#EDIT 2: 'so what is the real point' all this nonsense about being 'out of control' 'subordinate to nature' is completely nonsensical | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

unloneliest · 8 months

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im so fucking good at making sexy little leverage aus and then never writing them. this is my ma spencer au, which has been lifted directly from my twitter with minimal editing, & which i am haunted by always.

ok so the au. this is going to be very long. every time i listen to spent gladiator 2 by tmg i think abt the leverage team/eliot specifically.

lyrics for context:

so i was thinking abt an au where eliot was never on the team, bc like. eliot fully got Out of the game, but interacts w them on an early case and ends up falling in with them anyways? BUT i also think a lot about how hard it'd be for any of them to retire bc there's people who hate them who know their faces, yknow? so how WOULD eliot be able to have retired &what has to change for eliot to be that comfortable getting out?

so i figure he maybe got out of the moreau situation earlier. maybe he broke up with the horse girl but they stayed on good terms, and maybe he never did the worst things he ever did for moreau because he had his Getting Out Of There chef connection moment sooner.

but that doesn't undo how recognizable eliot would be to various parties and i was like. well then. what if the chef who was that pivotal person for eliot was a trans woman and was as pivotal with eliot being gendery as she was with eliot retiring?

so like. early 2000s nonbinary/transfeminine he/she eliot spencer finding a few small towns to live in pretty at random but having a home in each one and cycling through them with no discernable pattern?? and being a loved part of the local queer community in all of them?

it's similar to my "eliot never left home and is luke gilmore girls but also co-created a queer bar in his town" au (aside: thank you @lycanqueer for pointing out that connection ages ago, i have been unwell about it ever since).

like . eliot!!!!! eliot probably first connecting with the team bc of the two horse job and slowly begrudgingly helping, joining in on the tap out job, etc.

eliot being like a parent figure to various queer kids in the different towns and they call him "ma spencer" and she wears his practical boots with flannels still but maybe they're with a more feminine tank top and maybe you're as likely to see ma spencer in a no nonsense knee length skirt as a sturdy pair of jeans. and maybe sometimes he braids her hair . and she's mr. spencer too and well respected by the folks of whatever town he's staying in, too stubborn and helpful and intimidating not to be!

eliot being openly down for a casual relationship both with parker and hardison from when she first gets to know them onward—and him keeping his past quiet still, but it getting harder to keep the parts of her life seperate as he finds herself getting closer with the team & with more serious feelings for parker and hardison.

maybe the team's hitter is Tara? i feel like she's capable of that? but she has to be the grifter when sophie goes on her break and eliot joins in "Just Once" but it ends up being more than that.

eliot would have a lot of complicated feelings abt joining in—like, both being happy with the peace she found & not wanting to risk that but still feeling like he needs to pay penance and that this is a way to do that.

and then season 3 hits completely different. i think this eliot would talk about his past once she found out they were targeting moreau, but i think team dynamics would overall be super different in general. the team would be way less of a unit with nate than when you see things from his perspective—espeicially without eliot always there to insulate the team from the worst of him.

anyways im gonna be thinking about this for the next 800 years. will i ever write this fic? probably no. but ma spencer is so real to me

#leverage #eliot spencer #eliot #leverage ot3 #jam posts #leverage posting #shoutout to skip and rowan for probably having seen this on twitter #writing this up i realized my eliot's queer bar au only lives there also #ma spencer au #ma spencer

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hils79 · 5 months

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Hils Watches Misty Creed - Part 2

Wu Xie: Pangzi, what is this nonsense you've packed? Also Wu Xie: immediately uses it because it's actually really helpful

Let's be real. Nowhere you three go is normal.

Ooh pretty! But also in the middle of a cursed forest so probably going to try and kill them all

No one eat the cursed food!

Pangzi! No!

Okay, even though the actor is young I feel like 'let's just watch and see what happens to the dude who ate the food' is something post-Sha Hai Wu Xie would do. Tianzhen Wu Xie would definitely have tried to stop him.

Pangzi knows what franchise he's in

OH SHIT PANGZI IS EATING THE FOOD

Wait, that looks like Wu Xie. Is this a hallucination?

Ah, there we go. Well, it wouldn't be DMBJ without at least one hallucination

YES SAVE HIM

They both took a part out of the van to stop anyone being able to steal it but neither knew the other had done the same. God, they are so married I love them.

God, I love how extra Xiaoge is. Decides to drink the cursed wine so he can see the ghost that's attacking them but instead of just picking up a cup he stabbed it with his sword.

Who are you going to call? Xiao Hua and Hei Xiazi are in Russia, your two husbands are with you. That basically leaves your Ershu, Wang Meng or Kan Jian. Ooh, you should totally call Kan Jian. He must be a child at this point if Wu Xie is this young

That is delightfully creepy

If you want to live?

I love group shots of them

SNAKE! Now I know it's a DMBJ movie

NO DON'T SPLIT UP! :( On the plus side this is an improvement from the last movie where they kept leaving Xiaoge behind with barely a second thought.

I was just thinking we haven't seen any of Wu Xie's incredibly out of character flips and kicks that we saw in the last movie. I guess that's the end of that. Thankfully.

ZOMBIE! They're bringing in a lot of the classic DMBJ monsters I see

I think some weird editing happened here. I had to skip back to check and we don't actually see Xiaoge cut his hand. He just holds it up to the door and the vine things disappear. And when the old dude says 'what happened to your hand' Xiaoge has a glove on and then all of a sudden here it's gone. Presumably he used his blood to clear the door but who knows

I do enjoy it when he gets to be a smug little shit

Pangzi clearly enjoys it too

Okay, I know it makes sense to have someone watching your back but you literally just reunited and now you're splitting up again

At least Pangzi is also grumpy about being left behind

Right, I've hit the image limit again. See you in part 3!

#hils watches #hils watches misty creed #hils watches movies #misty creed #dmbj

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wee-snek · 9 months

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Magic Trick a la @ariaste

Since OP is overwhelmed with feedback and asks about the theory, I'm going to just continue theorising about it right here:

"Continuity Errors" that stink of....Meddling:

1: When Aziraphale returns from Edinburgh, they put the plants in the car...then next scene Crowley is driving back from somewhere, but we know it's the same day. Where did he go? Was it important? Was it deleted?

2: Equally where/what the f was Crowley after the battle? Post-battle in E6, when Michael is threatening Aziraphale with erasure, Crowley is just lounging in the background looking calm as anything. Excuse me? Dearest Angel is being threatened and Crowley just...does not care? Nonsense. I expect he was either not really there, or was doing something else, and this cardboard cutout version of him was placed back in the scene by Meddling.

3: Changes to the car. This might be more "the car has accepted them both as owners" or it could just be bad attention to detail by someone Meddling. The leather seats changed to black when the car turned yellow, and then the seat colour remained black for the rest of the season. But Aziraphale did NOT remove the bullet decals from the window when he was using the car. BUT they're gone in the credit scene. Like, conspicuously gone. For why?????

4: OP touched on the demon attack being Edited, so I'll just add to this that these are supposed to be 'bottom of the barrel' demons...and yet two of the three members of the Dark Council that FurFur went to in E4 are there (not Dagon, obv, but the other two apparently high-ranking demons are now also part of this attack?). THATS ODD?!?

5: 1650. We all spotted it. BUT in light of some Meddling, I would have to ask, is 1650 a Pledge? or a Clue? Is it just Neil being silly and just going to bring up 1650 later, or were we, the audience, 'shown' the 1650 scene, but then it was deleted from our memories? I DO NOT KNOW.

6: Lots of time lapses. It's been pointed out that the time of the bookshop battle could NOT have taken all night, and that the 1941 flashback SHOULD HAVE taken all night. But also: after Crowley (iconically) orders 6-shots-of-espresso, Maggie immediately walks in and Nina is already late for closing the cafe. Hmmmm. Also, Mr Brown carries the same newspaper all week. Again, very conspicuously. Is he real? Does time not pass for him? What's going on with the prop department here?

Exhibit B: (slightly different but in the realm of 'i see what you're doing)....overarching theme of resurrection. All three flashbacks heavily involve that idea. Job's children are "brought back" from the dead, Mr Dalrymple is literally a Resurrectionist and we try to bring Morag back, then literal zombies? And Mr Brown clearly dies, and Crowley brings him back almost as a second thought.

#the magic trick you didn't see #the pledge and the turn #good omens #good omens 2 #good omens theories #ineffible husbands #metatron #fuck the metatron #ineffible #crowley

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nightswithkookmin · 1 year

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What's this obsession of some people in the fandom so abruptly just decide JK can't stand Jimin and toss him aside like he's nothing just because he's doing restaurant tours and goes out with friends recently and Jimin is off line by choice? especially if Tae is around him? it's honestly bizarre how creepy and toxic that narrative is because that's not how real life works. do they think the guys wake up one day and just cutting people out of their lives changing who they like more or less by the day? "He has a new BFF" "that is a proof jkk were always fake" and the funniest "JK moved on from Jimin". howw??? when????? we know nothing about their private lives now more than ever yet they still spew this nonsense based on not knowing where Jimin is and tkk chilling. JK uploaded a birthday video only 2 months ago and talking about how his mom made him soup just because Jimin ate soup so how on earth it makes sense to think such drastic negative thing happened between them. seriously some people in this fandom need to go outside and stop projecting their creepy mindset on others. I noticed they also fail to see the big picture again and again, fans tend to judge or gloat according the content that drops by the day (even if the moment happened months ago) and don't realize that what they see sometimes is not what actually happened today and vice versa, and that every relationship is unique and important in different ways. we don't even know what Jimin or JK are doing right now (who knows maybe they watch the football final. maybe all 6 watch it together- we don't know). the concept of bonds and relationships in real life VS what people analyze and mocks gets twisted too quickly and turns into something very ugly and it happens mainly (only) to jikook. I never see the same treatment towards tajin or soup or tkk or vmin when they go radio silence or even after admitting on having past tensions, fans always give them the time and support and love and know they are good. it's bizarre and alarming how fast people choose to see the bad in jikook and only them based on... 60 days. it's going in circle for years. Insanity

My cranium hurts at this point

All duh- TRUE. And isn't it crazy how Vmin remain soulmates even after battling it out to the death over dumplings? DUMPLINGS. WASN'T EVEN THAT DEEP.

No one admits to the ghettory that goes on behind scenes more than Vmin AND YET

SOULMATES

They are soulmates even though Tae's most epic songs were all inspired by his quarrels with JM.

At no point in time throughout those nasty fights were their soulmate status revoked- EVER even though the members literally voted them as the pair that fights the most. Even though their tensions sipps through most times such that even we on this end of the screen could sense it.

Hobi and Namjoon literally throw shoes at eachother when they mad, Jin made Tae cry like a six year old, Yoongi nearly tripped Tae down the stairs on gis way to edit his fansfics-( the exaggeration is mine if cos)

Vmin can be ghetto and soulmates in spite of Jikook and Tae Kook but God forbid Jikook throw cock roaches in eachothers pants cos the other didn't text back fast and suddenly they were never friends and whatever they had was fake.

Jikook comes off so real everyone trynna prove them false at this point. Tae Kook come off so false every one looking for the least evidence they are real.

