#and also if I was doing origins then like. I’ve already uploaded those under the name poppyseed7th. I can’t pretend I’m stealing my own code | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

coochiequeens · 2 years

Text

Another man in a dress that wants to make it easier for other men to buy and sell women

A transgender politician in Mexico known for opposing the abolition of human trafficking is under fire for intentionally posting pornographic videos of himself on his official Twitter page while falsely claiming he was moonlighting as a “sex worker.”

Maria Clemente made headlines last year after becoming the first transgender politician ever elected to Mexico’s federal Chamber of Deputies. But Clemente’s short political career has already been marred by several incidents of impropriety, the latest being posting pornographic content of himself on his official Twitter.

Over the past two weeks, Clemente has posted uncensored videos and photos to his social media, most of which show him engaged in sex with men he refers to as “daddy.” The posts often utilize the tag #TransIsHot.

In a September 30 tweet, Clemente uploaded a pornographic video of a man’s erect penis, captioning it: “This is the first that I’m going to show you how I suck it like the popsicle that my dad bought me when I was a girl and took me to the park.”

Since then, Clemente has posted multiple other graphic videos, including those showing him performing oral sex on men. The videos received negative feedback from constituents, with many decrying the behavior as inappropriate and unbecoming of a federal politician.

Clemente responded to critics by making a post with a short list justifying his decision to put the pornographic videos on his official account. The reasons, which included “I am a woman,” and “It’s my body, my choice,” was accompanied by a video of Clemente in lingerie blowing kisses at the camera.

On October 6, VICE World News published an article praising Clemente for uploading the content and lauding his political efforts advocating for “sex workers.” The article, titled “Mexico’s First Trans Politician is a Sex Worker Who Has No Problem Tweeting Her Own Porn,” included comment from Clemente in which he asserted that the posts were intended to bring in more clients for his side-career as a prostitute.

But the same day, Clemente’s husband issued a statement in which he claimed Clemente was lying about being a prostitute, and that the politician was actually buying sex, not selling it.

“I’ve known you for almost six years and I can assure you that you have never done sex work,” Iván Sheridan wrote, “Not professional. Not semi-professional. Not street … Don’t forget that you met me when I was practicing [prostitution], and that I received payment for my services for a long time. A lot of people know that.” Sheridan ended his two-page letter by telling Clemente he wanted to finalize their divorce.

According to Sheridan, Clemente has apparently only been doing “sex work” for a few days, and, despite his public persona of being a working-class sexual minority, lives in a luxurious penthouse in Mexico City’s upscale Zona Rosa.

Clemente also earns a Deputy salary of 75,000 pesos per month — roughly $3,700 USD.

Sheridan has since deleted his original tweet, apologizing for publishing private information, but has asserted that what he wrote was true. The statement has been preserved on other Twitter accounts, which Sheridan has positively interacted with.

Clemente’s claims of being a prostitute are not new. When running for office, he often called himself a “poor woman” and had frequently claimed to have been forced to work as a prostitute before becoming a politician.

As reported by Reduxx in July, Clemente is a staunch supporter of the sex industry. That support led him to clash with human rights experts at an annual congress meant to address the issue of trafficking in Latin America and the Carribean.

On July 6, the 7th Congreso Latinoamericano y Caribeño sobre Trata de Personas y Tráfico de Migrantes (Latinamerican and Carribean Congress on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling) was held in Mexico City, and featured a diverse panel of international academics and politicians from Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies.

The goal of the conference was to discuss ways to tackle the serious issue of human trafficking in the region, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which women are impacted. In Mexico, 85% of human trafficking victims are female, with women and girls overrepresented in every form of the crime, including organ trafficking, forced prostitution, and labor exploitation.

But as one speaker, Spanish Sociologist Dr. Rosa María Cobo, addressed the issue of prostitution and its impact on the humanity of women, Clemente, who was in attendance, became enraged and physically aggressive.

“This is hate speech! This is criminalizing my comrades! This is hate speech paid for with Government funds!” Clemente was heard screaming over the livestream of the conference.

A female member of the audience began to speak out against Clemente, yelling back a sarcastic question: “Women were born to be whores?”

Clemente replied: “Well I am a woman, and I am a whore! It’s my job and and how my family eats! I love it!”

Following Sheridan’s statement, many Mexican feminists are voicing their outrage over Clemente’s apparent appropriation of sex-based oppression.

“All our support for Iván, husband of María Clemente who has unmasked this fanatic consumer of prostitution. The theater is over!” Tweeted Asteria Barahùnda Feminista, a sex trade abolitionist collective.

“I applaud that they exposed [him], it’s what lying people need. And this man does not represent his community, nor the Mexican people, he is the deputy of the pimps,” another user tweeted in response to Sheridan’s statement.

“In other words, Mr. Maria Clemente [lies] about being a prostitute, and lives in a flat in the Zona Rosa and thus claims realities he does not live while fighting for the rights of men,” @nastyevilwitch wrote.

Since uploading the videos to Twitter, Clemente has announced he intends to propose legislation to fully legalize and regulate prostitution in Mexico, providing prostituted women “social security and rights” as workers.

Clemente has not addressed the post made by his former partner beyond claiming it “never existed.”

By Anna Slatz Anna is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Reduxx, with a journalistic focus on covering crime, child predators, and women's rights. She lives in Canada, enjoys Opera, and kvetches in her spare time.

#Mexico #trans identified man supports the selling and buying of actual women #Vice World News #Supported this guy

1 note · View note

pinerspan · 2 years

Text

Mokey tail beard

Truly redefined "learn from your mistakes" #MonkeyTailBeard. But the smart one made a new fashion statement out of it. #MonkeyTailBeard."Ī third user said, "Quarantine is taking its toll." Yet another added, "I am sure this was a mistake of the stylist. One user said, "The Craziest thing ever lol." Another wrote, "2021 need to chill. What do people have to say about the monkey tail beard trend? While some have curled their hair into a spiral under their chin, others have added stripes for an even more authentic animal feel. Many men have put wilder spins on the style. However, the beard style has gained popularity on social media now. He had later revealed that he had trimmed his beard like that to make his teammates laugh. The quirky facial hair first garnered attention in September 2019 when American baseball player Mike Fiers showed off his monkey tail beard on the field during a match. The bizarre beard style is also known as the cattail beard. The primate-inspired look requires to groom the beard and mustache into a long tail-like shape that at one sideburn, runs down the jawline, along the chin, and then curls up around the side of the mouth, and then ends above the top lip. Now, a bizarre trend has taken the Internet by storm in which men have trimmed their beards in the shape of a monkey's tail. Haircuts and beard trimming have taken a backseat for many men amid the coronavirus pandemic as they are avoiding visiting the salon and trying DIY tricks and tips. Long live the cat tail beard.'Monkey Tail' beard. We only got to see two innings of its majesty, and we could barely even enjoy that amid worrying about the health of his arm, but that brief glimpse was still better than nothing. As noted by Slusser above, Fiers shaved it off after the game, spurred by the fact that he got hurt while wearing it. Trend-setter: MLB baseball player Mike Fiers. If he’d kept this for a while then maybe it could have been a thing.Īlas, the cat tail is already gone. A bizarre 'monkey tail beard' trend has taken the internet by storm, with dozens of men uploading photos of themselves modeling the funky facial hair. It’s perfectly Oakland in its weirdness, and between the thick fullness of his hair and the care and precision of the grooming, it looks as good and as intentional as this design ever possibly could. When it comes time to shave off a beard, I’m a big fan of making something goofy out of it before shearing the rest off, and this is better than anything I’ve ever thought to try. Fiers drew a lot of mockery for the unorthodox look, but I for one will stand in support. On top of the noggin, Coco Crisp had one of baseball’s all-time afros, and Sean Manaea is following in those footsteps.īut this cat tail is something else. Tim Hudson had his stinger, Josh Donaldson experimented with mutton chops when he first came up, and Mark Canha rocked Ace Ventura sideburns for years. They’ve had their share of bushy beards, including Josh Reddick and Sean Doolittle, and now broadcaster Dallas Braden. They were the original Mustache Gang back in the 70s, led by Rollie Fingers’ iconic handlebars. Of course, this is just the latest example in the A’s long history of memorable facial hair. “They didn’t think I’d go out there and pitch with it. He is clean shaven now because he got hurt wearing it.- Susan Slusser September 15, 2019 Fiers and some teammates googled the craziest facial hair they could and found the “cat tail” he wore tonight.

#Mokey tail beard

0 notes

kyriat-sims · 2 years

Photo

A prehistoric save based in Oasis Springs - The Stone Age version! Twelve residential lots, nine community lots, six household included. CC is needed! Read more under the cut.

⚠⛔🚧 Please note that there is a NEW version of this save. Go to my blog to see the changes.

✅ What you get: A prehistoric save built in Oasis Springs. I've made nine community lots, twelve residential lots and six sim households. (You can see the overview here.) There is also a considerable amount of edited townies. However, since I didn't plan to upload when I remade them, I might have used CAS items (hairs and outfits) that is not on the CC list. (I am WCIF friendly by the way) If it looks bad, most of them can be deleted, but the game will probably spawn new ones with awful, modern outfits...

The worlds except Oasis Springs are empty, with the exception of a few specific lots. Some townies will move in on empty residential lots, and they will survive perfectly fine on love and fresh air, don't worry!

If you want to see pictures from this save you can look here.

✅ Packs needed: Oasis Springs is BG, so in principle you don't need any other packs. However, I would say that you will need Outdoor Retreat, Island Living and Get Together as a minimum, since I've used items from those packs on almost every lot I've made. I've also used other packs, and if you don't have them, items from those packs will be removed or replaced with basegame itmes, and that might look strange. If you feel you need more info on this, you can find it in each lot's blog post. (Links overview here)

✅ CC used: I've included two folders with included items: CC for lots and CC for items. Some creators do not allow their creations to be included, so you have to do the download yourself. I've made lists (for lots and sims) with creations and download links.

✅ The save: I've given the save slot number 88. If you already have a save with that number, you will need to change the number to something else. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, watch this video by Miss Mani.

✅ Mods: I recommended the Timeless - A world decluttering mod by @pandorasimbox, it reduses the amount of modern items in your worlds. I also use Ceiling replacer by @lunanelfeah-deactivated20220127, if you don't, the ceilings will be white. I'm also totally addicted to MC Command Center, a very useful mod, like making it easier to change townies' outfits, control NPC spawning and a lot of other clever functions.

💡 Just so you know, the lots and households will not show in your library, unless you save them there yourself, or download and install the trayfiles from my blog.

💡 Suggestion: It's a good idea to backup your game before you install any downloaded save, just in case something goes haywire. As with all mods and cc you always download and install at your own risk.

💡 Should you want a unpopulated version, just evict the six families in Oasis Springs and then go to the Manage households and delete everybody.

📌 The download file is big (165MB) - after all, it contains most of the CC for 21 lots and 6 families - and will take quite some time to download if you have a slow connection.

📌 There might be updates or changes in the future. You will find that info in the original blogpost.

Step by step:

Download the file below

Download the not-included CC

Copy or move all .package files into your Mods folder

Put the .save file in your Save folder

Open your game

Click the 'Load Game' button and find "KyriaT's Stone Age Save".

Load, play and have fun!

