#mostly based on the commentators of le mans this year

[slythereen]

Idk maybe i'm late to the discussion but from what i heard from people around me, people are mad at cheerleaders being there because (and this is not me hating on it i know it's an american thing) f1 is being americanized and that that is not necessarily a good thing for the sport (i'm not talking about the money thing, but about the fact that the focus should be on the racing and everything else is unnecessary? Like ive had (older generation) people tell me that even this whole music act thing (and the circus) is unnecessary? Like it's not a festival, it's not supposed to be coachella, people tune in for the race and the drivers)

not to worry the discussion was just me commentating into the void !!

but yes, that does seem like part of it. mainly i was seeing people upset by the sexism of it all (& “stepping backwards” after finally getting rid of grid girls and trying to boost f1 academy) which is what my original commentary was about. personally i don’t see cheerleaders as the pinnacle of misogyny (likely because i am used of american sports), which is why i have always been a bit confused about the outrage that got grid girls banned. same thing in my mind… though i guess, culturally, grid girls may have been treated differently than cheerleaders based exactly on that distinction. idk.

anyway: the “americanization” of f1 does seem to be a giant point of contention. i agree watching the podium placers walk out between the cheerleader lines was slightly hysterical because they looked so confused and it was just… excessive. i liked the pre-race show appearance, would have been happy to see them still doing some cheering near the podium, but the walk-out style a la miami being replicated here was A Bit Much.

i just don’t know how much this can really be blamed on american fans per se and how much it needs to be taken up with liberty media/f1… they seem to be driving the “entertainment” push & the american gps are giving them what they asked for and being actively encouraged (i believe) to go all out and “american” with it. in theory it’s kind of a genius PR move by f1/liberty because it means they can get the circus they want and tap into american viewership while simultaneously shifting the blame onto american fans/gps when/if things go over poorly abroad.

all that to say is i’m interested to see how this shakes out with next year’s calendar and the potential waning of american interest if the “mainstream” fans push to reduce american involvement. like, is liberty still going to try to push gp hosts to amp up the craziness anyway? will they abandon the project and just pass it off as a failed american experiment? are we going to see it backfire for f1 and see a migration from all the new american fans being pushed to indycar and nascar instead, since those are already “ours” (quote unquote) and more receptive to new viewership? inquiring minds (me) want to know

[crazymadpassionatelove]

Cool Fiancè

Notes: 18+ sex mentioned

Special shout-out to @ab4eva and her fabulous editing skills! This is the second installment in my cool girl saga. Read Part 1 here

---

Five Things to know about Austin Butler’s New Fiance ::

Although his reps couldn't be reached for comment, sources close to the Elvis actor confirm he has popped the question to his mysterious lady love!

Butler and the stunning brunette were recently spotted at the iconic Les Puces market in Paris last Friday, and she seemed to be sporting a new accessory. Austin was dressed in a black leather jacket, a white v neck tee, and black moto boots. She was clad in a classic trench coat and vintage Dior kitten heels as she kept her head down and let the winner lead the way. His face was mostly obscured by aviator sunglasses, but his smile was very apparent according to onlookers. “Austin was holding her hand and pointing out jewelry at different booths. They were very friendly with local vendors and Austin ended up buying her a gold charm bracelet. He told the dealer the bracelet was a momento to celebrate their recent engagement,” a fellow American tourist overheard. The twosome reportedly spent the prior week soaking in the city of lights and meeting with the YSL fashion house. Austin was recently tapped as the brand's newest ambassador.

Since returning stateside paparazzi pics have finally surfaced and revealed a closer look at that ring. Montana based indie jeweler Jada Kaye has been revealed as the designer of that serious sparkler. The 5 carat, flawless emerald-cut emerald is set in solid gold and flanked by two white diamonds on either side. Inside sources told Elle Magazine that Kaye and Butler worked closely together to craft the one of a kind creation. There's even rumored to be an inscription on the inside that's significant to the couple and the ring is estimated to cost a cool $100,000. Austin's fiancè was photographed heading into a ballet studio yesterday wearing pink tights, a pink leotard, Ugg boots, and of course that ring. Her curly dark brown hair was slicked back into a bun and she seemed to be sporting a pair of the actor's sunglasses.

Here's everything you need to know about the future Mrs. Austin Butler;

She's from New England —

A, as she's known, was born in Rhode Island. She grew up splitting her time between Rhode Island and Kennebunkport, Maine. Her teenage years were spent working the local Del’s lemonade truck, former neighbors say. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design after high school but never graduated.

She and Austin met via her former job –

Whilst working at the New York location of Vibrant Vintage, A, served as the fashion archives buyer. She also happened to be on hand when Butler visited the store. Supposedly she helped him find the perfect pair of leather boots, and the rest is history. Things clearly moved quickly between the two lovebirds, with A relocating to Los Angeles not long after. According to Vibrant Vintage, she is no longer employed there but “remains a close friend and consultant,” says their PR team.

She's a hit with his friends –

She organized a birthday party for her man’s co-star and close friend, Callum Turner. Turner posted an Instagram story showing off a fairly large garden party celebration and a “homemade blueberry glaze cake” according to the post. “Huge thanks to Austin's lovely lady xx” accompanied the video footage. She and Austin were also seen dining with his other Masters of the Air co-star, Nate Mann, while in Paris recently.

They've (supposedly ) got matching ink –

An unnamed employee at the iconic Bang Bang tattoo in NYC has said that Austin and A made a late night visit to the tattoo studio. Where exactly are the said-to-be matching minimalistic tattoos? Reportedly, Austin was inked on his left hip and A on her inner left thigh.

Old fashioned love letters are her thing -

Notably social media shy, Austin and A have taken up the lost art of handwritten love notes. Sources exclusively say that custom monogrammed stationery was crafted for the duo whilst Austin was filming in England. The hand pressed, vintage inspired paper bears a unique coat of arms style symbol with intertwining letter A’s and two sparrows (Fun fact! Sparrows mate for life and always find their way back, no matter how far they fly). While separated, the couple often writes letters to one another, even having the letters sent via jet instead of mail for privacy reasons!

_______

Suddenly one morning articles begin to pour in about your engagement. It catches you off guard, that ring akin to a skating rink has been sitting pretty on your hand for a bit now. The engagement had happened so naturally as everything with the two of you seems to. In the early morning hours while his swollen, rock hard member thrusts into you repeatedly you begin to awaken. On your side, his teeth clamp down on your shoulder as his finger twirls round the curls at the nape of your neck.

His gasps and needy groans tickle your ear. “Couldn't help myself..”, he shudders as you suddenly clamp down around him, barely able to register it all. You stretch and arch, allowing him the room and space to take what he needs. It is his after all. His teeth and pillowy soft lips mark your shoulder blades and when you reach down to where the two of you are joined, you feel his very full balls. Your newly manicured fingers tease and tug the best you can, scrunched up like some sort of acrobat. “Ugh, ugh…baby… you're gonna make me -”. Then he does. Hot, viscous, cream floods you and makes you sigh in a contented whimper. “Thanks darlin’,” he pets your head and you close your eyes dreamily. That is until you hear him rustling around in the bedside table next to him.

You cock open an eye, figuring he's looking for smokes or even the book he had been reading late last night. Your hands are stretched above your head, gripping a pillow. The perfect position for him to suddenly slip the most gorgeous piece of jewelry you've ever seen onto your finger. When your eyes shoot open and you jump up, he's lying there grinning that smile that makes you weak at the knees. “Will you be my wife?” As if your answer would be anything but yes, please Daddy. You smother him in kisses, straddling him and giggling. It's the perfect moment, the perfect proposal. You were never one to want a fireworks display or heaven forbid, those ridiculous and wasteful walls of flowers other celebrities seem to have for every occasion. This private, simple moment is everything you could ask for.

You feel the sudden urge to take him in your mouth despite him just finishing. With your head hanging off the side of the bed, you take him down your throat. Choking and gagging, you really give it your all. Fighting to keep your eyes open so you can see the way his lip curls and his eyes slam shut. Talking is always your thing. This time, though, he's sputtering and rasping words of utter devotion and love. Promises to worship your body until the day he dies. My perfect, perfect wife. Soon you can't be sure if the tears are from his cock down your throat, or his beautiful words. Maybe both. Those pretty boy fingers twist and tug on your nipples and then crawl lower and flick that special spot. The only fireworks you enjoy happen, twice for you actually. He's so dutiful and charming, when you're done pulling yourself back together and fixing your hair, he's handing you a surprise glass of champagne. What a way to mark the occasion.

You decline a proper press announcement. Phone and FaceTime calls follow to those who truly matter to you both - your families, both absolutely thrilled. Then Baz, Cal, The Presley's, everyone can't stop gushing about how perfect you are for each other. That ring, oh how sweet he designed it himself. You come up with a family-appropriate story to describe the proposal and the evening that followed, conveniently leaving out the mind-blowing sex the two of you have all over the house and in the hot tub. Why do things feel so different now that you're engaged? You can't get over the way the light hits the ring as you stroke him and something in that dirty girl heart of yours feels like it's really, truly, official when you have to clean his cum off the stone.

He's due back to set for some reshoots a few days later and of course you follow. Bringing throw pillows from your living room to spruce up his trailer and plotting out how to plan the most private, under the radar wedding possible while you lounge in his trailer in a cute little dress you sew yourself from vintage scarves bought in London. Your newest hobby, that and the ballet classes. He yammers on and on about wanting to sneak in and see you dance. You're sure it's just the tights and leotards spurring his interest though, let's be real. The paparazzi are as relentless as ever, but head down with big sunglasses helps keep the chaos at bay.

You visit Disney World, a whole crew, the two of you, your families, friends with their little ones. Thankfully Disney security is familiar with celebrity guests and you can actually let your guard down for once. Which is good, because seeing Austin chase after your friend's newly toddling little ones makes your stomach flip flop with joy. You make a mental note to expedite the wedding plans, he makes it known that he's chomping at the bit to be a father. When you visit Main Street, you decide a pair of new Mickey ears are in order. Gold stitching with Mrs. Butler is what you finally decide on after Austin's encouragement, his hand on your lower back as you walk miles and miles around the park with hands full of churros and cotton candy. Sure, some overzealous fans snap cell phone pics of you with your ears and immediately post them to those ridiculous Austin fan blogs who've now decided you are the evil villain in his story. You won't allow them to burst your Disney bubble though. Your fairytale is just beginning after all.

__

[blubrown9637]

Trash gang personalities and interaction!

Pon:

Personality:

Pon is 21 years old and the Leard of the Trash gang, he is also the founder of the group!

Pon is very joyful and proudful young man, his confidence manages to get him and his gang out of sticky situations. Oh yeah also he’s really clumsy sometimes if you know what I mean. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It also is very helpful for his main job which is (scamming) selling things to humans and monsters. Pon and his grandpa have a business for taking thinks from the dumpster and “Recycling” it to sell. With Pon you never know what you gonna get at his shop. You can find an completely rare item or you can get absolutely scammed. He actually met Charm from a dumpster diving trip at a younger age and they’ve been friends ever since.

Pon loves pop music especially foreign pop music. He is the most loved and recognized member of the band with the largest fan base. Though he’d rather keep his business with his grandpa, he still loves his band and takes it very seriously.

Interactions:

Moh and Pon are best friends! Pon always tries to set up a date for Moh whenever he gets the chance, however every single one usually ends in failure. Pon keeps on encouraging Moh no matter what though.

Andi really feels Pon is the only one who could understand him without truly saying anything. He may not say it but he absolutely values there friendship.

Ricky absolutely loves Pon! He such a funny and chill dude, and he may not show it but he values his opinion a lot. Ricky also respects the business he has and thinks it’s absolutely hilarious.

Koshin can’t believe he’s talking to Pon let alone friends with him. Like everyone else he completely respects and values his opinion. He also gets a little giddy when Pon comments his singing and dancing.

Moh:

Personality:

Moh is 21 as well he has the second largest fan base in the group.

Moh’s personally is extremely comparable to rarity from mlp mixed with Pepe le pew. He loves fancy cloths, gems and cologne which very ironic. He once saw a skunk on television that was very flamboyant and smooth, ever since then he urged to be just like that.

Moh is very classy and clean for a skunk. Though sometimes when he gets nervous or starts to sweat his natural musk comes out which stinks really really bad. Pon and Andi are use to this, they’ve been friends since childhood so they grew an resistances. Koshin is use to the smell of dead things so this doesn’t bother him either.

Now Ricky. Ricky can’t stand it, he’s. Smelt bad things but Moh takes the cake. Ricky would be talking to him then Suddenly get a whiff and gag instantly. He knows Moh can’t control it but it’s just too much for him. Moh absolutely HATES his natural musk but it is a good weapon for Ricky. 🙂

Moh is also a hopeless romantic, he’s constantly looking for dates but can’t keep one because of his stench. He hopes one day he’ll find a girl who’d love him for him.

Interactions:

Pon and Moh are best friends. Moh Looks up to pon and even helps him out as a wing man for Charm. “There not married yet, you can still try!” Moh always says.

Moh is usually around Andi most of the time. They’re also childhood friends so they mostly get along. Moh just chats and Andi just listens.

Ricky is another story. If there not fighting then there pranking each other. At list Moh knows how to shut Ricky up now.

Moh’s heart skipped a beat once he realized Koshin didn’t mind his smell. He already thought he was adorable but now his absolutely precious!

Moh tries his best to avoid women with stink fetish. I honestly don’t blame him.

Andi:

Personality:

Andi was one of the original three when the trash gang started, he is 21 years old. Him, Pon and Moh have been friends since they were kids dumpster diving. He has the third largest fan base.

Andi lives with this father, mother and younger sister who all work as well. Andi family was very supportive of his decision to become an idol. His dad was kinda old school and said being in a boy band was a bit “feminine” but he didn’t stop him. Andi loves his family which is why he takes his job so seriously, he’s the one making the most money!

Andi loves rock and Metal music more than pop but that doesn’t stop him from playing in concerts. He has a ton of singles himself that just has his guitar solo.

Interactions:

Pon and Andi are childhood friends so there know filter. Pon teases Andi about getting a girlfriend and settling down from working. Andi just silences him by talking about how Charm got away from him.

