#Chronically late to every fandom I ever join

[flumet]

I have been practically eating up the bbc sherlock series these last few days. Just watched the last episode today (yeah most of season 4 kinda sucked imo... I'm not the biggest fan of some parts of season 3 either) so if anyone catches me out on the streets reblogging sherlock stuff...

Then yeah, I have indeed found a new hyper fixation

[olderthannetfic]

I always see people who have never been antis, talking about/questioning how some antis even ARE antis when you look at their taste in media - ie the ever famous joke of "Hannigram is #problematique" "but it's a show where he eats people" or whatever.

I thought I'd weigh in as someone who could, hypothetically, be called an ex-anti (which, thankfully, nothing ever really came out of it - it was just very 2014 keyboardwarrior-esque behavior of me being a chronically online young adult who would share posts in a group chat making fun of certain shippers, or reblog posts about how 50shades is The Most Problematic Media Ever to exist -- basically I was an anti with anti-lines of thoughts, but i never, like, a ran a Shipping Discourse Blog or whatever)

For me, personally, it was a few different things. I can now see how it's incredibly hypocritical that teenaged me shipped Light/L, while still thinking that Dramione was Bad And Abusive. It ultimately boiled down to a) being pretentious, and b) just not understanding media or what proshippers REALLY believed, with a side of c) not realizing that nuance exists. like i was pretty late to join tumblr, I think I immigrated here during PEAK "yourfaveisproblematic" era which definitely did have an impact on my opinions and my tastes.

to elaborate, a.) being pretentious. i mean this one just kinda goes without saying. "I engage in media in a way more intellectual way than you do, don't you know that? You're a filthy and disgusting person who writes Snape/Hermione because you're an actually disgusting pedophile IRL who would probably date your own student that you're abusing if you could. Meanwhile, I'm a very smart, good, and pure person. When I read Uncle Vernon/Harry, I'm doing it in a G-d honoring whump way that clearly condemns abuse, incest, and rape. Unlike YOU who only writes harmful stuff as a way to get people off :/"

(as an aside, i think this line of thinking will ALWAYS be present in fandom and popculture in some way, sadly. ie the recent trend of people hating on booktok bc the books are 'trashy' and how these porn addicts should read real classic literature instead.)

as for b.), not understanding media - i cannot emphasize enough that i was GENUINELY stupid and disconnected enough to think that proshippers REALLY WERE pro-All Of The Degenerate Dead Doves That They Wrote.

why did i feel this way? why did i understand that Lolita clearly isnt pro-pedophilia, but for some reason i thought that someone shipping weecest was? well, first of all, i think that fanfiction is (generally) seen as Less Serious than classic literature, and fandom is a fun place, so i guess i somehow thought that every fanfic/fanartist who wrote Problematic Things, especially Problematic Things that they portrayed as Sexy, really DID enjoy the thought of that Actually Happening To Real People.

and i think THIS is the bulk of why antis ARE antis. i'm not calling them all stupid - i do think BEING an anti is stupid, but at the same time, there are people who are truly smart and good-intended people who just have some really off color opinions about, like, homestuck ships or whatever. Lawlight is okay because notebooks that kill people don't exist so it's IMPOSSIBLE for the Harmful Aspects of Light/L to be romanticized! but schoolyard prejudiced bullies DO exist and are a REAL problem so Drarry is BAD (*truly completely unaware of the fact that there's 'realistic' aspects of the Light/L dynamic and 'unrealistic' aspects of Drarry - such as, for example, Hogwarts arguably being even MORE of a fantasy setting than DN is.*) I know that media literacy is the hot buzzword of the year to throw around in 2024, but, like, i really did not have media literacy.

as for c.), not realizing nuance exists - ok "nuance" might not be the best word here, but i dont know how else to describe it. like, each time ive typed the word "problematic" out in this ask, i've done so in a very tongue in cheek/ironic/retroactive way, but, like, those posts about how Everything Is Problematic, Including Your Fave ARE true. and i didn't like the fact that my favorite media or favorite person might've Made A Mistake! i need to Talk About Its Issues Because I'm So Betrayed That My Dear Sweet Comfort Media Would Do This To Me. I Need To Prove I Clearly Condemn It.

like, i legit morally could not justify reblogging a twilight post without adding in the tags '#this is my guilty pleasure it sucks that the books were so racist though' or whatever. Most people were lucky enough to avoid that line of thinking, but there was an actual group of people who felt a genuine need to virtue signal all the time, partly bc, hey, they WERE passionate about talking abt #issues in media, but also bc of a subconscious fear of If You Reblog A Singular Piece Of Hetalia Fanart, You're Literally A Nazi And Will Get A Callout Post Written About You.

and during all of this i was at the tail end of my high school experience (yes i know im younger than most of your audience, ha). i was going through A Lot emotionally, going through a lot of life changes, and lived in a very . . . interesting household/place where i couldn't do ACTUAL good in the world that i was passionate about. so to make up for the fact that i was genuinely in no place to do legit activism, clearly i had to save the gay community by arguing about johnlock queerbaiting or whatever.

^ and honestly i do think that is the position of most antis. theyre isolated and cant seem to do Enough in the Real Scary World so they have to resort to talking about how bad of a person someone is for "shipping abuse", bc theyre not in a situation where they could, for example, ACTUALLY fight the good fight to end abuse or raise awareness for it.

There was way more to it and way more that I could say, if I wanted to, but this post is long enough as it is and probably doesn't make much sense.

I feel bad for antis, honestly, or at least the ones who are antis in the way I used to be.

--

Oh yes, passionate young fools who think they can at least fix the internet if not their lives make up most of the cannon fodder. Some of the ringleaders are just mini dictators and wannabe cult leaders, but most anti-leaning types are just traumatized or clueless, even a lot of the ones who do serious damage and don't just mock shit in private with their friends.

[sunshine-and-his-stars]

Alright, for the most part I've been avoiding posting at all on tumblr lately, mostly only reposting a few fanarts I like or stuff about Queen Kat. I know so many people have already said their piece about this, and maybe she may never see this but hopefully if enough people start talking about it, someone will see that there aren't just awful people in this fandom.

I joined the SAMS fandom about a year ago or so? Because of an ex who was really into it, and dragged me into it. It quickly became my comfort show. I fell out of it after our break up, and the concept of the show was really iffy in my mind for a while because I was still scared of that breakup and that ex. But about a month or so ago one of my friends mentioned the Lunar and Earth show, talking about it on a VC and said I should try to get back into it.

I had never gotten to the point where Earth was in the SAMS when i was originally into it, but the moment I started watching episodes with characters like Earth, Pollux, Nebula, etc, I absolutely fell in love with them. Earth is a character I see so much of myself in as an oldest daughter, and while Earth is technically the youngest she still carries that weight of the issues I deal with myself. Especially in a family with incredible amounts of generational trauma, I could see my own experiences and coping mechanisms in her. Earth and Monty's relationship is so precious to me. They both have issues that they are still dealing with, but they are working on it together through supporting each other, clear communication, and genuine love and affection. That's all you can ever dream for in a relationship. And they still have their issues, but they are *trying* so so hard.

Earth is there for and supports every character. She plays therapist even when she really shouldn't because that's what she thinks she has to do. And then there's her break from that, where she deals with trying to put herself first, which is something I'm healing from myself. And Earth's issues are portrayed so beautifully.

How I see a lot of Earth's quirks, coding, emotions etc are portraying actual issues that people deal with, even if they're technically animatronics. Earth's current problems being an example of chronic pain, her memory issues being a representation of blocking things out from PTSD (which is something I do), and the current thing that started most of this, her need to promise that she wouldn't hurt her brother. I don't understand why people would be upset about that, because that is something I would do.

If anyone reading this right now is a Queen Kat hater, or a hater of any of the other female VAs / TSBS characters, you can go right ahead and block me. Some people need to learn how the fucking block and scroll button works. THE VAS DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING.

I was seven years old when I learned that I needed to think before I spoke. So maybe some of you need to go back to school. Use the THINK module!

Before you type, ask if your statement is

T - True? H - Helpful? I - Important? N - Necessary? K - Kind?

Stop acting like pathetic children and get a fucking grip. Fanart and Fanfiction are for your opinions and ideas. The TSBS actors don't need to do anything for you. They Deserve Better. Kat deserves better.

