#I wanna know what you think of my lesser known faves
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krisseratops · 4 months ago
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Poll time!
Thanks for the tag @anisecandy 💕
Rules: In a new post, pick 5 of your favourite characters for people to vote on, then tag some folks. Alright, get ready!
Just to clarify: If I had picked my fave-faves this would be a pick-your-favourite-symbiote-poll, which is good too, but I wanted to have some variety so I decided on one blorbo per franchise.
And tagging @reaperlight @symbiotic-slime @kitausuret @the-desolated-quill @hanaotaku95 and @zoeloveconvers99 if you feel like! 😄
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cupidspup · 2 months ago
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𐙚 ˚🍰 ⋆。˚ ᡣ𐭩
Hello hi everyone! I am now back by popular demand!! (From my therapist)
Sorry that it's been a while, I've honestly been struggling lots with mental health and school and stuff but I'm back mostly!! Also I got a new phone and it’s making all my cute border things white and yucky so my posts may look a little band for now i hope thats okay!! ૮ ◞ ﻌ ◟ ა I've got lots and lots to say (i thinks-) so please take the time to read everything below because it's super important to me and this account!
So firstly, I want to address all the requests! My requests are still open and everyone is more than allowed and welcome to send in their requests! I will say at this time I may start tweaking what I will and won't write (in terms of fandoms) due to the lack of interest I'm starting to have lately (which may be due to mental illness) but that's not as important! My therapist wants me to get back into the swing of things to cope and he loves the idea of be doing regression fanfictions. It's something that helps me cope with my stuff and something that genuinely feels rewarding and healing for me for yo guys. I love seeing your guys reblogs, likes and comments and hearing how it helps you all so much and I want to keep doing that! Below I have included the main things that currently pique my interest and help motivate me to write things more!
Let me preface, this isn't me saying you guys can't request these things from me or anything like that! They're still on the table but they probably won't be as prioritized as the others! So without further ado here's my new list!
Creepypasta
FNAF (especially characters from Security Breach such as Sun and Moon who are my faves!!)
This one is less of an interest per say but it makes it easier for me which is making requests such as "Shy CG x Outgoing Little" and maybe providing some smaller details of things you'd like from it like in terms of vibes or scenarios!
The reasoning as to why I've significantly lowered what I will and won't write for is honestly hard to describe. I'm dealing with a lot of imposter syndrome on my end and I find it's easier to write for things that I'm either super passionate about or something I'm passionate about but is lesser known, that way there's a lesser chance of me comparing myself! (Sorry for this small rant, I do wanna be transparent and honest with y'all and it helps be set the standard in a better way!)
Anywho!!
As for my birthday countdown!! I know not a lot of you guys are super interested in that and I've sorta given up on that but I may just go along with it anyway and just answer it whenever I feel like it! I want you guys to get to know me and see that I'm a person beyond than what I post x) so we'll see how that goes!
Moving on! I will say, if you make a request for me there is a slight chance that I love the idea/request so much that I might tweak it just a tiny bit! And I hope that's okay with y'all, ultimately, I always write what I vibe with and what makes me happy and I try my best to fulfill your guys' wishes along with my own!
With that I think that's the end of everything I had to say and if you made it this far, thank you so much! It means a lot to me when people read this far!
I love you guys so much please be safe!!૮ ᴖﻌᴖა🩷
Love,
-Puppy 🐾♡₊ ⊹
𐙚 ˚🍰 ⋆。˚ ᡣ𐭩
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heinous-eli · 9 months ago
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Here is a list of 10 Black artists/bands you might enjoy if you're millennial indie trash like me, roughly in order from better to lesser known and accompanied by a single song rec. There are, of course, more than 10 Black indie artists I listen to and even more that exist (and lots more songs just by these artists/bands!), so please do drop your recs in the comments.
(and yes "indie" means very little but whatever you know what I means it's vibes OK?!?)
Artist: Solange Jumping-off point song: Losing You Yeah, she's Beyonce's younger sister and fairly famous, but hear me out: I feel like she is perceived as overexposed as a result and therefore is sometimes dismissed as an artist. She really is fantastic and has her own thing going. I honestly don't think her singing voice sounds anything like the other Knowles's. Her style is definitely unique, too.
Band: Bloc Party Jumping-off point song: Flux You may know at least one song by them, even if you don't realize it. They've been featured on video games like Need for Speed Pro Street, FIFA 06, Burnout Revenge, and Guitar Hero 3, as well as TV shows like Skins, Waterloo Road, and How I Met Your Mother. The frontman, Kele Okereke, has also released his own solo stuff.
Artist: Santigold Jumping-off point song: Disparate Youth Formerly known as Santogold, she's opened for acts ranging from The Beastie Boys to MIA and Bjork, plus she was name-dropped by Beyonce in Break My Soul (The Queens Remix).
Band: TV on the Radio Jumping-off point song: Young Liars They've been one my faves since the first day I heard them ~20 years ago and have stayed in the rotation ever since.
Band: Alabama Shakes Jumping-off point song: Don't Wanna Fight The band is on indefinite hiatus for a lot of reasons ranging from messy to objectively awful. That said, what a fantastic and highly influential band, especially considering how relatively short-lived and recent its existence was.
Artist: Ekkstacy Jumping-off point song: i walk this earth all by myself For the record, Ekkstacy himself has expressed annoyance at the comparison. But! The first time I heard him, I immediately was reminded of Bloc Party in a good way, and I'm not the only one.
Band: Black Kids Jumping-off point song: I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You The first time I came across this band, I was convinced the band name was indie irony, like the band Girls. I was wrong. Also, the lyrics to their aforementioned biggest song is accidentally a transmasc mood.
Artist: Toro Y Moi Jumping-off point song: Talamak I've seen a lot of artists live, and his slot at Desert Daze is one of the best performances I've ever seen. The music is danceable and the lyrics poetic and thoughtful, yet unpretentious.
Artist: Yuno Jumping-off point song: No Going Back A man after my own heart, he mentions HIM’s Razorblade Romance and AFI’s Sing The Sorrow among the albums that have influenced him.
Artist: Blood Orange Jumping-off point song, more normal song edition: You're Not Good Enough Jumping-off point song, trippy glam edition: Uncle ACE This is the artist and song that inspired me to write this list, because I absolutely cannot get enough of both of these songs right now, so he gets two song recs. Fun fact: Dev Hynes has collaborated with Minimalist icon and ye olde meme Phillip Glass.
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bitter-sweet-coffee · 3 years ago
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okay, one more shitpost before i log off because 400 things happened in my life today and idk if i can do much besides shout silly goofy things i think of into the tumblr void so here are some sonic characters as artists i associate them with! these aren't like headcanon singing voices it's just a thing my brain does, i'll make that post when i have a functioning brain. anyways...
sonic: artist vs poet
knuckles: kanye west
tails: owl city
amy: literally any rachel berry song in glee but in a good way
big the cat: waterparks idk don't ask
cream: kelly clarkson but like, the good shit. breakaway, my december... yeah. or clairo
rouge: megan thee stallion and other girlboss rappers but not Cardigan Bin i aint doin my bestie dirty like that
shadow: bruno major and not to be basic but mcr
omega: three days grace once again don't ask
espio: falling in reverse but also anything with ronnie i just made a post on this
vector: this might be controversial because he is a canonical music lover but i'm definitely getting classic jazz from him just as a whole
charmy: hmmcmdkdkddk 100gecs 💀
ray: that one dancing in my room song but also baby emo vibes like fall out boy and medium p!atd (pretty odd and doab vibes specifically)
mighty: hollywood undead or 3oh!3 ik he's a sweetheart but i give him a pass to like misogyny music because it does slap ngl
metal sonic: mother mother 🤭 do with this what you will
vanilla: abba or fleetwood mac but also sex pistols as a nancy spungen defender
jet: PIERCE THE VEIL ALL THE WAY
wave: penelope scott but she could definitely pull a paramore or new years day if she wanted. but also i hc her as a percussionist so also rush (RIP neil i love u so much). also doja and rico nasty and willow ok i need to stop picking favES ANYWAYS—
storm: the piano guys because he radiates cello energy
infinite: bring me the horizon i do not take criticism on this one
silver: ... ben platt BUT NOT JUST DEH STUFF LIKE, BEN'S MUSIC TOO and also undertale fan music
blaze: mitski... look i don't make the rules yes i do
eggman: definitely queen but also wham! and listens to the entire make it big album specifically for the interlude for that version of careless whispers (fave track is heartbeat tho)
mephiles: matt maltese and asking alexandria simultaneously
scourge: the cure and hyperaptive
bean: front bottoms but i can't explain why i'm sorry
cosmo: MITSKI LIKE BLAZE THEY CAN TWIN but also the macrobats
marine: florence + the machine
tikal: hozier but also dodie for some reason
fang: ...mccafferty
bark: arctic monkeys and this isn't because polar bear he just radiates those vibes
honey: banshee 🥰
shade: evanescence and i'll elaborate if someone reminds me
maria: girl in red
sticks: definitely stans gaga i don't make the rules yes i do i need to stop saying this
PS: i can't tag every character so i didn't tag sonic knuckles or shadow since their tags get a little more love so if you're seeing this bc i tagged your underrated fave i wanna say ily and i'm gonna try making more content for underrepresented characters and ships so if you ever have a rare request please lmk!!!🥺 i know what it's like to fave a lesser known or liked character so i've gotchu!!! and if your fave wasn't here like maybe helen or comedy chimp or lumina or merlina or whoever i can always make a part 2 because trust me, i have songs for everyone :")
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yoditorian · 4 years ago
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massive thank you to my followers for getting me to this milestone, and also to everyone who sent in fics!! while i can’t confess to having read all of these works (i’m getting there tho) each comment is from the person who submitted it 💛 i’ve decided to keep this up as a regular thing, hopefully to be able to traffic some more readers to lesser known writers too so keep an eye out for that link
these have been listed in the order i received them, multi chapter works have either the masterlist or first chapter linked, please pay attention to warnings on the individual works
@bee-dameron - kair’ta - din/reader - this is one of my own recs, the original holder of my din djarin loving heart, ellie knows what they’ve done to me.
@keeper0fthestars - would you let me - din/reader - again, a rec of mine, solely responsible for planting tattooed!din in my head. a concept which haunts me daily. 
@thosewickedlovelies - into the woods - frankie/reader - my beloved rachael took a middle of the night shitpost of mine and turned it into something truly beautiful, i can’t wait to see where it goes. 
@anxiety-riddled-mando - shereshoy - mando!oc/reader - the last of my suggested fics, lives rent free in my head and the only thing i will accept as canon. jon favreau who??
@firstofficerwiggles - caretaker - din/reader - It's my fic so this is a hard question to answer but I think the story's strengths are it's romance and the blend of other elements like humor and action.
@heatherbel - desideratum - din/reader - Gorgeous poetic romance with Din Djarin.
@jura-moon - chrysalis - din/reader - The most beautiful slow burn one shot you will ever read. Jura's writing is beyond special. Sweet, emotional, sexy gorgeousness in fic form. 
@wille-zarr - in fields of white - din/reader - I wrote it lolllll jshshdhs.
@papercinders​ - enigma - obi wan/reader - the description of everything!! im not gonna make sense but gosh the author hooks you with the first chapter and drags you along by the neck for the next four
@waatermelon-sugaar - want to kiss? - poe/reader - So sexy 🥵.
@michaelperry - amidst the to and fro - din/reader - It’s a rebel!Din Djarin AU fic that is such a cool what-if idea and is written so beautifully. Din’s characterization is perfect and the whole thing is super sweet and soft. It’s one of my favorite fics I’ve read recently (tbh everything I’ve read of hers so far is amazing).
@maharani-radha-writes - cultural differences - javier/reader - It’s wonderful to be able to experience a little bit of someone else’s culture! And Javi doing his best to accommodate and understand is great to see!
@pumpkin-stars - waiting - frankie/reader - this fic has everything, angst, absolutely staggering symbolism, talk of death, frankie morales and the origin of his iCONIC hat (need i say more) (yes I will), heartache, taking chances, more angst, acceptance, a love confession, a happy ending. This fic is written with such care and empathy it is easily one of my fave frankie fics <3.
@katlikeme - it’s all the same down in the capital - reader + clones - Kat knows my whole heart belongs to her because this fic and i get all weepy just thinking about it.
@fromthedeskoftheraven - visions of sugarplums - jack/reader - being snowed in with Jack Daniels and his endless list of sweet pet names for you. And the pining!  
@mourningbirds1 - the crossroads i’m standing at - javier/steve - Javier peña and steve murphy and all the yearning and pining possible <3.
@miceenscene - star-crossed - din/ofc - din djarin soulmate au that takes your breath away.
@filthybookworm - nothing more and nothing different - frankie/reader - the most beautiful character study of frankie morales and his love languages
@ladylothlorien - oberyn is our greatest post-punk novelist - oberyn/reader - beautifully written modern!oberyn.
@itssmashedavo - mary magdalene - javier/ofc - Incredible OC, excellent pacing and very good writing. 10/10 would recommend.
@corellianhounds - geroya - din + covert - The cutest slice of life Mando fic that I can’t stop thinking about. A lovely unique look at Din from the POV of the covert foundlings. 
@millllenniawrites - warmth - poe/reader - love how Poe is portrayed in all their fics, but this one especially as it's such a slow build, and I can really feel everything when I read it! Also sex pollen is one of my favourite tropes ngl.
