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thewriterowl · 3 years

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Hi owl, some headcannon about an AU where Luke is actually a slave on Tatooine?

I'm sorry but your dinluke headcannon are incredible

Hello!! Sure! I am so happy you enjoy these fun head-cannons!

So, we'll give Luke more angst in his life, shall we?

So, everything happens as normal up until Luke is around 10. Tatooine is horribly rough and pretty corrupt. So the Lars are in a very rough patch and can't make payments. So here come the collectors. Well, if the Lars can't pay them back they'll just take the blonde kid as compensation. They refuse, of course. Luke is free. He can't just be snatched up like that...only...Luke doesn't have anything to prove that. He has a slave's last name, he has no papers or chain code, there is nothing to say that he is the Lars' actual child (it's known he isn't but there is nothing to prove he's anything of there's) and it's a disaster. The Lars still fight back and they pay with their lives, Luke witnessing it all.

He is brought into town, traumatized, and auctioned off. Well, at this time Luke is just this small, lanky kid who does not look like he'll be worth much of anything so he is not going for much. Peli, who knew the Lars and this kid, finds she can't just let this happen and buys him for her shop. She's pretty jaded and rough, she yells a lot, and demands hard work...but Luke realizes pretty fast that she is a very good person (and it's likely she's not yelling on purpose, she probably has poor hearing from her work...or she has always just been a very, very loud individual) when he realizes he gets extra food from her plate (she complaining he's too small to be useful) and he has a bed with extra blankets for the cold nights, and she actually teaches him everything about engineering, ships, mechanics, and droids. Luke also has good friends with all of her droids so he's not too lonely and he picks up the work really fast and easy.

Issues start when he is about seventeen. People start to notice him. Yeah, he's still small but he has built up a good bulk of muscle and a lean form from his thirteen hour days of hard, mechanic labor. he is still dealing with what he witnessed and went through when he is a child but he has an honest, happy smile and clear eyes and a very friendly, warm personality. All those who have called him ugly and useless and wormie over the past years are starting to eat their words.

Peli is approached a few times a year over the next three years about purchasing him. The price is always astronomical, possibly 10xs more than what she paid for Luke originally. She always turns them down with a nasty tone of, "I've put nearly ten years into this kid! You want me to just take credits for 'im?! Come back to me when you have 20xs the money and a replacement who has 20-years of experience in doing this shitty work or the answer is no!" It always works.

And it keeps Luke safe.

it is around seventeen a new visitor begins to show up regularly. A bounty-hunter with worn armor but a pristine, silver mask. Luke is infatuated instantly. He has never had to see the man, nor the man see him, as he hides whenever he is around. But he always gets to work on his ship as he is out of the shop because he always says no droids. He learns a lot by keeping his head down and practically remaining invisible when the mysterious man is around. Luke learns he is a bounty-hunter who always gets his target (and, given this is Tatooine, a lot of targets come here), a man from a culture called Mandalorians, he is clearly terrifyingly strong (given how he'll sometimes drag his quarry into his ship on his shoulders or them trying to fight--he never seems to flinch), very built (luke can't help but notice it!), a dreamy voice, and is actually a decent man who pays Peli in full (sometimes extra) and rarely argues back unless he appears in to be a decent (or grouchy? it was hard to tell) mood and Peli was extra ornery. He clearly went on adventures and was well-versed in the galaxy and was intelligent and had wit and...Luke was just head over heels with a massive puppy-crush.

It's when Luke turns twenty that he realizes, oh yikes...is this a crush or am I actually in love with a guy who doesn't know I exist and i have never talked to? It is also the year where Jabba the Hutt becomes interested in Luke as well.

So, it finally happens. Luke is dragged out of Peli's shop by some of the Hutt's men, Peli unable to do anything but screech at them. They just toss over credits that are about 40xs what Luke was bought for, despite Peli saying this isn't going to work and that's her apprentice, etc. They still just take Luke away.

Now, I don't see Jabba has being necessarily sexually attracted to Luke (or maybe anyone for that matter) but he loves beautiful things and he loves the power beautiful things bring him. Having a slave as lovely as Luke at his side is something that would just give him that vibe he enjoys. So Luke is safe in that regards for now. But Luke is clearly wanted by the patrons of the palace and if Jabba has a bounty that he knows is impossible, he'll say they can have Luke if it is accomplished in a certain way (it never is). Luke is basically in the Leia garb (see @gabsketch for her version of Luke's slave outfit) and is stuck by this horrible beasts side, being gawked at and touched, and yanked around all the time.

A few months later the Mandalorian is back for a quarry and a repair for his ship when Peli practically tackles him, saying she'll pay 20,000 credits and repair his ship for free for five years if he can rescue her apprentice who was taken by the Hutt's without an agreement. Well, hello pay-day. Din knows it's not great to cross the Hutt, but if he indeed did not follow an agreement with Peli over this mysterious guy then she is in her right to demand him back. So off he goes to the palace.

He gets there and has a reputation so he is allowed in, ready to look all around for this poor kid with gold hair and sky-blue eyes who was probably cleaning up slop or hidden in the back with stolen droids to fix. He was really not expecting to see the man as a trophy for Jabba. Nor expected him to be this gorgeous. How had Peli hidden him all these years? Din never saw this man once. If he had, well, he for sure would be coming back to Tatooine a bit more often and leaving it with some very adult-level fantasies.

