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may-the-silicon-be-based · 2 years

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the worlds I: hell

I use the word hell as short hand for my worlds, its not the actual biblical hell. In universe hell and its inhabitants are not celestial or religious figures, rather humans saw aliens on earth and it got adapted into various myths and religions. Again in universe this kind of stuck as a naming system but there is an understanding that when people art talking about their home world they are not talking about the biblical hell.

the only habitable zone on the planet, to its residents knowledge, is the network of caves deep beneath the planet's surface which is currently inaccessible my any means. they could be kilometers underground with no way to know if the space above them is even safe.

Because of this there is no way to know where their planet is in the universe and very little possibility for space travel outside the wormholes within the cave system. the residents have noticed a slight discrepancy in time between earth and their home, a tiny and minuscule deviation between the two, it could be the wormholes, they could orbit a black hole, either way its unlikely that their world has a star.

the caves are geothermically heated by the planets core, the magma in great seas of molten rock. This is where life began on this planet, with temperatures hot enough to support the development of silicon based life. most of the caves where people actually live are quite large, having high ceilings and being overall expansive. most of the caves are made from igneous rock. water does surprisingly exist in hell, most of it being trapped as permafrost or in glaciers. generally it doesn't rain in hell ( have no idea what a scientific explanation would be fore this just that like aesthetically that's what's going on

hells atmosphere is dense and polluted, all the exposed volcanic activity means the atmosphere is rich in carbon monoxide, and while there is enough oxygen there to support human life, CO presence makes the atmosphere toxic. the pressure is also greater than that of earth, the difference is great enough that without specialized adaptations going though a wormhole would cause injury or death.

the lack of a star means there are no seasons or day-night cycle. with the inhabited enviroment also being underground this leads to a very stable ecosystem that doesn't have to worry about most mass extinction events coming from space. in the case of volcanic eruptions, most organisms have already adapted to volcanic activity and again lack of sunlight thus volcanic winters also have little effect. hell has had far less mass extinctions than earth, some species lineages are very very long.

i take a lot of inspiration from the deep see when writing hell, because it is also an enviroment that lacks sunlight. as one might expect there are no plants, there are still many autotrophs that feed off chemicals, especially methane, and thermotrophs which utilize thermal energy (this does not exist irl unlike chemotrophs). There are also very few mega-fauna, the only large animals being the sentient demons (will be discussed later), and maybe a few species analogous to things like foxes or hyaenas, scavenging is a good survival strategy here.

hell is neither completely frozen over or completely boiling, temperature varies based on distance to the aforementioned seas of magma, there are areas that 100% are frozen and others where liquid water couldn't even try to exist. most inhabited areas lean on the cold side at around 10 degrees, to still have access to water but to be close enough to glaciers to supply it. hotter temperatures can be tolerated but up until recently building large cities near coasts was impossible.

#worldbuilding #world building #writing #write #wirteblr #scifi #sci-fi #sci fi #sci fi books #planets #outerspace #writer on tumblr #original fiction #world lore #scifi worldbuilding #‟no under no circumstance will i shut up about the silly little silicon based life forms i made and their silly little planet‟#‟it may be uninhabitable to most but its home okay guys‟

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selenafreshfriendkidoaf · 2 years

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Dreaming of someone

What Does a Fantasy About a Companion Biting the dust Imply? 1. Dread Obviously, nobody needs to lose something significant in their life. That holds, particularly assuming that extraordinary something is a companion who makes you grin and supports you in all your undertakings.

Dreaming of someone

Companions assist us with celebrating great times and deal support during awful times. They forestall depression and sensations of disconnection by offering friendship.

Other than that, a companion can assist with working on your self-esteem and certainty and even adapt to injuries like disease, separate, the passing of a friend or family member, and employment misfortune.

Figuring in this multitude of advantages, it's a good idea that you could feel uncertain when your companion is away for quite a while. The frailty could raise various feelings, dread being one of them.

These feelings frequently get enhanced by your psyche mind. Along these lines, you will undoubtedly encounter upsetting dreams of your companion kicking the bucket.

In any case, stress not! Such dreams don't mirror what's going on in your cognizant existence.

2. Unsettling influence Dreams about a companion biting the dust are a typical kind of pressure dreams. These are dreams that happen while you're feeling worried, restless, or under tension in your life.

They're connected to expanded cortisol, a chemical that directs feelings of anxiety, and frequently leaves you with a sensation of looming destruction.

You could encounter these fantasies while managing past or present injury, work tension, or significant life altering events or occasions, similar to death or separation.

While you probably won't keep away from distressing dreams, attempt to track down powerful methods for facilitating your pressure and nervousness.

If not, these fantasies could adversely affect your actual body, feelings, and soul.

3. Negative Considerations Negative considerations are not something terrible, as long as you don't follow up on them. All things considered, longing for your companion kicking the bucket could depict outrage towards your companion or a sensation of envy.

Maybe your companion deceived you by laying down with your soul mate, sharing something you let them know in certainty, or pursuing a position you need.

These circumstances can work up regrettable contemplations, like taking one's life. Furthermore, the fantasy land can furnish you with the setting to follow up on your viewpoints.

On the other hand, a fantasy of a companion passing on could address your longing to change your companion. Perhaps your relationship has gone in a new direction as of late. You feel like your companion's mentality towards you has changed, and presently you don't feel so close.

However, recall, you can't drive anybody to change, even your companion. Any endeavors can cut off your friendship, and you don't need that.

The best thing to do is to plunk down and talk with your companion. Attempt to grasp the explanation for the change.

In the event that you can never really save the companionship, it's likewise OK. In some cases, you want to acknowledge an adjustment of life, regardless of whether it's hard.

4. Partition Ideally, individuals could be companions until the end of time. In any case, we don't live ideally, isn't that right?

As disheartening as it could appear, most dear kinships end. Life is brimming with startling changes and difficulties that can make a fracture between companions.

For instance, in the event that a companion moves to one more state or country for a new position or advanced education, it could demonstrate challenging to keep up with similar degrees of connection you used to have.

While it's feasible to stay in contact through calls and online entertainment, it could arrive at when your companion won't be as free to you any longer.

Most likely your companion will be more keen on their schooling or profession than in you. Over the long haul, the nearby bond both of you framed will vanish.

5. Way of life Changes Longing for your companion biting the dust could represent specific life altering events that could propel you to isolate from your caring companion.

For instance, your companion probably won't adjust to you when you get hitched and may favor keeping away from you. This is typically a sign that they're not prepared or ready to conform to your new way of life.

On the off chance that you notice your dearest companion maintaining a separation, it's wise to examine their sentiments to comprehend what is going on better.

Your kinship could likewise debilitate when you have a child. That is on the grounds that you will invest more energy with your child and not your companion.

On the off chance that this occurs, your companion could find it hard to interface with you and become a piece of your life.

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sanstropfremir · 2 years

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✨🎥

Also even though academic titles are sometimes encouraged to get the knowledge, they are not as necessary if you know how to adapt. I primarily work with the producers of the film, being on the film or at the office with the execs (now more on the developing stages of different international project with very Big and Well Known Film Companies) and more often that not it’s more about your flexibility and adaptability that having a title. I do have an Audiovisuals degree and a masters focused on Eastern Asia and its cinema but I lack any official language title. When I got hired by the company that I am now I started working right away without being interviewed by the boss because she would arrived the following week but they needed someone asap. I got recd by my previous prod boss that also worked with them in the past and I got hired almost on the spot (got recd one morning, they asked me to send my cv that afternoon, called me within 15 min to have an interview the next day, and hired meby the thrid day to start working INMEDIATELY). I had to helped them with some national public funds submissions for THREE different projects 💀while preparing things for the premiere of their latest movie at Venice (they didn’t know my English level btw, I’m just very good at it and especially at the film business type of mail so I had no prob). I met the boss at my day 3 since she was coming from abroad. Then 2 weeks later my coworker had vacations and I had to do things on my own. On top of that my boss’s father got really sick and taken to the hospital so she was working under minimum and leaving things at my discretion to understandingly take care of his very sick dad. So in less that a month I was doing a lot of things on my own even though I just started. They took a HUGE gamble on me that paid off cause I’m extremely good at my job. I adapt very well onto many situations, I’m very resourceful and don’t crack under pressure. Needless to say, they were very happy with me and offered me a fixed position. So even though the titles are a good way of proving that you have (at least) some knowledge, there are not as necessary on the industry as many outsider people think

you are absolutely right! even though i went to theatre school i wouldn't necessarily recommend going unless you really want to learn the academics and theory behind what you're doing. it's maybe a bit more important for actors or if you want to do something really specialized, but if you can find a way to get in to the industry then just do it! adaptability and willingness to learn are actually what will get you places, rather that just having a degree. school can be a good place to start and can make you some preliminary connections and give you a structure for learning technical skills, but a lot of that you can learn off the internet for free now anyways.

#school is not the be all end all have no fear #also the being resourceful and not cracking under pressure: SO IMPORTANT #you gotta be able to keep a good head on your shoulders and problem solve #industry talk #✨🎥 anon #answers #text

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blu-joons · 3 years

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Graduation Day ~ Kim Namjoon

“It was never in doubt,” Namjoon chuckled, opening his arms up to engulf you into a tight hug as you walked down the steps of the stage, holding tightly onto your certificate.

With a sigh of relief, you happily walked into his open arms, feeling them instantly wrap around your waist, pulling you closely into his side. At last, he could feel how comfortable you were, with all of the stress finally to one side.

For far too long he had held you in a state of panic and worry, and at long last, you were able to relax and know that it was all worth it.

“I can’t even tell you how proud I am of you,” Namjoon whispered closely into your ear, “seeing your hard work pay off is all that I’ve wanted to see for so long.”

Namjoon had been there through it all, the many ups and downs that came with your three years at university. Whether he was miles away, or in your dorm, he’d been right there to pick you up or cheer you on when you needed that little boost.

There were many long hours that came with the distant, many tears shed over how hard it was being away from each other, but as you always reminded each other, your degree was the steppingstone you needed to achieve your dreams.

“Does it feel real now?” Namjoon quizzed, pulling away from you, glancing down at your certificate.

Your smile instantly widened as you looked down at the paper and saw your name written on it with your grade just underneath. For so long you doubted if this moment would ever come, but now it had, you could never quite express how relieved you were.

“Crazy, right?” He chuckled, not needing much to know exactly how you were feeling. “I can’t believe I’m dating a graduate.”

“I’m struggling to still believe it too,” you laughed in response to him, looking up from your certificate to meet his eyes. “Writing that dissertation a few weeks ago I never imagined that this day would actually arrive.”

There had definitely been plenty of moments when you were keen to give up, usually relying on Namjoon to help you out. He’d never seen you so stressed, at times he often felt helpless in knowing what he could do for you.

He never lost the faith in you that you so often did though. Namjoon knew that if you kept pushing, you’d get things done and reach the moment you found yourself in. He never doubted you, well aware of just how talented you were.

“This is the first step to fulfilling your dreams,” he pointed out to you, “this piece of paper can take you to so many places that used to feel so far away.”

Your head nodded as your smile widened once again, “I can finally tell people that I did it, rather than that I’m doing it, especially all of the people that doubted if I’d get it done.”

Namjoon’s arm moved around your waist, holding onto the material of your gown that you had unfastened as you came off of the stage. It wasn’t much, but Namjoon knew the gown was one of the biggest signs towards showing just how hard you’d worked.

He could still remember how you used to dream about the day you’d graduate with your cap and gown, well before you were even ready to apply for universities. And as he still did now, he was there back then too to remind you that you’d reach your dreams.

Just like you had always supported him, Namjoon was determined to be there for you over the past three years. The blood, sweat and tears were hard, both on your side, and on his, but the outcome, and the moment you shared were well worth all of the turmoil.

“Who knows where I’ll go from here,” you suddenly whispered, taking Namjoon slightly by surprise. “There’s so many pathways that have suddenly opened up for me, and I’ve got no idea right now which one I want to take, or what my end goal might end up being.”

“There’s no point worrying about that too much for now,” Namjoon smiled, pressing a kiss against the top of your head, “just enjoy the now, enjoy being a graduate, enjoy celebrating all of your hard work with all of the incredible friends that you’ve made.”

