#I don't even know what I have other than it's some sort of viral something and I am so tired and everything hurts

[mewrising]

Being sick is. the worst

[lazycats-stuff]

been thinking of a batbro bimbo reader who isn't yet fully aware of his family's identitys but is a vigilante too. Thinking of him getting flirted on and the other's getting protective. Especially the younger siblings (Ex: Damian)

Oh Damian is going to kill them. Blade out and everything. Also, I think you thought about writing a himbo. Also, I don't know which gif to put so enjoy a storm lol.

Summary: (Y/N) is a bit stupid, but very nice. He is oblivious to a lot of stuff and his siblings are protective of him.

Warnings: (Y/N) is stupid and sweet at the same time, adorable (Y/N), protective everybody, especially Damian.

Bruce often wondered how (Y/N) managed to survive for this long. Looks are often deceiving, he knows that very well. He always expected the unexpected and (Y/N) was certainly something of that sort. You know how you expect big people to be cold and just rude over all?

(Y/N) is sweet beyond belief and Bruce wonders how he survived for so long as a vigilante. But there is another problem too. (Y/N) sometimes has problems seeing when he is being flirted with and overall, sometimes slow with catching up.

What kind of scared Bruce was the fact that (Y/N) still didn't... Kind of... Connect the dots with their identities. Bruce often kept an eye out on (Y/N) during patrol or missions. Always. Everyone also kept an eye on their brother.

They all loved (Y/N) and they all just wanted to make sure that he is okay. He is far too adorable and kind for this world. That is a conclusion that everyone has reached. Even Damian. Damian is the one who is the most protective of him.

(Y/N) found a way to channel his kindness. Bruce helped him set up a few organizations to help the youth on the streets, homeless people in general and one for mental health problems.

Well, more (Y/N) and Tim. (Y/N) is the face of those charities and Tim has agreed to help out behind the scenes. He never minded doing it for his brother and it's for a good cause so he didn't mind to help with the financial stuff.

(Y/N) has tried to do it on his own, but he just hated paperwork. Bruce and Tim sympathized with (Y/N), knowing how paperwork could be shit. Tim loved working with (Y/N). More so than with Bruce. But Bruce will never know it.

(Y/N) is often considered by Gotham City as their baby on social media and he is famous because of it. Well, because of his kindness and other moments that social media would say is iconic. Gotham loved him and (Y/N) would often go in his vigilante suit to see little kids all year round in the hospitals in Gotham and sometimes elsewhere.

(Y/N) loved doing it and loved seeing kids smile. Some were just so beaten down that by being in a hospital and seeing them smile so much made (Y/N)'s day.

Damian is often considered as (Y/N)'s bodyguard on galas. Of course, there are many people who consider (Y/N) handsome. Unfortunately, (Y/N) can't see those advances and that's where Damian has stepped in. Always.

If (Y/N) is going to be in a relationship, it's going to be with someone who looks past his looks. Many who tried to woo him did so because of his looks. Not because of him and personality.

Damian often stepped in, making excuses for (Y/N) as to why he couldn't. And then the man would be met with an icy glare.

Now, the public loved (Y/N) even more when they saw how he treated women. How respectful he is... The female population of Gotham City have lost their minds. There was a viral moment where (Y/N) was seen giving his umbrella to a lady after a heavy rain started. He was soaked afterwards, but at least he did something nice.

There is a plethora of responses from men, but once (Y/N) came out as gay, those men weren't afraid of not getting anymore dates. The women of Gotham were sad, but there was nothing that they could do.

Dick and Jason were also protective of (Y/N), but not to the degree where Damian is. Nowhere near. But did they always keep an eye on him? Yes. That's their brother, how could they not. They loved him, but they knew that the couldn't protect him like Damian does.

Damian is on a whole another level.

Galas are often considered the most stress inducing thing that happens a few times a year. Nobody liked to attend galas in the family, not even Bruce, but they had to due to appearances they had to.

(Y/N) didn't mind it. Now, galas are often the time when Damian was vigilant around (Y/N). Bruce didn't say anything to Damian about being protective. In fact, it made Bruce happy, knowing that he didn't have to be constantly vigilant over (Y/N).

Damian is his second in command when it came to (Y/N)'s protection. Damian is often subtle in the way he is vigilant. Often. He never outright stood next to (Y/N), but he was always close enough to step in.

Always.

As of now, (Y/N) was making his way to the bar to get a drink. Damian watched him from the buffet table. He watched everyone else in the room, seeing if anyone was looking at (Y/N). And he did find someone.

He was looking at (Y/N) with something in his eyes that made Damian pissed. He knew that look very well and it wasn't to talk to (Y/N) about his charities. Damian waited for a moment to see if his suspicions are right.

And when was Damian wrong? Never.

He wanted to scoff at the predictability of these guys. They are really predictable. He watched for a moment more, but when he saw how the man smiled at his brother, it was go time. He swiftly put some food on the plate, (Y/N)'s favorite and quickly went to the bar where the two were.

" Hey (Y/N), here is some food that I know you love. " Damian said, bringing (Y/N)'s attention to himself.

" Oh really? Thanks Damian. "

" No problem and Bruce told me he needs to talk to you. " Damian said and quickly glanced at Bruce who nodded subtly.

" Oh? Well, I will talk to you later then. " (Y/N) said as he turned to his 'suitor' and then took the food that Damian brought and then walked off. The moment that (Y/N) couldn't see them, Damian glares at the man.

" I wouldn't try it if I were you. " Damian said as he glared at the man.

" And what is a kid like you going to do? " The man said and Damian had to smirk at the arrogance.

" I know who you are. I know that your father wants to make a deal with my father. And I can always put a word in about you. And let me tell you, father is very protective of (Y/N) and he is not going to like the fact that you are just trying to sleep with him. "

The man tried to defend himself, but deep down he knew that Damian was spot on.

" Now, I wouldn't really try to flirt with him anymore. Not to mention, there are 3 more brothers that will kick your ass in different ways if you try to. " Damian said as he walked off, trying not to smirk once more.

He can't smirk or (Y/N) will see something. Who said that galas could be boring when you can threaten your brother's suitors? Dick and Jason gave him a thumbs up from a far. Tim and Bruce shook their heads quietly. Damian walked up to (Y/N) and gave him a quick hug.

Nobody messes with (Y/N) Wayne. Nobody.

[goldenlikedayl1ght]

fearless - d. wagner

a/n: i know wagner wednesday was yesterday, but fuck it. everyone can leave me alone I AM IN LOVE WITH HIM!!!! notes/warnings: extremely suggestive relationship, no use of y/n, secret relationships, tooth rotting fluff at the end, childhood best friends to lovers, danny being jealous, cursing, like so many allusions to fucking, me writing this late at night, sam, josh and jake being extremely oblivious like just the epitome of "so close! that is a shape! <3" word count: 2.3k summary: daniel has been acting awfully weird lately. luckily, the kiszka brothers are on the case! pairing: danny wagner x gn! reader now playing: fearless (taylor's version) - taylor swift “run your hands through your hair/absentmindedly making me want you/and i don't know how it gets better than this/you take my hand and drag me head first, fearless"

Samuel Kiszka had met you way back in elementary school, back when you were kind of regarded as a freak. You were playing with a ladybug on the playground during recess, and he came over and asked what you were doing. When you explained, he became fascinated with the ladybug and declared you would be its parents. Then, a stray kickball had flew over, crushing your new baby bug. Some kid laughed at Sam when he started to cry, so you decided to punch that little fucker in the face.

You had been best friends ever since.

A year after that, he came to you and introduced you to a different kid he had met in his new class, the one right beside yours. His name was Daniel.

And since then, it’s always been the three of you, against everything.

You became awfully close with the Wagners and with the Kiszkas, going as far as to call them your family. You grew up in sort of a rough environment, but there was always a place for you on Daniel’s couch or Sammy’s floor.

You smoked your first blunt together, took your first shots together, and cried over breakups that didn’t even matter anymore.

You were a tech kid in high school with a certain knack for equipment and stage managing. Sam and Danny were just starting to get more serious about their music, so there was a time when you didn’t see each other that much. You were busy with whatever production your high school was putting on, and they had formed a band with Sam’s older brothers, Jake and Josh.

You knew it had been Jake’s dream for years, so besides their mother, you consider yourself the first Greta Van Fleet fan.

When their song, Highway Tune, went viral, you just knew it meant huge things for them. You could see it in Jake’s face, hear it in Josh’s voice. This was something bigger than any of you. So, you weren’t really shocked when they came to you and told you that they had a record deal and a few shows booked around the country.

