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dduane · 10 months

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I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, given the previous thing about different ways people write, but I just wanted to tell you because I'm so excited: I finished the first draft of that script! I actually finished a writing thing for the first time in over a decade! I've never attempted to write a script before, and now I've finished my first first draft. My friend said that's a big deal, and it makes writing other scripts much easier when you finish your first. Is that what you've found?

Oh apparently I have a few more questions, sorry: The first time you finished a project, and you knew you were on literally the last few paragraphs or scene, or what have you, how did that feel for you? And when you were done, did you initially love writing, or did you debate ever writing again? Did you start working on something right away, or did you break for a little bit?

Sorry, I'm just so excited and proud of myself right now, and wondering what feelings might come next. I haven't been this proud of myself in I don't know how long. I mean, I know I have to finalize it, and even still, I know I'll never be able to get it made. However, for right now, I'm proud of myself! I'll probably go back to being sad I'll never get it made tomorrow though, which sucks, but it's a good night right now!

I hope you're doing well today! Sorry for the bombardment of questions.

First of all: congratulations! You've got every right to be excited. Screenwriting isn't easy or simple even at the best of times. Doing it well requires that you write in ways that can seem really counterintuitive when compared to working in prose. And it's always, ALWAYS a big deal when by completing something you break a long creative dry spell. So GOOD ON YOU! You got the job done. :)

(And now, of course, comes rewrite. The brain—yours, or someone else's—always has notes. But I'm sure you knew that.)

While I know how it is to be relieved on finishing a first script, my weird work history makes me kind of an outlier when it comes to discussing this. I went with unexpected speed from "I'm Just A First-Time Novelist, What Do I Know?" to "I'm Just A First-Time Screenwriter, What Do—WAIT WHAT??". Because the man who was soon to be my story editor on Scooby and Scrappy-Doo walked in the door one evening, having just read The Door Into Fire, and said, "Would you be interested in writing cartoons?"

It was kind of a surprising career development, but I quickly learned at that point in my life that when the Universe turns up on your doorstep with the Moon on a silver platter, you don't tell it to try next door: you say "Wait right there and I'll get a knife and fork." In the space of a given month of being walked around Hanna-Barbera for the first time, I turned in my first animation script... and then sagged in my chair on getting the phone call when my story editors told me, "That's a strong start. Now we have some notes." And all I could do was collapse with relief that I had not fucked it up.

However, this situation also left me in no position where I'd be able to debate ever writing a screenplay again... because suddenly there were a couple of very intent guys telling me "Okay, new story premise coming over to you, we need the outline by next Thursday and the script the Thursday after, you okay with that?"

(Are you kidding me? I thought. Let me get the knife and fork!)

So as I said, I'm really an outlier in this regard. The next three years of my life pretty much went as above, as Tom Swale and Duane Poole (great Thoth rest both their gentle souls) took me with them from one show to another, and kept me busy. (Thereby financing the writing of So You Want To Be A Wizard and The Wounded Sky and assorted other work.) But there's no question that each time you finish a script, each time you type FADE TO BLACK, you feel better about the whole enterprise. It doesn't precisely get easier. But it gets more familiar. And that helps. (If I have to be locked in a haunted house, I'd sooner it was one I'd played in when I was a kid than one I'd never been inside before...)

Anyway, again: congratulations. But also: Do not be too sure you'll never have it made. ...Granting you that "made" can look a lot of different ways in different times and places, and can shift under your feet without warning. But the world that depends on scripts can do very, very weird and unusual things without warning. Best to do your homework and be ready for them... and know where the knife and fork are.

Also, a side note: As you do more of this work you may well find that finishing a script leaves you with more energy, not less. I think this may be a lot more normal than we routinely allow ourselves to believe. It makes sense to me, from the psych-nurse end of things, that successful completion of a project allows the release of a lot of energy that you've been holding in reserve to help you cope if something went horribly wrong with the piece of work you just finished. Me, when I've felt that rush, I do a thing that C. J. Cherryh taught me: immediately roll another sheet of paper into the typewriter. ...Though these days, it'd be "open a new file." You don't necessarily have to do anything with that blank page or screen if you don't want to. But it's wise to be ready.

