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#what the hell is happening in my tags it's like we are back in 2016
absolutebl · 2 months
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This Week in BL - it was a pretty darn good time, frankly
Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.
Feb 2024 Wk 4
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Ongoing Series - Thai
The Sign (Sat YT) ep 12fin - Everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun in the fight sequences. I’m very happy for them. I’m not surprised they shot Khem and Chart. A little shocked it wasn’t also Yai, TBH.
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I found this final episode rushed. According to rumors, The Sign was originally slated to be 14 eps, and it probably should’ve been. And I don’t say that often about Thai BL. But we all knew it was getting too bloated for its britches, so I'm not surprised they fumbled the ending. For me personally, it just wasn't that bad. It was fine and I was fine with it.
Tho, Billy does not look good with facial fur, messes up those gorgeous angles.
I was ultimately amused that the solution to the mythology thread was simply to talk to the river god and persuaded him to give up... off screen. It felt very old school wuxia. Or like Aeschylus or something. I did adore the stinger, Saint was basically like “I want wings too”. 
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FINAL THOUGHTS
This show is literally everything (except straight) all at once. It's BL, queer, band of brothers, romcom, erotica, PNR, fated mates, police procedural, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and slasher. It’s the king of genre mash-up chaos. Sure, it's madness but there is genius in it. Was it a crazy unhinged mess +1 roll for damage? Yes. Yes it was. Did it manage to hold all those tangled threads together? No it did not. Was it also a charming, sexy, engaging, non-stop piece of entertainment? Sure thing. I think this show is basically my KinnPorsche, and frankly I’ve been chasing that dragon naga since KP aired. Is it perfect? No. But it was balls to the wall FUN and that gets a 9/10 from me.
I'm thinking of doing a full recap review (partly because I have so many great screen shots.)
Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube grey) ep 10-11 of 12 - Since this series is following the yaoi so closely, I knew these were the separation eps. (Also I knew with would be a soft non-doom ep 11, Japan rarerly does these.) I like that they used it to show improve communication and development in all relationships, but, frankly, TayNew are just best when they are TayNew together on screen. So yeah. Let’s keep them back together, please?
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Meanwhile, TayNew gifted us a gorgeous loving sweet sex scene. Thanks OG for doing us a solid. 
I wanna add, it sure is fun to see New play as soft and vulnerable character, I feel like he hasn’t done that since SOTUS. 
(Read all about distribution issues here.)
Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 12fin - 1/3 of this is a sweet romance about a student doctor falling in love with a student chef, and the rest of it is utter dross. Look the OffGun bits were GREAT.. In fact, I think they’re better AS A PAIR in this show than in any of their other BLS. And I'm a hard sell on any OffGun being better than PickRome. Saying that, how can I review a show where I could only tolerate 1/3 of it? Because I didn’t like any other aspect of this show, no other pairs and no other plots. That gives me: 9/10 for the OffGun bits, 5/10 for everything else. Frankly it probably should be an 8 but I gotta go with my gut and it's upset about this so 7/10. Sorry boys. It’s GMMTV’s fault. Your heart was in this show, mine wasn’t. 
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City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 4 of 12 - These two are so good at making heart eyes at each other. It’s ridiculous. They don’t need any cartoon images or noises. Moot crush but "I wanna flirt and court more" is so flipping awesome. I love this for them… and us. 
1000 Years Old ep 2 of 12 - It’s very silly and we have been gifted with the dorkiest vampire ever. But... the smell thing makes me so happy. And I like that the vamp uses chan/nai or tan = v old fashioned. Nahlak. I love our ghost girl. Did you notice she wasn’t in the room with them but they left an empty chair for her? Also nahlak.
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Ongoing Series - Not Thai
Perfect Propose (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 5 of 6 - Kai was pretty much just “you're a workaholic but I basically married you whether you like it or not.” SMOOCH. What can I say? I'm a sucker for this dynamic.
AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - How is this show so cute? How do they both love and hurt each other so much. They are both just scared of loosing each other. Gah.
Unknown (Taiwan Sat Youku YouTube) 1 of 12 eps - Youku dropped the first ep to their YouTube channel but I doubt we can expect that to continue. Still, it was nice to be able to watch it in a convenient way. I enjoyed it. But I am cautious about it. Of course this is possibly two of my favorite tropes of all time (stepbrothers or a variation + hyung romance). So I’m looking forward to the romantic thread, but from the gritty style, it feels a lot more like a Taiwanese short. Which means it could go very dark and may not end happy. 
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Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 7 of 10 - I just don’t know if the main couple should be a couple. But when they finally get around to talking to each other, they sure are lovely. Also how great is it to see a uke initiate a kiss? Even if it’s not a very good kiss. 
My Strawberry Film (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 8 - I am still not sure about this one. I am not contesting its quality, just saying it’s not for me. Also I’m not wild about what amounts to basically a redo of everything that already happened in the first episode from a different perspective. I know it’s a tall order with Japan, but I would like (when it’s a short series) for each new installment to actually move the plot (such as it is) along in someway. Am I asking too much?
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It's done but I have no time
What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have any spare time. 2024 is crazy busy for me so far.
The Servant and the Young Master - from Vietnam, it's on YouTube. I will give it a try when I have a window of time.
Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube) - A Burmese BL? @heretherebedork vouched for it, so I will give it a watch.
It's airing but...
Dead Friend Forever (Thai iQIYI) - rumors are it's interesting but full of unlikable characters. I'm waiting to know how it ends.
Ossans Love Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 5 years later, will anything have changed? This is Japan so… probubly not. I won't be watching this. I disliked Season one and actively hated the follow ups. No thank you.
Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far. Ends next week TF.
Time the series (Tue Gaga/YT) 10 eps - dropped it at ep 4.
A Secretly Love (Thai WeTV) - I tried but I can't get into my WeTV account anymore and I'm way too lazy to figure it out. Should I bother to go grey for it?
To Be Continued (Thai C3 Thailand YT) - High school sweethearts who had a bad break up reunite when both of them have full time jobs but coming out is still a problem. You can watch this on YT but it has no Eng Subs.
Next Week Looks Like This:
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We're light on content right now, but frankly I'm so busy with work I don't really mind.
3/6 Born to be Y (Thai ????) 10 eps - 14 contestants who audition to compete in Born To Be Y, a program that searches for the best couple of the year to work together on a giant project. Described as semi-reality series. So I probably won't bother.
3/7 Deep Night (Thai iQiyi) 10 eps - Multiple romances set in a host clubs. Nice to see First back on my screen but this is not my favorite setting.
Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.
THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS
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The eyes have it.
Your random BL moment brought to you by my ult-bias being a hyung smartass to his maknae.
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(Last week)
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sgiandubh · 3 months
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What happened with Barbour ?
Dear Barbour Anon,
My favorite kind of Anon, even if I know the question has recently been asked again and not in this corner. Never mind, I think it's time to talk about it, too.
I bought my first Barbour (entry-level, so olive) Bedale wax jacket 25 years ago, from their (long gone, now) shop on Boulevard Raspail, in Paris. It was a mandatory clothing item to own if you wanted to properly mingle with the law school crowd (it still is) and it ended up being one of my most prized possessions, possibly a part of me. I still have it somewhere, back home. Two more followed, along with a fetishist array of shirts, scarves, beanies and even one of those sturdy crossbody bags you can fit half a house in. So you can imagine my absolute thrill when I found out, very very late, that S had had a rather substantial collaboration with them, from 2016 and until 2019.
I am very bad with timelines, as you probably know and possibly even cackle about, but still: S was appointed as the company's first ever Global Brand Ambassador on July 16, 2016. His mission statement was very precisely defined by the brand and for some reason we'll analyze a bit later, this is important:
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(Source, heh: https://www.astonbourne.co.uk/is-barbour-a-luxury-brand-unraveling-the-mystique-of-classic-outerwear/).
A shirt and vest signature collection followed in 2017 and 2018, with the contract being renewed. Advertisement was absolutely gorgeous and designed to shape a very positive image, both for S and the brand. Last autumn's SS Gin promo retained some of that irresistible aesthetic DNA and I discussed it at length.
See for yourself, Anon. The fandom endlessly discussed the first long clip (with the chocolate labrador), but I have no idea if these two have been seen, let alone debated. If they did, let that be my nostalgic mistake.
Spring/Summer 2018:
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Fall 2018:
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And then disaster stroke, with S's trip to Ha-wa-wee 1.0, in the spring of 2019. A short reel, featuring a rather agglomerated boat trip, was posted on socials. Unfortunately for S, it also featured an allegedly horrifying scene involving the 'traditional' bludgeoning to death of a tuna fish. Emotions ensued and as it often happens here, they spun out of control. Many people, including some of the most vocal S haters, tagged Barbour in their diatribes, filled with environmentalist indignation. They suggested this guy (who did not participate to the savagery and I would be even unsure he realized what was going on) was, by no reasonable means, a proper 'embodiment of the brand's identity, values and aspirations' (remember that mission statement?).
Tone deaf as ever in the midst of a serious PR crisis, S put friendship above anything else, and publicly praised the boat's owner, calling him 'the heart and soul of the island', if I remember well. I still would like to think he has no idea what the hell exactly happened. And then, when somebody finally (August 2019) asked Barbour on Insta about their collaboration with S, they got this politely dry, but clear answer:
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"We don't have any plans for a collaboration with SH in the near future" means, in my book and to my understanding, "we are never going to work with this guy again". Truly, some people in here who dare to give morality lessons to others, should be proud of themselves: they did it knowingly and in a very organized way, using multiple sock accounts, to give the impression of a collective retching reflex. To cut the story short, the dread of any ad campaign on this planet.
The effort was genuine. The result of that collaboration was very good. Take, for example, this somewhat heartbreaking customer review by an American guy who has no idea who SRH is and who bought one of those jackets from a Barbour factory warehouse, in 2021, with a hefty rebate (70% off). Clearly something Barbour wanted to get rid of at all costs - what a pity and really what a SHAME on all those hypocrites who will never admit to a public assassination by the book:
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This time, I am absolutely not sorry for the length, Anon. This is something that still makes me boil. Unfairness and cheap nastiness simply disgust me.
(Thank you, sweetheart, for the screenshot, always. You know who you are 😘😘😘).
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samantha-rae-velcher · 6 months
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Trust is for the Weak Pt. 2
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Lunch club!Jschlatt x Fem reader
Requested by: none
Warnings: Dubcon, swearing, forearm, gets spicy.
A/n: 18+ NSFW! If you don't like the warnings please don't read! PLEASE KEEP MY COMMENT SECTION AGGRESSION FREE!
