#lylt's riptiding

[lyltinc]

thinking about episode 26 again... it's unfortunate that chip killing that goblin to protect ollie never got to play out with significance in later episodes, because it's so interesting! even in the rolleds, condi and bizly mention wanting to bring it up later, because it's something that chip desperately didn't want to do, for fear of losing the good that arlin instilled in him. for fear of becoming the bad that his brother bruised on him.

because it's so ironic that jay says "eventually you're going to have to kill something", but the impetus of chip's departure from skullslice and from reuben was that first and only kill he was driven into.

and when a goblin gets ollie with a natural 20, he freaks the fuck out! of course he does!! he cares so so much for ollie, the younger kid he's protecting, and he responds the way his own once-brother, who, a long, long, long time ago, took on the dirty fighting of the streets for chip: with brutal, fierce violence. to snap bloody knuckles across the jaw of the world.

in fact, he steals this goblin's life the way he stole his first under reuben's orders. he stakes his swords right through his chest.

but he doesn't have time to dwell on this, on the blood on his hands, because there's ollie lying limp and lifeless on the floor. and chip's trying to shake him into awareness but he doesn't have any magical ability to heal, like gillion and jay do. he has to wait for jay to come around to get ollie up.

and then. the compass. because of his self-serving actions, ollie literally grows up too fast, and chip hurts this kid that he cares so deeply about. i have so so much more to say about this part of his arc in particular, especially to do with lizzie and chip, but! the point is that when he hurts ollie, albeit unintentionally, he can't help but see reuben in himself. he never calls ollie his younger brother, because reuben called him his little brother, and he's so scared of being like him. of hurting people like him.

that "inability to heal" (aka inability to help ollie) comes back around in episode 42, when gillion and chip are spending time in the infirmary. as chip jokes about how he doesn't have any divine magic of his own that can help people, aka heal them, gillion responds: "maybe it's your destiny to help people! ...i hope it is." and that "different kinds of people need different kinds of healing."

at this point, chip fundamentally does not see himself as 'someone who helps others', symbolized by his literal inability to access healing magic. in this scene in particular, he's been down for a while because of what happened to ollie, and because he feels as though he's in fault and has no way to fix it.

but gillion calls this out, telling him that there are different ways to help people, and then directly after this! chip incites the crew into helping the people of edison kingdom in his own way, stealing from the rich to give back to kids who remind him of himself.

so all of this to say. i think chip jrwi is cool

[lyltinc]

listening to the edison kingdom arc as a certified chip enjoyer is so delightful. chip's vague suggestion that they should get the older kids from the sunny side up orphanage to help him and the rest of the albatrio pickpocket the richer blossom district residents... and it immediately gets shot down by jay and gillion because their lived experiences are so different.

i imagine reuben really prioritized/pushed chip's ability to go unnoticed and sneak around. if reuben's hands protected chip from danger (at a point where their relationship was being built into something, before it went downhill), chip's hands slipped into the pockets of wealthy passerby.

chip obviously sees himself in these kids in the orphanage, and begins to track his lived experiences with reuben (and later their crew) onto them. why wouldn't they want to go up there to steal for themselves? that's how chip was useful in his youth, doing something that'd keep him and reuben alive. stealing and thievery meant agency and survival.

and jay thinks he's crazy! he'd be putting them directly in danger of being caught! she thinks it's a terrible idea, because she thinks it's dragging them into the situation, into peril. chip sees these kids as already in danger. he thinks that the reason these kids currently pickpocket people on the bottom layer is because they don't have the opportunity to do so from the people up top (because of the five gold coin fee to even get into the layer that they certainly can't spare). in his mind, he's giving them agency.

not to say that sending a bunch of orphans to go steal from rich people on the blossom district would be a good idea: another decision he thinks he's making logically, aka more people stealing = more gold coins, but is instead emotionally driven.

jay and gillion object so immediately because they don't have the lived experience that chip does, so they don't have the emotional connection either.

everything else that happens after in edison kingdom, especially with chip's conversation with king leon where he talks about how people can't choose what they're born into, and the kids living in poverty never chose that either, is also so telling of his character and who he is. all such a good direction for his character to have gone after opposing gillion's drive to help loffinlot/desire island/win the paramount tournament.