Queen Kat will not be writing anymore for the LAES show because you all made her fucking cry. Get. A. Grip. You are not children, most of you are probably grown adults. This is her world, her creations, her characters, her writing. She deserves so much better than you are treating her, and she deserves to be able to showcase something she really loves and is excited about.

Quit Ruining It For Everyone Else.

[darkshrimpemotions]

@god-dammit-fandom The longer answer is more complicated and waaaay less coherent, because the film kind of functions in a contradictory way on a few different levels, right?

Like on one level you have the narrative surface of what is actually happening, the sequence of events in the film. But on another level you have the underlying messaging of what's metaphorically happening.

Most films are like that to some extent, but when you have a film that's very clearly trying to be a statement piece about gender or sexuality or young adulthood or whatever, I feel like you have to look at the metaphorical bit a little harder. Like what is this film actually saying about those things? And not take the plot at face value.

So both plot-wise and metaphorically you have a group of three marginalized teen girls who aren't marginalized just because they're girls; each of them has something other than the fact of their gender that marginalizes them: Rochelle is marginalized because of her race, Nancy is marginalized due to poverty, and Bonnie is marginalized due to disability.

Meanwhile, Sarah's only axis of oppression is her gender. She is white, so she doesn't experience the racial marginalization that Rochelle does. She is able-bodied, so she doesn't experience the marginalization that Bonnie does due to her scars and the chronic pain that comes along with them. And based on her house and all of the things that we see around her material life, she's also not marginalized based on her socioeconomic class, certainly not to the extent that Nancy is.

She's sort of a cliché late 90s/early 00s YA protagonist in that she's an "outcast" and she's "not like other girls" but we're not supposed to look too hard at why a thin, conventionally pretty, able-bodied, white and well-off girl is an outcast. We're just supposed to assume she's marginalized in some way because the narrative says so, though it never shows us anything to back that up.

The closest the narrative ever gets is this nebulous idea that she's troubled in some way, but it's never explicitly stated why. It's kind of implied that it's tied to her having these powers and thus being "different" or "too special" but the powers themselves function differently on a metaphorical level than they do on a narrative level in a way that significantly undermines that interpretation, in my opinion.

Like within the original film--I'm not going to go into The Craft: Legacy because that gets more complicated--but in the original film all of the magic that the girls use comes from this masculine earth deity, Manon.

So on a metaphorical level, Sarah's powers being both the source of some anxiety for her and ultimately the thing that empowers her at the end only underscores the interpretation that she is an agent of the white supremacist patriarchy. Because yeah, it does cause her pain and suffering due to her gender, but it also gives her power over the other girls along every other axis of oppression they have which she doesn't share.

Now narratively speaking, Nancy is a threat to Sarah's life and to ordinary people. Like that's why Sarah ultimately fights her and does what she does, is because Nancy is set up as a threat to Sarah's well-being, to just regular people through the death of what's-his-face, and to the natural order via the scene with all of the dead sea creatures on the beach.

But on a metaphorical level, Manon is the white supremacist patriarchy, this unseen force of authority that must be respected and paid homage in order to gain power. And the white supremacist patriarchy is treated within the world of the film as the natural order. Because Manon was always there. His power was simply not accessible to Nancy, Bonnie, and Rochelle until his agent, Sarah, joined their coven. And their suffering up to that point was an acceptable price of maintaining that "natural order."

This is all further complicated by the fact that the story is telling you one thing and showing you something quite different even on just a narrative level, and that it requires you to buy into certain racist and sexist ideas in order to swallow what they're telling even as they contradict it with what they're showing.

Like in order for you to think that Rochelle deserves to be punished and to be disempowered by the end of the film, you have to believe that her bully didn't deserve what she got. You have to buy that persistent racist aggression doesn't merit or even allow a response, that punishing someone for persistent racist aggression is itself an act of unacceptable violence, and that if a person who is a victim of racist aggression fights back against the aggressor, they are as bad as the aggressor. And that idea is rooted firmly in racism and the preservation of white supremacy.

Likewise, in order for you to believe that Bonnie deserves the punishment that she gets, that she deserves to be disempowered by the end of the film, you have to buy that her pride and confidence in her own body is evidence of amorality and worthy of punishment, which of course is deeply rooted in sexism and misogyny.

Nancy is a more difficult case because Nancy actually does do things that most people would consider bad regardless of context. But the context in this case is that Nancy is an abused teenager with untreated PTSD. That may not be what the movie tells us. What the movie tells us is that she's crazy and power hungry. But what is actually shown on screen is that she's an abuse survivor with pretty obvious PTSD triggers around things like feeling trapped and powerless. And while that doesn't excuse any of her actions, I do think that it makes her punishment--being trapped and powerless indefinitely--a pretty low fucking blow.

Also let's be real: on a metaphorical level Nancy is just the power-hungry mad woman trope, this incredibly toxic sexist idea that women who get too much power will inevitably go insane and abuse that power.

The other problem I have is that for Sarah herself the film is once again telling you one thing and showing another.

They tell you that the coven turns on Sarah first, forcing her hand, but Sarah is all about that godforsaken boy from the word Go. She cares more about his attention and opinion at all points than about her sisters. And on both a narrative and metaphorical level, he is the initial splinter point that prompts her to break with the sisterhood. This is an unfortunately prominent feature of films centering teen girls from the late 90s and early 00s, where it's ultimately a boy, rather than clashing values or ideals, that prompts one girl to act decisively against another (see Ginger Snaps, Jennifer's Body, Drive Me Crazy, and Mean Girls for some other examples).

They also tell you that Sarah is the good magic user who didn't abuse her powers, but they show you that one of the first major acts of magic that she does is to take away another person's free will with regard to romantic and sexual attraction! We're really supposed to believe that Bonnie getting a little too up her own ass about looking hot is a worse crime than Sarah violating somebody's entire autonomy??

But again, on a metaphorical level, within the argument the film is constructing about gender and power, it is a worse crime. Sarah commiting a heinous breach of ethics to gain a boy's love is totally understandable and forgivable, while Bonnie and Rochelle escaping their marginalization and Nancy seeking power outside the limits imposed by white supremacy and patriarchy is not. Because ultimately The Craft is about girl power as filtered through a very white feminist, late 90s lens, where power inevitably makes other girls go nuts until the "right" kind of girl steps in to restore order, which is positioned as synonymous with white supremacist patriarchy.

Like she full on threatens Bonnie and Rochelle's lives at the end of the movie for daring to question her power! She's basically just reminding them that she has the power of white supremacy and patriarchy at her disposal in ways they cannot hope to fight, and can use it at any time to enact violence on them if they piss her off. Aka the most Karen-ass reaction possible to what amounts to a schoolyard taunt.

And while narratively the film gives you all kinds of reasons why this is actually a good and necessary thing for Sarah to do, that doesn't completely cover that that's what she does and how she functions in the story on a metaphorical level. Or that the entire film is basically a handwringing moderate's strawman argument against any social justice movement that threatens to create real change.

Which is why though aesthetically I prefer The Craft to The Craft: Legacy by many miles, thematically I far prefer The Craft: Legacy.

Sarah is the villain of The Craft.

[astormyjet]

Winter of 2018 - Summer of 2021 TIME FILES WHEN YOU’RE IN YOUR 20s!!!!

OH BOY. It’s been three years (or more) since I updated this. “Time is a weird soup!” to quote a fave. I guess I quit tumblr around the time there was a purge of content and creators and a smack down on a lot of the fandom communities. Tumblr has always been something of a crapshow though so I’ve been more productive with my time than I was in some ways, but I’ve also found other ways to waste my time. *cough twitter/netflix/youtube/MTGArena cough*.

General Life Achievements since 2018 -JLPT N3 GET in 2019! -Blackbelt GET in 2018! -TESOL 120 Hour and BE 50 Hour Cert from online provider GET in 2021 -STUDENT LOAN BANISHED (Thank you grandparents) -Survived Apartment flooding in early 2020. -Mystery anxiety related illness and chronic pain in my left leg from early 2020 - Present. -A mythical 6th and 7th year on the JET Programme. -Started posting on Instagram a lot more about my wanderings around Matsuyama/Uwajima. Mainly old buildings and stray cats. @astormyknight -Surviving so far in Japan with old rona-chan.

