#but her actions in themselves were not especially novel or 'beyond normal' and by themselves don't indicate unusual piety on her part | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shihalyfie · 3 years

Text

Adventure, 02, and the “secret double life”

Adventure’s concept of “Chosen Children” prophesized save-the-world heroes is hardly unique to it, and given that it ostensibly follows so many fantasy tropes, it’s easy to see it as having a textbook pattern of the “secret identity”/”secret double life” tropes, in which adventure-faring kids keep everything from their parents and society under the idea that if people found out about their adventures, they’d be kept from action or be experimented on.

But as much as it’s easy to see it that way, in fact, Adventure and 02 had a somewhat different view of the matter. Although 02 in particular, with its concept of “wake up, go to school, save the world,” probably gives off the strongest “double life” aura, in actuality, Adventure and 02 both had an underlying sentiment that the concept of keeping Digimon from one’s parents -- and, eventually, the public -- was practically impossible.

(Unless otherwise stated, translations for Adventure/02/Kizuna are from Ryuu-Rogue/PositronCannon/L Subs, respectively.)

The Hikarigaoka incident

The aftermath of the Hikarigaoka incident in 1995 (or, in other words, the Greymon and Parrotmon incident depicted in the first movie) was depicted in Adventure episode 29, in which, as it turned out, was passed off as a “terrorist bombing incident” -- and that kids like Takeru who attempted to explain the situation to their parents were dismissed for imagining things.

The Adventure novels add a bit of extra addition that there might have been some external finagling to make sure things were cleaned up, but even then, things weren’t all that clean-cut. For one, the Hikarigaoka incident was a rather short one that was cleaned up in quick order -- there was a minimal amount of destruction compared to what later events would bring (only a single localized area in terms of collateral damage, especially since Parrotmon wasn’t there to cause wanton destruction), the full brunt of the incident may not have even spanned so much of an hour, and both Digimon involved vanished almost as quickly as they came. It really is just enough that you could sweep it under the normalcy filter of wanting to throw out any supernatural explanations, especially since the kids themselves eventually succumbed to the adults’ explanations.

And yet, even despite that, Takaishi Natsuko still found the Hikarigaoka incident a topic of interest to the point she started doing independent research on it -- especially when a certain incident four years later pushed things far beyond the range of plausible deniability. The novels make this pretty explicit:

Among her normal jobs, a side project that she was working on involved investigating the “Hikarigaoka terrorist bombing incident” four years ago. It was an incident that occured in the very place where they had lived. Not only did it capture her interest, but as she kept investigating it, she found many aspects about it that weren’t acceptable explanations to her. It still wasn’t enough information for her to put into an article or a book, but someone, somehow, had managed to find out that she was working on it and had contacted her wanting to talk. But when the time of their appointment came, the man she was supposed to meet didn’t appear. What was that man’s name? Oikawa? I think? Well, I’m never going to set up a meeting with him again.

So in other words, the fact that she had spotted a rat was somewhat public enough for someone to figure out that she was on the case. Not to mention that said someone had also spotted a rat -- someone who was not possessed by any Digimon vampires at this point, and was merely just an enthusiast trying to reconnect with a mysterious phenomenon from his childhood and dealing with grief for his recently deceased friend. It probably would not have been long before the truth would have been fully spilled even by itself -- but later events that would confirm everyone’s suspicious pretty firmly were already on the horizon.

Menoa Bellucci and the advent of Chosen Children

In a bit of “hidden” Adventure lore, the number of Chosen Children thus started to double every year -- something cited by Two-and-a-Half Year Break (Koushirou’s track) and confirmed by directorial statement. (Kizuna’s To Sora is consistent with this principle, and the 02 epilogue being set in 2027-2028 also tracks with the global population being partnered to Digimon with that precise number.) Either way, Adventure episode 53 confirmed that the eight “Tokyo Chosen Children” from 1999 (or, in other words, the Adventure main cast and their partners) were hardly isolated singularities -- there was a group of Chosen Children before them that placed an incomplete seal on Apocalymon prior, and, according to the Adventure novels, four of their partners evolved over a long period of time to become the Holy Beasts. The fact that there had to be at least four gives only a very narrow period of time said Chosen could be from, most likely between 1997 (4 Chosen) to early 1999 (16 Chosen), with the very short real-world time in between likely correlating to enough time in the Digital World for their names to be lost to their history.

(Note that Oikawa Yukio doesn’t count here; although he and Hiroki made contact with the Digital World through video games in the 80s, there is no indication that Oikawa was fundamentally partnered to Pipimon at this time, in the same way that it was only after the Tokyo Chosen Children witnessed the Hikarigaoka incident that “the one who wishes for stability” -- Homeostasis -- came up with the idea for creating a system to tie Digimon evolution to human partners.)

Kizuna confirms it further by introducing Menoa Bellucci, who says that she met Morphomon (and, presumably, did become a Chosen Child) at the age of nine, meaning presumably 1997 -- making her one of the small handful of people who became Chosen Children before the Tokyo eight.

The little snippets we get of Menoa and Morphomon’s life are interesting, but also telling. For one, their life together is depicted through a bunch of photos with both of them there, through events such as birthdays and travel...and given that someone had to have taken all of those photos, this means that it is extremely likely Menoa’s parents were fully aware of Morphomon’s presence and existence as her partner. In other words, Morphomon was not a secret to them in the first place.

Another interesting thing here is that it’s never said that Menoa went on any incredible world-saving adventure during her time with Morphomon, so it’s ambiguous whether she did or not. It’s entirely possible that she did but doesn’t want to bring it up to Taichi and the others because of how much baggage would be associated with it compared to, well, the rest of her early childhood life with Morphomon; given the time dilation that was in play prior to 1999, it’s very likely any adventure she could have gone on would have been lost to Digital World history. (That said, given that Morphomon doesn’t seem to have any ties to Holy Beast lines, a group of 4+ Chosen distinct from her and the other Tokyo Chosen Children by necessity would have to be from 1998 or early 1999.) She does, at the very least, seem to have evolved Morphomon at least once, given that she cites “loss of the ability to evolve” as part of the process of partnership dissolution when explaining it to the others (and it’s implied very heavily she only has her own personal experience to work with). But if Menoa’s parents were sufficiently supportive, it’s possible they might have had no problem with Menoa having a large and very cute butterfly friend -- especially if Menoa didn’t go on some grand adventure and wasn’t even in danger anyway.

We also learn a bit more about the Yagami siblings in Adventure episode 21, which takes place on August 1, 1999, and that Hikari has been witnessing the increased Digimon contact with the human world (part of a long, ongoing process of the Digital World slowly coming into more concrete contact with the human world) for quite a while now, but because it isn’t very “clear” contact yet, she’s the only one who can see them. She’s been trying to tell people for a long time, but nobody believed her -- and that’s the only reason she kept quiet about it.

There’s also another interesting line in this episode, when Taichi considers never returning to the Digital World and staying home with Koromon -- it seems that he intends to be straightforward with Koromon’s presence and not hide him from his parents! At worst, he simply thinks his mom might think Koromon to be a nuisance -- but not something he has to entirely keep a secret, meaning he also trusts his parents to be open-minded about a weird pink talking creature.

The Odaiba fog incident

The “Odaiba fog” incident refers to the events of August 3, 1999, spanning Adventure episodes 35 to 54, when Vamdemon covered Odaiba in fog and launched a bunch of mass kidnappings in the search for the eighth Tokyo Chosen Child, put a large amount of adults to sleep, was defeated by the Chosen Children, and eventually was followed by a projection of the Digital World in the sky, resulting in the surrounding witnesses observing the eight Tokyo Chosen Children and their partners rising into the sky, returning to the Digital World, and defeating the Dark Masters and Apocalymon.

Unlike the Hikarigaoka incident, this was not something that could be easily ignored. People in Odaiba saw, in vivid daylight, a bunch of strange monsters kidnapping them and stuffing them in Tokyo Big Sight. The Digital World appearing in the sky, Digimon falling out of them, and freezing anything they touched happened all over the world. Ultimately, this was not the kind of thing you could just sweep under the rug!

Daisuke, Iori, and Michael recount their experiences with this in 02 episode 14, and Spring 2003 and the Adventure novels depict this as a formative experience for Daisuke wanting to become someone strong enough to protect others. The kids’ parents in Tokyo saw their kids fighting in the sky (in fact, it’s likely everyone did, but only the parents were aware of the actual identities of the kids up there, considering it wasn’t like the sky gives you much of a close-up view). And, of course, we had our “intrepid reporter” Ishida Hiroaki, who was insistent on covering these incidents in Adventure episode 35 before he even knew his sons were involved, and Takaishi Natsuko, who, as per 02 episode 38, ended up tacking this on her list of Digimon incidents to investigate.

So by the conclusion of this incident, it is pretty safe to say the populace knows that Digimon are a thing. Of course, they still haven’t made sense of all of it, and everyone (including Hiroaki and Natsuko themselves) is missing some key details, but the fact that these monsters are A Thing That Exist is hardly a secret. In fact, this is made pretty explicit in 02 episode 39:

The governments of every country most certainly did not just see that whole incident and decide “well, that’s nothing to worry about” -- they immediately went ahead and started doing military research on the Digimon! But Gennai and his fellow Agents figured out pretty quickly that very bad things would happen if the Digimon became public knowledge and government militaries started exploiting them, so they secretly wiped away data regarding Digimon in order to hide their existence.

Note that this does not mean they wiped everyone’s memories -- they’re not that all-powerful -- but merely made it so that anytime anyone tried to do organized research on Digimon, poof! -- the info would just magically vanish. Of course, that doesn’t stop pen-and-paper work, and, again, it also did not stop reporters like Takaishi Natsuko or Ishida Hiroaki from doing investigations into everything from a journalistic perspective, nor humanities scholars like Takenouchi Haruhiko or Kido Shuu from taking an interest in Digimon. And, of course, it’s not like you can just wipe human memory that saw all of that happening! But it sure does put a major slowdown on attempted organized research of Digimon to the extent of being easily able to do the kinds of things Gennai and the Agents feared, because it makes it significantly harder to exchange info or collect anything.

Which of course leads to...

The events of 02

The Tokyo Chosen Children got a “break” of sorts after the events of Adventure, and for the most part they didn’t have to think too hard about how to deal with their Digimon in regards to society, especially since they were separated from them. Then, in April 2002, Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori get their partners, and they, Takeru, and Hikari become lucky enough to be able to bring their partners back and forth between the real world and Digital World. With their partners small enough to be passed off as plushes, and no Digimon battles taking place in the real world at this time, the kids choose to keep their Digimon activities a secret from their parents.

At this point, it should be pointed out that this was not actually strictly necessary in terms of keeping the Digimon from society -- especially on the part of the Adventure kids, whose parents already know they exist and certainly have not forgotten! In fact, this is made into a prominent scene in 02 episode 18, when Koushirou’s mother is surprised Tentomon is not there (even though there’s no indication a conflict is going on at the time), in contrast to Koushirou having just been worried about opening a gate in her presence.

In fact, Kizuna adds an important detail by showing us a newspaper clip from around 2002 (when Menoa was accepted into university), indicating that apparently the concept of a “Digimon partner” was well-recognized enough that Morphomon was openly in the newspaper clipping, accompanied by a caption identifying her as Menoa’s Digimon partner. (Kizuna having so much attention to detail with background lore that it even complies with the doubling-every-year principle, it’s not something you can easily pass off as a writer mistake.) Doing the math, 16 Chosen Children in 1999 means around 128 by 2002 (which also tracks with the approximate amount we see around the world in 02 episodes 40-42 and 50). That’s still a drop in the pond in terms of how much the global population truly understands this, but considering that there were reporters like Takaishi Natsuko and Ishida Hiroaki already on the case, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that the press and informational publications would have an idea.

So why did the kids still try so hard to keep the Digimon from their parents and society? A lot of it has to do with the way the kids make their plan to infiltrate the Kaiser’s base in 02 episode 18.

Prior to this point in the series, their fight in the Digital World had been an after-school affair, one that they were capable of hiding instead of having the truth presented up-front to their parents, whether they liked it or not. Starting in April 2002, the kids voluntarily chose to enter a territory war after school. Think about how they’d have to explain this to their parents -- “oh yeah, by the way, I befriended a mysterious monster and will now be going to another world after school to fight a territory war with even bigger monsters on a near-weekly basis” -- of course, most parents would start being obstructive and immediately put an end to that, and there would be so much they’d have to explain to them. In fact, the way the kids parade their Digimon around and try to use the “plushes” excuse instead of really making any decent attempts to hide them indicates they’re not really trying that hard to maintain a facade, just enough to not get awkward questions and people intervening with their actions. After all, if even incidents like the ones in 02 episode 9 can be safely passed off as “being over late at a friend’s place,” why not use that excuse?

So when they first start a real trip into the Digital World that may span multiple days (with Miyako being visibly out of place with this, a sharp contrast to her seniors being used to the idea of being “trapped” there for days on end), Iori says very explicitly that he doesn’t want to worry his family, and the discussion immediately shifts to how they’ll keep this from their families. Interestingly, when Daisuke suggests just lying about it, Hikari scolds him for doing so -- implying that it’s not like she (or the others) is even comfortable with that kind of lie, hence why they ultimately resort to having the seniors stage a camping trip so that the lie can at least be a bit less far-fetched.

But the fact that they can do this in the first place ultimately ends up being a luxury, because they can get away with this as long as the conflict is still in the Digital World. Eventually, we arrive at...

The Christmas 2002 incident

A lot happened on Christmas 2002, especially given the timezone stretch and the number of episodes it spanned, but this effectively sparked the point of no return where Digimon incidents were unavoidable and staring everyone in the face -- especially since it spanned multiple days. Dark Towers started appearing all over the world, wandering Digimon started appearing everywhere, Chosen Children around the world mobilized to round them back into the Digital World, Demon and his army invaded Tokyo, Oikawa kidnapped a large number of children, and eventually the battle with BelialVamdemon on New Year’s Eve ended up bleeding into the real world, with Chosen Children appearing en masse to help them defeat him.

During the course of the international Chosen arc, we do see that quite a few other kids have been hiding their Digimon from their parents -- indeed, not everyone is like Menoa, and especially if they’ve been involved in dangerous incidents or are very small children! Even Mimi tries to hide her involvement from her parents in 02 episode 10, despite them already knowing about the Digimon from the Odaiba fog incident, because -- as they say in the episode -- moving to the US was partially motivated by them wanting to get away from all of this, so, naturally, they’d prefer Mimi have nothing to do with it. But Takeru is comfortable enough to call his grandfather in to help, presumably deciding that he was trustworthy enough about it.

And, indeed, the first major break we see in the facade with the core cast’s parents is with Takeru’s mother Natsuko, who correctly deduces that something is going on and confronts Takeru about it -- to which he immediately does not attempt to cover up or deny, and admits without hesitation. Natsuko, in turn, decides to accept it without grilling him too much, deciding that she’ll trust in Takeru to handle this (presumably, especially after seeing him handle quite a lot even at the young age of eight). At the end of 02 episode 45, Ken -- whose parents have seen so many horrors going on with him that the explanation of him engaging in dangerous monster battles would be more of a comfort to them, because at least they’d be aware of what’s going on -- ultimately chooses to confide in his parents, leading to them and the rest of the Adventure kids’ parents actively choosing to support their kids in their fight over the course of episodes 46-48. Naturally, as much as they’d probably rather their kids not get engaged in dangerous things, they understand what this is and that it’s important, and at the very least want to support them as much as they can -- Koushirou’s mother laments in 02 episode 48 that she wishes she could do more besides just bring food!

02 episode 46 has a moment where Oikawa and Archnemon watch a TV program with people trying (very badly) to blame the recent incidents on a mass delusion -- the TV show itself is portrayed as a sort of trash gossip kind of special -- and Oikawa provides an explanation for the impasse of acknowledgment where people seem to be increasingly aware of Digimon but also not quite aware: things are undeniably happening, but people still aren’t quite ready to accept an explanation that borders on the supernatural. The entire concept of Digimon is a massive shake to the status quo, after all, so while certain investigative and curious people like Natsuko or Haruhiko are naturally more open-minded, and many parents are likely to pay closer attention when kids are involved, only slightly over a hundred Chosen Children (many of whom are still erring on the side of keeping it a secret) and a few reporters aren’t enough to really help people understand...

...but all things considered, it seems to be enough that the Chosen are now functionally giving up on hiding it at all!

By the time of episode 50, the situation has now escalated to the point where any member of the families of the Tokyo Chosen Children who wasn’t already aware of what was going on is now definitely aware, as they await their children’s return from the Digital World. Considering that Jun was already witnessing the return of dangerous things as early as 02 episode 38, and Iori’s grandfather Chikara discovers Armadimon’s existence in episode 47, it becomes rather important to point out that Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori failed to hide their partners’ existence and involvement in Digimon battles for any longer than eight months (April to December 2002). That is how flimsy the facade was. Again, they weren’t even doing that spectacular a job keeping their partners under wraps, Chikara discovered Armadimon by sheer accident just from Armadimon being too big and being unable to control his hunger, and, ultimately, it really is pretty hard to conceal the existence of a living creature constantly accompanying you everywhere.

The aftermath of 02

Well, firstly, there were definitely other things that happened right after the events of 02 that would be pretty hard for people to deny. For instance:

The Internet being the Internet, the incident in Our War Game! could have potentially been passed off as some kind of graphics stunt. But the 2003 Diablomon/Armagemon incident? Nah. People saw that one, and even actively participated in that one! In real life!

With that, as much as Oikawa claims that people are too stubborn to accept changes to the status quo and thus accept Digimon, ultimately, Spring 2003 makes it clear that the Christmas 2002 incident made enough of a fuss that the involved parties all got put on the spot by the public and media. This got to the point where the kids had a risk of their privacy being invaded, and had to be covered by their parents.

My mother, who followed the Hikarigaoka incident as a non-fiction writer, along with Sora-san’s father, are known today as “Digimon critics.” Although the two weren’t sure whether they appreciated their new titles or not, they accepted it and went from investigators to people who were most sought after... ...Thanks to [Hiroaki], we were saved from publicity. It’s sort of like… we’d like to keep our identities and the Digimon a secret. I don’t mean forever, when I say that, but the relationship between us and our partner Digimon is unique and other people probably wouldn’t understand that. For example, we can’t have people thinking that Digimon are slightly strange pets. If they do, then they won’t take us seriously either, and of course, the Digimon wouldn’t like that perception themselves. That’s why, until we get the general public to acknowledge Digimon and the Digital World for what they really are, we’d like to lay low. But in order for that to happen, someone must go out there to explain about the Digimon to others. It was both my mother and Sora-san’s father who accepted that role wholeheartedly. We told the two everything we knew, and they spoke for us to the TV, newspapers, and magazines.

Being people directly connected to the children and understanding of their position, but also in media and publicity positions, Natsuko, Hiroaki, and Haruhiko took on the jobs of advocating for Digimon and explaining their part to the world, while also deliberately acting as go-betweens so that the kids could maintain their privacy. But nevertheless, at this point, the incident in 2002 was such a major thing that it basically was a turning point for people realizing that Digimon exist and are a major presence, and starting to grill informed parties about the details (and, technically, getting those details from the kids themselves, speaking through said media outlets). Hikari also starts working on a “surprisingly useful” informational video for new Chosen Children confused about having a partner -- encouraging them to contact them for help -- and it is also revealed that Shuu, Miyako’s sisters, and Jun had all just gotten partners, meaning that the issue was now starting to become significantly more relevant to their families.

