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rainbowsky · 1 year

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GG Esquire Cover Story

A lot of people have written me about the cover story GG did for Esquire magazine. There have been some interesting responses in my inbox, many of which have baffled me a bit, to be honest.

People have asked me for my thoughts on it all, so here they are! 😊

I've been picking away at this for ages, sorry it's coming so far after publication of the article. I have a few things like this in my drafts that are taking me a while to finish writing. I don't have the sustained resources to work on things for very long at a stretch these days.

Disclaimer: Please remember that this is an OPINION piece - my take on the article. I have no special insight, and everyone is free to form their own perspectives and responses. Don't take what I say as fact. It's just one opinion among many.

The photos

I have to start out by talking about the photos, because they truly set the tone for (and perfectly illustrate) the article.

These are not the typical magazine spread photos that a lot of fans are used to seeing. Here GG is practically unstyled. The GG you would see in his downtime. His hair is tousled, his clothing is very casual. His poses are also very casual. He looks like he could be just hanging around his hotel room scrolling through his phone.

These photos are such a gift. They feel so fresh and candid and relaxed. Total Boy Next Door. I absolutely love them.

What a relief to see these photos. Nothing ostentatious or overstyled, nothing aggressively brand-forward (some of what he is wearing is his own personal clothing). Just GG. I nearly fainted. 😅

The article

The original article can be found here, and there is a fan translation here.

My relief in seeing these sweet, casual photos of GG was matched only by my relief in reading the article.

To be honest I'm rarely very excited about the sorts of interviews or stories that accompany these types of magazine covers. They are generally fan servicey puff pieces that cater to a certain type of reader - the kind of people who want to become more invested in an idol fantasy.

They tend to be fairly overtly PR pieces, aimed at positioning the idol in an appealing and often romantic, personable way that makes them more accessible to their fans.

I have often been dismissive of interview statements that other fans have taken to heart, which has caused some friction at times, but what can I say? I think a lot of what's typically covered is awkward, fake and fan servicey. I talk a little bit about that in this post.

I didn't go into reading this article with any particular expectation, except that my expectations were low and I wasn't expecting any surprises. But, much to my surprise, I found a smart, interesting, poetic, uncompromising look at a side of GG that we've rarely seen.

My biggest takeaway from this article was that GG wanted to dampen, rather than fan the flames of, fan fantasies about him; to give people a more realistic sense of who he is and what he's about.

I have rarely been prouder of him than when reading this article. It feels like with this interview he is setting boundaries and putting his honest self forward despite expectations and even demands about who he should be and what he should represent.

Sidebar Rant About Fan Culture

Sometimes I see GG's life as being like an episode of Black Mirror. He is a protagonist who has been strangled by his own fame, in some ways held hostage by people who believe that they made him who he is and put him where he is (despite the role they've frequently played in holding him back).

The situation for stars at his level is pretty crazy. Fans genuinely believe that they know better than their idols what is best for them and their careers, and they will - totally unironically and with a straight face - deliver lists of demands and conditions to their idol and their idol's management team that they expect to be met if the star hopes to maintain their love and support.

These demands can be quite detailed. How they want the management team to be structured, the types of projects they want the artist to take, the types of statements they want their idol to make, etc. It's insane.

And GG's fans have been especially difficult, because they are very deeply invested in old school ideas about fan culture that are no longer viable in the current climate. Pushing traffic, 'comment control' and 'clarification' (aka fan wars), attacking anyone they perceive to be a rival or opportunist or anyone they believe isn't treating GG how they think he should be treated (despite having no access whatsoever to verified information about how he's being treated - i.e. it's all based on their assumptions). Using dirty - even dangerous - tactics to try to harm rival fandoms, regardless of how much that puts GG at risk.

Despite the fact that their behavior has caused problems for him in the past. Despite the fact that he has repeatedly begged them to stop behaving the way they do. Despite the fact that his career has nearly been killed by this type of behavior. Despite the fact that there has been a seismic shift in how fan culture is being treated in China, and despite the policies that have been put in place to curtail some of that behavior. They just don't seem to have gotten the memo.

They have learned absolutely nothing from their past mistakes.

Increasingly, they do not seem to have his deeper interests at heart. At times they appear to be supporting him for their own vanity, clout and sense of accomplishment rather than genuinely loving him for who he is. They seem to take more pride in their ability to bring traffic, out-vote other fandoms and move brand merchandise than in who this sweet, smart man is and what he does.

They actively push some of the most toxic, hateful ideas you can find in fandom. They are some of the key drivers behind the whole 'desperate illiterate' hate campaign against DD, and in so doing put both GG and DD's careers at risk. They are constantly spreading hate and lies about DD and trying to bring scandal upon him. Any time an anti-DD campaign surfaces online, they jump on it and fuel it to the best of their ability.

These are people who have had so many opportunities to grow and change, and emulate GG's kindness and maturity, but have repeatedly failed the assignment.

Being a star can't be easy

I often wonder how GG really feels about his fans. How much of the fan culture mayhem he's fed up with, and how much of it he's taken in stride as part of the job. I know it drives me crazy, but he's obviously got a better perspective on it all and would be a lot more accustomed to it all.

As I said in a previous post, I think we need to treat the idea that he absolutely adores his fans with some degree of skepticism. There's a very real noose around his neck, and that can't feel great. I personally believe he wants to loosen that hold a bit.

With this article GG seems to be saying, "Here I am. Support me or move on, but this is the real me."

He seems to be setting some boundaries and giving fans a glimpse behind the curtain at the real him. He is challenging them to accept him for who he really is, or move on.

I feel like he is taking cautious steps toward loosening some of the stranglehold fans have over his career.

GG is a smart, savvy person. I have no doubt that he is well aware of the assumptions about him. I don't think it was an accident that this interview broke down some of those assumptions.

I love him so much. He continually blows me away with how sharp and tough he is.

Disillusionment and growth

Of course, that's not the entire story of the article. There is some alienation and loneliness here. Frustration and struggle with identity.

One of the most powerful lines in the entire article was when he said that he works for this Xiao Zhan guy as well. When he talks about not knowing anymore which GG is real and which is the persona.

"There are two Xiao Zhans, one of them is here, that’s me. There is another Xiao Zhan, the Xiao Zhan in quotes, but he is probably not me anymore. We are all working for him, including myself."

I admit I was surprised by how fractured he sounded. Not surprised that some of this has happening - that is totally to be expected given his fame - but surprised that he'd talk so openly about it. He's not normally so candid about his personal experience of fame, or about its emotional/psychological impacts on him. In his post-2/27 interviews he brushed off any notion of the emotional burden it was placing on him, for example, even though it would have been understandable had he admitted it.

What stands out to me in all of this is how powerfully he is distancing himself from his idol image and showing a mature, serious, in many ways ordinary person. How boldly he is reminding the audience that there is more to him than meets the eye.

Some might read that as cynical and jaded - the star who is playing the game by performing a role that's separate from himself. I read it as the opposite. I read it as self-actualizing and self-preserving. He doesn't believe his own hype. He is just doing a job, working for this persona, while maintaining his own integrity and independence despite all the pressure to perform and be perfect.

The mountain was such a powerful image. Climbing the mountain as a child and seeing it as this nearly insurmountable ordeal, and then later as an adult feeling like he can take a couple of long strides and be at the top. It is such a metaphor for his career and his success. And that speaks of a certain amount of demystification and disillusionment surrounding his dreams.

It was reminiscent of the line, "Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true" from The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell.

Certain jobs, when taken on, become something completely different from what we thought we signed up for.

I have often been asked why I don't open a restaurant. I always jokingly give them this very earnest and serious answer, "Because I like to cook."

If I were to open a restaurant, food would be among the least of my concerns every day. I would have to deal with marketing, I would have to deal with staff and the day-to-day running of the facility, supplies, vendor relationships, finances and management. Food would be very low on the list of things I'd have time to concern myself with.

I feel like the same has happened for GG. He thought he was becoming a singer or an actor, when it turns out he was becoming a celebrity instead. Those are totally different jobs, with totally different demands, activities and limitations.

He enjoys taking on new roles and learning new things and expanding on his skills and working on interesting projects. I doubt very much that he enjoys managing a persona, or navigating fan expectations, or addressing yet another fan-created scandal. I doubt very much he enjoys being held to the standards the top traffic star position puts him under. I doubt he enjoys the restrictions it places on his career or on his personal life.

I doubt he enjoys the limitations on what he is able to show of himself in that job.

Having the kind of job where you have to hang up your personality at the door like an overcoat every day when you walk in - that's a lonely, lonely world to be in. Soul-destroying.

I have long felt that this situation isn't sustainable for GG over the long term. I have wondered what he will do to shift things into a more comfortable, more stable existence for himself. I feel like this article gives me some ideas about that. And it is a relief to read because I get the sense that he is fully aware of that problem, and working to address it for himself so that he can continue doing what he most enjoys - acting and performing.

We have all had these theories - I'm sure most of us have, anyway - that he is trying to shed the idol image, the 'traffic star' image at least to some degree so that he can be accepted as a serious actor with a serious career.

This is a common career path for idols who want to stay in the industry past their idol shelf life. But it's one thing to believe GG might be working on that, and another to feel like I can see him taking brave steps in that direction.

Some surprises, some not

There were some things that surprise me from this interview, and some things that I was not surprised by.

One thing that really stood out to me is how much his real personality shines through. The smart, witty, intense GG we've all seen in The Untamed BTS and in some of his XNINE activities. It was a surprise. I guess I was expecting to see the persona GG - not the real GG. It was so good to see him that I nearly got choked up.

This is the GG that is very no bullshit; blunt and honest. This was the GG who outed DD for using his own meme pictures or for sending him too many selfies. This is the GG who firmly stated he wanted the het scenes deleted. The GG who was very forthright, clever and affectionately prickly with his XNINE brothers.

GG has said in the past that he is not as sweet and sentimental as his fans think he is, that behind the scenes he can actually be ruthless and demanding. This is the GG we've caught glimpses of and that he is talking about in that statement. The real, unvarnished GG.

I didn't dare hope that he would be so candid. He is usually so image-conscious. Not 'fake' by any means, but conscious of how he is coming across and careful not to offend. But in this article he has brought himself unapologetically to the forefront and for that I love and applaud him.

Another surprise for me was when he was talking about how he handles his inner struggles. I was surprised when he said that he doesn't like to talk through his problems. I had always assumed that - as a very authentic, emotionally intelligent, compassionate, personable person - he would be the kind of guy who would reach out to others during times of need.

Instead he said that he doesn't like to talk about his issues. He had such clear and rational explanations for why that even though I can't relate to his approach, I can understand it. This approach can be interpreted as self-contained, self-sufficient and pragmatic. 'If it can be fixed, fix it. If it can't, set it aside. No point talking about it.'

There's something very Zen about letting go of what you can't immediately change, rather than dwelling on it or digging into ruminations about it.

I also found his rationale for avoiding other people's confidences interesting. He 'doesn't want to be a suspect', he 'doesn't want to be burdened by other people's secrets'. I can definitely see how his approach could prevent people from getting caught up in each other's drama, and his mindset reflects healthy boundaries that can help preserve friendships.

I can see GG's characteristic cautious self-protectiveness in this approach. He's smart, strategic and - based on many things he's said in this interview - quite introverted. This approach serves all those aspects of his personality.

There's that old saying, "loose lips sink ships" and that is especially true for someone so much in the public eye. It's good that he has the sense to keep his mouth shut about personal things.

There is wisdom to that approach. It reminds me of the old nursery rhyme about the owl:

A wise old owl sat in an oak, The more he heard, the less he spoke; The less he spoke, the more he heard; Why can't we be more like that wise old bird?

Having said all that, I don't personally share the same view or the same approach in my own life. I am very much someone who likes to talk things through, and who likes to be a listening ear and a support to others as well.

I think there is a lot to be said for the way this type of communication can deepen relationships, help people better understand each other and become more bonded. Sharing burdens, sharing feelings, sharing confidences. It's riskier but the rewards can be significant.

A lot of the biggest problems in the world come from lack of communication or from crossed wires. Talking with others face to face is a great way to clear up confusion and help people stay connected and bonded.

Being the sort of person people can confide in and who talks about things that are on my mind - this really enriches my life. Although I feel like GG has done a great job of making his approach make sense to me, and even seem appealing in ways.

I want to caution people from over-interpreting these statements from him to assuming GG is uncommunicative with DD. As someone who lives with a partner who is exactly like GG when it comes to 'talking about things', I think it's highly likely that GG has a different approach with those few people who are closest to him. There's a pretty big difference between being emotionally and socially open with friends and colleagues, and being emotional and intimate with a partner.

An ordinary boy

The article focuses a lot on his childhood and some of the nostalgia and memories of his past. It's so interesting and illuminating to read about where he came from, and about the parts of that ordinary boy that survived through to adulthood. The geography of the city and the buildings are used as a metaphor for the changes in his life.

He started out in the factory district, in low grey concrete buildings full of vibrancy and activity, passed through a rainy uphill commute and ended up among shining glass skyscrapers. What a journey he has been on, and he's only 31 years old!

The fact that he's been able to maintain his integrity and authenticity and avoid being devoured by the persona - that's such a testament to his character. He really is the whole package. Smart, strong, determined, sweet, compassionate, ruthless, creative, introspective, pragmatic, down-to-earth, cautious. I have always appreciated his breadth as a person. He is very multi-dimensional.

