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caw4brandon · 17 days

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The Power of Stop-Motion

Media in today's standard is quick and easy. Rarely is a show more than 2 hours long or 13-epiodes per-season. With that, animated movies are a lot slower than the typical films.

There is a discussion on if animation is suitable for film purposes and while it is often shunned by the Golden Globes or the Oscars or other awards. The very few outliers can prove these awards and the world very wrong.

But that is not what we will be talking about today. Because while animation is popular, there is a dark horse among its sphere. One with a rich history and strong filmography that should be shared. Let's talk about;

- Have I possibly gone daffy? -

Stop-motion is a film making style that compiles multiple still images of an object being physically manipulated in small movements into one whole scene.

Majority of Stop-motion films and videos use [Clay Animation] or [Paper Animation] with several more varieties of new innovations emerging under the umbrella of stop-motion. The most popular of them in the modern era towards kids is [Lego animation] which is the manipulation of Lego models in motion.

The earliest trace of Stop-motion in films is the 1898 short [The Humpty Dumpty Circus] by Albert E. Smith and James Stuart Blackton which is said to be a lost media. To compensate, please watch [A Tribute to Stop Motion]

In its early concept, Stop-motion was used as a method to create impossible things or do practical effects under budget constrains. Such as the iconic King Kong scene at the Empire State building. Since then, Stop-motion has evolved into a full production industry. From Indies; [Righteous Robot] to Juggernauts; [Laika Studios]

- Shimmer a Little at The Edges -

Unconventional media such as stop-motion is often not a style suited for every story. Its a rather expensive type of media that requires worthy innovations top break the niche barrier. Just looking at Laika Studios alone, we see that they've develop a lot of interesting ways to improve visual effects while staying to their stop-motion roots.

One perfect example is seen in < Kubo and the Two Strings > where the animators need to create water in a still image world that feels natural. [A Perfect Storm] one other part of the stop-motion puzzle is the iron-willed discipline it to conceptualize, animate and edit a production that can take about 3 to 5 years to complete. More so of a time frame than a normal film.

This difficult curve lead to budgeted methods such as using models that already exist to tell new stories. Such as; Legos or with crude multi-jointed figures of existing characters. [MOONSHINE]

While I may say its crude, the low budget production is the selling point. Assisted with sound bites taken from gaming sessions or from shows featuring a lot of inside jokes and memes. Also, its hilarious to see a Teletubby turned into a Eldritch monster.

These attempts to make stop-motion productions accessible has captured the attention of other like-minded channels to collaborate and elevate one another. [ERB: Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker]

- For Better Tomorrows -

With all that is said, what is the power of stop-motion? As a media that is tediously overlapping across processes. What are the better tomorrows for our inanimate subjects?

I like to think, that as filmmaking grows. Stop-motion will continue to remain as a sacred tug against live action films and traditional animation. It can be used to tell complicated stories with concepts that may look strange if its adapted in a live action.

As I have mentioned in [The Beautiful World of Hilda] animation's greatest strength is simplification. Stop-motion takes the opposite side of that philosophy.

Its a higher level of world building of the materials with willingness to accept mistakes and ruggedness that gives them that little flavor of life. As an actual touchable thing, the various cartoonish styles can take on a whole new dimension to heighten the style and give it that detail that is less polished.

Stop-motion shows that filmmaking magic can still exist despite already knowing the tricks. Its a media where every frame shown has a significant purpose that invokes a specific flow. That's the power of stop-motion.

#stop motion #stop motion animation #coraline #coraline jones #lego animation #clay animation #paper animation #laika studios #paranorman #norman babcock #the lego movie #emirichu #daidus #moonshine animations #pinocchio #guillermo del toro #wendell and wild #Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

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trainingdummyrabbit · 3 months

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[She expected to feel scared. And perhaps she was, on some level. But it was the type of fear that danced on the edge of excitement. The silent promise of a “This is It.”]

Or: A post-Ruina musing of the library and Angela.

Angela was used to silence. There had always been moments of screaming chaos, sights she'd passed over that anyone softer than herself would retch at; it was all par for the course. But the moments that had really clung to her had always been the silence.

Moments between loops spent alone, staring at flickering screens disconnected from minds just out of reach, asleep. Lulls in management as she waits for the inevitable shoe to drop, casting everything back into cacophony. Isolated, as she stared at the unbuilt bricks of the future she would carve for herself, made of others’ hopes and dreams. The type of absence that had no true voice to complain, but eyes that casted judgement. The wordless pressure of resentment.

She never much liked silence.

…Even still, she found herself returning to the balcony, again and again. There was much work to be done, of course. Repairing the library was a tall task after the mess that was made of it, especially now that she was piloting with her own will. She did not mind– this sort of task was simply in her nature. Direct, organize, rebuild. This time, however, she was not on her own.

It was an odd thing to get used to, working so closely with those she had such a… complicated history with. And though they seemed willing enough to help, something still itched at the back of her mind. Again, the echo of that pressing silence rolled in and, against her nature, she found her mind wandering. And there she was again, staring out into that seemingly endless distance, in the spot where they’d lost one home and gained another.

It was a strange feeling. She thought she'd have had enough of this by now, casting herself back into the embrace of solitude. She had expected it to grate on her mind as it always did, enveloped in the downy cling of distance. It was something she had always done. Welcomed her like the incessant tug of a spider's thread. And yet, despite it all, the circling, the thrashing, the running– she could not feel that weight. No, in fact, she felt lighter than ever. She did not get what she wanted. She no longer had any failsafes– no lifeline to cling to, no beaten paths to follow. It was just her, the city walls in the distance, and the expanse of a world she had never gotten the chance to see. All here, right here, right now.

She'd expected to feel resentment. Another plan she couldn't follow through on, another ending ruefully snatched from between her fingers. Another life that was robbed of her, from right under her nose. But… something was different this time. This expanse was empty, yes, but the wind whistled across it as it would anywhere else. The sun still rose and set, casting everything into hues uncapturable in the frames of pictures. Stars still hung in the sky, numerous, dancing. And here she was, capturing it all in her own two eyes.

This world– this life– was still unforgiving. She had heard stories of the outskirts, of the creatures that lurked there, of the horrors that played out, again and again. But… was that not true of anywhere? Of everything she had gone through, this would not be the one to put her down. For once in her life, she realized, that voiceless gaze that had hung over her all this time… she could no longer feel it. She no longer worried of her presentation, that heavily enforced dance she was compelled to follow. This time was different. This time… this time she was truly an outlier.

There was a difference between Silence and Quiet.

Silence implied the lack of movement. Stillness. Silence implied solitude. A plane of glass between the self and the outside world, plainly in view but painfully distant. It’s the denial of the senses, and the dissolution of the self. Silence was what was expected of her. But quiet… quiet was a relief. She was alone, yes, but not truly. Even standing alone, facing the world with naught but her own thoughts, even still the distant shuffle of movement could be heard. Barely audible voices, squabbling, laughter. Breathing. Alive– it was alive. She was alive. Quiet was a respite. The lull of ocean waves, and a breath taken to start again.

Start again.

That was what she always wanted, right? The chance to begin anew, the chance to stand on her own two feet. The opportunity to forge forward through uncertainty. This was what she fought for. No, this was what they fought for. After so long stumbling blindly through layers and layers of darkness, the maze of human fear and desire, here she was. Once again she looked off into the distance, the sun gently making its descent behind the horizon line. And for a moment, that was simply all. Streaks of color, dimming skies, and the silent sigh of the open air. Yes, maybe a bit of quiet would do her some good.

