#I'm personally not a fan of vampire media i just feel like the well has been poisoned for me

[tac-the-unseen]

What the Lost boys think about vampire related media

Fluff, x reader but just barely

•While making conversation with your four Vampire lovers you were suddenly plagued with a question.

“How do you guys feel about vampire related media?”

-That question was an immediate head turner. The cave goes dead quite before Dwayne speaks up, “Well…vampires are in hiding so…”

-This sparks a conversation about how media representation of vampires may not be accurate, but that's a good thing. “If a book or movie comes out and it is shockingly accurate to what being a vampire is really like, the creator isn't going to last long.” David explained

-That's because there's a set of rules vampires have to follow and one of those rules is to never publicly reveal your double life identity

-”If something like that comes out, that means a vampire has broken that rule OR somebody knows vampires very closely and is creating media they know shouldn't exist.”

-Turns out if a vampire breaks that rule it's basically open season to kill and destroy their creations.

•You turn the conversation and begin to ask how they, specifically, feel about certain vampire representation

•Bram Stoker's Dracula

-Dwayne is the first to buy in his opinion.

-Dwayne feels that while it is a cult classic and well written, The characters are exceedingly dumb.

-”Johnathan spends a ridiculous amount of time talking about other characters ‘Breasts’ and trying to figure out why his host climbs walls ‘like a lizard's.”

-David is the next one to speak up

-David thinks it's not really worth the read

-”Unless you're trying to brag to people there's no point in reading it.”

-”Also why was Mina talking to that old sailor so much?”

-Paul laughs as he remembers “how fucking crazy he wrote Dracula to be”

-”I'm pretty sure the real Dracula thinks it's a heinous crime against him”

-Paul hasn't read it but have heard enough about it to know even the more obscure references

-Marko comments on the graceful writing style and the beautiful descriptions

-”I've only read it because Dwayne thought I would like it"

-Marko also loves how oblivious Jonathan and most of the other characters are

-All of them think the movie adaptation is hilarious and love the shitty special effects

•Interview with a vampire

-Paul chimes in immediately

-”God it's so homo erotic it hurts…in a good way.”

-Paul thinks its a nice horror novel mixed with a weird cozy atmosphere

-Dwayne thinks it's another well written classic and He actually begins to rave about all the themes involved within Anne Rice’s work

-”It's a beautiful Gothic thriller with a deep, sadly comedic energy.”

-He even offers to read it too you sometime

-Marko chimes in quickly about “Claudia’s rebellious behavior and persona”

-”imagine watching your family choose somebody else over you. It's so deeply upsetting but to an understandable level.”

-”I would have hated to turn so young. I look like a teenager and other people can respect that to a certain point. But being five years old with the mind of an adult, No one would respect you.”

-Marko relates to Claudia on an internal level and loves unraveling her character. When you ask why he quickly responds "Some people call me a cherub... You think I enjoy that?"

-David says he doesn't have much to say other than it was a decent read (That's his version of a compliments)

•Twilight

-All of them agree that it's laughably horrendous

-Almost immediately at the same time they say “This is the skin of a killer Bella”

-This leads to banshee like laughter

David speaks up immediately

-”Why do you humans want us to sparkle so bad?”

-”I personally hate the idea of being a walking disco ball, but to each their own.”

-Marko chimes in quickly

-”Would you like it if we sparkled?” He asked while leans on you affectionately

-Marko thinks the only reason to read it is to have a nice laugh

-”Why did Edward have such a violent reaction of Bella standing by a fan? That makes no sense…like I have mates and I enjoy the smell of you guys but…I'm not nearly clawing off my face at your smell”

-”Yeah yeah, I get he's trying not to overreact but running out of class to get away is crazy.”

-Paul even adds that even thought it's very dumb even he can appreciate the message it's trying to said.

-”something something, coming over adversary, something something, love wins, something something..”

-”Also that Jacob imprinting on Bella's infant daughter is super fucking creepy.”

-when you asked Dwayne about his feels he scoffed and said It's insulting at best and borderline sexual harassment at worst.

-He refused to go into depth

•You thank them for humoring you and they tell you that it's no problem

-David kisses the side of your head in an uncharacteristically soft way “We don't ever mind answering your vampire related question.” He tells you

-Marko turns to you “But seriously do you want us to sparkle?”

-”I think I have some roll on body glitter somewhere..” Paul says while getting up to look for it

Thanks for reading <3

[krispycreamcake]

Interview with a vampire:

A Sakamaki exposé, episode 2

We're going on air in.....3.....2......1!

Gooood morning everyone! And welcome back to Interview With a Vampire, with our host Claudia Bogdan!

So Claudia, our last episode was quite a spectacle- at least according to our viewers. Since then, apparently public outrage has increased by at least 10%. Ranging from social media posts to downright strikes. What do you have to say about that?

Honestly, I wish I knew more vocabulary so I could express what I want to say. I think that it's a good thing that people are finally waking up, and last night actually- I know it's a bit silly, but last night I teared up at the thought of how we're actually doing some good in this world.

That's nothing to be ashamed of! And a little bird told me actually that we're having another guest star on today's episode.

Ha! Well you heard right, today we have someone else that we will be interviewing. Hopefully this time a little more responsive than the last guy.

Well don't keep us shrouded in mystery, who is this ominous stranger?

Why don't we all find out together hm? Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our very own renowned videographer and journalist, Decima Amadeus!

Welcome Decima, it's so nice to see your face again!

Ahaha- please no flattery until I'm sure you can cover the expenses of both our dinners tonight.

So Decima, are you ready for another groundbreaking interview?

I myself wouldn't call it groundbreaking- ahem. But yes, let's get on with it then. Today we have Ayato Sakamaki, the one and only, Prince of the Underworld, here with us today!

Yours truly is sure you must be eternally grateful to have me here on your show at such an early hour, so let's cut the small talk and get straight into it!

Right.... Well then. Let's start off easy. I'm presuming you've watched our most recent episode with your older brother, Reiji Sakamaki?

Huh? Oh that- Yes I've seen it. If you ask me, Reiji's too uptight to be doing interviews. You'll never get anything outta that guy, unlike Ore-sama, I'll actually provide for your viewers.

Ah, I'm sure you will. Now, the reason I brought that up is, would you like to refute any statements he's made? Add on to anything in particular before moving on with things?

Like I said already, there's nothing you'll get from focusing on him. Let's just continue with today's interview, kay?

Right, my apologies. So now that you confirmed for us that you're all receiving a healthy, if not gluttonous, blood supply throughout the years while the rest of us are here fighting a pandemic-

W-Wha!? I never said that! What're ya putting words in my mouth for, huh?

I'm not. Earlier I asked if you'd like to refute any claims made by Mr. Sakamaki from our previous episode, and you said you'd pass on it and instead would prefer to, and I quote, "continue with today's interview."

And the last time I spoke to him, a very interesting topic of classism was brought up and I highlighted the fact that you Sakamakis have a personal blood blank as to which you can access at any time. That to which, your brother did not deny.

First of all, it's not a blood bank! Get your facts straight woman. Secondly, I believe my brother stated that our family matters are none of your concern.

Oh? Well according to my sources, they state otherwise. You have a blood reservoir and refuse to share with the rest of the Bat clan, barely contributing anything to our society, yet we are meant to call you "Princes of the demon realm."

Ha! Talk truly is cheap! What? Do you think we just go out of our way to build a secret blood facility in the human realm and just pump out the blood whenever we feel like it?

Is that not the case?

You and your fans wish! I've dealt with enough women throughout the years to know how you all think. You're trying to get me to slip up and say whether or not we have some fancy stash of blood and where it comes from right?

I never-

Well let me tell you somethin lady, you may have duped my pain in the ass brother, but I'm Ayato Sakamaki, the one, the only, the great, Ore-sama and I refuse to sit here and be manipulated by some three star journalist.

Hm, is it fine with you if I circle back for a moment?

Ah? Sure, do whatever.

You said you're accustomed to dealing with women from your past experiences throughout the years, correct?

Yeah so?

Can you just give us a time span to be exact? I just need to make sure I have the timeline correct.

Haah? Time span? I dunno, I guess maybe from the past couple hundred years or so? I haven't been seeing anyone for a while so it's hard to recall. Why? What's it to you?

Ah- well you see Mr. Sakamaki, from what I've gathered from today is that, not only are you hording some form of a blood supply in the human realm, via containment unit or not, you've also spent the last hundred years leisurely lazing around with women-

Oi! Now wait a-

Please Mr. Sakamaki, I'm far from done. While our society is on the brink of collapse, you're drinking a free, and presumably, infinite amount of blood whilst simultaneously having sex with all these women you claim to have been with.

And on our last episode, when I called out the Sakamakis for sitting on their pampered asses, I was criticized and ridiculed by those of the higher ups.

