#I don't quite remember I just remember I was having a lot of people get leftovers
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I still think that the ending of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was poorly foreshadowed, specifically the lion turtles and the energy-bending. (Not Aang not killing Ozai! I like that part! It suits the themes, it suits the characters! That part is fine. I am glad that the last airbender found a way forward that respected his people and beliefs.)
Like, I saw ATLA when it was originally airing and I thought these things kind of "came out of nowhere" at the time. I have heard the arguments to the contrary over the years and I have never really been persuaded by them, while at the same time personally agreeing that the lion turtles and the energy-bending absolutely do fit the world and lore! They are fitting elements! They work! I like this ending at the same time that, in my personal opinion, I think it was poorly established.
I think that the story BEGINS to establish lion turtles and energy-bending well enough. We meet both many other spirit beings and bending-capable animals earlier on, including the Moon and Ocean Spirits who apparently gave the world water-bending. S2 introduces Ty Lee's chi-blocking techniques and Guru Pathik teaching Aang about chakras. There are also a handful of lion turtle easter eggs in the background of some episodes, the most prominent perhaps being on a scroll in Wan Shi Tong's library.
But the story then jumps from these various establishing elements all the way to "lion turtles are real and not extinct and telepathic and can also energy-bend and Aang has suddenly mastered this new art well enough to take someone else's bending away permanently, and these relatively new elements are going to resolve the main conflict of the show". It feels like "1+1=3" to me. I think that last jump in the story is too big. Like, we're REALLY close, but I personally needed another 1 in there somewhere to bridge that final gap and get to that 3.
(Includes some fic ideas / suggestions on how to maybe add to strengthen the foreshadowing under the cut.)
The fact that a lot of people, especially more casual viewers, were really confused by the way all of these elements suddenly came together at the end says to me that, no, the foreshadowing that WAS done (there WAS foreshadowing, I cannot rightfully say that it all came completely out of "nowhere", but it) was not good enough. Or maybe I should compare it to someone presenting me with all of the necessary ingredients for a cake and then telling me that it IS cake? Yes, all of the right ingredients are HERE, I agree, this COULD be a really great cake, but... you still have to mix it all together in a bowl and then put it in the oven to bake to get that specific cake. It's not quite cooked yet.
(Okay, wow, that sounds kind of mean. Maybe I should compare it more to a missing stair? We have MOST of the staircase, I just need one last step to get to the Deus Ex Machina at the top. To be clear: I don't think a "Deus Ex Machina" is inherently bad. I often like them a lot. I just wanted a little more foreshadowing than the stuff that is already there.)
In storytelling, there's this technique casually called "The Rule of Three". (And yes, of course, rules were made to be bent or broken depending on what story you're trying to tell, but usually, these rules exist because they are effective.) This rule is also sometimes known as "Introduction, Pattern, and Payoff". (It has other names, but that's how I remember it.)
Very loosely, this rule states that an important element of the story must appear at least three times. 1. It must be introduced / established in the world. 2. It must appear again to remind the audience that it exists / and establish a pattern such that the audience begins to expect it to appear again later. (And is hopefully excited for it.) 3. Payoff. The element returns in an important way, probably to resolve part of the plot. The previous two appearances have acted as foreshadowing for this ending.
There's also a "Rule of Two" version of this general storytelling technique. Like, "If this special crystal can zap the bad guy and save the day, we have to have shown or at least told the audience that it can do that BEFORE the big final fight scene."
In regards to ATLA, no, I don't think that a scroll in a library or a statue in the background of some scene served as adequate introduction and reminder for the existence of lion turtles, so it didn't necessarily feel like a payoff for me that they solved the main conflict. (It's the "solved the main conflict" that's most of the issue for me. If the lion turtles had just appeared in another episode as a random cool thing like those sea monsters by Kyoshi Island, I would not have cared.)
I actually think that the establishment of other spirits like the Moon Spirit and bending-capable animals like sky bison and dragons can serve as a decent enough "Step 1) Introduction". Though this does not establish that lion turtles specifically exist, we have established that powerful creatures similar to lion turtles exist. But I still needed a solid "Step 2) Pattern / Reminder" that would have established that lion turtles specifically exist and are important BEFORE one shows up at the end like that.
I think that there's at least one episode somewhere in Book 1 or Book 2 that could have been cut in favor of an episode where the Gaang meets and rescues a young lion turtle baby or something.
Maybe Guru Pathik could have learned his ways FROM a lion turtle? Aang could have gone to an isolated village somewhere (with more brown people besides just Guru Pathik?) where people are living in harmony with a lion turtle, or maybe even on the back of a lion turtle! That would be cool!
Concept: Aang encounters Guru Pathik living alone on the back of a lion turtle which doesn't talk to people anymore (Aang swims down to look at its face and it doesn't even look at him), because its kind have been hunted nearly to extinction and it's tired of violence. Guru Pathik learned his ways from his old teacher, who learned from his old teacher, all the way up the teaching lineage from a person who once learned from the lion turtle itself before it gave up on the world. Guru Pathik tends to this nearly empty temple on the back of a silent lion turtle who ignores him, because he will not forsake his teachings even when the world seems uninterested in hearing them and the old lion turtle seems like it could die any day now. The people in the fishing village on the shore think that Guru Pathik is crazy and most of them don't even believe that the floating island really is a lion turtle, it's just weird geography.
Guru Pathik could also have chi-blocking abilities! We could see him demonstrate them in self-defense! He could teach a few chi-blocking moves to Aang, who could later go on to use them occasionally in Book 3, and it would have been really cool to see Aang exploring non-bending skills. We don't need Guru Pathik to explicitly name energy-bending here, but I would like to connect him just a touch more strongly to chi-blocking. Like, he IS connected already by helping Aang clear chakras, which is kind of like a reverse of chi-blocking, but it would be nice to establish Guru Pathik as somewhat capable of the opposite but perhaps not liking to use the skill.
Aang really vibes with this dying culture of pacifists, but he still has to leave Guru Pathik before he can finish the training. Later on, he can encounter Guru Pathik and the silent lion turtle again, and he can confess to them how desperately he doesn't want to have to kill anyone, no matter what his past lives say. He just wants to STOP the violence and restore balance to the world without sacrificing himself. And THEN the lion turtle could wake up and gift him with energy-bending.
Or something like that! The foreshadowing doesn't have to be THAT heavy-handed, but SOME brief appearance by an actual lion turtle would have served as a better "Step 2) Pattern" to me.
Things like chi-blocking, chakras, water-bending healing, water-benders losing their bending when the Moon Spirit was killed, and even Zuko's spiritual turmoil serve as a good "Step 1) Introduction" to the concept of energy-bending to me. The ingredients are THERE. But again, I would have liked some clearer "Step 2) Pattern" that had actually baked the cake in regards to this being a skill Aang had specifically.
The above episode concept with Guru Pathik on the back of a lion turtle could have worked as a "Step 2) Pattern / Reminder" for energy-bending.
ANOTHER option would be to have Aang temporarily lose his bending at the beginning of Book 3, after Katara resurrects him with that special spirit water after Azula killed him at the end of Book 2.
I think Aang losing his bending for at least 3-4 episodes would have been really good for him / the show. So much of Aang's identity is tied up at this point in being the Avatar and the responsibilities of being the Avatar. Losing his bending, especially his AIR-BENDING, and his connection to the spirit world and his past lives would send him into a personal crisis. The Gaang could worry over whether or not a new Avatar has somehow been born or if the Avatar powers are gone forever. The characters could confront the fact that perhaps they've been relying too much on Aang as the Avatar and what they'll do now without the Avatar.
