#Remember how a few posts ago that I said that I'm the number one Bad Rat fan?

[stardestroyer81]

Can you guess who my favorite Pizza Tower character is? 💙✨

[styrofauxm]

So you know that thing that's floating around about Vivziepop not wanting to ruin people's fun by confirming Alastor's romantic orientation?

I was going to make a venty (untagged) post about how that's kinda queerbait-y* and arophobic. But then I was like "you know what, I should check the source because I don't remember the exact quote."

And it turns out I never actually saw the exact quote. Nor did anyone talking about it bother to include the context. And while I don't think either removes the queerbait-y* or arophobic aspects of the statement, they certainly make it better than it initially seemed to me.

Here's the stream (linked to the proper place): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ONxBZoR0A&t=3793s

And here's a loose transcript (it cuts out some less relevant statements in-between but loses almost no context as far as I could tell): https://www.reddit.com/r/HazbinHotel/comments/mle06e/alastors_sexual_orientation_aromanticasexual/

*I am keeping the actual word on the shelf, I just don't know a better one to use here. I think what she said is SIMILAR to queerbaiting but is NOT queerbaiting.

With the queerbait-y stuff, it still maintains the "aromantic people, tune in, this character may or may not be aromantic. We'll tell you eventually, just keep watching!"

With the arophobia, it still maintains the prioritization of shipping over representation, and treats aromanticism as a subsect of asexuality at best, and as flat out not an orientation at worst.

I don't think either is as bad as my original perception, but they certainly aren't good. And keep in mind, this was 3 years ago, any number of things about her beliefs could have changed in any which way since then.

But what gets me is that Vivziepop absolutely did not say that everyone should just let everyone else have their fun. What she said was to have fun and be respectful of his orientation and the people that are represented by him. She says that multiple times.

I'm not feeling this generous, but I guess you could say the fandom had some kind of Mandela Effect over what she actually said.

I think it's more likely that a few people, maliciously or not, spread the incorrect paraphrase without context, and the rest of the fandom, reasonably, believed them.

Anyway the lesson here is check your sources before you contribute to misinformation on the internet.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for taking part in testing a stranger a few years ago?

Sounds worse than it is but I just want to ask. Long story bear with me. Fake names, all of us were 19-21 when it happened.

I'm in a very close friend group where we all share multiple fandoms, went through all kinds of discourse hell and fandom drama together for years. We're closeknit and we only get closer with time. One of the pillars of this group is Pearl who I deeply admire. Pearl is popular because she has good meta analysis and she's a vocal progressive just like everyone else in the group. All of us are popular to some degree but she's the most eloquent among us.

A few years ago we were hosting a group chat session to discuss a new show, Pearl was the host and she posted the invite for anyone to join. A new account named Ruby who was following some members of our group for a while, joined the chat along with a some other unknown people and a few mutuals. The chat had about 20 people, don't remember the exact number. So it was Pearl, her friends including me, some mutuals, some new people- all from Sauce fandom.

We were really happy to see so many Sauce fans like the new show. We were having fun until Pearl brought up shipwar from Sauce fandom for the sake of a mutual who was out of the loop. It was a mayo/ketchup vs ketchup/mustard drama and we were fans of mayo/ketchup. We were all shitting on the delulu ketchup/mustard shippers when Ruby said she was one of them. Pearl immediately showed her shitty takes from mustard fans, screenshots of anon hate Pearl got and some other things I can't remember. She asked for Ruby's opinion on those.

I admit Pearl was a little bit condescending, but at that time I was too busy agreeing with her and laughing about mustard/ketchup shippers' idiocy. I was giving more examples to support Pearl in case Ruby decided to counter. Ruby on the other hand laughed and said she also thought those anons were obnoxious and said she was only a casual fan. Pearl said she was relieved because these days you can't trust mustard/ketchup shippers to be normal. We went back to the original topic.

That was over, but I kept an eye on Ruby and I remember she unfollowed Pearl after a few days. I brought it up later a couple times when new members of our group became mutuals with Ruby. And one of them was outright making fun of her for being a little simpleton but we grew up and had other things to talk about.

Then I saw Ruby left Sauce fandom for Fruits fandom where she became a little more popular for meta discussions. She's still friends with a couple people from my group who are casual fans of Fruits. She sometimes shows up on my dash for general fiction takes I agree with. All good. But yesterday I saw her talking to her friends about something friendship and virtue signalling related, she said it was weird how many times she's been "tested" by fellow fans including people who she knew for years, and she thought maybe it was because she came off as dumb and oblivious. She implied She never needed to test anyone.

Now I don't know about other times Ruby was tested but I remembered the story from above when I was one of the strangers testing her and I'm wondering if it was a bad thing to do? I can see why she thought it was maybe rude. But it is true that many shippers happen to have dumb takes and I'd rather not waste my time, rival shipper or not. It's not even a big deal.

So Was I the asshole?

PS thank you for reading the full story and sorry I will not say the real names of Sauce fandom or its ships, none of us go there anymore.

What are these acronyms?

[ryeriy]

can I call you tonight?

warnings: slight angst (not really), not proofread so sorry for spelling errors

join my taglist

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a/n: this is my first f1 post so bare with me lol and hope you enjoy! Do you guys think I should make a part 2?!

Me and Lando broke up a few months ago. I'm sitting at home watching f1 cause I like the sport. The screen then changed to someone interviewing Lando.

I was barely listening to what he was saying, I just stared at him. Until he brought his hand up to his hair, I noticed the bracelet I gave him. I remember making him that bracelet. I listened and the interviewer asked about the bracelet.

“Yeah, it’s the one my previous girlfriend got me. It's a pretty nice bracelet, I just guess I’m not fully over her yet. Honestly, I don’t think I ever will be.” He said with a frown.

I looked at the TV in shock. I shook my head to make sure I was hearing it right, that he still wasn't over me. Quickly I glanced down at my phone and hesitated to pick it up before opening my text messages and typing in Lando's number.

hey.

I hovered over the send button for minutes before having the courage to finally send the message to him. What if he didn't mean it and just wanted to mess with me?

hi, how've been?

He texted back. I stared at it in shock making sure that he actually texted me back and I'm not going crazy.

im good, congrats on the podium by the way.

thanks, surprised to be hearing from you.

is that a bad thing?

not at all! just surprised.

I paused for a moment before coming up with what to say next. I couldn't tell if he liked talking or didn't?

I saw you on tv.

you did? I didn't think you'd care anymore.

nice bracelet you got on.

I was referring to the one he was wearing in the interview. The bracelet I made and gave to him when we were together.

so you saw the interview then...? did what I say offend you?

I mean I hesitated a bit before picking up my phone and sending you a message but I did it...does that answer it..?

yeah, I guess.

do you still think we've got a chance...?

I paused. I thought of what he was typing. I would've thought he would have moved on and had a girlfriend. Still trying process that he thinks we might have a chance.

all the time.

I miss not having you lay next to me when I fall asleep or have some to cuddle close with to keep me warm...I miss it all.

He paused for a moment. My message was left on read for a minute before he sent another response.

I miss it too.

I smiled at my screen as I read his message. I typed a message but deleted it and rephrased the sentence. I paused before sending it, taking a deep breath and pressing send.

can I call you tonight?

Asking was a huge risk on my end. I didn't know if he would reject me or not. He could just stop texting me now.

yeah, it'd be nice to hear your voice again.

how about in thirty minutes?

I'll be waiting :)

:)

[moralesmilesanhour]

my neighbor's a punk

summary: you move into a new apartment with a noisy neighbor. inspired by this prompt list! wc: 922 A/N: just wrote this for some practice. I'm getting better at writing longer drabbles, I think! As always feel free to reblog and leave your reactions in the tags or comments. As of the date this is being posted, my requests are also open! (pls check my pinned beforehand)

You had never seen a garden so beautiful.