In any case: all the good luck to you (because sheer blind luck plays its part in this business, no matter how much we wish all our hard work counted for more)! ...And let us know how you get on.

#writing #process

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amazingarchitecturewebsite · 1 year

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Twin Sisters House in Duane, #NewYork by Milad Eshtiyaghi Studio @miladeshtiyaghi. Read more: Link in bio! Milad Eshtiyaghi: In designing this project, the client of the project asked us to exactly design the Twin Sisters 1 project for them according to their needs. But we presented a new design for them according to their needs so that two units are completely separate from each other, where a central space is formed like a central courtyard, and in the middle of it is a glass pool that seems to be suspended in the middle of this space, and there is a tree next to it… #usa #duane #архитектура www.amazingarchitecture.com ✔ A collection of the best contemporary architecture to inspire you. #design #architecture #amazingarchitecture #architect #arquitectura #luxury #realestate #life #cute #architettura #interiordesign #photooftheday #love #travel #construction #furniture #instagood #fashion #beautiful #archilovers #home #house ‎#amazing #picoftheday #architecturephotography ‎#معماری (at Duane, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkucXsDMD0q/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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ereborne · 11 days

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1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 32, 44, 46 (weird or genre-defying books), 47, 50

Thank you for so many prompts!! This was so fun to do and now it is so long. I hope it's as good to read as it was to write out!

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: I answered Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire to digs just a moment ago, but I'm glad you asked too, because honorable mention goes to Inheritance by Nora Roberts. It came out in November, not technically 2024, but time is fake and 2024 is just beginning anyway, so I'm counting it. Inheritance starts pretty slow and for a bit I was wondering how it was going to manage a satisfying resolution, and then I realized she was doing something new! (unfair. she's been building to this since 2015, it's just that now is when it's starting to really click with me) Instead of a trilogy with three couples whose romance arcs each get centered in their own book, this is going to be a trilogy focusing on unraveling the family curse/haunting, with the four main characters growing tighter as a unit (and forming their two romantic pairs, of course) throughout. I really like the characters and I am delighted by the curse/haunt storytelling. Cannot wait to see more.

2) Favorite fantasy book(s): this is so hard. okay, okay, brief rundown. brief. I can do this. bookshelf by bookshelf, I think. we'll take as granted everything by Seanan McGuire, sure. Bayou Moon and Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. By the Sword and From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Bryony and Roses and Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane. The Long Patrol-Marlfox-Taggerung by Brian Jacques, which I always read in a shot as if they were one book. Similarly, the Protector of the Small and Magic Circle quartets by Tamora Pierce, and the Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore. Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (really all the LotR trilogy, but even I cannot say I sit and read them all three straight through as if they were one). The Wee Free Men and Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

4) Favorite science fiction book(s): The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter (also a favored queer fiction book, but I love the alien worldbuilding so much it has to be here)

8) Favorite queer fiction book(s): Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge. Nightvine by Felicia Davin. the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis (also a down-in-one-shot series). Holly and Oak by R Cooper.

12) Favorite horror book(s): I haven't read too many horror books, so my pool is limited here, but The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher both gave me the shudders so bad.

15) Which genre(s) are your favorite? Fantasy! I love all the fantasy subgenres, and especially the magical realism overlaps.

17) Favorite finished book series: How finished is finished? A lot of my serieses are made up of several trilogy/quartet subsets together in a world. hmmmm. The Protector of the Small quartet again by Tamora Pierce, I think.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? I mentioned in my reply to digs that I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters, but I feel like I undersold their effect on me. I don't know how many I'm subscribed to--just sat here and off the top of my head counted to eighteen that post at least weekly and I'm so sure I'm missing some--and I love having that regular infusion of book progress and reviews and writing thoughts and commentary. I really do recommend that folks subscribe to their favorite authors.

26) Favorite novella(s): Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. The Seven Brides-to-Be of Generalissimo Vlad by Victoria Goddard. Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher.

