#this post partially brought to you by

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been thinking today about off ramps in long running stories, especially book series.

By that I mean like, places where a person could stop reading and have a satisfying ending even if they’re not yet at the actual ending. (Someone tell me if there’s an established Tvtropes name for this I’m missing.)

Now, a lot of book series will have an off ramp at the end of book 1, because many first books are written without promise of a sequel. Like sure, there might be a sequel hook, but the actual second book is still up to publisher whims in most cases. So you can read All Systems Red or The Thief or A Madness of Angels and have a perfectly satisfying ambiguous-end sci-fi story or middle grade fantasy romp or inverted murder mystery revenge quest without ever picking up book 2. This is definitely an off ramp but it’s not necessarily the interesting or revealing kind because again. Whims of the publisher.

There’s also stories that have an off ramp after every installment. Leverage is famous for this—they had a philosophy of having every season be a satisfying ending, which says a lot both about the writers and about the story they were trying to tell.

But I think the most interesting ramps are the ones where by design or by circumstance, there’s a single off-ramp somewhere in the middle. One spot where unless someone tells you there’s more, you’d never be unsatisfied with leaving halfway through.

Sometimes these will be signaled in some way, where there’s a big timeskip after the off-ramp, or the series changes names or has a spin-off, or the POV changes, or after book 3 the author publishes a short story collection before hopping back in to novels, or the series suddenly jumps from being only novellas to a chunky 120k novel. (The Raksura books, Percy Jackson/HoE, Matthew Swift/Magicals Anonymous, and Murderbot all do one or more of these)

But sometimes off ramps aren’t visible in series order or marketing. Sometimes they’re organic to where a story happens to leave off at the end of an installment.

The queen’s thief has one of these after King Of Attolia. I know this was a satisfying ending because for seven years I thought it was the end. My local library didn’t have A Conspiracy of Kings, so I thought it was a trilogy. And you really can leave it there! KoA ends with Gen back in his element and recognized as king, the main internal threat to Irene neutralized, and peace on the peninsula. The Mede aren’t yet the immediate threat they are in the back half of the series, since up through KoA they’re mainly represented by the magus’s vague warnings and Nahuseresh, whom Irene thinks circles around. There’s no real reason to assume the Mede are a threat within the scope of the series. Now I absolutely prefer getting the whole story, but KoA is a damn solid off-ramp for anyone who feels like exiting there.

And that’s one kind of off ramp where the end you get is pretty similar in tone (mostly happy) to the one you get if you go on to the rest of the series. I’ve also read books where you can off ramp successfully right at the lowest point in the series and get a tragedy out of a series that ultimately ends happy, or leave at a high point and get a happier end than the main one, or exit at an ambiguous point and continue on with ambiguity. The Giver sequels make it pretty clear what happened to Jonas and Gabe at the end of the book. but you don’t have to read them or have that question answered if you want to.

I don’t have a really solid conclusion to draw here except that I think the positioning of off ramps says a lot about authors and stories, and choosing whether or not to take an off ramp says a lot about readers.

#I know multiple people who refuse to recognize the giver sequels #which has always been odd to me because I quite liked them and never thought Jonas died in the first place #meta #the queen’s thief #tqt #Murderbot #the kitten rambles #murderbot’s off ramp is after exit strategy if that wasn’t clear #Raksura’s is after siren depths #this post partially brought to you by #the realization that one can stop reading Temeraire at the end of book four #and get a tragedy where the horrors of empire cannot be stopped #and will crush anyone trying to change things

[a-thousand-eyes-and-one]

thank god joncon will likely never know jon snow exists/who his parents were bc if he did he’d be insufferable. joncon voice he named his son after me 😌🥰 this is proof of our love‼️ tyrion voice pretty sure ned stark named him after lord arryn. joncon voice …………..anyway. HE NAMED HIS SON AFTER ME 😍 THIS IS PROOF OF OUR LOVE‼️

#jon connington #this post was partially brought to you by grace doraspenlow #asoiaf #mine #jon snow #valyrianscrolls

[0809sysblings]

honestly it's so fucked up that, since dissociative amnesia is all about protection, it'll fucking yoink your positive memories too. because if you can remember the positive interactions or events you may have had in the past... the grief that those things are gone would be too much. it yoinks both the things that are too painful to know happened, and the things that are too painful to know can no longer happen again. to actually protect you, it needs to make you think you have had the most boring and uneventful life ever.

fucked up and evil!

