#and in terms of structure

[centaurianthropology]

Why C3E51 worked so well (a DM’s perspective)

I have seen a lot of absolutely bananas critiques of C3E51 (thankfully not nearly as many around here, far more on Reddit, which I should not have visited).   And the ongoing theme of those critiques is that Matt should not have imperiled former PCs, and if he brought them in should have either done lengthy side-bars with those characters or let them win the fight against Ludinis and have a chance to take him out themselves, since they’re ‘god tier’ or ‘high level’ and that makes ‘logical sense’.  What these critiques really boil down to, IMO, are people who were really invested in the former campaigns upset that their faves didn’t get to do cool things, treating it more like a TV show than a game.  But even as a TV show, that would have been disappointing from a narrative perspective.  Because even in a TV show, this is a sequel spin-off show, starring new characters.  The story is about THEM.  And more importantly, the game is about the players and about telling their story.

So let’s break this down from a DM perspective.  How do you build a Kobiashi Maru situation for your characters?  For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Kobiashi Maru is a Star Trek term for a scenario designed from the jump to be unwinnable (Kirk beat it by creativity, but later admitted that he missed the point of it).  In Star Trek this was done to test what a future officer would do if faced with certain failure.  In a D&D game it’s a little more complicated.  Part of it is to set up the BBEG, put their plan in motion, and set the stage for the next leg of the game.  But it’s also to give your players, who are clearly into it, a darkest-hour scenario.  Not every player group is going to be into facing down the Kobiashi Maru, and it’s clear from the aforementioned critiques that a lot of them are on Reddit.  Power-gamers who always want to win are not going to enjoy this sort of storytelling, but players who are really into RP and working through difficult times and failures will eat this stuff up.  And this is absolutely the sort of table playing on Critical Role.  There is a level of trust there that can only be built after years of working together, and this was finally the moment when Matt could pay off years of planning and campaign-spanning set-up.

Matt carefully plotted the structure of this episode out to give maximum agency and impact to a party of dramatically under-leveled characters.  And they knew going in they were under-leveled.  This wasn’t a surprise, but a potential suicide run by people who knew they weren’t the heroes they needed to be, but were the only heroes in the right place at the right time to try anything.  So they came up with as good a plan as they could, and executed it fairly well, all things considered.  

They knew they couldn’t take on Ludinus directly (and this was a great way to demonstrate exactly how much he had planned and how long, to bring in elements from C2, hints we’ve had for years about Ludinis, only to reveal it went deeper than any of the characters could have imagined), so Matt gave them some winnable objectives.  This is a great way to keep the characters invested in an unwinnable scenario: the ultimate outcome may be beyond the characters, barring some insane genius or incredible rolls, but they can still help.  They can do something that will have a tangible impact on events and hinder the baddies enough to give them another chance at a rematch and a way to stop the apocalypse when they’re higher level.  So Matt gave them the batteries: take out as many as you can.  While this would not stop the ritual, I suspect that the more they took out the more Ludinis would have to drain his own power to make the key work, and the longer the process would take.  Knocking out the feywild key, as well as multiple power sources turned what would have been an instantaneous event if they had done nothing into a more drawn-out affair which, I suspect, could be stopped or even reversed.  It gave them a window to come back and demand a rematch.

Then we have the high-level PC allies, and how to play with those sorts of characters without pulling focus from the PCs.  Matt handled this very well, by having the players roll for their former PCs, taking the specifics of their actions out of his hands and letting the dice of the former players decide.  He also revealed that Keyleth’s involvement, and baiting Vax with Otohan’s permadeath poison, was key to Ludinis’ ritual, which was why she couldn’t just dive in and clean everything up.  But again, because of this story, it ties less back to Keyleth and more back to Orym.  That was the point of the attack on Zephrah, to get her attention by getting her to look into who did it and then coming to get some payback, but the little guy on the ground has always been caught in the middle.  Orym has been Ludinis’ unwitting pawn from the off, his family’s deaths merely a means to an end, and that is vicious and amazing set-up for character growth for him.  