32) Name your favorite author(s): massive overlap with everybody else I've listed here. who haven't I mentioned? Jennie Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb (which is a Nora Roberts penname but they've got distinct enough works I want to list them out separate). Patricia Briggs, Patricia C Wrede, Max Gladstone, Gail Carriger, Nalini Singh. And Ed Greenwood, about half the time.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

46) I like (weird or genre-defying books), recommend me a book to read, please: First thought was the Humans Are Weird series by Betty Adams, though that might not be what you mean. They're intensely fun collections of 'humans are space-orcs' style vignettes. Maybe more directly books that are weird would be the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone and Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw. Very toothy complicated magical realism. And my favorite genre-blending books are always the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey. A Study in Sable for instance is equal parts a Sherlock Holmes story and a retelling of The Twa Sisters fairytale, and also a coherent installment in an ongoing historical fantasy series about elemental mages in early 1900s England.

47) What are the last three books you read? Indexing by Seanan McGuire, Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, Pirate's Honor by Chris A Jackson

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This is such a fascinating question. I don't know that there's anything in particular that I've always wanted and never found, but there are things I'm always looking for more and better examples of. I'm extremely picky about soulmate AUs, so a good one especially captivates me. Oh, or a really well-handled impromptu adoption! Child characters and bureaucracy are both tricky to write and things I know a lot about, and when they're done well they hook me so hard.

#asks #carrionfourth #I have been working on these answers for hours. it's so hard to choose favorites!!#very fun though and very interesting to think some of this through #my bookshelves are grouped a lot more by how they make me feel than by genre so mentally categorizing them was a neat process #I hope you were ready for the enormous wall of text you've inspired!#I feel like it's also a big list of proper nouns with little elaboration but there's no sane way to elaborate on them all #so if anybody would like me to talk more about a given book or author hit me up. I can and will talk about books forever

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yawneneteyam · 9 months

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Just an idea I would love to see more of Duane, Filip, Jamie and y/n. Either them just hanging out or like the clip in the doc where they went out to eat together and Jamie’s filming.

this clip is coming!! but because that clip is filmed the week that they wrapped on set, it will come out later- just because we're so early in. but we will have a few time jumps over the next few chapters to speed things up!

but this scene is coming, along with all of them playing basketball, swimming in the hotel pool, etc <3

#thank you my love <3 #•°. celeste answers asks #atc talks ‧₊˚✩彡

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animatejournal · 1 year

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Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue Writers: Duane Poole & Tom Swale | USA, 1990

#Cartoon All-Stars #Anti-Drug #PSA #Cartoon #Animation #Bugs Bunny #Winnie the Pooh #Michelangelo #TMNT #Pot #Marijuana #George C. Scott

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billiemania · 3 months

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Krycek was sooo domesticated in his first few episodes. He looks like a little mormon. And the scene in Duane Barry when he meets Mulder at the pool, he pauses and takes a deep breath right before he goes up to him like he’s coming to terms with the fact that he has to go talk to Mulder SOPPING WET in a got damn speedo… I understand you gayboy

#billiemania rewatches txf #<- my tag for these posts

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unsoundedcomic · 2 years

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Can a ghers improve their own standing if all the families band together to improve things? Like some kind of home owners association or union

What sort of standing are you thinking of? Alderode has a Capitalist economy. Capitalism demands owners and workers. From that division, further divisions naturally arise. Alderode has very little top-down infrastructure, so those divided groups are already banded together for mutual protection and economic security - this is what a ghers is. A ghers is an organisation of people who share the same class and caste pooling their resources to protect and elevate each other.

There's not a lot of incentive for the different classes to evenly distribute themselves among the ghers. Instead, the wealthy live with the wealthy, and the poor live with the poor. It's like to like, in the same way that positive and negative memories gather their own type. Pretty much like in our world.

