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hotvintagepoll · 1 month

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Propaganda

Evelyn Nesbit (A Fallen Idol)—not sure if this is what you’re looking for in terms of text propaganda, but there was a brief moment in my middle school days when I was obsessed with Evelyn Nesbit. I had seen a local production of Ragtime, and she was the only historical character I had never heard of, so I had to know more about her. my reaction when I found her portraits is on the list of times I should have realized I was attracted to women. she was supposed to have been portrayed by Marilyn Monroe, but the role ended up going to Joan Collins. and how can you not vote for the hot vintage lady who was so iconic as to be portrayed by another hot vintage lady? that’s all I have to say really. vote Evelyn.

Mary Pickford (Coquette, Tess of the Storm Country)—She was a pioneer in early cinema! She acted, wrote, and produced numerous films and was one of the founders of the United Artists film studio, along with Charlie Chaplin and her husband, Doug Fairbanks. At the height of her career in the 1920s there was nobody more famous. She was widely known as "America's Sweetheart." She won an Oscar in 1929 for her performance in Coquette (1929) and then a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1979.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman. (remember that our poll era starts in 1910, so please don't use propaganda from before that date.)

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Evelyn Nesbit propaganda:

Mary Pickford:

Mary Pickford wasn't just a silent star, she was a huge historical figure for film. I really cannot emphasize how involved she was in creating and shaping the film world. She was completely passionate about the theater world (from a young age!) and still revered even after she lost relevance. Her tenacity, her beauty, and her intelligence is what made her the first actress labeled as "America's Sweetheart." She just has this glow, a wonderful sweet disposition, and warm heart. She often introduced other women to motion picture and helped them showcase their talent. She was an astute business woman, although when asked about this she said "Well you know this business angle is much exaggerated, because most people don't expect much sense of a woman 5 feet tall. If I were 5 feet 8 they would say I was a very poor business woman!" She was friends with Amelia Earheart and had terrible luck in love. Please just learn about or give thought to my sad small sweet girl.

She was an absolute pioneer in the very early days of feature films. She co-founded United artists and managed her career brilliantly.

"America’s Sweetheart”, “Queen of Hollywood”, her and Douglas Fairbanks were the og it couple, owned her own movie studio, had both a drink and a hairstyle named after her

#mary pickford #evelyn nesbit #hotvintagepoll #fuck that old woman #ladies 2

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toldentops · 3 months

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talk about kinoga. NOW.

GAH I JUST THINK THEY ARE SO............. well first of all. they are so cute and handsome. look at them right now

Second of all I have one million feelings about them and it's barely an exaggeration. For those who aren't familiar, Kinoga is one of my beloved splatoon ocs and I think about them all the time. Originally made when I tossed a "what-if" idea about Trito, my first splatoon oc, who was once part of the octarian military, if he runs into one of the old squad members on the surface, and Kinoga was born with the help of @igneouskit. Brainworms ensue. its terminal. check out their toyhouse

(extremely brief rundown for those unfamiliar with splatoon lore the relevant bits are as follows: some octolings are part of a military that were forced underground after a war with the Inklings over land due to rising seas. At some point during the plot, the song Calamari Inkantation is sung by the two idols, which is apparently imbued in the DNA of all creatures and compels octolings to see the surface. In the splatoon 2 DLC, octo expansion, some octolings are recruited by a shady company called Kamabo Co, which entices participants to enroll in tests through a deep sea metro, and offers the "promised land" as a reward. Completing the tests entails collecting parts of a blender, and the "reward" is getting blended into sludge. This sludge can get injected into other octos which causes them to lose their will and consciousness ("sanitization").

timeline-wise much of their story takes place between splat 2, through octo expansion, and is currently in the splat 3 era. When they were still in the military, they ended up hearing the Calamari Inkantation like Agent 8 did. Kinoga and their squad were incredibly close to each other. Unwilling to just up and leave the underground but wanting to give their squadmates a better life, Kinoga hears about Kamabo's "promised land" and wants to seek it out, so they leave the squad to embark on the metros and promises to return. They do not <3 Some of the tests make them encounter sanitized octolings and they begin to question what's really happening in the metros. Their tipping point is when they run into Agara, one of their squadmates that decided to enter the metros to look for Kinoga and ends up being sanitized. Kinoga, facing the crushing realization that their squadmates had followed them, unaware of the danger, narrowly escapes being killed by Agara and eventually makes it to the surface.

This results in them experiencing a good amount of crushing guilt about leaving, they never knew it would lead to the possibility of dooming their whole squad that followed after them because they were loved and trusted. Kinoga had no way of letting the rest of them know that they should turn back and it's so. AAUGH. They have no choice but to continue on, finding life on the surface and eventually making it to splatsville with the belief that the rest of the squad may be gone. Agara and Trito end up running through the metro, Agara gets sanitized and Trito survives, albeit without getting a nasty scar from an accident that nearly got him sanitized.

Trito makes me insane also. he's my funny silly rabbit. I care about him so so much. trito goes through the metros, to maybe catch up with kinoga or meet them at the promised land, trusting that it was worth leaving if Kinoga decided it was worth it for all of them too.

Trito, upon learning about The Horrors in the metro later, realizes what could have happened to Kinoga and Agara and is unwilling to return to the rest of the squad with this knowledge, struck by the possibility that they're both gone. <-also has to realize that these horrible things have been happening to all the octlings that left to go do the metro tests. He too, eventually escapes to the surface and makes it to Inkopolis.

Years later, Trito, on a day trip to Splatsville, encounters Kinoga on the streets, and they lock eyes. and. fuck. They thought they were dead and had dealt with the grief and accepting that they were gone, effectively pushing those thoughts aside, and now they're physically in front of each other and they have to deal with it again. they make me SICK. Kinoga knowing that trito went to the metros and followed them and made it out also. Trito knowing that Kinoga experienced the horrors as well and survived. Neither of them able to return to tell the rest of the squad but they're both here, alive on the surface and aarrghhhhhhh. now they have to cope with this. they hastily exchange contact information, having to leave each other again, and end up meeting later to really catch up.

I'm so normal about kinoga and their relationship to trito post-domes. They don't even realize that they miss each other so much because they accepted that they were already gone. Seeing how much the other had changed. Being each other's only tie to their previous lives and it dawns on them that they never can move on from this. Kinoga struggles to tell Trito that they couldn't bring themselves to go back, not knowing if they could escape a second time, not knowing if any of their teammates were still left, already dealing with occasional spurts of being wracked by grief. Trito feeling the same, wanting to forget the terrible things and find happiness on the surface, but disheartened when learning that Kinoga also couldn't bring themselves to go back to look (though now that the both of them are together.....they do eventually muster the courage to go back to the domes to look for their old squadmates). It like. sucks so bad. They didn't intend to abandon their squad, but they were given circumstances where they just could not, and none of the other squad members could have known and suffer for it. aarghhhhh.

They end up at Trito's place, Kinoga and Trito end up being very affectionate towards each other after reuniting, definitely Trito being clingier...Compelled to hold onto each other and not let go, not after feeling so much regret about leaving in the first place. It's like. they left once before and terrible things happened out of their control, so they're allowed to hold each other as close as they can so it doesn't happen again (THE DEMONS) (GRIPS). it's irrational for Trito especially to think that he'll never see Kinoga again when they have to leave, since they live in separate cities and have to go in the morning. and kinoga knows it's irrational and they do their best to comfort him anyways because. who could blame him for wanting to keep them there after being gone for so long and so unexpectedly. The slow, crushing experience of not fully registering that someone could be gone and it creeps up to them until it hits. auuuuugh. they have to be so tender with each other, not really knowing where to take things afterwards but relishing in the moment of having each other there. riding the high of each other's comfort. fuck. this post is just getting worse as it goes. Trito breaking down in Kinoga's arms because he's had to hold in his grief and having nowhere to put it and then finally being able to release it. just being able to feel Something again. kinoga feeling so heartbroken to see trito like this, remembering that he was always so outspoken and smiling and having him curled up against them unable to say anything. holding him as tightly as they can. Feeling the need to take good care of him. They aren't his squad leader anymore but they still feel compelled to look out for him because then they can feel like they're doing at least something right. whatever. you guys get the gist. I'm way too much of a sucker for like...............pained intimacy. I'm down terrible. I think both of them deserve a little kissy and more. again. very touchy and affectionate with each other, I guess theyre still like "friends" (A WARRIOR'S BOND. OR WHATEVER) and are not "together" like a couple but here are words from igneouskit who put it better then I could ever. they love each other so much and they make me blow up. worlds most situationship

and also one bit I forgot to mention is that Trito has a huge scar on his chest that he hates talking about, it just brings back the fear and pain felt when he got it, and by association reminds him that he's alone from his squad who may never see again, so he's very protective of it. Upon getting back to kinoga, they do find out about the scar accidentally, and Trito lets them. like auuuugh they were so familiar with each other and now get to see what's changed since the last time. exploring eachother's bodies. whatever

