Frank Writes - Tumblr Posts
November Comment Challenge
I double dog dare you, Tumblr, to leave some kind of comment on every story you read on AO3 this November.
You don’t have to compose a sonnet, or make offers of marriage, but I challenge you to take the minute of your time required to type one sentence of feedback into the comment field after you’ve read any story you didn’t completely hate, and tell the author something about what your experience of reading their work was. Two or three words is all it takes, if you’re feeling shy – “I liked this” or “This was good”
Something to let the author know that you recognize their efforts, that you are at least on some level aware that they entertained you, or at least kept you occupied for a little while, and that these comments are the only pay you’re ever going to be asked to give up for it. The only pay these authors are going to get. Recognition. From you.
When you think about how many hours of entertainment you get from reading fanfic every week, it’s not so much to pay, really.
So click the comment button. Use your words. Give a fan writer some encouragement to keep doing what they do.
I dare you.
I’ve decided after some thought (but mostly a complete and utter lack of response at all from more than one or two constant readers) to retire from fanfic writing on both AO3 and FF.net. Superhero Thanks For Asking’s next chapter will be my last.
If you’re out there and you’ve read my fanfics, thanks for sticking around in the seats and - more importantly - I’m sorry I wasted your time.
Undertale: No Mercy (The Anime - SPOILERS)
Undertale: No Mercy is a five-episode horror OVA released on Blu-Ray on 15 September 2018, the third anniversary of the game’s release.
Development While several producers and companies contacted Undertale’s creator about the rights to adapting the Undertale series for television, all but one of them detailed Undertale played killing some or none of the monsters. The lone “no mercy” pitch belonged to Carlos Lazaro, a veteran comics writer that also helped create the cult classic Crabface OVA for the Homestuck TrollCops animated series.
After what Lazaro described as “protracted and dog-filled” negotiations between him and Undertale creator Toby Fox, production began in late 2016. The primary caveat of the deal was that No Mercy was not to be released on the same media as the main series, in this case streaming websites. Lazaro agreed to this, and released the OVA as a two-disc Blu-Ray in 2018.
Plot No Mercy follows the same opening sequence and the original Undertale series’ first episode frame by frame until Frisk encounters the training dummy under Toriel’s guidance. However, rather than negotiate with the dummy, Frisk proceeds to decapitate it in a highly-detailed manner. Frisk then proceeds to violently stalk and kill Toriel and each of the characters that they had befriended in the original series, along with any monsters that get in their way.
It is gradually revealed that they are under the influence of Chara, the first human that had fallen into the monsters’ world. Chara had deliberately fallen into the hole out of a suicidal despair and hatred for humanity, and bonded with the monsters only to die of an illness. When Asriel (the son of King Asgore and Toriel) had tried to return the body to the human world that same night, he too was killed in the process.
Chara’s spirit would possess Frisk, a child of similar upbringing, and influence them to jump into the monster world and wreak vengeance. Frisk eventually confronts Sans and defeats him in a climactic battle before killing Asgore and Flowey from a first person perspective.
At this point Chara confronts the viewer directly and asks them if they want to destroy the world, displaying a menu. Either decision leads to Chara walking up to the viewer and slicing their throat, although “refusing” also accompanies this with a jumpscare. The credits then roll over faint sounds of explosions and screaming.
Reception No Mercy was likened to the Genocyber OVA by many reviewers, although many of them were polarized over whether this was a good thing. One prominent reviewer credited the OVA for its depiction of Flowey’s death, saying “it’s a jarring reflection of how much our life experiences mean nothing against betrayal, no matter how much we yearn to have our innocence back. We lose it like the old nursery rhyme, petal by painful petal.”
Easter Egg An easter egg was discovered in early 2019 by viewers who decided to watch No Mercy before the primary series. After making the final decision, the DVD scans for several known streaming apps and places a small file in their folders. When detected by certain streaming services, the file alters the final Undertale episode to play a post-credits scene showing a montage of news reports detailing the violent deaths of the cast. The final shot shows Frisk watching these reports from an unknown location with a sadistic smile red gleam in her eye.
All of the streaming services affected by this easter egg patched their sites to disregard the file. One service also attempted legal action against Lazaro, and the case was settled through a reissuing of the Blu-Ray that skipped the final choice menu and defaulted to the Accept ending, thus eliminating the file altogether.
Fox commented in an interview for the game’s Anniversary Edition that “[The easter egg] was probably what I would have done too.”
These new meds must be working because i tore down my permanent writer’s block today. Special thanks to @silvisnilade for beta reading and proofreading.
On Leap Day and just in time for third perigee, this chapter has Dauphine and Uroboros sign up to climb the crime-fighting duo echeladder.
Maybe I might get another of my fics updated too? We shall see...
me after 10 minutes af
i love when people want to play “never have i ever” because i destroy at that game. i’ve never had sex, i’ve never kissed anyone, i’ve never had a boyfriend, i’ve never been on a date. i just sit back and laugh my ass off as people lose so quickly. it’s the best perk to being the virginiest virgin to ever virgin.
Overwatch OC: Lee
Lee Gang-Cheol
Real Name: Artemio Valdez, Age 42
Occupation: Fortification specialist / Defense Consultant
Base of Operations: Sinuiju, DPRK (alleged)
Affiliation: Korean People's Army / Independent (alleged)
Lee Gang-Cheol is the adoptive name of a North Korean defense expert specializing in the construction of mobile energy fortification.