Well you have it here everyone, the world as we know it is ending and our lovely princes have been engaging in adultery and gluttony.

NO! That's not!-

Til next time dear viewers!

From author: The next one's gonna be so juicy god I love doing these. Anyways, TYSM for all your support! I love you all, byebye!!

[copperbadge]

Supposedly, people with Anphantasia don't get scared reading scary stories, or at least not much. Is that true with you if you ever read Horror?

You know, I'd never thought about it, but I suppose it is. To an extent, anyway.

Follows a discussion of my relationship to horror prose and media; if you don't know what aphantasia is, as many people coming to this tumblr don't, I have a tag for it here that may help -- it's basically the lack of a "mind's eye", a visual imagination, so I hear/read things and don't see an image of them in my mind. If you are scoffing right now that nobody actually has a mind's eye, congratulations, you may also have aphantasia. The articles linked in the tag will be useful to you.

I have definitely been scared by prose before but it's very rare, and not much since I was a child, when the stories I found scary were preying on fears I already had. I loved the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books, and I think it's not unusual that I found the illustrations more frightening than the prose, but the only story that ever scared me was the one about the vampire who kept trying to grab a kid through a window -- because I had a window over my bed in my childhood bedroom and I was terrified I'd look up to see someone looking down at me through it. Likewise, as an adult, the only content in horror I find scary is what I think of as "mind horror" -- the loss of faculty or the loss of awareness of faculty (think the end scene of the novel Hannibal with the brain). Which is one of my biggest fears.

I don't read much horror because generally I get bored, which has in the past made me feel faintly appalled at myself, but which now makes more sense. Certainly I have no interest in slasher-style gore in prose, because I find it uninteresting and it goes on a really long time, while I don't watch it in movies/TV because the visual is upsetting -- so if I was getting the visual from the prose I might react more emotionally. I am a fan of Stephen King but mostly his early work where he was shorter on suspense, and I was reading it because I liked the ideas and the characters. Carrie is super interesting because of the personalities involved, not because of the violence or the horror aspects. But I've never seen a movie adaptation and I can imagine I would be deeply unsettled if not distraught by certain scenes if depicted visually. Although I didn't find the Hannibal TV series super upsetting (I mostly was put off by how bad I imagined Will smelled) so perhaps body horror just doesn't do it for me.

This may also explain my hard-no on zombie media, because I'm not scared at all of zombies, I just find them boring and gross, and that leaves the post-apocalyptic humans. My hard-no on post-apocalypse anything is an aversion to imagining the end of my world, though, which isn't visual, it's conceptual, and not scary, just upsetting.

Like, people kept suggesting Zombies Run! to me when I was taking up running and -- well, one, I needed the music to keep my pace, I didn't want it interrupted. But two, I didn't see why a bunch of random groaning noises would make me run faster. If you could see zombies chasing you in your head, yeah, that'd probably be more motivating.

It kind of explains too why I haven't written much horror. I used to be very curious about how people worked out what's "scary" in horror prose and I guess part of the curiosity came from not experiencing it myself. It's tough to know how to write a scary story when stories don't scare you.

To be clear, I definitely experience fear. Reading Stephen King's "It" didn't really scare me, but there were scary moments in the film adaptations. I startle at jumpscares. There's plenty of stuff in real life that I'm scared of. And even podcasts -- I don't get mental images during podcasts like apparently most people do, but Magnus Archives got me with the "digging into your pre-existing fears" thing once or twice, and while I didn't finish The Left Right Game (I just got bored) the hitchhiker scene definitely got me. But I think, unless it's playing on something conceptual that already existed, yeah, I don't find prose particularly frightening.

Huh. This feels like the kind of thing that could have a significant impact on my creative output if I could crowbar my way into it. Knowing that I as an aphantic don't need descriptions that other people do has already, I think, impacted my editing process, but this feels like it maybe would somehow have an effect on the whole thing -- the fact that I don't experience emotions when reading in the same way other people do because I don't get the visuals is something to meditate on.

How the fuck did I ever even become a writer. Like what's up with that.

(Ironically it was X-Files fanfic. X-Files, a show that very much did scare me, for which I wrote and read a lot of fanfic, none of which did...yikes. Well, that's something to meditate on for the weekend.)

[togglesbloggle]

I've noticed a lot less... consistency? Plot? Worldbuilding? In many of the more popular video games ever since I stopped chasing the latest AAA sensations. More than once I've made the mistake of asking what a game is 'about' only to get blank looks- I'm making a category error even by asking the question!

Here I'm thinking especially of the 'mega-hit' games like Fortnite, Dead by Daylight, that sort of thing; Overwatch is famously not even canon to itself. Though there's plenty of the type at all levels of popularity, especially among imitators of the heavyweights. They tend to stream well, so they build big fanbases on Twitch and so on, and often involve quick (~15-25 minute) pvp matches in a bounded arena. But there's a decent amount of variation within the 'lore-light' type; I bet most of the new Vampire Survivor microgenre probably qualifies from what I've seen. Even Minecraft might, if you're feeling expansive.

Anyway, I try to resist the impulse to Kids These Days about it- it's not like games with plot and worldbuilding stopped being made, after all, and BG3 proves that there's still voracious appetite for more elaborate constructions. And besides, these arena games have obvious inheritance from classic multiplayer shooters like Halo and Quake, even Goldeneye, so it's been coming for a long time, almost as long as digital gaming has been a thing. They just... stopped bothering to include the single player campaign, so to speak.

Actually, I think it's probably a side effect of video games getting more and more culturally mainstream across my lifespan. Try this thesis on for size: The more mainstream that electronic gaming becomes, the more it comes to resemble sports. Or maybe the reverse! Maybe you can triangulate towards millions upon millions of fans by deeply intuiting interesting things about the nature of sports, and using digital media to explore that landscape in unexpected ways. This is, genuinely, a really interesting trend to me- this thing where many of the elements that I personally enjoy most in games become, sort of, just different-colored jerseys on a small squad of players that are here primarily to test their virtuosity against some opponent.

They tell me that much of the fun of sports is in the narrative, but it's an emergent narrative between the teams and players themselves, something that flows from the contest itself rather than some writer in a studio somewhere. All this seems like a really interesting sort of thing to enjoy, and I'm fascinated by the thought that there's some giant mass of humanity that eternally finds its way back to this participatory storytelling style, no matter how hard the Tolkiens of the world build their own de novo narratives systematically.

[writergracethepanda]

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥 Secret Shanghai Edition

the character everyone gets wrong

Marshall. He is canonically an excellent cook, s why are we convinced he'd set something on fire if left alone in the kitchen?

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

no comment

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME I have seen Alisa and Phoebe shipped (let aroace people live and bisexuals are still bisexual even in a seemingly hetero relationship) or those takes I've seen on TikTok of people shipping Rosalind and Benedikt and Celia and Marshall if I weren't on my computer I would put sooooo many barf emojis here

what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

luckily nothing yet I believe

worst discord server and why

mine with my friends its sooo annoying how we have incredibly amazing and intelligent and sometimes incoherent conversations like guys we're the worst (sarcasm)

which ship fans are the most annoying?

like I said, anyone who ships the above things needs to stay 10 feet away from me at all times and undergo intense media literacy training

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

I think everyone's answer for this is Oliver. I'm so sorry we (especially me tbh) did you so dirty pre fhh I promise we've learnt our lesson!

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Oliver loves cats. incorrect. Cats are his entire life. there is a difference, and we need to recognize it.

worst part of canon

roma and Alisa's dad just disappeared before I could beat him up

worst part of fanon

we're too funny my stomach literally hurts from laughing too hard sometimes. Seriously though, the above ship takes that make my blood boil, as well as some complaints about how a lot of us talk about how we think certain characters are neurodivergent/disabled. While I think some of those are actually considered canon, I don't understand why people are so made that we (a relatively neurospicy bunch) are identifying the parts of characters we relate to and labeling them. We're doing you no harm and not interfering with your ability to enjoy the characters. Shouldn't it be a good thing that we're able to identify with the characters? Just mind your business. (also anyone who erases Rosalind's and Alisa's aroaceness that is indeed canon and I hope both sides of your pillow are too warm)

number of fandom-related words you've filtered

I don't think any

the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I don't think anyone hates these guys, but why don't we ever talk about the couple from LVC? They were so sweet, and I'm kind of sad we didn't get any mention of them in FHH.

worst blorboficiation

I feel like a bad Tumblr user, but I don't know what this means. is this like uwu-ification?

that one thing you see in fics all the time

@typingwithmyhandstied 's GENIUS

that one thing you see in fanart all the time

Juliette always has the appropriate amount of knives thank you very much for that guys :)

you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

I personally don't get into the Rosalind is a vampire thing, but I'm cheering you guys on from afar (im just not into vampires lol)

there should be more of this type of fic/art

idk I should probably work on my university au

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

the fact that not only did she feel comfortable falling asleep around Orion (see one of @no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist 's recent posts) but Rosalind was also muttering in French in that scene. Her dominant language. She was both out of it enough/comfortable enough with him that she dropped the I was raised in American fake accent and just started speaking normally in this essay I will- basically we need to talk more about the use of multilingualism in the ss books

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

past me would be horrified to know that I like Oliver now

part of canon you found tedious or boring

I think TVD can be a bit boring sometimes, but that makes sense, since it was Chloe's debut, and she's grown immensely since then

part of canon you think is overhyped

the seagreen trio is overrated (they are literally my favorite characters)

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

THE MULTILIGUALISM

ship you've unwillingly come around to

Olivercelia. Like I said, I was his strongest hater pre fhh. Now I see what she clearly sees in him.