Kizuna also drops an interesting detail about what happened right after 02, or, rather, right after 2002:

The articles describing Menoa’s Digimon research team have titles that indicate that this is one of the first major Digmon scientific research efforts in the world, indicating that, shortly after Menoa’s admission into university and establishing herself there, she began to open up the field of Digimon academic research (her declared major beforehand had been “biology”, presumably the closest she could get to studying Digimon when such a topic didn’t formally exist yet). This is significant because it means that Gennai and the Agents had finally dropped the embargo on Digimon organized research, since it presumably would have been bad for Menoa’s data to vanish without warning -- and, indeed, it makes sense that they would allow for Menoa’s research team to proceed, since Menoa is a Chosen Child herself who has a vested interest in studying Digimon for the greater good and advocating for them in the same way Haruhiko is.

It also provides potential context as to why Menoa may not have been involved much in Digimon fighting and battles in the past but was chosen as a Chosen Child anyway -- Koushirou describes the definition of a “Chosen Child” as such in Two-and-a-Half Year Break:

Having a partner Digimon isn’t really that special. Being a “Chosen Child” means… to cease the hostilities that break out and inconvenience the Digital World. In order to do so, that child gains a partner Digimon faster than another.

While it’s not necessarily in terms of aggressive fighting, a bright and intelligent child like Menoa being chosen to “fight” in the sense of using her intellect to study more about Digimon and help advocate for them seems like a fitting way to fulfill this role in her own way. But, alas, as Gennai and Homeostasis and the Holy Beasts couldn’t necessarily predict what happened to Ichijouji Ken and his fall into becoming the Kaiser, they didn’t seem to be able to predict Menoa’s unfortunate fate and downfall...

Kizuna and 2010

Again, To Sora citing the number of Digimon partners to be over 30,000 by 2010 correctly tracks with the “doubling every year” principle, so it’s probably prudent to assume it’s still been applying over the years. 30,000 is certainly a lot, but it’s not exactly a huge chunk of the global population -- especially since said 30,000 are spread out all over the world, and it’s hard to say how many of them would even live in Japan, let alone Tokyo. It’s a big enough number that Koushirou and Miyako now need to maintain a whole network of Chosen Children (Hikari’s video presumably helped with that), but there are still a lot of unknowns, like the still uncharted territory of the partnership dissolution phenomenon.

Nevertheless, what we see in Kizuna is what you’d probably expect from a society that has now had eight more years to properly digest the existence of Digimon and Digimon incidents. This is most starkly demonstrated in the opening, when a waitress comes by to berate Agumon and Gabumon for making too much noise -- and that’s it, with no weirdness or being taken aback by their presence or existence, just telling them to calm down. The characters in the movie carry around and parade their Digimon quite openly in almost all walks of life, and others interact with them in a very normal manner. One of the credits scenes even shows Daisuke’s higher-up at vocational school being more annoyed at Daisuke’s fight with V-mon than he is at the fact V-mon is there. A newspaper article from early in the movie also correctly identifies Parrotmon and Greymon as Digimon (even if not their specific species), and it is merely treated as an incident rather than paying any particular attention to the fact that Digimon exist. The drama CD also indicates that Daisuke and co. are at the point of sneaking their Digimon into a karaoke bar because said bar has enough awareness of Digimon to charge them admissions fees!

There’s another interesting minor detail in that Palmon, Tailmon, and Patamon are depicted on digital cameras without any static interference. In Adventure and 02, it was impossible to catch them on digital camera in the real world, because, as per Adventure episode 39 and 02 episode 33 (among others), trying to do so would cause nasty static interference and ruin the attempted photo/recording. (This is presumably why Menoa’s photos with Morphomon seem to be film photos.) But for a society where the presence of Digimon is becoming more and more expected, and digital cameras are naturally becoming more commonplace, it would be very bad if this continued to be a problem -- so it makes sense that, by 2010, technological research would have figured out a way around that.

Obviously, not everyone has a Digimon yet, and it’s not like everything in the world has accounted for the assumption people will be walking around with partners -- after all, Taichi’s thesis still involves having to help advocate for Digimon partners and the fact that many people are still skeptical about them. But nevertheless, people are not surprised or perturbed by them anymore, and when something does happen with them, they’re relatively accepting of them. Again, 30,000+ is not exactly a lot to the extent that the entire population has a partner, but with the doubling-every-year principle in play, it seems like society is already well on its way to adjusting to their increasing presence and the eventual point in 2027-2028 when everyone will be expected to have one.

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #digimon adventure last evolution kizuna #kizuna spoilers #shihameta

97 notes · View notes

xmanicpanicx · 3 years

Text

Romanticized Things That Aren't Actually Romantic

1) The "shut up" kiss

It happens in more movies, TV shows, and novels than I can even count. One half of the couple (usually a woman or girl) will be talking, and the other person (usually a guy) will suddenly lay an ol’ sloppy one on her mouth. Often times, she’s rambling about her insecurities, so some people think it’s cute when he kisses her, symbolically laying her worries to rest. Don’t worry, hon! There’s nothing to be insecure about! He likes you! There are two big problems with this. The first is that when someone is speaking, you shouldn’t cut them off; best case scenario, it’s rude. Of course, people cut each other off all the time in conversation, so that’s different. But when a character interrupts another character’s speech to kiss them, they are essentially prioritizing their sexual desires over the other person’s need to express themselves. It’s an action that has an agenda. Everyone wants to be truly listened to when they speak. So if, for example, we have a female character babbling about her insecurities, the male character should hear her out, and then respond to what she says. There is plenty of romantic potential in words — even more than in kisses, in my opinion. His response could still be a kiss after she’s finished speaking (as long as it’s not a rattlesnake-strike type of kiss that doesn’t give her a choice). However, we still have another problem: the female character’s self-confidence shouldn’t be contingent upon the male character’s opinion of her. In other words, a kiss from a guy, no matter how much she loves him, will not and should not heal her negative perception of herself. Not healthy. Real people and characters should accept themselves on their own terms rather than on the approval of others.

Sometimes, the sudden kiss will come in the middle of a female character’s angry rant. The male character thinks she’s cute or sexy when she’s angry, which can be frustrating and patronizing for anyone who voices their anger because they want to be listened to and taken seriously. But regardless of why the character is talking, the other character should stop kissin’ and start listenin’.

2) Female double standards

Women and girls often feel really uncomfortable when men objectify them and make comments on their bodies, so they call these men out — and rightfully so. They also call male authors out for only describing women in terms of their bodies and giving them very little, if any, personality. Once again, rightfully so. Unfortunately, in real life and in literature, there is a double standard here. It’s one thing to write an erotic novel in which bodies of every gender are described in explicit detail and with an express purpose. But I’ve read novels without any sexual content that go into so much detail about guys’ looks. And these male characters are often not well-developed, either (think of the stereotypical jock with a hot bod and no brain). Authors — especially female authors, who are usually the ones perpetuating this — need to do better than this. If it's not okay to do that to girls, it's not okay to do that to guys, either. Also, what is up with that scene from The Notebook? The one where Rachel McAdams repeatedly slaps Ryan Gosling because he’s breaking up with her. How on Earth is that okay? The Notebook is widely considered to be a super-romantic movie, but there is nothing romantic about that scene, and it should be a deal-breaker for their relationship. If the tables were turned and Ryan Gosling slapped Rachel McAdams for breaking up with him, the entire plot of the movie would be different. It would be a thriller, a story about a woman trying to escape a scary ex. We would never root for the two of them to get back together.

3) Overly-metaphorical sex scenes

Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Would you like some crust and tomato sauce with all that cheese? So many novels shy away from the anatomical details and favor metaphors for how the sex makes the characters (or just the narrating character) feel. In theory, there is nothing wrong with this, but I personally tend to roll my eyes more often than not at the actual execution. The narrator will say something too dramatic, like “our bodies became one and the universe opened up before me.” Or “and then we were flying, soaring with and through one another.” Or something else that is just… not sexy. As far as being poetic, there isn’t anything special about those phrases, either. There is nothing wrong with describing sex as it really is. I realize that novels featuring sex that are aimed at young adults probably cannot describe things too explicitly, but there’s no need to replace dirty details with flowery language. Go for whatever sincerity you can in the situation. There are plenty of different emotions to mine and sensual details leading up to the actual sex that read more thrillingly than the sex scene itself.

4) Instalove

It's simply not as much fun to see characters fall for each other right away. And how could they possibly fall for each other right away, anyhow? Is it all about looks? If so, both characters are instantly less likable because they're shallow. And that's not real love, either. You need to actually know someone in order to feel a such a deep emotion for them.

It's also important to note that making the characters "love" each other at the outset of the story does not heighten the emotional stakes. It actually cheapens them. Because how can we take this so-called love seriously when we don't get to know, don't get to care about, the characters as individual people before they fall for each other?

Now, if we get to know each character and watch them get to know each other, and slowly fall for each other, that's much more rewarding. It's character growth, and it's a whole process that we, as readers, get to experience vicariously though them.

This may just be a personal preference, but I think it's best to even avoid phrases like “my heartbeat skipped” or “my skin tingled when our hands brushed” in the beginning stages of the story. Even though the declarations of love and outright displays off affection may come later on, statements like these reveal instant attraction, which still isn't as rewarding as attraction that grows over time and through events.

5) Love interests being obsessed with each other

From approximately 2005-2015, YA literature saw a horde of books featuring teenage girls and boys who are everything to each other. I almost mean that literally. The first really popular book like this was Twilight, but it had a huge influence on everything in YA that came after, especially YA fantasy. How romantic, some people think, that hero lives for the heroine! And vice versa! Perfect! Meant to be! Everyone wishes they could have that one, true, perfect love!

Listen. Go back to Britney Spears’s first album and play the song “Born to Make You Happy”: ”I don’t know how to live without your love, I was born to make you happy.” Solid 90s bubblegum pop, but with unhealthy lyrics. An unhealthy mentality. Most of us are familiar with that heady, all-consuming feeling of falling in love, how it feels like that’s the best and happiest part of life as it’s happening. There’s nothing wrong with portraying that. It’s relatable. The glorification of it beyond all else is the problem. The hero and heroine have scares throughout the story during which they almost lose each other, and that brings to light just how strongly they feel each other, to the extreme that nothing matters except each other. Then, of course, they ultimately end up together, happily ever after, never having to part again. But in real life, people break up, or sometimes even die. People have no choice but to be apart from the person they loved so much from then on. And it’s devastating, but it’s not the end, even if it sometimes feels like it. That’s why it’s so important for books to give some indicator that there are other things that matter besides (and dare I say even more than) the one person the hero/heroine is in love with. The characters have to have some sense of self-love or resilience. They have to have other people they care about, or at least values/principles and goals. They have to be an actual person, not just a vessel filled to the brim with love for just one other person. Romanticizing a co-dependent relationship can be hope-crushing message, especially for teenagers who haven’t had enough time to grow, to weather the storm of life and toughen up and become wiser and more self-aware and self-confident.

7) The super dominant male love interest

Okay, I’m not trying to kink-shame anyone because I know there are people who absolutely love this trope. I want to say it’s fine, as long as it remains in Tropeland. But even if women want to keep these love interests solely within their fantasies, I do worry about the message it sends to men, if it makes them think that they can be abusive douchebags because women are into that. I already know of far too many men who think that women are only into assholes.

Personally, I’ll never understand the appeal of a man, fictional or otherwise, who dictates what a woman should wear, her food choices, where they go and what they do for dates ALL THE TIME. And jealousy! Sure, jealousy indicates that someone cares, and it’s a normal human emotion, but I’ll never understand the appeal of a guy who gets so jealous, he won’t allow his girlfriend any freedom. I’ll never understand how cruel, disparaging words could ever be on the same sexiness level as dirty talk. And I really, really will never understand how a man physically harming a woman could be considered sexy. It’s weak and cowardly, hurting someone who doesn’t stand a chance of fighting back because they’re nowhere near as strong.

I get the appeal of a guy who sees a woman as his equal and isn’t afraid to spar with her, challenge her, and maybe even be a little bit rough with her, knowing that she can handle it. I see the appeal of a confident man who isn’t afraid to tell a woman what he wants. When his presence becomes legitimately threatening and completely selfish, that’s when I personally see a problem. But hey, to each their own.

#writing #writing advice #ya fiction #writing rants #writing rambles

19 notes · View notes

lizabethstucker · 3 years

Text

The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe edited by Josh Pachter

Subtitled: Parodies and Pastiches Featuring the Great Detective of West 35th Street

I loved this collection of stories, with only a few exceptions. Overall, I would give it 4.5 out of 5.

Introductions: Trouble in Triplicate

“At Wolfe’s Door” by Otto Penzler ~ about the characters.

“A Family Affair” by Rebecca Stout Bradbury ~ Rex Stout’s daughter provides a peek at the author.

“Plot It Yourself” by Josh Pachter ~ how the collection came to be.

Pastiches (Respectful imitations of the original works)

“The Red Orchid” by Thomas Narcejac

Translated from French, the story was written in 1947. The first English publication wasn’t until 1961. A young woman comes to hire Wolfe to discover who is trying to kill her uncle, a man who claims to have developed a red orchid. More creepy than respectful, especially how Archie hits on the female client. Too offensive for me. DNF

“Chapter 8 from ‘Murder in Pastiche’” by Marion Mainwaining

Published in 1955, this novel can also be found under the title of “Nine Detectives All at Sea”. A notorious gossip columnist is murdered during a sea cruise across the Atlantic. There are nine famous detectives on the ship as passengers. Trajan Beare, aka Nero Wolfe, is the focus of this particular chapter. It is hard to judge the whole book based on just one chapter. However, the characterization should be noted as being extremely close to the original source material. A nice read. No rating as it is just an excerpt.

“The Archie Hunters” by Jon L. Breen

Written in 1968, but never published until now. A cross of Nero Wolfe and Mike Hammer. Mock Himmler beats the crap out of anyone he encounters, particularly if they disagree with him or do something he doesn’t like. After beating up a news seller for carrying a “commie” magazine, Mock discovers an ad in the back requesting a private investigator for a missing person case. The ad, placed by Nero Wolfe, leads Mock to presume the missing person is Archie Goodwin. I’ve never been a fan of Mike Hammer nor his creator, Mickey Spillane, finding both of them to be disgusting in their love of violence, misogyny, and attitudes in general. I did enjoy this story nonetheless. 4 out of 5

“The Frightened Man” by O. X. Rusett

Gave up early on this anagram-stuffed story, even to the author’s name. More annoying than clever or cute. DNF

“Chapter 1 from ‘Murder in E Minor’” by Robert Goldsborough

I read the whole book when it was first published and, frankly, wasn’t too impressed. I do know that Goldsborough was selected by the Stout Estate to be the official author of the novels and I have read a few of his more recent books. I may try and reread it sometime down the road to see if my opinion has changed. No rating as it is only one chapter.

“The Purloined Platypus” by Marvin Kaye

While Goldsborough has the exclusive novel rights, Kaye asked to write short stories and was given the Estate’s permission as long as no novels were ever written. Benjamin Moultrie, president and board chairman of the Museum of the Strange, Odd and Peculiar, wants to hire Wolfe to investigate a robbery at the museum. As I wasn’t reading the magazines such as Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock, I missed reading any of these stories. Which is quite a tragedy. Excellent portrayals of not only the characters, but the case itself. 4 out of 5.

Parodies (Exaggerated imitations intended to poke fun at the source material)

“The House on 35th Street” by Frank Littler

Originally appeared in The Saturday Review in 1966. Little is known about the author, despite Pachter’s research attempts. A crowd is assembled in the Brownstone in a murder case, wanting to see some of the detective’s famous actions and quirks. There is an undercurrent of a very personal nature, especially at the end. 3.5 out of 5

“The Sidekick Case” by Patrick Butler

Another entry from The Saturday Review, this time in 1968, and another case of little information on the author. Wolfe objects to Archie being called a “sidekick” in a listing of the latest book. Cute. 3.5 out of 5

“The Case of the Disposable Jalopy” by Mack Reynolds

America has turned into an illiterate welfare state, Wolfe and Archie are old and sometimes forgetful, and things are beyond tight financially. Reynolds uses the last names of some of the biggest authors in Science Fiction in the story. These men want to hire Wolfe for a case of sabotage and the disappearance of a key developer. What a weird world Reynolds has built. As to the updates on the normal cast of characters in the series? Well, I never liked Orrie anyway. 4 out of 5

“As Dark as Christmas Gets” by Lawrence Block

An unpublished manuscript written by Cornell Woolrich is stolen during a Christmas party. The owner hires Wolfe wannabe Leo Haig and his Goodwin substitute, Chip Harrison, to recover it. I’ve come across stories in this series before and loved them, both for the obvious affection for the source material as well as the excellent characterization. 4.5 out of 5

“Who’s Afraid of Nero Wolfe?” by Loren D. Estleman

Arnie Woodbine, currently on parole, was fired from his last job for gambling on company time. He needs a job and finds an ad looking for an assistant sharp of wit. He finds himself hired by Claudius Lyon, a corpulent man with delusions of being Nero Wolfe. Arnie is hired as his Archie. Now all they need is a case. Since Lyon doesn’t have a private detective license and Arnie’s felony record prevents him from ever getting one, they would not be able to charge for their services. No problem as Lyon is actually quite wealthy. Their first case is regarding a poetry award that carries with it a $10,000 prize. One winner doesn’t appear to actually exist. Seriously one of the best sendups that I’ve ever read! This was a delight to read and deserved more stories. 4.5 out of 5.

“Julius Katz and the Case of Exploding Wine” by Dave Zeltserman

A friend of Julius’ that has a champion bulldog and heads a dog food company comes to see Julius with the dog in tow, asking for help to find someone to prevent Brutus from being kidnapped. He also asks that Julius find his murderer if he’s killed. Sure enough, the man is killed. Julius had agreed to investigate, but only after he gave the police a week to solve it themselves. Just as the week is up, an adversary calls to warn Julius that there is a bomb in his house, contained in a box of wine. Julius allows almost everyone to believe he is dead after the townhouse is completely destroyed from top to bottom. I absolutely loved this sorta tribute to Rex Stout. I’m particularly intrigued by Archie, an AI who is installed in Julius’ tie pin. That alone has me eyeing the book collections, but to be honest, this is a damn fine mystery. Julius is definitely not Nero Wolfe, at least in size, athleticism (martial arts), and loving women (a former womanizer who now has a regular girlfriend). He definitely is in the aspects of intelligence, laziness, and cutting Archie out of the loop. His collecting focus is wine rather than orchids, but both can be very expensive hobbies. 4.5 out of 5.

“The Possibly Last Case of Tiberius Dingo” by Michael Bracken

Age and diet are catching up to Tiberius Dingo’s body, but his mind and deductive reasoning is still as sharp as ever. His long-time assistant, Jughead Badloss, brings a client he dances with at the Senior Center, a woman who is certain she is being stalked. Family ties and age-old secrets are ripped out into the open before the case is done, for their client and for Jughead himself. The names are a little lame, but the story made up for it. 3.5 out of 5.