#milgran't #personal posting #mikoto posting #council posting #ig. technically. in the tags at least #this post was brought to you by: guy who partially remembers something good we had in the past-- #--and even only knowing the Absolute Bare Minimum is making it hard to breathe LOL #but im fine dw #memories cant hurt me these dissociative barriers are gucci /ref

[gramoturtle]

N/TWEWY: Joshua’s Mother & Father

In NEO, Joshua’s introduction follows a similar structure to how it does in TWEWY in English, so I was curious if it was the same in Japanese.  

They turned out to be similar, the only difference is how Joshua refers to his parents. And in the animation, Joshua doesn't get time to bring up his parents.

English

TWEWY

The name’s Yoshiya Kiryu. But Mother and Father call me Joshua. I guess you can call me Joshua, too - Seeing as how you’re my dear, dear partner.

NEO

Heh. The name’s Yoshiya Kiryu. But Mother and Father call me “Joshua”. I suppose you can call me “Joshua,” too.

Joshua's introduction is pretty much the same. If it's not just how Joshua likes to introduce himself, then it seems like a callback to how he introduced himself in TWEWY.

Japanese

TWEWY

僕は 桐生 義弥（キリュウ ヨシャ） I'm Kiryu Yoshiya パパとママは僕のことをヨシュアと呼ぶんだ Papa and Mama call me Joshua 君もヨシュアって呼んでいいよ You can call me Joshua too 大事な僕のパートナーだからね since you're my important partner

Already compared to the English version, Joshua refers to his parents in an interesting way, and in a different order. The use of パパとママ, “Papa and Mama”, sounds about how you would expect in English. It's one way for children to refer to their parents, like saying "daddy and mummy".

Similar in English, it's not likely to hear daddy and mummy from someone who's older.

NEO

僕は I'm 桐生 義弥（キリュウ ヨシャ）  Kiryu Yoshiya ヨシュアって呼んでくれていいよ You can call me Joshua うちの両親もそう呼ぶんだ My parents call me that too

In NEO, Joshua says うちの両親, “my parents”, instead of パパとママ, “Papa and Mama”. Using 両親 (parents) is the usual way to refer to your parents.

So then, in English Joshua refers to his parents the same way by using "Mother and Father", but in Japanese it changes from an unusual way to a normal way. In their own ways, Joshua's introduction changes from being odd in some way to being more normal.

Extra Musings

For me, it's interesting that he brings up his parents when he introduces himself, and then says he's the Composer.

You may not know this, but I'm Shibuya's Composer.

僕は渋谷のコンポーザーを務めてる I'm serving as Shibuya's Composer

(Aside: "serve", like a job or a role. Previous discussion about that is over here.)

Is how Joshua introduces himself just a thing he does? Is family important to him? How much impact do his parents (related or otherwise) have on him? Are they still around? Is it just a quirk left over "from before"? Whatever that means.

How important are names to him?

Maybe it's a neat callback to his OG introduction. But it caught my curiosity.