Kinoga also ends up feeling really guilty at some point for Trito being immediately so affectionate towards them, they harbor thoughts that they don’t deserve it after having him go through that pain, and trito having to tell them that he made his own decision, nobody was forcing him to go, and besides, did it to see kinoga and now that they’re right in front of him he can give him all the love he’s been holding for them. Auuughhhh. Like don’t worry about feeling guilty for it. It wasn’t their fault. What matters to him now is that they’re both alive and with each other. I feel like blowing up

Even after Kinoga goes back to splatsville the next day trito is still aches about them......like a few days of reunion could never be enough to compensate for the years that they spent apart. every time they meet up after that trito jumps in kinoga's arms and kiss them like it was the first time they'd reunited

anyways. they eventually go back down to the domes to find the others. By that time, Agent 8 had dismantled Kamabo, the Sludge shit was no longer in operation, and octolings have started going to the surface. Kanu, another squad member, left the domes to find Kinoga, Agara, and Trito(jilon was another squad member who left for reasons I haven't decided yet). Denchu, the last remaining member, stayed behind, holding on to the hope that the missing members would someday return (denchu is a whole other can of worms. theyre everything to me and I feel so terrible for them <3). Trito and kinoga meet denchu, they update them on everybody else, leaving agara unaccounted for. Kinoga, who was the only one to see Agara firsthand, knowing that she might be completely unsalvageable, hesitates to bring it up, but Trito insists on going to look for her. aughhh. kinoga wants to spare trito the pain of seeing her dead or unconscious. They do eventually find her </3

She is alive, but not doing well at all, Kinoga desperate to maybe find some way to undo sanitization and restore her to full health, knowing full well that it may not be possible. They take Agara back with them to the surface and Kinoga spends a lot of time agonizing again over having caused this, feeling that agara's state is somehow their fault (ITS NOTT they're beating themselves up so bad for this because they feel responsible for the squad. aughhh).

I think thats all I have for kinoga. for now. obviously there are more thoughts I can get into but currently my brain has just latched so hard on trito and kinoga's fun situation and I love them so much. didn't think I'd get attached to them this bad but here we are </3. I hope everyone who has read this far also enjoys them as much as I do

#THIS TOOK FOREVER TO TYPE. KEPT GGETTING SELF CONSCIOUS ABT HOW MUCH IVE ALREADY TYPED FOR THEM IN OTHER POSTS #my ocs #my art #trito #kinoga #splatoon #splatoon ocs #THEYRE SO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#I have been so crazy about them. so crazy. this post doesnt even encapsulate all my thoughts about them #basic arc(?) in chronological order and some thoughts also #cant even describe the like. aching. burning. thinking about kinoga #like I need to kiss them of course but (AGONIES) trito misses them so so much.#loves them so so much and has to deal with it when it floods him all at once during the first encounter #sorry if none of this is like. comprehensible #I've been so ill about them and trito for weeks #these thoguhts are usually for rotating them in discord servers but you all get to get blasted by them all at once #STRUGGLED so bad to write this out because every time I had a new thought I had to go lie down and think about it #anyways. anyways. care about them so much. what ever #its still mostly about trito since he's like my 'main' character but kinoga still gets roped into these feelins #also joked that if trito ever gets a partner itll be like #'this is my partner'#'and this is my friend kinoga who id die for and trust with my life and kiss on the mouth'#more realistically trito just loves all his friends as closely as he would a partner. he has so much love in his heart #blows up I just reread this I think I used ‘crushing’ as an adjective like 4 times. whatever

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copperbadge · 6 months

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Quick question please feel free to ignore etc. I like to use the private bookmark function in AO3 as a to read list because it's a million times easier to sort and search through bookmarks than my marked for later stuff. However, if I read something and it wasn't my thing, I unbookmark it. Is it depressing if your bookmark stats go down? I don't want to distress anyone :(

I'm simultaneously a good person to ask this question, because I have a wide readership who can offer their input, and a bad person to ask this question, because I never look at my stats. So, readership, feel free to chime in! Remember to reblog or comment as I don't post asks sent in response to other asks.

And now, my own two cents...

I'm in a particular position in fandom where I get a significantly larger amount of attention per fic than the majority of writers, which translates to increased hits, kudos, comments, and bookmarks. If you only have a couple of fics, and only have three bookmarks on a fic and one of them drops off, I would imagine you do tend to notice. If you have 500+ fics and one drops from 329 to 328 bookmarks, it does not register. In my case, even if I didn't have a ton of stats per fic, I have so many fics that to even track any kind of stat I'd need a spreadsheet.

And honestly I'm just not someone who looks at that stuff, like how I don't read comments on public news articles. It doesn't occur to me, it's mainly visual noise.

I do look at bookmarks occasionally, but I'm not seeing numbers, instead looking at what people have put in the notes. It's kind of nice to read peoples' remarks, especially since I don't get notifications for them like I do with comments. Which isn't really relevant regardless since you do private bookmarking, I guess.

Huh, you know, I don't even know if private bookmarks show up in the stat count, actually. That might be something you want to check.

In any case, I've learned through long exposure to fandom that while I might think tracking your bookmarks consciously is both difficult and a recipe for frustration, I really don't know how the average fan writer thinks of such things, and I'm generally an outlier. So while I can reassure you that it doesn't bother me, I can't speak to the experience of others, I'm afraid.

#fandom #ao3 #bookmarking

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dragons-homebrew-hoard · 8 months

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A general reminder to gms to never turn a recurring or tag along npc into a plot device as your players will notice and it will piss them off (rant incoming)

The last dnd game I was in as a player I wound up leaving due to this exact thing. My character’s whole deal was protecting and caring for a child npc that shared their tragic backstory. Unfortunately for me, this npc became the gm’s favorite new toy and not only did they make this npc more powerful than every one of the players and more intelligent than all of us, the dm used them to facilitate literally almost every plot point from the moment I joined the team.

I spent so much in game time dealing with this npc’s bullshit that I barely had any time to actually get to know the other characters or make any meaningful bonds with them. This npc was constantly dragging me away from them and derailing the story because the gm used them like a carrot on a string to create drama. I don’t even know what our goal as a party was other than collect the macguffin and take down the government because every plot after I joined revolved around finding this npc because they ran off or protecting them from their own idiocy or having a crisis because this npc wants to kill themself.

I cannot describe to you how annoying it was walking into every session expecting this npc to act in any consistent way. One session they would be moping about how they don’t belong in this world because they are too smart for their own good and the next they are being manipulated and kidnapped like a normal 5 year old by someone plot convenient so the party gains plot relevant information. One session they don’t want to use their insane power because it’s too much and the next they want to practice by torturing people and animals and the next they leave the fortified base to go flower picking to drag the party to learn more plot relevant information. Every single session I was dealing with an entirely different character whose levels of intelligence and emotional maturity changed on a dime to suite the gm’s needs. It was exhausting and this on top of a few other things made me leave the group.

If a player hands you something like this, show some restraint. Please. Especially right after they join the crew. I’d say restraint is one of the most important aspect of being a story teller in general.

I gave this gm two big red buttons with my character and they pushed both of them immediately. The dm brought in my characters personal antagonist session 2, before I had any kind of bond with the crew and was at the point where when I had the option to have my character lose their memories of this antagonist I took it just to remove that button because I could immediately tell this gm has zero restraint.