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

discourse on ss Tumblr is mostly joking. my personal favorite is when @marsneedstherapy and I pretend to yell at each other in different languages

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"no one appreciates x enough" I do. I love them.

[twistedminutia]

I'm still stuck on this, and I wonder about Found Footage Horror, or Analog Horror (maybe the recent Digital Horror). Like, I know for a fact that Twst is advance enough to have new technology. Like, those Horror are mostly found in the Internet with the rarities in main stream media like the Blair Witch Project.

There is also Liminal Space, like the uncanny feeling like there should be people here but there is no one. I feel Hearstabyul and Octa (this is the only dorm I can't spell with confidence) are the most creepiest. Hearstabyul cuz has the largest amount of people and it being fucking loopy. While, Octa being a rest of sort, and the big ass aquarium windows. Like some content creators, are good at it that it creates suspense and some lore. For example Kain Pixel's Backroom series and the Oldest View.

There are also other sites that are making horror stories with varying quality. Like the SCP wiki (but I have more fun seeing the world building, but there are some good stories in there), r/nosleep (it's a mixed bag), and my personal favorite podcast series The Magnus Archive (my fav is episode one)

There are a lot of similarities between horror in Twisted Wonderland and our own, primarily because we have significant overlap in the things we find scary. However, the existence of magic has made horror fiction both more and less scary. Less because if you’re a mage, there are a lot of things you can do to get yourself out of a situation or fight off the thing harming you. More because, well, imagine a powerful mage being the slasher in your horror movie.

The existence of magic has also created something of a niche of horror fiction: mage horror. Typically, it’s horror directed to mage consumers, often dealing with magic going out of control, overblots, and other general unsettling aspects of being a magic user. Overblotters mages also take a starring role in a lot of horror fiction- an overblotted mage actually is the main villain of a piece of horror media close in style to the Blair Witch Project film. A lot of the common tropes you might get from a witch on Earth are replaced with mages, often overblotted mage, in Twisted Wonderland. Demons roles are similarly filled by evil spirits.

Uncanny feelings in the dorms is an interesting idea. The Heartslabyul dorm at least seems like it would have some interesting shadowy places that would freak you out in the early morning. The dorm’s architecture is much less creepy to people who grew up in the Queendom of Roses, since that kind of architecture is traditional there, but people from elsewhere might be freaked out!

Octavinelle’s kinda creepy, too. To look out those windows and see nothing but the empty darkness beyond… That’d be enough to trigger anyone’s latent thalassophobia! I'd imagine there are some students who just avoid looking out the windows at night. Or maybe during the day, too!

Speaking of Octavinelle, my headcanon is that merfolk have the creepiest scary stories. Like, horrifically scary. They've canonically mentioned that a lot of merfolk go missing, and the sea is a very dangerous place to live (though it was the twins who said this, and I feel like they could be messing with us for fun. Until we have confirmation otherwise, I'll take their word for it). Merfolk horror media often is highly realistic, deals both with personal and cosmic horror in the same breath, and tends to get kind of graphic. A lot of hardcore horror fans on land will pay top dollar for copies of merfolk media. (Yes, Azul leverages this to hell and back.)

Generally, human and beastman media is pretty similar to what we have, with some modifications to existing myths. Vampires exist in horror media pretty much unchanged from our world, but werewolves are a tale from wolf beastmen, for example. Traditionally the same kind of horror. Fae horror is... well, it's either piss-terrifying or it doesn't translate well. Lilia's really good at identifying the piss-terrifying stuff and scaring people with that. Malleus will either tell you something that will make you stay up all night in cold fear completely casually, or he'll try to give some protracted horror story about the slow passage of time and the alteration of the world. It's a little unsettling, but it's not scary exactly.

That's about the sum of it. I don't think there's much more I have to say on horror here... though I'm sure if you ask more, I can come up with more headcanons!

[orphanheirs]

WIP Questionnaire

Thanks for the tag, @transthadymacdermot!!

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

The characters. They existed as deviantart ocs that I used to roleplay with in chatrooms before any semblance of a story existed. This was back in high school.

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

I'll give a few examples here because there's a lot of songs I think fit the vibe of the story (I have a 4-hour long playlist of "soundtrack" songs)! All of these are based on pure vibes, not necessarily lyrics. For a TV show, I think a folk revival type song like "Over Again" by Stick in the Wheel or "Cannily Cannily" by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart would be sick. If it was a short instrumental intro song, an eerie tune like "More Bones to Sort" from the OTGW soundtrack or this song would work well. To get more general Rasputina is an artist whose overall sound is something that would work great for the story. If you don't know them they're a band that makes rock music with cellos and is very weird and goth about it.

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

I love them all, but right now I have to admit my favorite is Tristan. It's definitely partially because he's the most developed right now, but also because he's the reason I revived the story after dropping it almost 10 years ago. I remembered him and thought he had potential and fell in love with him all over again. Coming up with ideas for his arc and his backstory got me excited for the overarching story again, and I changed him from a side character to a main character. I have a lot of fun with his personality and I relate to him a lot on a personal level.

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Over the Garden Wall, Labyrinth, possibly Interview with the Vampire? and people who grew up with things like Hocus Pocus and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Maybe fans of Neil Gaiman? It's kind of hard to say though; I have no idea how the story would be marketed because it's..pretty weird lol.

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

Not sure what the biggest of them all is, but my big three I guess would be plotting, research, and actually writing. I feel like I'm hitting my head on a wall when I try to outline story beats or whatever, so I think I'll just have to fly by the seat of my pants and plot as I go. Research also feels like a hurdle I need to get past because I want to base the story itself on actual mythology and folklore, and root the "real-world" parts of the story in the real historic regency period. Right now I know enough to share fun facts in a conversation, but in reality I don't know shit. I have a lot of work to do in that regard. Actually writing has been a challenge due to a combination of annoying factors including having very little free time in my life, executive dysfunction, and being? scared? of writing? because what if it comes out bad? Which I know is silly but it blocks me from writing a lot of the time nevertheless.

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Right now I'm thinking Crispin has a pet bat named Sparrow. Crispin named the bat Sparrow because he literally thought it was a sparrow, that being the only flying creature he knew of at the time. Now he knows better, but Sparrow is still Sparrow. I haven't thought much about it, but I think Crispin's keeping of a pet is one of the things that indicates he's different from his family/species, i.e. he experiences empathy and longs for companionship. The demon Tristan summons can shapeshift, and takes the form of many different creatures throughout the story.

How do your characters travel/get around?

Considering the time period, the options are limited. There's a lot of walking in this story, but also getting from place to place by carriage or cart. There's likely to be some horseback riding as well. In terms of the supernatural, Crispin can "teleport" himself from point A to point B using magic--but not very far. I still need to figure out the specifics of that though. Tristan is greatly aided in getting around by the demon he summoned, who transforms into a flying black steed Tristan can ride on.

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

Right now I'm bouncing around and writing snippets of scenes that come to mind/interest me most. I'm considering everything experimental at the moment, and not committing to anything actually being in the final novel. This is helping me get over my fear of writing, and I like it because sometimes I end up liking what I write more than I thought I would. I also *might* write the story in novella form first, try out some things with that, learn from it, and then expand and/or rewrite it as a full novel. Other than that I'm researching and brainstorming and drawing (which is part of my process)!

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

Hmmm I think the fact it's a dark fantasy/horror story and the fact it's set in the regency period will attract people. The regency period and fantasy are both really popular right now (as far as I can tell). Also the fact that it has found family, which seems to be a popular trope. The fact it has queer characters might be appealing too. Other draws might be the Halloween aspect, and the deal with the devil trope. And if anyone likes enemies to friends and twist villains. There's also heavy use of gothic tropes and subverting them/combining them with folk horror tropes. Regency media (cough cough Jane Austen) tropes will also go under the knife of subversion.

What are your hopes for your WIP?

I hope to make it a published novel! Ideally traditionally published, but who knows if that'll happen lol. I also want the book to be illustrated, and to illustrate it myself. Besides that, I'd love to do some comics featuring the characters and maybe even short animations. (She said as if she had endless free time...)