Master Post of EN/JP Comparisons

#ntwewy #ntwewy spoilers #twewy #twewy spoilers #the world ends with you #the world ends with you spoilers #neo the world ends with you #neo the world ends with you spoilers #yoshiya joshua kiryu #joshua kiryu #yoshiya kiryu #and those musings spurred making ocs for his parents #so this post was partially to point out that last bit #but also i did take a look to see if JP joshua brought up his parents in any form. in case EN was doing callbacks for fun #so might not be too much to report but figured i might as well share it anyways #twewy en jp differences #ntwewy en jp differences #sal posts about twewy series

[lunarhobbits]

i find it really funny that allan and midge - canonically married in barbie lore, there was a wedding set and everything - are both in the barbie movie yet have nothing to do with each other and are reflective of completely different eras of barbie (early 60s and early 2000s, respectively)

#idk something about that felt very right to me #bc pretty much no kid playing with barbies is gonna stick to Barbie Lore #they're gonna mix and match different eras #different styles #different clothes #one day midge and allan are married the next allan is forgotten #the next midge is sidelined and allan is playing sidekick to ken #they have kids together and yet they don't have to always be bought together #and ofc they can be redressed and repurposed as different people! #this post was partially brought to you by memories of me playing with my friend's barbies as a kid including 2000s midge and allan #but we didn't know their names or their backstory or even that they were connected! sure midge had the magnets and the baby barbie doll #but other than that? they were just two of many options of barbies #they were all in the barbie bin and we fished out whatever we were using #and we used them however we wished. in a mix-and-match way. and only recently did i even find out my friend had allan #truly there is only one allan bc everyone forgets about him #barbie #barbie spoilers #i guess? #allan barbie #midge barbie

[jicklet]

Futaba + Yusuke’s fever time dance to When Mother Was There

#persona 5 #p5d #dancing in starlight #personaedit #Futaba Sakura #Yusuke Kitagawa #Yutaba #v posts things #The first time I saw Yusuke LAUNCH HIMSELF ONTO THE STAGE I started laughing so hard I almost failed the level #This set is brought to you mostly by what they normally are which is that it brings me a ridiculous amount of joy to watch #This dance is just so FUN :D #But also partially aimed at whoever wrote on the wiki that Futaba doesn't sync up with anyone but Ren in her fever times because. HELLO. #a lot of the other dances the thieves will watch each other and start to copy which is cute #but these two nod at each other like they planned it ahead of time #and they're doing similar things the whole time but in their own style #also fun fact while I was recording this after they finished Ryuji yelled WAIT ARE YOU GUYS A THING #And Futaba cackled #so uh #That happened #But also I have a vague memory of another stage where he also told Yusuke and Ann to get a room #Ryuji the wingman of enthusiastic if questionable methods #Or maybe these happened chronologically and Ryuji is now feeling real awkward about throwing Yusuke at another woman #Ryuji wonders if they make a apology greeting cards for such occasions #this got off topic #if you've gotten this far another fun fact the last image is partially called eyyyy.gif #v plays persona

[ectonurites]

almost 4am can't stop thinking about the meaning of the idiom 'to have blood on [someone's] hands'—to be responsible for a person's death—combined with the fact that Zach is the one we are specifically shown with Daryl's actual blood on his hands (once for real and once in a dream)... Not Josh who had been holding the sword Daryl fell onto, but Zach who took the sword out.