And for a good few moments, she simply watched the sun go down. She could not feel the breeze, but she could see the ends of her sleeves ruffle in its current, hear the faint whistle of the rush past the library’s boughs. Alive. And she raised her gaze, up towards the tiny pinpricks of light slowly peeking their way through the waning reach of sunlight. And watched. Captured neatly in her gaze. This moment was hers and hers alone. And nobody could take it from her.

Quiet.

…And then, slowly, gently; she pulled her eyes from the glittering stars above and turned away from the balcony railing– committing every tiny light to memory. They may not have gotten what they wanted, but this was far from the end. It was nothing more than a slight detour. Nowhere to go but straight ahead. There was always more work to do. And with a silent nod to nobody but herself, Angela walked back inside. Ready to take the next step.

#ive not posted writing like this here before potion of be nice to me. ok 👍#pikart #projmoon #um um. this is technically half of a whole; but idk if/when ill finish the other half bc i. am not confident writing for roland yet <//3 #anyway i havent written anything in months and have also never written for Her so iam being very brave 👍 yay #dubiously proofread; imvery tired; just needs 2 be out of my system. you understand. nods.

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biwonderland98 · 11 months

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As always I am open to suggestions!

#podcasts #podcast recommendations #outliers #the diary of aliza schultz #the cellar letters #tiny terrors #the storage papers #camp here & there #jackie the ripper #sidequesting #critical role #the milkman of st gaffs

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sophiebernadotte · 9 months

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Eleanor Cobham has always got what she wanted; a new dress, a place at court, somebody else's husband. But not now. In her desperation to conceive an heir, she turns to witchcraft and is soon embroiled in its throes. As she comes face to face with the dangerous side of power, will she learn if she can control the turn of fortune's wheel?

This was such an interesting & funny listen! Loved how the story was told & the tone/voice of the narrator (a.k.a. Eleanor). Cannot recommend this enough!

#british royal family #eleanor cobham #eleanor duchess of gloucester #humphrey duke of gloucester #king henry vi #spotify #saga.txt

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ex-libris-craux · 4 years

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Rusty Quill puts out some TRULY PHENOMENAL podcasts - Rusty Quill Gaming is an incredibly well-run and well-played Actual Play RPG podcast, Stellar Firma is hysterical sci-fi-flavored improv, Outliers provides delicious historical fiction, and The Magnus Archives is the best horror story I’ve listened to in years.

And beyond that, the RQ crew are just... really good people.

They’ve just concluded their third annual charity livestream, 12 hours straight of live gaming, improv, and shenanigans in aid of MIND, an organization working for the improvement of mental health support in the UK.

They are SO CLOSE!! to their goal for this year’s livestream. The stream itself has ended, although the recording is still available to watch (highly recommended!!), but the donation link (above) is still active.

If you’re a fan of the podcasts but didn’t hear about the livestream, please consider donating a little bit if you can, to help bump them over their goal. :) That said, PLEASE DO SO RESPONSIBLY - only give if you can.

And if you haven’t heard the podcasts, I really recommend giving them a go. I discovered Magnus around June and just finished catching up on everything else.

EVERYTHING else.

I immediately binged every season of everything they’ve released so far for four separate podcasts, and have listened to almost literally nothing else until I got caught up, lol! That’s how good this stuff is. Give it a shot.

Anyway, tl;dr, Rusty Quill are good ppl, putting out good content, trying to also do a little good in the world while they do, and I feel it’s well worth giving them a hand.

#tma #the magnus archives #rusty quill #rusty quill gaming #outliers #outliers stories from the edge of history #stellar firma #podcasts #magpod #tmapod

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99-percent-confused · 3 years

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Podcasts you can Read

Looking through the podcasts in my subscription feed as well as ones I hear about most often to see if they have a transcript, how easy is it to find and access, and is it free (PS: if your transcript is behind a paywall, you’re the worst) All the transcript pages are hyperlinked to the podcast name if it exists and there is a collective location. The order is just the order in which I have listened to them recently, I’m just going through my podcast feed. The access ranking has no reflection on the podcast, just how easy it was for me to find the transcript on the computer.

***I’m about to finish the semester, so I’m going to go through this list and revamp the criteria and also write up a google doc with the more organized list***

**This Is an Incomplete list of just the podcasts I have listened to, feel free to add your own or request me to do so through this form

SCRIPTED PODCASTS

Janus Descending Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: bad - need to copy link from episode description, then click through multiple pages to access the transcript - 3-4 clicks from episode to transcripts

Primordial Deep Transcript: Exist Ease of Access: meh - hyperlink from the episode description to the website home - 3-4 clicks from episode to transcript Quality of Transcript: good - formatting is a bit different than the others, a bit hard to get used to - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Mabel Transcript: Exist Ease of Access: Meh - Need to go to the Mabel Website - Not clearly indicated in episode descriptions that transcripts exist - From the website home, the link to the transcripts is clearly labeled in the side bar or at the top of the page (depending on the size of the screen) Quality of Transcript: Good - Not clear that Anna is the primary speaker - Clearly labeled when not Anna is speaking - Sound effects are clearly labeled and easy to understand - Tone not indicated

Seen and Not Heard Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Good - Transcripts hyperlinked in each episode description - Each transcript is on a different google doc or pdf, so the only collection of transcripts is a twitter thread from the creators Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Hughes and Minks: Ghost Detectives Transcripts: Exist Ease of access: Good - Transcripts are hyperlinked in each episode description - Transcripts also hyperlinked to each episode could not find a collective of all the episode transcripts, if anyone has made one or knows where one is, let me know, it will be greatly appreciated Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Light Hearts Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: Good - Transcripts also hyperlinked in each episode description I could not find a collective of all the episode transcripts, if anyone has made one or knows where one is, let me know, it will be greatly appreciated Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Wizard Seeking Wizard Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Good - Transcripts also hyperlinked in each episode description - An collection of episode transcripts are available on their website

Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Valence Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: meh - Website home is hyperlinked - takes about 2 clicks from the episode description to the transcript collective (”Episodes and Transcripts” box on the website) - Transcripts not uploaded at the same time as the episodes, time between episode and transcript unstated. - Labeling of episodes could be better - - need to scroll down the page a bit to access the actual transcript Quality of Transcript: Great - character name’s bolded - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

The Godshead Incidental Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: Good - Transcript collective linked in description - Episodes are clearly labeled - Goes directly to the transcript and just the transcript Quality of transcript: Good - Characters clearly labeled - sound effects clearly described - The formatting is a bit inconsistent, especially for the first couple of episodes.