Luke is stunned to see the mysterious man there, really unsure what is going on but finds himself hopeful when he demands Luke to be returned. Jabba is all, "nah fam. I run this place. but tell you what...do this impossible task for me and you can have him. Go kill a Kryate dragon and bring me its pearls."

Din is all, "Yeah sure." And just goes and...does it.

He comes back with four pearls and meat and scales and other items to show it was dead and Jabba is all, "oh shit." He really does not want to let this pretty slave go...but if he followed his deal and Din returns, Jabba could for sure get bounties taken care of with him on his side. So, he hands Luke over saying, "welp, he's yours now, lucky SOB". And Din takes Luke.

Well...now Din doesn't really want to hand Luke back over. How was he supposed to? Still, he is honorable and brings him back to Peli but then makes a claim, "I'll be back for him. I own him now but you can borrow him." surprising them both. Well, he goes off and Luke stays on Tatooine until a man named Kenobi (maybe he was off world or couldn't interfere before Luke was sold but saw Peli was taking care of him and saw it was fine) finds him and yanks him off on an adventure where he saves the galaxy and Din finds a gremlin child and then they meet again. and Din is all, "Hey...you're still mine from all that happened a few years back soooooo...you're teaching my kid as you travel with me." and Luke, with a shrug is all, "Welp. There are worse fates than hanging out with the love of my life, so yeah, let's go for it."

It for sure can be darker, lol knowing me, but it playing with the original trilogy is fun too. So Luke lives happily with Din who still, technically, owns him from his deal with Jabba but they're both very, very in love space dads.

#dinluke #the mandalorian #star wars #tw: slavery #luke skywalker

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crossroadsfossil · 3 years

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Fake titles!!!

"Giving matches to paper dolls"

"Making wishes out of Airplanes"

"For wheat is still wheat when mistaken for grass at a distance."

" you've got time to grow"

"Letters to myself"

"I begged god to spare you, 10yrs later he got the memo and knocked my front teeth."

-im sorry this^ title is so long-

"You and have a long walk home."

"We decided not to cry."

send me a made-up fic title and i'll tell you what i would write to go with it

"Giving matches to paper dolls"

OTGW fic.

When Wirt was finished with high school, he decided to take a gap year, encouraged by his stepdad, who also offered to help fix up an old car. Wirt chose a moped.

His stepfather held up a hand when Wirt wheeled the moped into the garage. Wirt stopped and waited, his stepfather massaging the bridge of his nose before turning around and entering the house. Less than three minutes later he returned with a photo album, an almost manic grin on his face. Wirt ended up learning a lot about his stepfather’s own gap year, and his moped. His stepfather suggested he go south.

Looking back on it, Wirt realized that was probably not a great choice. He might not have ended up going through the kudzu covered wall in the rain and ending up nursing what he hoped wasn’t a broken ankle.

The woods were dark, and oh so familiar.

plot: return to The Beyond. World hopping Wirt and Greg. Eventual Beast Wirt.

"Making wishes out of Airplanes"

Plot: The thing about living in large cities was that light pollution drowned out all stars. The heavens could be raining down wish bearing stars and no one in the city or its suburbs would be able to see them.

That’s alright. Izuku was used to taking terrible situations and transmuting them into success like an alchemist of old. He did it when he was young, he would do it again.

He just hadn’t counted on Tomura being sent back in time with him.

"For wheat is still wheat when mistaken for grass at a distance."

Inko Midoriya could once move mountains. If you gave her enough time and a spoon, she would show you a new valley where it used to be. Marriage and the birth of her son had provided her the opportunity to retire - something she took with both hands and would refuse to give up.

Or it had been until she had seen what Izuku was being sent into, what even the top ten couldn’t prevent from happening to her son. She was... disappointed. She had expected more of them and, well. There were few things that could prompt her into leaving retirement. Izuku was always one of them, and when he asked how to save a person, well.

She pulled out the small black book with her cyphered contact list and began to call in favors and upon old friends.

" you've got time to grow"

One of the first things he was told after being taken in by the commission was that he was to be called Hawks. Which was fine. He liked it. It sounded cool. It sounded badass.

The second thing he was told was that he was being placed in a home. A pair of foster parents, carefully vetted. His mom had always told him to slow down, to not go as fast. Clearly, he didn’t listen to her. He didn’t regret it. Now, now he was forced to slow down. Bandages pulling at his back and shoulders, the echoing pain dulled by creams and medication. That wouldn’t stop him normally but the driveway that was half a kilometer to the road hindered him. The fact that the nearest town was an hour's drive beyond that was another factor. Until his wings grew back, if they grew back, he was stuck at his parent’s retirement home.

“Hawks, honey, the farmhands are almost here.” His mother said, phone in hand. “Your mom says they picked up lunch on the way back. From the glee in her voice, I think she got several buckets. I swear.” She sighed fondly and left. Minutes later he heard the front door open, and the tromping in of several sets of feet. With a sigh, he got up and limped down to the dining area.

At the threshold, he froze, seeing people he didn’t want to ever see again, and especially not with his mothers in the same room.

“Hawks.” Spinner said, surprise written over his face. The heads of the rest of the league snapped hard toward him, surprise and creeping dread over everyone’s face.