“You’re only saying that because I’m yours now for the next few months.”

As a reward for graduating, Namjoon had managed to organise the time to bring you with him on the short Asian tour that the boys were preparing for. It was the perfect excuse to finally spend some proper time with you and give you the break that you needed to figure out your next step without putting too much pressure on yourself too.

Your eyes rolled as Namjoon proudly nodded, “you’ll get sick of being around me so much after so many months apart from each other.”

“Being apart for so long is the exact reason why I want you glued to my hip for the next few months,” he teased, “even if it isn’t quite home.”

“Home is always with you,” you softly spoke, “having your support throughout all of this has made me feel as if I’m always at home, even if I’m not.”

It didn’t matter where in the world he was, Namjoon always made sure to pick up the phone for you. Seeing you leave Seoul was hard for him, but slowly the two of you learnt to adapt. As he so often reminded you, the few weeks or months you’d spend apart now would soon be made up for once you graduated and took the next step.

“You won’t know what to do with yourself now without a textbook stuck in your hand all the time,” Namjoon joked, “you can start having human conversations again too.”

“It’s going to take a while to get out of the rhythm of studying after so long.”

“That’s where I come in,” he laughed.

Your hand pushed gently against his arm, “a small part of me still thinks I’m crazy for agreeing to travel with you, you might be the one to drive me insane, not university.”

Although it would take a while for you to adapt to changing your routine after so long, there was no greater time to do it than travelling the world with Namjoon. For too long he’d been by your side through struggles, he was ready to flip that around and stand by your side with a wide smile.

“Think about me, it’s been a long time since I’ve got this much time with you,” he smiled.

“Maybe we’ll drive each other insane,” you suggested jokingly, “by the end of the tour we might never want to speak to each other again.”

“Well, I know for a fact that that’ll never happen, I for one am looking forward to seeing you start the next chapter of your life and continue reaping the rewards that are coming your way for all of the hard work you’ve put into this.”

Your eyes looked back to Namjoon once again, “I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for supporting me throughout all of this the past three years.”

“It’s my pleasure, I’m just excited to continue to see you grow.”

“As a graduate?”

“As the best graduate in the world.”

---

Masterlist

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spotofimagines · 3 years

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Rivals Last ~ Jadon Sancho

A/N: So I had this in my drafts before he signed with man united but that's fine, we move, we adapt. A third piece for the @footballffbarbiex summer challenge. Hope you enjoy it :)

Warnings: none - reader is female

Summary: You love both your brothers dearly, but being in the football world with them can make some things a little complicated.

gif by @archivesbvb - gif by @ermuellert - gif by @italynt

Being a footballer meant living in a special world. Being in a footballing family meant living in a special world too. Being the younger sister of Lucas and Theo Hernandez meant living in a really special world. But nobody told you just how crazy it would be for all three of those things to apply to you.

You truly love watching your older brothers play football. They teach you something new during every match you see; even though you play as a striker, their movements and handling of the ball always inspire you to play better. After all, it was their defensive skills that helped you become a good goal scorer growing up since they never let a tackle go unchallenged in the park and you had to find out how to manoeuvre around them. A lot easier said than done.

Currently Lucas is signed with Bayern Munich. In his time there so far, he has learnt the heritage, history, and importance of wearing the badge and defending its honour in every match they play, especially derbies. Having supported Lucas, it quickly became easy for you to support Bayern Munich too and celebrate their victories like it was your own team. You'd always managed to do it with the clubs both your brothers played for, letting the atmosphere of the fanbase carry you away.

You have just finished your second season in England with Manchester City women's team. You'd settled in nicely now, having learnt a lot of the English language and culture already. The experience was made so much easier because of the help given by your welcoming teammates and the staff that translated things into French and Spanish during your first months there.

Fans were a little disappointed during the 2019 summer transfer window when it was confirmed all three Hernandez siblings would be leaving Spain to play separately in England, Germany and Italy, joking that no one could know what might happen with you all so far away. However, to you, it made things easier, as Lucas and Theo would stop making so many awful jokes about each other's clubs, only to join forces to diss your club even more afterward. Now the only connection you have to the clubs you all play for is the want for your sibling to win with them. And it is a great feeling. A welcome change of pace.

But no new change to your life felt as good as your blossoming "relationship", situationship, whatevership, you have with Jadon Sancho.

It all started with you flirting back and forth on social media, which turned itself into countless hours of DMs no one else could see. You congratulated his goals and he congratulated your wins. All the light-hearted teasing and the warm-hearted compliments stayed in your own little bubble. The only thing peeking out was your silly inside rule that if you were going to comment on a post, it had to be emojis only, stretching to a few words if you really couldn't help yourself - but it would earn you taunts from the other for the rest of the night.

Some eagle-eyed fans noticed how you'd been liking each other's posts every time they appeared for a while now, but it just added to the fun and thrill you got from flirting with him so much.

You weren't meant to be forming a bond with Jadon. He played for your brother’s rival. He was supposed to be the enemy. Someone you should dislike with a snap of your fingers. Certainly not a boy to fall for like you have.

You couldn't help yourself. Lucas and Theo had helped you since you moved to England by being the steady rocks they always were, cheering you on from afar. Your new teammates had helped you since you moved to England by introducing fun things for you all to do together and taking you under their wings. But Jadon had helped you in a different kind of way. He gave you a new kind of comfort and reassurance when you talked. He became someone to turn to with all your interesting news and your curious problems. He told you the good places to visit around the city that he remembered from his time there and taught you English slang to make your teammates laugh. You spoke three languages to varying degrees now, and you'd managed to pick up more German vicariously through Lucas in two years faster than Jadon had done living in Germany in four years, so you'd clue him into rude German phrases you had asked Lucas about, alongside the French and Spanish swear words he used more often than English ones now when you text.

Even though a language barrier comes up once in a while, you have both learnt behaviours from each other and crave the contact you share. Jadon was starting to drop everything to send replies to you, a change his teammates have noticed and jokingly mock him for. Little did they know the unknown girl they joke he is smitten over is the sister of their rival.

Theo is the one in your family you usually tell about the boys you go out with; boyfriends and dates have been shared with him since you were 13 and doting on your first crush. He does the same with his girlfriends; asking advice and telling you more than you need to know at times. So, when you all went home for a bit of family time around Christmas, nothing could stop him from noticing the tell-tale signs that you had something going on. He already figured out through persistence that it was another player you were getting involved with, and his insistent questioning hasn't stopped in his search for who the player is.

But you keep it hidden from Lucas, and you don't know when you'll tell him. He has been your protector since you were kids, comforting you on sad nights when no one else was there, teaching you little secrets about how to navigate through the world, he even punched a boy who teased you once at school. The idea of telling him you were chatting romantically to another player would be trouble enough, but telling him it was a Dortmund player might just end up in another schoolground incident. You hadn't wanted Theo to know for fear he'd go dishing your dirt to Lucas, but he discovered it on his own and there was nothing you could do.

Who knows what might become of this thing you have with Jadon, and lord knows your eldest brother owns a hard as nails death stare that just might do Jadon in, but for now you actually quite like having the secret. A little mystery tucked away up your sleeve.

The rush you always get when Lucas calls your phone as you're typing a text to the Englishman, feeling as though the first words from the other end will be shouts of how he knows everything and he'll never speak to you again for keeping it a secret, fills you with dread at times. But it never is the reason he calls, and it turns out he is just making plans or has something funny to tell you. But the way your heart thumps as you go back to texting Jadon, that is part of the chase you have to admit you enjoy.

Hardcore fans online have noticed the past few months that when you do interviews in English, the odd slang term comes up during jokes - terms you hadn't used before and stem more from London boroughs than northen towns - so speculation of how you'd learnt these things easily coincided with dating rumors.

Lucas had seen the speculation online; seen fans trying to put your interactions with the Dortmund player together through both your instagram stories and comments and the tweets you both had liked about the other. Lucas had even grown suspicious of the little questions you asked him about Germany, German phrases and his lifestyle there, not knowing why you would need nor want to know those things. But Lucas doesn't believe it. He knows that you know better to mix with a Dortmund boy.

Sometimes an older brother just doesn't get it quite right…

Soon, the chance will come to really see if your connection is something you can build on. Jadon's new signing with Manchester United has been confirmed and he will be moving back to England. It is a great opportunity to get to see him more often, rather than the odd rendezvous point or clandestine trip during small breaks in the season. You'll spend more time face to face instead of over the phone. You'll get to wake up in his bed and him in yours, without needing to sneak away from hotel rooms afterwards. You'll maybe even get to go on a proper date, just the two of you, where you can flirt across the table your joined hands rest upon. Hanging out with Jadon won't be the first time you've spent time together in person. However, getting a full day with only the two of you where you won't have to pretend you hardly know who he is, and you won't have to pretend your eyes aren't meeting across the group of people you're in - it fills your stomach with knots and butterflies.

A certain pressure has fallen off you now Jadon has no growing rivalry with Lucas, but not completely. You won't be able to take back the way their teams made the other feel in the past, but the fact there won't be more of it next season comforts you a little. The biggest thing that will hold you back from going public before the new season starts will be the media, but that is an issue you can't even begin to worry about yet. You are too caught up in the excitement of being in the same town as Jadon to care. Rumours are spinning crazier than ever about you two as some of your liked tweets about his move got reposted by sports pages and fan blogs - now joking about him being your rival instead of your brother's - and yet it didn't stop you, no longer all that bothered about keeping a low profile now you both will be living away from Lucas. If he gets mad, all he will be able to do is shout down the phone, and whilst you never want that to happen, you know the time to flourish with Jadon and capitalise on the foundation you have already built is better than ever, brothers be damned.

There are big changes coming for the both of you, yet one thing will remain the same no matter the outcome of your relationship. You can't quite stop being football rivals.

#jadon sancho #lucas hernandez #theo hernandez #jadon sancho imagine #jadon sancho x reader #football #football imagine #oneshot #my fic #my og post

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aka-indulgence · 3 years

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I’m back with another episode of “I talked with @llamagoddessofficial and now I have to write something” dsfdkglh ok here you goo

also if you have thalassophobia/fear the deep sea especially you should probably not read this, because that’s where this takes place, and there’s a bit of a scary scene where reader’s in danger so beware!

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900m - 2955ft . . .

You watched the computer closely as you make your descent into the deep, empty waters.

You’re a researcher from the Ebott Aquatic Research Institute, and you’re currently aboard a research submersible, and you’re here to observe marine animals up close and personal. The advantage this had over robot-controlled subs was mainly visibility, and that you could react and adapt much faster.

You were excited to be granted the opportunity of something so... monumental, not just in your career, but to actually be here, in the deep sea where so few have ventured.

Now, traveling through the twilight zone... you were still excited. But you were also building with nervous energy, with not much space to move in, surrounded by darkness, and...

You’re alone.

You knew that far before your trip. The sub was designed for one person, after all.

(It had a main front “window”, shaped like a dome that provided a sort of “360 degree view”. The control table sat at the base, with you sat right behind it. It’s sides were metal and had side windows as well.)

But now that you’re here in the deep, far from any other human... from any other living being, seemingly surrounded by nothing but vast, empty waters... it’s quite the experience.

When you went down the continental slope, it looked more like the moon’s surface than anything earthly, not to mention the various creatures that passed by your lights. The bioluminescent creatures especially (you were lucky to come across a giant siphonophore on the way down) made your descent feels like you’re traveling through a portal to another world, unfamiliar to your own.

Surrounded by darkness, the only lights coming from your sub, with only the company being the sounds of the water outside, along with the little beeps the computer would make... it felt lonely, and to be honest, made you a bit nervous.

But you were still thrilled to be here, anyway.

You’ve travelled maybe for a couple of hours down here, and you were closing the distance that marked the transition from to the midnight zone. As you keep descending, you keep seeing less and less creatures. You haven’t any in over an hour by now.

950m - 3120 ft . . .

You watch the marine snow fall, and you’re feeling a bit restless from the inactivity. You’re nearing the end of your journey; after you reach the midnight zone, you’re supposed to maybe stay for 15 minutes before returning to the surface. You hope you’ll see something before having to return.