Tagging: @ceph-the-ghost-writer, @finchmomentwrites, and @kaylinalexanderbooks !

[ca-suffit]

The whole thing with the shirt gives me mixed feelings, because I do think it's nice to separate Jacob's projects from one another, and Louis from Lestat and even his work from himself as a person etc. Sometimes they're kind of mixed together, yes, I don't think we should avoid that at all costs because they're still some parts of his life, but it just doesn't have to be the whole time. I tried to read as much about it as I could on social media to see what was going on and the fans said nobody brought IWTV-related stuff up, that everyone enjoyed his music alone (I do doubt people would buy tickets and go to his concert just to give him a Lestat shirt). But they wanted to give him something since he missed Comic Con (and they released a teaser about season 3, that happens to center Lestat) and loves it so much. And well, he laughed, so either he enjoyed it or hid it well. I don't know since I'm not in his mind... I don't know if he got other gifts, I'm assuming he must have since he took pictures and even stopped to talk to a lot of fans and they usually bring fanart, fan books and stuff like that. And some of those people came from other continents so they only had that chance. In those cases, I don't think it's bad to give something that is related to IWTV or even another acting job, like GOT? If it is probably the best fanart the person has ever made and it took them a long time to master and the only opportunity they have is a concert, I think that's understandable. And sometimes stuff happen by accident too, like the day before SDCC when a fan met Sam, Assad and Delainey by accident and gave Sam a loustat fanart, from what I gathered he didn't have anything for Delainey and Assad, but he wasn't planning or expecting it... Maybe if he knew, he would have brought some? And there were people bringing stuff for Jacob and asking Sam to give it to him as well... It can get kind of complicated. I do believe that if you're able to go to events and meet them regularly, you should separate. When it's about IWTV, you talk and give gifts about IWTV, when it's about music, then give RR-related presents, if you're meeting Jacob, Sam, Assad and Delainey at different times but on dates that are kind of close, then you hand them yourself your gifts and don't ask other people for it... But if it is an "I only have this one chance and it will never happen again", I believe they would understand and wouldn't mind it. I also don't know how much of what they get are about their characters as individuals and what's about the dynamics (loustat, loumand, armandiel, Louis/Lestat + Claudia etc). IF everything he gets is just loustat and Sam gets Lestat alone or a good balance of Lestat individually, loustat, lesmand, the family etc, then people really need to get their shit together. But if it's balanced for all of them, then I don't see the problem. If you only care about one ship and hate the others, then at least you should make stuff about that ship and the characters alone because they're not just a package. But you could give it a try because it can end up being fun and I'm sure them getting new types of gifts would be even more memorable than getting a good gift but that is still about stuff. I bet if somebody draws Louis, Paul and Grace, Jacob would probably remember and even mention it on an interview, because I'm assuming he doesn't get pre-vampirism Louis content that often. So here are some ideas for people! Anyway, I don't really know how things work here yet. But I guess I'll gradually find out. And also, in future moments, like, if one day they do a season focusing on The Vampire Armand and idk, Sam is in Australia promoting The Newsreader, would people go to him with an Armand shirt or a Lestat one? Anyway, I don't have a clear answer and if I don't, I give the benefit of the doubt. But, still, there are a lot of things that people could think about.

"And also, in future moments, like, if one day they do a season focusing on The Vampire Armand and idk, Sam is in Australia promoting The Newsreader, would people go to him with an Armand shirt or a Lestat one?"

I think this sentence in particular says a lot that ppl should think about v hard tbh.

also someone else from the RR gig posted some stories about the experience that's just been posted earlier if u didn't see it!

thank u for ur comments<3

[k0dster]

I seriously feel crazy posting about this, but back in 2016 Aaron Moten (AKA Maximus) was in a horror film called The Transfiguration. The central idea of the movie was these two brothers who's parents passed and now the older brother, Lewis (Aaron), is taking caring of his younger brother, Milo, who just so happens to be a vampire.

The whole thing was so good and I'm so confused as to why no one is talking about it? The acting was amazing, the concept was great, and it was the first horror movie I've seen in quite a long time that starred a black protagonist. The whole thing had such a weird physiological aspect to it that was, strangely enough, not mentioned in any of the advertising for it.

It dealt with the whole concept of suicide quite well along with how the lose of a loved one to suicide really affects a person. Lewis being the my prime example.

I really appreciated how it dealt with topics of mental health, abuse, and suicide without making it seem like Im watching an Anti Sucide PSA in the school auditorium. I feel like a lot of media that centers around those topics has to weirdly spell everything out and they don't show how much it can affect people, but this movie did exactly the opposite. It kept the central idea of mental health and issues of the sort without giving that false sense of romanticization a lot of movies and media have today. Lewis is a great example of this, struggling with a clear form of depression (I dunno which, I'm not a doctor) that didn't feel incredibly romanticized. A round of applause to Aaron for his acting, I thought he was great.

I also loved the actor who played Milo. I'm not sure of his name, but he really did go the extra mile. Also seriously appreciated a vampire movie that isn't all fangs, garlic, and neck biting.

If you're a fallout fan looking for a good horror movie or just someone looking for a good horror movie in general, I'd check it out. It's on Tubi rn if anyone's interested. Gonna give everybody the blood and self harm trigger warning because they did not hold back.

I'm begging just one person to watch it, literally no one is talking about it and I feel like the only person in the world who's watched this

[owlsandwich]

WIP Questionnaire

Thanks so much @verba-writing for tagging me in this!

I wasn't sure which of my 2 WIPs I should answer for, so I'm just going to do them both :P

I'll tag @pb-dot @teacupsandstarlight @eccaiia @stits @ahungeringknife @mundanemoongirl and leave an open tag (please jump in! This one is a lot of fun and I want to read about other's WIPs!)

The Mechanics of Magic:

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

A handwritten draft of what eventuall became chapter 3, written back in 2010

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

I'm not sure about a theme song, but I wrote most of Mechanics while listening to Portugal The Man, so something by them!

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

Oliver is my favourite character - I love how stressed he is, under the weight of his responsibilies, and I put a lot of myself into him. The character I love the most though might well be Morgan. He really sums up that question of what if a good person did something terrible? What is enough to earn redemption? I don't know if there is a clear answer on whether he deserves happiness, but I believe that he does, and because of that, maybe I can believe it for myself as well.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

I'm not actually sure! My stories aren't particuarly marketable.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Defining the genre. I have been told that it's not possible to create a new genre, but Mechanics doesn't appear to fit into any existing fantasy sub-genre.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

I wish there were more! Roy has a betta fish named Mr Shinysides (named after my friend's fish).

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

The word is very similar to the UK in the 00s, tech-wise, so usually cars and trains, though I think they might have air travel as well.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

Going through all the changes the editor made and signing off each chapter for the final edition.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

Tropes... maybe found family? I love how they all come together, despite being from very different walks of life. I have canonly autistic characters as well, though even the ones that I didn't intend to be autistic, probably are (it's hard to make characters that don't share some of my fundamental way of thinking).

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

I hope it can find the people who need it, and that they might love these characters as much as I do.

Burning The Darkness:

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

I imagined chapter 1 a month or so before I wrote it down, and played with the scene over and over in my mind. I have a diary note somewhere musing on whether I should actually write it.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Surely it would have to be Darkness At The Heart Of My Love - The Ghost song that inspired it!

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

I love Julian. His character allowed me to explore so many of my own feelings about being raised in someone's image, purged of kindness and softness, and the conditional love that comes with being a golden child (though I'd say he got more of that than I did). I smile when people say they dislike him.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

Again, I am not sure! People who like queer paranormal romance, but with layers of metaphor? This really is a story about discovering you are queer, even though it's about vampires.

Maybe Buffy fans!

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Overcoming the shame of having written a romance. It being paranormal with a bit of smut in it, makes me feel like people will think less of me and that no one will take the deeper themes seriously.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

There is a blackbird singing in one scene, but again I need to add more animals into my work!

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

Vampires are fast walkers, so they mostly just run around the place. Darkness is set in basically Eastbourne or Brighton though, so they have all the usual transport methods.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

Wondering what I should do with it really! I need to edit out the smutty scene in chapter 2, if I ever want to self publish it.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

There's a lovely bit of enemies to lovers in there I think. Also Oren's arc is basically a direct metaphor for me realising I was trans and starting testosterone, so I'd love if other trans guys read it and related.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

Kinda what I said before - I hope it can find its way to people who will love it. Particuarly I'd love to find a queer audience who might relate to the themes.

One day I would love to be traditionally published, but so far I haven't written anything that has stood a chance, so that's a dream for a future WIP!

Blank Questions:

What was the first part of your wip that you created?

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

What part of your wip are you working on rn?

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

What are your hopes for your wip?

