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positivelybeastly · 4 months

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I'm curious as to how much flack Percy gets in regards to his x-force and wolverine run.

This cap doesn't have anything to do with anything, I just find it funny.

So, in regards to Percy's writing of X-Force and Wolverine, I'm going mostly based off of Reddit and Tumblr for these general impressions, because these are the social networks I spend the most time on - minus Twitter, but Twitter is frankly always a cesspool, and people don't actually talk that much about X-Force or Wolverine on there, they talk primarily about X-Ladies.

Reddit actually just wrapped up a poll asking people to rank their least favourite Krakoa era books, and the results were. Interesting.

So, Immortal X-Men was voted the best, with Hellions and X-Men Red trailing in second and third place - well deserved, frankly, those are all really quite excellent books. But we're not here to talk about excellent books, we're here to talk about Ben Percy!

Both of Ben Percy's comics were ranked as being in the bottom third of all Krakoa era comics (not including mini series). That's. Not great, honestly. That's usually what you'd call an indicator of a not well loved comic book.

Now, that's not to say that these runs don't have their appreciators - for one thing, they are objectively drawn pretty much consistently gorgeously. For all the flack I personally give Percy, he is competent at creating interesting body horror situations. There's a firm fanbase that's quite invested in Omega Red's redemption arc.

But I don't think there are many people who actually love these comics.

For one thing, the pacing is glacial. They are the single longest running ongoings of the Krakoan era, bar none, both of them looking to hit #50 in an era where other series are getting cancelled or cut short at #10 or #18 - and they have only just started to wrap up their major plot points. Beast was established to be pure evil back in issue #9, and it took until Wolverine #35 for him to be acted upon in a meaningful manner. Colossus was established to be under mind control years ago, also, and that has only JUST NOW been resolved.

A common response to this criticism was that Ben Percy is a novelist, and therefore used to writing his stories in a certain format - to which I say, cool, but you're writing for comic books, motherfucker. Adapt your style. I don't turn up to a watercolour painting class with a can of spray paint.

Another point people like to bring up is that Percy got 'screwed' by the higher ups extending the Krakoan story arc due to Hickman leaving and the other X-writers deciding to stick around in this stage of the story for longer. The theory goes that he has a set end point, and he's had to stretch the story out to make it work.

To which I say, if he's had even more time than he was meant to have, why do we know less psychologically about Beast now than we did at the beginning of the series? Why are Sage and Omega Red and Domino all begging for table scraps of story? What the fuck was even the point of the Kraven arc? A good writer who is interested in their characters and what they can say about them relishes more time to have them talk, not less, especially if you're getting paid to write it.

How in the goddamn hell did we have a company wide crossover event featuring a godlike being that forced characters to be judged for their actions, motivations and philosophies, and we didn't hear a single thing about Beast or Omega Red?

You could also just? End the story? Would the world really be that much of a poorer place without the adamantium surfboard and the evil space Nazi prison that literally mattered so little that Beast got arrested for it, then turned up again next issue like nothing had happened?

Which leads me to my next point - Beast's descent into villainy, whether or not you think it makes sense with how the character has been treated this last decade, does not make a fucking lick of sense. Everyone on the goddamn island of Krakoa is a fucking moron because X-Force is happening and no-one is watching what obviously evil Bond villain Beast is doing.

Jean Grey is staring Beast in the face, telling him that she believes that she thinks there's still good in him, while he's mentally thinking about what dead animal carcass to throw to Wolverine to break his mind and spirit. SHE IS A FUCKING TELEPATH.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

Nightcrawler says Beast is utterly unethical and he doesn't trust him. Won't talk to him, though. Or check in on him. Or act against him. Beast was running an evil space Nazi prison in orbit, got caught, got taken away in handcuffs, and just. Walks. Away. Scot free.

From the Quiet Council.

How. The FUCK. Did that meeting go?

I don't know, but we'll never see it!

And every time you bring these things up, even the X-Force defenders just kinda have to shrug their shoulders and go, look, dude, I'm just here for the rad art and to watch how far Beast is gonna go this issue. Every other run during this era makes a grand effort to be connected, for Krakoa to feel like a breathing, living island . . . except for X-Force and Wolverine. They all just kinda. Exist in their own little universe.

It's called the Percyverse, incidentally. Legitimately. There's a full on term for it, this effect is so well documented and has been an issue for so long.

So, on Reddit at least, there's a pretty common derision for these runs. Some defenders, but no-one is ever gonna say that they're their favourites of the era. Most people are just kinda like, ehh, it's fun pulp, don't think too hard about it.

On Tumblr . . . yeah, this is something I actually have some personal experience with. You see a lot of X-Force panels posted from major comic book blogs because they catch attention and get a lot of notes, especially if it's a 'Beast does something evil' panel because you inevitably get a flood of people in the comments going HEY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, but you wanna know what I pretty much never see?

Fan art.

Idk, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place for it, but there's no fanart, for X-Force. I've seen exactly one piece of fan art for war criminal Beast. Exactly one. I've seen more explicit porn depicting the PS5 and Nintendo Switch fucking in weird robot form than I have fanart of X-Force. Fanfics, also, are very thin on the ground - I've seen maybe five, six, maybe seven?

I actually have one of the higher rated (in terms of views and kudos) X-Force related fanfics on AO3 by virtue of the Irredeemable Beast following on from that plotline, and even then, most of my comments are from people saying, oh hey, it's nice to see Beast back to his proper characterisation again (which is really nice to see, I love that!). I've had one or two people say that they think Beast is still evil, in the context of my story, but . . . honestly, that's an audience I want to cultivate and challenge, so I don't mind that. But still.

That's. Not a lot of fan engagement.

Hell, to go back to the Reddit point - there was a thread a month or two back asking what everyone's favourite X-Force incarnation was, and most people picked Uncanny X-Force (Remender's) or the original 90s run. A few people picked the Utopia era run.

Pretty much no-one I saw picked the Krakoan era book. And I was checking. I was craving that validation. And oh boy I got validated.

There's just. Not a lot going on in these books that's going to foster a dying love in a fan for them, honestly. There's not a lot of in depth characterisation, there's no grander point to the story other than 'CIA bad (but if it were run by these good guy field operatives who understand the necessary evils rather than the stupid bureaucrats, it would be better'). It's just. A pulpy comic book with a lot of violence and a one-note villain.

Who's going to go to bat for that?

In terms of more official flack, well, it's bad form to bad mouth your co-workers, so you're not gonna see a lot of people directly telling Ben Percy he sucks, BUT.

You've seen these panels before, right?

. . . Guys, is this a joke?

And I don't mean, is this a badly produced panel that makes no sense, I don't mean, is this an insult to comic books, I don't mean, are you serious.

I . . . seriously kinda think that this panel is a joke.

Poking fun at X-Force.

Because X-Force Beast is the kind of boring psychopath who can only convey his argument through a PowerPoint. Like, that's a fucking meme. That's straight up a meme. That's the equivalent of, in this essay I will --

Now, this one is also pretty funny, but also . . .

If you were a comic book writer, and you were in charge of a comic book that was getting some fairly intense criticism about the fact that a 60 year old legacy character is being written as the worst villain this side of Charles Manson, and LITERALLY EVERYONE on the internet is screaming that this HAS to be Dark Beast because it literally just doesn't make sense . . . what would you ask editorial to do?

Would you, perhaps, ask that Dark Beast be shown on panel in a different writer's book, acknowledging Beast's evil? That would give you some legitimacy, wouldn't it? Although, that's - a pretty desperate move, isn't it . . .

Especially considering the writer of that book (Kieron Gillen) fucking loves writing Beast. Like, legitimately loves him. You can tell.

This is not dialogue you give to a character you dislike. This is dialogue you relish getting to write because it's fucking fun. This is you getting free licence to get as esoteric and as wild with your dialogue as you want because you're getting to write Beast today.

Beast is fun to write. The writers of the 90s animated show literally said he was their favourite character to give dialogue to because he's so goofy and weird and intellectual.

Not convinced?

This is the same writer, Kieron Gillen, from years and years later (S.W.OR.D was 2009, this book is from 2015).

This is why I think Kieron Gillen was digging at Percy there. Because he clearly loves this character, clearly really is invested in Beast and Abigail's relationship - they were BROKEN UP in normal comics by this point, and yet he went OUT OF HIS WAY to do this. To express a tenderness of feeling and a love and an affection for these characters that scans as genuine.

Hell, look at this.

Is . . . Gillen poking fun at the fact that this fairly important relationship was ended on a whim eight years ago and no-one knows why? Because that's kinda what this reads as to me?

When I met Kieron Gillen at a comics convention a few years ago, I got him to sign my copy of S.W.OR.D. He said, and I quote, that he was fairly certain he'd signed every copy of it ever made. We both kinda laughed, because yeah, that story sold like shit, but also . . . everyone who read it got it signed, huh? And you remember this little 5 issue mini-series that got cancelled well enough to make a joke about it not selling well, with a distinct vibe of, everyone who actually read it loved it, sigh.

Interesting.

It's also worth noting that Jed McKay, currently writing the Avengers, has said that he wished he could have Beast on the roster, but he couldn't. He went out of his way to say that in an official interview.

Interesting.

It's ALSO worth noting that both Grant Morrison and Jonathan Hickman, when asked about Beast at an anniversary livestream, said they didn't see Hank as the kind of character who should be a villain, but merely someone who got into bad situations and reacted like a human to it. Which is. Not something you'd say about X-Force Beast, is it.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

#vinial453 #outofmuffins

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3lizab3t · 5 months

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2023 character wrapped, tagged by @dentpx <3

this list took me so long to come up with lmaooo

list based on who i was drawing art of and posting gifs of throughout the year and who i was most deranged about (none of these are in any sort of order)

Harvey Dent/Two Face (DC) 🤍🖤🧡💜 he was my twitter pfp for like half the year, Harvey’s the most special guy 2 me always. I made a zine for him this year and everything. i drew him like 35 times and has one gifset

Lenny Fiasco/The Easer (DC) he’s such my silly <3 he’s in like one comic but he’ll always be famous to me. i drew him like 5 times and tried to campaign for him to win character polls (he lost but its okay he won in my heart)

Johnathon Ohnn/Spot (atsv) he caused me such severe brain damage after that movie fr. i drew him like 8 times and made the ugliest gifset ever

Curt Connors/Lizard (Marvel) darling Curtis this was his year so much so that 3 of him are here they are different enough 2 me <3 i drew him like 15ish times or something

Curt Connors/Lizard (TASM) many conflicting feelings, but also ive drawn him like 10 times this year so he goes in the wrapped in a better world he would’ve been wet in a sewer for more of the movie, also the scene where he has a mouse in his pocket would still be in the movie and not a deleted part

Curt Connors/Lizard (Spider-Man 2 PS5) i got this game only because he was in it, he’s so blorbo sometimes like a wet cat to me. i made like 3 gifsets of him

Drury Walker/Killer Moth (DC) absolute win my special guy got to be in comics this year i was so happy for him, he used his wings to keep himself dry from the rain 💚 i didn’t draw him that much, but i was actively reading the comic he was in

Mac Gargan/Scorpion (Spider-Man 2 PS5) he was so cunty and slayful, in the game for like 5 minutes but he had so much impact. the only character i went out of the way to look at gameplay footage from the first game. i made 1 gifset of him

Adrian (Little Nicky) 😔 yeagh he’s so hot and his red coat is so cunty… he’s my current twitter pfp, i ended up having to order like 5 acrylic stands of him because the manufacturer i use doesn’t let you buy just 1

there are some characters i dont post about so they are not here <3 its already bad enough that i have 2 on here played by the actor ™

edit: i wrote all this a few days ago, and didn’t post because i was like “oh i probably shouldn’t have the same guy here 3 time 😑” but i do not care anymore its being posted now

#idk who 2 tag anyone feel free to do this if you want ig #also my little nicky Adrian acrylic stand is home now i have him <3

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autisticburnham · 10 months

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Re: your "Why aren't you watching Prodigy?" poll

I was tempted to pick "because it's a kids show", because that's probably the reason for the thing I wouldn't like about it being a thing, but that's unfair to kids shows. So I'll explain it more. The nature of kids shows is that there must always be a happy ending, they must always succeed despite the odds, and even if they don't have the first clue about what they're doing they still defeat the bad guy and make it home. That doesn't work for me in a Trek show because it's unrealistic. Some kids find a derelict ship out in Bumfuck, Nowhere, somehow manage to power it up, either the computer doesn't care about command codes or authorisation, or it does and they find some stupid way of bypassing it, and they get the thing moving and point it towards home despite not knowing how to fly a starship. There's trouble along the way, because of course there is, and they find some evil alien ship that wants to destroy them. Two possibilities here, they either somehow manage to escape, or they have an "Oooooh, what does this button do?" moment and somehow it's the button that fires ALL the weapons at the enemy ship and miraculously destroys it. When a regular Trek crew succeeds it's because they're a highly qualified, rigorously trained operation. When the Prodigy "crew" succeed, it'll be because they whoopsiedaisy'd their way through it against all the odds.