And at first I used to think it was JMs Kumabaya ass that was driving him to always present their relationship positively out here but no. Now I think it's cos of all these pumpkin heads roaming the streets in 2D brains.

It's ok. Jikook can have issues too and STILL BE THE COUPLE OF THE GROUP.

It's okay if JK "toss" JM aside, when JIMIN THREATENED NEVER TO CARE ABOUT THAT MAN EVER AGAIN. Or did we forget about that? Their most slamdunk moment came after one of their MOST nastiest fights.

Yes VMin fight but guess what? They protect eachother from bullies too. They are complex human beings with complex emotions.

Jikook clearly have their own relationship struggles. They are human at the end of the day.

But I think I know where all these is coming from. Vminkook is a trio.

And wherever there is a trio, I feel these issues are bound to arise every now and then.

Tae Kook is part of vminkook just as much as Jikook is a part of Vminkook. Whenever Jikook bond- tuktukkers are bound to feel they do so at the exclusion of Tae. Just as some Jokers feel right now that Tae kook are excluding Jimin because they don't see "evidence" of those two hanging out with JM.

But that is not our place to decide.

These men- I SAID MEN- Can decide for themselves. If JM feels left out nothing stops him from letting those two know.

I mean we've been through this phase already haven't we? Jikook complaining Tae don't have time for them because he was filming with all these other actors?

And didn't JK just say publicly, call JHope out publicly for leaving his dance out of a compilation?

Do we not have a video of Jungkook starting his own Vlive in impulse because Jinmin left him out of their Vlive?

Don't members say when they feel left out? Sometimes more expressly, other times passive aggressively?

I try to approach these matters with a little bit of sensitivity and understanding most times but i swear sometimes I feel my sphincter snapping.

But yea sometimes the members themselves feel excluded, left out and Isolated every now and then. It happens. They feel lonely, they miss this, they miss that and they say it. Hobi says he misses JM, Tae says he misses JM.

Suga got ill and JM turned into OliLondon carrying his cutouts around so he feels included.

They hit eachother up, show up at eachother's homes, go for drinks, catch up- DO WHAT NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS DO WHEN THEY MISS THEIR FRIENDS.

So no, I'm not about to stress my edges off over two grown adults navigating a three way friendship.

But I can understand where jokers are coming from. Everyone wants their ship to thrive. Everyone wants assurance their OTP are doing fine and that there's nothing wrong with them and they going strong.

Yet I am in no position to offer that assurance to anyone. Nor am I open to any angsty supposition. I take Jikook as they come. It's their relationship not mine.

That said, if they try to break up I will find them, put a water pistol to their heads and intimidate them into exchanging vows🙂

If Jimin misses Tae Kook HE CAN CALL THEM UP.

And who even is to say he is not doing just that?

They went out to Harry styles' concert ALL THREE OF THEM

They post their VMINKOOK power photos every now and then.

They are aware they are a three way friends group- THEEE MAKNAE LINE OF BTS

Most times I feel people deal in extremities- on one hand, there are those delusionally pessimist gang who think the worst case scenario is playing out with Jikook, and on the other hand there's the delusionally optimist who think nothing could ever be wrong.

After listening to Jimin explain how much Tae had changed, listening to tuktuk talk out their problems and hearing how the Busan bros nearly disbanded, I would be a fool to dismiss any tensions.

But the truth i feel sits somewhere in the middle.

Jikook really could be going through something( worse case)

They really could be going through nothing( best case scenario)

Or they could be JUST FINE but then having very human moments of being petty out of missing eachother, feeling left out, feeling the other is too busy, or becoming too overwhelming, being too prideful to pick up the phone to call and leaving words unspoke or just struggling to recalibrate their relationship because they are on different paths, with different goals and different objectives- not to mention schedules.

And I know I joke about this but for Jungkook, for someone who goes to another member's room to just sit there at 1am, I don't suppose he takes too well with being lonely.

Jimin equally talked about how he used to struggle being by himself because he was scared of his own thoughts.

These people deal with some serious stuff out there.

Jimin even intimated to Jungkook how lonely he feels.

They all nearly went crazy when they were forced to isolate because of covid. It's not easy.

Personally, I have always been one of the view Jikook were too close to codependent for their own good and have always advocated for independence and just a little space for each to nurture and foster healthy relationships with other people.

Jungkook cannot just substitute JM with Taehyung. Because then, like you said it would be the same cycle. You can't fill the void left by people with people and things and Jungkook is a smart guy to know this.

Tae Kook begun laying the foundation for whatever dynamic we are seeing out here long before they announced their Solo. From their sope conversation, to end of year selca, Tae Kook min vlive, to them posting eachother and liking the others post.

I don't know why it has some people in a twist😆

You can literally draw a straight line through their relationship. It ain't deep💀

People are busy worrying bout tuktuk but all I want to know is WHY JIMIN DYED HIS HAIR 😫😫😫😫

Is it for a concept shoot? MV? Variety show?

I don't want to spend my money on that bag only for him to drop his album and I'm broke as hell😭😭😭

As for Jokers we miss our ship, we miss everything they stand for, we all wanted them- expected them to be posting each other like crazy, liking each other's posts and commenting just like old times on Twitter-

We all miss Jimin playing cheerleader to JKs Quarterback.

We all wanted to see them out here supporting each other above all else- even haters thought that's what was going to happen.

Let's take our Ls in pride and hope for the best

And let's all be honest and say we just hate that tuktukkers are happy

Chilee lemme speak for myself it kills me to see Tuktukkers frolicking around laughing like hyenas

Time to sacrifice a Virgin on my jikook gods alter

The jikook karma is brewing I just know it

What we are not going to do is lie on Jungkook, villainize him and make him out to be some traitor to our course. Cos if Jikook has taught us anything, it is that no one forces Jungkook to interact with anyone.

Neither are we going to hate on Taehyung and blame him for "stealing" Jungkook and wrecking Jikook's relationship.

As with everything, let's just wait it out and see how Jikook unfolds in this new phase.

It breaks my heart knowing very well if JM dares to like or comment on Jungkook's post- THEY WILL DRAG HIM FOR FILTH😔😔😔😔😔

But let's see.

I mean it's two posts up and already he shut his DMs.

Tuktukers turn my anus hair gray I swear to GGGOD!

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frostehburr · 3 months

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Games I 100%ed Between Scrambling to Put Up and Away Holiday Decorations

So... Been a while since I've actually put stuff up on the internets.

I was particularly busy with IRL nonsense, specifically: putting away Christmas decorations followed by putting up Valentines decorations that only lasted one week before I was ordered to put those away and put up Spring decorations because, yes, my family decorates for ALL holidays and seasons. This year is different because St. Patrick and Easter are in the same month, granting me some real downtime for once.

I bring all that up because the games I 100%ed recently were very short and easy.

The first one being One Night, Hot Springs! A very very small visual novel with adorable art about a trans woman celebrating her friend's birthday. Honest, I was intrigued because I'm trans and wanted to play something that was about a trans person. My options were very limited in that department. All I got left is Celeste.

Anyhow, it's FREE on steam and it's a small part of a bigger visual novel that costs about $5 on Steam. The creator is npckc and their art is consistent with all of their games. Thought it would be nice to drop the name so anyone who stumbles on this post can at least consider supporting them.

Next game was Shadow Burglar, a stealth game that made my computer's fan go haywire. I put all the settings on low, how was it still going nuts?

Well, aside from desktop issues, the game played very well. However, there was no save points. Meaning, you have to play the entire two levels in one go. The achievements were barely a thought since I got them instantly. Although, I'd imagine the last one would be trouble for anyone who has no idea what the Konami Code is. Hint: Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A.

Shadow Burglar was free as well bu I don't really think it's worth the time to invest in. Maybe if the developer expanded the concept to a larger game but as is, it's best to focus on other games.

The last game I played, on Steam, during this time was Fable (Anniversary Edition). I've stated before that Fable 2 and 3 were super easy and could be finished in little to no time. I still stand by that even with the first game because the only actual grind was finding all the keys, books, chests, and stuff for the doors. Everything else was a cake walk. Mostly because almost all the achievements had two methods of unlocking them. Didn't even have to open the Demon Doors since flipping one off gets you the achievement.

Oh there was this one issue with a glitched npc that wouldn't let you play the mini game for Twinblade's doll. I got past it by giving him some gems and slowing time.

That was it for the games on Steam. As for Playstation... Have to admit... I purchased a psn subscription.

As painful as it is to admit. I had to because I couldn't get my old PS3 fixed nor could I find a refurbished one nearby. Wish I knew a reliable repair place because I enjoy playing my games on discs rather than stream but I don't so I'm doomed.

And the one game I streamed on psn was the Sly Collection. I already have to original discs but since PS4 can't play PS3 discs I was stuck with the streaming.

It didn't get too bad until the Ms. Ruby boss fight. Which has you match buttons as the icons slowly creep towards Sly. Issue with the streaming was that it lagged a lot on that level so I lost 11 lives to Ms. Ruby because the stream would not register the inputs I made.

The lag did not get better after that. I ended up having to watch Panda King's level in slow motion and Clockwork froze twice! Thankfully, the lag let up once Sly 2 started. It was smooth sailing from there. Got through all of Sly 2 and 3 nice and easy.

Until I had to do the challenges in Sly 3.

Not to say they were hard, far from it. They were just tedious. I did not like the challenges one bit. Something about putting a timer on something drives my anxiety through the roof and I freak out more because of it.

After the challenges were done I just had four mini games and the Sly Collection was 100% complete.

And despite Nintendo being the family friendly company with easy games... 100%ing a Nintendo game is a nightmare! So I had the bright idea of avoiding Nintendo stuff for some time. Only recently restarting Pokémon Scarlet after seeing the teaser for Pokémon ZA.

This puts my total amount of games completed (for these past few months) at 7. 3 from Steam and 4 from the Sly Collection (yes, I'm including the mini games as a separate game much like PSNProfiles does.

#100% complete #100%#opinion not a review

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seakicker · 11 months

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Miss Seakicker HI! 🦦 anon here, I just wanted to pop in and ask a question but before that;

How have you been? I’m loving the new theme and layout for your blog! I hope you’re drinking enough water and taking enough breaks. We can’t have Fertility archon Juju getting sick!

I started playing Tears of The Kingdom and there’s a place called Joju-u-u Shrine in the game (we almost had Juju Shrine!) I went bra shopping earlier (nothing spicy, just needed some new ones).