Beau and Caleb had to be there by the logic of the story.  It didn’t make sense that Caleb would sit out a world-ending event orchestrated by a Cerberus Assembly member after spending years trying to take them down.  Beau would obviously go with him.  It also made sense that they would be the only two there, because they were scouting when Ryn got taken down, and after that were trying to keep a low profile.  Shit accelerated too fast for them to call in reinforcements.

Which is the in-story reason for them to be there, but isolated and vulnerable, making them useful allies and wildcards (who likely could have been more useful if ultimately failing as well, but failed early thanks to Liam and Marisha’s rolls).  But they were still outmatched.  I have no idea what the challenge rating of Otohan, Leliana, and Ludinis are, but we know Otohan was considered ‘beatable’ back in Bassuras.  That indicates she’s the lowest CR, particularly with the glowing weak-spot on her back.  But she can still wreck a level-20 PC if she gets the jump on her, which she did.  And that meant that she remained a massive threat.  Caleb and Beau were playing it smart, keeping to the shadows, but still got caught by Leliana.  Between dice rolls, careful planning, and some great enemy design, Matt really set up a team that could take on high-level players and win.  And he made it clear that Ludinis did not leave this to chance.  He has the best people he could muster after 1000 years of planning.  Nothing short of a miracle could have truly stopped them.

Which is why we cut back to Bells Hells.  Because ultimately this particular story isn’t about Keyleth or Vax or Caleb or Beau or any other former PCs.  This is about the current party being caught up in events much larger than them and having to rise to the occasion.  This is the story of the schmucks sent in to take out the batteries, but who have personal beef with the big bads.  Ludinis orchestrated the plan to attack Zephrah to bait Keyleth and draw out Vax, and Otohan carried it out.  And he used Orym as a pawn throughout all of it.  This makes taking them down, but especially taking Otohan down, the cornerstone of Orym’s personal quest.  Letting an NPC take her down would be taking away a critical part of his motivation and goals, which is an absolute no-no for a DM.  NEVER bring in a god-tier NPC and take away player agency or story beats.  Especially never have them resolve important player goals and backstory events!  Every NPC, even the powerful ones, are there to support the story the players are telling.  So of course Keyleth wasn’t going to take out Otohan.  Of course she wasn’t going to stop the ritual.  Beau and Caleb might have been able to do something more if Liam and Marisha hadn’t rolled so badly for them, but ultimately, they had to get caught or fail in another way.  

For the sake of gameplay, Bell’s Hells had to be the only functional team.  They had to be the ants that were beneath Ludinis’ notice long enough to really accomplish something.  And as much as it feels like they failed, they had minor victories: Laudna and Ashton took out more batteries, making Ludinis drain his own power to kick off the apocalypse.  They only failed to take out Otohan’s backpack by 2 HP, which showed them that she was an achievable goal in the future.  If they had rolled a little better, they probably could have taken her out entirely, which would have felt like a big accomplishment for them.  Imogen made her mother pause in her assault before doubling down.  This leaves open very interesting future beats for their interactions.  Can she ultimately redeem her mother or would she have to take her out?  Every step that Matt set up in this episode, from the reveals about Ludinis’ plans and Orym’s past, to Imogen’s interactions with her mother, to Chetney and likely Ashton finding themselves staring down their own backstories after the party split, was focused on this party, on getting them ready to step out of low-level play and advance.

And that’s the point of E51.  It’s not a climax of the story, but the ultimate set-up.  It’s putting all the pieces onto the board in a way that all the characters can now recognize.  Yes, unless the players came up with something genius, the apocalypse was going to kick off, but their actions slowed everything down to a place where it could be combatted.  Yes, the god-tier former PCs were always going to get neutered, because this is Bells Hells’ story, and you cannot have NPCs fix PC problems.  They might have been able to do a little more before this happened, but the dice rolled.