Vibrant blossoms of yellow and orange greeted you as you hauled two medium-sized boxes carrying the last of your things through the entrance of your new apartment. Their fragrance wafted through the humid summer air, delighting you and confirming that they were, in fact, real. But for the past couple of days that you had been in the process of moving in, you’d never once spotted a gardener or seen the sprinklers turn on. Curious.

The modest apartment had only a couch to occupy the living room, which was currently still dotted with cardboard boxes. A freshly-ironed shirt and work pants lay neatly folded on top of one. You stepped over a few to get to the kitchen, where various unopened appliances were strewn about the counter. Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, you made a note to finally put everything away in the cupboards tomorrow evening after work.

No TV meant your only sources of entertainment for the time being were your phone and your laptop. It was now evening, and you were slouched on your sofa in the midst of a harrowing ‘Game of Thrones’ episode when a violent guitar riff ripped through the air and made you jump.

These thin-ass walls…

Whoever was playing (very well, you might add) seemed to be next door, so it didn’t take long to follow the sound to the correct number. You knocked impatiently and rang the doorbell too, for good measure. It took a minute for the music to come to a halt before the sound of heavy footsteps approached the door and you heard it unlock.

Once the door creaked open, you weren’t sure where to look first.

Your eyes darted back and forth between the array of piercings on your neighbor’s face and dangling from his ears, the wicks styled to shoot out from his head like an explosion, and his bright red plaid pants before landing on a pair of large eyes set deeply within a dark, angular face.

Judging by the way his pierced brow quirked up in amusement, you weren’t the first to give him a weird look, and wouldn’t be the last.

You remembered how to speak.

“Oh, um- hey,” you began, “I live next door, and I heard you playing–”

The young man’s face lights up and he interrupts, “Oh, d’you like it? It’s a song I’ve been workin’ on for the past few weeks. Finally got the bridge down.”

You blinked. 

“I mean…it’s not bad. It’s great, even, but–”

“Say, I haven’t seen you around before,” he pointed. “You new here?”

The man spoke with a strong Cockney accent, you noticed, with a tinge of something else that made a couple of vowels run together.

“...Yes, I moved in two days ago,” you sighed. “Now that that’s out of the way, I was about to ask if you could maybe play a lil’ quieter? You’re very loud.”

The realization seemed to dawn on him that you weren’t here to applaud his sick guitar riffs, and he winced. You almost felt bad for disappointing him, but you had a show to binge.

“Ah shit, my fault. Got too used to playing on full volume after the last neighbor moved out,” With a hand placed over his chest, he promised, “Won’t happen again.”

You nodded with a tight smile. 

“Thanks. Goodnight,” you said as you turned to leave.

The next few days were quieter, though you could still hear the neighbor’s guitar through the walls at a much more manageable volume. Sometimes you would hear the man humming to himself in his baritone voice. Eventually, you were so used to it that you found yourself falling asleep to the sound.

One Saturday morning, though, you awoke to the peculiar sound of silence. Normally by now you’d be hearing the first few chords of…whatever the guy was working on, then he’d reach the end by mid-afternoon. Part of you wanted to check up on him, but reason held you back; you’d only spoken to him once. Maybe he was just taking an off day.

Unable to return to sleep, you decided to shower and take a walk outside while the air was still comfortably cool.

As soon as the early morning sun hit your face, a familiar head of hair came into view.

There stood your neighbor–band t-shirt and all–in the garden in front of the apartment. Watering the flowers.

Mystery solved.

“So you’re the reason the plants haven’t died yet,” you laughed, causing his head to snap up.

He grinned, and lifted his watering can proudly. “Sure am. Bring some color into the place.”

“I thought it was awful quiet around here,” you remarked. You toyed with the hem of your t-shirt. “How’s the, uh…song going?”

Something between delight and surprise graced his features and made him look boyish. 

He smiled, revealing a crooked front tooth as he replied, “Almost done with it, actually.”

There was silence for a beat, and the both of you shifted awkwardly where you stood. 

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off. 

“Mind playing it for me when you’re done?”

The tall man seemed about ready to run laps around the block at the suggestion.

Quickly setting his watering can down, he replied, “Thought you’d never ask, mate!”

He jogged his way around the perimeter of the garden and over to you. “Can I get your name while we’re at it?”

“Y/N.” You stuck out your hand, and he shook it.

“Hobie.”

[anotherwatchedninja]

I feel like people forget Time Lords are the same person across every incarnation.

like, ‘14’ even says that it’s not dying. Same memories, same thoughts about people, sometimes expressing something they can’t, not being able to say something they used to.

Think back to you 10 years ago.

You're probably a very different person now compared to then, but you're also not at the same time.

You probably talk differently now, you see the world differently, you might believe different things.

When The Doctor regenerates, that's the level of change that is done but in a few seconds instead of a decade.

Fundamentally you’re still the same person, and you’ve probably retained most of your core beliefs and interests, but you’ve also grown and learnt more about the world; altering many of your less integral values, and even possibly some of you more integral ones.

you could attribute it to a line from one of the novelisations, where the doctor attributes his lack of control over regeneration (and as we can imply, how bad of a post-regen situation he has) is because he didn’t pay enough attention in regeneration lessons.

I think for the Doctor it's like if you woke up and were suddenly 8 again, with all your 8-year-old impulses and personality and likes/dislikes, but your current memories.

The Doctor is always the Doctor. There's no "2nd Doctor" or "10th Doctor" or "14th Doctor." they're all the same person. Just because someone gets clobbered on the head and wakes up from the resulting brain damage knowing fluent German doesn't mean they disappeared and a new person took their place. His brain gets a shake-up, and his appearance changes, but it's still the same person all together.

I think all the media hype about the actors playing the role, and this weird regeneration for the 60th, kind of make it hard to remember that. For the Doctor, it's one continuous line of consciousness. 10 didn't die and wake up again with 13's memories, because there is no 10, there is no 13, there is only The Doctor. We number their faces but they're one person.

And it's confirmed by what he said immediately after the regeneration. He didn't say, "I'm alive!" or "How did I get here?" or something along those lines. He said, "I know these teeth." He realises that he's reverted to an earlier form, but he hasn't forgotten the intervening forms.

It seems to change not just from writer to writer, but Doctor to Doctor. 9 didn't seem to think of his 'death' as the end by any stretch. 10 considered them different people that shared memories, while 11 seemed to see more continuity and connection from incarnation to incarnation. 12 similarly was refusing to regenerate because he wanted to end it, a pointless position unless he saw 'the next Doctor' as still being him. 13 seemed to lean more towards the individual incarnation view, as she felt in necessary to say goodbye to Yaz.

And this is just the Doctor, a single Time Lord. We've seen extremes from literal dissociation from incarnation to incarnation with the One through Union (aka the collective, but that’s due to their condition), to Romana trying on new faces line a human would a new outfit, or how the monk tries to act like their past selves are different people to shift the blame and get away free from the consequences, or how six was post-regen

I just really don't like the idea of them being separate people, which unfortunately does seem to be RTD's interpretation from 10's line of regeneration feeling like dying, and a new man sauntering away. To me that devalues the idea of the Doctor being the same person from 1963 until today. They're the same person, who have been through the events of every single episode, and remember them and all the companions there travelled with.

If they were different people, them meeting former companions just doesn't have the same weight either. 10 for example becomes someone who just knows of Sarah Jane instead of being the same person who travelled with her.

But that doesn't mean it can't still be confusing when an old face returns. It's something that's never happened to the Doctor before, and perhaps it's something that he's never heard of happening to other Timelords either. So when it does happen he's very confused because he immediately knows who this new version of himself is, instead of having to go through the usual self discovery at the start of each incarnation.