I don't have a problem with the show existing, I think it's great that they're trying to get kids into the franchise who will hopefully eventually go on to watch the rest of it. And if you personally enjoy it, you're free to like whatever you like and I won't judge you for it. It's just not for me and I won't watch it, like Lower Decks (which is a whole different kettle of gagh).

You must have been watching a different franchise than me. Hopefulness and not giving a single shit about realism is Star Trek's entire brand.

Also, the Protostar crew consists of a hologram based off of an admiral who went through a very similar situation and that is designed specifically to train new recruits, a telepath who used to have access to their entire species' hivemind, a kid who spent an unspecified amount of time but quite possibly years trapped in a timeloop until she learned the science to break herself out of it, a kid who was raised on a Ferengi ship and learned how to negotiate with people that way, a kid raised to save her species, and a kid whose life experience prior to being a child slave consisted of being the only person person awake- and therefore doing all of the repairs- on a sleeper ship. All of them were child slaves. They got their skills the same way Kira did: through hard fucking work and it being the only way to survive. The only one who "whoopsydaisies" his way into things is the comic relief who doesn't really have a lot of plot relevance. Just because they didn't go to space college doesn't mean they're idiots who could only ever possibly succeed based solely on luck.

If you don't want to watch the show, that's fine. But don't act like it's mindless drivel when you clearly know very little about it.

#is this mean? it's not supposed to be mean but i feel like it might be #idk a nicer way to respond #pdg

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seth-the-giggle-fish · 9 months

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The next installment of my Walter Family Portraits is done!

We have the original inventor, creator of our beloved Singing Musical Automatons, Col. Peter A. Walter I. Based off of the original art from Sam Luke (@samhears) in the Steam Powered Giraffe comic and a photo of David Michael Bennet

Color pallet was partially chosen by popular vote here on tumblr using the poll function

Acrylic paint on a 8x10 inch stretched canvas

WIP photos under the cut as always

The canvas was originally a test of the new blues I had bought, and was going to be used for the Sky Shark painting, but I ended up going with a larger size for that so it's been sitting partially painted since then. On the far left side you can glimpse my skeleton helper Darla, and part of my work surface is the sketch for my Lily Airheart painting (still in progress)

The very initial sketch, transferred over using graphite tracing paper, the canvas wasn't completely square so I decided to try making it look like an oval frame over a photo instead of a square and trying to find a frame that looked good with it

Unfortunately the blue had to go, at least for the bits of the painting that wasn't background, so it was time to start laying down some base colors and solidifying my choice to go for half-comic half-realism

Didn't really know what I was doing and ended up using Yellow Ocher for one of my base colors, I changed my mind on this much later after sleeping on the decision for a few nights. The yellow just wasn't working right with the Burnt Sienna for this

My reference photo and some more base colors, nearly ready to move onto shadows and other tones

Lips??? How do people paint lips?

Starting to regret the yellow, but forging on hoping that it'll end up looking ok

Relising that the process isn't going to fix this and that the yellow needs to go, starting to paint over it with a combination of Unbleached Titanium and Burnt Sienna

Just before I realized that I forgot his coat buttons, and a few details left to finalize. The little gold frills weren't popping as nicely as I hoped so I painted them over in black before adding a gold wash over it to make it look like worn and old gold

#gigs art #reblogs encouraged #Steam Powered Giraffe #SPG #peter one #acrylic painting #Col. Peter A. Walter I #Walter Family Portraits #art blogging

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yvesdot · 1 year

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Behind the Scenes: March 2023 Newsletter

(newsletter in question)

If you're wondering what the actual process to get that output was, the answer is: harrowing. I likely spent a lot more time working with the prompt than I would have if I had just written the thing myself-- but it was fun!

(I recommend opening this post in two tabs so you can compare output to my comments on it. This is also your invitation to ask yourself how much of the newsletter was my input and how much of it was interpretation. Which of those phrases do you think I naturally write? Which of them do you think I wrote?)

If you've never used ChatGPT before, I do recommend you test it out. The tl;dr on process is that you enter a prompt and it generates a convincing output using the patterns it has learned from its training data.

The ultimate prompt that worked for me (with numerous re-generations):

Hi ChatGPT! I need you to write a Patreon post for me based on my last few posts. It is a monthly newsletter telling people what I'm doing. Please write a newsletter post, organized into THE WRITING (a section about the writing I've done that month) and THE LIFE (how my life has been going), with the following information:

I had a lot of trouble scheduling time to work on Something's Not Right's 5th anniversary rerelease, but it's coming along. I held both a March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream and a stream planning the short story UNDER-GLASS in real time (be sure to thank everyone for coming). Both streams are now available on YouTube. I'll be streaming in April with OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot on Saturday, April 8th. I've also been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation to write a lengthy blog post on my experiences and thoughts re: AI.

I visited my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich @goose-books, and we had a wonderful time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities.

At the end of the post, reveal that the entire post has been written by ChatGPT. Do not mention it at any other point, especially the beginning. Also thank everyone for continuing to support me.

Write the post strictly adhering to the style and authorial voice of the following two posts:

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

Happy happy February, everyone! Boy, does it feel strange to have a new year.

THE WRITING

We are on SNR2 LOCKDOWN! I am still editing up new stories to enter the 5th anniversary re-release of Something’s Not Right.

At the same time, I’ve been running occasional streams, mostly thanks to OHHOW’s theming; a giant thank you to them for having the Monthly Themes for everyone to use. February’s theme was, naturally, Romance, hence our Romance Studies stream, where we learned from excerpts of many great titles how to write a good kissing, intimate, and/or sex scene. You can now find the stream on YouTube, where I hope to post more recordings! (Plus: the snippet I shared from KAY is up here.)

Be sure to turn up to March’s themed stream, Planning to Pantsing—where we’ll be planning an entire short story live on air—and our bonus funtimes March Madness stream, where I’ll be pitting all my favorite reads of 2022 against each other. (The Reading Roundup is still coming, whenever day jobs and SNR2 and so on allow).

On the smaller side, we held a little poll for Tumblr’s favorite genre of books, with expected results. And, on top of all of the above, Hourly Comic Day!

...so the lockdown isn’t quite as secure as we thought. Thanks for keeping me company while I do the quiet, often solitary work of editing and shining-up.

THE LIFE

I have been working on my work/writing/life balance. This is one sentence, but it is all the nooks and crannies of my life right now. It’s been going well so far! As always, direct all thoughts to me here or on Tumblr.

DECEMBER NEWSLETTER:

Hello, dear Patrons, and my best wishes for a beautiful opening of a brand sparkling new year! Thank you so much for your patience as I have wrapped up a wonderfully busy month. <- After writing these words, I was hit by a wayward ship at the dock, and as a result this is a full month late. Apologies! It was a VERY busy month.

THE WRITING

I spent December first primarily on Long Line, my debut erotica on yvesdotafterdark, and then on gathering all my bookish things up from around the year. I have not finished them, mostly because January has been focused on getting SNR...2! into the works (ICYMI: I’m trying to put out a 5th anniversary edition of Something’s Not Right; it takes a lot of work). The Scar and Tragic Accident have also been unlocked for free reading!

Otherwise, I really didn’t write very much this month. I decided to take a kind of pseudo-break from the literal act of writing and editing and so on to focus on my end-of-year things, and I did enjoy it—though I think breaks are perhaps more relaxful when they’re actual breaks and not just Break From One Thing To Do Another.

THE LIFE

I never did clean my room. I am now cleaning my room, in fits and starts, around everything else. This is part of a larger desperation for more time, not only for writing but also for my friends and my chores and my errands, and it signals to me that I am burning out a little bit. Look out for Patreon changes!

I also sincerely appreciate everyone being here and cheering me on specifically during this month. December 2022 was undoubtedly one of my busiest months ever—and I created and sold a limited edition print run of Exhaustively earlier this year!—and I’m so grateful for all the people who boosted my posts and chatted to me in the yvescord and hyped me up when I thought I would never finish a review. You made everything so much easier, and you continue to make it worth it.

Wrapping up with some maintenance notes: the giveaway is over, and (Oscar Isaac voice) somehow, Max @goose-books won. He will almost certainly not be taking duplicates of everything, and I’m sure everyone I gift a copy of a zine or book will be very grateful for his donation. The good news is that I was going to be visiting him anyway, so I believe I have saved on some shipping, I say, holding several-hundred-dollar plane tickets.

JANUARY NEWSLETTER

Happy end-of-January! Don’t tell me that it is, because I need to pretend it’s still two days after 2022 in order to finish all my 2022 wrap ups guilt-free. To that end, I have been writing “/22” on every form with a date. They’ll never take me alive!

THE WRITING

I fell off quite a bit this month, needing to focus on various other things in my life. The good news is that, apparently, for me falling off means releasing a new short story, so hopefully you didn’t notice. I’ve also been working very hard on putting together February’s Romance Writing Stream (on writing kissing & intimate scenes), so I hope you’ll come! And, of course, SNR2 work continues. Thanks for coming to the announcement stream!

(And I finally posted an Avner/Eliza deleted scenes roundup from recent Forest Castles editing work. Scraplets continue to be posted as I discover them in my drafts!)

THE LIFE

What a storm that was! Fortunately, I am completely fine, quickly changing some travel plans and conveniently having family everywhere in the state to host me when necessary. Wishing much love to Californians worse affected, and to anyone else dealing with rough winters this side of the climate terror. I do say it every month, but thank you again to Patrons helping me sail these seas... and THANK YOU FOR 3 YEARS ON PATREON!! To many many many more!

Arguably I could have done better if I hadn't greeted it, but I still can't ask ChatGPT for things without providing a greeting first.

Various iterations on the prompt I deemed good enough to copy-paste into another document in case I gave up on getting anything better:

Hello everyone,

It's March and time for my monthly update!

THE WRITING:

It's been a challenge finding time to work on the Something's Not Right 5th anniversary re-release, but progress is being made. I also had the pleasure of hosting two successful streams in March - a March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream and a stream planning a short story in real time. A big thank you to everyone who attended! In April, I'll be streaming with OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot on Saturday, April 8th. Additionally, I've been exploring my experiences and thoughts about AI in preparation to write a blog post.

THE LIFE:

I recently had the opportunity to visit my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books), and we had a great time partaking in various Ides-appropriate activities and enjoying the Midwest cold. Balancing my work, writing, and life has been a priority, and I'm happy to say that my Patreon remodel is going well.

And there you have it - my monthly update. Oh, and by the way, this entire post was written by ChatGPT. Thank you all for continuing to support me!

(It doesn't really sound like me-- an issue that continued despite the addition of two more Patreon posts as samples to the prompt text-- but the main dealbreaker was calling the streams 'successful.' I wouldn't say they weren't, but it felt a little stuck-up. That reveal also strikes me as too... catty, almost. Am I catty?!)

Happy March, everyone! Can you believe it's already the third month of the year? Time seems to fly by so fast.

THE WRITING

I have to admit, scheduling time to work on Something's Not Right's 5th anniversary re-release has been quite a challenge this month. However, I'm happy to report that it's coming along nicely. I've been in touch with tRaum Books, working on promotional materials, and editing up new stories to include in the re-release.