You were only sad that you’d be stuck in Michigan while your best friends toured around the country, maybe even the world.

Then, Sammy told you a stipulation of their contract was that you would get to be on the set team, and with enough experience, you’d lead that team in all the equipment and stage management you could get your hands on.

And you jumped in with them, headfirst, fearless.

That was years ago, and you haven’t looked back since.

But then Sam started to notice something.

Daniel Wagner had been distracted. Never a good thing to be while on tour.

So, he came to you with the problem.

“I’m telling you, there is something up with Daniel!” He practically whined as you packed your bag to go to the next venue.

“Sammy, nothing is up with Daniel. There’s no way.”

“He doesn’t eat, he is always staring off into the distance, he’s always scribbling in his little notebook, he’s acting weird!”

“You guys are on tour, that’s stressful. Maybe he’s just like, at max stress.” You argue, checking that you have your lights and pyro cues for the next stop of the tour.

“Why aren’t you worried about this? You should be worried, he’s your best friend too!”

You stop what you’re doing and turn to face him.

“Maybe he’s fallen madly in love with someone.”

Sam actually laughs out loud at the thought.

“Good one!” He says with a goofy grin on his face. “We would know if he was in love, don’t you think?” He asks.

“Then I just don’t know, Sammy. Go argue with Jake and Josh about this, I have to go meet with the crew about the inventory for the road.” You say, and Sam just drops it to go do exactly that.

His brothers are on the tour bus when he gets there and luckily, Danny is running late. And he is sure to mention that.

“Seems like Daniel is late again... He’s been doing that a lot, huh?” He says, trying not to act too suspiciously.

Josh and Jake share this look, like they’re trying to figure out if Sam has a point or not. But Jake starts to really think about it, and you know what? Shockingly, their younger brother does in fact have a point.

“Now that you mention it, He is acting kind of weird.” He says softly, and Josh nods.

“I had to ask him for my earrings back the other day and when I got to his room, he looked like I caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to. I thought he was in the middle of jerking off but now that I think about it, he’s been like that a lot. Always acting like a deer in the headlights.”

So, the whole situation perplexes them, but before they can say anything else on the matter, Danny strolls onto the tour bus.

“Good morning, boys! How are we today?” Now that they had all discussed it, any behavior from him would be suspicious.

“Fine. Why are you late, Dan?” Danny was immediately alarmed by this, since Sam never called him Dan. It was always Danny or Daniel.

“Uh, I just lost my shoes in the room, and they were under my bed. Sorry, I didn’t realize I was keeping you guys waiting.”

Josh, the only one able to play anything cool, just nods, “It’s alright, we weren’t waiting for long. We should probably discuss the setlist for tonight.” Jake hums but he can’t help but notice that Danny has these large black stud earrings in. And he’s sure he’s seen them before, but he can’t quite put his finger on were.

For now, he lets it go. But he keeps it in the back of his mind for later.

They stop at a rest stop that afternoon, along with most of the tech crew who travel in their own bus. You go to check in on your boys and buy Sam a snack as a peace offering for not believing him this morning.

But instead, you run into Josh, who decides to find the others with you. You get to talking but you feel him staring at your face, and you blush.

“What, do I have something on my face?” You ask bashfully.

“No,” he hums softly, tilting his head. “You just— Where’d you get that necklace?” He swears he’s seen it before but can’t put his finger on it.

Your hand goes up to fiddle with the necklace, almost nervously.

“It’s a gift from my sister, I wore it when we graduated, remember?” Josh does not remember.

For now, he lets it go. But he keeps it in the back of his mind for later.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry, Toots, Guess I forgot.” He links arms with you, “Let’s go find the guys, huh?” He smiles. Happy to drop the subject, you go with him willingly.

Sammy, Danny, and Jake are getting their snacks when something catches Danny’s eye, and he won’t stop staring, so Sam looks to see what he could be so bothered by. And all he sees is his older brother, linking arms with you.

He smacks Danny’s arm, whose head snaps to look at him.

“Just Josh, Dude. At Ease, Soldier.” He teases. But he can’t shake this feeling that Danny was bothered by it. But why would he be?

Nothing else weird happens throughout the day, and the show that night goes well. So well, in fact that they invite you to a local bar where they can grab a few drinks and decompress from the day. And that goes really well too, except when Sam sees you the next morning and hickeys cover your neck.

“Dude! What the fuck!?” He asks, investigating your neck further. You blush and shove him off gently.

“Relax, Sammy, I just—I hooked up with someone last night that I met at the bar, and they were kind of rough. No big deal, I’ll never see them again.” You say, with a casual shrug.

Something is off about your tone. But he says nothing.

For now, he lets it go. But he keeps it in the back of his mind for later.

And then, he notices these earrings you have in.

Large black diamond studs.

“Nice Earrings.” He comments casually. He swears he’s seen them before, but like, recently! It perplexes him a bit and it must show on his face, because you are quick to clear up any confusion.

“Oh, thanks! I wore them last night for the bar and I just forgot to take them out. They aren’t too casual, so I don’t wear them too often.”

And it makes enough sense. Why would you lie to him about something as stupid as that?

Then, when he sees Danny that night, he’s covered in hickeys.

And Sam thinks he might still be drunk or high, or both. Because what the fuck is going on?! You both were acting strange, and he’s noticing these little things, so he decides to confide in Josh and Jake again, who relay their findings, and they decide they must confront Danny together.

Danny is not too shocked when he goes to get undressed and get his makeup removed only to find the boys waiting for him there. It took him a while to get back to the dressing room.

“Oh, hey guys! Sorry, I didn’t realize you were waiting for me. I got caught up talking to one of the security guards and then I got lost, this venue is so damn confusing.” And then Sam knows he’s lying because if HE could figure out how to return to the dressing room, then Danny, who has an amazing sense of direction, definitely could!

“What’s going on with you, Man?” he asks as he begins to wipe the makeup off his face.

“What? Nothing is going on with me, dude, I told you I just got lost.”

“Bullshit,” Josh calls. “You’re distracted, always late, and have suspiciously good jewelry taste as of late!”

“Yeah! And it’s affecting other people too,” Jake recalls, “Even the tech crew has noticed it! Our stage manager, our best friend, is acting weird too, and I have a feeling it’s because of your shady actions!”

And that’s when it hits Sam.

The earrings.

The hickeys.

The necklace.

The lateness.

The god damn hickeys.

“Just be real with us, Danny—” Josh starts, before Sam stands up.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” He gasps.

And that stops everyone in their tracks. He says your name to Danny, and it immediately catches his attention.

“What about them?” He asks.

“Are you sleeping with them?” Sam asks.

“What?! Sammy, c’mon—”

“Daniel Wagner, are you fucking our stage manager?!”

There’s a pause.

“Sammy. You’re acting—”

“Answer the question.”

“No!” He sighs. “I think they are lovely, and I would love to, and I want to take them on dates and woo them, but I am not fucking our stage manager, Sam. You guys are being paranoid. And if you don’t mind I’d prefer they don’t know about the fact that I like them, okay?”

All the other boys nod. Of course, It makes perfect sense! You and Danny both like each other but you aren’t able to tell each other that because of your long-standing friendship, but you’re sharing jewelry as a way of subtly telling each other. And that explains why he was staring at you and Josh the other day! And the hickeys were from other people because you couldn’t have each other! Duh! Maybe he really did get lost going back to the dressing room.

The conversation quickly shifts and moves on from Danny’s confession, and everything is normal. They could help you realize that the feelings were reciprocated.

When Danny eventually makes it out of there, he makes his way back to his hotel room. But on his way up, he quickly checks to see if any of the boys are following him, before making a stop on the way.

The knock on your door doesn’t startle you, in fact, you were kind of ready for it. You had gotten back a little while ago and turned on the shower to let it heat up. When you answer it, you grin up at him and grab his arm, pulling him inside. He shuts the door behind himself, before his arms are around your waist, leaning in for a long kiss.

It’s full of this gentleness that he grants you because, well, he always greets you with one sweet, truly loving kiss.

When he pulls away, he grins back at you.

“Hi, sweets.” He hums.

“Hey, handsome.” You respond, “Did you put the boys to bed like I asked?” He laughs at your phrasing, leaning down to kiss your jaw. And then your neck. Again. And again. And one more time for good measure.

“Mhm. They asked me if we were together though.” He keeps kissing your neck.

“I figured as much; they’ve been acting weird.”

“They might think I have a crush on you, now.” He says between kisses.

“And what would give them that idea?” You ask.

“…The fact that I told them I had a crush on you.”

“Well, do you?”

