Knit Two Together

storiesintheashes:

Characters: Adora and Castaspella

Summary: “Adora, we live in a complicated world where our decisions, our mistakes, have real consequences. But this” – Casta reached out and touched the tangled mess in Adora’s hands – “this is just yarn. No one’s life hangs in the balance when you drop a stitch or mess up your gauge. You can choose to keep going or rip it out and start again. It’s up to you, and you alone. And there are no wrong answers.”

***

Chapter 1: Rescue from Relaxation

The next time they visit Mystacor, it’s also in another quest to help Adora learn the Art of Relaxing. One week after the battle of Bright Moon, the damage has mostly been repaired and now her only orders are to take some time and heal. Unfortunately this was easier for Queen Angella to command than for Adora to obey. Even without Shadow Weaver’s “help”, Adora found herself to be just as bad at doing nothing as she was on her last visit.

While she could appreciate the joys of getting a full nine hours of sleep, lazing about just seemed… wrong? Wasteful?

If it was just a matter of not showing weakness, she would find a place to hide for a few days until the wounds on her back finally healed. She had actually attempted to pursue that plan, but Bow and Glimmer had convinced Swift Wing, the traitor, to help track her down. That was when the Queen had ordered them to Mystacor for physical…and mental? health.

It was…not going well.

She was in the middle of trying to find the words to explain to Glimmer and Bow that the aroma therapy smells of their latest Relaxation Attempt we’re making her dizzy when Gimmer’s Aunt rescued her.

The woman appeared in a swirl of her cape with bright smiles and cheer. “Oh Glimmer, dearest, I need to borrow your friend for a moment. You don’t mind do you?” She asked, taking one of Adora’s hands and pulling her to her feet.

“Auntie, what are you *doing*? We’re trying to help Adora relax!” Glimmer whined, trying, and failing to grab Adora’s arm.

Seeing an opportunity, Adora waved her free hand and smiled sheepishly. “No, no! It’s ok. This wasn’t working super well for me. You guys should enjoy it and we can … uh, try something else later”

Glimmer frowned, brow furrowed, but Bow shook his meaningfully at her. “Don’t work Adora too hard Aunt Casta,” he said lightly. “Why don’t we meet up for dinner?”

Adora smiled gratefully at Bow. He was a good friend. “That’s a good plan,” she said. And Castaspella agreed.

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Morning Reblog!

Knit Two Together

Characters: Adora and Castaspella

Summary: “Adora, we live in a complicated world where our decisions, our mistakes, have real consequences. But this” – Casta reached out and touched the tangled mess in Adora’s hands – “this is just yarn. No one’s life hangs in the balance when you drop a stitch or mess up your gauge. You can choose to keep going or rip it out and start again. It’s up to you, and you alone. And there are no wrong answers.”

***

Chapter 1: Rescue from Relaxation

The next time they visit Mystacor, it’s also in another quest to help Adora learn the Art of Relaxing. One week after the battle of Bright Moon, the damage has mostly been repaired and now her only orders are to take some time and heal. Unfortunately this was easier for Queen Angella to command than for Adora to obey. Even without Shadow Weaver’s “help”, Adora found herself to be just as bad at doing nothing as she was on her last visit.

While she could appreciate the joys of getting a full nine hours of sleep, lazing about just seemed… wrong? Wasteful?

If it was just a matter of not showing weakness, she would find a place to hide for a few days until the wounds on her back finally healed. She had actually attempted to pursue that plan, but Bow and Glimmer had convinced Swift Wing, the traitor, to help track her down. That was when the Queen had ordered them to Mystacor for physical…and mental? health.

It was…not going well.

She was in the middle of trying to find the words to explain to Glimmer and Bow that the aroma therapy smells of their latest Relaxation Attempt we’re making her dizzy when Gimmer’s Aunt rescued her.

The woman appeared in a swirl of her cape with bright smiles and cheer. “Oh Glimmer, dearest, I need to borrow your friend for a moment. You don’t mind do you?” She asked, taking one of Adora’s hands and pulling her to her feet.

“Auntie, what are you *doing*? We’re trying to help Adora relax!” Glimmer whined, trying, and failing to grab Adora’s arm.

Seeing an opportunity, Adora waved her free hand and smiled sheepishly. “No, no! It’s ok. This wasn’t working super well for me. You guys should enjoy it and we can … uh, try something else later”

Glimmer frowned, brow furrowed, but Bow shook his head meaningfully at her. “Don’t work Adora too hard Aunt Casta,” he said lightly. “Why don’t we meet up for dinner?”

Adora smiled gratefully at Bow. He was a good friend. “That’s a good plan,” she said. And Castaspella agreed.

a rant.

baroque-mirrors:

So much of TV is way too concerned with being Clever™ right now. There’s this pervasive myth that audiences won’t enjoy a narrative climax unless it’s a total surprise. “Predictable” is always used as a pejorative term when it comes to storytelling, but I think that’s absolute crap, because here’s the thing:

Unpredictability is not, inherently, a virtue. Unpredictability can mean: a) you don’t have a clear grasp on who your characters are or what direction they’re growing. b) you don’t have a clear vision for the story you’re trying to tell. c) you don’t know how to tell the story (for example, you have a Point A and a Point B but the middle is a bunch of disjointed time-wasting filler.

“But,” the showrunners cry, “you never saw that twist coming! We kept you on your toes!” That does not make it good. Cleverness is often just smoke and mirrors designed to distract the audience from a lack of substance; it doesn’t guarantee a worthwhile story. I don’t want to be shocked for the sake of surprise – I want to feel like the experience was worth my time.

I want to be introduced to a character, and then I want to be taken on a journey with that character. I want every step of that journey to teach me who they are; what they believe, what they want, what they hate, what they fear, and what they love, so that when they are faced with a conflict or a critical moment of decision, I understand exactly why they do what they do. I’m hoping their choices in that moment will reveal something truthful and powerful and worth knowing about another person’s experience.

That’s what I want in a story. I genuinely don’t care whether it’s clever or predictable or whatever; I just want a worthwhile journey in which every moment of every episode means something – to the character(s), and to me. That’s what makes serial television satisfying. It has nothing to do with shock or intellect or reinventing the wheel, it’s just about telling the damn story in a way that makes you feel it.