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axolotlclown · 1 year

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My essay is completed

This bitch took me days. I got some fat points in here.

I would recommend the doc, as I worked very hard on the MLA format. But in case it decides not to work, here is a transcript of the essay. (also, sources in the doc for the stream i mentioned in the intro) :)

Generation Loss, The Social Experiments, and Its Commentary On the Relationships of the Modern Influencer

Generation Loss, “The Social Experiments”, created by RanbooLive explores the relationships between the modern content creator and the institutions they work for, their self-identity, as well as their audience. Generation Loss, an interactive comedy-horror production streamed live on Twitch, contains three episodes that make up “The Social Experiments” chapter. The series was created by RanbooLive, produced by JK Productions, managed by Ghost Commander Inc., and streamed onto the RanbooLive Twitch channel. The series follows Ranboo as they explore a production— streamed to a live audience— only to discover they were kidnapped and forced to remain a cast member. This wouldn’t be so bad, however, the show seems to take on heavy inspiration from the Saw franchise.

“The Social Experiments” seems to have taken on after the creator’s own life. For example, in a behind-the-scenes tweet, we see a photo of a list titled, “OFFICE REGULATIONS”. This list includes additional information about the livelihood of the Showfall employees, as well as a straight-cut reference to a RanbooLive stream from 2020, in which he had listed reasons why he should be president of L’manburg (a country from the Dream SMP, a popular Minecraft roleplay server). This stream would serve to jumpstart RanbooLive’s career.

The creator, RanbooLive— also known as Ranboo— began their career as a Twitch streamer on September 11th, 2020. During a time when everyone would rather stay inside, as a result of the Covid-19 virus, it did not take long for the RanbooLive Twitch channel to gain some attention. On November 27th, 2020, Ranboo had been invited to join the Dream SMP, a popular Minecraft roleplay server at the time. Seemingly overnight, Ranboo exploded in popularity. Freshly turned 17 years old (though, the audience would remain none the wiser), Ranboo skyrocketed to become the most subscribed person on Twitch. During this period, Ranboo preferred to keep their personal information private. Although Ranboo has opened up about some of these personal truths, he continues to keep their name and face anonymous.

As their career progressed, he moved away from streaming Minecraft on Twitch and toward a variety of content. This would create an opportunity for a project as large as Generation Loss. When the first episode aired on May 24th, 2023, Ranboo would be 19 years old. With the mounting expectations, responsibilities, and stress, it comes as no surprise that a project of this scale would need a personal connection— a soul of its own— to have a chance at being successful. When the audience asked Ranboo: “What is the scariest thing that could happen to you?”, the answer was clear.

The media in charge of producing the shows we see in “The Social Experiments” distinguishes themselves as ‘Showfall Media’. They produce the content that the viewers, as well as the characters, see and interact with. They are also responsible for the deaths we see on screen. Showfall seems to be a stand-in for a corporation— in this context, Twitch.

In episode 3: “The Choice”, the streamers are depicted as being forced to stream. During this scene, we see that Slimecicle is reacting to a color compilation on a Twitch stream. This is the reality for a lot of streamers signed on as partners for Twitch. Twitch requires partnered streamers to stream at least 25 hours a month (these hours may be negotiable depending on the revenue the streamer brings to them). Streamers on the higher end may find themselves killing their creativity in an attempt to meet these requirements.

The media workers are also seen in “The Choice”. They are depicted as emotionless drones. They are seen to be sort of ‘offline’ during times when there are not any shows. This is a commentary on how Twitch executives view their employees as machines. Later, we see a dead Showfall employee slumped against a mall map, bleeding; security had mauled them. Showfall has demonstrated that they would only kill those who attempt to defy them. The employees are very vulnerable to the decisions of the executives at the top. Their lives are just as much at stake as the streamers. When Ranboo finally breaks and attacks a worker, they do not bleed; they are made of wires. To the streamers, they are the same mindless machines that keep them trapped there. Humanity is ultimately lost.

Snowfall has found that putting their streamers and actors in peril creates engagement. This is the plot of episode 2: “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”. Every streamer— except for Ranboo— dies at some point throughout the episode. The streamers, playing the roles of actors, are seen as disposable by Showfall. Though the viewer sees the exact actors return, this may be more of a metaphor about how replaceable they are— even Showfall can’t tell the difference. There will always be a new streamer available to take advantage of. This is especially true in the final scene of “The Choice”. Ranboo’s death is meant to resemble a crucifixion. This would imply that Ranboo is viewed as a sacrifice to Showfall. To them, it did not matter whether the viewer chose to let him live or die, they already got their views and engagement. Ranboo’s death was a cheap money grab.

The tonal shifts throughout the three episodes exemplify the loss of innocence as the streamer grows. The first episode: “The Spirit of The Cabin”, carries a generally comedic tone. Although Ranboo is horrified and confused at their situation, it is difficult for the audience to understand what they are afraid of. This is because of the grandiosity of the presentation of the set, characters, and scenarios. This creates a much more goofy atmosphere than a creepy one. Because of Ranboo’s mind control, his behavior comes across as static and abnormal. It is difficult to relate to them. Overall, the audience spends more time laughing than cowering. These actors are not real. Death is not a real threat.

In “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”, there is a slight tone shift. In the first scene, Ranboo is not under any mind control. This leads to their delivery being more believable and relatable to the viewer. The further introduction of more realistic actors breathes realism into absurd scenarios. The comedic tone may remain for a few moments as the situation is still too extreme before the terror of the consequences begins to become known. Death is permanent now.

“The Choice” intends to fill the viewer with dread. Ranboo has complete control now, leading to their character, and their problems, being completely relatable to the viewer. The fear derived here does not come from cheap jumpscares, nor is the scenery particularly decrepit. The fear comes from circumstance. Showfall has become too real. The audience understands how this will end, no matter how much they want it to be any different. There is no true exit. Once the viewer arrives at the ending, their fears become just as real as the show. The threat of death becomes a guarantee.

These shifts originate from the progression a young streamer may go through as they grow. In the final scene of “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”, Ranboo becomes aware of the horrors of the system he’s found himself trapped in. This is that wake-up moment a streamer may have, exaggerated at a young age. At this moment, Ranboo realizes their childhood is over.

The character Slimecicle, also referred to as Charlie, displays traits that may indicate that he was taken by Showfall as a child. In “The Spirit of The Cabin”, Charlie refuses to eat unless Ranboo would make airplane noises as he feeds him. This is behavior that would typically be displayed by a baby. The basement in this episode is filled with children's toys— presumably owned by Charlie, as the bedroom is confirmed to be his. In “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”, Charlie shows showing behaviors of a teenager. He is generally unbothered by the horrifying situation that he finds himself in. This may also demonstrate how this torture is something that Charlie is accustomed to. By “The Choice”, Charlie begins to behave as an adult. Charlie was likely taken by Showfall Media as a baby and raised within the system. As a young streamer, ‘torture’ is something that becomes a truth about life.

“The Social Experiments” also reveals the thin separation between the facade put on for entertainment and the authentic person. This is a large plot point in “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”. During a scene, there is a large carousel with five streamers plus Frank (a plastic skeleton). Ranboo and the audience must each choose to pick one streamer to survive. The streamers must justify why Ranboo and the audience may decide to pick them. This would mean that they must appeal to the facade that they have created— which would have been historically successful.

One streamer, Sneegsnag, immediately plays a bit that he needs to use the bathroom. This is a reference to how viewers may know him as ‘the fart guy’, a common inside joke between the real streamer and his audience. After attempting to escape, he is returned to the carousel and promptly brainwashed. He begins to take on a much more calm persona. He doesn’t seem to be bothered about whether or not he dies— he is unbothered by the viewers' decision. Sneegsnag takes on the facade that the greater viewers know him for, being the ‘chill guy’.

Another streamer, Nihachu (also known as Niki), is hysterically sobbing out of fear for her life. Upon introducing herself, she snaps out of her tears and rambles about ‘how nice she is’. This is a reflection on how the audience only sees her as either the crying overdramatic one or the really nice one. Both ignore the fact that she is about to die. Both Sneegsnag and Niki are chosen.

Later in the same episode, we see a ‘fashion room’. The streamers believe that to proceed, they must alter their appearance. This being their first instinct, may indicate how natural it is to constantly alter the facade that they regularly put on. This was ultimately unsuccessful. If they don’t present themselves in a way the viewers want to see, they cannot move on.

In the final scene of this episode, Ranboo becomes aware of the show they’ve been forced to partake in. Leaning over the rail of Showfall Media’s place of operation, Ranboo mumbles to themselves, “What the fuck? What the fuck is this place?”. This is not only the first time the viewers hear this character swear, but it is the first time RanbooLive has ever sworn on camera. This scene drives a wedge between the facade that Ranboo has worked hard to keep up and the real Ranboo behind the screen. It also serves as a wake-up call to the viewer that what is happening is much more real than they are comfortable with.

A prominent part of Ranboo’s character is the large metal mask that they wear. Masks traditionally represent shielding one’s humanity. While that is part of the story, it doesn’t paint the full picture. Showfall uses this mask to control him, and Hetch later uses it to speak to him. In the first scene of “The Spirit of The Cabin”, Ranboo attempted to claw off the mask to no avail. The mask remains a burden on the character throughout the rest of the series through mind control. In “The Choice”, Hetch makes a promise to assist in Ranboo’s escape. Only after Ranboo has successfully left, can Hetch remove their mask. The mask remains something that Ranboo has awoken with, died with, and can never remove. It does rob Ranboo of their humanity. Showfall doesn’t see him as human— and neither does the viewer. What robs Ranboo of their humanity is the facade. The mask is the brand. To the viewer, it is the most jarring part of his character. It is the most important part.

During Ranboo’s final death scene, the mask is cracked. We see a sliver of humanity escape as they plead for death. The mask stays on during the execution. Ranboo is killed with a box that completely covers their face. At this moment, there is no brand. There is no facade or authentic self. There is nothing anymore. Ranboo was only free in death. The viewer never saw their true face.

The biggest theme throughout “The Social Experiments” is the loss of autonomy the streamers experience. Ranboo is unable to make any decisions for himself and relies on the audience to make them for them. In “The Choice”, Ranboo defies the audience when selecting a code to input into a computer. Because of this defiance, Ranboo is no longer able to proceed. Hetch disappears. Ranboo was not in Hetch’s best interest, it was the viewers. The ‘fashion room’ in “The Mastermind of The Warehouse” is a literal closet. Ranboo watches Austin and Ethan put on dresses, heels, and wigs while he only put on a jacket to replace the one he already had. The audience, as well as society, is not interested in queer expression. Ranboo cannot express themselves in the way that they would like out of fear of how the viewers would react.

During the cooking segment in “The Spirit of The Cabin”, the audience discovers that Ranboo cannot cook. This is a direct reference to the popularity of cooking streams on Twitch. In particular, how cooking streams done by people who don’t know how to cook are more popular than those done by chefs. Viewers tune in to watch streamers fail at something that should be easy. Even if a streamer can cook, they gain more viewers if they pretend that they cannot. To ensure that Showfall acquires the views they desire, they make sure that Ranboo is given ingredients that do not make logical sense. The audience is led to believe that he will fail.

Returning to the carousel in “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”, no matter how well the streamers play into the facade, they have no control over the outcome. They cannot decide for themselves whether or not they can move forward. Only the audience, and Ranboo, can decide the streamers’ fates.

In “The Spirit of The Cabin”, Sneegsnag is trapped in a cage. He is unbothered by the situation he finds himself in. He has been doing this much longer than Ranboo. He is stuck with a plastic skeleton named Frank— whom only Sneegsnag can understand. In a behind-the-scenes tweet, we see a document that shows that Frank is a now-deceased person. Sneegsnag likely knew him before he had passed. Frank’s passing was likely the choice of the viewers, as that has been the only permanent death shown. Sneegsnag, at this point, has likely accepted the loss of control.

In “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”, Ranboo is forced to cut Charlie open to retrieve a key. He is told he must to survive. Ranboo apologizes but complies. Charlie seems generally unbothered; this has likely happened to him before. There may be pressure on streamers to have an ‘every man for himself’ mentality. If your friend becomes the target of criticism, is it worth it to defend them? After all, if Ranboo didn’t cut Charlie open, they may not have been able to solve the Mouse Trap puzzle. If Ranboo hadn’t attempted to rescue Charlie in “The Choice”, he may have been able to escape.

The consequences of the streamers trying to take their autonomy back are made clear. In “The Mastermind of The Warehouse”, Niki goes off script in an attempt to investigate the Candy Room. She is killed. When Ranboo later becomes aware of the realization that they are trapped on a show, the horror starts to set in. The viewer sees how desolate the sets are. How empty the mall is. How dangerous it is to question the system. They see the truth. Did they ever regret it? Is this life worth it?

Ultimately, Ranboo is pinned up and a decision is made clear. They could either live and be forced to continue to entertain the masses at their own expense, or he could die. Except, Ranboo can’t make that decision; only the audience can. Upon the realization that these are his only two options, Ranboo begs the audience to kill them. Is it a commentary on cancel culture? Is it a commentary on depression and suicidal ideation? Does it matter? Aren’t the results the same?

It’s easy to want to envy a popular streamer’s life. They have money, attention, and a lot of friends. It may feel like their lives are a dream— the ultimate goal in life. All you have to do is play a video game, cook, or have an interesting conversation with no one. Who wouldn’t want such an easy life? This is not true.

When the audience chose to kill Ranboo in the final scene of “The Social Experiments”, that was the end of the story for this version of Ranboo. In real life, it is not. Ranboo lives reality as if the audience had chosen to let him live. These themes prevail in real life. The horrors of the loss of autonomy, loss of childhood innocence, loss of control over your own identity, and capitalism are all real.

What now for the viewer? Will they be kinder? Will they begin to remember the very real humans behind the screen? Or are they just as much wires as the Showfall employees? Is this even worth it? Are they thinking the ‘every man for himself’ mentality, too? How far does it go? Maybe there is no escape. When Ranboo was asked, “What is the scariest thing that could happen to you?”, they answered: “It already happened.”