I’m not really sure how else to ask this but do you have any advice for when the insecurities about one’s body image start to get…loud? Like some days I’ll feel good in a pair of pants because i fill them out really well but then there’ll be bad days like the time i spent 2 hours on an online site buying a kazuha cosplay because I didn’t want to admit i was a size bigger. (I bought the bigger size in the end and that one fits like a glove)

Feel free to answer this whenever you like! - 🦦 anon

HELLOOOOOOO SWEETHEART GAH i’m very late in answering this because i’m just tryin to find the motivation to use tumblr consistently again, but i was thinking about this ask again today bc i’ve had it in drafts since you sent it to me. i’ve been working a ton but i’m alright; drinking water and working on eating healthier for myself 😊❤️ what kinds of things do you think we’d do at a juju shrine… 🤔👀

as far as the insecurity part goes, honestly i’ve found that staying off the internet entirely on days where you’re maybe feeling a little worse about yourself is extremely beneficial. with how prevalent bodychecking and diet culture BS are on tiktok and instagram in particular and with how advanced filters and photoshop have gotten (remember when people considered it impossible to use filters/edits on videos? good times), taking a bit of a detox and staving off of doomscrolling rlly go a long way on days where i may not be feeling the best about myself. like, i’ve seen people recommend eating an entire block of cream cheese under the guise of health because keto influencers love spinning nonsense and trying to make you genuinely believe that an entire brick of cream cheese is inherently better for you than a single piece of bread for toast, lol.

at any rate, i think it’s good to remind yourself that you are real and your body is real and not everything you see online is real— most people are able to (rightfully) internalize that they shouldn’t compare their bodies to digital art or anime characters, and i think that mentally should extend to just about any 3D picture you see online— while i’m not inherently anti-photoshop or anything like that, i DO think it’s harmful for these people who participate in photoshopping their pics or using filters to pass it off as (A) all natural genetics and/or (B) simple diet and exercise because no amount of genetics, diet, or exercise are gonna give you a 13 inch waist and 42 inch hips. even pictures of real life people can be twisted to the point where they might as well be fictitious, but your body is real when you look at it and real in anything and everything you wear, so why worry about how it stacks up compared to a picture that’s certainly edited?

i first read this on pinterest in like high school but it’s honestly sound advice and something that’s really stuck with me— we don’t get mad at our feet for being too small/too big/too wide/too narrow when shoes don’t fit, we just buy a different size— shouldn’t the same idea extend to all our clothes? our bodies aren’t made to fit clothes, clothes are made to fit our bodies— and buying a bigger cosplay to fit you better isn’t a fault of yours nor your body’s. you got this ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

#i love u i’m always happy to hear from you #chats #cw body image #🦦 anon

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lemonadhe · 2 years

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(this is probably going to be 2 or 3 chapters idk how to write fics lul)

Edit: İ ACCİDENTALLY CUT OUT A VERU FUNNY OART SOBBİNG

TW: vulgar language and alcohol mention

Preparing for the Hollyberry Kingdom

Welp, the day Clotted cream was scared shitless came eventually. A letter written with pink ink… inviting him to a drinking match. King Pure Vanilla and King Dark Cacao were going to be there too. He thought out loud

"Do I REALLY have to go?"

"Yes you do, if you said no like a normal person there you maybe wouldn't"

He was used to Financier always being around so he wasn't startled by her answer, but he was offended.

"You do realize that I would've been crumbs if she wasn't there, right? I can't just say no!"

"I could've protected you just fine."

Clotted didn't say anything and just glanced at her.

"Okay, maybe i couldn't, but that's besides the point!"

The date at the bottom said…

By the divines that was nonsensical!

"I need a suit fitting for Queen mother's parties.. quick"

"When is it anyways?"

"...tomorrow"

She quickly notified the best outfit designer in the republic that the young consul needed a suit for a contest with queen hollyberry herself tomorrow. After haggling a bit the designer agreed to make an outfit for clotted cream in one day. She quickly returned back to the young consul's room.

"Im back."

"Thank you dear financier cookie"

"Alright nobody is here at the moment, you don't need to be that formal."

"Yeaa you are right."

"By the way, have you ever drunk juice?"

"Nope."

"And you joined a contest about drinking it?"

"..."

"Against queen hollyberry who is known for her liking towards drinking, right?"

"İ hate you so much sometimes."

Financier cookie burst out laughing. Her job was to protect Clotted Cream at all costs but seeing him get absolutely wasted wouldn't be so bad. She laughed

"Now now, rest well or else the juice will affect you way more quickly"

Clotted could NOT sleep for the life of him that night. What if he passed out from drinking? Or worse, what if he said something that could offend the respectful rulers when drunk? He was so lost in thoughts that he didn't realize that it was past midnight, he didn't even realize Financier getting in.

"You still awake?"

"AH- how did you know!?"

"Your lights.. They are open. You really need to sleep, you know.."

"A good personality and ability to keep secrets is very important for a politician! And juice destroys ALL of those."

"Stop worrying too much, you'll have fun."

Financier had finally made clotted cream cookie sleep after a few lavender tea cups. She would be lying if she said she wasn't excited for tomorrow. Eventually they both drifted off to sleep.

Even though he had set a timer for 6 AM he was up at five o clock. He practiced his looks and maybe checked the letter thousands of times to make sure when the party was. He still had 6 hours, he ate breakfast and quickly rushed to the fashion designer to get his outfit. İt was a bit too pricey but that was expected. By 10 AM he was at the airship dock with financier cookie. He muttered;

"İ wonder what is going on in the hollyberry kingdom at the moment…"

To be honest, not much. Hollyberry was happily sitting in her throne room. Helping the others ready the feast room and the juice. She knew clotted cream wouldn't last a chance besides her but she was quite curious about how pure vanilla would act when he was drunk. While she was lost in thought, wildberry cookie came in the room.

"Queen mother, an airship from the republic is here.."

"The consul?! We still have so much time! Ugh that boy is going to be the death of me"

Hollyberry herself went to welcome clotted cream cookie. Clotted cream cookie stated

"Thank you Queen Hollyberry Cookie, for inviting me to this party-"

"PARTY? Boy if you call this a party I pity you. Have you ever seen a REAL party?"

"İ.. have been busy with work for most of my life and i haven't had time for those types of distractions…"

Hollyberry cookies smile became a bit more sad when he said those sentences, but she seemed to cover up that smile quite quickly. She ruffled his hair and laughed,

"Boy you are going to have wayy more parties after this point! You are friends with ME after all."

"İt delights me that your highness considers me as a friend-"

Hollyberry cookie pulled Clotted Cream and hugged him. İt almost felt like his dough was cracking apart. While financier was thinking whether she should intervene or not hollyberry let go of him and declared

"You are NOT allowed to be that formal in my kingdom! You can store all that formality for Mr. İ suck at making jokes"

"T-thank you?"

While Financier was giggling at how wholesome this moment was, Wildberry cookie notified that he saw an air balloon getting closer.

"Ugh Pure Vanilla cookie always coming early."

"Queen mother i think.. i see King dark cacao cookie there too-"

"HOW DARE!! THEY DECİDED TO HAVE A DATE WİTHOUT ME?"

Seconds later Hollyberry's face lit up in a mischievous way and she whispered to Clotted Cream "Hey boy watch this-" then asked

"Oi wildberry you see your boyfriend in there?"

"No."

"Say that again but slower."

"No i dont see cr-"

Wildberry cookie quickly stopped himself and glared at hollyberry angrily for a few seconds while clotted cream was trying his best not to laugh;

"Queen mother please stop insisting that i have a relationship with the cacao kingdom guard…"

While Hollyberry was busy making fun of wildberry Pure Vanilla and Dark Cacao arrived. Pure vanilla smiled and greeted them while dark cacao cookie avoided eye contact with clotted cream. Pure vanilla cookie greeted them,

"Nice to see you again my friends! As you can see I had to invite dark cacao cookie a bit early to have a special talk with him so I apologize for meeting up with him earlier."

Pure vanilla cookie hit dark cacaos head with his staff and them grabbed him by the shoulders, making him face clotted cream cookie. He threateningly gnashed while still smiling;

"Don't you have something you want to say dear Dark Cacao Cookie?"

Dark Cacao took a deep breath and mumbled,

"İ apologize for my behaviour during the council.."

"Properly."

"Okey…"

Dark Cacao Cookie sighed and this time actually made eye contact with clotted cream which made clotted panic inside a bit. Dark cacao stated a bit loudly than before;

"İ apologize for my behaviour during the council, the way i behaved after… learning the truth was truly irrational. I shouldn't have lashed out on you-"

"Cacao. You didn't just lash out on him. You straight up attacked him."

"Ahem- I am sorry for attacking you. I can only hope that the cacao kingdom and the creme republic can be allies after my actions.."

"T-thank you. And I shall say that I am not in the clear at that situation either. I apologize to you, and all of the ancient heroes I have offended at the council. I had no right to speak for king pure vanilla or tell you, the ancient rulers, that knowledge in such an offensive manner. And for that i am truly sorry"

A confident smile appeared on pure vanilla cookie's face. Just when he was about to say something hollyberry cheered

"now that the apologies are out of the way lets get to the contest!"

#clotted cream cookie #financier cookie #hollyberry cookie #pure vanilla cookie #dark cacao cookie #cookie run kingdom #crk fic #implied polyancients

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a-tale-of-legends · 5 months

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So uh. I put this in my drafts cause in mobile the asks are written funny when I try to answer them. But for some reason I can't go back and edit it???????? Which is. Weird. Good thing I took a screen shot.

Anyway.

( points to May/Brendan, Calem/Serena, Ethan/Lyra, Dawn/Lucas) Do they mean nothing to you anon /j Buuuut yeah, from the looks of it most protags are separate via timelines. I don't usually have a problem with this, since so far whenever there's an npc protag they aren't really doing....much. If you're lucky you get a Dawn/Lucas or Serena/Calem that tries to be very active in the plot, but outside of that they aren't much of a character. Calem/Serena tried to be buuuuut they failed imo. I think it really comes down the fact that if there's more than one protagonist in the game, one is gonna be less of a blank slate that the player can project on than the other. Which isn't a bad thing, I love giving the protags some personalities ( it's partially what started the Legendverse), but the whole point of the silent protag is for the player to project onto them. That, and Gamefreak sure doesn't make them as interesting as they could be. Lyra/Ethan are the biggest offenders of this imo. They. Really don't do much outside of tutorial stuff. You don't battle them, you don't fight with them, you rarely get any real depth from them like. I hate saying it, but if they weren't in the story at all it wouldn't have changed things, which really sucked to say cause I like HGSS. All of this is to say that this is why I have dual protags in my au. For granted,almost all of them are ocs, but they still share the protag title, just separated by "main" and "secondary".

Okay with all of that out of the way, to your ask anon. When it comes to hc about Juliana and Florian, it's...well it's not hard but it's annoying. Bc visually they're just Gloria and Victor 2. At least at first. Ironically I think the dlc art actually gives me a few ideas. This I'm treating these two as separate characters, so no genderfluid Florian/Juliana today.

Juliana: An excitable girl with a love for battling. Is known to throw rules away in favor of something more "fun"....whatever that is. She's generally very brash, and doesn't exactly think before acting. This bit her in the back Teal Mask, however. Afterwards she kinda.....lessened in terms of her usual energetic self. She became more serious and stoic faced- still Juliana, always Juliana, but the events of Teal Mask really brought her down. The last thing she ever wanted to do is to hurt a friend. In Indigo Disk she kinda adopts this serious, no nonsense persona which is admittedly, very weird, even for her. Seeing Kieran the way he is kinda makes it worse. She's a bit more....angry here. Whether it's at herself, others, Kieran, no one knows. She probably doesn't know. But through it all she just wants to make things right again.

