There are places in the wide seas of the world where said sea lies calmer than the current about it. The biggest examples of this are, of course, the Calm Belts. But there are other spots, smaller and less noticeable except to locals who thank their lucky stars as they sail across.
Why the calmness in those patches of sea? Well, usually due to something bigger sleeping underneath the waves. Enough to keep it still under its weight.
Like, for example, the area of ocean near Foolshout Island. Surprisingly kind for an island on Paradise, of the Grand Line.
It's certainly a noticeable shift, to the ship of Fishmen Pirates that sail through it one day. The Sun Pirates, with the aim of returning a small child to her home.
And it's a shift enough to change the timing of a waiting ambush of Marines. For said ambush to happen before the girl is returned home, rather than after. All an unfortunate accident, under a bright blazing sun.
"Surrender, filthy Fish pirates-"
The Marine leader doesn't have time to finish. Not when a large tentacle smashes him down. A tentacle part of a huge mass, a mass that's just moved between the Sun Pirates and the attacking Marines. Stalling both sides out.
"Enough of this. You are waking me from my sleep."
There is a child. In the center of the mass. Connected to the mass. Wearing something of spines and spikes, of metal, on his head.
The tentacles are much larger than they should be for a merman or Fishman the child's age. More comparative to a Kraken than anything else, a Kraken in kelp bladder yellow.
The eyes the same color as the tentacles move to look them over. The child speaks.
"Ah. Lemurians."
"We're Fishmen," Arlong manages to grind out.
"Is that what you call yourselves now? Hm." The boy turns away from the Sun Pirates, towards the Marines. Unperturbed by the bullets they are shooting at him.
Because the bullets are clearly sinking into something, into that mass of tentacles much larger than the more human-looking portion, but there is no blood.
Nothing more than a sigh and apparent twitch of irritation as the boy's tentacles lash out to knock the attacking humans aside. Leaving them groaning and in some cases, all too still. No longer a threat to the Sun Pirates in any case.
"I," the boy states. "am going back to bed."
Hesitant, Fisher Tiger clears his throat. When yellow-green eyes turn to look at him, slitted as any fish's, he manages to say, "Thank you. For your protection."
"Hm."
Movement is difficult to place, only that it clearly happens within the tentacles mostly alone in a rolling motion, human legs seemingly unnecessary.
The entire crew watches, as the stranger reaches out to touch Koala's hand, his hand barely bigger than her own.
"You'll get home eventually," he says, somewhat nonsensically and also not, because does he know that Koala is a human that came from this island originally?
That seemingly settled in the strange squid-like boy's mind, he heads off towards the sea. Completely unafraid and unaffected as the waves wash up against him, until he vanishes somewhere off the coast.
Leaving the Sun Pirates to simply stare at him. Deciding what to do next.
"Well. I suppose we need to get you home, huh?" Fisher Tiger glances over at Koala, the entire reason they're on this island in the first place.
Jinbei's already over there, ready to get her moving. Before he stops. Pauses.
"Big Brother?"
"What?"
"Uh, I don't know if we can take her back anymore..." Carefully, the whaleshark-man nudges at the girl from the behind.
Who obliges by raising her hands.
Hands that now have webbing between them. To go along with the new gill slits on her neck.
In Spider SY AU, another benefit from SY asking for Stories, is that the villagers developed a better Morales than any other.
Because stories may just be Stories. But they're also Lessons. Lessons on what not to do. Lessons to be a good person. Lessons of Past Errors. Lessons of Dangers. And SY is someone who's constantly criticising those stories, and call it idiotic if the story lesson is idiotic.
So it only makes sense that for the village whose gods ask for stories as payment, they would not only make stories,but also take to the hearts of the lessons it represents.
So the villagers try not to be arrogant. Not to be greedy. To be kind. To be fair. Take to heart that SY may be their god. But gods are also fickle, with no known when he will leave. They try to stand on their own feet without relying on gods.
And I think it's beautiful.
ogh, I forgor this was here and thought I responded already qwq
Was re-reading your HTRYDS again and got me thinking. The relationship between Zeref, Lacrade and August is so messy and tragic.