I've talked about that a bit in the past. It's part of why I feel so frustrated sometimes when fans have really shallow, superficial, fan-fictiony takes on his personality. The sweet, soft-hearted aesthete. The tragic beleaguered victim. The playful, cute, dorky romantic. The sexy, saucy, light-hearted, effeminate artist.

None of these takes can even scratch the surface of who he really is. The more I know about him the less I think I know, but I at least know one thing: he's so much more than fans give him credit for.

Florist GG AU

I wasn't remotely surprised to hear that he sometimes thinks of quitting. Even fans sometimes daydream about him quitting. Getting his life back, getting his freedom back. Living a quieter life. Surely there are many times when he is reminded of everything he is sacrificing to do what he does. Times when it feels like too high a price to pay.

But reading this article, I can honestly say that I feel he is up to the task he's taken on. He really does know who he is and what he wants, and he has all of the integrity, emotional and psychological strength to make the most of this career.

My hope that he will start to shed some of the toxic traffic fans and build a stronger, more enduring, more rational fanbase. That he will begin to break free of the shackles of stratospheric popularity and settle into a more stable, satisfying career as a respected actor.

AND SINGER. PLEASE GG! 🥹

It was such a great article, and I feel like I got a glimpse of something new about him that I did not know, which is so rare. I feel like I've been gifted more insight into him, and I have so much gratitude for his willingness to share that with us all.

Regarding candy

A few people wrote me in a big panic over 'what this article meant' for GG and DD's relationship. They had worked themselves up into a state where they felt that if GG and DD were in a relationship, GG wouldn't have said or felt the things he did in the article.

Glass-hearted turtles will need to transform themselves into tortoise-shelled turtles, or they will not survive this fandom. And frankly, those kinds of takes on things sometimes reflect a lack of life experience or realistic understanding of GG and DD as ordinary humans in a relationship.

Some turtles seem to view everything from or about GG and DD as either proof that they're a couple, or proof they are not, with no neutral content and no in betweens. In short, they look at everything GG and DD-related to see what kind of candy it is. And the thing they need to get through their heads is

👉🏻 almost nothing from or about GG or DD will actually be a candy. 👈🏻

Anyone who has ever been in a serious long term relationship knows, there's actually very little about our day-to-day lives that revolves around our partner. My interests and hobbies, most of my social interactions, certainly everything about my work has absolutely nothing to do with my partner. He almost never comes up as a topic or factor in any of it.

And yet we are happily married, and have been for a long time.

As I am frequently saying, GG and DD are individuals first, a couple second. We need to love and respect them in that same order.

This article is about GG and his career. It's an important article about his inner life experience as a celebrity. It has absolutely nothing to do with DD. I find it baffling why anyone would expect it to.

If you are looking for candy, most of the time you will find no candy. If that causes you pain, you are in the wrong fandom. GG and DD aren't here to give us candy. They aren't here to prove anything. Nor should we be. They don't owe us anything. Certainly not 'proof of life' in their relationship.

If you read that article and didn't get that message, then you missed the entire point of the article. GG was saying to everyone, "I'm not just what people think they see, I'm not just what people expect or what they want me to be, underneath I'm a real human being."

Turtles who remember that, and who are able to love GG and DD as individuals, will be longer-lived and happier.

GG and DD's relationship is for and about them. It exists for each other, not for us. I've no doubt they appreciate the love and support turtles give them, but it's not their job to feed us. It's not their job to be trained ponies prancing around for our amusement. They don't owe us anything. Certainly not any candy about their relationship.

More on fan expectations and black-and-white thinking here.

#ggdd interviews #king gg #personal #fandom reflections #solos belong to moling su sect

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markantonys · 5 months

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I’ve never watched wheel of time but I will say that I think something to be said for the debate about costuming is that the game of thrones costumes were INSANE when it came to quality and detail. At least in the first few seasons they were hand-sewn, hand-embroidered, etc. There was a big coffee table type book about them that broke down a lot of the choices the costume designers and department made and the quality of that department still blows me away!!! They were gorgeous and complex and took so much of the worldbuilding and politics into account!

And from what I’ve seen, it seems like the Wheel of Time costumes do the same, it’s just that they draw from very different references and eras!! Maybe there will be some kind of bts/special feature breakdown of what they referenced and the different ideas they drew from for the costuming for WOT. That seems like it would be a good time. It’s really annoying and really unfortunate that a lot of people refuse to see past their own preconceptions of what fantasy means. I’m sorry that so many people are making assumptions about fantasy costuming in your notes, especially. It’s a genre that spans much wider than lotr and game of thrones! Perhaps more people should. Idk. Engage with it more and find that out. Maybe that would fix them.

yeah!! haha it really was just 2 complaints in my notes on a gifset that otherwise had universal gushing about how much people loved the costumes, so thankfully most people are enjoying the WOT costumes (and not being annoying in my notes) and i was definitely being dramatic in my complaints about the complaints! still, there's something to be said about how ingrained ideas of "this is what fantasy costumes are Supposed to look like" are in us, when fantasy as a genre MEANS there's no set definition of what ANYTHING is "supposed" to be.

i didn't watch GOT but i've seen plenty of gifs etc over the years, of course, and the costumes are absolutely beautiful and very detailed! and from what i understand, the books were going for a medieval europe type of vibe for the main kingdoms and so in that respect the show's costumes definitely understood the assignment (tho ofc with their own added Fantasy Flavor). the downside is that they were so influential that it's made a lot of people subconsciously think that that is THE fantasy aesthetic (along with LOTR), and thus anything too different looks out of place to them.

there have been a couple WOT costume bts features that i've seen, and the designers did indeed do similar things where they showed how much stuff was handmade and how detailed everything is, and they talked about taking inspiration from many different real-world cultures & time periods as well! a lot of which is based on the way the author described clothes in the books and the real-world fashion influences he was using. i remember in a season 1 bts the costume designer had a map of WOT's world color-coded according to which real-world cultures are the primary inspirations for the dress of each region of WOTworld (although i think it's a different costume designer for season 2 so i don't know if they adhered 100% to the s1 designer's notes).

to conclude, here are some caps from a scene in s1 that features a large international gathering (same color=same wizard faction, but within each faction are women of many different cultures, so you can see for example that our 4 blue ladies are wearing 4 very different styles). i wouldn't say these are the best costumes in the show because season 2 really took it up a notch (hello, higher budget!), but this particular scene is a great quick illustration of the wide variety of styles going on in the vast continent of WOTworld and of how much detail goes into costumes even for nameless background characters. and most of them do feature the sort of clean lines/angularity that makes our brains go "modern", and most of them do look quite different from the GOT & LOTR aesthetics!

#one of these days i'd love to make a 'fav s2 costumes' gifset but there's so many to choose from i wouldn't even know where to start!#anonymous #answered

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lizzybeth1986 · 3 months

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Headcanon: Sloane's Kids - Hamza, Artemis, Orion and Zohreh

(FC: Sloane Washington (center) - Nelly Muse)

Everyone who has read my fics kinda knows I have three separate universes for PM, with some commonalities. One in which my MC dates only Hayden, and two in which they date all the LIs. Hayden and Sloane in two of these universes also actively date other people. So in all universes, Khaan is someone Sloane has a relationship with, as well as Alana. I do plan to develop a "childhood sweetheart"-like character for her sometime in the future as well. So Hamza definitely is like a firstborn child to her, even though Khaan and Sloane don't exactly marry.

Sloane has three other children, twins from a fertility treatment as well as one daughter with Khaan many years later.

I see Sloane starting out trying to emulate Kim because she's such a fantastic role model, but she eventually gets her own groove and realizes she will be a different kind of parent and that's okay. Where Kim was more intuitive, Sloane is a consummate planner and she does bring that kind of energy into her parenting.

Tagging @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek and @sazanes for SWAW Day 2: Written in the Stars (since all Sloane's kids are named after certain celestial bodies).

Hamza Mousavi

(FC: Anthony Cyrus Keyvan)

• Born to an Iranian father and a Filipino mother, Hamza spent his first five years constantly moving house because his father Khaan constantly feared that Hamza would be targeted by Eros. Most of those early years feel like a bit of a blur in later life, because once the group entered their lives, things became far more settled for them.

• Hamza took an instant liking to Sloane the moment he saw her. She was shy and smart, was always sweet to him and tried to make healthy treats he would like, and clearly adored his dad. He definitely encouraged Khaan a bit to ask her out (in all universes).

• Hamza obviously is the oldest of the kids that came from the group, and revels in that fact. He is quite fond of bossing the kids around a little 😄

• His dinosaur-love eventually becomes a fascination for mythical beasts in general in later years. Unsurprisingly, his favourite genre for books is fantasy.

• At some point, Sloane revives her writing hobby, and starts writing books for children. Largely with Nadia's encouragement (she promises to do illustrations if Sloane completes a manuscript). Hamza very enthusiastically becomes the test audience for her first book before she sends it to publishers!

• Hamza got his love for healthy treats and a balanced diet from his father Khaan. It's an interest he grows up with. As an adult, he becomes a very sought-after nutritionist (to the initial chagrin of his siblings and cousins 😂)

Artemis Washington

(FC - Arsema Thomas)

• Artemis and her twin brother Orion were born around 3 and a half years after the events of the second book. Like her mother Kim, Sloane did want to have kids at that point, but wasn't ready to have a kid with the people she was dating. She did talk it over with them tho and instantly had everyone's support before she took the plunge.

• The names were of course a suggestion from all the Hayden's in all my universes 😄 Mostly coz Sloane had always loved that story, even before they came along.

• Arty loved to mix and match different pieces in her outfits from the time she was a kid, including a phase where she wanted to wear colourful underwear over her onesies at home coz it made her look like Superman. She was also known for layering different clothes over each other - there was a point at age 4 where she wore a onesie, wore a T-shirt over that, wore bright rainbow leggings over THAT, and completed that look with unicorn-printed shorts. In summer.

• She gets into haircare and makeup as an adult. Loves testing out different products and inventing new looks. I think she builds a brand of her own much later in her late 20s, when she is more confident of her expertise in the business.

• Her favourite film is the animated beauty "Hair Love".

Orion Washington

(FC - Kelvin Harrison Jr)

• Sloane always feels that Ori took after his Nana Kim in a lot of ways

• He loves cooking, and when he gets older loves experimenting with teas!

• Like Sloane, his favourite meal is also a DC Smoke.

• He loved being in the kitchen, loved mixing and matching things there. Sloane, Khaan and Alana would often find grapes in their cups of tea/coffee, an innovation 4 year old Ori would take pride in 😂

• Cooking is really this guy's love language. He does grow up to become a chef later on, joining culinary school early on.

• At some point both he and Hamza teamed up for a "Hello Fresh"-like initiative, where Orion would devise affordable and healthy meal kits, while Hamza assisted with consulting for meal plans!

Zohreh Washington-Mousavi

(FC- Yara Shahidi)

• Zo is five years younger than Artemis and Orion, and fourteen years Hamza's junior. The three of them did spoil their baby sister quite a bit in the early years 😂 She could bat her eyelashes and get away with practically anything - that was also a perk of being the youngest among the entire group of kids!

• Like her twin siblings, Zo's name was also astronomy-based. Artemis is a Greek name for the moon goddess, Orion is a constellation and Zohreh is the Persian name for Venus.

• The kids of the group (Hayden x MC's kids, Nadia and Steve's kids and Sloane and Khaan's kids) do have their own stargazing parties! All of them love looking out for rare astronomical finds, and have their fave constellations. Zo, tho, has a more scientific interest and cultivates it from an early age.

• Zohreh has her mother's interest in Astrophysics and both her parents' interest in tech, so she does actually enroll into NASA as an adult. She takes on a paid internship through the Pathways program after graduating, and that transitions into a full job there.

• Her favourite planetarium is the Hayden Planetarium in NY.

• Arty did plenty of hairstyling experiments on her baby sister as she reached her teens. That still doesn't change when they're adults and Zo has had a number of her friends vie and pay anything for her older sister's services after seeing her amazing hairstyles.

• Zo's fave dish that Orion has made is a Persian fusion dish - saffron chicken wings.

Family HCs:

• Sloane never actually marries, but she's pretty happy with the life she gets to live with the MC (in my poly universes), Khaan and regular visits from Alana.

• All my Haydens, and Sloane, are still close, and they're in fact is Orion's godmother/father in every universe. The MC is the same for Artemis. Nadia and Alana become Zo's godma's years later.

• As a kid Sloane always kept a stress corner for herself with things that would both calm her down and help her with stimming. She does keep one in the house for her kids and it really works for them.

• Hayden(s) kids, MC's kids, Sloane's kids and Nadia's kids all love to form their own group in every universe. Initially inspired by Hamza's stories about their parents, they also band together and envision scenarios where they can save the world 😁 Hamza is undoubtedly the leader haha, he keeps things from getting too out of hand.

• Sloane already looks up to Kim, but she does so even more after becoming a mother. She definitely does come to her for advice and suggestions from time to time.

Other HCs on the PM kids:

The Park-Young Kids (Hazel x Iris)

The Park-Tennyson Kids (Nadia x Steve)

#sloane washington #perfect match #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek #SWAW #SWAW Day 2 #SWAW Day 2: Written in the Stars #content: headcanon #lizzybeth1986

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xtruss · 1 month

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Forget 'Walking The Plank.' Pirate Portrayals—From Blackbeard to Captain Kidd—Are More Fantasy Than Fact.

How we think famous swashbucklers walked, talked, and dressed didn't come from the history books, so where did these pirate myths come from?