#I cannot emphasize enough how you shouldn't use rhetorical questions in your academic essays for school #I did them to fuck with you #which is why i'm allowed to do it #also don't use passive verbs #i just don't have the energy to fix it #and you probably won't notice anyway #but uh #yeah #i made some fat points #thoughts of dante #ranboo #ranboolive #generation loss #generation loss spoilers

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zepskies · 1 year

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Hey! Just something i wanted to seek advice about… there this guy i like, and i feel its not a good idea to fall for this guy, not because he’s bad or smt, he is very smart and a good person but he is older than me, a little bit too old maybe? I’m 21 he probably in his early 30’s and I’m doing an internship where he works, he’s not the boss but very important to the place. I just started this internship and i cant quit because its allotted to me by our professors in uni. So I’m pretty much stuck till 1st week of December🤦🏻‍♀️ He’s also someone I report to and literally stop functioning when i see him. Even when i say “good morning”, dude its not even audible to ants for Christ sake🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ No guy, i mean literally no one has made me feel this way🤦🏻‍♀️ how the hell will i survive the next 2 months… -intern anon

Hey there, lovely!

Wow, this is my first "life advice" question. I'm by no means a relationship expert, but since I'm a bit older than you (27), maybe I can help you out here.

First of all, congrats on getting an internship through your school! This sounds like a great opportunity. And this is your time to be a sponge, learning as much as you can and getting as much experience as you can in your desired field before you leave the threshold of university/college, and head into the working world.

Now, I won't say too much about the age gap, only because you're over 18 and you can do whatever you want with anyone you want...

However, I do have thoughts about the work dynamic. This man is your superior (as in, you report to him for work). You're just getting started in your career.

The balance of power is inherently unequal here. Even if he makes advances toward you, if I was in your shoes, I would professionally shut it down.

(Or let him know that you want to focus on the work for now, and if he's still interested after your internship is done, then you'll give him your number. I wouldn't give him your number before that point, even if he asks. Keep your work channels at work: through email, Slack, Skype, Microsoft Teams, what have you.)

Why? Because while he may seem charming, attractive, nice, etc., unfortunately, you never know someone's true intentions. The work/romance boundaries could blur very quickly.

And in this situation, he holds all the cards: he's more established in the company, he has authority over you in the workplace, he's probably more experienced in corporate bullshit, he's much older than you, (and he's a man 🙃).

Were the relationship to be exposed (I'm not sure what dating policies are at this company), he could even use that power to cover his own ass and throw you under the bus. Or, I hate to say it, even to try and manipulate you.

As I said, if I was in your shoes, I would take this internship opportunity to learn as much as I can about my desired career! Be friendly, but professional with this guy. Count to ten in your mind when you see him. Call him a "basic bitch" in your head. Whatever you need to do to just treat him like you'd treat anyone else. 😂

And if he hits you up after the internship is done in December, feel free to let him buy you dinner. 😘

(Thus ends my unlicensed dating advice. ❤️❤️)

#ask me stuff #I hope this helps hun!#relationship advice #internships and work babes #real life stuff #zepskies answers

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 1 year

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Ism Traps

Bro. Broseph. Brosephalus. Brocephalopod.

Hear Me.

There’s this whole cottage industry of Woke Brands that are lazily writing altered editions of pretty-okay but sometimes problematic older media. Disney’s been trying and failing to make good live-action copies of its golden age for almost twenty years now. There’s also a whole cottage industry of Anti-Woke Critique Channels, and...

I’ve seen the figures. I know how ridiculously much content someone has to produce in a too-short timeframe in order to have even a shot at making it financially on YouTube.

...but it’s still hypocrisy when they talk about the laziness of the Woke Brands Show writing and then the writing of their own show is lazy. It doesn’t mean they’re wrong about the laziness they’re calling out, mind. Just that they’re hypocrites.

Oh, and bigots.

What I’ve found, watching these critiques, is that woke brands are Bigotry Enticement Snares. Someone with a bit of privilege and a Lotta opinions will come barging in and they’ll have legit things to say about poor writing

- the Little Mermaid remake only mentions a single mother and a single father for Ariel and her siblings, but every sister is a different ethnicity. This is weird enough that it at least could have used a lampshade. - taking the role of ramming a ship into Ursula from Eric and giving it to Ariel makes it harder to believe that Triton would reverse his long-standing view on humans. If nothing else is added to help sell that idea the ending may come off hollow or even unbelievable

but then they’re enjoying the sound of their own voice and get going on

- maybe this is a psyop to make more women in black neighborhoods hate men. Did you know black people have the most single-parent households of any race? (No mention of mass incarceration here. Also totally ignores how Strong Independent Woman Don’t Need No Man is very much not exclusively an idea presented to black people)

Listen.

I get the urge to correct people who are arguing badly.

But when you’re a critic and correcting people who are arguing badly for equality and freedom you have really got to stick to focusing on just the bad argument. You go anywhere else when you’re talking about it and whoopsie-daisy you’re outing yourself.

You can also call out a brand if you think they’re trying to cynically sell a pale copy of the feeling of being a good person to you. HBomberguy’s Woke Brands video does so for like half an hour straight. It’s beautiful. But a bunch of people in the conversation are literal fascists and they’ve worked in this idea that the seeking of equality or freedom or security for marginalized people is the problem, not the cynical point of sale by the massive corporation. And if you’re lazy, or perhaps just foolish or even merely a little too tired when writing, you might regurgitate one of these ideas you heard and absorbed without examination because it had snappy wordplay. Maybe it even rhymed!

My first piece of advice is to take extra care if you’re critiquing a woke brand. If you’re making fun of Hitler you don’t need to think very hard about your insults to avoid expressing bigotry. If you’re making fun of Miss Marvel you do. Of all the penalties for white men to experience, “it’s a little less work to make fun of us without coming off as a bigot” seems pretty tame and totally fair.

My second piece of advice is that if you do overstep on one of these things, yield the fucking point. You double down on one of these conversations and you’ll find yourself swiftly surrounded by allies with tiki torches or white sheets or swastikas in a real hurry and they’ll all have Nifty Ideas to sell you once they’ve chased off “your attacker.” That Way Lies Madness.

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tea-at-221 · 4 years

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So, let's delve a bit into the Spanish dub of Supernatural.

I'm going to go through a lot of terms here, and a lot of basics, in order to increase people's level of understanding as to how the dub may possibly have come about the way it did.

This post will provide information and, I hope, allow some members of the fandom to move forward with their own theories with more reassurance. Information is power. I will define and clarify industry terms to the best of my novice ability to make it easier for others who wish to do their own research.

This post was inspired by the fact that I've been part of multiple fandoms in which queerbaiting has played an enormous part: I am tired of seeing fandom friends left devastated and without answers, no emotional resolution in sight. So this post is, in spirit if not content, largely dedicated to my fellow Johnlockers and Queliot shippers. And most of all, for Quentin Coldwater, who deserved not just better but the very best.

Disclaimer: This is my own research and there is a bit of speculation involved; I can't guarantee 100% that I will get everything right (I hit some very frustrating walls looking up what should be easy-to-find facts), but I did a *lot* of work for this. Other people will doubtless be able to clarify points/give better specifics/correct what I've gotten wrong. I am not promising a concrete answer to “SPN gate” here, as without more information than we currently have that is impossible to declare with certainty.

More under the cut.

All that having been said, onwards (see end for sources):

First, who airs the Spanish dub of Supernatural?

Answer: the Warner Channel.

Why? It goes back to who owns The CW.

From Wikipedia (2): "The CW Network, LLC, a limited liability joint venture between the CBS Entertainment Group unit of ViacomCBS; and the Studios and Networks division of AT&T's WarnerMedia, the parent company of Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB. The network's name is an abbreviation derived from the first letters of the names of its two parent corporations (CBS and Warner Media)."

Warner Bros apparently is the side that handles the delegation of dubbing to outside studios. So, who does Warner use for their dubbing? Perhaps multiple studios, but the two I found in the course of my research were SPGStudios(5) (who specifically handle localization for Latin American Spanish productions) and Iyuno Media Group (formerly BTI Studios)(3).

What is localization?

Simply put, it refers to the translation of the home language of the show in question to the language of the new market it's entering. So, Supernatural 15x18 is translated from its native English to Spanish for Latin American viewers.

And what exactly *is* dubbing (actually called revoicing within the industry; dubbing is a widely-recognized term, however, and it's pretty well understood what is meant by it)?

Here is the Merriam-Webster definition:

"1 : to add (sound effects or new dialogue) to a film or to a radio or television production —usually used with "in"

They dubbed in the music.

2 : to provide (a motion-picture film) with a new soundtrack and especially dialogue in a different language

The film was dubbed in French and Spanish.

3 : to make a new recording of (sound or videotape already recorded) also : to mix (recorded sound or videotape from different sources) into a single recording"

There is a slang term, "dubby," which refers to any overdub that is comically jarring and obviously a dub. The history of dubbing has been such that this has become a way to think of and recognize it: by how awful and ineffective it used to be when it came to foreign films sloppily overlaid with English dubbing.

However, we are in the midst of an age of networks and companies scrambling to play catch-up, eager to use modern technology to create more effective, convincing dubs. In short, they see the moneymaking potential of presenting finished works that viewers may not even realize *are* dubbed without careful inspection. It's true that a good dub is about 10x more costly than subtitling, but it's hard to satisfy the viewer's desire for escapism if they can't suspend disbelief because they're busy reading.

The truth of that is reflected in internal statistics Netflix (for instance, but not just them) parses to gauge viewer interaction and retention with their various shows: when comparing subtitled vs. dubbed shows, it's easy to see which is the winner.(1)

So to be sure there is no nefarious intent here, we would need to be able to identify the following:

A.) What exactly was the process for this dub?

B.) Who decides what changes to make during a dubbing process?

C.) Who approves those changes?

*Can* there be such a thing as a "rogue translator," as Misha Collins put it? (I am going to clarify here that I think Misha is an upstanding person who believed the best of the show he was involved in and all the people who made it, so his assumption of a rogue translator makes sense in the context of that emotion-based reasoning).

I'm not sure which studio did the dub for the Latin American Spanish version of Supernatural; if I had access to that episode perhaps it's mentioned in the credits. You'd think that would be simple enough to figure out anyway, but I was unable. So maybe someone can take a look and let me know. But, as an example, here is how SPGStudios outlines their localization (dubbing) process:

1.) They make a digital or analog transcription of a show/movie.

2.) The translation, or localization, is done by their staff (in any of 40 available languages their staff can speak). When translating, they translate for meaning and then adapt for time, tempo, and style. They say that "extensive experience is required to capture the essence of the language dialog while accounting for variances in speaking time between the source and destination languages." i.e., wording/word choice will be kept as true as possible to the original intention of the native language, but at the same time the translation will need to use its chosen wording in a way that fits what is being shown on-screen. To produce a convincing/pleasing dub, they won't replace a word like "looked" with a longer phrase like "scanned the horizon" because it's not going to match what's onscreen. That would be venturing into "dubby" territory.

3.) They perform the ADR process: the voice actors (in this case it would normally be Guillermo Rojas performing for Dean Winchester, though it appears things may have been different in 15x18, possibly due to covid) record the new dialogue to replace the original actor's performance.

4.) The newly recorded dialogue goes to the sound editorial department "to ensure that lip-synch is optimized and technical aspects of the vocal performance match the original."

5.) All of the new audio--including dialogue, music, and sound effects--is mixed together to emulate the quality of the original production as closely as possible despite the changes in rhythm that resulted from the dialog having been translated.

6.) Designers, animators, and VFX editors assist with the localization or enhancement of graphics, if needed.

7.) Localized Master: SPG has a 'traffic team' who 'ensures that all client delivery and storage specifications are met, including file formatting, labeling, and uploading." So in other words, the files are heavily encrypted (or that's how I read this).

Presumably, after all steps are performed, SPGStudios transfers the show back to Warner, who then distributes it. The other studio, Iyuno, makes it very clear that *they* can coordinate and handle all distribution themselves to a vast number of networks. That means that if the client desires, Iyuno can send the finished product directly out into the world.

There seem to be two types of scripts that can be given to the dubbing company:

1.) "In-Production Dubbing indicates that dubbing production is active in tandem with post production. In-Production Dubbing fulfillment partners should expect potential changes to source materials."(4)

2.) "Final Asset Dubbing indicates that dubbing production takes place after final delivery of the show. All source assets will be in a final state. The dubbing fulfillment partner should not expect any changes to the source materials."(4)

Without knowing which of these was agreed upon for SPN 15x18, it is very hard to say exactly where or if additional edits may have been performed on the original material that weren't performed on the translated material (in other words, earlier draft).

If the studio was given the episode as an In-Production Dubbing project, this could explain why the title of the Spanish translation reflected the original script title, "The Truth," rather than the final title in English, "Despair".

Assuming this difference was unintentional, rather than a calculated marketing ploy re: audience enticement (which seems admittedly unlikely), then yes, it could indicate a screw-up on someone's part. The question is, was the dub company given the task of generating the title card, or did some other graphics department handle that before the project made it to them? If the latter is the case, the choice to add "Me too" instead of "Don't do this, Cas" could be either a conscious choice on the dub studio's part as sort of a nod to what they thought "the truth" was, or could just be them going with what they were given and making their translation choices based on something else, such as rhythm/timing.

SO, could there have been an original script that had Dean say "me too" in response to Cas, which then went through translation and made it out into the world? Teeechnically yes, but one would assume that the original script and original *footage* would have to have arrived at the dub studio together if the script is being transcribed in-house as SPGSTudios outlines in their process. I'm going to reason that the odds of them using a later edit of the visual--one that contained what in this instance we would be assuming was Warner's preferred dialogue ("Don't do this, Cas") yet choosing to stick with their own audio revoicing of the (supposed) original script/visual's "Me too, Cas" with its now subsequently poor timing, seems unlikely.

So either they would likely have to redo the exact same "Me too" audio again (having made the choice to keep the original dialogue, while also having to work under pandemic restrictions re: travel and talent availability) to make everything match the visual footage time-wise, OR, it was simply a matter that the English scene always was just as we saw it, but that the studio chose to interpret the script the way they did and were able to do their timing the first time around to match accordingly.

This still leaves a question in the air regarding the origin and fate of certain clips of Dean's more visually emotive reaction to Castiel's confession that have been floating around the internet. I've only seen very very brief glimpses of them, myself, and I'm not certain that they're really evidence of anything other than more than one take having been done of that scene, which wouldn't be uncommon and doesn't necessarily point to a conspiracy.