From August side alone, he knows that Zeref's curse kills everyone he loves. So he understands that Zeref can't allow himself to love him. Yet he sees small signs that Zeref DOES care about him. Basically adopting him when they first met. Letting him stay by his side. Perhaps teaching him all he knows. Giving him the highest authority of his empire. Perhaps he might've wanted to reveal that he is his son, but never did for various reasons. Then Zeref created Lacrade. Someone who looks so much like a child Zeref and Marvis might have together. So this is the proof that Zeref did wanted a son. Someone like him. But what is he to do? He's already gray and old, yet his father remains the same. He knows that he's going to die soon, so isn't it better to keep it a secret to prevent further heartbreak? Maybe even wondering if Lacrade is actually a replacement goldfish. A preparation to replace a son Zeref saw in him when he died of old age. So it's perhaps proof that Zeref did see him as his son. Yet also painful because he's going to be replaced after he died. But shouldn't he feel glad about this? The entire reason he hid his relationship is so Zeref won't be in pain after his death. So Lacrade being there after him should be something he should be glad about. But it's still so painful that one day, he might be forgotten and replaced by Lacrade. Someone he knows is a demon of Zeref. With the ability to live as long as Zeref allows it.
I've also been thinking of other Stellaron hunters in Arknight. Elio is definitely a cyclops. They are prophet species who are in despair by the prophecy of calamity and tragedy they see. Enough said.
Kafka is spider theme. Unfortunately there's no spider species in Arknight. Then I thought of her power of Spirit Whisper. Then there's Banshee who used Oral Art. So there's that. Also the fact apparently Banshee and Vampire work well together. So that match with the syngeny she has with Blade in HSR.
I can't think of anything for Silver wolf. Unless you go with Lupo of her namesake. But then wouldn't that disrupt the theme the steralaron hunters have with being Sarkaz? Then I thought of her reality hacking. Being a gamer. So thought, how about Lich? They bend reality. But unlike the usual library types, she's more punk rock style with technology. Who instead of ancient knowledge and books of normal lich, hoard modern knowledge and games.
HMMM INTERESTING! Thank you for taking the time to type and share your thoughts on this!
I admit for Stellaron Hunters I already have rough plans (Kafka as phydia, SW as lupo, Firefly as liberi) and mostly going with the “unlikely people from different backgrounds teaming up together so well” theme to avoid a Sarkaz-only team focus, but your idea is also nice options! I’m considering the Elio as cyclops bit, though most I know is from Typhoon and Valarqvin, I’ll need to read up more about them..
Would you mind if I incorporate some things from your ideas?
Sorry if I'm being agnorant it insensitive, but how does the AI even work on writing? I know how and how bad the AI feeding on art is happening. But how do the AI even write? I mean, writing have to include all the scenes, characters and emotion.
It's definitely not insensitive to ask! Honestly, it's something that I don't think a lot of people get completely (and I won't pretend that I'm an expert). But in answer to your question, how does the AI know how to write and include all the scenes, characters, and emotions?
Short answer: It doesn't.
Longer answer: AI is a Pattern Recognizer. What that means is that if you put enough Things into it, the coding it's made up of will sort and categorize all the Patterns it can identify, and then when given parameters, it will spit something out that matches those parameters based on the patterns it has stored.
As an example: let's say I fed the AI with a bunch of photos of flowers and all of Van Gogh's paintings. The AI's code sifts through the data, organizes it all based on tags, data, etc, and stores it. Then I tell it "hey, give me a painting of a tulip in the style of Van Gogh." The code searches the database for tags that match the prompt: so it searches its database of flowers for one tagged "tulip", then it searches all of its tagged images of Van Gogh's work and finds patterns in those images, like swirly lines, bright colors, etc, and it combines those things and spits out an image that looks like a tulip that might have been painted by Van Gogh.
The same concept works for writing. If I poured all of JRR Tolkien's writing into an AI, the code goes through and stores, tags, and organizes all that data. Then if I tell it: write a sequel to The Lord of the Rings about Frodo in the Undying Lands. The code pulls Patterns out of the database, like "if someone says this, Frodo usually says this in response." And through that, it manages to cobble something out that maybe sounds like how JRR Tolkien might have written Frodo.
The thing is, it doesn't actually Know what it has. Code can't Know things. So it doesn't Know or Understand who Frodo is. To the AI, "Frodo" is a pattern of words in sequence. So it can find those Patterns and recognize "these sequences are most likely to occur when referring to the parameter of Frodo," and cobble something together, something that might even sound pretty good. But it can't Think. It can't extrapolate or make decisions. It can't consider the internal depth of who Frodo is or represents. It can just repeat and rearrange patterns.
This means, often, if you're reading something written by an AI, eventually you're going to come across something that feels OOC, or loses its internal coherency, or loses details and plot threads, because the AI isn't Thinking. It's not coming up with outlines and keeping track of details, it's just reconfiguring its already loaded database.
Of course, the more patterns it has, the more it can approximate something that sounds like a person wrote it, and that's why a lot of artists and writers are so against it: their work is getting loaded into the AI so that it has a bajillion patterns, including their own styles and concepts! Which it can then use to push more and more of us out of what we love to do as people who are more concerned with Profit decide it's easier to fix some plot holes and wonky writing than to have something with heart, soul, and the actual Decisions of a Person behind it.
