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venusvity · 5 months

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.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ ... PRE-RELEASE SINGLE - DRAMA!

DRAMA is one of two pre-release singles for VENUS' fourth full studio album. DRAMA will be promoted for TWO WEEKS until the next single is released.

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ ... MUSIC VIDEO AESTHETICS.

The DRAMA music video received 45 MILLION VIEWS in 24 hours and would remain number one on the Youtube trending page for 6 days. The video follows the girls through a technicolored cyberspace as they fight against a virus only known as "DRAMA" which is depicted as a dark and rapid-moving shadow.

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ ... DRAMA LINE DISTRIBUTION.

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ … BAEBI = 28.20 SECONDS

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ … BLISS = 19.26 SECONDS

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ … CHLOE = 49.15 SECONDS

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ … SENA = 17.29 SECONDS

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ … JIAH = 38.12 SECONDS

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ ... PROMOTIONAL HIGHLIGHTS.

The girls were promoting DRAMA consistently for two weeks. For a solid two weeks, the girls were at music shows or other schedules promoting their upcoming album, which they revealed the name of at the end of their promotional period for DRAMA.

The album is called "VENUS VICTRIX" and will have 11 tracks. The creative direction for the album will be handled by long-time VENUS creative director Adrian Reyes. This differs from their last comeback, Burn The Witch, which was fully controlled by Venus themselves. While on Knowing Brothers, Chloe admits the girls experienced a lot of stress from handling all aspects of the album. "It was too much. We would be up until 5 AM almost every night trying to get everything to work, and we agreed that for this album, we want more rest!" which earned laughs from the hosts and from fans alike.

During an episode of "Visting Venus," they had Adrian come on to explain the lore of the album to them in a classroom-like setting with the girls at desks and him at a chalkboard, pointing with a stick and aggressively writing with a red piece of chalk.

"It's basically, like, Venus' Victory. The girls are trapped in a harsh cyber world but manage to break out and transform the landscape into something habitable," Adrian would explain, drawing a loosely thrown-together professor-esque outfit and round specs. Klara, drawing a school uniform and thick-rimmed classes, would raise her hand. "And how will we break out from this world?" "Easy," Adrian starts, pulling down a projector screen that has three big words on it in comic sans font, "Dance, music, and friendship."

The video was a massive hit with fans and had them on the edge of their seats waiting for the album's release.

Though they gave it their all at every performance, it was clear the girls were tired and being overworked. In most vlogs, you'd often see members sleeping on one another during their breaks at music shows or expressing how sore they were from all the performing they were doing. The Venus members, with the exception of Klara, would assure fans they were fine and liked working especially. Klara, however, would go on to post a singular mirror selfie of herself at 3 AM on her Instagram story with the caption, "just got back. can't wait for my powernap before i have to go back lol" but the story was quickly deleted and followed by a video of the maknae laughing and apologizing.

"That was meant for my close friend. My bad, my bad! Stop worrying. I'm just complaining! I swear to God if y'all mass email Flowerbank I'll have a tantrum. Don't worry about me!"

While this moment went viral on stan Twitter, constellations couldn't help but to worry for the girls. However, their worries were seemingly quelled once they got another stage of DRAMA to entertain them.

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ ... LOOK BOOK.

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫ … LEFT 2 RIGHT: BLISS, BAEBI, CHLOE, SENA, AND JIAH

The girls wore wigs during their promotions, concealing their actual hair colors. While sometimes the wigs looked natural, especially Sena and Jiah's, there were times when the wigs looked straight from Party City. Due to their status in the industry, people called this style choice "camp" and praised them for it.

YOU CAN GET YOUR DRAMA PHOTOCARDS HERE!

#╰ * venus : discography ⧽ burn it to the ground .#ficnetfairy #fictional idol group #fictional idol community #kpop fanfic #idol oc #kpop oc #fake kpop oc #kpop au #idol au #kpop addition #idolverse #oc girl group #bts addition #fake kpop girl group #fake kpop idol #oc kpop group #stray kids addition

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anistarrose · 2 years

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One thing I love about The Owl House, and I know I’m not alone in this, is how it depicts disability: Eda and Lilith’s chronic illness-coded curse, Luz’s neurodivergence, the many characters who can’t do magic the “normal” way, and the accommodations and adaptive equipment they receive, and so on and so forth. Disability and accommodations are huge themes in this show —

So, with that in mind, I think it would be great if we as a fandom could start writing more image descriptions, to make our posts about these characters as accessible as possible!

Image descriptions help blind or low-vision people who use screen readers, and ND people who have a hard time interpreting expressions or other aspects of an image, just to name a few. If you haven’t written image descriptions before, it might seem intimidating — but for the most part, there isn’t really an objectively right or wrong way to do it, and any image description is better than no image description, I promise. Here’s an example:

Image description: a screenshot from The Owl House Season 1, where Eda Clawthorne pats Luz Noceda on the head approvingly. Both of them are smiling, and Luz is slightly covered in Abomination goo. End description.

My (personal, and pretty loose) rule is that I start by specifying what type of image we’re dealing with — is it a canon screenshot? is it fanart? — and moving on to the main “topic” or “focus,” which in this case is Eda patting Luz on the head. Info about the expressions, tone, and any other major details is good to round it out.

I maybe could’ve gone without mentioning the Abomination goop — if I was making a post about Eda and Luz’s relationship, for example, and focusing only on the interaction between the two, I might’ve left that detail out for conciseness. Ultimately, it’s context-dependent, and completely subjective.

The most important thing is just representing the image accurately and accessibly, and of course, denoting where the description begins and ends. This is sometimes abbreviated “ID” and “end ID,” as you might've seen elsewhere.

Other quick recommendations: don’t overuse caps lock, especially for long strings of text (some screenreaders have problems with it); include image descriptions immediately after the image instead of further down in the post, and try not to put them under a read more. Basically, the intent here is to not just make posts accessible, but avoid breaking up the “flow” for anyone reliant on image descriptions.

You can start small! I started with just describing simple memes and the occasional screenshot, and worked my way up to describing fanart. That said, if you’re an artist, you are automatically going to be the best person at describing your own art — you know what details you want to receive focus, you know each character’s expression, and you know the precise intent behind the piece.

And, once again, any description is better than no description!

Finally, as a corollary, image descriptions on just some posts are also way, way better than image descriptions on no posts. Lots of us don’t know how to describe every image, or don’t always have the time, or the spoons, but I’ve always thought of it like: if everyone on the internet, or in a fandom, captioned a handful of posts when they felt like they were able to, that would still do wonders towards making the community more accessible.

Anyways, if you read this far, thanks a lot! This post came about because I’ve seen so much great discussion about disability in The Owl House lately, and trying to raise awareness of image descriptions felt like the right next step — both because accessibility is a good thing to aspire to in general, obviously, and because it feels especially important when we’re talking about disabled characters themselves 💜

#the owl house #toh #the owl house season 3 #toh season 3 #accessibility

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notafraidofredyellowandblue · 8 months

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so I've heard in the past that some members of the band have hinted at not being 100% straight and richard has given hints at wanting to know what it's like to be a woman, could you please give me some sources to those since I've looked everywhere and can't really find them? thank you, if not, it's totally understandable

Another really really old ask, not because i didn't want to, but because i wanted to findas much info as possible 🌺 sorry anon for taking so long..