And it’s honestly good for the PCs how things turned out.  They have a clear objective, but are split up.  This gives them great incentive to level up, explore character backstory, deal with their personal shit, get stronger, and then come back to kick the asses of all three of these villains (or possibly redeem one, we’ll see).  Their powerful allies are now temporarily side-lined.  Keyleth is badly hurt and will need time to recover.  Caleb is collared and will need time to get that removed.  Beau is likely up and moving now, but will need to safeguard Caleb for a while.

The Bells Hells are on their own.  The Darkest Hour has come, and it’s time for them to rise up and go from nobodies to heroes.  This is their true call to adventure.  And as a DM, it was so cool seeing how Matt set up all the pieces over the campaign, only to pay them out in such a satisfying and motivating way in this episode.

#Critical Role #Critical Role spoilers #I really liked this episode #both as storytelling #and in terms of structure #this is how you do long-term setup #and payoff for a villain #he had planned for everything #but this annoying party of gnats muching up his works #and the gnats are going to be what takes him down #that is such a good way to let a low-level party get set up to take on a high-level villain!! #anyway #this is to combat some of the negativity I've seen toward this episode

[knifearo]

being aromantic is like. hey btw you're going to live a life that is the culmination of most of society's worst nightmares. sorry lol ✌️ but then you turn around and take a really good hard look at it and it turns out that living in that nightmare is fucking awesome and you get to wake up every day and take that fear that other people have and laugh and hold it close until it's a great joy for you instead. and being happy is a radical act that you define instead of someone else. and you're sexy as fuck that's just a fact of life i don't make the rules on that one

#aromantic people are just sexy i'm not making the decisions here it's just facts #course ur hot as fuck. it came free with the aromanticism #being sexy is just default settings for aromantic people 👍 #hope this all helps. anyway i'm on my 'i hope i die alone <3 i can't wait to die alone <3' kick rn #i think the existential fear that people have of Not Partnering specifically is so. well. #obviously that shit is strong and it is SO awesome to be free of it. #realizing you're aro and you don't Want a partner can be such a hit to the solar plexus #cause society says that's the only thing that'll make you happy. so either you go without that thing or you force yourself #into doing something you don't want which would make you unhappy anyway. #so you think it's a lose lose situation and you have to come to terms with what amatonormativity presents as the worst possible situation #but then! whoa! turns out personhood is inherently valuable in and of itself and romantic partnering is just a construct! #and that nightmare is now your life to do with as you please... define as you will... structure as you want... #best case scenario. is what i'm saying. #every day i wake up ready to spit all that amatonormative rhetoric back in life's teeth by being alone and being happy #and it's so fucking satisfying. every day. #fucking JUBILANT being by myself. and i love being a living breathing 'fuck you' to the romantic system #you need a partner to be happy? oh that's sooo fucking crazy guess i'll go be miserable then. in my perfect fucking dream life lmao #yeah obviously it's the worst possible outcome on earth to die without a partner. so terrible. can't wait for it :) #aromantic #aromanticism #aro positivity #aroace #arospec #sorry to bitches who are sad about not having a partner. i could not give a fuck though get better soon #you couldn't EVER pay me enough to go back to a mindset in which my inherent value wasn't enough by myself. #FUCK that shit. absolutely miserable and a bad life outlook in general. like genuinely do the work w/ amatonormativity and get better #life is something that can be so fulfilling whether someone wants to kiss you or whatever or not #i'm on antidepressants and i have people i care deeply about. what the fuck would i need a partner for lmao

[chernozemm]

I need Aziraphale learning very quickly that being kind and considerate gets him nowhere in Heaven, so he tucks away his goofy, big-hearted nature and just turns into a maliciously compliant Bitch™.