@brandyllyn - doppelgänger - nathan/reader - Wow - everything. This fic is just- so perfect! I love how Nathan makes an AI of himself (and believes that everyone would fuck themselves, given the chance) - that is one os the most in-character things I've ever seen Nathan do in fic - it's just perfect! Also love how bad Nathan is in bed at first, and the ending is so hot. Love love love this fic, I reread it regularly.
@youvebeenlivingfictional - don’t treat my love like a habit - santiago/reader - I love reading this series because I love how the characters develop, and how their relationships change over time too. I love the imagery in this fic and its such a comfort read. (Also there needs to be an honourary mention of Magnetic too, by the same author as it has excellent slow-burn pacing).
@woakiees - mistakes and sour grapes - poe/reader - I love how, although its modern-day Poe, it also does a really good job of showing Poe's struggles as he tries to adapt to civilian life. I also really enjoy the slow build between the two of them and Finn's friendship with the reader (also it's made me desperate to try a chocolate cake shot lol). 
@woakiees - and you keep me holding on - santiago/reader - it made me cry so much!!! the emotion, the days counting, the pain of poor Santi, just everything its so good
@brandyllyn - to sell your love for peace - javier/reader - omg ok. the writing in this was so good, and the foreshadowing was excellent - the whole time, I had a sneaking suspicion of what was going to happen, but the clues were so expertly scattered in that I had just convinced myself I was wrong when... (AAAAHHHH I screamed you have no idea it was so good).
@writingletterstothefire - she loves me - santiago/reader - the suspense! I love knowing things that the characters dont and I cant wait to find out how they react! I really enjoy this authors writing too.
@witchyavenger - coffee - richard/reader - how sweet it is!! I just wanna give Richard some love too, he deserves the world, (and the moodpboard for this fic is so good also).
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janellion · 4 years ago
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I trust your taste in music so I'd like to ask you for headcanons of what the following haikyuu!! characters would enjoy listening to: Kuroo, Daichi, Suga, Akaashi, Iwa, Bokuto, Semi, Kiyoko, Yachi, Lev, Shirabu, Aone, Futakuchi, Tsukki. (just the genres please) Thanks Kayla! Sorry if it's too much work!
hi anon! thank you so much for the request! it was the first thing i saw when i woke up this morning & just had to get it out bc i had so many thoughts on it? also please don’t apologize! it was so much fun to write! i’m sorry i didn’t include semi or lev or shirabu, i’m not comfortable with their characters enough at this point, but i hope you enjoy the rest!
note: i did add some links of songs i think fit the genre & that they would listen to!
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daichi
okay i see daichi as having pretty standard music taste
i don’t wanna say he’s basic? (but he’s kinda basic)
but that’s not a bad thing! he likes bops that bop, pretty catchy music that’s universally agreed upon to be good
he listens to the radio a lot, but i also see him as having playlists for very specific *activities* (not moods, which is how i make my playlists)
for example, daichi has a driving playlist, workout playlist, running playlist, practice playlist, etc
his GUILTY PLEASURE music however, is oldies country
like john denver & johnny cash type of vibes
he can often be heard singing “ring of fire” under his breath when he’s focusing
he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it?
the songs just give him a sense of comfort and familiarity
(plus they kinda bop???)
kuroo
ok this man has a really versatile music library
it ranges from sweet pop to heavy metal and pretty rarely does he listen to anything in between
he does use lofi music when he’s working on homework or studying because he feels like it puts him in the zone
definitely has playlists with meme based names like “pikachu face”
suga
ok i see suga as having somewhat similar music taste to mine (i have no good reason for thinking this, it’s just kind of the vibe i get)
he likes to listen to pretty much anything?
but he draws the line at like SUPER screamo metal
he just cannot enjoy it
but his favorite genre is probably indie and bedroom pop vibes
i’m imagining the paper kites but with troye sivan thrown in, something like this
akaashi
this man has impeccable music taste i don’t know what to tell you
it’s too advanced for me to speak to honestly
i see him listening to a lot of lofi sort of music, especially when he’s studying
but when he’s editing or writing? straight up instrumental
but not in the classical music sense?
this man is rocking out to some truly amazing soundtracks as he works
his favorite composers include: john powell and hans zimmer (think how to train your dragon and the lord of the rings. oh and jurassic park)
but if he’s just kind of hanging and vibing out, he likes soft folky music
iwa
idk why but this was a tough one
but i see iwa as listening to classic rock
it not only pumps him up but it can also be really heartfelt and emotional?
i think that balance suits him really well, it provides versatility within one genre that’s pretty easy for him to access
like imagine him rocking out to cold hard bitch but then also loving november rain?
he has the range
bokuto
bokuto is ALL OVER THE PLACE
this man knows every song in the top 40 one one week and then the next has no clue what any of the songs his teammates suggest are
he can appreciate anything, from classical music to rap (the former does not hold his attention well, but he can appreciate it)
he listens constantly to beachy music as his general vibe because it makes him happy and calm, like this and this
but if he’s getting hyped up for a game he listens to heavy metal (he and kuroo have a shared playlist that they add to together)
he’s very receptive to music suggestions, and if someone gives him one he’ll listen carefully all the way through
the kind of guy to have playlists based on all of his friends with music suggestions from them
kiyoko
like suga i also see kiyoko as the bedroom pop type
she can relax to it, get work done to it, and likes to support lesser known artists
BUT we stan a versatile queen
she also loves the kind of music that makes you want to climb on a motorcycle and get out of town, like this
yachi
this sweet angel listens to what i like to call “twinkle lights and light pink” music
i do not have another word for it, i’m sure there’s a name for the genre, but idk what it is
it’s soft and light and very sweet
she likes to listen to it in the mornings when she’s getting ready and finds it calms her and puts her in the right mindset for the day
i also see her enjoying pop music, top 40s sort of catchy beats
aone
this man listens to calming music 24/7
people are always surprised bc they expect some sort of loud angry music just based on appearance alone, but aone really loves the way that calming lofi and acoustic music makes him feel
i also see him enjoying country music
futakuchi
this man screams 2000s alternative music to me
idk why
he is rocking out to like stacy’s mom, flavor of the week kinda vibes
he also listens to hip hop occasionally, but it’s not the majority
tsukki
ok i strongly feel like tsukki’s taste in music is kinda,, basic??
not in a bad way, but he definitely tries to make it seem like he’s the kind of guy who listens to,,, underground really obscure artists when he’s really listening to whatever taylor swift or ariana grande just put out (the one i linked is a BOP)
also listens to podcasts 100% unironically
his favorites are the true crime ones but he’ll also listen to music history
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omg i forgot to add my faves 🥰(also taglist): @oyakags @cosmictooru @over5feettall @kaidasen  @achoohq 
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bunnyblooms · 4 years ago
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OKAY FUCKER ALL THE QUESTIONS FROM THAT ASK MEME THE LGBT ONE
1. Identity and pronouns.
I'm agenderfluid and they/them pronouns. My sexuality is aroflux and asexual.
2. How did you discover your sexuality?
Pretty much at 14 was like "idk i don't relate to everyone else i don't find celebrities hot or sex remotely something i want. If i could reproduce without sex i would. Oh. I'll just call myself asexual, like a sponge!" (Which asexual is incidentally what the creators of Spongebob were going for, fun facts. Spongebob is ace rights.)
3. Have you experienced being misgendered? How do you overcome it?
Mmmm I am constantly misgendered bc I'm nonbinary and live in a binary society and the way I compartmentalize it is basically just dressing how I want and not making an attempt to pass as anything tbh. The only time I feel misgendered is when someone knows my pronouns and doesn't use them anymore tbh. So basically. Letting go of how I want to be perceived helped. I will say tho, I refuse to come out to my dad bc he won't respect it and it'll be more painful hearing him misgender me knowing how I identify, but. That's certainly a privilege I have since I'm not transitioning. (ATM at least.)
4. Who was the first person you told? How did they react?
I technically didn't come out as ace. My ex-best friend knew bc I talked about it, but neither of us knew it was an identity. So the transition upon finding the label was virtually nonexistent and all of my friends were LGBTQ as well so it wasn't stressful or shocking. It helps that around the time I discovered the label I'd met two friends who were ace and felt the same way I did. My experience with my asexuality is definitely the model that should be the norm with the community and what we as a society should aim for.
As for my gender I'd made comments in the past that I wished I could just be genderless and it really kind of sat with me when my ex-best friend came out as trans bc I was like "Oh? You don't have to be the gender you are at birth?" Belial from Angel Sanctuary was a character that resonated with me at the time, and this was right around the time I made my ace friends. It wasn't until a year later that I discovered the nb community and one friend who was genderfluid that I decided to start trying different pronouns. And basically I came out as questioning and transitioned to nb without a formal declaration, which I also feel should be the goal for society.
I was at a con with my best friend at the time who was trans and he'd come out with my now ex-best friend while they were dating. And I was really anxious bc I felt like ppl would assume I was a transtrender and shit, and my friend said something about gender and I kind of awkwadly implied I might not identify as female and he was really great about it! He was like "If you wanna talk about it or try different pronouns you can." :D
5. Describe what it was like coming out.
I pretty much did this im question 4 hehehe.
6. If you're out, how did ppl react?
I'm not out to family, that I know of. They found my facebook which has my identity listed in my about, so I'm in limbo with them where none of us talk about it so idk if they register it as an LGBTQ thing or not.
My friends were all supportive! It helps that I have like no cishet friends lmao.
I also came out to my class on TDOV two years ago for a project where we step outside our comfort zone. I'm luckily in the social work program which has social justive built into the tenants of the profession so it was pretty positive! People still misgendered me after and were more concerned with "but i'm scared of ppl getting angry at me what should i do to talk about this with them" which. 9__9 Not surprising. But there was a mom whose kid and her kid's partner are both genderfluid and bigender so it was a good experience and I had an ally which made me comfortable in sharing it in the first place.
7. What is one question you hate ppl asking about your sexuality?
Inevitably when I say I'm ace, non-aces assume I have no interest in dating which. Way to conflate being aroace with ace and ignore that there are aros and aces who want relationships. That's my biggest pet peeve.
8. Describe the style of clothing you often wear.
I wear flannels and ripped jeans or shorts mainly. I basically dress like a butch lesbian. I'll wear dresses and stuff but I do not like dressing femme and prefer to offset softer things with hard things. Like. When I wear dresses I have to wear clunky combat boots with them or have short hair or something.
9. Who are your favorite LGBTQ+ ships?
Hmmm. Depends if you mean canon or not. Canon, it's probably FigAyda from D20 and Catradora from She-ra. Shion/Nezumi from No.6 is also one of my faves. There's also Chie and Ai from Virgin's Empire. Blupjeans from The Adventure Zone and JonMartin from The Magnus Archives.
As for Not Confirmed ships, I like Flick/CJ from Animal Crossing, Tsuna/Enma from Katekyo Hitman Reborn, uhhh. Reigisa from Free!, Kanji/Naoto from Persona and Chihiro/whatever the fuck his name is Mondo? Or the other guy I forget, from Danganronpa. Also RenLaw, RenStrade, and VinceLaw+VinceFarz from BTD.
(I am including straight relationships involving trans ppl obv.)
10. What does makeup mean to you? Do you wear any?
I hate how I look with make up it makes me dysphoric. But to me makeup is a good expressive outlet and bomb as hell, so when I do wanna wear makeup, I prefer wearing eyeliner and lipstick (esp in black or blue or green or purple) and glitter.
11. Do you experience dysphoria? How does it affect you?
I experience what I refer to as Silhouette Dysphoria a lot. I experience chest dysphoria but a lot of times it's less about me having them at all and me not liking how I look with them. The same goes for my hips and overall shape. Hence silhouette. I also experience genital dysphoria to a lesser degree, and when I do it's less hating my genitals bc they should be different but more just having any at all. Luckily I was born with internal genitalia so I don't have to think about it as much. Social dysphoria I also experience, but I've talked about that already.
How I deal with it is binding and stuff.
12. What is the stupidest thing you've heard said about the LGBTQ+ community?
Hmm. The ppl who genuinely argue that accepting the community means you'll be forced to accept pedophilia or beastiality. Like. Lmao no?
13. Favorite thing about the community?
I just love how great it feels to be in it tbh. It can be so positive and loving and just genuinely make you feel good about yourself.
14. Least favorite thing about the community?
Exclusionists.
15. Have you ever been to your city's pride event?
No, but I went to Pride in Des Moines!!! IT WAS GREAT!
16. Favorite LGBTQ+ celebrity?
I don't really follow celebrities, but probably Ian McEllen and Tim Gunn.
17. Have you been in a relationship and how did you meet?
I was in a relationship for a while with a friend of mine and it was wonderful tbh. We met in a server and started talkng more, and started out as qpps then became partners and like we broke up, but I still enjoyed the experience and wouldn't go back in time and stop it from happening. My other qpp tho. That's something I would do lmao.
I also have a bf but that's a secret~
18. Favorite LGBTQ+ book.
I haven't read a lot of books, so I guess I have to say The Raven Cycle bc that's the only one I remember reading.
19. Have you ever faced discrimination?
Mmmm the only time I have experienced direct discrimination I was giving a friend valentines chocolate in high school and some kid called me a d*ke when i walked past him.
The other stuff is like. My therapist telling me to check for a hormone imbalance when I said I was asexual.
20. Favorite LGBTQ+ movie/show?
She-ra, "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything", The Runaways (the movie not the show), No. 6.
21. Favorite LGBTQ+ bloggers?
I don't have any lmao.