Also, it would be really funny if Aang woke up and picked up his glider to jump off that boat, then just fell into the ocean, and Katara needed to fish him out. (Which would then transition into the dramatic revelation that he has lost his bending!!!)
Katara could use her healing abilities to tell Aang that what's happened to him feels a lot like Ty Lee's chi-blocking. Katara would then probably try to emphasize with Aang, who gets angry with her and says she has no idea what this feels like! Katara could then have a really good intimate scene with Aang over how scary it was when the Moon Spirit was killed, what it physically felt like to lose that spiritual connection, and how scared she was even afterwards about what it would have been like to permanently lose that connection to her people and her culture. Aang then apologizes to Katara and they resolve to find his bending again.
Aang then goes on some spiritual journey with his friends to reconnect with his bending and his past lives as the Avatar. Probably some partially internal spiritual journey with Guru Pathik's teachings. Katara and Toph could both talk about what bending means to them personally as different people, and also what it feels like to them as they interact with the elements of the world around them.
Aang could have some cool fight scenes where he dodges some random thugs using all of his bending skills (martial arts) without the actual bending, air-bending techniques, water-bending techniques, and earth-bending techniques, and then finally some chi-blocking techniques that Guru Pathik showed him. There could be some scene where Aang saves a kid from these random thugs and realizes that he can still do good in the world even if he's not the Avatar! Even if he's not a bender anymore!
There could also be some REALLY funny scenes of Aang trying to get Appa and Momo to teach him how to reconnect with his air-bending. Aang mimicking their movements and so on. (Sokka: "Is that... working so far, buddy?" Aang: "NO! They're terrible teachers!!!" Cue sad Appa bleating and offended Momo chittering.)
You could even do it in a cycle of sorts, where Aang reconnects with his air-bending first using Guru Pathik's teachings and his friends' help. (He is OVERJOYED.) And then Aang slowly regains water-bending and earth-bending over the next few episodes, culminating in him having to face his fears learning fire-bending again. I think you could accomplish this storyline by squeezing it into about 3-4 episodes, or else starting off with losing then regaining air-bending plus the Avatar state in the first 2 episodes of the season and then threading relearning the other elements in the background through later episodes.
ANOTHER option where Aang temporarily loses his bending is after the eclipse, because he has a spiritual crisis over the fact that he was resolved to kill someone and he really doesn't want to do that. I don't like this option so much because it feels a little too late in the season compared to kicking off Book 3 with the drama of Aang losing his bending(!!!), but it's an option.
See, if Aang temporarily loses his bending and has to find it again somehow, then the show could establish what this kind "energy-bending" and spiritual manipulation within a person looks like. If Aang has had to get his bending BACK, then it would better establish Aang then using this ability he has now practiced on himself to take bending away from another person. It's a pleasantly surprising twist that Aang figures out how to reverse a previously established energy-bending technique and successfully uses it against Ozai.
And then the ending, though arguably still in the realm of a Deus Ex Machina (which is cool), would feel more like "Step 3) Payoff" instead of "What just happened?"
Anyway! This post became way longer than originally intended! I hope this has made it clear that I like both the lion turtles and energy-bending as concepts. I think there are many elements in the show that begin to introduce lion turtles and energy-bending as Aang uses it as things that COULD exist. I just think that the show needed some kind of additional baking step in the middle to establish a pattern and use those ingredients to foreshadow that specific "an ancient lion turtle teaches Aang energy-bending" ending.
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Hi! Love your jwcc fanarts! (Hope u don't think my question is to annoying lmao 😭❤️)
I wanna ask u what do u think about that theory abt Ben gf being a catfish? Maybe one of that people that have been hunting them idk. Some posts claim it's actually Brooklyn trying to keep herself updated about the whole situation?? TO MUCH THEORIES
Also if the gf is actually real I'm curious about your opinion. Like I saw a post saying that Ben could be Bi, Pan, etc, but really, I am bisexual myself and there is no bi subtext on that boy... and it's not like they suddenly are gonna officialize he is bi/pan, or give him this type of subtext at this point of the franchise. Is not cool when people call "bi/pan" a media trying to avoid dealing with a character queerness. It's just painful that people think this is a real way of portrait of a bi/pan experience. It's not!!
AW thank you so much! i know i haven't posted much art lately but it still makes me really happy to hear that people enjoy it. and your question isn't annoying at all, don't worry about it :) i love receiving and answering asks, it doesn't matter what they're about
the more time that passes the more plausible the catfish GF theory sounds to me. if i had to guess, ben probably met his girlfriend online, possibly through dark jurassic (which a lot of the fandom seems to be in consensus about). as for it being brooklynn ... not too sure about that one! i've mostly treated it as a crack theory up until now, if just because of how absurd it sounds on paper, but i wouldn't put it past brooklynn to pull something like that. keeping in touch with ben is probably one of her only links back to her friends, besides her contact with ronnie (who is only partially connected to darius at this point, since he quit the DPW). i'd recommend giving these two posts by kitabearuwu a read if you're interested in exploring that theory further.
now if the girlfriend is real: i obviously can't speak for you or other bi/pan/otherwise mspec people, but i've come to not care all that much, if i'm being honest. it was definitely a shock to hear, as was the intended effect, since darius, sammy, and yasmina all initially reacted with surprise. but my question is what harm does ben having a girlfriend in chaos theory inflict? like, does it play into any negative stereotypes? does it communicate a dangerous message about queer people? i've seen some people argue that it perpetuates the notion that mlm relationships are "icky" and shouldn't be portrayed in media, but i have to disagree, respectfully.
i think it's also really important to remember that subtext is ... ultimately kind of subjective, and is totally independent of the creator's intentions. that's the whole point of subtext—it exists below (hence the prefix sub-) the underbelly of the text. you have to be looking for it to see it, basically. and for a long time, the fandom (or at least the queer part of the fandom) subtextually read ben as gay! a lot of that had to do with his rather intimate interactions with the other boys, juxtaposed against the way he rejected yasmina when he thought she had a crush on him ("i like you, but i don't like like you ... i'm just now starting to find myself"). but ... i don't know, if we want to start citing text, i think you could also argue that ben's whole thing about not putting him in a box circa jwcc s5 could be a point towards him being generally unlabeled, which leaves room for him being mspec.
if i had to make some definitive statement on the matter, i guess it'd be that this fandom gets really bogged down by the specific labels of these characters, when it's really not all that necessary. this is still a gay show made by gay people featuring unapologetically gay characters in explicitly gay relationships, of which has been some of the best gay rep i've ever seen in media. and having that kind of representation on TV matters more to me than knowing what ben specifically identifies as, even if it doesn't align with my headcanon. it doesn't have to! but i also don't know for sure if it doesn't align with my headcanon, because we haven't gotten the full story yet. ben's girlfriend is most likely gonna be of some importance, given that he mentioned her twice without going into much detail about her. that leaves a lot of room in future seasons to expand upon who she is and her role in both the greater narrative and ben's life specifically, including his identity. i just think it's best we reserve judgement at this point, basically
#andddd i hope that all makes sense!!#anon#answered#usually don't tag my asks but i think this time i will :)#jwct#jurassic world chaos theory#ben pincus#ben fitzgerald pincus
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Don't you worry, you'll be to told exactly what to do
I give my people the lives they need
The righteous will succeed
You know what I don't like about rebel stories like Hunger Games and Divergent? That we never get the opposite, how about a compliance story?