In addition to my editing work, I've also been busy with a couple of streams this month. First up was the March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream, where I pitted my favorite reads of the year against each other. I'd like to thank everyone who tuned in for that. I also held a stream planning a short story in real-time, which was a lot of fun. If you missed either of these streams, you can catch them on my YouTube channel.

Looking ahead, I'll be streaming in April with OHHOW for Camp NaNo. You can catch me from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM on Saturday, April 8th. I'm excited to participate in this event and can't wait to see what we'll come up with.

Finally, I've been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation for a lengthy blog post about my experiences and thoughts regarding AI. Stay tuned for more details on that.

THE LIFE

In the midst of all this writing and editing, I did manage to take a break and visit my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books). We had a wonderful time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities.

In general, I've been working hard to balance my work, writing, and personal life this month. It's been a bit of a challenge, but I think I'm making progress. As always, I appreciate all the support and encouragement from my readers and fans. Thank you for being there for me.

And now, the big reveal: this entire post was written by ChatGPT! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.

(Not 100% happy with this reveal, either, but in this case the dealbreaker was the word-for-word copy/pasting of text from previous newsletters-- the line including "editing up" is clearly identical.)

Greetings and salutations, lovely Patrons! Another month, another update.

THE WRITING

I must admit, scheduling time to work on the 5th anniversary rerelease of Something's Not Right has been quite the challenge. However, progress is being made, and I'm excited to share it with you all soon. In March, I held two streams that were an absolute blast. First, the March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream, where I pitted my favorite reads against each other (thank you to everyone who came!). Then, we planned a short story in real-time, which was so much fun. If you missed either of these streams, don't worry - I plan on posting recordings on YouTube soon.

Mark your calendars, because on Saturday, April 8th, I'll be joining OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot. And in my spare time, I've been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation to write a lengthy blog post on my experiences and thoughts re: AI.

THE LIFE

I recently had the pleasure of visiting my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books). We had a fantastic time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities.

In addition to writing, I've been focusing on my work/writing/life balance, and I'm happy to report that it's going well so far. As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback, don't hesitate to reach out to me here or on Tumblr.

And that's a wrap on this month's newsletter. Surprise! This entire post has been written by ChatGPT. Thank you all for continuing to support our lovely author, and we'll see you again next month.

(Hooray for the unique and yet utterly dottian phrasing of the opener! The parenthetical in the March Madness stream comment is a dream! But the recordings were planned to already be up once the Patreon post went out, and the "mark your calendars" transition is nonexistent. Good transition on the next line, though! Unfortunate that it stole the work/writing/life bit from an example and then seems to ask people for their feedback on that [since the post it snatched from asks for feedback on the reorganization of Patreon in order to form a better work/writing/life balance]. Also, who is this lovely author...)

Dear Patrons,

Welcome to another edition of my monthly newsletter! As always, thank you for your continued support. This month, I've been up to a lot of things, so let's get right into it.

THE WRITING:

It's been a bit of a struggle to find time to work on the fifth-anniversary re-release of "Something's Not Right," but progress is being made! In addition to that, I held two streams: a March Madness Best Books of 2022 stream and a stream planning the short story "UNDER-GLASS" in real-time. Both streams are available on YouTube, so a big thank you to everyone who came and made them so much fun to do!

In April, I'll be streaming again with OHHOW for Camp NaNo during the 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM slot on Saturday, April 8th. I've also been playing around with ChatGPT in preparation to write a lengthy blog post on my experiences and thoughts regarding AI.

THE LIFE:

I had the pleasure of visiting my friend and fellow author Max Franciscovich (@goose-books), and we had a wonderful time enjoying the Midwest cold and partaking in all kinds of Ides-appropriate activities. It was so good to get away and spend some time with someone I care about.

And that's it for this month! Thank you again for your support, and remember, this entire post has been written by ChatGPT. If you have any thoughts or comments, feel free to reach out to me on here or Tumblr. I'll see you all next month!

(That... is not how a reveal works. Poor ChatGPT.)

And, of course, the final functioning prompt, which included no reveal. I found myself preferring to say it myself, because at that point I was having enough trouble getting ChatGPT not to open in the third person (e.g. "ChatGPT here with another update from your favorite author") to not warrant any further nonsense.

I absolutely did not go about this wisely. I used ChatGPT as a playground, not as a Serious Buziness Investmump, and as a result I 100% forewent research into prompts that would have done objectively better. I'm also, in case anyone was worried, not planning on using ChatGPT to write more Patreon posts-- as you can see, it's really only functional as a gimmick.

The idea I had here was that I often spend too much time writing Patreon newsletters than I need to; nobody is going to freak out if I use one turn of phrase versus another, and it doesn't have to be a two-hours-combined affair. The vast majority of these outputs were usable with only light editing for voice; the only reason things took so long with this method was that I refused to edit them for the sake of the gag. (And, admittedly, my awful prompt.)

What I like about the ChatGPT Patreon idea is that it gets me out of my head. It says, "look, when this draft isn't written by you, suddenly it seems a lot more functional, doesn't it?"

If you're interested in more of my thoughts on AI and how it ought to be used, please subscribe to my Patreon! I'll be dropping a pretty lengthy blog post on AI there for the Little Ones before it hits Tumblr-- not to mention the actual behind the scenes posts you get on, well, pretty much everything I do. And, in the meanwhile, any curious questions can be sent to my inbox or Discord.

Support the author: all writing | book | ko-fi | Patreon

#txt #important writing updates #chatgpt #ai #patreon

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chronicbeans · 11 months

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Iolite Hospital Feedback!

Since I have started posting some little Tales from the Iolite Hospital short stories (more like concepts, but that is besides the point), I have been loving the feedback! I'm happy that some people seem to love the idea and characters, so far!

I do have a question, however. Since those stories are more like concepts, and not the entirety of my view for the project, I would like some input for my project from the audience. My plan is to either make a web comic or web animation series once I get access to more equipment to make that possible (like an electronic drawing pad and a good computer, etc.). One part of this series has been puzzling me, however, when it comes to the execution.

I cannot tell whether or not I want to have the series be mainly a day-to-day life series, or mainly focused on the mystery surrounding the hospital. I am sure that it will end up being a mix of both, but I don't know which is better to have on the forefront.

See, the day to day life of the characters dealing with their environment and conditions is something I would love to put at the forefront. That is a big part of each character's life, since they have to work to overcome their struggles in order to be more comfortable with themselves as people and realize that they are more than their conditions. So, if it were mainly a day-to-day series, they would slowly figure out the mysteries. I also like the idea of having the series mainly focused on the mystery, but I am unsure of how I would go about it.

If anybody has any input they would like to share, you can leave them in the comments! I would make a poll, but I don't want to make it feel like anybody is on a time limit or that they are restricted to these two ideas! I am willing to hear whatever y'all have to say, since hearing from the audience is always a good idea!

As an extra add-on to this post, I remember someone asking if I have a Kofi, which I currently don't. So, if y'all think it would be a good idea for me to get a Kofi at some point, let me know. Just note that, if I do eventually make one, it would mainly be for my Iolite Hospital project, since I do not feel comfortable accepting donations for just writing fanfiction and such. If I make a profit off of donations, I would like for it to be for my own, original work, and not something mainly based off of a preexisting property.

#my ocs #tales from the iolite hospital #my stories #input requested #Possible Kofi idk

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multi-lefaiye · 2 years

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YEAH YEAH!! Ok so sorta my theory goes that humans in their universe isn't the one giving ballyhoos out, and instead it's our universe's love for them (and our current involvement with the comic) that is feeding them. You're completely right about Bugs too!! She ALWAYS looks at Us when talking to, as i thinkkk it was swiper who said it? But she hears who is giving her Ballyhoo, and she always talks to us or faces us when she does it. It lines up with Scooby's comment about how it's getting worse! Her small bursts of talking to us would be us experiencing her through flashbacks, and it would be more consistent as the time to current events gets closer and closer. I would continue with how Bugs gives us a bit more evidence ("keep all eyes on me" and "look away kids" meaning shes AWARE shes being watched), but i have MORE evidence!!

Someone mentioned in a post (you'll probably find it in the scoob and shag tag theres like 5 of us here LMAO) how all the colors of the Beings are the same as a TV screen's colors, and how theyre all sorta tech-based (all the characters having files, their tech screens, etc). What if the beings ARE apart of a TV though? The colors that make up the pixels on our screen, to show us the entertainment we desire. The comic. The beings obviously have control over ballyhoos, and are REALLY getting involved now. Like you said, its supposed to be a rare occurrence, but now we have Mickey, Bugs, Scooby, Deedee, and possibly more. Why? Because its entertaining to us! Its drama! Theres probably other reasons, but it fits, doesnt it? Are all the characters in the comic real? The theme thus far has been humanity, and the meaning of it. It'd fit in quite nicely, although idk how far into the idea the comic would go. I do really think, at least, our involvement with the comic is going to affect Shaggy in some way once he gets ahold of Jump Cut. The comic has also interacted directly with the readers, when Bugs asks the viewer who should he kill first. Apparently the decision WAS up to the viewers who voted on polls or in comments! I do think that'll make a return too. ANYWAYS IM RAMBLING I HAVE MANY IDEAS FLOATING IN MY HEAD,,,

ANON I AM TELEPATHICALLY GIVING YOU THE BIGGEST HIGH FIVE RIGHT NOW. THIS IS ALL SO FUCKING COOL HOLY SHIT..... BESTIE YOUR MIND

I'm not a super analytical person and I'm really not that good at Theorizing, but your asks have got my brain fucking SPINNING in circles in a VERY good way.... basically I need to check the Scoob and Shag tag more often huh-

I really think this idea works with the meta nature of this series--especially in regards to the characters' identities. One thing I like to joke about is that like... just who the characters are makes summarizing this webcomic to anyone the most RIDICULOUS experience. And while these characters in-universe are more than just fictional characters, the comic also doesn't simply let go of that identity. Also, with the amount of references to film/television in general, I REALLY like the idea that the beings' colors are specifically meant to tie into that. It works much better than just arbitrarily assigning colors.

Side-note, this also has me wondering a bit if there's specific symbolism around which colors seem to be assigned to each character. It could definitely be an arbitrary thing, but the fact that it seems there are two characters aligned with Magenta is really interesting to me. As I said before, it feels a little weird to have two, so if that IS the direction Dingo is going, then there's gotta be some reason behind it, even if it may ultimately be a simple one.

The colors don't necessarily seem to be unique to each character, so what connects each character to the entity they align with? I honestly might end up sitting down sometime soon to try and analyze similarities with Deedee and Bugs that make them both stand out to Magenta, but that might be a bit of a moot point because there's still a lot we don't know. Still, might be a fun exercise... actually fuck it okay I'm gonna brainstorm a little.

The main thing that stands out in my mind is Magenta's dialogue during the scene where Deedee gets their blessing. As I said previously, the dialogue implies that getting blessings like this is meant to be rare (specifically mentioning that Magenta and the others made some sort of promise not to interfere with the conflict going on in the story, and Magenta is making an exception for this situation), but it's got me thinking a bit.

Deedee gets Magenta's blessing because of her desperation to protect her brother and her devastation that he sacrificed himself for her. Magenta specifically says that Deedee and Dexter's bond reminds them of their relationship with their own siblings, and they want to stop the senseless bloodshed that resulted in Dexter's sacrifice to save his sister.

It's a bit of a tenuous comparison, I will admit, but I think it could easily be argued that this parallels Bugs's alignment with the Martians--I don't remember exactly which update this first comes up in so I could be wrong, but Bugs wants to help the Martians against the Toones, and especially against Mickey. Sure, she isn't a Martian herself, but she has a connection to them. Plus, though she is a rather capable character in combat, she doesn't really seem to revel in senseless violence. She's far from a pacifist, but she's not doing anything without a purpose. Especially in part two, long after she seems to have received Magenta's blessing, she states that her goal, while it isn't necessarily PEACE, is to put a stop to Mickey, which would (at least hopefully) stop the violence.

