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tipsydipsydo · 4 years

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BTS Make out-Songs🎶 [Maknae Line]

Hey my Dears!💜

I have a new Scenario for you! It's about my Ideas what BTS favourite Make Out/Sex Songs could be~🙈

Originally I wanted to post the scenarios of all member in one post but then I realized I wrote waaay to much for each member so I split the post in two parts (The Hyung Line and the Maknae Line are sepereated now)

This here is the Maknae Line (yeah I know you read it already in the title xD)

The link to the Hyung Line can be found here.

A little thing: Some scenarios of the members are written more in the "Scenario Style" and some are more in the "Fanfic Style" but I hope you'll like all of them! 💜

I tried to include some verses of the specific song into the fic when I thought it'll fit the specific situation very well.

I'll write the song titles (links seems to not working out actually) for their songs into the scenario right after the moodboard of the member. And I think it could be helpful for you when you listen to the song while reading to get better "into the mood" you know😉

Information: The link to my masterlist can be found at the end of the scenario! 📝

Gender of the reader: female

Then... there is nothing more left to say and I hope you'll enjoy it!

「© tipsydipsydo」

These following scenarios are my intellectual property and belongs only to my blog tipsydipsydo.tumblr.com!

I’ll not accept any kind of reposting, stealing or using/editing my work!

That includes reposting my content on other social media platforms too, even when you link me as the original author.

Thank you.

Jimin

Champagne and Sunshine by PLVTINUM & Tarro

I don't know when it started, but whenever I hear this song now, it reminds me of Jimin.

I don't know for sure, but I think it's this playfulness in this song. It reminds you at first of a typical summer song, which simply spread cheerfulness and a good atmosphere and you want to sing along with it, until you notice the dirty lyrics for the first time.

And I think that's exactly the point why this song fits Jimin so well! At the beginning he always seems to be cute and maybe a little bit naïve, so you just want to take him into your arms and cuddle him. There is a reason why they call him little mochi...

And then he goes on stage and seems to be a complete different person. He knows exactly what a magical attraction he has, how to use his personal advantages to tease the shit out of Army.

For example I mean this cocky smile, his bodyrolls, the way he shows himself so freaking sensual and sexy.

He has so many different facets, all of them are so contrary. He's really like an exotic animal, like a chameleon. And that's what fascinated you so much about him and stole your heart.

How can he be so damn cute and then bang!, the next moment he gave you one of these dangerous dark looks, licking his sweet plush lips and if you're not careful enough, he'll have you pressed against the wall within seconds and you'll drown in his deep, passionate kiss.

Love, take it off

She love that dirty talk

Pushing her up, against the wall

White wine and bubblegum

I also combine this lightness and carefreeness of the song with wild, passionate sex of a young, freshly in love couple and they just can't keep their hands off each other and take every opportunity to somehow release anything of this thick sexual tension between them.

No matter how young or old you both are, no matter how long you've already been with Jimin, he will always make you fall in love with him all over again like you did on day one.

It's this mix, these countless facets Jimin have, that makes it possible that you'll never know where it'll lead you after a sensual, needy kiss, what kind of Sex you two will have this time.

I have this headcanon in my head that you're on vacation together, in LA, especially when a stressful time is behind you and your relationship has suffered a little because of all these appointements you both had.

Now you finally have time for each other again and you make use of it, on the flight back home to Seoul you have to accept that you didn't really see much of the city, but you definitely knew your hotel room inside out.

Every now and then you actually tried to crawl out of bed and get ready for an exploratory tour through the neighborhood, but then came Jimin sneaking up from behind like a tiger and took his prey right back into the king-size bed. Your little cuddle tiger has other plans for you...

Sometimes you even make it into the shower together, but that's a bad idea. Jimin's initially innocent bodylotion rubbing onto your skin becomes needy very quickly and either he fingers or fucks you against the tiled shower wall.

And when you finally managed to leave the hotel room to do some sightseeing, it won't be the only time that you will be kicked out of some museums for "inappropriate behaviours".

And all this only because Jimin can't keep his hands to himself and has to touch your ass all the time!

...and well, because you can't leave this action unpunished too, you gave him a slap on his ass back with a giggle. You can guess the rest of the story...

Most of the time, Jimin can't wait to finally open the hotel door again, without all these annoyed looks from the other peoples.

After a delicious dinner and an almost empty bottle of red wine, you two return to the hotel tipsy and giggling like a young teenage couple. When the hotel door hasn't closed completely yet, Jimin's lips are back in their rightful place, your lips.

It's not the bedroom floor that has to withstand your concentrated lust, but it's the couch that has to hold out, because the bed is simply too far away.

Rough sex on the bedroom floor

Hop in the shower, she begging for more

'Do not disturb' on the hotel door

Waking the neighbours

"God Baby, I just can't get enough of you...", Jimin sighs against your lips.

He fiddles impatiently with the zipper of your summer dress and curses quietly when he can't take your dress off by the first try.

You run your hand through his hair and laugh as he has no more nerves for further opening attempts and simply pushes the skirt of your dress up to your waist. Quickly he clears your panties out of the way before he lets his own pants and boxer briefs slides down to the floor and sink deep into you.

A moan full of pleasure leave your lips, but still an amused smile plays around the corners of your mouth.

"So impatient, my Sweetheart? Even though you've been taking me non-stop the last few days and you still can't get enough? What will just our poor room-neighbors think?"

"I'll never get enough of you, Darling. And when you ask me what the neighbors could think of us? I just want them to think that we're a very happy couple and we're just taking care of each other's needs."

Your laugher is mixed with soft moans as Jimin fucks you slowly with deep thrusts into the cushions of the couch.

From the outside, the countless colorful lights of LA's lively nightlife shine through the panorama window into your hotel room.

"Yeah, that's true. We take care of each other and I'm very, very happy with you, Jimin.", you wisper before you let your lips melt back together with Jimin's.

All I want is champagne and sunshine

Looking for a good time

Sipping on the stars while we laying under sunlight

Tanned skin, light eyes

Oh my, she's so damn fine

Kissing on her neck

We be running from the nighttime

Taehyung

National Anthem by Lana del Rey (full version)

Taehyung loves aesthetic. Taehyung loves perfection. Taehyung loves passion and sensuality. Taehyung loves the perfect moment.

This is also the reason why he has specific music playlists on his phone that are precise tuned to the mood. Especially sex-playlists. For every imaginable situation and mood between you he has also a perfectly adapded playlist of songs for it. Whether you have wild, impetuous sex and can't get enough of each other, wether you have an another play-session and one of you takes the lead for the night or you just have sensual, loving sex and enjoy the closeness to each other.

But Tae is right, the right music only makes the sex more intense, exciting a whole new athmosphere.

You don't know exactly how many playlists Taehyung has on his phone, nur you estimate to be ten to fifteen different ones.

Yeah, your Sweetheart got a bit of a passionate thing for this.

But it's worth it every time.

Taehyung lets his head sink further and further into his neck, enjoying how wet and warm you feel around him. The way you tense up rhythmically every time you lift and lower yourself on him and how your tight walls massage his long, thick cock makes everything in his head spin.

"We gonna take it slow today...", he said when he woke you up not long ago with countless butterfly kisses on your shoulder.

A smile manifested in your lips, that sounded like a wonderful start for a Sunday. You would welcome the opportunity to only get out of bed for the bare necessities.

How good that you share this thought with Taehyung and just want to explore the aesthetic and beauty of doing nothing with him. Or rather, to enjoy the beauty of doing nothing alongside the aesthetic of sexual pleasure.

Tae had a very specific goal when he gently pulled you out of your dreamland. He wanted to enjoy the time and the togetherness you two have left before he's abroad for the next three weeks to film a new MV.

And now you're above him, straddling his lap, riding him like his personal godess and smiling so seductively. Especially in those moments he asks himself what he did to deserve a person like you in his life.

In the background is playing soft music, Tae had put it on before your sensual adventure. When you heard the first notes, you couldn't deny yourself the joyful smile of anticipation for what might come next.

In this moment Lana del Rey's "National Anthem" fills the room, almost seizing your bodies with this swinging, lively yet sentimental and melancholic melody.

You have the feeling of being closer to your husband now. So, so much closer. On a level that even the best vocabulary couldn't put into words.

Your rhythm adapts to the beat of the music, your movements become sometimes faster, sometimes slower and so you transport Taehyung into spheres he has never been before.

Lana's longing voice encourage you to reveal your innermost desires. In those moments when you are so close to each other, you feel the most fragile and vulnerable.

You need reasurrance.

"Tell me I'm your National Anthem... please."

Taehyung's lips opens speechlessly for a moment before he can forms the words you need the most right now.

"Yes, Baby! Yes, yes, yes, only you. I'll sing for you, I'll sing you as my National Anthem. You are my National Anthem, my love, my wife."

I sing the National Anthem

While I'm standing over your body

Hold you like a python

And you can't keep your hands off me

Or your pants on

See what you've done to me

Just as dancing is for Hoseok his home, so you're his home for Taehyung. Where he feels safe and secure, where he can calm down from all this stress, where he finds comfort when he can no longer help himself.

You are his home and he'll sing your hymn again and again to pay homage to you.

"Yes, my Love. You are my National Anthem. I chose you, only you. That's why you wear that ring.", he wispers in a throaty voice.

I need somebody to hold me

He will do very well

I can tell, I can tell

Keep me safe in his bell tower hotel

Then he kisses your palm before his lips move higher to spread little kisses over your ring finger. Again and again they brush against the golden ring with the crystal clear diamond.

It's true, Taehyung chose you. He married you.

And I remember when I met him.

It was so clear that he was the only one for me.

We both knew right away.

"You know, I don't dare to say 'forever', that's such a big, powerful word. But shall we try to make eternity ours? As long our eternity would be..?", you wisper and exhale with a trembling breath.

Taehyung's tender caresses let you get closer and closer to your high. Your husband seems no different, his thrusts from below gets increasingly uncoordinated.

"Yes Baby. As long our own eternity would be. Come, let's explore the endlessly sky, I wanna see you float, Darling...", breathes Taehyung with a trembling voice as he paints your walls white and sends you with small circles of his thumb over your clit also over the edge.

He was charismatic, magnetic, electric, and everybody knew him

When he walked in every woman's head turned.

Everyone stood up to talk to him.

He was like this hybrid, this mix of a man who couldn't contain himself.

And I loved him. I loved him, I loved him, I loved him.

And I still love him, I love him.

Jungkook

Heaven by Julia Michaels

Giggling, you try to get in the car, which has been parked at the roadside, on the side where the passenger seat is without breaking your neck because of your vertiginously high Heels.

Jungkook stands behind you and takes care that you really don't hurt yourself and that nobody sees more of your ass (even when he likes to call it his ass) than your whole Outfit already exposes with this damn short and skin-thight cocktail dress you choose for Namjoon's Birthday Party.

You bend into the car and try to get into it while you perform awkward contortions and then you feel Jungkook's hand grab the hem of your dress and move it back into an appropriate position.

That's exactly what makes you giggle even more and you wiggle with your ass provocatively so that the hem of your dress, which has just pulled down twenty secondes ago, slides up again.

"Kookie, are you jealous that someone else could see my nice ass?~"

You're slurring right now and can't get out of all of your giggling.

You are a little bit drunk right now. Maybe a little bit more than just a little bit. And in such a state Jungkook has to admit that you're actually a bit tiring.

Jungkook sighs and gives you a gentle but still reprimand slap on your ass cheeks.

"Come on, Baby. We should get home, you should get into bed really quickly and grab a good night's sleep."

"Koookieeee! Don't be mad at me!"

"I'm not mad, Love. But please, just get finally into the car and sit yourself down on your really nice ass. Jackson already looks at me quizzically from the terrace and seems to wonder, why you've been sticking your butt up in the air like that for five minutes already!"

After another five minutes of Jungkook coaxing you, you finally crawled onto the passenger seat and Jungkook was able to get behind the steering wheel and drive you both home.

The digital clock on the dashboard jumps from 02:29 a.m. to 02:30 a.m. It's hard to believe but at this time in a Sunday morning, even in the normally for 24/7 pulsating city, there is some silent peace laid over Seoul and only a few cars are on the road right now.

You had decided last night, just before you two left for Namjoon's Party, that this time Jungkook would play the chauffeur for both of you. So unfortunately he has to stay sober. And that's exactly what you took as a reason to drink a little more than is actually good for you.

After all, you have to drink "for two" and you just drank every shot that are offered to Jungkook in his place.

When you're drunk you laugh and giggle a lot more than usual (well... in your drunken state you laugh about literally everything) and you always get red cheeks which are incredibly adorable. But you also become very talkative and Jungkook just hopes that not all party guests knows your sex life inside out now.

At this moment you try to connect your phone to the car radio via Bluetooth and apparently you can operate the somewhat complicated technology correctly despite the increased alcohol level, because shortly afterwards the first beats of Julia Michaels "Heaven" comes out of the car's speakers.

You start singing one of your favourite songs with a smile on your face, showing no shame, although you usually don't like singing in Kookie's presence, because next to Jungkook's angelic voice you feel like a cat that has been stepped on her tail too often.

Hearing you singing so freely and lightheartedly now, on Jungkook's lips manifests a smile too, even when you certainly don't hit every note correctly.

He tries to look at you as often as possible, but he should keep his eyes on the road to advoid causing an accident.

But he finds it hard when he notice in the corner of his eye how you keep giving him seductive looks during the refrain. Especially when you bring "But bad boys bring heaven to you..." over your lips with a provocative smirk.

A week ago you told him why you like this song so much. In your opinion it describes him pretty well and with these words you gave Kookie a meaningful smile.

No need to imagine

'Cause I know it's true

They say "all good boys go to heaven"

But bad boys bring heaven to you

It's automatic

It's just what they do

They say "all good boys go to heaven"

But bad boys bring heaven to you

At first he seems like a good, decent guy but in reality he's such a naughty and kinky boy! You know it as well as Julia, bad boys bring heaven to you!

Oh yes, that's so true. You've seen Jungkook behind closed bedroom doors. You don't have to be a good girl to get to heaven, Jungkook brings the heaven to you. Either with his fingers, his tongue or best of all, with his thick cock!

At that thought your cheeks blush a little bit more and because of the alcohol and the now absolutely unbearable sexual desire between your thighs you can't get a clear... or even better a decent thought anymore.

Before you can think about any consequences, you spread your legs and let the dress ride up to your hips. You lay your head back against the headrest of your seat and a little moan comes over your lips when you finally let your index and middle finger circle around your clit.

Finally, some satisfaction.

What Jungkook didn't know... well, until now, that you were a naughty little girl and only wore a string ouvert under your dress.

You wanted to feel this kick of being a dirty girlfriend, just the thought that you could have been caught by one of Jungkook's friends made you so horny and wet. ...and what would he have done to you, his filthy Babygirl?

Well, now he knows it anyway.

He looks at you in completely disbelief as you shamelessly start fingering yourself next to him in the passenger seat and he realizes that you worn this damn thong (that covers literally nothing!) overly all night long.

An angry huff leaves your boyfriend who bends without warning with the car sharply onto an abandoned parking space of a supermarket and brings the car to halt.

A surprised squeak comes from your lips and you look to Jungkook in confusion, who is just about to pull the handbrake with a grimly expression on his face and switch off the engine.

"You don't seem to want it any other way, you little brat!"

"What do you mean, Kookie?", you ask him completely unsuspectingly and seemingly unaware of any guilt.

"I promised you that I wouldn't have sex with you when you were drunk. Especially when you've had so much to drink that you surely can't remember some of the things you did that night before. I am a gentleman, really. And I actually keep my promises. Always. But you can't do this next to me! You can't just sit here next to me, playing with your pretty little fingers on your wet pussy like that and presenting to me, that you have been wearing a thong ouvert all night! Apparently you did all of this on purpose. You're such a dirty girl! I think I should stuff your greedy hole with my cock and fuck you so hard until you definitely remember not to do that again!"

With these words Jungkook gets out of the drivers seat, goes around the car and opens the passenger seat door. Then he unbuckles your seat belt and lets your backrest sink back as far as possible.

Utimately he unbuckles the belt of his dress pants. A happy smile spread over your face.

"You got me."

Now a devilish smirk forms on Jungkooks lips.

"Even a gentleman could bring heaven to you..."

Love's my religion but he was my faith

Something so sacred so hard to replace

Fallin' for him was like fallin' from grace

All wrapped in one, he was so many sins

Would have done anything, everything for him

And if you ask me I would do it again

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪

"Oh fuck...", you groan with a twisted face, as you drag yourself into the living room with your blanket over your shoulders. It's around 01:00 p.m. on Sunday's noon.

There's Jungkook, sitting on the couch and and try to memorize the lyrics for the next song.

"Hey Baby, how's the hangover?", he asks amusedly and shake his head at the sight of you.

"No, the headaches and stuff aren't the worst, but you've pretty much wrecked my pussy. I can barely walk straight... but the sex was worth it!"

"So you remember the most important thing of the last night?"

"Yes. I remember everything. I told all of Got7 yesterday which sex toys are the best and which of them they should buy for their girlfriends..."

"Oh God, please no... If Jackson heard all of this, he must have told Namjoon and so Jin will know it now too. And then he'll tease me if I'm not able to satisfy my girlfriend properly... they are such gossip girls!"

[Links]

My Imagines

My Masterlist

#bts smut #bts scenarios smut #bts x reader smut #bts x reader reactions #bts x reader fanfic #bts x reader fanfiction #bts x reader fanfiction smut #bts imagines smut #bts reactions smut #jimin x reader #jimin smut #jimin x reader smut #taehyung x reader #taehyung smut #taehyung x reader fluff #taehyung x reader smut #jungkook x reader #jungkook smut #jungkook x reader smut

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a-fritterer · 4 years

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Rules: Answer the questions then tag 10 people with 10 new questions

Thank you @supergeek1999 for tagging dear🥺Your questions were so good that I felt like answering them😌 These questions made me look deeper into me which I needed right now. Can't thank you enough uwu🥺💜

1. What does your favourite book look like?

Really hard to answer. I have a number of them and they look different based on different editions? 👀 But in a nutshell, those books look either minimalistic or have surreal paintings.