"Letters to myself"

If Phalnex could have written a letter to his past self, he would have encouraged another post. Any post. Any position would have been better than where he was currently. Yes, there were benefits but he would not consider this one of them.

A large feline purred as he entered the hanger. It was the largest of the lions- that was what the humans were calling them. He wasn’t sure what their fascination with comparing wildlife to creatures they had on their homeworld. He saw where they drew the comparisons, but still.

“Oh thank fuck.” A familiar voice said. His ears swiveled to pinpoint where the holder of the voice was and he spotted her held between the lion’s front two paws.

“Vin.” He greeted. The Midoan smacked the paws until they loosened enough for her to wiggle out from between them. She offered him a sympathetic look as she sped by him. As soon as she cleared the door, he was being picked up, scruffed as if he was a kit.

Gods, he couldn’t wait until that pilot returned. This lion was ungodly clingy without him.

"I begged god to spare you, 10yrs later he got the memo and knocked my front teeth."-im sorry this^ title is so long-

This would actually be a series, a trilogy to be exact. Age/roleswap.

I begged god to spare you, -

If there was one thing Izuka was worried about, it was this year’s UA internships. Tokoyami was doing his best to reassure him, but even the antics of darkshadow (who was doing her best to imitate an overly fluffy utahraptor) weren’t easing the twisting in his stomach. Something felt wrong. He wasn’t sure what it was, but when the interns had left with his sidekicks, something trilled at him to go with them, even though Recovery Girl had assured him that between herself, Apex and Ravine, they would be fine. There was a knock and then Ochako stuck her head in. She had that look she got when dealing with Bakugo and paperwork in the same room- a mix of exhausted and simmering annoyance.

“Guess who found trouble?” She said. Izuku groaned and let his head thump the table.

10yrs later he got the memo -

The two children before him were pale-haired, short, and one of them was looking at Izuku like he dared the hero to come closer. Toshi was letting Recovery Girl look over his arm, inspecting her work before moving on to Enji. The fire-user was giving a glare towards Toshi that, were his flames capable of shooting from his eyes, his classmate would be ash already.

The smaller of the two children clung to, what Izuku assumed was his older brother. Both were too skinny, and the smaller (younger?) of the two looked several minutes away from toppling over.

“I’m Izuku.” Midoriya greeted. The kid that bit Toshi snarled and reached out a hand, only for it to be grabbed and pulled away.

“Shigaraki.” The smaller sibling interrupted, shooting his brother a look. A silent conversation passed between them, and Izuku let them. No one knew what their quirks were, but judging by the fact that the yakuza had them, he was sure it was powerful and dangerous. Worst case scenario, he asked for Miss Eri and got Tenko in here to provide a pep-talk.

and knocked my front teeth. -

“Babysitting?” Touya asked, dropping his bag and removing his shoes. Tenko nodded. Around him, there was what appeared to be the entirety of Tenko’s comic collection. One child was eagerly engrossed, chattering excitedly at his brother. The brother glared at everyone, tracking their movements. He hoped Tenko had told his boss that he wasn’t keeping the brats overnight. Being roommates with a hero-ling was one thing. Being dragged into a literary trope was another, and as much as he enjoyed his college courses on such books, he didn’t want to live one.

Tenko got up and pulled Touya into the hallway, just far enough that they could talk but not far enough that Tenko couldn’t lean back and keep an eye on them.

“Midoriya-san is working on placement, but well. He was of the opinion that our apartment was the safest place for him. The yakuza are after them.”

Touya snorted. Of course Tenko got dragged into this.

“Well, Deku isn’t wrong. We’ve got what, four heroes and an almost doctor here? If Himiko can make it, we can add one spy to the list.”

“She’s not a spy.”

“Uh-huh. And Iguchi hasn’t adopted half his class.” Tenko opened his mouth to negate that statement but a pale-haired child peered around the corner.

“Who’s a spy?” of course that was what interested the angry child.

"You and I have a long walk home."

This would be a FMA fic, mostly because I want to just have shenanigans as Ed and Al get kicked off a train and have to walk back. Post the end of the series and they go through a town they’ve been through before. Very soft and very sweet. Some Teacher!Edward and alphonse getting to do a lot of things he couldn’t the first time around, like pet all the barn cats and fondle the freshly washed wool and being buried in cuddly sheep.

"We decided not to cry."

"The tears of a mermaid.” Ginko set the small bottle on the witch’s desk. She picked it up, tilting it before leveling a skeptical glare at him.

“These certainly aren’t.” She set the bottle down, but stopped him as he went to put them back in his pack.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t want them. I do want the story. What happened to the real tears?”

Ginko smiled, sitting down. The witch leaned over and lit another stick of incense. He voiced his thanks before launching into the story.

plot: mushishi episode basically. Will contain mermaids, mer-other things, and some potential murder.