Tag: @goldenstarofthunderclan ❤️ @youngcreatorlady 💜 @ogelizasoot 🩷
___
Y/n pulled away from Schlatt, running out onto the porch and looking around for any sign of Ted.
"Leave him, he's gonna die anyway." Schlatt said from his place in the livingroom.
"You'd love that wouldn't you? You've always been jealous of him, even when nothing was going on. Always so fuckin jealous, I should've seen it before..."
Schlatt turned to you, anger in his eyes.
"Seen what before? That I was the killer? That I was the one who killed Kristen?"
Y/n began backing up, nearly tripping on the door mat. She turned and ran outside and around the house, nearly screaming when she bumped into a large figure.
Y/n was grabbed by the shoulders and slammed into the side of the house, and a hand covered her mouth.
"Mph!" She attempted to speaking, pulling the hand away. "Ted!"
Y/n wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug, "Are you okay? He stabbed you, I-I thought you were dead."
"I'm alright, the knife didn't get me where it's too serious."
"We need to call the police, where did Charlie go?"
Ted winced in pain, "He ran to the neighbors."
"Alright, we'll go there."
___
3 yrs later
"Hey, Y/n." Ted said, walking up to the counter of the coffee shop. She's been working there for a few months since her, Ted, and Charlie had moved.
"Hey, Teddy. How are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm alright, I asked out this really cute girl..."
"Lemme guess, she said she'll go out with you?"
"Nope, turns out she was over thirty and married with four kids."
Y/n slapped her hand over her face, shaking her head. "Are you kidding? You couldn't tell?"
"No, she's one of those women who developed late."
"Oh lovely, what was your reaction when she said she was over thirty?"
"I spit my mountain dew all over her...on accident of course."
Y/n giggled, leaning against the counter and waiting for another customer.
"When are you off?" He asked.
"45 minutes, wanna hangout at one of the tables till I'm done here?"
"Yeah...Y/n..."
"Yeah?"
"When you are done, imma need to talk something serious with you...okay?"
"Y-yeah...of course."
When Y/n's shift was over, she ast across from Ted in a booth. The look on his face concerned her.
"What's going on?" She asked.
"I got a call from a pal back home, apparently he caught sight of a guy that looked like Schlatt."
"Are you kidding? J probably fled the country after what happened."
Ted gave her a serious look, "Y/n this could get bad. My pal said the guy had the back of his truck packed like he was gonna go for a long trip."
"So? Why is he spying on some poor dude?"
"Y/n it was a black 2016 Ford F-150. Which is the same truck Schlatt has wanted since it came out."
Y/n felt a shiver roll down her spine, "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying this guy might be Schlatt, and if it is he might be coming here."
"How the hell would he know where we are?" She asked. "We didn't tell anyone that we were coming here."
Ted looked down at his hands, he wanted to say something and she could see it.
"Who did you tell?" She asked.
"Dennis Michelin."
"You told Dickhead Dennis!? You tell that man to keep a secret from someone and they're the first person he runs his mouth too!"
"I know! I was drunk! It was a mistake!"
"Yeah Teddy! A mistake that's probably gonna cost us our lives."
___
Y/n was walking back to her apartment, the night was cold and quiet. The street was dimly lit by a few blinking street lights. She walked through the grass next to her building and when her feet it the gravel of the parking lot, she immediately stopped.
There in front was a truck she had never seen before, it was a black Ford F-150. Y/n couldn't tell if it was a 2016 or not without opening the driver side door, but it's not like she was gonna break it some poor sobs truck just to see the year.
She went up to the buildings door, typing in the code and slipping inside. Y/n made her way up the steps and took out her key, hesitating to turn it once it was in the lock.
"This is just stupid." She whispered, "He doesn't know where you are."
With that Y/n took a deep breath and pushed her door open. Her apartment was quite, the lights were off. The moon cascading a blue tint through the livingroom and kitchen.
Y/n set down her purse and slowly made her way down the hall, she opened her bedroom door and stepped inside. Nothing had changed from when she left this morning, she took off her coat and set it on the bed.
Y/n held her breath and stayed silent, waiting for any sign of movement in her home. There was nothing but the ticking of the clock and the beat of her racing heart.
She sighed, going back down the hallway and into the kitchen. Y/n opened the fridge, about to grab the bottle of wine when a figure sitting in the chair in front of the window caught her eye.
Y/n spun around and went to grab a knife from the block when the figure spoke.
"I wouldn't do that, Y/n/n." The sound of a pistol being cocked caught her attention. "Be a good girl, and take your hand away from the knife...slowly."
She could hear it was J, is accent was stronger and his voice was deeper.
"J?" She asked.
"Yeah, princess. It's me."
As she turned back to him, he stood. J was bigger than the last time she saw him. His face was still shaded from the light being behind him, but she could see the gun being pointed at her.
"You gonna kill me?"
"Why would I do that?" His tone was calm, it made the butterflies return to her stomach. A feeling she hasn't felt for three years. "Hmm? Why would I kill you when I can just take you with me?"
"W-what?"
"I love you, Y/n. When I couldn't find you after you ran from me it hurt, and I was scared for you...I knew I messed up...I shouldn't have let you run."
"You say you love me...but you're pointing a gun at me."
Schlatt took a shaky breath, but didn't lower his weapon.
"Come here."
She stayed where she was, "No."
"Are you afraid of me?"
Y/n shook her head.
"Then come here."
She slowly took a step forward, waiting to see when would happen. All she could hear was his shaking breaths and that same clock.
Y/n finally got close enough to where their shoes were almost touching. He lowered the gun and set it on the table behind him.
His hand came up and closed around her throat, it wasn't tight enough to choke her but Schlatt could definitely feel her pulse.
"You are scared." He said, resting his forehead against hers.
"You're bigger."
Schlatt chuckled, placing his hand on her hip and pulling her closer. He leaned down and planted kisses against her neck.
"I've missed your scent." He whispered. "Your touch."
He slid his hands under her shirt, making her gasp. Schlatt was so warm and gentle, it was hard for her to see him as the person who killed their friends.
"Let me feel you, baby." His breath of hot on her neck. "let me take care of you."
"J-....n-no....we can't."
"Shh, I know you want it."
Y/n looked up at him, only this time she could see his face. He had chops and his hair was longer and pulled back with a head band.
She felt heat pool between her legs just at the sight of him.
"Ohh." He whispered, "She likes what she sees."
Without warning Y/n took him by the sides of his face and pulled him into a searing kiss. He picked her up and walked them into her bedroom, laying Y/n down on her soft mattress.
Schlatt began unbuttoning her shirt, planted kisses down her body.
Memories played in her head of Schlatt before that night three years ago. They were so close, she had always wanted to feel his body against hers and his voice as he whispers sweet praises in her ear.
Schlatt gripped her wrists and held her down, attacking her sweet spot and pressing his knee between her legs.
"I'm gonna take you with me, sweetheart. You won't ever have to run again."
Part 3?
THE END ❤️
Hope you enjoyed
Reblogs are welcome 🤗
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sanjuwrites · 3 months
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wip wednesday
thanks to @inkweedandlizards, @heartstringsduet, @alrightbuckaroo, @carlos-in-glasses and @theghostofashton for the tag!
getting two for the price of one today!
agent reyes
“It’s not like I haven’t stolen from the British museum before, I don’t think the security schematics are going to be that different this time around, at least in terms of the security cameras and alarm systems. Guards and extraneous security for the jewelry? Now that’s a different story, we need your friend Alex for that. So tell him to not bother with blueprints, but for extraneous security for the diamonds. I heard that the prince is going to be there, so there’s definitely some extra people.”
Carlos’ expression twitches at the mention of Alex’s husband, before smoothing back out.
Carlos frowns, processing what TK said, “Wait, what the hell did you steal from The British Museum? Your dossier – which I put together, by the way – has nothing stolen from the British Museum. You’ve never set foot in the museum, as far as we know.”
Mateo lets out a snort, and Marjan – which, what the hell, she’s quiet – laughs a little. 
“I’m sorry, am I missing something?” Carlos frowns, looking around. 
“No, sorry, it’s just that Paul said that the CIA never made the connection, but I didn’t realize that you literally have no idea, not even an inkling. This is so much more complicated to explain, Jesus.” TK thuds his head against the dining table, a silent scream leaving him. 
“Spit it out, TK.” Carlos feels his impatience and anxiety rising in tandem.
“I was also the Shadow Thief.”
Carlos blinks. “What?”
“I stole under a different alias from 2013 to mid-2016, until…” TK clears his throat, “until my mother died. I flew off the rails a little after that, and then I came back as the Phoenix. There’s a couple jobs you didn’t catch as the Phoenix, before some of the other crews gave me the nickname. I forged the coins to drop around the jobs after that, as a little calling card and homage to the crews that helped me …rise back up, so to speak.”
untitled house run - rwrb
Alex sits back in his desk chair, blowing out a breath. 
At thirty-four, he can safely say that this was never in his plan anymore, not after everything that happened with him and Henry. 
God, he needed to talk to Henry.
Speak of the angel, and he shall appear, Alex thinks wryly. Henry leans against the doorway, smiling at him softly, holding a glass of red wine. “Hey love. I called you five times to come down for dinner, but you didn’t answer. Is everything okay?”
Alex smiles at Henry, and if it looks fake, Henry doesn’t call him on it, just walks over to him, pressing a kiss to his temple, sitting on the edge of the desk. “I’m okay, baby, just busy with this trial coming up for the firm. My associate has been out for a week with appendicitis, so I’m also doing a lot of prep work for it too. Is that,” Alex says, nodding at the glass, “for me?”
Henry nods, handing the glass off. “Do you want me to bring dinner up, love?”
Alex closes his laptop, shaking his head. “No, this can wait till tomorrow. For now, I just want to enjoy the night with my husband, if that works for you? Or do you have some prettier man to sneak off to?” Alex has the most shit-eating grin on his face, and Henry rolls his eyes. 
“Yes, Alex, I sneak out every night as I require the sexual rigor of a twenty-five year old to keep my appetite satiated,” he says in a deadpan, making Alex laugh as he brackets Henry’s hips against the desk, leaning down to kiss him once, twice, thrice.
“Let me show you ‘sexual rigor,’ baby,” he murmurs against Henry’s jaw before sucking the skin into his mouth. Henry lets out a breathy laugh as he lets himself be pushed down onto the desk, wine glass and all thoughts of dinner abandoned as they lose themselves in each other.
i'm gonna tag @bonheur-cafe, @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut, @birdclowns, @liminalmemories21, @reyesstrand, @lightningboltreader, and @strandnreyes!
