#I don’t usually post his pics because he has so many fans on here but
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harocat · 1 month ago
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Dylan Wang for Tencent Video All Star Night 2024
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writing-for-life · 1 year ago
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Sandman Master Post and Intro
Hi, I’m so glad you’re here! This started out as a small writing blog but has developed a horrifying (^jk) life of its own over the past two years, so it was about time I just faced the facts:
A Sandman Blog it is!
I organised the links and tags to all my Sandman stuff for you to make it easier to find your way around.
I love getting asks, about analysis, about my fics, prompts or generally just to chat, so see this as an encouragement to slide into my inbox…
[For quick reference:]
[The Ultimate Sandman Character Tag Library]
[The Women of the Sandman Tag Library]
[Sandman Comics: Original Artists Library]
[Sandman Reread (Comics)]
[Sandman Rewatch (Netflix)]
[Sandman S2 News, Casting and Speculation]
[Sandman Reference: How to Collect the Comics, Companion Books, Annotations/Reference Literature etc]
[Sandman Movie Concept Art by Jill Thompson & John Watkiss]
[In Light of Recent Allegations]
Ordered by topics (recommended):
Sandman Meta-Analysis: My literary/conceptual/psychological analyses. I have also written some musical and art metas. You will find further links via all three.
The Sandman Book Club Community: Just follow the link if you’d like to join.
Sandman Fics & Poems: My own work, mostly m/f and f/f canon pairings and OCs, both long fics and shorter works.
I’m also Dream’s Therapist. I think we all agree he needs one.
Sandman Art (general tag that contains all art posts, from fan-art to gif-sets. Separate tag for official Sandman artists. Plus the very few pieces of my own art I’ve ever posted on here).
Sandman March Mania was an event we specifically ran for the comics art lovers, so check it out.
Sparkle Content Curation (a not-quite-serious collection of Dream/Morpheus thirst-trap fan-art and unhinged posts). Please also peruse the tags #contraceptive sparkles, #glitter herpes and #murphy and his cool hat (yes, I am sort of responsible for the #muhulhu tag on here) if this hell-site has left you in a state of being desperate for laughs
A Little Intro…
…and why this blog will keep on existing
Once there was a girl with so many words, so many images, so many songs in her head that had no place to go. So she decided some of them will just go here…
Well, that sounds a bit contrived, but it’s not entirely untrue. Apart from the “girl”-part, because I’m at the younger end of Gen X. Or the “no place to go”-part, because some of my work actually *did* go places. Just not the stuff I decided to put on here…
Which is mostly Sandman stuff right now, let’s be honest (I fell in love with it when I was 16, and it still has a tight grip on me three decades later). And the fact that my blog a wild mix between my metas, my fanfic and a bit of my doodling already shows the pull in different directions I have experienced for most of my life:
I guess I’m just a multi-hyphenate who can’t make up her mind what she wants to do with her life, so she tries to do it all and ends up burned out half of the time.
Somewhere along the way, I managed to publish a few novels under a pen name, and only a select few people know about it. And I intend to keep it that way.
I used to draw much more (mostly pencil and ink), but between working and having a family, something had to give, and if I have to choose, writing always comes first. But I doodle and experiment a lot in Procreate, and it usually helps me when I procrastinate on my writing. I drop the odd drawing in here (like my profile pic), but I don’t see myself as a fine artist, and I’m in perpetual awe of the talent I see on here.
This is just an account for unapologetically being me, with all my hyperfixations—and undoubtedly some pointless shitposts just for fun…
In light of recent happenings, I explained my personal stance and, by extension, why this blog will keep on existing.
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jordanianprincesses · 1 year ago
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Hey long time ,
So it looks like the official honeymoon period is over and the JRF is at work, looks like you’ll be getting more content lol. I saw the pics of them in DC.
Anyways I saw a confession on RC and someone is commenting on Rajwa’s features and …. I just thought that particular thought didn’t need to be shared and so publicly. We can’t respond there but I thought I could bring it to you? There is a particular “royal” I don’t like and I’m sure we all have “someone”, (some celebrity or whoever that we don’t like)but I don’t see the reason in going on about her body especially when she provides so many questionable actions.
In Rajwas case I would bet that the person who submitted that is western like myself and is just not used to looking at Arab features or something of the sort. It goes back to when people were talking about the photoshop and contour that makes her look a little “off”.I just brush it off and think “she’s new” the more people see her face and she set her “look” the more “normal”. Everyone has angles that works for them, and we get to hide behind screen names and avatars. And if she changes anything, then she’ll be cursed for it.
I’m surprised that this “bothered” me. 🤷🏾‍♀️ Usually I can ignore it. This could’ve been an honest observation by Anon but it almost never is in these cases. I think jealousy plays a part for sure. In my case all these royals and aristos have something in common that I envy; MONEY. They have so much they don’t have to think about bills. 😅 Forget their relationship because as American pop culture saw this year EVERYONE is getting divorced. I coincidentally ran into a post the other day that showed King Hussaine was married to his first wife(?) who was an architect for a grand total of 2 years. (Just saying).
H&R are the only two heirs or prominent royals in their age group right? Early 30’s? So they’re gonna hold this spotlight for a while I guess it just depends on how the JRF (namely Rania who’s already clapping back on people) handles it.
Thanks for holding a space for my little Ted Talk Rant ✌🏾
Helllllllooooo
Haha finally and hopefully I'll get more content 🙏
I hate it when people comment on royals physical appearances in general. Honestly Rajwa's features aren't weird but she looks prettier from specific angles. That anon tried to tell his opinion politely tbh,
still it was kinda weird to say Rajwa's features are "weird" haha. Unfortunately often time, ppl are subjective and biased when they criticize public figures.
One thing's for sure she won't get the whole world to like her. And as u said if she changes anything about her, she'll be cursed for it ! Some people said she had fillers for Iman's wedding and they started to criticize her. For sure jealousy played a part of the hate Rajwa's facing by some ppl.
Oh money! Lol wish that I had a life quite similar to Rajwa's tbh. Hhhh
Yes I noticed the same about celebrities getting divorced this year ( Natalie Portman, Joe Jonas,... ) I lost faith in love 😔
Yes princess Dina was King Hussein's wife for two years , it wasn't a love marriage though.
Yes they're the only royal couple in their early 30's however I can already see Hashem stealing the spotlight. He's already got thousands of fan girls !
You're always welcome here 🤍
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drawnaghht · 2 years ago
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tag guide anyone? + differentiating between usagis (thinkpiece)
I'm really just curious now if something like a "tagging guide" would help? If you would like this, or know if anyone else has posted something like this, sound off in the comments or like/reblog to agree ^^ 
I posted a poll about this on twt and it looks like 13 so far really want one, so I’m putting a lil test post around here too. I also found while researching for this post that apparently on tumblr, the first 20 tags show up in search! so I guess they changed that from 5 to 20 at some point. huh. that’s a bit more helpful than just 5 tags!
I’ve noticed sometimes people have no idea what to tag with a show like Usagi Chronicles that is less than 2 years old and is based on existing IP, but also that ppl use a lot of tags in general, perhaps confused about what is the “main tag” or most used tag for a character in rottmnt for example. So I started writing a little tag guide, which I’ll post the draft of at the bottom this thinkpiece. The main issue around tumblr seems to be excessive mis-tagging or multi-tagging i.e when a character isn’t there. I think I’ve seen this in some other fandoms too (primarily bigger fandmos), but I’m not gonna get too deep into it. You can skip to “tagging guide” via CTRL+F to search it on the page. I’ve also included a little character “separator” part with graphics, cuz it seems some are having trouble seeing the characters differently from fanart alone. I thought it would help to post more of the “source” materials ^^
Also if you have problems differentiating between the two in general…aside from both being white long-eared rabbits they are almost as different as night and day, at least on the surface ^^;; Here is a helpful post by Freakova, about how to tell the difference between Miyamoto Usagi and Yuichi Usagi, ancestor and descendant respectively: 
https://freakova.tumblr.com/post/707461151549702144/i-made-this-for-my-besties-to-help-explain-the
But I kinda get it! Especially if characters are intentionally obfuscated a bit (e.g. there are characters in the show who can’t tell between Miyamoto and Yuichi Usagi, but it is mostly used as plot hook/humor). But they have different names and characteristics and slightly differing fanbases on a site like tumblr, so separating them in tags is helpful. I think part of it also comes from the name confusion, but I already wrote a post about that. Imo, if you have your own design already and it looks like neither of the two characters, you can just use “Rise Usagi” or “rottmnt Usagi” or other variations as tags, those are popular and used enough already that you don’t need to use the main character tags ^^
Personally, I would only like to see Yuichi Usagi in his own tags when it applies (he’s in the pic/fic), but if he’s not, well, what are you doing tagging him there?
I also get that some newer/younger TMNT fans apparently didn’t know the Usagi characters are from their own franchise for a short while last year (but ppl probably learned, right? I’ve literally only seen posts/tweets asking what the series is abt and unrelated posts exasperated that ppl don’t know) but visually they’re quite distinct, even if they are all white rabbits. I’ll post these comparisons just so I can use the tags properly and not piss off anyone else.
We have the original Usagi and his 1000-years later descendant.
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Stan Sakai based Miyamoto Usagi largely on his childhood inspiration of samurai films, mainly “Samurai Trilogy” starring Mifune Toshiro playing Miyamoto Musashi, a real-life samurai who inspired many other films and adaptations. You can hear more about how Stan created Usagi here in this Portland Art Museum video where he explains and draws his Usagi. The story usually goes that he drew a rabbit with a chonmage (the edo-period top-knot) and suddenly, Usagi was born.
In the show he has a slightly older-looking design? but in the comics his look varies slightly because the series has been going for 40 years and the character has developed over the pages. so he can look slightly different cover to cover, page to page, but mostly it’s all him, the same character, just different situations, life periods and emotions. So he can look different in official material depending which publication period you start reading from, but mostly the same. 
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Then we have both the Miyamoto Usagi’s in different animated mediums,
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And Yuichi in different media (show itself in 3D and 2D and merch by Stan)
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And then there’s also Jotaro (very important Usagi Yojimbo character introduced early on/vol 1) and Yamamoto Yukichi(introduced in later stories/vol 4), who I think people aren’t mixing up with any of the previous rabbits yet, but who knows, i don’t look through absolutely all the tags myself after all and tumblr seems to have a problem of not showing much older posts in the public tag search anymore, so I can’t find older posts I used to see anymore ^^;
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More thoughts on tagging + being a fan under cut. 
This … is not really a vent or analysis post, I can't get that upset about it myself. with real life worries etc - fandom is supposed to be a fun outlet for creativity, at least for me. So I try not to feel anything about it. But tagging has always seemed fairly straight-forward to me and it’s mostly to organize a blog/find other people with similar interests. Writing non-structured non-essays is basically how I interact with a piece of media when I feel like fanart is not enough. And because tumblr posts now apparently Do Not HAve Limits, this is a better alternative to tag rambles.
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So when I saw the post about the Miyamoto Usagi tag I remembered that this was why I didn’t use the “follow tag” feature + the “your tags” tab as much myself (aside from not having it before and not being used to it on tumblr). Because usually with bigger fandoms, people do mis-tag or tag their other shows/fandoms into it without including the main character, this happens on occasion because there are a lot of people using the tag. I also don’t follow the Leosagi tag anymore for the same reason, that people can’t seem to differentiate between the characters and it becomes hard to tell what they want to post or which character they are talking about/drawing ^^;
As pointed out by Tamalinvonpineapple's post about it, people mis-tag Yuichi Usagi and Miyamoto Usagi and that’s a problem for people who would like to see just one of those characters but not mis-tagged as the other. I’m not gonna assume these are made in bad faith e.g. intentionally to piss off other fans, cuz there can be so many different reasons for people doing this. This post is also not gonna get into ship tags much because that is a contentious topic and tbh, left for a separate thinkpiece (I also already wrote smth abt tags for myself).
I tried to find out more possible reasons for mistagging in general or what the general consensus on tumblr is about tagging but it seems (or we can assume) it is a “bad practice” from how social media sites have given a slightly different use for tags tiktok/instagram/twitter - “tag for reach” - so like those social media accounts for companies that spam other tags. I do see this in anime/manga fandoms occasionally. Not just for the different spellings of characters (e.g, when a dub would give the character a new name; japanese vs western way of writing names) but specifically when 1 character is the only one there and the tags then have 30 other characters listed as well so the post/media would show up in search. But I wonder where this habit is from? Aren’t people curious to see what other tags their character/show have? I remember that on sites like blogger, we only tagged so that we could find things later, so people often made their own custom tags, i.e. "my work on the show" or "midnight doodlies". if a show got tagged, for example TMNT or Usagi, it would probably get 1-word/1-phrase tag (i.e. “turtles” “turtlies” “mutant turtles”) or just the series title tag - either the abbreviation or full name of a series/comic/cartoon depending on content. When it comes to tumblr tags, I remember getting annoyed at NOTPs permeating the tags as well. Or just posts about other seriesM multi-crossovers where your blorbo is only there to die, but then is still tagged after that; edits that have no relation to the character but they share a name or tag for whatever reason and you keep seeing these unrelated posts in the tags. I’ve seen more than enough from almost any of the fandom tags I’ve visited on tumblr. So I get how annoying mistagging itself can be.
But basically in regards to tags on tumblr itself, it seems people misuse them mainly because they don't know or don't like the tags for the other shows. Folks also like to see their posts get to as many people as possible, which I understand, I do the same on instagram, cuz that’s what I’ve learned by other artists example. Seems to make sense that more tags = more views. On tumblr, this sort of doesn’t always work this way. I could post a drawing from a popular cartoon and get maybe 5 notes total in 12 years, while a scribble I deemed too ugly to tag properly might get 54 notes on it’s first day. It’s almost like a Murphy’s Law of Tumblr that what you expect to do well, doesn’t. It’s just how it is here and I’m so used to it, it feels weird to complain about it, even on other sites with actual algorhitms and working apps etc.
Well, as a fan of the Usagi Chronicles show, perhaps what makes me more sad is that this has had the adverse effect of older TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo fans being so angry that they can’t stand the show/character itself now, even if they already disliked it before seeing other fans post about it. Which is just plain sad because some people even make up stuff about it just to discredit it as a show that Stan Sakai worked on. I understand that people have different reasons to dislike the show, most probably valid, but they also assume many things about it, to the point of stating them as fact when the opposite is true. I have… a different post about it. In general, we can say that being online seems to be the common thread between fans annoyed at fans.
In some ways, what’s even sadder however is an empty or unactive tag. Imagine that the last post you saw in that tag is still the one from 2013 you made yourself. It’s a bit annoying seeing people mistag or post unrelated fanart in it but hey, maybe this means they also read the tag? A chance to educate or get more views on your own fandom? Just a chance for communication? I know that doesn’t seem very appealing when those same fans are the ones mis-using the tag, but it just seems better than something completely empty. Of course, this is not a problem for TMNT fandoms perhaps, but from my experience in smaller fandoms, or being a fan of smaller/less popular media. And with how much there is mainly ship-related posts in almost all the Usagi Chronicles tags, this seems to be a matching experience I’ve been having so far in the Usagi tags. The comic series tag itself is also often full of other things, or only ship things, or sometimes only TMNT things for a short bit, but overall, I guess at least people use it?? But I would still like it that Samurai Rabbit, SRTUC, etc stuff gets tagged with those tags so I can actually find it instead of combing through multiple tags at a time just to see something new. While the newer “Your tags” feature on tumblr makes this a bit easier, I can see the easy annoyance at when people tag a character but then don’t include the character. and to add insult to injury, they tag a different character, but without acknowleding the first character at all.
But this is now like a joint fandom for a crossover for two franchises which have had crossovers before and now… there’s sort of a joint fandom? Sort of? So because it’s a bit bigger, it feels nice when other fans are considerate of small things like tagging. Now, on the whole, while many do still mistag and the leosagi tag is still mainly yuichi x leo for many, I’ve also seen in my own tagscrambles that not as many do this as much anymore, or going through a tag in time, the newer stuff seems to do this less. So like I’ve written in previous posts, my honest hope is just that fandom will adapt and grow into healthier online habits. Still, there are a few other things in the tags that I just can’t help but notice each time. it’s also why I don’t bother too much with repeat-viewing tags unless I’m looking for something specific.
It often feels like people just make up their own versions of any Usagi and/or write off the show as “too bad to watch”. And. idk, this just makes me feel sad about it because as mentioned above, I’ve seen it before in other smaller fandoms I’m in. In transformative works, it’s fairly normal that people make their own versions of a show or it’s characters, because that’s something fun to do with fanart and fic. But to openly hate a character? idk man, just feels weird to me personally. Like I don’t have the energy for hatedom. I know my little sibling really gets into hating one series that really disappointed her as a viewer, but even she now says that it’s an odd way to spend time, when she could be making fanart of something she likes instead. And I get that. I also spent my earlier non-internet days being more hateful of new media I disliked at the start, and while expressing that isn’t always bad (it’s just an iopinion), it became weirdly detrimental to me actually enjoying stuff in my tweens. Everything me and my friends and their friends ever talked about, was related to somehow being more above others or knowing better than others, being hateful of anything new or popular. And without quite realizing it right away, that was really tiring. Even if I spent time on things I did like, hobbies I enjoyed, that hate and childhood snobbishness sorta simmered there. I remember that for me it mainly came from “oh, I want to be a real animator one day, I should act like a real profesional adult and always be critical of the media I view, because that’s how I see adults treat real serious film.” Fast-forward 15 years, I’ve been through making comics as a tween, making fanart as a teen, I’ve been making a lot of different kinds of “cartoon art” in general as well as some actual art education, thinking, maybe I want to have some more general art schooling too. Later in my mid-twenties, I met someone with this similar mindset to my childhood self, who at first I got along with. We laughed at cartoons we didn’t like and made fun of the bad endings of those we did. At some point, I listened to them talking about getting to visit a big animation festival. And how they completely unironically expressed their hate directly at a leading crew member of a cartoon they didn’t like. And then I realized like. Wait a fucking minute. I don’t wanna act like this to other people! And this is why I don’t really “shoot the shit” about cartoons I don’t like as publicly anymore as I maybe once would have online on tumblr etc. Like I just don’t get it anymore. At most I’ll write down my thoughts somewhere private or to friends and try to understand why I don’t like the thing. And if it’s a very simple dislike, I just don’t spend time on it.
So like, I don’t get the hate the show (SRTUC) and character(Yuichi Usagi) get. Like I can understand sort of where people are coming from. but I don’t get why they gotta publicly tag it, announce it, or put it in the reblogged tags sometimes. the og poster sees that after all? so that’s like a bigger thought for me when it comes to tags.