Well, the most recent 'hint' was Flake's podcast with topic 'gay/lesbian' where he mentioned that the topic came up one evening when the band were chatting and it turned out they all had their experiences 🥰

Rammstein is imo a band who has always been very 'inclusive' in any sexual preferences, and especially in Till's lyrics you can tell he is very interested in anything out there (not that that makes him 'not straight' (to be honest, i think he is, by some other quotes in interviews 😊) but i wouldn't be surprised if he tried some stuff somewhere in life).

Richard did an 2010 interview in Canada (don't have a link to the original, just this transcript) where he was quoted (about 'Mann gegen Mann')

"Actually, Till showed the lyrics to our Gay community, to our friends, just to make sure, because if you talk about something that you not really are, it's always kind of hard. Sometimes you cross the line, you don't think about it, but it could be offensive. If you do something because it's your experience, it's fine, but if you write something and you're not actually a part of it, I think you should make sure that everything you want to say is right. So he gave the lyrics to some friends, and they were very approving."

Which sort of confirms that they don't see themselves as gay so much. Also in interviews where they were asked 'are you gay', they usually end up with 'no'... interestingly, i don't think i've seen an interview where an interviewer explicitely asked 'are you bisexual' 🌺 (by the way, i would be really surprised if Richard hadn't some experience with a guy when he was younger, i vaguely remember he alluded to such in a really old interview, but i don't have a link).

--

Richard indeed has expressed ideas about his feminine side several times, in the interbiew above he says for instance

"If you talk to me right now, I'm a big believer in getting myself in balance between the female and the male side. I have a female side too, obviously."

And very striking was in several interviews ca 2021 after he did the cover 'Always on my mind' with Till for the Emigrate album 'The Persistence of Memory' and then made it a duet, stating:

"I mean, obviously, Till has also this very characteristic voice. And then it was pretty fast. He recorded one day. And then I was listening to it, and I felt a little bit that his performance was a little bit too male-oriented. So I felt I need a little female touch to it. So that’s why my personality came in. And I think it’s a good combination"

So he felt a female touch was needed, and added his own voice to Till's track 🥰

And ofcourse in 2023 he shared on his ig

"I've always wondered what it's like to be a woman"

Now ofcourse this could just be a Kruspe-caption 😊 but with the 'DT' video in mind and his role in it, it makes one wonder doesn't it... where is that making of when we need it 🌺😊

---

From the others i don't have quotes at hand...sorry...but maybe someone else has and is willing to share 🌺

#rammstein lgbtq matters #rammstein and the feminine side #quotes #till lindemann #richard kruspe #rammstein #flake lorenz

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apocalyptichearts · 14 days

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So, hi! I hope this message finds you well!

I know you might’ve moved on from the AoS fandom, but I’ve come from your TikTok, and I love your May & Daisy edits! The fics that accompany a few of them as well are simply glorious! And the captions are mini fics in and of themselves as well so they’re lovely (if heart wrenching at times) to read, too!

I was hoping, if you wouldn’t mind, could you rec some of your favourite May & Daisy fics? Doesn’t matter whether it’s complete or how long it is :)

Thank you for your time! And for your wonderful edits and works!

Have a nice day/night!

thank you so much for your kind words anon, they really do mean a lot :))

as for maydaisy fic recs, boy do i have some for you!!

now for the sake of not making this post too long here are some of my favourite maydaisy authors:

Book_freak I don't think we can talk about maydaisy fics without mentioning them; of they're 90 or so maydaisy fics, you're bound to find your cup of tea!!

PanicMoon15 for when you need a little fluff and lightheartedness. also, they're Baby Mine, Rest Your Head Close To My Heart series? a must read, no one does AU like they do.

cassiopluto for when you want something a little darker and want to read some insanely good writing <3

daisyqiaolianmay they have so many good fics to choose from and I think I mention The Framework later in this post, but others worth checking out are A Daisy By Any Other Name and The Parts That Make A Whole Series!!

Inkquillery i can't express in words how beautiful her writing is, all of her maydaisy fics are such joys to read <33

marvelthismarvelthat would've ended up listing all their fics in the following section so I listed them here. they write so many cool concepts it's hard to summarize them, but each and every one is incredible

agentmmayy a lot of sweet philindaisy content as well as a handful of maydaisy angst bcus sometimes that's just what you need.

here are some more specific fics that I (obviously) love:

It’s a Long Road Out to Recovery From Here by PanicMoon15 I enjoy most fics that deal with their relationship post the season 2 finale, but this one is quite something else. the writing and the themes and the characterization and just omg I cannot stress how good this fic is!!

Hold Her Close by StillTryingToWrite I'm a sucker for character studies and introspections and this one is just so beautiful.

silent secret sacred ground by Inkspinner a post-coulson's s5 death fic that is just so sweet and so gentle and I lose my cool a little whenever I think about it.

In Kasias' arena, no one wins… by Axolotl7 read this so long ago but I remember it being just jawdroppingly tragic and such a cool concept. insanely vivid writing <3

Mother’s Day/Father’s Day Series by agentquakingskye philinda becoming grandparents?? yes please. this series is so fluffy and so happy and even if you aren't into daisy x sousa, i think it's still worth reading.

Exposure by agentquakingskye now this isn't maydaisy focused, but they do have quite a few scenes and honestly, I'll take any opportunity to recommend this fic because oh my god. life-changing, I'm telling you.

and if you're into AU's that deal with baby/younger daisy some of my favs are:

from your head down to your toes (and your tiny nose) by agentmmayy of all the "daisy getting turned into a baby somehow" fics, this one is my absolute favourite. sadly I think it was discontinued but I think it's worth reading the 18 chapters posted!

Just a Walk in the Park by Bdoyle1807 I remember lovinggg the dynamic between May and (a much younger) Daisy in this and I'm pretty sure I read it in one sitting so.

The Framework by daisyqiaolianmay such an interesting take on the whole Framework stuff, I can't recommend it enough.

honestly, despite going through my bookmarks pretty meticulously, I'm probably missing some I would absolutely recommend as well, but I hope you find something you like out of the ones listed :))

#i love rambling about my favourite fics ty sm for the ask #maydaisy #fanfiction recommendation #fic rec #ask #agents of shield #melinda may #daisy johnson #mama may #marvel #aos

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terrainofheartfelt · 1 year

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liz, I'd like some adorable dair hcs, please and thank you 💛

it would be my pleasure, my dear 💛💛💛

dan proposes with an empty box, because he knows that blair is a control freak and wearing jewelry forever that she didn't pick herself freaks her out. people who don't know them very well will side-eye the story but anyone who actually knows these two weirdos thinks it's really sweet

they spend every Sunday morning having coffee and croissants in bed and doing the Sunday crossword together. or, they try to beat each other to answering each clue

slightly related, they are banned from van der humphrey scrabble games, because they get too competitive and too horny to play with others

in a comedy of errors, Nate finds out Blair's pregnant before Dan does (he's out of town on a book tour, Blair finds out while he away and is wigging) and then Nate has to pretend that Everything Is Cool even though he's a literal human golden retriever and is just so happy for them. he keeps it a secret though. when they tell the rest of the gang he's like "FIRST! I knew first! I knew the entire time!"

in any universe I hold in my head, they live in Paris for at least one year, possibly more.

once in an interview, Dan discloses that Rosemary's Baby is his and his wife's "Valentine's Movie" and the internet is like "????????"

in his late 20s, Dan starts getting ocular migraines while trying to read and write and brushes them off, so Blair is the one who kicks his ass all the way to the optometrist. He's fine, he just needs glasses. (blair thinks they're really, really hot)

on their first anniverasry (paper) they each give the other their preserved Nenette ticket stub, because they tried to throw it away, but just couldn't. saps. Blair frames hers and Dan hangs it in his home office. Dan puts his in a custom shadow box that sits on Blair's desk at work.