This is a man who canonically has "discouraged" multiple mobster groups threatening to burn his bookshop, who has successfully scared hundreds of customers away by being just unpleasant enough and who dropped down three octaves to correct Furfur when he messed up his name.

He swallows his pride, puts on a power suit and starts executing a Corporate Nightmare upon upper management in Heaven.

#good omens #good omens 2 #aziraphale #season 3 #myart #he digs his heels and says oh youre gonna sabotage my vision? #i will read the entire terms and conditions of the ineffable plan and create so much paperwork for the second coming that you will wish #you were dead #oh you think i am a soft bitch who will flop belly up and be a puppet? let me disabuse you of this notion #it will be heartbreaking to see him lose his idealistic vision of Heaven and struggle to implement his own ideas because of the structural #issues #but i am also hoping we get to see this steel core he has mature #also sidenote-this change of looks isnt intended as a “glowup”. I love that he chooses to be happy and goofy and pudgy and radiant #its more like temporary armour

[roridomyces]

Triptych

#do. do you see my vision #orv #omniscient reader's viewpoint #aj arts #orv spoilers #i guess #anyway this was very fun #wikipedia poem #yoohankim #text is from the Wikipedia pages for: #lichen. star system. polaris. black hole. author. protagonist #and tripartite #lichen can be a symbiosis of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria; or it can have all three #gravitational lensing is the term for the visual distortion around black holes as it bends light. some of it gets mirrored #youll see it in artist renditions of black holes #wait i also used a line from the page for three act structure

[izzyhandsyouaglassofwine]

seen a couple people running to that "is it bad writing or do you not understand genre" post in regards to the ofmd upset. and let me remind people that this show was marketed as a romantic comedy, ESPECIALLY this season!

In that regard, I found an article/blog post that directly addresses the question "can you have character death in a romantic comedy?" And it really hits the nail on the head.

Even if you were to make the argument "well it's a dark comedy!" or "its a pirate show!" there's still a balance that needs to be met if you don't want to alienate your audience.

People are going to argue that the death was earned because they spent the entire season building up his character and "completing his arc". Well, I'll argue that they DIDN'T complete his arc. In fact they took about twelve steps back in his death scene by seemingly ret conning his progress and having him center Ed's feelings on his literal deathbed. So it really feels a lot like fridging, because that's exactly what it was. Izzy's death was for Ed's arc, not his own. And they spent so much time focusing on Izzy all season, focusing on his growth and giving him such a specific arc about queerness and recovery, that yeah, his death feels like a slap to the face and not a tragic story beat that makes the story all the richer.

#ofmd spoilers #ofmd season 2 #ofmd #izzy hands #ofmd s2 #thought about going into the definitions of comedy and tragedy in terms of classic theatre and shakespearean drama but modern story telling #has really diverged from those structures especially in television and with the way shows are produced #even so if i get fired up enough maybe i'll make another post about it #cause there are Rules to shakespearian comedy and even in modern storytelling those rules are generally respected #ofmd critical

[qqueenofhades]

#okay i needed to read this #you probably do too #yeah there were many many many suckage occurrences #but it's also helpful to remember there were some fairly major long-term/structural changes for the better as well #and it's worth talking about that as much as the catastrophes

[aroaceleovaldez]

we're all in agreement Jason just totally bit Krios, right? "unarmed, 1v1 combat" Jason bit that guy. chomp chomp.

#pjo #riordanverse #jason grace #hand to hand combat more like. teeth. #i believe there is a practical fighting term called ''the wet cat defense'' #which is just. flailing. but its extremely effective because it's not tactical or structured #so it's too unpredictable even against skilled fighters #anyways that's what jason did #yeah he's an extremely well-trained fighter and whatever #but like. he *could* also just bite and flail and that works just fine #dude was raised by wolves ''biting and flailing'' is a valid tactic

[u3pxx]

#my english language brain is not working. is that question structured correctly #idk if temp or weather is the right term yall will figure it out ASKSKS #theres no both CHOOSE!!!!!! #sunnysidepolls #cool weather is nice but i tend to be so sleepy during it. which. not ideal when im already perpetually sleepy girl i need to be awake

[chemzee]

After quite a long sleep the magic finally awakened huh?