You’re just starting to wonder if you could place your elbow somewhere on top of the controls without pressing any buttons when you notice something moving around through one of the side windows of the submersible.

You immediately sit up as you lean into the window... two dots of white were floating by in the distance, and from the way it moved you know that’s not marine snow.

It’s... glowing? For a second, you think they must be eyes- only to shake your head on yourself. That can’t be it, can it? It’s probably some fish or other that had lights on its head and tail... who knows, maybe you’ve discovered a new species?

Yeah... that must be it. You try to reason with yourself, even as your heart starts to thump faster, keenly feeling like you’re being watched.

You hear the water burble and swish around you, and it sounds like... something big swimming around you.

You swallow nervously. When you keep staring at the white dots (lights?) you start to feel anxious, but you keep watching anyway. You almost jump in your seat (almost hitting your head) when you start to hear some sort of rumbling(?) coming from the outside. It was low and almost resembled some kind of old engine. Maybe it’s because you’ve been in the quiet for so long, but it felt like the sound shook you.

You try to keep your eyes on the- whatever it is out there, wary of what it actually is. Is it just you, or are those lights getting bigger? Closer? You find yourself leaning a bit away from the window, and watch as they slowly float its way above the sub, out of your view. You turn around and lean to the other window, expecting it to appear on the other side- when you see something out of the corner of your eye.

You gasp when you see a shadow slowly float its way across the lights, still a bit away from your sub. You can’t see the creature’s head, but you see... tendrils? Slowly making its way upwards to the left, before disappearing back into the darkness.

“... fuck,” You say emphatically as your brain provides you with the thought of is that a giant predator? It was attracted by your lights and is trying to figure out what you are. You might be in danger if it decides to attack.

You know it’s not very logical of you to assume that but... better safe than sorry, right?

Your eyes dart to the control panel. You turn off the engine before turning to the light switches. You flick them all off, including the internal lights, and you’re plunged into a world of darkness.

The constant whirring of the engines shut down, and for a few moments, you only hear the sound of the water swishing around you, that rumbling sound gone.

... and then you heard a sound that resembled an otherworldly shriek(?!) before it returned back to that rumble, but this time, it resembled a growl. Your heart leapt in your chest as you look around for the creature.

You spot the white dots, and it’s definitely closer. Your breaths are shallow as you’re praying to whoever’s listening that it’s going to leave (the behavior of deep sea creatures are largely a mystery, but it looked like a predator stalking you)... widening your eyes when you see it.

A string of light appeared from what seems to be a spine(?) all the way down, and you see that it does have tentacles, dotting across it up until the tips, lighting a very dim blue (if you weren’t surrounded by pitch black darkness, you probably wouldn’t be able to see it) that fades in and out of darkness.

In this poor lighting and your human eyes, you can’t really guess what the creature is aside that it had tentacles, but if you had to guess it’s size... it was about the size of the sub? Bigger?

You don’t know how far it is from you so you don’t know exactly, but from the sounds it makes and the brief shadow you saw earlier, big is probably not far off.

You could only hear the sounds of your own breaths as you wait it out, always watching where the glow was, wondering if its getting closer or if its just the trick of your mind. Your eyes weren’t built for this...

You stare at the feeble light for what feels like hours (though it must’ve been just a few minutes at most) when you realize you can’t see it anymore. You look at the windows, and your eye widens instinctively (you’re not going to get more light by doing that). You strain to see if the creature’s still out there, and you hate how completely helpless you feel because you swear you could see shadows just beyond the window, but you don’t know if you’re actually see something or it’s just your brain trying to make sense of the complete darkness.

Maybe it’s gone...?

You feel your whole body flinch when you see a blink of light nearby, and when you turn you see it’s your depth gauge.

1000 m - 3280 ft . . .

The midnight zone.

The glow of the numbers, resembling a digital clock seems like the brightest thing you’ve ever seen as you lean in to it. You turn your head up towards the main dome-window of the sub...

This time jumping when you see the two definitely lights looking back at you, closer than ever before. It was stationary now, and you realize those ARE eyes when you see a wide, gleeful grin appear just below it.

Suddenly, you see how the creature comes back to light- this time much, much brighter than before. It shoots like lightning, flashing from its spine down to its tentacles- which you realize were completely enveloping your submersible.

It’s suckers made rings of light on the windows and were squirming all over, and you scream when you followed them back to its owner.

It really was a skeleton- ribcage, arms and all. It (he?) almost looks like a human skeleton, except that his skull was much rounder, his jaws were fused, practically all of his bones were thicker than any skeleton model you’ve seen, and his hands were fused to make palm-like shapes.

And they were pressed right onto the window in front of you.

That clicking, rumbling sound started up again, and this time it actually shook you, coming from his skeletal part. You see how his expression changes into something dreamy as he tilts its skull and his eyelights settle on you. His cry starts to sound lighter, joyfully(?), as if he was happy to see you.

He closes his hand around the window and you see his tentacles (each about as thick as your torso!) waving from somewhere a human pelvis is supposed to be. You look back up to the skeleton when you hear a whine coming from him, a distressed look now taking his face as his fingers curl into fists in front of you and his tentacles look even more restless.

You lean away, into your seat. There’s this look of... want on his face, obsessively looking at you. Your heart sinks into your stomach when his face turns into something dark... angry... another frustrated cry coming out of him when he looks around you, and he tries to sink his fingers into the window.

You’re confused as to what he’s doing when you hear the metal around you groan under a pressure- a pressure he’s applying.

This sub was made to withstand extreme pressures, and he was able to to put it under stress.

And it looks like he’s trying to crack it open like an egg.

Adrenaline pumps through you and you throw your hands onto the control panel- if he can do that, now you’re in real danger! - and you turn the engine and lights back to life and take the lever for stirring the submersible, pulling it as hard as you can backwards.

You hear the engine rev and eventually whirring that sounds more like a drill than it does a propeller, and the sub starts to move back as the creature’s tentacles slip away from the windows.

The skeleton(-deep sea octopus?)’s sockets widen and a scowl appears on his face as it’s tentacles snap towards you, catching you back in its slimy hold- and in horror, you watch and feel as he tugs your whole sub towards him. This time you could see the muscles becoming taught all around you, his tentacles glowing almost angrily as he redoubles his efforts to crush your sub. He was snarling now, eyelights mere pinpricks, baring his teeth at you (or the sub?), the joints of his phalanges raised as he tries to break inside.

An alarm surprised another cry out of you, the warning symbol flashing on your computer’s screen. You didn’t have to read it to know what was happening- there was a dangerous amount of pressure around your vessel, and you have to do something.

Panic takes over you as the lights flash and you hear the metal groan and squeak even more, and even with the engine at full power, you can’t escape the monster’s clutches.

You turn into a ball, your vision blurring (with tears?).

Is this where I’m going to die? You sob. At least I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do... You laugh almost hysterically, hugging your knees, covering your head. You start to cry, sobbing and sniffling as the lights blink around you again.

It’s the end...

...

......

...........

... The sound stopped.

You sniffle for a little longer, your eyes feel dry from the sudden burst of tears, and then you dare yourself to look out from your arms.

... the creature is still in front of you, but he looks significantly calmer. His entire body looks like its gone lax, and there was this look of... surprise? On his face. His sockets were wide but so were his eyelights, and his fingers don’t look like they’re clawing at your window any longer. He locks eyes with you, and you feel like he’s looking deep inside you, and you can’t look away.

... slowly... he blinks, and his sockets are relaxed now. He’s not smiling, his teeth neutral, and you wonder what he’s doing now when you hear a sort of shhk noise coming from all around you. You realize he’s released his tentacles from the submersible, and is now floating in the middle of your lights.

He gives you one last look before he twists, and almost in the blink of an eye, he’s returned into the darkness, his bioluminescent lights becoming dim until you can’t see it anymore.

Your heart is still hammering in your chest, and at the back of your mind you note that panting and gasping like this probably isn’t doing your oxygen supply wonders.

The alarm is still sounding, and you see its warning you about minor damages to the sub and dwindling air supply. Thankfully, you still had quite the surplus for going back to the surface.

Considering the... events that just transpired, you decide its best to cut the trip short and return to the surface.

You think it might be the fastest ascent you’ve ever made.

----

You return to the surface without any further excitement, and your crew is surprised from how fast you returned to the surface. Thankfully, no one blames you for the short journey when they see the apparent dents in the submersible. You walk off the mothership and onto the dock tired, and you tell the others that you think you’ll be taking a break from using the sub for a while. You don’t want to look like a complete coward in front of them, and you hope you’ll be able to go again... so you tell them you’ll go again sometime, just not in the near future.

... it’s probably for the best, anyway.

You had no way of knowing, but a shadow had been following you through your whole trip back to the surface.

He’s never been to the surface before, and the world he sees is just as alien to him as his world was to you.

But he didn’t pay attention to that.

He stayed underwater, but he got a view of you, walking back off the dock, beautiful, lovely...

He hopes it won’t be the last of his encounters with you.

#sinister thoughts #deep sea cecaelia #eheee...#he wants you so much he forgot that you cant live in the deep sea #sdjfhgkh #sansxreader #hi llama sory for tagging u #deep sea sans

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leiawritesstories · 3 years

Text

Another Place

Nessian Week, Day 5: Alternate Universe (AU) Day

Yes, I took the prompt literally. ;)

Word count: 2914

Warnings: fuzzy science, fuzzy space mumbo jumbo, language

Skye Penderwick belongs to Jeanne Birdsall. All other characters belong to SJM.