Once, in a dedication or social media caption, Dan calls her “The Ingrid to my Humphrey, the Waldorf to my Statler, the Harry to my Sally.” the biggest issue she takes with that is "I am Meg Ryan. Always."

speaking of social media, every time Dan and Blair post photos of themselves or sappy things of each other, Jenny leaves the same comment: gross.

(obviously at this point they're all cool with each other but Jenny is a little sister and also loves a bit)

sometimes Blair will like and/or quote tweet thirst tweets about Dan because she loves to cause problems.

Red wine makes Blair Bonkers Horny and far enough along into their relationship Dan learns to just roll with it and prepare himself mentally.

I discussed this at length before in dms with nads @mysteriesofloves which is that Blair has a system of pet names for Dan. *keira knightley as elizabeth bennet darcy voice* kitten for every day, my love for Sundays, and bunny, but only on very special occasions

and finally, to bring it back to the wedding rings, both are engraved. Blair chooses for Dan's band: bread, light, & shadow (based off of Neruda) and Dan chooses for Blair's: still days & hurricanes (based of von Radics)

#ty for sending stars <333 #asks #gg hcs #dair #shoutout to nads headcanoning with her in the dms is one of my favorite tumblr past times #insistonyourcupofstars

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a-queer-seminarian · 4 months

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An ebook I've had on hold for weeks finally came in yesterday, the third Sunday of Advent, which centers Joy. As the book is titled Inciting Joy, I found this quite fitting — but I also thought to myself, “Do I really want to read a book about joy right now, given the state of the world and especially the ongoing genocide in Gaza?"

Well, I figured, I’ll give the book a try anyhow. And it turns out that Ross Gay opens Inciting Joy with an answer to my exact concern! He describes how a professor once asked him that very thing: “How do you write about joy in the face of…*gestures broadly*.”

The issue, Gay says, is that we consider joy and “all this” to be opposites, when in reality joy must be allowed to break bread with pain — and here I'll let video me continue:

[Captions for the video:

'Well the issue, Ross Gay says, is that we consider “all of this” and joy to be opposites, with joy in some lofty, cozy room high, and heartbreak locked away in a basement corner — when actually, he says, they are “fundamentally entangled" — and here I’m going to read an excerpt from the book:

“...Or even more to the point, what if joy is not only entangled with pain, or suffering, or sorrow, but is also what emerges from how we care for each other through those things? What if joy, instead of refuge or relief from heartbreak, is what effloresces from us as we help each other carry our heartbreaks? Which is to say, what if joy needs sorrow...for its existence? If it sounds like I’m advocating for sorrow, nope. ...But what I am advocating, and adamantly so, is that rather than quarantining ourselves or running from sorrow, rather than warring with sorrow, we lay down our swords and invite sorrow in. I’m suggesting we make sorrow some tea from the lemon balm in the garden. We let sorrow wash up and take some of our clothes. We give sorrow our dad’s slippers that we’ve hung on to for fifteen years for just this occasion. And we drape our murdered buddy’s scarf, still smelling of nag champa, over sorrow’s shoulders, to warm them up some. We wedge some wood in the fire. As we’re refilling their tea we notice sorrow is drinking from a mug given to us by someone we’ve hurt. We ask sorrow about themselves, and we scooch closer to hear. We eventually decide to invite a small group of friends over for a potluck, because we want sorrow to meet them...."

And, as Ross Gay continues, eventually you and sorrow end up shrugging and inviting anyone who has any sorrow, which is to say, everyone. And everyone brings a little to share, and everyone introduces their sorrow to other people’s sorrows, and there's storytelling and supportive hands and laughing until you sob.

And that, Ross Gay says, is joy. It’s that thing that emerges from “our common sorrow — which does not,” he’s quick to add, “mean we have the same sorrows, but that we, in common, sorrow.” And when we learn to sorrow together like that, we learn to love together, too. Solidarity is born.' / end of video.]

___

There’s a worship service some churches hold this time of year to make space for "common sorrow" in the midst of Christmas’s consumerist frenzy. It’s typically held on December 21, the winter solstice, and thus called the service of the Longest Night — or sometimes it’s called Blue Christmas.

It’s a chance to lament, to sit with grief a while, in community. Look up churches around you and see if any hold such a service; or create such a space for yourself at home. Take the time to sorrow in common — with loved ones, with Jews and Muslims facing rising hate, with our Palestinian siblings facing genocide.

That’s what joy is — not locking pain away, but letting it sit, and speak, and break bread with laughter. And that, Ross Gay says, is why joy is a tool of survival, the parent of solidarity, in times like these.

#ross gay #inciting joy #advent 2023 #gaudete sunday #christians for palestine #tiktok #video #log #advent #winter 2023 #blue christmas

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sailor-aviator · 6 months

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✨

Okay, so kind of a personal post, but I wanted to get my thoughts down, and I will end up deleting this later lol

For my whole life, I have loved books and stories. I have literally been writing stories since before I even knew how to read and write. Somewhere at home is a picture frame that my great-aunt put together of a drawing I made when I was like two or three, and it was a sloppy finger painting, but it's clear that it's meant to be two people and some kind of creature. And she typed up a caption for it, and I guess it was the description I had given her of what the painting was supposed to be.

"A prince saves a princess from the scary dragon, and they live happily ever after."

Not my best work, admittedly, but it's the first documented time of me making a story, and I looked at that picture frame with fondness. Who knows where it is now, probably tucked away in some box in the attack after my parents moved.

But, then I got super into writing in like the third grade when I came up with my first original story, and then my love for writing snowballed from there. I can't tell you how many stories would flit in and out of my brain over the years, but somehow I think y'all have an idea just based on the ideas I pitch on here. But, just know that the ones I put on here are only a fraction of the ones I come up with.

I don't know why I'm so in love with writing and stories exactly. Maybe it's the thrill of making my own worlds where my problems aren't so present and overwhelming, or maybe it's because I love to find the magic in different possibilities. That sounds kind of smarmy, doesn't it? But, I think it's still true.

But, something that's been part of my personal journey as of late is the idea of doing things for myself and not others. My whole life, I've been such a huge people pleaser, and now at my big age, I've decided that I don't want to live my life like that anymore, but I'm faced with the problem of: how do I stop?