Moh thinks and know Andi is very sweet even though he has a ver intimidating demeanor. Moh also tries dressing up Andi similar to Koshin. He just can’t help it!

Ricky just doesn’t get Andi and thinks he’s boring. He doesn’t react to pranks or sly remarks, that doesn’t stop him for trying to get an reaction though.

Koshin like Andi a lot and looks up to him. He’s the reason he wanted to join the band! He hasn’t told him that though…

Ricky :

Personality:

Ricky is pretty basic,he’s the eldest of the group at 23 and his fan base is the second smallest.

Ricky’s personality is really hard to explain but he’s basically a shit disturber. He’s constantly trying to get a reaction out of the gang because he hates peace. He also is the one who mostly eats from the trash next to Adhi and Pon.

Ricky doesn’t interact with his parents. He’s had a sketchy past just like the rest of the gang. He instead lives with his mouse boyfriend chase who is extremely shy. Chase does his best to keep Ricky on the right path and so far it’s working. Ricky constantly gloats about his “hot boyfriend” to the gang and media. He not afraid to flaunt his boyfriend and sexuality around.

When the media asked his preferred girl to be, Ricky just gave a snarky smile and said “men”. He still gets quite a few female fans though!

Ricky like most of the gang likes trashy and gross things. He’s definitely not afraid to do a lot of dumb pranks much to the gangs and Chases dismay.

Interactions:

Pon is torn between loving to Rick and hating him. On one had his personality and pranks are hilarious but also he can go a bit too far. Especially with Koshin.

Moh is easily annoyed by Ricky, he knows it’s in Rats nature to be annoying and sometimes rude but it gets to be a little too much. He doesn’t had Ricky but he is gonna roll his eyes.

Andi once again was indifferent. Ricky can be funny but sometimes he can be a boy too much. Andi is usually the first one to stop him of things go to far.

Koshin doesn’t hate Ricky either he actually like hanging around him, when he’s not pranking him. Chase also likes Koshin a lot and tries to help stop Ricky from go to far.

So yeah Ricky is a shit disturber like I said.

Koshin:

Personality:

Koshin is the youngest and newest member of the group! He’s 18 years old,and is extremely shy.

He also has the least amount of fans because monsters think vultures are “cannibals” and still eat dead bodies. When in truth it’s done out of religious purposes for there kind. He still has the most harpy fans compared to the group though.

Koshin still lives with his mother and father. When they heard he had got into the band they where so proud of there son that they made shirts with his face on it! XD

Koshin loves sweet and cute things despite his tall demeanor. His favorite genre is pop and he barely has any solos cause he’s a shy boi.

Inerrations:

His interactions with the Group:

Pon thinks he’s adorable in a friendly way! Just like Rick he loves too tease him but not too much.

Moh also thinks he’s absolutely adorable! He occasionally with Invite him to outings, making him try his n costumes an perfume and such. He does this because Koshin has a great physique.

Andi pretends to be indifferent because of his completely static personality, but he’s definitely gotta admit Koshin is charming. Andi doesn’t really interact with most of the time, but when they do it’s mostly wholesome.

Now Ricky loves to prank and tease Koshin, much to Pon and Moh displeasure. Sometimes his pranks go to far but he mostly holds himself back. He’d hit on Koshin if he wasn’t already dating his mouse boyfriend! :3c

So yeah Koshin is the little brother of the group!

[ceogreys]

Mugen screenpacks 1.0

#MUGEN SCREENPACKS 1.0 PC#

#MUGEN SCREENPACKS 1.0 PLUS#

#MUGEN SCREENPACKS 1.0 DOWNLOAD#

#MUGEN SCREENPACKS 1.0 DOWNLOAD#

Mugen Screenpacks Mugen Roster 2010 Download Link (read. all of them were handpicked and tested by me. I keep finding some that are 1.0 and has about 300 slots, but none of them are HD to fit my computer screen. i compile all the best and my favorite characters in one screenpack. Does anybody know of a screenpack that works for 1.0, is 1280x720, and has about 320 slots I know that's pretty specific, but I'm lost. (Read 45460 times) Interplay Mugen - Subliminal Music Inside 'data', there is another folder called 'mugen1'. In WinMugen, you just extract the screenpack content inside the data folder itself. Just like older versions, each content inside Mugen has a folder called 'data'.

#MUGEN SCREENPACKS 1.0 PC#

Street Fighter,Marvel,DC, Capcom games for your pc computer.Īuthor Topic: Shin RyuKen's Guide to Mugen. I'm here to give a little tutorial to add screenpacks in to your Mugen 1. Mugen Screenpacks 640x480, Screen pack HD for Mugen 1.0 local cord 640x480, 5.15 MB, 03:45, 1155, channelTitle, publishedAt, videoCount, imageTitle. Including Spiderman,Venom,Carnage, and more comic heroes. and ALOT OF FIGHTERS to play as more then 500 fightersĪuthor Topic: Guilty Gear XX MUGEN by Sword†Dancer released (Read 11588 times)ĭownload Mugen and mugen characters here. Its an Combination of Capcom vs SNK 2,Guilty Gear,Marvel vs Capcom 2 and. Mugen Game Download: Mugen is a massive fighting game with lots of special effects and moves. Those are Hitsparks i made for an Upcoming Screenpack for M.U.G.E.N 1.0 and 1.1.

#MUGEN SCREENPACKS 1.0 PLUS#

How to fix fighter select screen in mugen i will give a link so you can download the mugen plus sometime today go here to download This article is about the original Kung Fu Man. Capcom, Snk and other video game companies for bringing their awesome characters to life. Cause Rick Loves M.U.G.E.N, for the sound rips. Virtualltek for their Fighter and Font Factory, really usefull programs Fontry for his AVENGEANCE MIGHTIEST AVENGER font Gracias Por Ver El Video Like Comentar Y SuscribirseThank You For Watching The Video Like Comment And SubscribeHola A Todos En Esta Ocasion Les Traigo El Mug. (i learned a lot by playing an editing those guys screenpacks) Ryon for his tutorials i have learned a lot! Ryoucchi the awesome screenpack used as a base. Elecbyte for creating Mugen, thanks guys it's really cool. And so I did I'm no longer interested in MUGEN in any way, at least for now. Howdy, MUGENERS Two years have passed since I wrote this line: 'Seems like people is loosing their interest in MUGEN'. This is a piece of fan art and it must be considered like that, i'm not making money with this. Wellcome to my MUGEN creations website Updated 16th of March, 2016. I sort of fused elements from broken mugen and. Hello Mugen community I have worked on my own screenpack for mugen 1.0/win. center 1up MUGEN screenpack 1.0/win Mac or Windows version. Logo - Anime Mugen Logo - Elecbyte Logo - Vegeta Creations Press Start Screen Menu. This motif was made editing the Marvel vs Touhou screenpack by Ryoucchi, the graphics with the exception of the character art and earth picture where mostly done by me. Subject: 1up MUGEN screenpack 1.0/win Mac or Windows version September 21st 2015, 8:01 am.

[latestinbollywood]

Annie Ernaux Husband, Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Parents, Nationality, Net Worth & More

Annie Ernaux Husband:- Annie Ernaux is a professor of literature and a writer. Any literary work based mostly on autobiography bears a close association with sociology. Here we discuss Annie Ernaux Husband, Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Parents, Nationality, Net Worth & More.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Annie Ernaux (@anniexernaux_4ever_fan)

Annie Ernaux Husband

Annie Ernaux was previously married to Philip Arnoux, Annie and Philip married in 1964, but their relationship did not last long and they separated in the early 1980s and divorced in 1985. Annie and Philip have 2 sons, Eric Ernaux and David Ernaux. In this blog, If you have any doubts about Annie Ernaux Husband, Wiki, Age, Biography, Height, Parents, Nationality, Net Worth & More. drop your queries in the comments section. 

Annie Ernaux Wiki, Biography

Annie Ernaux was born on 1 September 1940 in Lillebonne, Normandy, France, and she is 82 years old as of 2022. In 1960 Annie traveled to London, United Kingdom, where she worked as an assistant from a foreign country, an experience she would later describe in 2016's Memoire de Feel (A Girl's Story). will relate. Annie began her literary career in 1974 with an autobiographical novel Les Armoires Vides. In 1984, Annie won the Renadot Prize (French Literary Prize) for another of her autobiographical work La Place (A Man's Place), an autobiographical description of her relationship with her father and Annie's growing up in a small town. focused on experiences. France, and her ensuing process of moving into maturity away from her parent's place of origin.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Annie Ernaux (@anniexernaux_4ever_fan)

Annie Ernaux Age

Annie Ernaux was born on 1 September 1940 in Lillebonne, Normandy, France, and she is 82 years old as of 2022.

Annie Ernaux Height, Weight

Annie Ernaux's height is 5 feet 4 inches and her weight is around 57 kg.

Annie Ernaux Parents

Annie Ernaux's parents are Annie Ernaux (father) and Annie Ernaux (mother).

Annie Ernaux Ethnicity, Nationality

Annie Ernaux was born on 1 September 1940 in Lillebonne, Normandy, France, and she holds French nationality. Annie's ethnicity is white.

Annie Ernaux Net Worth

There is no information available regarding Annie Ernaux's net worth whenever we get the information we will update it. Read also:- Lisa Nandy Ethnicity Read the full article

[therenlover]

Therenlover’s Official Fanfic Glossary!

Hey hey hey! This is the place where you can find all my up-to-date fanfics linked nicely, read about what projects I have upcoming, and learn what requests I’m taking at the moment! Cheers!

This post is massive so, for the sake of your dash, everything is under the cut

A NOTE ABOUT REQUESTS!

I will do my best to fulfill any requests I get while my ask box/requests are open! That being said, I cannot promise every request will get done, and that if they do, they’ll be done in a timely manner. I’m currently working on a long-form project that needs a lot of time and energy to come out consistently, so unless I’m doing a writing event most of my writing juice will be focused on that. That being said, if you want something ask! The worst I can possibly do is direct you towards someone else who might be able to write what you want if I cant.

If I choose not to do your request based on personal preference (it makes me uncomfy/I don’t write for the character at that time/I don’t feel I can write what you want/etc.) I will do my best to contact you and let you know! That being said, if you think your ask got buried/forgotten, feel free to message me again and let me know, but please tell me when you message me if I should be looking for a prior request.

Characters/Fandoms I will write for currently

 💙 = I’m Currently Super Inspired To Write For This Character

Marvel/X-Men

Bucky Barnes

Loki

Peter Maximoff 💙

Pietro Maximoff

Helmut Zemo 💙

Hank McCoy

Ralph Bohner 💙

Vision

American Horror Story

Tate Langdon

Kit Walker 💙

Kyle Spencer (Pre- and Post- Death)

Jimmy Darling 💙

James Patrick March 💙

Kai Anderson

Fallout 4

Nick Valentine

Hancock

Star Wars

Poe Dameron

Armitage Hux 💙

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo

Finn

Han Solo

Assorted/Random

Diarmuid Ua Duibhne - FGO

Cu Chulainn/Cu Alter - FGO

Warren Lipka - American Animals 💙

Enjolras - Les Miserables

Grantaire - Les Miserables

Gabriel - Supernatural

Imagines - REQUESTS CLOSED

Songs From Musicals Y/N Would Sing To The Evans

Characters: Tate Langdon, Kit Walker, Kyle Spencer, Jimmy Darling, James Patrick March, Kai Anderson, Peter Maximoff

Rating: T

How The Evans (+ Quicksilver) Would React To Yoplait’s New Gushers Yogurt

Characters: Tate Langdon, Kit Walker, Kyle Spencer, Jimmy Darling, James Patrick March, Rory Monahan, Kai Anderson, Peter Maximoff

Rating: T

Would The Danny Bunch Survive A Holiday With My Family?

Characters: Laszlo Kreizler, Alex Kerner, Niki Lauda, Andrea Marowski, Ernst Schmidt, Helmut Zemo

Rating: T

Headcanons - REQUESTS CLOSED

Modern! AU Armitage Hux Boyfriend Headcanons

Zemo With A Well Dress S/O Headcanons

Zemo Getting Jealous Headcanons

Oneshots - REQUESTS CLOSED

Marvel/X-Men

Helmut Zemo

One Last Night In Madripoor

Synopsis: Baron Helmut Zemo is a lonely, wanted man looking for some fun, you’re a piss-poor bounty hunter in search of a connection before leaving your life of crime behind, and fate has brought you together at a party the likes of which has never been seen before. You only have one night left in Madripoor, so why not take a chance?

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 4200~

Still Some Catching Up To Do

Synopsis: As a member of the criminal underworld, people walk out of your life all the time. Some are killed, others kill themselves, most get caught and only a couple get out of the life unscathed, disappearing into the world never to be seen again. Very few walk back in. So when your supposedly incarcerated ex-lover, the Winter Soldier, and the Falcon waltzed through your door and made you murder your boss, needless to say, you were surprised and more than a little bit pissed.

Rating: 16+

Word Count: 6800~

Nine Years Starved

Synopsis: It had been a little over nine years since Helmut Zemo lost his family, his country, and his sanity. Nine years since his last kiss. Nine years since he felt like a human man. Finally, he was ready to start over again, but first, he had to pay his penance back where it all began; Novi Grad. That’s when, by the grace of the fates, he met you.

Rating: G

Word Count: 7000~

Daddy Dearest

Synopsis: Not everyone gets lucky enough to go from being a broke college student in New York to being the sugar baby to literal royalty, but not everyone is you. Most people would be worried about messing things up or losing him to someone else, but you knew he would never find another baby just like you. Besides, you knew exactly what to do to keep him wrapped around your little finger. He may have been the daddy, but you pulled the reins.

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 8000~

In Fleeting Touches & Airy Sighs

Part One   Part Two   Part Three   Part Four

Synopsis: As a wanted man, Helmut Zemo spends most of his time jumping from place to place in the hopes of avoiding a trip back to prison. Unfortunately, that means he can’t always be home in your arms. When he is, though, in the rare moments of calm, you’re reminded of just how worth it it’s been to wait, even if that wait was only shortened by the arrival of your enemies.