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lermisv4 · 10 months
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Arc-V Month Day 30 - Curtains Down!
@arcvmonth This event... Honestly, it brought back memories for me. I had attempted in the past, years ago while the show was still airing, to complete all the prompt challenges of the @arcvanniversary blog way back when. My Parallel Thoughts collection is still quite dear in my heart, even though I never actually managed to complete anything even remotely in time - hell, it’s STILL incomplete.
Arc-V... changed quite a few things in my life to be honest, which to people in the “real world” would not be significant. It was what really introduced me to tumblr, even though I had no account back then - every single day for most of 2014 to 2016 I would go and check the fanart of this one tag in particular. It was the fandom that introduced me to TV Tropes and what fandom culture really was, and it took over my brain since, even when I was absorbed in other stuff.
Arc-V... it was the frustration of trying to catch new episodes when there was no internet while on vacation so I had to go to a cafe. It was the crazy theories we would each write less than twelve episodes into the show. It was that feeling that almost made me cry when I heard Swing, Pendulum of Souls the first time or when episode 7 happened and we all just knew that this show was about to be unlike anything else. And so much more- I could go forever.
This event reminded me of all of that. Right in the middle of exam period for me (as were the previous ones before I was in uni lol), but it made me retouch old AUs and other fanworks I thought completely lost in the wind, and showed me that the fandom is still alive out there. It has slowed down, certainly. But it’s still out there and I’m glad to see that.
Perhaps one day I will get to write the fics I want for Arc-V - once I have the time, ability, focus, and motivation. For now, events like these keep my passion alive, for which I’m grateful.
Thank you. I hope everyone else enjoyed it too.
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norcumii · 2 years
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your name came up in one of the discord screenshots about the flamethrower drama, i didn't want to ask until i saw your tag comments but it was about useing your goodname to weigh in on this situation. Honestly i don't know the truth of what happened other than the alleged abuse matches personal experiences from completely different irl people
This is fascinating. Now, maybe I missed a post in all the drama – gods know I’ve tried to keep clear of a lot since I cannot with much of anything lately (see the recent lack of regular posting), but I honestly don’t know how many discord screenshots ARE running around in the first place, let alone which ones you’re referencing. The one post I do know about, I couldn’t find my name ANYWHERE in there until in the actual text down near the bottom of a very large image. Hell, I don’t think I even spoke up in any of those screenshots. 
So I have no idea if this is actually in good faith or not, but let’s proceed as if it is just in case, given I have no idea what’s actually being asked in the first place. Here’s my best guess!
Look, I’ll be honest. I don’t know what went down – I wasn’t there when shit happened. In 2016, I was getting out of my own terrible relationship, and spending several years focused ENTIRELY on trying to become functional again while trying not to watch Agent Orange burn down the White House. It was still a really stressful time, even out of that relationship.
Here’s what I do know. I’ve been chatting with Flamethrower pretty consistently over roughly 8 years. The only times I’ve EVER heard anything about phoenixes, aliens, gods, demons, and/or angels has solely been in the realm of discussing fic. I don’t recall reincarnation even coming up once in any context. I’d like to think we’re pretty good friends, so one would think if that was a significant part of her identity there’d be SOME kind of segue when we were talking about related elements over eight years.
It would be some pretty impressive compartmentalization to keep me entirely ignorant about that. Certainly not impossible, but impressive given how our conversations tend to wander. And even if that IS the case, even if she does believe any of the more out there things, consider this: I’ve been talking with her for eight years, and not once has this come up. If she does buy into anything about phoenixes, aliens, gods, demons, and/or angels, then for the last eight years she’s respected my boundaries and interest and/or lack thereof regarding theology and mysticism to never even get into it. Seriously, any time that part of the accusations shows up, THAT part is the one that leaves me gaping and gesturing in vague and useless circles because it comes entirely out of left field. If she does believe it, she sure as shit isn’t working to spread that doctrine. 
I visited Flamethrower and her family somewhere in...*squints* 2015? Early 2016? I don’t know offhand, just somewhere in the last year or so of my hell relationship, but before their housemate moved in. And I spent a delightful long weekend with her and her family. The kids were incredibly sweet and one even lent me their room for that time so I’d have a cat free place to sleep – I’m wildly allergic to cats, to the point where I tend to travel with my own air filter nowadays because unfortunately, so many of my friends also have cats.
The atmosphere was thoroughly comfortable – I do know for a fact that during that time and for several years afterwards, I was hypervigilant to interpersonal stress and friction (the first few times my parents had tiffs and disagreements after I moved back in with them were WILDLY stressful and I was freaked out WELL out of proportion to their grumpiness with each other). I think there wasn’t 100% smooth sailing – there was something about a meal not going as planned, I think? And the kids had a few disagreements – but it was all settled pretty quick and gave off the vibe that these are folks who know how to conflict resolution. Sure I got a little twitchy - I still do when watching interpersonal conflict on tv. It cleared out very quickly, and far moreso than when my folks have had disagreements. 
(For the record, the kid who lent me their room never seemed grumpy or resentful about the fact, and both kids seemed to be happy to have a guest over. The biggest issue seemed to be that I tended to slip and addressing them as ‘kiddos’ which they were very kind in continuing to correct me to not do that.)
Even the cats were wildly friendly – even moreso than the usual “ah, new human I see you are allergic PET ME THAT WILL MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER” shenanigans I tend to get from random animals. I recall that at one point I was sitting on a couch, poking my laptop while chatting with folks, and one of the cats decided it was the perfect time to cuddle up in my lap for pettings. I screeched and tried to levitate; the cat kept going right OVER my legs and had to be corralled by one of the humans.
I don’t understand how in a high conflict environment the cats could be THAT comfortable not just around a new stranger, but also to go running TO their humans for protection.
I did not see ANY evidence of violence, unusual levels of strife, or controlling behavior. I have no freaking idea what went down in a household I wasn’t in. I remember during 2016 to 2018 there were chat conversations about strained interactions; very occasionally annoying neighbors; NEVER anything about any sort of demons or demonic possessions. Really, to my knowledge all we have is the claims of one person against the other, and when it comes to the claims I’ve been hearing against Flamethrower?
I just know that the math doesn’t seem to add up.
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demcnsinmymind · 1 year
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The big ole Friedkin's cult after 1948 lore post
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Buckle up folks, my brain came up with more convoluted cliché stuff!
So, yay! As if my possession timeline/lore page wasn't long enough already, my brain decided to come up with even more stuff for Friedkin's cult! Don't mind the fact that Friedkin had a total screentime of maybe 5-10 minutes throughout both movies where we only saw him sacrifice babies and ram icepicks into people's brains without much explanation.
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BUT WHO CARES! I'LL ADD EVEN MORE CLICHÉ'S TO THAT AND MAKE IT EVEN MORE COMPLICATED!
Anyway, to recap what I've come up with so far, based on and inspired by canon:
Friedkin ran a cult inside Collingwood in the 40s, one that was looking to turn a human being (experimented with and selected from the wide pool of helpless patients inside the hospital) into a suitable host for the ghost of Friedkin's son, who killed himself while trapped at the frontlines of world war II. All thanks to Friedkin's experiments with a wide range of occult scriptures, his cult ended up bringing their 'idols' into our realm instead of Friedkin's son, namely L/ovecraft's Nyarlalothep "the crawling chaos" and messenger of the outer god Azathoth, which tagged along, too. Accompanied by a whole truckload of other demons, ghosts and creepy things that slipped right through the tear Friedkin created within the building.
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It all came to a climax when Lance was dragged through the hole all that mess tore into the building and into 1948, and he in return got possessed by Nyarly first, followed by Azathoth right after Lance helped kill Friedkin along with other patients and then burned the building to the ground. In a nutshell, 1948 was a paradoxical mess and the origin of everything and long story short, that paradox + Azathoth expelled Lance right out of that messy past and back to 2016. I'm terrible at summarizing that lore page but here we go. The detailed page makes more sense than this short paragraph, I swear. Anyway, I never really thought things further for said cult until now, but today is the day folks, and I'm having a ball.
The cult - 1948 until 2016
So get this: not all members of Friedkin's cult were dragged through the time mumbo-jumbo, killed and distorted the second Nyarly and Azzy were drawn inside Collingwood by their experiments and rituals. In fact, some of the nurses/orderlies who had participated in the rituals and experiments weren't even on duty when the whole loop started/ended/crashed. So even with Lance and the patients getting their sweet and bloody revenge on the cult after weeks/months/years of abuse and Collingwood going down in flames - Friedkin's cult slash the cult of Azathoth didn't entirely vanish or cease to exist after August 1948. Quite the opposite, it went on and on for many centuries.
Picture it like cults akin to the one in the awesome podcast Archive 81 or cool movies like "The Ritual" from 2017 or the freaky Midsommar stuff. Or hell, even your typical real life religions and cults. The teachings and beliefs were passed on amongst family and friends of the ones who survived. Hell, some of Friedkin's staff and cult members were in their early to mid 20s in 1948 and are around 95~ish in 2016 and still alive. And with all the chaos that happened in 1948, Friedkin's death a day after their most promising ritual was supposed to take place, the fire right after? They knew their ritual had been successful and that their cult was far from done and defeated.
They were well connected within Ryerson Valley. They got their hands on the investigation notes. They knew the description of the man who supposedly started the fire and burned down their workplace and ritual grounds. They knew Lance was Friedkin's pet project and with him missing post August 16th 1948 and not showing up again, remembering all his talk about the future, the 2000s, time being messed up and all, they knew through all this chaos and strangeness that he would turn up again. In the future. Just like he talked about. They just had to wait for their little possessed success story to turn up again.
So they bid their time and faded into obscurity. They kept their eyes on Collingwood. Watched it get built up again. Watched it get closed in the 60s due to it never recovering from Friedkin's reputation, the fire, the stories. They watched the renovation efforts fail in the 80s and 90s. They waited until March 2003 until Lance did turn up again, only the beginning of his loop for him. They knew he was the one. They watched and let him and his team step foot inside the building. They didn't stop him. They didn't warn him. They didn't let any of them see them. They knew he had to step inside and vanish one more time for them - to end up in their past. And once he was gone, once police turned up again to start their investigation into the disappearance of a film crew, they stood and they watched and they waited some more. Days. Weeks. 9 months, the amount of time Lance had spent with them in 1948. And then some more.