I talked with the dm out of session and asked them to tone it back because ever since I joined literally every single plot had my character at the center and she kept pushing me/my character to drastic measures that were preventing my from actually interacting with the rest of the crew or even learning what our goals were. For fuck sake I removed my character’s memories of their antagonist because they were nearing the point of saying fuck it and leaving the group just to escape this person.

Did the gm listen? No. Not only did they continue dragging my character’s antagonist into the plot, they kept using this npc to create drama and push the plot forwards in inorganic way.

If you have to use an npc as a plot device, then at least keep their characterization consistent. If story is the main focus of this campaign, it’s like watching the gm reach into the game and tell you directly: hey, hey, players, go here for plot. It breaks the immersion. If it happens on occasion, that’s fine it’s bound to happen eventually. But when it’s happening every session… oh boy is it extremely annoying and hits one of my biggest pet peeves in writing: seeing the hand of the author. There are a million ways to make a plot hook feel in congruence with the story and the world. If you need to take an npc out of character to make it happen, your players will notice.

Tldr. If you are running a long form campaign- use restraint. I promise you that holding back and waiting to push the big red buttons your players give you will be so much more rewarding for everyone if you wait. Don’t force the story. Let it breathe.

#thoughts I fall asleep to #it’s 5 am #I’ve been awake since 3 #I keep think about this so blah #out it comes #maybe I can get some sleep now

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lindszeppelin · 2 months

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I used to live in LA and I back up your friend saying paparazzi aren’t waiting for people, even in Malibu. I’ve literally never seen paparazzi but I’ve seen famous people. Like, REALLY famous people- who have been famous for decades and even in one instance was in the middle of a HUGE legal scandal. No paparazzi (and the legal scandal one was in 2019 so still very recent therefore regarding the same climate as how this stuff works now).

I don’t want to dislike Kaia (it doesn’t really feel good to dislike people, or at least it isn’t productive) but the more I realized the UK Daily Mail has been covering her or at least her family from birth, the more I realized she really isn’t anything special and just had PR this whole time. So many people still don’t know who or what a Kaia Gerber even is because not everyone loves fashion, we don’t live in a monoculture anymore where everyone is consuming the same content, and she’s hasn’t even done a lot in Hollywood besides being an obvious nepo baby by being so bad at acting and yet…she gets “caught” by the paps getting her damn green drinks and going to the gym? Make it make sense. That’s totally orchestrated. I can’t trust anything out of Kaia Gerber’s mouth once I put that all together. I know a lot of stars do this, but most actually have talent and we all know that she lol…doesn’t exactly have talent!

It’s all also a play from the Kris Jenner bible ( her and Cindy are friends…) by creating publicity and forcing relevance. Nothing is real or organic ( not even her social media…8 or 9 million last time I checked and yet most ppl I know in real life have never heard of her… #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmmm). Side note: has anyone ever investigated her social media stats on social blade (blaze?) or does nobody care enough about her to look into it?

When people wonder why Austin and Kaia are hiding…it’s because they can easily hide. Maybe Deux Moi spotting or fans on cell phones sometimes, but again, we’re not in a monoculture so not everyone knows who they are enough to care if they saw them (and I say this as an Austin fan who’s glad he’s getting his flowers; however he only recently made it in a major mainstream way and not everyone saw Elvis/are now learning more about him via MOTA and Dune. All due respect to him but he’s still being cemented into culture in real time and isn’t say, Matt Damon yet…but hey probably one day!). Also regarding both LA and New York, as your friend said, celebrities are around so we largely don’t care and do not take pics when we see them. It’s soooo easy to hide as a celebrity. It’s ridiculous when people act like the paps invade a celebrity’s privacy or that Austin (or anyone else for that matter) must be “hiding” and can’t be living a normal life. HA.

Final thought: even though I said Austin is just getting warmed up, let’s be real and admit he’s more respected than Kaia and likely more liked/known regarding household name recognition. And yet KAIA is papped more than her bf who was nominated for an Oscar?!? And people think that’s just an organic occurrence? 😂😂😂😂😂😂 People need to do some critical thinking and realize what’s happening here!

holy shit i love coming back home from dinner and seeing this beauty in my inbox

you said everything so flawlessly that we have been thinking and saying for a long time, and it's great that you put it in these terms. nothing is ever real or organic about kaia, and kaia with austin together. there are a lot of people her age with talent that i can respect, but she has zero talent and only gets what she does through her parents and by dating austin. it's simple as that. her dating austin was just another PR maneuver to keep her relevant.

#lindsay's anon asks

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extasiswings · 2 years

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Do you have any spec/thoughts about the wildfire arc 👀

To go full red-string-conspiracy-board: Buck’s major emotional upheavals tend to be heavily foreshadowed or reflected by/outward as fire-based events—explosions or bombs or actual fires. Bombs caused the ladder truck incident that resulted in his leg being crushed, the apartment fire kicked off The One Who Got Away (after Eddie Begins) where Buck met Red, there was a bomb threat in What’s Your Grievance, the warehouse fire of Buck Begins, Survivors had both explosions during the shooting itself and an actual fire, and S5 was chock full of heavy-handed fire/explosion metaphors, primarily (albeit not exclusively) centered around Buck/Eddie/Taylor—a fire in Peer Pressure before Buck tries to leave the 118, explosions in Past is Prologue, the bomb in the car in Outside Looking In, and of course obviously fires in Defend in Place and May Day, although those are somewhat less applicable for this purpose (still relevant though!). [See also, additional relevant fires/explosions, Eddie (or Buddie) Edition—Under Pressure (for obvious reasons), 2x14, 3x09, Eddie Begins—the helicopter was burning in his flashbacks, Jinx, etc]

And it makes sense. Buck “I hide my true feelings from others” shoves them down deep to avoid even looking at them himself. And inevitably when Buck’s “true feelings” do come out, they’re explosive (hello What’s Your Grievance). So we have Buck in his breakdown era hiding his true feelings until they blow up, combined with the fact that Buck and Eddie have already been sitting on a ticking time bomb of Buck’s messy and complicated feelings about the shooting and the will and everything else between them for over a year, combined with the fallout of Eddie learning about the sperm donor thing. And now there’s a wildfire and the episode is titled Red Flag which is the highest threat warning indicating conditions where even the SLIGHTEST SPARK will set a blaze—

The heaviest-handed metaphor, my most beloved.

(Also relevant is the fact that the only other wildfire they’ve done was the crossover, which was pointedly only Buck/Eddie/Hen and which makes me 👀👀 with the Buck/Hen parallels and bestieism this season)

Anyway, I haven’t decided if I think 6x10 (In A Flash) is the aftermath of a near-death experience or if that will be in that episode itself, but I do think the wildfire is reflective of Buck reaching a tipping point in his current spiral that’s going to have major consequences for his arc—zero clue how that’ll play out though, there are about a million excellent possibilities.

Oh, and I think Buck and Eddie are finally going to have it out about the shooting and the will and the fact that they’ve never talked about those things. Yeah, that too.

#chapel talks #ask #anonymous #it’s about the METAPHOR

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tiredhawks · 2 years

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PLEASE talk more about hawks struggling with reading and writing

Glad you asked. If you're here from my bio, then a fic I wrote https://archiveofourown.org/works/42568599 is about Dabi finding out.

But if you want my reasoning- children should be able to read by 6 or 7. But for that to happen, it's extremely important for the building blocks to be put in place years earlier. That means playing with letters, parents reading them stories, looking at picture books, watching children's TV shows, learning the alphabet, associating sounds to letters. Note that most kids are in preschool 3-5 years old.

Hawks was taken in by the Commission around age 7 and before then we know his parents were extremely neglectful. The only thing I can give him is that he occasionally watches TV himself because of his misconception of pro heroes being fake characters. However, watching TV in general is not useful for written language. It's specifically kids programs like sesame street where you're meant to learn things that would help. And it's for that reason Hawks doesn't struggle with spoken language. His parents talked, they talked at him, and he could hear the TV, and occasionally escaped from the house. And this is less logic based and more headcanon but birds have the most similar vocal chords to humans and even aside from parrots, there are birds that will mimic us. I like to think that their capacity for copying language has helped benefit him learning spoken language.