⚠⛔🚧 Edit 25.06.22: Before you download you should know that I am working on a new version of this save, hopefully to be finished within a week or so. Please consider to wait a few days to download.

📥 Download from SFS (free always)

#save file #ts4 save file #sims 4 save file #ts4 Oasis Springs save file #sims 4 Oasis Springs save file #ts4 history challenge #ts4 prehistoric era #ts4 stone age #historical sims #history challenge #prehistoric era #stone age #ts4 #sims 4 #simblr #Once Upon A Time #KyriaT

292 notes · View notes

emptymasks · 3 years

Text

Where to watch and listen to non-English language musicals?

I’ve been thinking about making a post like this for a while but wondered hm do I want to be giving out links to free downloads of musical audios publicly when really I want to promote people still buying CDs because one, it supports the artists, and two, I think it’s better to own things still rather than just own things digitally. But I found an extra treasure trove I didn’t know about before and I feel a need to share because I didn’t make it, it’s already online, so why shouldn’t I tell people about it? And then this was just going to be for audios and not videos and I was going to make a separate post but figured it would be easier if all the info was on one post. I actually was going to post this on my sideblog @europeanmuscials but I accidentally made the draft under my main blog which meant I couldn’t change it later and I couldn’t be bothered to cope and paste and redo all the images and tags because I didn’t save the images I just copy and pasted them so oh well.

Purchasing

So as I always preface when I share info on where to stream musicals, PLEASE try always support the artists by buying CDs and DVDs! I know a lot of the musicals here are 10/20+ years old and you cannot get the CDs anywhere anymore, but when a new musical comes out please try and get the CD without instatnly looking for a download. You can purchase non-English language musical CDs, DVDs and other merch from places like soundofmusic-shop.de or Ebay, or Yahoo Auctions for Japanese musicals, using a proxy shipping service, I personally use ZenMarket. Those are how I’ve gotten all of mine, getting them off Ebay or Yahoo Auctions means they’ll likely be second hand and there is nothing wrong or weird about buying second hand goods.

Streaming Audio

Spotify. A lot of German and French musicals are on Youtube. I have a series of playlists that will help you find them easily: one is my favourite songs from a bunch of different non-English language musicals, one of songs from solo albums from European and Asian musical theatre artists, and this one which is going to be the most help that is a huge playlist of every single full cast album of every non-English musical cast album I have found on Spotify. Please let me know if I’ve missed any on there and I’ll add them.

Youtube. Some official cast albums are also on Youtube, normally official uploads that match the Spotify uploads. Ones I know of that aren’t on Spotify for example is the original 2003 Dutch production of one of my favourite musicals 3 Musketiers and the 2005 German production of it.

Streaming Video

I want to preface this with how unlike Broadway and the West End, it’s fairly common for European musicals to get proshots and DVD and Bluray releases and so you don’t normally need to resort to looking for bootleg videos and can watch and purchase the pretty official proshots instead.

Youtube. There’s so many different channels uploading them to Youtube that for ease I made a playlist of every full length production on Youtube starting with the ones that have English subtitles. I also have playlists for different individual musicals and misc European musicals that are full of shorter videos: clips, interviews, behind the scenes, concert performances and other videos that aren’t full length production videos. These playlists are constantly updated.

Bilibili. A Chinese video sharing website. It has a lot Asian musicals of course, but European musicals, in particular French and German ones, have a very dedicated fanbase in Asia and so there are a lot of videos on here. You can search for then using the English/Roman alphabet and they normally come up fine. Easiest way I search on there is using the name of the musical/actor and a year.

VK. A Russian social media similar to Facebook. There are multiple fanpages for specific actors and musicals where I’ve found videos, but you can also search over all of VK. You might need an account to do this, I don’t remember but I think you do and that’s why I made one there. Here’s links to fanpages for Drew Sarich, Jan Ammann, Mark Seibert and Thomas Borchert.

Downloading Audio

r/castrecordings on Reddit. It’s a community of traders and you can make a reply to their request threads for the month asking if anyone has the audio you’re looking for, but please check first to see if it’s already been uploaded. I have downloaded many audios off there and I also have uploaded audios to there if I see someone request something that I have because I feel that it’s only fair for me to help others out there when I’ve downloaded things off there so many times. Be aware download links on here often get deleted and so a lot of older posts don’t have working download links anymore, but you can just request for a new working download on the request threads.

archive.org. Now I would never have thought of looking there, but I was on there because they have a lot of old silent films and so I was looking to watch the original Phantom of the Opera film and when I searched Phantom I was surprised by some cast albums that came up. So I wondered what would happen if I just looked at audios and oh I have found a wonderful little treasure trove. User musical_lover_1980 has uploaded over 1 thousand cast albums of Broadway, West End and non-English language musicals and a few film soundtracks. A lot of ones on there I’ve found before on r/castrecordings, but I was so happy to find a number that I didn’t already have. There’s even one Takarazuka album on there, which isn’t a lot but do you know how rare and hard those things are to find. And the Korean Frankenstein musical cast album!!

EDIT: also the account @ WennLi3b3 on archive.org is uploading audios and proshot videos

Because I will be link to external sites this might not show up in tags so I appreciate the reblogs. Please don’t share this post outside of Tumblr, nor any of the audios I post here outside of Tumblr. If I find that happening I’ll delete everything and not post audios or information like this anymore. Apologies if there are typos or any mistakes here.

#musicaledit #elisabeth das musical #tanz der vampire #rebecca das musical #phantom of the opera #mozart das musical #mozart l'opera rock #notre dame de paris #3 musketiers #3 musketiere #european musicals #mine #mytext #non english language musicals

557 notes · View notes

twistedtranslations · 3 years

Text

Cater Diamond - Happy Birthday

You can unlock this story by getting Cater’s SSR Birthday Attire

Translation under the cut

Chapter 1

Heartslabyul Dorm - Birthday Party Venue

Special corner on NRC's grounds: An interview with the birthday boy ~Cater~

Yuu: Happy Birthday!

Cater: Thank you! Yuu. I'm glad you came to celebrate.

Yuu: That outfit really suits you.

Cater: Right? Everyone has been praising me. I like white clothes. While wearing this, everyone fawns over me wherever I go, it's so nice. I've been going all around the school! 't seems like a waste to wear this only today, so I might wear it tomorrow as well~

Yuu: I don't think you should…

Cater: Ahaha, just joking. I just like it that much!

Yuu: Did anything unforgettable happen on your birthday?

Cater: Hm, I wouldn't say unforgettable, but my sisters… We are three siblings, and my sisters are both older. Those two get way more excited than I do on my birthday! Ever since I was little, I'd get sandwiched by both… They were so noisy. However, if you were to leave the present picking to them, I'd only get cute things! You know, like plushies, dolls, perfume, soaps… I don't really like those… I'm supposed to be in the spotlight, so why are my sisters enjoying this more than I!? Like that. But I don't think they have bad intentions, lately they've been asking me what I'd want.

Yuu: You are in the spotlight today.

Cater: Yup! No matter what anyone says, I'm the star today! Let's have a happy and merry day, just like me! Enjoy yourself to your heart’s content.

Chapter 2

Heartslabyul Dorm - Birthday Party Venue

Yuu: Can you tell me about that smartphone case?

Cater: It's from a popular brand and getting it was really troublesome~ When it went on sale, I went to line up first thing in the morning and there was a humongous line already. The staff then said that it became a lottery, so there was this mad rush! So I used my unique magic to get plenty of lottery tickets. That was clever of me, right? But… somehow every single one of them was a blank. I was disappointed because I couldn't buy one after all… And then! A short while after Lilia bought one for me and said it was a souvenir from a trip. I was so happy! But… ever since then he has been urging me on what "I'll be getting him in return?". The expectations are high after a rare smartphone like this… Besides… where the heck would you find a shop in the countryside that sells something like this?

Yuu: You two are in the same club right?

Cater: Yes, the light music club. Together with Kalim, we get along, enjoy ourselves and relax. After school we chat a lot, eat snacks… To be honest, performing music takes a back seat. We don't do any authentic activities like making original songs, we're mainly a cover band. We do take the club seriously at times, but us three have varying tastes in music~ I suggested we perform a cool pop song about love once. But Kalim arranged it to a danceable tune from the Country of Hot Sands… Lilia shouted lyrics about bittersweet love and one-sided love with a hoarse voice… In the end, it didn't resemble the original song at all. Sigh, my cool love pop song… They both go at their own pace, so I can be carefree as well. It's a fun club.

Chapter 3

Heartslabyul Dorm - Birthday Party Venue

Yuu: What's your favorite food?

Cater: I love grilled lamb meat with diablo sauce. It's tasty and it sounds cool as well! Ah, lately I've been interested in spicy ramen. Spicy food peps me up whenever I feel demotivated! Oh by the way. This might surprise you but it's so easy to get likes on posts about ramen. Regardless of gender, there are many core ramen fans. I'm also one of them.

Yuu: is there any food you dislike?

Cater: Urgh… that's difficult to answer… Oh well. I'm a little bad with sweet stuff. But sweets rule the traditional "Unbirthday Party''. That's why I've been keeping it secret all this time… The other day, Trey found out. To be fair, I think he must've known already. Like, Trey, for real! (Not sure about this last sentence)

Yuu: Was there anything that triggered your dislike for sweets?

Cater: When I was about 10? My mom and sisters were super into making sweets. At first I was super happy that there were so many snacks and ate them happily, but eating that every day made it gradually harder for me. However, my sister said that I should only eat so they kept piling it on my plate… If I said I didn't want more they'd get dejected… I'm the worst at dealing with those expressions~ But because I kept eating all of that against my will, I came to detest sweets in general. I love touring cafés, but the sweets there are pretty right? I want to take pictures of them, but I won't eat them so I don't want to order them. It's a huge dilemma. Ah! I just thought of something! If you order them, I can upload them to MagiCam? Let's go to a café together! I know tons of cafés that sell pretty sweets! Don't worry, I'll treat you! Well, that's decided!

Yuu: I look forward to it. Once again, Happy birthday!

#twisted wonderland #cater diamond #personal story #translation

518 notes · View notes

steveroger · 3 years

Text

Colouring rainbow gifs

The lovely @buckiecap and @djarsdin requested a tutorial of some gifs from this TFATWS rainbow set.

My colouring process is kinda chaotic and it always depends on the gif itself. These three gifs will highlight the similarities and differences in how I colour my rainbow gifs.

You’ll need some understanding of basic gif making and adjustments. I use Photoshop 2021 but I imagine these processes will still work in other versions.

Some basic tips:

When doing rainbow sets, once I've got my base gif ready, I always make a hue/saturation layer on saturation +100 so I can see what colours I'm working with. I just keep it hidden so i can check how my colours are doing throughout the editing process.

Also something to stick at the back of your mind: you want your final gif to be as “monochromatic” as possible - make sure your final palette will be only black + shades of whatever colour you're targeting. This is not only to make the gif as colour-focussed as possible, but it also helps with saving your gif under 10mb. That saturation +100 layer I always keep hidden at the bottom of my gif so I can keep an eye on what colours are present.

It’s also helpful to understand how RGB and CMYK colours work and what to add/subtract when you want to bring out a certain colour. A good example of this is with Colour Balance:

You’ll notice the colours on the left are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (CMYK), while the other side is Red, Green and Blue (RBG). So if you want more cyan in your image, you’d push the bar towards cyan, but then you’re compromising the reds. In Selective Colour adjustments, the panel is reversed.