Florian: The opposite of Juliana: a fucking nerd. Moreso wanting to focus on his studies than anything else, Florian is a skittish, rule follower to the T. Too bad the plot of SV ( and Juliana if we're doing dual protags) drags him into nonsense. But honestly it's a good thing overall. He becomes less rigid, a bit less fearful. He actually ends up enjoying himself more than he ever does and even makes some amazing friends to boot. Teal Mask was great for him! Until it wasn't. I like to think he bonded with Kieran very easily, both being somewhat shy, and an admiration of those who they deem stronger than them. When things hit the fan I think Florian was.....off. He was hurt. Very hurt. And he definitely beat himself over it. But he never let it show? In fact it seems that he's gotten more carefree as time goes on and a smidge more interested in battling. By Indigo Disk, Florian just seems like a brand new person. He seems more confident, more carefree, even leaning into Drayton's jokes a little. And yet, when he sees Kieran that mask sorta cracks. He's scared out of his mind. He doesn't know what to say or do no matter how much he thinks about it. But better do retreat, than face it head on, right? In the end, he just wants the same thing as Juliana, but is struggling to find an answer.

This post is getting long so I'm just gonna end it here. Sorry to anyone who wanted to see Gloria and Victor! But I hope you enjoy these hcs! They were fun to make!

#r answers #pokemon juliana #pokemon florian

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shipsandlattes · 4 years

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So I know everyone has already dissected this scene to its core, but it’s taken me a good 48 hours to digest this and I just needed to get it out.

I’m an aspiring actor, I’ve been training for a long time, with a lot of amazing teachers. I’ve watched a lot of shows and shipped a lot of couples. Some of them beautiful and canon, others, well, let’s just say waiting 22 years and counting for acknowledgement, closure, anything, it’s a damn challenge. I’ve seen a hell of a lot of will-they-wont-they’s, baiting, purposeful ignorance, deliberate fake outs, zero explanations, storylines that basically caused canon disintegration, the works.

In saying that, Dean and Cas were right up there on the list with the other “impossibles” because honestly, I didn’t think the writers would have the guts to do it, but I am so f*cking proud they did. It’s safe to say I’ve watched the scene a good hundred+ times already.

I’ve seen a lot of “controversy” around Dean’s reaction/Jensen’s acting choices and whether or not Dean reciprocates Cas’ feelings, and obviously, I needed to add my own views to the mix.

Just work with me for a minute here.

Dean Winchester is an emotionally repressed trainwreck, and ironically enough, the one that is so full of emotion it hurts to watch. When Cas first starts his speech, he’s confused, really confused because why on earth would Cas start off on a rant now? Billie’s waiting to kill them, he just said he knew something that was more powerful than she was, something that could save them. That’s where he thought this speech was going.

The confusion turns to realisation that it’s a goodbye when Cas starts telling him how incredible he is, how his entire essence is love. Go back and watch the scene again, when Cas says “you’re the most caring man on Earth”, you physically see Dean look down, his eyes searching, he’s actively trying to make sense of what’s happening, he knows what’s coming and you can see him coming to terms with the shock of the words being said to him. He then looks directly at Cas. That look, that was pure shock.

Also, notice how he doesn’t stop Cas from talking? He doesn’t interject, make a joke, doesn’t talk about how there is no time for this now, they’ve got to at least try and stop Billie. He. says. nothing. He listens, he listens like I’ve never seen Dean listen before. Because it’s sinking in now.

When Cas really starts crying, when he says “you changed me, Dean”, you can actually see the pain in Dean’s eyes. He’s no longer in control of his emotions, he’s crying too. He’s never seen Cas like this, so raw, and vulnerable and human. This is the hardest, most emotional conversation they’ve both ever had. They are talking about the one thing that everybody knows, but is never addressed. When it wasn’t talked about, they could deny it, live in the lie. Once it’s said aloud, it’s real and they can’t turn back.

This above series of interactions is the part that kills me the most. The moment Cas says “because it is”, that’s the exact moment of realisation. Look at that last GIF, really look. He’s just worked it out, that he is Cas’ true happiness. He knows what’s coming before Cas even says it. Go back and watch the scene again, they pulled that off so well, the way the music swells at this exact moment. Jensen is giving us everything here, you can see what’s happening in his head - he is Cas’ happiness. He is the one thing on Earth Cas wants and thinks he can’t have. He is the reason Cas is about to die. He knows what Cas is about to say and he’s not sure he’s ready to hear it, not now, not like this. It’s almost a silent plea not to say it, because he knows. Of course he knows. It’s like he can’t quite believe Cas is really, after all this time, finally going to say it.

And because obviously Jensen decided that that wasn’t enough to break us, the loaded reaction when Cas says “I love you” has me nothing but convinced that it’s reciprocated. Because Dean knows. He’s always known. Those tears, that head tilt, that gulp. He’s so genuinely confused that they’re really having this conversation. It’s like he can’t quite believe that this is the reality before him because he’s been living in that denial, in that self-loathing and unlovable layer he believes to be true. He’s been under the ‘what if... but it could never be’ umbrella for so long.

What also makes this real is that there isn’t anyone else around this time. When “I love you’s” have been said before, they have always been able to deflect it, with other people or other words. Now it’s just the two of them. No deflecting, no running away. Dean is forced to hear it, to absorb it, to realise it’s for nobody else but him.

Now, I don’t know if you guys felt this, but when Dean says “Don’t do this, Cas”, he wasn’t just referring to Cas sacrificing himself to the Empty, he’s telling Cas that he can’t just say this, not now, knowing he’s going to die, knowing that Dean won’t get a chance to think, to process, to say what he needs too. I keep staring at that GIF above, Dean is breaking down, I’m almost convinced that Jensen was using an “I love you too, please just stop this” inner monologue for this bit. Look at the way he’s looking at Cas before he realises the Empty has started materialising and turns around. That’s a look of pure heartbreak. Trust me when I tell you, it’s really hard to keep those inner thoughts inside if you’re so in the moment - actually, don’t just take my word for it, read any acting book, ask any actor, it’s so hard to keep that in and sometimes you don’t, and sometimes you do - it’s in both the resistance and the letting go that the gold happens. This my friends, is gold.

Did anyone else hear “Cas, I-”, well, regardless of whether or not it was an “I” or a very sharp breath, the outcome is the same. Dean’s gone into immediate panic mode. The Empty at one end and Billie at the other, and all poor Dean wants to do is gather his thoughts on not what to say but how to say it. I don’t think he comprehended just how little time he had, he was so focused on what was being said that the reality of the situation caught him completely off guard.

Also, I know this post was about dissecting Dean’s reaction, but can we sidebar a minute to talk about Cas as he pushes Dean out of the way? He’s sobbing, he’s fully crying. That hit me really hard, I’ve never seen Cas cry like that, I’ve never seen Misha get to play that level of emotion before and it was the most heartbreaking thing to watch since The Doctor and Rose and Buffy and Spike, to which by the way, I find many parallels between those couples and this scene.

Speaking of crying, that brings me to this: Dean slumped on the floor, ignoring a call from Sam, sobbing his heart out knowing he’s lost everything. Dean-I’m-emotionally-unavailable-Winchester is sobbing. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t recall ever seeing Dean cry like this before either, the sobbing was so evident and piercing in that silence. The look around the room, the burying of his head in his hands, that is a classic writers romantic love trope if I’ve ever seen it, they really pulled out all the stops with this one.

So, to summarise, I think Jensen’s choices and Dean’s reactions were absolutely and utterly perfect. They both did it so well that it didn’t break from character that these two emotionally distant and repressed men are in love and finally voicing it. Jensen barely said two words and still managed to cause mass coronary’s across the fandom. That my friends is what you call a brilliant actor. I bow down to the talents of these two amazing human beings.

Before I leave this novel, I have to say there are now a few things I’m going to need from the powers that be to not screw this up, help me manifest this:

1. Dean gets to reciprocate his feelings to Cas in person. So, I’m gonna need Cas back and a very emotional Dean.

2. Dean to be actively dealing with heartbreak in the next episode (unless they decided to bring Cas back that soon, which I wouldn’t put past them at this point).

3. Sam to confront Dean about his feelings for Cas, because out of everyone, he’d be the one to hit Dean with the truth of his fears. Sam knows. Sam is supportive. Sam sees it all.

4. I’m gonna need some physical affection, cause after 12 years of nonsense, we damn well deserve it. A hug, and not just any old reunion hug, a proper, this is different now hug. A kiss because hello, in love out loud now. Forehead touching, handholding, really gonna need the works here.

5. A happy ending for the two of them, one way or another. We’ve never had one, it’s time.

Okay, have at it now, let’s speak these into existence please.

Note: GIFs are not mine, I did not make them, credit to owners who I’m not sure of, but they’re beautiful, thanks for making them. EDIT: I’ve just been informed that these gorgeous gifs belong to @michaeldean and @inacatastrophicmind!

#supernatural #SPN #DeanCas #destiel #deanwinchtser #castiel #15x18 #Jensen Ackles #Misha Collins #actor #acting #I ship it #shipper #i love you #spn spoilers #opinion piece #thoughts #my two cents #ships and lattes

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bluewinnerangel · 2 years

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I just found out your a quarantine larrie 🥺 due to a an ask of yours on dash. Your anon asked how did us veteran larries survive [it's been chaos all I can say] but I'd like to know as a veteran larrie how have you newer stans managed? Like you came in 20 chapters into a story with like 5 different spinoffs how did you manage to learn all that happened prior? I saw it all first hand since I've been a fan since xfactor. I even remember seeing the gossip news channels talk about the scandalous situation of Taylor being spotted alone on a boat while Harry was out partying with friends. But for someone like you who didn't see this play out first hand how did you manage to learn about all this stuff? Was it difficult?

You have activated the ramblesTM:

You know how much time there is in quarantine, that's how. I stumbled upon this bluegreenworld, became obsessed to have a conclusion (larry real or not) for myself, so I just didn't stop till I got there. I'm not gonna pretend I cared about these boys at that point, it just became a challenge for myself to have a conclusion. Like entertaining a crazy conspiracy not because I want it to be a thing, just, I'm curious and I like entertaining the thought of something to see where it leads. Trying to see the logic of someone who is claiming something that isn't the default GP thought. Basically, I just wanted to know what you all were going on about lol. And in the process of watching them I just fell in love with them and now we're here. Larries have done an incredibly impressive work archiving their screaming, and if you know how to find stuff it's not difficult. But I'm very very super skeptical (although now i don't sound like it now, i just.. concluded harry and louis are ridiculous in the best way and am operating from that point of view :') ) and basically didn't listen to anyone's interpretations. Like I read all the masterposts I could get my hands on (not just larrie things also just ppl debunking the whole thing, any type of anti out there, haylors, zarries, xarries, narries, elounories, whatever else name merge you can think of, people that were set on proving their beloved 2 favs were it and larries are wrong, also I came to tumblr just before that portrait blog changed so a lot of views were coming to me in real time as there was a shitload of debunking going on, debunking the debunks, reposting certain moments, so many takes), I learned how tumblr worked and found the people who kept pretty archives. Then for some events I just went to the date of it happening on a few blogs to see the actual reaction. But again I didn't listen to any of you to be honest. So I was digesting a lot of takes but mainly what got me there was I just watched footage. Any. Every. I'm talking nonedited (as in, not larrie edits) interviews and show footage trying to see what's what, knowing some peoples interpretations of some moments, slowly getting familiar with their personalities and mannerisms. And what I found was basically more, things not mentioned and chewed out as a larry moment, behavior that I just can't make sense unless larry is really a thing so that just convinced me..