Something that always bothered me about certain videogames is how they never ever, not even for one second, entertain the thought that you might not agree with them, they all follow the same formula
MC is respected member of [SOCIETY] > MC has encounter with bad side of [SOCIETY] > MC is told not to question things > MC questions things > MC turns sides > MC opposes and wins against [SOCIETY]
But what if I don't wanna? Why do we never get a videogame like that?
I want a game where the MC discovers the truth about the place they live in, and even with that knowledge they stand up and say "Ok and?" and carry on with their life; and that's how this fella was created
My young impressionable mind was exposed to Syndicate (2012) in 2013, the cover looked so cool and all the promo material online was great, it even had the theme song done by Skrillex, Nero, Flux Pavillion and Digitalism (for the people that likes real music and is reading this, that used to mean a lot, they were huge and everywhere for us noise-enjoyers), but the late part of the game and the ending never really... caught my attention, I always found the introduction of the game a loooot more enjoyable, before Kilo becomes a rebel and fights Eurocorp.
And that is why I created this fella. You can even call it a semi faceclaim.
Just like Kilo, born to a syndicate to serve the syndicate, except that i wasn't Eurocorp, it was Cayman Global, following their in-universe explanation that DART-6 has not been reverse engineered by any company and is propietary software of Eurocorp, Cayman decided to try their hand at it with what knowledge they have on it, and that is how they came up with the idea of Speciality Chips, or S.C, they work similarly to DART-6, with its own schizophrenia inducing voice interface and all, except that they don't enhance every single part of a 'soldier', instead they are using to make people 'better' at their jobs, depending on the role and occupation chosen for them at birth.
Fake memories of a fake family and a fake childhood, an AI prompt fed into his brain by the SC as a child to mould his personality to what Cayman needed it to be, with fake hardships to strenghten his character and fake triumphs to make him proud and happy. And every single thing he remembers doing as a child was a stage play to nurture and test his abilities, a continious selection program where only the best move on to the next phase while never aware that they are competing; every single one of those kids he beat at Spelling Bee as a child were just like him, and their failure meant their removal from the program, another job at Cayman Global will be found for them that fits their skillset, same thing for karting tournaments, academic score, everything.
His parents are just company employees told to act a certain way to incite certain reactions, records of who he was born to are probably kept somewhere, but who cares anyways, for as long as he believes those are his parents, they will do.
The only thing that makes him a somewhat rare candidate is that he is not a single child, he has a sister, also put throught the same program as him, just for another role, using a different version of the chip for a completely different purpose.
After years of serving Cayman Global and earning his Black Stripe clearance, one of his missions has his evacuation transport crash and drop him into the sea, after his chip entered power saving mode due to not consuming enough food or water, it was the first time he ever experienced fully thinking for himself, not having his thoughts molded, suggested or coerced by any company directive, and he found those thoughts to be quite similar to the ones he had before, questioning the methods of execution of Cayman Global, but not their ideals or beliefs. Why was he floating in the sea for so long? Shouldn't they pick him up as soon as his signal dissapeared? If the SC is an AI, do they all have different personalities and voices? Is his specially made for him?
Upon arriving Someplace, Somewhere in [COUNTRY], his chip came back into service, except that now they had a different set of information and ideas, his head filled with questions that the SC couldn't answer, but none of these doubts ever put his allegiance into question, so none of them got reported back, which would have ironically gotten him rescued faster.
Eventually he came across some locals, his uniform and armor damaged, no longer sporting any visible mark of his employer, they took him in, unaware of who he was; they certainly wouldn't have if they knew he was working for the exact same company responsible for making their life so miserable.
Time passed, he learned things from the locals and the locals learnt from him, all of his training was very real, and it showed, a trained agent like him could do things these guerrilla fighters only dreamed of, eventually being a prominent voice in this little tribe that nursed him back to health, he got a taste of what being in power was like, and he liked it, and his SC was taking records of it.
This sudden change in approach to a more professional and organized course of action peaked the interest of the tribe's enemies too, they couldn't have learned these things overnight, someone was helping them, their first thought was a rival syndicate, and so they dispatched a whole bunch of agents to deal with the new threat, ironically one of these agents being his sister.
The two were fated to encounter, and that is exactly what happened, just not the way they expected it, and certainly not the way they wanted it, and totally against the syndicate's wishes. Their SCs mark each other as [RELATIVE], but they don't know this other animal in front of them, how could these two different animals could have come out of the same mother, they are not the same species, she's a bird, he's a fox, he has a marksman tag, she has a bruiser tag, they look nothing alike, they are nothing alike.
Cayman Global originally thought of this as an inconvenience that should be dealt with immediately, but latter settled on exploring the possible opportunities of letting their bond be known to each other, and more importantly, the opportunity to gain an insider with access to the locals. And they had a lot to know about each other, their customs, their way of doing things, their likes and dislikes.
This only led to more question appearing on his head, why was everything at Cayman so peaceful, why can he just solve problems with his sister so easily, while the locals have all of these problems, tribes not settling in on one thing, having to constantly ask for things, changing their minds, disagreeing, fights; maybe they had so much problems with the syndicates because of their ways, if they could understand each other, things could probably be solved quicker.
But the tribes didn't wanted that, and rightfully so, they did not wanted to surrender their freedom, their land and everything they own to a company to manage and do as it pleases with, it was theirs.
You can't teach an old dog new tricks, he and his sister were raised by the Syndicate, to them these ideas the locals speak of were nonsense, all of this chaos and problems that could be easily fixed, why wouldnt you want to fix it?
And that's when his SC, for the first time in forever, came up with its own idea, not something fed by the mainframe. Betray the tribes.
And betray the tribes they indeed do, Cayman agents agreed to the plan after a lot of favours being called and some heavy bargaining in the form of his sister's fists. An easy pick for the tribes, a Helibird crashed into the desert after a sandstorm, few survivours and a delayed rescue team due to the poor visibility, the perfect chance to pick up resources; but the only thing they picked up was a fight they couldn't win.
And so he triumphantly returned to his home, Cayman Global headquarters, but his new... Ideas... were not popular with all of his superiors, but those that agreed with him were not afraid of showing his support.
That's how he met Moon, someone that has been sitting near the top for way too long, and no longer thinks the head should be doing the thinking, and she was ready to make a play for it, playing with some strings here and there to have the siblings end up under her supervision, she could train and explore where these ideas of theirs really led to, what did they meant.
He gave a new name to his SC's voice, Lightning, and she liked it, it was nice to be her own thing, not just another chip, and in return, he let her take control over bits and pieces of his brain that none of the chips should have access to.
Little by little, Moon slowly revealled what the syndicates were up to, a second syndicate war was brooding up, and it was going to be way worse than the one they had in 2049, and she remembers that one pretty well, she was still an active agent back then. She allowed him to take a peek behind the curtain, how his memories were manipulated and changed in order to fit a narrative created by the syndicate, how his upbringing was all fake, how he was monitored and sought after like a guinea pig.
And he had absolutely no problem with any of that, his mind was so deeply consumed by the company's mindset that he couldn't even begin to understand how could any of those things were bad, he never questioned his position or his role in Cayman Global, instead he just wanted more, his last adventure made him hungry for things he should have never tasted, the company's propaganda kept him docile and happy, but also kept him compliant and safe, and he wanted none of the latter, having power is great, being in charge is amazing and telling other people what to do feels good; and Lightning agreed with it, why should she be a simple voice on his head, when she could control all the other voices on everyone's head.