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 35,700~

Two Bodies In The Rain

Synopsis: It was raining the day you finally had to admit your feelings to Helmut. You hated to tell him the way you did, under the grey skies as your blood pooled below you, but at least you knew, in the end, he had seen the real you, even just once. That was enough.

Rating: T

Word Count: 5600~

Rest

Synopsis: Living life on the lam with your escaped super-villain lover means things rarely slow down enough for a real rest. When the exhaustion starts to take its toll on you, though, he knows exactly what to do to ease the pain. He may not be a good man, but he’s a good husband when it counts.

Rating: T

Word Count: 3200~

American Horror Story

Jimmy Darling

Red Nights In Jupiter

Synopsis: At the end of another long day, you fall into bed with Jimmy Darling. The men you served throughout the day don’t matter then, nor do the coins in the mason jar by the door, or the women scheduled to attend Jimmy’s next Tupperware party. No, in that quiet darkness it’s just you and the man you love, bone-tired and happy to be home. Who could ask for more?

Rating: 16+

Word Count: 3000~

James Patrick March

Heartsick

Synopsis: When you fall ill, James is given a forceful awakening about how he’s been neglecting your needs and what he must do to prevent harm from befalling you again.

Rating: 16+

Word Count: 3700~

In Sickness And In Health

Synopsis: Normally people don’t have their wedding and funeral on the same day, but you and James don’t quite have a normal relationship, do you? Besides, you wouldn’t wanna go any other way.

Rating: 18+

Word Count: 5500~

Fallout 4

Currently Empty

Star Wars

Currently Empty

Assorted/Random

Currently Empty

Long Form Works/Series

Young Artist!Zemo AU

Chapter One: The Boy With The Easel

Synopsis: About a month into your first semester at Novi Grad’s top university, you finally meet the strange young man that you’ve taken to calling “easel boy” in the back of a bookshop. From a distance, he always seemed cold and aloof. As you get to know him, though, you realize things aren’t always what they seem.

Rating: T

Word Count: 7000~

Till Forever Falls Apart (A Peter Maximoff/Reader Series)

Chapter One: Welcome Home

Synopsis: As if getting thrown through the multiverse, trapped in an attic (albeit a cool one), mind-controlled to manipulate his grieving sister, and subsequently dragged out of Westview “for his own safety” by the FBI wasn’t enough, Peter Maximoff has now been shipped off to New York to live with a glorified baby sitter like some tragic orphan in a comic book until they find a way to get him back home. Things are not always as they seem, though, and this change might just be for the better.

Rating: T

Word Count: 2400~

Chapter Two: The Doctor Is In

Synopsis: Peter’s first few days in his new home are mostly uneventful, so he decides it’s the perfect time to dust off his running goggles and steal some shit. The building with the massive circular stained glass window seems like a great place to start! People with buildings that lavish are usually rich and weak, so what could possibly go wrong?

Rating: T

Word Count: 2800~

Chapter Three: It’s Always Been You

Synopsis: After a month of adapting to his new universe, Peter Maximoff can confidently say that he likes his new life more than his old one. Sure, he misses home sometimes, but he’s been far too busy flirting with his new roommate to spend time crying over the things he’s lost. Everything is smooth sailing until a strange journal in his roommate’s study leaves him with more questions than he knows what to do with. Now he’s on a mission to discover who he’s really living with before she has the chance to turn against him.

Rating: T

Word Count: 8600~

Chapter Four: Before You Go

Synopsis: Peter, after days of contemplation, has realized that part of him loves Y/N no matter what she is or what she’s been through. Unfortunately, he can’t find her anywhere. When she finally returns home with the intention of leaving again, Peter realizes it’s his last chance to tell her how he really feels. Will he succeed, or will he fail to be fast enough once again?

Rating: T

Word Count: 4000~

Chapter Four And A Half: Gimme Swayze

Synopsis: Now that the issue of Y/N leaving is out of the way, and Peter has finally kissed her, he falls into the motions of learning how to love someone for the first time. It’s easier than he thought it would be.

Rating: T

Word Count; 2600~

Cakes For The Evans: A Blogging And Baking Adventure!

Kai Anderson’s Disaster Cake

Hey you! If you’ve made it this far down the list, thanks for supporting me as an author! I’ll be linking my AO3 here. I post everything there shortly before I post it here, and there are some older fics there you might enjoy along the way! It’s also easier to drop comments over there and I keep them open for non-members, so give me a shout if you liked what I wrote!

I love you all, you make me so happy, and without you support I would never be motivated to write! Cheers!

[swanlake1998]

Article: For transgender dancers, progress can't come fast enough

Date: March 8, 2020

By: Avichai Scher

Sean Dorsey was tired of being the only transgender dancer in the room. So he took the bold step of starting his own company, the San Francisco-based Sean Dorsey Dance, and become the first openly trans director of a full-time dance company. It was a milestone for transgender and gender-nonconforming dancers and choreographers, and Dorsey hoped it would lead to a more inclusive dance world.

The company is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, yet Dorsey remains the only openly trans artistic director of a full-time dance company in the country.

“We’ve definitely made progress since I started, when there was really no context for institutional or social support of trans dancers,” Dorsey said. “But there’s still a major lack of representation across the dance world.”

Dance, especially older forms such as ballet and modern dance, is mostly structured around strict gender lines. While the growing acceptance of transgender people in the United States has extended somewhat into the art form, trans dancers are often forced to choose between being their authentic selves and career opportunities.

Issues start in training

Dorsey’s choreography often deals with trans issues, and he is committed to being an advocate in the dance world for transgender people. But even in his own company, Dorsey is the only trans performer.

“In San Francisco, at least, I don’t have the luxury of holding an audition for trans dancers,” he said. “There just aren’t very many at the professional level.”

Dorsey said this is largely because barriers for trans and gender-nonconforming dancers start at a young age — as most training programs are gender-specific.

Jayna Ledford, 19, made headlines when she came out as transgender in an Instagram post in 2018. She was studying at the Kirov Ballet Academy at the time, a traditional ballet program in Washington, D.C. It was the first time a dancer at an acclaimed ballet school had publicly come out as trans.

Classes at Kirov, like most ballet conservatories, are generally separated by sex assigned at birth, and when students are combined, teachers offer different steps for men and women. Ledford, however, found ways to get the training that matched her gender identity, including dancing on her toes in special pointe shoes, which is done almost exclusively by women and requires unique training.

“I wanted to do what the females were doing,” she said. “I’d do it on the side and not pay attention to what the guys were doing. I’d also stay after class and practice pointe technique with my female friends.”

She hadn’t had the training other females at the school had, but she was hoping to transfer from the men’s program to the women’s.

“I knew I had a lot of catching up to do in terms of pointe work,” she said. “But just being in the room with the females, that’s what I wanted.”

The Kirov Academy told Ledford she could not join the women’s program unless she physically transitioned. Ledford was not ready for that, so she left the school. She was disappointed but now says she understands the academy’s position. The school confirmed Ledford’s account but declined to comment.

Maxfield Haynes, 22, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said the large, prestigious ballet school where they trained was not supportive of someone presenting as male wearing pointe shoes.

It wasn’t until Haynes enrolled at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University that they were able to explore the more feminine aspects of ballet technique. Ledford also found higher education to be more supportive than a conservatory. She now studies at Montclair State University and practices pointe technique daily.

Lack of professional opportunities

After NYU, Haynes chose to dance with Complexions Contemporary Ballet partially because the company is explicitly supportive of gender fluidity, and even had a specific role for Haynes that is gender-nonconforming. In the David Bowie tribute piece, “Stardust,” Haynes dons pointe shoes and was partnered with male dancers.

“It was everything I could have dreamed of,” Haynes said of the role. “As nonbinary, I like to get to show all aspects of gender. I don’t think about dancing like a man or a woman, just myself.”

Opportunities to dance roles that are gender-nonconforming are rare in the concert dance world, even if dancers are becoming more open about being gender-nonconforming in their offstage lives. And those who want to physically transition face a stark choice, as none of the major dance companies in the U.S. currently have openly transgender dancers on their rosters.

Alby Sabrina Pretto recently made the difficult choice to begin physically transitioning with hormone replacement therapy at the expense of her performing career. She was a dancer with Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male comedy troupe, for eight years. While she got to dance in pointe shoes, the style of the company is rooted in the comedy of men portraying women, which ultimately wasn’t how Pretto identified.

“There were moments I wanted to do things like a ballerina would and be ethereal and pretty,” Pretto said. “To dance like a woman.”

She knew that physically transitioning would mean she could not continue with the company.

“I wanted to have a career, and that slowed down my decision to transition,” Pretto said. “I waited until I felt like I had done what I wanted to do there.”

Liz Harler, general manager of Les Ballet Trockadero, said in a statement that transitioning does not disqualify dancers from the company.

“Dancers who expressed interest in transitioning to female have been told that their job would not be in jeopardy, though none have chosen to do so while continuing with the Trocks’ rigorous dancing and touring schedule,” Harler said.

Both Ledford and Pretto hope for the day when they can attend an audition and be hired without having to explain their gender identity.

Ledford said. “I’ll audition as any other woman. If I get in, then I’ll sit down and talk with them.”

Ledford is “optimistic” that this can happen in the next few years, but Pretto isn’t so sure.

“I am not naive, I know I cannot just audition for a major ballet company and join the female corps de ballet,” Pretto said. “But I would love for that to happen for me. It’s the ultimate dream.”

Her skepticism is partly based on the experience of her former Trockadero colleague, Chase Johnsey, who is gender fluid. He made headlines in 2018 when he was cast in a female ensemble role in the English National Ballet’s production of “Sleeping Beauty,” though it was not on pointe, and the heavy costume concealed his body. No additional female roles came his way afterward.

The question of who gets opportunities as a dancer often comes down to the taste of directors and producers and what they imagine their audiences want to see, not just ability.

Pretto danced a couple of character roles recently with Eglevsky Ballet, a growing ballet ensemble on Long Island, New York. The director, Maurice Brandon Curry, said he would consider Pretto for a female ensemble role next year, because her pointe work is “excellent,” though he wonders how some in the audience will react.

“Casting Alby in a female role would not be about passing as female, but I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge my concern about an audience member who was offended,” Curry said. “But art is not prejudice; it’s about inclusivity and open minds. If someone is not willing to have that experience, they don’t have a legitimate place in our audiences.”

Signs of change

Dorsey said that even having discussions about gender identity in dance is progress from when he started, and he’s encouraged by changes he’s seen: Most theaters either already have gender-neutral restrooms or create them for his company’s visit; trans and gender-nonconforming students attend his workshops in various cities and share with him their efforts to be accepted in their dance communities; the San Francisco Ballet persuaded him to lead a training session on gender identity in dance; and he was on the cover of Dance Magazine.

Ledford was recently a “Gaynor Girl,” a spokesperson for the popular pointe shoe brand Gaynor Minded. Pretto said she worked up the courage to use the ladies' locker room at one of New York’s busiest studios, Steps on Broadway, and no one seemed to mind.

Still, the art form has not yet caught up to reflect the audience, Dorsey said. His company has worked in over 30 cities in the U.S. and abroad, and he is usually the first trans choreographer a theater has presented. But he said the response from audiences is almost always positive.

“Dance audiences are ready and hungry for trans voices,” he said. “It's our dance institutions that are still catching up.”

[fanficflaneuse]

Fic Recommendations

Hello, dears. I’ve seen this around my feed and I decided I’d do just the same :) I’ve been talking and reading about how fanfiction writers feel like their work is not getting the engagement they’d like it to have. Being a writer myself and feeling just the same at times, I want to invite you all to like, comment and reblog other people’s work. It takes no time and it puts a smile on our faces. 

So here it is. Every writer on this list is absolutely talented. Most of them have multiple fics I love and I am just mentioning just one, but you should definitely check all of their work. 

Opinions by @hufflefluff-writer

Draco x reader. I’ve literally read the third part to this mini series like a million times because it’s that good. Every moment feels so genuine and natural. I love the portrayal of Lucius and Narcissa and the Weasley family dynamic. Draco is a sweetheart as well. 

Needy by @war-sword

Draco x reader. I discovered this fic after hours of tirelessly browsing through the tags and I found a rollercoaster of emotions. It has everything. Every single moment was full of feelings. The portrayal of Draco’s emotional breakdown during sixth year is remarkable. Sweet and angsty, fluffy and sad. 

Sunshine by @rvnsclws

Theo x reader. The fanfic that made me love Theodore Nott. The plot is very, very sweet and Theo is a dream of a man. 

Le Dragon et La Princesse by @acciodracoo

Draco x reader. A fairytale AU. I understand it’s in hiatus right now, but every chapter is so good I can’t wait for the next. Includes Prince Draco taking reader’s corset off with his teeth, what else could I ask for? 

Beautifully Beastly by @missdawnandherdusk

Draco x reader. Peter Pan? Baby Scorpius? A plot that resembles The Sound of Music? Count me in. Everything about this is to die for. I love this writer. They’re a star and I’m sure they know that, but I still want to take a moment to acknowledge them and send them some love. 

The Professor by @silversslytherin

Draco x reader. Draco is a professor at Hogwarts and reader is a student. It’s still a work in progress but every chapter is better than the last.

Teacher’s Pet by @mariamermaid

Draco x reader. Similar to The Professor, but it’s a one-shot based on Melany Martinez’s song. It’s angsty, empowering and sexy. I loved it. 

Headcanons by @im-a-writer-right

Marauders, mostly. I love everything they writes, but their headcanons are amazing. I understand they write for a wide range of characters and fandoms as well. 

Desire by @blisfvll

Draco x reader. Prepare to cry by the bucketful. It was heartbreaking from beginning to end.  

Purist by @mxl-foy

Draco x reader. This is a dystopian AU in which Voldemort has won and there’s an underground rebellion against him lead by Andromeda Tonks. Reader and Draco are caught up in the plot and it is so good. The story is enthralling and exciting. There’s drama and angst and also a bit of fluff. Draco is our tortured, good guy looking for redemption and I’m living for it. 

Want Nobody Else by  @iliveiloveiwrite

Draco x reader. Fluff all over the place. Draco is absolutely sweet. Narcissa is wonderful and supportive. There’s Christmas, there’s cuddles by the fire. Wholesome and nice. 