I remember from an audio story (I think Sirens of Time), one of the Doctors (i say DOCTORS because time travel) said something along the lines of this: Take every trait of their personality is like a bar graph. Kindness, courage, alienness, anger threshold, etc. each have their own bar on the graph. Each regeneration is essentially the same personality but the bars could be altered with some traits more emphasized in a new face than the previous one.

Some examples of what I mean.

10 and 11 are examples of the alienness trait being skewed in opposite directions, where I feel Smith is more alien-like in his physical behavior than Tennant is. 12 and 13 still have this trait but it’s viewed more subtly through social interactions.

6 and 12 were less on the kindness scale but increased over time. 10, 11, and 13 seemed to have that kindness trait more emphasized.

Anger threshold /emotional control can get thrown multiple ways if a respective Doctor is impulsive and expressive vs bottling it up and letting it simmer. I feel like there are many examples to pull from off this alone.

There could be more obvious ones I’m missing but these spring to mind. I do like this interpretation since it lets you know it’s the same person but just aspects can be more emphasized than others across their different incarnations.

I like to think it’s just the same person at different points in their life - hell, we aren’t the same person at 18 that we are in our 30’s, or even the same person we are in our 40’s that we were at 30.

Life changes you, sometimes you’re goofy, sometimes you’re callow, and sometimes you’re stern. In DW terminology: you’re a quirky thief, then a person who has to kill everything they know, and then you become a person capable of finding some solace in life… then to a whole new person.

From the doctor’s point of view I believe they think they are the same person, they don’t differentiate between selves. Think of 12 near his start when 11 phoned Clara, he says he didn’t need to eavesdrop because it was him talking and that she looks at him but can’t see him.

Now this doesn’t mean the doctor doesn’t remember the traits each regeneration has, and this can manifest in their subconscious as talking to their different regenerations; but that’s no different than you talking to yourself in your head.

like, it’s even implied 14 will eventually become 15

[eleventhhourfactor]

Factor Builds a Poltergust!

Part One

Poltergust?! In my kitchen?! At this time of year?!!

More probable than you might think.

For those who didn't see this post a few days ago, I've been building a prop Poltergust. I've got a costume to go along with it, and both are at the point where I can step out to an event right now and feel proud of myself.

After I find fingerless gloves and give the vacuum tube a couple more coats of paint, of course.

So, how did I do it? Why should you care about a ghost vacuum that can't actually suck things up? Well, I'm about to tell you the process I've gone through this week to get this bad boy ready, because I did a decent job documenting my steps and I wasn't just about to not share something like this.

Ready?

Here we go!

Disclaimer

This is not a tutorial. I am not in the business of giving Poltergust workshops. This is just me documenting my process, which you're free to riff off of for your own uses, but this is in no way a step-by-step instructional. This is what I got after gleaning two walkthroughs online and distilling them into something my artsy ass can manage. If I tried to pass this off as a tutorial in real life, I'd probably get fired.

If you do reference this for your own purposes, make sure to wear gloves, put down cardboard and other protective coverings, and do your work in a well-ventilated area. It should go without saying, but do not let your pets into this shit.

With that being said, let's get into the base of this whole thing.

The Base

Not gonna lie, this whole idea started with a cat carrier. It's been with me for several moves now, and neither of my cats have taken to it. Needless to say, I was ready to give this thing purpose.

The carrier I have has a bubble in the front, several panels to zip and unzip, and appears to be made of some kind of leather. With this in mind, I prepared the surface for painting by using a deglazer. If you can't find any (or you run out early like I did), some strong isopropyl alcohol and a bit more elbow grease will also do the trick.

Next, I went with some leather acrylic paint. It went on nicely and dried quickly, so I did a couple of coats.

As you can see in the picture above, this carrier had a nice black trim to it that I wanted to preserve as much as possible—hence, drafter's tape. I also left the straps as is, since E. Gadd has a thing for leather straps on his devices.

After the paint was good and dry, I sprayed the whole thing a couple times over with a clear topcoat. I might've picked something semi-glossy (I really don't remember), but so long as it's clear and sprayable, it'll work.

I did get a little bit of topcoat on the bubble, but this really won't matter in the long run.

Panels and Wheels

Each Poltergust I've come across has a set of wheels or cylinders on the sides. Seeing as this was a consistent choice, I figured I'd cook something up to cover the side panels of my base.

Each wheel piece is based on a wooden circle (mine are about 6.5" in diameter). From there, I glued a smaller foam disc onto the center, and then covered each disc in gray foam for a smooth look.

While waiting for that to dry, I then took a triangular dowel of EVA foam and painted that black. One calculation for the circumference of the inner circle later, and I had the outer rims for these pieces. For error's sake, I rounded up.

End result?

Snazzy. Now to apply this and the other panels onto the base. I chose a thicker piece of black foam for the accent paneling, which also went under these circles. However, I didn't immediately glue all this on.

Instead, I went to work on some other doodads.

Doodads, part one

There are a number of holes on the cat carrier. They come in sets of three, are ringed with metal, and were probably intended to provide airflow to my spoiled little fur babies. For the Poltergust, though, these holes provided opportunities for additional decorations.

All of these holes were 1" in diameter, which made some of my choices awfully convenient.

First off: bottom three. These are the reason I held off on gluing the panels. I wanted to cap them and put some lights behind them. Some little jewelry organizers did the trick, and provided a nice serrated edge that I used many times in this build.

Now, this photo is a bit out of order. I got a bit impatient and glued the side panels and these things on before I did the topcoat. As a result, I sprayed them a bit. Again, I like to think this works out in the end.

At this point, I was ready to take my foam and do all sorts of measurements and shit to get it all to perfectly align. And then I realized...

Foam is impressionable, and these suckers are serrated.

With that, I pressed my front panel into the circles, carved out the holes, and was able to slide it on just like that.

From there, I eyeballed and trimmed it down before gluing. And I got the circles hooked up as well.

Doodads, part 2

I came across some black desk feet that, with some nuts and a piece of foam glued in for good measure, made for some nice button-looking things on the side panels. Because I needed to work on the tube, though, this won't get applied until closer to the end.

The Tube and the Tools

The bones are good, but what about the tube? The means by which a ghost goes from outside to within?

This, along with lights and other device pieces, required a trip to the hardware store. Believe it or not, I spent quite a bit of time in the plumbing section for this stuff. Kinda funny when you think about it.

Anyway, tube. I went with a drain and bilge tube/pipe thing because it was long and flexible—not to mention easily cuttable with a hacksaw. It's attached to the Poltergust with a metal closet rod support, which again, was about the diameter I needed.

All good, right? Wrong!

That tube wasn't just gonna go into the hole nice and neat. After getting the metal circle around the tube, I cut some slits into it to cheat my constraint, further forcing it in by applying sealant to the circle and clamping that shit down.

Hot glue is nowhere near strong enough for this part. Given that it's metal, on the most vertical slope, and is gonna get tugged around a bit, I opted for sealant. Please keep in mind this shit is strong, so let it cure outside.

Since the sealant takes a while to cure, we can pretend I got everything in one trip and get started on the flashlight attachment. I found this PVC pipe thing that had a slideout bit of pipe, and something about the way it felt in my hand screamed "comically big flashlight". With that, a bell drain cap thingie, a puck light, and some paint later, I had Luigi's flashlight, ready to screw in or change out with a nozzle (which isn't built as of posting. I'm tired and it's daunting and I want to go back to writing.)

But like, wow. I'm a bit screwed when the batteries die, but for this? This is beautiful. See that black bit at the bottom? That's meant to screw into the thing pictured below.

Which, fine, there is a bit of a time skip with this top. But the whole idea is to stuff it with sealant, follow up with hot glue, and put it on the end of a trimmed down, painted bilge tube. To paint the tube, stick the whole Poltergust in a trash bag, poke a hole in it, and feed the tube through. Tape up anything loose, get that spray paint, and spray.