— By Jamie L. H. Goodall

An illustration from 19th-century artist Howard Pyle depicts a man being forced to walk the plank. Although there is no record of this type of punishment, it remains popular in pirate mythology. Photograph By Image Courtesy of Bridgeman Images

Say “pirate,” and people envision grizzled men with eye patches, parrots, and treasure maps. They picture buccaneers forcing their victims to walk the plank, and crying “Shiver me timbers” as they fly the Jolly Roger flag. It turns out, many of these stereotypes are not true. Pirates have been around for nearly as long as people have sailed the world’s waters, and, in fact, still exist. It’s just how they’ve been depicted that’s often misleading. So where did these misinterpretations come from?

A replica pirate ship cruising the Caribbean Sea near the Dominican Republic. Photograph By Thomas Grau, Alamy Stock Photo

Pirate Fashion

Pirates are commonly portrayed wearing colourful attire. He may sport as a loose-fitting shirt with a bandana around his head, a scarf around his waist, ripped pants, wearing tattered boots, like Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Or he may appear a bit foppish, much like Stede Bonnet, the "gentleman pirate" in the 2022 series Our Flag Means Death.

Common pop culture depictions of pirate garb, as shown here in this early 20th century artwork, are often based on fanciful descriptions of their attire and language. Photograph By Image Courtesy of Bridgeman Images

Unfortunately, these looks are just not true. Much of this ostentation came from American artist Howard Pyle, who took his inspiration from Spanish bandits of the late 19th century. Sailors in the 18th century, pirates included, wore things such as loose pants cut off at the knee and thigh-length blouses.

Prosthetic limbs are another common pirate trait. It’s true some pirates had a wooden leg or hook hand, though it probably wasn’t the norm. More often than not, amputations at sea were likely a death sentence. While ships carried medicine chests, and medical care was often meted out by someone on the crew, infection and blood loss could lead to death. Even if a pirate survived an amputation, his ability to fight would be limited. But losing a limb didn’t mean one could not continue on the ship; the person might serve the crew, for instance, as a cook.

Many pirate clichés stem from the 1950 film 'Treasure Island,' featuring Robert Newton as the fictional pirate Long John Silver. Photograph By United Archives GMBH, Alamy Stock Photo

Pirate Talk

Common pirate phrases—such as Arrrrr me mateys!” and “Shiver me timbers!”—are common in pirate movies and pop culture. But they’re not legitimate things a pirate would actually have said. Robert Louis Stevenson imagined some of them for his 1883 novel Treasure Island, published more than 150 years after the “golden age” of piracy.

The trope of talking like a pirate is mostly a product of 20th-century Hollywood. In particular, British actor Robert Newton, who played both Blackbeard and Long John Silver. His portrayal of the fictional captain in the 1950s rendition of Treasure Island used an exaggeration of his own West Country accent and would define the sound of a pirate's accent. His portrayal also popularised many of the sayings associated with pirates today. In reality, pirates most probably spoke in a manner similar to all sailors of the time.

An artist imagines the often-willing markets pirates found throughout the Atlantic world for their stolen loot. Transatlantic trade was critical for the success of European colonies. Photograph By Gregory Manchess

Treasure, Buried or Otherwise

Captain Kidd may have buried his treasure, but that was a rare exception for most pirates. Typically, they spent their ill-gotten gains on women and alcohol at pirate-friendly ports as quickly as they could. Burying treasure would be dangerous due to shifting sands and tides, so one might easily lose their treasure. And there was a distinct lack of trust, not knowing if others might deceptively go back to dig up the treasure on their own.

Also, much of the loot pirates collected was not in the form of silver or gold. Such treasure would have been difficult to come by. The more common "booty" would have been whatever goods or commodities they could get their hands on, including timber, furs, silks, cotton, spices, and medical supplies. They also loaded up on items to perform necessary repairs on their ships, including cable, rigging, and sails.

Top Left: A gold bar and coins recovered from the Spanish galleon 'Las Maravillas' that wrecked in 1656 near the Bahamas. Photograph By Jeff Rotman, Nature Picture Library, Alamy Stock Photo Top Right: Prized Spanish coins, or pieces of eight, recovered from the wreck of the 'Whydah Gally'. Photograph By Zuma Press Inc., Alamy Stock Photo Bottom: Wooden treasure chests were typically studded with metal to reinforce them. Photograph By Andyroland, IStock, Getty Images

Pirate Codes

There is evidence that many pirate crews adopted a code of honour or articles of agreement, mostly to keep order on board the ship. These codes dealt with everything from how to divvy up loot, to what happened to pirates if they became injured in the line of duty, to how bad behaviour would be dealt with, to how prisoners would be treated. Some pirate articles have survived to this day, including the code of Englishman George Lowther and his crew, which, for example, compensated a person who lost a limb during a skirmish.

The 1724 articles of Captain John Phillips of the 'Revenge' discuss matters such as theft on board the ship and compensation for limbs lost during battle. Photograph By British Library Board. All Rights Reserved, Bridgeman Images

If a pirate violated the code, it is unlikely they were made to "walk the plank." Little to no historical evidence exists to support that practice, which was largely pulled from fiction, including Treasure Island. If victims were punished in some way, it was typically via keelhauling. Keelhauling was arguably a more hideous fate that involved an individual being tied to a rope and dragged under the ship. Victims of keelhauling either died by bleeding out from injuries inflicted by barnacles on the hull of the ship or by drowning. Other forms of punishment ranged from being thrown overboard to being lashed to being marooned on a desert isle.

Pirate Ships 🛳️ 🚢

Most pirates did not sail Spanish galleons, or even the frigates such as Captain Jack Sparrow’s Black Pearl. They favoured small, more manoeuvrable vessels, which allowed easy escape from larger warships that chased them. During the 16th and 17th centuries, sloops were the most common choice for pirates. They were quick and had a shallow draft, making easier escape into shallow waters. Schooners were another favourite of pirates. Similar to sloops, schooners were fast, simple to manoeuvre, and could easily hide in estuaries because of their shallow draft.

Top: A replica of the 17th-century Spanish galleon 'Neptune'. Photograph By Volodymyr Dvornyk, Shutterstock Middle: A crew raises the anchor from what is believed to be the remains of the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship, 'Queen Anne’s Revenge.' It was discovered in Beaufort Inlet, in Carteret County, North Carolina. Photograph By AP Photo, Robert Willett, The News & Observer

Bottom Left: The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Hampshire, England, displays a Jolly Roger that once belonged to Admiral Richard Curry, who seized it from pirates off the North African coast in 1790. Photograph By Andrew Matthews, Getty Images Bottom Right: Coves, such as this one near Bridgetown, Barbados, would have made perfect hideouts for pirates. Photograph By Fabio Mauri, Eyeem, Getty Images

And, despite popular myth, most pirates did not fly the famous Jolly Roger—a skull and crossbones symbol on a black flag. Some flew a black flag, which meant the pirate was willing to give quarter, while a red flag meant blood and certain death. Blackbeard’s flag showed a skeleton holding a spear pointing at a bleeding heart. Pirate crews also often held the flags of several different nations so they could raise a particular flag to signal being “friendly” to a passing ship, only to raise their pirate flag once they were in close enough range to attack said vessel.

Pirate Fights

One thing that most of the pop culture depictions of pirates got somewhat right is that they liked versatile weapons. Cutlasses, short swords with a slightly curved blade, could be used to effectively fight in the confined areas of a ship and could also be used to butcher meat.

Top: Bar shot were common tools for pirates, who used them at close range to destroy the rigging and sails of enemy ships. Due to the weights on either end of the bars, they would spin uncontrollably after being fired from a cannon. Bottom: This musket’s barrel and stock were cut down, likely so a pirate could more easily use it in close combat. Photographs By Kenneth Garrett

Pirates also enjoyed using a gun known as a blunderbuss. It had a distinct flared muzzle that sprayed small lead balls at intended victims. Cannons were also common onboard pirate ships. They could be loaded with chain shot (two cannonballs chained together), grapeshot (small cannonballs), or basic cannonballs. Their targets often didn’t stand a chance.

While books, movies, and popular culture may have taken liberty with descriptions of pirates through the ages, these pillagers have terrorised the seas for more than 2,000 years in one form or another, plundering victims and striking fear into their hearts. The most recent pirates work off the coasts of Somalia and Malaysia, looking far different from the “golden age” of piracy depictions. But one thing remains true: They are just as intimidating.

The 18th-century painting 'Anne Bonny, Female Pirate' by Fortunino Matania depicts Anne Bonny and an accomplice taking two sailors prisoner. Photograph By Image Courtesy of Historia, Shutterstock

#Culture | History #Pirate Portrayals #Blackbeard | Captain Kidd #Fantasy | Fact #Pirate Mythology #Pirate Ship 🛳️ 🚢#Pirate Garb #Fanciful | Descriptions #Attire Language #Treasure Island #Transatlantic Trade #European Colonies #Bahamas 🇧🇸

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dribs-and-drabbles · 2 years

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My top ten of Pat's shirts (revised)

10. Cheney/Kennedy - ep 1

This shirt is fabulous on two levels - one being how ridiculous it is and the other being the subtle foreshadowing of Pat getting shot later in the series, and not actually drowning which we were afraid the conversation on the beach in ep 6 might have been suggesting. It's both loud and subtle but that's what makes it so great.

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9. Elephants - ep 11

The beauty of this shirt is that it's so simple. 'An elephant never forgets'. A lot of episode 11 is about Pat and Pran running away from their lives -> forgetting about their families, the lies they discovered, and the fear for their relationship once they go back. Pat also slowly realises that Pran is, and will always be, unable to forget his parents despite Pran being there for Pat and allowing Pat this moment of fantasy. They also both spend much of the time at the beach not talking about any of this, avoiding the subject - i.e. the 'elephant in the room' - instead distracting themselves with other things.

A bonus with this shirt is that whilst Pat is wearing it, Junior has a t-shirt which connects back to the next shirt in this list, 'California'.

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8. California - ep 10

Another seemingly ridiculous shirt actually has a deeper interpretation. The slogan on the shirt is for a German drug store (we later see Pat and Pran get caught by Pat's parents in a supermarket) and refers to a famous quote from a monologue Faust makes on a walk about the beauty of nature and how he can only truly be himself there, where no one is around. This could be foreshadowing ep 11 where Pat and Pran run away to the beach, to nature, to somewhere where they can truly be themselves and where no one else around knows them. Some people have wondered why “California” was used instead of the name of the store, “DM”, well maybe it's because it connects to Junior’s “Malibu Beach California” t-shirt worn at the beach in ep 11.

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7. Your man? - ep 7

This one is wonderful for how blatant it is. Not only is Pat wearing his own blue underneath Pran's rich burgundy red - in a direct reversal and development of the Picasso-esque t-shirt (at no. 5 in this list) with a splodge of red over the heart, which Pat wore under a blue shirt when he realised his feelings for Pran in ep 5 - but the only two words visible on the shirt are "YOUR MAN?" Pat wears this when he uses his audition to confess to Pran, thus losing the bet. He says to Pran - as Riam - "You asked if I wanted to be friends? What if my answer is no?" Essentially, he's asking, "Am I/can I be your man?"

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6. Baseball Mom - ep 5

Like with the Cheney/Kennedy shirt, this one is fabulous for how ridiculous it is but also for the contrast it has to the poignancy of the scene. The deep red and blue of Pat's pants and top beautifully illustrate the depth of his feelings for Pran, and the fact that the word "Baseball" almost blends in with the blue behind it shows how close Pat and Pran are to becoming a couple, a union, themselves. The loudness of the "mom" in white, however, perhaps symbolises the obstacle they face in being open with their eventual relationship and a big reason why Pran left Pat alone.

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5. Picasso-esque print - ep 5

This is the first of three shirts that Pat wears during ep 5 that has Pran's red over his heart, and more importantly he wears this one during his wonderful Oh moment about his feelings for Pran. The blue shirt (his own colour) that he wears over the top partially obscures the red and illustrates how his feelings for Pran existed under the surface but took a while to be revealed. Even here they weren't fully realised, out in the open. It was only after being jealous of Wai's closeness to Pran later in the ep that he really understood the hold Pran had on his heart, and then his feelings fully blossomed...much like the orange/red flower on the pineapple shirt during the later fight scene.

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4. Golden gate bridge - ep 9

This shirt is incredible for many reasons: first it has Pran's red, Pat's own blue, and a bridge lit up with yellow lights (which I interpreted as symbolising their love and happiness). As a whole, this shirt illustrates how Pat becomes the bridge between the two faculties during the ep, and more importantly between Pran and Wai (I mean, he got himself shot because of Wai). Not only that, the bridge itself is an iconic image of the power of collaboration between architecture and engineering.

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3. Salome - ep 4

As far as I can tell, the name 'Salome' and the Picasso painting don't originally belong together - so this fantastic shirt seems purposely designed, perhaps by the show's production team. The Picasso painting, Portrait of Sabartes, alludes to Pat being a 'faithful dog' who follows Pran around and sings his praises (Picasso and Sabartes were also lifelong friends and born in the same year). And 'Salome' alludes to Ink being the 'faen fatale' of the show, emphasised by Pat wearing this when it was implied that Ink might be a love interest for him, as well as Pat's repressed emotions and his gradual realisation of them. This post explains this incredible shirt in more detail.