“Mm... I dunno. Might have to kiss you a few more times before I decide for certain.” You grin.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah... Maybe a little more than kissing too...”

“Well, don’t let me stand in the way of your methods, Danny.”

He grins, and kisses you again, this time, deeper, with none of the gentleness of the initial kiss. But there’s a new feeling you get from him now. Hunger.

And you kiss back, as if you have something deeper than hunger. Starvation, maybe.

And you don’t think either of you will ever be satiated.

By the end of the night, he decides he most definitely has a crush on you.

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

December 19th, 73 days since October 7th

TLDR- I am sick of seeing Hamas propaganda here. People here are posting literal blood libels and mistranslated quotes.

After taking a break from social media for the rest of Chanuka, your favorite Zionist is back. Don't worry though, once again, people who never had any interest in this tiny piece of land, continue to tell me, a Jewish Israeli, that I have got my history and facts wrong, while they know better than I do. To that, I have 2 answers: 1. I am just a student who wants to live in peace. I am not a "zionist demon" or a "genocidal killer".

When I call myself a Zionist, all it means is that I'm a Jewish woman who would like to live peacefully in her homeland. I don't inherently support war or death from any side because I am a Zionist. 2. I actually live here, born and raised, and so were my grandparents. How delusional and condescending can you be to suggest that you, a Western person who only found out about this conflict a while ago on Tiktok, know better than an Israeli??? More on double standards Sometimes I wonder why most of you didn’t have such a strong reaction to any other war & civil war going on right now: in Ukraine/ Yemen/Congo and Syria**, etc. Considering the amount of antisemitic hate anons I've received I have a feeling why...

**Which directly affected the lives of most Palestinians.

As I've said in previous posts- It’s easy to throw around big words you don’t understand. There is no apartheid as all Israeli citizens have the same rights. - Gaza is not occupied by Israel- it’s been returned multiple times in history ( just to name a few: 1956,1987,2006...).

*Even when it was under Israel’s control, all it meant was that there were approximately 10 Jewish settlements in Gaza*. The Israeli military presence was to protect those people& prevent terror attacks.

Blood Libels

In addition to the lies and the poor mistranslations from Hebrew, I have also received \ seen an alarming amount of Nazi Propaganda. -you say that you’re anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic, yet you use antisemitic rhetoric…

Comparisons between Israelis and Nazis -Comparing Israelis to Nazis is wrong on so many levels.

In case you aren't aware, the holocaust was a premeditated and carefully planned genocide, that lasted 6 years. 6 MILLION Jews were killed and all of their possessions were stolen. It followed hundreds of years of persecution, violence, and discriminatory laws. They were also starved and enslaved in different sorts of manual labor, in addition to being experimented on. They were held in Ghettos and concentration camps. In the aftermath of the war, Jews were completely driven out of their land and face prosecution across the world to this day. The existence of Israel allows Jews to live free of that. The Israel-Hamas war following October 7th is a war against a terrorist organization that invaded Israel and massacred its civilians. Unfortunately, due to Hamas' tactics, there are a lot of Palestinian civilian casualties. While they are wrong- the treatment of Palestinians and the bombing of Gaza are nothing like what the Nazis did.

Debunking some misconceptions I've seen on Viral posts here: -No, we Jews do not control the media and global banks. At least invent something new, this is giving Medivel blood libels used by the church lol. -We do not go around killing innocent Palestinian babies for fun. We have laws and a moral compass (Shocking I know). We do not go and kidnap people or rape women for fun either. Do you know who does that? Hamas, the terrorist organization. -We're not all white, this conflict does not revolve around race: There are many Jewish Israelis from the same countries that Palestinians originated from (i.e: Egyptian & Jordanian Jews ). -Israelis perceive Palestinians as lesser human'- This claim is usually supported by mistranslation of Hewbew and out-of-context Interviews. The phrase חיות אדם (Chayot Adam, savages, acting like animals) was obviously often used to describe Hamas terrorists who took part in the October 7th masssacre. We do not call or treat Palestinians as "animals" or savages. All of the referenced instances were about those Hamas terrorists.

-There isn't a 'Gaza Ministry of Health', it's all Hamas. The number of Palestinian casualties and other claims they make are not to be trusted. Most of the casualties are terrorists.

So what is my point?

It is important to note that am not ignoring any of the Palestinian deaths. I’m not saying they should die either. Please stop assuming I do!!

All I’m saying is that Israeli victims matter as well. For some reason, some people cannot comprehend that Israeli civilians do not deserve to die just because of where they live.

You wouldn’t call for the death of all Americans/ Europeans/ South Africans etc… while they committed actual genocide & apartheid.

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Corlys had married Dallas?

NOW WE’RE COOKING

FIRST THE DAELLA/CORLYS MARRIAGE

I think Corlys is a smart man who can read what other people need from him well. Which is a nice way of saying that I think he would take the kind of approach to her that Daemon takes to Rhaenyra in HOTD but without that level of psychosexual obsession - he wants her to open up, ~be herself~ and be free, but of course, the definition of be free includes a freedom that would benefit him in some way.

If Corlys marries Daella, it's because Jaehaerys or Alysanne suggested him as a potential match and Daella picked him out. I don't know that Corlys would be particularly gung ho about it initially the way he is with Rhaenys - after all, Rhaenys was a dragon rider and heir presumptive while Daella is not only wayyy down the line of succession, she's "simple" aka likely autistic or developmentally disabled in some way which means she's going to need care taking in a way Rhaenys doesn't. I do think that may lead to some sort of resentment especially during times of great political stress.

BUT. I think there's a non zero chance he encourages her to get close to/claim a dragon - even if its one she doesn't regularly ride - and that might give her some confidence. I mean, just because someone has a disability doesn't mean that with the right environment, they can't be capable of a whole lot! And for Daella, you have that concept that is talked about in that viral video going around with the girl with down's - if you assume she can't, then she won't, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne have assumed Daella can't for a long time, so she doesn't. But if Corlys believes she can - well, maybe she will! The biggest thing here is Corlys has to be careful about her pregnancies. I think he would wait to get her pregnant largely because Alysanne is clearly feeling Some Type Of Way about Daella marrying, but even if he doesn't, the thing about Corlys is he's a Nice Guy. Yeah he'll cheat on his wife, yeah he'll marry a 16 year old but he doesn't physically or emotionally abuse them (...besides the grooming). If Daella is six months pregnant and tells him she's terrified and wants her mother, I think Corlys would just write to Alysanne and ask her to visit (assuming he even left the capital, and I don't think he would anyway) instead of berate Daella or call on his relatives to berate her. I think she's likely to get better care with Corlys looking over her because he needs an heir and wants dragon riding Velaryons and he can't get that if she dies.

Not only that, but Corlys wants to be involved in politics - and I think it's noteworthy that neither Rodrik nor his heir seemed particularly welcome at King's Landing after this incident and it took Daemon making a mess of his marriage with Rhea for the Iron Throne to go "alright let's call it even" before the Arryns really come back onto the political scene. Corlys is not stupid enough to risk something like that which means even IF Daella dies - and I'm not confident in saying she would. I know she's young but 16 year olds do often live through birth, the issue is the baby not living because it's a preemie, and again, proper care and cleanliness fixes a lot of the issues associated with birth - you can guarantee her death is going to be when she's a few years older, like Alyssa, and therefore not something Alysanne can directly attribute to him.

It does ripple out to mean the First Quarrel might not last as long but the trauma of losing Alyssa and Viserra as well as the constant comments about Saera being a whore is more than enough to piss Alysanne off, and once Rhaenys is cut out, Alysanne is definitely leaving Jae's ass again.

THE RHAENYS MARRIAGE

So who does Rhaenys marry in this scenario, if not Corlys? Well.......oof.

For one thing, even with Aemma out of the picture, it doesn't guarantee Viserys/Rhaenys because, well, Corlys may still have a daughter he can marry back into the royal family! If Corlys has a son with Daella, he probably tries to marry him to Rhaenys, and if he has a daughter, he goes for Viserys. Yes, that's right, I do think it's not unlikely Rhaenys marries Corlys' son lmaooooo. If he doesn't have a son, Rhaenys (and Alysanne, and probably Jocelyn, maybe Aemon as well) will still want her to make a big, important match that will help with her claim. So if Corlys doesn't have a son, and Viserys isn't available, she might go for her cousin Borros. Corlys does also have Vaemond and the Velaryon cousins - Daemion, Daeron, a bunch of others - that could also be helpful here (though not nearly as much because they're cousins and not the main line). Without a clear match - if Borros or Viserys doesn't work out, or Corlys doesn't have a son - I think Alysanne might look to the North. The Manderly match fell through and we know the Manderlys were real shitty about that, and that there's a plethora of Starks and Manderlys hopping around right now. Or maybe Alysanne decides she doesn't need to win the North for Rhaenys (she already has the North for Rhaenys, they sided with Rhaenys in the original) so maybe she tries for a match to support her - like a Tyrell or Hightower. Wouldn't it be hysterical if she married like, Otto?