#super dark times #+ part of it that's insane to me is: Josh COULD have easily ALSO gotten (literal) blood on his hands—we see him go to check for a pulse #after Zach did... but we don't see his hands during that—they're left out of the shot! we just see his face. and when we see his hands next #there's no visible blood on them (if any got on he theoretically wiped 'em off ig? similarly Zach's hands when seen AFTER the shot of him #touching Daryl ALSO don't rlly show blood anymore—we see his hands in the leaves tho so it prob went there) BUT SO there was a CHOICE made #to give us a close up shot of ZACH pulling his hand away from the wound with blood on it... but to NOT do the same/smthn similar with Josh. #and yet ZACH is the one who CAN'T ACCEPT THE ROLE HE PLAYED IN ANY OF ITTTTT!!!!!!! GAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! #this post brought to you by me rewatching the Zach + Charlie on the phone scene and needing to just. stop and scream at Zach being #like 'Josh‚ or fucking somebody else‚ they went up there and if they found Daryl alive—' LIKE BRO. YOU *KNOW* HE WAS DEAD. #YOU KNOW. YOU KNOOOOW. YOU WERE THERE. YOU KNOW HE WAS ALREADY DEAD. the denial. the trying to find any fucking way that #there could be even a sliver of a possibility that it WASN'T even PARTIALLY his fault.... shifting the blame entirely onto Josh... #[plus like. the 'somebody else' only added in after Charlie was giving him shit for trying to complicate this more—at first he was #straight up saying Josh was the one that fucked with the body]... aghghghsfd he makes me INSANE #also fwiw. i'm forever a 'Josh didn't harm anyone on purpose until AFTER his fight with Zach at Zach's house' truther. that provides #at least SOME sort of motivation to push him over an edge into... the shit that happens. anything before that just fuckin' doesn't make #sense. To Me. ive already written a lot on my thoughts about all of that though [uhhh in the tags of my gifset of the fight at Zach's house #anyways. im also NOT trying to say 'ah so we should Just Blame Zach' because nah nah this whole thing was a fucked up accident. they're all #to blame. plus Josh did horrible shit at the end On His Own there's no way of getting around that—but the messiness of how Zach handled the #initial incident and how that ripples out across the whole movie is simply soooooooo... ghghGHGhghGHGhghghgh. To Me. #in conclusion: im soooooooo normal about the characters in this movie (<- lying)

[sleepy-bunbun-ace]

i'm going to be honest, i have no idea for any events in the sekai swapped leaders au other than tsukasa being forced to actually go to school in person because a student hacked the online school website/program/whatever and now it's down until the situation is resolved.

since kanade is in wonderlands x showtime in this au, she would be going to school in person since she doesn't have the need to compose 24/7. tsukasa on the other hand....

oh well, at least he can finally meet amia (or well, mizuki) in person since kamiyama was the closest school to him. the event would focus around him and his struggles about adjusting to in person school again and what happens in there after being online for so long. also having to adjust to not composing 24/7 or eating cup noodles for every meal. he can cook but it takes his time from composing.

he does meet rui, nene, kanade, and emu personally though. i'm still deciding if kanade goes to miya with emu or kamiyama. maybe he can reconnect with an old friend while he's there...

at least the lie he tells saki about going to school isn't a lie now.

#ace rambles about aus #sekai swapped leaders au #sekai swap au #project sekai #tsukasa tenma #i swear i will post more about the other leaders i'm just biased towards wxs in general #anyways i still haven't decided if he should stay in school but it's partially online or full online school again #first idea means he attends some classes in the classroom and the rest are online #which would be funny on days he doesn't come in uniform bc online students wouldn't be required to wear them #anyways kanade and emu are immediately adopted because tsukasa will always collect siblings like pokemon cards #this event is filled with angst since tsukasa is not the extroverted star we know and love but he does find a support system in wxs #would this take place before the doll festival event where i plan to have tsukasa tell saki the truth? probably not! #this seems more like a later event #this event would feature dissociation sensory overload and tsukasa ignoring his chronic pain #that last part would be explained in another event that would be niigo focused instead of mixed unit #this was brought to you by me freaking out that the kalicocoa liked my ss!ichika post

[voltronrenaissance]

well now I’m thinking abt les4bi hance ….. I think lance and hunk have always been a little in love with each other. I think both of them assumed the other one doesn’t feel the same, or that they aren’t REALLY in love, they’re just in love the way best friends are always a little in love.

so they pushed it to the back of their minds and they didn’t say anything when they were roomies at the garrison and hunk caught lance looking at him a little too long when they were getting dressed in their uniforms. and they didn’t say anything when they accidentally went to see a horror movie that they didn’t know was a horror movie and hunk wrapped himself around lance’s torso and hid his face in lance’s neck. and they didn’t say anything when they snuck a bottle of wine into their room and got drunk together and maybe kissed just to see what it felt like. and it felt like sparks and it felt right and it felt whole and they didn’t say anything because it would change everything.