#dashboard games #Vin Robles #BNHA fic #FMA fic #Well ideas at least.#dadzawa adopt dabi #Mailbox

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mikeshanlon · 5 years

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hello! i was wondering if you had any books rec please? cause i’m pretty bored lately and in need of new books to read. so if you could make me some recs (can be fantastic, "real world", mystery, basically everything that is distracting/really good!). it would be awesome if you could 💞✨

*suddenly forgets every book i’ve ever read* LKRGNNGR jk.

illuminae by amie kaufman and jay kristoff so this is a YA sci-fi novel following our protagonists Kady and Ezra after their planet is attacked and the surviving colonists get rescued by another fleet. however, this fleet is not as safe as they hoped, because not only is a deadly plague spreading, but the ships AI is also going rogue. The really cool and exciting aspect of this book is that it’s told through case files-- a.k.a records of chat logs, transcriptions of surveillance footage, the AI coding itself, etc. The format really makes you feel like ur an agent uncovering the mystery alongside our heroes. It’s beautiful (as in like the page spreads but also the story) and fun/funny and fast paced. (it’s also the first in a trilogy and in in the middle of gemina and wow. it’s wild but in a good way. Warning’s that there’s a lot of death and it can be kinda creepy/dark)

the gentleman’s guide to vice and virtue by mackenzie lee this is pretty much like a road trip, friends to lovers, bed sharing, dumbassery au if that au was set in 1700′s with a dash of magical elements. GODDD this books is so funny and beautiful like. phew! We follow our chaotic disaster bi Monty as he goes on a grand tour of europe for a year before he has to get his act together, alongside his intelligent and iconic sister Felicity (who is aro/ace and i believe that’s explored further in a companion novel), and his long time best friend Percy (who is black and disabled) who he just so happens to be like. Super in love with. As a chaotic disaster bi, Monty does a lot of dumbass shit and shenanigans that eventually derails their Grand Tour! (Warning for like period typical homophobia, racism, sexism, and ableism, though i think it’s handled really well and still a fun book).

truly devious by maureen johnson: now this isn’t like. OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS SERIES but i found it to be a really fun YA mystery trilogy (the final book has yet to be released tho)with a great atmosphere/setting. This takes place at Ellingham Academy, a private school that helps exemplary students pursue education that can’t be offered by public schools. Stevie Bell is one of those new students, a girl with a passion for true crime, her favorite unsolved case in particular actually took place at Ellingham Academy. Stevie wants to solve the case of who Truly Devious is-- the person who captured the founder’s wife and daughter in the 1930′s, but while she’s attending, a new crime unfolds. I absolutely loved the setting, and the mystery (though i think it gets more interesting/better done in the second novel). Stevie has anxiety and I really enjoyed how it was written, and her friends are iconic (one of her friends is lesbian and has a nb partner also). The romance is kinda meh but it’s not like unbearable and i liked it a little better in the second novel!

the devouring gray by christine lynn herman: this book has been described as a mix of the raven cycle, stranger things, and riverdale and honestly like. yeah. (though if you’re a trc stan like me don’t expect TRC iconicness, and for the riverdale aspect it’s more of the the things that make the show interesting aka small town with deep secrets, long standing family feuds, etc.) The descendants of the four town founders are in charge of protecting the town from the Gray (aka p much the upside down from stranger things relgnerg), and each family has their own type of power (for instance death or fire, and each descendant has their own special type of power to do with death, etc). This book has some mixed reviews but i would definitely try it out if you’re interested bc i found it to be fun and i think the next books are gonna have a lot of potential. There’s a really nice theme of grief, and also 2 of the mains are bisexual and use actually use that label as well as some other side characters so like. i like that elrkgnerg.

the sun is also a star by nicoola yoon: okay i realized there were no stand alones except like maybe gentleman’s guide if you don’t wanna read the companion novel erkgnerg sooooo. This is a contemporary novel set in a single day following two povs. Natasha, who’s family is going to be deported to Jamaica that night, so she’s trying to do everything she can to make sure her family can stay; and Daniel, a Korean-American boy who has an interview with a Yale alum, but doesn’t truly want to attend Yale, he wants to become a poet despite the wishes of his family. We follow them as they meet and begin to grow closer and explore topics like the racism both of them face, their beliefs, etc. There’s also chapters from the pov of people the run into throughout the day, like security guards, or the subway driver etc. This book is like p insta-love but as someone who hates insta love i actually thought this was done pretty well and i enjoyed their romance. Mostly because it’s a high-stakes day coming of age type atmosphere, Daniel and Natasha really open up to one another, and they have great chemistry. This book is really beautiful and I finished it in less a day. (also it’s own voices for Natasha’s character)

also i mean im not gonna go hella in depth with these bc they’re super popular and this is already hella long but i will always recommend the raven cycle by maggie steifvater and six of crows duology by leigh bardugo bc like. god i love those books.

#okay sorry this is long and also theres like one stand alone bookRNGNRGNRGLKNGR #i have some other books but. yeah lergnreg #books #ask #anon #anyways hope u enjoy them if u pick any up!

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sadlittlenerdking · 7 years

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so nobody asked but im writing a trilogy (as i have been since 2013) and i just wanted to post a little glimpse into what it is here

(its about a guy who was kidnapped as a child, taken to a bunker and basically trained to be a merciless soldier. but the memories of his families murder stick with him, and he uses this to help him keep his humanity through the 12 years he’s kept in the bunker. the story starts with his escape, and him trying to gain, and keep, his freedom, while also trying to destroy the facility -- the thing run by the bad guy -- and figure out who he is, and what he’s willing to do to remain free.)

this little tidbit is a few weeks into a false life he’s created for himself while he tries to lay low. he’s rightfully paranoid, and it’s one of the more comedic paranoia fueled scenes int he first book.