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2. Proud to be a Noles Hater - ep 7

Another shirt ridiculed by many but which upon a closer look proved to be incredible. The slogan symbolises the layered themes of rivalry and pride infused throughout the show - from their families and faculties to the play and each other, and is also a tongue-in-cheek joke of the fact that Pat and Pran are not the rivals they're made out to be (although they love a bit of competition). These themes are emphasised further by a few more t-shirts that Pat wears following this one, and which are explained in more detail here.

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1. Overlapping leaves - ep 4

The sheer genius of this shirt is that it doesn't look like anything special at first glance. It's only when Ink's and Pran's coinciding tops are also taken into account that its brilliance shines...and to some extent the Salome shirt as well (since the colour also connects to Ink's top). The overlapping leaf design in the shirt has two colours - one a creamy mustard yellow and the other a light grey/blue. These are the two colours that Ink and Pran wear respectively in their scenes with Pat during the episode - indicating Pat's divided affections for them, with one fading and the other growing.

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This is an updated version of this post, remade for #BADBUDDYWEEK

Day 5, Favourite Dynamic: Me and all of Pat's shirts 💪🏼

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staydandy · 1 year

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Island (2022-2023) - 아일랜드 - Whump List

List by StayDandy Synopsis : Evil took its first step to destroy the world. On the mysterious Jeju Island, Ban, a mix of human and monster; Won Mi Ho, the one in the center of fate; and Johan, the one who exercises God's power, come together. A strange, yet captivating, action-packed exorcism fantasy in which they fight evil, share the fate of saving the world, and defy their own. (P1: MDL, P2: MDL)

Whumpee : Ban/Van played by Kim Nam Gil (left) • Johan / Kang Chan Hyuk played by Cha Eun Woo (right)

Country : 🇰🇷 South Korea Genres : Action, Thriller, Horror, Fantasy

Notes : This is a Full Whump List for both Parts 1 & 2 (it was seriously wholly unnecessary for them to split it into 2 parts) • Adapted from the webtoon "Island" (아일랜드) written by Yoon In Wan (윤인완) and illustrated by Yang Kyung Il (양경일). • Ban is almost an immortal being - he has the ability to self-heal. I did not include moments when Ban heals immediately & doesn't show pain; like it didn't even remotely bother him .. I don't really count stuff like that as whump ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Episodes on List : 6 Total Episodes : 12 (6 per Part)

*Spoilers below*

Part 1 : 04 : Johan is strangled … Ban is tied up, the restraints burn him … Johan is choked

05 : … continued from previous ep. ... Choked … Ban stabs his own arm

06 : Johan is thrown against a wall … Ban is hit by a fireball, choked against a wall … collapses, coughs up blood.. passes out … Johan is stabbed ( ? or rather, punched through his stomach), thrown against a wall, coughing up blood

Part 2 : 04 : Ban is in a fight, spits blood.. stabbed in the back

05 : Johan is in a fight; coughs up blood, choked … found, hanging pierced through the chest on a broken piece of steel, bleeding heavily, passes out

06 : Bandaged, on a ventilator, nightmare of being beat in the fight … Ban is stabbed … (YAS!! I've been waiting for some bad-ass Johan!! Go get 'em!) Johan, still heavily bandaged, joins the fight, gains new wounds throughout … Ban forces his way through a magical barrier that continuously hurts/burns him … stabbed through the chest … killed/destroyed by the magical barrier successfully being built … Johan now wears a hearing aid after his hearing was damaged during the fight

More Whump Lists for this show: love-me-a-lotta-whump

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heychief · 10 months

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(odette and art belong to @ohnopeepo, used with permission!)

(nsfw, remy/odette - fem pc)

“Steady, flower.” Remy tells her with a peaceful smile that betrays none of the man’s hunger. It’s easy for him to lie to Odette; it’s easy for Remy to lie to all people, but the girl especially - she is too good, too beautiful, too important for the truth, he thinks. A doe scatters at the sight of a hunter’s gun or the glint of a wolf’s grin, even if those weapons are promises of safety, not danger. He lies to her with a steady hand sliding up her thigh and fingers that trace the contour of her stocking where it dents her pale skin - with the calmness of his stare, as if he does not yearn to brand his name into her skin and begin shaping her into a higher perfection.

Odette is more guarded than she seems, but even she can’t know the way he’s set the scene perfectly for her. The cologne he is wearing made from the pink lichen that grows deep within the lake makes her head just fogged enough to be pliant but not so much as to make her feel any loss of control. Like this is all her idea. The bed around them is massive, as ornate as an illustration from one of the fairy tales she used to read as a child - the ones with princes and princesses, with damsels locked in faraway towers and the knights who come to rescue them, the beasts who locked them away in gilded cages. She feels herself reaching across her own body before she recognizes she is doing it, loosening the tie in her blonde-pink hair to let it cascade down her shoulders at rest. Odette likes the way Remy’s mouth quirks into something more like a smirk when she does; she knows his expressions are rehearsed, practiced, and that there’s something more genuine about the way his face cracks around his own desire when he sees her on display. It’s a nice kind of attention - for a moment, despite the haze in her head and the laziness of Remy’s touches, it almost feels like power.

“I wore the stockings you like.” Odette is tentative when she teases Remy. It’s not like the script she tries with clients - she wonders if she’s playing into her own fantasy, not his, when she chooses something she thinks he’ll like, imagining the murmur of approval on his lips and the faint falter of control when he presses his groomed face to her inner thigh where they’re on the storybook bed. There’s a hitch in her own breath when he leans in and kisses her stocking, kissing up the white fabric to the seam of it - where it’s just tight enough that it dents her unblemished and pale skin, turning flustered and red where his breath splays hot against her and beads sweat against the fabric. His breathing sounds coarse but he still looks so put together - not a hair out of place, no trembling in his smooth hands where they trace up her skin but never move to peel her clothing off. The man’s pants are tight enough that she thinks she can see the outline of his cock; she wonders if he’s growing hard, if the man who can have anything - anyone - gets excited when she’s sitting on his bed, dressed up for him.

She hopes he is. It makes her wet, almost uncomfortably so with how close Remy is to her panties when he kisses up her leg - close enough that as he looms towards her on the bed he parts her thighs a little more, as if to look. The man presses a smile to the line of her stocking again, rubbing his face against her and sighing, deeply. Contentedly.

“Very good, Odette.” Remy inches up further, allowing his mouth to taste not the pale fabric of her stockings but the bareness of her gentle skin. “You must be tense from school. You should relax. You’re safe, here.”

Should, but there’s no choice in it - he tells her to and she does, letting her head roll back against too-many pillows and staring up at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes. She doesn’t know where to rest her hands; Remy's hair feels too forward, so she lets them fall to either side of her body, limply, like she’s a doll posed in front of the man. His splaying breath moves further up her thigh until his head is nearly inside her school skirt; he’s never gone this far before, usually massaging her and kissing her legs until she’s drifted off to sleep and woken up later tucked into bed. It’s different this time, something about the faintest hint of teeth in his kisses and the ragged edge to his breathing - a mewing gasp bubbles from her throat when he reaches to roll her skirt up and put her further on display, admiring the sight with the same calm gaze with which he surveys his meadows of apple trees of fields of livestock.

It’s the same sort of firm, judging hand that reaches forward and traces the clothed mound of her entrance - following the light stitching of her panties down to where her arousal has lightly soiled the fabric. When he looks at her he makes sure to lock their eyes in a prolonged gaze; he wants her to know that he knows, that he will remedy this for her, that beneath his hands and in his bed she is cared for by her master’s hand. Remy keeps himself from unraveling with practiced composure; he will dwell on those thoughts later, when something less perfect is chained to his bed, fucking the hole of one of his cattle in an act of masturbation while he thinks about what it will be like to one day plunge his length into Odette’s soft pussy and claim her over and over, wise this time not to let her slip away. In the moment he resists the desire; instead, he traces two fingers lightly over the bottom of her panties, feeling her wetness and pushing his fingers up just enough to slightly press them into her lips. Odette can’t help but murmur a little gasp at the slowness of his touch and the intensity of his eerie-calm stare, like some inhuman focus has suddenly fallen upon him.

She wants to know what’s beneath. Seir taught her something about stealing a long time ago; no one locks a door with nothing behind it, Detty.

He knows this, too; he kisses at the threshold of her panties but does not peel them away, not yet, because everything must be perfect when it comes time to open that door himself. This is more than he’d usually grant himself; her scent is intoxicating, the wavering sound of her small breaths, his mouth forming quiet, blasphemous prayers against the softness of her thigh when he kisses her skin. It doesn’t bother him to know other men have seen this, but there’s a bile in the back of his throat as he thinks upon other men have yet to see this - that when she leaves this place she’ll stumble into the brothel, into a stranger’s car, into an alley where she can debase herself for an easy wallet of sullied bills that don’t deserve to touch her hands. He’ll fix that, later, just like he’ll fix anything. It doesn’t matter that he won’t be the first, but he will be the last - and that’s why he can be patient, now, and stop himself short with a tongue lapping sweat up her leg instead of pushing into her sweet cunt. All things in time. His fingers stroke over her covered pussy and pluck at the fabric as if he picks the strings of an instrument; even through her panties she can feel his touch is soft and warm, tracing circles over the small nub of her clit and applying the faintest pressure.

Odette feels dizzy, almost. He doesn’t speak; part of her wonders if this is really happening at all, the silence in the room only broken by her own muted moans and stifled whimpers, and the rare murmur of Remy’s own low breath. There’s a heat that pools in her abdomen and makes her want to twitch her feet and kicks her legs, but she tries to keep herself from squirming in place in the great big bed, but the stiller she lies the closer to her slick entrance Remy’s kisses drift and the more insistent his touch becomes. It feels like he’s taunting her, almost, or trying to coax something out - she’s afraid she doesn’t know what, that she’ll give it all the more easily because his face is too gentle, his hands too practiced, his smile between her thighs too much of a promise for the girl not to melt. He pushes one finger up and presses the stretching fabric of her underwear deeper into her cunt, so wet and desperate that arousal seeps through the fabric and wets Remy’s eager finger. He pushes in again - a little deeper this time - enough that if she still had a hymen to break, he’d be standing at the threshold of it. An inch more and he’d be fucking her.

He holds his finger there, pushing her own panties into her cunt, face leaning against a thigh glistening with spit from his tongue. It shouldn’t feel good; he’s not really fucking her, he’s not even touching her now - just barely filling her, moving his finger forward at a snail’s pace, but never in enough to really penetrate. It’s not the time for that, yet. He can be patient, but he can’t be perfect.

Remy’s finger slips away and he stares at her with unflinching eye contact - she stares down the length of her now-disheveled uniform, Remy gazing up from between her legs and wrapping lips around his finger and sucking her arousal off of himself. His eyelashes - feminine and pretty on such a handsome, masculine face - flutter as he murmurs around the taste, lips curling into a wiry smile. His finger slides out his mouth, strands of sticky saliva joining it still. Odette swallows.

“Just as I like my tea.” Remy murmurs. “Sweet.”

Odette tries to hide the tremors that course through her body at the sight; she would clench her legs together were Remy not between them to try and hide her excitement, but he glances down to watch the way her body twitches so intimately and privately when orgasm grips her. She bites her lower lip already red with lipstick and feels her panties grow even wetter, even more uncomfortably ridden up inside of her as her pussy trembles and her toes curl so tight her feet start to turn white. Remy sits up but doesn’t remove a palm from one of her stockings, steadying her, or feeling her - she can’t tell if he’s holding her in place or trying to savour each unwilling spasm she makes, but he watches intently as she flushes red and brings an arm up to rest on her brow with an uncharacteristic shyness. When she opens her eyes and flops her hand back down he’s off the bed and perfectly composed, no wrinkles in his outfit, not a hair on his head out of place - and if not for the wetness seeping between her thighs she might have thought she’d imagined the whole thing in some heated daze.

He touches her brow, lightly, as if to check if she’s okay. She blinks in a vague attempt to bring the world back into focus.

“You can stay the night, Odette. I’ll have one of the ladies bring you a change of bedclothes and a glass of water.” Remy tells her, kindly but firmly, like this was her idea all along. Like it was Odette who had asked to stay the night, something she doesn’t recall at all - but she’s nodding before she can try and parse what’s happening, Remy turning on his heels to leave the room before Odette has finished clearing her throat.

#degrees of lewdity #dol #pc odette #remy the farmer #saskia told me to post more of my writing and there was a gun emoji involved #so this is a matter of health & safety #sorry to the innocent people who follow me who are like wtf is dol don't read this

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adarkrainbow · 1 year

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Pierre Dubois: An introduction

Have you heard of Pierre Dubois?

If you live in a French-speaking country and have interests in fantasy, you probably have. Else, you might have never heard of the guy.

I discovered Pierre Dubois, like many other people, through a trio of big encyclopedias with bizarre, beautiful and disturbing illustrations - each one centered around a different “type” of supernatural being. The Great Encyclopedia of Lutins (Imps/Dwarfs), The Great Encyclopedia of Fées (Fairies), and the Great Encyclopedia of Elves. This trio of encyclopedias, the product of “twenty years of research”, and released in the 1990s, became a MASSIVE hit present in every library and every bookstore across France. And I will speak of them in relation to fairytales - but we need to talk about the man himself.

Who is “Pierre Dubois”? He is the first and most prominent “elficologist” of France (in French, “elficologue”). This word, which designates the study of elves, was originally a joke-word invented by Dubois during an interview about what he did in life - but it soon became a term everyone used to describe him, as a result he also used it himself, and soon it became official. The “elficologie” (elficology) became the word used to designate all those that studied elves and fairies, the study of what Dubois himself called “Faerie”.