This knowledge is absolutely necessary when you’re doing any adjustment, so keep this in the back of your mind as I work through the tutorial.

Green gif - Eli's door

So I start with my hue/saturation on saturation +100 to check what I’m working with here. This gif of Isaiah's grandson opening the door has green, yellow and red as the dominant colours, and I can see a bit of cyan on the right. I’ll keep that hue/saturation layer hidden as a reference.

Normally when I make gifs I start with a curve or levels layer to get any unwanted hues or create a more visible scene. But in this gif, I'm pretty happy with the colours, so I'm just using a simple curves adjustment, because I want to have whatever is behind the door as the ‘background’ and the door frame is the ‘foreground’, so only a slight adjustment is needed here.

Since the colours are already prominent, I'm going to make the green more visible and vibrant. I do this by using selective colour in the green colour to make the green stand out. When thinking of CMYK adjustments, you might think that Magenta -100 would work, as that normally pushes the greens, but I find that this makes things grainy and patchy looking, as you can see here:

Instead, I’m enhancing cyans and yellows, and only pushing the magenta back just a little bit towards green. I’m not sure why green specifically does this, but it’s useful to know this when you’re colouring.

With the yellows, I want to push those more as well, since the amount of yellow usually influences the green-ness of the gif.. I'm also going to max yellow too since that will also make the green pop, but I also have to be careful not to distort the skin colour too much. I also want to balance the skin tone with a little redness so he doesn’t look like he has jaundice (skin tone will be explored later in the gif process)

I've added another selective colour layer on top of that, only adjusting the greens just to make it pop a little more. Don’t be afraid to use more than one selective layer, this can really bring out vibrant colours if you use it right.

Just to get some more depth, I add a colour balance layer, again just subtly pushing the cyan and yellow up and not playing with the green too much. Then my usual last layers are with a vibrance and brightness/contrast - I’m usually quite generous with contrast so I can bring out the different shades and it makes things a little more vibrant too.

This next step is really important when colouring people with dark skin - you want to lower the redness from their skin so they don't look unnaturally orange, as you can see here:

There is a fantastic tutorial here about colouring dark skin tones and avoiding the orange-washed look, and I recommend all gif makers to take note! It's difficult especially when doing rainbow gifs, and it takes some practice. I do this with a hue/saturation layer, and specifically targeting red and yellow and reducing saturation. I might need to play with selective colour or colour balance to get it right. Luckily Eli doesn’t move around too much, so I can use a mask to adjust only his face.

And that’s the end product! now just ignore me as I re-upload the green gif in my set so you don’t see such a horrible jaudiced skin tone sldkfjsldkf

Yellow gif - Karli vs Sam

I'm gonna be completely honest here - this gif was very tricky to do. I actually have about three different versions of it. At first I thought "this is the yellow gif so I'm only going to have yellow tones", and did selective colour to get rid of any traces of green AND red, because I didn't want any orange at all. It ended up looking quite dull:

I mean.. yeah it’s yellow........... but it’s kinda boring. So I deleted all adjustments and watched the raw gif, and noted the orange light contrasting with the pale light. The raw gif itself already had some beautiful lighting - why get rid of it? It depends on what you want, but I like my rainbow gifs to have a different colour there to contrast with the main colour.

Starting off with a hue/saturation layer with saturation 100+, I can see there are clearly yellows and reds and a bit of green on the ceiling.

I thought the contrast of the orange and pale lighting was too good to mess up so I started with that. My first layers are vibrance and brightness/contrast to exaggerate the silhouettes and bring out the colours that are already there.

I added a channel mixer layer to narrow down the colours. I wanted to fill the white bits with yellow, and with channel mixer I’m able to manipulate colours into something else while still looking natural and blended. I won’t be doing too much colour manipulating here so the settings are very minimal. I don’t know how to explain it but it just takes a little fiddling to figure out what works for your gif. You’ll notice the white reflections on the ceiling are now a solid yellow colour:

Next is a colour balance layer. I'm basically trying to bring out the yellow out. This is really just trial and error. I added a bit of magenta to bring the depth of the orange colours in the darker shades:

Now for selective colour. I'm often adjusting all of these while hiding/showing the hue/saturation layer I have kept at the bottom. This time, I’m aiming to subtract the reds and bring it down to a warm orange, and I do that by bringing it towards cyan/away from red, and away from magenta/towards green.

Then I max out the yellows so it becomes the most dominant colour. I've also manipulated the green to make sure it is excluded from the gif - again, checking with the hue/saturation layer at the bottom, while keeping my eye on the ceiling and other places where I’ve noticed green lurking about. I don’t want any unwanted shades ending up in the final colour table.

Finally, I finish with yet another vibrance and brightness/contrast layer, just because I like things bright and vibrant!

And there it is! The orange is still there and adds a contrast, but you can tell that the main colour is the yellow. This gif seems very straightforward but I assure you, it took me quite a while to get this one right. This gif was a joy to work on because Sam was so very extra in this fight sequence lolll

Pink gif - suspicious mechanical grenade? idk

While this gif may look simple, it actually took a couple of tries before I got the colouring right. You'll notice when the ball activates, there is a bright green light that highlights the gas released and it reflects on the chair legs and carpet.

At first I tried this with the above mentioned selective colour method - which I thought turned out okay but it didn't sit with me right. Notice the reflection of the blue light on the carpet - it definitely isn't blue and more like a green-orangey kinda colour, and it doesn't look natural at all.

So I re-started from the beginning and had a look at what I’m working with, starting with hue/saturation at saturation +100. I can see that the original gif has red and green as the dominant colours, with yellow bits blending the two on the carpet. That’s what I was having issues with the selective colour - so I’ll be doing it differently.

Enter: channel mixer. I’m gonna be honest............. I have ZERO idea how the channel mixer really works! It’s all a matter of trial and error, but I’ll try and explain my process step by step.

I normally start in the blue channel (again - no idea why, it just works for me). I start with the reds, and I know if I go over 0, it will push the reds towards cyan, which will get it more purple-y:

Ooooh looking good!!! then I want to push the greens towards magenta, so that needs to go over 0 as well:

Woohoo! It’s already starting to look good. The green light and the way it blends into the red/pinks have all been completely changed into the cyan hues, so there’s a perfect reflection you can see on the carpet! Yay! I had a fiddle with the green and red channels but nothing too drastic. Here are the settings:

Even with just the single adjustment, I was already pretty happy with it and only did a few touch ups: I added a selective colour layer to bring out a more pinky-purpley colour, then a levels layer to brighten things up. It might seem very backwards to add a brightening tool at the end, but I didn’t want to mess up the original colour shades because I liked having the dark shadows lit up by the ball’s light.

And that’s it! Only three adjustment layers, but it took some time to play with the different adjustments and what worked best. Channel mixer can be really intimidating but it works like a charm when you manage to figure it out.

the end!

Finally I have to give credit to some amazing content creators and their brilliant colouring tutorials that have made such a huge impact in the way I edit. Some brilliant guides include:

this colouring tutorial by @favreaus

this colouring tutorial by @inejz-ghafa

this colouring tutorial by @meliorn

I hope this tutorial has been helpful! I’ve tried to explain myself as best I can, but let me know if you’d like any clarification or have any questions. I’m still learning how to do things, and honestly most times it’s just randomly clicking things until something works out!

#gif tutorial #coloring tutorial #rainbow gif tutorial #gif editing #completeresources #dailyresources #chaoticresources #allresources #photoshop tutorial #fyeahps #dailypsd #**mytutorial

260 notes · View notes

foilfreak · 3 years

Text

Beauty and Her Beast: Summary and Ch.1

A Salvatore Moreau x Female!FishMutant!oc fic based on this idea I had the other day that a very specific subset of the fanfom went absolutely apeshit for, which I'm here for and decided to act on. I can't make any promises for consistent uploading or even a finishes product by the end of this, but so long as im still interested in working on it, I'll keep working on it, and if im not, then I wont, plain and simple. Anyways, here's the summary and chapter 1, please let me know what you think of the story so far, i hope you all enjoy (you'd better all enjoy), and I can't wait to see you all again for chapter 2. Bye! <333 (Link to ao3 posting will be in comments so check there if you want to read it there instead)

Warning: This fic is rated NSFW and contains graphic depictions of things some people may find disturbing or alarming, including, but not limited to: violence, gore, unhealthy family relationships, Oedipus complexes, gratuitous amount of pornographic literature, ableist language, physical, mental, and emotional abuse, etc. If you are someone who does not enjoy fiction with these elements in them, then I suggest you refrain from reading this, because this fic will have all that, and probably a lot more. So, this is your first and final warning to turn around and go somewhere else if stuff like this just isn't your vibe, because from this point forward, your emotional wellbeing is in your own hands, and I will not be accepting blame if you disregarded my warnings and ended up reading something you didn't like. Idk why I feel compelled to write one of these despite this being Resident Evil fanfic, but I figured I'd cover my ass just in case.

Summary:

Now, I’m sure everyone already knows the ancient tales that tell of a beautiful young woman slowly falling in love with a horrific monstrosity of a man. The pure and true love this innocent beauty comes to feel for him, despite his terrifying appearance, is the key that breaks the cruel and twisted curse under which he’d been kept prisoner. This allows the man behind the monster to not only return to his true human form, but then go on to live his Happily Ever After with the beauty who saved him. Everyone already knows of these tales, as well as the messages behind them, however that is not quite the way this particular tale plays out.

The tale I am about to tell bears many similarities to the one above, however there are also quite a few important differences. For while the original detailed a beauty falling for a monster because of the kind and loving man he was behind his hideous exterior, this is a tale of a beauty, with a few monstrous qualities of her own, falling in love with a kind and loving monster, not at all despite his grotesque appearance, but rather, in part, because of it.

This is a tale, where the Beast still falls for his Beauty first, but the Beauty is the one who will be pursuing her Beast.

Chapter 1: Mother's Gift

Few of those who lived isolated from the outer world, high up in the mountains of Romania, would expect anyone of reasonable sanity to be out traveling in this hellish sort of weather. The wind howling a demonic high pitched tune; snow, sleet, and hail pounding into the ground like an endless shower of bullets from the heavens; and hungry lycans still roaming the area, tirelessly looking for their next meal, would be enough to incentivize even the strongest of mortal men to seek shelter away from the deadly conditions of the outside.

A man by the name of Salvatore Moreau however, one of the 4 lords of this mountain region who lived in the reservoir just past the windmills, did not appear terribly concerned with what other people thought of the traveling conditions. Completely unbothered by the horrifying weather and threat of suddenly being ground into doggy food, the hooded man trudged his way through the dark and barely maintained snow paths. Starting at the reservoir and making his way toward the village, Salvatore moved as quickly as his deformed body would permit, an unusually chipper spring added to his lumbering hobble of a walk.

Mother had a gift for him.

Yes, a truly joyous day it was whenever Mother Miranda called upon him to join her and the other lords for a meeting. Miranda was usually so busy with her experiments that she rarely had time to visit her children outside of these ‘family meetings’ they’d been having recently. However, it would appear as though Mother has come up with a solution of some kind to this problem and wishes to share it with them in person. Whatever this solution is, the mutated man has no idea, as Mother Miranda had been quite vague in her message, however the fact that Salvatore was being given the chance to see his radiant mother AND receive a gift from her, all in one day, was more than enough to make up for how agonizingly lonely he’s been these last few months since winter set in, as well as how agonizing it was for him to walk in this weather.