As a boy, when Duane declared he was going to join the priesthood rather than apprentice to his printmaker father, the whole family was punished for it. Priests don't get paid in the Ssaelit faith; a priest brings no wealth or esteem to a ghers. So when Duane went away to seminary, the elders sold Lemuel off to the army as a dig to the Adelier family, and assigned Papa Adelier a challenged kid as his apprentice. Duane thought he was answering a calling, but the ghers didn't care. They had their own standing in mind; the success of their own people.

Of course it all worked out tremendously well for Duane and Lemuel in the long run, but their ghers was absolutely no help in this. If you were to ask Duane today what the lower class ghers of Durlyne could do to better themselves, he'd probably tell you they need to stop dragging down their own young. If someone doesn't want to do what their father did, let him break away from the family trade. Passionate people are successful people.

Of course, successful people then want to leave their old ghers and marry into families with more wealth and power, so the behaviour of the lower class ghers does make sense.

Humans!

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one-album-wonders · 1 year

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Group Stage: Pool 6 - Group C (1950s)

Vote now in Pool 6 of the group stage of America’s Greatest Rock Stars Tournament. Remember:

The artist does not have to finish first in the group to advance.

Consider the artists’ full careers when voting.

Be kind to everyone, even the artists you don’t like and the people who vote for them.

Read the America’s Greatest Rock Star Tournament Masterpost for full details on how this works.

#Bobby Darrin #Dick Dale #Jimmy Reed #Duane Eddy #rock and roll #rock #tumblr polls #rock music #music #america's greatest rock star #tournament

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foxghost · 2 years

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Joyful Reunion

Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr/ko-fi1 Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang Masterpost | Characters, Maps & Other Reference Index

Book 5, Chapter 48 (Part 4)

“Convene the major officials for an assembly tomorrow morning,” Han Bin’s voice can be heard on the other side of the door saying, “tell them to wait outside the hall at the fourth of the night watch. I have things to discuss.”2

“Certainly.” Voices come out of the study. A lieutenant pushes the door open and walks out.

The one inside the study must be Han Bin then, Duan Ling decides. But between now and the time he’s arranged to meet up with Wu Du, there is still some time. The only one out here is Batu.

Should he keep waiting for Wu Du, or should he just go right in? Duan Ling meditates on this briefly. There are noises in the imperial study, most likely from Han Bin picking up after himself and getting ready to leave.

“Thank you, Batu,” Duan Ling says quietly, “and now you’ll just have to let me go the rest of the way alone.”

Batu wants to go inside with Duan Ling, but Duan Ling has already walked out of the dark, into a pool of light outside the imperial study. So Batu retreats once more into the shadows to stand in the pitch-black night. He pulls a dagger out of his boot, ready to rush in and save Duan Ling should the need arise.

“Who’s there?” Asks a guard at the door.

Inside the imperial study, Han Bin looks up, alert.

“Me. Wang Shan, here to see General Han.”

“Let him in,” Han Bin says.

Duan Ling pushes the door open and heads inside to find Han Bin flipping through past memorials and reports on the bookshelf.

“You’re finally here. Have a seat. Your teacher has been waiting for you, burning a hole in the door the way he stares at it. I thought you’d go to the empress’s palace first to see him and the empress dowager.”

Duan Ling says, “Is he …”

Han Bin turns his head, giving him a look. “Wuluohou Mu stabbed him, and he’s not dead yet, but it makes no difference that he should be alive instead of dead. I made a bet with him, however. He said you’re a smart man, and at a time like this, you’d definitely come pledge your allegiance to me, and wouldn’t even give him a second glance.”

Duan Ling is speechless.

Mu Kuangda understands him far too well, just as he understands Mu Kuangda.

Now that Han Bin is in power, with the entirety of Jiangzhou in his grasp, Mu Kuangda had bargained with a tiger for its hide only to end up being the one compelled; any smart person would know that they must switch camp to Han Bin immediately.

They’d clearly communicated in private when it comes to Duan Ling’s position, and now Duan Ling is suddenly cautious — since Mu Kuangda is still alive, what else would he have told Han Bin?

He was planning to produce the evidence and hand it to Han Bin so that he could use it in tomorrow’s morning assembly, but he’s briefly changed his mind.

