#because you just Cannot write a character like Glitch without it rubbing off on you a little bit and WWGD kicked in real hard lmao

[afniel]

AH I REMEMBERED WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY EARLIER but it's kind of stupid, lmao.

So my partner is getting into brewing beer and I got them a Tilt, which is a Bluetooth hydrometer. It measures specific gravity and temperature, which are things you want to know so that you don't kill your yeast or whatever. Except the sensor's Bluetooth range is super short, and it basically runs via a phone app, and the temperature we're logging currently is the crawlspace, accessible via the staircase closet. So they were like, wait, what do we do about this, because I can't leave my phone in the closet, that's my alarm clock.

In a kind of ridiculous turn of life imitating art, I was like, hold up, I got just the thing right at my desk. Bam. Old phone. We just needed to scrounge up a charger because the battery is so dead that after charging just enough to power on it claimed it was at 53% (to be fair to it, there is a very real chance that it's correct, and it just holds no charge at this point so the capacity is just THAT low) and now it lives in the closet logging sensor data.

And I was like, you know...didn't I just solve a major story detail with a much larger version of this...yeah, no, this is all vaguely familiar somehow, power supply issues and all. Kind of cool that the concept works though. Kind of weird that it came up at all?

We are not gonna talk about the fact that I still have at least two more ancient-ass phones in a drawer where that came from because look, man, sometimes you just need a camera/mic/mini computer with Bluetooth and wifi that fits in a pocket, and people just get rid of these things, but not me. I actually could build a shitty security system out of them if I was reaaaally inclined. I mean. I'm not. But it's technically possible.

For real though, If I pick up any stupid maker projects I still high-key am thinking about slapping Bluetooth into a necomimi headset and running that through an Arduino and learning to code just enough to let me skip songs/change the volume on Spotify with my brain, because it's entirely doable, and I mean yeah I could do that on my phone remotely too, but that's not funny, now, is it. I'm just not sure it's $350+ of parts funny. Kind of a big investment just to prove the point that haha look I am the extremely ADHD type of lazy where I would rather solve a problem via the most convoluted and complicated Rube-Goldberg type ass machine way possible rather than just perform a single simple action.

YEAH I'VE BEEN THIS SCATTERED ALL DAY AND I REALLY SHOULD GO TO BED SHOULDN'T I. I started playing Satisfactory. Mistakes were made. I'm going to dream about conveyor belts again and I did it to myself...

#you know I used to mostly blog about witchcraft and paganism #and now I'm like. you know what I want to do? chain an EEG sensor to the Spotify API and skip songs with my brain. #it's kind of like magic when you put it like that. maybe things haven't actually changed that much after all #the headset idea actually came about bc I'd gotten so far into the writing zone that I literally just. tried to skip a song with my brain. #because I had so much reploid characters on my mind that it just sounded like a normal course of action I should be able to take #obviously it didn't work and cue me sitting there for a full 3 seconds going 'why didn't it. wait. why did I think it would?' #followed immediately after by 'YEAH BUT I PROBABLY COULD DO THAT ACTUALLY' #because you just Cannot write a character like Glitch without it rubbing off on you a little bit and WWGD kicked in real hard lmao #well obviously he'd [ridiculous chain of ideas ending in 'anyway I installed some shit and now I can control Spotify with my mind'] #and I gotta say I do not like the idea of sticking a sensor on the *inside* of my skull. sounds very bad. #but it doesn't have to be on the inside to work soooo there's that! #I have a friend who for quite a long time had a rare earth magnet in one finger so he could find live wires by touch #he ended up removing it for work eventually but when I say I was jelly. man. but also kinda squeamish about it. #I do not like sharp things and I am Very funny about my fingers as an artist/writer/used to be musician. #but man that sounds cool. I want the magnet senses. I don't think I want them enough to have a magnet under my skin though #I think I wouldn't use them enough for that to be helpful actually lmao #anyway do I even need more senses? probably not. mine are already unfiltered and loud as shit. #'boy I wish I could sense magnetic fields' says idiot guy who can hear the mains hum even with no electronics currently turned on #like when the power goes out I can FEEL the fucking difference in the air and it's unnaturally quiet and kinda spooky #I do not think I need help on this front actually. I think I got it handled pretty okay lol

[glitchinthesystemspiderbyte]

Glitch in the System - Can’t Catch Me

A sequel of sorts to Common Ground. There will probably be a third as well as we get back into the groove of writing regularly.