@nessianweek

~~~~~~

“I’m heading out, Doctor.”

Dr. Nesta Archeron, who held a PhD in astrophysics, looked up from her desk. “All right, Skye, thanks for everything. See you tomorrow?”

“Absolutely. Don’t forget to sleep, Dr. Arch!”

“Never do, Dr. Pen!”

The other astrophysicist’s snort of laughter floated down the hall. “Yeah, right.”

Fine, maybe there were nights when Nesta stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, scribbling calculations on the chalkboards and in her notes, combing through theories of all the great scientists before her, adding bits and pieces to her own theory, and generally ruining her sleep schedule with badly timed, random “a-ha!” moments. But to be fair, seven years of developing a theory of alternate universes would do that to a person.

Seven years ago, she’d run across an anomaly on a deep-space image that didn’t match anything ever recorded or observed by any scientist, ever. And yet it was small enough that most scientists could easily overlook it; it blended into the edge of the nebula that was the focus of the image. Nesta had noticed it, though, and that small imperfection, the wrinkle in the darkness of space, rooted into her mind and stayed there, leading her to question what the hell that blur was and why the hell it was there.

Which in turn led her down the murky rabbit hole of various theories of wormholes and other flaws in space-time, none of which aligned with her observations. And then down the even murkier rabbit hole of theories (of varying degrees of coherence) of parallel and alternate universes. The alternate universe idea in particular intrigued Nesta, and she spent weeks researching every bit of information available, noting how it lined up with her observations, and finally coming to a realization that this image her team had captured could serve as visible, concrete evidence in favor of a theory of alternate universes.

She’d drafted the first bit of her theory and formed a small team to develop it by the next morning.

After five years, countless different images of the anomaly, multiple variations on complex equations, much screaming, and three lifetimes’ worth of coffee, Dr. Nesta Archeron hit a wall.

Literally and figuratively.

Because when she ran into what seemed like an insurmountable block, she punched the nearest wall as hard as possible.

The cracks still radiated across one wall of her lab.

That block, and her efforts to break through it, introduced her to Dr. Skye Penderwick, a brilliant American astrophysicist who, coincidentally, also happened to be fascinated by the theory of alternate universes, despite having no theory of her own. She’d been working at the same facility as Nesta for several months before the two actually met, and within days of Nesta inviting her into her lab, she’d proposed a potential solution to the Archeron team’s roadblock.

It worked.

Nesta offered her a collaborator position that very day. Skye accepted.

Two years later, they were on the edge of breakthrough. Both of them knew it. Both of them saw clearly where their calculations, their notes, their carefully chronicled, detailed observations of the motion of the anomaly, and their years of hard work were leading. The theory Nesta so elegantly posited was nearly complete. All the two self-described space nerds needed was something, anything, to hint beyond scientific explanation that on the other side of that anomaly laid an alternate Earth.

Unfortunately, that something hadn’t shown up quite yet.

For, despite all the remarkable achievements of space science--lightspeed travel, quantum leaping, imaging software capable of capturing formations’ minute details, even the discovery of other habitable planets in faraway galaxies--nobody had yet been able to present a coherent, plausible theory of an alternate universe.

Yet.

Sighing, Nesta pushed back from her desk and walked to the back of her laboratory. She placed her index finger in a barely visible indent in the pristine white wall. A panel slid silently open, revealing a space illuminated by a soft blue glow. A nondescript grey-and-cobalt pressure suit hung neatly in a glass case. Nudging the panel closed, Nesta opened the case and removed the pressure suit.

Hers.

For her…uncatalogued trips. Trips to the station her team had planted by the anomaly.

Trips which Nesta took regularly. She couldn’t risk any of her team traveling; each and every one of them was needed in the lab. No, it was her job and hers alone to make a regular leap to the station, check on their telescopes, and observe the anomaly up close.

She’d never tried to cross it. Not that she believed there was no passage; in fact, she’d painstakingly detailed the fascinatingly inexplicable illusion of a gap that appeared once every year, and had always failed to conclude if there truly was a gap.

Hence tonight’s little jaunt to the station. That gap had just appeared, and since it only showed for sixty hours, she had to go now.

So Dr. Nesta Archeron slid into her pressure suit, fastened the sleek boots and gloves, programmed the correct coordinates into the screen built into the underside of the suit’s left forearm, locked on her helmet, and keyed in the quantum leap sequence.

A blink later, she stood on the steel tiles of her team’s small, simple station deep in the reaches of outer space. Removing her helmet, Nesta allowed herself exactly three minutes to drink in the wonders of deep space.

Then she set the station’s timers for forty-eight hours, sat at the control panel, and piloted her space station/highly advanced spaceship into the gap in the universe.

For it was indeed a gap.

Commander Cassian Ilnair released the cockpit hatch of his sleek “interstellar exploration transport,” or, as he called her, the Millenium Falcon. Bloody government and their bloody idiotic pompous names for spaceships. That’s all it was, a spaceship, albeit a highly advanced, highly adaptable one that had carried him and up to four crew safely across nearly every corner of the universe and back to Earth.

Pulling his flight helmet off, he shook out his unruly shoulder-length hair, half- unzipped his navy blue pressure suit, and started postflight checks.

“She’ll need to be refueled and the usual before she travels again, but other than that, good as new,” he reported to his CO, a woman five feet tall if she was an inch whose impeccable, formidable exploration resumé and take-no-bullshit demeanor made up for her diminutive height.

“Excellent, Commander. I expect a full report on Disturbance AS-2947C by noon.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Cassian saluted.

“Dismissed.”

As he headed for the shower, Cass stole a glance at his wrist screen, which showed eight-fifteen a.m. Damn space time, he grumbled to himself, throws off my goddamn body clock. Luckily, he’d noted no significant change in that particular disturbance since the last time he visited it two weeks ago. That’d make his report much easier, indeed.

Sure, the disturbance was rippling ever so slightly, but it did that every year at this time and had been doing so since it appeared exactly seven years ago.

Not a single scientist in all the ranks of the space force could provide a plausible explanation, or even a cohesive theory.

Disturbance AS-2947C was just that, a disturbance. A puzzling, inexplicable snag in the fabric of space time that had just appeared one day and sat around for seven years, following a routine path of motion but not really moving anywhere, just pulsing, and showing a ripple for exactly sixty hours exactly once per year.

Cassian knew his brilliant astrophysicist friend Dr. Emerie Nguyen was developing a theory that AS-2947C was a wormhole, but so far she hadn’t found any evidence to support there being another side to it. So far, all Emerie could say was that this disturbance could very well be the concrete evidence of stable wormholes she and every other member of the space sciences sector had been chasing for years. And yet they were still chasing it.

He quickly showered and changed into his everyday uniform, slipped his wristband back on, and drew up a quick set of notes for the commodore. At exactly two minutes before noon, he knocked on her office door.

“Enter.”

Cassian stepped into the office, closed the door, and saluted. “Ma’am.”

“At ease, Commander. I believe you’re early today.”

“Some days I try to be punctual, Commodore.”

“I see.” She motioned to the west wall. “Report, Commander.”

Tapping three fingers twice against the wall, Cassian swiped an image from his tablet onto the wall, which doubled as a presentation screen.

“Today’s imaging of Disturbance AS-2947C shows no remarkable differences from the last set. The formation has not morphed or shifted noticeably in any direction.” He swiped to a new image. “The annual irregularity in the approximate center of the disturbance appeared on schedule roughly three hours before we arrived, making it now roughly seven hours visible.”

“Any notable observations about the irregularity?”

“No, Commodore. The irregularity is behaving exactly like it has for the six years we’ve observed it. It merely appears as what looks to be the illusion of a gap, holds steady for sixty hours, and disappears. We have never been able to decipher if the irregularity is in fact a gap or if it is simply a change in the observed color.”

“Have you never attempted to pilot your craft towards this irregularity?”

Cassian swallowed. “With all due respect, Commodore, yes. I believe you are familiar with the deep-space engine failure incident of last year?”

“I am.”

“That was my attempt to discover more about the irregularity.”

“Ah.” The commodore tilted her head, her eyes calculating. “Though I never did hear the pilot’s explanation of this failure.”

“First, may I ask what the engineers’ conclusion was?”

“The engineers concluded that the engine failure, which somehow you managed to prevent from becoming catastrophic, was the result of a power failure caused by the change in the conditions of space within the disturbance. They informed me that the engine short-circuited when your craft entered the boundary of the disturbance, but they could not explain or even theorize why.”

Cassian nodded. “I can theorize why. Commodore, I believe the power failed because, simply put, the way we fuel our crafts does not exist within the disturbance.”

“Are you implying that neither solar nor stellar energy exists within AS-2947C?”

“Yes, ma’am, I am. The instant I entered that region, my engines went completely silent. I had no time to observe anything else, as my immediate reaction was to reverse course and exit, lest I risk total craft failure and being stranded in the deepest parts of space. My craft regained power once outside the disturbance region, and I made it back, despite one of my engines being nonfunctional. As I’ve thought about it over the months, I can only come to the conclusion that the power cut off because there was no available power source.”

Commodore Amren considered Cass’s explanation. “It is logical, and it would explain why the engineers could not determine the cause of the failure. Power source failure, when rectified immediately, leaves behind no visible evidence within the engines of our craft.”

“Commodore, I still want to enter the disturbance. I believe that a craft carrying physical fuel could safely enter the region.”

“Physical fuel became obsolete decades ago, Commander.”

“And yet we still have stores. This is why. We knew there was a chance some mission might need to use fuel rather than energy to power its craft. This is that mission.”

“Commander, I’m afraid I cannot give you clearance to enter the disturbance. Not at the moment, at least. You know the regulations.”

Cassian sighed. “Right, right, seven days between active pilot duty.”

“There is one thing I can do, if you wish.”

“Tell me?”

“You may take a small stationary craft to the observation point. Stations do not qualify as actively piloted craft. I can assign you a seventy-two-hour observation mission, which will allow you to be as close to Disturbance AS-2947C as possible without endangering yourself or your craft, and also will allow you to report any noteworthy changes. Acceptable?”

“Accepted, ma’am. Thank you.”

The commodore nodded once. “I’ll get the assignment written up now. Prepare for launch at 1600 hours.”

Cassian snapped a salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Dismissed.”

Four hours later, Cassian’s small observation stationcraft left Earth’s atmosphere, set its destination coordinates, and blinked away into a quantum leap, arriving at the observation point in mere seconds.

Arrived at destination, the cool, mechanical autopilot voice announced. Artificial gravity effective in sixty seconds.

Cassian sat back, checking his harness. All secure.

Artificial gravity in effect.

Unbuckling, he stood up, pulled off his helmet, and walked to the windows, staring into the fascinating mystery of Disturbance AS-2947C. The irregularity rippled, gently, like he’d seen it do before, taunting him with the possibility of something on the other side. He stood there barely thinking, just marveling at the sight of this enigmatic corner of deep space.

And then the irregularity expanded. And a craft like nothing he’d ever seen flew out.

Nesta hadn’t known whether she was sane when she flew into the gap. Hell, she hadn’t known if she was thinking, let alone doing. If wormhole theory meant anything, then she’d expected a moment of terrifying flight through stark blackness that ended in her ship landing in some other, possibly uncharted, part of the universe.

She hadn’t been expecting to see an alien station.

But there it was.

The gap was a tunnel of sorts. And at the other end was a station Nesta didn’t recognize.

She directed her ship around the foreign station, intending to capture images for examination in her lab. But before she could key in the command to the ship’s cameras, her radio cracked with static. And then someone spoke.

“Who the hell are you?”

Nesta stared at the receiver, then dragged her gaze to the station. Standing in what looked like an observation deck was a man wearing a pressure suit and boots, holding a comm device to his mouth.

“I repeat, who the hell are you?”

“You tell me first. And while you’re at it, what the hell is that station you’re in?”

“It’s a standard observation craft, of course. Unlike whatever alien craft you’re flying.”

“This is a typical exploration ship, you coarse, callous idiot.”

“Like fuck it is.”

“What’s the matter, never seen a woman fly a real ship before?”

“Never seen that particular ship before in my entire life as a pilot. Or in any of my texts.”

“You’re telling me this very real ship I’m flying doesn’t exist?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then--” Nesta’s eyes widened in shock. “Pilot, may I have your name and credentials?”

“Commander Cassian Ilnair, Earth’s space force.”

“Earth’s space force,” Nesta muttered to herself, scanning through her mind for anything related to that name. Nothing. And then it hit her.

“Commander Ilnair, who leads your nation?”

“My nation?” He seemed confused by the word. “Nations melded into a global government centuries ago. President Amarantha currently heads the Global Council.”

A look of wonder crossed Nesta’s face. “It’s true…it’s true. I can’t believe it.”

“Believe what?”

“Commander, my name is Dr. Nesta Archeron. I’m from an alternate Earth.”

The man standing in the unfamiliar station dropped his comm device. And stared.

“Permission to attempt to dock at your station? We have some items to discuss.”

He sat down on the deck floor and picked up his radio. “Granted, if you can.”

Nesta flew a slow lap around the station, noticing two docking ports, both with airlocks that seemed oddly familiar. Hmm, she thought, airlock design is clearly universal. Aiming for the port closer to the observation deck, she carefully guided her ship into the space and sighed in relief when the hatch clicked into place with the station’s airlock.

“Connect the airlock to my ship, if you would?”

“What’s the magic word, Dr. Archeron?” Nesta swore she could hear his damn smirk.

“Please connect your airlock to my ship so I can explain myself.”

“Of course.”