Original cult members started dying, a few every other year, but they never stopped believing, until they reached 2016. In August, there were rumors of the elders sensing the presence of Azathoth within their realm once more. He was back. The host. The one. This time at the end of his loop and down along the linear progression of their living time. Lance Preston, discovered by Kenny the caretaker, brought in to be examined and taken care of at Danvers state hospital.
Now in charge of the cult of Azathoth from Ryerson Valley, Maryland is a 33 year old woman named Andromeda Peterson, granddaughter of one of the original members of Friedkin's cult. Coming from a long line of psychiatric nurses, she happens to work not just at Danvers', but is also the head of the CPH (short for Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital) historical society - which happens to be more than interested in Lance. Stating his curious case and disappearance inside the hospital they've been trying to preserve as the main driving force behind their interest.
Short IRL interlude. Andromeda's FC is Han/nah E/mily Ande/rson in C/ollin M/inihan's movie "What Keeps You Alive". Fun fact - CM is one half of the Vicious bros aka the dudes who wrote GE! So I'm kinda staying within that universe haha. HEA was fantastic in that movie, holy moly. I am absolutely stealing some of her mannerisms from that movie for Andromeda. I mean check it (she's the one with long red hair)
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The cult post 2016 in my main possessed!verse.
Anyway, back to the cult shenigans. Previously, I hadn't really mapped out yet who Lance killed because I loved that he killed someone in canon but hated the second movie and refuse most of it as canon for my depiction of him. But now I got it figured out!
So as stated in my previous lore and bio stuff, Lance was institutionalized at Danver's state hospital after he turned back up in his 'normal' timeline again, and it took him a bit to adjust until something kicked him into action and made him flee from the hospital and investigation into him - thus getting him back outside and ready for his main post-canon verse where he's possessed by Azzy.
But now I got a neat idea and it shall be my new headcanon.
Members of Friedkin's cult/the cult of Azathoth catch wind of him turning back up and being at Danvers and thus it turning back up again, so they're more than eager to get a hold of him so they can further their chaotic fuckery of unleashing Azathoth/chaos/the end times and what not. And since Andromeda as well as a few other members of said cult are working at Danvers, they naturally start turning up right on his doorstep to 'take care of him', 'interview' him about Collingwood, take his record for their 'historical society'.
Basically an expansion of this scene that was cut from the movie but I'M KEEPING IT SUE ME
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All thanks to some of the questions being weird, having Azathoth inside his brain as well as the familiarity of Andromeda's methods of gaslighting and just generally being fake and shady as fuck for a nurse (just like Friedkin and the 1948s nurse squad), it doesn't take Lance long to figure out that the cult still exists even in his time and is still interested in keeping their whole stick up of trying to fully unleash Azathoth and wreck hell. Maybe to turn Danver's hospital into a next purgatory like Collingwood (because he also learns, from Azathoth, that the torturing and experimenting on patients is still going on even at Danvers, though more selectively, smarter, and covert), maybe to fuck their entire existence, whatever it is, Lance soon catches on to their fuckery.
And naturally, he freaks. He runs from them. And while trying to do so, he ends up killing someone, the cameraman, a med student and actual genuine member of the historical society, who doesn't actually know about the cult and is in it for the urban legend and history of the place, is fairly naive/somewhat dumb and has been talked into recording the 'sessions' for Andromeda (the guy is basically headcanon pendant to canon Trevor from the second film). So on his way out of Danvers and away from the cult, Lance finds himself forced to kill someone in the freakout to stop them from filming and gaslighting him, and next to breaking out of a psychiatric hospital, has to be on the run from the police and investigators because he's now also wanted for murder.
Andromeda survives his defensive freakout along with the rest of the cult that wasn't there when it happened (again) - so with Lance on the run now, she and thus they are on the hunt for him just like the police, to get their hands on his body as a vessel and Azathoth as their deity and bringer of doom.
Funnily enough though, Azathoth has no interest in their cult and them whatsoever, since they already gave it everything that it needs - Lance, a vessel to parade it around places. It doesn't care for worship or any structures and whatnot, and will be more than happy to kill members of the cult if they get too close. Because unlike it, they want Lance - his consciousness and soul basically- dead and entirely gone so their vessel reaches its full potential for everything they're crazy about , but Azathoth is having none of it because it wants to keep Lance just the way he is. Alive and miserable, and playing on its team sort of.
I'll be flashing their interests and goals out a bit more one of these days and I might integrate her as the head of said cult in modern times a bit more too but here we go, that's all I got for today.
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kimkaelyn · 9 months
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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤
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Shout out to the amazing @andypantsx3 for the tag! Sending lots of love and happiness your way!
Hmmm, so this is difficult. In my opinion, I haven't published many worth mentioning fics but if I had to choose any, they would be these. 5.) This is for all of the stories that I started to write, but never finished; and all of the stories that were ideas in my head that never got to be played out. I love you and do think about your worlds and stories.
4.) Can I Sing At Your Wedding | Kim Namjoon
I don't have a reason for why I am including this. I just find it hilarious and a big mess that makes me smile every time I read it.
3.) Ditto | Shouto Todoroki
when you transferred to U.A., you didn't anticipate slipping on a pair of chopsticks in the middle of the crowded cafeteria during your first week. however, what took you by surprise was the unexpected fall for the boy who gracefully caught you.
This isn't released yet, but I am having so much fun writing it!!!!!! I'm looking forward to sharing this with you all!
2.) Marinette Claire | Miraculous Ladybug
She made a promise to him. But something happened and she disappeared. What would happen three years later when she returns with secrets you never could imagine?
Soooooo, this is the first fic that I actually ever wrote. I never finished it (at least on paper), but it is special to me. I wrote this all the way back in 2016 when I was twelve or thirteen. At the time, I was trying to navigate my feelings and grief over a classmate's death. And those emotions that I was feeling is reflected in this story. This story is about a boy trying to navigate the death of his best friend and try to figure out how to move on with life.
Basically, I was writing about myself, but speaking through the character of Adrien Agreste (T_T omg i can't believe I just typed that out). This story was my coping mechanism, and it was a light when I was surrounded by so much darkness.
1.) Lost at Sea | Marvel
"Cap! We found her!"
After I woke up, I met this gorgeous woman. Eventually, we got married and had a daughter. We were very happy. I never allowed my work as Captain America to come in between my family and I. Until a sudden mission forced me to leave our family vacation in Italy and catch the next flight to D.C. My wife and daughter were supposed to fly back two days later, but they never made it home...
"Where's my daughter?"
"All we know is that she's not with her mother."
Now I know you guys' are probably racking your memories trying to see if you have read this story before, and the answer to that is probably not. Lost at Sea is the first multiple-chaptered fic that I finished. I wrote it all the way back in 2017-2018 while I was in middle school. This story is my baby, and my OC Mariana... I don't know what to say about her only that she holds a special place in my heart. (Seriously if I have a daughter I am going to name her Mariana.) Maybe because she is the type of person that I wish I was, but regardless, she is my everything.
I wrote Lost at Sea during a very difficult time in my life. I haven't talked about this here on tumblr before, but middle school was hell for me. I was severely bullied over my online presence and I am ashamed to say that they made my old childhood persona die, and they are the reason that I use a pseudonym now. At that time, while being bullied, I was trying to figure out who I was and find a place where I belonged. I, like so many writers and artisans, turned to art as a way to cope and navigate my emotions and changing world. The result of that is Lost at Sea. I poured my everything into that book, and I am so so so proud of it. I have come a long way since it was completed, and I promise one day I will go back and give it the revision it so desperately deserves.
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Thank you again Andie for the tag!
no pressure tags: @yoonia @floatingpetals @missrosegold @thecowboykatsuki-anon @vampyrsm @ghostgirl19posts @kpopfanfictrash @jamaisjoons @jeonstudios @riverofmemoriesft
(I apologize if you are already tagged, but please do @ me in your post so I can read about your favorite fics!!)
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josiebelladonna · 1 year
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so.
i’ve been thinking about this for the past week or so, and i don’t really know how to say this without being completely and totally blunt with it as i usually am, anyway.
i’m going on hiatus again. i don’t know how long i’ll be away—it was either that or deleting, and i decided not to do away with deleting because i lose everything otherwise but i need to get away from here.
between the shitbrained updates staff keeps inflicting onto us and i really don’t know if it’s just a me thing and people on here are genuinely repulsed by me, or if there’s something happening collectively that i’m not okay with because it happened while i wasn’t paying attention but… i’m finding myself more and more pissed off by tumblr and this current generation that’s on here at the moment.
i’m so sick of everything being so detached. i’m so sick of everyone being offended rather than curious. i literally hate the word “mutual” now because of this site—it’s especially weird for me because that word didn’t exist in the first year or two i was here. we all knew who our friends were and we all addressed each other by name, we didn’t have these fucking stupid posts that are a dime a dozen watering down the whole neighborhood feel of it all. there was a joke about tumblr, back around 2011-2013, where if you an account on here, you were considered “forever alone” because you were a nerd: you shared things you loved, you were curious about things like sexuality (back when they genuinely allowed nsfw content, no less), you spoke your mind no matter how caustic your opinion, and you were kind of safe here to boot. you were considered “forever alone” because you either got it or you didn’t. 
it came to a head around 2014/2015, and i started seeing a serious pushback in 2016, how closing yourself off to other experiences and new people is toxic, something i absolutely do agree with, but the thing is it immediately started to warp itself and dumb itself down, a long slow process that came to the absolute dumbest conclusion of “mutuals”, whatever the fuck that’s even supposed to signify. it’s such a vague term, like what the hell is it even supposed to mean? what degree of companionship are we talking about here? someone clarify this for me.