A post-run standoff happens.

By E.

Sombra was on her way to the Talon server room for her weekly security check when she ran into Widow, fresh from her run, standing in the north foyer with a damp towel in her hands.

“Lookin’ good araña,” Sombra said, pausing to lean against the wall and grin at her. “Have a nice run?”

“Oui,” Widow replied, stepping out of the foyer and into the dull room used to house trainees waiting for use of the courtyard facilities. It was stark white with chairs lining the walls, empty now of both recruits as well as character. Most of the mansion had been left alone, but this wing had been refurbished to house their training grounds as well as the lab. It looked out of place and everyone hated it but Moira.

Looking around the room critically as she dabbed at her forehead, she seemed more tense than usual after a run. Normally Widow was at her most relaxed after she exercised, but today Sombra could sense a stiffness to her posture that generally indicated that something was amiss. “It was more productive than expected.”

“Ominous. I know there’s more to a story when I hear it,” Sombra replied, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

“It is nothing,” Widow insisted.

“Uh huh,” Sombra said skeptically as the taller woman tried to edge past her, her motions sharper than usual in a way that was subtle, but noticeable when used to her fluid grace. “What’s got you so wound up then?”

“Nothing,” Widow repeated, and Sombra nearly gave herself a headache rolling her eyes in response.

“I don’t know why you even try to brush me off anymore,” she said. “For someone with a genetically-enhanced poker face, you’re terrible at lying about yourself.”

Widow sighed, and opened her mouth to speak when one of the doors leading into the mansion from the courtyard opened and shut with a bang. A moment later Moira walked in, looking like a picture of righteous anger, from the fiery red of her hair to the pointed tips of her boots.

“Wow doc, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?” Sombra asked with a laugh. She looked at Widowmaker for the usual smirk offered whenever the hacker sassed Moira, but was greeted only with the impassive, stoic expression she used whenever there was some strong emotion lingering under the surface that she hadn’t yet sussed out how to express.

“LaCroix,” Moira said, swallowing her rage with visible effort. “It appears as though our scheduled maintenance has been canceled.”

“Has it?” Widow asked with a note of innocence to her tone that made Sombra immediately suspicious. “I wasn’t aware.”

“I spoke with Akande and he told me it was unnecessary.” Moira elaborated, her tone indicating her suspicion mirrored Sombra’s. “I disagreed, but of course he insists that he knows best.”

“Mmm,” was all Widow replied with, her apathetic noncommittal response causing Moira’s eye to twitch involuntarily.

“I will be in my lab if you feel the need to override his decision for your own good.” She looked pointedly between Widowmaker and Sombra, lips pursed primly. “If you are not distracted.”

“I am fine, Moira. Thank you.” Widowmaker turned her back on the doctor with a finality that was atypical for her interactions with Moira, and left the room.

“Later,” Sombra added, winking and giving Moira dual finger guns before following Widow out.

“Hey, Widow, wait,” she shouted, trotting to catch up to the spider’s long, angry gait. “What just happened?”

“Come with me,” was all Widow said.

“Sure thing,” Sombra shrugged, grabbing an apple out of a basket on one of the hall tables and doing as she was told.

They walked for a bit, Sombra taking loud bites of her apple in an attempt to fill the silence, following Widow until they reached one of the many sitting rooms at the opposite end of the mansion. It was empty, and a place they rarely visited - likely because of how tacky and uncomfortable the furniture was. Sombra would have bet her cybernetic spine that it was original to when the house had been built, if the faded upholstery and lumpy cushions were any indication.

Regardless, they sat down on the dull red couch.

“She knows,” Widow said, staring at nothing in particular. She always appeared as though she wished she had a glass of wine to distract herself with. Sombra offered her the apple she’d chewed half way through; Widowmaker frowned at her in confusion.

Shrugging, she took another bite. “Care to narrow that down a bit? I’m struggling without, you know - referents.”

“Moira,” Widow clarified.

“Moira knows…” she prompted, and Widow raised one eyebrow while crooking a finger between the two of them until Sombra got the gist of what she was saying. “Oh. Ah, fuck, well,” she slumped against the couch. “I guess it was just a matter of time.”

“Everyone knows,” she continued.

Sombra nodded. “Yeah. So?” she asked, glancing over at her. “We’d hardly be the first of Talon’s operatives to get together for more than just missions and training.”