I'll start off by saying that I love my parents a lot. They've made a lot of sacrifices for me and they do a lot for me, and I'm forever grateful to them. But whether they meant for it or not, there was a lot of pressure to be a certain thing growing up. I could have hobbies like writing, acting, painting, drawing, singing, etc. But I had to be realistic, and that meant that I wasn't allowed to pursue those things as my main goal. I had to find a way to stuff myself into the box of "STEM, business, or something that would make money." And I get why. Financially, life was rough for a really, REALLY long time growing up. Both of my parents came from households where their parents worked more than one job to make ends meet, and this was back in the 60s and 70s.

So, for most of my life, I allowed myself to have those hobbies, using them as an escape for the growing pressure I was feeling at needing to be "perfect" for my family. And that's just it. I was never "perfect" enough. I could have won first place at a tournament for speech and debate, and I would be given critiques on how I could have done better. They always told me they were proud of me, but the word "but" always came after their words of praise.

"You did such a good job, but..."

"That was really good, but..."

"It would have been even better if you just..."

I didn't hear the words "I'm proud of you" by themselves until I was 12 years old and it was from a family friend. I remember waiting for the "but" to come, and when it never did, I had to excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom.

So I escaped further into my little worlds, and sometimes I would share them with my friends who would always tell me that they loved my stories, but there was always the nagging feeling in the back of my head that they were lying. They had to say that because they were my friends, but also because the stories weren't...perfect.

I've always been a perfectionist, and it's something I'm learning to get over as time goes on. These past few months have been such a journey for me because I've been allowing myself to be bad at shit.

But then I started posting on here, and it made me feel so good to know that literal strangers thought my writing was good too. You guys didn't have to lie to me and tell me that it was, you genuinely thought my writing was great! And it makes me so happy! It refueled my love for writing, and I hope I can keep writing for years to come!

But I've also been telling my mom about all of this (leaving out the 18+ bits lol) and the other night she looked at me and asked me if I had considered actually getting a story published.

Now, this was a bit of a blow for me for a couple of reasons. Yes, I'm so happy that she's finally taking an interest and seeing how passionate I've always been about writing, but...

But why now? Are you asking me that because you genuinely think I'll get published, or are you asking me because you're hearing that people actually really appreciate my hobby and you think I can make money off it? Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic about something I've made clear that I always wanted to do?

Idk, I'm probably just overthinking the whole thing, and I know she's genuinely happy for me, but it still kind of heart. Yeah, the dream is to one day be a published author. It always has been, but who knows if I'll ever finish anything good enough to be published, ya know?

Anyway, if you stuck around this long you can breathe out a sigh of relief lol I'm done rambling and ranting for now. I'll get some of the updates out to you guys when I can

#personal #long post #y'all do NOT have to read this lol #I will more than likely delete this later #gonna start using this website as my diary lmaoooooo

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minecraftmen · 2 years

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Mcyt x deaf!reader hcs please? 💘💘

MCYTs x deaf!reader

hello! very glad to write this :] just a couple quick notes:

while I do use American sign language (ASL), I am hearing and do not claim to be d/Deaf

I don't intend to overstep d/Deaf community boundaries or speak for d/Deaf people

if I do, please let me know and I'll edit and aim to do better

for American sign language (ASL) resources, I recommend Bill Vicars on youtube / lifeprint.com :]

[I write disabled!reader x MCYTs ; requests open!]

Dream

eager to make sure ur comfy

quickest to set up adaptive things around the house

you want a notice light for the door? boom, installed

need a different smoke alarm? yep, he's got that (barely needs a stepstool to replace it, stupid tall mf /affectionate)

need more notice when he's approaching u? he's tapping the floor, flashing his phone light, w.e you need

signing:

works really hard to learn, wanting to know as much as possible, as soon as possible

def gets some things mixed up if they're similar, but if u think it's funny, he does too

example: in ASL, 'coffee' and 'making out' can get mixed up. after the first time u correct that, he'd keep switching them out just to make u laugh

Sapnap

really attentive to your cues

if he accidentally startles you once, he's making note of how to more gently alert you next time

like one time you didn't notice him come into the room, so now he taps on the floor or the furniture so you feel it, or moves until you can see him or his shadow

signing:

likes using music to practice, signing as he sings

the differing grammar can trip him up in conversation, but he's working on it

likes being able to communicate in a way that's comfy for u :]

George

always ready to fill u in if u want it

turns on captions and tells you if they got something wrong

repeats jokes if you want it

checks in with you if you ask him for clarification on anything

signing:

starts taking lessons

practices a lot - if he sees something, he's signing it to himself

like if you're at a shop together, he's signing the names of the produce or fingerspelling the brand names

likes learning the slang and memes

Quackity

checks in frequently

always asks if u want things written down

if you read lips, knows it can be difficult when ppl are masked or moving around a lot, esp if there's other stimulus

always has a notepad and his phone with him so he can jot things down if you want him to

signing:

ambitious

wants to learn American sign language, Lengua de Señas Mexicana (Mexican sign language), and British sign language, and yours, if it's not one of those 3

he loves to learn new things and challenge himself

might get them mixed up sometimes, but doing pretty well, for learning 3+ languages at once

Karl

really curious, but always checks first that ur okay w him asking questions

wants to know abt the d/Deaf community

really wants to be polite

like Q and George, will ask if you need anything

enables TTS and Live Transcript on his phone

if you lip-read, gets clear face masks for when masks are required

signing:

his focus shifts a lot, so he tries to learn as much in one sitting as he can

gets nervous when he signs w you, he doesn't want to mess up

likes learning the hidden meanings and jokes in signs

example: in ASL, the sign for pasteurized milk moves in front of the face - 'past-your-eyes milk'

Punz

will ask the occasional question, but not often

strikes me as someone who'd google his qs when he thinks of em

if you so much as glance at him, will ask others to repeat themselves more clearly

signing:

focuses on learning the basics and generally fills in with context clues and fingerspelling as things come up

like he'll practice the alphabet, numbers 1-20, and maybe colors

but beyond that he's prob looking at online dictionaries

after he learns a new one tho, he'll usually remember it and add it to his general practice

the first sign he surprises u with is 'cute,' just to fluster u

expect to see it a lot after that

#mcyt x reader #dream x reader #dreamwastaken x reader #sapnap x reader #georgenotfound x reader #quackity x reader #karl jacobs x reader #punz x reader #punzop x reader #long post #request

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dreamofmetoday · 11 months

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SOYEON REPUTATION IN THE INDUSTRY READING

how female idols view soyeon overall:

some female idols in the industry think she's really creative and think it's cool that she's found success in that. they also think it's cool that she projects an image for herself that she's created for herself (and hasn't been created for her), and they can't imagine themselves having the bravery to do the same thing. other female idols think she's hard coping with her image and creative projects, that the messages she's sending out aren’t how she is in real life at all and that she's embarrassed about who she really is on some level. some of them may also think she's a big spender and buys luxury items to cope and show off too, or that she even invests in stock or real estate or something and let's people know how much smarter with money she is (and how much she has) and they're like, "ok soyeon, we get it". they also think she can exploit certain issues - e.g. she might write a song about depression and they don't think she understands mental health at all and has never been depressed (things of this nature if it's not exactly that). they think she is too confident in her abilities for something that everyone can see through anyway. they also think she is overly confident and arrogant in general (the lyric from life is good, "baby got an ego twice the size of the crib", popped into my head). they see her as someone romantic and someone who values this strongly. they think she is very hardworking and likes taking on new projects (even at her own expense). they think she can have a temper.

