ghost riley x oc #ghost x oc #x oc

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iobsessoverfictionalmen · 6 months

Text

The Sounds of Justice (3)

Warnings: canon typical violence, cursing, non-consensual drugging, descriptions of character death, car crashes, lying, manipulation, mentions and descriptions of jail, guns, yandere themes, mafia AU, mafia Rafael Barba (trust me, he needs the warning), mentions of rape (not to the reader), and unwanted advances (nothing happens to the reader).

Chapter 3

“Is Abby usually that…” Sonny struggled to find the right word. “Excitable?”

“How do you mean?” Bishop asked with protectiveness barely concealed in her voice.

“When I showed her the analysis machines that we use, she linked her fingers, stretched out her arms, stared at the machines, and then said, “You are my babies and I am your benevolent ruler!”

Tony chuckled, “That’s our Abby.”

“Speaking of tours, we give you the tour. We’ll break into groups or pairs.”

You ended up paired with Fin and he escorted you around the precinct, pointing out the important places and most notably, the break room.

“What did you do before you worked here?” He asked.

“I worked for the Behavioural Analysis Unit as a profiler. You?”

“Narcotics. Worked there for over ten years.”

You let out a low whistle, “That would’ve been rough.”

“No rougher than working sex crimes.”

You leaned against the island in the break room, “Have you ever had a case where you realise that your case is actually part of a bigger one?”

“I hate those. It means more people have suffered. Usually there’s politics at play as well which makes it more complicated than it needs to be.”

The two of you lapsed into silence.

“What do you think about this one?” Fin asked.

You rubbed your eyes and pinched the bridge of your nose with your fingers, “I can already tell that it’s a bad one. Not only has your guy become our guy but Abby has located three other cases with a few similarities in the tri-state area.”

“She works fast.” Fin remarked approvingly. “We only recorded the third case a couple of days ago. Seeing as you guys are the feds, I’m guessing you have access to that data base.”

“She does.” You agreed “She’s a sleuth in the truest sense of the word. And yes, we do. If it helps, we don’t spend our time trawling through your data bases just because we can.”

“I’m not sure whether to be relieved or insulted by that. Do you think this case is part of something bigger?”

“The murders appear random. So far there’s nothing that connects them which means there’s nothing to tie them to our unsub.”

“Unsub?”

“Old habit. It means ‘unknown subject.’ Since there’s no connection yet, I only have a vague idea of a profile.”

“How does that work? The profiling?”

“Basically I gather all the information in my head, piece together bits of information that seem like they belong to the same group and create a portrait based on that. With the right amount of information, I can determine ethnicity, age, height and build and behavioural patterns. But I’ll only do it once I’m one hundred percent sure and I’ve collaborated with my team. Otherwise I risk getting it wrong and starting a witch hunt.”

“In all my years in narcotics, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Fin revealed, “The amount of sophistication that an operation like this would take speaks to me of a professional touch.”

“Do you think a gang could be behind this?”

Fin shook his head as he leaned against the cupboards and rested his hands on the bench behind him, “While I’ve seen some sophisticated gangs with the technology to pull something like this off and the ability to stay one step ahead of law enforcement, I feel like we’re missing something crucial.”

“What if it’s more than one gang? United under a particular person?”

Fin nodded slowly as he thought it over, “Smaller gangs can slip under the radar and they’d be more inclined to work for someone bigger in exchange for protection. Especially if they’re working with rival gangs under the leadership of our mystery guy. Question is: who? Who would have that kind of power to unite them?”

You let out a moan, “Which brings us back to our original problem?”

“Not only that. We’re no closer to figuring out why and how your boy was involved.”

“Well, how did you find out about your guy?”

“Witness called in a failed rape. Said that the intruder burst into his home and shot straight towards him. Grabbed his clothes and tore them. Just before things could get worse, the intruder keels over and dies.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” Fin confirmed. “Victim was pretty shaken.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet.”

Footsteps reached yours and Fin’s ears at the same time and Tony appeared in the doorway to the break room. You knew it was serious when he didn’t make a quip about you finding the break room first like he normally would have.

“Anonymous caller just phoned in that there is another victim.”

“Same MO?” Fin questioned.

“Looks like it,” Tony replied heavily.

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cookidoodle · 10 months

Note

Greetings!

I've stumbled upon your "OMORI'S Gameplay/Pacing" post while searching for critical OMORI opinions because damn these are nigh-impossible to find in this fandom lol. I couldn't tell you how relieved I felt when I saw that somebody actually noticed the flaws I noticed as well and realized there isn't anything wrong with me for seeing them!