Christmas Sweaters by @summer-writes

Draco Malfoy as a Gryffindor. This is the sweetest thing you’ll read.

Bonus: 

@sirussly‘s work is a masterpiece. Seeing her posts on my feed genuinely make me happy. 

That’s all for now, folks. You can tell I love Draco, don’t you?

 I’ll think about some more and definitely do another one of this. It’s fun. Also, most of the things I read and write involve a female reader. Hopefully I’ll find and start adding some content with more neutral readers to allow more people to connect with the stories :)  

(And also get into some ships. I love Scorbus but haven’t read much Scorbus fanfiction. Same with Drarry, Wolfstar, Drastoria...so on and so forths) 

[pastelwitchling]

Under the Sea bonus story! I had so much fun returning to this world and these characters. I just really wanted to write a little epilogue sort of chapter. If you enjoy reading at all, please comment and share, it always makes the world of a difference 💙

               Alex heard the laughter of dolphins in his ears, the rush of bubbles against his cheeks as fish swam past. He opened his eyes to treasure; stones of different colors and sizes covered the ocean floor, seaweed, coral, sea creatures of all kinds floated past.

               Once upon a time, Alex had feared the ocean as he feared nothing else. Now he knew he was safe in its waters, for the love of his life resided there. He felt hands on his hips, pulling him back against a warm chest, even under the cold water, and he laughed. He was safe, a bubble of air protecting his head down to the base of his neck.

               “Have you no decency?” Alex asked even as he tilted his chin up, giving Forrest more access to his skin.

               “I wish to kiss my fiancé,” murmured Forrest with a grin against Alex’s neck. “Am I not allowed?”

               “Not here,” he huffed, “where someone might see us.”

               Forrest turned Alex around, making him laugh. He held his face in his hands, the gold band on his finger cold against Alex’s cheek. Forrest’s long blue and gold tail swayed calmly in the water below them, but his voice was in a near growl when he spoke, “I care not who sees us. Let them envy me, for I am the one to marry the most handsome man in all of the oceans and on land combined.”

               Even under the water, Alex’s cheeks heated and he hid his face in Forrest’s shoulder. “Honestly . . .”

               “Don’t you dare look down,” Forrest whispered, tilting down so that his forehead pressed against Alex’s, the blue and gold in his dark eyes glimmering with an overwhelming fondness and love that threatened to kill Alex in the best way.

               As he neared, Alex’s mouth instinctively fell open, and he found himself closing the distance between them, eager to taste Forrest’s lips in his, when suddenly –

               “Oi! Can’t you keep your hands off each other for two bloody minutes?!” Kyle appeared, his green and gold fin swimming behind him. He grabbed Alex’s arm and tugged. “Stop hogging him all to yourself!”

               “Oh, leave them alone, Kyle,” Maria sighed dreamily. “They’re in love.”

               “They have their entire lives to be in love!” Kyle demanded. “I have only another short moment while Alex is a free man!”

               Forrest wrapped his arms around Alex’s shoulders, his smile in place, but his eyes dark. “And what exactly do you assume will happen between you and Alex?”

               “Don’t be such a stiff, Forrest,” Kyle rolled his eyes, tugging Alex, and therefore Forrest, closer. “I just want to talk to him. Without you.”

               “That’s simply not going to happen.”

               “Don’t you trust me?” teased Alex.

               “Implicitly,” said Forrest without a moment’s hesitation, and narrowed his eyes at Kyle. “It’s his wandering hands I don’t trust.”

               Alex laughed and kissed Forrest’s cheek. He nuzzled his neck. Even underwater, as fish tickled his feet and the world turned to a peaceful silence around them, Alex could still smell Forrest. Even down here, he smelled like the ocean.

                “Who knew,” teased Jenna, the white pearls in her hair making her look like an angel, “that Forrest could be so possessive?”

               “I did,” Kyle huffed, “since we first found Alex and he wouldn’t let any of us near him.”

               “I was being protective,” Forrest insisted. “Oh, enough of all of you. Come along, my love. We’ve been down here long enough and soon people will start to wake. We best get back to the surface so that I can change to my human form.”

               Alex nodded, but accepted the hugs from Kyle and the others first. Forrest had been right in that Kyle held on longer than the others, squeezing him tightly enough to make him laugh, and then he had his arms around Forrest again.

               “Hold on tight to me, my love,” Forrest whispered into the space between them. Alex remembered a year ago when Forrest had said the same thing to him before saving him from the cavern and returning him to his home. Alex had held on trustingly. Forrest had been his one small relief, even if he hadn’t really known him.

               Now, as they rose to the surface together, Alex was filled with laughter, his chest overflowing with love for the merman before him. When they broke the surface, the cold hit them first, but Alex clung to Forrest’s warmth.

               “Go on,” Forrest encouraged him, his lips against Alex’s ear. “I’ll be right behind you.”

               Alex nodded, and let go of Forrest. He swam to the shore, and walked up the rest of the way. As he stepped out of the waves, he saw the water change color, as though someone were shining a bright blue light underneath the surface, and he turned to find Forrest standing in the water, the waves lapping around his naked waist. His blue hair and the blue glow of his eyes were gone, and his still-glowing blue seashell nestled in his collarbone. Alex smiled. He loved this version of Forrest just as much, for the magic of the sea never seemed to leave him no matter what form he took.

               Alex reached for the hidden clothes he kept wrapped in a towel behind a boulder, and handed them to Forrest. Once they were both dried and dressed, they made their usual way up the far left stone steps to the street above.

               The marketplace was still mostly bare, but Alex spotted a merchant here and there, preparing their stall for the day. Some waved good morning to him and Forrest, some congratulated them, some merely ogled.

               “I hate when they stare,” Alex murmured.

               Forrest grinned. “They can scarcely ignore your beauty, darling. Don’t begrudge them for it. I can hardly resist staring at you myself.”

               Alex blushed. “That’s different! And it’s not me they’re watching, it’s you!”

               He laughed. “So you’re jealous, then?”

               “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, and kissed Forrest’s cheek for good measure.

               When the wooden sign for Le Gateau au Chocolat – Gregory and Isobel’s pastry shop – came into view, Alex and Forrest decided to race the rest of the way. They both reached the door out of breath with giggles. Alex had won by only a small margin. Forrest had been getting much better at using his legs.

               “Oh, Alex, good,” Gregory called from behind the counter. “I’ve decided to change the chicken to beef for tonight.”

               Alex faltered. “Isn’t beef expensive?”

               Isobel came in from the kitchens. She wiped her hands on her apron and put them on her hips. “Don’t you go worrying about that. We’ve taken care of it.”

               Alex looked to Forrest, suspicious. “You didn’t . . .?”

               Forrest leapt onto the counter. “Oh, I certainly offered. What’s the point of being a king with riches if I cannot spoil my love? But no, your brother and sister would not hear of it. This time.”

               “Stop it,” Gregory scolded. “We’re older, we take care of you, that’s how it works.”

               Forrest hummed, and his eyes brightened. “Until Alex and I are married. Then he’s all mine.”

               Alex caught Isobel’s amused look, and turned away, his face red. He cleared his throat. “Anyhow. What time’s the dinner?”

               “Eight,” Gregory pointed. “Do not be late, both of you. Oh” – he dusted some of the sand off Forrest’s jacket – “and try not to mention any merpeople, will you? The last thing we need is for Liz and Max to know the truth, too.”

               “They wouldn’t tell anyone,” Alex defended.

               Gregory and Isobel shared a look, and Isobel sighed. “We can’t risk Michael finding out, Alex. I love my brother, but . . .” she shook her head. “Ever since you announced your engagement, he’s been . . .”

               “He isn’t happy,” Gregory said. “Let’s put it that way.”

               Alex sat down, and looked at the band on his finger. A circle of gold with an aquamarine jewel imbedded in the center. He hated to admit it, but in the moments after his excitement at marrying Forrest had faded, Michael had come to mind. What he would think, how he would feel, react. He’d been anxious, and now he knew he was right to have been.

               “It’ll be all right though, won’t it?” he asked, hearing the plea in his own voice.

               Forrest’s smile dimmed. He never liked the mention of Michael, but he leapt from the counter regardless, stumbled, then came to sit in front of Alex. He took his hands in both of his and kissed his fingers.

               “Everything will be perfect, my love,” he promised. “I’m certain he will come to this dinner with kindness and happiness in his heart. He will be happy only that you are happy.” He hesitated, then, “You . . . are happy, aren’t you?”

               “Oh,” Alex breathed, and wrapped his arms around Forrest’s shoulders tightly, burying his face in the crook of his neck. “I love you more than I can say. I’m sorry, my darling, I don’t mean to imply any different.”

               “Really, Alex,” Isobel assured him, “you’ve no reason to worry about Michael. I’ll make sure of it.”

               Alex sighed, resting his head on Forrest’s shoulder. “I just want everything to be perfect.” He played with Forrest’s fingers. “You’re a king after all, you must have standards.”

               “I do,” Forrest nodded. “Absolutely. If it’s not Alex, then I will not have it.”

               “Oi, keep your distance, you two,” Gregory warned with his wooden spoon. “We have customers coming in soon, and this is no pub!”

               Forrest had Alex’s face in his hands, and was nuzzling his nose. He whispered, “I don’t see any customers now.”

               He took Alex’s lips in his own, one hand reaching into his hair, the other cupping his neck. Alex whimpered in the back of his throat, and Forrest tilted his head to deepen the kiss, their mouths slotting perfectly together, Forrest’s tongue sliding against his own.

               He ran his hands down Forrest’s chest, and then Gregory threw a rag over their heads. “Were you not listening?” he snapped. “Your engagement dinner’s tonight, can you not contain yourselves?!”

               Forrest pointed at Alex’s face, incredulous. “Have you seen him?”

               Alex hid his face in Forrest’s shoulder, embarrassed, as Isobel laughed loudly.

                 “Which looks better?” Liz asked, holding up a deep green dress, and a bright red. “This one? Or this one?”

               “I think you look beautiful in both,” Alex said cheerfully. Forrest sat next to him, eagerly shoveling down the biscuits Gregory had given them to have after lunch. Every so often, he offered Alex one, Alex shook his head, and then he ate the entire thing in one bite.

               “Mmh – yes,” said Forrest. “Beau—ifful.”

               “Oh, you both are useless,” Rosa sighed from where she sat on the counter. “Obviously, the red is terribly unsuitable.”

               Liz frowned. “Is it?”

               “Yes!” she took a biscuit from Forrest’s plate. “This is an engagement dinner. The red should clearly be saved for the wedding!”

               “Do you think so, Alex?” Liz asked.

               “Er – actually –”

               “What’re you asking him for?” Rosa huffed. “You know he’s too nice to tell you the truth!”

               Liz opened her mouth to argue when the front door swung open. Max smiled at them.

               “Good afternoon, all!” He ruffled Alex and Rosa’s hair, and kissed Liz’s cheek. “Afternoon, darling.”

               “Did you see the suit I put out for you?” Liz said in lieu of a greeting.

               “Yes, darling.”

               “Don’t you dare wear it until the dinner.”

               Max’s smile widened. “Yes, darling.”

               “We have to look our best for Alex and Forrest,” she said. Then she mumbled something incoherent to him and they glanced at Alex, as though afraid he’d heard. Max merely nodded in response.

                “Honestly,” said Alex, leaning against Forrest’s side. “You don’t have to go through all this fuss. It’s just going to be a small, comfortable dinner.”

               Liz put her hands on her hips. “Then why did Flint order a new navy-blue coat for the occasion?”

               “Did he?” Alex blinked, and flushed. Since their last voyage, he had feared for his relationship with his brother, the distance the truth about their mother’s death may put between them. He had seemed happy to be invited to the engagement dinner, but Alex had feared it had been an act. To know he cared this much, it gladdened Alex’s heart more than he could say.

               Rosa scoffed. “Well, I won’t need any help preparing. I know exactly what to wear.”

               “Yes,” Liz said testily, “but will you know how to behave?”

               “Oi!” she argued. “Don’t you start with me, it’s Michael you should be concerned about!”

               Liz shot her a sharp look, while Max turned a nervous smile on Alex and Forrest. Forrest had stopped eating.

               “She’s joking,” Max assured them. “Michael’s really happy for you, Alex.”

               Forrest smiled, but it was polite and cold, not at all what Alex was used to. “I trust he will be on his best behaviour.” Then he grumbled, “If not, I’ll throw him into the middle of the ocean.”

               Alex hooked his arm around Forrest’s and kissed his shoulder. “Are there any more biscuits left for me?” he murmured.

               Forrest’s eyes lit up at once, and he handed Alex the largest he had. “I saved it for you, my love!”

               Alex laughed, his heart and the atmosphere of the shop lighter at once.

                 Forrest insisted on watching the sunset before dinner, but Alex had not needed much persuasion. Once they’d excused themselves from the shop, they made their way down the street, Forrest’s arm hooked around Alex’s. There was a time he had clung to him to walk, but now he stayed close for the sake of staying close itself. Forrest played with his fingers, and Alex kissed the back of his hand.

               “Congratulations, dears!” Mrs. Valenti called for what felt like the millionth time, as she liked to congratulate them whenever they passed by. “Isn’t it so exciting, Mr. Higgins?”

               “Eh?” Mr. Higgins chuckled good-naturedly. “Yes, yes, terribly happy for them!”

               Forrest’s eyes lingered, once again, on the frozen fish in Mr. Higgins’ market stall, but at a kiss to his cheek from Alex, his eyes brightened once again.

               Instead of going down to shore, they sat on the brick wall that overlooked the ocean, their legs dangling over the end. The sand below was soft, so there was no fear of falling. Nonetheless, Forrest kept a tight arm around Alex’s waist, and Alex felt safe.

               The sky turned to rose and violet and gold as the sun fell behind the ocean’s surface. Alex asked if Forrest had seen plenty of sunsets before.

               “I try to,” he confessed, “but there’s quite a risk of being seen by sailors, even so far out at sea.”

               Alex shuddered as he thought of Forrest tied to a ship’s mast, at sailors who were happy to harm him because of what he was. He burrowed deeper into his side and nuzzled his neck.