Okay yeah this got out of hand, and like I said this is very tenuous and I'm definitely not stating any of this as fact. I just really think there has to be some kind of rationale behind each character's ultimate alignment--I HIGHLY doubt it's pure coincidence that Bugs and Deedee specifically both seem to be aligned with Magenta. We don't know much about the entities so far so this is mostly speculation, but there has to be something.

Okay I gotta stop before I start looking into color theory and analyzing the full cast, this is long enough and we don't know enough about the entities in my opinion to fully speculate more about which entities are going to be aligned with which characters (assuming more and more of them are going to be making deals). (And once again I'm just gonna say that I'm forever obsessed with the imagery in the Coward King arc finale with Velm in the field of cyan flowers. Even if this predates the reveal of the entities, it

Also you're 100% right that all of this ties in really well with the theme of humanity in the comic--the characters' identities as fictional characters VS their identities as actual people is a really interesting conflict (idk if that's the right word but brain is mushy). The fourth wall breaks only add to this--while it comes off (especially when Bugs is first introduced) as a playful reference to fourth wall breaks in the original cartoons, it really seems like they serve a greater narrative purpose here. I mean, why CONTINUE calling back to them and making them a core part of who Bugs is as a character rather than simply a small joke or reference?

Also. I just had a thought. Remember when Bugs was introduced and shown to be eating a banana rather than a carrot? I know that was 100% very likely just a visual gag to separate this character from the original cartoon, but on the same line as these characters forming identities outside of the original cartoon characters they're based on.... idk that's just making me think.

I am very interested to see how all of this continues to evolve, and I'm SO fucking sorry for this mile long essay I wrote in response, but I really love your thoughts!!!! Please feel free to keep sending them my way!!!!

#talk to the bunnykitty #scoob and shag #scoob and shag anon #anonymous #sorry i took a bit to answer this but genuinely thank you for sending me your thoughts #this was a big fuckin highlight of my day honestly #i love this silly series so much and i love how intricate and interesting the lore is #and man y'know i'm not really the type to make my own theories most of the time #but you've got me thinking #i am connecting dots. i am connecting them.#and you are too i love these #long post

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abandonedpie · 10 months

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I have a lot of drawing ideas, so...

I'll likely start drawing one or more of these before the poll ends (based on either my own whims or the ongoing results), but I hope to get enough votes to help me decide which order to draw the rest in.

Also, no promises I'll follow the results if I feel really inspired/uninspired to draw certain things, but right now I'm having trouble choosing. And maybe if there's a lot of interest in one of these, it will make me more excited to draw it?

I do see the irony in offering a "drawing request" option on a poll meant to narrow down my to-draw list, but I sometimes like drawing stuff for people, particularly if it's related to my current interests, so...reminder that I'm always open to requests unless I specify otherwise. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#polls

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cornholio4 · 3 years

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Scarlet Lady Au: Two Halves of Marinette’s Heart

Author’s Note: Based on Zoe-Oneesama's Tumblr comic Scarlet Lady which is my fave Ladybug fan content or tied along with LadyBugOut. Only there and the amnesiac Adrien in the episode Oblivion do I ship Adrienette. Also happy birthday to Zoe.

@zoe-oneesama

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was smiling as he was riding on the back of one of her boyfriends Luka Couffaine's bike as he had insisted on giving her a ride to school. He and Adrien Agreste had recently revealed their feelings to her and she was torn between them: the cute and nice Adrien and the cool but also dorky like her Luka. It was tough to think it through even after they had both assured her that they don't want to hurt their friendship with her no matter what she choose. It was Alya who stepped in after healing her dilemma had said that she can just date them both since she had two hands for the each of them. Luka and Adrien were fine with this as long as Marinette was happy and it was then their relationship happened over the weekend.

They had let their family know and they accepted it well: Anarka was quite over the top in her excitement, Marinette's parents and embarrassed her by saying that she had got them 2 sons in law; Juleka had likewise already claimed Marinette as her sister in law and Adrien's father... Marinette and Luka looked at him in sympathy when he just shook his head saying that he was too busy to get a chance to tell him. Marinette comforted him with a hug not really liking how her favourite designer was so cold to his own son. Pollen was more than happy about his Miraculous' owner's new relationship and said his queen deserved all the love that she gets.

Marinette kissed Luka on the cheek after she got off and Adrien was there to greet them as they posed together for a picture smiling which Juleka took with Adrien's photo. Luka and Adrien showed off their custom necklaces around their necks made by Marinette of two halves of a heart with "Marinette's heart" inscribed on them.

"Are you sure that you are ready for everyone to know about you three?" Juleka asked giving Adrien back his phone and they nodded without hesitation.

"I don't really care as much for father's opinion but he seems to like Marinette as an up and coming designer so I think he will give approval." Adrien said with a huffed voice which had them silent.

"I wouldn't want to hide being with Marinette at all; I would sing it with my soul." Luka said Adrien posted the picture on social media with the caption:

Me with Luka Couffaine and our amazing new girlfriend Marinette Dupain-Cheng!

They got in and as students saw the notice they began crowding Marinette and Adrien as they came in holding hands as they went to their classroom. There were students wanting to get a look at 2 3rds of the new couple as they heard the comments:

"Marinette scored herself with 2 cute guys!"

"Are you going to be modelling Marinette's designs now Adrien?"

"So are you going to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Agreste-Couffaine in the future?"

They ignored them and walked into class with Juleka not far behind them to see their excited classmates wanting to know the details.

"So Adrien, will you and Luka be fighting eachother to get the most out of Marinette's time?" Alix asked as Marinette glared at her while Rose was squealing about how romantic it was. Marinette was taken aback when she noticed Lila and Sabrina glaring at their direction while looking quite jealous.

She was shocked by this thinking that she was getting along with Lila and Sabrina was forming a good friendship with her while helping her start over from her toxic so called 'friendship' that she had with Chloe. Marinette's eyes widened when she noticed that Adrien went to get to his seat and their looks were going to his direction, so it was Adrien they were angry at?

"Can I please ask if Adrien has done something to anger you?" Marinette asked as they both shook their heads and there were laughter.

"Marinette, they are just jealous that Adrien and Luka got to you first!" Alya told her grinning as they ended up nodding slightly a bit embarrassed.

"You helped me be more truthful about myself and I still remember how in love that I felt when I heard you badmouth that terrible Scarlet Lady!" Lila said as Marinette was open mouthed wondering just could she possibly remember that since she was Volpina at the time. Marinette did remember that while she was telling the love struck Volpina that she hated Hawk Moth more than Scarlet Lady, that she a bit scared that Volpina was going to kidnap her as a bride for her comment alone.

"You've always been so nice to me Marinette and never held what I did for Chloe against me, even when I tried to steal your diary for her and lied my way into your room. You've been more of a friend to me than Chloe ever was and you are so amazing." Sabrina told her as Marinette didn't know what to say.

"I bet Luka and Adrien wouldn't mind if you wanted to date Marinette as well, if Marc is alright with Nathaniel wanting to go after Marinette as well." Rose suggested as Marinette, Sabrina, Lila and Nathaniel were now red in the face.

"Dupain-Cheng!" screamed an unwelcome voice as the entire class groaned in unison as they should have dreaded this reaction as Chloe came in looking angrier than they had ever saw her which was quite an accomplishment for her. "How dare you steal my Adrikins away from me! I could care less if you wanted to waste your time with that loser with the guitar as losers belong together, that do you think that I was going to sit back and let you keep them both for yourself when Adrien is mine!" Chloe thundered as the class glared at her.

"Watch what you say about Marinette or my brother!" Juleka said speaking up using courage that almost never comes to her.

"Adrien is not a prize to be won or yours to claim Chloe; it's his choice who he wants to be with!" Marinette told her as Chloe smirked getting out her phone.

"Managed to get a picture of your little notebook when you had it open and wasn't looking Dupain-Cheng." Chloe said showing off a drawing of a love heart around Chat Noir as Marinette was open mouthed at that picture being shown to the class and red in her face but while angry at Chloe, Adrien couldn't help but smile a bit at the picture. "So do you want to claim the mangy cat as well Dupain-Cheng with how pathetic you are?" Chloe snarked looking victorious but Adrien spoke up.

"Nothing wrong with having a celebrity crush Chloe, I have one on Marigold myself." Adrien said taking out his notebook and showing that it had a photo of the Bee heroine Marigold with a heart drawing around it as Marinette was redder in the face while Chloe was open mouthed.

"Nothing wrong with that dude, she is pretty much the best hero that Paris has now!" Nino said with everyone smiling and nodding in agreement besides Chloe and Marinette. Marigold has with her fighting tenacity, warm comforting words to Akuma victims after they were being freed and happy to help civilians in need made her a more popular hero. She had given interviews and how valued Chat Noir was as a partner and helped Paris realise how hard he had to fight against the Akumas.

"Excuse me but Scarlet Lady is by far Paris' best hero!" Chloe retorted by Alya got out her phone and showed the poll that the news station had made asking Paris citizens who they liked the best.

Marigold was in the lead followed by Chat Noir, Maotif the one time temporary Chat Noir was in 3rd place and in a very distant 4th place with barely 1% vote was Scarlet Lady. "Paris disagrees Chloe." Alya told her and Chloe was furious. People were being interviewed and the stories of people's interactions with Scarlet Lady were now circulating.

"Adrien, you can't seriously be okay with this! I'm your friend and we would be much better than stupid Dupain-Cheng!" Chloe told Adrien but he shook his head.

"'Were' your friend Chloe, 'were' as in we used to be and haven't really been friends for a long time but I am just making it official!" Adrien thundered and Chloe was open mouthed and this surprised the class. "Sorry Chloe, I have tried to give you some time to better yourself but you keep pulling these stunts while being a cruel bully to our classmates and treating me like a possession of yours. Calling my girlfriend and my new bro losers was me losing all patience and I can't pretend anymore. I am sorry Chloe but I can't be friends with you anymore, you are different from the friend that I used to have." Adrien said and Chloe furiously charged at Marinette.

Adrien caught her hand and glared at her hard before letting go, Chloe began ranting and shouting on the spot while kicking the desk and Ms Bustier had to tell her off and send her to the principal's office.

"Sorry about that Adrien..." Marinette said since as much bad blood as there was between her and Chloe, the bully did used to be a friend to Adrien.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, just keep being the girl that I love." Adrien told her and she smiled back.

Later in the week, after school they were at a park bench as Marinette was at Luka's lap and Adrien was in Marinette's as the three relaxed together. However they heard screaming and saw an Akuma attacking people in the streets.

Marinette jumped out of Luka's lap and helped Adrien up who was in a similar panic as her's. "Sorry guys, I hate to break up a perfect moment but... I have to get a cake to Nadja and I don't want to be earlier than I was last time since it didn't go so well..." Marinette said thinking on the spot.

"Don't worry... I just remembered an event that my dad would want me to be at..." Adrien said as they both ran off in separate directions.

Luka smiled as she dusted himself off and went home chuckling at them, after a few days of this did they really think that he would not pierce it together? No matter, this means that he could talk to Adrien about Marigold and bond over them crushing on her.

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farfromsugafanfic · 3 years

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Heartbreak Weather

Genre: Weatherman!Jin, Metropolis/loosely based off comic books, Rivalry, soft Enemies to Lovers

Pairing: Jin/Male Reader

Warnings: all the sexual tension lol, hurricanes

Synopsis: The rival weatherman at Channel 5 just so happens to be Kim Seokjin who you just so happened to have had a thing with in college. Sort of. When a hurricane brings the two of you back together again, the forecast calls for love and dredged up feelings.

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"Will you please turn that off?" you asked, taking a sip of your coffee. Normally, you took it with a little vanilla-flavored creamer, but much like that morning's coffee, you were bitter.

"Aw, why? Seokjin looks so cute in his turtleneck this morning," one of the writers said, fawning over the Channel 5 weatherman. "Maybe you should start wearing turtlenecks. It might boost our ratings."

You rolled your eyes as the red light came on indicating that you would soon be on camera. You set your coffee to the side and stepped in front of the green screen.