2. If money/practicality wasn’t an issue, what new thing would you try?

I would buy an island for me and build a really architecturally aesthetic duplex house there (which I still want to do sometime in the future tbh)

3. If you could have any pet ever what would it be?

Cat and I'm gonna call it Yoongi/Yoonji🥺 If possible, a Samoyed/Shiba Inu/Golden Retreiver/Labrador too (they're soooooo cute🥺🥺🥺)

4. What would your theme song be?

'In the end' by Linkin Park. 'So far away' by Agust D. Based on my age, '28' by Agust D (I'm a '93 liner just like my bias Suga)

5. Who or what is your biggest inspiration?

This is tough to answer. I grew up really alone. People who actually were my inspiration have turned out to be shits and I'd a hard time accepting it, but I finally moved on. It really doesn't matter cause we're all human. Although like the light in the darkness, I can undoubtedly say that BTS keeps inspiring me everyday in some way. They inspired me to stay innocent and work hard and that I walk in my own pace so I shouldn't compare myself with others, and most importantly, I have to love myself.

6. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

There are some places all over the world, but I think Paris will win my vote. I wish to visit Paris someday. My cousin told me it's really beautiful and aesthetic.

7. What would you sing at karaoke?

Let's see, Chicken Noodles Soup from Hope World or GoGo, Anpanman from Love Yourself seem awesome. But I hate my voice so I'm scared to sing out loud👀

8. How do you feel about surprises?

I love surprises which are funny and good👀

9. Can you do suduko? (I’m gonna find the witches)

I used to solve them during last decade🤣 Time sure does fly. Although I didn't continue for long.

10. How would your friends describe you?

Clumsy, fragile, pathetic, baby🤷‍♀️ I can't seem to make them believe that I changed my persona, so fuck it, I don't care now. Although two close friends of mine told me that I've great observation and I'm intelligent (which my pathetic brain refuses to believe, I do observe and analyze fine details of things but I've so much low self-esteem and little confidence that any sort of compliment feels hard to believe😔)

@supergeek1999 I can't help admiring your questioning skills. These were so minute and I had fun answering them🥺

Questions:

1. What makes you smile?

2. What would you do if you're stranded on a island for a month?

3. If there's one person you get to go out on a date (doesn't necessarily a romantic one), who would that be and why?

4. Is there any series/movie/book/comics/anime where you want to live? Name it!

5. Imagine you've been granted 6 months vacation, with money and freedom to do whatever you wanted to do (Not like this pandemic, you can go out without mask). What would you do?

6. What's your greatest fear?

7. What would you do today if the earth ends tomorrow?

8. Is their anything that makes your heart beat? (What's your thang?)

9. What kind of weather do you prefer?

10. Is there any book that changed your life? (Recently I reread the Alchemist that I thought was my 'the one' book and I felt so disappointed😒I hope it's not your case)

Woah I managed to write 10 questions, but it's fine if you don't wanna answer. Just tagging- @yoon9i @arya-the-army @jiminhearts92 @purrrrrrr @oenothera5 @ifmehwasaperson @grumb-lin @mytalkingraccoon @literallybina @softesthobi

Feel free to ignore or tag yourself

#tag game #done!#thank you!

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ghostlyscene · 4 years

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17 things I learned before turning 17

According to my birth certificate, I turn 17 this year. It's weird because part of me still feels 4 and part of me feels 113, but the actual age I currently am is 16. I thought I'd share some lessons I've learned. I honestly don’t know what I’m writing and looking back, this post is literally just me rambling and talking about my life and ideas that maybe are cliche. But I wanted to make this post about things I’ve learned so far in life and who knows, maybe these thoughts will evolve as I grow.

1. Crying is not a weakness - I used to always think crying was a sign of weakness or losing to someone or giving in. But as I’ve grown and experienced more things that make me want to cry, I’ve come to understand that crying is therapeutic and it helps me move on. I have to move past hardships somehow and crying is my form of coping and healing.

2. I love traveling - my family has always loved traveling ever since I was really little. I used to always be the one in daycare and elementary going to Mexico or China during breaks and later on, London, Paris, Vienna, Singapore. All these wonderful places, some I can’t even remember. Now that I’m older, I’ve fallen in love with traveling and I enjoy seeing the culture, architecture, art, way of life, and everything a country has to offer. I’ve been to 45 countries and I’m almost 17. That’s crazy and I’m so grateful for every experience and I can’t wait for more.

3. sweatshirts, sweaters, and tights are the best thing to wear - I’ve basically given up on looking nice most of the time. Comfort is always first and soft sweatshirts and hoodies and sweaters are the best for napping in and watching shows and cramming studying sessions and homework. also tights are the best thing ever cause they basically look nice with everything I wear.

4. stationery is obsessive - I love love love stationery and it’s honestly not a healthy obsession but I just can’t help myself. Every colored pen, marker, highlighter, little stickers and everything you can think of, I will probably have or want to buy when I’m in stores. I’ve recently been obsessed with zebra sarasa pens and mild liners (the pastel colors!!!)

5. Taylor Swift concerts are the happiest place to be - I’ve always imagined what Taylor concerts would be like and it was at the top of my bucket list forever because I had never been able to convince my mom to take me. My mom was always worried about safety which is understandable, but I convinced her to take me to the reputation tour. It was such a worthwhile experience and my mom and I enjoyed every moment. Taylor has such a way of making you feel at home and connected with her. I was so genuinely happy that night, singing my heart out and forgetting all my worries and insecurities for a night. I can’t wait to go to another show (hopefully soon) and I hope all of y’all will get to go to one eventually.

6. Italian food is the best food around.- pasta, gelato, pizza and omg Italian food is just amazing. That’s it. There’s nothing else to say really.

7. I’m addicted to coffee, fairy lights, and aesthetics. - Coffee is something i always need and it just tastes so good. I usually get a iced caramel macchiato but I’ve also been loving stronger coffee tastes recently. Also I don’t get any sleep during school so basically I live off caffeine. The fairy lights in my room make me so happy and warm and are a great stress reliever. Definitely recommend. Aesthetics!!! Literally love scrolling through tumblr and Pinterest for hours to look at aesthetic photos and edits and I love seeing my friend’s edits and discovering new editors and ahh!!!! definitely check them out and give them the love they deserve. Editors work so hard.

8. Art is a form of therapy - I love doing art whenever I’m stressed because it helps me forget everything. And I don’t think you have to be really talented or draw anything complex because whenever I draw stuff for competition, I always feel stressed. It’s the small doodles and careless sketches that make me feel the happiest.

9. true friends are it replaceable - I’ve realized how important a good friend is and having a person that is always there to talk to and share your worst and best moments with is something that will make your life infinitely better. You don’t need a bunch to feel happy. One true, honest one is all that one ever needs but that doesn’t mean that you should stop meeting new people cause you never know who will become your best friend or who needs you. Never stop making friends but eliminate the toxic ones.

10. having scars is not a bad thing - I’ve learned that having a history and a part of your life that is bad doesn’t make you a bad person or shameful. It is what makes you the person you are today and you should embrace it and use it to better yourself or help other.

11. Music has always been there for me - listening to music and making playlists and discovering songs is such a huge part of my life. There’s a song for every emotion and music can be so healing. So go listen to some nice songs and discover just how nice music can make one feel.

12. Put yourself first- it’s not selfish - I used to always think that thinking of myself and my feelings first was selfish. So I put others first and forgot to take care of myself. But I’ve realized that you can’t love others and help others to the full potential until you are happy with yourself and you feel content with your life and are at a good place yourself. So if you need to take care of your mental health or whatever is important to you, do it. The people who truly love you will understand and be there the whole time.

13. Don’t let your anxiety take over - anxiety can be difficult and uncontrollable and sometimes it is necessary to take care of yourself. But learning how to cope is part of the healing process and you should not let your anxiety ruin your day and should push to experience new things and go out of your comfort zone.

14. Society has unnecessary standards for woman - ok tell me why we are obligated to shave, to have nice hair, to have perfect makeup and perfect skin, and to fit a mold. I’ve found that women’s dress code can be so strict and unnecessary compared to men’s. Women are expected to do more and to fight more for what they want and to be caring, model-like, and many other “traditionally woman” things but that isn’t every women and I don’t think everyone has to adhere to those standards.

15. It is vital to become educated and know your values - this world is so complex and there’s so much out there to learn and become educated on. I think it is important to know about history and current events and become educated enough to have your own values and know why you stand by them. To me, this is part of growing up and becoming your own person and I’m always working on that. I’ve yet to achieve it but I’ve made progress.

16. “may your heart remain breakable but never by the same hands twice”.-I want to be able to put down the thick wall around my heart and to let myself love and feel again. I want to let people into my life more that make me smile and feel safe, even if it means getting hurt again. I want to allow myself to trust others and to build more relationships with people. I think it’s hard because I’ve felt abandoned and hurt so much but some tiny part of me hoped that one day, I’ll be ready to accept someone. And I think this is important for everyone to do or work towards.

17. Step into the daylight and let it go. - something I have definitely learned and am still working on doing daily is learning to let go. I’ve realized that it’s not easy, and some part of me always wants to nitpick on every tiny mistake in my life. I don’t think I’ll ever be fully satisfied with myself and I will always value improvement. But I’ve realized that the amount of stress I have over uncontrollable aspects of life is too much. So I think that sometimes it’s best to just take a deep breath and move on. you only have so long to live so instead of dwelling on the past, you have to move on and work on improving the future.

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quarterfromcanon · 4 years

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1-4. For the asks

Thank you so much for sending these! <3

Once I started to answer them, I realized there were comparatively few recent television shows appearing on the list. I seemed to keep gravitating toward older ones I remembered from years ago. I took a handful of days to mull it over in case I was forgetting something, but nothing else comes to mind. Maybe my ongoing list of Shows to Watch During Quarantine will turn up some fresh results but, for now, it looks like I’ll be taking a little trip down memory lane. :)

This turned out to be a pretty long and rambly post, so I’ll stow it under the cut!

Top 5 TV Shows

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I can’t imagine this surprises anyone who has been following this blog for the past two years or so. It brought fellow fans into my life, got me back into writing fic, and prompted countless tags of meta. It’s the show my mind drifts to on a weekly basis (if not daily) even a full year after the finale. Just when it seemed I’d reached an age where that level of intense fandom involvement and character attachment might be fading, it proved that quite the opposite was true. I’m very thankful to the series for that, and for the people whose paths have crossed mine as a result.

2. Schitt’s Creek - This is my #1 Feel Good show and, though I’ve been dodging spoilers for the final season until it gets uploaded to Netflix, I get the impression that it will remain in that top spot. The world feels softer and more hopeful there. It’s healing for my soul. I’m going to have a dreadfully difficult time saying goodbye, but I’m glad there are six season to revisit whenever I want.

3. Stranger Things - The theme song alone sends such a rush of excitement through me. I love the aesthetic and the atmosphere. I sometimes have mixed feelings about the romances but the FRIENDSHIPS sure do have a direct line to my heartstrings. I think the way they’ve combined media influences into their own story is really neat. You get something that’s new and engaging, but you can also go back and enjoy the sources of inspiration with fresh appreciation.

4. Joan of Arcadia - I can’t help it. The snark, the jackets, the early 2000s songs, the performances -- the nostalgia for this show is so strong. It’s not without its problems, but it did have some really good things to offer as well. I remember an episode that was one of my earliest introductions to the concept of a trigger, and the effect it could have on a person if exposed to one of theirs. The series dealt a lot with grief and the many forms it can take (I STILL can’t hear Fiona Apple’s cover of “Across the Universe” without getting misty-eyed). I’m also surprised, looking back, at the somewhat positive way I recall them discussing homosexuality on the several occasions that it came up in the show. Not to give too much credit since I don’t think there were recurring canonically LGBTQIA+ characters but, for a kid who spent most days around closed-minded people of a certain religious leaning, it was meaningful along my individual journey. I’d like to provide the several examples that are most vivid in my memory:

A. A girl with short hair, short nails, little to no makeup, and a bulky leather jacket is generally assumed to be a lesbian by the bullies at school. The show directly confronts the fact that “gay” should not be used an insult, that identity should not be assumed without the person telling you so, AND makes sure that the character in question never pushes back by saying harmful things about lesbians despite not actually being one herself.

B. A boy who is questioning is able to confide in his big brother and have a fairly calm conversation about it; the awkwardness mostly comes from neither of them being accustomed to openly discussing emotions, not from the possibility of a negative response regarding the subject matter.

C. Another character is accidentally discovered to be gay (he only appears in the one episode, if my memory serves), and some of the leads have the opportunity to share that for personal gain. However, even though he is a popular jock who is a bit of a jerk in the hallways, the show makes it clear that the right choice is still to leave the telling of that information up to him and him alone.

Like I mentioned, it can’t be said that representation was in abundance here - for instance, I don’t believe anything other than straight or gay was presented as a possibility - but any accepting acknowledgement in a faith-centric series was something for me to hold on to in my still-deeply-closeted days. As a final Very Important personal side note, this show brought Judith Montgomery into my life (pictured below on the left), and that feels like it merits a shoutout for being what I consider a rather significant marker in my awakening.

THE OVERWHELMING CRUSH I HAD - and still have - is one for the books.

5. Pushing Daisies - This is another show with an aesthetic I adore. The series has such a fun, whimsical energy. The crime-solving! The clothes! The cast! There's a lot to love. It’s the kind of world I wish I could visit... well, minus the evidently rampant murder rate.

Top 5 Overrated TV Shows

1. Once Upon A Time - *deep sigh* I tried to stick with it for so long. I think I’ve seen five out of the seven seasons in their entirety. It just felt like everything got mired down by excessive (and increasingly convoluted) subplots, often for the purpose of tossing in as many fairytale and/or Disney characters as possible. Plus, quite honestly, there was too much emphasis on romantic love. For a show whose first season involved a curse being broken by [potential spoiler, I suppose] a mother kissing her son’s forehead, I ultimately found myself up to my ears in romantic ships. It reached such a stifling extent that, if you were not particularly attached to those pairings, there wasn’t a whole lot else to entice further viewing.

2. Under the Dome - I don’t know for certain what the general public opinion of this series was, but it felt like the commercials always featured alleged rave reviews, so I figured I could include it here. I was vaguely interested in Season 1, mainly as a fan of Rachelle Lefevre’s work. Season 2 pulled me in with the introduction of a new townsperson and I threw WAY too much of my heart into that attachment, which backfired when that character was killed. I made quite the spectacle of my heartbreak, so much so that my family doesn’t let me mention this show around them anymore. :P Season 3 was, to phrase it delicately, not a great time. The series did introduce me to a few new-to-me actors, though, so that was cool.

3. Bates Motel - Even the incentive of learning that the two characters I liked most share a lot of screen time later in the series hasn’t been enough to call me back to this one. I don’t know if it was the pacing that put me off or what, but the prospect of finishing the remaining seasons feels so daunting. There are evidently five seasons in total and I believe I’ve only seen two of them thus far. I will probably muddle through it someday just to see how it goes, but the fact that I am so disinclined to prioritize it made this feel like a fair addition to the list.

4. Lost - My interest in this series unfortunately waned right before fervent fandom spiked. I don’t have any specific complaints that come to mind about what I saw; I just sort of drifted and then stayed away. Teachers I liked and peers I spent time with were starting to latch on to the show and I couldn’t find even the slightest inclination to give it a second try. However, did I still dutifully read all the latest installments in my friend’s Sawyer Ford and Kate Austen fanfiction when she passed me handwritten copies at lunch? Sure. I was glad it made her happy, even if I was no longer a viewer.

5. Hemlock Grove - I say this as someone who still mourns the fates of some characters in this show, so I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that the series stopped being able to make me feel anything. I’m just of the opinion that, in some ways, it might’ve been better off stopping at one season. That’s where the book it was based on ends, and things just didn’t feel as cohesive after that. Season 3 especially was - borrowing from my above review of Under the Dome - not a great time. That being said, there are also certain elements from the book that I could’ve done without in the Season 1 adaptation but... well... here we are.

Top 5 Underrated TV Shows

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Another one that won’t surprise followers of this blog. I have rhapsodized about it quite frequently since I found it a little over a month ago. It’s a period piece mystery miniseries with LGBTQIA+ representation, gorgeous costumes, and Samara Weaving. This felt specifically designed to wedge its way into my heart, and I’m quite content with the space it now occupies.

2. Dark - I’m so intrigued by the overlapping timelines with all of the morally gray characters. It’s possible to like one of these people in the timeline where they’re young but dislike them as adults, or vice versa. It also makes me think of Rant by Chuck Palahniuk a little tiny bit with the idea that time travel, specifically tampering with your own timeline, might make you physically and behaviorally unrecognizable to yourself. And the SONG CHOICES! I have gotten some solid new music selections from this series.

3. Sense8 - I still need to watch the finale. I really do. But I knew it would make me sad so I’ve avoided it for... two years now? Pretty close, I think. The concept is fascinating and the cast is so strong. Plus the cinematography! They came up with some of the coolest ways to depict the link these characters share and what it’s like when they connect over distance. The planning and careful editing it all must’ve taken... I remain in awe.

4. Penny Dreadful - There were definitely some story/writing choices I didn’t particularly like along the way, but I did get engrossed in the creepy goodness and the performances -- Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives most of all. It left me wishing for more period piece “monster mash” stories, because having all those classic characters in one place was a blast. It also helped me understand why Helen McCrory was once slated to play Bellatrix Lestrange because she can be terrifying. Oh and Sarah Greene in her Wild West outfits? Perdita Weeks with short red hair in fencing garb, and later in all leather with boots and a long jacket? I WAS NOT PREPARED AND I HAVE STILL NOT RECOVERED. I NEVER WILL.