Less than two minutes later, Nesta heard the familiar hiss of an airlock sealing into place around her ship’s hatch.

“Clear for exit, Dr. Archeron.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

Nesta placed her tablet and several images into her pack, slung it over her shoulder, released her exit hatch, and swiftly ascended the ladder into the station. The moment her head cleared, she was looking around, mentally cataloguing every detail of the spacecraft. It was basic, functional, only containing living quarters and an observation lab.

“Whenever you’re done gaping, Doctor, we can talk.”

Nesta turned to face the commander, who was leaning against a wall just outside the airlock. “There is a difference between observing and gaping, pilot, not that you would know.”

A cocky grin crept across his face. “Naturally, I’m just one of the best pilots in the universe, I wouldn’t know.”

“Your universe,” she corrected.

“What?”

“Your universe, Commander Ilnair. Or has your tiny brain already forgotten what I said about being from an alternate universe?”

He shook his head. “Right. Sorry, I’m still trying to process that.”

“As am I. Show me to the lab?”

“Not much to show, but follow me.” He led her down a short hallway onto the observation deck and laboratory, clearly the main space of the station. “Here we are. I believe you mentioned something about explaining yourself?”

“I did.”

He gestured toward her. “Go ahead.”

So she did.

#my writing #nessian week #alternate universe #enjoy

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everythingthemoontouches · 3 years

Note

Hi lovely soul! How are you doing? I was wondering if I could get spiritual insight on regards to my actual major. I am contemplating on quitting it but I don't know if I should do it because of my dad. I am studying architecture but my parents are infatuated with this idea more than I am, and I've think is that because of their pressure that I want to quit or I don't know if I should stick with the major, really is a complicated case I have here and is to short to write here but hope for urhelp

To start off, your ideal major / career

The King of Pentacles is a card of tradition, his power derived from his lineage 👑 I don't think it would be a bad idea for you to continue in this line of work. Moreover, he has the ability to generate massive income through earthy fields. Taurus being a fixed earth sign is all about things that endure.something that you can touch and is beautiful to look at. 🥝🍇🫐🥭Just like pretty seasonal, exotic fruit is. The Wine making 🍷imagery is hard to miss. Having said that, since the 7 of pentacles also turned up, I believe your interests may lie more in horticulture or cultivation. Cash crops, sustainable farming practices, etc. Perhaps even garden / landscape / exterior design? Plants are definitely involved since a lot of Virgo(mutable earth) related cards turned up later in the reading.

Do you have a Taurus midheaven?

Challenges you'd face if you kept to this major :

Death + 8 of cups

You can't keep doing the same thing over and over. Have to adopt some new patterns. There's a constant challenge of reinventing things, keeping them fresh. The same plans won't always work. Maybe take up a computer oriented design course. There are some tried and tested truths if the industry taht you would have to accept. Lots of new beginnings. And what do we say about new beginnings? Something must end first. So if you're someone who does not like being challenged to grow, take on the new, adapt, then thus is not the field for you. In this line if work, you may face a lot of rejection. Why? Because it's a service based industry and your clients have a lot of options. A lot of times when people go shopping they are not quite sure of what they want. They want to survey a bunch of options, potential make, design, material before they finalize their purchase. This could be a little disheartening. You must be prepared for some to walk away and not let it wound your pride. Stay true to yourself, keep a good work ethcu and know what your values, rates, style, modus operandi is. Go with the flow. Major Scorpio energy here. And a bit of Pisces with the man walking into the forest. You may also feel like there is something better out there for you. Also as the King of Pentacles, you don't wanna be told what to dooooo 🙄😅

#amiriteoramirite like the 9 of swords is just there like, nuuuh, I gotta fix everything, and definitely take their work to bed, brainstorming how they're gonna do so well in the morning.

What are your skills that shine through in your ideal line of work?

Need for things to be perfect. Overthinking. Attention to detail.

Creativity. Femininity.

Ability to experiment and look the fool

9 of swords | Queen of Pentacles | The Fool

Planets : Mercury (Virgo primarily), Uranus, Venus

You have this incredible ability to think outside the box, use your imagination to create something of value and beauty, as well as the work ethic to stress over it and burn the midnight oil. You are careful, don't miss the slightest detail, adding small finishing touches taht others would miss.

The King of Pentacles and Queen of Pentacles both came up in your reading so I'm bound to think you'd generate wealth anytime you work on building something tangible. This could have to do with designing a garden, to landscaping or architecture. Perhaps even something along the lines of wine making or Vinyard management. The Queen of Pentacles is super fertile and, along with her male counterpart has the ability to help others make money. You do this in a work environment where you're allowed / have the freedom to think for yourself and bring your unique personality in to work. Kind of like a ' I have a baron, so let me use it' I'm not saying you have issues with authority, just that you work better when you're trusted to do it right on your own. Your bosses have to give you some creative autonomy and trust in the decisions you make. I understand that you are second guessing your major because of how high your families' hopes and dreams are. But love, if we take all that out of the equation, give you your own firm, would you be happy to take charge?

Correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like in a sea of calm, it would be something you'd treat quite reverentially. As I was meditating before your reading, connecting with your guides I felt myself tearing up a little as I thought of that calm centre, 🌪️👁️‍🗨️🌪️ eye of the storm, within you that knows your strengths, skills and desires. I think she'd want for you to take a moment to lean into your inner voice, removed from what everyone else wants and expects of you. You don't have to do anything you don't like. Just don't miss out on something that you would love.

Have you wtached atypical? Casey transfers to Clayton on an athletes scholarship, and then freezes during a track meet due to a panic attack. She stops running because of what a chore the prep school turned it into. She finally goes back to her old school because running is soemthing she has always loved and she didn't want to stop. She wanted it to bring her joy the way it had at her old school.

I'm thinking of someone who works with communities in beautiful hilly towns on holiday and vacation homes /inn/ resort. As Taurus and virgo are both earth signs, I really think the soil/ plants itself could be a good field for you to work in. Or fresh produce.

So should you stay in architecture? What path should you take?

I mean. It looks like it's made for you. There was also temperance so, perhaps take up a dual degree or an allied subject in an adjacent field? Something that compliments it?.

Honestly, I feel if you were to drop the course and take up something that's close to it but that you're more allied with, it could be a time of healing. The rainbow lies behind her though, signifying that you could be ignoring a possibly beautiful thing.

It's your decision at the end of the day and the cards can only say what good can come of certain paths you take. The fairy of the Divine hand urges you to think, connect with your deeper wisdom. Decide whether you will join in with what was tempting you,the easy way out, or will you watch a little Longer and make the wise decision instead?

Hope this helps. All the best 💖

Please let me know what you decide?

#Acceptance #Transformation #Old must give way to the new #Death card #Go with the flow #Venusian earth #Mutable earth #Mercurial #Mercury career #Architecture #Landscaping #Winemaking #Vinyard management #Tarot readings #Education tarot #Career reading

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lilydalexf · 3 years

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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Dreamshaper

Dreamshaper has 54 stories at Gossamer. Her stories often feature Mulder and Scully exploring their feelings in ways you really, really wish you could’ve seen on the show. I’ve recced some of my favorites of her stories here before, including Found in Memory, Just By Existing, Purpose, and Promise. Big thanks to Dreamshaper for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

I'm not at all surprised people are still reading X-Files fanfic! There's a deep catalogue of good and interesting fiction there, and the X-Files still has cultural significance. And of course there were the recent seasons to bring it back to mind. I think if you had asked me in 2000, I might not have supposed that it had this kind of staying power. So now I'm thinking of this interview as a time capsule--what will my answer be in 2040?

My own fic was not designed to have staying power. If anyone is reading it now, bless them, they are kind and patient. I would only recommend probably reading the first and last things I posted just to see what kind of growth is possible. The first time I ever posted fic, someone told me to never write again. I was a teenager. I was crushed but I went on writing anyway, and I worked hard to improve.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

I think of two things. As for the show itself, I still think of Mulder/Scully as the ultimate in romance. I can still picture certain moments from the episodes, from the movie. I look for pairings with tension that reminds me of theirs--an almost-regency level of UST, but with a modern element of danger.

As for the fandom itself, I grew up in it. My entire online life and the core of how I participate in fandom was formed here. I was 17 or so when I started writing and posting MSR. I was 18 or 19 when I started meeting fans in real life. I was fortunate enough to fall in with people who were equal parts gracious and nerdy, and while my own nerdiness is innate, I remember and emulate the kindness which was shown to me.

I have an entire side post to this question about how strongly I disagree with the current age stratification in fandom--this idea of not interacting across artificial age divides is tragic to me.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

ATXC, and mailing lists. I don't actually remember the names of all the mailing lists! I can picture myself sitting in my kitchen on my computer, and what the emails looked like--the font, the signature lines--but not the names. I can even remember specific conversations we had! One of them must have been Scullyfic, because I remember the first meetup being planned. Is that right? Was it the Scullyfic meetup? [Lilydale note: Probably was Scullyfic. There was a big email flurry when the first Scullyfic mailing list meetup was being planned.] My mind was absolutely blown by the idea of a fan con. Now I've led panels at a dozen of them.

I remember some of the arguments, too. It's funny that some of them are the same arguments I still see here and there, like whether or not criticism of a fanwork is valid. Real Person Fic being this unbelievably shameful thing you had to ask to be shown, and the doyennes of the fandom would have given you the cut direct at Almack's if they'd found out, you know?

This was also the era of AIM and ICQ. mIRC too, right? I spent a lot of time in channels. I absolutely loved when people started to be more open about themselves in chats. I was always so interested in how fandom fit into people's lives. Some people I talked to were moms, college students, people who had interesting careers, and they all just found ways to make fandom work for them. They had a need and were meeting it, despite the pressures of their offline life.

I don't know how to explain the impression that made on me, but--it normalized fandom. That seems obvious, maybe, but I hadn't known this was something you could integrate into your everyday life.

It also normalized the idea of women taking their own needs as primary, in a way that went beyond what I was exposed to in my home life, or through the feminism of the 1990s. There was this wild intersection of the--the domestic and intellectual life of women, and the playful life of women, just making itself known to me in a way I'd never seen before. That was enormous. Absolutely a foundational experience for me.

My experience was that ATXC and email lists were like, these surface-level interactions where people figured out, roughly, if your mind ran on a similar track to theirs, and then you were invited to make deeper relationships in more private corners of the internet. Social media filled both functions at once, I think, for a while. But the privacy was missing. I'm not surprised that Slack and Discord are starting to fill that private corner gap--everything old becomes new, etc.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

UST and monsters. This is still an unbeatable combination for me!

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I loved romance novels--I read so many of them. Somehow, before we even had a computer at home, I started to tell myself romance novel stories with Mulder and Scully as the lead characters. This was how I talked myself to sleep--I wasn't a good sleeper. Then when I got online and did whatever search led me to ATXC, I was just shocked. Shocked! Can't do the surprise justice, in this era where fanfic is relatively mainstream. Other people had also independently invented this thing I loved! But they wrote their ideas down! I jumped on the bandwagon immediately.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

It's like my relationship to my childhood, frankly. Foundational, but I don't think about it all that much on a daily basis, right? I smile and reblog gif sets. I get nostalgic. I get embarrassed by social mistakes I made. I feel the way many of us do about memories from our teenage years. I wouldn't be who I was without it, but I'm not still in it.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I was. I've spent 20 years in fandom! I did some beta work for someone who'd started writing slash--The Sentinel. The actual Sentinel, not just an endless loop of Sentinel AUs based on Sentinel AUs based on etc. I had some idea at the time that I was queer, but this was my first real exposure to romances that weren't straight. So I tore my way through the early 2000s slash fandoms as they developed: The Sentinel, Due South, Stargate Atlantis. Popslash, where a mix of good writing and absurdity ruled. Bandom, where I met my wife. Since then, many smaller fandoms.

It's hard to compare any of these things to each other, let alone to the X-Files. In each one, I was lucky enough to find a circle of women who were strong beta readers and good friends. I never wrote as much or for as long as I did in the X-Files.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I watched the new episodes. I've shown friends important episodes--I remember that a few years ago, another friend and I tried to hook a third friend on the show by binging some favorites--mostly shippy MOTW, so it was like, Arcadia, Triangle, Bad Blood. Fun stuff!

We finish watching and I'm like, well? And? And she says, that was fine, but I'm more of a man-pain, secret babies kind of person? I'll never forget it. She had no idea but she'd hit the nail on the head! We were wheezing with laughter. We went back and watched mytharc episodes, which was much less fun for me, but much more interesting to her.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I don't read X-Files fic often. I look at new things sometimes, and I've reread a few old classics, but my reading taste has changed so much. I still love straight romance, but it needs to be fast and sharp in a way that is hard to find.