So yeah. The TL;DR is, an AI can't write. It can just rearrange patterns fed into it into something that is approximately like what someone might have written. But there's no choices, thought, or consideration behind any of it. It's just a hollow shell of a concept wrapped up in the trappings of someone else's words.
In out of time, what are the chances of Sai, shin or Tenzo telling Hashirama and Madara about ROOT? Cause I'm pretty sure that's the fastest way to get them to off Danzo
Thank you for the question!
The big issue with any three of them telling the terrors about ROOT is that they physically cannot, due to the curse seal on their tongues. It's why Sai tell them there's more he can't say and physically struggles to speak to them about knowing the time travel incident in chapter 54.
ROOT is one of those things that I feel a bit conflicted about in the canon's worldbuilding. A secret shadowy organization that reports to Danzou is fine, but that they take from the ANBU...is no one aware of the power struggle? Of an elite army loyal to one man? In OoT it's a smaller organization and the curse seal is a serious thing that'll be brought up more later that makes it impossible for the members to knowingly speak/reveal the nature of ROOT to outsiders (and ROOT members usually only know one or two others, no one knows the full number of their organization besides Danzou). Hiruzen knows about it, but he thinks he can still control Danzou enough for it not to be a problem. Kakashi is also aware because of his connection to Tenzo and how much Hiruzen trusts him.
Something I thought about Morimen Keeper. How they seem to wake up as other people in the past. Becoming them. Having their memories. Their Emotion. Considering who they are, those people and them might be the same being. The same Butterflies that were dreamed into existence. Past, present and future blurring for the dreaming butterfly. What comes first? The keeper of the present that dreams into the past? Or the past that already happened?
One instance was, Keeper dreaming as Tulu's crown. The one that connects him to power.
So. My thoughts are about this are, well, Morimens Arc One spoilers ahoy, but-
This fluidity is a hundred percent due to the Keeper being a fragment of a dreaming god dropping into the actual dream of that same god.
When you get down to it, what really is the difference between the 'reality' of Kadath and the 'reality' of a dream in Kadath? On our dumb god's scale, it's the same. A dream within dream if a difference has to be noted at all.
The Keeper remembers things erased by the Dissolution for the same reason, because Dissolution is caused by God looking too closely at the dream and noticing that things aren't 'quite' to the scale of the reality it's more familiar with.
Like when you try to read a book in a dream and you realize that hey, the words are gibberish? Same deal.
BUT it flips around the Keeper being able to make those erased memories more real IN THE DREAM OF KADATH because well, the Keeper IS the Dreamer of Kadath.
If you really want a mind twist, consider this: what if the memories we see in dreams and flashbacks of Awakeners don't exist until the Keeper dreams them up/'witnesses' them.
"But what about how the Awakeners have backstory before we do a Psyche Dive-" Look. You can have characters in dreams act a certain way and do certain things WITHOUT ever knowing what their apparent backstory is.
A dream isn't the same as a book or movie or video game, after all.
The concept of the Silver Core is so delicious. Because of the possible Meta Narratives.
It's implied that the Silver Core came into being, because of the Supreme Being. The Dreamer. Meta Narratively speaking, us.
If you develop the Silver Core, you become effectively immortal. You come back from the dead. You come back from Dissolution. From Non Existence. From being forgotten.
Narratively and Meta Narratively speaking, it's because We noticed them. Finding them memorable. Enough for them to exist in our memories. So as long as we remember them, they will continue to exist in that world. Only by us forgetting them, they will truly die.
It's about the MEMORIES! As long as you are remembered, you are not dead.
That's why the Dissolution is so insidious. Because it makes it impossible for people to be remembered, to come back.
Silver Cores exist in opposition to that. If someone else remembers, they can return. Live again, like you said.
Tbh, the world that exists around this, around the Dissolution just a thing and most people not knowing about it... it makes sense. Because how you know about something when you don't have any memories about it.
Like the Dissolution takes everyone in time. But it's the beginning chapters of Morimens that really get me, about how there is TIME to reclaim those fading memories before they're gone forever, but it doesn't always happen.
Because people don't care enough. Like the biggest targets in those first two chapters?
Homeless people. The sick. The orphans.
I'm pretty sure that for Silver to exist, there has to be exposure to the energies of Dissolution first. A soul must run the risk of erasure to be set in supernatural diamond.
And that too relies on the people that surrounds the one who dies, the one that could be an Awakener. Because it is up to them, to us, to wake them up in remembering.