“Yes, but,” she insisted, catching Sombra’s gaze, “she considers it a failure. A...short in my system of sorts. Something she wants to fix.”

Sombra stopped chewing on her apple, feeling as though someone had doused her with a bucket of cold water. “Oh,” she replied, screwing up her face in thought. “Shit.”

“Yes. Shit.”

Sombra stood, tossing the apple behind her, ignoring Widow’s appalled look at her waste. “I’ll fry her systems,” she said, channeling her fear into action. It was a familiar transmutation; adrenaline was adrenaline after all. “I can put her back six months in data restoration and blame it on a disgruntled test subject. I’m sure she’s got plenty more of those.” She cracked her knuckles. “I’ve had some viruses up my sleeve for months waiting for this exact m-”

“Akande told her no,” Widow interrupted her.

Sombra paused mid-pacing, frowning at the other woman. “What do you mean he told her no?” she asked.

“I mean we talked, I explained my case, and he told her that reconditioning is not necessary.” Widow looked uncomfortable, rubbing the thumb of one hand with her other absently. “My performance has not been compromised. I am still a weapon of Talon’s creation, at Talon’s disposal. If I can still perform that function, then there is no need to ‘recalibrate’ me.” Widow’s voice took on a sharp, stinging edge.

Sombra stepped back over to the couch, sitting down on the lumpy cushion and putting her hand on Widow’s thigh. “You know the point was never to keep you functional; it was to keep you controlled.” Widow’s eye twitched, and Sombra knew she knew that was precisely the case. “You’re supposed to be a morally-void, emotionally-blank killing machine. It doesn’t matter to Moira that you do your job. What matters is that you’ve broken the framework she created. You found a glitch in the system, and…” Sombra frowned, looking away. “I don’t trust her to keep her hands off you, Akande’s orders or not.”

“I do not trust her either,” Widow said reluctantly.

“Do you want me to add some extra surveillance on her?” Sombra asked.

“Extra?” Widow asked, and Sombra grinned. Widow chuckled. “I should not be surprised.”

“Well?”

Widowmaker paused. “I would not say no.”

Sombra made a small fist pump in victory. “Been waiting to tighten that noose on her system forever.”

“I am glad that this situation can benefit you,” Widow replied, but her words were amused, not hurt.

Sombra grinned and grabbed Widow’s arm, leaning against her shoulder. “Hey, look on the bright side - we don’t have to be as careful now.”

“I do not wish to broadcast our...arrangement,” Widow replied, still clearly discomfited.

“Well yeah cielito, I’m not saying we make out during strategy meetings or anything, but at least we don’t have to worry the world will end if someone sees you smile at me.” She shrugged and brushed her hand against Widow’s knuckles, smirking. “Although I wouldn’t be opposed to spite-fucking on her desk.”

At this, Widow laughed and offered a full smile. “I cannot commit to such a breach in protocol,” she said, leaning in to kiss her. “...but what are you doing this evening?”

*Read from the beginning or check out our intro post! All stories tagged under #glitchfic. Table of contents located here.

#spiderbyte #sombramaker #widowsombra #sombra #sombra x widowmaker #Widowmaker #widowmaker x sombra #amelie lacroix #Amélie Lacroix #Olivia colomar #Overwatch #overwatch fandom #overwatch fanfic #glitch in the system #glitchfic

[nemetonisevilpassiton]

Teen Wolf and the problems of Unreliable Narration

magessI have been open about how I feel about Teen Wolf's unreliable narration as a framing device, in that I think it was ambitious but it failed terribly but there is a lot of questions about it that need exploration.

Why is it unreliable? How much of it is unreliable? Why does it fail? What did it hope to achieve?

To start the meta writers en masse do not agree on how much of it is unreliable, it ranges from the last episode - almost certainly, to the last season half  - sure does explain that mess, to all of it.

I'm in the all of it camp but there is nothing absolute in the answers the show gives. 

Often that is the problem with Teen Wolf, there are no absolute answers and often when people come to us with questions that's what they want, so I know personally I give them all the information I've got with my answer so they can decide for themselves. 

but in conversation with @demonzdust about the question of unreliable narration - sort of in a vague way I realized that the understanding of what unreliable narration is was preventing understanding of what it meant.

Any story told by a fixed narrator [not an omniscient third person] is "unreliable". It is not a pejorative or negative term, it is simply a statement of truth, an axiom. This is because people, whether fictional or not, are unreliable.