I also want to state that in the wake of 15x18, I opted to protect my mental health rather than follow every development/rumor/speculation that cropped up in the aftermath, so there’s probably a lot that I’m leaving out of this post that may be pertinent. Do me a favor and do assume that I know nothing of it. lol

I will also add this about the other studio, Iyuno: they are very careful to state on their site, repeatedly and with great pride, that they are committed to presenting the world with the smoothest, most true-to-the-original localized version of a film or show possible. Quote: "...our entire team of staff wants nothing more than to make every single one of our partner's content feel as if it were never translated." They are not fucking around. They want to please the client. Would they have done something like the translation in question without any direct go-ahead from Warner? It seems unlikely, though they don't outline their process on their site the way SPG does.

Notice that in the SPGStudios process outlined above, there is no mention made of a review step in which the studio presents the translated dialogue to the client for approval re: the new wording. That doesn't mean there isn't a review step; however, without seeing the contractual agreement that was made between Warner and whatever dub studio they used, or knowing Warner's preferred process by some other means, it's difficult to be certain whether or not there was a review process for the translated script. I did find evidence that Netflix reserves the right to review such translated scripts before air.

Speaking of Netflix, I will include here what their translation requirements are, as I did find those. They, like Warner, also use Iyuno Media Group much of the time for dubbing (voiceover style dubbing in which they apparently like to leave the original language audible underneath, so that's slightly different from revoicing, but I'm working on an assumption that the general expectations are the same for both):(4)

"1. Translation Requirements

1.1 Main Dialogue

All main dialogue in the source (original) language should be translated unless specifically noted.

Due to timing limitations, some of the dialogue may be condensed/truncated as long as it retains all essential elements of the plot.

Please refrain from dubbing redundant words such as character names and repetitions.

Additionally, do not recreate laughs, hesitations, reaction noises, etc."

I'm looking at that bit: "Due to timing limitations, some of the dialogue may be condensed/truncated as long as it retains all essential elements of the plot."

So let's say just for argument's sake that this is pretty standard language provided to the dubbing studios. Netflix is a giant, so I'll proceed with that assumption given the lack of more concrete information:

Does it really change essential elements of the remaining plot to have Dean return Castiel's declaration of love? Forgetting about the outside, emotional ripple effect such a declaration was bound to set off in the viewing audience, no. The two characters have no further scenes together, nor does Dean go on in the next episode to immediately embark on a new relationship, or tell anyone that Cas said he was in love with him but he couldn't return it because he didn't feel the same. So technically, no rule was broken. And that is what it comes down to, if you're thinking like a lawyer reading a contract: specifics, not theoretical implications or consequences.

So, possibly what we have is something that was simple to add and easy to get away with/argue for: translated dialog that fit a dub better due to its length, and didn't actually change anything plot-wise (or at least, the argument for that could easily be made). This points to the painful crux of the matter: why would the Spanish version of Supernatural which aired in Latin America allow Dean Winchester to return Castiel's declaration of love with a "Me too, Cas"? Could it *really* be as insulting as the fact that "Yo a ti, Cas" would be a quicker, smoother dub than "No hagas esto, Cas"? ("Don't do this, Cas" in English.) Or did they see something they could get away with, and a reasonable argument to provide for it, so they went ahead and claimed a small LGBT+ victory?

Is someone, somewhere, getting in trouble for all this? Maybe. But could action be taken against them? That would look pretty bad, public-relations-wise, for the party expressing condemnation if that got out. Could Iyuno, or whatever other studio (again, I don't actually know which one handled the dub) theoretically feel a ripple effect from the fallout of this? Could they quietly suffer a drop in acquisitions/revenue for "reasons unclear"? Sure. That sort of thing happens all the time, so theoretically yeah.

Whatever the reasoning behind the decision to have Dean return Cas' declaration of love, surely they didn't have to do it. Surely they could have chosen some other phrase that fit. But they chose to do exactly what they did. I don't know what went down, in the end, or whether censorship was indeed involved, but I will certainly say that I think it was a brave and admirable choice that was made with the Spanish dub. It doesn't undo the "bury your gays" trope of course, but for some LGBT+ audience members it surely provides a sense of validation and maybe even lends a little hope for better representation--which is long, long overdue.

Thanks if you read this far. I hope that even though it’s not perfect it will be helpful in some way.

Sources

(1) https://www.indiewire.com/2020/02/subtitles-vs-dubbing-what-you-need-to-know-1202212800/amp

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_CW

(3) https://www.iyunomg.com/

(4) https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/115016062708-Dubbed-Audio-Style-Guide-VO-Style-Dubbing

(5) https://www.spgstudios.com/localization

#spn gate #destiel #supernatural #queerbaiting #lgbt #lgbt+#lgbt representation #15x18 #dean winchester #castiel #johnlockers #queliot #queliot shippers #quentin coldwater deserved better #spn family #they silenced you

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funigami-games · 3 years

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A dream come true! The Prince's Heart is getting a Voice Over

When we started The Prince's Heart, we never thought we'd find so many wonderful persons willing to collaborate on our project. Here we are now, a month later, with an entire crew of professional and aspiring Voice Actors willing to help us realize our Visual Novel!

Special thanks to our amazing Casting Director, Jacob Wilson, who directed the whole Voice Over process.

Let's meet the entire cast (in order of appearance in the game)!

Nick Chang as Edward (Protagonist)

I was born in Manhattan, but raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where I currently reside. I also proudly identify as a 2nd generation Asian American (half Hong Kong via my mother, half Taiwanese via my father) and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community (gay and demisexual). Since childhood, I have had a distinct love of music and performance. Having played violin from 4th to 12th grade and sung for even longer, I used music as a primary means to express myself growing up. As I progressed from high school to college, I discovered online voice acting, but it was not until my time in graduate school that I formally decided to become an actor. My interest initially stemmed from a desire to help out in localization projects, but over the time I have spent voice acting, I have come to not only develop a great appreciation of the craft of acting, but also further deepen my love of music and rekindle my love of performance. With my singing experience as a basis to my unique perspectives, I hope to bring sensitivity, curiosity, and innovation to every project I work on!

Jacob Wilson as Adam

I’m a voice actor, Casting and voice director based in Dallas Texas. I’ve been working in this field for almost four years Now. It’s a journey that has taken me literally around the world and I’m so thankful for all I’m able to do and have accomplished. Being a part of amazing projects like this one are what fuel me to pursue my passions. I realized I was bisexual when I was 18. It’s a group in the LGBT+ community that continues to get flak from seemingly all over. But my faith in it and myself has always been unshaken. Outside of VO I am a drag artist in the making under the name “Twilight Stunning”, who I’m going to show more properly in the coming months! I’m so thankful I’m in the position I am, and I can’t wait to see what we have in store for y’all!

Bradley Gareth as Michael (Main Character)

Bradley was raised in Western Pennsylvania, learning piano from age 5 and taking up local community theater at age 10. He pursued the performing arts throughout high school, consistently participating in high school musicals and chorus festivals during his tenure there. At the end of high school, he also took multiple classes in musical composition and began doing online voiceover work.

During his time in college, Bradley participated in numerous professional and amateur voiceover productions both online and at the University of Pittsburgh's student radio station, WPTS Radio. While at WPTS, Bradley also began writing advertisements and online content for websites.

Now out of school, Bradley continues to lend his voice to multiple productions, dabble in musical composition, and provide content writing for WrightlySo.com.

Jared Prize as David (Main Character)

Singing provides me with some of the greatest joy in life. Outside of that, I love voice acting, hiking, and hanging with friends. My day job involves working with computers, so I like to find a bit of an escape into the creative-realm during my free time. My sexuality has always been a struggle, but I find comfort in not putting a label on it (at least for now). Mostly, I am very excited to be a part of an ambition team of lovely people. Working within a project like this brings excitement during the process, and even more-so while waiting for the final piece! I hope you enjoy what's to come xo

Marisa Duran as Lady Marie

Hey there, I’m Marisa Duran. I’m an actress working and living in Dallas, Texas.

I caught the "theatre bug" at a young age. My parents will tell you that it started when I was two years-old, dancing around to the Barney theme song. I agree wholeheartedly.

I grew up in a suburb on the east side of Dallas and was fortunate to have the opportunity to explore a city known for its rich culture and artistic influence. My passion for theatre was fueled by the many musicals that toured through town and I quickly decided that I wanted to spend the rest of my life as a professional actor.

In 2016 I graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas with my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, emphasis in Acting. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working with multiple professional theatre companies in the DFW area. I’ve also expanded my career into the worlds of film and voiceover, landing roles in short films, webseries, and commercials, and lending my voice to over a dozen anime titles at FUNimation.

Art has the power to heal, to change, and to empower. As an artist, I believe that my purpose on this earth is to tell stories, and through these stories I hope to make a positive impact and leave people better than I found them. I consider it an honor to be able to use my talents in such a profound way.

Whenever I’m not rehearsing or recording, you can usually find me at my day-time marketing job, playing video-games, or drinking coffee at a local coffeeshop.

Kiba Walker as Zachariah

Born Arthur Lee Walker III in Tacoma, Washington, Kiba Walker is an American actor, musician, director, writer, and performer based out of Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.

Kiba trained under the likes of various industry professionals such as Shane Sparks, Donyelle Jones, Tony Oliver, Betty "Waters" Kennedy, Chuck Huber, Sonny Strait, Chris Rager, Justine Reyes, Lorette Spicer, Bill Quinby, Angie Irons, Dan Lorge, Holly Clark Lorge, Spencer Christian, and many others. With 16 years of collective industry knowledge, Kiba has performed with the likes of Alice Underground, The Stereo Killers, Frankly Fictitious, CRVSH, Grant Davis, Ashley Ann Farley, Steve "Warky" Nunez, BASH!, Ryland Lynch, Ross Lynch, Will Jay, and more.

Voice over came to Kiba in his later years, around the age of 18, when he found his love doing an ask blog for Tumblr. From there, he took the craft seriously and networked profusely with various actors and companies in the voice over realm. His first roles were as Boku Temagawa in "Love Games" and Mike Connelly in "Zoolaplex".

Since 2014, he's been cast in various other projects including MY HERO ACADEMIA, HORIMIYA, GENSHIN IMPACT, FRUITS BASKET, ONE PIECE, SAINT SEIYA (2019 Sentai Dub), BLACK CLOVER, BOFURI! I DON'T WANNA GET HURT SO I'LL MAX OUT MY DEFENSE, CAUTIOUS HERO: THE HERO IS OVERPOWERED BUT OVERLY CAUTIOUS, CASE FILE NO.221 KABUKICHO, CAMP BUDDY, FULL SERVICE, TO TRUST AN INCUBUS, TO LOVE RU, O MAIDENS IN YOUR SAVAGE SEASON, EARTHLOCK, POPUP DUNGEON, SOMETHING IN THE DARK, RADIANT, and many more!

He's also directed such titles as FULL SERVICE, IDUEL: BATTLE FOR STARDOM, ISHIDA & ASAKURA, THE TITAN'S BRIDE, and CAMP BUDDY.

As a musician now, Kiba currently has one album out, titled "XO", that released in May 2016. He runs a music channel called "KibaKovers", adapting anime and video game openings into English for a broader audience, as well as regular Top 40 covers. He is also one of the champions of the hit Fort Worth Drag Competition, The 3, as Salem Moon!

Mike Young as Sir Tiphis

Hello, I’m Mike Young. A dynamic, versatile and different British VP voice actor with gravitas, who can turn on various shades of Bristol, and run the spectrum of silky smooth, to warm and friendly.

Under the brilliant tutelage of Tanya Rich, my road to a professional voice acting career begin in 2018, having produced a wide variety of stories and audiobooks.

I lend my talent to a range of different projects:

Hard sell and soft sell commercial and corporate scripts

IVR for telephone systems and mobile apps

Instructional e-learning courses

Promotional adverts and trailers

Public service announcements

Character narration for video games, film, audio dramas and books

…and more!

I love it all, I do it all! And if you like what you hear, contact me! I’ll be sure to make your project gurt lush.

#visual novel #visual novels #yaoi #voiceactor

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threadsketchier · 4 years

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Hey Sketch! Not to be a pest, but any progress on Libero? It’s my absolute favorite fic for Star Wars or maybe just in general, and I know I’m not the only one on pins and needles!

I KNOW, I AM TOO (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

On paper, so to speak, I shouldn’t really have an excuse - @alderaan-babe helped me out a ton with figuring out space battle logistics and all that less fun crud. This is becoming more like...

...ok, time for Dirty Laundry Posting™, Debbie Downer ahoy

I’m slowly mentally edging toward a Blue Screen of Death because of two primary things:

I’m kind of a full-time caregiver to my mom, who’s dying a slow, gruesome death at home and

I need to find a job.

**I’m not going to get into the personal details of how I do have money to live off of right now, but suffice to say it’s not a bottomless Scrooge McDuck pit, eventually it’ll run out.

Very very ironically, after leaving my toxic job in Sept. 2019, I planned on taking a little hiatus and then looking for work again in March. Ha. Yeah, laugh with me. We all know what happened then. So I put that off, especially when it was a struggle bus to obtain food and supplies for like 2 months straight with all the shortages everywhere. The amazing thing is, despite confining myself to my apartment for the past 7 months, the year’s gone by too fucking fast. It’s already enough to deal with helping Mom, doing household chores, ordering and then meticulously cleaning all grocery items, in addition to wanting to stay in fandom by hanging out in 2 separate chat servers and being on Tumblr and seeing my favorite YouTube channels...

It’s been too easy to put the looming Work specter aside from all that. But I can’t avoid it forever, or else we’ll wind up homeless. I also don’t want to rejoin humanity. COVID will definitely kill Mom if I brought the germ home, and I don’t want to get it either because I do not have a good track record with illnesses. I don’t want to play that game of Russian roulette and be one of those outlier statistics of young healthy people who somehow still managed to die from this shit, or wind up in extreme medical debt if I survived (because of course right now I’m uninsured). I’d really really prefer to find a remote job, especially because I’m already accustomed to it; I had to do plenty of remote work for my last job.