That is where their real 'adventure' begins, not to destroy a corrupt syndicate, not to make the world a better place, not to make it fairer, is to put themselves on top, be the one that cuts the cake instead of being the one receiving a slice.
Thank you for coming to my OC rant
#oc#oc art#comission#rant post#fox#fursona#furry art#furry#furry oc#furry fandom#anthro#anthro art#syndicate
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Stela, how have you been? It’s been so long it’s actually crazy. I know I could’ve just DM’ed you but there is just something so nostalgic about sending asks that I had to do it.
There is always at least one day a year when I reminisce about my tumblr days and you’re always one of the first people to pop up in my mind.
Sometimes I really miss it here, but I guess it will never be like the time when we were in the skam fandom, since everyone had absolutely nothing to do during the pandemic. I think it was really nice that we created a world of our own here and it really got me through those tough times.
Sorry for the rant, I don’t even know what I’m talking about anymore, I always feel like using tumblr again, but then I get here and get kinda sad due to all the nostalgia and feeling that it will never be the same. It’s so weird that a “rede social” (ops não sei como falar em inglês) can make me feel this way.
Well, at least I’m always glad to see that your still somewhat active. Always wishing you the best <3
Saudades.
Ju 🩷
Juuuuuuuu!
Hello, friend! Thank you for remembering me 🥹
Wow... I can't even recall when was the last time someone sent me an Ask. Nostalgic INDEED!
But it's so good to hear from you again! I really hope you are thriving, living the best life and super busy being happy 🖤
As for me, a lot changed since the Golden Days of Skam France fandom... I got a job, but I don't know if I already told you that, and then I quite said job last year after almost three years of silent hating kkkkkkkkkk
And I move to Australia to study English. I'm living here for five months now. And it's been... an adventure... let's put it that way kkkkkkkkkk
Oh, and I have a new obsession now. I believe you have noticed, but I was hooked by a 8 member K-pop boy group 🫣 (and 1 of them in particular stole my heart and he's keeping it captive since then 🫣🫣)
Ah... now I really miss the old days. We had a beautiful community in here, it was trully special. And I agree with you, I don't think we can recreat the same space again. But I treasure the memory of our little bubble. People like to trash talk the internet and social media, but we would never find each other without tumblr (and our matching obsession) and for that I will always be gratefull!
Ju, thank you so much for the warm hug that was this ask 🥹🫂🖤✨
Sending you lots and lots and lots of love!
Saudades
#ju 🍬#ask#you really brought a smile to my face 😊#man... now I want to rewatch skam france again!!!#saudades 🖤#lovely lovely people
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Under the cut are mostly self-insert doodles of decreasing quality. Again, not much directly tied to Team Fortress 2. Might as well toss these out while I have no access to my puter. Much yapping under the cut and in the tags incoming.
Another self-insert, this time less of a "here's me as a tenth class" and more of a "here's my game experiences translated into the class I would take the place of". The Cleaner. Although I guess they could still be wearing either suit. It doesn't matter that much.
That one Convict's Case taunt with Backup would be extremely funny, because the man would be on the verge of a breakdown (he does not want to go to jail so bad you have no idea). The second image- I owe no explanation. You know what I am. You see the pattern with my favourites.
The duality of the man. Resting face versus "just heard you express interest in religion/Russian folklore" face. He's not that hard to make friends with, when you pull him away from all the explosions.
Some doodles of trying to figure his face out. Unfortunately, the more I stare at him, the more I worry that he looks like A Certain Guy With The Last Name "Kazarin", and the fear of never being original in my life caught up to me.
Don't look at me, don't perceive me, I refuse to explain any of my actions to you.
#team fortress 2#tf2#that's it that's the only tags i am putting this in. maybe someday i will have the balls to do more but for now that's about it#while i have the chance - and since posts with more of my yapping in the tags don't pop in people's feeds much - i might as well ramble-#-about these guys here. self-inserts or not i'm projecting only half of my bullshit on each one of them. creativity 👍#backup is tall and pale and has sharp canines and more of a dull brown hair colour with tired grey eyes. no amount of babyface or soft-#-hands can really help a motherfucker when he's grimacing so much because he just Hates being around half the people on the team.#cleaner meanwhile is on the shorter side and has constantly flushed skin and brighter colours and whatnot. you can't see it because of the-#-mask most of the time but they do smile a lot more and have a more cheery disposition towards life and see the whole team as their friends!#backup transitioned fully (albeit not very legally lmao) and is scared shitless of not being seen as a man although the last time that ever-#-came up was years ago. he holds onto his last name as part of the heritage he loves and loathes at the same time - attached to his culture-#-and religion and bloodline while also resentful of his family and the regime he knows someone else on the team suffered under.#cleaner just kinda binds and calls it a day. he only does it to confuse the team because while he doesn't identify with being a girl he-#-loves the confused looks his epic gender reveal moment gets. they do not remember their family name or where they grew up or what even got-#-them to this kind of mental state. and he's chill with it he values the here and now way more than some dark edgy backstory.#backup despite trying to be an honest man is afraid of vulnerability as well. he stubbornly refuses to express love towards certain people-#-lest they feel disgusted and turn away. he's afraid of consequences afraid of losing the people he loves afraid of his ''interests'' being-#-what drives them away. it doesn't by the way and he just wasted time being a cold indecisive loser for several months lmao#cleaner wears a suit that hides all of them yes but they pretty much never lie. he is always his truest self and he can always just burn-#-people who don't like him enough to make it a problem. they are a lot more comfortable indulging in their interests - be they innocent-#-and juvenile or violent and dangerous. he is quite open with his affection and his fascinations that backup would rather keep secret.#i want to establish that these two can only exist in separate universes because they both have feelings towards the funny assistant lady-#-and the funny inventor guy (selfshipping for the winnn) and would fight over those two. cleaner would win by the way#it's also a really funny point of comparison. cleaner is objectively more fucked up than backup and still managed to be more normal about-#-their feelings and live as a healthier and happier person than that guy. comedic gold honestly#OKAY I'M DONE if you read up to here you get uhhh a cookie :-)
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so in today's subconscious cooking up stories while i sleep, 1) my parents were rich af, 2) i was 16 or so and had a mental breakdown (for the only realistic part), so they 3) drove me to some facility and i was screaming and running away UNTIL 4) the therapy they assigned to me was a two hour walk around a huge glass building with the lawyer from Anatomy of a Fall 😭😂
i completely forgot about this meh film and the guy... or clearly not on some level. also 5) became friends with a fellow inpatient who looked suspiciously like Rayne Fisher-Quann.