I believe people can learn to be nice about a show they don’t like, but if they start to feel annoyed at fandom parts of the web they see online, they also start to feel hate toward a specific show, even if the show or thing itself might not be as bad. Example - I have this toward Star Wars for example, it’s a big fandom. I feel indifferent now, but in my youth, I found it annoying that everyone was talking about it as if it was the best thing ever, when it was spoiled for most of my childhood for me, and also felt like a generic movie series after all that. Something growing in popularity, or being really popular in a niche fandom can make ppl dislike it in general and that’s fairly ordinary as fandoms go. Often, people just don’t like a popular thing. Just think of series of like GoT/ASoIaF or HP. But then again those go down the cultural road so easily, I suppose in countries where western-media is really popular/common, it becomes like a cultural osmosis and fans can assume *everyone* likes it, even if not everyone does. I’m thinking about the fresh 30+ dads from 10 years ago I read about who only interacted with their kids through their own nerd interests. Pokemon is such a culturally permeated thing, it’s everywhere and everyone seems to assume everyone has played it or at least knows about it, even if at some point, some of us were big fans of Digimon instead, or some don’t like it at all. At some point, my dad gifted me a Harry Potter book, even though I (non-vocally) disliked it, but it was in the cultural osmosis here so strongly that it was everywhere and he just assumed I was into it (bless his heart, he genuinely didn’t know). HP was something that I initially disliked because it was so popular, but the idea of a “basic magic premise, but extended” seemed interesting, and it was required reading in my middle school, so at 11, I went to see the movie and thought, alright, maybe I’ll give it a chance. But reading the book I found things that didn’t make sense to me, that didn’t match what seemed like the themes of the book (the whole slave freedom plot for example) so I always sort of kept it at arms-length - not quite getting into it, but also not turning it away if I found anything, not saying anything upsetting to people who were fans of it. Everyone at my school read it though to varying degrees, or at least everyone knew things about it even if they weren’t fans or weren’t invested at all. (This was all before we knew JKR is a vocal TERF, so now I feel a bit validated in my dislike, even if I feel sad for the fans who got something positive out of the series).
So point being, fandom can have different types of people in it. A type of media will often accrue a specific type of fan and sometimes it won’t match what the show itself puts out. E.g. fans acting in ways that go squarely against what the media talks about (Steven Universe is a popular show with many fans that comes to mind), or a show having an unexpected viewership next to it’s intended demographic (us 90s kids still being cartoon fans in our late 20s/30s/early 40s). It’s slightly unpredictable in a general way. 
Of course, TMNT fandom is a bit different from those bigger properties because it was an indie comic made in the 80s that was so different and off-the-wall indie for a comicbook, it sold out and gave its creators Eastman and Laird a hefty legacy, lasting careers and actual money. Good for them! Personally I think it’s thanks to how genuinely creative and collaborative their work was then. Like Usagi Yojimbo, it’s an old comicbook/franchise now, so the “fandom” as such differs from generation to generation, from childhood to childhood. I met the turtles for the first time with the 87 series in the early 90s, then the next time w the 2003 series, which i initially hated as that angry, cartoon-critical tween, but was surprised at how much it seemed to take from the comics. I think I was initially angry about it for different reasons, mainly, “why is it so serious? why are the jokes so lame?” and also because I had invested so much emotionally into the idea of seeing something as good as the 80s cartoon again... but then found that it grew on me and now 20 years later I can look at it with nostalgia. As a result, my reaction to the 2012 series was mostly “wow another TMNT cartoon?” and “huh it looks interesting” and “oh I’ve seen this person work on another cartoon before”. My little sibling on the other hand only saw the 2003 cartoon and their reaction the the 2012 adaptation was “Wow, THEY’RE FINALLY TEENS” because as kids, we thought the 2003 TMNT looked and sounded “too much like boring adults”. But from many online fanspaces back then a lot of the more vocal reactions was around “THE 3D IS SO UGLY” and “WHY ARE THEY SO YOUNG”. You’ve probably heard similar sentiments of various degrees if you’ve been a fan or viewer of any TMNT cartoon. 
Usagi Yojimbo is unique in this sense because Stan Sakai has been the only one drawing and writing the comicbook for 40 years. Some of the visual style and writing tone change from book to book, but it’s gradual because Stan has changed as an artist and writer too. If you look at any comic series like this, it’s actually a natural part of many comics i.e. webcomics used to be a prominent example of this, as the creators were often complete novices at the beginning and graduated to a more consistent style. But even from a surface level view, lets say, reading other people’s reviews, you can see that people really enjoy Usagi Yojimbo for how consistent it is with it’s treatment of its characters, story and Edo-period culture. Stan Sakai really does his research and puts respect back into fiction inspired by samurai. Even though guides will often tell you that you can jump into the series from any point in the series, there’s just something really consistent about it as a whole. Sakai gets to do whatver he wants with his books and what he does seems to be thought-out usually. Even if the early animated adaptations were a bit incorrect, comic readers in general have a lot of respect for Stan and his work. My favourite part about this all is how Usagi Yojimbo is actually used to teach about japanese culture in a college course in the US.
Because both TMNT and UY are originally creator-owned comics (still so with UY regardless of publisher or adaptations but not so much TMNT as Viacom bought the rights in 2009), perhaps the general fan experience is more similar to original comics fandoms in Japan. Although whether a series is creator-owned varies from series to series, the manga and magazines culture in Japan seems wholly different from what US comicbooks were in the 80s and even what they still are now in that regard. Because a series will more often be written and illustrated by the same creator/artist/team, there are less variations and book-to-book differences both visually and tonally. In the US, a comicbook series can start with an artist-writer team, but then switch if the editorial decides some change is needed. This is something that often affects consistency and a story or character’s canon eventually and in a convoluted way, it’s the reason why we got “alternate earths” and “multiverse crossovers”. Which, while fun, make american comicbooks hard to read for some newer readers. Even with TMNT, once Eastman and Laird started having less time to make the comics and their other problems, it led into breaking off their creative partnership and never speaking again. But they had to continue the comic. If before the feud, they would just have fun passing the pages between each other, now they actually  so they wrote it he series became different based on who was writing it. One more sci-fi leaning and one more martial-arts and mysticism leaning. You can see this difference in the TMNT animated adaptations as well. The 2003 series namely is more based on Laird’s storylines in the comics and he was also consultant on the series. After the 2009 sale of Mirage to Viacom, we get the 2012 series, where Eastman acts as consultant, so it’s more heavy on his ideas of what the TMNT are. In 2019, the documentary series “Toys that made us” brought them together for the first time in almost 2 decades. And then we fans got to have The Last Ronin, a collaboration between the two again.
(What I’ve paraphrased here is mostly based on this video overview of how the comic became a franchise “How did a violent indie comic become a $15,000,000,000 franchise?” by matttt if you’re interested in seeing and hearing a more picturesque summary of this)
So getting back to fandom, because it’s mostly been one comicbook series, both the more avid and casual UY comics fans might not be used to there being adaptations of Stan’s Usagi. Yes, even with the visual examples I brought up above, perhaps some simply haven’t seen the animated adaptations because these are still marketed “for kids”. This is like the only reason I can think of that people who are 30+ adults, go online to complain about the Chronicles series online, even though it’s obviously for kids, meaning they probably didn’t even watch it. Folks are “surprised” Stan “let Netflix ruin his series” etc - even if it’s explicitly in a new futuristic setting to avoid affecting the comics canon. It will be interesting to know how people react when or if Sakai puts out his “Kagemusha” anthology, where the idea is about different creators telling different Usagi stories.
Even TMNT fans, many of whom don’t know Usagi beyond the animated adaptations, might jump in with this similar mindset of “different = bad”. Maybe there’s a manga/anime adaptation out there with the fans having similar concerns about their adaptations. Sailor Moon comes to mind, but as always, people’s grievances with an adaptation may have good reasons underneath. But also I’ve personally never seen an avid Sailor Moon fans be as annoying as the casual Star Wars fan. It might also depend on the age and lifestyle of the fan. Someone who is a teacher or parent, maybe they’ve met more people, put more thought into it, might feel milder about new or different things vs someone who is used to going online to see people angry and enjoys getting into arguments.
If I start to think about it, I can get a similar reaction out of myself. It was hard to look at mid-00s fanart of Usagi because it always felt a bit “extreme” like fans changed things about Usagi to suit their own understanding or image of samurai, which was always more based on popular movies or anime rather than the comic. I think this is just a general thing about fanart over the times. I still balk at some fanart, either UY or SRTUC, if for example the sides of the clothes are opposite - right over left, for burials vs left over right, like the letter ‘y’ - because it just means the fanartist didn’t bother to look up even references. Most times people just don’t know about this sort of stuff, they might be anime fans or they might even be part of a different asian culture, but it it’s not something that’s taught, of course it won’t reflect in something like fanart. But then, it’ll just be something new to learn. To me it also speaks of a wider annoyance of people liking things only for the surface-level appeal.
Usagi Yojimbo I’ve noticed has much more of a fanbase than fandom. I know fanbase doesn’t get used much as a term these days as more and more media gets an active fandom rather than staying at a fanbasem but it’s a term I’d like to use in this case. “The Wilkes Beacon” in 2014 defines the difference so: “Not everything with a fanbase has a fandom, because a fandom is a group of committed fans who are always vocally interested in their “thing,” usually expressing that on a social website such as Tumblr. Just because you’re a fan doesn’t mean the fandom will accept you.” Indeed sometimes fandom feels almost like being in a separate part of the club, only for people in the know about it. The origin for fanbase is attributed to early 20th century baseball fans. The origin of fandom, most well-known as a portmanteau of fan + kingdom, is often attributed to the original Sherlock Holmes fans who actually gathered to mourn the character when Arthur Conan Doyle decided to kill him off (bless your hearts and souls, sometimes it feels like fandom has never changed) but also from early 20th century sports fans and 60s Trekkies, who saved their show. A lot of different sources give different origins and histories for these words and many will also equate them as synonymous.
My own experiences tell me that a fanbase is more general - any fans of a thing, whether they attend conventions, buy the media or no (i.e. Sherlock Holmes readers, sports fans) and will comprise the “base” of any activity - the larger number of fans that exist for a piece of media/sport/celebrity. A fandom will be the more “active” part, more interested in being connected with each other within that fanbase. Of course, to any other person outside of fans, both of these will be synonymous and a fan will look weird and fanatical regardless of how little they invest themselves into a media. But I’’m making this distinction to describe what I see as more casual and more active “fanbase as a whole”. Fanbase as a word feels more general, while Fandom sounds more specific. So as an example, the One Piece “fanbase” might feel large and more everywhere, like with pokemon or Sherlock Holmes the book, but the OP fandom can feel more active and particitative, like the .It’ll depend entirely on what way each person interacts with the media. Do you have friends who are also fans of the series? it’s like a fandom. You just watch it but don’t participate as much? You’re in the fanbase, but you might partake in fandom activities if you feel like it. You might be a more casual fan, but you might have more avid feelings about the series as well, but you’re not that interested in making fanworks or posts or reacting to other fans at all. A fandom might be big, but more ubiquitous, more silent and conversely, some fandoms may be small, but still very active and vocal. I’ve often theorized that this is because So UY online fandom sorta feels like the latter, but more under-the-radar. Small and active but also more silent and appreciative. With the previous “big fandoms” example, it’s also the juxtaposition between Old and New that comes into play. An old Spidey fan from the 70s might have become an official Spiderman fanartist, but they might not partake in all the fan stuff they used to anymore. Still a fan, but maybe the newer and younger “fandom” as such is just not appealing to them in the same way.
The larger or more advertised a TV series or book is, the larger and more annoying its fanbase in general. If a piece of media has less popularity, it will ergo have a smaller fanbase and sometimes no “active fandom” at all. So now with the Samurai Rabbit: the Usagi Chronicles TV show as an animated spinoff-adaptation, we have a similar problem that TMNT fans have been familiar with over the decades. Thanks to the show, there’s a more active, slightly younger fandom who want to connect over the series and maybe even read the comicbook, know more about the source and origins, they might want to even know how the show was made, make fanart or fic. So fans like any other, but just that the media they’re a fan of now, is still relatively new. Maybe these newer fans act or write differently online from how older fans are used to. Maybe they even treat the original source comic differently or just don’t know anything about it. In any case, new series and new fans will generally seem annoying because culturally that’s what we’ve started to associate some of fandom with. Otaku culture etc. So it and it’s fans might get the “new thing” treatment as mentioned above with the TMNT animated adaptations.
The difference here is that Stan Sakai has been wanting his own animated adaptation for a long time (just look at the Space Usagi pilot for proof) and while many suggested projects to him before, this one actually piqued his interest bc they did something new with the characters. You could say that what people don't like abt this series are some decisions resulting from this being a netflix cartoon for kids. the decision to set it in a near-future with a new younger for example, was made in the beginning by netflix and I haven’t found any articles yet that’s found a legit reason for why it stayed this way. My guess based on interviews with Stan and crew is that Stan found it interesting as a possible new way to get more readers to the comic. Something for the younger generation. Although many readers and even parents will attest that the comic is child-appropriate (and really, it is), the TV-Y7 ratings and so on exist for a reason. And while I would love for more western studios to get funding for more adult animation in general (I’m not from the US myself and animation such a large medium, the way that genres are explored or what gets made for adults vs kids feeks so different elsewhere), I think it’s good that the first full series based on UY is this “non-violent” (your mileage may vary). Because a lot of the more vocal adult fans of UY seem more focused on the violence vs what kids might get out of it. A popular quote from Sakai is “Once, a mother asked me, 'What is Usagi Yojimbo about?' and before I could answer, her son said, 'It’s about honor.'"   (Komai for JANM, 2011). Sometimes it seems like the “older adults” or the “more casual” fans of UY sort of don’t get it.
Even the naming of the series and character has reasons, which I’ve seen some Rise Leosagi shippers make their own reasons for. So the various hate from “older fans” I see about it is strange because all evidence points to the show having Sakai’s approval and his full involvement. Of course, I could also be wrong, but watching the series, it doesn’t feel to me like an “empty cashgrab” as one angry TMNT fan put it. It feels more like something made by other UY fans, those more familiar than I was at the time, with both Usagi Yojimbo lore as well as the culture and lore behind it. In their quest to properly honor the comic series they loved, crew put a lot research hours into making sure both edo and post-edo periods got to be part of their show. Like “trips to japan during a pandemic” type of research. The show is an interesting fusion of old and modern in futuristic setting and feels wholly unique as an experiment.
Another aspect of course is also the shipping parts of fandom. I can never quite get my head behind this “arguing about ships” because it just reminds me of my Grandma and her older sister fighting over their soap operas and who should get together with who. And alright, maybe this was fun for them...? I’ve never been that invested in this myself but it can be fun to have a pairing you root for in a show, when it’s just a bunch of connected ideas over the story, there really seems like a real genuine connection between the characters or if there’s a chance to connect with other fans over it. That’s kind of what fandom is for me in general, but with crossover ships, it’s like a strange and interesting combination of “oooh what interesting similarities and differences” and “lets find out” with fanworks. 
This is the main way I enjoy making crossovers in general work, even if I’ve never finished an actual fic (I’m more of an artist) and even if the works sometimes don’t go together (it’s like a fun challenge). I wonder sometimes if the SRTUC crew also imagined crossovers with TMNT? As in this fanart post on facebook by Samurai Rabbit character designer Andry R, I wonder what that could have been like. After all, if many of the crew are fans too, it just makes sense to think about that? it’s fun to think of crossovers after all! And since it’s fanwork, I personally don’t feel as obligated to make some of the quality as insanely good as I would have in my younger days. I want to enjoy the art making process too, so putting research and sketches into a piece is sometimes my own “enough”. So I don’t really care about views either because I know even now, tastes might still just be not geared toward something sketchier that I make.
Even so, despite the experience with online sites and social media people have in general, or other artists/fans encouraging to feel a bit less worried about socmedia algorhitms, it might be frustrating that posts are not as popular even if your idea feels great.
So connecting all of that fandom talk, I can only assume people mistag between a popular and non-popular series for similar reasons. As said earlier, fans might assume everyone prefers the popular thing and that it’s better to tag that popular/bigger/older thing. Because at least that So in our case, I’ve noticed more that ppl tag Yuichi Usagi with the Miyamoto Usagi tag. From the surface, it seems like people don’t know about the Yuichi tags/show or they just don’t like it for some other reason. Now Tumblr is more a “home of fandoms” than casual fans, as most of the user-generated content is entirely by people who get much more invested in a series than a casual fan. Similarly I’ll see people tag their TMNT 2012 inspired fandesigns as ROTTMNT as well, because that is simply seen as the popular fandom at the time ergo, more attention on your post.
Maybe a solution for the mis-tagging could be smth as simple as fandom outreach, something active to unite the different types of fans into using tags correctly, but of course, something more active and social might feel more unnatural, as most of us are more wall-flower than social butterfly - working off the assumption here that most fans are shy. I used to be pretty shy as a fan and now I’m more active and out-going in general in my adult years, but at the same time, doing something socially more active is still a scary thought in my brain so I can understand that it’s easier to just tag and hope it’s correct. Or easier to make ticked off posts vs something with a different kind of effort. But then again, as brought up in my examples of other fandoms, being a fan can make people very active in taking part in similar fan activities. As we all enjoy the same thing in different ways or different media in similar ways, we are all still fans at the end of the day. Whether casual or more involved, that’s a unique experience that should unite us. So I’ll have my peace with the older cartoon-hating fans who only view Usagi Chronicles as an empty children’s cartoon etc etc. 
So, because I’m an adult, but also an artist and animation fan, this is how I’ve been approaching TV cartoons for the past 5-10 years. Against my first reaction of “oh, this is too slow for me” the way I chose to view the series once I saw more of it was “I’m an adult, and this is a cartoon made my other older adults, for kids - let me see what it’s about”. It’s more about curiosity and seeing what other creatives have done to put connective tissue between one idea to another.
Personally when it comes to tagging I try to keep to a general amount of “minimum amount of tags possible” bc I’m a bit lazy but also, I will never find anything on my own blog later if I used more than 20 tags about a simpler fanart post. So maybe like 1-2 tags for show/series, 1-2 tags for characters and my own art tags. I am lazy but I also like being considerate with other people. But also because of my previous experience with blogging, I like to keep tags I re-use as consistent as possible so I have the same experience. Of course, sometimes I forget what I’ve actually used if there are many tags i.e. many characters. so keeping the tags short is a boon for that end.