               “I will never let anyone touch you again, sailor or otherwise,” he promised in a whisper.

               Forrest kissed the top of his head. “And I will protect you with my life.”

               “Will I ever see your underwater kingdom?” Alex asked.

               Forrest laughed. “Certainly,” he said. “I will have a room prepared where not a drop of water would dare to enter.”

               Alex closed his eyes and let the sun’s warmth bathe them both in gold. “I don’t fear drowning with you at my side.”

               “And you never shall have to,” Forrest told him, his hold tightening and promising a king’s protection.

               They kissed in the setting sun until their lips swelled. They kissed until Forrest’s hand sought out the hem of Alex’s shirt, and Alex realized that if they did not stop soon, they would not stop at all. Then all those walking on the street behind them would have a true reason to stare. They kissed until Alex started to want nothing more than to fall to the sand below with Forrest in his arms, and forget the engagement dinner entirely. To prove their love another way.

               Then he took Forrest’s wrist and pressed their foreheads together, the two panting, and pulled them both to their feet at the first signs of the evening stars. They went hand-in-hand, laughing, back to the pastry shop.

               Alex told Forrest about the gold coat he’d asked Liz for him to wear, and Forrest told Alex about the deep blue ocean flower he’d acquired for Alex’s coat pocket.

               Then a voice cut through their conversation like knife through ice.

               “Alex,” Michael said with a nod. “Forrest.” His eyes fell on Alex and Forrest’s intertwined hands. “Am I too early?”

               His voice was subdued, and Forrest’s eyes had darkened.

               “Good evening, Michael,” he said, his grip on Alex’s hand tightening. “Not at all. Please, come in.”

                 “Are you nervous?” Forrest asked from where he sat on the edge of Alex’s bed. Alex watched him through the mirror’s reflection.

               Alex pulled on his coat and took a seat beside him. He interlocked their hands. “Are you?”

               Forrest smiled, though it did not reach his eyes. “Only that you will change your mind.”

               Alex raised a brow. “Do you truly imagine my heart so fickle?”

               Forrest’s grip on his hand tightened. “I imagine that there is no one who can love as you can. I know it. It is for that reason that I cannot help but worry. He was your first love.”

               “And you are my last,” Alex told him. “That carries far more weight, in my opinion.”

               Downstairs, they could hear the muffled clinking of cups and plates as the sky turned dark and stars peeked out. In the distance, the waves lapped against the shore softly, a comforting reminder that there was always somewhere they could escape to, somewhere where the troubles of land could not follow.

               Forrest said nothing for a long while, then, “I do not want to see you harmed.”

               “I could only be harmed by losing you,” Alex promised him. “I am marrying a king, it is you who has far more prospects.”

               Forrest scoffed half-heartedly. “I will tell you what I’ve already told your brother; have you seen you?”

               Alex burst into giggles, his face warm. He felt the soft touch of Forrest’s lips to his cheek. The laughter faded as they pressed their foreheads together, Alex’s eyes closed as he breathed Forrest in.

               “Stay close to me,” he whispered.

               Forrest nodded once, his lips brushing Alex’s. “Forever.”

                 Dinner had started off well. Alex and Forrest descended down the staircase to the shop where a long table sat and fairy lights had been hung up. The table lay covered with platters of beef, cheese, fruit and bread. Glasses of wine sat at every chair. Isobel and Gregory had truly outdone themselves.

               Liz sat between Max and Rosa. Beside Max was Michael, Isobel, Gregory, and Flint. Forrest pulled out Alex’s chair for him, making him blush, and kissed the top of his head before taking the seat beside him. Alex did not dare glance at Michael.

               For the most part, they shared in their stories, and though Forrest could not share many of his own for fear of exposing himself, he seemed quite content to listen to Alex’s versions of his bravery and kindness.

               “I hear you were responsible for helping to save Alex,” Michael told Forrest, for he had but one of the many different stories of Alex and Forrest’s first meeting. He bowed his head once. “I sincerely thank you.”

               “I could not see anything happen to him,” Forrest said, smiling at Alex. “It was love at first sight, you see.”

               Alex hoped Michael would not respond, but then he said, “Yes, I understand the feeling.” He was looking directly at Alex, his gaze pointed as though he was trying to share a secret message with him.

               Then Forrest took Alex’s hand and kissed the aquamarine bracelet he’d given him so many months ago on the shore. “All right, darling?” he whispered, and Alex nodded, the smile returning to his lips at Forrest’s eyes on him.

               “Goodness, Alex,” Liz sighed. “I do love that bracelet. Forrest made that for him,” she told Michael, “did you know?”

               “Purely for selfish reasons,” Forrest confessed. “I’ve always wanted to see Alex in aquamarine. He looks so beautiful with it, doesn’t he?”

               “Where did you get that?” Flint murmured. “Bottom of the ocean?”

               Gregory nudged Flint with his elbow, but the five of them were already laughing at the private joke.

               “Honestly, Forrest,” grinned Isobel, “do you care about anything but Alex?”

               Forrest hummed, eyes narrowed. “No, I don’t think so. Why?” he asked, genuinely confused when everyone save for Michael started laughing, “Is there anything else to care about?”

               “I would think someone of your position would have plenty,” Gregory thoughtlessly said.

               Rosa frowned. “What do you mean, of his position?”

               Gregory’s eyes widened and Alex tensed. Forrest, after all, was a king. He had plenty of concerns, yet the others at the table did not know that.

               It was Isobel who chuckled nervously and said, “Well, you see, Forrest is very wealthy. He has so much to tend to back in – er –”

               “Paris,” Gregory quickly finished. “Because, as you all know, he is from Paris. Isn’t that right, Forrest?”

               “Certainly,” Forrest nodded. “I am from Paris.”

               Everyone returned to their meat and potatoes when all of a sudden a loud CLANK! drove all other conversation away. Michael had roughly set his fork and knife down.

               “Is that why you chose him?” Michael asked, breaking the heavy silence. “Because he’s so much wealthier than I am?”

               Alex was staring, brows furrowed. He set his utensils down delicately. When he spoke, his voice was cold to his own ears, something fierce and protective overwhelming him. “I beg your pardon?”

               Michael scoffed, shaking his head. There was nothing humorous about it.

               “Michael,” Max warned, but Michael was already seething.

               “I thought it was odd,” he said. “You’d known him for such a short time, yet you fell in love so quickly. Is that why, Alex? He could take better care of you than I could?”

               “Michael,” Isobel hissed, “enough.”

               “Is that why you wouldn’t even give me another chance?”

               Forrest stood at once, but Alex took his arm. He’d never seen Forrest’s glare so full of anger.

               “I will thank you,” Gregory said darkly, “to mind your manners, Michael.”

               “I’m sorry,” Michael said, crossing his arms on top of the table, his eyes on Alex. “I’m sorry that I’m the only one who will acknowledge that there is too much about Forrest that we don’t know. I’m sorry if I’m the only one who wishes to make certain that Alex is not throwing his life away at the first man to offer him comfort after heartbreak.”

               “No, you’re right,” Flint said, slumping in his seat. “I’d much rather my brother stay with someone who hurt him.”

               “Please,” Alex said quietly, and the table turned silent. He raised his chin and held Michael’s gaze. “Forrest saved my life in more ways than I could say. I did not know of his wealth until I’d already loved him, and even if I had, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”

               “Alex –”

               “You are a guest,” Alex told him sternly, “in my home. Forrest is my fiancé, and I expect you to treat him with respect.” His shoulders fell, his tone turned pleading. “I want you to be a part of my life, Michael. Please don’t make me push you out of it.”

               Michael stared back for a long moment, his jaw clenched. Then he stood, murmured an apology, and left.

               Forrest wrapped an arm around Alex’s shoulders, keeping him close. He pressed soft kisses to his ear, his cheek, his jaw as Gregory and Isobel made quick work of returning the rest of the table to cheerier conversation.

               Later that night, Alex woke in bed to find Forrest’s side empty. He sat up, looking through the house, and softly called for Forrest in the shop. When he did not find his fiancé at home, panic began to rise in his chest until he forced it down. His father could not harm Forrest any longer, yet Alex knew he would not rest until he saw his love’s face again.

               Realizing there was only one place Forrest could be, Alex quickly threw on a coat and his boots, and made his way down to the shore. There, with his knees pulled up to his chest amongst the waves, sat Forrest, staring out at the ocean. His blue seashell glittered at his neck.

               Alex hesitated, then came and sat beside him.

               “Are you upset with me?” were his first words.

               Forrest frowned. “What in the soundless seas for?”

               “The dinner,” he said. “I told Michael I – I wanted him in my life.”

               A smirk tugged at Forrest’s lips. “That is no secret, Alex. I’ve known it since before I met you. Don’t you remember?”

               Alex did. Forrest had told him that that was when he had first fallen in love with him; when he’d heard Alex speaking of Michael to the stars.

               “Forrest,” he said, “I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone. Stronger than I’ve ever loved anyone.”

               Forrest chuckled. “You dove into the ocean to save me, Alex. I don’t question your love.”

               “Yet you’re here,” he said, his chin on Forrest’s shoulder, “instead of in bed with me.”

               Forrest turned to him, kissing his nose. “I fear the mess of my thoughts might’ve troubled your sleep.”

               “I am only troubled when you are not there,” he murmured, and kissed Forrest’s shoulder.

               “You will never regret me?” asked Forrest.

               Alex clenched his jaw. “You are a king. I am a mere human. What could I possibly offer you?”

               Forrest cupped Alex’s cheek fiercely, his hold tight. He let his hand fall down Alex’s jaw, his neck, and settled on his opened coat collar. As he leaned in, he whispered the words, as though he was shocked Alex did not know the answer already.

               “You.”

               Before Alex could say anything else, Forrest kissed him. Their lips pressed together again and again, and when Alex felt Forrest’s tongue slide against his own, a moan escaped his lips. When Forrest began kissing down his chin, his neck, Alex looked around to make certain that no one was watching. But then this was the middle of the night. He didn’t think anyone would be awake for hours.

               The waves turned suddenly warm as they washed around Forrest and Alex, as their kisses deepened, as Forrest’s fingers undid the buttons of Alex’s coat and gently pushed him onto his back. The kisses turned rougher, more eager, and Alex felt as though they would never move away from one another again.

               Alex released a breathy moan as he ran his hands up Forrest’s naked back. He imagined them, lying nude on the beach, Forrest thrusting into him, licking a line along his neck, the cold quickly turning to heat so thick that Alex couldn’t breathe and was happy to suffocate.

               He ran his hands down Forrest’s bare cheeks, urging him in deeper. He was so in love he could hardly stand it. This man, bathed in moonlight and showered with drops of the ocean, was to be his husband.

               Alex took Forrest’s face in his hands and kissed him as he’d never kissed anyone before. Forrest was all his, the beautiful merman of blue and gold belonged to him. He never imagined, that year ago when he’d first embarked on his father’s voyage, that he would find such joy. When he’d fallen over the ship’s edge and his world had changed forever.

               The ocean waves hit the shore with a gentle shushing sound, protecting Alex and Forrest from searching eyes. They were safe here, Alex was safe here. With Forrest, with the ocean, with the life he’d been given when it seemed he’d been destined to drown.

               “Hold on tight to me,” Forrest told him. And so Alex did.

[khashanakalashtar]

Fic questions

Tagged as usual by @the-lincyclopedia!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 

114 across pseuds. 90 non-podfics.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 

397,048. 

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Technically 25. But AO3 counts The Avengers (Marvel) – All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Marvel all separately, not to mention Captain America (Movies), Black Widow (Comics), Hawkeye (Comics), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), and Daredevil (TV). Writing for Star Trek TOS and AOS also feels like it shouldn’t count as two fandoms because it shares all the same characters. Also Untamed only has a fanvid in it, and I feel like Les Mis shouldn’t count because I wrote that as a crackfic inspired by a friend and have never been in that fandom and don’t know the characters. So roughly 19? Maybe 14, because when I talk about fandoms I’ve written for, I’m just gonna say Marvel for all those up there.

Other fandoms include, mostly in alphabetical order: Angel: the Series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Battlestar Galactica, Check Please!, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Supernatural, The Italian Word for Kisses, Torchwood, Vampire Academy Series, and 13 Reasons Why, the last of which is only on FF.net.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? 

Disrespect (Avatar, 1341)

Inconvenience (Avatar, 930)

Keep (Avatar, 853)

Five Queer Avengers and One Straight One (what it says on the tin, 840)

Slip (Harry Potter, 778)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? 

Generally! Sometimes it takes me a couple years to get around to it, but I like to reach back out.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? 

Oof, that’s difficult. Jackie Was a Friend of Mine ends with having to walk away from a soulmate after nearly losing them and getting no closure. Harry Potter and the Scarred Heart ends with the pairing still lowkey angsting about the breakup twenty years later, but tbf that’s second in a series which overall ends happily. Swing Bi Sometime ends with “But Hermione had had enough of girls and their empty promises, and she looked away. She swore never to swing that way again,” and Cursing Distance ends with “we’ve been growing apart I guess and I just saved your life but I just saw the way you look at Spock and I think I’ve lost you anyway.”

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the wildest one you’ve written?

Oh man, was this question written for me?

Back in 2013-14 I wrote this series based on the premise that all possibilities and all of time was collapsing, based on a specific Doctor Who episode, and wrote massively crossed-over crossovers for it. At some point I went back and pruned the fandom tags so they would only show up in the tags for fandoms that featured prominently, but the original tagging had every fandom that featured at all, including:

Doctor Who (DW)/Battlestar Galactica/Torchwood/Harry Potter/Star Wars

DW/Angel/Torchwood/Sherlock/X-Men/Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica/Vampire Academy/Lord of the Rings/DW/Avengers

Avengers/Harry Potter/Torchwood/Buffyverse

DW/Sherlock/The Lion King/101 Dalmatians

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I once received what might be called a request for better tagging phrased very cruelly.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

Definitely. What counts as a kind of smut? I have M/M, F/F, F/M, polyam, PWP, porn AS plot, trans smut, werewolf, podficced smut, porn with feelings, casual sex, kink, every position I can think of off the top of my head, creator chose not to use archive warnings, enthusiastic consent, mild dubcon…I don’t write noncon, though.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

Not as far as I know. 