“What are you looking for, General Han?”

Han Bin brings several accordions of memorials to the emperor’s desk and spreads them open to compare the characters written on them.

“I’m looking for some clues,” Han Bin says. “No matter how well a fox imitates a human, it’s bound to show its tail sometime.”

These words have once more reminded Duan Ling to remain on guard. As though he had been insinuating other things, Han Bin’s gaze falls on Duan Ling.

“What do you think about this whole business?” Han Bin doesn’t ask why Duan Ling is here but throws him this question instead.

“Do you plan to call a morning assembly for the officials tomorrow so that you can interrogate the crown prince, General Han?”

“Precisely. But the crown prince’s identity remains an enigma.”

“It is just as Chancellor Mu says,” Duan Ling says. “He may have been a close fellow student of the crown prince, and if you want to look for clues, you may as well start there.”

“But there is one thing I don’t quite understand,” Han Bin says. “Reasonably speaking, if there’s an imposter, then there must be a real crown prince. Well then, where is the real one?”

Duan Ling doesn’t answer and only looks at Han Bin.

Han Bin studies Duan Ling’s face carefully. “You remind me of someone, Wang Shan.”

Han Bin already knows — that’s the first thought that comes to Duan Ling. Before he can determine whether Han Bin had recognised him through his resemblance to his mother, or if he’d found out some other way, his heart is already starting to beat wildly in his chest. But he also knows that leaving right now is not the best choice he can make.

“Who do I remind you of?” Duan Ling asks.

“Duan Xiaowan. When the princess consort came to the army camp, I was fortunate enough to meet her. Your eyebrows and your eyes resemble hers very much.”

A small smile spreads across Duan Ling’s face. “Uncle Han.”

Han Bin smiles. “How meticulous your scheming must have been that has taken you all the way here. Wuluohou Mu helped the imposter become the crown prince in order to keep the chancellor in check, and then you used Chancellor Mu to deal with the crown prince. At last, you would use me to overthrow the crown prince and get rid of Chancellor Mu, and once you’ve successfully taken the throne, you’d use Xie You to get rid of me. These plans interlock like links in a chain; it really makes it difficult for me to believe that it all came out of the mind of a young man who pledged himself to the Mu estate since the age of fifteen.”

“You flatter me. If one wishes to rule a nation and bring peace to the land, thinking too much is inevitable.”

Duan Ling knows that since Han Bin’s put it that way, he has no plans to let him walk out of this room again. It doesn’t take much to extrapolate that once he gets rid of Cai Yan and Mu Kuangda, Han Bin would be able to control the empress dowager and rule as regent. There’s no way he’s going to let this plan be wrecked by Duan Ling at such a moment.

“But scheme as you might, you’ve forgotten one thing. I was planning to lure you out when I convene the assembly tomorrow to interrogate that guy, but I never imagined that you’d walk right into the trap yourself now.”

“I’d love to hear the details.” Duan Ling’s heart begins to beat madly against his ribs, but he remains unperturbed on the surface.

Han Bin says, “Who’s your dad?”

Duan Ling stares at him speechlessly.

“What evidence do you have to prove that your father is the late emperor? Are we to make certain of that by your confrontation with Cai Yan when he admits you’re that ‘Duan Ling’? Or are we to believe that you’re the ‘Duan Ling’ from Shangjing based on Wuluohou Mu’s testimony?”

“Uncle Han, you’ve been overthinking. You’re confused.”

“Oh no, I’m not confused — you’re the one who’s confused. The Duans have all died out, and by the time Duan Xiaowant left the north and returned to Runan, she was already with child. When Wuluohou Mu went to get you and bring you to Shangjing …”

As he hears this, Duan Ling feels his heart do a somersault. Damn it.

“You’re quite correct that Wuluohou Mu can prove you’re Duan Xiaowan’s son,” Han Bin says, raising an eyebrow, “but how can he ever prove that your dad is the late emperor?”

Duan Ling can’t help but laugh. “So your plan is to flip the game table and toss all the pieces to the floor. Well then, whose son do you think I am? General Han, merely by the fact that you’ve spoken those w words, I can exterminate your nine clans. What kind of a person do you think my mother was?”