Anyways so I think the marriages for Rhaenys are probably

Corlys' Son (hahahahahaha)

Borros

Viserys

A Manderly

Otto Hightower (hahahahahahahahaha)

A Stark

A Velaryon Cousin

Literally anyone else

A Celitgar

[agentravensong]

hello, fellow hatchetfield fans! here are my stray nerdy prudes must die thoughts, which i'm going to try to keep brief (she said, before spending an hour writing this)

the production level of the show as a whole really blew me away. the lighting; demon!max's costume and makeup; even the way it was shot and edited felt even more electric than past shows

this is the only one of the full-length hatchetfield musicals to have one consistent antagonist throughout (black friday has linda but half the leads don't know about her at all until the climax, plus there's wilbur and wiggly). and i gotta say, max's actor really killed it. hilarious, terrifying, and even with moments of nuance. he repeatedly stole the show.

some of the songs are already stuck in my head. off the top of my head i can't think of any that stood out in a bad/unmemorable way (though i could just be forgetting them, lol). ruth's song in particular i think is gonna really stick with me once i listen to it a few more times.

and i love the way the "i'm not a loser" motif gets used throughout the show. the closest any of the songs got me to having the visceral reaction i have to "did you know that i wanted to live with you" in "not your seed" and the bridge + ending of "let it out" ("i've never been happy...") was when richie sings that line right before... well.

speaking of richie: as a paul stan, what this show proved to me more than anything is that when jon matteson plays a sympathetic lead (or side character - hi daniel/stopwatch), he will always break my heart. he's just. really good.

thinking about how in the last of the originally planned 3 hatchetfield shows, initially conceptualized as the first, jon's character is the first one to sing, whereas in the first of those shows, conceptualized as the last, the whole crux of the musical is him refusing to sing, the audience essentially waiting for the moment he breaks and does it. thinking about how the opening of npmd tells us richie is going to die, already dying, already dead, while the opening number of tgwdlm tells us paul is the target, the Doomed Hero, the "star of the show" "destined to go viral" [read: get infected], whose story is going to be told, already written.

thinking about how singing dooms paul, and how richie singing "i'm not a loser", reigniting max's ire, is the final nail in his coffin.

...i'm normal.

there's a lot of meta jokes and nods of that sort throughout the show. maybe a few too many? like, at a certain point, as a fan, i do feel like i'm being pandered to a bit.

i liked the lords in black's scene, it was a lot of fun! it's always great to see jon get to let loose with crazy characters, and the others were great too. but i do wonder how it plays for people who haven't been following nightmare time stuff. like, i get that in one world this was our introduction to these characters, but even in that world, i wonder if including all five of them with their specific names and allusions to their individual deals is a bit too much for what the plot of this show needs. there's something to be said for not showing all your cards right away.

on the other hand, i feel like the paulkins coffee scene actually fully earned its inclusion: because when pete comes in asking for his hot chocolate, it reads differently when we're coming at it from having followed his perspective up to this point versus having been following paul in tgwdlm, in a way that strengthens both scenes. it's a nice reminder that emma and paul can be... rude, i guess. assholes, even (she really didn't need to spit in it). that idea of perspectives affecting how we categorize people arguably even plays into the themes of this show! how about that.

ah, yes, Themes. there are Themes to be drawn out of this show about the experience of high school, especially in an intertextual comparison to how tom and becky talk about their time in high school in black friday. something about how the two of them see it as this idealistic time they want to go back to, whereas the teens (the nerds/outcasts) in npmd sing that they'll "still despise it when [they're] gone". something about how in ruth's solo number, the fantasy future she imagines for herself (even in the context of it being a performance for an audience of no one) is of a standard, arguably dreary, middle-aged existence. there's definitely stuff there to be dissected.

and also there's arguably a theme of continuing cycles of cruelty, brought into focus by the ending, but also implied with the way the adults failed the kids (see max referencing his dad belittling him).

...but also, i feel like they could have done more with that.

that's my one big thing with this show, and it could very easily just be that the genre of this show isn't as much my jam, but i'll say it anyway: i wanted more from the characters, and more emotional weight in regards to certain things.

like, between this and tgwdlm, i think tgwdlm is still the better written show. there's just, a subtly to the characters there, a grounded human-ness, that i didn't quite get from all of the teens here.

as much as i clearly have a soft spot for richie, that's mostly on jon; as written, there really isn't much there, beyond "anime nerd" and "generally nice kid who wants to be liked". the scene right before he dies is comedic in how obvious it's setting things up, but its obvious-ness also makes it feel kind of cheap in terms of pulling on the heartstrings. similarly, ruth is initially just a gimmick (though hers at least ties into a deeper insecurity) and only gets her real moment of depth right before she dies. neither of them feel like they have much affect / haunting presence on the surviving teens once they're dead, past the initial shock of the reveals of their deaths.

and steph and pete are good, but... idk. i wanted a bit more from each of them. if they got to have a talk like paul and emma before "join us and die" - not even for the sake of the romance, but just for the sake of giving us more on each of them outside of their basic stereotypes and the romance - that would've helped, i think.

grace was great, though, no qualms. initially there was a part of me that was disappointed that the stereotype max was pushing on her about her being secretly repressed and horny was in fact true, but the way it gets used makes up for it, and in between max's death and when that specific thing comes up again in the climax, she gets to do a lot with the two conflicting sides of her personality, wanting to be good but having a capacity and arguable instinct for scheming and ruthlessness.

(also, as i mentioned earlier, max has a surprising amount going on, especially once you get into the Implications)

it could just be that i see those depths in the tgwdlm cast because i've had more time to chew on that cast, and that in time i'll see these teens in the same light. but i don't think it's just that.

i think part of it is how there are so many jokes about the teens being nerdy prudes (really, mostly just nerds). and like, that's part of the point, obviously, that they were being forced into those boxes and that they were still people with the potential to be more. but... i don't know if the show does enough to really make that point. again, richie doesn't really get to be more (and it's not for lack of time - there's a good amount of show before max comes back as the demon and kills for the first time).

in tgwdlm, the mains are all arguably based on stock characters, but they have more depth through their relationships. look at ted, the stock asshole sleazeball, who's shown to feel genuine remorse when he loses people he loves, in a way that contextualizes his bitterness. and there's a lot less highlighting of the stockness of them in their show than there is of the teens in npmd.

and the thing is, i think the cast of npmd at their foundations are more likable than the cast of tgwdlm (see the earlier point about emma and paul being assholes at times). they had a lot of potential. but i don't think enough of it is realized for the majority of them. the edges the tgwdlm cast has are part of what makes them compelling, and it's something the teens (minus grace) are largely missing.

the thing is, i know the fandom is going to see that potential and run with it. i know that they're gonna develop the teens' characterizations and relationships. i know they'll get into the trauma and the implications from everything that happened to them in the show. i know they'll get into... pete's survivor's guilt, and steph losing her dad(!!!), and what richie and ruth could have been, and all that. i know that they'll fill in the gaps. because that's what fans do. i guess i just wish there weren't so many gaps to fill. or, that the gaps wouldn't take so much effort from them to fill.

again, i acknowledge, maybe i'm expecting too much from the genre of show this is. it doesn't need to have A Point, i guess, it can just be fun, a comedic horror slasher in musical form. and it is fun, a lot of fun! ...but, tgwdlm was also a lot of fun. not as bombastic, for sure, but i'd say just as humorous. and it was also incredibly tightly written, and satisfying, with strong character arcs for multiple leads. it had commentary on musicals, on what makes a protagonist and what it means to be one, on conformity and institutions of authority, on romance even (you could do a very interesting aromantic reading of this show, trust me). and with a show that's titled nerdy prudes must die, that is About high school, there's, similarly, a lot you can do. and there's a fair amount of seeds planted there. but i don't think it all quite coheres. and it could've, if they really wanted it to.

...i did not keep that brief. ah well. i might disagree with half of this by the time i wake up tomorrow, i just needed to get it out of me. tl;dr, in my opinion, this show is stronger than black friday, but tgwdlm is still my favorite. all the cast and crew put a lot of love into this production and it really shows. i had a great time! :D but i'm always going to overanalyze things i care about as much as i care about the hatchetfield universe, and hence, here we are.