I was halfway through the essay when I heard them. I was just sitting there, innocent as any normal teenager, working on the third rewrite of my essay about 1984, when three girls sat down at the desk behind me and started talking. Determined to actually get this damn essay right this time around, I ignored them and their chittering. And, admittedly, the irritation did trigger the pesky murder-y thoughts, but, hey, it comes with the territory. Which is why I nearly jumped out of my chair and reached for a sharp object when I heard from behind me -

“It’s Channing. I’m telling you.”

My shoulders tensed up so fast and hard that the left side cramped up so painfully, my fingers twitched above the keyboard.

“No, it can’t be.”

“It is! I’ve stared at him long enough to be sure.”

Holy shit.

They knew who I was. They freaking knew who I was. Wait - were they even students? Were they recruits? I hadn’t even looked at them when they walked in. I should have known to look. I always looked. I always examined. How could I have been so focused on the essay when this wasn’t even my real life? It didn’t matter if I failed. It mattered to Mr. Emmers, that’s it.

And he certainly didn’t matter to me.

The only thing that mattered was my freedom, and I’d been so focused on an essay that I’d completely forgotten to make sure they hadn’t found me. I felt too safe to think they could find me. And now they were sitting just a few feet behind me. I mean, I knew they wouldn’t kill me in full public view. But, they knew where I was. They knew. God damn it, they knew.

“Prove it. Go ask him.”

Oh my god.

My heart stuttered in my chest. My right hand moved across the keyboard towards the pen setting aside it on top of my essay notes. If they tried to take me, I was going to take as many of them down with me as I could. Could probably stab her eye out before the others even got close to us.

A presence appeared behind me, short and unoffending, reflecting in the computer screen. My fingers clenched tight around the body of the pen as my right hand pressed down hard on the F key. “Hey,” She said, tapping on my shoulder.

I swallowed air and looked over my right shoulder at her. “What?”

She raised an eyebrow and glared down at me. “Can I use your computer?”

“Huh?” Why would the recruits need to use the computer? And why the hell didn’t I recognize these girls?

��I need to look something up. It’ll only take a second.” She motioned to the computer with her eyebrows. “Please?”

I looked between her and the other two girls, then back to her. She was scrawny. Tall and skinny, and the hand on her hips had fake nails. Long, painted, fake nails. This girl was not a recruit. So then how did she know who I was? I furrowed my brow and pushed my chair away from the computer as she looked back at her friends and shrugged. As she turned back around, I motioned towards the computer for her. “Go ahead.”

She grinned, bright white teeth flashing in the fluorescents of the library and moved towards the computer. I leaned over so I could see what she was doing. Was she a spy? A bounty hunter? Did Clark hire her? Clark wouldn’t allow recruits to be this skinny, or this - any of what she was. She was literally the opposite of everything everyone in the facility was: Clean, scrawny, and relatively happy.

She typed in: CAST OF TIMELESS.

What is a cast of timeless?

“Well?” A voice asked, the other two girls suddenly standing next to me and peering over her shoulders.

“It’s some guy named Matt Lanter. What the actual hell?”

“Ha!” The tallest of the three girls cheered, “I knew it wasn’t Channing Tatum!”

“Dude, I swear they’re like twins or something,” The third girl murmured, leaning forward to get a closer look at the two. Her hair quickly brushed against my arm as it flowed behind her. “It’s so weird.”

I blinked. The girls turned back to me, and the first girl gave me a closed lip smile, “Thanks,” She said, waving a hand as they all turned and went back to their table. I looked back at the computer, they’d left the results up on the screen. An actor. An actor named Channing. And an actor named Matt. They didn’t work for Clark, they were just normal teenagers. Normal teenagers obsessing over two, I tilted my head, fairly attractive guys. My shoulders slumped as I sat back in my chair and pulled myself closer to the desk. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding in and closed the window. My fingers relaxed around the pen, stretching out, sore and irritated. I looked down at my hand and saw an indentation of where the pen had been in my palm, and the blood rushing back to my knuckles in a bright pink.

I wasn’t the only person in the world named Channing. A name alone shouldn’t have set off so many alarms. Jesus Christ, I was prepared to kill three innocent people.

I really, really needed to get the whole thoughts jumping straight to murder thing taken care of.

#riz writes #chronicles of extraction book one

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nellpire · 7 years

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[130119] Nell - Nylon interview (translation)

Q: You held a year-end concert, right? Jongwan: We like doing concerts around Christmas and new year's. The audience likes it, and maybe because it's the holidays, our hearts get warm, too. Jaekyung: It had been four years since our last album, so we couldn't hold concerts for a long time. It was great to get back on the stage again.

Q: You're in the midst of working on your 'Gravity trilogy', right? And last month's single album was the first part. Jongwan: It's a long-term project. We're planning to release single albums centered around the same topic over the span of a few months, and finish off by including them all in a full album. One of the advantages of this is that we get to show all the songs equally, not just the title tracks. When we release full albums with more than ten songs, people usually put all the focus on the title tracks. But when we release single albums, the tracklist is so short that more people listen to the whole thing. Jaewon: I think releasing several songs on the same topic a few months apart is very meaningful. Music changes a lot from month to month these days. For example, a singer can release song 'A' and then come back a couple of months later with song 'B' which has a totally different color than the first. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but we wanted to create a more consistent feeling in our music. That's why we started planning this Gravity trilogy. Jaekyung: The market is so fast these days that we consider a song a success if it stays in the higher levels of the charts for just one week. We wanted to break out of that kind of thinking with this project.