So, wouldn't the Commission have taught him to read and write? Of course, it's essential to hero work. The problem is that there is a time period in life where your brain is working overdrive and the idea is "the sooner the better". There's a million factors at play when it comes to the human brain so there's always going to be differences and exceptions. You'll hear most commonly that 9 years old is the cutoff for fluency, some will cite 18, and others will say 30 is the real decline for learning another language at all, while differences at even 1 year old have been studied- but all of these studies are referencing children who have normal childhoods and the right foundations. Hawks did not have that.

Which makes me more inclined to look towards the concept of "feral children". (Which isn't Hawks, but the concept it relevant) Children who were completely socially isolated and no matter what kind of program they went into later in life, never were able to achieve the same level as other people and without continuous learning upkeep, they would actually revert almost entirely. It's a very interesting topic you can Google.

Hawks is very smart, we know his brain is levels above what's considered normal, and it's very safe to assume the commission worked on this relentlessly. That's why I would say he can read and write, but struggles with it. I'd assume he needs to focus far more than a typical person would and has to sound things out to compare it to a vocal word he knows, or has to read sentences twice. And because of that, stressful situations can completely mess him up. Like, say, an angry murderous villain impatiently staring him down.

Now I'm well aware Hawks read the MLA book and got a message into it but consider this, making that message was probably easier than actually reading it normally. The biggest problem would be the amount of time he spent piecing the letters together in his head because he couldn't write it down himself with the cameras. And because Hawks is so smart, once he gets the basic understanding down, he doesn't need to keep referencing the book. He can figure it out on his own and roll with it.

So yeah thanks for reading my thesis. I am not a psychologist or sociologist.

#hawks #takami keigo #keigo takami #hawks mha #bnha hawks

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exvangelicalrage · 1 year

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christian Music Sucks

5/10/23

I have this very specific, strange set of songs in my head. It's kinda like mental shrapnel that never got excised, despite having long ago left christianity.

I was listening to music with my in-laws the other day, and the song "American Pie" came on the playlist. But the thing is, when I was a kid, I learned a christian parody version of it. So while a normal person's brain is going, "A long long time ago, I can still remember / How that music used to make me smile..." my brain instead offers, "A long, long time ago, a lowly couple made a journey / to a place called... bethlehem."

Yes. They made it into a christmas song.

The chorus goes, "And my, my can you feel it inside / there's no other like a brother who would lay down his life / he was sent by the father just to be crucified / so that you and I can never die / you and I can never dieeee..."

"Mambo #5" became "The Farmer Song" (Jump up outta bed at 4:02 / because a hard workin' farmer's got a lot to do / no time for a meal cuz the clock is tickin' / when you gotta milk the cows and you gotta feed the chickens—and yes it had a christian theme about faith and how god provides); "Stayin' Alive" became "Stayin' Awake," which was about being tired and trusting god to take care of your needs; "We Are the Champions" became "We Serve The Champion"; "We Didn't Start the Fire" became "We Didn't Say Your Town Right" (which was a fundraising song)—and so far I've only mentioned songs done by John and Denny who were the hosts of The Morning Show for Family Life Network in upstate New York.

Apologetix was the other big parody band from the 2000s that I remember. Among others, they ruined "Absolutely" by 9 Days by turning it into "Story of A Squirrel":

This is the story of a squirrel Who God preserved when He drowned the whole world And while things looked so dark and Noah's ark was absolutely flooded Yet she's fine

You can look them up if you need a good laugh (or a good cry).

The thing is, I never know when one of these songs is going to blindside me. I'll just be walking through a store, and suddenly my brain will be singing "this is the story of a squirrel" and it'll get stuck in my head for hours. Mental shrapnel, like I said.

I find find that these moments trigger a very special kind of rage.

Because here's the thing: most christian music sucks. And the originals of many of these songs are absolute historical pieces of art. American Pie? Bohemian Rhapsody? Sounds of Silence? As a reasonably musically talented kid, these songs were incredible to 11-year-old me, who only really had hymns and Michael W Smith for comparison. They were some of the best songs I'd ever heard—catchy, interesting, complex.

And christians ruined them.

I get it too. I get why they did it. I like Word Crimes by Weird Al a million times better than whatever the original is. And it makes sense christians might want actually good music but with lyrics that didn't offend them. I get it. Like, I remember how shocked I was when I heard the original lyrics to Mambo #5 lol. So yeah. I see the logic.

It still sucks.

It's a bit of joke now between me and my spouse. A song will come on a playlist or in a TV show, and suddenly I'll be singing some weird-ass lyrics that don't make any sense, and J will be rolling his eyes and teasing me. I usually laugh too.

But sometimes, instead, I'm struck with this deep, abiding sadness. That something as simple as culturally relevant music was ripped away from me because it was "evil." J can sing along to music with his parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins & friends, and coworkers, no matter their age—simply because he was allowed to listen to the radio. It's a shared experience, a bridge, a way to establish connection between generations, between strangers, between friends.

And yeah, of course I've now learned most of the originals. I can sing along too. But it's not the same. It's not a memory I have from childhood, of listening to the radio or having my parents introduce me to their favorite musicians or recalling the song played at my senior prom.

Everyone else isn't just sharing music. They're sharing memories. They're sharing nostalgia. They're sharing emotion.

And I'm over here stuck with "this is the story of a squirrel..."

#exvangelical #exchristian #ex christian #absurdist #christianity sucks #millennial #exvangelical rage #millennial rage #american pie #billy joel #cultural relevance or lack thereof #theres a lot of rage that comes with being an exvangelical but theres a lot of grief too

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nitrochiralfan · 1 year

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[Slow Damage] He finally smiled like a child (Analysis on Nitro + Chiral’s new game)

酒酿团子写网文的创作声明: 内容包含剧透

I do not own this post of the translation all credit goes to the original owner of the post and tiramisiyu for translating this. the original post is here

“Those who are lucky have already been healed in childhood, while the unlucky spend their lives healing from childhood.”

After eight days of sleeping five hours per day, I finally completed my first clear of Slow Damage’s full story. I realized that I don’t really have a solid interpretation of the plot yet, and I just wanted to share my feelings with you.

SPOILER WARNING!!

My overall thoughts: I think this is the greatest of Kabura Fuchii’s five works. This is a story whose title is about pain, yet it tells the story of extricating yourself from pain. It’s a truly healing story.

Now, I’ll give a rough summary of the plot of each route based on my order of in-game progression, and analyze it together with the hidden story.

First of all, let me briefly talk about Towa. Towa is one of the illegitimate sons of the man who is the leader of the Takasato Group and the governor of Shinkoumi, and he has little impression of his father. He’s characterized as being very lazy and dispirited. Although he works part-time in the clinic with close acquaintance Dr. Taku, that’s only because he’s forced to. He drinks and smokes daily, sometimes grabs a coffee, and hates eating.

He has only two other hobbies: drawing and being subjected to abuse. Towa is bruised all over and even lost his right eye, but he likes to be subjected to violence, including violent sex. His art pieces are also different from the ordinary, as he views the world differently compared to normal people. He can see the colored "Aura" of people's emotions, which changes according to emotional fluctuations. He’s also able to manipulate people's hearts by observing their Aura to discover the perverted, unactualizable desires people have. Towa's paintings are based on the actualization of such unspeakable desires, and the paintings he draws are very popular.

Rei route: I never thought that a drunkard who used to pass out in random dark alleys would ever be able to enjoy the view of the sea.

The Rei Route is the least relevant to the main storyline. It basically revolves around the conflict between Rei and his father.

Rei's personality is that of a male motherly figure. He uses feminine terms of self-address, is good at cooking, and spends all day telling Towa that he can’t drink too much, asking whether Towa has eaten, and so on. Towa himself has complained to him that "you are such a mom".

At the same time, Rei is a very ambitious kid. After graduating from high school, he worked several jobs and lived comfortably in Shinkomi, where the income gap is massive. Rei has two hobbies: body modification, as well as going to "Deathmatch" (a place where people find opponents to fight with, for stress relief and fun). Rei may be very feminine, but he fights quite fiercely.

In this route, Rei suddenly learned that his father, who had long since cut him off, had borrowed 300 million yen from the Takasato Group for gambling purposes, and forced him to repay the debt on the grounds of their biological relationship. If Rei refused to pay his debts, his father would be killed.