And now for the disgusting "I'm not like the other girls" addition although I was already on a roll there, I do think a lot of quarantine kids just got their info from youtube LaRrY PrOoF videos or tiktoks or twitter threads which are dumping both super larrie things and nonsensical garbage all together on one big pile so I don't think I'm speaking for the majority of people who came in when I did. I really do think a lot of larries have their beliefs based on a lot of things that I think aren't what they look like (it's say debunkable moments), and some absolutely very much debunked by veteran larries, some just me personally not believing that's what went down... and I mean in the end the conclusion is the same and it's based on consistent persistent patterns that lead to the conclusion "larry" for a decade here. So I somewhat don't mind that some details are just not it (the amount of details not adding up when you believe anything but larry being the truth here is far greater for sure)

I think a good thing to point out about me and everyone else coming in later tho is that I absolutely am not aware of any minor details that happened unless it was screamed about hard enough its still echoing, I don't think you can. Especially if it's about articles coming out in the context it did exactly, the timeline of harry/louis posting or in any way shading or hinting at a certain thing while these other let's say image shaping things are happening. Or the other way around, things that seem loud and clearly "this means larry" while at the time there was another context that wasn't "larry" at all.

I think all this resulted in a lot of different sub-bubbles within this already divided fandom. Like what's the general thought about certain things differs between platforms, and even within them for instance on twitter we have two outer ends of on one hand massive clowning, thinking everything is a hint, everything is foreshadowing that somethings gonna happen, everyone's in on it, and on the other hand we got people that somehow do believe they're together but will trash you for thinking they're giving any hint whatsoever to that they indeed are (like, anti-bluegreening-larries, like what is this how did you get to this conclusion theyre still together if you aren't acknowledging they thrive on doing weird shit, and don't even believe in their most blatant, easiest, "larrycoding" thing they got going on)

Also to take your example, with the taylor thing I tried to form my own opinion based on everything they've said throughout the years and their lyrics, on top of people's takes who lived through it all. With that I basically came to the same conclusion as what people in 2012 were saying, everything in the past decade makes sense with what you saw back then, unfortunately (because it fucking sucks that this is real of course).

But it's not difficult, because it makes sense. I'd say it's getting easier even because with every new thing they put out it just adds to the huge pile that is a mountain pointing at larry. And whenever this happens, older stuff gets brought up by those who remember it, and you'll learn that way if you don't rummage through it in your spare time yourself. It's because they(HL) stick to their story, because it's their actual story, that makes it easy. I mean otherwise we wouldn't be here.

#I woke up to waaaayyy too many anons and yours was refreshing so i said yk what imma type #also anyone who sent an anon regarding the UA stuffs i think ive said a lot what i wanted to say so if you just scroll my blog youll find #what i probably wouldve answered

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perpetual-stories · 3 years

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How To Fight Writers Block

hello, hello. hope everyone is doing well. as you can all tell, this post will be about how to fight writers block.

it’s really annoying to me when I hear people say “oh you don’t have writers block, you’re just lazy.”

first of all, yes, I am naturally lazy. second of all, how dare you. writing isn’t as easy as many think. granted, all you have to do is write down words on paper, but it’s not always easy to find the right words to express what you are feeling, or what you wish to say.

I have had terrible writer’s block for the last few days and it’s horrible! as a business owner or a small writing store, I have to be ready to write and fulfill my clients’ ideas and orders.

it’s not easy. It takes a heavy toll on my imagination, and digs me a deep pit of blockage, drowning in the lack of originality because of the constant writing and repetition or certain phrases and sentences in different projects.

i am making this post in the hopes to remind myself about over coming the dreaded and sometimes skeptically believed writer’s block.

What is writer’s block?

Yeah, I know. We all know what that is, but let me define it.

is the state of being unable to proceed with writing, and/or the inability to start writing something new

some people believe it to be a real problem, others believe it's “all in your head”

What Causes Writer’s Block?

in the 1970s, clinical psychologists Jerome Singer and Michael Barrios decided to find out

they concluded that there are four broad causes of writer's block:

Excessively harsh self-criticism

Fear of comparison to other writers

Lack of external motivation, like attention and praise

Lack of internal motivation, like the desire to tell one's story

How to overcome writer's block: 20 tips

1. Develop a writing routine:

Author and artist Twyla Tharp once wrote: “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.”

it might seem counterintuitive

if you only write when you “feel creative,” you're bound to get stuck in a tar pit of writer's block

The only way to push through is by disciplining yourself to write on a regular schedule. It might be every day, every other day, or just on weekends — but whatever it is, stick to it!

2. Use "imperfect" words:

A writer can spend hours looking for the perfect word or phrase to illustrate a concept

You can avoid this fruitless endeavor by putting, “In other words…” and simply writing what you’re thinking, whether it’s eloquent or not

You can then come back and refine it later by doing a CTRL+F search for “in other words.”

3. Do non-writing activities:

one of the best ways to climb out of a writing funk is to take yourself out of your own work and into someone else’s

Go to an exhibition, to the cinema, to a play, a gig, eat a delicious meal

immerse yourself in great STUFF and get your synapses crackling in a different way

Snippets of conversations, sounds, colors, sensations will creep into the space that once felt empty

4. Freewrite through it:

free-writing involves writing for a pre-set amount of time without pause — and without regard for grammar, spelling, or topic. You just write.

The goal of freewriting is to write without second-guessing yourself — free from doubt, apathy, or self-consciousness, all of which contribute to writer's block. Here’s how:

Find the right surroundings. Go somewhere you won't be disturbed.

Pick your writing utensils. Will you type at your computer, or write with pen and paper? (Tip: if you're prone to hitting the backspace button, you should freewrite the old-fashioned way!)

Settle on a time-limit. Your first time around, set your timer for just 10 minutes to get the feel for it. You can gradually increase this interval as you grow more comfortable with freewriting.

5. Relax on your first draft:

Many writers suffer form perfectionism, which is especially debilitating during a first draft

“Blocks often occur because writers put a lot of pressure on themselves to sound ‘right’ the first time. A good way to loosen up and have fun again in a draft is to give yourself permission to write imperfectly.” — editor Lauren Hughes

perfect is the enemy of good,” so don't agonize about getting it exactly right! You can always go back and edit, maybe even get a second pair of eyes on the manuscript

6. Don’t start at the beginning:

the most intimidating part of writing is the start, when you have a whole empty book to fill with coherent words

instead of starting with the chronological beginning of whatever it is you’re trying to write, dive into middle, or wherever you feel confident

7. Take a shower:

Have you ever noticed that the best ideas tend to arrive while in the shower, or while doing other “mindless” tasks?

research shows that when you’re doing something monotonous (such as showering, walking, or cleaning), your brain goes on autopilot, leaving your unconscious free to wander without logic-driven restrictions

showering is my favourite thing to do if I may add

8. Balance your inner critic:

successful writers have in common is the ability to hear their inner critic, respectfully acknowledge its points, and move forward

You don't need to completely ignore that critical voice, nor should you cower before it

you must establish a respectful, balanced relationship, so you can address what's necessary and skip over what's insecure and irrelevant

9. Switch up your tool:

a change of scenery can really help with writer's block. However, that scenery doesn't have to be your physical location — changing up your writing tool can be just as big a help!

if you’ve been typing on your word processor of choice, try switching to pen and paper. Or if you're just sick of Google Docs, consider using specialized novel writing software.

10. Change your POV:

great advice from editor Lauren Hughes: “When blocked, try to see your story from another perspective ‘in the room’ to help yourself move beyond the block. How might a minor character narrate the scene if they were witnessing it? A ‘fly on the wall’ or another inanimate object?

11. Exercise your creative muscles:

Any skill requires practice if you want to improve, and writing is no different! So if you’re feeling stuck, perhaps it’s time for a strengthening scribble-session to bolster your abilities

12. Map out your story:

If your story has stopped chugging along, help it pick up steam by taking a more structured approach — specifically, by writing an outline

13. Write something else:

Though it's important to try and push through writer's block with what you're actually working on, sometimes it's simply impossible

feel free to push your current piece to the side for now and write something new

14. Work on your characters:

It follows that if your characters are not clearly defined, you’re more likely to run into writer’s block

15. Stop writing for readers:

write for yourself, not your potential readers

this will help you reclaim the joy of being creative and get you back in touch with what matters: the story.

this is something I really need to do. because of my etsy business i don't write for fun anymore, but instead as a business and a deadline. i'm going to have to pull out my old crappy wattled fanfics or write some new ones.

16. Try a more visual process:

when words fail you, forget them and get visual. Create mind maps, drawings, Lego structures — ideally related to your story, but whatever unblocks your mind!

17. Look for the root of it:

writer’s block often comes from a problem deeper than simple “lack of inspiration.” So let's dig deep: why are you really blocked? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do I feel pressure to succeed and/or competition with other writers?

Have I lost sight of what my story is about, or interest in where it's going?

Do I lack confidence in my own abilities, even if I've written plenty before?

Have I not written for so long that I feel intimidated by the mere act?

Am I simply feeling tired and run-down?

once you identify what's wrong, it'll be so much easier to fix.

18. Quit the Internet:

If willpower isn’t your strong suit and your biggest challenge is staying focused, try a site blocker like Freedom or an app like Cold Turkey

19. Let the words find you:

meditate, go for a walk, take that shower

Word Palette is a great app that features a keyboard of random words, allowing you to simply click your way to your next masterpiece.

You can also try AI auto-completers like Talk to Transformer, where you can enter a phrase and let the app “guess what comes next.”

even though they often produce nonsense, it's a great way to help that writer's block.

20. Write like Hemingway:

And if your biggest block is your own self-doubt about your prose, Hemingway offers suggestions to improve your writing as you go

it's a pretty cool app if you ask me.

it highlights your sentences (if need be) and makes suggestions on how to improve them!

well, there you have it! a lengthy post on how to fight writer's block. now i just hope i can combat my own soon.

like, comment and reblog if you find this useful! feel free to reblog in instagram and tag me perpetualstories

Follow me on instagram and tumblr for more writing and grammar tips and more!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

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haikyuuu-r-us · 4 years

Note

Erm okay so I don't usually do asks fr like that but may I please ask Alpha waka and omega reader. I saw you did omegaverse idk but yeah. Maybe fluff it not idk whatever works with you 🥺🥺👉🏽👈🏽🥺😳

Pt.2: https://haikyuuu-r-us.tumblr.com/post/625551637967175680/unofficial-game-alpha-ushijima-wakatoshi-x

Hell yeah, I do omegaverse, girl that's my JAAAM thanks for asking! <3

Edit: This is now titled- 'Unofficial Game' and this is pt. 1 ❤️

- Its no surprise that Ushijima Wakatoshi of Shiratorizawa was an incredible alpha. He was agile and strong. He was the Ace and also the Captain of his team.

- He was an Alpha.

- His team was highly regarded and respected. His team respected him highly. By some, he was considered a prodigy.

- Every move he made was calculated to bring him closer to his goal, no distractions allowed.

- He had a goal and he was hell-bent on reaching it.

-It's no surprise to your fellow students to find that you were an omega. You were rather meek and shy. You kept to yourself on the best of days and purposefully isolated yourself on worse ones.

- You were an omega.

- You had few friends though none went to school here. You were accepted into the school due to exceptional grades and recommendations. The school was seeking to expand into the arts, and in that aspect, you were an excellent starting point.