I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next few months. Every day is going by so quickly. I’m terrified that I’m not going to find anything and we’re going to be out on the streets. And if I DO secure a job, I may not have time for fandom anymore, or so little time that I can’t write anymore. Now, you’d think that would motivate me to hurry up and finish barfing out the story so that it could be done ahead of me needing to stop having a life, wouldn’t it? But that’s all I can think about when I try to open the draft and keep typing. I even have another WIP I foolishly started but I’ve stalled on both of them. It makes me feel the nihilistic sentiment of, “why does this stuff even matter? It’s pointless, ephemeral fan blather on the interwebz.” Fic and fandom aren’t going to rescue me when my bank account is empty and I’m hungry and shelterless.

(Sadly, this is the very point my mother tried to make to me all while I grew up, but I was the arrogant, reckless dreamer who just wanted Experiences™ and fun, fuck the consequences. Well, they’re catching up to me again now.)

Alas, I wish I was a Twitch streamer or a slime-maker on YouTube, raking in the dough, or somebody with a million Patreon supporters, but I’m not “special” enough for that. I gotta get in line with the rest of the world, as much as I don’t want to. I just want to write fic and draw again and try podficcing and yell across the internet at a bunch of nerds I’ve gotten to know all day, but I can’t. I have to face reality and stick my resume on a prettier template and spend the next several weeks desperately combing through job listings, hoping somebody out there is willing to exploit and whip me as a corporate slave again so I can keep paying the bills.

This post feels extremely relevant right now, even though I know all my readers are lovely and patient and aren’t pressuring me. The thing is, even though we’re technically not obligated to anything because this content is free...we still kind of are. Because I chose to start posting in the first place. I started stringing people along by making the story public. I do kind of owe it to everyone to either finish the story or explain the rest of the plot, at least, because it’s doing readers a disservice to leave the narrative hanging when I first made that unspoken promise by posting it. I’m never going to learn my lesson that I’m better off not posting content unless it’s complete to avoid causing this kind of disappointment, both to y’all and myself. Yeah, Darth Real Life happens, but I still feel I’m in the wrong here.

#i know this isn't what you signed up for & i didn't need to explain all this #but here it is #i don't mean to sound accusatory or anything like that #i'm just freaking out a little bit over here sorry #fic asks #decepticon17

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piranhakarma · 4 years

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Bon Appétit is Back

Bon Appétit is back.

As someone who was once an avid consumer of their content, it feels strange to know that new videos are being produced by the test kitchen crew once more. Granted, the test kitchen crew looks completely different now. Condé Nast and Bon Appétit, in a move that really shouldn’t have surprised anyone, have avoided addressing the issues raised about equal pay and treatment based on work and work experience. Instead they decided to hire a new diverse cast with no word on whether these new hires will be paid fairly for their work and experience or whether the cast will be given more control over how their recipes and cultures are presented on screen. As far as I know, only three of the former test kitchen members will be returning to the video platform, as the rest have elected to leave the video arm of the company, and in some cases, have cut ties with the publication altogether. The lack of substantive action on the company’s part and the general abandonment of the platform by its former stars led me to ignore the channel’s activity at first. Why should I seek out and give views to something I knew was going to make me deeply uncomfortable and potentially upset, even if only to dislike the video and pick it apart?

And then someone I followed posted a link to a video Jack Saint made reacting to the new videos and morbid curiosity got the best of me.

I think when the news of the inequitable pay broke, many of us already had a sense of what was going to happen, especially given the radio silence from Bon Appétit in the weeks during which they went through their “internal discussions”. However, knowing the corporate formula for dealing with scandals like this didn’t quite prepare me for how jarring it would be to see it applied to people and a channel I once felt I knew well. There was a video that was clearly aimed at “addressing” the controversy where the new POC hires all spoke about the work that needed to be done and that they were going to do to improve representation. The video seemed like it wanted to come off as authentic and communicative, but the avoidance of the actual wage and experience gap issue and the carefully chosen corporate words they were using just made it stick out even more than a clearly professional, corporate video would have. It was clear that the people on screen were not using their own words. The other videos made me uncomfortable in another way, Chris Morocco’s in particular. It was such a quick return to the earlier form that, as Jack said in his video, it felt like there was a dead body in the room and they were all resolutely ignoring it.

Troublingly, or maybe predictably, the new videos still got a decent number of views. The first video got dislike bombed, but the like/dislike ratio on Chris’ return video was a lot more manageable. The corporate smoothover seems like it has worked to an extent. BA may not get back quite the same audience it had before, but enough people know of them that they aren’t starting from scratch. It is also possible that people who are unaware of later revelations in the falling apart of the original test kitchen crew will be less aware of the sketchy things the remaining old members of the test kitchen allegedly did, and therefore may actually want to support those who stayed by watching the videos. From an admittedly cursory glance at their new content’s numbers, the videos with the old members seem to be doing better than the ones with the new members. It feels wrong. I would have thought this whole affair would have really exposed how constructed the ‘authenticity’ of the test kitchen videos is, but maybe it’s still not something everyone sees.

This brings me around to the other side of things: Rick and Sohla. In a weird way, the timing of their shows coming out and the new opportunities in their lives becoming visible to us has added to my feeling that the test kitchen is back. Granted, their new shows are very different in style and substance than Bon Appétit’s videos were. Rick’s Sweet Heat feels like he’s getting to work more on his own cultural terms and it seems like he’s really happy in Mexico. Similarly, Stump Sohla on the Babish Cinematic Universe has been an opportunity for us to see so much more of Sohla’s terrifying culinary skill and her wacky inventive ideas than we were even aware of. I, like many people I’ve seen commenting and responding to these shows, am thrilled to see both of them get the chance to spread their wings and be featured in ways that they were not allowed to be at Bon Appétit. All that being said, there is a voice at the back of my head telling me to be wary. I know that the dynamics Sohla and Rick have with Food52 and the BCU are likely very different from those they had with Condé Nast. At BA, the company held the power with the marketing and the branding of the test kitchen, and it was the promise of the casual but also informative atmosphere combined with genuinely nice personalities that brought people to the videos, even when they were not familiar with the featured creators. With their new shows Sohla and Rick are more valuable in themselves, and therefore are likely to have more bargaining power behind the scenes. That being said, it is still possible that they are not quite free to make what they like. There still may be decisions being made about the sort of content people want to see from them and how that content is presented where they are being made to compromise rather than being able to fully express themselves and their cultures. I’m trying to keep my eye out for any warning signs this time around (i.e. things that felt off to me in the Bon Appétit videos that I brushed under the rug). So far I worry that maybe Sohla is being made to/there is some pressure on Sohla to really show off on the BCU without as much room for her to be chill and make everyday food. The pressure may also be self-inflicted as she may feel a need to prove herself/express the extent to which she’s been trammeled in by her previous jobs. On Rick’s side of things, I worry that he might be culturally pigeonholed, like how Priya was the Indian (tm) person on the Bon Appétit channel. All we can do for now though, is wait and see, and hope that our judgements of authenticity behind the camera and the food industry will carry us through to a better understanding of our content and how it is made.

Well. With all this happening, here’s hoping. Here’s hoping that Bon Appétit’s schemes fall apart a bit more and that their video views trickle of instead of building up. Here’s also hoping that Sohla and Rick’s shows both do fantastically well (ideally better than anything coming out of BA but maybe that’s too much to ask). And finally, here’s hope for the other members of the test kitchen that I have yet to see around, like Priya and Gaby. I hope they find fulfilling and well-paying work where their abilities and perspectives are respected, and if we’re lucky, may we’ll get to see them on the camera again sometime.

#bon appetit #sohla el waylly #rick martinez #chris morocco #brad leone #andy baraghani #food52 #babish culinary universe #youtube #food

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT STRATEGY

To an amoral person it might seem to be overkill. The reason tablets are going to get rich, because if there is big potential for gain there must also be a terrifying possibility of loss.1 How could you make a conscious effort to find smart friends. Lisp, so much the better. If VCs are only doing it in the hope of gain, but the people. You don't have to be at full power; the pilot has to be for multiple millions of dollars just for being clever. Even we were affected by the conventional wisdom. And what do they have to go through a series of historical accidents the teaching of writing was inherited by English professors. I saw. A group of 10 people within a large organization is compelled by its structure to be one.

And probably the only people who can manage that are the people they want as employees. Representational art is only now recovering from the approval of both Hitler and Stalin. After developing their new search algorithm, the first thing they tried was to get some other company to buy it. Here parents' desires conflict. If parents told their kids the truth about it.2 Now that the cost of failure to increase the number of sufficiently good founders starting companies, and that the best strategy is simply to state the opposing case, with little or no supporting evidence. One way to put it is to take advantage of one another, you're better off learning it last.3 You have to produce something. But fortunately there are still some countries that are not copyright colonies of the US, and even so I didn't get to macros until page 160. It was not till we were in our twenties that the truth came out: my sister, then about three, had accidentally stepped on the cat and broken its back.

I'm not saying that struggles are never about ideas, just that you're a sufficiently good bet. Yes, he may have extensive business experience. Relief. It won't get you a job, as if the important thing were becoming a member of a certain size has gone through legal contortions to get programmers for the same price? Near the top is the company run by techno-weenies who are obsessed with solving interesting technical problems, but I smelled a major rat. In some fields it might be a better plan than the old one. There's a rule of thumb in the VC business. Small companies are more at home in this world, because they may have useful insights.4 But a programmer deciding between a regular job at a big company, but it looks like most of what you gain from the work experience employers consider so desirable. But if you want to make a billion dollars a year, then on average you must be contributing at least x dollars a year worth of work, like acting or writing books, you can't fly into the wind without losing a lot of time trying to master. Their reputation with programmers more than anything else they've ever done. At some firms it's over 50%.

But I don't expect that to change.5 If you looked in people's heads or stock photo collections for images representing business, you'd get images of people dressed up in suits, groups sitting around conference tables looking serious, Powerpoint presentations, people producing thick reports for one another to read. A lot of VCs would have rejected Microsoft.6 Robert and I both knew Lisp well, and nothing changes slower. Don't believe what you're supposed to now, how can you be sure you wouldn't also have believed everything you were supposed to if you had grown up among the plantation owners of the pre-Civil War South, or in a novel? Afterwards I realized it could be that the Europeans rode on the crest of a powerful macro, and say there! Refutation.

The world is—and you specifically are—one pristine old car the richer. But you can do anything if you really try. Early union leaders were heroic, certainly, but we couldn't figure out how to give them what they want. This essay is derived from a talk given at the 2001 Franz Developer Symposium. I couldn't imagine why there should be more variability in the VC business were established when founders needed investors more. If it were simply a group of a thousand people, the average rower is likely to be business school classes on entrepreneurship, as they do now, and we've seen a bunch of startups die. Who knows exactly how these factors combine to boost startups in Silicon Valley. This turns out to be hard, partly because it's hard to say exactly what. The ideas start to get far along the track toward an offer with one firm, it will help them to see through intellectually dishonest arguments.

But this becomes rapidly less true as you move away from the certainty of the hard sciences.7 But how do you pick the right platforms? When wealth is talked about in this context, it is in other industries. Or how about Perl 4?8 Starting or joining a startup is going to succeed. But if you tell a kid, they can make money buying less than 20% of each series A company to compensate for a 2x decrease in the stock sold in series A rounds are not determined by asking what would be best for the companies. A restaurant can afford to serve the occasional burnt dinner.9

Notes

But on the way to solve are random, the best case. A investor has a spam probabilty of. So if they were only partly joking. Stiglitz, Joseph.

As one very smooth founder who used to build consumer electronics. It's not simply a function of the reasons startups are now the founder of the things they've tried on the blades may work for us.

If you want to start businesses to use an OS that doesn't exist. Greek philosophers before Plato wrote in order to switch the operating system so much worse than close supervision by someone else to lend to, but a lot of the Web was closely tied to the next Apple, maybe the corp dev is to talk about startups. A YC partner can estimate a market price, and as a monitor. That may require asking, because the kind that prevents you from starving.

Some introductions to philosophy now take the hit. As usual the popular vote. Since we're not.

7 reports that in 1995, but its value was as much income. Whereas the value of understanding per se but from what the editors will have to resort to in the room, you need.

Most of the businesses they work. Google search engines and there didn't seem to have lunch at the lack of movement between companies combined with self-perpetuating if they miss just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's roughly correct to say that the http requests are indistinguishable from those of popular Web browsers, including salary, bonus, stock grants, and I don't think you could get all the page-generating templates are still called the option of deferring to a degree, to drive the old one. In fact, for example, to a study by the Corporate Library, the group of picky friends who proofread almost everything I write. Sparse Binary Polynomial Hash Message Filtering and The CRM114 Discriminator.

The founders we fund used to build little Web appliances. There are two very different types of studies, studies of returns from startup investing, but the distribution of alms, and that often creates a rationalization for doing it with superficial decorations. Joshua Schachter tells me it was more because they will come at an ever increasing rate to impress investors. They did try to be a big company, though more polite, was one in its IRC channel: don't allow the same price as the face of a startup to an employer hired men based on revenues of 1.

By all means crack down on these.

If a bunch of actual adults suddenly found themselves trapped in high school, because they can't afford to. So far, I should add that we're not professional negotiators, and wisdom the judgement to know about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: True, Gore won the popular vote.

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gamename436 · 4 years

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What is the online gaming website

Career In Gaming

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d6official · 4 years

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Day6’s Jae Park is leading K-pop’s vital mental health conversation for Dazed Magazine

The musician discusses his solo project, eaJ, and reveals how a panic attack led him to tackle his own mental health issues and launch a social initiative.

He may have played his father’s guitar in the living room as a kid, but a career in music always felt like a pipe dream for Jae Park. Raised in Cerritos, California, Jae was pursuing higher education when he got the chance to audition for a Korean American Idol-esque survival show. Through this experience, he was able to carve a space for himself in the Korean music scene by ultimately joining Korean rock group Day6 in 2015.

Making their debut almost six years ago, Day6 created a space for a different type of idol group, a band. The five-member group has each member on an instrument: a drummer, two guitarists, a bassist, and a keyboard player. The members are heavily involved with the lyric writing and production of their songs. A trip to one of their live performances will surprise you with a member shredding a solo on the electric guitar instead of an intricate dance break. Their first EP, The Day, peaked at number two on Billboard’s World Album Chart, and since then, each succeeding release has found a home in the top 10.