Q: Im Sujeong appeared in the music video for 'White Night', the title track of 'Holding Onto Gravity'. Jongwan: Since it's just one role driving the story, we needed someone who matched the atmosphere in our song, and more importantly we needed someone who's good at acting. The idea of hiring Im Sujeong came up, but we thought it'd be too hard to get her. But she agreed readily after hearing the song, so we're very thankful.

Q: You received the Best Rock award at the 2012 Melon Music Awards for your latest single album. You said 'Thank you for not forgetting us' in your acceptance speech. Junghoon: For various reason we couldn't control, we were gone for four years. It's not a short time. We weren't afraid, exactly, but I personally had my doubts about whether people would like us the same way as before. But people seemed so happy to see us whenever we performed, so 2012 is a year I'm really thankful for. And I thought, 'so they still like Nell's music regardless of if we're in our 20s or our 30s'.

Q: I can be scary to grow apart from the public's interest. Jongwan: I didn't think so during the time we rested. In a way, it's a distracting thought, you know. We have no time to think about those things when we're composing and recording. But the thought did strike me when we started our promotional activities. We see the direction he world is heading in when we go to broadcasting stations, so. Jaewon: I'm always shocked by how much everything has changed in four years. There are so many idol groups now. Many new teams formed in the past four years, and when I see them I can't help but think 'will they disappear?'. Seeing all that, it's like seeing what it's like to grow apart from the public's interest with your own eyes. But that's also a baseless thought, so I don't feel very burdened by it. We've come this far just by doing things that we like, so I think it's natural. Some people like us, some people don't. Some people remember, some forget. Junghoon: We're so happy when we run into groups or idols that were active four years ago at the broadcasting stations. With that in mind, we end up thinking again, 'the music industry isn't such a tough place after all'.

Q: Not only broadcasting - did the indie scene change a lot, too? Jongwan: It has changed in various ways, and I'd like to think the surroundings are better now than before. Of course, teams that are just starting out might say 'he doesn't know what he's talking about', but I'm just comparing to the late 90s, when we started out. First off, social media is a thing now, so even if you don't go through a commercial system, you can still make your music known, so there are more chances and methods to let people hear your music now than before. Also, I think the public awareness of band music or so-called non-mainstream music has changed a lot. Back then, people thought of extremely gloomy things when they heard the words 'indie' and 'underground', you see.

Q: Has music become better and more varied? Jaekyung: Honestly, I'm not sure about the variety. When I hear people say that indie or underground has become a culture, I feel that there's a trend within that, as well. And a lot of music is created under that 'trend' category. Junghoon: There were lots of 'live houses' back in the day. Every live house specialized in a different genre. If you wanted to listen to quiet modern rock, you went to 'bbang' just outside Idae, and if you wanted to hear punk rock you went to 'drug'. But these days, it doesn't seem to matter where you go; most of the music seems to be of a similar genre that doesn't stray outside the trend. Jongwan: But I do think the quality of the music has gotten better. The diversity is lacking, but I feel like there's a bigger professionalism these days. Sometimes I go to clubs and listen to junior musicians, and I think they're all good. And their technical skill is good.

Q: What is the reason why the number of artists is increasing, but at the same time the diversity is decreasing? Jongwan: People can see what type of music 'does well' on the indie scene. If you're looking for indie these days, 10cm comes to mind. They receive a lot of love from the general public for their music. So people who are just starting out see that and want to play similar music. You can see that just from how there’s been an increase in acoustic music over the past four-five years. I don't see it as a bad thing. I think it's just a process that the indie scene needs to go through as it develops.

Q: Nell seem to be your own distinctive branch of perfectly overground (band that's gone from underground to 'mainstream') music that at the same time can't be called underground. What do you think of this? Jongwan: We can't think of ourselves as objectively as we view our surroundings. And we don't really care about those things. But there are times when we think that ambiguity is comfortable. It's a pity we have no co-workers we can relate to, but we have no complaints about how people know our music, yet don't know what we look like. Jaekyung: There's no need to split everything into 'over' and 'indie'. Those words are handy when talking and explaining so we use them sometimes, but I want to say we're just us. And that's a natural thing. If you look at foreign bands, there are some who sell 100,000,000 records and still play in small clubs etc. We think we’re just living as a band, rather than splitting things into over and indie.

Q: Do you try hard to maintain Nell's color? Jongwan: No, we don't. We've never received songs or been pushed by anyone but ourselves, so the sounds we produce when the four of us get together is what Nell's color is. That's why, even if we play punk rock or dance music, our feeling will still be alive and well within it. The fact that we've gone fifteen years without changing members will be part of the reason, as well. Jaewon: Honestly, it's hard to make it in the music industry these days, but I think it's even harder to keep a band going. There are very few bands who have lasted this long without changing members. I think you need to have a good relationship in the band to make music and create your own color. It’d be nice if there were more teams who are friends like us and keep going for a long time.