[LARGE, ANGRY, INCOHERENT AND SPOILERY RANT AHEAD. IF I MISSED ANY CRUCIAL INFORMATION, PLEASE, LET ME KNOW.]

If I may add my two cents into the criticism pile, the biggest and most insurmountable issue I have with this entire game is the Truth itself. I genuinely find it impossible to reconcile the game's nearly* pitch-perfect portrayal of how trauma and grief affect people with how contrived and, frankly, out of left field the game's root cause of said trauma and grief is.

IIRC, there is one - and I cannot stress this enough - ONE piece of clear set-up to the big argument in the entire game, that being the "Saturday Morning Cartoons" memory from Lost Library. And even then, the memory doesn't seem to indicate that Sunny resented Mari herself for her perfectionism, so this sudden leap from "aw man this sucks I'll miss out on cartoon time :(" to "I'M SO TIRED FROM PRACTICING OVER AND OVER CAN'T MARI SEE THAT I'M JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH???" isn't really convincing to me.

That brings me to the primary reason I felt the reveal kinda falls flat - there wasn't any clearly established sibling tension between Sunny and Mari. We don't even get to see what Mari was actually like while she was alive - all that we know of her before the plot twist is filtered through the "don't speak ill of the dead" rule and Sunny's Headspace. In both instances, the game shills her as the Bestest Girl so hard that you'd be forgiven for thinking she's the second coming of Christ. And even when we see what is (allegedly) her spirit, she's shown to be nothing but kind to Sunny in addition to being rather non-plussed by her own death, which is hilarious.

In a fairly recent (and, unfortunately, deleted) interview, even Omocat themself claimed that Mari is a person who seems perfect on the outside but hides a lot on the inside, and it's such a huge shame that what she hid on the inside wasn't explored by the game itself at all.

I'm not even going to question where Sunny and Mari's parents were when the whole argument went down (although that's a very valid question too). What I am going to point out, however, is the fact that the entire plot of the game hinges on the right man being in the right place at the right time to witness the argument and get the idea to make the manslaughter look like a suicide. The sheer improbability of something like this happening destroyed my suspension of disbelief and, consequently, my immersion in the plot.

(also - and this is very minor, but incredibly funny nonetheless - the Truth sequence is happening entirely in Sunny's subconscious, but the photos you collect are from Basil's point of view. Sunny and Basil have a convenient telepathic link, ig)

The main aspect of what makes the plot twist come out of left field to me is the lack of clear foreshadowing/set-up to Basil being the one to string Mari's body up on the tree. Like, there's no flashback/photo/whatever showing... idk, Sunny and the gang helping Basil with his garden and one of Basil's friends noting his strength despite his outwardly frail frame? Maybe the game could've also shown plant pots held by hanging knots in Headspace!Basil's house (or in that hypothetical flashback/photo/whatever of Basil's garden I was talking about) to foreshadow Basil's ability to tie a noose? Sorry if this makes no sense, I'm making all of this up on the fly

(of course, that leaves the question of "Why was staging a suicide Basil's first idea?" and I have no answer to that. The game doesn't seem to have one either. Maybe it could've hinted at Basil being a true crime fan or something? lmao)

Honestly, the plot twist is a such a huge stain on the game for me that it's actually very painful. I want to like the game! I like the characters! I love the way the game handles the topics it handles! And yet the plot twist's ugly shadow just hangs over everything and it's so incredibly stupid that it prevents me from enjoying the game to the fullest. I like plots that make sense, y'know?

All of this is why I firmly believe that Mari should've actually committed suicide instead. Have the game show (or at least hint at) Mari's stresses and the huge responsibilities her family places on her due to her being the eldest sibling and the "golden child". Establish the sibling tension. Drop clear hints that Sunny began to slowly resent Mari for being so overly uptight and critical of him (and probably because she's the golden child). Maybe have Sunny go on a bitter rant against her after breaking his violin and have this rant, in combination with the aforementioned stresses, be what ends up pushing Mari to kill herself. IMO, that'd also give Sunny a good reason to be silent - from his point of view, his sister took her life precisely because of his words. At least that'd be far more realistic than two 12-year-olds staging a suicide.

And even if the suicide isn't the preferred option, the game still should've actually set up some sort of tension between Sunny and Mari/fleshed out Mari's personality.

...Whew. I profusely apologize for writing this large rant out. (and for any grammatical mistakes there are)

TL;DR: These characters really deserved a better story.