I read fic in other fandoms when I have time. In the past few years, I've finished a degree, had a daughter, renovated a small Victorian and then sold it and bought another one during this pandemic--so time has been short. Currently I read some Untamed fic, some Good Omens fic, Magicians, Schitt's Creek...a sampler. Whatever friends are writing, whatever they recommend.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I never have a favorite of my own fics. I'm never satisfied. The second I post something, I'm always full of regrets. I've written fics that did very well and still hated them a month later. People have asked me over the years to move more of my stuff off Livejournal and onto ao3, but I do it really reluctantly and only by specific request. Everything's ephemeral! Let the old works diminish, and go into the West!

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I have no oldies to dust off. I do periodically think of X-Files stories I would tell, but I don't have enough time for current interests--and so it goes.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I do. I was most recently writing in The Magicians fandom. I posted a couple new stories in an old fandom last year--I'd written Good Omens fic fifteen years ago, and then again for the Amazon adaptation. I have a pile of original novels in various stages of completion, but I'm never happy with them. One day I'll figure myself out, perhaps, or I'll just keep writing myself this and that and leaving it all in a drawer.

What's the story behind your pen name?

So AOL had a character limit for user names--I think it was 10. I was a teenager at the time I was coming up with the one I'd use for fandom, so I went with Dreamshaper. It was kind of literal, in the sense that I was going to share the stories I'd been telling myself to help me sleep. But the character limit meant I went with Dreamshpr, which I later liked because of the alternate reading of Dream*shipper*. A reminder to the younger fans that we were the original shippers!

I would also come up with new pen names when I wanted to experiment with a fic that didn't fit my usual style. I don't remember any of them. I probably did that a dozen times, so, sorry to those poor completely abandoned stories.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Giddygeek on tumblr and ao3. I'm most active on twitter, but largely about my domestic life with dips into fandoms or original writing; message me on tumblr if you're an old friend who'd like to reconnect elsewhere.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Just gratitude--I'm so glad that I found people to share an obsession with, and that they were good people, at a time in my life where that made a significant difference to me. I don't know where I'd be now without my time and my growth in this fandom!

(Posted by Lilydale on December 22, 2020)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #dreamshaper

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aminatamansaray · 3 years

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introducing....

𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗔 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗬

queen of sierra leone

MORE LINKS : wikipedia , pinterest

&&. announcing her majesty, ( aminata kaday mansaray ), the ( 37 ) year old ( queen ) of ( sierra leone ). she is often confused with ( kylie bunbury ). some say that she is ( imprudent & brazen ), but she is actually ( adaptable & resilient ). - penned by FERB .

BASICS:

Full Name: aminata kaday mansaray

Nicknames: ami

Title: queen of sierra leone

Age: 37

Date of Birth: 12 january 1987

Zodiac: sagittarius

Gender: cis female

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: bisexual

Languages Spoken: krio, english, bulgarian, russian & swahili

INTRO: (tw: terrorism, gun mention, death, attack)

aminata was born to crown princess georgietta mansaray of sierra leone and prince simeon krasimirov of bulgaria just three years into their marriage. she was the pride of her country from a very young age, as georgietta always believed in being close with her people - even though her husband didn’t share that enthusiasm for the common people. ami grew up in the public eye and was constantly visible to the public through all of her major milestones.

that’s where it began - ami constantly wanted to be a little bit more than what she was presented to the world as. she became competitive, when she’d spend vacations with her cousins in sofia. she pushed back against the “perfect princess” image, taking up hobbies that didn’t always make sense for a young crown princess, simply because she didn’t want to be the same as everyone around her.

rebellion became her entire life, even if it wasn’t wild teenager rebellion in the traditional sense. her father would insist on something, and she would go against it as much as she possibly could without crossing the line. she would do anything just to be different than everyone else, to just be aminata, and not aminata mansaray, crown princess of sierra leone.

this led to her rejecting oxford, not wanting to be the follower after her cousin headed there to start his college career. the university of st. petersburg was a completely surprise to her family, but aminata had decided it’s what she wanted - so it was what she was going to do. somewhere along the way, she’d grown into a very stubborn young woman.

at just nineteen years old, aminata would arrive on campus at st. petersburg university without any real friends or connections - but she’d make the most important one within just a few weeks. alexei romanov shared a course with her - and they had something pretty big in common.

honestly, he was a godsend. for a bit, aminata had considered returning home to freetown to finish school, or even joining andrei at oxford. her own loneliness had almost overpowered the spark inside her. and then she’d made a friend, and she could handle it.

she would drown herself in her studies, only emerging to attend study groups and occasionally go out on the weekends, when she could manage to tear herself away from her homework. and in just under four years, ami had a degree and had forged her own path - without the influence of her father..

she would fall in love and get her heart broken for the first time two summers after her graduation - sangcheol kwon of gyeongsang. they had a whirlwind romance, and ami was over the moon, definitely prepared to settle down. but maksim didn’t want the same things as her - he didn’t want to settle down, and as unfortunate as it was aminata knew there was an expiration date on them. they parted ways, and ami was surprised to hear of maksim’s marriage to areum just a few years later - but the bitterness has since been quelled by her own marriage.

she’d return from an awful summit in the middle of nowhere to find out that her brother had been sent off to a brand new boarding school, after being kicked out of his previous one. more importantly, her father was acting strangely. something had happened, while she was away that weekend - but she couldn't put her finger on what.

the morning was like any other, and ami went about her normal routine. her father pushed her out of the palace just before lunch, scheduling a meeting between her and one of the parliamentary groups at the last second. ami would attend, smiling for the photos and shaking hands, as she’d been trained to do. she could put on the front of the perfect crown princess for the cameras with a practiced ease.

she’s in the car to return to the palace when things go south - an explosion rings out ahead of them, and ami’s motorcade is suddenly overcome with an anti-monarchist cell. terrified, her driver floors it, trying to escape the several motorcycles that follow. by some miracle, they manage to shake them - but not for long. in the chaos, she ended up halfway across the city, away from the rest of her security. in a moment of panic at the sound of a motorcycle, her driver crashes the town car, and aminata stumbles out into the alleyway, attempting to find a place to hide, unaware of how hurt she really is.

there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and as she stumbles down the alley she meets someone who’ll change her life. they drag her into their apartment just moments before the motorcycle turns down the alleyway, and ami is finally safe, hidden in the bedroom of an exchange student’s shitty apartment.

she spends a full week there, hiding away as the authorities track down each living member of the terrorist cell. in the moments after the sound of motorcycles disappeared, she’d collapsed in shock. she’d be nursed back to health by the exchange student. ami would linger in the doorway, when she was finally well enough to leave and it was safe enough to call someone to come and collect her. she didn’t want to go, the second she walked out of the little apartment she felt so much less safe. but she had to - her country needed a bit of hope.

she’d been assumed dead in the crash for multiple days, and media had gone insane about the fact that no one had identified aminata’s body from the car accident. when she resurfaced, seemingly unscathed, it was hailed as miracle.

five people died in the heavily coordinated attack. the palace, aminata’s motorcade and the school her younger brother had been expelled from were each hit nearly simultaneously, in the biggest attack against a ruling monarch in sierra leone’s history.

one of the victims, the now-deceased king consort of sierra leone, would be heavily implicated in the yearlong trial of each of the attackers that were arrested. after months of investigation, the police would find that their king had initially contacted and eventually helped to coordinate the group on how to carry out the attack successfully.

the only motive they could determine was the way their marriage was souring. their marriage was entirely the product of a political arrangement, tying sierra leone and bulgaria together. simeon had gotten the bad news just four days before he contacted the group: queen georgietta had found someone else - someone she actually loved. and that had enraged simeon, who knew he was about to lose all of his power in sierra leone. the letters and communication recovered by authorities painted a picture that devastated the entire family: their father had betrayed them, all out of jealousy and selfishness.

the queen of sierra leone was heavily injured, and after the attack she ended up confined to a wheelchair, needing several surgeries to repair her injuries. the international presas declared aminata “the luckiest princess alive” when she was discovered - bruised up and exhausted, but alive. (the country had started to panic that her little brother might actually become their king, one day.)

ami was devastated by the trial, and spent several months brooding in the palace, ignoring everything and everyone around her. it would be a rough weekend when she’d ask her driver to take her back to the alleyway where she’d hidden. a knock on the door would find the exchange student packing up - and aminata would beg for them to stay. it was completely irrational, but she still let herself be a little selfish, for once.

of course the answer was no - they couldn’t stay. but ami could at least call them, after everything they’d been through together. their daily calls began, and the amount of hours wasted on the phone grew quickly, the two finding comfort in each other’s voice and the menial discussion of their daily lives. ami helped her family through their recovery, and cheered her best friend on as they finished their medical degree.

they would meet for the again a year later in sofia, and after so much time spent discussing their lives and feelings - something was entirely different between them. they fell in love over a weekend spent there - or maybe they fell in love during the year when they never missed a call. ami wasn’t entirely sure, but she knew she was asking a lot, when she wondered aloud, ‘what are we?’

they were married just ten months later, in a small ceremony overlooking a beach in the heart of sierra leone. their marriage would be announced when they returned from their honeymoon: with a spread in the royal times magazine, a surprise to the entire world.

just a week after her thirty-first birthday, ami would take the throne of sierra leone, and allow her mother to retire. it was a difficult decision, but one ultimately driven by her mother’s declining health - aminata insisted that she could handle the pressure, and felt that her mother deserved to take a break more than anyone else in the world. georgietta would move to their estate in the north, alongside the man she’d fallen in love with.

her first two years of rule would be quiet, easy. perhaps too easy. she let her guard down sometime along the way - thinking everything would be fine. and things were fine - aminata was even something close to happy, and got back to shirking the things she was “supposed to do” in favor of doing things her own way. she no longer had to be the steadfast rock that her country relied on, instead she was allowed to just be aminata, for the first time in years. .

she got complacent, excited to finally be able to rule without issue - but a small group of never-located members of the original group would change that. they had a plan, and it wouldn’t be something the royal guards saw coming.

ami returned to st. petersburg - spending a few days of vacation with their spouse in an old apartment she hadn’t visited in way too long. upon her return, she disembarked her plane and a gunshot rang out. in a stroke of luck, one of her security guards would take the bullet for her. aminata was safe, but her entire sense of security was destroyed.

yet again, the mansaray’s had been publicly attacked. suddenly, even the heavily guarded palace didn’t feel like a place they could stay - until the rest of the cell was hunted down and put into jail.

the next morning, as news of an earthquake in south america broke, she would commiserate the dangers of the world on the phone with alexei, and decide to follow him and the protection program. arriving that morning in tokyo, she finally felt safe.

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

THE SPOUSE : aminata has been married for nearly five years to a regular person, who just so happened to be in sierra leone during the terrorist attack on the royal family. they bonded during the two weeks that they hid in their apartment, and eventually fell in love and got married. everything else can be worked out - those are the basics!

( aminata mansaray ), the ( kylie bunbury ) fc would like a ( consort 30 -40 ) with ( karen gillan, fahriye evcen, daniel kaluuya, riz ahmed, olivia munn, rami malek, any fc that fits the age range ). the mun ( requires ) you to contact them before applying. [ queen consort of sierra leone ]

THE BROTHER : aminata might be a bit of a spitfire, but her brother is even worse. if nothing else, the mansaray children always wanted to be individuals, and that’s exactly what he became. her brother was expelled from leone preparatory, that’s the only point that is non negotiable - everything else can be discussed!

( aminata mansaray ), the ( kylie bunbury ) fc would like a ( brother 20-25 ) with ( justice smith, any fitting fc! ). the mun ( requires ) you to contact them before applying. [ prince of sierra leone ]

friends, allies, people who like her for some reason??

a few enemies would be nice!!! she’s very much a polarizing figure i think - you either love her or you fucking hate her there’s no in between.

someone she knew when she went on a little “soul searching” journey in 2014, maybe?

#hshqintro #intro #terrorism tw #attack tw #gun mention tw

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transcendentcacophony · 3 years

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Thinking about Posts and Tumblr