how male idols view soyeon overall:

they mostly see her as very talented and creative, a lot of them want to work with her (or for her to give a project to them) since they think she has an eye for what will be successful. they see her as pretty helpful in general, they think she can be bossy and controlling but most appreciate how she can go out of her way to help others. they think she's pretty resilient because she does what she wants despite what other people say. they see her as really hardworking, that sometimes she doesn’t even really know when to stop and that she will make the effort to see things all the way through. they think she is a bubbly person for the most part, that she's not depressive and can be a witty conversationalist. they think she is more to the extroverted side and shares a lot about herself (she may even post a lot on a private instagram or something, writing long captions and sharing lots of photos). they think she tries to be modest at times and can brush off compliments she's given (and they think this is perhaps out of insecurity). they think she cares about her appearance a lot. they see her as very patient.

how staff view soyeon overall:

overall it seems most staff have a positive view of soyeon. they find she is pretty consistent and won't cause them too many problems. they also think she is patient when it comes to solving problems that arise. she can also be really generous with staff at times - she might buy them actual gifts or she just gets coffee for everyone or something. the biggest problem is that she seems to be a harsh person in general and she can offend people easily - e.g. she will complain she looks fat and then the staff member right next her clearly weighs more so they're just like, "um thanks". she could also tease others sometimes and not realise not everyone has her sense of humour. staff that have known her a long time may think she has a problem with women - that she is competitive with women a bit, that she is harsher on women and gets a long better with men (and perhaps that she has a pattern of choosing male romantic interests over her female friends). they think she is stubborn and gets her way often.

#kpop tarot #tarot #celebrity tarot #kpop #gidle #soyeon #gidle soyeon #reputation reading #reputation in the industry reading

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goober-37 · 6 months

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I wish YouTube captions were written better y’all cause it drives me mad. Some creators who edit their captions themselves do a great job! @annamarieforcino specifically will tag who speaks in her video, put dialog in quotations if it’s from the vid/show she’s reacting to, and she doesn’t use the fuckass “[_]” style captions YouTube generates even if her audio has swears censored. I love the way she captions!

I’m not diagnosed with any hearing issues but sometimes words straight up just don’t sound real to me. I either just straight up can’t hear them or it sounds like a load of nonsense to me–especially if there’s too much background noise that my brain can’t figure out what to tune into. I can hear, but reading captions as I’m hearing what people say makes it easier to understand and actually capture everything said if that makes sense.

YouTube having really lousy, overly censored captions really pisses me off. Makes it harder to enjoy what I like watching because half the time the captions are inaccurate, unavailable in English for some reason (happened with a couple Flamingo videos??), or every single goddamn swear (or what the captions think is a swear) gets censored completely and takes away my ability to fill in the gap if I couldn’t catch the actual swear or if the creator censored the audio.

I understand creators censoring swears for brand deals and monetization but I hate the auto generated captions censoring too heavily and throwing off my reading. I despise that the captions don’t even accurately pick up what’s said half the time so then I get confused hearing a word and reading the wrong word at the same time and thinking “wait what 🤨 did they say that or am I stupid??”

Idk lmao I mean I thrive off captions and my dad being HOH means we always have captions on movies and shows and at least those are written and tagged well. I wish YouTube were a lil better about it without making every creator hand write all their captions because even I find that tedious when I custom write my tiktok captions.

#goober draws #trans artist #shitpost #rant #goober rants #youtube captions #closed captions #hard of hearing #auditory processing issues #undiagnosed #I’m likely neurodivergent btw #that probably contributes to this #youtube #I love you Annamarie Forcino #annamarie forcino #commentary #commentary channels #youtube commentary

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hornystorage · 8 months

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Some tags for better organization

I'm going through all the posts I can in the blog, tagging them so as to find them easier. To help with that, I'm also writing the tags here, what do they mean, and using them to tag this pinned post. To see any of the tags, just tap/click on it (on the tags section under the post).

The tags are not mutually exclusive. A post can (and will probably) have more than one tag.

(All the tags begin with CHS: meaning Curio's Horny Storage:)

CHS: picture Given to posts where the focus is the picture, rather than anything else that may or may not be written.

CHS: drawn This one is for drawing and paintings and that kind of art.

CHS: audio Posts where the main focus is the audio. My favourite kind of post.

CHS: written The biggest group of posts. They mostly have pictures, but the main point of them is what's written: captions and stories are tagged this.

CHS: caption The kind of written content added to an existing picture. Sometimes is hard to tell what's a story and what's a caption, so I went with my gut instinct.

CHS: story The kind of written content that doesn't necessarily have a picture attached. Sometimes is hard to tell what's a story and what's a caption, so I went with my gut instinct.

CHS: concepts Little ideas for stories and fictional products.

CHS: guidelines Guides, tutorials, and tips. From the classic "become a bedwetter" guides to how to fluff up a diaper.

CHS: games and challenges Some fun little activities to have some diapered (or not) fun.

CHS: diaper peak For those pictures where a bit (or a lot) of diaper peaks out of a buy's pants ;P

CHS: wet spot For the pictures where the focus is the big, wet patch on a guy's crotch.

CHS: wetting There are some videos and gifs where you can see the wetting happening, instead of a still of before or after.

CHS: humping Used for diapered boys humping their wet diapers in pictures and gifs.

CHS: chastity Sometimes explicitly included, sometimes just alluded to, so I tag it because I enjoy it.

CHS: magic wand Used for those posts that have those magic wand vibrators. I hear they feel very good on a wet diaper...

CHS: less kinky Some less kinky pictures that I just find hot.

CHS: bulge A tag for the hot bulges and packages of men (non-diaper bulges).

CHS: bedwetting A main kink for this blogger, so I tag the pics and stories that focus on the subject.

CHS: POV For the posts that put you on a POV (Point Of View). Also a favourite of mine.

CHS: furry Posts that have furries. Sometimes in diapers, sometimes just big and hot.

CHS: hypno Images that depict someone getting hypnotized, usually drawings.

CHS: rubberpupthoughts rubberpupthoughts wrote some very good stories and captions, but all his stuff seems to have disappeared from the internet. I'm reposting the few ones I have saved, and if you have some others, I'd be grateful if you could share them.

CHS: Mark and Luke A nice little story, contained in a single post.

CHS: the briefs saga Two captions that may not actually be related, but share a similar subject.

CHS: Diapers for my Boyfriend A story in 11 parts, of which I’m missing the first 3 parts.

CHS: Heath A four-parts story about a guy named Heath and how he ends in diapers. Sadly, I am missing the first part.