Here is the draft version for the UY and Usagi Chronicles tag guide, i'm gonna change this more but this is mostly how I've been tagging stuff (or have tried to so far) and I wrote a small guide back in march before all this, but have been coming back to it now with more general and character tags in mind. 
== Tagging Guide ==
Hello Rise of the TMNT and Usagi Chronicles joint fandom! Here’s a guide on how to tag Usagi Chronicles/Samurai Rabbit stuff! Mostly it’s my own view on how to tag things based on how I interact w the fandom stuff posted here but also from my experience of using tumblr and older blogging platforms - how I see the most common/make-sensical ways to tag characters/shows. But maybe you will find this useful too, fellow fan!
Usagi Yojimbo - the name of the original comicbook series - I decidedly reserve this for posts and reblogs ONLY about the Usagi Yojimbo comic (pages covers,, screenshots, memes), or general fanart of the comic or its characters. This helps me keep it separate so I can find posts about it later.
Usagi Chronicles - personally I use this for all content for the show, but especially the crossover stuff and my own art posts. This seems to be the most commonly used unique tag about this show.
SRTUC - acronym, good for short posts, for quick tagging. but I also use this to tag general reblogged posts about the show
Samurai Rabbit - I only try to use this if it is about the official stuff, like interviews and GIF/screenshots in bulk (more than 2). This tag gets used a lot for both the series but before that it was also used for posting general UY comics content and alternate covers by other artists, as well as for original samurai rabbits unaffiliated by UY. It is too general for me to use it on my own posts outside of text posts maybe.
Samurai Rabbit the Usagi Chronicles - mostly I use this tag for more general posts, but also reblogs if someone else has made something directly related to the series.
SamuraiRabbitNetflix - lol I only use this one on twitter, bc I saw someone from the crew use it and it has stuck for most of my more finished posts I guess ^^ Literally nobody else on tumblr uses it which is fine, but I think it’s a good way to separate the series and the more general posts people make about the comic or guest art of it (or sometimes original art unrelated to UY)
Characters:
Miyamoto Usagi - I try to mainly use it for just comic Usagi and fanart, but occasionally I will use it for fanart depicting
Rise Miyamoto Usagi - Any Rise!versions of comics Usagi. Usually these are fandesigns, but sometimes fans will adapt it wholesale (usually adapting him from his younger years). Sometimes it is unclear which version it is based on or it is a completely original version so I simply tag these as Rise Usagi.
Yuichi Usagi - pretty self-explanatory! I only use this for posts/fanart including Yuichi Usagi (but not when he is only mentioned in passing). Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between these versions however, 
Usagi fandesign/Yuichi Usagi fandesign/Miyamoto Usagi fandesign - I use all these tags to organize the fandesigns ppl make of all these characters, reserving “Usagi fandesign” when it’s really an original design based on various canon Usagi concepts or more of a “general” Usagi than a specific one i.e. meant for the Rise or 2012 TMNT crossover AUs. This counts for me in reblogs also when the OP hasn’t really decided what the character is and has tagged both characters. Lol there is a lot of different fanart of these characters and for my own sake, I tag these separately where possible so I can find the fanart easier later (especially if the posts themselves have text which doesn’t use these names, or if tumblr search is not working on blogs)
UY character - I use “UY” as the common acronym before characters from UY, but I also generally tag their names in reblogs. idk, this just makes it easier for me to find them later in my own blog and that’s all (Kenichi and Mariko for example are quite common Japanese names)
Tomoe Ame - This character just deserves her own tag, but also, I think the 03 version, while quite different, can fit in the same tag because people don’t post about them as much ^^;;
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And now for the TMNT tags!
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - the official name! long, but good if you are tagging official stuff i.e. screenshots, gifs, concept art, tweets from crew etc
ROTTMNT - good short catch-all tag, lots of ppl use this to tag their reblogs quickly, but shorter posts can also go under here
Rise of the TMNT - Slightly longer tag than the full acronym, but more descriptive, if you wanna make sure people know it’s a TMNT show
Rise TMNT - I’ve seen a few ppl use this as a tag and it’s a valid way to tag (short and unique) but it’s not as popular as the others
2018 TMNT - again, general tag for the series. Common way to make a tag for a TMNT series - adding the year of airing before the TMNT acronym. Same with TMNT 2018. Same for the comics! I’ll use IDW TMNT as a tag for example, bc it seems widely used and understood.
TMNT18 - same as the previous one, but shorter! There are a lot of TMNT media besides the comics, (movies, animated series, etc) so it’s a general easier practice to tag via year. Ppl also sometimes use the variation 18TMNT. Anything is basically fair game with these general tags as long as the author of a blog finds stuff later.
Characters![I’m not sure about the characters yet bc I use the tags differently than other people apparently. my blog my rules i guess!]
rottmnt [character] - reserved for when i tag this character in crossovers, eg rottmnt April, rottmnt donnie. I generally use nicknames for the rottmnt boys cuz I am lazy.
Rise [character] e.g. Rise Leo, Rise April - I try and use this just for 
April O Neil (full name) - for when I’m tagging them in general and just want to see them in this tag with the other versions
12 April or 12April - for the 2012 TMNT versions of the characters. I often write the tags together bc I am just lazy but in the case of numbers, I can also forget. On tumblr I try to remember to use spaces cuz that is allowed here lol.
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And that’s it! I have more in the list, but that is the gist of the style of it. Basically hust explaining what I’ve seen and if/how I use it on my own blog. Let me know if you have more thoughts about this. I’m curious to know what other fans of both series think!
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kanmom51 · 2 years ago
Text
This is big
A good day we are having.
I was going to start with a bright good day, but it’s kind of yucky for me here (overcast, raining, a little cold, not what you would expect towards the end of Spring here), but I do guess it’s a bright day somewhere in the world, so I will go with that.
A good bright day we are having today guys.
I know I’m a little late to the party, but what can you do?  We gotta make a living.  So, as much as I was dying to post this morning (cause I did see it ALL pretty much as I started my day), I just couldn’t, not the way I like to, with receipts.
JK
JK is the man.
There, I said it.
He kind of surprises us every time.
And I don’t know why we are surprised, because he has been kind of screaming blue murder since 8 November 2017 that JM is HIS (in his own way, in the way he can under the circumstances, and I’ll get into that a little later on), but still, he surprises us every single time.
And K-army, they are going WILD.
And when K-army go wild you know it’s a big one.
So, what did he do this time?  Our JK.
He went and posted on IG.
Wow, awe, nah, not that, lol.
This kind of has a couple of layers to it.
I’ll start at the beginning, which is JK posting a photo of himself from Qatar in his usual new IG layout.
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He does this on 26.10.22, at 11:02 KST (all there pics posted were withing the 11:02, a few seconds within each other).
Let’s look at the numbers for that.
Date first:
26 October 2022.
Which happens to be…drum roll…
Exactly mid-way between JM’s birthday (13 October) and the famous 8 November.
13 days following JM’s birthday and 13 days to the 8 November 2022.
I was thinking of doing the whole day counter screenshot and stuff, but honestly, I counted the days with my fingers.  Use your fingers to count them.  Believe me, you’ll get the same results.
Coincidence?
Nope.  Enough with the usage of this word.  It’s just too much.  Especially when we move on to see what else we had here.
26.10.22 11:02pm –
2+6+1+2+2=
13
11+2=
13
Another coincidence?
Give me a break.
 
But you see, it doesn’t end there.
Cause JK, he’s like “I don’t think they will understand where I’m going with this.  I need to do something bigger, louder…ahm..Let me think about it…Oh, I know…”
BAM
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Lol, not that bam, but maybe this one:
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He posts to his story.
A cute winkie kissy pouty selfie.
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At 11:08 pm KST or 5:08 pm Qatar time.
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11:08
And
5+8=13
So, just in case, you know, the fans lost the plot with his first post.  Just in case they didn’t catch on to the reference not only to the 13 but also to 8 November, he decided he needed to be MUCH clearer.
And how much clearer can you be than actually posting on the hour?
Once again with the 11:08.  You know, like he’s done in the past.
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Still think it’s all a coincidence?
I can tell you loud and clear that I don’t.
Neither do K-JKKs.
Now, I know that JM and JK communicate on the private, you know, through some kind of app like Kakao talk or WhatsApp where they can’t be monitored (I’ll leave it at that), and they definitely don’t need to send each other messages through their public IG accounts.
Saying that, I do think this is also a message to JM.
One that says “I love you and I want to scream it from the rooftop.  And knowing that I can’t do that, I’m doing the next best thing.”
People will argue: why would they need that?  If they are a closeted couple why would they want people to know?
And I’d start by saying:  Really?  That’s what you’re arguing?
Let’s talk about straight couples, why don’t we?  Those that don’t have to hide who they are dating, who they love, who they are with.
In EVERY culture – couples like that HAVE to show others they are together.  It’s a “I’m happy I’m in a relationship” thing.  It’s a “keep you hands to yourselves, this one is taken – by me”.  It’s an “I adore this person and he’s all mine”.
And they do it in many ways:
It’s the matchy matchy clothing and accessorizing (in Korean culture).
It’s with jewelry like couple rings, couple necklaces or bracelets, engagement and wedding rings.
It’s with couple selfies and pics and posts.
It’s with PDA, where it’s socially and culturally acceptable.
It’s with just saying it out loud proudly – “we are together, we are a couple, we love each other…”
 
Why would a closeted couple, one that the society they live in does not look positively on their relationship, be any different in the sense of wanting to show, flaunt their love?
But they can’t say it, scream it in words.
And JM and JK are a closeted couple.  They can’t be obvious, well not too obvious, not in a way that a straight couple can (and don’t get me started on their industry either, cause that’s also another issue they have to deal with, one that doesn’t allow a straight couple to show they are together either, re: you know who).
So they find other ways to do it.
They find that going matchy matchy with their clothes and accessories might raise an eyebrow here and there, but they can get away with it.  Bangtan wear each other’s clothes, they all do it, nothing special about those two.  So maybe it’s not enough.  Not a strong enough statement.
JK sucked on JM’s ear for god’s sake, in front of thousands of fans.  It has been paraded by the company in official content ever since.
In that moment, when JK was sucking on JM’s ear, you see just how emotional JM gets.  Cause he knows.  He knows this is JK’s way of screaming to the world that JM is his, that they are more than ‘brothers’ or just friends.
But apparently, it did not make much on an impact, because supposedly, according to the fandom, either there was no actual ear sucking (I guess those fans need glasses or eyes, take your pick), or that’s just something you do with your bro (don’t get me started on that word and JK using it in his birthday message to JM).
JK paraded his hickey from JM.  Clearly ‘brother’ or platonic friends don’t mark each other, right?
 Apparently they do.  This too was not enough. 
Because once again, either it’s a bite (interesting one at that, with no teeth marks but definite hickey bruising), or it’s just a playful bro thing that evidently these fans do with their siblings or platonic friends (ok then, that’s kind of disturbing), or, and I just ‘love’ this one, JM ‘the man’ lending a hand to his bro JK by covering up his girlfriend’s hickey (cause these guys have never heard of makeup and concealer, and NEVER covered up a hickey or two in the past – laughable).
 
 
And you may ask:  Where are you going with this? Get to the fucking point…
So here it is:
I know there are many that are all about:
“This whole numbers thing it’s ridiculous” or “it doesn’t mean anything” or “eh, just a coincidence you delusional people keep riding on”. 
Well, thing is once, twice, even three or four times is a coincidence.  But when it’s more it’s a pattern.  And this is a pattern.  One that means something.  One that is trying to tell us something they can’t say out loud.
Because just like you and I, who love to say we are in a relationship, that we are happily married, or engaged or love our partners, or want to tell the world “that person is off the market, so hands off, they are MINE” – believe me both JM and JK want the exact same thing.  To be able to say that.  Show that. 
Do you remember that interview where RM and V pipe up to the question “who’s the best with the ladies” to say it was JK?  JM’s face?
Or even just now, the after Busan concert live and the “marry me JK” conversation.
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Or I heart radio when the fans was screaming “I love you” to JM – JK’s reaction?
They want other to know that their significant other is theirs and definitely off the market. 
But unlike us, they can’t do that.  They can’t say that, scream that.  That would be not stretching that rubber band they keep stretching time and time again.  That would be to outright tear it, and they can’t do that.  Not yet.  Not now.  Not with their solo albums coming up, not with enlistment coming up and not under this current administration.
So they do this.
They do the little things like the matching clothes or accessories.
They do the bigger things like the ear suck and hickey showing off (which once again, they saw just was not enough). 
And they do this.  The numbers.  The playing with the dates.
That is their way.
 
This started out as a post about JK’s wow IG activity and turned into a Ted talk about the meaning of the numbers and why they are indeed a message, a code per say, to those that are willing to listen.
My apologies.
Well, maybe not really.
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ttuesday · 3 years ago
Note
Any headcanons of gang members interacting with animals? :)
I'm kinda sad we only see a bit of it scattered here and there outside of Arthur and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
ok so these headcanons are all over the place so I added some pics to try and make up for that lol (also, because you can only upload 10 pics in a post, I had to limit the amount of fellers I could do)
Arthur 
Arthur likes animals both big and small though he usually prefers to watch any large animal from a distance, not wanting to disturb them. Wherever he goes, Arthur always admires the animals he comes across, making little doodles of them in his journal.
Arthur has always been a dog person, offering as many head pats and belly rubs to any dog he sees. While he hasn’t been around as many cats in his life, Arthur doesn’t mind giving them some pats too, feeling a sense of accomplishment when a cat begins to purr while Arthur is petting them.
An animal Arthur has felt drawn to throughout his life is the buck, relating to their loyalty to their herd. But like I said, Arthur likes to give any animal that isn’t domesticated their space, not wanting to intrude and instead he observes them from a safe distance.  
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Charles 
Charles has a significant appreciation for animals, giving each and every animal he comes across a great deal of respect. Whenever he’s out hunting and has to kill an animal for food for the gang, Charles always ensures that every part of the animal is used and that nothing goes to waste.
When he’s out of camp and exploring, Charles loves to watch the herds of bison roaming the plains. They remind him of the gang because much like the bison, the gang roams the country too, never staying in one place for too long.
If life is getting too stressful, Charles likes to spend the day in the wilderness, finding a nice place to sit before fully relaxing. He loves to watch the eagles soar overhead, the coyotes playing and the rabbits curiously approach him before quickly scurrying off.
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Dutch  
Dutch isn’t the biggest animal person, preferring to mind his own business and hope the animals don’t interfere with his biddings. Dutch doesn’t mind having animals around but he won’t go out of his way to spend any time with them either. He likes the look of pheasants but he prefers to see them in Pearson’s stew than wandering around near him.
Perhaps Dutch’s favourite animal would be cats. They do their own thing and he can relate to that, feeling as though neither cats or himself can be fully domesticated, always wanting to live life by their own rules.
If a cat ever saunters over to Dutch, rubbing against his leg in the hopes of getting some attention, Dutch will 100% brag about how the cat chose him of all people to be around.
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John 
Even before becoming a rancher, John liked farm animals. He always thought they looked kinda goofy but in an adorable way. He typically likes to look on at the sheep grazing or the cows being herded across the plains, seeing it as being so simple yet calming to watch as they mosey around.
But John doesn’t have great experiences with all animals *cough* wolves *cough* and he’s been more timid of wild animals since that encounter, keeping his distance from them and minding his own business.
He doesn’t understand why, but John has a gift for attracting raccoons. Seriously, they just flock to him and he doesn’t understand why. Some of the others have teased him about it but John feels strangely honoured that raccoons like him so much.
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Javier
Javier loves animals, whether they be small woodland creatures, domesticated animals or terrifying animals that could rip him to shreds, Javier thinks they’re all cute! He’s a big fan of colourful animals and when he was in Guarma, one of the only things that kept him optimistic were the brightly coloured birds and reptiles that’re all over the island.
Javier loves dogs too. Sometimes when he’s in town and a dog passes by, he’ll lose focus of what the others are talking about, instead giving the dog all of his attention.
Although he loves all dogs, if he had to pick a favourite breed, it would probably be poodles. Javier thinks they’re so precious with their extra fluffy hair and if he ever gets a poodle, he would constantly be styling the dog’s hair and buying many matching accessories. In conclusion, he is the best dog dad ever.
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Bill
Bill acts like he doesn’t care for animals. He wants to be seen as this tough, brooding man who doesn’t have time for animals but the second he sees an animal approach him, Bill acts like the animal is his baby.
He will coddle the animal, give them belly rubs and of course, do some baby talk. But if you ever mention how he acts around animals, Bill will immediately get defensive and try to shrug it off, saying he didn’t even pay much attention to the animal.
Donkeys in particular, have a special place in his heart. In a way, Bill sees himself to be similar to a donkey; always offering his service to the gang, loyal and full of faith. He also thinks they’re extremely underrated, much like himself.
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Sean
Although Sean doesn’t spend too much time around animals, he does consider himself an animal person, enjoying their company and trying his best to always do right by them.
Sean has a particular love for animals that are very small, thinking they’re so cute and lovable but he also loves animals that are much larger than him too. He’s in complete awe of those animals, getting hyper just to be around them and try to measure just how tall they are.
If Sean heard about that legendary alligator, if would have 100% went to track it down. Another animal Sean loves is mooses (moosi? moose? meese? idk what the plural of moose is). The first thing Sean thinks of whenever he sees a moose is how badass he would look if he somehow tamed it and used the moose instead of a horse. Yeah he’d try to ride a moose and we love him for that.
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Hosea
Hosea tends to like smaller animals, veering away from interacting with bigger animals since that bear incident. Sometimes if he has some spare food or if he’s making a run to the nearest general store, Hosea will buy some extra seeds and vegetables for the forest animals. 
He knows it’s a bad habit and that he’s attracting wild animals to camp by leaving out some food for them but it’s mainly rabbits and squirrels that stop by so he doesn’t think he’s doing any real harm. Although there have been times some animals have come through camp, curiously peeking into tents and ripping up any papers left laying around because they’ve gotten so used to being near Hosea.
Something Hosea enjoys to do whenever he has some free time is bird watch. He finds them fascinating, listening to their birdsongs and watching as the birds soar overhead. No matter how stressed he is, spending some time surrounded by animals and watching the birds always soothes him and reminds Hosea of how incredible nature is.
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Trelawny
C’mon now, we all know how much Trelawny loves animals, especially birds. He has a way with animals, taking so much time and consideration into befriending them and gaining their trust.
Josiah can spend hours with birds, training them to do certain magic tricks and to help out with cons. Considering this is Trelawny, of course he’s trained some crows to pick up any jewellery they see and bring it to him. He’s trained so many birds, Trelawny basically has a constant income of cash thanks to the amount of coins and trinkets his birds bring him.
