#( just for context - this is in reference to my online name :] ) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrghostrat · 2 months

Note

Hello and good morning/day/night :]

I was wondering, in BNF, we’ve gotten tiny little bits of information about the ‘Nice and Accurate Prophecies’ (not sure if that’s the correct title, sorry) book and TV series, if there was anything else you could tell us about it?

Character names, storylines, plots, any fun details you may have made up or otherwise, etc, etc.

I just think it’s sweet how interested both Aziraphale and Crowley are in the series, and if you might be as interested, if not more, in it too.

Thank you, and have a lovely Sunday. 🫶

this is it, my leash has snapped, i'm wild in the streets, thank u for asking; i'm gonna go be insufferable now

(hi @neil-gaiman if you see this, i think it's safe to read, but it does border on being fan fic. i'm writing a fic where crowley and aziraphale are an artist + writer in an online fandom, much like we are for good omens, and this is the fake story i've made for them to be fans of 💛)

The Nice and Accurate Prophecy

info dump of the fake 5 book series by Agnes Nutter (1985-1992) and its fake fandom:

The Nice and Accurate Prophecy

The Strange and Improbable Prophecy

The Vague and Perfidious Prophecy

The Tense and Harrowing Prophecy

The Faint and Ineffable Prophecy

a dramatic, layered story with a bizarre and unexpectedly lovable cast of characters, humour that hits you out of nowhere, and a lot of attitude from the narrator. a la Good Omens, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

fantasy/historical fantasy and mildly action & romance

a la good omens, a witch and a witchfinder become friends and help each other throughout history, despite being on opposite sides. they get closer as they fight against the immoral plays from their prospective sides (the witchfinder army and a demonic cult the witch was born into) that each lose sight of their core values in a bid to hold more power over the world.

the story is set primarily in a medieval fantasy era, but suddenly jumps to the present in the later books, catching everyone off guard and giving a whole new context to enjoy the story. the challenges they face parallel the earlier story but in a modern take with modern technological twists. the modern era is the late 80s, since that's when it was written.

the witch reincarnates, similar to doctor who, due to a high class black magic ritual they performed in their arrogant youth (which they were NOT supposed to have access to). they've had long lifetimes where they die of old age, and others where they've barely managed to live a year. their reincarnations aren't entirely random; they will reincarnate according to their growth and preferences as a person (a la Magical Boy's magical outfit generations), which includes fluctuation in gender identity. their pronouns fluctuate depending on each "face" they wear, but have canonically been a "they" before. the good side of the fandom (crowley & aziraphale) default to they/them as an overall rule. they do have a name, but they like to change that too, so the fandom almost exclusively calls them witch, or witchy.

the witchfinder also has a name, but the fandom have taken to calling him witchfinder to match the fact that witchy is called by their role. it also helps that a lot of the witchfinder narration refers to him by role instead of name. he is human, 30ish in appearance, but at the end of the first book, the witch fears to lose him and curses him with immortality against his knowledge to try and keep him safe.

witch is crowley-coded, witchfinder is aziraphale-coded. my to-do list includes an illustration of the two of them played by michael and david :') but i picture them being kind of like newt and anathema for the most part.

ship names include witch/finder, witchwitch, w² or witch², and witchfound.

at the start of the first book, they meet and become friends without knowing each other is a witch & finder. the witchfinder is a bit bumbly, like newt, and the witch is cool and suave but neurotic and insecure like many human au variations of crowley (major overcompensation vibes). witch is male at the start of the first book. their friendship is secure when witch finds out he's a witchfinder, so there's less "oh my god i'm friends with the enemy, is he going to kill me in my sleep?" and more "ah fuck, Lets Drink About This"

there's battles, horseback riding, camping out in dark woods, disappearing and losing each other for months at a time, and many missed connections as they try to work together against two common enemies, whilst keeping up the facade that they're on their respective team's sides.

there's charged chemistry in the first book, but it's more plot heavy. there's hints of shippy moments in the 2nd book that fall in between the plot. there's a Moment of almost confession in the 3rd book, and a non romantic kiss towards the end (we gotta, for neil). they're pretty much married in the 4th book, securely at each other's side, but never actually talk about it until the end, and there's a more explicitly stated shippy connection in the 5th book.

agnes herself is a total recluse who drops books out of nowhere then goes back to existing somewhere in the english countryside (people presume). she's happy to supply signed copies to fundraisers and conventions, and sometimes random bookshops across the country will be vandalised with genuine autographs on the inside covers. she's notoriously pedantic about being involved with adaptions behind the scenes, but she has no social media and isn't ~around~. she once did a talk when she was presented with an honorary doctorate, and did a single book signing when the first Prophecy book came out, but beyond that she keeps to herself.

there are a small handful of quotes from her in behind-the-scenes footage talking vaguely about character intensions and clarifying world building, but she likes to leave things up to interpretation like neil does. it's in these few snippets of interaction we've seen from her that she's steadfastly supportive of intersectionality and lgbt rights, like staring dead-eyed at an interviewer when they ask her a ridiculously heteronormative question about the characters (like "have you read my books?")

adaptions include:

(most adaptions start like the book, with a male witch at the beginning that turns into a female witch when they first regenerate. the early ones usually change the pacing by switching to a female actor by the time they realise witchfinder is a witchfinder, unlike in the book where he's male for this scene, and there's way less Charged™ chemistry between the m/m witch/finder.)

Feature Film: late 90s, kind of cheesy, but good spirited fantasy (a la Indiana Jones). focuses on the first book alone, with hints to a sequel that never happened.

Abandoned TV Pilot: early 2000s, a little too dramatic but still a good time (a la the Dungeons and Dragons 2000, ASOUE 2004). good source of gifs and Moments™ but the fandom is generally Fine with it being abandoned.

Stage Performance: late 2000s-early 2010s, a stellar stage adaption of the first book with elements of the 90s movie. f/m witch/finder the whole way through. one cast used m/m actors but it was a short run and only a handful of fans were lucky enough to catch or remember it. crowley would give his left arm (or someone's, anyway) to have experienced it, so a fan sent him some flip phone camera footage of it that he keeps on a harddrive in his safe.

HBO Streaming Series: late 2010s-present, high quality, highly revered, resurged the fandom's popularity and spread the series further overseas. made in america, but doesn't try to americanise the series. extremely respectful to the books, with easter eggs to the film, and is working its way through the entire book series (a la The Witcher netflix series). f/m witch/finder, but has had one episode that included some flash backs/montages of different witch faces. probably like 15 minutes total screentime of a male witch played by a ncuti gatwa level/style of actor, which the fandom has giffed, edited, and screencapped to oblivion.

Several bonus books: Agnes has written a few extra books (a la The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket and The Beatrice Letters), as well as curated some anthologies from other authors (a la A Study In Sherlock). there are a total of 3 anthologies so far, in which other authors have written stories about the characters in their own tellings. basically like canonised, published fan fiction, curated and authorised by agnes herself. There's also an unfinished graphic novel that retells the book series (a la The Adventure Zone comic), but has been WIP/unheard of since the 3rd book.

#ask a rat #fuck i lvoe this fucking fakedom #bnf au #i cannot get it out of my head #rat writes

273 notes · View notes

king-krisu · 2 months

Text

SAME IN INGLIS - Mic Mac

Yes Hello you ask and you shall receive: a series where I take one song and explain some of the slang or any references that might get lost in an ordinary translation. Usually I or any of the other mains doing translations don't want to make posts too long by adding footnote after footnote, so some stuff might be lost intentionally. I'm using this series to dedicate my time specifically for all the stuff I usually don't comment on. I'm gonna include everything in here, even some of the "obvious" things. So up first by popular request:

MIC MAC

So firstly, the name. Mic Mac was a Finnish youth clothing brand between 1972 and 2013. They were particularly known for their provocative and shocking ways of advertising especially in the 1980s. They had their own brand of jeans that were extremely popular, but they also sold other brands in their stores like Levi’s or Wranglers. From what I know they only had stores in Helsinki/Uusimaa but correct me if I’m wrong on that. For a lot of us Mic Mac is a very 80s/90s brand, their peak was during those times as well.

