currently caught between a rock (knowing I won't have time to write later) and a hard place (wanting the instant gratification of posting the next chapter of my fic)
It's been ages since I wrote fanfiction, and I'm happy to post some of it!
Most of my writing is purely fed by random bursts of motivation, and seeing support for fics is super motivating! Feel free to comment/leave kudos, as it helps a ton!
I don't always keep up with big announcements in the Alien Stage fandom. I usually end up hearing about them from people who are a tad bit more invested in it than I am, and that satisfies me. Which means that I know what VIVINOS said Alien Stage S2 was going to be. Logically, I knew we wouldn't get a happy-go-lucky school AU, but Zombie Stage wasn't something I was expecting.
I'm still excited for it. Hell, I think I like the aesthetic of this series more than the original ALNST! This just brings the question: how is this still a school AU?
I have 3 theories, but there's only one with (some) actual evidence towards it. What if this is kind of like Jumanji (or media kind of like it)?
Longer ramble/theory below the cut
Most of this theory is based on a single comic panel, but I find it interesting enough to build a decently viable theory on it. If you haven't seen the "Anakt Arts High School Film Club" comic on VIVINOS's Patreon, I will be referencing it a little bit. This comic is under the free membership.
Essentially, Mizi picks a movie called "Zombie Stage" for the club to watch. She reads the synopsis once before handing the CD over to Hyuna, who says this:
Hyuna (supposedly) starts rereading the synopsis, and Mizi warns her against it, although in a very playful manner.
"Zombie Stage," as a movie, isn't very well known in this universe. It has a small fanbase, and, according to Mizi, reading the synopsis twice will "curse" you.
This alone was enough for me to come up with the theory that the main 6 from ALNST got sucked into this movie's universe. However, some additional evidence comes from who is interacting in this panel.
Mizi plays a huge role in ALNST. We can't really deny that. The last video of the series had her face as the thumbnail.
Mizi is the one who brought the movie to the group, but Hyuna was the one who probably read the synopsis twice. Who is the thumbnail for the Zombie Stage teaser?
Hyuna.
If she read the synopsis twice, she could have accidentally dragged everyone in, but she would have been the main focus of the curse. Her having a more "leading" role in ZOMST would make complete sense.
That's my main thoughts. Other theories of mine include:
ZOMST is like a final project or something made by the Film Club. There's not really any backing to this one, just wishful thinking.
The movie just has the Film Club "starring" in it, and they get a little more than creeped out by watching it.
Either way, I'm excited to see what VIVINOS and her team have come up with!
Thing I Did Today: Made a Google Slideshow about my fake rubber duck collection, as well as including stupid "facts" about rubber ducks. It kind of turned into an entire rubber duck universe.
Highlights Include:
- Ducksune Ducku, who only listens to Metallica
- Ryanland Duckling, who says "Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!" in his sleep
- Ducky Barnes, who has prosthetic wing built by Duckbeth of the Untied Duckdom
- Rubber Ducks' only natural predator: scissors
- Duckzilla, who eats jeeps (and the rubber ducks inside of them)
- Rubber Ducks can breathe underwater for 24 hours, but if they're in the water for longer than that, they mold.
Project Hail Mary both the book (written by Andy Weir) and
the movie (directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)!
I first found this book while looking around on Goodreads. I thought the cover was cool, read the synopsis, and decided to shelve it for later. Then I saw the trailer. Immediately, my timeline of "I'll get to it when I get to it" was sped up to "I gotta read this now." I'm so glad I did. I love this book so much, and the movie is my favorite movie!
I feel like the movie specifically has been pretty well known (and for good reason!), but I still feel the need to put a spoiler warning here. I will be talking about the plot of Project Hail Mary in this ramble, so there are major spoilers!
The first thing I have to get out of the way: Rocky. Look at this lil guy!
Seriously he's the best. Loved him in the book, and, somehow, the movie made him better! I didn't know I needed Rocky to be rolling around in a little hamster ball, but here I am. Also, he's clumsy in it, which adds to the character.
In the book, Ryland was just able to understand everything Rocky said as they talked more. Due to the change in medium, Rocky has a voice in the movie. I can't live without it now. I love this little rock's voice. It managed to catch his energy perfectly. I don't think I've ever loved a fictional character as much as I've loved Rocky.