Q: What's the most difficult thing about keeping a band going? Jaewon: Uhm, there's money and there's girls. Haha. There's quite a number of bands who fall apart because of women. Jaekyung: It's true. There was this foreign band that broke up over a woman too. What was worse was, they were brothers. Also, something that can make it hard to keep a band going is when you don't feel satisfied with the music you're making. The things you liked and made when you were young are often not the same as what you want to create now. You have to get over small hurdles like that, but if you can't, won't it be very hard to keep the band going?

Q: Is making music still difficult for you now after fifteen years? Jongwan: It gets harder and harder. Because the things you want get clearer. Music is about changing the shapeless things in your head into actual existing sounds. As the ideas in your head become clearer, it gets harder and more complicated to realize them. The stress when you can't make it work also grows bigger. Junghoon: Ignorance is bliss, at the end of the day. The things that were easy when you knew nothing gets harder the more you find out.

Q: People describe Nell's music as 'depressing'. Do you agree with this? Jaekyung: Our music doesn't express just one type of emotion. There are many categories of feelings, like sadness, happiness, excitement, deathwish etc, but people have more emotions than just those. I think what we express are those elaborate emotions in between. Plus, what people take away from each song depends on the person. Jongwan: Could it be that we don't find it depressing since we made it? Our writing sessions are not depressing, you see. Haha. Junghoon: Also, I think if you listen to it when you're depressed, it can comfort you. Many times it's a much bigger comfort to watch a movie or listen to music you can relate to rather than watch and listen to bright things when you're down and tired.

Q: What are you interested in other than music? Jaekyung: There's nothing else right now. I still feel like I haven't come halfway into music yet. I have a long way to go. Junghoon: I think we all have our individual hobbies, but nothing we want to actually try our hands at as of now.

Q: What are your future plans? I've heard talks about a Japanese record deal. Jongwan: We're planning to release two single albums and one full album for our Gravity trilogy, and we do have plans for Japanese activities, though there's nothing concrete yet.

Q: What's the reason you chose the Japanese market? Jaekyung: Unfortunately there are barely any concert halls in this country. Bands usually borrow sport halls to perform in, you know. In comparison, there are many concert halls in Japan. With that alone, it's a very charming market. Plus, it's one that accepts things of great diversity. From that perspective, Japan has a very charming music market.

Feel free to use, but please credit Nellpire.

#nell #nylon #interview #translation #jongwan #jaekyung #jaewon #junghoon

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maythedreadwolftakeyou · 7 years

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I finished!!! game time was like something like 138 hours but I spent a good dozen or so hours pausing the game to check my phone or wandering off to make dinner.

I this said last night in a sleepy 4am haze, but I really enjoyed the ending. It was fun to play. The only time I died was when I accidentally fell into a chasm bc I didn’t realize a goddamn fiend was gonna come barreling out of the hall and ruin my “melee everything” scheme and I scooted myself right off a dang platform and respawned directly in its mouth. Whoops. When the Archon called up the Architect I was very Oh god not another one but then I didn’t have to actually try to kill it ever just avoid it, so that was fine. I LOVED how everyone came out to help at the end. It always seems unbelievable to me that your pals are content to hang back for the boss fight (ME2 I thought did well with having everyone else away on different tasks, and the ME3 citadel mission where everyone goes together is one of my favorite parts of the trilogy). And getting to run around with Kandros (who i love but duty calls and we can never be together) and Reyes (im still Very Sad i had to break up with him) and the Salarians!! and then your team coming in at the end :333 ah. It was a very feel-good, exciting culmination, and I think it fit the tone of the rest of the story well. Part of me was half-expecting disaster like you have to sacrifice Scott or a bunch of citizens or something, and while I eat that sort of tragedy up, I’m glad there wasn’t any for this game.

Incidentally, all of my screenshots of Scott somehow turned out like this, and so I’ve decided this is a chronic problem his whole life and he has 0 good photos ever even when the rest of the fam comes out lookin great:

ah, Scott. someday i’ll play as him with this Ryder as his sister and it’s gonna have to be a wild ride.

Romance: I romanced Vetra!! I love her a lot as a character but I just kept wishing for more content. And I know I always crave more romancey content but I did feel like her romance arc had a lot less than what I knew people were getting from Jaal’s, especially because it takes you over halfway into the game before you get anything from it. Four flirt opportunities where she doesn’t really flirt back, my Ryder was dying and convinced her crush would never be reciprocated (hence the brief fling with Reyes). But I did LOVE the scenes you do finally get with her, the climbing date was soooo sweet, and I could not stop laughing when she tries to make you dinner. I’m never telling my beautiful girlfriend she doesn’t know how to cook steak. NEVER. she did it perfectly, i love cow. But I just wish there was a scene where YOU could do something for HER. Lexi even tells you that you should show her she’s appreciated and doesn’t have to take care of everyone all the time to be worthy of being liked but then you... never get a chance in game to really do that. Sigh. I definitely have a lot of inner-headcanoning going on for thier relationship. Though Vetra wants to eventually settle down and have a home and i’m... not so sure that’s in the cards for this Ryder. I may tweak the characterization of my Vetra-romance-ryder in some ways and redo this Ryder with Reyes for real next time. I think next up is gonna be a Jaal playthough though.