A type of bird Trelawny would absolutely love to have is a parrot. Not only would the parrot also speak in an English accent but they’d match Trelawny’s lavish style too.
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Lenny
Of course Lenny loves all kinds of animals, though he’s always been more drawn to the animals that don’t get as much love in comparison to horses and dogs.
Lenny definitely kept worms or other insects as pets when he was a kid, finding them fascinating and always trying his best to help them out by picking them up and putting them in a safe area where they won’t get stepped on or eaten.
He’s a fan of frogs and toads too, hating how they’re considered gross or bad omens. Lenny doesn’t just like to look at animals but he’ll also do some additional research, reading books about different species and educating himself on a multitude of animals.
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thefanficmonster · 4 years ago
Text
Stranger In The Crowd
Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)
Warnings: None
Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)
Summary: Having recently ended the process of moving, Y/N is rightfully very tired but also very excited for the new chapter of her life. Funnily enough, this new chapter includes a newly formed long distance friendship/crush with a very special person from San Diego.
Requested by @boiled-onionrings Hi darling! Thank you so much for your wonderful request and I’m really sorry you’ve had to wait so long for it to be posted but here it finally is and I hope you enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤
I let out a heavy sigh, relieved to finally be at home after such a long day of standing around in the Georgia heat with only a thin layer of fabric to protect my eyes and head from the scorching sun. Yeah, anyone who says that tent did well at protecting everyone under it today is nothing but a liar. I was in a short, strapless white summer dress, the fabric of which barely had any weight and consistency to provide heat of its own yet I still damn near melted. Ok, I’ll admit, some of the roasting heat probably came from the energy and force I put into singing the songs of my band’s new album ‘Starting At The End’. 
The mini concert we held in this large open field was meant as an introduction to the city of Savannah where all the band members - myself included - are actually from but we all moved to the West Coast to pursue our music career. And now that we’ve grown, and the majority of us are married, one of us is a father now as well, we’ve decided to return to our hometown. The decision was so spontaneous and was executed so quickly due to no one objecting to it that it still hasn’t me that I’m no longer in LA. The heat isn’t helping my ‘processing’ process but I’ll get to it eventually. Do I miss LA though? Not sure I do - I think I more miss the people I was closer to while I was there.
Suddenly, as if perfectly timed, my phone dings, notifying me that I’ve received a message. I don’t have to look to know it’s from - there’s only one person I actively text and his name is....
C ~ Your virtual buddy Corpse here, making sure you didn’t die of a heatstroke today. If you did indeed survive, just reply to this message, if not....don’t do anything, I guess.
I can’t help but giggle at the sight of the message. I promised Corpse I’d text him after the concert to let him know I was ok, but the even dragged out for longer than anticipated so I’m guessing he got worried.
How cute.
Me ~ Alive and well, but I do feel like a popped tire of an overloaded truck. Hope that’s a visually appealing description
Corpse and I met on the charity livestream Jacksepticeye organized and invited our band to so we could play Among Us with some of the best gamers and streamers on the internet. It was a huge honor and a ton of fun, definitely an event I’d like to repeat in the near future because I had such a good time and I know all my bandmates did too. We all got acquainted and even became official friends with the gamers that were practically our hosts, Corpse becoming the closest friends I’d earn. That livestream happened months ago and we still text just as consistently.
C ~ Oh I know EXACTLY what you mean. Anyway, as to not exhaust you further to force you into typing, how about you send me pictures to sum up your thoughts and emotions and plans for the evening
This is OUR THING trademark, mine and Corpse’s and no one can take it away from us. It’s a significant element of our friendship that enables us both to understand one another when one of us feels the way I described in my message - a popped tire or a deflated balloon. I’m usually the exhausted one - blame the many shows we do and the many meet-and-greets we organize for our lovely fans. It’s the type of exhaustion none of the band members mind at all, but we definitely need some time to recover from it.
As I go to sit down on my couch, the flower crown I’ve been wearing slips off the top of my head, falling on the floor, creating a soft noise that attracts the attention of one of my many cats - Sasha. She’s the youngest and most curious kitty in the family, always protected by the other four - Luna, Cassie, Silver and Lynn. Those four are far lazier and a lot more disinterested in comparison to Sasha who immediately runs over to see what’s fallen.
I smile to myself, taking the flower crown and undoing it to lessen it by a few stems to make it smaller, all the while being watched by the curious Sasha whose interest is rewarded in the end when I put the now adorably tiny flower crown on her head.
While she still hasn’t shaken the thing off I manage to snap a pic which I send to Corpse who opens it mere seconds after it was delivered. 
C ~ Sasha’s pulling off your aesthetic better than you. Sorry, someone had to let you know
I burst out laughing for two reasons - 1.The message itself, damn it! It’s hilarious; 2. Corpse has learnt the name of each one of my cats and never mixes them up - not even Luna and Lynn who look almost identical. That amount of attention to detail is astonishing and very meaningful to me, it genuinely warms my heart and that may or may not be dramatic but it’s definitely not exaggerated.
Me ~ You think I haven’t caught on yet? 
C ~ Well, if it makes you feel any better you pull off my aesthetic better than I do
He’s referring to the e-girl look I did for one show the band had in downtown LA one night. I was drunk and looking forward to trying new things so I improvised the hell out of my outfit but I apparently looked presentable enough to leave a good impression on Corpse despite the pic I sent him being a bit blurry and being a mirror selfie in the bathroom of the very bar we were performing in. It goes without saying that the mirror was dirty too - had a bunch of writing on it which Corpse said only added to the aesthetic. Looking back on it now I kinda agree, and luckily so did the fans in the comments of that same photo when I posted it on Instagram.
Me ~ Means a lot actually. Nowhere near enough to aid the burn of having a cat pull off cottagecore better than I do, but still helps XD
As if sensing that we’re talking about her, Sasha hops on the couch, poking her head over my phone to look down at the screen.
Now this is gonna be golden.
I take a selfie with my phone in my lap, the camera capturing both me and Sasha at a rather unflattering angle which has me losing my mind laughing when I send the picture to Corpse who immediately sends back a string of cry-laughing emojis.
C ~ I can’t tell which one of you is cuter
Me ~ If that was a compliment, I gotta say I appreciate it greatly
C ~ Just telling the truth ;)
It’s times like these that the butterflies in my stomach remind me just why I’ve started catching feelings for this man despite all the distance between us and despite barely knowing him - he knows me more than I know him but I don’t mind it, oddly enough.
I’m fond of our connection and though I sometimes dream of something more, I’m also content with what we already have considering that ‘something more’ seems rather unattainable as of now.
My phone dings again, clearing the fog of thoughts and presenting me with a new message from Corpse.
C ~ Oh, by the way, look what I got....
That message is followed up by a picture of a ticket. A plane ticket to Georgia! 
While I’m still busy stomaching this and dealing with my quickly rising excitement, he sends another message.
C ~ I hope to catch a The Silver Rays concert while I’m there. Heard they had an adorable frontwoman ;)
My breath catches in my throat as a wide grin spreads across my face. The thought of having Corpse so close to me sends those aforementioned butterflies in my stomach into a raving mood and they practically explode my insides with excitement and joy like I’ve never felt it before. I can’t wrap my brain around the fact that we’re about to go from having an entire country between us, to being just some ways away - him in the audience and me on stage without a single clue of who to look for. That’s part of the excitement though, I guess, part of the guessing game that’s gonna make our meeting all the more interesting.
He’ll be a stranger in the crowd and I’ll be a performer on a stage - seemingly two people who have no relation whatsoever. But damn does it go beyond that: No one has to know how hard I’m falling for that stranger in the crowd.
Me ~ I’ve heard so too, can’t confirm it though
If this is gonna be a guessing game, I’ll flip the tables a bit - I won’t take any guesses. I’ll let the answer come to me. I’ll give the first move over to the stranger in the crowd, let’s see what he does.
C ~ I’ll check and let you know, don’t worry
Not worried whatsoever, Corpsie. I’m not worried at all.
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monsterenergysimp · 4 years ago
Text
Permanence
corpse husband x fem!reader 
summary: you meet corpse on a stream and you’re surprised when he reaches out to you 
warnings: cursing, mentions of tattooing
word count: 1.9k
notes: This is proof read but could have missed some stuff. This is my first corpse fic and my first time writing fanfic since I posted that super cringey book on wattpad when I was like 12 or something. I’d appreciate feed back so please reach out to me :)
main blog @itsmysleepover
read part 2 here!
✧・゚: *✧・゚:*    *:・゚✧*:・゚✧
You were cleaning up your station so you can get home and stream. You loved your day job as a tattoo artist but you also really enjoyed streaming. It started as a way to promote yourself as an artist and the shop you worked at but it eventually became a really fun way to destress at the end of the week (or day if you were really itching to stream). “Hey Y/N was that your last client?” your boss, KC, asked as she walked to the front of the shop and put new flash drawings on the walls.
“Yes ma’am!” You said back excitedly. You finished cleaning your station and tossed your black gloves in the trash. “And you can’t trick me into staying and taking walk-ins,” you joked with her. She rolled her eyes and walked back into her office “It was one time,” she said as you slid on your jacket. As you walked out your phone buzzed in your pocket and you checked to see who had texted you. It was a message from Sean asking if you were free to play Among Us with him and some other streamers. You replied that you were on your way home right now and totally down. You were excited to see who was playing this time around since their Among Us streams are super entertaining and have gotten really popular.
On your way back you tweeted and posted to your Instagram story that you’d be streaming soon and set up all your stuff once you made it home. After a few minutes, you had a couple of thousand people watching. You entered the discord chat and Sean spoke up. “Everyone this is Y/N she’s sensitive so be gentle.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you guys and I’m not gentle, I'm ruthless,” You say into your mic and notice the chat calling you a liar. Everyone was in the lobby waiting for the game to start. “You sound way too sweet to be ruthless,” Corpse said. The countdown started and you were imposter with Charlie.
“This should be fun,” you told the stream. Yout tried playing strategically but after such a long shift your brain was mush. You saw Poki in nav and killed her then vented into shields. Not long after the body was reported and you were sure you were going to get voted out or at least sussed.
“Where was the body?” Felix asked. “Nav and I didn’t see anyone near there so whoever is imposter must have vented,” Corpse responded. Felix spoke up again. “I think I saw Y/N walk that way and I haven’t seen her since.”
Shit, shit, shit shit. “I’m in shield right now so-” you said trying to defend yourself but Charlie spoke up. “I was doing tasks with her earlier and I saw her walk into shields so she’s safe but I’m still not sure about Rae.” Everyone discussed a bit more and some people, including Corpse, voted for you but Rae got the majority vote and was ejected. You released your breath and kept playing being extra careful.  
“Okay, guys that was super close. Corpse knows and is out to get me,” you said to the chat. You were eventually voted off but one round later victory was written across your screen with your ghost and Charlie’s avatar. “Good game guys,” Corpse said.
“I told you guys I was ruthless!”
✧・゚: *✧・゚:*    *:・゚✧*:・゚✧
You sat at your station doing nothing because a client had canceled a four-hour session. You were listening to music and sketching some stuff but you were bored out of your mind and you didn’t want to leave in case you got a walk-in. The music got quiet as you received a twitter notification saying someone had messaged you. You reached for your phone and saw you had gotten a dm from Corpse.
C: hey :)
You didn’t know what to respond. You were mostly confused as to why he decided to message you out of the blue. Did he want something? But what would he want?
Y: Hii! This is sudden
C: was i bothering you?
    shit sorry!
Y: Youre fine I wasn’t doing anything rn
C: how has your day been
    i dont usually do stuff like this
Y: Im glad you did im doing better now I was so bored
C: what were you doing that was so terrible
Y: NOTHING! thats the problem :(
C: im sure youll find something to do
You stared at his message. Unsure what to respond.
Y: Im gonna give myself a tattoo
C: what?
    NO!
You tossed the needles you used for your tattoo into the sharps box. “Oh my god you didn’t,” KC said. She noticed the wrap on your calve from the tattoo you just gave yourself out of boredom. “It’s not my fault I didn’t have anything else to do!” You said trying to defend yourself. She sighed and just shook her head. “Just go home business is slow today.” It was raining so the shop probably wasn’t going to get a walk-in anyway and you didn’t have any more clients for the day. It was only 2 pm but you drove home and after making lunch for yourself decided to stream. You weren’t expecting too many people so it was bound to be super chill. Your leg felt sore reminding you of the tattoo. You snapped a quick pic of the fresh jack-o-lantern on the side of your calve and messaged it to Corpse.
Y: [image] it came out nice!
C: thats  super cool actually
    i was concerned why you would just give yourself a tattoo but i found your instagram and       youre super talented
Y: Thank you!
For some reason, it felt strange to just have that be the end of your response.
Y: Im about to start streaming if you wanted to watch
    [link]
C: ill be watching ;)
What’s that supposed to mean?
✧・゚: *✧・゚:*    *:・゚✧*:・゚✧
You sat in your apartment watching tv, hand lost in a bag of Doritos, and scrolling through twitter. You had stopped paying attention to the anime playing on the screen since you’ve watched it a hundred times and knew you wouldn’t miss anything. It was Saturday and you usually take those days off. Take the time to do chores or meet up with some friends but today you felt like not doing any of those things. As you continue your endless scroll (not helping the twitter addiction you told yourself you’d try to get a handle on) you got a message from Corpse.
C: wanna talk?
You looked down at the message unsure of how to answer. It was a simple yes or no and the obvious answer was yes. You and Corpse had started talking more regularly. You still didn’t have each other’s phone numbers but it was fine. Your conversations weren’t too big-- just you sending him memes, tiktoks, and telling him how much you liked the songs he would drop. Or him complimenting a tattoo you did. Sometimes he’d message you during streams telling you funny stuff his fans would say in the chat and you’d do the same. You learned a bit about each other but nothing too deep or serious. Like how you two lived a few cities away and you both really liked Donnie Darko. When Sean first invited you to that game out of everyone else there you were most excited to meet Corpse. He’s just so sweet and funny. Of course, you’d love to talk to him but you were also itching to talk to him and the last thing you’d ever want to do was make him uncomfortable.
Y: Yeah id love to talk
Here goes nothing.
Y: Wanna facetime or something?
     No pressure or anything it could even be a regular call
     I think facetime is just my default lol
You sent those last two messages quickly after you had sent the first. You wished you could know what he was thinking. It was killing you to think you had turned him off from talking to you completely. You put your phone down on the couch and went to wash your hand of Dorito dust. When you got back from the kitchen you turned off the tv and tossed yourself onto the couch.
Still no message.
Why am I so fucking stupid?  
Just as you were standing up to stretch from sitting on the couch all day your phone buzzed. You reached for it fast and looked to see that it was him. You became super excited still not even knowing what the message said. It could have told you to never talk to him again for all you knew.
C: sure lets facetime
    xxx-xxx-xxxx
You had his phone number. You added him to your small but growing contact list and called. You sat on your couch waiting for a response when he finally picked up the screen was black. It didn’t upset you; you kind of expected it and didn’t care what he had to do to make himself more comfortable during this call.
“Hey,” he said. His voice was raspier than usual.
“Did you just wake up?” You asked and looked at the time. It was about a little past noon and you had only eaten Doritos all day. Shit, you should probably make a decent meal.
“Not that long ago but yeah,” he responded and giggled. That giggle.
“Well, I’ve eaten nothing but Doritos all day while rewatching Ouran High School Host Club, so you’re welcome to join me as I make myself something to eat.”
“Sounds like fun; what are we eating?”
“I don’t know yet,” You said as you stood up and made your way to the kitchen. You opened the pantry and looked. You noticed a can of diced tomatoes and reached for it then checked the expiration date. It was still good. On your counter were some onions and garlic. “How about some tomato soup?”
“Sounds delicious.” you smiled at Corpse and your phone screen not knowing if he was also looking at his screen or not. “You’re really pretty-- you know that?”
“Thanks, but you don’t have to--”
“I’ve already told you what an incredible artist you are so many times I bet you’re tired of hearing it, but you already know what a talented artist you are.”
“That is very kind of you Corpse,” you said to him bashfully as you chopped the onion and opened the can of tomatoes. “But once again you don’t have to reach so far to compliment me.”
“I’m not reaching you are talented and beautiful and--”
“I thought I was pretty.” You could hear him chuckle with a smile on his face. “You’re both,” he said. You could feel your face getting warm from blushing.
“Fuck you you’re making me blush. My face is all hot and stuff.”
He laughed at how flustered you got. “That’s the cutest thing ever.”
You didn’t know how to respond so you just put some olive oil in a pot and tossed in your onions. It became silent but it was a comfortable silence. You turned the stove on and watched the flame for a few seconds. “If it was dark we could pretend we were together and having a bonfire or something,” you said to the phone as you turned the camera to show him the flame (still not 100 percent sure if he was looking at you or not).
“I’ll put it on the list of things to do when you visit me someday.”
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liannelara-dracula · 4 years ago
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Headcannons of S&M&T and Kino using Instagram? What do you think they would post and how would they use it?
Omg you are genius! This is an amazing ask.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.
Link to prompt---> HERE
Please join my diabolik lovers group chat! Link---> HERE
Read Laito Sakamaki Fanfic [Dark Theme]---> Here
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Shu:
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He’s not on too much.
His username is just: shu.sakamaki
He follows his brothers and Yuma to annoy him.
His posts are probably just like landscapes.
Usually of a sunset.
And about his music and classical music he likes.
He also probably posts about the triplets doing something stupid on his story.
While they’re not watching.
He’ll tag them in the story saying, “remember this?”
Even adds special effects just to spice it up.
He has so many followers bc all the girls at his school follow him.
He gets so many dms but leaves them on read.😂😂
He tags his bros to annoy them.
Doesn’t post about his gf very much.
Usually when she’s not looking.
Reiji:
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Username: scienceiskey or perfectioniskey
He follows his brothers of course and might even follow Ruki.
He sometimes unfollows his brothers tho if there getting annoying😂😂
But will eventually refollow them.
He posts about his experiments and science in general.
But it’s very aesthetic.
On his story he’ll post pictures of things that are broken in the house and he’ll literally tag all his brothers and ask “who is responsible?” Or “you did it and I know.”😂😂
He’ll also post things about nature on his story.
He never posts selfies.
On his bio he literally tagged shu and said please don’t follow this good for nothing.😂😂
He posts with a schedule.😂
He doesn’t post about his gf at all.
This is cause he doesn’t want to share you with the world.
Laito:
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Personal account username is: Laito.is.gay sexy😂😂
He has two accounts: one is a porn one and the other is his personal.
He doesn’t keep them private.