"Good morning, Metropolis," you said. "You can expect some light rain on your commute today. It should clear up by lunchtime though and it will be partly cloudy for the rest of the day. You watched as the map viewers saw at home shifted as you shifted the topic. "As you know, a hurricane is forming a few hundred miles off the coast. We are currently predicting landfall early next week. I will be traveling to Diamond Beach as the storm approaches to give you the most recent updates. Thanks for watching Channel 4 News, now here's Andrea with traffic."

The red light switched from you and onto Andrea's camera on the other side of the studio. You let out a sigh and walked back to your desk away from the main set.

"You went to school with him, right?" the same writer asked, still watching Seokjin on the screen. His station gave him more screentime because he was so well loved in the city, often they pan to him coming back from commercial breaks and whenever there was a view question or poll.

"Yeah," you said. There was only one university near Metropolis that offered a robust meteorology program and most of the city's weather people came from it. You and Seokjin had gone through together, even graduating at the same ceremony.

"Wow, was he still so stunning in college? Like, I don't think I could've focused if he was in my classes."

"Depends on who you ask."

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

5 Years Earlier

"Having trouble focusing?" you asked Seokjin as you noticed his dark eyes were no longer looking down at the computer screen.

"Hmm, it's a bit hard when you look at the screen like that," he said, smirking and turning around to lean against the desk. "Tell me, what's a guy gotta do to get you to look at him like that?"

"Be a warm front." You watched as a warm front moved towards the city while a cold one moved simultaneously from the other direction.

"What if I'm a hot front?" He turned to face you, his hip still leaning against the desk, but his body was close enough that it brushed yours as he moved.

"Seokjin, stop." You clicked a few more times and turned to flip through your textbook. "It's a storm for sure. A thunderstorm or tornado. Shit, it could be anything, how are we supposed to figure this out."

"Its the weather, not heart surgery. We can be wrong fifty percent of the time and still good at our job."

"But, if we're wrong fifty percent of the time, we'll fail this class."

Jin sighed and crossed his arms as his eyes lingered down your body. "Listen, Y/N. We both know that you're going to stress about this for twenty minutes and then figure it out like you always do. Now, come on, let's take a break."

"And do what?" you asked, letting out a breath between your teeth, not tearing your eyes away from the screen.

"I don't know. I have a few ideas though" His breath was against your ear and his body heat radiated against your own.

"Seokjin, this can't happen."

"Why not?"

"Cause I need to focus on school. I'm here on a scholarship. I can't risk distractions."

Jin sighed and looked down at the weather map on the screen. "It's a thunderstorm," he said. "The currents aren't strong enough for a tornado and based on the patterns, its the most logical."

You quickly wrote down the answer and his reasoning, realizing that he was right. How he surmised the answer so quickly, especially when he was barely paying attention baffled you.

"All right, now, come on," he said. "I'm taking you out for lunch and you can't deny me that. I know you're hungry."

"Fine," you said, shutting your textbooks and allowing the computer's screensaver to come on.

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Just hours later that same night, you found yourself looking up at the ceiling of Jin's bedroom. Soft cotton sheets wrapped around your torso and they felt softer than even the best sheets you'd ever owned. His shirtless form was turned away from you and you resisted the urge to reach up and run a hand through his dark hair. He'd let it grow long recently, the ends of his hair beginning to grow onto his neck.

"Stop staring at me," Seokjin said, you could hear the smirk in his voice. He turned around to face you. His eyes were calm and soft like the sheets, but you couldn't help but feel the sadness. The knowing.

"How'd you know?" Your voice was small.

"I could feel it. Your eyes hurt, you know?"

You did know. You knew how much it hurt Jin to see your eyes wander down the shape of his torso. That the way you always reached to push his ill-fitting glasses up the bridge of his nose hurt. That knowing he couldn't reach out and sneak his fingertips underneath the hem of your sweater.

"I'm sorry."

"I know, it's okay."

"It's not, Seokjin. We need to move on. Forget about each other. It's best for our futures."

"You know that's not true."

"Seokjin, we both want the same things in life. We'd be competing with each other for every job. We'd rush to get the story before the other. It wouldn't last."

"We don't know that unless we try."

"Seokjin, I don't want to give myself the chance to hate you."

You got up from the bed and buttoned your shirt, pulled on your trousers, and tied your shoes. Seokjin watched you, didn't try to stop you as you headed towards the door. Gripping the doorknob, you walked out and back down to the sidewalk below.

Following that day, you didn't see Seokjin again. Sure, he still sat a few rows in front of you, he still presented in class, you glanced over his name in the paper when it was announced he was taking over the weather position for Channel 5. You saw him on billboards and on Reddit posts. Yet, you never met allowed your eyes to meet his again. Unless it was through the warm, freshly printed Metropolis Daily.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Nearly no one was heading east towards Diamond Beach. Westbound traffic was full of cars heading into the city to weather the storm, while eastbound only consisted of a few cars. Mostly media and others who couldn't drop everything and run from the hurricane.

You could just make out the Channel 5 van ahead of you. Focusing down on your laptop which was tracking the conditions minute by minute, you tried not to focus on the fact you would likely run into Seokjin.

This certainly wasn't the first time a hurricane or tropical storm caused you and Seokjin to collide like convergent fronts. Every year you found yourself at Diamond Beach trying not to watch his broadcast from a few meters down the beach.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Two Hours Later

"Hello, this Y/N Y/L/N reporting for Channel 4 news. Hurricane Roke is expected to make landfall later tonight. Most of Diamond Beach and the surrounding areas have been evacuated as Roke is currently a category four storm. I will be monitoring the storm and providing updates through Twitter throughout the night and I'll be back on the beach at 5am. This has been Y/N Y/L/N covering Hurricane Roke. Now, back to the studio."

You felt Jin's eyes on you as you gave your report. He was about two hundred feet down the beach. He wore a similar coat to your own and even with his hood pulled up you could feel the way his eyes cut through you.

Once the red light on your camera went off, the one on Seokjin's came on and he began his report. It was nearly identical to yours, Seokjin adding his own flair and charm. Like you wished you could.

Seokjin finished his broadcast and your filmographer began to pack up. "I'll see you bright and early in the morning?" she asked, her hair catching in the wind and obscuring her face.

You nodded and helped her pack up the camera and other supplies, working quickly to prevent it from getting damaged from the wind or rain. Walking up the beach and back to the hotel felt like it took forever, especially with the heavy filming equipment.

Your filmographer had already checked in earlier and headed to her room, carrying the camera and filming equipment. You kept the portable meteorological tools, already anxious to set it up in your room. Jin and his filmographer came in just as you got to the front desk.

Giving them your name, you handed them your ID and the company credit card. The receptionist furrowed her brow and glanced up at you.

"It looks like your room was accidentally double booked," she said. "I apologize, but due to the current situation, would you mind sharing?"

"Uh, sure, that's no problem. Who am I sharing with?"

The woman squinted at her computer. "Kim Seokjin."

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

"You're not even going to look at me?" Seokjin asked as the two of you set up your computers. He'd let you have the desk while he took the counter of the kitchenette.

"Not until I get this setup."

Seokjin sighed and pulled out his phone. Service was already finicky, but he managed to pull up Spotify and got music to play. It was soft, as not to disturb your neighbors in the packed hotel.

You smiled as you heard the familiar tune "Dancing Queen". Jin was a fan of older music and the two of you used to listen to ABBA's Greatest Hits when studying together.

"You still listen to this?"

"Of course," he said. "It makes me happy."

It made you happy too and when you finished setting up your computer you peaked out the window. The storm was still a couple of hours from landfall, but the trees were already swaying wildly.

"It's going to be a big one," Jin said, glancing at you and catching your eye. It was the first time you'd truly looked at each other since the day you'd left him on his own. It felt like a lightning bolt skewered you in half.

"Yeah," you said, sitting down on the bed. "It is."

You traced the seams of the comforter with your index finger. The song switched and this time it was "Can't Help Falling In Love With You".

Jin finished setting up his computer. Your screen and his looked nearly identical showing a map of the coastline and the storm approaching. He sat down beside you, closer than you would've thought an acquaintance would sit.

"We should go to bed. Early start tomorrow." His voice commanded you to look at him. "Let's not fight over the bed." Placing down the two extra pillows down the center of the bed, he went to the bathroom to change.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

The storm was in full force when you made your way outside. The four of you: you, Jin, and your two filmographers tried to get onto the beach, but the sand cut your skin. Various debris already littered the beach. Mostly seaweed and tree branches, although you noticed a few shoes and patio furniture from the nearby condos.

"The hotel said we could report from outside," you said. "It'd be safer."

Jin chewed on his cheek and glanced out at the beach. The two filmographers began to set up their cameras and you did you best to ensure your hair didn't fall into your face. You stood away from the wind, finding it hard to breath with it blowing onto your face.

"Seokjin! Stop!" His filmographer yelled, abandoning his equipment, he rushed towards the other man. You turned to see that Seokjin had taken off towards the beach, seemingly want to report from there no matter the circumstances.

You looked over at your coworker and she gave you a curt nod, ensuring that she would watch over the equipment. She dragged both cameras inside the lobby one at a time. Giving her an empathetic look, you took off running towards the beach, hoping to catch up with Seokjin before he got entirely soaked.

When you came to the edge of the beach, you saw that Seokjin was already halfway out, his filmographer not far behind. You sighed and continued out, knowing he was determined to give the report from as close to the middle of the storm as he could.

The filmographer neared the middle of the beach, fearing going any further. When you caught up to him, you stopped to catch your breath, even though it was nearly impossible with the wind. Your breath was swept away as soon as you drew it in.

"He's crazy," the other man said. "I have no idea why he's doing this."

"He always has to go the extra mile," you said, rolling your eyes. "Even if it's stupid and dangerous."

Seokjin turned back to look for his camera operator, only to see him halted halfway up the beach. Seokjin was three-quarters of the way up the beach now, reaching dangerously close to the rough tide. He noticed you still running towards him and smiled before a gust of wind knocked him off his feet.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤

Your chest constricted when you saw Jin get thrown off his feet. He landed a few feet away in the sand. You ran as quickly as you could, falling to your knees beside him.

"Are you okay?" you asked, looking him over.

His eyes looked up at you, obviously taking in your features. Yet, his lips said nothing.

"You crazy bastard! What the hell were you thinking? Rushing out here like that? You of all people should know how dangerous that is." You could barely catch your breath between words as you placed your hands on his arms to help him sit up. He didn't budge, however, his eyes just locked on your face.

"What are you doing?" you asked, sighing and dropping your hands from his hands, looking down to meet his eyes for the first time.

He smiled when you finally met his eyes and leaned up to connect his lips to yours. It was brief due to the circumstances, but it felt like lightning coursing through your veins.

"I ran cause I knew you would chase me."

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wolfstargames · 4 years

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The Basic Rundown

There will be three teams based upon the fest theme. Participants will be given the chance to request a team upon sign up, but we make no guarantees that you will receive the team you requested, as teams need to be at least relatively even for voting purposes. This is, in fact, a competition, but only in the spirit of pushing each other further to create better works for this ship we all love so much.

Each participant will create a work, fic or art, based upon not only the theme but a prompt. Details on the prompts as well as how to claim them will be revealed after the teams are solidified. Then, those works will be revealed and voted upon in a blind vote to determine how each team did.

During the creation time there will be both team and inter-team activities. These will all be low key and completely optional. They’re just a way to spend some time with your team/fest participants and have a little fun to keep tensions low and promote a friendly sort of competition.

Once posting begins there will be a poll attached to each work, which will be posted anonymously, for readers/viewers to vote on how well the piece fit the theme of the fest as well as how well it fit the prompt. Those votes will be averaged for a total team score at the end of posting. Please keep in mind that these works are not in direct competition with each other. The voting is not meant to compare works. There will simply be a representative work from each team. Please be aware that team participants and mods will not be allowed to vote, for fairness purposes!

As this is a scored fest please keep in mind that all works are to be anonymous. We understand that this is slightly difficult for artists as style may be recognizable, but please do your best. This means that you may not share any snippets, anything more than very vague ideas, or any pieces or bits of your creations until after the reveals when the work is wholly yours to do with as you wish. We do understand the concern about posting unsigned art, so we will be providing a Wolfstar Games watermark for any artist that wishes to use it. And if you have any concerns about this please contact a mod and we will see what we can do for you.