Rei and his father had huge conflicts when he was young. As a mixed-race child, Rei had always been beautiful - but he was bullied by the school, and later realized that he liked men. Knowing this, Rei's father said "Your male side has already died", which almost caused the young Rei to force himself to live as a woman in order to rationalize his behavior. Later, he also chose to run away from the family.

After learning about his debt, not only did Rei's father not repent for his wrongs, but he even brazenly sought out Rei, coercing him to repay the debt using their biological relationship. Rei hated his father very much, but deep inside, he didn’t want his father to die. Thus, he had no choice but to be lured by the Takasato Group into participating in a competition - or so they described it, but it was more like a gladiatorial sport that the slaves of Ancient Rome participated in, where the rich bet on the lives and deaths of the fighters. Winning meant gaining a large sum of money, but losing meant death. Embroiled in emotional agony, Rei chose to participate.

Although Rei is a very popular, sociable person, he kept all this a secret from his friends and chose to suffer alone. Of course, at the climax of the last round, all his friends came to the scene to cheer for him. Even his father reflected on his actions after seeing his son put his life on the line for him. Rei then won the competition.

There are three general conflicts in this route: the first is the conflict between Rei and his father, the second is the conflict between Rei and his inner desire to be accepted as a man, and the third is how Rei hid the truth from his friends.

The relationship between Rei and his father seems outwardly to be filled with hatred - but we see him nearly sacrifice himself to repay the debt, and deny his identity as a man because of a few words from his father. This implies that Rei actually loves his father, longing for his father's approval and love like a child. I think this is actually a nod to Towa's relationship with her mother Maya in the hidden ending.

Rei's father ultimately realized his love for his son, and I think if the story continued, Rei would ultimately take Towa to stand in front of his father as a man and introduce him as his lover. His father would then give them his blessings with a smile.

In this line, Towa is basically Rei's emotional support. He pointed out that Rei did not trust the friends around him enough. Later, Towa and Sakaki (the next leader of the Takasato Group, someone who cared about Towa as his father’s friend) won the 300 million yen, and paid off the debt for Rei.

This line mainly discusses how a damaged person accepts himself and learns to trust and rely on those around him. It also discusses reconciliation with the perpetrator.

Taku Route: My answer is, I'm here now.

Compared to the Rei route, which is like a passionate shounen manga, I personally think that the Taku route is second only to the oppressiveness of the Fujieda route.

Taku is 20 years older than Towa, and has been Towa's doctor since Towa was a child. If Rei is a male mother who would nag at Towa about his bad lifestyle, then Taku is Towa's "father". He treats Towa more as an adult and doesn’t interfere much, but since he watched Towa grow up, he’s sometimes overprotective of Towa too.

This route comes from the entanglement between Asakura (Taku's college senior) and a child named Hayato. Hayato is the child of a woman from the entertainment district, and Asakura is a doctor with an excessive love for children. As he lacked in love, Hayato couldn’t resist seeking out and even seducing Asakura. Asakura ends up mistakenly believing that he is attracted to children.

The story of Asakura actually alludes to the relationship between Towa and Taku in youth. Taku has only ever displayed care for Towa, but the seeds of his desire were actually planted when Towa was young. This was why the ever-calm Towa called Asakura out for being a pervert with unexpected force after hearing about it (hitting him where it hurts, haha).

This route is mostly set during the change in leadership of the Takasato Group. Although Sakaki is supposed to be the next leader of the Takasato Group, he also has a competitor, Toono. There is also a connection between Toono and Taku - to threaten Taku, Toono drugged Towa (yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking) - I guess this is the one time that Toono’s ever had? After the two of them had a good time, Towa ran away and met Igarashi, one of Sakaki's subordinates. Igarashi told Towa that he stole a drug that seemed to be a new type from Taku's secret underground surgery room.

To cover Igarashi, Towa led Toono's people into an abandoned area in Shinkomi. Toono wanted to shoot Towa dead when Taku suddenly appeared and shielded Towa. When Towa saw Taku fall unconscious, he felt for the first time that he regarded Taku as an irreplaceable existence in his life. Toono then took both of them back to his lair.

Towa learned from Toono that Taku was a son of a wealthy family. Because his parents divorced and his mother fell sick, he decided to study medicine. It was Toono who helped him when he was in trouble, allowing him to become a doctor. Toono then asked Taku to work for the Takasato Group and himself. Those who owe money to the Takasato Group are called debtors. These people are implanted with tracking chips, allowing the Takasato Group to control them. Taku does these things in his underground operating room and also developed a highly addictive drug for Toono. Toono wanted to use this drug to make a lot of money, to gain the strength to fight against Sakaki.

To prevent Taku from acting rashly, Toono took control of Towa and changed Towa into women's clothes (which looked really good). At first glimpse, Taku thought he was looking at Maya. Toono told Towa that Taku was obsessed with Maya when he was young. The straight Toono was also interested in Towa in women’s clothes and asked Towa to be his mistress. Towa agreed in order to gain some freedom.

Towa managed to get in touch with Eiji, Sakaki's subordinate and intelligence officer, and let him know about Toono’s plan. Eiji told him to wait, as they already had a plan. During this period, Towa was under suspicion due to his behavior, and was beaten by Toono and his men several times (it made me so sad) and even had his right arm broken. Taku was very distressed to see this, but he was even angrier knowing that Towa has become Tono's mistress. Taku felt that he could not protect those he valued, so he considered killing Towa and sacrificing himself.

After Towa persuaded Taku against his idea, Taku explained the cause of his depression. He originally intended to become a doctor to help people like his mother, but his mother died due to a moment of his negligence, which became his most painful memory. He owed Toono, yet Toono used Towa to threaten him to make harmful drugs, to which he could not resist. Towa told him that he had contacted Eiji and said that if Taku didn’t want him to, he’d stop being Toono’s mistress - and the two, well…

Finally, after receiving word from Eiji, the two escaped with the help of Eiji’s mole. They ran into Toono, who refused to submit. Toono raised his gun to kill Taku, but Towa shot first, knocking Toono’s gun to the ground. After subduing Toono, Taku took Towa's gun and pointed it at Toono. The bullet shot out, but it only hit Toono’s ear. Taku said that he may not be a good person, but he hasn’t fallen to Tono's level.

After the dust had settled, Taku decided to turn himself in. Before he left, he showed Towa the photo he took of Towa when he was young - a picture of a smiling, bashful child. Taku was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released a year earlier due to good behavior. During this year, Towa stayed at home in the studio, relying on Rei to feed him.

On the day Taku was released from prison, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Taku walked out of the prison and was pleasantly surprised to see Towa had come to pick him up, just like the old days. Towa suddenly remembered that when the two were making love at Tono's place, Taku had something to say to him, so he asked about it. Embarrassed, Taku said that people were always coming and going around him, but he wanted Towa to stay by his side. With a laugh, Towa said, “My answer is, I’m here now.”

On a surface level for this route, Taku was the only support Towa had in childhood - the one who stitched up every wound for Towa. But when you think about it, Taku was also one of the people who hurt Towa back then.

In such an environment, doing nothing is allowing harm to happen. He indulged Towa as Towa relied on him, and even developed desires for him (see Asakura). From an outsider’s perspective, is that not harm done by an adult to a child? Taku knew well that he had done something wrong to Towa. What he regretted the most was working for the Takasato Group - not just for Toono, but probably also for Maya. Taku is the most passive (getting drugged) character among all characters with routes. I personally think this has something to do with his guilt towards Towa.

If the Rei route is about accepting oneself and relying on those around you to heal, then the Taku route is about avoiding pain, and transferring the memory of pain to someone else. Taku chose to remember everything about Towa's childhood alone, and therefore also took on some of Towa’s pain. The accident of Taku's mother's death may also imply that Towa is partly responsible for Maya’s death.

Taku's love for Towa is mixed with guilt and obsession, humble and remorseful. From Towa’s perspective, you can only see the tip of the iceberg, and only after you see the whole picture can you understand the scars hidden in this route. Madarame Route: No need for words between us.

Fujieda Route: We don't just lick each other's wounds. We also support each other as we walk forward.