Salvatore arrived at the usual meeting site just as the clock struck 8pm, precisely as Mother had instructed. However, much to the hooded man’s confusion, when he turned the handle on the large wooden door to enter the room, he quickly realized that he was currently the only one present. This was especially strange considering that, usually, at least one of his siblings was always present a little earlier than necessary, usually Alcina or Karl, but occasionally Donna with Angie in tow.

Mother had clearly said in her message that she wanted to start the meeting at 8pm sharply, so where on earth is everyone?

“Moreau” Mother Miranda’s voice called out, immediately pushing all thoughts from Salvatore’s brain as her powerful, yet lucious voice echoed against the halls of the room like a choir of angels.

“Y-yes! W-what… is it… M-mother Miranda? I-i-i came to you… j-just like you asked” Salvatore responds, bowing his head in reverence as he slowly crosses the room and approaches the otherworldly woman.

“So you did, though I suppose you coming exactly when I call makes the most sense. You always were the most obedient of my children” the woman remarks with casual disdain, her voice devoid of any sort of motherly affection or tenderness. Despite the clear disgust and disregard with which Miranda regards the hooded man standing before her, her words light Salvatore’s soul ablaze, filling his mangled body with intense feelings of heat and desire that melt his heart of the cold, icy frost that had frozen it over the course of the long winter.

“Y-y-yes, y-yes of c-course, Mother M-Miranda! I-i would… I would do any-anything... for y-you. A-anything you s-say... anything y-you n-need… I’d d-do it... f-for you. W-without question!” The deformed man says, practically getting on his hands and knees and crawling as he neared closer and closer to Miranda, stopping only when he’d arrived just in front of the steps the raven mother stood upon, his gaze trained at the ground as he knelt at her feet, awaiting his fate at his mother’s hands.

“I know you would, Moreau,” Miranda says cooly, gently brushing the palm of her hand against the black fabric that covers the top of Salvatore’s head, “which is why I’ve called you here today; to reward you for your loyalty and service to me thus far.”

Salvatore sinks sharp and jagged teeth into the flesh of his bottom lip, nearly drawing blood as he desperately tries to silence the needy whine that wanted to tear its way from the back of his throat. His body shivered and twitched in unimaginable delight from the sudden tender caress to his sensitive skin. How long had it been since someone had touched him so gently? How long since someone had spoken to him with such kind and soft words. Took the time to gather presents as a reward for years of faithful servitude? How long since someone had loved him like this?

‘Too long’ the disfigured man sighed to himself, reveling in the soft, gentle contact for as long as he is able.

“Moreau. Look at me” Miranda commanded firmly, and despite not wanting his beloved Mother to be forced to bear witness to his hideous face, he complied, lifting his head up and back to allow his gaze to lift from the floor and up at the glowing figure that was his Mother, his beautiful, incredible, intelligent, majestic mother.

The light shining down from above illuminates Miranda from behind. From Salvatore’s perspective on the floor, the light darkens her face and most of her torso and waist, giving a softened, almost ethereal glow around Miranda’s figure. This, along with the rest of her garb, makes Mother Miranda appear even more like the holy woman that Salvatore naively believes she still is. Despite her less than affectionate treatment of him thus far, Salvatore still stared up at the darkened face of Mother Miranda, his eyes shining with reverence, love, desire, and unending devotion.

“Y-yes... Mother?” Salvatore breathed, barely able to speak above a whisper as Miranda stepped away, gesturing for him to follow.

“Are you ready to collect your gift now?” The raven mother asks, speaking more softly than before and even holding her hand out to Salvatore, her pose and appearance mirroring that of a powerful god taking mercy upon her wretched follower, reaching out to reward the years of faithful servitude and worship.

Salvatore, barely able to keep himself calm as he stumbled to his feet, did not grace Mother Miranda’s question with a proper response, instead practically racing to take the woman’s outstretched hand in his own.

“I’m ready Mother… I-I’m ready for... my g-gift now… can I… c-can I have it n-now… p-please?” Salvatore begs, pulling at Miranda’s hand like an overly excited child, seemingly unaware of the disgusted twist of her face when the hooded man’s cold, slimy fingers firmly latched onto hers.

“Of course, my child” Mother Miranda says, pulling her hand back from Salvatore’s and instead placing it along the man’s hunched back, beginning to guide him to wherever it was the raven mother had hidden his gift.

As Salvatore limped next to Mother Miranda, the deformed man couldn’t help but wonder what exactly it was that Mother had gotten for him. Was it a new cloak, to replace the worn one he was currently wearing? Perhaps a new set of romance films so he didn’t have to rewatch the ones he already owned over and over again anymore? Or maybe it was something to help with his digestion?

It would be nice to get his chronic acid reflux under control again.

Regardless of what the gift actually turned out to be however, Salvatore was merely pleased that he was finally getting a chance to spend time with Mother Miranda all by himself for a change.

Maybe, if he was lucky, she’d even agree to hold him, just like she always did back when he was still undergoing cadou treatment.

Oh how wonderful that would be!

#salvatore moreau #resident evil #resident evil 8 #resident evil 8 village #resident evil 8: village #mother miranda #beauty and her beast #fic #mine #chapter 1 #re8 #re8 village #re village #salvatore moreau x reader #moreau x reader #moreau x oc #salvatore moreau x oc

90 notes · View notes

megthemewlingquim · 3 years

Text

WATERMELON SUGAR

Summary: Breathe him in, breathe him out.

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Warnings: very brief smut, (public) oral sex (female receiving)

A/N: This is Chapter Two of my “Fine Line” series! This one is inspired by Watermelon Sugar, the first song I actually listened to by Harry (as a solo artist). I know he means for the meaning of this song to be open ended but come on, we all know that this song is about doing the dirty.

I hope you like this series! If you do, please reblog and leave feedback. I heavily encourage you to listen to the album (because it’s phenomenal), or listen to each song before you read each chapter. Speaking of chapters, they will be uploaded every Sunday at 12:00 PM EST.

A NOTE: EACH CHAPTER'S PLOT WILL BE A TIME SKIP FROM THE LAST CHAPTER. NO CHAPTER'S PLOT WILL OCCUR DIRECTLY AFTER ANOTHER.

Read Chapter One, "GOLDEN", here!

Find the “Fine Line” masterlist here!

The sun shines, and the waves of the ocean crash onto the rocks and the shores of the beach. The sand is a beautiful white, and people laugh and talk as they lay on it, relishing in each others’ company.

And you are no exception to this. Loki lays beside you, on a pink blanket that you brought. He had mumbled, “I’m not laying on that,” but once he saw you lay down, he sighed, though not with annoyance, and went to join you.

“I’m not used to this heat,” he says. Black sunglasses cover his green eyes, but you can tell he has his eyes on the water in front of you. “I was born on a planet of snow. I am forever cold. But this… this feels quite nice.”

You can hear laughter and cheers from a group of people to your left. They are all dressed in bathing suits and sunglasses, and they lay on towels as well. It seems they are being well-fed as well, as they all snack on fruit — you can see some of them eating watermelon slices. As you glance over to them, you see other people, people who are not in the original group, being offered the fruits as well.

“Want some watermelon, sugar?” you ask, a grin on your face.

“Hm?” Loki asks. “What’s that?”

It takes a second for you to register it. “Wait, you’ve—” you stammer in disbelief, “you’ve never…” You stand up, looking determined. “You’ve never had watermelon? I’m getting you some.”

“Love, you don’t have to —” Loki tries to object.

“Nope, you’ve awakened my curious side. I wanna see how you like it.” You grin down at him again. “Hold on a second.” With that, you start to speed-walk down the sand.

Loki looks at you as you leave. His eyes roam all over you, and they spend a second longer on your ass than anything else. You wear a thin, small pair of bikini bottoms, and your legs are waxed and smooth.

He sighs, contentedly, laying completely on his blanket, letting the sun warm his face and his bare chest. He closes his eyes. He knows he can’t sleep, not in this midday sun, but simply resting is good enough for him now.

A cool drop of something lands on his face a few minutes later, and it startles him a bit. However, he relaxes when he realizes it’s just you standing above him, holding something in your hand.

“Eat up, babe.”

Loki reaches up and swipes the drop of the wet something off his face. Tentatively, he licks it. “Hm,” he muses. “That’s sweet.”

“Try biting it, you’ll love it.” With a little grunt, you sit next to him again, offering him a piece of watermelon. He takes it.

After a bite and some slow chewing, he hums again in approval. “That’s nice. Quite refreshing.”

“Glad you like it,” you say cheerfully. You nod over to the party to your left. “Y’know, those people were awfully friendly. Extremely kind. Very, uh, open and cheerful. They didn’t seem to care about whether or not anyone was a stranger, they let them join anyway. It was just…” You stop, trying to search for the words. “Love all around. There was plenty of food to go around, more than just watermelons — also raspberries and blueberries. They were awfully cuddly, too.”

“Perhaps they’re on something,” Loki says smugly. “Maybe they’re all high.”

“You might think that, but maybe that’s because it’s not… not widely accepted to be cuddly and open in public.” You roll your eyes, though not at him. “Why can’t everyone just treat people with kindness?”

“You’re human. You have your faults. Those people? They might’ve just learned to move past them. We can all learn from them, can’t we?”

“Yeah,” you say. “They might also just be relishing in the fact that we can be close to each other again. Physically, I mean. I don’t know if you were here in 2020, but... uh, there was a —”

“I remember,” Loki smirks, though not at the unfortunate memories of what had happened back then. “Perhaps we can learn from them about that, too… would you like to stay here until dark, my love? We could walk around, do whatever it is you humans do in the ocean, find some supper, just spend the whole day here?”

“What’s that look on your face for?” you chuckle. “Do you have something planned?”

He gasps, faking surprise. “My darling, why would you ever think that? It’s just an innocent day at the beach. Besides, they’re not getting… too intimate.”

“What’s ‘too intimate’ supposed to mean?” you ask, a little something creeping into your head and making you smile.

He smirks but says nothing. Instead, he changes the subject. “Did you meet anybody when you went down to that group of people?”

Playfully, you roll your eyes at him. “Everyone there said hello, but I really didn’t get to talk to anyone besides this one man. He was dressed as if it were spring, not summer — he was wearing a multicolored shirt, a freakin’ vest, and some sort of jeans. I don’t know what he was thinking, but he certainly looked nice. I also liked his nails, they were colored as well.”

You look at the water as you chew your fruit. “You’d look nice with black nails, maybe even green ones.”

He hums in thought. “Maybe…”

The day passes quite slowly, but you don’t mind. It stays hot and the sun stays visible. Clouds are almost nonexistent, which is always a plus when you want to swim.

Loki joins you, and you make great fun of splashing each other. When you go deeper into the water, he finds enjoyment in diving deep, coming up in front of you, holding your face in his hands, and kissing you before going back under. You’re taken aback the first few times, then you get the message and kiss him back with a breathy laugh.

Drowning is of no thought to you. You can swim, but even if you couldn’t, you know Loki would take care of you. He always stays close and you keep your eyes on each other.

When it gets a little later, you get out of the water and dry off. Many people have already left, including the little party you encountered. Only a few people remain, some of them in couples, and they either rest on their towels or walk on the shoreline.