Just remember, Wolfstar Games is about having fun and creating more content for our favorite boys, not about winning or losing. And most importantly, it’s about having fun!

Theme: COMMUNICATION

This means any form of communication. Anything from a story about miscommunication, to a comic about receiving a bunch of letters, to the art of telling someone they are loved through touch. Reading a book in braille, learning sign language for a loved one, telling a story through a collection of tattoos. There are so many options.

Time Line:

Sign-ups begin on Wednesday, June 10th and last through Sunday, June 21st, ending at 11:59pm Eastern time (GMT-5). Sign-ups will happen via google form, so please watch this space for that to go live.

Teams will be announced on Wednesday, June 24th, so please watch this space for more info.

Prompts will be available for viewing only on Wednesday, June 24th.

Prompts will be available for claiming on Monday, June 29th and will close at 11:59PM EST (GMT-5) on Friday, July 3rd. Prompts will fall into three categories: Word based, Image based, and Audio based. Each prompt will be available only one time per team, so the sooner you make your selections the more likely you are to get the prompt you want. If, for any reason, you are not available during any of the claiming period please contact a mod and we will make accommodations for you.

Works are due by 11:59 PM on Sunday, October 18th EST (GMT-5). As always we want this to be fun and low stress, so if there are any problems with finishing please just contact a mod and we will work with you to see what we can do. As this is a team competition there may be a small points penalty incurred for late works, however, so please contact a mod as soon as you can if there are any difficulties. There will be check ins along the way to see how everyone is doing and make sure there are no issues, but if something arises please don’t feel the need to wait for a check in to talk with a mod. That’s what we’re here for.

Posting begins Monday, October 26th and runs until we run out of works.

The winning team will be revealed once posting is complete and the mods have had a chance to tally the votes. Keep watch on this space for more information on that further into the fest.

Rule & FAQ

What sort of content am I committing to if I sign up?

For fic, the minimum word count will be 1000 words. There is no maximum, however, please keep in mind that ease of reading, which unfortunately sometimes includes length, will have an impact on how the voting goes. We would never dare to stifle anyone’s muse, so please write as the whim takes you, just keep that in mind when you’re creating.

There is no minimum size for art, but we would request that the maximum size be something that is easily viewable on a single screen. Again, we don’t want to cramp anyone’s creativity, but for voting purposes it’s helpful to be able to see the entire work at one time.

What sort of artwork is acceptable?

All art must be visual, original art. By original art, we mean that the final product must be an original product of the artist. Using photos for reference is fine, and you can use whatever traditional or digital medium you require, so long as the art starts and finishes as your own product. Photo manips are not allowed. Hit up the mods if you need clarity on an idea.

Can I use a work that I’ve published previously, or that’s been sitting in my drafts?

For this fest, we need all original content, none of which has been published previously. Since this is a theme and prompt-based fest, all creators should plan on starting new projects so they can be fully inspired by their chosen prompt.

Is there an age requirement to participate?

All ages are welcome! However, if you are under 18, your creation must be rated G or T on AO3.

Are there any other restrictions on creations?

This is a Wolfstar-centric fest, so we do ask that your creation focuses on Remus and Sirius’ relationship, though other pairings are welcome. All fics must be properly tagged with the appropriate content and trigger warnings on AO3. All fics must be edited, beta read, and legible.

Will I need to be signed up for any specific platforms to participate?

You will need an AO3 account for posting purposes. All fest info will be shared on Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter. A Discord chat system will be set up as well. All of these platforms, other than AO3, are optional.

Can I share snippets of my work on my social media?

Since this is an anonymous fest, we ask that absolutely no snippets or hints be shared during the run of the fest. Once the fest has concluded, you may post whatever you like to social media.

I can’t sign up, but I still want to participate, what can I do?

No worries, there are lots of ways for you to help support WSG! Follow us on Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter; reblog, comment, and share our posts to spread the word. We’ll also be asking for help with beta reading, pinch hitting, and other cool ways for you to get involved!

I’ve got more questions, help!

No problem, we’re happy to hear from you! Ping us on one of the social media sites above, or email wolfstargamesmods at gmail dot com.

#wolfstar games #wolfstar games 2020 #information post #mod post #wolfstar mod squad #coming soon

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mysterylover123 · 4 years

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Does Bones have a BKDK ‘agenda’?

mysterylover123

The speculation I’ve seen so far about why Bones cut the flashback from the TodoBaku scenes in Chapter 164/Episode 79 is because they were ‘so preoccupied with BKDK in the new movie that they forgot about Bakugou’s development with Todoroki”. Which does raise the question, does Bones indeed have a BKDK shipping agenda of some kind?

The idea of an anime studio preferring a pairing and adding in tons of extra material to bias fans towards it is an absolutely founded suspicion. Clamp putting out official homoerotic art of Suzaku/Lelouch, that foot wash scene Madhouse added to Death Note between L and Light, Pierrot pretty obviously liking SasuNaru and Naruhina and throwing in tons of extra material for both; Studios do do this. They prefer certain pairings and they play them up. So does Bones have a BKDK agenda?

The answer I’ve found on examination is a resounding “YES”, but Ive preserved my ‘let’s find out’ tone of writing for the rest of the examination.

Well, let’s start with the OPs and EDs, the first original contributions Bones was able to make in the adaptation. “The Day” does indeed have a long sequence focusing on them, but it’s not unreasonable given the content of S1. “Peace Sign” doesn’t include anything in particular, nor do ED1 or 2. ED 3, “Sora Ni Utaeba”, does have a scene of Kacchan meditating about Deku and getting mad, then blasting towards him at the end and the match-cut with his eye. But this is pretty minor, and fits episode 2.24. ED3, “Datte Atashi No Hero”, is the first time an OP or ED appears to have an agenda of shipping these two, hardcore. LiSa’s song is, according to her, about their relationship, and the Fantasy AU ending has the mutual understanding shot at the end. But it also has smiling prince Shoto, Dragon Kiri and Uraraka greeting Deku, so other ships get a nod too.

“Odd Future” has very little, though one could interpret the snow behind Deku as meaning something romantic. “Update” does include the lines ‘love’ over and over again in the final shot where they stand together watching the stars, but others are there as well, like Shoto and Ochako. Aside from the symbolism of DVK2 in OP5, the rest of S3’s ops are pretty light on BKDK, as was Polaris and ED6, and our current OP too. However, ED7 did have those mirror shots of them brooding in bed, and growing up.

So yes, the OPs and EDs do have a lot of emphasized shots between them. But nothing too crazy. Let’s get into Filler, movies and changes to episodes now.

Season 1 features no filler and no overt tweaks to any episodes; the only bit of added on BKDK I can think of is Deku blushing as a kid during the flashbacks in DVK part 1. Nothing too dramatic in Season 2 either, as the filler ep is about Tsu and nothing is particularly altered from the manga, besides throwing in the Kabe-Don in Katsuki Bakugo Origin. OK, that’s a big besides, given the sexual implications of that in anime culture. Season 3’s filler ep has Bakugo challenging Deku to a swimming contest, but there’s also a bit of TodoDeku and KiriBaku and IiDeku extra teasing there, so again, nothing like a pure bKDK-based agenda.

The 2nd filler ep of S3 has a little BKDK, as does the film, but nothing overt. The film has a bit of KiriBaku agenda, given all their scenes together, and throws in extra TodoBaku (the first bit of extra TodoBaku, alongside Episode 58, that they tossed our way). S4 gave us Deku’s soft smile at Kacchan’s antics, and contemplating on the retake arc last ep, indicating that Bones is indeed including little nods. And now there’s Heroes Rising, though that one was Hori’s idea.

My theory is that Bones does kinda like the ship, but that they have started including more and more BKDK because of how popular it’s getting. Winning the Tokyo Tower contest for the film, the 12,000+ fanfics, the unceasing winners of the Popularity Polls….my guess is Bones knows how popular BKDK is, so they’re adding in more fan service of it. But they were adding in little bits since Season 1 (The cherry blossoms, the smol Deku blush), so saying they have a bit of a BKDK agenda might…not be inaccurate. They do throw in a bit of Fanservice for other ships too, like Izuocha, KiriBaku, Tododeku, and even TodoBaku a little.

But aside from the popularity of BKDK…I think it’s also the key relationship of the series. Everything at it’s core is about them, they’re the main characters and the main focus, so it doesn’t seem too silly to slip in lots of them. But they’ve never had trouble tantalizing other pairings before this, even if they always added more to BKDK than the others. So I don’t think they cut TodoBaku’s scene just because they like another pairing better. I mean, that wouldn’t make much sense anyway.

But that is what started this discussion, so now we come to the real main question. Is Bones downplaying TodoBaku for BKDK? Certainly, BKDK is the only platonic pairing in canon that they’ve slipped quasi-romantic fanservice into in the anime (the blush, the cherry blossoms, the kabe-don, all things that have more romantic implications than anything done with Tododeku or Kiribaku). This needs another closer look.

In Season 1, Bones doesn’t especially play up Todoroki, or his future significance. No extra glances that aren’t in the manga, no closeup shots on him when he’s not the subject of a scene, etc. S1 is pretty much a straightforward adaptation of Chapters 1-21, no filler added, no noticeable agenda either way. In S2, that remains the truth for most of the season. I did notice that Bones makes some small changes in season 2 to the framing on Bakugou in a few scenes, like In Episode 25 where he’s made to look especially menacing Pre-last match, or Episode 27 where Jeanist physically restrains him (not in the manga). I’m not sure what agenda that might push, if any, as far as the ships go.

The season added in a scene of Bakugou tutoring Kirishima, which is in one of the Light novels and not the manga. They also, of course, as I mentioned above, added in the Kabe-don in Katsuki Bakugo Origin, as well as that entire alleyway sequence. The filler episode has a small scene between Deku and Todoroki that could be read as shippy. But yes, in S2, Bones doesn’t add in any extra, non-manga Todobaku.

The drama CDs and Smash, interestingly enough, do. Neither seems to have a lot of Todo/Deku, but they sure like slipping in TodoBaku subtext. There’s 2 drama CDs where they get stuck together by villains who want to scandalize them with compromising photographs, and multiple Smash comics joking about how their heated interactions come off as sexual tension. Of course, Smash has fanservice for pretty much every ship at some point.

In S3′s filler ep, Bakugo does yell at Todoroki “you too” after challenging Deku. It’s pretty minor, but it’s new stuff. Everything for the rest of the Training Camp arc is manga-canon and straightforward, as is the hideout raid. No real playing up of any one pairing over the other. The PLE arc adds in some filler that does seem to be hinting at a slight Todo/Momo agenda, since it has her wonder ‘what would Todoroki do’?, and indeed if Bones has a Shoto Ship leaning in any direction, it’s probably that one. But nothing extra added to BKDK or Todobaku that wasn’t in the manga already.

Episode 58 and the movie, however, do add in TodoBaku scenes. Their same usual dynamic from before, of course. Bones seems to see TodoBaku as essentially, how a lot of the fans see them: Bakugou antagonizing Shoto and Shoto’s reaction being an unbrideled ‘meh’. They do depict them working together in the film, and having a secret grin - though that grin has to do with BKDK a little. In context, Baku is being soft that Deku and All Might won, Shoto sees it, and smirks, making him tsun-tsun.

S4 did add an extra scene in Filler ep 3 where they talk about their future plans. There’s an adjusted reaction from Deku in the next ep, where he smiles fondly at Katsuki. The new OP also doesn’t show Todoroki and Bakugou together, alone in any of the shots of them; they’re always separate, brooding about their own problems, when this OP could’ve been a good time to show them together. Outside of crowd shots, they don’t share the screen.

So yes, all in all, the conspiracy theory idea might not be so far off. Bones definitely does include little nods to BKDK that make it even shippier, and does seem to be downplaying TodoBaku a bit, at least more so than the Drama CDs. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, since at least unlike Naru/Hina vs Naru/saku, it’s unlikely to actually influence the series’ content - there is no actual love triangle here to be played up or played down, just fanon ships. Still, it is noteable.