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I’ve had at least one request, but no follow through.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

Not really, but I’ve done pod-together and written for very specific prompts. Ciirii and I started writing a fic together but only got as far as, like, a scene. 

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship? 

I’m a multi-shipper, leave me alone. Kirk/Spock will live in my heart forever, but I think Wangxian might beat it for favorite. That could also just be because that’s the current fandom, though. I’m really a sucker for “I will choose you against all sense and reason, against everything the world has to say, over and over”

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? 

I always kinda wanted to write the second half of True-Blue Sub.

15. What are your writing strengths? 

Use of language to either amuse or compel the reader. I never get notes about description or pacing when I get my stuff beta’d, though to be fair, I rarely do. I’m a fucking fantastic editor. I’m apparently pretty good at researching a disability that I don’t have and then writing it, going by the comments on Disrespect!verse.

16. What are your writing weaknesses? 

Motivation. Long-form plot.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? 

I don’t enjoy it. I always feel like I’m getting it wrong, even in Spanish. I have a deep and abiding need to be realistic about it so I am never gonna sprinkle speech with translated “yes” and “no” and leave the complex stuff in English unless MAYBE in the case of “that’s how it is in canon.” It irritates me to have to leave the fic to look up what’s being said. I wrote in Spanish for Kent because it was a fic for Pau, whose Kent is Mexican. I’ve dropped in a “desole” for Jack, but that’s about it for French. This does not apply to swearing.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? 

Star Trek: Alternate Original Series.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written? 

Don’t Need to Compromise is the one that comes to mind. It’s messy and it’s beautiful and it’s real. New Face of Failure is also really good, even though it was hard as fuck to write. I Need Direction to Perfection is also up there, and so is Disrespect.

Tagging @becauseanders, @queendollophead-ao3, and @lanautisticzhan

[aion-rsa]

Florence Pugh’s Best Roles: What to Watch After Black Widow

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Black Widow, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s prequel centering on Natasha Romanoff as she works to take down the Red Room in the period following Captain America: Civil War, premieres in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access this Friday (and is playing in the UK now!). In the film, British actress Florence Pugh steals the show as Natasha’s little sister who was also brainwashed into becoming a Soviet assassin at a young age.

If you’re looking to check out other work from Pugh, you’re in luck. The 25-year-old thespian has made quite a name for herself over her relatively short career, regularly elevating good material to great with her performances, and already earning an Oscar nomination. Here are some of our favorite roles…

Midsommar

Prior to Black Widow, Pugh was perhaps best known to certain audiences as the flower crown-wearing protagonist Dani in 2019’s Midsommar. Ari Aster’s brightly-lit folk horror has a lot going for it, but it wouldn’t work if not for Pugh grueling work as audience surrogate, as we are all made to witness the slowly-dawning terror of a Scandinavian pagan cult’s savage midsummer festival in which she’s ominously crowned the May Queen. Watch at your own risk.

The Falling

In Pugh’s first feature film role, the actress stars alongside Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams as best friends at an all-girls school in the 1960s where a mysterious fainting epidemic breaks out amongst the teen girl population. (Pugh’s real-life older brother, Toby Sebastian, featured as Trystane Martell alongside Williams in Game of Thrones.) As a feminist psychological horror, The Falling is worth a watch in its own right, but it’s also amazing to see just how good Pugh is from the very beginning of her career.

Side note: In The Falling, Pugh also demonstrates her musical ability. Before getting into acting, Pugh posted song covers on YouTube.

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Little Women

Pugh played Amy, the youngest of the March sisters, in Greta Gerwig’s 2020 adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel, Little Women. This cast is an embarrassment of riches, but, for many, Pugh is the standout, bringing nuance and likability to a complicated role. Her Oscar-nominated performance spans years, requiring Pugh to play ages 12 to 18—and she somehow mostly pulls it off?

Fighting With My Family

In 2019, Pugh played real-life wrestler Paige Knight in this biopic based on the 2012 documentary about the English pro wrestler’s journey from wrestling with her family in the UK’s World Association of Wrestling to trying out and making it big as part of the WWE. Like pretty much all of Pugh’s projects, there is a lot to like about Fighting With my Family. Past the strength of the true story, Pugh’s co-stars include Lena Headey, Nick Frost, and Dwayne Johnson (in a meaty cameo role).

Lady Macbeth

Arguably Pugh’s breakout role, 2016’s Lady Macbeth sees the actress taking center stage in this adaptation of 19th century Russian novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Pugh stars as Katherine, a young woman married to an old and rigid man in rural Northumberland circa 1865. Like other films on this list, the Victorian tragedy is not for the faint of heart, but it’s worth it for Pugh’s mesmerizing performance.

Little Drummer Girl

For the most part, Pugh has stuck to cinematic roles, which makes 2018 TV miniseries Little Drummer Girl a bit of an outlier. But let’s be real: the BBC adaptation of the John le Carré novel isn’t your typical TV project. All six episodes are directed by Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden) and include actors like Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgård—this miniseries may have been broadcast on TV, but it has more in common with feature film projects than much of the TV landscape.

Pugh stars as Charlie, an aspiring actress in 1979’s UK who is recruited by Mossad agents to infiltrate a Palestinian group plotting terrorism in Europe. The character acts as both an audience surrogate and a source of mystery for the viewer, as Charlie becomes further embroiled in the ethically complex scenario. This is one of the best le Carré adaptations out there, and includes some of Pugh’s best work.

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Don’t Worry Darling

Okay, this one isn’t actually out yet, but Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to directorial debut Booksmart is already making waves on the internet for obvious reasons. Co-starring Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, and Wilde herself, Don’t Worry Darling is being billed as a psychological thriller. It stars Pugh as a 1950s housewife living in a utopian experimental community in the California desert with her loving husband (Styles), who discovers a disturbing truth. Yep, I’m in.

Black Widow

Black Widow, the MCU prequel centering Natasha Romanoff in the period between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, has been a long time coming. The movie was meant to launch Phase 4 of of the MCU, but passed that role to WandaVision due to COVID-19 disruptions to the theatrical distribution model. Pugh plays Yelena, Natasha’s sister and fellow Black Widow program trainee. It’s unclear, at this point, what Yelena’s role in the MCU might be moving forward, but given Natasha’s fate in Endgame, we’re expecting to see a lot more Pugh in the MCU.

What is your favorite Florence Pugh role? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Florence Pugh’s Best Roles: What to Watch After Black Widow appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[borisbubbles]

17. CZECH REPUBLIC

Benny Christo - “Kemama”

So first off, thank you for the nice commens. 😇The past few months haven’t been the happiest time for me, so thank you for your patience as I scraped my bearings together for another post! 😁

So I will now extend that same sympathy to Benny Christo, whom I think I damn fucking underrated. Let’s jump in~

ENTRY ANALYSIS

As one may expect i INSTANTLY liked “Kemama” because you know, it’s a fun, laid-back, tropical afro-breeze, completely different from anything else we would see in NFs and the year. EXACTLY the type of song I was hoping the Czech NF would deliver (and deliver they did, see NF Corner). This level of mild like swung into strong unironic like upon realizing that the title is a contraction of “Okay Mother” 😍 and the song deals with the subject of overcoming racially-tinged discrimination and rising above the hate. That just feels very poetic and apt? “Kemama” felt like the entry that had to overcome the highest odds in order to earn the respect it so fully deserves, and still hasn’t fully reached it.

.In our Western European bubble, comprised mostly of gays and left-liberal straights, we have a very grateful and universal acceptance of many different kinds of [lizard] people that make up Eurovision casts. Yet with “Kemama” we may have reached  an unusually grimy undercurrent of coded racism. 

Of course nothing I read was outrageously rancid, than Cod for that. The worst statement I read was a double-whammy of “EWW THIS ISN’T CARIBBEANVISION” and “WHY WOULD SOMEONE FROM *KENYA* WANT TO REP CZECHIA IN EUROVISION?”, and yes they first got the continent wrong and then *also* got the country wrong in the follow-up post and then they were torn limb from limb by a pack of aformentioned left-liberals. I’m sorry but i can’t not have any other response than laughter in the face of yet another fucking MORON faceplanting themselves with words like a... racist JK Rowling if you will?

Still, while I never read something outright vile about Benny doesn’t mean I found his deniers really annoying and they were! Think “Ew Solovey is ‘Too Aggressive’ it will NEVER DO WELL IN ESC”, a statement that isn’t coded nor racist (and yet extremely false and misguided), functioned as a similar idea by the same minds. A statement borne from the same breed of narrow-minded stubbornness which has caused elitist morons to be all “there is **SOMETHING** about “Kemama” i do *NOT* like and I cannot lay my finger on it... but I **DO NOT** like it at ALL. It won’t ever qualify because everyone will think the same way I do” -- Eurovision snobs, tiptoeing around racial coda in January 2020.

 They would also insist that Benny was “arrogant” because he was seemingly impervious to their (de)constructive criticism. Like, if you were a biracial butterfly living in a slavic country who had to deal with statements such as the above on a regular basis, you WOULD block out the noise. And if you heard them often enough you will start to block them out pre-emptively. DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW COPING MECHANISMS WORK?? (oh wait you’re white-privileged. Nevermind 🙄)

 So naturally, when Benny decided that he would revamp “Okay Mother” by adding in MORE African elements it only made me love him even more lol. 😍 Was it a bull-headed, contrarian and possibly really stupid decision? Yes, yes and absolutely yes. Was it worth it? Well he managed to incite even more meltdowns in a group of people I feel nothing but contempt for, so hell yeah? Eurovision was cancelled anyway so who cares how much ‘worse’ “Kemama” actually got. 

Okay, so we’ve arrived at the revamp.

Granted, it wasn’t the best ‘vamp, I’d be a fool to deny it. The new elements threw a wrench in the melodic balance of the song. Out went tropical laid-back fun, IN went that fucking guitar oh my god this is some Hotel FM piano levels of overbearing I swear. (nb: this still didn’t stop me from ironically stanning Hotel FM’s lame asses anyway 😍). However, it made the personal backstory that I loved and savoured take a backseat to the now inferior composition. 😭

Regardless, New Kemama was fundamentally the same song, and I fundamentally liked Old Kemama, so whatevs, it made no different to me. In the eyes of many Eurovision diehards we were experiencing WORST PRESHOW SEASON EVER (after three songs... lol) and nothing clinches this brainworm more than a revamp announcement. “OH MY GOD HE WILL RUIN IT! I CAN GUARANTEE YOU I *WON’T* LIKE IT”. Self-fulfilling prophecies, ya know? It certainly didn’t help when the official channel accidentally uploaded a vid with broken soundmixing (‘OMG HORRIBLE LAST IN THE SEMI!!!!’ calm the ever-loving HELL down) and took another FULL WEEK to upload the correct vid. The damage had already been done. Typing "SEE I TOLD YOU THE REVAMP WOULD BE SHITE HA HA HA” in the Kemama comment box really just is the ESC equivalent of reponding with “Actually, *all* lives matter :smug:” to a BLM support pamphlet, isn’t it?

NF CORNER

While not my favourite NF of the bunch, I found the Czech NF to be lowkey epic. Not epic enough to remember its name but regardless Czechvision or whatever marked the end of an era because it was also the last selection spearheaded by Jan Bors :o

I think I’ve made it clear enough in the past that I’m somewhat mixed on Bors Era Czechia - Lake Malawi were a toetapping good, Ickolas was a pockmarked, skin-crawling evil and the other three inhibit a purgatory somewhere between “moderately nice” and “moderate timewaste.”

Still, I have great respect for the man who orchestrated Czech’s comeback after scoring NINE POINTS TOTAL across three years with the mindset of “So what? Why says we can’t win?” so ofc I was all into the idea of the “EIGHT INDIE ANGELS, HAND-PICKED BY BORS HIMSELF” NF that would serve as his swan song.

Naturally things went down the drain the second Bors left, with one of the eight peacing and his successor cancelling the live broadcast (does anyone remember what exactly happened? I vaguely recall one was the cause of the other but lol it’s July can’t be bothered to factscheck (Factsczeck?) anymore, bitches.

Anyway, ON TO THE GOOD STUFF, and yes, there was plenty.

We All Poop - “ All the Blood (Positive Song Actually)”

Yes, as you can imagine I ofc IMMEDIATELY fell into like when I saw that chyron and invisioned the inevitability of the Czech Rep’s Rep immediately alienating every parent just based on their name alone <3 😍 w/e WAP quickly became that “Good but not great” song you find in every NF that everyone gushes over because it’s the whitest option available. Like, yes, “All the blood” is good, but musically it’s identical to Green Day and Twenty-One Pilots and god name ANY 90s-early00′s American Punk Rock band. For me the enjoyment came from the fact that WAP were openly crazy vegan fundamentalists and the VC clip actively condemns the use ANY animal protein by replacing the cattle and game with LITERAL HUMAN BEINGS. 😍 :fusedmarcintensifies: :kasiamosage:

Pam Rabbit - “Get up”

Ohhhh YES a glorious experimental Synth-Trap song only I could love and ofc I did. God what is there even to say; the provocative darkness of the verses combined with the swirling amorphousness of the chorus gives me LIFE. LUFF THIS SHIT <3333 Ftr, this was also the fave of Slovene Juror duo / synth angels / Boris faves ZALAGASPER, further proving their pathetic naysayers that they own all things music and the haters can suck a series of-

Barbora Mochowa - “White and Black Holes“

Lol, yes even with a “Get up” existing, there was a song I liked even more. Barbora proved a very competent Lana del Gay last year, but I was a YUGE fan of this year’s... Kate Bush-Björk blend of ethereal awesome. It is so soothingly beautiful and the rare example of a song that I find completely free of flaws. Were the competition not such a hard place, I’d be pissed she didnt win (at least she won the jury vote MASSIVE KUDOS to every alum on that) but w/e this selection had opions and I’m rather robbed of a “Kemama” than I am of a BRILLIANT IRREPLICABLE AETHERBALLAD. ~Danse balance sûr les white and black holes~

Elis Mraz & Cis T - “Wanna be like”

I *VERY* strongly felt that if the Czech Republic wanted to win ESC, they should have picked Elis and even now I STILL believe she could have won. That isn’t to say I gushed over “Wanna be like” because I find it kind of annoying lol. Yes, I LOVE an annoying female voice (:Tones&Icackle:) but Elis’s reaches a Camilla Cabello sort of place for me (good lord get Senorita OFF the fucking radio) and the Scat + White Guy Rapping middle-eight. 😬. However, the second I opened up the video clip for this paragraph and was immediately BLASTED by Elis murdering a ukelele and wearing a  “schoolgirl” outfit straight from a Japanese tentacle porn movie and OH MY GOD THE AGGRESSIVE TWERKING made me reconsider that hey, this min-sized Meghan Traynor actually kinda highkey owns, yo!  Yet, I’m not at all bothered we lost her in the Czech NF because we got UNO DOS QUATRO CINCO SEIS :fatmansplit: fill up the megameme slot instead, so...