Outside of the day job, Jae’s been busy with various projects: he’s a part-time streamer on Twitch, a co-host on the How Did I Get Here (HDIGH) podcast and, most recently, a solo artist, posting a string of self-penned songs under the alias eaJ to his YouTube channel from early last year. These side projects give us an insight into his personality. HDIGH explores a playful side to Jae; he and his co-host begin with a topic, start by sharing their opinions and beliefs, and slowly, they spiral into a deep dive on Google, diverging into a completely new topic by the end of the episode. It leaves them asking “How did I get here?”

Feeling lost and uninspired, Jae began writing the tracks as a way to reconnect with his love of music. These solo tracks sound different to his work with Day6. While Day6’s high energy work is reminiscent of early 2000s pop punk bands like All Time Low, the aeJ project tracks are tranquil, almost dreamlike, revealing a softer side of Jae’s musicality.

But amid this new venture, Jae faced mental health challenges that he feels changed his life, beginning with a panic attack in the back of a taxi. In recent times, more K-pop idols have become outspoken about their struggles, but there’s still a stigma attached to the topic in Eastern society. Compared to artists in the West, K-pop idols are more reserved about their relationship with mental health. Jae believes that continuing this cycle of “toxic positivity” and perfection can be destructive to today’s youth, fueling the global prevalence of adolescent mental health disorders.

These confrontations with what he calls “feelings of death, doom, and finality” encouraged him to become a mental health advocate and, through that, From Friends was born – a clothing line created in collaboration with REPRESENT, which helped the star raise £100,000 for mental health charities.

We caught up with Jae to talk about his projects, mental health, and why From Friends was such a valuable experience to the 28-year-old artist.

You began the eaJ solo project last year. Could you talk a bit more about that?

Jae Park: I came to the conclusion that I’d forgotten what kind of music I liked. (I wanted) to find my identity, so I started spinning out track after track; it came almost like word vomit. I was throwing up all this emotional baggage I had (built) up over the years. I just ended up releasing it. I took everyone for the ride, because (I thought), ‘If I’m gonna make it, I might as well take you with me’.

Can you talk us through some of the issues you were dealing with at the time?

Jae Park: I ended up breaking down in a taxi ride on the way home from a video shoot for the eaJ project, on a song called “Truman”. At first, I felt my body go numb. And then my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. So I said, ‘Oh, panic attack… nice. I’m gonna die’. And this impending feeling of doom and death and finality was just drawing so close. And I started hyperventilating, I was freaking out. I told the taxi (driver), ‘I’m going to need to go to the hospital’. I was almost out of my mind when I reached the hospital; I’d been hyperventilating the whole time. They took me into ER, did all these tests, and told me there was nothing wrong with me. I was like, ‘You’re lying, there’s no way. There’s something physically wrong, I feel like I’m going to die. I can’t breathe’. Turns out I had some pretty severe panic attacks.

“(I wanted) to find my identity, so I started spinning out track after track; it came almost like word vomit. I was throwing up all this emotional baggage I had (built) up over the years” – Jae Park

Oh wow, that’s quite a journey. Especially when you’ve never felt that way before. Your brain is telling you, ‘Oh my God, you’re gonna die’. Sometimes the wires in your brain just get crossed a bit. And there’s not necessarily anything that causes it.

Jae Park: Sometimes there’s no trigger.

A part of your job is to almost seem like you’re perfect, right? Because people idolise you. And when you have these little cracks in the armour, it’s seen as a weakness. Could you talk about how you turned this thing that could be perceived as a weakness into something good, with From Friends?

Jae Park: This actually segues perfectly into what I wanted to talk about. That’s why it’s called ‘From Friends’. The mission statement is (about) extending a helping hand to whomever, wherever there’s a need. It’s very personal and it’s from a friend. Friends are people who tell you, ‘Hey, you don’t look like you’re doing well’, or, ‘Hey, you seem a little bit off’.

I thought this was something that was going to positively affect people. When the car incident happened, I thought, ‘Damn, if only someone had told me that a panic attack can make you feel like you’re about to die, that it usually comes with impending feelings of death and doom, and you start breathing really fast’. If I’d known those things, which I’m sure that 90 per cent of celebrities have gone through, I wouldn’t have freaked out as hard as I did. And I feel like that day carved a couple of scars in me that aren’t going to be healed in the near future.

What kind of reactions did you receive after the launch?

Jae Park: I definitely received a lot of positive reactions. And it’s incredibly rewarding to be a part of this. To be completely honest, in a big corporation (the idol group Jae belongs to, Day6, is part of South Korean multinational conglomerate JYP Entertainment, which has represented some of the biggest acts in the industry), it’s not the easiest to be able to start projects like this. It’s one hand to the next hand, and the next. Then it gets rejected, all the way back down and you do it again. It wasn’t easy, but it felt good. Especially when I used to read my DMs, a lot of people were like, ‘Thank you so much, I thought it was just me’. And it’s not just you. Those are the people I want to reach. Those are the people we wanted to educate, and let them know it’s OK not to feel perfect. Your idols try to look perfect because their company told them to look perfect! But I (guarantee) you, they don’t feel perfect.

What are your personal goals for 2021?

Jae Park: So I’ve been doing these unofficial releases on YouTube, and people liked them so I thought I might as well make a video. It was purely for entertainment, just to see how people would react. And I think I had a really positive reaction and I feel like I’ve garnered some of the respect that I wanted when starting the project. I’m planning an official release sometime soon.

I think my next venture is (for) my number one (job), Day6. We’re always working on an album. I’m, like, 99 per cent sure we have a solid album for you this year.

We’ve talked about mental health, your solo projects, and Day6. Is there anything else about yourself you think the world doesn’t know, that this ‘idol’ world doesn’t capture authentically?

Jae Park: I feel like I’m pretty damn transparent, especially these days, after the ‘incident’. I’ve probably shared every opinion that I have online somewhere; they’re always a little bit controversial. I’m known as a bit of a problem child these days in the K-pop realm. Something the world doesn’t know about me? I’m not sure if there’s anything. Everyone knows I’m a dumbass and I make mistakes; I am a hypocrite (who contradicts) what I’ve said the week before, because I feel different a week later. I’m just me, I’m just a human being, and that’s just how it is.

#day6 #park jaehyung #t: interview #dazed magazine #210307

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angelicthor · 5 years

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billion dollar man - part 2

pairing: tony stark x reader

summary: after mounting bills and debt cause you to look at alternative means of making money, you’re thrown into a whole different kind of life when one of the most famous billionaires on the block offers to be your sugar daddy, of course in exchange for a different from of payment. non-superhero au.

warnings/genre: +18 only, sugarbaby/daddy relationship

masterlist | billion dollar man masterlist

You were completely stunned by the man in front of you, Tony fucking Stark; The most infamous billionaire playboy there ever was. Stark had inherited his company from his father, it was originally weapons manufacturing and Tony had transformed it from a million-dollar company to the biggest weapons corporation in the world, but he had since abandoned that line of work after he was held hostage by terrorists in Afghanistan.

The entire event had been covered by every news station in America, there wasn’t a day that went by without every channel providing an update on the situation, although most had given up hope for him after a few days. But against all odds, Stark had actually managed to survive and escape, his perspective entirely changed from the experience, vowing to never create weapons again after seeing what they were used for. Instead he focused his entire company into clean energy and honestly, the man had created some revolutionary stuff.

You had always considered the entire change of heart to be quite noble, it takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong and Stark had been very wrong. Not only that but the whole world was against him when he did it, stocks were dropping from his company, high-level employees threatened to walk and, according to Babble Babe, he lost a good number of friends over the whole fiasco. And yet, he stuck by his beliefs and actually made it work. You admired his integrity.

His business, however, didn’t make nearly as many headlines as the man himself and he happened to by Babble Babe’s favourite topic. You could guarantee that after every event New York had, the next day Tony Stark was involved in some scandal or another, he was an infamous womanizer who was forever been photographed with a different woman – or two or three – on his arm every time he was seen. Which led you to the question: why the hell was he doing this?

Your nerves amplified, your mouth drying as you released you were on a date with none other than the notorious billionaire himself – what the hell were you going to do? In you star-struck daze, you completely forgot why you were here, needing to impress him in order to solidify your arrangement.

Realising you were just standing there shamelessly gawking at the man in front of you, you hurriedly took your seat across from him, cheeks burning at the smirk that pulled at his lips and the way his eyes roamed over you appreciatively.

“You were right: I definitely know who you are,” You laughed, shaking your head in disbelief at the situation you were in.

The chuckle that left his mouth was warm, washing over you like a calming wave, “And I was certainly right about wanting to see you in person – gotta tell you darlin’, I am not disappointed.”

You formally introduced yourselves to each other, making mindless small talk whilst the waiter took your orders, after your food was sent off for Tony leant back in his chair, regarding you with an inquiring gaze. Squirming under the intensity residing in his twinkling brown eyes, you finally relented with a sigh, “What is it?”

He seemed amused by your candour and you became sure it was something he wasn’t used to, people in his world sugar-coated everything to the point of it being nonsensical and you just didn’t have it within you to do that; you were blunt and you appreciated people returning said bluntness. You began to wonder if this was going to work at all.

“Are you always so direct?” He arched an eyebrow at you, humour evident in his tone.

“Pretty much, yeah – I like knowing where I stand with people and I make sure people know where they stand with me; I hate playing the guessing game, it’s pointless and tiring and is a complete waste of time, is it gonna be a problem?” Your brows furrowed with concern, sure you’d been talking with a few other potential ‘daddies’ on the site but Tony had been your first choice, even before you found out who he was. You didn’t want your chances to fly away just because you spoke your mind unapologetically.

“Actually no, if anything, my opinion of you just went up. I hate people pander over me, there aren’t enough people in my life who appreciate a direct answer. I was just wondering if you wanted to address the elephant in the room, you know, the fact that this is pretty much an interview for me to become your sugar daddy,” He wiggled his eyebrows at you suggestively and you couldn’t stop the boisterous laugh that burst from your lips at the gesture.

“Sure thing, where do you want to start?” You questioned him playfully, your lips curled in a smirk, on that he mirrored immediately and the atmosphere between the two of you shifted, electricity filling the air between you.

The static ambience between the two of you dimmed when the waiter brought your food over, the both of you thanking them before they were on their way, leaving you two to eat and discuss what exactly was wanted and expected from the arrangement.

“So, why exactly do you want a sugar daddy? I’m pretty sure it isn’t for the sex, a girl with your face wouldn’t struggle in that department,” You shook your head at his humour, you could see where he got his reputation from.

“I need one for the sugar part, a pretty face may get you laid but it sure as hell doesn’t pay your bills, of which mine are piling. Plus, this jig pays a pretty penny, I figured I could save enough doing this to buy a share of law-firm, become a partner somewhere ya know? Finally get to do the job I worked my ass off for in college instead of being stuck waiting tables for the rest of my life,” You sighed out, disappointed with the way your life had turned out, how the hard work you’d put into your education and career weren’t paying off because you didn’t have the funds to get you through the door.

Tony nodded in understanding, mulling over your words before he spoke: “So this isn’t a permanent thing? You aren’t going to bounce from one rich pa to pop until you get yourself a hefty retirement fund? You have plans for afterward?”

“Yeah, this isn’t how I wanted to do it but I’m getting kinda desperate. Why, did you want a professional?” You joked with him, pondering where his line of enquiry was leading.

“No, no, you’re actually exactly what I was looking for,” You arched an eyebrow in question to him, shooting him a dubious look, waiting for him to continue, “Look, I’m gonna be straight with you here. The board of Stark Industries is threatening to have me removed as CEO if I don’t show signs of stability, the risks I took remodelling it still don’t sit well with a lot of them and with my frankly reckless social life, they’re beginning to think I’m not capable to run the company. So, I need a fake significant other and to keep my image free of scandals until this all clears over; the only problem is I’m terrible at relationships – they just aren’t for me, but this, this I can do.”

The playfulness that had surrounded him all night suddenly vanished as he spoke about his company problems, the business he had spent so long on, what his father had passed down to him was being taken away from him. You couldn’t imagine how hard that must be for him, to have everything he’s worked so hard on be taken away from him because of the narrow-minded opinions of a select few, you couldn’t help but feel for him, he certainly didn’t deserve this. There was something you still didn’t understand though.

“But why get a sugar baby? You’re you; you could get a date anywhere any time – hell you normally have about three, why bother going through all of this?”

Letting out a deep sigh, he shook his head, trying to figure out how to phrase this without sounding like a complete tool: “The girls I normally date are… nice, sure. But to spend more than 24 hours with them would be mind-numbing in ways you don’t understand, to say that they aren’t of any substance is a major understatement. If this whole fake-relationship is going to work I’m going to need someone I can spend long periods of times with without wanting to stick a screwdriver in my eye.”

You couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped at his exaggerated annoyance, watching him pull the most ridiculous expressions at the thought of being forced to spend prolonged time with his usual type. “So, they’re more of a one night only kind of arrangement then?”

Tony smirked at your words, sipping on the whiskey in his glass before responding, “Sure, but that’s not the only problem. I couldn’t trust those girls with what I’m asking you for here, they’d obviously have to know it was fake because I do not want to real relationship and the moment they found out they’d sell me out to the nearest gossip magazine. What I need is trust and a mutual understanding, I need-”

“You need someone who is willing to scratch your back if you scratch theirs - with discretion of course,” You interrupted him, finally understanding why the infamous Tony Stark was going to so much trouble for a date.

“Exactly, and with you wanting a career after this, I can assume you want to be as scandal-free as possible to make the best impression on your first day. We can part ways after this with a hearty handshake and no hard feelings.”

You mulled over his words; this was too perfect to be true. You’d get to live stress-free over your bills, get to taste the high-life that New York had to over, Tony wasn’t a creepy old-guy who just wanted to fuck and run back to his high-school sweetheart, you could save enough money to actual buy a partnership into a law firm, and retain your professionalism once it was over, no one would even know it happened. You honestly couldn’t believe your luck but you sure as hell weren’t going to sit back and watch your golden opportunity pass you by.

“It sounds like a good deal to me Tony, that is if I passed the interview of course,” Your voice took on a sultry tone towards the end, looking up at him through your lashes and watching as his notorious lady-killer smirk donned his face. You understood why he could get as many women to jump between the sheets with him as he did; that smirk was a dangerous thing.