okayyyyy
#and i know this is boring for anyone outside of this brain but i have to laugh at the weird randomness with strings of logic (there was lots#of snow?? let's add a canadian girl)#just lol.#personal#//#also i didn't realise who those people were in that dream - only later#it's a lot of nonsense but a nice break from body horror weird scary shit i usually get#it's definitely because i was crying over my teenage years recently! but the french lawyer bit i don't quite get#replacement father figure probably - dear lord what a sad little life jane#anyway he was really good at his job so maybe i should tell him to change careers?#OOOh just remember it had a weird horribly dark scene at the end unrelated to previous plotline - nevermind! couldn't get something#not scarring for once of course 🥰
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#now my aunt is in remission...#a lot is happening and i feel the loneliest I've felt since high school#I've only been getting worse since my family denied what i went through and sat there and told me i wasn't probably remembering it correctly#i know what it was like growing up even if it comes back to me in spurts..#but they really have started to make me doubt myself and its the worse cause they never apologized for the neglect and abuse#and they all took their side and acted like i was mistaken and said “ i never saw it happened do it didn't happen#and now i dont even talk to the only two friends i had cause i dont feel the same#if i don't text them first they never ever message me first or even check on me#and im always the one being there for them and listening to them and im just tired lf it all#i dont want a future anymore and im slowly losing my grip ive held on do tight even at my loneliest and now i feel like im losing#i was never anyone's best friend and everyone of the people ive called friends were always closer to someone else#ive only always had myself but im losing hope for the future and i just feel so extremely empty again#i just want to end this feeling and the weed isnt working anymore and working out doesnt work... i need God ive been so far away from him..#Im just slowly losing it more and more im tired of being the friend everyone goes to for advice and laughs or enjoyment#im tired of it so much#the only time i feel joy is the bliss i feel when i sleep and even that joy is never truly felt cause i constantly fight my sleep#i only sleep when my body forced it self to cause i can't naturally just go to sleep st s set time anymore..#im so tired of being people's escape or advice person I'm probably only saying this for the overwhelming feeling#of being a colossal failure and disappointment even so i still try snd try and fail some more#why don't i quit I just dont know why its just something in me that has some glimmer of self hope ive only tried to kms once and failed#maybe ima bit glad i failed but apart of me laughs cause i even failed at kms and find it ironic cause i fail at so many things#im so incapable of salvaging some semblance of normality or consistency#Mr.inconsistent that i am and have been but i refuse to let myself end that way i have to fight for something even in this haze of mine..#i just want to be better why cant i get better and stay good.. maybe it hurts more than i let on finally speaking of what happened#and for them to deny it may have really affected me a lot snd i am just now seeing it manifest it self now ...#i just gotta live with it and just TRY to do better every single day snd in every single situation snd action i take...
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Heartbreaking: This German almost died bc they had to manually select Germany as their location on a German-language website, bc the default was Switzerland or Austria bc that's where the company is from
#jk but also I am always like. surprised by how surprised I am when this happens#like ok swing kitchen I get it you're fancy and from vienna however *I* wanted to order from your new store location#which you didn't let me do anyways bc you're a lying fucking bitch! >:c#I just wanna know how much their fucking burgers cost 🥲#I genuinely can't remember the last time I came across an instance of like. mindlessly browsing the web and reaching a moment#of like 'oh right Austria exists'#I mean it happens a lot with like seeing czech people talk about stuff related to the German language#which is so funny like earlier today I read an article by some radio in prague idk it was like an international intercultural thing#and it was an article in relation to a czech learning program they have for German speakers#and it was about like how to say where you're from etc. I was looking it up bc I needed the name of the castle that#'Rakousko' comes from. But like even having actively searched for the etymology of the czech word for Austria I had a short moment of like#'ah yeah Austria exists'. I think it might've even had it as the first option which would've been stunning!#Sometimes I feel like Austria is more relevant to the Czech Republic than it is to Germany#Jesus Christ we're terrible neighbours I understand why they hate us#Especially like watching Austrian broadcasts it's like. I get the feeling that Germany does get mentioned quite a bit more#than the other way around even on mundane topics#The dynamic is very much 'I hate you' - 'I don't think about you at all'
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-->Though I quickly learned I had bigger problems than Alice cooking naked, when I discovered Nalani had wandered around to the back porch and was doing some herbalism at the grill. :O!! Fortunately, she was good enough not to set any mood-killing fires, and she and Felipe eventually wandered into the kitchen to chat with Alice (now clothed again, yay) and offer their help with the cooking. While Clement Frost did his best to snag some leftover fruit pie and grand breakfast. *sigh* Food's coming, good sir! Alice eventually finished the meal (getting level 5 Gourmet Cooking skill in the process, nice) and called everyone to the table --
-->Cue a mess as I tried to get everyone to at least SIT at the table without getting distracted. *shakehead* It took quite a bit of wrangling as Sims got distracted playing on their phones, going outside to check on the specters on the front porch (who were currently sprinkling their playfulness all over Angela Pleasant), and trying to get other food from the fridge, but EVENTUALLY everyone (well, everyone who could fit -- sorry, Nalani, it's a six-seater!) sat around the damn table. Oh Sims, why are you like this... Anyway, everyone enjoyed the food they had in front of them, and Smiler tried telling some stories about pirate captains and castaways, because it was actually Talk Like A Pirate Day on top of everything else. XD Neither of their attempts actually fulfilled the goal (they kept ending the stories early), but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves regardless, so -- win?
-->With the meal sorted, I noticed the weather was just getting worse and worse -- so while Clement, Felipe, Nalani, and Rory kept chatting to each other in the kitchen (and getting more leftovers out of the fridge -- guys, come on), Victor headed out back to the weather machine and cleared the skies before downing a Potion of Plentiful Needs to fix his exhaustion and other failing needs. With the rain tapering off, Smiler cleaned up the dishes in the kitchen, and Alice got her tripod set up on the front porch (ignoring the passing NPC kicking over their garbage can) -- and then, once everything was clear, I sent the gang out to the front porch to take some trio shots to fulfill the "take 20 pictures" goal!
...as you can see, first shot was kind of ruined by the appearance of orange tiger stripes all over Victor. Oops. XD Not sure WHEN he got sick, but it certainly made things a mite more inconvenient when it came to pictures!