I knew about this game´s existence ever since it came out in China back in 2021 and it´s almost hard for me to believe it´s about to launch globally in 5 days after such a long wait

soo asa way of celebrating I did a little practice as I drew all (well except for the Frey Twins and mc) of the main kiddos in my style, most of which were the first time for me actually :¨D

#hpma #magic awakened #harry potter magic awakened #robyn thistlethwaite #kevin farrell #lottie turner #daniel page #cassandra vole #ivy warrington #hpma robyn #hpma kevin #hpma lottie #hpma daniel #hpma cassandra #hpma ivy #I love how noticable it is which characters were drawn in diferent timeframes lmao #fanart #doodle #my art #tbh aint happy with how daniel turned out mainly in terms of how I structured his face #but still better than many other attemps I did with him lmao

[neroushalvaus]

Koko the gorilla didn't know ASL but, like, you could say that without invalidating the existence of speech-supporting signs

#apparently english doesn't even have an established term for them so i'm not that surprised #but basically for many people with severe intellectual disabilities using individual signs without the proper sentence structure #that is obviously a part of sign languages #is a very important part of communicating #so yeah please criticize the gorilla and her handlers i literally don't care but there are actual people who actually use singular signs #and while it is not asl it's still important and it's still communication #edit:// and obviously it's not just people with intellectual disabilites; that's just the group i'm the most familiar with #but for example many non-verbal autistic kids use speech-supporting signs #and for them it's a very important part of communicating what they need #so idk stop acting like sign languages are the only languages on earth #where saying ''hunger eat food hunger'' doesn't communicate that you're hungry

[heartyearning]

sick and tired of seeing people use zip ties for boning. listen to me i am a costume designer stop using plastic which does not hold your shape (the whole point of boning) you do not need to buy proper coiled boning or anything: go to a hardware store and find flat metal tension spring (google tells me that's what it's called, unfortunately i also don't know what its used for in hardware store related things so i cant describe it if that isnt the correct translation, soz) you can get a roll of 15m x 4mm tension spring for about 15 euros where i live and then you just have to cut it with metal shears (you can use a regular cutting pliers probably but if you have metal shears you will be happier) then either file down the edges a bit if you're genuinely gonna wear it a lot, or you just wind some tape around the edges to make sure putting them in the channels isn't gonna rip your fabric and anyway now you have an actually functional boned garment. go to a hardware store and show them this pic btw:

^ this is what you want. also bc this is 4mm wide around stress points like closures you want to make 2 channels right alongside each other and put in 2 pieces of tension spring for stability

#seriously zip ties are so bad for anything you want to do with boning and like i get why people use them and i DO get that most ppl dont #actually want a corset in terms of shape restriction but then im just like. use a different fabric that's stiff and is gonna look structure #just by the fact of it being a thicker fabric and you putting a bunch of seams in it #and if you want it for underwear USE TENSION SPRING BONING ANYWAY its just better in every way than plastic nonsense !!! #costuming #cosplay #sewing #historical costuming #idk dude im not on costuming tumblr just. stop it. i hate that im writing 'listen up tumblypoos' posts but like #i just got an instagram reel with ziptie boning and its like. a) if you dont know about zip ties by now its too late and b) use tension spr #-ng. this was like some dude also who thinks himself a fashion designer like baby girl i know you are not actually designing with zipties #ok. tumblypoospost over

[fromtheseventhhell]

I also find it funny that fandom will only accept Lyanna being her non-conforming, wild self in the context of saying that Arya isn't meant to be pretty; Any other day we get back-to-back posts about how Lyanna is actually super traditionally feminine cause she sniffled at a song once, so she's actually more like Sansa. Instead of constantly speaking on Arya and Lyanna, how about you guys reflect on why your standards of beauty for women are attached to how well they perform feminity within the patriarchy?