#todobaku #bakudeku #studio bones

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elgaberino-mcoc · 4 years

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KITTY PRYDE the SHADOWCAT

The idea: a playable Marvel Contest of Champions character in the Mutant class based on any iteration of Kitty Pryde’s long and storied history in comic books. This blog entry is intended to explore whether Kitty Pryde is a strong candidate for Marvel Contest of Champions.

Why Summoners Care

She has a rich history with many team-ups (read: synergies, and not just mutants). Even though she is a classic character, her exploits are fresh, current, recent, and always relevant to big plot lines.

By most measures, she is a bigger deal than many Mutant-classed and mutant-related who are all already in MCOC, including Bishop, Cable, Domino, Havok, Mister Sinister, Omega Red, Warlock, and Sunspot.

In January 2020, Frontline: MCOC’s editor Dan was interviewed by the MCOC Content Creator Program’s Kabam Thel. (These interviews always ask the content creator what one champ they would add to the game.) Dan chose Kitty Pryde. Elaborating on Twitter in September 2020, Dan said that “For me, Kitty is on that Jean Grey/Emma Frost/Storm tier of Top X-Ladies of all-time.” He noted that “If we're going by comics, Kitty is 2x Jubilee on appearances, and just had a lot more impact in her stories. She's also the best character Chris Claremont ever created, and is the character he writes the best. So in a way, she is the definitive X-Man from the guy that made the X-Men the X-Men.”

Kitty Pryde and Summoners

She’s a widely requested champ. On the MCOC Wishlist Poll on Ranker, Kitty has been in the top 10 since 2019. She is one of only 4-5 characters to have ever been the #1 ranked champ on the poll. She is also among only a handful, as of December 2020, to have received more than 1,000 Summoner upvotes. At end of year 2020 she has 1,125 upvotes and sits comfortably at #6 most-wanted champ behind Beta Ray Bill and ahead of Morbius and Kraven.

Kitty is also content creator StarfighterMCOC's #1 most-wanted champ, and Frontline: MCOC’s #1 most-wanted champ (see above), and she lands in Katy Candy's top five most wanted.

Raw Potential for Synergies

Besides her romance with Colossus, her membership on the X-Men and Excalibur (including her affiliation with the Soul Sword), and leading the new House of X “Marauders” and “Hellfire Trading Company,” as the Red Queen, Kitty is one of the mutants who has many connections outside of mutant-oriented stories. Kitty joined and even briefly led the Guardians of the Galaxy and has shared some adventures with Spider-Man. She was also trained to be a ninja under Ogun, who figures prominently in Wolverine’s adventures connected to Japan, and who currently possesses Shogun.

The following are Other MCOC Gabe’s synergy ideas, originally listed on Kitty’s item description on the MCOC Wishlist Poll.

“X-Women” with (any four of) Phoenix, Storm, Boom-Boom, Jubilee, Psylocke, and Rogue; “Guardiennes” with (any four of) Gamora, Phyla-Vell, Mantis, Moondragon, Nebula, and Angela; “Soul Sword” with Magik, Magik II, Margali, and Colossus (Future); “Possessed” with Dracula and Ogun or "Star Lords" with Star Lord or “Romance” with any and all versions of Colossus.

She’s in Other Games

Mobile

Some mobile games in which Kitty Pryde has already appeared include Marvel Future Fight, Marvel Puzzle Quest, and on cards in Marvel War of Heroes and X-Men: Battle of the Atom.

Update December 3, 2020: she has also been teased for Marvel Strike Force.

General Character Pool

Unlike most mutants, Kitty has appeared Some Marvel games that feature the entire pool of Marvel characters have featured a playable Kitty Pryde include Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, and Marvel Heroes.

X-Men Video Games

Kitty has appeared as a playable character in X-Men II: the Fall of the Mutants (1990) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) (pictured above with Lockheed).

She reportedly had a role in X-Men: The Official Game (2006), which was designed to reflect Ellen Page’s portrayal in the FOX motion picture of the same name. She is also reportedly mentioned in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

She’s in the Battlerealm

Wolverine mentioned her by name in the February 2019 event quest dialogue.

“I told Kat not to try it,” says Wolverine, “But she insisted nothing was wrong. Hell of a time gettin’ her outta that wall.”

Write-Ups by Summoners

Original Description Migrated from the MCOC Wishlist Poll, which preexisted this blog

“She walks through ...her opponents? She can reach right past Armor Up and your Force Field. Paired with any Soulsword synergy champ, her special 2 can power lock and her special 3 does more damage per stacked buff. Add her little buddy Lockheed and you've got some fire-breathing attacks.”

Further thoughts by Other MCOC Gabe

Plausibly she should have phasing, telepathic resistance, and capabilities that can distrupt Tech champs, possibly EMP, Accuracy Reduction, and Shock.

Kitty also has the ability to disrupt any technology through which she phases, short circuiting or de-powering it. This concept forms the basis for a Theory Thursday entry suggesting that champs of all classes that employ technology could have a #circuitry hashtag that would allow Kitty to affect them.

Editor’s note. This entry remains under construction, as I have yet to do a full review of community archives searching for Summoner work-ups.

NEWS

December 3, 2020 ► Today the Marvel Strike Force Twitter account teased Kitty Pryde and Lockheed for their game. With her addition to MSF, Kitty Pryde is now in all the major Marvel mobile games except MCOC.

Septemper 25, 2020 ► Kitty has fallen to #4 most wanted champ.

September 14, 2020 ► According to the MCOC Wishlist Poll, Kitty Pryde is the #1 most-wanted champ among the MCOC Summoner community.

August 28, 2020 ► No dice. With the reveal of the September champs (Apocalypse and Professor X) it appears the pirate theme was not a reference to Kitty Pryde’s imminently joining any rosters.

August 26, 2020 ► In-game messages reveal that the September event quest, which some have theorized will bring the arrival of Kitty Pryde, will have a pirates theme and will be associated with Krakoa and House of X. Krakoa is the island on which Mutants congregate to live and coexist peacefully. Kitty famously failed to enter Krakoa, due to some interaction of her powers with the gateway that sorts out non-mutants. She instead became the leader of the new Marauders, ...dressed as a pirate captain.

July 1, 2020 ► (a) An in-app cutscene at the end of the monthly Event Quest features heavy House of X (“HOX”) flavor. Kitty features prominently in the HOX plot lines. (b) The “Champions of the Contest” roadmap Champion Tease suggests a coming other-half to a duo to which Magneto belongs. Many theorize this will be Professor X. In recent House of X story lines, Magneto has teamed with Professor X in leading a new Mutant civilization.

So could Kitty be the Mutant who can pose a threat to both of them? Most think a more likely fit would be Apocalypse. But Kitty does lead the pirate “Marauders” and “Hellfire Trading Company” as the captain Red Queen. The Hellfire Club has been a threat to Professor X and Magneto before. Could Kabam consider her a threat by extension?

February 6, 2019 ► In in-app Event Quest dialogue, a “Kat” is mentioned in passing during a conversation about things happening to mutants in the Battlerealm. The character gets stuck in a wall, which would seem to refer to Kitty Pryde’s phasing ability.

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foxydivaxx · 5 years

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Osiris Chapter 1

That poll with Rami Malek inspired me to write this fic because lets be honest, DC has not done Osiris, the Black Adam Family or majority of their Middle Eastern characters justice. Osiris for instance was badly written and turned into Superboy Prime junior in the pre-New 52 timeline and in New 52, he was killed off in his only appearance. Like da fuck DC?! That character had so much potential. Not just him, a lot of the Titans then had a lot of potential but you screwed these kids up. The storyline that was established for him in Brightest Day was a very interesting one and would have been more awesome if the Black Adam family actually had their own comic series. Look at what Marvel has done with Kamala Khan. Imagine what would have happened if either Osiris or anyone of the other kids got that opportunity. Anyways enough ranting and onto the fic itself. Rami Malek is Osiris’ FC here. This chapter is just an intro (or reintroduction to those that are familiar with him) to the character.

“I wanted to save the world.”

That is the answer I always give to people whenever they ask me to explain my motives or why I chose to be a hero in the first place.

There are times when I question my worth or my sanity because I have been through quite a lot of hell. Like if one were to ask me to define a tragic hero, I would point at myself.

For starters, my early childhood in Egypt was not blissful. You are staring at a boy who got constantly bullied as a kid because I looked different. Compared to other kids then, my skintone was slightly darker than normal Egyptian standards. Secondly, my eyes are huge, very owl-like that kids then cruelly nicknamed me ‘Bug Eyes.’

I would often go cry in a corner afterwards because besides the name calling, I had to endure days of severe beatings at the hands of those bullies. Making matters worse was my birth father whose name I would rather not mention. Why you might ask? Well thing is......he was an abusive asshole.

He would beat my mum, my older sister Adrianna and myself up a lot. Things got so bad that I ran away from home, never to be seen nor heard from again. Life on the streets was hard as the little money I got from mum was not enough, forcing me to fend for myself via pickpocketing and other means.

Then one day, everything changed. A crime syndicate known as Intergang captured me and took me to one of their concentration camps.

As fate would have it, my beloved sister Adrianna was amongst the captured. My parents’ absence there was enough to tell me what had become of them. Unfortunately we had no time to grieve becuase the Intergang bastards dragged us away and began to drug and torture us.

Adrianna was whisked away to be given to Black Adam whilst I remained with those bastards. Somehow, I was able to resist their mind control. Might be strong will power or possibly their methods were not working. Unfortunately for me, I got the beating of my life as those bastards clubbed me almost to death. I remember the pain, the blood, the tears, the anger I felt as nerve by nerve I was struck down till my legs were rendered numb.

Thankfully, Adrianna now the superheroine Isis and her husband Black Adam showed up just before death snatched me away. Isis tried to heal me but to no avail because the damage dealt to me was that severe. Adam was kind enough to give me a dose of his power as he felt that that was the only way to save me. Unfortunately he was right because whenever I revert back to my normal form, I am completely paralyzed from the ground up.

Anyway, thanks to that, myself, Adam and Isis formed a superhero team and family and I officially became the hero known as Osiris. Why Adrianna named me this is beyond me though. I was expecting something like Horus xD.

Anyways, we became a team and went around doing as much good deeds as we could. Heck I even joined the Team at one point even though most of them do not remember my name and often call me Black Adam Junior. Talk about insulting.

Yeah I did kill someone to protect Adrianna but that was a honest mistake. I did not realize that using my powers that way would harm someone like that. Plus I was still new to the superhero game anyway.

I left the Titans for a brief period after Wonder Girl asked me to hand myself over to the authorities for killing Persuader. I beat the shit out of her and called her out on her own hypocrisy on the spot because this girl also mistakenly killed someone in self defense of her mother years ago and yet, she has the guts to call me out on that?

Still the girl later apologised for this and I forgave and rejoined the Team. Still, I kept on having nightmares and panic attacks regularly. As if that wasn’t enough, I was forced to return to Kahndaq because of a serious of horrific events happening there.

Sobek my so-called best friend manipulated me into thinking that Adam was the one responsible for everything and I even attacked poor Adam for his troubles. I later made up my mind to leave Kahndaq but first I wanted to get rid of Adam’s powers feeling that they were corrupting me. I had also heard a lot about Adam’s terrible past atrocities and got paranoid about the stigma that followed our family because of him.

I did not believe that someone like Adam could actually change and that he was probably manipulating and using Adrianna for his own selfish purposes. Or at least that was what I was led into thinking.

I gotta hand it to Sobek here. He really is that good of an actor and a master manipulator. He was able to isolate me from the other Titans, making it seem like they were the bad guys whereas they are all good natured people and some of them have dark pasts or are dealing with dark presents.

Anyways, Sobek advised me to de-transform into my civilian form and that way, get rid of the curse though he expressed fake concern for me as he knew that I was crippled but I assured him that all would be well. Big mistake on my part because Sobek took advantage of my weakened state and ate me up alive, leaving me as mere bones.