*Inserting a jaunty banger pop song into a cutscene of a child throwing himself off a roof wasn't Omocat's brightest idea.

Oh dear oh my that's quite a lot! But I do agree with a lot of your sentiments!

Since you brought it up, there has been a lot of contention about what Sunny and Mari's relationship really was. We don't really get to see the ugly side of their relationship so there isn't any build up except that one line in the library about missing afternoon TV with friends.

One could argue that Sunny repressed literally everything that had to do with the unperfect side of his relationship with his sister but why wouldn't we as players get to see more of that slipping through the cracks. That argument only holds water if there's much substance to it but it just feels like a cop-out. Yeah we spend a lot of time in Sunny's mind and yes he's an unreliable narrator but this is a game and a story. Failing to tell that story or at least explain it is a failing on the game.

There's too much left vague and in the air about it. So much so that it had some people in the fandom arguing over whether Mari was abusive or not. The issue is we have no evidence either way. I guess it leans towards her being fine, just strict but there's literally nothing to show for any bad side of her anyways so it's all speculation.

The only glimpses we have are the Argument where Mari glowers over Sunny, towering over him with hair in her face. We also get a very hard to find line on the second day when everyone has left for the Last Resort. If you, with Mari in your party, decide to run around as Omori on the beach, Mari will tell you to slow down. Continuing to run will make her say something like "what did I just tell you?" or "don't make me raise my voice!" and then the run ability is disabled.

What the hell does that mean!?

You're right, aside from these points Mari is perfect and can do no wrong. It's implied she's a perfectionist who pressured Sunny to be perfect but we have no scale to assess that this means. Did she force him to play the violin until his fingers bled or did he do that on his own because he felt like he couldn't disappoint her. Was she being overly demanding? Was she being forceful? Was she abusive or was Sunny just so afraid to talk to her he just exploded?

I've seen some argue that Sunny's mental illnesses prevented him from raising these issues to his friends/family regardless. And I guess that would be fine but due to this inability to communicate he accidently commits manslaughter. Pretty big "oops" right?

I would argue that Kel and Hero would've been more likely to have a tense sibling relationship than Sunny and Mari. We literally see that Hero is the golden child in his family while Kel is the one who gets scolded. Their shared room is literally split down the middle.

Kel is the C student, canonically shown to hide his feelings behind a smile. Hero is the town's...Hero. I could see Kel eventually letting his feelings boil over and confronting his older bro over something like this, especially when he was younger and more immature. But I think I've gotten off track.

I kind of let this devolve into complaining, but I do see your points and agree with them. OMORI isn't a terrible game, I just wish there was more. More intentionality, more content (in terms of story explanation and context)—just more definitive evidence to go off of when evaluating character studies, relationships, and plot details. There's a lot there they could have shown and maybe in previous versions of the game it was there, but in our version of the game these things aren't present.

Like Basil's grandmother who had so much content made of her in the game's demo and concept art who dies off screen where we never meet her. The wishy-washy Hooligans who either are Basil's tormentors and bullies or just harmless pizza eating teenagers. We barely get to see Sunny's true thoughts on ANYTHING despite playing from his POV the entire game due to him repressing it all.

I get that repression is very real and the brain tries to protect itself from trauma in very different ways, but from a game perspective a lot of this content existed in previous builds and concept art and stuff. Where did it goooo? :(

I think I lost the plot but dear readers get to read your frustrated rant as well as mine. I'm a bit too tired to say anymore, gnight.

#cooky speaks #cooky talks #OMORI #OMORI Spoilers #Spoilers #woodchipp #asks

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seoness · 2 years

Text

Writing Guide of ASOIAF/GoT

|| Part 1 of 2

Welcome to the first part of my writing guide, we'll begin with looking at writing fanfiction in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire and general tips on writing. A second part will be made regarding the character of Sandor Clegane. I did this because to write a believable Hound you need a believable world.

I am by no means an authority. Take what tips you wish and ignore the rest or ignore it all. I've spruced in some gifs to break up the text a bit. 💃

Helpful links 🚀

Interactive Map of Westeros

The most detailed timeline of the books (fan-made)

The ASOIAF wiki

Study the books

"But I want to write fanfiction set in the show?" Doesn't matter. Think of it like this: the show is a rendition of the books (at least the earlier seasons), so if you write fanfiction about the show you, in turn, write a rendition of a rendition. The further in the rendition line we go, the more we run the risk of losing accuracy in portrayal. You don't need to read the whole book series but reading the chapters where, for example, the Hound is present will give you so much more meat on your bones. There are excellent collections of excerpts floating around on the internet so no need to cough up coin (my only advice is not only reading excerpts from Sansa Stark but Arya Stark as well if your goal is to gain a better understanding of the Hound).