The Alexandria Archives - Transcripts: none

Fireside Folktales Transcripts: Exist Ease of access: Good - pdf of episode transcription hyperlinked in the show notes Quality of Transcript: good - formatting is a bit different than the others, a bit hard to get used to - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Super Ordinary Transcripts: None

Neighbourly Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: good - 0-6 hyperlinked to episode description - 7-8 available for free on Patreon page - - I don’t care if it is free, if is on your patreon fuck you Quality of Transcriptions: meh - reads like a story, but so does the podcast - some of the paragraphs can be quite long

Hello from the Hallowoods Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: Bad - hyperlink from episode description to website home - transcripts button on the top of the tree - the episode icons make me want to rip my eyes out. you cannot read the episode titles, and the color contrast is straining on the eyes. Quality of transcription: meh - also reads like a story, similar to the podcast - the style of the website is similarly hyper-contrasting and makes my eyes hurt

Brimstone Valley Mall Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Very Bad - not even linked to the episode description - found it through the arsPARADOXICA transcript - found through the whisperforge.org website - thought it didn’t exist Quality of Transcript: Great - Special effects and tone clearly indicated - speaker clearly labeled - easy to follow and understand

Tunnels Transcript: Coming soon

Gal Pals Present: Overkill Transcript: None

Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: Good - Individual episode transcripts are linked to each episode description Quality of transcription: great - speaker is clearly labeled - sound effects and actions clearly stated and easy to understand - easy to read and follow

Outliers - Stories from the edge of history transcripts: none

Time:Bombs Transcript: exists Ease of Access: Bad - not directly linked on the episode description - need to independently seek out website - from the website, it is easy enough to find the transcripts Quality of Transcript: good - formatting is a bit different than the others, a bit hard to get used to - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Kakos Industries Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: good - Linked directly to the description, but it is unclear that it does link to the transcript (the “more...” link in all episode descriptions) - each episode is linked to said episode’s transcripts, but there is a collection of all episodes on the website Quality of Transcript: meh - font is small and paragraphs are long - when there are multiple speakers, it is clearly labeled

In Strange Woods Transcript: none

Unseen Transcript: exists Ease of Access: Great - Each Episode’s transcript is linked to said episode’s transcripts, and there is a collection of all episodes on the website Quality of Transcript: Great - Speakers clearly labeled - sound effects are detailed and easy to understand - clear and easy to follow

Next Stop Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Bad - it only takes two clicks to get from the episode description to the episode feed with the transcripts - location of transcripts not clearly labeled, hard to find if you don’t know what to look for - on each episode’s page, you need to scroll down a ways to get to the transcript Quality of Transcript: Great - It is clear who is talking - sound effects and tone of voice are clearly stated and easy to understand - clear and easy to follow

The Love and Luck Podcast Transcript: Exists - Transcribed Videos exist too - - Season 1 - - Season 2 Ease of Access: great - Each Episode’s transcript is linked to said episode’s transcripts, but there is a collection of all episodes on the website Quality of Transcript: great -it is clear who is talking - sound effects and tone of voice are clearly stated and easy to understand - clear and easy to follow

Scoring Magic Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Bad - it only takes two clicks to get from the episode description to the episode feed with the transcripts - location of transcripts not clearly labeled, hard to find if you don’t know what to look for - on each episode’s page, you need to scroll down a ways to get to the transcript Quality of Transcript: Good - clear who is talking - sound effects clearly stated -tone of voice not indicated

arsPARADOXICA Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Bad - takes 4 clicks from the episode description to the transcription - location of transcripts not clearly labeled, hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for - website is directly linked to episode feed Quality of Transcript: Good - Special effects and tone clearly indicated - speaker clearly labeled - easy to follow and understand

Less is Morgue Transcript: none

Death By Dying Transcripts: exist Ease of Access: Good - linked directly to the podcast description - collection of all transcripts on a separate page of the website Quality of Transcript: Good - Clear when character is talking, but not narrator - sound effects are clear and easy to follow - tone not indicated

Zero Hours Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: awful - I literally stumbled across them by accident - not linked to the episode description or clearly labeled on the website - found through the website that is not linked on the podcast Quality of Transcript: bad - hard to understand tone and when exactly someone is talking - it takes a bot to parse out what is being said - sound effects are labeled

Girl in Space Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: good - easy to find from episode description - all transcripts collected on one page of the website Quality of Transcript: good - color scheme is kind of hard to read on - tone is clearly indicated - sound effects clear and easy to understand - easy to follow what is happening and who is talking

King Falls AM Transcript: None

The Creeping Hour Transcript: None

Customs out of the Closet Transcript: None

The Bright Sessions Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: bad - not linked directly to the episode description - not clear how to find the transcripts if you don’t know what you’re looking for Quality of transcript: good - sound effects clear and easy to understand - easy to know who is talking and what is happening - tone not indicated

Attention HellMart Shoppers Transcript: original scripts behind a paywall (aka: fuck you)

Kaleidotrope transcript: Exists Ease of Access: bad Ease of Access: bad - not linked directly to the episode description - not clear how to find the transcripts if you don’t know what you’re looking for Quality of Transcript: Good - sound effects clear and easy to understand - easy to know who is talking and what is happening - tone not indicated

Inkwyrm Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Good - Transcripts hyperlinked in each episode description - Each transcript is on a different google doc or pdf, so the only collection of transcripts is a twitter thread from the creators Quality of Transcript: good - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - tone not indicated

EOS 10

Transcript: None

Heroics

Transcript: None

36 Questions

Transcript: None

The Once and Future Nerd Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Good - Transcripts hyperlinked in each episode description - Each transcript is on a different google doc or pdf, so the only collection of transcripts is a twitter thread from the creators Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - tone clearly indicated

The Strange Case of Starship Iris Transcripts: Exist for Season 2 Ease of Access: Good - Link to Transcript collective under each Season 2 episode - Links directly to each episode’s transcripts - Each episode title is clearly labeled and easy to follow - Delay between episode release and transcript upload Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - tone clearly indicated

Wolf 359 Transcript: fan transcripts exist ease of access: meh - easy to find if you know where to look - I didn’t even know they exist until someone else mentioned them - not linked to any official sources Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - tone clearly indicated

Welcome to Night Vale Transcript: Exists Ease of Access: Meh - Episodes 173+ Link to transcript collective page linked directly to Episode description - Not clearly stated that there are transcripts for episodes before 173 - Episodes in the collective are clearly stated - Transcripts sorted by year, not by episode, but can search individual episodes Quality of Transcript: Good - When multiple speakers, it is clearly indicated who is speaking - Later episodes: tone clearly indicated, and sound effects are clear - Easy to read and follow

Where the Stars Fell Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: Good - Transcripts are hyperlinked in each episode description - Transcripts also hyperlinked to each episode could not find a collective of all the episode transcripts, if anyone has made one or knows where one is, let me know, it will be greatly appreciated Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - tone clearly indicated

Mission to Zyxx Transcripts: None

Transmission Folklore Transcripts: Exist - Text Transcripts - Video Transcripts - - All video transcripts exist, but after episode 5, they are not linked on the website transcript page Ease of Access: Good - Website home linked in each episode description - transcripts tab is clearly visible and labeled - Offered in multiple formats: written out on website page, google doc, and captioned video Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow

Sidequesting Transcripts: Exist Ease of Access: Good - Each episode’s transcript is linked in each episode’s description - Collection of all transcripts available on the website - - Each episode is clearly labeled and easy to read Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - Tone clearly indicated

The Pasithea Powder Transcripts: exist Ease of Access: pretty good - Episode descriptions: full link clearly labeled in the descriptions, but it needs to be copied and pasted - Website: not clearly labeled, but located under the episodes tab - - it is kind of hard to read the episode titles on the website page, as it is light gray text on a white background. Quality of Transcript: Great - Character name clearly stated before lines - sound effects clearly described - easy to read and follow - Tone clearly indicated

Desperado Transcripts: exist for episodes 1-3 Ease of Access: horrible - existence is not mentioned in the podcast - no link to the website in the description (I found it through their twitter) - from the twitter link, it opens right onto the episode page with the transcripts linked Quality of Transcript: meh - episodes one and three have the same style of transcript - - sound effects clearly labeled - - speaker only labeled if it is a main character, does not clearly label which side character is talking - - tone not clearly indicated - Episode two’s (2) transcript reads like a traditional script - - side character’s lines are clearly labeled - - sound effects barely mentioned - - tone not indicated