The best example is five people, who are all fixedly honest, see an accident as it happens from five different places. None of these witnesses have anything to lose or gain from the accident but all five of them give unreliable eyewitness accounts. This is for several reasons, their view of the accident might be limited by foot traffic, cars, buildings, they might be in a building and see it out of the window. They might have turned their head at the noise of it and so only saw the aftermath. Then there is natural neural filling where the brain fills in details that it didn't necessarily witness, so if you see a car speeding past you and then hear an accident and turn your brain might fill in details that you didn't personally witness. Then there is how people repeating the same story might, in all innocence and unaware that they are doing so, take in aspects of someone else's version of the story. 

Then you get into the witnesses as individuals who have preconceived ideas and biases which they use to fill in the story. Even if this is innocent and non-offensive it still makes their version of accounts unreliable. 

However it being unreliable does not make it unusable, it is through correlating all of the evidence, including the eye witness testimony that a decision about what actually happened is reached, so all the details in their story that line up are used.

And that's just one accident.

In narrative we see it most often in first person narration. That one character should not have all the information or access to all of the story [it's bad writing when they do], so their narration is unreliable because of that. So in Teen Wolf how we rarely see the villains monologuing in private and when they do the lighting is often the "dream lighting" which I'll go into in more detail later. If the whole show is narrated [like How I met your mother] then these details were filled in, either imagined or told to the narrator.

There does not have to be malice in an unreliable narration - but there can be.

In Wuthering Heights for example as bad as Heathcliff is to Lockwood in Nelly's version of events [the one that Lockwood recounts] he is a puppy strangling wife-beating son of a bitch, but Nelly blames Heathcliff for the death of her beloved Catherine [who was no better than Heathcliff].

There are five types of unreliable narrator in fiction.

These are : The clown; the picaro; the naif; the liar; and the madman 

We do actually see all of these narrators in Teen Wolf.

The clown plays with expectations and narrative forms to twist the story into the version that they want = Peter does this in Visionary.

The picaro is a braggart to oversells their own part that they played in the story to make themselves seem much more spectacular than they are = Noshiko does this in the Fox and the Wolf

The naif is innocent, they do not know what is going on and tend to just roll with it, most naifs are children = The child does this in Memory Lost

The liar flat out lies, twists the story to advantage and is doing it knowingly, often to get out of some sort of crime = Gerard does this in Visionary.

If Scott is our narrator from Pilot then he is a liar pretending to be a naif, although I do not question the majority of the narrative until 6b there is evidence that Scott has tweaked some of the details very early on.

In scenes where Scott is without someone who can corroborate the story he is much more capable than he actually is, for example in season 1 in the scenes where he is alone with Allison he's got game, he is slick, flattering and amazing at flirting. In scenes where the two of them are in a group Scott completely lacks game. As Allison died she cannot corroborate that that is the way that it happened.

That scene is a great one to show unreliable narration because it doesn't mean anything, it doesn't alter the narrative, at that point the kid is more picaro than liar, but it is a lie.

Scott is introduced as a liar by his mother as early as 102, we see Stiles lie badly and Peter who we are told, often, is a liar, only lies off screen, on screen he twists the truth to get the outcome he wants. Peter is "the clown" in a vee neck sweater, but continually we see Scott lie, to his girlfriends, to Derek, often by not revealing information but sometimes he flat out lies.

And considering how he promotes what happened to make himself look better in inconsequential scenes does he do it in consequential scenes?

That's the rub

if Scott narrated the entire show then we cannot trust canon at face value, we have to investigate the glitches and come to our own conclusion.

if Scott narrated 6b it explains why it's a complete mess and the only thing narratively that makes sense of that season is him mentioning Monroe to gain Alec's trust.

if Scott narrated 620 then 6b is a mess for no reason and we can take canon up to that episode at face value.

As I said I'm in the all of it camp because there is so much reference to unreliable narrators throughout the show, the fiction named or referenced in the show is all unreliable narration [Othello, Heart of Darkness, Metamorphosis], the show uses techniques of unreliable narration [the Rashomon effect, flashbacks, other people telling stories that happened to someone] and we knew as early as season 1 that someone was skewing the events in Scott's favour. 

Or to put it simply the show believed that Scott was the hero but the narrative wasn't as keen. @Sublimeglass pointed out in season 3 that the show and tell were two very different narratives.