Potpourri

“The Woman Who Read Rex Stout” by William Brittain

Gertrude Jellison was the fat lady at a carnival sideshow, an intelligent woman whose extreme weight, over 500 pounds, kept her from her dream job of teaching psychology. Her partner, Robert Kirby, is the thin man, barely weighing seventy-five pounds. As a stunt, the carnival boss gave her Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books to read during the shows. Surprisingly enough, Gert loved them and continued reading. She never expected to use what she learned to solve a murder, but sadly a newer member of the troup, a beautiful woman named Lili who was like a daughter to Gert, is murdered and the older woman knows she can solve the crime. This is a character that I could seriously have loved to read more about. A good little mystery as well, even if I quickly realized who the murderer would turn out to be. 3.5 out of 5.

“Sam Buried Caesar” by Josh Pachter

Police inspector Griffen had eleven children, each of whom was named after a famous fictional detective. Nero, just eleven years old, had set up his own detective agency, aided by his best friend and neighbor Artie Goodman. Their latest client, Sam, came to them after his dog, Caesar, was hit and killed by an out-of-state driver. Not wanting the poor animal to be left coldly abandoned on the street, he buried the dog in an empty lot. Coming back a short time later to get Caesar’s collar, the body is missing. He hires Nero and Artie to find the killer and recover the body. Sad and cute and inventive, but how Artie puts up with Nero will always be a mystery. 3.5 out of 5.

“Chapter 24 from Rasputin’s Revenge” by John Lescroart

The basic premise is that Nero Wolfe is the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. I’ve not read this particular book, but it appears to be the last chapter in which Archie and Wolfe, going under his original name, are in Russia, appeared to have come up against Gregori Rasputin (although the author has it as Gregory), and was helped by Holmes and Dr. Watson after they were wanted for murder. I’m not going to rate it as I don’t consider it fair to rate a novel based on just one chapter.

“A scene from Might as Well Be Dead” by Joseph Goodrich

Adaptation of the story into a play. Once again, not rated.

“The Damned Doorbell Rang” by Robert Lopresti

When their fourteen granddaughter came to visit in a snit because her parents won’t allow her to go with friends to a concert in New York City, Eve and Jack decide to tell her about why they left the City. When they were younger, they had a brownstone in the City. Their neighbors were definitely different, all men living there. Jack didn’t much like any of them and keeps disparaging Eve’s stories about what they saw while living there. But Eve tells a tale of how she saved the men’s lives. Too many close calls are the reason that they moved to New Jersey. How could I not love this outsider’s look at Nero Wolfe? 3.5 out of 5.

#book review #Nero Wolfe #collection #The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe #Josh Pachter #mystery #short stories

5 notes · View notes

vios-rockland-corner · 4 years

Text

How I’m going to tackle “Rumors of Rockland”

Hello there! Today there was a RIDICULOUSLY large information dump on Outlaw’s Patreon about upcoming game layouts. There’s far too much there to comment on right now, but there’s one thing in particular I wanted to focus on today. This post actually is less of me talking about the possibilities of the game, and more so how “I” personally am going to approach these particular “games.”

Overview of what’s below:

- What is “Rumors of Rockland” (RoR)

- My OC Sasha Holmes

- What kind of posts you’ll see from me as these RoR installments come through

What is “Rumors of Rockland?”

Of the long list of future games to come from the creators in the Rockland Universe, one of the very first things mentioned that’s new is the “Rumors of Rockland.” THIS might actually be the first bit of solid content besides the demos that you may see pop up.

“Rumors of Rockland” is a little interesting. I’m not 100% sure I’d call it a “game” first of all. I do fully believe it will be presented to us in the same visual format we get with Ren’Py. The visual novel style basically. But there’s two big keynotes on what makes this piece of media different from the creators’ other games.

1) The MC in these “games” is going to be more of an observer. It’s specifically going to be different from the rest of the games where the MC is directly involved in the story. Here, it sounds more like the MC happens to be in the same setting as another set of characters, but otherwise does not affect what’s going on. With that being said, I don’t even know if we’ll be playing through with any choices to select. The creators also said that it would ideally be the same MC in all the scenarios, further suggesting that the MC isn’t being placed in a perilous situation here. They are an untouched bystander.

2) There will be several installments of this series. Oh yes. When I said “scenarios” before, I didn’t necessarily mean that there’s going to be a lot of things happening in this one...I’m going to refer to is as a “visual novel” until further notice. What I mean is this is a series that will be continuously updated throughout the development of other Rockland games. New installments can be called new chapters to the visual novel. “Rumors of Rockland” appears to be a way to supplement extra information to the audience about certain characters and what is going on in Rockland. That solidifies even more for me why I would prefer to call this a visual novel over a game. Yes I know lots of games will sometimes continue to get DLC content to add further progression. Call it a hunch though, I think the creators would want to save their time developing multiple games rather than developing one and just continually adding updates for it. They have a lot of characters to go through, so this could be an effective way to show some elements that may not be able to make it into a main game.

Apparently, the release order of games has switched around once again and Rumors of Rockland is going to be released first, followed by “Welcome to Rockland” (this is a path focusing on just one character), THEN Misfits: First Blood. I know, sometimes this gets a little confusing to keep track of. Just trust me, a lot of this has to do with character shifts for the groups.

Right now the first Rumors of Rockland we’re supposed to get is just listed as “Introduction/Prologue.” It might not be long, but we’ll see soon what we’re working with here. There also was a BIG list of potential chapters touching on all sorts of different elements of Rockland. It’s kind of wild. Chapters may not be long themselves, considering how many they have planned. But the good news is I think if they’re doing this the way I suspect...it won’t be difficult to pump out a lot of chapters at a faster pace than any of the other games. I think all they need is a stock set of backgrounds and sprites...then it’s just recoding and new script each time. That’s not really so bad if they don’t have the MC have to make a lot or any choices at all. No complaints from me in that case.

My OC

Okay, little detour here, but this WILL become relevant to this blog and tie back into RoR. I don’t make many OC’s, but I made one from scratch here. Her name is Sasha Holmes and I created her specifically to be an NPC in the Rockland Universe.

See I’m not really the creative type, but I wanted to try practicing character creation and development. I’m NOT the type of person though who usually a) visualizes/creates my own MC for a game (I prefer games even with pre-made protagonist avatars) or b) self-inserts. I have NOTHING against anyone who does either of these obviously. My brain just...lacks the creativity to do the former, and since games are a form of escapism, I don’t self-insert because that’s not part of the fantasy and escapism aspect for me.

What’s more, lots of these games are going to be horror survival. I feel even LESS inclined to craft an OC I may fall in love with only to throw them into the pits of hell. Likely any character I make would die, and I don’t have the mental energy to create another OC for every.single.game, haha.

To get around this, I said: “Well what if I just make a character that solely exists in this universe, but never interferes with the story. Surely there are just normal citizens that live in Rockland?” What I was planning on doing was occasionally utilizing Sasha for extra posts when I couldn’t think of anything to write. Something like journal entries she’d make about her day and gossip that she’s heard around town. Perhaps gossip about people going missing even or shady dealings. How would Sasha react? Sometimes a normal person will wave something off as too outlandish to be true. If it doesn’t directly impact you, it’s easier to ponder one second but push it to the side the next. Or maybe what you hear could make you start to feel paranoid. Especially if things persist.

Originally, I was going to split things so that some of the gossip or rumors Sasha heard were actually based on real things that “I” know happen in the games and universe, and some things that are false (because you know how rumors get pretty outlandish if someone mishears something or someone’s just looking for attention). I was prepared to just kind of craft my own type of content like this in due time. In addition to all the analysis posts, don’t worry. The posts regarding my OC would have just been filler when I couldn’t think of anything else.

Now that Rumors of Rockland is a thing though…do you know what this is for me? It’s a template. I am literally being gifted the EXACT kind of scenario I would have previously had to craft myself. This visual novel doesn’t need an interactive MC, just one that observes the events happening. If they’re the same MC in every chapter too, that means they should be safe! I am beyond ecstatic and not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!

My Rumors of Rockland Posts

So here’s what going to happen in the future. I’m going to try to do at LEAST one post for every Rumors of Rockland chapter that comes out. Even if the chapters are short, they’ll still be enough for characters to comment on. The goal here is for me to try something new and have a little fun while also putting out content. At the moment, I don’t know which of the two types of posts I will end up preferring to do:

1) Journal Entry- The RoR event has already taken place, and Sasha’s just writing in first person her exact thoughts on the day/information. This would be beneficial if I don’t feel up to describing a whole lot of actions for Sasha or what’s happening around her and just want full dialogue.

2) Present time fic?- Writing the story as the events of the chapter take place. This means placing Sasha directly there and describing all that’s happening with her and getting her IMMEDIATE reactions to certain information. I’m not going to lie, I need to see an RoR chapter first to kind of figure out how I’d write a present time piece. I certainly don’t want to copy paste all the dialogue she hears. Could do a –cut to RoR chapter- note literally in there, and do more of Sasha’s before and after behaviors and emotions. This one would be more dynamic definitely, but I would have the advantage where I could practice having Sasha interact with other characters I bring in such as coworkers or friends. It could be interesting depicting Sasha conversing with another person about what she sees/hears rather than just focusing on her inner thoughts. I also have another side character I might want to utilize to explain why Sasha is even repeatedly going back to where these events take place.

I will admit, I’m not really a creative writer. So I’m going to apologize ahead of time if what I put out isn’t all that stellar. This is going to be practice for sure. Like I said, I may start to favor one post type over the other. I don’t know if I’ll keep them short and sweet, or make it long. Whatever I feel up to I suppose.

I will also mention that I may still end up doing an ADDITIONAL analysis/thoughts post of sorts along with my OC post for an RoR chapter. This is only if there is information revealed that “I” personally want to comment on that I know Sasha can’t. Sasha might not be able to either because she, as an in-universe character, is not aware of the bigger picture, or because her personality doesn’t allow her to think about something in a different way. Sometimes characters are very set in their beliefs and views, which can affect how they perceive information. So if there’s people viewing this blog who are more keen on the analysis posts and don’t really like OC content, don’t worry. Not only will all the big games solely get more analytical posts, but the RoR chapters may still get some as well. It just depends on what kind of information I get fed.

I need to stress again that Sasha is NOT a self-insert. She’s a completely human OC, but she is not me. Now, of course it’s not uncommon for a creator to put just a little bit of themselves into any OC they make. Sasha’s no exception. What’s more, I just realized she’s one of the few purely human OC’s I’ve crafted. I might accidentally end up having her share similar beliefs and mannerisms to myself simply because…that’s what I know best. Sometimes you write better if you write what you know. That being said, I do also try to go out of my way to give my OC’s both minor and major differences to myself, whether it’s small likes and dislikes, physical appearance changes or certain beliefs. The only reason I’m explaining this is because in the event I have both an OC post AND an analysis post that seem to contrast greatly, it’s because my OC and “I” are reacting differently to something. Don’t assume necessarily that the way Sasha views something is exactly the same way I view it. If you do, you might get confused, haha. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of times where it can’t be helped that Sasha and I think very similarly. But for this, I want to try my best to give Sasha a consistent personality and system of beliefs. Big or small.

I don’t know if I will be putting out a post immediately once the first RoR chapter drops. I’m feeling pretty good about the image I have of Sasha in my head, but there’s still some BIG bio points I need to settle on before I can get started. I know I shouldn’t try to nail down every little piece about her right away so that I can have some flexibility later, but a couple of things I think I need to settle on include:

· Age and occupation- There’s a time skip I know we’re going to get for the Rockland universe, so it’s important for me to decide where I want to start and where she will potentially be in the future. I know some of the other characters’ ages now, so that helps a little in deciding how much younger or older she is compared to some characters. It’s also a big deal whether or not she’s a college student pre-time skip, or already started a career.

· Long term resident of Rockland vs. New in Town- As cliché as it sounds, I may be leaning towards “new in town” simply because it really IS an easy way to explain why she’s never noticed anything strange before in Rockland. While it’s true that children are often ignorant to a lot of the world happening around them, I don’t know enough about the Rockland universe to say WHICH things should be “common knowledge” to a local.

Those are the big ones. After a lot of thinking, I’m sticking to my original plan that Sasha will just be “good.” Don’t expect her to be TOO sympathetic to a person who she hears committed murder for example, haha. I just think not only will it be easier for me to write someone who is a “normal civilian” with a good conscience, but also because I think it might be fun later down the line to tackle a little fear that grows and pondering on why people do bad things to begin with. She’s be a good girl, right now most likely lawful good. Maybe if I ever wanted to craft a side character that’s a little more chaotic than her to bounce off dialogue with to get other perspectives in there, I could do that. That’d be another challenge for me altogether though.

I’m sure not every single chapter though in RoR is going to be about hearing characters describe how they’ve murdered someone recently though. Especially not continuously in a public place. Not everything is going to be crystal clear I’m sure. Sasha might brush off some things that happen, and other stuff seems so incoherent without the context that she won’t know WHAT to make of it.

I’m also still debating whether to not only wait for at least the first RoR piece to come out, but if I want to wait for “Welcome to Rockland” to come out as well before finalizing Sasha.

Last thing before I end this! I wanted to get this post out as a just heads-up on what you’ll see from me in the future. This should work fine considering the RoR chapters sound like information dumps in visual novel format for the most part. I want to be make it clear though that I am NOT copyrighting this way of commenting on the RoR chapters. What I love about these installments, is that you could literally have any viewer’s own OC operating in their own space and just reacting to what happens in plain sight. Anyone should feel free to imagine themselves as the MC here and it’s not going to interfere with anyone else’s story. I would certainly love to see if anyone else tries to do something similar to what I want to do with the RoR updates. There’s so many different types of MC’s people can make and I’m positive they won’t all react to things the same exact way as each other.

#rockland #Rockland Games #rumors of rockland #runawayoutlaw #rottenbonethief #sugarhazard #RoR #my OC #sasha holmes

2 notes · View notes

fangsmyth · 4 years

Text

100 character development questions || no longer accepting

to save time and space imma be real and just... shove these all in one post under a read more because i got a LOT of these ( tysm!! i love talking about this piece of shit literally ask me anything any time any day of the week i’d be happy to answer )

sooo here we go!

nsfw and unsanitary mentions under the cut

@haemoneiron sent:

002. Do they do anything to celebrate their birthday?

ehhh he’ll call it a celebration, but lanque really doesn’t do much of anything different from what he normally does. he probably won’t even vocalize the fact that it’s his wriggling day, just look around to see if anyone’s already throwing a party that he can crash. if not, on alternia he probably just drank heavily in his room and played edm way too loudly.

here, he’ll probably just go to some bar and fuck somebody. so... what he does pretty much every day

016. What is their choice of weapon?

teeth! teeth! teeth! teeth! teeth! no fr if he had to pick an actual physical weapon it’d probably be a knife or a dagger, definitely something sharp and intimate...... like teeth. i say a lot that lanque isn’t a fighter but he can and will kill if he needs to

044. What disgusts them?

mainly just bad kinks! bad kinks being scat, vomit, piss, and inc*st/p*dophilia i know that’s everyone but what he considers genuinely revolting is just that specific. also people that don’t really bathe/clean themselves

---

@anglerfishnabe sent:

031. Are they superstitious about anything?

ehhh, nah i feel like lanque will see a string of bad luck as a sign that he should just go home for the rest of the day, but i don’t think it would reach much further than that. he’s definitely into people that are superstitious, and taking advantage of ‘signs from the universe’ and shlocky stuff like that, but i don’t think he really personally believes in all of that stuff. lanque is a lot of things, but spiritual is not one of them

034. What’s their view of lying?

he doesn’t see the problem in little white lies that won’t hurt anyone, especially if it gets him what he wants. ( see him HONESTLY trying to tell mspa reader he’s a virgin )

but if people lie about things that will have reaching consequences that will hurt other people, that’s just... really shitty. he does this very rarely if he’s especially desperate to get some sort of reaction out of someone, but generally speaking when he wants to hurt people and make them feel bad about themselves he points out truths based on what he gauges from observation.

---

@feraldeus sent:

013. Have they ever been bullied or teased?

yes! very much so! a lot! to the bitter end, actually! his entire cloister does have valid complaints like how he probably comes back drunk a lot of the time and has a tendency to stir the pot just to see what happens, but lynera honest to god just... hates him so much because of all the attention he garners from bronya she tended to shit talk him behind his back.

i’d imagine part of his reason behind finding it so important to be honest with how he tears someone in half is because of how much it secretly hurt him that lynera spread the occasional lie attempting to leave bronya thinking he’s beyond saving.

not only that, but i’d imagine when he was younger he probably got picked on a lot for crying and being so emotionally vulnerable and open which is why he’s so guarded now!

---

@haruakifusaishi sent:

012. What makes your character embarrassed?

openly and honestly expressing his feelings as shown in the above. generally any positive, warm feelings towards anyone are humiliating as all hell and not in the kinky way. he hates being caught being sappy or expressing romance in the sweet way he does behind closed doors.

with that, honestly if anyone that knows him for his sex drive and general hedonistic tendencies found out about his poetry readings or pretty much any of his written poetry he’d just die! that’d be the end for him!

068. How strong is your character’s sense of responsibility? What kinds of things trigger it?

lanque never feels responsibility for himself or the need to own up to his own actions at all, honestly. his entire kink is being sexy and irresponsible. he primarily feels a sense of responsibility for others’ actions significantly more than his own.

like if he witnesses someone being dishonest or just doing something generally shitty, he feels like it’s his responsibility to call them out since no one else has the balls to do it. if it looks like someone’s going to put themselves in danger, he’ll warn them. if he cares enough about them, he might go out of his way to physically drag them out of it.

it’s all in the moment things, his responsibility is never thought about or premeditated in any way!

073. In a novel, what plot role would your character fill? (hero, anti-hero, sidekick, villain, etc.)

ehhhh i wanna say anti-hero, but at the same time that could be me being inherently biased. i feel like it’d be significantly more interesting if he were a foil for any protagonist, i just seriously doubt he’d ever be the main character in anything as much as he would have the bravado of someone that wants to be?

---

@enradiant sent:

026. What do they consider ugly in others personality-wise?

lying fake bitches!!!! people that try to suck up to people just to get a leg up on others!!!!!! hypocrites!!!!!!! shitheads that aren’t at least a little self-aware!!!!!!!!!!! people that ask too many questions, fuck off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

027. What is their idea of perfect happiness?

oh god that’s a good question can i take a raincheck i dunno, just a life without any kind of fear or anger? having a perfect soulmate that’s willing to do whatever? everything is going the right way? ultimately he feels perfect happiness is impossible and unrealistic since happiness is never constant and sustainable? uuuugh tbh it’s probably something he’d never consider because he thinks it’s so dumb and not gonna happen

059. List several phrases your character is fond of uttering. Where did they pick them up?

i only use like one of these but let’s play in the space and add some lines i should definitely be using more

“ hey, baby. ” i guarantee you he got this from some movie or game i just can’t put my finger on which one. i hear it so clearly in my head every time i type it out i just hear some chick’s voice i just can’t put my finger on who it is she’s high pitched and horny i just know it’s not catherine it’s either jessie from huniepop or one of her lines in huniecam studio i’m so fucking stupid

“ will you help me feel alive? ” or something along those lines, i feel like it was from some vampire drama on the cw can you tell that i don’t know anything this is just the single sexiest line in his fucking route i’m so angry about it my pants were already off

“ it’s one thing to not want something. it’s another to be told you can’t have it. ” i cheated this one’s from how i met your mother i’m a fucking asshole but he would totally say something in this wheelhouse either to himself or to someone he’s trying to convince

“ we’re only alive once. ” a classier way of saying yolo don’t fucking @ me

“ vampires are always in some kind of trouble. i prefer to be in it with you. ” this is a weekly reminder that i really need to watch true blood

“ i’m all yours, do whatever you want to me. ” it’s jessie huniepop again please he’s just so horny

074. What is your character’s favorite game?

would it be cheesy to say the game/art of pick-up artistry? like convincing people he’s worth their time and that they really wanna forget about their troubles if only for just one night? i feel like lanque finds a lot of fun in the thrill of the chase! he's usually extremely disappointed by how rare it is for someone to actually leave him satisfied, but the last thing he wants to do is consider something a waste of time. sometimes you gotta find the fun

076. How do they express anger?

he doesn’t, or at least not in terms of any sort of emotional projection. lanque isn’t usually someone to hide if something pissed him off. he’ll wait for someone to realize, and if they don’t and/or keep doing the thing he’ll just tell them ‘hey this was really shitty, stop it.’