Because he believes in being open.
He follows his brothers and has Ayato on his bio.
On his personal he posts pictures of himself.
Fangirls follow him. So he live streams a lot.
And talks about his day and what annoys him and whose getting on his nerves.
He blows kisses into the camera.
Tells them his plans and has a slogan, “being a hoe never hurt anyone.”😂
He follows the fangirls back.
Answers the dms.
All of them.
On his porn account he says he’s a major in sexology.
If there is an occupation option he types in sexologist.😂😂
If Reiji finds his porn account he’ll block it permanently.😂
With his gf he posts pictures of them on his personal account. And will feature them on his porn account if she’s ok with it.
Kanato:
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Username is: teddyisnotbasic or dollsarebetterthanu or better yet, on_wednesdays_we_wear_purple. Even, only.bitches.wear.purple
He is an idol on there.
Every girl loves him.
He sets the Lolita trend.
Posts about doll stuff and it’s super aesthetic.
Everything is very cute.
He uses a lot filters to make the posts all have the same glow.
He also posts about sweets and about teddy too.
He does post about his gf when she wears Lolita clothes with him.
Ayato:
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Omg 😱 do not get me started😂😂
His username is: Ayato_Sama_Sakamaki
Which idk if you’ll noticed but his username’s initials spell ass.😂😂
Includes special people in his bio, for example
look @ dee dude: @/laito.is.sexy
Bae: @/y/n’s username
This dude is the meme king and the vine king.
He reposts his favorite vines or memes too.
He makes his own with Laito all the effin’ time!
Which are beyond popular.
Sometimes he features Kino or Subaru in the film and shit just gets wilder.
Literally posts the dumbest shit on his story.
He’ll make live videos about the challenges he does too.
He even has friends from school join his vids.
He has so many followers and he tags his brothers to make them laugh.
Shu usually finds it funny, especially if it’s about dissing Reiji.
And Reiji being the petty ass he is, will just block him for little bit.😂😂
But then he’ll follow him again.
Has a lot of followers like no shit.
He follows a lot of them back too.
Includes his gf in the vines.
Subaru:
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Username: im_not_a_damn_car 😂😂😂
He doesn’t follow anyone except for his brothers and his gf.
His account is private so every time Kou sends in a follow request he rejects it.😂😂😂
Doesn’t post anything really.
When he does it’s only for a little bit and then he archives it.
Bc he thinks it’s weird.
Or that the photo turns ugly.
He follows a lot of emo accounts tho.
And emo bands
His bio is emo too.
“how can emptiness be so heavy?”
Will take selfies but ones that don’t show his face very much.
Only uses black emoji hearts.
Doesn’t post about his gf cause that’s private but he has her on his bio.
“Claimed, touch her and you die”
Kino:
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Username: ask_yo_girl_about_me
Another vine king
Him an Ayato follow each other.
They r bros—fight me on this but I’m right.
They are always in each other’s videos.
Tags Ayato in a lot of posts
Has lots of followers
Does so many live streams and answers random questions.
Posts late at night, a lot.
He has a lot of reels too.
Uses a lot slang.
Cocky af😏
Has rants sometimes.
He has his gf in his bio and sometimes posts about her.
Mukami
Ruki:
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Username: Ruki_grey
He’s not online too much.
Follows his brothers and surprisingly Reiji.
Posts about literature like his favorite book/quotes
But it’s always aesthetic.
He has some pictures of himself but not too many.
He usually has more pictures of his girlfriend tbh.
He is very poetic and on his story he posts about quotes he likes or pictures of his gf.
He has a lot followers and has probably been scouted for modeling.
Yuma:
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Username: hotgirlbummer or summerbummer
He posts about the music he likes and gardening.
It’s really about plants and how to grow them.
Has a lot tutorials.
And facts.
Never mind the profanity and his clumsiness in his tutorials.
“Oh shit!” He’d say dropping a shovel.
“Ruki man didn’t set this up right.” He’d complain referring to the space he was using to do the tutorial.
Pots pictures of flowers that have bloomed and veggies that are ready.
He has another account that’s personal where he follows his brothers and posts about rap music.
Or just music he likes.
There are not too many photos.
He posts pictures of his gf on his personal.
He also takes videos of her to annoy her and see her get camera shy.
“Turn it off!” You’d say cover the camera with your hand.
But he of course just doesn’t.
Kou:
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Username: koumukami
It’s an official account.
Cause he’s an idol
He has millions of people following him.
He only follows his brothers.
Tries to follow Subaru but it never works😂😂
Calls out people who judge him.
“Hey! I don’t appreciate comments like this on my page.”
He’s slogan is, “I just can’t worry about no haters, I gotta stay on my grind.”
Tags Yuma and teases him about stuff if possible.
He posts about his music.
Has live videos where he talks about anything or where he sings.
Loves to take pictures of himself and he does a lot.
like everyday.
Includes his gf in videos and photos and talks about her non stop.
making fans jelly.
Is very sassy and will post rants if needed.
Responds to his fans’ dms.
Azusa:
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Username: softclouds
Has a soft profile.
Things about nature and cute things.
Posts about his gf more than himself.
Or about them together.
Doesn’t have a lot of posts
He gets tagged by his brothers which he follows.
On his story he posts pictures of you or where he’s traveled to.
The filters are soft ones.
He probably has a bio that’s short but simple.
“Hi.....I’m Azusa Mukami.”
Tsukinami
Carla:
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Username: imcarlatsukinami or scarftsuki.
He posts about land scapes and literature.
Just really aesthetic.
He has pictures of him and his gf.
Has you in his bio.
Is rarely on.
Follows Shin.
Has a private account.
Doesn’t reply to comments unless it’s from his gf.
Shin:
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Username: badassesonly or y/n’s.daddy
He posts so much about his girlfriend and him.
Always about where they go.
He has pics of him and his brother too.
He follows Carla, Kino and Ayato.
He doesn’t make vines but sometimes Kino will ask him to join his.
He posts about food and working out.
On his story he posts about you secretly.
Mostly about your body.
You get mad at him for it.
Tells people to follow you.
Doesn’t live stream.
He’s on a lot.
Loves to use filters on his brother and on his gf.
He posts about animals to.
His account is not private and he has a lot of followers.
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1d-discourseoftheday · 4 years ago
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Tues 26 Jan ‘21
Louis tweeted “How's everyone doing?” No Louis, HOW ARE YOU DOING?? “Alright thanks!” he says. It's the third time this month he's checked on us but does that Mean anything? Says SBB himself, “You lot read into things too much” HAHAHAHHAAAA SKSKKDJ WE LEARNED IT FROM YOU MOM!!  Well WHY is MTV posting about Copy then?? asked a fan in a very GOTCHA tone but Louis has an unarguable answer: “because it's a banger.” Well alright alright you got us there, that's very true. He says many other little things too including Strong Opinions about breakfast food (“pancakes obviously” ...was that in fact ...obvious??) and talking about a sports related series he's watching-- it really is about basketball this time unlike UFC! He also tells us that he tried to talk to Liam “earlier” “but he was in Tesco”. A fan posted that he replied to a their DM- a picture of their cat pawing adoringly at a pic of Louis- and said “this put me in such a good mood haha! Love the little lad. Bless him x”, but then later they said they it was fake, sorry. A convincing Louis imitation, but more to the point a very convincing screen record video showing the exchange: please remember this next time such a video is offered as proof for something.
Niall is in the studio with his favorite collaborators, Eskeerdo and John Ryan! The man does value consistency in all things, no question, but you know what they say- if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Despite a Morning Mashup snippet from yesterday where he agreed with the host that maybe their little kid shouldn't be exposed to Small Talk, we know he is happy with the Heartbreak Weather sound, so why not more of the same? The only question I have is: when?
Zayn's sponsorship deals continue to be increasingly wacky; today it's a coloring app! The Nobody Is Listening coloring book is now available; as usual, things I really could NOT have predicted happening every single day around here. Liam's sponsorship is less wacky today: a new Hugo pic posted.
And the greatest showmance of our generation continues to amaze, astound, and crack me the F up-- first up, in hands down the funniest thing to happen all week, Harper’s Bazaar retitled a Holivia timeline article with the headline “Sorry everyone, Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles' romance isn't a PR stunt” (and added a little blurb at the end of 'a source' saying so) which is hilarious enough on its own, the DEFENSIVENESS, but THAT'S NOT ALL! The author of the article, seeing it, tweeted “I didn't even write this! It's an old article that's been updated. I DEFINITELY think it's PR...” HAHAHAHA WHAT AN ICON. She didn't lay out that whole embarrassing timeline in print to be disrespected like this, Harper’s Bazaar! But less funny, she was disrespected by more than just the magazine-- she deleted her account due to harassment after the tweet. Sighhh. Those harries sure do love to TPWK (threat). PR for this shitshow is taking a turn for the defensive all over this week, as we saw with yesterday's Vogue article; that piece seems to have been the leading edge of an iceberg that is the new angle- 'Olivia Isn't The Bad Guy Here'. Fine, yes, no one is because this ISN'T REAL so truly whatever yall, but the really hysterical thing about the Vogue piece apparently being more or less HQ dictated is that at least like half of it is just “terrible things people are saying on twitter” and “here's why twitter is annoying” and I'm ROLLING at them sinking to this level, like when you are at the point of trying to take down twitter arguments one by one you have officially LOST CONTROL OF THE CONVERSATION lmao and lbr-- they have. People simply do not think this is real and it is funnnnny. AND SPEAKING of sinking to a level and then just keeping going right down to the molten core of the earth, can I just mention that Michael Strauss, aka the guy who is suing Briana for her boobs (case was postponed; has not yet been heard), has not only been arguing in the comments over at CelebTM that NO, REALLY it's NOT WEIRD that the sonogram pic posted was clearly not Briana's and is making up stories trying to explain it, he's now doing so from his dog's account. Will his dog also be heading over to TMZ, who tweeted the article today, to argue with people one by one in those comments? We've seen a lot of dogs used for stunt purposes, but at least they never put the words in Max or Clifford's actual mouths!
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ingravinoveritas · 3 years ago
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I agree with you about the last post about michael's picture with AL. I don't think he's miserable. I think he likes Anna, but she's just not the love of his life. He's there because of Lyra, just as he lived in the US for Lily for so many years. I don't think michael wanted to settle down with anyone, he LOVED sarah and if that didn't end in marriage, he certainly wouldn't marry a 25 y/o wannabe actress. it's sad to think some fans think we're delusional for seeing the OBVIOUS thing. +
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This Anon is responding to this post from the night of the NTAs a few weeks ago, but these comments are still relevant now because some new awkward pics have just come out in promotion for Michael and AL’s upcoming appearance on Celebrity Gogglebox. For those who haven’t seen, these are the pictures in question:
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Also, right after this was posted, Georgia retweeted Michael and made her own addition (which AL also immediately jumped on, after having tweeted absolutely nothing since August):
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When I saw these pictures, all I could think of was the NTAs, and how the chemistry and connection between Michael and David was gorgeously palpable. They hugged, they had their arms around each other, and Michael was open and warm and vulnerable with David...but here, he is the opposite. He looks so constrained with AL--and again, this is not me saying he hates her, because I do not believe he does--but there is a comfort level that one usually has with the person they’re dating that he just doesn’t have with her. She is not the love of his life. She is not his “person,” and it shows.
Which is why it also annoyed me a bit to see Georgia jumping on the new post and promoting it on Twitter and Insta, as well as adding that #Shebergs hashtag (a portmanteau of Michael and Anna’s last names). The only thing Michael and David did at the NTAs was be themselves, and they were the darlings of the media. What was between them didn’t have to be pointed out or hashtagged...it was just there. Yet Georgia christening them #Shebergs falls into the same vein as her sharing the picture of Michael and AL from the NTAs and putting a heart over it: Trying to force something that isn’t there.
(Side note: Suddenly I understand Regina George telling Gretchen to “stop trying to make fetch happen” in a way I never did before...)
So to me, Georgia doing this (and AL subsequently doing the same) comes across as a bit of an attention grab. Nevermind that #Shebergs is kind of awful because it sounds like Georgia is calling AL a fucking iceberg. (Does that make Michael/AL’s relationship the Titanic? Oof...) Either way, to me it feels like a cold word that has no love or warmth to it, and I think that says a lot. But again, there is Georgia trying to push that narrative of them as a couple as she has before, and it’s just awkward for the reasons you described, Anon.
Overall, I think it’s disingenuous to put Michael and AL’s relationship on the same level as Michael and David’s when they’re not even close. This picture from the NTAs says it all, in my opinion:
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(How anyone can look at this photo and then at the above pictures of Michael and AL and not see a difference is beyond me...)
As for how Staged would’ve turned out if AL wasn’t in it, well...I don’t really think there would have been much difference, honestly. Though I do wonder if Simon would’ve leaned even more into Michael and David being a couple (as if what we got wasn’t literal fanfiction he wrote that Michael and David acted in). We’ll never know for sure, of course, but it is interesting to think about...
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imagintheworldaway · 4 years ago
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Together
Anonymous asked: Hello! Can you do a Harryxfem! Reader where people see how Harry looks at the reader (calorie challenge- rematch (time stamp 27:17)) and the reader is so oblivious to Harry’s feeling for her because he broke up with his long-term ex last fall and she doesn’t want to read deep into it and just keeps telling people that they’re just friends even though everyone can see past the bull crap and keeps shipping them because they’re very similar and meant to be and after months of Harry pinning after her he tries to move on and go on dates (which fails but she doesn’t know that it’s not working out for him ) so she starts seeing someone and magically somehow end up together and become the “it” couple because of how blunt and honest they are. Sorry that was long! Hope you can write it thanks!
A/N Good gosh this is a long one. I hope you enjoy! Requests are open 
Sitting on the sofa next to Cal, snuggled in a mountain of blankets in Harrys apartment whilst the boys filmed a video was always fun. They were filming the 100,000 calorie challenge and it was JJ, Vik , Cal and Harrys turn to be eating the calories. We were sat watching JJ as he revealed he had absolutely failed the challenge to everyones surprise. The boys all started to complain as I giggled at the failure which was JJ right now. I felt a slight nudge on my side and Cal not so discreetly nodding towards Harry, I looked over at him and smiled but he averted his gaze from me and buried his head into the massive bear still complaining at JJ as it was revealed he had messed up the challenge even more by starting before the official time. 
After JJ’s little mess up they decided to make the fried mars bars, and I feel as though even saying it is cause for disaster. The boys were all crowded around the counter, just making a mess really, not much surprise there. I was happy in my own little world scrolling through instagram with the boys chatter in the background when I started to smell something burning and a mass amount of smoke from the boys. “Oh my god you idiots” I said matter of factly before grabbing the pan and holding it out the window, not wanting the apartment to stink of burnt mars bars as the guys tried to switch off the fire alarm. 
Once everything had calmed down I started to clean up as the boys ate the left over chocolates. “ you don’t have to clean up Y/N” Harry said to me as he bought over a plate to the sink. “Its ok I don’t mind, something to do at least” I smiled up at him. “You sure? I feel bad” he said scratching his shoulder and giving me an awkward smile. “I’m sure, go enjoy your food” I giggled pushing the boy away from me slightly. I finished up the washing as the boys chatted over their takeaways trying to figure out how many calories they were up to. I popped the remaining dishes in the dish washer and popped it on for the boys. 
Once they had finished Cal and I bid the boys goodbye and hoped in an Uber, we lived in the same apartment complex so it made sense that we shared rides just about everywhere. “Soooo” cal started tapping his his legs to the beat of the song that the Uber driver had popped on for us. i gave him a questioning glance as I sent my text to Harry, informing him I had popped the dish washer on and for him not to forget about it. “When are you two finally going to get together” Cal said peering over my shoulder and trying to take a peek at my texts with Harry. I just scoffed switching off my phone and turning my head to look at Cal. “Look he got out of a long term relationship not even six months ago, he just needs a friend right now, and that’s all I am, a friend, plus even if he hadn’t just gotten out of a relationship, well I don’t think he’d be interested in me anyway, like I said I’m just a friend” I shrugged to Cal giving him a half smile trying to cover the sadness which was evident on my face. “I don’t know Y/N if you ask me, or well any of the lads he looks at you like your a gift here gracing us all with your presence. like your some type of angel, he likes you, he really does, he’s just scared to ruin what you have” Cal stated as we hoped out the uber and made our ways into the lift. “Well I don’t want to sound rude, but I didn’t ask Cal, I don’t need my hopes being brought up just for it all to be speculation.” I stated matter of factly. “This is me, I’ll see you later yh?” I questioned Cal who just pursed his lips and nodded to me giving a small see ya. 
I really wasn’t trying to be rude but I had had my heartbroken so many times, and I don’t want to start getting my hopes up about Harry if it is just all speculation and some sort of narrative the lads were making up for themselves. I slumped down on my bed and posted a selfie on instagram asking people what they want to know about me. I wasn’t a huge YouTuber but I did have a large instagram following meaning the questions flooded in within an instant. There was the usual that I answered such as my favourite colour, what am I having for dinner, best place I had ever visited and so on. After a few more generic questions someone asked what my favourite picture was. I scrolled through my camera roll and found one of Harry and I at winter wonderland. we were both wearing Santa hats and he was giving me a piggy bag as I held onto a large teddy he had won me moments before. I captioned it ‘Christmas with my Bestfriend, look at how goofy he looks @wroetoshaw’ I giggled as I posted the pic remembering that day. it was a rare day off for the both of us and with Harrys break up still fresh I decided we should go to Winter Wonderland and just have fun. Which we did, it was one of my most treasured memories with him. He had taken his breakup so hard that I felt it was important that he had a friend around who could take the crying and emotions, someone to just cuddle with and forget about the world. And over the past few months I realised that my feelings for Harry had grown, but he was still hurting and there was no way that I was being any boys re-bound. 
I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to blaring light through the blinds of my lounge. I groaned to myself before getting up and trudging to my bedroom to sort myself out. i looked at my phone and I had a few texts from Harry. I smiled as I read them. 