and then hunk come out as a lesbian and lance doesn’t know how to feel. shouldn’t he feel heartbroken that he doesn’t have a chance? why doesn’t he? why does his heart only squeeze with longing?

and then, a year later on the castle ship, lance finally comes to term with her transness. shes a girl, at least sometimes she is, and she wasn’t heartbroken because hunk loves girls and lance is a girl too!

but there’s still years of friendship between them and the ghost of the drunken kiss on their lips keeps them in the limbo of friends who are in love and neither of them are brave enough to step over the line and say I want this, I’ve been waiting for this

so there’s stolen glances, hunk’s fingers brushing against lance’s neck while he helps her try on some fun wigs, lance pressing herself against hunk entirely because she has no sense of personal space, holding hands when they walk together, lance doing a bit and feeling her heart pound when hunk “yes, and”s her because he’s always so in sync with her and they’ve always fit together like puzzle pieces but

they’re just best friends, right?

#partially inspired by the romantic friendship I had with my best friend in high school LOL #this post is brought to you by lesbians who are best friends who are in love #hance #um im in my feelings tonight. clearly #voltron #lance #hunk #hank.txt

[random2908]

I considered fasting this year. But then I had a migraine tonight that lasted into this morning. So no, I will not be attempting that..

Pikuach nefesh, your life and your health comes before all else.

But also, if you're not fasting, you're supposed to eat whatever you want! If you have to break the fast because you aren't feeling well, you can eat anything--a pregnant woman can be given even a ham sandwich on Yom Kippur, as the saying goes. Don't feel bad and punish yourself by avoiding foods you like or something; the point of the fast was never punishment in the first place.

#this post brought to you by a bizarre suggestion I saw in the notes of another post #that eating only bland foods would count as a 'partial fast' #I'd say drinking water but not eating counts as a partial fast #but once you're not fasting you should just own that #because taking care of your health is a higher mitzvah than fasting for Yom Kippur

[fallen-elytrian]

I’m watching the Eret lore and experiencing emotions

This is going to be long and I’m not sorry

Just. Imagine you’re Eret. You join your friends cause, fighting against an oppressive nation. And you become close with the leader. It’s hard not to. Tommy, Tubbo, and Fundy are all children. You and Wilbur are the two adults in charge. You become friends. Good friends. Best friends, even.

But suddenly things get away from you. Things are getting too violent. You just want everyone to be friends again. To be peaceful again. So you betray your allies. You betray the comrades who trusted you with their lives. You betray your best friend. And you don’t fully realize the consequences of your actions. Not yet.

You do, eventually. When you see lmanburg not give in. When you see them keep fighting despite your betrayal. And you realize your mistakes. And how alone you are. And you left your best friend to run a revolution. Alone.

And you repent! You regret. You feel bad, you try your best to make amends. You throw away your crown and every power you have. To help your friend. For one last fight. One last time.

He seems to accept you! To accept your help. And you join forces with him and you agree to fight. And you almost get close again. Not quite like it was before. But it’s better. And you think you can become friends again. Maybe best friends again. Not now. Later. After the fighting is over. Maybe things can go back to how they were before.

And you win! You fight with Wilbur. You fight with pogtopia. You beat back Dream and Schlatt, and pogtopia wins! And maybe there can be peace. Maybe people can be free. Maybe you and Wilbur can heal.

Until suddenly Wilbur isn’t there among the crowd anymore. And people are looking for him. And they’re scared. And there’s whispers of a traitor. And you go looking for him. And maybe you’re running up the hill, running to where you can here Phil and Wilbur’s voices.

And the last thing you hear your best friend say, before ringing fills your ears and dust fills your eyes and the only thing that’s left of the nation your fought for is a crater. The last thing you hear him say:

“There was a saying. By a traitor. ‘It was never meant to be’”

How does that make you feel

#god I forgot #i forgot how much I loved this duo #this post is partially brought to you by the fact that eret x wilbur was one of the original popular ships for dsmp #who else remembers that #you get a senior discount if you do #like me ha #anyway it’s eret feels hours #more credit to eret actually for not just losing it after this #if I were them I’d start killing #anyway #dream smp #dsmp #dream smp lore #dsmp lore #wilbur soot #wilbur dream smp #wilbur dsmp #eret #the eret #eret dream smp #eret dsmp #dream smp lore spoilers #dsmp lore spoilers

[fidgetspringer]

I'm sitting my ass down and studying digital painting until i'm good at it, don't care how fucking long it takes.