---

@plumbacks asked:

011. How would your character court the person of their dreams?

as in how he would act in the relationship? terribly. lanque is already really bad in regular relationships and flings, but when he’ll find the one he will be an absolutely deliberate fucking mess. he’ll dig up information just to use it against them, try and express every single one of their flaws (even when they’re flaws he actually kind of likes) he will do anything to get out of that relationship.

he’ll use his poetry as a last resort, intentionally trying to come across as overly possessive and clingy (i mean he already is, but i’m talking like yuri doki doki levels. an intentional exaggeration of his clingyness to attempt to scare them off) but when they just accept it and say that it’s fine, he’d probably blow up at first!

lanque would break up with them!!! all the time!!! the worst on again off again relationship ever!!! it would take a ton of patience for someone that he really adores to get settled into the more genuine, sappy romance he really wants to have. taking them out on trips to the countryside, laughing and sharing picnics with fine wine, discussing books and even trying to write ones together

but getting to that point will take ages! it’s not worth it!!!

#ginger lemon radler ( ooc ) ;;#yeah right ( ask ) ;;#angelic voices ( hc ) ;;#plumbacks #enradiant #haruakifusaishi #feraldeus #anglerfishnabe #haemoneiron

6 notes · View notes

cromulentbookreview · 5 years

Text

Just Friendly Crustaceans

Under the sea! / Under the sea! / There’ll be no accusations / just friendly crustaceans / under the sea!

That’s Homer’s solution to everything, to move under the sea. It’s not going to happen.

The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah!

Leyla McQueen lives under the sea (under the sea! Sorry, I really can’t help myself). Anyway, Leyla lives in a world that was flooded as a result of an asteroid strike. Society has rebuilt itself, somewhat, under the water, despite the fact that living underwater isn’t exactly great for humans. I mean, just think of the mold! Euch. Or, well, in Leyla’s case, it’d be mould, because she lives in Underwater London which is either awesome or horrifying, depending on how you look at it. Leyla is a driving instructor by trade, teaching others how to pilot their submersibles, but in her free time, she loves a good race. In fact, we get our first introduction to Waterworld London via an unofficial road race which Leyla wins. Which is great, because she can really use the prize money to help pay for a lawyer to help her dad - see, Hashem McQueen has been arrested for supposedly helping depressed people suffering from an all-consuming sadness called the Seasickness kill themselves. Which is weird because I’m pretty sure that, even without his help, those people would’ve figured out a way to kill themselves anyway, but whatever. Either way, the charges are bullshit, and Leyla has been doing her damnedest to prove it, but keeps hitting roadblocks (waterblocks?) every step of the way.

Until she gets the chance to race in the London Marathon, the top prize of which includes a single personal request from the Prime Minister. If she wins the Marathon, she could ask for her dad’s freedom and it’d be granted, easy-peasy, right?

Right?

Yeah, it’s not that easy. Nothing is ever that easy when you live under the sea (under the sea! Damn it!). Especially when there’s these weird, genetically modified humans called Anthropoids running around, committing acts of terrorism. Anthropoids were created to survive under the water, and survive they can - but apparently Anthropoids also went insane and hate normal people so much they just want to kill anyone who isn’t a fellow Anthropoid. London is supposedly safe from the Anthropoids, but this is a YA fantasy action/adventure novel so you know that won’t last long.

Anyway, Leyla competes in the London Marathon, but things absolutely do not go as easily as she’d hoped. I mean, the book would be pretty short if things went easily. After the race, Leyla is given a chance to leave the safe, familiar waters of London for the world beyond - and, possibly, a chance to rescue her father herself. Along with Ari, the infuriatingly handsome son of one of her grandfather’s friends, and her Maltese puppy, Jojo, Leyla leaves London and heads into the dangerous unknown. Under the sea. Under the sea. Darling it's better / Down where it's wetter / Take it from me...

Maybe it was just me, being a weird loner kid whose best friend was her imagination, but I loved imagining what life would be like if the world were entirely underwater. Getting to swim through your school, going from house to house on a canoe, diving for old-world treasures, riding a walrus to work, you know. All that fun stuff you can experience, unless Jasper Johns steals your boat. Because, seriously, life under the sea does sound awesome. Well, except for the cold. And the wet. And the pressure. And the dark. And the ability to, uh, breathe. And, I mean, we’d better get used to the idea as soon as Greenland and Antarctica melt. But anyway, the concept of an underwater London meant I was absolutely going to read this book. Shah brings the setting to life, with all the wonders/terrors of the sea. The writing is lovely, but story-wise, yeah, this is definitely the first book of a series, meaning: you have 10,000,000,000 questions, but this book won’t be answering all of them, so be prepared to wait.

Character-wise, Leyla has an optimism about her that borders on naiveté - but even as she goes through some pretty harrowing experiences and learns her world isn’t what she thought it is, she remains optimistic. I love this - it would be easy for a YA protagonist to become cynical and bitter (adolescents, am I right?) but Leyla perseveres, despite her fears. It’s pretty clear throughout the book that Leyla suffers from anxiety, and Shah’s descriptions of Leyla’s feelings of panic and stress are absolutely spot-on. How she can maintain such a positive attitude living under the sea with her father behind bars and an anxiety disorder without prozac is a mystery to me.

Ari, meanwhile, is much more of a cipher - he’s handsome, he annoys Leyla at first, but they grow on each other after a while, making eyes at one another...but pretty much all of Ari’s backstory is veiled, and I get the distinct sense that Shah is making us wait until the sequel to give us his full story. This is the problem of getting suckered into serieses instead of standalone books.

By the way: I do not recommend reading this at the same time as listening to the audiobook of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire’s Into The Drowning Deep, because the events of both books will start to blend together in your head and you’ll get some pretty weird nightmares about living life underwater and weird merpeople/sirens/anthropoids. I figured, hey, both these books are about what it’s like under the sea, they can’t be so different, I’ll read one and listen to the other! Except they are. One is an optimistic YA fantasy action/adventure, the other is a straight-up horror novel in which scientists can be super smart, but also really, really stupid. Like, fatally stupid.

Also, and this is no offense to the action scenes of The Light at the Bottom of the World (which are awesome, by the way) but: how can you have flames and explosions underwater? I mean, you can definitely have an underwater explosion, but not with flames, right?

Eh, if they can do it on Spongebob and in the Aquaman movie then that’s fine with me.

The Aquaman movie is very much OK with me. For. Uh. Reasons.

Yes. Reasons.

Hi there, Jason Momoa...

Where was I?

Oh. Yes. Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah. Jason Momoa could be the light at the bottom of my world any day...

OK, back to the review, I swear. I didn’t intend for this to just become an Aquaman gif fest. (OK, maybe I did a little).

Seriously, I can’t believe that once again I’ve found myself suckered into another series. Because of course this couldn’t be a standalone. Everything is a series these days. I mean, things tend to just go with this picture I saw on Brittany Cavallaro’s Twitter:

Every. Single. Time! Bah, I says. Oh, well. What’s next on my to-read list?

*checks to-read list*

Damn it, it’s all sequels!

RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who has ever dreamed of what life would be like if we all lived under the sea, Aquaman, any literate dolphins out there.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who knows anything about what life would be really like if you lived under the sea; non YA fans, literate jellyfish.

RATING: 4/5

RELEASE DATE: October 29, 2019

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SEQUEL: Mauna Kea

GRATUITOUS JASON MOMOA GIF:

AQUAMAN RATING:

JUST ONE MORE LITTLE MERMAID REFERENCE AND I’LL BE DONE, I SWEAR:

#the light at the bottom of the world #london shah #under the sea #london #underwater london #waterworld #young adult #young adult fantasy #young adult action/adventure #submarine #underwater action #aquaman #underwater explosions #the little mermaid #jason momoa

1 note · View note

dariamalek · 5 years

Text

How I Wrote: “The Green Ney”

I always get asked about the inspiration behind my novels and how I come up with these story lines and plot twists. The truth is there is so much that goes into the plot of a novel. I thought I would share with you my thought process through writing this, for those of you who are also considering writing of your own, to see how a plot plays out in a writers head.

The Green Ney is a story about cultural revolution, motherhood, and the rights of a woman but, deeper than that, it’s a story of priorities.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, “The Green Ney” is a story of a journalist who's hit rock bottom in her marriage and her career who decides to prove herself to her publishers by writing a unearthly piece on the food of Iran. Little did she know, she was getting caught in-between the 1979 Iranian Revolution. This novel documents her journey of fighting for her safety and fleeing the destruction but, when she meets little Anahita (meaning: peace), a child standing in the midst of the destruction before the body of her mother, her journey finds a whole new meaning.

I put a few elements in this novel that were very different than what I normally write. Since I have spent most of my career writing psychological thrillers, I have very much adapted to the “plot twist” style of writing but, this story goes beyond that.

The title was the most difficult, yet moving part of writing this. A “ney” is an end-blown flute like instrument that is played a lot in Middle Eastern music. The body of the ney is slim and delicate, and the noise is airy and soft-just like the feminine characteristics of a “woman” in society (there’s a tip on your easter egg hunt). In the story, [spoiler alert] Eva, our journalist, meets Roshan (meaning: the bright one) who plays this instrument professionally and so beautifully, so much so that Eva would wake up to the sound of her instrument in the morning. However, in the midst of this revolution, [they] took away the value of women in music and Roshan was no longer able to play her music freely for everyone to hear and had her ney broken. The ney represents the freedom and hope of the Iranian people. They were free to be themselves and be within their own beliefs and express themselves publicly however they wanted to and post revolution, those dreams and hopes were shattered.

I used names as a huge element in this story. I am aware that people outside the Iranian ethnicity may not know the meanings behind these characters and I did this on purpose-each character has a name that represents their fight and feelings throughout the story, just as Roshan’s does. “The bright one” refers to her talent, and how her music brightened everyone’s day. Others could be:

Omid (meaning: hope): a child who had a fatal injury during the destruction to his legs, had dreams of playing soccer like his idols.

Shahrzad (meaning: bringing freedom to the city): a woman who walked around aiding and comforting those who were effected by the destruction, invited many people into her store to escape gunfire.

Firuzeh (meaning: woman of triumph): a young university student who lost her life defending her rights in front of an officer.

I guess this is more for the native Iranian speakers than others, an easter egg if you will, for the strength of women in Iranian culture through their names. My mother always used to tell me that you are a reflection of the name you’re given. A strong name calls for a strong character. For example, my name is Daria, meaning ocean-the ocean has strong waves, is relaxing, is beautiful to look and listen to.

Speaking of names, the protagonists name “Eva” {ah-vah}, though a western name, in Farsi means “voice,” which fits her perfectly because [spoiler alert] she becomes the voice of the Iranian people after she publishes her revised article to the paper. Her and her husbands last name “Harding” means brave-which just adds on to the Easter Egg theme in this novel.

Also, here’s another one: Liam (and Caden, which was second runner up for this character) means “unwavering saviour” in Irish and let’s just say he suits this name very well. Remember, I am a writer of plot twists.

In terms of characters, Anahita became a huge part of this story. Some think that she’s the protagonist upon reading and it seems like so. Anahita represents a few things in this Easter Egg of symbolism.

First, she represents loss. Having her mother killed before her eyes and losing the child-like innocence she is supposed to have.

Second, she represents maternity in connection to the protagonist, Eva who can't bear children. There’s a question of “is motherhood represented by birth” that is answered within this character’s relationship with Eva.

Third, she represents priorities. Eva could have escaped the destruction all on her own but prolonged her experience to make sure that this child is safe. This could also tie into the values of women, humanity and motherhood.

Fourth, she represents hope and the future. Though her child-like innocence has been stripped, she does not cry or weep or mourn. Still confused by whats going on, she represents moving forward without looking back and moving forward towards change.

And lastly, she represents new beginnings. That you’ll have to read to the end of the book for.

After putting together the creative symbolisms together, you can put together scenarios. Having established a set theme for each scenario really helps with dialect.

Writing “The Green Ney” was a call to action. As an Iranian-Canadian, I was not able to see my country before the revolution but I was able to see the way the elders in my family light up when talking about what life was life before the 197 Revolution. When I was writing this, I used to ask my grandmother for photos she had from that time and replicate them within the novel. I wanted to show and educate the readers on what Iran is truly like and how they were effected by this. For some, it was a positive effect and for others, it was a negative one. Once again, I am writing with no bias whatsoever, which is a trait you must have as a metafictional writer because you have to remember that some people are opposed to your opinion. You should no seem like you are trying to waive them to your side but simply put the information in a different perspective.

Some pointers for future writers:

This book took a lot of research because it’s based on a real life scenario. This novel is a metafictional novel, and the difficulty of writing a metafictional novel is reminding the readers that this is a fictional story, especially with the choice of characterization. Make sure the research that you do is thorough and relative to what you are writing. Don’t write this like a last minute paper. Also, if your story is a metafictional story, make sure that you’re not putting in too many facts-remember, the readers must know that this is a fictional story.

The whole point of this paper was to inform-not to take sides. That was another challenge in writing this was to make it as unbiased as I could. Try to refrain from positive or negative adjectives when explaining the historical aspect-meaning if you’re describing a real person that existed, rather than using ruse as an adjective, use apathetic. Same idea but it’s a more neutral tone. Here’s the information: take it as you will. The readers will make their own final decision.

You need to lean your style as a writer: I put a lot of focus on details, as you can see, and little easter eggs within the story-and A LOT of plot twists. But some will focus more on the setting or others on the dialogue. Take your time and see what adds to your story the most.

Happy writing!

With love,

daria xx

#writing #writers #author #iranian #canadian author #canada #satire #metafiction #novelist #novel #good read #writing tips #history #revolution #symbolism #elements

1 note · View note

kapitan5o · 6 years

Note

no offense, but why do you like naruto? i heard it is disgustingly sexist; the only main female character is super over-sexualized and is only a plot point for the male characters. also it's homophobic; there was an intimate scene between two male characters in the comics that was removed from the series. so, what did you see in it? i respect you and look up to you but i admit i'm a little confused about this 😕

Okay, dude, I think you missed some key points: “used to like” and “when I was 12”. But I find your accusations pretty unfair and here is why (it’s gonna be a very long one because there is a lot to untangle in your question and I honestly don’t recommend this read to anyone except this anon):

let’s make some things clear first: naruto has at least 20 main female characters because it is a manga with more than 700 chapters, the first of which started being published in 1997 which explains a lot of issues people might have with it like not enough representation (people are still struggling with this today 20 years later even with much newer shows). So I’m just here to tell you that there is not one main female character, there are a bunch, they’re all different, they’re all ninjas just like male characters and some are much stronger too and some of them also have high leadership roles (which we don’t even have enough in real life to this day, amazing I know). Is there sexism in naruto? Yes, much like in every other anime i’ve ever watched. In fact, much like in almost everything I’ve ever watched? With anime and manga specifically though there are some types of characters and tropes that are almost traditional to japanese culture and they can be seen as absolutely unacceptable for a westerner reader/viewer especially now (things were different in early 2000s) but you really can’t blame naruto for having one over-sexualized female character from what “you’ve heard” since this sexualization you’re talking about comes from the fandom not the original manga so for instance if you look up “female naruto characters” you’ll get “ToP 1o hOtTEst NAruTo CHARacTeRs” with “hot” or inappropriate fanart instead of a list of strong female characters that would highlight their strengths and actual ninja powers - so can’t really blame the original manga for that either. Bare in mind that the genre of naruto is shonen which is focused on action, adventure, friendship and fighting so there is no place for sexualization. Are some female characters still written poorly? Yes, but I could blame the entire Hollywood for that as well as this one manga artist.

- here is that main female character you’re referring to in the original manga: dressed like a normal human, fighting, shouting, doing her ninja stuff (oh and her special ninja power? super strength, i know, very over-sexualized)

Now onto the “intimate scene between two male characters that was in the manga but was removed from the cartoon” - the only scene you could be referring to was actually an illusion created by one of the other characters (he has the power to create illusions or clones from thin air and he did so for two other male characters) - was this actual gay representation to begin with? No. Was it an actual intimate scene between two male characters? No. Is it a double standard that the cartoon still included female characters in the same illusion/clone technique but didn’t include a scene that would be considered gay? Yes. Is it homophobic? In the manga it was purely a “fan service” situation, maybe even a slight mockery of yaoi fans, but why the producers of the actual anime decided not to include it is beyond me - it is probably for the same reasons voltron producers only hinted to a gay relationship and never actually shown anything animated between two male characters, like a kiss. Seeing how in naruto unlike voltron it wasn’t even meant to be actual representation I don’t personally consider this homophobic.

And now onto your question - how could I possibly like something that had sexist elements in it in 2006 when I was 12? I’ll tell you how and bare in mind kids at 12 now are nothing like when I was 12 - we had little to no access to the internet but we had one huge computer that took an hour to turn on and 2 hours to load a 12 minute video on youtube and you guessed it, there was not a lot to watch, but we did find clips of naruto here and there and we put them on to load before school and then we came back and watched them and it was like our second anime ever and it was exciting. Here are the things I liked about naruto as a 12 year old (and I’m talking about the earlier seasons where they’re all kids because that’s all I watched) - the main character is an orphan boy who is different from everyone and desperately wants to have friends and prove his ninja skills to the entire village, everyone thinks he’s annoying and too loud and stupid but episode after episode he proves to be the kindest kid who wants to protect the people in his life because he doesn’t have any family (so his teachers who take care of him and his group that he studies ninja stuff with) there are loads of characters who grow and become friends along the way while competing against each other in ninja exams all with different special powers and there is adventure and missions and really bad comdey - so all your accusations seem a bit like you’ve never watched or read any of the manga or anime yourself but you still have an opinion that you want to embark on my childhood memories of this cartoon? And don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it has issues (especially further along the way) and it is problematic in more than one way but I used to like it when I was 12, so more than ten years ago, my whole entire view on life changed since then and I can now see sexism and homophobia and plain “wrong” when I didn’t used to before because (spoiler alert) I was an actual child? And as a society we’ve become much more aware of it?

Could I watch naruto now and still like it? No. In fact I find most anime really problematic this way or the other which is why I honestly can’t watch it anymore (much like I see sexism in korean dramas which always makes me cringe). So I understand where your concern is coming from but I don’t appreciate when people come with an opinion they heard somewhere (and haven’t really formed themselves) and don’t really know the details of any of it?