5. Wonderfalls - There’s some cringe-inducing handling of certain representation in the series, but I have such a weak spot for quippy outcasts who become reluctant chosen ones (Joan Girardi in Joan of Arcadia, Wynonna Earp, Jaye Tyler in this series, et cetera). I also really love the sibling dynamics here. They bicker, tease one another, help each other out of trouble, and have rare but genuine heart-to-hearts. Caroline, Lee, and Katie all did such a great job blending their characters’ adult personalities with certain childhood attributes that rise to the surface in the presence of family.

Top 5 Movies

1. Addams Family Values - I’ve rewatched this movie at least once annually since I found it in Media Play at age 13. Usually, I’ll play it around Halloween or, at the latest, Thanksgiving. It’s mouth-along-with-every-line level ingrained in my memory. I find myself leaning forward in my seat before favorite parts because I’m still that excited to relive them. Why this movie, and why this devotion to such a degree? It’s hard to explain, even to myself. I can tell you, however, that I hold up every other portrayal of the Addams characters to the versions found in this. Everybody in the cast just feels that perfect for their part.

2. Clue - I was already pretty fond of this movie to begin with, but then my sister got older and claimed it as a favorite of her own, so now she just supplies me with further excuses to watch it repeatedly. It’s also been a bonding piece of media with a couple of close friends and such through the years. It’s incredible to think not everyone in it was the first choice for their roles; what everybody brings to the table is so top-notch that I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also LOVE knowing that it originally went to theaters with different endings depending on which showing you attended. I gather people weren’t terribly thrilled with the stunt back then, but I kinda think some moviegoers would be into that approach these days? Then again, one hit that tried something different tends to start a fad, so maybe I’d end up regretting the suggestion after a while. :P

3. The Craft - This. Movie. Yes, Act III is a major bummer even though I know it’s coming, and I’ll always wish it ended differently. Even so. This. Movie. I tend to headcanon mostly for shows and sometimes books, but The Craft is a beloved exception. I love so much about it: the magic, the music, the clothes, the settings, the dynamics within the friend group, the performances. I had no idea when I first got the DVD at 17 that it would become such a part of my life, but I’m so glad it found its way to me.

4. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion - The soundtrack is a glorious ’80s and ’90s treat for my ears. The colorful costumes are perfectly suited to the main characters’ version of the world. There are so many great lines and it feels like everyone is having a lot of fun in their roles. I LOVE HEATHER MOONEY SO MUCH. She’s my awful, scathingly sarcastic, little grungy grump and she fills my heart with joy.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - I was pretty sure at least one of the three had to appear on here. I think, if I were to tally them all up, The Return of the King features most of my favorite moments, so it wins the spot. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”, ‘Edge of Night,’ Éowyn in battle, The Army of the Dead, ‘Into the West’... I end up crying during the end credits every time. So, yeah, ultimately, I would choose the third part of the trilogy if I could only watch one.

Phew, that’s it! All the questions answered, all the shows and movies listed! Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read it all, and thanks again to @monaiargancoconutsoy for sending in the prompts! <3

#About Me #Answered Asks

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thatyanderecritic · 5 years

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been reading a lot of yandere stuff and it feels like the targets of the yanderes' love are not allowed to feel anything besides fear or all-purpose kindness (or arousal in the dubcon/noncon works). ex: they can't feel frustrated enough at their situation to vent (without the yandere/world deciding to "punish" them violently for it). its pretty frustrating... yeah twisted love is cool, but why does it seem like a lot of yandere works lack the romance and are just rape/torture porn fantasies?

And I OOP.... You just spilled all the tea on this message box anon.

Anyways, Kai here to answer to the call of rants! Cause this pathetic sack of flesh (That’s me, Kai!) just loves to bitch and moan about yandere stories :) So let’s ponder why this is the case...

All the blame falls onto the author. I mean, they’re the only person who’s writing these stories after all. It’s not like these characters are real, ya know? But why is it that authors just like to copy one another? Well, I have a bunch of theories but none of them particularly nice. But they’re the hard truths.

1. Authors who write yandere stories are simply unimaginative and they just copy their predecessors.

While writing is a passion, I know there’s a grind in wanting views and increasing in popularity. I can’t tell you the type of schemes Julie and I came up with to make this blog more popular on tumblr since the demographics here seem to want the yandere aesthetics or the dramatics. Sometimes, authors just like to chase those clicks and views. So the appeal to the majority and what is a safe to write is normally the go to. Since they see that other people who write ‘X’ about yanderes get to cum money, they don’t really have the incentive to think outside the box or explore an avenue they were interested in because other people might not want to explore that avenue with them.

Or they aren’t schemers (like Julie and I lol) and are simply that unimaginative. They see something they’re predecessors wrote and go, “I like that” then just copy it thinking they’re doing something original simply because they’re the one writing it now. Let me say this now before anyone mistaken me: there’s nothing wrong in writing an overdone trope or following a path of your favorite author/story. Tropes are fun and if you like a certain thing, that’s cool. There’s a reason why the liberal arts study previous works compared to, say... the sciences. You wouldn’t study a medieval medicine practice since it’s outdated. But you would study the Scarlet Letter to widen your horizon and develop your craft. And that’s the important key: “wide your horizon and develop your craft”. The problem with most writers is that they see a book and consider it the word of god. It is terrifying when I hear people say something like “I’m trying to copy Stephan King’s writing style”. Fucking yikes my dude! Besides the fact that Stephan King is generally a bad writer, you shouldn’t mimic a teacher but become your own person. Take a technique or two you like and blend it to your style. Don’t become a chameleon (unless you are going to parody/satire said author). If you’re going to do a trope, I say consider two things: 1) Are you planning to do anything with the trope? Are you going to push it forward or explore a facet that you don’t think others explored? and 2) If you don’t plan to push it forward and just do a gratuities writing of the trope, are you willing to accept that fact? Are you going to accept it and not cover your ass when someone comes around to point out that it’s a copycat of another story (Ex. The Hunger Games Series and the Divergent Series)? Are you willing to stand up and say “Fuck yeah I was inspired by them and made my own version because I love the trope.” If you’re will to answer these two points confidently, then go for it. Cause the worst thing you can do with a trope is A) Not do anything with it and B) Lie to yourself that you’re doing something new.

This suddenly reminded me when I saw one of these writing blogs complaining about getting copy and paste writing requests. They were complaining about wanting to be original and not wanting to be a commodity. Well... first of all, if they don’t want to be a commodity then stop writing people’s requests, the fuck lol. Next it’s laughable that they think their original. Let’s ignore the fact of the complete irony that they think they’re writing something original when what they’re writing is a plot given to them by a stranger and also that they’re a fandom writer (oops, spilled the tea again). There’s really nothing “original” anymore since we can point out a specific trope and trace it back to an ancient text that done the exact same thing. What is “original” is the blending of tropes, the reactions of tropes, and the element that authors put in their writing to give it life. Cause at the end of the day, if you entertained an audience, then you won.

2. Authors who write yandere stories secretly hate yanderes.

Okay, so this is a theory that Julie came up with and I probably won’t have a lot to write on it compared to the first point. Anyways, the theory is that some of these authors who write yandere stories just hate yanderes. I mean, look at half the shit that are yandere stories. Straight up torture, clickbait yanderes, and scumbags. This is what people imagined a yandere would be. You can at least tell the difference between someone who liked yanderes or hate them. For example, when yandere’s has a “gentle moment”. If it’s genuinely sweet and soft, then that person probably likes yanderes. If not, then that person probably doesn’t and can’t get their head out of “I hate yanderes” mode. We can also look to the first point about scheming and getting them views for tossing in a yandere. Just like the otome game community, even if the product is shit, we’ll still eat it up because it’s a product for a community that doesn’t get a lot of products of their bias.

3. Authors who write yandere stories are simply bad at writing romance.

Again, probably not a lot to write on this point since I spent it all on the first point. Anyways, as this point state, sometimes authors are simply bad at writing romance or not interested in romance. It just happens, you know? An author will bite off more than they can chew and end up making a mediocre story. And that, combined with point one and maybe point two, then of course no one can make an actually good yandere romance story since they can’t get out of their head of “Romancing a scumbag”. Also, sometimes people read a story thinking it’s a romance story when really, it isn’t. It happens and we can’t fault the author too much since they either need more practice or it’s our fault for assuming it’s a romance to begin with. Also, can I complain about all these people who tag some stories as a romance when it’s clearly not? Now they’re the real villains here.

4. Specific authors who write yandere stories have a fetish for rape/torture porn.

Okay okay. I get it, some people got their fetishes and coping mechanisms. Put down your pitch forks. What I’m annoyed about are people who don’t acknowledge their fetish or at least state it at the beginning of their stories. Come on, don’t be those tagging jackasses who incorrectly tag their shit. Not everyone likes your fetish. You stay in your clearly defined lane and I stay in my clearly defined lane. Cool? Cool. Well, on this website. People are pretty good at their tagging and warnings. The problem are the jackasses outside of this hell site. If tumblr is hell, the rest of the internet is the void.

Well, tbh, this point isn’t too bad. People do what people do and I can’t complain too much. And hey! I would rather read these rape/torture porn stories versus the copy cat stories. At least we get porn and the possible reward of being able to jack off to it. It’s just that nine times out of ten, the “yandere” isn’t a yandere. What a surprise.

Anyways, I hope writing this post help vent out your frustrations anon.

Julie: Just edited Kai’s rant here. She’s really spilling all the tea 🍵.

#yandere #male yandere #female yandere #rant #opinion #writing tips maybe?#Anonymous

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darlingsdontdie · 4 years

Text

New Yandere, Whump, and Dark Shipping Blog: Requests FAQ

Hey! So before I start writing and creating, I thought I'd get some common questions answered and out of the way! If you are concerned about your request or are unsure of its content, please first check this post before directly messaging me.

Request Content

Q: What kinds of requests do you fill?

A: I will fill almost any type of request! But here are some specific options with set structures and examples.

Headcanon Requests (bulleted, length depending on ask, ex: "Can I get headcanons for Requested Character with a short girlfriend?")

Scenario Requests (bulleted, LDOA, ex: "Can I get a scenario for if Requested Ship were getting married?")

Drabble Requests (prose, LDOA, ex: "Can I request a drabble about RC being worried when their darling is sick?")

Playlist Requests (list of songs, 1-5 song limit, ex: "Do you have 4 songs for a jealous RC?")

Graphic Requests (edit style, 1-4 images, ex: "Could you make a graphic for yandere RC with this item or quote?")

Aesthetic Requests (moodboard style, image with 6-9 sections, ex: "Can I get an aesthetic for dark!RS?")

Prompt Requests (list of brainstormed dialogue and short sentences, LDOA, ex: "Do you have dialogue prompts for RC kidnapping their darling?")

Plot Bunny Requests (short prose paragraphs or bulleted, LDOA, ex: "I want to write about yandere RC surprising their darling but don't know how or why. Are there are any plot bunnies you can give me?").

New! RP Idea Requests (selection of 1-4 short rp-style bios/plots/starters, LDOA, ex: "Do you have any yandere rp ideas for Requested Fandom ocs?")

New! Fancast Requests (moodboard or edit style, 2-9 images per RC/RS, ex: "Who would you cast as yandere RC(s)?")

New! Faceclaim Recommendation Requests (bulleted list of names with short explanations or reasons, LDOA, ex: "My yandere OC is tall, has dark hair, and soft features. He acts friendly but is the violent type. Can I have a few fcs?")

Requests that don't specify will be answered with a bulleted list or possibly a short paragraph. There may be times I'm willing to fill some requests but not others due to time constraints, but that doesn't mean I won't ever fill them!

Fandom requests involving AUs and crossovers are welcome (ex: "Headcanons of how yandere Naruto in a wild west AU?" or "Headcanons about what would happen if yandere Ten and yandere Crowley fell for the same person?"), as are original requests based on existing media (ex: "Can I get headcanons about a popular girl type who has a Breakfast Club experience and ends up going yandere for the criminal?" or "Can you write a drabble about a yandere whose story is like this music video?").

Q: What characters do you write for?

A: I'll write for any character that I am familiar with, with a few exceptions for characters I'm aware of but uncomfortable with. To get started, here's a list of fandoms that I have a solid handle on!

Anime (Naruto, Ouran High School Host Club, Death Note, Hetalia, etc.)

Western Animation (Archer, Castlevania, She-Ra: Princesses of Power, etc.)

DC and Marvel Comics

Star Wars (no New Trilogy - Originals, Prequels, Clone Wars, & Legends only)

Other Major Film Franchises (Pirates of the Caribbean, the MCU, James Bond, etc.)

Harry Potter and related properties

Percy Jackson and related properties

Hunger Games and related properties

Twilight and related properties

A Song of Ice and Fire (willing to try TV canon but much more familiar with Book canon)

Crime Dramas (Barry, Good Girls, Hannibal, Mr. Robot, Revenge, etc.)

Historical Drama (Vikings, The Tudors, Les Miserables, The Borgias, Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders, Taboo, etc.)

Science Fiction and Fantasy TV/Lit (Star Trek TOS/AOS; Doctor Who, New Who only; Merlin; Good Omens; Lucifer; Galavant, etc.)

Horror-Thriller TV/Lit (American Horror Story, The Haunting of Hill House, Hemlock Grove, Alias Grace, etc.)

Sitcoms (familiar with Friends, all the Michael Schur products, Community, That 70s Show, Jane the Virgin, Schitt's Creek, Superstore, IASIP, and others)

Teen Dramas (Teen Wolf, Pretty Little Liars, Freaks and Geeks, Glee, etc., but no Riverdale)

Chinese and Korean Dramas (A Korean Odyssey/Hwayugi, Meteor Gardens, A Love So Beautiful, What's Wrong With Secretary Kim, Romance Is a Bonus Book, My First First Love, Black, etc.)

Video Games (Assasain's Creed, Portal 2, Fire Emblem, AFK Arena, Professor Layton, etc.)

Something that's not here can still be requested - I'm familiar with a lot of media and do my best to keep up.

As I implied above, I am also happy to write for original characters. Whether that means you telling me about your own OCs, or me creating my own characters for you down the line, either is great.

I will NOT be writing RPF or RPS. I do not approve of real person shipping and real person fiction makes me uncomfortable - if that's what you're looking for, there are a huge number of other blogs that will cater to your needs directly. Which leads me into...

Prohibited Requests, and Non-Yandere Content

Q: Will you fill every request you get?

A: I'll fill requests that interest me and that I feel comfortable posting, and that will probably be most of them! I am really excited to get started. But I still reserve the right to refuse a prompt - I'm writing for free, so no one is entitled to have their ask filled. If I choose to deny your prompt, I will answer privately and, if the issue is with content, update the blog so it's made clear that the type of prompt is not taken.

Q: What is and isn't allowed to be requested?

A: To be honest, most stuff is allowed and some stuff isn't. There's a lot of ground to cover here, so I've divided it based on the nature of the concern.

Q: Do you accept NSFW/SFW requests?

A: I'll do NS and SFW work, but I've got more experience with SFW content. This doesn't mean I do it exclusively, just that I won't think to go NS unless you mention it. Specify for NS and it'll be included happily!

Q: Do you accept violent requests?

Violence against non-SO characters and dub-con is okay always, as is situational or over-the-top violence, even murder, involving SOs (ex: "the yandere and their darling are soldiers on opposite sides of the war" or "the yandere saws off their darling's legs so they have to carry them everywhere").

However, there is some tricky area with violent fantasies. If I think the content strays too close to serious physical domestic abuse, then I'll likely deny the request. This is partially why I prefer requests that get violent to focus on non-SO targets, so if it doesn't matter to you, that's almost guaranteed to get a response.

Non-con I can mention and discuss in headcanon posts and possibly prompt lists, but I will not be writing drabbles or scenarios for non-con prompts.

Q: Do you accept kink requests?

A: It will depend on the type and whether I feel morally and psychologically comfortable with it. For example, hypnosis, size kink, gender stuffing, BDSM, roleplay, etc., are all currently accepted because they don't seem to affect me in a negative way. I am willing to do ships for cousins and step family, as well. However, I will not under any circumstances deal with r*ceplay, p*dophilia, fetishizing of trans people or people of color, or inc*stplay, and I will not be doing ship work for anyone more closely related than cousins, including but not limited to siblings, parents (blood or adopted), or aunts and uncles. None of this is negotiable. I am willing to consider AUs where two characters aren't family, or non romantic yandere behavior between family, but even then, the request's on thin ice. Anything super unhygienic or illness related is probably something I won't be interested in not as a rule or for moral reasons but just because it can exacerbate my anxiety and OCD. I also do not fill prompts related to minors at all, be it explicit/adult/sexual content or otherwise. Requests for characters who are minors will have them aged up unless otherwise specified - in which case you will promptly be blocked.

Q: Can I request a dark imagine that is not yandere related?

A: Of course! Just make sure to be specific about what you want from it.

Q: Can I request a ship or character imagine that isn't yandere or dark?

A: Yes, though I won't promise it'll be what you're looking for. I fall towards horror, thriller, and angst when I write, regardless of my intentions.

Q: Can I request something that's not ship or character imagine related?

A: Sure, I'd be honored, but again, I don't promise to fulfill every request. This blog is intended to be stress relief, self indulgence.

How to Make a Request

Q: How do I contact you for requests?

A: Asks, messages, replies on my original posts, and even more casual things like tagging me in yandere or writing related posts are all great ways to interact with me!

Q: When do you accept requests?

A: Requests will be opened or closed depending on how busy I am and whether I'm caught up on them.

Currently, requests are closed. However, I've decided that requests are reopened on my days off. The days should be listed in my bio.