“they’re not my friends! they’re my mutuals!” i consider teababe on here and brambles on instagram as my friends and not once do i have to refer to them as that. bro, i remember following people on here and we became facebook friends: i remember people on here genuinely meeting up with each other and sending each other things—like actually sending things, making gifts and mailing it to them. i never see that anymore: i could not tell you the last time i saw that. nate peck and eric peterson are my mutuals on ig but i don’t feel comfortable calling them that, especially nate, because quite frankly, i value them more than that.
plus, it was coupled with that fucking election cycle: everything became political almost overnight. with the blatant politics everywhere you turned and people complaining about every little thing comes lack of finesse. with lack of finesse or subtlety comes lack of imagination. things started to get dumbed down really quickly and it was getting on my nerves just as quick.
i wasn’t here for all of 2017 and most of 2018, but i could only assume that those old bloggers just moved on or they too went quiet and their posts started going quiet as well, going down into the tags to the point of being buried. you get new blood in there who grew up watching tumblr from the sidelines and they don’t know what to do with it, especially once the nsfw ban came about.
so gone are the days of being calm and collected and civil about things, and now you have so many bloggers who are just not interested in culture, or don’t even seem to understand or care how tumblr is supposed to work. in hindsight, i should have realized that things were quite different on here than they were in 2013 when i saw the green druidess complaining about some bad review with the line “community? what community?” i remember she showed it to me, too: the way it sits in my memory was it almost felt like a parody, like the person was just fooling around (kind of like what i do) and just trying to get a rise. i remember actually saying, “oh my god, i really hope this is just a joke. it looks like a joke.” but i remember telling her that if something does offend you that much, say something (and boy, did that get warped or what). but that’s kind of how it was back then: we knew about shit going on but we knew how to have good fun from time to time even if it was inflammatory because the world does indeed suck. i remember thinking that 2013 was the worst year ever, and then 2015 was, and then 2016, and then 2017 happened and you realize that i quit doing that shit. 
yes, even in 2020, i never said that once, because you learn to laugh at your pain. you learn to laugh at a world that’s been going straight to hell for the last 20 years, because… look at it, it does seem genuinely ridiculous at times.
the first half of the 2010s, when i showed up here as a scrappy troubled 20-year-old bouncing around stem school and into a community college, was quite literally the best time to be on here. when i came back from that 2 year vacation, i had a sense that things were different, especially when i started seeing less art and nsfw content (this was right before the ban, too, like a few months before), and i had to dig around for smutty fanfic. 2019 came along with the green druidess and her “raunchy side” and i feel like that was the “…oh, dear” moment. the moment i realized that tumblr is not what it was 5, 6 years before, and you’re having to make a disclaimer for your own sexuality now—not good for someone like me who constantly grapples with that part of life, and especially over that summer, too. don’t get me wrong: 2019 was a fun year from what i remember, but it gave me a bad feeling.
the pandemic happened… we all know what happened there. three years later, looking at my thirties, and i’m back at square one and wanting a place where i can really be myself. a place that was like tumblr circa 2013 or 2014, even though that time is history now. instagram, for what it’s worth, has done wonders for me, but there’s a reason why those of us who had witnessed it remember it so fondly.
don’t get me wrong: there was a ton of shit back then—and i mean, a lot of shit—but given the choice, i will gladly take that era again over whatever trash this current era of tumblr is. that era was just a lot more entertaining and fun to think about. people didn’t gloss over everything, calling their perfectly natural sexuality their “raunchy/wild side” or be vague about someone or something to the point of sounding so fake and corny: that’s the thing, i could probably forgive her corniness if she wasn’t so damn fake and glossed over shit. if she was actually being real, she’d use words like “anxiety” or go into her past in more elaborate detail, but instead glosses it over with running from a past demon and “being real” whatever the fuck that’s supposed to quantify. 
and it’s a problem i see all too often on here now, people being too afraid to address each other by name—their real name, too, not just their handle—and go absolutely batshit with the block button for anything that they don’t like, sealing themselves off from anything that can challenge them or help them grow. and as a result, people on here almost don’t even seem human anymore, just a bunch of robots spewing out generalities and i get nothing out of it. this shit started going sideways a long time ago and it was only a matter of time before the whole echo chamber phenomenon started catching up with us and cemented by something like tiktok.
thing is, i’m usually in a really good mood during the day—and i’m in an even better mood when alex is involved—but it goes away once i get on tumblr now. it wasn’t always like this, either: i used to look forward to coming onto here. now, i actually worry about posting a smut fic or a drawing on here because it’ll either get bupkiss or someone is going to claim that i’m somehow not real because they failed to get to know me and instead relegated me to the level of ~mutual~
one place i’m thinking of going to is dreamwidth because like ao3, it’s made for creatives by creatives. another is fetlife, given i’m trying to feel better about my kinks without worrying about someone complaining about the mature label on a drawing i made or a chapter i wrote: i’m also not hot enough for onlyfans. yeah, don’t get me started on how my face has been treated on here: i was never tagged to post selfies whereas all of you were with the claim that “we’re all beautiful!”, and when i did post a pic, most of you ran for the hills. thanks for joining me in my feeling good, you ugly boring hypocritical fucks.
my other option is to just stay with instagram and ao3. no need to start something new when i can utilize what i already have. as for now, that’s just what i have: my ig is badmotorartist and my ao3 is josiebelladonna. i’ll hang out on the side blogs, too, my art blog (badgalnirvhannah), the fever in fever out blog, and my healing blog (theghostandthehealer), although… if i’m being honest, healing, a natural process, has almost become the poor man’s blogging, like no one seems to realize that you start a healing journal for a reason—i started that blog because the snow back in february was starting to get to me and i knew there were other people in my position (plus, you have people in new york and the northeast feeling down about the lack of snow they got this winter, the reverse effect)—not because you think it’s cool or aesthetic. 
more testament fans are out there and this is where the “I don’t know if this is just a ‘me’ thing” mindset comes in. for example, type o has gotten hella popular the last few years, and the anthrax tag has grown a lot since the green druidess and i were at it. you would think it’s happening with testament but… not really. i see more metallica fics repeating the same lore over and over again (i was observing this last night, too: not a single “jameson” or st. anger era fic mentions devin townsend, either, and i don’t know if that’s a good thing or utterly pathetic) but love for these five men is minuscule at best.
and *grits teeth* don’t get me started on ai. i feel like i’ve said everything i needed to say about it because i know i’m just going to be repeating myself, and i doubt people will listen, either, because what i have to say is not punchy enough. who cares if it’s for the greater good, it has to look and sound good. what more can i say about this and that’s not going into the pervasive discouragement and feeling of worthlessness that i think i’m always going to feel but… i’m not even touching that.
something told me i was going to have to leave tumblr at some point, but when was another question. and i think i just found my “when”. maybe somewhere down the line, i can figure out how to archive this thing because i’ve been here almost a decade now: i don’t want to lose everything.
again, i don’t know how long i’m going to be away from here, but i can’t be here anymore—by the way, if there’s an uptick in fics on here, i’m not at all going to be surprised, because that literally happened when i went quiet for those two years, and it sort of happened again when i threatened to leave back in 2020. i get it: i just am not likable. why do you think i struggled with self-love for as long as i did.
you know what will surprise me is people missing me on here. like, seriously: i will be surprised if someone straight up tells me they miss seeing me on here, given the damage i’ve done.
a new chapter of as the seasons grey is dropping some time tonight, i’m gonna keep updating my fics, and i quite literally promised alex a handful of trio drawings, too 😅. i’m a culture person: i want to live and learn and explore the world. i’m also a very earthy person, very sensual and very emotional and very sentimental and i hate how we all treat each other.
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Thoughts while watching Predator (1987) for the first time.
Schwarzenegger is credited before the title. The only other Schwarzenegger film I’ve seen is the gooey clone one? I know he was a big deal in film though.
Judging from track 1 this is a god-tier soundtrack. Old-school orchestra ensemble vibes. The non-standard tempo is really setting the stage.
“Someone accused you of being the best” hell yeah we got some airport thriller schlock starting from the first page of dialogue and I’m here for it.
Carl Weathers, that’s a name I know primarily from Arrested Development. I admire a man who can play a washed-up, hard-up version of himself without winking at the camera. This isn’t that of course, this is the glory days.
I was raised in a bubble so I don’t really get how Schwarzy got so famous. This movie does not pass by 2022 film acting standards, and him in particular. It’s setting itself up to be a good time and all but like, was he coasting by on muscles and jaw structure?
Long chopper sequence is really driving home something that I believe about films: less plot is often better. (You can’t fit a whole novel in there buddy, stop stop stahhp you’re gonna smoosh it.) A movie is a short story, full stop.
This honky tonk song is starting to grate. Can we get John Williams Lite back in the room please.
We got a pussy joke and an F-slur in the same scene and no one bats an eye, wow, the 80s literally happened eh?
I’m pretty sure Mr. Tobacco’s gonna be the first one to die. He’s got like an exaggerated bad-ass lone-wolf mystique that’s just begging for a surprise shoulder-to-hip slash from the predator’s sword or tail or whatever they’ve got. This is my first Predator movie so idk. Plus Carl’s chiding him about his tobacco habit is totally an ironic setup.
Dude just KICKED a TURKEY where is peta
“Jim Hopper” is the name on the dog tag of one of the flayed fellas. Yeah, I know a Stranger Things (2016) reference when I see one.
“Payback time” my guy you are unboxing a full 85-lb minigun in the middle of a tropical rainforest with no idea how much further you have to walk and one of your squadmates going around threatening to put anyone who’s too noisy in a Juicero. You are a cautionary tale waiting to happen.
Schwarzy stacking explosion damage in the enemy camp like he’s going for an achievement. Do they really need this many bazookas for an op like this? Just thinking about the cost to the taxpayer here.
“I don’t have time to bleed.” This whole thing was written by a high schooler. What a gift.
Time for an intermission. Gotta take a walk and put out the recycling. Will return.
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absolutebl · 2 months
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This Week in BL - It's 2024 & I'm talking about TayNew... really?
(They pretty much told us all to sit down and shut tf up, 'cause they got this. AND THEY DO.)
Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.
Feb 2024 Wk 3
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Ongoing Series - Thai
Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube grey) ep 9 of 12 - I broke. In my defense, it was Monday, I needed comfort, and TayNew were right tf there. Ya know what? They are great in this show. It's a great adaptation. I might like it more than the JBL live action. You know why? Really, honestly WHY...?
That was a PHENOMENAL KISS. Those boys did Thailand fucking proud. They did fandom a solid. Thank you OGs for reminding us how it's done. I was getting used to SloppyHot. And SloppyHot has its place, but that TayNew rooftop kiss was a top tear class act. It was tender and sweet and respectful and joyful. It was eye work and breath work and years of practice. How very far BL has come while still staying so much the same. TayNew - I salute you!
(Read all about distribution issues here.)
The Sign (Sat YT) ep 12fin - we waiting, I guess? Bah.
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Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 11 of 12 - The recipe book thing was so damn cute and I love a claiming. YOU KNOW I LOVE A CLAIMING!
In fact, I love OffGun.
I love food based BL.
I adored seeing a reboot of "the infamous dragging". 
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But I don’t love anything else about this show. Sigh.
1000 Years Old ep 1 of 12 - Finally we get our gay vampire BL from Feel Good Bangkok. Stars Shane (My Engineer) and fresh face Opal, directed by Champ (2gether). It’s kind of odd but enjoyable. A group of teen UFO seekers find a vampire instead. Opal looks a bit like a mix between Newnu + Leo (VIXX) - so cute + edge. Also, nice to see Shane again on our screens after so long. 