If you still have any other concerns or questions I wouldn’t mind talking about them in dms instead of spamming everyone’s feed with naruto related novels when you’re on anon.

#i need a hiatus from social media i think #please guys form your own opinions on things #never knew i'd spend half of my day trying to defend naruto #especially to someone who hasn't even seen/read any of it #especially when i'm 24 #i did some freaking research for you #why do i even bother

80 notes · View notes

princessnijireiki · 6 years

Note

If an older Batman made a young adult clone of himself, with all his knowledge, personality traits and some of his memories, trained him for ten years until the clone has enough experience to be on par to how he was in his prime, how would the Bat Family react if they knew about Batclone soon after the original Bruce shortly died of old age and a hologram of his told the Bat Fam' about him? Note: This scenario could happen in ANY DC universe.

I’m gonna be real & let you know I don’t really read DC (I don’t really read Marvel either lol but I have more of that under my belt), so ig I’ll answer for my limited knowledge of Bruce’s 15 million wards & the DCAU. Thus far there hasn’t been much utilization of the BatFam in the live action movies, so it’s probably pretty irrelevant.

Also this is about to be long as all hell, so I’m moving this under a readmore cut to spare folks’ dashboards lol.

First things first, the major spoiler for the finale of Batman Beyond revealed that Amanda Waller pulled a “Boys From Brazil” & hacked Terry McGinnis’s father’s DNA somehow to like… force his sperm to carry Bruce Wayne’s DNA, and was gonna have his parents killed in front of him to make a Batman 2.0 but her assassin fell through. So he’s Bruce’s biological son & has been all along.

It was the wackest possible scenario tbh that imo completely undermined both Bruce choosing Terry as a protegé off the streets (though Bruce didn’t know at the time, it still sort of undercut the message that background & backstory don’t matter as much as choosing dedication & doing the right thing yk? Terry was just a random kid of the streets with a criminal record who’d done a stint in juvie, but even he could still become Batman; biological predetermination & genetically engineering him into the role is awkward after 3 seasons of this character being a sort of underdog who made good). Particularly since iirc there were implications that Waller’s DNA overwrites made Terry effectively more of a clone.

Unlike “Boys From Brazil,” though, no one goes out of their way to point out that duplication of genes & tragic circumstances do not create a duplicate person, or even duplicate interests or life paths. It’s an excellent film & novel (or at least I remember it as being really good; haven’t seen it in 15yrs), but the point is that you cannot & should not engineer people’s lives like that, and human free will— not nature, not nurture, but individual spirit that makes each person themselves— trumps blood & circumstance almost every time.

So my baseline in cloning for a “purpose” is already honestly 1. this is an evil reason to have kids in general, 2. definitely a classic staple of scifi evil, and 3. I’ve hated it in DC properties before (Superboy’s story is SO WEIRD & UNCOMFORTABLE), and hated it especially in Batman to the point of tbh rejection of that information as canon for Batman Beyond bc it would otherwise literally ruin the show for me.

Beyond that, I think the BatFam would have ethical objections. A few of them might reject Bruce 2.0, especially if his behavior towards them was haughty or like— attempting to step into Old Bruce’s role of leadership over THEM, when they just don’t even know this guy. Especially since that would also be an incredibly intense gesture of Old Bruce having no faith at all in his prior wards, sidekicks, protegés, and biological child(ren). I think there would be a lot of indignation & anger, but again, depending on Bruce 2.0’s personality, protectiveness towards him— bc Bruce essentially engineered tragedy & pain into this person and stripped him of access to a normal life or happiness or a family in pursuit of a paranoid goal.

Keeping in mind also that the Lazarus Pit is a thing (is it still a thing? idk where it is but like— it’s a feature in Jason Todd’s story & I do know Ra’s al-Ghul is Damian’s maternal grandfather, so… if it’s a thing there’s def theoretical access; even besides the CW Gotham series having Ra’s and young Bruce directly interact quite a bit), it’s very weird for a character who has this thing very prominently in his life to… idk, forego THAT, but be okay with essentially torturing a clone, basically acting exactly like Lex Luthor towards Superboy, except using only his own DNA.

(Note: iirc there was/is? also a same-age clone of Bruce in CW Gotham, played by the same actor in a bad wig, but the dynamic there is very different than what’s being asked here. And I believe both Bruce & Alfred raised ethical concerns about the boy’s welfare & existence etc. as soon as he showed up and they realized what was going on. Selina Kyle also had interactions with him & worries in her own way.)

As another aside, switching gears to Marvel for a minute: Peter Parker’s also been cloned a few times (mainly by villains) and had his backstory imprinted on those same-age clones. It causes a lot of strife every time, particularly when each man has to grapple with having or denying access to May or Mary Jane, for example, and all of everybody’s guilt issues, and self doubt as to whether each of them is “real” or not. I don’t recall how cartoons have handled it, but in the comics, they acknowledge that a clone is effectively a genetically engineered identical twin, NOT a child— and in the Mayday Parker Spider-Girl comics (not Araña), they say Peter’s clone in that continuity changes his name to Ben Parker & moves upstate, away from all the chaos of NYC. Spider-Girl refers to him as her uncle/Uncle Ben since that is, both in a familial sense & genetically speaking, who & what he is.

Marvel is inconsistent about this, notably with Laura Kinney (X-23) & Logan, though the age gap lends itself to a parental relationship anyway… and in Laura’s debut (like Terry McGinnis & Harley Quinn, she was originally developed as a cartoon character & migrated from there to the comics), Logan is enraged & distraught that someone would do everything that has happened to him to a little kid, including training her as a killer. He tracks her down & smuggles her over the border into the Canadian wilderness to keep her away from both the people who made/abused her & SHIELD. She does eventually come back ofc; and her origin story & circumstances in the movies differs as well, as does Logan’s reaction to her. But it’s worth pointing out both those Marvel clone narratives just in terms of relationship dynamics, ethics, and imo “normal” realistic reactions to both having been cloned & knowing that clone has been mistreated to create a second, weaponized you.

To say nothing of like… the pain & drama & emotional complexities associated irl with siblings or twins who are separated & only find themselves late in life, or how families cope with gaining “surprise” relatives from genetic testing or people searching them out.

I know this is already a long ass answer, but… it’s just one of those things that the question itself says a LOT about Bruce & his ethics as a person, who recorded a hologram to basically devastate his family post-mortem— and possibly says something about Alfred keeping Bruce “in check” in life, bc I feel pretty secure in assuming he’s dead as well if Bruce dies of old age, and probably wouldn’t condone this. Like it’s not just “how do you feel about New Bruce,” it’s “wow, Bruce just fucked up like ten separate people’s lives from beyond the grave.”

Especially if this clone is younger than any of the old wards/kids now— even if we say Bruce starts taking on teenagers & children in his early to mid 30s at youngest up to his 50s at oldest, and except for Damian, none are younger than 14 or so (which is really young; we’re being generous with math here)… and that Bruce dies no younger than 65-70… that means his earliest Robins/Batgirls would be at least in THEIR 30s-50s. Jason Todd might physically be younger (idk what his aging process is like tbh), but psychologically this would be a grown ass to middle aged man at his absolute youngest. Barbara Gordon started out older than the others did. Kate is Bruce’s cousin & her career started much later than theirs did, but she’d be long in the tooth, too.

So if we say a “young adult” clone starts out somewhere between 15-21, gets a decade of training in, and then Old Bruce dies, you have a 25-31yo New Batman— grown in a lab & getting his ass kicked every day in secret for ten years, for some old man’s twisted sense of breaking a young man & depriving him of a family that’s literally ALREADY RIGHT THERE, UPSTAIRS, all for Gotham’s “greater good"— trying to step into this role & potentially trying to tell these 30-50+ year olds (again, at youngest, AND assuming Bruce didn’t live to like 85 or something, which would skew everyone else much older) what to do. When like… not to be too galaxy brain about it, but like I said, that’s definitely villain material in DC & in the Batman franchise alike. If the BatFam was young, it would be hard, but as grown ass people themselves, it’s nothing short of horrifying.

And I would hope they treat this kid better than Old Bruce did, but a lot depends on who Bruce 2.0 is as a person. Will he allow himself to try out a normal life? Will he try to fight the family he got overnight? Does he know about them? How does he feel about Old Bruce? How will he feel knowing that his tragic backstory isn’t from villains or his “parents” getting shot, it’s literally all artificial & arbitrary machinations of Old Bruce? Does he even actually want to be there, or is that just all he knows? Because he’s not a robot, he’s not Old Bruce made young or inherently a duplicate of Old Bruce by dint of DNA, he’s a person who got royally fucked over by the BatFam’s dead dad slash mentor figure and dropped into their laps to sort out the trauma & aftermath & pick up the pieces. So tl;dr it’s hard to speculate for a lot of involved reasons that have moving parts, but either way: What The Whole Fuck, Batman?

#this post is… long as shit #but i clearly have a lot of opinions on scifi cloning #(which is also why even though people hate the movie ''the island'' i actually like it lol #like yeah it's stupid but it's a movie about ethics not about fucking logic. duh)#frostbite883 #asks #batman

2 notes · View notes

dlamp-dictator · 6 years

Text

Your Dictator’s Works: Rabid Avenger

May this be the last time I make a big post/essay about Tokyo Ghoul.

Finally, I’m no longer distracted by MMOs, fighting games, or Fire Emblem Warriors, it’s time to finally cross this off the list of essays I need to finish this month. This is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for months now, but I needed some time to get a start on the latest fanfiction before I did it.

So yes, fanfics. I love a good a fanfic, and writing them as well. A the moment I’ve been working on a Tokyo Ghoul called Rabid Avenger, an action fanfic that focuses on Touka Kirishima. And while I’m about to get to work on chapter 3 I figured could take a moment to describe my process of writing fanfics, my preferences, how I go about writing them, etc.

Allen’s Preferences/Inspiration

Y’know... I was going to go into this long spiel about what I personally like to read, watch, and consume in terms of my media and genre preferences and how that played into me writing this specific fanfic, but there’s a quote of something I wrote about a year ago that explains my preferences perfectly, so I’ll just copy and paste that here.

“...[I]f there’s anything I love more than watching shows about cute anime girls, it’s... cute anime girls BEATING THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF PEOPLE IN ONE-ON-ONE HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT.”

I think that quote speaks for itself, but just to go a little further in depth I tend to prefer action-focused series, shows, and books that have a female protagonist. The Maximum Ride series (at least until book 4 happened), Nanoha Vivid, A Certain Scientific Railgun, Soul Eater, Senran Kagura, the list goes on. Sadly, there aren’t too many fanfics that have female characters doing shounen-esque things in them, few that hit any notes with me anyway.

And you know the saying: make the content you want to see.

So slowly, but surely I’ve been trying to write up some stories that have my favorite heroines duking it out with forces known and unknown in their series. I’ll spare you all the list I’ve written and attempted to write, but Touka Kirishima and Tokyo Ghoul were next on my list of action fanfics to write. And so... Rabid Avenger was born after 3 or 4 rewrites of the first chapter.

Just a quick summary, Rabid Avenger is something of a what-if/AU/Expansion of what Touka does after Part 1 on Tokyo Ghoul. Not wanting to feel helpless like she was during the raid on the 20th Ward, Touka moves to the 11th Ward where Aogiri is based to train herself to get stronger by hunting down CCG Investigators in the area, as well as deal with Aogiri directly after the mess they caused that led to Anteiku being destroyed. I plan for this fanfic to be something of a battle series with Touka facing off against not only CCG Investigators, but members of Aogiri as well as factions and powers beyond her start to move and she slowly pieces together what’s going on in the Ward.

Yeah, it’s really shounen by design, but I hope it’ll turn out well.

The Research Phase

This brings me to how exactly I write up most of my fanfics. Before I make any fanfic I usually take anywhere between 3 days to a little over a week to research the universe and lore of the series I’m writing. I read up on namely the characters I want to use, the world’s power/magic system, a general plot synopsis on what happens before and after the canon point I’m writing at, and the list goes on depending on where I want to take the story. I do most of my research by reading the wiki page of whatever series I’m writing the fanfic for to an almost religious point. I practically have the Tokyo Ghoul wiki bookmark at this point I’ve been to the site so often. Rabid Avenger took about a week and a half before I started writing the fanfic, and I still go back to just make sure I’m consistent with how the characters behave and the terms I use.

In terms of researching characters for Rabid Avenger I looked up information on Touka, Renji, Ayato, Eto, Akira, and Roma as I plan on having these 6 be the main cast.

And boy, as someone that said they weren’t planning on reading :Re I got spoiled by a quite a bit of things.

Literally every character I just listed makes some big move or has some big twist to them in the second series. It was... shocking to say the least, given what I wanted to do with some of these character, Ayato and Roma especially, but I think I can still make it work despite... spoiler things throwing a bit of a wrench in the works for some meet-ups and battles I want to make happen.

The next thing I researched were the kagune and quinque. This was mostly to make sure I could properly write how they could be used in battle strategies, namely Touka’s. I still find this to be a compelling battle system. Every kagune has a strength and weakness, as well as a way to cover up that weakness, and every quinque is just as unique if not more. I haven’t had a chance to write about battle strategy in this specific fanfic yet, but this’ll probably be the most challenging part due to Touka’s personality. Touka isn’t a person that really makes plans when fighting, usually going by instinct, so a lot of the battle strategy will more than likely come from her enemies more than herself and her constantly paying for her rash behavior. It’s something I can use for character development as she slowly becomes a smarter fighter.

And lastly, for this fanfic I actually didn’t have to look up too much in terms of plot synopsis, as this takes place after Part 1 of Tokyo Ghoul ends and I have a physical copy of the series at arms reach. If anything, I have to look back at the first few chapters to get an idea of how Touka fights and acts in tense situations, but this part of the research really didn’t need much... well, research.

Writing Phase

So once all the research is done I get to writing. That’s usually just me locking myself in my room and forcing myself to write something until I come up with a 1000-word draft, then I edit it, adding bits here and there, contextualizing everything, adding some more character into each paragraph and dialogue, stuff like that. Then I proofread it once or twice (or thrice), then post.

...

Yeah, that’s right folks, a lot of the writing process is just forcing yourself to write.

A quick tangent before I continue, but something that’s always bugged me in certain writing circles is the idea of waiting for inspiration to come to you before write. Folks, I can honestly say that if you want to write a story or essay or anything, you have to force it out. Inspiration and the like will come when you’re about half way through writing your work when you start seeing more paragraphs in the first draft and less dialogue, or as you go through the editing process and just start adding bits. This very essay I’m writing now was just a few short 3 paragraphs I forced myself to jot down before getting to the editing process and now it’s over ten paragraphs and three parts. Just... lock yourself in your rooms and write if you want to write something.

But back on topic.

Like I said before, Rabid Avenger’s first chapter went through about 3 or 4 drafts before I was happy with it. It mostly came down to where I wanted to end the first chapter. The idea I wanted to play in the first chapter was that Touka was currently a hunter and, well, avenger for the ghouls of the 11th Ward that couldn’t defend themselves, give her a sympathetic cause for people to latch onto. We already know that Aogiri enslaves weaker ghouls and forces them into their fold, so having Touka being something of a vigilante against them seemed like a good way to get people to root for her. Once I established that I ended the chapter with something temporarily upset the status quo I had built up. Nothing that changes the plot, but introducing Akira helped add a bit of tension to the situation. This idea comes from a youtuber of the channel Overly Sarcastic Productions: establish normality, then take it away. I’ll admit, beginnings are never my forte when it comes to writing, and I always end up hating mine, but I think this concept helps me a little when it comes to dealing with my openings.

And finally, the proofreading phase. This is the hardest part since I’m still catching errors after the third reread and even after a fourth or fifth I still see error. Hell, you guys have probably found three or four in this essay, but... them’s the breaks I guess, it’s just a weakness of mine that I’m slowly, but surely getting better at.

Writing Fight Scenes

This is probably something I could go on about for paragraphs, but I’ll keep this short. Like I said before, I prefer writing, reading, and watching more action focused stories in a way similar to shounen. In terms of writing, I think the best thing I’ve read so far that hits my niche taste in terms of combat writing is currently the light novel series Magical Girl Raising Project. The fights in that series are usually done both in a surprisingly realistic fashion and written in a way that is paced well.

With this fanfic specifically I think the only hard part is properly writing in how kagune and quinque will play a part in the combat. And thankfully, I don’t have to worry about the pacing a fight being killed due to some flashier, bombastic power system that’ll have me be describing energy blasts and DBZ beam struggles. I think the flashiest thing in Part 1 was the concept of the kakuja, and I don’t plan on making that much of a thing in the fanfic in terms of combat, so I think I’m good there.

Ah, but back on topic. Despite my love and experience in writing them, fight scenes can be difficult to properly write since describing a lot of the flash ruins the pacing of the fight as a reader reads it. The best way to keep the tension and pacing a fight is to keep things short in terms of action, using the “hardest” adjectives you can, understanding that most fights end in only a few hits unless it’s something like a sanctioned MMA match or the like. Most of the advice I got for writing action comes from this post here, but a quick summary is to just remember IRL fights are quick and nasty, some liberties can be taken for the sake of narrative and flash, but just remember to keep them believable to an extent.

I mean, we’re talking about anime characters that can tank getting tossed into a wall and walk it off like it’s nothing after all, especially in a series as violent and brutal as Tokyo Ghoul.

Cameos

This is something I do specifically for my fanfics. When I need a character for something and no one in the immediate case can fit it for some reason I’ll usually stick in a Cameo of something that can. I did this a lot in my fanfic, Reversal Princess by using obscure fighting game characters for Aoi Umenokoji to fight and be rivals with since I couldn’t logically have Brad Burns just randomly appear in Japan and bug Aoi, and I... kinda’ forgot a Akira Yuki existed until around chapter 6. So, I had Yuka Takeuchi from Variable Geo be Aoi’s friendly rival for awhile, and played around with the fact that she canonically had siblings to make a more hostile rival in the form of Kuro, who’s based off of Kasumi Todoh from KoF.

Tokyo Ghoul is a little trickier since the cast is already large enough as is. You’d think that would mean I wouldn’t have stick in OCs or cameos, but I actually do. See, since Touka is, well, killing CCG and Aogiri members I can’t really use too many named cast members as fodder for her to kill. Akira is meant to be a main antagonist for Touka to hate and want to kill, not be killed off in the beginning as the first villain. So, I’ll have to make a few other characters to be the fodder/villains of the week for Touka to take out before having any main cast member outside of Akira and Eto being a real opponent. I’ve already got a few ideas in terms of what characters I’ll be using. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’ll just say they’re from some niche JRPGs I’ve been playing for the last few months or so.

General Writing Stuff

Before I close out this little essay I think I’ll just talk about some writing things and my short (read: blunt) opinions on certain aspects of writing and how I write in general.

The next time I read the phrase “said is dead” I’m blocking that blog. Said is not dead, it’s a perfectly fine verb to use when characters are just casually talking and you need to reaffirm who’s speaking what line in a conversation.

While I personally use adverbs sparingly for the sake of flow in my combat scenes I don’t see an issue with them so long as they aren’t over used. This allergic reaction to seeing adverbs is just stupid.

Purple prose is the spawn of Satan himself and people need to understand that more words do not equal a better story.

Why literally every action fanfic featuring that one side character in that obscure series I like is in Indonesian I will never know. That’s not a writing thing, that’s just me whining.