Pierre Dubois is a story-teller, a writer and a scholar who was always fascinated by fairies, folklore and fairy tales. Before the enormous success of his Encyclopedias, Pierre Dubois was mostly known for his work on both radio and television shows: since he was a collector of legends and folklore from every corner of France (and later every corner of Europe), he put it to good use and brought all the legends and folktales he kept finding to the radio or the television - these radio shows of his went on for nearly thirty years. He also started to do some BD (bande-dessinée, the French equivalent of comic books) work but it wasn’t that successful (his BDs really boomed after the Encyclopedias however).

With his work and Encyclopedias he really created a true “fairy craze” as he woke up back a passion for all the bizarre creatures and unusual monsters of folklore, and ever since all of his books have been hits - because he wrote many more books and encyclopedias, about trolls, about the folklore of the months, about ghosts... He is even called “the Levi-Strauss of the fabulous”. Pierre Dubois himself is a very excentric and bizarre man with unusual habits. He likes to write by hand, refusing to use computers or even typewriters. His first true reads, during his teenage years (as his father during his childhood disliked seeing him reading and wanted him to focus on more “useful” things) shaped strongly his view of the world: Jean Ray and Sherlock Holmes. As a kid he collected pirate stories, the Grimm fairy tales and the Bob Morane novels , and while he did read some comic books (like Giffey’s Buffalo Bill) he had to do it in secret due to comics ot being allowed in his family. He had a brief carreer as an illustrator before starting to write - and he was an illustrator for the American magazines “Eerie” and “Creepy”. His first attempt at having a book publish was quite unique as, at fiftee years old, he sent his first book to an editor written with a goose feather on parchment and bounded by leather ; and when he got refused, he sent the manuscript again... WITH ILLUMINATIONS AND BOOKMARKS MADE OF HERBS. During the ten years he spent collecting legends and fairy tales in remote corners of France and countryside areas where witches and medecine-men were still a thing, he took the habit of going around dressed all in black, with a cloak, wearing his hair long, and with his pet raven on his shoulder (pet’s name was Nao by the way) - which actually did intrigue and fascinate people so much it eased a lot his collecting work. Oh yes, and his personal answer to who was Jack the Ripper is that it was Peter Pan - an idea he allowed Régis Loisel to use in his own BD about Peter Pan.

And to such a strange and unusual man, corresponds a strange and unusual writing style. Pierre Dubois has strong likes and dislikes. He admires Jean Ray that he hails as one of the best writers of all times ; but he actually dislikes Tolkien and prefers to him Lord Dunsany. Despite his huge “fae” work, he actually doesn’t like much fantasy, but is a die hard fan of magic realism. His biggest influences are Bram Stoker, Charlotte Brontë, Mary Webb, Lewis Carroll, Walter Scott and Robert Stevenson. Similarly, his tastes of illustrations draw him towards Arthur Rackham, Richard Doyle and Gustave Doré. As for his writing methods, Dubois in his own words can spend “one hour on one sentence”, and he compares his writing to an “alchemy”, as he tries to create sentences so that they would resonate like “magical incantations” or “beautiful music”. When he writes, he always places himself in a specific ambiance - he surrounds himself with photographs, pictures, objects or natural elements tied to the subject he is writing around, all the while listening to “repetitive” music to place himself almost in a trance (such as Gavin Bryars’ music).

And he became so famous and important he participates to a lot of folkloric festivals, literary salons, he does public story-telling to children in French castles (children usually like him due to his unusual appearance, as he is a big fat bearded guy with wild hair, he is often compared to “an ogre”, “a giant” or “Hagrid” by kids, while Dubois describes himself as a mix between Captain Hook and Peter Pan) ; and he notably is the chancelor of the “Center of the Arthurian Imagination”, a big cultural association/center of the Bretagne area dedicated to keeping alive the Arthurian legends of France.

Anyway that’s all for the public image. But to speak of my more personal and prosaic experience with this man, I’ll speak of his Encyclopedias, the peak of his fame.

How did Dubois create those encyclopedias? He compiled everything he could find. His own personal collection of folktales and fairy tales, but also a HUGE compilation of various books from different languages and eras (many of them I could’t find back, either because they are THAT RARE, either because they don’t exist anymore - or maybe even never existed) ; and by everything I mean everything. Fairy tales, folktales, folklore, legends of various kinds, from every country of Europe and even from countries and cultures outside of Europe (Asia, America, Australia, Africa...). He also included folk rites, superstitions, actual historical facts and anecdotes, ghost stories, local beliefs, mythologies, pagan religions, monotheistic and “modern” religions, “folk-Christianity” as it developed itself in France though saint cults and unusual tales about angels, demons or the Virgin Mary...

And this is both one of the greatness and weakness of his Encyclopedia. It is great because by reading them you’ll have a HUGE side of the world’s culture in your brain and you’ll learn TONS of useful things and get tons of references. But on the bad side, he mixes gleefully witches, fairies, gods, ghosts from very different countries and eras in one big mix-mash without clearly defining the differences between them, and blurring the lines between everyone and everything. This is because Dubois has a very unusual way of presenting his research and descriptions: he doesn’t work in a “scientific” approach, he works with a “writer” approach. His texts are always very flowery, very poetic, using all sorts of words from the local term untranslated to old-fashioned names not used anymore, and when he can tell something through a story or an anecdote rather than a blank description or explanation, he will do it. The result is a fascinating reading experience that can conjure up visuals and ambiances like you can’t have anywhere else... but from personal experience, DO NOT TRY READING IT OUT LOUD! While it can be pleasing to read on your own, you really need to get the hang of his unusual phrasing and rythm, and I can tell you that trying to read his books to someone will turn the text into a boring and uncomprehensible mess because while the sonorities will be good in your head, you’ll need an extensive training to make them go out of your mouth in a pleasant way.

And while it is always a pleasure to have a Dubois book in your home because it is a poetic mine of info and stories, you will never actually see a Dubois book being used for any kind of serious folkloric research. Why? Because Dubois, as a true storyteller, likes to flesh out his characters, to invent new angles to explore legendary figures, to twist the traditional fairy tales. And so he will often for example theorize about what led to a monster being what it is, or what happened to a fairy after a given story. He will often add little trivial details in order to create a full “lifestyle” or “culture” of the species he describes. He uses humor or irony to describe the “fae folk” and so you can rarely read him in first-degree. And in his all-encompasing, all-including view of the “legendary” world he will materialize existing relationships between folktales OR invent them to give more “coherence” to his new Fae world. It isn’t uncommon for him to include in his stories other entities he describes in other articles as a background or side detail, thus creating a “fairy history” with its own chronology and an “elven genealogy” with its own magical evolution - these things never actually explicitely spelled out or described, but that the reader has to recreate by collecting the clues scattered throughout his books.

Because that’s what he does. A lot of re-creation, a lot of re-invention. At least he does that in these Encyclopedias. The result is an insanely fun read filled with discoveries of little-known folklore and a re-discovery of a entire world of the supernatural and a new “world-mythology”... But his claims need to constantly be checked and countered by more serious works if you want to do actual folkloric or historical research. Dubois is clearly a writer and a story-teller first and foremost. I do appreciate the enormous bibliographies he gives in each of his book, but I would love to see one day all the material he collected during his ten years-trip to France (I haven’t found it published anywhere however).

For me, I appreciate his Encyclopedias as an object of art, as a fantasy work and as a discovery/rediscovery of the “fae folklore”. I will never tell anyone to not look at them (especially since the illustrations are WILD). But I noticed that people tended to take his words in a way a bit too literal, repeating some things that are clearly Dubois’ inventions as if they were cultural facts, and so there should be a warning label when it comes to these VERY famous books.

And to end this introduction post, I’ll list there for the sake of the trivia some of the opinions and points of view Dubois defends.

# He is a great lover and defender of fairy tales, but he has a truly “folkloric” approach to them: he defends the idea that fairy tales are a product of popular culture, and that it existed since the dawn of humanity, its characters being inherited from the original goddesses and sorceresses of humanity. He interprets fairy tales as being allegorical stories about the cycles of seasons and the phenomenon of nature, with a cathartic function (such as providing hope and comfort during winter). He considers these tales and legends as being an encouragement to respect nature, and the result of a collective memory that is passed down from generation to generation, alongside the figure of witches that are for him the embodiment of all “our fears and anxieties”. He also explains how fairy tales are initiation tales that warn children of the dangers of the ogres and dragons, and encourages them to become allies and friends of the spirits of nature - though still keeping fairies as ambivalent entities.

# Pierre Dubois is very happy with the recent passion and success of the “faerie” genres and the “literature of the imagination”, he does believe that the fame of things such as The Hobbit, Harry Potter and role-playing games allows people to find back “the sense of the marvelous, of the epic, of the knighthood and the fairy tale”. However he does express one big regret, that “special effects replace magic and make the fantastical and spiritual disappear” from those stories ; he also likes to remind people that “fairies don’t like when we speak about them” and fears that there could be an over-abundance of fairy-related books and a “commercialization of the fairy”.

# He is a strong ecologist, though he isn’t so much concerned about stuff like climate change but rather believes how you need to listen and respect nature because only contact with nature can “wake up imagination” - he also likes to remind people how in legends fairies warn humans not to cut some trees or build on some lands before taking revenge on those not listening to them through natural disasters - as a result his motto is “If you hurt nature, it will hurt you in return” and he belives that some of the huge floods France knew in his lifetime were “fairy punishments”.

# He keeps preaching the virtues and powers of the imagination, especially towards children: he believes they should be soaked in drawings, theaters and songs to wake up their imagination, and he dislikes how for a long time in France all those activities were stopped around six or seven years old, the “age of reason”, due to them becoming “useless”. He insists that adults should never deny the emotional or imaginary sides of life, and he also strongly dislikes any kind of children literature that is “educative and realist”.

# Finally, Pierre Dubois strongly dislikes today’s society and the modern world due to denouncing the over-abundance of “scientism” and “materialism” in the ruling classes, and how modern culture relies on greed and selfishness. He claims that the “waking up” of the imagination and the “revival” of the Faerie was in France a natural extension of the May 68 revolt (I’ll let you search for that on your own), and he has a great interest and kinship with two type of sub-cultures: the gothics, and the punks, due to him sharing with them the idea of an unconventional freedom. Dubois defends the idea that the fairies are the symbol of the “rebelled ones” and of the “wild ones who say no to an established order” ; and he also strongly dislikes how editors like to divide literature into categories and sub-categories. This all results in his strong criticism of television (that “prevents” a natural transmission of countryside and local culture, and “replaces” the stories of the old folks) and of school+monotheistic religions (that for him work to make “all the small gods of nature” disappear). In fact, his wish would be that school taught less civic classes and more philosophy classes and fairy tales - and while he does preach a return to the ancient “rites of passage”, he also says in our modern day we shouldn’t fall into the same excesses as in the past concerning those rites.

#pierre dubois #french culture #fairies #fae #faerie #folklore #folklorist #encyclopedias #fairy tales #fairytales

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canonicallyobserving911 · 1 year

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Storylines for the ensemble cast aren’t being equally distributed and a lot of them lack resolution

One of the most important promotion points for 9-1-1 has always been its ensemble cast but for the past 2 and a half seasons, some viewers have noticed the way storylines haven’t been equally distributed amongst all the main characters. The lack of equal distribution is causing some viewers to feel like the show has been off balance since season 3 or it seems like something is missing. There’s no depth or breadth in the storylines that are being established and while some of the mains are continuing to get storylines each season, they rarely last for more than one or two episodes. Others haven’t had individual storylines in more than 4 or 5 seasons unless it was inextricably linked to their significant other’s storylines, while only one of them has consistently been given storylines that last for multiple episodes or entire seasons even though he is also constantly involved in other main cast members’ storylines. There has also been an issue with the lack of resolution for some storylines because they were abruptly ended without any closure which means the audience had to do mental gymnastics to try and figure out what could have happened offscreen as opposed to those resolution scenes being shown onscreen. To illustrate the way storylines have been unequally distributed, summaries of the main characters’ storylines or lack thereof have been included below.

Disclaimer: This is a long post but it had to be long so that each main character’s storylines or lack thereof could be analyzed and evaluated.