Eurovision 2020 vs Eurovision 2021

BENNY RUINED HIS SONG AND NEVER WOULD HAVE QUALIFIED. jk I’m not a moron. Sure, “Kemama” wasn’t an easy sell because you know AFROBEAT in a contest where half of the people watching are fash (ie: all of Eastern Europe, who watch out of ~Nationalistic Sentiment~ 😬), but there are Kemama live renditions out there and he owns them SO hard lol. A few soundmixing issues really would not have stopped Benny from qualifying in that RIDICULOUSLY WEAKSAUCE SEMIFINAL are you fucking kidding me. He probably would’ve bombed in the Grand Final, but I mean it’s Czech and it’s not Ickolas so ofc it would have.

And Czech renewed him for 2021 regardless of the sceptics, woohoo! I think part of it was due the Czech not wanting to re-organize an ENTIRE NF from scratch without Jan Bors, but probably also because Benny owns live when he isn’t engaged in psychological trench warfare with actual human detritus <3 and also because the Czech fucking CARE about their artists and don’t drop them like a sack of rotten potatoes wtfshitprus.

Can’t wait for the moment when he qualifies and Efendi does not, etc, etc. 

FREAKY! FRIDAY! FACTOR!

I’d say that the core around which the Ben Drama spun was pretty standard fare: niche fave beats out the concensus fave, meltdowns ensue, people convince themselves it was the WRONG decision because it wasn the result they wanted, try to disown the song and make a fool of themselves because the song slaps, sorry. Even the revamp drama felt more of less generic for me, because yawn fantards melting down over a revamp of a song they don’t even like what else is new.  

However, what I do take away that the revamp was ENTIRELY Benny’s idea which he told no one about (cue to JAN BORS having a social media meltdown like he’s Caesar at the Ides of March 💔) added MORE afrobeat just to troll his haters even more <3  God, I’d say it was bad from a musical perspective but this level of in-your-face defiance is fucking iconic and hilarious, sorry. This entire this year is so batshit bonkers that the concept of a someone potentially shooting themselves in the foot and “torpedo’ing” their qualification chances  (not rly, he would’ve Q’d anyway lol) JUST to take the moral high ground in a racially coded argument only HE took seriously may not even be the craziest concept in the year! (lol it definitely isn’t. Look at the pics I haven’t greyed out yet)

This and more yield Benny some well-earned Senheads! Yay!! 

Score: 3 Senhits out of 5.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The Nutcracker: A NY-Born American Institution

Above: Tanaquil Le Clerq leading the Waltz of the Flowers in Act II. She was the original Dew Drop.

The Nutcracker is so much a part of Christmas that it’s easy to assume that it’s always been this way. In fact, Nutcracker as a holiday treat dates back only to 1954, and the New York City Ballet.

It was not the first American Nutcracker. William Christensen’s production for the San Francisco Ballet, staged ten years earlier, has that distinction. But that production didn’t lead to a thousand copycat productions of one sort or  another, likely because the United States had few ballet companies in those days and, of course, it wasn’t in New York. The suite of music, drawn mostly from the second act of the ballet, was well known, but its context was not.

In the early 1950s, NYCB was still a very young company (it had been founded in 1948) and its home was the New York City Center, a city-owned theater (it moved in 1965 to the Philip Johnson-designed New York State Theater in Lincoln Center). The work of George Balanchine, founding choreographer and ballet master in chief of NYCB, was cutting-edged and appealed mostly to the culturati. Morton Baum, president of the City Center, was always after the company to stage ballets that would draw crowds. Balanchine had already mounted his own versions of Firebird and the second act of Swan Lake, but Baum thought they needed an evening-long production.

Above: The Snowflake Waltz at the end of Act I. Photo of 1954 original production.

Balanchine thought of The Nutcracker, a ballet in which he, first as a student and then as a dancer in the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, had danced several roles, including the Nutcracker Prince and Candy Cane (Trepak or Russian Dance). With NYCB, he occasionally appeared as Herr Drosselmeyer, the mysterious man who gives Clara the nutcracker doll. He choreographed it all except for the battle between the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which was done by Jerome Robbins, the Candy Cane divertissement, which is the original Alexander Shiryaev choreography from the ballet’s premiere in 1892, and the prince’s mime speech in the second act, which also came from the original production.

It was by far NYCB’s most ambitious production to date. In addition to a large cast of company members, there were two alternating casts of 39 children from the NYCB-affiliated School of American Ballet (they now number 64), a Christmas tree that grew to gigantic proportions, and a blizzard—in addition to mountains of costumes and several sets. The costume for Mother Ginger alone is now 9 feet wide and weighs 85 pounds.

Above left: Edward Bigelow as Mother Ginger. Right: Michael Arshansky as Drosselmeyer. Photos of original production.

Balanchine’s production is one “by, for, and about” children. It makes no attempt to darken the ballet’s story by suggesting that Drosselmeyer has wicked designs on Clara, as some modern productions have done.

It opened on February 2, 1954. Baum wanted the company to perform in December, when theater attendance was light, so they put it on again later in the year and were rewarded by sold-out houses and a demand for more performances. Since then, NYCB has danced it for five weeks, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, 8 or 9 performances a week, with double casts of both adults and children and numerous opportunities for soloists and apprentices.

Above left: Janet Reed as lead Marzipan Shepherdess. Right: Balanchine rehearsing a child dancer playing the Bunny and an adult dancer playing the Mouse King.

It quickly became a financial bedrock for the company, as it has for ballet companies all over the country, both professional and amateur, who were quick to adopt it as a holiday treat. In New York state alone, one list has 32 productions in addition to NYCB’s.In some cases it accounts for fully half of a company’s revenue over the season. Many companies, including Miami City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, and the Pennsylvania Ballet, dance Balanchine’s version. Others, some too small or insufficiently high-powered, dance alternate versions with the number of adult soloists reduced. Many import stars from NYCB and American Ballet Theater to dance Sugar Plum and her cavalier.

Above: Francisco Moncion, the original Coffee (Arabian Dance). This divertissement is now danced by a woman.

Over the years, many of the ballet’s child performers have gone onto professional careers. At NYCB, Zina Bethune and Bonnie Bedelia, both former Claras, became well-known actresses; Eliot Feld (Nutcracker Prince) turned into a noted choreographer; Peter Boal (also Nutcracker Prince) became director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle; and at least 4 former Claras grew up to join the company. Two of them, Judith Fugate and Jennie Somogyi, eventually became principal dancers and danced the role of Sugar Plum Fairy.

NYCB has recorded the complete ballet twice, once in 1993 with Darci Kistler, Damian Woetzel, and Kyra Nichols, and again in 2011, with Megan Fairchild, Joaquin de Luz, and Ashley Bouder. Both recordings are available on disc.

Links What NYCB principal Abi Stafford learned dancing 48 Nutcrackers How Balanchine’s version compares to that of a company performing a version based on the Russian original NYCB’s first black Clara (now called Marie after the Russian original) My First Nutcracker: Eight NYCB dancers recall their first experience with Nutcracker Balanchine’s Christmas miracle. Includes comments from NYCB dancers Behind the scenes at NYCB’s Nutcracker (photo album) Nutcracker Nation, a book about how the ballet became an American institution

[rad-translations]

“We’re used to death threats” 6 years after GamerGate, nothing has changed

(It’s impossible for me to continue playing Valorant. To be provoked, harassed, insulted as soon as people hear my voice, all of this because I’m a woman, is unacceptable. I won’t accept undergoing this constantly, and having to signal people constantly. I’m sickened.)

If for some years now, awareness of the bullying that women suffer from in all parts of society has been increasing, everyday changes appear to be barely noticeable.

The world of video games is one glaring example. Or how, behind the grand speeches, the life of female gamers hasn’t changed — maybe even got worse since GamerGate, an event that has triggered the first large-scale wave of online harassment against women.

In partnership with the YESSS podcast, Numerama investigated  the sexism in the community of male and female gamers, with a saddening but certain report: since 2014 and GamerGate, nothing has changed. What we gathered from the dozens and dozens of testimonies that we collected, is that the daily life of women gamers is punctuated by these microaggressions. Tweet after tweet, insult after insult, from sexist comments to targeted bullying, these are individual actions that, when added up, create an incredibly violent wave of online harassment. A wave that swallow them again, day after day.

“Gamergate had set the tone”

“GamerGate had set the tone in regards to sexism, and this changed things” assesses Julie, who mostly plays on League of Legends. “When they discover that you are a girl, it’s rampage” adds Leiden, a World of Warcraft player: “As soon as you’re a girl, you’re gonna eat shit. There are comments like “You don’t know how to play (...)”, it’s a very common behavior on WoW…” Kash, who also plays MMORPG, laments that “toxic comments became the norm”. One example: during a session, the presence of three female players triggered a collective cackling from the members of her guild, who said that “the disabled quota has arrived”. “I told them that we were fed up with these kind of remarks, that is was not normal. They responded by saying it was just humor. (...) That’s really a bummer, because when the game launched, this didn’t exist, we were a community. I wasn’t judged based on my sex.”. “Playing as a woman, it’s a hassle” confirms Lisa*, tiredly “There is always some pig there to tell you to “go back to the kitchen””. Laughter always follows.

She however assesses that GamerGate did not launch online bullying. Gamers are known to vehemently defend their passion: “In 2005, a wave of online harassment had been launched against the very controversial Jack Thompson, an american lawyer who declared that shootings in the USA were the result of the violence of video games” Brad Glasgow, a journalist who then published a study on GamerGate, reminds us, now asked by Numerama. Some gamers at the time sent death threats to his home, or even developed games in which the objective was to hit the lawyer… What GamerGate changed, is adding a sexist aspect to online bullying, focusing hate and attacks on multiple women.

Between journalistic integrity and harassment

On August 16th 2014, Eron Gjoni, a 24 years old programmer, published on his blog “thezoepost”, a 9000-words vitriolic announcement, describing in detail how his now ex-girlfriend, Zoe Quinn, had cheated on him. The story could have ended there. But here is the deal: Zoe Quinn is an indie video game developer, and the man she cheated on him with is a journalist specialized in gaming-related press. That was everything gamers and the Internet needed to ignite: this man is writing for a journal which recently published a highly positive review of Zoe Quinn’s new game, Depression Quest. Between blogs, subreddits and 4chan, the GamerGate movement was born.

“They wanted to be able to continue playing with half-naked female characters without anyone saying something about it”

What did gamers really want? They would say that they were fighting for “more ethics in videogame reporting, less cronyism between developers and magazines” Brad Glasgow, who conducted a study on this subject, explains.  “The gamergaters who I interviewed had the impression that the industry was pushing on them more censored, family-friendly games. They wanted to be able to continue playing with half-naked female characters without anyone saying something about it, and without being considered misogynists”. The GamerGate contributors were for a long time believed to be cliché young gamers, however Brad Glasgow’s study show that the median age was 30 years old, very different from the often depicted carefree youngsters. All the people targeted by the supporters of this movement were women. The victims and numerous reporters commented afterwards that GamerGate was never about claiming anything, but simply a way to express their hate and disdain towards Zoe Quinn. Zoe Quinn, as well as the video game creator Brianna Wu and blogger Anita Sarkeesian received so many rape, torture and death threats that they were forced to move out out of their homes, fearing for their lives. In the United States, this event was huge, so much that the New York Times described it  as “the beginning on alt-right hegemony on the Internet”, and even as a culture war. In France, despite being covered by the media, it didn’t have such an impact outside of the affected community. The problem however, doesn’t only exist on the other side of the Atlantic. The blogger Marlard was talking, since 2013, about a "sick community", soaked in sexism, fetishizing Lara Croft’s new design, and, in the famous 18-25 forum on jeuxvideo.com, misogyny was already the rule. She was actually one of the first to receive numerous waves of online harassment for daring to point out the sexism in the world of video games.

A masculine universe

Why talk again about Gamergate today? Because six years later, despite the problem being under the spotlight and having media coverage, female gamers still suffer. Video games seem to stay a masculine universe, a space where the famous rule 30 of the Internet “on the Internet, there are no women”  could be a reality. It’s nevertheless false: according to a IFOP study published in 2018, women play as much video games as men do.The Internet and Twitch are full of casual and professional gamers, like Kayane, Trinity, Little Big Whale, Zulzorander, Marie Palot…. But, inescapably, the presence of women in online games startles, surprises, annoys. 

“Being misogynistic is trendy”

To insult women and social justice warriors (nickname given to anti-discrimination  activists by their opponents) is still seen today as a way to make your audience  laugh, to gain a place inside the boy’s club, sometimes even to become famous. French streamer Jean Massiet admits it: “Being misogynistic is trendy”.

(I’ve been streaming for 5 years and there is an absolute constant: being misogynistic is trendy, make your chat laugh by playing the rebel. To be feminist is to oppose retaliations and gatekeeping. Conformism really isn’t where most people think.)

The “young boy” trick to conceal your voice

One of the main problems encountered by female players online, is “vocal”, the act of talking with other members of the team to coordinate certain attacks during a game. In this moment, it’s impossible to hide behind the neutral usernames of characters typically associated with male players: “As soon as people hear that I’m a girl, it’s over. Many women don’t want to communicate because of it” reveals Lisa. “You really feel a difference in behavior when comparing the before and after.”