2018 was rough. I was given an additional school in the first semester (March to July) as we had someone find a better job. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a rough go especially when I was transferred that August after three fantastic years at Tsubaki JHS and ES and only a semester there. I legit went through the five stages of grief - which I think is another reason I stopped blogging. I was given my current base school along with four other schools. Going from 2(3) to 5 schools was a bit of an adjustment. I still feel a bit spread out.

That said, I keep running into teachers and students who were at the Tsubaki’s. The teachers shuffle around every April, so it's always a lottery with which new faces are going to be old friends (or enemies…). A couple of kids moved and transferred into my current schools from Tsubaki too. So I have one kid I can say I've been teaching for 6 out of the 7 years I've been here!

One of the kids who was in JHS 3rd grade when I first got here (in 2015!) hangs out around one of my favorite cafes, so I got chatting with him recently. He's in his second year of nursing school - his class nearly broke me in the first year, it was really a trial by fire with those kids. I was 22 then, and he’s 20 now, so it was interesting chatting to him about that first year of teaching. His younger sister was one of my favorite students too, she was in the group of kids that graduated in the March of 2018, the year group that went through Tsubaki JHS with me - they’re newly minted University students now!

This Thursday morning when I was cycling in to work, a kid who was 2nd year JHS when I left  (so 2nd or 3rd year JHS now) pulled up with their Mum in a van and got their mamachari out of the back to bike to school. The franticness of it all was hilarious. Their Mum legit sat on the horn until I pulled over. I was so happy to run into this kid, even at social distance and both of us late to work/school - because we both remembered each other and as they were going around the corners they were yelling each time they turned and humming the old elementary school directions chant and pelting me with questions about what I’ve been up to.

I've had so many students and schools now, that everything is kind of running into a blur. I remember flashes of kids faces and voices, random memories of in class or out of class shenanigans out of the blue. Also, I now, more than ever, have issues remembering kids' names, but I still know their faces (even with their masks), whose homeroom class they were in, who their friends were and which club they were in. I get random flashbacks to past conversations with them when I see them on the street or we run into each other. I feel bad because the first thing former students ask is ‘Do you remember my name?’ and I always have to be like, ‘Honestly, no, but I remember you did this on x day, x month in x classroom’.

Socially in 2018 -2019 - a few of our friends went home and things shook up a little. Our DnD group changed a bit - one of our players stepped into the role forever DM (THANK YOU RALPH). From memory the newbies were great - some of them just went home at the start of last month and it’s weird not seeing them around (JESS DO YOUR BEST!). I think we only have one or two people left from that rotation. There’s no 6th year ALTs, and only two 5th years.

Aug 2018 - Aug 2019 was the year of Hiura - my mountain school. Dang man, they were so cool. The students of the JHS and the ES combined barely hit 30, so each class was between 3-10 students depending on the grade. It was easier to get to know the kids, their abilities and their goals than it has been for me at other schools. I miss it so bad, being in nature once a week did my country-kid heart so good! The bugs! The frogs! The river! The mountain! The monkeys! The lizards! The dilapidated houses and hidden shrines!!!! The random crabs in the English room...I forgot that there was such a thing as freshwater crabs, and being right next to a river, the invasion wasn’t as out of place as I first thought...  

The area is so picturesque and calming. Every week up there was a small adventure (after getting over my motion sickness from the bus ride up). The kids were constantly pranking either myself or the main English teacher. There was always some new weird bug or lizard in a tank to be educated about. There were chickens on the way to the JHS that used to escape from their cardboard box prisons to run riot on the gardens. There were old people to freak out with my youth and foreignness! The kids also got to do a lot of extra classes, sumiyakai (making charcoal the traditional way), planting and maintaining rice paddies, setting up vegetable gardens, raising fireflies, conserving a special breed of fire lily (only found in this particular mountain valley) and another rare flower, wilderness training ect.

I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer but SOMEONE (read...the BoE) decided that schools had to be shuffled again(thank goodness the dude who has it now was able to keep it from the 2021 shuffle, he's the best fit for the school). I had so many good memories from there, I wish I had been more consistent in writing it down. I do have a bunch of photos and videos from there though, so that's nice. The only thing I don’t miss is the bus trip up and down - not only was it motion sickness, there was a healthy dose of fear each ride as the driver brought us perilously close to the edge of the mountain drop…

2019 - 2020 was interesting. With the school I got given instead of the Hirua’s I was roped into more demonstration lessons which was a lot of pressure because I was also involved quite heavily with the JHS observation and training lessons too. They were somewhat rewarding, the third graders are now super smart 5th graders, but the teachers  who need to embrace the new curriculum and ways of teaching really haven’t taken on anything from the lessons....

Outside of work as well, I was given the chance, thanks to an ALT buddy of mine, to join in with the local festival. It's been one of the biggest highlights of my time here, and I am gutted it’s been cancelled for the last two years, but I understand the reason…. I was able to travel to Okinawa too during that summer for an international Karate seminar with the Dojo I train with. I met the head of the style I currently practice and a bunch of people from around the world. I also got to see Shuri castle before it burned down. So that was a stroke of luck. One of the places I want to go when/if we get out of this pandemic is Okinawa. I want to see more of those Islands so bad. Just before the whole pandemic thing too - I managed to see the Rugby World Cup, a Canada vs NZ match, I even ran into Tana Umanga in Oita city!!!

2019 - 2020 was supposed to be my last year on JET, so I was frantically Job hunting. I went to the Career Fair in Osaka in early Feb/Late January 2020. I applied and got interviewed for a position in Sendai in early Jan 2020. In the end though - the Rona hit. We started hearing whispers of it around the end of 2019, then the cruise boats happened, and then Japan refused to cancel the Olympics...every holiday season there is a new wave of infections, my nurse friends in Tokyo are struggling....my teacher friends in more populous areas of Japan are struggling…

JET couldn't get new ALTs for 2020-2021, I took the extra year when it was eventually offered, as the one job I had managed to get a serious offer for was hesitating because with the rona setting in, things were uncertain. There was a lot of time spent adjusting to the new rules surrounding what we could do in class with the kids as well as textbook change. Schools shut on and off during the spring months. 

I also got a reminder of my mortality mid May with an unrelated illness which is still smacking me around a bit - stress/age, it does things to the human body it has no right to. It's only been in the last three months I’ve been able to exercise like I used to, I’ve put on a bunch of weight I can't shrug off (one part medication, another part diet) My relationship with food needs to change, and I really need a kitchen that allows me for more than one pan meals. I also need to figure out what to do with a left leg that is in constant pain from the knee down and a heart that misses beats when stressed out (mentally and physically…). 

My apartment also got flooded by the guy upstairs at one point, I spent most of late February/early March living in a hotel while my walls and floor got redone - I think this was one of the things that really stressed me out and kicked my anxiety right up a notch, it was right when things were getting REALLY bad with rona-chan in Hokkaido and schools were shutting down here as it was filtering into the prefecture and so Japan closed schools for the first time…

Classes in covid times have been weird. We’ve been wearing facemasks full time since the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020) - so I admit that I get a bit pissed off seeing both Americans and New Zealanders back home bitching about just having to start wearing them full time in public. I have asthma and have been suffering with the things on during the 30*C plus with high 90s humidity summers. Teachers were offered vaccines late July 2021, just days before the Olympics were open - and I finished my two shots in the middle of August. But the overall distribution and take up of the jab has been slow.  As mentioned above, we can't play a lot of the games we used to play with kids in classes anymore, and a lot of the activities outlined in the textbook curriculum need to be adjusted too, so we’ve had to be creative. We use hand sanitizer a lot more too. One of the things I miss the most though, is eating lunch with the kids.

Socially from summer 2020 - now 2021 we played a lot of DnD and board games, both online and in person when we could. There were no new ALTs again for the 2021-2022 JET year, and those of us who were in 6th year were offered a 7th. Four out of six of us took it. As a whole we’re down from a peak of 38 ALTs for Junior High and Elementary school to 22 for now. We hopefully will get a new person at the end of September, and 4 more in November. Which will bring us to 27. This has led to ANOTHER round of school shuffles.