“Could we stay here a little while longer?” Loki asks. “There’s one more thing I’d like to do.”

“Yeah, sure,” you say amiably, though you wonder what ‘one more thing’ might be.

You both wait until everyone else has left. By this time, you’ve put your shirt on, for your bathing suit has dried but it is getting colder. Loki has not put anything more on him. Perhaps he welcomes the cold.

When Loki starts to move, you look at him. He shuffles to you, practically crawling to you. You gasp as he lightly pushes you back onto your towel. Your head lands not on the hardness of sand but on a little pillow that was not there before.

“Loki, Loki, wh-what are you —”

He shushes you, and just that alone makes you shiver with arousal. “If you allow me, I would like to give you something… I’ve been here all day, resisting the urge to take you in front of all of those people. Do you know how difficult that was?”

“N-no,” you answer. “But —” You interrupt yourself with a nervous chuckle. “—knowing you, you probably couldn’t hold it in for long.”

“Hence,” he grins, looking down at you, his eyes lingering on your “quim”. He likes that word. He’s used it before. “Would you mind if I go down on you? I just wanna taste it. Maybe give you an orgasm. Whatever works for you.”

You nod frantically, but then you look around. No one else is on the beach, no one else is present to look at you.

“Do not worry about that,” Loki says when he notices your worried glances. He laces your fingers with his own, holding your hand and running his thumb across your skin in comforting little motions. “No one is here, sweetness, just look at me. Do that, or look up. I know how you are when I do this. Sometimes you’re too self conscious to see me doing this to you with all my enthusiasm. So, if you want, look up. I won’t mind.”

You breathe out shakily, and your breath gets caught in your throat as you see Loki pull your bottoms to the side. Immediately, he begins, latching his tongue and lips to your most intimate parts. He licks and sucks all around, paying special attention to your clit — he knows what you like. Your stomach heaves as you breathe.

“I don’t know if I could ever go without this,” he moans. “You’re so wonderful and... and warm...”

You established long ago that Loki actually takes pleasure from pleasuring you, but it never fails to catch you off guard.

After a particularly hard suck to your clit, you moan, and it is louder than intended.

Loki seems to like it. “Sounds just like a song. Sing for me.”

A laugh then. “Okay, Phantom.” When Loki looks up at you in confusion, you shake your head. “I’ll show you later.”

Soon, it’s not long before you’re squirming in your chair, breathing heavily as Loki holds you down. The coil in your gut is rising, and rising fast. Loki’s drive to please you is incredible, and you can tell he’s determined.

You moan, quite shamelessly, out loud as you reach your end, and it takes quite a long time for you to regain your senses. Loki smiles up at you once he gets his mouth off of your quivering pussy. “Was that good, love?”

You laugh, breathlessly. “Yeah. Yeah, that was good. Thank you.”

You leave without saying much else about it. He takes you home, and kisses you in the doorway as you move to leave. The sun is long gone, and the moonlight fills the air with a white glow.

You turn to close the door behind you.

In a split second decision, you pull him into the house, and he doesn’t resist. He stays the night, in your house and in your bed.

#fine line #loki x reader #loki x reader smut #loki #loki laufeyson #loki smut #loki odinson #harry styles #fanfiction #romance #loki fanfic #loki of asgard #mcu loki #marvel #mcu #angst

208 notes · View notes

the-fae-folk · 3 years

Text

What is a Fairy?

I suppose they probably need some explanation, especially nowadays. Fairies (Faeries, Fay, Fey, Fae, or even Fair Folk) could be considered a type of mythical being. Some have described them as spirits, others as ghosts of the deceased, some deified ancestors, prehistoric precursors to humans, personifications of nature, pagan deities, or even angels and demons in the way of Christian traditions. Often they encompass a metaphysical aspect, being depicted as spirits or beings who transcend the physical universe and world that we know. Or given features of the Supernatural, such as magic or extrasensory perception, which allow them to violate or go beyond the laws of nature. Even sometimes Preternatural, which something abnormal or strange and explainable but still within the boundaries of the natural laws of the universe (for example I could say someone is a preternaturally good cellist, and mean that they are impossibly good beyond expectations or even belief, but I’m not saying that they are actually magical...just that their apparent abilities and how they gained them are unknown and very strange to me.) But what is a fairy? Well you already know what some of them look like. Many people might immediately picture Tinkerbell from the animated Disney feature film, or even from the original Peter Pan novel by J. M. Barrie. And they would be correct, in part. Tinkerbell is a depiction of a Pixie, a specific type of fairy. But there are lots of fairy types, I don’t actually think there’s a complete list. (I should probably try to make one at some point, but no promises.) During some points in history the label of fairy was used to mean magical beings who had a mostly human shape. Gnomes, leprechauns, goblins, pixies, dwarfs, elfs, etc etc etc. And at other points it also included non humanoid magical creatures such as Unicorns, Dragons, Kelpie, Basilisk, and more (Sometimes these were referred to as Fairy Creatures). So where did they come from? Well the funny thing is that Fairies don’t actually come from only one area or set of myths. They are a strange combination of the folklore from all over Europe (and possibly beyond) and include ideas and stories from Celtic, Scandinavian, Nordic, Germanic, French, and English Folklore and Mythology. As these stories were passed around and intermingled and changed they brought about the collective creatures we know today as the Fae or Fairies. The Renaissance, Romantic Era, Victorian Era, Edwardian Era, and even the Celtic Revival Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries all had their influences on the stories and ideas connected with the Fairy folk, some significantly less helpful than others. Even the Fantasy Literature Genre, with Tolkien at its forefront, has added and changed much about people’s view on these creatures. So lets talk about some basic things you’ll want to know when dealing with Fairies. The first thing you might want to remember is that many people view the Tuatha Dé Danann (Supernatural gods, goddesses, heroes, and kings of Irish Mythology) as being the source for Faeries, or at least one of the strongest influences. Celtic Folklore and culture is easily one of the most visible bits of Faerie lore that you can find these days, but there’s a lot more that starts showing up when you begin to dig. Another thing to note is that the Renaissance, Romantic Era, Victorian Era, Edwardian Era, and the Celtic Revival Movement had a massive influence on how people saw fairies. They would mix folklore from different areas of Europe, attempted to prove the existence of fairies through scientific means, created artistic depictions of fairies, and much more. Often they sanitized and shrunk the fairies until they were mostly harmless or relegated to the outskirts of human life as a curiosity. Which brings me to the next point. In a lot of older folklore, from all over Europe, fairy beings are often depicted as being incredibly dangerous. Kidnapping humans or human babies, causing crops to wither, water to dry up, food to rot. They could lure people in with magic into a fairy ring of mushrooms and make them dance forever or make them forget their life. Sometimes they even played with time itself. A person could dance with the fairies only to find that they’ve been gone a hundred years when they try to go home. And many beliefs have depictions of some kind of Otherworld, a world apart from our own, or layered over it like an extra dimension we are unable to perceive or directly interact with. Sometimes its a land of the dead or a hidden underground kingdom, other times is a strange and fantastical country with its own laws and ways of doing things. As these stories meshed together we got what is known as Fairyland. The land which the fairies dwell in. Though some believe they simply live on Earth, hidden in the wild, or among us. Some reoccurring ideas are often connected with fairies, though not all have stayed the same as the original lore they were born from. The idea that Faeries, for whatever reason, are unable to or will not lie. This is a very important idea because the Folk are also simultaneously depicted as deceptive. Like particularly vicious lawyers they will play with words, never quite lying, but purposefully leading you astray or tricking you into a bad deal. They will often obey an oath, promise, or deal exactly to the letter, but ignore the intent behind it in order to twist it to their own benefit or amusement. Whether or not fairies are immortal depends entirely on where you draw your folklore from. Sometimes they are immortal; deathless, not mortal. Unable to die in spite of starvation, terrible wounds, age, or anything else. They are bound to life for all time. But some stories depict the stranger Fae Folk as being Eternal. Beyond time, always having existed and always existing, sometimes cycling, sometimes directionless and boundless and everything. Some tough concepts to get your head around, but nobody really agrees which one fairies are. In some folklore they’re even depicted as mortal, same as you and I, but a lot longer lived and harder to kill. A reoccurring motif in older Folklore is the need of humans to try and ward off fairies with charms and totems. When they were not depicted as outright malicious and dangerous, sometimes being thought to cause illness and death or bring about disastrous misfortune or steal a person’s name and voice, fairies were still mischievous and valiantly unhelpful. So people had all kinds of lucky charms to protect from them: like four leaf clovers, various plants, or actions like wearing your clothes inside out to confuse them. Iron is said in many beliefs to burn them, and certain herbs they view as sacred and will refrain from touching the bearer. A few more things. Christianity plays an important part in this discussion, though many people don’t like that. In many places myths and legends were wiped out by Christianity, either intentionally or simply by the very fact that it was trying to convert people in Europe and old pagan beliefs were seen as nonsensical. But still stories persisted despite this. Many old Myths and Folkloric beliefs were recorded for posterity by Christians, and some stories were altered and we are unable to see exactly how much (Beowulf). A lot of fairy stories remained too, only Christianity painted them as fallen angels or even demons of a kind, who could be kept away from Holy Ground, or were forced to kidnap humans to pay a tithe to Hell (or be taken themselves if they couldn’t pay). So folk beliefs, though generally discouraged by the church as superstition, remained quite strong all over Europe for a very long time. The last three things you need to know. One, there are many people who still believe in Fairies, though their beliefs often vary, sometimes wildly. Witches who claim to work with them. People who believe in them through their religions (usually pagans and other non christian groups). People who claim to have encountered or been abducted by them. And many others. While I personally do not believe in Fairies (though I like to keep an open mind, just in case), I do believe that the beliefs, cultures, and and rights of these people ought to be respected. Which leads me to other mythical beings that are similar to Fairies but hail from cultures and peoples outside of Europe. It might be tempting to label some of the spirits from various Native North American Tribes or from Chinese Folklore (or many others) as fairies. Don’t do that. If Fairies are real, you have to consider that there might be other mythical beings who fall under different categories and groups. And even if they are not real, it is extremely disrespectful to the people of those cultures to take their stories, myths, beliefs, and folklore and try to mesh it in with European Folklore. (this is exactly what the Victorian and Edwardian Era were guilty of.) And finally... Some people might tell you that they know everything there is to know about Fairies. Don’t believe them. Even I, who have spent years and years studying European Faerie Folklore, find new things about them every day. I have sources I’ve found and haven’t yet had the time to look into, areas of study I’ve had to neglect. There is so much about Fairies to explore that it’s quite literally impossible for any one person to know all of it. Personally I’m doubtful that a single person can even know an eighth of it all, you can hardly imagine how much there is. And while there is a great deal of it buried on the internet, there is even more offline. Books which are out of print or have never had their contents uploaded, cultural stories passed down in various European groups which are saved from oblivion only by the oratory tradition, and the remains of all kinds of long dead or vastly changed civilizations who believed in the Fairies and tried to work with or avoid or appease them. All the misinformation and personal gnoses out there also make it a lot harder to find accurate information about traditional folklore. And that’s not even counting the multitude of inventions and ideas spawned by fictional literature surrounding fairies. There is simply too much. But of course... Since when has something being impossible ever stopped a human from trying anyway? If you’re still interested, then who am I to discourage you? Go, jump right in. There’s so much to learn about the Faerie Folk.