Jere has a lot of other interests that are very reminiscent of a childhood in the 90s. Even the name Jere was very popular in the 90s, it’s the equivalent of Justin or Jake in english. In this song he talks about Pokemon cards, which I’m sure a lot of 90s kids will remember being very popular. In the same breath he mentions Habbo Hotel, a Finnish online virtual world game and chat room founded in 2000 that’s still active today. in Viulunkieli he references Bomfunk MC’s Freestyler which is like the most 90s song in this country you could play. He also grew up listening to other artists that had their peak in the 90s/early 2000s, like Eminem or Finteligens. My point here is that it’s clear he has a lot of fond memories of his childhood, and he lets them influence a lot of his music and lyrics. Mic Mac in particular feels almost like an ode to that time in his life and in Finland generally.

Now, to the actual lyrics. I’m gonna copy paste the entire verse/chorus and highlight slang/spoken Finnish, and I’m gonna take a few particular words from each part and explain them. The cursive words are just slang with a parenthesis of “official Finnish” next to them, and the bolded ones I’m gonna explain.

Meen (menen) ajassa taaksepäin

Mutta onneksi ne ajat taakse jäi

Olin merkillinen enkä esimerkillinen

Käyttäytymisen alkeet jäi hei

Oli rasavillin elkeet, katoin (katsoin) Smackdownii TV:st

Ja otin mittaa mun isoveljest (minun isoveljestäni)

Meno epäterve

Tuolit lens (lensi) minkä kerkes (kerkesi) kavereiden kesken

Olin pieni ja paskiainen, alakoulun penkillä laiskiainen

Poden vielki morkkist ja henki haisee siit tupakin (tupakan) maistiaisesta (Hyi!)

Ja niist muutamast katkonaisest (katkonaisesta) muistosta ne vielki hävettää

Ei muisteta pahalla ku tuut vastaa unohdetaa menneet ja halataa (halataan)

Rasavilli is a word derived from swedish (rasvill), which is extremely common especially for Finnish slang. It means an unruly, mischievous child, willfully causing chaos

Meno epäterve I decided to highlight this because the word meno in this context is used in a colloquial way to describe the atmosphere of something, so for this instance the vibe was crazy or something. Officially it means an errand or plans, or financial expenses, but a lot of us also use it as a descriptive word

Morkkis I’m sure you remember from his song Morgan, but it just means being badly hungover and having anxiety. It can though also be used to just in general feel regretful over something in the past

The chorus actually doesn’t have any spoken/slang Finnish except one word from what I can tell so I’m not gonna include all of it here

Menin olohuoneeseen odottaa (odottamaan) tuoretta pullaa uunista

Jolloin meil (meillä) oli päällä Mic Maccii, oltii (olimme) Mic Macci jätkii

Ei ollu (ollut) värillä väliä kuhan (kunhan) fit oli fättii

Fätti I chose to highlight this just to show that often we’ll take English words and add ä/ö to them to make them sound Finnish. Like here the word is Fat, but because the -A sounds like our -Ä we just type it out like that. Another example of this would be how a lot of the times you’ll see the word rap written as räp, even though officially we just use the english word (although as a verb I think even officially it is räpätä with the -Ä)

Taas ajassa taaksepäin

Mun (minun) suuri suu sai isommat pojat ravistelee (ravistelemaan)

Olin pihapelien Jarkko Ruutu

Leuka tummu ku (tummui kun) pojan nassikat taistelee

En alkanu aristelee (alkanut aristelemaan)

Jos piti frendi tempun takii (takia) tuikata tulee

Enkä astella heikoil jäillä

Jonka johdosta mummo sai kuivata kuteet (slang: vaatteet)

Jotain samaa on faijas ja mussa (minussa)

Ei omena parka pudonnu (pudonnut) kauas puusta

Mutta sillon ku (silloin kun) putosin, ni tuhosin mun (niin tuhosin minun) ranteen ihan tuusannuuskaks

Vielki Habboo on kiinni portit

Mä palautan pöllityt Pokemon-kortit

Jarkko Ruutu A Finnish former ice hockey player who went all the way to the NHL, who was known for his particularly aggressive and rough playing

Pojan nassikat Nassikka is an older, almost colloquial descriptive way to refer to a little boy

Frendi/faija/pöllityt These are all slang words derived straight from other languages which we do a lot, especially with swedish or russian. Frendi comes from the english friend, faija comes from the swedish far (father), and pölliä possible comes from the swedish bälla (to steal/use)

Astella heikoilla jäillä So this isn’t like fully clear BUT there’s this children’s TV infomercial that has run every autumn/winter since 1986 and probably does today as well, that warns children not to walk on ice as it can be deceptively weak. It is ingrained into everyone's memories because the bear that falls into the ice looks so miserable and terrifying as he says “Watch out for weak ice”, and since this song is about his childhood I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it’s a reference to that

Tuusannuuskaks This is a colloquial term used to describe something shattering into a thousand pieces. I honestly couldn’t find the full origin for this but most likely it comes from the swedish word tusen (thousand) and the rest is beyond me lol (except that nuuska means snuff so maybe it’s about snuff being easily spread in a thousand places)

Ja ku mentiin liian pitkälle läppien kaa (kanssa)

Istuttiin jälki-istunnossa Mic Macci jätkien kaa

Läppä means a joke, but the official word for it is vitsi. I’m not sure of the origin but some researcher said it comes from the swedish word läpp, meaning lip, and heittää huulta is a way to say someone is joking (Throwing lip), and in a colloquial way you say heittää läppää, which means the same thing

Jätkä means a young man, either in a neutral way or depending on the context a condescending way. The english equivalent would be a guy. It’s also what we call the card Jack in a card deck lol

So that’s finally all the lyrics done. As you can see from the cursive words, when comparing them to the “correct” or official word, we often just get rid of the last letter in a word when speaking. We really are a lot like the french in that way, we tie words in a sentence together by matching vowels with consonants, get rid of vowels if they seem to obstruct the flow of a word or just change a word radically to make something easier to say quickly (like minussa -> mussa).

I hope at least some of this was interesting, I’m very passionate about slang and word origins and there’s a lot of Käärijä songs that have even more crazier slang that I can’t wait to get into (like Alaks Olee or Koppi Tules). Until then, hope this was informative/entertaining <3

#käärijä #jere pöyhönen #finnish things #same in inglis series #käärijä translated #any finns out there who might notice slang i didnt highlight lmk this isnt actually my native language lol #cringe finswe moment

185 notes · View notes

nwarrior777 · 5 days

Text

Science Museum Group changed offensive object tittle after getting my letter

here's the story about it:

Wonderful @solariium commissioned me wonderful victorian-era wheelchair user character to draw. Refs were provided, and one of the links was an object in online museum gallery - vintage wheelchair.

solariium, who is wheelchair user theirself, mentioned that tittle of the object is incorrect but it was good picture for the ref. i wondered "what's with the tittle?" looked in the link and saw

ID: screenshot of online museum collection, vintage old wheelchai object page. the tittle of wheelchair says: Invalid chair, Europe, 1850-1890. end ID

welp. incorrect indeed! [i* is outdated offensive term]

so i decided to make a special move

ID: my drawing of a character from anime "mob psycho 100" - Arataka Reigen. He holds a phone next to his ear, his face epression is very confident. It's all anime sparkles lights effects around him and text "REIGEN SPECIAL MOVE". end ID

and USE MY POWER

of writing emails

i don't have problems with writing emails, so i thought why not

and

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co120657/carved-wooden-wheelchair-europe-1850-1890-invalid-chair

ID: screenshot of online museum collection, vintage old wheelchai object page. the tittle of wheelchair says: Carved wooden wheelchair, Europe, 1850-1890. end ID

it worked!