Summer vacation has been weird the last two years. With rona-chan, we haven’t really been able to travel. All the summer festivals (all the Autumn and Winter ones too!) have been cancelled, so the changing of seasons just feels, wrong. I dunno. There is so much we all miss from pre-rona-chan, and so much that doesn’t happen that makes this just feel like one long long unending year of sadness, coldness, raininess, unbearable heat and repeat. I’m tired. Time is going so fast, but so.dang.slow.

I lost my favorite school (AGAIN GDI!!!) and gained the school I taught a semester at in 2019....I had my first day there on Wednesday. Schools actually started back on September 1st so there was some drama as the BoE didn’t communicate fast enough about our school changes. We legit got told on the 27th of August (on a Friday) our schools were changing effective September 1st, but somehow some of our schools found out on the Monday 30th August. In July we were told we would be changing schools at the end of September, so.a lot of ALTs and schools were left short changed, not having opportunities to say goodbye to co-workers or students/having their planning for the semester more or less thrown out the window too. I love my job. I really dislike the way the BoE treats us, the Japanese assistant language teachers and our schools.

The new school I have is used to having an ALT there twice a week, who plans all the lessons and executes them. I’m at three elementary schools. I'm only at each once a week, I want to plan, but being that I miss an entire lesson in between visits, it's going to be difficult to do so. Not impossible, but being that I'm already doing it for two other schools, who are at two different places in the textbook ah…….. From what I have talked to my new supervisor about though, it sounds like the teachers have taken on more of the lesson planning and I'll be able to contribute ideas when I'm there. I just want to and wish I could do more without being confused all the time. (This is all usually done in my second language too, not in English so extra levels of confusion and miscommunication abound).

 I feel like this at my JHS too a lot of the time. I want to contribute more, but even with constant communication with my main in school supervisor (who is a badass and pretty much on the same page about everything with me) I still feel about as useful as tits on a bull. Especially now that classes have been cancelled and or shortened, there's less time to do stuff. Any game or activity I plan is usually cut in favor of making up time in the textbook. When I'm in class, I'm back to being a tape recorder, the fun police and general nuisance.　

Also in the last week...my two of my schools were  shut due to students testing positive for the rona. This is the second time my schools have had a scare in the last 8 months. And by shut, I mean the students were all at home, but the teachers  all had to come into the office. Because why not I guess….. I mean,  the cases increasing is really not unexpected with the amount of people who were travelling over obon and the increase of cases due to the Olympics/Japan being slow on vaccinating/delta being the dominant strain/Japan's leaders doing relatively little except asking shops and restaurants to limit people coming in at one time and closing before 8pm. I know my schools weren't the only one shut either - but still High Schools were having their sports days this week. I kept on seeing groups of kids hanging in the park after, so that was a little bit nerve wracking.

It's just frustrating - we’ve been on half days to “minimize the risk of infection” for kids and teachers, as if only being at school from 8am through to 1pm is going to reduce the risk.  My schools have only just started testing out Microsoft teams and Zoom lesson equipment. Thankfully our school’s run in this time was contained real quick, the family was super good about informing us when they got their results back, and the fact they needed to be tested. The homeroom teacher and the students from the same class were the only ones tested, and they all came back clear, which was nice. But the information came back so SLOW. 

I’m a little irritated because I found out on Wednesday night what was going on, and even if I am vaccinated, I am super worried that I will end up being the covid monkey due to being at different schools three days out of five. I think other than being worried that I will catch it myself and get real sick, my biggest fear is that I will be protected from bad symptoms from the vaccine, but still be able to pass it onto some of my more vulnerable friends and students. The whole thing is a mess.  

Other than Covid and BoE drama, life is good. I’ve had a couple of other big changes - both fantastic and not so great, but yeah.  I have my health (and health insurance!) for now. I have a job, for now. I have a sense of existential dread for the next 12 months, but we’ll see where we end up. Life post JET is going to be way less cushy and I am TERRIFIED. I mean, I have a BA in Eng/Ling and no idea what to do with it…..because I am NOT suited for academia.

TLDR: Love my job. Don’t like the system. What is life? Future scary. 

[nyctophilin]

Adults bullying minors

Warning: I went off because this topic makes me so angry and if you are an adult that has bullied, is currently bullying or will bully minors on the internet you might get offended, so read at your own discretion.

Can some adults stop bullying minors out of fandoms please? Can they do that? Can they start acting like actual adults and stop bullying people they do not want to interact with? Are you aware you can coexist while ignoring each other? BECAUSE TO ME IT DOES NOT FUCKING SEEM LIKE THEY KNOW THAT!

I have seen so much hostility towards minors lately. You mean to tell me that GROWN adults do not have anything better to do than bully minors on the internet? Do you get joy out of making someone’s day a living hell?

And before I continue, I do not want to see anyone bring up NSFW under this post. This is not what this post is about. Minors engaging in NSFW activities on the internet is wrong and I am not advocating for that. I do not want to see anyone put this in my mouth. As an adult, you have all the rights to not want a minor to engage in your NSFW businesses, although you have no right to bully them for it. Tell them nicely, educate them on why what they are doing is not right(because some of you consider minors to be chronically stupid until they turn 18) instead of giving them unnecessary trauma and proving that you are an asshole at the same time.

However, what this post is about is hostility towards minors that do not engage in NSFW. If there is no NSFW involved and the minor is just enjoying a fandom while living their minor life, like we all do at some point in our lives, and you decide to bully them for it, then please, leave the fandom! You are not wanted here.

I have seen adults that run 100% SFW blog tell minor to not interact with them in very rude hostile ways. If you do not want to interact with a minor, you can tell them nicely. You do not have to cuss them out or be rude or block them. Both of you are basically enjoying the same type of content and them asking you from time to time how your day has been is not a tragedy. You will not be put in jail for it. Crazy! I know! Just ignore them. It is as easy as that. Just fucking ignore them.

I have also seen some of you hunt minors down. You purposefully look for them and then you start bullying them. Don’t you have a fucking casserole to make instead? Why would you look for them if they make you uncomfortable? Just do not! You could have done so many things in the time you spend looking for minors so you can expose them for just existing. Grow the fuck up! If you can not tolerate minors partaking in fandoms, then your place is clearly not here. 

Now, I am not telling adults to be best friends with minors. This is the last thing I want. At the end of the day, there is still a risk that minors face when engaging in friendships with adults. All I am saying is: Mind your own business! If they approach you through asks/DMs wanting to have a conversation about the fandom, but you feel uncomfortable with that, let them know nicely and I am sure they will understand. However, if the little dude did not bother you in any way, then why would you go out of your way to interact with them and then act like the victim when you clearly are not? And let me just add one more thing here. If you do not think that a friendship between a 25+ years old and a 18-19 years old is just as predatory as a friendship between a minor and a 18-20 years old then you can unfollow me. I do not even need to make an explanation for this one because it speaks for itself.

And I am not telling anyone that they cannot enjoy a fandom. I do not care how old you are, your gender, your sexuality, how many eggs you eat in the morning. I really could not care less, but if you are going to start unnecessary drama and you, as an adult, are going to bully minors, that did not bother nor have they ever interacted with you, into leaving the fandom, then I have a problem with you. I can do the exact same thing to you, Susan, and I will not hold back.

Like, don’t you have kids to raise Susan? A casserole to make or laundry to do? File a report for your office job? Didn’t I just hear your husband call for you? Why are you browsing the world wide web when you are so busy, Susan? As a person that comes from the younger side of the fandom I feel very uncomfortable with you here and I want you to leave or my group of friends and I will bully you until you do and then we will act like the victims.

Some of the fandoms are not even made for you, Susan. I am sure that when John started developing that video game, he thought of little 15 years old Dave that can and will play it 25/8 and not you, that have diapers to change every hour. You cannot enter a teen dominated fandom and then kick out the targeted audience. This is not how life works. If you know that you feel uncomfortable around minors, then do not join a minor predominant fandom with the thought of kicking them out because they are going to kick your ass. 

And I do not want anyone telling me “wAiT uNtIl ShE fInDs OuT wHo WrItEs BoOkS aNd MoViEs, HaHuHe.” because this comeback is not as smart as you think it is. Because Susan, you see, there is a difference between you writing a book about your own adult characters doing whatever the fuck you want them to do and you writing a 10k words smut fic about a real person that is 5+ years younger than you. I can not write a fanfiction for Minho to save my life, and he is just a few years older than me, but you can write that smut about Jeongin that is 10 years younger than you, all while holding your newborn? How do you do that?