#lyanna stark #arya stark #asoiaf #/Lyanna isn't actually pretty she was a wild tomboy/ Those two things are not mutually exclusive 😭 #how you look is not a reflection of your personality and this is also a running theme within the story #we have morally good characters who are ugly and morally bad characters who are beautiful this is like...kindergarten level #Lyanna is idealized in terms of her personality hence /you saw her beauty but not the iron underneath/ #and Ned correcting Robert when he said Lyanna wouldn't have shamed him like Cersei had #he's a very shallow misogynistic character and I truly doubt he would've been as attached to the idea of her without surface level beauty #reminds me of people saying that Olivia Hussey is a bad fancast for them because she has a /doll like/ beauty and they're /rougher/ 😭 #as though their entire facial structure magically changed once they realized they enjoyed playing with swords instead of sewing sdksdkdsksd #it's giving that one tiktok with the /cat pretty vs doe pretty vs bunny pretty/ #even if you wanted to make the case that her beauty is idealized in her death we get Arya described a pretty multiple times? #idk it's just so wild to me to use personality as an indication of looks it just sounds so stupid #Arya/Lyanna can still have /delicate/ features (which is extremely subjective) and still have a wild personality #how about we acknowledge that the perception of both of them is warped by strict patriarchal gender norms instead? #some real analysis just to shake things up idk

[seventh-fantasy]

君终如日光之芒 ... 却无法再伴君同行。 // 君武勇之处世所罕见 ... 然终有负君之所望。

me for months: i will forever be bugged by the oddly intimate manner of speech in lxy's farewell letter - particularly in the way llh somehow ended up addressing dfs as 君 jun

revisiting the letter qwm wrote to lxy in which she addresses him as 君 jun: OKAY...

#anybody else up still dying over the romanticism of 君??? #what's up?? shrugs. my brain is not in the right condition to process anything beyond 'wow dihua romance'. i'm sorry. #i know the farewell letter was largely lifted from the novel. but it doesn't necessarily explain the logic in drama canon #other than connotations of intimacy it wants to make about their relationship (which also may not be BUT.) ughhHHhh (delusional) #then seeing qwm's letter to lxy used jun in indisputably romantic terms. is just. WELL. there we go. (delusional) #and the way the structure of the letter are worded so similarly mmm (it's the brainrot speaking) #lxy/llh: yes i'm gonna copy and learn that and pass it on #莲花楼 #mysterious lotus casebook #lhl #dihua #my posts

[demonsandbullets]

Ok more touching grass. I’m blocking people because I don’t intend to belabour this point with newbie activists but this is for the rest of you, for future reference.

We are all typing on phones and computers that are directly complicit in the genocide in the Congo. On an internet funded and infiltrated by US and Israeli spyware. Your lack of “silence” on either matter doesn’t erase your complicity.

When you mature your politic, you will come to realise that the true wickedness of this system is we are all put in ethical gridlocks and stalemates, which make doing the 100% pure thing, dangerous.

If you can get on here and not get fired for saying Free Palestine, especially anonymously, or under the cover of a lack of major influence, understand that is a privilege EARNED for you by generations of activists, who learned how to manage the risk of taking on this system by using nuance.

You think a man that marched against the Iraq War is complicit in this genocide because he is, IN YOUR DEFINITION, “silent” on it?

This is what I mean about a) controlling other people’s behaviour, and b) creating a false dichotomy of action that is antithetical to how the very system works. “Silence” was never meant to be a colloquial term when used with “complicity” - it is a systemic term. The silence of those with institutional power is complicity. Not miss ma’am at the coffee shop.

And THIS IS WHERE I REMIND YOU ONCE AGAIN - “celebrities” are Gig workers in an industry primarily funded and run by religious conservatives. Just because the industry says they’re liberals, doesn’t mean they are.