As human who made bunch of projects, i can say that keeping museum gallery is tone of work.

And tittle change - no, it's not just changing few letters.

Changing tittle of object in museum is similar to changing name of game file. Catalogs changes, maybe they have irl gallery, so new card, they probably have some code objects system related to tittles, and scientists, students, make reference to this object in their researches and articles and etc etc.

So, yeah, it * is * a lot of work. Also, they changed description, it now says that this object was "historically referred to as ‘invalid chair’". And i think it's good, because it is not erasing fact of people used this word, and it's addition to the progress context - we literally see now old term clarified as past, and new one, now, in the tittle.

(and yes, web link. i just saw that i* word still there. yeah, not perfect but still, considering things i said above - big work done)

I used some conversation strategy in case "this is offensive can you fix" will not be enough — started on positive attitude giving compliment on their collection being big and interesting, gave them extra argument on why this should be fixed (more actual search key words on this now are "vintage wheelchair", not "i* chair"). Then we had a little letters chain, where they answered politely too, and in about few days i got detailed answer on this, and yep, changed tittle.

And i think this shows, that if someone did mistake and someone noticed it and giving feedback on it, if both sides are interested in progress and making good changes, no matter how hard it is, sides can make a change, working together and being kind. And i think we should be more brave about making such connections!

Thanks again to @solariium and museum workers!

#small big changes #wheelchair #activism #i was writing this post in drafts for a month or smth like it's my diploma work #described

133 notes · View notes

originalaccountname · 1 year

Note

Sorry to bother you but I’ve been getting into BSD and Chuuya’s my fave, but I’ve been seeing some contradictory things in fanfic so…

Does Chuuya actually have a god sealed inside him? I thought it was just like his power without limitations and was dubious of those takes, but since eldritch beings can apparently be a thing (and not an ability), I think it could be plausible either way.

Though even if it’s not I can see why people would use that route for some good angst.

This is not a bother at all! This is something I very much like to talk about

if you're really new I do recommend you go read both "Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen Years Old" and "STORM BRINGER" light novels (but SB especially), not only are they great books with Chuuya as the focal point but they will help answer your question in depth (you can buy the English translations but I can help you find the translation online if that's what you need, just message me again)

The short version is that Arahabaki being an actual god, a separate entity from Chuuya that has a personality/a voice/desires, is a common fanon trope, but not a canon fact. The truth is more complex and much more fun, lore-wise, in my opinion

And now the long version, because I'm passionate about this and this is my excuse to deep dive into it (spoilers for Fifteen)

In Fifteen, Chuuya says this:

Chuuya himself presents "Arahabaki" as nothing more than pure power. No thoughts, no personality, but powerful for sure.

That phrasing in Fifteen created a lot of confusion I think, talking about gods as real but also not:

But I think it's more of a symbolic reference, talking about immense power that seem out of this world. Because in practice, as Chuuya said before, "Arahabaki" is simply raw power, not an entity. You can't pray to it, it can't understand you, it can't perform miracles (which is why he knew the Old Boss couldn't have been brought back by Arahabaki and it was all nonsense from the start)

I'm also putting part of the blame on the anime, where they decided (while not being exactly wrong either, out of context it's weird) to illustrate Chuuya "floating in a bluish-black darkness, surrounded by a transparent seal" and being pulled out by a hand:

like this:

When, if you actually reread that part in the novel with knowledge about Storm Bringer, it's actually this moment that was being referred to:

Which brings us to Storm Bringer! (heavy spoilers I'm serious)

"Project Arahabaki" was the Japanese government's attempt to create an ability weapon from an individual. They wanted to craft a singularity that could be used multiple times, thus granting them access to power that should not be accessible normally. They based their research on what France had discovered through Verlaine. The objective is to create a massive energy output through a self-contradicting ability, for which you need a vessel:

Chuuya is the device. "Arahabaki" is the massive energy. That massive energy can control gravity to the point of being able to create localized black holes! N implied that part of the lab's work for the Arahabaki Project was to modify Chuuya's body to be able to withstand the constant gravity effects on it so he doesn't just die. Chuuya's normal use of his ability doesn't seem to have any drastic effects on him, and his physical resilience (to getting hit, stabbed, poisoned, shot, electrocuted, to going through a black hole) does seem to imply they did succeed at least in part.

And this bit here explains why "Arahabaki" was the chosen name for the project; unexplained phenomena across History that can be linked to an ability going haywire, but were attributed to god-like interventions at the time. So you're a funny little mad scientist, you read research papers from another mad scientist that named their own creation after a mythological monster, and you decide to do the same with your own local folklore.

But!

There's still something to be said about how "Arahabaki" is a singularity, and therefore, has its own set of rules. Chuuya does loose control, Chuuya does regress to a sort of destructive instinct while under Corruption. But "Arahabaki" is still no more than an ability singularity. Here's what is said about Guivre and Arahabaki:

They are both singularity life-forms. They exist because they are singularities; outside of it, they are nothing. The inner workings of abilities are still mysterious, but most of them have a link to their wielder's desires. For example, Atsushi's Tiger is there to protect him, a mirror to his will to live no matter what. Verlaine's Guivre is similar:

Guivre was a beast born out of Verlaine's loneliness and resulting hatred. He felt deeply alone in not feeling/being human, and through Pan's (his "creator") special "programming" of Verlaine's ability, N was able to trigger the true form of his singularity with that flare gun and metal powder, which took the form of Guivre. It's what the hat was supposed to prevent, but Verlaine had already lost it by then.

Chuuya's Arahabaki is probably similar. Its first apparition was when Rimbaud tried to absorb him and use his ability for himself, and any subsequent use is linked to grief and survival. Basically, if they're their own entities, they are still born in a specific context and deeply linked to the original ability user's character. And Arahabaki? Only exists if Chuuya uses his activation phrase to get rid of the limitations put into place to prevent him from exploding:

More about about Corruption: SB is kind enough to give us an explanation on how the nullification process works, right here:

Chuuya's self-contradicting ability makes him able to control gravity through the sheer amount of energy it creates by permanently interacting with itself. It is kept under control through the use of an activation phrase, O grantors of dark disgrace, do not wake me again, which, after being either said or thought by Chuuya, will open his "Gate" (which I'm interpreting as a blocker put in place by the lab so the singularity doesn't just kill him, like those poor people they mentioned existed through History), and by opening it, "free Arahabaki's true power" (aka Corruption). When Dazai uses his ability on him, the base self-contradicting ability is nullified, which cancels out the singularity taking place, which stops Corruption and allows that "Gate" to close again. The red markings are there because they're cool and fun.

To conclude, I'll let Dazai do the honors:

bonus: what does that mean for Chuuya's ability?

bons 2: Perceived timeline of Chuuya's past and what happened to to create confusion around his humanity

870 notes · View notes

badhabitscollection · 1 year

Text

So Much (For) Blitz —An exclusive reveal of the star of Fall Out Boy’s latest album cover

Fall Out Boy’s latest effort So Much (For) Stardust) has been critically acclaimed and lauded by fans as some of their best work to date. The album artwork, prominently featuring a doberman, has left some puzzled and looking for additional context as to the dog’s identity and how the artwork came to be. The Bad Habits Collection is proud to bring you the exclusive reveal of the dog featured on the cover of their eighth studio album alongside the full story of how they were discovered.

—

When Fall Out Boy officially announced their eighth studio album on January 18th, 2023 and unveiled the album artwork for So Much (For) Stardust, there were a lot of opinions to be had. Some of the fans immediately felt connected and claimed it as their own, some compared it to Fiona Apple’s 2020 release Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and some downright found it revolting. Overall, most agreed that it was polarizing to say the least. Donned in an all black background, the front cover features both the name of the band and the album itself in the work of Omar Mroz (hereinafter referred to by his online moniker Mr.Oz). The text is covered in glitter and written out in the same style featured earlier in the rollout of FOB8’s album cycle with A Claymation Fall Out Boy Celebration, dropped as a surprise present from the band on Christmas one month earlier. The headlining attraction of this sideshow was in fact just a simple square box, containing a swirling artistic depiction of a doberman barking in the presence of a froth of bubbles.