(I’ll continue updating in the future. If you’re interested, feel free to follow or bookmark it)

#slow damage #towa slow damage #slowdamage #takuma murase #Rei Izumi #meta #surodame

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miaoniuu · 3 months

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There is an organized network of groomers who have been operating in plain sight for over a decade on 4chan. There has been one confirmed murder, many confirmed s*xual exploitations and two potential drug related deaths. I don’t know where to talk about this anymore. I am so scared for these girls.

I made a post on Reddit about a network of groomers that exist on Discord, Endchan and 4chan and have been operating in the open for over a decade and it has been a whirlwind. 3 posts highly upvoted and subsequently removed, multiple death threats of course, and some participants saying conflicting things. Psyops, outrage, emotional contagion, politics, this one really has it all apparently.

I’m going to send you the formatted post below directly because, again, this post is being removed very fast over and over despite the intense attention and concern.

There are girls actively in danger.

——————————————————

There is an organized network of groomers who have been operating in plain sight for over a decade on 4chan. There has been one confirmed murder, many confirmed sexual exploitations and two potential drug related deaths. I don’t know where to talk about this anymore. I am so scared for these girls.

I could write a million paragraphs like I have done for years but I’m just tired, and nothing has ever come from it. No matter how many documents and and all the direct evidence I provide, it seems that this isn’t really an issue people care about, but I am not ever going to give up on these girls.

A lot of these girls are from broken homes and deal with poverty, mental illness, previous child grooming or molestation and the circle of predators knows this well, because they recognize patterns in posting from those types of disadvantaged minors and they hunt them down accordingly.

Here is the first thing you need to see. These are the current girls being targeted. Two of them are minors.

I have reported this to MissingKids, to ISPs, relevant local authorities, I have tried getting in touch with parents, I’ve tried sending this to content creators, I have exhausted every tool I have and my mental fortitude is limited. It feels like nobody cares.

From here on out, I’m listing three names of the most egregious cases, posting archives and I will do small descriptions but I don’t even know what I can say anymore at this point. It all feels so pointless at times. Some of these girls have been cyberstalked and doxxed for nearly a decade, starting when they were minors.

Ciara “Eliza” Horan - possible OD death, possibly in hiding. Whatever the truth is, does not want to be found. Please respect that. Has ties to Jet Neptune which is relevant in the next description. Her underage nudes were leaked regularly.

Relevant image: Ciara & Jet + obituary

Marky J Thompson - groomed by Sam Hyde, a public figure who committed statutory r*pe against her. When she came out to the public with this, he launched a smear campaign making derogatory and disgusting sexual skits about her on YouTube. Her underage nudes have been leaked countless times. Jet Neptune is a long time friend, a technical producer, and basically the shadow of Sam Hyde. You’ll never hear about Jet without Sam being mentioned along with it. Marky and Ciara were on and off friends. Jet and Sam are directly linked to both.

Relevant image 「EXTREME NSFW WARNING」: tr*nsphobia, ab*se, r*pe, r*cism, extensive vulgarity (I did not make this, it was written and compiled by someone on Twitter

Bianca Devins - I don’t want to spend too much time on this one and I have no need to link or compile because it is just horribly depressing and on top of that, it’s public enough to learn most of what needs to be learned on your own. There is still an active smear campaign against her happening despite her being dead.

orbiters - predatory individuals who mistake a controlling obsession with something poetic like limerence.

/r9k/ - revived instance of 4chan’s original Robot9000 board, where every post had to be an original post.

Endchan - dedicated board pertaining to 4chan’s e-girls, both active and past, alive and deceased.

I have archived the entire Endchan board, updated as of today. I have downloaded the files in case of deletion as well. I’m working on a timeline and organized document. I will be archiving and downloading every post I make to document any and all deletions and takedowns, and expanding more on this post as time goes on.

You can find the current version of the archived board here. Extreme NSFW, very long + trigger warning.

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 months

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DRAKE FT. SEXYY RED & SZA - "RICH BABY DADDY"

youtube

Okay, we'll admit it. The main reason we came back is that, if we didn't, we would've gone a year where we didn't cover a Drake single, and that just felt so wrong...

[4.81]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: This should be the slammiest of all the dunks. Drake -- you know him, he's well past his peak but can still afford a banger when he puts his account to it! Sexyy Red -- the summer was hers! SZA, the biggest star out! Miami bass music! The title! All the names are on the poster, promising a good ass time, but we never get there. It's a summer blockbuster pushed to October for a reason, and is way too frigid to get this writer's ass moving. First kid on YouTube to upload a [BASS BOOSTED] edit moves this joint up a point, although the bass was the whole fuckin' point in the first place. [3]

Tim de Reuse: You can call it "a consequence of being overplayed" or "so many people copied him that now he sounds boring" or whatever. All I know is that trying to think of words to describe Drake in December of 2023 is like pulling teeth. It's standard atmospheric pressure -- it's a medium-sized red delicious apple -- it's a glass of tap water. I am listening as hard as I can, and I cannot hear anything. [3]

Andrew Karpan: The first thing I think about when I think about "Rich Baby Daddy" is the uncredited voice of Jessica Domingo, because it's literally the first thing on there. Processed to sound almost as if being sung behind a waterfall, Domingo's voice registers at the very volume and pitch of distance, a recurring gesture for voices like these in the Drake oeuvre. The best part about these songs is that they are always the sum total of their parts, so they can really be appreciated like this; something Drizzy himself realized a while back too, when he started sorting and rearranging them for curatorial effect. In a sea of wobbly fashionable Miami bass, the bars he picks up here from Sexyy Red don't feel out of place next to his own unrelated internal monologue, nor next to the patched-in haunted refrain from SZA, a miracle get that impresses because it is impressive. His otherwise unexplained deliberate misreading of a decade-old Florence + the Machine record that acts as a kind of perplexing coda eventually begins to make sense too, if you listen to it a few hundred times like I did. [9]

Katherine St Asaph: In three years we're going to learn that this was originally a SZA solo track that Drake hijacked for himself, like Rihanna's recording of "Consideration", right? I need to believe this so I can justify this score to myself. [5]

Michelle Myers: It's a dark truth that many of Drake's best songs involved vampirically swagger-jacking some up-and-coming rapper with local buzz or a viral track. Here, he attempts to harness Sexyy Red's gloriously blunt charisma and ends up utterly upstaged. Red lets herself soften against a skittery, femme club beat, her voice crackling warmly as she interpolates her own damn song. SZA sounds like a 1996 album-cut hidden gem sped up and resurrected by a Zoomer with 15 million TikTok followers. And then there's fucking Drake, increasingly bitter and out-of-touch, having long lost whatever soft-hearted charm I saw in him a decade ago. His verses are the musical equivalent of thirtysomething white ladies who write songs about skinny jeans and side-parts, embarrassing for all of us. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: A soundtrack to the approaching millennial midlife crisis that's so candid in its thirsty stabbing at relevance that I can't help but cheer for it, or feel sorry for it, or both. On a formal level, "Rich Baby Daddy" is nowhere near as elegant as its obvious predecessors, "In My Feelings" and "Nice for What," but after repeat listening, that messiness, that feeling of being pulled in several different directions at once, starts to feel like a deliberate choice. The guest stars, who were recruited with that in mind, go even further by alternately supporting and undermining Drake's intended displays of mastery over female sexuality. Sexyy Red pays her requisite homage unflinchingly, with a leisurely cadence more suited for a block party than a marquee album, while SZA disrupts the prebuilt Madonna-whore duality by crashing out of the gate with "I need a dick and conversation," all while sounding like she's being launched on a lily pad toward the heavens. The strip-club-in-a-water-level sonics add some emotional texture to what would otherwise be an explosion of untrimmed id, somewhat easing the transition into the stupid-on-paper "post-nut clarity" outro. As laughable as that concept may be, it evokes the yearning post-adolescence of "old Drake" as much as the Florence interpolation does, and just like Mr. Last Name Ever himself, I can't call myself immune to the periodic desire to go back, back to 2009. [8]

Ian Mathers: I know we're not predisposed to like Fucking Drake around here, but the processing on his chorus vocals is the most off-putting I've heard in a while. And not because they've cranked the Auto-Tune or whatever up too far -- I've heard and loved more pronounced examples of that -- but because they've somehow managed to produce the world's deepest whine. At least he's barely here, ceding most of the track to a high-effort-for-low-reward Sexyy Red performance. SZA is much better but barely shows up, which is probably the right move. And then Fucking Drake comes back to just "sing" Florence + the Machine for a bit! Every bit of shit we've ever talked was justified. [2]