Finally, I like the subtle (and sometimes not subtle) presence of ghosts permeating this show. Do the friends know she's there? Do they know she's dead? Is the existence of paranormal accepted but not that of aliens? Or are the two combined? Is this lazy writing or just fun world building? Who cares! It's enjoyable.
For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 12fin - the nail painting bit was very cutie queers and I've not seen it done in BL before, so that was nice. For some reason captions never dropped for me on this last episode, but it didn’t really matter. Not much happened and I understood everything anyway.
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Quick pitch?
From the people who brought us Unforgotten Night based on a y-novel, about a young man nursing a heartbreak who has a one-night stand, but the other boy didn't want it to end. This turned out to be a pulp that wasn’t half as good as it should have been and even less memorable, but not terrible. 5/10 DON'T BOTHER unless you're v bored
City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 3 of 12 - Oh it is such a pulp: the acting is not good and the script is terrible. Of course, I’m mildly enjoying it. Very good dream kissing. There's something appealing about these main characters - I think it's the moot crushes. We rarely get to see that. These days everything feels very one sided, this... isn't.
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A Secretly Love (Thai WeTV) - Khonprot, a third-year hazer of the engineering faculty, has a secret crush on Pluem, a tsundere fourth-year head hazer. Over the years, he's seen Pluem cycle through girlfriends. Recently, after a public breakup, however, Khonprot thinks maybe a boy has a chance.
I tried but I can't get into my WeTV account anymore and I'm way too lazy to figure it out. I'll catch it grey if I can, since I've rebooted the bootlegging side of my BL life for Cherry Magic anyway.
So this show may stay in this section, or I may bump it down to "it's airing but..."
If anyone is watching it, let me know if it's good?
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Ongoing Series - Not Thai
Love For Love's Sake (Korea Weds iQIYI) 7-8fin - Ugh it was GREAT, despite some pretty telling flaws. I ended up feeling like some of the filming was amateurish (very overworked low angles - director's first feature, I assume), and the narrative is a little disjoined and on the nose, AND the subs are clumsy (which I don't expect from KBL) BUT I still loved it. (FYI - I wouldn't be so harsh on a BL for this kinda thing except one from Korea.)
Quick pitch:
This isekai-based KBL is about a man who must win a game by convincing a reserved teen outcast to fall in love with him. Of course, that teen represents himself and his own unhappiness. Like many queer narratives, this show is actually about self worth, trust, and found family, and it is VERY on the nose. But I don’t expect subtlety from my BL and I enjoyed it's truly lovely redemption arc and earnest performances. While I found the narrative a touch disjointed with overworked filming angles and poorer than average captions, this is certainly much better than early KBL in terms of consistency of tone, script, and immersion. Highly rewatchable and charming, which counts for a lot. 9/10
Trigger warning for suicide depicted.
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Perfect Propose (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 4 of 6 - Gosh, it’s so lovely. But I do just constantly want to give them both hugs. 
AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) ep 4 of 10 - Oh look, Taiwan has created yet another BL where I spend most of the time watching it grinning like an idiot. Surprise surprise. The pet name thing was fucking adorable. Also Taiwan once more proving they come by their "kings of kissing" title honestly. I mean to say. In a week of good kisses this one was just... WOW.
On the other hand, some of the underpinning themes are starting to v worry me (ownership, consent, age), and we only just got started, and I don't trust this production company so... I have concerns.
But also... YAY KISSES!
(I'm made of weak moral fiber.)
Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - Like many other shows on this list. I just enjoy it the most when the two leads are on screen together. So this episode was kind of lacking because they were apart for most of it. I also am starting to agree with the tone of the plot, that maybe they ARE better off as friends not lovers. (And I'm sure I'm not supposed to want that.) Oh Japan, must you?
My Strawberry Film (Japan Gaga) ep 1 of 8 - Oh it’s good. In the arthouse lane so don’t expect sweetness & light or an HEA. If there’s no cartoon aspect to a JBL, there’s usually no joy. But it is certainly good. Teens uncover some old film and a mystery around a pretty girl. The background music is wildly annoying (and rarely in the background). 
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It's Done
What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have any spare time. 2024 is crazy busy for me so far.
The Servant and the Young Master - from Vietnam, it's on YouTube. I will give it a try when I have a window of time.
Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube) - A Burmese BL? @heretherebedork vouched for it, so I will give it a watch.
7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) - Gave me Luminous Solution vibes have decided not to watch.
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It's Airing But...
Dead Friend Forever (Thai iQIYI) - rumors are it's interesting. I'm waiting to know how it ends.
Ossans Love Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 5 years later, will anything have changed? This is Japan so… probubly not. I won't be watching this. I disliked Season one and actively hated the follow ups. No thank you.
Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far.
Time the series (Tue Gaga/YT) 10 eps - dropped it at ep 4.
Next Week Looks Like This:
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2/24 Unknown (Taiwan Youku) 12 eps - Older brother tough guy breadwinner looks after his sister and defacto adopted little brother. Little bother falls in love with him and is sent away after a stolen kiss. But when he comes back…
Sam Lin has a cameo so even if I wasn't already excited, I'm in. We should be on our guard though, Taiwan will occasionally go edgy, dark, and sad... this could go there.
One assumes GMMTV is filling in the BL time slot with something queer on their YT Channel after Cooking Crush ends, they gonna lose subs if they don't. But I've not been paying attention to the chatter so I don't know which of their line-up it will be. I think G4 are filming/off radar now, and Earth is in that het noona thing? Plus they gotta sort out the IP for MIx-Up and Ossen. So it won't be one of the announced adaptations. They'll hold My Golden Blood for the high season, so I think it'll be one of the lesser known lead-outs. Wandee or Only Boo maybe? But they only just started filming those. Are we getting our long awaited GL? Anything else left from 2023 that I forgot about?
Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.
THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS
Two crawling kisses from Thailand this week. Now this is a fetish I didn't know I had. Turns out, we love this one! (*waves hand in air* I speak for all of us now.)
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Cooking Crush
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City of Stars
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Possibly the best tsundere to cinnamon roll pivot we've had in a long time.
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Also the best asshole to KING pivot. Could we have a whole drama staring this character now? Please?
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And finally our sunshine learning to love himself.
SIGH. what a lovely show.
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And a good SMILEY kiss from a KBL.
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And then some cute cuddles? Korea is spoiling me these days. I'm catching expectations now. What's next? Japan learns to kiss in their light BLs? Ha! I kill me.
(All Love for Love's Sake).
(Last week)
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dilfdoctordoom · 3 years
Text
On Tom Taylor, the Current Nightwing Run & Ableism
I did mention I was gonna do a post about it, so here we are. There are some things I want to make clear before we begin: the issue exploded on Twitter on the very first day of disabled Pride month; disabled people have been discussing the ableism in Taylor’s Nightwing run since it began; nobody has blamed Taylor for what happened to Barbara in 2011. We are, however, blaming him for the way she is written in his series during 2021. 
I am also going to be discussing the ableism in the fandom in this post. The reactions I have seen, from here to Twitter to TikTok, are showing not only a great misunderstanding of the situation, but a purposeful misunderstanding. The very real reasons disabled people are angry right now have been twisted to make us seem ridiculous and overly sensitive and I cannot help but feel that is very intentional.
Another quick addition: disabled people are not a monolith. Barbara Gordon spent over 20 years as a paralyzed wheelchair user. Stating (and I would like to note, never truly showing) that she is a part time cane user now is still erasing her disability. These things are not interchangeable.
So, with that out of the way, let’s begin.
Tom Taylor’s run is ableist. That is a fact of this situation. He made the active choice to include a version of Barbara Gordon that is ableist caricature. Story wise, the role that Barbara plays could have easily been filled by anyone else. There is no real season, within the narrative and outside of it, for Taylor to include this version of Barbara Gordon, who has received a decade of criticism from disabled people. It’s very well known that this iteration is problematic, to put it kindly, and Taylor is aware of that. 
He made the active decision to include her, anyway, showing, at the very least, that he is passively, if not actively, ableist. Passive ableism is still ableism and disabled people are allowed to take issue with that.
That alone is reason enough for disabled people to be angry. But that’s not why things exploded on Twitter.
On July 1st, the very first day of disabled pride month, the new design for Barbara was dropped. After months of teasing Barbara’s return to a wheelchair using Oracle (see: Last Days of The DC Universe, Batgirl (2016), etc), they debuted... a new Batgirl costume that the artist has openly said draws inspiration from the Burnside suit.
There’s a lot of issues to unpack here, so let’s start small: the issue with consciously calling back to Burnside. The Burnside era of Batgirl stories was... beyond awful. The villain of the series’ first arc, was an AI based on Barbara’s brain patterns when she was disabled. It was evil because of all the rage and pain Barbara felt. The actual Barbara, on the other hand, was good -- because she was able bodied. Because her PTSD had been tossed aside. It was a horrifically ableist era that drove the idea that Barbara’s life was terrible when she was disabled; that it was some horrible, twisted secret.
Comics have kept that narrative going. Barbara is seen hiding books on chronic pain; she reacts aggressively to the mere idea that she could be in a wheelchair again, acting like it would be weakness. Whereas Barbara had once been Oracle not because of, but in spite of, her disability, who was fantastic representation for the disabled community, she now acts like it is the most shameful thing in her life.
To call back to Burnside is to call back to that ableism and make no critique of it. If anything, it’s to embrace the ideas of that era.
There is also the design itself to consider. Many people have pointed out the inclusion of a back brace, as if that saves it from ableism -- it does not. Any person who has ever worn a back brace can take one look at this design and know that they did not consult a disabled person. Hell, by how impractical that thing is, I doubt they even Googled a picture of a back brace.
It’s a superficial acknowledgement that Barbara is supposed to be disabled. Something that was apparently thrown in to appease the numerous complaints of Barbara being able bodied; something that no one working on it put any effort into.
When it comes to aids, this is not a new thing for Barbara in Infinite Frontier. She’s said to be using a cane occasionally, that we got a better look at in Batman: Urban Legends, and as any cane user can tell you... that is not a cane that could feasibly be used. It’s another pathetic attempt to acknowledge that Barbara is supposed to be disabled, without actually doing anything of importance.