Movements work on consistency, and there are many ways to act. Demanding one way of action, and not providing any institutional power to back that demand other than “your disappointment” is reckless. This is not the stuff of movements that last. How are you planning to potentially support performers who’ve spoken on behalf of Palestinians, when all this is over and you’re back to drinking Starbucks? Will you care? Will you, once again, use your “lack of silence” (only one part of activism) to proclaim that you want to support them, or will you have tangible means to do so? I fucking doubt it. We don’t, even collectively, currently rival the support structure of the entertainment industry, that is run by religious conservatives - anyone that speaks out, is calculating their risk against their action.

Allow people to do their own fucking math, and if they haven’t been openly and brazenly fucking Zionist on main, give them the fucking benefit of the doubt. That’s what the adults/seasoned activists are doing. We have to see through the liberation of everyone, and that doesn’t happen by burning through everyone’s support systems at once.

This ain’t dick riding. This is me telling you to stop centering your “disappointment” on the internet, and keeping score about things that only move the needle by increments. This man, and his words, and your “disappointment” in him, in this moment, DOES NOT MATTER TO THE CAUSE. AT ALL. Get on the fucking phone and out on the streets like the rest of us. There are lives at stake and his part of his math, so he still has a voice to use in the long term, does not affect you at all if you’re truly here for the systemic change.

Tldr; His voice would be nice, but not at the cost of having his voice in the future. You dig?

#Pedro pascal #motherfucker. #Sarah Paulson broke my fucking heart. Beyond belief I was furious. #But he has other friends. Most of which signed the ceasefire letter #You know while YOURE at it #why don’t YOU do some math #Perhaps starting with thinking about how that HBO deal might be structured #And who at HBO and across the industry at large stands to benefit from adapting a video game that’s fucking based on the Israeli Project #Let.people.do.their.math #We’re aiming for long term change here. #You don’t think they want the first Latino man to be nominated for an Emmy in a decade the fuck outta here? #You must be new and I’ll do my best to hold space for you

[nostalgebraist]

Almost Nowhere is done!

I've posted the final 6 chapters. They begin here, with Chapter 43.

This final stretch ended up being ~66,400 words, in total.

That's a lot of words! It's 20% of the total length of the finished book. It's longer than the last novel I wrote, and nearly as long as the one before that.

So you probably shouldn't expect to read it all in one quick go.

I feel much happier with the ending than I had expected to be.

I expect I will want to say some more things about the book, soon enough, now that it's done. But I wanted to get this quick note up here first.

#almost nowhere #(i said earlier there were going to be 6 chapters - then 7 - but i revised it down to 6 again in the end) #(made two different structural choices that cancelled out) #(in terms of chapter count)

[illegalcatgirl]

Mercurial Systems & Front Batteries

A mercurial system describes a system structure that involved the concept of front batteries.

Front batteries can be defined as a phenomenon within fronting where one will experience a high activity front followed by a low activity front. (Explained below)

A high activity front is characterized by increased numbers in front at once, a higher frequency of switches, the introduction of the ability to hold front on ones own (for members unable to during low activity), an increase in "unprompted" or triggerless fronts, and often increased system growth.

A low activity front is distinguished by the limiting of fronters to a much smaller group, a significant decrease in switch frequency, and often issues involving an individual's ability to stay present in front. This can be compared to periods of stagnation within other terms.

This concept is distinct from bombotien systems, cyclogenic systems, and other terms that involve cycles in that it does not require cycles of dormancy, system collapse, or other similar phenomena.

term coined & proposed flag designed by us (dalia/the buddy sys). blanket permission.

anti-endos may identify with this term but please limit interaction beyond this post unless related

#system #actually plural #pluralgang #plurality #plural terms #system terms #plural coining #system coining #system structure #fronting #front terms #endo safe #illegal posts