- You won medals in competitions. Never landing below third. You never cared for your medals. In your eyes, it was all subjective. Not to mention you had never been extremely competitive anyhow.

- you only desired to see your skills grow and to inspire others to follow their own dreams.

Essentially, the two of you never should have met, be in any sort of friendship let alone a relationship. The differences were too large, the first years would say. If only they were privy to how you met.

"Wah?? So you're the new transfer student?" You glanced up from the hallways tiled flooring to search for the voice. When he waved at you and began to jog towards you with a lazy grin marking his features, you slunk back into your oversized school jacket.

"Yeah...uhm, haha, that's me." You tucked your hair behind your ear nervously. 'He's an alpha.' Although his scent was a weird one, you found his constant seeking you out every morning just to say hi rather endearing. It'd be lying to say you didn't form an itty bitty crush on him at the beginning of your friendship.

As time went on he became your guide, and a strong brother-like figure to you, showing you parts of the school you had been too nervous to explore by yourself and encouraging you to take pictures when you asked if it was allowed. You were inspired by what you were seeing, you absolutely had to have a reference for later. He continued to guide you, most definitely spinning false and grandeur stories about how each place came to be. He didn't need to be right, it made you laugh and it kept you interested; You stayed interested even when you got to how the gym was built by angels who deemed volleyball a holy sport above all others.

"Liar." You giggled, covering your mouth with your hand as tears sprang to your eyes at his overdramatic antics. "WHAT? Omega-chaaan! I would never, E V E R! Lie to you!" He shook his head furiously and wagged a finger in your face. He was about to start again but a calm voice interrupted.

"Oh, there you are. Coach wants to start early with practice." The beta had blonde hair and a bored look on his face.

"Aw, what? That’s bull- wah! Omega-chan come watch me practice!" He cried waving his arms frantically as you thought it over.

"I dunno," you eyed the beta male wearily.

"It's perfect yeah? See, you can practice the Anatoly of us while we play!"

"I think you mean anatomy-"

"Yeah, same thing!"

"I don't even know what that other thing is- stop pushing I'm going, 'Tori!"

He ushered you in and motioned towards the bleachers. He was right you supposed. This would be a good way to practice.

At you were good at being a wallflower and despite the beta male who ignored your presence, you found yourself comfortable knowing that Tendou would step in should someone give you any issues.

Wakatoshi stretched quietly in the changing room. Nodding silently at Tendou when he entered and quickly, as though someone was going to give him a medal, stripped himself of his school uniform and into slightly more comfortable training clothes. He was being sloppy and nearly tripping when he pulled his shorts up.

His brow quirked down but he said nothing, figuring it was more nonsense from the Guess Monster.

He left the changing room and just as he began to walk over to the storage closet to grab the volleyballs, a new scent filled his senses. Though unnoticed to himself and the other Alpha and betas around him, his pupils dilated ever so slightly.

His head turned from the handle of the closet to assess the gym. There was an omega here. He could smell her. Somewhere, he raked his gaze across the room and a slight shift of fingers was all it took to have his gaze latch onto you like a magnet to a fridge.

Your form was small. Knees up to your chest with a book resting on top of them. A pencil clenched in between your fingers. You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. Your chosen seat was high up in the bleachers, hidden ever so slightly behind support that jutted out of the wall.

He breathed in your scent slowly, allowing the warm sweet scent to roll over his palette. His pupils dilated and adjusted, connecting the sight of you to your soothing scent.

Omega.

He didn't realize he was making his way closer to you until his body was faced with the prospect of climbing up the bleachers. This time when his gaze landed on you, wide, doe-like orbs stared back. Quickly almost fearfully, your body tensed and you looked away.

Knows her place.

He narrowed his gaze in a challenging way. Who let you into the gym? Omegas were most definitely not allowed at any other time than official games. They potentially could be major distractions at the very least. You shifted nervously, and your fingers flipped through a few pages.

Her fingers were shaking.

"Ne~Omega-chan you have to watch!"

Of course, it had been Tendou. Of course, he would let in an omega.

He turned away, ignoring your presence, for now, Tendou would cause mayhem otherwise, especially if he thought you'd be forced to leave.

The game went well. In fact, Tendou was most definitely showing off the entire time, calling out for your praise and attention.

Though he didn't find himself drowning in curiosity, he still listened closely when Semi asked Tendou about the shy omega.

"That your omega, 'Tori?" That was a new nickname.

"Nah, she’s my friend! She's shy and stuff so I don't think she had anyone else. She looked lonely so ' voila '!"

"You're supposed to form friendships through common interests and tastes-"

Tendou stared in confusion. Semi sighed and rubbed his temples. Reon and Goshiki piped up out of curiosity helping to explain exactly what Semi meant.

Lakatos didn't bother to hear the rest. Instead, he went to join the first years in the gym, supervising them to ensure they didn’t fool around instead of cleaning. While they scrambled to gather everything up he searched for the omega, despite her lingering scent, he saw nothing. Then again, before he could complete his scan, a volleyball rolled and bumped into his ankle.

He kneeled and picked it up, testing the pressure in his hands. He was about to toss the ball back to the first year who dropped it, but he caught sight of you from his peripheral, and before he even fully realized why his inner alpha commanded him to do it, he found himself lining up to set.

Throw. Run. Jump. Slam the ball. Hard. Harder than needed. Put force into it. Strongest Alpha. The strongest.

His knees bent when he landed. The echo of the ball landing was still reverberating throughout the gym, the air was thick with unknown tension and no first-year dared to speak. The ball slowly rolled back towards him, and once more he picked it up. Except for this time he turned and handed the ball to the kid that dropped it. Instinctually his gaze searched for your face among the first years who know were shutting everything down.

You were looking at him too. The moment he locked eyes with your own, you shot your gaze downwards to stare at your feet.

She's respectful.

Slowly and shakily staring at the other third years locking up, you gave a weak chuckle and muttered softly, "uhm, so I'm assuming you're the captain?"

The moment you shifted your gaze back his spine straightened further and his chest puffed out slightly. Unnoticeable to anyone but himself. You were... Affecting him.

"Indeed." His eyes drifted across your form. He was never one to really notice omegas despite being an Alpha male himself and having plenty of fangirls, he never really, truly noticed any of them. He especially never bothered to assess their form like he was currently doing to you. His eyes slid to your face again, watching as your lips moved as you spoke, the words barely processing.

Her scent.

After receiving no answer to Tendou's whereabouts you glanced at his face again, though with more caution this time.

Her eyes.

Little did you know, the way your eyes peeked at him beneath your lashes, the way your brows pinched together and especially the way your lips parted in concern, all were sending his Alpha into a tailspin. His heart began to steadily beat faster, the same tempo would beat before a good matchup.

It was only the snicker from his right-hand side that brought him out of it.

Tendou.

"Don't worry about him omega-chan! He's just dense." You laughed nervously attempted to shift the attention back to Tendou instead of yourself.

That's right, you were there for Tendou.

He realized late that night, before he went to bed, that the real reason his Alpha demanded that one spike, the real reason his adrenaline couldn't seem to leave him be, even hours later, that his Alpha was proving to you, convincing you really, he, Waktoshi Ushijima, was the strongest. He was the captain. The Ace. His breaths picked up slightly when he recalled the way your lips formed the word 'captain'.

All he knew now was that he wanted you to call him 'alpha' next.

(Looks like I got a bit carried away with this one lol)

#haikyuu x reader #haikyuu!!#ushiwaka #ushijima x reader #ushijima x you #ushijima wakatoshi #ushijima hcs #xreader #haikyuuxreader #omegaverse #haikyuu omegaverse #Alpha/beta/omega dynamics #alphawakatoshi #omega reader #alpha/beta/omega dynamics x reader #alpha/beta/omega verse #alpha/omega #alpha/beta/omega au #alpha/beta/omega dynamics

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thoughts-on-bangtan · 3 years

Text

Let’s talk: Vlive Asks and comment/chat discussions

From @cottoncandykings: Hello! As u probably know jimin just went live recently and again he mentioned mandaggo and discussing about doing it with tae. I just find it so weird though. I mean jimin keeps constantly mentioning it and its not like vminnies were begging or dying for a vmin live everyday even before jimin mentioned it last year. Even now most including myself dont really care that much ofc i m happy if they do one together. But the way jimin keeps mentioning it is so weird. Like surely if he wanted to do it so badly he could have talked to tae privately and arranged it by now. And if tae is the one that doesnt want to do it then idk why jimin is pushing it. But what was really weird to me this time was that he said there were lots of comments about mandaggo yesterday in zoom call and yet they didnt mention it yesterday but suddenly today without prompting he talks about it. I also hope no one spammed the zoom call chat or the vlive chat with requests for vmin live (i didnt see any) bcoz thats just unnecessary and demanding. I hope vminnies wont demand/ ask for another memeber when one of them is live. Its just disrespectful. This turned into a rant sorry. Do you think it was weird too?

Since Admin 2 can’t type their thoughts themselves, I’ll relay their thoughts to you instead, since they had more thoughts/opinions/ideas in regard to this than I do, to be honest.

Admin 2 is sure that there is a good chance that we will get a vmin vlive sometime soon, which I know contradicts their original opinion and post from a few months ago, but there’s a reason for it. During the zoom meeting between BTS and ARMY they noticed something I don’t think anyone else noticed, or at least neither of us has seen any vminnies mention it anywhere, which in conjunction with Jimin’s vlive today and saying how he’d talk to Tae about doing a mandaggo vlive again, as well as another observation a little while ago, leads them to this conclusion.

So, the observation from the zoom meeting. Basically at one point when the question of Jimin doing a vlive arose Tae looks at Jimin and then he nods while smiling which in turn makes Jimin smile as he turns away from Tae and back to face toward the camera before answering the question and saying how he’ll come visit us the next day. Which he did.

Then the other observation from a while ago, this one being from their OT7 vlive celebrating their BBH100 #1 on June 29th where at one point Jimin says something but slips into satoori after which Tae encourages him to say that again but this time in the Seoul accent, so the way they actually should speak, which Jimin says isn’t difficult but he doesn’t actually end up repeating what he said.

And lastly in today’s vlive Jimin mentioned how he’s using satoori quite often but that he isn’t all that good at doing it on command or at teaching it to others, which is something he’d have to do for mandaggo but I’m sure he’d manage just fine if the time came for it.

Based on that Admin 2′s thoughts are basically that Jimin really meant it when he said, last year, that he’ll bring Tae around for a vlive, that it wasn’t a joke or a way to tease us with something he knew he wouldn’t be able to deliver, but rather that up until this point they weren’t quite sure how to do it. Which sounds a bit odd, I know, but what they mean is that if vmin were to just sit down in front of the camera and were supposed to just talk based on what the chat would give them, it would likely just turn out awkward and weird and no one, including them, would really have fun. Even more so when we take into account how idiotic the chat is during regular vlives so now imagine if those two were to do one together that’s just a casual chat. It would likely end up in disaster and honestly I wouldn’t wish it upon them to read all those awful comments that they would likely get, even worse ones than they already get normally, to be honest.