‘Thank you! Almost forgot, you are honestly the best Xx’
‘You alive???? Xx’
‘Good night Xx’
‘Like the insta pic’
I furrowed my eyebrows at the last text. It was sent only minutes after the goodnight text and it didn’t have any of the kisses we usually put on the end of our texts to each other. I also hadn’t got a good morning text from Harry, that was particularly strange because I have always gotten a Good morning and Good night text from him for the past few months with out fail. I just shrugged it off before replying, 
‘Haha no problem! I fell asleep as soon as I got home I’m sorry :( wanna meet up later? Xx’
I smiled at my reply before going to my bedroom and changing to look more presentable. I checked my phone and it was almost lunch meaning Cal was coming over to film a video with me. just as I re adjusted my hair for the a millionth time I heard a knock on the door signalling that cal was here. “Hello stranger” I smiled letting him into my apartment with the array of crisps and snacks he had in his arms. We were filming a British corner shop mukbang whilst answering twitter questions. As Cal settled himself in my studio I helped by opening the array of snacks and cans of drink that he had bought for us. “Hey really weird question but have you heard from Harry today?” I questioned trying not to sound so desperate as to the whereabouts of the boy. “Uh yh messaging me all morning, think he’s got something on tonight. He not told you?” Cal looked up from the array of junk raising his eyebrows at me as I just shook my head in disbelief that he was ignoring me. As we settled in our seats and I turned the camera on I sent Harry a quick text. 
‘Hey have I done something wrong?? :( Xx’ 
The video was going amazing. Cal and I just naturally bounced off of each other and the questions the fans were giving us were quite juicy. “Alright, alright, I’ve got one. Y/N has Harry asked you out yet or is he still being a melt? From @CalFreezy” I giggled at the question and raised my eyebrows at Cal. “These are meant to be from Fans” I retorted to Cal telling him off a little. “Yh Freezy is your biggest fan he’s always nattering on about you and talking about you moving in with them when Harry gets the guts” Cal defended himself causing me to burst out laughing. “Well we all know Harry and I are friends, I love him very much but that’s as deep as it goes” I replied to Cals previous question from Freezy, slight sadness barely evident in my voice. “Is that the only thing that goes deep” Cal stated before bursting out laughing at himself and falling back in his chair ultimately falling off of it causing me to laugh. “Well that’s it for today guys thank you for watching and thanks to this idiot for joining me” I smiled at the camera before shutting it off and helping Cal from the floor. 
“You really need to stop that you know? You can’t force anything to happen” I said matter of factly towards cal as he nibbled on some Pringles. “You see Y/N I’m actually Cal from the future and I’m just stating facts” he gave me a cheesy grin as I tutted at him and rolled my eyes. I was taken out of my trance by a text from my phone. “Alright ditch me for lover boy” Cal called after me. I opened my phone to see it was from Harry but it wasn’t what I was expecting. 
‘Hey Y/N, we shouldn’t hang out anymore it makes Belle uncomfortable.’ 
“Cal what the fuck is this” I shouted to my friend. I heard the thudding of his feet and turned around to show him the message I had just received. He furrowed his eyebrows. “Belle Belle Belle Oh Belle, her really?” Cal scrunched his nose up at me. “Ummm elaborate, who’s Belle?” I pressed for him to release more info to me. “Oh Harry went on a date with her like three weeks ago, looks like it worked out, well for them I guess” Cal shrugged piecing the different parts of the puzzle together for me. “Oh, wow, so he is just gonna drop me like that, like I’m, I’m nothing, like i wasn’t the one there for him when he was mourning over his last breakup. Well that’s a kick in the teeth” I said starting to sniffle, tears threatening to break their way out of my eyes and my mood instantly dropping to nothing. “Hey no don’t cry” Cal said engulfing me in a hug, which I gladly melted into. “If he couldn’t see what he had with you then that boy is more blind than we all thought.” Cal reassured me rubbing my back. “Plus your make up looks too nice to cry it off” Cal said catching a stray tear from my face and making me giggle a little. “Oh Cal why can’t we fall in love?” I questioned sniffing and straightening out my clothes. “Because that would be like fucking my sister and that’s weird” Cal stated making me giggle. 
I don’t think anyone could quite get their heads wrapped around the fact that Harry was with someone new, especially because that someone was not me. For the next month I got fans tweeting me asking if Harry and I had broken up or if he had gone crazy. I also got sorry looks from my friends. Always being placed in the furthest seat away from Harry, always given excuses as to why I couldn’t come to shoots. It sucked majorly. And the worst part about all of this is everyone felt like they had to tread on eggshells around me, as if I wasn’t a fully grown woman who could handle these situations. 
I knocked on Simons apartment door before he opened it replying to someone about something. “Oh Y/N you alright” he said quickly closing the door a little. “Yh Talia said I could pop round and grab my camera that she borrowed.” I said smiling at the lanky man. “Oh yh well um come in, just be careful yh” Simon nodded at me. I furrowed my eyebrows and just nodded at his comment following him through to the living room. And as soon as I saw the tall figure sat next to Harry with an unimpressed look on her face I realised why Simon gave me such a warning. “Heyyyy Y/N Is here” Ethan called standing up giving me a hug making me giggle a little. “Yh Talia knicked my camera again” I stated smiling at the girl who blushed a little realising she still hadn’t returned my device. “Oh so that’s Y/N” a snotty voice said causing everyone to quiet down and all eyes turning in her direction. “Yup, the one and only” I smiled back at her trying to be as nice as possible. “Belle right? Nice to meet you” I smiled back at her trying to make conversation in the silent room. I rocked back and forth on my heels for a while, Belle gave me a good look up and down, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips as if wanting to comment something. Before she could I saw Harry whisper something to her and she scoffed. “If I have an opinion I’m going to say it. And I have many about her” Belle said loud enough for everyone to hear whilst pointing at me. “Here I found it” Talia smiled at me handing me my camera before noticing the mood of the room. 
“Ok well, I will be off then, lovely to see you all and to meet you Belle” I stated the last part through gritted teeth before spinning around and making my way to the door. “Even worse from the back” I heard Belle try and whisper to I presume Harry. I stopped in my tracks and raised my eyebrows. The audacity of this girl, how dare she disrespect me in front of all my friends. I turned around to meet her eyes with a sickeningly sweet smile on my face. Before I could say anything though Talia butted in. “You know what, you do not talk to my friend like that, I have barely known you a month and I am so sick of you already, please leave before I do or say something I regret” she smiled at Belle joining me by my side and linking arms with me. Belle just looked around at everyone, with everyone just averting their gaze and waiting for something big to happen. All she did was huff, grabbing Harrys hand and storming out of the apartment with him. 
“Jesus Y/N what did you do to make him choose her, she’s like an angry controlling goblin” Ethan huffed as soon as we all heard the door close. “Hey, I got cut off a long time ago, ask him not me” I giggled before thanking Talia and leaving the apartment to go home. 
I was lounging around my apartment, Ethans words spiralling around my head. I decided tonight was for me. I popped on my favourite movie and rummaged through my freezer finding some ben and Jerrys and starting to scoff down the tub. This sofa must be super man or something because I had soon fallen asleep, I was only awoken by loud continuous knocking at my door. I regained my focus and gaged my surrounding before wrapping a blanket around myself and making my way to the door. As soon as I opened it I was pulled into a bone crushing hug. “I’m so fucking sorry, its you its always been you, I don’t know what I was thinking, I just needed someone to fill the void and she was ok for a week but I need you. You are all I need, all I want, please forgive me I love you” as much as I just wanted to melt into his arms I pulled my self back so that we were an arm lengths apart. “You best come in” I sighed. I finished the teas and made my way over to Harry, passing him his favourite mug of mine. I crossed my legs as we sat at opposite ends of the sofa in silence. 
“What about Belle?” I broke the silence, harry whipped his head up to look at me. “Look I’m so sorry she was a mistake and I should never have even given her shot. She’s so nasty and I could never forgive myself. This past month without you has felt like my heart was ripped in two. I’ve been so miserable and then when I saw you today I felt like I had been given a new chance at life. I get it if you hate me but I need you so bad and I cant live without you.” Harry opened his heart to me for the second time that evening. “You’re such a dummy Harry” I said with a sigh placing my mug on the coffee table. Harry looked at me as if he was broken by the words I just said. I just shook my head at him before leaning over and planting a soft kiss on his lips. The moment seemed to last forever. It was like in the movies when time slowed down and fireworks erupted around the couple who after all their trials and tribulations finally found each other. “I can’t help but love you Harry” I whispered only inches from his face as I pulled back for air, a sly grin on my face. Harrys arms snaked around my wait brining me into him for another soft kiss. i leant my head on his chest listening to his heart, thumping like it was going to break out and slap me in the face. “So what now” harry mumbled into my hair. I leant up so my eyes met his. “Well you will ask me on a date to a nice restaurant where we end up getting a little too drunk. Then we walk along the Thames, watching people walk by when at the perfect moment when the city goes silent you ask me to be your girlfriend and then we come back here and spend the night together. But with a little more physical activity than were used to” I grinned at him causing him to chuckle. “So you forgive me?” He said looking at me with pleading eyes. “God yes I forgive you, I could never be mad at you” I smiled at him. How could I? I did truly love him and it was as simple as that. 
After a few months, and the date Harry had promised, we told our friends and announced to our followers that we had finally decided to get together. apparently it was quite obvious as the boys had started taking bets as to when we would tell them about our new relationship. The fans seemed to love it as well, always receiving amazing and supportive comments on all of our posts and videos that we did together. Although we were young I think people saw how care free and happy we made each other. Most importantly how much we loved each other.
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nerdflash · 4 years ago
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Lights, Camera Action
A/N: Here’s the second part of the Lights, Camera, Action series. You can find Part One here
Synopsis: Tom Holland x Fem! Reader. You’ve started developing feelings for Tom on the set of his new film. On a day off, you receive a message, that makes you question if he is flirting with you.
Word Count: 1.6k
Mentions: Alcohol and alcohol use, lousy ex boyfriends, men being players and social media.
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PART TWO - Mixed Messages
You’re not sure what time it is when your room mate wakes you up leaving the apartment, but you mutter a curse word and reach for your phone to check the time. Even though it’s 10am you’re still feeling wiped out after getting home around 4am but you know you won’t be able to get back to sleep now you’ve looked at your phone. Vanessa has sent you a message, you click on it and smile.
“He asked me out on a third date! He asked ME!! Fancy going for a few drinks later and I can fill you in on all the details?” 
“Sure, I have an apartment viewing at 2pm but free after that. Let me know where, I don’t want to show up looking casual, if you’re in one of your dressing up moods! ;)” 
A few seconds later your phone pings with a reply.
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?! Fine, let’s meet at The Varnish around 7pm. Dress code smart casual!” 
“See you later! I can’t wait to hear about your date! <3”
You roll on to your side and reach down to plug your phone charger in. Time for a social media binge before you get out of bed. You scroll through Facebook and reply to a couple of messages to friends back home. This would be the longest amount of time you’d spent away from home, but when you’d been offered the job to coordinate on a feature film, you couldn’t turn it down. You’d had to say goodbye to everyone you loved, knowing you wouldn’t be able to see them for around 8 months, but Vanessa had become a firm friend fast. She was also proving to be a great mentor and had helped you learn so much more.
You click on instagram and are scrolling through, when you see that Tom has uploaded a photo. He’s sat reading through a script and the caption reads “Can’t wait for you guys to see what I’m working on. I hope you like it.” 
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You smile as you scroll through the comments and see nothing but support and excitement for Tom from his fans. Quite a fair number declaring their love and apparent attraction to him. You lick your lips and decide to leave a comment. You’re fairly sure he gets that many notifications and comments, he probably won’t even notice it, right? Besides, he doesn’t even know you have instagram.
“They’re going to love it, because you’re much better than you give yourself credit for Mr Holland.” You hit send and decide to face the day, but first coffee. You switch on your Spotify playlist and head into the kitchen, thankful that you don’t have to make small talk with your horrible room mate and her horrible “boyfriend” Soon the kitchen smells of freshly brewed coffee and you’re feeling excited about a bit of a girls night tonight. Your phone pings with a notification.
You click on the screen and are taken to the Instagram app, you feel your palms break out in a sweat when you see that Tom has started following you. You click on the inbox and see a message from Tom. Letting out a little yelp of surprise, you throw your phone on the side as though it’s burnt you.
You pace back and forth for a moment before reaching for the phone and taking a deep breath. You open the message.
“You don’t have to call me Mr Holland on your day off! ;)” 
In spite of the nerves running through you, you can’t help but laugh.
“I don’t have to call you Mr Holland at all…” You hit send and bite your lower lip as you see that Tom is typing something back.
“True...But I kind of like it when you do… Anyway, I should let you get back to sleep right? :P”
Something warm travels deep within you and you realize that you have crossed a line now, where you no longer see Tom as a friend and a work colleague, but someone who you want to spend time with, someone you want to learn more about and give him reasons to smile and be happy. You want to reply with every cell of  your being, but you decide you’ll talk to Vanessa first. She’d noticed that you and Tom spent alot of time talking between takes weeks ago, when she’d asked you about it she’d known by the colour of your cheeks that you had developed a crush on Tom.
Whilst she technically shouldn’t encourage anything, in order to maintain a professional environment on set, she also said that the two of you looked good together and if anything was to happen, then there were some legalities with HR that would need to be sorted but it wasn’t against the law, you wouldn’t lose your job and that she would like ALL the details if anything happened.
You shoot her a quick text.
“Can we meet a bit earlier? Say around 4pm? I need some advice!”
“Of course, are you ok?”
You smile at her concern and reply
“I need to talk about Tom and get your thoughts on a message he sent me!”
“I’ll be there...I want to know everything!”
-
You smile over at Vanessa and pick up your glass.
“Cheers to you and your very successful second date. It sounds like he really likes you Vanessa.” The woman sat opposite you smiles and takes a sip of her drink, a shy smile on her face. Vanessa was so confident at work and amazing at her job, but for some reason, she’d seemed to have dated a lot of losers and in turn, it had made her not be as confident in herself. But she was beautiful, smart and successful, and honestly, this guy did seem really nice.
“You think so?” You nod your head and put your hand on her arm.
“Of course, I mean he kissed you and asked you on a third date, which involves cooking for you. Please. He’s smitten!” Vanessa smiles at you and clinks her glass against yours before taking a sip and sitting back in her seat.
“So...Tell me about this message from Tom.” You fill Vanessa in on a bit of the backstory about how he’d told you he doubted his talent and the name you use to tease him with. You show her his message and watch as she reads. 
“He is totally flirting with you!” Vanessa looks at you. “The way he says he kind of likes it when you call him Mr Holland!” She raises her eyebrows at you and wiggles them, causing you to laugh.
“But, what if he’s just a flirty person and it doesn’t mean anything?” You shrug your shoulder knowing this must be the only explanation because there’s no way Tom Holland could be flirting with you. Vanessa shakes her head and looks thoughtful.
“No, I don’t think so. Usually guys who are just flirty with everyone, tend to keep their comments private because they want to play multiple girls at once without them knowing about the others existence. You need to post a selfie or a hot pic of yourself and see if he comments.”
Your eyes widen at her suggestion. “A selfie? I don’t know. What if he doesn’t comment? I feel like it’s going to be worse if he doesn’t because then I’ll feel extra stupid for flirting with him.” Vanessa looks at you sternly.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You need to make sure he has no choice but to comment. Come on.” She stands up and grabs your hand and leads you over to a wall decorated with flowers, she orders another two drinks from a passing waiter and reaches into her bag. 
“What are you doing?” You ask, as she takes out some setting powder and starts wiping gently across your head and down your nose. 
“Getting you ready for a photo.” You sigh, unsure of what to say. She tells you to put some more lipstick on, so you oblige and shake out your loose curls. Vanessa adjusts them over one shoulder, and pulls one of the straps of your dress down.
“Again, what are you doing?” You reach for the strap but Vanessa swats your hand away.
“Leave it. Trust me, right now hold your drink in this hand, and look that way.” You sigh and roll your eyes.
“I feel ridiculous!” Vanessa laughs and snaps a photo.
“But you look amazing! Ok, stop frowning on this one. Smile….Y/N smile...No, you look like your cringing. Is it hard to smile because you’re British?” And you don’t know why, but this makes you genuinely laugh out loud. Vanessa walks over to you after a few moments, looking pleased.
“Here!” She passes you her phone and you look at the photo, feeling somewhat pleasantly surprised. Your smile is genuine and the way she’s framed the photo, makes it look as though your laughing at someone you’re looking at off camera. The fallen dress strap brings attention to your neck and clavicle, which kind of gives it a sexy vibe. 
“Ok I’m impressed. Send it to me?” Vanessa smiles and takes her phone back. You save the photo on your phone and bite your lip wondering if this is a good idea. Your friend shakes her head and looks you in the eye.
“Come on, post it. You look amazing!” In spite of your nerves you smile and decide to post the photo with the caption.
“Blowing off some steam after a long week at work! Photo credit to my girl @VCullenLA”
You look at your friend “Now what?” She smiles and leads you to the bar.
“More drinks!” And you think nothing more of the photo.
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kuroos-moon · 4 years ago
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E-girl S/o 
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☾ pairings: ushijima x reader, oikawa x reader, kuroo x reader 
☾ request: headcanons for Ushijima, Oikawa and Kuroo reacting to or being interested in/dating a girl that is kinda goth/e-girl/edgy? Like they wear a lot of black, like scary movies and video games, have a very sarcastic personality?
☾ warning/s: none
☾ a/note: not rlly sure if i did e-girls justice on this one im sorry 
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Ushijima Wakatoshi 
• Doesn’t get the “oh, I didn’t expect girls like y/n are your type” 
• Like?? Uhm, wdym it’s self-explanatory you’re just so eye-catching 
• Yes, you caught the Ushiwaka’s eye 
• You’re not dating or anything, let alone have started a conversation 
• But there’s an impressive number of people who know he likes you a lot
• Wakatoshi’s blunt and genuinely honest for most times if not all of his life 
• “You like anyone?” “Yes.” “Really? Is it that cute girl from your cl-
• “Y/n L/n.”  
• Knows how much you love black bc it’s not rlly hard to miss, you wear it on you every chance you get
• And now you’ve cursed him with remembering you every time he sees the color 
• You heard of the rumors that one of the nation’s top three aces likes you and you don’t believe them ofc 
• Not that you don’t know you’re pretty, you love your reflection but you just reckon you’re not his type yk? 
• He’s more of an admire and fall for you more from afar type of dude
• Totally stops and stare when you walk in the gym wearing a short black skirt and a black top, with boots and chains and all 
• Doesn’t know a thing about fashion but damn, you’re so hot?? 
• Cannot hear even his own coach
• Hopes you’re not going on a date 
• “Geez, y/n, is it someone’s funeral?” “Ah, Satori-chan, why are you even out of your cascket?” 
• Kinda thinks you’re mean bc you’re sarcastic and his humor rlly isn’t up to your level lmao sorry but he wants to know what’s it like to actually talk to you 
• So he does, once he bumps into you on his way out of the gym and you just awkwardly stare at each other 
• “I like your style. Your outfit.” He says, and he is not even shy on the outside at least
• “uh thanks?” you just kinda smile at him bc ydk what youre supposed to do this is wakafreakingtoshi we’re talkin bout 
• “you like black a lot.” “yeah, I do, what of it?” 