I remembered that i'm half decent at it and now i'm clinging to the boost it gave me like it owes me money.

#brought to you by the character study i just did that fell a lil short #but not only did i draw a human (kind of) person #but i also partially rendered it (though not as well as i'd like) #so now i'm beating the fundamentals of this shit into my stupid head until it sticks #maybe i can get to a point where art is worth the suffering again #i'm gonna go over today's study with a fresh eye tomorrow and see what i could do differently #i might put up a post as well asking for prompts at some point for stuff i can practice rendering

[artemislosthunter]

also being a honkai cosplayer is a lot of fun bcs why on earth am I moots with people who have hundreds to thousands of followers-

#this post was brought to you by me who just stared in disbelief when a popular Aponia cosplayer followed me unprompted w/o warning #just from seeing that I cosplay Su and will cosplay more Honkai characters in the future #and also partially by the 5 new people I met at the last big con that follow me who are all in the hundreds #listen idc abt follower count but that just made me sit there like 'hUH YOU CHOSE TO FOLLOW ME OF ALL PEOPLE NOW'

[megslovesbooks]

Rewatching Hero Complex and man Bryce Durfee flipping crushes it in this episode, his casual cruelty, his blithe ego, that turn on a dime ‘I’m not sloppy’. It’s so damn good. Also, I’m never going to be over that fast food cup prop work. So solid.

#911 on fox #i was going to do a full rewatch this month #but I’ve just ended up rewatching my favorites + 5b #oh well #jonah greenway #we love to hate him #(this post partially brought to you by my very real concern that we are not done with jonah #like #they don’t always play the long game but this seems plausible)

[fallout-lou-begas]

If you’re playing Elden Ring, especially by the mid-game I recommend at least trying each boss solo a few times before using summons, and using some other summons before using your Mimic Tear, because I honestly regret using my Mimic Tear right away to just make total mincemeat instantly out of a couple bosses now because it’s made the actual boss encounter feel way too quick, disposable, and trivial, compared to how memorable and hard-fought every boss I faced in the early game felt. I love the spirit summons in Elden Ring but it does suck how many magnitudes by which the Mimic Tear outclasses every single other summon if you want to play “optimally.” Personally my favorite summon is Latenna the Albinauric because she’s my wife, since I’m playing a mostly-pure martial brawler with a halberd that uses light magic, skills, and items to stack buffs, having fixed ranged support compliments my approach really well (and I get super heated and protective whenever the enemy tries to aggro her instead of me, despite dividing aggro being the whole point of summons). I’m tempted to level up my Souljars of Fortune spirit ashes just because they’re hands down the cutest summons in the game like oh my god just look at the little guys go

#this post partially brought to you by how I conquered all of caelid and beat radahn and the godskin apostle right after liurnia #which was a hard as fuck uphill battle the whole time but so incredibly fun and rewarding despite the difficulty #especially all the dragons in the dragonbarrow! that was a blast! #and only did ranni's quest after; and only explored the altus plateau after that #so now i feel overpowered lmfao #i beat the lichdragon in fia's deathdream with my mimic tear in like ninety seconds in one try and was just like...m #huh. that should have felt better #anyway! i'm rambling #elden ring #louposting

[musicalchaos07]

I'm loving that so far the fanfic immersion breaks are 1. Technology 2. Money 3. Terminology

#like the post is past containment but #these are all true for me as well #like I'm not trying to be a big hater #also id never complain in a writers comments #like thats wild #also that post was partially brought to you by seeing gaslighting in a fic