The conclusion of this whole post is:

MIND. YOUR OWN. BUSINESS!

Do not bully minor on the internet out of their own fandoms. Fandoms are made for everyone to enjoy and I will welcome you with open arms as long as you are kind and understanding. Bullying someone because you do not agree with their existence is not kind nor is it understanding. If they do not bother you, then do not bother them either. You are not doing anyone a favour!

Thank you for giving me your time! Good night!

[ibelongtowrath]

Guys, I’m... I don’t even know what to say except thank you so much 😭🙏🏼

I’m honestly crying right now, legitimately crying as I write this, because I never expected this. I started my blog back at the end of March, deciding to venture into writing fanfiction because I was feeling lost during the crazy pandemic time. I never, ever expected this to take off like it has, and I am so, so, SO thankful for all the continuous love and support.

I know I have been slow with writing lately. I have no plans of leaving the fandom - quite the opposite actually, I have lots and lots of requests and WIP ideas to finish, and I want to start writing more than ever. It’s just hard because depression/anxiety, being tired all the time from chronic illness, and overall life stuff like a full time job taking away my energy and motivation to write sometimes.

I see your reblogs, your hashtags, mentions, comments, replies, and I love every. Single. One. of you more than I could ever express into words. Unfortunately I can’t reply to everything because I get hundreds of notifications per day, but I try to do what I can.

My ask box is always open to you guys. I am proud of creating a safe, fun space for all to enjoy. Thank you for joining me on this crazy, thirsty, horny journey.

I love all of you guys 😭

[asiryn]

this post is going to be very rambly, so i apologize in advance. if you’re potentially interested in my liveblogs, and/or interested in hearing a bit about my current life and disability issues, tune in. if you aren’t, then....keep scrolling i guess XD

(if you just want the current liveblog schedule, scroll to the bottom)

[and this got predictably very long, so i’m gonna put it behind a cut for convenience] 

up to recently, my main liveblogs have been about the pokemon anime, with a few other shows, books, and especially video games sprinkled in here and there. essentially, waaaay back in yonder year of 2014, netflix added the first season of pokemon, the indigo league, to their site, and i, in a fit of nostalgia, made the veeery questionable decision to watch all of the pokemon anime---rewatching the stuff i hadn’t touched since i was kid, and then continuing on into the unknown, and watching all the seasons from gen 3 onward that i had missed due to dropping out of pokemon. i only really started actually making liveblog posts once i hit gen 3, then i stayed consistent-ish from then onward. (for the curious, i’m up to sun & moon, and i have 44 episodes left until i finish it (i’m not ready ;;;; ), and then netflix actually just dropped the first 12 episodes of the newest series, pokemon journeys, so....56 until i’ve caught up with the dub XD)

so, all of y’all who climbed aboard with those liveblogs are probably already aware of Who I Am, at least a little. (....this is making it sound like i’m Some Big Name in liveblogging, but i’m not really anything of the sort, just so we’re all on the same page XD) at least, in terms of the fact that i’m physically disabled, suffer from chronic pain, etc. but recently, i’ve joined two new fandoms, and i’ve begun liveblogging spop and my next life as a villainess. and my spop posts in particular are already becoming some of the most popular posts i’ve ever done (like wow, you guys). and i think part of that popularity is due to the fact that these are two pretty recent, pretty popular fandoms (tho i do also like to think that i do make good content XP). but the point is that quite a lot of new ppl are coming across me, and idk how much, if any, of you have taken the time to look at my bio or anything. so i guess....part of this post is just some ruminations, but also my way of letting you know more of what you’re getting into. 

so, for those who don’t know: hi, you can call me kiryn, i liveblog stuff sometimes, and i’m physically disabled. i suffer from intense, constant, chronic pain. it stems from a bone disease called HME, or hereditary multiple exostosis, if you’re curious (i have a severe case of it, joy of joys). the short version of what that means is that i have a lot of bone spurs everywhere on my body, and they....cause me a lot of pain. basically, i cannot do any kind of sustained activity without the already significant, never-ceasing pain that i feel cranking up to unbearable levels, and basically i’ll be rendered immobile. i do have pain meds that i take, and that very much help to take the edge off, and make it so that i can function at all (bc, believe fucking me, w/o them, i wouldn’t be able to achieve even the little i can do), but even with them, it only makes a dent in my pain levels, and again, sustained activity makes up that difference very quickly. 

now, the gist of this stuff i’ll mention from time to time, but....i don’t usually go into much detail about it (and this post is probably the most detailed i’ve been about my condition in years). bc, quite frankly, it’s depressing. (and seeing as i also already have clinical depression, that’s definitely not something that i need more of XD) i participate in fandoms for escapism, and bc i don’t really want to think about that crushing mountain of reality. i’ve had this condition since birth, and i’ve literally lived my entire life in constant pain, and i honestly have no fucking idea what it even feels like to be painless. and what’s even worse is that it’s a degenerative disease---essentially, the bone spurs are wearing down my joints, so....my entire condition will just keep worsening as i get older. (and no, surgery to remove the spurs isn’t really an option.) i’ll be 29 next month, and i can already tell you, i’ve been feeling that decline sharply. when i was a kid, i could still run. by the time i was a teenager, i couldn’t even do that anymore; the best i could manage was a jog. now....i don’t think i could even do that. 

i guess the main point in why i’m saying all this, is that for the last year especially, i’ve been dealing with the worst downward swing that i’ve had in years. in my late teens and early-mid 20s, i got into a pretty good rhythm, of knowing my body’s limits, how to budget spoons to accomplish things, etc. but now even that fragile equilibrium has been thrown out the window, and i’m currently struggling to learn the new limits and rhythm of this downward swing that is unfortunately now my reality. even before, i was pretty limited on what i could accomplish, but even that narrow window has shrunk even further. so basically, i’m in the testing zone still. and it’s a very slow process, bc once i exceed the limit, my body breaks down, and now it takes me even longer to recover. as an example, i used to know that i could wake up in the morning and get ready to leave the house in 20-30 mins. now? i need at least an hour, which involves me pushing through a wave of agony to be able to take my pain meds in the first place, and then wait for those meds to kick in and the pain to die down enough to move without feeling like i’m moving through a wall of spikes. (and that’s just the start of every day for me, and before even throwing in all of the other variables)

so, coming back to the liveblogs......obviously, that’s affected by all this too. if you’ve wondered why there’s been a gap between me finishing up spop s1 and starting s2....that’s why. partly, i didn’t expect how analysis-heavy i was going to get on spop; pokeani just doesn’t tend to be as consistently thematically deep, so those liveblogs took far less out of me than spop has, and pushing myself to finish 5 episodes in one day....well, it was too much. and the thing is, it’s obviously unhealthy for me to continually push myself to the point of total breakdown, so...that’s where learning my new limits comes in. so, these past few days, i’ve been thinking, and essentially trying to better figure out how to do liveblogs like this without pretty much killing myself in the process (bc i honestly do love making them....i mean, if i didn’t, then it really wouldn’t be worth the literal pain it takes to make them XD). and also there’s a component of managing my anxiety-brain, bc leaving things Unfinished stresses me out, and so when coming to terms with the fact that it’s going to take me awhile to finish one show....knowing that i’d be leaving others hanging....Doesn’t Help XD

so, here’s what i’ve got so far (and obvs, this is subject to much tweaking in the future XP)

currently, i’m watching 4 shows: pokeani, good omens, villainess, and spop. villainess rn is the least of my worries, bc 1 ep is coming out a week, so it’s not demanding a lot of my time. 

for the other 3, here’s the preliminary schedule i’ve sort of hashed out:

- pokeani sm103-106

- spop s2

- pokeani sm107-110

- spop s3 

- pokeani sm111-114

- spop s4

- pokeani sm115-118

- spop s5 

- pokeani sm119-122

- good omens

- pokeani sm123-126

- [catch up block] (i don’t have a good track record in keeping up with ongoing shows, so if i fall behind on villainess, this is where i can catch up)