Now that I've talked about my favorite Eridian, I can talk about the other things I love about this story.
Ryland Grace is perhaps one of the most fun characters to read the narration of ever. This also goes for watching his character in the movie. He's a jokester, which makes him a fun teacher (seriously would've loved to have Dr. Grace as a teacher in school). He's also pretty relatable. I too, would be freaking out if I were in his situation.
I didn't expect there to be anything after most of his memories were revealed, yet there was. The fact that he was forced to go on this mission makes his character development feel real. He was always determined to solve the Astrophage problem, but him being forced to go shows that he could rise to the challenge. Stratt was 100% right.
That leads me to Stratt. I'm a little iffy on her in general. I wasn't the biggest fan of her in the book (look at the competion). I liked her better in the movie, though. Maybe because she felt a little more human instead of 100% business mode.
I actually liked the movie better than the book. That's something I don't usually say. It's true though. I had one main issue with the book, and that's mainly because of the POV the book is written in. I think the POV (and by that I mean first person with present tense, NOT that Ryland shouldn't be the POV character) is the perfect choice. It assists the memory loss part of the premise really well.
It does limit how the ending plays out. My problem with the ending in the book was that we never learned what happened to Earth. Did humanity survive? Did they die? If we just had the book, we would never know, and I wasn't satisfied with that. I was find with Ryland never returning "home," I just wanted to know what happened to "home" and if the trip ended up having an effect.
The movie, due to the forced change in POV, was able to fix my dissatisfaction. Now we know humanity was able to survive, and is able to put Ryland's work to use. The Project Hail Mary, and Ryland didn't go through this in vain (at least on the Earth side of things, Erid would've been saved regardless). I ended up feeling more fulfilled.
Another great addition in the movie was the video diary. In the book, I kept wondering if Earth would ever know of the journey Ryland took. Eventually, I figured they wouldn't. It was a little disappointing, but I understood. Adding it in the book would have taken me out of the story. I moved on fast.
A movie can use something like the video diary to its advantage. It serves as a quick recap so they don't need to be shown on screen. It cuts down on the runtime of the movie. When it was confirmed that Earth saw those videos, I was so giddy. It just added to my experience.
The movie was gorgeous. Like that view of Adrian? To die for.
That scene is one of my favorite scenes in this entire movie. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen put to a screen. My other favorite scene is when Stratt sings "Sign of the Times."
I don't usually cry when I watch movies or read books. I can tear up, but that's about it. I nearly cried about 5 times during this movie (most of them were just because of Rocky existing), but that scene almost did me in. It caught me off guard, and I started immediately thinking about what happens in this story.
Humanity is in a desperate struggle for survival, even if the effects of it haven't entirely hit the general population yet. There won't be anywhere for people to go. The group of people in this scene have made it their responsibility to save the world, and they're still having fun. Then there's Ryland, who has no clue that he even has the gene that allows him to survive a long term coma, putting him on the list of potential candidates of scientists on the Hail Mary. All of the emotions of this movie hit me in that moment, creating one of the best experiences I've ever had in a theater.
I'm not a sci-fi person. There's a lot of movies in the genre that can feel sterile in their appearance. Project Hail Mary never felt like that. It's not about fighting invading aliens with guns or emphasizing how far humanity has come. Instead it's about humanity as it is now fighting alongside aliens as we try to find a solution to a common problem. It preaches a message of friendship, not hate. And I think that's what I've loved about Project Hail Mary.
I've only read the main series, but these are some of the best books I've ever read. And no one really talks about them? It's a shame.
The series take place in a dystopia disguised as a utopia. In the future, humans transcended all forms of death. Natural death can no longer affect anyone. No one even bothers to use violence to get what they want because the Thunderhead, which is essentially the Cloud with sentience, takes care of everything for humanity; it has a personal relationship with almost every human being, and even offers guidance when asked. The two things that the Thunderhead refuses to govern are life and death. Humans take care of the life part of this pretty naturally, but death is another story. Humanity appoints legal killers, called scythes, to do this job for them. The Thunderhead doesn't even interact with scythes, so they're left to rule over themselves. Like any human-led organization, this turns south.
That's a brief summary, but there's so much I love about this series! If you want to go check it out yourself, I would recommend not reading more of this post. Talking about some of my favorite parts of this series goes into spoiler territory, and I advise reading this series blind. Seriously, there's a lot of things you wouldn't expect to happen that will be mentioned in some way.