Tara Hillegeist: Not even Drake sounding the most alive and enjoying-himself and hands down the funniest guest bars anyone's ever contributed to a Drake chorus can fully save this song from the depths of antipathy carved into my psyche by several years of Fucking Drake too many, but credit where it's due: I haven't left a track from Degrassi's own Jimmy Brooks feeling this genuinely entertained by what I just heard since "Started from the Bottom". And that's impressive, considering this is a track where I had to hear him mumble-singing soulfully about the emotional impact of post-nut clarity. [6]

Will Adams: So many elements working against this -- abrupt instrumental breaks; SZA's verse sounding like it was pasted on with Elmer's; left-field Florence interpolation; Drake in general -- but Sexyy Red's hook is indelible. Sometimes that's all you need. [6]

Crystal Leww: "Shake that ass for Drake, now shake that ass for me" are some of the funniest instructions ever doled out on a Drake song, which is an accomplishment if you consider how long Drake has been around. Drake is essential to this song if only for those lines. [6]

Aaron Bergstrom: I am willing to consider shaking my ass for Sexyy Red. Under no circumstances will I shake my ass for Drake. [3]

Nortey Dowuona: Drake is a bad rapper. No matter what his stans, Lil Yachty, DJ Wackademics, or me in 2013 will tell you, dude is an inescapably clumsy, artless witless hack whose only talent is in co-opting more complex and dedicated art to make it more comfy and accessible to people who would never sincerely engage with what he does. Kanye has been sadder and more earnest. Phonte has been more honest and clever. Lauryn Hill did his whole schtick so well both he and Kanye keep riding off her songs. The only thing he had is that he made music that women liked, that spoke to women in a way it could never do so for dorks like us. And now he's making flat, wan Earl Sweatshirt songs for people who hate Earl and people who hate women period. Sexyy Red's verse is clumsy too, but it's charming and earnest, and the SZA verse is entrancing, vivid and stunning. The line "I got a feeling this is more than what we both say" contains more genuine worry, fear and hope than this hack has done in his whole career. Please, pretty please, buy SOS on vinyl, buy a record player, learn a trade, call your mom and tell her you love her, tell her you are so grateful for staying with you and loving you. Hell, click off this website. Just do not play a song where the most heterosexual man on the face of the earth tries to convince you that he can teach you to -- [3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I've spent the past few months thinking about lovers' rock and pagode romântico through the lens of bell hooks' idea of "loving Blackness as political resistance." It was "Rich Baby Daddy" that made me start doing the same for Atlanta bass. Drake seems as good enough a launchpad for all this ruminating -- how often have I seen men refer to his "softer" songs as being "for the girls"? How much of romance is coded across gender lines? Of course, Drake is a manipulative shithead, and it's Sexyy Red who provides the most loving lyric we've heard in any of his songs: an ostensible call to embrace something approaching bisexuality. Too bad Drake opts for another beat-switch gimmick as an excuse to exert his fragile masculinity. Like, how are you gonna follow up, "Shake that ass for Drake, now shake that ass for me" with "You ain't even know how to suck it right." [5]

Brad Shoup: I know how this sounds, but this needed... more Drake? More of the first-verse Drake, anyway: skipping and bobbing, fully devoted on a threeway Miami bass ballad that has exhaling synths straight out of Cupid & Psyche 85. Hell yes, give me all you got. Instead, he dips until the beat switch gives him something properly sluggish. How do you fuck up a verse that interpolates Florence and uses the phrase "post-nut clarity"? He was positively panting earlier; now he's talking about sex like he's issuing a Q3 performance review. [5]

Alfred Soto: Drake drawls shit like "You ain't even know how to suck it right" like a PE coach in a locker room and disappears to let Sexyy Red shout undeserving orders. Nice life! [2]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Here, Drake turns his complete inertness into an advantage: he does his best Sexyy Red impression here and sings some truly brain-dead riffs on Florence + the Machine, but otherwise abandons his own song in favor of his more interesting guests. It's an interesting move from a guy once known for using features to take over songs completely -- interesting more in the meta-pop context than in the song itself, of course, but a decade and a half in to our coverage of Fucking Drake, we ought to be finding new angles when we can. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#drake #sexyy red #sza #music #music writing #music reviews #music criticism #the singles jukebox #Youtube

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thecherrygod · 1 year

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i havent been into it for too long but im kinda surprised i havent seen a harrykim good ol classic florist and tattoo artist au

like yeah im not so sure how the logic of either of them being in those proffessions would work but im talking mostly aesthetics here

like. harry being a florist just. does something to me. like when kim is like he needs hobbies if you get the gardening gloves he suggest gardening is just very good. maybe its a bit of like instead of becoming a teacher first hes a florist first and stays there. or when he was a teacher they had some of a garden in there and he learned and then maybe got a part time job at a florist to support him on his teacher salary bc those usually arent enough. also i think he still has at least some of his adiction issues but not necesarily to the in game level (maybe amphetamines to be able to keep up with his lifestyle also maybe he grows weed but less relevant until later). and maybe he actually got to marry dora and is actually divorced here. working too much, not making enough money, and when back at home hes still an addict, maybe the relationship lasted more but still it never got good enough to keep.

and kim... theres a few options. either undercover just being on the tattoo shop somehow which is like. not the most sense making but still a possibility. or.. he never became a cop, either, got too disappoined by the system early on, noticed the injustice, but realized that it didnt matter what he did it wouldnt be enough. or he did join the rcm for a bit and then quit bc of that, maybe also eyes died in here too and that was the last straw for him leaving. maybe hes not necesarily the guy doing the tattoos, but more of the designs and piercings (i assume its a million times easier doing piercings than tattoos. i dont mean that it doesnt require a technique too tho but getting a needle through skin for a piercing seems easier than having the pulse to work on a permanent piece in someones skin with specific pressure with consistence, and if he was a cop and quit maybe he has shakier hands.... idk. i dont know how stuff like this works generally ngl. also idk. can you have a tattoo.. parlor? and do designs but not the tattoos themselves? id assume you can but no idea)

ok yeah something like that maybe. and also the shops are either side by side or right across the street. i can imagine harry walking through the tattoo parlor and looking at the designs and looking at a few plant based designs and liking them and just. going in. not exactly for a tattoo or anything but more to like. know how it is and maybe meet the artist and then he sees kim which i imagine with a lot of tattoos and piercings which is sort of whats fueling this at this point bc i wasnt gonna think about it for too long but now im too deep into it and like i imagine this kim as.. kind of distant as he tends to be, will try to hide the fact he was a cop bc at this point hes not proud of that, he just likes making designs while listening to speedfreaks fm, which you can hear from outside the parlor while walking on the streets, but he is cool, and if you talk to him he will talk to you, hes just maybe awkward but also he is kinda weird (which has harry like 👉👈)

and this was just going to be me saying "man i havent seen any of this" and instead i sort of made my take on it and it got longer than i expected. anyways!!!

#my posts #and for organization #disco elysium #harrykim inked flowers au #that. doesnt mean im gonna actually make it. maybe. maybe. but i dont make promises #i make tags for myself. for my own organization and to find things later #inked flowers is bc i worry if i tag it as florist/tattoo artists au the tag is gonna get weird when i search for it #...... but i am attached to it now #............. i. would anyone believe me if i said this is like the second au ive made in my life lmao #i dont do this a lot bc i usually just see what others do i just make canon art and concepts and maybe post canon stuff #..... yeah. also it got too long lmao #also regarding the weed situation yeah i think harry would grow his own and at some point share with kim sfihsiug #like i think kim still has his one cigarette only and not much else. a bit of alcohol every once in a while and just weed #i think i should properly think about harry in here btw #this is all just placeholder for myself if it ever happens?#...... i think i am in a mood to like. write long posts today and also a lot of tags apparently #like... just rambling udsighsudig anyways. yeah. i love them i wanna think about them

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clowngags · 1 year

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The Joker’s Origin && Her Relationship with Batman

A lot of people ask me about my thoughts on who the Joker was before she was the Joker, and my answer to that is twofold: Firstly, I think what people want out of this question is to unmask Joker, to reveal her humanity in a way that would take power away from the idea of the Joker, which is the reason V never removes his mask in V for Vendetta– you can’t kill an idea. Ideas are bulletproof. Secondly, I understand that in a superhero genre it’s customary to have a secret identity, but given Joker’s retrograde amnesia, she’s been essentially robbed of hers. She doesn’t know who she was before she was the Joker, which renders that entire personhood ultimately irrelevant to her as she is now. Subsequently, I’m disinterested in revealing any ideas I have regarding whomever Joker used to be before she was Joker.