I do not know much about that other than the fact that I was mummified and buried in a tomb. Soon afterwards, I was awakened from the dead by that cursed Black Lantern ring. My people feared me because well I was supposed to be dead and there I was wandering about in mummified form, trying to make a sense of the world around me.

Sobek’s subsequent arrival made it all click especially with the explanation he gave. He is one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, a group of four bioengineered monsters specifically created to destroy us the Black Marvel Family and he was Yurd, the Horseman of Faminine.

That alone infuriated me. How could I have been so naive to have taken pity upon a wretch like him? How could I have allowed myself to be played like that?!

I lost my shit and the two of us engaged in combat. Unfortunately I was outmatched because Sobek was a far more better fighter than I expected. Nervertheless, there was only one simple way to end a fight in our current state. Using the last of my energy, I called on the name of the very man that saved my life, channelling the thunderous rage of justice upon myself and Sobek, killing us both and severring the connections we both had to those blasted Black Lantern rings.

Still the White Lantern ring resurrected me much later on as well as the rest of the other slain heroes and a couple of villains. I know Sobek is still out there somewhere but right now, he is not my priority. Things have gotten better for me since that incident as I lived a normal life despite still being a paraplegic. My main priority now is to find out what caused both Adam and Isis to get petrified and try to undo the mess that has befallen my family and Kahndaq and maybe try and set things right without going astray.

So here we go. Hope you all like it. I tried my best with this guy because there are some things that were not mentioned so I just filled in the blanks for him and his family and also kind of retconned some things like his involvement with the Titans for instance. It is mostly Young Justice based but elements of the Teen Titans comics are there.

#osiris #amon tomaz #rami malek #fanfiction #dc #dcu #dc comics #shazam #black adam family #black marvel family #teen titans

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thehollowprince · 5 years

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Hey, it’s the “coding” anon here and honestly that answer to my question was excellent and the exact reason I come to your blog. I would absolutely love to hear you go on about the fetishization of m/m relationships!

This has been sitting in my inbox for over a week, and I want to apologize. I'm sorry for taking so long to get to this one, but I'm overworked at the moment. I've been pulling 60+ hour work weeks, by myself and I haven't had off since the first of December, so I'm a little tired. But I'm here and I'm ready to murder this bitch of a subject.

For starters, and for context, in case anyone who sees this doesn't follow my blog or, if you do and don't really pay attention, I am a gay man, so a lot of this comes from my own personal experience.

Now, onward my fandom soldiers.

M|M Fetishization & Objectification

I've only been super active within fandom spaces for the last couple of years. Before that, I just scrolled through Tumblr and reblogged gifsets and fluffy headcanons and whatnot, but even then I noticed a trend in fandoms that made me uncomfortable. That trend was the overabundance of gay men (chatacters) in fandom works, especially when there either weren't any gay men in that show or book or whatever.

I'm not at all saying we need less of that. I want and need more gay characters in the things I watch and read. That's actually one of the criteria I look for before I start a new show, or a book series or comics. I want to see myself represented in the media I consume, even if it is only this one tiny piece of who I am. But the problem for me arose when I saw all these fan works and headcanons and gifsets and thesis length metas about gay or bi male characters that were neither of those things in their original source material.

The biggest examples of this occured in fairly popular shows that I loved at one point, but do to a combination of bad writing and then the horrible fandom, drove me to actively dislike and avoid them. And that's always a sad thing, when you end up losing the love you had for something because others just won't let you enjoy it as it is.

Those two examples are Teen Wolf and Supernatural.

For years I watched people go on and on and on and on about Stiles Stilinski and Dean Winchester and how they were bisexual and so on and so forth.

There's nothing wrong with headcanoning a character as gay or bisexual, especially when those characters are severely lacking on screen and on paper. The problem arose when the fandom at large started to ignore the ACTUAL gay or bisexual characters that are in these shows and focus solely on their headcanons as the only representation in the show.

To start with Teen Wolf, we had, in the first season, an openly gay character that everybody in the school loved, that being Danny Mahealani. This character was introduced as gay from the very start, but oddly enough, there is almost no large fandom meta or fics or anything about him. In fact, a lot of his traits and qualities ended up transferred to Stiles, such as his intelligence and overall popularity. Hell, even Danny's attraction to Derek was stolen and transferred to him. These aren't things that Stiles is overall known for in the actual canon. He's clumsy and socially awkward and on the outskirts of the school like Scott (the main character) and has been obsessed (to the point of being considered a stalker) with one girl since elementary school, but somehow, in fandom, Stiles is suddenly the genius polyglot queer with severe depression who has a crush on the broody muscular werewolf who just wants somebody to love him.

Fandom created this portrayal of the character that didn't exist anywhere in the fandom except for his appearance. The reason I saw behind this was twofold. 1: fangirls (fandom is mostly female) want to see two "hot" guys kiss and get it on because they get off to it, much in the same way that straight men get off to lesbian porn. 2: Stiles (or any of these headcanoned characters) becomes a sort of self insert.

What I mean by that second one is that women and girls find a male character that's not "too masculine", usually kind of gangly or skinny, somewhat on the effeminate side. Someone that they can project their ideas and insecurities and so forth onto so that they can that pursue that relationship with the hunky manly man that they want to bang.

You may be asking yourself, "Why don't they just use one of the female characters as a self insert?" and I'm here to tell you that I have neither the time nor the experience to go into detail about internalized misogyny and how effects the way women do almost everything, even watching and interpreting their media.

But the reason they chose the male character is that, years ago, during the dark days of FF.net there was a lot of self insert OCs that infiltrated almost every level of fanfiction. Which caused the fandom gatekeepers to rear out of their hibernation and just shame anyone who tried to introduce an Original Character to this already beautiful world and ruin it with their lusts. Thus the OCs slowly disappeared and identifying with the male sidekick was born. And this is generally where we get the whole "my smol gay son!" bullshit. (side note: please keep in mind that 75% of shows are male characters and their problems, which is another cause for female fans to identify solely with men.)

So, for years, I watched Danny, and then his boyfriend Ethan, being shoved aside in fandom spaces so that the fans could focus Sterek (Stiles and Derek) despite the fact that both characters were stared to be heterosexual and that, on screen, they expressed nothing but mutual dislike for one another, if not outright hatred. This got so bad that Sterek, the crack ship whose members had no romantic or sexual interactions whatsoever, managed to beat (by a very large margin) actual gay ships from both this show and others in a fan poll. It got even worse when the character of Danny was written off the show (with no explanation) and we were introduced to the character of Mason.

Mason Hewitt was everything that fandom!Stiles was. He was smart and funny and openly gay and crushing on a hot werewolf. He even did the research that the fandom loved to attribute to Stiles, literally everything that the fandom had Stiles doing in fanon, but somehow the love for him (Mason) wasn't that big of a note in the fandom. I mean, Mason was even a major plot point of season five and the pack's mission to stop the Beast, but i heard nothing but cricket chirps from the fandom.

You'd think that after Stiles was written out of the show for the last season that maybe Mason will get some love now, right?

Wrong!

I didn't think it was possible to get any worse, but the fandom proved me wrong. Because instead of focusing all their pent up energy on Mason and his boyfriend, Corey, who had a number of cute moments in that final season, these fans focused on another crack ship that had no basis anywhere except in their fantasies. That ship being Thiam, which is based, once again, around two characters who actively dislike, if not outright hate, each other and even physically assault one another. But no, that apparently is a display of affection by someone who is emotionally stunted and just needs love to blossom and be his true self.

You notice how often the fetishization of homosexuality (even if only imagined) intersects with woobification?

You'll notice, if you look at Danny and Mason, that they're both POC, with Danny being brown (Hawai'ian) and Mason being black. Now, as I've said before on this blog multiple times, I am the Whittest White Man to ever White, so I don't have any qualifications to talk about fandom racism, so I'm just going to leave that little nugget there for you to think about and interpret how you will.

Moving on to Supernatural...

Before we start with this one, understand that I have not watched this show outside of an episode here and there since season eight, because I realized that no, this show wasn't going to get any better, so if any of this is contradictory to what has happened over the past six seasons (god, this show needs to die!) I do apologize.

Dean Winchester... I never really liked this character, especially as the show went on and I started to actively dislike and then, hate him. So it was annoying not being able to go into any aspect of the Supernatural fandom without coming across a post about Dean and his issues or his Bi sexiness or how his brother was mean to him.

Also, people, understand that this wasn't a new revelation for me. My dislike for Dean and the fandom's obsession with making him bisexual just so they could hook him up with Cas wasn't an overnight decision. I was there...

I was there at the Beginning, when this show first aired, when the ONLY constant characters on this show were Sam and Dean. I endured the hellfire that was Wincest and its infection of almost the entire fandom. Like, that right there, that was one of the most extreme cases of m|m fetishization I've ever seen, because the fandom needed to get off to two guys being together so badly that they turned to actual brothers for want of any other male character.

That's why Destiel immediately became so popular, because here was another guy that we saw with semi regularity that wasn't rated to the Winchesters, obviously they were meant to ship them.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "I thought this bitch was going to talk about gay fetishization, not his dislike for one character?" to which I'll just say I very easily go off tangent. But all of that is relevant because, come one of these later seasons, there was a scene where Dean was at a bar and the (male) bartender hit on him, and he didn't react negatively or homophobic.

Oh, my God, I watched my dash and the tags explode in post after post, meta after meta, about how Bi Dean was canon confirmed! Now he and Cas will HAVE to be together, because its canon that Dean likes guys. and Cas is an angel, who doesn't follow human sexual limitations, and... blah, blah, blah.

Cut to a few years later, and we're introduced to a character named Max Banes, a witch and hunter, who is openly gay and flirts with Sam in his first appearance. Where were all of his metas and fanfics and headcanons? Granted, he only appeared in two episodes, but I have watched people in this and other fandoms build mountains our of molehills, going on and on about how two male characters weren't actually straight and how they were destined to be together because the once wore similar style shirts a couple of seasons apart, or because of a carnation in a jacket pocket that signified love via the Victorian flower code (or something like that), or how the wallpaper of that room they shared a scene in was a subtle clue to their true desire for each other, etc.

And I'm not exaggerating there, those are actual examples I've seen in fandoms over the years.

But back to Max, why is it that he was left along the wayside, despite fitting most of the criteria that fandoms love in their m|m ships while Dean had entire thesis level posts about that time he shared a glance with Castiel or he let a bartender hit on him and not get upset?

And its not just these two shows, not by a long shot. If you were to go into literally any fandom of a certain size or bigger, you will come across fans putting two straight characters together because of "the chemistry" they have. Even if those characters are confirmed to be straight - especially if those characters are confirmed to be straight. Because when these loud fans don't get their crack ship that they rub one out to, they scream queerbaiting and homophobia and oppression, harassing the actors and producers and directors and writers.

Here are some others that just pop to the front of my mind...

Asher Millstone from How To Get Away With Murder (saw him shipped with Connor a lot, despite Connor's actual boyfriend)

Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from BBC's Sherlock

Tony Stark from Marvel comics (all because of one panel where he said "ladies and gents" when he announced he was off the market

Literally any male character in the MCU, which is his we get the things like Stucky and Stony that permeate the fandom on almost every level (and some leeway is given here because of the MCU's lack of wueer characters)

Klaus Mikaelson and Stefan Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries/The Originals (honestly, I was surprised that people in the TVD fandom weren't immediately all over Josh and Lucas, because they're literally everything that fans want and use in their headcanon gays)

Kol Mikaelson and Jeremg Gilbert, also from TVD

Elia and Filippo from Skam Italia (despite there being, once again, actual gay characters on this show. Hell, the entire second season was dedicated to a character coming out of the closet and being with a guy)

Etc.

I could go on and on but then this post would seem infinite.

Closing thoughts, please keep in mind that I am just one guy and that my opinions don't represent everyone in fandom spaces. But also bear in mind, that my frustrations are well founded and valid from my own experiences in the fandom.

My sexuality and the fact that I'm attracted to men is not a toy for a bunch of sexually repressed fangirls who think two guys being together is hot.

#long post #not sorry at all #rant #m|m fetishization #gay objectification #creepy fangirls

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