From the moment I first laid eyes on the iconography of Fall Out Boy’s new era, I had just two questions in mind: Who is the dog? & Why choose the dog? A few obvious possibilities were immediately ruled out. Solely based on what’s been posted to social media, this dog did not belong to Pete, Joe, or Andy. Patrick has remained dormant online for years at this point, but still the odds felt slim. I did my best to brush it off, but ultimately I kept coming back to the thought of WHY? If you’re familiar with my previous work on the history of Take This To Your Grave’s album cover, you already know this type of sentiment means a lot to me. After a while of waiting for the band to bring up the topic in an interview or statement, I had essentially given up hope on any type of official explanation. It was at this moment, just 3 days before the release of the record, that I accepted the reality of the situation. This wasn’t a hot topic within the fandom. And no one was going to provide me with the answers I was looking for. If I wanted to know more, it was solely up to me. So… I got to work. —

To take a step back, the artwork for So Much (For) Stardust first hit the internet on January 11th, seven days before the official reveal. Posted alongside the name of the first single Love From The Other Side, our barking pup friend was featured on the home feed of FILTER | NEWs on VK, a Russian social media site that I’ve been told is comparable to Facebook. The artwork was watermarked with a subtle, transparent white logo for FILTER in the background. Despite this post being up for five days (a millennia on the worldwide web), it wasn’t until the 16th that the fandom at large made this discovery, with many claiming it was an outright fake.

However, the *stars* started to align proving this leak to have a dose or two of authenticity. Mr.Oz’s claymation video from earlier in the rollout followed the story of a similar looking doberman, who just so happened to pose in the final frame in a style strongly resembling the leaked cover.

Beyond that, a post from lyricist and bassist Pete Wentz’s Instagram dating back just two days earlier was quickly dug up. On the 4th slide of the carousel, there it was: a selfie of Pete with a Santa hat on and propped up on the shelf behind him... the physical painting of the doberman seen on the leaked cover.

All but confirmed at this point, one last clue presented itself online. The freshly created Twitter account “@muchstardust” popped up out of nowhere, making itself known by following myself and a few other notable hardcore fans in this space. @muchstardust made just one single tweet before being suspended (for reasons unknown).

The post featured three images, the watermarked cover, Pete’s selfie, and notably, a compressed form of the actual photo taken of man’s best friend —the same one the leaked cover features an oil painting rendition of.

— As we all know now, this leak was indeed real and confirmed as the album artwork just a few days later by Fall Out Boy themselves. But that’s when the trail went cold. Later promotional photos featuring the band and taken by their long time collaborator Pamela Littky included another doberman, but clearly not the same one once examined a bit closer. On March 21st, the Chicago rock group posted “What do you think the dog’s name is? 🫧”, but never followed up with the answer. It’s as if they were taunting me specifically with how vocal I had been about wanting to solve this mystery. Just before the album’s official release, I was tipped off by someone with an early copy of the CD that the liner notes of So Much (For) Stardust credit Safia Latif for the cover painting and Jen Patterson for the photograph the cover painting was based on. With new pieces of the puzzle in play, my search for the dog in question was reignited. However, my leads proved of little to no help. I could not get in touch with Safia and could not properly identify Jen Patterson online for the life of me. Taking the hunt back to the drawing board, I reverse image searched the photo @muchstardust had originally provided, which even at this point, months later, was our only source of the actual photograph. Littered with results of the album artwork naturally, I did come across one potential connection. Once again, I found myself on the public timeline of someone’s VK.com profile. “dextromethorpan 3” had included the same photograph in a gallery of different doberman puppies posted on December 21st, 2020. This was…something. Sure, this photo likely did not originate from the VK profile I had unearthed, but at least now I knew it had been around the web for a few years. Scratching my head, I wondered how Fall Out Boy had originally come across this image. Was it something that came up on one of their feeds? Or perhaps just a keyword search? Taking it to different forms of social media, I found a potential match on the /r/doberman subreddit posted 10 months ago. Titled “Cool pic of us playing with bubbles”, the dobie in question featured strikingly similar features and color patterns, and was of course, playing with bubbles.

So I did what any other sane fan would do… and sent a private message to the Redditor the night before the album dropped with Jen’s photograph. “/u/drc55555” responded Saturday morning agreeing that the dog did look a lot like their own, but that they didn’t recognize the photograph. I woke up in a cold sweat seeing the glimpse of the Reddit notification on my iPhone and replied informing them of the cover of Fall Out Boy’s brand new release and asking if the user was the Jen Patterson credited in the album’s booklet. A day later, they replied once again noting that they weren’t Jen, but that this has sparked a memory of another DM they had received in the fall of last year from an Elektra Records personnel, Fueled By Ramen’s distributor who Fall Out Boy had publicly rejoined the roster of just this January. Indeed, 200 days ago from this very conversation, a marketing representative from the label had reached out to the Redditor through the same platform letting them know that an artist they work with had come across the very same photo I myself found and that the artist had fallen in love with it, hoping to use it as part of the artwork for an upcoming project. /u/drc55555 had conceded that they regretted not responding at the thought of how their dog could have become famous. This is when I knew, I was HOT on the trail. Either a member of FOB discovered this photo of their dog while scrolling Reddit or had specifically sought out the same search terms as me, which meant the actual photograph used on the cover could have potentially been found through the very same method. My search accelerated and within a few hours I had run a variety of similar terms by Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, really any social media site I could get my hands on. Nothing had come up, but I hadn’t called it a day quite yet as one of the more obvious sites remained: Instagram. Heading to the explore page I have barely used in my own time on the platform, I typed in the same keywords that brought me to the pup’s uncanny match on Reddit: “doberman bubbles”. And there it was, exactly 60 rows down, right in the center, the original image of the dog I had been looking for all along along with an alternate photo of the same dog in the next slide in the same setting captioned “BUBBLES!!!!!”, posted —you guessed it, in 2020.

— With this case officially closed, I’m beyond stoked to introduce Blitz the Doberman to other fans of Fall Out Boy. At the time of publication, Blitz has 12.8k followers on his public Instagram account, which lead me to question how this match hadn’t already been made. Blitz’s bio reveals he was born on February 27th, 2019 and lives in Las Vegas with his human, one Jen Patterson.

In a beautiful twist of fate, within the hour of finishing the final draft of this piece, Blitz’s humans responded to my inquiry from earlier in the week. I spoke with Jen at length who was happy to share her story exclusively with The Bad Habits Collection. Similarly to the Redditor from earlier, a marketing rep from Elektra Records had reached out to her through Instagram on September 20th, 2022 inquiring about using a picture of her pup for one of their artists’ work, a message she initially regarded as spam. Eventually, she came to an agreement with Elektra, however, this story ended there for her. Up until Jen read the direct message I sent to Blitz’s account, she had not the slightest idea that he was featured on the cover of the new album of one of the biggest modern rock bands left in the world. I was shocked to hear this, but Jen on the other hand was incredibly excited to learn of the breaking news. I shared a photo with her of her name printed in the liner notes of So Much (For) Stardust, a cool moment for us both. Jen told me “I never considered myself a photographer, but that’s amazing!” When I asked about how Blitz already had such a huge following on Instagram, she told me all about how she’s networked with others in a doberman group and has kept a steady stream of posts coming on the daily. In discussion of what she’d like for others to take away from this article, Jen simply hoped others would get to know Blitz’s name —my entire goal of this investigation all along. Half-joking, she expressed that she’d also love to have gotten her hands on some merchandise with his face on it. Infinitely grateful for her responding to my DM and taking the time to talk with me, I’ve personally sent Jen physical copies of So Much (For) Stardust in both vinyl and CD format. I’ll be sure to update this write-up with a photo of FOB’s newest mascot posing with his album cover when they arrive! Closing out our conversation, Jen let me know that she “felt like if you hadn’t reached out, we would not have known.” To be honest, there were times in this journey that I thought it might be for the best if I gave up the search for this pup as to not invade anyone’s privacy. I figured if Blitz hadn’t already made himself known publicly, maybe there was a specific reason behind not doing so. I would have never guessed that reason was because his family were simply unaware of his new-found fame. I feel honored to have been the one to share this discovery with Blitz’s owners and again want to thank them for their contributions to this piece. Jen has also graciously shared the original photograph of Blitz the cover was based on in its full resolution, uncropped:

—

After scouring the internet to to uncover this story, it all leads me to just one final question: Why Blitz? What’s the connection? Moreover, what’s the intended meaning here? Jen let me know that she herself was unaware of how and why the photograph was found and selected, but we can naturally draw our own conclusions. Discussing this topic with other longtime fans of the band, all have come to the same conclusion that Fall Out Boy’s latest effort features some of Pete’s bleakest lyrics in a long time paired somehow ever so perfectly with some of Patrick’s most uplifting and dance-worthy melodies to date. As my partner pointed out, the album artwork depicts a breed known for their usage as guard dogs with a tough exterior, but shown playing lightheartedly with what’s usually associated as a child’s toy. In the words of fellow Fall Out Boy historian and Bad Habits Collection collaborator Tommy McPhail, the cover displays “the epitome of boundless joy and simplified bliss amongst chaos”, a phrase that perfectly sums up the entire feeling artistically and masterfully expressed in So Much (For) Stardust in my own eyes. Fall Out Boy’s newest full-length studio record So Much (For) Stardust, produced by the legendary Neal Avron, is one of their strongest statement pieces in years and is now available everywhere music is streamed or sold. You can follow Blitz’s adventures on Instagram: @blitzdoberman — “The kind of pain you feel to get good in the end. Inscribed like stone and faded by the rain: ‘Give up what you love before it does you in.’” Written by Alex Toor for The Bad Habits Collection

#Fall Out Boy #FOB #FOB8 #So Much (For) Stardust #So Much For Stardust #SMFS #2023 #Pete Wentz #Patrick Stump #Joe Trohman #Andy Hurley #Blitz #Blitz Doberman #Blitz The Doberman #Doberman #Fueled By Ramen #Alex Toor #Live On Toor #LiveOnToor

555 notes · View notes

tumblhurgoyf · 1 year

Note

Can you explain for my friend why wotc actions after the leak are bad?

This is gonna be a bit lengthy but first I want to establish a timeline. Note the only real info we have is from the Youtuber in question, so it's not unreasonable that some of this is wrong, either intentionally or just because this guy likewise doesn't know all of what happened.

A Youtuber with about 5000 subscribers, oldschoolmtg, ordered booster boxes of March of the Machine.

2. The person he ordered them from mistakenly gave him boxes of March of the Machine: Aftermath.

3. oldschoolmtg cracked the Aftermath packs and posted videos of that online. It does sound like he was aware of difference between MOM and MOM Aftermath before he posted the videos. He said he doesn't believe the person who sold them was aware as that person isn't really into Magic (I personally know a store like this--the owner is really into Warhammer but does Magic stuff too because it pays bills).

4. Wizards says they tried to contact him but couldn't reach him. As far as I know we have no context for how they tried to contact him, how many attempts they made, or how long they waited before hiring the Pinkertons to shake him down.

5. I believe Sunday April 25 in the morning the Pinkertons showed up at this guy's house to recover "stolen" product. They threatened jail time and the Youtuber refers to them as "law men" in his video so I'm not sure if he misunderstands their role or if they misrepresented themselves.

6. After getting the cards, the Pinkerton agents provided a phone number to a person at Wizards for oldschoolmtg to call. He said this person was apologetic and cordial and said they don't believe anything was stolen but they needed the product so they could figure out how this happened to prevent it in the future. oldschoolmtg also says they said they'd send him some product to compensate for the cards the Pinkertons just took from him.

7. oldschoolmtg removed the Youtube videos of him opening the Aftermath packs. They also asked him to ask everyone else to take those vids down, claiming some sort of copyright infringement.

That's all the info I'm aware of, mostly just straight from the person who experienced this.

So why is this wrong?

First, MOM Aftermath is an embargoed product. Which means Wizards ships it out to retailers (be they big box store or LGS or online space or whatever) under a contract that they won't sell it before a certain date and time. oldschoolmtg believes the person he purchased from simply mixed up the two sets because of the similar names. He says he purchased the product and according to his recollection of the phone call, the rep at Wizards likewise didn't think he had stolen it.

That's important because the embargo agreement is between retailers and Wizards. oldschoolmtg had no contractual obligation with regard to the embargoed product. It leads me to believe the Pinkertons were involved because they'd willingly insinuate the product was stolen and oldschoolmtg had committed a crime when in actuality there was no grounds to take any legal action against the man. There was no grounds to get a warrant to search for the product. He had committed no crime. He bought Magic cards from a guy who sells Magic cards. The only actual recourse Wizards would have had if the cards weren't stolen was to pursue the guy who sold them for breaking the embargo.

The only theft that actually occurred was when the Pinkertons raided this guy's home to take cards he purchased.

That's my take given what info we know. The Youtube videos aren't actually relevant in a meaningful way--that's just how Wizards found out.

But it's actually even worse. It would have been shitty to seek out a warrant or just sic lawyers on him. Of course I don't think they had grounds for it, so instead they went extrajudicial instead. That is they took a course of action that didn't involve courts.

For those who don't know, the Pinkertons started in 1850 and operated largely as violent strikebreakers. They're still helping break strikes today. They've been hired by Amazon and Starbucks within the last three years to spy on unionization efforts. Their history is bloody and murderous. No exaggeration. Their response to workers striking and unionizing in the past has been to beat them and shoot them.

I think you can put two and two together here. What does it say for a billion dollar multinational company to send these violent thugs to the private home of a small a guy operating a small Youtube channel?

It's a threat to this guy and anybody else; if you leak our cards we will find where you live and we will come after you. Specific use of the Pinkertons is part of this intentional message. There are other security firms without the history and notoriety. And while any such action would be just as disturbing, I doubt using almost any other agency would have had quite the effect as hiring Pinkertons.

tl;dr Based on what we know it's unlikely this guy did anything actually wrong or unlawful and Wizards sent agents from a firm with a violent and notorious history to his home in an act of intimidation

#caveat I'm not a lawyer #and what it really comes down to is wizards could choose to drown this guy in legal fees if he didn't do what they say and kiss their ass #it'd be a drop in the bucket for hasbro to ruin one private individuals life like that #like even if there were no legal grounds for a civil case #they could still make him hire lawyers to prove that #and make his life hell for probably the next decade if they wanted to do that

398 notes · View notes

joyce-stick · 1 year

Text

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

#symphogear #symphogear gx #beef stroganoff #translation discourse #boys dont know this #(or rather THEY MAY not)#(but could if they were told how!)#you know it from anime and manga #audrey (of the joystick system) posts

659 notes · View notes

transgenderteensurvivalguide · 7 months

Note

hi so i was recently having a discussion with my friend—cis girl—and we go to boarding school. she was calling our dorms the “girls dorms” and i was wondering if it’s appropriate to call it the “afab dorms.” i am aware of the discourse online with that word, but i was wondering if it would be appropriate in this context. or if there is anything else i can call it besides girls dorms because half of the students are trans and it makes me uncomfortable and dysphoric to call it the girls dorms.

thank you

Lee says:

It might be beneficial to have a discussion with the other residents of the dorm, especially the other trans students, to see how they feel about the terminology. They might have insights or preferences that you haven't considered.