Main Characters

Athena’s had several storylines over the years that were all her own including the unsolved murder of Tonya Kingston that was finally resolved and closed in 6x3 “The Devil You Know” but once she returned to L.A., she didn’t tell anyone, including her best friend Hen about how relieved she felt after it took them 45 years to find out who did it. Also the man who killed Tonya knew Athena and she told Bobby that Junior used to chase her through those orange groves so that should have been traumatic for her. She first told Hen about Tonya in 2x7 “Haunted” so it would have made narrative sense for them to have a conversation about it instead of them talking about lottery tickets in 6x8 “9-1-1 What’s Your Fantasy?”. After all the trauma her and Harry had to deal with regarding Jeffrey in 5A, it would have also made sense for Athena to still be in therapy about her attack and Harry’s kidnapping. Additionally it would have been great to show how Athena coped after she worked with the police in a different state to help them solve Tonya’s murder in 6x3, especially since she knew the murderer and since she has two children of her own and one of them is living in another state. Unlike May who is an adult and is in college, Harry is still young and even though he’s in Florida with his father, Michael, it’s clear Athena still worries about her son because she was upset in 5x14 “Dumb Luck” after that teenager got hit by a car because he was wearing sneakers that reminded her of Harry. To illustrate how she was feeling, she should have been shown dealing with all of that in therapy instead of it being brushed under the rug like everything else has been including her therapy after 3x17 “Powerless”. While it’s great that she’s a sergeant, it’s also noticeable that she’s usually the first and sometimes the only one from the LAPD to respond to a scene with the 118 like she did in 6x8; therefore some other recurring characters should be continuously included in those storylines that require police or detectives to be present during a call like Detective Ransone. Athena can’t be the only police officer who responds to the majority of the 118’s calls even though it appears their paths cross a lot since they’re probably assigned to the same geographic region of L.A. In real life, the same police sergeant wouldn’t show up at every scene with the firehouse that’s captained by her husband. There are so many things they could do with Athena’s storylines including have her train a rookie. Maddie did a ride along with her in 2x5 “Awful People” and they worked great together as a team to save the owner of a restaurant who had been stabbed; therefore it would be interesting to see her train a young police officer who is fresh out of the academy. If she were allowed to do that it would be a callback to 3x7 “Athena Begins” because she was a rookie and the audience had the chance to see all the things she had to deal with as a young African American woman who joined the police force when it was still being predominately employed by Caucasian males. If the rookie is a woman, then Athena could tell her about some of the discriminatory behaviors that still exist within the police force. Or maybe Athena could pursue another promotion again even though she turned down the one that was offered to her in 2x4 “Stuck”. It would be great to see her have another awesome storyline that doesn’t require her getting almost killed or having her family put in danger like they were in the past including when May tried to commit suicide in 1x3 “Next of Kin”, Michael became ill and it was diagnosed in 3x10 “Christmas Spirit”, Bobby getting shot in 4x14 “Survivors” or when Harry was kidnapped by Jeffrey in 5x2 “Desperate Times”. She’s an awesome police sergeant and she definitely has the skills to teach rookies how to be good at their jobs. Her and Bobby have discussed retirement a few times after Athena was attacked in 3x17 and the reality for both of them is they are maturing and will likely have to consider retirement sometime in the next few years. Therefore a “beginning to prepare for retirement” storyline is plausible so that she could begin to explore available options that will include what she will do once that day arrives.

Bobby is captain of the 118 firehouse but based on the way his storylines have been treated since 2x16 “Bobby Begins Again”, the only way new viewers would know that he’s the captain is by reading his helmet. He hasn’t had a storyline that didn’t include Athena since season 2 when he got suspended. Yes, they are married but Athena’s had several storylines that didn’t include Bobby because he was just there for her moral support like he was in 6x3. What happened after Bobby was shot in 4x14 “Survivors”? Did he go to therapy? Like Eddie’s shooting, Bobby’s shooting was told from his partner’s, Athena’s perspective so the audience would like to know how Bobby dealt with or is still dealing with being gunned down by a former LAPD sniper? Eddie had panic attacks (of course his attacks were about more than him being shot again) but Bobby’s the captain and his team was in danger. He told Eddie in 5x18 that it’s his job to protect his team; therefore a sniper who was targeting firefighters had to be traumatic for all of them. There’s a lot to explore with his character including his legacy firefighting family, his interactions with other fire captains and he should be training someone to take over as captain of the 118 since he and Athena are maturing which means they will have to face retirement at some point in the future. When will the audience be introduced to someone, anyone from his family of legacy firefighters? Are his parents still alive? How many brothers does he have? Is he the youngest, oldest or in the middle? Does he still communicate with them or did they write Bobby off after he caused the apartment fire that killed his wife, children and more than 100 other people in Minnesota? Has his family met Athena? It’s a fair question because Athena’s parents met him during season 2 but other than his deceased wife and children, no one has seen any of Bobby’s family. It would be interesting if one of his brothers moved to L.A. to join the LAFD after being involved in a scandal in Minnesota. The audience hardly knows anything substantial about Bobby so it would be great if he could get a storyline that’s all his own. He’s getting older which means he can’t keep working as a firefighter/captain forever. Also why can’t he be sent to an LAFD retreat with other fire captains so they can discuss any problems/solutions that happened within their firehouses, i.e. Jonah Greenway? When will Bobby be allowed to deal with all the guilt he’s been carrying for years? In season 1, he had continuous conversations with his priest about the things he experienced on the job but he hasn’t been shown talking to his priest in more than 5 seasons. It was clear in 5x3 “Desperate Measures” after Harry had been kidnapped by Jeffrey that he still prays. Also Bobby is still carrying the guilt associated with the Jonah situation from 5x17 “Hero Complex” but it hasn’t been mentioned since he poured that bottle of alcohol down the drain after Eddie left. How is he dealing with the fact that two of his paramedics were almost killed by someone he hired? When Chimney said, “The call was coming from inside of the house” in 5x13 “Fear-O-Phobia” regarding his and Maddie’s breakup, his statement can also be applied to the Jonah situation because unlike 4x13 “Suspicion” and 4x14 “Survivors”, the call/traitor was already inside of the 118 and the LAFD not the LAPD; therefore Bobby should be in therapy discussing the way he feels responsible for hiring Jonah which put his two best paramedics in danger. He should also be working with Chief Alonso to implement some standards regarding new hires to prevent someone like Jonah from being hired again. Additionally he can send LD back to the 147 where she came from since she was hired at the same time as Jonah and Bobby was shown to not trust her in 5x18. Why hasn’t he done any evaluations with Chimney, Hen, Eddie and Buck? He should have annual performance reviews with them to determine what their goals and aspirations are and/or where they want to be from a career perspective within the next 3 to 5 years. If he knew what everyone wanted to accomplish, then there wouldn’t have been a need for him to go through the motions of choosing LD in 6x1 “Let the Games Begin” to be interim captain since he didn’t ask anyone to do it and he just assumed her 10 years of experience made her more than qualified for the job. It appears he and Athena like to be detectives and solve crimes during their off time so maybe the show could explore them thinking about starting a detective agency when they retire which would be a callback to 4x12 “Treasure Hunt” since they worked together to find the treasure. Bobby’s the leader of the 118 and while he has been there for his team, whenever they needed him, when is someone going to be there for him like Eddie was in 5x18 “Starting Over”? Bobby needs his own storyline that revolves around him being a fire captain but it doesn’t have to be about everyone else at the 118.

Chimney hasn’t had a storyline since season 3 when Albert arrived in 3x11 “Seize the Day” and prior to that he didn’t have one that wasn’t linked to Maddie since season 1 when he had the rebar through his skull and it included his relationship with Tatiana. Even during season 2, since he was stabbed by Maddie’s husband Doug, that storyline doesn’t count as one that was solely about Chimney. Season 5A could have been the perfect time to give him an awesome storyline since he was a single father after Maddie left. Buck, Albert and the Lees could have helped him raise Jee-Yun while she was away but just like everything else on the show, the storyline they chose didn’t make any narrative sense at all. Why was a paramedic, who had a 6-month-old baby, sent on a road trip to drive across the United States to find Maddie when he could have been at home working and getting help with their daughter from her two uncles? Maddie could have been sent to an in-treatment center in Northern California if they didn’t want her to be in L.A. (more on Maddie in the Maddie section) but that would have been too easy or made too much sense. Also Chimney could have his own storyline in season 6 regarding the way he's struggling with learning to trust Maddie again. It was clear in 6x1 that he still has trust issues with her because he told Eddie and Bobby that he was still waiting for…after they had their one-night stand. Of course his trust is still affected since she left and didn’t tell him where she was going. Also it would be a callback to season 1 with all of the trust issues he’s had with women like Tatiana when he didn’t believe he was enough so he told her stories about other firefighters instead of telling her the true stories about himself. This is one of the many storylines that just evaporated into thin air and wasn’t revisited. Maybe they should have kept his and Maddie’s couple’s therapy in 6x1 instead of foregoing it for a lackluster blimp emergency that only had two emergencies and was over before the first commercial break. Also Chimney had a rebar in his skull after he got into an accident in 1x3 which means him being trapped in a car with a drunk driver in 6x4 should have been somewhat traumatizing for him. Additionally his brother Albert was involved in the drunk driver accident on the freeway in season 4 so that too should have prompted a reaction from Chimney since he could have died if the driver would have wrecked his car. Why wasn’t he allowed to go to therapy to discuss that? He went to therapy after the stabbing and he mentioned it to the team in 3x9 “Fallout”. How is Chimney dealing with almost being killed by Jonah in 5x17 “Hero Complex”? That had to be traumatizing since his heart was stopped twice. Yes, he and Hen discussed it while they were in the hospital but Chimney literally could have died at the hands of someone they all trusted (except for Hen because she never trusted Jonah). Finally Chimney could have a storyline about helping Eddie become a full paramedic since they’ve been paired together throughout season 6 instead of them just being together to make jokes and laugh at things about curses like they did in 6x7 “Cursed” which was almost identical to the way their friendship was portrayed in 4x6 “Jinx”. Chimney could be his mentor and help Eddie get whatever certifications he needs to become a full paramedic instead of him continuing to be a medic. What are Chimney’s goals? Does he want to be captain at another firehouse someday? Why can’t he be the lieutenant at the 118? Does the 118 even have a lieutenant? These are topics that could be explored instead of just keeping him on the sidelines to sit in the bathtub with Maddie to talk about her job like they did in in 6x5 “Home Invasion”. Have they even had any meaningful conversations since 6x1? No but they certainly had a lot of time to talk about Magda, the nanny Maddie ended up re-homing at the end of 6x5. Why can’t Chimney’s storyline involve the dangers associated with the job especially since he has a daughter now who needs him to come back home? Are they ever going to talk about him being trapped in that car with a drunk driver? Probably not but Chimney needs a storyline that’s all his own so that he can get closure on things that haven’t been resolved since season 1.

Christopher could receive his own storylines since he’s older and he has asked Eddie for more independence. He was skipping science club meetings to meet with his friends so maybe a storyline that illustrates how he has to make a tough decision like skipping school instead of just skipping science club meetings could be beneficial. It would show that he knows how to take care of himself since he told Eddie in 6x4 that he wasn’t a baby and that he didn’t need Eddie to take care of him. He’ll be entering his teen years soon which means he should start having storylines all on his own like the crush he has on someone he goes to school with that was mentioned in 6x8.

Hen’s most recent medical school storyline ended in 6x6 “Tomorrow”, however prior to that, she hasn’t had a storyline all of her own that didn’t include the others from the 118 since her and Karen were foster parents and had to deal with Evangeline’s, Nia’s mom, return; since her mother, Toni showed up during season 4 or since Eva returned in 5x7 “Ghost Stories” to say she was moving away (Hen and Karen’s interactions with Eva could have happened OFFSCREEN! She could have written them a letter to say she was leaving forever so that Karen didn’t have to talk to her). In season 5, her medical school storyline was practically ignored except for in 5x6 “Brawl in Cell Block 9-1-1” but Toni’s storyline was front and center in 5x9 “Past is Prologue”. Hen was the only one who was ALWAYS suspicious of Jonah so what happened after they were adult napped and tortured by him? That was Jonah’s storyline not hers so will she be called to testify before a grand jury or will he be taken to trial? Has anything else happened with Jonah or are they going to act like Jonah just went to prison until two more seasons have passed like they did with Jeffrey and Athena? It was obvious in 5x18 that she was still upset about it because she was the one who turned off the TV when the announcer mentioned TayKay. How is Hen dealing with the fact that she had to watch Chimney’s heart be stopped by Jonah? She discussed it with him in 5x17 but that had to be hard for her to watch as her best friend’s heart was stopped, not once but twice. She was very distraught after she hit that woman with the ambulance in 3x8 “Malfunction” so the incident with Jonah should have warranted some type of therapy session instead of it just being resolved and everyone moved on from it. What does the future hold for Hen? Will she and Karen start fostering children again since Hen dropped out of medical school and their lives won’t change the way the social worker said Karen told her their lives would? Hen was an excellent interim captain so what are her future career goals? Is she just planning to be a paramedic until she retires? Does she even want to be a captain again? Is there a role as a lead paramedic she could aspire to obtain? What will she do now? Since she’s been in medical school will she be allowed to implement the medical training she learned as a paramedic or will it be like it was in season 3 where she’ll get reprimanded for performing a medical procedure that she wasn’t supposed to? Since she’s no longer in medical school, there should be a way to incorporate the things she learned into her job as a paramedic. Maybe she and Chimney could both work with Eddie to help him become a full paramedic. All three of them have been working as paramedics since the beginning of season 6 so it would make narrative sense if that was an option they decided to implement for her storyline. Also based on the synopsis for 6x9 “Red Flag”, Denny is supposed to ask about his biological parents again so hopefully they WILL NOT BRING EVA BACK because Hen and Karen have suffered enough. They are happy now especially after Karen and Denny were in danger in 6x6. Can Hen get her own storyline that doesn’t involve or include Eva? It would be great if she could because there are so many other things that could be explored with her character. She’s a natural born leader and now that she and Bobby had a conversation about her being the interim captain there shouldn’t be any guessing as to what her character can do next.