And I believe that’s it for this Dictator’s Works. Hopefully chapter 3 will wrap up before the end of this week. I’m still in the process of editing, so... who knows how long that’ll take. Seeing how this essay took all day I’m gonna’ take a break and play some Under Night In-Birth again, hopefully actually beat a Gordeau this time around online. In any case, I’ll see you all later.

#your dictator's works #tokyo ghoul #fanfiction #fanfic writing

1 note · View note

somevirtualnolife · 6 years

Text

Five Straight Losses

3061 Words

Rating: T Pairing: Hawke x Cullen Rutherford Summary: It's weird for Aerianne to see Cullen not working, but somehow, chess suits him. Previous One Shot: A Scowl and a Smile Author’s Notes: Woo~ A real update rather than a late repost. This turned out longer than I expected it to be! I had a lot of problems trying to figure out this chapter. I kept writing something, then deleting it. Then writing something again, then hating that and deleting that. It took forever. Finally, I decided to settle on chess. I haven't been giving a whole lot of Hawke's POV in this story, so I figured I finally would this time.

There may be a lot of typos in this chapter, just because I wanted to get it out before I was tempted to delete it again. Either way, enjoy!

“Alright then. With this, everything should be ready for your departure. Thank you again, Hawke,”

“Not a problem. If anything, I should be thanking you,” Aerianne replied, as she stood up.

Working with the Leliana had proven to be more than fruitful these past few weeks. Aerianne had done more than her fair share of smuggling and spying back in Kirkwall, so she was no beginner to this line of work. But the Inquisition’s spymaster was easily the most skilled ‘employers’ she had ever worked with. The way that Leliana not only managed to collect information, but use it to her advantage was truly a work of art. Varric wasn’t kidding when he said that he could take a break from his own network and just count on hers.

“Oh, if I could bother you for one more favor,” the spymaster placed some the documents they just looked over in a large envelope. “I hate to treat you as a messenger, but if you could give the report to the Inquisitor, that would do me a great help. Last I checked of his schedule, he should be in the gardens,”

“Not a problem. I was planning on heading there anyway,” Aerianne replied as she grabbed the envelope with a slight bow before heading down the spiralling staircase.

With the Hissing Wastes and Fallow Mire relatively stable, the preparations for Crestwood were finally underway. Honestly, was quite ready for it. She enjoyed her time in Skyhold for the most part. Even in preparation for war, there was a certain serenity within the walls. One could collect their thoughts without the constant threat of immediate danger, but she could feel herself starting to get antsy. Something telling her that she had to move on soon. She never really stayed anywhere for long, not since Kirkwall. The title of Champion came as both a blessing and a curse over the past few years. Very few saw her as just Aerianne Hawke, the person. For some, she was a symbol of freedom and change. Others considered her a bad omen, someone who ruined their lives and futures. Honestly, she often wondered the same.

In Skyhold, there was some relief from it from time to time. She’d hear her name whispered from time to time among the servants and soldiers when she walked by, but they restrained themselves well enough, most likely due to the fact that they all had a common enemy.

It also helped that there was someone whose names and actions were even more divisive than hers in some ways. Reagan Trevelyan, the Inquistior. Herald of Andraste to some, heretic to others and most interestingly (in her opinion), the mage who saved the Order from the grips of red lyrium. If he was bothered by the opinions of others, he certainly didn’t show it. He took it all in stride. Aerianne couldn’t help but compare herself when she was his age, in a similar position. She was terrified of letting anyone down and cared deeply about what people thought of her. Even those who disliked her. That was her biggest mistake. Maybe if she had just been more decisive, less compromising…

No. What’s done is done, as Isabela said. She couldn’t keep dwelling on the past. It was better to try and focus on fixing the problems of now. Corypheus was their target now.

She eventually snapped out of her thoughts and back to the present when she heard two familiar voices, goading each other.

“Well, that is a clever move, but I believe the match will be mine,”

“Do you? Are you sure don’t want to reconsider your strategy, Commander? Because I have you in three,”

“That sort of trickery may have won you a few games back in Ostwick, but you won’t be getting any second guessing from me. Watch and observe,”

“We’ll see about- Oh, Hawke!” Reagan said, a large grin on his face as Aerianne approached them. He recovered rather quickly for a person who just spent weeks fighting Tevinter extremists in a barren desert. When he and the rest of the group first returned a few days ago, they looked like sandy, dishevelled and exhausted. It was the first time she ever seen requests for baths taking a priority over other repairs to the fortress. Aerianne was pretty sure that Varric just spent a whole day sleeping, occasionally mumbling about sand.

“Sorry to disturb your game,” she said with a bit of a smile. “Leliana wanted me to give you the latest reports for Crestwood,”

“Oh, not a problem. We’re just about to finish this match up. Commander Cullen seems confident that the match is his,” he replied, reaching out and taking the large envelope after moving one of his pieces.

“Is that so?” she said, tilting her head as she crossed her arms looked over to Cullen and the chessboard.

“What’s that look?” Cullen furrowed his brows and looked at Aerianne suspiciously.

“It’s not a look!” she protested. “It’s just interesting to see you do something that doesn’t include work. Why do you always think I’m out to make your life difficult?”

“…Because you’re always out to make my life difficult,” he shrugged and then looked back at the chessboard and moved his knight.

“Oh please,” If anything, she had been exceedingly nice to Cullen as of late. It was on him if he chose to groan rather than laugh at his occasional joke. Or a compliment, or flirty remark, or any human interaction that she considered normal among her friends. He really was one of the most easily flustered people that she’d ever met. And she was related to Carver.

Nonetheless, they were friends now, right? Aerianne felt that they were at least beyond acquaintances by this point. Perhaps close colleagues? She normally wasn’t one to categorize relationships with people beyond the typical social circles, but considering they were no longer ‘enemies’, it was worth investigating where they stood with one another.

The Inquisitor looked from Cullen to Aerianne, very clearly wanting to comment on their conversation, but then clearly deciding it wasn’t it place. Instead, he only held back a bit of a smile.

“Are you all done for today, Hawke? Off to go and see your other half?” he asked, moving his tower piece across the board.

“Varric? He’s been writing quite fervently since last night,” she replied. “ ‘A special request that requires my utmost attention’, is what he told me when I was in his quarters. I looked over a few of his pages for any obvious mistakes and it seemed like something for his old Sword & Shields novels. Figured I’d let him be until he had another pile of papers for me to proofread,” he was also lowly cackling throughout his writing, but she really didn’t feel the need to bring that up. He was always behaving overly dramatic for no reason.

“Really? He’s working on that now?” Reagan stood up, almost in a scramble. It was then that Aerianne could’ve sworn that the Inquisitor’s eyes light up in excitement.

“Wait, you’re not that one person who actually reads that series, are you?” Surely not. Or maybe he was? Actually, if she were to think hard enough about it, she could see Reagan reading that sort of genre. She didn’t mean that as an insult. Strong and a born leader might be the words that she used to describe him when dealing with Inquistior Business, but he was rather different off the clock. Charismatically cheesy was a word that came to mind.

“Me? No, no. I much prefer his historical works. Hard in Hightown is great as well. This is for… a friend,”

“Say no more,” Aerianne laughed a little, lifting her hand. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you popped in to check it out,”

“You mind as well, Inquisitor. I believe the game is done,” Cullen replied, moving his knight once more to take the Reagan’s king. Reagan let out a bit of a sigh, but he didn’t seem particularly surprised. The commander did call it.

“Bah. So it is. Rematch soon?” the Inquisitor asked as he rolled down the cuffs of his sleeves before nodding to both the Commander and Aerianne.

“I always look forward to them,”

Aerianne gave a slight bow and watched as the Inquisitor ran off. Why did she have the feeling that Reagan was somehow involved in this latest burst of Varric’s writing? And it somehow was all connected to Cassandra?

“I never realized that you played chess,” she finally said, looking back at Cullen, who seemed quite comfortable, leaning back in his seat. A strong contrast to being hunched over a pile of reports.

“A hobby I’ve had since I was a child,” he replied with a bit of a smile. “It’s a good way to get my mind off work,”

Aerianne nodded. It was rare to see Cullen relaxing. Especially as of late. He almost seemed intent on burying himself in it, as though he were trying to distract himself. Anytime she caught him in his office for lunch, he seemed to be talking to a scout, or signing some document, or finishing up a meeting. He didn’t seem to dislike his work by any means, but even those with the best job in the world needed a bit of rest.

“Would you care for a game?” he continued, looking a little embarrassed. “If you’re up for it of course. I’ve still some time before I’m needed on the training grounds,”

Aerianne almost thought that she misheard Cullen for a moment. For the amount of time they spent together recently, she’d never heard him properly invite her to do something beyond work. She was tempted to say something jokey as she often did, but decided to hold it back. She was curious to see what a relaxed Cullen was like rather than a grumpy, irritated one.

“That would be lovely actually,” she replied, taking the seat that Reagan sat in previously.

“Now that I think of it, I didn’t realize you played chess either,” Cullen said as he arranged the pieces back to their original spaces.

“I used to a bit with my family. It’s been awhile, but I imagine it’s just like riding a horse. It’ll all come back to me soon enough,” Surely it couldn’t be that difficult.

The first match went to Cullen. That was no big deal. He just finished playing a game against the Inquisitor and Aerianne hadn’t played in years. She needed to warm up a bit first was all. Nothing too odd about that.

And then Cullen took the second match. Well, no big deal. He did say this was a hobby of his, but she was catching on to his strategy.

But then she lost a third time.

And then a fourth.

And then…

“Okay, this is ridiculous! You can’t be this good,” Aerianne complained. It wasn’t even a challenge for him! He beat her in such a short amount of time too… He had to be cheating. Okay, no that was even less likely. Cullen could barely tell a lie, let alone cheat. Still, she refused to believe that he was some sort of unbeatable chess god. There had to be a reason for it all.

“You’re right. I’m not that good at chess. Dorian and Reagan have beaten me a few times. Leliana has as well, though she does have a habit of cheating,” Cullen then tried to hold in a laugh, but a smirk still managed to creep out as he took her king for a fifth time. “…But I think you might be bad at chess. Terrible if I’m being honest,”

Aerianne gaped at his comment. She was more than used to his cutting remarks when they got on each other’s nerves, but it somehow threw her off when he was so confident and distractingly smiley about it. He was using her own techniques against her! Ugh, is this what chess did to him? Is this where he saved all his charisma and confidence?

“That’s not true!” she then shook her head, quite insistently. “My sister and father were excellent at chess and I beat them all the time. Well, a few times,”

Sure, maybe she didn’t play all the time, but it’s not like she was that bad. She really did win against her family a handful of times. In fact, she still remembers beating them both for the first time. And they…

Were not as surprised as they should’ve been about it. They weren’t mad, or surprised, or even annoyed. If she were to think very carefully about their tone, it was a sort of fake-shock. Like when you let a child win in a race. Wait…

Andraste’s tits, they let her win.

“I’m terrible at chess,” A bit of an odd realization for a woman in her thirties to have, but there could be worse epiphanies to have.

“I’m sorry that this was the way you had to find out,” he joked as he started to put away the game pieces. Perhaps five straight losses within an hour was enough for the day. “Do you want to know what your biggest issue is when playing chess?”

“What?” she said, crossing her arms, clearly feeling a little sore about how bad she was. And she knew how Cullen could be when he had the upper hand. He’s get that annoying, satisfied smirk and proceed to find ways to work in ways to chide and lecture her. Lord it over her for weeks.

You know, essentially what she did to him half of the time. But it was worse because it was him. Obviously.

“You play chess like it’s a game of Wicked Grace,” he responded. “They both require different strategies, different risks,”

Aerianne chewed the inside of her cheek in annoyance, but she knew he was right.

“I’m sure if you ask Leliana, she’d be more than willing to teach you a few good strategies. Ideally ones that don’t include cheating,” continued.

“Not you?”

“Do you want me to? I quite recall you saying you hate it when I lecture you,”

“That’s when your scolding turns into a lecture,” she corrected. “I would hardly mind you lecturing me about something you enjoy,”

“Is that so?”

And there was that smile again. No, not the smirk. Just a normal, content smile. It was usually so rare, but she had seen it surface a number of times throughout each match. She’d even seen it briefly when he was playing against Reagan. Aerianne didn’t want to say that he should smile more often. That sounded a little ridiculous considering everything that was going on around them (also it was a gross pick-up line that she heard far too often back at the Hanged Man). But still… it suited him well. She wouldn’t mind seeing it more often. It was…

Okay, now she was beginning to sound like one of the staff in the kitchen. She really had to stop going there before she started acting like a giddy young maiden herself. They were all about true love and romance which Aerianne was far beyond that point in her life now. Yes, yes, Cullen was handsome. And considerate. And hard working. And adorably awkward. The list could go on. And sure, the way their sparring match had ended a few weeks back may have sparked a bit of curiosity of what he was like out of that armor. But ultimately, she knew it was a silly infatuation and nothing more. She would get over it, as she often did.

Perhaps Aerianne wasn’t the only one with a lot on her mind, as she also noticed the commander shaking his head slightly, as though trying to remove whatever current thoughts he had out of his head.

“But, uh, we’ll save that for another time. I should probably head to the courtyard. Recruits, unfortunately, do not train themselves,” he slowly started to stand up.

“Right. Yes,” she replied, doing the same. “And I’d best prepare for Crestwood tomorrow,”

While the others still had a few days before they headed out, she needed to inform Stroud of the situation and see if she couldn’t deal a little bit with the bandit problem in the area. The Inquisitor already seemed to have to deal with another giant glowing hole that could threaten the nearby town, so it was the least she could do. Plus, she moved faster on her own.

“Ah right,” Cullen replied, doing the same. “Glad I got to see you before you left then. It’ll be a little unusual not having you around for a bit. Lunches will certainly be different,”

“Well, I’m sure one of the kitchen staff would love to have lunch with you in my stead,” Aerianne replied with a bit of a smirk. “The red-headed young lady is quite cute. I’ve seen you glance her way a few times,” and she’d done more than a few in his direction.

“That’s not- Hawke…” he said with irritation. There he was. The grumpy Cullen she knew far too well. She could relax again and get out of her head.

“I assure you that I won’t say anything to her. It was just a helpful suggestion,” What a better way to get someone out of your head than to try and throw them into the arms of someone else? A flawless plan (a terrible plan).

“Suggestion noted, but ultimately disregarded,” he said, crossing his arms furrowing his brows. It really was amazing how easy it was to get under his skin as soon as the topic of romance and women came up. But she wouldn’t push it too far. He just got rid of his stress. She didn’t need to immediately pile up on it again.

“Alright, alright. I know that look and tone, I won’t pester you further,” she smiled a bit and gave him a casual wave before turning around. “Take care, Commander. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks, hopefully,”

“Just… please be careful out there,” she heard him say. “For Varric. I know he, uh… he worries about you,”

Aerianne looked over her shoulder and back at Cullen. His arms were still crossed, and his eyes still stern with annoyance.

Or was it concern?

“…I will,”

#da:i fanfic #da2 fanfic #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dragon age 2 #hawke x cullen #cullen rutherford #rogue hawke #female hawke

1 note · View note

marvelandponder · 7 years

Photo

DEAR GOD... IT’S COMIC-CON

Welcome, one and all, to the biggest Pony news day of the year!

For those of you who maybe haven’t been following the fandom closely around Comic-Con in previous years, the community has come to expect news, clips, animatics, even full trailers! Lucky for those of us without the necessary pocket change, every spoilerific tidbit is live-blogged for our enjoyment by our friends at Equestria Daily, and the clips released afterwards online by Hasbro.

So, expect spoilers below the break with commentary and hyper fangirling! (Note: This post will be updated as clips and more news come out)

NEWS! CLIPS! SOME OTHER THIRD THING!

My Little Pony: The Movie

Two sneak peaks and a SONG were shown! I’ll update the post when they’re released online. There was also an intro video to the panel where the cast of the movie talked a tiiiny bit about their characters (we’ll hopefully see that online, too).

youtube

The song was sung by Rainbow Dash and Captain Celeano (the pirate birb), and it’s a song called “Time to be Awesome” sung to the pirates to rally them into rebellion against the Storm King.

Sneak peek #1 was about the mane 6 leaving Equestria for the first time heading south, and sneak peek #2 was about the Storm King using some kind of potion to essentially video chat with Commander Tempest.

They couldn’t spoil too much more of the movie after that, but the panelists were prompted to use one word to describe something about the movie:

“"Broken." "Musical." "Spongecake." "One small thing." (Okay, Pinkie.) "Therapy." (Aw, 'Shy.) "Not a big enough par--" "Granny, how'd you get here?" "Flushed," said Rarity. "Windmill," says AJ. "AWESOME." "Festival," Ms. Sparkle.” (from EQD)

Here were a few screenshots and pictures displayed at the MLP Booth

My Little Pony Season 7

Surprisingly, they didn’t show off any real clips for season 7 or reveal much info at the panel, but if you’ve been following pony news in the past few days (AND Friday night!), we got some stuff that’s really exciting!

So, we’ll get the old stuff out of the way first: if you don’t know, we have most of the summaries for season seven and you can read those here. Season 7 part 2 is set to premiere August 5th with two amazing episodes, Discordant Harmony and The Perfect Pear. With Fame and Misfortune on the 12th, Triple Threat on the 19th, and Campfire Tails airing on the 26th!

That last one is especially important, because we now know it’s going to tie into the first arc of the Legends of Magic comic line!

There’s two short trailers with action-y clips out already:

youtube

and an extended version:

youtube

But even more than that, we know the Legends of Magic comics tie into the finale, as well!!!

The 7th issue of Legends of Magic, set to come out in October, “ties into the finale” and with an Avengers-like storyline to boot: “You’ve met the most legendary ponies in Equestria’s history… now find out how they first came together to battle an unstoppable evil!”

Exactly how that story ties into the finale remains to be seen, but this is the most well-integrated the show has EVER been with its comic line. Oh, and as someone whose been following the Legends of Magic comic line and getting more and more invested (it’s one of the best arcs they’ve ever done), I can say that you won’t need to read the comics to enjoy and understand what’s going on.

It’s excellent, top-quality bonus material that tells you stories after the important ones that are talked about in Campfire Tails, but both the comics themselves and it seems the episodes of the show will be able to stand on their own.

Oh, and for the record: season 8 was confirmed long ago (as was Discord’s inclusion), but a few days ago Daniel Ingram teased that he was working with a very talented singer for season 8. So, there’s a lot on the horizon!

UPDATE: This isn’t from Comic-Con per se, but the news just dropped about the episode titles for the last three episodes of the season!

Episode 24: Uncommon Bond Episode 25: Shadow Play Part 1 Episode 26: Shadow Play Part 2

Now here’s what’s cool about the season finale title (aside from the fact that it’s just objectively cool): there’s a few options for who that could be.

A few days ago Discovery Family announced the second half of the season, in which they described a few things:

“Throughout the second half of the season, Pharynx learns that love is a strength and not a weakness, Twilight Sparkle battles the Pony of Shadows, famous author A.K. Yearling teases a new novel, the Cutie Mark Crusaders learn that nothing is impossible with courage and strength, and much more!” (x)

The identity of which is still a big mystery...

Equestria Girls

No actual news for EQG, I’m afraid, but they did make some jokes in the Q&A portion that CONFIRM MY DAMN HEADCANONS SO I’M TAKING IT AS CANON UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE YOU CAN’T STOP ME

Q: Any chance Celestia is Sunset Shimmer's mother? Meghan: There is NOW! We may need you to sign some papers.