- finish pokeani sun & moon [sm127-146] (the league starts on ep 128, so i’d rather not experience any big interruptions in the battles XD)

basically, i’ve given myself a limit of 4 pokeani eps in a single session (bc as stated, they don’t take as much out of me), and with spop, the most i’ll let myself watch in a row will be 3 eps (s2 will probably be broken up into a 3/2/2 block, s3 a 3/3 block, and s4&5 will be a 3/3/3/2/2 block).

now, keep in mind that i’m very deliberately making no guarantees about specific days, bc who even knows, but at the very least, scheduling and talking it all out like this will help me to better manage my spoons, and if you’ve actually read this far, then you’ll know the method in the madness and why i’m doing things this way. XD the vague goal is to get in a least 1 liveblog session a week (plus a bonus of the new villainess ep on saturdays)---at least for the shows. i’m still having to working out what i’m going to do about video games....maybe i should just go on a ‘once a week’ model for all my hobbies across the board XDD

in the next couple of days, i’ll be posting that in-depth look into all the ships of villainess (it started as me just pecking down a few thoughts while i was taking a social media break due to the Current Events, but now i’m at the point where i’m like, i’ve put too much effort into this to not post it, damn it XP), and then depending on spoons, i’ll try to start in on that schedule this week, so stay tuned for some pokeani! (again....i’ll try to hit at least 1 liveblog a week before i start trying to get more ambitious XDD)

in any case, if you have stuck through to the end, thank you very much. your support means a lot to me 💖

[homosociallyyours]

2018 Fic Year in Review

I know I’m ridiculously late with this, but here we go. I was tagged (weeks ago! yike!) by @horsegirlharry -- thank you, dear!! I appreciate it <3

1. Number of stories (including drabbles) posted to AO3: 34! 11 of those are from the seasonal drabble fests, and 8 are short little ficlets under 1k, but that’s A LOT more than I’ve ever posted in a year before. 

2. Word count posted for the year: 118,598. I know this is nothing for a lot of folks, but this is easily double what I’ve written in the entire time I’ve had an AO3 account up til now. I have always said that it’s important to keep writing if you feel like it even if you only have a few readers, but this is change in stats is all down to people liking, commenting on, and sharing my works. It really makes a difference to have other writers rec your work and be excited about what you’re writing, so...support your fellow content creators, people! 

3. List of works published this year (in order of posting) I’m not gonna link drabbles, but they’re easy enough to find if you wanna! -Are You Gonna Be My Girl -In 36 Questions or Less -This Opening Monologue Studies Rainbows -4am -One of Those Days When You’ve Got Nothing On -I’ll Say It Everyday -Talk That Talk -I Love It When We Play 1950 -Mudpies -Just Swipe Right -Ready to Run Away -The World It Turns, No Matter What -These Days I Don’t Even Know Myself -Half of the Story -Just to See That Smile -In the Cards -Can’t Beat the Heat/Taste on Your Tongue/Cool Cool Cool -I Believe it This Time -Our Own Little French Club -I’m Half a Heart Without You, Baby -You Shine Like the Real Thing -On the Road Again With You -A Love So True You Don’t Have to Be Afraid -Our House (It’s A Very Fine House) -Are You Thorny, Baby? -When Everything is Perfect -Our Friends Keep Talkin’ About Us -The Christmas Lift -The Cold/Comfort/Christmas Cuddles -You Bring Us Together (Can’t Tear Us Apart)

4. Fandoms I wrote for: All the fic I published on AO3 was for One Direction, though I did publish a few ficlets for Sherlock (this is my favorite of those, a little parentlock featuring genderqueer Ro Watson)

5. Pairings: Harry/Louis, Liam/Zayn, Sherlock/John

6. Story with the most hits: Talk That Talk with 3531 hits

7. Story with the most kudos: The Christmas Lift with 264

8. Story with the most comments: The Christmas Lift with 22 comment threads

9. Work I’m most proud of (and why): Probably “You Bring Us Together (Can’t Tear Us Apart)” because it was ot5 and I really struggled with working out some of the plot points near the end. 

10. Work I’m least proud of (and why): None. Writing isn’t easy and I do the best that I can with everything I write :)

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: UGHHH THIS WAS TOO HARD. So eventually I gave up and picked this little bit from “Our Own Little French Club” because I love Harry’s sweet gay fantasy moment. “Maybe next semester. I requested it, anyway,” Louis said, clicking to the red ink of Harry’s four color pen and doodling in the margins of the notebook in front of her. With anyone else, Harry would’ve requested they move to a new page. But Louis? She could leave her mark wherever she liked.That thought spurred on a fantasy of Louis drawing a line up from Harry’s bare knee and under the soft fabric of her skirt, the pen skidding over her skin until Louis held it taut with her free hand. A free hand that could slide up, too. Up and--“Hazza.” Louis’ voice interrupted Harry’s reverie and she closed her eyes to clear the images from her head. “Did you hear what I asked?”

12. Share or describe a favorite review you received: The reviews on “You Shine Like the Real Thing” are my absolute favorite because a lot of people have said that they’ve struggled with what Harry struggles with in the fic--figuring out their identity and expression as they come out as LGBTQ+  As someone who struggled to find the femme identity that feels like my home, I’m glad to be able to share some of that through fiction. 

13. A time when writing was really, really hard: Always, honestly! I’m struggling with fatigue and chronic illness, and some days I just don’t have the ability or energy to focus and get words out coherently. 

14. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: Writing as Louis in my 5 days of Louis series (incomplete, but the final fic is actually pretty much finished and just needs a little polish) was surprising for me, because I think it was one of the first times I wrote from Louis’ POV and I found it so comfortable.

15. How did you grow as a writer this year: I wrote longer fics than I ever had before--that’s probably the main thing. I also signed up for the big bang and am working on a fic that will end up being twice as long as the longest thing I’ve written so far, so that’s pretty big for me too! 

16. How do you hope to grow next year: I’d like to maybe set word goals for myself to meet every month and do my best to publish fic more regularly (in addition to doing challenges)

17. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): My beta, @statementlou, has been my number one cheerleader and inspiration, always giving me prompts when I need them and encouraging me to keep writing when I felt like walking away from something. @harryincamp has also been there for me and always supports my fics in the best ways. I’m glad we met on here!  Also, the community of writers in the 1d fandom has been such a positive influence!! I’m gonna tag a ton of people, though I’ll probably leave some people out. Basically I felt welcomed and included by so many people right from the start of joining this fandom. So. Massive thanks to: @lululawrence, @horsegirlharry, @gaycousinlarry, @fullonlarrie, @suddenclarityharry, @disgruntledkittenface, @crinkle-eyed-boo, @rosegoldhlfics, @allwaswell16, @a-brighter-yellow, and @helloamhere I KNOW I AM FORGETTING PEOPLE. FUCK!!!  

18. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: Yeah, basically writing girl direction has allowed me to bring a lot of my life to my writing. Lesbian not-dates? Femme identity issues? Definitely my life. Also my last fic of the year, the ot5 reunion fic, was set in the Bay Area, which let me use some of my experiences living here. I’ll probably do that more this year, tbh!

19. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: If you like something another writer has done, comment and subscribe to their work and don’t be afraid to message them. Most people want to talk about their work, and having people to message with when you’re struggling to feel inspired is immensely helpful. 

20. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: MY BIG BANG FIC OMG!!! It’s a girl direction AU set in a lesbian bookstore in 1970s NYC, and I’m loving writing it so far.  After that’s done, I’m thinking of tackling the Sherlock/1D crossover fic that I’ve been scheming over for a year now. It’s time!!  Beyond that...I’ve no idea! 

21. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read. OK, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this thing from a lot of people in the 1d fandom, so I’m just going to tag some writers in other fandoms and folks I don’t *think* have done it. If you haven’t done it yet and want to, please do!! Tag me in so I see your answers :) 

@aprillikesthings @velvetnoodle @zooeyscigar @perpetuallyvex @ennisgarlaend @pendragoff

This was a lot of fun! Thank you for giving me the chance to look back over the year <3 I hope some other folks will do the same!!