CHS: Josh and Mikey A series of captions with the recurring characters Mikey (who's becoming incontinent) and Josh (who's making it happen).

CHS: Tim and Joe A seemingly 4-parts story, of which I only have the last two parts. Gotta find the other two.

CHS: Tricked and Treated A two-part story involving lots of humiliation about a boy and his daddy on halloween (and after).

CHS: Remote Work Bullying A two-parter about a guy with an online dom working from home. Padded, of course.

CHS: Billy and Timmy's Rough Days One (technically two) of the more rough stories in the blog. While usually not my style, I find it particularly hot. (unofficial title, as I didn't see any in the posts themselves, which are form different people).

CHS: a favourite Some personal favourites of mine.

CHS: to find As blogs come and go, some stories that require access to deactivated blogs cannot be read anymore. I'd like to complete them where possible, so any clues as to where to find a complete version for archiving purposes are welcome.

CHS: tags Other blogs have their own tags. I reblog them so as to have easy access to the posts I like. Recommended to check out.

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cafe-smut · 2 months

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Fics I Could Write But Haven't Yet

Dragon Shifter Hua Cheng being captured and used to create more of her kind. Escapes and reunited with her Queen, but later ends up tracking down the child she was forced to have with a rogue cultivator that was captured. The child is an orphan and severely traumatized, but his prospects of survival to adulthood due to the dragon parts of him are slim.

Wei Wuxian dies one day on the Burial Mounds and wakes up like, a day later as an uber powerful ghost, completely confused. Hua Cheng and He Xuan find him, planning to get to the bottom of the sudden appearance of this wrathish/calamity level ghost, only to be surprised someone newly dead and just trying to keep the people he cares about safe. By unspoken mutual agreement (and seeing themselves in the young man) they help him learn to wield his powers and set up the Mounds to better support human life.

The 5 Calamities, 2 being Wrath ghosts on the level of the Calamities. Those two outliers in the group being Green Touring Night Lantern and the other the Silver Ghost Controlling Flute, who is Crimson Rain's right hand and the Young Mistress of Ghost City. One day, unknown and unexpectedly, she disappears, only to begin to remerge nearly a decade later, Chenching's eery tone reverberating through the realm of the undead once more.

Wei Ying is saved from certain death by both winter and dog alike by the wolves in the forest surrounding Yiling. They follow her as a whole pack even when she goes to Lotus Pier. Dogs are not Wolves, dogs are vicious and cruel, but wolves don't know such things. She's terrified of dogs, but a wolf is her most welcome companion and savior. To harm a Yiling Wolf is to ask for death from the Yiling Laozu. So what happens to them when their Lady is dead?

Xie Lian gets the cat she adopted with her ex Jun Wu stolen by him, but can't prove it. Ranting online about it while depressed, someone she doesn't know tags her and says she used to hook up with him and she can go see if her cat is there. A fee days later she opens her door to the woman standing there with her Ruoye. They take a selfie and post it with the caption 'my cat loves my new girlfriend!' That very day when they start dating.

Lou Binghe is extremely confused that her old middle school teacher is not only now her college professor, but as much as she hated her in her youth, doesn't even seem to remember her? And is super nice, just in general? But, did she just never notice how beautiful her shizun was before, or-?

Xie Lian returns to college after trying to get her life together, and is warned immediately by her old friends of the Three Demons of the school. Her new friend Shi Qingxuan laughs and tells her they're not so bad. Are they in the mafia? No! She's engaged to one of their friends and hangs out with them regularly. She should just get to know them herself! Xie Lian does, and finds Luo Binghe, Wei Ying, and Hua Cheng are- quite nice, actually!

After some guidance and exploring, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan come across a cave and a giant coffin in it. It turns out to be a 3 layered coffin with the oddest dead person inside it Wei Ying's ever seen. Taking the person back to the Cloud Recesses, he starts to wake up and they slowly, slowly, nurse him back to heath. As time goes on, Wei Ying thinks to reach out to someone he knew while dead, the ruler of the ghost city he'd called home for 13 years, about who their visitor with little to no memory might be.

Modern Hualian where painter Hua Cheng, a college student, is looking to have a more live model than the sculptures she sometimes does. Enter Xie Lian, childhood crush that never.faded, doing some shibari photography with her coworker and primary photographer Wei Ying. Some extra pay and Hua Cheng and Xie Lian quickly become known as a famous duo for the works of art displayed on Xie Lian's body with paint, ever changing but ever beautiful and inspired.

Xie Lian wakes from the 3 layered coffin, only to find himself in the care of 2 old friends. After being healed, with nothing left for him in China, he goes with them and chages his form to a woman. Several centuries later, she returns with a mask, the name Liene, and at the side of her goddess as the Liutenant of Artemis. And it seems her silence and changed looks have kept anyone from recognizing her during the meetings between the gods, with the singular exception of a ghost she never knew, a Ghost King of incredible power and looks who seems to be called Hua Cheng, but keeps telling Xie Lian to call her San Niang.

Basically it's just SVSSS but with the magic mechanics and the like of Fairy Tail. Also I'll probably make it lesbians because Women. So the guild Cang Qiong Mountain is so large and because of where its based, its got several Secondary Guild Masters with Heavenly Body User Yue Qingyuan being the main one. Theres the God/dess of War, Requip mage Liu Qingge, Water Body mage Shang Qinghua, Sky Dragon Shen Qingqiu, and so on and so forth.

Danmei mega crossover, but it's also ancient Chinese Hunters of Artemis. Xie Lian, ages after accidentally consuming a flower that turns you into a woman of the Land Of The Tender, accidentally ascends as a goddess of archery and the hunt after having to recultivate with an entirely different base. Cue her gathering her hunters, saving them from other doom with the exception that they are either a woman or eat the same flower and turn into one.

Modern 21st century witch Wei Wuxian gets summons back by the sect leaders of ancient China, attempting to bring someone to help them stop Wen Rohan from starting a war they're quite sure they can't win. She confuses the fuck out of them but to their shock, she looks just like someone of their generation who went missing years ago during a night hunt.

Modern Bingqiu where they're dating and Shen Qingqiu puts on Binghe's fur coat cause they're going out and he's cold and holy shit it's so nice. Binghe's all flustered by him wearing his coat. SQQ is entirely unaware that Binghe is a selkie and that's his Pelt and that- that looks- yeah, um. Uh. Yeah. He needs to wear that more. Undecided if Binghe would be a proper seal selkie or something different like a wolf.

Princess Leona Kingscholar who's known for being mega lazy and a great partier with a huge alcohol tolerance. Who's never been taken seriously by her older brother of the court. Who is Hella smart but rarely shows her hand, one of those times being when she saved some random person she's too drunk to remember. Who gets a notice to return from school because she's relieved a marriage proposal. From the dragonic princess of Briar Valley (whos been stalking her since the beginning.)

If you could vote for your favorite one or ask questions in the comments or revlogs, that would be great. I can only work on so much at once and it would be helpful.