22. Which slur do you want to reclaim?
Queer, bc it's already been reclaimed and it fits me.
23. Have you ever gone to a gay bar or drag show? How was it?
Nope. Never, but it'd be fun!!
24. How do you idrntify your gender?
Already answered this lol.
25. Interested in having kids?
Nope. I'd be too scared of screwing them up.
26. What identity service would you give your younger self?
I wish I'd known there was an ace community before I was older tbh. So that, probably.
27. What do you think of gender roles in relationships?
I personally like playing a feminine role, but I also think gender roles are unecessary, so like. As long as I'm an equal I don't care what role I play lmao. If you wanna treat me like the handmaiden, as long as you're not doing it bc you see me as a woman I don't care.
28. Anything else you wanna share about your gender?
Nah. Just. I don't bother trying to pin it down anymore bc the more I analyze it the less I understand it.
29. Something you wish ppl knew about being LGBTQ+?
Hmmmm not really. It's fun outside of the systemic oppression?
30. Why are you proud to be LGBTQ+?
For me it's less about pride in being LGBTQ+ and more being proud to express myself authentically. 🤷
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tazzykiki · 5 years ago
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I wanna make a list of things I enjoy or are fond of but don’t post a lot about(or haven’t posted about at all)
[Note: for any anime listed, I don’t watch sub or read manga. So I may be a bit behind]:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I’m currently really into Magia Record(Up to Chapter 3.4 as of now) and have only watched the main series(haven’t seen OVA’s or movies) so far.
Sims 4. I haven’t played any of the earlier games, but have seen gameplay and read up on them.
Love Nikki(the game I created a FB account for...very addicting)
Mirai Nikki
When They Cry. Haven’t seen season 2, tried to, sub was not for me.(p.s. Shion/Mion arc was my fave)
Konosuba
Elfen Lied
Studio Ghibli(top 3 so far are Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Monoke, and Spirited Away)
Monster High(some of my long-following followers should know this lmao.)[p.s. not a fan of the reboot, but idc if you like it]
Bratz(top fave movie is Bratz: Fashion Pixiez)
Winx Club(WHY IS THIS STILL RUNNING)[last arc I was on was the Syrenix arc]
Code Lyoko(Odd is my fave. Need to rewatch)
Jane & the Dragon(I dream of a HTTYD and Jane & the Dragon crossover)
Promised Neverland(bls no spoilers, I don’t read manga[as stated above])
Seven Deadly Sins
Godzilla. I’m not too knowledgeable on him and the other monsters, but I have seen some of the older movies and grew up watching them.
Coraline. Never really freaked me out as a kid, always adored it. Button-eyes best thing ever for creepy au’s(I feel like a lot of people would be surprised learning I am easily scared and not a fan of horror).
Little Nightmares. LITTLE NIGHTMARES 2 HYPE(see what I mean)
Life is Strange Series
Transformers Prime/Transformers Animated/Transformers Rescue Bots
Slay the Spire(Silent forever, idc if finishing the game is easier with the others I WILL FINISH WITH SILENT IF IT KILLS ME)
CorpseBride (heyiwonderwhatwouldhappenifvictordrankthepoisonandstayedwithemilybeforehecouldbestoppedeeehhhh???)
Lore Olympus(Behind a few pages)
Strawberry Seafom(Behind a LOT of pages)
Ben 10(Original to Ultimate Alien. Omniverse is okay, not a fan of the designs. new one can burn in hell)
Tinker Bell
Song of the Sea
Secret of the Kells
Saga of Tanya the Evil
Monstress(not caught up, need to re-read)
Rat Queens(also not caught up if it’s even updating anymore)
I Hate Fairyland(also also not caught up, heh, haven’t been in a reading mood)
Paper Girls(^^^^) There’s a lot more I can put, but this should do. I love so much more, but I think these are the lesser known ones. If you wanna know if I’m into anything else you can always ask!
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bigskydreaming · 5 years ago
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Tbh, my policy on pirating is pretty simple. I honestly dont give a fuck one way or another w/movies, TV shows and even comic books, bc the former two have managed to account for pirating in the way they pad their expenses and tbqh they dont really hurt for it. And with comic books, okay if you pirate indie or creator owned content you kinda suck, not gonna lie, you have NO idea the kind of effort and upfront costs that go into producing comic books without Marvel or DC backing you up, not until you actually try it. Its obscene. Especially if you’re not able to do all the art AND story AND inking/lettering/coloring yourself, and have to either pay other members of your self-assembled creative team upfront or on the backend. 
And this includes comic books published by Image (at least the ones without big name creators attached), because contrary to popular belief, Image has nothing to do with assembling the creative teams of most of their creator owned books, and they certainly don’t pay them any kind of wages or salaries. The way Image is set up is creators basically submit a complete first issue, all the art, inking, lettering, coloring, everything already done, to see if they’re interested in publishing. 
(Technically, you only have to submit the first eight pages in order to get a response, and theoretically its possible that Image has in the past greenlit books based on the first eight pages of the book, which then allows the creators some leverage in convincing the entirety of their creative team to put in the upfront work to complete the rest of the first issue still without payment, but at least trusting now that their work will see publication, but like, this doesn’t really happen much from anything I’ve ever seen or heard or experienced).
Anyway, point being, Image takes submissions and then greenlights the books they see as potentially profitable, but again....they in no way ever pay creators themselves. Creators only make money via the actual sales of their books, once published and distributed by Image...and only AFTER Image takes their cut, which is a flat fee deducted from the sales of individual issues. Its actually a good thing in some ways, that they only take a flat fee (their cut is for publishing and distribution costs, Image NEVER owns any part of the intellectual property they publish, unless they’re part of their ‘shared Image universe’ which tbh is just like, publisher Erik Larsen’s little sandbox for him and his friends and who even cares, those books suck, Savage Dragon is lame, Erik, and everyone knows Shadowhawk was a blatant rip-off of Darkhawk, and look, I love Darkhawk with all my New Warriors fanboying heart, but of all the characters in the world to rip-off, who the fuck considers Darkhawk worth being derivative of? So weird. BUT I DIGRESS. ANYWAY.) 
So in some senses the fact that they only ever take a flat rate is good, because in the rare cases of runaway books that really take off, the way Invincible and The Walking Dead were back when Robert Kirkman was still a no-name indie creator, like...the creator has the potential to make BANK. Which is exactly what Kirkman did, and why he’s now every-fucking-where, ruining all our other faves like who the fuck thought HIM producing a Chronicles of Amber show was a good idea, ewww. He’s gonna dial up the incest to 100, isn’t he? Sigh. UGH WHOOPS ANOTHER DIGRESSION, LOL YOU SEE WHY MY ADHD MEDS ARE ESSENTIAL, I ASSUME. 
Ahem. 
BUT in most cases, the fact that Image takes a flat fee off the top is like....shitty, because the last I heard - and tbf, this was years ago so its probably not the same anymore, but that means it could be worse - it was something like $2000 per issue. Which means the vast majority of indie creators you’ve never heard of before or after they published a six issue mini or whatever through Image never saw a cent. I’ve never heard of Image putting anyone in debt, like that’s not how they work at least - if your book doesn’t even make up to $2000, its not like you owe them for the remainder, but again, you just....never make a cent off it. So like....the reason a fuckton of Image books never make it past issue #6, if they even make it that far, is that the creators literally just can’t afford to keep producing out of pocket, financing the actual creative production costs of each issue themselves without making any profit on the backend, if they’re not ending up selling more than $2000 worth of issues once on the shelves, physical or digital).
So don’t fucking pirate Image comic books, plz. Just don’t do it. Unless they’re Erik Larsen’s. Pirate away, who gives a fuck, I hate that guy. LOLOLOL I’m such a petty asshole, ugh. Whatever. I blame my childhood.
ANYWAY. As I was saying, I don’t really give a shit about pirating from Marvel or DC, which maybe is bad of me because its not like those creators necessarily make bank either, unless they’re one of Marvel/DC’s faves and like, have their pick of titles at any given moment. But the way most of them are paid is Marvel and DC pay their creators actual salaries based on rates per page, and then Marvel/DC keep all the actual royalties themselves. The only exceptions to this are when issues sell more than 50,000 copies - that’s 50,000 individual copies of physical or digital issues, not $50,000 worth of sales like with Image. Once a creative team’s book sells more than 50,000 copies of a single issue however, THEN they start getting a cut of the royalties, as like a bonus incentive type thingie. But tbh, its pretty rare in today’s market for a book to move that many issues monthly, and only the top sellers of both companies end up in that rarefied air....and most of those books’ creative teams are the favored writers/artists anyway, the ones who have a degree of job security and never tend to lack for titles to shift to after ending a run on one book. Sooooo, they’re kinda the reverse of the creators who could actually use a cut of their books’ back end profits, but whatever.
So like I said, fuck Marvel and DC, like...corporately or whatever. Of course there’s no doubt that pirating has some definite correlation to how few books are able to move 50,000 issues monthly, but both companies have always been notoriously shitty to creators, and that’s not pirating’s fault, and less pirating honestly isn’t going to change that b/c the ones to benefit from less pirating first and foremost are still going to be the same ones who aren’t really that hurt by it currently....loooooooong before the lower rung creators start to see an uptick in profits as a result. And let’s be real, if Marvel & DC suddenly started seeing a surge in profits due to a marked reduction in piracy, they’d find some excuse to shift payment structures around again in order to still keep a lion’s share of the new profits while cutting the lower rung creators (read: new/just starting out/niche/lacking leverage creators) out of seeing much additional profits. Because the problem with creators making money off Marvel and DC IPs isn’t really pirating, its Marvel and DC not wanting to share the money made off their IPs, even with the people most responsible for those IPs generating revenue.
That’s the part of the pirating convo that most people miss, IMO....a rising tide just DOESN’T lift all boats, if one or two boats in particular are specially designed to make the most of any tiny uptick in a rising tide while all the other boats are made of the leftover shoddy materials and are undermanned or understaffed or whatever and can’t actually DO anything productive with any of the lift generated by the rising tide.
And if that made no sense, eh, idk, don’t blame me. Its not my metaphor.
ANYWAY. So that’s why I don’t really give a shit about pirated movies or TV shows or Marvel or DC books, though I do still think you suck if you pirate indie content including lesser known Image creators. You guys have srsly no idea how much harder indie comic book creators have to work compared to like, any other medium. It makes me wanna cry. Its ridiculous. It would take too long to explain just WHY its so much more of an ordeal/effort to produce indie comic book content than just about any other form of indie content save like, running an entire webshow with one or two people wearing all the hats while funding everything out of pocket and overseeing everything production wise and also being a key creator involved in creating the actual content.
BUT as I was saying in the last post, pirating novels is an ENTIRELY different thing, and I have vastly more opinions there than I do with other mediums. Because the publishing industry was designed to exploit and capitalize off the intellectual properties of INDIVIDUALS, unlike all those other mediums that are inherently collaborative and thus usually involve the combined efforts of several to dozens of people.
So at the end of the day, individual authors will ALWAYS suffer more from pirating, looooooong before publishing companies ever feel a ding in their profits. Because they designed it that way. Specifically SO that they, the big companies, would be protected. Its set up so that individual creatives, the authors, NEED publishing companies more than publishers need any singular author. Obviously the rise of indie publishing has changed this somewhat, but not as much as you might think.....because the thing is, indie authors are really only successful and profitable by the grace of Amazon. By the fact that Amazon can afford to pay authors 70 percent royalties on any sale as opposed to traditionally published authors who are lucky to get a ten to fifteen percent royalty rate on sales, with them not even seeing a cent of those royalties until AFTER their advance has already been paid back, if they ever even sell enough to make that happen at all.
And so like....its a very dangerous, precarious, and not at all trustworthy situation that allows for indie authors to CURRENTLY be profitable in ways or to degrees that a lot of traditionally published authors can’t be. 
But that’s only because Amazon is taking a loss on most of the books they publish, due to this payment model. Because Amazon CAN. They can afford it. They make enough from all their other departments and revenue streams to buttress those losses. And Amazon has been using this, and using indie authors, to leverage traditional publishers into giving up more and more of THEIR profits from THEIR books, by giving Amazon even steeper discounts on the books they distribute to them, to be sold to consumers by Amazon.
And again, like I said before, its the individual creators, the bottom rung authors, who take the hits here first and in the biggest ways, because it remains true that the publishers have designed their payment structures so as to use the profits of individual authors to compensate for their own dip in profits.
And Amazon isn’t doing any of this for the little guy’s benefit. They don’t care about giving indie authors a leg up, an alternative to tradition publishers. They only care about CURRENTLY making indie authors need traditional publishers less than trad publishers need them, for a change.....but ONLY so that Amazon can rake in the increase in profits first and foremost.
Because here’s the kicker. The thing I worry too many indie authors and readers don’t account for.
INDIE AUTHORS STILL NEED AMAZON MORE THAN AMAZON NEEDS THEM.
Amazon is VOLUNTARILY taking losses on their book sales, and have been almost from the start. Because they don’t NEED that department in particular to be profitable for them NOW. They’ve been angling for a long time to get as close to an actual monopoly on the book market as is possible under current free market laws. So the thing is....unlike traditional publishers....Amazon doesn’t need ANY indie authors OR sales. Like, AT ALL. They could shut down their entire indie book model tomorrow, and not really be any worse off for it.
And the second Amazon doesn’t need indie authors even as LEVERAGE to pry more profits out of traditional publishers....you better believe that 70 percent royalty rate is going to vanish literally overnight. Because there’s absolutely nothing in Amazon’s business model or legal obligations to indie authors that requires they maintain it, or protects indie authors from having it suddenly dropped to a five percent royalty rate at Amazon’s whim.