The Joker was born like Athena, fully grown and aware of the world. She came into existence in a vat of mystery acid in an Ace Chemical plant, and her first memory is being fished out of this vat by the Batman– which, without context, is kind of a terrifying first memory. She doesn’t remember it well. Her first clear memory is waking up in the hospital. No one was able to identify her or explain how she came to be in Ace Chemical, and obviously Batman isn’t available for comment. I’ve written a separate but relevant headcanon previously about Joker having toxic encephalopathy resulting in various symptoms and health problems, all of which she was experiencing acutely in the hospital while doctors asked her a million questions she had no answers to. She has no idea who she is, where she lives, or who her emergency contact is.

Following an arduous recovery, the hospital releases her with anti-seizure meds and a huge medical bill. Joker has no identity, no money, no place to go, and no one to turn to. From the second she left that hospital, she was homeless and in tremendous debt. Not only that, but she was obviously bleached, and her albino-like appearance was extremely off-putting for others, making it difficult for her to make friends or form allies. Life in Gotham has never been easy, even if you’re the Waynes, you could get shot point blank outside the opera house, so for a homeless outcast, life was intense, merciless, and increasingly violent. In order to survive, Joker had to toughen up and toughen up quickly.

One can see direct parallels between Joker’s general psychology and this time period in her life: the all-importance of power and control, the unwillingness to ever be a victim again or to be powerless or at someone else’s mercy, and the idea that she owes the world nothing. Joker learned to fight and steal when the stakes were basically to learn this and learn it well, or you go hungry and can’t defend yourself. All the while, she’s increasingly isolated and coping with brain damage, so she’s strongly motivated to apply all of her intelligence and ruthlessness toward becoming an accomplished criminal and manipulating others into helping her. As soon as she makes any headway, she starts hearing about a masked vigilante called the Batman who is beating the shit out of anyone trying to commit crime in Gotham City.

Joker knows that she is supposed to fear Batman, she’s aware that others fear him and that she should fear being caught by him, and she resents the hell out of this, just as she resents any fear in general (or any other emotion that attempts to control her). The stronger she becomes, the more traction she gets in the criminal world, the more settled she is in her new identity– that of the Joker, in which she uses her physical deformity to channel fear in others, and also uses it as a tool to help others underestimate her. She is building this concept from nothing, and sees Batman as her only link to a past she doesn’t know or understand, which is extremely disturbing to her. She knows she literally would not exist if he hadn’t pulled her out of that acid bath, but she also has no context or explanation for that memory. Furthermore, she’s afraid to even ask about it (although she would never admit it) because she’s afraid to know who she was before she became the Joker. There is an identity crisis there where the thought of being someone else before being the Joker directly threatens her current sense of identity and self because she is only able to build the concept of the Joker specifically because she lacks any societal ties (no family, no teachers, no friends), and therefore has nothing anchoring her to reality.

This means that Joker’s first connection with Batman is one based in fear: the fear that Batman represents, the threat to herself and others like her, and the fear of herself and her true identity. Confronting Batman is a surrogate for confronting Joker’s fears, and in that confrontation, she finds something that she can respect: another psycho acting out of the courage of his own convictions. The more he doubles down on his pseudo-noble nonsensical bullshit, the more Joker wants to challenge and derail those beliefs, to see how tightly he holds onto them. If he had buckled and realized his own folly, she could have dismissed him outright, but it is his firm belief that what he is doing is not only necessary but compulsory that really fascinates Joker. She respects his commitment and therefore sees him as the only real force in Gotham City to contend with, the only real equal she has.

Secondarily to his ties to her identity-related fears, Joker also recognizes that Batman essentially birthed her, and therefore blames him for her own pain-filled existence– which is reason number two that she would never let him die, and why she would certainly never kill Batman herself. She wants to punish him for bringing her into the world and for simultaneously making it impossible to live through his crusade to fight the disenfranchised for just trying to get by however they can, and on a more personal level constantly getting in her way. Letting Batman die at any given time would still be too quick for Joker because her goal is to inflict the maximum possible amount of pain on him, to torture him slowly. To her, death would be an escape she can never allow him. So long as she has to live her own tortured existence, so must the Batman. For her, it is a kind of suicide pact, or perhaps even the opposite of that.

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storyofasub · 2 years

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I was disappointed to hear that her-master does not respect safewords. it completely changed my opinion of him as a long time follower. Very sad to learn this. I hope you are ok.

Am I ok.

I know that wasn't actually meant in the way I took it, but honestly, I dunno if I am ok.

This post is going to be huge, sorry. Idc tbh, this topic needs to be (that's part of the problem).

I've avoided this entire discussion because, after I saw how people handled the last one (derision, name-calling, white privilege, either a lack of desire and/or time and/or ability of comprehension), I had predicted another blowup involving the same circles. I had gently suggested to HM that perhaps this topic is not one to open in this environment (please forgive me, HM).

One reason is this. Over the last few years, social media, in general, has descended into an extremely low-res hunting ground where almost all topics are black and white. Tumblr seems to be an even more exaggerated example of that for some reason, I speculate this has something to do with the explicit content ban that drove away a lot of moderate people, but who knows. As such, I knew this topic would not be met with the time and emotional bandwidth required to sit back and consider alternative nuances on an *extremely* delicate subject.

Here's another reason, and the main reason that maybe I'm not ok.

(As an aside, I'm a painfully private person and I find it quite difficult to open up and be vulnerable with people generally, let alone strangers on the internet, I don't share a huge amount of my personal life online, so bear with me as I struggle through this.)

I have never, in my life, had a deeper, more complete, more fulfilling, healthier, truly beautiful experience of Dominance and submission, and of personal growth, than I have with her-master. I have had many conversations where he has agonised and wrestled with whether what he might do was safe and beneficial for his girl, even when she had begged for it. And the pain I'm experiencing now is because I'm being reminded of something I have understood for a long time, and been afraid of. That his level of empathy, his level of knowledge, his understanding of psychology, and his dedication to the personal health and his love for his owned submissive.... might be something I never find to that degree in anyone else. And thinking about that fills me with so much fear and dread that I almost never vocalise it, even to him.

This is highly relevant to this conversation. Why? Because I think a 'no safeword' dynamic can ONLY EVER, ever, ever, be even remotely possible in... probably much less than one in a million relationships. Can you even imagine the amount of personal responsibility that heaps on someone? I think to basically any good Dominant person, the mere thought of that should absolutely terrify you. If it ever comes up in a casual or flippant way, it's almost definitely a horrible red flag, one that should make you question the health of your relationship.

I believe that 99.5% of the time, safewords are absolutely necessary. I believe that if ANYONE who claims to be Dominant is the one to propose not having a safeword to you, they are very very likely to either be dangerous or stupid, or worse - both.

But here's how I know that the 0.5% exist... because I'm one of the people who knows, deep in my heart, that THAT is the place where I belong. But in my life, I've probably only known 1 or 2 other women living in that space. Women who dedicated their lives to their partner in a way most of us can barely understand. And so, personally, I just don't think this conversation is relevant or healthy for most people. But... it gets a little lonely, so I understand the desire to express what's in your heart, throw out a net and see if anyone else out there understands you.

Final thought. If by some miracles and prayers, as a Dominant who might secretly desire this, you do find yourself in that unicorn of a relationship, humble yourself and before saying yes spend some time figuring out if you have reached a place in your life where you are able to accept this responsibility. And always remember this quote that should haunt you:

To that which you tame, you owe your life.

#feeling a little annoyed and a little vulnerable to have brought this up so would appreciate people being gentle.#but that is probably too much to ask for #her-master

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