So I responded to an earlier post from @kalesims in the comments. I probably should have reblogged it so I didn't have to break up my response which may have made it less than useful (and potentially read to mean the opposite of what I meant), but I also wanted to move a bit beyond the initial prompt with this longer one. I have not posted much Sims stuff in awhile. Part of this is because school and work demands are eating so much of my time right now1, part of this that ongoing pursuit of perfection we all seem to have to some extent on social media, and part of it is because I may have dumped my entire CC folder into my game without sorting it properly and now it runs like rubbish and I have to fix it. Regardless, I'm going to focus on issue #2 the ongoing pursuit of perfection, because I think this is the most relevant bit and the one I've been thinking a lot about lately. Tumblr is a social media platform. (This bit is a little academic, sorry.) I think we all know that, but do we ever really think about what that means? It's ultimately a company that provides a public-facing platform with the explicit intent of marketing ourselves to each other. More likes and followers for you=more ads and money for Tumblr, but they have to incentivize that for any of us to care. How do they do that? Make it a popularity contest. How often do you look at your likes or followers count? What emotional response do you have when they're low? How many creators incentivize new followers or more likes by releasing content to correlate with milestones in those areas? This is all part of feeding that beast2. It also draws on something referred to academically as the "hedonic treadmill," which is basically the keeping up with the Joneses mentality where we constantly compare our success to our peers and find ourselves wanting, even if we aren't. This is going somewhere, I promise.

When I first started Tumblr, I had one blog: transcendentcacophony. I started it explicitly to follow sims blogs I liked and keep track of the cc I downloaded or things that caught my attention, and my initial posts all reflected that. After I was on for a while, I realized most blogs compartmentalized to a certain degree: you have a blog for gameplay, a blog for cc finds, a blog for interest x, etc., so, not being particularly versed in these things, I thought "This is how you tumble!" and immediately set about creating sideblogs like transcendentcacophonyinspire, transcendentcacophonys3cc, or transcendentcacophonystudyblr. I went through my entire archive, moved everything over to its new home, and deleted the original posts and reblogs from this page. Does that mean I think having all the sideblogs is wrong? Nope. The organization of having sideblogs is sometimes helpful, but they they make me feel kind of fractured on some level. None of these provide an image of a whole person, just brief glimpses of an aspect. Sometimes I regret having split the off, other times I find it more convenient. Mileage may vary, but the obvious winner for the sideblog model is arguably Tumblr. None of my blogs have many followers, but there isn't as much overlap in audience as you might think and if they were all still one blog, I doubt there'd be as many as there are.

This raises the question of who you intend your blog to be for. Is it for Tumblr, so they can keep making that sweet sweet ad revenue? Is it for the online audience? Or is it for you? Who do you see as your primary audience? The structure of social media clearly wants us to say everyone else. "You're here for the likes! The followers! The popularity!" Other companies lean in to this as well. How many followers do you have to have to qualify as an EA Game Changer?

I would argue that it's this pressure to have all likes, followers, etc., that prohibit us from posting what we really want to post. Are you posting the things that actually make you happy? Or are you posting the things that you think an audience wants to see?

Learning anything takes a lot of practice. How many times did you fall off before you learned to ride a bike? How many broken and malformed pots do you make before you get a perfect one? We learn by doing. Waiting for that perfect screenshot or getting reshade just right or having the perfect city in CAW keeps us from posting our broken pots. Maybe we need to post more broken pots.

If something makes us happy, does it need to be perfect, or do we love it anyway? "This is my first pot! It sucks, but I made it! Finishing it alone is an accomplishment! It's mine and I'm learning and I want to show that process so we can all get better together!" Shouldn't our screenshots or gameplay or worldbuilding be the same?

I am building a world in CAW. I've been doing it for quite awhile, and I have an entire folder full of broken pots as a result, but I learned something every time I broke one. When I read CAW forums, I learn more from the ones where things don't work than from ones where they do. I post some of my broken pots, and simmers like @nilxis or @murfeelee are so supportive and helpful and give me tips on how to better and fix issues I'm having. I value that part of this community. I don't learn to do better by not showing off my broken pots.

I know some of my interests are pretty niche. I'm building an alien scifi world, I have conversion projects from games that support that but probably won't be useful to mainstream simmers. I made a series of alien moons in conjunction with simblu, who is now deactivated. These are arguably not things that will get a lot of likes, reblogs, or followers, but they are things that make me happy. Kurt Vonnegut once said when he wrote books, he always wrote with only 2 people in mind: himself and his sister. His goal was that at the very least he would like what he wrote, and a few of the books were written with her in mind, and if anyone else liked it, it was just gravy. I can’t say I’m a fan of the man’s writing, but I kind of like the idea of this mentality.

To that end, I think I'm going to change up how I use this blog moving forward, with the express goal of posting more often and with more emphasis on things that make me happy or show off more of my broken pots. Maybe it will cost me followers, maybe it won't, but it will help me carve this little niche out of the internet that is mine, that makes me happy, and that seeks to support the simmers and other community members3 that have been so supportive of me in the past. If just one or two people get something from it, or are entertained, isn’t that still just as valid?

I don't mean to imply in any way that posting what makes you happy can't make you popular, or gain likes and followers. It's very much possible. Vonnegut wrote his books for himself and he published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works, complete with film adaptations of several, literary prizes, etc. You can be successful doing what you love.

But I don't know that I need to be successful at it. I want to be happy doing it first, and anything outside of that is gravy. I'm going to post more broken pots and worry less about perfection or "doing it right." I'm going to fall off the bike and get back up and keep going. And maybe, by falling and failing, I'll get better or at least good enough or comfortable enough I'm not worried so much about that quest for perfection that is currently prohibiting me from trying.

Anyways, @kalesims, I don't know if that answers the original question you had. But I'd love to see what you post, be it gameplay, screenshots, cc, etc., really whatever floats your boat, moving forward. And, if you're willing, I'd love to learn by doing together. Let's go break some pots.

1 Whoever decided the best way to avoid outbreaks on campus was to just cancel all breaks and holidays over the last year clearly doesn't understand college students (who very much are still having parties and making up their own breaks) or that the reason we have those breaks is for mental health. Fall break was specifically added to reduce suicide rates among graduate students. And admin wonders why everyone hates them... 2 There's a researcher who looks at social media as a neoliberal marketplace that forces us to monetize ourselves without necessarily allowing us to realize that's what we're doing. She's got a book coming out about it next month if anyone is interested: Pain Generation: Social Media, Feminist Activism, and the Neoliberal Self(ie)

3I have in no way forgotten you, @piyotan, and you are definitely part of my online community, this was just targeted largely at simming.

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cuartosol · 4 years

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bougierthanthou ha respondido a tu set de fotos

“I binged all Code Lyoko seasons and played Quest for Infinity and I’m...”

@hinazinnia what are their lives like in high school? How have they developed post XANA and Lyoko?

IM SO HAPPY YOU ASKED ill try to make this short and if you wanna know more you can always ask me! They are actually in college! Two disclaimers:

(1) im from spain, and my french is limited, i did my best in learning how college works in france, but im sure there are a lot of mistakes! (2) this takes place after the 4th season, ignoring evolution BUT maybe taking some cool ideas from there, even if i had only watched a couple of episodes

YUMI (19)

she went to study history to japan in her first year of uni, but felt disconnected from her peers and missed her life back in france. She returned to france and switched to a translation and interpreting degree, and thats where the story begins

she witnessed something (back in japan) that disturbed her and is related to xana but she refuses to talk to her old group of friends for some reason....

AELITA (17)

shes in her first year of bioinformatics (both her and jeremy skipped a year)

she’s been dating jeremy since highschool and kind of wants to break up with him. she loves him so much, but she is curious about forming a life outside of the same people she’s known since she came back to earth

this desire is also related to her feeling of being stuck in the same place, she’s been trying to discover new things (both realted to lyoko and her past, among other things) but feels she is often more busy with jeremy’s research than her own

she is the only one who had kept in contact with yumi

JEREMY (17)

1st year computer engineering-mathematics (2 degrees in one lmao)

he’s secretly been developing his own virtual world, offline and with his own techonology

he also feels kind of disconnected from his friends (can you see the theme of my story), but unlike aelita, he feels like things should return to “normal”, aka, how they were back in kadic. (i wanna focus his character arc on learning how to adapt to changes)

ODD (18)

1st years of fine arts (but he will change to cinema in the future, he was just to scared to specialize his studies so soon... he needs to learn to value his own work and have more self-esteem

he lives with ulrich (and KIWI!!!) and he is a fucking mess but makes up for it bc he knows how to cook

he is the one who has more friends outside of the group, however he feels like he is just passing by and doesn’t have any deep conections to any of them

ULRICH (19)

1st year business management. he l o a t h e s it but chose it bc he was lost as hell and his father was, as always, pressuring him

he teaches little kids martial arts and thats the only thing keeping him sane

he dated yumi from 15-16 until yumi told him she was leaving to japan and they had one of their fights. (he dated sissi out of spite which was a very bad thing to do... i think the lyoko warriors treat her really badly and id to make them work on that)

AND NOW ONTO THE PLOT,,,, Ulrich stumbles upon yumi on a morning jog and he’s like “what are u doing here i thought u were in japan” and yumi just. stares. and leaves.

so ulrich comes back home and rants to odd and odd says to tell the rest of the group for that night’s celebrations (its jeremy’s bday lmao). aelita tells them that she’s been talking with her but that she’s been ghosting her for the last month and she was acting weird before that.

she then gets a text from yumi telling her that william is in the hospital bc “he’s been getting worse” and odd reads it aloud and of course they go. everything is really awkward and they all have unresolved stuff (mainly that they were too young for al the shit they went through and none of them had found healthy ways to cope with it except ignoring it so being all together again is... yikes).

yumi is left alone with william and he attacks her and the gang help her just like the old times. jeremy is very convinced it was xana’s fault and wants to turn on the supercomputer to check, but they dont all agree (kind of pararell to their feelings towards turning it off in the show) and they part ways.

yumi knows more than she wants to say, beacuse she /knows/ that if she said it, it would make everything go back to square 1 and is it really their mission? is it their responsability?

i dont wanna say what is actually happening bc i had a comic/mini zine planned but that’s the main plot. just an overly complicated fic about changes and old friendships and dumb headcanons and a plot that is in fact an excuse to explore all the trauma that these kids must actually have lmao

if you wanna know more (about this au or just about my headcanons for the show), feel free to ask!

#bougierthanthou #code lyoko

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riveir · 3 years

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wishlist plots & aus.

i’ve been meaning to do this for a while but because i’m a person that really strongly prefers plotted interactions and also runs into problems with actually getting those more developed things going, i figured compiling wishlist stuff and stuff that comes from my own brain might be helpful. i’ll keep this linked in the pinned post if anyone ever wants to draw from it for a starter call or whatever, and to also make it easier for me to find if plotting ever hits a road block.

peace corps. this would technically fall under the umbrella of one of river’s canon au verses, the one in which he lives but is in the less realistic scenario where he rejects his parents’ wishes and goes ahead and joins the peace corps. this could be a really good way to get muses from two different canons / universes / etc. to meet, because the organization brings all these people together into one group sent to work somewhere overseas. river works as an english education teacher, and where they’re working can be totally open. could be used as mentioned before, but also as sort of a stepping stone for river to start a life beyond the states / open up opportunities for him that will take him away from home, etc etc. just a fun way to take him out of his usual settings and throw him in a new place under new circumstances, whether your muse is in the corps with him or if they’re just in the same place and they meet under different circumstances.

political dynasty. rather than holding a high position with goldman sachs, river’s father has an influential political position ( like a diplomat or foreign ambassador, which could explain river living years of his life at least somewhat abroad ), something that would put the family under a microscope on a national scale. could be a very kennedy-esque thing where politics is sort of just like the family business and river would be expected to carry that mantle as well ( which, obviously, he doesn’t really want ). this could go a number of different directions because the barkleys would be considered high profile individuals: bodyguard stuff, danger stuff, etc. i’m open to anything here, this would just be the groundwork to set up some conflict that would be more specific to your muse and their circumstances, since this is pretty adaptable on river’s end. i’d also be willing to write river older than i usually would ( as a younger adult ), because i think being nationally known would change his circumstances a bit and yada yada i can elaborate on that more if anyone asks, if we wanted to go the route where river himself is the political figure, probably a junior congressman or something. he could pretty controversial, as mental health advocacy and gun control would probably be two of his biggest agendas / two of the most important components of his platform.