But now that the whole satoori thing was brought up, and Jimin actually mentioned mandaggo and wanting to bring it back after so many years, Admin 2 thinks that they must’ve finally figured out a solution to their problem, if you can call it that. Doing mandaggo would basically mean they would have an activity, something to do similar to how they did those ASMR videos for the Japanese Fan Club which were fun and cute, and so Admin 2 thinks that perhaps chances are we will finally get the vlive we’ve waited for so long (though like many others I’ve long given up the idea).

Another confirmation is that during his vlive today Jimin basically said that he only came by for a little while since they are quite busy and had to soon get ready for work with the other members but that he’ll return in two or three weeks for a more proper, longer, vlive. So, he could’ve treated today’s vlive as the promised one but instead he saw it more as a bridging one between the zoom meeting and the proper vlive he wants to do, so is it the farfetched to think that he had proper plans for a vlive, like doing mandaggo, but it just wouldn’t have worked out time wise today so he moved the actual vlive he wanted to make to a later date?

One last thing (well two actually) that has nothing to do with this question but Admin 2 wanted me to include it anyway is that one, have you noticed how Tae and Jimin were both on weverse around 3 am (until almost 4am (also both of them posting a comment to some post at 03:41 am KST)) one after the other (though with one day of a break in between them) recently and then also two, that Jimin was up until like 6 am (since he posted on weverse around that time) on the 8th and then during the zoom meeting Tae answered a question by saying that he’d been awake until 6 am the previous day (also the 8th) since he wanted to see the sunrise? Which is also something an anon mentioned to us. Curious, isn’t it?

From anon: I request both admins to please post this ask. So jimin wwnt live today and one of the accounts on twt posted a screen cap of them commenting 'touch your hair if vmin is real' in the live chat and jimin's reaction to it. Now idk if it is an edit or real. No matter i just want to say its not ok to bring up ships in front of the members no matter which ship it is. We dont know the reality of their relationship so lets not make them uncomfortable. Its not a joke. Its not funny. Be respectful the members are real people.

(Admin 1 taking over from this point onward) This ask nicely ties into the last one that’ll be further down in this post since they cover a similar issue of sorts. But let’s start with this one asking about, essentially, vlive comments and the things fans ask/comment, which also ties in with the above ask as well.

The thing with the vlive chat, and especially comments/questions that are like anon said, questions or “commands/requests” about touch your hair if XYZ ship is real or cough twice if you love XYZ member or, likewise, comments such as where is XYZ member or what are the other members doing, unfortunately those have been a steady and unchanging part of the vlive chat since basically forever. It’s been an issue on and off with different intensities though I feel like it’s gotten worse again this year. Particularly if we look back at the vlive Tae did with Hobi and Yoongi and how essentially the entire chat was filled with comments related to Xkook and not much else.

If my memory doesn’t fail me we once even had a situation some years ago (2016) where the chat during Hobi’s vlive was so bad, as in so full of questions about that other members instead of him, that you could see he was upset about it and eventually he handed over the vlive to Jimin, whom the chat had requested Hobi to visit, and Hobi just left. And I can’t blame him for it since the chat must’ve made him feel like basically no one cared about him so what was even the point of him being there, right?

Personally I’ve long given up looking at the comments during vlive because they just make me cringe and feel bad for the members, especially when I think back to vlives such as Yoongi’s D2 one last year where he was so excited to talk about the songs and the process of making the mixtape and yet so many of the comments were just unrelated nonsense and annoying request like speak english or can you say my name or say hello in XYZ language. If it makes me question why the people posting those questions are in the chat, why they are fans to begin with, imagine what the members must feel like, how discouraging that must feel like. After all they are musicians and yet so rarely do they get questions about that. Or rather they do get them but they are just drowned out by nonsense. Which is a shame. And also very disrespectful but any attempts that were made to remind people to be respectful, to remember their place as fans, to focus on the member that’s doing the vlive instead of asking about the others, and to keep ships away from the members have failed because some don’t care and will continue to not care.

From anon: what are your opinions on the Qs that were asked during that zoom meeting thing between BTS and ARMY?

Now I’d like to preface my answer to this last question by saying that by no means do my grievances come from a place of jealousy or anything. I’m very happy for all the ARMYs that won their spot, that they got to participate in the event and that BTS got to see ARMYs again even if only on screens and not in person still. No, my issue stems from something completely different, and I don’t want to say that the system chose the wrong people, because that would be mean and also who even knows how the winners were chosen, if it was pure luck or there were some actual criteria that went into the process, but the fact is that only a select 200 ARMYs got that spot out of however many that applied, so basically for some this was a once in a lifetime chance, right, even just getting this close to asking Bangtan a question and have really great chances of having them give you an answer while acknowledging you somewhat instead of just seeing pure words on a screen, you know what I mean?

Now imagine you are one of those 200 ARMYs and you get the chance to fill the chat with questions along with the other 49 participants of your session and you decide that asking questions such as what it’s like for Jimin to work as angel, if Namjoon ever broke a bicycle, or why JK smells the crowns of the other members heads? Or even worse, you decide to ask about JKs shower routine and in which order he washes his body? And sure, the “fault” doesn’t fall completely on the ARMYs alone, after all it’s the members who read out those questions and not some magical off screen entity, and since I wasn’t part of the event I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty that no one asked any “proper” questions, but if those were the questions that ended up being read out loud, is it that hard to guess that likely all the questions looked similarly?

Which brings me to my main grievance of it all: have you forgotten that you are fans of musicians and not reality TV stars or vloggers/influencers? I know there were likely no rules for what questions you could or couldn’t ask (except for probably ones that were 100% about shipping or far too personal), but really, you get to ask your favorite band a question, something you might never, ever get the chance to do again, and your first thought isn’t to ask about their music but instead about some unimportant nonsense like the angel question or if they differentiate between the clothes they wear at home and those they sleep in? Like sure the angel one was kinda funny, maybe, and Jimin handled it in a cute way, I applaud him for it, but was that really necessary?

I know someone asked JK about Decalcomania, as well as Tae about his mixtape, and Yoongi/Jimin about Tony Montana (season 2), but other than that were there any other questions about their music? Perhaps I’m overthinking things, maybe I’m exaggerating and maybe I’m the only one who sees an issue with this, but if I would’ve won a spot, I’d rather have asked something about their process when writing lyrics or creating beats or how they prepare when learning new choreographies, what it’s like to be on tour (though perhaps that would be a mean question seeing as tours aren’t really something that’ll continue being possible for a while still), you get the point.

It makes me wonder if it was just bad luck or if it had something to do with how old the participants were (I saw some being as young as fifteen), which isn’t to say that teens can’t ask smart questions because they definitely can just like adults can ask stupid ones as well, but somewhere something, in my opinion, just went weirdly. And maybe that was the point of it all, for the event to be casual, funny, lighthearted, but my question then is when is the time for music discussions? For fans to ask those types of questions that actually have something to do with the boys careers? When even journalists aren’t asking them proper questions, ARMYs aren’t either, so what is the point of it all then?

Then again, after the event concluded and Seokjin came onto vlive he seemed so happy and excited, so maybe they had fun (I mean they seemed to have fun) and didn’t mind at all that the questions were lighthearted and silly, maybe I’m the one making mountains out of molehills. I don’t know, but anon wanted to know my thoughts/opinions, and this is them. Once again, I don’t mean to be mean toward the ARMYs that got rightfully in, that won, and I don’t want to insult them for the questions they asked, perhaps I just expected/hoped for something a little different? And perhaps I’m the only one. I don’t know.

#answered ask #BTS #vmin #jimin #Vmin vlive

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absolutebl · 3 years

Text

This Week in BL

April 2021 Part 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Second Chance Ep 1 - living up to its name since it looks to be a series of redemption arcs. Launched with a college confession and a broken friendship, then a flash back to them as seniors in high school. Pairings include friends to lovers, nerd/jock, and maybe cafe boss/employee. There’s a lot going on, but it’s still... quiet and sweet. The script is pretty pat but it’s still WAY more watchable than Cupid Coach or Brothers and most of the acting is solid. Ep 1 tropes included: he’s in engineering, wound tending, fast & bicurious. This could turn into what I wanted My Gear & Your Gown to be. Fingers crossed.

Love Poison 2 Ep 1 & 2 turns out I did watch and report on season 1 (8 eps), season 2 seems equally unmemorable. Thai countryside setting, strong dialect, incomprehensible plot, camp side characters, and ghastly singing.

Y-Destiny Ep 1 (eng subs?) - opened with the sports romance enemies to lovers (they aren’t going in the teaser order). When the couple got over fighting, the flirting was v cute, but the flipping SPONGE BATH trope had to rear its ugly head. Still, this series is shaping up to be less coy and more frank than most BL, better than expected. It feels, I don’t know, gay-er or something? *** Sources were correct that each couple is getting (at least) 2 eps, and MDL has been updated to say this is a 15 episode series (not 7).

Cupid Coach 12 fin - The new Nite was great and should have been a main all along. It felt like we got a tiny nugget of what could have been in about 10 minutes worth of this last ep. It was way too slow with terrible editing and a criminally bad script, but at least it ended happy. Mostly, like Friend Forever, I’m just disappointed that these two actors were done dirty by the series. Bad Cupid Coach, no screen caps for you.

Lovely Writer Ep 6 - breaking news, there’s a het couple I like: toppy bi femme + soft boi = such a good pairing! I know, but this NEVER happens. Meanwhile, Sib’s secret is out, Gene is a bit of a drama queen, and the plot thickens. We half way through.

Brothers Ep 9 - Kaow had a serious moment of advice giving that was truly lovely. Lots of family dama made this a superior episode to... well... any of the others in this series. Which isn’t saying much.

1000 Stars Ep 10 fin - at the start this series didn’t grab me the way GMMTV’s last BL, Tonhon Chonlatee, did. But boy did it end 1000x better. Might have given us 2021′s best forehead kiss. I enjoyed the ultra romantic cliff-top reunion kiss, and I LOVED the stinger flirting scene. That was an absolute gift we had no right to expect. This drama is a poster child for finishing on a high note (always focus on that dessert course). Final thoughts? This was FAR more a classic romance than it was BL. There were some BL tropes used but not many and most of them originated in the romance genre not yaoi. A picture perfect ending bumped 1000 Stars much higher up my best-of list than expected. Not sure how often I’ll rewatch it as a whole, but this last episode? I’m probably rewatching it right now.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Dear Uranus (Taiwan GL) Ep 3 fin - I guess that’s it? Okaaaaay

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 3 (AKA Ep 5-6) - we got actual legit gay culture not just BL (always appreciated) from XingSi. I’m starting to find LiCheng’s “show them we fucking” hijinks hilarious rather than annoying (not sure why, maybe I just love a rubber chicken, or maybe it was the STUFFED CORN WITH THE TASSEL that did it).

-- H4 Moment of RANT --

Tropes included beach trip, there’s only one bed, cook for him, baby is a floppy drunk, carry baby to bed, and.... drunk non-con. Whoopdedoo. Here we go again. Did TharnType teach us NOTHING? (Apparently it taught us if the chemistry is good enough, I have no morals at all.) At least H4 seems to be taking us out of cheese into serious when it comes to assault. Or is it?

I take back what I said last week about XingSi & YongJie being codependency + salvation trope, that only works if YongJie is the uke. He’s NOT. So we got us an obsessive predatory villain with a possible redemption arc. That’s more common in crime dramas, mafia romance, and epic fantasy than BL. It’s real hard to redeem a sexual predator in a reality-grounded universe like contemporary romance (See Kla in LBC1&2).