There is, within the study of unreliable narration, an explanation for this. It's complicated but I'll try and explain it simply, when a writer creates a narrative character they are writing in three voices [when they do it well] but not necessarily intentionally.

There is the writer with their ideas and biases and preconceived notions that the writer cannot escape [so in third person this is the omniscient voice]

there is the narrative as the writer sees it [so in teen wolf this would be the show]

there is the narrator who has their own ideas and biases [and in teen wolf this would be Scott]

it is where these three voices do not align that we get "glitches" or places where show vs tell.

A good example of this is the blue eyes. We do not know what they mean, but we know what Scott thinks that they mean.

Scott, who got the explanation from Peter, believes that you get blue eyes if you killed an "innocent", however the narrative doesn't support this [Peter doesn't lie but that doesn't mean he can't be wrong] because if blue eyes = killer the hunters would have an easy job identifying that information and removing killers from packs. There is no evidence in the show that the hunters know what the blue eyes mean, and with the evidence the show puts forth blue eyes more likely means a wolf with a power boost which was most likely from killing, but as the pain drain uses the same ability as the consumption of someone's spark [it's a minor form of it] then its likely, considering the amount of pain Scott has consumed, that if he became a beta again, even without killing, Scott would be blue eyed.

Scott believes blue eyes means killer and is therefore bad, but the narrative [the writer] doesn't agree with him.

Scott believes that villains shouldn't be killed but the narrative very much disagrees because they keep coming back, and the writer believes in the judicial system as much as possible by supporting the sheriff in his decisions more than Scott.

So we have the three voices.

Then we have "dream lighting" and mirror verse.

Mirror verse is complicated and to try and keep this meta shorter than war and peace I'll summarise it, at certain points in the narrative things change very slightly, books are reversed so they read backwards, shirts change, writing appears and disappears, character positions are flipped, clocks change time and then go back again, magnets fall from the fridge and are restored and often have nothing to do with the story as it's happening, but those scenes where it does happen often end up are often key scenes about character.

For example in season 2 when the kanima breaks out in the library the scene is in mirrorverse, and it is the scene where Erica has the epilepsy attack despite being a werewolf, in mirrorverse that is a thing that happens, and Stiles reveals knowledge that he should not have, about triggering her healing.

Dream lighting, as we've been calling it, is easier. The scene is dark, lit from behind with a blue-grey filter. We see it in every dream sequence except Lydia's in season 2, we see it when Stiles is talking to the bandaged figure in 3b, we see it in s4 when Scott dreams about killing Liam, we see it in 6b when Lydia has the visions of the spider's webs. And if it was just in dream sequences that would be it, however it's not. We see it a lot of time in scenes which Scott should have no knowledge of [both the Dennifer and Draeden sex scenes have this lighting, as does Donovan's death], in the scenes where phantasmagoria is at play [where it is hard to tell dream from reality], we see it in Scott's triumph over Peter in 412 [where he is lit like the emperor from star wars with the circular window]. The Beast in S5 is mostly shot in that lighting, when Liam and Scott fought in the library it had that lighting as well.

And the lighting tells us that those scenes are suspect, if most of the scenes are dreams then it's likely that those scenes aren't "real" either, but reality is fluid in Teen Wolf.

So it's likely that those scenes are the ones that are most unreliable, where Scott has lied. If we take Liam and Scott fighting in the library the lies might be what Scott said, it might be that he fought back against Liam, it might be that Liam said other things, or it might be that the fight never happened. It might be an innocent it happened so fast I have no idea what really happened I'll fill in the details, or it might be an entire fiction.

And there is no absolute answer, there is no answer that says this is exactly what happened.

All of the evidence says Scott is an unreliable narrator, but we can't say for how much of the story, and we can't say where he lied, but we can say why - to recruit Alec.

Far TL:DR

The narrator is unreliable but that's not necessarily a negative thing, he's a liar but his lies in the show are generally well meaning [one thing @magess said recently that was more true than she probably intended is that Scott believes himself to be a good person - he's not but he believes he is and he tries hard to be but it doesn't, at all, come naturally to him]. We can not say absolutely where the narration starts but we can say why it's unreliable and what Scott hopes to gain from it.

The next rewatch means taking more notes with what we know now, because we've got all the information we're going to get, now we have to unpack it until it won't unpack any more.

#teen wolf meta #unreliable narration #unreliable narrators