#what is a faerie #faerie #fairy #fae #folklore #mythology #european folklore #brief explanation #(hah. I've never been brief in my life. I'm not going to start now)

121 notes · View notes

findingjoynweirdstuff · 3 years

Text

A comprehensive guide for whose streams to watch for Dream SMP plot if you’re overwhelmed

By now everyone’s probably figured out that there is a LOT of content out there on Twitch about the Dream SMP, and if you’re new to the fanbase it’s probably super overwhelming to figure out how to keep up with it all.

So I’ve decided to make a guide of who streams, and who usually has “plot stuff” to keep up with, vs. more chill vibes, since it may be helpful to some people? Maybe??

More under the cut:

I wanna be clear, this is all based on my personal gathering of it, and even if you’re only invested in the “plot stuff,” so to speak, I’d still highly recommend giving the more Chill Vibes-focused streamers a try if you have the time! This is mostly for people who are getting started and don’t know who to follow along with, or where all of this plot stuff is even coming from, anyway. I’m probably missing a lot too, since I can’t keep up with everything either (honestly, who could)

So, let’s get to it! And I wanna reiterate, I am NOT saying “more plot stuff” = better. This is not some sort of tier list. Just a guide. Also I am probably forgetting people, so I apologize in advance! I just hope this helps somebody.

First off: Almost Always Plot Stuff

- Wilbur: The dude’s first stream on the SMP was the start of L’manberg. What more can I say? He doesn’t really do grinding for items streams or building streams, and he keeps them very short. The streams are quite rare because of this. If you only keep up with Wilbur and no one else, though, you may end up missing some important events like the Battle of the Lake and the Pet War.

A lot of Plot Stuff, and when not, Hijinks

- Tommy: Yeah, everyone considers him the “main character” at this point. It kinda goes without saying

- Quackity: If you wanna see the “villain’s POV” of the whole Schlatt plot, so to speak. Even now that he’s on Pogtopia’s side, he still has streams with Dream and Schlatt, so you’re still getting that perspective on things. Also did the whole cartel thing with Tommy, and was of course running for president as well.

Sometimes Plot Stuff (and a lot of fun)

- Fundy: Watch the Pet War!! Drama and heartbreak!! Fundy’s big into pranks. He also did the whole secret diary thing. And sometimes those pranks become very plot-relevant, such as the Pogtopia Buttons. Always a joy! He’s very underappreciated. Currently involved with the Dreamon plot

- Tubbo: Sometimes he gets up to hijinks with Tommy, other times he does building, like his current project to Drain the Ocean. And of course, when the big Plot Days come around, he plays a big part. Currently involved with the Dreamon plot

- Ironically, Karl?? Sure he hasn’t gotten himself into any animatics, but Wilbur was straight up about to blow up Manberg on his stream. Plus him and Sapnap/him and Quackity make for iconic duos. A lot of musical fun! Seriously, if you want a canon Dream SMP Musical, this is the closest you’ll get.

- Technoblade: A lot of grinding for weapons of course, but also there for the Big Days. Whenever he uploads once in a blue moon, a puppy angel gets its wings

- Niki: Also there for the big days! I haven’t been keeping up with her streams as much but she also seems to be building a secret city, from what I’ve heard?

Building/grinding and Chill Vibes

- Eret: L’manberg’s primary builder, king of the Dream SMP faction, currently working on a badass museum. Very LGBT friendly, honestly just a nice and chill time

- Ponk: Ponk always has a cool project going on. Underrated builds, one of the OG Eight. The burning of his Lemon Tree was an event that led to the start of the original Disc War. Will the Lemon Trees ever be truly safe? Only time will tell

- HBomb: Made the Leap of Faith, just a nice guy all around, terrorized Fundy and Quackity with a maid outfit

- Awesamdude: Redstone skills off the charts. Seriously wtf. Helping Tubbo drain the ocean. If you’re wondering about the Badlands as well, that’s Sam, Bad and Antfrost. One of the OG Eight who made a recent return to the server after a looooooong absence. He streams now!

- Antfrost: Currently working on an animal sanctuary, I believe? Part of the Badlands. His very first stream was for Taco Bell. Good times, good times.

- Badboyhalo: Makes some very cute statues. A great muffin! Part of the Badlands. One of the OG Eight.

- Purpled: Very recently returned, working on a new base I think? Preparing for war

- Thunder1408: Also very recently returned, so I’m not sure yet. Way back when, though, he was working on that giant floating Tesco’s in the sky above Purpled’s Walmart. Very underrated!

- Punz: Doesn’t stream as much on the SMP these days, but has recently been trying to get a trident. I’m not sure if he ever found one? Someone remind me. Also was involved in the Pet War! RIP Beenis

The Dream Team (I just made them their own category since they’re difficult to place)

- Dream: Did that one stream where he remodeled the house? Usually doesn’t stream on the SMP much anymore. Mostly just shows up in other people’s streams, usually to be mysterious and cryptic

- George: He sleeps

- Sapnap: Building a new secret base, did karaoke with Karl, also involved in the Dreamon plot and the Battle of the Lake (but didn’t stream that) and was everyone’s favorite pet-killer during the Pet War. Him and Fundy have some history. Also, recently stole Tommy’s horse?? So they’re going to have to address that at some point, probably.

Bonus:

- Phil: Not even in the SMP but still manages to RP somehow?? If you’re not following him already you absolutely should

And that’s it for now! I hope this was vaguely helpful? At all? And again, I’m almost certainly missing things because it’s just so much to keep track of

Hope you enjoyed!

#dream smp #dreamsmp #mcyt

253 notes · View notes

shinonometrash · 3 years

Text

💕🍄The 12 Days of Ayumu 🍄💕

JULY 17TH!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYUMU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AYUMU 😭💕😭💕😭💕 Doing all this translating has done nothing except make me miss him even more 😭 But!!! Today is the big day!! And so we have the thing I’ve been saving for last!!!! The absolutely cutest Ayumu story I think I’ve ever read !!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I wanted to cry when I read it it was so sweet I love him so much sdfgnkjkjnfg

I was a lot more creative with translating this story to make it sound more fun and natural, since I’m finally getting comfortable enough to start doing that, I really hope you guys enjoy it !!

it’s pretty long, so I’m putting it under a readmore

Ayumu Shinonome: Happy Birthday ♡

technically this story is about Ayumu celebrating our birthday, rather than about celebrating his, but...

In the S ward is one of the most popular downtown areas in Tokyo.

2PM —

Middle schooler: Hey, look at that guy over there

Middle schooler 2: Oh my gosh, yeah!

Middle schooler: He’s a host, don’t you think?

Middle schooler 2: He’s definitely a host!

(…No, you’re wrong.)

(I’m just wearing a formal suit.)

Middle schooler: Eek…this is the first time I’ve seen a host in real life!

Middle schooler 2: I guess that’s the norm around here, we are in Tokyo after all!

Thanks to the middle school students who seem to be in the middle of a field trip, I now see the passersby struggling to contain their laughter.

(This couldn’t get any worse. Ugh, this sucks.)

(Really. I was already reluctant enough to do this as is…)

Speaking of which—

MC: Ayumuuuu~!

At last, the reason for all of this torture has arrived.

MC: Sorry! Did I keep you waitin-…

MC: !!!

(Uh…is she okay?)

MC: Ayumu, you…you look…so hot…

MC: Ahh, you look amazing!!

Ayumu: Dummy!! Keep your voice down!

(If she says something like that too loudly…)

Middle schooler: Oh no, look! He’s got a customer…

Middle schooler 2: She must be a huge regular…

Ayumu: …gah, come on, let’s go.

MC: Huh? Already?

MC: I haven’t changed into my pumps yet…

Ayumu: It’s fine, come on! Hurry up!

MC: Ahh, hold up! I came all this way so at least let me put my arm around yours…

MC: Gahh, slow down! You’re walking way too fast!

MC: Ayuumuuuuuu!

This all started about two weeks ago.

MC: Ayumu! Look! This is what I was talking about!

Ayumu: Eh…? Scary…

Fresh out of the bath, my girlfriend suddenly plops down on the ground.

Ayumu: …What

Ayumu: Don’t tell me you broke my limited edition Tyrannosaurus mug…

MC: No, no, that’s not it!

MC: It has to do with this year’s KappaMC Birthday Celebration!

Ayumu: Gross

Ayumu: You’re creating your own birthday celebration…?

MC: It’s a great idea, isn’t it!

MC: I see this kind of thing a lot on social media!

Ayumu: Even so, you’re not supposed to post that about yourself

Ayumu: That sort of tag is made by enthusiastic fans…

MC: Well then, I’ll ask you to do it, Ayumu! Since you should be my biggest fan!

MC: Pleaaase do it with me~?

MC: Take me on a date in a formal suit please!

Nonsense, I thought. At the time.

However, at a later date…

Toru: Ahh~ This seems to be real popular these days! Suit men

Ayumu: …what?

Toru: If you search anywhere on social media sites, you’ll get tons of hits~

Toru: Guys uploading selfies in suits

…I don’t get it.

What’s so fun about showing off a suit?

(Although, she did say something the other day about wanting to go on a date with me in a formal suit..)

Ayumu: Frivolous. Completely.

Toru: Noo, you just need to choose the right place to go!

Toru: Shall the Great Toru offer you some guidance~?

Ayumu: No thanks. There’s no way that’s ever happening…

Toru: Hm, well I don’t know what kind of person your partner is, but—

Toru: Sometimes it’s important to spice things up a bit so that you don’t fall into a rut!

Ayumu: …

Toru: Again, I really have noo idea who your partner is buuuut

Toru: I think women who like that sort of thing would be really happy~

Ayumu: …

(…bah. He’s probably right.)

(She does seem like she’d like that sort of thing…)

That’s why I decided to title it “The Extraordinary Production”

I end up regretting this as soon as we start stage one—meeting up downtown.

(Ah, well, at least I won’t feel as out of place at the next stage.)

Yes, and the next stage is—

MC: Look! Look! Ayumu! The view outside is sooooooo pretty!!

Ayumu: Ah, I see.

(Naturally. We are on the 38th floor.)

By the way, the seats here are filled almost full.

Of them, about half are reservations.

MC: Whoaaa, did you see?? This afternoon tea set!!

MC: The tea stand! It has five tiers! Five!!

Ayumu: Ah, I see.

MC: Hey, at least act more surprised!

MC: Fives tiers? This is the first time, for me at least, that I’ve ever seen anything like this!

(…yeah, I suppose it would be)

I say this because—

Toru: How’s this place look?

Toru: “Enjoy some luxury afternoon tea on the top floor of a high rise tower”

Toru: Whoa, the tea stand, it’s got five tiers!

Ayumu: Ah, I see.

Toru: Ugh, what kind of response was that!

Toru: Are you even listening?? The tea stand has five tears!!

Toru: Isn’t that alone pretty much a win right there?

Ayumu: I don’t get it.

Toru: In a date, it’s either a win or a loss…

Soma: But doesn’t it seem likely that it would make his date happy?

Ayumu: !

Soma: Women who are particular about food will also care about how many tiers of sweets there are, will they not?

Soma: Glutto-no, women who eat everything with enthusiasm,

Soma: I think they would be very pleased with a five tiered tea stand.