Rule of thumb: do not assume any of my steps are chronological. I'm going off of categories to make a bit of sense out of my madness. A lot of parts were painted in batches because I was waiting on something else and I wanted to save time.

But, once things are painted, glued, and sealed, the worst of the work is over.

That being said, we are far from over. I'd keep going, but Tumblr on mobile won't let me do more than ten pictures, so keep an eye out for the inevitable reblog featuring part two!

[skullverse]

➼ from the start ⋆ ★

vernon chwe x female reader---

young love was never easy, and you had your own sour tasting of it. when your childhood best friend, vernon, falls deeply in love with someone else, you wonder if you’d ever get a chance again. to be fair, you’ve been there: from the start.

tags: friends to lovers, fluff, angst (kinda)

word count: 1.7k

first ever post woah. this is a short work based on laufey's 'from the start' but with a happy ending bc i'm a hopeless romantic. enjoy (or don’t idc)

i stirred my watered down iced latte, head in my hand, listening to vernon talk. i had grown tired of listening to him harp on about some ‘soulmate’ he met at the library a few weeks ago. “she’s so perfect!” “blah blah blah,” was all i could hear. i’ve known vernon for as long as i can remember. seeing him this knee deep in love was something new to me. though, the thing that was harder to accept is the fact that he never noticed the little things anymore. how i get quiet when there’s no one else around, how every small act he does makes my cheeks flush pink. when he looks at me with his stupid brown eyes, his gaze reminds me of how he doesn’t feel the same. 

“y/n? y/n~ hello? earth to y/n..” vernon said, waving his hand in my face. i snapped my gaze up, looking at him.

“huh? yeah, she’s cool, or that sucks,” i mumbled, i had no clue what he just said. vernon sighed and wiped his hands on his pants, defeated.

“you’re not listening,” he said sadly.

“well how could i listen? what do you want me to tell you ‘she sounds so dreamy, you’re lucky!’?” i replied. how could i just sit here, listening to the guy i like most talking about another girl? “i just got a little bored of listening.”

“well, could you at least try helping me talk to her?” he asked. i squinted at him. “please y/n,” he pleaded.

“okay, fine,” i said, “but what’s in it for me?”

“er, whatever you want?”

------

i walked into the library hallway, around the same time vernon had gone and met the girl. he gave me a brief description outside. before heading in, we stood around like creeps waiting to see if vernon’s mystery girl walked in. i was talking about my horrible psychology project when vernon suddenly shushed me and hit my arm repeatedly.

“shhh, look! that’s her!” he said in a whisper-yell. i had to admit, she was very pretty. it drove me a bit insane.

“alright, i’ll see what i can do,” i said. no turning back now.

i walked into the huge library, books lining every corner. the big skylight brought in rays of sunlight in every inch of the room. i looked around, trying to spot vernon’s soulmate. after wandering a bit, i saw her in the far corner looking at the rentable cds. 

“can’t believe i’m doing this,” i grumbled, before walking into the music section. i snuck a peek at her, trying to think of something to start my creepy conversation. i noticed she was wearing a pretty lace top, a perfect contender. 

“hi!” i said in a hushed tone, “oh my god i love your top, where’d you get it?” i asked.

her short black hair moved so gracefully as she turned to look at me. she gave me a warm smile before answering.

“aw thanks! i think it’s from a website called cider,” she told me. she was holding a cd: a soundtrack to one of my favorite games.

“is that the persona 5 soundtrack? i love that game!” i said, trying to get more of a conversation. 

“it is! you know that game? it’s one of my favorites,” she said shyly. i excitedly nodded yes. maybe she wasn’t that bad of a person. we stood there talking about our shared love for the game, and found out we actually had a lot in common.

“what’s your name? i think you’re cool!” she asked.

“i’m y/n, you?” i replied.

“i’m scarlett, y’know could i get your number? i’d love to get to know you more!” she asked me.

“score.” i thought to myself. who knew it’d be this easy?

“yeah of course! would you wanna walk to my class together? i left my bag there, maybe we could grab a coffee?” i suggested.

“i’d love that!”

we chatted on our way out of the library. i suddenly remembered that i left vernon waiting for me outside before i entered. i wondered, was he still there?

my questions were answered as i spotted a very impatient vernon standing against the wall. i told my new friend if she could give me a moment.

“wow, woah.” was all vernon said seeing me manage to befriend his crush. “any information?” he whispered.

“better. her number,” i whispered. “now see ya vernon!” i called behind me while waving.

“sorry,” i told scarlett, she seemed like she was in awe.

“woah, who was he?” she asked shyly.

“oh, just my friend vernon, why?” i asked. i took one look at her expression and instantly knew the answer. “oh my god you think he’s cute.”

“well! just a little..” she defended herself, “okay, maybe..”

i smiled and laughed in a form of excitement. vernon would faint if he heard about this. “i’ll set you guys up!”

—two weeks later; y/n’s house.

i had gotten home about an hour ago, planning to work on my project. but all i could think about was how vernon and scarlett liked each other. my head spun as i laid in bed, my blanket covering me entirely. i looked out my window, staring into the blue. what was i to do? two weeks had passed since i set scarlett and vernon up, and they were perfect. they instantly clicked like missing puzzle pieces. the guy i’ve fallen in love with now had the perfect chance of getting a girlfriend. whilst i had to play matchmaker. 

i hadn’t even realized it, but i was crying. tears stung my eyes, my makeup running. it was terrifying. love was truly driving me insane. 

as if my mind was read, my phone chimed, a text. i sighed, grabbing it and turning it over. my eyes took a second to adjust to the bright screen, but i soon saw the two unread texts. it was vernon. ‘hey where r u? thought we agreed to meet up at my place at 5.’ the latest one read: ‘im coming over’. i quickly got up, struggling to keep my balance. i got a look of myself in the mirror, seeing my ruined makeup. i cursed under my breath, taking some makeup remover to wipe up the mess. my eyes were a bit red and puffy, but i doubted that vernon would notice. 

i heard three short knocks at my door. my heart was practically beating out of my chest due to my nerves. the last person i wanted to see was vernon. i slowly made my way over to the door, looking into the peephole. sure enough, there stood vernon, with his hands in his pockets. his fluffy brown hair was messed up. i took a deep breath and opened the door.

“hey,” i said quietly, not daring to look into his eyes.

“yo what happened? you could’ve just called off the plans-hey. y/n, look at me,” he said, suddenly grabbing my chin, forcing me to look at him.

his hand fell to his side when he saw my face. red, puffy, horrified.

“are you okay?” he asked cautiously. he made his way in, closing the door behind him.

“i’m fine, what’re you talking about?” 

“no you’re not, you’ve clearly been crying. i can tell because-”

i quickly cut him off, “okay, so what? why do you suddenly care? shouldn’t you be hanging out with scarlett and making her your girlfriend?” i spat out.

“what? can i not worry about my friend?” he said, hurt. 

“vernon, that’s the problem. you haven’t been worrying about your friend,” the word ‘friend’ hurt to say, knowing that it was all he saw me as. “it’s just..you’ve been so focused on scarlett. ever since that day at the cafe, i just saw you change. hell, she was all you talked about until you found out that i set you two up! it’s like you forgot about my entire existence and replaced me. it hurts vernon, it hurts a lot.” i muttered. 

vernon was about to say something, but i managed to cut him off, “it hurts seeing you fall in love with someone knowing that i’ve had the biggest crush on you from the start,” i blurted. i gasped and covered my mouth, instantly regretting my last words. i could feel tears welling up in my eyes again.

as i started to cry, vernon grabbed my arms and held me close to him. though i couldn’t see his face, i knew he’d have a shocked expression. we stood, hugging, embracing each other’s warmth. i sobbed, unable to stop the tears from flowing. i felt his chin at the top of my head, resting.