Q: Do you accept anonymous requests?

A: Yes, I do! I also will not publish asks from users unless the user specifically clarifies that they are okay with it, just in case the user sent the ask from their blog on accident. User asks that aren't specified as safe to publish will be responded to privately when the request is filled.

Q: How will I know my request is filled?

A: As stated above, anonymous asks and user asks clarified as safe to publish will be published with a response. User asks without any clarification will be responded to privately. Anonymous asks asking for privacy for any reason will not be published. Messages will also get a reply. Users who send requests that are kept private will not be tagged unless you ask me to. Users with published asks will always be tagged in the final post, but it is totally okay to ask me to change or erase the tag! Other than this, checking for posts is up to the requester.

Other Kinds of Interaction

Q: Is there anyone who you don't want interacting with your blog?

A: Anyone complicit in nazism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, pedophilia/MAPs, or any other politicized violence against a people is uneqivocally not welcome to engage with my work. I also have a zero tolerance policy for true crime fans who support or absolve serial killers. Please respect this - anyone who doesn't will be blocked. Anyone who pushes the issue will be reported.

Q: What about kink or otherkin blogs?

A: Honestly, I don't know much about either community. As of now, I'm fine with interaction. I'd ask that I not receive any kin related requests, because I am not familiar with the concept, community, and issues accompanying. Kinks can be requested but as stated above, are not guaranteed to be filled. Please don't bring discourse or discourse related requests here. I am not equipped to or interested in getting involved. If that changes, I have a main and other side blogs. This blog will never be a place for it.

Q: Are you okay if we interact with you or send you asks and messages that aren't requests?

A: Absolutely! I would love to talk with you. I am always interested in discussing any of the topics covered on this blog, or anything else for that matter! I pride myself on trying to be not just nice, but kind, and hopefully that comes through in every interaction. However, I'll expect the same courtesy from anyone who'd reach out to me, or use my posts to communicate to others for that matter. Anyone who doesn't will be, you guessed it, blocked. Anyone who pursues it further, yeah, will be reported.

Q: You have a lot of rules about requests and interaction, but you don't seem to post much and you aren't very active. Is this all just awkward and formal overkill, or is there a point?

A: I've explained all of this clearly, in as an accessible way as I can think of, because I want to eliminate the potential for drama, confusion, and other misunderstandings.

Online communities tend to be chock-full of plenty and I do not, nor does anyone who visits, need another reason to be tired. I'm not detailing all of this upfront because I expect to be very popular, or because I like listening to myself talk for paragraphs on end. I don't want a theoretical lack of information to be used to hurt either myself or others, though some of it shouldn't have to be spelled out in the first place.

But considering how ridiculously easy it is to misinterpret each other online, and how much of a disadvantage neuroatypical people like myself are when things are left just implicit rather than made what you could argue as exhaustingly explicit, I figured a crazy FAQ was a small price to pay for a peaceful environment.

TLDR: it certainly might be overkill, but that doesn't mean there is no point to it.

Q: What should requesters and followers call you anyways?

A: I'm fine with my username. If you're going for a different vibe, Red or Darlings sounds nice too. If you can come up with something catchier, feel free to try!

💀💀💀

On that note, I also may be slow going when it comes to requests. All I can do is promise to put a lot of thought into my replies, even though speed is not guaranteed. Any other questions can be asked directly, and I would be more than happy to answer them!

#yandere #yandere imagines #yandere headcanons #naruto imagines #mcu imagines #male yandere #yandere suggestions #yandere aesthetic #darlingsdontdie's content #darlingsdontdie's FAQ

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corishadowfang · 5 years

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WIP Prep Tag Game

Tagged by @siarven--thanks for the tag!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag as many people as there are questions (or as many as you can).

I debated back and forth about which WIP I’d do, but since I’m going to be entering the rewriting/editing phase soon, I thought I’d do it for On my Heart!

FIRST LOOK

1. Describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch)

A boy named Aiden is temporarily turned into a dragon by his Familiar, Kiru, in order to save his life--something that’s both incredibly illegal and incredibly dangerous. Now on the run, he enlists the help of a former police officer and a hermit with an unusual amount of knowledge about dragons to help prove he’s not the monster everyone thinks he is.

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)

I’ve planned the story so that it’ll fit into a single book! Right now it’s approximately 250 pages, but after rewrites I think it’s going to be closer to 400 pages. (I ended up rushing through a lot of things to finish this draft, so...lots of additions are needed.)

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic?

It’s very...blue. This is probably because Kiru’s--and by extension, Aiden’s--primary color theme is blue. Most of the time when I imagine scenery there’s a mix of monochrome and blue-tinted colors with a couple muted colors thrown in.

4. What other stories inspire your novel?

The two most notable are the Fate series and Brave Story. Fate was actually one of the things that initially inspired the story (more accurately, it was a question that came up while I was playing Fate/Stay Night), and Brave Story has a nice mix of fantastical grounded by more relatable problems that I’d really like to emulate.

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel

They’re not neatly organized or anything, but there they are.

MAIN CHARACTER

6. Who is your protagonist?

The primary character the story follows is Aiden Cooley. He’s a sarcastic, adorkable child who really isn’t cut out for the nonsense he’s being put through.

7. Who is their closest ally?

Technically speaking, that would be these three:

Kiru, Aiden’s Familiar, who is something of a trouble-maker but cares deeply for Aiden

Gertrude, a very morally gray woman who would probably be really helpful if anyone could figure out what her motives are

And Jackie, an amputee who helps Aiden out of a combination of pity and worry that turning him in could actually cause bigger problems than helping him out.

8. Who is their enemy?

I joke that it’s himself, but that’s actually not entirely wrong. One of the biggest problems for Aiden is that he tends to sabotage himself, whether by accident or on purpose.

As far as outside problems go, though, the most immediate ‘enemy’ would be the police. They’re not really ‘bad guys,’ but they’re the major antagonists considering the position Aiden’s been put in. The wider-scope antagonist would probably be society at large, though it takes a while for this to dawn on Aiden.

9. What do they want more than anything?

He’d really, really like to just go back home and, you know…not be arrested. (He had other worries before the story’s start, and they get to be addressed throughout the course of the story, but this has quickly become his immediate concern.)

10. Why can’t they have it?

To give a really brief explanation about how some of the workings of the world: Familiars a readily-available for purchase, and, while all of them have the ability to turn their owners into dragons (should the owners so choose), the act has been outlawed both due to the fact that this would normally kill a user, and because dragons running rampant in the streets would generally cause a lot of panic. Aiden not only transforms into a dragon (albeit against his will), but is completely unharmed by the transformation. Basically, this means that even if he somehow manages to not be arrested, nothing’s going to be the same for him ever again.

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

He tends to have very low self-esteem. To explain a little, he talks to his Familiar a lot because Kiru has higher artificial intelligence than most Familiars. However, most kids outgrow this habit by, like…ten, and since Kiru can’t actually talk to anyone but Aiden, the rest of his peers all think he’s pretty weird. This has kind of seeped into his psyche over the years, to the point where he agrees and assumes that no one would actually be interested in being around him and Kiru. He’s mostly convinced himself that he might be able to live a quiet, uneventful life where no one has to be disturbed by his ‘oddities,’ even though he wouldn’t be entirely happy doing so.

12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description)

OH GOSH. Okay, so, this picture is pretty old, but here’s a rough idea of what Aiden looks like:

PLOT POINTS

13. What is the internal conflict?

I’ve obviously already explained some of it for Aiden; there’s a lot about him learning how to move forward after an event that has drastically changed his life and how to find a ‘new normal,’ and also kind of learning to accept himself.

For Kiru, a lot of the conflict relates to his own sense of self. How much of him was created by Aiden as coping mechanism, and how much is himself? What kind of role does he really play in a world ruled by humans?

For Gertrude, a lot has to do with her own past failings…though I won’t say too much on that.

Jackie’s arc actually parallels and ties with Aiden’s. They complement each other, since Jackie has already started to learn how to find a ‘new normal’ after a life-changing event (the loss of her leg), and slowly helps Aiden come to terms with the situation through her own experiences. On a more personal note, her views on Familiars and the people who use them are challenged constantly through working with someone who’s so close to them.

14. What is the external conflict?

The biggest conflict revolves around both evading the police and figuring out a way to get Aiden out of a situation where there are no real easy answers. On a less important note, trying to understand why Aiden wasn’t affected by his transformation is a constant current in the background, and factors into some key areas of the story.

15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?

The only remaining support system he has turning their backs on him would probably be pretty bad.

16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

That’s spoilers.

17. Do you know how it ends?

That’s…actually a good question. I’ve finished the draft, so I know how that ends, and originally that was the ending I’d always envisioned for the story. However, I know this draft’s going to need a lot of edits and rewriting, so there’s a very strong possibility that a new ending will appear that works better. So, we’ll see if it stays the same or not!

BITS AND BOBS

18. What is the theme?

A pretty major over-arching theme is what you do when you’re in a situation where there are no good answers—where there is no clear-cut right and wrong, and you just have to try your best to pick the right option. This isn’t just present with the main characters, either; the police officers—especially Chief Harris, who hates this whole situation—and Aiden’s parents have plenty of their own struggles trying to figure out the right thing to do.

A smaller theme, though, is the subject of humanity—what makes us human, and, to use a trope name, “What measure is a non-human?”

19. What is a recurring symbol?

…Dragons, I guess? Or water, maybe, because it plays such a heavy metaphorical role in the story.

20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!)

On a large scale, it’s set in an alternate version of Earth where dragons and humans once coincided. The two races ended up fighting, and humans eventually drove dragons to extinction. A couple decades later, humans decided to try and make the power of dragons their own. This eventually led to them creating Familiars, which would bestow the power of dragons on humans (with the idea that they’d be less likely to turn on their own kind). Unfortunately, the dragon transformation was pretty fault due to the fact that it forces a person’s body to change and grow in unnatural ways. Familiars are still used in every-day life, though—and they’ve been given extra abilities to compensate for the fact that they can’t really be used for their original purpose.

On a smaller scale, the story takes place in the city of Provenance, aka “The Birthplace of Familiars.” It’s a medium-sized city that sits along the bank of a river and used to be the fishing village of White Water. Since the creation of Familiars and Familiar Co. (the primary Familiar manufacturing company), it’s started relying more and more on tourism and Familiar-based exports. Provenance is kind of this weird mix of historical, tourist trap, and modern city with a lot of weird legends and out-of-the-way places.

21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already?

Originally there were several scenes I had in mind, but as for this upcoming draft…I actually don’t? I might once I get through with editing, but right now there’s nothing major.

22. What excited you about this story?

So you can probably guess from the theme question, but I really like exploring difficult topics and morally-ambiguous situations in fiction. A lot of times it’s how I personally work out solutions to those problems (at least on a personal level), and exploring those themes can actually be pretty fun!

But I also really love the characters and their interactions. They’re basically one big messed up family and I love them.

23. Tell us about your usual writing method!

Honestly, it’s nothing very exciting. I usually pick out a song to listen to on repeat—most of the time it has some relation to the story, but other times it’s just one that I like a lot. Then I’ll set it going and start writing. I usually have a goal in mind. So, for example, “Get to the end of this part,” “finish this chapter,” or “write this many pages.” Basically this just makes sure that I actually make a decent amount of progress on it. And that’s…basically it? Sometimes to get myself inspired I’ll read world-building or analysis posts, but that’s not every time; it just kind of depends on my mood.

This was a lot of fun! Now to tag people...

I’ll tag @paladin-andric, @touchingmadness, @moonbow-ink, @diwrites, @sleepy-and-anxious, @fatal-blow, @focusdumbass, @thatsmybluefondue, @junglefae, @feathersandfortunes, @roselinproductions, @forlornraven, @aureliobooks, @maple-writes, @jess---writes, @aleshirewrites, @ad-drew, @nepeinthe, @novelier, @spacebrick3, @infinitelyblankpage, @insertpenname-here, @theta-lee, and anyone else who wants to do this! (No pressure if you don’t, of course; this one’s pretty long.)

#tag game #wip prep tag game #on my heart

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freakflagbyiana · 5 years

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Why “David Bowie is god”

As my site turns one year old today, which is also David Bowie’s birthday, I thought I’d try to begin to explain the importance David Bowie has in my personal life and the effect he had, continues to have, on my career.

Childhood influence

My parents had fairly different musical tastes but the one major thing that overlapped was they were both David Bowie fans. My mom was also a Jim Henson fan so I grew up watching Labyrinth with her. I remember it was out of print for a long time and I was the only kid in the neighborhood with a copy that had been taped off of HBO. As a kid I remember being in love with Jareth’s hair itself, asking Mom if I could make my hair do that one day. She replied “Sweetie, that’s a wig, not his real hair” and it was the dream-shattering equivalent of learning that there was no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy all rolled up into one. As a goth teenager I really got into his freaky Ziggy era, finding the idea of being an alien heavily relatable. And when I discovered BowieNet when I was 17, to my surprise my parents agreed to pay my annual subscription... It was $70. I think most parents would be like “Your message board fanclub costs how much? HAH! No.” I won’t go into grave detail of my BowieNet life here, because I could write an entire book, but I’ll summarize it. It began in 1996, and behind the pay wall was lots of exclusive bonus content, access to concert presales and bnet-only events, exclusive chatroom Q&As, and a very active message board. This was before Twitter, before Instagram, before Myspace, definitely before Facebook. David Bowie basically created social media as the everyday form we recognize today. He didn’t post all the time but I would still consider him very active on the message board, for a busy top tier celebrity. His username was “sailor” although there were always whispers about his other secret accounts that he used for trolling. So he basically invented trolling, too. The community itself was close, there were always local meetups and many members would travel internationally to see their closest bnet friends, eventually including myself. I joined this community when I was still in high school and 17 years later I am still close to the friends I made back then. These people are my family, and they vary from all nations, all walks of life, all classes, all ages... The first time I met any of them was at my first ever Bowie concert and that itself was a bnet members-only show to launch the Reality tour, which was eventually known as his last tour. This pivotal moment in my life occurred on August 19th 2003 at the The Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie NY. It was a small general admission venue, arguably a dive compared to the arenas he would play on the rest of the Reality tour. I was 18 years old and was in the process of moving to Chicago for art school. It was surreal to be seeing my first Bowie concert in a GA venue, and yet I knew 80% of the audience. David Bowie himself knew 100% of the audience, and you can hear him speaking to specific people in the bootlegs. I knew more people in the audience than I knew in my high school of 60 kids. A bunch of us were waiting at the venue early enough to catch him coming out to say hello while they were doing soundcheck. I didn’t get anything signed because all the members he knew by name were up in the very front of the group, as it should be. But I could still observe him from afar. He was dressed simply in a crisp white tshirt and white jeans, so the bright summer sunshine gave him a literally radiant, angelic glow. I’ll never forget his slinky catlike walk, and I’ve since never witnessed a creature with more grace.

Lessons I learned from Him

Freakflag began when my last salon closed, suddenly, due to #Austinproblems. As a fantasy color specialist, what I do is so specialized that not many places are going to do it well. The most stable environment for it, on short notice, is a mini salon. As a hairstylist, this makes sense. As an artist, this was (still is) terrifying. I have literally painted myself into a corner where I am my own microcosm, a terrarium of rare creatures emerging covered in sunset locks and lavender hairdust... None of this would have been possible without David Bowie. I very sincerely celebrate him as a god of my profession. For I am a witch and my profession is transformation magic. In many ways it is the magic of one’s true form, their true Identity. For example, I have many transgender clients who visit me in the early stages of their personal transformation. Sometimes they know what they want but a lot of times they don’t. I accept this task with great reverence for the importance of what I’m being asked to do. If they are not completely comfortable with the hair I’ve given them, it’s more than “a bad haircut will grow out if you don’t like it” - it can shape their confidence and that shapes the way people treat them. David Bowie is the Patron Saint of No Labels & Don’t Tell Me What To Do. The Patron Saint of the Gender Fluid & the Non-Binary. His iconic Ziggy Stardust mullet is the perfect example as to why I don’t attribute gender to my haircuts. Tell me, is a Ziggy mullet a men’s haircut or a women’s haircut? The answer is Yes. He taught me you can walk around with no eyebrows, a pale skeletal alien, and still feel your oats. It doesn’t matter if people “get it” because you “get it.” And you are the only person that really needs to “get it.” This is the lesson of aesthetic integrity. He taught me the importance of artistic integrity. At times he was a starving artist that created beautiful, profound things that no one quite understood or appreciated. But eventually he had a period of being a sellout that pandered to the crowd; it made him so sick of China Girl that he didn’t play it live for years after. I think it’s the period after this, from the 90s onward, where he found his true creative power. He knew he could achieve either end of the spectrum and balanced on that line thereafter. Blackstar being his best achievement in this regard. He taught me you can find your truest love later in life. Many goths say they aspire to a love like Morticia & Gomez, but I aspire to a love like Iman & David. Theirs is a real life love story that endured, and it didn’t happen overnight, she made him work for it! This is the big one... He saved me from flirting with suicide. I could write a lot about this too but I won’t right now. Here are the broadest strokes: As a sensitive, emotionally neglected, eccentric teenager I listened to a lot of angry music; Punk, Goth, Industrial, etc. The summer of age 16 was a tough one, I had been kicked out of one parent’s house and the other one completely left me to my own devices... So when I began flirting with self harm, the only person that noticed and snapped me out of it was a close school friend whom I will always consider a brother. This was about the time I discovered Bowie’s glamorous Ziggy era and it was the first thing that showed me “Truth, Goodness & Beauty” in my darkest hour. He showed me that being a great artist took time to cultivate your skills and not only would suicide mean I was achieving nothing, but self harm was a weakness that would eventually fester and I had to nip it in the bud. Bowie’s brother suffered from schizophrenia and eventually committed suicide so many of his works touch on the theme of your own worst enemy coming from within. A lot of goth music discusses it too, warning against rather than encouraging, but no one can make something relatable quite like Bowie. (For the record, a lot of that angry music is still my favorite! It has its place in the world) A lot of rock stars drank and drugged their way into an early grave but David Bowie was the one that survived and still managed to stay artistically and culturally relevant in the end. This is the main reason I celebrate him as a role model and a god amongst men. If he survived the 70s, made a clear decision to sober up, and could maintain sobriety throughout the 80s, he could achieve anything.