Maddie’s storylines are always GLOOM AND DOOM and even though the actress has the ability to cry and it’s unmatched by some, it would be nice if some of her storylines didn’t revolve around her ability to cry. Many viewers have commented that they are tired of seeing Maddie cry in almost every episode and if one were to view her scenes, it’s true, her storylines always have her crying. The audience gets the fact that she was in an abusive marriage and while no one expects for her to ever be over that, there should be some lighthearted storylines that can be written for her. During season 5, was the only option to let Maddie run all the way to Boston to learn how to stop running? Seriously? She couldn’t learn how to do that from a treatment center located in Northern California? It wasn’t like she went to Boston and visited the house she and Doug lived in or to move on from that part of her life. Actually, she said her goodbyes to Doug in 3x10 “Christmas Spirit” when Frank took her back to the woods where she killed him so the Boston thing didn’t make a lot of sense or the storyline didn’t include enough details for it to make narrative sense. Also she tried to help a woman who was being abused by her husband in 3x8, the woman accused Maddie of stalking her and Maddie almost got fired because of it. Therefore it would make sense if a position was created within the dispatch center that would allow Maddie to incorporate specific protocols for callers who are involved in domestic abuse situations that would get them the assistance they need like she was able to obtain for Lourdes in 6x4. Since Maddie experienced domestic violence and it’s obvious from the call she took from Claribel that it still affects her, she should be allowed to start a First Responder’s Foundation for Victims of Domestic Violence within the call center and she should be allowed to assist with those types of calls if and when needed. There are so many things that can be written that are lighthearted and fun especially since Jee-Yun is growing up. Why can’t she have a mother daughter day with her? Or maybe she could take some different types of 9-1-1 calls instead of her always taking calls that reignite her personal traumas? Why can’t she take a call from a child who needs help with their homework in CANON? She mentioned they take calls like that to Albert in 5x13 “Fear-O-Phobia” but she’s never been the one taking them. Maddie had to raise Buck practically on her own when their parents emotionally checked out of their lives so that is definitely a topic that could be explored since some children have to step up when their parents won’t in real life. Also Maddie said in 5x12 “Boston” that she doesn’t talk to her mother about things like depression so that would be a good storyline for her to have with Margaret. Maybe they need to talk to each other directly without Philip and Buck being present so that Maddie can tell her how she felt as a 9-year-old who had to become a mother way before it was time since her little brother, Evan needed her. That conversation could be EPIC if it’s handled properly and Maddie should be able to share how she doesn’t want Jee-Yun to experience the types of things she had to experience while she lived with them in Hershey, PA. Maddie’s storylines should be allowed to evolve and show how much she’s grown since she had the courage to leave Doug in season 2 and since she’s been able to rebuild her life and happiness. It hasn’t always been sunbeams and moon pies but she’s trying and things are getting better. She still has a long way to go but she’s back at work and she told Chimney that she missed the call center in 5x18 so she’s on the right path.

May’s season 4 and 5 dispatcher storyline was never shown to be closed because there were two things that were left unresolved. May was never told about the cause of Claudette’s death since they finally became acquaintances in 5x16 “May Day” while they were in the quiet room which wasn’t long before Claudette died. This is especially jarring since May was the one who said, “Hen, she was fine. I don’t understand” at the hospital and she also said, “It feels like it should be somebody’s fault” after the funeral in 5x17. Did anyone tell her that it was Jonah? It obviously wasn’t a secret since Taylor broadcasted the story to the greater L.A. area before the man had even been charged so why couldn’t the show have included a scene that had May asking Bobby about what happened to her? Or maybe she could have had a conversation with Hen and Athena about it. The second thing that didn’t receive any closure involved May not being shown telling her friends and co-workers goodbye after she worked at dispatch for two years. Like Eddie, she just left dispatch in 5x18 but neither of them were shown talking with the other people who worked there before they left. Finally where are they taking her storyline now that she’s in college? Especially since she had to revert back to using her 9-1-1 dispatcher skills in 6x8 “9-1-1 What’s Your Fantasy?” What’s her major in college? Is she still planning to be a lawyer or will she change her mind after 6x8 and become a police officer like Athena? One thing that would close one of her storylines is if she could participate in her college campus’ suicide prevention center since she was affected by the 9-1-1 call she took where the young woman took a lot of pills but was saved after the paramedics arrived. She could also be a student career counselor because she worked for two years before she decided to enroll in college. Even though the actress is enrolled in college in real life, her storylines could be more exciting than just having her rescue her boyfriend Darius from the disturbed roommate who assaulted him in 6x8.

Eddie’s storylines are always shortened and his scenes are crammed in at the end or somewhere during the middle of an episode but they always end abruptly and it seems like some of his scenes were being cut or didn’t get filmed. That’s how his hero storyline was handled in 5x17 “Hero Complex” because his part was over right after the 30-minute mark within the episode which also includes the airtime used for commercials. The reconciliation scene with Ramon just ended and it was like, ok all is good now with Ramon and Eddie since they made up but there weren’t any additional scenes to confirm that until 6x4. Also most of the time his storylines get sidelined so that the spotlight can be pointed towards Buck. His introduction in 2x1 “Under Pressure” was shown from Buck’s perspective and most of his storylines have continued in that manner. Eddie had a support system with his abuela and his aunt when he first moved to L.A. but once Buck stepped in and introduced him to Carla in 2x4, Isabel and Pepa were sidelined and only included in episodes that have Eddie’s other family members in it, the Christmas party at the 118 in 3x10 or his welcome home party in 4x14 which also included TayKay (who everyone knows Eddie never liked and therefore her being there didn’t make any NARRATIVE SENSE other than to keep the audience from believing that Buck and Eddie will end up in a romantic relationship) but his abuela and aunt were barely shown in seasons 3, 4 and 5. He hasn’t had a storyline that was solely about Eddie since season 3 when he started participating in that fight club in 3x5 “Rage” that didn’t end until 3x8 “Malfunction” and that too was somehow made to be about Buck because Buck made that about himself in 3x9 when he asked Eddie if he really wanted to punch him while he was fighting. In 3x15 “Eddie Begins” the whole episode and storyline was supposed to be ABOUT EDDIE (hence the title Eddie Begins) but one of the most memorable scenes from that episode included Buck clawing at the ground in an effort to dig Eddie up with his hands. Eddie was sidelined from his own shooting in 4x13 and 4x14 because even though Eddie was the one who got shot, THE AUDIENCE NEVER HEARD anything from Eddie about The Shooting based on the way it affected him because just like Bobby’s shooting was told from Athena’s perspective, Eddie’s was all told from Buck’s perspective. Bobby told Buck that what happened to Eddie wasn’t his fault and even when Buck arrived at the hospital after Eddie woke up from his coma, Buck told him it should have been him who got shot instead of Eddie. Eddie’s panic attacks were also overshadowed by Buck because Buck was the one who made Eddie tell him what was going on in 5x2 and he was also the one who told Eddie to break up with Ana. The same thing happened with most of Eddie’s PTSD storyline because he told Buck to move on in 5x11 “Outside Looking In” but he said it during the dinner he prepared for Buck that took place at his house but Buck brought TayKay with him which also didn’t make any narrative sense because EDDIE HAS ALWAYS DISLIKED TAYLOR so her being there was JARRING. Then he walked into the bar, looked at Buck and left because he felt left out since he quit firefighting. To top it all off Eddie’s breakdown was also told from Buck’s perspective in 5x13 because the audience didn’t see the destruction he caused to his bedroom, only the aftermath was shown after Buck broke down Eddie’s bedroom door. His breakdown scenes were shortened and pushed to the end of 5x13 when there was only 5 minutes left before the episode ended and it seemed like a lot of the scenes were left out and that was confirmed when a season 5 “We are family” recap video for 9-1-1 surfaced and it included some unseen breakdown footage of Eddie and Buck that never made it into the episode. Even the Equine Therapy scene was overshadowed with Buck and TayKay because he asked her to help him find Charlie when he should have been allowed to talk to Athena especially since she’s a REAL POLICE SERGEANT and not some amateur detective like TayKay was in 5x7 “Ghost Stories”. They didn’t let Eddie tell Buck to break up with Taylor in 5x18 even though they should have because Buck was the one who told him to end it with Ana in 5x2. Now Eddie has his own storyline and it’s all about Christopher growing up and Eddie learning how to let go so that Christopher can have some independence. That too is being overshadowed by Buck’s ridiculous sperm donor storyline because it’s preventing him from being there for Eddie and Christopher ONSCREEN. It’s been clear for a while to viewers who’ve cared to notice that BUCK AND EDDIE HAVE BEEN CO-PARENTING Christopher for years so it’s not a stretch for viewers to notice that something is off with their relationship in season 6. While it's obvious that they are talking to each other OFFSCREEN, hence the Hoover handoff in 6x5, it doesn’t make any sense especially when they’ve always been within arm’s reach of each other. Buck has always been there for them even when Eddie’s deceased wife was present in 2x10 “Merry X-Mas” because Eddie took Buck with him so that Christopher could visit with Santa instead of taking his wife who is also Christopher’s mother. Is Eddie still in therapy? If so, it would be nice to see more of his sessions especially since he hasn’t been shown talking to Frank since 5x14. What is going on with Eddie and Helena, his mother? He went to El Paso for Ramon’s retirement party in 5x17 but he never told his mother how she affected him while he was growing up. Reminder, Ramon wasn’t there since he spent 40 years traveling for work but she was so it doesn’t make any narrative sense for Eddie to avoid having an in-depth conversation with her too. He’s talking to Ramon regularly but does he talk to Helena? Where is Eddie’s Tia’ Pepa? We haven’t seen her since 5x17 and she still lives in L.A. so that doesn’t make any sense either. Since Christopher is getting older and is almost a teenager now, is it still necessary for Carla to be involved with Eddie’s and Christopher’s father/son moments? It seems like those moments would be better served if they happened with someone from his family instead of with Carla. While Carla was in 5x10 “Wrapped in Red” and she was also mentioned in 5x18, why couldn’t Tia’ Pepa have been the one who was allowed to help Eddie and Christopher get ready for the dance since Buck wasn’t allowed to do it? Pepa knows Eddie better than anyone except for his abuela Isabel, therefore she would be able to provide more insight about his feelings regarding his son growing up along with the things Eddie will have to start doing for himself. What are Eddie’s goals now that Christopher is growing up? What will he do other than sit home alone whenever Christopher’s gone out with his friends? Does he want to move up in the LAFD? Or is he happy where he is now as a firefighter and medic? He needs a storyline all his own too just like Chimney and Bobby. Can the audience please see Eddie and Karen’s friendship ONSCREEN instead of them having to scan through episodes to see them standing next to each other to try and figure out when they became friends? A wine night between the two of them would be EPIC! Also can the audience please get some serious ONSCREEN conversations happening between Eddie and Chimney? After 6x5 when Eddie went to Chimney’s apartment, it was evident that they are friends but their friendship is never shown outside of the firehouse. They had breakfast in 6x2 so that would have been a great time to show them talking about other things like Chimney’s trust issues with Maddie so that Eddie could give him advice on how he handled or didn’t handle the trust issues he had with his deceased wife. There are so many things that can be done with Eddie’s character but they’re being overshadowed and ignored.