UNSCRIPTED PODCASTS

No Bad Ideas Transcript: None

Overly Sarcastic Podcast Transcript: None

I only listen to the mountain goats Transcript: none

ARCS Transcript: None

Join the Party Transcripts: Exist - Campaign 1 - Campaign 2 Ease of access: Bad - not linked from episode description - unclear how to find the transcripts from the website unless you know what to look for - need to scroll down a ways to read the transcript Quality of Transcript: good - sound effects clear and easy to understand - easy to know who is talking and what is happening - tone not indicated

Spirits Podcast Transcripts: Exist - takes a little while between episode release and transcript upload Ease of Access: good - collective episode page linked directly to the episode description - takes a bit of clever clicking and scrolling to find the transcripts Quality of Transcript: Good - no tone indicators - the few effects that are included - easy to follow who is speaking and what they are saying

Sounds Fake but Okay

Transcripts: exist

Ease of Access: good

- clearly hyperlinked under every episode

- not labeled on the home page of the website, but found under the “episodes” drop down

- website list is easy to read, although I personally am not a huge fan of the three columns

Quality of Transcript: meh

- speaker clearly indicated

- easy to read

- no tone indicators

- do not follow their words exactly (delete likes and ums) which makes it hard to read and listen at the same time

- moments when they interrupt each other not transcribed well, also hard to read and listen

- shift in tones indicated

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howtofightwrite · 3 years

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Cat Weight and Why Understanding Reality is Important for Writers

When you say “lighter than house cat” what kind of cat do you mean exactly? Because just based on my cats it could be anything from 1kg to 4kg and that kind of makes a difference…

I think I’ve always specified weight before making that comparison in the past. For most domestic cat breeds, 10lbs is the average, healthy, adult weight. Somewhat obviously this will vary, with some breeds being potentially much smaller, and obviously, juveniles will be much smaller (and lighter) than their parents. The extreme edge of this are Siamese, which have some of the smallest kittens among domestic cat breeds, but then grow to be only slightly smaller than most other domestic cats. I’m not sure where you’re finding a 2.2lb adult cat, though that could certainly be an outlier.

The thing is, if we were talking about swords, yeah, that 4kg cat will be heavier than most greatswords. That 1kg cat will be heavier than most sabers, foils, and rapiers, with some other sword variants being slightly heavier.

I feel like a broken record sometimes on this topic. We have a lot of fantasy literature which looks at swords and thinks, “that must be really heavy, so it can hit really hard,” but, that’s not how you use the weapon. It doesn’t matter if it’s a “massive” greatsword or a rapier, swords are precision cutting tools. They are not long axes. They are not sharpened hammers.

Additionally, while a fight will be fairly brief, battles can easily last all day. It’s not a question of whether you can use a weapon once or twice, it’s something you need to be able to do for hours at a time. Swinging around a massive 40lb chunk of steel may be a great workout, but you’re not going to be able to do that for hours without rest, no matter how well conditioned you are.

This gets into another fantasy element. You have fantasy heroes that are outright superhuman swinging around these comically oversized (and more often over weighted) weapons. In some cases, this is technically fine, as the wielder is overtly superhuman, and in others it’s an error by the author.

As I’ve said in the past, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a fictional character having an impractically heavy weapon… if there’s a point to it. If it’s an indication that the character really is superhuman, and we’re supposed to understand that? Cool. If the weapon says something about their personality? That’s fine, it’s a legitimate venue of characterization.

Usually, we prioritize realism, because as the author, you have the choice of when you want to step away from reality to fit your story. However, it is important that you, as the writer, be aware when you’ve done so. You want to make these decisions as informed choices, not something you accidentally stumbled into because you’ve seen it before, and thought, “that’s how it is.” This can become a real problem for writers when they take elements of characterization from a story that inspired them and accidentally graft them into their work.

Another common example is the idea of weapon hyperfocus, where you have characters that only use one specific weapon, and are basically defenseless without it. It doesn’t make any sense from a realistic perspective. It’s not how people are trained. It’s now how these skills work. But, it can be a very significant statement about how your character views the world.

Similarly, in real history, soldiers would carry multiple weapons. That’s the real world, but even in emulating that, you’re informing your audience that your characters are more flexible, and better able to handle a variety of situations.

It’s up to you what you want to do with your characters, but the information is here so you can make that decision. So you don’t think that your character couldn’t wield a sword because they’re not a ‘roided up wall of meat, or don’t accidentally think that all melee weapons are comically heavy and massive, because they weren’t.

-Starke

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Cat Weight and Why Understanding Reality is Important for Writers was originally published on How to Fight Write.

#fightwrite answers #Starke answers #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

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lord-of-the-ducks · 2 years

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Ok so I had already been thinking about doing this for a while, but I guess the confirmation that the season 4 leaks are real pushed me over the edge. Long story short, my dumb ass decided that today would be a great day to research the timeline of production for What We Do in the Shadows in an attempt to see if I could spot any patterns, and then use that information to predict when season 4 will be released. I don’t know why I thought that this would be a good idea, given that I hate math, but I did it anyway.

This entire endeavor took me a minimum of six hours. I didn’t keep track, but it was something like that.

Before I give any estimates, I’d like to make a few disclaimers:

1. I am currently taking a statistics class, but it’s the easiest one available at my school. I’ve always been more into English and history, math and science have never been my strengths. So, it is pretty much 100% guaranteed that I fucked up somewhere. I’m willing to bet that if someone who actually understands statistics were to take a look at my process, they would cry.

2. I had a pathetically small data set. There were only three seasons to work with, and sometimes, I either wouldn’t have anything for a certain season or I would have to exclude obvious outliers. Speaking of that last one,

3. The past two years have been a fucking nightmare and have screwed up a lot of things, especially tv production, so this wasn’t as easy as just calculating the average amount of days it took from the end of one season to the beginning of the next.

I’ll be including everything I used at the end of this post in case anyone does actually want to double check everything I did, and perhaps make their own calculations without spending 2 hours watching every single WWDITS video on the FX channel.

So, into the juicy details:

We’ll probably get an official teaser around the end of February or the beginning of March. Probably the beginning of March

The official trailer for season 4 will come after that, probably in mid March

Season 4 will hopefully start airing sometime in mid April. I’m more confident about this than the dates for the teaser and trailer. Mainly because the variables that I used to calculate this felt much more consistent.

Again, these are all estimates based off of somewhat shaky numbers, but I think it’ll be really cool to see if I was correct. Also, now that I’ve gotten a lot of this busy work out of the way, I can hopefully use all of this data for potential future seasons and make better predictions about when we can expect them to arrive.

DATA (DM me if you have trouble opening something)

Calendar: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-1Fps43nBgV2ZIK-9BhfMLwiM3hC64OEgW7ORqZSZbE/edit#gid=935356133

Calculations: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dbk_6XQycls7UG-n4iASZK4Wuu3KyFs5TKdlqqnd-F8/edit#gid=0

Production Timeline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NYkgXEOKKmSyjA7Es27rgp87oc3r-RrkVEvjmwbumRU/edit

I got all of the dates for the timeline from social media accounts of people involved with the show, and the filming dates in particular from using the wayback machine on the IATSE 873 website, which basically shows who’s filming in Toronto and when.