#sims 4#the lazy save#victor van dort#alice liddell#smiler always#I was SOOOO nervous when I spotted Nalani at the grill#like noooo there have been so many herbalism fires#but apparently she knows her stuff so hooray#and thanks to that damn 'resetting herbalism fix' I found by Spinning Plumbobs#the damn jars no longer end up all over MY porch#also Felipe may have been the one to get the fruit pie out of the fridge#I don't quite remember I just remember I was having a lot of people get leftovers#need a mod to stop THAT I think#eat the food I serve you you lot#at least it all mostly worked out in the end there#except for Victor getting sick#seriously why now when the house is full of people?#...actually that WOULD be the most likely time for someone to get sick wouldn't it?#never mind objection withdrawn#I'm just glad Sim sickness is easier to recover from than human sickness!#queued
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apparently i got on tumblr in December 2013
#that's about what i thought actually#but just putting this here for. idk why#10 years ago i was a little nightmare of a college student#and i don't say that to be self deprecating#that's just how it is when you're 18-22 years old#learning your way in the world. getting into and then completely misapplying the concept of tone policing#to where you can't have a normal conversation if someone else says something wrong#you have to be a dick to them instead#and if they don't like you being a dick. well. that's a THEM problem obviously#doing those vent posts with a lot of swearing because they're all the rage#'listen up fuckers'#do y'all remember 2013 on here???? whew#i was reading other people's tumblrs for quite a while before i actually got on. so i remember more than a month of 2013. for the record lo
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Benefits of audiobooks- I can listen to them while I work, and I am forced to hear and consider every word, rather than read at my usual flying pace, which means I don’t miss things as much and get a deeper and more sustained enjoyment from a really good book
Disadvantages of audiobooks- When there are emotional details they aren’t blunted by the fact that my uncontrolled eye is already skimming the next passages and there are some Emotions that are not appropriate for working hours
#The Woman in White#Because Mrs Clements saying 'I made her first short frocks' broke me#And yet if I'd been reading a physical copy of that passage I'd probably have flown through it without remembering that sentence at all#Also the bit where Hartright says that Anne is buried in a place that Mrs Clements would have chosen for her herself#Was very upsetting#AND to top it all off I've just gone back an dlooked up the passage again and there's a sentence about how#Hartright 'is certain that she was not neglected in her last moments'#WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WALTER#Ok so she had medical attention and all the kindness that strangers could give her#But she died in a strange place confused as to why she was there surrounded by people who only wanted to use her#and the one person in the world who loved her not only didn't know where she was but never heard of her death until Walter told her#At least I suppose when he says that he means it as a comfort to Mrs Clements and that's totally fair and valid but still#Honestly I quite enjoyed the book but Anne Catherick deserved so much better than a single line on a tombstone#Maybe I'm just susceptible to statements about people who died without their loved ones near them for personal reasons#And I know it's a very common occurrence and even in the Victorian era when many people died at home it was common then#But poor Anne deserved better#Anyway also proof that audiobooks count as 'real books'#Because even though I don't always count them towards reading challenges I actually find that I pay more attention#and get a lot more out of fiction books at least than if I'd been reading them in a physical copy#Non-fiction is a different matter but I learnt to race through novels at an early age and just eat them up without much mulling over them#And it's hard to control my eye even when I'm trying to savour a book#So audiobooks actually make me read more carefully and sensibly#Perhaps the main disadvantage is I never know how the names of people and places are spelt#Especially if the narrator has an accent#reading log
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had another nightmare about Art the Clown😔
#luckily this one didn't have any confrontation#basically it was sort of like a combination of Halloween and Christmas#and we were prepared for his sort of arrival like when you we had to watch out at some point#the dream took place in our apartment and it was exactly the same except slightly different like a little bit bigger etc#anyways we had lots of family and friends overthe only one actually from real life being my grandmother and my mom#and people are coming to our door because it's like sort of trick or treating or something (including the queens from All Stars 7??)#but we don't answer cuz we're sort of anticipating that Art is coming. and I keep asking my mom like;#should we go to the store while we still have time like should we do something other than wait around#by the time I speak up it's too late and now the dream focuses on just me mom my grandma and a young girl (the other people left i guess)#basically the girl saw a reflection of Art all the way from the garden or something we live on the second for by the way#and our windows face the backyard which is quite big and you can see our downstairs neighbors' porch just below us#so what we do is we go over to the window but we have to be careful that he doesn't see us now we're sort of in Art-survival mode#he's like hyper-aware and if he sees us he'll try to get to us#I take a peek out the window and I see Art looking at himself on a reflective surface. luckily he didn't see me and I hide again#my grandma asks what's going on and I tell her just don't let him see you. and then I remember that the door to the apartment is unlocked#in the dream our door was basically useless because there was a huge like hole next to it like a window with no glass#but I lock the door anyway and it makes the tiniest little sound#and in my mind I can see Art walking out of the garden and coming towards the house. The end#in my other nightmares he's fucking chasing me with a hammer and shit
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How to Write REALISTIC and SMOOTH Dialogue
In a story, dialogue is quite important, it helps the readers paint a picture of what's happening and the characters themselves. However, it can be difficult to avoid the unnaturalness and choppiness that comes with a lack of experience. But luckily, I have put together A LOT of advice on how you can get over that rockiness and improve!
*** KEEPING YOUR DIALOGUE REALISTIC, AND PACING ***
>> Keep your characters in character:
Dialogue is a remarkably quick way for readers to determine your character's personality. Thus, you want their speech patterns to remain fairly consistent so the audience won't get confused. If your character is more serious, then they will use less slang and perhaps a more impressive vocabulary. If your character is more relaxed, they will use more slang and compress the words. (such as "dunno," "kay," "y'know," etc.)
Basically, you want their tone to match their traits so the way that they talk is more realistic and personlized to themselves. If the way all your characters speak is the same, there's something wrong. A strong tip is to put yourself in your character's shoes and imagine how they would respond!
>> Take the situation into consideration:
This is another part of keeping your characters in, well, character. Different emotional situations will have a different effect on separate people, so make sure that you have an idea of how your character will act during stressful, irritating, and sad times.
If your character is normally cold, they will struggle if it comes to comforting other people because they have less experience in that field.
>> Don't take too long with their words:
Unlike when narrating something, most people talk just to get the idea across. They will be more specific and quicker with what they say. (This excludes any character who likes to talk a lot.) Unless it's on purpose, they won't dance around the topic. Think of when you casually chat with your friends; you're pretty unlikely to use certain words and/or phrases that might be common to use while narrating.
If you want to explain something complicated, instead of writing out a paragraph of just one person talking, use a question-and-answer prompt! This is where another character continuously asks related questions that get answered by another person, so you can indirectly reveal your explanation.
*** HOW TO WRITE A SMOOTHER CONVERSATION AND DIALOGUE TAGS***
>> Having a variety of dialogue tags:
This is a pretty basic thing to look out for if you're new to writing conversations. Using words like "said," every other sentence can easily make it feel choppy and robotic. Instead, use words like "murmured," "smirked," etc. to paint some emotion into their words. Additionally, vary the location of the dialogue tags! They don't all have to go after the statement, you can include something in the beginning or even the middle, too!
Examples:
Beginning - She tilted her head, "What are you talking about?"
Middle - "Oh," he blinked, "I actually never thought about that."
End - "Wait up!" She exclaimed loudly, waving her hands around.
>> Using no dialogue tags to create a smooth conversation:
Having too many tags can also overwhelm your reader--remember, sentence variety is a crucial part of writing--so you can always drop them if they're unneeded. This applies when your characters (two is the suggested amount) are talking back and forth in a pattern straightforward enough for the reader to understand who's talking without it having to be labeled.
Dropping dialogue tags in these moments can create a smoother atmosphere during the conversation because the reader only has to focus on the talking present.
*** USING SLANG, STUTTERS, FILLER WORDS, AND PAUSES ***
Human speech is often not perfect; when talking, we often make mistakes such as filler words, grammatically incorrect phrases, etc. Hence, for more natural-sounding dialogue, it's important to incorporate some of these.
>> Pauses and stutters:
When reading dialogue, we read it at a steady pace unless it's written otherwise. However, that steady pace can soon get too robotic and too smooth. Luckily, there are several ways to change this! You can use dialogue tags, (ex: she quickly spoke) commas, and ellipsis (...). These are often integrated when the character is hesitant, nervous, answering something, or when they need to admit something. The same idea applies to stutters--they're mainly used to demonstrate anxiousness, which can be found in varying situations.
>> Filler words and slang:
Filler words can really just be used where you see fit. They may be used in the situations I previously mentioned (because it shows someone stumbling over their words) but it's ultimately up to you!
Slang, just like everything else, should not be used too often, or it will seem forced and exaggerated. The point is to sound natural, and increasing amounts of repetitiveness can ruin it. It's also important to remember that in real life, our conversations move slower; when someone speaks, another person usually doesn't respond quite literally, right after. However, in writing, dialogue can actually often seem that way, which is why using tags and these imperfections of speech is pivotal for building a realistic conversation!
*** CONCLUSION ***
Lastly, a key point when writing dialogue is to ALWAYS read the conversations! Whether it be in your head or out loud, it can often help you catch anything that seems off! Additionally, like I mentioned at the very beginning, write dialogue from your character's perspective! Imagine yourself as them and how they/you would talk. Try to keep your dialogue tags, sentences, and word use varied to create a natural conversation!