VALIDATION! SWEET, SWEET VALIDATION!

OKAY, BUT IF YOU KNOW ME YOU KNOW THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER-LIKE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TEACHERS AND THEIR STUDENTS IN THIS SHOW GIVE ME LIFE.

Q: Why doesn't Twilight write to the Princess anymore? Tara Strong: She uses email. She's a great texter. I dunno. Meghan McCarthy: That's my fault, that we stopped doing that. We felt she evolved as a character and her relationship with Celestia was changing, so she didn't have a need to update her in that way. Mike Vogel: More time to spend with her daughter, Sunset.

THEY ACKNOWLEDGED IT. EVEN IF IT WAS A JOKE, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED IT.

Also, there are three kinds of people in this world, apparently.

Q: Is Sunset ever going back to the pony world? Meghan McCarthy: ... yes. Mike Vogel: For a three-day weekend.

To visit her mom, obviously...

Q: Will Discord change if he goes through the portal? Meghan McCarthy: Oooh. He would change. That's just science. Cathy Wesluck: All his parts would just fall off.

So Discord would actually change going through the portal. Into what, we may never know, but at least we know he’s not immune.

It would be funny if his multiple parts just changed into different parts, though. Like, the translation process is still one-for-one, so he’s basically the same structure with different animals.

UPDATE: And for those wondering, it’s been confirmed that there’s more EQG on the way by Big Jim on Twitter:

We know for a fact there’s at least two new music videos coming out sometime this year because they were leaked in Russian, but at least we know there’s more EQG beyond that in 2018!

IDW Comics

In addition to the crazy things going on with the Legends of Magic line, IDW previewed a few pages from the Movie Prequel line of their comics: this time, Captain Celeano!

Much like the Legends of Magic comics, these seem to be smaller stories that give us a little background on the new characters, but won’t be necessary reading for the movie.

There’s also not a ton of reports out about what was actually said during the panel, but that might be because IDW had other brands to focus on presenting (Star Trek, Transformers, etc.).

Overall + Other Convention News

So, that’s about it for SDCC 2017, and we got a few great things, but if that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, don’t worry too much.

Hasbro’s first ever convention, HasCon (... yes that’s really what they went with), is set for September 8th-10th with a panel line-up that already has me drooling:

The Voices of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Have you ever wondered what it's like to be the voice behind a pony? Straight from the pony's mouth, learn about what it takes to bring iconic characters to life with just a script and a mic.

From Ponyville to Canterlot High – History of Equestria Girls Join master storyteller, screenwriter and lyricist Meghan McCarthy as she shares the inspiration behind Equestria Girls and gives a peek at what adventures the Equestria Girls are going on next. Be the first to see the new product line and hear first hand from the Equestria designers as they share how they bring to life our Mane 7 ‘s unique personalities!

My Little Pony Designer Q&A Join members of the My Little Pony design team as they take you on a journey through four generations of pony product. Designers will answer questions, giving a behind-the-scenes look at how they have made their (cutie) mark on My Little Pony and proving that you're never too old to play with ponies.

The Making of My Little Pony: The Movie Join master storyteller, screenwriter, and lyricist Meghan McCarthy as she shares her experience in creating the first feature film for My Little Pony. Find out how the Mane 6 inspired her to discover the importance of teamwork and friendship along the way. Includes an exclusive sneak preview of the film!

First Look at My Little Pony Season 8! The adventures of the Mane 6—Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack—continue with the 8th season of the beloved My Little Pony Series in 2018. Renowned storyteller, screenwriter, and lyricist Meghan McCarthy will join fans to present the first look the Season 8 premiere exclusively at HASCON!

And yes, I realize the irony of putting this section into a post about SDCC, but I do it for a good reason. Normally, SDCC is the biggest Pony news day of the year, but that’s just not the case now that Hasbro can dedicate 45 minutes EACH to the main show, Equestria Girls, and the Movie!

This is especially important (and relevant to this post) because the decision to make the SDCC MLP panel just about the movie was a last minute thing. They had things about the remainder of season 7 and EQG that they were prepared to share, but were probably told to hold off on it because of HasCon.

So, I just wanted to let you know this won’t be the last post like this this year, and that there’s even more exciting news on the horizon.

If you need more pony RIGHT NOW (which is my constant state of being), you could always take a look at my editorials or episode reviews! Here, have an end slate because pretty pictures:

Daybreaker Editorial, LGBT+ Editorial, and Trailer Analysis

Or see the whole year’s selection of stuff right here:

Year of the Pony

22 notes · View notes

xox-hitorabu-xox · 7 years

Text

|| I’d just like to say that ENTP(NeTiFeSi)s may often come off as loners, but in truth, they NEED other people to bounce their ideas off of, ideas to discover, things to observe(whether they use the internet to do such a thing or not), unlike INTJ(NiTeFiSe)s who thrive in solitude, and can remain off the internet and to themselves in their rooms for months, and be absolutely fine. As an ENTP, I can stay to myself for a long time, but will most definitely get ansy if I have no connection to the outer world whatsoever(and I do crave see other people discuss ideas. Too much introversion can be harmful for Izaya, considering how he punched a telephone pole when he was left to think for himself too long. He’s really good at denying feelings which is in relation to inferior Si. For instance, this scene from novel 4 also:

——— Shinjuku lay itself bare before his eyes as Izaya began to think to himself.

-Peaceful everyday life is something I decided I could do without since long ago.Though it’s far from necessary for me, I do understand why it’s desirable for most people.

Izaya, jealous of the other participants of the chatroom who seemed to be enjoying the peace of their lives, felt like he was jealous of the city Ikebukuro itself as he looked up at the sky through the window. ———- Despite being jealous, he still tried to deny that he wasn’t. He also understands that when he acts on a high mood, things never turn out well, but even so he still acts impulsive sometimes, and he just can’t stop. When things bottle up, and Izaya gets angry, he often gets rather reckless.(And as the narrator, he even admits, “I understand that if I take action when my mood is high, it won’t turn out well for me in the end. Although there are many times I cannot control myself and lead myself into terrible situations.”) Namie says something like “People often say the only ones who can kill are those prepared to be killed, but Izaya was the kind of man who was ready to be killed just to punch somebody in the face.”

Sure, novel 9 says that Izaya thought being left out was natural, and that he didn’t really mind, but that’s more likely a reflection on not having any friends or proper emotional support, because it also says, “He liked this place called ‘school’ where time was spent in groups.”

This scene from Durarara!! Light Novel 11(translation by Mizaya) shows Izaya’s mental extraversion(I will bold the important parts):

——– After getting a checkup at the hospital, Izaya was walking down the street trying to see what was going on in the city.

Although a couple of members of Dragon Zombie were following him in the distance, if he were attacked by a hostile group, it would be lethal.

However, Izaya was smiling as if he were enjoying such a thrill.

The results of the MRI and CT scan proved that his brain is neither damaged nor bleeding even though there is a scar on the surface of his skin.

Actually the reason why Izaya was in such a good mood was not because he was in good health.

But there was no sign of any abnormality in my brain at all.

That means my personality is not a creation by anyone but myself.

While he was thinking those things, Izaya remembered an incident before his checkup — the conversation with the “otherworldly creature” called Sonohara Anri.

What would happen if Karisawa hadn’t taken care of the scene?

Would I have been attacked by Anri? Or would Anri’s mind break before that could happen?

Izaya cannot help but to find it amusing even though he had confronted the otherworldly creature that hurts humans. However, the reason why he found it amusing was not because of Anri’s otherworldliness but Karisawa saying she was friends with Anri.

Aa, as I expected, Karisawa-san and Yumasaki-kun are interesting.

I can’t help but to enjoy this world thanks to humans like them.

Izaya further thinks about it while chuckling.

But what would happen if most humans on the earth accept otherworldly creatures like they do?

If the world accepted these otherworldly creatures living a normal life, would I be able to observe these otherworldly creatures in the same way I do to humans?

It is certain that I have hatred towards “people who stop being human” like Sonohara Anri.

However, I am hardly interested in Celty Sturluson except for her “head”.

Izaya’s only interests are all humans and the afterlife.

If being dead means emptiness, there is nothing sadder for Izaya. That is because he will no longer be able to observe humans.

Even if after death people couldn’t do anything for eternity, if it were possible to become a spirit, that would be like heaven for Izaya.

That is the best finale for me.

However, the existence of Celty Sturluson showed Izaya new value.

He never believed in heaven or hell although spirits existed. After only reviewing the difference of beliefs of the afterlife for various cultures, he came to realise that there is no such standardised “new world” that continues from this life.

However, Dullahans just like the legend have been existing in this city of Ikebukuro.

Assuming that she is an authentic otherworldly creature, like the legend —- there might be a battlefield called “Valhalla” as per Norse mythology or “Heaven” or “Hell”.

It’s not like Izaya wants to go to heaven by himself.

If there is only heaven and hell, I am aware that I’d most likely go to hell.

What he is hoping is to be able to see how those humans that became spirits or souls behave in the “consecutive world”.

If I told the suicidal spirits that were hoping to see “emptiness”, “It’s too bad, your belief is incorrect. Your consciousness and suffering will continue forever,” what kind of reaction would they show me?

If I told humans who were killed by the death penalty and believe that it’s the same if you kill one person or massacre thousands, “It’s too bad but it’s not the same,” what kind of face would they show me?

On the other hand, if I told a dead person who didn’t want to leave their family behind and died with fear, “Congratulations, you can keep an eye on your family,” what kind of expression would they show me? How long would they keep watching their family? One year? Two years? Ten years? Forever? Or would they get bored in a few hours once they knew that they could see them anytime?

The world of the afterlife is unknown to anyone.

How would humans who are pushed into such an unknown world think? How would they behave?

He was in a state of ecstasy by imagining these human’s reactions, like a daydreaming child.

Izaya took out his cell phone, trying to search the internet for information on the movement of these police cars while daydreaming and smiling.

Suddenly, the cell phone vibrated and brought him completely back to reality. ———

There, he is considering a whole bunch of whatif scenarios of the external world, of possibilities, to the point of fanatsizing about it(both ENTPs and INTJs have been known to be in their heads a lot, but it is for different reasons.)

That aside, there’s something else I’d like to mention. INTJs also tend to plan everything out more thoroughly, whereas an ENTP is liable to not be too thorough with their planning. From my own experience, I can organize things if I really want to, but I’m honestly too lazy to stick with many things a lot of the time, unless it’s something I’m interested in and am enthusiastic about in which I’ll go above and beyond to express my enthusiasm. But when I don’t have the interest, sorry to the hundreds of people that were following me, I just lost interest and probably won’t ever be back. I will very often completely abandon projects, if I get bored or just lose inspiration. There are very few things I’m that enthusiastic about and those few things make me more happy than I could ever imagine(to the point of it being unhealthy in a way..) Also, I don’t know if I’m the only ENTP like this, but there are also very few things I feel that strongly about. I do have ticks and such(like people not giving me space to be flexible, or people not seeing all possibilities, or others being really closed-minded, and when people don’t welcome creativity, or especially people giving me rules that don’t make sense or seem arbitrary.), but I tend to be flexible to a fault, not wanting to take true sides on things(I bet a sound like a hypocrite, don’t I…? I guess it’s because I expect people to be as open-minded as I am, but if everybody was, this world would most certainly be doomed.). Being the most introverted of the extroverts, it’s also understandable that one would see me as introvert, as I didn’t really interact with people too much back in school during free time, though I would often end up dragged off by kids to eat lunch with them, before being forgotten again in a sense afterwardlike literally not noticed sometimes while others thought I was a little odd, but still ‘nice’, and they found my art skills astounding which was quite amusing and made me feel some what significant as I loved to charm people and recieve praise and feedback just like I crave questions from anons and comments on my posts, but it was fine because sometimes I prefered to sit back a little and observe. But that aside, INTJs and ENTPs often can also seem a lot alike on the outside, but down deep, the direction in which they process information is the exact opposite.

I also think Izaya’s bluntness and harsh way with words isn’t because he is INTJ, but because he is an ENTP with an unhealthy and underdeveloped Fe, due to lack of emotional nurturing from his parents and positive people.

I asked Funkymbtifiction, “could an unhealthy ENTP have an underdeveloped Fe? And how could such a thing effect them?” and this is what they said: —– Under developed Fe means one of two things:

1) You’re a jackass to everyone about everything, because you fail to realize that people’s feelings are valid, as are yours, and that you need to care how they feel, in order to win friends and influence people

2) You’re so “needy” that you must have everyone think you’re the smartest person in the room, all the time, and become insufferable; you spend a great deal of time trying to impress others, sometimes over-worrying that you insulted them, or through expressing your own emotions in awkward ways at the wrong time.

Healthy tert-Fe means: hey, we’re all good here, let’s have some fun, I talk, you talk, we share the floor, nobody gets too upset, how’s that sound?

———

Here are some things Shinra has said about Izaya:

“What those so-called ‘prophets’ are good at is in fact just exaggerating rumors to frighten people. Though, I’m not saying there are no real prophets among them. For instance…consider Izaya. He’s sort of like a prophet isn’t he? Isn’t he always saying mysterious things as if he could read your mind? He’ll appear like a ghost everytime something happens, and act as if everything’s happening the exact way he had expected, but he is actually as clueless as everyone else beforehand. Everything is obvious with the benefit of hindsight. Just like those self-proclaimed prophets, all he does is talk about things that have already happened as if he had expected them long in advance.” - Novel 5

“If Izaya were to debut as a prophet on television, he’d get pretty high ratings. Of course, when his following has reached a certain size, he would probably get tired of it, toss out a big prophecy such as “Japan is going to be submerged” and simply disappear into the commotion it would cause.” - Novel 5

“Just because he outwardly does work with the layout of human lives, he doesn’t like managing all other people’s lives. He’ll manipulate events from behind the scenes, but he’s not that assertive kind of man.

Although, no matter the result he would happily accept it with a face that ‘it was all according to my calculations.’

And everyone gets easily fooled by that.

He sees through all that. Everything up until now was in the palm of his hand.

They misunderstand that and despair arbitrarily. He enjoys seeing those expressions on people.

Only looking at his personality, he would only be an ’evil spirit,’ a ‘mysterious existence the world has not seen.’

I wonder if there are people who remember him with those sort of images. In actuality, it’s not impossible mistake him as such.

I want you to try and imagine it.

The man who suddenly appeared in front of you knows more about you than you yourself.

That fact in regards to the field of information should make him be called someone with an ‘adaptability’ or perhaps someone ‘broad minded and free in disposition.’ If it is something connected with life and death rather than being broad-minded then it is the ‘power of life and death,’ but anyway, if there is a human has been troubled by him, Izaya Orihara has that type of image.” - A Standing Ovation With Orihara Izaya (translation by Kaedesan721)

I think way too many people want to look at the stereotypes, don’t know the entire definition of introversion and extraverts.

Well, here’s a thought in regards to the ENTJs:

ENTJs can be a better leader in the sense that they enjoy the process of managing people and things and getting jobs done. ENTPs, on the other hand, only like to introduce ideas to the mass, whether or not things get finished is of second concern.

ENTJs can be said to be a little more stable and reliable in being a leader of a group. ENTPs are more or less like a wild card, or a black horse if you like.

….

ENTPs are inspired innovators, motivated to find new solutions to intellectually challenging problems. They are curious and clever, and seek to comprehend the people, systems, and principles that surround them. Open-minded and unconventional, Visionaries want to analyze, understand, and influence other people.

ENTPs enjoy playing with ideas and especially like to banter with others. They use their quick wit and command of language to keep the upper hand with other people, often cheerfully poking fun at their habits and eccentricities. While the ENTP enjoys challenging others, in the end they are usually happy to live and let live. They are rarely judgmental, but they may have little patience for people who can’t keep up.

ENTPs are energized by challenge and are often inspired by a problem that others perceive as impossible to solve. They are confident in their ability to think creatively, and may assume that others are too tied to tradition to see a new way. The Visionary relies on their ingenuity to deal with the world around them, and rarely finds preparation necessary. They will often jump into a new situation and trust themselves to adapt as they go.

ENTPs are masters of re-inventing the wheel and often refuse to do a task the same way twice. They question norms and often ignore them altogether. Established procedures are uninspiring to the Visionary, who would much rather try a new method (or two) than go along with the standard.

ENTPs are typically friendly and often charming. They usually want to be seen as clever and may try to impress others with their quick wit and incisive humor. They are curious about the world around them, and want to know how things work. However, for the ENTP, the rules of the universe are made to be broken. They like to find the loopholes and figure out how they can work the system to their advantage. This is not to say the Visionary is malicious: they simply find rules limiting, and believe there is probably a better, faster, or more interesting way to do things that hasn’t been thought of before.

The ENTP is characteristically entrepreneurial and may be quick to share a new business idea or invention. They are creative, and typically excited to discuss their many ingenious ideas. The ENTP’s enthusiasm for innovation is infectious, and they are often good at getting other people on board with their schemes. However, they are fundamentally “big-picture” people, and may be at a loss when it comes to recalling or describing details. They are typically more excited about exploring a concept than they are about making it reality, and can seem unreliable if they don’t follow through with their many ideas.

“ENTPs tend to be independent, analytical, and impersonal in their relations with people, and they are more apt to consider how others may affect their projects than how their projects may affect others.” – Isabel Briggs Meyers

- https://www.truity.com/personality-type/entp

And for Izaya to say, “I honestly can’t even read my next move. In the end, what I want to see is humans other than myself. How they react in the situation that cannot be expected, to observe that is the biggest motive of my life. In order to achieve that, I will both cause trouble and help as much as I can.” That sounds like what an Extravert would say and do. If an INTJ didn’t know what they were going to do in a situation, they would most likely take a step back and self reflect on the numerous things they could do, and pull back to themselves for a while, instead of letting things escalate. A lot of Izaya’s schemes are extremely spontaneous and all over the place, and there’s always certain level of uncertainty and spontaneity in them in my opinion. I think personally that the INTJ thinks far more ahead for their own plans than the ENTP who considers other people’s possible positions, but they tend to ignore their own physical needs sometimes and get themselves into reckless situations for whatever reasons.

Perhaps… a way to look at it. (not that I like the stigma attached to these types, but) if we’re talking about ‘bad’ INTJs and ‘bad’ ENTPs, bad INTJs are the Machiavellian genius types that come up with intricate plans to take over the world, whereas bad ENTPs often just like messing with people’s heads for shits and giggles. A bad ENTP is less dangerous in the fact that he's very unlikely to pull off enslaving all of humanity, or even be inclined that way. We lack the discretion and self-control to do so. The Joker (bar Heath Ledger’s Joker – that one was ENTJ) is a perfect example of ENTP gone horribly, horribly wrong, while Batman would be a good INTJ).

#izaya orihara #orihara izaya #drrr!!#durarara #entp vs intj

24 notes · View notes

entergamingxp · 4 years

Text

Towards more speculative sex • Eurogamer.net

Hello! All this week we’ll be celebrating Pride and the power of positive representations in games. Every day we’ll be bringing you stories and insights from different parts of the LGBT+ community. You can also help support Pride with Eurogamer’s newly redesigned t-shirt – all profits from which will be going to charity.

In 2015, the Wachowski sisters asked a very important question via their sic-fi TV show Sense8: If eight people were psychically connected to share each other’s senses, how would they have sex?