So the second the scales tip far enough that Amazon decides they really don’t need or want to milk anything else out of traditional publishers, they’ve gotten as much of a price cut or a monopoly as they’re going to get or want to get without forcing publishers (and by extension their own ready made product that Amazon then distributes) out of business.....Amazon is going to quite happily STOP taking a loss on the sales of all these indie titles, and say well, we don’t need you as much now, so we’re gonna just give you ten percent royalties, take it or leave it. Its not like you have any better options at this point.
So whether traditionally published or indie published, pirating books hurts individual creators in very real, tangible ways that creators in other mediums aren’t affected, or are supplemented or buttressed against.
I say all this not to guilt anyone, but simply to provide information. Because there’s always so much discourse going back and forth around legality of pirating and ethics of pirating and so much stuff that’s not even consequential or relevant if people don’t even understand the MECHANICS of how pirating affects various mediums. So they can then make INFORMED choices on how they feel about pirating certain content versus other content.
As I was saying at the start of all of this....I have my own personal stance on pirating, and I don’t expect it or need it to be anyone else’s personal model. Like I said, I don’t really care about other mediums, and when it comes to novels, I’m against it as much as possible, but with caveats. Lots of people, including authors, describe novels as luxury items, and as such say that nobody’s justified in taking one for their own personal entertainment just because they WANT it. I differ from that POV because I honestly don’t consider books a luxury. I consider them to be absofuckinglutely as essential to the survival and THRIVING of the human condition as food or rest. Far more so than TV or movies, which not everyone has access to, or finds as easily accessible. Bottom line.....I fall in the category of arguing that its not enough just to survive. People have to have reason to survive, to live. Things to look forward to. Things to enjoy. Feeding the human spirit, as cheesy or whatthefuckever as that sounds, is every bit as essential as feeding the body. I would not have survived my childhood without books. I would not have survived my twenties without books. Hell, I would not have survived this YEAR without books.
So, even as an author myself, and yes, I have written stuff that’s been pirated (I made a fairly decent living for a couple years as a self-published indie author of m/m erotica and m/m erotic romance short stories, novellas and novels, and those particular genres/markets get the SHIT pirated out of them. So trust me, I am VERY much putting my money where my mouth is on this subject).
But yes, even as an author myself, I have zero problem with people pirating stuff because they honestly, truly legit can not afford it otherwise. Its not a lost sale. If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money. It doesn’t mean you still don’t need, let alone deserve, to have something to take your mind off your poverty, your stresses, your issues. And even if you technically have the money to afford a book, I’m well aware that doesn’t always mean you ACTUALLY have the money to afford it in any meaningful way. If you have five bucks to spend for the day, and a choice between a book and a bagel, or like, an actual sandwich and drink, that’s not a fucking choice that ANYONE should have to make. Use that five dollars to buy yourself a fucking sandwich and just pirate the book, I say. You can pay it forward when you get the chance. You find yourself with more money at a later point, by all means, go back and buy a legit copy of that book, your money’s still good then, and having had that book to enjoy at an earlier, more stressful time in your life might very well have contributed in even the tiniest of ways to you getting to a place where you had better finances and more spending money.
Yes, obviously, I am a big fan and proponent of libraries, and I think you should always go there first, if possible, to get your free literary content. Libraries are great, and they have a LOT more content, and more of a range of content, then a lot of people realize.
I am however aware that libraries are not necessarily practical for everyone. Sometimes you just plain can’t get to one, you have transportation or mobility issues or live in a household where your reading habits or interests are frowned upon or even penalized, because sometimes, parents are awful. Sometimes libraries just don’t have the content you’re looking for. Content is subjective, depends on staff, geography, community. LGBTQ+ kids shouldn’t have to risk being seen looking through the LGBTQ+ section of the library or checking out a book, if they’re not out at home or school or in their community. By all means, I would much rather a kid in that situation pirate the fuck out of their comforting, soul-sustaining LGBTQ+ themed books than risk upsetting a currently safe and secure status quo. Again, just pay it forward when and if you can, at a later date. And so on and so forward.
BUT, again, there’s caveats there, because with books, I consider it a case by case basis, and the case in question is the individual consumer. The above scenarios IMO are based entirely on the genuine, sincere situation of not being able to afford a book in any practical way, and not having a library as a valid option for getting that or any book.
This is an entirely different situation from HAVING the spending money, and being perfectly capable of dropping five bucks on a book versus five bucks on one of those much-talked-about-in-pirating-convos Starbucks’ lattes that you don’t NEED any more than anyone supposedly NEEDS to read a particular book. 
If you CAN afford to pay full price for a book without dipping into funds intended for other practical necessities or hurting or even inconveniencing you in any meaningful way, if you CHOOSE to pirate a book you can access or download through legal channels with just as much ease as you can pirate it...(again, I’m aware that due to bullshit territory laws, not all content is legally available in all areas at all times, and this isn’t what I’m talking about).
I’m talking about if you’re NOT in a bad - not just slightly uncomfortable - but BAD, financially tight, thrifty, constantly stressed situation where its honestly a Sophie’s fucking Choice trying to decide if you’re gonna shell out your money for the sequel you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for for a fucking year and its been the only thing getting you through some days....or if you’re gonna like, eat today....
THAT’S when I have no patience for your piracy, specifically. Not when it comes to novels and the bottom lines of individual, hard-working authors, most of whom have to spend their lunch hours or come home after work to soak their blood, sweat and tears into the manuscript that becomes the book you just pirated. I know what I said about indie comic book creators having it so much more fucking tough than anyone else knows or realizes, but that doesn’t mean that midlist and lower than that authors don’t work DAMN fucking hard on their product, even after working forty hour weeks at some minimum wage job that’s every bit as soul-crushing as the worst job you’ve ever held.
And you’re not a fucking rebel or revolutionary if you’re taking money out of THEIR pocket, when you don’t need it yourself, just because you can. You’re not sticking it to the man, or teaching greedy capitalist publishing pigs the error of their ways. They don’t care, and you’re just being a dick.
Entitlement isn’t always a bad thing, I believe, because we ARE all entitled to certain things. A broke, disabled person with transportation issues and disability benefits that aren’t even enough to cover their actual living expenses is IMO every bit as ENTITLED as anyone else to a nice, stress-free, enjoyable read they picked out because it was precisely what they were looking for and not because it was the only thing out of ten available options that looked halfway decent. I will never ever judge or condemn or disparage someone for pirating in a scenario even REMOTELY close to that.
But that doesn’t mean that gratuitous entitlement doesn’t always exist, and isn’t obnoxious as fuuuuuuuuuuck. You’re not entitled to whatever you want, whenever you want, for as little as you feel like paying for it, just because you WANT it. And just because you can GET it, consequence free. If THAT’S the defining motivation or influence behind pirating the debut novel of a single mom working sixty hours a week to support her kids PLUS hanging onto her dreams and pounding out her novel over the course of a year and a half on her lunch hour.....then yeah, you fucking suck, and you know it, you whiny little shit who identifies with this paragraph and goes "who me? YOU DONT KNOW MY LIFE!” Yeah, I do. We all know someone like you. You’re not special.
Just like I know that author profile I just described there was not grabbed out of my ass, but describes someone very real and not at all embellished, and she’s not even the author I know in the most stressful scenario-whilst-writing. She certainly wouldn’t even consider herself in the Top Ten. And her publisher passed on the option for her sophomore novel, because her much-pirated book never made back the $25,000 advance she was paid over the course of three installments, which meant after taxes, she got an extra $10,000 bucks spread out among three eight month intervals, or just under two years.
So yeah. That’s where I fall. Soundly in the same camp I fall in most things: Actions have consequences, and you should always make an effort to be informed on what those consequences are before deciding whether or not you take action.
Let’s be real, no one’s effectively policing whether or not every individual consumer on the web pirates casually, extensively, or religiously, if at all. Its not likely EVER going to be an issue for you. That someone can actually keep you from pirating because you’re genuinely afraid of legal consequences.
But you shouldn’t need the threat of legal consequences, the question of can I get away with this or not, to police your own actions.
And at the risk of giving anyone whiplash, I for sure don’t give a fuck about the legality of taking away from the bottom line of massive, multi-million dollar corporate interests if I can get away with it. I’m just as entitled to keeping my five bucks that I worked DAMN FUCKING HARD FOR, as the people most likely to see that money even though they didn’t log a single actual hour on producing the content they’re charging five bucks for, IMO. I’m perfectly aware there’s a shit ton of people who’d call that rationale self-serving bullshit and hypocritical, but bite my lily-white Irish ass, I don’t give a fuck. I’m comfortable with my own morality.
But part of the reason I’m comfortable with my own morality, is that it tells me that even though there are times when I think I’m entitled to certain things I can’t necessarily afford, there are also times when I know I’m NOT entitled to things I may just not WANT to afford. Any time you’re able to justify ALWAYS having things your way without it ever costing you any kind of concession, I think that’s usually a good sign it might be time to stop and take a second look at yourself. Nobody gets to have everything their own way, to their best liking, all of the time.
But the flip side of that coin IMO, is that nobody should be penalized to NEVER having anything their own way, to their liking, ANY of the time. And if that’s the situation you’re in at some point in your life, and pirating’s the only available option to giving yourself a break from your regular monotony or currently-shitty-reality? Like, who the fuck am I to tell you not to pirate that feel good book or movie that has the chance to let you go to bed later with an actual smile on your face for a change? Who the fuck is anybody to tell you that?
*Shrugs*
There’s my two cents: The Ten Volume and Unnecessarily Long Saga.
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boyfriem-moved · 6 years ago
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the foxhole court bad
(aka the eden’s twilight chapter is gross, the thanksgiving chapter is also gross, andriel is an abusive ship, and nicky and andrew are two terrible people being terrible to each other, a passionate essay by a dude who’s real sick and tired of this garbage)
I was gonna try to reread the whole series so I could factually and definitively prove that tfc sucks once and for all but after 2 chapters I concluded that reading it again was killing my last 3 brain cells, so I stuck with rereading the worst two chapters and gathering a few other moments I thought were noteworthy, and we’re just gonna have to go from there. I’m gonna discuss a bunch of stuff so I’m putting the entire meta under the cut. Also! If you have no idea what tfc is and follow me for other reasons but are intrigued by my hatred I doubt you could get through this whole thing without being bored. I’ve made a couple short posts saying what’s wrong with tfc, most recently this one here, which you could read instead of this long ass mess. 
If you know nothing about tfc and still wanna read, trigger warning for mentions of drug abuse, rape, physical abuse, emotional/psychological abuse, sexual abuse (both of children and adults... well of one adult who was once a child), actually. all abuse. just. don’t read if you’re triggered by any general categories of abuse
You still here? So sorry about that. Now let’s get going! 
I can’t deny that there’s some sort of appeal to tfc. “Sports team for fucked up weirdos” is an interesting concept and one that can draw you in, if it’s done well. But Nora Sakavic thrives on shock value and can’t write to save her life, so it’s not done well. It’s done very, very badly. Now I’m not here to complain about the terrible writing (even though I could, believe me). I’m here to complain about how Nora writes like she gets into tumblr discourse with teenagers and makes anti blocklists. So we’ll just go in chronological order, because I think it makes the most sense that way. 
Eden’s Twilight
Up until the Eden’s Twilight chapter, the bad parts are more or less excusable. Andrew is...being Andrew, but the book has just begun, and as long as he doesn’t get any worse he’s bound to have some character development soon (which ha funny joke but we’re hopeful, the night’s still young). Nicky is likable and seemingly the good guy who’s said maybe a couple iffy things, Aaron isn’t noteworthy (and boy does he stay that way), and we haven’t seen much of Kevin’s “fun alcoholism” yet. 
And then there’s Eden’s Twilight.  The setup to the chapter has a couple interesting moments, most notably Nicky pushing Neil to take out his contacts despite the knowledge that it makes him deeply uncomfortable because everyone just bends to the fucking whim of Andrew apparently (a running theme that I’ll get to later) and a gross bit of setup where Nicky comes onto Neil and Andrew threatens to kill him. 
“...his happy expression faltered when he got a good look at Neil. “Oh man. Neil, you clean up good. Can I say that, or is that against the rules? Just--damn. Aaron, don’t let me get too drunk tonight.” (tfc pg 129)
(Nicky is an adult with a fiancee who he allegedly loves. Neil is 18. Just in case anyone’s forgotten.)
Then they go and buy some drugs! Nora shows a worrying misunderstanding of how drug withdrawal works (Nora do even one ounce of research for your shitty book please ma’am I’m begging you) and they buy some drugs with vague side effects (I have no idea if the stuff they take is based off real world drugs and I’d rather not find out) in a scene that seems unrealistic but I couldn’t tell you for sure (never bought drugs. not about to ask the people in my life who have.). They buy their drugs, Andrew takes some drugs, Nora continues to know nothing about withdrawal, they go to a nightclub! The night is still young!
And now comes the big problem area. 
Their nightclub adventures begin with a complicit bartender who says, “Back so soon, Andrew? Who’s your newest victim?” (tfc pg 133). On a later page it’s established that the bartender was spiking Neil’s drinks and fully aware of everything the siblings planned to do (as is routine with them? apparently?) so. Fun guy. 
They do some drugs, drink some alcohol. Neil refuses to do both. Andrew and Nicky are adamant about him doing drugs with them, but he refuses, so they concede. 