If you were struggling before, I hope that this (extra) long guide was able to really offer you some insight and useful tips! If you read this far, thank you!
Happy writing~
3hks <3
#writing#writeblr#writerscommunity#writing tips#creative writing#writing advice#writing inspo#dialogue#writing dialogue#writing dialogue tips#dialogue tips#how to write dialogue#how to write smooth dialogue#how to write natural dialogue#tips on writing dialogue#tips on writing smooth dialogue#tips on writing realistic dialogue#how to write realistic dialogue
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re: Somerton
Not for nothing, but I think we should remember that James Somerton's fans and subscribers are normal people, just like you. They are people who received his output in good faith, and extended to him a normal amount of grace and benefit of the doubt, which he took advantage of.
I don't think it's helpful to respond to the exposé on Somerton with sentiments along the lines of "wow, how could anyone ever think THIS GUY'S videos were any good, ha ha ha, how did he ever get subscribers?" because 1) you have the substantial benefit of hindsight and a disengaged outsider perspective, and 2) it's a rhetoric that creates a divide between you (refined, savvy, smart, sophisticated) and Somerton's audience (gullible, unrefined, easily taken advantage of, terrible taste), which is a false divide, with a false sense of security.
Somerton's success happened because he stole good writing. He found interesting, insightful, in-depth work done by other people, applied the one skill he actually has which is marketing, and re-packaged it as his own. He targeted a market which is starving for the exact kind of writing he was stealing, and pushed his audience to disengage from sources that conflicted with him.
Hbomberguy makes this point in his exposé video: good queer writing is hard to find and incredibly easy to lose. The writers Somerton stole from were often poor or precarious, writing freelance work for small circles under shitty conditions, without the means or the reach or the privileges necessary to find bigger markets. And, as Hbomb demonstrated, when people did discover Somerton's plagiarism, he used his substantial audience to hound them away and dissuade anyone else from trying to hold him accountable.
He stole queer writing by marginalized people, about experiences and perspectives that people are desperate to hear more about, and even if his delivery and aesthetics were naff, his words resonated with people because the original writers who actually wrote them poured their goddamn hearts and souls into it.
Somerton also maintained a consistent narrative of persecution and marginalization about himself. He took the plain truth, which is that queer people and perspectives are discriminated against, and worked that into a story about himself as a lone, brave truth-teller, daring to voice an authentic queer perspective, constantly beset by bigots and adversaries who sought to tear him down. As @aranock, who works with some of the people he targeted, writes in this post, Somerton weaponized whatever casual bias and bigotry he could find in his audience to reinforce his me vs them narrative (usually misogyny and various forms of transphobia), which is what grifters do. They find a vulnerable thread in a community and pull on it. And while you may not have the particular vulnerability that he exploited, you do have vulnerabilities, and they can be exploited too.
People felt compelled to support him, even if his work was sometimes shoddy, because he presented himself as a vulnerable, marginalized person in need of help, he pulled on that vulnerable thread.
Again, he has a degree in marketing, and just like propaganda, nobody is immune to marketing.
YouTube as a system is set up to push for more, constantly more. More content, more videos, more output, more more more more, and part of Somerton and Illuminaughty's success was their ability to push out large amounts of content to the hungry algorithm, even if it was of inferior quality. The algorithm rewarded their volume of output with more eyeballs and attention, and therefore more opportunities to find people who were vulnerable to their grift.
It is a system which quite literally rewards the exact kind of plagiarism that they do, because watch-time and engagement are easily measurable metrics for a corporation, and academic rigor is not. There is pressure to deliver, and a lot of rewards to gain from cutting corners to do it.
Somerton and Illuminaughty and Internet Historian are extreme and very obvious cases, so blatant that you can make a four hour video essay exposing what they've done, but the vast majority of this kind of plagiarism isn't going to be obvious - sometimes it might not even be obvious to the people who are doing it. Casual plagiarism is endemic to the modern internet, and most people don't get educated on what the exact boundaries are between proper sourcing and quoting vs plagiarizing. We had an entire course module at my university aimed at teaching students the exact differences and definitions, and people still made good faith mistakes in their essays and papers that they had to learn to correct during their education.
All of this to say: it is extremely easy in hindsight to call Somerton's work shitty and shoddy, his aesthetics flat and uninspired, and to imagine that as a sophisticated person with good taste and critical faculties, you would never be taken in by this kind of grifter. It is extremely easy to distance yourself from the people he preyed on, and imagine that you will never have to worry about your fave doing your dirty like that.
But part of the point of Hbomberguy's video is that plagiarism is extremely easy to get away with, and often difficult for the average person to spot and call out, and with the rise of AI tools blurring the lines even further, it is not going to get any easier.
So I think we should resist the temptation to think of Somerton's audience as people with bad taste and poor faculties. We should resist the temptation to distance ourselves from the perfectly normal people he preyed on. Many times in your life, a modestly clever man with a marketing degree has fooled you too.
On a personal note, by the same token, I am resisting the temptation to assume that I am too good to be vulnerable to the systemic pressures that produced Somerton and Illuminaughty. No, I've never made a video by word-for-word reciting someone else's work, but I know for a fact that I could do a better job of double-checking my work and citing my sources. I feel the exact same pressure to get a video out as fast as possible, I have the exact same rewards dangled in front of me by YouTube as a platform, and I can't pretend it doesn't affect my work. To me, Hbomb's video felt like a wake-up call to do better.
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There are a lot of things I'm sad about in my life. You don't get to go through the kind of medical trauma I've been through and come out unscathed on the other side.
But one thing I'm really bitter about is that I can't remember my wedding anymore. The pernicious anemia took it from me and wiped my brain clean. Except it's not clean, not really. I remember it in patches. Like red wine stains on a white rug that have never quite lifted out no matter how hard you try.
I look at the pictures on my bookcase, and they feel like remembering a story someone else has told me. There's a young woman in a white dress wearing my face, and she looks happy. I'm happy for her. But you can see the strain around her eyes, too. The pain she's hiding because no one with authority believes her when she says her body doesn't feel right. That something is Wrong.
They won't believe her for another decade. They won't believe her until it's almost too late, and it's that lateness that will rob her of her memories and turn them into a wavering rainbow suspended in the fine haze of watery sunlight that occasionally surfaces through the blanks.
There's one memory that's real, though. Solid. It's not my vows. It's not my father walking me down the aisle. (Though those are there, just hazy and dream-like). It's our first dance.
It's the lights dimming around the room as the staff cleared the floor, causing the fishbowls full of white roses and LED lights on the tables to wobble like pools of moonlight against dark paneled walls.
It's the band inviting us out onto the floor and us giggling because we know what's coming next, and no one else does. It's the twang of a banjo reverberating around the room through the speakers, followed by the dulcet tones of Kermit the Frog wondering why there are so many songs about rainbows.
It's us waltzing around the enclosed circle of light, singing to each other out of tune and grinning like idiots as everyone around us starts to laugh.
It's everyone joining in on the song because it's the Muppets, and everyone knows the words. It's 100+ people singing the Rainbow Connection, some laughing, some a bit tearful, because it's bringing back memories. Because it's making a new one.
It's looking up at my new husband through the brain fog and all the pain in my body and thinking, "I want to remember this moment forever."
I don't know what entity was out there listening to me at that moment and chose to grant that wish. I don't know why this is the one memory that stuck while everything else in my brain got decimated into scattered, fragmented snapshots. But I'm so, so thankful it is.