“Just a mortal with the potential of a superman” David Bowie, Quicksand

How I celebrate Him

For the last four years, I’ve been a DJ at Elysium’s New Year’s Eve party, a Labyrinth-themed Goblin King’s ball. And for the last three, I’ve co-hosted as Jareth himself... which means I’ve achieved my childhood dream of wanting to be Jareth with that fabulous hair and bedazzled tailcoat! This prepares me perfectly for celebrating his life a week later. There are a few “Bowie Weekend” events here in town. Drinks Lounge always has a Bowie Birthday Bash and Elysium usually has an 80’s night tribute or some other event in his honor. Then on the day itself I will take the time to clean my Bowie Shrine and think about all the times he helped me get out of a bad place in my life. Here you can see Instagram highlights of my Bowie Shrine. A few months ago, I got to work on a truly special project that is still super secret. But I can say that it involved recreating a famous David Bowie image and it was a great honor to be asked to do the makeup and hairstyling for this. It took all day, longer than expected, and we got about 300 shots... This weekend we got together again to edit them and in the end only 3 shots were picked. I can only imagine the process for the original shoot! I thought I was just invited along to edit because I was a Bowie nerd that wanted to be there and was ridiculously stoked on this project. But I was grateful to witness us work together as group on this tribute in its entirety, the three of us are perfectionists and we all had high standards but we also had methods of editing our standards for the sake of being practical. Unlike the shoot itself, this time a lot of discussion was had on the different elements that composed the original image and all three of us paid great attention to those details in the recreation. None of us expect to profit from it, this was hours of work that we each volunteered out of love of the art form, and reverence for David Bowie himself. The role I played in this image is a minor one compared to the other two people involved, but I am so terribly proud of us. I think He would be, too. Since I can’t post that image, I will instead leave you with my Aladdin Sane selfie tribute from this weekend:

★

#freakflagbyiana #davidbowie #hair #beauty #happy birthday David Bowie #Bowie Birthday #religious beliefs #Bowie #autobiographical #transgender #nonbinary #genderfluid #tansformation #witchcraft

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ekbirchelps · 6 years

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Moving Past/With Writer's Block

As part of my 100+ followers celebration, @tamaravonb requested I present tips on how to move past or with writer’s block.

Here’s the thing---I’m probably the worst person to ask about moving past writer’s block. I'm the queen of procrastination---I’d probably put off living my life if it were possible. But when the pressure starts to build, there are some things you can do to sort of jumpstart your creative process. If you don’t know what to write, but really, really want to, here are some things I’ve done:

Just write. Yeah, yeah, I know---oldest advice in the book. But it doesn’t have to be your current project, or a new project, or anything remotely comprehensible. However, just putting words down on paper/a screen can set off a kind of chain reaction of creativity. For me, just writing what’s on my mind---whether it be a bit of dialogue or a scene imagined in the deepest, darkest depths of your mind---helps stretch my writing muscles and warm me up for a bigger undertaking. My Tangled oneshot was a product of this exercise

Move on to the next scene. If it’s just one particular part of the story that’s vexing you, try moving on to the next scene. Sometimes the bridge between scenes will build itself more easily when you’ve got two solid pieces already written out.

Absorb other creators’ works. Watch a movie. Read a book. Listen to music. Let your mind drift, exploring other possibilities. Oftentimes, I’ll be watching a movie and thinking, I could write my characters in this situation, but in a different setting. Or the lyrics to a song will inspire me to plot a scene in my story that would’ve never come to be otherwise.

Make a moodboard/playlist. Similarly, to the last suggestion, this process often flexes the imagination, allowing broader contemplation of the subject at hand. There’s something oddly pleasurable in searching for aesthetic images on Pinterest for hours on end and sticking them in a template.

Play around with your characters. Create them in one of those online dressup games. Insert them in dank memes. Sketch them in your notebook riding octopuses down a waterslide in the Amazon. Let your imagination run wild. Don’t worry about whether it contributes to your plot/whatever you’re currently trying to write. In the end, allowing yourself to place characters in a variety of scenarios not only fleshes them out, but also provides more chances for new ideas to form.

Write outside the box. So you’ve got your characters, a setting, and a vague idea for a plot. Now what? Well, if your characters are pirates, write them in a situation on land. If they’re high school students, write them in the Hunger Games. As I previously mentioned, writing different scenarios with the same characters can open doors to plot bunnies and new perspectives.

Take a break. Sometimes, just relaxing and occupying yourself with other things can help ease the stress of writing. I mean, sure, you’re not writing anything down, but when you come back to the keyboard freshly invigorated, I think you’ll find a little break is time well spent.

Don’t worry about writing perfectly. This is the one I struggle with most. This is your plot, your characters, your creation. It has to be executed impeccably or else it'll be awful and there’s no point in writing it, right? If I tried to write with that mindset I’d never write anything. Part of getting myself to write when I don’t want to is accepting that it probably won’t be what I expected the first time around. But push through. Just get down bare bones of your idea, then you can go back through and edit the heck out of it. The Magenaza Epic started out as a Percy Jackson fanfiction. Look at what it is now. Sure, it might not be perfect---but what is?

Sometimes, after all that, you’re still stuck. You still don’t know what to write, you still can’t get that one scene just perfect, you still aren’t satisfied with your story. And that leads me to my last, perhaps most important point:

It’s all right if you’re stuck. So you can’t motivate yourself to continue your story? So you can’t think of the perfect plot twist, or even just a scene to follow the previous one? Let it be. Accept the fact that you’re not getting anywhere---and you might not for a while. Your project won’t disappear. You can always return to your project after a while, perhaps with new perspective/motivation. This creation is yours and yours alone---no one should pressure you into writing what you don’t want to write, or set expectations you think you can’t meet.

That’s all I’ve got as far as writer’s block goes; hopefully this will help you in some way, shape, or form. Remember, I’m celebrating 100+ followers all this week! Here is a list of ways you can celebrate with me. I’m always open to answering questions about writing!

Your obedient servant,

E. Kath

#writer's block

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snowyselfship · 6 years

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Hello~!

After a lot of talk and input from the community, @emmshipping and I ( @tarushipping ) decided to hold another selfshipping event since everyone enjoy the Spooky Contest one so much! During winter, there’s tons of holidays from all around the world, including Ramadan, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, New Years, and of course Christmas! So we’d like to run a contest where anyone can enjoy the festivities with their favs!

Snowy Selfship Event 2017 is an event where you can create good selfship content of you and your fav(s) having fun during the holiday season. The content can be art, writing, aesthetic, playlists, or anything else you can possibly imagine! As long as it’s selfship or self insert related, it’s totally good! For the festivities, we have two main events going on:

Winter Prompts

For the entire month, we have a list of winter selfship related prompts that you can base your works on. Each week will have a choice of three prompts that you can pick from and use. But don’t let that limit you! Feel free to use two or all prompts, or even pick prompts from other weeks you’ve missed. We’ll be reblogging all works related to the event to this blog. Just be creative and have fun with it!

Winter Wishlist

In the spirit of giving, we decided to make a wishlist where selfshippers can sign up and describe what sort of gifts they would like to be gifted during the month! You can ask for a specific selfship of yours, if you only want certain types of gifts, or even if there’s a certain theme you’d like. Likewise, we encourage anyone that signs up to also gift others on the list! While we’ll happily be gifting people on the list, we would really love for everyone to participate in the gift giving. We encourage any and all kinds of gifts-whether it’s aesthetics, doodles, edits, poems, anything. For the top few people that gift the most, they’ll even receive a special prize!

The event will be running for the entire month of December, starting on December 1st and ending New Years Eve!

We’ll be routinely checking the SSSE17 tag and for any mentions. Any work related to the prompts and gifts will be reblogged here.

We're accepting any works immediately.

If you've ever looked for an excuse to make some of that good selfship content of you and your F/O, this is the perfect reason. Whether it’s romantic, platonic, or even fankids, we absolutely LOVE seeing other’s selfships and selfinserts. And who knows, you might meet some new friends or even find a little extra gift this month!

WINTER PROMPTS

Here’s the list of prompts for every week during this month. We wanted to provide a nice variety of ideas and give everyone a chance to get really creative with it! And remember-it can be romantic or platonic, we love any kind of selfships! As for media-make anything you’d like! Drawing, writing, aesthetics, playlists, edits, poems, HC’s, anything! We’ll accept anything that’s based on one of our prompts below.

Just keep in mind to keep all works PG13-this is an event open to the public, so if you’re unsure about your work, you can always send us an ask about it or refer to movie rating guidelines.

Dec. 1st - 9th

Snow! - Outside is suddenly covered in snow overnight. What do you and your F/O(s) decide to do?

Holiday Miracle - A miracle happens between you and your fav(s)! What kind of miracle is it?

Holiday Story AU - Make an AU based on you and your fav(s) in a famous holiday story. Classic stories, movies, books, anything!

Dec. 10th - 16th

Family Time - You and your fav(s) spend time with family-is it theirs, yours, or do you even have your own family and fankids? Winter Love Story AU - An AU where you and your fav(s) fall in love during winter. Do you fall in love like in a Hallmark movie? What happens? Gift Shopping - You and your F/O(s) go gift shopping for friends! How does it go? Do you both wait last minute? What gifts do you get?

Dec. 17th - 25th

Holiday Fun - What kind of fun holiday are you and your F/O(s) celebrating and how?

Traveling AU - You and your fav(s) meet each other during the chaos of traveling for the holidays. Do you both get stuck in an airport together? Share a taxi to the same house it turns out? Maybe even accidentally throw up on their suit on the way to the party?

Snowstorm - There’s a sudden snowstorm outside and you and your fav(s) are stuck indoors. What do you decide to do to pass the time? Is anyone worried about the storm?

Dec. 26th - 31st

New Year’s Eve - With the year ending, do you and your fav(s) plan on doing anything? Maybe hold a New Year’s Eve party or make New Year's Resolutions?

Vacation Winners - You and your F/O(s) won a vacation from a holiday lottery! Where do you go and what do you do?

Soulmate Countdown AU - An AU where everyone has a small countdown written on their wrist that counts down to when someone meets their soulmate. After meeting, the countdown starts again to record how long it’s been since they meet. What happens when your and your fav(s) countdown ends?

Even though the prompts have dates assigned to them, feel free to do any out of order or however many you’d like! We just wanted to provide some fun holiday themed ideas and we look forward to what anyone makes. Regardless of whatever prompt is current, we’ll reblog any and all posts using one of these ideas!

HOW TO SUBMIT

In order to submit your work for the event, please make sure to:

Clarify in the comment which prompt you’re using

Reblog this post

Mention this blog in the comment

And tag your piece with SSSE17

We’ll be routinely checking the tags and mentions, and then we’ll reblog your work to this blog once we see it! If a week has gone by or you're worried we haven't seen it, please feel free to send us an ask or message either of us about it. We want to make sure we see them all~!

WINTER WISHLIST

Like we explained above, the wishlist is a list anyone can sign up to be on! As long as you selfship and would like to give and receive that good selfship content, you’re more than welcome to sign up. We’ll be randomly gifting people ourselves, but we’re really hoping everyone will get into the gift giving spirit! And the gift can be in any media whatsoever-it can be anything from a masterpiece art piece or even just a cute note written by a fav.

To sign up, just fill out this form and then submit it as a text post to this blog:

Name: (What’s the name you go by?) Tumblr: (Which blog would you like to sign up with? Selfship blog or not is fine!)

Fav(s): (Which of your favs would you like content for? Including ship tags would be extremely helpful)

What You’d Like: (What sort of content would you like? This is where you can specify if you’d like anything winter themed, would like specific clothes, or even specific scenes in mind!)

References: (Please provide a reference for yourself, your ships, or any other relevant information)

Once we receive your ‘wish’, we’ll post it on the WINTER WISHLIST HERE!

If you’re unsure of how to fill out the form, feel free to take a look at the list for an idea or ask us any questions.

At the end of each ‘wish’, there’ll be a small tracker for everyone to see. It’ll track Gifts Received and Gifts Given. That way others can see who’s received how many gifts, what they are, and who’s been feel extra charitable. For the top people that give the most gifts, we’ll even have extra prizes! At the end of the Snowy Event, the person with the highest number gets first pick from the prize pool, second highest gets second pick, etc. You can find the current PRIZE POOL HERE! Keep in mind, we also will take quality/effort into account also!

HOW TO SUBMIT

To make a gift for someone, just look at the list and fulfill a wish for someone! Once it’s done, make sure to:

Make it into a tumblr post

Reblog this post

Mention this blog in the comment

Mention the blog the gift is for

And tag your gift with SSSE17

Just like with the prompt submissions, we’ll be routinely checking the tag and mentions for gifts also! Once we see the gift, we’ll reblog it here. We’ll also update the Wishlist tracker. If time goes by and you’re worried we haven’t seen it, please just send an ask or message to this blog or either of us to let us know! We definitely don’t want to miss anything.

Any Questions? FAQ is HERE!

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officialthiamlibrary · 6 years

Text

Welcome to another profile on Behind the Screens, giving you personal insight on who your favorite creators are and what they do when they aren’t wowing you with their creative ability.

Hiya! I’m popping out of my writing cave to share with you the greatness of another artist, Glitter-cake20, also known as Sammy. You’ve probably seen her awe-inspiring manips, gifs, incorrect quotes, and stories floating around your dashboard. In our talk, she shares her #1 guilty pleasure ship, creates her optimal Teen Wolf Puppy Pack spin-off, and lets us in her creative process.

Sammy! Why don’t we start off simple? Tell us about yourself. The catch: the word count is either to or less than the number of letters in your two favorite Teen Wolf episode names. (ex. Raving + Galvanize = 19)

Memory Found + Smoke and Mirrors = 25

I’m really lazy. I like reading. I’m great at killing zombies on Xbox. I have blood in my coffee stream. I have resting bitch face.

Ooh, what makes these two your favorite?

Memory Found because i feel like that is really where Theo learned to be selfless. He fought with Liam knowing he could get killed or taken, and then later he literally sacrificed himself for a pack that wanted him dead.

Smoke and Mirrors - the entire Mexico trip was great but the part that really stood out in Smoke and Mirrors was when Berserker Scott had Liam pinned to the wall and Liam said “Scott listen! You’re not a monster, you’re a werewolf like me” which parallels to earlier in Season 4 when Scott had said that same thing to Liam. It was just beautiful because it showed how Liam had accepted himself as a werewolf. Also, Derek evolving was just wow!

And how did you come to the Thiam fandom? What about them drew you in?

You know, I had just created a twitter account and I was just following few accounts for Teen Wolf, kind of just bopping along with all the other popular ships, and then someone made a post about “OMG what was THAT” and I opened the video and it was Theo and Liam making glorious eye contact, and I was never the same again.

What drew me in the most was that Theo was so vulnerable when Liam brought him back. He was once such a badass and now he was suddenly latched on to Liam - just made my heart melt. And Liam is my boy, but he made me so angry when he was mean to Theo! Like no boo, that’s not how Scott raised you!

Lately, there’s been exclamations from our pack about Thiam bleeding into their real lives (like, seeing their relationship in every movie/song or experiencing story plots in real life, etc.), have you felt this sensation recently? If so, in what ways?

Yes! I was sitting at a coffee shop writing the other day, and this adorable couple walked in. My brain immediately went “That’s Theo and that’s Liam” And I’m like, what is actually wrong with me? And literally every epic movie quote is now about Thiam, I’ve actually done a bunch of edits about that, which I will share for the Thiam Movie Fest.

Omg! That totally happens to me all the time, everywhere!! Since you see Thiam in anything, would you say they’re your #1 guilty pleasure ship? If not, what are your guilty pleasure ships, couples where you don’t care who knew or who disagreed, you ship them regardless?

Oh gosh I’ve had many. Stalia was one. I really liked the dynamic, in the same breath I was also pining for Stydia. I loved Jethan when that teaser came out. Briam, although I don’t think anyone would disagree. Brett and Mason! And even when Scott and Allison broke up I was like, no but Scallison. I literally ship anything.

If you could build the ultimate paintball/laser tag team from any five characters on Teen Wolf, who’d be on your team and why? Twist: now, choose one Teen Wolf villain who’d be your secret weapon, provided they don’t double-cross you first, mwhahaha.

Mmm okay…(this actually makes me excited!) So for paintball, first of all I’d choose Corey for his ability to disappear and strike from a position unknown to our opponents. Then I would pick Theo, he’s proven to be quite strategic and cunning in mapping out a plan! Peter, because he just no objection to kicking ass, any time any place. Kira, because she can divert the paintballs with her sword (and yes in my mind they would allow her to take the sword onto the field, shh). Braeden, because she’s just a total badass and I just love her. And for my secret weapon I would choose Jackson so he can paralyze the opposing team with his Kanima venom!! Ha!

Jackson would be a total knockout secret weapon. The game would be over in seconds lol! Let’s jump into your works. Like @da-smiley99, our artist last week, you also create a little bit of it all: drabbles, gifs, manips, and incorrect quotes. For you, which would you say is your favorite art form? How do you balance creating them all?

I really love doing the incorrect quotes, they are fun and I enjoy looking for gifs to match!

Whatever inspiration hits first is what I will do, most of the time its manips/aesthetics that I do for other writer’s work. I love appreciating and promoting what people have created because I know the effort that goes into it. There are still so many works I would like to do an edit for!