“Drink with us if you won’t dust with us,” Nicky said, holding his open packet in one hand and his shot in the other. 
And Neil does. Because there’s no reason not to, really. Andrew’s gang accepted it when he said he didn’t drink. They’ve so far not forced him to do anything he doesn’t want to. He watched the bartender pour his drink. He has no reason to suspect he won’t be fine. 
So, of course, his drink is drugged, and Andrew, Aaron, and Nicky hold him down as he tries to run away. The twins force him onto the dance floor, then leave him with Nicky, reigning defender for World’s Most Predatory Man. 
“Bodies and lights blurred around him, making Neil nauseous. He clawed bloody lines down Nicky’s arm as he fought to get free. Nicky didn’t let go until they’d reached the middle of the dance floor. He pulled Neil up against him and caught Neil’s chin in his fingers to force his head back.  Nicky’s kiss was harder than Neil expected it to be, and there was more than just tongue in it. Beneath the burn of vodka Nicky shared with him was the sweet tang of cracker dust. Neil didn’t mean to swallow, but it hurt too much to hold it in his mouth.  “This is how the game goes,” Nicky said against his lips. “Stop fighting if you want to survive.” (tfc pg 136)
Nicky is a good guy of the story. Not only that, he’s a fan favorite character. This isn’t even a chapter people gloss over to glorify their faves, either. People often point to this chapter and the surrounding scenes as one of the series’ most iconic moments. Neil’s night ends with him paying a bartender to knock him unconscious to put an end to the drugged abuse, which can be found near the top of pretty much everyone’s “top ten iconic Neil Josten moments” lists.  This scene is fucking disgusting. He’s forcefully assaulted, allowed and encouraged by Andrew, who’s supposedly the force keeping Nicky in line, and who told him earlier in the chapter not to try anything. Aaron and Kevin are complicit in this, as is the bartender. As are the rest of the team members and Coach Wymack, even if it’s to a far lesser extent, because though they’re horrified that Andrew and his gang brought Neil to the club, they’re not surprised. For people who seemed to know it was coming, they did an awfully lax job of keeping Neil safe though they claim that’s their top priority, and Wymack hardly reprimands Andrew. And no one even shifts blame towards Nicky, despite the fact that he’s the worst person here out of all of them.
People tend to ignore Nicky in general when it comes to how bad of people all these characters are. Which is weird, because Nicky is a horrific predator, and this scene can’t be excused. Though he never assaults Neil again, he continues to be interested in him up until his lackluster apology (which, by the way, does not excuse his actions in this chapter so fuck off if you’re gonna say it does), and it’s pretty clearly implied that he only stops flirting uncomfortably with Neil (who, side note, is still barely not a child) because Andrew forces him to, and not because of any personal growth. 
This should be the end of my explanation of why these books are terrible. Writing a scene like this, in which the assaulters are the good guys of the story and will, throughout the next three books, improve as people by exactly 0%, is reprehensible. There’s no coming back from that. But some of you obviously disagree, so let’s keep going. 
There’s more scenes like this, one in particular, but I’m gonna talk about it later. My point is just that “token gay character is a blatant predator” is not a good look, especially when written by a straight woman.
Thanksgiving
Nora Sakavic would not know how to write a rape victim if one punched her in the face and told her she was a horrible writer. I wish I didn’t have to say more. But I obviously do, so let’s go. 
(as always: necessary disclaimer that I am not a csa survivor and if anyone out there is and disagrees with me I’m more than willing to hear you out, however, i don’t think it takes one to tell that Nora Sakavic is a Fraud And Hack) 
This one wasn’t quite as hard to reread as the Eden’s Twilight chapter, probably because even though the acts are worse, it doesn’t have a bad message overall. The rapist is, thank god, the bad guy in this one. 
It does, however, have problems. Because Nora is still unable to write about serious issues without incorporating scenes purely for the purpose of shock value. 
Like, y’all, it’s really not hard to say “this character was raped as a child and has problems with consent and intimacy because of it”. You don’t need to bring the rapist into the story and have them rape the character again only for the main characters to walk in on it and kill the rapist with a lacrosse racket. 
Oh yeah, spoilers, that’s exactly what happens.  
The chapter starts out fine. If anything, it’s tame for a chapter of a book out of The World’s Most Unnecessarily Over The Top Book Series. 
The basic setup is: Nicky’s parents have invited him and the twins home for Thanksgiving after being estranged for 5 years. Andrew refuses to go. He won’t tell anyone why, but after a talk with him Neil learns that it’s because he was raped by his stepbrother and when he confided in Nicky’s dad about it, Nicky’s dad told him it was a misunderstanding. 
Y’all know what that is? Perfectly fucking adequate writing. We learn this thing about Andrew’s past. He has, for probably the only time in this entire series, adequate motivation to do something. But Ms. Sakavic, known Fraud And Hack, said fuck that. We need more. We need to really know what Andrew went through. “Like in a longer conversation sequence?” Someone sensible asked. Nora shook her head. “Like in the second worst scene I have ever written because I am a Fraud And Hack.” 
So they go to Nicky’s house for Thanksgiving! This also gives Nora a chance to remind us all that she is a straight woman and Nicky is a gay stereotype. Andrew is on edge the entire time, but Neil manages to keep him under control for the most part. Then we learn that Nicky’s dad invited Andrew’s rapist ex-stepbrother to the house. And than they’re upstairs together. Alone. 
So y’know, Neil and Aaron run upstairs, break down the door, there’s a page and a half of description of the scene of Andrew about to get raped before their very eyes, Aaron kills the rapist with a lacrosse stick (exy stick, whatever), and scene. I’m not gonna quote this one, because I don’t wanna make anyone read it, but it runs roughly from page 215-220 of The Raven King if you wanna see for yourself. Highly recommend against it. It’s nasty. 
This is a chapter that goes from 0-100 in pretty much too seconds. Someone should probably tell Nora that forcing Andrew to have dinner with the man who discredited his rape is enough digging up of his traumatic past. We don’t need to go deeper. She can stop now. She should stop now. We know Andrew’s history of csa at this point. If Nora thought that wasn’t enough, there are a million ways she could go more in depth without doing this. This scene doesn’t even go more in depth. In terms of advancements in the story, all that happens is that Aaron, Kevin, and Nicky find out about Andrew’s past (something that could have happened in so many different ways) and Aaron kills a man (which doesn’t actually matter because it takes no toll on him and is never mentioned again because nora is a fraud and hack). I was appalled and horrified the first time I read it, and rightly so, because that’s it’s only purpose. 
And putting a rape scene in a book for the sole purpose of shocking your readers is just a nasty thing to do. 
Bonus Point: Riko Moriyama Is An Evil Monster And That’s Bad Even If He Is The Villain 
Riko’s an evil monster! Yeah! Obviously! We’re glad he died! He sucks! But...he’s a very badly written evil monster, and I don’t feel like unpacking all of him, but I just want to point to a couple scenes towards the end of The Raven King real quick since they fit with the whole “Nora don’t write about rape like this” theme. 
I’m not gonna quote this one either because it’s Real Gross. But basically, Riko convinces Neil to spend winter break with him by telling him that he arranged for Andrew to get raped over Thanksgiving, and that if Neil doesn’t comply with his terms, he’s paid off one of the doctors at the psych ward Andrew is staying in and will get that doctor to rape him again. 
So that didn’t...need to happen. It’s quite frankly disgusting that Nora wrote all this (the language in this scene is very explicit). It’s disgusting that she couldn’t think of any other way to portray her villain as evil. This is bad writing. Riko doesn’t need to be cartoonishly villainous. It’s unnecessary, it’s over the top, and it’s sickening to read. 
Also? That scene at the end of The Raven King where Riko handcuffs Neil to the bed and like...stabs him and it’s never said he rapes him but he definitely rapes him because Nora’s predatory subtext is more obvious than a slap in the face? That didn’t need to happen either. 
Andriel is a terrible ship, Nora you FRAUD AND HACK
So Andrew and Neil get together in the last book, because every series written by a straight woman needs a super unhealthy gay relationship for fangirls to call cute.
(This one is...weird because a lot of the fanbase are gay themselves, but I’ve heard there’s gay people who like the captive prince too so. i guess it just be like that sometimes.)
I don’t have time to comb through the entire book looking through problematic moments, and I wouldn’t want to. I’m just gonna grab a couple noteworthy scenes in what I hope will make an adequate outline of this fucked up relationship. 
The Foxhole Court starts by setting up a running theme of Everyone Disrespecting Neil’s Boundaries All The Time with Wymack, Andrew, and Kevin coming to his high school and refusing to leave until he agrees to sign on with their Not Lacrosse team. His first meeting with Andrew is when Andrew hits him with a lacrosse racket to forcibly stop him from leaving the locker room, a pretty good encapsulation of the sort of person Andrew is. They spent the next three books allegedly falling in love.
Neil establishes boundaries. Andrew breaks them.
“I don’t need to be persuasive,” Andrew said, putting a hand to Neil’s chest as the elevator slowed to a stop. “You’ll just learn to do what I say.” 
This is on page 33 of tfc, during their second meeting. Andrew establishes that he’s controlling and manipulative pretty damn early. 
A list of other “romantic and iconic” Andriel moments include:
Andrew breaks into Neil’s room and goes through his belongings
Andrew drugs Neil and allows Nicky to assault him (after threatening to kill Nicky if he tried anything??) because he doesn’t trust him
Andrew uses threats of sharing personal information to force Neil to tell him secrets
Andrew is repeatedly physically violent (their first meeting, beating him up at Eden’s Twilight)
Andrew tells Neil’s secrets to the team psychiatrist, knowing full well it’s a betrayal of Neil’s trust
Andrew delights in Neil’s fear and goes out of his way for most of tfc to make him fear for his safety
Andrew didn’t look at Wymack. “Neil wants to come with me.”  A day ago, those words might have been an order or a threat, but today Neil heard only truth. He’d chosen the Foxes. He’d chosen to trust Andrew, whatever that meant and whatever consequences it brought down the road. (tfc pg. 152)
After that quote the moments are harder to spot (read: I reread less of trk and none of tkm so I don’t have any bookmarks to turn to), but they are still there. The last moment there is from trk, so the abuse doesn’t stop, I’m just too exhausted to keep looking. 
And let me be clear, that quote is barely consent. Andrew physically and psychologically abuses Neil into the position he’s in when he surrenders and sides with Andrew on page 152.  This scene takes place right after Eden’s Twilight, and above all of what went down there, Neil has just been forced into telling Andrew more personal information than he’s ever told anyone. After a night of abuse he feels trapped, like resistance is futile, so he gives in. Saying he wants to be part of Andrew’s crew doesn’t count as consent when his hand is being forced. 
Even though scenes towards the end of the series show Neil beginning to learn how to control Andrew and the two of them coming to stand on a more level ground, their relationship is one built on abuse and violence, and it’s important not to forget that. It’s unrealistic that Neil would come to trust Andrew, honestly. And having the abusive, more mature character give Neil his first ever relationship and teach him that he’s gay (or bi, or whatever he is) is not a good look. Especially when this book has everything else I’ve already mentioned. Especially when Nora is, once again, a grown ass straight woman. 
Nicky And Andrew Are Two Terrible People Being Terrible To Each Other And Actually I Hate Both Of Them 
So Nicky’s predatory and Andrew is violent and their relationship is as unhealthy as can get. Andrew’s relationships with Nicky and Aaron are both unhealthy, but Aaron’s much less so, so I’m just gonna get into Nicky today because I’ve been writing for almost 3 hours and I kinda wanna die right about now. 
We’ve already established that I don’t like either of them. But let me be clear, it takes a lot for me to admit that Andrew “knives hidden up my sleeves” Minyard is right in any situation. And yet, in pretty much any situation where he threatens Nicky, it’s easy to see him as the good guy, at least up until a certain point. 
Andrew is a bad person. He’s violent and manipulative and has no regard for people’s boundaries. Nicky is arguably worse, painting himself as the peacemaker while being horrifically predatory. 
(A point on Nicky: Nora spends pretty much all of the first book showing Nicky as predatory, then abandons it entirely for the next two books, making it easy to forget the kind of person he is. Just because the predatory behavior stops doesn’t excuse it. Just because Nora thinks one lousy apology makes Nicky a good person suddenly, doesn’t mean it does.)
I’m gonna paste in a pretty massive chunk of text from the foxhole court, but I think it’s all important, so bear with me. 
“Andrew is scary territorial of him. He punched me the first time I said I’d like to get Kevin too wasted to be straight.” Nicky pointed at his face, presumably where Andrew had decked him. “So yeah, I’m going to crush on safer targets until Andrew gets bored of him. That means you, since Matt’s taken and I don’t hate myself enough to try Seth. Congrats.” “Can you take the creepy down a level?” Aaron asked. “What?” Nicky asked. “He said he doesn’t swing, so obviously he needs a push.” ... “Nicky’s scheming to rape Neil,” Aaron said. “There are a couple flaws in his plan he needs to work out first, but he’ll get there sooner or later.” “You’re such an asshole,” Nicky said as he started for the door. “Wow, Nicky,” Andrew said. “You start early.” “Can you really blame me?” ... Andrew caught Nicky’s jersey in one hand and threw him hard up against the wall... “Hey Nicky,” Andrew said in stage-whisper German. “Don’t touch him, you understand?”  “You know I’d never hurt him. If he says yes-”  “I said no.”  Jesus, you’re greedy,” Nicky said. “You already have Kevin, what does it-” He went silent, but it took Neil a moment to realize why. Andrew had a short knife pressed to Nicky’s jersey...Neil knew Andrew meant it. If Nicky so much as breathed wrong right now, Andrew would cut his lungs to ribbons, any and all consequences be damned. 