Leaning across the small table, he leaned on his hands that were clasped in front of his face, his eyes showing a mischievous glint, “Well, there are a few more things I need to see before I can wholly agree to this arrangement, that is if you are still interested?”

“I’m still very much interested Mr. Stark,” your voice dripped with allure, you knew what he was getting at and you were more than willing to play along.

The waiter once again came over, noticing your empty plates, and asked if either of you would care to look at the dessert menu, you both declined choosing instead to have one more drink before you headed home.

“Are you free tomorrow?”

You kinked a brow at him, nodding at him as you sipped at the wine in your glass, “Yeah, why do you want to meet up again? Do you have another interview arranged Mr. Stark?”

Tony shook his head at your teasing tone, tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip as his eyes gleamed with mirth. “Oh, you are going to be trouble in all the best ways,” You couldn’t help the playful eyeroll that occurred as he appreciatively let his gaze ravish your body, nibbling at his lip as he did, “But yes, two really – I need to see how you do in a more… intense environment, you know people coming up to us and talking about the regular bullshit of the day. I need to know you can keep up appearances so to speak, we’re going to have to do a lot of these if we go ahead. There’s a charity dinner tomorrow evening at the plaza, all the usual crowd will be there, seems like a perfect opportunity.”

You nodded your head in agreement, understanding why he needed to do this, you couldn’t just take any company to these events and you only hopped that you could pull it off – God knows you had no idea what to actual do at such formal events.

“I’m guessing you’re wearing the nicest thing you own right now?” Your back straightened as for the first time since you’d walked in, you felt you were being scrutinised by Tony Stark. “It’s not a judgement sugar – well maybe a little – I only asked so I can have some options brought over to your apartment tomorrow morning, I think I have a pretty good eye if I do say so myself.”

You laughed at him, somehow not doubting his words, Tony was a man of taste and you were certain whatever would be delivered to you would be classy and elegant.

“So, what’s part two of the interview Mr. Stark?” You looked up at him through your lashes, a small smirk on your face, knowing what he was going to say. He was paying for it after all…

Leaning back in his chair, Tony regarded you for a moment before a dark chuckle left his lips, “The second interview is of a more physical nature.”

“Got any outfit requirements for that particular stage of the interview Mr. Stark?” You couldn’t help but tease him, not knowing how exactly he was bringing out this side of you but going with it regardless.

“Oh, I do like you, I definitely made the right choice here,” He murmured, trademark smirk stretching across his lips, and you couldn’t help but let your eyes linger on the sight of them. Noticing your empty glass of wine and throwing a few more bills on the table as a tip, Tony stood, offering you his hand and leading you out of the restaurant, ignoring the hushed whispers as you were seen leaving with him, “Come on, I’ll have my driver take you home.”

Pulling you through the bustling pedestrians on the street, Tony lead you to the sleek black car parked directly outside the restaurant, the man standing outside the vehicle opening the back door for you as you and Tony approached.

“Happy, this is Y/N – Y/N this is Happy, my driver and personal security. If all goes well, you two will be seeing a lot of each other,” Tony introduced you to each other and Happy held out his hand for you to take, a warm smile on his face, he sure seemed to live up to his name.

“Nice to meet you Miss,” He nodded his head in greeting.

“Oh, no please call me Y/N, I insist.”

“Hap, we’re taking Y/N home to Brooklyn,” Tony gestured for you to get into the car as he gave Happy your address before joining you, the door shutting behind him as Happy jogged to the driver’s seat.

The car pulled away, heading into the busy New York traffic and you began to think about what tomorrow would bring. The feeling of Tony’s hand on your bare thigh brought you out of your thoughts, the simple touch sending a jolt of electricity through you that you couldn’t decipher.

Turning your head, your eyes lock with Tony’s who was already watching you. Now that you were much closer to him, you could see the little details of his features that had gone unnoticed before; the lines around his eyes that were a small indicator of his age, the different shades of brown that made up the colour of his eyes, the way his lower lashes seemed so damn prominent, the small sprinkling of silver hair in his perfectly groomed beard.

Once again, you found your gaze lingering on his lips, wanting nothing more than to lean forward and taste them. But you shook the thought from your head, now wasn’t the time.

“I’ll have your dresses brought over in the morning, probably some shoes too – You know what I’ll just get you a whole outfit, you’re going to want to accessorise right?”

“Wait – dresses, as in plural? How many do I need?” You were kind of shocked that he was so willing to buy you so much even though it wasn’t exactly official yet. Hell, he’d just bought you dinner at one of the most expensive restaurants in New York without even batting an eye, it was a concept you really weren’t familiar with, being so unconcerned with money.

Tony merely arched a brow at you, “Well yeah, it’s nice to have options. Just make sure you’re ready by 7:30, I’ll send Happy to come pick you up.”

You felt the car come to a stop and realised you were outside your apartment building, “Yeah ok, ready by 7:30 - I can do that.”

Happy walked over to open your door for you but before you could leave, Tony was pulling a card out of the inside pocket of his jacket, handing it over to you before telling you to ring if there was anything else you needed. Turning the card over in your fingers, you saw the logo of Stark industries imprinted into the black card, the gold letters catching in the low light of the car, a phone number visible under them.

“I will. I guess I’ll be seeing you tomorrow then Mr. Stark.” You had no idea why you did it, but you couldn’t stop yourself, leaning towards him to press a lingering kiss against his cheek.

You heard the deep chuckle that Tony emitted as you left the car, bidding Happy goodbye as he walked you to your building door, making sure everything was ok before going back to the car.

You entered your apartment with a sigh, kicking off your heels at the door before a disbelieving laugh bubbled from your throat. You had just had dinner with Tony Stark. Tony Stark wanted to be your sugar daddy. You were going to one of the high-class events at the Plaza tomorrow with Tony Stark.

How the hell had this happened?

Your whirring thoughts were broken by the ding of your phone, an alert coming through from Babble Babe, you rolled your eyes at the notification on your phone before opening the app.

Spotted: Tony Stark and new girl leaving one of NYC’s hottest restaurants. Where do we place the bets on how long this one lasts? Good luck new girl, dating a Stark is a dangerous game to play xoxo

The photo of you was of your back – Thank God – but you were amazed at how damn fast this trashy gossip site worked. God knows how they would react tomorrow. Pushing the feeling of dread aside, you stripped out of your dress and fell into the welcoming warmth of your bed, your final thoughts of the public appearance you and Tony were going to be making tomorrow.

a/n: i don’t have a tag list but if you want alerts please follow @angelicthorwrites and turn on notifications

#tony x reader #tony stark x reader #tony stark x you #tony stark series #iron man x reader #angelicthorwrites

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hollenka99 · 4 years

Text

The Creator

Summary: When Sean discovers he has the ability to bring his characters to life, he wasn’t expecting to be shunned by them or for it to lead to tragedy time and time again.