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[IMAGE ID:  A segmented cane with a tri-pointed handle with a wrist strap. There is a stripe across the sections to connection them, labelled “solar battery charger buttons”. The text reads: “telescoping antenna doubles as cane or weapon if needed”. END ID]
Dropping this design (which we have now established to be problematic) on the very first day of disabled pride month is a sickening move. The very first day, and DC has doubled down on their disability erasure, thrown in superficial things like a back brace to act like it’s fine.
Tom Taylor is definitely involved in this, whether you like it not. No, he is not in anyway responsible for the events of the New 52 and what they did to Barbara Gordon, but that does not absolve him of blame for what is currently being done to her in his run.
When the design dropped, it started trending due to disabled fans reactions. To be clear: we were directly calling out the ableism in this design. This was Tom Taylor’s response:
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[IMAGE ID: A tweet from TomTaylorMade that says: “Hey, @Bruna_Redono_F I think our new Batgirl suit is getting some attention.” He then adds a winky face emoji and tags @jesswchen and @drinkpinkkink. Attached are a screenshot showing that Batgirl is trending in the United States and a picture of the design itself. END ID]
This is him, bragging about how the disabled community reacted. Perhaps before this tweet, you could’ve made an argument that he was not ableist, but after he flaunted the fact that disabled people were rightly furious over this, like it was something to be proud of? No. If you are defending him, you are a part of the problem.
Taylor has included ableist writing in his Nightwing run, beyond the inherent ableism that comes with the current iteration of Barbara Gordon (whose inclusion, yet again, is his decision).
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[IMAGE ID: A panel from Nightwing #79. Barbara and Dick are standing in his apartment. Barbara is saying: “I have some pretty new technology holding my spine together. I’m happy to do most things -- eat pizza in the park, take down low-level thugs -- but leaping from rooftops seems... unwise.” END ID]
What Barbara says in the panel above has bothered a lot of disabled people. The implication that she couldn’t “eat pizza in the park’ and “take down low-level thugs” without a spinal implant that conveniently erases her disability is... fucked up, to put it mildly. Those are both things that Barbara has done in a wheelchair. The first one is something wheelchair users can do and the implication that it’s not is beyond offensive.
But, let’s leave Barbara behind for a moment. I have previously mentioned that disabled people have been discussing the ableism present in this run long before July -- and that ableism is not only centred on Barbara. Dick is also a player in all this.
Dick Grayson was shot in the head. I don’t believe I need to retread the story, but just in case: Dick was shot in the head by KGBeast, developed amnesia from the event, and went by Ric Grayson for a long enough period in comics. If you have been active within the DC fandom for the past year or so, you know all about this controversial storyline and its fallout.
The Ric Grayson arc concluded itself the issue before Taylor became the writer for the series and ever since his tenure has begun, Taylor has completely ignored the reality of Dick being a disabled man. We understand this is comics, that things do not function the way they do in our world, but still -- it is clear that this gunshot wound to the head has affected Dick massively. We had an entire arc dedicated to how he struggled to find himself in the aftermath.
Taylor is choosing to write Dick as an able-bodied man, despite his canonical injuries and how they would impact his life.
This man is choosing to give empty gestures towards Barbara being a disabled woman (as discussed above, the completely dysfunctional back brace, etc) whilst writing her as able-bodied as possible. He writes both Dick and Barbara as able bodied as humanly possible. That is ableist. He is ableist. This is the same man that said he made a dog disabled ‘in honour of Barbara’. I do not think I need to elaborate on why that is bad.
The least he could’ve done, was get a sensitivity reader. We know that Taylor is not beyond getting people from marginalized communities to consult on his work (see: Suicide Squad), so why, when writing two characters that should be disabled, one that the disabled community have been criticising for a decade, does he not reach out to a single disabled person? A mere Google search could’ve improved the situation massively. In both the new design and the current writing, it is beyond clear that this is not just an able-bodied person writing it -- it’s an ableist person.
He could have listened to the numerous disabled fans that spoke out. Instead, he chose not only to refuse to do that, but to describe justifiable anger as ‘raging’. He treated us like we were crazy for daring to speak out about blatant ableism being parading around of us in our pride month.
Tom Taylor has failed to do the bare minimum and in doing so, he is, at very, very least, guilty of complicity. Again: passive ableism is still ableism.
The argument at hand is not just about Barbara Gordon and the continuing ableism that shines out from her current writing. The argument is about the treatment of disabled characters in his run. It has also become about the way he treats physically disabled people.
We also can’t have this conversation without acknowledging the fandom’s role in it all. I waited a day to write this up, to allow all the reactions to flood in... and I am sickened.
We have everything across the board. Able-bodied people that have actually listened to disabled people, who have supported us (which is deeply appreciated). Able-bodied people who may have had good intentions, but a skewed sense of the situation and perpetuating some of the more insidious lies being spread around (IE. that this is only about the new costume).
There are, obviously, the ableist reactions, though, that we will be discussing here. People deeming the current issues as ‘crazy’, calling disabled people ‘overly sensitive’ and ‘delusional’. Many people have completely glossed over the examples given for why Taylor, specifically, is ableist, and instead have resorted to telling disabled people that we are wrong and should be mad at DC instead.
It’s important to note that Tom Taylor is an adult man. He doesn’t need a fandom to attack disabled people for daring to call him out. He is not the victim in this situation; he has, for quite a few disabled people, been the aggressor.
I have seen claims that Infinite Frontier is a ‘slow burn’, implying that disabled people need to patient... as if we have not waited a decade for less ableist writing. There is a complete refusal from able-bodied fans to actually listen to what disabled people are saying. They would much rather rush to the defence of the (honestly rather mediocre) current Nightwing run. 
Disabled fans know that comic book spaces are ableist. We know that both DC and Marvel and many of their writers are ableist. We are still allowed to be pissed as hell about it and acting like the current reaction being had right now is disabled people being ‘overdramatic’ is yet another example of how the able-bodied side of the fandom both refuses to listen to and undermine disabled people when we call out ableism.
We know it when we see it. We always do and we always will and we will always be able to recognize it far faster than an able-bodied person. If this many disabled fans are coming out and talking about an issue, calling it ableism, then it’s time for you shut up and listen.
Stop being a part of the problem and start supporting disabled fans for once.
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mitchtheficus · 2 years
Text
A Golden Lovers Timeline
PART 6: SEIZE THE THRONE
Welcome to the pining chapter(s) of this love story
New Years Dash is one of my favorite events in NJPW, it takes place the day after WK and it generally sets up new storylines for the year to come. you never really know what’s going to happen
this particular NYD (Jan 5th, 2016 - Official LINK, Unofficial LINK) is extremely good. Kenny and AJ have a tag match against Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI, and Kenny (still a junior) pins Nakamura (the IC champion) winning the match. It’s the exact kind of Proving himself he set out to do by joining bullet club
and as they celebrate the victory Kenny looks over at AJ Styles
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[ID: AJ stands on the second rope of the right turnbuckle, hands raised in victory. On the other side of the ring Kenny is prepared to do the same but he stops, puts his foot back on the mat and turns his head to look over at AJ. End ID]
and goes, i’ve had enough of this fuckin guy
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[ID: Kenny gets AJ on his shoulders from where AJ was standing on the turnbuckle in the last gif. AJ flails and Kenny hits him with the one-winged angel. End ID]
The other members of bullet club rush out to intervene, but when it comes down to a question of Kenny vs anyone else (a question they are forced to face fairly often), the Young Bucks pick Kenny.
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[ID: two gifs. in the first the young bucks crowd Kenny into the turnbuckle, speaking closely to him while the other bullet club members are huddled around AJ's prone body. in the second the other members of the bullet club have AJ standing up with their help and Kenny and the Bucks superkick him. End ID]
Always.
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[ID: two screenshots from twitter, in the first Matt Jackson posts a collage, with photos of the bucks being buddies with Devitt, AJ and Adam Cole on the left, and on the right pictures of them kicking them out of the bullet club with the twitter caption: “We’ve had to make a couple executive decisions over the years.” Someone replied “When’s Kenny” and Matt quote retweets saying “Wherever Kenny goes, We go.” Kenny has liked the tweet. End ID]
(at least in this story)
Kenny didn't sell his soul, carve out his own heart, and get saddled with a ring name like “The Cleaner” just so he could be some lowly underling. Now that he’s had a chance to feel the full breadth and depth of his own ambition, he’s come to believe that he is The Best Wrestler in the World and he’s ready to prove it. Who the hell is AJ Styles anyway?
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[ID: Screenshot from the documentary Second Home. Kenny is saying: "I can finally take my position as the rightful leader. And yes I say the rightful, I should have always been the leader" End ID]
Kenny was just holding himself back out of some kind of misplaced loyalty to AJ
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[ID: Gif of Kenny's promo after betraying AJ, he says: "While I struggled! While I starved! Forcing myself to be a junior!" End ID]
Of course he’s been a True heavyweight all along, only faking being a junior to accommodate AJ’s ego. But no longer. He has to reach as far as possible and AJ’s in his way
This moment is also the birth of The Elite (a group comprised of Kenny and the Bucks, separate from and Above the rest of the bullet club, the rest of njpw and roh, and the rest of wrestlers generally)
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[ID: picture of Kenny posing over AJ’s slumped body while the bucks do their pose on their side of him. I’m not sure it’s intentional but it mirrors the pose Devitt did when BC beat Kenny in the super juniors. End ID]
When we next see Kenny his gear has changed
until now heel!Kenny has been wearing black trunks with two golden wings on the back framing the bullet club logo
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[ID: image of the trunks described above]
but heavyweight!Kenny’s got full length pants!
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[ID: screenshots of Kenny’s entrance, his pants are swirly pinks and black, with blue fringe down the sides, Bucks are with him wearing colorful pants with fringe at the bottom. End ID]
and they are multi-purpose
1. Kenny irl wasn’t especially interested in the silent/cold/calculating “badass” character njpw gave him, these new pants are colorful and a bit silly, asserting his own interpretation of his character over the company’s (kind of like with the broom shtick)
2. they kind of match the Young Bucks’ gear (colorful and with fringe), signaling their connection
3. these pants become Kenny’s Not A Serious Match gear, he only wears them when he’s in matches that he sees as Unimportant, and for those matches he also keeps his shirt on. So they can be used to demonstrate his contempt for his opponents (wearing them even in title matches against those he sees as unworthy etc.)