“i just wish you had told me sooner y/n,” vernon finally spoke up, breaking our hug.

“am i too late?” i replied, looking down. 

“nope, i’d say you’re right on time,” he said, smiling. “i had to get this off my chest sooner or later, i’ve felt the exact same. you just beat me to it. the only reason why i ‘liked’ scarlett was because i thought you wouldn’t see me as more than a friend,” he rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward smile.

i couldn’t help but let out a laugh, i couldn’t believe it. i wiped my tears with my sleeve, looking up at him. “did your forcing work?” i asked.

“i can’t just get rid of my feelings for you that easily. hell, just thinking of you, i knew i’ve loved you from the beginning,” he shyly admitted. 

“i think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said,” i said laughing. 

he sat me down on my couch, wiping the remaining tears off of my face. i felt my face burn up, realizing how close we were. his fingers grazed my cheek, slowly trailing down to my lips. he paused, hesitating. 

“can i beat you to it this time?” he asked, breaking the silence.

i laughed, “go right ahead.”

he smiled fondly, leaning in and closing the small gap between us. he kissed me slowly, holding my chin up slightly. my hands interlaced with his soft hair, deepening the kiss. we eventually broke apart, for the sake of our lungs. i looked up at him, smiling like a loon. he held my hands, peppering kisses on my fingers. 

“i’ve loved you y/n. from the start.”

----end.

skullverse 01.

[heph]

Hey, I remember you mentioning on your IG something about two types of popular artists and one being good at social media and the other being good at art or something like that (I can't really remember lol). But it got me thinking, any tips for how to be good at social media? Cuz I'm certainly not even after posting art for six years lol

Heya!

What I meant by that is that there are traits that allow you to grow on social media, and traits that determine what a highly skilled artist is, and those traits do not always necessarily overlap.

I've seen so many amazing artists that post artwork that blow my head off, and yet they don't have many likes. On the other hand, some artists at the same skill level who draw more popular things will get way more attention.

That is not to say that either is the correct way to create art, but there is definitely a formula to social media that is in play.

There are a lot of posts about how to grow a social media account, particularly on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram art spheres, and imo you really need to examine what you want from your art before jumping into social media mode

The stuff you create to pander to social media might not be art that you want to create at all - I'm lucky, because I am less artist more storyteller, and what I enjoy is telling jokes and silly stories to liven up people's moods :] this, of course, conveniently does well on social media. On a personal note, I have a history of being a recluse and not connecting well with people, and art is my way of trying to communicate my feelings, one way or another.

So of course, if you draw for any reason other than my own, my approach to art and it's relation to social media might be inappropriate for you.

All that being said, if u take a look at those "get big on social media" videos they always cite the same few points... And you can look into that, for sure, but this video sums up how I feel about all that.

I spent like 20 minutes drafting words after the above paragraph, but I really ended up regurgitating sentiments from the video... So really don't listen to me, listen to that video

EDIT:

I just realised I didnt actually answer the question with my anecdotal experience, so here's a list of things I did

1. Posted like 3 doodles a day on social media

I did this for 6 months on a side account on Twitter recently and got the account to 11k followers... And I did this for 3 months on Instagram a few years ago and I think got 3.5k followers. Of course, do not spam maliciously and make sure your art is still of good quality, but for those artworks I posted quickly, I did not colour, and mostly did clean sketches. This also trains you in the matter of line confidence haha. Again, this worked for me because of my set of circumstances (love for the media, want to tell stories, simple art style)

2. Focus on my favourite aspects of media

This helps with respect to burnout - kinda hard to burnout when you love what you're making! For me, it's character interactions and comics. I want to see my blorbos kiss and if I'm not the one drawing it who will?!

3. Interact with people

People eat up work that they can interact with. A choose your own story situation, one of those like/rt to strip a character 😭 those do numbers for a reason.

Additionally, if you post stuff people love, people will respond to it with comments, maybe their own headcanons, adding on to the work... I've gone into long looong Twitter thread conversations with people who added onto my ideas that I threw up onto the screen and I think it's also a nice thing to do to respond to positive comments haha... I'm not very good at this (read: bad at communication)

I think that's the key points... Hope this helps!

[wearelondonhq]

AGATHA ALL ALONG + WANDAVISION MEME SET

Happy Meme Day!!! If you want to take part all you have to do is reblog this post. Remember if you reblog to send them out to EVERYONE who also does. Lasts from today up until the next wednesday (the 13th of november)!

“what were you looking for in my house?”

“the respect of your peers and a fulfilling home life. but you were fresh out of both.”

"you're so much like your mother."

"the world isn’t kind to little girls who don’t know their place."

"we are an unusual couple, you know?"

"this world you made will always be broken."

"this is your only warning. stay out of my home."

"we are not in control here."

"everything is meaningless without you."

"you can fix anything, mama."

"we've said goodbye before. it stands to reason that we will say hello again."

"i only remember feeling completely alone. empty. just… endless nothingness."

"_, welcome home."

"i read somewhere that it’s bad luck to say goodbye in the dark."

"i’m not a monster. i’m a mother."

"i just feel you."

"i just wanted to see you clearly."

"this is chaos magic, _"

"i’m tired of hiding."

"you have no idea what you’ve unleashed."

"you didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, did you?"

"i can’t control this pain anymore, and i don’t think i want to."

"this is our home now. i want us to fit in."

"so long, darling."

"we’re not going anywhere."

"this is our home, then let’s fight for it."

"you don’t get to make that choice for me."

"you’re not my neighbor, and you’re definitely not my friend."

"you asked me to stay, so i’m staying."

"there are rules in life, we can’t just rush aging."

"is this really happening?"

"you’re not supposed to talk."

"thank you for choosing me to be your _."

"they’ll never know what you sacrificed for them."

"i’m beginning to think we should have stayed in bed."

"i’ve kept you safe in here. you feel at peace."

"if you stay here, you’ll die. it’ll be just like _ all over again."

"we can’t reverse death, no matter how sad it makes us."

"what is grief, if not love persevering?"

"i have what i want, and no one will ever take it from me again."

"you are my sadness, and my hope. but mostly, you’re my love."

"you can’t control me the way you do them."

"gosh, you really are a _. otherwise, none of this would be nearly as dramatic."

"honestly, I don't know how to feel. do I hate her? or do I want her phone number?"

"no one in history has had special treatment like you."

"no! i want more time! i want more time!"

"i'm thinking death by a thousand cuts."

"a long time ago, i loved someone. and I had to do something that I did not wanna do, even though it was my job. and it hurt them. she is my scar."

you can find a couple more options below the cut!

"i mean, seriously. we're an album cover waiting to happen."

"hey, you want straight answers, ask a straight lady."

"see, I feel like you've typecast me as the mouthy teen who didn't actually kill the victim but is guilty of some other b-story crime."

"you haven't been yourself the past few days. almost like you got bit by the true crime bug."

"congratulations, my love. i'm sorry I didn't have a ribbon for you to run through."

"you seem relaxed. usually at this point you're either complaining loudly or freaking out loudly."

"stop embarrassing me in front of my friends."

“witches like you are the reason people think we poison apples, steal , and eat .”

"i watch you, _. just as closely as you watch everyone else.

"are you really defending a noted serial killer, you creepy lurker?"

"i have always hated you. but I left you alone, because what you were doing is important."

"last one there is a nice person."

"i let them believe these things about me because the truth is too awful."

"sweetheart? you okay? oh my god! whoa, what’s she doing? where’s she going?"

"we'll be safe as kittens."

"the moral of the story, kids, IS always finish what you started. also, mercy is overrated.”

“may she be smart. not annoying. and also not… SUPER political.”

"i thought you were reading my palm."

“this is undignified. don’t you want me at my best?”