Smaller details/answers to questions can often be found in the ASOIAF wiki so - as I said - there is no reason to read the whole series.

Remember the times

Traveling takes time and effort. Avoid giving your character jetpacks like they had in the last seasons of GoT.

Use garment types that fit into the world. Breeches, doublets, cloaks, boots, underdress, hairnets, etc.

If you are doing battle scenes get some general knowledge of fighting. Two YouTube channels I've found informative:

Jill Bearup

Schola Gladiatoria

Hopefully, these two aren't problematic. Use caution when browsing "historical" YouTube. Some channels quickly divert into... well, someone trying to make you believe that wokeness is the greatest threat to humanity... I'll just leave it at that 🫠

Know the names of some armor pieces.

Dialogue - Class Difference

One way GRRM differentiates speech between smallfolk and nobles is if the person shortens their speech. For example:

Nobility: "I did not see them passing the bridge, my lord."

Smallfolk: "Ain't seen 'em passing the bridge, m'lord."

Servants that are expected to be in close relation with nobility mimic their way of speech.

Be careful with the usage of certain words

Some vocabulary we use isn't used in the show or the books, and using them in your text will make the story feel too modern.

Avoid personal titles of miss, mister, and sir (not to be confused with the knight title of Ser).

In describing scenes consider avoiding modern comparisons unless your OC has been transported from our world to Westeros. For example:

"Things moved in slow-motion."

"He pictured himself as King of the Seven Kingdoms."

Be careful not to overwhelm your reader with descriptions

This, admittedly, is something I struggle with as well. It doesn't matter how beautiful your prose is, how vivid you paint the world of Westeros if it becomes too heavy to take in. If you're writing longer scenes, remember that it needs to be a balance of describing and moving the story along. Having a good pace is crucial to keep people reading.

But here are some concrete things to keep in mind.

Don't overstuff your sentence with unnecessary wording. For example:

Stranger stomped angrily at the ground as Sandor quickly pulled at the reigns.

Remove unnecessary descriptions.

Stranger stomped at the ground as Sandor pulled (alt: yanked) at the reigns.

Don't be afraid of simple dialogue tags like said, replied, and answered, and to some extent, using none. There is nothing wrong with adding an alternative here and there, but dialogue and action are usually enough to indicate tone, infliction, etc.

Keep your sentence-length varied. I like to imagine writing as listening to music. You want the text to flow, and to feel alive and the length of your sentence is as valuable as the wording itself. Keep it short. Perhaps ask a question here and there to engage your reader? It keeps your text from becoming rigid and monotone, but be conscious about its use. Shorter sentences will make time move quicker. Longer sentences will make time move slower and display a more calm and calculating environment.

A quick observation on the depiction of canon fem-characters

As an example, I will use the typical OC build of having your character be a part of the Stark family. Usually, in OC x Sandor Clegane, it is a female and either true- or bastardborn. Here, other females in the family can become very unflattering in their depiction. There is nothing wrong with having your OC be at odds with the female characters, but try to keep the canonical traits of the females in mind. Especially Sansa Stark and her mother, Lady Catelyn Stark. Study them for a bit, look into what their reactions would be, and you'll have a more believable depiction and potential conflict.

For example, if your OC is bastardborn, Catelyn Stark would probably show your character the same treatment as Jon Snow. Never saying your name, never speaking to you, treating you as nothing more than air. Lady Catelyn Stark is usually written as the epitome of a true lady, keeping true to the Tully words of Family, Duty, Honor.

It goes into my next pointer of believable consequence and reaction, but this area, in particular, can make your OC feel like a "pick-me". A "not like other girls"-type.

There is nothing wrong with writing a female character that goes against the grain, but unless it's a part of character growth for her to realize that it shouldn't be done while bashing other women, try to be cautious in that area.

And if you recognize that you've done something like this, then please do not see this pointer as me "calling you out", "throwing shade", or "hating". I've made this mistake too. And writing a pick-me doesn't even have to be a mistake. A writer could certainly do something interesting with that character and their growth.

At the end of the day, writers are humans, and our biases and prejudice bleed through to the page. All anyone can do is try to be conscious of them.