“I believe you. But when it comes down to it, you have no evidence, and the late emperor had no idea Duan Xiaowan was pregnant on the day she left either. Actually, I can be a witness to that fact. Even as Wuluohou Mu travelled south to Runan, when he arrived at the Duans’ doors, before he saw you, he never even knew Duan Xiaowan left the world long ago and left you behind. Thus Wuluohou Mu had no idea either.”

“I was born in the Twelfth Month. During the time I was conceived, my mom spent it all with my dad. That isn’t something you can just make up.”

“Oh? You were born in the Twelfth Month? How would we know that?”

“Uncle Han, you shouldn’t joke around at a time like this. With so many major officials, there’s no way no one questioned this when Cai Yan arrived in Xichuan. I’m sure the answer to that question was given long ago.”

“You’re wrong. This is what happens when you take things for granted. How many people would dare bring up the princess consort in front of His Majesty? Now, the officials are quite aware of whether the crown prince is ‘Duan Ling’, but few people brought up whether ‘Duan Ling’ is His Majesty’s child. That’s because the crown prince’s features were modified by Wuluohou Mu, making him resemble His Majesty, thus no one brought that question up at all.”

At this point, Duan Ling’s expression still remains calm. “And so?”

“And so, ultimately only three people brought up this question. Chancellor Mu, Xie You, and his late majesty. And only three people had ever seen this piece of paper.”

With a flick of his fingers, Han Bin hovers a birth certificate above the candle flame.

“Stop it!” Duan Ling lets out an angry howl and charges at him. In the blink of an eye, Han Bin, who had been waiting for this very instant, draws the sword hanging at his waist, and goes right for Duan Ling’s chest!

This birth certificate is of the utmost importance to Duan Ling; he doesn’t even have time to think about how it ended up in Han Bin’s hands, to begin with, but it’s the only thing that can prove his identity!

This is the very moment Han Bin had been waiting for, and he strikes without hesitation hoping to kill Duan Ling on the spot. But alas, the sword glances off Duan Ling’s chest and slips to the side as soon as it hits him. To his surprise, Duan Ling is the one who flips the imperial desk so that he can grab his birth certificate!

Han Bin could never have expected that Duan Ling would be wrapped in an armour of invulnerability that no weapons could penetrate, and in his moment of distraction, Duan Ling slashes out with the dagger in his palm. Han Bin abruptly gets out of the way, and his subordinate rushes in howling, “What impudence!”

As two swords are going right for the back of his neck, Duan Ling turns with a start and throws his dagger. The dagger has been dipped in poison, and anyone nicked with it dies where they stand!

With this brief pause, the birth certificate had already turned to ashes over the flame. As soon as the doors to the imperial study are crashed open, autumn wind pours into the room, and the ashes scatter through the air.

Duan Ling stares wordlessly before him.

Han Bin is still gasping, short of breath. When Duan Ling started fighting earlier, his fury was like a clap of thunder; though he is not yet twenty, there is already a faint suggestion in him of the imposing aura that Li Jianhong used to possess.

While Han Bin stands dazed in awe of him, fury radiates from Duan Ling as he glares at Han Bin.

“Just you wait, General Han.” Leaving these words behind, Duan Ling abruptly withdraws from the imperial study. Soldiers come after him, but Batu emerges from nearby to come to Duan Ling’s aid and the two of them escape from the covered gallery.

“After him!” Han Bin shouts, his heart still palpitating from fright.

Suddenly all the guards in the palace are rushing towards the imperial gardens. Duan Ling and Batu run as fast as they can, one before the other, with no time left to talk. Behind them, arrows are flying every which way. Batu tries to cover Duan Ling’s back, but Duan Ling is saying to him, “You go first!” And instead of letting Batu protect him, stands behind Batu to shield him with his back.

The path in front of them leads to a dead end. Duan Ling looks up. The high palace walls are difficult to climb, and almost a hundred Northern Command soldiers are at their back, each holding a crossbow, pointing at the two of them.