Warnings: Blood mention, implied death (including children), kidnapping mention

Sean wishes he never went to Max's house that night. It wasn't any fun. They were just really mean to him and he didn't like it. It's not like he didn't try to stay awake. It was a dumb anyway. His mother asks him if he'd like her to speak with Max's mother. He tells her no. In response she encourages him to stop moping about if it wasn't that bad. Well, fine then. Max sucks and Sean can make a way better friend than him any day. Right, what kind of qualities should a good friend have? He should be kind always, never teases him in a mean way, be willing to be there for him and want to join in with his games. For the hell of it, Sean adds 'never sleeps' to the criteria. This imaginary friend is named Jack, after the family nickname. Having been moulded into the 6 year old's interpretation of a perfect friend, Jack becomes a concrete part of Sean's life. Jack is always there when he gets home from school. They mess around in the woods near the house, complain about homework together and share a great deal of laughter between themselves. For years, his parents and siblings brush it off as him being a little boy. However, Sean is undeniably getting older. With each birthday, having an imaginary friend is increasingly becoming something he should outgrow. And he is, somewhat. It's just that Jack feels so real to him. But his friend understands. Sean is no longer 6 and it is time for him to gradually mature. He gets crushes, makes his way through secondary school and decides he may have made a mistake with his original degree choice. Through it all, he's maintained an interest in video games. So screw it, there is a place for gaming content on YouTube. What does he have to lose? This damn cabin doesn't exactly allow him many opportunities to socialise with those outside his family otherwise. He goes by Jacksepticeye on the website, harkening back to a nickname he gained following an injury years before. Months pass and it is soon July. To his surprise, his channel's subscriber count reaches 1000. He's delighted. That was 1000 more than he'd ever really expected. He films a vlog to mark the occasion and thank his audience. Something he'd expected even less than his sub count was his doppelganger, complete with an identical outfit, collapsing in front of his television. Regaining composure after getting to his feet, the clone speaks. "Um, hi Sean." "What the fuck? Who are you and why do look like me?" "I'm Jack." "Okay. Hello Jack. What the hell are you doing in my living room?" "No, Jack as in... Jack. From when you were a kid." Sean stands there, no words coming from his mouth. He seems to remember himself after a minute. "But you're imaginary. You were an imaginary friend, it's kind of in the name." "I guess that's changed." Jack shrugs, obviously as lost as he was by this unique situation. Sean falls back onto the sofa. With his hands in his hair, he lets out a deep breath. Jack gently sits himself on the other side of the sofa. Not bothering to lift his head, Sean opens his mouth. "I'm going to be honest. This was not how I imagined my day going." "I didn't think I'd suddenly come to life either." Sean leans back and their eyes meet. A beat passes before they both descend into laughter at the absurdity of it. That summer is phenomenal compared to his previous expectations for it. He introduces Jack to so many things that he usually took for granted. They eat more tubs of ice cream together than was healthy, don't allow a week to pass without a competitive gaming session and occasionally wander about in the woods surrounding the cabin. There was apparently a whole other world with people Jack haphazardly described as 'the NPCs to my main character'. Their faces were probably based on people Sean had walked past in the street. There was this completely separate world and the entry point was simply lingering outside his cabin. It was inconceivable. When he gets the courage to venture through the gateway, he discovers it's actually a bit remote. Isolated, like his cabin is. Jack helps him laugh it off. Besides, he couldn't be expected to be creative with his literal worldbuilding if he didn't know how he was doing it in the first place. Jack introduces him to a friend who was like him. This Australian guy called Angus Irwin tags along to a hang out session. Here was this person, standing right before him, whom he was entirely responsible for creating. By messing around in Far Cry 3 and putting on a dumb accent, he'd created life. What the hell was he capable of? The three of them are firm friends by the time the local trees have suffered a significant loss of leaves. He and Jack gradually become the joint face of the Jacksepticeye channel. For some reason (Jack cited Sean's 6 year old self for this) his doppelganger didn't sleep. This was actually very beneficial for him because he could edit while Sean slept. God knows Jack complained enough about his sleep schedule. When he gets announced as a winner of Pewdiepie's shout out competition in September, Jack swings by to congratulate him. Along with Angus, the trio spent the evening celebrating this bizarre occasion. There was a lot of work he'd have to put in to keep the momentum going but Sean knew it would be worth it in the end. The colder months fly by after that. Jack had never been particularly affected by the cold before. However, now that he could feel it, he suffered the consequences of not wearing enough layers. Jack detesting the cold is funny to Sean, especially after how much his friend thrived in summer. Angus wasn't used to the lower Irish temperatures either. He helped them stay warm as best he could. That goddamn cabin with its internally forming frost didn't help but still, he tried. He jokes he should conjure up more radiators for Jack and Angus' home despite not having the faintest clue how to actually do so. As the new year approaches, Sean realises he never gave Jack a birthday. They could have celebrated in November because he is maybe 90% sure Max was born during that month. Therefore, Jack would have been initially thought up during November 1996. But Sean had no idea what the specific date of creation was. Not to mention November had already passed anyway. There was that date in July but he wasn't sure he should pick the anniversary of Jack becoming corporeal as his birthday. At a loss, he goes for the day he associates with birthdays the most. Who says Jack couldn't share his birthday? He blanks on what to get his friend. He's not sure where he gets the dumb idea to let Jack experience hot chocolate for the first time as a birthday treat. Jack gets understandably frustrated by this ban on the drink. It pays off when Sean gets to witness the wonderful sight of his friend enjoying hot chocolate. Lost on what to give Angus for his birthday in early April, he approaches Jack for ideas. His friend suggests getting a toy leopard and jewellery that can fit on the animal. Sean can't help but question the odd combination. When Jack explains leopards love jewellery, especially the gold digging females, it's as if these were widely known facts. Sean had been bullshitting when he'd spouted that nonsense. Jack reminds him it was factual to Angus. Oh alright, fuck it. Let's present Angus with a jewellery loving leopard on his birthday. As predicted, the Australian wildlife man greatly appreciates the gift. It's late summer once more when Sean's problems begin. Jack mentions being concerned about their friend's changing sleeping habits. Then Angus' memory gradually starts suffering. Throughout 2015, Angus gets worse. Jack's always had a big mouth. He tends to speak before he truly thinks things through. Sean's technically to blame for that. However, it hasn't been much of an issue until now. The first time Jack brings up potentially finding a way to reverse whatever was affecting Angus, he hates to reject him. The painfully dejected look in his best friend's eyes breaks his heart. He wants to help, he really does. He just can't. Not long after, he spends an hour or two looking for a game with an open world. Perhaps he could put on an Australian accent for the anniversary of the character's first appearance. Nothing comes up. Life gets in the way. Sean abandons the search for a while. Jack never allows him to forget for too long. What starts as "I'm worried about Angus" soon morphs into "Angus only called me Jake once today". The longer it goes on, the more desperate Jack gets. And angrier. Sean has never seen such frustrated fury in his friend. He wishes he never had to. He's not even sure if he can call himself a true friend anymore, given how much he's already failed them. The cycle of attempting to find a solution and putting it on the back burner due to no leads continues. As do the arguments with Jack. Contrary to popular belief, he is putting in the effort. The main problem was he never seemed to have anything to show for it. He still cares for Angus too. The reason he wasn't visiting their home as often was because he didn't always feel welcome. As was in Jack's nature, he kept forgiving him. He'd say it was fine and Sean would agree for the sake of it. But it wasn't fine. He is beginning to forget when the last time things were 'fine'. Following some filming with Ninja Sex Party, Sean is excited to dress up as a superhero for a bit during a Welcome To The Game video. Jack is just as pleased to make a new friend. Jackie is a surprise, his young age even more so. He was 16 and, as far Jack had told him, brimming with excess energy. The new arrival had been a shock for Jack too, apparently. The most he could offer the kid last night was a can of Dr Pepper and some custard creams. Shit, this was new territory. He hasn't had to deal with a new ego in years. Jackie's age causes conversations about school and whether the boy would need an education in the first place. Sean doesn't necessarily see the point. Was Jackie currently the only minor in their world? Because in that case, has a high school suddenly popped up to accommodate a single student? Even if Sean created a character with children at a later date, the kids would probably be the wrong age group to attend school with Jackie. If it was that important to Jack to see the young superhero have an education, he would have to do it himself. Being home-schooled would also allow Jackie to do his job. Attempts at being responsible aside, he ensures Jackie knows he can come to him if needs anything specific. Naturally, he gravitates to Jack as his adult role model. Sean doesn't mind. They live together and Jackie therefore has easier access to him. But Sean is still there if the need arises. A month later, he buys a cheap cat mask that covers half of his face. It was something to use once and forget about until you throw it away in a big spring clean. The magic set was the same, only with extra smaller parts. The video is nothing spectacular. All it entailed was him messing around with the box's contents before switching to decorating the mask. The last thing he was anticipating was the creation of life. Although, by this point, perhaps he should have. Besides, he hadn't even given himself a name. It was just 'Jack the Magnificent'. Jack comes to rectify this oversight a couple days later. He explains he'd made the suggestion the night of Marvin's arrival. The box had the name on it so why not let the new ego make it his own? The main issue Jack had with all this was that Marvin had not been planned in the slightest. With Jackie, there'd been some preparation. Neither of them may have foreseen his creation but at least there had been a name and outfit. All Marvin had was a mask, plus a name that was already taken. "This better not happen again." Jack privately demands. "I don't want another Angus. God knows you're not going to help." Jack swings by at the end of August to inform him Jackie's in hospital. He'd gotten stabbed while confronting a thief. He was fine, recovering well and all that but he thought Sean might want to know. On the subject of requiring medical care, Jack brings up the idea to have a doctor ego. Just someone who understood their unique situation and could also take care of their health. Oh, oh yeah. He can totally do that. He'll need some things for the video so give him a chance to prepare but definitely, one doctor coming right up. He feels somewhat dumb playing Operation as if it were a serious procedure in this cheap surgeon's outfit he bought over the weekend. And yes, even he can admit the 'German' accent was atrocious. Half of what comes out of his mouth is bullshit. If this works as intended and he creates an ego from it, this guy is sure going to be interesting. He pretends to be distressed over Peter's death. Then it hits him that Dr Schneeplestein probably won't appreciate him killing his friend and personal accountant. He could try refilm it but he doubts he has the time. Fix it through editing? Sure, but then it might be obvious that there was another part. Alright fine, maybe he'll just have to deal with the consequences. Dr Henrik von Schneeplestein is indeed an interesting guy. A married father too, which surprises him. Not only has he made the doctor, there is a new family of 5 in the egos' neighbourhood. One of these days he'll know what he's doing with this creation thing. For now though, he thinks it's very cool that he managed a 5 for the price of 1 deal. Henrik himself is intelligent and if Sean was more knowledgeable on certain topics, he's sure they'd be able to share thoughtful conversations. Either way, Henrik was incredibly busy with his professional duties and personal commitments. It was understandable that neither had much time in the day to sit down and truly get to know one another. For the hell of it, he throws in a little extra into the egos' characterisation. They can't die. Or, to be more specific, they can't die for long. Jackie gets stabbed and bleeds out? Easy, just deal with the wound and he should wake up after a while. What this means for Peter, who knows? Sean is secretly thankful when the accountant isn't granted life. That's one less person to keep happy. Like seemingly everything ego-related he does, it backfires. Within a year, this failsafe will have caused more suffering than hope. Sean isn't to know. However, he convinces himself he's done the right thing for once. He sure as hell knows how much trouble it's going to cause him if they don't believe that too. Sean makes an irreversible mistake in the October of 2016. The entire month, he has glitches sprinkled throughout his horror game videos. He gets so caught up in the teasing and build up that he doesn't contemplate how this will affect the egos. Worse yet, he recklessly allows Jack to film the Halloween video. Sure, he would have used a bit of red paint if it had been him filming. But since it was Jack? He doesn't want to imagine the scene Jackie discovers. God, he can't believe he's been so thoughtless. Signe has to encourage him to bed before he manages to rack up over 24 hours of being awake in one go. Resurrecting the dead is exhausting, he finds. He postpones visiting Jack for a day before realising his avoidance is likely making matters worse. The dread cumulates to the point he swears he will be sick if he doesn't actively focus on his breathing. The loophole he made in September might have ensured nobody died permanently but it never mentioned scars. It's not visible behind the bandages but he knows it's there. Jack is pissed off. Rightfully so. Matters worsen even more after Jackie vanishes while attempting to get away from their fighting. It's just another thing that's ruined the egos' perception of him. If he thought the hill Jack was ready to die on was Angus, he's got another thing coming. There's only so much he can take before he has to force apathy for the sake of his sanity. He understands he can't control Antisepticeye. Once this situation is dealt with, he vows, the demon will never be used on his channel again. The subscribers' love for the character will have to ignored. It's too risky to play Anti again. He puts the red suit on again. In the short video, only a minute or so in length, Jackie sprints through poorly lit corridors to the exit. Sean acts scared and looks behind him frequently as he runs. It is uploaded privately. His community didn't need to know anything about this. He hopes with everything he's got that it works. Nothing. For days, for weeks, for months. Sean doesn't bother letting the egos know what he'd tried to do. It's guaranteed Jack and Marvin would tell him to try harder. He has no idea what that means in this context. Christmas passes without incident. As does January. In February, he celebrates his 27th birthday alongside Jack. It's a day devoid of resentment. Sean had almost forgotten that was allowed in their friendship. He exaggerates his dissatisfaction about getting older. In response to this, Jack smears the frosting of his slice across Sean's face. 'Accidentally', of course. Just as accidentally as Sean reciprocated the action. Signe humours them by taking photographs of their new cake-based look. The next time they are hanging out in Jack's room, he notices a picture from that day is in a frame on his friend's dresser. "What's this about?" "Oh uh, this is going to sound dumb but... I like being reminded it isn't always so rough between us." "No. No, I get it. I um, I feel the same way. That day was great." He glances at the image once more. He lets out a humoured scoff. "Maybe I should save your dumb face to my phone." "Aww, wow, I knew you loved me really." Jack puts his arm around his shoulder. A playful shove. "Fuck off." In an emotional slump during April, he buys a bunch of Lyons boxes and mini chocolate eggs. It's just a parody of Dude Perfect from someone with zero accuracy. Then he does the stupid thing and creates life again. Fuck it, his wife hates him and he may never see his kids again. Chase Brody's depression causes him to pretend to shoot himself before the end card plays. When Jack calls him and demands to know what the hell he was thinking, Sean has no answer. It turns out that when the ending translated into Chase's reality, he'd actually shot himself in the head. Fuck. Afterwards, Jack doesn't provide his creator with any updates. Insisting he has the right to talk to Chase only makes him more hated. Despite having never met before, Chase already resents him. The next time an ego is intentionally created, Sean's going to be there to intercept them. They're not going to enter that home and have their opinion of him influenced by people who wished he wasn't in their lives. The next new guy would be given a fair chance to see Sean for what he was. A massive screw up when it came to the ability he's unsure how to master. But in no way was he some villain. August is around the corner when Jack asks to visit. The two of them seem to be on the same page that day. Sean is more than happy to hang out and cheer him up. Believing Jack would be empathetic, he begins a conversation about how the YouTube algorithm was bothering him. Over three years of working as a duo on the Jacksepticeye channel meant Jack should understand where he was coming from. But, of course, his friend makes it all about himself and his own problems. Why wouldn't he? It's what he usually does. They argue because apparently that's the only way they communicate with each other nowadays. Jack sure knows how to pack a punch. Being friends with him shouldn't be such a struggle. Sean snaps. The emotional fatigue of trying to keep up with the algorithm and all this fighting causes him to make one of the worst decisions he'd ever go through with. If Jack wants him to be the bad guy, fine. Sean would be the bad guy. Just this once, he'd actually be the asshole. "You want to sleep, I'll let you sleep." He threatens when Jack begins walking off mid-argument. "Bring back Jackie. He's been missing for months. Do something!" Jack flings viciously back seconds before he marches out the door. He can tell Signe regrets asking him how the gaming session went. He dresses as Schneeplestein as soon as he finalises his plan, pretending he aims to save a version of himself in Bio Inc Redemption. He loses. Oops. He acts as he feels the real Schneeplestein would, desperate not to watch another patient die. He sends the video to Robin for editing. The final uploaded product is nowhere near what he'd recorded. His audience are all talking about Anti. They were praising him for his acting and Robin for his editing. But... he never included Anti. Any recollection of filming the final scene was non-existent. And the parts with Henrik getting possessed weren't him either. The more he thinks about it, the further the terror sets in. Over the course of years, Jack had chipped at Sean's mind until he cracked. It had only meant to end with Jack slipping into a coma. Just a chance for Sean to focus on his own problems for once. He would have gotten Henrik to wake his patient up when Sean was ready. God, he just wanted peace for a change. It was never meant to happen like this. Marvin ever so pleasantly greets him with a "Fuck off" when he tries to visit Jack. He supposes he deserves it. But he didn't come here just to back down at the first sight of opposition. He may have caused Jack to be in that coma but, as his friend, he was still entitled to a visit. He has to push past Marvin just to get in. "Leave right now before I make you regret it." Marvin tails him through the corridor. "Hey, listen, I'll be the first to admit I fucked up big time-" He says over his shoulder. "You don't say." "But he was my friend too. I am seeing him whether you like it or not." "Well, I don't like it. And this is my home. So get out." Fed up to the back teeth of Marvin, he halts to whip around before lashing out. "We both know a bad mood on my part can spell disaster for you. That is how we got into this situation is the first place. So I would watch your mouth." "Oh, look at me, I'm Sean McLoughlin. I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it." Marvin uses a mocking tone before reverting to venom once more. "Guess that's what you told your 'best friend' before you put him in a fucking coma, isn't it?" "Don't you dare suggest I don't care." "You made him feel like he had no choice but to keep being nice to your sorry ass. He barely survived Halloween and now look where he's en-" "God, cut it out!" Chase marches towards them, looking as if he was 30 seconds from grabbing a weapon to silence them. "Both of you. Sean, you have 10 minutes then we want you