“are there any real witches in the house? because all i see are has-beens and could’ve-beens.”

"what can i say? i like the bad boys."

“did you know she traded her own child for the book of the damned?”

“they can take your power, _, but they can’t take your knowledge.”

“a witch is really just another name for a bad girl, right?”

“that is extremely reductive.”

"i let them believe these things about me because the truth is too awful."

“we’re alive. we made it through the first test. everyone is safe.”

“not everyone. _’s dead. "who’s _?”

“okay, so, confession. i know an egregious amount about you. i’ve been obsessed since i first read up on your _ days.”

“what a team of rejects. coward. fraud. disappointment. i’d say you should burn like the rest of them, but that would be a waste of kindling.”

“the road promises that what’s missing awaits you at its end. power is what i’m missing. sounds like it’s what you’re missing too.”

“it’s giving ‘middle-aged second chance at love’ vibes, and i’m here for it.”

[separatedleoau]

hi hi hi!!!! I've got a few questions here mostly abt One <333

1. Does One know how to swim?? I saw you make a mini comic of One and Trainee (Tentative Devotee Leo) and from the implications, I don't think he swam up for air lol

2. How bad is Draxum's training? Like- were they simple or was it a "one wrong move will probably cost him his life"

3. What would One do if there was a crying baby? (personally, I think he'd baseball it like he did with mystic tot donnie or stand there awkwardly😭)

4. Lastly, I'm pretty sure I remember you saying that One has killed before! If so, how much is his kill count???

Thank you in advance!! once again, love your au :DD

and welcome back from your vacation! how was it??

Hiiii!!!!

1) he does! There's context to that comic that I never posted but it came form a random discord conversation of if the leos knew sliders sometimes nap underwater (holding their breath) or something like that, it was a long time ago. And me saying that One would misunderstand what they said and act on impose and try to breathe underwater, like the idiot he is <3

Then @s0fti3w1tch did a little doodle of Trainee floating on a pool and I just added One being an idiot to it. I never posted it bc the og drawing is Buwan's, and I forgot to ask if they could post it so I can add mine to it, and they are taking a brake and I don't wanna bother her rn so.... yeah

The point is: he does know how to swim. Also sometimes he takes long baths and ends up napping underwater, so it makes that crossover comic make him look more like a dumbass because HE KNOWS he has to hold his breath.

2) One's training with Draxum has been getting more and more complicated as he grows up. Draxum is not gonna let him have it easy but is not like he wants to kill him either, he is very harsh and is not afraid of hurting him if One doesn't react on time.

Also because they train at least once a week to test him, Draxum is very much aware of One's limits, so while he would push him to be better and grow stronger, he wouldn't make him do anything that goes too far away from his skills

3) He wouldn't really mind it. It's not his problem.

4) he doesn't have a kill count, he doesn't keep track and I don't really have a number for it. Is not like he goes on killing sprees just for fun, but he wouldn't hesitate if someone got on his way on a mission.

By the start of the comic he is 14 and he got his first kill at 9. I don't think the count has gotten past the two digits but who knows 🤷🏽‍♀️ maybe it has

And thanks for the love!!!

Vacation was great! I still get to chill for a few more days

[mrs-monaghan]

I ain't gonna lie. JK kinda being a bit of a shit stirrer today. Why is he posting pictures adding up to 13 like he's baiting Jimin, but posting the food in the same set of dishes that Tae owns? Tae already showed that dish set in his story not long ago. Kinda like that day JK said Jimin was his, but turned around and said Tae was his. JM's in NY minding his business, while JK's kinda being messy. Well, at least both sets of shippers are happy & fighting at the same time over who JK is really posting for.

Anon, come closer. Let me show you something.

Remember this?

Okay. Wonderful then I'm sure you remember that atrocity they did of photoshoping V on Jimin's face. See if u can find it among all these times where they replaced Jimin with V.

These assholes didn't even try 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️ That's one of the most iconic Jikook moments of all time. If you're gonna try to copy at least put in some effort 🙄🙄

That's one.

2) Remember when Jimin said the best part that represented him was the timestamp 1:23 on the One Day MV?

Remember how JK started recommending songs to army and pausing the songs at 1:23? He did this continuously without fail. (Manilla fight)

Even when sometimes the part made no sense. More on this here.

When Jikookers started celebrating this guess what the vermin did? They took the 123 theory and decided to relate that to Vkook. Even though they never would have done that shit, if Jikookers didn't point it out. According to them, 123 was about Tkk because V was born on 12th December 🤦🏽‍♀️

Shouldn't it have been 1230 then?? Why did they get rid of the 0? For convenience as always. 🙄🙄 Well, joke's on them, because JK stopped doing this. This is one of the earliest moments of JK debunking Tkkrs.

3) When Jkkrs noticed the JM and started talking about it.

The vermin said the tiger was about them. Because V's animal is a tiger.

Fuck the fact that the tiger and Korean culture go hand in hand. But guess what JK did when he met Poly C? He👏🏾covered👏🏾that👏🏾shit👏🏾up! Sure the man and the rest of BTS hated how the SK government were treating them. Sure he hates how he can't even show the world who he's in love with due to his homophobic country, so he decided the Tiger didn't mean that much to him after all. But I bet he saw a chance to kill 2 birds with one stone and he did. Fuck SK and fuck Tkkrs. Boom! Done.

4) When Karmy nick named Jikook the Sun and Moon duo because satellite Jeon is always orbiting Jimin like the moon orbits the sun, The vermin also started calling Tkk the Sun and Moon duo. Their reason? Don't ask me. Idk and idc. Too bad though, coz even BH knows who are the REAL Sun and Moon duo

5) While we are on the "mine" topic. Karmy already explained the difference between JK saying Jimin is his Vs when he said (warning RIP your algorithm if you click on this) V is his. According to Karmy, with V it came off more like a statement. With Jimin it was possessive, AF. And I agree. Not just because I'm a Jikooker, but because you don't need to be Korean to hear the difference.

For context: An army asked JK to give Jimin to them and JK was like; he's mine. But here is what u have to keep in mind. The V one came way, way, waaaaaay later than the Jimin one. As soon as he said Jimin was his, the vermin kept pestering JK with the same thing the former Army asked about Jimin. So going by JK's tone, it seems to me like he said what he said about V, to shut them up. 🤷🏽‍♀️ The difference is in the tone, guys. U don't gotta be Korean to hear it.

These are just a few examples. And now you're telling me, even though our numbers theory makes more sense, Tkkrs are claiming what JK is doing on weverse for themselves because of a plate?? A plate? Really.

This is just like when they decided Tkk went snowboarding because of a pair of shoes. Like no one else owns those shoes apart from JK and V 🤡 Again, someone please explain to me how people take them seriously. Please. They want what we have soooooo bad. They have always wanted what we have.

Jin can grab V's balls or whatever tf this was. Taejin what goes on??? 🧐🧐

And the vermin did not bat an eye. Not one fucking peep from them. But in the same memories 2021, Jimin gets embarrassed and does the simple act of hiding his face in JK's neck (something he has done for years BTW)

And ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!!!

You cannot tell me these people don't know Jikook is real. If they didn't see what we see they wouldn't want what we have so bad. And they certainly wouldn't feel so damn threatened.

So anon, JK owning the same plate as V, cannot even be compared to JK making a post on Jimin time. It ain't and will never be the fucking same. Please.

[ingravinoveritas]

Hi! :) So, about posting habits and copying:

Georgia posts this screenshot of someone asking her to tell David that they're in love with him/want to marry him (not sure anymore, but I'm counting on you to remember haha), responding yeah, I'll get right to that, or something akin to that.

It's funny enough and her reply doesn't come across as anything more than humorous, in my opinion, especially since we've seen this theme for years, on Twitter and Instagram. It's on-brand-Georgia.