Ayumu: Haa…

MC: What should I do?? My heart is beating so fast, I’m so excited…

MC: I don’t think I’ll be able to eat all five tiers…

Ayumu: If it’s you, you’ll be fine.

Ayumu: …since you’re a glutton.

MC: Huh? What did you just say right now…?

Ayumu: Nothing, don’t worry about it.

Seeing the waiter passing by, I raise my hand to get their attention.

Waiter: Did you decide what you would like to order?

Ayumu: The afternoon tea set for two people, please.

Ayumu: The original black tea blend.

Waiter: Understood, thank you.

As soon as the waiter walks away, I purposely sigh dramatically.

Ayumu: So noisy

MC: Wha-…I didn’t even sa-

Ayumu: Your stare

Ayumu: It feels like you’re trying to stare into my soul or something since a while ago.

MC: …hey, b-but that….

MC: I mean! I can’t help it…

MC: You just look way too amazing today, it’s like my eyes are being sucked in…

Ayumu: …

(…what is she even saying, this girl)

Ayumu: This isn’t the first time you’ve seen me like this though, is it? In a suit?

MC: That’s true, but…today is special…

MC: You wore the suit for me, didn’t you?

MC: That automatically makes you look, like, 30% hotter!

MC: I’m just so happy, I can’t stop looking at you

Ayumu: ….I see.

There was a strange pause before I replied.

Probably because I was remembering the advice that Toru gave me.

Toru: You definitely need to be sure to always compliment your date’s outfit~

Ayumu: …wha?

Toru: Well, if you’re wearing a formal suit

Toru: Then your date should also be in formal wear, right?

Ayumu: that…well…

Toru: And so, you need to be sure to give your date lots of compliments!

Toru: Cause girls always put several times more effort into things like their makeup and hairstyle!

Ayumu: No, no, she doesn’t have me beat there

Ayumu: If we’re talking hairstyle, it’s definitely me…

Toru: Bah, well, saying things like “that looks great on you” or “you look pretty” is always a safe bet

Toru: And then…

Ayumu: You don’t—

MC: “I don’t”?

—“you don’t look too bad yourself, either”

That’s it. All I have to do is use what she said as an opportunity to compliment her back.

(So, come on. Say it.)

(Just light and natural.)

(Sound genuine about it…)

Ayumu: You don’t—

MC: Ah!!

Suddenly, my girlfriend jumps out of her chair as if remembering something.

MC: Sorry, is it okay if I go to the restroom for real quick?

MC: It’s…my shoes, I’m still wearing my sneakers

Ayumu: …

MC: No, I know already, you don’t have to tell me

MC: “You should’ve just worn your pumps from the beginning”

MC: That’s what you were about to say, right?

MC: But these shoes don’t quite fit right…

MC: “It’ll be fine if just change into them right before I meet up with Ayumu”…is what I had told myself

Ayumu: …

MC: I’ll just change into them real quick!!

Ayumu: …

(…This sucks.)

I just let a perfect chance that I’ll probably never see again slip by.

(No, it’s fine though.)

(It’s not like I absolutely HAVE to give her a compliment.)

That was just Toru’s opinion.

She didn’t specifically ask me to do it, or anything.

And so, from there, while I’m with my girl…

MC: Ahh, that was so delicious!

MC: The cake and the scones and the tea, they were all the best! Ayumu: …

MC: Oh, and the clotted cream too!

MC: It was the first time I’ve ever had it but it went surprisingly well with the scones~

MC: I wonder if they sell it at that other shop…

(…this is it.)

Her head is probably full of the afternoon tea we just had.

I want to make her happy…more than anything.

(But it’s impossible to compliment her when things are like this.)

I’ll just start by making a statement about what she’s wearing, but it’ll have a compliment at the end.

“I noticed your dress has lace on top of the turquoise fabric. It’s not bad.

“Those pumps must not be comfortable to wear. But they go nicely with the dress.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you wear this much makeup. It looks nice.”

(I’m psyching myself up too much, aren’t I?)

I guess it just goes to show how much I’ve been looking forward to this day, though.

MC: So where are we going next?

Ayumu: Anywhere is fine, as long as it only takes about an hour.

MC: Hm? What does that mean?

Ayumu: This.

I pull two tickets out of the breast pocket of my suit.

MC: Whaa…the opera??

Ayumu: It’s in about an hour from now. So we can’t go unless we go at that time.

(The idea wasn’t mine, though.)

Yes, this idea…

Toru: Hmm, what other places would be good to wear a formal suit to…

Toru: What about a luxury brand store?

Ayumu: Huh?

Toru: If you wear a businesswear vs a formal suit to a shop, the staff will treat you differently, right?

Toru: Because they’ll be acting even more polite to you

Toru: There’s no doubt that your date will feel like a celebrity!

Toru: Right, Goto?

Goto: Don’t touch me, I’m not responding to that.

Toru: And after you can take her to a fancy restaurant inside a hotel or a bar with a gorgeous night view!

Toru: Sure it might be a little cliche sounding, but it’ll certainly be something out of the ordinary that you won’t forget!

Toru: Hey, Gotooo!

Goto: Look, even if you touch me, I’m still not going to respo-

???: Aww, aren’t you guys sweet

Toru: …huh?

Tsugaru: Don’t you know this is the perfect time to go watch the opera?

Ayumu: ..……good afternoon. How long have you been there?

Tsugaru: Now that hardly matters, does it?

Tsugaru: More importantly, if you’re going to put all that effort into a date, you should go to the opera.

Tsugaru: It’s like a date specifically meant for formal wear, is it not~?

Tsugaru: Hmmm, but…

Tsugaru: It’s possible the person you’re planning to take on a date doesn’t understand the opera, though.

Ayumu: …I should first confirm whether that’s true or not, though

Ayumu: Hey, have you ever watched the opera?

MC: Uhhhh, that’s…

MC: Well, I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera…

Ayumu: That’s not the same thing

Ayumu: That’s just a musical.

MC: …well of course I know that much!

MC: So, this is a first

MC: It’ll be my “first time”!

Ayumu: Wait…do you hear that—

MC: I want my first time to be with you, Ayumu!

MC: So please, take my opera virginity—!

???: Ahhh!!

A sudden scream drowns out her playful chattering.

Woman: A purse snatcher…!!

Woman: Somebody, please! My bag!

(Seriously? A purse snatcher?)

Before I get a chance to confirm, she jumps into action.

She starts chasing the purse snatcher.

(Dummy! What is she doing??)

Purse snatcher: Damn it…!

The criminal escapes to the back alley at the end of the road. Of course, my girl isn’t the type to give up so easily.

MC: Stop right there!

While she chases after the purse snatcher, I enter the next alley.

If the criminal turns the corner here, I’m pretty sure I can cut him off.

Sure enough—

(…he came.)

MC: Ayumu!

Purse snatcher: Shit…!

I’m in front of the criminal, blocking his path, while she’s at his back. He turns around and rushes at her.

Purse snatcher: Move it!

MC: Just who do you think you are!!

Her next move is quite something. As the criminal charges at her, she swiftly grabs his right hand, twisting it behind his back and shoving him to the ground, planting her body weight on his back.

Purse snatcher: Ouch! Ow ow ow!

From there, we hand over the criminal to the authorities and all live happily ever after—

Or not.

MC: The interrogation took longer than I expected…

Ayumu: Yeah, it did

MC: But if we leave now we should be able to just barely make it in time…

???: Oh my gosh, look at her

I hear a whisper from a woman passing by.

Woman: Yikes, look at her, did she get into a fight?

Woman 2: Maybe she fell? There’s a hole in her stockings

The innocent exchange seems to have reached her ears.

MC: Oh…

There’s no denying that she looks beat up right now.

Her dress is dirty and the knees of her stockings have holes in them.

(Of course.)

(She had to straddle the criminal on the ground to secure him.)

However, her stockings aren’t the only thing that tore.

MC: I-I’m sorry, I’lll go change them right away…

Ayumu: The lace

MC: Huh?

Ayumu: The lace part on your dress, too

MC: !

Ayumu: Did it get caught on something? Like a nail?

Ayumu: When you were chasing after the purse snatcher

MC: …ah, yeah…

Seems I probably guessed right.

MC: I’m so sorry, I’ll go change into a new outfit…

MC: Ah…but, the time…

Ayumu: …

MC: Please just wait a second…I’ll figure it out someway or another…

MC: To change…I’ll just, I’ll go buy some new clothes…

Ayumu: It’s fine, the way it is now

Strangely, the words seem to just flow out of my mouth on their own accord

Ayumu: You don’t look bad

MC: Uhh…?

Ayumu: It doesn’t look bad, does it? How you look right now

It’s still the outfit she put so much effort into, just a bit worn out now.

Either way, it’s still very ‘KappaMC’-like.

(Really, it’s not bad.)

I run my hands through her messy hair to smooth it out.

She looks up at me, confused.

MC: Um…Ayumu…?

Ayumu: Let’s go

MC: Wait, I can’t go to the opera looking like this…

Ayumu: We’re not. Going to the opera, that is.

MC: What! No! Don’t say that!

MC: You already bought the tickets and everything…

Ayumu: Don’t worry about it, really, it’s okay.

Just a slight change in schedule.

Truthfully, I had planned on bringing her ‘here’ after the opera, anyway.

(Ah, but this timing actually isn’t bad at all, it works out well.)

Ayumu: Aren’t you coming?

MC: But…I look like a mess…

Ayumu: You look fine, don’t worry about it

Ayumu: I rented out the place

MC: Rented out??

MC: Here??

Startled, she looks around at the surroundings.

(Ah, well, it makes sense. Reacting that way.)

If I was in her position, I’d probably react the same way,

Ayumu: Your hand.

MC: Sorry?

Ayumu: Your left hand. Give it to me.

MC: Oh, um, alright…

I grabbed her nervously outstretched hand and led her to middle of the stairs.

(Finally.)

Now we just need to stand here for five more seconds.

Honestly, this is the most nerve wracking part of the whole day.

(But, well, it’s her birthday.)

(And it’s special.)

Ayumu: 3…2…1…

At the exact moment I point, balloons float up into the sky.

MC: Balloons??!

She watches as the balloons float upwards, eyes wide in surprise.

I use her distraction as an opportunity to pick up the bouquet I had hidden.

Ayumu: Happy birthday

Her mouth falls open wide in shock.

Yeah. It really isn’t like me to do this sort of thing.

But, the one who thought of this surprise, make no mistake, was me. I came up with it.

(This is a once in a year occasion, after all.)

(And I thought she would like it, if I did this.)

Ayumu: So? What do you think?

MC: … Ayumu: MC?

No reply.

(Uhh, what’s the status here?)

(Maybe I messed up…)

MC: A-a…yu…

(Ah-yoo…?)

MC: A-yu-muuuuu…!!

(Whoa wait just a-)

Ayumu: Oof

Sniffling, she throws her arms around me.

MC: I-I…j-just…nnnf, I’m…I’m so, nnnnff, so happy…I, nnnf, love it…s..so much..!!

MC: T-th…! This…surprise, nnnf, it…it’s…!!!

Ayumu: …

MC: P-plea…zz…please sta…stay with, nnnf, with me…fore…forever, nnnf…!!

Ayumu: …dummy.

Ayumu: I can’t understand what you’re saying.

That’s a lie.

Truthfully, I understand perfectly what she’s saying.

(“Stay with me.”)