 So there’s a lot to unpack there. I loose Andrew at the point where he’s ready to murder, but though he’s extreme as fuck, it’s not like he’s unjustified. We learn later from his backstory why he’s so extreme in shutting down any behavior he sees predatory, and rightfully so. (Even though there’s still Eden’s Twilight soon after this... it’s Nora’s incompetent writing isn’t it.) Nicky is a creep. He’s an adult. He has a fiance. And he’s talking about how he’s going to coerce a teenager into having sex with him because he won’t tell him his sexuality. 
He says he wouldn’t do anything without consent, but we know that’s not true. He’s just saying what Andrew wants to hear. 
And as for Andrew, though his violence is excused by backstory and mental problems, it’s a big fucking deal. He nearly killed his cousin, who we know he feels at least some sort of fondness for, because it’s established at this point that the reason he’s so heavily medicated is for attacking men who threatened Nicky. Would he regret it later? It’s impossible to say. He killed Aaron’s mom and assumed Aaron would be grateful. He’s threatened or attacked pretty much every member of the Not Lacrosse team. And I honestly don’t know what Nora is trying to tell us about him. He gets tamer once he’s permanently off his medication, but he was violent before it. I suppose that’s because by then Neil has learned how to calm him down, but is that the message? Abuse a boy into hanging out with you and eventually he’ll be a boyfriend who knows how to deal with you? 
Nicky is a predator and Andrew is a violent abuser and neither of them are the good guys and that’s the only conclusion I can possibly draw from the way they’re written. 
Assorted noteworthy moments that didn’t fit into any larger part: 
the part in trk where Nicky’s parents are homophobic and he tells them he loves his fiance and this is the moment that’s supposed to make us sympathize with him? “The sexual predator has homophobic Christian parents feel sad for him” nice try Nora but he’s not getting shit in the way of sympathy from me, your straight is showing
the part in tfc when Seth says the f-slur is bad because uh. Nora that’s not your word to say
bonus Nicky is predatory bit: Nicky waggled a hand at Aaron. “Quick, have we said anything totally incriminating these past few months?” “Aside from your endless inappropriate comments about what you’d like to do to [Neil], I don’t think so.” (tfc pg 239) 
Kevin is also manipulative! I felt like covering it would be a bit of a rehash of Andrew and this was getting really long but he continually uses exy as leverage to get Neil to do things he feels will put him in danger the same way Andrew uses threats of sharing his secrets. 
bonus bonus Nicky is predatory bit (I’m discovering more and more as I go): Nicky’s stare was appreciative when Neil returned, but for once he kept his mouth shut. (tfc pg 243) Is this supposed to be character growth? Being predatory without explicitly saying anything is barely better Nora!! (Side note, in this same scene Nicky does make a comment about Neil jacking off in the bathroom stall which? Seems kinda bad considering everything else with him?)
I didn’t touch on it very much because no one cares about it and it’s way harder to convince people poor writing about drug abuse is bad than poor writing about sexual assault is bad (even though it shouldn’t be, and i could have tried both but again. long post) but Nora’s attitude to drugs and alcohol is bad. Every character and their mom is addicted to something, with Kevin and Andrew being the most obvious touched on (also Seth but I don’t think anyone cares about him), and Nora’s attitude towards writing it is quite frankly disgusting. She’s offensively misinformed and it pisses me off to no end. But that’s a rant for another day.
Every sex scene between Neil and Andrew is gross. (I think there’s two of them from what I remember? At least two, maybe more.) I googled plenty and I couldn’t find Nora’s age anywhere, but I know for a fact that she’s an adult, and I also know the series took her 13 years to write, so I’m fairly sure she’s at least in her 30s. 
I know I said I wasn’t gonna complain about bad writing but. It’s so bad y’all, and I honestly think it gets worse as the books go along. Every time Neil monologued it took a year off my life. 
So yeah. There’s a lot that’s fucked up about the foxhole court. And the worst part of it is that it never gets better. Andrew makes marginal improvement, but Nicky never does. Nora writes shock value scenes until the series end (I didn’t write about the scene in tkm where Neil gets tortured because it’s the same shock value effect of the thanksgiving chapter in a different sort of way but it’s also bad). I am of the honest belief that this book is far too fucked up to salvage. This is my official tfc bad masterpost, because every time I criticize it someone wants to know more. But I’m also putting it in the fandom tags because it annoys me to no end that y’all support these books, and I’m hoping I can at least change someone’s mind. 
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allisoinreynolds · 5 years ago
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do u have any podcast recs or just some faves? i wanna get into them too x
yeah! ok so mind you i haven’t been listening for too long so i can’t make this list as long as i wish i could, but the ones i’ve listened to are (also these are mainly fiction and true crime because that’s what i listen to):
* favourite
limetown: an entire town disappears, and ten years later a reporter tries to find out what happened to the people there. (i actually really liked s1. s2 was... different? i liked it though, but this was the first podcast i listened to, so i may be biased, but i have a special place for this one in my heart) [fiction]
alice isn’t dead*: follows a trucker as she searches for her wife who is not, as she had thought, dead (this one has a few elements of horror, i think, but it’s really good) [fiction]
the strange case of starship iris*: follows violet liu after she is the only survivor in her ship (this might be my favourite out of all of them, it’s really good, okay, if there is one i recommend it’s this one. i’m having a hard time explaining it, but think: space and conspiracies. i really loved this one. i can’t put into words how much i recommend this one.) [fiction]
rabbits: when carly’s best friend goes missing, her search leads her to a mysterious, secret game known only as rabbits (i wanna clarify that i didn’t love this one. i thought the idea of it was amazing, but the execution was... eh. still, maybe you’ll be luckier than me, i did think the idea was pretty good) [fiction]
welcome to night vale: there’s a town. there’s weird stuff going on in said town. (this is the one everyone will mention if we’re talking podcasts. i actually only heard a couple of episode, but everyone says it’s pretty good, so i want to get to it eventually) [fiction]
lesser gods: in a future where humans are unable to reproduce, someone seems to start targeting the five youngest people in the planet (it’s not my favourite, but i do like it more than others in this list.) [fiction]
the amelia project*: a company where they fake their client’s death - as long as they can tell a story and they find them interesting (this one i actually really liked. s2 will be out in a month or so i think. ‘favourite’ might be a little strong, but i liked this one) [fiction]
the black tapes: i’ve only listened to four chapters before getting scared, but it deals with paranormal stuff and has someone who doesn’t believe in them and one who is trying to figure out the truth. i really couldn’t say if it’s good or not, though, because honestly? me and paranormal don’t really get along, i get scared way too easily. [fiction]
serial: this is probably the most popular one when it comes to true crime, and i can see why. it basically follows one story in each season during s1 and 2, and s3 deals with more of the every day type of work (s3 is kinda horrifying tbh). but yeah, it’s good if you want to listen to this kind of stuff. 
up and vanished: another true crime one where they follow one disappearence each season. s1 was kinda shocking for some stuff that happened, but i think i might have liked s2 more, i don’t know.
the adventure zone: this is just a father and some brothers playing dnd and i’ve only listened to the first arc they did, but it was fun. it’s pretty popular so you might have heard of it, but, yeah. it was fun.
culpable: another true crime one following one case and trying to find out what happened. this one just came out so there’s only two episodes out.
fair warning: i’m not super into true crime stuff, despite listening to it. i like it in a ‘what happened to them’ and you want to see the person who did it face the consequences, but i’m not super into it. i liked serial more, but up and vanished did do a lot more of putting the focus on the victim, which i did like. but i might not be the best to rec true crime specifically.
other podcasts i haven’t listened so i really don’t know what they are about to but i have saved for later: 1994, accused, archive 81, ars paradoxica, attention hellmart shoppers!, casefile true crime, the dark tome, eos 10, girl in space, king falls am, kakos industries, love and luck, my favourite murder, s-town, sayer, someone knows something, station to station, stellar firma, the bright sessions, the deep vault, the far meridian, the magnus archives, the orbiting human circus, the penumbra podcast, to live and die in la, victoriocity, violet beach, within the wires, wolf 359
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jinjikook · 7 years ago
Text
extracurriculars (m)
🎃 word count: 1.5k
🎃 genre: smut ; college au
🎃 pairing: reader/minhyuk
🎃 warning(s)/kink(s): public sex, slight exhibitionism, fingering, glasses kink (?)
🎃 summary: minhyuk has naughty thoughts about you wearing glasses and hey, you’re not opposed to letting those fantasies come true.
🎃 requested by: anon #1 -  “ Hiya can I request a kinktober writing? Minhyuk/reader exhibitionism with non bed surface sex?” + anon #2 -  “can you do one reader/Minhyuk where's he's your boyfriend and has a thing for you using glasses (such a turn on for him) because he thinks you look like a teacher, but a hot one.”
🎃 music: sorry not sorry - demi lovato
🎃  a/n: i know the gif isn’t rly very related to the fic but fuck it’s one of my fave looks like HE IS ETHEREAL 
🎃 masterlist + kinktober 2017
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gif credit
You tapped your pen on the edge of the wooden table, knowing it was probably bothering someone in the library just trying to innocently study but it was a bad habit of yours that you couldn’t help. Plus, your boyfriend didn’t seem to have half of your guilty conscience if the incessant shaking of his leg under the table was anything to go by.
“Babe, could you please stop that? It’s driving me nuts,” You nudged Minhyuk, ripping his eyes away from whatever BuzzFeed article he was probably ogling instead of studying for his next exam. His eyes were like that of a rabbit’s, wide and dewy as he made contact with you.
“What? Oh, sorry Y/N…” He trailed off, quickly redirecting his attention elsewhere. You looked at him suspiciously, nudging him once more though this time with more playful intent.
“Hey, what’s the matter with you? Everything okay?” Minhyuk refused to look you in the face, endlessly searching though his bag though you knew all he had in there were old Starburst wrappers and a pack of animal shaped erasers. He was the epitome of an adult in college, clearly.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” He shrugged and gave up on his search, retiring to sitting back and gnawing on his lip anxiously.
“I don’t know, maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’re refusing to make even the slightest of eye contact with me?”
He shook his head violently and you had half a mind to assume he was just hopped up on expresso shots from the downstairs coffee shop but you had been with him nearly the entire afternoon, keeping a close eye on his caffeine intake for both your sanity and his health. Between his disgusting obsession with energy drinks and the incessant pull towards a cup of coffee that every student has to deal with, you had had your fair share of over-hyperactive days of Minhyuk.
“Hyuk, c’mon tell me what’s got you so up in a knot. You can trust me, you know that—”
“It’s your goddamn glasses, okay?!”
You shut your mouth, confused at your boyfriend’s sudden outburst.
“Pardon?”
Minhyuk licked his lips and wiped away the excess spit with the back of his hand before running his hand through his wild dark locks—a nervous habit he too had trouble getting rid of.
“When you wear those glasses, it makes you look like a teacher or something. But like… not a regular teacher, you get me?”
You giggled, shaking your head and telling him that no, you most certainly did not ‘get him’.
With a groan that caught a few too many stares, he shut his laptop in frustration and shoved everything unceremoniously into his bag, signaling for you to do the same and follow him into the secluded corner of bookshelves.
The shelves themselves were tall and full of dusty old books about history and anatomy and all that other bullshit that no one really checked out unless they absolutely had to which they usually never did because the internet was a wonderful place.
“Why’d you drag me all the way here to talk about my stupid glasses?” Minhyuk put a finger on your lips, telling you to keep your voice down and you were just even more confused. Sure, you were inside a library where you were supposed to keep an inside voice but there was no real reason why you had to stay so quiet in the ass crack of the textbook section.
“It’s because of those glasses,” He points a long digit at them, nearly making contact with the frames. “That I can’t fucking think straight.” When you were still clearly at a loss, Minhyuk nearly threw his bag on the ground as he finally explained himself. “You look like one of those naughty school teachers, like the ones that they make costumes and stuff of, okay? I see you in them and I pop a boner and all I wanna do is take you right then and there and—”
“Why don’t you?”
Minhyuk stopped dead in his tracks, eyebrows furrowing cutely and you fought the urge to kiss the small forehead wrinkles away.
“Why don’t I what?”
“Take me. Like, what’s stopping you? I know you always keep a condom in your pocket for ‘emergencies’ and I’m still pretty stretched out from this morning so…” And slowly, realization began to dawn on Minhyuk’s face; his expression becoming brighter and more excited with each passing moment.
He muttered ‘oh fuck yeah,’ under his breath before undoing the ratty drawstring of his old sweatpants, barely hanging off his hips and dropping easily the minute the bow in the middle came loose.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, I told you to start wearing underwear Minhyuk! That’s so unsanitary,” Minhyuk rolled his eyes at you and simply forced you around to brace your arms against the cherry mahogany bookshelf. You were face to face with the spines of hundreds of titles, some jumping out to you but not holding your focus long enough because Minhyuk’s slightly chilly hands were getting under your skirt and pushing your underwear aside to inspect just how many digits he had to give you before getting inside.
You hissed at the intrusion, nails digging into the dusty shelf and trying to keep from making any loud noises for fear of getting caught.
It only took a few minutes and two of Minhyuk’s sinuously talented fingers to get you ready for him, already enthusiastically rolling on the condom and whispering how much he’d wanted this.