Also, by the time this goes up, it’ll hopefully have the amount of days between each of the days so that anyone who actually does like statistics can just do some simple addition and not have to spend like, 30 minutes plugging everything into a website that counts the days between dates. I want it to be as easy as possible for people to check my work

#wwdits #wwdits fx #what we do in the shadows #wwdits s4 #please let this blow up I spent so long on this #my mom filmed me ranting about numbers I have lost all decency #I can't believe I made myself do statistics for fun #guillermo de la cruz #nandor the relentless #nadja of antipaxos #nadja cravensworth #laszlo cravensworth

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redux-iterum · 3 years

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History of the Clans

There are two versions of the story of how all things began. The one the Clans know deals in monsters and magic, and a rose-tinted idea of the importance of warriors and the feline people in general. The one told here is from the collective knowledge of scholars, and is much closer to the truth.

Once upon a time, there was a seemingly never-ending forest, and it was home to thousands of animals - badgers, foxes, stoats, owls, and best of all, an uncountable amount of prey to feed those animals. No one hungered or wanted for land to call their own. The forest brought in curious visitors every day, who had heard tales of this land of plenty and had come to see if the stories were true.

Among them were the cats, a very foreign creature that the others had not seen before. Cats are remarkable at taking over an area and exploding in numbers before anyone has a chance to blink, and these ones did not disappoint in that aspect. They quickly took up the remaining available space and settled in to hunt and sleep to their heart’s content.

But they did not come from nowhere, as the rest of the predators had assumed. They had been brought in by humans, who were even more alien than the cats, and who were on their way after their escapee pets. With humans came a drastic upheaval - the forest was cut down to a quarter of its original size just as fast as the cats had made themselves comfortable; the once wooded slope to the west had a structure built near it and the ground was torn up for planting strange grass; the east was taken over by glass and brick from the humans; and finally, a straight, wide path, stinking of something foreign and dangerous, cut the area apart, splitting the high stones in the west and the growing wetlands in the north from the hills and what remained of the forest.

This unprecedented shrinking of territory left many animals without a home, or in defense of the little they had left. Friend turned on friend, family forgotten. Quickly, a free-for-all broke out, leading to many predators dead or severely injured and fleeing for their life from the forest. The cats proved themselves adaptable to any situation - the entire community banded together and, as a team, drove out the rest of the predators, sending them in every direction but the east and properly taking the forest for themselves.

The victory was short-lived as a new problem presented itself: everyone had lingered as long as there was food to eat before escaping. Mice, squirrels, birds, rabbits - there were barely any of them left. It wasn’t helped by the cats having a tendency to overhunt when there was nothing else to do. The unity once present dissolved as territories began to overlap and cats attacked each other for pathetic morsels that could be swallowed whole. The few kittypets living with humans had even their terrible food stolen, with some cats deserting the forest to wander the developing streets, hoping for charity. The prey population continued to shrink and some turned to even more desperate, much darker sources of food.

Things got even worse when a crew of pilgrims arrived, late to the party and unaware of how bad the forest had gotten. Natives immediately bullied them away from their scant reserves. With nowhere else to go, the pilgrims huddled on the other side of the river on the edge of the forest and prayed for help.

Then she arrived.

To this day, no one knows where the old molly known only as the Crone came from. She seemed to appear from the mist to inspect the forest, sniff disdainfully, and call together a sizeable cluster of cats before leading them away to the hills, where some of the human grass had gotten loose and taken over the moor.

The decrease in population helped reserve the dwindling resources a bit, and cats temporarily forgot their battles to watch curiously as the new colony in the west found a place to settle at the top of the hills and thrive on the influx of prey that came from the farmland, which had receded its grip on the moor and left it free to hunt on. Several cats discussed leaving the forest to request sanctuary with this colony. Others turned their eyes across the human’s path (that was slowly turning into stinking black stone), where the wetlands were settling into a proper marsh. The pilgrims’ scant territory was growing grass, bringing in some animals to hunt.

Before any action could be taken on its own, the Crone reappeared in the forest and called together the residents. She announced that her test run of creating a colony had gone successfully, and now she was ready to help the rest of the scattered cats create their own groups, organize a hunting system, and allow their land to restore itself to something one could comfortably live in. This, she said, would ensure an era of peace for everyone, and if any were interested, they could come with her to be trained as leaders to complete her mission.

Four cats volunteered: Brawn, a huge, powerful tom that had fought and won many battles in exchange for prey; Ripple, a stray from far off that had fallen in with the pilgrims; Dewdrop, a former kittypet who had been cast out from her home and was desperate for security; and Clear Sky, a pilgrim that was ambitious and eager to join the project. The Crone took all four of them and left for the hills again without another word, except an order to limit the hunting in the forest. This was obeyed, since there wasn’t enough prey to hunt normally anyway.

Before too long, the four cats returned and began to gather cats. Brawn called for those that he considered allies of himself or his friends, which were mostly those he had fought together with before, giving him the strongest fighters, and claimed the forest for his colony. Ripple had his pilgrims already, and they stayed south, on the far side of the river. Those that had been cast away or were weak or distrusted were taken in by Dewdrop, who brought them to the marshes so that they were far enough away to not cause problems with the other colonies. The rest who did not fit in anywhere else or were loners looking to have a proper home again followed Clear Sky to the outlier part of the land, touching only the corner of the forest and river territories. The Crone brought in no one else except one stray pilgrim called Grey Wing as her new second-in-command, a position she called “deputy”. The other leaders followed suit by appointing deputies for their own, carefully chosen to contrast their superiors and speak as the voice of the rest of the colonies.

With this, the leaders exercised what the Crone had taught them: in an unheard of move, hunting was organized and scheduled, with acceptable hunting areas changed day-to-day and prey of the day altering depending on what had the most numbers at the time. Borders were laid out so that no one accidentally took from another colony and reduced their number of prey. The most amazing of these decisions came from the pilgrims, who Ripple taught to hunt in the water - because no one had dared to jump in the deeper parts or even really fish at all, there was plenty of prey for the pilgrims, leading to no source of conflict with anyone else. The other colonies slowly began to prosper over time as less cats shared more prey with their communities. The exception was Clear Sky’s colony, which he proved to be a poor leader of and was eventually driven out before the colony disbanded and either joined up with the others or left for other areas.

With the unusual, regimented structure, there came a very faint sense of ranks within the colonies: the leader, the deputy, and queens, with the average member not belonging to any of these and being unnamed in their position. Queens were given special treatment and their own dens to have their children, and they had prey delivered to them while they raised the next generation.

As time went on and the colonies grew strong, healthy and well-fed, their members’ confidence were boosted. Old grudges resurfaced and the borders that were put in place to help hunting became places to defend or skirmish to settle arguments. Fights broke out, even with the leaders attempting to resolve disputes peacefully. Worse, these fights escalated as more cats joined their new friends to defend their pride or help with revenge. Things got worse and more vicious, until several very young cats got caught in a large battle they had nothing to do with and were killed.

This was the breaking point. Queens across the territories campaigned for a law to be set in place for the protection of their kits, while the more peaceful members encouraged rules of their own to prevent these unnecessary fights. The leaders got together and devised a burgeoning code that every cat was expected to follow if they wanted to stay in their home.