[dewdropdinosaur]

Hihi!! As per usual I ADORED my last fill 💜💜💜 it was absolutely lovely

Currently there's several... Let's just say shitty things (understatement) happening in real life for me, so I thought about batting a few prompts at you because you always make me feel so much better. Of course, I don't expect you to do them all at once, it's just so you work through them in whatever order you prefer (and obviously mine don't all have to come out one after the other when people are sending you more; it'll just be nice to get them over time and I don't want to forget them (I thought of one related to the "Swan" singer alter ego and forgot it TwT my memory's bad lately bc of all the stress). Basically what we discussed in DMs).

All of them are with my usual non-binary Reader and set in the "I Guess I Fall Hard", "Cocoa Not Chanel" and "Kiss A Hundred Boys in Bars" universe 💕

Prompt 1: After getting themselves hired as a part-time model and assistant designer by Velvette, several photos of Reader and Angel Dust in fancy clothes go viral, and Reader uses that to convince Velvette to hire out Angel to do at least one joint photoshoot with them. (They poke at Velv's ego a bit with stuff like "well, if Mr Valentino can be convinced..." because of course she would go "nobody tells me what to do or who to hire, least of all that pissbaby). The photoshoot turns out to be super fun for them, and of course it's one of those where the models are posing doing hot couple-y things. Valentino is PISSED, but gets told off by Velvette. Worse, after the shoot goes out, it sells so well that Velvette wants to do it again, and when Val throws a tantrum, Vox of all people lectures him because he's not going to ruin something making this much money. Reader is basically smiling innocently and cackling on the inside.

Prompt 2: (this one would take place chronologically after 1, but if you wanna write this one first, just add a note at the top). Angel and Reader do a lingerie shoot together and get more than a bit hot and bothered in the process. Their dressing room in Velvette's studio doesn't have cameras, so they end up having sex there.

(Add on: there's one security camera that they knew about, but Vox keeps the recording for himself instead of showing Val because he got off to it and doesn't want to deal with Val getting mad for either of those things. If you add it, then Reader and Angel didn't bother waiting to get home despite the camera because they knew what Vox would do and it adds an extra layer of fun to drive those two apart).

Important here: Reader uses the alias "Noire" as a model, so that's what the Vees call them (they don't even know it's not their name) and the name Angel uses for them while at the job, aside from his usual "babe/doll/toots/etc" stuff.

Prompt 3: Directly after "Kiss A Hundred Boys", Angel can't get the idea of being tied up by Reader out of his mind, so he tells them. There's some careful negotiation and Reader makes sure it's something Angel actually wants, and then they agree to dress him up in something pretty, paint his lips (it's erotic for them both), spank him, tie him up, and top him (bites and such too). Reader insists on being able to see Angel's face, safeword use, and not being called "master" (sir is ok), as well as aftercare, during negotiations. Reader themself wears a pretty bondage-inspired lingerie set and high boots too. After, they rub down all the places where Angel was tied up, check for any bruising, take a bubble bath with him, and feed him snacks while cuddling before falling asleep. Angel can't get over how nice proper aftercare feels.

Prompt 4: Early in the relationship (as in knowing each other, they've kissed and such but aren't dating yet; Reader doesn't know Husk too well yet either), Angel gets badly hurt by Val and doesn't want to go to the hotel because Husk will ask questions, so he goes to Reader's apartment. Reader patches him up (and sort of surprises Angel with the amount of medical supplies they have, despite knowing about their job) but doesn't buy the story Angel tries to tell about the injuries. They go through them while cataloguing how they're most likely to have happened (not super graphically, sentences like "someone twisted your arm" for a torsion fracture) and when Angel asks how they know, they tell him they started learning how to patch up injuries because they survived a man like Val, and to survive they had to learn. Angel doesn't need to lie, because they've been there and they're never going to judge him. Angel ends up telling them the truth (however much detail you're comfortable with) and having a good cry instead of numbing it. They get his permission to call Husk and explain, and then make dinner for them both and cuddle Angel until they fall asleep.