[starship-squidlet]

APPARENTLY I NEVER DID THIS??? I’M SO SORRY!!! (I saved it to my drafts to remember to do it and never remembered to do it cos I’m a disaster but I wanted to do it so I’m doing it now)

Anyways, three months late, here’s my answers xD

1. What fandom(s) did you join this year?

Newsies!!! It’s honestly the fandom I’ve taken part in the most in my entire life—I jumped straight in here with both feet and didn’t bother to pinch my nose or anything, so it was all in right away, and I’m not at all sorry xD Everyone I’ve met in the Newsies fandom has been absolutely wonderful, and I adore you all so much!

Also, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, to a much lesser extent—I read a lot of fic for it, watched the movie at least once every day for over a month straight, and even planned fic for it that I never wrote! (fun fact: this IS where Elaine and Alan came from! They were originally OCs for the fics I planned for this, one of which was a modern one where they were all performers putting on Newsies, and then they wound up making the transition from Robin Hood to Newsies lol)

2. What fandom(s) did you leave?

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever really “left” a fandom, because it’s not so much me going “I’m not going to do this anymore” but rather “I’m not currently interested in this thing at the moment, because that’s how I as a person function, but I’ll probably be back at some point.”

3. What fandom(s) from the past did you return to?

Writing for/watching/interacting with Hunter X Hunter in any way is always a blast from the past, as it was one of my first fandoms—the first fanfics I wrote were for HxH, waaay back when I was like 12-14, and I watched the original 1999 anime before the reboot was ever announced. And I also started getting back into Stargate at the end of the year (although that may have been pretty much in January)!

4. What show/book/movie/etc. was your escape/comfort this year?

Definitely Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but also Newsies, and also Hunter x Hunter and My Hero Academia. And I can’t forget the LOTR and Hobbit movies, since that’s basically all the media I consumed through the last few weeks of December when I was having a slightly troubling time 😅

5. What creative work are you most proud of?

Literally anything and everything to do with New Music/my Newsies 50s AU. I’ve poured so much into that, and I’m so glad that at least a few people enjoy it!!! I promise I’ll get back into working on it sometime soon (hopefully)

6. Did you have any new ships this year?

Uhhh everything related to Newsies? xD Nothing hardcore, even within Newsies—like, no new OTPs or anything.

7. Which character did you relate to the most this year?

Besides OCs/DnD characters? Probably Crutchie. It’s always nice to find some chronic pain representation in media, so I connected with that a lot lol.

8. What quote really sums up how you’re feeling at this point?

I’m so bad at coming up with quotes, so I can’t think of anything xD How about “exposed live wiring is a kink?” which is still my favorite line I’ve ever written, especially out of context.

9. Recommend something that you really enjoyed in 2020.

Fire Force! It’s a new-ish (I think) anime with only a few seasons so far, but it’s really good! It’s about these firefighters in a post-apocalyptic sort of world which has been basically ripped apart by spontaneous human combustion (honestly, they say that phrase SO OFTEN in the dub that I literally cannot think the words “fire force” without also thinking “spontaneous human combustion”) and they’ve had to reevaluate their whole way of life. I’m not generally one for post-apocalyptic scenarios, but this is one of the few exceptions I’ll make to that!

10. Share something that you learned in 2020.

Friends are there even when you can’t see them.

11. Name a fellow fan who you really appreciated this year.

Ughhh there’s so MANY!!! But, for a few: @cutesiewooren @the-cowbi @fifty-for-the-racer @sour-picklee and so many more of the wonderful people who I met through Newsies. I love you all!

12. Share your wishes for your fellow fans in the next year.

No more plagues!!!

13. What do you want to do less of next year?

Procrastinate (I’m trying, I really am! I think I’m getting a little better about it... Even though technically I’m doing this to procrastinate working on a blanket I’m making...)

14. What do you want to do more of next year?

Writing!!! I have so many ideas, and I’m really determined to get lots of them out onto paper this year, even if I never post them! I’ll probably post (at least most of) them, though xD

15. What are you looking forward to coming out in 2021?

Hm, I can’t think of anything specific... But I’m sure there will be lots of great stuff to discover this year, new and old!!!

Thanks so much for the tag, Anne! I’m sorry it took me so long to respond, but I’m really thankful for the tag, cos this was a lot of fun!!!

(I’m not going to tag anyone cos I’m three months late to this, but if any of y’all want to do it, go for it!!!)

end of 2020 fandom asks

What fandom(s) did you join this year?

What fandom(s) did you leave?

What fandom(s) from the past did you return to?

What show/book/movie etc. was your comfort and/or escape this year?

What creative work are you most proud of (your own or someone else’s)?

Did you have any new ships this year?

Which character did you relate to most this year?

What quote really sums up how you’re feeling at this point?

Recommend something that you really enjoyed in 2020.

Share something you learned in 2020.

Name a fellow fan who you really appreciated this year.

Share your wishes for your fellow fans in the new year.

What do you want to do less of next year?

What do you want to do more of next year?

What are you looking forward to coming out in 2021?

[hazzabeeforlou]

Hi I’m Toni, welcome to the H and L blog I never thought I’d create (oops)

Hello all, I’m Toni, and I’ve been lurking around all your Harry and Louis blogs for almost a year now. I got tumblr as like therapy and for sharing shit with my bestie, but then H’s pink album came out and I was like… let’s tumblr Harry Styles!! (Terrible idea. Don’t recommend.) I wanna tell you all my story and officially put in my bid to join your community, a place that has come to mean so, so much to me in the past year. (This is a bit of a novel I apologize)

I’d never payed any attention to 1D; I’m slightly younger than Louis, so. Anyways last year found me with a chronic medical condition threatening to stymy my career, months of painful PT, and a real depressive, suicidal funk. Into this waltzed an episode of the Late Late Show hosted by a certain boy from Cheshire. I fell in love with his album. I knew nothing about him but he had this… spirit. This freedom. He inspired me to be myself like nothing else had. I started wearing the clothes I’d always wanted to, letting myself just BE who I’d always been… and you guessed it, turns out I’m hella not strait. I have this beautiful, wonderful fandom to thank for helping me realize this; that my ‘feminine’ taste in men? My jealousy over other girls was actually desire? Obviously this goes beyond H and L because you all helped me figure out who I am. All your personal anecdotes and LGBTQ history and stories about coming out yourselves—this fandom frankly changed my life. Because of H and L I’ve kept going, kept growing, gotten to kiss a girl… it’s been great guys. Thank you.

So, as fate would have it, everything pretty major in my life has happened on the 28th. My birth, my parents’ wedding, getting my dog, etc. Its like our family date. So I was doomed to be a Larry is what I’m saying. (I kid) Like I said, bad idea to tumblr Harry Styles. For weeks I thought he was a player and yet, in every clip I saw of him, he was so respectful of women. I figured, okay he has lots of sex. Seems a great person though. And THEN! I saw people hating on this oddly titled group called “larries” and I was like, wtf. Freddieismyqueen ensued and I was, honestly? Shocked. It took me some more weeks to actually decide what I thought. I poured over evidence like Sherlock on coke, thwarted by antis saying I, thinking two boys were in love, was a terrible dumb and otherwise gross person. Yet I persisted. I came out the other side of my tumblr immersion a hard core believer in their love and their not straitness. I came out the other side absolutely in LOVE with Louis, possibly the kindest and most gentle and sweet human to ever human? And of course still adoring Harry. But also the precious creature that is Zane? The loyal and kind and huggable Liam? The happy little chipmunk Niall? Such wonderful musical and celebrity additions to my life.

My point being, I’m here now, and no use denying that H and L blong I promised I’d NEVER make is like, now a thing I want. But also I wanted to give something back to you all while adoring all the boys and their music! I’m a pretty good writer, I’m quite good at art, and I’m actually a professional musician. I humbly offer my contributions to this fandom and hopefully, I can be as friendly and lovely and helpful to any of you as you’ve been to me.

So here’s to love, to Harry, to Louis, to the boys, to family, to fandom, to living life inspired by our favorite artists and putting beauty back into our world, and into ourselves.

[kiaronna]

codenamecesare replied to your post: yo hmu with some of that good shit ongoing fics

maybe they want recs for good ongoing fics?