“Over here! Found them!”

More pursuers are coming closer; they have their backs against a high wall, and the clouds roll in to cover the moon.

Suddenly, they can hear nothing but one scream after another. Duan Ling feels a tremor through his heart and looks up to see several slender silhouettes flitting by, blood spraying wherever they pass and pursuing soldiers falling where they stand. Arrows are flying in every direction and those silhouettes crisscross in the dark; before he knows it, the almost one hundred soldiers who’ve been pursuing them have all fallen to the ground.

Their surroundings gradually grow quiet, interrupted only by their enemies’ spasms and groans of pain. Three assassins in black fall back and face the outside of the alley with their backs to Duan Ling.

Up above, a whistle sounds the all-clear signal. That’s when the lead assassin finally removes his mask. It’s Wu Du.

“Fortunately we made it in time,” Wu Du says.

Duan Ling and Wu Du embrace each other.

“Han Bin’s turned,” Duan Ling says. “We’ll need a change of plans.”

“We’ll talk about that after we get away from here,” Wu Du replies.

Zheng Yan returns from scouting high above, and the other two assassins remove their masks. They’re Lang Junxia and Chang Liujun.

“Let’s go this way,” Lang Junxia says. “We’ll head towards the Hall of Heavenly Origin. It’s the least guarded location.”

They follow the long corridor, and as they pass by the hall where the diplomatic delegation is kept under watch, Duan Ling says to Batu, “Batu, go back to them and help me prepare. Inform the diplomatic delegation that they’ll have to testify on my behalf. In the morning, Han Bin will convene the major officials for a morning assembly.”

Batu’s gaze sweeps over them, and at last, he nods and leaves through the gallery.

“Up there.” Wu Du grabs Duan Ling with one hand and leaps onto the eaves, on the roof of the Hall of Heavenly Origin. The Eastern Palace is right beneath them, but none of the lamps is lit today. Presumably Han Bin had already moved Cai Yan elsewhere to make it easier to keep an eye on him.

Standing, or sitting, each of the four great assassins takes up a perch on the roof, forming black silhouettes against the moonlit night.

“What do we do next?” Chang Liujun says.

“I’ll go see Han Bin,” Lang Junxia says.

“Your wounds haven’t healed yet,” Duan Ling replies. “Don’t risk trying to assassinate him.”

Wu Du crouches on the flying eaves like a silent and dangerous big cat. He thinks silently for moments before saying, “Xie You and His Majesty are still waiting for our signal.”

“Have the inner city gates been opened?” Duan Ling asks.

“Not yet,” Zheng Yan replies. “But everything is ready. All they’re waiting for is our signal. Even after that gate is opened though, they’ll still have to make it through the imperial city. When Xie You leads his men in here, even if the fighting in the streets is over right away, getting into the palace after that is still going to take a lot of work.”

“As soon as the morning assembly starts,” Wu Du says, “all Han Bin’s attention will be on the assembly, and that will be the best chance to advance into the Imperial City. We can proceed according to the original plan. Inform Xie You and His Majesty. The only thing we need to change is the timing of the attack.”

“Let’s proceed as per the original plan,” Duan Ling says.

“What do we do with the letters and the evidence?” Lang Junxia asks.

Duan Ling replies, “Find someone else to give them to. I have an idea. It’s midnight now. Come on, let’s split up and move! Hurry!”

There is a brief moment of silence before they disperse; Zheng Yan to the west, Chang Liujun to the south, Lang Junxia towards the main palace, and one by one they disappear into the night.

Duan Ling digs out the two exam papers and scrutinises them beneath the moon.

Wu Du is still standing at his side, his expression exceedingly gentle, yet there’s a vague suggestion there of a sharpness hiding underneath it all.

“Once tonight is over, you won’t be Shan’er anymore,” Wu Du says quietly

Duan Ling looks up from the two sheets of paper to meet Wu Du’s eyes.

“Between you and me, I will still be Shan’er,” Duan Ling says, “for a long, long time to come.”