#fanfiction #heaven official's blessing #mo dao zu shi #scum villian self saving system #scum villain #future fic #angst #fluff #yes these are all thought out ideas i just havent put words to yet #if you got this far #congrats!#the baby in the first fic is wei ying

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karisita · 11 months

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How about: Hiccup and Astrid doing a porn movie together? Something like the X movie, but less horror and more romance.

So, basically, they're having money problems and are looking for extra income when they come around Tuff and Ruff, who tells them that porn websites are actually very lucrative.

Tuff is an eccentric film student and he's been in the porn industry for quite sometime, never filming himself thought, only other people who accept to participate. He's a visionary, never really interested in the sex itself, but in the story telling. The only thing that actually fascinates him about porn, is how easily it sells. He writes, direct and edit and, this time, he wants to do something completely different, that he's never done before.

Ruffnut helps him with the audio caption. Basically, she just holds the mic for him, but she insists on helping, just because she's a perv.

That's how Astrid got involved. They go to college together and, for some reason, Ruff is the closest friend she has in class. It's kind of an unconscious thing for Astrid, she never really tried to be close with Ruffnut, but, somehow, she's always there with her, talking nonstop while she would only listen, but it's not entirely bad either.

Ruff always tells her about her brother's business and tries to convince her to give him views on his latest projects, which Astrid never does. But, then things start to get complicated for her. Her part time job salary is barely enough to sustain her and the rent price just went up. She needs more money fast.

So she talks to Ruff about participating in the making of Tuff's "home movies" and Ruff tells her that he's looking for an actress. She immediately refuses, since she was looking to participate behind the cameras, but Ruff explains that they try to have as little people involved in the filming as possible, so that the money doesn't disappear when they divide it among themselves.

Astrid only accepts to act in the film when she's on the verge of being homeless. Ruff promises her that it will be worth it and that she won't get recognise for it and Tuff even agrees to pay her the highest part of the income, since she's the one exposing herself the most.

She's still very reluctant with the idea, but Ruff and Tuff turn out to be very supportive and understanding of her situation and being able to count with them actually helped a lot.

Now, Hiccup would get involved through snotlout, of course. Snotlout tried to participate once, but only ended with a 15 seconds supporting appearance in the film. He never stopped hanging around with the twins because he was super into Ruffnut. That's why he brings Hiccup along, just to impress her. Hiccup is definitely not super excited about it, but he does need the money, so he agrees.

I still don't know how Fishlegs would be involved in all of it. The best that I could come up with is that he lends some of the filming equipment to Tuffnut e hangs around while they're filming. He honestly didn't know what Tuff was going to use his equipment for when he asked to borrow it, so his curiosity makes him stay and find out. He's horrified, at first, but then he doesn't leave. For him, It's like watching an eclipse, never looking directly at it, but not being able to look away either.

Fishlegs is the real hero of this story, really. He's a hopeless romantic, so, as soon as he reads the script, he knows he needs to bring some of his fanfic writing magic into it. He convinces Tuffnut to make everything more honeyed and sweet: add more kisses, more dialogue, more love, etc.

So, of course, Hiccup and Astrid can't help falling for eachother a bit. They're in this together, after all. But it's not just the sweet sex, it's everything else. Hiccup is a really nice guy, which Astrid didn't expect. He's always making sure the whole experience is the least uncomfortable as possible for her and is always reassuring her that, no matter what, he would stop if she asked him to.

He gives her rides home after they're done, and they get to know eachother better. Hiccup is surprised by Astrid too. She's much more than her first impressions show: someone unapproachable and cold, although beautiful. Once he gets to know her, he finds her quite funny and sensitive, their conversations are always pleasant and her presence is very comfortable for him.

So, yeah. That's what I got so far. What do you guys think? Should a try writing this?

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chronologicalimplosion · 1 year

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Still thinking about an image description aggregator blog I saw recently that said IDs are not art because they’re an accessibility tool (in the context of “it’s always ethical to grab someone’s ID and add it to the original image as alt text”, which I don’t disagree with)

And like... idk, can’t they be both? It’s a translation process. Often, as I’ve been trying to get better at writing IDs that are more useful, more succinct, more able to capture the humor or emotions or point of the original image... it’s using many of the same skills I use to write anything original. Just like translation, there’s no single correct answer and it’s not an unskilled task that everyone will do the same. Visual and written art are good at different things. The process of adaptation is inherently creative. I’ve written some IDs that feel like art in and of themselves, that made me look at the images much more closely to get a better idea of what they’re communicating, and a lot that are just transcription of text which didn’t need to be an image in the first place.

But sometimes it’s an accessibility tool and it’s art.

To the original point, I don’t think credit, here, should take priority over accessibility. I don’t personally care if anybody credits me or reuses/adapts my IDs (although it is nice and motivating to see people reblogging them from me and know that my work is useful--that’s very human). But I don’t think you have to devalue the skill of captioners in order to make that point? Translators and web designers and programmers and all kinds of people who do accessibility work that may or may not be art deserve to be valued, because they’re doing valuable work--the conversation should be about how we want to do that as a community.

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themirokai · 1 year

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Hey friends. Can we talk about reposted art for a second? Because I feel like I’ve seen a bunch of it lately, particularly in the Sandman fandom.

And I get it! There are so many incredible artists doing gorgeous art in this fandom! And we all want to be excited about it and share it! And some of those incredible artists aren’t on tumblr.

Look as someone who makes fandom stuff (not art but writing) I live for feedback. I live to see people reacting to my stuff. Even just likes and kudos.

I’m not on twitter or instagram. If I learned that my writing had been posted there (idk if that’s even possible but you know what I mean) and people were reacting to it where I couldn’t see it, I would be devastated.

So. If you’re bringing art that’s not yours over from another platform, even if you’re crediting the artist, please don’t unless you’ve gotten the artist’s permission. (And then you can add a caption that says “posted with permission” and that’s fantastic!)

I know it’s so easy to see some fantastic art when you’re scrolling and just hit like or reblog and keep going.

But please, if you love people making fandom stuff for free, please take a second and look to see if the art is signed and then see if that signature matches up with the op’s handle. If it’s not signed or it doesn’t match, click on the op post or blog and see if there are tags on the post or info on the blog that tells you the op is the artist. If it looks like a repost please click away and keep scrolling. I promise there is more great art to see by people who posted it here themselves.

Look I have absolutely reblogged art that was reposted. I get enthusiastic about things I like and I want to share them. That’s what brought us all to fandom, right? And sometimes that means that I didn’t stop to take a critical look. I’m absolutely not condemning anyone for this. I’m just encouraging us all to support artists by letting them be in control of where and how their art is posted. ❤️❤️

#reblog not repost #support fan artists #artists on tumblr #how to tumblr

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denimbex1986 · 10 months

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'In anticipation of the movie event of summer 2023 known as Barbenheimer, the best and wittiest unpaid advertising Universal and Warner Bros. Pictures could have hoped for wasn’t an Instagram post of a grinning Tom Cruise, along with Mission: Impossible 7 director Christopher McQuarrie, brandishing tickets for Oppenheimer and Barbie. It was a recent tweet from television writer Noah Garfinkel, built around a still from Oppenheimer featuring Tom Conti’s Albert Einstein and Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer, ostensibly involved in a serious conversation about atom splitting and stuff. The caption read “‘We’re gathering a group of top scientists to go see Barbie.’”