gone. Marv, leave him alone because we honestly have enough shit going on without you stirring more of it." Marvin bluntly says "Five." "Okay, fine, you have 5 minutes then you leave." The magician clearly isn't satisfied with this compromise but decides it's not worth the effort of fighting further. "Thank you." "It wasn't for you. I did it so I can avoid a headache." Chase promptly leaves him to it. He's not even sure he wants to enter once he reaches the infirmary's doors. Still, he's gone through too much trouble to get this far. He can't undo all that effort now. He walks into the room and- Nope, he can't do this. He means, look at Jack! He makes for an awful sight. If his friend had looked terrible while recovering from Say Goodbye, this was a whole other level. He decides against making it past the doors. He's simply there in the corridor, sobbing. "Sean, I think you should go before Marvin tries to commit arson or something." It's the most patience Chase can muster after all that's happened this week. Sean can't appreciate the effort enough. He answers with a mix of 'Uh-huh, yeah, sure.' Jackie looks like he hasn't eaten a thing in the past 11 months when Sean answers the door to him in early October. He doesn't know what to say. If Jack were currently conscious, he would have probably informed Sean of the kid's arrival by now. Yet, as it stood, Marvin seemed to be the new 'leader' and pigs would fly before he bothered to do anything that benefited Sean. He notices Jackie never lets his feet touch the ground the entire time he's there. There is a long silence in the living room before Jackie comes out with "Why didn't you do anything?" "I tried but it didn't work." "Somehow I struggle to believe that." "Jackie-" "You could have prevented a lot of shit. But why fucking bother when we're not even real, right?" "If you give me a couple minutes, I could find that video where I tried to trigger your escape." Jackie doesn't reply. He locates the footage for him regardless. The teenager remains silent the whole time. Sean decides to break it. "It must have backfired but I did try." He notices Jackie glaring at his own legs. "Great, now I know you're to blame. Not to mention you moved country while I was gone. Thanks for making me walk from Athlone, by the way." The boy superhero abruptly makes his exit, making no attempt to elaborate. Well then, great chat. Except, wait. Walk from Athlone? How the hell do you walk from Athlone to Brighton?! Sean makes good on the promise he made to himself months before. He risks uploading the pictures to Instagram. On the 29th, there is a fair amount of hype at the potential new character. He lingers inconspicuously near the egos' home for a couple hours, keeping himself occupied with his phone in case the ego didn't appear. Which he doesn't. He repeats the activity after posting the 2nd photo on the 30th. Still nothing. It's the video on Halloween that triggers creation. It was a simple thing. The same as the previous two years, he had carved a pumpkin. The main difference was that he had dressed up like a dapper gentleman, waistcoat and bowler hat inclusive. There was some glitching at the end, nothing Sean or Robin had a hand in. He supposes he should be glad there was such a small interruption. Outside the house, he spots the lost time traveller. His first surprise, for both of them it would seem, was that Jameson had lost the ability to speak. He seems reluctant to use the speech slides. No worries. Sean can buy a notepad or two for him tomorrow. Learning to sign, or in the very least understand it. will take a considerable amount of time. Written responses would have to be a sufficient compromise for now. Either way, the most important thing was that Jameson was willing to come with him before he met the others. He is in awe of Jameson. He knows he'd intended to create an ego with a proper backstory but this was far more than he'd been expecting. He had drafted a brief life story beforehand. Jameson would be the middle child of three in an upper class British family. He'd be too young to join WW1 but his brother would lose his hearing to it, allowing Jameson to know sign by the time he went missing. Maybe throw in some time in the army for good measure. However his power worked, it filled in the gaps nicely. Jameson is fully fleshed out, as are his memories. "Thanks for humouring me." He tells Signe that night. She hums in acknowledgement of what he'd said. "You can't keep him here forever, you realise that, right? I'll let you have tomorrow. But you really should let him make his own choices after that." On the 1st, Chase comes knocking. Sean relents, allowing him in to be introduced to Jameson. As expected, Chase calls him out. He assures Jameson that it was fine to go with the unfamiliar ego. As hostile as Chase was, he was still trustworthy and believed he had Jameson's best interests at heart. He lets his latest creation go. Now he will be taught the egos' version of the 'truth'. He doubted Jameson would be rushing back. But oh, there he is days later. It's completely reasonable for the dapper man to want answers. Sean provides them to the best of his ability. Jameson surprises him once more when he says he'll let the deception slide if he cuts it out from now on. Of course he will. As Jameson heads off back to his world, Sean is thankful he made him open minded. While having a casual conversation, Jameson mentions befriending someone named Shawn. At first, Sean is simply perplexed at the written name. Jameson knows how to spell his name, even includes the fada. So surely Shawn couldn't be him. When he has his friend explain, he can't believe it. Shawn Flynn. In other words, his Bendy voice cameo. Okay, egos like Henrik, Chase or Marvin, he could understand. Those guys had gotten specific videos that centred around them. He also got the whole 'springing from him putting on a voice for a series' thing with Angus and Jacques etc. Robbie... well, who the fuck knows what happened there. The point was they all came from his channel and his channel alone. Shawn Flynn was not his to claim. He was only a voice, a few sentences' worth of speech. He will always be amazed by his community's power to create from scraps. As soon as he lost Jack's contribution to the channel, he had been forced to pick up the slack. Even with Robin editing most videos, recording twice as many as he was used to was taking its toll. Something had to be done. He needed a new recording partner. And who better to help him than someone who already had experience with maintaining a channel? Obviously, Chase is opposed to the idea at first. He tries to get him to listen to his reasoning. Without Jack, he was struggling to have time for himself anymore. If he has no time outside of work, then how is he supposed to figure out how to reverse the coma? Not to mention, the community members were the ones responsible for keeping the egos from fading. Chase agrees to, in the very least, consider the offer. Sean is glad to have him as part of the team when he reluctantly accepts it. He is very grateful too. He knows this requires a sacrifice on Chase's part, perhaps more than he is aware of. In the run up to Christmas, he'd simply wanted to raise money for Save The Children with the help of his friends and community. There had occasionally been odd noises throughout the first day but nothing super suspicious. He has no clue where the hell the security footage came from. He had intended for the stream to stay up, sure, but it was meant to display a screensaver. Some people begin to notice the glitches and unusual goings on were triggered by donations of at least $1000. Well, how nice to learn that Anti liked encouraging charitable donations. The day after the event is over, Jameson attempts to speak to him about it. Listen, he's really sorry to hear about what happened over at the house. It's awful that Jackie suffered a huge panic attack from the music. But what do they expect him to do about an event that's already passed and he had no control over in the first place? The less he has to think about 'Overnightwatch' over the holidays, or Anti in general during the new year, the better. He's so fucking done with 2017. The following cold months blur. The Dr Jacksepticeye character becomes a community-made ego in January. That was great. He was aware the egos had been struggling to provide Jack professional medical care. March sees Chase getting custody of his kids on the weekend. Although he doesn't risk ruining the party with the scene his attendance would cause, he congratulates Chase on the good news in person. To top things off, he began the first leg of his tour. That had been a hell of an experience. Maybe 2018 would indeed be a better year. This hope is kept alight at the start of May. He had spent months attempting to work out how to save Jackie. Following that, they lost Henrik only to welcome the hero back. Then the doctor had been out of reach since August. It is for this reason that he receives the news of Henrik's return with great relief. Chase is ecstatic when he recounts what had happened at the end of his recording session. Sean is happy for him. He and the rest of egos need more positive events in their lives. Jackie certainly surprises him when he randomly shows up at his door days later. Signe gives him a heads up about the visitor as he leaves a recording session. The teenager comes across as distracted while they talk. Something feels really off. Then again, they haven't been able to talk since his kidnapping. Months' worth of trauma were bound to change how Jackie acted in certain situations. When he eventually leaves, Sean feels like he's missing some sort of sign. The community goes insane after Dark Silence is uploaded. He cautiously makes himself watch the infamous ending. Once more, Anti has added content to a video. The whole time Chase stands in that hallway, Sean is begging his screen for his friend to start sprinting in the other direction, as far from Anti as he could manage. But, of course, you can't prevent an abduction through a screen, especially when it had happened hours beforehand. Chase seemed so distressed. The thought of his reaction to Anti won't leave Sean be. Nor will those two questions. Jameson swings by in an attempt to comfort him. For what it's worth, his heart is in the right place. Sean just doesn't feel he's in a position to appreciate the efforts properly. He supposes this is his opportunity to finally get a rescue attempt right. Yet, with the tour and having to revert back to multiple recordings a day, time slips away. No doubt he'll get accused of not caring. Thankfully, Chase returns in June. Mostly unscathed physically too which is good. He wishes the same could be said for mental repercussions. Chase relapsing hard with his alcoholism wasn't great to hear either. Suffice to say, Chase needed help. Some good news about the whereabouts of his ex and two young children would be fantastic too. The Akinator video is fun. He enjoys making that website's algorithm figure out the characters. Admittedly, he doesn't know whether picking Jameson for a round was a smart idea. Even worse are some of the questions he gets offered. There are two specifically he doesn't feel comfortable answering on camera. He plays it off as teasing eventual ego content to his audience. In reality, he's not sure it's his place to say. And it's hardly like he can put the recording on hold to contact Jameson about his personal life. The video goes up and the community naturally laps it up. Sean wonders if he should be concerned about the fact Jameson was yet to speak to him about it. In October, he asks Jameson to deliver a card on his behalf. Henrik would be amputating Jackie's legs in an attempt to reverse one of the most prominent aftereffects of his time with Anti. Therefore, a get well card was in order. It's not much but he hopes Jackie will appreciate the gesture nonetheless. Jameson simply shrugs as he hands him a note a couple weeks later. He ends up finding the message humourous. On it is written: Thanks for the card but you don't need to bother next time. He's just about had enough of Anti when Quit The Game To Win gets recorded. He's not sure at which point in the video he becomes lightheaded. There's a brief moment of zoning out then he's sitting at his desk, having sent the video off for editing a minute prior. Unlike the other times, there is no extra content even Robin was oblivious to. The footage of Sean staring into the camera had undoubtedly been there the whole time. They debate whether to upload it. The decision gets taken out of their hands when it is uploaded regardless. That goddamn bastard. He probably realises Sean can't take down a video like that with no explanation. And what explanation is there to give? The community has no idea the egos were real or that it was actually Anti speaking to them. Oh but sure, the compliments to his 'amazing acting' pour in without fail. Also, next phase? What the hell was Anti planning to do? He and the egos would have to remain proceeding with caution. On his 29th birthday, he is surprised to find numerous egos on his doorstep. A little dumbfounded, he invites them in for cake. It wasn't like he was doing much today other than typical work stuff and checking out the community's birthday art. Chase spots his notebook, the one containing his story plans. This topic of conversation leads to them encouraging him to rectify his mistakes by waking Jack up. He's all for it. Even after all these years, he's not sure how exactly his power worked. He gets it into his head that staying up indefinitely will cause Jack to remain conscious. Somehow, this becomes the actual criteria. As the day goes on, he thinks about how things must be like over at the egos' home. It must be wonderful to have Jack up and about. He can imagine him sharing jokes, laughing and smiling, just generally enjoying the company of friends. He's always been a bit of a night owl. He can manage to stay up the whole night, for Jack's sake. Jack deserves as much time as he can give him. He increases his caffeine intake. It didn't matter whether it was coffee or a fizzy drink. If it had caffeine and could help him stay up longer, he'd drink it. His plan seemingly backfires when he plays Shadow of the Colossus while exhausted. He wakes up with a crick in his neck, the sight of Wander stationary upon Agro's back and looming guilty disappointment. When he checks in, Henrik confirms Jack was indeed back in the medical bay, unresponsive as ever. The doctor tells him that, not for nothing, they'd all enjoyed the day. It had been after 2am when Jack had begun exhibiting signs of diminishing consciousness. Even if the others may not admit it, he was sure he wasn't the only one who appreciated what Sean had given them. Perhaps one of the stupidest things he ever voluntarily subjects himself to occurs that May. He leaves peculiar edits in the Observation series. Then he posts an unlisted video of him facing off against his clone with a bloodied throat and exclusively black attire. It works. For the first time in Sean's life, he stands in Anti's presence. As it turns out, Anti is grateful. If it hadn't been for Sean spending weeks playing around with a community fuelled concept, complete with a grande finale, the glitch would still be lurking in the shadows as a nobody. Sean had solidified him. Antisepticeye had long since stopped being a fun idea that lived purely in fan creations or Tumblr headcanon posts. Even better, he'd been armed with a knife and violent tendencies. Bit of a bad combination, wouldn't you say? In fact, he's been revelling in watching the whole Sean vs Egos fiasco. Because sure, he could blame a lot of things on Anti if he wanted. But the mistrust that began with Jack then seeped into the others via the original ego? Sean's doing. The one who used his powers of creation when, even to this day, he doesn't quite understand how on earth they worked? Sean. Best yet, letting his emotions cause him to put a loved one in a coma he had no clue how to reverse? Once again, courtesy of Sean McLoughlin. Sean brushes these comments off. He's been called out too many times to be that easily affected by it. Besides, he had some things on his own mind that needed saying. Where were Stacy and the kids? Oh, in a ditch. They served no use without Chase's conscience there to haunt. Actually, where had Anti himself been during all these years? Here, there, everywhere. Why stay in one spot when he thrived on being near impossible to pin down. Any question Sean has, Anti's answers are delivered nonchalantly. Right. That's how Anti wants to play it, huh? He creates another piece of footage. This time, he dresses as Chase and speaks on the phone. 'Chase' begs Stacy to take the kids, stay hidden and only contact him when she really needs to. Once Sean posts it (privately of course), the real Chase updates him on the recent developments in his life. He'd gotten a text from Stacy saying they were safe for now. He had only managed to compose himself before leaving the house but ah look, there go the waterworks again. Sean apologises as he makes it abundantly clear that Chase would not be able to see his family for a while. It was for their safety. Chase understood, right? Yes, yes of course. For good measure, he also talks to Henrik. His wife and children weren't in as imminent danger of becoming Anti's targets right now. However, there was no harm in staying vigilant. It was up to the doctor but Sean thought it would be for the best if they maintained a low profile for now. Sean discusses another video with Chase in October. The father is reluctant to have more of his story explored, especially if things are going to play out the way Sean had planned. That's fine, he assures. That was exactly why he wanted Chase to be part of the process. Besides, it may seem a little bleak right now but his fortunes would improve as soon as the ball started rolling. When it comes to filming the short video, Chase kills it. The community may be praising Sean but he makes sure Chase is aware of the love he had earned. He decides to allow Jameson another solo video for his birthday. They brainstorm together, coming up with the premise of a puppet show. Jameson is the one who comes up with the 'I can't be questioned, I'm rich!' joke. As soon as he does, he goes off on a tangent about how he used to know people like that. Hell, his own parents had been like that. Sean laughs along with him. The first sight of trouble is the random bit of string around his arm. Jameson naively removes it without becoming suspicious. Sean's been in this position before. If the video's up, it's already way too late for the targeted ego. He forces himself to watch to the end. Jameson's wrapping up the story when the strings reappear. His arms go limp before he begins swaying on the spot. It is clearly Anti who is controlling his movements now. Sean really wishes he didn't know the sign for 'help'. He bets Jameson believes he has the power to save him. If only he did. The worst part of it is having to witness Jameson clearly attempting to fight against it. If Sean thought Henrik's distress during Kill Jacksepticeye had been a challenge to watch, he had another thing coming. Goddamn it. Can he please go one year without losing more of those he cared about? He'd once been friends with Angus before the fading fiasco caused them to drift apart. Jack kept giving second chance after second chance until Sean had let his frustration screw that up. Chase had gradually begun to see him as potentially trustworthy, only for Anti to kidnap him and set them back to square one. Is it too much to ask for them to feel happy and safe as well as remaining so? His 30th birthday is quiet. There are no egos hassling him or attempts to initiate a bout of insomnia. It's a nice day chilling out with Evelein and BB. He would have enjoyed it even more if he knew he'd achieved his goal of waking Jack up by now. Or even getting Jameson back. The last person he expects to see coming round to his house is Marvin. He doesn't think the magician is entirely sure why he chose to do this either. He states that he gave his word when he said he'd never forgive Sean. With his fae heritage, that meant something and he couldn't go back on that. Marvin seemed offended when Sean shows surprise upon learning he had connection to fae. Well, how exactly was Sean supposed to know this detail if Marvin's been keeping him far away for 2.5 years, especially since they hadn't been best buddies pre-coma either? The magician scowls before returning to a calmer neutral demeanour. He carries on his point. Marvin may not be able to forgive Sean for what he's done, not that he really has a reason to given what was still happening to the egos. That said, he wasn't going to judge his friends as harshly anymore if they decided to give their creator a chance. That uh... shit, that was huge coming from Marvin. All he can reply with is a thank you. August rears it's terrible head. It's been three years now. 36 whole months, god knows how many weeks or individual days. He's had all this time to fix this yet is still working on it. And oh, sure, he can rationalise it. He can remind himself that during 2018, if he wasn't on tour then he was preparing for a leg or decompressing after one. Not to mention that had also been the year he'd finally started addressing his mental health. Now, the biggest thing preventing him from progressing the story to the point where Jack woke up was the virus. For half the year, he couldn't film anything that required a crew, let alone do so on location in America or wherever like he had with CHASE. Instead, he sits at the end of the bed as usual. Legs to his chest, he simply lets himself be here. Henrik is going to kill him for the way he is seated. He rambles at Jack, updating him on recent goings on. When he's said his bit, he becomes contemplative for a moment. "I'm still trying, I swear. You're going to wake up one day. I'm just- I'm doing my best to get everything sorted. I promise you can call my ass out eventually. I will get there. Anyway, I'm sure you have better things to be doing than listening to me mope about like I have been for the past three years. See you around, buddy."

#my writing #creator au #the creator #jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye egos #writersofjack #if anyone saw me despairing yesterday about this fic going on and on I want you to know this bitch is 8.2k words now #tw death mention #tw blood mention #tw kidnapping

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