Next week is gonna be a test of the whole damn franchise. Imma remind both me a you that this was ep 3 of 10 so we got a ways to go yet... but ooof, what have we wrought, BL? (I ended up doing a whole post about the stepbrother trope because of this sub plot.) Taiwan is killing me.

-- RANT ended --

Word of Honor (China) Ep 19-21 - over half way point so we got ALL the back story (in a classic 4 act story structure midway reveal). Now we know who WKX really is and his lineage. We also got some cute hugs and hand holds. Moving along at a nice clip despite being 36 eps total. Still gayest thing to come out of we-not-gay China since Advance Bravely.

Most Peaceful Place (Vietnam) Ep 2 - takes them a while to get eng subs together and ep 2 didn’t drop until late. So I’m putting this in a Thurs time slot going forward. Miscommunication already cleared up and a 2nd couple has been introduced. The pacing on these Vietnamese BLs is always a bit... off. But it’s still better than most of its ilk, enjoyable. I’m thinking it’s a 6 ep arc.

We Best Love 2 (Taiwan) Ep 5 - after the initial drama DRAMA of ep 2, the current external crisis at work is much quieter, giving this whole season a top heavy feel. Taken along side the first season, I think it’s fitting nicely into a 4 act structure, but that might be my bias. I hope I’m not wrong, we’ll find out next week. Shi De puttering about being domestic with Shu Yi on his back was the best execution of the piggyback trope EVER. Meanwhile, our little D/s side couple of codependency, salvation trope + mental illness is becoming weirdly appealing. I don’t know. H4 done mess with my head.

Stand Alones

Absolute BL AKA Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai vs Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko (Japan) Ep 1-4 mini series. Found subs under A Man Who Defies The World of BL. IT’S HILARIOUS. It’s Japan making fun of us, but also itself for having started this whole BL nonsense - from yaoi roots to present day. It’s parody goddamn gold. Utterly cheeky unto the very last line. We are not worthy.

Apparently the most powerful tropes of all time are: baby is a floppy drunk and the piggyback fo nobility. Oh and chocolate. {Full review here.}

Honestly, this show may have been made with only @heretherebedork and I in mind. I don’t know if you’d even understand half of it if you don’t have a history with the manga source genre and an obsessive interest in underlying narrative devices. I haven’t seen much chatter in the blog’o’sphere on this one because, in the end, it’s not a romance at all, it’s social commentary.

The ending line was a masterclass in lampooning a genre. I’m going to rewatch the whole thing just to catch all the digs I missed first time around. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Thank you Japan. I forgive you all your hair-styling sins of the last decade.

Breaking News

Spring Line Up:

Scholar Ryu’s Wedding Ceremony AKA Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding (Korean historical BL) April 15th

Close Friend the series (Thai trailer) April 22.

2gether the movie (Thai trailer) April 22 to Thai theaters.

Nitiman (Thai) May 7 on One31.

I Told Sunset About You 2 (Thai) May 27 on LineTV

Ossan’s Love (Hong Kong) June to Viu

Gossip

Bad Buddies released its first promo op via Arm Share, which means GMMTV is at least *thinking* about filming it.

Fun behind the scenes gossip sesh with eng subs for Tell the World I Love You (that Perth Bas movie we are maybe getting someday but will likely be sad).

New Thai BL Bite Me (adapted from novel Grab a Bite) dropped a teaser. It stars Mark Siwat (Kla in LBC) as uke character Ake, a delivery boy with special foodie powers, and chef Eua (seme played by Zung Kidakorn) who discovers him. It’s from the same author as Manner of Death so we might even get some actual plot. Since it’s an established BL actor who I happen LOVE, a known author, and a plot about FOOD, I could not me more excited for this one.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed a day later than actual air date for accessibility reasons. Some are dropping multiples at a time but just started so I’m not sure on numbering.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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nicanario · 3 years

Text

this post is a product of its time

tw: discussion of racism, homophobia, misogyny and a short mention of sexual abuse.

ok, this is basically gonna be a very long rambling post about my not fully developed thoughts on the justification many people give to bigotry when talking about the past: "it was a product of its time"

it would be fair to say, with me being a raging SJW socialist scumbag, that I don't think this is a very good argument and is most of the time actually an excuse to not think about the problems inherent to our society, historical or not, and, by extension, the problems with ourselves. but I do think that sometimes, just sometimes, this can be a valid point, or at least one that raises some interesting questions.

I'm going to cite examples from several pieces of media, but fear not, I'll try to make this as accesible as I can.

so, let's take Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) as our first case study. this show has, correctly, been called progressive by everyone except for clueless people who don't know much about Star Trek's history, Star Trek's crew, Star Trek's cast, or, frankly, Star Trek. because if you ignore the clear, sometimes in-your-face political history and present of the franchise, I don't think you know much about it at all. I do think you can call yourself a fan if you like it, you may have watched every single episode for all I know. but lots of mental gymnastics are needed to ignore the political progressiveness Star Trek has had since its very beginning.

episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield are obviously anti-racist, at least in their intention. but the episode in question really is "a product of its time," and at the very end fails to uphold its ideals. the episode ends with the two aliens (who are LITERALLY. BLACK ON ONE SIDE. AND WHITE ON THE OTHER. BUT IN THE OPPOSITE SIDES.) fighting each other on their devastated planet, and the crew is like, "oh yeah if they both would give up on their hatred that they both share both of them equally" when it has been firmly established that one is the oppressor and the other one is the oppressed.

and that's a lot of Star Trek, not just TOS. even Discovery, one of the most recent series, has done Bury Your Gays (and Trans) TWICE (though both times literally rectified it, which is cool). there are episodes of the franchise that are overtly racist, or misogynistic, etc. TOS is lauded, mostly justifiably, as very progressive, especially for the standards of the time. they put a woman of colour as one of the senior staff, for fuck's sake. of course, when you analyse that same character, as with most of their intentions at being progressive, you'll see that she was relegated and sometimes even outright mistreated when she had the potential to be much more. but, at that time, it was a lot.

I had a friend (emphasis on "had") who, after I told him about TOS's both progressiveness and constant misogyny, told me something like "imagine feminists trying to complain about a show from the 60s." so, with unearned spite, he was, in some way, trying to make the argument that it was a product of its time.

you could say Star Trek, all of Star Trek, is "a product of its time" in the sense that it's not always perfect. uh, yes, I would agree. but that doesn't mean people have to accept it. well, I mean, the show is kinda over, you have to accept it's that way. but you don't have to accept that it's not wrong just because it was a product of its time.

H. P. Lovecraft, as another example, was a greatly influential writer whose works still shape a lot of people's ideas to this day. I have only ever read like one of his stories, so don't expect me to have an opinion on his works. but I can have an opinion on what I know about him as a person (he did have a life outside his writing, after all). and, yeah, he was a huge asshole. if you want to know more in depth about the subject, please watch Hbomberguy's video on him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8u8wZ0WvxI

but basically, he was incredibly racist & homophobic. some people might even say, "he was a product of his time." well, there are two possible rebuttals to that. the surface level one, and the one that examines why that argument is wrong to the core.

The Surface Level Response to "it was a product of its time": um, no it wasn't. Lovecraft was more racist than a lot of people even in his time. he wasn't just a guy who carried the racist beliefs of his society like everyone else, he was a reactionary who actively thought and discussed how racist he was, and how right he was for being that way. but that's only applicable to Lovecraft. one can't argue the same for Star Trek: TOS, because TOS did try to be more progressive and more anti-racist than the rest of its society. that leads us to the next response.

The Response that Actually Deals with the Fact that No Matter How Progressive You're Trying to Be, Your Failings Can Still be Criticized: the thing is, trying to excuse Lovecraft's or Star Trek's bigotry because they were "products of their times" misses the fact that racism is still wrong, and some people knew that in those times as well. people from these times weren't all naive or stupid or whatever. they had the capacity for rational thinking. they could stop and think, "hey, maybe what we're doing is wrong." and the fact is, some people did. not perfectly, not to our standars, but they did. everyone could have stopped and think. but most of them didn't, and we can criticize them for it. racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. HURT PEOPLE. horribly. massively.

also, even if you agree with the "it's a product of its time" argument, some people aren't criticising people's or work's bigotry: they're explaining why they don't want to experience it.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a 1977 Doctor Who serial, and it's one of the show's more racist stories. almost all the villains are Chinese, every single Chinese person is a villain. there's yellowface, slurs, stereotypes, the Doctor speaking nonsense words instead of actual Chinese, and a general belittling of Chinese culture.

note that I'm neither Chinese nor of Chinese descent. I have been searching for hours for a few posts I've read a while ago (some by people who are of Asian descent) about this episode and I can't find them. sorry.

suffice it to say, even though I love Jago & Litefoot (the audio series and the characters), it's not an acceptable episode at all. but it's also important to remark that, because of it, some people aren't going to want to watch it. sometimes, people aren't saying "the episode shouldn't be this way," which causes others to answer that it was "a product of its time." sometimes, people are just saying, "this is an episode that attacks real people. I don't want to see it. I don't care if it was common in that era to be racist, i don't want to experience it."

however, there is an interesting point to the "it's a product of its time" argument. after all, everything is influenced by its society, for better or worse. and we can't change it anymore. TOS sometimes didn't quite understand the political themes it wanted to explore. Lovecraft was a horrible bigot. Talons was racist towards Chinese folks. and that's that. I don't think we should change the episodes/stories or anything. edit them in any way. that would be, in a sense, changing history. and we wouldn't learn anything from it, about how we can do better.

I think there are two solutions to this:

1. warnings before starting the text: this was done with The Talons of Weng-Chiang. on Britbox, where you can watch Classic Who, this serial has a content warning before the start. that's good.

2. the removal as a whole of the text from some places: I think before applying this one, there should be a lot of thought put into each case. I don't think removing a whole serial of Doctor Who or Lovecraft's stories from anything would be, well, fair. especially on tv episodes a lot more people worked on those, not just the writers and the directors. Lovecraft's writing influenced thousands. we shouldn't erase them or anything. but sometimes, for some cases, we should.

those in the US might seen a Confederate statue being taken down. that is, in a way, a form of removal of a piece of history.

but that is a good removal. statues glorify. one sees a statue and probably thinks "this was a person worthy of admiration." they should be taken down, maybe even with a permanent mark of why this was done (a plaque that reads "a statue of X was here, but he didn't deserve it because of Y" could be put in place of the statues, for example).

another example is the removal from DVDs of the short episode A Fix with Sontarans, a Sixth Doctor minisode that featured Jimmy Savile, a presenter who was later found out to be sexually abusing children.

the removal of that minisode is good, actually. it's not a full episode (it's not even Doctor Who). some might say that's "erasing history" but, like, you can still find it online or information about it if you want. this minisode deserves removal from DVDs and Blu-Rays and whatever more than content warnings. it's not an important part of the show and it prominently features a horrible person who did horrible things during that time.

so, after all that, I have explained why I don't like the "it's a product of its time" argument. it is an interesting point that deserves to be examined, but it's not very good.

I have had this in Drafts for so long I've probably forgot some of the points I was going to make, but eh, what can you do? hope you enjoyed reading this.

bye

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