He didn’t really hold back, even though you were somewhere a hundred times more public than your dorm room and you bit your knuckle as you whimpered through his thrusts. He held your hips and plunged deep, over and over again.
It caused the shelf to jostle some, books knocking against each other and little creaking noises to seep from the lesser constructed areas of the furniture.
“Do you want someone to find us, to see you being so, so bad for me, baby?” Minhyuk drawled, hand snaking forward to toy with your clit. You keened against your hand and bit harder, your boyfriend already well versed in your body and the weaknesses it had.
A few voices could be heard coming from the right side, getting slightly louder as you assumed they were approaching the line of shelves you were hidden behind. All it would take is the turn of one corner to catch sight of the entire display: Minhyuk deep inside you and his face buried in your neck and your hands scrabbling for purchase on the shelf, drooling all over the knuckle you’d shoved into your mouth.
“Minhyuk, ah, baby they’re coming,” You tried to gesture to the generic area from which you’d heard the voices coming from but it was hard when your hands were the only thing keeping you from face planting onto the shelf and braining yourself.
“Then you should be too,” He growled before slamming into you and putting further pressure on your clit, making you shut your eyes tight and bite your tongue nearly clean off to keep from screaming out in ecstasy.
Minhyuk followed suit, coming into the condom and biting down on your clothed shoulder to muffle his own noises. It dampened the fabric and you wondered if it was noticeable on the gray sweater.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I pulled the book from these ones,” A light voice carried into the small alcove, followed by a low grunt that you figured was paired with a nod from someone else.
You and Minhyuk rushed to get your clothes situated and back into place, fixing your hair and taming Minhyuk’s own for him as he adjusted the glasses back onto the bridge of your nose and giving the tip a small peck before smiling. He mouthed ‘thank you’ right before the voices made themselves known.
“It was right around—Oh, hey Minhyuk, hey Y/N!” Jooheon chirped, waving to the two of you and you waved to Hyunwoo who was in tow right behind him, a soft smile stretched onto his squishy cheeks. “Were the two of you looking for that Economics book Professor Kim had mentioned? It’s supposed to be back here...” He trailed off as he searched the shelves behind Minhyuk, your own back trying to conceal where you had clawed very visibly and Minhyuk stood next to you, stiff as a statue as he held the tied off condom behind his back.
Hyunwoo had a smirk plastered onto his face the following time you looked over at him, knowing eyes looking down where Minhyuk had his hands hidden.
“Not a word,” You hissed at your friend, his hands coming up in a sign of defense and he quickly tuned into Jooheon’s words as he piped up about finding the book.
Minhyuk leaned down and whispered into your ear, breath tickling the shell of it.
“That was fun baby, should I tell you what I think of when you wear heels?” You giggled and slapped his shoulder playfully, motioning to where your friends had begun to invite the two of you to lunch. Your boyfriend gave you one last peck before walking in tow behind the other two males, discreetly trashing the condom once he passed a wastebasket.
You followed along, being sure to whisper a quick ‘sure’ into Minhyuk’s ear before running up and joining Jooheon in his conversation about the new Animal Crossing app.
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kadebronson · 7 years ago
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kadebronson’s LGBT book list
hey guys! so i get a decent amount of questions about if the books i talk about have any representation in them (specifically i get trc a lot which for good reasons) and i know i ship boy do i ship but i do try and read as many books as i can with actual representation so i’m gonna comply a list (a working list for now) with some good books
those bolded are faves
a flash of hex by jes battis - this is part of a series and i never got around to reading the rest because i picked it up at a used book store it features gay, bi, and trans characters it was a seriously fun sci-fi book
the amazing adventures of kavalier and clay by michael chabon - listen this book is already a classic and for good reason it’s simply amazing and has everything you could hope for two jewish cousins hopping on the comic book bandwagon one obsessed with magic and trying to be a magician and one who falls in love with a solider it’s gonna make you cry but it’s so good
the family fang by kevin wilson - imagine a wes anderson movie as a book this is basically it annie’s story of coming to terms with her sexuality is heart warming
honor among punks by guy davis and gary reed - PLEASE READ THIS this is one of my fave books of all time it’s a graphic novel set in london in the 80′s if the industrial revolution never happened jack the ripper is running rampant and a bisexual female sherlock holmes (i’m sorry sharon holmes) is on the case! also did i mention she’s a punk? with a badass mohawk? also features a trans woman character but i don’t wanna spoil that part
the parasol protectorate and it’s varying spinoffs by gail carriger - if you follow me, you know how obsessed i am with this series it is my entire life and i absolutely adore everything about it the first book in the main series, soulless, starts off a bit slow but after that it’s totally worth it it’s a steampunk sci-fi/fantasy fusion set in victorian london where werewolves, vampires, humans, and some other creatures live in harmony (sort of) and basically everyone is queer i mean everyone the main character is bi demi and two of her closest friends are a gay vampire and a lesbian inventor
blind items by matthew rettenmund - about a history buff who falls for a tv star who has to stay in the closet for his career great if you love pop culture references a lot very sweet not as heartbreaking as it sounds
p.s. your cat is dead by james kirkwood - based on a play doesn’t focus too much on the characters sexuality but for 1972 it’s pretty boss
the egyptologist by arthur phillips - my mom sent me this one once in a care package because it was about egyptian history and had a gay character because obviously that’s my whole personality it doesn’t focus that much on his sexuality like at all and the book is alright but i figured i’d include it
221 baker streets - there’s only two stories in this anthology that count but they’re both worth it another sherlock holmes one the two stories are wildly different one is of sherlock and john in the 60′s and they’re a part of the factory in new york and the other one they’re teenage girls solving mysteires in their boarding school
ghost hunter series by victoria laurie - ok so gil is sometimes the stereotypical gay bff and it drives me crazy but this whole series is cheesy as hell but i adore it so it’s making it on the list it’s exactly what you think based on the title they’re ghost hunters and that’s about it (plus some romance troubles for both m.j. and gil)
the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater - ok as said before most of the questions i get is about this series YES ronan is gay and adam is bi are these words ever said? no is it annoying? sure but the series is really good and worth it ask me to sum it up? yeah i still can’t do that but you can check my tag and try to figure it out
lumberjanes by noelle stevenson and grace ellis - girls solving supernatural mysteries at summer camp could you ask for anything more? mal and molly are absolutely adorable
giant days by john allison - another graphic novel all the characters are absolutely amazing and it is fucking hilarious we don’t get into daisy’s sexuality until a couple issues in but it’s still fun
station eleven by emily st. john mandel - ok i know i keep saying this but we don’t even find out about clark’s sexuality until the end BUUUUUUT this book is so good i rec it to everyone it’s about a pretty simple disease wiping out most of humanity and then follows the survivors 
the foxhole court series by nora sakavic - another tumblr fave you probably know about this thanks to me as well it’s definitely not for everyone it can be extremely violent but i love it so it’s on here
the captive prince trilogy by c.s. pacat - i’m not gonna say anything about this it’s my guilty pleasure ok
nimona by noelle stevenson - noelle’s lesser known graphic novel! it’s adorable but also very bittersweet nimona becomes the side kick to villain lord ballister blackheart who is hellbent on destroying his nemesis, and jilted not-quite-lover,  sir ambrosius goldenloin
aristole and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire saenz - another one you probably know :)
every heart a doorway by seanan mcguire - PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE read this book because guess what? my url is from this book! meet kade bronson my sweet child he’s a trans man and the main character nancy is asexual it’s about people at a boarding school to help them recover from falling through magical doors and living in magical worlds so like rehab for alice after coming back thru the looking glass
rainbow boys trilogy by alex sanchez - alright this trilogy is from the late 90′s so you gotta take a lot of it with a grain of salt but it really good for what it is just about three boys (two gay, one bi) and trying to navigate through high school, coming out, life after graduation, etc.
marine biolgy by gail carriger - it’s my girl again! this is the first story she’s wrote that’s set in present day it’s about alex, a werewolf, who’s starting to fall for marvin, a merman it’s just a short story so i don’t wanna give it all away but there’s a full length book coming soon i’m excited for that!
a charm of magpies trilogy by k.j. charles - ok i still have one more left in the trilogy to read but i adore this series! it’s a little risque ok but it’s about magicians and has some crazy mysteries and i’ve been really enjoying it
alright that’s the list for now i only quickly went through my book journals but i may think of others as time goes on!
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reasonablespeculation · 5 years ago
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Chris Evans/RSDR compilation... my thoughts in bold. (NB: I used to really crush on him and I honestly do not think he’s a bad person in any way, he has good intentions but has also failed in certain ways.)
           I've always been dubious about Cevans being woke. I think he's probably a decent guy overall, but the "woke" thing seems to be more about trying to impress certain women he's into, IMO.             I think he’s woke about certain things but in a very surface-level white male liberal kinda way. He doesn’t put in the work of trying to get beyond his gut-level reaction and it shows.
           I kinda get why CE would be quite about some issues because of A Starting Point and technically has to play the middle man for a bit but it’s also a little hypocritical because I remember him saying in an interview that if you have the power to speak up but stay quite about issues that it’s was gross him which is what he is doing at the moment. I think this is his team’s doing too, they want him to have this image and don’t want anything to tarnish that which again a sad take if you ask me.             YUP
           Chris has to have known that RSDR didn’t sit well with some people which might be the reason why he never promoted the movie like other cast mates. One thing that I really dislike about Evans, as much as a love him, is the fact that he uses pictures of Dodger whenever theres some controversy involving him. Like that tweet about “a beautiful moment” between the killer and brother of the victim, people tried to explain why and soon after pic was tweeted. Some CE stan were so gross during this too.             very yup
           "Could you explain why other than it being a white savior movie that movie was zionist/Israeli propaganda, please?" How is that not enough? There's nothing wrong with white people being heroes, but people are very tired of seeing that myth when in reality POC play the key role in saving themselves--it just gets wiped out of history. And Israel has devolved into an apartheid state, so while no one wants to be anti-Semitic, stories with Israel as the "good guys" don't play well now.             Yeah
           people were upset by his involvement in the zionist/Israeli propaganda movie>> He must not even know what Zionism is. He signed for thinking it was a beautiful story to tell. People give celebrities a lot of credit, they are not as smart as we think. Chris is not as smart as people think. He still has a lot to learn. Celebrities may have a say in everything, but they don't know what the real world is, and they never will.             Chris uses big words which makes people think he’s smart you gotta lol a little bit.
           I think he's not talking because of his website. I saw somewhere that his website is supposted to be imparcial >> I see, but his site is about American politics, he could show support for what is happening in Australia. I don't know about you guys, but with everything that is happening, I don't think the idea of this site is a good one, and it's coming at the wrong time. How to be impartial about politicians who are supporting a possible new war?             I don’t think you can be, which is why I think the project is utterly flawed from the start
           I don’t even think it’s because of his impartial bs political website that his has stopped engaging in political tweets, he got a lot of (and well deserved) flack for that as well. Impartiality doesn’t work when one side is rooted in bigotry. Being an American it’s so hard because by default Democrats are the ‘better party’ and yet there are so many spineless representatives on that side as well. The only white celeb using their platform in the best way imo is Mark Ruffalo, take note Chris             My fave Misha Collins is also a great example of someone really using their platform & mobilizing their fanbase to do good in the world
           I know this is mostly a Seb blog so forgive me for bringing up Chris again but I completely agree, I’ve been so turned off by him. The political climate in the US is so tumultuous, people’s lives are literally at stake everyday both at home and abroad by the mindset and decisions of this current administration, you can’t take a passive or impartial stance anymore. And if you choose as a celeb like Chris to use your platform to be ‘involved’ politically, there needs to be more accountability             Agreed & no need to apologize, it’s obviously something a lot of people wanna discuss
           Cardi B does a better job at taking an actual political stance and uplifting the voices of those marginalized and discriminated against than someone like Chris who does the actual bare minimum TRUST NO WHITE MEN, and yes sadly I include Seb in that (he’s still soft and pure and can colonize me), but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be held to a lesser standard just because they don’t or can’t recognize their privilege             100%
           But here’s the thing, you and I can quietly delete tweets or opinions posted in jest or ignorance because we don’t have a ginormous platform that can validate another individuals ill informed, not that us regular folk get a free pass either but celebs have a bigger responsibility than us             I agree
           I'm just about done with Cevans and his fans. He's still deleting tweets (don't know which ones, but the number went down again), and his fans are just... ugh. The people who ship him with ScarJo are crazier than ever since the Golden Globes happened, and her publicist or whatever had to go and make things worse by liking a manip someone created of Chris and ScarJo (whyyyy would you do that?!). Are their PR teams actually encouraging people to ship them when she's engaged to another man? Classy.             Yike
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gontiish · 7 years ago
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MUN INFO. SHEET.
Rules:  Answer the questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better. Repost, don’t reblog.
Tagged by: @magiicly ! Tagging: @inflagrcnte, @gentlegiantingvar, @fairglenned  and uuuuh i don’t know. i don’t have that many people on here yet. if you wanna do the thing just crash through my door, take my computer and do the thing, you know?  and of course nik can do whatever they want because nik is fantastic  ❤
NICKNAME:  sawyer
STAR SIGN:  aries; sun aries, moon gemini, rising cancer, midheaven aries. i used a calculator. i don’t actually know what most of this implies, but okay. HEIGHT:  5′11″ CURRENT TIME:  1:49 am
FAVE MUSIC ARTIST:  sonic youth, velvet underground, mika, brand new, etc. i don’t really have a “favorite” i just rotate them out. as for musicals though, spring awakening has a special place in my heart.