The first of these was making a new rank for cats that were too young to be acceptably attacked, with a suffix to their name, -kit, which was taken away once they were older. These cats were under six months old, and were absolutely forbidden to be hurt or killed. Those that aged out of it were still in danger, until Brawn’s deputy, Ember, started teaching them to hunt and fight to protect themselves. The rest of the colonies, now under the name of “Clans”, immediately borrowed this idea. Soon after came the next rank of apprentice, and the suffix of -kit was changed to -paw.

At the time, suffixes were reserved for the young, but the leader of the river Clan, now called River Ripple to give respect to his territory, took his group’s original two-part naming system and awarded apprentices for making it to adulthood with their own individual suffixes. This, too, very quickly became popular with everyone else.

More changes were made over time - elder as a rank being added, religion and seers blossoming into things of great value, more additions to the code, the Clans being properly named, and so on - but these came to be more gradually. For now, at least, the wild and fast alteration of the forest from a place of chaos and disorder to a variety of territories with law-abiding Clans had been completed. From there, things have only gotten better.

#warrior cats #warriors redux iterum #iterum #history #long post #readmore #lore #worldbuilding

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longsufferingmedics · 3 years

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Just a small drabble based on musings in the TFP continuity because the potential dynamics of the Revolutionary Four (Megatron, Optimus, Soundwave, and Ratchet) live in my head rent free.

ORBITS

It’s easy to imagine, with all that came after, that it was Megatronus and Orion Pax that fell into each other’s orbits first. After all, they were the two leaders. The two whose story was always told first. And in their shadow, Soundwave and Ratchet faded into the background, their roles in what was to come only remembered incidentally.

It had been a harmless thing to start. A wounded gladiator not inclined to easily trust the butchers of the arena. A young medic too fearless by half and already cultivating a reputation in Flatline’s back alley clinic in Kaon.

But it wasn’t the gruff bedside manner or gentle care that endeared Ratchet to Soundwave though. That gave him a persistent shadow as he insisted on throwing himself into every dark corner of Cybertron he could find.

It was how Ratchet spoke to Ravage like an equal as the beastformer led him to Soundwave’s tiny habsuite, his cultured voice a crass contrast to the decay around him.

Even among the very few medics that bothered with people like Soundwave, that was rare. And someone of Ratchet’s caste? A rising star in Iacon’s medical community even before he graduated according to Soundwave’s careful research.

It had been… interesting. And Soundwave couldn’t help but wonder about the odd creature. And wasn’t it funny? That he of all mechs would consider someone odd.

And so a strange friendship began. One that at first mostly consisted of Soundwave saving Ratchet’s plating when the smaller mech’s mouth got him into trouble his aft couldn’t cash in some dingy oilhouse. He had been a quiet mech even before the Vow of Silence and honestly, in those days, Ratchet did enough talking for both of them.

But as time went on, a tentative bond started to develop. Secrets began to be shared. Ratchet looked fearlessly back as Soundwave revealed the outlier abilities he kept so carefully hidden and had sworn himself to secrecy in a way that startled the telepath with the weight of blunt sincerity. Soundwave himself heard about the bitter arguments with Ratchet’s creator (never named but it was all too easy for Soundwave to uncover Senator Spanner of the highest medical caste. He made sure no one else could) and the screaming frustration of a mech who saw everything wrong around him but was unable to reconcile himself to the willful blindness common of his caste or to the beaten down acceptance of places like lower Kaon.

In those early days, Soundwave had feared just what the young medic would do in his aimless anger with the system. As he tried to hold together bodies and sparks ravaged by the horrors of poverty and systematic oppression. As he raged and swore and fought his way through every bar within the vicinity of Flatline’s clinic.

They weren’t always together and in those times apart, Soundwave quietly worried. Ratchet often disappeared for decacycles at a time back to Iacon. As headstrong as the medic was, even he was cautious about bringing attention to his doings outside the capital. And Soundwave, climbing the ranks in the gladiatorial rings, began to join the touring circuits that spanned the southern hemisphere. He feared for Ratchet during those times apart, who he could see all too easily burning himself out in a frenzy of self destructive fervor.

But eventually, they would fall into each other’s orbits again.

Another gladiator was the third to come into their small, secretive circle and he would provide something they both desperately needed. Though Soundwave would not realize that he had been just as lost as the medic until later. That perhaps their friendship had come not just from circumstances but from recognition of someone else with the same missing pieces.

Megatronus gave them purpose. Gave a focus for the discontent Ratchet and Soundwave both felt in their sparks.

It was a rather explosive first meeting, a happenstance encounter in a bar in lower Kaon. Ratchet had been the one to put Soundwave back together after his defeat at Megatronus’s hands and the little medic was protective, much to Soundwave’s quiet amusement. And Megatronus’s outright laughter when Ratchet had waved a wrench threateningly at his face.

That laughter had ended abruptly when the wrench connected with his nose.

The resulting barfight ended in a destroyed oilhouse, a cracked optic, a wild flight from the Enforcers, and Ratchet and Megatronus laughing like old friends while getting spectacularly overcharged even as Soundwave worriedly followed Ratchet’s garbled instructions on repairing his optic.

Soundwave was really rather grateful for Orion Pax joining their circle soon after. If only for the sake of his nerves and the surrounding potential blast radius. Megatronus and Ratchet really did bring out the worst in each other, both too competitive and clever by far and neither willing to back down. All their rough edges grating against the other’s to send sparks flying in all directions. Megatronus’s fiery idealism clashing with Ratchet’s angry practicality as the two fought over everything from history to politics to, during one memorable evening, regional differences in how to play Lob.

Soundwave was perhaps too willing to go with the flow to handle such a conflagration. But Orion Pax somehow, in his own quiet way, managed to bring out the gentler sides of both Megatronus and Ratchet. Speaking poetry and history with the former and logistics with the latter as the four quietly began to plan a rebellion.

Soundwave couldn’t help but be a little jealous of the data clerk’s seemingly effortless handling of the two wilder sparks. Over how easily the fourth and youngest member of their little coterie had slotted in. They had been so careful when they had invited him to their password protected datanet group. They had even had Ratchet discreetly (or as discreetly as Ratchet could manage) meet Pax in Iacon. It had surprised Soundwave how quickly the normally skeptical medic vouched for the younger mech. But he couldn’t supply any objections of his own and Megatronus was rather eager to speak to the mech who had written the piece on the history of the Senate in a way that managed to combine perfectly respectful with plate witheringly scathing.

And so ultimately, Orion Pax was offered a passcode to the forum where Megatronus workshopped political tracts that spoke to the downtrodden masses and Ratchet brought together disgruntled professionals to discuss the system and how it failed everyone. And they all debated and considered strategy. What direct action could be taken now and in the future and what would come after the system was dismantled. Words to speak to sparks and to speak to processors while Soundwave fended off the Senate's hunters, destroying trails behind them as he disseminated the words of their small but growing group all over the datanet.

It was Orion Pax who would bring together the disparate pieces, bridging the gap between castes and uniting those whose only commonality was the belief that the system they all existed under was in at least some way wrong. Who would have the connections and datanet clearances that would elevate them from disgruntled dissidents to political movement. Whose quiet, unwavering conviction would give courage to those who believed but feared reprisal.

Megatronus had gained the Senate’s attention by speaking to those who had nothing left to lose.

Orion Pax had gained the Senate’s fear by winning the allegiance of the middle castes.

But all of it ultimately started with a medic apprentice and a quiet gladiator in the lowest levels of Kaon. A friendship that neither side would expect to be a catalyst to so much more.