As you mentioned, some people feel that "AFAB" and "AMAB" can be reductive or invalidating when it's used unnecessarily as it emphasizes sex assigned at birth over current identities, so there are probably some trans students in your dorm who wouldn't appreciate being reminded that they were assigned female at birth on a daily basis when speaking about their housing and that might make them dysphoric too.

I would also consider whether you're 100% certain that everyone in your dorm was actually assigned female at birth. If there's a possibility that your school would allow a transgender person to live in a dorm that matches their identified gender if they requested to do so, then it's probably not a good idea to refer to buildings by assigned sex at birth because it may not be an accurate categorization of everyone in the space. Even if no trans folks currently are in dorms that match their identified gender, there may be a possibility that a trans person in the future will be allowed to live in those dorms and then you're setting up a naming convention that would require themself if they didn't feel comfortable being referred to as AFAB when they were not. And some intersex folks don't feel comfortable using AMAB/AFAB to refer to themselves, etc, so there are a lot of reasons why "AFAB dorm" may not actually be an accurate descriptor of the building's residents.

Instead of just referring to the dorms by gender or assigned sex at birth, you could consider other terms that emphasize the structure or function of the dorm rather than the gender of its residents. Get creative! People assigned to live in the dorm are aware of why they are living there, they don't need the dorm name to tell them that they were assigned female at birth.

You can refer to it as the "West/East dorm" (if there's a geographical distinction), or if there's a formal (or informal) name for the building like "Hill House," or "the Beacon Street Building" then use that name. You could even refer to it as something silly like the "Frog Home" or whatever tickles your fancy. It could be a fun activity to come up with a list of names and have everyone in the dorm vote on the name they want to use to refer to the dorm for the year.

If you really want to call it the "AFAB dorm" then nobody can stop you from calling it whatever you like, but I would try to think outside of the box and start brainstorming other things that you can call the dorm. The only limit is your own imagination (and what you can convince the other dorm residents to go along with!)

#Lee says #trans #school #dorms #dorm

110 notes · View notes

sgiandubh · 2 months

Note

Why does a married actress refer to changing her hair color by saying that Sam said blonde is more fun?

Mordor,

What does Sam have to do with her hair color?

Why does Cait still remember Sam's words?

Why is Sam's sentence her first response, to the audience's comments about the New Look?

Mordor, here they become deaf and dumb

*Use GT

Dear Hair Color Anon,

Sorry for the late answer, it was a long day of cleaning around this flat and talking to people who needed me, both online and IRL.

All of the above questions are of course, rhetorical. And make no mistake: deaf and dumb, they aren't. Just compulsive liars with no humor.

Add to this fascists, fools and very, very limited people. Often uneducated, lacking social grace and life/worldly experience. Some very cruel individuals I wouldn't like to cross paths with IRL and then a couple of legit sociopaths complete the mix.

I am not naming names, the game quickly gets old. What I will never understand is, however, people who still call themselves 'shippers' and yet choose to interact with them regularly. If not blocked by those, I have blocked them myself. Not interesting and definitely not interested to have any rapport with them, in any shape or form. In a social context where neutrality translates as 'spineless', the only ethical choice is to take a stand and keep it.

My page, my opinions.

#anon #fandom #shitshow

43 notes · View notes

communistkenobi · 4 months

Note

Hey! I really like your blog, and always really enjoy learning more about some of the interesting topics you cover! I was wondering if you have an opinion on people wanting to identify specifically using a lower case spelling of their name, instead of capitalizing the proper noun. This isnt for me, and I'm definitely not looking for a "right or wrong" answer, just genuinely wanted to hear your take on it.

Before I answer I don’t think there’s a single answer or reason why people choose to not capitalise their names. I’m not privy to larger discussions of why people might do this (bell hooks is probably the most famous example), but I’m friends with someone who has chosen not to capitalise her name and it’s made me think about the practice a lot!

I think the first place to start is that a lower case name is meant to be read - you do not pronounce lower capitalisation. this gives context to how and where you encounter a lower capitalised name. They may appear on your legal documents, of course, but also through authorship, online profiles, print media, etc. is there a particular audience or social context that you want to confront with your un-capitalised name?

I use the word confront deliberately, because lower case names challenge people - I don’t think we would be talking about it if it didn’t, but the obvious question is why. My instinct is that it is an attempt to de-centre the individual, and this is what people are reacting to. We do not capitalise pronouns, for example, because they are interchangeable amongst many people - gendered pronouns are used as a standard way to refer to people because the assumption underlying them is that gender is the most important (and only) consideration when referring to someone by something other than their name. Pronouns are not neutral, they are a deeply contested and politically animating part of everyday language. In a similar way, I think choosing not to capitalise your name could be a gesture towards this interchangeability and the contested nature of gendered referral, to emphasise that you are not an individual but a subject within a set of social and political circumstances. A name is a summary of yourself - your deeds, your personality, your art, your beliefs, and so on. It’s why we call it Marxism, it’s why people refer to “Reaganomics,” “the Kubrick stare,” etc - there is a discursive process happening by summarising particular beliefs or actions in the world by a person’s name. Refusing to capitalise your name can be a resistance to this automatic and unremarked upon process of summary, to prompt people to ask why this is the way we do things (as opposed to referring to the effects these actions or beliefs have on the world, their content, their technique, or whatever else - why is the individual given primacy when naming ideologies, policy regimes, and artistic practices when these are all products of historical, political, and social processes far larger than any one person? Did these men make these histories, or are they only the figureheads, and if so, why?)

It also calls attention to the fact that capitalisation is also a choice - one of the first things I thought about when my friend stopped capitalising her name was why I was still choosing to capitalise mine. What conventions am I holding onto, and are they actually important to me? What is it about my name that requires this kind of sacred or authoritative treatment? I refuse to capitalise the word god primarily because I refuse to imbue the word with any sort of authority or respect - what authority would I be resisting or giving up if I were to refuse to capitalise my own name? Is there a kind of self-disrespect happening, or am I disrespecting the linguistic and grammatical conventions where capitalised names arise and are considered normal? What parts of myself and my identity are removed or revealed by refusing to capitalise my name? If something so normal and mundane may be contested in a similarly mundane way, what other linguistic possibilities open up to us?

My familiarity with this practice is one that is deliberately political, in the sense that the uncapitalised name reveals something that is normally hidden - these could be linguistic conventions, societal norms, ideas about individuality, and so on. I think the practice is very cool and prompts a lot of productive discomfort with everyday linguistic and social practices. It also pisses off conservatives and I think that alone is evidence that this is a practice worth pursuing, that this decision is actually not trivial at all and reveals a larger network of political and social ideas about personhood

#asks #book club

45 notes · View notes

lurkingteapot · 6 months

Note

Hi, how would a non-binary person (me) get around the binary gender rules and vocab in Thai?

Thank on you for your amazing resources!

Hi there!

This is a question I feel like native speakers of Thai should be much more qualified to answer 😅 @recentadultburnout ? @jinitak ? Any takers?

For what it's worth, though: I also consider myself outside the gender binary, and am uncomfortable with some forms of gendered address in languages I'm fluent in, and as such have looked into it a bit. I'm barely conversational, so the things I list here have been sourced from conversations with queer and non-binary Thai acquaintances and a couple of language teachers plus my own observations, which may very well be faulty … so under the cut it goes.

First off: Thai isn't nearly as clearly binarily gendered as many beginner resources indicate. Beginner resources will say, oh, men™ say ผม (/pʰǒm/) and women™ say ฉัน (/tɕʰǎn/), but (as you may have already observed while watching shows or interviews) in reality people (queer or straight, cis or trans) will use several different pronouns for themselves and others depending on who they're talking to, and in what context—perception of gender is only one part of that. Your age, the tone of voice and level of politeness/formality you're affecting, the situation you're in at that moment, all those things affect how you talk about yourself to others, and how others talk about and to you. It's not as cut and dry as English "these are my pronouns" -- partially also because you'd kind of need to go out of your way to gender the person you're talking about in Thai.