But, OVERWHELMINGLY, the relationship I was absolutely most fascinated by the whole game and spent way more time thinking about than romance, was the relationship between Ryder and SAM. I went into endgame thinking that the game really hadn’t gotten into that aspect nearly as much as I wanted, AND THEN!!! SAM GETS DISCONNECTED! And it’s revealed they took over WAY more control of the Pathfinder’s physiology than anyone had even guessed!! it’s not just “SAM can take access of enough systems to stop and then restart your heart” it was “SAM is so intertwined with you that they are integrated into these systems already and their absence makes it almost impossible for the Pathfinder to cope without.” I LOVED IT. I was so ready to address that, like, did Ryder know? Did SAM do it by choice or was it just an effect of Alec’s modifications?

And then... nothing. You’re linked back up with SAM. No one questions it. You don’t get to talk to Scott about how SAM is different for you than him now. Or at least, not that I’ve found??? to be fair I can’t seem to find Scott post-endgame yet (where is he hiding???? i’ve been all over Meridian after leaving/going back), and I still need to go check out the colonies and see what people there have to say. But it really seems like everyone sort of was like “whew, glad that’s sorted out, SAM’s back and htis could never possibly be an issue again so we will all forget about it and never bring it up again.” There was one colonist before (Fawkes) who was one of the only non-main characters to ask a really detailed question about SAM/what the future of AI is gonna look like in Heleus and I was so psyched for that convo. There’s a couple dialogue responses you can take, I went with:

becuase I really like the idea that Ryder starts to think of themselves as not just Ryder, but a Ryder-And-SAM partnership. There’s a lot of sacrifice in that. You’re admitting that your body is not just You anymore, but a team where both sides are valued.

I’ve spent a lot of the game thinking about Ryder’s internal dialogues with SAM, and the dynamic it would add to their relationship. You don’t have a voice that lives inside your head (and gives you its 100% undivided attention while you’re in the field) and not end up talking to it all the time. SAM asks you questions back on the Tempest when you talk to them and I bet they would when out and about as well, just privately. There’s a line in one of the Vaults where Ryder starts talking to herself and then catches it--

--because she gets more and more accustomed to not being the only one in her head. SAM is always there. More than that, they always have your back, and are ready to feed you whatever you need to get the mission done. They’re not just a voice, they’re a tool; and they’re not just a tool, they’re a support system. Maybe Ryder knows just how intertwined SAM is becoming with theer body, and isn’t just aware, but welcomes it. The Ryders are a fucked up family who aren’t good at talking to each other, but SAM means you never have to be alone again. Someone is always there for you, protecting and watching out for you.

So in the final mission, when SAM is ripped away from Ryder--it’s not just a physical effect. It’s like losing a part of your soul and a best friend and a, in some ways, a parent--because SAM learned through Alec Ryder before anyone else--and in other ways, a child--because Ryder is responsible for teaching SAM what it means to be a person and how to navigate the world. And I wish you could convey that emotional distress (even if less complex) in the game, and that Ryder was as worried for SAM’s well being as they are for Scott’s when they race to stop the Archon. Becuase in a lot of ways, I think my Ryder would have grown closer to same than she ever did with her brother.

Anyway, I wish the game hadaddressed these things more, but I also accept that like--this is a trope that I just am REALLY into and have been for ages. It’s not gonna be what everyone wants as the main focus, and it just wasn’t the big story they were trying to tell. At the beginning of the game the descriptions of SAM hyped me up so hard because they reminded me very strongly of my favorite short story, Silently And Very Fast by Catherynne Valente (which, if you haven’t read it, it’s really amazing and you can read the first part here (the other 3 parts are linked at the bottom of each chapter), or I can send a pdf of it if you want, it’s really good people read it please and then tell me about your Emotions). The story veered off not long into the plot of the game (I, along with many others, suspected for a while that SAM would turn out to be like the mother’s consciousness integrated into the AI or something) but I stayed pretty invested in it as a major part of my Ryder’s experience in Heleus.

And like, I guess this would be something I’ll probably end up doing fic about now since the game didn’t give me as much as I wanted (and I only meant to write a short paragraph about it here and now i have like 9 whoops), so I’ll probably keep thinking about it with the rest of my Ryders. There’s so much potential there. Jade Ryder really grew attached to SAM, but there’s also potential for resentment there--SAM is always watching, Ryder essentially gives up any aspect of privacy in their life, even if SAM is polite enough not to comment on it.

wow this got away from me. anyway. that’s the game!!!!! i’m running around making sure i’ve talked to everyone still. I need to go check up on the colonies and stuff, but I did pretty much everything else before the last mission, so there’s not much to play. Just some assignments that don’t have navpoints. and then start thinking about my next Ryder!!! I played Jade Ryder as pretty logical and professional, with a tendency to open up more with people as she grew to know them better, though she struggled to be open/heartfelt when talking to Angara when her natural conversation style with them flopped hard at first. I think my next Ryder who I still need to name is gonna be way more casual/joke-y (tho i think Ryder is HILARIOUS no matter what, it’s so fun to have such a lighthearted protag) and probably more reckless and prone to following their whims. Gonna have to re-battle the CC though which I’m not so much looking forward to.

oh also re: the second picture: i FUCKING LOVE that you beat the architect on Elaaden so hard it shoots itself into orbit and slowly decays and you can just sit there and watch it slowly fizzle in the cold vacuum of space

#jade ryder #mass effect: andromeda #SAM #mass effect: andromeda spoilers #this got long SORRY #im just having Many Thoughts #ramblings #long post

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