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[ID: two gifs of Kenny speaking to the camera in a ring. in the first he says: “No black tights today! We keepin’ this shirt on! Not a big match.” End ID]
We see his Serious Match pants for the first time a little later, in a tag match against Tanahashi. it’s his first match as a heavyweight against someone who matters, and it’s the lead up to their IC title match
On this new gear are two wings, one is complete and whole, made of silver and gold feathers
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[ID: the wing described above. End ID]
the other is skeletal and almost completely bare except for a few lone feathers still clinging to the bones
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[ID: the wing described above. End ID]
(how dramatic is that. to put your broken heart on your gear and only wear it to important events in your life)
Kenny and Tana’s IC title match is really, really fun (Feb 14, 2016 - Official LINK, Unofficial LINK) there is some ridiculous, elaborate cheating involving the bucks, it’s so funny that one of the japanese commentators actually bursts out laughing
(this isn’t important but Red Shoes DOES kick at the young bucks in this match and i love him)
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[ID: gif from the match. Kenny is laying near the edge of the ring while the bucks spray Cold Spray on his knee. Red Shoes sees them and runs over, sticking his leg through the ropes to kick at them. End ID]
Kenny wins
it’s a huge moment, not only because it’s his first heavyweight title (something Kota was never able to achieve) but also because he wins it from Hiroshi Tanahashi, the Ace of NJPW, one of the Big Three wrestlers of NJPW, and Kota’s wrestling god
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[ID: picture of Kenny’s post-match promo, saying “ You have a new valentine. You have a new hero. You have a new god! You will love me!” End ID]
NJPW makes a short documentary called Second Home [April 2016 - Official LINK, Unofficial LINK] about Kenny as new IC champ. In it they go to the location of his first match against Kota, and it’s clear that even now, in this moment of triumph, Kenny is still mourning Kota’s absence
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[ID: two gifs of Kenny from the documentary Second Home. He says: “Back then [...] he was the real Golden Star, he had everythinggg in the palm of his hands, he was the future, and that day [their first match] I just wasn’t good enough. Boy, things have changed. Really changed.” he looks wistful. End ID]
He’s openly wondering where Kota could be, making little comments that seem to simultaneously plead for Kota to come back and dare him to
“I thought from then [their first match] I had found my arch-nemesis. My rival. And then...as time went on, we became friends. Best friends. But alas... It's a new day. It's a new year. Everything's completely different. I'm the intercontinental champion and Ibushi is nowhere to be found. Where is he? I don't know. So will there ever be a match? I don't know. Maybe not. Maybe he's not in my league anymore. He's just old feelings. You know, like when you miss your ex-girlfriend. It's kind of like that. Just something that stays with you in your heart.” - Kenny in Second Home
Kenny may not know where in the world Kota has gone off to, but he’s about to find out
during the last few months Kota has been enjoying his time being a freelancer on the indies, wrestling as a representative of “the Ibushi Pro Wrestling Research Institute” and now his wanderings have taken him all the way to WWE
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[ID: Screenshot of WWE’s article with the headline “Kota Ibushi shows up at NXT TakeOver: Dallas” with a picture of Kota in the crowd. End ID]
in June 2016 Kota is announced as an entrant in WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament
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[ID: Kota stands in the middle of the CWC ring, wearing a CWC shirt (part of the parade of cruiserweights). End ID]
(Kenny is unimpressed)
“For him to do that, be a junior in WWE, isn't that embarrassing? I can do so much more here (in New Japan)." - Kenny (translation by Chris Charlton)
(wouldn’t you rather be here, Kota? In NJPW? With me? Being a heavyweight? With me?)
and while Kota tests out the waters in America, Kenny gets ready to participate in his first ever G1 Climax
[PART 7] [ALL PARTS]
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hangovercurse · 3 years
Text
Studio Nights
You and Kells spend time in the studio together.
Part ii of Losing a Friend
Colson x Reader
Warnings: cursing
A/N: the first few parts are a lot of fluff, building relationships and such but soon we’ll get into the real angst 😊 
Word Count: 1501
i < ii < iii
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September 2016
You had hoped that after 3 months of hanging around the guys, you would have gotten used to their constant energy. But sitting in the studio, you realized you might never get used to it.
Lazily you spun yourself around in the rolling chair at the monitor, Kells sitting next to you with his back to the desk. “Dawg, I’m telling you, you were wasted as fuck,” his loud voice rang through your ears, making the headache you were nurturing even worse.
The boys were having a conversation about something that had gone on in the club the other night with Rook, who was arguing that it wasn’t as big of a deal as Kells was making it out to be. To be fair, Rook was that drunk, but it really wasn’t all that funny.
You tuned them out as best as possible, turning back to the computer and looking at the track again, sighing at the thought of hearing it blare through the headphones. As Slim, Baze, and Rook continued arguing, Kells turned to you.
He seemed to look right through you, taking in the bags under your eyes and the slight frown on your face. “Hey,” he spoke quietly, “you okay?”
You gave him a small nod, placing the headphones over your ears with a fake smile. His hand reached out and tugged them gently off your head. “Seriously, you look like shit.”
Rolling your eyes, you gave a monotone answer, “thanks, Kells. You sure know how to treat a lady.” You let out a dry chuckle as he continued to stare at you, a teasing pout on his face, “I’m fine, I just have a headache, it’s nothing.”
He swiveled his chair so that his front was facing your side, reaching out and turning your chair so you could be face to face. His knees bumped up against your own lightly, “we can take a break if you want, pick back up tomorrow.”
You shook your head, “I’m fine, there’s just a lot of noise right now, but it’s nothing. I just want to finish this song; we’ve been working on it for way too long now.” You tried to play off the throbbing in your brain as Slim and Baze laughed obnoxiously a few feet away from you.
He rolled his eyes, “You are the one that keeps editing it.” His tone was teasing, but you couldn’t help but agree. There was something about the track that just wasn’t right yet. “But it can wait another day, go home. Or I’ll send these fuckers home.”
You chuckled, “aren’t you guys technically at home?” He sent you an unamused look, making you pout, “look, I can’t figure out what it is, but something needs to be fixed.”
He let out a breath through his nose, imitating laughter, “I know, you keep saying that. And I trust you, but you’re not going to figure it out if you’re in a mood.”
A glare came over your features, directed at him, “I am not in a mood.” You shoved him playfully, his chair spinning slightly, “I’m just in pain. My head feels like it’s eating itself.”
“That’d make a good lyric,” he commented with a smirk, shoving you back. “Go home.”
You smacked his hand away lightly, “don’t tell me what to do. Now let me work.” You tried to turn back to the computer while placing the headphones back over your ears, but Kells just spun you back towards him.
“How about you let me listen to it for once,” his tone was playful, but you couldn’t help but gape at the audacity.
You handed him the headphones, “I have been trying to get you to do that for the past 3 hours!” He chuckled, placing the speakers over his ears, and pressing play. “Is this what it takes to get you to work? My pain?” you teased halfheartedly.
Truthfully, Kells had a way of distracting you from whatever happened to be bothering you, including your headache. It was one of the many reasons you liked being around him so much.
He nodded his head to what you assumed was the beat, making you giggle lightly. He paused the song midway, taking off the headphones and frowning. “What if we tried carrying the initial guitar riff through at that little middle part.”
You raised an eyebrow, turning to the computer and fidgeting with the track to add the raw guitar into the space. You didn’t notice, but you and Kells were very closely huddled around the computer.
The other guys in the room, however, did take notice. Slim elbowed Rook, pointing over in your direction as you and Kells cracked lighthearted jokes and worked on the song together.
Rook let out a chuckle that was lost on your ears as Baze quietly teased, “I give it two months, max.”
The younger boy shook his head, “hell naw, you think Kells is gonna wait that long?”
Baze flicked Rook in the head, “that’s why I said max, dumbass.”
Rook shoved the older one, starting a small war between the two of them. Slim rolled his eyes, speaking over the two’s fighting, “she’s way too smart for that, it’ll take way longer for her to come around to that.”
After another 15 minutes of you and Kells working intensely on fixing the music and the guys teasing you about how cute you were behind your backs, you could listen to a rough sample of your new and improved track.
“This is fucking fire, dude,” Kells said loudly as he listened with the headphones. You laughed at the volume, feeling better than before and giddy at the thought of having fixed the track.
Once he had finished, he placed the headphones over your ears and played the song in its entirety, your voices flowing together naturally over the music. When the revised part came, you were shocked at how much better it sounded, even if it was still just a rough edit.
You took the headphones off, beaming at him, “you are a genius.”
He teased, “so I’ve been told.” You rolled your eyes, knocking his knee with yours playfully. He shoved your shoulder softly, voice lowering, “you should go home. We can polish this part tomorrow and get it ready for a release.”
You shook your head, volume matching his “I’m fine, Kells. It’s just a headache and we’re almost finished, I can manage.”
“I’m not touching another button today and you are going home, end of story.” You whined but gave no real protest, reaching for your purse and keys. He patted you on the head mockingly, “good girl.”
You glared up at him, “call me that again, and I will hurt you.” He chuckled, standing up with you, and walking you to the door.
He called to the guys, “thanks for all the work today guys, really helpful.” His words dripped with sarcasm, making you giggle.
Slim shrugged, “looked like you two had it handled, we weren’t gonna interrupt.” Rook and Baze snickered, making you roll your eyes.
“Well, I’m out. See you guys tomorrow.” You threw up a peace sign to the men.
Baze checked his phone, “are you sure you want to drive this late? It’s almost 3 am.”
You sighed, realizing he was right. A pout fell on your face as you muttered, “it’s fine, I’ll be okay.” You turned to head out the door, throwing a smile at the boys. Kells followed you out to the main area of the house, grabbing your wrist gently in the living room to stop you from leaving.
“You can stay here tonight if you want. It’d probably be better anyways if you still feel bad.”
His gentle touch on your arm seemed to send a soft feeling throughout your body, something unfamiliar to you. You shook it off, giving him a small smile. As much as you knew you probably should stay, you needed to get out of this house before any other unexplained feelings arose. “Thanks, Kells, but I’ll be fine. I live all of 10 minutes away.”
He shrugged, acting nonchalant, “fine, just text us when you get home.”
You rolled your eyes, walking to the front door, “okay, Dad.”
He chuckled, “shut up, loser.” You flicked him off playfully as you left, the door closing behind you.
Mere moments after you left he heard three laughs from behind him, “oh Y/N! Please stay the night with us.” Rook mocked an overly dramatic Kells impression.
Baze continued with a “I’ll do anything for you Y/N, I’m just so in love with you!”
Slim shook his head, walking over and clapping his best friend on the back, “ignore them.” He said, “we all know you’ll confess to her in your own time.”
Kells scoffed, an eyebrow raised, “I am not in love with Y/N. She’s just a friend. A better one than you three.”
The boys laughed and rolled their eyes, “okay,” Rook said, unconvinced.
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