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𝐅𝐀𝐕 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍?
pairing: gojo, geto, choso, and toji x fem!reader (separate)
summary: celeb!au where the boys are interviewed and asked a pretty personal question ! (I took nanami out bc I don't think he would want to share your business with the world)
content: kinda suggestive, established relationships, allusions to sexual themes, mentions of dacryphyilia in toji's, pet names, cursing, celebrity!au (model, singer, actor, etc)
wc: 1.4k
♡ 𝐒. 𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎
"Yes, yes! Thank you for joining us today, Gojo-san. All of your fans are excited to see you play the new lead role in this upcoming movie!" For the past hour Gojo has been answering questions many of his fans have with an interviewer who has gathered some of the most asked questions.
"Next question!" The women exclaims excitedly, when she reads the card she pauses in shock, "Um.. who put this card in there...?" Now the white haired actor was curious.
"Well, what does it say? I'm sure it can't be that bad." His cocky attitude is showing, but a huge percentage of his fans like when he's like this. It makes fantasizing him all the more creative and exciting; or so you hear.
"Uh...uh. Um-" She remembers the camera is rolling, and this is live TV. "Many fans know you have a girlfriend and a lot of them want to ask,
"What is your favorite position?"
Gojo knew his PR team would probably get on his ass for answering this question instead of moving on to a different one but he doesn't care- at all.
"This is a tough one... hm. I guess if I had to choose I'd say cowgirl. I love the way she rides," he pauses for a second before continuing with excitement, "She's hella good at it too! Every time I watch her bounce on it my eyes about roll to the back of my-"
"OKAY. Thank you, Mr. Gojo!" She interrupts, quickly turning to the camera with a very forced smile.
"There you have it! We'll be back after a brief commercial break!"
♡ 𝐒. 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐎
Your boyfriend, Suguru, started a podcast about his music life with his band mates two years ago. Since his group already had quite a huge fan base, it was no surprise they took to their podcast with excitement.
Usually the group would talk about funny backstage stories or moments where their performances were almost ruined. Today they're doing a Q&A, the questions that are most asked will be answered first, while less popular questions will be answered later.
"Oh shit, people wanna know Suguru." He quirks an eyebrow, the raven haired male leans his mic towards his lips so the people can hear his voice.
"Know what?" A sly smirk forms on his face because he knows there could be at least a million things 'the people wanna know.'
"They wanna know what's your favorite position to have your girl in." The lead singer snickers whilst asking the question. Suguru clicks his tongue and taps on the desk a few times.
"I really like to have her legs behind her head cuz I can reach really deep that way."
"Sooo, mating press?" Their lead singer is just as nosy as their fans so of course he's gonna press on.
"Hell yeah, man." Some of them clap and others laugh at Suguru's openness.
-----
You were really busy but you decided to tune into your boyfriend's podcast after a bunch of people tagged you on twitter to go listen to today's episode.
When you hear Suguru tell all 2 million of his podcast listeners what position he likes to fuck you in, you scream into your pillow and turn into a giggling mess.
He never knows how to keep his mouth shut, and you love it.
♡ 𝐂. 𝐊𝐀𝐌𝐎
You're laying on your boyfriend's bed listening to him play his game. Choso's a big time streamer at this point. Four years ago when he started his fan base was quite small and he just enjoyed the few who would join his gaming streams. Now, Choso streams as work and he still loves it just as much as he had long ago.
"Thank you for the tip 'prettyem0b0y22'," Usually Choso reads aloud whatever message they leave with their tips but he hesitates this time.
"Uh- you don't really expect me to answer that, right? She's laying on the bed right now."
That statement immediately grabs your attention, you glance at his monitor screens, trying to get a peek at whatever his fan was asking of him.
It seems plenty of others want to know the answer to this question too because the chat starts speeding up, meaning that they're spamming.
"Guys come on, I'll turn chat off if you guys don't stop." Choso is as scary as a cute little kitten, so they just keep at it, and now you're curious too. What could possibly be that bad that he didn't want to answer it and to be fair he has answered some pretty crazy questions before.
"Indulge me Cho, what did 'prettyem0b0y22' wanna know?" His head swings so fast he could have gotten whiplash from it. His cheeks are burning pink and his brows furrow in confusion.
"I promise it wasn't anything crazy, don't worry about it." Oh, you're worrying about it alright. His strange behavior prompts you to spring up off the bed and walk your way over to his desk.
Instead of just taking a quick look at the chat, you make yourself comfortable in your boyfriend's lap. Obviously the chat goes absolutely crazy when they see you make this gesture. Choso is no doubt embarrassed but he slings an arm around your waist anyway.
"So what was the question he couldn't answer in front of me?" Prettyem0b0y22 wastes no time sending another hefty tip.
"I asked him what's his fav postion with you." When you read the whole thing aloud some giggles leave your lips.
"He likes when I ride him while facing him. For what reason? He's a titty man." Choso gasps as you expose both of you. The risks are high, anyone, literally anyone could see this clip and think something about you, but you don't care. It's your body and his, people don't have power over how you two interact with each other.
The chat explodes with all kinds of things, most are shocked emojis, while others are spamming the cherry emoji. Luckily, Choso's moderator team puts slow chat on and does a few other precautions to settle the situation.
"Baby- I- what if your family sees this? Or worse your boss?!" His concern is absolutely adorable.
"Well I guess I'd have to start a streaming channel of my own?" Everyone in his chat is totally on board with that idea. They've seen you play for Choso before and they think your commentary on games is quite funny.
"I don't want you to lose your job though." This time he whines in pure worry.
"I won't, baby. It'll be alright. Don't overthink it."
♡ 𝐓. 𝐅𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐎
Toji's got what people want to see in model catalogs and magazines. The slutty waist, the well defined but not too defined muscles, his beautiful eyes and long lashes. Toji is a picture perfect model, which is what landed him his modeling gig and even a whole career a few years later.
A journalist, who's particularly interested in his dating life more than his modeling career asks him a bunch of dating related questions.
Some have speculated that Toji was dating, but he neither confirmed nor denied those allegations. You and Toji agreed to keep your relationship on the down low, because having a bunch of strangers in your personal business was not desirable.
The journalist woman words the questions in a way of inference.
"Assuming you had a girlfriend, Fushiguro-sama. What would your favorite position in bed be?" At first Toji groans but then when he registers the question he decides he'll answer it hypothetically when in reality it is something he likes to do with you.
"Hypothetically speaking, if I had a girlfriend my favorite position with her would be missionary, because I'd want to look at her pretty face when she's cryin' on my cock." The journalist writes that down, Toji knows everything he says will be censored but the people will still be able to figure it out.
"Missionary, really? Many people online have guessed you were a doggy-style kind of guy. Based off of your twitter statement that said and I quote 'Love it when her ass is phat. Love squeezing that thing.' End quote"
Toji lets out a deep laugh before answering the woman, "Doggy-style is for people I don't care about, people I don't want to look at, my girl- if I had a girl, she wouldn't be just any fuck."
More theories start to surface after Toji's slip up of words, and that's okay, because they don't know you and you don't know them.
divider: @/plutism
#𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈-𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓𝐒#✩ jjk post#jjk smut#jjk x reader#jujutsu kaisen smut#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jjk x reader smut#gojo x reader#satoru gojo x reader#gojo smut#geto x reader#suguru geto x reader#geto smut#choso x reader#choso kamo x reader#choso smut#toji x reader#toji fushigro x reader#toji smut
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