LAST MOVIE WATCHED:  Princess Ka'iulani LAST SHOW WATCHED:  People of Earth
WHEN DID YOU CREATE YOUR BLOG:  like… three weeks ago?  i’ve been wanting to add him to my list for years though, just needed the courage since it’s a lesser known fandom. WHAT KIND OF STUFF DO YOU POST:  mostly roleplay, i hope.
OTHER BLOGS:  @caesiitas  ( ted lupin )  & @endliing  ( amalthea )  are my only other active ones right now. i might bring back @magicstaiined or make an aeon flux. i need someone more sinful in my repertoire. the moral grey area is fun.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR URL:  all the good variations on sparrowhawk were taken. i didn’t want to get too edgy and allude to his scar?  could’ve done something with dragons but that’s also riding a fine line. gontiish is pretty basic  ( it’s just his nationality )  but it’s still important. in the first book is there’s this bitch at school who thinks he’s better than ged because he’s just from  gont,  and everyone on his island is either a goat herds or a farmer, whereas jasper had a magically pedigree. so you know,  o-la-la.  he was completely classist and that’s what drove ged to show him up via necromancy, just fyi. i’m not saying it wasn’t dumb, but he paid for it, and jasper was a fucking prick who needed a good punch to the face anyway. the prologue also says that gont is famous for it’s wizards, but that perspective is being written from the future, and a long time after ged’s death. so yeah, he and ogion kind of put it on the map?  he’s a farm boy through and through, and he’s proud of his hometown.
HOGWARTS HOUSE:  i am a hat stall. original beta version of pottermore had me in slytherin, took it again and i was in gryffindor. forgot that account and made another one; it put me in ravenclaw. got sorted by my psych teacher in hs and was labeled as a hufflepuff. that said, if we are to assume that the hat would take what i want into consideration?  i would choose ravenclaw based on aesthetic alone. might be chilly in the winter but you got that  perfect  morning light streaming through the windows. set me up with a good book and a cup of tea; that’s heaven.
POKEMON TEAM:  don’t have the app but i’d probably pick mystic. FAVOURITE COLOUR:  BLUE AVG HOURS SLEEP:  4-7 hours LUCKY NUMBERS:  i believe in the power of guessing randomly on the spot. HOW MANY BLANKETS DO YOU SLEEP WITH?:  one. come winter where i am though and i’ll be under a comforter too. i’m at like, 40° N. DREAM JOB:  author?  teacher?  preferably outside of the USA. or you know, just give me a bunch of money and watch me not be poor. that’d be fun too. FOLLOWING:  n/a FOLLOWERS:  n/a
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adhd-ahamilton · 8 years ago
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Joy To The World, 1, 4 and 5!
Hoo boy, so many questions!!! I hope you’re prepared for the deluge that’s gonna result...~ I’ll answer these tonight and finish the ones in the other messages tomorrow morning!
1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?
So. Over the last five or so years I’ve been writing fic, in all but the second year, I’ve written a special Christmas-related fic for Christmas. (And I did two the first year, so.) Christmas is a really important holiday to me and I really love Christmas-related stuff (the cheesier and sillier the better), so it became kind of a tradition. But this year, I was at a little bit of a loss. I knew I wanted to write Lams, because that’s my big thing right now. But how would I write Christmas Lams? Did they even properly ‘celebrate’ Christmas during that time period?? Or should I just go for an AU?
I researched it, and thankfully it turns out that the 18th century is around when people did start to celebrate Christmas in the modern sense (and it’s also when carols really started to come about, which is great because per tradition all my Christmas fic are titled after a carol), but that was just the beginning of the issue. When exactly would it be set? Valley Forge? But, uh... I highly doubted they would be really doing all that much at that point. But I couldn’t really think of any time outside of Lams AU that they’d be together. (And then I found out afterwards that Ham wasn’t even there for Christmas 1777, so, welp.) And I really couldn’t think of any kind of actual plot. I could have done a kind of meditation on their relationships to religion, but I didn’t know that much about which specific form of Christianity they belonged to, and I thought it was something that could be and HAD been done much better by other people. (Plus that’s not really my fave kind of fic to write to begin with.)
So, it wasn’t really working out that well. But still, I really kept trying. Through November, my working plan became almost set in stone: I’d do a combined historical and modern AU fic, switching back and forth between scenes, comparing themes (supply lists in VF compared with finding money for food over Christmas break in modern AU), sorta casually looking at the differences. When I gave it up, it was partly out of lack of interest in the themes, but my conscious reason was ‘I just don’t really care about modern AU Lams.’
...which came to the crux of the problem all along: I’m not really an AU person. Or rather, I’m very not an AU person. I’ve written very few AUs in my time, and almost all of them were historical AUs - certainly not modern day ones, and definitely not school AUs. I don’t have any, like, moral opposition - I can fully appreciate the transformative potential of full-setting AUs and find very interesting the interdependent communities that develop around AU-heavy fandoms as they essentially create their own accepted canons - but I just...don’t tend to like them. I’m very analytical!! The idea of just...MAKING UP not just one character or setting but basically a whole story just always seemed simultaneously too easy and too hard to me!!! Plus, I like to write really interesting and unusual things and try new styles, and one of the most basic points of interests for me in writing is asking what makes these characters and relationships unique, based on their precise personalities and backstories and combinations of traits. None of that lends well to full-setting AUs.
But. As I was mulling this terrible problem over, as usual, I was also running over in my head all kinds of various different characterisation ideas. This time, I was thinking about how it was interesting that Hamilton always seemed to be written in opposition to Henry Laurens, when IRL it seems they had a pretty decent acquaintanceship. And I was thinking about it, and I really started to think that, actually, someone in Hamilton’s point of view - who was constantly abandoned by his father, and desperate for his attention, and incredibly ambitious despite the circumstances of his birth - would be one of the WORST people to understand that an overly-controlling, overly-interested father who expects extremely highly of his son could be a negative influence. Which also added to another thought I’d been having. I always liked one quote from Chernow, that Laurens must have seen in Hamilton what a man who makes himself can do, and it always made me think that Hamilton must have been the same way - that he must have seen in Laurens the man he had always aimed to be. So, Laurens grew up in a good family, acknowledged and promoted by said family, with plenty of money and a great deal of opportunity. To Hamilton... yeah, it’d definitely be hard for him to see the problems with that. (And, you know, there IS a lot of privilege there!! It’s just, y’know, that mental illness doesn’t always listen to that.) But, those thoughts were kinda moot, because I really couldn’t think of any way to contrast these different experiences with fathers in historical verse.
And that’s when it came to me. What if I did a modern AU where Hamilton came down to visit the Laurens family for Christmas?
I didn’t have the time (or, really, the interest) to develop a full-on world for everyone, and a uni AU just seemed to be the most appropriate for this one, anyway. And it also did have a bit of appeal: it always kinda bugged me that in the AUs I read, Hamilton and Laurens never seemed to be studying law, even though that’s historically what they did do. As a law grad, I figured I might as well be the one to write it. (Though law in Australia is p different from in the US - there’s no separate law school, we just study it straight out of high school like anything else - but whatever.) And once I was doing THAT, it was hard for me to escape the fact that, in the real world, studying law hadn’t...exactly always been the best experience for me. Given that Laurens didn’t really want to study it either, it seemed appropriate to lean on those experiences a bit.
Aaand that’s where we really get to the meat of the inspiration behind it, heh. Which is to say: this is possibly the most autobiographical thing I’ve ever written...? I’ll say outright that a lot of it WAS entirely invented - my relationship with my family is nothing like John’s was in this, at all. But my anxieties over studying, and my worries about the future and what a career in law would lead to... yeah, that came from me haha. Because, to get kind of personal about it... well, I graduated July 2015. And in the time since then, I have been employed for about 2.5? months, total. The job scene here, in general and especially for law grads, is just that bad. (And, uh, there was a fair bit of personal fault in my lack of preparation for after I’d graduate? But, seriously, I was really anxious already...) And ever since then - particularly 2016 to the present - I’ve also had a lot of anxiety and depression and stuff going on. At the time I wrote the fic, it was in a position of leaning worse rather than better. So...I honestly don’t know if there was ever, like, a dispassionate fic in there safely cordoned off from my own projections, but if there was, it didn’t last long.
So, I got the idea, and wrote it all up pretty quickly in early December, just kinda ridin’ that catharsis of getting all that stuff out. (And it turned out to be even more relevant than I thought, as ‘trying to enjoy Christmas like you usually do when you’re really not happy’ also ended up a very autobiographical theme.) And that’s how it happened!
As for one or two other things:
I really really didn’t wanna get too into politics in the fic lmao. I don’t feel comfortable with more than the broadest strokes of Hamilton’s beliefs (I’m gonna GET THERE but Im still well rev-verse in Chernow) and I always feel uncomfortable about portraying historical figure in any better light than they deserve when it comes to specific matters. But I also wanted to have Laurens and Hamilton at least as POC because I also think it’s important to increase racial diversity in fanfic in the rare cases that we really get a clear choice. So, I tried to kinda portray that without really getting detailed about any activist stuff or whatever. Which is why in Ham’s argument with Henry he’s really not siding with anyone, he’s just an economics wonk who gets mad when people on both sides of the political aisle don’t make sure their numbers add up, lol. That was my best compromise. (And Philly kinda nudged me when I still got too far off-course;; haha!)
Hamilton has ADHD because: again, I wanted to actually officially write up neurodivergent characters into fic when I had the option of being specific (my Ham is always neurodivergent but obv I can’t explicitly write that into the text of historical verse), and it’s ADHD because......well, I could write a really long thing about that alone lmfao. And I feel like I kind of should in some ways because I know that a lot of people aren’t rly familiar with how ADHD tends to actually, like, feel, for real-life people, and if you aren’t then I KNOW this must sound like a really arbitrary or misguided HC. And I’d really love to write it up and expand education and all, but. It’s also something that hits really close and personal for me and, as someone who can be anxious for days straight over opening entirely innocuous tumblr messages... I just DK I could do it, atm;;;;; Someday I will though, I hope!!! (Tho I will say that I’m totally for all neurodivergent Ham HCs and that honestly my Classic Ham is also influenced by BD and BPD things so I’m p flexible about it.) (Actually I guess I CAN say that my HCs for Ham all involve disorders with extreme moods and mood swings and stuff and ADHD in its lesser known symptoms can absolutely include that, esp with Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria, so yeah. That’s basically the large part of my reason for that headcanon right there lol.)
4. What's your favorite line of dialogue? 
HM OH MAN, I’m not sure!!! Lemme skim it again real quick.
In terms of sheer characterisation efficiency, I always liked the idea of Henry Laurens’ introductory sentence being to complain about John not calling often enough. It’s just such a perfect combination of a) genuinely cares about his son and wants to hear from him, and b) is an asshole who has no idea whatsoever of the pressure he’s putting on his son without offering any concurrent praise or reassurance. 
...so yeah I think I’ll leave it at that actually, since this thing is long enough already lol.
5. What part was hardest to write?
I was sitting here trying hard to remember if I really had trouble writing any part of the draft because there was one bit where I stalled briefly but it wasn’t really that bad and I couldn’t even really remember it and apart from that it was super smooth...until I remembered that editing counts as writing. And hoo fucking boy.
I was lucky enough to be able to have my fic beta-ed by Philly! Which I’m super grateful for and the fic is undoubtedly better for it! But it was a really difficult process for me because of my anxiety. And I needed to do it rather quickly, because of course I had to have it finished before Christmas, and my family actually was going away for Christmas where we wouldn’t have internet access.
So I get through almost all of the fic. It’s finally almost done. And then right at the end there’s a bit where Alex and John quickly exchange gifts on Christmas morning. Super short scene. And Philly pointed out that, actually, wouldn’t the rest of the family be taken-aback at them exchanging gifts without them?
And I kind of read that and sat back and. that was right. That was 100% correct. So like. What do I do??? Do I involve the other characters? But the original scene was like, three lines. and I don’t wanna have to write a whole new scene lmao. Do I take it out? But in a earlier scene, I’d had John express a worry that the present he’d gotten for Alex was awful and he really regretted it, and I kinda liked that in this final scene we see that actually he’d just forgotten WHY he’d bought it (he’d remembered Alex saying something about it), and I thought that was a nice thing about how anxiety can really fuck with even your memory and stuff bc in the end there genuinely was no reason to worry. It wasn’t necessary to the fic, but it only came about in the writing - I’m pretty sure the outline was just like ‘and then they exchange gifts or somethign??? IDK’ - and I didn’t want to get rid of it again. But then how do I justify them exchanging gifts alone??? 
And so that’s how I ended up just sitting there mournfully or pacing back and forth like p LEASE just SAVE ME, just GIVE ME AN OPTION, I have a HOLIDAY TO PACK FOR and THINGS TO DO and I just want this damn fic to be EDITED and DONE ALREADY. I came up with soo many possibilities, none of which satisfied me,lmao. and eventually after wayyyyyy too long of trying to figure it out I settled on something that seemed mostly plausible and then just. wrote it in and skimmed the rest of the fic and posted it lmao.
Which, honestly, is pretty typical proceedings. I tend to have the general ideas come pretty easily to me, and the actual writing is normally pretty smooth - it’s usually the editing where I start rocking back and forth and cursing myself for ever trying to write :’) (Luckily, at that point I’m close enough to the end that I can usually force it through...!!)
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