One example: people of all genders can and do use ฉัน (/tɕʰǎn/), though I gather it's less commonly used by men these days. Contrary to what most classes will teach, men or people who are read as male may (and do!) use ค่ะ (/kʰâʔ/; often drawn out to ค่าาา (/kʰâː/ with a very drawn-out aaa)) and จ๊ะ (/tɕáʔ/) in affectionate/familiar conversation, and it's not unheard of for men to refer to themselves by their given name, either -- something a lot of teachers will say are "feminine" speech patterns. For women or people who're read as female to use particles such as ครับ (/kʰráp/) or pronouns such as ผม (/pʰǒm/) seems to be less common, though not unheard of, especially when a woman is affecting a brash personality at that moment. All that is to say … for those of us who fall somewhere in between (or outside the binary altogether), there's quite a bit of wiggle room.

Golf Tanwarin (former MP and the director of GMMTV show The Eclipse) uses different particles depending on context – I've watched interviews where they use ครับ (/kʰráp/) exclusively, others where they use both ครับ (/kʰráp/) and ค่ะ (/kʰâʔ/), and in the live spaces they opened when the Eclipse was airing, to my recollection they used ค่ะ (/kʰâʔ/) and จ๊ะ (/tɕáʔ/) pretty much exclusively. Some non-binary Thais use non-standard polite particles -- Silvy Pavida (The Warp Effect, Laws of Attraction) uses งัฟ (/ŋáp/) on their IG posts, for one example.

My personal approach (which, again! may or may not work for you) is that I go with what people expect from my appearance, and switch to other options only once I'd've got to know my conversation partner better. My reasoning for this is that as a language learner, trying to deviate from the expected language use will likely be perceived not as me trying to express my identity, but simply as me being bad at the language -- I feel like I need to attain and display a level of skill with the language that makes clear the uncommon way I use it is intentional, first. This might not be your approach! but it's worked for me so far.

What I'm doing in the meantime: I try to watch content by people who … idk, match the sort of presentation I aspire to, or who I feel kinship with? and try to emulate what they do (keeping in mind that most online content is rather informal); sometimes, when I'm comfortable enough, I will just try things out when I have the chance (though this can have embarrassing results).

tl;dr there's no way around it, but there are several ways to manage it, and you'll find out best by playing around and finding what works for you, personally :)

(also: I'm glad you found the 'learning Thai' link dump helpful <3)

#thai language #learning thai #personal #asked and answered #zimmbiscuit #language soup #gender #my nonsense #yeeting this out there before I second guess myself even more

88 notes · View notes

girlytips · 1 year

Text

The kanji “kei” (系) and its usage

As I still keep seeing it being used in instances where it doesn’t make sense, I thought it would be a good idea to talk a little about the kanji’s actual use within the japanese language.

系 is commonly used as a suffix to categorize and describe various things by their “type”, therefore can also be translated as such. For example, your nationality would be “country+kei+person”, stating the color of something “color+kei+object”, describing a song “genre+kei+music”, and specifying the style of your outfit “style+kei+coord”. However, in the overseas jfashion community there still persists the misunderstanding that it means “style” or “fashion”.

So where does this misunderstanding come from?

The very first instance of “kei” being used in a fashion context overseas was “visual kei” (ヴィジュアル系). During the late 90s, western media outlets discovered the genre and introduced it as unique fashion style from Japan heavily tied to music while also translating its name as “visual style”. This was the beginning of the whole misunderstanding as visual kei is only used to label a band as “visual-type”, meaning there is a heavy focus on a visual aspect. This is also why you will have a hard time shopping for the so-called visual kei fashion because it doesn’t really exist, and what is considered that overseas usually falls under the japanese goth punk (ゴスパンク) style that bangya wear.

After this, many years passed and “fairy kei” (フェアリー系) appeared within the jfashion online sphere, strenghtening the overseas conclusion that “kei” must mean “style” and therefore refers to fashions. While fairy kei is indeed used as a name for this specific 80s-inspired pastel fashion, it’s a lot more common to see it being refered to as just “fairy fashion” in japanese because “fairy-type” is also used to describe plenty of unrelated things. Meanwhile calling it fairy fashion would have been useless overseas for a similar reason and it made a lot more sense to use “fairy kei” instead.

From that point on, the international jfashion community would coin one “kei fashion” after another regardless of the styles actually being known by those names within Japan. Searching the majority of them in their japanese spelling would result in a dead end with many not even making any sense in relation to fashion, such as “mori kei” literally referring to forest types and “pop kei” to anything that’s popular at the moment.

Basically, the lesson of this post is that there is no need to include “kei” in the names of japanese fashion styles unless they are unrecognisable without it, because you are not writting in japanese using the kanji to categorize something by its style. In context of the fashion featured on this blog, it is used to differentiate the overall style genre from the english adjective that is “girly”, but not for its substyles as their names are distinct on their own.

I hope this little language lesson was useful to my readers, and if you have any requests for other jfashion-related terms to introduce or explain - just hit me up in my inbox!

#系 #kei #semi-related #japanese #jfashion #term #japanese language #japanese lesson #kei fashion #information

221 notes · View notes

drconstellation · 6 months

Text

Inside the Dirty Donkey

**Warning! This meta contains spoilers and speculation for S3. Do NOT tag Neil!**

Time to get comfy, folks. Get your drink of choice, be it a cupperty, coffee, or nip of sherry, and find a seat. You’ll definitely want to be sitting down for this one. We’re going to the pub!

The name is apparently a favorite of NG’s, used in his short story “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale.” And it also appears in the Sandman AU.

In the short story above the protagonist is a jilted lover who tries to organize an assassin for his fiancé who is having an affair with another man at their shared workplace. He meets the ‘salesman’ of the firm he contacts at a pub called the Dirty Donkey, and it escalates from there. The story is freely available online, so you can search it up if you really want to read it, it won’t take long. It mentions a pale horse, which is usually what Death rides in on, and is appropriate in the context of that story.

The question we need to ask is how does the name The Dirty Donkey apply to the Good Omens AU? Are there any context to the name at all?

There are several meanings for a dirty donkey:

Its a slang or joke name for a black horse (not particularly a dark horse, that has a different meaning altogether)

A cocktail

A sex position (I’ll let you look that one up yourself…)

Probably the first thing we need to talk about, though is an actual donkey itself, in relation to Jesus, as S2 is full of Jesus references and hints to the Second Coming in S3. Yep, it was all there in front of us, but we were too focused on other things. If you remember your Bible teachings, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, because he came in peace. In ancient times leaders rode horses if they went to war, or if they came in conquest. But arriving by donkey meant you came with peaceful intentions.

But Jesus didn't turn up in S2, you say. And certainly not on any hairy beast. Ah, but he did - metaphorically. Gabriel as Jim turned up - he came up the street, by (the Dirty) Donkey, walking through spilled blood tomatoes, then mentioned his arms were no longer sore (because he had been taken off the cross.) MrPeriod talks more about how Jim represents Jesus here, and it might be worth revisiting it at length another time, as there is quite a bit to unpack there.

There are also the two big golden lions perched on either end of the bar inside the pub, that look rather ominous. The lions are strongly connected to Jesus and his resurrection, representing his return. (I'm still planning to have a better look for more lions in both S1 and S2, but that is still a WIP at the moment.)

There is also the scene in 1941 where the Nazi zombies stagger into the Dirty Donkey and spy on Aziraphale and Crowley through the windows through to the book shop, but all they manage to get is “Banana, fish, gorilla, shoe lace with a dash of nutmeg.” It sounds a bit like a cocktail reference – well, the nutmeg is definitely a GO ref to a certain cocktail – but the cocktail called a Dirty Donkey has cinnamon in it, in the form of cinnamon schnapps, not nutmeg – plus chocolate liqueur and rum. So maybe not.