The massive omnic that menaced the Korean Peninsula threatened both of the nations that claimed it. In order to boost their defenses, the North Korean intelligence services abducted a promising young energy defense scientist and humanitarian from Central America.
Realizing his potential to save their country, they faked his death and proceeded to cyberize him. Army scientists drowned his mind in propaganda and stuffed his body full of cybernetic mechanics and armor. Dubbing their creation Lee Gang-Cheol - the given name translating to 'steel' - the newly-remodeled Artemio designed (and took part in building) a massive energy-based barrier around the entire northern half of the peninsula that proved effective in driving off the giant omnic with minimal damage to the homeland.
“Lee” was declared a national hero, but at the time it was a commendation he loathed. Overwatch was the one light filtering through the cracks in the walls built around the country and his mind. Artemio frequently designed escape routes into his fortifications to allow refugees and dissidents to escape and alert Overwatch to their plight. But the organization’s demise caused Artemio great despair and vindicated the country’s military, who planned to grant him an all-omnic wall-building army of his own at a ceremony attended by the country’s Leader.
In a concealed act of vengeance, Artemio covertly programmed the army to turn against the audience, acting “in the nick of time” to save the Leader’s life. Easily blaming the attack on a group of corrupt generals, Artemio was invited into the Leader’s inner circle. Adopting the Gangcheol moniker for good, he now hawks his defense technology to the leader’s clientele, all the while seeking out groups for his more personal mission to avenge himself on the remnants of Overwatch.
Overwatch OC: Lee
Lee Gang-Cheol
Real Name: Artemio Valdez, Age 42
Occupation: Fortification specialist / Defense Consultant
Base of Operations: Sinuiju, DPRK (alleged)
Affiliation: Korean People’s Army / Independent (alleged)
Lee Gang-Cheol is the adoptive name of a North Korean defense expert specializing in the construction of mobile energy fortification.
The massive omnic that menaced the Korean Peninsula threatened both of the nations that claimed it. In order to boost their defenses, the North Korean intelligence services abducted a promising young energy defense scientist and humanitarian from Central America.
Realizing his potential to save their country, they faked his death and proceeded to cyberize him. Army scientists drowned his mind in propaganda and stuffed his body full of cybernetic mechanics and armor. Dubbing their creation Lee Gang-Cheol - the given name translating to ‘steel’ - the newly-remodeled Artemio designed (and took part in building) a massive energy-based barrier around the entire northern half of the peninsula that proved effective in driving off the giant omnic with minimal damage to the homeland.
“Lee” was declared a national hero, but at the time it was a commendation he loathed. Overwatch was the one light filtering through the cracks in the walls built around the country and his mind. Artemio frequently designed escape routes into his fortifications to allow refugees and dissidents to escape and alert Overwatch to their plight. But the organization’s demise caused Artemio great despair and vindicated the country’s military, who planned to grant him an all-omnic wall-building army of his own at a ceremony attended by the country’s Leader.
In a concealed act of vengeance, Artemio covertly programmed the army to turn against the audience, acting “in the nick of time” to save the Leader’s life. Easily blaming the attack on a group of corrupt generals, Artemio was invited into the Leader’s inner circle. Adopting the Gangcheol moniker for good, he now hawks his defense technology to the leader’s clientele, all the while seeking out groups for his more personal mission to avenge himself on the remnants of Overwatch.
Because we need a proper segue and send off to Homestuck 1.0 ;_;7
one of my pet theories/fan-canon is that the Gray Men are effectively divided by 2010/AC5
as their mission to spite osea and yuktobania grows, so does their membership. it's no longer just revanchist belkans, it's ex-AWWNB, it's Hamilton from Osea, it's Estovakians, it's everyone that wants this old order to die.
it's people that see that the death of superpowers means a new beginning not just for Belka but for other countries under their influence to get to chart their own paths. getting osea and yuktobania to destroy their own prestige and standing greatly helps their cause
until shit starts going down. suddenly their plans are starting to unravel. the more level-headed of the bunch are gravely concerned, but they're well connected by now to disappear.
the belkan nationalists, on the other hand, don't want their fading dreams of empire to finally die. they try to pull out all the nuclear stops and end up failing miserably.
they're the ones that get hunted - and to the ones founding General Resource and others, they're the perfect decoy to cast off. the world will need to rebuild after this, after Emmeria and the Lighthouse War, and the rebuilding will get done with their capital.
only by then, they've transcended nationhood altogether. what are national boundaries needed for when everyone can live under the new corporate umbrella?
well, they'll still need to protect their own facilities. especially since a free market can't survive without competition, and Neucom just set up its shops. by 2040, that old vision is just a dot in the mirror...
man, playing ac7 and ac3 back to back (and thus in chronological order) puts the former's ending in such a cold light. the lighthouse war WAS the last great international conflict, it WAS the death knell for nationalism, and it didn't *matter*. a new world has been built, and because capital was permitted to build it, there's nothing here worth fighting for. heroism, pride, hatred, all have given way to a lonely unreality in which people with nowhere to go kill one another for reasons they'll never fully understand. it isn't that ace combat 3 presents a world where there's nothing left to live for, but there's nothing here worth dying for; in a game about battle, that's a horribly sad thing.