#premises

[moonlit-tulip]

A gimmick which I think would be interesting in a visual novel: small variation in the visual designs of the sprites and backgrounds based on who's narrating a given scene. Not large variations, mostly—buildings are going to have generally the same architecture, people are going to have generally the same outfits, et cetera—but lots of details shifting around on the margins, showing the texture of the characters' thought-processes through the visual design of the world as they see it, rather than only through the text of their narration.

So, for example, one could have one viewpoint character be unusually faceblind, and portray this by having all the sprites have Same-Face Syndrome when viewed from their perspective, even as they hold onto more variation face-wise in everyone else's perspectives. One could have one viewpoint character who's unusually conscious of the fine details of their physical environment, and portray this by drawing the environment-art with much more fiddly detail when in their perspective, showing wood-grain and electrical wiring and other such things which are abstracted away in others' perspectives of the same areas. Et cetera.

[enchantedpersephone]

The Batman Animated Series' most latest episode, S01E30, had an intriguing plot that reminded me of the Gargoyles TV show's premise and its parallels, which involved brilliant but crazy scientists changing people's DNA in bizarre scientific experiments to create hybrid creatures that were neither entirely human nor entirely monsters... and well, I love it!

[fieriframes]

[5 images. A close up of a bowl of food. A bowl of food. A man cooking in a kitchen preparing food. A person standing in a kitchen preparing food. A man standing in a kitchen preparing food. Captions: I MOVE THAT THIS ELEPHANT MAN... BE REMOVED FROM THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY. WE HAVE A SACRED DUTY TO CURE THE SICK... NOT CARE FOR CIRCUS ANIMALS. THAT IS MY LAST WORD ON THE SUBJECT. MR. CHAIRMAN, SHALL WE VOTE?]

[momentofmemory]

You’d write a fic in May’s POV that chronicles the MCU / growing up in a world as an ADULT who saw the “I am Iron Man” speech, knew who Tony Stark was as a playboy like a celebrity and was 🔪 about everything when she found out the truth— especially as her child worships the ground he walks in but doesn’t know the full picture but May also recognizes.. when it comes to a lot of superhero stuff... neither will she. The unease. The tension. The tentative acceptance. And then the Blip happens. And she’s not snapped. And she learns more about Tony, who he REALLY is, how much he cared for Peter.

And then Tony dies. And when Peter returns, she mourns not just for the world and for the return of her child— but for the man that her child will never truly get to know; complex, messy and human like the rest of them.

akfljdgh the possibilities the emotions the flavours?? The strangeness of being a whole adult watching the arc of playboy to flyboy to hero but from a distance?? And then suddenly this multiple zeros celebrity who also has military grade weapons at his disposal is talking to her and her kID?? The ups and downs of that relationship??

Listen idk if I could ever do a May survives the snap and Peter doesn’t but AS FOR THE REST OF IT don’t do this to me I’m tHINKING—

send me a fic premise you think I’d write and I’ll tell you how accurate it is

[andersunmenschlich]

Pronoun Choice: an Analysis

Let us say you see a person—

—and decide they're a she, and call them her.

Why?

"She's got long hair."

So if this person cut their hair (or lost it due to cancer)...?

"No, she'd still be a she."

Why?

"Because... well, look at her face! The features are soft and the skin's clear, no pimples, no freckles, no visible hair...."

So you're making this decision based on estrogen levels.

"What? No. I wasn't thinking about estrogen or anything like that at all."

Higher levels of estrogen are what give people soft facial features, hairless chins, etc. So while you might not have known that was what you were looking for (or maybe you just weren't thinking about it), that is what you were looking for: features that are good indicators of estrogen levels.

"No, it's not."

...All right. So if this person—

—had sharper cheekbones, a bit of a mustache—

“She wouldn’t have that.”

What, a mustache? I don’t see why not; my aunt does.

"Fine. Well, she'd still be a she."

Okay. Why?

"Just... because she is, okay?"

This is an analysis. You can't run away from the facts during an analysis, you're supposed to actually look at your reasons for things. So. Please, tell me: What makes someone a she?

"Well, if they've got a gentle personality and, like, they love kids and are good in the kitchen...."

That disqualifies my mother (circa her marriage to my father).

"Oh, come on!"

And if it's the personality that makes someone 'she'... how can you know what personality a person in a picture has?

"Well, you can tell just by looking, it’s obvious."

Ha, if only that were true.

"Oh, shut up!"

All right, all right—let's try this another way. The person in these pictures: you decided they're a she, right?

"Yes."

Is there anything that could change your mind about this person?

If they cut their hair shorter than this, took off their jewelry, didn’t wear makeup?

"Yeah, I don’t think so. A girl’s a girl!"

So you’ve decided they’re a she, and no amount of appearance-changing would make a difference to that. Hmm. What if nothing about this person changed at all?

"Huh? Then she'd definitely be a she!"

But what if, this whole time, these pictures have been of Ginsyamu, a person born with (and still in possession of) a penis?

"What?? He's a guy??"

...Ah. Aha.

"...."

So it wasn't really estrogen levels you were trying to figure out, after all—you were looking at features that indicate estrogen level in order to discover this other thing affected by estrogen level—you were trying to figure out what their private parts looked like.

"No, I wasn't! That didn't even cross my mind!"

I believe you. I'm sure it didn't.

It didn't have to.

See, that's the thing about the human brain: it handles things efficiently, and it's not efficient to think through a whole logic chain when you can just take hold of one link at the end, and use it that way.

So you legitimately didn't realize that the chain of logic in your brain went:

・ soft facial features, high estrogen levels ・ high estrogen levels, vagina not penis ・ vagina not penis, 'she'

"That is not what I was thinking!"

No, it's not. That was not an active thought process. It didn't need to be; that would have been a waste of mental energy, and the human brain doesn't like wasting mental energy. Why make that chain of logic an active thought process that you're actually aware of when it works just fine at a subconscious, less energy-draining level?

But when I told you that Ginsyamu has a penis, you immediately changed your choice of pronoun from 'she' to 'he'.

This is your foundation-level definition, your primary premise, the most important thing for you when it comes to deciding which pronoun you're going to use for a person. You don't have to think about it. You don't even have to be consciously aware of it.

But when you learn what a person's private parts look like—that's it.

Nothing else matters to you.

Penis = 'he'. Vagina = 'she'.

"That is not true!"

Well, maybe not. Run the experiment a few times more. Is there anyone with a penis who you think is definitely a she, or anyone with a vagina who you would consider a he? Anyone at all, even a totally made up person!

If so, then I'm wrong about you.

If not, then, well.... [shrug]

[knittingwithhighlighters]

Writing prompt #55

There's something that's beautiful 

Being awake for my funeral

[reference23]

Premises, Hackney Road, E2