The answer – enthusiastically and at a distance – notwithstanding, the question itself proves important. By asking it, the Wachowskis applied a fundamental lens of speculative fiction-a view towards questioning what is, can be, or will be possible-to sex.

“Resistance and change often begin in art,” said speculative-fiction giant Ursula Le Guin in her 2014 National Book Award speech, with a pointed nod towards science fiction and fantasy. Especially now, with the rise of “geekdom” as a mainstream, socially acceptable hobby, the idea that speculative fiction helps reimagine and perhaps pave the way for new socio-technological realities is neither contentious nor particularly novel. Since people began telling stories, we’ve been imagining the impossible and subsequently using these stories to expand the boundaries of the possible. After all, long before Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov’s 1965 spacewalk in a nylon and metal spacesuit, Icarus soared to the sun on wax wings.

Which brings us back to sex. While sci-fi/fantasy authors spend a great deal of time conceptualizing various aspects of our humanity, reimagining how we have sex is often passed up for more “socially acceptable” topics. For queer folks, this is significant: who we have sex with, how often we have sex, and how frequently we choose to have sex is often the basis for discrimination against queer people around the world. There absolutely exists in culture an idealized, normative sexual praxis. And to seek out representation of anything else is to delve into the world of independent artists, of queer subcultures, and niche hobbies.

Consider, for instance, representations of the bodies we have sex with, especially the sentient but non-human kind. If we can conceive of intelligent aliens with whom we form emotional attachments, we can conceive of the desire to have sex with them. And while we can dream up scores of weird, unusual or monstrous bodies against which to wage war, our depictions of aliens to have sex with is sadly lacking in diversity. Mainstream film and television, at least, are mired in the heteromasculine gaze, where fuckable aliens tend to be lithe human women with brightly coloured skin. Hell, even Jabba the Hutt, a giant desert-slug, favours oddly Western-human ideals of beauty.

Star Trek (2009)’s take on alien sexuality.

In fact, we’d rather show no body than one that deviates from our beauty standards. While 2013’s Her is a deep, fascinating look at how humans might bond with and come to love artificial intelligences, that love is a rather chaste one. Joaquin Phoenix’s Theodore is utterly content with the occasional bout of late-night dirty talk (with a hint of fade-to-black masturbation) with his disembodied, AI-girlfriend, the same activity he used to engage in with human sex-chatroom lurkers. He clearly has never heard of sex toys, nor the (rather ridiculously named, true) field of teledildonics. The movie does enter interesting territory when he tries to sleep with a human mimicking the AI-girlfriends moves according to instructions whispered into her earpiece, but this look into the sexual politics of human-OS threesomes fizzles out quickly and never resurfaces.

Contrast this with Naomi Clark’s Consentacle, a 2-player card game that embraces a monstrous, speculative beauty. You play a human astronaut and an alien attempting to maximize each other’s pleasure while in joyous flagrante delicto. The alien, Dup, is basically an enormous blue-purple head with extra eyes and multiple tentacles, complete with octopus-like suckers. The astronaut Kit is a human woman. And yet, despite the anatomical gulf, the game models their sex acts (represented via cards), as joyful an uninhibited. The two characters tease each other, bite, kiss, and caress each other, exchange soulful gazes, and insert arms into each other’s “hungry orifices”. There’s even a comic.

Naomi Clark’s Consentacle.

And why not? When we conceive of queer sex and queer bodies, we reject what is considered “normal” and embrace the unusual, the taboo, and yes, the inconceivable. Consentacle, for the most part, is a game about how partners can communicate healthily, but it’s also a game that encourages you to think about who your sex partner is and what their body could be. As a piece of speculative art, it emphasizes possibility; as a game, it invites players to make decisions and choices within these possibilities, picturing themselves, perhaps in a wholly new sexual light.

Consentacle is probably a more extreme depiction, but even when media try to depict “unusual” sexual proclivities here on earth, we’re served the same old 50 Shades of Grey: bland, sanitized representations of sexual practices that were once fiercely queer. Small wonder that “kink” has become synonymous with BDSM for many (straight cis) folks.

Games are not so shy. Alex Robert’s game POP!, which I had the pleasure of editing for an anthology of erotic games, focusses on the lives and loves of balloon fetishists. Far from mocking the practice, the game portrays its subject matter in a sensitive light. As a larp, where players create much of the story, it encourages players to be just as attentive: “keep love in your heart. Looners, as they often identify, are real people.” It tasks the players with sensitively exploring the community and society of those who have sex with balloons.

These social impacts of a more speculative sexual practice are often simplified by mainstream media. HBO’s Westworld might be attempting to question the nature of consciousness and intelligence, but when it comes to sex, the show’s message never really advances beyond, “have robot, will fuck.” Similarly, if we examine depictions of VR sex (I’m recalling Arnold Schwarzenegger’s little romp in Total Recall) the social consequence of being able to have constant idealized sex aren’t really discussed.

By contrast, Troels Ken Pederson’s larp My Girl’s Sparrow‘s zooms in on the physical aspects of sex in a futuristic world where VR is the only (acceptable) mode of sex. In Pederson’s game, the near-future world considers meatspace sex to be gauche and gross. The freeform game’s main focus is on a group of friends who rent a cabin for the sole purpose of taboo physical intimacy, and much of play consists of describing, in minute detail, the blow-by-blow of your sex acts. The game never feels pornographic, however. Rather, the detailed erotic descriptions serve to highlight the fact that these characters never get to do this in real life. “Sex isn’t an indeterminate mass – its details matter,” Pederson writes. “What we do together and how we react to each other says a lot about who we are.” How does it feel?, the game asks of you, and then constrains you further by forbidding you to ever discuss your feelings. How does sex feel when the norm is taken away from you? Or under another interpretive light, how does it feel to have queer sex?

Troels Ken Pederson’s My Girl’s Sparrow.

The concept of feeling and sensation is studied through a different lens by Kat Jones and Will Morningstar in You Inside Us-another title in the Honey & Hot Wax anthology of erotic art games I mentioned earlier. In this two-layer larp, one player takes on the role of a human colonist of a distant planet, while other plays an alien symbiont that comes to live inside the body of the former. The game asks us to examine the physical sensations we might often take for granted, and ask ourselves what physical pleasure and eroticism really mean. The two players, who maintain some form of physical contact throughout the game, describe mundane actions the human performs with their body in their day to day, and explore how it feels now that an alien is in residence. Has the nose become an erogenous zone? Does the act of eating soup now trigger tingles down one’s spine? “Be indulgent, intense, and weird,” the designers urge you, because the game is about, “making familiar sensations alien, [and] making alien sensations real and intimate.”

Jones and Morningstar position sex as something present within the banal, quotidian world. In the tiny, indie video game Stick Shift, Robert Yang does the same-only he focusses on the hyper specific act of, well, masturbating a car. Or perhaps you’re masturbating yourself via the car? Or is the car just your kink? Either way, Yang asks:

“What if sex in games was something we did, instead of something we obtained? One way to do sex is to see sex everywhere. Sex here, sex there, sex behind yonder tree!… and sex through the tender caresses that seduce gay cars everywhere.”

Robert Yang’s Stick Shift.

Yang, Jones, and Morningstar want us to normalize sexuality, want us to explore erotic possibility where society says there is none, want us to break out of the confines of “here and a this time are when you receive sex, as a result of this action.” By replacing “ordinary” with “sexual”, these games allow us to reject heteronormative dicta of what constitutes sex, give us permission to question what we ourselves desire, what we lust for, and what, for each of us, makes sex sex.

Finally, on the topic of queerness and sex, gender must inevitably come into play. Gender and the possible deviations from our binary norm are still relatively taboo topics in mainstream media. More than fifty years after Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, where the inhabitants of the planet Gethen have no gender as a default and shift gender once a month, most science fiction does little to speculate on our notions of gender. Now consider Avery Alder’s indie tabletop roleplaying game Dream Askew. You play members of an enclave of queers, attempting to “live, sleep, and hopefully heal” and maybe carve out a utopia in a post-apocalyptic world. At character creation you choose a gender. The game, however, eschews, “male” or “female”, and instead presents a variety of new options: “gargoyle”, “dagger daddy”, “ice femme”, “raven”. Alder writes:

“Creating a character in Dream Askew involves contending with gender, but it’s a gender exploded, extracted from the society intact and made mutant. What do some of these words even mean? […] When you encounter a gender word, imagine. Ask your fellow players. Flirt with a search engine. If nothing comes up, invent. No matter how you come to your initial understanding, it’s yours to continue to define through play.”

Avery Alder’s tabletop roleplaying game Dream Askew.

Not content with simply offering new ideas about gender, Alder encourages players to come up with their own, and in an unusually intersectional move, links these gendered markers to other dimensions of identity like ethnicity or social class.

If speculative fiction is to offer us a vision of a better, queerer future, we need to stop ignoring a facet of the human experience as significant as sex. Like Sense8 with its multi-gender psychic orgy, Black Mirror and its virtual-crossplay-coitus, or the legion of indie, underground games that explore the hornier side of life, sci-fi and fantasy media should strive to explore the future of fucking. We should be unafraid to poke at our conceptions of gender, prod our communities and reactions to intimacy, and probe at our kinks and desires. We need to play more with sex.

The Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity’s mission is to reduce sexual shame and normalise conversations around human sexuality by fostering sex-positive art and education. Two generous grant from them was what made “Honey & Hot Wax” possible. You can donate to The Effing Foundation here.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/towards-more-speculative-sex-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=towards-more-speculative-sex-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

0 notes

stellacarrierimaginationbuilders · 4 years

Text

Beauty Career Money Celestial Spirit Guide Creative Fiction Writing Therapy

Start time 1251 am Monday April 20 2020

Completion time 210 am to 219 am Monday April 20 2020

Beauty Career Money Celestial Spirit Guide Creative Fiction Writing Therapy

Beauty Career Money Consultant Spirit Guides Helpers in Training

Greetings it is the year 2070 also in the celestial replica realm of the Virginia Beach Area and my alias name is Factor Mac to protect the identity of both my family and friends from my most recent earth lifetime and coworkers from my most recent place of employment before I Factor Mac crossed over. I was in great physical health when I Factor Mac crossed over, I was just 41 years old and it was a true accidental sudden death when I unexpectedly crossed over less than 2 years ago. I was an American born male who had both male and female friends from across various walks of life some American born and others foreign born. I Factor Mac have to be discreet for now about further details of myself to protect the privacy of my wife who is still alive and her friends and family members, It was just my wife and I before I unexpectedly pass over and we were talking about maybe adopting some kids one day who were in need of foster parents but we both agreed to revisit this once we had our own home and at least a years worth of living expenses. My wife is a former navy veteran who still resides in the Virginia Beach area is all I am allowed to say for now in order to protect her identity and she is just a year younger than me. I just discovered less than 50 hours ago that my wife is about to unexpectedly pass over herself within 7 hours or less from now in an area I must keep secret because she is in great physical health so I must keep this session short sweet and to the point. I Mac Factor reside and am allowed to have homes in an area I am asked to be discreet about in the metro Washington DC area, another home in Portsmouth Virginia, and a third home in the Norfolk Virginia area because I Mac Factor am being trained to help over 50 celestial spiritual guides at different times this year who are helping over 50 men and women some American born some foreign who are 35 to 60 years old who need some spiritual encouragement about their life purpose andor boost in self confidence.

There is so much that I Mac Factor want to say especially since less than 70 minutes from now in earth time I Mac Factor am scheduled to attend a celestial training earth class that combines the power of imagination with various ideas for women and men I and other celestial spirit guides that I Mac Factor am helping to boost their self confidence. The classroom itself is going to be attended by at least over 50 to 70 spirits in an area I must keep secret except the outside area is going to be a beautiful sunny area of 2 suns near a celestial city that has over 10 celestial universities and museums inside of it teaching both a multitude of classes similar to some offered on earth and others that are unlike what is offered on earth though are going to be the creative inspiration for what is going to be taught on earth within 70 months andor less from now. The class I Mac Factor is going to attend is going to be inside a blue, pink and yellow celestial colored mountain that has a half mile wide psychic and writers channeling university on top of it, I Mac Factor have to keep secret a great deal of what is being taught there as well however what I am allowed to say is that some of what is being taught at the psychic and writers channeling university involved helping celestial career and money spirit guides inspire the earth based men and women they are helping to finally finish their self published novels within 3 months or sooner from now as part of their life purposes andor for the development of their celestial spirit guides both fiction genres and non-fiction. I Mac Factor have been told by one of my celestial spirit guide mentors that I only have 40 more minutes in earth time for this session because my wife is about to pass over less than 4 hours after my 60 minute class is over and they need to speak with me about some matters to attend to in order for both I to still attend this class and to still be there for my wife when she unexpectedly passed over, however without further adieu some details that I Mac Factor am allowed to share:

Some of the world’s most creative, intuitive, andor resilient men and women andor men and women who attain a great deal of spirit development in their lifetime have the advantage of having homestead in one location that they are passionate about during their current earth lifetimes even if the area is far from one’s family of origin andor where their current friends are depending on one’s social life. I understand that sometimes this is far from feasible though it is vital to say because when possible the person who is able to make plans and follow through on where they are going to reside long term within 8 months andor sooner from now gives themselves an advantage regardless of how many times they have previously moved around in their current lifetime, again I Mac Factor understand that only some people might be able to easily do this because different rules apply depending on when you work in the military, the federal government, or the private sector, however my celestial teacher mentor encouraged me to put it out there regardless of how this may be perceived, understand that multiple family members andor friends might distance themselves from you for following your passion on where you want to reside long term for the rest of your current lifetime, however those who truly accept you and support you unconditionally and who are meant to be in your life for the rest of your current earth lifetime and beyond are going to understand those who distance themselves from you silently wish them well and understand that it is commonly understand that in the spirit realm and is going to be more known by the year 2080 andor sooner that sometimes when a person takes an action andor makes a move that is in alignment with their happy aliveness or life purpose it is very common for sometimes those who have known you in your personal andor professional life to have very strong opinions about this and the level of support given to you must be compartmentalized from you feeling strong in following your intuition, which brings me to my next point

For those who have significant others andor spouses supportive of your decision continue to appreciate them and treat them right in the way you know how though understand and continue to be supportive and understanding of how long it might take them to be inspired to join you wherever you choose to reside long term, other people in your personal andor professional life may talk about your plans or have something to say, however understand that I Mac Factor have seen long distance marriages andor relationships last and thrive at times even when it might have taken one of the partners at least 5 to 10 years before they joined the other person where they were at, however patience is necessary and a plan on how often the two people are going to see each other is very beneficial even if multiple weeks elapse before the move is finally made, for instance a successful long distance marriage I Mac Factor saw one of my celestial mentors look over was where the married couple worked it out at least over 6 months before the start of their long distance marriage how often at least one of the parties of the two people are going to visit each other, during one of the visits one of the spouse’s coworkers even helped drive the spouse to see the other person at a Greyhound bus station because the coworker doing the driving was on their way to also pick up their significant other at the Greyhound bus station as well.

If possible whenever time admits try to make time to walk andor run at least 5 miles a day to help activate intuition and creativity, novices can even walk up to at least 12 miles a day when time permits because the more one can walk whenever possible the quicker intuition accelerates, I Mac Factor recently helped a female in her 40s who can only walk 6 miles a day because she works two jobs though the consistent walking of at least 5 to 6 miles a day activated her intuition within two months of her consistently walking that much another female in her late 30s starting walking 12 miles a day to accelerate her getting thinner goals and because she found herself with much free time unexpectedly and realized after some job interviews going differently than planned that she was going to have to do what she could to improve both her self confidence and getting thinner. Well a month after doing her 12 mile routine her intuition was accelerated and she had an intuitive insight one day on one of her walks on where to apply that both netted her the salary she wanted, in the location she wanted and she was able to leapfrog over other traditional route and skip over the interview because one of the hiring managers was connected to her in a way that I must keep secret, it was a professional connection and she is now 45 years old and celebrating her 5 year anniversary being at this place of employment within the next two weeks, this brings me to my next two points

I understand that it is easier said than done depending on how much money makes and free time that one has though a person who has the luxury of time and for example weighs 170 pounds drinks 170 ounces of liquid a day might increase their intuition and vibration level in less than two months when normally this might take 4 months drinking just 85 ounces of liquid a day, obviously for some people it is feasible only do the 85 ounces of liquid however the 150 ounces for a 150 pound person, 125 ounces for a 125 pound person and 160 ounces for a 160 pound person has the potential of accelerating the person’s intuition creativity and vibration level for those who have the luxury of money andor time which brings me to my next point

When feasible try to start an online section andor online playlist of beauty andor fitness ideas from people who inspire you, for instance a person who wants to glean makeup, fitness walking ideas, andor the best supplement ideas could start their own youtube playlist andor online entry whether public or private of ideas to keep in mind, for those still deciding whether to use their newfound free time to eventually color their hair lighter these are far from simple answers I mac factor can tell you, however what I can tell you is this for the benefit of anyone male or female looking at this

A female or male with naturally curly hair regardless of ethnicity skin complexion who is considering coloring their hair lighter might benefit first from buying a curly haired wig in that color to see how they would feel first before making such a move, sometimes wearing the wig helps put things in perspective on if this is what is truly wanted, if feasible a female experimenting with a curly haired blonde wig whether in her professional andor personal life could consider experimenting with some makeup to help her feel good

If still far from certain if one wants to color their hair if possible try to see first how one feels after building up one’s money savings to at least one thousand dollar or two thousand dollars or more within 3 months or quicker whenever feasible/possible I understand that this might be common knowledge for some however I have seen countless females in their late 30s or 40s change their mind about coloring their dark brown hair to blonde after padding their money savings accounts after realizing that the self confidence boost from boosting their money savings accounts was what they truly needed, some men and women do color their hair blonde though this is only after at least a month of wearing blonde hair wigs in their free time and doing the walking regiment of at least 5 to 12 miles that I recommended, though some of the same men and women who do this walking regiment of at least 5 to 12 miles a day realize that they want to keep their natural hair color after all, this depends on the person, however for those with naturally curly hair who are considering coloring their hair blonde I Mac Factor want you to please think this over more carefully because for the strongest hair it is better to go with relaxer or blonde hair color basically if one wants to be blonde long term with curly hair then it is imperative to say goodbye to relaxer, however for those who prefer to continue to use relaxer for multiple years to come the answer is obvious I Mac Factor want to say more though my celestial class that I mentioned about earlier is about to start.

Resources

I confess that I actually like chef Sonny’s hair color and if I was to ever color my hair blonde, the current blonde style she has on Wikipedia is my style inspiration, though the magic word is if because I want to give myself more time to make sure if I am willing to trade in my relaxer for hair color

https://sunnyanderson.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Anderson

https://www.maccosmetics.com/mac-aaliyah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaliyah

https://twitter.com/aaliyahhaughton

walking intuition activation

https://www.soulhappy.life/self-awareness-blog/morning-and-evening-routines-activate-intuition

drinking water intuition

https://www.kristymayala.com/blog/2017/3/8/why-increasing-water-leads-to-increased-intuition

Virginia is for lovers Norfolk

https://www.virginia.org/cities/Norfolk/

https://www.virginia.org/listings/SuggestedItinerary/Norfolkin36Hours/

Portsmouth Virginia is for Lovers

https://www.virginia.org/cities/Portsmouth/

virginia beach

https://www.visitvirginiabeach.com/

0 notes