#maccadam #transformers #ratchet #megatron #tfp #soundwave #transformers prime #optimus prime #orion pax #fanfic

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script-a-world · 4 years

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Submitted via Google Form: So space is 3D with no direction. We have to create an orientation based on our position. But how about aliens in other solar systems and planets. They would orient from their position. If their orbit is inclined and also far up compared to earth, then you have a different orientation. Thus, a lot of orientation problems that are way more confusing then your left my left stuff. Heck what if I had a planet in our solar system in the same orbit plane and incline as earth but the aliens made compasses pointing to the direction of earth's south but they oriented it as up/north. And say if some galaxy organization decided on a universal orientation, how much would that upend existing orientation and make everyone's sense of direction change up even on their own planets especially non space explorers who absolutely don't need a change to orient their own world...

Tex: Which way is Earth oriented? Is the default the Northern hemisphere? Why? It’s mostly cultural associations, isn’t it? There’s some argument as to landmass and population densities (albeit incredibly weak arguments), but it boils down to Tradition™. Australia isn’t literally upside down, and as you’ve indicated, it’s all a matter of perspective.

For reference, this is the current proposed view of a galaxy similar to the Milky Way from the edge (Space.com):

Source: J. Skowron/OGLE/Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw

There’s a little bubble in the middle, but for the most part, the galaxy is relatively flat. Quite a lot of galaxies are like this to some degree or another, though the outlier dwarf spheroidal galaxies are relatively rare and difficult to spot (Wikipedia, Mann A).

This is pertinent because it does impart a manner of inherent standardization on forming navigation systems - up will usually be either up or down, not left or right (sorry, Uranus). Because of that, the “is Australia upside down” issue becomes one of perspective rather than “is Australia left or right”.

Most every scifi media I’ve encountered has a ship coming into orbit before landing, so it’s less “throw a dart on the board” and more “falling with style”, and in that case the orientation of the ship doesn’t actually mean much. If, however, things like hyperlanes come into play, then ideally (or hilariously) traffic becomes the norm and it’s more likely that a ship will need some sort of radioed turn signal than a shape that dictates something like “front” versus “back” or “up” versus “down”.

Further Reading

Centripetal Force by COSMOS - The SAO Encyclopedia of Astronomy

Feral: Sailing and nautical references have long been used in science fiction (hello Space Navy), and it’s easy to see why. While there are certain ship directions that require a waterline and are therefore unhelpful (unless tweaked), in general, it makes sense that on a spaceship as on a marine ship “starboard” is a more helpful direction than “right” or “left” due to its stability and ease of reference for anyone onboard regardless of where they are. Celestial navigation has been used for centuries by sailors, and NASA currently uses celestial navigation (albeit a much more sophisticated kind) for navigation via relative positioning to various celestial bodies.

As for how the imposition of a universal standard on navigation would work, consider the history and implementation of the International System of Units (or SI or metric system), why the US does not have a (functional) federally mandated standard of measurement, and how the US, Myanmar, and Liberia (which uses USCS in addition to SI) have managed without complete metrication. The big takeaway here is that standardization like this, particularly across multiple governments is not some one and done mandate by a single authority; even when it’s a really obviously good idea to have a standard so anyone can understand a measurement or hop into a spaceship not made on their planet and be able to use the nav computer, it might not be universally adopted, and it can coexist with traditional standards.

Constablewrites: The thing about directional terminology is that it’s highly situational. If a visitor to my house asks where the bathroom is, I don’t tell them to ascend to 722 feet and then bear south, even though that would be accurate--I tell them to go upstairs and turn right. So a system for explaining where planets are in relation to each other wouldn’t at all supersede any localized means of orientation.

With that in mind, why do your characters need to know where planets are in relation to each other? Especially when that’s constantly changing, due to orbits and stellar drift? Like, we learn in grade school the order of the planets in our solar system based on how close they are to the sun, but at any given moment, that ranking can look very different. It can make sense to establish a region (like the Outer Rim in Star Wars) but beyond that any conversational terminology is going to be generalized and inaccurate at best. Frequently you’ll see a coordinate system, where it’s implied that someone had to agree where (0,0,0) is, which is the sort of thing that’s relatively simple to get consensus on, especially if the coordinates are defined within a system with an obvious central point.

The only time you would really have to be concerned where planets are in relation to each other is when you’re traveling between them. Narratively, the things that will be a factor in such a journey are how long it will take, if we have the supplies (food, fuel, spare parts, etc.) to get there, and if there are any obstacles in the way. Direction is not one of these factors, precisely because it’s so complicated--even if your characters have worked out a way of explaining it, it’s gonna be lost on your reader and therefore doesn’t matter. There might be alien/supernatural beings who are capable of making the sort of calculations a human can’t, but within the story that just means “tell the computer where we want to go and off we pop” becomes “tell Gary where we want to go and off we pop.” Don’t get bogged down in the sort of details that millennia of storytelling convention have decided we just skip over because they get in the way.

Utuabzu: In space, everything is in constant motion, so absolute position does not and cannot exist. Your position will always be relative to something, usually the nearest major body like a planet or a star. On a galactic scale, assuming you’re writing about the Milky Way or a similar galaxy, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way (or whatever lies at the core of your galaxy) is pretty likely to serve that purpose. If you then take the general plane of the galaxy and arbitrarily declare one side “up” and the other “down”, you can use corewards/rimwards, spinwards/antispinwards to give rough directions. More likely though, any spacefaring civilisation is going to have massive databases of the relative positions and velocities of stars to permit interstellar navigation, and any star system inhabited by a spacefaring civilisation would have very well-known orbits for all major bodies. It wouldn’t be too hard to work out different systems so long as the two civilisations had a couple of shared reference points, because once they know what they call whatever body, they could just look it up in their own database and calculate travel paths. Unless something major happened, these databases wouldn’t even need to be updated all that often, as velocities in space tend to stay the same and thus positions could just be calculated from old data.

#google submitted #space

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chromatic-lamina · 4 years

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rascal: law and robin brotp fanfic

I have a lot of brotp Law and Robin in my fics, and one fic with them as a couple. I like the brotp interaction. Two cynical and supportive friends, but the writing is mostly in my multi-chaptered works, which are dark or canon divergent or both.

Anyway, I’m going to include an excerpt below. Robin’s painting Law’s toenails while they both chat about current and past loss and love. It’s from a three-chapter work that I don’t think will make much sense without knowing the rest of the world that it comes from, but hopefully this interchange can be followed and strikes a chord with some. I know the LawBin fans are thirsty. Post canon with canon-verse history and elements. This is an older piece.

🐞

Law sat back in the garden recliner in Robin’s backyard, a book over his face. He wasn’t in danger of burning easily in the late morning sun, but had no intention of making himself prey to melanoma. Robin perched on the edge of the recliner, holding one of Law's feet.

He'd spent the night at Robin’s in anticipation of the tea-towel convention they'd be visiting today. She’d spent the night trying to share his enthusiasm as he sat, tattooed arms spread on the table, poring over catalogues. His inked hands pointed out designs featuring disproportionate tulip-ensconced windmills, and disembodied body parts that had less to do with Dali and more to do with morticians.

She assumed all the creators were outliers. Commemorative tea-towels hadn’t quite taken the art world by storm yet, but they did remind her a little of Ryuunosuke, the very cute but badly drawn dragon that had struggled and succeeded in taking them all to the top of Zou.