Let's start with the introduction to the series as a whole. From the first page, Scythe pulls you in with a gleaning journal entry from Scythe Curie, who you don't actually meet until Chapter 13. She introduces some important worldbuilding elements, as well as one of the core messages of the series.
"We are instructed to write down not just our deeds but our findings, because it must be known that we do have feelings. Remorse. Regret. Sorrow too great to bear. Because if we didn't feel those things, what monsters would we be?"
I found that quote when I was looking back through the first book (I was roughly halfway through The Toll), and it stood out to me. What monsters would scythes be without those feelings? Everything in this book happens because scythes learn to live without them, and humanity pays the price. After reading the first page, it's easy to want to learn more about this world.
I love the world of this series because it feels realistic, in a way. Humanity has conquered death, and most people are guaranteed at least some form of equality. People don't necessarily get murdered in the streets, not when scythes are the only ones that can truly kill someone. Anyone who is rendered "deadish" (not permanently dead, which is called "gleaned") will just be carted off to the nearest revival center. This causes most people's everyday become mundane and repetitive. People have the desire to do something with their lives, but they don't know how to do it.
A good example of this is seen in the last book through Ezra Van Otterloo, an artist in search of a purpose. He feels like his art isn't affecting people the way he wants it to, and it weighs on him.
He's right. People don't exactly understand art very much anymore. They can look at tales such as Julius Caesar and ask what the point of it was. They don't have death hanging over them, and it makes most struggles seem pointless. Most everyone is happy. They don't have to concern themselves with loss or grief unless their loved one is gleaned. This leaves Ezra feeling mediocre. People love his art, but he's only considered "acceptable." He's racing to find a point to his life, but comes up blank.
And this isn't the only time something like this is shown! There are many times where people feel like their life is mundane. Some find joy in it. Others don't. But this idea in and of itself feels incredibly realistic to me. If everyone lived forever and all their needs were met, then we would live this mundane life. It's hard to find a point in something that no one wants to change.
And then you have Scythe Goddard (it's so much fun to hate this guy's guts). He does want to change things, but only for the good of himself. He thinks scythes should be held on a pedestal for the work that they do. He kills in mass. He takes advantage of every possible situation. He feels no remorse, regret, or sorrow. From a moral perspective, he is a horrible scythe. Greedy, selfish, and vain. Yet, somehow, he manages to take control of the entire North American Continent (dubbed North Merica in this world).
Part of it is by force. The other part of it is by the greed of those around him. The scythedom is the only human-led organization left, and its politics are fascinating. Scythe Goddard is the leader of the "new order," dedicated to making life easier for scythes. He has a strong desire to change the scythedom, and put himself as leader. It's so contrary to the general feel of this world. Power struggles are almost obsolete. People don't really die. This society was so unprepared for the scythedom to fail that one man with a strong enough ambition brought it to its knees.
Again, I hate Goddard. I hate him so much. But his impact intrigues me. It's something I can't help but love about this book, even if I want him to go through as much pain as he put others through.
There's a lot of other little things that make this series special in my heart. One of those is the end of Thunderhead and this sinking of Endura (I did give a spoiler warning); I was nearly in tears reading the last few chapters of that book, which was really awkward considering I was reading it in public. Another is the charter regions (Madagascar my beloved). There's just something about this series that sparks joy (and pain. So much pain.) in my heart. I think it's my favorite book series of all time at this point.
I just watched the first two episodes of Agent Carter!! I had no clue this series existed until I decided to start watching the MCU, and I'm so glad I decided to pick it up. I didn't expect to see more of Peggy Carter, but now I need way more than what the two seasons of the show will give me.
BLOODY DEVASTATION by Phill C.! Also, Grace on Roblox!
I know Roblox games have a reputation. However, if you spend time looking around on the platform, you'll come across some real gems. Grace is one of those. In fact, it's my favorite game right now, on any platform.
This isn't about Grace as a whole (even though this game is one of the main reasons I still play Roblox at all and it should totally be recognized outside of the platform), but rather one small part of it.
If you don't care to read a whole ramble about this song (or read a ramble about a game with a heck of a lot of religious references [seriously, this game is inspired by the Bible and the Mandela Catalogue]), just know that my favorite part starts at 2:14 and ends at 2:52.