Prompt 5: Early in the relationship, Reader is worried that Angel would prefer a more masc partner and not someone femme like Angel himself, and that Husk only doesn't mind because he also likes women. After talking about it and reassuring them that Husk doesn't think they're a girl just because they're pretty, and Angel likes both masc and femme men (or men-adjacent nb people like Reader), Angel decides words aren't enough and takes them shopping as a surprise (with Husk as a "pack mule" pretending to complain) and deliberately picks femme stuff that Reader would look gorgeous in. Somewhere in there, "pretty boy" gets added to the nickname roster.

~~~

Like I said, I don't mean for you to juggle all of these at once, just have them in the queue for when you feel like writing them. The numbers are just to differentiate them, too, not the order they have to be written in. I really really look forward to whenever one of them pops up in my notifs 💜💜 and I can DM you outfit inspo if you want (in fact I'd love to). Thanks for letting me do this, for all you do, and for being such a lovely person in general ���� 🥰

Hello! I am sorry to hear that some stuff is happening but after looking over your suggestions, I will add it to my queue! As always, expect a two to three-week return rate. Have a wonderful day my lovely! Love, Dewdrop/Dewy

[darennkeller]

My solo indie game reached 10000 wishlists! I never thought it would be possible without a proper marketing team, budget or following.

How did I get those 10000 wishlists? Time to share what worked for me!

Disclaimer: I did sign with a publisher two months ago, and while they are already working on marketing stuff, nothing has been published yet. Those numbers are 100% from my own "marketing" efforts. There are people way better at this than me! I'm just sharing my experience here and I'll let you judge if it's helpful. Some things that did not work with me might work with others (and vice versa)!

(you can also read this and more in this free patreon article)

Let's sort what worked out the best for me.

Steam Events > Influencers > Reddit > Twitter > Devlogs

It might sound obvious, but take the time to check your wishlists regularly, especially whenever you're trying to give visibility to the game with a post/video/announcement/mail. It will allow you to know what works and doesn't. I usually check out youtube and twitch for gameplay videos or press articles whenever there's a bump while I'm not in an event or did not post anything.

Keep posting stuff on social networks. I know it takes time for a small reward, but it's good to have those regular wishlists and connect with other game devs/influencers. It also shows development is alive and you never know when it will reach an influencer or press. When I stopped sharing my stuff for a while, wishlists completely dropped, I was even loosing some everyday! However, do not post stuff EVERY day and do not spend too much time on this. My best results were with a few key posts on reddit (Reddit is harsh, but very rewarding), same thing on twitter. Sharing something interesting every 1-2 weeks instead of small things everyday seems to work better for me. Of course if you like to share your day to day progress regardless of the result, that's good and that's what social networks are for originally! Don't forget people go there to connect with others, not to be spammed by people promoting their stuff.

I publish devlogs on my youtube channel. I got ~200 wishlist from more than 100k views that took me weeks of work. I don't think publishing devlogs is an efficient way to promote your game, unless you go viral or that your videos also target players by being more accessible without too much technical stuff (mine are definitely targeting game devs for now). I'm only speculating here, but I think game developers are mostly interested in learning from your journey than actually wishlisting/playing your game compared to players which results in less wishlists. So do it only if it makes you happy and you want to share your journey (and be careful not to overwork while doing it)!

Influencers are great for 3 reasons:

1. They give your game visibility.

2. They give you feedback to make your game better.

3. They are usually keen to do it for free to help small indie devs.

Build yourself a press list: a list of press and influencer that might be interested in playing your game. I made a list of games that I think have the same target as mine and search on youtube/twitch for influencers that played those games. They usually have their business mail in the about section or on one of their social accounts. When you have something very interesting to show them (a new demo, event or announce) send them all a mail (but don not spam them)!

Here are two accounts you should follow to get tips about how to properly reach to influencers (and other game marketing in general): Clemmy and Wanderbot (subscribe to their newsletters!)

Events are huge for wishlists. It's easy and it does not take time to submit and they are usually free. But there are two big issues with events:

1. You have to find them.

The best free place to find most events is on the HTMAG discord created by Chris Zukowski (@AdventureMtn).

There's also this amazing calendar with all the events (thanks to @mreliptik for sharing this with me)!

2. You have to be accepted.

You need a demo, quality marketing assets to share and a good steam page. Again, Chris has some awesome tutorials (free and paid) to get a great steam page up. Consider supporting him if his tutorials helped you!

WARNING Do not submit your game to the steam next fest too soon like I did. You want to submit as late as possible, ideally just before your release. Each game gets one shot at the steam next fest, and the more wishlists you have going in, the more wishlists you'll get. I made that mistake because I thought I would release the game 2 months later (lol).

On a side note, you will have tons of wishlist deletions. Don't worry about it, that's perfectly normal (I won't lie, the first 1000 deletions still hit me hard though).

I think the best time to create your steam page is as soon you have a small trailer, screenshots and interesting description that do not look like a prototype full of placeholders. The sooner you have it, the sooner you start collecting wishlists! With the steam page also comes the whole steam community package, which is a plus to keep in touch with people who like your game. I don't really see any disadvantage in having a steam page early, but you might want to plan the communication around the page release to maximize visibility right away. Do not release it without telling anyone! When you demo is out, you can update your page and announce it everywhere too (try to give the exclusivity to a big showcase if you can!).

Things that did not work for me: devlogs, replying to influencers asking for games on twitter, using those spammy hashtags to promote your game (#wishlistwednesday etc...), posting uninteresting stuff about the game developement EVERY day, reposting the same content, posting on the popular subreddits, sharing my game on those "share your work" channel on discord servers, paid ads and plenty of other little "tricks" I wasted my time on. I think some things did not work out because of my game specifically. For example, some games definitely look better than others on socials. I don't think mine is, and it might explain why posting on socials is not as efficient as for other games (or maybe I'm wrong and I just did not find the right way to make it look interesting on socials!).

I hope this was was a nice read! Thanks again for your support and don't hesitate if you have questions!

[lotus-tower]

covid has really made me realize that most people don't have very good risk assessment or sense of scope, especially when it comes to statistics. part of it is definitely a knee-jerk aggressive response to the word even being said, but a lot of the arguments i hear seem predicated on some kind of belief that Low Percentage equals safe, because that's how people talk about things generally.

putting aside for one moment that the percentages are most likely a lot higher than they think, and that the risk of long-term complications after catching the virus is cumulative--i think people have sort of lost sight of how unprecedented covid actually is, because it's so easy to go back to normal life. covid is the first pandemic in the age of super fast and easy plane travel. covid is the first pandemic in the age of humanity's numbers being over 8 billion.

no one is claiming that your risk of catching covid after going out unmasked just once is high (with the exception of peak season during the holidays). in periods where transmission is low, that risk could in fact be negligible. but you aren't rolling that dice once. you're rolling it several times a day, every day. have you ever played a gacha game where the odds of pulling a SSR were 0.5%? did you ever pull one, or did you know anyone who did? how surprised would you be if you were able to pull one after pulling for 10 hours a day nonstop every day? would you really be particularly surprised?

despite all this, you may not catch covid more than once a year, or maybe even every two years. if you're looking at a time-frame of 5 years, that's pretty good, isn't it? the odds of developing severe, permanent complications from one or two covid infections isn't That high. except... why would we look at time-frames of 5 years? we're in the fifth year of the pandemic and this virus has evolved fast, so the research is obviously laser-focused on year to year changes and working with the timeline that it's got. but i don't know about you guys, i anticipate living about 60 more years. do you think, knowing what we know about cumulative damage, that catching covid 60 times will be completely fine for our bodies? hell, what do you think catching influenza 60 times would do? post-viral syndromes have existed long before covid.

vaccines will never be able to catch up to the rate of the virus' mutations if they keep being tailored to specific variants, and it complicates things for developing effective treatments too. this is because this is a virus that circulates every day among essentially 8 billion people. statistically, it's inevitable that a random mutation somewhere will be successful and then begin to circulate. the fact is that 0.5% (a completely arbitrary number) of the global population is a massive number of people. it's 40 million people, more than the population of many countries. but it can be that amount again and again, because there's nothing preventing continuous reinfection.

no other statistics deals with this kind of situation. you can't use that ordinary benchmark or logic to think about covid. because this is in fact an unprecedented situation. and when new situations arise, people have to adapt and change their behaviour. but that's something that humans really hate doing, unfortunately

[olderthannetfic]

Been thinking about daring to try to get into vidding (but I have zero knowledge about video editing lol) and wondered if there are ship manifestos that are in fanvid-form, so to say. Am shocked that there are only six on AO3. Though I guess it may have to do with videos being taken down because of copyright stuff?

(One of them was by you by the way if I'm not mistaken, ha! And now I want to watch Veritas: The Quest. Your video got me interested.^^)

--

Haha. I was going to say!

Veritas is a fun dumb time. It makes me sad that they never released properly. (And yes, my love of baaaaaad "archaeology" canons full of magical woo and tomb raiding goes way back. Also my love of fake death and fake betrayal plots.)

AO3 is only moderately popular for fanvids, and mostly in a very specific community of people who send vids to the small-scale fancons—the sorts of people who founded OTW and who were vidding on Livejournal. (It won't be because of takedowns. The AO3 work would still be there, just with a dead embed.) That lack of popularity overall is part of why you don't see so many video manifestos, but I think it's more a terminology thing:

I think it's rare for vidders to call their vids "manifestos". I don't think of that one video as a vid that is a manifesto: I think of it as a vid I made to include in a manifesto. Instead, we tend to call them "pimp vids", but you don't tag with that because it's presumptuous. It's something you say retroactively about other people's vids or that you tell a vid beta you're aiming for. You don't get to decide if your vid successfully pimps people in any more than you get a say in whether you go viral, you know?

--

There's a weekly vidders' zoom run by DC Slash (one of the tiny slash cons), and we just had a week where we brought in vids that got us into fandoms. A lot of other people's were ancient, blurry VCR transfers because they've been at this a lot longer than I have, but I can show you some of the vids that have gotten me into fandoms:

Killa's Haven vid Soldier annoyed me so much. What is that one brief flash of a scene? Did that dude die? It's not that sad a vid though? What the hell? So I had to watch just to find out. (Yes, he died. But he got better. Because Haven.)

The fact that I know and like Killa didn't hurt, but it's not like I loved the vid itself: a lot of it was my sheer annoyance at that one shot.

Of course, then, I made my own Haven vid, Captain Kidd, that was supposed to be an angry deep dive into show lore and how the other sanctimonious, fake-moral but actually pretty useless characters were treating my blorbo. (This is a theme with me, it appears.) It was not even 1% supposed to be a pimp vid...

To date, this is by far my most successful pimp vid, luring a whole bunch of people into the show just in time for it to massively jump the shark. (Damn it.) I've never even seen the ending.

More recently, akiv's Beyond Evil vid I'm a Ruler made me fall hard for Beyond Evil. Imagine my shock when what looked like a relatively normal buddy cop series starts with one of them secretly investigating the other as a serial killer. It was so much more intense and fucked up than I realized! Yessss.

After bouncing hard off of DMBJ, it was this Youtube vid Hei Ye falling for the Thorny Flower that got me intrigued again. The tone is so obvious and the dynamic is so clear, which really helped me get interested in a franchise that's often pretty hard to follow plot-wise.

I admit I never actually watched canon, but this Mr. Queen vid by Mozzaphne made me go look up a plot summary so I could read all of the fic. Lots of youtube vidders overuse show dialogue and mix it horribly over songs, but this one was really well done and adds a lot to your understanding of the character dynamics.

I don't think my foray into Detroit: Become Human was entirely because of a single vid, but Figure 8 by Dirty Mind Gene definitely helped. I knew it was a video game with robots. Nobody fucking told me it was a Caves of Steel ripoff with a jaded cop getting his mojo back via getting to know his robot partner.

I of course then went and made one with all of the zillions of deaths in the game because I love that shit. This apparently also got at least one person into the fandom.

Another vid a different person mentioned pimping them into a fandom was Lola's Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty vid ME!

It's a fabulous vid, and it's a fantastic illustration of how the central (canon) ship is supposed to read. Sadly, my personal opinion of the show is that Tang Fan is a perpetual victim and piece of shit who puts his own shallow grasp of morality and his personal feelings over the greater good, often getting characters killed unnecessarily. (I hear this is largely due to some questionable adaptation choices where they swapped who's the hothead and who's the one cleaning up messes.)

I've noticed that fluffy bunnies who watch the show tend to think Tang Fan is ~nice~ because he spouts modern morality instead of a selfish little bitch because he refuses to face the reality of the setting he's in and find the best real world solution instead of holding out for an ideal he'll never attain and thus making everything ten times worse. It reminds me forcibly of tumblr wank where people see themselves as these great moral leaders but lack all grasp of nuance. Their sensitivity extends only to their own feelings.

Yes, Sleuth left me with a lot of rage...

How dare the writing pretend like Tang Fan is the moral arbiter of anything, when my own personal fave, whom half the cast thinks is a villain, is constantly cleaning up after him, trying to keep the body count low, trying to maintain order as everybody else flies out of control...

And then the show made it all better by tormenting Tang Fan in the iddiest way possible. Ohohoho. It's not just that he gets his face rubbed in his own inadequacy and inability to save people. It's the ridiculously over-the-top flashback to "You're my only friend" right in the middle of the death scene. Way to twist the knife!

I, of course, have made my own vid for this fandom, Tiny, Pretty & Angry, and it is absolutely a manifesto, just not a ship one. It's a manifesto about how Wang Zhi is not only the most competent, but also the actual moral center of everything and fuck all of y'all if you don't agree.

In fact, there's probably another reason we don't call them manifestos:

In the oldschool Media Fandom vidding traditions, most vids are video essays and manifestos, really. That's a lot of the point of the aesthetic: making an argument. Partly due to technological limitations and partly due to vidding being innovated by slashers who were constantly challenged about their ships, the pretty visual spectacle styles so common in AMVs and currently on Youtube were largely absent. Meta argument was everything. That's the default.

Here's another one of mine that's pretty explicitly a fuck you to how most people in Untamed fandom see Wen Ning.

[soapdispensersalesman]

I've been keeping this to myself because I refused to give it attention, but the whole hawk tuah meme really fascinates me. As a chronically online meme fanatic, this meme feels like an industry plant of some sort. It's no secret people are often using it in a rather ironic fashion, but even then it still doesn't feel organic. It's no secret there's management and a company behind the meme now, but the whole thing feels like a social experiment from a branding agency, as if she was "manufactured" long before the interview ever happened.

They're most certainly skilled with the "bad publicity is still publicity" marketing, especially in the "millennial curated boomer meme page" circles on Facebook LMAO

Although ngl I feel like many other people would try pursuing similar paths when going viral, but still something feels so off about that meme.

I'm probably just being crazy, a conspiracy theorist, in denial that we've actually managed to get a new meme relevant for longer than 2 weeks, or maybe I just have to accept that I'm getting old and no longer know what's cool and trending on the internet, I don't use TikTok so I'm already missing out on anything on that end, not that I have issues with that XD

Curious how long she will stay relevant, wonder if she's gonna make the meme of the decade by 2029, curious if any of us are still around to determine the meme of the decade.

(Anybody remember the meme of the decade back in the 2010s? It showed me people's declining memories and attention span where Baby Yoda and the "girl fighting with cat eating salad" were the biggest nominees but mainly because they were the most recent memes and freshest in everyone's memory, early 2010s had some neat memes too don't forget lol)

[rollercoasterwords]

I’m so here for all this book hate, and I’m just laying in bed kicking my feet besides you listening to all these people rant. And I so agree with the ‘this book is gay’ thing. Like ESPECIALLY now during pride month everyone is like read these 5 queer books and the only thing it says is oh this mc is bi, oh it has a trans character, oh the main ship is sapphic. I’m like okay, cool, what more? Is that it?

I had this with ‘the priory of the orange tree’ which I loved, but the only thing I was told is ‘there’s a sapphic ship’ and ‘it’s high fantasy’ which yeah it is to both. But that’s not even what the book is about and you could’ve just told me what it was about and told these other things. just imagine if they would do that with other big fantasy books ‘yeah it’s fantasy and straight, enjoy’

Same thing with they both die at the end. Fun book, not revolutionary, I agree what the person said, the mcs are the most boring in the book. But it’s gay so it’s amazing… sure

lol yeah i love a good hater sesh <3 and YEAH like. i understand people compiling lists of books w certain types of representation etc bc obviously there are lots of people who want to seek out books that reflect certain experiences etc, but. if the rec begins and ends with just 'it's [x type of queer] and [x genre]!" then i'm like....ok. anything else or....

and i do think it happens particularly often with queer books but also i don't think it's entirely devoid from straight books either lol it's just that instead of going "it's straight and fantasy!" they'll go "dark love interest and fantasy" or some equally surface level label lol. same with the lists that are like "dark academia books" etc i think...i mean i don't necessarily know that this is a new phenomenon but maybe it's just become more visible/common 2 me bc of the shifting landscape of social media that prioritizes shortform algorithmic content but it feels like this widespread practice of packaging books as aesthetic products more than like. literature. if that makes sense...idk still parsing through my thoughts on this but. yeah just feels like a very surface level way to engage w books--and the thing is it seems like it's a growing way that writers/publishers are marketing their books as well. like i don't really fault the authors for this bc ik in this day and age they have to do a ton of legwork to market their own shit to get it like picked up by publishers or whatever and so they kinda have to play the game (<- try desperately to go viral on tiktok) but every time i see a video that's like a writer going "would you read THIS??" and then it's like. a list of their protagonist's identities and then just a general/vague nod to some subgenre that sounds like a pinterest board title i throw up in my mouth a little ngl. and it's not like i think literature is some sort of Higher Art Form that must always be Venerated it's more that consumerism feels so fucking inescapable and every art form has to be boiled down into something that will go viral on tiktok these days and it makes me want 2 scream!!

anyway this turned into a little rant of my own lol but. agree w u ty 4 partaking in this hater experience w me <3

[dearweirdme]

so you genuinely believe that if tae wanted a beard he would pick/agree for it to be jennie out of all the idols he could've went with? jennie, whose fandom hates his guts and always the most vile shit about him and his grandma? the jennie whose guts armys hate and are almost always responsible for every viral hate video about her either calling her lazy or making fun of her dancing? i mean armys literally became even more hateful to her after the paris walk and her show.

he could've went with an idol or an actress that armys don't hate to avoid backlash and still had an effective beard.

and if he picked a popular idol with a big fan base so she has loyal ppl defending her from the hate then he failed miserably because armys are bigger than blinks and the hate towards jennie doubled bc of that mess of a show she did. and if the deal was for two-way promo and a beard then where is taehyung's promo? i don't think he needs promo from jennie's fandom at all and it's even disrespectful to think tae would try to use his own antis for promo when he already has armys behind him.

this whole notion of taennie being pr makes no sense bc it literally just seems like they both are dating their fandoms' rivals and didn't want their fans to know, then they were seen by a local, then a hacker leaked their pics and tried to forcibly out them, the matching accessories weren't something they did on purpose to try to signal that they're dating, they just did it. idols get linked by outfits all the time so they figured it's not that big of a deal and isn't an obvious declaration of anything. then they gave up since ppl knew already and walked in paris with no care to be lowkey, but the reactions were outrageous so they went back into hiding, removed the matching stuff etc. their fans' reactions (esp army) are what spooked them (esp tae) but overall it definitely doesn't look like a fake relationship

Hi anon!

Well, this is very star-crossed-lovers-romeo-and-juliet of you.

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Seoul, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

While I can appreciate a bit of Shakespeare, this is not that, though I bet they love the plot. Tae and Jennie together is a pr manager’s dream. The whole thing basically takes care of itself. It’s cheap, it’s low maintenance, it costs very little actual effort and it will keep people talking for months… years possibly. See, it’s not necessarily about what fandom thinks about it. While it’s probably great they are getting this attention from everywhere, the aim is for both Tae and Jennie to enlarge their fanbases. They want more fans. Putting them together will mean some blinks become Tae fans and vice versa. A pairing of their combined fame though, most certainly also reaches audiences that hadn’t paid much attention to either BTS or BlackPink yet. But a food love story between the prince and princess of Kpop (are they?) will absolutely lure in new fans. And that is how it aids both Tae and Jennie. They have already concurred South Korea, there’s little left for them there.. this is for other audiences. They don’t need pr in Sk, they need it outside of SK. Tae’s album sales will definitely be influenced by this. So many Taennie’s who were only blinks before are going to buy his album, because they will link it to Jennie.