I’ll stay with you, for the rest of our lives.

In return, don’t ever let go of me.

I did something today that I never would’ve even dreamed of doing before, all because you’ve changed me.

Ayumu: Happy birthday

MC: T-thank you…

Ayumu: So, what shall we do from here?

First, I have a room for us to stay at.

But after we check in, we can spend our time however we’d like until dinner time.

(Ah, no, but before that we need to change.)

(As you’d imagine, going to the restaurant looking like this would be…)

MC: …iss…

Ayumu: Hm?

MC: Kiss…I want to kiss you…

MC: From here on…with you, forever…

Ayumu: …

Ayumu: …dummy

I was asking about later today, but…

Is she asking for a kiss with a runny nose and a tear soaked face?

There’s a lot of things I want to say to that, but—

(Ah, well, it’s her birthday…)

Her lips taste salty, as expected.

But…I don’t hate it. Maybe I’ve gone crazy too.

MC: Thank you…

As we pulled away from the kiss she sniffled loudly.

MC: I, um, I feel like I’m dreaming…

MC: My head feels all fuzzy…

Ah, I see.

MC: I’m gonna…just you wait…!

MC: Next time it’s your birthday, I’m gonna think of an amazing surprise…!

Ayumu: No need to.

I have nothing but a bad feeling about that.

Ayumu: Seriously, don’t. Hard pass.

MC: …hmph, meanie!

MC: If this is how you feel, now I’m DEFINITELY going to plan something!!!

MC: Like making dinosaur balloons, or dinosaur 3D pancakes, or…

MC: Maybe I’ll rent out a whole museum…

MC: Mmph, mmm…

It’s really not necessary. Coming up with some sort of surprise.

(If you’re here with me.)

As long as you stay here next to me—

If we can kiss like this, then that’s enough for me.

-The End-

Isn’t that CG gorgeous??? And wasn’t that story soooo frickin adorable??? sbkhgkjadbf I have so many feelings about this 😭💕😭💕

And thank you so so so so sooo much to @world-a-to-z!! Like I’d mentioned at the start, I was never part of the Peach fanclub because I only started reading Ayumu’s stories almost exactly a year ago now. And so, I didn’t have access to this story. So what did this absolutely wonderful person do?? Transcribe this entire story in Japanese!!!! And then was kind enough to send it to me, along with the screenshots of the backgrounds (which were pretty necessary for all the scene changes, I think) and the CG, so that I could translate it. So please give her a HUGE HUGE thank you for making basically almost the entirety of this birthday celebration possible!!! 💕💕💕

Thank you guys so much for celebrating with me! I hope everyone had a lot of fun!!! I can’t wait to actually sleep again now...I spent sooo much time doing all these translations whoops ><

In case you missed a day, or want to reread anything, you’ll find links to all the posted content here!

#the 12 days of ayumu #ayumu's birthday celebration #happy birthday shinonome #ayumu shinonome #hlitf shinonome #hlitf ayumu #hlitf #her love in the force #my trash translations #love 365 #shinonome ayumu #voltage romance games #voltage otome #otome #東雲歩

43 notes · View notes

lilydalexf · 3 years

Photo

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with tatooedlaura (Laura Sprys)

Laura has 28 fics at Gossamer, but the big treasure trove of her stories is at AO3, where she has 193 fics. Thank goodness for the richness of the X-Files and for talented, creative people like Laura who can find so many interesting ways to tell tales in the show’s universe. Big thanks to Laura for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Maybe reading mine but reading older fic in general is something I still do and something I still find entertaining. I do wish i could get into my old fics and post a warning that some of those were written before the author: ever had a drink, ever had sex, ever had a boyfriend, ever lived on her own, ever had a real job, or ever experienced much of anything in the real world.

Then again, fanfic is a perfect time capsule for the age and it’s always fun to see where the originals started and how they’ve grown.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

Back in the day and up and through today, it has always been a fun experience. From it, I’ve learned to love writing. I’ve learned that fans are crazy, weird, wonderful, generous, talented, committed, passionate, and imaginative. In a fandom, you can think whatever you wish and write about anything you like and because I’ve been around so long, I’ve gotten to watch the storylines shift and the relationships change ...

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Originally, I never had much interaction with people other than ones who sent emails commenting on my fanfic … the internet at my parents house was dial-up and I had to access through the AOL free disks that arrived in the mail so, for the most part, I didn’t have the bandwidth or the connection speed to do more than upload stories and download episode guides.

Good lord, I remember submitting a story and having to wait upwards of two days to two weeks before the new batch of stories was posted ... then ephemeral came around and you could actually have your story up in under a day ... all ya'll who started on tumblr and ao3, you have it great, let me tell you :)

One thing that stands out in my mind still (and I’m still friends with her on Facebook) was a woman from western Canada who I stumbled across somewhere while looking for the blooper reels. She offered to send me her copies on VHS for my collection. I don’t think she asked for payment and one day, a package arrived from a lovely woman near Lethbridge, bloopers playable, tapes labeled in clear printing. I still appreciate that 20 some odd years later :)

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Fandoms are crazy places. Tread lightly at first but enjoy what you want, ignore what you don’t, rewrite what you hate, and write what you love. Don’t be an asshole when you don’t agree with someone … when you do, tell them …

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I was on board from the first episode. It was a show about two people who you felt were destined to be together but weren’t, and wouldn’t be for years. It was a cop show about aliens and a monster show with cops. I was in the right place at the right time in the right frame of mind and there was just something that clicked and I never looked back. Friends were not allowed to call me on Friday night and once it switched to Sunday, I made sure that my parents got us on early evening bowling league so we’d be home in time to watch. Even my boyfriend (eventual husband) knew to shut the hell up from 9-10pm, even if he was sitting next to me on the couch (with my parents in their chairs watching as well)

Also, my 56-year-old dad had a crush on Scully from the start so that was entertaining as hell as well

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I have been writing stories in my head for literally as long as I can remember. Watching some episode, I honestly don’t remember which one, I suddenly had an idea for a story about Mulder and Scully. I had never written a story with pre-existing characters before and it was totally foreign to me. How do you write a character with a current storyline. It was weird, it was difficult, it was some of the most fun I’d had writing up to that point.

Suddenly, I didn’t have to explain or describe the characters, think of jobs and mundane things … they already had those … and it was great.

Honest-to-God, my first fic was written, in pencil, on a yellow legal pad by flashlight while lying with my head at the foot of my bed so I could see my parents coming down the hall if they happened to wake up at midnight to go to the bathroom. Later fics were written by the light of an 10” TV/VCR combo with me still lying with my head at the foot of the bed. I still have those old legal pads somewhere and I remember having to type them in secret, having to wait until the house was empty for 20 minutes to an hour at a time. Uploading them was always unnerving because of the slow dial-up and the fact that I didn’t have my own email address, but had to use my dad’s. I’d have to make sure to check it whenever I could, intercept the feedback I’d get off gossamer.

I was such a damn rebel.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Well, I now know how to interact with people given tumblr and AO3 but it hasn’t changed much. I contribute a little more now that I understand posting on social media but mostly, I still just write like a fiend and post, read voraciously and give kudos and likes often, comment some and reblog.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I dabbled and have a favorite ‘Fringe’ fic … I tried to read a Harry Potter fic once … I type ‘West Wing’ occasionally in ao3 and tumblr ...

And nothing, absolutely nothing, has ever caught me like the X-Files did in regards to the fandom experience.

I have shows I watch and re-watch and re-watch but no two characters have ever had me writing and thinking and planning like Mulder and Scully. No other combo has ever made me write upwards of 300,000 or more total and still have plenty of stories to tell.

I’m okay with this.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Aside from Mulder and Scully and the gentlemen three of Frohike, Langley, and Byers … I love all Scully’s nieces and nephews in my ‘Life’ series … I also love Corduroy (picture books), Harold (purple crayon fame), Neville Longbottom, the characters from my own novels, Katniss (book not movie), Anne Shirley, Elnora (from the Limberlost), Will Stanton/Merriman/Barney/Jane from ‘Dark is Rising’ and 10,459 others …

I’m a children’s librarian so most of my favorite books are those written for the younger and YA crowd. I like my job :)

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I watch this show all the damn time. I will think about Mulder and Scully when I have nothing else to think about, normally writing and editing whatever story I may have in the hopper at the time about them.

My husband laughs when I have the show on. He knows all the episodes with me and it’s one of my comfort shows that I don’t have to pay attention to when it’s on. During it, I have edited books, decorated cookies, been sick, been recovering, simply wasted a perfectly good day because I could.

My 17-year-old daughter keeps it on while she does homework and works out.

It’s a staple at our house and no one is allowed to make fun of it, even though we all know that parts are completely ‘make fun-able’

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I read fic all the time … I have worked my way through AO3 starting from the beginning and if it was more easily readable on a phone, I’d work my way, once again, through gossamer.

Restated from above: I dabbled and have a favorite ‘Fringe’ fic … I tried to read a Harry Potter fic once … I type ‘West Wing’ occasionally in ao3 and tumblr ...

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I have all kinds of favorites on tumblr but right now, I honestly don’t remember most of the names … I pretty much read everything that comes through my dashboard and every few days, i read through the newest posts on AO3 … I love you all!!

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Of X-Files fics, I love my newer stuff … I read “Life” and its sequels every few months … ‘Your Place or Mine’ is another one I will read … actually, I’ll just say it .... I read all my own fic over and over again …

With fic, you get to write the characters as you want to see them and write situations that you want to see … I write for myself most of all and I love to read what I wrote :)

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I write them all the damn time. I have tons of snippets and half-finished that I occasionally glean things from but while sometimes, old stuff morphs into new, sometimes, it just needs to gather that dust and live a quiet little forgotten life in some backhand folder on my dropbox account ...

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

First question is answered above.

As for other creative work, I have published two YA novels, have the third in that series in editing … I have five other novels in the hopper in various stages of ‘good lord this needs an edit or twelve’ …

I am writing things constantly in my head or on my laptop … most is crap … stome sticks … some turns into fic and some turns into books …

But the point is, I am writing, in some form, at all time :)

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Some two sentence conversation will spark an idea … the line of a song will inspire an idea … a word will start a sentence which will turn into a paragraph which will tumble straight into a story … and sometimes, stuff just pops in my head for no damn reason at all ...

What's the story behind your pen name?

On gossamer, I am L. Sprys because that was my name at the time :)

On tumblr and AO3, I’m tatooedlaura because my name is Laura and I have, now, six tattoos (yes, I spelled it wrong in my handle but that’s life) … when I decided on the name, I think I only had two

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

They do now … it took me years to crack and tell them … my husband has never read them, nor have any of the people I have told (as far as I know)

Now, I don’t really care who knows … I’ll tell them I write smutty X-Files fanfiction and family-friendly X-Files fanfiction …

I am too old at this point to be embarrassed by what I like to do. If they laugh at me, I tell them they only get to laugh when they’ve published a book and I pull up my books on Amazon … I’ve only had to do that once and it shut them right the hell up …

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Gossamer: L. Sprys

Tumblr and AO3: tatooedlaura

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

I love you! I see you! I appreciate you! I hope you enjoy! Don’t judge me for my grammar issues! I will never be able to spell the word ‘excersize’!

(Posted by Lilydale on April 27, 2021)

#old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #tatooedlaura #laura sprys

50 notes · View notes