If your creative process for these pieces was a person, describe him or her to us. What do they do? Wear? Listen to? How do they handle conflict?

She’s running around in a pink fur coat, stilettos, champagne in hand, chocolates stuffed in her cheek yelling “OH MY GOD!” at everything. I imagine her in a clothing store, the clothes being ideas, and she’s just grabbing everything pilling it onto her arm in a heap, eventually losing her balance and falling over. So when the shop assistant (my family) is like “Mam, you need to calm the hell down” she just runs to the next store, her champagne spilling as she wobbles down the sidewalk in the way-too-high stilettos. She probably listens to Taylor Swift in her pink drop top.

And what’s hers (and your) writing Kryptonite? How do you two battle it?

With regards to writing -I come up with the most amazing and original idea for a story and I manage to write one mind blowing paragraph and then I’m stuck. That’s why I take so long to create a story, it just takes me forever to get inspired again. I have a few WIP’s and I don’t know what to do with them!

Creating comes pretty easy and I haven’t had many hiccups while editing. I just suck at making video edits and I honestly wish I was better at it because I have so many ideas! I usually fight writer's block with generous amounts of wine.

If you did become that video-making mastermind, which one of those ideas would you explore first?

I always wanted to do an AU vid of Thiam just living life you know. Id also like to do a “trailer” for these amazing fics that’s been written, kind of like what was done for Airplanes!

I sense a perfect opportunity to practice your videographer skills, mentally, of course! Say you were the Jeff Davis of the Puppy Pack Teen Wolf Spin-Off. Describe your very first and last scene of the pilot episode? How would you put your personal touches on those two scenes?

Personal Touches: A-class lighting because we suffered enough with the ever loving darkness of Teen Wolf. I’d like to see the characters develop more of a personal style, Liam would probably wear more ‘jock’ outfits as he plays varsity lacrosse now. I’d love to put Theo in shorts for a change, maybe an early morning kitchen scene where he is wearing boxer shorts…okay I’m getting distracted.

Eeek! Okay so, the Opening scene would be Theo, Liam and Alec running from hunters, Theo has Liam by the arm, he pushes Liam and Alec into his truck and ducks in behind them. They speed off. Then he starts yelling at Liam “Are you crazy, Li?! I’m getting real tired of saving you!” (que fandom freaking because he is calling him “Li” now) and then at Alec “And you! What the hell did we tell you about sneaking out with Liam!?” Liam and Alec are just out of breath trying not to laugh at Theo. Theo calls Mason to confirm that they are fine.

Closing scene: Liam flops down on the couch in the McCall house, next to Theo (because that’s where he is staying now) “So, uh, thanks for coming to get us today”. “You’re an idiot” but Theo smiles. “How did you find me anyway?” Liam is twiddling his thumbs, “Tracked your scent” Theo gets up abruptly and leaves. Yup it’s going to be a slow burn!

Oooh, and which TW characters would you bring back as cameos or minor characters?

Frikken Danny! I feel like the guy deserved better. So definitely Danny. I’d make him the supernatural privy teacher at the high school. Brett would also come back -as a ghost haunting Liam, especially when Li gets angry then Brett would just be in the corner jabbing insults at him and the pack would look at him like he’s crazy when he yells at the wall to shut up. Scott would make regular appearances. Deaton, Argent and Melissa would be regulars, and I think a guest appearance by Jackson because for some reason they are going to need a vile of his Kanima venom. Kira’s going to come looking for her sword at one point. And Isaac shows up with Scott a few times.

I agree with you about Danny; we needed more of him! We should petition to get you in the writer’s room because I need your ideas to happen!!

How about gifs/manips specifically? Where does your inspiration for those stem from?

I would think of a scene that I really would have loved to happen and then I try to match it as best I can using existing material. Sometimes i would just be scrolling through gifs and I’d be like “oh wait! This with this is perfect!”

Ooh, up for a quick demonstration? Let’s pick one of your favorite fanfiction scenes lately. Which images/thought processes would stick out to you? Any specific gifs come to mind?

So let’s take Airplanes 28 for example. The scene where Liam is weighing up all his options about how to deal with his feelings and Theo asks what his problem is. I would use the scene from S6 in the locker room where Liam is punching the locker, it had a few different shots of Liam being frustrated. For Theo’s part I’d use the scene form 6x16 where he actually says ‘what is wrong with you”. Then I just use the app to edit and merge them and voila.

That’s pretty neat. I didn’t even know you could use apps to mash gifs together! If someone wanted to get started with creating manips/gifs, what advice/steps would you give them?

If you’re doing it from your phone, like me, you have to firstly find the right gif app preferably one that does video to gif and vice versa. There are a few that work really well, so hit me up if you want more detail! I’m also still learning so if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

We’ve chatted about your art for Thiam. Do you also create outside of the Thiam fandom? Original Fiction/Artwork? Other Fandoms?

I used to write and draw when I was younger, the Thiam fandom actually got me back into all of that! I don’t have any of my earlier writing works anymore but I still have drawings.

Aww, can you remember what you liked to write back then?

It was all fictional stories, mostly horrors! I loved writing scary stories, short or long and I would sometimes freak myself out a bit, especially late at night. I remember the one was about a guy whose car ‘broke down’ on a deserted road and he went looking for help at an old farmhouse and couldn't figure out why the people were so weird towards him, so after a few days he left, walking back down the road and he came across his car completely wrecked, his dead body hanging halfway out the door...he was a ghost haha.

Looking ahead, what’s one piece you’re working on that you’re dying for the pack to see?

Yes! This is a snipped of the AU I’m doing for the Movie fest:

-“That’s him,” Corey said nodding in Theo’s direction “that’s the Judo champ”,

By the time Liam realised he had been staring it was too late, Theo’s head was tilted to the side, an amused grin spread across his face as he looked down slowly at this abdomen and then back up at Liam. There was no reason for Liam to deny that Theo Raeken was gorgeous, that he looked like a demigod in the golden light of the street lamps, but this was not the time for these kinds of thoughts. ‘Get it together Liam’, he shook his head as if to rid his mind of Judo Boy.-

I will also attempt some manips for this piece!

Ooh, intriguing. How dare you stop there! I guess we’ll just have to wait until next week, smh. One final anecdote before we wrap up?

Characters often find themselves in situations they aren’t sure they can get themselves out of. When was the last time you found yourself in situation like that and what did you do?

The PA of our department at work tried to sell me sex toys from this ridiculously expensive catalogue and tried to make me have a sex toy party for my birthday because she would get a free gift and commission for it. First I said, but my friends and family ain’t about that life, and she’s like “No I’ll just invite all my friends it's fine” (to my birthday?? Okay bih). So then I said I’ll think about it hoping she’d forget. She didn’t. Eventually I told her that I’m not doing anything for my birthday but thanks.

Oh no, she didn’t! It was your birthday smh. You’re stronger than me! Not only would she convince me to throw the party, I’d have bought at least two things from that freaking catalogue haha! Well, we’re coming to an end, but first, what’s next for you? Both in life and in the creation world?

Career wise I’d like to do a few courses, and really start going into the direction of what I really love, which is anything creative, instead of just doing a 9-5 to pay bills, you know? So I’m going to look for a way to bring these two worlds together so that I can always do what I love. Fandom wise, I really want to do more writing, explore different characters and ships!

And, we’ll be over here, looking forward to more of your writing! Finally, Is there anything else you’d like to say? The floor is all yours. Dance away!

I hardly get to writing my own ideas so I’m reluctant to say that I'll take prompts for fics and frankly I take so long to write that it will be disappointing, however, if someone has a scenario/idea for an incorrect quote, manip or aesthetic requests, I’m all for it! I would love to do it! Other than that i just want to thank this entire fandom, you guys are keeping this ship sailing and its beautiful! Keep doing what you’re doing!

Aww, thank YOU for writing, creating, and giving us a lens into your world! I’ll be looking forward to the day you gift us with all the Thiam videos haha. From there, we give you Glitter-cake20.

As always, you can keep the conversation going; respond to any of her thoughts, ask more questions, send a prompt, or simply swing by for a chat with Sammy anytime. To dive into her works, check out her Tumblr. You can also find her on instagram!

Tumblr: Glitter-cake20

Ask Box: glitter-cake20

Instagram: @spraybitch_chrisberry

That’s all for now, so stay warm, amused, and tuned for next week’s Movie AU edition with @underthegallowws.

Over and Out <3

Get involved in the Behind the Screen series! Have a Thiam Creator you fan over, from any platform (AO3, Tumblr, Wattpad, Instagram, FFN, etc). Please send us their names. Bonus points if you include any questions you’re dying to ask them. Likewise, if you as the creator, would like to be a part of the Behind the Screens series, give us a shout too! We’d love to get to know you, as well.

#thiam #teen wolf #glitter-cake20 #officialthiamlibrary #behind the screens

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crimsonrevolt · 6 years

Photo

Congratulations Tess you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Alastor Moody!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

Alastor is a character that I know we have all been keen to see on the dash, even more so when it means an old member is returning to us! Your app was fantastic and went into such detail that it gave us a really clear idea of who he is as a person and what motivates him, it was truly a pleasure to read! I don’t think I can pick out just one thing that I loved when all of it was so wonderful, from the expansion of his traits to the writing sample and his reaction to the most recent plot drop it was all so well thought out and developed. We’re thrilled to have you bakc, Tess! *your faceclaim change to Gael García Bernal has been accepted

application beneath the cut

OUT OF CHARACTER

INTRODUCTION

Tess, 21 years old, she/her, pacific time, USA.

ACTIVITY

I’m not going back to school until the fall so I have more time than originally expected. I’m able to log in daily, since the threads on this group tend to be on the longer side I’m contemplating I’ll be able to get at least one reply a day.

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

I’m a former member but originally through the tags.

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

Hedwig because I too would die for Harry Potter. No but really I think I identify the most with Bill Weasley, mainly because I always liked the career of curse breaker and I think that going far away from the family to do something he loved was amazing (and brave).

ANYTHING ELSE?

I’m really hoping to get accepted again. I had an amazing time when I was part of this amazing group last time. I’ve been feeling a little out of it since the baby came and the doctor recommended I do something I love, and getting to write with you all is really one of my favorite things in the world. I hope I get to be a part of this group again!

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Alastor Moody

Alastor: Ancient Greek for “he who does not forget”. Thus “avenger”, “persecutor”, “tormenter”, “one who suffers from divine vengeance”. Which is rather fitting as he made a career out of putting bad guys in jail, when failing to stop them before hurting innocent he made sure to avenge those lives that were lost.

Moody: Temperamental.

FACE CLAIM

Matt Ryan, or Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, or a POC rec from you. Honestly I would be willing to work with whoever you see fit.

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER

I have always been a fan of Alastor, I just never had the confidence of playing him before. But with this plot, and everything going on, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. There’s something about how the order is going to deal with Aversio. Slowly coming to the realization that it is because in a way they were not getting results that this other group decided to come into action. And then there’s the ministry, specially the aurors. I want to have a chance to explore Alastor’s feelings, how he questions if they have been doing a good job training the new recruits. He is going to be set on the fact that Aversio does more harm than good, but there’s going to be something reminding him that if only they had acted sooner, all of this could’ve been prevented. Plus, the paranoia is only going to grow, he now realizes that there’s definitely no one he could trust, he could very well be surrounded by enemies. I felt drawn towards him because he is a good guy through and through, his methods might not be the best, and he is not the nicest guy around, he’s far from it, but he knows what path he wants to follow, he has a clear objective in mind. I hope I get to do him justice the same way he seeks to achieve justice for all those who have been wronged.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

I’m all for Alastor/Chemistry if the opportunity presents. Alastor is way too paranoid to let himself be vulnerable, but with the right development I’ll be on board with a ship. My anti-ship would be something out of character for Alastor, like death eaters. Alastor is a cis-male and uses he/him pronouns.

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

-A MOODBOARD ( here )

-AN AESTHETIC ( here )

-A PLAYLIST

For Those Below – Mumford & Sons

Pompeii – Bastille

You Are a Runner, and I Am My Father’s Son - Wolf Parade

Barton Hollow – The Civil Wars

Beat The Devil’s Tattoo - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Warrior - Disturbed

Fears - Serj Tankian

The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance – Vampire Weekend

When The War Came - The Decemberists

Seven Devils – Florence + The Machine

Ready! Aim! Fire! – Imagine Dragons

Knights of Cydonia – Muse

The General - Dispatch

Broken Road - Sully Erna

Ghosts That We Knew - Mumford & Sons

-EXPAND ON THE TRAITS ( and here’s a character tropes edit )

✓ Hard-working. He comes from a family of Aurors, both his parents as per canon were Aurors, and I feel like that gives us a glimpse into his early life. It’s like coming from a family of cops, there’s a need to prove you too can achieve greatness while at the same time showing people you have earned the right to where you are, and that it wasn’t given to you because of your family. So Alastor works harder than anyone, since he demands that from people he leads by example.

✓ Great mentor. He will never be one to sugar coat things, but he knows the right way to encourage people. He wants to train London’s best, and he would try his best to make sure that happens. He guides by example, and tries to keep everyone under his watch alive.

✓ Persevering. Linked with hard-work, perseverance is something in Alastor’s nature, he never gives up despite everything that has happened to him. Despite everything that’s happening in the world he will keep pushing forward.

✓ Open-minded. There’s nothing he hasn’t seen, and still believes there’s more to see. Moody likes to keep an open mind, would always listen to someone before making a decision, he’s never one to be prejudiced, as that is what’s killing this society.

✕ Harsh. Greatness is not achieved by babying people, Alastor believes in though love, it’s how he was raised. He has never been one to be tactful and is not going to start now.

✕ Gruff. Life made Alastor into a bitter person, he sounds like he’s always mad, even if deep down he cares about everyone around him, he knows it’s best to keep a rough front.

✕ Paranoid. When someone has lived what he has they would have no trouble believing that is best to be wary and not trust anything or anyone. He is constantly worried someone is going to try and kill him or worst betray him.

✕ Anti-social. He prefers to keep people at arms length, after all no one knows when is the last time he’s going to see them.

-A FEW POTENTIAL PLOT POINTS

connections & wanted plots

&&. KEEP ME GROUNDED Is not that Alastor forgets social niceties and manners, is that he just couldn’t care less whether people likes him or not. Which only leads to him coming off as a straight up asshole on his worse days, and a paranoid grump on a daily basis. He could use someone he respects and is strong enough to call him out when he’s being a jerk. To point out where the line is, and making it clear that it is not okay to cross it.

&&. BROTHERS IN ARMS You are only as good as the person fighting next to you. Someone Alastor had grown to respect and rely on. They might not always have a heart-to-heart about their feelings, but this is one of the few people Alastor knows he can turn to. Whether sharing drinks or just being there for each other, this is one of the few people Alastor can honestly say he trusts.

&&. SURE I’LL TEACH YOU Alastor has a hard time believing anyone in their right mind would chose him as a mentor. The role of mentor and teacher coming easy to him despite originally having being appointed head of the department because there were no other options around. Alastor stepped into the role and with each passing generation he gets better at preparing aurors. Now with the order he had also taken the responsibility to get them ready for a fight he wished they never had to fight. Alastor is always willing to work with anyone who wants to be better prepared and work on refining their technique.

&&. JUST PROMISE YOU WON’T END UP LIKE ME Callous grumpy nature aside, Alastor is a mentor at heart, and sometimes even if it surprises everyone around, he might end up giving some advice to those brave enough to bring up discussing their feelings with him. Rumor says the best time to approach him is when he’s drinking, that’s when he’s more at ease, he might even pour you one. OPEN

&&. FIGHT ME It’s not that he lives to make enemies, that’s just something that happens from time to time. With the wizarding society hanging by a fine thread, and Alastor living up to his last name every day of the week, everyone could easily fall into this category. Whether this is someone who annoys him, like a fellow ministry employee, or someone Alastor would love to punch their teeth out if the opportunity ever were to arise.

&&. NOTHING LEFT TO SAY BUT GOODBYE Alastor was born and raised into the pureblood life. His parents were never pureblood elitists, and coming from a long line of Aurors they had an impeccable reputation. His family was murdered before any of them could be labeled blood traitors. At sixteen Alastor was left to carry one a family legacy. He cultivated many friendships through his childhood and early years in Hogwarts. Some of those friends, that he once considered family, have now turned out to be on the other side of the war. What happens when the person you would take a hit for is the one pointing the wand at you?

&&. I WOULD FOR YOU Alastor’s family was taken from him in the blink of an eye. For years he convinced himself that caring for anyone was only going to end in pain and heartbreak. Despite having friends that he cared for and loved, he always tried to push them and keep them at arms length. After a failed engagement he accepted the fact that he was not meant to have a family. Always the man with the plan, he failed to prepare for what would happen when they wrapped their small hand on his finger. Alastor might never have children of his own, but family has always been about more than blood.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

“This one is easy. A truth spell. And not like that veritaserum rubbish. We all know that bloody thing doesn’t work. But with a proper truth spell, interrogations would go smoothly. And it won’t just benefit the department, but people who are wrongly accused would have a better chance at clearing their name. Of course it should only be used with regulations, there should be training, an official team like the obliviators. Just think about how much good a truth spell could do.”

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

“I see the tactical advantage of having someone when you venture into the Forbidden Forest, but I wouldn’t risk anyone’s life, but if I have to name someone I would pick Minerva or Kingsley. And I’ll take my invisibility cloak.”

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

“All decisions are difficult to make. But the hardest ones are probably the ones where the only choices you have are bad choices. Because you still have to choose. You still have to make a decision.”

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

“Why would I bloody care about what people say about me? People are always going to say things about you, no matter what you do. Good things or bad things. You are still going to be judged. You can’t let that stop ya.”

Alastor shifted a little before adding, “…that I didn’t try.”