Julie, another player, explains that the “after” is often synonymous with saucy flirting. “Immediately, dudes will come talk to you in private, ask for pictures and lewd requests…” To avoid this, almost all the female players that we interviewed explained to us that they use the “young boy” trick: passing as a young male player whose voice has not dropped yet, to justify their high-pitched tone. Lying to stay undisturbed is a common strategy. Some even prefer playing with the account of their male partners, thus avoiding unrequited comments.

The #MeToo aftermath is even worse

But it’s not always sufficient. Kate laments that “The #MeToo movement created a mistrust”, revealing a violent rejection of the liberation of feminine and feminist voices. “It has become a PMU* (“PMU” or “Pari Mutuel Urbain” is a bar/gambling place chain. Nowadays it is synonymous for many people with armchair psychology, politics and chauvinist behaviors) Everytime you want to point out to players that they are making sexist comments, it’s always the same reaction “you can’t say anything nowadays”, ‘feminazi”....” Far from letting those concerned question themselves, it seems that the #MeToo movement has reinforced their aggravation, which then leads them to be even more defensive or to conduct gratuitous attacks, especially on Discord, a chat/vocal platform often used by players to communicate with each other. 

“The memes are more aggressive, everyone jeers at feminists… There is some sort of frustration towards feminist awareness, a very violent reaction. It is even sometimes almost incel behavior,” explains Kash, referencing the men's rights activists movement of "involuntary celibates". “You won’t make friends talking about feminism” Nat’ali, streamer, confirms to us.

 “#MeToo has revealed the privileges that men have, and they didn’t like seeing it”

She isn’t the only one who saw the situation getting worse after Gamergate and #MeToo. “Since I started playing in 2007, I truly saw the atmosphere deteriorate” Kash told us. “I saw more bullshit these last two years than in the ten years prior, "I now see things that dudes never dared to do before. The whole community got worse”. Lisa also observed  the explosion of sexism after #MeToo. “It’s really then that I started hiding the fact that I was a woman. #Metoo has revealed the privileges that men have, and they didn't like seeing it. Don’t touch cis white hetero men, or you will get branded a fucking feminist, a whore, a feminazi.” Lisa reached the point of “not wanting to play anymore, too toxic. Gets on my nerves too quickly.” There is, too, a fear of underperforming: “I’m scared to play certain FPS (First Person Shooter, like Call of Duty) because I’m no very good at them, and I don’t want to help the belief that “girls sucks at video games” to persist” laments Nat’ali.

The liability of professional streamers

In the eyes of Julie, part of the problem resides in the fact that the gamer community is growing rapidly. “There are more and more gamers, and the newcomers are usually very young and very sexist. Even if some people change and gain understanding regarding this problem, they will be drowned by comments by teens that have no reflexion on sexism”.“ In addition to the jeuxvideo.com 18-25 forum, numerous streamers and professional players are accused of perpetuating sexism. As Numerama showed in a study made in April 2019, members of the Solary team, a french esport structure, have encouraged online harassment against several women, and have contributed in spreading sexist insults (a woman receiving compliments from a stranger, not responding to them and “calling them out on social media” is in their eyes a “whore”)

“It’s an environment in which men pat each other on the back”*

(Translator’s note: a more literal translation would be “men forgive each other” but the underlying idea in this sentence was that they allow themselves to forgive each other’s faults without actually hearing the people targeted.)

Sardoche, a League of Legends streamer and Twitch partner (video creators able to monetize their videos) has also been known for years for his very violent remarks against female players, that he calls “shitty little virgins” or “huge whores”. In addition to being aware about inciting his followers to harass, he often mocks feminist activists on twitter, and his followers always join the party. “The problem is that he is followed by a lot of boys that want to imitate him” Nat’ali tell us.

“Trolling feminists, best thing to do in the morning. Thanks to @MrKryorys for archiving these kinds of clips” Yet Sardoche is not called out, and can still enjoy the free publicity made by numerous other streamers, promoting him and condoning his unacceptable speeches. At the start of June however, the streamer announced that he was now suffering from online harassment on his Twitch lives, coming mostly from 18-25 users. These behaviors have no influence on the mentioned players’ and streamers’ careers. “They still don’t understand that they are participating to the trivialization of hatred against women” Nat’ali angrily adds “Sardoche is now co-hosting PopCorn, one of the most viewed programs on Twitch. It’s an environment in which men pat each other on the back.”

“One girl per team, no more”

This impunity is reinforced by the erasure of female players, firstly because some are reluctant to present themselves as women in online games, and secondly, because the professional environment is not giving them a platform. We call that “the quota effect”. “Those who want to become professional know that there is only one “girl” slot per team”. complains Nat’ali. This infamous “quota woman” reminds us of the “Lara Croft effect” a overused argument often put forward when criticism against the lack of female characters in video games arise: You got it wrong, look over here, there is one woman.

“At the beginning of big web TV, 7 or 8 years ago, there was a of of competition between female players. No sisterhood whatsoever, girls were awful with each other because they knew there wouldn’t be a spot for everyone” Nat’ali, who had seen the problem herself, continues.

Once hired, these female streamers still have a lot to face. A friend of Nat’ali told her last year that her team forced her to wear a mini-skirt during a marketing campaign. According to Leiden “People still see their female players as sexy props, instead of focusing on their playing skills”.

The ambience is now healthier, and “there is a real solidarity on Twitch between us, we talk a lot. With #MeToo, we understand that we needed to help each other. These topics have the spotlight, we feel more comfortable talking about them. Dudes still behave the same, but the relationship between female players changed. This is the big victory of #MeToo.”   

“Streamers need to question themselves”

Should we see this whole problem as unsolvable? For Aurélie, “in practice men are not yet supportives. The knowledge is here, we know that “sexism is bad” But if you point out that a comment is sexist, they will immediately jump and respond that no, it’s just humor”. There are many hard to unlearn habits,” Lisa remarks: “It’s the patriarchal structure: nice guys sometimes have awful reactions. It’s rooted inside of them, they don’t even realize what they’re doing.” For all of the interviewees, the education of men regarding these problems is the solution. Kash affirms: “This men-only community create a unease. Streamers need to be the example. They need to question themselves, and they shouldn’t hesitate to take clear stances regarding this.” Still, it would be easier if these stances were the norm, and taking them was not a risk.

“When you keep talking to them about it, our male friends realize the problem” Lisa happily notices. One of Kash’s friends, with whom she’s been playing for years, has evolved a lot despite starting as “mostly uninterested in the sexism problem in games”. After our interview, she decided to talk to him about her experience, and he listened to her testimony. “Last week, during a raid in which I didn’t introduce myself, a player made a sexist remark about the body of a woman. My friend told me he felt uncomfortable and talked to the guild leader about it. Nothing happened, the player wasn’t sanctioned, but I’ve known my gamer friend for 11 years and it was the first time he reacted like that. So I’m hopeful!”

Aurore Gayte for Numerama 

*names have been changed This article was created in partnership with the YESSS podcast. .Their latest creation, "Warriors and Games" is available here. Every month, the YESSS team gathers testimonies of women who triumphed against sexism: those who responded, who corrected, who snapped and resisted. YESSS is a podcast for warriors, positive and decidedlyfeminist. It is conceived and hosted by Margaïd Quioc, Elsa Miské et Anaïs Bourdet, produced by the Popkast label in Marseille.

[swanlake1998]

Article: Slowly, more men are dancing on pointe, including in Seattle

Date: March 25, 2021

By: Moira Macdonald

The first time Ashton Edwards tried dancing on pointe, it felt like coming home. “It was just like magic. It felt beautiful on pointe. I felt like I could dance forever.”

Edwards, originally from Michigan, has been studying ballet since the age of 4, and is now an 18-year-old student in Pacific Northwest Ballet School’s professional division. Those tentative steps last summer, however, were the dancer’s first: Edwards is male, and in the world of classical ballet, male students traditionally do not receive pointe training. But he dreams of a future as a gender-fluid dancer, dancing all the roles he loves. 

“I would love to do everything that would fit me as a person, not based on my gender but based on what I can do and who I am as a person, who I am as an artist,” he said. 

For those who love ballet, the sight of a ballerina dancing on pointe is an everyday miracle; born from years of training that culminated in ethereal, otherworldly movement. But until recently, the idea of a man dancing on pointe was a rarity, mostly restricted to comic effect in narrative ballets like Frederick Ashton’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” or the all-male dance comedy troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. In a world engaged in conversation about gender and inclusivity, however, things may be changing in ballet, just a bit.

A Bay Area company, Ballet22, was founded last year with the purpose of breaking gender norms, particularly in the ungendered use of the pointe shoe. James Whiteside, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, makes viral videos of himself dancing — beautifully — on pointe.

And here in Seattle, Edwards is at the center of his own tiptoed revolution: He is the first male professional division student at PNB to take pointe technique classes. “He is quite remarkable on pointe and very committed,” said PNB artistic director Peter Boal. PNB faculty member Marjorie Thompson noted that while some male students borrow friends’ pointe shoes to play around, Edwards is different. “Ashton is a serious young person, and he has a serious desire and he is totally supported at PNB,” she said.

He’s not the only man at PNB who’s comfortable in a pair of pointe shoes. Joshua Grant, a soloist with the company, is a former member of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. As a Trock, Grant performed for five years on pointe, fascinated by what he saw as the company’s mission to “blur the lines of what is masculine and what is feminine.”

He’s currently choreographing a new work, called “Bright Young Things,” that will debut in June and feature Edwards on pointe — and that reflects his own love of the technique. For that work, he said, his thought process was simple. “I just wanted to put a boy on pointe! Why is it that women get to have all the fun, why don’t boys get all the fun, too?”

Pointe shoes have been around for a couple of centuries, originally born as a stunt. In her book “Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet,” dance historian Jennifer Homans explains that pointe work was first performed by early-19th-century Italian dancers — the first was said to be Amalia Brugnoli — who “blithely hiked themselves onto the tips of their toes and perched there for all to see.” The technique was soon refined by ballet pioneer Marie Taglioni (1804-1884) who smoothed the stunt into something more refined and elegant, darning the toes of her soft slippers to give support.

Later in the century, Italian shoemakers devised the pointe shoe with a hard toe box, made from layers of glue, paper and fabric; it was revised further in the early 20th century, with legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova credited with popularizing a more modern pointe shoe with additional support at the toes and a hard leather sole. But it was nearly always women who wore them, achieving that magical elongating effect. 

Grant remembers being fascinated by the soft thump of pointe shoes when attending ballets as a child. “I loved the sound the shoe made when it hit the floor,” he said. In his youth, he remembered watching ballets and feeling that “men always looked frumpy and dowdy, whereas women looked long and ethereal and weightless.”

When he finally saw his own foot in a pointe shoe, “it just took my breath away,” he said. “There’s something about putting on a pair of pointe shoes that gives me goose bumps.”

Men who want to dance on pointe face some challenges, the most significant of which is finding shoes that fit; men’s feet tend to be proportioned differently, and a woman’s shoe in a bigger size might not work. (It might be a bit easier these days: Two years ago, the first pointe shoe designed specifically for men became available, from the Russian company Siberian Swan.) And a taller, broader body might have more balancing issues — though, as Grant notes, there’s nothing natural about dancing on pointe, no matter what size you are.

Male students taking pointe class is new to PNB’s School, Thompson said, but a young man wanting to go on pointe would have been indirectly trained to do so through regular classes. The challenge is the structure of the feet, the ability to balance, to fully straighten the leg on pointe, to have enough abdominal strength to pull up rather than “sitting into the shoe.” All of these, Thompson said, apply as well to men as to women; some female students struggle with pointe due to issues with their feet.

“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions, that men are not flexible and can’t get on pointe,” said Theresa Knudson, executive director of Ballet22. She noted that in their company, “most of the men have better feet than I do.” At a high professional level, she said, “men and women are equal when it comes to taking class; the split is that the men are lifting and the women are on pointe.”

Edwards, who performed with Ballet22 for a digital show last year, was thrilled by the experience of being able to both dance traditionally female roles and contemporary new work. “It was just men, dancing equally as men on pointe, not trying to be women or trying to fit into any binary standard.”

Might ballet be headed toward a future in which roles aren’t necessarily dictated by gender? Tiny steps are being taken: At the English National Ballet in 2018, male dancer Chase Johnsey (a veteran of the Trocks) made history by performing female roles in the ensemble. Wendy Whelan, now co-head of New York City Ballet, commented at the time that “I don’t care what the body parts are, as long as artistically the dancer makes the choreography shine.” In that same New York Times article, she also expressed concern that ballet is already profoundly competitive for women, with men performing in traditionally female specialties presenting another hurdle.

But along with men dancing on pointe, women can learn what was traditionally called “men’s technique” — powerful jumps and leaps. American Ballet Theatre recently changed the names of its classes from “men’s” and “women’s” to simply “technique” and “technique with pointe,” to facilitate inclusivity, said ABT rep Kelly Ryan. Boal remembered a “legendary” men’s class taught at the School of American Ballet (New York City Ballet’s school) in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, regularly attended by the company’s ballerinas.

And PNB School managing director Denise Bolstad said in an email that female professional division students who request to take men’s technique classes will be allowed to do so, and noted that the school is “talking about mixing up the instructors going forward, men teaching women and women teaching men.”

Looking to the future, Grant thinks it might be a while before we would see gender-fluid casting in traditional ballets, but said it’s already happening in contemporary, nonstory ballets — “say, a plotless ballet with eight dancers, and you go on Friday night and it’s eight women, and on Saturday night it’s eight men.” He believes it’s the job of art to push boundaries, to get audiences a bit uncomfortable, “and then they can ask themselves why they feel uncomfortable. We’ve done our job by making them feel something. I think we’ll get there, eventually. It’ll be an interesting, turbulent flight.”

Meanwhile, Edwards keeps rehearsing, appreciating the support he’s receiving from teachers and fellow students — “all the girls are eager to help me!” And he’s imagining a future in which he might be able to dance “all my dream roles. I want to do Oberon and Titania [in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”]. I would love to explore all of the movement I can do, with no limits or restrictions. In a company, hopefully. Someday.”