That tweet is great because it’s a life raft of spontaneity in a sea of hype that has come to feel desperate. In the week leading up to the dual releases of Oppenheimer and Barbie, on July 21, the fever has gone off the thermometer. Christopher Nolan, with his fixation on craft (and his status as the guy who made those Batman movies), tackling the story of one of history’s most famous theoretical physicists? The idea is so antithetical to the I.P.-fixated pack-em-in mentality of the past few years that it’s no wonder anticipation among actual grownups, whether they’re Nolan fans or not, is high. The juggernaut around Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is even more formidable: Barbie pink, a hothouse hue verging on fuchsia, is everywhere. And at the film’s Los Angeles premiere, on June 9, Margot Robbie appeared in a life-size version of one of early Barbie’s most famous ensembles, a strapless sparkle evening gown accessorized with a chiffon hankie and the famous Barbie mules, known as “Solo in the Spotlight.” She looked glamorous, sexy and adorable. You’d have to be a certified funkiller not to love it.

The Barbenheimer phenomenon is fun, and essentially harmless. But while it’s wonderful that adult people have not one but two reasonably grownup movies to look forward to in the same summer week, there’s also something depressing about Barbenheimer. It has less to do with the projects themselves and more to do with what we’ve come to settle for in the world of movies. It will be a great day in Hollywood, and pretty good for anyone who cares about film, if both Barbie and Oppenheimer do well at the box office. But as film scholar, industry observer, and all-around smart film person Mark Harris noted in a series of tweets, the success of Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Mission Impossible—Dead Reckoning, won’t be enough to solve Hollywood’s myriad problems. “I am rooting for all three of these movies to succeed, because we are definitely in the ‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ phase of the crisis, and it is a crisis,” Harris writes. “But the thing is, none of these three movies are going to fix the cracks in the hull.”

Those cracks are too numerous to contemplate without falling into despair, but Barbenheimer at least flicks at one of them. The idea of a do-it-yourself double feature, or even of seeing two big movies in one weekend, used to be a staple of frequent moviegoers’ lives; it has now become a novelty. There just aren’t enough big-screen movies for adults being released at any one time. The Barbenheimer model at least presumes people are excited about going out to a movie theater sometime around July 21.

But the reality is that prying former moviegoers—especially those over 40—off their couches, away from their big-screen TVs and sophisticated sound systems, isn’t going to be easy in the long haul. On the one hand, you can’t blame the stay-at-homes, given how few movies are geared to their demographic. Superhero films and CGI-heavy action movies with indecipherable plots have taken the place of things people used to hire babysitters to go out to see: romantic comedies, erotic thrillers, courtroom dramas, even just dumb comedies about teenagers doing dumb stuff. The even harsher reality is that in many cities, cinemas specializing in smaller movies have closed. Depending on where you live, you can love movies desperately and simply be out of luck.

But talk to people who have given up on the movies by choice and the sad truth is that they don’t seem to miss them: “There’s so much good TV these days, why leave the house?” “I hate seeing movies with smelly, noisy people, the at-home experience is so much better” and so forth. Admittedly, many of the people who think and talk that way probably never really loved movies in the first place. But there are still too many who have outed themselves as consumers of content, happy as long as there’s enough on streaming to fill their entertainment hours. Moviegoers has a romantic ring to it; content consumers is the role more and more people are settling for, unquestioningly, often without seeing how distasteful the concept of content is. There’s great stuff to stream, series that have been made with thought and care and create space for wonderful actors to do good work. But viewers who happily position themselves as consumers of content are playing into the mindset of the big streamers, who have a great deal invested in getting that stuff squeezed through the tube as cheaply as possible—hence the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying TV—but right now may be the time to think about whose side you’re really on, especially if you’re of the generation that used to take great pride in sticking it to the man.

Let’s assume, though, that the Barbenheimer effect is enough to get at least some of the couch people back into the theater, which could help both movies become hits. What could box office success for either Barbie or Oppenheimer—or, with luck, both—mean for the future of movies? We used to get so many historical epics about Important Men—A Beautiful Mind, The Social Network, The Imitation Game—that we’d almost groan whenever we saw another one slouching down the pipeline. But in 2023, the promise of Oppenheimer—a story about a controversial historical figure, played an actor who has always been terrific in his movie roles but who ultimately found acclaim working in TV—is like a lake in the middle of the desert. If Oppenheimer is a hit, could it mean more movies drawn from history—that other kind of pre-awareness that has nothing to do with I.P.? Maybe. But even if not, it could open a door for filmmakers to explore bigger subjects.

Barbie, on the other hand, is a movie based on a toy—which is not an inherently bad thing when you’re talking about this particular toy. There are 70-year-old women who have played with Barbie in their lifetime, and harbor some sort of feelings about her, whether fond or complex. I have not yet seen Barbie; I’m excited about it, because I love Barbie, and I generally love Gerwig’s work. But what bothers me about the pre-movie hype is its overinsistence that Gerwig has made a “smart” movie about Barbie. Which suggests that Barbie by herself—or, more specifically, love for Barbie—is somehow dumb. The storied history of Barbie has its share of inherent subversiveness: if, in the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, feminists objected to her because of her highly unrealistic bodily proportions and empty smile, they weren’t exactly taking the long view. In the household I grew up in, one with much older sisters, we had in our attic two pre-Barbie adult dolls: one was a bride and the other was a nun. A doll you could dress in exciting clothes—one who eventually had her own house and her own car, let alone any job she could dream up—was a huge step away from that. The marketing for Barbie, rather than capitalizing on the sophistication of the finished product, feels desperate to cover every base. Love pink? Barbie is for you! You’re smart? Barbie is for you, too! That line of thinking is reductive, not revolutionary. But then, the proof will be in the movie, not the marketing.

That said, by now we’ve all heard that Mattel is planning a slew of movies based on its toys, from Hot Wheels to Rock Em Sock Em Robots, and we’ve been assured—by Mattel—that all of these movies will be “smart,” not dumb. Again, the proof will be in the movies. But none of those toys, no matter how loved, have the cultural resonance of Barbie. And in the end, what we’re being promised is really just more movies about childhood effects, things we already have some emotional attachment to. Does anyone else feel not just depressed and embarrassed by this, but also excessively exploited? As if the movies’ only hope is to latch onto old playthings and their attendant comfy feelings? What about seeing and experiencing something brand-new, that draws out feelings we didn’t know we could have?

No matter how well Barbie and Oppenheimer do, that dream feels elusive. Which is why I love the idea of a group of top scientists convening to see Barbie, presumably stepping out of their comfort zone because they’re curious to see what all the fuss is about, even making mental notes for the discussion they’ll have later. That’s what going to the movies used to be. For scientists, and for everyone.'

#Barbenheimer #Oppenheimer #Barbie #Christopher Nolan #Tom Cruise #Mission Impossible #Christopher McQuarrie #Tom Conti #Albert Einstein #Cillian Murphy #Greta Gerwig #Margot Robbie

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