• “you really look good in it. You own the color,” he says that like it’s no big deal before he walks away 
• You totally crush on him after that encounter 
• Basically, he doesn’t have a type. he cannot distinguish cute girls, e-girls, or any ‘type’ of girls
• What he could so naturally distinguish though, is you—his lovely darling in black—and the rest of the female population he couldn’t care less for 
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Oikawa Tōru 
• You’re his most treasured babygirl and no he doesn’t take any criticism 
• Your taste in fashion? 💯/💯
• Is maybe a tad bit too in love with your pretty boy and e-girl dynamic in pics bc his Instagram is flooded with them 
• Hypes you up in your socials, in his, and in real life 
• Goes for captions like: “choke me like you hate me, y/n-chan” and “step on me and I’ll apologize instead” 
• He’s so cheesy but you love it :>
• Lets you pick out his clothes once in a while though you have different tastes and preferences 
• You return the favor too sometimes and it’s not even a compromise on either of your parts 
• You just have fun with your own things and you’re having fun in trying out things the other likes too yk? 
• One thing that shortens his lifespan is when you watch horror movies together 
• HOW ARE YOU NOT SCARED? Loves spending nights like this with you nonetheless though
• “y/n-chan is the ghost gone?” “yup, you could open your eyes now.” “thank g- hey!” 
• Is the rare male teenager who’s kinda knowledgeable in make-up products bc of u
• He knows what kind of eyeliner you use and if he sees something kinda cool when he’s out, he’ll buy it for you
• Or tell you about it: “y/n-chan do you know this eyeliner called ***? I don’t know if it was the lady’s sales talk but I think you’ll like it”—wholesome and thoughtful
• Flexes you a lot and will not tolerate all the “Tōru and y/n don’t really look good together” 
• “Right? She just doesn’t complement him right.”
• He’s childish and more so when agitated, not even Iwaizumi could hold him back
• “Oh yeah? THEN LOOK AT MY FABULOUS NAILS” flexes all ten of his fingers which you painted black just last night on your bedroom floor 
• You just flip your hair in their direction and drag Toru away bc you’re too unbothered <33 
• “y/n-chan back me up here, you have the bitchiest attitude towards me so let’s work together and unleash our sass on them so they shut up, okay?” 
• It’s really rare for him to be that way with his fans but he’s the numero uno y/n-stanner ofc he won’t take that crap 
• “your makeup and taste in clothes aren’t even half as good as y/n’s.” sticks his tongue out ✨maturely✨
• Hates when he has to play Karasuno bc you once mentioned you could imagine Tobio having the same aesthetic as you 
• You also might’ve jokingly told him that “Toru I should’ve gotten a boyfriend from Karasuno, it’d be cool to tie their jacket around my waist and cheer for him at the same time.” 
• Was so mad at you about it and refused to talk to you for days because he’s just so not childish at all 
• “Ugh, why don’t they just change their team color to pure orange. Chibi-chan domination.” 
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Kuroo Tetsuro
• Already took an interest in you from what he observes is an interestingly snarky character 
• Has been seeing you in only your uniform at first though but then he finds himself thinking a bit too much about you one night
• Stalks your Instagram <33 
• Jaw drops, heart beats a tad bit faster, his yearning grows 
• You’re so pretty. So good in black. Your poses? The whole vibe of your feed? He doesn’t know what to do with his admiration you’re just so freaking meant for him
• He gets it’s not the usual style for most girls in school, and tbh he didn’t know he’d like it so much, he just does now
• Knows there was no saving him once he starts imagining scenarios about you before he goes to bed
• This dork starts to know more things about you—it’s really cool that you play the same games as him 
• Is up to date on your posts, your ig story, and your tweets but why in the world are you still not in bed at 3 in the morning? 
• You just love gaming, huh? Should he start a conversation with you about it? He played that often too with Kenma
• He just can’t seem to though bc he’s nervous and lowkey intimidated 
• Once witnessed you jokingly exchange snarky comments with your friends and you even flipped them off 
• It’s settled then, he’ll graduate without talking to you sad kuroo noises 
• You once posted a pic flexing your matte black nails on a weekend and when the weekday came, he was so excited to see them in person 
• But your nails are no longer painted, and he was so disappointed bc they looked rlly attractive to him 
• Voices out his thoughts mindlessly. “You removed your nail polish.” 
• Everyone—including you—is surprised. Your desks aren’t even next to each other but his body was facing you 
• Cringes internally once he realizes he had said it but is so surprised when you smile at him. 
• “It’s not allowed in school, it’s a shame, you think they were pretty too, right?” 
• He cannot function, he totally did not prepare for this—and to think he had so many nights imagining different scenarios about you. 
• He was rlly popular and you thought you acted too confident; you just curse yourself for it. “Oh, uh sorry I thought you saw my post.” 
• You look away, embarrassed. “Yeah,” he chuckles a bit. You cringe. 
• “Black really suits you, and your nails were pretty, wish I could’ve seen them today, that’s all.”
• And who would’ve thought your relationship would bloom since then 
• All because he’s so interested and mesmerized with everything about you <3 
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General Taglist [Open]: @noyasbitchh @dinablossom @haru-the-secret @strayczennies @lalisbitch @tinymidgetsstuff @animebs @astrealia @kittykitkatstrawberry @hajimesbbygrl @kellesvt @24hr7dysdizzy @arnxldss @elianetsantana @vicassa @floraraine @beanst0ck @leinnah @kageyamasgirl @deafeningart @minibobabottle   @franko-pop @moonlightaangel @throughtheinterstices @micasaessakusa @dixonsbugaboo @thevillagehiddenintheinternet @ultzuko
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1ddotdhq · 4 years ago
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💙 Thurs 24 Dec ‘20 🎂
Happy BIRTHDAY, Louis!! You are: golden, the end of June, perfect now, a rainbow paradise, the habit that we can’t break, and, most importantly, TWENTY NINE YEARS OLD! Fans, friends, charities and industry folks alike spent their day sending well wishes to Louis. Allontheboard put up a poem with only 1D titles to celebrate, Free My Meal, Bluebell Wood, Sandy Beales, Paul Arthurs (Oasis), and many more called him brilliant (or a legend, etc.) and wished him well. Helene, Eleanor and Krystle put up new pictures of them with him and sent him love. Eleanor was denied the opportunity for the usual “clubbing and pap pics” by COVID but got around it by posting an old vid of her and Louis from one of those outings... in 2017, for HER birthday, at a gay club. Why not just a cute cozy pic of their stuck-at-home celebrations?? Oh riiiight cause that's not a real thing lol. Charlie Lightening wished him a happy birthday and said that the LIVEstream was a killer way to end the year (it was!). And then the FANS!! Well, we spent the day trending various hashtags and tweets and reminding the world that Louis’ a KING and a BOSS and a KILLER musician, and only we got a special thank you from Louis- he came on twitter to say, “Thank you for all the birthday messages. The money you raised for all your individual projects is unbelievable. Love to you all x”. (Did the Brit Awards or Only The Poets have a Louis charity drive? No they did not, that's a thank you for US!) We also got the uncut/unedited version of an interview from early March 2019 courtesy of a fan, as a treat! Seeing him chatting cheerfully away, unaware that such a horrible tragedy is about to strike feels- to me at least- somewhere between uncomfortable and vaguely indecent, but if you can divorce it from that his physicality in the unguarded moments when the interview pauses is, always, a beautiful glimpse behind the curtain, and revisiting the familiar rote answers about how he hoped to have an album by next year, maybe, is exciting and satisfying, knowing that it finally happened and it's HERE and celebrated and complete!
The discourse about the TPWK video is raging (how dare HSHQ release a video about kindness? When they, themselves, are SO UNKIND to US POOR FANS by making random other people who are not their clients say things that we don't like??), and I’d like to take the moment to remind everyone that Jeff Azoff is not in fact feeding cue cards to people who AREN’T his client (i.e. Liam, Lou Teasdale, Brett and co., etc) and that we should all really reconsider claiming that there are shadowy figures pulling everyone's strings like puppets, rather than that this is an industry focused on financial gain and mostly indifferent to collateral damage. And besides all that, I personally would much rather have a video with Harry ballroom dancing than NOT! It seems that someone isn’t completely on board with us having that video yet, though: accounts posting it were gone after heavily on twitter for copyright violations, and if you don't believe us that lots of things happen that aren't directly managed by HSHQ, what do you call HSD getting caught up in the sweep? Clearly THEY thought their connection to HQ meant they were immune, and left the video up when the other UAs saw what was up and deleted it, but nope! Which works out great for us, an excellent birthday present for their least favorite guy, Louis (and for us fans, SUCK IT JERKS!) Jeff does do some things though, and protecting HSD is one of them, so I suppose they'll be back. And speaking of people who do their jobs, we found out today that Shia LaBoef (who was originally cast as Jack in DWD) did not leave due to scheduling conflicts, but rather, Olivia Wilde fired him because of abuse allegations. Good Riddance! Talk about a glow up for that role, Shia--> Harry is a serious upgrade!
Liam and Roman have another socially distanced and randomly cut advent alarm, which claims Liam being afraid of spoons was one of the truths in their little game though he has repeatedly told us that's no longer the case, SUS, and told all of us to get ready ‘cuz * sings * Santa Claus is comin’ tonight! (I’m singing it, but sadly, they didn’t). Liam DID play the part of Santa and gave LP Show DJ Deewan a lovely bottle of champagne to ring in the new year. And he’s not the only one who mentors and spreads love: Alone, an Irish charity serving the elderly thanked Niall (and his Modest!Golf partner Mark) for recent contributions, Casey Lowery shared the story of going clubbing with Zayn’s PA who then put him in contact with Zayn and got him his record deal (awwww I want more mentor!Zayn stories!!), and we got a behind the scenes shot of an old Z photoshoot! The gifts abound! So it looks like we’ve got lots to celebrate: let’s celebrate all of the lights for Louis, H’s sparkly jacket, Liam waiting for Santa Claus, Niall’s phenomenal Christmas Toy drive donation, and Zayn enjoying a Harry Potter filled Christmas. Happy Holidays to all!
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rallamajoop · 4 years ago
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The Witcher: The Games vs the Books part 2 – Characters and Accents
So, I've already talked at length about the relationship between the Witcher books and games, but how well they captured individual characters is its whole own subject – and you’d better believe I have enough thoughts on it for a whole extra post.
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Andrej Sapkowski's skill for creating vivid and engaging characters really is so much of what brings the books to life, and no matter how much work an adaptation might put into worldbuilding and plot, it's the characters you've really got to nail to get the long-time fans on board. Especially when you’ve done what the games have, framing themselves as a direct continuation of Sapkowski's story. Nothing invites comparison to your source material like basically forcing fans to read the original novels to understand even half the backstory alluded to in-game. 
So how did they do? I can only offer my opinion – characterisation is necessarily going to be a lot more subjective than just telling you what plot points the games contradicted outright – but like any fan, I have opinions in plenty.
Of the main cast, I feel Yennefer is the character they've captured the best. They've done just as well with some supporting players – I have no real complaints about Dijkstra or Phillipa, for example, who are favourites of mine in both games and books. For the main players though, Geralt and Regis seem to be the ones who's differences I'm most inclined to forgive, whereas I don't feel like they've done Ciri justice at all. Book!Geralt is much less of a smartarse, for one thing, whereas Book!Ciri is much more of one. But if we're talking about the differences, I’m afraid we really need to start with Dandelion.
Dandelion
For all the genuinely good work the games do with characters, old and new, I don't think I can overstate what a disservice the they've done Dandelion, who I could not stand in TW3, but is now one of my favourite book!verse characters. Alas, Dandelion is a prime example of something the Witcher games really don't do well: camp. Being the archtypical bard, Dandelion is about as flamboyant as any enthusiastically-heterosexual man can be: you should be able to spot this guy by body language alone, he should be flouncing around and he should talk like a spoiled noble auditioning for Shakespeare. Book!Dandelion is over-the-top and ridiculous and just so much fun, and I loved him well before I'd even really gotten into the rest of the books around him.
Here's just a bit of dialogue from one of his first appearances, to give you a sense of how he and Geralt play off each other.
The  bard  seized  the  fingerboard  of  his  lute  and  plucked  the strings vigorously. ‘How would you prefer it, in verse or in normal speech?’ ‘Normal speech.’ ‘As you please,’ Dandelion said, not putting his lute down. ‘Listen then, noble  gentlemen,  to  what occurred  a  week  ago  near  the  free  town  of Barefield. ‘Twas thus, that at the crack of dawn, when the rising sun had barely tinged pink the shrouds of mist hanging pendent above the meadows—’ ‘It was supposed to be normal speech,’ Geralt reminded him. ‘Isn’t it? Very well, very well. I understand. Concise, without metaphors. A dragon alighted on the pastures outside Barefield.’
Though TW3's Dandelion certainly looks the part, you have to go hunting through art from the Gwent cards to find much that comes close to really capturing his personality (see left pic below – though even there, a Dandelion who'd voluntarily break his treasured lute is a very hard sell). Though a lot of fanart does better (right-below – credit goes to Tatiana Ortaliz).
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But as poorly as the games capture his flamboyance, they're not that much better when it comes to taking him seriously. TW3 left me thinking he was all talk and no substance; the books make abundantly clear that he really is renowned enough to be welcome in courts across the continent. Though he often overestimates what he can talk himself out of, he isn’t stupid either: he's lectured at Oxenfurt, spied for Dijkstra, and then there are the moments where the frivolous playboy mask slips and you realise he's sometimes much better at understanding people and relationships than Geralt will ever be (which is honestly kind of funny considering how many of Dandelion’s relationships end with plates being thrown at him from an upper story). He's not at all above mocking Geralt when he deserves it either (and especially his personal and relationship issues) – Geralt will happily mock him right back.
We never do learn how they became friends (I'm pretty sure the incident listed in the wiki is just the date of their first expedition together, not their first meeting), but Geralt just doesn't form lasting friendships or romances with anyone he can't have an intelligent conversation with. And Dandelion is a damn good friend to Geralt – one who, despite being a helpless, squishy little bard, will keep Geralt's secrets under torture, or will follow him into Nilfgaard in the middle of a war simply because you don't let a friend make a trip like that alone. (Seriously, I don’t ship it nearly as much as some, but hot damn there is some material in here if you do.) In short, it's basically inconceivable that he'd leave an amnesic Geralt wandering around Vizima alone, as he does in the first Witcher game – which is the kind of thing I can mostly forgive as a gameplay conceit, only it doesn’t really get better from there.
He’s also supposed to be blond, something I don’t think is technically specified until fairly late in the novels, but 100% what I’d been picturing since his first description as a man in a colourful bonnet with cornflower-blue eyes (let’s face it: Dandelion’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that screams ‘blond’). It’s a shame no-one from the games to the show to the novels’ cover artists seem to have noticed – but at least there are some fanartists out there who were paying attention (credit for these goes to Asphaloth, Ghostcupdraws, Hvit-ravn (tumblr deleted), 94355 and itsmespicaa).
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As for the games? Well, I cannot speak to how Dandelion came across in the original Polish, but I think it speaks worlds about the priorities of the English version that they didn’t even bother to cast someone with a halfway-decent singing voice as their master bard. There are isolated moments of dialogue that come close to sounding like book!Dandelion– mostly in Witcher 2, which comes closer to capturing the spirit of the books than either 1 or 3, or his attempts to convince his captor he's a disguised noble when you rescue him TW3 – but his voice actor is just painfully ill-suited to the role.
Geralt
Geralt fares much better than Dandelion, though he’s still a little hard to square with the Geralt of the books. Book!Geralt spends a lot more time sulking, just to begin with: he sulks because his job is complicated and gets him no respect, and because the world is unjust and unfair – and, most of all, he sulks because Yennefer has dumped him again. He also gets mocked for sulking, and usually deserves it. Book!Geralt is generally a lot more taciturn and a less prone to making smart comments just to have something to say – arguably because in book!Geralt's world, making smart comments often ends at the gallows, or at least with some corrupt official making your life much harder. Book!Geralt's world kind of sucks, and he's just got to put up with it.
As much as he often plays into the expectations of being an uneducated monster hunter, he's also got a more of an intellectual streak than you’d guess. He may prefer to stay out of politics (because damnit, his job is to save people from monsters, not people who are monsters), but he attended school at Nenneke's temple and has even taken classes at Oxenfurt academy, and there's a lot of thoughtful nuance to his opinions – his speech to Ciri about why he can't in good conscience take a stronger stance against the Scoiata'el contains a wealth of historical perspective, just for one example. Even his smart comments tend to be, well, somewhat smarter in the books.
Book!Geralt’s explicitly a lot younger than Yennefer – around 50 is the usual estimate, falling far short of the 100-ish the games suggest (the scandal of having a man fall for – gasp! – an older woman clearly didn’t bother Sapkowski one bit). You don’t see nearly as much "I'm getting too old for this" from book!Geralt, who's really not that old by witcher standards, and is apparently still hunting monsters long into his future. I'm also a little annoyed by the way they play off his hatred of portals like he's a grumpy old man who doesn't like mobile phones, when his distrust originally came from having seen the gruesome deaths that result when portals go wrong. This is not to say Book!Geralt lacks other ordinary human flaws, however – twice in the last two books of the main saga, he gets severely sidetracked after his ego gets the better of him (in the adulation he receives after being knighted, then after arriving in Toussaint), and it's quite some time before he properly gets back on track for that whole rescuing-Ciri thing again. He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to romance and relationships – breaking things off gracefully is really not in his skillset.
So why does game!Geralt not bother me more? Well, he's the main player character of a game franchise, and one who has to carry the experience largely solo. Some adjustments for genre are pretty much inevitable in that position. He's certainly fared better than Meve, for example, who's been softened far more from her book characterisation for her PC role in Thronebreaker. Then there's the whole amnesia thing – it's easy to believe that sort of experience would change a man – and if he doesn't sulk so much as he used to, maybe he's grown up a bit. Geralt's also in many ways the straight-man of Sapkowski's Witcher universe – there largely as the reliable centre for other, louder personalities to play off. But I expect the real bottom line here is that I do still like game!Geralt enough to forgive him a lot of what he lacks.
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The books never do describe Geralt as being very attractive – something book-based fanart often tries to reflect. The point has been made before that the rather-alien-looking Geralt of the first game (left pic above) is probably a lot closer to his book-description. However, the main distinguishing factor you’ll see in book-based fanart is probably the ubiquitous headband, which genuinely is what book!Geralt wears to make his hair behave (the example on the right above comes from Diana Novich).