Duan Ling leans into Wu Du’s embrace, their arms coming up to wrap around each other. Clouds roll in above them to hide the moon once more. It is midnight. All through the palace are flickering torches from those searching for them, like a million lit beacons flowing from palace hall to palace hall.

This translation is by foxghost, on tumblr and kofi. I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, it was reposted without permission. Do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

Fourth of the night watch is between 1-3 am, but officials usually lined up for a typical morning assembly at around 3 am. ↩︎

#相見歡 #fei tian ye xiang #joyful reunion #xiang jian huan #fox translates things

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nimblermortal · 1 year

Text

The Mathematics of Communication

Okay fine I'm liveblogging/taking notes on the 28 pages in this introduction.

Bearing in mind that communication is here meant to be all procedures by which one mind may affect another, and this includes speech, writing, poetry, dance, telegraphs, the internet...

Level A: How accurately can the symbols of communication be transmitted? (technical)

Level B: How precisely do the transmitted symbols convey the desired meaning? (semantic)

Level C: How effectively does the received meaning affect conduct in the desired way? (effectiveness)

Computing is largely concerned with the technical problem! Writing is largely concerned with the semantic! Activism with effectiveness!

Information source -> transmitter -> noise source -> receiver -> destination

(as of writing I have gotten as far as the noise source, so a lot of what I've been thinking about has to do with computing - and Hyacinth is interested - but the bit on entropy and coding is nnggghhh)

The first complicated bit is in understanding the information of the system, and one problem I consistently have is with refusing to assign value judgements to the word 'information'. In this context it has nothing to do with meaning!

It being convenient to use logarithms to the base 2, rather than common or Briggs' logarithm to the base 10, the information, when there are only two choices, is proportional to the logarithm of 2 to the base 2. But this is unity; so that a two choice situation is characterized by the information of unity [such as if you have a relay that can be set to either 0 or 1, it's a single relay and its information is 1]... This unit of information is called a "bit," this word, first suggested by John W. Tukey, being a condensation of "binary digit."

Consider then how much information is in a system of three relays! 8 possible states, or 2^3, for which the logarithm base 2 is just that exponent - 3. So the information basically tells you how many relays are involved.

At this point there is a discussion of, essentially, predictive texting - how when you start a sentence you are inherently limiting what your next words can be. If you say 'the' you're most likely going to put a noun next, so the pool of logical next words has shrunk considerably. If you say 'in the event' the odds that the next word is 'that' are very high. And this is relevant both in the context of freedom of choice in expressing information, and in the concept of assigning probability to words (or letters!) within a language.

(Vocabulary side note: stochastic refers to producing a set of symbols according to certain probabilities, it is not just 'random' the way I tend to use it; Markoff adds hysteresis to this concept; and ergodic means that any random sample is representative of the rest.)

So this concept of freedom of language is where entropy comes into play and where I start getting so excited that I had to put the book down in order to have a chance at going to sleep, and it still took me far longer than usual because I got into side processes about ethics and the entropy of economics and die Banalität des Bösens, all of which is thanks much Diane Duane, who assigned moral connotations to the word.

In a non-YW context, entropy is a measure of the randomness of a system. If you have particles in a room, it's highly unlikely that every single one is in the top left corner, that would be a highly ordered state with an extremely low entropy. It's much more likely that those particles are distributed fairly evenly through the room, just because they tend to bounce around until that happens. This is a highly entropic state, and this is how you get into entropy being associated with the inevitable heat death of the universe - on a universal scale that distribution means eventually everything becomes cold and distant and separate and life cannot exist. But on a smaller scale entropy is also what makes it possible to live, because if all the air molecules were in that one corner you would definitely suffocate and die.

And dieeeeeeeee

...I'm really starting to have fun now, I'm going to post this and get to the next section in a reblog. I really really want to get to the bit about coding so I can tag Tea and talk about poetry. We're on page 12, for anyone keeping track.

#Nimblermortal liveblogs #the Mathematical Theory of Communication #we're on page TWELVE and I'm fangirling SO HARD

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