A quick disclosure. I love Grace, but have unfortunately been unable to play the most recent update (Soul Over Body). I'm missing out on some stuff and probably lore. I don't believe I'm missing any pieces of lore from before Soul Over Body, but I'm not entirely sure. With that being said, let's continue.
The basic lore of this game is that you're playing as John Grace, a sinner who is running away from his sins. These sins take the form of entities that attack you on your way to the next saferoom. You're given encouragement from God, and left to run for your life.
This song is about Sorrow, an entity that manifests as bloody rain. To avoid dying to it, you must get under an object. Any object works. The most I knew about this entity lore-wise is that it was probably grief of some kind. Its document in-game references Matthew 12:30-31, but I've never figured out how it tied into the lore of the entity.
In Soul Over Body, Sorrow received a unique area in the game called a domain, which (in this case) is a blood ocean with huge snake/slug monsters trying to kill the player. This song is what plays when you're going through the domain.
Now onto the song itself. It's one of the few (if not only) songs to not only have lyrics along with a music video. In my opinion, it's one of the most straightforward pieces of story/lore we've gotten so far.
The first section of lyrics (0:50-1:05) is pretty hard to hear, but the video gives them to us!
The entire section is someone (or multiple people) calling out to God while God responds to them. We can presume that at least one of the people calling out is John Grace himself. These people want God to hear their prayers and help them. God wants them to know that He hears their prayers and to have peace.
The next important section isn't in the music, but rather in the video (2:16). The video shows us this:
It appears to be John Grace and a woman (who I've already seen be called Jane Grace at least once) talking about meeting up again the next day. Pretty sweet.
Then the next lyric section (2:19-2:52) hits. I can't explain how much I love this part. It's so fucking good.
Anyway, the video cuts from John and the woman to this:
John is now alone with these lyrics above him. Now, these lyrics could be pointing to the other sins that John has committed, but, in the context of the song, I present another option. John may be directly at fault for causing a loved one's death or falling out. Sorrow may not just be grief, but guilt as well. The other lyrics in this section imply that he misses his "love."
My interpretation of Sorrow as guilt really takes hold when looking at the references to rain within the song. Earlier in the lyrics, God says the lines, "Find your own faith, let that/rain inside wash away," and John himself references rain in this section of lyrics as well ("I can not bear the thought of losing you in this rain"). The way God refers to the rain (which...is definitely Sorrow) sounds like washing away guilt. John talks about it like it's something weighing him down. Both grief and guilt do that to a person.
When the third section of lyrics (2:55-3:32) starts to play, the visuals change again. This time, the Goobers appear.
The Goobers are another being in this game I have yet to mention. I'd recommend checking out the Grace Wiki for more information on the little guys. There's a lot of depth to them, but most of it seems to be pretty vague. My personal interpretation on them is that they're meant to represent either souls who made it to heaven or angels. Most likely the former (This mainly comes from some in-game lines like "a clean slate to build up from... not down! that's what helped me!" and the general purgatory vibes this game gives. I know the game isn't purgatory because John is alive, but it still feels that way).
Even if my interpretation of them is incorrect, the Goobers are without a doubt meant to be encouraging John in some way. This explains why he is able to pick himself back up so quickly after they show up. It also explains the change in the tone of the music.
There are couple of ways to interpret the lines in the last picture. The way I choose to interpret it: John wants to honor and worship God through his suffering and pain, or overcome the anger he feels about losing his loved one. It's a part of Christianity, and would kind of fit the inspiration for this game. It also fits the more upbeat feeling the song carries at this point. John is trying to power through the pain and guilt he's feeling. It also makes sense with later lines! John directly states that letting this loss weigh him down is a bad idea.
By the end of this song, John has overcome Sorrow (or guilt and grief), which lines up with the idea that the domains seem to be pushing. By finishing a domain, you have conquered the entity it holds. At the end of the song and domain, John has defeated Sorrow. It's truly a beautiful message about growing through grief and pain.
Granted, I could be misinterpreting this entire thing, which would be really awkward. I'm open to hearing other thoughts on Sorrow and this song. I just love it so much! I had to write something about it. I think I've listened to it at least 20 times in the past few days, and I nearly cried at least 5 of those times. This song is just That Good. Everyone should listen to it.
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romaincrisis
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turnnoffyourmind
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