Tae did not choose Jennie for this. Their teams set this up and they only had to agree. Hate is a thing Jennie and Tae always have to deal with. This is just another thing to add. In business emotions don’t play a big part.

What I have been considering since this afternoon though, is that maybe.. maybe… very maybe.. Paris was some sort of test. Maybe they did see the backlash (and the bad critiques from The Idol) and they decided.. nope, not what we wanted out of this. Maybe they did decide against going through with it and that is why things seem.. stagnant?

What would a fake relationship look like according to you though. If you were to plan a fake relationship between two idols, and you had to make it look real.. while also adhering to Sk standards, how would you achieve that? How would you sett up a believable pr stunt. What clues would you leave, and how would you leave them?

[moa-broke-me]

Y'know what? I'm tired of being silent on this issue.

Nico and Piper should've had a scene alone together.

Really, think about it, Nico's actively repressing his emotions, Piper can read emotions super easily because of her powers (or is that just my headcanon? It's hard to tell, I haven't read the books in a while), he gets harassed and humiliated by her older brother, it only makes sense that they'd have some sort of relationship to each other. Maybe not close friends, but SOMETHING.

I can see it now:

She sidled up to Nico, who was staring at the water, the orange sun behind them, backlighting his hair and casting shadows on his face, highlighting his sallow cheeks. She could feel the turmoil coming off of him in waves, like emotional radiation only she seemed to be affected by. "Hey... How're you feeling?"

"Fine, now leave me alone."

"You're not, and I won't." She looked him over for a long time. Trying to parse one emotion of his from another was like trying to solve the gordian knot, except this one couldn't be cut in half. "... You're worried. You're worried about someone you love. And you hate yourself for loving them. You're trying to stop yourself. I can feel it, the shame and the sadness and the unresolved anger, boiling together in your soul."

His eyes, for the first time, abandon the horizon, haunted and frantic and bitter. "Leave me alone. My emotions are my business. Why don't you attend to your own perfect Hollywood life with your perfect Hollywood boyfriend?"

That stung. She would easily admit that being famous had its perks... A lot of them. Namely money. But it wasn't always easy, having strangers halfway across the world laughing at a viral video of you falling on your face while roller-blading for the first time, and never even asking if you ended up ok.

Still, she could move past it. He was covering his more vulnerable emotions up with anger, a pretty common habit, and a hard one to break.

She sighed. "Y'know, I know you have your reasons for getting defensive, but I'm only trying to help."

"Help?" He asked, offended. "How would this help? You don't have any right to know... Any of that!"

"Hey, I don't know who it is. Ok?"

He clenched his teeth. "It's still not your place."

"Fine. I just wanna warn you... That's not how this works. You can't stop yourself to stop loving someone you do, any more than you can force yourself to love someone you don't."

Confusion, that was new. Then fear.

He didn't speak after that, but she did.

"I won't bother you again."

[fromdevcom]

You know how advertising is a big deal. But what if I told you that it doesn't even matter where you advertise anymore? That's right, people want to be in the know and see all sorts of ads when they're scrolling through their Facebook feed or checking out their Instagram page. However, there are some things that work better than others when it comes to creating an ad campaign for your company. Social Media has become the number one place where brands go to try and get people talking about them because so many people use these networks as a way of sharing information with their friends and followers. It's important for businesses to understand what type of content gets shared more. Social Media is the New Advertising Platform Nowadays, more and more things are going digital. When it comes to something like social media, many people will admit that they don't want to see your ads when they're scrolling through their feeds on Facebook or Instagram. That's where a lot of businesses make a mistake... They continue to post advertisements on users' pages when all people really are annoyed about them. People Only Want to Share Things That Are Interesting So if you're trying to get people talking about your company, it's important to understand what kind of content will get shared the most. What do I mean by this? Well, take for example a social media post about your new product line... It won't be able to stand out if you just post a simple image of your new collection with a short description saying that this is now available online. In order to impress people, you need to do something that will make them want to talk about it. The Importance of Understanding what Type of Content Gets Shared on Social Media There are millions of things that people post on Facebook every single day, but you have to understand that not everything gets shared. If your post is boring or if it's something common for this platform, people will say 'meh,' swipe past it, and keep scrolling. But what type of posts do get shares? It's important to note that people tend to share things that are exciting, positive, and entertaining. In other words, they want something that will catch their eye and make them feel a certain way. If you can understand what type of posts get the most shares on social media, then you have a better chance at creating an ad campaign that will wow people. There is no rule for what people share. It is impossible to call Twitter customer service and ask about it because most likely they do not know. It is a society that creates trends, and you need to be observant to catch them and fit into the frame. So if you're looking for a way to get your company's name out there, it's best to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and ask yourself this question: what is it that I want to see on my social media feed? Most brands know that if they want to be successful on social media, they need to create something that will become viral. Checking the newest trends online is the best way to aim the perfect approach. Understanding What Doesn't Get Shared on Social Media This is equally important because understanding what type of posts don't get shared is just as valuable. If there's something that you want to create, but it doesn't keep people talking about it, then you need to take a step back and think about why no one wants to see this on their feed. Could it be because your design is super simple, or because the slogan isn't catchy? What are Some Tips to Make Sure your Content is Getting Seen by as Many People as Possible Check the newest trends online and try to add your narration to them. It is uploaded in a file extension that is readable on mobile devices. Take a look at successful campaigns of other brands and try to find common characteristics between them. Involve the audience, simply ask them what they consider a good campaign. Hold contests on social media to engage more people. And of course, make sure that your contests are exciting enough for people to share them with their friends!

Never underestimate social media - it's one of the easiest ways for you to get your message out there and reach a bigger audience. Use tools that will let you know about your audience preferences, measure your hashtag shares, and show you every mention of your company with sentiment attached to it. How to Create an Effective Campaign with a Limited Budget On social media, you can deal with things using your money and pay for PPC ads and banners, but you can also take a more creative approach and try to think outside the box. Cliché, but always experiment with things! This is your chance to make something that's never been done before. You can jump into trends or jump out of them, you can try all sorts of different approaches until you find one that sticks. And everything above can be done without spending a dime on it, just creative people and knowledge about trends. Conclusion The next time you want to boost your social media campaign and make it stand out, keep the points above in mind. And don't forget - if you want to be successful with your ads, make sure to tap into the potential of the most powerful advertising platform... Social media!

[aliform]

ending 2024, rhythms and threads

On the online presence, on preserving the self

I've been scrolling back through my likes (I felt a stupid sort of trepidation once I hit almost 1k) and have been queuing them up and unliking them as I go; one of the reasons why I love tumblr and won't leave it in the digital scrapbook/commonplace book sense is that no matter how old I get, how I drift through the months and from job to job, no matter how much I am bored of my life or invigorated by some small new thing, there's still undercurrents that have been me, been Samantha, since I was a teen and are visible here. I still love cake the most, I still love pink roses, I'm an teaboo Anglophile forever, reading/book collecting/libraries are woven into my very essence, and I still latch onto a few subgroups/cultures every year and read about them and then move on (this year: I discovered there's a lot of British men who blog about the different pubs they visit, love that for them, and me).

This tumblr was created 16 years ago (2008 -- I was 21, and my LJ account is now 19 years old as of last month) and is the visible record of my online presence through my 20s: fandom, connections, events etc. My face is on here, snide confessions, inappropriate battles between other users, that one viral post I made about self-care -- anyway. I'm not leaving anytime soon but what does the internet feel like for almost 40-year-old me?

I feel in-between. There's middle-aged blog owners who've been typing away since Usenet was a thing; there's Gen Z who uhh...I don't know how they blog or if they want longform content of any kind. I feel like I don't fit anywhere digitally anymore.

There's Substack, which for weird reasons I refuse to go near (those reasons are that I am suspicious of anyone on there; it's like a NLOG version of influencing and I could be totally wrong but there's a vibe to it that is too commercialist, me-me-me my personal thoughts are better than the other persons...come on, there are only so many ways to teehee over pop culture or dissect girlhood or whatever).

But I did follow through and do what I've wanted to do for years (decades) and make an actual real grownup blog this year. In March! 10 months ago! There's like three whole entries because I can't figure out how to widen the width of the posts and I want to do that before I start writing "for real." Of course I should ignore that and keep on prattling to no one.

On waning, on growing, onto 2025

What has 2024 been? I feel myself age: my face is longer, my hands are older, cuts take ages to heal. We lost Gordon, my husband's soulmate in cat form, to cancer. I've started doing quarterly staycations -- first the Midwest and then New England. Next, the southwest. It's my way to not hate being where I live.

My goal for this year was to only read books I owned. Since I mostly read by listening to audiobooks (all borrowed through the library) that was a fail. My book goal for next year may be to read through everything in my childhood bookcase, from Mary Poppins to His Dark Materials to Ouran High School Host Club.

One major surprise this year was that I started bullet journaling again. Because I'm an idiot I never put years in the old ones (are years not aesthetic enough??) and I think they were from like...2017? to 2019? Maybe? I fell down a rabbit hole of a studytuber and then all the snark about her and was like, why am I not doing this when I have all the supplies; there are 20-year-olds taking time out of their lives to do this and I can too. It's part of my daily routine now and I crave it and even though I am literally writing down the most banal bits of my day.

What do I want out of the next year? More reading, a new fandom or some sort of pull towards something, to not be tired all the time. A house. A bigger apartment. To finally learn how to knit. To keep going and not become some stretched, grey and surface-level version of myself. I can't create more time.