[bagel-boy-sama]

Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Isn't A TumblrSexyMan™, He's Just A SexyMan™

I've seen a large number of people, most of whom are in the Astarion Disliker/"I don't get it" camp most who are not on this particular hell site, cite Astarion as Tumblr's latest sexyman. Today, I will be explaining why I do not believe that to be the case. That instead, as the title states, he's just a sexyman.

No real knowledge of the hell site is required, I'll explain things for the new people.

Setting The Definitions

First, definitions because this is now Intro to Writing and Rhetoric. A sexyman would be anyone, usually masc or a man, who is concidered sexy by a wide range of people. Fascinating.

A Tumblr Sexyman, on the other hand, is a thing - usually fictional entity - that is incredibly popular on Tumblr.com to the degree it escapes it's fandom sometimes, in the most extreme of cases, becoming far more popular than it's original fandom. It is characterized by a few major characteristics. Ranging from Twinkism* (be it the character or fan interpretation), generally unconventionally/perceived to be unconventionally attractive in a non physical sense (character traits that wouldn't otherwise be desirable, like absurd behavior or generally evilness), to impeccable drip (either in the original media/design, or done by fans in fanart).

*note: Twinkism (which I did just throw in on the spot this is entirely bullshit for my own amusement) is the phenomenon of skinny, young looking, pretty/feminine white boys who are within media. This is different from twinks, who are understood to be young and skinny - being pretty, popular, or white is not connected. All those who participate in Twinkism are Twinks, but not all Twinks participate in Twinkism.

Does Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Fit The Definition?

First rule: must be at least a twink. Is he?

No. Yes. Kinda. In a way. Many people would describe Astarion as someone who's gone through "Twink Death". No this is not because he's literally undead. Twink Death, in it's simplest form, is when a twink no longer looks young and/or feminine. Astarion has aged. His crows feet and laugh lines, while beautiful, do not make him look 18. For some this would disqualify him from being a Twink. So perhaps he has failed at the first step.

I, however, am not satisfied with that. Moving on, is Astarion - or would Astarion - actually be considered conventionally unattractive in any way that is disconnected from his appearance? I argue no. Vampires are considered very well, normal to lust after. They're right below succubus on the "This isn't considered weird to find attractive" scale. You aren't romancing The Emperor here. Outside of that he's well groomed, shown to be muscular in game (headcanon does often disagree and while I wish it was true we are working with facts for this specific discussion), and an elf. In personality, while not for everyone, he's the pretty standard fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish. We all know a fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish, and they get laid. So it can't be considered that bad. Probably.

I feel important to note here that I am aroace and have no idea what I'm talking about right now. This is an educated guess.

Astarion has lost now, two for two. He's barely a twink, even going off of his model he's more a twunk. He definitely doesn't fit the Twinkism phenomenon. He's not weird to find attractive, I assume, so what else is there? His drip? I'm sorry, but his base outfit is a bit well Goofy to say the least. Much fanart leaves him in this outfit or a simpler version because drawing ruffles is enough to make anyone want to willingly jump headfirst into the underdark, so he fails the drip test as well.

His final hurtle: is his popularity Tumblr™. In this context Tumblr™ is different from Tumblr. Tumblr™ is the fandom side, where a sexyman would flourish and find their own fandom. Importantly, this fandom needs to be very insular to the site. It's a *Tumblr* sexyman after all. So that begs the question, is Astarion highly liked by mostly or purely Tumblr people/those who have the vibes of a Tumblr user? No.

Astarion is well loved by many people of various vibes. He has affected (previously) straight men on Reddit. Few can escape him and his 10 charisma.

Conclusion

Astarion is just a sexyman. He's just a fictional character that many think is neat and attractive for a variety of reasons. He's the Ryan Reynolds of crpgs. He's some dude, who's generally considered attractive by a lot of people who you both would and wouldn't expect to find him attractive.

[blood-choke]

Hello! I just wanted to say that I really appreciate this game and how it portrays butchness. I'm a huge fan of lesbian lit and there are so few butches in media that to see a game have not one, but three, makes me feel a certain kind of way.

Aside from that, I was really drawn to how you portrayed the differing relationships between all the characters. Everything feels so visceral and real, it just feels so crunchy that I find myself wanting for more. I really look forward to seeing how it will turn out for everyone involved.

Additionally, (if this is too spoilery, has been answered, or insensitive pls feel free to ignore) is it ok if I ask how you decide the dialogue and event flow of the choices? I was mildly and pleasantly surprised that flirting with Clear and staying with her in ch 3 would lead to "that" scene, and I'm curious on your writing process on how it lead to that.

Ultimately, I just really want to thank you for sharing your game with us. Im just really glad to be able to experience this game and I hope that you stay safe!

thank you!

overall when it comes to structuring dialogue & choices i tend to write a linear path first & then double back to add more branches.

i had a basic outline of the chapter & knew what i wanted to touch on with each route & what scenes needed to happen, and then i just kinda started writing from there. Clear's was actually the one i wrote first, her sex scene was what i wrote first, and then i went back and built a lot of the route around it.

i wrote Clear's and Hana's routes simultaneously since they were so intertwined, but i ended up rewriting Hana's three times, whereas with Clear i just had to edit it a bit. i knew i wanted them to have that conversation at the table about Clear not having any friends, and then i wrote the scene where mc finds the vampire erotica book. it took some trial and error until i was happy with the dialogue & choices at the table, as well as how i wanted to split the following variations. i tend to do the romantic variations first, and then work my way down, and sometimes i have to go backwards and edit as i write because i'll add something on a whim to one variation and decide that actually i want this to be in all of them.

i am definitely someone that's a bit of a "planster" meaning i do minimal planning and write a lot by the seat of my pants. sometimes it works, other times it puts me in a bit of a bind. like i said i tend to set out with specific information/dialogue/scene/etc in mind that i know has to happen, and build up around it.

with Hana the main focus in her route was that conversation with mc; i wanted mc to get overwhelmed at the store, and for her and Hana to talk about it afterwards, and for Hana to be frustrated at her situation as this person who suddenly has to comfort and take care of mc after being replaced by her. again, minimal planning, i wrote almost her whole route before i started working on Valentina's & i mentioned Standard and his proclivities towards Chinese antiques. this made me realize i needed to rewrite a lot of Hana's dialogue to be more inclusive of her race. i went back to Clear's route, and ended up writing a lot of the conversation with Hana there after she gets back from the store, and then i adapted it to the other routes.

Valentina's route was all about the painting. again, i wrote that initial scene of walking into her room, the description of the painting, and then her first sex scene, and built up from there. there was also the brief meeting with Joan, which was mostly just for fun and to introduce those characters early for anyone that went on V's route, so the next chapter those players will have a little jump on who they are. but the main point was that painting & i think it's pretty obvious with how the whole route plays out, and the fact that the painting is always seen by all players.

this is still a game, so it is gamified quite a bit, with all 3 characters having a potential sex scene in the same chapter at the same time. i planned it that way to make it easy for myself and because that's just how i wanted it to go. i put some stat checks in place to add variations, like if you went with Hana or Valentina in ch2, if you flirted with Clear or not, and again, it was a lot of jumping around and trial and error. i wrote a significant part of Valentina's route out of order, and i finished hers last before i finalized the council meeting (which i had written very early on but like Hana's route i had to rewrite a few times)

i like to describe my process as building a tree. i write the core of it all first, one linear path, the trunk, and then i double back and add in all of the possible branches. it doesn't mean anything that i wrote the friendly, romantic variation of Clear's route first, it just allowed me to use that single variation as an anchor and build up around it without straying too far and losing the plot, hahahaha. i still sometimes stray a little too far... but it's fun that way. it was fun trying to figure out a way to make the rival route different, how to change it while still telegraphing the same overall ideas about Clear & her situation. it's also very frustrating, but it's all part of the process....

[hotasfahrenheit]

So you wanna get into NCT, eh?

Part 3 - NCT 127 - More MVs and Social Media Links

Oh hey I'm finally back. It's been more than a day but life happens and it's only been like two days... or so? (it's been three) but let's get back into this!

So last time we covered a little bit about the members of the group and then I linked some MVs. I realised something I could have done there was link some social media accounts so let's do that!

There are general accounts for NCT on most of the big social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. There are also accounts for all of the subgroups, so NCT 127 does have their own accounts on all of those as well. I feel like the Youtube content deserves its own post so I'll get to that but 127 does have a Youtube channel as well.

The individual members share things like the Twitter and Instagram accounts on and off, taking turns sometimes to post on there, tho most posts are from the company. Facebook gets posts from the company and not from individuals very often. The boys do all have their own Instagram accounts tho, and they also all use Bubble to varying degrees, which is an app which a lot of kpop groups use where fans can pay to access special posts from idols that include text posts, pictures, voice recordings, etc. I have never been a Bubble user, but I follow everyone on Instagram so here's all of those:

Taeil | Taeyong | Johnny | Yuta | Doyoung | Jaehyun | Winwin | Jungwoo | Mark | Haechan

You can use those to become more familiar with the members and see some of the nonsense they get up to. Some of them post often and some post almost never so your mileage may vary with them as a tool, but I'm a sucker for personal social media accounts so I'm clearly following those all.