modern royalty. similar to the above, but rather than coming from a political family, river comes from a monarchical family. obviously not based in the united states but could open up similar plotting opportunities as listed above. for one example he could still be attending a traditional university, and could open up opportunities for your muse to be a classmate of his ( as a friend sure but maybe there’s some benefit your muse could gain from making friends with him or something shadier like that ), or maybe you’re super annoyed that he’s there because like who cares about the royal family and why does he get so much attention, or maybe your muse knows he hates the attention and it gets to a point where he actually has to be fearful about it and there’s some way your muse can help him out.

fake dating. this is a jam of mine always. river could have several reasons of his own to be in a fake relationship, and this could work especially well in another au like the political dynasty or modern royalty scenarios, but it could totally come more from your muse’s end as well. it could also be a thing where river’s parents are trying to set him up with your muse if that would make sense, because that’s a very wasp-y rich people thing to do.

period aus. this one is super open but river could work really well for this type of thing, especially because his family is so old fashioned in a lot of ways and very traditional in how they expect their family to be and how they expect river to be and all that. also could work super well for this letter writing plot i have in my wishlist tag.

ghost!river. this would have to be plotted for sure because the way river’s “ghost” canonically manifests is as an extension of the other person; he exists to give them advice or as their moral compass/conscience or something like that. it can be different depending on the muse, but he manifests at their own will and serves some sort of purpose for them. he’s more of a guiding force of some sort rather than an actual ghost coming back to reveal new information or anything like that. he wouldn’t do anything that the other muse wouldn’t think he would do, and wouldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. the exception to his in river’s canon is when the protagonist has a near-death experience and sees river in the afterlife and they have an actual conversation as two separate entities, and that could definitely be something i’d be up for, too.

champagne problems. this song off of evermore has enormous river energy. from the genius description of the song: “’champagne problems’ tells the story of a woman who shocks her would-be fiancé and their loved ones by turning down a marriage proposal right before christmas ... the song depicts ‘longtime college sweethearts [who] had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring.’ the song implies that the protagonist has a history of mental illness, which the town subsequently stigmatizes in their gossip surrounding the failed proposal.” river could be either of the people in the couple for obvious reasons ( either the wealthy person from the well-to-do family all expecting the proposal, or the person who breaks it off and is subsequently - or, maybe, already is - the subject of that gossip ). the circumstances of the breakup can vary depending on the specific relationship between the muses: maybe they were really in love and had a great relationship but the influential family just had too much influence and pressure, maybe the stigmatization and gossip was a bit too much, maybe neither of their hearts were really in it and it was just an advantageous thing that appeased the big family but the other person ultimately just decided they couldn’t go through with it. as i am with everything i’m totally open here. it also totally doesn’t have to match the exact circumstances and can just be based on the general idea. ( in the same vein, here’s a link to some cool folklore-based plots )

apocalyptic danger. or to be honest, any sort of scenario that creates a life or death (or near life or death) situation for one or both of our muses. in all honesty i just love raising the stakes.

musician or actor river. even though it’s not my favorite alternative path to explore for him to seriously pursue acting or music as a career, it could open up some potentially cool dynamics that i’d be down with. maybe river plays piano in a bar or restaurant or whatever at night during college and your muse loves open mic night. maybe they’re doing a show together in college or maybe even out of college if i think it would make sense that river could get to that point in life. maybe river’s actually achieving some level of success and has some degree of notoriety. idk this is just an option that could be cool if we develop it enough ( cause like i said, without that development and specificity to our muses i’m not as into this route for him specifically)

childhood best friends to lovers. ( or some variation ). self-explanatory, just my favorite trope. some wishlist stuff here.

wishlist post #1: “i just want a plot where it’s two rich kids who live in neighboring estates and their families always throw parties together and they have vacation homes in the same spots and their elite parents are too busy to notice when they sneak off to fuck in that second guest bathroom that no one uses or get high in the back library and makeout”

wishlist post #2: “give me a we broke up because i had to move away because of school and we knew we couldn’t do long distance but oh my god i’m home for christmas and you’re still beautiful and we’re wine drunk slow dancing to the sound of elf on the television and you smell like hot chocolate and i miss you so much please don’t let this end again plot !!!!!”

wishlist post #3: “someone give me “you live in the apartment across the hall and you’re so fucking hot but i get so awkward around you even though you act completely normal and i stutter every.time. you’re out of my league anyway but then one night my stupid roommate locks me out and i forget my key and you see me sitting the hallway so you invite me in. and obviously i say yes but holy crap what is happening” plot pretty pls”

wishlist post #4: “au where it's a blind date gone wrong/really awkward first time/two people who just get off on the wrong foot but keep on running into each other and then slowly fall for each other”

wishlist post #5: “give me best friends who harbor feelings for each other . they’ve acknowledged the feelings but they don’t do anything about it , because the friendship is too precious . and when one of them is finally ready to say “ fuck it, let’s take the risk ” , they see the other making out with another person”

i also always just want more college things and things in pre-established canon universe aus ( all linked in my pinned post, but including hogwarts, gossip girl, legacies, riverdale, etc ). i’m also always down for plotting ships.

#。 ·ﾟ ⎛ 𝘰𝘶𝘵 ⎠ wishlist.

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

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Is It Really THAT Bad?

Dr. Seuss is no stranger to cinematic adaptations, and even less of a stranger to animation. And whenever Seuss gets animated, you can typically expect good things, as opposed to when his work is live action, in which case you can expect…

Yeah…

Anyway, imagine the excitement people must have felt when the creative team behind Despicable Me and the writing team behind the underrated gem Horton Hears a Who got together to do a fresh new take on The Lorax! This was in Illumination’s heyday, before they ended up showcasing that they’re more interested in churning out cheap products for maximum profit, so there was plenty of hope that this could be good. Then came all the commercial tie-ins.

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Now, this alone shouldn’t be indicative of the final product. Maybe stuff like this is just a bunch of suits horribly missing the point of the original story! Maybe the actual film will be better! Well… while the film was no flop, and while it certainly got a better reception than most of the films I’ve talked about here, the film was derided by many for being an extremely shallow and lacking adaptation that adds unneeded junk to a story that didn’t need it in such a way that ultimately dilutes the message. It turns a story that operated on shades of gray and turned it into a cartoonish spectacle that would make even Captain Planet blush. Not helping was the rabid fanbase on Tumblr who shipped the Once-ler with… himself… or Jack Frost… forever tainting the film in the eyes of those on the internet.

Things got so bad eventually even the [REDACTED] Critic reviewed the film in his usual over-the-top, accentuate the negative style, and as some people still treat his word as gospel, this has most likely colored the perception of the film. So while it’s certainly not to the same level of infamy as the usual subjects of Is It Really THAT Bad? I still wanted to put this movie on here and ask one simple question:

How ba-ah-ah-ad can it be?

THE GOOD

So let me just get it out of the way: the movie’s villain song, “How Bad Can I Be,” legitimately is awesome and is frankly one of the best villain songs ever. No, I’m not kidding. It’s just a fun, rocking number with some neat visuals, and while it’s a shame the cut rock opera-esque “Biggering” is probably the better song, this one is definitely more fun and meme-worthy. Shake that bottom line!

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Now, the casting is, for the most part, pretty fantastic. Minor characters like the grandma played by Betty White are a lot of fun, but really, the main piece of awesome casting is Danny DeVito as the titular Seuss creation. DeVito as the Lorax is just so incredible, perfect, and inspired that it boggles the mind how anyone could possibly come up with such amazing casting.

As far as antagonizing forces in the film go, the Once-ler’s awful, vile family are enjoyable in a “love to hate” sort of way. While it’s certainly kind of iffy that they felt the need to give the Once-ler more of an excuse for his actions beyond just simple greed, it isn’t so bad that what they came up with was familial pressure. In fact, they’re actually much better at antagonists than O’Hare, the actual villain of the film, and the fact the movie give him so much focus despite having such fascinating characters that would have had a really great thematic purpose; hell, they should have been the rulers of Thneedville instead og O’Hare! There’s so much untapped potential with these, quite frankly, very interesting characters.

I guess I should say the Once-ler is a pretty decent character in and of himself, but he very much suffers from the same problem the Jim Carrey Grinch does – he’s a good, enjoyable character in his own right, but he’s not a very good Once-ler. In fact, he at points borders on “in name only” territory. Still, he does have a pretty solid arc, and that villain song slaps, so… I think he’s solid, and Ed Helms does a good job voicing him.

THE BAD

Jon Lajoie, while in character as his misogynistic moron rapper MC Vagina, said this:

When I first heard this lyric, I didn’t understand it… but his words were a prophecy, because that is, in all honesty, the plot of this film. Our flavorless protagonist Ted really just wants to get the Truffula trees back so he can get into the pants of the local smoking hot redhead hippie, Audrey. It gets to the point where Ted’s motivations are so boring and shallow that Audrey actually would have made a far more interesting and compelling protagonist, seeing as she already has an inexplicable knowledge of the trees and cares about nature. When they already changed so much in the story I don’t see why they couldn’t just make the protagonist a girl while they were at it. As it is, she barely has any presence and feels like a waste, which becomes all the more awful when you know she’s being played by a stunt casted Taylor Swift instead of an actual voice actor or even an actor period. At least Ted is Zac Efron, an actual actor, though he doesn’t do a particularly good job himself.

Then we have our villain, O’Hare. O’Hare has all the subtlety of a Captain Planet villain but none of the cheesy goodness and fun. Sure, Rob Riggle does some good delivery and gives O’Hare some memetastic moments, and sure, his selling of canned air is oddly prescient of things that happened in real life in India (though technically President Skroob Spaceballs beat him to the punch by a few decades) but it doesn’t really redeem O’Hare from being an excessively weak villain who is shoehorned into the plot solely to turn the story into a black and white morality tale. It… doesn’t work at all. What also doesn’t help is that O’Hare has an absolutely repugnant character design, looking like if Edna Mode got mangled by a sixteen wheeler and left in a ditch on the side of the road.

Finally, this movie just doesn’t really respect the story to any great degree. As mentioned above, it waters down a story that presented arguments from both sides and, while still ultimately showing the Once-ler to be wrong and shortsighted, did have him make some valid points. Here, the story is presented as there being a clear cut good and evil in a horrendously unsubtle and unpalatable way. Yes, we get that extreme deforestation and overuse of resources is bad, you don’t need to beat us over the head with it. It doesn’t help that the film also crams in a bunch of cringeworthy pop culture humor that really doesn’t add much to the story; say what you will about the anime scene from Horton, at least there was a bit of substance and reason for it. Having characters sing the Mission: Impossible theme is just making a reference for the sake of making a reference.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

So I’m gonna say that I don’t particularly find this movie to be good, per se. It’s very dumbed down and more than a little undermined by the various brand tie ins. It is a poorly executed black and white morality tale that was crafted from a very deep and engaging piece of children’s literature, and on that level, I don’t think this movie works even a little bit. Still, there’s some enjoyment that can be mined from this, particularly from some of the more so bad it’s good moments, as well as DeVito’s performance and some actual good moments of story and character. There’s some stuff to like here if you dig a bit, but really, I don’t think you really should have to do a deep dig into The Lorax to get some enjoyment.

Overall, I wouldn’t really say this movie is totally bad, but it’s definitely not good, either; it veers more into the territory of “so bad it’s good,” which is a shame but also kind of refreshing. It’s definitely an interesting film to talk about, and there are a few things about it that work, but ultimately it’s not enough to really raise the film to the level of the classic animated Seuss adaptations or even to the level of Horton. At its best, it’s okay, and at its worst, it actively undermines its own messages. I think the 6.4 it has is pretty fair… maybe a bit too fair, if I’m being honest. I’d give it something like a 5.7 or 5.8.

Again, it’s not the worst thing ever like some might tell you; hell, the adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas Illumination would go on to make is probably a worse movie. But it still doesn’t really do anything that adds to the story its telling, and it ultimately comes off as saccharine, forgettable childish fluff. It’s really a harmless movie, but it’s still probably gonna grate on anyone who holds the original story in high esteem. The {REDACTED] Critic was a bit hyperbolic in his review, but I do think he was right in principle. This movie feels like a calculated, corporate adaptation meant to be as inoffensive and marketable as possible much like every Illumination film post-Despicable Me. And if there’s one thing The Lorax shouldn’t be, it’s “inoffensive and marketable.”

#Is it really that bad?#IIRTB #review #movie review #The Lorax #Dr. Seuss #animation #animated movie #Illumination

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