Believeable Reactions

Westeros is not a kind place and it takes quick note of those that stand out. Your characters shouldn't be exempt from facing consequences for their actions/behavior, and in that place? Hells, they are more often severe than not. The older your character gets, the more the pressure will grow to conform to society. If your character is bold, the easiest way to circumvent consequences is having them be in a position of power that makes them untouchable. Think Daemon Targaryen from HOTD.

Your character shouldn't be all-knowing

There should be gods, customs, and places that are new to them. We may have watched the show and know who's good or bad, but that shouldn't be extended to an OC. Perhaps you write a jack-of-all-trades, but they shouldn't be an expert in all those areas. Basically, prevent your character from being a Mary Sue/Gary Sue.

Editing is a bitch and your best friend

There is something you can do to up your editing game if you got the coin.

Spellchecking software: I use Grammarly. It's expensive and far from perfect. It gives quick feedback, but it can sometimes miss errors and give faulty advice.

My biggest editing tip is to use text-to-speech software. While reading aloud to yourself is free, the issue is that you "know" how it's supposed to sound. The software doesn't. It reads what's there. I use Natural Readers, but that's just one of many available for personal use. It takes more time, but I find that the result is far better than using spellchecking software on its own.

Let text rest. This is completely free, but returning with fresh eyes can be a game changer.

Have Fun! 🎉

Above all else, have fun. Fanfiction is just the love of stories, so don't be too harsh on yourself. This a courtesy that should be extended to writers as well, some are really young and are brave enough to share their work early on in their writing journey.

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shadow-von-vamp · 1 year

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I'm sorry what happened?? Dadow?? Silver?? Is this a Fanon thing or am I missing a crucial piece of Canon information pls explain :')

it’s a fanon thing! since shadow is supposed to be immortal and silver is from the future some people like the play with the idea of shadow being his dad (either adopted or biological)

some people also like it since galahad is lancelot’s son in arthurian mythos and in satbk silver is galahad and shadow is lancelot :)

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squadron-of-damned · 1 year

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Find the Words

Search your works for the given words and post the context of what you find! My given words (from @ziskandra) were roast, love, shade & inclination.

ROAST

If you ever get strangled in Thedas and find yourself surrounded by the darkspawn, don't set fire to them. Trust me. The smell is not worth it. That advice goes for electricity too, because it also basically fries them. I had to throw two fire flasks to learn that lesson. Don't repeat my mistakes.

“They smell like lamb roast,” Leliana sighed and kicked a charred corpse.

“Yeah, but don't eat them,” Alistair warned her promptly. “It's practically poison. The taint will get you and turn you into a ghoul.”

I said. “Here is a thought – does that apply to Grey Wardens too? We are immune to the taint... in the very specific meaning of the word.” I noticed Alistair turning very green which meant he now was thinking about it, so I added: “Or maybe forget it. I have a vague idea where these things have been. Not even a ton of garlic could probably fix that.” Besides, I never have grown of lamb or sheep on the table. Most likely because I wasn't really used to it, but it just never vibed with me.

LOVE

“You seem incredibly at ease in our mismatched company,” Viviene remarks as she carefully pours herself another glass of eggnog. The eggnog has been Josephine's briliant idea: Everyone would drink eggnog at least a little so any potential tension would loosen up, but it wasn't wine in which certain people would try to drown, nor it was a beer which would look too informal. Everyone was just the right amount of tipsy.

Anora carefully dabs the corner of her mouth with a napkin. “Well, we both are used to what Master Tethras so aptly described once as a ‘merry band of misfits’.”

“Indeed,” Alistair smiles warmly: “Between a large ominous Qunari, a dark-skinned fellow of foreign morals flirting around the table, a dwarf with undisclosed past in charge of stopping the end of the world, a proficient mage of your cold demeanour, and Leliana I feel right at home.”

“The only change is the availability of cutlery,” Leliana notes at the same time Bull claims that there is nothing ominous about him. “And you no longer smiting people. I miss that, honestly. It would solve so much problems if you did some good smiting.

Alistair chuckles. Perhaps the eggnog wasn't that good idea after all, how much has he had? “You have no idea how much I'd love to! But unfortunately I am married and I have to run a whole country, I can't just sod off to another gruesome adventure.”

Anora pinches his cheek as if to say: “I am so glad you have more sense than Cailan.”

SHADE

Barok slowly turned to him and tilted his head to side: “Are you not a defence attorney, Mr. Naruhodou? I distinctly remember you having a Nipponese badge marking you as one, and the license to practice.”