REACTION TO LAST EVENT DROP

Is no secret that Alastor was never fond of the Ministry of Magic, he never cared much for the bureaucracy and the red tape, but he had been hopeful that with Millicent in charge things would change for the better. The auror department on the other hand, well that was his entire life. Every single person in that office was his responsibility, and Alastor was not there for them. Alastor’s paranoia is through the roof, knowing that Aversio stemmed from the order had already made him doubt everyone around him, but when it was clear that the initial attack to the Ministry had to be aided by someone in the aurors’ department, well that just made him mistrust his own shadow. Alastor is angry, and more determined than ever to put and end to the war. He might not be entirely convinced about letting aversio members join the order, but at least he can keep a close eye on them. After the attack on St. Mungos he’s starting to reconsider his stance on non-lethal, because arresting people is not going to be enough, specially since the death eaters are in power and he knows there’s no way to get justice unless they make their own.

WRITING SAMPLE

They were failing. That much was clear. And in the long list of categories under which a failure could fall, their failures were the worst kind. People were dying left and right. A hate group and a terrorist organization fighting for control, meanwhile the Ministry could barely hold together, let alone put out so many fires. And the order. The order was filled with well intentioned people, kids really, they were mostly kids who had wanted to do good and ended up having to fight a war against two ruthless enemies. If fighting one group had proved to be hard, now, after what Alastor had learned. A house divided could not stand. Aversio had infiltrated the order, that much was clear, and now Alastor could not help but wonder, if the death eaters had someone on the inside too. Concentrating on those particular thoughts were simply maddening. He would rather not think about it, but if he didn’t, then no one would. There was something about human nature that refused to believe someone you care for could betray you. Life had thought Alastor better. Anyone can turn on you at any moment, people are capable of doing all kinds of things under the right pressures. Loyalty for many was a matter of circumstance. There was of course a few that were loyal, to the cause, the people they loved. Those were the ones in the most danger. The ones he worried the most about. And out of those only a few he could really trust. Trust being a term he had not used in a while, and that he was sure he wasn’t using properly. These were difficult times for trust.

Alastor could no longer remember when going to work was just going to work. When it was boring and bureaucratic, and he had to write reports, and his only concern was making sure the trainees completed the program. Now every day was a new tragedy, a new horror to be seen, analyzed, pictures taken and pinned to a wall. Alastor still remembered the day everything changed. And no, it wasn’t the day they told him he had lost his entire family. That had been so long ago, at times he even believed that the person he was at sixteen, before that, didn’t really exist, had not really existed. No. The day everything changed had been but a few years ago. At the time he had been mad, annoyed was more like it, that the auror department had been called into that crime scene when it had been cleared of any dark magic. The auror department was supposed to chase and capture dark wizards and witches, not waste their time with common crimes. But upon arriving Alastor realized that there was something far more dark, something that was about to change their lives.

“Do we keep track of hate crimes?” Alastor had asked, confusion was the only answer he got, “we should start” he had said looking at the crime scene in front of him.

He had been right, everything had changed. A war had started and it had not slowed down. And since that moment the auror department had handled the cases that had fallen under the criteria of the thing propelling this war. Hate.

It was a misconception that people got used to it. Seeing a crime scene, specially one where it’s clear how much hate was behind it. It’s a lie. No matter how many times you walk into a scene there’s a moment when you wonder how can people be capable of so much hate. There’s a moment when for a split of second you wonder what’s the point of fighting back, if all that’s inside someone’s heart is hate. But then the fog clears, and the realization that the point of fighting back if so that this doesn’t happen again. So that the next family is saved from this fate, so that the next person walking alone in an alley makes it home. It felt as if he had not slept in days, but before he could rest, Alastor knew he had to eat. He was in the middle of making diner, and some extra meals he could store for the upcoming days, when he heard a knock. The alarm had not been raised, there was only a handful of people that would be allowed near the perimeter without the defense charms going off. Alastor crossed the room in a few strides and opened the door. Panic was the first thing that came to mind, people usually sent word that they were coming, “is everything okay?” he asked as soon as he opened the door.

//SAMPLE TWO

Alastor let out an annoyed huff. He had been waiting for more than ten minutes now, talk about these people having little regard of the time of others. As he looked around it was more and more evident that he did not belong here, he was not made for this sort of job, he was the kind of person to be out there, getting his hand dirty, doing real work, he had never wanted any of this. A few days ago an owl had arrived at the Ministry, it had been carrying a very urgent letter, it requested Alastor’s presence immediately. He figured it must had been someone high up on the command chain, as he had never been one of the Ministry’s favorites, and yet he had been ordered to leave for America at once. He had offered many good reasons as to why leaving in the middle of the current situation was a bad idea, but as always he had been tasked to do the trip anyways. At least he made it clear that he was not going to play along or be nice to whoever was waiting for him. He was not one to care about diplomacy when they had so more pressing issues at hand. Now as he waited in this pristine lobby, full of people is expensive suits, he was glad he didn’t have to work here. One look at him was enough to figure out how much of an outsider he was, at least back at London people were not as elegant as the ones here. Honestly it was baffling to picture them working on such fine clothing, but then again Alastor had never been one to dress so fine, even as a child, even at the request of his parents, he had always done as he pleased. Being the youngest of four sons gave him a little bit of leeway when it came to getting away with things. But that was before he had lost his entire family, now there was no one but him, all alone in the world.

“Alastor Moody” a voice called, a very familiar voice, one that Alastor hoped he would never hear again, one he feared he was never going to hear again. “Clarissa?” he asked turning to look at the approaching figure, she was just as he remembered her and so different at the same time. The light coming in through the elegant and unnecessary, they provided an exposed lobby, glass windows hitting her just right to make her look like an angel. He quickly got rid of those thoughts, they belonged to someone long forgotten, the person he used to be. “I wasn’t even sure you were going to show up” she said with a half smile. “It’s not like I was able to refuse, I assumed the sender was well connected, as they didn’t even listen to my complaints” Alastor informed her. “Please follow me” she asked before Moody walked behind her.

They got to her office and Alastor started to list all the things she could do to improve security, she had left so many weak spots, it was during his assessment that he almost missed the way she was extremely closed to him. “What are you doing?” he demanded walking away from her, “What do you think? I’m giving you a hug, I haven’t seen you in years, I’ve missed you Alastor” Clarissa told him in a confused voice. “Need I remind you whose fault that is?” he said harshly, “I’m not the one that left.” Alastor had never been one to pick the right words, he mostly said whatever came to mind, what he was feeling, not caring how it sounded, he always spoke the truth. A hurt looked crossed Clarissa’s features, she never quite had a chance to see this new Alastor, it was hard to her to hear him sound so, bitter. “I know that, I know that I made the choice and I can’t take that back, but how could I’ve stayed Alastor? I couldn’t, not after- not when they all-” he watched her struggled for the right words, “when they all died?” he finished for her. “When they were murdered” she argued back, “how could I stay and live a life they were never get to live?” she said in almost a whisper. “Bloody hell Clarissa, I never asked you to stay so we would get married and have a family, I wanted you to stay so I wouldn’t walk into that place, into those empty cubicles, and miss our friends on my own” Alastor admitted.

The mood had grown tense; it was like even a word would set off everything they had been keeping in for years. They had survived when their friends had not, that tended to do something to people, even when they ought to have stayed together they instead had only drifted apart. “Why did you called me here Clarissa?” Alastor asked wanting to get this over with, “Because you are the best” she told him in a firm voice. “That’s not true, you know that’s not true, you know that the only reason I have this job is because there was no one else around to take it, had you stayed it would’ve been you. It would’ve been you the one to have to watch new kids sit where our friends sat, do you know how many kids I’ve trained?” Alastor asked angrily, “how many kids have not made it? How many of the ones I’m currently training remind me of them, of us? Do you? Do you know what it is to wonder if they are going to end the same way? Of course not, because you left, because you ran away and turned your back on us” he finally admitted.

“You are right I don’t” Clarissa spoke with a pain in her tone, “but I couldn’t stay” she said prompting Moody to scoff, “it was because of me that we survived Alastor. It was because of me that we weren’t with the others when- when they were murdered. How do you think that makes me feel? You were always giving work your best, you wanted to go, to get there on time, but I didn’t. I convinced you to stay, to- If we had not been so-” she shook her head, “irresponsible” Alastor said sarcastically. “So stupidly naïve to think we could have made it, if we had not been so” Clarissa looked at him to see if he knew what she was trying to say, he dared her to finish her thought, “so in love” she finally said, “we would’ve been there with them.” Alastor scoffed again, “and do what? Like two teenagers would’ve faired better than more trained Aurors in that ambush, our friends died, our mentors died, everybody that was there died, it was a trap, a set-up. What do you think we would’ve been able to do if we had been there?” he demanded. “Die with them!” Clarissa said before bringing her hands to cover her mouth.

“Why am I here Clarissa?” Alastor asked again, “I have a feeling that you telling me that you wish we had died is not the reason I’m here” he said with a smirk. “I left London in the middle of crisis, and like I said I was thrust into a job I never wanted to do, but I still have a responsibility to my people.” Clarissa reached for some files and handed them to Moody, “Whatever is happening back home” she said and Alastor scoffed, “yes London is still my home, it will always be my home” she stated, “whatever is happening, is spreading. There have been some cases of no-maj, muggles, getting killed by magical means” she said as he combed through the files, “the ideology is spreading, we need to put an end to this Alastor.” Moody nodded, “I appreciate you telling me about this. I have no doubt you know how to take care of your people, I need to go take care of mine. I’ll appoint someone to stay in touch with you about any developments, I will put an end to this. Take care Clarissa.” Alastor gave her a nod before walking out of her office. Coming to America had been a mistake, but at least it had added a new sense of purpose, to stop this madness from spreading, they had to kill it at the root. Once he was back he was not going to rest until every single person responsible was caught. Alastor had already lost everything once, he was not going to lose anyone else.

#accepted app

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northcountryprimitive · 4 years

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“Drones are Sacred and Primal.” An Interview With Sarah Louise

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 16th May 2015

We recently caught up with Ashville-based guitarist Sarah Louise Henson, whose Scissor Tail Editions cassette, Field Guide, was released earlier this year and has been has been a frequent visitor to the North Country Primitive stereo. Field Guide is an album steeped in the physical landscape and musical heritage of North Carolina: deeply grounded in a tangible sense of place and with roots in the traditions of that state, yet at the same time, constantly playing with the parameters of whatever this might mean and delivered with an almost magical lightness of touch. If you haven’t already picked up a copy of the album, we would urge you to get over to the Scissor Tail Bandcamp page and snag one now…

How are you feeling about the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Field Guide?

To feel like I was true to myself and have people understand and be emotionally impacted by it means the world. It’s deeply satisfying and grounding. I am so grateful. I’m happy to say that I’m in the midst of one of the most musically productive periods of my life so far, and I owe at least part of that to the sense of community I have gained from the reception to Field Guide.

Can you tell us a bit about your musical journey? Did you always want to play solo acoustic guitar or have you arrived at it by way of various other twists and turns?

I grew up singing in choir and could be caught experimenting with my voice while working in my fairy garden as a kid. My first CDs were The Firebird by Stravinsky and The Music of the Mbutu Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest, so it’s safe to say I was born a musical novelty-seeker. I was also a bit of a trouble-maker and I instantly connected music with emotions. It’s good medicine. I took piano very briefly as a kid but quit because I thought Swans on the Lake was dull and wanted to play Satie instead. When I was in middle school, a woman gave me a guitar. For some reason, with guitar I was very naturally motivated – each little milestone I made was a pleasure and I was able to find ways to continually challenge myself. In high-school, I mostly worked up to learning my favorite pre-war blues songs and that’s also when my mom gave me my first John Fahey album (thanks mom!).

What’s the balance between composition and improvisation in your music?

Looking back on it, every track on Field Guide has an element of improvisation. The first piece I wrote for the album was the title track, and it came as a result of jamming with my partner on drums with my relatively new 12-string. Playing with him really loosened me up and helped give it more flow. So that was borne out of improvisation, but over a long period of time and the lyrical beginning part is improvised. I think it’s probably the best blend of improvised and more determined parts on the album. Late Summer Seed Collection and Dog Improv were just in-the-moment improvisations that I didn’t take seriously until I listened back. Parts of me are impulsive and raw, but I am also a methodical, detail-oriented person and reel myself in more than I maybe ought to. As I grow into myself, I am getting better at allowing the more expressive parts through. Accepting those raw improvisations was an important step in that direction for me. Pieces like Waterways were only partly composed when I recorded them, so improvisation fleshed them out. I also improvised the solo at the end of The Day is Past and Gone (Variations). So there’s improvisation functioning on different levels on the album. I’m about 2/3rds of my way through writing my new album and none of those are in-the-moment improvisations yet, but they have come together pretty quickly, which I think is a result of being more and more comfortable with my musical language and definitely a result of hours logged improvising. In general, my pieces are a mix of melody lines and chords I hear in my head that are reactions to my tunings or other chords I come across while playing. I definitely think of myself as one player in all of this – the others being my guitar and tunings.

What have been your main influences, musical or otherwise?

Connecting with nature is the biggest influence on my life and my music. I know most of the names and uses of plants around here and greet them like old friends. This time of year, my soundscape is filled with delights like birdsong, creeks, wind in leaves, singing frogs and insects. I listen to all kinds of music. For me, that’s key. I believe that whatever I listen to will make its way into my compositions eventually, so by listening to all kinds of music, I’ve been able to find my own sound. For that same reason, I tend to avoid listening to much contemporary solo guitar. My tunings are also an enormous influence. I have never written any instrumentals in a tuning that wasn’t of my own devising, and I’m really proud of that. It allows me to work entirely in my own world.

To these ears, there’s quite a leap between Wildwood Hours and Field Guide. Do these albums represent two ongoing aspects of your musical persona or do you see a more linear progression from one to the other?

I think there is a leap between the two, but it wasn’t necessarily linear. When I first moved back to North Carolina, I put a lot of pressure on myself to write music, which naturally produced the opposite effect. It didn’t take long for me to realise that simply living a good life here was more important to me than anything, so I actually hardly touched my guitar for a couple of years. During that time some of my constant companions were old hymns and ballads. I’ve spent over a decade now digging deep into American music and it really is endless. It’s so diverse and surprising. The a capella songs on Wildwood Hours are some of what I call my “gem” songs. I have maybe 20 or so that I’ve learned from various field and early studio recordings, that just knock me to my knees. I would love to find a meaningful way to record all of those one day as a way to share these magical, half-buried soul-treasures. I think that the instrumentals on Wildwood Hours are more perhaps rigid than those on Field Guide, largely due to the absence of improvisation, but I’m still fond of many of them. Composing for 6-string guitar is also quite different from 12-string. I have found so much inspiration in the different kinds of picking patterns that a 12-string suggests. There are more possibilities there, so I think my newer work has more variation in those patterns and even time signatures.

I know you’ve explained in other interviews that you made a conscious decision to leave the vocal tracks that were on the early version of Field Guide off the album when Scissor Tail released it, but in the longer term are we likely to hear more of your singing?

In some ways I’m really sad they weren’t included, but I do think in the end it was important to fit within the Scissor Tail aesthetic. I would love to find a home for those vocal outtakes someday, because they encapsulate a lot of ideas I was working on at the time. Because I am so inspired by the landscape around me, it naturally takes the form of words some of the time. I love making connections and fitting things together, so I like the idea of combining those worlds more someday, which in some ways would be picking up the thread where Barely Night and Starfields from Wildwood Hours left off. I have written a few songs with vocals recently that I perform, depending on the bill, but because I don’t have a conception of what a full-length with vocals would look like yet, I’m sitting on them. I feel like I want to take my time with everything I put out to make sure it’s as fully realised as it can be. Because I’m feeling so alive to guitar now, I am also very conscious of not spreading myself too thin. I don’t want to put something out just for the sake of having more releases. There is a special magic in instrumental music that I am nowhere close to done with, and I want to honour that completely in myself. However, I think one reason why I’ve been able to make music that excites me is because I have kept an open mind. Anything could happen!

Are there any plans to release a vinyl or CD version of Field Guide? Or a second edition of the cassette?

Dylan and I discussed the possibility of another run, but ultimately we decided it was important to keep it limited edition since that is how it was marketed. I would love to see a vinyl version one day! I recently made some CD-Rs for upcoming shows that I think are quite lovely. I handmade each one, so I’m hoping that some of the folks who missed out on the tape will enjoy getting one of those.

It’s hard to imagine Field Guide being made by a player living in a big city – it’s a very rural album - pastoral yet earthy. Do you have a sense that your home environment in North Carolina seeps into your composition and playing? (I have a mental picture of you playing on the porch of a ramshackle house at the end of an unmade road way up in the hills – don’t tell me you have a modern downtown apartment!)

Yeah, you pretty much nailed it! I live up a gravel road in a house that is humble, but not dilapidated, with a wrap-around porch that is surrounded by acres and acres of forest. As soon as I got back from my string of shows in NYC, our water pressure was shot. We headed up to the spring box to see what was wrong and a Blue Ridge spring salamander had wedged its tail into the pipe. It hit me then just how different my life is from most people. But it’s the only life for me. The pace of rural life suits me and my bond with nature is the foundation of my outlook on life. It is so powerful for me. Since incorporating the gestalt of landscape into my music isn’t a conscious choice, it seems like magic that my surroundings seep in. It’s less an act of translation than the result of a familiarity of spirits, I think. It feels so good to be able to share my love of nature with people through what I make. If I can take people there, I feel like I’m creating something worthwhile. I’m also hugely indebted to two of my neighbours who adopted me right away when I moved to the road. They always seem to have something exciting up their sleeves to share with me, like taking me wild turkey hunting before the sun if fully up, carefully harvesting ginseng - or “sang” as it’s known around here - and up ridges to abandoned mica mines and an old Native American hunting camp. They taught me how to plant by the signs and how to make “leather britches,” a dish made from dried beans, hull and all. We even salt-cured half of a hog and repaired a moonshine cask. A few of these traditions are pretty much died out around here so it was a real gift that they wanted to share them with me. Their friendship continues to enrich my life and provided me with meaningful company when I had just done this crazy thing of moving up a gravel road by myself.