[lyltinc]

still into you [1.7k, 1/1]

a valentine's day drabble for all the fish and chips enjoyers out there! summary below:

[lyltinc]

trying to move over from just jrwitwt to jrwi tumblr.. i got into riptide after being dragged in by a friend and now i'm here. i write on ao3 under lyltinc

lots of my riptide works are fnc. first fnc fic i ever wrote linked here, called party rock anthem:

but i've also been working on a siren gillion au. very slowly. now that twitter character limit isn't holding me back, many riptide aus are soon to come

[lyltinc]

Epithets are tricky to land, but an effective and subtle way to express a character's thoughts, emotions, and familiarity towards another character (or anything else they're using the epithet for). 

I usually use epithets sparingly, since I want them to stand out. Sometimes, this logic is flipped: epithets are used when the names of the characters are being written too often.

So there could be a lot of "the triton" replacing "Gillion" when it feels like his name's been said way too much, maybe "the sharpshooter" for Jay, or "the thief" for Chip.

But I find that, when writing the third person limited perspective (which is typically my go-to), there are times where using very general, impersonal epithets can feel off-putting because the character's narrative voice breaks.

For example, say Chip is thinking about how much he and Gillion have changed since the beginning of their journey:

EX 1) Has it really only been a few months since his hand found Gillion's? Chip could've sworn he's already spent half of his life with Gillion, being dragged into adventures he never would've wanted, becoming someone he thought it impossible to be. Across from him now, a broad smile winds across Gillion's face, bold as the day he boarded the ship, but the blue-eyed man's shoulders rest looser than Chip's ever seen.  

In this context, the epithet disrupts Chip's narrative voice because the point of the final sentence is to demonstrate how Gillion, while still maintaining characteristics that have simultaneously endeared and frustrated Chip since the first day, has changed throughout their journey. However, calling Gillion "the blue-eyed man" introduces a feeling of unfamiliarity to the voice, running counter to the point of the paragraph. It adds a detail that Chip isn't necessarily thinking about, or would find important in this moment. The language doesn't service his voice; his voice is strained with the burden of easing the language.

Another use of an epithet could be:

EX 2) Has it really only been a few months since his hand found the triton's? Chip could've sworn he's already spent half of his life with Gillion, being dragged into adventures he never would've wanted, becoming someone he thought it impossible to be. Across from him now, a broad smile winds across Gillion's face, bold as the day he boarded the ship, but his shoulders rest looser than Chip's ever seen.  

By introducing Gillion as "the triton", the narrative voice (Chip's voice) introduces two impersonal, detached things to each other: "his hand" and "the triton". The time to which the narrative voice calls back to is a point where they are strangers to each other, so this makes sense. It also hints at what initially drives their misunderstandings of each other and their early conflicts.

Because Gillion is a triton of the Undersea, born and raised with a background so intensely different from Chip's, they constantly confused and clashed with each other.

Now, the paragraph starts with impersonality and unfamiliarity, then falls into using Gillion's name, demonstrating both through the literal reading of the text and the construction of language how their relationship and understanding of each other develops.

(I could also go on and on about how epithets are particularly powerful regarding Gillion. Obviously, he constantly introduces himself as the Champion of the Undersea and Hero of the Deep, along with a long list of titles that he himself forgets. Translating this characteristic into writing, specifically the writing of any given character's narrative voice regarding Gillion, is incredibly fun.)

[lyltinc]

im probably being autistic but where is this jrwi vamp fanfic I keep hearing about and if so can I have the link bc, OMG IT SOUNDS SO GOOD

the wonderful gorgeous art done by @bananabelsplit and by @jazforthesoul are what i think you're talking about, but it's not a fanfic (yet)! there's a plot thought out for nightlight au (vamp au), but i haven't written it in full yet. i'm currently in the process--it's just taking a bit. when some scenes are done, it'll definitely be on my ao3 and then posted abt on tumblr as well!

i was also considering laying out some of the basics of the plot/beginnings of the au, since it really might take a bit to write to the extent that i'd want to, and i could jump over some less important connective tissue of the plot. i took a loooong break from tumblr though, and so i never got around to talking about vamp au here, even though tumblr's a great place to talk about aus.

i am really excited that you're interested though!! i've been thinking about it for (no exaggeration) weeks