OH POSSIBLY

Wow okay, sorry for being self-absorbed, friends. SORRY I CAN DO THAT

Warning: I have been reading less lately, and have also been reading some other fandoms (BNHA *cough*)

Here’s a couple fics (most of which I did not actually manage to get to the end of, but which I have enjoyed thus far). PLEASE READ THEM. I won’t be mentioning popular fics I’m following that I think most people already know about. Please be sure to read the tags yourself, because while I mostly write painfully vanilla PG content, it’s not always what I read, mmkay. 

THIS ONE: Undiscovered Country. Do it for yourself and your future. I finally started this.

1. without fear, without metaphor:  Yuuri was never one to use more words than necessary. Underutilized it, even, his family and friends would remark. Still, there was a certain relief that came with easy communication. Then he started wanting to use words for more. He even ran his mouth quite a few times in the past months, much to his embarrassment. And he quietly admitted to himself that it came with the sudden barrage of Viktor Nikiforov into what he expected to be peaceful life and probable retirement in his hometown.

2. Not Cricket:  Victor had wanted to be the Japanese competitor's dance partner, and he could because he didn't have one. Victor had also wanted to be Katsuki Yuuri's coach, and he could because Katsuki didn't have one of those either.Now Victor wanted to be Yuuri's boyfriend- except Yuuri already seemed to have one of those.---Basically, Victor thinks Phichit is Yuuri's boyfriend and is ridiculously jealous.

3. blood is thicker than: “You might be Yuri’s biological parent, Mr. Nikiforov. But I’m his father. If Yuri wants to go with you, that’s one thing,” Yuuri Katsuki’s voice flows quiet and dangerous into the room “but if he doesn’t, don’t think that you’re taking my child away from home,”Or: Victor Nikiforov finds out he has a son. He wants full custody.Katsuki Yuuri isn't going to give up his child that easily.Or: Victor and Yuuri fight a custody battle for Yurio. Shit happens.Or: Yuri Plisetsky starts with one parent, and ends up with two.

4. before it burns me numb: “What do you mean, you had a crush on me?” Yuuri asks. “We’d never even met before the Grand Prix Final last year.” Following their engagement, Victor tells Yuuri the story of how he met, fell for, and pined after Japan's Ace. Not necessarily in that order. An Ep10 coda... with a twist.

If you think Viktor having had a crush on Yuuri for a long time would satisfy all your Viktuuri needs, you’d be right.

5. Sixty Impossible Things: Two weeks after his failure at Sochi, Yuuri receives a text from a mysterious number asking why the fuck he’s ignoring Viktor. So begins Yuri Plisetsky’s all out campaign to get Yuuri to fucking finally text Viktor and end his torment of watching Viktor pine, and so begins Yuuri's descent into a wonderland of texting his idol, meeting his #1 fan(s), and slowly rebuilding his life with a little help from his friends.

*swoony swoon* And some quality Yurio&Yuuri frandship

6. boy next door: “Hi, welcome to the Green Bean,” Yuuri says, in the way that’s become something of a joke between them. “What can I get for you today?”In which Viktor buys way too much coffee from the cute barista at the coffeeshop on the corner, and Yuuri has a terrible crush that Viktor never, ever needs to know about, and somehow it all works out in the end.

Cute A/B/O coffeeshop!

7. offer me (that Deathless Death): It was the curse he and his family were fated to: Death would come for him the moment he turned eighteen, and he could only hope the flimsy wards passed down through the generations would protect him. But Death always won eventually, Death would snatch him up as he had all of his ancestors.But somehow he wasn't what Yuuri had expected. He was a constant presence in his life, barely there. A vigilant spectator to his burgeoning skating career, a gray haired man with a soft expression who found him again and again, waiting for him to let his guard down, but becoming something more, over time."Don't be careless," his sister told him, but they were all careless, in the end.

THE SUMMARY IS LIKE A TRIP ALL BY ITSELF OKAY

8. Lullaby of Birdland: In another world, their story might have started with ‘Hi there’, or ‘Lovely sky tonight’, or ‘Hello, stranger’. Or perhaps something less cliché, something like: ‘A commemorative photo? Sure thing!’But in this one, it starts with an electric blue cocktail, the taste of smoke in the air. And: “You have really talented, um. Fingers.”

I literally only listen to the jazz music I do because of this fic

9. The Long Way Round:  In the wake of tragedy and facing change to come, Yuuri and Victor make the ten thousand kilometre journey from Saint Petersburg home to Hasetsu the old fashioned way- on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing.

I already knew this would be good because sixpences, but it’s so tragically beautiful

10. Nuclear Hearts Club: Being seventeen and chronically confused isn't always a walk in the park - especially when you've been crushing on your brother's best friend since you were nine. You'd be crazy not to. Victor's the best thing to happen to the world since sliced bread.(Join Yuuri Katsuki on this pine-fueled high school adventure full of teen angst and astronomical fuckery.)

Nothing makes me feel things and cry over prose like butterbeerbitch. I saw there’s a new one-shot too, check that one out!

11. Life Unwoven: Five-Time Consecutive Grand Prix Final Winner Katsuki Yuuri meets Five-Time Consecutive Grand Prix Final Winner Victor Nikiforov.or,In which things are tangled, and untangled, and tangled again. And Victor will always be there to save Yuuri.

*sigh*

12. Human by Choice: When the body of emerging indie director Emil Nekola washes up near the small Oregon town of Quad Axels, FBI Special Agent Yuuri Katsuki is called in to investigate. But as he uncovers more and more of the town's dark secrets, he realises that there are bigger forces at play than previously suspected.After all, still waters run deep, and when you are haunted by your past, you will see ghosts at every turn.

OH HECK YEAH

Archiveofourown writers spookyfoot, xyloophones, mhalachai, and opalish are almost always writing little one-shots, along with... so many other amazing writers, so be sure to check them out for not WIPs but a pretty constant stream of fic.

[saligiare]

TAG 10 PEOPLE YOU WANT TO KNOW BETTER.

TAGGED  BY:  @desertgourd TAGGING: @siinfulpride, @inthe-goldenafternoon, @emyliabernstein, @willowwithdragonheartstring and whoever wants to do the thing

NAME:  Tak BIRTHDAY:  June 8 ZODIAC:  Gemini HEIGHT:  172 cm SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  Asexual FAVORITE COLOR:  all shades of purple but mostly blackberry FAVORITE BOOK(S):  Child Thief by Brom, Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard, The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers FAVORITE ARTIST/BANDS:  Miyavi, Wise Guys, Voltaire, Poets of the Fall, Oonagh, Steam Powered Giraffe LAST MOVIE I WATCHED:  Inception HOGWARTS HOUSE:  Ravenclaw all the way RANDOM FACT:  I have a chronic illness of my eyes which nobody has ever really figured out. I’ve spent half my life with different eye doctors and specialists and have to go to the check up every three/four weeks. What annoys me about it the most though is my inability to wear coloured contact lenses because of it. And nope, I don’t need or have any glasses. WHEN DID I CREATE MY BLOG?  January 2014 DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BLOGS? Yeah, including two sideblogs that are exclusively reserved for AU threads and our rarely used college AU. Also this guy, who I really wished would get more attention and love because he’s my eternal son and a cinnamon roll to end all cinnamon rolls. Then two other loosely fandom related characters that I used to rp for years before I moved onto the demon blog. It is mostly inactive but I could easily get back into it. Ah, and my personal. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO GET A TUMBLR?  After I introduced a friend of mine to a certain fandom she started to rp within it on Chatzy, where I soon joined her. She left for tumblr though and thus I followed close behind as well. It’s all Lani’s fault, essentially. DO YOU GET ASKS ON A DAILY BASIS?  Nope. I get some every once in a while but not very often. There have been an unusual amount lately tho. I wouldn’t mind keeping that up, I like asks. uvu WHY DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR URL?  I wanted to change my old one since it was sort of plump and boring. Then I stumbled across the little funfact that the first letters of the seven sins combined create the word S(uperbia), A(cedia), G(ula), I(invidia), L(uxuria), I(ra), A(varitia). Apparently the acronym saligia was used in the Middle Ages to describe the seven sins. Adding the suffix -re would turn it into a verb, meaning “to sin” or “to commit a deadly sin”. I thought that’s pretty elegant for an URL so I picked it. BONUS FACT: Next to tumblr rping I also really enjoy playing Dungeons&Dragons with my friends and attending Larp Events all over the year.