But perhaps the most important thing we have to examine is the conversation about Jane Austin that Aziraphale and Crowley have in the pub, in S2E2. Because its got so many levels you just about need a break for extra oxygen half way down. Ha! And you thought it was a couple of funny throw-away lines about how Aziraphale saw human romance...

OK, this is the section of dialogue we are going to look at:

AZIRAPHALE: If you're going to invoke fiction, you might as well do it properly. CROWLEY: Properly? AZIRAPHALE: You remember Jane Austen? CROWLEY: Yeah. I'm not gonna forget her in a hurry, am I? The brains behind the 1810 Clerkenwell Diamond Robbery. Brandy smuggler. Master spy. What a piece of work. AZIRAPHALE: She wrote books. Novels. CROWLEY: Jane? Austen? AZIRAPHALE: Yes! CROWLEY: Whoa, bit of a dark horse. Novels, eh? AZIRAPHALE: Yes. They were very good. CROWLEY: Well. No, I'm just surprised, that's all. You think you know someone. AZIRAPHALE: She had balls. CROWLEY: Well.... AZIRAPHALE: Cotillion balls. People would gather and do some formal dancing and then realize they had misunderstood each other and were actually deeply in love.

Ready to dive into the levels on the Jane Austen conversation? Let's go...

Level 1: It’s a conversation about the novelist Jane Austen, and it sounds like they both met her, but they remember her in different ways – and Crowley’s memory is rather surprising!

Level 2: There is a mention of a robbery. This makes the parallel with the 1967 scene in S1E3 Hard Times, where Crowley has a secret meeting in the Dirty Donkey to plan a robbery to steal holy water from a church. The robbery in the above conversation involves diamonds (are you taking note/s? This is important!) from Clerkenwell, a district of London of some notoriety. It was famous for it watchmakers and jewelers, but it was also the home of Oliver Cromwell, who has a link to the 1650 date mentioned in S2E1 and the Eccles cakes, to Charles Dickens (author of A Tale of Two Cities, a book of note for GO) Oh, and both times Crowley is wearing a "Tactical Turtleneck", which others have noted he wears when he is doing his own master spy work, such planning or discussing robberies, or sneaking into Heaven to rob them of information!

Level 3: There is Aziraphale’s idea about how a romance should be conducted, by hosting a cotillion ball with formal dancing, because he's read all those romantic novels by Austen. And we get to see that played out in S2E5 in the eldritch ball. Crowley's idea of a romance was to get caught in the rain and kiss, then - vavoom!

Level 4: Why mention this apparently fictional side to an author of fictional romance? Well, on one hand, it’s an interesting but dark set-up for a joke later at the beginning of S2E6. I ended up discussing it at length here, but the short of it is that it is our usual human custom not to speak ill of the dead, and this is a form of extreme black-and-white thinking. Here, Aziraphale speaks of the good/white side of Jane Austen, that is well known, but Crowley speaks of the black/supposedly forgotten or unspoken bad side of Austen.

Level 5: Here’s the S3 information. Have you been paying attention? Did you take note? The parallels were the robberies between a church, and diamonds? That she was a brandy smuggler? Do you know where they smuggled brandy from? And do you know where Austen actually lived? On the South Downs, overlooking the Channel to France…

Whew. I think I need a drink after that. Cheers!

[Edit: I've recently finished a meta on the Bentley and how that relates to black horses, and it's occurred to me why the ethereal lift, or "hellevator," is in the entrance to the Dirty Donkey. Black horses are symbolic spirit guides between the worlds of the living and the dead, so this makes the perfect place to put the lift!]

#good omens #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #good omens meta #good omens analysis #the dirty donkey #the pub #hard times #holy water heist #1967 crowley #jim as jesus #jane austen #cottage on the south downs #master spy #a sherry for me #tactical turtleneck #vavoom

66 notes · View notes

theycallmebecca · 9 months

Text

Drabble: Smooth Hips Turner Gets Caught

Here is the promised follow up to my drabble Smooth Hips Turner. I did a poll a couple weeks ago to determine what the plot should be and almost half of the votes were for her brother to find out about them dating.

I'm not a drama writer... I'm a romantic comedy writer... so I had some fun.

I'm also checking off a couple squares on my @the-slumberparty bingo card: Sports AU and Night Club.

Title: Smooth Hips Turner Gets Caught

Pairing: hockey player!Cole Turner x female reader

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: language

Disclaimer: This work of fiction is not to be reposted, used or translated without my permission.

Usage Disclaimer: This work is for fans only. This author does not give permission for it to be shared, spoken of, referred to in any public manner (podcast, tv, online, etc.) that wants to either make a celebrity uncomfortable, mock fan fiction/fandom in any way, or the author themselves. Requests can be made, but it is unlikely the author will change their mind. If no response is given to a request then the answer is a solid no, not interested and the work cannot be shared, spoken of or even referred to, regardless of the manner or context.

IS SMOOTH HIPS TURNER IS OFF THE MARKET?? The superstar goalie was seen canoodling at a local club with an unknown female while out with friends over the weekend. Our body language expert looked at the photos and said the relationship looks serious and predicts that there will be wedding bells in the off season for the pro.

"Fuck," Cole cursed as he looked at the social media post.

"All my social media accounts were already private," you reminded him. "And I changed all my profile pictures to the beach as soon as I saw that post."

"Someone will recognize you though and sell your name and any dirt they have on you to the tabloids," he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Fuck. Your brother."

"Excuse me?" you asked with a laugh.

"Not literally fuck your brother," Cole replied with a grin. "But fuck, I wanted to tell your brother myself. But if he sees those photos, he's going to know."

Before you could respond, Cole's phone dinged and he glanced down at it, his eyes going wide as he looked at the message. Swallowing, he turned it towards you so you could see the message that had come in from your brother.

YOU'RE SLEEPING WITH MY SISTER????

CALL ME THE FUCK RIGHT NOW!

"I'll call him," you offered. "And I'll tell him to mind his own fucking business."

"No," Cole said, shaking his head. "I have to do this. I should have done it before now."

"You aren't having this conversation without me," you told him. "I get that he is your best friend, but he's my brother. And I get that he's my brother, but you're my boyfriend. You are not excluding me from this!"

"Alright, alright," Cole said, holding up his hands. "I'll call him now."

He sat down next to you on the couch and chose to video call your brother.

You weren't sure what to expect when your brother answered, but based on his text to Cole you weren't expecting the shit eating grin you got.

"Turner. Sis." He greeted you both. Then, to Cole, said, "So you finally grew a pair and asked her out, huh?"

It took a second for you and Cole to figure out what he meant by that but you started laughing while Cole just stared back at him in shock.

"Oh don't pretend to be shocked I knew," your brother told him. "You were fucking obvious, man. It was a relief when she went away to school because you weren't distracted all the time if she was home."

"You knew the whole time?" Cole asked, dumbfounded. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Uh, because it was my sister," your brother replied. "I wasn't going to encourage that when you didn't stand a chance with her. And after, well you lived in two different places and lived very different lives."

"So you aren't mad?" you asked him.

"That you guys are dating? Absolutely not," he replied. "I am annoyed that I found out from the fucking internet though!"

"It's not how we wanted you to find out," Cole said. "I was going to talk to you next week when my team was in town."

"You were?" you said, looking at Cole.

"I was," he replied, looking back at you.

Smiling, you leaned in and kissed him.

"OH YUCK! GROSS!" your brother complained. "Just because I'm ok with it doesn't mean I want to see it!"

"Say bye to your brother," Cole told you, pulling his lips away from yours.

"Bye, butt head," you called.

Your brother was still protesting when Cole ended the call and dropped the phone onto the floor.

#navy and roo sleepover #theycallmebecca #theycallmebeccawrites #Cole Turner #Cole Turner fanfiction #Cole Turner fanfic #Cole Turner fan fiction #Cole Turner x you #Cole Turner x female reader #Cole Turner x y/n #becca writes drabbles

55 notes · View notes