It's also worth throwing out there since I skipped talking about positions last time that Taeyong is the leader of both NCT 127 and also of NCT in general. He's also a main rapper, main dancer, visual, center, helps write and produce music and has since The 7th Sense was released, etc etc, you name it, he's probably done the thing. He's ridiculously talented, basically. (They all are.) I could list everyone's positions but there's tons of wiki pages and etc with those kinds of lists and I find them to be less helpful when you have a group like NCT where everyone kinda does everything a lot of the time and has multiple talents and jobs since the rappers might be singing or the vocalists might be rapping depending on the song and literally everyone is a visual etc. But that's part of why you might be noticing that Taeyong is front and center like... a lot. Very often. He's recognisable and has a distinctive voice and being the leader is a good extra excuse to focus on him.

Anyway, let's get back to the music! I somehow managed to come up with ten more videos to link to hit the max per post so you're getting another full variety tasting of 127's style and range with a special treat at the end.

Favorite (Oct 25, 2021) was the lead single from the repackage of Sticker and was not quite as divisive as Sticker but still a bit weird. Released right before Halloween, there's a whole vampire concept going on (GREAT) and the MV and live stage performances all have a weird electronic dance break 2 1/2 minutes in (BAD) that I am PLEASED TO TELL YOU is not part of the song on the actual album. The first time I watched the MV it threw me for such a hard loop that I almost hated disliked the song but when I listened to the album later on spotify I was like "wait it's gone!!!! it was all just a bad dream!!!" and I try to forget it until I do something like watch the MV to make a post like this.

We're gonna mix in some of 127's Japanese releases today starting with their first one, Chain (May 8, 2018) off their first Japanese mini album. Despite NCT's initial plan to have groups based in different countries and markets, they are still now in early 2024 only ABOUT to have their first Japan-centric subunit debut, which means that they've just been having 127 (and Dream) release some stuff in Japanese in the meantime. It helps that they have a Japanese member. Anyway Chain is just a great song so here it is.

gimme gimme (Feb 15, 2021) suffers a little from the eternal problem of kpop songs even in primarily Japanese having some.... wild? English lyrics (spicy disease? dead clowns? who wrote these lyrics? why did their native English speakers go along with this?) but despite the nonsense it's a catchy, mesmerizing earworm of a song with a tight MV with a lot of neat cuts and transitions and I have watched it VERY MANY times. I love it. Spicy disease and all.

In the first main NCT intro post I included WayV's version of Regular (October 8, 2018) and linked both this and the Korean version. I was going to include the Korean version and just link the English here since the Korean one is the one that I personally listen to the most, but then I noticed that the English version has like 66 million more views so I decided to reverse that and you get the English one. Anyway. All versions of Regular are great and the English version has some great weird lyrics too ("I be walking with the cheese that's the queso" is like... ultimate. Incredible. A+. How did Jaehyun record that without laughing? Legendary.). It's also, with Simon Says, one of the only MVs that has all ten members of NCT 127. It also has a CGI tiger, shiny cars, rockets going off, Winwin jumping off a building, there's just a lot going on.

Sliding back to Japan for a minute, I feel like I should include Wakey Wakey (March 18, 2019). I almost forget this song exists sometimes and I think it's because I just want to block out having seen the absolutely terrible wig they put on Johnny for this MV. Seriously why? The song itself is solidly in the weird but also very catchy lane that 127 does so well but I just keep thinking about the wig. Johnny had some long extensions for NCT 2020 that looked great on him, but this wig was just not it. My eyes are drawn to it every time he's on screen. I need to put this into my regular listening-only playlists and let my brain block that wig out the way I forget the dance break in Favorite exists.

127 started 2023 off with Ay-Yo (Jan 30, 2023) which was the (somewhat delayed) repackage of 2 Baddies, which we'll get to in a moment. I wasn't sure what to think of Ay-Yo at first but it has definitely grown on me despite having veered back into some questionable hair territory mainly for Taeyong (and I say that as a grown up late 90s punk kid who thought giant hair spikes were cool). The MV has some absolutely wild visuals mixed in, and the song is definitely outside of the realm of standard kpop releases even if it's not as weird as some others like Sticker. It's solid.

Okay so. Like. I honestly didn't really pay enough attention to the general reactions to 2 Baddies (Sep 15, 2022) to tell you how divisive this song was to most people, but it split one of my group chats VERY strongly and one of my friends has refused to listen to any 127 releases since then because she hates this song so much. I tried to get her with Fact Check at the very least and she's so anti this song that she still refused and I may have lost her on 127 altogether 🤣 It's mainly the chorus that she dislikes, and I'm a little back and forth on it myself sometimes honestly but also I have absolutely BLASTED this song while driving down the highway so it feels kinda like a guilty pleasure song sometimes. If you ignore the chorus the other parts of the song are so goooooooood and no one can deny that the last part of the bridge slaps. Plus there's a whole lot of shirtless Johnny and Yuta which you can never go wrong with.

Touch (Mar 13, 2018) is a little off from the style of kpop that I listen to regularly since it's a bit more in the bubbly poppy side of things that I don't always go for but the vibes are immaculate and everyone looks so happy in the MV and there's fuzzy sweaters and everyone smiles so much? It's hard to not love it. It's fluff and cheery and delightful.

I don't know if SM actually started the "track video" trend (short MVs that have an edited, cut down version of a song so they cost less to produce than a full MV- Lemonade is 3:10 on the Sticker/Favorite album, but this track video is 2:01 for instance) but they love doing them with NCT, and despite Lemonade (Sep 9, 2021) definitely deserving a full MV, since it wasn't the lead single it didn't get one but it did at least get a track video and was performed a lot on the music shows when they were promoting Sticker. It's catchy and has some clever work in the full version lyrics that involve titles of other NCT 127 songs and I've listened to it as much as or possibly more than Sticker.

I've covered all of the lead singles and there ARE some other track videos or special release songs like the recent Be There For Me that I could be using the last slot for but you know what? We're gonna go fully off the expected path and include Let's Shut Up & Dance (Feb 21, 2019) instead because it's wild and fun. 127 doesn't do much besides sing part of the chorus and do a bunch of dancing in this (on the ceiling? on the walls? in an alley?) but like. Lay is here too and the song is SO fun and an absolute bop so that's what we're closing this post out with.

So that wraps the NCT 127 music videos! I'm thinking the next post and the last of the 127 centric ones will be a guide to some of their Youtube content, since there's a whole lot, and that'll kinda set up expectations for the posts about Dream and WayV as well when we get to them. I think after I get through the main posts of MVs and content for all of the sub-units that I might do some special posts of performance videos for songs that don't have MVs just to get some of those out there, or I might just post a bunch of links to them. We'll see how I'm feeling and if my audience of like two or three people has any kind of preference (that's you, hey, yeah you, lemme know what you want from me).

This post is the third in a series of posts introducing new fans to NCT in a way that makes sense, by getting familiar with one subgroup at a time before moving on to the next. Linked down at the bottom is the intro post, and the rest will be linked as they're added.

Dedicated as ever to @catatonicrainbow and @poetry-protest-pornography 💖

[So you wanna get into NCT eh? 1 | 2 | 3]

[transman-badass]

WIP Questionnaire

Tagged by @bee-barnes-author, thank you!

Gently tagging: @slenders1ckn3ss @kmlaney @bardicbeetle @astras-rambles @meerawrites @musingsbycaitlin @andromedaexists @dyrewrites and an open tag! Blank questions below the cut

For "Farewell Vesperos":

1. What is the first part of your WIP that you created? For the Runner Owen series as a whole, it was all spawned by a single image of a gothic city floating in the sky. It's changed a lot since then, over five years ago I think. I don't remember the first part I came up with for Farewell Vesperos itself, but it was probably the Vesperos family it's named after.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be? For Runner Owen? Instrumental, for sure. Owen, my protagonist, walking through the foggy, crystal-lit streets of Theris. Being watched by people in brighter windows, or following him in the darkness. He turns around and lifts his lantern to see... Cut to the title screen.

3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why? I adore Owen and his two enemies/LIs, Aurum and the Scarred Man. Explaining why is hard, but they and their chemistry just make me happy. There's also Locke and Nora, who are dear to my heart - I think some people I've talked about this with like Locke a little too much, but I don't blame them. For Farewell Vesperos in particular, GOD, I am loving how Lawrence Rhyne is shaping up. He's such a charming fuck.