North Carolina has always been home to a wealth of American folk music, both religious and secular. Do you feel any connection to those traditions? Did you hear much traditional music growing up? I imagine I can hear echoes of it in your music, but is that something you consciously incorporate, or has it just sort of seeped in through the ether?

Two of my favorite banjo players – Dink Roberts and John Snipes – are from North Carolina. The Day is Past and Gone (Variations) and Home Over Yonder off of Field Guide were the results of consciously trying to incorporate old hymns into my guitar music, one as sung by Jean Ritchie and the other by Frankie Duff. I even developed the tunings those are in with those particular hymns in mind. I was - and still am - particularly preoccupied with the frequent presence of drone in Appalachian music, which is a characteristic found in nature-based music around the world. I think drones are sacred and primal and those modal melodies resonate very deeply in me. I think there is a romantic idea that there is still this kind of music being played here, but that is sadly not the case. There is a somewhat strong bluegrass scene still and I know of several older men who flat-pick, but it’s mostly younger transplants who play older styles. I think some of those younger players are starting to dig even deeper. It used to be way more common to encounter mostly clawhammer - the style I play - or Scruggs-style banjo, but now it’s not uncommon to hear more obscure and idiosyncratic two-finger styles. That’s exciting to me. And of course the landscape is still here, so I feel connected with older styles that developed alongside the same nature I live in.

I’ve no idea whether this is something you give much thought to, but it seems to me that in the American Primitive/guitar soli scene, the vast majority of players are men. Are you particularly conscious of being one of very few women players out there? Do you have any perspectives on this?

To be honest, I feel nervous to answer this question, because I don’t want to distract from the music. I think it’s true that there are many fields in which women deserve equal footing and empowerment that they’re not necessarily getting. More importantly, there are many wonderful female guitar players out there working in different idioms. Some of my favorites are Mary Halvorson, Ava Mendoza, and pedal steel experimenter Susan Alcorn. I imagine most of your readers are already familiar with tone-master Marisa Anderson. Check them out!

Do you see yourself primarily as a solo performer, or can you see yourself collaborating with other musicians or working as part of a group in future? You have some excellent musicians working out of your area – Shane Parish, Wes Tirey and Tashi Dorji spring to mind. Are you all quite supportive of each other’s music?

I have been floored by the amount of support in the Asheville music community. I feel very lucky being able to say that some of the most innovative guitarists - and nicest! - are from Asheville. Shane, Wes and I had a joint tape-release party a few months back at Harvest Records, and it seemed like the whole community showed up to support us. Collaborating is definitely in my scope. It’s hard to say what might lead to recording, but it’s fun and a great way to get new perspectives. Speaking of collaborations, Wes has been performing with a band lately. Haven’t gotten a chance to hear it yet, but I think that will be a really exciting transition for him.

What are you listening to at the moment? Any recommendations, old or new?

Oh gosh, so much! I have to start with Appa by Tashi Dorji, since I just got it this week. It seems to embody entire universes, while still managing to suggest little scenes filled with elegant detail. It is simultaneously beautiful and heart-wrenching, seemingly full of memories while remaining fiercely in the present. Buy this record! Luciano Cilio is a super underrated guitar player and composer who never saw recognition in his short lifetime - his music sounds like 20th century classical composition, but he was self-taught. John Schneider plays Lou Harrison and Harry Partch works on guitar - Harry Partch’s own modified guitar, as well as a microtonal resonator guitar – swoon! Also David Lang, Henry Flynt, Don Cherry, Meredith Monk, Alhaji Bai Konte, Alice Coltrane, Khansahib Abdul Karim Khan, Dogon A.D. by Julius Hemphill, Eastern European vocal music, Sei Note in Logica by Roberto Cacciapaglia, Ballad of the Lights by Arthur Russell and Allen Ginsberg, Indonesian Guitar, a compilation from Folkways, Boneset by Diane Cluck, Piedmont Apocrypha by Horseback, Clear Moon by Mount Eerie and Sail to Sail by Fred Frith. I loved Son of the Black Peace by Dean McPhee – his follow-up album is coming out really soon. My friend Isaac performs as Moses Nesh, and I think his album The Lovely Ohio would have a lot of mass appeal if it could get out there. He’s also a 78s collector and an expert on pre-war blues. People drawn to this site would most definitely dig it! My friend Emmalee Hunnicutt makes mystical, soulful cello music that the world needs. She also collaborates with Shane Parish and bassist Frank Meadows – they’re calling themselves Library of Babble and they recently recorded material for an LP on Blue Tapes that I know will be amazing!

What are you planning on doing next? Is there another album in the making?

I’ve agreed to do an LP for an American label that I’m really excited about. I think that’s all I can say for now!

Is there anything I should have asked but didn’t?

Don’t think so. Thanks for the great questions!

Thank you for your time, Sarah.

Thanks, I’m happy to share!

https://sarahlouise.bandcamp.com/

#sarah louise #fingerstyle #american primitive #folksong

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mimmerr · 4 years

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The 5 policies which create teacher workload.

I’ll start this article with my introduction to my previous post ‘What is causing teacher workload and what can we do about it?’.

If you’re a teacher, have a phone and follow any education media channel, you will know of the inexhaustible amount of articles and posts about teacher workload. A dramatic headline, a Photostock image of a teacher with their head in their hands surrounded by paper and overwhelming figures of educators agreeing once more, for the hundredth time this week, that enough is enough and something has to change. 40% of teachers don’t see themselves staying in the job in the next five years because of workload so clear action is needed, fast. We are spending too much time calculating and dramatizing, rather than unpicking what workload is and sharing concrete ways of reducing it. I understand that there cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to creating a work-life balance, but come on, people, we’re a smart bunch. We can and will make positive changes and make teaching the stimulating, fascinating career we want it to be.

From the government’s workload survey in October, you could say things are improving. Less teachers said workload was a serious problem and that they worked less hours outside of the school day. Hurrah. However, ‘most respondents reported that they could not complete their workload within their contracted hours, that they did not have an acceptable workload, and that they did not achieve a good work-life balance.Boo. We’ve still got a fair bit of work to do.

Now we all know that workload is an issue, it affects recruitment and retention; every aspect of our job and overall happiness. Teachers know it. Leadership teams know it. OFSTED knows it. The government knows it. So what fascinates me is the amount of policy that adds to the problem. I cannot tell you the vast amount of conversations, tweets and horrorsome hearsay I see and hear about bizarre, unfounded practice that often has work for the sake of work. What’s worse, is when I or someone else, informs these teachers that it doesn’t need to be this way is the look of surprise or despondency on their faces, that things won’t change and there’s nothing I can do. Of course they can. And here are the changes I think need to be in place, regarding a few policies I have heard down the grapevine from multiple teachers. I have also used photos of the incredible Jonathan Van Ness to show my emotions not because I am totally obsessed with them and what they teach.

Banning resource sites (e.g. Twinkl, TES, Sparklebox)

From what I’ve heard and inferred, the rationale behind banning these websites includes a personal distaste towards the look of displays and resources not being differentiated effectively for classes. The second reason, I completely understand and accept. But come on, a good teacher doesn’t just print something off and assume it will work. And if someone is doing this, shouldn’t they need support with their planning rather than banning the help they are seeking? An effective teacher will adapt, edit and improve resources because if the wheel isn’t broken, don’t fix it. And if someone more experienced has tried and tested the resource, let’s not waste time trying to unsuccessfully recreate it. The first reason (personal aesthetic) confuses me considering how long it must take to create a display from scratch compared to simply printing off one. Yes, we should be scruitisiing (Does the resource match what we’re teaching? Does it have key vocabulary?) but to spend more time and effort on something existing is bizarre. And in my experience, they don’t look as clean and clear anyway. But maybe I’m just too young and tecchy to know otherwise. Yes that’s the reason, young and tecchy.

“Set” working hours

This next one is a bit more subtle.Sometimes, I feel there are hidden policies within schools, rules that aren’t actually in place, but you’d feel in the wrong for not following them when you’re very much not. In this example, it’s the expectation that all teachers should be onsite very late or very early or both. Yes we have times when we should be onsite and yes we need to spend enough time in class to be effectively prepared and no, I don’t think this is possible if you get to work at 8:30am and leave at 3:30pm. If you’ve managed to work out how to please DM me and tell me what magic you are using though. Anyway, this policy comes into play when teachers are questioned on why they are leaving at 4:30pm, despite being in school from 7:00am and when teachers are praised for staying in school marking until 8pm every night. Or perhaps worse of all, expecting teachers to be there that late every night and have discussions about it if not. What about going to the doctors or dentists? What about childcare? What about staff lives’ outside the school? And what about sleep!?

Planning sent weekly/daily for scrutiny

I think I’d need a bit more insight into why this happens to completely argue against it. I’d understand why a year group with trainees/NQTS/RQTs may need to send their planning in advance if they don’t have a more experienced teacher alongside to support them. There is real value in all teachers of all experience, sitting down together, planning together and creating something fantastic together. Working like this brings in recent pedagogies from newer staff and experience and practicality from more practiced teachers. I don’t see the value of tearing someone’s work apart when I could have shown them how to plan effectively. Also, cast your minds back to when you started teaching and consider how much time it took you to even plan one lesson. Now imagine you have to start from scratch again because your first try wasn’t good enough. It honestly would have felt like I couldn’t do anything right.. But maybe, it can be reassuring that SLT think your plans are good and all feedback can be useful. Tell me what you think.

Extensive marking policies.

Teachers first mark the children’s work in red pen. They tell the children two things that went well and one thing they need to work on with a task to support this. The teacher will highlight where they have seen the good work in pink highlighter and their next step in lilac highlighter. The children then respond to this marking in blue pen. The teacher then marks this work in gold pen with a sticker and praise in the form of interpretive dance.This marking is expected at the end of every lesson in every book in all six subjects.

Honestly, the dance isn’t far from the truth! Well it is, but you get my dramatic point for effect. I’d be more sympathetic and perhaps approving of these marking policies if I thought they rapidly improved progress for all learners but I think of our children who struggle to read, who are new to English or SEND. OFSTED don’t report on marking policies so who is this marking for? The time spent quadruple marking these books replaces the time spent working from the assessment. If you noticed a next step for the class was to work on regrouping in column addition, how on earth are you going to plan an effective follow up lesson/task if you’ve spent six hours ticking, crossing, highlighting and dancing through the books?

Forced fun/gimmicks

I can see you’re really stressed about marking those Maths books for six hours. How about 2 hours of yoga and pancake making tonight? It’s not optional.

I actually think a lot of these gimmicks are well intended and come from a team that definitely are thinking about well being. However, fun activities that aren’t optional gloss over issues instead of tackling bigger, time consuming problems that cause their staff stress. I’m all for wholesome fun and yes, we should be creating teams that enjoy each other’s company but remember those Maths books that need marking?

So in summary, we do have quite a way to go in terms of reducing workload. Writing this, I’ve realised I’m v v blessed to not have dealt with any of these myself and if you are being affected by these policies, think very carefully about whether the school is good for you and your happiness overall. Self care is a big deal nowadays, honey! If you’re thinking Yes and I think I can make things better, excellent. Just keep in mind our leaders’ wellbeing and workload too, after all they are the ones who will need to create the policy and discuss it with governors, OFSTED and parents: they have workload and wellbeing needs too.

Don’t forget to work with your union rep (or elect one) and get involved with the NEU. Nothing will change if we don’t create the change.

#NEU #workload #teachers #wellbeing #education #uk #primary #secondary

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vileart · 7 years

Text

Richard III (a one woman dramaturgy): Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir @ Edfringe 2017

Brite Theater

presents

Richard III

(a one woman show)

The Royal Scots Club

Tues 15th August to Sat 19th August 2017

13.30 1 hour

£12 (£10/8 conc)

The multi-award winning adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about greed, corruption and how charisma can win you everything is back on the road after last summer's excursions to New York City Fringe and Prague Fringe.

Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir

director of Richard III (a one-woman show)

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The inspiration for Richard III (a one-woman show) was another Brite Theater performance called Shakespeare in Hell. Emily played Richard in one of the scenes and he simply wouldn't leave her alone. His voice would come up in her head and in our conversations in the car, touring. In our studies together he kept popping up as well, in car parks for instance.

I was fascinated by the unique relationship he had

with the audience and Emily wanted the challenge of a one-person show. It seemed to me to be a marriage made in heaven (or hell).

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

If it's not then what is the Fringe for? I think performance is and has always been a good space to discuss ideas. Look at the amount of theatre pieces telling transgendered stories at the moment, we as a society are trying to learn something and evolve and this is our way of doing it, in putting ourselves in other people's shoes as performers and audiences.

I think it's hugely important in times of instability, such as these, to explore our society, our morals, politics and passions on the stage.

How did you become interested in making performance?

My mum worked for a while as a PR manager for the Reykjavik City Theatre, a rep company, and I fell in love with being behind the scenes, with the strange corridors leading to unexpected places and the bizarre short cuts, the make up and wigs, the actors doing warm ups, the stage managers on the intercom - it was all magic to me.

But the things on stage didn't interest as much. I wasn't fussed about the stories people were telling at the time. I tried my hand in youth theatre acting and frankly I wasn't any good and I didn't like being on stage much. At the time there was no theatre degree you could do that didn't focus on acting so I never saw it as a viable career.

Then during my final year of college they started a theatre-maker's BA programme at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts. I was so excited to have other options than Icelandic or English Lit, the possibility of becoming a director!

I was lucky to be accepted and being part of a brilliant class that kindled that spark I had for theatre again. I didn't have to tell the stories that were already out there, I could tell my own; and I didn't have to tell them in the manner those on stage were, I could do it all differently.

What did you need to adapt to bring this into a

solo show?

The whole thing! Apart from Richard's direct address speeches. But even then those are often interjected so there is adaptation in every single aspect of this performance. The plot needed simplifying and focusing on Richard's narrative. The conversations were all gone so the information needed relaying in a different way.

The whole structure shifted. There wasn't direct audience participation in the original text so we needed to work out how that was going to work, how we could get the audience to help us tell the story. But we used 99% of Shakespeare's own text to do that. It's all in the editing.

Why do the themes of the play still matter today?

Because we have people like Trump and May in power. And it is obvious that they are not the most worthy or trusted leaders or even the most popular, but a flaw in our democratic systems makes it so that whoever is the hungriest for power can get it.

Democracy can be bought or bargained for. And because we live in a democracy we, the people, are made complicit in the acts of our governments, because we supposedly put them in the position of power, they are supposedly speaking for us. So an exploration of how people get to the top in politics is very timely, I think. And whether we are responsible for our leaders as a society.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

We worked on it in residency at the home of independent theatre in Iceland with an open door policy. In fact we put word out on local radio when making it encouraging people to come play with us. So what did we do? We started with a rough cut of the play.

Having read that we discussed the themes and what was important to us vs what was important to Richard in telling his story. We did a lot of character study and improv, making sure that we knew exactly who Richard was and what made him act in the way he acts.

Then we started playing around with staging the text, adapting it and changing as we went on, using a circle of chairs and name tags to create our audience when no one showed up to lend us their eyes and ears.

I played all the audience members as well for a time. When people did show up we asked them what it was like for them, what made them uncomfortable, what wasn't clear, and what they enjoyed. So it was quite an experimental, character driven and audience participation heavy process for us, intuitive but also very open to feedback.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Yes, as much as anything fits with anything else. Brite Theater is interested in new writing, often very personal, and re-imaginings of classics, often very political, so it fits with one strand of our work perfectly. But I guess aesthetically it is quite a lot simpler than our previous work. It has no sound queues, no lighting, no set to speak of, a very basic costume, etc; and though it is highly adaptable to any space it is not site-specific like some of our other stuff.

In both strands of our work, the old and the new texts, there is a fair share of direct address and audience inclusivity but we took our relationship with the audience to a new level with this show. It continues our love of gender blind casting, that has always been important to us. So it was a departure in many ways, whilst building on our prior work, honing in on what is really important to us; audience, character and society.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

We hope they go through a range of emotions, but most of all we hope it is an experience, meaning that it happens to them, rather than that they witness the events of the play. We want to make them a part of the world, to live within the play for an hour.

Now Richard is a very strong character and he won't let you run riot, there is a narrative structure that is adhered to, but within that framework it is just as much your world as it is his for the duration of the play. Have opinions, take sides, become best mates with him, hate his guts. Some people come repeatedly to see it from another character's point of view, to be part of a new cast of audience members.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We considered tons of strategies but we decided to keep it fairly simple, so we leave a lot of the audience experience up to the audience. Richard gives out name tags and characters. He seats you. He addresses you directly and he will shake your hand or answer your phone if it goes off.

It is his room and he runs it like a boss but he has also given the audience a certain amount of power within it. We have given the other characters (the audience) a brief explanation of who they are and how they feel about Richard on the back of the name tags, so if they are interested they can really get into their characters, and some do.

We've had a Lady Ann spit at Richard. She was fuming! So a lot of the experience is what the audience decide to make it. This show has been on the road for two years now and it is constantly adjusting to the audience, to what they bring to it. So our main strategy is to know Richard through and through and be prepared for anything.

Richard III. An audience. All the world is a stage. What part will you play?Pushing the boundaries of Shakespearean Performance, Brite Theater have re-imagined Richard III as a one- woman show. The fourth wall has been utterly obliterated as you the audience takes on the roles of all the other characters at Richard's party in this intimate, exciting and moving production. Let Richard entertain you...but will you survive? from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2u8mTWz

#Theatre #Blogger #visual art #Edinburgh Fringe #Experimental Critique

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