That was last night though and now, soon, they’d head off to gossip and gander with the convention organisers, the Dishcloth Dames, once she’d made Law pretty.

“These are so cute.” She pulled at the few black gnarly hairs curled on Law’s left big toe.

“Freak,” Law mumbled, moving his foot.

Robin laughed, righted Law’s foot and wiped the brush over the nail of his big toe.

“When did you last clip these?”

“What’s it to you? You’re the one who wanted to dress me up.”

“You’re the one who’s letting me. You’ve got old man’s feet, by the way.”

Law arched his bridge and Robin slapped it, held it down.

“The sexy surgeon’s pedes don’t please? You said they were cute?”

She studied languages. She had no difficulty with Law’s fancy Latin terms.

“Mmm. I wouldn’t go that far. But I guess you got those tattoos to distract from your tootsies.”

The ink on the bridges of his feet matched that on the back of his hands. She felt the arc of the bone against her palm as she admired the designs, although it was one of the more simple ones to adorn Law and, historically, definitely not his favourite.

“And yet, there you are, making them all presentable and shit.”

“Does Marco like them?”

“He’s got his kinks.”

“And . . . ?”

“They remain in the bedroom,” Law grinned. At times he thought the Phoenix liked every part of his body, though they’d never had a deep conversation about those particular extremities.

“Ah, you’re no fun.”

“I’ve been told.”

Law felt her move to the next digit.

“What colour are you painting them?”

“Tch.”

As if it could be anything but black.

“Well, you sent Chopper out for the colour once,” Law said to her silence.

Bubble gum. Robin snickered, remembering. Law peered at her from under his book, her shoulders rose and fell with laughter. He liked that violet t-shirt.

Law seemed so disinterested, and therefore, Robin guessed very trusting, when she or anyone else painted his nails. He usually paid little attention to the colour, or even the action. It was something that pleased those who found it amusing to decorate him. Just so long as they let him read whatever he was researching, he indulged them. A small compromise for a larger gain.

No way in hell could someone he didn’t trust do this, though it had been done. Robin knew that trust was hard won. Law told himself that he let them all think he was vain this way so he could go for their jugulars some other time. Plus, he liked giving the Dishcloth Dames even more to gossip about.

Thinking of Chopper, Law laughed as if the sound was rationed—a clipped exhalation. The tanuki reminded him of his navigator.

“Bepo. Lord, Bepo got it into his head once to paint me. Maybe he wanted to practice so he could surprise some lucky Mink in the future, and who better to be his chump than his ferocious captain?”

Robin turned to him for a second, curious, before proceeding to the next toe. Her extra hands manipulated Law’s foot for the best access. Law’s own hand kept the book in place. She liked that silver band he sometimes wore on his wrist—a solid link—a flash of sky reflected in the metal.

“His fine motor skills aren’t the best. You’ve seen his maps. Shachi and Penguin thought I’d amputated my own toes without the benefit of a Room.” A rumble lifted Law's chest and then dissolved. He smiled easily. The book didn’t cover all of his face. “He even dabbed a paw print on my heel.”

“He chose red?” She loved that flash of teeth.

“Mmm. So. I guess it’s black?”

Robin finished the last toenail and told him not to move his feet about for a while. She then drew up the recliner next to his, lay on it, leant on her side and looked across. Law could be asleep for all she knew.

“Oi, talk to me endling. Of course it’s black.”

Law’s lips twitched. Only Robin could get away with that.

“So needy, terminarch. How am I meant to do that without moving?”

They may as well have just called each other Flevance and Ohara. They did at times, but neither could be feeling too off-colour when they did, or the devil fruits would come out to play. The town names as nomenclatures were off-limits to anyone else.

“Take that book off your face at least. I know you can’t read it like that.”

“Your makeup bag’s not nearby, is it?”

“Just the toes today, Dr. Death.”

Good. He was only happy for modification to go so far. He sighed, grumbled, but lifted a hand and picked the book up by its spine, and rested it—still spreadeagled—on his chest. He blinked into the sun, then tipped his head her way. Not the most comfortable of positions.

“Can I sit up?”

The grey of Law’s irises were sometimes shot through with gold. She wondered what his parents had looked like. “Give it a few.”

He turned his face skyward again, his arm over his shut lids.

“How about Luffy?” she asked. Luffy was before island living, before Law’s casual feet days. If they’d ever played around with nail polish, she’d never seen the results.

Law groaned.

“He approached my nails as if they were made of seastone, his hand was that shaky.” The softness in tone betrayed the annoyance in his words. “For some reason he thought a pearly pink would suit? Maybe it reminded him of marbled steak or something? Of course, he had absolutely no patience.”

Law scratched at his sideburns with his spare hand.

“He slapped it on, forgot to cap the varnish, jumped on me, bringing the sheet with him, or whatever we were lying on, wherever we were. It smeared over everything; our clothes, or more accurately, my clothes. You know, Luffy somehow always escapes his own chaos—and then he declared the whole thing stupid and boring, as if I’d dreamt up the activity and forced it on him.” Incredulity hissed through the back of his teeth.

He tapped his earrings. "Somehow the polish even managed to get on these. Nami-ya probably talked him into the whole thing for a bet."

“And you let him?”

Law didn’t need to look at Robin to know her expression; amused and bemused.

“You choose your battles.”

“Mmm.” Her captain could be quite domineering. She wondered if they were the same earrings. It wouldn’t surprise her. She’d kept the same jewellery over the years, but added to her collection with each pirates' haul. The ones that Luffy didn’t somehow swap for food.

She sat up and twisted her neck. They needed to get going soon.

“Phoenix?”

“Still trying to unearth his kinks?”

“Now that you bring it up.”

Law’s smile, the one Robin and only a few others ever saw, made her lips curve.

“I paint for him at times. I mean, my own nails. He’s got a lapis grounding stone, and his flames are blue when he’s in Zoan form. I try to match those shades—a balance between the two. Other times, I paint for myself.”

“Does he notice?” Marco had a grounding stone? But then again, they all had their talismans.

“Sometimes.”

“You don’t tell him?”

“Not always. Other things are more pressing.”

“Does he know you’re a freak?”

“I thought that was you.”

Law paused for a second. He tipped his face Robin's way again, his hand still protecting his eyes. How come she got to sit up?

“The dogs have never liked it. And you know, all that waste. It’s not really hygienic in the clinic either.”

“You operate with your toes?”

Law laughed. “When I do my hands . . . It’s not hygienic.”

Robin cast a glance at her back yard – the trees that offered privacy from the neighbours, the small pond. She enjoyed life in the New World now Luffy was pirate king.

“The dogs don’t like it, but Bepo can handle it?”

“Well, he’s a freak, too. Minks wear makeup, right?”

Robin nodded. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”

“Makeup?”

“Being a freak.”

“To the contrary, some of my best friends are freaks. You can’t all be Chopper.”

Law calls Robin a freak and gets away with it. heh. Perhaps. Anyway, I’ll put the link to the AO3 story as the source (just edited it in. This post has been up for long enough). It’s actually about dogs and links back to another story, and is kinda sad, and features Robin, but is about Law and Marco, and there’s plenty of humour too. If you want to read it, be my guest. It’s an older one, written a few years ago. T-rated.

#platonic lawbin #lawbin #one piece #one piece fanfic #opfanfic #marco/law mention #past lawlu mention #trafalgar law #nico robin #my writing #my stuff #one piece fanfiction

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