4. What other pieces of media do you think your fan base would share? Kind of a confusing question. But uh, I've been told [combining the comments of different people] that Farewell Vesperos reads like Jane Eyre with an Agatha Christie type plot, so if you like either of that, you might like Farewell Vesperos. People who like darker fiction - hell, maybe even dark romance specifically! - might enjoy the dynamics between Owen and his two LIs. We'll see how that shapes up though.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP? Settling on the plot. This is the third edition of this story I'm writing and if it evolves on me again I might just scrap the whole fucking thing.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them! Not at this point, but the vampires in it can turn into animals. The Scarred Man in particular can become a raven.

7. How do your characters get around? (Ex. Trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.) There are trains, powered by crystals, a la Victorian steam trains. Most people get around with the draconics that humans have allied with, those being small dragons that cooperate with humans for their own reasons. They function like horses, except some of them can fly.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now? Right now, I'm trying to figure out the villain's motivations. I have a terrible habit of imagining awesome things happening and then going 'but wait - I know this character would do this, but why?' Kind of annoying at this point.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe) of your WIP do you think will draw people in? Well, there's the murder mystery! Lost heirs, arranged marriages, malicious vampires with dreams of conquest, wicked vampire hunters led by callous royalty who will do whatever ruthlessness needed protect humanity, enemies to lovers extreme slow burn [I'm talking over several books], spooky Victorian houses, lots of racially diverse characters, a transmasc protagonist navigating a society with specific gender roles for trans people... And just. Gothic fantasy in general.

10. What are your hopes for your WIP? I don't expect to get a lot of money writing this lmao, but I'm not writing it just for the money. I'm writing it because I know there's guys like me out there who want and need to see themselves as wanted - both as men, and as romantic and sexual partners. I want transmascs like me to feel desired. And I want people that aren't transmasc to really get that we are desirable, and attractive, as any other person. Ultimately though? I just hope people enjoy reading the damn thing and don't rip it to shreds over some stupid plot hole I missed pffft

1. What is the first part of your WIP that you created?

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

3. What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

4. What other pieces of media do you think your fan base would share?

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

7. How do your characters get around? (Ex. Trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

8. What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe) of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

10. What are your hopes for your WIP?

[cosmos-daughter]

✧ VIDEO GAME REVIEW / ANALYSIS: Resident Evil Village

𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 : 8/10

CONTENT: the main topic is criticism towards the story-writing and analyzing the Lords (with most focus on Heisenberg for obvious reasons). Additionally, also discussed the gameplay aspect in comparison to previous titles of the franchise.

This review is long overdue, some of these thoughts I've had since the game came out, but I like writing reviews only after analyzing the media enough times to make sure I have a solid opinion in order to be able to provide valid criticism. After finishing the game multiple times and analyzing the aspects I like and dislike repeatedly, I finally know for sure how I feel about it. Village is one of my favorite games, but still this review is a little more negative than positive due the fact that I believe it the potential to be the perfect game, and so I'm constantly grieving what we could've had. As always: please keep in mind that this is simply my opinion as a long time Resident Evil fan. This is how I personally feel about it as a fan and not a direct attack at people who enjoy this game ー since I do so myself as well.

Spoilers ahead! ⚠️

Though I consider Resident Evil Village an enjoyable game, it's undeniably rather unsatisfactory in some aspects. More specifically, story-wise. For the first time ever since the RE5/RE6 era, Capcom decided to make another "story oriented" Resident Evil game, and the result was as expected: lacking in many ways.

The game itself isn't bad, but there are aspects that had could make the game much more interesting if they focused more on it. The biggest issue and my main complaint is the character waste. Without an exception, all of the Lords were underutilized and presented in a very shallow manner, even the one that had more participation in the story. This detail weighs as a immense negative point on the game's overall quality, since they play a huge role in the story and make up most of the content of the game. With the exception of Moreau ー who's too far gone and doesn't have the required intelligence ー all of them could have had more depth and development than what we saw. They have the qualities needed: captivating characters with cool designs, their own customized areas and unique personalities, but never reached their peak because they were robbed of the exploration of the themes that could add authenticity to the characters such as their past/background, motivations, etc. So regardless of how promising they are, since we haven't seen beyond their surface and don't know understand and know enough about the characters themselves, they end up slightly shallow and simple. The consequence of this lack of humanization is that in the end they didn't receive an ounce of dignity or empathy even in death. A cruel fate that feels even harsher when you remember that all of them were once normal people that just happened to be victims of Miranda's evil scheme.

It feels rather frustrating to see a good character go down without being fully explored, especially on Dimitrescu's case, since she was a character that everyone had high expectations for because she was used as a marketing strategy to attract the public by being the focus of the game's demo & trailer. Everyone was interested on the game because of the beautiful tall vampire lady, but turns out she appears only in the beginning of the game and barely has significance in the rest of the story. I didn't expect a redemption for her, it would be unrealistic and out of nowhere ー the game made clear that she's more inclined towards evil than morally-grey by the way she and her daughters are unnecessarily cruel and see the villagers like nothing but food stock, so it would indeed be difficult to create a situation in which she cooperated with the player's side. Besides, there's the huge factor of her blind loyalty to Mother Miranda and the fact that Ethan literally murdered her daughters; so redemption or a change of heart seems in fact out of question for her, but making her the first one to die was so anti-climatic and humiliating. The least they could do was make her be one of the last characters to go, so she could hunt Ethan until the end for avenging her daughters. It would have made more sense for her final fight to have happened before Heisenberg's. They could have done literally anything else instead of killing her off during the first twenty minutes of gameplay and never bringing her up again as if she's insignificant. There were countless possibilities for her, yet they decided to follow the worst and less satisfying route.

Now, the next topic and the reason why I'm obsessed with this game despite everything: Karl Heisenberg. Imagine giving us one of the best characters in the whole franchise: a hot dilf-coded villain with a dark past and problematic personality that show signs of redeeming qualities, and then preceding to completely waste all of his potential as both; a possible ally and a character, by not exploring the depth of his person. If any character should've had redemption in this story, it should have been Karl. What is the point of adding the detail of his disloyalty and hatred for Miranda if that wouldn't make any difference in the end, because Ethan doesn't even consider his offer of a partnership and we're forced to kill him either way? Why give him a whole "character arc" focused on his disdain for his fake Mother, who happens to be the main villain, and not give him a chance of joining the protagonist's side when they both share the same enemy? I think the reason for that is simply laziness.

Not that he has to be a good person to be on the good side, but it's also implied he possibly wasn't evil like Dimitrescu, who drained people of their blood and committed cannibalism, or Moreau, who brutally experimented on the living. Heisenberg experimented solely on the dead, and though definitely unethical, didn't directly inflict pain on anyone ー and that makes me assume that maybe he's a morally grey character who's done bad things, and while definitely not the most moral man on earth, still has a line; differently than his "family". But unfortunately we'll never know for sure, since Capcom decided to not give us any more lore. Regardless of which one it's canon, it's still understandable why Heisenberg acts the way he does. I believe it's the consequences of living the nightmarish hell of having to constantly humiliate yourself by serving the person you despise the most, your worst enemy in the shape of a Mother — the very same person who stole your freedom and turned you into nothing but a puppet, a monster, a weapon. All this time, he was just fighting to recover his stolen freedom, fueled by his raw hatred for this woman who stripped him of his dignity, hurt his pride, and took his autonomy away by force. But at the end, he witnessed all he worked so hard for in flames in front him as he died alone under the freezing rain, in the same hell he wanted so badly to escape from. His fate was merciless and cold, even for someone like him.

You could argue that some of the Lords deserved their fates, but Donna's case is for sure the most unfair of them all. She truly did nothing wrong and was just a victim. Her gardener's diary entries prove that she's always been a gentle and lonely person, and the fact that even after being infected with the Cadou and gaining hallucinogenic abilities all she wanted was to help people meet with their loved ones again only further proves her goodness. She has nothing but old dolls in her house, it's clear that this woman didn't bother anyone and lived a quiet life by the waterfall, where she was isolated from everyone else. Donna deserved better than to die alongside her dusty dolls, her only friends, left to be forgotten forever.

The point I meant to make clear by now is that these characters being villains didn't stop me from feeling affection for them ー it never does, actually. So even if surviving wasn't a possibility, I wish we had at least seen more of their human side, their lives aside from Miranda, or their past, before getting locked away in the village by her. There were so many things, small details that I wanted to know about them, what's their age? Birthday? Any family left? Friends? Past lovers? Was Dimitrescu always this heartless? When exactly did Heisenberg realize that Miranda was manipulative and didn't love them, didn't really see them as her family? How did he manage, unlike his "siblings", to see through her manipulation? The way Heisenberg speaks of Miranda sounds more similar to someone who's been hurt and had their trust broken instead of someone that's always hated their current enemy, especially because of his line "She doesn't care for us, no. Her humanity is long gone. I must destroy her." There are so many unanswered question, so much I wanted to know. But for sure what I wanted the most on this whole story was for them to have at least received a little bit of empathy, instead of being referred as monsters all the time. As a player and someone who enjoys the characters, it feels unfair to hear that. They were people too.