Her tone, albeit the sarcasm, is still pretty nice, playing the ball back by pretending that she's not telling David because then she'd have to compete with the person who wrote in. I'm sure whoever texted her this was giggling at their phone when Georgia responded. I'm not sure if the same thing will be the case with fan interaction number two, however: Cue, Anna.

Because now, a few days later, Anna posts what is pretty much the same interaction with a fan (about Michael, obv.), but all the charme is gone? Or is that just me?

Let's get something straight, though: The fan message she got was a lot less "sweet" than the one Georgia received (how many kisses does it take for a message to become either passive aggressive or just too hyper or even kind of insincere in tone?), so I won't be too harsh on her for responding in kind (xxxx). Still, had me cringe a little.

Thing is, the more or less blatant copying of Georgia's social media voice keeps fascinating me. Whilst, at most times, it's obvious but still fine as its own thing, this time the whole post really just seemed too...Georgia. Firstly, because it really is like a total replica, secondly because Georgia has worn the "playfully possessive"-badge for years now. I'm not saying that Anna is just pretending to also be that, I genuinely don't think that's true, at least not fully, but what I am saying is that she's clearly aware of this sort of humour being well-received within the fandom and also very intentional about timing. It's always... funny? Noticable? exactly when these "replica posts" appear.

Although, in this case we also have to consider that she responded at the time she got the message (or a day later, at most), so the timing isn't really on her. In fact, this might just be a fan actively going for having the same interaction with Anna that another fan had with Georgia, basically setting her up. Especially considering how the DM was worded - again, it seemed a little too intentional/over the top.

(But yeah, a couple of hours earlier: The Tennant's face sitting post (and, whew lol), so is this trying to somehow keep up with their dynamic again?)

I want to stress that I don't think that any of this is a bad thing. There's literally no harm in her trying to cater to the fandom with this tone of voice and seeming a bit unoriginal. And what do we know, maybe she and Georgia really are that similiar, it's not like Georgia's humour and interactions are that singular. But I'm still having a different response to Georgia's posts in comparison to Anna's, even though they are so similiar, and that's what it comes down to.

Maybe that's completely unfair towards Anna (to some degrees it must be, since Georgia simply has been around longer and therefore claimed her kind of tone, if that's even a thing), but maybe it also comes down to authenticity - or a lack thereoff?

(Grouping these together since they are related.) Well, I hadn't seen AL's story this morning until I got your message @wanderingsemi, so thank you for the heads up. And it is, as you said, an almost exact replica of an Insta story Georgia posted a week ago. Let's get the visual up here, so folks can see both stories:

So, the first thing I will say is that I often have difficulty with discerning people's tones online, as the lack of vocal inflection/other indicators tends to make things challenging. I appreciate you sharing that Georgia's tone came across as humorous to you, because while I definitely did get the sarcasm, I also felt a sense of contempt coming from Georgia's reply, too. I do agree, however, that her response was very much "her," in her trademark style, and is something we've come to expect over the last few years now.

It's probably worth mentioning that these are both odd/weird things to send to your fave's partners. I know social media has largely eroded a sense of boundaries in a lot of fans, but it's just an awkward thing to say overall. (I submit that it's actually more awkward/inappropriate than RPF, because RPF is fantasy and is not something any of these people would come into direct contact with unless they went looking for it.) That being said, while neither Georgia nor AL can control the things fans send to them, they can choose to respond (or not) to said comments. So thinking about your Ask, @armangelus, we have Georgia here essentially doing the same thing as AL--being possessive of David in response to a random DM--yet the results are wildly different.

Which then brings me to AL's response. Going back to our discussion on tone, I am not sure that I interpreted the message AL got as being "less sweet" than the one Georgia received, as they seem incredibly similar to me. I'm not sure the message-sender was actually being passive-aggressive, but because AL seemed to look at it that way, it is then reflected in her response (and is fitting with her past responses/personality, which has been passive-aggressive on multiple occasions).

For a little backstory (and this largely comes from @problematicwelshman, whose blog is well worth reading for a lot of tea related to Michael and AL going back to 2019): AL's social media was entirely scrubbed when her and Michael's relationship first came to light (end of June 2019). This also coincided with Michael's longtime PR person quitting, and a seeming overhaul of AL's social media presence. Initially, though, a lot of her posts were in her own voice, but they did not seem to go over well/she was not connecting with the fandom (see this post for links to examples, most of which involve belittling Michael/making fun of his weight and appearance).

Then in mid-2021, this all shifted with an event Michael appeared at for the 150th birthday of the Royal Albert Hall. Suddenly AL was praising and complimenting him in ways she never had in any of her past posts. This also happened to coincide with Georgia starting the #Shebergs hashtag (which sounds like an iceberg, a.k.a. the thing that took down the Titanic, so I'm still not sure why that was chosen as a portmanteau of AL and Michael's names), as well as AL promoting Last Train to Christmas, a movie of Michael's that she appeared in that was released at the end of 2021. So this was another social media overhaul/PR effort, seemingly perfectly timed with AL having something to promote and trying to advance her acting career.

But what this was also the start of is what you alluded to, which is that inauthenticity. I can completely understand you having a different reaction to AL's story than Georgia's, because as you said, that charm is not there, which I think is because it's Georgia's charm, not Anna's. And as much as she might copy Georgia's tone or the types of content she posts, you can't really copy charm--it's either something you have, or something you don't. I think it also ties into the other thing you referenced, which is the "playfully possessive" thing. It actually is something that Anna has copied, also on multiple occasions (see below)...but much like with this story, it doesn't come across the same way as when Georgia does it:

(Another notable thing about the response on the left is that AL was not even tagged in the original tweet, which also copies Georgia's pattern of randomly replying to fans on Twitter--usually as a result of searching David's name, which she has been known to do.)

So yes, I think we can definitely see a clear pattern here, which has seemingly only become more blatant as of late. And while I agree there is no harm on one level of trying to appeal to the fandom, I don't think it's unfair to AL at all because there is such a clear, agenda to what she is doing that becomes more obvious as you look back over the past few years. That, in my opinion, is what makes it seem so forced and not genuine, and is why one might feel a different reaction to her post versus Georgia's.

Those are pretty much my thoughts, rambling as they were. I appreciate both of you sharing yours as well so that we could have this discussion. Thanks for writing in! x

[hcoct8xfi]

Okay, so a couple days ago, I made I post while I was in a flare up about how I was irritated with some Kanera fanfiction or some fanfiction involving Kanan Jarrus, which you can find here 👇

I expressed how frustrated I was with some people who will completely write Kanan's blindness out of their fanfiction because it's 'easier' to not have any disabled characters in their story.

I said that if you find yourself struggling to write a disabled character, reach out or take pointers from disabled writers. Well, even though no one asked for it, I decided I should give a few pointers on how to write disabled characters.

Now, before we get started, I wanted to clarify that I myself am disabled. I have a physical disability that causes chronic pain as well as other symptoms that flare. I also have a psychiatric disability as well as being neurodivergent. I did state in my original post that if I was wrong or incorrect in any way, to please educate and correct me. The same thing applies to this post.

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1. Keep this as a golden rule, disabled characters in sci-fi or fantasy, will translate to disabled characters in Alternative Universes. I would argue that Kanan would probably not be a difficult character to write in fanfiction. A good chunk of season 3 and a bit of season 4 in Star Wars Rebels was dedicated to how Kanan copes and accommodates his blindness. Of course there is no acceptable excuse to write out a characters disability out of your story, but, writing Kanan would not be that hard to write and accommodate in your story.