The crucial moment of every trap is when the pry walks into it willingly. A mouse springs the trap breaking it’s neck when it picks up a piece of lard, a hare places its leg in a snare when pursuing greener grounds. And Professor Kowa…

Professor Kowa spoke to destroy any semblance of Naruhodou’s competency: “He had received his license from a proved murderer. Such a paper holds no weight in the unblemished courts of Japan.”

And now for the final gamble, Barok spoke with a thoughtful hum: “That is… true, yes. I had received my license from the hands of the same man, in fact. It is therefore impossible for me to prosecute. My apologies, Professor Kowa. After all these preparations, this example trial cannot be carried out after all.” He watched as the colour drained from the teacher’s face shade by shade, as Naruhodou’s somewhat reluctant translation settled in for him.

INCLINATION

“Someone is following us,” Javert whispers.

“Here?” Valjean eyes suspiciously the trees sunk in darkness. It began raining and there seems to be little inclination of it to stop. In a desperate attempt to find some kind of a shelter, Valjean has lead them downhill into the forest. The countless leaves are a poor roof leaking in many places, but it is at least something.

“Who could be following us here?” Valjean hushes his voice like Javert.

The diviner looks behind them, although in the darkness he can make out only the most vague of shapes. “I am afraid we’ve crossed the border of Trynton.”

(whew, I didn't think I'd find "inclination" anywhere)

for @timesthatneverwere @sulky-valkyrie and @thiswaycomessomethingwicked: youth, hypocrisy, burrow, and biased.

#tag meme

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faux-parenchyma · 1 year

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I am politely asking you abou Joe (/EXCITED)

OHOHOHOHO MY MOMENT HAS COME THE JOE TIMES EVER!!!

As a little preface- this is a multi ending/route story au thing I’m doing w @mcytscienceside, of which I’m v v happy to say joe gets his own route. (It’s all under the cut ehe, apologies if it’s incoherent it’s literally 11 am and also I do not write)

Following the initial plot of Ren’s ascension to the throne, Joe, among the rest of the canon Square Table, belonged to the court of the king who passed prior. Though, now that Ren is here, the Square Table remains, their service not yet finished.

Joe takes on the role of a well-established scholar, his personal research pertaining to the history of his kingdom, as well as the active practice of poetic incantation. However, over time, this research quickly evolves into researching the existence of the kingmaker, and what gives said kingmaker the divine right. This reflects the one tweet Mr.Hills gave us a few months back, which is quoted as

[ I believe western monarchies are intrinsically flawed because they are rooted in the claim of “the divine right of kings”—the monarch’s power is granted by God. Anyone who lies about being granted authority from God is a liar I wouldn’t trust to hold my drink, let alone rule.]

Naturally, Bdubs sparks Joes interest, then. How can a seemingly normal man travel from kingdom to kingdom, crowning who he pleases for literal centuries- without dying? (Which this little tidbit makes me all happy considering the frequent association joe has with death) Surely it could ONLY be the cause of divine right- and therefore not a lie in the slightest? So Joe takes to studying The Kingmaker at any moment he can, scouring historical records for any information on Kingmakers, The Tree of Whimsy, and the like.

If he continues his research in the route, Joe finds his interest soon turn into an unhealthy obsession, though this was bound to happen, considering the quest for knowledge is a slippery slope. No matter how far back he delves into the historical records, it’s ALWAYS seems to be just bdubs, never aging in the slightest, always crowning king after king-

-that is until Joe finds a depiction of a very ancient looking man unlike bdubs, still holding the same title.

Did being a Kingmaker under the Tree of Whimsy work with some kind of anti-aging effect- and moreover, could there only be one Kingmaker at a time? There were obviously others preceding him- meaning the likelihood of another taking bdubs place was high. Could this be the ticket to evading death? Death was, after all, a concept that frequently left an unsettling pit in the scholars stomach. He needed to know more- the thought of being so close to unlocking the answers to his questions, yet missing one crucial piece, making him finally snap.

This new version of Joe essentially consists of the physical manifestation of his desire for knowledge, and his magical capabilities causing his mind to become muddled and manic. He appears unlike his normal, neutral demeanor- passerby even likening him to a GHASTLY version of himself (oooo wow it’s like Beetlejhost but mentally ill /hj)

The next course of action would be to confront Bdubs, and force him to let joe see the tree for himself. Why keep the secret to evading death all to yourself??

There’s more to this, but I think it would be silly goofy if I left it here bc I am evil and also want to draw my blorbo before I add more >:)

#hermitblr #hermitcraft #kingmakerau #joehills

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