Buck gets the most and the longest storylines of any main character on the show and he’s also included in almost everyone else’s storylines. But it hasn’t always been like that because in seasons 2 and 3 his storylines lasted for a maximum of 1 to 4 episodes but now his storylines last for 14-18 episodes and one carried over from season 4 into season 5. He’s a part of an ensemble cast which means everyone should receive an equal and balanced number of storylines but that’s not happening. The storylines for Buck aren’t even good ones because they don’t show him growing, progressing or maturing and the audience is not happy about any of it. Comments from audience members that have been posted on different social media platforms include: “Whiny baby!”, “I hate Buck’s sperm donor story with my very being”, “He’s so immature.”, “I can’t watch his scenes anymore”; “When are they going to let Buck grow up?”, “I just fast forward through his scenes now”, “OMG, he’s becoming so hard to watch”, “Stop regressing him”, “Buck just gets stupider and stupider every season”, “Is Buck going to always be someone’s punching bag?” and the list goes on and on. His storylines have been all over the place during season 6 and it started with him wanting to be interim captain but that ended after he moved his leather chair to the middle of his living room in 6x1. Then he started his search for happiness in 6x2 “Crash and Learn” but he quickly abandoned it after Lev died while they were on the scene at the Happiness Convention. Then he started a year of saying “yes to the possibilities” but that dropped off after he agreed to be a sperm donor for his former roommate in 6x4 which doesn’t make any NARRATIVE sense because he hadn’t talked to Connor in more than 3 years. He was hiding it from his found family which means he really didn’t want to do it but he made the donation anyway in 6x7 and now he’s spending all his spare time with Hen since they’ve had several conversations about his “swimmers”. Buck constantly blames himself for everything (including things he has no control over), he makes other people’s problems about him, he never admits when he’s hurting and unhappy and since he’s not being allowed to grow and mature, the audience would like to know when his storylines will show the way he’s grown over the past six years. If he’s supposed to be regressing or suffering from some mental health issues then it’s not translating well to the audience because his erratic behavior isn’t much different from where it was in the past. What’s with the showrunners’ fascination with what’s in Buck’s pants? Every season his storylines revolve around someone trying to get into his pants. In season 1 it was the random women he hooked up with, Dr. Wells and Abby. In season 2 it was Taylor and Ali, in seasons 4 and 5 it was Taylor and in season 6 it’s Kameron, even though she’s doing it indirectly through her husband Connor. There’s an abundance of storylines available for each character but for some reason Buck gets most of them and his storylines always drag out for 18 episodes unlike everyone else’s, who is lucky enough to even get a storyline, are usually over within 2 to 3 episodes. Buck should be written as more than just a HIMBO who hooks up with women because he has other characteristics that aren’t being properly explored. He was an excellent mentor to TK in the LS Crossover episode 2x3 “Hold the Line” when Owen and Hen were missing after their helicopter crashed. He told TK that even though his captain wasn’t his dad, he may as well be because Bobby never gives up on him even after he stole the firetruck. But one year later, on OG when Buck was training Ravi in 5x5 “Peer Pressure” he acted like a narcissist and didn’t treat Ravi with any respect at all. That would have been the perfect time for Bobby to step in and tell Buck that he didn’t train him like that so he should have been more of a leader especially if he wants to become a captain someday. But that was probably too much because Buck wanted to transfer out of the 118 after he saw Ravi getting a simple pat on the back from Bobby for doing a job well done. Please explore Buck’s other characteristics instead of continuing to use recurring characters who are being incorporated into his storylines for the sole purpose of doing the same things to him that his parents did which was use him for his body parts because he’s smart and he has a lot to offer. Not only does Buck get a lot of storylines that drag on for multiple seasons; he’s also included in other people’s storylines as well. For example, instead of either Karen, Athena or Chimney being the one to encourage Hen to ask her professor to retake her exam in 6x4, it was an offhanded albeit drunk comment from Buck that caused her to make the decision when he said, “You would have made one heck of a great doctor” after she helped the 118 with a call about Hoover the dog. Why was Buck the one searching that woman’s house in 6x5 after Athena told him they had already completed a sweep of the house and didn’t find anyone? Shouldn’t a detective have gone searching in the kitchen? Buck has time to go to a Renaissance Faire with Hen and Denny in 6x8 but he couldn’t go to Christopher’s school with Eddie for Christopher’s first dance? Why didn’t Buck admit how unhappy he was in 5x18 when he broke up with TayKay instead of admitting something he already knew about her? The available interim captain spot in 6x1 was another storyline that was made to include Buck but nothing came of it since he stopped talking about it. He asked Hen about happiness in 6x2 but just like the interim captain spot, nothing came of that either. It made sense for Eddie to show up at Marisol’s house since he was in the ambulance with Chimney when they transported her brother to the hospital in 6x5 but why was Buck there instead of Chimney? Or in fact, why wasn’t all of the 118 present to help repair her house instead of just Buck and Eddie and all those other people the audience didn’t recognize? Why is Hen not telling Buck things he needs to consider about being a sperm donor since they are besties now? Why is Buck not talking to anyone about his decision to be a sperm donor? He’s always told everyone what’s going on in his personal life so this storyline DOESN’T MAKE ANY NARRATIVE SENSE because he’s acting OOC. Will it end soon since the Buckleys will be present in 6B? How much longer will Buck be regressed back to the season 1 version of himself? While it’s true he’s not having sex with random people anymore, he’s still not able to make any formidable decisions for himself. Buck had a conversation with Thomas in 2x8 “Buck Actually” more than 5 years ago but he still hasn’t grasped what Thomas told him. Basically Thomas told him that he could live his life however he chooses and love whomever he wants to in order to be happy but Buck STILL DOESN’T UNDERSTAND. He talked with Red almost three years ago in 3x16 “The One That Got Away” but he’s still not getting it because he's supposed to be building a life for himself instead of being committed to his job but he is still stuck and continues to neglect building a life of his own which is the exact opposite of what Red told him to do. Eddie and Christopher are right in front of him but he keeps looking past them. Then Lev told him months ago in 6x2 about the secret to happiness but Buck missed it. He was supposed to realize that he can choose to be happy now instead of waiting until he’s Lev’s age and regretting everything he did since it would all end up being a blur anyway. Buck’s storylines could be so much better than the way they are being portrayed but for some reason the ones being chosen for him keep him looking like a HIMBO. He isn’t portrayed like that when he’s with Eddie because when they’re together he's more of a HUSBAND. It would be great if the show finally allowed Buck to mature and grow so that he can realize what’s in front of him. It’s the family he’s always wanted with Eddie and Christopher but for some reason they keep putting people in his path within the storylines to stunt his growth and to delay him and Eddie from becoming a romantic couple.

Buck’s storylines have been drawn out to last for entire seasons while Bobby and Chimney haven’t had dedicated storylines since season 2 for Bobby and season 3 for Chimney. Any storylines they’ve had were inextricably linked to Athena for Bobby and Maddie for Chimney. Eddie gets storylines but they’re always sidelined or overshadowed by the ridiculous storylines that have only shown Buck regressing and not growing. Other than Hen’s medical school storyline (which is over) it appears there aren’t any plans to do anything other than have her possibly have to talk to Eva again since Denny will ask about his biologically parents in 6x9 “Red Flag”. Instead of recurring characters being brought on solely for Buck’s storylines that last for 18 episodes, recurring characters should also be considered for the other mains’ storylines too. There’s no reason why Captain Mehta couldn’t be brought back to have conversations with Bobby or another fire captain from a different firehouse. Maybe they could bring back RAVI since the audience loves his character but his storylines have been vaporized and it’s like he was never on the show since they won’t mention the character anymore. Recent comments from viewers on one social media platform have stated how they will decide after 6x9 “Red Flag” airs if they will return to watch in 6B because they haven’t enjoyed the first 8 episodes of the season so far. While the second half of the season appears to be promising, it has a long way to go if the show wants to get all of the viewers who stopped watching in 5B and to prevent those who might decide to stop watching after 6x9 to return. The storylines have to be better for the second half or they might risk losing even more viewers than they already have. Just like at the end of 5B, the audience is EXHAUSTED but season 6 won’t be halfway finished until after 6x9 airs, therefore this shouldn’t be happening especially since all the mains are present and accounted for during season 6. Also with 5 million or fewer viewers watching episodes each week, it appears all the show cares about are the demo numbers instead of reading the complaints from viewers that continue to be posted regarding the way something seems to be missing from the show. The number of viewers they have achieved this season is still a far cry from the success of other shows that have been on for a lot longer. Hopefully things will be better in March 2023 and storylines will become more balanced for the entire ensemble cast.

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artisxan · 1 year

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[ID: ArtisXan's logo, a brown circle with a digital drawing of a sunflower inside of it. Written on top in white script font reads "ArtisXan". /id]

Welcome To ArtisXan!

About:

ArtisXan is a small business owned and operated by queer, disabled, neurodivergent, trans individuals. We sell a wide range of items, including discreet and fun chewlrey made of body-safe silicone intended for use by teens and adults.

Xan has been crafting since they were in middle school. They shifted focus from knitting to digital art. The chewelry business started when Xan found that having a body-safe silicone necklace was a great way to help them stop biting their nails, but could only find bulky designs that stood out. They used their own style to start assembling necklaces that were subtle and matched their aesthetic while still providing the physical stimulus of the larger designs. Since then, they have expanded from necklaces and bracelets to keychains, zipper pulls, and pens.

Quick Links

Find us on other sites!

Linktree

Etsy artisxan

Patreon ArtisXan

Instagram @artisxan

Tiktok @artisxan

Discord

Meet the Makers!

Xan (they/them)

Cas (he/him)

Examples:

This chart shows just some of the beads we have! The Squish and Durability chart is a good way to determine what bead is best for your fidget style. The higher the durability, the better the bead holds up to biting.

[ID: An illustrated chart showing lineless art of a range of beads in rows on 2 scales of 1 to 10. The first scale is labeled "Squish Scale", with a box reading "1- Most Squishy 5- Medium Squish 10- Most Firm", and the second is labeled "Durability Scale" with a box reading "1-Least Durable 5- Medium 10- Most Durable". /id]

Our themes and bead designs include:

Nature

Mushrooms

Leaves

Flowers

Moon and stars

Animals

Moths and butterflies

Fandom themes

Our Flag Means Death

Pride

Pride flag patterns

Rainbows everywhere

They, He, She, Ze, Fae, Fey, Ve, Ey, Zie, and custom pronouns

Disability

Disability pride

Neurodivergant/mental health

Autism acceptance

Rare condition awareness

Accessibility device compatible decor: stickers, clips

Water bottle reminders

More!

Books

Music

Video Gaming

Self love and acceptance

Magic and Fantasy

Seasonal

Geometric and abstract jewelry designs

FAQ

Who is this good for?

These are especially useful for people who need items to fidget with, pick at, chew, squish, pull, or stretch! All the chewelry is made using materials that can be cleaned and are body-safe. Any item can still be a choking hazard, so these are not intended for young children or individuals who may be at risk for swallowing objects.

Are these chewable?

Yes! All of the beads we use on the fidget chewelry are made from food-grade silicone and can safely be chewed!

Where can I buy these?

You can find all of them on Xan's Etsy store! It is under the same name as their TikTok and Instagram (ArtisXan)! Their work is also in physical stores in Wisconsin.

Can I use these even if I'm not diagnosed, or am not neurodivergent?

Absolutely! Chewelry is not limited to any specific need or diagnosis. You can wear it just because you like the way it looks, or feels!

Do you make the beads yourself?

With two exceptions, our beads come from other suppliers. We don't have the facilities to make our own beads. We buy them from a combination of distributors and also directly from manufacturers. However, we did run a kickstarter to make two custom beads in collaboration with an artist who works with body-safe silicone! These are the morel mushrooms and the moon phase beads.

Are the other designs yours?

Yes! The stickers, art prints, pins, and other items are designed by Xan!

Can you make custom pieces?

We can customize some of our items, yes! We are happy to work with people to make pieces they'll be happy with, such as personalized pronoun chewelry! We are restricted to the beads we have and the prices may vary but we will always do our best to find what works best for you!

Will you ever make [insert bead shape here]?

We work hard to find pieces that suit Xan's brand and what people request! But we can only make things that manufacturers have created so we have a somewhat limited scope of options. However we are always looking for new beads and frequently find ones that hadn't been out before!

Why is [insert piece] more expensive?

Some of the beads we use are more expensive than others and so to offset the price we have to adjust the price a bit! We do our best to make sure that all the pieces are still within an affordable range for as many people as possible! And we do weekly giveaways to give more people a chance to get pieces even if they can’t afford them.

Can you make it without the small bead at the bottom or string it differently than shown?

Absolutely! Feel free to leave a note when you purchase to let us know you'd prefer a knot at the end, or for the main bead to be strung sideways without a knot or bead below it!

Why are are some of the pride necklaces different than the flags?

Some flags use so many colors, or so many shades of the same color, that we can't get enough of the beads to make the flag exactly, or to make the flag at all! For the Sunset Lesbian Pride and Aromantic pride, we have not been able to find body-safe beads that match the rest and come in different shades of orange, pink, and green, so some colors get combined for those designs. We keep an eye out for bead colors though!

Why don't you have a pride flag/pronoun necklace for [blank]?

Either we haven't had anyone request them, no one bought them when we did sell them, or they are ones we can't feasibly make. For example, we love the Progress Pride Flag but if we tried to make it we would run out of space for all the colors and it would be way too expensive for people to buy! (We do have a Progress Pride focus bead though!)

You can always contact us if there is a pronoun you want to use, or to ask if we could make a flag. We are willing to try!

What kind of bead should I get?

It depends what you want to use it for! The higher durability beads are best for biting and can take more heavy-duty fidgeting. Squishy beads are better for twisting and pinching. Textured beads are good for picking and rubbing.

How often do you make new designs?

We release new items and themes on a regular basis. Patreon and Discord users can get previews of what is coming out soon, and even suggest ideas. The chewelry depends on what we can source, but we continue to look for new beads. Xan designs stickers and other art frequently, and now that we have had a successful kickstarter we are open to the idea of making more unique beads.

Just a few of our items for sale:

Pride Fidget Jewelry Necklace (Currently 27 options!)

[ID: Photo of 9 necklaces in pride flag designs. The beads on each necklace are in order of the stripe they represent. From left to right, top to bottom is lesbian, gay rainbow, polyamourus, bisexual, pansexual, polysexual, Sapphic, aromantic, and asexual. The polyam flag necklace has a golden star bead at the base. The bi-, pan-, and polysexual necklaces have a black star at their bases, and the Sapphic necklace has a white flower base bead. The sunset lesbian and aromantic pride necklaces have multiple shades represented by one bead. /id]

[ID: Five pronoun necklaces lined up. From top to bottom the necklaces are "THEY/THEM, SHE/HER, HE/HIM SHE/THEY, HE/THEY" A circular black bead takes the space of the slash. The letter beads are white cubes with black letters. /id]

[ID: Four styles of morel mushroom items on a marbled background. From left to right are a pen, a key chain, a zipper pull, and a necklace. The morel bead is a pale base with a warmer tan to create the textured mushroom cap. The brown pen has a morel and a sunflower bead above the grip. The keychain has a sunflower, a light green leaf, and a morel on a black cord. The zipper pull has a morel by itself, and the necklace has a morel and a round black bead base. /id]

[ID: Eleven moon phase design items. Clockwise from the upper left are keychains in silver, gild, and blue, necklaces ins silver gold, and blue, a pen in silver, three zipper pulls in blue, gold, and silver, and a holographic silver sticker in the same design as the focus bead. The focus moon bead is circular, with a stylized sun at the center, surrounded by the moon in eight phases. The keychains have a black crescent moon and silver star on either side of the focus bead. The necklaces have a round silver base bead. The pen is black, with a silver star, a black crescent moon, and a silver focus bead above the grip. /id]

[ID: Photo of a hand holding a sticker of a leaf-patterned yellow water bottle with a black top. Black text over the bottle reads "Emotional Support Water Bottle" /id]

#artist #neurodivergent #queer owned business #small buisness #chewelry #Stickers #queer artist #actually adhd #disability pride #Queer #Trans #artists of tumblr #disabled creator

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