2. So I may get some comments saying, "Well, how do I explain how Kanan became blind in a modern AU?" Well, there's two answers for that, one, that's up to you and how you choose to write that. Second, you don't have to explain how your character became disabled or why your character is disabled. A common misconception is that disabled people have to explain why they are disabled, and that's just not true. It's also rooted in ableism. Phrases like "What happened to you?" or "Why are you using [insert mobility device]?" are ableist and inappropriate to ask because you could possibly be asking someone to relive or rehash trauma that they have. And also, disabled people do not owe you an explanation, nor a justification of their existence. So mind your business and your ableism.

3. Avoid tropes such as the inspiration p*rn, or "tragic burden" in your stories. Again, disabled people do not have to justify their existence by being an "inspiration". Yes, disabled people are capable of doing inspirational things, but we're not inspirational for just existing. Next, don't constantly potray your disabled character as a "tragic burden". Yes, it's a huge adjustment when you have acquired a disability and it can be very burdensome. But, once you learn how to accommodate your disability, such as managing your symptoms, support groups, or finding a community, you start to find your rhythm. Always remember to show the good and the bad that come with disability. Also, remember that we are allowed to be upset about our disability and mourn the life we once had, but, a lot of us do not constantly think about it to the point where that is our only thought throughout the day.

4. This is kind of like number three, but, if your disabled character is in a relationship, do not make it one of those "Well, I see the person, not the disability." Yes, this may sound good at first, but what you're actually saying is that you don't want to acknowledge our disability, and that's a huge problem. Yes, acknowledge us as people, but, acknowledge us as disabled people. Disability does impact our lives, and I personally would not want to be in a relationship with anyone, romantic or friendship, that completely ignored that I'm disabled.

5. It's a VERY good idea to research your characters disability. Research how it may impact your character, if they require any mobility equipment, therapies, or other accommodations. I promise, this research will help you with your character so much. It will help make your character more accurate.

6. Don't put this fear mongering over disability in your story. There's already a lot of stigma surrounding disability as it is. Remember, disability is a part of life, and at some point, we all will become disabled. Some of us just become disabled young or are born disabled. Also, don't not try and demonize mobility aids. Using a wheelchair, crutches, cane, walker, etc. is not a sad or unfortunate thing. They do what they are meant to do, aid our mobility. They help us and give us so much freedom.

7. Listen to more disabled writers. Disabled writers can help a lot with advice and guidance with disabled characters. Listen to their experiences on their disability, how it impacts them, and any sort of ableism they may have faced (if they are willing to talk about it).

8. Have fun writing your disabled characters. Once you get the hang of writing disabled characters, it won't be as hard as you originally thought. Writing disabled characters is not complicated at all, especially when you educate yourself.

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I hope that I was able to assist some of you with writing disabled characters. Just remember that there are so many disabled writers out there that will give tips and pointers on how to write disabled characters. 🫶🏼

[lynaferns]

I wish my teachers from back then in school didn't take too much into account the age rating of books and choosed books for the class to read based on the kids interests in said class.

I'm not saying to read mature rated books to kindergarten kids. I mean in highschool or even primary school, taking more into account what could be a read good enough to make the kids want to start reading by themselves. Don't choose a book base only if it's age appropriate and if you liked the title, but about the story. I know the books the teachers course are actually from an approved list by the school, but those books are always shit.

I don't like reading, I've hated or gotten bored of every book a teacher has made me read. Fantasy, mystery, slice of life, hated them all.

The worst was when the book was in basque (hi, I'm from Basque country, it's in Spain, in case you didn't know I'm from there, now you know), those books- listen, there is a whole thing going on with the current basque that is talked here, with the thing of being an artificial amalgamation of what was the OG language. We don't have a nice catalogue of basque books to read... specially because they are all recently written, and I mean this century. The basque authors have to start somewhere, but that's all we have.

(something something people being haunted decades ago for talking basque, parents not teaching the language to their kids to protect them, losing the language, trying to bring it back by ripping out words from Spanish and the little they could save from the lost one, something something, and now there are only a few villages that can talk the original basque and can't understand shit from the new basque and that's fucking sad because the new one is so clumsy and awkward and the old one was so much pretty but anyways this could have been its own post)

This stupid book, I remember crying because I didn't want to read that book. It was so bad, so fucking boring but had to do a resume of the whole book and I only had a chapter left and I was pulling at my hair because I couldn't bring myself to read it. It wasn't even a long book, in fact, one of the shortest I've read in my life. Must have been less than 100 pages around 10 short chapters, BIG FONT FOR KIDS. I hated it with all my soul and I made sure to express that in my resume. You have no idea of how relieved I was that it was over and that my brother and mother didn't have to convince me anymore to read it.

A few years ago my brother tried to get me into Terry Pratchett's books but I got bored fast. I had people around me try to recommend books to read. Any time someone started talking to me about a book they've read my brain would shut down and I would be just like "yeah cool 🙂(<-trying really hard to fake having interest)".

Once I tried to find ways to get me into reading the books assigned from school, like 30 minutes read a day. I would put timers in my phone and try not to look at the clock. When my father found out he got really mad at me and scolded me for some reason I to this day still don't understand. My mother wasn't mad but she told me that if I had to read a number of chapters assigned, I had to read those chapters. And I dropped the book. Completely. I didn't submit the resume we had to do at the end of the year.

The concept of picking a book to read and actually reading it... I can't do that. The times I tried to read a book because someone really wanted me to read it, my brain has just stopped a few pages in, like "yeah no, this isn't happening buddy, we are not reading today."

One day suddenly, I started reading. A lecture that caught me enough to read the first 4 chapters in a row. Another time I read the equivalent of 4 books in a week. And suddenly it's not as hard as before to pick up something from the list to read and know that I'm going to read it later. It was a fanfic who made me think "Oh shit! Wait! Reading is fun!?!?!?!"

But I'm only reading because I'm familiar with the characters that are in the fic, and I want to see more stories about that specific character.

I can start watching a show, a gameplay, pick up a fanfic... I can't pick up a book and read it without losing interest.

[liskantope]

My situation of the Severely Limited Time/Energy For Tumblr continues. When Scott Alexander came out with an essay arguing against the Social Model of Disability, I managed to write a substantial comment and meant to follow that up with a Tumblr post but got my hands full with Other Stuff again before I was able to get around to the latter. I'd been hoping my comment might engender some kind of interesting discussion, but nobody responded, nor did it come up in Scott's more recent "highlights from the comments" post.

To put it bluntly, where I am at this point with regard to the social model of disability is that I see it as a sort of ideological nemesis -- obviously not in the sense that it's the my least favorite ideology out there, nowhere close, and I'll even concede that the more sophisticated thinking coming from it has very interesting and worthwhile ideas -- in the sense that it seems to be everywhere now among today's youth social movement and I see it seeping into everything, and I see it as fundamentally, profoundly misguided and (for the most part) at odds with common-sense reality. It seems in the last few years to have taken the number one spot among ideological trends that I'm worried about. (I think I first began to see it as a full-blown problem around the time I made these posts when Stephen Hawking died in 2018).

I couldn't remember ever seeing Scott Alexander tackle the social model of disability head-on (the closest very adjacent thing I can think of is that some years ago he came out very strongly against the prevalent ideas in autism activism about blurring the lines between different types of autism and taking offense at any desire for a cure), and I was immediately pleased to see that he takes such a critical stance. As I said in my comment, though, his discussion was very confined to the narrow world of scholarship and actual disability treatment (I don't fault Scott for this, since there's plenty of discussion to be had even in that narrower realm), whereas I see it as a much broader social phenomenon based on an axiom of "no trait is innately unfortunate" which is wide-reaching in how it affects how younger people are thinking about all kinds of social issues.

I was bemused that within half a week of the ACX post, Freddie de Boer published another one of his (excellent) posts which I interpret as attacking the mental health awareness movement wing of the social model of disability mindset:

who are unable to parse the idea that some things are inherent and also bad

Exactly, thank you, Freddie.