All that said, if Sapkowski really wants me to believe that nearly so many women are eager to jump into bed with him, I’m going to have to shallowly assume our witnesses are unreliable on this front, and Geralt is at least as attractive as Witcher 3′s take on him. Nothing else makes sense. *g*
Regis
Regis varies mostly in that book!Regis is a lot more smug, sometimes verging on obnoxious – and a lot keener to make fun of Geralt (who generally deserves it). But then, Regis is old and wise and superpowered enough to dance rings around most everyone else – can you blame him? By Blood and Wine, Regis' overconfidence has been recently smacked down hard after his near-death-experience at the hands of Vilgefortz, and that kind of thing could knock some chips off anyone's shoulder. Throw in the fact that with Dettlaff, we have a situation not even Regis could make light of, and the changes to game!Regis make a certain amount of sense.
I do feel it's a bit of a shame that the vocal direction didn't work just a little bit harder to capture some of Regis' smugger side, or emphasise that his long-winded philosophising on human behaviour is supposed to sound a bit pretentious. This is actually something I suspect they were going for a few times in the script, but which didn't come through in the dialogue quite the way it was meant to. Still, again, I'm sure I'm biased by the fact that I like game!Regis far too much to find much fault in what they've done with him. They've done a lovely job capturing his friendship with Geralt too.
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Looks-wise, there's a tendency in book-based art to portray Regis with long hair (even some pre-Blood-and-Wine Gwent art did so – see the two pics on the left above, from Gwent and early B&W concepts. The right-most pic is cover art from the books). I couldn't rightly tell you where long-haired-Regis comes from, though – perhaps it's described more explicitly in the original Polish, or perhaps it comes up in passing in some passage I've forgotten, though it may just as well just be a fannish meme.
The books do describe him as looking rather like a tax collector, slim, middle-aged, with an aquiline nose, prone to wearing black, and his hair as 'greying' or 'grey streaked', so presumably somewhat younger-looking than the game would have it. The hammer-horror-esque sideburns are likewise a game-verse addition, though I do like the look they went with – it's distinct from Geralt in a way that making him another long-grey-haired man wouldn't have been, and that's probably the point.
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Being the hopeless Regis fan I am, I have quite the folder full of different fanart takes on book!Regis, so have a selection – art here is by gellihana-art, justanor, greysmartwolf, Nastyaskaya, NatalyLanier, beidak, natalliel, ellaine and afternoon63. For what it’s worth, I feel beidak’s (bottom pic, second from the left) comes the closest to what I’d have pictured personally, based on how he’s first described.
Ciri
I find it much harder to rationalise the changes to game!Ciri, who I didn't exactly dislike, but found stuck too close to the role of generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal to be very interesting. Having read the books, not only do I much prefer book!Ciri, I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much the game did NOT prepare me for utter gauntlet of whump and misery that girl survives in the last four titles. Book!Ciri is a character who works for me mostly because of the same flaws the game mostly strips her free of – TW3 makes some token noise about how you can't tell her what to do, but she’s an utter little royal brat when we first meet book!Ciri, and it’s so much of what brings her to life. She throws herself into her witcher training with the enthusiasm of a kid going completely native, but still revels in getting to be girly for a change when Triss first arrives at Kaer Morhen. She hates Yennefer at first, but soon bonds with her just as strongly as she ever did with Geralt, picking up some of Yennfer’s haughty mannerisms along the way. And then she gets thrown through a portal and lost in the distant wilderness, and the whole world comes down on her head.
The build up to the first time Ciri actually has to kill someone is intense... and things only get worse from there. Steadily. For another couple of novels at a stretch. Seriously, a major caveat that pretty much has to go into any rec for these books (and I will absolutely rec these books) is that Ciri's story gets heavy. So heavy one finds oneself using phrases like, "that time that one guy died of his wounds on top of her while semi-consensually feeling her up was honestly one of the less traumatic incidents in the period."
By the end of the novels, Ciri has nearly died of thirst, been beaten, tied up, dragged around the country as a prisoner, run with bandits and killed innocent people for the fun of it, done fantasy-cocaine and got a tattoo, fought off more than one attempted rape, been drugged, lain for multiple nights next to an impotent elf who completely fails to impregnate her, watched the bodies of her friends and girlfriend being mutilated in front of her, and did I mention where she got that scar? She has survived hell, and it is absolutely a testament to her own strength that she somehow comes through it and puts herself back together at the end. When Geralt finally arrives to rescue her, what matters most isn't that her ordeal is over, but that she finally knows she hasn’t been abandoned by everyone who’d ever loved her after all.
The Ciri of the books is fierce and wild and arrogant, but she's learned her morals from the best, and she holds onto them until she can't, then picks them back up again when she can, and above all she survives. For all that her story turns arguably too much of the last two books into a slog of misery, oh boy does it pay off at the end. And that's probably about as much as I can say about her Big Moment in the last book without spoiling too much, so suffice to say that by the end of the saga, Geralt has pretty much become a supporting character in Ciri's story, not the other way around. (Seriously, you’d be surprised how few chapters of the last two books he’s actually in.)
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Finding art which captures the aspects of Ciri’s character and history which are missing from the game has turned out to be pretty hard, though the fanart above from her bandit phase takes a decent crack at it (credit to Loles Romero and NastyaSkaya). I do rather like that one shot of her on horseback beside her girlfriend too, which comes from Denis Gordeev’s illustrations for the novels (below).
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How much of this does TW3 get across with her portrayal in the game? Well, she's still pretty headstrong, I guess. And they let you give a 'sorry, I like girls' answer in one bit of dialogue, so they remembered her girlfriend existed. That's nice. But game!Ciri still has a kind of wide-eyed innocence that book!Ciri lost years ago, while book!Ciri is a little force of nature in ways the games hardly even hint at, and that's a really shameful loss.
You'd think, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she's simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what's changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards. I can shrug off Geralt and Regis' differences and still enjoy their game-verse-selves, but Ciri leaves me genuinely disappointed.
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I’d say the official art that comes closest to capturing book!Ciri is that one portrait of her as a very grumpy young child (right above). Some of the early concept art (left above) feels a little more like it has her attitude, though she’s rather too yellow-blonde – not to mention too pretty. I think it also bears pointing out that Ciri isn’t really supposed to be the kind of beauty she is in the game – even before she gets what’s meant to be a seriously ugly and disfiguring scar. (Fanart below by justanor and bobolip)
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But of course, the male gamer fanbase can’t be expected to give a fuck about a girl they wouldn’t want to fuck, so game!Ciri must be generically gorgeous. Le sigh.
Triss
I suppose I should at least touch on Triss, too, though she's a very odd case. She's so out of character in the first Witcher game that I am wryly amused that the biggest thing they arguably do get right is that taking advantage of Geralt the moment he showed up with amnesia is... pretty well in-character for her (look, I gotta be honest here, I'm not much of a fan of Triss in any of her incarnations).
The second game does a much better job with her – she actually feels like book!Triss, she has some good dialogue, we're finally dealing with some of her conflicted loyalties to the Lodge and to Geralt – though by the third, her characterisation has been so softened into “the nice one” that none of that potentially meaty conflict is ever resolved, or even really mentioned. Perhaps there's more buried in the Triss-romance path, which I've never bothered with, but the writers seem to have just given up on dealing with anything that might make her look less than wholly sympathetic. Heck, we hardly even get a clear statement about why she and Geralt broke up between Witchers 2 and 3.
Even speaking as such a not-a-fan of Triss, I promise there is more they could've done with the character the books give us. There's her ongoing trauma in from the Battle of Sodden, where she was injured so badly she was memorialised as one the dead: the 14th of the hill. There's her furious impatience with the neutrality of both the witchers and the Lodge: Triss has fought and died for a cause, and is ready to do so again. The second game sort of gets into this, but by and large, the games really aren't up to tackling the moral complexity of having such a theoretically-sympathetic character as Triss, who was still broadly willing to go along with the Lodge's plans to pair Ciri off and get her pregnant as soon as possible – her own wishes be damned. No, instead, Triss has conveniently left the Lodge before the rest of them go spiraling into abject villainy in the second game, clearing all that messy grey stuff out of the conflict.
Of course, the really big unresolved plot point still hanging over book!Triss is how badly she needs to terms with the fact Geralt's just Not That Into Her, and never has been – but since the games want Triss to be a serious romantic option, that's definitely not getting the resolution it could've used.
Book!Triss also pointedly avoids any outfit with a plunging neckline because her chest is covered with the ugly scars she received in the Battle of Sodden, something the games did not have the guts to reproduce. In a more confusing note, the books do consistently describe her hair as 'chestnut', which we'd usually think of as meaning 'brown' – though it turns out the games actually may not have been wrong to make her a redhead, since in Poland 'chestnut hair' apparently mean dark red hair (google some pictures of actual chestnuts, and you'll see why). Still, the firy-red-haired Triss of TW3 who wears nothing but plunging necklines remains a bit of a stretch, however you slice it. Once again, TW2 gets her best (and I must say, gave her the nicest outfit) – though even here she's conspicuously unscarred in all her sex scenes.
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(Leftmost pic above is official Witcher 2 art, whereas Triss-with-scars fanart comes to us – once again – from nastyaskaya)
Shani
Shani sort of falls into a similar category as Triss as someone who isn't terribly well-served by any of her appearances, given that both exist in the first game largely to compete for Geralt's attentions. But I can't honestly say I find Shani’s portrayal in the Hearts of Stone expansion to be much better – the degree to which either version exists solely to fall all over Geralt is a bit painful, especially given that their relationship in the books is limited to a single, undramatic hook-up. Book!Shani really only appears in a couple of chapters: we meet her as a medical student friend of Dandelion's, who's been surreptitiously selling pilfered university supplies to fund her degree, then later see her again in the final book, where she proves herself as a battlefield medic during the climactic Battle of Brenna. She's pragmatic to a fault, and I really can't see her as the type who needs Geralt to point out to her that her patient is dead, for example, or who'd subject a guy with Geralt's problems to such an extended feelings-dump as you'll get out of her during the wedding.
Shani is a reasonably logical book-character to bring back, if only because she’s one of those who explicitly survives the ending, but for my money, "serious contender for Geralt's affections" is just not a role she works in.
Anna Henrietta
The duchess of Toussaint, Anna Henrietta, is another case who differs more from her book counterpart than you might think. In the books, the duchess is by far the least competent of the (pleasantly many and) various female leaders and rulers we meet – she comes across as rather young and naive, and every bit as absurd as everyone else in the ridiculous fairy-tale duchy she rules. She is, for example, most displeased to learn that Nilfgaard's war against the north is ongoing (something her courtiers have carefully avoided mentioning in her presence), because she'd long since sent the Emperor a stern note demanding he brought it to an end. She promptly has one of her ministers sent to the tower for misinforming her, and demands the others prepare an even sterner note for the emperor, which will surely do the job.
After Dandelion (inevitably) cheats on her, she has him repeatedly sent to the gallows, only to change her mind and send him a reprieve at the very last minute each time. Picture yourself a much younger and prettier version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and you've about got her general vibe.
Blood and Wine sort of waves at this part of her character when she first speaks about Dandelion, and again in suggesting there's a widespread feeling she lacks compassion, and once more as she proves utterly immovable on the subject of her sister. But the generally sensible and insightful woman you deal with for most of the main story is a far cry from her book-verse characterisation. That’s a bit of a shame, because I feel like there's a lot more they could have done to blend the two versions of her. Still, it’s hard to argue the duchess we get suits the story being told around her.
Other characters
Much as I love Yennefer, Dijkstra and Phillipa, I don't really have much more to say about them because I feel the games have done such a good job. The Yennefer of the books gets to show a lot more depth and complexity simply because she has more scenes and more space in which to do so, but when ‘there isn’t more of her’ is your biggest complaint, the game is officially doing pretty well. I could certainly gripe her about how “dresses in black and white” seems to have been taken as “dresses in black with maybe a trace of white trim”, or how Yennefer and Triss seem to be the only sorceresses in the world capable of wearing pants, when Phillipa (just for one) is in sensible men’s clothing the very first time we meet her, but that’s getting into serious nitpicking territory.
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(Not that Yen can’t look amazing in outfits with more white – art by Emily Caroll, theclashofqueens, BarbaraRosiak, and cosplay by greatqueenlina)
Vesimir, Lambert and Eskel, Geralt's fellow witchers from the School of the Wolf, fall into a similar category for me – though we spend far less time with them in the books, everything we see of them in the games feels like a fairly logical extension of their book-roles. Vesimir is somewhat over-played as the old fogey, and his death is painfully cliched, but the impact on the characters and Kaer Morhen still hits home – and the games do some especially great work expanding Lambert into a much more complex character. To my mind, the only shame is that more of the book-original characters didn't get the same treatment.
Who have I missed? There's Avallac'h, of course, but I think I've got him pretty well covered by that last post. Zoltan, perhaps inevitably, has had his personality largely flattened into 'generic dwarf', with nothing better to do than hang around Geralt and Dandelion. You wouldn't know Book!Zoltan was apparently incapable of turning away women and children in need, for example – even human women and children with the chronic inability to say thankyou for his help. Or that he eventually admits to Geralt that the luggage he and his friends are carrying comes from a decidedly unsavoury source for such a supposedly charitable, upstanding guy. Yes, even Zoltan gets to be a morally complicated character in the books – who knew?
Speaking of dwarves, pleased as I am that Yarpen Zigren gets remembered in TW2, he's an odd one to talk about, since even in the books, he appears to have had a substantial personality transplant between his two main appearances. Yarpen’s a largely comedic figure in The Bounds of Reason short story, where he cheerfully admits to having considered letting his men knock down a particularly pompous aristocrat and piss all over him to teach him a lesson, but he’s evolved into a studious voice of reason against the scoiata'el by Blood of Elves. TW2 doesn't do a particularly good job of capturing either version, which I suspect probably bothered me more than most people – I liked the later book-incarnation of Yarpen immensely (and not even just because he's one of few ever to really call Triss out on just how much she needs to stop misreading Geralt's friendship as anything more than it is). His chapter in Blood of Elves packs a hell of a punch.
On the subject of accents
I do have to wonder if I'd have warmed up to characters like Triss, Shani and Dandelion (or even Letho) more if they'd only had halfway decent voice actors. It's not just that none are exactly leading the talent at the acting part of the job, it's that their American accents stick out in TW3 like a sore thumb.
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Geralt mostly gets away his own US accent by dint of being the very first character we meet, so we've gotten used to the way he talks long before we notice how he stands out – hell, maybe that's just how they talk down in Rivia (hilariously, book!Geralt eventually reveals he's not even from Rivia, but simply picked the place and taught himself the accent so he could feel a bit less like the abandoned foundling he is, which only gives us yet more excuse for why his accent might sound a bit weird). More importantly, Geralt is meant to stand out, to be the outsider wherever he goes, so having him sound like no-one else fits the character.
But neither Triss or Dandelion are "of Rivia", and by the time they show up we've had dozens of hours in a game where literally everyone else sounds British, or Scottish, or Irish, or vaguely-eastern-European in the case of the Nilfgaardians. So why do these weirdos sound like no-one else on the continent?
The short answer seems to be that every character with an American accent in TW3 is someone who had an American accent in at least one of the previous games, which were way looser with their casting and had enough incidental American accents around that they didn't stand out. Clearly, by TW3, consistency with prior games has been prioritised over consistency with literally anything else we’re hearing.
Gaetan is an exception to the rule as the only new character (at least that I caught) with an American accent – presumably because between Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Berengar, and Letho (and cohorts), some sort of 'witchers have American accents' rule has been pretty well established (another random American-accented witcher shows up in Thronebreaker, just to underline the point). We're going to mostly ignore Jad Karadin here, since his British accent is presumably a recent affectation to go with his new identity, and so makes sense.
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This still doesn't really work though, since Letho’s school is all the way down in Nilfgaard (land of the Eastern European accents), while the oldest witcher from Kaer Morhen (Vesimir) is the one guy with a British accent. He sounds nothing like any of his students, despite the fact he's logically the guy they ought to have learned their accents from. So the logic falls in a heap however you slice it, and I'm thrown right out of the game.
With TW3 as your intro to the series, it feels almost as if characters like Triss and Dandelion have been assigned American accents because they're just too important to be saddled with the same pedestrian British accents as everyone else, which did nothing to endear them to me. The only one I eventually warmed up to was Lambert, and then only because he's just such a bitter asshole that he eventually goes full circle and comes out the other side (somewhere around when you've heard his miserable backstory, then gotten drunk together and told him how much you love him, man). Gaetan similarly snuck in under the same clause – American accents clearly work better for me in this series when attached to characters you're supposed to find pretty insufferable on first impressions.
Some final notes
To conclude, it seems only fair to throw in a quick nod to some of the more memorable book-characters who don't appear in the games. Neither Mother Nenneke (Geralt's sort-of-surrogate mother) or Vissena (Geralt's biological mother) ever appear either, alas – Vissena doesn't even merit so much as a Gwent card, which seems quite the wasted opportunity.
Milva, Cahir and Angouleme – the three remaining companions of Geralt’s who died alongside Regis but who were not so easily resurrected – naturally don’t appear. But nor are even really mentioned in all the games, which seems rather less than they deserve after giving their lives to Geralt's cause.
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Cahir and Angouleme do at least have pretty badass Gwent cards to their names, though I am properly offended that Milva (who has the dubious honour of being my very favourite book character who doesn't ever appear in the games) is stuck with a card of her freaking death scene – which not only gets the scene wrong (believe me, there was no grimacing and gripping the arrow buried shallowly in her chest for poor Milva), but doesn't even bother to get her hair the right colour, for fuck’s sake. Basically, Milva was a stone cold badass and absolutely deserves better. #justice4milva
One can only guess how I'd have felt about some of these characters had I read the books before playing the games – I am obviously biased towards forgiving changes to characters whom I liked in their game incarnations, regardless of how they compare. Still, I think it does speak wonders that there still all these characters who suddenly made sense only after I'd met them in the books.
Even if only for Dandelion and Ciri, I can only dream of seeing a bit more of the book-original characterisations make it into the collective fannish consciousness. There's nothing wrong with getting into the canon purely based on the show or the games, but having read Sapkowski's novels, it's no longer any mystery how they spawned this massive franchise. That the saga wasn’t even fully available in English until well after Witcher 3 was released – a solid couple of decades late, and long after it had already been translated into Russian, French, German, Spanish and more – is a real shame. For once, it’s us in the anglophone world who’ve been missing out: these books deserve so much more than to be thought of as a footnote to the games or the show.
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