Now that I've talked about all the characters, I think it's important to emphasize that despite it being annoying to watch good characters being underutilized, none of that would be a surprise if this was just another typical Resident Evil game. This franchise has always has been awful when it comes to writing and making the characters constant on the series, just look at the amount of cool characters that literally never showed up again after their first appearance (Carlos, Billy, etc) ー and it's even worse when it comes to villains, since they're never offered the chance of redemption. For that reason, I never have high expectations when it comes to character development or story, however... it was made clear enough by trailers and by how much more cinematographic this game is compared to any other that Village was meant to be less survival horror than usual and more story/character focused, more movie-like. And since that was the direction they were heading to, the least they could do was create a story in which the plot and characters are equally developed and work in unison.

My biggest disappointment with this game really is mainly directed at the mediocre writing, because gameplay wise the game is good. As previously mentioned, the survival horror aspects are much less present, item managing is barely needed unless playing on hardcore and the game is pretty forgiving of your mistakes — similar to RE4, it rewards you for killing enemies rather than punishing you, a mechanic that doesn't work well in a survival horror game as it doesn't force you to be cautious with your resources and spend them wisely. You can just go on a killing spree and you'll be fine, and knowing that makes the game's atmosphere significantly less tense.

There was more criticism than praise in my words so far, so allow me to mention my next point, which is in my opinion the best part of Resident Evil Village: the atmosphere and exploration. I was enchanted with the scenery of the gothic isolated Romanian village filled with blood, monsters and death, the breathtaking and detailed Baroque architecture of the Dimitrescu Castle, the calm, eerie silent snowy regions that fills you with a sense of desolation and dread. The game is visually magnificent ー snowy montains is a landscape that can hardly go wrong. Last but not least, another resemblance to Resident Evil 4, the merchant and his requests was the perfect addition to encourage map exploration and therefore reproduce the impression of a open-world game. Hunting treasures and searching for ingredients for the Duke's kitchen were genuinely fun things to do.

I must finish by saying that if this game wasn't part of the Resident Evil series, it'd probably be a 9/10 for me. But carrying the name of a loved franchise comes with expectations, and I found that many of them weren't met. Still, even if not life-altering, Village is still a great, solid game with a high replay value and a decent story, so I personally recommend it and find it worth playing, because as long as you don't expect the game to be similar to the classic RE games in terms of gameplay or horror level, or don't get too attached to the good-looking antagonists, the game's half-assed writing probably and less challenging than usual gameplay won't bother you and you'll be able to have fun with it. I don't think every game should be a masterpiece, and this one, even with all the mentioned downsides, still delivered a emotional and beautiful story about family love that was able to make me sympathize, connect with the characters and cry a river at the ending, so I consider it a good game even if I think it could've been better with a few changes in the direction of the story.

[onenerdroaming]

My first media review in ages! I know I said last year I'd get to Legends and Lattes as soon as I was in a headspace to write about the stories I listen to when hiking, but I'm not going to lie, saying I would review it and then forgetting about it entirely basically is my review of that book. All set up and no pay off.

Today's review is the new audible original audio drama: Slayers: A Buffyverse Story by Christopher Golden and Amber Benson.

Before anything else we have to talk about the frankly confusing discourse I've seen around Slayers. I have been following all of the new comics coming out connected to BTVS so I've honestly been shocked by this "Buffy is being disrespected and erased" discourse? There is one current long term ongoing series. This series is called The Last Vampire Slayer, and is about a world where all of the Scoobies as well as all of the Slayers save for Buffy were brutally killed years ago. Now an older jaded Buffy has to deal with a young Slayer (the only one she knows of who was not killed upon being called) who has tracked her down to beg to be trained by Buffy. Before it became an ongoing series, it was a miniseries about the young slayer talking Buffy into training her (the fact she is Willow and Tara's orphaned daughter got Buffy to decide to keep the kid from dying), which I will admit is all I read because that was all I needed to know that series really wasn't for me. I'm not a fan of that level of dark and gritty.

Honestly, the whole "Buffy is being erased" thing feels like a game of telephone being played with second hand information.

People of course tend to point to the short miniseries that recently came out where Faith arrives in Sunnydale in a position of power. The Scoobies look to her as the person in charge, because just before she arrived in an effort to try and help Buffy with her magic Willow accidentally took away Buffy's powers. This leads Willow down the path of becoming Dark Willow, and once the comic establishes Faith in her confident established position, the powerless Buffy saves the day from Dark Willow and gets her powers back in the process - reinforcing for the millionth time that Buffy doesn't need her powers to be the best at this (as in she figures out what is happening, tracks Willow down, gets Faith to act as her backup, and then saves the day). Oh, also that comic ends with canonical Buffy/Faith, Xander/Spike and Willow/Tara so color me confused about why the fandom hated it so much.

Before that we had a few other comics all of which were, of course, centered around Buffy, including a long running ongoing (the main Boom! Buffy comic) essentially about how Buffy was the best Vampire Slayer across the multiverse, where there is a massive battle across the multiverse with many different Buffys (complete with musing about how one writes Buffy in plural so truly all spellings including Buffi are valid here) and multiple multiverse traversing characters make it clear that Buffy is special because she is so important in so many worlds.

Ok, so all of that said - and here is the key thing that confuses me - this is an audio where the main draw is the original BTVS cast are reprising their roles.

Buffy fans know that neither Sarah Michelle Geller nor Allison Hannigan have ever, ever, in the history of BTVS supplementary materials, played their roles. Not for the PS2 game Chaos Bleeds (where literally every other member of the cast played their character), not for the never actually picked up or aired animated series, not for the Season 8 motion comics. This is something Amber Benson (who was in Chaos Bleeds) and Chistopher Golden (who wrote Chaos Bleeds) would most assuredly know from the start of the plotting process. It is also possible they were asked and said no - all of that said, truly the chances of either of those actresses appearing was less than zero.

That means there were two options - recast them the way those prior projects did (which dragged alllllll of them down and would muddy the whole ORIGINAL CAST RETURNS appeal) or write a story that makes sense without them (or Xander, but truly fuck him and I am glad to report he's only name checked like one time in the entire story). So of course Buffy does not appear in the story (although a wild drinking game would be to take a shot every time anyone talks about how amazing she is. In the story itself Cordelia demands that Spike, Clem, Giles and Indira stop talking about how great Buffy is all the time because it was getting old). This also means that as amazing as the cliffhanger at the end was, it felt more like a massive bone being thrown to the fans for the purpose of fanfiction rather than setting up any future story, since obviously they will NOT be able to continue with the set up plot due to casting concerns.

Ok - so now to review the audio itself. I will confess, I was not a fan of Spike's narration at the start of each episode. But my irritation with him evened out as the story went on and the cast moved past Spike and Clem. I loved the fact that our new character Indira is a massive fangirl, there to endlessly exclaim over how cool Buffy is as she tags along. I loved the way the alternate universe was used to explore different versions of the characters we know and love. Cordelia as a jaded Slayer with PTSD was fascinating, as was Anya as the lone witch left on the side of good freaking out over having to face down her best friend. Evil Tara and her relationship with Dru was of course an absolute delight. But of course the role that most impressed me - and the only actor in the audios who sounded 100000% exactly the same as she did back when the show was airing - was Drusilla. Wow, talk about an incredible performance from Juliet Landau. I also really loved the role Clem played in the audio, it was so great to have him fleshed out more and playing such a key role in the cast.

Actually ok, I lied a bit, another actor's voice was fairly unchanged and immediately recognizable. That of course was someone I was not excepting to hear and I actually shouted when that character popped up because well... with the amount of success that actor has achieved I didn't think they'd be here. But through the power of their personal friendship with Amber Benson, there they were! That was a really fun surprise cameo and I am not going to spoil who (although if you are curious this actor's inclusion in the cast is listed on the internet).

There were a few such cameos - the audio did a great job folding in those fun little reward moments for Buffy nerds. Also it gave us Anyanka as a yappy dog? I did not know I needed to hear Emma Caulfield Ford play a vengeance daemon as a tiny dog, but I am so glad this audio gave it to me.

I don't want to spoil too much of the story, but I very much had a blast listening to this, and would highly rec. it. As much as I really really really loved the ending and would love to read a million fics exploring what happens next in that universe, I am pretty sad that it is unlikely we will be getting the story the cliffhanger implies.

Truthfully I really hope this audio is not a one off and we can look forward to more Buffyverse audios in the future. Plus, who knows, maybe if they are successful enough even SMG may one day get involved (although I feel that really is a long shot).